Read it.

And there you have it.

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Do they really care, or do they just care about hangin’ with the Cool Kids?

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A new Gallup poll finds that nowhere is the desire to move out-of-state greater than in Connecticut and Illinois. About half of the residents in each of these states say that, if they had the chance, they would move to a different state.

And who could blame them?

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Covington, the firm where Eric H. Holder Jr. practiced law before becoming attorney general, will announce on Tuesday that Mythili Raman is the latest former senior Justice Department official to join its ranks. Ms. Raman, who will be a partner in Covington’s white-collar crime and litigation practices, led the Justice Department’s criminal division until last month.

“And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” — Luke 16:9.

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And thereby FedEx avoids legal liability, which is the whole point of such useless signs.

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But imagine running into Border Patrol agents conducting a roving patrol on an isolated road, with only your children for company. That happened to Clarisa Christiansen, who lives outside of Tucson about 40 miles from the border. She says the agents threatened her with a Taser, forced her from her car as her kids watched—and slashed her tire for good measure.

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“The actions of Media Matters executives have placed employees in the impossible position of continuing to produce content espousing pro-labor values for an employer who is challenging our right to unionize,” the statement says. “Not only is management subjecting Media Matters employees to arduous NLRB procedures, the actions of their attorneys indicate Media Matters executives object so tenaciously to our union that they appear willing to prevent employees from ever having the opportunity to vote on the matter.”

And that really tells you all you need to know about the American Left.

The Other McCain is on the case.

Why, they must be raaaaaaacists….

Read it.

The 2014 edition of Wayne Crews’ annual Ten Thousand Commandments report comes out today; you can read it here. The report gives a big-picture view of the size and scope of federal regulations. This is something the government should be doing on its own as a basic transparency measure. But they don’t, so Wayne is kind enough to fill in the gap.

Read it.

Students at Harvard University just got an important lesson in real world business problems.

A student-run enterprise was shut because it couldn’t meet requirements from the administration.

Welcome to the real world, kids!

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Of course, there are many English expressions that have no precise equivalent in French, too, but articles like this one are fun to read.

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The schools’ Department of Gender and Women’s Studies is offering the program because it believes biological science is “rife with sexism” and should be changed to reflect feminist thinking. Feminist biology aims to develop new theory and methods in biology that reflects feminist approaches.

I am not making this up.

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Calling an idea “divisive” can be a way for a reporter and an editor to signal that they don’t like it. So is the practice, seen in the Times article, of announcing that the subject of an article has “no apologies.” The article reports, for example, that “Walton’s Mr. Sternberg, who started his career in Teach for America and founded the Bronx Lab School, a public school in New York City, does not apologize for Walton’s commitment to charter schools and vouchers.”

What an odd formulation. Why would he apologize? Why should he be expected to apologize? He’s helping to make schools better. He has nothing to apologize for. If anyone should apologize here, it is the Times, for suggesting that an apology is in order.

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The fact that America is as economically mobile now as it was in the days when the top marginal federal income tax rate was 70 percent doesn’t mean that the country is as economically mobile as it can or should be. Nor does the extremely stable nature of U.S. economic mobility negate the fact that individuals on the high end of the income spectrum are getting richer faster than anyone else.

But Obama’s widely shared misconception also misses the greater cultural context. Economic mobility is not the sole measure of national well-being or progress. It’s not even the sole measure of mobility.

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My, what a surprise! Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

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Other wealthy folks – notably some in Hollywood and Silicon Valley – also support a California planning regime that makes difficult the purchasing and construction of family-size homes, largely as a means to reducing the dreaded human “carbon footprint.” Yet they, too, are often unconsciously hypocritical, as many of them live in palatial houses, and often fly on private jets, one of the quickest ways to boost one’s carbon emissions. Google’s top executives, among the most reliable allies of the middle-class-destroying green and urban-planner lobby, famously have a fleet of planes based at San Jose Airport.

Others, like the environment magazine Grist, embrace a more idealistic vision of a new generation that rarely owns and doesn’t embrace conventional ambitions. They see the current millennial generation, facing limited economic prospects and high housing prices, as “a hero generation,” rejecting the material trap of suburban living and work that engulfed their parents.

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On April 26 Erika Soto Lamb–spokeswoman for Michael Bloomberg’s new “Everytown for Gun Safety” gun control group–defended her leadership’s use of armed security guards by claiming pro-gun Americans threatened their lives and it was the same kind of security pro-gun advocates want for themselves.

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You can thank regulations and licensing rules for pricing child care out of the reach of many lower-income families while leaving wealthier women with gray market or black market solutions.

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As near as I can tell, a racist is one who approves of rigorous education, good English, civilized manners, minimal criminality, and responsible parenthood, among other things. I am, then, a racist. I see no reason to grovel about it.

I decided long ago that if, while I was doing a radio interview, a caller-in told me, “You a racist!” I would hesitate as if puzzled, and say, “… So what?”

…

Herewith another and yet worse confession: I do not see, or care, why it is thought my duty to like, or dislike, groups because of their race, creed, color, sex, sexual aberration, or national origin. Nor do I think it their duty to like me. I especially do not understand why the federal government should decide with whom I ought to associate.

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A new offering from Amazon, called Prime Pantry, aims to alleviate some of this guilt. The service, which launched Wednesday, lets Prime members fill a large box with up to 45 pounds of household items (automatically calculating how much space is left in their box as they shop) and get it delivered for $5.99. Eligible items are available “in popular pack sizes that are cost prohibitive to ship for free,” meaning you can buy one box of Cheerios instead of 12. The program means that Amazon now carries a selection of groceries that are only available to Prime members. A non-Prime member can’t buy that one box of Cheerios or one can of tomatoes.

Full disclosure: I own stock in Amazon, and this sort of thing is why.

Joel Kotkin turns over a rock.

Starting in the 1980s, a mythology grew that the new tech entrepreneurs represented a new, progressive model that was not animated by conventional business thinking. In contrast to staid old east coast corporations, the new California firms were what futurist Alvin Toffler described as “third wave.” Often dressed in jeans, and not suits, they were seen as inherently less hierarchical and power-hungry as their industrial age predecessors.

Silicon Valley executives were not just about making money, but were trying, as they famously claimed, to “change the world.” One popularizing enthusiast, MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte, even suggested that “digital technology” could turn into “a natural force drawing people into greater world harmony.”

This image has insulated the tech elite from the kind of opprobrium meted out to their rival capitalist icons in other, more traditional industries. In 2011, over 72 percent of Americans had positive feelings about the computer industry as opposed to a mere 30 percent for banking and 20 percent for oil and gas. Even during the occupy protests in 2012, few criticisms were hurled by the “screwed generation” at tech titans. Indeed, Steve Jobs, a .000001 per center worth $7 billion, the ferocious competitor who threatened “war” against Google if they did not cooperate in his wage fixing scheme, was openly mourned by protestors when news spread that he had passed away.

Steve Sailer picks up the Narrative.

A couple of law professors eventually slip a little affordable family formation heresy into Slate’s XX after the usual Bad White Man verbiage….

…

You know, Lily, if Carl is such a loser that you don’t want to marry him, why did you want 50% of your child’s genes to be his? Are you really that convinced that your 50% are going to be so awesome that your kid won’t wind up a loser?

The Other McCain isn’t afraid to ask the hard questions.

So, apparently, this was The Week When Everybody Became Officially Racist. First it was Cliven Bundy, and now L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling has been caught on audio saying racist — RAAAAACIST! — stuff to his hot young girlfriend, who just happens to be half-black and half-Mexican. Rich elderly white guy is OK with dating this exotic young hybrid, but he seems to perceive some kind of image issue with his girlfriend hanging out with black people.

Can this be explained? Maybe. But if you find yourself forced to explain a remark about race, face it — you’re Officially Racist.

Read it.

But only for parents who don’t want to see their kids shot down like sheep in their ‘gun-free zones’.

Freeberg does language.

Its meaning is not limited to “someone who does a lot of talking.” It means a great deal more than that. There has to be a certain meaninglessness to the chatter. And, a certain bossiness too. Flibbertigibbets are radios without off buttons; they care not that the commodity they’re supplying, is in negligible and dwindling demand, or in no demand at all.

If you know a flibbertigibbet or two, it may not have escaped your notice — or maybe it did — that they prattle on with their excess verbiage in an attempt to convince themselves. That is the common content, and that is the common purpose. They repeat most bumptiously and most frequently the things that, according to their own systems of belief, are so emphatically true that they ought to be able to stand on their own. In so doing, they confess to that which is never to be considered: There actually are some doubts. About “The science is settled on global warming!” or “There is no god, now relax and enjoy your life” or “ObamaCare is a spectacular success.”

Hence the term Chattering Classes — all talk, no reality.

Read it.

Mahmoud Abbas is serving the tenth year of his four-year term as president of the Palestinian Authority.

Read it. And watch the video.

Most students of the Great Jihad are aware of scripturally sanctioned lying (taqiyya) and misdirection (kitman) as practiced in Islam. In the following video, Dr. Bill Warner discusses a third type of Islamic deception known as tawriya, which is based in the hadith and means to say something that has a different meaning for the speaker than for the listener.

But you knew that — if you’ve been paying attention.

Read it.

There had been only eight recorded sightings of the white-throated needletail in the UK since 1846. So when one popped up again on British shores this week, twitchers were understandably excited.

A group of 40 enthusiasts dashed to the Hebrides to catch a glimpse of the brown, black and blue bird, which breeds in Asia and winters in Australasia.

But instead of being treated to a wildlife spectacle they were left with a horror show when it flew into a wind turbine and was killed.

Now that’s comedy.

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Hint: Consumption spending.

I’ve been somewhat dismayed to see so many economists debate the economic inequality issue using highly flawed income and wealth data, instead of consumption inequality data. Recently I was listening to an interview with Thomas Piketty when he suddenly said something that caught my attention. He advocated a progressive property tax. That sounds like a great idea, as the consumption value of housing is probably closely correlated with the market value. And then he ruined everything by adding that it should not be levied on the gross value of property, but rather the net value after mortgage debt was subtracted. That defeats the entire purpose of a progressive consumption tax!

Read it.

Reddit user wheatley_cereal has posted a factoid that we have no doubt is widely known among Mountain West residents, but of which the rest of the country is almost certainly unaware: It’s possible for a fish to swim directly from the Pacific to the Atlantic without having to dodge Panamax ships in the canal zone.

Read it.

As violence in Chicago continues to spin out of control, businesses are reacting in logical ways. A Subway sandwich shop with a bulletproof enclosure for employees, for instance, made the news in the Windy City, showing that violence is affecting everyone, not just gang members.

Well, thank God for those strict Chicago gun control laws. Wouldn’t want them winding up like, say, Texas.

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My, what a surprise! Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Happy Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day! Or as I prefer to think of it, Barack Obama/Samantha Power Sanctimony Reversal Day.

Never forget: Here is the current U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and then-adviser to candidate Barack Obama, delivering an emetic of a video plea to Armenian Americans in February 2008, assuring them that when it comes to the April 24 “National Day of Remembrance of Man’s Inhumanity to Man”—in which U.S. presidents are (according to House Joint Resolution 247 from 1984) “authorized and requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe such day as a day of remembrance for all the victims of genocide, especially the one and one-half million people of Armenian ancestry who were the victims of the genocide perpetrated in Turkey between 1915 and 1923, and in whose memory this date is commemorated by all Armenians and their friends throughout the world”—Obama as president would at long last “call a spade a spade.”

‘Flounder! You fucked up! You trusted us!’

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A high-dollar Obama donor who was caught on video brutally beating his girlfriend got off with 25 hours of community service last week after he pled guilty to domestic battery charges.

CCTV footage caught Gurbaksh Chahal, the CEO of San Francisco tech startup RadiumOne, kicking his girlfriend 117 times, including blows to the head, and trying to smother her with a pillow during a vicious 30-minute assault.

He faced 45 felony charges until the footage was deemed inadmissible. As a result, Chahal has managed to avoid jail time, the Daily Mail reported on Thursday.

Coincidence? We report, you decide.

It was not immediately clear whether activists who boycotted Mozilla for its former CEO’s opposition to gay marriage would also target RadiumOne and other Chahal startups.

He’s a ‘person of color’ so he gets a pass on acting in a civilized manner.

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I especially like the conjunction of #15 and #16.

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In the study, published today in Science Translational Medicine, researchers used an antibiotic treatment to deafen adult guinea pigs. Then, they introduced recombinant DNA — DNA formed in a lab by combining genetic material from various sources — into the cochlea, the portion of the guinea pigs’ ear that transforms vibrations into sound signals. Once the DNA was in place, they implanted the ear with a modified cochlear implant that was able to send short, directed electrical impulses to the surrounding cells, in addition to enhancing the animals’ hearing. These impulses are part of a gene therapy technique called “electroporation” that allowed the recombinant DNA to enter the cochlear cells and produce neurotrophins, proteins that cause auditory nerve endings to regenerate.

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Desperate for reliable labor and buoyed by soaring prices, dairy operations across the state are charging into a brave new world of udder care: robotic milkers, which feed and milk cow after cow without the help of a single farmhand.

Scores of the machines have popped up across New York’s dairy belt and in other states in recent years, changing age-old patterns of daily farm life and reinvigorating the allure of agriculture for a younger, tech-savvy — and manure-averse — generation.

So we don’t really need more cheap illegal-immigrant labor — we need more robots.

Read it.

When it comes to identifying Hillary Clinton’s major accomplishments as Secretary of State, one thinks of Eisenhower on Nixon. The problem, however, is not some underlying antagonism between Clinton and administration spokesmen. Rather, it’s lack of material to work with. As when Tom Friedman posed the question, one can see the difficulty it presents even for Hillary herself.

Don’t forget proto-Obamacare….

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Recently, Barack Obama — a Demosthenes determined to elevate our politics from coarseness to elegance; a Pericles sent to ameliorate our rhetorical impoverishment — spoke at the University of Michigan. He came to that very friendly venue — in 2012, he received 67?percent of the vote in Ann Arbor’s county — after visiting a local sandwich shop, where a muse must have whispered in the presidential ear. Rep.?Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) had recently released his budget, so Obama expressed his disapproval by calling it, for the benefit of his academic audience, a “meanwich” and a “stinkburger.”

Try to imagine Franklin Roosevelt or Dwight Eisenhower or John Kennedy or Ronald Reagan talking like that. It is unimaginable that those grown-ups would resort to japes that fourth-graders would not consider sufficiently clever for use on a playground.

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Well, not every highway, but all of the Interstate and U.S. highways, which is still pretty cool.

This would be incredibly useful for long-distance road trips.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds turns over a rock.

Full-time administrators now outnumber full-time faculty. And when times get tough, schools have a disturbing tendency to shrink faculty numbers while keeping administrators on the payroll. Teaching gets done by low-paid, nontenured adjuncts, but nobody ever heard of an “adjunct administrator.”

But it’s not just the fat that is worrisome. It’s administrators’ obsession with — and all too often, abuse of — security that raises serious concerns. At the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, Clyde W. Barrow, a leading professor, has just quit, complaining of an administration that isolates itself from students and faculty behind keypads and security doors.

Isolation is bad. But worse still is the growing tendency of administrators to stifle critics by shamelessly interpreting even obviously harmless statements as “threats.” A recent example took place at Bergen Community College, where Professor Francis Schmidt was suspended, and ordered to undergo a psychiatric examination over a “threat” that consisted of posting a picture of his 9-year old daughter wearing a Game Of Thrones T-shirt. The shirt bore a quote from the show, reading: “I will take what is mine with fire & blood.” Bergen administrator Jim Miller apparently thought the picture, which was posted to Schmidt’s Google Plus account, was somehow intended as a threat to him. (Schmidt had filed a labor grievance a couple of months earlier.)

Read it.

From now on, if anybody comes up to you and says ‘WAR … uh … What is it good for?”, you’ve got an answer for them.

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Much like the growth of socialism early in the 20th century.

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Another Inside the Crust investigation by one of its most reliable Voices.

Public Service Announcement: You don’t need to put an Obama sticker on your Prius. We get it.

Read it.

Almost all of it owned by the government, I’d bet.

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The National Low Income Housing Coalition took those fair market rents and calculated how much a worker would have to earn per hour to cover such modest housing, if we assume a 40-hour work week and a 52-week year. They call this rate a “housing wage,” and it is, unsurprisingly, much higher than the minimum wage in much of the country.

Of course, that assumes one person per apartment, which is how the Crust prefer to live.

Read it.

My, what a surprise! Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Actually, I’m most greatly surprised that a Voice of the Crust blew the whistle on their peeps in the government. Must be a slow news day.

Read it.

I really like the first one.

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Paul Kupiec found that the average bank employee made $49,540 in 2012, similar to the average annual salary across all occupations, which is $45,790.

The average compensation at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the consumer Financial Protection Bureau was more than $190,000 in 2012. The Federal Reserve, which likely has even higher salaries, does not release its employees’ salaries.

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Despite huge donations from the Service Employees International Union and numerous blog posts advocating for unionization in other industries, Media Matters for America is actively resisting allowing its workers to join the union.

My, what a surprise! Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.