AYAAN HIRSI ALI: The “No Platform” Brigade.

I am among those who have been “de-platformed” for speaking critically about the political and ideological aspects of Islam that are not compatible with American values and human rights. The usual justification for disinviting us is that speaking critically of Islam is “hate speech” that is “hurtful” to Muslims.

However, this use of the words “hate” and “hurt” to silence debate is contrary to the Western tradition of critical thinking. It is not hyperbolic to say that this is the pathway to censorship and the closing of the Western mind.

No, it’s not. And those outcomes aren’t unintended consequences, but an avowed goal.

THIS IS PART OF WHY YOU NEVER SEE A RAT WITH A CELL PHONE:  Cell phones cause tumors in rats, study finds.

WHO WOULD IMAGINE THAT IMPOSING POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WOULD GENERATE BLOWBACK:   More colleges are being targeted by white supremacist groups.

WE DON’T NEED COLLEGES.  WE NEED MADHOUSES:  SJW Snowflake Wants UCF College Student Expelled For Refusing Hijab.

WE’RE ALL LITTLE PEOPLE TO SAN FRAN NAN:  Nancy Pelosi Repeats the ‘Crumbs’ Comment, Here’s Why.

THE BEARS ARE TOO LARGE TO PLAY WITH:  Why Groundhog?

THAT COMEY SURE IS AN HONORABLE MAN:  And the incredibly fair and unbiased James Comey…

YOU’VE GOT THE RIGHT TO ROCK AND ROLL:  The right to…

BY PASSING THE BILL SO WE COULD FIND WHAT WAS IN IT:  Health Care: How in the World Did We Get Here?

SCIENCE IS UNSETTLED AGAIN:  Discovery below jungle canopy rewrites Mayan history.

OPEN THREAD: Make it a good one!

CALLING MR. ROCHE! MR. ROCHE TO THE WHITE COURTESY PHONE: What If The Moon Was As Close To Earth As The ISS? I don’t think this video captures the tidal effects. . . .

CHRIS BUSKIRK: Worse Than Watergate.

A FLU WARNING SIGN that most people are unaware of. I was certainly unaware of it. . .

AT AMAZON, deals on Vitamins and Dietary Supplements.

Plus, save on Kitchen and Housewares.

JAMES LILEKS: ABOUT THAT RAID ON THE NEWSWEEK SERVERS . . . “Newsweek is graveyard-dead as a brand, which you probably knew — but the subterranean botnet machinations of this peculiar economy are fascinating.”

SPENGLER: Trump Triumphs with Release of House Intel Memo.

No foreign intelligence service could learn anything from the House Republicans’ memo except that the FBI retailed the mercenary inventions of a retired British spook and concealed the provenance of its information. Some may consider it dangerous to expose senior officials of America’s counterintelligence service as political hacks and fools. They needn’t worry. America’s adversaries have been well aware of this for a long time.

Read the whole thing.

DAVID HARSANYI: A Letter To My 15-Year-Old Self. “You might find the solace of continuity in the fact that twelve politicians who are serving in Congress while you’re in high school will still be serving in Congress when your own kids are attending high school. Don’t. During the recent immigration debate, some of these elected officials were compelled to use a ‘talking stick’ — you know, the baton you pass around in kindergarten that gives you the right to speak but no one else — to communicate civilly with one another. Your government has the collective maturity of a 15-year-old boy. You should take no offense at this comparison. As I write this letter the government is trying to figure out how to stop today’s 15-year-olds from eating laundry-detergent pods and killing themselves. So, good work, Gen X. What we’re experiencing today is idiocy contagion, and few are immune.”

FASTER, PLEASE: Cancer ‘vaccine’ kills multiple types of cancer in experiment with mice.

HOUSE INTEL MEMBER CHALLENGES WOLF BLITZER: ‘Why aren’t we talking about what’s in these memos? Why aren’t we talking about whether the FBI abused their power?’

SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: If You Drink This Kind Of Red Wine, You’re More Attractive (Says Science).

TOM BROKAW ON DONALD TRUMP’S SECRET.

REPORT: Russia Had Help with Election Tampering — from Facebook and Google.

PASS THE DUTCHIE — AND THE NEWSPEAK DICTIONARY — ON THE LEFT-HAND SIDE: Marijuana: is it time to stop using a word with racist roots?

ANDREW FERGUSON ON HBO’S THE FINAL YEAR, aka, the Final Hagiography of the Obama Team:

For a viewer susceptible to schadenfreude—I name no names—that comes on election night, when the “legacy” of Obama and his visionaries effectively dissolves before their very eyes. A camera follows Rhodes outside, where he slumps, devastated, on a bench. He’s asked how he feels. “It’s a lot to process,” he says. For more than 30 seconds he gropes to express himself. “I can’t .  .  . I .  .  . I ca  .  .  . I mean, I ca .  .  . ”

The silence is like a fresh breeze.

Getting Ben Rhodes to shut up? Now that’s the ultimate milking of the soft power dividend of that magical moment. Read the whole thing.