NEWS YOU CAN USE: Everything You Need To Know About Fascia.
Archive for 2019
May 13, 2019
I WAS EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: The Russian army is getting “silent” mortars.
FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS: States seek explicit patient consent for pelvic exams.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE. MOVE ALONG. Anti-Israel Hamas-Linked CAIR Pressures Charities to Blacklist Conservative Nonprofits.
A LOOK AT THE 2020 GR Toyota Supra.
WEIRD: There’s a Bizarre Link Between Losing Your Appendix And Parkinson’s, Huge Study Shows. I’m going to speculate that it has something to do with the appendix’s role with the microbiome.
In an Opinium poll in the Observer, focused on this month’s European elections, Nigel Farage’s new party is predicted to hoover up 34 per cent of the vote. The same poll gave Labour 21 per cent and put the Tories in a miserable fourth place with 11 per cent
But an even more extraordinary poll, commissioned by a Brexit Party donor and published in the Sunday Telegraph, said for the first time the Brexit Party would beat the Tories in a General Election.
The ComRes survey of voting intentions put Brexit on 21 per cent to the Conservatives’ 20, which would see Farage’s team win 49 seats, becoming the UK’s second biggest party after Labour, with 137.
Don’t get cocky, of course, and this election is only for the European Parliament, not the actual British Parliament. Even so, Tories ought to weight this advice heavily: “If the Conservative leadership contenders are not careful, there will be no party for them to lead.”
UM: Buttigieg calls out Democrats for playing ‘identity politics.’ People are saying it’s a Sister Souljah moment but it’s as if Bill Clinton called out Sister Souljah after dropping his own album of “F*ck the Police” rap tunes.
Somehow related: Pete Buttigieg ‘had to Google’ Alfred E. Neuman after Trump diss; Mad magazine responds.
GODSPEED: Virgin Galactic is moving its spaceship and crew to Spaceport America. “That apparently means the company is nearly ready to take passengers to the edge of space.”
KAMALA HARRIS IS FAKE: How Many Things Can You Find Wrong with This Photo?
Related: Kamala Harris Lies About Truancy Laws, Defends Criminalizing Parents Whose Kids Miss School: Reason Roundup. “Maybe journalists are just confused. Maybe some are partisan hacks trying to rehabilitate Kamala Harris’ image for her. Either way, there’s been a rash of recent pieces suggesting that the Democratic senator from California and 2020 presidential candidate has revised her tough-on-crime tactics and stances. And almost every time they talk specifics, it turns out to be wrong.”
A SUCCESSFUL RULING CLASS REQUIRES A MEASURE OF SELF-DISCIPLINE:
SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Nutrition, exercise prompt weight loss.
NARRATIVE MAINTENANCE IS HARD WORK: Seth Barrett Tillman: Orwell’s Newspeak and The Observer.
Orban was elected by the voters of Hungary. So it is difficult to see why meeting with him should be construed as an offense against democracy. One might as well posit the opposite: that failing to meet with an elected leader is a sign of contempt for normal democratic institutions. Of course, Tisdall, the editorialist, does not speak to anything like common or ordinary democracy; rather, he speaks in terms of something else—something more enlightened, more complex, and more nuanced: European democracy. The EU is a parliamentary “democracy” that lives and breathes absent anything like meaningful responsible government. What Tisdall means is that Orban—although popular with actual voters in his own country—among people who have an incentive to know precisely what Orban is up to—remains an object of suspicion among the bureaucrats in Brussels and among members of the European Parliament from countries other than Hungary. What Tisdall does not understand is that it is he who is illustrating a contempt for ordinary democracy and ordinary voters.
Oh, I think he understands.
Flashback: Donald Trump is a symptom of a new kind of class warfare raging at home and abroad.
ROGER SIMON: Democrats Need Rehab from Trump Investigation Addiction.
If you’re unclear what Democrats stand for in the 2020 election — other than wildly outdated socialism and some creepy anti-Semitism – this could be, indeed undoubtedly is, the reason. All they do is investigate.
In the interest of a two-party system, an intervention is definitely needed — followed by rehab.
Indeed. Read the whole thing.™
IN THE MAIL: Medicare For Dummies.
NARRATIVE UBER ALLES: Why the Media Suddenly Lost Interest in the Latest School Shooting.
After the shooting, other than some virtue signaling by the media, the story has left the front pages, as the narrative may be inconvenient for the leftist agenda. CNN and MSNBC have lived up to their reputation as “drive-by media” by quickly moving on. No interviews with David Hogg or other gun control fanatics. So, what are some of the inconvenient aspects to this story that the media would prefer to drive by without any discussion or analysis?
Let’s start with the weapons. The two shooters, “opened fire with handguns that were concealed in a guitar case”, as reported by the Daily Mail in an unexpected good faith effort at honest journalism. Handguns? What happened to those evil AR-15’s or “assault weapons” that Democrats and the media constantly warn about? These are what the Huffington Post calls “weapons of war.”
The reality is that most gun crimes are committed with handguns not rifles. But this doesn’t fit the media narrative and it’s better to drive-by the story rather than explain this inconvenient truth.
Next are the bystanders. Remember the admonition, “When seconds count, help is minutes away”? This played out in the Colorado shooting. You can “hide under your desk,” as one option suggested by the New York Times.
In Colorado, a student who was also an aspiring Marine, took a different approach. He “jumped into action,” throwing himself on the shooter, and sadly died for his sacrifice.
He was joined by another brave student who “rushed to help his two classmates subdue the shooter.” The point is that these heroic students immediately went on offense, rather than passively hiding, perhaps unnerving the shooter and preventing this from becoming a mass casualty event.
Then there was the school vigil in Colorado, a time for holding candles and chanting about “common sense gun control measures.” Attending were local Democrat politicians, including Senator Michael Bennet, one of dozens running for president. Rather than a receptive audience, the vigil organizer, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, instead saw, “A walkout by students opposing what they viewed as politicization of the tragedy.”
This was not the narrative that the media wanted to report on. They would prefer David Hogg ranting and raving, blaming Trump, the NRA, and toxic white masculinity for the shooting. How inconvenient that the affected students chanted “mental health” and didn’t join in the predictable politicization of a tragedy by the left.
One of the two shooters didn’t fit this mold. He was anti-Christian, critical of President Trump, a registered Democrat, and supportive of left-wing Occupy Democrats. In other words, his views were perfectly aligned with the Democrat Party base, a perspective big media would prefer to avoid discussing.
Well.
IF YOU DON’T FOCUS ON TRADITIONAL HIGHER ED, TOO, THEN IT’S BOGUS: California Mulls Crackdown On Online Higher Ed. “The goal of the legislative package, bill sponsors say, is to make colleges put student success before profit — and to ensure that fewer students are saddled with debt and low-paying jobs.”
Reading the fine print on this one, it seems like it’s mostly about protecting California schools from out-of-state competition.