Monthly Archives: March 2016
March 30, 2016 — Steven Hayward
New York governor Andrew Cuomo got lots of news coverage yesterday for his directive restricting state travel to North Carolina on account of the law passed last week that overrides local “non-discrimination” pro-choice bathroom ordinances. If I lived in North Carolina I’d be tempted to send Cuomo a big thank you note for cutting down the number of New York government employees coming to NC, since their visits cannot be
»
March 30, 2016 — Scott Johnson
Mohamed Farah is one of the “Minnesota men” charged with seeking to join ISIS. His trial is set for the second week of May before Judge Micheal Davis. Imam and law school graduate Hassan Mohamud is a member of Farah’s defense team. Judge Davis has set a hearing on the possible disqualification of Mohamud from Farah’s defense team for preaching jihad. I wrote about the hearing in “Jihad on the
»
March 29, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. district court in Washington D.C. today became the second federal judge to order discovery regarding Clinton emails. Both cases were brought by the invaluable Judicial Watch. As we have discussed, Judge Emmet Sullivan, a Clinton appointee, has already granted Judicial Watch discovery on the Clinton email matter in separate litigation. Judicial Watch’s discovery plan in that case seeks the testimony of eight current and
»
March 29, 2016 — John Hinderaker
In 2006, Dr. Kevin Barrett was an instructor at the University of Wisconsin who was slated to teach a course titled: “Islam: Religion and Culture.” Barrett became controversial when critics learned that he was a leading exponent of 9/11 trutherism, the absurd theory that the United States government perpetrated the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The University of Wisconsin came down on Barrett’s side, as Inside Higher Education reported: The
»
March 29, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports that a Muslim Democrat running for a U.S. House seat in Nevada says Harry Reid encouraged him to end his campaign because “a Muslim cannot win this race.” Reid reportedly made this statement during a private meeting last year. Reid’s spokeswoman confirms that the meeting took place but denies that her boss made such a comment. She calls the candidate — Jesse Sbaih — “a liar.”
»
March 29, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
According to reports, the terrorists who carried out last week’s attacks in Brussels acted sooner than originally planned because they feared that captured terrorist Salah Abdeslam would inform authorities of the attacks. Apparently, they need not have worried. Belgian officials questioned Abdeslam only lightly, and not at all about possible new attacks. Instead, using the discredited law enforcement model, they focused on the Paris attacks of last November, presumably hoping
»
March 29, 2016 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday President Obama spoke at the annual ceremony in Washington to present Syracuse University’s Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting in honor of the late New York Times reporter Robin Toner. Obama used the occasion to “rebuke of the campaign reporting that has allowed Donald Trump to receive nearly $2 billion worth of free media since last summer, without allowing for a critical assessment of Trump’s policy positions,” as
»
March 29, 2016 — Scott Johnson
Mohamed Farah is one of the ten “Minnesota men” charged with seeking to join ISIS; his case is set for trial along with four others before Judge Michael Davis in federal court in Minneapolis in May. Yesterday Judge Davis entered a somewhat cryptic order. The order states that on March 25 prosecutors notified Farah’s counsel of their “intent to introduce testimony and and evidence at rial in which a member
»
March 29, 2016 — Steven Hayward
Back in December in an installment of our “Spreading Virus” series about kampus kraziness, when Emory University was presented a list of ridiculous demands from oppressed aggrieved crybully students, we noted the pathetic sniveling reaction from the dean of campus life, Ajay Nair. One highlight of Dean Nair’s capitulation was this: However, today’s activists and other students are growing up in a wonderfully diverse, polycultural global society that increasingly acknowledges
»
March 28, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Last week, Scott and I wrote about an article by Katherine Kersten regarding the ruinous impact on schools in the Twin Cities of racial “equity” in school discipline. As Kersten demonstrated, the attempt to reduce the number of disciplinary actions against minority school children, on the theory that they are disproportionately disciplined, has helped turn some schools in the Twin Cities into war zones. Peter Kirsanow, a member of the
»
March 28, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
David Byler of RealClearPoliticis asks whether demographics will sink Donald Trump. He then provides a lengthy analysis of the question, based on “demographic data and election fundamentals.” He examines various scenarios and even provides a nifty interactive device into which one can feed various assumptions about turnout and preference by various racial and ethnic groups. However, Byler doesn’t mention the group that, in all likelihood, dooms Trump’s candidacy. That “demographic”
»
March 28, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
The NCCA men’s basketball tournament is down to a final four. The teams are Oklahoma, Villanova, Syracuse, and North Carolina. Which of these teams is not like the other ones? Syracuse. The Orange finished tenth in their conference with a 9-9 record, thereby proving that they have no business playing for the national championship. Yet here they are. That’s what I call March Madness. On to the annual business of
»
March 28, 2016 — Scott Johnson
Emory University alumnus Ed Thayer (’05C) forwards us a copy of an open letter signed by him and several other Emory alums. He writes: “This latest episode at Emory has struck a nerve with a segment of alumni and over the weekend we penned the letter below. Glenn Reynolds at InstaPundit posted the letter we wrote this morning and since you and your blog have been covering this issue very
»
March 28, 2016 — Steven Hayward
If LSD or mescaline aren’t doing the trick for you, you can always take in the podcast and interview with Anthony Weiner that for some reason the Puffington Host thinks the world really needs today. Here’s a sample: “I’m probably the best campaign politician you will ever interview. I’m like perfectly evolved. I’m like the Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator,” Weiner said in this week’s episode of HuffPost’s Candidate Confessional podcast. “I
»
March 28, 2016 — Steven Hayward
Someone went and took Madonna’s 1980s hit “Material Girl” (“‘Cause we are living in a material world/And I am a material girl”) and turned it into an academic journal, the Journal of Material Culture. And it offers gems—no, pearls!—like this: The politics of vibrant matter: Consistency, containment and the concrete of Mussolini’s bunker Nadia Bartolini, Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK. Abstract:
»
March 28, 2016 — Scott Johnson
Omri Ceren writes from The Israel Project with the first of three updates on the Obama administration’s latest assistance extended to our enemies in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is at least a good place to begin and I thought readers would find it of interest. Omri writes with his usual alphabetized footnotes: Last week the AP revealed the Obama administration is planning to provide Iran with another wave
»
March 28, 2016 — Scott Johnson
It should be a stunning fact that every proposition on which President Obama promoted the sale of Obamacare was a complete and utter lie. I tried to document the foundational lies and their close relations in the endless Power Line series “Lies of Obamacare,” featuring the thumbnail image of the man having Obamacare shoved down his throat. If politicians were subject to truth in advertising laws, Obama would be behind
»
