YES, AND AN ACID-ATTACK ONE TOO. WHATEVER COULD BE THE REASON? Is London in the grip of a knife crime epidemic?
Archive for 2017
July 31, 2017
YUGE: Japan, US agree to take ‘all necessary measures’ against North Korea.
On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that he and President Donald Trump have agreed to take further actions against North Korea after the communist country’s latest missile test.
North Korea conducted its second missile test in a month Friday, this time sending the missile toward the coast of Japan, where it splashed down into the East Sea, between the Korean peninsula and Japanese coast.
According to Fox News, Abe told reporters Monday he and Trump had a phone call after 10 hours of conducting U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers bomber drills, alongside South Korean and Japanese forces, over the Korean peninsula on Saturday. The drills were in response to North Korea’s missile test.
According to Abe, both he and Trump have agreed that both countries will “take all necessary measures to protect” Japan. Abe praised Trump’s commitment to do so.
If there’s any meat to Abe’s statement, it’s an unprecedented postwar posture for Japan.
BLUE ON BLUE: California’s bullet train is likely to face more environmental hurdles after a high court ruling.
In a 6-1 ruling last week written by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, the California Supreme Court decided that federal rail law does not usurp California’s tough environmental regulation for state-owned rail projects.
The decision has broad significance, lawyers in the case said.
It clears the way for opponents of the $64-billion bullet train to file more lawsuits as construction proceeds and also allows Californians to challenge other rail uses, such as the movement of crude oil from fracking.
A federal court could later decide the matter differently, ruling that U.S. law trumps state regulation.
But lawyers in the field said they expect a similar case pending in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to be dismissed and expressed doubt that the U.S. Supreme Court would review last week’s ruling.
And: “More lawsuits are expected when the rail authority finalizes plans for construction in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California.”
The state is so swamped by progressive regulations that even progressive dream projects are choking on them.
IT’S NOT GREAT NEWS: Here’s What That Sperm Concentration Study Actually Means For Humans. “When limiting the meta-analysis to studies after 1995, the team found no indication that the decline in sperm count was levelling off. The findings reported in the study are an ominous sign for the future of male fertility and indicates that there may be a significant health crisis looming on the horizon for western countries. Scientists are still unclear of what is causing the decline in sperm count but think increased exposure to chemicals may be playing a role.”
UPDATE: Inevitably:
THE TAX REFORM OF AUGUST: Ways and Means chairman calls it “exactly why Republicans came to Congress.”
HEY, DIDN’T TRUMP TWEET THAT HE WAS GOING TO CLOSE THAT DEAL? Los Angeles reaches deal to host 2028 Olympics.
Hey, remember when Obama couldn’t close the deal for Chicago?
That said, I think not getting the Olympics is probably better than getting them. Usually — see Rio — you get stuck with a big mess and a bunch of useless construction.
THE 21ST CENTURY IS NOT TURNING OUT HOW I’D HOPED: Man ‘marries’ his laptop, sues for state recognition and a wedding cake.
AT AMAZON, summer deals on Bras.
DOING NOTHING ISN’T NECESSARILY THE SAME THING AS BEING INACTIVE: Why we sometimes need to “do nothing” to find solutions to our problems.
CHRISTIAN TOTO: Women’s March Declares War on HBO’s ‘Confederate.’
The show hasn’t cast a single star yet. No script has been written. No air date has been released.
That hardly matters to its detractors. The group heard the show’s basic premise and demand the series never see the light of day.
Why?
The series features an alternate history where the South seceded from the United States during the Civil War … and retained slavery. The ugliest of institutions didn’t go away but became entrenched in 21st century America.
It’s a provocative theme, no doubt. And it could be revolting if not handled delicately.
Yet in recent years we’ve seen another tale that chilled us, too. “The Man in the High Castle” envisions a world in which Hitler’s Third Reich won the second World War. America got partitioned into several pieces under the command of Germany and Japan.
That’s different because shut up.
BUT OF COURSE: Not Being Stupid Is ‘Cognitive Privilege’ Now, Which Is Just Like White Privilege.
The Daily Iowan revealed the discovery of this new privilege earlier this week.
Garden-variety white privilege “is an important topic that deserves a public discussion,” the op-ed on “cognitive privilege” explains, but it is also “prudent to at least mention the wider concept contained therein: that of privilege itself.”
Privilege in general is “the receipt of certain benefits wholly through accident of birth and it is “undeniable that privilege itself is a reality,” the student newspaper explains.
As with skin color and much else, Daily Iowan author Dan Williams argues, people have no control over how smart they are. Life is a huge cosmic lottery full of winners and losers.
Cognitive privilege is one of “many kinds of privilege besides white privilege.”
Also, Williams declares, robots will wipe out manual labor jobs but will somehow not affect jobs available to members of a special cognitive elite.
“Thus, the accident of having been born smart enough to be able to be successful is a great benefit that you did absolutely nothing to earn. Consequently, you have nothing to be proud of for being smart.”
In that last sentence, the op-ed’s author may have used the incorrect subject.
WHO SAYS IRONY IS DEAD? Protestors Dressed as Nazis Tried to Shut Down Ann Coulter During a Free Speech Panel.
NO. NEXT QUESTION? Can millennials afford a future in Illinois?
ADAM SCHIFF CAN’T COMMENT ON THAT.
FUNNY HOW THIS ALWAYS SEEMS TO HAPPEN IN THE DEATH THROES OF A SOCIALIST REGIME: Venezuelan protestors strip National Guardsmen naked and beat them in revenge for deadly street violence ahead of crucial weekend vote to rewrite constitution.
THIS SEEMS OVERDUE: Pentagon Would Ban Contractors That Don’t Protect Data.
WHY I LOVE IOWAHAWK:
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: A gun that squirts molten metal? Certainly, sir.
LIFE IN THE BLUE ZONES: Sex Diary of the NYC Editor Who Blames Trump For Her Love Life.
IN THE MAIL: Seablindness: How Political Neglect Is Choking American Seapower and What to Do About It.
Plus, fresh Gold Box and Lightning Deals.
TAXPROF: The IRS Scandal, Day 1544: How Lois Lerner Begat Robert Mueller. Weird how neither Eric Holder nor Loretta Lynch appointed special counsels to investigate Obama Administration scandals, and the press never called them on it.
But now we need a special counsel — or two — to investigate the many Obama Administration scandals outlined by House Republicans. Since Democrat Attorneys General wouldn’t do it, will a Republican? Or are these investigations only for Republican administrations?
WINNING: U.S. Companies Post Profit Growth Not Seen in Six Years.
America’s largest companies are on pace to post two consecutive quarters of double-digit profit growth for the first time since 2011, helped by years of cost-cutting, a weaker dollar and stronger consumer spending.
Earnings at S&P 500 companies are expected to rise 11% in the second quarter, according to data from Thomson Reuters, following a 15% increase in the first quarter. Close to 60% of the firms in the index have reported second-quarter results so far.
Corporate America’s strong earnings performance comes as several policy initiatives that were expected to help boost companies’ bottom line—corporate-tax cuts and increased government spending on infrastructure—have been sidetracked amid political infighting in Washington, D.C., which culminated with the recent failure of the health-law bill.
“Get the hell out of my way!” the wise man once said.