THAT’S FAR KINDER THAN COMMUNISTS TREAT THEIR FOES: French Police Use Tear Gas on May Day Protesters as Presidential Election Nears.
Archive for 2017
May 1, 2017
KETOGENIC DIETS AREN’T EXACTLY NEW: Silicon Valley’s elite are flocking to an extreme high-fat diet in hopes of living longer.
#FAKENEWS: Trump Trance Strikes Again: Trump Says ‘Senate Rules,’ Left Hears ‘Constitution.’ “You know, I’m honestly starting to think that Trump has actually driven a lot of people to madness.” Well, to be fair, most of them were close enough to walk.
Plus: “In any case, it really is more of the Trump Trance effect: Trump says something, and people decide he said something else, even — by careful manipulation of context and straight out misquotation — apparently quote him as saying something else. And people believe it, and — if you were to look at my Twitter feed — get really angry when it’s pointed out it’s just not true.”
They need Trump to be as awful as they think he is, or all their crazed #resistance just looks crazed and tawdry. Which is what it is.
WAR ON MEN? Student penalized for using word ‘man’ on his essay.
“Thoughtful paper, although the writing-mechanics errors are killing you,” Professor Jack Davis wrote at the bottom of the paper. He gave the student a B minus, according to a copy of the essay published in the student news outlet the Daily Nerv.
Davis circled “man” and referenced his Writing Mechanics Exercise #20, which draws a distinction between “mankind” and “humankind.”
Davis defended the penalization in an email to The College Fix. He explained that the “exercise and inclusion of ‘humankind’ are consistent with the Chicago Manual of Style, the style and the usage guide followed in the discipline of history.”
Davis also said the exercise is “not to enforce political correctness” but is “both a grammar refresher and a style and user guide.”
It was also not for the use “man” alone that Poirier lost points. Rather, Davis explained to The Fix that students lose points when they don’t follow two or more standards.
“I do not lower a student’s grade for only one inconsistence, and I single out no student as an example,” Davis said.
Poirier’s paper was selected for class discussion, having been emailed to his classmates “with anonymity strictly maintained,” according to Davis.
But Poirier decided to publicly defend his use of the word “man” during the class discussion, calling it politically motivated, according to the Daily Nerv student news outlet.
It’s complicated.
ILYA SOMIN: Victims Of Communism Day 2017.
“THERE’S A SPECIAL PLACE IN HELL FOR WOMEN WHO DON’T HELP OTHER WOMEN,” THEY SAY. Brendan O’Neill: By their own logic, feminists should support Marine Le Pen. But everybody knows we’re only supposed to be excited about the first woman, the first black, the first gay or lesbian or Muslim, when it’s a lefty.
TURNABOUT: Japan helicopter carrier conducts operation to protect US ships.
This is a bigger deal than just a routine escort mission:
The MSDF helicopter carrier Izumo left the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, on Monday morning. The mission, ordered by Defense Minister Tomomi Inada, is aimed at deterring the North Korean regime, which attempted to test fire a ballistic missile on Saturday, from further provocations by demonstrating a robust U.S.-Japan alliance.
The carrier is scheduled to join a U.S. supply vessel in the Pacific on Monday and escort it on its journey to waters off the island of Shikoku in western Japan.
Under the new legislation, Japan’s SDF can provide protection for U.S. forces in ordinary times using a limited, minimum number of weapons to the extent needed to carry out a mission.
Today’s mission shows that Japan’s attitude towards the military has moved far away from its postwar constitutionally mandated pacifism, and towards something more assertive.
What the report left unsaid is that while the Izumo and her sister ship Kaga are classed as “helicopter destroyers,” they could conceivably carry and launch F-35B VTOL fighters — which would put Japan back in the power-projection business for the first time since 1945. Only this time, hand-in-hand with the U.S. Navy.
Beijing, which had previously protested that the Izumo is an “aircraft-carrier in disguise,” is on notice.
FEMALE ATHLETES UNHAPPY ABOUT BEING BEATEN BY FORMERLY-MALE ATHLETE: Aussie not happy after transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard achieves New Zealand sporting first. “She is who she is. That’s the way the politics…and what the New Zealanders have decided. I can’t say much more than that. She is seen as female and that’s the way it is.” I have to say, Laurel doesn’t look very womanly in that picture. She looks more like a Larry.
IN THE MAIL: The Problem with Socialism.
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KURT SCHLICHTER IS ENJOYING HIMSELF: 100 Days of #TheResistance’s Humiliating Failure. “#TheResistance is not really resisting Trump as much as it is resisting us. The elite establishment is outraged that we normals have demanded to govern ourselves rather than begging for scraps from our betters in DC, NY and LA. It wasn’t just that horrible, sick old woman that we rejected; it was them. And by doing so, we ‘stole’ what they see as their birthright to reign sovereign over us. . . . This election was about the people they sought to rule looking at them and their track record of failure and saying, ‘Nah, you suck.'”
Plus: “#The Resistance is a mess. Now they’re reduced to fighting for supremacy in their final redoubt, the universities where their fascist intimidation and suppression of speech provides a glimpse of America as it would have been had Trump not been elected. That they are forced into a last-ditch effort to keep power in an institution where their control is total is proof positive of their weakness.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Whittier Law School Died Many Years Ago, When It Strayed From Its Founding Mission To Prepare Students To Pass The Bar And Succeed As Lawyers.
SO, BASICALLY, THINGS ARE SHAPING UP FOR THE US TO BE THE NEXT SAUDI ARABIA: Oil Faces a Looming Supply Problem.
An oversupply can be a good problem to have, especially if you’re not the producer, but for the oil industry, low prices can create some medium-term headaches. In their attempts to adapt to the new market reality, oil companies around the world have had to cut their capital expenditure budgets to try and stay in the black. That’s meant a lot less cash has been spent on the exploration of new projects, and that could prove costly when the current generation of oil operations mature without new fields to transition to. . . .
The one outlier at the moment is U.S. shale, which has been ramping up output in recent months as producers find new ways to stay in the black even at $50 crude. Here in the states, companies are still spending on exploration and being rewarded for it, in large part because the scale of these so-called “unconventional” projects is much smaller than more conventional fields, which makes the up-front capital costs easier to bear for these companies in today’s bearish market. “The key question for the future of the oil market,” said IEA executive director Fatih Birol, “is for how long can a surge in US shale supplies make up for the slow pace of growth elsewhere in the oil sector.”
Well, maybe not, but we’re positioned to do well.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: It’s not just controversial speakers who are silenced by threats. Students like me are, too. Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education need to pull federal funding from schools that don’t protect students’ free speech rights.
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BOMBS AWAY: A Boeing B-17G-50-VE (S/N 44-8167) of the 15th Air Force, 2nd Bomb Group, 96th Bomb Squadron, drops its bomb load. The photo also provides a decent view of several of the Fortress’ .50 caliber machine gun ball turrets, the top turret, the chin turret, and the belly turret. (From StrategyPage’s WW2 aircraft photo series.)
VERY MUCH RELATED: Randall Jarrell’s The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner.
STUDENTS FROM ACROSS THE NATION issue a call for free speech. “Over the weekend, 25 students from about 20 colleges around the country gathered at the University of Chicago to try to start a movement in which students would become leading defenders of free speech on campus — including speech that they find offensive. The students issued a statement Sunday that they plan to urge other students to sign and to abide by. . . . Individual students and student groups at some campuses have tried to make the case for free speech. At Harvard University, for example, a new student group is trying to invite the most controversial speakers possible to campus. But the effort started at Chicago is seeking to build a national movement, based on a philosophy of supporting free expression.”
CONFRONTING IRAN: Peter Huessy says Iran’s mullahs are dedicated to “a revolutionary, conquering Islam” and their regime must be stopped.
Iran’s hostile behavior is of a long standing nature, having been initiated in 1979 and continued through this past decade. It is not new and is not a reaction to bad American actions. It is rooted in the very nature of the Iranian regime. Unless we face that reality, our efforts to eliminate Iran’s pursuit of both nuclear weapons and a hegemonic role in the Middle East will be for naught.
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Why It Matters How Ex-Presidents Make Their Money.
If President Obama had collected a $400,000 fee from the founders of Solyndra, the failed energy company that left taxpayers liable for $535 million in federal guarantees, the corruption would be obvious. But because he is taking money from companies that benefited from his policies in less obvious ways, we assume no corruption has occurred.
And maybe it hasn’t. Maybe Obama never made a decision while he was president in which he considered how it would affect his future finances. But even if he didn’t, he’s sending a signal to future presidents (just as Bill Clinton did) that if you play your cards right, your tenure in the White House is an assured path to multi-millionaire status.
This is also why former U.S. military generals should not be accepting “speaking fees” from foreign countries. Even if Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn did nothing wrong in collecting $45,000 for giving a speech to a Russian propaganda outlet, he set a standard for those who will come after him. If you believe there’s the potential to someday get rich off your country’s adversaries, then you may be tempted to promote policies that are in their interest and not in the national interest of the United States.
The signals we send matter, especially to politicians and government leaders. And if we signal to them that intertermporal corruption is a shrug-worthy offense, we should expect to see more of this type of cronyism in the future.
Trump should propose a 90% excise tax on speaking fees for former Executive Branch officials — including ex-Presidents. And when people point out that that’s easy for him because he doesn’t need the money, he can say “exactly.”
SALENA ZITO INTERVIEWS PRESIDENT TRUMP: ‘You make a mistake here, there is nothing to work out.’
Over the next 40 minutes, he jumps, in classic Trump fashion, over a range of topics, from his relations with foreign leaders to the danger of North Korea, from the election last year to his hopes for America tomorrow.
Yet listen closely, especially when he speaks about decisions involving life and death, and you sense that sitting here, in the Oval Office, as the 45th president has humbled even Donald J. Trump.
“You can make a mistake in deals, and you work it out,” he explains at one point. “You make a mistake here, there is nothing to work out. You know it’s trouble. It could be big trouble. And it is life-threatening trouble for lots of people, potentially.”
A portrait of Thomas Jefferson hangs to his right, one of Andrew Jackson, perhaps his favorite president, is to his left. A bust of a sober-looking Abraham Lincoln sits beneath Jefferson, while Trump’s father smiles broadly from a black-and-white photo behind the Resolute Desk, given by Queen Victoria in 1880 to Rutherford B. Hayes and used by many presidents since.
“It’s a very intensive process,” he says of the presidency. “Really intense. I get up to bed late and I get up early.” He rarely sleeps more than four hours, which is good, he explains, because he can call leaders around the world in the dark hours while the rest of Washington sleeps.
“When I was doing many real estate deals at one time, I always thought that was going to be more comprehensive and lengthier than a day like this.
“It’s not.”
So far into his presidency, as with so many modern-era presidents before him, much of his focus has been on challenges from abroad.
Read the whole thing.
LURKING BENEATH THE U.S.: According to Forbes, scientists have discovered a “massive lake” of molten carbon the size of Mexico beneath the western U.S. But it’s 217 miles below the surface, or thereabouts.
The carbon sits 217 miles beneath the surface of the Earth in the upper mantle and has no immediate pathway to the surface. In total the lake covers approximately 700,000 square miles, approximately the size of Mexico. This has redefined how much carbon scientists believe sits locked away in the Earth’s mantle and its interaction with surface and atmospheric carbon.
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: SpaceX launches, lands Falcon 9 rocket. “After the launch on a northeastern trajectory, SpaceX successfully landed the rocket’s first stage at ‘Landing Zone 1’ at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, part of ongoing efforts to recover and reuse Falcon rockets.”