CHANGE: Mattis to be replaced by deputy, will leave January 1.
UPDATE: Tennessee’s Sen. Frank Niceley is unperturbed:
ANOTHER UPDATE: From the comments: “Reminder: 151 House Dems voted against the waiver that was required to make Mattis the SECDEF in the first place. Now Dems pretend the military can’t run without him.”
THEY’RE VERY DESTRUCTIVE TO CONNECTIVE TISSUE: FDA warns of fluoroquinolone antibiotics tied to deadly heart vessel tears. “Fluoroquinolones have been a mainstay of antibiotic therapy, particularly for upper respiratory conditions, and have been around for more than three decades. They include Cipro (ciprofloxacin), Levaquin (levofloxacin), Factive, (gemifloxacin), and Avelox ( moxifloxacin).”
I’ve taken Cipro with no issues, but I took Levaquin for a stubborn sinus infection a few years ago and had muscle soreness for a couple of months; it made it hard to work out seriously. I wouldn’t take it again for anything less than life-threatening.
YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Here Are The Most Egregious Fake News Stories Of 2018.
WHY APOLLO 8 MATTERED.
FASTER, PLEASE: Betsy DeVos Eliminates Obama’s Bizarre School Discipline Policy.
GEAR CHANGE: Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May quit studio car shows after 17 years. “Instead, the trio are hitting the road as they focus on big-budget specials to be shown over the next two years. Jeremy Clarkson has pulled the plug on studio car shows — and said: ‘There are only so many times you can watch a BMW go round the track.’”
Season three of the Grand Tour, apparently the last to use a studio audience, debuts on Amazon Prime on January 18th.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Princeton student groups: Menstruation isn’t just a women’s issue. “Two Princeton groups recently held an event celebrating menstruation where students were told that menstrual periods are not limited solely to women, and that people other than women can menstruate.”
A CLIMATE OF FEAR AT TEXAS: Free speech advocate: UT students ‘self censor’ because they are ‘terrified.’
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AMBASSADOR RICHARD GRENELL IS CALLING OUT DER SPIEGEL FOR ITS ANTI-AMERICAN BIAS, FAKE NEWS. Der Spiegel, anti-American? I just can’t see it myself:
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): A German media critic weighs in: “Mr. Relotius is perhaps just the most overt of Spiegel liars, caught and sacked for being too brazen in his journalistic malpractice. But make no mistake: The lies of omission, spin and bias that have tainted Der Spiegel and Spiegel Online for decades continue unabated on an industrial scale. Some things never change…”
And, in case you missed it yesterday, another link to James Lileks’ epic post-9/11 takedown of a Guardian reporter’s Olive Garden spelunking. Remember, they’ve already written the story before their plane lands.
ANOTHER UPDATE (FROM GLENN): From the comments: “I went back and read the Olive Garden screed, for the n’th time. I believe that it is the greatest example of American humorous invective since Mark Twain’s Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences.”
I agree.
OUR POLITICAL CLASS HAS GONE SO INSANE THAT HARVARD LAW PROFESSORS ARE POINTING IT OUT:
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:
● Shot: Noam Chomsky: ‘US foreign policy is straight out of the mafia.’
“The first Bush administration was way off the spectrum, America’s prestige sank to a historic low and the people who run the country didn’t like that.” But he is surprised so many people abroad, especially in the third world, are disappointed at how little Obama has changed. “His campaign rhetoric, hope and change, was entirely vacuous. There was no principled criticism of the Iraq war: he called it a strategic blunder. And Condoleezza Rice was black – does that mean she was sympathetic to third world problems?”
The veteran activist has described the US invasion of Afghanistan as “one of the most immoral acts in modern history”, which united the jihadist movement around al-Qaida, sharply increased the level of terrorism and was “perfectly irrational – unless the security of the population is not the main priority”. Which, of course, Chomsky believes, it is not. “States are not moral agents,” he says, and believes that now that Obama is escalating the war, it has become even clearer that the occupation is about the credibility of Nato and US global power.
—The Guardian, November 6th, 2009.
● Chaser: Noam Chomsky says US should stay in Syria to protect the Kurds.
—Headline, Kurdistan 24, October 3rd, 2018.
THIS IS EXACTLY RIGHT: Roger Kimball: The Wall Is Trump’s “Read My Lips” Moment.
IT’S LIKE THERE’S NOBODY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WHO ACTUALLY WANTS TO SEE PEOPLE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR POLITICAL MANEUVERING: John Huber, Justice Dept. Sheriff Who Never Quite Rode Into Town.
John Huber has developed almost mythical status among pro-Trump tweeters since former Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed him to investigate why the FBI spied on Trump’s aides and whether they protected Hillary Clinton and her foundation over alleged misdeeds. They hoped the Salt Lake City-based prosecutor would aggressively expose the malfeasance that has already led to firings and resignations among the bureau’s top brass.
Instead, more than a year since his appointment, Huber’s lack of traction on either front is leading many once hopeful supporters to dismiss his investigation as a “sham.”
RealClearInvestigations has learned from potential witnesses, their lawyers and others close to the investigations, that Huber has not impaneled a federal grand jury to subpoena witnesses or hear evidence.
They are puzzled as to why he has failed to interview key witnesses – such as disgraced FBI officials and Trump advisers targeted by them, as well as Clinton Foundation whistleblowers — who could shed light on whether FBI and Justice Department officials misused their power when they obtained spy warrants to monitor Trump adviser Carter Page; or whether such officials turned a blind eye to millions of dollars in foreign Clinton Foundation donations influencing Clinton’s official decisions as secretary of state. Even when whistleblowers have reached out to Huber, offering reams of evidence, his office has not followed up, they say.
I didn’t used to see the Department of Justice as a politicized cesspit, but I kinda do now.
AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Indonesia tsunami kills hundreds after Krakatau eruption. “More than 220 people have been killed and 843 injured after a tsunami hit coastal towns on Indonesia’s Sunda Strait, government officials say. The tsunami waves struck at night without any warning, destroying hundreds of buildings. Officials say the tsunami could have been caused by undersea landslides after Anak Krakatau volcano erupted.”
B IS FOR BERIA (AND BERING STRAIT): On this day in 1953, LAVRENTIY BERIA met his end. Stalin himself had died nine months earlier, and his chief henchmen were turning against each other. Beria, Stalin’s chief of the secret police (NKVD), was arrested on charges of treason and tried in secret. And then shot.
It’s not easy to work up sympathy for such a bloodthirsty killer. But the rest of the story is truly bizarre. Less than a month later, the Soviet Encyclopedia sent a notice to subscribers enclosing new pages. In translation, it said the following:
The State Scientific Publishing House of the large Soviet Encyclopedia recommends that pages 21, 22, 23, and 24 be removed from Volume 5 as well as the portrait [of Beria] between pages 22 and 23 to replace which the pages of the new text are enclosed.
The aforementioned pages should be cut out with scissors or blade, leaving inside a margin on which the new pages can be pasted.
The substitute pages were an article on the otherwise obscure Friedrich Wilhelm von Bergholtz and pictures of the Bering Strait.
Subscribers dutifully cut Beria out of the encyclopedia. Failing to do so would be dangerous.
I’ve observed over the years that researchers tend to explain any gender difference in a way that makes whatever is true of women good. This is an interesting example of that. You can see that they’re presenting the independence and courage of men as “risk taking,” “deviance,” and insensitivity to “morality.” I’m intrigued by the presentation of women as pushed by the Democratic elite. Is being a follower regarded as a positive quality (when you follow the Democratic elite)?
Yes, yes it is.
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