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.

MARCH 17,  2018

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

THIS WILL NO DOUBT SAVE THE NATION – FROM FOX:   The Army is kissing a decades-long St. Patrick’s Day tradition goodbye in Georgia’s port city, saying smudged lipstick doesn’t go with the uniform.
For more than 40 years, spectators at one of the world’s largest St. Patrick’s Day parades have darted into the street to peck passing soldiers. But this month, Savannah’s parade committee announced that tradition is not to be continued, sparking frustration from longtime residents.  “Even though rules are meant to be broken, I don’t think traditions are,” said Brian Ferguson, who once marched in the parade as a band member.  Mims Deriso wore the lipstick marks proudly when he paraded, seeing it as appreciation for the military. “It’s a shame it’s got to go,” he said.  There are people who actually spent time working to outlaw this.  Hide your ice cream cones.  That's next.

ANOTHER EVIL CONFRONTED – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  The top librarian at MIT recently argued that to make tech workplaces more inclusive and welcoming to women, ditch “Star Trek” posters and other geeky stuff cluttering office walls.  “There is research that shows that workplaces that are plastered with stereotypically ‘tech or nerd guy’ cultural images – think Star Trek – have negative impact on women’s likelihood of pursuing tech work and of staying in tech work in general or in that particular work environment,” said Chris Bourg, director of libraries at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  “Replace the Star Trek posters with travel posters, don’t name your projects or your printers or your domains after only male figures from Greek mythology, and just generally avoid geek references and inside nerd jokes,” Bourg added. “Those kinds of things reinforce the stereotypes about who does tech; and that stereotype is the male nerd stereotype.”  I've always felt that libraries are a threat to national unity.

THE COFFEE BOOM – FROM REUTERS:  NEW ORLEANS - The number of Americans drinking a daily cup of coffee is at the highest level since 2012, with demand continuing to get a boost from at-home consumption and gourmet drinks, an industry study showed on Saturday.  Sixty-four percent of Americans age 18 or over said they had a cup of coffee the previous day in 2018. That compares with 62 percent in 2017 and was roughly on par with levels last seen in 2012, according to results of a survey commissioned by the National Coffee Association (NCA) released during the group's annual meeting in New Orleans.  The survey underscores strong U.S. demand for the caffeinated beverage even as demand for soda and juice continues a years-long decline.  I attribute the higher demand to those little cups that make it so easy to brew coffee.  Thank Keurig and the others.

March 18,  2018     Permalink

NEWT ON TRUMP – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 2:02 P.M. ET:  Newt Gingrich, in my view, is still one of the most astute political observers we have.  He is baffled at how the elites can't understand Donald Trump.  From Fox: 

When President Trump imposed direct trade measures on some foreign products – including solar panels, steel, and aluminum – to protect U.S. industries that were being undercut, the elites reflexively questioned his political-trade-foreign relations acumen. Seemingly none of them stopped to consider that President Trump’s decades of success in international business may provide him with an informed opinion and worldview counter to their own.

As we have seen President Trump make changes to his Cabinet and personal staff, the elites in Washington and the national media have insisted that these decisions are a sign of dangerous instability in the White House. Never mind that the best business leaders and managers routinely make tough staffing decisions to improve their organizations’ long-run initiatives or mission.

It seems the elites simply refuse to think about the Trump presidency through any lens other than that of traditional Washington – despite the fact that President Trump has never been a part of (and represents a departure from) the traditional establishment. This confused, square peg-round hole analytical approach is made worse by the fact that the elites then try to use Washington jargon to define and attack the president.

In the minds of the elite, President Trump doesn’t fit the post-World War II international mold that regards the United States as the world’s only real superpower that can afford to prop up all its allies – and even some of its enemies. For that, the elites claim President Trump is an isolationist.

The president doesn’t fit the traditional Republican free-trader mold because he demands that Americans must benefit from trade agreements. Therefore, according to the elites, he must be a protectionist. 

COMMENT:  I think that's basically correct.  The problem, of course, is that the academic/media complex is dead set against Trump, and is out to destroy him.  They beam their message each day to millions of Americans, who are either watching TV news, reading newspapers, or taking classes.  The complex is powerful, and it changes votes.   It also works through the Washington establishment.

Will the establishment destroy Trump in the end?  It is possible, I'm afraid.  That's what the fight is about.

March 17,  2018     Permalink

A VICTORY – AT 12:18 P.M. ET:  Little by little, we're seeing some victories by conservative free-speech activists at American's colleges and universities.  There is a long fight ahead, but it can be won.  From Daily Caller: 

Pro-life displays at Ohio’s Miami University won’t have to sport “trigger warning” signs after an anti-abortion student group won a free speech battle with the school Friday.

“This is a victory for the free speech rights of students, who should not be told that their support of mothers and their preborn children is some kind of shameful act that should be apologized for or vilified as harmful,” Students for Life (SFL) President Kristan Hawkins said in a March 16 press release, celebrating the university’s decision to rescind its “trigger warning” mandate.

The decision comes after the university’s SFL group filed a suit — “Students for Life at Miami University of Ohio at Hamilton v. Trustees of Miami University of Ohio” — in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in response to a university mandate that SFL post “trigger warning” signs in front of their displays on campus in October.

The displays were simple crosses planted in the ground to represent the number of unborn babies Planned Parenthood has aborted...

...School officials at the time of the suit indicated they would allow a peaceful display of crosses only if warning signs were placed around the campus. The university did not impose the same requirement on any other student group.

COMMENT:  Whether one agrees or disagrees with the students' viewpoint, they should be free to express it without harassment.  That right has now been won, at least at this one school.

March 17,  2018     Permalink

MARCH 16,  2018

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

OUTRAGE – FROM FOX:  As reports emerged about an engineer's warning of cracks days before Thursday's calamitous collapse of a pedestrian bridge in Florida, a U.S. senator wants to find out exactly who was behind the construction that may have led to the structure's fatal failure.  Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, is “demanding” documents related to oversight of the construction of the bridge at Florida International University in Miami, according to a statement from his office.  I don't blame the senator.  This was a brand new structure, apparently paid for with federal funds. 

ANOTHER WITCH IN THE HUNT – FROM VARIETY:    John Bailey, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is under investigation for allegations of sexual harassment.  The Academy received three harassment claims on Wednesday and immediately opened a probe, according to sources familiar with the situation.  Bailey was elected president of the institution in August. If he were forced to step down, he would be temporarily replaced by Lois Burwell, a veteran makeup artist who is the Academy’s vice president, until the next election in July.   I have no idea what the truth is here, but that's the point.  Life after life is being ruined by these charges, which are taking on the tone of McCarthyism.  Let's have a serious, but fair investigation before a name is made public. 

CHOPPING BLOCK – FROM FOX:  The Justice Department dealt a stunning blow to former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe on Friday night, firing him just days before he would have been eligible for a lifetime pension after determining that he lied to investigators reviewing the bureau’s probe of Hillary Clinton’s email server.  "Pursuant to Department Order 1202, and based on the report of the Inspector General, the findings of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility, and the recommendation of the Department’s senior career official, I have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement.  This is only the start of a new phase of the story.  Inevitably, the mainstream press will compare this to Watergate's Saturday Night Massacre, because they compare everything to Watergate, including sinus trouble.

March 16, 2018       Permalink

SOMEWHERE, OUT THERE, EVERY DAY – THERE ARE PEOPLE AIMING AT US – AT 1:53 P.M. ET:   No, we shouldn't be paranoid, but we should understand what is happening, put a proper and accurate label on it, and counter it.  From Daily Mail: 

A teenage asylum-seeker who built a 'Mother of Satan' nail bomb in the bedroom of his foster home before trying to blow up a tube train is facing a lengthy jail term after he was convicted of attempted murder today.

Ahmed Hassan, 18, tried to kill 93 people by setting off a 'bucket bomb' at Parsons Green station in west London last September. Luckily the device failed to properly detonate, but still left 51 passengers with serious burns.

Hassan had left his native Iraq and travelled through Turkey, Italy and France before getting into the UK on the back of the lorry coming through the Channel Tunnel.

After being looked after in a charity-run shelter, he was taken in by loving foster parents Penelope and Ronald Jones in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey and sent to a local college.

But while his foster parents were away on holiday last summer, he studied YouTube videos on how to make explosives before building a bomb from household objects including Tupperware boxes, a vase and 2.2kg of knives, screwdrivers and nails.  

Following today's verdicts, it can be reported:

• Hassan had lived in ISIS-held territory before illegally entering Britain through the Channel Tunnel. He told immigration officers he had trained with the terror group.

• But he was given a foster home and an education, although teachers started having fears over his radical views after he said he had a 'duty to hate Britain'.

• A local council today admitted that its anti-extremism programme was not good enough. 

• Hassan researched bomb recipes on YouTube and bought components on Amazon. 

• The foster parents who took him were previously given honours by the Queen, but have reportedly told friends they want to stop fostering after the incident.

Many passengers were badly burned, but it was only a 'matter of luck' that scores were not killed, prosecutors have said.

The disturbing case will raise questions of authorities after it emerged Hassan told immigration officials he had been 'trained to kill' by ISIS, and said to a teacher it was his 'duty to hate Britain'.

COMMENT:  Got the information from YouTube?  Will YouTube please explain that.  Why was material of that type permitted?

Did the teacher do anything, warn anyone?  Or was she just trying to understand this clown's cultural frustrations?

We were lucky this time.  We can't be lucky every time.

March 16, 2018       Permalink

THE WOBBLY STATE OF HIGHER EDUCATION – AT 12:21 P.M. ET:   Of course, we report on this regularly, the poor state of higher education, outside the sciences.  The humanities and social sciences have, on too many campuses, become jokes, or simply propaganda operations of the far left.

Do people out in the real America actually care?  It turns out they do, and that caring can ultimately result in the cutting of federal aid, or even the disappearance of departments within colleges or some of the colleges themselves.  From the Washington Times: 

Soaring tuition costs, degrees of dubious value and nonstop student activism have combined to bring public confidence in the ivory tower tumbling down.

Even college and university presidents acknowledge that the country is becoming disillusioned with higher education. In a recent survey conducted by Inside Higher Ed and Gallup, 51 percent of institution leaders said the 2016 election “exposed that academe is disconnected from much of American society.”

The erosion of higher education’s brand comes as no surprise to Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson. He said the public’s negative perception of academia reflects the “reality of left-wing bias disconnected from American society.”

“Particularly in the humanities and social sciences, many faculty view political activism and indoctrination as a core part of their academic mission,” said Mr. Jacobson, who runs the Legal Insurrection blog. “While they may have the academic freedom to do so, there is a price to pay for the higher educational system.”

When asked to assess which factors are responsible for the negative view of higher education, 86 percent of college and university presidents cited the perception of liberal bias on campus.

And...

A survey released last year by the Pew Research Center shows that just 36 percent of Republicans believe colleges and universities have a positive effect on the way things are going in the country, compared with 58 percent who say they have a negative effect.

Those numbers are nearly reversed from 2010, when 58 percent of Republicans said higher education has a positive effect and 32 percent a negative effect.

Seventy-two percent of Democrats, meanwhile, had a high regard for higher education, which is up slightly from 65 percent in 2010.

COMMENT:  Read the entire piece.  Well written and well worth it.  The colleges are in trouble, and properly so.  They have shown too much contempt for the nation they presumably serve.

There are consequences to decades of decline.

March 16, 2018       Permalink

MORE PROGRESS  AT 11:35 A.M. ET:  Most of the economic signs are very good.  From The Wall Street Journal: 

U.S. consumers’ confidence hit a fresh 14-year high this month, as lower-income households reported feeling more optimistic about the economy.

The University of Michigan on Friday said the preliminary result of its consumer-sentiment index was 102.0 in March, up from 99.7 in February. That was the highest level since January 2004, and well above the 99.0 economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected.

The reading “continues what has been a strong run across a range of consumer sentiment measures,” JPMorgan Chase economist Daniel Silver said in a note to clients, adding “this strength in sentiment is one of the reasons we think consumer spending will pick up soon following a soft start to the year.”

The index rose 5.3% in March from a year earlier. A final reading for the month will be released March 29.

The latest survey showed optimism improved markedly for households in the bottom third of income distribution.

And...from the Daily Caller: 

The number of food stamp dependent Americans hit a six-year low in President Donald Trump’s first year in office, reflecting an improving economy and falling unemployment, according to a U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) report.

An average of 42.2 million Americans participated in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program in 2017, which is an 11 percent decrease from 2013, when a record number of people used food stamps, according to USDA.

“Federal spending for SNAP totaled $68.0 billion or 4 percent less than in the previous fiscal year,” USDA reported. “This was also 15 percent less than the historical high of $79.9 billion set in FY 2013.”

It’s the fourth year in a row SNAP participation fell. Previously, the number of people on food stamps grew for 12 years. About 13 percent of Americans used food stamps in 2017. That’s well above pre-recession levels.

COMMENT:   All good.  But the Democrats are arguing that it's all a mirage, and you may be certain that the mainstream media will eagerly focus on those who may not be benefiting.  They will not permit the president to take any credit.

Booming economy.  A new vibrance and toughness in foreign policy.  Increased optimism.  You'd think these things would combine to produce a Republican victory in November.  I'm not so sure.

March 16,  2018    Permalink