Archive for 2020
September 15, 2020
IF PROPOSITION 16 PASSES, CALIFORNIA’S FUTURE COULD LOOK LIKE THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN IN 2005: On Saturday, I posted enrollment statistics from 1995 at UC-Berkeley. Here are statistics from the University of Michigan in 2005 (before Michigan passed its version of Proposition 209, but after the twin Supreme Court cases against the University of Michigan in 2003):
Median total SAT scores of admittees by race/ethnicity:
1160 – Black
1260 – Hispanic
1350 – White
1400 – Asian
Median high school GPA of admittees by race/ethnicity:
3.4 – Black
3.6 – Hispanic
3.9 – White
3.8 – Asian
Admission rates by race/ethnicity:
71% — Black
79% — Hispanic
62% — White
54% — Asian
The message here is if you thought race preferences in college and university admissions were just a gentle thumb on the scale in otherwise close cases, you thought wrong. And if you thought that the Supreme Court’s decisions in Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger would cause the University of Michigan to decrease the size of preferences, you thought wrong about that too. Preferences got larger instead.
These figures come from a report by Dr. Althea Nagai at the Center for Equality Opportunity.
Nagai reports that “[c]ontrolling for other factors, odds ratios showed Michigan awarding a great deal of preference to black over white applicants (70 to 1) and to Hispanics over whites (roughly 46 to 1).” On the other hand, Michigan “gave whites a small preference over Asians.” She calculated the Asian to white odds ratio at 0.69 to 1.
By contrast, controlling for race and other factors, the odds ratio of in-state over out-of-state applicants was 1.05 to 1 (which was not statistically significant).
COLLUSION: Report: College Board Became ‘Key Partner’ With Chinese Regime.
Hanban, the Chinese government agency responsible for administering the Confucius Institute, has worked with the College Board for years to place government-approved Chinese teachers in American high schools across the country, according to a new report by the National Association of Scholars. The initiative has allowed Chinese teachers to teach Mandarin to tens of thousands of students. The College Board has also helped Hanban set up more than a dozen Confucius Institute classrooms, placing an organ of Chinese propaganda in the heart of some public school systems.
The report sheds light on the Chinese government’s vigorous attempt to penetrate the K-12 system, mirroring its infiltration of college campuses through the Confucius Institute.
I wonder if the College Board complied with the various foreign-influence laws?
YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK: Feds proudly announce seizure of ‘counterfeit Apple AirPods’ that are actually OnePlus Buds.
It can be hard to tell a difference between AirPods and the many earbuds that resemble them, but checking the box is always a good start. US Customs and Border Protection tonight tweeted that its officers had “recently seized 2,000 counterfeit Apple AirPods from Hong Kong, valued at $398K had they been genuine.” There’s also this press release on the situation, which praises CBP officers for “protecting the American public from various dangers on a daily basis” and says that “the interception of these counterfeit earbuds is a direct reflection of the vigilance and commitment to mission success by our CBP officers daily.”
The only problem is, based on the agency’s own photos, the seized products appear to be legitimate OnePlus Buds — transported in a box that plainly says as much.
Good grief.
WELL, IT WOULD BE NICE IF THIS PANS OUT: Ab8 COVID-19 Drug Breakthrough: Tiny Antibody Component Completely Neutralizes the SARS-CoV-2 Virus.
HINT: IT COULD BE NEW SOCIALIST “IT GIRL’S” TRUE MOMENT: What Happens to the Democrats in 2024 if Biden Loses in November?
NOW SHIPPING: Hamilton and the Law: Reading Today’s Most Contentious Legal Issues through the Hit Musical.
I have a chapter in this on dueling, which I’m rather pleased with.
THIS SEEMS ON-BRAND: Heiress to Predatory Mortgage Empire to Spend $200 Million for Dems.
SIGNS OF A REALIGNMENT? Confessions of a New Gun Owner: Even in suburbia, people are losing confidence the police will keep them safe.
Even in suburbia, many are no longer confident our authorities would or could keep us safe. In a small suburb such as mine, what would happen if even 100 or 200 people bent on violence were to arrive at once? Could our small police force really handle it? Or would we be left to fend for ourselves like Mark and Pat McCloskey in St. Louis, who defended their home and were then treated as if they were criminals?
A few years back, I asked a former colleague whom I knew to be pro-Second Amendment philosophically if he owned a gun. He answered no, and then asked if I had one. I said I wouldn’t know what to write down as my reason for wanting one.
He told me, “Write down, ‘Because I don’t trust the government.’ ” . . .
This year a record five million law-abiding Americans, like us, have become new gun owners. Many don’t fit the stereotype: African-Americans account for the largest percentage jump in gun ownership, while women are 40% of first-time buyers. These new buyers join an even larger demographic: the 43% of American households that already have a gun.
The record gun sales for 2020 may have implications for swing states in November as well. In Pennsylvania alone, the National Shooting Sports Foundation reckons there are 276,648 first-time gun owners this year. To put this in perspective, in 2016 Donald Trump won Pennsylvania by 44,292 votes.
You can’t trust the government to protect you from criminals in a lot of places. The next stage is when criminals learn they can’t trust the government to protect them.
Related: Crime Comes to the Suburbs. “Life-threatening crime in elite suburbs like Edina is a new phenomenon, but residents had better get used to it if they continue to support BLM and other anti-law enforcement causes. What do they think is going to happen if law enforcement is dismantled?”
HAVEN’T WE BEEN HEARING THIS EVERY FIVE YEARS FOR THE LAST TWENTY YEARS? Quantum startup CEO suggests we are only five years away from a quantum desktop computer.
AMERICA: Military flyovers greet oldest living American WWII veteran on 111th birthday. He looks awfully good for his age.
BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: Cynthia Nixon: J.K. Rowling’s Comments Were ‘Really Painful’ For My Trans Son.
SEEN ON FACEBOOK: “We watched City Slickers a few weeks ago for my 50th birthday. One line stuck out to me: ‘When I was young, my dad and I didn’t agree on anything, but we could always talk about baseball.’ Thanks to the relentless politicization of sports, we’ve lost that, too, I think.”
