HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: At University of Denver, students can get ID without ‘Pioneers’ nickname if it offends them.
Archive for 2019
September 9, 2019
HARD TARGET: We can stop mass shootings without restricting Second Amendment liberties.
It’s time to adapt to the era of mass shootings. Every school, every church, every large retailer and every government facility should have armed, obvious guards at all entrances. We don’t need to force teachers to take up arms, we simply need ever-present, trained, armed security in schools. This is now the cost of protecting our children and of protecting the public.
It would take some getting used to, but seeing an armed guard at the entrance to Wal-Mart would not be a sign of a totalitarian police state. It would be an example of free people self-organizing to create new institutions to protect public safety.
A larger armed security profession would also create career opportunities for young professionals answering the call to protect their fellow citizens as well as for retired military and law enforcement.
And for those who might balk at the expense of additional security, try getting into an office building on K Street in Washington without running a gauntlet of security. We’ve already decided that our elites and lobbyists’ lives are worth protecting. Why haven’t we made the same choice for students in schools and shoppers in department stores?
Once we have secured our public and private spaces against the deranged, we can start trying to address root causes. Every civilization has developed means and institutions for reining in the impulses of boys and disciplining them into responsible men, but we’ve lost ours.
When you label something as toxic, eventually people will behave that way.
IDENTITY POLITICS IS WHAT WE GET WHEN WE ABANDON THE TRADITIONAL FAMILY: Now, that is a provocative suggestion, coming from author Mary Eberstadt, according to The Federalist’s Joy Pullman in a review of “Primal Screams: How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics.”
Put most simply, the argument is stated thus by Pullman: “How many more generations must pay the emotional and financial price for our society’s refusal to require people to be fully responsible for what happens when they have sex?” It really is in the final analysis about the children.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: U. Kentucky closes academic building to mandatory classes over a…mural.
THEY WERE JUST HOLDING IT FOR A FRIEND: Iranians Can’t Explain to the IAEA Why There are Traces of Uranium at Secret Warehouse.
IF IT WEREN’T FOR DOUBLE STANDARDS, THEY’D HAVE NO STANDARDS AT ALL: Trump-Russia and Clinton-Libya: A Story of 2 Probes and the FBI.
A CASE FOR GETTING OUT OF AFGHANISTAN, FINALLY: Daniel DePetris, writing on The Federalist, addresses what he calls the disaster myths propagated by supporters of a continued U.S. presence in the no-man’s land of central Asia.
Not sure I agree with everything he says, but it’s well-worth reading and considering carefully, especially the point that the U.S. military quickly achieved our objective of driving out the Taliban regime that harbored al Qaeda and Osama bin-Laden, but then the politicians took over, thus beginning the “nation-building” phase now approaching 20 years in duration.
UNEXPECTEDLY? China’s exports fall unexpectedly in August, as trade war continues to slam industrial economy.
Furthermore, the much-reported 3.8 per cent depreciation of the yuan in August failed to stop the decline in exports – despite Washington’s fears that it was being used to give China’s exporters an unfair advantage.
It is a far cry from the double-digit expansion that characterised the export machine that powered the Chinese economy for more than two decades.
The weak export figures will put further pressure on China’s already slowing economy. The central bank on Friday said it would cut the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves to the lowest level since 2007 in a bid to inject liquidity into the economy and stimulate demand.
And that’s with American businesses front-loading their orders from China in the weeks before the new tariffs kicked in.
I’d also add that the consumer-driven economy China needs to develop to replace slowing export growth requires a kind of consumer-driven country which Communists have a hard time delivering — and over the long run, an impossible time accommodating.
HARSH BUT FAIR:
I know some libertarians who love Amash, but it seems to me that his real constituency is the press.
BERNIE SANDERS “JEW-WASHES” LINDA SARSOUR: Linda Sarsour emerges as surrogate for Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign.
Jew-washing is neologism someone invented for when antisemites on the left use their Jewish origins or closeness to a Jewish person to claim they are innocent of antisemitism, usually after engaging in antisemitic attacks on Israel or its Jewish supporters. So it’s clear what Sarsour gets out of being a Sanders surrogate–she gets to express public support for a leftist Jew, which she believes will rebut charges of antisemitism, despite her long record of it. But what is Sanders getting, beyond losing his last semblance of dignity?
NO, IT SHOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE: Should it be harder to label a building historic when its owner disagrees?
If you want to preserve a building, buy it.
ON THIS DAY IN 1957: The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was signed into law by President Eisenhower. It was the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, and on the surface its purpose might seem relatively modest–to create two new institutions, the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the Commission on Civil Rights (on which I currently sit). But those institutions were extremely important to the history civil rights. Without them it would have been a lot hard to eliminate Jim Crow.
Does the Commission on Civil Rights continue to serve a good purpose? That’s a question for Congress, not me. In 2007, I testified about the Commission to a Senate Committee celebrating the Act’s 50th anniversary. Alas, I was much too optimistic about the Commission’s ability to turn out useful reports. My defense is that I was new to the Commission then. These days I’m tickled to death when I can just get it not to embarrass itself.
On the other hand, it’s not impossible for the Commission to do good work. While it’s always an uphill battle, we’ve done it a few times in recent years.
SOMETHING TO HIDE: Hickenlooper Dropped Presidential Bid On Personal Disclosure Due Date.
YOU CAN’T MAKE PEACE WITH PEOPLE WHO JUST WANT YOU DEAD: The One Thing No Israeli Wants to Discuss: The decisive factor in next week’s election — and the reason for Benjamin Netanyahu’s durability — is a repressed memory.
No single episode has shaped Israel’s population and politics like the wave of suicide bombings perpetrated by Palestinians in the first years of the 21st century. Much of what you see here in 2019 is the aftermath of that time, and every election since has been held in its shadow. The attacks, which killed hundreds of Israeli civilians, ended hopes for a negotiated peace and destroyed the left, which was in power when the wave began. Any sympathy that the Israeli majority had toward Palestinians evaporated.
More than any other single development, that period explains the durability of Benjamin Netanyahu, which outsiders sometimes struggle to understand. Simply put, in the decade before Mr. Netanyahu came to power in 2009, the fear of death accompanied us in public places. There was a chance your child could be blown up on the bus home from school. In the decade since, that has ceased to be the case. Next to that fact, all other issues pale.
The left would bring the old days back, and people are smart enough to know that. Eventually, of course, they’ll forget and vote the left back in, and have to go through it all another time.
BUT THE NARRATIVE! Global Economy Forecast: Not As Bad For The U.S. As Headlines Imply.
OF COURSE HE DOES: Bernie Sanders Trots Out Linda Sarsour As A Campaign Surrogate.
NOT ONLY IS THE GOVERNMENT NOT CAPABLE OF PROTECTING YOU, IT DOESN’T EVEN WANT TO: Parkland dad uncovers how district enabled deranged student-turned-shooter.
WHY TRUMP IS BAD NEWS FOR POLITICAL CONSULTANTS:
“Political consultants burn through billions of dollars and have no idea what they’re doing except to enrich themselves.
“They do a number of things over and again of limited effect: TV and radio ads, direct mail, robocalls. And burn through money they do. Jeb Bush’s campaign famously spent $139 million and he dropped out early after having won only four delegates. Top men. Hillary’s campaign juggernaut was defeated by Donald Trump who had no super PAC, no traditional fundraising operation, no campaign pollster, speechwriter, or campaign strategist.”
Unsurprisingly, political consultants have been heavily represented among the NeverTrump crowd.
FISHING EXPEDITION: DOJ Demands Apple And Google Reveal Names Of 10,000+ Users Of Gun Scope App. “It’s called the Obsidian 4 app, and it’s used to connect cell phones to ATN rifle smart scopes to calibrate them and allow live streaming and videos. A motion filed by the Department Of Justice Thursday demands that Apple and Google turn over the estimated10,000 plus names and identifying data of users. The motion revealed by Forbes Magazine sent ripples through the 2nd amendment community and should send shivers through anyone who believes in the 4th Amendment guarantees against illegal search and seizures.”
MEH. EVAN MCMULLIN WITH A MORE INTERESTING SEX LIFE. Mark Sanford: Yes, I’m running for president in the Republican primary against Trump.
So he’s not going to beat Trump in the primary, because Trump is overwhelmingly popular with Republican voters. He’s not going to stand as a shining alternative of propriety to Trump because he’s Mark Sanford. So what’s he going to do? Mostly divert some money to political consultants. To be fair, I’m pretty sure that was the purpose of the Evan McMullin candidacy.
DEMOCRATS ARE WILLING TO DO ANY AMOUNT OF DAMAGE TO THE COUNTRY IN ORDER TO OBTAIN POWER, OR EVEN JUST ATTENTION: Beto Undermines Democracy: Falsely Claims Stacey Abrams Was Robbed in GA Governor’s Race.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Trump Hater Hits Wall St. Statue With Banjo Edition. “Mark Sanford is the latest Republican who hopes to get a book deal, along with an invite to a Trump-hate threesome with Joe Scarborough and Mrs. Morning Joe by issuing a primary “challenge” to the president.”