Archive for 2016

OH, GOODY: Mayaro Virus: The Next Zika? “Welcome to the new normal in public health, in which scientists are itching to guess which virus is going to be the next one to spread globally!”

JAKE TAPPER ON DONNA BRAZILE FORWARDING DEBATE QUESTION TO HILLARY: ‘UNETHICAL,’ ‘VERY TROUBLING,’ ‘JOURNALISTICALLY HORRIFYING:’

It’s a very, very troubling… look, I have tremendous regard for Donna Brazile. She’s a good person and a nice person and I like her a lot but whatever took place here… and I know I had nothing to do with it… and I know CNN, we were so closely guarding our documents… they weren’t emailed around.

….

My understanding is the email to Donna came from either Roland Martin or someone around Roland Martin.

The same Roland Martin who used to be Rev. Wright’s man at CNN? Inconceivable!

The same CNN that’s become notorious for its many plants at debates and town halls? Equally inconceivable!

The very notion of Hillary being fed questions before a major TV appearance? Absolutely inconceivable!

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THE EASYBAKE OVEN OF 3D PRINTING?

THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA: Senator wants nationwide, all-mail voting to counter election hacks. This just removes the possibility of hacking in exchange for the certainty of fraud. People should have to vote in person on paper ballots, after showing ID, and then get their thumbs dyed blue. You know, like they do elsewhere in the world where standards are higher.

KURT SCHLICHTER: Things are not all bad. They’re just mostly horrible.

But everything is not politics. Let’s be thankful for dogs. Dogs are still awesome. Cats – whatever. But dogs rule.

Here’s another good thing – our military. Yeah, people say it so often it almost becomes a cliché, but these men and women and, now, others, are out there doing their thing for us every day. And, frankly, we are showing ourselves unworthy. Yet there they are, and they sure as hell are not doing it for the money.

The flooding in Louisiana and the hurricane in the Southeast – those are bad things. But the way Americans helped their neighbors, without having to be organized or ordered around – that was something we can all be proud of.

Wine is a good thing. So is beer, except for boring, bitter craft beer that people insist is good in order to try and seem hip, but which makes them wish they had a crisp Dos Equis instead. It’s good that we will only have to endure pumpkin-infused stuff for three more weeks.

Smartphones are pretty awesome. Some of us crusties can remember back in the day before there were phones you carried around with you, even before the internet, back when we tied onions to our belts, which was the style at the time. Technology is awesome, even if it caused Twitter.

Fear the Walking Dead is off the air for a while, but Westworld is on. Those are both good things. Also, am I wrong or is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson the most charismatic guy in Hollywood? He’s just terrific – and I love that I don’t know (nor care) about his politics. I’m glad he’s around – watch Ballers and tell me he’s not a superstar.

Read the whole thing and share the love, Schlichter-style.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Nano-spike catalysts convert carbon dioxide directly into ethanol. “In a new twist to waste-to-fuel technology, scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an electrochemical process that uses tiny spikes of carbon and copper to turn carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into ethanol. Their finding, which involves nanofabrication and catalysis science, was serendipitous.”

MORE INSTABILITY AHEAD IN ASIA? King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand Dies at 88; Reigned 70 Years.

UPDATE: An InstaPundit reader who’s an old Bangkok hand emails:

King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Born in Cambridge, Mass., in 1927 when his father was at Harvard and his mother was at Simmons.

Bhumibhol was truly revered by the people. He was a highly respected constitutional monarch who was an important figure of stability through decades of coups and failed governments, helping Thailand prosper despite the political upheaval. His death and the succession is actually is a big problem that’s been looming even since I lived there in the 1970s. Prophecy has it there would only be 9 kings in the Chakri dynasty. The crown prince is seen as a playboy, not highly respected, who is tight with the military. The daughters, one in particular, are more in the old man’s mold. So the dynastic shitstorm is about to unfold. At a bad time, when they have had a lot of political instability. Thailand is one of the more stable, pro-western, prosperous countries, basically the keystone of Southeast Asia. Not good.

Here’s a 2010 Economist article that goes into the succession woes in deep.

Well, luckily we’ve got John Kerry on the job.

GOOD LORD: Houston 911 Operator Charged Over Hanging Up on Callers.

A former Houston 911 operator is facing criminal charges for hanging up on callers because “she did not want to talk to anyone,” according to Houston Police investigators.

Crenshanda Williams, 43, faces two misdemeanor charges of Interference with Emergency Telephone Call stemming from incidents in March.

According to charge documents filed with the Harris County Court, Williams worked for the Houston Emergency Center where managers determined that she was involved in thousands of “short calls” — emergency calls that last less than 20 seconds — between Oct. 2015 and March 2016.

In one case, Williams allegedly hung up on a man who called to report a robbery in progress March 12.

Why are Democrat-run cities such cesspits of abuse and neglect?

MADISON GESIOTTO: The selective moral outrage of the left.

They claim to be outraged by Mr. Trump’s words but not outraged by the words of Hillary Clinton’s field organizer, Wylie Mao, who was filmed bragging about being able to grab co-workers behinds without getting fired.

They claim to be outraged by Mr. Trump’s words but not outraged by former President Bill Clinton’s actions.

They claim to be outraged by Mr. Trump’s words but not outraged by the victim shaming of Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg on ‘The View.’

Yes, in case you missed it, Ms. Behar called former President Bill Clinton’s rape accusers “tramps” after Ms. Goldberg declared Hillary Clinton to be the real “victim” and “the person to whom dirty was done.”

Of course, this list of hypocrisies goes on, and the moral selectivity could not be more outrageous.

“Outrageous” or “standard operating procedure?”

EVEN KIDS PREFER THE STRONG HORSE: Al-Qaeda Makes Populist Pitch to Millennials.

Al-Qaeda is appealing to millennials with a cocktail of populism and Islam and directives to not admire grown “kids” in professional sports but “men… with their AK aimed at the enemy” — and to follow the latter into jihad.

The outreach was detailed in Al-Balagh, a recent magazine issued by al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, a successful chapter announced by core leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in 2014 that has conducted a spree of machete assassinations against individuals deemed to have insulted Islam. One of the group’s earlier victims was an Atlanta couple who were secular writers visiting Bangladesh; Avijit Roy was hacked to death, while his wife Rafida Bonya Ahmed was seriously injured.

The 53-page inaugural issue of the magazine was printed in English and Bengali. The editor’s note at the beginning first details and slams the “criminal demon-crazy nexus which is known as democracy.”

Read the whole thing.