Pointless

Afghanistan gains will be lost quickly after drawdown, U.S. intelligence estimate warns

We should have stayed focused on Iraq, where Al Qaeda had been defeated and which had become a functioning democracy. But Iraq was abandoned to fall apart, which it is now doing, in favor of Obama's preference for a focus on Afghanistan. Which he is about to abandon.

At least Obama's commitment to the secular opposition in Syria has been a success.  Oh, wait...

Massive yawn

A hollow "victory" if ever there was one.

Liberal Commercial Talk Radio Disappears in NY, LA, SF in 2014
Only NPR is left.

Much ado about very little, the disappearance of some superfluous talk shows that couldn't attract an audience.

All it demonstrates is that there's no need for talk radio when, except for Fox, you enjoy near total domination of all the other media -- TV, print, music, and movies. And NPR on FM. You simply don't need AM radio, and that's a sign of success, not failure.

Fox is a big deal for conservatives, because it's all they've got. MSNBC means very little when you have NBC (and CBS, and ABC).

The AM dial is a ghetto church, with a few charismatics preaching "Hallelujah"  to a choir that has nowhere else to go.

Byron

Next: ObamaCare taxes & fees

Coming up next: ObamaCare taxes and fees

That is in addition to the higher deductibles and premiums people have been signing up for.  (And those initial premiums are unrealistically low. Nobody knows how much they'll increase because the extent of adverse selection is not yet known -- How many of the young and healthy who are footing the bill will decide to pay the penalty instead of buying the insurance? That number is virtually certain to be significantly higher than is assumed in the initial premium levels that people are seeing at sign-up.)

Byron

American Studies

The American Studies Association recently passed a resolution that "endorses and … honor[s] the call of Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions."  It was unanimous, which is precisely what you'd expect from this pack of nit-wits.  (Story here: Boycott of Israeli universities: A repugnant attack on academic freedom)

American Studies has always been a junk college major, like "studies" majors generally -- gender studies, black studies, hispanic studies, GLBT studies, etc.  (For any innocents out there, GLBT = Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender.)  On campus, these programs and majors comprise a sort of student-faculty academic ghetto. Courses in research methods and statistics are almost never required, so they provide a politically correct sheltered workshop for innumerate students, and a haven for faculty who are overwhelmingly far-left race-class-gender "activists."  Were it not so destructive, the entire scene would be simply farcical.

For an excellent introduction to what these programs amount to, the sort of people who staff them, the amount of power and influence they've managed to acquire on campuses, and the incredible damage they can do, see Stuart Taylor Jr. and K C Johnson, "Until Proven Innocent : Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case," St. Martin's Press, 2007.  Highly recommended, and deeply disturbing.


Below via Instapundit:

AMERICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION UPDATE: Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is ASA.

    Can you imagine twenty serious scholars in any discipline voting unanimously on any controversial issue? I can’t, so I thought it worthwhile to examine the composition of the ASA’s National Council and to peruse its members’ academic profiles, as described on the webpages of their home institutions. This simple exercise reveals a stunning lack of diversity of intellectual interests and perspectives in a sector of American society, the university, that explicitly places a very high premium on “diversity.” The apparent obsession with gender, gay and race studies (or of U.S. imperialism) among the members of ASA’s National Council seems to come at the expense of scholarship on just about everything else.

It was considered a lightweight major back when I was in school, and it’s undoubtedly gotten worse since then.

Related: Wesleyan U. President: Boycott of Israeli universities: A repugnant attack on academic freedom.

Also: Boston U. President rejects Israel academic boycott.

Plus: Andrew Klavan: Anti-Semitic Stalinist Eunuchs.

I think the proper response is for universities to refuse to fund attendance at ASA events, or purchase of ASA publications.


Byron

End game

We Liked Our Doctor

By contrast, it is vastly more expensive, uncertain, corrosive to choice and destructive to freedom to embark on redistribution via a vast machinery of state planning and regulation. 

It's all about smothering the health care sector with a suffocating blanket of regulation, mandates, fines, penalties, and fear.  The goal is to maximize Government control, and this the time-tested way to accomplish that. "Corrosive to choice and destructive to freedom" are features to the designers of ObamaCare, not bugs.

Health care "reform" is just one more means to crush the remaining remnants of civil society under the boot heel of Government.  The goal is to leave nothing -- no buffer or recourse of any kind -- between the individual person and the direct application of Government power, as wielded by the vast machinery of the state.

Get crosswise with a Government bureaucrat and, even if later declared blameless and innocent, you will have been destroyed by the process -- you, your family, your business, your savings, your good name, your health, all of it, everything.

Byron

The Collapse

Via Instapundit:

“SMART DIPLOMACY” UPDATE: Saudi Royal Blasts U.S. Policy.

“A leading Saudi prince demanded a place for his country at talks with Iran, assailing the Obama administration for working behind Riyadh’s back and panning other recent U.S. steps in the Middle East.”

Join the crowd, Prince.  On all fronts, the Obama Administration is showing itself to be a careless, incompetent mess. In foreign policy, friends and foes alike have discovered that Emperor TelePrompter has no clothes, and they have no fear about openly criticizing his ineptness.  Look for much more of this going, er, Forward.

Obama is getting no respect from any quarter, because Pres. Redlines hasn't earned any. Putin, the Chinese, and the Radical Islamists, among other sharks, smell blood in the water. The damage our selfie-snapping Commander-in-Chief is doing to the U.S. and our traditional alliances will be very expensive to remedy, and not just in money.

That bill will come due, and very quickly, count on it. Japan is right now busy re-arming in the face of Chinese claims on international waters in the western Pacific, a direct result of the U.S. being perceived as weak and indecisive. It's painful even to look at what's occurring in the Arab Mideast and along the whole southern rim of the Mediterranean, as we abandon Iraq and quit Afghanistan. Oh, well, we'll always have our trusty ally Pakistan...

Byron

Absolutely right

Instapundit:

SEE, I DON’T THINK IT’S SO BAD WHEN CONGRESS IS “THE LEAST PRODUCTIVE.” 

I mean, given what they’ve been producing lately, less is definitely more.

Precisely.

Congressional gridlock should be seen for what it is:  A beacon of hope.

Better yet, an Un-do Congress -- the undoing can start with ObamaCare and proceed from there to dismantle the monstrous liberty-destroying mountain of micro-managing agencies, regulations, and mandates that are crushing the life out of the country.

Byron

What stopped Arapahoe shooter?

Where's the national media on this? We're supposed to believe the heavily-armed shooter took a couple of shots and then just decided to kill himself? 

Details somewhat sketchy, but apparently he killed himself when a good guy with a gun showed up.

The Denver Post identifies that person as a deputy sheriff acting as a school resource officer: The quick actions of a deputy sheriff working as the school's resource officer and an unarmed security guard undoubtedly saved lives...They immediately dashed from the cafeteria down a long hallway to the library while yelling for students to get down and get back. "The shooter knew the deputy was coming..."

Townhall.com:  On December 13, 2013, 18-year-old Arapahoe High School student Karl Pierson entered his school armed with a shotgun, a machete, and molotov cocktails intending on killing his former debate coach and possibly others. After firing three shots down a hallway and injuring one of his classmates, Pierson killed himself in a classroom. Today it was revealed why he did this: a "good guy" with a gun had him cornered.

Fox News reports:

When an armed school resource officer entered the room, Pierson believed he was cornered and turned his gun on himself, Robinson said. The entire attack lasted approximately 80 seconds and was captured by security cameras.

---

The kid had what's described as a "large amount" of ammo. 

Imagine if the school had been a "Gun Free Zone."