YOU CAN’T ALWAYS BE YOUNG, BUT YOU CAN ALWAYS BE IMMATURE: Why Some Men Still Dress Like They’re 16. If I dressed like I were 16 I’d have shoulder length hair, a yoke shirt, and a pukka necklace. And a leather wristband with my name on it that Janie Anderson made for me. No, I don’t miss ’70s fashion. Though I do still have the wristband somewhere.
Archive for 2019
December 16, 2019
PAUL KRUGMAN ON ELECTION NIGHT 2016: “If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.”
Today: Dow gains 10,000th point since Trump’s election. “The Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 28,332.74 on Monday, meaning it has rallied 10,000 points, or more than 54 percent, since Trump’s election victory on November 8, 2016. The benchmark S&P 500 has gained more than 46 percent.”
NEW SOCIALIST “IT GIRL” CONTINUES TO PAY DIVIDENDS: If AOC can’t even understand her own healthcare plan, why should she design ours?
IS THIS EVEN STILL ALLOWED IN THE BAY AREA? “Hey [SF DJ] Big Rick, Make Some Tri-Tip!”
AT AMAZON, Deal of the Day, KitchenAid KSM155GBAZ 5-Qt. Artisan Design Series with Glass Bowl – Azure Blue.
BAN ALL THE THINGS! Joe Biden: If I’m President Charter Schools Are Gone.
(No, not that brother; the other one.)
SNOWFALLS ARE NOW JUST A THING OF THE PAST: “Time’s Commie Nag of the Year Can Go Pound Sand,” Kurt Schlichter writes:
The other day, this malignant muppet “told cheering protesters … ‘we will make sure we put world leaders against the wall’ if they fail to take urgent action on climate change.” Now, maybe her English is bad, or maybe she’s just ignorant, but then again the murder of opponents is the Marxist way. Marxist? St. Greta? Well, let’s take a look at what was carved on the tablets she recently brought down from Mount Socialism:
“Schoolchildren, young people, and adults all over the world will stand together, demanding that our leaders take action, not because we want them to, but because the science demands it,” she said. “That action must be powerful and wide-ranging. After all, the climate crisis is not just about the environment. It is a crisis of human rights, of justice, and of political will. Colonial, racist, and patriarchal systems of oppression have created and fueled it. We need to dismantle them all. Our political leaders can no longer shirk their responsibilities.”
Wait, “the science demands” that we “dismantle” all our “[c]olonial, racist, and patriarchal systems of oppression?” Now, what science exactly is that? Is it geology? Physics? Phrenology maybe?
How stupid do they think people are? Very. And to judge by the judges at TIME, they’re often right. Maybe Greta never heard of Siberia or Cambodia, but we have. Screw that – if she wants to impose her masters’ Marxist fantasies on us, she’ll need to be packing something deadlier than “How dare you!”
Well, that’s the implicit threat behind the left’s moral equivalent of war: “Progressive” philosopher William James’ trope designed to justify lefty power-grabs is over a century old, and Thunberg’s handlers apparently see no sign of an exit strategy from the quagmire for their fellow radicals.
(Classical reference in headline.)
NEW JERSEY GIVES ILLEGALS DRIVER’S LICENSES. How Long Before They Get the Vote?
The same question can be asked further on up the Hudson: Illegal immigrants to be able to get driver’s licenses in NY after legal challenge fails.
DEMOCRATS VOW TO CONTINUE IMPEACHMENT INVESTIGATIONS REGARDLESS OF SENATE OUTCOME.
At the risk of going out on a limb, I only wish there was some way for the people of the nation to come together every four years to choose a new president, rather than burdening Congress with the task.
Related: Victor Davis Hanson on When Hate Becomes an Agenda. Not to mention the paradox of the nostalgic “Progressive” and his desire for “Watergate Cosplay.”
YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Democratic Presidential Clown Car Update for December 16, 2019. “This week’s debate is set, Biden’s back on top in Iowa, the Klobuchar boomlet continues, Delaney waits for the sweet release of death, and Castro is in sixth place…in Texas.”
CLEARLY THE INDUSTRY NEEDS TO BE HELD RESPONSIBLE. RELEASE THE LAWYERS!!! 76,043 ER visits for injuries related to distracted cellphone use.
THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: This Is Who Linda Sarsour Is.
She has also offered enthusiastic support for Palestinian terrorists like Rasmea Odeh and cop-killing fugitives like Assata Shakur. At the same time, she has argued that Jewish progressives who criticized Rep. Ilhan Omar for anti-Semitic remarks have divided loyalties. Such criticism of Omar, she claimed “is not only coming from the right-wing but some folks who masquerade as progressives but always choose their allegiance to Israel over their commitment to democracy and free speech.”
For a self-proclaimed advocate of women, Sarsour is viciously hostile toward women who disagree with her. She tweeted that Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is critical of Islam and who was the victim of female genital mutilation as a child, was “asking for an a$$ whippin,” adding: “I wish I could take their vaginas away–they don’t deserve to be women.” Eventually, Sarsour (along with Mallory) was removed from her leadership position in the Women’s March after many of its supporters protested that her involvement with the organization represented a tacit endorsement of anti-Semitism—to say nothing of Sarsour’s own blatant homophobia.
Rather than engage her critics, Sarsour blames Islamaphobia when she is called to account for her behavior. “The point of the term ‘Islamophobia’ as used by Sarsour and her sympathizers is very often a self-interested and dishonest one—namely, to delegitimize critics by lumping them in with fringe racists and bigots,” Jamie Kirchick noted in a profile of Sarsour in Tablet in 2017.
When CNN’s Jake Tapper called out Sarsour and the Women’s March over their support of Shakur, for example, Sarsour responded by claiming that Tapper had joined the alt-right.
So why did Bernie Sanders embrace such a toxic surrogate for his presidential run, especially given his own claim to want to fight anti-Semitism?
As Noah Rothman wrote on Friday, “Bernie Sanders Has a Big Jeremy Corbyn Problem.” That’s rather on-brand for what Kevin Williamson dubbed in 2015, “Bernie’s Strange Brew of Nationalism and Socialism.”
Related: Question asked and answered:
METAPHOR ALERT: Newseum Closing — Washington, D.C. Museum Offered a Lot, but Was Flawed from the Start.
Almost every exhibit at the Newseum paled in comparison to Smithsonian counterparts. It offered an exhibit on the Civil Rights movement that was dwarfed by the National Museum of African-American history. The Newseum offered a cute display of the first dogs of the presidents, but it looked like small potatoes compared to the National Portrait Gallery’s complete set of official presidential portraits or the American presidency exhibit at the National Museum of American History. Galleries of Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoons and photographs are terrific, but . . . the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery offered their own world-class photo exhibits for free.
The Newseum offered world’s first satellite newsgathering vehicle, while the Air and Space Museum across the mall offered lunar landers and the Spirit of St. Louis.
Where would you rather spend an afternoon? Which museum is going to wow the kids? That has more to do with the museum’s closure than any overall public view on the value of journalism.
Whatever the Smithsonian’s descent into political correctness in recent decades, its artifacts are viewed pretty benignly by the viewing public; the men in the aforementioned lunar landers “came in peace for all mankind,” after all. Whereas the Newseum, which John Podhoretz dubbed “The News Mausoleum” a decade ago, is an ode to people whose attitude towards their customers is best summed up by the late Ginny Carroll, an editor at Newsweek when it was still owned by the Washington Post: “Yeah, I’m in the Media — Screw You.”
In addition to its exhibits, perhaps the Newseum could have kept the lights on a bit longer if its gift shop sold items that people wanted to buy. Flashback to last year: Newseum caves to outraged mob of news reporters, removes “Fake News” T-shirts from gift shop.
WELL, MR. PRESIDENT? Voters Favor Jail, Firing for Rogue Officials Who Targeted Trump.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Pawn shop owner arrested on weapons charges after connection to Jersey City shooters. “U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced Saturday that Ahmed A-Hady, 35, was arrested on felony weapon charges after police found a handwritten note in suspect David Anderson’s pocket containing a phone number and address traced back to A-Hady’s New Jersey pawn shop. . . . Law enforcement also said they found 400 rounds of ammunition, including hollow-point bullets, in A-Hady’s home and said he is a convicted felon, who is not legally permitted to own firearms.”
ABSURD BUT FUN: Watch This Supercharged F-150 Rip a Nine-Second Quarter-Mile.
AT AMAZON, Top Gift Ideas.
I CERTAINLY HOPE THIS TECHNOLOGY IS REAL: Recently Retired USAF General Makes Eyebrow Raising Claims About Advanced Space Technology.
CHANGE: More Than 130 Abortion Clinics Have Closed in the Last 5 Years.
Also just up at PJMedia: Actual Alcoholics Unimpressed with Millennial Virtue Signaling.
It’s a followup piece to last week’s item on “sober curious” pretenders, but it’s for our VIP members. If you’ve been thinking of becoming a supporter, the promo code VODKAPUNDIT is still good for a nice little discount.
JOEL KOTKIN: The Next Election Will Be Decided By The Suburbs. I dunno, I think the sticks are going to weigh in hard, based on what I’m seeing in Virginia.
OH FER CRYIN’ OUT LOUD: Swedish Church Removes LGBT Altarpiece After Fears It Is ‘Anti-Trans.’
READER BOOK PLUG: From B.R. O’Hagan, Presenting Jonathan Marvel’s Christmas Pockets.
