ABOUT TIME: Oxford University To Students: Grow The Hell Up.

Oxford University installed its first female vice-chancellor this week, Louise Richardson, who boldly stressed the importance of free speech and critical thinking at university amid roiling student protests.

Addressing students for the first time in her new role, Richardson urged them to be open-minded and tolerant; and to engage in debate rather than censorship, alluding to countless calls from students at Oxford and other universities across the U.K. to ban potentially offensive speakers and rename or remove historical monuments.

“How do we ensure that we educate our students both to embrace complexity and retain conviction?” she asked. “How do we ensure that they appreciate the value of engaging with ideas they find objectionable, trying through reason to change another’s mind, while always being open to changing their own? How do we ensure that our students understand the true nature of freedom of inquiry and expression?”

Richardson’s installment comes as students at Oxford’s Oriel College campaign to dismantle a statue of Cecil Rhodes, the British colonialist who endowed the Rhodes Scholarship.

They claim the monument glorifies a man who was “the Hitler of South Africa” and speaks to “the size and strength of Britain’s imperial blind spot.”

Richardson stood by the university’s chancellor, Lord Patten of Barnes, as he referenced the statue debate, reminding students that history cannot be rewritten “according to our contemporary views and prejudices.” He, too, was forthright in his criticism of speech codes and calls for “no-platforming” controversial speakers.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the past year has seen a growing movement of almost tyrannical student leaders fight for censorship for the sake of progressivism and tolerance of minorities.

Shut the crybullies down.

WELL, SHE’S A CLINTON. Chelsea Clinton Tweets Misleading Map of Starbucks, ‘Gun Dealers.’

BUT OF COURSE: Swedish Police Stop Reporting Suspects’ Ethnicity For Fear of Being Branded Racist. “Dated 15 September 2015, the memo was written by press officers Wolf Gyllander and Carina Skagerlind just weeks after a number of girls were sexually abused by migrant men at a free youth music festival in Stockholm; crimes which the police have now been accused of covering up.”

GERMAN TOWN BANS MALE REFUGEES FROM PUBLIC SWIMMING POOL:

A spokesman for the local government of Bornheim said on Friday that the ban on male asylum seekers above the age of 18 came after six people filed complaints “over the sexually offensive behaviour of some migrant men at the pool”.

The measure aimed at “making it clear to the men that the rights of women in Germany is inviolable”, he added.

Borhheim officials are going so far as to try and teach young Muslim males proper swimming pool etiquette, and pools in Bavaria have produced pamphlets with “simple pictorial instructions on behaviour for migrants who may never have swum in public before.”

It’s impossible to gauge just how many unforeseen challenges like this Europe faces in trying to accommodate so many foreigners so quickly, or to guess at what point officials (and the public) might become overwhelmed.

SHOWING OTHER FACETS: Bloomberg political reporters Michael Bender and Kevin Cirilli pen their post-debate takeaway,”Trump Bolsters Closing Argument With Most Solid Debate Yet.”

The candidate who faced doubts for months over the true strength of his commanding poll numbers is proving doubters wrong on another count: With about two weeks until the presidential nominating process starts in Iowa, Donald Trump just delivered his most complete performance of the Republican primary season.

Instead of melting under the bright lights of the debate stage, as many Republicans predicted when the former reality TV show host first rose to the top of the polls, Trump has not just survived six debates in a series that began way back in August, but started to shine. On Thursday, the billionaire added substance to his trademark charisma to defend his own attacks on China, embrace criticism that he’s appealing to voters’ anger, and fend off incoming fire from rivals across the debate stage.

Trump’s highlight of the night—and perhaps of the debate season—was an impassioned defense of New York City, his hometown. The moment came in response to an attack from U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, Trump’s closest rival in the polls, that the real estate developer isn’t a conservative because he embodies “New York values.”

“When the World Trade Centers came down, I saw something that no place on Earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely, than New York,” Trump said. “We rebuilt downtown Manhattan, and everybody in the world watched. And everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorkers. I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made.” . . .

Peter Wehner, a veteran of the past three Republican administrations and author of a recent op-ed column titled “Why I Will Never Vote for Donald Trump,” said the candidate was “emotional and moving.”

“This was Trump’s best moment, and this is his best debate,” Wehner said in an e-mail exchange with Bloomberg Politics. “People will remember the Trump answer, with even Cruz applauding his answer.” . . .

Trump seemed more prepared than he had in other debates and “blew it out of the park” with his answer on New York, said Reed Galen, a Republican strategist who was deputy campaign manager for John McCain’s presidential bid.

“I never thought I’d say this, but I think I’d give him most improved,” Galen said in an interview. “Hoping that he was going to implode? We’ve been waiting six months for that. And I wouldn’t expect that he’ll be less prepared next time.” . . .

Asked about South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s Republican response to Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, when she urged her party to resist the “siren call of the angriest voices,” Trump called potential vice presidential pick a friend.

“I’m very angry because our country is being run horribly, and I will gladly accept the mantle of anger,” Trump said. “We have no borders. Our vets are being treated horribly. Illegal immigration is beyond belief. Our country is being run by incompetent people. And yes, I am angry.”

Anger can be productive in the right moment. But it cannot be a candidate’s only note, and must be balanced with both softer and more intellectual sides, when appropriate. Trump’s debate performance last night shows that he is well aware of this. 

As Matthew Continetti put it in today’s Washington Free Beacon, “Trump’s considerable political skills were on display Thursday evening. Provocative, gauche, funny, emphatic, and fearless, Trump doesn’t back down when the crowd boos him, he holds his own against more polished opponents, and he has identified and exploited the anger of many Republican and independent voters.”

The “new and improved” Trump has surprised a lot of people. It’s almost like some reporters, pundits or other political “pros” thought he was stupid or something. How ironic.

FISHY: State Dept jumped through “quite unusual” hoops to allow Hillary attorney to keep classified info. “The request to destroy the records is also curious.”

SPIDER-MAN DRONE CATCHES OTHER DRONES JUST LIKE FLIES:

Mo Rastgaar, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Michigan Technological University (MTU). Rastgaar and his team have developed a drone that has the ability to shoot a large net at another drone from as far as 40 feet (12 meters) away, then bag it up and carry it away. The net-shooting drone can function autonomously or be controlled by a human operator.

(Video at the link, too.)

Begun, the Drone Wars have.

DAVID BROOKS, IDIOT. Because Cruz kept a repeat offender in prison, Brooks says he’s not a good Christian. “The sad truth is that pundits, the secular public, and all too many Christians confuse ‘nice’ with ‘Christian.’ . . . Anger, by itself, is not a sign of unrighteousness, and it is quite telling that Brooks’s big attack piece relies on an extraordinarily misleading characterization of a single Supreme Court case. If Cruz is so ‘pagan’ — so ‘Mephistophelian’ — then surely examples abound. If they do, then share them. If not, in attacking Cruz for his tone with language that exceeds anything that Cruz has said even about his worst political enemies, Brooks isn’t a defender of Christian charity — he’s a hypocrite.”

As Limbaugh says, they hate Trump, but they fear Cruz. This sort of behavior illustrates how much.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 981.

ANDREW FERGUSON ON “THE STARCHITECTURAL LANDSCAPE OF FRANK GEHRY.”

The last sentence is perfect; read the whole thing to understand why.

IN A MORE DANGEROUS WORLD, AMERICANS GROW MORE HAWKISH:

Even Hillary Clinton, the President’s former Secretary of State, has moved to distance herself from some of the President’s signature policies. (She would have been more interventionist in Syria, more patient with Israel, less forthcoming with Russia.) As for the Republicans, Senator Rand Paul was the candidate whose foreign policy views most resemble those of the President, and in large part because of the changes in public sentiment that the President is struggling with, Senator Paul has now been relegated to the second, insignificant tier of Republican hopefuls and dropped from the principal debates.

President Obama and Senator Paul both stand within the Jeffersonian tradition of American foreign policy. This school of thought believes that the principles of the American Revolution fare best when American foreign policy is least active. To actively seek America’s Manifest Destiny through the expansion of America’s global role, Jeffersonians believe, exposes the United States to foreign hostility, endangers civil liberties at home, and entangles the United States with untrustworthy powers who are fundamentally hostile to American ideals. America can best change the world, Jeffersonians believe, by cultivating its own garden and setting an example of democratic prosperity that others will emulate.

I predict more Jacksonianism in the coming years.

FRACKING: IMPOVERISHING THE SAUDIS AND RUSSIANS AND IRANIANS WHILE PUTTING MONEY IN AMERICAN POCKETS. Shale Is Making It Cheaper to Heat Homes This Winter.

The shale boom has a lot to do with these winter savings, as new supplies of fracked gas have helped push spot natural gas prices here in the U.S. well below $3 per mmBtu (read: cheap). But the shale boom has also done its part in pushing down global oil prices by adding to a global glut of crude, and that’s in turn had a knock-on effect in depressing petroleum-based fuels like heating oil.

These savings aren’t negligible, either. Natural gas-heated homes will save on average more than $100 this winter, and households that use heating oil will spend (again, on average) $760 less. These savings will be especially welcome in poorer households, whose heating bills might comprise a bigger slice of their monthly budget. Expensive energy can be seen as a kind of regressive tax, in that it disproportionately burdens the poor. If that’s the case, then it stands to reason that this mild winter’s low heating bills are nothing less than progressive.

Americans might wonder how the recent price plunges in global natural gas and oil markets might affect them here at home, but already we’re seeing two concrete pieces of evidence in cheaper gasoline and smaller heating bills.

Fracking: Helping Middle America at the expense of dictators. No wonder lefties hate it.

TEENY HOUSE, BIG LIE: Why have so many proponents of the tiny-house movement decided to upsize? “As we were packing up our cottage last summer, my 14-year-old casually observed: ‘It’s good we’re leaving, while we still like each other.’”

(Via SDA.)

ROGER SIMON: The Missing Man in the Big GOP Debate.

You’re going to be running against Bernie (or Joe Biden or Jerry Brown or Fauxcahontas, but most probably Bernie, because he’s done all the spade work and his supporters are going to be mighty angry if the Democratic Party fat cats cut him out).

And here’s the bad news — Bernie is a much more dangerous opponent. Most of the GOP candidates have been thinking — oh, well, he’ll be much easier to beat than Hillary. He’s a socialist, for crissakes. Didn’t Margaret Thatcher put an end to that silliness decades ago?

Well, no. What do you think ninety percent of the college professors in America have been teaching for the last twenty-five years?

It’s not the moral superiority of free markets, and the inevitable corruption of socialism.

OR MAYBE IT’S THAT FOR MOST OF HUMAN HISTORY, STRANGERS OFTEN WANTED TO KILL YOU, TAKE YOUR STUFF, AND RAPE YOUR DAUGHTERS. The Disease Theory Of Xenophobia. “The fear of people who look different might be driven by a powerful, somewhat irrational psychological mechanism that believes strangers are threats to our health.”

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