Archive for 2017
September 11, 2017
CAMPUS WHISTLEBLOWERS: What happens when college professors uncover wrongdoing in the halls of their own institutions? FIRE has a video investigation.
SAD! IPAs Are Giving You Man Boobs. “Those hops in your favorite IPA are actually wonderful medicine for insomnia and menopause, thanks to their high phytoestrogen content. These same phytoestrogens, however, can also cause a condition known among brewers as Brewer’s Droop.”
Beer used to be brewed with yarrow instead of hops.
NOAH FELDMAN: Feinstein’s Anti-Catholic Questions Are an Outrage.
Related: Notre Dame, Princeton to Senate: Quit imposing religious tests for public office.
UPDATE: Prominent Criticism of Senate Democrat Bigotry Against Amy Barrett.
Even more noteworthy (given that he had no institutional incentive to speak out on the matter) was Princeton president Christopher Eisgruber’s letter to the Judiciary Committee. Eisgruber, a former clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens and a constitutional scholar with expertise on religious freedom and judicial appointments, objects that “the questions directed to Professor Barrett about her faith were not consistent with the principle set forth in the Constitution’s “no religious test” clause.” He further observes (as I did here) that the law-review article of Barrett’s that Democrats used to attack her expresses views that “are fully consistent with a judge’s obligation to uphold the law and the Constitution.”
And today’s New York Times—often home to anti-Catholic bigotry—even includes an excellent op-ed by Sohrab Ahmari, titled “The Dogma of Dianne Feinstein,” that likewise objects to Feinstein’s display of “religious animus” and notes that her “accusations were based on a mangled understanding of Ms. Barrett’s work.”
Make this sort of thing painful and they’ll do it less often.
NEWS YOU CAN CHEW: A Quest for the Great European Cheeseburger.
Isn’t that cultural appropriation?
IN THE SPIRIT OF THE CAJUN NAVY: Spared Irma’s Worst, Puerto Ricans Sail to Virgin Islanders’ Aid.
Puerto Ricans relieved at being spared the worst destruction donated water, clothing, first aid and other supplies, and dozens of recreational boaters sailed to nearby islands to deliver the assistance and evacuate now-homeless islanders on the return trip.
A 54-foot dive boat named the Tobias cast off on Sunday morning from the marina here, the largest in the Caribbean, and made its way eastward under a searing sun to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, the fourth vessel of the day to make the trip. It would return later crowded to capacity with 46 St. Thomas residents escaping the near-total devastation of the island.
“We were very blessed here, and we have to do everything we can to help,” said Cristina Morales, the owner of the Tobias. . . .
The civilian sealift, by contrast, has been largely a spontaneous, volunteer affair. And it has grown out of the longtime affinities and links among recreational boaters in Puerto Rico and the islands to the east.
Puerto Ricans often cruise to the American or British Virgin Islands, known interchangeably here as “las islas,” to enjoy their crystalline beaches or for fishing competitions. One week-long event held in July in the British islands attracts such a large contingent of visiting boats that locals joke about hosting the Puerto Rican Navy.
“We’ve enjoyed the beauty and the fun of those islands,” said Martita Rivera, who has vacationed in the islands for 25 years. “We only saw the need to say, ‘We’re here for you.’ ”
Ms. Rivera and her husband, Roger Casellas, run one of the pop-up donation centers from Mr. Casella’s boat dealership in Hato Rey. They have received everything from diapers and shirts to nails and hammers.
Responding to a call to arms on social media, she said, hundreds of volunteers have helped to pack four shipping containers full of supplies that will be delvered to the islands this week.
Bravo.
NICE, YET CREEPY: Tesla remotely extends the range of some cars to help with Irma.
Tesla sometimes sells cars with more hardware battery capacity than is initially available for use by customers, offering the additional capacity as a subsequent software update. For example, Tesla has sold Model S cars rated 60D—the 60 stands for 60kWh of energy storage—that actually have 75kWh batteries. Owners of these vehicles can pay Tesla $9,000 to unlock the extra 15kWh of storage capacity.
But last week, Tesla decided to temporarily make this extra capacity available even to Floridians who hadn’t paid for the upgrade to ensure they had enough range to get out of Florida ahead of Hurricane Irma. A Tesla spokesperson confirmed the change to Eletrek. The extra 15kWh should give the vehicles an additional 30 to 40 miles of range.
Presumably, their vehicles will get a downgrade once hurricane season is over.
That was a great gesture, but what else can Tesla control remotely?
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE. Public university washes away conservative group’s 9/11 chalk memorial:
“When we asked why he was destroying our tribute to the victims of 9/11, [the employee] informed us that he had been ordered to do so by the university’s Director of Facilities Maintenance, Shehadeh Abdelkarim,” Roberts said.
Roberts added the employee also told her the memorial was being erased because “there is no chalk allowed on campus.”
And there you have the epitaph of academia in the 21st century: “There is no chalk allowed on campus.”
AS SURELY AS NIGHT FOLLOWS DAY: Obamacare Repeal Is Dead. Here Come the Bailouts.
Those of us who argued back in 2009-10 that ObamaCare was welfare for Big Insurance will get the last, bitter laugh.
AT AMAZON, save in Tools and Hardware.
ANARCHY GLEICHSCHALTUNG IN THE UK. UK Speaker: Same-Sex Marriage Won’t Be “Proper” Until Churches Can’t Opt Out:
In a shocking attack on religious freedom and even property rights, the speaker of Britain’s House of Commons argued that the country won’t have “proper equal marriage” until churches are unable to turn away requests to host a same-sex marriage.
“I still feel we’ll only have proper equal marriage when you can bloody well get married in a church if you want to do so, without having to fight the church for the equality that should be your right,” John Bercow, the Commons speaker, declared at a PinkNews reception in July.
He’s starting his crackdown on religion with mosques first, I’m sure.
TONI AIRAKSINEN: Why Sexism Can’t Explain the Student Loan Gender Gap.
STATUTORY DAMAGES OF $1500 TO EACH PERSON WHOSE DATA IS STOLEN WOULD WORK, I’LL BET: Equifax’s Massive ID Theft Is a Reminder That Firms Need Incentives to Keep Data Safe.
THE NEW REPUBLIC: This Weather Is Not Normal. And It Will Only Get Worse.
Isn’t that what they said in 2005?
UPDATE (From Ed): Yes.
DAILY CALLER EXCLUSIVE: Gowdy Wonders If Democrats Are ‘Fearful’ Trump Dossier Is ‘A Piece Of Fiction.’
In an interview with The Daily Caller, the House Intelligence Committee member addressed claims from his Democratic colleagues and some in the media that he and his fellow Republicans are attempting to discredit the dossier and its author, former British spy Christopher Steele, in order to help Trump.
“I don’t know why anyone — from [California Rep.] Adam Schiff, to Vanity Fair, to Rachel Maddow — would not be curious whether or not the world’s premier law enforcement agency relied upon a dossier in connection with an investigation without vetting it,” Gowdy told TheDC on Friday.
“For the life of me I don’t understand why they are focused on this,” Gowdy says of the Democratic pushback, “unless they are fearful that the bureau did rely on a piece of fiction.”
By most recent accounts, they have every right to be.
LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: Startup buzzkill: California bans drone delivery services of legalized pot.
SECDEF MATTIS ON 9/11 ANNIVERSARY: Terrorists Learned ‘Americans are Not Made of Cotton Candy.’
LA TRAHISON DES CLERCS: Alberto Mingardi reviews the late and sorely missed Ken Minogue’s last work, On Liberty and Its Enemies, over at Econlog, with a particular focus on his essay on how intellectuals so often get things wrong. Favorite line: “Foreign despotisms only have to declare their passion to improve the condition of the poor, and many an academic is lying with his back on the floor waving his paws in the air”.
SO NOW THERE’S THIS TO WORRY ABOUT: Hackers could program sex robots to kill.
But what a way to go?
THE “TOXIC MASCULINITY” SMEAR: Emasculation is not a solution to social ills. To be fair, it’s a solution favored by those who appear to be mentally ill.
RANDY BARNETT, RICHARD EPSTEIN, ADAM WHITE: The Legal Revolution To Come: How The Right Can Reshape The Federal Courts.