Archive for 2019
January 12, 2019
WHAT WOULD BE RACIST WOULD BE GIVING HER HORRIFIC RECORD A PASS BECAUSE SHE’S BLACK: Jonathan Tobin: Opposing Honors for Angela Davis isn’t Racist: “Opposing honors for Angela Davis isn’t so much an indication of support for Israel or remembering the moral imperative of anti-Communism as it is as matter of public decency.”
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Plague of Locusts Strkes Mecca.
I REMEMBER WHEN LOYALTY OATHS WERE CONSIDERED BAD: Better promote ‘diversity,’ ‘inclusion’ if you want tenure at this Ohio college.
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MICHAEL BARONE: A shutdown stalemate as Trump goes factual, Democrats illogical.
The televised presidential address from the Oval Office, a staple of communication between the chief executive and the people in the second half of twentieth century, has recently been in desuetude. Former President Barack Obama delivered only three such addresses in his eight years in office. President Trump this week delivered his first, just days short of completing half a term.
It was a sober address, short but touching some emotive chords. It was also carefully based on actual facts and proposals — contrary to the Democrats’ meme that it would be based on fears, not facts.
Post-speech fact-checking was particularly farcical. The Washington Post said Trump’s claims of “266,000 arrests of aliens with criminal records” in two years was “accurate but misleading,” because it included all crimes. Huh?
Another complaint was that Trump’s claim that one in three women in caravans were sexually assaulted; the complainer pointed to a study that said it was actually 60 to 80 percent of them. Trump had understated the case. Obviously nobody knows the actual numbers; a good guess might be “a lot.”
But it is pretty obvious what’s been happening on the southern border. Attempted border crossings were way down in 2017, presumably for fear of tough Trump enforcement. They rose in 2018, as many Central Americans started arriving with children, hoping to gain entry into the United States by exploiting court-created loopholes in American asylum law. Few had legitimate claims of political persecution or on other traditional grounds for asylum; many complained of high local crime rates for which, so far as I know, no nation has ever granted asylum.
It may be objected that the number of illegal southern border crossings was much higher 15 and 20 years ago. That’s why Congress, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in 2006 voted for more border protection.
And it’s possible to argue that in the current hot labor market illegals have little depressing effect on wages, and that the numbers of violent crimes by illegal immigrants, though regrettable, are bearable in a nation of 327 million.
Democrats understandably tend to shun these valid but hard-hearted arguments. Instead they insist vehemently that a wall, which many supported a dozen years ago, will inevitably be ineffective and must be regarded as “immoral.”
This first argument flies in the face of evidence.
To be fair, so does the second.
NO, THIS IS NOT A POST ABOUT RUTH BADER GINSBURG; IT’S ONE OF MY HISTORICAL POSTS:
On this day in history, 90-year-old Oliver Wendell Holmes retired from the Supreme Court after nearly 30 years of service. It was time, even a bit past time. He’d been falling asleep during oral arguments and getting confused. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes had the unenviable task of having to tell him that.
Holmes biographer G. Edward White told the story this way:
Given Holmes’s extraordinary longevity and great fame, in addition to his remarkable intellectual powers, the discussion of retirement with him was a particularly delicate matter. After consulting with Louis Brandeis, however, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes decided to bring up the issue with Holmes. He made an appointment to meet with him on Sunday morning, January 12, 1932. In a brief conversation, Hughes suggested to Holmes that work was becoming too physically demanding for him and told him that his colleagues were concerned about his health. Holmes understood that Hughes was proposing that he retire, and wrote his resignation letter on the spot. In it he said that “the condition of my health makes it a duty to break off connections that I cannot leave without deep regret.” According to Chapman Rose [Holmes’ last law clerk], Hughes left the house “with tears streaming down his face.” Holmes, however, was “then and thereafter totally stoic” about his resignation, according to Rose, showing “no expression of emotion one way or another.” “The time has come,” he wrote in his resignation letter, “and I bow to the inevitable.”
Holmes lived another few years. He remains the oldest person to have served on the Supreme Court. He died on March 6, 1935, just a few days short of his 94th birthday. In his will, he left his residuary estate to the United States government, including his blood-stained Civil War uniform, torn by shot.
Not every Justice of the Supreme Court has been as stoic or as cooperative as Holmes was about being asked to retire. Early in his Supreme Court career, Justice Stephen Field was among those called upon by his colleagues to persuade Justice Robert Grier to retire. Grier, who had suffered several strokes, complied. Decades later, it was Field who had become intermittently senile. The first Justice John Marshall Harlan was given the task of persuading him to resign. Harlan began by reminding Field about his earlier mission to Grier. Field snapped back, “Yes and a dirtier day’s work I never did in my life!” Field refused to budge.
NEVER. TRY READING THE CONSTITUTION. AOC: When does nonstop criticism of me by the Daily Caller rise to the level of “harassment”?
THAT’S A PLEASANTLY REALISTIC APPROACH TO HOUSING COSTS: Gov. Gavin Newsom threatens to cut state funding from cities that don’t approve enough housing.
For 50 years, California has required cities and counties to plan for enough new housing so that residents can live affordably. But many local governments fail to approve new development, contributing to the state’s housing crunch. Now, Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing a radical new step: punishing communities that block homebuilding by withholding state tax dollars.
Newsom unveiled his proposal Thursday at his state budget presentation, which also included more than $2 billion in new funding for housing and homelessness initiatives. The governor said his aggressive approach speaks to the depth of the state’s problems, which have forced millions of Californians to pay more than half their income on rent, pushed home prices to new highs and added thousands to the homeless population.
Already more than I expected from him. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
#JOURNALISM: Even the lefty journos have figured out what a crock it is:
January 11, 2019
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I DUNNO, I THINK IT HAPPENED BEFORE THAT: January 2019: When media fact-checkers finally jumped the shark.
But this is right: “If your fact check consists of ‘this is true, but’ you are no longer checking a fact. You are engaged in an argument, and therefore, you’re guilty of misleading your readers — which, we thought, was the opposite of your job description.”
OPEN THREAD. So there.
CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Female Lawyer Gets Tulane University to Stop Discriminating Against Men. “The complaint was filed by Margaret C. Valois, a Virginia Title IX attorney and mother of two sons. Though she typically provides legal counsel to students accused of sexual misconduct, she said she was inspired to file the complaint to fight educational inequity.”
DEMS TOOK OVER CALIFORNIA BY MANIPULATING VOTING LAWS. NEXT, AMERICA: H.R. 1: Democrats Act to Strip State Powers Over Elections.