FROM MY COLLEAGUE MICHAEL HIGDON: Parens Patriae and the Disinherited Child.
Archive for 2019
July 2, 2019
I’VE MENTIONED THE INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE’S JOHN KRAMER BEFORE, but now his novel Blythe has been released on Audible. He’s a reader, so I guess this counts as a reader book plug.
DENNIS PRAGER: D Is for Damaged, Dangerous and Delusional.
FASTER, PLEASE: Reversing The Damage From A Massive Stroke.
AT AMAZON, save on Bestselling Jewelry.
ANDY NGO: I’m having cognitive issues due to the severity of that attack by Antifa. “Someone’s obviously going to be killed at one of these rallies, possibly Ngo if he shows up again. And the blood will be on the hands of the [Portland] mayor and the cops who’ve now received ample notice that they have a major gang problem on their hands and seem unwilling thus far to do anything about it.”
I’M ALSO UNSURPRISED ABOUT THIS: Grandparents not keeping medications secure around grandkids.
COLOR ME UNSURPRISED: Study: Catheters cause 25 percent of hospital infections.
BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: Ocasio-Cortez Admits Illegal Aliens Are Given Shampoo in Migrant Shelters.
FIRST COMES SEX, THEN COMES LOVE: Should We All Take the Slow Road to Love? The anthropologist Helen Fisher has some advice for dating and marriage — and, for a change, some good news about millennials.
AT AMAZON, Overstock Deals in Home & Furniture.
ANTISOCIAL MEDIA: Anti-Extremism Expert Loses Jobs, Twitter Account After Antifa Smears.
21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Scientists Want Your Input on Our Alien Response Plan.
IF GLAAD SAYS IT’S SO, IT MUST BE: Maybe calling everybody who doesn’t instantly agree bigots and homophobes wasn’t such a great strategy?
And Newsbusters’ Dan Gainor replies, “This is like reading a crap police reporter talking about the clothes a rape victim wore.”
LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: Cooking (and Shrinking) the Modern Combat Ration.
ROBERT GOLDBERG: Vaper Madness.
E-cigarettes, while not a cure for nicotine dependence, can help reduce the death and disease caused by combustible tobacco. Public Health England (PHE), the United States equivalent of the CDC, concluded best estimates show e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful to your health than normal cigarettes, and when supported by a smoking cessation service, help most smokers to quit tobacco altogether. The most recent studies show that e-cigarettes are more effective in reducing smoking than any other device or approach., and yet almost two thirds of Americans believe vaping is deadlier than cigarette smoking. This is no accident. Just as the anti-vaccine zealots have turned vaccine hesitancy into one of the World Health Organization’s top global health challenges, anti-vaping groups such as the Truth Initiative and Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids have spread warnings about the hidden dangers of e-cigarettes to reduce consumption and spread uncertainty.
The two movements are alike in many other ways. Anti-vaxxers want to reduce use of vaccines because they claim it benefits the public health and yet have no problem holding measles or chicken pox parties to provide their kids “natural immunity.” Anti-vapers want to ban e-cigarettes while leaving cigarettes and other tobacco products on the market.
The fact San Francisco’s Herrera wants to prohibit both retail and on-line sales of e-cigarettes while doing nothing about tobacco is an artifact of the anti-vaping movement’s application of the precautionary principle: the belief that no new technology should be used and, in fact, should be considered deadly unless every possible safety risk, no matter how unfounded, is addressed.
Neo-Puritans with a body count.
POLICE POST PHOTOS OF ANDY NGO’S ATTACKERS, SPECIAL ANTIFA ‘MILKSHAKE RECIPE:’
Authorities also posted an image of an alleged Antifa “milkshake recipe.” The recipe calls for soy milk, Quickrete cement mix, and “other chemical additives to cause long term injury and burns.”
“We hope the biggie officers and proud boys enjoyed the shake back!” the “recipe” said.
Ngo was so-called “milkshaked,” kicked, punched, and robbed during the attack.
“Prior to the event, information was circulating that some participants planned to throw milkshakes on others. As the event progressed, officers learned from some participants that a substance similar to quick drying concrete was being added to some of the ‘milkshakes,’” the press release said.
“A Lieutenant in the field observed some of the material and noted the texture and smell was consistent with concrete,” the post continued. “The Portland Police Bureau sent a tweet out to bring attention to this potential hazard and to encourage victims to contact us. The act of throwing any substance on another person without that person’s consent constitutes the crime of harassment (ORS 166.065).”
The image of the “milkshake recipe” was then anonymous sent via email to the bureau.
Meanwhile, as Twitchy notes, “CNN does their best to discredit Andy Ngo during interview about his attack (watch),” Tweeting that Ngo “says he was assaulted by Antifa during demonstrations in Portland,” and as Tom Elliott tweets, despite Ngo describing “his politics as left-of-center…because he reports critically on Antifa, CNN apparently has to label him ‘conservative’ multiple times (also note they treat with suspicion the idea Antifa was behind the attack despite ample video evidence).”
Perhaps because CNN and Antifa (which, in 2017, Chris Cuomo compared to the American troops at D-Day) are in a similar leftwing enforcement business these days.
Finally, as Glenn noted yesterday: “Lawyer For Journalist Beaten During Portland Riot Posts Brutal Message To Antifa:”
Around 12:30 a.m. on Monday morning, Harmeet K. Dhillon, a lawyer representing journalist Andy Ngo, warned far-left criminal Antifa members that she plans on suing them “into oblivion.”
“Goodnight everyone except Antifa criminals who I plan to sue into oblivion and then sow salt into their yoga studios and avocado toast stands until nothing grows there, not even the glimmer of a violent criminal conspiracy aided by the effete impotence of a cowed city government,” Dhillon wrote.
Make the rubble bounce.
UPDATE: Jim Treacher juxtaposes how CNN treated Jussie Smollett (a personal friend of CNN anchor Don Lemon) and Ngo when their stories first broke:
Reuters reports:
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi issued a decree on Monday heavily curbing the powers of mostly Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias and forcing them to integrate more closely into the formal armed forces.
The militias, which helped Iraqi and U.S.-led international coalition forces to drive out occupying Islamic State militants under an umbrella grouping known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), have broad influence in Iraqi politics.
An electoral alliance made up of militia leaders and fighters came second in a 2018 parliamentary election.
It appears the Iraqi national government finally feels strong enough to confront Iran’s proxies.
StrategyPage.com’s latest Iraq update (published June 26) has useful background on the Iraqi government and Iranian-backed militias.
Sample:
Iran and ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) are, in effect, working together to keep Iraq chaotic and mired in violence and corruption. While Iran and ISIL seem like separate problems, they are, in practice, intertwined.
Read the update’s first section, from the June 26 dateline to the June 25 entry.
I wonder how much of that can be attributed to the country’s influx of Muslim non-drinkers.
WASP VISITS SYDNEY: The amphibious assault ship USS Wasp arrives in Sydney for a port visit. Photo taken June 18.
A double feature: A U.S. Army soldier fires a Javelin antitank missile during a field exercise near Varpalota, Hungary. A rather dramatic photo.