ARTHUR CHRENKOFF: Happy 40 years of rotting in hell, Mao.
Archive for 2016
September 10, 2016
WITH CLINTONS, IT’S ALWAYS PAY TO PLAY: Penn State ‘Progressives’ Denounce Steep Ticket Prices for Chelsea Clinton Campaign Event. “The event, which took place Wednesday in State College, Pa., charged $500 just to get in the door, and $1,000 for a photo with Chelsea. For $2,700, attendees would be granted access to a special reception with the guest of honor.”
Nuthin’ for nuthin’ and damn little for a dollar.
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ANYONE WHO’S BEEN READING ME FOR ANY TIME AT ALL KNOWS THAT I DIDN’T JUST BECOME “A TAD BIT GOOFY.”
For that matter, I was never #NeverTrump. I’ve always said that I’d support him as the nominee, even though he wasn’t my first, or second, or third choice. Even Ed Driscoll here isn’t a #NeverTrump guy.
AN ANNIVERSARY OF FAILURE: “Tomorrow is the fifteenth anniversary of the beginning of the longest armed conflict in American history. But another significant anniversary in the ‘Forever War’ is today, September 10, for two years ago on this date President Obama announced his ‘comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy’ to defeat the Islamic State.”
PREPAREDNESS: Health Care Providers Scramble to Meet New Disaster Readiness Rule. “The new rule is aimed at preventing the severe breakdown in patient care that followed disasters including Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy, while also strengthening the ability to provide services during other types of emergencies, such as pandemics and terrorist attacks.”
How good will the requirements be? “At least some of those provisions were significantly modified in the final version. Chief among them was a proposal that hospitals and nursing homes test their backup power systems for a minimum of four hours every year at the full load needed in an emergency, rather than the current standard of once every three years. Generators have failed catastrophically in hospitals and nursing homes around the country during prolonged power outages, endangering patients and leading to chaotic evacuations. However, the government removed the enhanced testing proposal, stating that there was not enough evidence it ‘would ensure that generators would withstand all disasters.'”
Well, nothing will ensure that. But my generator automatically self-tests for 5 minutes every week, which adds up to just over four hours a year. Why is this so hard?
WHEN I TESTIFIED BEFORE CONGRESS IN 1991, I WAS TOLD I LOOKED TOO YOUNG TO BE A LAW PROFESSOR. I’m pretty sure that Ralph Hall wasn’t being sexist. But now Florida’s law dean is complaining that people tell her she looks too young to be a law dean. The more complaints I hear along these lines from women and minorities, the more I’m tempted to conclude that our society isn’t ready yet for leaders who aren’t straight, white males. Apparently, the environment is just too crushingly hostile for anyone else.
THE 2016 ELECTION and the New Class War.
ED MORRISSEY ON HILLARY’S “BASKET OF DEPLORABLES” GAFFE: Nothing says woman of the people like a political candidate who got filthy rich while serving in the Senate and State Department insulting millions of voters while surrounded by celebrities, right? “This sneering, condescending, and insulting stereotyping of millions of voters perfectly encapsulates the Clintonian quarter-century, especially with their above-the-law antics since leaving the White House. And that’s why most candidates stick to insulting each other, and not voters.”
SOCIALISM IN VENEZUELA: From Voodoo Economics to . . . Voodoo.
PEOPLE ARE FOCUSING ON THE “BASKET OF DEPLORABLES” LINE — which is an awful line because it’s simultaneously memorable without being evocative — but the worst part of Hillary’s speech was where she called opponents “irredeemable” and “not America.” That’s pretty much eliminationist rhetoric, right there.
SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS GIVE IN TO COLIN KAEPERNICK, WILL SPEND $1 MILLION ON SOCIAL JUSTICE:
Colin Kaepernick’s protests against the national anthem may not be winning him many friends among patriotic Americans, but he has managed to guilt the San Francisco 49ers into a major donation to social justice causes.
The San Francisco 49ers CEO, Jed York, announced that the team is pledging more than $1 million to Bay Area community organizations working to “to end racial and economic disparities.”
Huh. How did an area that Democrats have had an utter monopoly on for decades become such a cesspit of racial and economic disparity? Those hoarders and wreckers are everywhere!
And oh, the fun that would ensue if Kaepernick was asked to define the meaning of “social justice.”
MARK RIPPETOE on exercise and soreness.
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Plus, save on Software.
QUESTIONS NOBODY IS ASKING: ‘Basket of Deplorables’ — What Happened to Hillary the Uniter?
Did anybody actually think Hillary actually would be some sort of uniter, either during her campaign or if she wins? And note how quickly her gaffe entered the “Republicans pounce” phase, as her palace guard circles the wagons to protect her:
What an unintentionally brilliant self parody, Gray Lady. You too, New York Times.
UPDATE: While Hillary “acknowledged her stumble,” note that she didn’t walk back her comments – merely the size of the basket.
THE GREAT BOOR OF THE GALAXY: On the 50th anniversary of Star Trek’s network debut, Matthew Continetti describes Gene Roddenberry as a “Liberal visionary? Maybe. But he was also an insecure, misogynistic hack,” and increasingly, his own worst enemy, particularly after the original Star Trek was cancelled by NBC:
For all of the control Roddenberry exercised over Star Trek, the franchise prospered only when it was under the aegis of others. As early as one month before the show’s premiere, an exhausted and embattled Roddenberry took a vacation. Television veteran Gene L. Coon, a Marine veteran of the Pacific, was hired as producer. “To a large degree,” write Gross and Altman, “it would be Coon who would ultimately define the show creatively in the coming months.”
The Star Trek that has imprinted itself on fans for decades is Gene L. Coon’s. His shows deepened the relationships between Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy. He created the Klingons. There was more humor. Says writer David Gerrold, “Gene L. Coon created the noble image that everyone gives Roddenberry the most credit for.” Shatner puts it this way: “Gene Coon had more to do with the infusion of life into Star Trek than any other single person.”
With Coon at the helm Roddenberry turned to other projects, and to his own worst instincts. He was a horn dog. Affairs with police secretaries had been just the start. While on the force he had become friends with Jack Webb, the star and producer of Dragnet, who eased his entry into Hollywood and competed with him for the affections of actress Majel Barrett. Meanwhile Roddenberry also had an affair with the actress, singer, and model Nichelle Nichols. His relationship with Barrett was an open secret, lasting a decade before he divorced his wife. He and Barrett got married in 1969. (Their son, Rod, was born in 1974.) As for Nichols, Roddenberry cast her in a history-making role as Star Trek’s Lieutenant Uhura.
Ande Richardson, an assistant to Gene Coon who had worked for Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, says, “Gene Roddenberry was a sexist, manipulative person who disregarded women.” She mentions several examples. “He would have women walking from Bill Theiss’s fitting rooms through to his office in the skimpiest outfits so he could perv them.” In the twenty-third century of Roddenberry’s imagination, it is unlikely that “perv” is still a verb.
As Continetti writes, “Star Trek is whoever is writing it at a given moment. Roddenberry, like many great innovators, fused two elements — Westerns and the aspirations of the New Frontier — to create something that in retrospect appears absolutely necessary and obvious. Star Trek: The Next Generation writer-producer Burton Armus, whose credits include NYPD Blue, says, ‘Look, Roddenberry can’t write very well. He came out with a concept that suddenly got hot, so he moved his house into this spaceship and he lived on it for the rest of his life.’”
Read the whole thing.
IT’S BAD ENOUGH HAVING TO FIGHT OFF THE HAWKS AND EAGLES: This Giant Claw-Handed Drone Is Coming For Your Kids.
NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Chemical fuel keeps molecular motor moving.
21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: EEG Identification Can Steal Your Most Closely Held Secrets. “If you have these apps, you don’t know what the app is reading from your brain or what [the app’s creators are] going to use that information for, but you do know they’re going to have a lot of information.”
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IF THEY’RE UNHAPPY, I’M DISPOSED TO LIKE IT: MPAA Freaks Out In Response To FCC’s Revised Set Top Box Plan.
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Pennsylvania’s Ursinus College Traumatized By Board Chair’s Twitter — Tweeted memes and “Ben Carson worth listening to,” forced to resign.
LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: No Waves? No Problem, If You’re Dronesurfing. “Being pulled along the top of the water by a drone is akin to wakeboarding without a boat, but since there is no wake, the wide turns and cutbacks make for a free flowing experience unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”
THIS ISN’T THE 21st CENTURY SINGULARITY I WAS PROMISED: Chicagoan, Dissatisfied With Police Coverage, Hires Private Patrols.
Flashback: Reason TV’s look at “Detroit Threat Management, a private security firm that provides cheap car-to-front door escorts to small business owners, security details to large companies, free protection to local neighborhoods plagued by violent crime, and self-defense training to Detroit citizens. Dale Brown, one of the founders, sees their service as essential in a city with a crime rate five times the national average.”
Reminder: Chicago hasn’t had a Republican mayor for 85 years. Detroit hasn’t had a Republican mayor for over 50 years.
SO EVERYTHING’S GOING SWIMMINGLY FOR HILLARY. Some headlines just from this morning’s InstaPundit:
Hillary Has Her “47% Moment,” Calls Working-Class Whites “Deplorables.”
Bill Clinton Mocks The “Coal People” of West Virginia, Kentucky. (As Mark Danziger commented on Facebook: “Way to go, Bill!! You weren’t so tone-deaf before you were rich.”)
Enough About Hillary’s Emails, Says Paper Owned By Clinton Foundation Donor.
Panic: “Democrats wonder and worry: Why isn’t Clinton far ahead of Trump?”
