College Rape Accusations and the Presumption of Male Guilt

Oh boy, Peter Berkowitz is opening it up with this one, at Wall Street Journal, "Pressured by the Obama administration, universities abandon any pretense of due process in sexual assault cases":

Late August and early September bring recent high school graduates, bright and eager, to campuses around the country. Carefully planned orientation sessions will impress upon freshmen the paramount importance of sensitivity, of avoiding offensive words and ideas, and—notwithstanding that in recent years approximately 55% of matriculating freshmen nationally have been female—the urgency of maintaining a campus atmosphere friendly to women.

But parents who might expect this orientation to include an introduction to the moral and political purposes of liberal education—including respect for liberty of thought and discussion, and due process of law—will be sorely disappointed.

The neglect at freshmen orientation of the aim of liberal education and how it undergirds and is undergirded by the principles of freedom is not an accident. It is emblematic of college as a whole. Our universities impair liberal education not only by what they teach and do not teach in classrooms but also by the illiberal rules they promulgate to regulate speech and conduct outside of class.

The Obama administration has aggravated the problem. On April 4, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali, head of the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR), distributed a 19-page "Dear Colleague" letter to "provide recipients with information to assist them in meeting their obligations."

At the cost of losing federal funding—on which all major institutions of higher education have grown dependent—colleges and universities are obliged under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act (which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex) to thoroughly investigate all allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault on campus, including the felony of rape. They are also obliged, according to Ms. Ali, to curtail due process rights of the accused.

Keep reading.

And following the discussion takes you right to the neo-Marxist legal and educational "reforms" of the last couple of decades, those instituting a sexual harassment regime of radical feminist ideological totalitarianism. And that's what today's "liberal" education is really all about. Isn't that sick?

Democrats Revive Works Progress Administration

I'm only half joking.

See Wall Street Journal, "Roads Bill Gets Another Look":

The White House and congressional Democrats are working on a plan to jump-start passage of a stalled highway bill as the administration reworks part of its strategy for responding to high unemployment.

President Barack Obama recently shifted from calling for a national infrastructure bank that would finance transportation projects and create jobs to saying Congress should pass a bread-and-butter road-construction bill that would rely mostly on existing programs that could get projects under way faster.

One of the ideas under discussion is expanding a government-loan program designed to spur public-private partnerships, such as one planned in Los Angeles to develop a light-rail line.

With the support of the White House, Senate Democrats are lining up support from Republican colleagues, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, other business groups and labor unions to pass a two-year, $109 billion bill that would maintain existing funding level.

*****

Mr. Obama, during a bus tour across the Midwest this past week, began calling instead for a road-construction bill.

"Tell Congress to get past their differences and send me a road-construction bill so that companies can put tens of thousands of people to work right now building our roads and bridges and airports and seaports," Mr. Obama told audiences.

Franklin Roosevelt couldn't have said it better:

The Works Progress Administration (renamed during 1939 as the Work Projects Administration; WPA) was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects. It fed children and redistributed food, clothing, and housing. Almost every community in the United States had a park, bridge or school constructed by the agency, which especially benefited rural and Western areas.

Toto, I don't think we're in the 1930s anymore. The ObamaDems just need to do some of that unleashing Maxine Waters was talking about --- unleashing the private sector with tax cuts, deregulation, and, come to think of it, some additional economic incentives for genuinely-needed highway construction. But folks can just forget about the rest of the Democrats' socialist welfare state. It's been a pork-barrel boondoggle so far, in any case. ASFLs.

RELATED: From Jim Powell, at Daily Caller, "Obama’s New New Deal at a dead end."

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Jerry Buell, Florida History Teacher, Suspended for Posting His Personal Gay Marriage Opinions on Facebook

The guy was Mount Dora High School's Teacher of the Year. His peers obviously consider him excellent in the classroom. And his comments on gay marriage are nothing compared to the left's foul dirtbag death chants against conservatives. Seriously. He says gay marriage makes him sick to his stomach and is an attack on God. You think? See Orlando Sentinel, "Teacher suspended, reassigned for anti-gay Facebook comments." And Hot Air, "Florida teacher suspended for Facebook entry opposing NY gay-marriage law":

Do teachers in public-school systems have a “special ethics” code that prevents them from publicly speaking on policy issues? Lake County Schools in Florida suspended Jerry Buell, a high-school teacher with a reportedly impeccable record for 22 years, for posting his opposition to New York’s new gay-marriage law, and will start termination proceedings against him. The case will test First Amendment rights and encroaching political correctness.

You can say that again.

Here's the guy's comments:

“I’m watching the news, eating dinner when the story about New York okaying same-sex unions came on and I almost threw up,” he wrote. “And now they showed two guys kissing after their announcement. If they want to call it a union, go ahead. But don’t insult a man and woman’s marriage by throwing it in the same cesspool of whatever. God will not be mocked. When did this sin become acceptable?”

*****

“By the way, if one doesn’t like the most recently posted opinion based on biblical principles and God’s laws, then go ahead and unfriend me. I’ll miss you like I miss my kidney stone from 1994. And I will never accept it because God will never accept it. Romans chapter one.”

And here come the progressive thought police totalitarians. Lauren Ritchie, for example, also at The Sentinal, "Respect between teachers, students at heart of teacher's anti-gay Facebook rant":

Buell said last week that he started the Facebook discussion after watching a news story about New York legalizing unions for same-sex partners.

In most of it, Buell simply expounded on view that homosexuality is wrong because of his religious beliefs. All that was fine.

Where the teacher of the year went wrong was in saying he "almost threw up" when the story came on the screen and in comparing gay relations to a "cesspool."

His remarks were out of line, and they were made in a public forum. As a teacher of history and government, Buell should know that responsibility comes with freedom of speech.

Students — gay, straight or otherwise — have the right to come to school expecting a fair shake from their teachers. Can a student who makes a teacher want to vomit really expect equal treatment?

Of course they can? Progressives assume that people from different backgrounds are perpetual victims who can't think for themselves. And they assume that a teacher expressing a private opinion can't act professionally in the classroom. Hello people??!! It's called debating both sides of an issue. Thousands upon thousands of teachers do it every day inside the classroom. One doesn't have to agree with a political position to be able to discuss it and offer it up to students for critical analysis. Progressives assume that a conservative can't hold two conflicting opinions at the same time and offer them for debate. It's the left that's metastasizing from monochromatic thinking. Just this week, as part of my introductory discussions, I was helping students think about the stakes of the upcoming presidential election in 2012. Since Rick Perry's been in the news I hypothesized a presidential match-up between the Texas Governor and President Obama. I discussed the likely policy platforms the candidates might have, and especially how they would differ on the question of creating more jobs and getting the nation back to work. I don't agree with the Democrats' program, but I laid it out there and said that Obama inherited a collapsing economy and that so far his stimulus program hasn't had the desired effect of creating more jobs. He'll argue that he needs four more years to continue his work in generating economic growth. Then I mentioned that Rick Perry's been propelled to the top ranks of the GOP field because of Texas's record of job creation. I then suggested how both Obama and Perry might criticize the other. After that, I opened up the classroom for discussion, and students were able to raise additional points, not only about that hypothetical contest but anything else they thought relevant. Duh. That's called open inquiry and critical discussion. I'm not making my students agree with one program or another. And I'm not attacking President Obama as an Alynskite community organizer communist attempting to turn the U.S. into a corrupt bureaucratic European welfare regime. He is that. But we can get to whether progressive programs are productive without the more polarizing language. In other words, I don't teach my ideology. I teach based on critical thinking and helping students think for themselves. Shoot, sometimes my student evaluations criticize me as a bleeding heart liberal, which I find hilarious, since I'm one of the most outspoken conservative blogging professors in the United States.

Anyway, progressives are losers. They're ASFL totalitarian dicks. (And stupid too, like Racist Idiot W. James Casper.) If Jerry Buell posts about how gay marriage makes him sick on Facebook, so fucking what? No doubt he'd be reported for saying so much inside the classroom, and that's when school officials would be warranted in taking action. Outside of that, Buell's First Amendment rights are being violated. Basically, he's getting reamed up the you-know-what harder than two New York rim-station freaks overdosing on erection enhancement pills. (And hey, W. James Casper's down with that!)

RELATED VIDEO: "School Suspends Teacher After Gay Marriage Facebook Comment."

Black Flash Mobs

Some news agencies refuse to report the racial identity of those committing flash mob violence around the country, and political correctness prohibits a frank discussion of the issue among civic leaders and national policy makers. Seriously. Roland Martin on CNN's bumbling and blathering about "no matter if it's black or white," blah, blah. Freakin' asshat black criminal apologist. These are black mobs dick! Yet another example of how progressivism is kicking this country to the curb. See Ward Connerly, "Flash Mob Racism":

Earlier this year, the Justice Department of the Obama administration announced its objective to aggressively monitor the police departments of major urban cities. The purpose of this effort is to determine whether such departments are involved in racial profiling of blacks and Latinos and whether they are engaged in police brutality. Since that announcement, events have unfolded in some of those cities that reveal how misplaced that policy initiative actually is.

In Chicago, the District of Columbia, Milwaukee and Philadelphia, a group of “flash mobs” have unmercifully terrorized residents of those communities – attacking citizens, breaking windows of business establishments and stealing merchandise, and committing other random acts of violence. In each instance, the mobs have been overwhelmingly, if not exclusively, black youth. This fact has accounted for the failure of most of the news media to report either the events themselves or the racial background of the perpetrators. Several news sources have readily admitted that it is their practice not to mention the racial identity of those involved in criminal activity. Jim Stingl, a columnist for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, recently wrote, “This newspaper normally avoids mentioning the race of people involved in crimes, unless it’s part of a description to help apprehend someone at large.”

Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter is not afflicted with the same disease of political correctness as many in the media. In a recent 30-minute sermon delivered from the pulpit of his Baptist church, Nutter confronted the culture that many of us believe drives the behavior of these individuals when he said, “You have damaged your own race…Take those God-darn hoodies down, especially in the summer. Pull your pants up and buy a belt ‘cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt.’’

“If you walk into somebody’s office with your hair uncombed and a pick in the back, and your shoes untied, and your pants half down, tattoos up and down your arms and on your neck, and you wonder why somebody won’t hire you? They don’t hire you ‘cause you look like you’re crazy,” the mayor said.

Mayor Nutter is correct. When we have young people burglarizing stores and neighborhoods and beating up bystanders without provocation, there is obviously a widespread cultural problem in the group committing these acts. That reality must be faced and the thugs responsible for these acts should not be ignored or coddled. They and their parents, if there are parents in the households, should be held accountable for their behavior.

It's racist violence. Black racist mobs attacking whites. See, "Teen girl gang assaults woman in brazen daylight attack outside Philadelphia City Hall." (At Memeorandum.) And also, "More flash mob mayhem for DC-area as band of female looters storms convenience store."

Homosexuality Is Not a Civil Right

Well, the gay extremists have Tony Perkins in the crosshairs. Bunch of ASFLs.

Turns out that the Family Research Council issued a press release hammering the Obama White House for promoting childhood homosexuality. I especially like the point about Dan Savage, who is identified as "a homosexual extremist who built a career on hatred of Christians and our values." Word.

And see this from FRC, "Homosexuality Is Not a Civil Right":

Because of our national shame at the historic legacy of racial discrimination against blacks, many people have come to think of “discrimination” as inherently evil. However, the basic meaning of “discriminate” is simply “to make a distinction.” To compare and evaluate candidates based on their education, experience, intelligence, and competence is inherently “discrimination.” The question, therefore, is not whether “discrimination” will take place—it can, it will and it must. The question for public policy is: which forms of “discrimination” are so profoundly offensive to the national conscience that they justify government action that interferes with the rights of employers and other private entities and gives special protections to certain classes of people?

In the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Congress answered that question by including only five categories of protection. As noted above, those categories were: “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” For instance, a banker could deny an applicant a loan because the applicant was not credit-worthy, but not because he or she was Jewish or black. What do these protected categories have in common?

While there is no definitive legal answer, the most logical answer would seem to be that the case for granting legal protection against “discrimination” is strongest when based on a personal characteristic that is:

* Inborn, involuntary, and immutable (like race and color);
* Innocuous (because it does no harm to the employer, to the individual, or to society as a whole); and/or
* In the Constitution.

Is “sexual orientation,” like race and sex, a characteristic that is inborn, involuntary, immutable, innocuous, and in the Constitution? Is it, like religion (which is not inborn, involuntary, immutable, or necessarily innocuous, but is in the Constitution), a characteristic that meets even one of these criteria?

The only truthful answer is no.

RTWT.

PREVIOUSLY: "Gay Marriage is Not a Civil Right."

Israeli Blood Runs in the Streets

From Caroline Glick, at Jerusalem Post:

Israeli military preparedness follows a depressing pattern. The IDF does not change its assessments of the strategic environment until Israeli blood runs in the streets.

In Judea and Samaria, from 1994 through 2000, the army closed its eyes to the Palestinian security forces’ open, warm and mutually supportive ties to terror groups.

The military only began to reconsider its assessment of the US- and European-trained and Israeli-armed Palestinian forces after Border Police Cpl. Mahdat Youssef bled to death at Joseph’s Tomb in October 2000. Youssef died because the Palestinian security chiefs on whom Israel had relied for cooperation refused to coordinate the evacuation of the wounded policeman.

Youssef was wounded when a Palestinian mob, supported by Palestinian security forces, attacked the sacred Jewish shrine. They shot at worshipers and the IDF soldiers who were stationed at Joseph’s Tomb in accordance with the agreements Israel has signed with the Palestinians.


In Lebanon, the IDF only reconsidered its policy of ignoring Hezbollah’s massive arms build-up in the south after the Shi’ite group launched its war against Israel in July 2006.

In Gaza, the IDF only reconsidered its willingness to allow Hamas to massively arm itself with missiles and rockets after the terror group running the Strip massively escalated the scale of its missile war against Israel in December 2008.

It is to be hoped that Thursday’s sophisticated, deadly, multi-pronged, combined arms assault by as yet unidentified enemy forces along the border with Egypt will suffice to force the IDF to alter its view of Egypt.

By Thursday afternoon, seven Israelis had been killed and 26 had been wounded by unidentified attackers who entered Israel from Egyptian-ruled Sinai and staged a four-pronged attack. The attack included two assaults on civilian passenger buses and private cars. The assailants used automatic rifles in the first attack, and rifles as well as either anti-tank missiles or rocket-propelled grenades in the second attack.

The assault also involved the use of missiles and roadside bombs against an IDF border patrol, and open combat between the attackers and police SWAT teams.

There can be little doubt of the sophisticated planning and training required to carry out this attack. The competence of the assailants indicates that their organizations are highly professional, well-trained and in possession of accurate intelligence about Israeli civilian traffic and military operations along the border with Egypt.

Without the benefit of surprise, Thursday’s attackers will be hard pressed to maintain their offensive in the coming days. But the possibility that the assault was just the opening round of a new irregular war emanating from Sinai cannot be ruled out. Unfortunately, due to the IDF’s institutional opposition to confronting emerging threats before they become deadly, Israel faces the prospect of escalated aggression from Sinai with no clear strategy for contending with the enemy actors operating in the peninsula.

This enemy system includes Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, and al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic terror cells. It also includes the Egyptian military and security forces operating in the area, whose intentions towards Israel are at best unclear.

Previously: "Terror Attacks Near Eilat Mark New Phase in Arab-Israeli conflict."

Terror Attacks Near Eilat Mark New Phase in Arab-Israeli conflict

Background at LAT, "Attacks in southern Israel kill 8, wound 40."

And from Barry Rubin, "News Flash: New Phase in War as Terrorists Cross Egypt-Israel Border, Many Dead":

This isn’t just another terrorist attack — it’s a major escalation, a new phase in the Arab-Israeli conflict in two ways. First, it is the bitter fruit of the U.S-backed downfall of the government of President Husni Mubarak in Egypt, opening the Egypt-Israel border as a new front in the war. Second, it is probably the first successful al-Qaida attack on Israel. (The Palestinian Popular Committees, a Gaza-based al-Qaida affiliate is the prime suspect.)

A group of up to 20 terrorists from the Gaza Strip travelled through Egypt using vehicles, then went through the Egyptian border area without any apparent difficulty. Approaching the Egypt-Israel border they fired at a regularly scheduled public bus and cars on highway 12 — a road between Beersheva and Eilat, then entered Israeli territory. Their armaments included mortars and an RPG, as well as handguns. Soldiers engaged the terrorists in a firefight. Several soldiers were wounded; seven terrorists were killed.

According to several eyewitnesses, the attackers were wearing Egyptian army uniforms, a detail which if true is going to be a major issue. Stolen or sold or provided by low-level sympathizers in the Egyptian army? And the site of the attack was near an Egyptian army outpost which — so far as we know now –didn’t do anything about it. One eyewitness said a terrorist was firing from an Egyptian army position. Again, these details will have to be checked by an investigation.

More at the link.

Rubin predicted such a thing would happen. And it's likely to continue.

Stock Selloff Hammers Blue Chips

At WSJ, "Slowdown Fears Slam U.S. Stocks."

Stocks tumbled amid growing fears of a global recession, as investors confronted a grim mix of U.S. economic data and fresh concerns about Europe's banks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 419.63 points, or 3.7%, to 10990.58. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index dropped 53.24 points, or 4.5%, to 1140.65, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 131.05 points, or 5.2%, to 2380.43.

In the flight to safety, investors piled into gold, which jumped to a new record of $1,818.90 a troy ounce, up 1.55%. In the Treasurys market, the yield on the benchmark 10-year note briefly dipped below 2% in intraday trading for the first time since at least 1954, as investors sought refuge in U.S. debt.

"If it's not a recession, it sure feels like one. And if it feels like one, it doesn't matter if you can prove it with statistics or not," said John Hailer, president and CEO of Natixis Global Asset Management in the U.S. and Asia.

RTWT.

The Left's Escalating Union Violence

See IBD, "Union Thugs? No Kidding."

An Ohio contractor was wounded by gunfire Wednesday by a shadowy man vandalizing his SUV with union threats. Where's Washington's outrage at such lawlessness?

Had King Electrical Services owner John King been shot by, say, a Tea Partyer, there'd be no end to the public pontificating from Washington's politicians and media commentators about their rhetoric or protests inciting violence.

It's quite a different story for the Lambertville, Mich., contractor who woke up in the dead of night a week ago found a silhouetted figure on his driveway spraying "SCAB" on the side of his vehicle. The figure fired a gun at him before fleeing.

King runs a small business employing 40 people at high wages with good benefits. His success at a time when unionized contractors are failing made him the target of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), which has unsuccessfully sought to unionize his workers.

Now it's come down to guns, and Washington's chattering classes are strangely silent.

RTWT.

To say these developments are troubling is putting it mildly.

And from John Hinderaker, "DOES ANYONE CARE ABOUT ACTUAL POLITICAL VIOLENCE?" Well, yeah. They care enough to cheer it on and deny that progressive ideology is the cancer of American politics. ASFLs.

And video at Breitbart TV: "OHIO BUSINESS OWNER SHOT FOR BEING NON-UNION."

Robert Stacy McCain: Final Thoughts on Ames Straw Poll Politics

That was one hella journalistic trek. See: "Fear and Loathing in the Airport Lounge: The Final Wisdom of My Iowa Journey."

Denise Milani Rule 5

She's like one of the seven wonders of the world, or something:

Maxine Waters: Y'all 'Unleash Us' on Obama

This is the black mofos' "let my Congress-people go" moment, from James Taranto, "'Unleash Us'" (via Memeorandum).

'Blue Suede Shoes'

Zilla mentioned she loves Elvis, and I'm throwing in some Carl Perkins too, and some rare 1955 footage with Johnny Cash and Buddy Holly as well:

More blogging tonight.

Stay Classy Progressives: Gay Rights Extremists Lash Out After NOH8 Caught Wellstoning the Death of Christina Santiago

From the comments at, "Extremist NOH8 Campaign Exploits Christina Santiago Death for Crass Political Gain":

dave™© said...

Dear hste-filled wingnut asshole,

Go fuck yourself.

Too bad it wasn't a moron like you who got snuffed out instead of a loving person working to change the world for the better. The fewer clueless motherfuckers like you around, the better.

Did I tell you to go fuck yourself? Just checking...

August 17, 2011 5:59 AM

And the fever-nihilists at Balloon Juice endorse the hate. Plus, more from the haters at Truth Wins Out.

FLASHBACK: Recall my recent post that explains exactly this kind of violent extremism:

Gay activists are the most venal, vicious, and unprincipled political organizers going. It's like Rick Santorum noted the other day, when he suggested that gays enjoy "super rights." Progressive gay activists are the left's ultimate bullies. They are in your face, attacking anyone with the slightest inclination toward tradition as a "homophobe" and "racist." They browbeat, intimidate, and harass to get their way. They've threatened to destroy livelihoods over the simple act of voting on a proposition. They's lied and cheated in public forums, for example, with the mock judicial process that reviewed Prop. 8 in Federal District Court. Basically, they've raped the political process to leverage a disgusting and morally reprobate barebacking, rim-station sexual agenda that majorities of voters have consistently rejected nationwide. Fully thirty states continue to prohibit gay marriage across the country, but the tentacles of deathly progressivism have worked their subterfuge in the more left-leaning states, using all manner of deceit and duplicity to carry the day. Most of all is the sickening progressive discrimination that is the centerpiece of folks like the disgusting perv Dan Savage. I wrote recently on his sick bigotry and hatred of regular people: "Gay Sexual Abandon and the Perverse Inversion of Values by Same-Sex Extremists." The gay progressive program of ideological bigotry works because society has been beaten down by political correctness. No one wants to appear intolerant. No one wants to be attacked as anti "civil rights." The problem of course, is that gay marriage isn't a civil right, although regular people have been so brainwashed by progressive Orwellianism they don't know what is good and moral, and to even speak up for something decent is to be viciously attacked, with people's very lives being threatened.

Perry Calls Global Warming Unproven

At LAT, "Rick Perry calls global warming an unproven, costly theory."

Julia Roberts Looks Fabulous!

Now that's my kinda headline!

At London's Daily Mail, "Julia Roberts looks fabulous in a bikini at 43 as she relaxes on family holiday in Hawaii."

Mob Violence Coming to America?

From Tait Trussell, at FrontPage Magazine:

Mob violence coming to America? A disturbing 48 percent of the public believes cuts in government spending may lead to violence in the United States. This was found in an Aug.12 Rasmussen Reports opinion poll. Some 13 percent of those polled feel “it is very likely.” Only 12 percent responded that it is not likely. The poll is especially significant because it is essential that we drastically peel back spending or face national insolvency.

“Several prominent Democrats and their media friends have charged the Tea Party with being economic terrorists,” the poll report said. A theory that’s as baseless as the thought of a church running a house of ill repute. The Tea Party is vilified by liberals because its believers want to slash federal spending. Tea Party participants have been victims of, not pursuers of, violence.

Americans under age 50 see violence quite possible. And most adults (58 percent) unaffiliated with either political party think spending reductions will trigger violence. That compares with 46 percent of Republicans and 42 percent of Democrats. Tax hikes and falling stock prices are much less likely to spur violence, the pollsters found. How violence may well come to America will be explored later...

Keep reading.

More Mark Steyn!

At Blazing Cat Fur, "John Oakely interviews Mark Steyn."

Rick Perry Campaigns as Presumptive GOP Nominee

Look, things are going really well for Governor Perry, but he's still facing formidable candidates in the primaries. Watching the news on this reminded me of Hillary Clinton, who seemed all but assured the Democrat nomination in 2008. She campaigned on an inevitability platform as if she was a political heiress to the party's throne. And while I know Obama's been going after Perry in interviews, the media honeymoon coming out of Iowa won't last too much longer and pretty soon the campaign will focus on who's the best Republican in the race. Perry's looking good, but it's the voters who'll make the pick, and Michelle Bachmann's blazing in Iowa and that's not likely to fade too much between now and the caucuses. And here's this at KXAN Austin News, "Perry trying cast himself as nominee."

I remember watching Hillary Clinton in a couple of the Democrat debates in 2008 and it was like worker bees swarming around a queen. This year on the GOP side, Romney's been so far getting those kinds of benefits, and he's not going to give up the mantle of frontrunner so easily. So, stayed tuned. The Republican race is up for some bloodletting before much longer.

See New Hampshire Journal, "Poll: Romney rocks, Perry pops, Bachmann doesn’t bounce" (via Memeorandum).

RELATED: At The Hill, "GOP torn over whether Romney or Perry can best make case against Obama."

Obama to Announce Jobs Plan in Major Speech After Labor Day

It's a sign of deep desperation on the left when a combination of really last ditch political efforts come together simultaneously to set off screaming alarms bells. Top officials from President Obama's campaign vehicle, Organizing for America, are attacking the progressive blogosphere as a bunch of "firebaggers." In turn, there's all kinds of confusion on the "professional left" about this, and Jane Hamsher's backing off from taking one for the team. Then there's this story at today's front-page New York Times, "On Economy, Raw Data Gets a Grain of Salt." Read that all the way through. Hey, when things aren't going your way, attack the bureaucracy and the "flawed" government data, which of course JUST CAN'T make the boss look bad!! That said, "you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time." For example, at Gallup, "New Low of 26% Approve of Obama on the Economy." And so, for the formerly competent economic manager (cf. 2008 campaign during the Wall Street crash), what to do but fire up the teleprompter! TOTUS to the rescue. At New York Times, "Obama Plans Jobs Speech After Labor Day."

'Firebaggers'

Hey, thanks OFA!

I love that, "firebaggers." And Jane "Firebagger" Hamsher's down with it? That's even better.

At The Other McCain, "‘Firebagger Lefty Blogosphere’." And this is no joke. Firebagger works perfectly for progressives, because ultimately, when leftists see state cutbacks to the socialist welfare system, they just freakin' torch everything down. So, yeah, firebaggers. Freakin' firebagger commie ASFLs.

The Claims of Grievance-Bearing Identity Groups Will Always Prevail Over Fairness

I continue to reflect on the injustice against Widener Law Professor Lawrence Connell.

At the post title is a clause from the final sentence at Charlotte Allen, "The Mess at Widener Law School."

And of course, the statement's truth is all the more powerful if you've been on the receiving end of the left's preposterous and genuinely evil allegations. Carl Salonen, now a regular at the stalking hate site American Nihilist, contacted my college president, and falsely claimed that:

Dr. Douglas has been rather busy lately, posting photographs and videos of possibly underage women in various states of undress (and of course, making his students go to his blog, thus viewing said images).

Unreal. I know. The allegations are that I'm (1) a child pornographer who (2) requires his students to read his postings. These are breathtaking lies. Carl Salonen submitted not a shred of evidence in support. This is pure, demented libel. But that's typical for progressives. Carl Salonen and his ally W. James Casper ----who gives the former an outlet to continue threats and football spiking---- are both cowards and liars. I'll be further documenting and rebutting Carl Salonen's allegations over the next few days, including a point-by-point refutation the e-mails sent to my college and to Attorney General Kamala Harris. Another complainant made virtually the same malicious complaints, claiming falsely that I posted pictures of nude woman and pulled those up during classroom lectures, in effect subjecting women to sexual harassment by allegedly "forcing" them to view "inappropriate material."

And from the conclusion of Charlotte Allen's essay:

In New Law School thinking, where power is everything, and the claims of grievance-bearing identity groups will always prevail over fairness, it is perfectly fine to strip your perceived opponent of his livelihood and to consign him to the ministrations of your own Nurse Ratched—and there is no such thing as abuse of power.

Carl Salonen had no actionable claims against me or my blogging. Hence, contacting my employer ---- and the state attorney general ---- was nothing but a desperate attempt to destroy me, to get me fired, for the audacity of standing up for decency and right. This tiny little ASFL has nothing but hate, bile, and lies. Endless totalitarian lies. Carl Salonen continues to brag about how much he "hurt me" and how "defeated" I am.

Well, the ASFLs are losing big time. I'm standing up for decency and reputation. I'll be setting the record straight and providing documentation for all to see. This is about truth and accountability. Conservatives cannot let progressives get away with their demonic thuggery. Never give into these people. Document, rebut, report, blog, video and get in their faces with the truth. That's what they hate most, the truth. The truth destroys them because their existence is based on lies, as it is with all totalitarianism.

UPDATE: This post was edited on August 17th at 9:12pm.

Rick Perry's 'Texas Miracle'

From The Economist:

... I would suggest that in the rush to debunk Mr Perry, Democrats are being a little hasty. The Perry campaign is giving the startling statistic that since June 2009, 40% of the net new jobs created in America have been in Texas—a state with less than 10% of the nation's people. The Dallas Fed, earlier this month, reckoned that Texas created 261,700 jobs between June 2009 and June 2011, compared to 524,000 in the nation as a whole. Given the tremendous need for jobs in this country—and grinding unemployment is a horrible thing, not a minor inconvenience—it's a little disheartening to think that people are rushing to dismiss what has happened in Texas just because it's Texas and because Mr Perry, with his accent and his swagger, is the state's governor. So let's put politics aside. Pretend that Mr Perry doesn't exist, and that there's been a dummy stuffed with straw sitting in his office this whole time. What would have happened in Texas?

I'm fascinated at how aggro the attacks on Perry have become. Clearly Perry's putting the freak out into Democrats big time. They're like hyenas hovering for a bite off the carcass. They're looking to just shred the body. It's amazing. Again, Bill Whittle said it best: No matter who becomes the GOP nominee in the end, Republican voters are chomping at the bit for election 2012.

Anyway, check out this post at Political Math, it's really something else, "Rick Perry And Texas Job Numbers." (At Memeorandum.)

Elvis Presley's Birthday

It wasn't yesterday.

Elvis was born January 8, 1935.

Michele Bachmann botched it. See: "Bachmann’s Elvis Tribute, Slightly Off." You're gonna have these (just ask Barack "57 states" Obama), but Bachmann can ill afford the little gaffes at this point in the race. Rick Perry's coming on strong.

Karen Alloy Brew Nation

Karen Alloy has a show!

Corey White, Target in Facebook Murder-for-Hire Plot, Gunned Down in Philly

At LAT, "Target in Facebook murder-for-hire case is gunned down," and ABC News, "Facebook Mystery: Man Killed After Ex-Girlfriend Posts Ominous Message." There's no evidence that the Facebook plot and murder are linked. These people talk like hoodlums, that's for sure:

Earlier this year White's ex-girlfriend, 20-year-old London Eley, who is also the mother of his child, posted on Facebook, "I will pay somebody a stack to kill my baby father." Police said a "stack" refers to $1,000.

Timothy Bynum allegedly responded, "Say no more ... what he look like ... where he be at ... need that stack 1st," according to police.

Eley's attorney told ABCNews.com it was either White, or one of his relatives, who saw the post on Facebook and called police...

"Where he be at"?

Damn, that mofo sho be mess up on his tawkin! Homeboy!

Obama Promises Jobs Package, Challenges Republicans to Block It

At LAT, "Obama dares Republicans to block his coming jobs package."

After pledging to send a job-creation package to Congress next month and daring Republicans to block it, President Obama offered few specifics Tuesday about the form the plan might take as he stuck to a broad outline of how to improve the economy.

On the second day of Obama's three-day bus tour of the upper Midwest, the president worked off the blueprint he had used the day before, offering proposals such as extending a payroll tax cut, spending money to repair roads and bridges, and ratifying pending trade agreements.

And he continued to hammer away at Republicans in Congress, suggesting they stand in the way of economic growth, even as some Democrats expressed discomfort with what they saw as a potentially divisive stance.

"We could do even more if Congress is willing to get in the game," Obama said to a gathering of small-business owners, community leaders and rural development experts at a small college in Peosta, Iowa.

I'm thinking about that Trifecta video I posted earlier, and Bill Whittle's comments. No matter who the GOP nominates, the Republican base is going to be more energized than ever. I'm starting to get the 2012 fever!

PJTV Trifecta: Conservative 2012 Showdown?

A great discussion, and Bill Whittle elaborates some of the themes from his talk last week:

NewsBusted: 'Bachmann won Iowa straw poll'

Another excellent clip, via Theo Spark:

Runaway Spending

Cool graph.

At Heritage Foundation, "Runaway Spending, Not Inadequate Tax Revenue, Is Responsible for Future Deficits."

'NUTS!'

At Weasel Zippers, "Awesome: Allen West Responds To CAIR Demand He Distance Himself From “Anti-Islamic” Groups With One-Word Letter: “NUTS!”…"

This CAIR guy needs to learn some history. "Nuts" is clearly a reference to the Battle of the Bulge.

New Issues Emerge for News Corporation in Britain

At Wall Street Journal, "New Evidence Adds Pressure to News Corp."

And at Telegraph UK, "Phone hacking: 'orchestrated cover-up' of hacking at News of the World."

More at Mediagazer.

Ten Commandments Still the Only Solution to the World's Problems

This is nothing short of an astonishing essay, at National Review, "The Decalogue is as relevant today as it was 3,000 years ago." The 9th Commandment is particularly relevant, considering what's been going on around here this past few months:

9. Do not bear false witness.

Lying is the root of nearly all major evils. All totalitarian states are based on lies. Had the Nazis not lied about Jews, there would not have been a Holocaust. Only people who believed that all Jews, including babies, were vermin, could, for example, lock hundreds of Jews into a synagogue and burn them alive. That similar lies are told about Jews today by Arab governments and by the Iranian state should awaken people to the Nazi-like threat that Islamic anti-Semitism poses.

Painting Credit: "Moses with the Ten Commandments," Rembrandt (1659), via Wikimedia Commmons.

Ed Schultz Should Be Fired for Deceptive 'Black Cloud' Video Edit Alleging Rick Perry Racism

I'm posting MSNBC's contact page, this bothers me so much: "Contact Us." And it's not an honest mistake. This kind of deliberate disinformation is wicked and unworthy of the network.

Watch the video at Gateway Pundit, "Shocker. MSNBC Dishonestly Edits Video to Make Rick Perry Look Racist (Video)."

And Allah reminds us that Schultz's dishonesty is in step with a long line of deceptive practices at MSNBC: "Ed Schultz: Rick Perry’s reference to a “big black cloud” was a racial crack at Obama, wasn’t it?" (Via Memeorandum.)

Update: Again at Allahpundit, "Ed Schultz: Sorry for deceptively editing that Rick Perry video."

'Sorrow'

David Bowie. I haven't played him around here much lately:

More blogging tonight.

Anonymous Hacks BART

At E-Week, "Anonymous Hack Exposes Personal Data of San Francisco-Area Commuters."

And LAT, "Hackers attack BART, Fullerton police websites," and "Protest closes 4 BART stations, leaving commuter crowd stranded."

Nouriel Roubini Video: Karl Marx Was Right

Roubini's a gifted economist, although this is the first I've seen him on video. He comes across more radical during interviews. At WSJ, "Nouriel Roubini: Karl Marx Was Right." (I had to click on the "pop-up player" to get the clip to load.)

I wrote previously on this here: "Capitalism in Crisis?" And see also Christopher Whalen, "Why Nouriel Roubini and all of us are wrong about Karl Marx":

When I hear people talking about Marxism in reverent tones it makes me nauseous. Marx was not right at all about class being the key determinant of human action. Yet despite America’s pretensions to being a free market, democratic society, the Marxian world view won the battle for ideas in the 20th Century. The New Deal and Great Society efforts to increase the scope of government in America all stem from the socialist ideas of FDR and his political heirs in both parties.

So much of our economic discourse in America today is entirely Marxist in nature — a reference to both Karl and Groucho Marx, as noted above. The legacy of FDR and the two world wars was to kill the American republic and put in its place a cheap imitation of France with platonic regulators pretending to moderate the bad old ways of greedy private business...

The fact of our intellectual reliance upon the work of Karl Marx to benchmark our economic success show humans to be creatures of habit, not reason. Marx embarked from a position of dialectical mysticism borrowed from Hegel and then attacked the classical economists, the enlightenment thinkers such as John Staurt Mill and Adam Smith who elevated the role of the individual. Those who laud Marx disparage all things American.

Ludwig von Mises writes in his book Human Action, that Marx stigmatized the economists as “the sycophants of the bourgeoisie.” He notes that Marx was “the son of a well-to-do lawyer,” and Engles, “a wealthy textile manufacturer, never doubted that they themselves were above the law and, notwithstanding their bourgeois background, were endowed with the power to discover absolute truth. It is the task of history to describe the historical conditions which made such a crude doctrine popular.”

Not only was Marxism crude, but it missed most of the major developments of the 20th Century. Revolution occurred not in bourgeois Germany but in brutal, backward Czarist Russia. More important, the class-centric view of Marxism proved incorrect in a world of greater openness, mobility and individual choice. The act of conscious choice driven not by greed, but the desire for betterment; of human action as von Mises coined the term, rejects Marxist class determinism.

That reminds me of an essay, Eric Foner's, "Why Is There No Socialism in the United States?" Foner wants to minimize American exceptionalism while holding out more commonality with the European experience than scholars acknowledge (which is leftist baloney, of course). See also, Seymour Martin Lipset and Gary Marks, "It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States."

The Left's Strategy of Hate, Fear, Stereotype, and Rejection of Diversity

Normally one looks to Barry Rubin for some of the best foreign policy analysis on the Middle East, but this piece is a keeper, "The Left’s Very Anti-PC Strategy: Hate, Fear, Stereotype, and Treat Diversity as Evil."

Sarah Palin's Toenails

I suppose one could find weirder blog topics, but you'll have to check Robert Stacy McCain for the background: "Blogging About Pathetic Perverts and Also Andrew Sullivan’s Sarah Palin Toe Fetish."

'One Way or Another'

Blondie will play Mandalay Bay on October 8th. Don't know if we'll be out there, but that would be awesome:

'No Friends'

W. James Casper = Racist = Repsac3 has no blogging friends. He's a user and a loser who himself is being used. Pure hatred is like a feeding frenzy. Indiscriminate attacks. No loyalties. Progressives suck that way. (Well, he's got Fauxmaxbear, but FMB's everyone's stupid enemy anyway, and he doesn't count for jack.) Yeah, recall that Racist = Repsac3 recruits progressive nihilist attack masters, and then he complains when they bail out after writing just "6 American Nihilist posts." Oh, please. Just 6 posts that helped launch the epic campaign of workplace intimidation at my college. And when that was done, OCTO threw away idiot racist Repsac like a piece of progressive feces. Yep, progressives destroy everything. For the left, Racist Reppy's as useful as human waste. Freakin' douchebag loser:

You're a liar if you follow all trends
Get out of here asshole, you've got no friends.

Victoria's Secret Fantasies

A follow-up to, "Candice Swanepoel Victoria's Secret Bikini Photoshoot."

RELATED: At The Other McCain, "Rule 5 Sunday: She’s The One."

With Motorola Deal, Google Sees Future in Mobile Markets

At New York Times, "Google’s Big Bet on the Mobile Future."

Also at Wall Street Journal, "Google's $12.5 Billion Gamble: Web Giant Pays Big for Motorola's Phone Business, Patents; Risks Alienating Allies."

And from Google's Larry Page, "Supercharging Android: Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility" (via Techmeme).

This seems like so much déjà vu. It's like the beginning of the end of Google as something cool.

Rick Perry Touts Downhome Résumé

Barely 48-hours into the race and virtually the entire Democrat-Media-Complex has the hit in for Governor Rick Perry. For example, from Paul Krugman, "The Texas Unmiracle." And more at NYT, "In Texas Jobs Boom, Crediting a Leader, or Luck." Los Angeles Times piles on, "Rick Perry's big donors have fared well in Texas." Then there's all kinds of gotcha reports at Memeorandum. Perry questioned Obama's patriotism? OOH!! Wouldn't want to do that now, would we?

In any case, for a less antagonistic piece, see Wall Street Journal, "Touting a Downhome Résumé."

DES MOINES, Iowa—Rick Perry became an Eagle Scout and Air Force pilot after growing up as the son of a cotton farmer "from a little place called Paint Creek, Texas," whose house had no indoor plumbing. As Texas's longest-serving governor, he says he cut taxes and red tape and helped boost job growth.

Mr. Perry is betting heavily on that biography and his charm as he introduces himself to voters in the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

With the GOP race suddenly shaping up as a contest pitting him and fellow conservative Michele Bachmann against the front-runner, Mitt Romney, Mr. Perry hopes to distinguish himself as the humble farmer who now runs the state with the country's briskest job-creation results ...

Sounds pretty good. More at the link.

Capitalism in Crisis?

Old Man Marx is (partially) being resurrected in Nouriel Roubini's, "Is Capitalism Doomed?" (at Memeorandum):

So Karl Marx, it seems, was partly right in arguing that globalization, financial intermediation run amok, and redistribution of income and wealth from labor to capital could lead capitalism to self-destruct (though his view that socialism would be better has proven wrong). Firms are cutting jobs because there is not enough final demand. But cutting jobs reduces labor income, increases inequality and reduces final demand.

Recent popular demonstrations, from the Middle East to Israel to the UK, and rising popular anger in China – and soon enough in other advanced economies and emerging markets – are all driven by the same issues and tensions: growing inequality, poverty, unemployment, and hopelessness. Even the world’s middle classes are feeling the squeeze of falling incomes and opportunities.

To enable market-oriented economies to operate as they should and can, we need to return to the right balance between markets and provision of public goods. That means moving away from both the Anglo-Saxon model of laissez-faire and voodoo economics and the continental European model of deficit-driven welfare states. Both are broken.

The right balance today requires creating jobs partly through additional fiscal stimulus aimed at productive infrastructure investment. It also requires more progressive taxation; more short-term fiscal stimulus with medium- and long-term fiscal discipline; lender-of-last-resort support by monetary authorities to prevent ruinous runs on banks; reduction of the debt burden for insolvent households and other distressed economic agents; and stricter supervision and regulation of a financial system run amok; breaking up too-big-to-fail banks and oligopolistic trusts.

Over time, advanced economies will need to invest in human capital, skills and social safety nets to increase productivity and enable workers to compete, be flexible and thrive in a globalized economy. The alternative is – like in the 1930s - unending stagnation, depression, currency and trade wars, capital controls, financial crisis, sovereign insolvencies, and massive social and political instability.

RTWT for the context. Roubini can't go all the way for the socialist revolutionary program (completely smashing capital), so he goes for a hyper-Keynesian quasi-socialist model instead. The end result is really the same: The complete obliteration of the individual into the maw of the state bureaucracy (and today's progressive thought police are the spiffed up version of communist totalitarianism's secret police, i.e., a new NKVD). And while Roubini merely cites Marx on the crisis, Stefan Stern (tweeted by Roubini), goes all the way for the proletarian revolution, "Marx was right about change":

Those who regard the recent actions of rioters in English cities as "criminality pure and simple" will not see any connection between Roubini's declaration that "Marx was right" and the decision to steal a 42-inch TV from a burning electricals store. But, for some, looting may have seemed a sensible (if illegal) response to the apparently continuous turmoil of the economy. If everything about your financial future seems at best uncertain and at worst desperate, why not carpe diem, or carpe television at any rate? Rational economic man (and woman) has finally been sighted, legging it down Tottenham High Street in a new pair of trainers.

Marx said that while interpreting the world was all very well, the point was to change it. If capitalists want to keep their world safe for capitalism, they need to face up to what is wrong with it, and change it, fast.

I agree. We need to change the ever expanding social welfare state, rationalize the economy with lower taxes and less regulation, and put people to work. The rioters in Britain's aren't remotely near the starving urchins of the British 19th century industrial revolution. They're mobs of yobbers outfitted with Blackberries. The state keeps them well fed and what do they do but burn down their cities? Socialism sucks. It creates ungrateful losers who kill the innocent and destroy productive capital. The left owns this crisis, all of it, and the politically correct spinelessness has only exacerbated the dislocation. ASFLs.

Barack Obama's Still the Same Anti-American Leftist He Was Before Becoming President

From Norman Podhoretz, at Wall Street Journal, "What Happened to Obama? Absolutely Nothing":

It's open season on President Obama. Which is to say that the usual suspects on the right (among whom I include myself) are increasingly being joined in attacking him by erstwhile worshipers on the left. Even before the S&P downgrade, there were reports of Democrats lamenting that Hillary Clinton had lost to him in 2008. Some were comparing him not, as most of them originally had, to Lincoln and Roosevelt but to the hapless Jimmy Carter. There was even talk of finding a candidate to stage a primary run against him. But since the downgrade, more and more liberal pundits have been deserting what they clearly fear is a sinking ship.

Continue reading.

I love Podhoretz. He's got Obama down perfectly. In fact, I can't resist posting the conclusion:

I disagree with those of my fellow conservatives who maintain that Mr. Obama is indifferent to "the best interests of the United States" (Thomas Sowell) and is "purposely" out to harm America (Rush Limbaugh). In my opinion, he imagines that he is helping America to repent of its many sins and to become a different and better country.

But I emphatically agree with Messrs. Limbaugh and Sowell about this president's attitude toward America as it exists and as the Founding Fathers intended it. That is why my own answer to the question, "What Happened to Obama?" is that nothing happened to him. He is still the same anti-American leftist he was before becoming our president, and it is this rather than inexperience or incompetence or weakness or stupidity that accounts for the richly deserved failure both at home and abroad of the policies stemming from that reprehensible cast of mind.

Reprehensible.

You can say that again.

Professor Lawrence Connell's Hypotheticals

ICYMI, be sure to read my earlier entry, "Charlotte Allen: 'The Mess at Widener Law School."

I've been thinking about the case and will have more later. Mostly, I'm trying to figure out Deans Ammons' animosity toward Professor Connell. Charlotte Allen notes:

Connell’s most egregious offense ... and probably the offense that brought down the full-bore wrath of Ammons upon him, was a series of classroom hypotheticals. The scenarios involved Ammons herself and Connell’s efforts to kill her (hypothetically) after she threatened to fire him (hypothetically) for parking his car in her parking space. In one of the hypotheticals Connell rushed into Ammons’ office with his .357 magnum and shot her in the head—except that the “head” turned out to a pumpkin artfully painted to look just like the dean. The idea was to ask the class whether under prevailing legal rules he should be tried for attempted murder—or not, since no harm actually befell her. Imaginative and macabrely humorous hypotheticals, often pitting professors against deans and other campus authority figures, are a standard feature of Old Law School pedagogy. The idea is that the students will absorb and remember the underlying legal principles better in a context of humorous narrative. Hypotheticals show up not just in law school classrooms but in exam questions and moot-court competitions. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan was repeatedly murdered in classroom hypotheticals when she was dean of Harvard Law School.

Indeed, as Professor Jonathan Turley indicates, "Widener Law Professor Suspended For Using Dean In Hypotheticals":

I must confess that I routinely incorporate the Dean at our school in the same type of hypotheticals as well as any contract professors. Indeed, my final every year involves some struggle between myself and the Dean and contracts professors. Absent something more, I fail to see the basis for such disciplinary action. Other professors have raises objections to the case on sites like Volokh.

In his letter, [Widener Vice Dean J. Patrick] Kelly accuses Connell of an “outgoing pattern” of misconduct, and cites his use of such hypotheticals, including “cursing and coarse behavior, “racist and sexist statements” and “violent, personal scenarios that demean and threaten your colleagues.” Without more, the allegations raise serious concerns over academic freedom and privilege.

I am most disturbed by the statement of Gregory F. Scholtz, associate secretary and director of the American Association of University Professors. AAUP is organization that is expected to defend academic freedom. Yet, Scholtz is quoted as saying “Education is all about pushing the boundaries, and it’s all about controversial ideas, but the question always is when does it cross the line. Given our modern culture and the violence that exists, you’re really asking for trouble when you talk about killing people.” Really? That is news to those of us who teach torts and criminal law. It is common for faculty to incorporate colleagues into hypotheticals as good-humored jokes. At my school, contracts professors respond by incorporating me into their own hypotheticals. I have never found it even remotely bothersome or insulting. It keeps the attention of students and adds a needed element of levity in lectures.

It's routine. And Turley has more on how chilling the Lawrence case is for academic freedom.

Also, at Volokh, "Interview With Lawrence Connell, the Criminal Law Professor Suspended for His Hypotheticals":

Q: Can you give me an example of a hypothetical you might have used in class, to which the students who complained might have been referring? Can you describe the context in which you would have used it?

A: Yes, here is one: The Dean has threatened to fire me if she comes to school one more time and finds that I have parked in her designated parking space. Upset about the possibility of losing both my job and the parking space, I bring my .357 to school, get out of my car, put the .357 into my waistband, walk to the top floor where her office is located, open the door to her office, see her seated at her desk, draw my weapon, aim my weapon, and fire my weapon directly into what I believe to be her head. To my surprise, it’s not the Dean at all, but an ingeniously painted pumpkin — a pumpkin that has been intricately painted to look like the Dean. Dick Tracy rushes in and immediately wrestles me to the ground. I am charged with the attempted murder of the Dean.

The hypothetical raises various issues about attempted crimes that might entail discussion that spans more than one class. Some of the classroom discussion in the first, for example, will address the two basic philosophical problems of why we punish attempts, which are failed efforts at crime, and why we punish attempts less than successfully completed crimes.

A retributive argument, on the one hand, is that the attemptor has demonstrated his moral culpability by his bad conduct, and the degree of his punishment should not depend on a fortuitous turn of luck. On the other hand, a retributivist might argue that punishment in the absence of harm is unjust. For retributive purposes, has Connell demonstrated his moral culpability by shooting what he believes to be the Dean? Or does the fact that he merely destroyed a pumpkin suggest that his punishment would be unjust?

It's obviously a powerful heuristic.

More on this tonight. I'm checking around for more on Deans Ammons' motivations to persecute Professor Connell.

Why Won't Germans Have More Babies?

At Der Spiegel, "A Land Without Children."

A lot with children is a land without laughter and vitality.

But sure to read down to the bottom for Parts II and III.

Michele Bachmann: 'Ready For Prime Time'

An excellent essay at Althouse, comparing Michele Bachmann to Sarah Palin, "A Palin-Bachmann feud?":

By the way, Bachmann was great on "Meet the Press" today. She is excellent at not letting the interviewer control her. She interrupts appropriately and stands her ground. She has planned, neat responses to the stuff that they will use to try to mess her up — like her statements about gay people — and she resists pressure to restate or elaborate those responses. She is ready for prime time.

Instapundit 10-Year Anniversary

The video clip via Theo Spark:

I read Insty's post on August 8th, which links to some of the blog's first-week commentary. Glenn's style has gotten way more economical over the years. Interesting.

Pat Condell on the London Riots

Via Blazing Cat Fur:

Extremist NOH8 Campaign Exploits Christina Santiago Death for Crass Political Gain

This is disgusting.

They couldn't have just given her a beautiful commemoration. They had to turn Ms. Santiago death into sick sympathy shakedown:

Tragedies like this just illustrate how important it is for couples to have the rights that allow them to celebrate their love and their lives now.

Christina and Alisha were one of the first couples to get a civil union in Cook County when civil unions became legal in Illinois earlier this year. Those who claim the issue of same sex marriages and civil unions can "wait" should think hard about that idea after reading stories like these. This beautiful couple only had a short few months together to celebrate their civil union -- but we take solace in the fact they at least had that opportunity to prove their love to the world, however brief.

A beautiful young woman is dead. And LGBT ASFL NOH8 couldn't simply commemorate her life with dignity. These idiots had to turn it into some kind of epic guilt trip about "only" a few months to celebrate a civil union.

People die. And always, every death reminds us for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.

A much more reserved article at Chicago Tribune, "Health center mourns staffer killed in Indiana State Fair stage accident."

Democrats Pushing Obama to Do More to Create Jobs

At LAT, "Democrats urge Obama to be more aggressive on jobs."

They claim to have "new ideas." But Democrats simply want more spending. The innovation comes from the subterranean language devised to slough off these new big-government boondoggles on the people.

After Iowa, Republicans Face a New Landscape

At New York Times, "After Iowa, Republicans Face a New Landscape."

WATERLOO, Iowa — The leading Republican presidential candidates scrambled to take command of a new landscape on Sunday after Tim Pawlenty abruptly ended his campaign and a three-way race began taking shape to find a nominee who can emerge as the strongest challenger to President Obama.

While Gov. Rick Perry of Texas had hoped to turn the contest into a two-man duel with Mitt Romney, he starts by facing Representative Michele Bachmann, whose weekend victory in the Iowa straw poll reordered the top tier of candidates. On the second day of his announcement tour, Mr. Perry sent a subtle message: making his first Iowa appearance in her hometown, but not taking her on directly.

While Mrs. Bachmann, Mr. Perry and Mr. Romney each have emphasized cutting attacks on Mr. Obama, they now face the need to begin drawing distinctions with one another and set up what could be a long and hard-edged campaign for the party’s nomination.

More at that top link.

Plus, I suspect Los Angeles Times is straining a bit here, trying to spin a different angle: "Perry overshadows Bachmann's Iowa victory."

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces and Reaganite Republican.

Tim Pawlenty Ends Presidential Campaign

I just clicked on The Other McCain and saw this: "Tim Pawlenty Quits!" While the news could probably use a couple of exclamation points!!, I'm not surprised. The GOP field is getting crowded with Rick Perry's entry into the race, and as we saw from the debate the other night, Pawlenty was hoping for the knock out blow against Michele Bachmann and he failed miserably. She held her own and made Pawlenty look a Republican Mario Cuomo. Bachmann went on to win Iowa and that had to be like a right upper-cut landing on Pawlenty's chin. He's down.

See also Legal Insurrection and New York Times (via Memeorandum).

The New Britannia

From Mark Steyn, at National Review:

The trick in this business is not to be right too early. A week ago I released my new book — the usual doom’n’gloom stuff — and, just as the sensible prudent moderate chaps were about to dismiss it as hysterical and alarmist, Standard & Poor’s went and downgraded the United States from its AAA rating for the first time in history. Obligingly enough they downgraded it to AA+, which happens to be the initials of my book: After America. Okay, there’s not a lot of “+” in that, but you can’t have everything.

But the news cycle moves on, and a day or two later, the news shows were filled with scenes of London ablaze, as gangs of feral youths trashed and looted their own neighborhoods. Several readers wrote to taunt me for not having anything to say on the London riots. As it happens, Chapter Five of my book is called “The New Britannia: The Depraved City.” You have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat me to Western civilization’s descent into barbarism. Anyone who’s read it will fully understand what’s happening on the streets of London. The downgrade and the riots are part of the same story: Big Government debauches not only a nation’s finances but its human capital, too.

Keep reading.

It's really astounding, the prophecy in that book. Don't miss it.

Michele Bachmann Wins Iowa Straw Poll

Straw polls are like beauty contests --- they're a chance for everyone to get a good look at you. But in this year's Ames straw poll, I'm betting Michele Bachmann gets a nice boost from her victory.

At Chicago Tribune, "Bachmann: Win a 'down payment on taking the country back'":

Lots more news at Memeorandum.

'All You Need Is Love'

I've been out all night. It's just after Midnight. Normally I'd have a few scheduled posts going live, but I've been partying. The family had a blast at the Beatles LOVE. I'll look for some LOVE videos I haven't posted and update later. The second time around is different, but the first is, well, the first time. Nothing like it. That said, I could see it again and again. It's so fun. I kept checking over at my kids and my oldest's (sorta) girlfriend. They loved it. And my youngest just turned 10 and he's already a HUGE Beatles fan. The Beatles are the great generational unifier

Governor Rick Perry Throws His Ten-Gallon Hat in the Ring

Some folks have criticized Rick Perry's timing , but I'd say it's one heckuva campaign launch (and so does Nikki Haley). Perry seems both amicable and capable, and the record of job creation in Texas would be a huge asset against Obama in the general election. But that's about all I know, so more on Perry later. A interest group sent me the YouTube below, FWIW, "Keep Conservatives United Aiming To Even Playing Field For Bachmann."

And at New York Times, "Promising Better Direction, Perry Enters Race," and "Money No Obstacle as Perry Joins G.O.P. Race."

Kate Weaver on the State of International Political Economy (IPE)

At Duck of Minerva, "State of the Field, Redux: What's Wrong with IPE?"

What caught my attention about Weaver's post is that she cites Dr. Benjamin J. Cohen's book, International Political Economy: An Intellectual History. Professor Cohen is on faculty at UC Santa Barbara's Department of Political Science. He was a key mentor to me during my years there in graduate school, and we still communicate by e-mail. I posted an essay from Professor Cohen last year, "'Are IPE Journals Becoming Boring?'"

In any case, check over at Duck of Minerva for the post.

I'm starting my Fall 2011 World Politics course on Monday.

Charlotte Allen: 'The Mess at Widener Law School'

At Minding the Campus (via Glenn Reynolds):

Old Law School culture revolves around a traditional curriculum—those torts and contracts courses—and the Socratic method of instruction, with its pointed and rigorous give-and-take between professors and students. Old Law School assumes that the process of training lawyers is training them to a centuries-old Anglo-American tradition of lawyerly thought, which rests on the careful crafting of legal arguments and the relentless challenging of those arguments, often by the professor in the classroom. Old precedent-setting cases may be supplanted by newer cases, and legal principles may shift, but the underlying methodology of close analysis of written court opinions and the arguments on which they rest, along with certain assumptions underlying the American legal systems—that human beings are generally capable of exercising reason and free will and thus should be held responsible for their actions—are Old Law School constants.

New Law School culture, growing out of the Critical Legal Studies movement that first surfaced in law schools during the 1980s, is quite different. In New Law School thinking, the law does not embody a rational system of justice—or even strivings toward such a system—but is essentially a political construct that has historically operated to keep the rich and powerful in their places of wealth and power and other groups—women, racial minorities, the disabled, and the poor—in their socially subordinate places. If this characterization sounds Marxist, that is because Critical Legal Studies—and its intellectual progeny, Critical Race Theory and Feminist Legal Theory—grew out of the New Left radicalism of the 1960s, which viewed American governmental and social structures as systems of oppression. It has also been influenced by postmodernist literary theory, with its assumptions that there is no objective truth or reality. In New Law School thinking, reason, free will, and personal responsibility are illusions, for all legal battles are actually struggles of race, class, and gender, in which power, not justice, is the ultimate goal. In New Law School scholarly writing, rigorous analysis of court opinions and the drawing of fine distinctions underlying legal arguments have been supplanted by “story telling": personal narratives typically involving the law professors’ own experiences as members of an oppressed group with the race-gender-class matrix that is the source of their oppression. Since a shift in the power structure, not justice, is the goal, any tactic that coerces the recalcitrant into conforming to the new power regime is permissible in New Law School thinking.

Continue reading. Especially good is Allen's discussion of Linda Ammons. I wrote briefly along the same lines here, "Widener's Dean Linda Ammons Goes After Law School Professor Lawrence Connell."

And from Allen's conclusion, she notes that Professor Lawrence Connell was exonerated of the allegations against him, yet Ammons still prevailed on her preposterous charge that Connell "retaliated":

What is appalling is that, despite both exonerations, Ammons appears to have gotten her way in the end after all, exacting sanctions against a tenured professor that are not only costly but humiliating (he is supposed to apologize to the complaining students. The charge of retaliation, based on a vague prohibition in the faculty handbook, seem especially flimsy. Connell’s e-mail to his students in December neither named his accusers nor referred to them in any way. As for the lawsuit, Connell never waived his right to seek redress in court against individuals whose false accusations have already cost him quite a bit of money and promise to cost much more. But that is the way of New Law School. It is perhaps only Old Law School, with its emphasis on fairness, reasonableness, and color-and gender-blind justice, that would find something totalitarian in Widener’s treatment of Connell and accordingly demand Linda Ammons’ resignation. In New Law School thinking, where power is everything, and the claims of grievance-bearing identity groups will always prevail over fairness, it is perfectly fine to strip your perceived opponent of his livelihood and to consign him to the ministrations of your own Nurse Ratched—and there is no such thing as abuse of power.

Anne Wilderspin, Sister of Murder Victim Richard Bowes: 'It is sad these rioters have not found a purpose in life'

Richard Mannington Bowes was murdered in Ealing as he confronted mob youths set to burn down the town.

Richard Bowes died from head injuries days after the attack in Ealing on Monday night.

He was pictured lying face down in a pool of blood after being assaulted while trying to stop youths setting fire to large rubbish bins across the green from the flat where he lived alone.

His sister said, "I feel sad that these rioters haven't found another purpose in life rather than just destructive violence."

Check the Independent UK as well, "Ealing reflects on the death of a 'shy, quiet, quirky-looking' man," and "Man arrested following Ealing riots death."

And since I've mentioned Irish commie Henry "erect cocks" Farrell, check the thread at Crooked Timber, where the commenters are fully down with the rioting hooligans: "London."