Archive for 2019

TROUBLE IN PARADISE: Hunter Biden splits from brother Beau’s widow Hallie. “Hunter Biden has allegedly split from Hallie Biden — the widow of his late brother, Beau — Page Six has exclusively learned. The breakup comes two years after we first reported that the former in-laws were dating in 2017.”

STAND UP AGAINST THE BULLYING: Academics’ Mobbing of a Young Scholar Must be Denounced.

The bullies have signed an open letter. Perhaps their own home institutions, and donors thereto, should hear that this behavior is inappropriate.

UPDATE: From the comments: “‘the bullies have signed an open letter’ — Congratulations on identifying yourselves.”

Heh. Indeed.

Plus: “So… people opposed to research, scholarship, and reason have put their names to a list. Welcome, Thermidor!”

Heh, indeed again.

OPEN THREAD: Make this one a doozy.

WHAT? LIBERAL THINK TANKER RIPS WARREN’S COLLEGE LOAN SCHEME: Something is going on when a top think tanker representing two anchors of the Washington liberal establishment takes apart a progressive favorite’s plan for no-fault college loans.

SO I UPGRADED OUR ELDERLY OUTDOOR KITCHEN, replacing the ’80s-vintage Sterling grill with this model from Napoleon. I’ve grilled everything from steak to shrimp on it with good results; it’s easy to light, the heat is even and even the Insta-Wife, who pays little attention to such things, is very happy. Not cheap, but since we do at least half of our cooking on it year-round, not bad.

HOW CARBOHYDRATES AND NOT PROTEIN promote aging.

MORE BAD LUCK:

● Shot: Is This a Joke? CNN Lets Oliver Stone Defend ‘Magnanimous, Warm’ Hugo Chavez.

NewsBusters, January 4, 2013.

● Chaser: Juan Guaidó Launches Military Uprising in Venezuela Against Socialist Maduro.

PJ Media, today.

● Hangover: CNN Taken Off the Air in Venezuela.

Mediaite, today.

As Iowahawk tweets, “They warned me that an illegitimate puppet regime colluding with Russia would mow down the resistance and take CNN off the air, and they were right.”

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Joe Biden’s Bad Judgements:

Unsurprisingly, there’s much more.

UPDATE: In 2015, “Biden told CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell that he would never run for political office again during an interview on CBS’ ’60 Minutes.'”

SOMETHING FOR THE ARMCHAIR WARRIORS: “The Army of the Living’s Battle Plan Wasn’t So Bad“: Robert Farley, a visiting professor at the United States Army War College reviews the Battle of Winterfell, and says in Slate that the defenders “needed to induce a fight in order to avoid the threat of a prolonged siege.”

He also notes that although many are criticizing the choice to sacrifice the Dothraki cavalry, it made military sense because among other things:

“Team Alive knew enough about Team Dead to guess that the Dothraki faced a kind of infantry that they had never encountered before; one without fear and thus invulnerable to shock and flanking. Moreover, in the dark, the Dothraki probably could not even identify the enemy flank.”

To be honest, in the dark, I could barely recognize anyone.

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED BY VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Why Go West?

What enervates and often destroys Western societies, then, are not barbarians on the horizon, plagues, or invasions, but complacency and unreal demands put on society to reach utopian perfection. Such efforts are contrary to human nature and often result in disastrous social and political polices, leading to impoverishment and collapse. The Hellenic polis, Rome, and Byzantium eventually eroded because each in its complacency forgot the very values that had created its successful cultures in the first place.

In other words, if the professed progressive utopian agendas of many current critics of the West had been realized in the past, then AOC’s or Tlaib’s parents would probably never have wished to head westward in the first place. Give Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez her wish to recalibrate America, and no Puerto Rican would ever wish to immigrate to the American mainland again. And if America emulated the social, political, and economic norms south of the border, illegal immigration would end quickly.

After all, why flee from what you find intolerable to what you soon find intolerable?

Read the whole thing.

Related: Radical Chic, the Geritol Years: No big deal, just Ilhan Omar palling around with Angela Davis.

As As David Harsanyi wrote in January, when Davis was being fêted by the Women’s March, “You can tell a lot about people by looking at their heroes.”