Barack Obama & Black Identity

Barack Obama & Black Identity: "The really maddening thing, though, is that President Obama thinks the reason he isn’t perceived as being especially good at his job is that we yokels aren’t smart enough to understand how spectacularly spectacular he is. Barack Obama is a man almost entirely incapable of self-criticism, and in the NPR interview, he repeated one of his favorite claims: He has had trouble with public opinion because he didn’t explain his awesome ideas well enough. That’s a very politic way of saying: “These rubes don’t get it.”"



'via Blog this'

When it comes to Ben Carson, ‘race baiters gonna bait’ « Hot Air

When it comes to Ben Carson, ‘race baiters gonna bait’ « Hot Air: "Capehart’s column is the worst sort of race baiting in the American political arena, and sadly it is far, far too common among liberals in general and the Social Justice Warriors in particular. It’s dishonest, mean spirited, and chock full of internal contradictions, while lacking any sort of objective evidence to support the premise. The only purpose for publishing such a blatantly dishonest racial screed is to continue to stoke the flames of racial animus which are the Democrats’ stock in trade and the fuel which gets their base out to the polls. I’d really prefer not to even acknowledge it, but if I didn’t slug my way through writing and publishing this response today I probably would have taken to drinking drain cleaner just to wash the memory out of my remaining brain cells. Very disappointing, Mr. Capehart. You are much better than this when you choose to be."



'via Blog this'

The science is (nearly) settled: a higher minimum wage costs jobs « Hot Air

The science is (nearly) settled: a higher minimum wage costs jobs « Hot Air: "A friend of mine who operates a small chain of franchised eateries once told me that saying a higher minimum wage creates more jobs is akin to throwing an anchor to a drowning man because it would really incentivize him to dog paddle faster. While that seems to be common sense whether you’re an employer or an economist, no amount of rational explanation seems to dissuade the Democrats when they get up on their populist horse and begin promising the masses of lower income workers some extra cash. To be fair, it’s not a bad tactic if you’re trying to drum up votes because people love “free” stuff and unfortunately there are far too many voters who don’t want to see the big picture and how it could negatively impact them."



'via Blog this'

People who are really good at swearing have an important advantage | UK | News | The Independent

People who are really good at swearing have an important advantage | UK | News | The Independent: "Those who are liberal in their use of swear words are not the lazy and uneducated individuals they are often made out to be, a new study claims.

In fact, a well-stocked vocabulary of swear words is actually a healthy indicator of other verbal abilities.

Writing in the Language Sciences journal, US-based psychologists Kristin Jay and Timothy Jay, dismiss the long-held belief that swearing is a sign of inarticulateness."



'via Blog this'

If Trump doesn’t win a primary, does that mean the vote was rigged? « Hot Air

If Trump doesn’t win a primary, does that mean the vote was rigged? « Hot Air: "The X factor, as always, is Trump himself. How would he handle a late poll surge by one of his competitors that ends in defeat for him? “Congrats to Marco Rubio on a hard-earned win” would be completely out of character. If anything, in the interest of protecting his own enormous ego, he has an incentive to feed the suspicions that he was cheated out of a win that’s rightfully his. That would resolve one of the biggest mysteries about the Trump 2016 campaign: How does a man cope with losing when his public persona is based on the idea that he always wins? Won’t he be forced to drop out before daring to risk rejection at the polls? Answer: Not if he can spin “rejection” as a scam perpetrated by his establishment enemies. That would poison the rest of the primaries, but what does he care? It’s the next best thing to running as an independent. “I could have won, and I did win, but they stole it from me.” How eager do you think Trump fans would be to support the GOP nominee after that?

As I say, the best thing for the GOP here if Trump is destined to lose is that the winner(s) in the early states assert themselves soon and hold those leads. It would also be to the GOP’s benefit that Trump lose by a landslide, even if that means more momentum for tea partier Ted Cruz after Iowa. The bigger the margin of defeat, the harder it is for Trump to claim cheating."



'via Blog this'

A Very Simple Affirmative Action Proposal

A Very Simple Affirmative Action Proposal: "This is straight from the cartoon version of The Road to Serfdom. The government creates stupid economic incentives; private actors respond to those stupid incentives by making choices other than the ones their feckless rulers intended; the politicians declare this “unpatriotic,” and insist that their big ideas would work just fine if not for these scheming economic traitors and their connections to inscrutable foreigners; in the final act, state violence is directed against those who make economic choices other than the ones that politicians demand, either in the name of patriotism or in the name of national security.

There is one obvious alternative — stop creating boneheaded economic incentives through boneheaded economic policy — but that never seems to occur to anybody. Certainly not to Robert Reich, whose glee about the prospects of using the power of government to punish nonconformist businessmen is unseemly and illiberal."



'via Blog this'

The Trump Cult of Personality and its Conservative Media Enablers - Guy Benson

The Trump Cult of Personality and its Conservative Media Enablers - Guy Benson: "As a long-time listener who has been entertained and informed by Rush's prodigious "talent on loan from God" for years, this protracted game of footsie with Trump is deeply demoralizing.  They're both hyper-successful Alpha Males and occasional golf partners, so perhaps there's some personal solidarity and friendship in the mix, but Rush's calling card has always been the fierce defense of conservative principles.  He excoriates "establishment" politicians for ideological deviations and heresies, shreds liberal strawmen, and exposes posers.  Trump is a self-serving, unprincipled, unreliable political shape-shifter.  He's a walking, bloviating strawman, habitually arming the Left with ammunition to claim vindication for their cartoonish characterizations of conservatives.  And he's the ultimate conservative poser.  He may be pushing the right buttons to suit a segment of the populace's mood, but he evinces exceedingly tenuous knowledge of issues, and displays little in the way of loyalty to any core convictions beyond, "what benefits Donald J. Trump at this exact moment?"  The above quote from Rush's Tuesday monologue attributes conservative criticisms of Trump to some deep-seated desire to earn "respect and admiration" from the biased mainstream media -- the "drive-bys" as Rush calls them, a moniker that is often infuriatingly apt.  This is a variation of the tired "Beltway cocktail party" refrain, wherein right-of-center figures deemed insufficiently devoted to the cause are presumed to be in the thrall of coastal elitists.  That template isn't always inaccurate, it must be said, but it's been overused and abused as a means of impugning motives, rather than engaging arguments. A staple of the End of Discussion Left."



'via Blog this'

While we fight over Trump, France closes 3 mosques, finds hundreds of weapons « Hot Air

While we fight over Trump, France closes 3 mosques, finds hundreds of weapons « Hot Air: "Reports like this likely present a rather awkward challenge for observers in America who are used to a large number of rights which the government isn’t supposed to violate. It’s easy to cheer for the French rooting out that many terrorists and their supporters and removing their ability to launch attacks, but the methods being employed will probably give many Americans pause. First of all, simply having a weapon of any sort is tantamount to a conviction there, so the idea of badgering “law abiding gun owners” is sort of an unknown concept in Paris. And with our First Amendment rights, the idea of armed, uniformed men kicking in the doors of churches of any type and hauling the congregants out to a wagon makes us recoil.

But now even some of their own Imams are estimating that more than 150 more mosques may be closed. France really isn’t all that big… how many mosques do they have? To be fair to the French, though, what else are they supposed to do? They’re physically much closer to the home turf of several terrorists groups and thanks to the EU’s open border policies it’s far easier for the bad guys to move around. They’re dealing with an infestation and it needs to be stamped out. The methods probably appear harsh, but they’re doing what they need to do in order to survive."



'via Blog this'

Donald Trump, Constitution-Hating Authoritarian | National Review Online

Donald Trump, Constitution-Hating Authoritarian | National Review Online: "From my perspective, this development has been a salutary one. A free people should be reflexively distrustful of those who hold power, and they should be wedded to the idea that the law serves as the best bulwark against caprice. Human liberty is protected most effectively when its beneficiaries learn to separate their preferred outcomes from their preferred means and to elevate their future safety over their present expedience. We do not enjoy a codified constitution in this country because the founding generation was fearful of General Washington or John Adams, but because it was fearful of men in the future whose names and characters they did not — and would not — know. That the Right has demonstrated a flair for consistent dissent has been a good and welcome thing. That it has looked beyond the immediate and ushered in a host of public officials whose guiding lights lie within the nation’s supreme law is even better."



'via Blog this'

Former Army chief of staff: Of course you need ground troops to destroy ISIS « Hot Air

Former Army chief of staff: Of course you need ground troops to destroy ISIS « Hot Air: "Don’t tell Ray Odierno that Barack Obama doesn’t want to put boots on the ground. As he tells Joe Scarborough and the Morning Joe panel in this segment, the US already has boots on the ground — we just don’t have enough of them. A few dozen commandos won’t suffice, Odierno warns. Until we put a significant number of troops in the theater, our allies in the region won’t risk it either. And make no mistake, Odierno says, that’s what it will take to “destroy” ISIS. As the former Army chief of staff says, air power alone has never dislodged an entrenched army, let alone collapse a quasi-state."



'via Blog this'

PA student protesters want building renamed because it honors someone named “Lynch” « Hot Air

PA student protesters want building renamed because it honors someone named “Lynch” « Hot Air: "At this point I may be forced to surrender. I’ve gone through my thesaurus several times now and I’m quickly running out of ways to describe the infantile self-parody which these Black Lives Matter protests on America’s college campuses have become. The latest story out of Pennsylvania comes to us from Lebanon Valley College, located just west of Philadelphia. The usual protests about racial triggers and microagressions were on display, but the students had one additional demand which essentially broke the irony meter. They want a long standing college building to be renamed because the person it was erected to honor was named “Lynch.”"



'via Blog this'

Ben Sasse: Americans are turning to demagogues like Trump because their current leadership is terrible on terror « Hot Air

Ben Sasse: Americans are turning to demagogues like Trump because their current leadership is terrible on terror « Hot Air: "The last part about the “political class” is especially sharp. He sounds a lot like Ted Cruz, or rather what Ted Cruz would sound like if he could muster the balls to say something even a little bit critical of his new friend, the “megalomanic strongman” as Sasse puts it.

Sasse’s first floor speech in the Senate was an indictment of that body. This one is mainly an indictment of Obama, which is fair enough. A guy who won’t say “radical Islam” and whose first impulse after every attack seems to be to worry about Muslims rather than the 98 percent of Americans who are tired of having to worry about Muslims is practically making an in-kind contribution to Trump. If Obama’s rise in 2008 was a reaction to Bush, Trump’s rise in 2015 is surely a reaction to Obama — in part. Emphasis: In part."



'via Blog this'

Clinton intervened to benefit son-in-law while at State « Hot Air

Clinton intervened to benefit son-in-law while at State « Hot Air: "When Hillary sent this request to her deputy, LOST had already foundered in the Senate. When Mezvinsky made his initial inquiries, though, ratification was still a possibility, and Hillary was pushing for its ratification. The investor in this mining operation saw the writing on the wall if LOST passed, and was looking to start drilling where it really mattered — in the halls of power. And Siklas appears to have struck oil, too.

Everyone has clammed up, but perhaps this might be worth a look from a Congressional committee. Or perhaps some of the journalists covering the Hillary Clinton campaign can follow up on the AP’s fine work here and ask those questions in public. Did Hillary run the State Department on behalf of the American people, or as a cash cow for the Clintons?"



'via Blog this'

Gun Control Campaigns Stemming from the San Bernardino Shooting Aren't Based in Fact | National Review Online

Gun Control Campaigns Stemming from the San Bernardino Shooting Aren't Based in Fact | National Review Online: "On this question, the Left has fallen for its own propaganda. Decades ago, gun-controllers decided to play on the confusion between semi-automatic versus automatic weapons to push for a ban on nasty-looking assault weapons, even though they are, for the most part, functionally indistinguishable from other semi-automatic rifles.
The AR-15 is one of those semi-automatic guns. It isn’t exotic or particularly powerful. It is the most popular rifle in the country. At least 3.5 million are in circulation. It is lightweight, accurate, and without much kick. You wouldn’t use it in combat and, in fact, wouldn’t necessarily use it to hunt. A .223-caliber gun, it is less powerful than many handguns. Some states forbid .223-caliber rifles in deer hunting because they aren’t powerful enough to reliably take down the game."



'via Blog this'

Obama: another Iranian ballistic missile test should have “no effect” on our deal « Hot Air

Obama: another Iranian ballistic missile test should have “no effect” on our deal « Hot Air: "Sound familiar? All through the nuclear deal negotiations process we were assured by the White House and John Kerry that this was a deal based on no trust and all verification. And that concept was supposed to be applied to the hidden research facilities which are really difficult to get into and inspect. These missile tests aren’t even remotely hidden… in fact they broadcast them on state television. If they can’t be held to this sort of a standard, how are we going to “trust” them on the more clandestine activities?

I’m sure a blatant provocation such as this will have our President up in arms and ready to reconsider any more tenuous deals with Tehran, right? (Though after the October test, Obama had insisted that it wouldn’t “derail” the deal.)"



'via Blog this'

Trump's Proposal to Ban Muslim Immigration Makes Less Sense than Gun Control | RedState

Trump's Proposal to Ban Muslim Immigration Makes Less Sense than Gun Control | RedState: "We’ve had a lot of fun over the last couple weeks making fun of the idea that a committed terrorist would be dissuaded from their plans to commit mass murder (which is pretty illegal) by something as relatively trivial as gun control regulation. As we noted this morning, Abdehlamid Abaaoud was one of the most wanted men in all of Europe and he was somehow able to get numerous illegal fully automatic weapons, along with explosives, into the hands of the Paris attackers.

Any Republican who is actually defending Trump’s comments on the merits would do well to turn this kind of skepticism about the ability of American laws to deter terrorists on to the question of whether we should or could ban all Muslims from entering the United States."



'via Blog this'

Desperate Trump Drops Ugly Policy Bomb: Ban All The Muslims Abroad | Daily Wire

Desperate Trump Drops Ugly Policy Bomb: Ban All The Muslims Abroad | Daily Wire: "Kiss Our Intelligence Apparatus Goodnight. We need to work with Muslims both foreign and domestic. It’s one thing to label Islamic terrorism and radical Islam a problem. It’s another to label all individual Muslims a problem. That’s what this policy does. It’s factually wrong and ethically incomprehensible. Donald Trump has just transformed into the strawman President Obama abused on Sunday night.

So no, this isn’t a good idea. It’s a rotten idea all the way around: legally, ethically, practically. Trump’s supporters need to realize at some point that knee-jerk extreme reactions to events of the day don’t substitute for good judgment. It’s ugly when it’s President Obama looking to grab guns from American citizens without due process, and it’s ugly from Donald Trump. Given the poll numbers, it’s not clear whether Americans will get wise to that truth."



'via Blog this'

Under Mayor de Blasio, New York City has essentially abandoned welfare reform « Hot Air

Under Mayor de Blasio, New York City has essentially abandoned welfare reform « Hot Air: "Bill de Blasio has turned the clock back figuratively and ramped the welfare numbers up literally toward the peak of the problem twenty or more years ago. These exact same failed policies are what brought us to that sorry state of affairs and it was only the tough changes which were put in place during the reform era which began to break the cycle of dependency and increase employment. Turning the city back over to a firebrand liberal has produced predictable results. We’re now back up to nearly 400K people on the dole, with more signing on as the word spreads that City Hall is no longer asking any questions. All the Big Apple needs is a couple more years of de Blasio and we should be back to the days of old with a million people on welfare.

Good time, liberals… good times."



'via Blog this'

The Left Loses Control - WSJ

The Left Loses Control - WSJ: "The Times’s front-page editorializing may be an attempt to keep up with the Daily News, a New York tabloid that could be described as the Times for infants. The News’s reaction to the San Bernardino attack has been utterly unhinged."



'via Blog this'

The New York Daily News Hates Everything America Stands For | RedState

The New York Daily News Hates Everything America Stands For | RedState: "This is not 16th century Europe, where whichever religious group is in favor with the ruling government can kill adherents to other religions for ridiculous reasons like “he tried to convince me to switch religions” or “he made fun of my beard.” This is America, where we condemn people who use violence to stop the expression of religious beliefs, full stop.

In fact, that’s more or less the point of America. We did not leave sectarian violence imposed by other Christians four centuries ago just to accept it being done by Muslims here in 2015.

If Linda Stasi wants to live in a country where people think it’s okay to kill someone for professing Jewish or Christian beliefs, then I invite her to move to one of the many countries in the Middle East where she might feel more at home. Here in America, we do things differently."



'via Blog this'

Open thread: Obama to lay out his strategy for fighting terrorists, a.k.a. law-abiding American gun owners « Hot Air

Open thread: Obama to lay out his strategy for fighting terrorists, a.k.a. law-abiding American gun owners « Hot Air: "Tom Elliott half-jokes, “I foresee Obama hitting terror tonight on all three root causes: the 2nd Amendment, the 1st Amendment, and global warming.”

You can imagine how this’ll go. He’ll start with San Bernardino, double down on his claim that ISIS is “contained” on the battlefield but that its below-the-radar western sympathizers remain a threat to their home countries, and then meander towards saying that one part of any effective counterterrorism strategy is preventing terrorists’ access to weapons, which is why he needs to take immediate executive action to close the “gun-show loophole” and/or strip people on the no-fly list of their right to buy guns without due process regardless of whether either of those things would have impeded Farook and his jihadbot wife. I don’t think he’ll go full metal gun-grabber by dwelling on the subject, though, for the same reason he didn’t do so a few days ago when he offered his “thoughts and prayers” for the victims’ families. Even this guy can’t be so deluded about Americans’ priorities that he’d believe gun control is what most people are thinking about right now rather than pondering how many other Farooks are out there. He may be tone-deaf but he got slapped around hard enough after scolding the public for worrying about Syrian refugees a few weeks ago that he must have learned a lesson from it. You don’t lecture your constituents about their supposed failings after the most deadly terror attack on the United States since 9/11. Right?"



'via Blog this'

Nobody is talking about Bunny Friend Park, and that’s a problem « Hot Air

Nobody is talking about Bunny Friend Park, and that’s a problem « Hot Air: "I’m sure you’re all familiar with the tale by now and it’s depressing. A mass shooting in one of the country’s great cities. Cable news legal experts would refer to it as “highly unusual” because it involved more than one shooter. It was a crowded area with many innocent people in the potential line of fire. Ambulances lined up to tend to the casualties. So we all know what I’m talking about, right?

No… it’s not the San Bernardino shooting. It was the shooting in Bunny Friend Park in New Orleans and it happened on November 22nd. The description from the scene at the time was nothing short of horrific."



'via Blog this'

Illinois school reaches deal on “transgender student” locker room question, satisfying nobody « Hot Air

Illinois school reaches deal on “transgender student” locker room question, satisfying nobody « Hot Air: "Looking at the details it’s not entirely clear what the specific construction project required to implement this will entail. What it sounds like is that within the confines of the girls locker room, there will be separate areas in the showers with curtains so that anyone can shower in private. There will also be separate changing areas which are likewise curtained off. The reality here is that they had originally offered the boy a private shower and changing room rather than subjecting the girls to his presence, but that was refused. Now there will be “private” changing areas and shower stalls available for anyone. Could be worse, I suppose.

But the ACLU of Illinois is complaining yet again, of course. Even if the Feds somehow went along with this “compromise” that’s simply not enough for the plaintiffs because, well… you will be made to care. It doesn’t sound like the boy has any interest in using a private dressing area or a private shower, so why would he be using the curtained off area in the girl’s locker room? In other words, he can now have his run of the locker areas and showers while the actual girls (you know… the ones who are supposed to use the girls room) will be forced to flee into the private screened areas to have any level of privacy from the boy. That’s certainly one heck of a compromise."



'via Blog this'

UAW has gotten its feet under the table at Volkswagen in Tennessee « Hot Air

UAW has gotten its feet under the table at Volkswagen in Tennessee « Hot Air: "VW had been fighting this move, not because they are some sort of union crushing monster, but because the agreement only covers a relative handful of highly skilled tech workers, not the entire labor base. In fact, through this entire process the management has been actively working to get a union in place rather than fighting it, but what they wanted was something closer to a European labor board such as is common on their home turf, where workers could be represented alongside the management and come to workable solutions for both. (Getting a taste of how labor unions work in the United States has apparently been something of a wake up call for them.)

The deal they wound up with here has trouble written all over it. For one thing, they’ve got the UAW inside the walls now which is probably something of a hybrid between letting in an organized crime unit and cockroaches. From the perspective of the employees, there are a bit more than one hundred workers who will have a major national union in there arguing on their behalf, likely diving up pay and benefits while the rest of them don’t have any such leverage. That’s a formula for unrest among the ranks if I’ve ever seen one, but only time will tell."



'via Blog this'

Planned Parenthood: Shame on these zealots for their violence…and legislation « Hot Air

Planned Parenthood: Shame on these zealots for their violence…and legislation « Hot Air: "When the reporter challenges her on the use of “war on women,” Runyon-Harms sheepishly smiles and reflexively starts spouting talking points about legislative abortion restrictions. She’s only cementing the journalist’s point: What if some psychotic, violently-inclined abortion supporter hears that inflammatory term and concludes that pro-life legislators are waging a literal war against women, and that he needs to retaliate with the weapons of war? Hmm? Well, that’s different, you see, because no one would take “war on women” literally. Ah. The reporter follows up: “Well, maybe of the people who made some of the [anti-Planned Parenthood] comments that you’re referencing didn’t think that someone would do that either.” Runyon-Harms pauses, then concedes “it’s possible,” then it’s back to the approved script. Two final points: (1) Kudos to these reporters for really drilling down and forcing this woman to confront her incandescent hypocrisy. (2) She mentions in passing that “war on women” is “not a phrase that I use typically.” Um, fact check."



'via Blog this'

Oh, by the way: The San Bernardino jihadi got a visa to enter the U.S. by providing a fake address « Hot Air

Oh, by the way: The San Bernardino jihadi got a visa to enter the U.S. by providing a fake address « Hot Air: "If you missed it earlier this afternoon, here’s the Farook family lawyer upping the ante after flirting with a false-flag theory of the crime yesterday by dismissing the news that Farook looked at jihadi propaganda online. Just because someone looks someone up Britney Spears on the Internet, he notes, doesn’t mean they’re a Britney Spears fan. Right, but posting that you’re a huge Britney Spears fan and then killing a bunch of people to prove your love for Britney probably does prove it, I’m thinking. That’s the first clip below; the second clip is of this same guy noting that someone at work teased Farook about his beard, which means … what? Finish that thought, bro."



'via Blog this'

“Radicalized”: Sources tell CNN that Farook was in touch with more than one international terror suspect « Hot Air

“Radicalized”: Sources tell CNN that Farook was in touch with more than one international terror suspect « Hot Air: "Some of those bombs were attached to a remote-controlled device that was left at the scene of the shooting, presumably for the purpose of killing a bunch of cops and EMTs once they showed up to treat the wounded. These scumbags really came to play.

So let’s ask some questions. Question one: How did a guy earning $51,000 a year as a county employee afford thousands of rounds of ammo, bomb material, tools, and the necessities for a young wife and infant children? Remember that report this morning about six Middle Eastern men coming and going in Farook’s neighborhood? Were those friends and family? Or were they members of a cell?"



'via Blog this'

Kean University racist death threats turn out to have come from one of the protesters « Hot Air

Kean University racist death threats turn out to have come from one of the protesters « Hot Air: "Sadly, there seems to be a pattern here. I warned during the Mizzou uprising that we might be in for a series of copycat events around the country once the students there were successful in deposing some of the university’s administrators. And in the case of Kean (and perhaps others as well) if you can’t come up with an actual case of racial intolerance, fake it until you make it. Sometimes I really hate being right, but you’ll need to keep your eyes open during the rest of the protests to come. I have a feeling this isn’t the last you’re going to see of this."



'via Blog this'

Gravity Payments CEO might have had other motives in paying all his workers $70K « Hot Air

Gravity Payments CEO might have had other motives in paying all his workers $70K « Hot Air: "That certainly adds a new element to the mystery. The fight between Price and his brother predates his magnanimous gesture and the brother was trying to force him to buy him out after Dan Price had bumped his own pay up by more than a million dollars per year. By jacking up the rest of the labor costs in a small company with limited revenue, the cash value of the place was drastically reduced so the brother wouldn’t be able to cash in for very much.

Is that’s what’s at the bottom of all this? Rather than being a warrior against income inequality, perhaps Price was a guy trying to win a financial battle against his partner and then decided to capitalize on all the good publicity which fell out from the pay raises. Wouldn’t that just be an interesting scenario if that’s how this pans out?"



'via Blog this'

Black Friday guns sales break all previous records (Thanks, Obama!) « Hot Air

Black Friday guns sales break all previous records (Thanks, Obama!) « Hot Air: "But as Fortune Magazine reminds us, the previous record wasn’t set on a Black Friday. It was December 21, 2012, shortly after the Sandy Hook shooting. When the government starts upping the rhetoric on restricting gun rights, Americans head out to the stores and arm up in droves. One might think that the Democrats would make a connection between these data points and rethink their strategy a bit. Fortunately for conservatives, they never seem to learn."



'via Blog this'

Video: University president to student body: Grow up « Hot Air

Video: University president to student body: Grow up « Hot Air: "“We’ve taught our students, our young people, to throw the victim card,” Dr. Piper emphasizes. That’s because our culture has fetishized victim status, placing all of the social incentives for special snowflakes to demand that everyone else bends toward their wishes rather than find ways to succeed on merit. Dr. Piper wants universities to start teaching self-reliance, but don’t expect that to start happening until the trend threatens to derail Academia altogether … as it has at Mizzou."



'via Blog this'

Don’t expect a brain scan to tell you if you’re “transgender” or not « Hot Air

Don’t expect a brain scan to tell you if you’re “transgender” or not « Hot Air: "Since it’s a topic that never seem to fall very far out of the news these days, I was interested to see an analysis at the Washington Post on the subject of “transgender” Americans and how their status has changed under the current administration. Titled, Obama’s quiet transgender revolution, the piece tells a rather sad story of a politically motivated, populist deep dive into the confused end of the pool as our own government moved the goalposts of reality back in marked increments."



'via Blog this'

Trump: I may charge CNN $5 million to appear in the debate « Hot Air

Trump: I may charge CNN $5 million to appear in the debate « Hot Air: "Let’s play this out as if it’s serious, which seems unlikely. Say for a moment that Trump insisted on this demand, and got rejected, as CNN is certain to do. At that point he’d almost have to pull out of the debate, no? His dealmaking prowess is his hole card in this cycle, thanks to widespread dissatisfaction among Republicans with the congressional majorities who haven’t scored many victories and Barack Obama’s awful deal with Iran. If he can’t bend CNN to his will, he’d have to find a way to punish them. Showing up on stage after failing to make the deal would be an admission of defeat, and that might be a lot more costly to his standing with current supporters than a refusal to attend. But pulling out after this kind of stunt would almost certainly alienate any other voters who have not yet flocked to Trump’s banner — and worse yet, a substantive debate without Trump might have some of his softer supporters wondering whether they should still take him seriously.

CNN refused to respond to Trump’s remarks, and they’ll likely play it cool as long as Trump doesn’t actually deliver an ultimatum. Most of those outcomes being bad, Trump is a good enough businessman to keep from putting himself into that kind of corner. The longer he trolls CNN on the issue, though, the higher Trump will set expectations for that ultimatum, and that might trigger some of the negative consequences even without a showdown."



'via Blog this'

Byron York: The coming battle over Guantanamo and the imperial presidency | Washington Examiner

Byron York: The coming battle over Guantanamo and the imperial presidency | Washington Examiner: "Obama went on to claim that "under certain circumstances" the Guantanamo ban "would violate constitutional separation of powers principles." In those circumstances — he didn't specify — the president suggested he will use executive authority to move the inmates himself.

Republicans recalled 2008, when candidate Barack Obama promised he would not "use signing statements as a way of doing an end run around Congress." But hypocrisy aside, the substance of the conflict between Congress and the president could be the basis for a nasty and high-stakes fight between the branches of government."



'via Blog this'

Columbia University's Core Curriculum Is Not Traumatizing | National Review Online

Columbia University's Core Curriculum Is Not Traumatizing | National Review Online: "Whereas the Columbia core curriculum originally set out to teach the history of the West and the best art and literature that has been produced, the Left has succeeded in teaching that no art is better than any other. It has done so by substituting race, gender, and class for wisdom, beauty, and profundity — and through its doctrine of multiculturalism, which asserts that all cultures are equal."



'via Blog this'

Planned Parenthood Shooting -- Gun Violence & Rhetoric | National Review Online

Planned Parenthood Shooting -- Gun Violence & Rhetoric | National Review Online: "Isn’t “don’t say what you think, because it might set off a crazy person” the most insidious form of censorship, because none of us can really know what prompts a crazy person to go on a violent rampage?"



'via Blog this'

More Hillary Than Hitler - WSJ

More Hillary Than Hitler - WSJ: "Mrs. Clinton is not exactly a conviction politician; one suspects that she doesn’t really believe what she’s saying. Indeed, she contradicted herself in the very next paragraph of the speech, acknowledging that there is a “dangerous stream of extremism within the Muslim world that continues to spread.”

But she wouldn’t have made the absurdly counterfactual statement that Muslims “have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism” if she didn’t think it politically necessary to do so. Aggressive complacency in the face of terror has been the watchword of this administration, and of the base of the Democratic Party."



'via Blog this'

Ted Cruz to Obama on refugees: Come home and say it to my face, sucka « Hot Air

Ted Cruz to Obama on refugees: Come home and say it to my face, sucka « Hot Air: "If Democrats are so sure that Cruz is a Goldwater in the making, they should be doing everything they can right now to promote him. An hourlong debate with Obama where he gets to attack The One directly would all but seal the nomination. O’s not going to debate anyone on his refugee policy, though, let alone Cruz, because there are too many obvious points for which he has no rejoinder. For instance, how is it that there are so many valuable targets still left for the French to hit in Raqqa when we’ve supposedly been “weakening” ISIS from the air for a year? It takes some balls for Obama to feign worry that Republicans are doing propaganda for ISIS by opposing refugees when there was, is, and will be no better propaganda for jihadis than weathering a weak, ineffective yearlong attack by the United States with its caliphate still intact. If you’re a 20-year-old Muslim watching from afar as Obama takes potshots at ISIS from the air and achieves nothing more than “containment” — which is itself probably a lie created to disguise the lack of progress — you’d be fully convinced by now that the mujahedeen are 10 feet tall and invincible. Thanks, Obama!"



'via Blog this'

Who’s up for a bunch of terrible new polls for Jeb Bush? « Hot Air

Who’s up for a bunch of terrible new polls for Jeb Bush? « Hot Air: "A pre-debate hors d’oeuvre for you in recognition of the fact that Bush schadenfreude is really the only common ground left to us in the 2016 race anymore. You’ve got the Cruz fans here, the Trump fans there, some Carson fans milling about, a smattering of Rubio fans mixed in, all convinced of two things. One: Their guy is the guy. Two: Jeb Bush is not the guy. Bush fatigue is the tie that binds, my friends."



'via Blog this'

This Isn't A Culture War. It's A War On Culture

This Isn't A Culture War. It's A War On Culture: "All of this is predicated on the idea that every person the Left approves of, no matter what kind of lifestyle they engage in, should feel entirely comfortable, loved, and accepted by everyone; everywhere they go, no matter what they do, never to hear an unflattering word from anyone. You can only try to achieve this utopia is by attacking, cajoling, and subduing other cultures to create philosophical uniformity."



'via Blog this'

Lynne Cheney: The End of History, Part II - WSJ

Lynne Cheney: The End of History, Part II - WSJ: "Why would the College Board respond to criticism by putting out a sample exam that proves the critics’ point? Perhaps it is a case of those on the left being so confirmed in their biases that they no longer notice them. Or maybe the College Board doesn’t care what others think."



'via Blog this'

Neil deGrasse Tyson insults your intelligence… again « Hot Air

Neil deGrasse Tyson insults your intelligence… again « Hot Air: "Neil deGrasse Tyson may make his cadre of incurious liberal fans feel good about themselves and reaffirm their faith in a set of common beliefs, but he routinely does them a disservice by steadfastly refusing to challenge their dubious preconceptions. It is a tragedy that such an accomplished man of great talent and intellect feels that he has no greater calling in life than to validate and reinforce liberal chauvinisms."



'via Blog this'

Why the Rolling Stone gang-rape story will never be labeled a hoax | WashingtonExaminer.com

Why the Rolling Stone gang-rape story will never be labeled a hoax | WashingtonExaminer.com: "No, the reason it will not be labeled a hoax comes from an anonymous McGill University student, using the pseudonym Aurora Dagny, who wrote last year that dogmatism is in part to blame for activists' refusal to accept evidence contrary to their worldview.

"One way to define the difference between a regular belief and a sacred belief is that people who hold sacred beliefs think it is morally wrong for anyone to question those beliefs," Dagny wrote. "If someone does question those beliefs, they're not just being stupid or even depraved, they're actively doing violence. They might as well be kicking a puppy. When people hold sacred beliefs, there is no disagreement without animosity.""



'via Blog this'

The Democratic Party has (almost) lost Wall Street « Hot Air

The Democratic Party has (almost) lost Wall Street « Hot Air: "One of the worst kept secrets of President Barack Obama’ first term in office is how closely aligned that administration and the members of the Democratic Party were with the interests of the financial sector, despite party members’ repeated insistence that they wanted nothing more than to curb Wall Street’s excesses. The well-heeled bankers at Goldman Sachs had little to fear from Democrats who professed their appreciation for the promise of the Occupy Wall Street movement while the institution’s members were filling Democratic pockets with campaign contributions. The financial community could rest easy knowing that Democrats were aware of who truly buttered their bread.

But the Democratic Party has begun to match its anti-Wall Street rhetoric with action since figures like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have risen to power. According to a Reuters exclusive, the trading sector of the economy has had it with the rhetoric of the Warren Wing of the Democratic Party, and they’re ready to do something about it."



'via Blog this'

Bergdahl: I left my base in order to, uh, walk to another base and report wrongdoing « Hot Air

Bergdahl: I left my base in order to, uh, walk to another base and report wrongdoing « Hot Air: "I assume he chose the defense he chose because it gives him more political traction than a simple insanity defense would. If he says “I snapped,” the retort will be that that’s no excuse to desert. Most soldiers cope with severe mental strain and many, I’m sure, have complaints about various officers up the chain of command, and only rarely do any of them decide to choose their own adventure outside the wire. Also, none of the men from his unit who’ve accused him of desertion have said anything about obvious signs of insanity from Bergdahl before he left. How would he prove that he snapped when there’d be a dozen witnesses claiming they saw no evidence of it at the time? Claiming instead that he was headed to another base to report wrongdoing makes it seem like the Pentagon’s coming after him now to punish him for trying to speak out, which may swing anti-war activists and civil libertarians over to his side. It won’t spare him from a sentence but maybe political pressure will keep that sentence lighter than it otherwise would have been. The Army’s not really going to send a misguided but well meaning “whistleblower” away to prison for life, are they?

Exit question from Aaron MacLean: Why are senior defense officials leaking Bergdahl’s self-serving story to CNN? Is there any explanation apart from them wanting to cover Obama’s ass by making the subject of his disastrous prisoner swap look as good as they can?"



'via Blog this'

Video: Is Jeb Bush inevitable? « Hot Air

Video: Is Jeb Bush inevitable? « Hot Air: "Ted Cruz talked about this at length but obliquely yesterday, warning conservatives of the consultant class that wants to produce a formulaic candidate designed to look only slightly to the right of Democrats in the mistaken belief that Democrats will choose a Republican carbon copy. That wasn’t specific to Bush, and Bush and his team would object to that characterization, but that is the conservative perception of Bush. The ham-handed tactics to force people to choose their allegiance this early in the cycle plays into that perception, as does the emphasis on locking up the very consultants to which Cruz referred."



'via Blog this'

The double standard which allows Dana Milbank to call Scott Walker “a coward” « Hot Air

The double standard which allows Dana Milbank to call Scott Walker “a coward” « Hot Air: "If you want to take Giuliani to task, fine. Have at it. But since when has it become “necessary” for every member of a given party to respond to or disown what someone else has to say? The answer to that one is simple… since the media decided that it was their job to ensure Democrats get elected rather simply reporting on the events of the election. Since when is it the job of every candidate on the trail to monitor each and every syllable uttered by every person out there and either support, decry or disown it? This is no test of leadership, as Milbank implies, but rather a test of the port side media to see if they can sling enough gotcha questions at the wall that one will eventually stick."



'via Blog this'

Rasmussen: Plurality of Democrats think Obama should be able to ignore court rulings if it’s “important” « Hot Air

Rasmussen: Plurality of Democrats think Obama should be able to ignore court rulings if it’s “important” « Hot Air: "I assume Rasmussen deliberately chose a phrase as open-ended as “important for the country” to nudge respondents about the potential for abuse. Once you tell the president it’s cool to ignore court rulings if it’s “important,” you might as well pass an enabling act and hand him supreme power. Forty-three percent of Democrats, an actual plurality, didn’t flinch, though. And the irony is, Obama’s own defenses of his power grabs aren’t much more sophisticated than that. His rationale for executive amnesty is that Congress is hopelessly gridlocked, the legal limbo that illegals find themselves in is intolerable, and we’ve now reached a point of crisis (a political crisis for the White House, not a policy crisis) that simply demands executive action. It’s crucially important that he act unilaterally and that he act now, even though he can’t quite explain — again, on policy terms — why that is. Just trust him. It’s important. And Democrats do, including and especially the core Democratic constituencies of women, young adults, and minorities.

If you’re looking for a silver lining here, you can find it in the fact that these numbers will move — probably within both parties — once a Republican’s back in the White House. Some GOPers will doubtless become more comfortable with executive action at that point, but I’d bet Republican opposition to the idea of the president defying court rulings doesn’t soften nearly as much as Democratic opposition will harden. That’s the state of the rule of law in the “progressive” party now. Separation of powers and check and balances are wonderful things, but only when they’re being used to restrain the right people."



'via Blog this'

ISIS and the left's Vulgar Marxism problem

ISIS and the left's Vulgar Marxism problem: "Human beings are human beings — we are not just animals. We do not just want to feed and reproduce. We actually have beliefs and we actually make choices on the basis of those beliefs.

It's kind of crazy to have to point this out. We were made with an orientation toward ultimate truth, goodness, and beauty, and we seek it however we understand it — and how we understand it determines our actions.

The historian N.T. Wright talks about a worldview being like a set of glasses: not something you look at but something you look through; something that you don't think about — until there's a problem with it. Almost no progressive will make an explicit argument for Vulgar Marxism, but it's hovering in the background of much of their writing on almost every issue. And, in the case of ISIS, this mistaken worldview has almost certainly led to more bloodshed than there would have been had the progressives in the Obama White House actually tried to understand what ISIS believed, and why."



'via Blog this'

National Review

National Review: "In the intolerance, I also saw hope. During one particularly memorable day, when radicals started shrieking when I questioned why our professor referred to an unborn child as a mere “clump of cells,” I remember speaking to a small group of students after class. They told me they were questioning some of their pro-choice views. “Why?” I asked. Because, they responded, if the leading pro-choice activists couldn’t debate the issue without shout-downs, then perhaps their positions weren’t as intellectually coherent as they led us to believe. Intolerance and intimidation do not breed affection and loyalty. Reasoned arguments and basic kindness have their own appeal, and often the barrier to greater influence lies more in the inability to speak (or to be heard) than in the perceived inadequacy of the ideas."



'via Blog this'

Abandon ship: Southern Tier New York looks to defect to Pennsylvania over fracking ban « Hot Air

Abandon ship: Southern Tier New York looks to defect to Pennsylvania over fracking ban « Hot Air: "Despite the fact that it rests upon a wealth of resources, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is sticking by his pledge to ban the practice of the hydraulic fracturing of shale to extract natural gas (fracking) in the Empire State. He flipped on his opposition to the practice while seeking reelection after facing significant resistance from his environmentalist left flank.

As a political maneuver, Cuomo’s decision makes sense. In any other context, though, the decision to ban fracking in New York is asinine. For the party of science, opposition to fracking technology is strictly the result of adherence to an article of faith."



'via Blog this'

The odd tale of Muslim violence that none dared call by its name « Hot Air

The odd tale of Muslim violence that none dared call by its name « Hot Air: "It seems a straightforward enough of a story, and one that has become lamentably familiar to observers of current affairs. A Detroit man, a self-described Muslim, walked up to a group of individuals at a bus stop and asked them if they, too, observe the Islamic faith. When they replied that they did not, he stabbed them multiple times. It seems prima facie about as cut-and-dried an incident of radical Islamic extremist violence as you can get unless you work in America’s newsrooms apparently.

For America’s editors, however, relating this story in a manner that they subjectively determined to be responsible enough proved vexing. Their readers cannot be trusted not to draw the conclusion that the world is facing an epidemic of Islamic violence, particularly given the mounting empirical evidence that makes this condition plain. So, for many media outlets, an agonizing and public display over how to present this story unfolded yesterday."



'via Blog this'

Just when you thought ISIS couldn’t get any worse, they’re allegedly harvesting organs now « Hot Air

Just when you thought ISIS couldn’t get any worse, they’re allegedly harvesting organs now « Hot Air: "If you invented a fictional terrorist organization as recently as two years ago that takes and holds territory, enslaves minorities and children, destroys 2,000-year-old religious shrines, burns people alive for sport, and sells civilian organs on the black market, you couldn’t have sold it to a publisher. They’d have called your personification of evil hackneyed. Life is often stranger than fiction.

While the organ harvesting allegations have been floating around the rumor mills for some time, they have never been confirmed. This claim remains disputed, but now the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations is alleging that ISIS is killing civilians and selling their organs in order to finance terrorism."



'via Blog this'

More Marie Harf: I notice people don’t talk much about Joseph Kony’s Christian terror group anymore « Hot Air

More Marie Harf: I notice people don’t talk much about Joseph Kony’s Christian terror group anymore « Hot Air: "I don’t know where to begin. For starters, I guess, the only reason most people ever talked about Kony was because he became a hashtag fad on Twitter for 10 minutes in early 2012. Remember KONY2012? It was a lot like BringBackOurGirls, which went so viral that it made it all the way to the First Lady’s office. Hashtag activism is the laziest, most disposable form of activism there is, but it’s a smash hit on social media precisely because it makes moral posturing easy. Almost a year after BringBackOurGirls went viral, the girls still haven’t been brought back and Boko Haram is killing Nigerians by the thousands. And yet you don’t hear people talking much about that either. That’s the nature of hashtag activism, as ephemeral as a fart. If Harf has a problem with it, maybe she shouldn’t participate in it."



'via Blog this'

Harf Truths and Whole Lies - WSJ

Harf Truths and Whole Lies - WSJ: "At any rate, the administration’s response, this time from the White House press secretary, made no mention of crusaders or even Christians. It begins: “The United States condemns the despicable and cowardly murder of twenty-one Egyptian citizens.” Are we supposed to believe the killers were angry about immigrants’ taking their jobs?

By contrast, last week when three Muslims were murdered in Chapel Hill, N.C., that merited a statement from the president himself. Although the investigation has not concluded (and the suspect appears to be a left-wing atheist), the president seemed sure this killing was anything but random: “No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship.”

All this is consistent with political correctness and its hierarchy of identity groups. Muslims are “oppressed,” meaning their status is higher, while Christians are “privileged,” meaning theirs is lower. (Vox.com last week supplied a helpful color-coded chart, in which Muslims are—we kid you not—beige.) Jews are somewhere in between, so that Christian anti-Semitism is oppression while Muslim anti-Semitism is “random” at worst."



'via Blog this'

Schieffer: Yeah, I’m bothered by Obama’s optics in hostage death « Hot Air

Schieffer: Yeah, I’m bothered by Obama’s optics in hostage death « Hot Air: "Strassel is wrong about one point. What Republicans should do is pass an AUMF that removes all the restrictions that Obama included in his proposal and replace them with a commitment to fight with all options on the table until ISIS is destroyed, and then let him veto it. That would make the point of Obama’s attempt even more clear."



'via Blog this'

More Obama: Freedom of speech obligates us to condemn insults to religion « Hot Air

More Obama: Freedom of speech obligates us to condemn insults to religion « Hot Air: "Lots of questions flow from this. An obvious one: Who decides what qualifies as an insult? Islamist fanatics in various countries protested Charlie Hebdo’s post-attack cover of Mohammed shedding a tear and holding a “Je suis Charlie” sign. There’s nothing derogatory about that image; it’s the magazine’s decision to violate Islamic taboos prohibiting images of Mohammed that is itself the “insult.” Does O think we have a moral duty to condemn any depiction of Mohammed, whether insulting or not, because it offends Islamic sensibilities? Another obvious question: What other sorts of insults do we have a moral duty to condemn? Lots of secular liberals out there wouldn’t care if I insulted a religion but they’d be deeply insulted if I said progressivism was a philosophy favored by authoritarian lowlifes posing as populists. Why should we allow rough-and-tumble political criticism like that but join hands in condemnation of religious criticism? The Free Exercise Clause says you have a right to practice your faith, not that it enjoys some special moral prophylaxis from affront. You’d think a liberal, whose base includes so many atheists, would be more reluctant to pander on that."



'via Blog this'

Poll finds “regular folks” frequently disagree with scientists « Hot Air

Poll finds “regular folks” frequently disagree with scientists « Hot Air: "There are areas of hard science where we can do comprehensive testing and move ideas from the realm of pure theory to fairly well established facts. (Though such facts should always remain open to challenge.) Water freezes at a given temperature and pressure absent the addition of other soluble compounds. You can repeat that test over and over again and get the same results. But there are many other areas under study where complex systems can produce mixed results and serious challenges in drawing conclusions. When scientists with a political bent get involved in the conversation, their own beliefs can leave the realm of the laboratory and enter the halls of their own new church. This sort of science can and should rightly be challenged, even by those without a string of degrees on their resume, and the best proof should be required before everyone toes the line. (I could go into an entire rant on Dark Matter here, but I’ll spare you.)"



'via Blog this'

“Professor Shocked, Shocked To Find Out Prominent Nazi Was An Anti-Semite”

“Professor Shocked, Shocked To Find Out Prominent Nazi Was An Anti-Semite”: "The reason why this is all so painfully awkward is that it all fits in a well-preexisting narrative, which is this: Heidegger was the godfather of the school of historicism, sometimes known as relativism, which holds that all truth is socially constructed and historically determined, and that therefore we have no access to capital-T Truth. Obviously, this idea has had a tremendous impact, both on 20th century academic philosophy, and in more debased form in the broader culture. And obviously, a critique of this idea as long as it has existed has been that if relativism is true, then morality is false, and if morality is false then all manner of evil is permitted. Indeed, all manner of evil might be inevitable, since in the absence of a recognition of transcendent truth, the only remaining way to resolve disputes is violence, and the only criterion of decision power. Which makes it really really tempting to point to Heidegger’s very life as exhibit A for the prosecution of relativism. And which makes things, again, quite awkward for all those who would use relativism as the thin end of the wedge of a happy-peppy progressivism."



'via Blog this'

Conspicuous Compassion - WSJ

Conspicuous Compassion - WSJ: "Dan Calabrese argues that it is not Green over whom Kristof wishes to assert his higher status: “Kristof needed to let us know all the failures in Kevin Green’s life because he wanted to tell us something about Nicholas Kristof, which is: Kevin Green made all these mistakes and lived all these failures, but Nicholas Kristof did not judge him, unlike all you horrible people. Nicholas Kristof is morally superior to you.”

It seems to us Calabrese doesn’t quite hit the target here, though he comes close. Kristof’s ideal reader is one who shares his sense of moral superiority. The message is more like: Nicholas Kristof did not judge him, unlike all those horrible people. You are morally superior to them."



'via Blog this'

The ‘American Sniper’ Freakout | The Weekly Standard

The ‘American Sniper’ Freakout | The Weekly Standard: "But Kyle’s flaws don’t begin to explain the knee-jerk negative reaction to the film on the left, which goes far beyond the predictable political complaints. Academy voters have been circulating a much-derided New Republic article by a Penn State professor of international affairs who denounced the film in spite of his admission that he had seen only the trailer. The Washington Examiner also reports that the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence had supporters venting about the film on its Facebook page. If Navy SEALs in combat zones can’t legitimately engage in gun violence, who can? 

Part of it is simply that the film portrays Kyle as a proud southern, rural, religious, patriotic jock and gun enthusiast who was much more anguished about the people he was unable to save in Iraq than about the 160 confirmed sniper kills that the Navy credits him with. All of these traits are anathema to the left, though nearly all of the great soldiers in American history possessed one or more of them. Leftists simply can’t digest the fact that their own safety is predicated on the willingness to fight of courageous men they openly disdain. "



'via Blog this'

Video: The obligatory “Obama reminds the GOP he won” clip « Hot Air

Video: The obligatory “Obama reminds the GOP he won” clip « Hot Air: "The reason the media’s zeroed in on the “I won twice” zinger is, yes, because they enjoy watching the star quarterback from their hometown team spike the ball but mainly because it’s a rare colorful moment from the relentlessly dismal, programmatic State of the Union slog. The fact that O fired this ad lib off literally seconds after calling for more comity in politics feels like a goof on the scripted insincerity of the event. He and his team probably spent weeks reworking that passage about comity to get it just right and all it took for Obama to blow it up was some abortive hooting from the Republican gallery that wounded his pride. I hope lefties turn this into a Vine that gets 10 million views; the more popular it is, the more likely it is that the SOTU will gradually transform into a zingerfest by O’s successors, which would at least make the speech entertaining, or that it’ll be dropped entirely. Either outcome is better than what we have now."



'via Blog this'

Why 2015 is my year of 'cruel food' - Breitbart

Why 2015 is my year of 'cruel food' - Breitbart: "My colleague James Delingpole likes to say that the best fur is cruel, rare fur. The same law holds just as well for food. In fact, I feel confident he would agree with me that virtually all the most enjoyable experiences in life are based to some degree on annoying the right people, which is why hunting with hounds has experienced such a renaissance in popularity in recent years.

And little gets aloof city-dwellers, who know nothing of country life and imagine foxes to be sweet, dog-like companions rather than the odious, disease-carrying vermin they really are, like a bit of so-called “animal cruelty.” Newsflash, idiots: it’s a scary old world out there, and sometimes one animal eats another. Humans are not exempt from this natural order."



'via Blog this'

Surprise: Obama to back tax hikes in State of the Union « Hot Air

Surprise: Obama to back tax hikes in State of the Union « Hot Air: "The president is also positioning himself vis a vis congressional Republicans when negotiations over tax code reform begin in earnest. Many of the above proposals will be nonstarters for the Republican-dominated 114th Congress, but the administration is banking on broad public support to help overcome that opposition. They may just get it. It will be incumbent on Republicans to make the case for why the White House’s tax increases without sufficiently comprehensive offset are counterproductive. For the last six years, the GOP has not done an effective job of communicating this to the public in a compelling manner."



'via Blog this'

Okay, kids. Stay in school, don’t do drugs, don’t blow up your house, but make moonshine « Hot Air

Okay, kids. Stay in school, don’t do drugs, don’t blow up your house, but make moonshine « Hot Air: "Let’s face it, the danger of blowing up your still is real if you put it under cover in an unventilated area or allow the fumes too near open flames. But if you’re stupid enough to do that, one might argue that you had it coming. Alcohol has been legal in most places since the 21st Amendment was passed in 1933. It’s still prohibited to distill your own shine. But the moment we legalize pot people can start making hash oil? We’ve long known that the bootlegging laws have almost nothing to do with public safety and everything to do with making sure Uncle Sam collects his sin taxes. If we’re going to venture into this brave new world of marijuana we deserve a fresh look at the bootlegging laws."



'via Blog this'

Far-right French politician tells Russian paper the West was behind the Charlie Hebdo attack « Hot Air

Far-right French politician tells Russian paper the West was behind the Charlie Hebdo attack « Hot Air: "Much like Marine Le Pen, Sen. Rand Paul’s biggest obstacle to holding office is his father. Like Rand Paul, Le Pen shares many of her father’s views on foreign affairs but can articulate them in a fashion that is both reasonable and compelling. Also like Rand Paul, Le Pen is unlikely to advance farther in French politics than she already has so long as her father keeps talking.

Rand Paul shares his father’s suspicions of America’s hands-on approach to foreign affairs challenges and, if he had is way as president, would embark on a campaign of retrenchment and disengagement. In that project, Paul would have the support of millions of Americans – possibly even a majority — who believe that this would be a productive course of action. But so long as Ron Paul continues to blame the West for virtually all foreign aggression, ranging from Islamist terrorism to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, American’s won’t trust Rand Paul to serve as a capable manager of America’s foreign affairs."



'via Blog this'

The campus sexual assault narrative hits rock bottom « Hot Air

The campus sexual assault narrative hits rock bottom « Hot Air: "The girl had nothing to do with it. She objected to the case being taken up. This was a non-incident that could have taken place anywhere in the country on any given day and resulted in nothing more than a person being surprised (and perhaps startled) for a moment, followed by some embarrassed laughs and everyone going on their way.

We can say with some legitimacy that this is the college’s fault, but only to a certain extent. If they had some convictions regarding common sense and the courage to back them up they wouldn’t find themselves in the middle of this awkward media circus. But given how closely Uncle Sam is monitoring every campus on the nation for the slightest hint of evidence that young men at college are all as evil as Rolling Stone and the feminist movement make them out to be, combined with their reliance on funding from various sources, they are acting with a dangerous overabundance of caution. It doesn’t make it noble or right, but it’s a fiscal reality of running a college, I suppose."



'via Blog this'

Governments shovel money to radical abortion agenda « Hot Air

Governments shovel money to radical abortion agenda « Hot Air: "How much of the public treasury are Baltimore, Austin, New York, and San Francisco politicians willing to spend to help their friends in the abortion industry shut down pro-life competitors?

This is a question taxpayers may want to ask in light of new information this week showing that the Montgomery County Council spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in a failed effort to harm crisis pregnancy centers — on behalf of NARAL Pro-Choice America.

According to e-mails uncovered in an investigative report by LifeSiteNews, for whom I work as a reporter, NARAL’s Maryland chapter engaged in a straightforward case of crony capitalism in 2009 when it pushed County officials to pass a law requiring pro-life clinics — NARAL’s competitors — to disclose if they do not have a doctor on-site."



'via Blog this'

Maher: Islamophobia Kills? Or Maybe It's More The AK-47s, Beheadings, And The Planes Into Buildings | Video | RealClearPolitics

Maher: Islamophobia Kills? Or Maybe It's More The AK-47s, Beheadings, And The Planes Into Buildings | Video | RealClearPolitics: "Maher even defended Rush Limbaugh from campaigns in recent years to boycott him and get companies to pull their advertisements from his show.

"This may surprise you, but I am not a big fan of Rush Limbaugh," Maher said. "However, if you're one of the people with a website devoted to making him go away, you are part of the problem. Ironically you're not even a proper liberal because you don't get free speech. You're just a baby who can't stand to live in a world where you hear things that upset you. Oh, you're not alone.""



'via Blog this'

NYT editor: Cartoons blaspheming Mohammed are different from anti-semitic cartoons « Hot Air

NYT editor: Cartoons blaspheming Mohammed are different from anti-semitic cartoons « Hot Air: "I don’t know if it’s categorical. As I read it, he’s not saying that cartoons of Mohammed are objectively more offensive than anti-semitic cartoons, he’s saying that the amount of rage they evoke in Muslims and Jews, respectively, is evidence that the former are more offensive to the aggrieved group than the latter. If Jews want the Times to take their feelings seriously, they can prove the depth of their injury by grabbing some AK-47s and machine-gunning a group of cartoonists. This moron is actually providing an incentive to overreact to blasphemy. Which is probably the closest he’ll come to acknowledging the real calculus in all this: To the extent that Times editors have more to fear from angry Muslims than they do from angry Jews, yes, it’s quite true that cartoons that offend each group don’t parallel each other."



'via Blog this'

Media celebrates massive success of Charlie Hebdo’s defiant new issue by refusing to publish the cover « Hot Air

Media celebrates massive success of Charlie Hebdo’s defiant new issue by refusing to publish the cover « Hot Air: "Normally CH’s circulation is 60,000 copies. They printed three million of the new one to try to meet expected demand after the massacre, but sales are so hot in France this morning that they’ve already had to bump the print run up to five million. The issue’s been condemned by Sunni authorities, in the form of Egypt’s grand mufti, and Shiite ones, via Iranian state media. All of which is to say, this feels newsy. Go look at how the AP is handling photos of Parisians on line, though. Everyone who ventures out publicly to buy the issue is taking a risk that some Kouachi sympathizer will copycat the Charlie Hebdo attack by shooting up a newsstand. Given the denunciations from Islamic clerics and the fact that French security suspects the Kouachis had accomplices, that risk is real. Basic solidarity with France in defense of free speech today should mean, at the very least, showing at least as much balls as the average Frenchman strolling around Paris with a copy of the offending issue on full display in his own hands."



'via Blog this'

Mark Steyn: Charlie Hebdo was a target only because the rest of the media wouldn’t share the risk « Hot Air

Mark Steyn: Charlie Hebdo was a target only because the rest of the media wouldn’t share the risk « Hot Air: "A necessary corrective to the well-meaning but impotent “Je suis Charlie” cris de coeur. Yesterday that was a social media phenonemon, hashtag solidarity in the spirit of the “Bring Back Our Girls” phrase that circulated months ago after the Boko Haram kidnappings. Months later, the girls still aren’t back. And we — particularly our major media outlets — are most emphatically not Charlie. As Matt Welch said, “few of us are that good, and none of us are that brave.” If you doubt him, pay close attention to the many, many cartoon tributes to Charlie Hebdo appearing today in newspaper op-ed pages or being favorited on Twitter and Facebook. Most are variations on “the pen is mightier than the sword,” which is nice but hollow in this case for the simple reason that virtually none of these tributes takes the bold extra step of featuring Mohammed in the cartoon. The trend is towards stronger anti-blasphemy norms, not vice versa. Let’s keep what’s left of our dignity by acknowledging that, at least."



'via Blog this'

Bill Maher to Jimmy Kimmel: Hundreds of millions of Muslims support this Charlie Hebdo attack « Hot Air

Bill Maher to Jimmy Kimmel: Hundreds of millions of Muslims support this Charlie Hebdo attack « Hot Air: "It’s not what he’s saying that’s novel — he’s made this point before, and seems to be making it more often lately — but the forum in which he’s saying it. I wonder if there was anyone else featured across the four broadcast networks’ news/current events programming yesterday to raise the point that the “tiny minority of extremists” isn’t so tiny when you consider the raw numbers. Kimmel is uncomfortable from the start, partly because Maher went out there with a point to make rather than engage in the usual dreary late-night banter and partly because he’s violating a liberal taboo in noting that jihadi fanatics are sustained by a larger, decidedly illiberal culture. Criticizing the tiny minority on TV is okay provided that you emphasize their tiny-minority-ness. When, however, you try to connect up the actions of the worst offenders to the cultural fishbowl they swim in — a practice the left not only engages in but insists upon in every other context except Islamic fanaticism — then you’re over the line. Watch Kimmel scramble for a commercial break as Maher tries to get going on that point. Listen to how silent the audience is throughout, as if they dare not disrespect their host, ABC, by encouraging him. No wonder Maher had to move his own show from broadcast TV to pay cable."



'via Blog this'

Audio: Hugh Hewitt versus Bill “Those Charlie Hebdo attackers were right to be angry” Donohue « Hot Air

Audio: Hugh Hewitt versus Bill “Those Charlie Hebdo attackers were right to be angry” Donohue « Hot Air: "Hewitt asks the correct question in response: What do you do when people defy that norm? How far are you willing to go to enforce it? Donohue’s against criminalizing the practice, he claims, but is that because he genuinely opposes penalties or because he suspects people won’t hear him out if he takes too harsh of an approach to blasphemy at this point in the public debate? His logic is conspicuously similar to the collectivist logic used by fans of “hate speech” laws, including his creepy reference to “abuse of freedom”: We should protect free speech up to the point that it’s not hurting society, at which point it’s time to start carving out exceptions. It’s the “heckler’s veto” as social ideal. Provocative speech, which is hurtful to some slice of the public almost by definition, would have a tough time surviving in that moral ecosystem. In fact, years before jihadis decided to escalate the sanction, Charlie Hebdo was sued in French courts on grounds of “racism” for publishing the Danish Mohammed cartoons. They did survive, but as the entire world now knows, Charlie Hebdo was unusually dogged in its willingness to take risks for satire. Hewitt’s rightly suspicious here that Donohue’s system of “moral” sanction for blasphemy would calcify into a system of legal sanction. And you know what? Given the polling, he’s right to be."



'via Blog this'

Howard Dean: These terrorists are about as Muslim as I am « Hot Air

Howard Dean: These terrorists are about as Muslim as I am « Hot Air: "I’ve never understood why some western pols, usually but not always liberals, feel it’s necessary to go that extra yard and start pronouncing on what is and isn’t authentically Islamic. It reeks of sweaty doth-protest-too-much reassurance. If you feel obliged to remind Americans for the thousandth time that it’s unfair to punish one individual Muslim for the actions of another — and if you do still feel that need after the first 999 iterations, you should probably reflect on your own prejudices — then just say that. Shifting into Imam Dean mode and issuing a fatwa rendering the Charlie Hebdo terrorists haram looks ridiculous, a reminder that the first impulse of the political class after people have been murdered by terrorists is to worry about Muslims. A roomful of satirists gets machine-gunned by a pair of jihadi degenerates and this is Howard Dean’s gut reaction?"



'via Blog this'

Discourse and Destruction - WSJ

Discourse and Destruction - WSJ: "That is a reasonable argument, one with which we are inclined to agree. But unless Robinson has changed his mind about Tucson, it is not one that he believes as a matter of principle."



'via Blog this'

Johann Hari is Sliming His Way Back into Public Life, but is He Sorry for What He Did? - Breitbart

Johann Hari is Sliming His Way Back into Public Life, but is He Sorry for What He Did? - Breitbart: "Imagine my dismay when, late last night, having located a copy of the Mail on Sunday here in the Bahamas, where I am putting the finishing touches to my book about GamerGate, I turned to the comment pages to see the byline JOHANN HARI. Yes, the very same: disgraced plagiarist and online bully Johann Hari, who bullied and lied about journalist Cristina Odone and made up nonsense for the pages of national newspapers for nearly a decade.

The Guardian, too–perhaps more understandably–has given the formerly flabby fabulist a free pass to act contrite on its pages this week, in a profile written by a close friend, exquisitely carefully worded so as to avoid any serious admissions, contrition or attempt to do right by the people he hurt. Which includes his readers, lest these esteemed organs, so eager to welcome him back, have forgotten."



'via Blog this'

When is a filibuster not a filibuster? « Hot Air

When is a filibuster not a filibuster? « Hot Air: "In this one case I can overlook Kilgore’s knee-jerk response of attributing the Times’ description to laziness rather then normal, business as usual bias. But it is yet another reminder of the challenge that Democrat supporting media outlets are going to face over the next two years. As we’ve discussed here before, the double edged sword of governmental obstruction charges turned around 180 degrees after the midterm elections. The shoe isn’t just on the other foot here.. it’s a steel toed boot.

For several years the press has developed an entrenched level of comfort in blaming the low approval ratings of Congress on the fact that they steadfastly refused to get the work of the people done. It was the do nothing Congress. It was the least productive Congress in history. And despite the fact that the House passed literally hundreds of bills which Harry Reid refused to put up for a vote, the overwhelming message broadcast to the American people was that it was Republican obstructionism."



'via Blog this'

The fire sale at Gitmo continues « Hot Air

The fire sale at Gitmo continues « Hot Air: "When it comes to balancing national security against the President’s legacy, it seems to have been a fairly easy call. Now the only remaining question is which tax we will need to increase this year to pay the next set of five million dollar rewards for whichever of these guys heads back to the battlefield next."



'via Blog this'

Shock: Coast Guard seeing sharp uptick in Cubans fleeing workers’ paradise « Hot Air

Shock: Coast Guard seeing sharp uptick in Cubans fleeing workers’ paradise « Hot Air: "Despite its status among progressives as a veritable model for health care reformers and proponents of egalitarianism, the joint announcement by President Barack Obama and Cuban dictator Raul Castro of the normalization of bilateral relations has resulted in a sharp uptick in the number of Cubans desperately fleeing the island in makeshift dinghies. Who could have possibly seen this coming?

The Coast Guard is reporting an 117 percent spike in December in the number of Cubans fleeing the island nation by boat. On Monday alone, the Coast Guard returned 121 Cubans back to the custody of authorities in Havana. They were all intercepted at sea in seven separate incidents in just the past week."



'via Blog this'

Jeb Bush on gay marriage: The states should decide « Hot Air

Jeb Bush on gay marriage: The states should decide « Hot Air: "Marco Rubio, another social conservative from the very purple state of Florida, also thinks gay marriage should be left to the states notwithstanding his personal support for traditional marriage. So does tea-party champion Ted Cruz, who’s been praised by no less than Barney Frank for taking a federalist approach that would allow blue states to legalize SSM instead of backing a (doomed) Federal Marriage Amendment that would ban the practice coast to coast. For Republican candidates across the spectrum, this issue is virtually no upside and all downside. Public support nationally for legalization continues to climb, and Obama’s already proved that backing gay marriage is no obstacle to winning a presidential election handily. The obvious play, even for righty stalwarts like Cruz, is to do your best to please your base while also doing your best not to alienate swing voters wary of a top-down “values” crusade against the tide of public opinion. Hence Bush’s stance."



'via Blog this'

Progressives: Stop laughing at Harvard « Hot Air

Progressives: Stop laughing at Harvard « Hot Air: "Well, yes and no … but mostly no. Conservatives wanted to restore pricing signals, it’s true — as did Harvard’s faculty, about which more later — but not coercively, and certainly not with a universal mandate to buy comprehensive health coverage. The conservative solutions to pricing signals were to incentivize the use of health-savings accounts, move the industry to hospitalization coverage, and encourage the growth of retail-care clinics for routine care on a competitive fee basis. That would have protected people against serious illness while alleviating costs for both insurers and providers. It also would have reduced prices by eliminating insurance overhead on most routine care and forcing providers to compete on price. That works in the Lasik and plastic-surgery markets, neither of which usually deals with insurance, and both of which have seen prices controlled through market forces without government interventions and mandates."



'via Blog this'

Finally: Big Apple takes on epidemic public-transit threat of … « Hot Air

Finally: Big Apple takes on epidemic public-transit threat of … « Hot Air: "It’s curious, and somewhat suspicious, that this effort has been targeted at only men. If the issue is seat space, what about purses, shopping bags, backpacks, and the like that impact both genders more or less equally? The immediate solution to an egregious manspread would be to sit down in the space that the hips allow and claim some normal space. Bags and backpacks don’t allow for that. Are those no problem on New York’s subways?

Mostly, though, this looks like another strange priority for a city increasingly defined by them. The Big Apple wants to crack down on your leg spread and ability to buy a soft drink, but has nothing much to say about people hijacking restaurants to harass patrons about their pet political causes. Remind me again why anyone would want to live there."



'via Blog this'

Open thread: New Congress to be sworn in, vote on Speaker forthcoming; Update: Boehner elected Speaker, loses 25 votes « Hot Air

Open thread: New Congress to be sworn in, vote on Speaker forthcoming; Update: Boehner elected Speaker, loses 25 votes « Hot Air: "Odd coincidence that enough people voted against Boehner to firm up their conservative credentials, not enough to actually unseat him. Hmm."



'via Blog this'

The shadow of Eric Garner on the race to replace Michael Grimm « Hot Air

The shadow of Eric Garner on the race to replace Michael Grimm « Hot Air: "As we discussed last week, the resignation of Michael Grimm from his seat in New York’s 11th congressional district following a guilty plea on tax evasion charges has set in motion a strange chain of events, thanks to New York’s rather arcane election laws. The first question to be settled is when the special election will take place. We’ve had more than a few unfortunate experiences here on that score so the media is used to some odd comings and goings. New York Election law says that the Governor must call a special election between 70 and 80 days from the date that he declares the vacancy of the seat. Unfortunately, due to a lack of foresight on the part of our political ancestors, there is nothing which specifies when he must declare the vacancy. So Andrew Cuomo could do it immediately and have a true special election before the end of April, or he could essentially pretend that the seat isn’t vacant until this summer and then declare that the election will take place along with the regular off year festivities in November."



'via Blog this'