REALLY, THE ONLY LOGICAL DECISION TO MAKE YESTERDAY: I Went to Hooters on The Day Without Women and It Changed My Life Forever.
Archive for 2017
March 9, 2017
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JOURNALISM: AP Consults Spy Novelists to Hype Trump-Russia Fake News.
Next: AP consults romance novelists in support of theory that Melania may leave Trump for hunky, bare-chested pirate.
FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Purple America Has All But Disappeared; Counties are increasingly super red or super blue, with less and less in between.
Yet another reason, I think, why the Supreme Court’s invalidation of geographic districts at the state level was a mistake. Perhaps Baker v. Carr and Reynolds v. Sims should be revisited from a “living Constitution” perspective in light of this.
ULTRA-LIB TEXAS DEMOCRAT TRIES TO GET SERIOUS FELONIES DISMISSED: But Texas State Representative Dawnna Dukes could still be in a lot of trouble — if the state of Texas is genuinely interested in punishing hideous crime.
When Dukes was indicted on Jan. 17, 1017, the three-year statute of limitations had run out on these charges.
MORE:
Oswalt said Dukes signed a waiver to the statute of limitations last September with this understanding. While there are emails between attorneys stating all this, there wasn’t a formal agreement.
A means of creating legal gray area and political limbo to let the alleged crook slip justice? Inquiring minds want to know. This is a fair question.
In January, Dukes didn’t resign from office and instead was sworn in for her 12th term. One week later, she was indicted on 13 counts of tampering with a government document, a felony offense punishable by up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine.
Dukes was also charged with two counts of abuse of official capacity by a public servant: a misdemeanor offense punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of $4,000.
Judge Urrutia canceled a hearing on the lesser charges, scheduled for Thursday, and announced he would make a ruling on or before Dukes’ next hearing date on April 19. He also said Dukes would not have to be present for that pre-trial hearing.
Stay tuned.
SO MUCH WINNING, YOU’LL BE SICK OF ALL THE WINNING: Founder of EPA’s environmental justice office quits; Also, the EPA has an environmental justice office.
Faster, please: Keep draining that swamp.
NO. Doctors Would Rather You Take Weed Up the Butt Than Smoke It.
You never hear doctors giving advice like this about scotch or martinis.
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: How Middlebury College Enabled The Riot During Charles Murray’s Visit.
AMERICAN CARNAGE: Christopher Caldwell on The New Landscape of Opioid Addiction.
Lengthy — but fascinating, terrifying and thoroughly depressing, often at the same time.
HEY, NOW THAT WE HAVE A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT, PEOPLE ARE STARTING TO NOTICE THAT LOW INTEREST RATES ARE HURTING SENIORS: “The average one-year CD hasn’t paid more than 1% since 2009, according to Bankrate.com. The drop in interest rates since the financial crisis cost U.S. savers almost $1 trillion in lost income from savings accounts, CDs and bonds from the start of 2008 through 2015, taking into account money saved on debt costs, according to April 2016 research by insurer Swiss Re. . . . Now fully retired since 2013, Dr. Stein is increasingly nervous about making his savings last—not only for himself, but also for his wife, who is 16 years his junior. They receive Social Security, and it covers most basic needs, but he still fears running out of money because health issues would keep him from working to make up the difference.”
A CONVERSATION with P.J. O’Rourke.
UPDATE: Yes, it’s really stupid. Excerpt:
Gillespie: Well, let’s talk specifically about Donald Trump a little bit. You’ve likened him to Juan Peron, the authoritarian socialist who helped transform Argentina from one of the wealthiest countries in the world, really, to a second-tier shit hole, and it’s never really climbed out of that.
O’Rourke: Actually, I likened him to Evita.
Gillespie: Well, I was going to say, if Trump is Juan Peron, does that mean Melania is Evita, and is she going to start singing?
O’Rourke: No, no. It’s Trump who is Evita. I said actually we had a pair of them. I said, you know, we’re definitely going through a period in global politics where there’s kind of an accent on the strong person.
Gillespie: Imagine if he starts wearing a military uniform with braids on the [crosstalk 00: 16: 12].
O’Rourke: One wouldn’t put it past him.
Gillespie: What frightens you …
O’Rourke: I mean, he could do it.
People keep saying Trump is dumb and driven by insecurity, then demonstrating that, at least where Trump is concerned, they’re dumb and driven by insecurity. O’Rourke and Gillespie are describing a cartoon in their heads which has next to nothing in common with the actual Trump. If you want to know what the hell happened in 2016, don’t waste your time with O’Rourke, who clearly has no idea. Read Salena Zito, who spent the election cycle, and its aftermath, talking to actual voters.
TO BE FAIR, HE’S HARDLY THE FIRST POPE TO TELL PEASANTS TO KEEP IN THEIR PLACE: Pope Francis Condemns Populism, Trump.
JEFF SESSIONS THROWS DOWN: AG suggests openness to review of predecessors’ actions. “Attorney General Jeff Sessions suggested Thursday that he would be open to the appointment of an outside counsel to review actions taken by the Justice Department during the Obama administration.”
PASCAL BRUCKNER: Barbarians And The Civilized.
What was colonialism if not the ultimate product of pedagogical optimism, based on the metaphor of the master and the pupil? Europeans gave themselves the mission of guiding toward Enlightenment the indolent, cruel, or spontaneous native, overtaken by his emotions and mired in ignorance. Anticolonialism and its sixties-era prolongation, Third Worldism, kept the metaphor while reversing the roles: the young nations of the Southern Hemisphere would be entrusted with saving the postimperial northern powers. By gaining their independence, the colonized nations offered to their former rulers the chance to redeem their souls. The materialist West could regenerate itself by becoming prisoner of its own barbarians.
Yet in both cases, it was the reference to the infantile that ultimately triumphed.
Well, leftism is inherently infantile.
I DUNNO, I THINK I’M DOING BETTER THAN IN THE LATE 1990S: “In fact, American adults had sex nine fewer times in 2014 than they did in the late 1990s.” Thanks, empty nest life!
BECAUSE AT THIS POINT, WHY THE HELL NOT? Transgender Man Identifies as Alien, Plans to Remove Genitals, Adopt Kids.
These are Heinlein’s Crazy Years — we just live in them.
TAIWAN MODERNIZES ITS AIR FORCE:
Because of Chinese political and economic pressure, Taiwan is using a lot of locally manufactured components to upgrade its F-16s. But some tech can only be obtained from the United States and most of the requested items have been made available along with technical assistance from the American manufacturers. The Taiwanese upgrade center will turn out 24 upgraded aircraft a year.
Meanwhile Taiwan has completed upgrades of its own locally manufactured jet fighter. In 2011 Taiwan rolled out the first of its upgraded IDF (F-CK) jet fighters. The improvements include better electronics, largely from the United States and the ability to carry four, instead of two, radar guided air-to-air missiles.
Beijing’s belligerence in the South China Sea and East China Sea has led South Korea, Japan, Taiwan (Republic of China) and the U.S. to modernize their forces and/or change their military force posture. These nations are technically adversaries. Vietnam is a pugnacious adversary. Singapore, Indonesia and Australia are also “adjusting” their defense policies.
CLINTON OPERATIVE GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR COMMENT. Disney Boss Says No Political Bias at ABC News and ESPN, Complaints ‘Completely Exaggerated:’
Robert Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Company, said Wednesday that ABC News has been “extremely fair” in its coverage of the 2016 election and the Trump administration and that complaints of left-wing political bias on ESPN are “completely exaggerated.”
Taking him at his word, it sounds like ABC and ESPN are falling down on the job spectacularly when it comes to being conservative or centrist Republicans!
OH SHUT UP: White College Women Told to Stop Wearing Hoop Earrings Because It’s ‘Racist’
There are of course smarter arguments to be made than “Oh shut up.” But since “Everything is racist!” is a non-argument to force other people to shut up, why bother?
HOW CAN WE MISS HIM IF HE WON’T GO AWAY? Most Say ‘No’ to More Public Anti-Trump Role for Obama.