URLs du Jour

2019-08-26

  • We open today with Mr. Ramirez on Donald Trump and China:

    [Not Patton]

    If any of you youngsters haven't seen Patton, by the way, just do that. I'll wait here.


  • A few days ago, I made the fearless prediction that one of the essayists involved with the NYT's "1619" project might "become this year's recipient of the Michael Bellesiles award for crap scholarship." At the College Fix, Christian Schneider notes that might be happening a little faster than I expected: Cornell scholar cited in NYT’s ‘1619’ series charged with fabricating quotes, evidence.

    A Cornell University scholar cited in a recent New York Times piece tying slavery to capitalism was previously found to have inflated statistics, invented facts, and altered quotes, according to fellow academics in his field.

    In an October 2016 paper, scholars Alan Olmstead of the University of California Davis and Paul Rhode of the University of Michigan harshly criticized the research of Cornell’s Edward Baptist presented in Baptist’s 2014 book “The Half Has Never Been Told.” In the book, Baptist argues that modern capitalism still contains many of the remnants of slavery and America’s current economy is still influenced by the exploitation of slaves.

    Note: Baptist was "quoted approvingly" by the NYT author, Matthew Desmond. So it's not a direct debunking. But… chip, chip.


  • Andrew Cline, at the Josiah Bartlett Center, claims: Eliminating coal is a gas, gas, gas.

    On Tuesday, a few protesters dumped a few buckets of coal at the State House. It was, they said, a bold act of civil disobedience because they stole the coal from the Merrimack Station power plant in Bow. Yes, they admitted this. They even helpfully provided the Bow Police with evidence by posting an incriminating photo on their own website.

    Activists organized by the Climate Disobedience Center routinely commit crimes against fossil fuel infrastructure. They theorize that a rapidly arriving climate catastrophe justifies the criminality. The Tuesday publicity stunt was orchestrated to pressure the state to shut down the coal-burning Merrimack Station.

    The problem? The reason the Merrimack Station is fired up on occasion is that NH isn't supplied with adequate (much cleaner-burning) natural gas.

    And the reason we don't have adequate supplies of natural gas is lack of pipelines.

    And the reason we don't have enough pipelines… you guessed it: environmental activists, no doubt the same that dumped coal at the State House.


  • David French, writing at National Review, explains eloquently Why Victimhood and Fear Won’t Preserve Liberty. A chilling story:

    Thirteen years ago, I filed a lawsuit on behalf of two brave young women — Ruth Malhotra and Orit Sklar. They were students at the Georgia Tech, they’d faced unconstitutional censorship at their school, and they sued to challenge four blatantly unconstitutional policies, the school’s speech code, its speech zone, its student-fee-funding policy, and a “safe space” training program that explicitly condemned traditional Christianity.

    If you think outrage mobs are new, consider what happened next. Ruth and Orit faced a torrent of campus hate. Ruth (an American of Indian descent), was called a “Twinkie” (yellow on the outside, white on the inside), and online posts photoshopped swastikas on her face. She faced rape threats and death threats. One emailer threatened to throw acid on her face at graduation. We sought police protection on her behalf, simply so she could attend class in peace.

    I’ve told this story before, but here’s a part I haven’t fully told. In spite of the fact that there was a vibrant Christian and conservative presence on campus, Ruth and Orit fought largely alone. In fact, one large campus ministry was angry at them for defending the Constitution, claiming it was making their life more difficult on campus. I had to fly to meet the general counsel of a major campus ministry to justify my decision to fight for the Constitution. I met with tenured Christian faculty and urged them to stand with Ruth and Orit, and while some offered (appreciated) private support, the public silence was deafening . . . and shameful.

    This is not surprising. The university is supposed to be an environment where ideas can be discussed without fear. In practice, you need to be exceedingly brave to go against the dominant paradigm.

    Still, it wasn't that long ago that Christians were being fed to the lions. You don't have to be that brave.


  • Taking a break from tedious leftism and climate alarmism, Wired covers the important news in biomechanics: Why the NFL's Field Goal Record Is Waiting to Be Smashed.

    Based on his data, [researcher Chase] Pfeifer says that a record-breaking 70-yard field goal kicked at sea level, with no wind, would require a foot speed of around 49 miles per hour delivered right to the ball’s sweet spot, while an 80-yarder would take a foot speed of about 56 mph. And while the latter is outside the range typical of elite kickers, it's well within the realm of human ability: The foot speeds of elite soccer players have been clocked at more than 60 miles per hour (27 m/s), which, in theory, is good enough for a field goal from 90 yards.

    Also of note:

    He also built a field-goal-kicking robot named Herbie Junior, after the mascot of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Pfeifer's alma mater.

    I for one, welcome our new field-goal-kicking robot overlords.


  • Whoa, space crime! NASA Astronaut Anne McClain Refutes Space Crime Claim by Spouse as Divorce Details Emerge.

    NASA astronaut Anne McClain on Saturday (Aug. 24) refuted claims that she inappropriately accessed the bank account of her estranged spouse after details of their divorce were made public in the New York Times this week. 

    This is from Space.com, which I don't think is using the word "refutes" correctly here. In fact, Anne admits to getting into her estranged spouse's bank account (from space!), not due to some secret NASA hacking tool, but because she knew the unchanged password. Whether that's a crime… who knows. Because she was in space.


Last Modified 2024-02-02 4:52 AM EDT