News of the Week for january 25th, 2014
- Obama Scandals
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Obama Scandals
Woman Showcased by Obama in SOTU is a Former Democratic Campaign Staffer
Woman apparently the only economic success story in Obama’s America
EPA Used Children in Illegal Diesel Exhaust Experiments
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency paid the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles to conduct experiments on children, to determine whether exposure to diesel exhaust harms humans. These experiments are illegal under the Nuremberg Code, California state law, and federal regulations, concerning the protection of human subjects in medical research, according to Energy and Environmental Legal Institute attorney David Schnare.
Obama Will Not Attend 70th Anniversary of Auschwitz Liberation
Heads of state from France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, and Denmark will be present
Gun Rights
Report: School shooting commission to propose ‘gun ban’
A Connecticut government commission created after the Sandy Hook school massacre will be proposing a “gun ban.”
Robber’s Famous Last Words: “I Thought You Couldn’t Own A Gun In New Jersey”
A Newark, New Jersey deli owner who shot and killed an armed man will not face charges, police and prosecutors say.
Elaine Wynn joins push to expand gun background checks
Elaine Wynn, the co-founder of Wynn Resorts and former wife of Steve Wynn, has joined the effort to expand gun background checks in Nevada.
Number One With A Bullet
The USA has, by far, the highest per capita gun ownership in the world. Progressives will tell you that this is what makes America the Murder Capitol of Planet Earth. But we’re not, and in this devastatingly effective Firewall, Bill Whittle shows why the center of Gun Nut Nation is in fact one of the safest places in the world.
Hide the Decline
Environment &
“Green Energy”
The Most Dishonest Year on Record
Last week, according to our crackerjack mainstream media, NASA announced that 2014 was the hottest year, like, ever.
A Classic Example Of Climate Fraud By The Union Of Concerned Scientists
Look what these UCS crooks did. They cherry picked starting their graph at the minimum during the drought of the late 1950’s, because the earlier years wrecked their claim. So they simply threw the other data out.
2014 as the Mildest Year: Why You are Being Misled on Global Temperatures
OR: Why I Should Have Been an Engineer Rather than a Climate Scientist
2014 Was One of the 3% Coldest Years in the Last 10,000
Climate alarmists play a number of tricks to try to make their catastrophic anthropogenic global warming theory seem plausible. One of the most important is that they focus on a ridiculously short period of time, beginning either in the late 19th century or at the beginning of the 20th. This is, of course, not even the blink of an eye in geologic time. Given that the Earth began emerging from the Little Ice Age in the mid to late 19th Century, it is hardly surprising–and a very good thing–that from then until now, temperatures have tended to rise.
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
Obamacare penalty may come as shock at tax time
Those Americans who didn’t get health insurance last year could be in for a rude awakening when the IRS asks them to fork over their Obamacare penalty — and it could be a lot more than the $95 many of them may be expecting.
NHS may be forced to abandon free healthcare for all, says Britain’s top doctor as he warns service needs radical change
Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of NHS England said the health service needs a ‘complete transformation’ to make it less reliant on hospitals
Healthcare.gov Reportedly Sends Private Medical Info to Third-Party Advertisers
A recent investigation by the Associated Press revealed that HealthCare.gov, the website that asks you to give them your medical and personal history in exchange for health insurance you are legally obligated to have, is sending that information to third party companies to do god knows what with it.
War & Terror
ISIS threatens to kill 2 Japanese hostages, demands ransom
1st time ISIS has specifically demanded cash for hostages
Yemen ‘coup’: UN Security Council calls emergency meeting after armed rebels breach presidential palace in Sanaa
The UN Security Council is being briefed in an emergency session on what appears to be an ongoing coup attempt in the capital city of Yemen.
Yemen militia seeking to ‘overthrow’ president: Minister
Shiite militiamen have launched an attack on the residence of President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi with the aim of toppling him, Information Minister Nadia Sakkaf said Tuesday.
Houthi coup in Yemen, to give Shiite rebels Red Sea influence
Since 2004 the Houthi movement, led by Shiite sect leader Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, has been fighting to take over Yemen, a country that had only been reunited since 1990, near the end of the Cold War. They’ve now succeeded in taking the Presidential palace in the capital.
ISIS execute 13 football fans by firing squad for watching Iraq play Jordan on TV in Islamist-controlled Mosul
ISIS soldiers executed 13 teenage boys for watching the Asian Cup
Yemen’s political turmoil deepens as president, Cabinet resigns
Yemen’s Western-backed president and the rest of the country’s leadership resigned Thursday, news reports said, following days of chaos that have left well-armed rebels in effective control.
France admits soldiers have deserted to ISIS, including ex-elite special forces and French foreign legionnaires
Several French former soldiers have joined the ranks of jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq, the country’s government confirmed on Wednesday, as it outlined a series of new anti-terrorism measures following the Islamist attacks in Paris.
China has new light tank for fighting in mountains in Tibet and other western provinces
There are pictures of china’s new light tank for fighting in mountainous areas. China’s has issues with minorities in some of the mountain areas. China has almost 15 million Muslims who live mainly in the rugged mountains and desert basins of the northwest, on the central Yellow River Valley plains, in the southern province of Yunnan and among the city populations of the east.
Report: Iranian general was killed in Israeli strike because he didn’t turn off his phone
An Iranian general killed in an alleged Israeli air strike last Sunday in Syria may have died because he did not turn off his cellphone.
Kurds not invited to conference on combating ISIS
It is a problem when the only people fighting ISIS aren’t invited to a conference on fighting ISIS
Aussie Khaled Sharrouf teaches sons to torture girls after he rapes them
SYDNEY’S Islamic State butchers Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar have been accused of buying, raping and torturing Yazidi slave girls in Syria and teaching their young children how to torture the girls.
National
Billy Crystal: ‘Stop shoving gay sex scenes in my face’
Billy Crystal, who played one of the first openly gay characters on TV in the Seventies, told the Television Critics Association that gay scenes aren’t “to his taste”.
Villaraigosa making moves ahead of possible Senate run
Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa planned to use the year to, as he put it recently, continue on a journey of reflection.
School: Students throw away 85% of vegetables served in ‘healthy’ lunches
An upstate New York school district is the latest to voice its concerns about the “healthy” changes to the National School Lunch Program.
Daughter to marry Dad, moves to New Jersey
This isn’t a slippery slope argument this is a fire pole covered with astroglide argument
The Tumblr teens convinced they were born the wrong species, sex and even race
Being transsexual is a bit like being gluten intolerant: for every real one, there are fifteen or twenty just trying it on for attention. Sorry if that sounds rude. We don’t mean to disparage those suffering from transgenderism; rather, to finger the epidemic of imitation identity disorders and theatrical attention-seeking currently infesting social networks such as Tumblr, making a mockery of genuine sufferers.
Suspect gouges baby’s eyes
La Plata Chief of Police Carl Schinner said Jan. 15 that alert police work and the help of citizens helped apprehend a 27-year-old man high on PCP (phencyclidine) who tried to gouge out the eyes of a 2-year-old girl.
12-Year-Old White Girl Gets Harshly Criticized for Showing Off Her Blonde Box Braids on Social Media
12-Year-Old Mallory Merk decided to try something new with her hair.
Parents Investigated For Neglect For Letting Kids Walk Home Alone
The WaPo reports that Danielle and Alexander Meitiv in Montgomery County Maryland say they are being investigated for neglect after letting their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter make a one-mile walk home from a Silver Spring park on Georgia Avenue on a Saturday afternoon.
112 Unkept Promises from Earlier Obama SOTU Addresses
The media are already analyzing the new proposals President Obama is set to layout this evening in his sixth annual State of the Union address (seventh if you count his unofficial 2009 address). Here at Grabien, we’re also looking at results. Taking a look back at past SOTU promises, How many actually ever materialized?
How the Press Exaggerated Holder’s Forfeiture Reform
The change leaves untouched the vast majority of loot that state and local agencies get from federal asset grabs.
New police radars can ‘see’ inside homes
At least 50 U.S. law enforcement agencies quietly deployed radars that let them effectively see inside homes, with little notice to the courts or the public.
Jindal in London: Lack of Assimilation Has Led to Sharia, “No-Go Zones” for Non-Muslims
Potential 2016 presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal caused a stir across the pond with a Monday speech in London about the rise of radical Islam and “no-go” zones for non-Muslims in Birmingham.
George Lucas On ‘Star Wars’: Disney Didn’t Use My Ideas For New Movies
George Lucas told Cinema Blend in an interview posted yesterday that when he sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, along with the company came some of his ideas for a new Star Wars trilogy. But it sounds like none of them will be part of the new Star Wars universe of movies that Disney will roll out beginning with the seventh installment, the JJ Abrams-directed Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is set to hit theaters December 18.
Boehner Invites Netanyahu to Capitol, White House Calls It Breach of Protocol
House speaker John Boehner pointedly sidestepped the White House on Wednesday, inviting Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress on Iran next month and angering the Obama administration in the process.
Rubio: Will White House Consult Congress on Iran Like We Were ‘Consulted’ on Cuba?
Senator Marco Rubio is skeptical of Obama administration promises to “consult” Congress before signing a nuclear deal with Iran, saying the White House promised similar consultations months before a sudden and unilateral policy change scrapping the Cuban embargo last month.
Spanish version of GOP’s SOTU response mentioned immigration, English version didn’t
Nice catch by the lefties at Mother Jones, delivering a hammer blow to the wedge of suspicion that already separates the GOP base from its congressional leadership on amnesty. There’s no immigration passage in Joni Ernst’s speech; there is one in Carlos Curbelo’s version, written and inserted by Curbelo himself — with the approval of GOP leaders.
NYT: ‘Nativist’ lawsuit on the Texas border – latest word for those who want a border
Brownsville, Tex. Credit Yvette Vela/The Brownsville Herald, via Associated Press. This photo accompanies the NYT piece. As you can see, it was chosen to assist in pushing the “nativist” line – a photo of a woman who looks very angry and threatening.
Obama Floats Dem Operative as Everywoman Success Story
They…tweaked…the facts
Bloodthirsty Pro-Abortion Zealots Angry That Obama Celebrated Low Abortion Rate
Wow. Kinda speechless here.
Feds Spent $432,000 Studying Gay Hookup Apps
NIH project studied ‘arousal’ of gay men when using Grindr
4chan’s Christopher Poole aka Moot is Retiring
Christopher Poole, better known by the nickname “moot”, has announced his retirement from running the popular (and often controversial) online imageboard 4chan.
Cake Shop Faces Legal Action For Refusing to Make Anti LGBT Cake
Azucar Bakery owner Marjorie Silva refused to make a Bible-shaped cake complete with strong anti-gay wording and imagery.
NY Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver accused of $6 million bribery and kickback scheme, taken into custody
Silver, who has been one of the most powerful lawmakers in Albany for more than two decades, surrendered to authorities Thursday morning. A five-count federal complaint accuses him of accepting millions from firms seeking him to wield influence in Albany on their behalf.
Journalism school dean: The First Amendment ends at insulting Mohammed
Unusual, not because it’s rare to see an American journalist bowing to Islamic sensibilities on depictions of Mohammed but because typically they don’t go so far as to demand legal limits on their own profession. When the New York Times refuses to run a cartoon goofing on Islam, they don’t want the reason to be government censorship. They prefer to be censored by more sympathetic agents, like violent Muslim radicals.
House GOP Flinches From Passing 20-Week Abortion Ban It Passed Last Congress
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) met Wednesday evening with Representative Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) and other Republican women to ameliorate a last-minute revolt against a 20-week abortion ban that passed the last Congress with overwhelming GOP support.
Villaraigosa Snubbed By Dem Party Leaders for Boxer Senate Seat
The snubbing of California’s most prominent Latino leader, Antonio Villaraigosa, by Democratic party bosses in his bid for outgoing Senator Boxer’s seat proves that Democrats boast of championing Latino rights but, come election time, they look the other way.
Environmentalist Tom Steyer will not run for Senate
San Francisco billionaire Tom Steyer, a major figure in the fight against global warming, announced today that he would not seek U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer’s seat in 2016.
EMAIL: Missouri Democratic Governor ORDERED National Guard To Stand Down During Ferguson Riots
Missouri Democratic Governor Jay Nixon ordered the Missouri National Guard not to patrol Ferguson during the first night of destructive riots after police officer Darren Wilson’s grand jury exoneration in the Michael Brown shooting case.
The Lolita Express
Flight logs on pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet puts Bill Clinton sharing a ride with a pornstar, as well as a woman who procured underage hookers for the billionaire.
De Blasio: This Criminal Sheldon Silver is a “Man of Integrity” and Shouldn’t Resign
There’s one standard for Republicans, quite another for Democrats.
Marco Rubio Moves Toward 2016 Presidential Bid
Sen. Marco Rubio has begun taking concrete steps toward launching a presidential bid, asking his top advisors to prepare for a campaign, signing on a leading Republican fundraiser, and planning extensive travel to early-voting states in the coming weeks, ABC News has learned.
Whistleblower: Pelosi Covered Up Role In Crisis
Subprime Scandal: We’ve long suspected the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission wasn’t honest in examining events before the meltdown. But an ex-commissioner says the probe was actually a full-blown political cover-up.
Harry Reid’s injury explained
A couple of weeks ago we commented on the injuries sustained by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and noted that he seems amazingly injury prone and each injury brings with it a less than convincing answer.
Renee Ellmers Call Your Campaign Team, You Have A Primary Challenge
Well, almost.
GOP’s @SenDeanHeller announces all the big problems have been fixed
now we along with Gisele Bundchen have time to worry about Tom Brady’s balls
“The Dick in Dictatorship”: Obama’s YouTube Interviews Were About as Awkward as You’d Expect
You probably won’t be shocked to learn there weren’t any major policy announcements or tough follow-up questions aired during Thursday evening’s live interviews of President Obama by three “YouTube stars.” But, since the White House chose this venue as the best way for the president to follow up on his State of the Union Address, here we are.
Detroit man who murdered two white teens declares ‘black lives matter’ during sentencing
A black man who was found guilty of murdering two white teenagers execution-style in a vacant Detroit field defiantly declared “black lives matter” Wednesday before being sentenced to life in prison.
Oakland Public Elementary School Devotes Week to Extolling Black Panther Party
Glenview Elementary, the Oakland public elementary school that last year horrified parents with its homosexual indoctrination of children as young as five, doesn’t limit itself to promoting perversity. Instilling Black Power dogma is also crucial if children are to grow up to be politically correct Democrats. This includes deification of the violent Black Panthers. A parent received this flyer by email.
Berkeley students outraged course reading includes Plato, Aristotle but nothing from transgenders
The student’s “occupy the syllabus” campaign argues that class material should include minority thought including women, trans people, and people of color.
Illinois Says Rule-Breaking Students Must Give Teachers Their Facebook Passwords
School districts in Illinois are telling parents that a new law may require school officials to demand the social media passwords of students if they are suspected in cyberbullying cases or are otherwise suspected of breaking school rules.
California Supreme Court: Judges can’t belong to Boy Scouts because of its anti-gay stance
California’s Supreme Court voted Friday to prohibit state judges from belonging to the Boy Scouts on grounds that the group discriminates against gays.
Methodist Human Rights director mocks kids at March for Life
In most Christian churches it is common that at some point in the year a prayer is made for Christian unity and the resolution of the differences that divide Christendom. The World Council of Churches promotes a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 18-25). Oddly enough, or perhaps not as the WCC was a communist front organization during the Cold War, one of its member churches is the United Methodist Church. So it was both sad and ironic that during the annual March for Life, a march dedicated to ending the Holocaust of the Unborn, our very own national Massacre of the Innocents, that the United Methodist Church director of “Civil and Human Rights,” an assclown named Bill Mefford, used the March for Life as an opportunity to mock the marchers.
Report: Financial Crisis Commission report rigged to punish banks and protect Democrats
Back in 2009, which is the political equivalent of a geological epoch, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) was established to investigate what led to the general apocalypse of the financial markets in 2007-2008. It has long been suspected that the fix was in and the commission followed the Alice in Wonderland formula of “Sentence first! Verdict afterwards.”
The Unbearable Lightness of Whiteness
I went to college 40 years too early.
White professor teaches “problem of whiteness” course at Arizona State
Reading for the problem of whiteness course includes “Everyday Language of White Racism” and “The Possessive Investment in Whiteness.”
UCLA Bruin Republicans protest diversity requirement proposal
About 10 members of Bruin Republicans led a protest on campus Wednesday afternoon calling for students to urge their professors to vote against a proposed diversity requirement.
World War II vet works to convince the IRS that he’s not dead
Siegfried Meinstein discovered that he was dead in April. He seems to be handling the news well.
Here Come the “Radical Brownies”: A Troop of Young Girls that Combines the Girl Scouts and the Black Panthers
The “Radical Brownies” are a new troop of young girls based in Oakland, California that combines the Girls Scouts with the Black Panthers.
Amnesty for all the cupcakes!
Sweet, sweet, freedom
Kasich Defends Medicaid Expansion, Common Core ahead of Potential 2016 Run
Governor John Kasich (R., Ohio) did not back down from potential 2016 bugaboos during a Fox News Sunday appearance. After sailing in to a second term as the governor of the crucial swing state, Kasich has been floated as a dark-horse presidential candidate, but his support of Common Core and decision to expand Medicaid in Ohio, among other measures, could rankle conservative primary voters.
Newspeak Update! Illegal Aliens Called “Undocumented CITIZENS” by Newspaper
George Orwell would be proud by the linguistic hoops of fire our political tormenters try to make us jump through in order to control our thoughts and bend us to their agenda. Their newest is to ridiculously refer to illegal aliens, who they admit are here illegally, as “undocumented citizens.”
Economy & Taxes
Obama to back tax hikes in State of the Union
In an appearance on Meet the Press on Sunday, White House Press Sec. Josh Earnest summed up President Barack Obama’s theme for his coming State of the Union Address: “Middle class economics.” Read: Tax hikes.
African-Americans Are Doing The Best Economically
The U.S. may have its first black president, but these have not been the best of times for African-Americans. Recent shootings of unarmed black teenagers and the murder of two New York City police officers have inflamed racial tensions. A Bloomberg poll in December found that 53% of respondents believed that race relations have declined since Obama was elected in 2008.
SkyMall Files for Bankruptcy
Owner of In-Flight Catalog Crippled by Use of Wi-Fi and Smartphones on Jets
Oil Drillers “Going to Die” in 2Q on Crude Price Swoon
Oil drillers will begin collapsing under the weight of lower crude prices during the second quarter and energy explorers who employ them will shortly follow, according to Conway Mackenzie Inc., the largest U.S. restructuring firm.
International
Argentine prosecutor who accused Cristina Kirchner over 1994 bombings found dead
Alberto Nisman, who on Monday was due in parliament to present his case against president Cristina Kirchner, found dead days after warning “I could end up dead because of this”
Far-right “anti-Islamisation” rally in Dresden is cancelled after police confirm a “concrete threat” to kill a leading member of Pegida
Organisers say the “execution” threat came from “ISIS terrorists”
Russian forces, equipment enter Ukraine, PM says
Russian military forces and equipment have entered Ukraine, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says, according to a report from Ukraine’s state-run media on Monday.
The Sun drops Page 3
Rupert Murdoch had hinted that the controversial tradition may be dropped because it was ‘old-fashioned’
Zambia votes for new president
Candidates vying to replace Zambia’s late President Michael Sata have cast their ballots along with thousands of other voters in Tuesday’s presidential election.
Hermaphroditic cat to get gender assignment surgery
Newfoundland family got a surprise when they took their new pet Mittens to a vet
Venezuela should be rich, but its government has destroyed its economy
The problem with socialism isn’t that you eventually run out of other people’s money. It’s that you eventually run out of oil money.
Pupils at Christian school branded ‘bigots’ because one boy didn’t know what a Muslim was – and now inspectors have ordered it to CLOSE
Inspectors said Durham Free School pupils showed ‘discriminatory views’
Insecurity feelings among Hindus after decision of SHC on forced conversion to Islam of Hindu girl
Yesterday Sindh High Court’s decision on forced conversion to Islam and marriage to a Muslim man of a Hindu underage girl made disappointed to religious minorities once again which is a sign of insecurity for them.
Discovery: Fish Live Beneath Antarctica
Scientists find translucent fish in a wedge of water hidden under 740 meters of ice, 850 kilometers from sunlight
Yes, the Greens Are a Joke – But Not a Funny or Harmless One
Many years ago, when I was a young diarist working for the Daily Telegraph’s Peterborough column, my bosses dispatched me to cover the Green Party conference. This wasn’t because I was particularly anti-Green at the time. Rather it was because, of all Peterborough’s staffers, I was known to be the one least interested in politics and the political process, so it seemed entirely appropriate to send me to the big joke event in the conference season, rather than to one of the more serious events.
Argentina’s President Says Iran-Fighting Prosecutor’s Death Wasn’t a Suicide, But . . . His Friends Did It?
Confronted with a deepening scandal, the president of Argentina abruptly reversed herself on Thursday, saying that the death of a prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center was not a suicide as she and other government officials had asserted.
Like Switzerland? Forget It — You Can’t Afford to Live There
The most expensive countries on earth?
How the legal punishments handed out in Saudi Arabia compare to those of Isis
For many, the Saudi justice system sounds not unlike that of the Isis, the extremist Islamist group which has struck fear in much of the Middle East
Tenants may pee standing up: German court
Tenants of a rented apartment may stand up while peeing in their own bathroom and not worry about the consequences, a German court said Thursday.
Saudi King Abdullah Is Dead
Saudi Arabia’s 91-year-old King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz has died, according to multiple reports.
UK decision to lower flags after death of Saudi king stirs debate
The government’s decision on Friday to lower British flags following the death of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has stirred controversy, with critics pointing to the kingdom’s poor human rights record.
$43 Hot Dogs, and Other Davos Ridiculousness
The ultra-rich alpine assembly at Davos, Switzerland enters its final day on Saturday – giving the jet-setting elite only 24 hours more to express concerns for the world’s poor and marginalized in-between their helicopter rides, ski jumps and spa treatments.
X-Rays Reveal Contents of Ancient Scrolls Buried by Mt. Vesuvius
Scientists are proving you can judge a “book” without ever cracking open the cover.
Kirchner: Argentine prosecutor killed to discredit me
Argentine President Cristina Kirchner said Thursday she believes that a prosecutor who died under suspicious circumstances was murdered in a plot to implicate her government in a cover-up of a 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center.
The Next Successor to the Saudi Throne Will Be the Son of a Slave Girl
Assuming anyone allows him to take the throne due to his “dubious” lineage.
J’Accuse: York University Newspaper Compares Orthodox Jews with Charlie Hebdo Terrorists
The common thread tying together the murders of Jewish worshippers in a Jerusalem synagogue, the murders of people in the Nigerian towns of Gaba and Doro Gowon, and the murders of Jews and cartoonists last week in Paris is Islamic terrorism.
Drugs, brothels, al-Qaeda and the Beyonce tax: the Green Party plan for Britain
They are on the cusp of an electoral breakthrough – and an examination of Green Party policy reveals a extraordinary list of demands
Greek Election: Syriza Party Leads Exit Polls
A victory for the leftist Syriza party on an anti-austerity platform would set the stage for a clash with European creditors.
Greece’s anti-bailout Syriza party wins election
The anti-bailout Syriza party won a clear victory in austerity-weary Greece’s national election on Sunday, according to projections by state-run TV’s exit poll.
No-Jew-Go Zones
Don’t even try Walking While Jewish in Malmö, Sweden, or many other cities in Europe.
Swedish police further neutered
“Dialogue police” sent forth to grill hot dogs with the rioters and convince them to see the errors of their way. I am not making this up. This is real in Sweden. Google it!
Opinion
Twilight of the Vaginas
Here we go… Women’s College Cancels “Vagina Monologues” Because It Excludes Women Without Vaginas
Spending More Money Won’t Fix Our Schools
The other day, I argued that maybe we should rethink our current policy of endlessly dumping more money into college education. It’s completely true that there is a big wage premium for having a college degree — but it does not therefore follow that we will make everyone better off by trying to shove every American through post-secondary (aka tertiary) education. We may simply be setting up college as a substitute for a high school diploma: a signal to employers that you can read and write, and are able to turn in scheduled assignments within a reasonable time frame. And in the process, excluding people who aren’t college-educated from access to decent jobs.
“Hate Speech” is not “Any Speech You Hate”
Last week, Vanderbilt University professor Carol Swain wrote an op-ed in the Nashville Tennessean about the Charlie Hedbo attacks. The basic thesis of Professor Swain’s article, which was published in a non-Vanderbilt sanctioned publication and written on her own time, is that present-day Islam is incompatible with Western values like free speech and religious pluralism. The most inflammatory portion of Prof. Swain’s article is doubtless as follows
Brigadier General James Taylor?
Next time, send Slayer.
The feminist focus on microaggression meets romance in the book world — a view from inside
Some of you may recall that, a couple of years ago, I did one of my periodic posts about romance novels, arguing that the real “porn” part of the novels is the relationship, not the sex. One of my readers, Judith Lown, wrote me to say that there are traditional romances still out there and, in fact, she had written one: A Sensible Lady: A Traditional Regency Romance
History according to Seth Rogen
Crazy? Yes, But Also Evil
Political experts tell us that young voters are alienated by expressions of Christian conservatism, and so we should just shut up about all that Bible stuff. My hunch is that the political experts, as usual, are wrong. And also, Satan is real.
The Industrial Revolution: Why Britain Got There First
The search for an explanation for why Britain was the first nation to industrialise.
Looking Back: The Ideal Communist City
Over time, suburbs have had many enemies, but perhaps none were more able to impose their version than the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In its bid to remake a Russia of backward villages and provincial towns, the Soviets favored big cities – the bigger the better – and policies that were at least vaguely reminiscent of the “pack and stack” policies so popular with developers and planners today.
The GOP: Choosing donors over Voters
I think it’s pretty clear that the next two years are going to be a disaster for the GOP unless they somehow come up with a really strong presidential nominee. Speaker Boehner and Senate Majority Leader McConnell apparently intend to be little more than punching bags for President Obama. They do not seem capable of putting together a coalition of members who can pass laws that would be popular (remember that whole “consent of the governed” idea that the Framers mentioned in the Declaration?
If The GOP Can’t Pass A Late-Term Abortion Ban, What Can It Do?
Evidently, Republicans don’t feel competent enough to make a case against infanticide. Why else would the GOP pull its 20-week abortion limit bill?
Civil War Brewing for the Cultural Left
It has often been remarked that the right won the economic arguments of the twentieth century, while the left won the culture war. Although Thatcher and Reagan succeeded in their quest to overturn the postwar economic consensus and undermine the USSR, the left consistently triumphed over social conservatives in political debates on society and culture.
The Last Lion Remembered
Winston Churchill never once flinched in the face of the Third Reich.
How the Congressional GOP Is Already Trying to Give Up on Fighting Obama’s Executive Amnesty
About a week ago, House Republicans passed a funding bill that aimed to block President Obama’s de facto amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.
Andrew Klavan: Which Black Lives Matter?
In which our daring host exposes the revolting truth about the “Black Lives Matter” movement – that they don’t really care about life at all.
Target Practice: Media Takes Aim at Conservatives in Culture
When the Academy Award nominations last week were announced, Selma‘s name was only called twice. The collective sound of everyone who works at MSNBC fainting on the floor could be heard all over social media. The only person left standing was Sony Pictures new executive board member Al Sharpton who loudly declared he would take action. Barack Obama has very subtly taken steps to bully the academy into making sure Selma receives both Oscars it is nominated for. The problem is Selma just isn’t that compelling of a film beyond something made for cable. The progressive left believes it to be a moral injustice that it did not receive Oscar attention, simply because the film exists and not on its merits.
Sad Puppies 3: Only a few days to register to vote
Sad Puppies is a campaign to get authors and artists nominated, who would normally be shunned by the politically motivated Social Justice Warriors who had become an insurmountable voting block.
It’s Barack Obama’s Cloud Cuckoo-Land and We Just Live In It
It’s easy to despise Barack Hussein Obama, perhaps the least qualified man ever to accede to the Oval Office. The empty resume, the imaginary biographies, the laziness, the arrogance, the profligacy with the public treasury, the weakness, the cowardice and the cringing servility when dealing with America’s enemies abroad: his six years as president of the United States — a presidency we will all look back upon someday with wonder, shame and national embarrassment — have been as disastrous and harmful as some of us predicted at the time. The man is a disgrace.
A Revolution of Sorts in the State of New York
Every once in a while, a set of political arrangements that seemed set in stone simply collapses. The wall dividing Berlin suddenly came down. The Soviet Union fell apart. Syria succumbed to civil war. And today Sheldon Silver, who has been Speaker of the Assembly in New York for twenty years, was arrested on corruption charges.
Professional Perverts
What kind of people want to talk dirty to children? Perverts, and also government sex educators. But I repeat myself
Fundamental Concepts – The Aberration
When I see, from the entire left side of the political spectrum, more and more strident demands to end Western culture as we know it, I wonder if these people have any clue exactly what it is that they are asking for. King Midas got exactly what he wanted, to his everlasting horror. There’s a lesson in that, an important one, but one that I suspect is lost on someone who navigates through life by the seat of their righteousness, guided by the certainty of their conceit.
Myths, Lies and Capitalism
Does free enterprise hurt the poor? Is it unfair and driven by greed? Did it cause the Great Recession? In five minutes, Arthur Brooks answers these questions and more about capitalism.
“Ignoring Reality Is Part of the Job Description of Being a Progressive”
The only way President Obama could deliver such a forthright and ambitious State of the Union address earlier this week after his party’s shellacking in the midterms a few months is if he is denial, says George Will.
The Wise Latina makes a good point
As much as it triggers my gag reflex to say it, I think Justice Sonia Sotomayor is a value-added to the US Supreme Court. While she is a reflexive progressive and shameless shill any abomination the Obama administration may want in the name of expanding the power of the state, she has become a sorta reliable vote in the cause of civil liberties.
The Nazis Were Socialists, Not Right-Wingers
PJTV viewer “Digging4Information” asks Andrew Klavan & Bill Whittle about Nazis and Fascists. He asks why both are presented in the media as “right-wing” when both Nazis and Fascists had socialist roots. Klavan and Whittle wonder whether nazism and fascism might be more similar to today’s progressive movement in the Democratic Party than to modern conservatism. Does President Obama have more in common with Mussolini than Thomas Jefferson? Find out.
Davos’s Destructive Elites
“None of us is as dumb as all of us.”
Tilting at Windmills
Cultural movements have a certain life cycle. If you read enough history, you see it. Because humans are the same all through history, the history of ideas that excite people tend to follow the same points.
Undoing most of the damage wrought by feminism in one simple step
For the past two years, I have been unpacking the racist, classist, misogynist bullshit that is feminism, and exploring the ways that sexism harms men and boys – and always in the back of my mind is the whisper what do we do about this?
The Real Meaning Of Limited Government
The reason that Conservatism is “pro-family” is because no ideology can ultimately be defined in purely negative terms. It is not enough to say that we oppose big government, because to oppose anything is necessarily to advocate whatever must exist in it’s place. In this case that is not simply “the individual”.
