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Of course they do.

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This country is too full of fascists who think that we need a ‘National Policy’ on everything under the sun – and pandering politicians only too ready to take them up on it.

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It was January in the Texas Panhandle—flat land, big sky, bitter day. On our way out to see the cloned heifers, Jones had stopped to break the ice on some water troughs. The Nance Ranch, on the outskirts of Canyon, is a research facility belonging to West Texas A&M University (WTAMU), where Jones is a graduate student. He manages the ranch and comes to check on the clones every day.

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Another crooked black Democrat politician. This is news?

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You don’t have to be convicted of a crime — or even accused of one — for police to seize your car or other property. It’s legal. Several videos online are shedding some light on the controversial practice.

The practice is called civil asset forfeiture, and every year it brings cities millions of dollars in revenue, which often goes directly to the police budget. Police confiscate cars, jewelry, cash and homes they think are connected to crime. But the people these things belong to may have done nothing wrong.

In one video posted by The New York Times, Harry S. Connelly, the city attorney of Las Cruces, N.M., gleefully describes how the city collects these “little goodies,” calling it a “gold mine.”

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Everything you need to know about what happened in Benghazi. It’s long but very thorough.

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When fried, the new potatoes, called Innate potatoes, produce less of a chemical called acrylamide. Acrylamide appears in some starchy foods when they’re cooked at high temperatures. It’s most abundant in French fries and potato chips. It also appears in tobacco smoke. Scientists think acrylamide raises people’s risk for certain cancers, but it’s not clear how much acrylamide people to have to eat to raise their risk for cancer… so it’s not clear how much eating Innates would lower their risk, the New York Times reports. Innate potatoes also bruise less than non-GMO potatoes, a quality that farmers and shippers prefer.

Cue outrage from the Regressive Left. (Notice how potatoes are always white? They’re raaaaaaacist.)

[Remind me again why potatoes have to be approved by the Federal government.]

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Why? Because they can.

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Funny how the people who make the loudest noise about being opposed to ‘H8’ are the worst haters around.

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Jabhat al-Nusra, like the Lebanse Shi’ite organization, is emerging as a movement that combines uncompromising jihadi ideology with tactical flexibility. Jabhat al-Nusra, the Islamist group which constitutes al-Qaida’s “official franchise” in Syria, this week carried out a successful offensive against Western-backed rebel militias in northern Syria. Key areas were captured.

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Obviously, by bringing a perfectly safe item—such as the confiscated faux-TNT packaged cologne pictured to the right—in your carry-on bag, you are at fault for holding up security checkpoint lines when Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials mistakenly flag it as dangerous.

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Last week, senior officials of the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) were quietly busted for using a student hiring scheme as a jobs program for their relatives. The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General report (PDF) notes that nepotism has become widespread at the agency, with 16 percent of hires in the student program consisting of relatives of existing employees.

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Once upon a time, food was about where you came from. Now, for many of us, it is about where we want to go—about who we want to be, how we choose to live. Food has always been expressive of identity, but today those identities are more flexible and fluid; they change over time, and respond to different pressures. Some aspects of this are ridiculous: the pickle craze, the báhn-mì boom, the ramps revolution, compulsory kale. Is northern Thai still hot? Has offal gone away yet? Is Copenhagen over? The intersection of food and fashion is silly, just as the intersection of fashion and anything else is silly. Underlying it, however, is that sense of food as an expression of an identity that’s defined, in some crucial sense, by conscious choice. For most people throughout history, that wasn’t true. The apparent silliness and superficiality of food fashions and trends touches on something deep: our ability to choose who we want to be.

…

Not so long ago, food was food. (I’ve lost count of the number of conversations I’ve had with people in the industry, debating some point backward and forward, that end with someone shrugging and saying, “It’s just food.”) That’s not true anymore. Food is now politics and ethics as much as it is sustenance. People feel pressure to shop and eat responsibly, healthfully, sustainably. At least, that’s the impression you get from what’s written and said about food culture—that it’s a form of surrogate politics. To some, it’s not even surrogate politics; it’s the real deal, politics at its most urgent and consequential. Alice Waters presents the case beautifully: “Eating is a political act, but in the way the ancient Greeks used the word ‘political’—not just to mean having to do with voting in an election, but to mean ‘of, or pertaining to, all our interactions with other people’—from the family to the school, to the neighborhood, the nation, and the world. Every single choice we make about food matters, at every level. The right choice saves the world.”

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For those of you who don’t have a librarian or professional activist in your life, Banned Book Week (a combination of words which allows for no tasteful acronym) is an annual program sponsored by the American Library Association that “celebrates the freedom to read” by discussing attempts to “censor or ban books.”  To be fair, this organization and many of the bloggers and journalists who write about the occasion do from time to time discuss historical examples of actual censorship. However, their main focus is on more recent events, primarily examples of people challenging a book’s presence on a library’s shelf or on their child’s school reading list. You see, this too is censorship and a threat to our freedom, according to the ALA.

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Nationwide, the average worker spends 24.7 minutes, each way, traveling to and from work. People who drive alone spend 24.4 minutes; people who carpool spend 28.0 minutes; people who walk take 11.9 minutes; and people who take transit take 48.7 minutes.

Private transportation takes you from where you are to where you want to be. Public transport takes you from where it’s convenient for the public transport system to where it’s convenient for the public transport system to go. Those two are almost never the same.

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Remembrance Day has been observed in the United Kingdom, and throughout the Commonwealth, since 1919. It was originally intended to honor those killed in the Great War, and has since been expanded to recognize British and other Commonwealth soldiers who have died in subsequent conflicts. Armistice Day is November 11, but in England, the main observance takes place on Remembrance Sunday, the Sunday closest to November 11.

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If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

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Two words: ‘home school’.

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YouTube’s infringement reporting system is — like many others around the web — fundamentally broken. Making bogus copyright claims is still an easy way to get channels shut down or to siphon ad revenue from existing videos. It can also be used as a censor — a cheap and dirty way to shut up critics or remove compromising video.

Apparently, Islamic extremists linked with Al-Qaeda have found another use for YouTube’s mostly automated dispute process: low-effort doxxing. According to German news sites, a YouTube channel (Al Hayat TV) known for its criticism of Islam has had to send its listed contact person into hiding after bogus copyright claims filed by extremists led to the exposure of his personal information.

On September 25th, someone using the name “First Crist, Copyright” filed bogus copyright complaints against Al Hayat TV. In order to prevent the channel from being shut down for multiple “strikes,” Al Hayat TV was forced to file a counter notification. But in order to do so, the channel operators had to expose sensitive information.

When there’s a war and only one side is actually fighting, guess who wins?

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Mike Brown was trash and he came from trash, and that’s becoming plainer and plainer.

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In recent years, the company has gotten noticeably good at something that wasn’t always its focus — developing technology products to get pizzas to people more easily.

Yeah, well, it’s still Domino’s pizza….

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But Obama’s response in Iraq looks robust compared to his plan for countering ISIS in Syria. There, current plans call for the training of 1,500 members of the Free Syrian Army next year (assuming it still exists next year). As Boot notes, ISIS is estimated to have some 30,000 fighters. Moreover, the Free Syrian Army must also combat the Assad regime and the Nusra Front, which recently routed it in Northern Syria.

In short, Obama’s response to ISIS remains pathetic. To say that it consists of half-measures is to give him too much credit.

Worst. President. Ever.

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Fox does a good job of mocking NAACP, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democrat Party.

Steve Sailer gives us the news.

Jeez, if he just tried a little harder he could have found a black woman with a Hispanic surname. What an opportunity missed!

Of course, Steve focuses on the less important aspects of the pick:

So, kind of a parody of an Obama AG nomination: an upper crust black woman (Obama isn’t comfortable around blacks who didn’t go to Harvard), but with experience working with Rev. Al to fight the Greatest Problem of Our Time, the White Racist War on Black Babies’ Bodies.

By the way, all this obsession lately with the phrases “black babies” and “black bodies?” I wonder if it’s really a setup by the thinner-lipped sort of Talented Tenth Harvard African-Americans who see themselves as the natural leaders of the black masses to get their blacker potential rivals to embarrass themselves trying to say “black babies’ bodies.” Somebody should try to get Jesse Jackson on video attempting to say “black babies’ bodies.”

That would indeed be amusing, to the extent that anything about Jesse Jackson is amusing.

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Of course — that’s the first thing they ask you when you arrive at the courtroom: Do you have a lawyer? If you say “No”, they won’t let you in. No exceptions.

Don’t even think of suggesting that people who are criminals by their very presence here would skip out on a court date. Never happen. Perish the thought.

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Although you would think that the ‘legalize ’em all, let Rand sort it out’ crusaders at tReason magazine would be all for that. But I guess not.

It’s been a bad public relations year for the violence- and corruption-plagued Rikers Island Correctional Facility in New York City. Reports of prison guards savagely bludgeoning inmates to death—and more often than not getting off scot-free. Hundreds of inmates suffering serious injury from guard brutality. A culture of fear and intimidation to suppress any repercussions for officers and their superiors. And all this at a hefty price for taxpayers.

So, how much do you care:

[] Not much

[] Even less than that

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Remember the Children’s Crusade of 1212?

Something similar is happening today. Unlike the followers of little Stephan, however, these diminutive “French” mujahideen have reached their destination. Now they’re in Syria with their guns, eager to wage jihad and wrest the land back from the murtadeen and the mushrikun.

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Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Education wrapped up its investigation of Princeton University’s sexual harassment and assault policies. The findings were unsurprising, though still striking: the government essentially accused the university of violating federal anti-discrimination law by extending too much due process to accused students.

Of course, nobody cares, because, hey, it’s Princeton, but the principle is still important: The government is our enemy, not our friend.

T-Rex Shower Head.

Turkey Lifter.

Space Pirate Watch.

Mini Washing Machine.

Electric Quadrofoil watercraft. Mount a .50-cal on that sucker and you got a deal.

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The New Yorker is a pretty reliable barometer of What’s Happenin’ Now among the Crust. Here they do the whole Bad Gluten thing.

For many people, avoiding gluten has become a cultural as well as a dietary choice, and the exposition offered an entry ramp to a new kind of life. There was a travel agent who specialized in gluten-free vacations, and a woman who helps plan gluten-free wedding receptions. One vender passed out placards: “I am nut free,” “I am shellfish free,” “I am egg free,” “I am wheat free.” I also saw an advertisement for gluten-free communion wafers.

I’m waiting for the one that tells the truth: ‘I am brain-free.’

Gavin McInnes observes a new trend.

Young women today are realizing their grandmothers didn’t have it so bad. The greatest generation sure seems happier than all these divorced baby boomers bitching about their ex-husband as they take half his salary every month.

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As one woman pauses to wipe the sweat from her eyes, she spots me studying her. I’ve been trying not to stare, but it’s a strange spectacle, this John Henry workout of theirs, hammering away in front of a women’s fitness center, just a few doors down from a smoke shop and a hair salon. It looks exhausting, and more than a little dangerous. (What if a sledgehammer slips and flies from one woman’s hands, braining her companion?) It also looks fruitless. Why not join a roofing crew for a few hours instead? Surely, there’s a tunnel somewhere that needs digging, or at least some hot tar that needs pouring.

Hint: Fifty percent of the population is below average in intelligence. That’s a lot of gym memberships.

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Michael Brown’s mother has been named as one of the ‘attackers’ who assaulted and robbed vendors selling t-shirts commemorating the youngster’s death.

…

Pearlie Gordon, 54, Brown’s mother-in-law, and two men were selling ‘Justice for Mike Brown’ merchandise when the subjects ‘jumped out of vehicles and rushed them’ during what police are classifying as an armed robbery.

Obviously they weren’t letting Mom wet her beak.

More here.

The robbery is apparently part of a family feud over who is allowed to benefit from the sale of Michael Brown memorabilia such as T-shirts.

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It seems that despite Abbott’s amazing charitable ways, the mayor of the city, Jack Seiler, has nothing but disgust for the selfless old man.

Seiler is, of course, a Democrat.

Seiler told Local 10, ‘Mr. Abbott has decided that he doesn’t think these individuals should have to have any interaction with government, that they should be fed in the parks. We disagree.’

‘All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.’ — Benito Mussolini. (Pretty much the motto of the Democrat party.)

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Now, add ‘climate change’ to the list of potential disasters to be prepared for, and imagine how much this Voice of the Crust would change her tone.

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New Zealand’s Duke Engines has been busy developing and demonstrating excellent results with a bizarre axial engine prototype that completely does away with valves, while delivering excellent power and torque from an engine much smaller, lighter and simpler than the existing technology. We spoke with Duke co-founder John Garvey to find out how the Duke Axial Engine project is going.

This is really slick. Be sure to watch the videos.

Don Boudreaux, a Real Economist, explains it all to you.

The typical voter devotes more time to learning how to program his TV’s remote control than how to assess how each candidate’s likely actions while in office will affect society. Voters’ inattentiveness to the substance of public-policy questions is rational: If public policies will be whatever they will be regardless of how, or even if, you vote, why spend your valuable time learning the details of public-policy issues? Better that you spend that time learning about matters that you can individually control.

Most voters are therefore rationally uninterested in the substantive details of public policies. So, voters instead pay attention only to the most superficial aspects of political questions. And politicians — whose expertise is in campaigning and winning elections — cater to this disinterest by serving up only brainless campaign ads.

Can’t say he’s wrong.

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

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That will make a lot of ‘progressive’ heads explode.

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Good luck trying to join the Congressional Black Caucus.

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Skills we may all be needing soon, the way things are going.

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Is anyone surprised that school district rating systems for teacher performance are something of a joke? The Mackinac Center for Public Policy reports that the Flint Community School District in Michigan rated 94 percent of its teachers—and 99 percent of its administrators—as “effective” at their jobs, even though the district contains numerous “F” schools.

Freeberg cuts to the root.

From watching the video, one becomes aware of an uneasy truth: Too many people who see something wrong with some of the behavior see something wrong with all of it. This creates a problem in the definitions: If everything qualifies, then nothing does. Yes, saying “Hello” does cross the line. The activists won’t stop short of a new taboo, criminally enforced, that a man may not address a woman until she speaks first.

That is practically the definition of a caste system. And that’s the real issue here. Leftists, far from being all about equality, are all about castes. They’re all about special social privileges for identified classes. The real story here is that we have a “lefties feeding on their own” moment because, once again, they’re in conflict with their own kind about which privileged class should enjoy the most exalted privileges.

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In February of 2011, as the revolution gathered strength in Tahrir Square, all across the country the police disappeared, and in the Buried teams of looters opened more than two hundred pits. It wasn’t until the end of March, after President Hosni Mubarak resigned and the national situation had stabilized somewhat, that village police resumed patrols of the site.

…

The evidence was clear: looters had mistakenly targeted a modern structure. Adams speculated that it might have been a shepherd’s hut from the nineteen-fifties, or even a field house from an early archeological dig. Around the turn of the last century, large-scale excavations dramatically reshaped the landscape, leaving mounds of backfill all across the Buried. Adams told me that looters often targeted these mounds, which they assumed were situated above buried tombs. “It’s a mistake,” he said. “But we don’t want them to know that.”

Presumably it’s safe to assume that none of the Egyptian looters read The New Yorker.

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Only tiny pockets of culture that maintain extreme separation from the new pattern – especially through refusing outside education and preventing women from contact with the outside world – have fertility patterns plausibly consistent with uncontrolled fertility. These may include the Amish and Hassidim in the United States. Once the fertility transition to controlled fertility occurs in a population, its fertility generally continues to decline until it is below replacement. The benefits of the new pattern are increased material wealth per person, a reduction in disease, starvation, and genocide, and upward social mobility. The main drawback is the onset of a dysgenic phase that may end civilization as we know it.

I know a number of situations where four grandparents only have one grandchild, the only child of two only children.

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Mostly she learns that the Factory Model of education, which hasn’t changed in 200 years, is pretty inefficient.

But students move almost never. And never is exhausting. In every class for four long blocks, the expectation was for us to come in, take our seats, and sit down for the duration of the time. By the end of the day, I could not stop yawning and I was desperate to move or stretch. I couldn’t believe how alert my host student was, because it took a lot of conscious effort for me not to get up and start doing jumping jacks in the middle of Science just to keep my mind and body from slipping into oblivion after so many hours of sitting passively.

The urge to drift off to sleep during class is universal. And yet nothing is done about it.

I was drained, and not in a good, long, productive-day kind of way. No, it was that icky, lethargic tired feeling. I had planned to go back to my office and jot down some initial notes on the day, but I was so drained I couldn’t do anything that involved mental effort (so instead I watched TV) and I was in bed by 8:30.

That not only sounds like my schoolday, that sounds like my workday as well.

In eight periods of high school classes, my host students rarely spoke. Sometimes it was because the teacher was lecturing; sometimes it was because another student was presenting; sometimes it was because another student was called to the board to solve a difficult equation; and sometimes it was because the period was spent taking a test. So, I don’t mean to imply critically that only the teachers droned on while students just sat and took notes. But still, hand in hand with takeaway #1 is this idea that most of the students’ day was spent passively absorbing information.

Students are treated like widgets moving down the assembly line, having things done to them by the worker bees. Imagine what would happen if you tried to train a cat or a dog like that.

In addition, there was a good deal of sarcasm and snark directed at students and I recognized, uncomfortably, how much I myself have engaged in this kind of communication. I would become near apoplectic last year whenever a very challenging class of mine would take a test, and without fail, several students in a row would ask the same question about the test. Each time I would stop the class and address it so everyone could hear it. Nevertheless, a few minutes later a student who had clearly been working his way through the test and not attentive to my announcement would ask the same question again. A few students would laugh along as I made a big show of rolling my eyes and drily stating, “OK, once again, let me explain…”

Welcome to Law School, where first year is dedicated to the proposition that the professor is God and you are a rock.

I have a lot more respect and empathy for students after just one day of being one again. Teachers work hard, but I now think that conscientious students work harder. I worry about the messages we send them as they go to our classes and home to do our assigned work, and my hope is that more teachers who are able will try this shadowing and share their findings with each other and their administrations. This could lead to better “backwards design” from the student experience so that we have more engaged, alert, and balanced students sitting (or standing) in our classes.

Don’t hold your breath….

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An interesting concept but I doubt that it will scale.