Archive for 2017

JOURNALISM: Washington Post Readers Deceived About Religion Writer Sally Quinn’s Occultism. “Among her elite social circles in Washington, DC, and the Hamptons, Washington Post religion writer Sally Quinn did not keep her use of black magic a secret. In a lengthy and glowing profile, the Washingtonian reveals that Quinn’s fascination and outright use of the dark arts were just another part of her wide and varied social scene. . . . Readers were not only not informed of Quinn’s occultism; they were misled and lied to about her beliefs, which she claimed were only that of a curious non-believer.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: UC Berkeley Faculty Calls for Campus-Wide Boycott of Class: Faculty, staff claim ‘there are forms of speech that are not protected under the First Amendment.’

Okay, you’ve persuaded me. Now, you’re fired for boycotting class. . . .

Meanwhile, I’ll repeat: If some evil genius on the right set out to destroy the reputation of the academy, he couldn’t have done better than the academy is doing for itself.

ROGER SIMON: The ‘Dreamers’ Can Stay but Never Vote.

Under no circumstances can or should someone who has arrived in our country illegally, no matter at what age, be allowed ever to vote in our elections at any level — federal, state or local.

To borrow a phrase from Barack Obama, it “wouldn’t be fair.” Those millions of legal immigrants from all over the world who stood in line and played by the rules deserve the right to determine this country’s future in elections. Those that didn’t, don’t. If the extent of the “Dreamers'” American dream is so great that they feel an overwhelming desire to vote, they are free to go home and wait in line like everybody else.

Seems fair.

ESPECIALLY SINCE AMERICANS ARE GETTING LARGER AS THE SEATS ARE GETTING SMALLER: Coach seating on airplanes is a ‘Titanic waiting to happen.’

A recent investigation from the Daily Beast seems to confirm nearly every airline passenger’s worst fear: Coach seating “could be a death trap.”

The site has reportedly examined “over 900 pages” of documents from the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration and concluded that newer coach-class seating sections may not provide adequate room for evacuation in case of an emergency.

Following up on a lawsuit filed by the Flyers Rights nonprofit group earlier this year, the Daily Beast has uncovered new information on the US Court of Appeals and its ruling that the “densification” of coach seating on newer airplanes presents “a plausible life-and-death safety concern” for passengers.

According to the Daily Beast, the court concluded that the FAA was relying on outdated studies when arguing that no new evacuation tests were necessary to determine safety standards in more modern, cramped aircraft. For instance, the site reports that neither Boeing nor the FAA has released the evacuation data for the newer “and most densely seated” models of the Boeing 737.

“The tests carried out to ensure that all the passengers can safely exit a cabin in an emergency are dangerously outdated and do not reflect how densely packed coach class seating has become — or how the size of passengers has simultaneously increased,” wrote the Daily Beast.

Flyers Rights claims that the width of a standard coach seat has decreased from an average of 18.5 inches to just 17 inches since the early 2000s. The space between a one coach seatback and the one in front of it — also called the “pitch” — has also shrunk from an average of 35 inches to 31 inches. And on the shortest end, the pitch in some planes is only 28 inches.

It seems plausible that that would make a difference.

FIVE YEARS AGO: Me on the Obama Economy. My first regular column for USA Today.

DEMOGRAPHICS: The Mystery of Why Japanese People Are Having So Few Babies. “In a country where men are still widely expected to be breadwinners and support families, a lack of good jobs may be creating a class of men who don’t marry and have children because they—and their potential partners—know they can’t afford to.”