ANDREW MCCARTHY: The Pipe-Bombs Story: Another Example of Why No One Trusts the Media. “There is plenty of media commentary at the moment about incivility, in the form of incendiary rhetoric and actions. This is entirely appropriate. But I’m at a loss to understand how the climate is improved by spicing up reports with thinly veiled suggestions that President Trump may have triggered a series of potentially murderous attacks on political opponents. When Bernie Sanders supporter James Hodgkinson opened fire on the Republicans he targeted and nearly killed Representative Steve Scalise, I don’t recall much Times speculation about whether he could have been set him off by Democrats urging their supporters to get aggressive — ‘get in their face’; ‘if they bring a knife, we bring a gun’ — when dealing with political adversaries.”

That’s different because shut up.

I AM NOT PLEASED: Record Number Of West Nile Cases Reported In Parts Of US.

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GOOD GIRL: Quadruple Amputee Dog Wins American Humane’s 2018 ‘Hero Dog’ Award.

Chi Chi, the 4-year-old Golden Retriever from Phoenix, Ariz.,, became a quadruple amputee after she was left for dead in South Korea. Because she was found in a garbage bag with her legs bound, worn to the bone, and already necrotized, doctors could only save her life by amputating portions of all four of her legs. Subsequently, when she first arrived at owner Elizabeth Howell’s home, Chi Chi was afraid of people. But with time, she ultimately came to trust people again.

According to Chi Chi’s owner, the young dog quickly adapted to her first set of custom prosthetics and now loves spending her days as a certified therapy dog sharing her joy and cheerful demeanor with people of all ages. That’s why Chi Chi ultimately won the 2018 Therapy Dog of the Year Award.

Not a dry eye in the house, I’m sure. Not in this one, either.

PATHOLOGIZING NORMAL MALE SEXUALITY: #Iamsexist. Are you a fifteen year old boy who occasionally “checks out” one of your female classmates? You are not only objectifying her, you are engaging in “soul murder.” Are you a man of any age who has sexual fantasies about women? You should be condemned for your “pornographic imagination.” Any serious points made by the author are overwhelmed by the parts where you think he must be engaging in satire, but he isn’t.

I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS AN ALIEN, BUT IT WAS AN ALIEN: Antarctic researcher who ‘snapped’ and stabbed colleague in frenzy ‘was driven mad living in confined space.’

A PACK, NOT A HERD: PROTECTOR OF THE STREET:

When it comes to fending off post-hurricane looters, sometimes it takes a village.

In Callaway it took one man with a stockpile of weapons, a love for his neighbors and a vigilante earnestness so strong that it landed him — not the looters — on the wrong side of the law.

In this Panama City suburb of about 15,000, the tight-knit neighbors and their array of shotguns have kept looters at bay during an uptick in crimes of opportunity across Bay County. On Fox Avenue, credit goes to Carl Kuhn, the self-titled protector of the street. . . .

Before the storm, Kuhn said he made the rounds with his neighbors and asked if they were armed. Nobody was.

“I gave him a gun, I gave him a gun, I gave him a gun,” he said, pointing to the three homes across the street from his.

One of his neighbors, Steven Strassberger, said Carl gave him a .22 rifle.

Strassberger’s partner was in Pensacola so he weathered the storm in his modular home alone — along with his two parrots, Dino and Baby, Lucy the cockatiel and five dogs.

A couple of days later, he spotted flashlights bouncing off the wrecked home across the street. Looters, he thought, and called the police.

“They basically told me I was on my own because they were stretched so thin,” he said.

That happens.

WHERE HAS ALL THE TESTOSTERONE GONE?

The foundation of every hate group is to generalize against a certain demographic in a negative manner. The Democrats’ latest whipping boy is toxic masculinity (TM). Their definition of TM is white men being competitive (also called winning), acting strong (instead of sensitive and vulnerable), expressing their (offensive) love of women, and not showing enough interest in the LGBTQ community. For hyper-moralizing liberals, masculinity represents violence, oppression, gender suppression, and policing of anything not considered virile. They insist it’s better to be weak. It’s an accomplishment to do nothing.

Is this a window into the wussification of the American male? If so, I’m losing hope for the human race.

Masculinity built this world. It’s what took us from living in caves to walking on the moon. Manliness is what pushes our country forward, permits great discoveries, and solves all manner of problems, big and small. Every noteworthy pursuit by man has been the product of his macho nature: art and culture, civics and civilization, science and technology, literature and philosophy. Now it seems we are headed in a completely different direction. In the ’60s, leftist long-haired acid freaks were crying, “We don’t want war, or jobs!” The situation grew worse in the ‘80s when young men got into glam metal music and began wearing tight clothes. Present day men have morphed into beta males and soy boys who get manicures and take college classes in “The Art of Walking” (Centre College) and “How to Watch Television” (Montclair College).

In my lifetime we went from John Wayne, Steve McQueen, and Charles Bronson to Anderson Cooper, Stephen Colbert, and Don Lemon. Even the Brawny paper towel dude — that mustachioed, denim-shirted logger pictured against a backdrop of conifers — was not immune to TM. His image was tweaked to change the color of his shirt, remove his mustache, and get rid of that dreadful axe.

Despite what you’ve been told, masculinity is not toxic. It’s what women turn to when they need protection from invaders. Masculinity wins wars and builds civilization. A lack of masculinity is what causes Social Justice Warriors to spend their lives in a deep state of frustrated offense and outrage, students to become mindless sheep, and cops to cower behind patrol cars while school children are massacred. Society has indoctrinated young boys into believing that being masculine is bad.

Are you allowed to say this now?

IT’S SATIRE, BUT IS IT REALLY? On Gender, Left Steps Up Effort Against Notorious Hate Group: Reality.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: The Psychology of Progressive Hostility.

The world is more complex than we can imagine, and every new point of view we encounter can enrich our understanding even if we don’t embrace it entirely. But this comes with the risk of self-effacement and growing uncertainty. Imagine that you are standing in a small clearing in the middle of a vast forest, and that this forest represents your ignorance of the world. The clearing you stand in represents your knowledge. As one gains knowledge, the clearing expands and the forest of ignorance recedes. But as the clearing expands, so does its circumference and so the area of contact between knowledge and ignorance also grows, and our knowledge of the extent of our ignorance grows with it. So, paradoxically, the wiser we become, the less wise we feel. This is the wellspring of intellectual humility, the Socratic realization that the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know, and the more apparent it becomes that your own opinions are susceptible to fallibility.

This is a tremendous problem for progressive students entering higher education, where remarkably homogenous viewpoints are taught and heterogeneous ideas are shunned.

Read the whole thing.

Earlier: Rage when you disagree: How ‘safe spaces’ led to today’s political mobs.

IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Aspirin May Be a Good Option to Prevent Blood Clots After Knee Surgery.

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VIDEO: Former Clinton Staffer Blames Trump for Clinton, Obama Attempted Bombings.

We’re still in the we-don’t-even-know-what-we-don’t-know stage.

WAS IT OVER WHEN THE GERMANS BOMBED SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA? Mock German fighter plane crashes on California freeway.

As Iowahawk tweets, “The Nazis’ two biggest mistakes: launching an invasion of Russia, and taking the 101 north at rush hour.”

TURNAROUND? Tesla may post profit with Model 3 surge, investors look for more.

A NEW KIND OF SUPERVILLAIN: Criminal’s farts turn interrogation room into a gas chamber.

COCAINE MITCH PLAYS FOR KEEPS:

While the Supreme Court hears only about 80 cases a year, the federal appeals courts have final say on about 60,000 cases. And in just two years, McConnell’s Republican majority has confirmed 29 circuit court judges, as well as 53 federal district court judges — a modern record.

Today, nearly 1 in 6 circuit court judges have been confirmed by McConnell’s Senate majority. As former Hillary Clinton adviser Ronald Klain complained, “Trump’s judicial nominees will be deciding the scope of our civil liberties and the shape of civil rights laws in the year 2050 — and beyond.”

Transforming the judiciary is not McConnell’s only major conservative accomplishment, but he says it will be the most lasting. “I love the tax bill, but the ’86 tax bill lasted four years before the political wind shifted,” he says. “But there’s not much you can do about a young man or woman who’s a strict constructionist who goes on the court at 48 and stays there for 25 years. So, I think it’s the most important thing we’re doing, and I hope we’re going to have the opportunity to do it for two more years.”

Read the whole thing.

WELL, GOOD: Tim Cook calls for strong US privacy law, rips ‘data-industrial complex.’

Speaking at the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC) in Brussels, Cook said that businesses are creating “an enduring digital profile” of each user and that the trade of such data “has exploded into a data-industrial complex.”

“This is surveillance,” Cook said. “And these stockpiles of personal data serve only to enrich the companies that collect them. This should make us very uncomfortable.”

“We at Apple are in full support of a comprehensive federal privacy law in the United States. There, and everywhere, it should be rooted in four essential rights: First, the right to have personal data minimized. Companies should challenge themselves to de-identify customer data—or not to collect it in the first place.

“Second, the right to knowledge. Users should always know what data is being collected and what it is being collected for. This is the only way to empower users to decide what collection is legitimate and what isn’t. Anything less is a sham.

“Third, the right to access. Companies should recognize that data belongs to users, and we should all make it easy for users to get a copy of, correct, and delete their personal data. And fourth, the right to security. Security is foundational to trust and all other privacy rights.”

I’m not usually a fan of Cook’s politics, but he has made privacy one of Apple’s standout features/services over the last few years.

WELL, GOOD: Drug Overdose Deaths Have Fallen Over the Last Year, Data Shows.

FASTER, PLEASE: US Christens 2 Virginia-Class Nuclear-Powered Attack Submarines.

The future USS Delaware is the 18th Virginia-class SSN and the ninth to be delivered by Newport News. Construction of the new sub began in September 2013 and is 93 percent complete. It is expected to be delivered to the U.S. Navy in 2019.

The weekend also saw the christening of a second Virginia-class SSN, the future USS Vermont (SSN-792), during a ceremony held at General Dynamics Electric Boat Shipyard in Groton, Connecticut, on October 20. The boat’s sponsor is Gloria Valdez, the former deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy for naval shipbuilding. Construction of the Vermont began in May 2014. The new SSN is also slated for delivery in 2019.

The Navy is currently considering cancelling the final Block 7 tranche of Virginia boats and replacing them with a new class of much larger, Seawolf-type fast-attack subs.

BRUCE BAWER: Violence Against Gays on the Rise in Europe. “In most media reports of such incidents, indeed, the Islamic factor can only be discerned through exceeding careful reading.”

Mustn’t confuse the deplorables with facts.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: It Just Got Easier to Make Hordes of Blood Cell-Sized Robots All at Once.

IMPORTANT NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Your Poop Is Probably Full of Plastic.

21ST CENTURY PROBLEMS: China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran Set For Electronic Pulse Attacks on U.S.: Declassified report warns of dangers from electromagnetic pulse.

Shades of One Second After.