It’s Probably Nothing

It's Probably Nothing 24 Comments

Victor Davis Hanson;

Collapsing oil prices — a good thing for most of the world — will make troublemakers like oil-exporting Iran and Russia take even more risks.
Terrorist groups such as the Islamic State feel that conventional military power has no effect on their agendas. The West is seen as a tired culture of Black Friday shoppers and maxed-out credit-card holders.
NATO is underfunded and without strong American leadership. It can only hope that Vladimir Putin does not invade a NATO country such as Estonia, rather than prepare for the likelihood that he will, and soon.

Oh, Shiny Pony!

Political Animal Shiny Pony 17 Comments

Brandon Sun;

The Liberal candidate who almost staged a major political upset in Brandon-Souris last year says he only lost the 2013 byelection because of meddling by the national Liberal office,
Rolf Dinsdale issued a scathing letter on Facebook on Friday, saying he won’t be seeking the nomination for the riding again and that “the Liberal Party has made deciding not to run an easy choice for me to make.”

h/t Mike

The Children Are Our Future

Children R Our Future 33 Comments

Coddled millennial law student William Desmond, on coddled millennial law students;

Speaking as one of those law students, I can say that this response is misguided: Our request for exam extensions is not being made from a position of weakness, but rather from one of strength and critical awareness.
Although over the last few weeks many law students have experienced moments of total despair, minutes of inconsolable tears and hours of utter confusion, many of these same students have also spent days in action–days of protesting, of organizing meetings, of drafting emails and letters, and of starting conversations long overdue. We have been synthesizing decades of police interactions, dissecting problems centuries old, and exposing the hypocrisy of silence.

The Sydney Gunman’s Failed Message

Uncategorized 42 Comments

Michael Totten: The gunman sent a message, but it wasn’t received. And we know he was monitoring the news in real time. He was directly across the street from an Australian news channel. He wanted attention, but he was not getting the attention he wanted. Reporters couldn’t even figure out who he was when he clearly identified himself and his ideology.
Related.

Reader Tips

Reader Tips 38 Comments

In tonight’s entertainment en route to the tips Janette and Joe Carter, the children of A.P. and Sara of the original Carter family, gather at the homestead in Virginia to reprise one of their parents’ early songs with the same modest, unadorned, natural musicality, simultaneously corporeal and otherworldly, that flows like a river from the Virginia hills to the heart.
The footage, filmed by Alan Lomax in 1983, is a remarkable document of Americana; if you heard it without seeing it, and maybe added a few pops and crackles, you’d swear you were listening to a mountain recording from the 1920s. Without further ado, here’s Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone?
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.

“Was Feinstein a Useful Idiot or What?”

Political Animal What He Said 17 Comments

An interesting conjecture.

ML: I need some help understanding the Feinstein report on the CIA. She had to know it was very damaging to the country, didn’t she? And there’s no reason to think she was trying to accomplish some “worthy” objective, was there? So why?
JJA: Well let’s first underline your last point: the missing “worthy” objective. What’s the dog-that-didn’t-bark in this story? Answer: there are no recommendations. None at all. It’s striking, to me at least, that after producing thousands of pages of text, and bemoaning the Agency’s interrogation methods, there’s no call for new laws, or even for punishments of the “guilty” parties.
ML: Right. So why?

Related: Why The CIA “Torture Report” Is Like the Rolling Stone Rape Debacle.

Developing… Islamists Holding Hostages In Sydney

Uncategorized 119 Comments

9:25am Update: Police have stormed cafe, obvious casualties being removed by ambulance.

Richard Fernandez live blogged for those wanting a review.
(Original post below.)
Bloomberg:

The person behind the siege has reportedly claimed he wants to speak to Tony Abbott, Australia’s prime minister, live on radio.
He reportedly told police negotiators he had “devices all over the city”.
Reports suggest there are between 13 and 40 people inside the café.

Follow via Twitter.

TEAM AMERICA, CALL YOUR OFFICE.

Embrace Hollywood 14 Comments


Roger Simon schadenfreudizes;

Many of us who have spent even part of our lives working in the film industry, particularly those who have committed the unpardonable sin of not adhering religiously to the orthodox liberal line, cannot but grin at the release of the hacked emails from the bosses of Sony Pictures. We were right all along about these self-described liberals and progressives and now we have proof — they are pond scum.

Bravery in the Face of Paper Cuts

Uncategorized 5 Comments

Katherine Timpf reports on academia’s ongoing cultivation of stoicism, fortitude and self-possession:

Princeton University students recently launched Tiger Microaggressions, a service that takes other students’ reports of microaggressions and publishes them on its Facebook page — so that no one has to “carry the burden alone to call out” offences against political correctness… The page, by the way, also refers to microaggressions as “papercuts of oppression,” which are “so small but slice deep.” […] According to the operators, “microaggressions are all around us” and anything can be a microaggression because “there are no objective definitions to words and phrases.”

One of these.

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