Archive for 2019
November 5, 2019
HEY, KIDS, WHAT TIME IS IT? It’s time to protect US and the world against global pandemics.
THE 21ST CENTURY IS NOT TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED: Woman Gets Parasitic Worms in Her Eyes After a Trail Run. At least she didn’t get an eyeball tattoo.
STUDIES, WHAT WOULD WE DO WITHOUT THEM? New study reveals what most of us probably already know: People will say just about anything to get laid.
A TRILLION HERE, A TRILLION THERE, PRETTY SOON YOU’RE BANKRUPT: Issues & Insights provides an authoritative dissection of the monstrosity that is Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Medicare for All plan.
UNEXPECTEDLY: Eyeball tattoos allegedly left ‘Blue Eyes White Dragon’ woman blind for 3 weeks. Plus: “Rarely do such extreme body modifications take place in a board-certified plastic surgeon’s office.”
WELL… 8 In 10 Millennials Believe They Aren’t ‘Good Enough.’ “A new survey consisting of 2,000 millennials (ages 22-38) has revealed some troubling statistics regarding how young adults see themselves in comparison to both their peers and older generations. An astounding eight in 10 flat out believe they are not ‘good enough’ in virtually all areas of their lives. Furthermore, three quarters of the survey’s respondents admit that they constantly feel ‘overwhelmed’ by pressure to succeed in their careers, find a meaningful romantic relationship, and meet others’ expectations.”
We used to just call all that “getting a life,” and it was an awful lot of fun.
JAMES LILEKS ON ADVERTISING IN 1971: “It’s 1971. Sweet Jeebus, what a miserable year. Everything about that. Everything.”
As was all of the 1970s (especially the pre-Star Wars, pre-Atari 2600, pre-New Wave ’70s), making the endless nostalgia over the Decade from Hell all the more inexplicable.
FROM THE PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT YOU BOATY MCBOATFACE: Elizabeth Warren’s ‘Meme Team’ Flops Spectacularly on Launch Day.
WELL, THAT DIDN’T TAKE LONG TO CLEAR UP. Or, everything old is new again:
● Shot: ‘Mostly False’? PolitiFact Tags Nikki Haley Tying Global Abortion to Green New Deal.
—NewsBusters, yesterday.
—Bloomberg, today.
—Zombietime, July 16, 2009.
FASTER, PLEASE: USAF Leaders Considering Arsenal Plane Options.
An arsenal plane would be a multi-engine platform that accompanies remotely piloted aircraft and fighter jets in combat and totes “network-enabled, semi-autonomous weapons,” according to a 2016 Air Force video. The concept has been around for years under the Defense Department’s Strategic Capabilities Office.
The idea “takes one of our oldest aircraft platform[s] and turns it into a flying launchpad for all sorts of different conventional payloads,” then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in 2016. “In practice, the arsenal plane will function as a very large airborne magazine, [and] network to fifth-generation aircraft that act as forward sensor and targeting nodes.”
Senior leaders are still discussing the prospect of fielding such a plane, service spokeswoman Capt. Cara Bousie said Nov. 3.
At AFA’s 2019 Air, Space & Cyber Conference in September, Air Force Global Strike Command boss Gen. Timothy Ray told reporters the service was planning more experiments to flesh out the idea. More reports were due to senior leaders as well.
While people have speculated that the B-52 bomber would make an ideal arsenal plane, Ray indicated mobility platforms could be in the mix.
It’s a great idea, it can be done on the cheap, and so of course the brass have dragged their feet on it.
WILD: iPhone and HomePod vulnerable to line of sight attacks using lasers.
The researchers have done limited testing with iPhones, tablets, smart speakers, and smart displays but they believe that “all devices that use MEMS microphones susceptible to Light Commands attacks.”
Light Commands do have some limitations, like a malicious party needing to have a direct line of sight to a device and be able to very accurately position a laser on a device’s microphone.
However, the researchers have carried out attacks in moderately realistic conditions and the lack of authentication for voice assistants that can control smart home devices like door locks, garage doors, and more is certainly concerning.
More interesting, some of the tests were even done with just an $18 laser pointer, laser driver, and an audio amplifier for less than a $400 total.
I’ve had a lot of fun putting in smart lights and window shades, and automating various scenes throughout the day. But anything mission critical like locks, garage doors, and appliances remain strictly “dumb.”
DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE AND HAM SANDWICH NATION: Lori Loughlin has ‘hit rock bottom’ and is ‘terrified’ she may be about to spend a maximum of 45 years behind bars behind bars after being slapped with a new bribery charge in the college admissions scandal.
In a press release, the U.S. Department of Justice said that Loughlin, 55, Giannulli, 56, and nine other defendants ‘conspired to commit federal program bribery by bribing employees of the University of Southern California (USC) to facilitate their children’s admission’.
In exchange for the alleged bribes, USC coaches and athletics officials supposedly enrolled the children as recruited athletes, regardless of their athletic abilities.
Loughlin, her husband, and the nine other defendants, have now each been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery.
Previously, Loughlin and Giannulli were facing charges of money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and honest services mail and wire fraud.
They pleaded not guilty the charges in April and now face a maximum of 45 years behind bars if convicted.
As Bill McGurn writes in response at the Wall Street Journal, “This is nuts:”
While Ms. Huffman pleaded guilty, apologized profusely and served out her sentence (14 days, but released after 12 because it was a weekend) at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, Calif., Ms. Loughlin and Mr. Giannulli are insisting, perhaps unwisely, on taking their case to a jury. Meanwhile, in the same way the sans-culottes jeered Marie Antoinette on her way to the guillotine, today’s equivalent— Twitter mobs and gossip sheets—are thirsting to see this icon of Tinseltown wealth and privilege cut down to size by a stint in federal prison.
Now, it may well be standard procedure for prosecutors to add new charges when their targets refuse to plead. But does anyone else think it a stretch to argue that two California residents bribing their children’s way into a private California university are committing a crime against the federal government? Or that the statutes she’s accused of violating, such as bribery or money laundering in connection with a program that receives federal funding, were really intended to go after people such as Ms. Loughlin?
All of which has yours truly hoping Ms. Loughlin and her husband prevail. Not because they are innocent. But because the case reeks of overreach, as well as my unease with the idea that the FBI and Justice are the vehicles to deliver fairness in college admissions.
As McGurn concludes, “Ms. Loughlin, remember, is a nonviolent first-offender. By all means, stick her with a fat fine and community service. But it’s just overkill for federal prosecutors to be devoting so much of their time and resources to make sure this woman goes to prison.”
Related: Ham Sandwich Nation: Due Process When Everything Is A Crime.
GREG JONES: The Downfall of Conservatism, Inc. “How Donald J. Trump made me rethink my Republican heroes.”
What had happened to my heroes?
I understand their objection to Trump’s style—three years ago, I myself was put off by it—but style is nothing when measured against substance. Here was a president advancing their agenda—our agenda—didn’t that mean something?
At first, I attributed their open mutiny to pride. Pride is human, and prideful men often make for sore losers.
But now, after ample time to recover from their humiliation, the persistent whining from establishment conservatives has exposed a very ugly truth about our former “leaders.” The George Wills and Tom Nichols of the world were always more interested in self-promotion than advancing conservatism.
Needless to say, read the whole thing.
REMEMBERING THE FORT HOOD TERRORIST ATTACK: Ten years ago today.
Ten years ago on Thursday Nov. 5, 2009, a day that had dawned chilly but bright in Killeen, quickly turned bloody as a U.S. Army psychiatrist walked into an on-post resiliency center and began shooting.
On Nov. 5, 2009 Nidal Malik Hasan fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others, before Fort Hood civilian police Sergeant Mark Todd shot him, ending the rampage. (File)
Nidal Malik Hasan fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others, before Fort Hood civilian police Sergeant Mark Todd shot him, ending the rampage.
Of the 13 killed, 11 died at the scene and two others died later, after being taken to hospitals.
One of those killed was pregnant, yet her baby who also died, never has been individually counted on the list of victims.
The shooting still ranks as the worst mass shooting at a military installation in U.S. history.
Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar” before he started killing his fellow soldiers. Barack Obama called Hasan’s crime work place violence.
In a column written in November 2009, I argued Hasan committed treason– and was a terrorist.
Hasan’s treason employed terrorist tactics. Sure, the lawyers can argue Hasan attacked soldiers, with civilians as incidental targets, and the assault occurred on a military post, but the tactics are those used by jihadis in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Indonesia and a score of other nations — the armed killer entering an open facility and massacring unarmed men and women.
Hasan received the death sentence for his crime and he remains on death row at Fort Leavenworth.
COVERING THE IMPORTANT NEWS: ‘Shiftiest player in the NFC!’: How a black cat stole the show during Cowboys-Giants Monday Night Football.
LEFT WON’T TALK ABOUT ROLE OF CRONYISM IN INEQUALITY. CATO WILL: The more government regulation there is, the more opportunities there are for cronyism, influence-peddling and insider lobbying. Lefties wailing about growing inequality of wealth won’t talk about that. Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards and Ryan Bourne have no such qualms.
IT’S EASY TO MOVE ON WHEN YOUR SIDE CAN’T BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE: McAuliffe: Northam’s a ‘Great Governor Doing a Great Job,’ ‘We’ve Moved On’ from Blackface Photo Scandal.
DISPATCHES FROM THE HOUSE OF STEPHANOPOULOS: ABC News anchor Amy Robach: We had Epstein three years ago — and ABC spiked it (Video).
Amy Robach, ‘Good Morning America’ Co-Host and Breaking News Anchor at ABC, explains how a witness came forward years ago with information pertaining to Epstein, but Disney-owned ABC News refused to air the material for years. Robach vents her anger in a “hot mic” moment with an off-camera producer, explaining that ABC quashed the story in it’s early stages. “I’ve had this interview with Virginia Roberts (Now Virginia Guiffre) [alleged Epstein victim]. We would not put it on the air. Um, first of all, I was told “Who’s Jeffrey Epstein. No one knows who that is. This is a stupid story.”
Just “a New York thing,” to coin a phrase.
UPDATE: Two networks in one!
More from Robach: “Do I think [Epstein] was killed? 100% I do…He made his whole living blackmailing people. There were a lot of men on those planes. A lot of men who visited that island. A lot of powerful men who came into that apartment.”
FIREWORKS: Fox News Host Accuses Marie Harf of Ukraine Cover-Up.
Before her Fox News gig, Marie Harf served as director of Strategic Communications to Secretary of State John Kerry. She also worked for a bit as Acting Spokesperson and Deputy Spokesperson of the State Department. She got her start as a CIA analyst on the Middle East, before getting involved in Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection effort. A fully-fledged member of the Revolving Door Community, Harf turned her low-responsibility duties as a bureaucrat and campaign official into a sweet-paying media gig. If anyone knows how the system really works, it’s a beneficiary of it like Harf.
And if the phrase “deep state” suddenly popped into your brain, well, it did into mine, too.
Read the whole thing, if you don’t mind me saying so myself.
YOU KNOW WHAT’S PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS: Apple wants affordable housing in California—but laws stand in the way.
Apple has pledged $2.5 billion to help address California’s affordable-housing crisis, the company announced on Monday. In recent years, the San Francisco Bay Area has become the most expensive housing market in America. Los Angeles also suffers from housing costs far above the national average.
Apple’s $2.5 billion package includes several different initiatives. Apple will offer a $1 billion line of credit to organizations building housing for low-income people.
These efforts to promote affordable housing are laudable, but corporate initiatives alone are unlikely to solve California’s housing crisis. The Golden State’s fundamental housing problem is that state and local laws simply don’t allow developers to build enough housing to accommodate rising demand.
Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft have all announced billion-dollar-or-more housing plans, but they’d get better results spending a fraction of that amount helping to elect local Republicans on a deregulation platform.
But it seems that Big Tech, just like Big Government, would rather throw around large sums of money to little effect.