FORGET IT, JAKE — IT’S THE UN: Israel Calls for UN Chief’s Resignation After Comments Justifying Hamas Attack.

THIS DOESN’T SURPRISE ME, BUT IT’S A LOW BAR: Nurse practitioners match doctors at safely prescribing drugs, study shows.

AN OREGON DIPLOMA IS JUST A PIECE OF PAPER: Oregon keeps grad requirements low: No need for reading, writing, math competency. “Oregon must be a Looking Glass World: Motivating students to improve their writing and math skills is harmful. Sending them out into the world unprepared — but with another elective — is helpful.”

JAMES LILEKS’ WEDNESDAY REVIEW OF MODERN THOUGHT:

Perhaps you heard about a protest rally in Minneapolis. They blocked off a street, and a four-wheeler zipped up and down displaying a Hamas flag.

* * * * * * * *

Also, according to reddit, the real problem is Christofascism, and also, according to reddit, lol at your sky dad. I don’t know. I thought the Hamas flag flown past the beautiful old church and the modern temple of secular art would be more of a big deal. I mean, it’s not a Gadsden flag, but still.

Read the whole thing.

CDR SALAMANDER: Do we give them the war they want?

This question is why I’m not as depressed as some people that Israel hasn’t jumped into Gaza yet. The atrocities were almost certainly intended to provoke a hasty reaction. (Sure, the drugged up footsoldiers did them just for fun, and the Palestinian civilians — and American academics — loved them, but that wasn’t the strategic goal, just fanservice.) They’ve had years to prepare Gaza as a trap, and urban combat is awful and bloody under the best of circumstances.

And anyway, Iran is behind this. If I were the Israelis I’d be making a demonstration at Gaza to hold people’s attention, while planning to take out the Hamas leadership (in Qatar, last I heard, but demonstrating that Qatar can’t protect them would be a bonus) along with some senior Iranians in Iran. And maybe some high economic value targets like oil terminals. Let the Gazans stew in their juices without power or water or sufficient excitement to make them feel important.

Is that the actual plan? No idea.

Similar considerations apply to the United States. Personally, I’m okay with Linebacker III, but our ability to kill individual Iranian leaders like Soleimani points the way to a different approach.

JEFFREY SINGER ON the cold medicine debacle.

Just before cold and flu season is set to kick off, the Food and Drug Administration’s advisory panel last month reported that an oral decongestant Americans have relied on for nearly 20 years is no better than a placebo.

This ingredient found in popular versions of Sudafed, Dayquil and other medications has gained popularity since Congress made it difficult for people to obtain an effective oral decongestant. Now, lawmakers can correct that mistake before the winter cold and flu season arrives in full force.

In an effort to shut down homegrown meth labs in which people converted oral decongestants containing pseudoephedrine into methamphetamine, Congress 18 years ago passed the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act. Under the CMEA, the Drug Enforcement Administration ordered all pseudoephedrine-containing products moved “behind the counter” and required pharmacists to register and track people who purchased them.

The DEA placed strict limits on the number and dosage of pseudoephedrine-containing products patients may obtain in 30 days. Until last year, Oregon and Mississippi had required residents to get a doctor’s prescription. But as often happened to the meth lab “cooks,” the methamphetamine law has become a spectacular fail, backfiring on its creators and harming innocent bystanders.

Lawmakers should admit it was a mistake and get rid of it.

Yes. Plus: “It doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to wonder whether the FDA didn’t want to undermine the newly minted Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act by telling cold and allergy sufferers they will all be facing limits on their access to oral decongestants. And it wouldn’t be the first time politics influenced the FDA.”

It’s now newsworthy when the FDA is driven by something other than politics.

ANN ALTHOUSE IS QUESTIONING THE NARRATIVE: There are more, not fewer, abortions in the year after Dobbs, but isn’t the increase in the earliest weeks of pregnancy? “I had to look up how late into pregnancy an abortion pill works. The answer is 10 weeks. What if Dobbs hasn’t reduced the number of abortions, but it has motivated women to seek early abortions? Has there been a decrease in mid- and late-term abortions?”

THEY’RE ALWAYS IN THE FIRST PLACE YOU LOOK: Hey, I Finally Found Those Nazis! “Sure enough, since October 7 it’s been easy to find Nazis everywhere — and you don’t even have to squint. I found some last night at that bastion of right-wing nastiness called George Washington University.”

EXACTLY WHAT YOU’D EXPECT: Guess What Happened to Violent Crime Rates After Ohio Adopted Permitless Carry?

At the time, gun control activists and anti-gun politicians decried the move and declared it would make the state a more dangerous place. State Rep. Allison Russo even claimed that “Republicans have made it crystal clear that they value the approval of the gun lobby more than the lives of Ohioans and the police officers who protect our communities every day.”

With the FBI’s crime statistics for 2022 now publicly available, was Russo right? Did Ohio become a more dangerous place because of permitless carry? Were Republicans really casting their votes because they had no care or concern about the safety of their constituents or those tasked with enforcing the laws they approved at the state capitol?

Nope to all of the above. . . . Not only did violent crime and homicide rates both decline last year, the drop in violent crime in Ohio far outpaced the national average. The doom-and-gloom predictions of the anti-gunners were flat-out wrong, and Ohio is a safer state today than it was when Gov. Mike DeWine signed SB 215 into law.

Anytime gun control laws are relaxed, the antigunners predict blood in the streets and it never happens.

FLASHBACK: ED MORRISSEY ON THAT PHONY TIME COVER: About That Time Magazine “Crying Girl” Cover … “In other words, like so much of the media coverage of this issue, Crying Girl actually represents the opposite of the assumptions blasted around by outlets like Time. We’ve experienced a deluge of misinformation and a complete lack of context over the past week or so from media outlets that are clearly more interested in an agenda than an informed debate. Yanela Varela Hernandez is the poster girl for media’s appetite for activism over truth. And they wonder why people continue to accuse them of peddling ‘fake news’?”

BLUE STATE BLUES: Several California cities among the ‘rattiest’ in the U.S., according to Orkin.

Orkin has released its annual list of America’s “Rattiest” cities, and the City of Angeles landed in the number two spot, climbing one notch year-over-year.

Chicago was number one for the ninth consecutive year. San Fransisco was No. 5, San Diego was No. 28 and Sacramento was 33rd.

The rankings, Orkin says, are not based on the number of rats in the city or any official count (as if that were possible), but instead are drawn from “the number of new rodent services” – meaning how often they’re called to deal with rat infestation.

To be fair, Ohio got dinged for having cities ranked 10th, 18th, and 31st.

SHE’S MULTIFACETED: Stupid and Hard of Hearing: KJP Says She ‘Misheard’ Question About Anti-Semitism.

READER BOOK PLUG: From Andrew Fox, The End of Daze. #CommissionEarned

CHANGE: The Blaze Dumps All Advertisers, Goes Subscriber-Only.

NO, VANDERBILT ISN’T GOVERNED BY “PRINCIPLED NEUTRALITY.” But expect “strange new respect” for UChicago’s Kalven Report, which says that the university should not be taking sides on controversial issues, in the wake of Hamas’ atrocities. Such a position makes it harder to cheaply virtue signal in a 2020 riots-type situation, but becomes extremely convenient when you have hired lots of people with views such as “those dead babies had it coming, amirite?” Williams College is already on board. More colleges should join in. Yes, they will be doing it for the worst possible reasons, but those who are powerful but unaccountable rarely do things for any other reason.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: At Harvard, there are 2,600 more administrators than undergrads.

To be honest, I don’t really want more Harvard undergrads. But then, I don’t want more Harvard administrators, either.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: Producers ‘Haven’t Even Begun’ the Next James Bond, and This Fan Says WHEW! “How to reinvent Bond again so soon after Craig? I have two ideas and one warning.”

I REMEMBER WHEN WE WERE ENCOURAGED TO PUNCH NAZIS: WATCH: Pro-Hamas Florida students and local activists call for eradication of Israel.

IT WORKED AGAINST CIGARETTE MAKERS: 41 states sue Meta, claiming Instagram, Facebook are addictive, harm kids. “The barrage of lawsuits is the culmination of a sprawling 2021 investigation into claims that Meta contributes to mental health issues among young people. While the scope of the legal claims vary, they paint a picture of a company that has hooked children on its platforms using harmful and manipulative tactics.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Obama Eager to Remind Everyone He’s an Idiot on Foreign Policy. “Unfortunately, half the country thinks that he’s the most brilliant man to do brilliant things in the history of brilliance. Anyone who disagrees with that, according to them, is — say it with me — racist.”

FLASHBACK: I wrote this column back when I was a media critic for The Daily Caller. It’s worth a look just to see how little has changed.

“[T]he narrative at work is ruthlessly effective and instantly visceral. Simply put, mainstream media is painting a picture of Big Evil Israel “slaughtering” innocent and “peaceful” protesters, including women and infants. Even the more moderate shade of this narrative pays lip service to Israel’s right to self-defense but chides the IDF for “disproportionate responses.”

I HAVE LOW REGARD FOR NEWSGUARD: Matt Taibbi: Newsguard Case Highlights the Pentagon’s Censorship End-Around: The Consortium News lawsuit against a private news rating system lays out how the government can suppress speech by proxy.

PEOPLE WANT TO BUY THEM IN LARGE NUMBERS? Influential Porsche designer says Chinese electric car manufacturers have one crucial advantage.

Though China does possess an advantage in key components like raw materials, processing and battery manufacturing, a key Porsche figurehead noticed something very different that Chinese manufacturers have, that other, more established companies like Porsche do not.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Porsche chief designer Michael Mauer said that Chinese car companies have an advantage because the strict guidelines that more-established brands use to protect their “heritage” limit the creativity of their designers, but also help to inspire new ideas.

“These startups, with no heritage, they can do things completely different,” Mauer told Bloomberg. “I consider it a positive thing actually, as a designer, because that makes the decision-makers — I.E., the management board — more open-minded.”

It’s going to take a lot more than looks to broaden the EV market beyond early adopters, enthusiasts, and the pretty limited market where EV makes more economic sense than ICE.

HONESTLY, THEY SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT SOONER: Liberal Media Scream: Morning Joe warns of Trump retaliation just short of firing squads.

JEFF GOLDSTEIN: Never Again, Again. “In a post to X yesterday, Meghan McCardle, lately of The Washington Post (but to me, always a fellow old-school political blogger), tried threading the same Gordian knot many coastal intellectuals have been keen to thread of late — namely, the supposed difficulty of reconciling support for free speech with the uncomfortable, or at least, inconvenient, specter of the educated elite, from whom their kind routinely draws the next generation of ideological reinforcements, protesting in support of a government explicitly dedicated to ethnic cleansing and genocide. . . . The truth is, these students didn’t offer ‘tone deaf statements’ in the laudable and courageous course of free speech activism. Rather, as the presumptive future leaders of a pluralist country — adults who have access to more information faster than any others like them in history — these self-satisfied virtue groupies got a charge out the transgressive stance of blaming the Jews for the slaughter, rape, and kidnapping of their own civilians, many of whom were killed in door-to-door sweeps whose object was their complete extermination.”