Obama administration clears way for taxpayer-funded sex-change surgery « Hot Air

Obama administration clears way for taxpayer-funded sex-change surgery « Hot Air: "By the way, he says he’s perfectly willing to serve gay customers, just not for a wedding. I believe that’s also true of other bakers and photographers who’ve run afoul of state discrimination laws. Unless I’m mistaken, no one’s categorically refused to accept gay customers a la racist business owners refusing to accept blacks 50 years ago. A belated exit question via Ben Domenech: If gay marriage is illegal in Colorado, how can refusing to cater a gay wedding also be illegal?"



'via Blog this'

Horror: Stun grenade tossed by Georgia cops during drug raid lands in toddler’s playpen « Hot Air

Horror: Stun grenade tossed by Georgia cops during drug raid lands in toddler’s playpen « Hot Air: "Indeed. What’s the threshold for using a flash-bang sight unseen, knowing that anything and anyone could be behind that door? Selling meth might not meet that threshold, but maybe the possibility of an AK-47 being pointed at you when the door swings open does. What I want to know is, how would they have approached this if they did have reason to believe a child was there? No flash-bangs, obviously, which means a greater risk for the cops, but would you rather have cops take the extra risk or a 19-month-old who’s asleep in his crib? That’s what this case is about. How much extra danger should the police reasonably be expected to expose themselves to in the name of avoiding terrible crossfire accidents like this one?"



'via Blog this'

Best of the Web Today: Two Cheers for Bloomberg - WSJ

Best of the Web Today: Two Cheers for Bloomberg - WSJ: "Our headline withholds a third cheer from Bloomberg because he followed his defense of the First Amendment with an assault on the Second. "For decades," he complained, "Congress has barred the Centers for Disease Control from conducting studies of gun violence, and recently Congress also placed that prohibition on the National Institute of Health. You have to ask yourself: What are they afraid of?" The answer seems clear: They're afraid of scientific authority being hijacked in the service of an anticonstitutional political agenda."



'via Blog this'

Pelosi: My preferred Obamacare ‘fix’ is single-payer, obviously « Hot Air

Pelosi: My preferred Obamacare ‘fix’ is single-payer, obviously « Hot Air: "Please don’t misunderstand. She is most assuredly not suggesting that Obamacare isn’t working fabulously as is.  Like the president, the House Minority Leader believes the new law is working “the way it’s supposed to,” a sentiment shared by a minuscule fraction of the public.  To drive home this point, she beams that the law is “beautiful,” and that Healthcare.gov is finally “well” — even as crucial elements that impact consumers have yet to be built.  Come to think of it, Pelosi tells Ezra Klein, the Obamacare rollout (!) is pretty compelling evidence of Democrats’ strong record on governance."



'via Blog this'

Video: Obama leads America to glorious victory over straw men at West Point « Hot Air

Video: Obama leads America to glorious victory over straw men at West Point « Hot Air: "So shopworn has this gimmick become that it’s now practically a drinking game on Twitter during O’s speeches to spot the straw men as they arrive. I do think there’s a strategic component to it, though, not just some knee-jerk impulse on Obama’s part to reassure the world that he’s Mr. Reasonable. It’s not quite true that McCain supports military intervention everywhere, but given his high media profile and his eternal belief that the U.S. should be doing more abroad, no matter how much the U.S. is already doing, I think he’s become a useful proxy for that position to the White House. McCain is, after all, the closest thing the GOP currently has to a spokesman for George W. Bush’s foreign policy (I think he’s even more gung ho about interventionism than Dubya was, but never mind that) and running against Bush’s foreign policy has always paid off for Obama. As one person on Twitter said, read today’s speech and you’ll see that chunks of it seem to be aimed directly at McCain — which is to say, aimed directly at Bush. The same was true the last time he spoke up in defense of his foreign policy, slightly less than a month ago. Setting up that contrast, passivity abroad or another Iraq war, is good for O."



'via Blog this'

The Intellectual Dishonesty of Obama and Other False Purists - NationalJournal.com

The Intellectual Dishonesty of Obama and Other False Purists - NationalJournal.com: "Obama chafes at such even-handed analyses. He dismisses them as "false equivalence" because the president won't be happy until every news story casts him as the hero and Republicans as the villains.

In politics and in everyday life, rarely are both sides equally wrong, which is why journalists shouldn't draw false equivalence. Balz is an example of how to measure blame fairly, not necessarily equally.

Rarer still is one side 100 percent right, which is why Obama is guilty of false purity. Obama's intellectual dishonesty has prevented him from learning on the job, which is what's required of great presidents—the kind who overcome obstacles that others whine about."



'via Blog this'

Best of the Web Today: Watch It, Kinsley - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: Watch It, Kinsley - WSJ.com: "By "here," Sullivan means in the editing of Kinsley's review. But she herself characterizes the review unfairly. Here's the "self-righteous sourpuss" line in context:

[Greenwald's] story is full of journalistic derring-do, mostly set in exotic Hong Kong. It's a great yarn, which might be more entertaining if Greenwald himself didn't come across as so unpleasant. Maybe he's charming and generous in real life. But in "No Place to Hide," Greenwald seems like a self-righteous sourpuss, convinced that every issue is "straightforward," and if you don't agree with him, you're part of something he calls "the authorities," who control everything for their own nefarious but never explained purposes.
This is not an ad hominem attack at all; it's a criticism of the book's tone. Kinsley isn't saying that Greenwald's sour tone invalidates his arguments but that it makes his book unenjoyable to read. That's surely relevant to anyone who may be considering reading it."



'via Blog this'

Joseph Bast and Roy Spencer: The Myth of the Climate Change '97%' - WSJ.com

Joseph Bast and Roy Spencer: The Myth of the Climate Change '97%' - WSJ.com: "The survey's questions don't reveal much of interest. Most scientists who are skeptical of catastrophic global warming nevertheless would answer "yes" to both questions. The survey was silent on whether the human impact is large enough to constitute a problem. Nor did it include solar scientists, space scientists, cosmologists, physicists, meteorologists or astronomers, who are the scientists most likely to be aware of natural causes of climate change."



'via Blog this'

Best of the Web Today: No 'Dumping' - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: No 'Dumping' - WSJ.com: "Last week, as National Journal reported, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia opined that people don't like ObamaCare "because they don't like the president. Maybe he's of the wrong color." But there's no right or wrong color. ObamaCare is just the wrong policy."



'via Blog this'

IRS backtracks on 501(c)4 rule after flood of negative comments « Hot Air

IRS backtracks on 501(c)4 rule after flood of negative comments « Hot Air: "Will the IRS retreat from managing political speech through the tax code? One might have thought that the scandal that erupted a year ago this month would have discouraged the tax agency from pressing forward again, but they still proposed a more extensive enforcement mechanism for 501(c)4 groups just months after the targeting of conservative groups was exposed. After an avalanche of negative comments in the public-review period, though, the IRS is rethinking their approach."



'via Blog this'

United Nations probably none too pleased with Australia’s new, less climate-change-minded budget plan « Hot Air

United Nations probably none too pleased with Australia’s new, less climate-change-minded budget plan « Hot Air: "Last September, Australians gave their progressive Labor Party the boot after six years of national government dominance and instead ushered their conservative-lite Liberal Party into power. Their new prime minister, Tony Abbott, promised to reduce government expenditures and streamline the bureaucracy amidst a slowing economy and high taxes, with an especial emphasis on reducing the country’s green-energy commitments and unpopular carbon tax. Last week, Abbott released his budget proposal amidst a flurry of controversy, but he did take a pretty sizable axe to some of Australian green groups’ most treasured areas of government spending."



'via Blog this'

Bad news from Paul Ehrlich: We might eventually have to start eating our dead « Hot Air

Bad news from Paul Ehrlich: We might eventually have to start eating our dead « Hot Air: "A tasty leftover from Newsbusters. He’s vague on when, precisely, mass cannibalism will become the last best hope of mankind — we’re headed that way “with ridiculous speed” is all he’ll say — but don’t be too hard on this guy for shying away from concrete predictions. He’s tried that before and it didn’t work out so well, although naturally his most devoted acolytes disagree. In a death match between consciousness-raising and inconvenient facts, you can always count on cognitive dissonance to protect the former. Even when the inconvenient fact in question involves hundreds of millions of deaths that didn’t happen."



'via Blog this'

Financial Times: We’ve found some, ahem, “serious inconsistencies” in Thomas Piketty’s numbers « Hot Air

Financial Times: We’ve found some, ahem, “serious inconsistencies” in Thomas Piketty’s numbers « Hot Air: "As Ed already noted during the advent of Thomas Piketty’s not-so-revolutionary “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” there are some serious fundamental flaws in the Piketty narrative in which modern economic growth has somehow ravaged the lower and middle classes while the upper echelons of society enjoyed the lion’s share of the benefits, and we are now supposedly in the midst of an income-inequality crisis. Piketty got very obviously picky and choosey with a whole lot of the data points he used to construct his arguments, and the Financial Times just did their own investigation into the exact math he employed. The results?"



'via Blog this'

Democrats introduce exciting new meme to celebrate Obama doing nothing to fix the VA « Hot Air

Democrats introduce exciting new meme to celebrate Obama doing nothing to fix the VA « Hot Air: "What am I missing here? There must be some inside joke or allusion I’m not getting that explains why you’d introduce this slogan during the one week more than any other of his presidency that illustrates what a terrible, disengaged manager he is. It’d be like the RNC rolling out a “Prosperity” bumper sticker the week of the financial crash in 2008.

So, obviously, it refers to something else. But … what?"



'via Blog this'

Best of the Web Today: The Accidental Alien - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: The Accidental Alien - WSJ.com: "Hernandez's case "represents a broken immigration system," his lawyer, Elizabeth Ricci, tells the Times. No doubt about that. But it represents something else, too: a broken voting system. According to the Times, Hernandez cast improper votes in "every major election" since 1976. That's at least 10 of them, twice as many if it includes midterms.

Noncitizens, including legal resident aliens, are forbidden to vote in every state. States that have sought to incorporate verification of citizenship into the voter-registration process have encountered obstacles from the Obama administration and denunciations from the New York Times."



'via Blog this'

Question for Al Sharpton: If Donald Sterling is banned from the NBA for racism, shouldn’t you be banned from TV? « Hot Air

Question for Al Sharpton: If Donald Sterling is banned from the NBA for racism, shouldn’t you be banned from TV? « Hot Air: "Via the Daily Surge, which has a longer list of racially charged Sharpton bon mots from over the years than Jason Mattera is able to get to in the clip. Love him or hate him, you should respect the reverend for his achievement: It’s a rare man who begins his “career” pushing phony racial scandals and inciting violence against Jews and ends up hosting the president of the United States at rallies. How many among us have the political savvy to rebound from saying things like “If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house” to participating semi-seriously in Democratic presidential debates? The guy’s been sufficiently rehabilitated that he now has his very own show every night at 6 p.m. on America’s “progressive” cable news network despite the fact that he palpably doesn’t prepare beforehand at all. And by “rehabilitated,” I mean that his many sins are politely tolerated by liberal power-brokers in the name of keeping him inside the tent pissing out instead of outside the tent pissing in."



'via Blog this'

Darrell Issa: E-mail shows White House contacted YouTube during Benghazi attack about Mohammed movie « Hot Air

Darrell Issa: E-mail shows White House contacted YouTube during Benghazi attack about Mohammed movie « Hot Air: "Here’s how long the long and winding road of Benghazi news has gotten. When I saw this story earlier, I tweeted my surprise that the White House would have actually tried to quasi-censor a movie by leaning on its online distributor to do something about it while Islamist mobs were rampaging in the Middle East. Nothing to be surprised about, Gabe Malor reminded me: Not only have we known that was true since the first few days after the attack, I myself blogged it at the time. I had honestly forgotten. We’ve reached the point of Benghazi saturation where politically motivated government censorship is just a footnote to the who-knew-what-and-when debate."



'via Blog this'

Dems warn Cantor, GOP: Your ENLIST bill for young illegals is dead on arrival in the Senate « Hot Air

Dems warn Cantor, GOP: Your ENLIST bill for young illegals is dead on arrival in the Senate « Hot Air: "All or nothing. If Senate Dems pass ENLIST, there’s a real chance that Boehner will declare victory, knowing that Republican presidential candidates now have a small but tangible achievement on amnesty to show Latino voters, and promptly drop immigration reform entirely for the next two years. That would leave Democrats royally screwed, having handed the GOP a small political win and received next to nothing from it except permanent residency for military-minded DREAMers who might exit the service later a bit more conservative than they were when they went in."



'via Blog this'

North Carolina businessman can’t sell his own beer in his own restaurants « Hot Air

North Carolina businessman can’t sell his own beer in his own restaurants « Hot Air: "Two years ago, Greensboro businessman Marty Kotis had an idea. He’d start a brewery to complement his handful of restaurant properties in town. The Pig Pounder Brewery (named for a beloved beer from a now-defunct restaurant he set out to recreate) now occupies a 3,700 sq-ft building and is ready to produce five microbrews for local customers.

But those people will not be customers at Kotis’ restaurants, as he envisioned. Because of a post-Prohibition law, the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) says it cannot issue him the necessary permits to serve his own beer at his own restaurants."



'via Blog this'

All You Need to Know | The American Spectator

All You Need to Know | The American Spectator: "But it turns out Vox dramatically overpromises when it says it’ll tell you “Everything You Need to Know About” a subject. Near the bottom of each stack you’ll find a card bearing a frustrated exclamation: “You didn’t answer my question!” The boilerplate answer: “This is very much a work in progress. It will continue to be updated as events unfold, new research gets published, and fresh questions emerge. So if you have additional questions or comments or quibbles or complaints, send a note to…” followed by the name and email address of the author. The “card stack” turns out to be a Wikipedia entry with a byline."



'via Blog this'

Best of the Web Today: Socialist Supermodel - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: Socialist Supermodel - WSJ.com: "And although the Phoenix abuses are the worst to be discovered so far, the problem doesn't end there: "The American Legion has tracked issues with scheduling practices in up to 18 states."

Paul Waldman, Greg Sargent's deputy, sees broader ideological implications. "If Democrats are going to argue that government can be a force for good, their most basic responsibility is to make government work," he writes. (An odd statement. It seems to us making government work is the "most basic responsibility" of anyone who chooses a career in the public sector, regardless of ideology.)"



'via Blog this'

'What's the Worst That Can Happen?' - WSJ.com

'What's the Worst That Can Happen?' - WSJ.com: "So the "downside" of addressing climate policy is more jobs, cleaner air, more energy security, and we save the planet too. Makes you wonder why there aren't already 100 Senate votes for this miracle. Perhaps that's because the "energy policy" Mr. Kerry is talking about includes vast new political control over the economy, starting with taxes and limits on carbon energy, subsidies for his favored energy sources, and new and costly regulations on much of the American Midwest, South and West.

The "worst that can happen" is that we spend trillions of dollars trying to solve a problem that we can't do anything to stop; that we misallocate scarce resources in a way that slows economic growth; that slower growth leads to less economic opportunity for Boston College grads and especially the world's poor, and that America and the world become much less wealthy and technologically advanced than we would otherwise. All of which would make the world less able to cope with the costs of climate change if Mr. Kerry is right."



'via Blog this'

Holder Convicts Switzerland - WSJ.com

Holder Convicts Switzerland - WSJ.com: "In case after case Justice wants account information on U.S. customers, which Swiss bankers by law have resisted disclosing absent specific evidence of criminal activity. Prosecutors aren't getting the names they wanted in this case, so they're settling for money, the firings of several bank employees and some banker-bashing headlines.

This is not to say that no crimes were committed by Credit Suisse employees. Eight have been indicted, two have pleaded guilty and at least one has admitted to flying to the U.S. with suitcases full of undeclared cash for tax-evading clients. Since it is the people at a bank—rather than the buildings or the desk chairs—who commit the crimes, it is altogether appropriate to prosecute bank employees who violate laws. By all means pursue the alleged law-breakers vigorously. If higher ups were in on the conspiracy, they should be charged too."



'via Blog this'

Fred Siegel and Nicole Gelinas: Taking New York Back to the Bad Old Days - WSJ.com

Fred Siegel and Nicole Gelinas: Taking New York Back to the Bad Old Days - WSJ.com: "Mr. de Blasio also has invoked another ghost of New York's grim fiscal past: simple incompetence. On May 8, the mayor painstakingly explained to the media exactly how he had balanced the budget. Two business days later, his budget staff had to convene an emergency teleconference—to tell reporters that the budget wasn't balanced after all.

The city's independently elected comptroller, Scott Stringer, had flagged Mr. de Blasio's most obvious sin: the delayed accounting for $725 million in retroactive raises to teachers who retire soon. That fiscal obligation had been moved far beyond that period, which is an accounting no-no. But forcing Mr. de Blasio to move the sum to this year's budget fixes only one-sixth of the $4.3 billion monster in the pipeline—that is, the future cost of past raises for all teachers, not only those who are soon to retire."



'via Blog this'

A Course Between Principle and Pragmatism | National Review Online

A Course Between Principle and Pragmatism | National Review Online: "Given this pro-life propensity, one might ask how I could endorse someone who is pro-choice. The answer is this: I’m not an ideologue who determines a person’s worthiness with a litmus test. I have known Wehby as a friend and colleague for many years, and she is extremely intelligent and knows how to make decisions based on evidence versus ideology. Also, in a state like Oregon, which is left-leaning, she would not be a viable candidate if she maintained a pro-life stance.
If conservatives are going to win in 2014 and 2016 and preserve the environment of freedom to which we have grown accustomed, it will be necessary to learn how to prioritize issues. I am not saying that social issues are unimportant, but if the executive branch remains in the hands of those with “secular progressive” ideas in 2016, and two or three more Supreme Court justices with similar leanings are appointed, conservative social ideas will become anathema to the prevailing powers, who will use every tool available to them to silence such opposition."



'via Blog this'

Sally Kohn Doesn't Understand Civil Society | National Review Online

Sally Kohn Doesn't Understand Civil Society | National Review Online: "I’ll try to help. Conservatives argue in favor of the free market not because they like everything that it does, and not because they admire or agree with everybody who participates in it, but because they don’t want the government coercing behavior. But the free market is a system, not an outcome. And, as this post shows, this does not mean that players within the market are beyond criticism. Indeed, one’s support for a free market no more implies that one has to like all of its consequences than one’s support for a free press implies that one has to praise every newspaper or novel that escapes the censor’s ink. Would we say, “right-wingers are always going on about freedom of speech, but then Michael Moore makes Bowling for Columbine and conservatives are outraged!” Of course not."



'via Blog this'

Great moments in tolerance: Howard Dean says Republicans aren’t Americans « Hot Air

Great moments in tolerance: Howard Dean says Republicans aren’t Americans « Hot Air: "Old and busted: Dissent is patriotic! New hotness: People who disagree with Democrats on voter-ID laws should “go to Ukraine or Russia!” This sounds an awful lot like the “America — love it or leave it” argument during the Vietnam War to which anti-war Democrats so loudly objected at the time. Look who’s suddenly equating citizenship to shut-up-ship."



'via Blog this'

Video: Angry man not quite angry enough to hold anyone accountable for VA fiasco « Hot Air

Video: Angry man not quite angry enough to hold anyone accountable for VA fiasco « Hot Air: "Alternate headline: “Noted liberal hopping mad about predictable results of government-run health care.” I’m embarrassed to say that I thought there was a slim chance that he’d can Shinseki over this, even though that completely contradicts his M.O. over the past five years. The politics of it, with sick veterans left to die on secret wait lists, are simply too terrible for inaction, I figured. And it’s not like the administration was blindsided. They’ve known about “unreliable” wait times at the VA since before Obama became president; candidate Obama told veterans that addressing long waits was an “urgent” priority that he’d deal with as C-in-C in a now infamous stump speech in 2007. He and Shinseki had every reason to treat the VA as a code-red problem from the moment they assumed office. Instead, as far back as year two of the Obama administration, VA executives were sending around memos warning of questionable scheduling practices. And now here O is, in 2014, babbling about how he’s launching a new investigation and new studies, yadda yadda yadda, before deciding what to do."



'via Blog this'

Bloomberg: Forget Silicon Valley; entrepreneurial millenials are heading to the Texas oil patch « Hot Air

Bloomberg: Forget Silicon Valley; entrepreneurial millenials are heading to the Texas oil patch « Hot Air: "I don’t know how many more testaments we could possibly need to reaffirm the fact that the booming oil-and-gas industry is one of the few supports holding up an Obama economy that is otherwise being held together by spit, but this is definitely one of them."



'via Blog this'

Best of the Web Today: Parental Guidance Requested - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: Parental Guidance Requested - WSJ.com: "Reading can be dangerous, some young people seem to believe.

"Colleges across the country this spring have been wrestling with student requests for what are known as 'trigger warnings,' explicit alerts that the material they are about to read or see in a classroom might upset them or, as some students assert, cause symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in victims of rape or in war veterans," the New York Times reports.

The Times notes that the warnings "have their ideological roots in feminist thought." At first glance this looks like just the latest politically correct excess, but it's distinct in some ways. For one, the faculty is resisting: "The debate has left many academics fuming, saying that professors should be trusted to use common sense and that being provocative is part of their mandate." Lisa Hajjar, a sociology professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, tells the paper: "Any kind of blanket trigger policy is inimical to academic freedom. . . . The presumption . . . that students should not be forced to deal with something that makes them uncomfortable is absurd or even dangerous.""



'via Blog this'

Video: McCaskill relies on long-debunked claims to dismiss Benghazi probe « Hot Air

Video: McCaskill relies on long-debunked claims to dismiss Benghazi probe « Hot Air: "Democrats have gone on the offensive to push back against the House select committee probe of Benghazi and the failed Arab Spring policy in Libya, but instead they keep reminding us of why it’s needed. For instance, if even a sitting Senator is so ill-informed that she’s pushing arguments that have been long debunked — such as the claim that the consulate in Benghazi couldn’t get security because of Republican budget cuts — then Claire McCaskill is the poster girl for the need for a unitary and comprehensive probe into the attack."



'via Blog this'

Iran to EU: Hey, we’d be happy to supply you with your natural gas needs… « Hot Air

Iran to EU: Hey, we’d be happy to supply you with your natural gas needs… « Hot Air: "Iran has the fourth-largest proven oil reserves in the world along with the second-largest proven natural gas reserves, and the international sanctions that have been crippling their energy-reliant revenue stream and economic growth (at least, they were until the Obama administration started lifting them in exchange for diddly squat, that is) have proven to be quite a nuisance — which is precisely why Iran has lately been taking the opportunity afforded by Russia’s aggression with Ukraine to remind the European Union that they have a whole bunch of ready reserves just waiting to be tapped. Europe gets about a third of its natural-gas supplies from Russia, a lot of which currently flows through pipelines in Ukraine; Europeans are starting to consider building up their import infrastructure and even doing their own fracking, but in the meantime, the threat of future supply disruption still looms as a possibility as the EU tries to work with Russia to settle on a deal. Iran is hoping that this newfound focus on diversified supply sources to enhance energy security will create a new willingness in the EU to perhaps cut them some more slack on the sanctions."



'via Blog this'

Report: Obama transition team was warned about unreliable wait times at VA in 2008 « Hot Air

Report: Obama transition team was warned about unreliable wait times at VA in 2008 « Hot Air: "Great news for the White House, no? Sure, it shows they knowingly left sick and injured vets to languish in a Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare. In a sane world, that would be the last straw in sending Shinseki packing. But it also lets O share blame with the Bush administration, one of his favorite methods of damage control. There are three steps in Hopenchange crisis management: (1) they profess to be “mad as hell”; (2) they accept a resignation/announce the retirement/place on “administrative leave” some relatively low-ranking officials; (3) as time wears on and media interest fades, they pronounce the whole thing a phony scandal. Their problem with the VA mess is that, no matter how long it drags out, they don’t dare pronounce this one “phony”; they can laugh at “#Benghazi” but they won’t laugh at wounded troops. So they need a Plan B for defusing the crisis, which, in this case, will be to claim that it’s another problem they’ve inherited from Bush. For, er, five and a half years."



'via Blog this'

Rubio declines to answer whether he’s ever tried marijuana « Hot Air

Rubio declines to answer whether he’s ever tried marijuana « Hot Air: "Rubio makes two very good points, even if one disagrees on his position on legalization and enforcement. Like it or not, the law does send a moral signal on behavior in exactly the manner that Rubio describes. Legalization will send the signal that (a) marijuana can be safely consumed, and (b) that will result in greater use over the long arc. The question is whether the negative impact of that is eclipsed by the savings in resources used in prohibition of a widely-available substance that grows practically everywhere in the US, and whether the removal of that prohibition will push back against the civil-rights abuses of the War on Drugs to an extent that it outweighs the other societal costs.

That will only be determined by studying the effects of legalization in states like Colorado and Washington — and as long as the marijuana is grown within the state and not crossing state lines, we should have a debate as to whether the federal government should have a role in it. Conservatives who wish a reversal on Wickard v Filburn should be rooting against federal intervention in those circumstances."



'via Blog this'

Is This the Democrats’ War on Women? - The Daily Beast

Is This the Democrats’ War on Women? - The Daily Beast: "“In this situation, the person who filed the police report admitted that they overreacted, that they were responsible, that he was responsible, and that the couple ended their relationship on an amicable note and remain friends to this day,” said Brad Dayspring, communications director for the NRSC. “The insinuation that a respected professional woman who has performed over 7,000 surgeries on children is somehow less of a professional or a candidate because of this kind of petty tabloid story is ridiculous.”

Dayspring also called the stalking story “a shining example of why talented, intelligent women often are reluctant to run for public office.”"



'via Blog this'

Video: Commencement speaker lashes out at “arrogant,” “immature” student body « Hot Air

Video: Commencement speaker lashes out at “arrogant,” “immature” student body « Hot Air: "I don’t blame Birgenau for dumping Haverford from his schedule. Why spend your quality time talking to a bunch of self-righteous jackasses who already have demonstrated that they don’t want dialogue but surrender?

The awarding of an honorary degree is still a different issue, though. It’s one thing to defend an unpopular position in an open debate, which should be encouraged. An invitation from a college or university to someone with a heterodox view on an issue does not equate to an endorsement of that point of view. Awarding an honorary degree does carry that kind of implicit endorsement, and is a valid point of criticism when it comes to speaker invitations. Why, though, do universities insist on issuing these meaningless documents to their speakers? It’s an absurdity, especially for those who have already earned advanced degrees in their fields of expertise. Get rid of the phony degrees and maybe we can marginalize the phony elites even further."



'via Blog this'

If chosen for HUD, Julian Castro's work, big payday could face scrutiny | WashingtonExaminer.com

If chosen for HUD, Julian Castro's work, big payday could face scrutiny | WashingtonExaminer.com: "The office of mayor carries with it no executive authority. Castro's website says he has "focused on attracting well-paying jobs in 21st century industries, positioning San Antonio to be a leader in the New Energy Economy." Castro's site says he has also "brought a sense of urgency" to urban revitalization, and has created something called SA2020, "a community-wide visioning effort turned nonprofit that has galvanized thousands of San Antonians around a simple, but powerful vision for San Antonio -- to create a brainpower community that is the liveliest city in the nation."

Creating visioning efforts, senses of urgency, and brainpower communities brings the mayor far, far less money than the city manager. "The mayor's job pays $20 a meeting plus a one-time $2,000 fee, so I basically make $4,000 a year," Castro told San Antonio television station KENS last year."



'via Blog this'

Are you ready for Vice President Julian Castro? « Hot Air

Are you ready for Vice President Julian Castro? « Hot Air: "As for the GOP, Castro’s emergence carries two important consequences. One: It’s now a mortal lock that either the top or the bottom of the Republican ticket in 2016 will feature a Latino candidate, almost certainly either Marco Rubio or Susana Martinez. (Cruz is too scary to establishment Republicans.) Before Castro, I bet some GOP leaders thought it might suffice to nominate Jeb Bush in the name of appealing to Latino voters. Not anymore. You’ve got a veep shortlist of two now, unless Rubio wins the nomination himself."



'via Blog this'

The Media's Abortion Problem

The Media's Abortion Problem: "Bump writes with the insouciant incuriosity that defines media coverage of abortion in America: “‘Life’ is something of a philosophical question…”  It never seems to have crossed his mind that whether the United States has permitted the genocide of 50 million human beings rests on the answer to this question.  Bump and his media compatriots are content to leave this essential question sitting in shadow, even while shedding light is their job.

In the same way, the media continues to permit the practice of abortion in America to go on without scrutiny.  Let us be clear: This is not a political complaint, but a journalistic scandal.  The great conceits of journalism—speaking truth to power, confronting the public with uncomfortable realities, giving a voice to the voiceless—are all abandoned when it comes to abortion."



'via Blog this'

Best of the Web Today: Harvard to Be Humble - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: Harvard to Be Humble - WSJ.com: ""The wonks in training at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government will soon be subjected to a new and touchy-feely line of inquiry: Checking Your Privilege 101," reports Kat Stoeffel of New York magazine. "In response to growing demand from student activists, administrators committed Friday to adding a class in power and privilege to its orientation program for incoming first-year students."

The ideological basis of the new course is familiar: "Privilege," Stoeffel explains, is "a catchall term for the perks an individual enjoys in society because of his race, gender, or class." The idea is "enjoying something of a moment, thanks to social-justice bloggers and their critics." One such critic is Princeton undergraduate Tal Fortgang, who last month wrote in a much-discussed op-ed for the Princeton Tory that telling someone to "check your privilege" is a fallacious argumentum ad hominem.

If you think there's something dissonant about elite institutions advertising their discomfort with "privilege," you're certainly not alone. But if you look a little deeper, it makes sense."



'via Blog this'

Should Obama blow the magical silver horn left by the Founders to summon them in times of need? « Hot Air

Should Obama blow the magical silver horn left by the Founders to summon them in times of need? « Hot Air: "To cleanse the palate, I’m going to say no. Reason one: Prudence dictates that, like the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the magical horn should be used only in true emergencies. You blow that sucker the day after the debt crisis finally hits, not five or 10 years out. Although, now that I think about it, I don’t know what good it would do even then. Just because George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison are demanding that America reform its entitlements doesn’t mean Democrats are going to budge on Social Security. Bring Jesus back to make the case and maybe you’ve got a shot, although they’ll probably just call him a racist."



'via Blog this'

Rubio: “Of course the climate is changing” « Hot Air

Rubio: “Of course the climate is changing” « Hot Air: "Rubio’s take today, an elaboration of his comments on climate change over the weekend, is a twist on the latter: Climate change is happening but it might not be man-made, and even if it is, unilateral mitigation efforts by the U.S. are pointless and economically destructive. A global problem requires a global solution, assuming a man-made solution is even feasible. Which raises the question: What would President Rubio do if China and the other major polluters proposed a deal to reduce emissions? Would the global buy-in cause him to reconsider his opposition to regulation or would the U.S. reject the deal on economic grounds? You trust a guy who swore he was anti-amnesty as a candidate in 2010 before championing the Gang of Eight bill to be a stickler on this issue, at least, right?"



'via Blog this'

Video: Rep. Joe Garcia picks his ear and…I can’t even « Hot Air

Video: Rep. Joe Garcia picks his ear and…I can’t even « Hot Air: "This, friends, is a video of Democratic Rep. Joe Garcia appearing to pick ear wax out of his ear, examine it, and then…eat it. And, thus, Garcia has forced me into a line of attack I have not used since second grade. Although back then the orifice of most common accusation was the nose, and frankly, there was usually far less proof of the guilt of the accused."



'via Blog this'

‘Inequality’ insanity | New York Post

‘Inequality’ insanity | New York Post: "Maybe conservatives just think the best thing to do is ignore Piketty and his fellow worshippers. So far that isn’t working; the French author is destined to make millions as his book sales soar and he achieves rock-star status.
Meanwhile, both he and his bizarre theories gain currency because conservatives have ceded the intellectual debate to a Frenchman who just a few weeks ago couldn’t get a table at the Olive Garden.
How’s that for Capital in the 21st Century?"



'via Blog this'

Best of the Web Today: Bore More Years - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: Bore More Years - WSJ.com: "Seib offers the caveat that "six months is an eternity in modern politics." That's not literally true, but it sure feels that way. Voter unenthusiasm is easy to understand after the experience of the past few years. Democrats were thrilled in 2008 to be voting for Barack Obama, the man who promised to heal the oceans and halt the rise of the planet. We're naive enough to hold out hope that nobody actually believed such nonsense, but there's no denying some found the fantasy arresting. Reality was less so.

As for Republicans, they were fired up in 2010 by the prospect of stopping Obama. But all they could do was slow him. And has there ever been a slower 3½ years?

Of course if Republicans do well this November solely on the strength of their voters' lesser degree of unenthusiasm, that won't necessarily augur well for 2016, when the Obama era will at long last be coming to an end. The common view is that the Democrats will line up behind Hillary Clinton. We're not sure we'll be able to stand the excitement."



'via Blog this'

Eliot A. Cohen: A Selfie-Taking, Hashtagging Teenage Administration - WSJ.com

Eliot A. Cohen: A Selfie-Taking, Hashtagging Teenage Administration - WSJ.com: "As American foreign policy continues its long string of failures—not a series of singles and doubles, as President Obama asserted in a recent news conference, but rather season upon season of fouls and strikes—the question becomes: Why?

Why does the Economist magazine put a tethered eagle on its cover, with the plaintive question, "What would America fight for?" Why do Washington Post columnists sympathetic to the administration write pieces like one last week headlined, "Obama tends to create his own foreign policy headaches"?

The administration would respond with complaints, some legitimate, about the difficulties of an intractable world. Then there are claims, more difficult to support, of steadily accumulating of minor successes; and whinges about the legacy of the Bush administration, gone but never forgotten in the collective memory of the National Security Council staff."



'via Blog this'

ICE data: 36,000 illegals with criminal convictions, including homicide, were released during deportation proceedings « Hot Air

ICE data: 36,000 illegals with criminal convictions, including homicide, were released during deportation proceedings « Hot Air: "A preemptive strike on DHS from the Center for Immigration Studies, designed to make Obama’s upcoming “relaxation” of U.S. deportation procedures as politically painful as possible. He’s desperate to pander to his base, which is impatient after waiting more than five years for amnesty and has now convinced itself based on cooked numbers that he’s some sort of crazed border hawk. That’s where the “relaxation” comes in — and that’s the beauty of CIS’s otherwise grim data, which shows just how relaxed the system already is. Maybe O will consider it a blessing in disguise, though. What true amnesty fan wouldn’t be happy to learn that illegals with a total of 15,000+ DUI convictions between them were free last year to get back behind the wheel on American roads?"



'via Blog this'

Chamber of Commerce head to GOP: If you don’t pass amnesty this year, don’t bother running a candidate in 2016 « Hot Air

Chamber of Commerce head to GOP: If you don’t pass amnesty this year, don’t bother running a candidate in 2016 « Hot Air: "Politico claims he was joking but I’m not sure why. This guy’s only saying what the entire Republican leadership thinks.

Maybe the “joke” is that he’s pretending to care about the political implications of amnesty and the fate of the GOP when all he really wants is cheap labor."



'via Blog this'

Clay Aiken’s Dem primary opponent found dead in home, race was too close to call « Hot Air

Clay Aiken’s Dem primary opponent found dead in home, race was too close to call « Hot Air: "Keith Crisco, the businessman and former state official challenging “American Idol” runner-up Clay Aiken in the Democratic primary for a Congressional seat died Monday in his North Carolina home. He was 70. The race between the two had been too close to call, with Aiken leading by 369 votes as the two men awaited an official canvas, according to the Asheboro Courier-Tribune."



'via Blog this'

Video: Vladimir Putin is awesome at hockey because no one will guard him « Hot Air

Video: Vladimir Putin is awesome at hockey because no one will guard him « Hot Air: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that the skill set necessary to be a dictator coincides perfectly with the ability to master every single sport in the world to a degree not attained by one’s fellow countrymen and Olympians even though the time spent quashing dissent and jailing and murdering dissidents can really interfere with one’s training schedule.

There’s the late Kim Jong Il of the 11 holes-in-one and perfect 300.

There’s Idi Amin, who “defeated” his country’s national boxing coach in a suit and tie, surrounded by his own bodyguards. The coach later said he wisely chose to be TKO’ed instead of killed.

There’s, well, Vladimir Putin of hunting, archeological discovery, and tiger-taming prowess."



'via Blog this'

Report: Karl Rove suggests Hillary fall might have caused brain injury « Hot Air

Report: Karl Rove suggests Hillary fall might have caused brain injury « Hot Air: "I know everyone’s going to be in a tizzy of righteous indignation over this, and Rove sounds rather blunter about it than I’d be. But the fall was serious, her disappearance lengthy, and information about her condition not exactly readily available. There would be questions about it just as there were always questions about McCain’s health, right? I suppose those questions are seen as unseemly, but I’m not sure they’re out of bounds."



'via Blog this'

Feminists, Please Don't Ruin Baseball

Feminists, Please Don't Ruin Baseball: "There we go. There we go. (The rest of the piece is about how awful people are for not enthusiastically embracing this improbably hypothetical. Because the only thing better than smug indignation from your betters is when the righteous indignation is combined with just making stuff up.)

At heart, feminism seems to be about helping people deal with their inability to accept the difficult reality of biology. Women are strong. It’s just that we have completely different types of strength than men. And what that really means is that comparing the possibility of females on MLB teams to Jackie Robinson is silly at best."



'via Blog this'

'Check Your Privilege' Means 'Shut Your Mouth' - Bloomberg View

'Check Your Privilege' Means 'Shut Your Mouth' - Bloomberg View: "And while the phrase "check your privilege" could be used, hypothetically, to deepen a conversation instead of to shut it down, the critics don't seem all that interested in doing so. One of the most-linked critiques announces in its very first sentence that the author has been un-friending people who linked approvingly to Fortgang's essay.

It's a free country, and people can be as narrow-minded as they like. But they should know that they're proving Fortgang's point about the illiberalism -- on college campuses and elsewhere -- that's too often behind the cliche."



'via Blog this'

Best of the Web Today: Obama vs. the World - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: Obama vs. the World - WSJ.com: "In 2009, of course, Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." Those efforts consisted of . . . well, nothing really. After all, he'd been in office less than a year. As we wrote at the time, "this staggeringly premature honor" was "the equivalent of a lifetime-achievement Oscar for a child star."

The Nobel press release pretty much acknowledged that Obama's accomplishments were notional: "Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future." The Norwegians awarded Obama "the world's" highest honor simply for being who he was--or what they imagined him to be."



'via Blog this'

The Many Preventable Workplace Injuries in Superhero Movies | FiveThirtyEight

The Many Preventable Workplace Injuries in Superhero Movies | FiveThirtyEight: "Not following the rules is a remarkably common way that characters in superhero movies acquire their superpowers. There’s an idea in Hollywood that egregious workplace accidents and blatantly unsafe laboratory procedures bring about unfathomable powers, instead of chronic pain, debilitating injuries and even death."



'via Blog this'

MSNBC host: No, seriously, “Animal Farm” is about corporate plutocracy, sort of « Hot Air

MSNBC host: No, seriously, “Animal Farm” is about corporate plutocracy, sort of « Hot Air: "No, it’s really not, and if it were it wouldn’t be remembered. “Concentrated power is dangerous” is so prosaic an “insight” that it barely qualifies as one. The special insight of “Animal Farm” is that utopian left-wing solutions to concentrated power can and will produce even more dangerous concentrations. In the name of “progress” and “equality,” the utopians end up building a system more oppressive than the one it replaced. That this book is being used on this network to obscure that point rather than illuminate it is itself Orwellianism 101. Coming soon to MSNBC: A disquisition on how “Fahrenheit 451″ reminds us that some speech is dangerous and should probably be banned as hate crimes."



'via Blog this'

Joe Biden on illegal immigrants: The 11 million people in the shadows are “already Americans” « Hot Air

Joe Biden on illegal immigrants: The 11 million people in the shadows are “already Americans” « Hot Air: "Last month, Rand Paul was asked what he thought of Jeb Bush’s “act of love” comment about illegals. They’re not bad people, Paul conceded, but that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be a limiting principle on illegal immigration. It can’t be that love for a family member who’s here or even love for America itself entitles you to violate the country’s immigration law, especially when we have a welfare state that we can’t pay for already. “You know, the whole world loves America,” he argued, “and they can’t all come.”"



'via Blog this'

Exposing the Hypocrisies of the New York Liberal - NYTimes.com

Exposing the Hypocrisies of the New York Liberal - NYTimes.com: "Today we find ourselves in the midst of a different, inverted paradox, one that makes it possible for whole news cycles to be given over to the luridly disgraceful words of someone like Donald Sterling while we are able comparatively to ignore a study like the one released in March, from U.C.L.A.’s Civil Rights Project, ranking New York as the state with the country’s most segregated schools. Greatly affecting that ranking, the study pointed out, were the demographics of public education in New York City where, despite the primacy of liberal values, the percentage of schools in which at least nine-tenths of the students were black or Hispanic rose sharply from 1989 to 2010."



'via Blog this'

Swiss to vote on $25/hr minimum wage « Hot Air

Swiss to vote on $25/hr minimum wage « Hot Air: "This report focuses on the story of one small business owner who has already had to let her last full time employee go and won’t be able to afford to replace them at the new rate. That’s a sad story, and one which is repeated everywhere the government arrives “to help” in such matters. But the raw numbers are probably a little more startling than they need to be. Switzerland already has one of the highest minimum wage rates in the world, as well as one of the highest costs of living. (Are you seeing a pattern here?)

In a place where all the specials at McDonald’s are already featured on the Ten Dollar Value Menu the effect of a small bump at the bottom won’t be as pronounced, but you can’t drive up costs without making up for them elsewhere or closing up shop. Unfortunately, it’s always so very easy for politicians to vote Yes on feel-good items like this that it’s hard to stem the tide."



'via Blog this'

Checking My Privilege: Character as the Basis of Privilege | The Princeton Tory

Checking My Privilege: Character as the Basis of Privilege | The Princeton Tory: "That’s the problem with calling someone out for the “privilege” which you assume has defined their narrative. You don’t know what their struggles have been, what they may have gone through to be where they are. Assuming they’ve benefitted from “power systems” or other conspiratorial imaginary institutions denies them credit for all they’ve done, things of which you may not even conceive. You don’t know whose father died defending your freedom. You don’t know whose mother escaped oppression. You don’t know who conquered their demons, or may still conquering them now.

The truth is, though, that I have been exceptionally privileged in my life, albeit not in the way any detractors would have it."



'via Blog this'

Open thread: Ruling class gathers at White House Correspondents Dinner to toast itself « Hot Air

Open thread: Ruling class gathers at White House Correspondents Dinner to toast itself « Hot Air: "“Nerd Prom” is the cultural appropriation of the experience of the powerless by the powerful, not unlike Miley Cyrus’s appropriation of urban African-American culture, but without her sense of propriety, dignity, respect, humility, and restraint. And by God, they’re going to ride that wrecking ball you paid for through every traditional American institution they can find."



'via Blog this'

So what would the GOP do with the Senate if they got it? « Hot Air

So what would the GOP do with the Senate if they got it? « Hot Air: "Doug doesn’t have much more of a chipper outlook, but I have to wonder if some of these folks are relying a bit too heavily on recent history repeating itself. It’s easy to look at the current lay of the land and assume that with Barack Obama in office for the next two years, nothing much will change. But the ability to get bills out of committee in both chambers and send a finished piece of legislation to the President’s desk has a particular value all of its own. In the current configuration, Democrats can simply point to the divided nature of government as a reason for a lack of progress. But if Congress can begin shoveling finished legislation, approved by the elected representatives of the people, the picture changes."



'via Blog this'

USAF general: “We should have tried” to respond to Benghazi attack « Hot Air

USAF general: “We should have tried” to respond to Benghazi attack « Hot Air: "What did the command structure of the military and intelligence communities know about the attack on our consulate in Benghazi, and when did they know it? And why, in any case, were neither prepared to respond to an attack on one of the most obviously vulnerable American diplomatic outposts — on the anniversary of 9/11? The House Oversight Committee heard testimony today from a man near the top of both command structures, retired Air Force Brigadier General Robert Lovell, who served as Deputy Director for Intelligence and Knowledge Development Directorate for AFRICOM at the time of the attack. Lovell insisted that intelligence knew full well that the attack on Benghazi had nothing to do with a YouTube video from the very beginning of the attack."



'via Blog this'