News of the Week (May 31st, 2015)

Posted on May 31, 2015 by The Political Hat

 

News of the Week for May 31st, 2015


 

Obama Scandals

 

Appeals court deals blow to Obama amnesty
A federal appeals court refused to lift an injunction against President Obama’s deportation amnesty in a ruling Tuesday that delivers a second major legal setback to the administration and keeps millions of illegal immigrants on hold.

 

Gun Rights

 

Administration preps new gun regulations
The Justice Department plans to move forward this year with more than a dozen new gun-related regulations, according to list of rules the agency has proposed to enact before the end of the Obama administration.

 

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

 

NOAA Caught Rewriting US Temperature History (Again)
We have written a number of times about how government agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration here in the U.S., have systematically adjusted temperature history to make the past look colder. They apparently do this, usually surreptitiously and without explanation, in order to stoke global warming hysteria

EPA poised to issue landmark water regulations
The Obama administration is about to unveil an ambitious — and hotly disputed — plan to strengthen its authority over minor water bodies like wetlands, streams and ponds.

 

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

Sticker Shock for Some Obamacare Customers
So the proposed 2016 Obamacare rates have been filed in many states, and in many states, the numbers are eye-popping. Market leaders are requesting double-digit increases in a lot of places. Some of the biggest are really double-digit: 51 percent in New Mexico, 36 percent in Tennessee, 30 percent in Maryland, 25 percent in Oregon. The reason? They say that with a full year of claims data under their belt for the first time since Obamacare went into effect, they’re finding the insurance pool was considerably older and sicker than expected.

 

War & Terror

 

Bush did not lie about WMD in Iraq.
Today, on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace asked Bob Woodward about the questions the GOP candidates have been getting about Iraq: Was the 2003 invasion a mistake?

War with Isis: Meet the Kurdish women’s militia
The Kurdish soldiers relax half a mile behind the front line where they have been battling Isis forces west of the Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn. The women are in no doubt about why they are fighting.

US-China war “inevitable” unless Washington drops demands over South China Sea
Warning from state-run China newspaper as Beijing reveals plans for development of disputed South China Sea islands

Saudis “to get nuclear weapons”
SAUDI ARABIA has taken the “strategic decision” to acquire “off-the-shelf” atomic weapons from Pakistan, risking a new arms race in the Middle East, according to senior American officials.

Family shuns Yezidi teen impregnated by ISIS
Harrowing accounts of the sexual abuse endured by women and girls at the hands of Islamic State fighters are being recorded by a young Swedish-Kurdish activist living in Kurdistan region named Delal Sindy.

Obama is Putting Our Nuclear Navy at Risk
The search for the next Chief of Naval Operations has not drawn much interest from the media, but there’s good reason it should. By nominating Admiral John Richardson, the current head of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, President Obama is jeopardizing a tradition of excellence stretching back since America first developed nuclear submarines. John Lehman, who served as President Reagan’s Secretary of the Navy for six years, does an excellent job explaining this in his Wall Street Journal editorial that ran this past Sunday.

 

National

 

Not Fooling Around: 71 Arrested During Protests After Cleveland Officer’s Acquittal
Number of businesses looted and destroyed: Zero

The newest liberal idiocy: Segregating 3rd-graders
“Can racism be stopped in the third grade?” That’s the question asked in this week’s New York Magazine cover story by journalist Lisa Miller. The short answer, of course, is that it all depends on how you define racism.

The House just passed a bill about space mining. The future is here.
For as long as we’ve existed, humans have looked up at the stars — and wondered. What is up there? Who is out there?

Thad Cochran Marries Aide After Denying Their Alleged Affair
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), 77, adamantly declared that there was no affair between him and top aide Kay Webber, 76, during his bid for re-election. His staff also insisted there was nothing to the rumors that surrounded the couple.

N.C. Schools Employ Radical Lesbian Who Called Marriage “Slavery” for Women
A pioneering lesbian activist who called heterosexuality “the ideology of male supremacy” and condemned marriage as “slavery” for women is now working as a math teacher in North Carolina.

Marilyn Mosby, prosecutor in Freddie Gray case, made an early court appearance — on ‘Judge Judy’
A neighbor trashed her apartment while she was away on summer break, knocking down the door, leaving cigarette burns on the walls, a “disgusting” mess in the bathtub.

Nebraska Gov. Ricketts vetoes death penalty repeal
As promised, Gov. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska vetoed legislation that would repeal the death penalty for capital murder.

Democrat Bernie Sanders: Don’t Need 23 Choices of Deodorant, 18 Choices of Sneakers
This week Democratic candidate for president and open Socialist Bernie Sanders lectured America for having too many choices in deodorant and sneakers.

New Evidence May Solve Mystery of America’s Huge Ancient City
Mississippi floods shaped the rise and fall of the prehistoric metropolis known as Cahokia.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby Favorited Tweets Bashing Whitey & Calling Cops “THUGS”
Crazed Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby favorited a tweet on May 6 calling the Baltimore police “THUGS.”

Report: Baltimore Activists Are Working to Stack Jury to Get Cops Indicted (VIDEO)
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby charged six city police officers with murder and manslaughter in the death of serial criminal Freddie Gray.

More From Feminist Tumblr
Autumn is a 24-year-old cisgender queer Muslim, who posted this: “Hands up if large groups of aggressively loud white boys in your vicinity freak you out.”

Ex-House Speaker Dennis Hastert indicted on federal charges
Former U.S. Speaker of the House John Dennis Hastert was charged Thursday with attempting to evade banks’ reporting requirements and lying to the FBI about his actions.

Report: NYC Cops Arrested Men for “Manspreading” on the Subway
Smash the patriarchy! New York police allegedly arrested two men for “manspreading” (sitting with their legs far apart) on the subway, according to a report entitled “That’s How They Get You” released by the Police Reform Organizing Project.

D.C. has taken a step to link Georgetown and Rosslyn via overhead gondola
When Joe Sternlieb first stumbled across a gondola in Portland seven years ago that was transporting passengers up a steep grade to a medical campus, he thought the unusual mode of transportation could be used in D.C. to carry people over the Potomac River between Georgetown and Rosslyn.

Scott Walker to Sign Ban on Abortions for Rape, Incest
Potentially complicating his 2016 bid, the Wisconsin governor has said he will sign a 20-week abortion bill that includes no exemption for rape or incest.

Senator Bernie Sanders, Democrat/Socialist Candidate For President: All Men Dream Of Tying Up and Sexually Abusing Women, And All Women Fantasize of Being Raped By Three Men
MRC dug up Sanders’ 1972 essay, “Men-and-Women.” Why the headline has weird punctuation, you’d have to ask this old chicken-necked pervert.

Supreme Court to Consider Whether the Constitution Requires “One Person, One Vote” or “One Voter, One Vote”
Yesterday, the Supreme Court agreed to resolve a redistricting question that has been simmering for over fifty years: does the equal protection clause require that state voter districts be apportioned according to the number of residents or the number of eligible voters? States have, generally, been allowed to decide for themselves whether to use the total state population or some more restrictive population—say, one that excludes temporary residents and aliens—when drawing districts.

White Privilege and White Supremacy: No White People Required
Check your privilege . . . in absentia?

Feminists freak out over “Jurassic World”
Feminists vs. Reality: Round 27,908

Marco Rubio: We’re at the water’s edge of mainstream Christian teachings being branded “hate speech”
Via the Brody File, hard to believe a country that’s 70 percent Christian would acquiesce in a legal regime like that, but then I look at this poll and remember we’ve already reached the point where Christian-owned businesses can be effectively shuttered by the state for politely declining to participate in a gay wedding. It’d be more accurate to say that the effort to brand Christian teachings that undermine progressivism as “hate speech” has already begun in the public sphere, with the fate of the private sphere still undetermined. Based on early indications, though, merely entertaining an opponent of same-sex marriage in your home has already risen to the level of a felony thoughtcrime, provided that he’s famous enough

California’s Assault on Crisis Pregnancy Centers
If anything is a threat to the pro-abortion movement, it’s the existence of crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) across the nation. Those who find themselves inside such a place believe options are limited and time is of the essence. No matter how they became pregnant, they are in need of and proactively seeking help for themselves and their unborn child. Compassion is key when dealing with women and young girls whose situations have left them scared, possibly financially incapable, and many times, alone.

The #GamerGate saga continues with assassins, expulsions, and bomb threats
I mentioned #GamerGate briefly in my last post, and no doubt some readers were thinking “wait, that’s still going on?”

Kenyan Lawyer Offers Obama 50 Cows, 70 Sheep, 30 Goats for Malia’s Hand by Bridget Johnson
A Kenyan lawyer is offering President Obama quite the livestock dowry to marry first daughter Malia.

SEX and WOMEN: The reason ISIS wants to kill ALL westerners says gay Oxford theological historian
The gay Oxford theological historian and presenter of the BBC’s Sex and the Church said the hatred of western culture reaches far and wide and can be seen in Boko Haram in Africa, in the Middle East and in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Bahar Mustafa: Goldsmiths Students’ Union diversity officer to keep her job after vote of no confidence petition fails
A student diversity officer caught in the centre of a racism row is to keep her job after a petition calling her for to be removed from her position failed.

Sanders Hits Bottom in Rape Essay Controversy: Keeps Digging
Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders, a Democratic candidate for president of the United States, can’t seem to figure out how to get himself out from under the controversy he generated by the discovery of an essay he wrote in 1972 that describes women’s rape fantasies.

Dem Lawmaker & Black Caucus Leader Who SHOT UP Girlfriend’s Car Returns to Work
Another shining moment in Democratic Party history…

White prof. publishes “Ten Cracka Commandments” for whites
Christopher Driscoll is a visiting assistant professor of religious studies at Lehigh University and founder of the “Critical Approaches to Hip Hop and Religion” group within the American Academy of Religion.

Most Democrats Want Illegal Immigrants to Vote
Who would benefit?

 

Economy & Taxes

 

Economy Shrank in First Quarter as U.S. Trade Deficit Surged
The world’s largest economy hit a bigger ditch in the first quarter than initially estimated, held back by harsh winter weather, a strong dollar and delays at ports.

 

International

 

Sheep stay silent in war of words over whether animals can suffer verbal abuse
A case of alleged animal abuse in the far west of New South Wales has led to debate about whether sheep can comprehend human speech.

Uncommon Smackdown in the Commons
Very interesting first day of the new Parliament in Britain this morning, where some Labourites expressed their anger at the SNP—the Scottish nationalists who crushed Labour’s former stronghold up north and threaten to make Labour a permanent minority party—but which culminated in the Speaker of the House upbraiding the new SNP members for not being ready for prime time.

Venezuela Circles the Drain
We have chronicled the accelerating decline of Venezuela’s economy under its narco-socialist rulers. When a country can neither produce nor buy toilet paper, you know the end is approaching. Now, Venezuela’s international reserves are disappearing, as its currency implodes.

Bribes And Kickbacks: FIFA Officials Arrested As Part Of Massive Corruption Probe Covering 20 Years
Allegations of corruption within the senior ranks of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) have exploded once again following the arrest of several officials, including one Vice President of FIFA, in Switzerland. The suspects, alleged to have accepted bribes and kickbacks in exchange for media deals associated with major football tournaments totalling in excess of US$100 million (£65 million), now face extradition to the United States where the crimes are alleged to have been organised.

Mexicans Discover Illegal Immigrants in Cancun, Not Amused
“The foreigners were taken to an INM office in Cancun to be identified and proceed to consular notifications before starting the administrative process for repatriation to their respective home countries.”

British Columbia’s Human Rights Tribunal to Consider Eliminating Gender from Birth Certificates
Birth certificates are so not inclusive.

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Opinion

 

The Fall of Mozilla, continued.
Like it or not – probably not, in Mozilla’s case – there is a rather large proportion of the population that does not like having social policy dripped on their technology. And a nontrivial percentage of techies are either social conservatives themselves, or have an actual problem with seeing social conservatives get defecated upon by the current in-crowd. This probably wouldn’t have mattered, when it came to Mozilla: except that people who ragequit Firefox on principle were typically shocked to discover that it had become a raddled piece of bloatware while they weren’t looking. Certainly I was. And I wasn’t and am not shy about saying so.

Memorializing Mattress Girl
Now that her 15 minutes of fame are up, what is to become of “Mattress Girl,” the Columbia University student who became famous after accusing a man of rape?

The Boy Scouts Continue To Devolve Into A Garden Club
The Boy Scouts have banned throwing water balloons and pointing water guns at each other. What’s left for them to lose?

Study Shows Riots (Still) Make Americans More Conservative
That’s a good thing

http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/05/7-reasons-its-great-to-be-an-american/7 reasons it’s great to be an American
The greatest country God gave man

Women Now Demanding To Be Treated As Eggshells, Not Equals
And if women are actually men’s equals, their response to language isn’t filing suit — or trying to bring down a man’s career through social media because he makes a joke.

Behind Science Fraud, Chapter 3
Our first installment in this series took note of the NY Times op-ed by Adam Marcus, managing editor of Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News, and Ivan Oransky, global editorial director of MedPage Today (both are co-founders of retractionwatch.com), but now they’re back with another, longer piece at Nautilus that goes into more detail, and offers more shocking examples (such as the Japanese scientist who fabricated a whopping 183 papers that got published), about science fraud.

Gay Marriage Goes Beyond ‘Bake Me a Cake’
Over the last few years, the gay marriage movement has transformed from “equality for all” to “bake me a cake.” As it picks up steam, the movement looks more and more totalitarian, both at home and abroad.

The Dictatorship of Godless Perverts
@GretaChristina is a middle-aged bisexual feminist cat lady atheist blogger. Wait — no, I have not verified that she and her wife Ingrid Nelson actually own cats, but what are the odds, right? However, there is no need to speculate about Greta Christina’s feminism, her atheism or her role as “co-founder and co-organizer of Godless Perverts.”

Behind Science Fraud, Chapter 4
Richard Horton, the editor of The Lancet, the pre-eminent medical journal that was stung by one of the worst science frauds of the last decade (Andrew Wakefield’s phony vaccine-autism link paper), has a fascinating note reporting on the conversations at a recent conference of scientists in the UK about the problems of scientific review.

Behind Science Fraud, Chapter 5
We began this new occasional series with the story of the Science magazine study about how people changed their mind on gay marriage based on a short conversations with a real live gay people, but in which the data was faked by the graduate student co-author, Michael LaCour.

When District Attorneys Attack
The GOP should turn its attention to prosecutorial misconduct.

Fundamental Concepts – Seven deadly sins? I only need two to run the world.
The so- called “cardinal sins”, more colloquially know as the Seven Deadly Sins, have been used in a Christian setting as a cautionary tale for millenia now. These sins are Anger, Denial, Bargaining Depression and Acceptance. No wait, those are the stages of death from All That Jazz. The sins are Sh**, Piss, F***, See You Next Tuesday, Co******er, Mf-er and Tits. No, my mistake, those are the seven words you can’t say on TV. I’ve got it: Umoja, Kujichagulia,Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba and Imani. Darn it, those are the principles of Kwanza. Hmm. Faith, Prayer, Charity, Fasting and Pilgrimage? Nope, those would be the Pillars of Islam. Dag nab it, I’ve got look these up. Sins….sins…of commission…of omission….of the fathers….ah! Here we are: seven deadly. Greed, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath and Pride. Gosh, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with those.

The Ascension of Emma Sulkowicz
“Mattress Girl” Symbolizes What Some Desperately Want To Be True

Where Would You Rather Live? Minneapolis or San Angelo?
Americans voting with their feet.

Gender identity: Who are you gonna believe? Me or your lying eyes?
We’ve seen it over and over again, as a movie cliché or a silly cartoon: The man is caught in flagrante with another women and, defensively, says to his wronged spouse, “Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?” It is the ultimate definition of cognitive dissonance.

The Push for Diversity is Killing Diversity
Just a few more minutes and a few more clicks led me to piece after piece describing the “lack” of diversity in our country (from race to gender to weight and beyond), and the prevalence of some kind of privilege (usually white).

On Madness And Revolution
I came across an interesting book review by Michael Jay in The London Review Of Books [tip of the fedora to Arts & Letters Daily] that inspired some reflections on the Madness in Revolutions.

“Straight people don’t know they’re straight” — and that can be a problem for the gays
Sitting with Jody Herman and Adam Romero before moderating them in a panel discussion on the importance of expanding data collection about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, Herman said something that was at once disturbing and hilarious. “Straight people don’t know they are straight,” she said.

Behind Science Fraud, Chapter 6
Did any readers take note of the recent stories appearing in the news media that eating chocolate is actually good for weight loss, such as the June issue of Shape magazine which ran an article entitled “Why You Must Eat Chocolate Daily”?

Behind Science Fraud, Chapter 7
New York magazine has a terrific piece up this weekend that tells the whole story of how the Green-LaCour Science magazine article on changing support for gay marriage by way of a canvas was exposed as a fraud—by another graduate student. It’s a long piece, but worth an extra-grande latte and a good slow read. In addition to the details of the fraud itself—which involved LaCour fabricating emails with a non-existent senior executive at the survey company he said he used—there are some clear subtexts of this article that reveal endemic problems within the world of academic political science.

Comicon and the Mythical War on Women
As I mentioned in a recent article, I was interested in attending Comicon because from the outside I saw some interesting similarities and differences. This piece is about one similarity in particular: how the media portrays Comicon and the Conservative Political Action Conference’s (CPAC) relationship with women. (I served as the director of CPAC from 2006 to 2011.)

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