Read it.

One rule of identity politics is that you get to choose your identity: ‘I identify as trans Latinx’. Another rule is that your identity is fated: ‘I was born trans Latinx’. The assumption of choice applies the logic of the market in a society of cheap credit and easy bankruptcy. The invoking of biological destiny is the crude mechanics of Victorian race theory.

This is a pastiche of the ‘nature versus nurture’ debate. The purpose, though, isn’t the ‘identity’ part, solving the mystery of how we are made and become ourselves, but the ‘politics’ part. As in evolution, choice and heredity are complementary strategies, deployed for competitive advantage.

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U.S. News and World Report changed the ranking system for its Best Colleges report by recognizing universities with higher enrollment and graduation rates of lower income students.

The changes were announced Monday, according to a U.S. News press release. The changes decreased the weight of SAT/ACT scores and expert opinions along with removing acceptance rate as a criteria in the rankings.

So the rankings have been ‘adjusted’ to reflect SJW values rather than, you know, the actual quality of the education. (Colleges that have strong racial preferences will have larger dropout rates and can’t possibly be allowed to suffer because of that.)

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One of the problems with child activists is that they are ignorant.

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The hits just keep on comin’.

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How about that GREAT government-provided health care? Don’t you wish we had a system like that in the U.S.?

Feel the Bern….

Steven Hayward on the benefits of pwning libs.

These days “owning the libs” seems to be a booming business. I own lots of libs.* I picked them up at a discount during the Obama years. Owning a lib is even cheaper than owning a house with Fannie Mae’s 3% down payment program during the housing bubble years. You can generally own a lib these days with as little as 1% down, because they are so easily acquired on account of their sensitivities and huge outrage promotion market. And they are easy to maintain: just flash a MAGA hat, and they’re as good as owned for another six months.

Read it.

Despite the overall failure to achieve their stated goals, the now concluded Bangkok climate conference actually made some progress – they all agreed to jointly attack the USA for not providing all the climate cash and free technology transfers demanded by delegates.

Activists Sent 3,000 Coat Hangers To Sen. Collins’s Office To Protest Against Confirming Kavanaugh  There is, of course, no evidence that Kavanaugh has any inclination to reverse Roe v. Wade. But reality never mattered to ‘activists’.

There Are Over A Dozen Democrats Considering Running Against Trump In 2020  Great. Pass the popcorn.

Joy Behar Unleashes Tirade Against Melania Trump, Says She ‘Believed In Birtherism’  Apparently ‘birtherism’ is some sort of new proglodyte disease, like ‘climate denial’. Of course, Behar has no idea what Melania Trump believes or doesn’t believe; but that doesn’t stop her from Psychic Journalism.

Miss America contestant criticises Trump as the ‘biggest issue facing our country today’  I guess they don’t pick ’em for their brains.

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Social Security reformers, take note.

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And I can’t say that I blame them. California would be paradise if it weren’t for a lot of the people there. I suppose Hawaii is in the same boat.

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Which it is.

Telephone ‘metadata’ is the phone number of the phone you used, the phone number of the phone you called, when you called, and how long the call took. This is information recorded by the phone company for billing purposes. It is not YOUR information, it is the PHONE COMPANY’s information, and therefore doesn’t fall under the Fourth Amendment WITH RESPECT TO YOU. It’s no more ‘your’ information than the entries on the receipt you get at McDonald’s when you buy a Happy Meal.

A lot of people without legal training, or even the brain to follow an argument, get that one wrong, including the author of this article.

Yes, that information can be used to track you. So can having somebody following you on the street, or somebody watching the elevator in your building, or dusting a room for fingerprints in which you have been. Technology allows law enforcement to collect a lot of data more cheaply than they could 100 years ago; that’s not a violation of the Constitution.

Andy McCarthy asks the hard questions.

For precisely what federal crimes is the president of the United States under investigation by a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department?

It is intolerable that, after more than two years of digging — the 16-month Mueller probe having been preceded by the blatantly suspect labors of the Obama Justice Department and FBI — we still do not have an answer to that simple question.

Read it.

Everything you know is wrong.

Hausmann’s study drew several conclusions about body temperature: for example, women have higher temperatures than men, and it is natural for an individual’s body temperature to increase throughout the day, according to Wired.

And science is sexist.

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Which of course it is, just not in the way that the Fashionable Victim supposes.

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Pretty sad. Of course, the term ‘Muslim’ is never used, because that would be raaaaaaacist.

Well, at least they can’t blame it on Trump The New Hitler.

Steve Sailer picks up on a new trend.

Everything old is new again.

The whole theoretical basis of ‘antitrust’ is that dominant companies will cut prices so low as to drive competitors out of business, and (once they’re the Last Company Standing) jack up prices for consumers because they have no choice but to by from the ‘monopolist’.

The fly in the ointment is that no one has every produced any instance of this jacking-up-of-prices-after-Mom-and-Pop-have-been-put-out-of-business. Has Walmart increased its prices in places where it has ‘driven’ smaller local stores out of business? If it has, nobody in the LameStream Media has reported it. (And, considering how much ‘journalists’ hate Walmart, I doubt that they would have missed it.) Has Amazon jacked up its prices to customers in places where small local suppliers can’t compete against the Bezos Behemoth? Again, not that I’ve heard of — and it would be difficult to do so, since Amazon prices are uniform for all customers.

Read it.

Driving around the area near Cruz-Echevarria’s home, authorities say, Bascom’s vehicle got stuck in a ditch. Cruz-Echevarria pulled up to help, and Bascom shot him in the head.

People of Color behaving badly — what are the odds?

Read it.

No good deed goes unpunished.

Steve Sailer fisks some poor chick at the Columbia Journalism Review, just to keep his hand in.

Tucker Carlson is handsome, affluent, smart, and funny. He’s a winner.

Poor Ms. Lenz is broke, divorcing her husband for being a Republican (she says), not as sharp, and humorless. She’s kind of a loser.

Much of Social Justice Jihadism is the losers’ hope that if only they could get their personal loserness Socially Constructed as winnerness, they’d be happy winners. That’s what they are taught in college, so why shouldn’t they believe it? It helps them get out of bed in the morning. The first step toward our new, improved culture Socially Constructing themselves into winners is of course to shut up anybody who points out that’s not really how the world works.

One would think that a ‘journalism review’ affiliated with a prestigious Ivy League university could be counted on as an exemplar of good journalism by good journalists. As the piece Steve dissects proves, yet another supposed reputable institution has let us down.

Read it.

When Emily Goligoski’s parents want to read their local newspaper, the two Ohioans load up the PDF version of the print newspaper on their iPad and scroll through, “turning” digitally pixelated pages instead of reading the stories from the paper’s website.

“My parents refuse to access the website because it’s just so painful to look at,” says Goligoski, a veteran of Mozilla and former user experience research lead for The New York Times.

…

The torments of these sites are well known: clunky navigation, slow page-loading times, browser-freezing autoplaying videos, a siege of annoying pop-up ads, and especially those grids of bottom-of-the-page “related content” ads hawking belly fat cures and fake headlines (what’s known as Internet chum).

Put another way: Why must newspaper websites suck so damn much?

One might more usefully ask ‘why do newspapers suck so danm much?’ I rather think that the two are related.

One sees a similar degeneration in popular music radio. Where once local DJs curated content to local tastes and developed serious fan followings, nowadays the local franchise of National Radio Network runs centrally-produced content that is blandified to match the Marketing Department’s guess about what appeals to the lowest common denominator, interrupted occasionally by automatically inserted ads that may or may not have any relationship to the content. That’s certainly cheaper, and it’s all about the bottom line. You want healthy food, try Whole Paycheck — you ain’t gonna find it at Grocery Barn.

Trump will undoubtedly face impeachment, says Watergate attorney  This time for sure!

‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ — Fox News Host Pete Hegseth Diagnoses Former President Obama

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Kris Paronto was in Benghazi when Islamic extremists overran a U.S. embassy and consulate, killing four Americans. Paronto, a former U.S. Army Ranger, was working as a CIA security contractor at the time.

Paronto called Obama a “cowardly ass” and “scum” for referencing Benghazi in the speech.

“Benghazi is a conspiracy @BarackObama ?!” Paronto tweeted, “How bout we do this, let’s put your cowardly ass on the top of a roof with 6 of your buddies & shoot rpg’s & Ak47’s at you while terrorists lob 81mm mortars killing 2 of your buddies all while waiting for U.S. support that you never sent.”

Read it.

Perhaps people are finally realizing that government is the problem, not the solution.

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Well, I’m sure that will work any day now … just like all the other times….

Read it.

Been waitin’ for this one.

Steve Sailer spanks Matthew Yglesias for being a racist asshole.

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Which is, of course, important to us all.

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A couple of days ago, The New York Times took what it called the ‘rare step’ of publishing an anonymous op-ed column supposedly by a ‘senior official’ in the Trump administration. The column, which might have been written Bill Kristol and then run through Pete Wehner’s patented Hang-Wringing Moralising Machine, is the perfect epitome of that emetic, holier-than-thou species of Never-Trump rhetoric practiced by newly irrelevant, nominally conservative pundits.

We are a superpower run by a simpleton  I guess they think that if they repeat it often enough it will become true.

Trump’s dipping approval is putting Republicans in dangerous territory  At least they hope it does.

There Oughta Be a Law  The New York Times succumbs to its inner fascist.

Dems Threaten To Seize Trump’s Tax Returns If They Take The House  Hey, let’s see Hillary’s.

Chelsea Handler, Others Speculate First Lady Behind Anti-Trump NYT Op-ed: ‘I See You Melania’  More mind-readers in the media. I’m sure they wish it were true.

Obama Hits Campaign Trail, Goes Off On Trump: ‘We Can’t Just Put Walls Up All Around America’  Uh, I think we can.

Kathy Griffin Labels Trump’s Election ‘Funeral For Our Country’  Does anybody even listen to Kathy Griffin?

Read it.

ThoughtCrime! DoublePlusUngood!

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These are not idle fears. Consider that in the United Kingdom, a Reformed Baptist doctor was recently firedby the National Health Service for his belief that a person’s sex is biologically determined rather than “assigned” at birth. A Christian math teacher was suspended and is under investigation for saying, “Well done, girls” to a group of students that included a transgender student who identifies as a boy.

Similarly, in the United States, the University of Minnesota recently introduced a draft policy that would coerce faculty, staff, and students to use pronouns such as “ze,” “sie,” “zir,” “hir,” “co,” “ev,” “xe,” and “thon.” Students who defy this draft would risk expulsion, while faculty and staff would risk disciplinary action—or termination.

Brown University recently censored one of its own social science professors for publishing research showing that “rapid-onset gender dysphoria” is often caused by peer pressure.

Read it.

Yeah, Obama affects me that way too,

But they’ve got free government health care!

Read it.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that.

Terror is a Tactic but the Strategy is Jihad

Malaysian prime minister says public caning of lesbians tarnishes Islam’s reputation

Government plans to jail Britons entering ‘designated areas’ abroad for 10 years under new terror laws

To speak out about slavery in Mauritania is to risk losing your liberty  Islam has no problem with slavery; never did.

Six months after my deportation from Egypt, I’m facing some sad truths about the country I loved  Well, it’s full of Muslims, to start with.

Sicilian Police Inspector Attacked in His Own Home by Knife-Wielding Migrants

Former Anti-Nuclear Peace Activist Sentenced For Plotting ISIS-Inspired Attacks

Islamic State Claims Responsibility For Multiple Deadly Explosions Targeting Medics And Journalists In Kabul

Turkey looks for diplomatic solution to avoid ‘massacre’ in Syria’s Idlib 

Illegal Mosque Shut Down in Lombardy

Twin Blasts Kill At Least 20 At Kabul Athletic Center

Burqa ban: Danish police fine tourist after she tries to renew visa while wearing face veil

Saudi Arabia criminalises online satire

Violent Gaza Protests Were A Diversion, Hamas Leader Admits

Islamists Smear Egyptian Actress for Removing Hijab

Jalaluddin Haqqani death: Founder of most-feared Afghan militant network is dead, Taliban says

Haqqani network founder and ally of bin Laden has died, Afghan Taliban says

Palestinians speak out about devastating US cuts to the UN refugee agency: ‘We are already so desperate’  Although not so desperate as to quit paying bounties for anti-Jewish terrorism.

Riot breaks out at Australian immigration detention centre after alleged suicide attempt  Pack ’em up and send them back where they came from. (It’s still not clear to me what ‘race’ Muslim is.)

Muslim student will become first Miss England contestant to wear a hijab in the finals  Yeah, a hijab just says England to me. Welcome to Londonistan; be careful not to step in the diversity.

Women caned in Malaysia for attempting to have lesbian sex

Israel threatens attack on Iranian assets installed in Iraq

US Service Member Killed In ‘Apparent Insider Attack’ In Afghanistan

Tripoli prison escape: 400 inmates ‘including ex-Gaddafi thugs’ break out of jail during fighting in the Libyan capital

Angry Germans Confront the Lügenpresse in Chemnitz

German Woman Raped in a Refugee Shelter

Isis fighters in Afghanistan are communicating with UK terror cells, defence secretary Gavin Williamson says  What a surprise.

Hundreds of prisoners escape Tripoli prison after week of deadly battles in Libyan capital

Ten-Year-Boy Raped by a Ten-Year-Old Culture-Enricher

Mogadishu suicide car bomber kills at least six and leaves 14 injured 

Thousands Of Protesters March In Germany Against Angela Merkel’s Immigration Policy

New Mexico compound: Child tells FBI he was trained to ‘get an army together’ for jihad

Chemnitz: Nine people injured after far-right protesters clash with police in Germany

US will fuel radicalism in the Middle East by halting Palestinian aid, Jordan says

Saudi Arabia Crucifies Murderer In Rare Punishment

The Knife of Peace Comes to Amsterdam Central Station

Two US Citizens Identified As Victims In Dutch Terror Attack

Terror Comes to the Frosch Nightclub

Solihull double murder: 21-year-old man arrested over killing of mother and daughter

Man and woman deny female genital mutilation of three-year-old girl in London

Isis fanatic who tried to behead Theresa May and blow up Downing St jailed for life

Libya: 30 dead in Tripoli militia clashes as rights groups warn refugees and migrants caught up in crossfire

US will ‘cut all funds to UN agency for Palestinian refugees’  Trump can do what no one else can.

Janbaz Tarin charged with Solihull murders of Raneem Oudeh and her mother Khaola Saleem

Double stabbing at Amsterdam station in possible terror attack

After Dropped Charges, FBI Re-Arrests Five ‘Extremist Muslim’ New Mexico Compound Suspects

Boys Just Want to Have Fun

Read it.

Whine, little snowflake, quiver, quiver….

Read it.

Think of it as evolution in action.

Read it.

Just in case you think you have it rough today.

This Is a Constitutional Crisis  Except, of course, that it isn’t.

Bernstein: Why doesn’t John Kelly resign?  Perhaps because he doesn’t agree with Bernstein? That’s just a guess.

We’re Watching an Antidemocratic Coup Unfold  Or maybe not.

Trump’s sales pitch to the Daily Caller on his electoral success was used-car-salesman-esque  Whatever that means.

Congressional Republicans Are the Real Authors of the Anonymous Op-Ed  Uh, sure, okay.

Trump claims he has 100 photos of Comey and Mueller “kissing.” We tried to find some.  Except that that’s just a figure of speech, which Vox is too stupid to realize.

Donald Trump might hate the establishment – but it turns out that’s exactly what’s saving his presidency  Or maybe it’s just the Constitution.

Lodestar: Mike Pence suggested as Trump official behind anonymous op-ed, as White House hunts culprit  Scraaaape that barrell….

The NeverTrump movement’s latest trick? Sabotaging the White House

Trudeau Says Trump ‘Doesn’t Always Follow The Rules’  He certainly doesn’t always follow Trudeau’s rules.

The Ghost of Richard Darman

Chelsea Handler To Republicans: ‘Do The Right Thing … Invoke The 25th Already’  As if any Republican would take advice from Chelsea Handler, now that McCain is dead.

The Left’s White-Power Self-Own

CNN’s April Ryan Accuses Trump White House Of Trying To ‘Kill’ Her Career Because She’s A Black Woman  Of course, it couldn’t just be because she’s an incompetent jerk; of course not.

Steve Sailer picks up another little tidbit from across the pond.

Remember: No matter how bad it is over here, Britain has it worse.

Read it.

Yeah, those degrees will be worth a lot.

Remember: No matter how bad it gets in this country, Britain has it worse.

Three journo chicks do their feminist thing, women and minorities hardest hit, etc. etc.

Poor city planning can make women feel unsafe. It’s time we moved on from one group shaping the world on behalf of everyone else.

It’s not a big deal, apparently, that cities make everybody ‘feel unsafe’; only women are to be taken into account.

I haven’t done a word search, but I’m sure ‘patriarchy’ makes an appearance, at least by implication.

Read it.

The Party of Hate is also the Party of Extralegal Violence.

Read it.

An interesting article made more confusing by the use of the term ‘mediating institutions’ without bothering to define it; the reader os forced to construct an ad-hoc definition as he goes along, as if it were a foreign word or a term of art (which it may be, and thus perfectly intelligible, to the writer).

Give it a shot; if it proves too much work, hang it up. But I found it interesting.

Read it.

Because it is typically a government operation, and (like many government operations) it is run for the convenience of the employees rather than of the customers.

The eight-hour American workday caught on in the early 1900s, after decades of pressure from labor unions urging corporations to do away with exhausting, backbreaking schedules. Yet the American school day never adapted to match parents’ schedules: On average, U.S. students are in school for six and a half hours, five days a week—with a two-month summer break and a smattering of other vacations. We owe that structure largely to 19th-century school reformers, who, seeking a standard school year nationwide, aligned the rural school calendar—which gave students the spring and fall off for harvesting and planting—with the urban one, which dismissed students during the summers so their families could escape cities’ oppressive heat. There’s been some variation over the years: During the first half of the 20th century, for example, schools experimented with summer sessions to accommodate an influx of immigrant children. But most school districts settled into today’s schedule by the 1960s, when only about a third of adult women worked and could be counted on to watch their children when the last bell rang.

Don’t send your kid to a government school. It will turn out badly.

John C. Wright conducts a very educational discussion with one of the commentors on his site.

John is a Christian, Roman Catholic flavor; I have no evidence regarding his interlocutor.

Regardless, I think that this is a good example of how a discussion of this nature ought to proceed.

I would ask that you bear in mind two questions:

1. Has John correctly identified flaws in his interlocutor’s argument?
2. Are there, in turn, flaws in the responses that John presents?

Read it.

Not unexpected.

For those keeping score at home:

• Cory Booker is now Spartacus
• Having dramatically charged that Judge Kavanaugh is in favor of racial profiling in the name of security but against it when it comes to affirmative action, Booker has provided an email that confirms that Kavanaugh . . . is in fact against racial profiling in both cases.
• That email, which Booker said he was obliged to share in violation of confidentiality rules, was in fact cleared for release last night.