Thursday morning links

Guy Asking Question of Chelsea Clinton (Who Really Ought to Be
Helping Her Deathly Ill Mother Through Her Period of Crisis) but First
Apologizes for Being a Man

Ace terms such males "Salad Men"

Scarborough: Trump a 'Big Government Liberal From Manhattan'

Hillary Clinton’s murky drama - The issue for the secretive candidate goes beyond health to truth

'This is a funeral' Le Pen predicts the end of the EU as she promises FREXIT referendum

Venezuela's "Death Spiral" - A Dozen Eggs Cost $150 As Hyperinflation Horrors Hit Socialist Utopia

Can Obama buy the love of his pro-Israel critics?

Is Deference Really Safer than Deterrence?

Unsettled: A Global Study of Settlements in Occupied Territories

Here’s why Assad’s army can’t win the war in Syria

The Oslo Disaster: Executive Summary

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 04:49 | Comments (34) | Trackbacks (0)

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Re: Big Government Cracks Down On ... People Sharing Books

First it was lemonade stands, now it's free mini libraries. Thank god somebody's putting an end to the madness!

#1 mudbug on 2016-09-15 09:25 (Reply)

Psssst...psssst, hey buddy, wanna borrow a book?

#1.1 B Hammer on 2016-09-15 10:24 (Reply)

Hey Hammer, be careful! Who knows who's reading this!

#1.1.1 mudbug on 2016-09-15 10:39 (Reply)

also seed swaps.

still wondering why the alphabet agencies have so much ammo and police state weapons?

#1.2 fjord on 2016-09-15 13:28 (Reply)

There are more than 19,000 incorporated cities and towns in the US (and more than 3,000 counties).

Between that post and the LA Times article it cited, there was a whopping total of . . . THREE . . . cities cracking down on Little Free Libraries (and in both of the examples from the Times article, it looked like the things would ultimately be allowed anyway), so the conclusion that "many local governments" are doing this is laughable. Three out of more than 22,000 is not anything like "many."

It should surprise no one that sometimes local governments do dumb things. They are, after all, staffed by ordinary people, subject to ordinary human weaknesses.

But it wouldn't hurt to remember while reading these three examples of cities behaving badly that more than 22,000 local governments did NOT do this same dumb thing.

(mini rant:) No one writes a news story about the local official who ignores the stupid complaints from the neighbors. But they should.

#1.3 Thos. on 2016-09-15 23:41 (Reply)

Why Aren't There More Dolls for Boys? GI Joe? My two grandsons played with GI Joe et al back in the '80s. They called them action figures. If you called them dolls in their presence you probably would have been hurt. Both grew up to be real men. One a little too real, but he's never been in jail yet that I know of.

#2 BillH on 2016-09-15 09:26 (Reply)

Dolls might sell if you shrunk them down to about 2.5 inches and put weapons in their hands and branded them as "army men," which is what we called them at the time.

#2.1 Mark Anderson on 2016-09-15 09:58 (Reply)

Action figures, army men....who cares? As long as they wielded weapons or drove vehicles of any kind, boys played with them.

Now if you asked them to dress their figures in nice, "fashionable" clothes, these figures would have been immediately given to sisters or thrown away.

#2.1.1 B48 on 2016-09-15 12:42 (Reply)

I don't know. Are army men still fun without firecrackers?

#2.1.2 JK Brown on 2016-09-15 13:47 (Reply)

Heck, my brothers and I used to play with our sister's dolls all the time. Add some matches and flammable liquids and they're quite fun. It's easier doing the running-around-with-my-hair-on-fire Barbie scream monologue if Barbie's hair really is on fire.

Playing dress-up sorts of games though? We had Tonka trucks and spent hours building little roads and parking lots and just plain old holes in the dirt with them. Why playing pretend construction games in the dirt was more fun than playing pretend house with dolls I don't know - we didn't spend a lot of time analyzing why we liked what we liked. We just did.

#2.1.2.1 Jerryskids on 2016-09-15 14:04 (Reply)

You can have all sorts of fun with a spray can of WD-40 and a match.

#2.1.2.2 Jim on 2016-09-15 14:18 (Reply)

It was tried. Marketed under the name "My Buddy", they became the inspiration for the doll in the Chucky series of horror films. My guess is that since they weren't widely copied, they weren't selling that well even before they would have started to creep out the parents of young children.

#2.2 Another guy named Dan on 2016-09-15 13:48 (Reply)

Speaking as someone who was a tomboy and whose best friends growing up were boys (and who had a brother) I think dolls for boys sound dumb. They prefer guns.

Personally, I only ever liked a baby doll because one could be bossy and mean to it when annoyed that parents were paying too much attention to a new younger sibling. Boys can benefit, too, from a plastic surrogate sibling to get mad at instead of the real one. But other dolls? Only for wimpy kids.

Real boys play with toy soldiers and guns and build forts and basically play war not house. I got to,also , because there wasn't anther boy for my neighbor to play with so we became friends anyway as free range five year olds. I wasn't a sissy girl who played w yukky Barbies.

Years later, when I was a perfectly conventional at home mommy? My girls would set up a school with all their dolls sitting attentively in it, and my son would come rampaging in w the toy dinosaurs gleefully roaring "School is cancelled! Dinosaur day!" Visiting little boys (church friends) once decided to guillotine all the girls' dolls in a French Revolution reenactment. Shrieks and fisticuffs....

I think it's good for little kids of both genders to play w baby dolls if they want to. It prepares them for future parenthood, and both genders have their moments of tenderness (otherwise teddy bears wouldn't sell so well). But companion boy or girl dolls? How can you ride a pony, climb a tree or shoot BB guns or bows and arrows or throw rocks at hornet nests or trap snapping turtles in feed buckets if you are carrying around an expensive and clunky doll?

#2.2.1 Retriever on 2016-09-15 15:36 (Reply)

Bird Dog: I thought immigration laws were up to Congress

Oddly enough, immigration is not an enumerated power in the U.S. Constitution; however, it is generally held that immigration laws are constitutional as long as they are consistent with promoting valid federal goals. (Strict constructionists never seem to complain about this unenumerated power.)

QUOTE:

Immigration and Nationality Act: ACT 207 - Annual Admission of Refugees and Admission of Emergency Situation Refugees [8 U.S.C. 1157]: (b) If the President determines, after appropriate consultation, that (1) an unforeseen emergency refugee situation exists, (2) the admission of certain refugees in response to the emergency refugee situation is justified by grave humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest, and (3) the admission to the United States of these refugees cannot be accomplished under subsection (a), the President may fix a number of refugees to be admitted to the United States during the succeeding period (not to exceed twelve months) in response to the emergency refugee situation and such admissions shall be allocated among refugees of special humanitarian concern to the United States in accordance with a determination made by the President after the appropriate consultation provided under this subsection.

This is a common misperception. Some administrative authority is provided by the U.S. Constitution, but other administrative authority is provided by statute. That's how the U.S. government has worked since its inception. The first federal administrative agency was created in 1789 (1 Stat. 95) to provide pensions for war veterans.

One of the most important acts of the modern era is the The Administrative Procedure Act of 1946, which governs how the government may administer government regulation. The Act provides judicial oversight over all administrative agencies of the federal government.

#3 Zachriel on 2016-09-15 10:22 (Reply)

Why is why Obama simply ignores the Administrative Procedure Act and simply promulgates illegal executive orders, actions and directives. As well as having his agencies promulgate a plethora of regs, "instructions," "guidance" and "advice," all of which violate the APA, in that they are in direct contravention of the underlying statute or administratively legislate in areas not covered by the statute, or fail to follow the procedural requirements for promulgating rules. One of the worst being the illegal "guidance" which extends Title IX to homosexuality and transgenderism, although there is absolutely nothing in Title IX to support that, and where Congress has uniformly refused to pass such legislation throughout its history. Other examples include all of his illegal actions on immigration.

The Obama administration knows it is acting unlawfully, but figures through its corrupt "Jutice" Department it can hang up the legal challenges in court for 2-4 years until the damage is done.

Another tool of the Obama administration is collusive litigation, by which it conspires with a special interest group to have a law interpreted in a way that is contrary to the law. The group sues the Obama administration, for example, claiming that Title IX covers certain conduct when it clearly does not. Instead of fighting the suit, the corrupt "Justice" Department rolls over and loses, and then enters into a "consent" decree with the special interest group to agree that the law then covers an area which was never intended. The agency then claims its hands are tied, and it must interpret and enforce the law according to the consent decree.

This is also commonly done in the environmental arena, to expand the environmental laws beyond the statute.

Of course, when the results go the other way and there is a successful legal challenge to their unlawful actions, the Obama administration then claims it is simply a single ruling that only applies to a particular plaintiff.

This is by far the most corrupt and lawless administration in this country's history.

#3.1 Jim on 2016-09-15 14:40 (Reply)

You only provided a single specific, Title IX. The courts have ruled on many aspects of transgender discrimination under Title XI (e.g. Miles v. New York Univ). There's nothing about this that is extralegal.

Did you have other examples?

#3.1.1 Zachriel on 2016-09-15 16:45 (Reply)

Presumably than the next president could end all immigration. End legal, illegal, family reunification, refugee, etc. immigration. No one could immigrate if the next president decided that way.

I favor a moratorium on ALL legal immigration until all current immigrants are fully assimilated. Full and vigorous application of the law regarding illegal immigration. AND a limit on how long any non-citizen can be in the country. Then once everyone is assimilated and all the illegals are deported or leave by their own choice it should be put to a vote of the people if they want immigration and how many.

#3.2 IdahoBob on 2016-09-15 18:27 (Reply)

IdahoBob: Presumably than the next president could end all immigration.

Under current law, that is largely correct. The president has wide statutory latitude with regards to immigration.

#3.2.1 Zachriel on 2016-09-16 06:29 (Reply)

It is always either a Great Kid or an Honors Student
Not to mention that he could have been Barack Obama's son.
The attempted home invasion by the Great Kid occurred in Durham NC, where the Duke lacrosse players were falsely accused of rape.

Plenty of social justice in that town.

#4 Gringo on 2016-09-15 11:00 (Reply)

Britain’s Socialized Medicine Is Close to Collapse: This is incorrect because it is IMPOSSIBLE. i know, because Paullie "The Beard" Krugman has told me so many, many times.

Teachers' Unions donate heavily to the pols, as do other government unions. Can you say RICO, boys and girls?

#5 Sam L. on 2016-09-15 11:24 (Reply)

Just a self-licking ice cream cone.

#5.1 OldFert on 2016-09-15 13:10 (Reply)

Re: Answering a Troubling Question: Man, Woman, or Whatever?

The author, Horvat, discussed the experience of a friend who was hired by a substantial engineering company and was asked what his gender was in spite of the obvious reality that he was a man. I was with Horvat till the end when he asked, "How would you answer the troubling question?"

My initial thought was the same as Horvat's - if we have to routinely ask what gender you are, we are in serious trouble as a society. Then I thought, this is the reason for NC's HB2 legislation. If you have to ask what gender a person is, anybody can use any (previously) gender segregated facility - you didn't have to be "transgendered". And then I thought, why would they ask in the first place? If they were in the tank for this transgender nonsense, what difference does it make what gender he his? He would be able to use any bathroom he wanted since it's up to him to choose his gender on any particular day.

Horvat is right, but it's worse than he said in his column.

#6 mudbug on 2016-09-15 11:28 (Reply)

I'm so confused--LOL.

#6.1 mary on 2016-09-15 11:48 (Reply)

Life used to be so simple, didn't it, mary?

#6.1.1 mudbug on 2016-09-15 11:54 (Reply)

Don't ask what they are,. but what they THINK they are.

#6.2 Sam L. on 2016-09-15 20:12 (Reply)

I feel compelled to lie to polling questions. I have always written "black" or "hispanic" on the question "race" on forms I have completed. I haven't seen any questions yet on the many gender options but I look forward to having fun with those too.

#6.3 GoneWithTheWind on 2016-09-16 12:05 (Reply)

"Guy Asking Question of Chelsea Clinton (Who Really Ought to Be
Helping Her Deathly Ill Mother Through Her Period of Crisis) but First Apologizes for Being a Man"
________________
Uh, no, he was apologizing for PRETENDING to be a man!

HUGE difference!

#7 Old Codger on 2016-09-15 12:46 (Reply)

Everyone deserves higher ed.
No, Mr. Kaine. Needs are far different from wants.
Also, many folks just ain't cut out for kolej.

Used to be that many people got their higher ed (academic or trades/skills) via going into the military. They either learned a skill there, or were able to use the GI bill to go to college when they got out. They also were able to get out of their home county and grow up a bit.

#8 OldFert on 2016-09-15 13:17 (Reply)

Re: MA degree for teachers - it makes a difference if the degree is in the content area they teach - a science teacher with an MS, a history teacher with a history MA, a language arts teacher who is a published author, and so forth. Degrees in ED ADMIN or ED Theory, not so much.

#9 TX_Teacher on 2016-09-15 13:24 (Reply)

Re: Is deference really safer than deterrence?

Machiavelli answered that question 500 years ago. A good prince strives to be both feared and respected but love only lasts as long as the good times last and when things turn ugly fear of your wrath compels obedience much better. And if you care about your people, you'll make sure their enemies fear you. "Speak softly and carry a big stick" is not too loose a translation of the thought, I think.

#10 Jerryskids on 2016-09-15 14:31 (Reply)

Why Aren't There More Dolls for Boys?

If there's no difference between boys and girls, a belief implied by the idea that boys should play with dolls, then why does it make any difference if he plays with a "girl's" doll?

Meaning, that if you want to make a gender-non-specific sissy boy out of your son, just buy him a girl's doll.

He'll probably just bend it and use it as a gun anyway.

#11 Bill on 2016-09-15 15:17 (Reply)

I am now convinced that Hillary has advanced Parkinson's. This video convinced me.

Apomorphine is probably the explanation for her sudden recovery Sunday. She had a "freeze" and the drug turned her back "ON."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27430123

This was the first study of a new sublingual apomorphine formulation in PD patients. In this open-label study, APL-130277 appeared to provide a convenient, rapid, and reliable method for treating OFF episodes.

#12 Mike-_K (Link) on 2016-09-15 15:36 (Reply)

I guess the link didn't work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr1IDQ2V1eM

#12.1 Mike-_K (Link) on 2016-09-15 15:37 (Reply)

Hey, Mike K, are you the guy that wrote that terrific book about your 50 years in medicine? I really, really enjoyed that.

#12.1.1 Texan99 on 2016-09-17 09:30 (Reply)

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Thursday, September 15. 2016

Thursday morning links