WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG: Thriving rodent population to be controlled by genetically modified ‘super rats’.
Archive for 2017
December 7, 2017
BEWARE THE SUBJUNCTIVE: COULD IS NOT CAN: This is the latest Earth-like planet that could possibly support life.
HOUSEKEEPING HASN’T CALLED IN SEVENTEEN YEARS: The International Space Station is as gross as your own home.
December 6, 2017
TRUMP V. FRANKEN: Comparative Analysis From Ann Althouse:
1. In place of a presumption of consent — “they let you do it” — Franken claims a right. He contends that because of his status as “an entertainer” he gets to do it whether she wants it or not.
2. Franken actually does it, even when confronted with active non-consent. Trump was only talking — outside of the earshot of any woman — about what he supposedly does. Who knows what he actually does? But even in the bragging context, the woman consents. Trump’s joke is her susceptibility to star power.
3. Franken seems to get off on the forcible intrusion on the woman. Trump seems to delight in the fact that women want him. Those are entirely different sexual orientations! Franken is the one on the rapist spectrum.
Do tell.
APOLOGIZING IS THE LEAST THEY SHOULD DO: Statement and apology to Antonia Okafor on Hampshire College’s decision to cancel tonight’s speech.
DEMOCRATS: GLAD WE PUT THAT SEXUAL HARASSMENT PROBLEM BEHIND US. John Conyers III, who may run to replace his father, was arrested for domestic abuse in February.
PAUL RAHE: Our Imperial Elites Unmasked.
I quote Caitlin Flanagan at inordinate length for a reason. What she says about Hillary Clinton can be applied to virtually every woman (and man) who has been at work in the last couple of decades within our imperial liberal elite – whether it be in Hollywood, in journalism, or on the Hill.
Meryl Streep, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, and the other members of the sisterhood have turned their backs on Harvey Weinstein, Mark Halperin, Charlie Rose, John Conyers, Al Franken, Glenn Thrush, Matt Lauer, and the like. They say that they didn’t know or that, at most, they had heard a rumor or two. They are for the most part lying. Nearly all of them knew, as did Gloria Steinem and the liberals who defended Bill Clinton. The scale and the scope of these men’s misconduct were too large to have been anything other than an open secret.
Moreover, those who knew were all complicit. Meryl Streep is a case in point. She did not give a damn about the antics of Harvey Weinstein. She was a public defender of Roman Polanski, whose taste as a rapist ran to underage girls. He was, after all, an artiste – a man beyond good and evil.
If you doubt my claim that nearly everyone in our imperial elite was complicit, read Fox News’ report regarding the Friars Club dinner given in honor of Matt Lauer nine years ago. Everyone who was anyone in New York media circles was there, and the roast to which Lauer was subjected was a celebration of his . . . er . . . “accomplishments” with the women with whom he came into contact while doing his job as a journalist. I would quote snatches of what they said in their speeches were they not too graphic to pass the Ricochet Code of Conduct. In any case, you can read it for yourself, and you can read the account published in The Village Voice back in 2008 on which it was based.
When you next see any one of these people engaged in moral posturing, pinch yourself and remind yourself that they are all – especially, the politicians – in show business.
Yep. Everything is an act.
FIRST KATHY GRIFFIN, NOW THIS? Trump Is Bringing Mueller Down.
“The Resistance,” in its effort to denormalize Trump, has denormalized itself and a large swathe of American institutions. Those institutions need to be — and be seen as — normal a lot more than Trump does.
OPEN THREAD: Talk about today, or whatever you want.
CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: House Votes To Allow Concealed Carry Across State Lines. Some people are arguing that Congress lacks the power to do this under the Commerce Clause, though I’d be prepared to argue that it’s Heart of Atlanta Motel for guns, where the issue is opening up travel against state barriers. But Congress also has the power to provide for the arming of the militia, and this should qualify under that. Perhaps I’ll write a longer treatment of that topic, but for now I leave fleshing it out as an exercise for the reader.
THIS IS BIG: Bredesen Running For Senate in Tennessee. He’s the only Democrat with a shot at taking the seat.
ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Should You Pee on Your Lawn?
NFL COMMISSIONER ROGER GOODELL GETS 5-YEAR CONTRACT EXTENSION REPORTEDLY WORTH UP TO $200 MILLION.
As Conquest’s Third Law of Politics states, “The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.”
FOLLOWING TRUMP’S LEADERSHIP: Czech Republic announces it recognizes West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
‘BAM CRIES WOLF: Invoking the specter of Nazi Germany, Obama warns against complacency.
American democracy is fragile, and unless care is taken it could follow the path of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
Mixed in with many softer comments, that was the somewhat jaw-dropping bottom line of Barack Obama last night as, in a Q&A session before the Economic Club of Chicago, the Chicagoan who used to be president dropped a bit of red meat to a hometown crowd that likely is a lot closer to him than the man whose name never was mentioned: President Donald Trump.
* * * * * * * * *
Still, the U.S. has survived tough times before and will again, he noted, particularly mentioning the days of communist fighter Joseph McCarthy and former President Richard Nixon. But one reason the country survived is because it had a free press to ask questions, Obama added. Though he has problems with the media just like Trump has had, “what I understood was the principle that the free press was vital.”
The danger is “grow(ing) complacent,” Obama said. “We have to tend to this garden of democracy or else things could fall apart quickly.”
That’s what happened in Germany in the 1930s which, despite the democracy of the Weimar Republic and centuries of high-level cultural and scientific achievements, Adolph Hitler rose to dominate, Obama noted. “Sixty million people died. . . .So, you’ve got to pay attention. And vote.”
I’m so old, I can remember when devotees of fellow Democrat Lyndon Larouche were calling Obama himself Hitler and Photoshopping the toothbrush moustache onto his face:
I’m also old enough to remember (not all firsthand, mind you), when virtually every Republican president was compared to a Nazi by prominent Democrats.
But Obama is right in one sense. Proper vetting is crucial…
https://youtu.be/hzMas1bVidw
…Lest we wind up with a president whose most fervent supporters begin to think has dictatorial powers.
Oh, and note this:
Obama said his greatest “regret and disappointment” is the failure to enact tighter controls on gun possession.
Say, you know who else thought that was a great idea?
Related: D’oh! Lefties may have twisted themselves into the Ultimate knot over Jerusalem: Trump “has been painted that he’s a white supremacist and racist.What type of white supremacist or racist would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel strengthening the Jewish homeland?”
BAD NEWS FOR THE HIGHLY INTELLIGENT: Superior IQs associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests.
FROM THE VAULTS: 6 Tom Petty Albums That Need to Be Released Soon.
TO BE FAIR, THEY THREW THE BLACK GUY UNDER THE BUS MUCH FASTER: It Took Way Too Long For Democrats To Call On Al Franken To Resign.
It is utterly absurd to suggest that the decision to call for Franken’s resignation was anything more than pure political calculus on the part of Senate Democrats. They relinquished their chance to virtue signal when they all but ignored the first six of Franken’s accusers. Every Democratic senator had ample information well before this afternoon indicating that Franken had engaged in incredibly inappropriate behavior — if not outright sexual battery.
And yet they all chose to remain silent or to offer non-answers when questioned about whether Franken should step down. Not one single senator suggested, until this afternoon, that, if the allegations were true, the Democrat ought to relinquish his seat. New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand — who is among the Democratic women being praised for taking a principled stand against sexual misconduct — was asked in late November whether Franken should resign following the allegations. “It’s his decision,” she replied, noncommittally.
Well, when there are only six accusers it’s nothing. But when there are seven — whoa, Nellie, that’s a whole new ballgame.
IT’S OFFICIAL — NOW EVERYTHING IS OVER-HOPPED: Scientists turn beer into fuel.
NORTH KOREA: Piggy Brother Is Watching You.
SPOILER ALERT: YES. Can ‘Feminist’ Lena Dunham Sink Any Lower?