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.

FEBRUARY 28,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:52 P.M. ET: 

VIRTUE SIGNALING LOSES – FROM MORNING CONSULT:    Unfavorability ratings for the three major rental car brands associated with Enterprise Holdings Inc. — Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Alamo and National Car Rental — all more than doubled among surveyed adults after they learned about the companies ending discounts for NRA members.  Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s favorability rating slid from 61 percent to 50 percent, while its unfavorability rating jumped from 12 percent to 25 percent. For Alamo and National Car Rental, favorability was little changed, whereas unfavorability ratings increased from 10 percent to 24 percent and 11 percent to 25 percent, respectively.  I'm not an NRA member, but I think it's insane to blame the NRA for school shootings.  Much of the public seems to agree.

ANOTHER FOX HIT – FROM CNS:  Talk radio giant Mark Levin’s Fox News Channel television program premiered over the weekend, drawing 1.4 million viewers despite its 10PM Sunday night time slot.  Life, Liberty & Levin was the most-watched show in its time slot. Its debut episode also won the key 25-54 year-old demographic, Mediaite reports:  “Fox News’s newest series, Life, Liberty & Levin, debuted this past Sunday and led its 10 PM time slot in both total viewers (1.413 million) and the demo (309,000), ticking ahead of Patty Hearst (306,000) in the [25-54 year-old audience] demographic.”  Levin’s show addresses first principles and conservative philosophy, and will look at issues such as immigration, national security and government overreach.  There is an audience for clear thinking, and it's never tuned to CNN.

SAN FRANCISCO CRAZY – FROM FOX:  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is regarded by most Republicans as a far-left liberal. But a recent column identifies the San Francisco Democrat as the “most right-wing" candidate running in her district this year.  Emily Cadei, a correspondent for the Sacramento Bee, wrote Monday that Pelosi -- who'll turn 78 on March 26 -- will be forced to fight off three opponents, all coming at her from the left, when she seeks re-election later this year.  This is not the first time Pelosi will face pressure from the left while defending her seat. Her backers point to her track record of turning back other opponents, usually by margins of 70 to 80 percentage points, and see no likely difference this year, Cadei writes.  Nancy Pelosi, right-wing nut.  Sounds so good.

February 28,  2018     Permalink

AM I READING THIS RIGHT? – AT 12:38 P.M. ET:   Is this some kind of breakthrough, or am I hallucinating again?  From AP:

NEW YORK (AP) — Columnist Michael Gerson and commentator Amy Holmes are teaming to start a conservative-oriented talk show on PBS that takes its cue from William F. Buckley’s “Firing Line,” which aired from 1966 to 1999.

The new show, “In Principle,” will air Friday nights starting April 13. PBS will decide after an eight-week run whether to continue.

The hosts plan to interview two guests each show, hoping for an in-depth discussion on issues and their formative political experiences. No guests have been announced yet, but Gerson said he’d like to discuss issues like race, gun control and whether conservatism is the right message for the working class.

“I find when I go around the country that there is actually a hunger for serious, civil dialogue as an alternative to the bitterness of our civic discourse,” Gershon said.

Gerson is known to the PBS audience as a frequent guest on “NewsHour.” Holmes worked on MSNBC and on Glenn Beck’s media company, The Blaze.

Although the show is beginning at a time of Republican dominance in both the White House and Congress, Gerson has often found himself at odds with President Donald Trump. He said Holmes more often takes the president’s side, or acts as the “anti-anti-Trump.”

“I think the Trump era has been a very difficult time for traditional conservative discourse,” he said. “I think a lot of institutions and places have been co-opted in this era. I view conservatism not only as a belief but a state of mind, a respect for tradition but also a respect for facts.”

At the same time, Trump began to have political success because neither party was addressing the economic concerns of working class Americans, he said.

COMMENT:  I'm looking forward to it.  I'm not sure it will reach the level of the great debates between William F. Buckley Jr. and John Kenneth Galbraith, but this is an advance from the stale, tilt-to-the-left programming we've been getting.

February 28, 2018       Permalink

DISCIPLINE – AT 11:22 A.M. ET:   As we've noted here, we've started to see some pushback against the political madness that has enveloped many of our college campuses.  The steps are small, but visible.  Some observers say that, by the next academic year, we should see more and greater pushback, with greater commitment to free speech.  We hope so.

Middlebury College, in Vermont, had a serious incident last year, in which student demonstrators physically injured a professor who had the nerve to support the right of students to hear a controversial conservative.  Now Middlebury is showing some spine in dealing with another serious student infraction that might have gone unpunished only a few years ago.  From College Fix: 

Middlebury College recently disciplined one of its students after she published an evidence-free list of alleged student rapists, naming specific Middlebury students without providing any verification at all for the claims made against them.

Elizabeth Dunn has been disciplined “in the form of a letter in [her] file,” according to the school newspaper, The Middlebury Campus.

“Official college discipline is a permanent attachment to a student’s file and must be reported if a student is asked whether they have received college discipline,” the newspaper reports. “It is also reported to the parents and guardians of the student.”

Dunn was sanctioned “for violating the respect for persons policy and obstructing a Title IX investigation (i.e. not sharing the names of survivors),” she told The Campus.

Previously Dunn stated that she was facing possible suspension or expulsion. A petition that circulated last month demanded that Dunn receive no sanctions from the college whatsoever.

Dunn made headlines at the end of last year when she published a list of alleged rapist on her Facebook page, explicitly calling out numerous Milddlebury students by name and accusing them of sexual assault. Dunn provided no evidence to support the accusations and did not appear to take any steps to verify the claims of assault.

One young man whose name was on the list ended up contemplating suicide and had to seek professional help for the stress caused by being publicly accused on the basis of no evidence.

Middlebury was the site last year of a violent anti-free-speech mob that arose in protest of political scientist Charles Murray’s visit to campus. That mob ended up putting a teacher in the hospital and causing property damage. Nearly six dozen students were sanctioned by the university as a result.

COMMENT:  At least Middlebury is moving in the right direction.  Expulsion would have been an appropriate penalty for such a heinous act, but the college-discipline letter is a good start.

It's distressing that some students wanted Dunn to receive no punishment.  But the college appropriately resisted that adolescent, contemptible position.

February 28, 2018       Permalink

THE RECORD – AT 10:51 A.M. ET:  Any school shooting is a tragedy, and a single victim is an awful tragedy.  However, we must deal with the menace intelligently, and put school shootings in perspective, before we start making serious mistakes.  From the Washington Times: 

Despite the horror of the high school massacre in Florida, U.S. schools overall are safer today than they were in the early 1990s, and there is not an epidemic of such shootings, a new academic study is reporting.

Researchers at Northeastern University say mass school shootings are extremely rare, that shootings involving students have been declining since the 1990s, and four times as many children were killed in schools in the early 1990s than today.

“There is not an epidemic of school shootings,” said James Alan Fox, the Lipman Family Professor of Criminology, Law and Public Policy at Northeastern. He said more children die each year from pool drownings or bicycle accidents.

There are about 55 million school children in the U.S., the study said, and over the past 25 years, about 10 students on average per year were killed by gunfire at school.

The researchers used data collected by USA Today, the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Report, Congressional Research Service, Gun Violence Archive, Stanford Geospatial Center and Stanford Libraries, Mother Jones, Everytown for Gun Safety, and a New York City Police Department report on active shooters.

COMMENT:  James Alan Fox is one of the country's leading experts in murder, and his comments are worth considering.  Please read the whole article.

One of the things that defines the political left is a refusal to look at the results of its own policies.  The left is not so much a political force as a religion, and an orthodox religion at that.  You have to accept it all to stay a member of the faith.  In gun matters, as in all other matters, the left will fall back on ideological correctness, and never look at the result.

February 28,  2018     Permalink

FEBRUARY 27,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

SAGA OF THE INSTANT CELEBRITY – FROM BREITBART:   Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg says he will not return to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School until more gun control is passed.  Hogg made the comments Sunday during a gun control rally held at Temple B’nai Abraham in Livingston, New Jersey.  The New York Daily News reports that Hogg said, “I’m not going back to school on Wednesday until one bill is passed.” He did not specify which law he wants most, only that he is not going back until at least one law garners the support of lawmakers.  He said, “Literally any legislation at this point would be a success. Considering the fact that so few legislators in Florida met with us and they want the people to forget, that’s disgusting. The fact that they want people to forget about this and elect them again as the child murderers they are, that’s unacceptable and we’re not going to let that happen.”  You have to feel for anyone involved in this horror, but this kid strikes me as an obnoxious, egotistical self-promoter.  This is a time to look for sensible policies, not to pay much attention to a showman.

GETTING AT THE TRUTH – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   One of the biggest skeletons in Planned Parenthood’s closet is that its founder, Margaret Sanger, was a racist who promoted abortion to kill black babies. It’s a subject left-leaning progressives and pro-choicers have long ignored or dismissed.
But two student groups at the University of Florida are ready to take that issue on as part of a Black History month event set for Wednesday.  “Decolonizing Sexual Health,” co-hosted by Planned Parenthood Generation Action UF and the UF Black Student Union, will offer “a panel discussion on the racist roots of Planned Parenthood,” according to its Facebook event page.  “Our subject is addressing the racist roots of the birth control movement, specifically pertaining to the influence of eugenics. Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood’s founder, is a controversial figure in this conversation because despite her devotion to reproductive rights, she also had beliefs, practices, and associations with eugenics that we acknowledge and denounce, and work to rectify today,” the event page states.   It may not be the language we would use, but I'm glad the history of Planned Parenthood is finally being addressed on the left.  This is long overdue.

ANOTHER ONE? – FROM USA TODAY:   The son of Vermont Senator and former Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is launching his own congressional career.  Levi Sanders, the son of 2016 presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders, announced Monday he's running for Congress in New Hampshire.  Sanders, 48, seeks the seat of Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, who has held the seat for New Hampshire's 1st congressional district since 2017 (and on-and-off since 2007). She won't seek re-election in 2018.  Sanders' announcement of his campaign boasts some of the same themes as his father's presidential run: tuition-free college and healthcare without "out-of-pocket" expenses. He also aims to tackle the opioid epidemic, "sensible" gun legislation and equal pay for women.   I dunno.  Will there be a Sanders dynasty?  As a socialist, the elder Sanders couldn't possibly approve of that.

February 27, 2018       Permalink

A MERE TRIFLE – AT 10:50 A.M. ET:   Remember when President Trump brought up the little matter of voter fraud, and the establishment laughed?  From the Washington Times:

More than 100,000 noncitizens are registered to vote in Pennsylvania alone, according to testimony submitted Monday in a lawsuit demanding the state come clean about the extent of its problems.

The Public Interest Legal Foundation, which has identified similar noncitizen voting problems in studies of Virginia and New Jersey, said Pennsylvania officials have admitted noncitizens have been registering and voting in the state “for decades.”

But state officials have stonewalled PILF requests for access to the data that could expose the problem, the group says in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Harrisburg.

“For months, Pennsylvania bureaucrats have concealed facts about noncitizens registering and voting — that ends today,” PILF President and General Counsel J. Christian Adams said.

He said Pennsylvania had already admitted to a “glitch” dating back to the 1990s that had allowed noncitizens applying to renew driver’s licenses to be offered the chance to register to vote. Mr. Adams said he now wants to find out how bad the problem is overall.

Pennsylvania officials wouldn’t respond to the lawsuit, nor to the 100,000 noncitizen number.

COMMENT:  Watch, as those who question illegal voting are called 1) racists, 2) bigots, 3) fascists, 4) colonialists, and 5) tools of capitalist imperialists.

It used to be a nation of laws.  Now it's a nation of whatever laws the left wishes to follow.

February 27, 2018       Permalink

THE RISE OF RUSSIA – AT 9:09 A.M. ET:  Eight years ago there were no Russian troops in the Mideast.  Now Moscow is a major military factor in Syria.  Thank you, President Obama and Secretary Kerry.

Eight years ago Russia didn't control Crimea.  Not so today.  Thanks again, guys. 

Eight years ago, our victory in the Cold War seemed secure.  Not so now.  Mr. Obama, our hat is off to you.

And there's this, from Newsmax:   

Russia appears to be actively considering the limited use of nuclear weapons, and the Trump administration's nuclear doctrine of "deterrence" will answer the threat, a senior defense official said Monday.

The Washington Free Beacon reported deputy undersecretary of defense David Trachtenberg told the Heritage Foundation the United States has been "extremely concerned with what we have seen as the evolution of Russian military policy as it relates to potential use of nuclear weapons."

"Russian nuclear doctrine seems to actively consider the possibility of limited nuclear use," he said, the Free Beacon reported.

"Russian military exercises . . . in some cases have involved levels of activity involving strategic nuclear forces that we haven't seen since the heyday of the Cold War, and some of those exercises have involved the simulated use of nuclear weapons as part of what has been referred to as an 'escalate to deescalate strategy.'"

COMMENT:  Fortunately, President Trump, far from being in collusion with Russia, is showing real toughness, and, most important, is rebuilding our military forces. 

February 27,  2018     Permalink