Bottom Stories of the Day

With apologies to the WSJ’s James Taranto (who I ran into last night in DC*), who has “Bottom Stories of the Day” trademarked in his “Best of the Web” feature, herewith a few candidates of our own:

Start with Jon Huntsman Jr. in today’s New York Times: “The GOP Can’t Ignore Climate Change.”  Perhaps not, but we can ignore Huntsman, who offers nothing but Al Gore lite.  Maybe he should read this instead of being a climate change also-ran, to match his status as a GOP also-ran.  Speaking of also-rans, Huntsman came to CU/Boulder a few weeks back to give a widely advertised speech to which the university was selling tickets: $12 for adults, $2 for students.  Then a few days before the speech, the university announced that the speech was now free, and purchased tickets would be refunded.  Sounds like a good market test to me.  Donors to a 2016 Huntsman campaign won’t get refunds.

Second, don’t miss the latest from Adam Weinstein, the geeky Gawker gaffer who we last noted for advocating that climate skeptics be arrested and prosecuted.  Now Weinstein attacks Tal Fortgang, the Princeton student who pushed back effectively against the “check your privilege” shut-up caucus, because Fortgang’s article appears in The Princeton Tory, a student paper supported in part by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).  My favorite part of Weinstein’s story is this sentence about ISI:

According to its website, ISI was founded in the McCarthy era as a “fifty-year plan” to advance conservative political causes “by implanting the idea in the minds of the coming generations.”

As the kids say, “I saw what you did there.”  Of course the ISI website doesn’t say it was “founded in the McCarthy era.”  It says it was founded in 1953.  This could be a fun parlor game: “The NAACP, which finalized its desegregation litigation strategy in the McCarthy Era. . .”  “Bill Ayers, who successfully completed his toilet training in the McCarthy era. . .”

Weinstein goes on to bemoan the success of ISI over the years, listing several prominent alumni of its programs such as Ann Coulter and John Podhoretz.  But I’m not feeling the love, as an ISI Richard Weaver Fellow (1985-86).

Finally, the New Yorker’s execrable hack Jane Mayer attempts to deflect the Benghazi scandal by asserting in “Ronald Reagan’s Benghazi” that the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Lebanon was equally (non) scandalous.  Yes, our entire Lebanon policy in 1982-83 was a fiasco arising from indecision and conflicts within the White House, but I don’t recall Reagan or anyone else blaming a video.

* Scenes from the AEI prom last night:

With Chris Beach and David Wilesol, the morning crew of Bill Bennett's radio show.

With Chris Beach and David Wilesol, the morning crew of Bill Bennett’s radio show.

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