Archive for 2016

THIS SEEMS FAIR TO ME: Bill allows suits over gun-free zone incidents.

Sponsored by Sen. Dolores Gresham, R-Somerville, Senate Bill 1736 has a very specific purpose.

“It is the intent of this section to balance the right of a handgun carry permit holder to carry a firearm in order to exercise the right of self-defense and the ability of a property owner or entity in charge of the property to exercise control over governmental or private property,” the bill states.

To accomplish that goal, the legislation allows any Tennessean with a valid gun permit to sue a property owner in the event of injury or death provided the incident occurred while in a gun-free zone.

The legislation places responsibility on the business or property owner of the gun-free area to protect the gun owner from any incidents that occur with any “invitees,” trespassers and employees found on the property, as well as vicious and wild animals and “defensible man-made and natural hazards.”

If they take away your ability to protect yourself, they should bear the responsibility.

R.I.P., John Jay Hooker. He spoke at the UT Law College last year, and I told students that he was perhaps the last living southern politician who still delivered speeches in the traditional style. I knew him over many years, but not well.

INNOCENCE IS NO DEFENSE: Student cleared of rape still not welcome at his college.

A 19-year-old Roanoke College student was accused of rape in March 2015 by a college freshman. He was charged by the district attorney, but it took a jury just 25 minutes to find him not guilty at the end of a trial that lasted one day. A campus sexual misconduct hearing also found him not responsible.

Case closed, right? Wrong, of course.

When the student, who is from Zimbabwe, re-enrolled in Roanoke, campus activists started an online petition in an effort to bar him from campus, citing safety concerns. This just goes to show that students who are accused of sexual assault on college campuses are often considered guilty-until-proven-innocent, and even then are still considered guilty.

The goal, of course, is to make accusation equivalent to conviction.

CARLY FIORINA ONLY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE TO ATTEND ANNUAL MARCH FOR LIFE IN DC: “You can scream and throw condoms at me all day long. You won’t silence me. You don’t scare me,” she said at the march. “I have battled breast cancer. I have buried a child. I have read the Bible. I know the value of life.”

Read the whole thing.

THE OTHER REASON THE WASHINGTON ELITE HATE TED CRUZ:

Because the threat smart members of the Washington political elite truly believe in is not Ted Cruz, but the model he represents: that the path for an ambitious freshman politician to achieve leadership of the Republican Party in this day and age is not the normal give and take and deference to leaders and precedent and the way we do things around here, but instead to take a flamethrower to this system from day one. Regardless of whether Cruz wins a general election, his nomination could fundamentally transform the political incentives of the Senate and change the internal dynamics of the Senate Republican Conference. It shows that you can get a shot at the presidency not by playing along, but by playing your own game.

The potential of every two years having someone walk through the door in each new Senate class who thinks they could be the next potential Ted Cruz is an absolute nightmare for those who have thrived in their cushy lifestyles as stewards of the world’s most exclusive club. And that is why his nomination is unacceptable.

Wait, I thought it was perfectly fine for a relatively unknown politician to stop by the Senate for a cup of coffee, then immediately hit the campaign trail uttering larger than life pronouncements in front of Styrofoam columns. But then, whether the RNC chooses Trump, Cruz or Rubio, as Glenn has noted, Beltway Elites chose the form of their Destructor in 2008.

BIDEN TO GOLDMAN SACHS EXECS: ‘I’M DOING A JOB INTERVIEW WITH YOU.’

Joe’s been rehearsing for that that gig since January of 2009; hasn’t he passed the audition yet?

PRESIDENTGOLDMANSACHS

Related: Glenn on employing the Pigouvian tax to slow the revolving door between Big Government and Big Business: “When the post-government-employment goodies are less good, they’ll pose less of a temptation.”

Not to mention, it’s the patriotic thing to do — just ask Biden himself!

“ANYTIME YOU CHALLENGE ANY ASPECT OF FEMINISM . . . YOU’RE GOING TO HEAR THAT YOU HATE WOMEN.” Prominent Medieval Scholar’s Blog on ‘Feminist Fog’ Sparks an Uproar.

A months-old blog post written by a respected medieval scholar, Allen J. Frantzen, has gained a second life on social media — and whipped the discipline into a frenzy.

The post, entitled “How to Fight Your Way Out of the Feminist Fog” and published on Mr. Frantzen’s personal website, attacks feminism, alluding repeatedly to “anti-male” propaganda, paints men as victims, and offers advice on how they should “clear the fog.” Mr. Frantzen retired in 2014, after more than 35 years at Loyola University Chicago.

The post borrows terminology often associated with men’s-rights activism, including encouragement for men to take the “red pill” of reality, not the “blue pill” of illusion, and to break away from the feminist fog. The fog, Mr. Frantzen explains, represents how feminism hangs over society — in a “sour mix of victimization and privilege” — and intimidates men into accepting its perspective.

Yeah, but more and more men aren’t putting up with it any more. Though, as here, it’s often the gay men who are leading the way.

WHEN YOU RARELY EAT AT HOME AND NEVER ENTERTAIN, WHAT’S THE POINT OF A DINING ROOM: Why Millennial Home Buyers Want Playrooms, Not Dining Rooms.  Actually in our recent home hunt, the more recent the home, the less likely to have a LIVING ROOM.  The only thing we can figure is that people are entertaining way less.