ANALYSIS: TRUE. Active-shooter training for office workers used to be about hiding. Not anymore. “The idea: Work as a team to disrupt and confuse shooters, opening up a split second to take them down.” This is a better approach than cowering under desks.
Archive for 2015
December 20, 2015
HOW TO RUN AGAINST HILLARY CLINTON.
WAS OBAMA SOMEHOW INVOLVED? “This must be the worst disaster in pageant history.”
AT AMAZON, deals on Extech Instruments.
TO HIDE THE INSULIN PUMP? “Speaking of Hillary and fashion, can anyone explain the extremely frumpy knee-length coat she wore last night? I’m especially curious about the big patch pockets at belly level. I understand that’s something a woman might choose as an alternative to carrying a purse, but Hillary has people to hold her things for her, and the pockets are so crude — huge and stuck on and bulgy. If I had to guess, I’d say she wears clothes as a deflection of attention from her body.”
FOR APPENDICITIS, choosing antibiotics over surgery.
NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT, GUYS, AFTER ALL, HOW MANY OF YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE WHITE MALES? Americans Boycott Sam’s Club After CEO’s Racist Comments About White Males.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: The Pros and Cons of Making Your Bed.
AT AMAZON, deals in Movies & TV.
DON’T FEEL BAD FOR WHAT THE COUNTRY’S DOING TO HIM. FEEL BAD FOR WHAT HE’S DONE TO THE COUNTRY: Inside Obama’s secret pity party. “Poor Barack Obama. Americans don’t appreciate his wisdom, and those nasty Republicans are picking on him again. Woe is the leader of the free world. That was the essence of his private meeting with friendly journalists, where the president gave his water-carriers talking points so he could jet off to Hawaii and still look as if he’s engaged in national security. The session was off the record, so Obama couldn’t be quoted or put on the spot with tough, public questions. But his trademark self-pity, partisan pique and warped ideas came through in the subsequent stories and columns.”
AFTER ERIC CANTOR, YOU’D THINK THEY’D HAVE LEARNED: Movement to Primary Speaker Paul Ryan Out of Congress Picks Up Steam.
MATTHEW SHEFFIELD: Sheldon Adelson Just Revolutionized American Politics.
The purchase is going to revolutionize politics because Adelson will have done something that Democratic billionaires like Warren Buffett have been doing for decades: purchasing newspapers. As of this writing, Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway owns 71 newspapers across America including swing states Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida. Over the years, he’s also donated billions of dollars to various liberal causes including Planned Parenthood; he also very publicly endorsed Barack Obama for president and agitated for higher income taxes on wealthy people.
This is not Adelson’s first newspaper, however. He already owns several others in Israel, including that country’s most popular daily publication, Israel Hayom (Today).
The Review-Journal has long had a libertarian-conservative editorial page which isn’t likely to change under its new owner. Like many regional dailies, has seen its profits and staff shrink as the metro newspaper industry continues to contract. That might change considering the massive amounts of money that Adelson has poured into Israel Hayom, purported losing millions of dollars a month on the free paper.
While there are a handful of media companies in the U.S. which are owned or operated by right-leaning individuals, the industry as a whole is overwhelmingly dominated by corporate executives who support Democrats. Even the employees of News Corporation, the former parent company of Fox News Channel, were revealed to have given far more money to Obama’s re-election campaign compared to his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
The continued dominance of liberal media magnates like Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone has been interesting in light of the billions of dollars that their conservative counterparts have poured into generally inefficient television advertising.
The one large exception to this rule has been News founder Rupert Murdoch who, despite his reputation as a hardcore Republican, had given less than $1 million to members of the GOP since 1990 as of 2011.
Will Adelson’s move inspire other conservative donors to stop wasting their money on television ads in pursuit of a defunct base mobilization strategy? Who knows.
Well, I’ve been encouraging the GOP donor class to do this sort of thing for quite a while.
SO PRACTICES HAVE CHANGED MORE THAN ATTITUDES: 76 percent of Americans approve of Christmas in public schools, as do 82 percent of parents. “A new Rasmussen Reports survey finds that 76 percent of Americans believe Christmas should be celebrated in public schools. Among adults with school-age children at home, 82 percent favor celebrating Christmas in the classroom. Another 61 percent overall believe there should be more religion in those schools. Another 54 percent say there’s not enough religion in the public schools; 70 percent of Republicans, 61 percent of the parents and 44 percent of Democrats agree. The survey of 1,000 U.S. adults was conducted Dec. 10-13. Rasmussen Reports notes that the findings are virtually unchanged from similar surveys in recent years.”
THE PALACE GUARD DEFENDS THE PALACE: CBS Edited Out Harsh Critique of Obama, U.S. ‘Militarism’ by Muslim Focus Group. “They ripped into Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but CBS wanted its own tidy narrative of patriotic Muslims who have no problem with this president.”
Plus:
He shut me down when I said that President Obama and Hillary Clinton has killed many Muslims under the administration when we were discussing Trump, and ironically for a GOP strategist, he shut me down when I talked about how Democrats have enacted some of the most deadliest and discriminatory policies against Muslims. . . .
The edited version of the focus group interview was mainly about proving our American identity, condemning terrorism, and Trump’s bashing of Muslim-Americans. This is problematic.
He kept saying how he felt bad that no one listens to Muslims and how he wanted to give us an opportunity to talk to the general population. But how can that happen when we’re manipulatively edited to have us fit their own narrative and agenda?
They call that journalism, these days. Interesting that they muted criticism of Obama and Hillary, but focused on complaints about Trump.
CHANGE: Theranos Founder Faces a Test of Technology, and Reputation. “Ms. Holmes said that she needed secrecy to keep others from stealing her ideas, but several former employees say that Ms. Holmes’s steely focus on her mission — an attribute deeply admired by outsiders — made it difficult for her to acknowledge any serious shortcomings in the company’s products. They say she would become angry and sometimes fire people who pointed out problems. She often spoke as though the company’s technology already existed, they said, rather than as if it were still in development.”
AT AMAZON, up to 80% off on Kindle Books.
Plus, today only at Amazon: Save up to 78% on The Walking Dead: Season 1-4 Bundle and Season 5 on Blu-ray and DVD.
And, also today only: Champion WheelyBird Auto-Feed Trap, $219.99 (41% off).
EVEN THE NYT IS PRODUCING HEADLINES LIKE THIS: As Obama Checks Off List of Goals Met, a Nervous Nation Dwells on Terror. “Mr. Obama has the lowest rating of his presidency for terrorism, with 37 percent approving of the way he has handled the issue, according to a national survey by the Pew Research Center. Fifty-seven percent disapprove, even as terrorism has catapulted to the top of the public’s list of concerns.”
THE ROTHERHAM RAPE GANGS GOT A PASS, BUT THERE’S THIS: UK police busts karaoke “gang” for sharing songs that aren’t commercially available.
FUNNY, THAT’S NOT WHAT PEOPLE TOLD US IN 2009: There’s No Miracle Cure for Health-Care Costs.
Flashback: Obama administration knew millions could not keep their health insurance. “That means the administration knew that more than 40 to 67 percent of those in the individual market would not be able to keep their plans, even if they liked them. Yet President Obama, who had promised in 2009, ‘if you like your health plan, you will be able to keep your health plan,’ was still saying in 2012, ‘If [you] already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance.'”
XCOR AEROSPACE makes some progress. (Disclosure: I own a small amount of friends-and-family stock in XCOR).
NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS for old-house owners.
FASTENER NEWS: These Are The Screws You Should Be Using.
THE NEW YORK TIMES CAN ASK THIS QUESTION, BUT WON’T THINK ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS FOR AMERICAN POLICY: Has Europe Reached The Breaking Point?
Key bit: “It is a perfect recipe for public cynicism: a system of intrusive regulators whose tentacles can spread into your personal life, even as leaders appear indecisive in the face of genuine crises.”
Luckily nothing like that could ever happen here.