Quickies

Where we take a look at some news items, articles, columns and blog posts that grabbed our attention this past week.







Good news on the anti-terror front: England is Jihadi U.

England's universities have become a breeding ground for extremism and terrorist recruitment, according to a disturbing government report.

Officials have identified 40 English universities where ‘there may be particular risk of radicalisation or recruitment on campus’.

A soon to be published Whitehall report – seen by the Daily Mail – will point to a string of examples of students going on to commit terrorist acts against this country or overseas.

More encouraging developments on the higher education front here stateside:

The Goshen College Board of Directors announced today that it has asked President James E. Brenneman to find an alternative to playing the Star-Spangled Banner that fits with sports tradition, that honors country and that resonates with Goshen College's core values and respects the views of diverse constituencies.

The Board took the action during its regular meeting, June 3-4, and today released a Decision Statement, which is available at www.goshen.edu/anthem.

The Board expressed a strong commitment to advancing with President Brenneman the vision for Goshen College to be an influential leader in liberal arts education with a growing capacity to serve a theologically, politically, racially and ethnically diverse constituency both within and beyond the Mennonite church. The Board concluded that continuing to play the national anthem compromised the ability of college constituents to advance the vision together.

Ah, yes... kneeling now before their new god, Diversity.

We hope their football team goes 0-11 this fall.





And with respect to Weiner-gate, politics and golf:

“He’s not someone who ever really played for political or social reasons. … He hated all the down time,” said Dan Shoman, (....)'s top aide in the state Senate, who played with his boss on public and private courses around Springfield when (.....) took up the game in the late 1990s.

“He didn’t do it for any other purpose than to get a break from his work, really. He wanted to master a new challenge.”

We redacted the name of the politician as this is not meant to be an explicit critique of him or anyone else in general but rather.... down time?... master a new challenge?
How perfectly does this sum up the dysfunctionality of the political class here in America? With all that down time, perhaps our political class would be better served mastering other objectives, perhaps, the PGA Tour, for one.

With all that down time, maybe it's time we consider making Congress a part-time job where executing Congress-y stuff like passing a freaking budget or a binding resolution regarding our kinesiology in Libya might take on more of a sense of urgency apart from texting their junk to college co-eds clear across the country.





Here's Leslie at Temple of Mut on the media's bizarre cry for public help in rutting through Sarah Palin's emails:

Allow me to assist you in scouring the many emails, which will include such enlightening details as childcare arrangements, request for office supplies, and committee schedules that are surely going to offer meaningful insights that will improve life for Americans everywhere. I think you will be truly living up to your 1st Amendment responsibilities in this endeavor!

I am a little concerned if I fail to participate that you will utilize professional reporters to look through the emails. That means they won’t be able to cover such essential topics as the 61 Trillion in unfunded mandates hanging over our economy, the increasingly poor job news and the fact people have longer periods of unemployment in the Obama economy, continued involvement of the US in Libya and potential US actions in Yemen, and other key topics that your editors seem to rate secondary to uncovering some vast Palin scandal. Therefore, I view helping you as my patriotic duty.

Big Media continues to beclown themselves in ever increasingly original ways but we need to have some fun with this. Here's what we wrote yesterday regarding the subject:

We cannot see ourselves voting for Palin in the Republican primaries but count on our vote for her in the general should it come to that as for no other reason than the sight of heads exploding all across the fruited plain due to the mere possibility of Palin becoming President would bring us an unbridled joy that cannot be described in mere words.

We're really not spiteful people but could we be talked into voting for Palin in the primaries should she decide to run? Trending: possibly.




There's that word again:

A second report from the Labor Department showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment aid unexpectedly edged higher last week, reinforcing a view that the job market recovery has stalled.

(italics, ours but that was expected, right?)

One of these day, though we aren't holding our breath, we are going to read the following:

After the passage of another federal government pump-priming stimulus package and another round of regulatory measures executed by the FDA, EPA and other agencies, unemployment figures rose, expectedly.

What? You were expecting a free-market Friedmanite?






And finally, Going Galt:
Invent a new treatment or drug that could cure diseases and/or improve quality of life? Pfffft.... why bother?

In Burzynski's case, as his treatments got more attention he first had his medical license attacked by the Texas Medical Board at the behest of the FDA, twice. They failed. The FDA commenced to persecute both the doctor (with 5 or 6 grand jury investigations, none leading to charges), and his patients. This cost Burzynski a great deal of money and inconvenience, but he survived. The NCI got into the mix, first attempting to discredit Burzynski, then pretending to conduct a clinical trial which they designed to fail, then participating in the patenting of Burzynski's already patented treatments in conjunction with a former consultant of Burzynski's and Elan Pharmaceuticals.

Shane Atwell has more (did someone say "free movie?") at his blog, here.


Please enjoy the rest of the weekend. We'll be back on Monday.