Spindle Time: Headlines of the Week

So the Washington Redskins are under pressure to change their name.  The only surprise here is that it took so long.  After all, the Washington Bullets of the NBA changed their name some years ago from this violence-ridden image to the chief nominative of the Ku Klux Klan (nice going, NBA name committee).  At least the Redskins don’t have the politically correct “tomahawk chop” like the Atlanta (kind and gentle) Braves.

Turns out there’s one person who really doesn’t like this idea: Robert Griffin III, (RGIII), the Redskins electrifying quarterback:

Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III took to Twitter on Tuesday to complain about the “tyranny of political correctness” he believes is holding American culture “hostage.”

“In a land of freedom we are held hostage by the tyranny of political correctness,” the NFL player wrote on his official Twitter account. He followed up the post with a definition of the word, writing: “Tyranny- ‘a condition imposed by some outside agency or force<living under the tyranny of the clock’ or political correctness…

Don’t miss The Lid’s suggestions for alternative DC team names.  Needless to say, the Cleveland Indians will be next on the name-droppers list.

Here’s a fun headline: “Scientists Come to Terms With the Lack of Global Warming.”

“While some climate scientists continue to resist the obvious that the climate system is more complex than they assumed, others are starting to accept that the multi-decadal climate projections provide very incomplete simulations has to how the real climate system works,” Roger Pielke, Jr., environmental studies professor at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado at Boulder, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Establishment media outlets have been reporting about the unexpected stabilizing global surface temperatures over at least the last decade, and even former NASA scientist and environmental activist James Hansen has recognized the decade-long lull.

But don’t expect to see this headline any time soon: “Scientists Come to Terms with the Lack of Funding.”  There will be riots before you see that.  Meanwhile, House Democrats have embraced a resolution saying that climate change might lead to increased prostitution.  Good thing I’d finished my coffee before I saw this story, or I’d be drying out my keyboard right now.  But it turns out this isn’t a new scare item at all.  According to the invaluable Warmlist of all things climate change causes (883 and counting, from AIDS to zoonotic diseases), at least as far back as 2009 the hooker horror was being paraded on climate corners.  Well, at least Democrats are recycling.

Next, don’t miss Ramesh Ponnuru’s judicious article summing up the problems of George W. Bush’s political legacy.  Read the whole thing, but here’s the conclusion:

Conservatives rejected Bushism without demonstrating any understanding of why it was adopted in the first place, or why it was rejected. That’s George W. Bush’s political legacy: a weakened Republican Party unable to face its flaws.

Next, we saw once again yesterday what happens when Obama doesn’t stick to his teleprompter.  He characterized his conversation with the self-outed Jason Collins by having Collins say, “‘I’m still seven feet tall and I can bang with Shaq.'”  As Sterling Archer would say, “Phrasing!”  And shouldn’t we check with Shaq about this first?

Miscellaneous: For the Straussians out there, don’t miss “Persecution and the Art of Tweeting.”  Heh.

Michael Kazin, the very left professor of history at Georgetown, wonders in The New Republic: “Why Don’t Liberals Write Big Books Any More?”  Supply your own punch line.

 

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