COVERING THE IMPORTANT STORIES: The Story of The Legendary Song That Became The Rick Roll (Video).
Archive for 2022
October 13, 2022
TRUST, WHEN YOU CAN’T VERIFY? Inserting a Backdoor into a Machine-Learning System. “We conclude that machine-learning model security requires assurance of provenance along the entire technical pipeline, including the data, model architecture, compiler, and hardware specification.”
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE, with Stacy McCain.
HOLIDAY DEAL: Keurig K-Mini Coffee Maker. #CommissionEarned
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Muslim Parents Defy Intersectionality, Join Christian Parents Against Sexualizing Kids. “Over the past year or so, we’ve become familiar with scenes of parents protesting school boards over sexually explicit content in schools. But Monday’s event featured a new cast: Hundreds of predominantly Arab and Muslim Americans joined their Christian neighbors to oppose the sexually explicit, pro-LGBTQ materials popping up in their kids’ public school education. Dearborn is next to Detroit, home to the largest Muslim population in the United States per capita, as well as the largest mosque in the country. Over 300,000 Muslims live in Southeast Michigan—which makes the protest all the more interesting: These aren’t Republicans. Dearborn is in Wayne County, which hasn’t voted for a Republican president in 94 years—since Herbert Hoover was elected in 1928.”
DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Chicago’s Great Unraveling.
The city of Chicago made me who I am. When I was growing up there in the ‘50s and ‘60s—and for decades after—it was one of the world’s great cities. For all of the poverty on the South Side where I spent my childhood, teenage years, and early 20s, it was also a tremendously vital place with thriving middle-class communities, restaurants, nightlife, and shopping. My friends and I rode our bikes and played stickball in the alleys without fear. My parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins built lives there that they were proud of, where they could live with dignity and in relative safety.
Now so much of what made life in Chicago wonderful is being stamped out by violent crime and social dysfunction that city leaders seem unwilling or unable to address. In the absence of large-scale changes to the city’s overly lax criminal justice policies, without a concerted effort to restore order, I fear that Chicago may go the way of Detroit and end up as a decaying husk of a formerly great city.
In the following excerpt from a longer conversation, journalist Matt Rosenberg fills me in on what he calls “the Great Unraveling,” the downward spiral of crime and despair now gripping Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. It’s a heartbreaking story, one that we’re hearing from too many American cities. There are plenty of people like Matt who love Chicago and are trying to save it, but city and state political leaders need to intercede in a more proactive way. If they’re unwilling to do so, they need to be voted out.
You can listen to the podcast or read the transcript at the link.
I’d just add that Chicagoans elected their last Republican mayor in 1926.
WELL, YES, BUT IT’S A CRISIS BY DESIGN: JP Morgan CEO: Biden Is ‘Getting Energy Completely Wrong.’ “During the interview, the interviewer noted that Dimon is the only CEO of a major financial institution that weathered the 2008 financial crisis. Now he is warning Americans to be ready for anything.”
“RON SWANSON WOULD NOT BE IMPRESSED.” FIRE is demanding a Pennsylvania county parks & rec department allow a political candidate to collect ballot signatures in a public park or get sued. There is no more basic First Amendment right. The fact that such a threat is necessary is appalling, and is just another piece of evidence that at every level, too many government actors have become completely dismissive of even our most obvious rights.
DEAL OF THE DAY: Shark Navigator Lift-Away Professional Upright Vacuum. #CommissionEarned
WAIT, I THOUGHT TRUMP WAS PUTIN’S BIGGEST U.S. FAN: But now it’s Politico that names the Russian thug as the climate hero of the year. Why? Because his invasion of Ukraine “forced Europe to finally break its fossil fuel addiction.” No, I am not making this up and neither is the Washington Free Beacon’s Andrew Stiles.
AT LEAST THEY HAD A SURPLUS TO LEAN ON: Russia’s Budget Surplus Is Nearly Erased as War in Ukraine Drags On.
HIGHER EDUCATION IS A MONEY LAUNDRY FOR LEFTIST CAUSES: University of Illinois paid Ibram Kendi $35,000 for 60-minute Q&A.
THIS IS WHAT’S WRONG WITH MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Remember Michael Cohen, Trump’s alleged “fixer” and favorite of CNN and MSNBC viewers everywhere? In my latest PJ Media column, I explain how an Insider (formerly Business Insider) story on Cohen perfectly captures a huge part of what is wrong with American journalism.
EVER HEARD OF DUSTIN MOSKOVITZ? Odds are good you haven’t but now you have, thanks to Instapundit and Capital Research Center’s Parker Thayer. And you should know about this guy, who ranks right up there with George Soros in helping fund the destruction of individual liberty and republican government.
A SMALL MEASURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY: Student who threw urine on pro-life chapter arrested.
NOW OUT FROM KURT SCHLICHTER: Inferno (Kelly Turnbull Book 7).
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: In Pennsylvania, fear and uncertainty are on the ballot. “Elizalde, a city teacher, has not heard from the mayor or the school district since her son was shot and killed on Sept. 29. The man identified as a person of interest in the case, 16-year-old Dayron Burney-Thorn, had three priors, including resisting arrest and possessing a gun illegally.”
Why are Democrat-run cities such cesspits of crime and violence and death?
WELCOME TO THE PARTY, PAL: Majority Of Democrats Now ‘Concerned’ About Biden’s Mental Health, Poll Finds.
BIDEN TO GIG WORKERS – DROP DEAD: Crime, especially in the big cities but also increasingly in their suburbs, is skyrocketing. But the Biden administration is preparing robbery on a massive scale, according to Issues & Insights. You know Biden, he’s from the government and he’s here to help us:
“In essence, the White House wants to outlaw gig work in America. No, it’s not saying so outright. The Biden Labor Department obscures that harsh reality with words meant to deceive. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh says the department’s proposal is needed to safeguard ‘our nation’s most vulnerable workers,’ and ensure they are not deprived ‘of their federal labor protections.’
“Left out is the part that, should the proposal become policy, millions of Americans will be stripped of their jobs and income. Under its rule, the Labor Department would be free to ‘determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act.’ And it will determine in every case that the worker in question must be a hired employee, no longer free to continue his or her job as an independent contractor.”
The key word there is “independent.” That idea threatens the bureaucrats, the mainstream media, and the power-hungry politicians. Just remember what they mean by “covering” something. With a pillow. Like Dave says.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Let’s Hope Joe Biden Doesn’t Get the Planet Nuked for Christmas. “There are consequences to installing an empty husk in the Oval Office and playing president by committee. This is an awful time in history to be waiting to see who pops out of the clown car to step up and attempt to talk Vlad out of going all boom-boom.”
UNEXPECTEDLY! Inflation increased 0.4% in September, more than expected despite rate hikes. This is why Democrats are doubling down on their January 6 circus.
Also: Why Team Biden might be purposefully grinding down the middle class.
BELARUS: Lukashenko’s Mad Attempt to ‘Forbid’ Prices From Rising Is a Movie We’ve Seen Before. “Last week brought news from Minsk that Lukashenko fancies himself a sort of economic sorcerer. Facing an annual rate of price inflation of nearly 20 percent, he angrily declared at a meeting of top officials, ‘All price increases are forbidden. Forbidden! From today [October 6]. Not from tomorrow, from today!'”
The shortages will arrive… unexpectedly.