Read it.

A reporter wearing a kippah, a Jewish skullcap, was attacked in the Swedish city of Malmo in an experiment to gage anti-Jewish attitudes, according to an Expressen report highlighted by Algemeiner. Peter Lindgren, who is not Jewish, walked through Malmo with a hidden camera and was subjected to direct threats by various individuals.

In a documentary which aired on Sweden’s national television last week, one man is seen calling Lindgren a “Jewish s***” and told him to “leave,” while another physically assaulted him and shouted “Satan Jew.”

The threats increased as the reporter approached areas with more Muslim residents.

The video shows a gang threatening Lindgren, while people from neighboring homes verbally abused him.

Tyler Cowen noticies these things so you don’t have to.

When I visited Santa Monica in January it struck me how much it reminded me of…Arlington.  Arlington is now essentially a part of Northwest, at least Arlington above Route 50 or so.  Arlington and Santa Monica have never been more alike, or less distinctive.

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Without mothers, the world would not be the place that it is. And yet, in our self-hating society, motherhood is denigrated, despised, and belittled. Mothers are mocked for becoming mothers, and then challenged to perform beyond human limits. When they fail? Mocked again. It’s enough to make you wonder why they bother.

Let’s put this into perspective. Only a very small portion of the world’s societies demand that a woman keep maintaining a career while trying to raise her children. As a result, neither the children nor the career get full justice. But in our society, should the mother choose her children over her career, then she is ‘giving in to the patriarchy’ and this is a shameful thing in the eyes of those who ought to be supporting her.

I am not saying that motherhood means mewing yourself up in the house with the children, your husband the only source of adult human contact… that would drive most people mad. I remember those days, and how helpful the internet was. I also was helping start up, then running full time, a successful small business from the time my first child was still in diapers. The phone and the internet made it possible for me, and had I been able to drive, I could have done even more.

The whole modern feminist shtick is that women have to work in an office for someone else in order to be Real People. Being an entrepreneur is apparently out of the question … as is being an author or a consultant or a programmer or anything else that can be done from the living room while listening to the baby monitor.

Read it.

This is an interesting piece in and of itself, but even more interesting for the context. This is not an article that would have been written by somebody who actually lived in Oklahoma; no, this is the sort of article written by someone from Washington, D.C. (or New York or Boston or San Francisco), a bona fide inhabitant of the Crust for whom the middle of America is effectively a foreign country, one inhabited by people who kind of speak the same language but in accents that Our Author only hears in movies or on TV by somebody trying to be funny or trying to express foreign-ness.

This comes out even in the opening paragraph:

The freedom of the open road holds no appeal for my 16-year-old son, Miro. Like many of his generation, he sees cars as agents of global warming and the reason American suburbs can be soulless places with no sense of community, let alone pedestrians. Plus, he gets carsick.

Typical Crustian kid being inculcated with typical Crustian concerns. His only experience with ‘produce’ is what shows up under plastic at Whole Foods. Being concerned about global warming is just What Kids Do, like posting selfies to Facebook. He might actually mow a lawn but more likely it’s done by somebody whose first language wasn’t English. (Full disclosure: as mine is.) The whole point of the family’s trip is to retrace a route, not as an actual family from the Dust Bowl era would have done it, but as characters in a Famous Literary Work were said to have done. (I suspect that the author was an English major in college.) This is like trying to learn medieval history by tracing the adventures of Lancelout from Le Morte d’Arthur.

I couldn’t believe how relevant the 75-year-old book—with its depiction of industrial agriculture squeezing out small farmers, climate-driven environmental woes, and migrant workers at the mercy of big landowners—felt today.

Note the desideratum: Relevance. Not accuracy, not authenticity, not getting into the head of people from back then; relevance. (Can ‘consciousness raising’ be far behind?) The author could be a Peace Corps volunteer tromping down Route 66 to See What The Natives Can Teach Us About Our Lives.

As they saying goes, Read The Whole Thing.

Steve Sailer connects the dots so you don’t have to.

I’ve just had an insight into why Muslims are even more concentrated in prisons near big cities in France: as Willie Sutton might have said, because that’s where the Muslims are.

Read it.

The website of Terrasse-Vaudreuil, a small town in Quebec, was recently hacked by cyber-mujahideen. The mayor of Terrasse-Vaudreuil is perplexed — he doesn’t understand why the jihadis would target his town, which is open and tolerant and never has any trouble with its culture-enriching minorities. He obviously doesn’t understand the concept of Dar al-Harb, which his town is part of, nor the fact that faithful Muslims are required to make war against it in the cause of Allah, no matter how nice it is to them.

Read it.

Thank God somebody can find Obama’s Syria policy; I’ve been looking for it for years without success.

The Other McCain allows us a peek behind the curtain.

Emily McCombs is a recovering addict with tattoos and a pierced nose, not to mention a history of bulimia and sexual perversion, so it only makes sense that she is executive editor of the feminist blog XOJane.com. Feminism is a movement of “broken people” who blame “society” for their misfortunes and thus feel compelled to avenge themselves by destroying civilization as we know it.

Steve Sailer is on the case.

Following up Masha Gessen’s article in The New Yorker, here’s an NYT column on the apparently burning issue of just how big a threat white racists are to poor Dzhokhar Tsarnaev over his not looking white enough.

Sure, he’s white, but not white-white.

Of course, unprivileged discriminated against nonwhites like Professor Nour Kteily of the Kellogg School of Management should not be subjected to such indignities. It’s hard enough for upper middle class Lebanese to get by in the racist hellhole of America when they come here from Canada to share with us ignorant Americans their world-famous Lebanese wisdom on how different ethnic groups can all get along. (E.g., Should your ethnic group shell your neighbors’ apartment buildings with heavy artillery or just stick with sniper fire? Perhaps mortars make an ideal compromise?)

Yeah, I can see that as a problem.

Read it.

The term “hypersonic” generally refers to a class of long-range precision strike weapons that travel at Mach 5 or better. This definition generally excludes such munitions as the LRLAP (long-range land attack projectile), fired by the Advanced Gun System, which can only travel sixty miles, as well as traditional cruise missiles such as the Tomahawk, which travel under the speed of sound.

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We know about seating plans, table arrangements, etiquette and procedure at many formal meals. Cookery books survive to reveal the kind of dishes that were informally served, and poems and stories attest to what poorer folk ate for supper and dinner.

Breakfasts, by comparison, do not have their literature. Chroniclers did not observe monarchs eating breakfast. The first meal of the day is thus one of those features of life that has slipped through the historian’s net.

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As noted at The College Fix back on January 20, one of the ideas you’ll not likely hear about in President Obama’s tax machinations is the repeal of tax-free 529 college saving plans.

The president wants these plans now to be taxed as ordinary income, with as rates as high as 39.6%.

529 plan expert Joe Hurley says this “will result in their effective repeal, as new contributions in will ‘dry up’ overnight.”

But ironically, Mr. Obama took quite advantage of 529 tax rules back in 2007.

…

Forbes writer Ryan Ellis points out this presidential hypocrisy is not unlike that from 2009 when the president wanted to nix 1,700 low income school scholarships for kids in Washington DC … all the while sending his daughters to the exclusive Sidwell Friends School.

Read it.

Wow, BHO’s tax ideas sure are stinky. If only there was an alternative political party to speak of.

If only….

Read it.

The fact that this fiery anti-union tirade passed the lips of a blue state Democrat tells you everything you need to know about just how thoroughly teaches union have alienated many of their natural political allies. And this isn’t merely some quirk of New York politics, as the same thing has happened on a local scale in numerous cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles. Democratic politicians everywhere are more willing to take on teachers unions than ever before.

Right back atcha, Andy — don’t say you represent the people.

Read it.

One of the great advantages of being a historian is that you don’t get your knickers in as much of a twist over how bad things are today. If you think this year is bad, try 1347, when the Black Death covered most of Europe, one-third of the world had died, and (to add insult to injury) there was also (in Europe) the little matter of the Hundred Years’ War and the Babylonian Captivity of the Church (where the pope had moved to Avignon, France, and basically the Church was being transformed into a subsidiary of the French regime). Things are looking up already, aren’t they?

Another thing is economics. Everyone complains about taxes, prices, and how expensive it is to live any more. I’m not going to go into taxes – that way lies madness. But I can tell you that living has never been cheaper. We live in a country awash in stuff – food, clothing, appliances, machines, cheap crap from China – but it’s never enough. $4 t-shirts? Please. We want five for $10, and even then, can we get them on sale? And yet, compared to a world where everything is made by hand – we’re talking barely 200 years ago – everything is cheap and plentiful, and we are appallingly ungrateful.

…

Anyway, with clothing that expensive and hard to make, every item was something you wore until it literally disintegrated. Even in 1800, a farm woman would be lucky to own three dresses – one for best and the other two for daily living. Heck, my mother, in 1930, went to college with that exact number of dresses to her name… This is why old clothing is rare: even the wealthy passed their old clothes on to the next generation or the poorer classes. The poor wore theirs until it could be worn no more, and then it was cut down for their children, and then used for rags of all kinds, and then, finally, sold to the rag and bone man who would transport it off to be made into (among other things) paper.

tReason magazine is at it again.

Immigration is good for the United States. That fact is undeniable.

Wrong — I deny it. So make your case. (As if that will ever happen….)

Some immigration is good for the United States. I’d love to see us be more welcoming to rich people who will bring money (and investment, and growth) to the U.S. I’d really love to see us welcome more Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans, whose cultural predilection for hard work, respect for authority, and devotion to family would boost the currently degenerating American culture no end.

Opening the floodgates to barely educated, criminally-inclined campesinos from south of the border — not so much.

Read it.

The only problem I have with it is the column ‘Reporter Ratings’, as if ‘journalists’ are some sort of paragons of virtue.

Read it. (autoplay video)

I guess one dead nonagenarian Arab is worth more than a dozen slaughtered Frenchmen in Obama-land.

If Obama actually were a Muslim, what (if anything) would he be doing differently?

Come Back With a Warrant Front Mat.

The Nightlighter.

Ceramic Pot Minder. No, the other kind.

Tactical Self-Defense Flashlight With Spikes. Perfect for the Klingon on your gift list.

Candle-Powered Heater.

Leatherman Bracelet with wrenches and screwdrivers.

Automatic Jar Opener. No more Mr Nice Guy….

Read it.

A new procedure can quickly and efficiently increase the length of human telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes that are linked to aging and disease, according to scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Treated cells behave as if they are much younger than untreated cells, multiplying with abandon in the laboratory dish rather than stagnating or dying.

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On May 20th, 2009 Jordan’s King Abdullah officially opened the King Abdullah Special Operations Training Center (KASOTC), a facility set against a dramatic pocketed plateau on the northern outskirts of Amman. It is called the most advanced special operations training complex in the world and it looks like a life-sized GI Joe dream set.

Now, ask yourself why Jordan, of all places, has need for such a training facility.

Read it.

Well, he would know. Perhaps he ought to change the name to ‘The Problem of SWPLness’.

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Just think of all the maritime superpowers threatening their borders. Oh, wait….

They’d do better to keep an eye on Putin.

Read it.

That will come as news to the people at Harvard and Yale, to say nothing of Oxford and Cambridge.

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And AlGore is right there to second that emotion.

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So for some time now, we have had a Czar to be in charge of Ebola. Oh, not an actual doctor, of course, just a spin doctor. A career bureaucrat and hanger-on. And we haven’t heard Word One about Ebola or the Czar since. Wouldn’t you love to know his salary? Wouldn’t you love to have it? Apparently, just appointing a Czar did the trick and the crisis is now over! Huzzah! I plan to appoint a Czar of Housekeeping and Cooking in hopes that those things will be taken care of as easily. Oh wait, I think that’s me.

So what has the head of the CDC been doing with his time, then? Could he not have outsourced to underlings the task of hounding people to get this year’s near-worthless flu shots? Better still, could they not have come closer to guessing the actual flu varieties for the shot so that my elderly parents didn’t get horribly sick along with all of their fellow residents in their assisted living facility? They all got flu shots like good little soldiers.

Then, too, they might have saved several hundred thousand dollars if they had decided to take a pass on studying why so many lesbians are fat.

Don Boudreaux, a Real Economist, takes a delightful look at an alternate reality.

… news reports would regularly include stories of “grocery experts” offering new and “pioneering” proposals to improve grocery distribution, and the citizens of “grocery districts” meeting with their local “grocery boards” to discuss and debate these different proposals.  Each affiliate of a major national network (like each of the national networks), as well as each newspaper and other significant news outlet, would have its own “grocery reporter” (or “grocery correspondent”) to keep tabs on the latest efforts to improve the way government delivers groceries to citizens.

When new big-city mayors are sworn into office they would typically replace the incumbent “Grocery Superintendents” (or “Grocery Chancellors”) with their own preferred “Grocery Superintendents” (or “Chancellors”).  The local policy punditry would discuss in great detail the differences in the grocery-supply philosophies of the new Grocery Superintendents compared to those of the outgoing Superintendents.  ”Grocery-beat reporters” would often solicit from people on the street these people’s opinions of the different methods proposed to improve grocery distribution.  Question such as “Do you think new Grocery Chancellor Smith’s proposal to allow a handful of people to buy their groceries from charter grocery stores is a good idea?  Or do you side with former Chancellor Jones in staunchly opposing charter grocery stores?” would be asked and seriously answered.

…

Anyone proposing to get government out of the grocery-supply business would, of course, be ridiculed as being totally unrealistic or being an out-of-touch ideologue, or accused of harboring a secret desire to see the the vast majority of people suffer starvation while only the top one percent of the population continues to enjoy excellent access to superb groceries.  Likewise, proposals to cut (or to not increase) grocery-district funding would be widely condemned as being pro-starvation proposals.  And efforts to measure the performance of grocery-store workers would be mocked as impossible as well as unfair to such workers.  Efforts to restrain the pay of grocery-store workers would be portrayed as efforts to deny ordinary citizens access to the best possible supply of groceries.

Mark Steyn, in addition to being on of the most entertaining political commentators around, knows more about popular American music than I would have believed humanly possible. Today he takes a fascinating look at ‘Sinatra Song of the Century #5’ and the people who made it great.

Who wrote “It Had To Be You”? Cole Porter? The Gershwins? No, it was Isham Jones and Gus Kahn. Who? Don’t laugh: By some rankings, Gus Kahn is second only to Irving Berlin in the number of hit songs he wrote, including our very first two Songs of the Week, “San Francisco” (Number One) and “Dream A Little Dream Of Me” (Number Two). Frank sang a lot of Gus Kahn lyrics. Kahn has two tracks on the defining Sinatra LP of the Fifties, Songs For Swingin’ Lovers – “Makin’ Whoopee” and “Swingin’ Down The Lane”, which is the nearest thing to a title song.

Read it.

To stop climate change, Al Gore wants to spend a mere $90 trillion rebuilding all of the world’s cities so that everyone is living in such high-density neighborhoods that they don’t need cars. While a few curmudgeonly types might think that $90 trillion sounds like a lot of money, it really isn’t, say Gore and former Mexico president Filipe Calderon. After all, the world is probably going to spend the $90 trillion on something in the next few years anyway, so what’s wrong with spending it on this?

Gore made the proposal at an economics conference in Davos, Switzerland attended by billionaires who fly in on private jets so they can tell other people they need to get used to consuming less. Of course, neither Gore nor the other millionaires and billionaires at the conference expect to be stuck living in a high-density apartment any time soon.

Read it.

The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 is known by the Arabs as the nakba, the “catastrophe”, because it allowed the despised Jews to rule over territory that had been Muslim since the Arabs first poured out of Arabia in the 7th century. How could Allah permit these apes and pigs to do anything so vile? Faithful Muslims must right this wrong! The believers were required to fight until the Jews were driven into the sea and the honor of Islam restored.

This is why “peace in the Middle East” remains so elusive. From a Muslin point of view, there will be no peace in the Middle East as long as there are Jews in the Middle East. It’s as simple as that.

Gates of Vienna is an amazing web site, at the center of a great assemblage of sharp people (both here and in overseas) who are dedicated to getting the word out on the jihad terrorism that inhabits the heart of Islam. They are supported by donations from other people with the same concerns who actually have day jobs. Please stop by and drop a dollar or two their way; they do good and important work.

Read it.

The Middle East is losing its ancient Christian heritage. When Iraq was invaded in 2003, 1.5 million Christians were living there. Now the figure is 400,000 and falling. The savagery of the Islamic State has accelerated the Christian exodus.

Reminder for the dimwitted: Islam is an oppressive totalitarian ideology, masquerading as a religion, with which no co-existence is possible.

Read it.

Fighters for one of the factions battling for control of Libya seized the Benghazi branch of the country’s central bank on Thursday, threatening to set off an armed scramble for the bank’s vast stores of money and gold, and cripple one of the last functioning institutions in the country.

The central bank is the repository for Libya’s oil revenue and holds nearly $100 billion in foreign currency reserves. It is the great prize at the center of the armed struggles that have raged here since the overthrow of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2011. Western leaders had hoped that it might play a crucial role in helping to bring the rest of the country back together.

It takes some real talent to be worse than Qaddafi.

How’s that ‘Arab Spring’ workin’ out for ya?

Read it.

Venturing down a line of legislative reasoning that apparently sees threats to the republic in convenience store clerks, security guards, globe-trotting journalists, and shopkeepers nervy enough to do business in troubled neighborhoods, Rep. Mike Honda (D-YouGottaBeKiddingMe) offers up HR 378, The Responsible Body Armor Possession Act. Yes, it is in fact a bill intended to limit people’s ability to own gear that reduces injuries and death caused by bullets.

Read it.

But the preferred solution, for those who bitch the loudest, is — more government meddling. Idiots.

Read it.

Lucky Netanyahu. But he still has to be around Boehner; hard to say which prospect is more unpleasant.

Read it.

Thomas Piketty, writing with economist Emmanuel Saez, has estimated that those in the bottom 90% of the income distribution received only 9% of the income gains between 1979 and 2007 (the year before the onset of the Great Recession).

But their estimate ignores government transfer payments, and it doesn’t take into account the aging of the population, among other things. When these adjustments are made, a much less pessimistic result emerges.

Why ‘pessimistic’? Some people have a lot more money than other people? Why is that a problem? The assumption seems to be that ‘Well, it’s a problem’, without any discussion (much less evidence) as to why it’s a problem. The people who bitch about it the most are the people who seem to assume that it’s ipso facto some sort of evidence of ‘social injustice’, but they can’t ever be bothered to explain why that is; they just assume it, and far too many people who ought to know better just accept that assumption without questioning it.

That’s horseshit, and I’ll be the first to say it. You want me to worry about income inequality? Okay, explain to me why it’s something to worry about. Otherwise, STFU.

Read it.

The finding was made when a landlord claimed his tenant had ruined a marble floor by sprinkling it with urine.

The disgruntled landlord tried to retain a €3,000 (£2,300) deposit for the damage allegedly caused by his guest’s acidic spillage.

But Judge Stefan Hank today ruled that men who stand up to relieve themselves cannot be held to account for any collateral damage.

And there was much rejoicing.

Read it.

Note that the amendment didn’t say man-made climate change.

The amendment even won support from James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), one of the vanguard of Republican climate change deniers who had previously called the phenomenon a hoax. Inhofe voted in favor of the amendment, stating that Earth’s climate has “always changed,” and citing “biblical evidence” to support the theory.

…

The Senate has gone on record to agree that climate change is real, but the governmental body is still split on its causes — other amendments introduced later in the day that attributed climate change to the actions of humans failed to receive the 60 votes required to pass, despite some Republican support.

I guess they have to take their victories where they can get them.

Read it.

Undiscussed: The fact that they’d be fools not to. Lobbying Congress is like installing a sprinkler system in a factory; only idiots don’t.

Read it.

I’m in.

Have I mentioned that I don’t fly?

Read it.

The flashpoint for the gentrification conversation along Portland’s North Williams revolves around the bicycle. The cultural appetite for what the creative class likes and enjoys is in stark contrast to that of the African-American community. “North Williams Avenue wasn’t hip back in the late 1970s. There was no Tasty n Sons. No Ristretto Roasters. No 5th Quadrant. Back then, it was the heart of the African American community. It was wonderfully colorful and gritty.” As the black community saw their own businesses close down through economic disinvestment, they weren’t replaced with new businesses that they regarded as desirable. In the several hours I spent today at Ristretto I have seen roughly a hundred patrons come in and go out, plus others sitting outside on the patios of one of several nearby restaurants. Only three were African-American. As I mentioned earlier, the buildings that surround this coffee shop are home to many African-American families. And yet these new businesses do not appeal to their cultural tastes.

Welcome to the Left Coast. Be careful not to step in the diversity.

Read it.

Following a complaint that one entrance to Romare Bearden Park in Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, wasn’t handicapped accessible, officials used benches to block that stairway. Some people are now using another entrance to the park, but others, who presumably aren’t handicapped, are simply going over or around the benches.

Presumably the theory is that if handicapped people can’t use it, nobody ought to be allowed to use it.

Read it.

The latest news from Hawai’i is that the Honululu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) lied to the city council when it told them the city’s rail project was $500 million to $700 million over budget. It turns out it’s really $910 million over budget. HART was just hoping to cover up $210 million of the deficit by quietly transferring bus money to the rail project.

Read it.

In between gasps about the hottest year ever, and palpitations over fracking, environmentalists have been worked up for a long time now about BPA—bisphenol-A, an ingredient in many plastic products.  Environmentalists want it banned, because Rosie O’Donnell or something.  Well, European environmental regulators, who typically ban [six impossible] things before breakfast, have given BPA a clean bill of health.

Read it.

The Charlie Hebdo massacre has really shaken up French political leaders, forcing them to get serious about dealing with Islamic terrorists on French soil. Today Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced strong new measures to combat the rise of Islamic extremism. His planned actions include spending €425 million, creating 2,800 jobs, and… hiring sixty imams!

I feel safer already.

Read it.

Once again, it’s remarkable that this material is finally making its way into major media outlets. Is it possible that the Charlie Hebdo massacre in France has rattled the nomenklatura in Quebec? Have they been forced to conduct an actual investigation into the consequences of the Islamization of their province?

Read it.

The refusal of social democrats, liberals and leftists to stand up to Islamofascism in the democracies of Europe, North America, India and South Africa, has also had an unintended consequence. It has paved the way for an anti-immigrant backlash against all non-whites, in which the left are portrayed as apologists for religious fanaticism. An unnecessary rise of xenophobia that could have been avoided, had the left led the struggle against Islamofascism, is now entrenched.