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.”"



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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."



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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."



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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."



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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."



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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."



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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."



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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."



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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."



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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."



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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.”"



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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."



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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?"



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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."



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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.)"



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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."



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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."



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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."



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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."



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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."



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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?"



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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."



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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."



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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."



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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."



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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."



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“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?"



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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."



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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?"



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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."



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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."



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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."



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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."



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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."



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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."



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