NOWADAYS IT SEEMS NEWSWORTHY WHEN ANYONE IS PUNISHED FOR THIS: 41 Months in Prison for Arson of Minneapolis Police Station, Theft. Plus: “ATF is committed to investigating the civil unrest arsons of 2020 that occurred throughout the Twin Cities.”
Archive for 2021
May 6, 2021
IT’S LIKE YAWNING, SORT OF: ‘Chameleon effect’ and smartphone use: Spontaneous mimicry in social situations.
I’M SO OLD I CAN REMEMBER WHEN EVERYONE WAS WORRIED ABOUT SCHOOL SHOOTINGS AND WANTED POLICE IN SCHOOL. KPD will pull officers out of Knox County Schools this summer while school security needs are reevaluated. Literally because a student with a gun was killed fighting with cops, in what was obviously a legitimate shooting.
More reason for Knoxvillians to attend private school, or homeschool, or online school. And everyone else.
JUST A REMINDER IF YOU’RE A YALE ALUMN: Please vote for my Knoxville friend Victor Ashe in the ongoing Yale Corporation elections. He’ll be a breath of fresh air in a place that really needs it.
CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Texas Senate advances bill allowing handguns without license.
So you shouldn’t need a permit to carry a gun. But as a matter of politics, I don’t know if this is 100% good. People who have invested in carry permits are a self-identified interest group, who’ll fight restrictions. The public at large is less so. Are there enough dedicated carriers in the general public to offset that? Probably, but not certainly.
On the other hand, a major part of the anti-gun campaign was to denormalize gun ownership. Guns on hips in public certainly put an end to that. Meanwhile, I’d like to see businesses that ban people from carrying guns on their property made guarantors of their safety.
MONEY FOR SPACE LAW AND SPACE LAWYERS! How would actual alien spacecraft influence asset prices?
HMM: Moderna says vaccine booster looks promising against COVID-19 variants.
I think the “variants” are being oversold, but I could be wrong. But if Moderna requires a booster, while Pfizer is 95% effective against at least one variant, then that’s a reason to favor Pfizer I’d think.
JOSH BLACKMAN: The Per Curiam Facebook Oversight Board:
We are left with a per curiam decision that refers to an unnamed “minority” view. Really, this opinion is not a law review article. Most forms of scholarship are signed. We have no idea who wrote this opinion. We have no idea who disagreed with it. For all we know, Michael McConnell, the lone conservative in the group, dissented. We will never find out. I suppose one of the plus sides is that the authors will be immune from public criticism for their decision. And they will not be trolled online for their actions–unlike virtually everyone else in the world. One of the reasons why tenure protections are afforded is to promote judicial independence. But now, the Oversight Board hides behind a fancy moniker.
Finally, one other note on the substantive issue. For the reasons Eugene explained, I am sensing a schism. More and more libertarians are trending towards the position that social media companies should be treated similar to phone companies. These sites seem to be viewed as different in kind from other types of private entities. These tech giants may be viewed as expressive forums, as distinguished from government-designated public forums. I hope to write more about this issue in due course.
Plus, some thoughts from Randy Barnett. Also, it says a lot about the pernicious role of social media today that the members of the Oversight Board are left unnamed so they won’t face rabid personal attacks on social media. . .
HMM: Zhe ‘Shelly’ Wang: Who is Bill Gates’ interpreter? She also works for Yale and Harvard. “While it’s currently unclear why, Wang is seeing a surge of public interest in her name, which is closely associated with Bill’s in popular online search engines.”
WOKENESS HAS COME FOR ADOPTION: “It’s the children who will suffer.”
There’s a long history to this stuff. The National Association of Black Social Workers has vehemently opposed inter-racial adoptions for many decades.
DISRUPTING THE SCRIPT: Why Doing the Unexpected Aids in Self Defense.
CANCEL CULTURE IS ALL IN YOUR MIND: Today’s blacklisted American: Football coach fired for criticizing Democrat.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Eight Lovely AR-15 Facts (#7 Is the Best) You Need to Argue With a Lib.
I BLAME THE CONFLICTING AND DISHONEST STATEMENTS FROM OUR PUBLIC HEALTH LEADERSHIP: Parents Are Reluctant to Get Their Children Vaccinated for Covid-19, Poll Shows.
It’s also the case that kids seldom get sick, and seldom spread Covid. So the risk calculus is different than for, say, 70-year-olds.
And I’m increasingly annoyed with people who act like herd immunity can only be reached by vaccination. It can — and will — be reached by natural infections, in time. For high risk people it’s better to take the shot than to get infected. For low-risk people, that’s not so clear. But either way, enough of the population will eventually have immunity.
Plus, don’t you know they were disappointed not to be able to blame dads here: “Fathers are becoming more accepting, with their resistance falling to 11 percent from 14 percent since February. But over a quarter of mothers, researchers said, still say they are ‘extremely unlikely’ to vaccinate their children. Both genders are more resistant to the vaccine for younger children than for teenagers. Other research shows that mothers tend to have more sway over the final decision than fathers.”
Look, if you don’t want to vaccinate your kid for whooping cough or measles, you’re an idiot. But the calculus here is different, and there’s nothing crazy about what these women are thinking.
THURSDAY AT 3:30PM EASTERN: ‘Five O’Clock Somewhere’ Live Chat with Kruiser, Preston, VodkaPundit.
Hot takes, cold drinks, good cheer.
FED UP: Texas House Passes ‘Urban Camping’ Ban. “Interesting that such a significant number of Hispanic Democrats back the ban.”
AS A LEGENDARY COMMUNITY ORGANIZER ADVISES, PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: College Soccer Player Suing Coach Who Benched Her After She Refused to Kneel During Protest.
The conflict escalated at a September 12 game against the University of Virginia, when [Kiersten] Hening’s teammates knelt during the reading of a unity pledge developed by the Atlantic Coast Conference‘s committee for racial and social justice. Hening remained standing, an act she claims sparked a “campaign of abuse.”
According to Hening, she was “verbally attacked” by her coach at halftime. Adair “singled her out and directly attacked her, pointing a finger in her face,” the lawsuit reads. “He denounced Hening for ‘bitching and moaning,’ for being selfish and individualistic, and for ‘doing her own thing.'”
Adair then benched Hening. Before the incident, she acted as a media spokesperson for the team and had played the most minutes of any athlete on the team. At the September 12 game, however, she played a total of five minutes.
Hening alleges she was continuously targeted by Adair and received considerably fewer minutes of playing time in ensuing games. By September 20, she had reached her breaking point: “Coach Adair’s campaign of abuse and retaliation made conditions for Hening so intolerable that she felt compelled to resign,” her lawsuit states. “Hening did not want to leave.”
In March, Hening filed the federal lawsuit against Adair, claiming his treatment violated her right to expressive conduct protected by the First and 14th Amendments. “Hening’s stance was costly—too costly,” the suit reads, “Her coach dislikes Hening’s political views. Because she refused to kneel, he benched her, subjected her to repeated verbal abuse, and forced her off the team.”
Hening is suing Adair for undisclosed compensatory, punitive, and nominal damages. She also is seeking reinstatement on the soccer team and requesting that Adair receives training on the First Amendment.
Heh, indeed,™ on that last item.
Evergreen:
IT’S THE DEMOGRAPHY, STUPID: Number of Births in U.S. Hits Lowest Mark Since 1979.
(Classical reference in headline.)