Progressivism on Campus Takes a Summer Vacation

George Will  "Commencement season brings a respite from the sinister childishness rampant on campuses. Attacks on freedom of speech come from the professoriate, that herd of independent minds, and from the ever-thickening layer of university administrators who keep busy constricting freedom in order to fine-tune campus atmospherics.

"The attacks are childish because they infantilize students who flinch from the intellectual free-for-all of adult society. When Brown University’s tranquility of conformity was threatened by a woman speaker skeptical about the “rape culture” on campuses, students planned a “safe space” for those who would be traumatized by exposure to skepticism. Judith Shulevitz, writing in the New York Times, reported that the space had “cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies.” 

"The attack on free expression is sinister because it asserts that such freedom is not merely unwise but, in a sense, meaningless." . . .Read more 

RELATED: Seven Things That Have Been Declared ‘Unsafe’ at Colleges

Face paint is one.

The word "Freshmen" is another.

Chris Rock Explains Why He Doesn’t Want to Perform on College Campuses 
. . . " Just as college campuses are meant to be “marketplaces of ideas” generally, they should be places where comedians and other performers are especially able to play with new acts. It’s disappointing to see that this is not so, and that the atmosphere for freedom of speech and comedy in particular on campuses has gotten bad enough that noted comedians are avoiding student audiences altogether. That is a real loss for them—after all, everybody could use a laugh." . . .

The tyranny of political correctness.

Rand Paul Just Alienated Even More Voters

 Rand Paul Slams Establishment Republicans, Declares Victory Over NSA
. . .  “The president has been told in no uncertain terms—and by the end of the week this will be in writing—that he can no longer illegally collect all of Americans’ phone records and keep them in Utah,” Paul said." . . .

Legal Insurrection
"Yesterday, I posed the conundrum of Rand Paul as an investment for major donors. From my perspective, the ratio of risk to reward tilts too heavily toward the former, and is a major cause of Paul’s fundraising troubles. I floated the idea that, contrary to some commentary from the pro-Paul camp, these troubles aren’t necessarily due to policy differences, but are a direct result of just how different Paul is from other candidates on a personal level.

"One of my commenters decided to keep it 150% more real when he said, Let me make this simple–he’s a jerk.
. . .
"Yesterday, Paul proved just how true that platitude rings when he accused his colleagues and peers on the Hill of “secretly wanting there to be an attack on the United States” out of spite over policy differences.

"The Daily Caller had it first. Watch:"

 (Emphasis mine)
. . . "People here in town think I’m making a huge mistake. Some of them, I think, secretly want there to be an attack on the United States so they can blame it on me.

"Seriously, man?"

 . . . "I’ve heard a lot of garbage come out of the mouths of politicians, but nothing—literally nothing—pisses me off more than an “I bet you hope everyone DIES” tantrum.
I
"t’s lazy. It’s cheap. It detracts from your point—which I can’t imagine he would want unless achieving a Constitutionally-friendly method of conducting surveillance wasn’t really the point of this whole thing."

We've had to put up with Obama's straw-man attacks for six years, and now this?

Andrew McCarthy looks at the Ron Paul accusations this way:
Rand Paul Has a Point about Republicans and ISIS 

"Seems like Rand Paul always goes too far. He could have made a perfectly respectable argument that the NSA’s metadata program is illegal because it exceeds the Patriot Act’s authority. Instead he speciously insists that the Patriot Act shreds the Fourth Amendment and the program is akin to Nixon-era “domestic spying.” 

"He could also have made a perfectly respectable — I would say, irrefutable — argument that there was strong bipartisan support for some reckless policies that significantly contributed to the rise of the Islamic State — the jihadist organization that now controls much of Iraq and Syria. Instead, the Kentucky Republican speciously claims that “hawks” in his own party “created” ISIS.

"ISIS is a creation of Islamic-supremacist ideology, which is drawn directly from Muslim scripture. Part of the reason that Senator Paul is no improvement over the Republicans he often derides is that he is just as wrong as they are about the threat we face. 

" In their infatuation with Muslim engagement, Beltway Republicans imagine a monolithic, smiley-face Islam — a “religion of peace” that seamlessly accommodates Western liberalism . . . except where it has been “hijacked” by “violent extremists.” Indeed, long before President Obama came along, it was the Bush administration that endeavored to purge terms like “jihadism” from our lexicon, even assuring us: “The fact is that Islam and secular democracy are fully compatible — in fact, they can make each other stronger.” Read more

This is not materially different from the “blame America first” cast of mind that Jeanne Kirkpatrick diagnosed and Barack Obama instantiates. Nor is it far from the mindset that blames Pamela Geller or Charlie Hebdo when Islamists respond to mere taunts with lethal violence — as if sharia gives Muslims a special mayhem dispensation that American law must accommodate.

Obama's parting words to Kerry were "Break a leg"

http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/06/branco-cartoon-on-the-world-stage/

Massive military transport plane that usually carries 100 troops picks up US Secretary of State John Kerry to bring him home after he breaks his leg cycling

     

How does the term "President and First Dude" (DOTUS!) sound to you?

Kathleen Willey: Hillary a 'money-hungry hypocrite'

“ 'She’s absolutely unqualified to run this country,” stated Willey. “Just look at something as simple as her judgment. … I question her judgment on a number of issues when it comes to being the president. She enabled his behavior. It’s as simple as that. She looked the other way. She might throw a tantrum, but she enabled it to happen again and again and again and again. Then she chooses to go after the women that he hooked up with to ruin them again and again and again and again. That’s how it works. I don’t see how anybody can respect a woman like that, especially another woman. She is the worst role model for a wife and a mother and a politician, anything. … She is a hypocrite.'" . . .

Dead man warns: Don't vote Hillary   "Family uses obituary to blast Clinton candidacy"
And the dead are Democrat voters!

Bill Clinton Accuser Resurfaces . . . 
 . . . "Based on the intimate knowledge she claims to possess about the former first couple, Jones recently shared several reasons she thinks Hillary Clinton would make a terrible president.
. . . 
 “ 'If she is for the everyday person,” Jones wondered, “why did she not stand up for the women when she knew what her husband did? There is no way that she did not know what was going on, that women were being abused and accosted by her husband. She knew what was happening and just to ignore it – it was a political relationship and suited them both.”

"The couple has a “history of not being truthful,” Jones continued, adding that she believes Hillary Clinton is viewing her presidential bid as “an ego thing.”

http://1984arkansasmotheroftheyear.blogspot.com/2014_02_01_archive.html

"Jones is the second Bill Clinton accuser to publicly criticize Hillary in recent months. As Western Journalism reported in April, Kathleen Willey insisted she would be an inept and untrustworthy president." . . .

Schieffer: Media 'not skeptical enough' of Obama in 2008

teakdoor.com/

Rick Moran  

"Retiring CBS journalist Bob Schieffer made what is perhaps the understatement of the year when he said of the media that "maybe we were not skeptical enough" of Barack Obama when he burst on the political scene in 2008.
. . . 
 "Skepticism of Obama back in 2008 would have been nice, but I think most Republicans would have settled for a little fairness in coverage – especially of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.  And, of course, despite mountains of [evidence]that Obama is an incompetent, radical demogogue(sp), he is still getting the benefit of glowing coverage by a fawning media.

Do we really want to know this or not?

Introducing Caitlyn Jenner  .

 Vanity Fair’s 22-page cover story features stunning Annie Leibovitz photos of Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce, along with revealing new details. Here’s a preview of the story.

  . . "Bissinger speaks extensively with Jenner’s four children from his first two marriages—Burt, 36, and Cassandra, 34, with first wife Chrystie, and Brandon, 33, and Brody, 31, with second wife Linda—and describes an insensitive father who had been absent for years at a time. Jenner openly acknowledges mistakes made with them as Bruce, and expresses genuine regret. Says Burt, “I have high hopes that Caitlyn is a better person than Bruce. I’m very much looking forward to that.' ”

Update:   Obama Praises Jenner’s “Courage”…

Update:

Pipe Dreamers

HopeNChange

 

"In the month of May, 35 trillion gallons of rain fell on the great state of Texas, creating some significant flooding problems (and the construction of a few Arks), but also replenishing the state's previously low reservoirs.

"Being a generous state, Texas would love to share some of this abundance of water with the increasingly thirsty liberals in California who suddenly seem very enthusiastic about the creation of ugly, environmentally destructive pipelines if it means they won't have to drain their hot tubs or boycott their bidets.

"Sadly, no such pipeline is being seriously proposed, and not just for the reason cited in the cartoon. Rather, Hope n' Change is pretty sure that this president would never sign legislation which would expose Americans to the very real possibility of job creation."

A message to Republicans from the People's Party

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Congressman recalls trouble during Hastert speakership

 

WND   "There has been much made of former Speaker Hastert’s indictment this week. Most of us who knew him on any level (I’m a member of the press who covers Congress) feel horrible for him.

I asked my friend and colleague former Rep. Bob Ney, author of “Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill,” to give me his perspective.
Full article here

. . . "Besides some better staffers, he also could use a good mental health therapist. I have seen people destroy themselves time and time again in Washington, D.C. It often happens after taking public office, although Speaker Hastert’s problems may have begun years before the thought of public office entered Mr. Hastert’s mind.
"This self-destruction usually has to do with the self that is displayed to the world verses the inner self. Choosing young men/boys may be an attempt at working out internal conflicts from long ago. Some may see it as a reflection of internalized homophobia, but that would not encompass choosing someone as young and innocent as a high-school student. Some theories see this kind of sexual abuse not as sexual but as an abuse of power. This might fit into his need to seek high office and deal with his inner demons.
"Former Rep. Bob Ney saw one Denny Hastert, and at least one of Hastert’s high-school students saw another. Now the task former Speaker Hastert is to reconcile the two parts of himself. It is a large task, and he is going to need lots of help to do it.

 Hastert's college drops his name from building

Some things Mr. Hastert could do:

• Publish any letters of admiration for him by his victim;
• Have a surrogate remark that Hastert got his victim by dragging a dollar bill through a trailer park 
• Publicly deny he had sex with that boy
• Have surrogates claim this is all a left-wing conspiracy
• Tell his victim to put ice on any wounds from their encounters.
• Consult Barney Frank for advice
  ("In a third blockbuster scandal, Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank admitted a lengthy relationship with a male hooker who ran a bisexual prostitution service out of Frank's apartment.")
•  One other thing Mr. Hastert can do: become a Democrat

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

 

 Kevin D. Williamson
 "As the old Vulcan proverb has it, “Only Nixon can go to China.” And only Nixon’s political heirs can fix the persistent — and terrifying — problems that continue to plague this country’s law-enforcement agencies and prosecutors’ offices.

Exhibit A: Orange County, California.

. . .

"Democrats may have ruined Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, etc., and they are well on their way toward doing the same thing to Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York, etc. If Republicans want to show that they can do better, then fixing the mess in Orange County, a community more populous than Chicago, would be an excellent place to start."

Related posts:

• Annals of Injustice: The Libby Case and Other Horrors
• America Desperately Needs to Fix It’s Overcriminalization Problem
•  Baltimore’s Problem, and America’s: The Criminal-Justice System Is a Disaster

Obama’s “Waters of the U. S.” EPA Power Grab

Legal Insurrection

 All your puddles are belong to us

"While presented as a means to protect drinking water and “hold[ing] polluters accountable,” the Obama administration’s latest EPA rule, Waters of the United States, is rather more far-reaching than many conservatives like.

"According to the document (full text embedded below), the rule itself is not intended as regulatory (that probably comes later), but is instead “a definitional rule that clarifies the scope of the ‘waters of the United States’ . . . .”  Essentially, almost all fresh water, including that in “water-filled depressions,” is now under the federal government’s purview and subject to government oversight and regulation."

 Politico reports:  . . .

 . . . 

Obama’s emphasis is on safety and clean water; the rule, however, greatly expands the definition of what waters “belong to us all,” including that on privately-owned property.
 

Watch John Thune discuss the Obama EPA overreach:

ISIS Marches On Jordan, Israel In The Cross Hairs!

 By reaching Jordan’s doorstep, the Islamic State is posing a challenge to President Barack Obama and forcing him to reach a decision, avoided thus far, about sending US troops to confront the terrorists.

ISIS Shows Off American-Made Vehicles in Parade in Mosul, Iraq

 Adina Kutnicki  . . . "Our sources report that the initial ISIS mission is to take control of the eastern section of the border, including the meeting point between the Syrian, Jordanian and Iraqi frontiers. They are estimated to cover the 250 km from Palmyra to the Jordanian border Tuesday, May 26, passing through Deir el-Zour in the east, which they already occupy.

"After the border crossing, ISIS is expected to seize villages and towns in northeastern Jordan, especially Ar Ruwayshid, where 800,000 Syrian refugees shelter.


"The Jordanian army, our sources report, had the foresight earlier this month to reinforce its western frontier against a potential ISIS assault on the frontier from point where it links with the Israeli and Syrian borders and up to the Tanaf border crossing. However, the Islamists are heading for the eastern sections which the Jordanian army did not fortify with extra troops." . . .