Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

Note to readers:  Our search feature is temporarily unavailable as the company that provided it, the venerable Atomz, has ceased operations.  We are working toward finding a replacement.

MAY 21,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:58 P.M. ET: 

A LESSON – From Townhall.com:  "North Carolina restaurant The Pit was robbed at gunpoint on Sunday. Normally, local crime stories like this wouldn't merit a Townhall post, but this one is different: The Pit has a 'no weapons' sign displayed prominently on its door declaring the restaurant a gun-free zone, and bans patrons from carrying concealed weapons.  Authorities said just before 9 p.m. Sunday, three men wearing hoodies entered the restaurant through the back doors with pistols, and forced several staff members to lie on the floor.  The bandits assaulted two employees during the crime, but they were not seriously injured."  Nothing more need be noted.   As Jerry Lewis famously said, "Bad looks you can change, stupid is forever."

ACADEMIC FREEDOM? – From Fox:  "A substitute teacher in New York was fired after investigators say she asked students in her fourth-grade class for dating advice, DNAinfo.com reported.  Cassandre Fiering, 45, allegedly consulted her students on June 13, 2013, and acted out scenarios where her students would play her boyfriend and she would play herself, the report said.  At one point, she allegedly asked her Bronx class who she should date. The class went with the older man who returned her calls, the report said.  DNAinfo cited a report by investigators for the office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation for New York City Schools. The news site obtained the report under a Freedom of Information Law request."  Her defense will probably be that she was showing appreciation for the cultural understanding of her students.  Who could object?

BUSINESS NEWS – From Fox:  "Long after his death, Che Guevara, who some regard as a ruthless killer and others adore as an icon of revolution, is teaching a new generation of students about the failure of communism.  University of California-San Diego students have run the 'Che Café Collective' for 34 years, a vegan co-op and concert venue boasting 'exorbitantly low' prices and volunteer staffing. But it’s consistently in the red, costing the student body nearly $1 million over the years, and isn’t kept up to fire or safety codes. School officials are threatening to cut off funding, which would shut down the campus fixture, but a band of students is fighting back.  'The venue has been operating for 34 years and it’s the longest-running volunteer space in Southern California, if not in all of California,' café volunteer Rene Vera told FoxNews.com. 'And our building is covered in murals that document a lot of that history.'"  Who cares about safety codes?  Fire codes?  A million dollars lost that could have gone to scholarships?  Hey, we've got murals.  This is what happens when we raise children to be children.

YUCH! – From London's Daily Mail:  "First Lady Michelle Obama's healthy eating initiatives have been so unpopular among young people that more than a million students have stopped buying school lunches.  The Agriculture Department set new standards for what types of foods schools can serve students that have been phased in over the last three school years in response to Obama's push for healthier school lunches, and even more changes are coming in 2014."  Right.  Try to tell kids what they should like.  I say, give me ice cream or give me death!"

May 21, 2014        Permalink

PRIMARIES BOLSTERING GOP – AT 10:56 A.M. ET:  At least that's what a number of pundits seem to be saying this morning, after last night's primary results.  From WaPo: 

Republicans’ hopes of taking back the Senate received a big boost in primary elections Tuesday, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) easily winning and other candidates favored by the party establishment beating back tea party challengers.

After years of intraparty turmoil that cost Republicans key races, voters this year are coalescing around the GOP’s strongest candidates ahead of November’s general election, when control of the Senate during President Obama’s final two years in office will be up for grabs.

On Tuesday, the most consequential day of voting so far this year, Democrats were left disappointed. GOP Senate candidates prone to making controversial statements lost to better-financed, more disciplined rivals with the potential to capitalize on Obama’s unpopularity and the troubles with his signature health-care law.

Nowhere was this more evident than in Kentucky and Georgia, the only two states where Democrats think they can win Senate seats held by Republicans. Democrats had hoped McConnell would emerge from the primary campaign badly bruised, if not defeated, but he prevailed Tuesday largely unscathed and conservative groups quickly called for party unity.

And in Georgia, Democrats were banking on Republicans nominating a candidate so far to the right that he or she would alienate suburban centrist voters. But the two contenders considered to have the broadest general-election viability — businessman David Perdue and Rep. Jack Kingston — advanced to a July 22 runoff, complicating Democrat Michelle Nunn’s path to victory.

Upcoming primary elections are likely to yield similar results. The tea party’s best and perhaps only remaining chance for an upset is in Mississippi, where support for Sen. Thad Cochran seems shaky, although his conservative challenger, state Sen. Chris McDaniel, has stumbled.

COMMENT:  The GOP is getting more professional, and its base more discerning.  But the party still has to fight as if it's 20 points behind.  None of these races will be easy.  Democrats do not fight like gentlemen, and they have the media behind them. 

May 21, 2014       Permalink

HE FIGURED IT OUT? – AT 9:52 A.M. ET:  Despite the usual hysterics, and John Kerry's periodic rantings, climate change hasn't exactly caught the imagination of real people.  The head of struggling CNN has noted this.  From Breitbart:   

CNN boss Jeff Zucker conceded that his audience is not interested in the network's global warming agenda, but he indicated that he will try to find more creative ways to make them care.

For starters they can look for actual facts. 

"Climate change is one of those stories that deserves more attention, that we all talk about, but we haven't figured out how to engage the audience in that story in a meaningful way," Zucker said Monday at an awards dinner in New York. "When we do do those stories, there does tend to be a tremendous amount of lack of interest on the audience's part."

CNN's ratings have suffered because the network masquerades as being objective while backing a blatantly liberal agenda. However, its climate change push, by Zucker's own admission, may be even too much for the few people who still regularly watch what had once been the "most trusted name in news."

COMMENT:  How about CNN having a real panel on "climate change," including the best of the skeptics, some of whom are Nobel laureates.  I doubt they will because the true believers at the network, and that apparently includes Zucker himself, consider dissent the equivalent of original sin.  I've never seen a CNN story exposing some of the scandals in the "climate change" business, and it is a business. 

CNN has some fine reporters, but it suffers from its reputation as a liberal operation.  In effect, it loses half its audience every time it goes on the air. 

May 21, 2014       Permalink

THE FATE OF OUR COLLEGES – AT 9:03 A.M. ET:  Related to our first post of the day, below, is this from Glenn Harlan Reynolds, who doubles as Instapundit on the web.  Reynolds notes the decline in enrollment at many colleges and universities, and, also, the decline in esteem in which these institutions are held.  From USA Today: 

The decline in enrollment seems to be slowing, but the long-term problem remains: With costs growing, and post-graduation incomes stagnant or worse, students (and parents) are growing more reluctant to take on the extensive debt that is required to attend many private, and some public, institutions.

That is only made worse by the decline in higher education's image, damage that is mostly self-inflicted. As Twitter wag IowaHawk japes: "If I understand college administrators correctly, colleges are hotbeds of racism and rape that everyone should be able to attend."

And...

From the economics to the politics, colleges and universities are looking less like serious places to improve one's mind and one's prospects, and more like expensive islands of frivolity and, sometimes, viciousness. And that is likely to have consequences.

Industries with bad reputations face declining markets and more regulation. At this rate, that's where higher education is headed. It's not clear at all that its leaders appreciate the depth of the problem.

COMMENT:  There may be some slight improvement.  I've noticed in recent weeks a growing number of college administrators who've spoken out against the academic thugs of the left who've intimidated students faculty, and even commencement speakers. 

But I suspect that real improvement will only come with generational change.  The colleges are still run by the pseudo-intellectual leftovers of the 1960s.  Many have the intellectual maturity of 12-year-olds.  We hope it changes in time.  If not, our educational institutions will live in darkness.

May 21, 2014        Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 8:51 A.M. ET:  A number of readers have alerted us to the brilliant column by Bret Stephens of The Wall Street Journal.  Stephens pretends that he's addressing the class of 2014, and he deals with the deterioration of the American university.  Here is quote:

And at least one basic teaching of true liberalism is that the essential right of free people is the right to offend, and an essential responsibility of free people is to learn how to cope with being offended.

I'll grant you this: It's not all your fault. The semi- and post-literates who overran the humanities departments at most universities long before I ever set foot in college are the main culprits here. Then again, it shouldn't be that hard to figure out what it takes to live in a free country. The ideological brainwashing that takes place on campus isn't (yet) coercive. Mainly, it's just onanistic.

There's good news in that. You can still take charge of your education, and of your lives. The cocoon years are over; the micro-aggressions are about to pour down.

Deal with it. Revel in it. No consequential idea ever failed to offend someone; no consequential person was ever spared great offense. Those of you who want to lead meaningful lives need to begin unlearning most of what you've been taught, starting right now.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  It's worth it.  I wish Stephens had the chance actually to deliver it to a real graduating class.  However, he's a conservative writer at a capitalist paper, so I assume he received no invitations.  The kids, and, more important, the professors, could learn from him.

May 21, 2014     Permalink

MAY 20,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:28 P.M. ET: 

MITCH MASHES – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell beat back a primary challenge and easily won renomination tonight in Kentucky.  The endorsement of Kentucky's other Senator, Rand Paul, helped him, and payback will be expected.  Now McConnell faces a serious reelection challenge from Dem candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes, who is getting Democratic money from all over the country.  McConnell is correctly attempting to tie Grimes to Barack Obama, who is intensely unpopular in the state.

OH DEAR, BANISH HER – Chelsea Clinton's mother-in-law, former Dem Congresswoman Marjorie Margolies, of Pennsylvania, attempted a comeback this year, and has just been handily defeated in the Democratic primary by Brendan Boyle, who took plenty of heat because he favors abortion restrictions, a sin in the Democratic Party.  Margolies, whose son Marc is married to Chelsea, had the active support of Bill and Hillary, whose advice was ignored by the voters.  It's another setback for Hillary, who has had a very bad political month.

SHE EMERGES – Speaking of Hillary, it is now announced that she will sit for her first TV interviews in a very long time.  Ostensibly, the interviews are about her new book, which will soon be launched.  The interviewers will be reliable liberals Diane Sawyer (once a Nixon stalwart) and Robin Roberts of ABC, so don't expect any probing questions.  We get the feeling that Hillary realizes she's slipped recently, with questions about her record as secretary of state, and about her health.  Also, statements by Obama buddy Deval Patrick, governor of Massachusetts, questioning the desirability of an "inevitable" nominee, have jolted the Democratic Party.  Hillary is starting to hustle.  The coronation doesn't look quite so definite.

NOT EXACTLY A WHOPPER – From CBS:  "NEW YORK (CBSMiami/AP) — After 40-years of the slogan 'Have It Your Way,' Burger King is scrapping it in favor of the more personal 'Be Your Way.'
The chain says the new tag line will roll out across its marketing in the U.S., including in a TV ad that will begin airing Monday night. The line made its first appearance in an online video last month.  Burger King says that the new motto is intended to remind people that 'they can and should live how they want anytime. It’s ok to not be perfect … Self-expression is most important and it’s our differences that make us individuals instead of robots.'"  I'm so moved by the deep philosophy revealed here.  Next we'll hear about the importance of ketchup in fighting climate change. 

May 20, 2014       Permalink    

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 8:33 A.M. ET:   From the superb Max Boot, who analyzes the disaster that is American defense under the current committee of flakes running the nation.  From Commentary: 

On February 24, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel walked into the Pentagon briefing room to deliver a speech unveiling the defense budget of the United States for the coming fiscal year. Two days later, gunmen without insignia on their uniforms began occupying key positions in Crimea. It was the start of a Russian takeover of the Ukrainian province, a move that has touched off the biggest crisis in Europe since the civil war in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

The disjunction between those two events is startling—and worrying. The defense budget Hagel has produced is based on the assumption that (as President Obama often says) the “tide of war is receding.” Therefore, in this new era, the United States can afford to slash military manpower levels to focus on longer-term research-and-development projects while relying on a small number of Special Operations Forces and unmanned drone aircraft to protect American interests. Similar assumptions have been made before. They underlay the defense budget cuts of the 1920s, the late 1940s, and the 1990s. In each case, those assumptions were tragically flawed and left the United States unready to face conflicts once they erupted.

But never before has the refutation of the budget-cutting logic occurred within 48 hours of the budget’s unveiling.

COMMENT:  Read the whole piece.  As Boot points out, previous drawdowns have ended badly.  They almost have to, as hostile nations get the feeling they can take advantage of our weakness.  And modern militaries require highly skilled personnel and advanced weapons.  Both are difficult, if not impossible, to bring online quickly in the event of a crisis.

We are, under Obama, headed for major trouble in so many areas.  I almost have to believe that this was intentional, the product of minds that believe that America is the problem, not the solution.

May 20, 2014       Permalink 

MORE WORRIES FOR HILLARY – AT 8:23 A.M. ET:  This just isn't Hillary's month.  She can't catch a break.  Only the expectation of a grandchild brings happiness.  Politically, knives are suddenly out for her.  From Commentary:   

Are Democrats bored by the prospect of not having a presidential nomination contest in 2016? That’s the upshot of a statement made by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick yesterday on CNN’s State of the Nation program in which he wondered if the “inevitability factor” would hurt Hillary Clinton’s prospects:

She’s an enormously capable candidate and leader. But I do worry about the inevitability because I think it’s off-putting to the average voter and I think that was an element of her campaign the last time. As an enthusiastic Democrat, I just hope that the people around her pay attention to that this time.

The need to learn the lessons of her disastrous failure to make good on similar predictions of inevitability before 2008 must haunt the Clinton camp. While Hillary doesn’t need Deval Patrick to remind her of this, the truth is, she is hoping that this time the boredom factor will work in her favor. Clinton and her backers haven’t had to do much to discourage other potential Democratic contenders from entering the race and most appear to have taken the hint, including potential troublemakers like California Governor Jerry Brown and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. The Clintons have to think that the unexpected emergence of Barack Obama in 2007 is a once-in-a-lifetime fluke that cannot possibly be repeated this time around and it’s difficult to argue the contrary case. The only other obvious Democratic possibilities for 2016 are Vice President Joe Biden, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, and perhaps an outlier like Vermont Socialist Bernie Sanders or Montana’s Brian Schweitzer.

Neither Biden nor O’Malley—who is being openly mocked for asking Hillary’s permission before starting preparations for a candidacy—appear to scare the Clintons, and Sanders has no chance of being anything more than a gadfly left-wing alternative. Unless something completely unexpected happens, there is no reason to believe the 2016 Democratic race will be anything but a coronation. But the assumption that this will be an advantage in the general election may not be so smart.

COMMENT:  Several months ago it was conventional wisdom that this was Hillary's moment, that the Dems wouldn't dare take the nomination away from her a second time, and that the country "owed" her the right to be the first woman president. 

But the country doesn't owe the presidency to anyone.  And Obama's failure may sour Americans on the idea of another election devoted to the worship of race, gender, and ethnicity. 

It will be up to the Republicans, though, to nominate a first-class candidate.  If they don't, they deserve what they get in either a Hillary presidency, or, if she's out of it, someone possibly much worse. 

May 20, 2014       Permalink

EDUCATION OF A DIRECTOR – AT 8:14 A.M. ET:  Related to our first post this morning, the new director of the FBI is reasserting that terrorism remains the Bureau's main concern.  This may disappoint the White House, but we're glad that Director Comey is getting it right.  From Mediaite: 

Al Qaeda’s affiliates are both stronger and more prolific than previously anticipated, FBI director James Comey told the New York Times on Monday. While the Times noted that some expected Comey to be the first post-9/11 FBI director to redirect his focus away from terrorism, he clarified that Islamic radicalism is as potent a force as ever.

“I didn’t have anywhere near the appreciation I got after I came into this job just how virulent those affiliates had become,” Comey told the Times when asked if he thought the threat of al Qaeda-related terrorism had diminished.

Referring to the terror group’s affiliates in Africa and the Middle East, Comey said that the threat of terrorism against American interest sis as present as ever. “There are both many more than I appreciated, and they are stronger than I appreciated,” he confessed.

Comey told the Times that he is convinced terrorism must remain the Bureau’s primary focus.

COMMENT:  Americans are an impatient people.  We want quick results, the easier the better.  But we should learn from the lesson of the Cold War that victory can take many years, even decades.  We are engaged in a battle of ideas and resources.  We should remember that when we choose our next president, for it is the president, despite the entreaties of Congress, who conducts our foreign and defense policies. 

Right now we have the weakest foreign-policy president in recent memory.  The results pour in every day.  Only two forces have gained under Obama's presidency – Communism, through the rise of the new Russia, and Islamic extremism, through the rise of Iran and the continued exploits of Al Qaeda.  The next president will have to clean up this mess.

May 20, 2014       Permalink

A REMINDER OF REALITY – AT 8:02 A.M. ET:  The president of the United States, and his main diplomatic adviser, Peter Pan, remind us that the war on terror is over.  Somehow I have my doubts.  I wonder why.  From The New York Times: 

The fiery British cleric who prosecutors said had “devoted his life to violent jihad” and sent young men around the world to train and fight was convicted Monday of all 11 terrorism-related charges against him.

Prosecutors had charged that the cleric, Mostafa Kamel Mostafa, a former imam at the Finsbury Park mosque in North London, helped to orchestrate the violent 1998 kidnappings of 16 American, British and Australian tourists in Yemen; tried to create a terrorist training camp in Bly, Ore.; and supported terrorism by sending one of his followers to train with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Four hostages were killed during the kidnappings after their captors, a militant group allied with Mr. Mostafa, used them as human shields during a Yemeni rescue operation. “He jumped at opportunities across the globe to support this violent jihad,” a prosecutor, Ian McGinley, said in his summation last week.

The verdict came on the jury’s second day of deliberations in the sixth week of the trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan, marking the end of a long legal battle to bring Mr. Mostafa before a jury. Arrested in London in 2004 after the United States requested his extradition, Mr. Mostafa, who is also known as Abu Hamza al-Masri, was tried and convicted in Britain in 2006 on charges of soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred.

COMMENT:  And just a few weeks ago 300 Nigerian girls were kidnapped by an Islamic terror group.  The war on terror is far from over.  In a way, it may just be starting.  The question is whether the Obama generation is fighting to win.

May 20,  2014     Permalink