Berkeley and Free Speech

Posted on 14 September 2017 by eehines

It seems that Steve Bannon and Milo Yiannopoulos have been invited by the The Berkeley Patriot, a student publication at the university, to speak at a four-day “Free Speech Week” later this month.

UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof is claiming that the organizers haven’t yet “submitted the information or forms required to ensure the events occur.”

“This is all about providing to them the security they want and we want to offer for their events, and it can’t happen overnight,” he added, noting that a speech given by conservative Ben Shapiro on Thursday requires the university bring in “a huge number” of police officers and “spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

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But, But….

Posted on 12 September 2017 by eehines

Cops act out of ignorance, a famous man said.

No, they don’t. They act out of honor and integrity, especially when the chips are down. Or the storm is up. Follow the link in the quoted paragraphs.

Dramatic footage shows a Florida sheriff’s deputy saving an American flag that was being battered in Hurricane Irma’s powerful winds.

The video, which was posted to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, shows Lt. Danny Cunningham running from his car into strong winds and rain to retrieve the beaten flag from a pole.

“I couldn’t watch it get blown apart,” Cunningham reportedly said.

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A Misconception

Posted on 11 September 2017 by eehines

The Wall Street Journal wrote an op-ed about Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ speech at George Mason University regarding her intent to withdraw the Obama administration’s infamous Dear Colleague Letter that threatened the due process rights of students accused of sexual assault. In it, though, the WSJ included a misconception.

The Obama Education Department’s response was to circumvent Congress and neglect normal executive-branch rule-making procedures mandated in the Administrative Procedure Act, such as soliciting public comment. Instead, it simply jammed the policy through by sending out a “Dear Colleague” letter, including an explicit threat that noncomplying schools could lose federal funding.

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College Pupils and Administrators

Posted on 6 September 2017 by eehines

Jean Twenge, a Psychology Professor at San Diego State University, theorizes that the problems the current generation of college pupils has with free speech stems from their having spent “their entire adolescence with smartphones in their hands,” thereby avoiding missing the rough and tumble of face to face interactions with other children, and from their having led an otherwise dismayingly soft life:

iGen’ers grew up in an era of smaller families and protective parenting. They rode in car seats until they were in middle school, bounced on soft-surface playgrounds and rarely walked home from school. For them, unsurprisingly, safety remains a priority, even into early adulthood.

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Another Cynical Mueller Leak

Posted on 29 August 2017 by eehines

Special counsel Robert Mueller is examining what role, if any, former national security adviser Mike Flynn may have played in a private effort to obtain Hillary Clinton’s emails from Russian hackers, according to people familiar with the matter.

It’s becoming increasingly crystalline that, whatever purpose Special Counsel Robert Mueller has in his “investigation,” it’s a dishonest one. That’s the only reason that occurs to me for his careful string of “leaks” to the public, of which this is only the latest.

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Way to Go, Google

Posted on 10 August 2017 by eehines

Recall the now ex-employee who wrote a lengthy and thought-out memo for internal distribution via one of what Google is pleased to call its open communication channels. A summary of the ex-employee’s case is in the Sunday Wall Street Journal; my comments on the situation, based on that summary, are below.

…critics saying the company squelched free speech by firing a male employee who wrote a divisive memo denouncing its diversity push, while others said his views showed that the company’s diversity policies were needed.

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“Mueller Can Avoid an Iran-Contra Repeat”

Posted on 10 August 2017 by eehines

That’s the title of a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, and it indicates an unwarranted optimism about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s “investigation.”

The problem is that Mueller’s investigation is expected to run at least into the end of 2018—packing a 6-month investigation (which already has run for nearly a year under other auspices) into 18 months, or seven years, like the Iran-Contra investigation, depending on the election cycle. And that’s the point—to poison election cycles that might go the wrong way.

This is substantiated by the appalling leak rate Mueller is allowing his team to have. He has no intention of running this thing quickly and efficiently.

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Gun Control

Posted on 8 August 2017 by eehines

A bill is making progress in Congress that would allow concealed carry license holders, whose license was issued in one State (their State of residence) to concealed carry their weapons in all States: the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017. The bill also would require such a carrier to abide by the laws of the State they’re visiting, including all of that State’s gun-free zone designations. In this way, the reciprocity law is similar to drivers license reciprocity, under which it’s legal to drive in any State so long as the driver both is licensed in his home State and obeys the driving laws of the State he’s visiting.

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Mueller’s Grand Jury

Posted on 7 August 2017 by eehines

Judge Andrew Napolitano thinks the reason Special Counsel Robert Mueller has convened a grand jury as part of his “investigation” into alleged Russia collusion by members of President Donald Trump’s campaign staff is so Mueller can use the jury’s subpoena power to compel testimony and the delivery of documents. Napolitano also said, in FoxNews insider‘s paraphrase, that the jury’s convening is

a sign that Mueller has found something from some source….

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Human Gene-Splicing

Posted on 7 August 2017 by eehines

Some scientists have successfully spliced some genes into a human embryo to correct a mutation that causes heart disease, proving the possibilities open to us and our health (and potentially eliminating health coverage provision as a Progressive-Democrat tool of welfare entrapment [/snark]).

Experts noted that the newly successful process could cure more than 10,000 genetic diseases, including some types of cancer and early-onset Alzheimer’s, sickle cell anemia, and cystic fibrosis.

“We have to be very delicate with how we use this because it’s very, very powerful,” Alice Benjamin, a clinical nurse specialist said on Fox & Friends.

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