AT AMAZON, fresh new releases, updated hourly.
Plus, new Kindle Daily Deals.
Archive for 2017
August 28, 2017
SARAH HOYT: The Media Can’t Get What It Wants.
But can they get what they need?
PHOTOS OF THE HOUSTON AREA: Taken by Houston Chronicle readers. The link goes to a photo of a policemen in League City saying goodbye to his son. Scroll through the photos. Some are poignant, like the photo of the policeman, all of them illustrative.
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE ARPAIO PARDON from Dan McLaughlin. “This isn’t Terry McAuliffe dispensing pardons in bulk just to get people on the voter rolls. This is fundamentally a policy dispute.”
WHEN YOU BUY GOOGLE ADS, YOU MAY BE paying for fake traffic.
AIRBORNE EYES OVER THE THEODORE ROOSEVELT: A USAF E-3 Sentry and the USS Theodore Roosevelt participate in a composite training unit exercise.
OH: Black-clad antifa attack peaceful right wing demonstrators in Berkeley.
Jumping over plastic and concrete barriers, the group melted into a larger crowd of around 2,000 that had marched peacefully throughout the sunny afternoon for a “Rally Against Hate” gathering.
Shortly after, violence began to flare. A pepper-spray wielding Trump supporter was smacked to the ground with homemade shields. Another was attacked by five black-clad antifas, each windmilling kicks and punches into a man desperately trying to protect himself. A conservative group leader retreated for safety behind a line of riot police as marchers chucked water bottles, shot off pepper spray and screamed “fascist go home!”
All told, the Associated Press reported at least five individuals were attacked. An AP reporter witnessed the assaults. Berkeley Police’s Lt. Joe Okies told The Washington Post the rally resulted in “13 arrests on a range of charges including assault with a deadly weapon, obstructing a police officer, and various Berkeley municipal code violations.”
But were they arrested-arrested or merely symbolically arrested?
MICHAEL BARONE: Group differences don’t undermine case against racial discrimination.
Should accurate facts be suppressed because stating them will “do a lot of harm”? Yes, writes the thoughtful William Saletan in The Weekly Standard, if the facts are about “racial differences on intelligence tests.”
Writing about the former Google engineer James Damore, fired after he wrote a memo about gender differences, Saletan says that Damore “thinks, as I once did, that if you say group averages don’t warrant prejudgment of individuals, smart people won’t read or apply them that way.”
In other words, even smart people will inevitably prejudge individuals by group averages, and indeed cannot be persuaded not to. I think this is just plain wrong, and not just about “smart people” but about nearly everyone.
Saletan seems to assume that if you just don’t write about the well-documented racial differences on intelligence tests, people won’t know they exist. This is just nonsense. People are aware, even if elite writers try not to let anyone say so in public, that Americans of African descent have lower average scores on intelligence tests. It is not some state secret that can be kept from anyone, whether their intentions are good or bad.
Saletan’s second assumption is that if people, even smart people, do somehow manage to learn this inconvenient fact, they’re necessarily going to use it to judge individuals. That they’re going to assume that everyone scores about the same as their group’s average, or that no member of the group scores above it.
And I think that’s just wrong too. Perhaps ordinary people can’t draw a bell curve for you. But they do know, again by observation and everyday experience, that there is a vast variance in the intelligence between members within the same identifiable group. And they are accustomed to judging people by their personal characteristics rather than by the average of a group of which they happen to be a member.
Yes, it’s only intellectuals who are foolish enough to do that, it seems.
AT AMAZON, Lightning Deal, Allezola Professional Chef’s Knife, 7.5 Inch German High Carbon Stainless Steel.
DANIEL PIPES: Iran vs. Turkey, the MidEast’s Perpetual Rivalry.
Their most major difference concerns the attitudes of their subjects. Whereas Khamene’i enjoys the support of only about 15 percent of the populace, Erdoğan can count on some 45 percent, affording Erdoğan a legitimacy and confidence that Khamene’i can only dream of. In part, this results from longevity under Islamist rule, in part from difference in per capita income, which is only US$4,700 and stagnant in Iran, $10,700 and rising in Turkey.
Regime collapse in Iran is within sight and will diminish Islamism, encouraging Muslims to move toward a more modern and moderate form of their religion. The Turkish government’s greater popularity and more advanced version of Islamism gives it greater staying power that makes it the more worrisome long-term opponent. Thus, the Middle East is likely to witness a grand switch, with Iran on course to moderation and Turkey becoming the region’s supreme danger.
Many in Washington always think that Iran is on the cusp of regime change, and hopefully someday soon they’ll be right. If and when that happens though, I suspect Washington will still be caught as off-guard by Pipes’ “grand switch” as it was by the Shah’s fall in 1978.
KURT SCHLICHTER: Conservatism Is Not A Suicide Pact.
BUH-BYE: Japan urges predictable, transparent Brexit ahead of visit by PM May.
Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura said the government would do its utmost to gather information on the Brexit negotiations, which he said remain “fluid”, as well as support Japanese corporate activity there.
He made the remarks at a government task force meeting on Britain’s exit from the EU.
British Prime Minister Theresa May will visit Japan later this week to discuss Brexit, trade and defense with Premier Shinzo Abe. The visit is aimed at strengthening Britain’s relationship with key international investors ahead of the split.
Since the shock Brexit vote, Japan has expressed unusually strong public concerns about the impact of Brexit on the United Kingdom, the second most important destination for Japanese investment after the United States.
A “predictable, transparent Brexit” would be best for everyone. But according to a British expat I was speaking with yesterday, Brussels’ pettiness all-but-ensures a “hard Brexit,” and that British business are already preparing for just that. Perhaps it’s time the May government did as well.
SUZANNE VENKER: The Whistleblower At Google.
I don’t know if James Damore, the engineer who was fired from Google for daring to point out in a well-reasoned and well-documented company-wide memo that men and women differ biologically and this may play a role in Google’s gender gap, needs anyone to come to his defense. He seems to be doing well despite the backlash that has ensued since he was terminated. But given my experience with gender equality fanatics, I feel compelled to do so.
Mr. Damore is a Harvard graduate who appears to be not only authentic but reasonable, fair and just plain nice. His memo, which you can read in its entirety here, is both honest and courageous.
It also happens to 100% right.
In 2005 Larry Summers, former president of Harvard University, ventured into similar territory and was subsequently forced to apologize.
Unlike Summers, Damore isn’t apologizing. Good.
Read the whole thing.
THAT WOULD EXPLAIN… EVERYTHING: Keith Olbermann May Be in the Late Stages of Furious Rabies Based on Twitter Meltdown.
WHY ARE BLUE CITIES SUCH CESSPITS OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE? School Teacher Charged with Terroristic Threats Against Philadelphia Police Officer at Rizzo Statue Protest.
SULTANS GOTTA SULTANATE: Top German lawmakers have urged the EU to halt aid payments to Turkey and halt talks on a new customs union deal.
The leader of Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) Martin Schulz, on Sunday accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of establishing a political tyranny and called on the European Union to scrap any further negotiations on expanding its customs union with Turkey.
“How much longer can one allow that a president, who has already lost all sense of restraint domestically, also loses every sense of restrained internationally?” Schulz said in an interview with German public broadcaster ARD. “Can we continue to accept that innocent German citizens languish in prisons in a country ruled by tyranny?”
According to the German government, 54 German nationals are being held in detention in Turkey, ten of which for political reasons. Two of the most high-profile detainees are jailed journalist Deniz Yucel and rights activist Peter Steudtner.
RELATED: Macron asks Turkey’s leader to free jailed French reporter.
It’s increasingly clear that Westerners are no longer welcome in Erdogan’s Turkey. Western ideals certainly aren’t.
OUT: DEEP STATE. IN: DERP STATE. CIA keeping a watchful eye on . . . its director!
If you need proof that our ruling class is more concerned with internal threats to its power than with external threats to American security, read on.
WHO’LL STOP THE RAIN? Dallas preps ‘mega-shelter’ as Texas braces for more rain.
An immediate respite from Harvey’s wrath seems unlikely to come. The National Weather Service calls the flooding “unprecedented,” and warns things may become more dire if a forecasted record-breaking 50 inches of rain does fall on parts of Texas in coming days. In anticipation of a worsening situation, Dallas is turning its main convention center into a “mega-shelter” that can host 5,000 evacuees.
The rainfall threatens to exacerbate an already dangerous situation, as Harvey’s rains have left many east Texas rivers and bayous swollen to their banks or beyond.
“The breadth and intensity of this rainfall are beyond anything experienced before,” the weather service said. “Catastrophic flooding is now underway and expected to continue for days.”
The truly amazing item is that only two deaths have been recorded so far due to Harvey. A storm and floods like these in almost any other part of the world would lead to much greater loss of life.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Back to school — and to kangaroo Title IX courts.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Harvey, Fascists, Militarized Police and Much, Much More.
TWICE AS MANY AMERICANS DIED ON THIS SHIP AS IN WAR 1775 TO 1863:The sunken history of this Revolutionary War ‘ghost ship’.
SURE, PEOPLE IN THE PAST WERE JUST LIKE US, WITH DIFFERENT CLOTHES: Yep, let’s go with that. The real-life scandal and shame behind Mona Lisa’s smile.