WHEN PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO GET LAID, LAWS ARE JUST SUGGESTIONS. INCLUDING THE LAWS OF PHYSICS. Scientists Caught Sperm Defying One of The Major Laws of Physics.
Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds
October 25, 2023
LESBIANISM IS HARAM: Columbia University lesbian group disinvites ‘Zionists’ from movie night.
With the conflict in Gaza raging, an organization called LionLez sent out a message to students promoting an on-campus “Black Lesbian Film” event said explicitly said no “Zionists” would be welcome to attend.
“It’s FREE PALESTINE over here. Zionists aren’t invited. See you soon, Lion Lez,” read the promotion for the Friday night showing of the two flicks, including one called “Shakedown” which “chronicles explicit performances in an underground lesbian club in Los Angeles.”
The missive, sent by group founder and leader Lizzy George-Griffin, also included a rambling message that noted “THE HOLOCAUST WASN’T SPECIAL,” according to a copy of the ad obtained by the Post.
When reached by the Post Wednesday, George-Griffin doubled down on her ban on Israel backers.
Plus: “A fellow student, who wished to be identified only by her initials, said ‘antisemitism has become commonplace at Columbia,’ and said it was ‘bewildering’ that someone as ‘disturbingly ignorant’ as George-Griffin was admitted to the top tier university.”
The Ivy League admissions offices have admitted exactly the kind of students they wanted.
IS THIS REAL THE LIFE? IS THIS JUST FANTASY? Redefining the Fabric of Reality: The Growing Evidence for a Simulated Universe.
WHY DON’T PEOPLE TRUST THE MEDICAL PROFESSION? Johns Hopkins doctor’s bullying exposes whole profession.
The US medical profession has a real credibility problem — and doctors bear a huge share of the blame.
Consider the latest news for the “bad physician” file, the sobering tale of Dr. Jonathan Epstein, a leading pathologist at Johns Hopkins.
The doc allegedly bullied his colleagues to deliver second opinions supporting diagnoses from his wife, also a pathologist.
These included, horrifically, a surgical bladder removal that may not even have been necessary.
Epstein was put on administrative leave in May: Why is the public only finding out about this now?
Worse, neither Epstein nor his erstwhile employer has admitted that anything in the slightest could be wrong.
So here we have Hopkins — the byword for medical excellence in America — engaged in a seeming cover-up of what looks like massive misconduct by one of its top physicians.
Every institution has been corrupted.
THAT’S NOT A HUGE IMPACT, BUT IT’S NOT NOTHING: Convalescent plasma reduces mortality by 10% in COVID-19 patients on artificial respiratory assistance: Clinical trial. “The effect on reducing mortality was more specifically observed in patients who received convalescent plasma during the first 48 hours after being put on artificial respiratory assistance. . . . This study documents and confirms the value of convalescent plasma for passive immunization against the most severe forms of COVID-19, but also against possible future more pathogenic variants and possibly in the event of future pandemics.” Especially in a patient population that’s so ill.
I donated convalescent plasma several times after having Covid, so I’m happy to hear that it might have helped someone.
IT’S NICE THAT PEOPLE ARE NOTICING: How the Democrats betrayed the Jews.
Why do Jews vote Democratic? Partly from tradition — conservatives have heard a Liberal Jew, when asked to defend or explain various absurd or inconsistent Democratic positions, shrug and joke: “I’m a Congenital Democrat.” I understand, for I was one, too.
But there is no more cosy mystery in the antisemitism of the Democratic Party; Representatives are affiliated with the Democratic Socialists and pro-Palestinians, calling for the end of the state of Israel — that is, for the death of the Jews. And Democrat Representatives repeat and refuse to retract the libel that Israel bombed a hospital, in spite of absolute proof to the contrary, and will not call out the unutterable atrocities of Hamas. The writing is on the wall. In blood.
You were warned.
HABEMUS ORATOR: House elects Mike Johnson as speaker after three weeks at an impasse. With unanimous Republican support.
UPDATE: And America’s paper of record is on it!
Smoke Rises Over Capitol Indicating Congress Has Resumed Setting Taxpayers' Money On Fire https://t.co/rB9fIfEmJr
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) October 25, 2023
ACTIVE SELF-DEFENSE: An interview with shooting expert John Correia.
IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Tai chi may curb Parkinson’s disease symptoms and complications for several years.
WELL, YOU GUYS DIDN’T EXACTLY COVER YOURSELVES WITH GLORY THERE: “Nearly half of healthcare workers reported burnout in 2022, when reports of harassment more than doubled from before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
THIS DOESN’T SURPRISE ME, BUT IT’S A LOW BAR: Nurse practitioners match doctors at safely prescribing drugs, study shows.
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?”
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’?”
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.
I REMEMBER WHEN WE WERE ENCOURAGED TO PUNCH NAZIS: WATCH: Pro-Hamas Florida students and local activists call for eradication of Israel.
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.”
DON SURBER: 404 Journalism: An anti-Semitic press lies to destroy Israel.
The English-speaking press gladly accommodates Palestinian terrorism because the press now sees itself as an academic enterprise rather than a trade. Master’s degrees in journalism now dominate the hiring at newspapers. Newspapers prefer degrees from prestigious schools, which always made me smirk because if you have a degree from Harvard, why are you working for peanuts at the Charleston Gazette in West Virginia?
But that background explains why the press promotes Palestinian terrorism against Israel. American universities are citadels of anti-Semitism. Liberals have bestowed victimhood upon the terrorists. Foolishly, I believe, because they will turn on liberals before liberals have the chance to turn on them. Terrorism is by definition a cut-throat enterprise.
American journalists blissfully ignore this as they carry the water for Palestinians.
When Palestinians bombed the parking lot of Christian hospital in Gaza, every single major news outlet in America blamed Israel and said the missile destroyed a hospital.
They’re not so much gullible as they’re complicit.
HARVARD IS HAVING A (WELL-DESERVED) BAD YEAR: ‘This Is Not Leadership’: Open Letter Skewers Harvard For Failing To Protect Jewish Students.
Related: Larry Hogan the Latest to Abandon Harvard. “Considering that Hogan continues to make noises about a potential presidential run next year, possibly as an independent, he probably doesn’t want his name associated with Harvard in any way at this point. . . . Is any of this sinking in at Harvard yet? They’ve already lost the support of some of their top-dollar donors, and more people are abandoning ship. Harvard President Claudine Gay is very much in the spotlight because of all of this. She was initially silent when the Hamas-supporting letter from more than 30 student groups went out. Then, when it obviously began blowing up in her face, she released a statement that failed to satisfy anyone.” They have lousy leadership, but then again they have lousy followers.