Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Heather Mac Donald, 'Get Up, Stand Up'

Following-up from yesterday, "Heather Mac Donald Shut Down by 'Black Lives Matter' Thugs at Claremont McKenna (VIDEO)."

Here she is, at City Journal, "All who cherish free expression, especially on campuses, must combat the growing zeal for censorship":
Where are the faculty? American college students are increasingly resorting to brute force, and sometimes criminal violence, to shut down ideas they don’t like. Yet when such travesties occur, the faculty are, with few exceptions, missing in action, though they have themselves been given the extraordinary privilege of tenure to protect their own liberty of thought and speech. It is time for them to take their heads out of the sand.

I was the target of such silencing tactics two days in a row last week, the more serious incident at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California, and a less virulent one at UCLA.

The Rose Institute for State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna had invited me to meet with students and to give a talk about my book, The War on Cops, on April 6. Several calls went out on Facebook to “shut down” this “notorious white supremacist fascist Heather Mac Donald.” A Facebook post from “we, students of color at the Claremont Colleges” announced grandiosely that “as a community, we CANNOT and WILL NOT allow fascism to have a platform. We stand against all forms of oppression and we refuse to have Mac Donald speak.” A Facebook event titled “Shut Down Anti-Black Fascist Heather Mac Donald” and hosted by “Shut Down Anti-Black Fascists” encouraged students to protest the event because Mac Donald “condemns [the] Black Lives Matter movement,” “supports racist police officers,” and “supports increasing fascist ‘law and order.’” (My supposed fascism consists in trying to give voice to the thousands of law-abiding minority residents of high-crime areas who support the police and are desperate for more law-enforcement protection.)

The event organizers notified me a day before the speech that a protest was planned and that they were considering changing the venue from CMC’s Athenaeum to one with fewer glass windows and easier egress. When I arrived on campus, I was shuttled to what was in effect a safe house: a guest suite for campus visitors, with blinds drawn. I could hear the growing crowds chanting and drumming, but I could not see the auditorium that the protesters were surrounding. One female voice rose above the chants with particularly shrill hysteria. From the balcony, I saw a petite blonde female walk by, her face covered by a Palestinian head scarf and carrying an amplifier on her back for her bullhorn. A lookout was stationed about 40 yards away and students were seated on the stairway under my balcony, plotting strategy.

Since I never saw the events outside the Athenaeum, which remained the chosen venue, an excellent report from the student newspaper, the Student Life, provides details of the scene...
Sounds like a freakin' war zone. Sheesh.

Keep reading.

BONUS: Here's her book, The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe.

Shop Books

At Amazon, Best Books of April.

And see, Daniel J. Sharfstein, Thunder in the Mountains: Chief Joseph, Oliver Otis Howard, and the Nez Perce War.

Wendell H. Oswalt, This Land Was Theirs: A Study of Native North Americans.

Peter Cozzens, The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West.

Stephen Ambrose, Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West.

Elliott West, The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story.

Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West.

William C. Davis, The American Frontier: Pioneers, Settlers, and Cowboys 1800–1899.

Robert Bunting, The Pacific Raincoast: Environment and Culture of an American Eden.

S.C. Gwynne, Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History.

Nathaniel Philbrick, The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Bob Drury, The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend.

Dayton Duncan, Miles from Nowhere

At Amazon, Dayton Duncan, Miles from Nowhere: Tales from America's Contemporary Frontier.

Veterans Swim in Calming Waters (VIDEO)

A great story, from CBS Evening News:



Leonard Pitt, The Decline of the Californios

At Amazon, Leonard Pitt, The Decline of the Californios: A Social History of the Spanish-Speaking Californians, 1846-1890.

Thurston Clarke, California Fault

At Amazon, Thurston Clarke, California Fault: Searching for the Spirit of a State Along the San Andreas.

Irina Shayk Uncovered for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2017 (VIDEO)

Following-up from Sunday, "Irina Shayk Topless in Tahiti (VIDEO)."

At Sports Illustrated:



Monday, April 10, 2017

Jackie Johnson's Partly Cloudy Forecast

There'll be some scattered clouds this week, but the temperatures will be lovely.

And here's the lovely Ms. Jackie, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:



Gorsuch Sworn In

Following-up, "Neil Gorsuch Will Have Immediate Impact."

This is so big, it's not even fathomable.

And if Trump appoints two justices, it'll literally be an epochal victory for conservatism. Let's see if Kennedy steps down this summer, of which I heard rumbles.

In any case, at NYT:


Heather Mac Donald Shut Down by 'Black Lives Matter' Thugs at Claremont McKenna (VIDEO)

I saw this at Heat Street earlier, "Seething Mob Shuts Down Speech by Pro-Cop Writer Heather Mac Donald as Event Turns Violent":
Black Lives Matter activists had planned the protest ahead of time, posting on Facebook that they intended to shut down the “anti-black” “fascist” Mac Donald. Their event called Mac Donald’s work “fascist ideologies and blatant anti-Blackness and white supremacy,” and claimed that “together, we can hold CMC accountable and prevent Mac Donald from spewing her racist, anti-Black, capitalist, imperialist, fascist agenda.”
And on Fox & Friends this morning.



BONUS: Here's her book, The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe.

Lightning Deals Today

At Amazon, Gold Box and Lightning Deals.

More, Save on Invicta Watches.

Also, especially, Tower Paddle Boards Adventurer Inflatable 9'10" SUP Package.

BONUS: Bernard DeVoto, The Course of Empire.

James Wilson, The Earth Shall Weep

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, James Wilson, The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America.

Shop Outdoor Recreation

At Amazon, Outdoor Gear and Apparel for Every Occasion.

More, Shop Best Selling Products.

Also, Sports and Outdoors (Gift Guide).

And, Save on Books.

BONUS: Ganesh Sitaraman, The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution: Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic.

Neil Gorsuch Will Have Immediate Impact

At LAT:


Syria Strikes Send Critical Message to North Korea, China, and Russia

From Judith Miller and Charles Duelfer, at Fox News, "Syria airstrikes: The critical message Trump sent to North Korea, China and Russia."

President Trump Calls Commanding Officers of Navy Ships

At ABC News:


California's Crisis of the Interior

Following-up from yesterday, "Jerry Brown Wins $52 Billion Gasoline Tax in California (VIDEO)."

From Joel Kotkin, at the O.C. Register, a great piece, "The Other California: A Flyover State Within a State":
California may never secede, or divide into different states, but it has effectively split into entities that could not be more different. On one side is the much-celebrated, post-industrial, coastal California, beneficiary of both the Tech Boom 2.0 and a relentlessly inflating property market. The other California, located in the state’s interior, is still tied to basic industries like homebuilding, manufacturing, energy and agriculture. It is populated largely by working- and middle-class people who, overall, earn roughly half that of those on the coast.

Over the past decade or two, interior California has lost virtually all influence, as Silicon Valley and Bay Area progressives have come to dominate both state politics and state policy. “We don’t have seats at the table,” laments Richard Chapman, president and CEO of the Kern Economic Development Corporation. “We are a flyover state within a state.”

Virtually all the polices now embraced by Sacramento — from water and energy regulations to the embrace of sanctuary status and a $15-an-hour minimum wage — come right out of San Francisco central casting. Little consideration is given to the needs of the interior, and little respect is given to their economies.

San Francisco, for example, recently decided to not pump oil from land owned by the city in Kern County, although one wonders what the new rich in that region use to fill the tanks of their BMWs. California’s “enlightened” green policies help boost energy prices 50 percent above those of neighboring states, which makes a bigger difference in the less temperate interior, where many face longer commutes than workers in more compact coastal areas...
Keep reading.