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JANUARY 1,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:51 P.M. ET: 

CHICAGO WELCOMES 2016 – From ABC:   Mere hours after Chicago rang in 2016 with fireworks along its famous riverwalk, the city reported its first homicide.  A 24-year-old man was shot in the chest a few minutes after 2 a.m. in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood, according to police. He was pronounced dead at the scene and the shooter is at large, a police spokeswoman said. The investigation is ongoing.  Another man, 38, was hurt in the brawl, according to police. He transported himself to a nearby hospital and is listed in good condition after being shot in his hand, officials said.  I'm sure there's more excitement ahead in the president's home town.

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS UP – From CNN:   Chicago (CNN) Hundreds of police officers at one of the country's busiest airports say in the case of an active shooter, they are instructed to run and hide.  Internal aviation department documents obtained through department sources state, "If evacuation is not possible: hide."  The documents advise locking doors, turning off lights and remaining quiet and calm.  "We must also ensure that unarmed security personnel ... do not attempt to become part of the response, but could be invaluable to the evacuation efforts," the documents said.  In addition, a training video shown to aviation police officers has the same instructions: "If evacuation is not possible, you should find a place to hide where the active shooter is less likely to find you. Block entry to your hiding place and lock the door."  That makes no sense, said aviation police officers interviewed by CNN.  If it made sense, they wouldn't be doing it.  Don't you feel safer now that you've read this?

NO TOUCHDOWN – From USATODAY.COM:   DALLAS (AP) — Jimmy Kimmel told people to watch. Even soap opera stars on "General Hospital" made not-so-subtle references to making plans to watch the College Football Playoff on New Year's Eve.  All the prodding and promoting wasn't enough to convince many fans to tune in.  College football's move to create a new tradition with semifinal matchups on New Year's Eve drew ratings more than a third lower than last season, when the matchups were held on New Year's Day.  The Orange Bowl between Clemson and Oklahoma, which kicked off about 4:10 p.m. EST on ESPN, drew a 9.1 rating, a 38.5 percent drop compared to last year's Rose Bowl, which got a 14.8 rating. The number of viewers dropped 44.5 percent from 28,164,000 for the Rose to just 15,640,000 for the Orange.  Someone tell the genius TV executives that many Americans make other plans for New Year's Eve, like going to a non-football party.  Explain to them what that is.

January 1, 2016       Permalink

CRUZIN' – AT 11:32 A.M. ET:  Ted Cruz is doing well, with many pundits saying he has a good chance to win the Republican nomination.  Cruz himself is saying that the fight will probably be over by March, which is two months from now.  From The Hill: 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in a private call on Thursday said the GOP race for the White House will probably be decided by March.

Cruz told campaign volunteers on an end-of-the-year conference call to be ready for a month of attacks, predicting a brutal January, according to CNN.

"There is a very good possibility that the Republican primary will be decided by the end of March," Cruz told volunteers during the call. "First thing tomorrow, we've got a 90-day sprint to get the job done."

Cruz is seen as a favorite for the GOP nomination and is leading polls in Iowa.

Nationally, however, he trails GOP front-runner Donald Trump, who is also ahead of Cruz in polls of New Hampshire and other states.

Cruz has been enjoying a spike in the polls while garnering critical endorsements and donors to aid his bid.

He was the first to announce his fourth-quarter fundraising haul, raising nearly $20 million in the last three months of 2015.

The Texas senator has been consolidating evangelical support and securing key endorsements from social conservatives in the first-in-the-nation caucuses state. Iowa voters will head to the polls on Feb. 1.

Cruz is also working to secure a strong placement during Super Tuesday on March 1, when a number of Southern states host contests.

The conservative firebrand also touted the recent flurry of attacks from his GOP rivals: "If we were sitting here on Dec. 31 and no one was attacking us, or looking to be attacking us, I would be deeply, deeply concerned," Cruz said.

COMMENT:  Brilliant guy, a true conservative, although lacking in executive experience.  His presidency would be an intellectual feast, without question.

January 1, 2016       Permalink 

A SIGN OF OUR TIMES – AT 10:26 A.M. ET:  Security, personal and otherwise, has become one of the major issues in this country.  Consider how some people, if they have the cash, are modifying their homes and businesses.  From simivalleyacorn.com:   

It’s a business that requires client confidentiality, and even the most satisfied customer isn’t likely to brag about his purchase.

A safe room is a highly secure space inside a home designed to be discreet and to offer protection during a home invasion, terrorist attack or other life-threatening event. Most safe rooms include some type of communication system or closed-circuit television so those inside can contact the police.

The 2002 movie “ Panic Room” with Jodie Foster gave instant publicity to safe rooms, and a New York Times article in May reported the industry continues to grow.

Nick Paster of American Saferoom Door builds panic rooms, but he’s tight-lipped about the number of rooms installed in a year, saying only that he has “enough business to keep us busy full time.”

“We do see it fluctuate, depending on what’s going on in the world,” Paster said.

Clients reach out to him for a variety of reasons, and with the phenomenon of workplace shootings, businesses are also installing safe rooms. Security experts say it’s just good common sense to have a room inside a home where a family can hide in the event of a break-in.

Although Paster declined to say whether he’s received more inquiries since the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, safe rooms have been in higher demand since Sept. 11, 2001.

Orders can range from a $20,000 custom-built safe door to a fully equipped safe room costing several hundred thousand dollars, he said.

COMMENT:  When we read a story like this we begin to understand the public's resistance to new gun-control measures.   Americans want practical answers to security issues, not theoretical steps of unproved worth.  And they want the means to protect themselves.  Dependence on government, even the police, is not reassuring.  The police cannot be everywhere.

January 1, 2016       Permalink

TO THINK ABOUT – AT 9:56 A.M. ET:  As we start 2016 we look for guidance for the country's future.  That guidance begins by understanding where we are today.  David Gelernter, of Yale, who, although a professor of computer science, has become a prominent conservative philosopher, contemplates the importance of religion in American life.   Consider this quote, from the Weekly Standard: 

Why should this new and dangerous virus have broken out now, in our generation? Judeo-Christian religion has been in decline for centuries. But important milestones have passed in our own lifetimes. Baby boomers were educated, in the '50s and '60s, in public schools that were still informally Christian—in a nation that (moreover) had been created by devout Christians guided by biblical ideas, and refounded during the Civil War by another Christian generation led by the most deeply religious of all our presidents. By the generation following the Second World War, it's likely that the U.S. cultural leadership was already mostly atheist. But it was reticent about saying so; in that era, many Americans still hesitated to go all the way. And the centrality of biblical religion to America's best self was reaffirmed during these same years by the pastors, priests, and rabbis of the civil rights movement. Today all these hugely important facts have been suppressed. My impression, as a college teacher, is that most young Americans have simply never heard them.

So here we are today with a mainstream press, cultural leadership, and intellectuals who laugh off the idea that a presidential candidate's religion matters. Yet it matters intensely. Its real, practical importance is large. Unless you are a Jew or Christian, you are likely—as a modern American—to make a religion of your politics. And that will shape, in turn, your relation to the opposition and to the American people.

COMMENT:  Please read the entire piece.  I'd like to hear your reaction to the professor's ideas.

January 1,  2016     Permalink

DECEMBER 31,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:48 P.M. ET:

THE WAY THINGS ARE – From London's Daily Mail:  Panic spread across the German city of Munich just an hour before revellers celebrated the New Year, after police warned of a 'serious imminent threat' of an ISIS terror attack as crowds of people flocked to the city centre to welcome in the New Year.  A foreign intelligence service had warned German police that between five and seven suicide bombers from the terror group had been planning on attacking the southern German city.  Two railway stations - the city's main station and the Pasing station - were evacuated after indications of a planned attack which would target party-goers in the city.  Across Europe, capital cities were on high security alert, with Brussels and Paris both scrapping fireworks for New Year's celebrations.  At least they're taking it seriously.  Nothing has happened in Munich so far, but attacks usually don't happen in cities that are on high alert, and where residents have been warned.  We can speculate that the attack planners back off and start planning to attack somewhere else.

AND MORE APPEASEMENT – HAPPY NEW YEAR – From Breitbart:   The White House has delayed plans to slap new sanctions on Iran over its test-firing of ballistic missiles, a US news report said Thursday, amid fears it could jeopardize a hard-won nuclear deal with Tehran.  The Wall Street Journal, quoting unnamed US officials, said that financial sanctions being developed by the US Treasury Department remain on the table, after the decision to delay them.  At one point they were scheduled to be announced Wednesday in Washington, the newspaper said, citing a notification the White House sent to Congress.  The officials gave no definitive timeline for when the sanctions would be imposed, it said.  Disgraceful.  Everything is done for the greater glory of Obama's "legacy."  American security seems a secondary consideration.

ECONOMIC DECLINE – From The Wall Street Journal:  U.S. stocks had their worst annual performance since 2008, closing out a rocky year that tempered investors’ expectations for gains in 2016.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average, a basket of 30 stocks, lost 2.2% in 2015, while the broader S&P 500 fell 0.7%.  The S&P’s loss ended three years of double-digit gains for the index, but was far from the nearly 40% dive it took in 2008, a year of financial crisis...But broadly, the market struggled. While an extended slump in commodity prices helped drag the stock market into negative territory this year, six of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500 posted losses.    Obama, the economic genius.

December 31, 2015       Permalink

TERROR ARREST IN U.S. – AT 2:33 P.M. ET:  Apparently the warnings about New Year's Eve weren't exaggerated.  From CNN:

Washington (CNN) Justice Department officials announced Thursday they had thwarted a Rochester man's plans to kill New Year's Eve participants in the name of ISIS at an upstate New York bar and restaurant.

Emanuel Lutchman, 25, was charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS, which carries up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

"This New Year's Eve prosecution underscores the threat of ISIL even in upstate New York but demonstrates our determination to immediately stop any who would cause harm in its name," said William Hochul Jr., the U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York.

Lutchman allegedly received direction from an ISIS member overseas and planned to attack revellers in order to join ISIS. He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Marian Payson of the Western District of New York on Thursday morning.

COMMENT:  Inevitably, he'll be described as a "lone wolf."  There's really no such thing.  These "lone wolves" are radicalized and directed by others.  They are not alone.  A certain number of these people will go undetected and do very bad things.

December 31, 2015       Permalink

END OF A FANTASYLAND – AT 10:40 A.M. ET:   It's the season for fantasies, but sometimes they must come to an end.  From AP:

NEW YORK (AP) — After welcoming tourists for 14 years, the over-the-top Toys R Us in Manhattan's Times Square is closing its doors.

Wednesday marked the last day of business for the company's flagship location.

The 110,000-square-foot space was home to a 60-foot Ferris wheel, a 20-foot animatronic T-Rex and a life-size Barbie dollhouse.

The store's closing follows the July shuttering of another iconic New York City toy store, F.A.O. Schwarz.

A spokeswoman says company officials decided not to renew their lease to save money on rent.

COMMENT:   It's a sad thing.  Here in New York we've seen many iconic institutions close, one by one.  The cost of doing business here is just prohibitive.  There is, for example, only one pen store left in all of Manhattan – Fountain Pen Hospital.  J&R Music World, an icon, has been reduced to a department of another store.  Neighborhood bookstores are almost relics. 

Change must come, but some changes are not very encouraging.  I recall when the Brooklyn Dodgers left New York City in the 1950s.  I've never forgiven them...or for the city government that let them slip away.

December 31, 2015       Permalink

SECURITY PREPARATIONS – LATEST – AT 9:56 A.M. ET:  As we've reported, security preparations for this New Year's Eve are intense.  From Fox:

Authorities are stepping up security for New Year's Eve celebrations across the U.S. as revelers prepare to welcome 2016 amid widespread nervousness after recent terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif.

In America's two largest cities, officials assured the public Wednesday that there were no known credible threats against either New York or Los Angeles ahead of three of the most famous New Year's events on the calendar.

"Leave the worrying to the NYPD," said James O'Neill, chief of the department. "People should feel safest this New Year's Eve because we're there."

About 1 million people are expected to pack the blocks around Times Square Thursday night to watch the 11,875-pound Waterford crystal ball drop, marking the official start of 2016.

At least 6,000 NYPD patrol officers will be assigned to the Times Square festivities, between 600 and 800 more than on New Year's Eve 2014. Visitors will see heavily armed counterterrorism teams and bomb-sniffing dogs. Rooftop patrols and NYPD helicopters will keep an eye on the crowd, and plainclothes officers will blend in with revelers. Newly graduated officers will take part.

And...

Partiers will be screened with hand-held metal detectors twice -- once when entering one of the 14 access points to the “secure zone” and again when they enter “pens” where people will be kept during the leadup to the countdown.

A bomb squad and a unit specializing in chemical and biological threats will sweep hotels, theaters, construction sites and parking garages. They also will patrol the Times Square subway station, and certain exits will be blocked off. The NYPD will rely on a network of thousands of closed-circuit security cameras blanketing lower Manhattan, parts of midtown Manhattan and the subway system. About 20,000 smartphones were handed out to officers this year that will allow police to quickly transmit information on potential threats.

And...

On Friday morning, hundreds of thousands will line the streets of Pasadena for the annual Tournament of Roses Parade, while another 90,000-plus are expected to pack the Rose Bowl stadium that afternoon for the Rose Bowl game between Stanford and Iowa.

"Increased visible and non-visible enhanced security measures will be in effect along the Rose Parade route and at the Rose Bowl stadium." said William Boyer, spokesman for the city of Pasadena.

COMMENT:  We hope for the best, of course.  But police cannot be everywhere.  A terror threat was broken up in Israel today.  There were arrests in Turkey and Belgium earlier in the week.  We will have to learn to live with this, at least for a time.

December 31, 2015       Permalink

HAPPY NEW YEAR – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  We wish a happy New Year to all our readers, subscribers, donators and friends.

Now, in saying happy New Year I don't mean to offend those who celebrate some other new year.  If you are offended, I apologize for my microaggression and promise to take sensitivity courses at the nearest thought-control emergency center.

In fact, why don't we make a change.  Let's not say happy New Year.  Let's say happy Calendar Change. 

Now, in saying happy Calendar Change I don't mean to suggest that our calendar is better than other calendars.  All calendars have their own validity.  A calendar celebrating 12 jihadists is as valid as one celebrating the Founding Fathers.  Who am I, an American imperialist white male, to judge? 

In fact, why don't we make another change.  Let's not say happy New Year.  Let's say happy Annual Transition.  I think that does it.

Wait.  In saying happy Annual Transition I don't mean to marginalize trans people who may think that "transition" is a subtle hint that they should change.  Not at all.  We recognize all gender choices here.  I apologize for writing "transition."  May the battery in my Mac fail to recharge.  I feel terrible.

So happy Your Choice.  Whatever that is, it is equal to any other choice, in the same way that hip-hop is equal to Beethoven.

I feel so much better about myself.

December 31,  2015     Permalink