Overnight Open Thread (11-30-2015)

Remembering Johnny 'Mike' Spann 15 Years Later

He was killed on November 25, 2001 during the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi when Taliban prisoners (including John Walker Lindh) gained access to weapons and attacked. He was the first American killed in Afghanistan after 9/11.

Vetted Refugees in America Try to Join ISIS

Reading the criminal complaint and underlying affidavit, I was struck by how "connected" the six men were to local schools and jobs. They were "connected" right up until the moment they weren't. The Star Tribune noted this aspect of the case in the article "Minneapolis men facing ISIL-linked terrorism charges belie stereotypes." I was also struck by the mysterious appearance of cash to pay for the travel each of the six planned to Syria.

In the case of Guled Omar, the travel expenses were to be defrayed in part by taxpayers. The affidavit reveals: "Bank records obtained show that OMAR withdrew $5,000 in cash from his federal educational financial aid debit card in the weeks leading up to his attempted departure." It's a striking fact I haven't seen noted or have overlooked in news of the charges.

20 Years Since Sammy Hagar Got His Wish

'Shockingly' the highways have not turned into the predicted bloodbath.

On November 29, 1995, President Clinton grudgingly signed a highway bill repealing the much-hated National Maximum Speed Limit. In 1973, President Nixon signed the NMSL into law in an effort to force people to save gas. This law allowed the federal government to withhold federal highway money from states that didn't drop their speed limit to 55 mph. Real-world fuel savings were negligible. Safety activists proclaimed that it saved a lot of lives, and would bring out charts showing that the highway fatality rate had dropped since the law was enacted. The starting point for said charts was when the law was enacted, and sure enough, the fatality rate decreased in the years after. Had they shown a chart going back decades, you would have seen that the fatality rate had been declining since the late 1940s.

Those Sweet Gentle Syrian Refugees

Who are all women and children and just like us.

When Syrian refugees were asked to list the greatest threat, 29 percent picked Iran, 22 percent picked Israel and 19 percent picked America. Only 10 percent viewed Islamic terrorism as a great threat.

By way of comparison, twice as many Iraqis see Islamic terrorism as a threat than Syrians do and slightly more Palestinian Arabs view Islamic terrorism as a threat than Syrians do. These are terrible numbers.

Thirty-seven percent of Syrian refugees oppose US airstrikes on ISIS. 33% oppose the objective of destroying ISIS.

Meanwhile Europe doubles down on their hope and virtue-signaling as a strategy.

Weslayan University Students Demand Campus Surveillance Bureaucracy

To monitor for 'microaggressions' and other bad-thoughts on the part of professors.

And VDH brings a little clear thinking to the upside down world of the modern campus:

Students need to decide whether they are ten or twenty. One cannot be both infantile and mature as the situation demands. If one in four women are truly sexually assaulted on campus, then why not end co-ed dorms, the incubator of date rape? Dress codes for both men and women might discourage callous sexuality and cruel hook-ups. In this regard, the treasured Middle Eastern Studies department or the local black Muslim mosque might offer some empirical advice about the separation of the sexes and proper female attire, in a nonjudgmental manner of course.

If African-American students want more segregated black safe spaces and theme houses, then stop blaming administrators, and demand that students be categorized by race and housed in dormitories accordingly. To remove the odor of apartheid and segregation, we could use Orwellian language to expand the idea of "theme" houses: the Africana Row, the European Village, the Asian Neighborhood, and on and on. Do we want "white meditation rooms" or "Asian sanctuary plazas" or "Latino reflection gardens"?

How strange that students damn frat predators on campus and racist attitudes that ignore disparate impact, then head to 1940s-like Saturday football games. Don't they know that statistically the football and basketball teams commit an inordinate percentage of campus sexual assaults, and hardly reflect proportional representation, while completely ignoring disparate impact?

Georgetown basketball and Missouri football refuse entirely to insist on racially diverse teams, and minority outreach and mentoring (Asian centers, Latino forwards, gay quarterbacks, female placekickers, etc.). Adults who want to change the world are not children who watch football on Saturdays and say nothing about the unapologetic sexism and racism on the field.

Meanwhile Purdue is experimenting with student loans based on a fixed percentage of post-graduation income.

Teacher: A student told me I 'couldn't understand because I was a white lady,' so I went home and cried

A teacher that can be intimidated by a know-nothing fifth grader simply lacks the self-confidence in her own knowledge and experience to be an effective teacher and should not be allowed to be in charge of young people. (thanks to JTT)

Child Terrorists Attack Guard With Knives, Get Shot

Meet the Second Variety. How can you live with such people?

Why the USMC Still Has 'Mule Skinners' And Why Military Pack Animals Will Likely Never Go Away

Why All The Female Meteorologists Are Wearing This Dress

Meanwhile in Dubai

Customer at German sex shop which was burning to the ground around him had to be rescued by firefighters because he refused to leave until he reached the climax of Throbbin Hood

I guess he really had to know how it all ended.

Japan's Newest Movie Superhero: Tea-Bagging Panty Mask Man

Not nuked enough or maybe a bit too much or perhaps just accepting their destiny?

The Yahoo AoSHQ group - it's got electrolytes and shit.

And my twitter thang.

Tonight's post brought to you by only the odd sequels are any good:

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posted by Maetenloch at 10:43 PM

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