News of the Week for November 3rd, 2014
- Election 2014
- Obama Scandals
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Election 2014
Obama Visits Maryland; Democrat Drops 9 Points?
Things appear to be tightening in Maryland, where a poll leaked to The Daily Caller shows the gubernatorial race is “extremely close — only 2 points, 46 to 44, separate Democratic Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown and Republican small businessman Larry Hogan.”
The Mark of the Udall Curse now damaging all other Udall candidacies THROUGHOUT SPACE AND TIME.
Work with me, here.
How Times Change in Maine
Republican Governor Paul LePage of Maine has opened up a 10 point lead. Less than a year ago, friends of mine were freaked out that LePage was going to lose Maine. They thought he was too harsh with the media and seemed to relish being a bully.
Non-Citizen Voting and the 2014 Election
The Washington Post created a stir last week when it published a piece by two political scientists that revealed the findings from their study on non-citizen voting. Using some survey data, they found that 6.4 percent of non-citizens voted in 2008 and 2.2 percent voted in 2010.
How Many Elections Will Democrats Steal Next Week?
How extensive is voter-fraud, especially among non-citizens? Just bring up the question, or suggest we need to have voter-ID at the polls like every other advanced democracy, and the answer will be instantly supplied: You’re a racist. But as Dan McLaughlin points out over at The Federalist, Democrats seem to win a suspiciously high number of close elections, well beyond what a random statistical trial would suggest.
More than 1,400 Non-Citizens on NC Voting Rolls
A new audit has discovered over 1,400 registered voters on North Carolina’s voting rolls are likely not citizens of the United States.
Here Comes the 2014 Voter Fraud
Progressives and the Justice Department are doing all they can to stop improvements in election integrity.
In Cory Gardner, a look at the GOP’s happy future
To many Republicans, the Democratic “war on women” campaign against GOP Senate candidate Cory Gardner is an outrage. But for Gardner himself, it is also a test.
Beware Obama’s Post-Election Surprises
From Obamacare to the Justice Department, our lame-duck president is still a problem.
How To Reach The Wal-Mart Mom Voter
These uninformed, undecided voters will vote based on emotion. So give the Wal-Mart mom something to be hopeful about.
House Dems fret debilitating losses
The political environment continues to deteriorate for House Democrats ahead of a midterm election that’s certain to diminish their ranks.
The Forecast Gets Clearer: A Big, but Uneven, GOP Wave
When asked whether they will vote for the Democrat or the Republican for the House in their districts, 50 percent of likely voters say Republican and 44 percent say Democrat
Can a Bill Clinton bump stop a GOP tide in Nevada elections?
In every key Nevada race, Republicans have cast more early-voting ballots than Democrats ahead of today’s rally starring former President Bill Clinton, who is being brought in by Nevada Democrats who hope the “comeback kid” can boost party turnout and head off a GOP sweep of state offices.
Is New Mexico’s Senate Seat In Play? Dems Hold Only a Four- to Seven-Point Lead Now
Earlier this month, I listed a few races I thought might be surprises on Election Night — unexpected victories by both parties that few had predicted. One that I listed was the New Mexico Senate race between Democratic incumbent Tom Udall and GOP businessman Allen Weh.
Harry Reid’s Super PAC Ties GOP Candidate to Trayvon Martin’s Death
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s super PAC tied Republican Senate candidate Thom Tillis to the death of Trayvon Martin in an attempt to motivate black voters to support Senator Kay Hagan (D., N.C.).
New Hampshire, Vermont: look, all those states look alike to Elizabeth Warren.
Hampshire, can you? The Senator can barely muster up enough energy to care about Massachusetts. So it’s not really surprising to hear that the woman apparently can’t be bothered to remember which state Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)6% pretends to be from
La Raza Promotes Washington Post Guide On Where People Can Vote Without An ID
The pro-amnesty Hispanic activist organization the National Council of La Raza helpfully promoted a Washington Post article explaining which states people can vote in without having to use a photo ID.
Midterm Madness – Everything You Need To Know About Election 2014
This has been called the election about nothing. But that misses the point entirely. The 2014 midterm election is in fact about everything. A hodgepodge of issues and interests are competing for the attention of an anxious, even angry electorate, with voters set to have their say at a time of volatility for the nation and the world.
GOP Hope for Statewide Office . . . in California??? (Yes!)
My longtime friendly correspondent Peter Stevens, a solid conservative who is an attorney and former executive aide to three Republican U.S. House members from California, writes me this note, which is worth reprinting (with his permission) in its entirety
Why Middle-Class Americans Can’t Afford to Live in Liberal Cities
Blue America has a problem: Even after adjusting for income, left-leaning metros tend to have worse income inequality and less affordable housing.
Wendy Davis is losing women by double-digits
Wendy Davis, the Democratic nominee for governor of Texas, was supposed to be the candidate of women’s rights, what with her 11-hour filibuster of a bill that would ban abortions beyond 20 weeks (5 months).
Why U.S. green groups are talking about abortion this election
Green billionaire Tom Steyer vowed to make the November congressional elections about climate change. Now he’s talking about abortion and the economy to get his candidates across the finish line.
Want Cosmo Models? Head to North Carolina on Election Day.
It’s the sexiest Election Day celebration yet!
Massive Non-Citizen Voting Uncovered in Maryland
An election integrity watchdog group is suing the state of Maryland, alleging that it has discovered massive and ongoing fraudulent voting by non-U.S. citizens in one county. But because of the way that the non-citizens are able to cast votes in elections, the fraud is likely happening in every single county and subdivision across the state. The group believes that the illegal voting has been happening for years.
Non-Citizens Are Voting
James O’Keefe documents the problem in North Carolina, where the Senate race is close.
In Georgia, a Capitalist Struggles
GOP Senate candidate David Perdue is learning that voters can recoil from market rationality.
That Other Republican Wave
Not that anyone’s paying attention, but GOP House candidates are set for a great cycle.
Election could tip historic number of legislatures into Republican hands
Republicans have the opportunity to take control of a record number of state legislative chambers across the country this year, as Democrats play defense in unfavorable terrain.
Parties brace for war over voter registrations in Ga. Senate race
Georgia’s tight Senate race could be headed for the courtroom after voters head to the ballot box. A state judge ruled earlier this week against civil rights groups seeking to force the Georgia secretary of State to account for roughly 40,000 voter registrations that were filed but allegedly haven’t shown up on the voting rolls. Those voters could have a big impact on the tight open seat contest between Democrat Michelle Nunn and Republican David Perdue.
FBI Announces Investigation of GOP Senate Candidate Days Before Election
Acknolwedgement of investigation is contrary to decades-long FBI practice
Democrats in tight New England governor races
Democrats are locked in competitive governor races across New England as Republicans push their midterm offensive into one of the nation’s last Democratic strongholds.
It’s Come to This: Attack Ads Against The Media
A two-minute television ad?
Political forecasters flock together
As the most important election since the last election nears, a funny thing is happening at Nate Silver’s 538 self-styled scientific Senate seeing-into-the-future.
Voter Fraud in New Mexico: Voter Turned Away After Illegal Voted as Him; Lack of Voter ID Law Blamed
An impostor illegally used a New Mexico’s man vote three days before the actual person came in to vote. The incident occurred in Rio Arriba County. When the real person came to cast his ballot, he was at first turned away, being told that he had already voted.
Mary Burke Campaign Uses Swastikas in Pro-Mary Burke Ad
In proving that Godwin’s Law applies to struggling Democrat campaigns just like it applies to the Internet, the Mary Burke campaign has decided to flash some swastikas in some ads that are encouraging people to vote for Mary Burke. Here is the ad in question, and it’s just as ridiculous as you might think it would be:
Both Sides Lawyer Up for Election
The election is upon us and there’s one thing certain; there are going to be close races. And close races means that armies of lawyers for both sides will descend on courtrooms across the country to challenge the results.
Legislature must heed court’s residency rulings
Residency requirements for public offices are enshrined in state law for an important reason: Voters should be represented by people who live among them, not by absentee opportunists or cynical carpetbaggers who crave power but have no desire to invest in the neighborhoods they oversee.
How to fraud-proof elections
Reforms to make voting more convenient have opened up opportunities to game system.
States ditch electronic voting machines
States have abandoned electronic voting machines in droves, ensuring that most voters will be casting their ballots by hand on Election Day.
Ted Cruz: Republican priorities for 2015
A GOP led Congress in 2015 will pass a serious agenda, or expose an obstructionist Obama.
Undercover video shows North Carolina poll workers offering ballots to ineligible impostor – TWENTY TIMES – putting voter ID battle on the front burner
Only one polling place turned him away without an ID, but officials there were breaking the rules in order to do it
Reid on the Ropes
He may not even be minority leader after Tuesday.
Wargaming Tuesday’s Results
What does Tuesday portend? To the chalkboard one last time.
Obama Scandals
Ex-CBS reporter: Government agency bugged my computer
A former CBS News reporter who quit the network over claims it kills stories that put President Obama in a bad light says she was spied on by a “government-related entity” that planted classified documents on her computer.
Sheryl Attkisson: CBS Honchos Ordered Me to Present a False Account of Obama’s Words on Whether Benghazi Was a Terrorist Attack
As you remember, Obama denied repeatedly that Benghazi had been a terrorist attack, but eventually facts leaked out making this position untenable.
Gun Rights
One Man’s “Outing”
A Minnesota mother has taken it upon herself to “out” a fellow parent at her children’s Rochester elementary school… and for once, we’re not talking about sexual preference or gender affiliation. (insert purple penguin joke here)
Hide the Decline
Environment &
“Green Energy”
EPA to ban Argon, one of the largest components of the atmosphere
Did you know that Argon, an inert “noble gas” element, one of the basic building blocks of nature, is the fourth most plentiful substance in our atmosphere? It’s true. There’s more Argon in our atmosphere than anything other than molecular Nitrogen and Oxygen, and then Water.
The EPA jumps the shark, banning – ARGON ?
This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “noble” cause corruption. Documentation follows. Eric Worrall writes: the American EPA has stunned observers, with a list of inert additives for pesticide formulations they intend to ban, which includes the noble gas Argon.
New Zealand’s Temperature Record challenged by new skeptical paper
This past week, a paper on the NZTR was accepted by the journal Environmental Modeling & Assessment. It was originally submitted in 2013!
Former Weather Channel CEO Goes off on CNN: ‘Hello, Everybody! There’s No Global Warming!’
Former Weather Channel co-founder John Coleman made melted-iceberg waves recently when he denied the existence of climate change, to the point that the channel he helped found distanced itself from him. Coleman was defiant on CNN’s Reliable Sources Sunday morning, telling (or rather talking over) host Brian Stelter that his former network had become politicized.
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
Confirmed: Obamacare is Hurting Democrats
Long gone are the days of Democratic chest-thumping about “running on” Obamacare in 2014. That boast was abruptly replaced with assertions that the issue was receding from the scene and wouldn’t really benefit either party. As it turns out, candidates on one side of the aisle has been talking quite a lot about the healthcare law on the campaign trail and in ads, while the other side has been notably tight-lipped.
War & Terror
Iraqi forces seize four villages after victory near Baghdad
Iraqi government forces retook four villages on Sunday near a mountain ridge overlooking Islamic State supply lines, security officials said, in a campaign which has struggled to make advances against the Sunni Islamist insurgents.
Kurds thwart new ISIS bid to isolate Syria’s Ain al-Arab
Kurdish forces thwarted a new attempt Sunday by ISIS fighters to cut off the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab from the border with Turkey as Syrian government airstrikes killed 13 children.
Poster girl for Kurdish freedom fighters in Kobane is ‘captured and beheaded by ISIS killers’ who posted gruesome pictures online
Female Kurdish fighter whose picture became a web hit ‘killed by Isis’
Kurdish resistance denies that poster girl ‘Rehana’ is killed in action
Islamic State terrorists claim to have beheaded the poster girl of the Kurdish militia’s battle for freedom in Syria. The female fighter, known only by the name Rehana, became famous after a picture of her making the peace sign went viral on Twitter. She is said to have killed more than 100 jihadists in the battle for the strategically important town of Kobane, on the Turkey-Syria border.
‘Treated like cattle’: Yazidi women sold, raped, enslaved by ISIS
Jana was a 19-year-old in her final year of high school, with dreams of becoming a doctor. Then, ISIS came to her village last August, and her world collapsed.
Kosmos-2499: Is it a spy or an assassin… or both?
After a complex orbital dance, Russia’s mysterious maneuverable orbiter came ever closer to its apparent target in space and to a possible climax of its secret mission. Space observers around the world hold their breath in anticipation!
ISIS slave auction video
ISIS warriors cite the Koran as they look forward to raping captured Yazidi slave women. This is the most disgusting spectacle in a long time. This should be required viewing for anyone who calls Islam a “great religion” or for those American blacks who embrace Islam because they blame Christianity for slavery, not acknowledging that it was Christians who led the anti-slavery crusade.
National
Naked Man Accused Of Raping Pit Bull In Neighbor’s Yard, Says ISIS Sent Him
A naked man is accused of raping a pit bull in his neighbor’s yard.
Gawker is toxic to brands who partner with them
AdAge finally reports on GamerGate, and Alex Kantrowitz quotes an unnamed advertiser’s conclusion about this mess, which much like the slow-motion implosion of Britney Spears mental health that Gawker took such mirth in covering, never seems to end.
Those Ebola Vaccines in Testing Now? You Can Thank Dick Cheney for That
Democrats looking to blame Republicans for the lack of an Ebola vaccine may owe Dick Cheney an apology.
#GamerGate: The Players and the Played
The #GamerGate controversy reached a new high (or low depending on your perspective) recently when one of its main protagonists, the radical feminist and cultural critic, Anita Sarkeesian, was featured on the front page of the New York Times. Ironically, in view of the focus of her criticism about passive female characterization in video games, she herself was cast as the “damsel in distress”, under threat from active male protagonists.
Attempting to buy marijuana from your probation officer is not a smart idea
Sometimes people become so desperate that they don’t know where to turn.
“Anonymous” says there will be no #Ferguson indictment
Based on alleged inside sources, claims police, National Guard preparing for unrest, imposition of martial law
More college students support post-birth abortion
A trend seen by prolife activists that frequently engage college students on campuses nationwide is the growing acceptance of post-birth abortion, or killing the infant after he or she is born, campus prolife outreach leaders tell The College Fix.
Voyager 1 now EIGHTEEN LIGHT HOURS from home
Almost 20 BEEELION kilometres from Sol
NY State blesses ‘incest’ marriage between uncle, niece
The state’s highest court has toppled a cultural taboo — legalizing a degree of incest, at least between an uncle and niece — in a unanimous ruling.
Senators Eye Asset Forfeiture Reform
Media focus builds pressure to limit seizures by feds
Anti-violence activists charged in vicious attack
Two “Stop the Violence” organizers allegedly beat one of their colleagues so severely that he vomited blood and was left unconscious in critical condition.
San Francisco rebuked for ‘fundamental’ abuse of property rights
In an era in which eminent domain is routinely used to reward the wealthy and politically connected — to the detriment of poor and middle-class property owners — it’s easy to forget that property rights as conceived of in the U.S. Constitution are every bit as essential as free speech and the right to bear arms. But there are periodic reminders that these constitutional rights remain, reminders that often illustrate the overreach of local government.
Grand jury meeting in civil-rights case involving George Zimmerman
A federal grand jury will meet in downtown Orlando Wednesday to hear testimony about whether Trayvon Martin’s civil rights were violated when Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot him in the chest, according to court paperwork.
Virgin Galactic spaceship crashes during California test flight
A suborbital passenger spaceship being developed by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic crashed during a test flight on Friday at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, officials said.
Ex-Marine banned from daughter’s school after he complained about her Islam homework
Kevin Woods was angered after he found his daughter had been given a three page exercise examining Islam’s five pillars
Politically-Challenged: Texas Tech Edition
Texas Tech’s new student political organization PoliTech goes to campus to see how much our students know about their nation’s politics! You might be surprised.
Hateful Bigoted Incestophobes!
Earlier today I was reading The [Un]Documented Mark Steyn, which has many things to say about the West’s heedless descent into degeneracy — wealthy gay men employing surrogate mothers as womb-for-hire baby-makers and so forth — and then I returned to the computer to find that New York State’s highest court has ruled that an uncle has the constitutional right to have sex with his niece.
Marine veteran freed from Mexican jail
A Mexican federal district judge in Tijuana on Friday ordered the immediate release of a U.S. Marine veteran being held in Baja California on federal weapons charges.
Minority Rules: Scientists Discover Tipping Point for the Spread of Ideas
Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society. The scientists, who are members of the Social Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center (SCNARC) at Rensselaer, used computational and analytical methods to discover the tipping point where a minority belief becomes the majority opinion. The finding has implications for the study and influence of societal interactions ranging from the spread of innovations to the movement of political ideals.
I’ll Go With “Troll Of The Century”
I mean, there is using someone else’s name to prove a point about voter fraud, but then there is going after Snidely Whiplash himself
UNC students blame capitalism, white supremacy for academic scandal
UNC students blamed racism and heteropatriarchal capitalism for the recent UNC academic scandal during a rally Wednesday afternoon.
Lena Dunham Plans Children’s Movie With Incest & Beatings
Lena Dunham, who recently revealed acting as a “sexual predator” towards her younger sister in her book, Not That Kind of Girl, is set to make the children’s book Catherine, Called Birdy, into a film. The book, written in 1994 by Karen Cushman, tells the story of Birdy, a 14 year old girl living in Medieval times, whose father is intent on her marrying a suitor of his choosing.
Pro-Common Core Math Instructor: Kids Are ‘Clean Slate,’ Parents Must Be ‘Retrained’
The frustration and confusion over the Common Core math curricula aligned with the nationalized standards has opened up the role of parent “instructional coach,” educators who are teaching not only students, but also parents, in the strange and non-instinctive ways of the nationalized math standards.
Economy & Taxes
Federal Government Made $20 Billion in Secret Purchases in Recent Months
I-Team review finds $30,000 in one agency’s Starbucks purchases kept confidential from public
Fundamental Concepts: Subsidy
Here’s a concept so fundamental I’m embarrassed that I have to bring it up at all, yet many people look at you like you have three heads when you mention it. Are you ready?
International
In Iguala, Where 43 Students Were Abducted (And Likely Murdered), City Hall Is Burned by Protesters; Governor of Province Resigns
A few weeks ago a a mass grave was discovered in Iguala, Mexico, a town to the south of Mexico City, long alleged to be controlled by the “narcos,” from the police level up to the mayor’s office.
Ukraine Election Exit Polls: The New Parliament Will Resist Putin And Defend Ukraine
On Sunday October 26, Ukrainians elected a new parliament – the Verkhovna Rada — its 450-seat single-house legislative body. As a consequence of the Euromaidan revolution and Russia’s war on southeastern Ukraine, the parliamentary election was moved up from 2017 to October 2014.
Venezuela seizes warehouses packed with medical goods, food
President Nicolas Maduro’s government said on Thursday it had taken over warehouses around Venezuela crammed with medical goods and food that “bourgeois criminals” were hoarding for speculation and contraband.
Cannabis-eating sheep get high as a kite after munching £4,000-worth of drugs
A flock of sheep spent an afternoon stumbling around making strange noises after accidentally feasting on thousands of pounds worth of cannabis.
House of horrors footage: Home of grave robber historian who dug up 29 girls and dressed them for birthday parties
Creepy footage filmed by Anatoly Moskvin shows the bodies, including three-year-olds he exhumed after visting more than 700 cemeteries, sitting around his house in bizarre costumes
Fake clown attacks put French police on alert and trigger vigilante response
Residents fight back after spate of incidents thought to be fuelled by social media while real clowns are saddened by trend
Uruguay Elections Go to Run-off as Vazquez Tops First Round
Uruguay’s presidential elections will go into a run-off next month in an election that pits a former president against the son of an ex-president.
Tunisians vote for new parliament, hope for full democracy
Tunisians voted on Sunday in parliamentary elections that bring full democracy finally within their reach, four years after their revolution cast out autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. The moderate Islamist party Ennahda and rival secular alliance Nidaa Tounes are favoured to win most seats in Sunday’s vote, only the second free election in Tunisia since Ben Ali fled into exile in Saudi Arabia.
Netherlands: When the Questions Become the Crime
More problematic is that it reaches a point where discussion or debate is impossible because the questions themselves become a crime.
Toronto election: John Tory elected mayor
John Tory has won the election to be Toronto’s next mayor — ending the often gruelling, hotly contested race for the city’s top job and the tenure of outgoing Rob Ford.
Despite Riches, Venezuela Starts Food Rationing
Government Rolls Out Fingerprint Scanners to Limit Purchases of Basic Goods; ‘How Is it Possible We’ve Gotten to This Extreme’
The towns where exploiting children ‘is the new normal’
Inquiry commissioned following Rochdale grooming scandal in 2012
Zambian becomes first white African leader in 20 years
Zambia’s Guy Scott became Africa’s first white head of state in 20 years Wednesday after the president, “King Cobra” Michael Sata, died in a London hospital at aged 77.
Burkina army imposes interim government after crowd burns parliament
People load goods looted from a building, which according to locals, belongs to Francois Compaore, the younger brother of Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaore, in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, October 30, 2014.
Ordeal of OAP who quipped ‘I’m not Muslim’ at airport security after he was stopped: Man spends six months facing racism charges before case is finally dropped
Airport staff called police and on his return from Spain he was arrested
Ontario schools axe Halloween celebration for more inclusive Spirit Day
An Ontario school that feels Halloween is too exclusive an event has cancelled its holiday celebrations and replaced them with the toned down, more inclusive Spirit Day.
Faith Schools Could Face Closure if They Don’t Promote Gay Rights
British faith schools are to be forced to teach equality and respect for gay rights or face closure, in a move backed by Education Secretary Nicky Morgan. The orders come following 40 snap inspections of faith schools, including Christian and Jewish schools, in the wake of the Trojan Horse plot in Birmingham in which radical Islamists were found to have infiltrated between four and eight schools to promote hard-line Salafist Islam.
New Poll: UKIP Set to Win Rochester By-Election on November 20
UKIP’s lead in the forthcoming Rochester by-election has jumped eight points in a monthly repeat poll and now stand at 48 percent, indicating Tory defector Mark Reckless is set to retain the seat in three weeks time.
Opinion
The Russell Brand–Hillary Clinton–Elizabeth Warren Axis of Economic Foolishness
Plenty of scorn is being heaped upon British actor and comedian Russell Brand and his new book, Revolution, a silly, anti-capitalism diatribe. Capitalism, he writes, “generates wealth for the wealthy and further impoverishes those with nothing. Asking it to behave differently is like asking a microwave to wash your car.” Tell that to the 1 billion humans, mostly Chinese and Indians, who’ve been lifted out of extreme poverty the past 20 years because their nations embraced more market-oriented economic policies. Funnyman Brand is a joke, even though he obviously believes he has many important and serious things to say.
I’m starting to understand what made Ronald Reagan such a great president
At the weekend, I fulfilled a long-standing ambition and visited Ronald Reagan’s ranch, now held in trust by the wonderful Young America’s Foundation. It was here that the Gipper would withdraw whenever he could, to ride around the estate with Nancy. “The best thing for the inside of a man is the outside of a horse”, he used to say.
Murphy’s Law: Politicians Who Want Women In The Infantry
After two years of trying to justify allowing women into the infantry, artillery and armor and special operations forces, the U.S. government has decided to just order the military to make it happen and without degrading the capabilities of these units. While the army is inclined the just say yes, find out what quotas the politicians want and go through the motions, the marines are refusing to play along. The marines are pointing out that the research does not support the political demands and that actually implementing the quotas could get people killed while degrading the effectiveness of the units involved. This is yet another reason why many politicians do not like the marines.
DOOM (culturally speaking)
(DOOM oft comes dressed in jester’s motley rather than a sober banker’s suit. My usual wheelhouse is economics, but I hope you’ll forgive a quick foray into the Fine Arts building.)
Who Ruined the Humanities?
Of course it’s important to read the great poets and novelists. But not in a university classroom, where literature has been turned into a bland, soulless competition for grades and status.
Who Needs a Liberal Education?
In a world increasingly shaped, for better and for worse, by technological advancement, how can we form people who are thoughtful enough and free enough to distinguish between what we can do and what it would be wise for us to do? Many hope that an education in the liberal arts might help us become people who are neither captive to technology nor dismissive of it. But, alas, it is becoming ever more difficult to find places where the liberal arts flourish.
The Battered Humanities–Are They Worth Saving?
A particular nostalgia is at work in academic discussion. We still talk about of liberal education, the liberal arts, and the humanities as if they remain viable activities in higher education, threatened, yes, and losing ground, but open to revival. Universities have grown ever more “corporate,” students flock to business and vocational programs, the sciences get all the money, parents want kids to major in job-related fields, and humanities professors have social sciences interests (race, imperialism, sexuality), but commentators nonetheless regret the impact of those trends on liberal education as if it were still an active conception.
If You Care About The Poor, Care About Marriage
If you care about the poor, you need to start caring much more about marriage culture. The growing marriage divide is a major source of social and economic inequality, and is one largely unnoticed force eroding the American Dream. That’s the sobering message of a new report on economic success and marriage decline.
What It’s Like To Face The LGBT Inquisition
Dare to question the new moral majority, and you will face an LGBT Inquisition. A bisexual son of lesbian parents speaks up.
Sally Kohn Shows How the ‘Liberals’ Got So Illiberal
Just as I was writing about the importance of the right to be wrong, along comes The Daily Beast’s Sally Kohn to demonstrate exactly my point with a strident anthem of illiberal liberalism.
Pathetic Privilege
Dunham describes herself as an “unreliable narrator,” which in the context of a memoir or another work of purported nonfiction means “liar,” strictly construed. Dunham writes of incorporating stories from other people’s lives and telling them as though they were her own, and of fabricating details. The episode with her sister’s vaginal pebbles seems to be especially suspicious. When Dunham inspects her sister’s business, she shrieks at what she sees: “Grace had stuffed six or seven pebbles in there. . . . Grace cackled, thrilled that her prank had been such a success.” Dunham’s writing often is unclear (willfully so, it seems), but the context here — Grace has overheard her older sister asking whether her baby sister has a uterus — and Grace’s satisfaction with her prank suggest that Grace was expecting her older sister to go poking around in her genitals and inserted the pebbles in expectation of it. Grace is around one year old at the time of these events. There is no non-horrific interpretation of this episode. As for stroking her mother’s vagina, having mistaken it for her hairless cat . . .
Why Middle-Class Americans Can’t Afford to Live in Liberal Cities
Blue America has a problem: Even after adjusting for income, left-leaning metros tend to have worse income inequality and less affordable housing.
The Crazy Feminism of Joyce Trebilcot
America lost a valuable source of feminist craziness when Professor Joyce Trebilcot died in 2009 at age 74. For more than three decades, Trebilcot supplied the feminist movement with its necessary raw material — insanity — and in its obituary of this distinguished academic, Washington University St. Louis described her contributions
The American college application process reveals a bias against paid work
The college application process is at the forefront of my brain because one of the little Bookworms is applying to college. It’s been a very laborious process, because Mr. Bookworm is more motivated than the Little Bookworm is.
Chivalry Is Dead, Long Live Feminism
Call it chivalry or just plain manners, but men and women previously had a better framework for acceptable behavior, on and off the streets.
Is Social Psychology Biased Against Republicans?
On January 27, 2011, from a stage in the middle of the San Antonio Convention Center, Jonathan Haidt addressed the participants of the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. The topic was an ambitious one: a vision for social psychology in the year 2020. Haidt began by reviewing the field that he is best known for, moral psychology. Then he threw a curveball. He would, he told the gathering of about a thousand social-psychology professors, students, and post-docs, like some audience participation. By a show of hands, how would those present describe their political orientation? First came the liberals: a “sea of hands,” comprising about eighty per cent of the room, Haidt later recalled. Next, the centrists or moderates. Twenty hands. Next, the libertarians. Twelve hands. And last, the conservatives. Three hands.
Next Big Culture Clash: Banning Football
The metrosexual, feminized left targets “America’s Game” for extinction.
Moral Lepers
So, yesterday I had a comment I had to think about before I approved.
McClintock: Illegal Immigration Has Had ‘Huge Impact’ on CA Politics
Congressman Tom McClintock (R-CA) argued that illegal immigration has had a “huge impact” on the politics and economics of California and “wears at the very foundation of our country” on Friday’s “Laura Ingraham Show.”
Blue State Blues: The Tech Sector is Hacking the Constitutional Code
You know there is something seriously wrong with the American tech sector when it is lining up its best, brightest, and richest to support whatever executive action President Barack Obama takes in December to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants.
Should Psychological Identity Trump Physical Identity for Transgender Persons?
Pastor asks: If it is wrong to attempt to change gender identity (because it is fixed and meddling with it is harmful), then why is it morally acceptable to alter something as fixed as a biological body?
Is Marriage Worth Saving?
A recent study from the American Enterprise Institute misses an important problem.
We Free Men
“Secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and censorship. When any government or church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, “This you may not read, this you must not know,” the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man who has been hoodwinked in this fashion; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, whose mind is free. No, not the rack nor the atomic bomb, not anything. You can’t conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.”
Democrat Dilemmas
Here is the problem with the old-style Obama strategy of slicing and dicing the electorate into aggrieved minorities and then gluing them back together to achieve a 51% majority. On almost every issue in this election that they should be running on, they simply cannot. And on those that they are running on, they probably should not be.
