Displaying posts published in

June 2018

EDUCATION Comments turned off

I’m Running to Restore Yale Values My alma mater provides comfort to student mobs, and half the faculty back ‘trigger warnings.’ By James Kirchick

By on June 4th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/im-running-to-restore-yale-values-1528054042

I love Yale. It’s where I pursued a passion for sketch comedy, started writing a newspaper column, came out of the closet, and gained the critical-thinking skills that equipped me for a career in journalism. But recent events leave me worried that my alma mater is changing for the worse.

A sign that something had gone terribly wrong came in October 2015, when a viral internet video revealed a student mob shrieking at Nicholas Christakis, then master of Yale’s largest residential college. That these students were treating a professor with such disrespect was bad enough, but the impetus for their outrage was an innocuous email written by his wife, fellow professor Erika Christakis, doubting Yale needed to warn students about “appropriate Halloween wear.” Yale’s failure to stand up for the Christakises—he stepped down as master, she left the university—left me ashamed. When the university rewarded two of the mob’s leaders with a prestigious prize, something was deeply amiss.

Further developments have only confirmed my worries. Yale ditched the title “master” on the ludicrous grounds that it is racist; a survey finds half the faculty approves of “trigger warnings” for readings and classroom discussions, and the number of campus administrators continues to swell while the cost of attending has increased to $70,000 a year.

To reverse these worrying trends I have decided to mount a petition campaign to join Yale’s Board of Trustees.

Yale instilled in me the two basic values that guide me as a writer: freedom of expression and the pursuit of knowledge. I have traveled to many countries where people are physically attacked or imprisoned for speaking their minds. That taught me never to take America’s freedoms for granted.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Spain’s Abrupt Left Turn Rajoy finally falls, but his reforms helped the Spanish recovery.

By on June 4th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/spains-abrupt-left-turn-1528054426?cx_testId=16&cx_testVariant=cx&cx_artPos=6&cx_tag=collabctx&cx_navSource=newsReel#cxrecs_s

His many opponents finally caught up with Mariano Rajoy on Friday when a leftist coalition ousted the Spanish Prime Minister’s center-right government with a no-confidence vote in parliament. The risk now is that Madrid will unwind the reforms that have helped the country grow faster than its neighbors.

Mr. Rajoy’s Popular Party (PP) has itself to blame for Friday’s 180-169 defeat. Last month Spain’s National Court convicted 29 people, including the party’s former treasurer, of a kickback scheme. Mr. Rajoy denied knowledge of the operation, but the scandal has alienated PP voters and the party’s liberal-centrist Citizens coalition partner, whose leader, Albert Rivera, called for snap elections.

Mr. Rajoy ignored Mr. Rivera’s good advice and tried to hang onto power, giving an opening to Socialist Party leader Pedro Sánchez to cobble together a so-called Frankenstein coalition that few Madrid insiders thought possible. The crew includes far-left Podemos, Catalan pro-independence parties and the right-leaning Basque Nationalist Party, which had negotiated pension benefit increases for the region in Mr. Rajoy’s last budget.

Mr. Sánchez has promised to honor that budget, as well as keep Spain’s fiscal commitments to the European Union. But to do that he’ll have to keep Spain’s economic engine purring. That will be hard to do with Podemos in the coalition. The Spanish left wants to roll back the Rajoy Administration’s supply-side reforms, including tax cuts and the 2012 Derecho Laboral reform, which made it easier to hire and fire workers, as well as implement a new wealth and inheritance tax.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Italy’s Populist Flirtation Won’t Last The new right-left coalition will be hampered by the nation’s debt—and their own internal discord. By Josef Joffe

By on June 4th, 2018

Mr. Joffe is an editorial council member at Die Zeit in Hamburg and a fellow of Stanford’s Hoover Institution.

Everybody loves Italy for its savoir vivre and panache—not to mention Rome’s place as the cradle of Western civilization. Yet there is a darker side to the country’s vanguard role. In 1922 Italy gave the world fascism, more than a decade before Hitler’s storm troopers marched through Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. After World War II, Italy was the only Western country ever to include members of a pro-Soviet Communist Party in its governing coalition. In 1970, the Red Brigades invented modern European terrorism.

This March brings another nasty first: power to the populists of the left-wing 5 Star Movement and the far-right League. Radical parties have won seats in several European legislatures, but nowhere have they captured a majority. Forget Marine Le Pen’s National Front in France, which can’t win more than a third of the French public. The outcome in Italy is historic: Europe’s fate may well be decided in Rome.

Imagine, in American terms, a coalition between Bernie Sanders and the tea party: an orgy of government spending on one side, tax cuts and small government on the other. Can’t be done? In Italy, non fa niente—it doesn’t matter. We can eat our pizza and have it too. While 5 Star seeks a guaranteed income of €780 (around $900) a month, the League will pursue its suggested flat tax of 15%.

Now do the arithmetic. Italy’s public debt has already surpassed 130% of gross domestic product, and European hedge-fund manager Joseph Oughourlian predicts that the new government’s goodies could swell the annual deficit by more than €150 billion.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Israel Day Parade By Jerold Levoritz

By on June 4th, 2018

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/06/the_israel_day_parade.html

With thirty thousand marchers in the Israel Day parade and one hundred thousand+ viewers, Sunday, June 3, was a glorious day. Jews and their well-wishers came from Maryland, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Israel, and colleges across the country to sing and dance their way up New York’s Fifth Avenue. It is an annual event that brings light and life to the Jews of the United States. Everyone was particularly happy because of the silly human tendency to prefer round numbers. This was Israel’s 70th birthday as a modern nation and was noticeably more rowdy and boisterous than last year’s 69th birthday celebration. Rain threatened but no one cared. More politicians came out and the amplified music had more bass notes and percussion. Marchers greeted bystanders and bystanders drew marchers to the side for hugs and good wishers. Baby carriages graced various groups as did some wheelchairs for the elders who insisted in participating. No one except the marching bands felt the need to move in lockstep. Some of the marchers danced their way up the avenue and then others took over. People who normally do not wear yarmulkes wore them proudly and no one was afraid — unlike Europe where Jewish leaders have urged Jews to wear hats to hide their identities.

Unadulterated happiness in the world is rather rare. The Israel Day parade was pure fun, full of politics, commercialism, national pride and universal values with only seconds of rancor and discord that you had to hunt and peck to find.

By the way, don’t bother trying to find coverage of the Israel Day parade in the MSM. No blood was spilled and so it was not a newsworthy event. Covering the joy of the Jews (or anyone) seems to be politically incorrect in this strange world we have fashioned.

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Three Climate Change Questions Answered By Wallace Manheimer

By on June 4th, 2018

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/06/three_climate_change_questions_answered.html

A claimed nearly unanimous scientific consensus on fear of climate change has caused a push to substantially reduce or even eliminate the use of fossil fuel in favor of solar and wind. But three crucial questions are 1) is the scientific community really united?, 2) can solar and wind take over any time soon to provide the required vital energy for the maintenance of modern civilization in today’s world of 7 billion people?, and 3) has CO2 caused any harm yet? The answer to all three questions is no.

A major theme of this essay is that many assertions can easily be checked out by a simple Google search.

One of the most persistent false impressions, which the mainstream media have ingrained in us, is that 97% of scientists agree that CO2 is indeed doing irreparable harm. However, this figure was obtained not by a respected, impartial polling organization, but by believers for their own purposes.

Exactly what do the 97% agree on? Had the question been “Do you believe that the Earth’s climate is changing, and does mankind have an effect on the climate?,” the response would not have been 97%, but 100%. But had the question been “Is burning fossil fuel such a threat that there should be a major effort to stop?,” who knows? Probably less than 50%. That question was never asked on a large-scale survey, done by a respected polling organization and documented in a place easily available to the public.

To get an idea of how divided the scientific community is, a petition was circulated, led by Friedrich Seitz, the president of the National Academy of Sciences, disputing the ill effects of CO2. It garnered 32,000 signatures, over 9,000 by Ph.D. scientists. To justify the 97%, there would have to be another opposing petition signed by a million scientists.

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HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

ISIS Group Claims More Than 10K Twitter Accounts Used for Propaganda in Past 16 Months By Bridget Johnson

By on June 4th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/isis-group-claims-more-than-10k-twitter-accounts-used-for-propaganda-in-past-16-months/

A pro-ISIS group claims that several social media brigades loyal to the terror group have “distributed” nearly 10,000 Twitter accounts over the past 16 months.

In an infographic released last week, Dhakhirat al-Ansar said it had two kataeb, or brigades, working Facebook and four working Twitter.

There was also a much smaller percentage of activity with Gmail accounts, as the group claimed it “distributed” 346 accounts.

But the cyber-caliphate “brigades” claimed 9,635 accounts pushing ISIS content and 4,059 Facebook accounts.

Facebook announced in its first Community Standards Enforcement Preliminary Report released in mid-May that the company took action on 1.9 million pieces of content determined to be terrorism-related in the first quarter of this year, an increase from 1.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2017.

The social-media giant said the increase was “due to improvements in our ability to find violating content using photo detection technology, which detects both old content and newly posted content.”

In April, an Islamic State hacking unit released what they say was a 60-day status report on the extent of their operations on popular social media platforms.

The “Inghimasat dawlawiya team” — Inghimasi refers to a special-forces jihadist who draws out the attack and may return alive from a successful mission to attack again, while dawla means “state” — posted their stats in Arabic, French and English infographics and shared them through social media channels.

According to the hacking team, they “created and shared” 300 Twitter accounts over the past two months as the social media giant says it’s been cracking down on jihadist content.

The group also claims to have hacked 264 Facebook accounts over the past three months, though they don’t elaborate on which kinds of users they’re targeting. CONTINUE AT SITE

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IMMIGRATION, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

New Italian Interior Minister: ‘The Good Times for Illegals Is Over’ By Rick Moran

By on June 4th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/new-italian-interior-minister-the-good-times-for-illegals-is-over/

Italy’s new hardline interior minister, Matteo Salvini, made it clear in a visit to Sicily that the new populist coalition government meant what it said when it pledged to send refugees back where they came from.

France 24:

The head of the far-right League is on the road seeking to rally support for his party’s candidates in municipal elections later this month, as part of a broader effort to boost the traditionally secessionist party’s profile in the country’s poorer south.

But immigration is Salvini’s primary bugbear and the newly minted deputy prime minister in Italy’s populist coalition government has added a stop in migration hotspot Pozzallo.

The port town in Sicily’s south is on the front line: one of the main places where military and humanitarian boats bring refugees fleeing war, persecution and famine across North Africa and the Middle East.

More than 300,000 refugees have arrived in Italy in recent years, most of them making the perilous journey from ports in Libya across the Med. Many of the boats used in smuggling operations are ill-suited to ocean travel or severely overloaded. The result is predictable — thousands of dead refugees. Saving them has taxed the Italian Navy and Coast Guard, while those that do make it have severely impacted public services.

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MEDIA Comments turned off

What Facebook and Google Do With Your Information Should Not Be a Surprise By Charlie Martin

By on June 4th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/what-facebook-and-google-do-with-your-information-should-not-be-a-surprise/

The recent fuss about Facebook and Google’s tracking programs, and the ad targeting they offer has caused me to realize that most people either don’t understand or don’t care how advertising works. As the former CTO of an Internet advertising startup, I’ve given it a lot of thought in the last few years. This being me, the math geek, I’ve done a lot of this thinking mathematically, but I promise that I won’t inflict the math part on you.

Or at least not much.

So, let’s think about what advertising is for. The idea is to entice, and even convince, potential customers to become actual customers, and to buy things.

There are a million ways to do this, from old-fashioned word-of-mouth, to newspaper and magazine ads, to ShamWow pitchmen on late-night TV, to computer games that give you some kind of in-game goodies for watching an ad. (I’ve recently been compulsively playing a “terraform the universe” game that works like this; I hope to write a review soon.)

Every advertising method has some inherent cost. Word-of-mouth is low cost; national TV is expensive; others are in between. Every advertisement also has an inherent potential reward when someone is convinced, but not every person who sees an advertisement will actually buy the product. (I regularly see ads for products I already own; I imagine most everyone else has the same experience.)

This means we’ve wandered into the world of probability. Here’s the first of the two equations I’m going to mention, and I promise there’s nothing more than multiplication and division in either one. This first equation is called the expectation value, and it’s

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Why President Trump Should Listen To Kim Kardashian About America’s Draconian Drug Punishments Alice Marie Johnson is one of 3,278 people serving a life sentence without parole despite their offense being nonviolent.By Holly Scheer

By on June 4th, 2018

Kim Kardashian is taking heat for her stances on prison reform after she spoke out in support of Alice Marie Johnson, a woman who was convicted of drug trafficking.

She met with President Trump on Wednesday to discuss sentencing and reforms, particularly for non-violent first time offenders. Also at the meeting was Shawn Holley, Johnson’s lawyer, who is being funded by Kardashian. Trump has called for harsher sentencing for drug dealers in the face of growing national concern over the opioid epidemic.

Johnson’s story first was brought to light by a video by Mic.

After the loss of her job, Johnson says that she was unable to find something quick enough to make money, so she made a choice she admits was horrible and turned to dealing drugs. She was caught, and sentenced to life in prison despite it being her first time drug offense. Since her crime was a federal offense, she is not eligible for parole. She’s one of 3,278 people serving a life sentence without parole despite their offense being nonviolent. While in prison she’s missed the births of her grandchildren, and the deaths of her parents. She’s now 62 years old.

While in prison, Johnson has spent her time writing plays for her fellow inmates to act in. She enjoys encouraging them, and inspiring them to be better, and discovering positive directions for their futures. She’s also worked as a mentor to help other women cope with their sentences.

For the more than 20 years that Johnson has been in prison, she has had no disciplinary infractions. Prison staff have written letters of support of Johnson and her hopes for a presidential pardon. She was not one of the 231 people that Barack Obama pardoned, and has shifted to calling for prison reform. She admits that she has made a mistake, but that that mistake shouldn’t be the only thing that matters in her life.

Kardashian’s interest in Johnson’s case began with the Mic video, and she tweeted her feelings about how unfair Johnson’s sentence was back in 2017.

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