Top Headline Comments 3/02/15

David Corbin and Matt Parks: The Federalist and The Promise of American Life
"Progressivism, in sum, requires a capacity for self-criticism that its epistemic pride and solipsistic self-flattery make all but impossible. President Obama’s comical self-confidence is but the logical outcome of his ideology." Heheh. [rdbrewer]


Peggy Noonan's Blog: Walker, Reagan and Patco
"The Soviets watched like everybody else. They observed how the new president handled a national-security challenge. They saw that his rhetorical toughness would be echoed in tough actions. They hadn’t known that until this point. They knew it now. ¶ This is why Reagan’s secretary of state George Shultz said that the Patco decision was the most important foreign-policy decision Reagan ever made." [rdbrewer]


Kevin Williamson: Live Long and Prosper
"Twenty years later, I’d discover that this was the juvenile (a word that in this context is not pejorative) version of Stoicism, which makes substantially the same promises as Spock’s kolinahr discipline (possibly the nerdiest clause I have ever written), offering the same state of resolute tranquility...." [rdbrewer]

Glenn Reynolds, USA Today: Quartering spyware troops in the digital age
"In this post-drug war era of no-knock raids, SWAT teams, and governmental spying, it's sad to think that we are, in fact, less secure in our homes than 'the poorest man' in his own cottage was under the English kings we once revolted against. And if that's the case, maybe the Third Amendment isn't working as well as we think." [rdbrewer]


Roger L. Simon: Will Obama’s Iran Deal Be the Worst Deal Ever Made?
"I hate to sound like Mr. Armageddon, but what we are dealing with here is not a Chamberlain-style appeasement. It is something far more dangerous. Even that administration favorite Jeffrey Goldberg seems alarmed in a new article in The Atlantic ('Danger Ahead for Obama on Iran')...." Via @EdDriscoll. [rdbrewer]


Hopes for peaceful Russian transition fade with Nemtsov: Kasparov
"'Boris hoped, in vain as we understand, to see some form of peaceful transition into normal, civilized democratic government,' Kasparov told Reuters, describing Nemtsov as one of Russia's leading advocates for non-violent political expression. ¶ 'I see no chance for Russia now to move from Putin's brutal dictatorship into something that will be even (as) mild as we had 10 years ago,' he said, predicting it could take a violent mass uprising if change was to come." Related: Kasparov's WSJ editorial. [rdbrewer]

AoSHQ Podcast

This week's guest: Katherine Timpf

MP3 Download | Stream | Ask The Blog | Archives

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Video: Kitten vs. ducklings
Via Jane D'oh. [rdbrewer]


Scott Walker Accurately Remembers History, And You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!
"Rucker was the guy who whined, 'What about your gaaaaaaaffffffes!!!!!!' to Mitt Romney in 2012...." Oh, that guy. More here. [rdbrewer]



A nice tribute to Leonard Nimoy [rdbrewer]

SooperMexican: Right-Wing Blogger DESTROYS Jezebel and Daily Beast’s Attempt to SMEAR Scott Walker With FALSE Rape Story!
"This time it was my homie @DrawAndStrike who single-handedly destroyed an attempted smear on Scott Walker." [rdbrewer]

Genetic Data Tools Reveal How Pop Music Evolved In The US …and show that The Beatles didn’t start the 1964 American music revolution after all. [dri]

Top Headline Comments 2/28/15

Ben Domenech: The Cartman Presidency: There Is No Check On President Obama
"Barack Obama is basically operating now without any congressional checks and balances whatsoever." I'd remind Congress it's a long time until elections. Hammer down. Via @TheH2. [rdbrewer]

Newsweek: Why the Web Won't Be Nirvana
From 1995. "Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.... And you can't tote that laptop to the beach. Yet Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure." Hah. [rdbrewer]


Networks Spend Nearly Six Minutes on Runaway Llamas, But Nothing on Clinton Ethics Story
The Clinton Foundation took donations from foreign governments while Clinton was Secretary of State. ABC, NBC, and Scott Pelley at CBS failed to cover it. Why? Because they're unprofessional; they're unethical, and they're in the tank for Hillary. [rdbrewer]


Greg Jones: Pipeline Politics: The Real Reason Behind Obama’s Keystone Veto
"Why on Earth would Obama veto what is essentially a fraction of existing pipeline that would not only give Americans cheaper oil, but create more than 40,000 jobs in the process? Politics. Think about it: the proposed XL extension runs through solid red states.... The veto of Keystone XL was political, nothing more, nothing less. It was a childish attempt at revenge; the equivalent of taking one’s ball and going home." President Teenager. [rdbrewer]


Jonah Goldberg: Is Liberalism Exhausted?
"[T]he cultural Left has disengaged from mainstream political arguments, preferring instead the comforts of identity-politics argy-bargy. You judge political movements not by their manifestos but by where they put their passion. And on the left these days, the only things that arouse passion are arguments about race and gender." [rdbrewer]

Top Headline Comments 2/27/15

NY Times: Boris Nemtsov, Critic of Putin, Is Shot Dead in Moscow
"Mr. Nemtsov, 55, was one of the principal organizers of an opposition march scheduled for Sunday in Moscow."[rdbrewer]

The wisdom of Andy Levy [dri]

NY Times: A White and Gold (No, Blue and Black!) Dress Melts the Internet
"The one thing scientists could agree on was that this is a very unusual illusion. People who see the dress one way do not eventually begin to see it the other way, as is common with many optical illusions." (I see white and gold.) Related: See the Wired link below. More from Yahoo News. [rdbrewer]

The National Academy of Sciences chooses the winner of its most prestigious award
Guess. No, really. [rdbrewer]

Wired: The Science of Why No One Agrees on the Color of This Dress
Okay, so it really is blue and black? Related: @CuffyMeh. [rdbrewer]

Columbo Roasts Frank Sinatra
In what may be a bit of Columbo trivia, he reveals his wife's name, which I don't think he ever mentioned on the show

Leonard Nimoy Dies at 83

Nicole Russell: Mark Cuban: Government Control Of The Internet ‘Scares The Sh** Out Of Me’
"He was just as harsh when discussing the FCC’s push for regulations under Title II of the Telecommunications Act when he said, last year, 'The government will f*** the Internet up.' ¶ I asked him point-blank what was so scary about the government’s involvement in the Internet. He said because their track record proves their instability." Also from The Federalist: Cruz on Clinton: U.S. Leaders Shouldn’t Be On Payroll Of Foreign Nations. [rdbrewer]

@GOPoversight: If you can believe it, here's an actual email sent by Lois Lerner
"No one will ever believe that your hard drive and mine crashed within a week of each other." Well, she's right about that. [rdbrewer]


Patrick Howley: Lerner Email Search Is On Hold Over Software Problems: ‘There Is Potential Criminal Activity’
Inspector general testimony. Also from TheDC: Obama Went Up Against O’Reilly In Head-To-Head Cable News Matchup, And The Results Weren’t Pretty. [rdbrewer]


Andrew C. McCarthy: GOP Surrender on Obama’s Lawless Amnesty for Illegal Aliens Would Be a Profound Betrayal of the States
"The federal government, very much including Republican lawmakers and conservative judges, has systematically disarmed the states of their capacity for self-defense.... At a minimum, then, federal law – made in Congress, where the states are represented – must preserve the sovereign right of states to protect themselves." Via @EdDriscoll. [rdbrewer]

Jeff Dunetz, Truth Revolt: Anti-Semitism: Appointment Of Jewish Woman To UCLA Student Court Questioned Because Of Her Faith
"Beyda faced an onslaught of questions about whether a Jewish woman could serve." How embarrassing for UCLA. [rdbrewer]


Roger L. Simon: The New New New New Anti-Semitism
"A new poll 'just conducted by Trinity College and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law tells us that 54 percent of self-identified Jewish students in 55 college across the country experienced or witnessed anti-Semitism during the 2013-2014 school year.'" Via @EdDriscoll. [rdbrewer]


Scott Greer: Farage: The ‘Dramatic Failure’ Of Multiculturalism Drives Radical Islam
"'[S]tate sponsored multiculturalism' deserves much of the blame for why extremism has found a home in Europe. ¶ 'We [the U.K.] have pursued a policy for nearly four decades now of multiculturalism,' Farage told The Daily Caller Thursday.... 'Rather than having different communities coming together, under one law, we have encouraged division.'" [rdbrewer]


Andrew C. McCarthy: Hillary Clinton’s Top Aides Knew from First Minutes that Benghazi Was a Terrorist Attack, E-mails Disclose
"These revelations and others are disclosed by a trove of e-mails and other documents pried from the State Department by Judicial Watch in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit." [rdbrewer]


Andrew Stiles: The Clinton Foundation Scandals, Explained
"Everything you need to know about the shady dealings of the Clinton family's global corporate charity conglomerate." [rdbrewer]

Mandy Nagy fundraiser
A/k/a "Liberty Chick." She had a stroke a while back. She's very nice, and she's a strong voice for conservatism. [rdbrewer]

Top Headline Comments 2/26/15

Oh sweet Heaven above. Florida. Florida Man Proudly Claims Title of 'First Ever To Vape Semen'. h/t Blaidd Drwg [NDH]

Ridley Scott's "The Martian" Coming this November --His Best Ever?
Sounds like a Robinson Crusoe on Mars type of story. [rdbrewer]


Jon Gabriel: The Sack of Mosul
"ISIS isn’t satisfied with destroying modern-day Iraq, they also intend to destroy its history." [rdbrewer]

Andrew Klavan, Truth Revolt: Good News, Beheaded Christians
Video. [rdbrewer]

New Trailer for Batman: Arkham Knight; Release Date June 2, 2015
Oh I wanted to warn you I have flu scheduled June 2nd to June 8th

Predicable History, Unpredictable Past: Net Neutrality Is Anything But Neutral [rdbrewer]

ONN: Prague's Franz Kafka International Named World's Most Alienating Airport [rdbrewer]

Time: DC Comics’ Catwoman Comes Out of the Closet [rdbrewer]

Science Daily: Type 2 diabetes reversed in rats [rdbrewer]

Video: Ingress
It's a game. Jim Geraghty was talking about it in The Morning Jolt. "The gist is that landmarks, crossroads, public sculptures, and sites within communities aren’t random; they’re sites of invisible portals that radiate a form of energy.... To play the game, you join a side, either the Enlightened or the Resistance, and walk around to various landmarks and claiming them for your side." Actual landmarks. Actual walking. More here. [rdbrewer]


Daddy Warpig's House of Geekery: The Successor Aliens Always Deserved?
Killing off Newt and Hicks was unforgivable. Looks like they're going to fix that. "Then today, news that Bloomkamp’s film would serve as a proper sequel to Aliens, forming a complete trilogy: Alien, Aliens, this movie. And the news didn’t come from any supposed 'insiders'... but from the mouths of Bloomkamp and Sigourney Weaver herself!" Sounds great. They're going to ignore Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. Funny, that. Check out the Sigourney interview. [rdbrewer]


Andrew Napolitano: What if the Government Fears Freedom?
"What if the Bush folks took Reagan's idea of spying on foreign spies and twisted it so that they could spy on not just foreign spies, but also on foreign persons? What if they took that and leapt to spying on Americans who communicated with foreign persons? What if they then concluded that it was easier to spy on all Americans rather than just those who communicated with foreign persons?" Read the whole thing--especially you, progs and liberal Republicans. [rdbrewer]


Ilya Somin: Some important new books on libertarianism [rdbrewer]

Daily Mail: Ben Carson charges Democrats with taking advantage of blacks, 'trying to keep them suppressed and cultivate their votes'
Via Drudge. [rdbrewer]


Jamie Weinstein: Kerry’s Attempted Netanyahu Nuke Eviscerates Obama National Security Team
Dumb guy shoots self in foot. [rdbrewer]


Patrick Howley: Byron Allen Goes To War With Sharpton, Obama, Comcast For Future Of Black Media
"Allen told The Daily Caller that top media interests are actively freezing out and in some cases destroying black-owned media companies — and they’re paying Reverend-turned-MSNBC host Al Sharpton to give them racial cover to do it." [rdbrewer]

Rich Lowry: A Shameful Climate Witch Hunt
"Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, has written to seven universities about seven researchers who harbor impure thoughts about climate change." [rdbrewer]

USA Today: Gov. Scott Walker: I refuse to take the media's bait
"When we keep our focus on what matters to the people, we earn their respect." [rdbrewer]