News of the Week for October 12th, 2014
- Election 2014
- Obama Scandals
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Election 2014
Democratic Dynasties Lose Their Luster
In the Senate races, political legatees are finding out that famous family names are not enough.
The Long Game: Democrats Go for the GOP Jugular in North Carolina
Democrats are increasingly bullish on their odds in North Carolina, yet progressive groups are investing unprecedented sums in the Tarheel state, even as other seats slip away. What this tells us about 2014 and beyond.
South Dakota shakes up Senate map
Thanks to what local Republicans are privately criticizing as a lackluster, play-it-safe campaign, former Gov. Mike Rounds (R) is looking surprisingly weak in the three-way race in the deep red state.
Obama Scandals
Returned Obama Donation After WH Meet Possibly Linked to Prostitution Scandal Raises Questions
Leslie Dach, the father of a White House advance team member linked to the recent Secret Service prostitution scandal had a White House meeting and a $20k Obama campaign donation refunded just as details of said link were being made public.
Gun Rights
Not Given, Not Granted: Your Right to Keep and Bear Arms
Many gun rights activists unwittingly do harm to the movement by referring to gun ownership as their “Second Amendment rights.” While this phrase may be used with good intentions, it is not only incorrect to refer to the amendment as “giving” us rights, but it actually gives gun control advocates a strategic path to erode our natural rights by attacking the meaning of the amendment itself.
Hide the Decline
Environment &
“Green Energy”
New paper finds West Antarctic glacier likely melting from geothermal heat below
Via the Hockey Schtick – A paper published today in Earth and Planetary Science Letters finds evidence that one of the largest glaciers in West Antarctica, the Thwaites Glacier, is primarily melting from below due to geothermal heat flux from volcanoes located along the West Antarctic Volcanic Rift System, i.e. not due to man-made CO2.
Climate Science: Separating Mistakes From Malfeasance
An important problem in climatology involves determining how many points are required to establish a pattern or a trend. It parallels the societal challenge, how many mistakes before a pattern or trend is identified? The societal question applies to climate science, but the line appears unclear. How many scientific mistakes separate incompetence from malfeasance? After watching the corruption of climate science for over 30 years, I believe we crossed the line with creation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Its procedures were established to prove the anthropogenic global warming (AGW) hypothesis. This resulted in the malfeasance of eliminating or evading scientific checks and balances. The question is why is the malfeasance still not fully exposed? Why can people who were exposed and admitted their errors, continue to have credibility, at least in their own minds? Why is there no accountability?
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
Texas Lawsuit Alleges Obamacare Money Was Used to Boost Union
Two Texas organizations with ties to the now-defunct ACORN are being accused in a federal lawsuit of using Obamacare navigators to recruit union members, according to Watchdog.org.
War & Terror
Pregnant Austrian teens in ISIS: We’ve made a huge mistake
Two Austrian teens got way more than they bargained for when they abandoned their homes and families to become “poster girls” for ISIS terrorists, and now they desperately want to come home.
National
The cases to keep an eye on during the Supreme Court’s new term
The Supreme Court will sit for its first argument of the term this morning. I suppose given how few cases the high court accepts each year, they could all be considered important. But let’s not kid ourselves. So far, the high court has few cases on its docket that are likely to grab front page headlines—no same-sex marriage, no Obamacare, no right to bear arms. That could change, as I’ll discuss below, but first let’s look at my choices for the cases you should keep an eye on.
Connecticut Targets Homeschoolers
In the aftermath of the Newtown massacre, a state panel tries to restrict parental rights.
U.S. Supreme Court declines to intervene in gay marriage cases
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up the hotly contested issue of gay marriage, a surprise move that will allow gay men and women to marry in five states where same-sex weddings were previously banned.
One in Five U.S. Residents Speaks Foreign Language at Home, Record 61.8 million
Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic speakers grew most since 2010
School Told to Call Kids ‘Purple Penguins’ Because ‘Boys and Girls’ Is Not Inclusive to Transgender
Nebraska teachers are instructed to ask students what their preferred pronouns are.
GamerGate Part 1: The Path We’ve Taken
How To Kill #GamerGate In 2 Easy Steps (That Kotaku, Polygon, And The Verge Won’t Ever Try!)
Psst! Media guys! Come over here. I have a secret. And it’s a big one.
Nevad: Clark County Schoo District documents reveal district discussed teaching masturbation to kindergarteners
Intrusive sex-ed curriculum changes considered, show why parents need school choice
Christian Company Ordered To Print Gay Pride T-Shirts
On Wednesday, Christian News reported that a Kentucky Human Rights Commission examiner has ordered a Christian owned screen-printing company to print pro-homosexual T-shirts and undergo diversity training for refusing to make shirts for a gay pride celebration two years ago.
Economy & Taxes
Fraught Greek bailout exit to test euro zone resilience
Greece is not yet giving European leaders sleepless nights again, but as the euro zone’s problem child approaches the end of its second international bailout, political uncertainty in Athens is set to test the currency area’s resilience.
International
In Liberia, Firestone held Ebola at bay where governments failed
There is some debate these days as to what is the proper amount of, shall we say, wariness about Ebola. It is true that it is not transmitted via the air, which makes it less dangerous than other viruses. It is also true that this outbreak has been bigger and harder to contain than others, leading some scientists to wonder if it might be more contagious than they had formerly thought. It is true that we have a better health care infrastructure than the countries most affected. It’s also true that the keen health infrastructure we do have won’t make any American who might lose a relative to Ebola feel much better, and it’s fair to be concerned about that.
Anti-EU Party UKIP Wins First British Parliament Seat
Britain’s anti-EU UK Independence Party won its first elected seat in parliament on Friday by a landslide and came a close second in another vote, proving it poses a threat to the country’s two main parties in a national election next year.
UKIP Could Win Over 100 Seats, Say Experts
The forecast comes after UKIP gave both the Tories and Labour plenty to think about in last Thursday’s by-elections.
Surge in Ukip support following Clacton success would see them secure ‘128 seats in election’
A study shows Nigel Farage won the support of one in four voters in the Clacton by-election and is on course for more seats in parliament at the general election
Opinion
Privilege
My eyes on twitter, yesterday, pinged me with an interesting retweet from one of the usual suspects. You know, those people in science fiction who have been so oppressed and downtrodden and kept at arms length because we don’t like their ancestors or their color or their orientation or yes, that they’ve been living hand-to-mouth existences, oppressed by white male privilege and barely able to scrape up a few crumbs of stale bread for their dinner.
Clash of the Progressive Pieties
A lesbian couple complains that its baby is the “wrong” race. This should be good.
The Real Forever War: the Fox and the Heron
The self-declared “Caliph” (the word means “replacement” in Hebrew) of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi has a PhD in Islamic studies. By no means is he ‘ignorant’ of Islam, despite the declarations of ‘some’ in the West. The idea of a caliphate as a supra-national Islamic state, is a basic religious ideal shared by all Muslims. Greece has collapsed, Iran is aggressive and Rome is in disarray. Welcome to 430 BC.
A Persian fable: A Fox met a Heron and said “My, what lovely feathers you have, dear Heron. May I have one?” The Heron obliged. The following day they met again, and the same exchange occurred. Day-after-day the Fox’ question was repeated with the same response from the Heron’s. Finally, they met when the Heron had been plucked bare; so the Fox said, “Heron, you look delicious; now I will eat you. And he did.”
Stop Calling It Marriage Equality
All you’ve done is redefine the parameters of marriage. You support gay marriage, not “marriage equality.”
Fundamental Concepts – Government is Theft
Like most of you, I’ve watched with horror as our American society, culture and population gets dumbed down every year. Whether it’s the inevitable result of the comfortable lives we live, said comfort made possible by the conservative principles that you and I wish to preserve, or the result of a Gramscian Long March Through the Institutions set in motion by the bastards from the Frankfurt School* isn’t what I want to discuss in this essay. No, the topic of this essay is one of the fundamental realities of government that is absolutely foreign to 90% of the people out there, one that was taken as a given by the founding fathers. I sympathize with those of you in the let it burn camp, really I do, but the (usually) unspoken assumption of LIB is that we can rebuild after the burning an America based upon first principles. We might be able to do it (I have my doubts, can anyone give me a historical example of the total collapse of a society and culture that was followed by anything other than a totalitarian regime? Anyone? Bueller?), IF…..IF (and it’s the biggest if in the world), we were dealing with a population that understood and believed in certain fundamental concepts that in previous generations were ingrained in the population, we might have a chance. They’re not ingrained anymore. Do they even teach civics in school these days?
Pop Quiz!
OK, so, making the rounds of teh interwebs this week are these six questions to see how much history you really know. It’s a who-said-it quiz. And no, the answers to these questions aren’t all ‘Barack Obama’.
The Left Storms California’s Bedrooms
The state’s new “affirmative consent” law shows who the real aggressors in the culture war are.
Anti-American Exceptionalism
If America is alone, is it therefore in the wrong?
Self-Knowledge at the New York Times
Yesterday the New York Times editorial board delivered a stern message to America’s tech companies: “Silicon Valley’s Diversity Problem” was the title of the editorial.
