The State of The Nation!

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Update on small children being mercilessly punished for, e.g., gnawing a pastry into a gun shape at school

Update on small children being mercilessly punished for, e.g., gnawing a pastry into a gun shape at school:
Kevin at Lowering the Bar updates us on the Lego Gun Incident, wherein a six-year-old boy was punished for bringing a tiny, Lego-sized gun onto his Springfield, MA school-bus. The school initially demanded that the boy write a letter of apology and serve detention because the gun "caused quite a disturbance on the bus and that the children were traumatized." However, the same zero-tolerance-obssessed nutjobs at the school board also put CCTVs on their buses, and a review of the footage therefrom reveals that nothing bad actually happened. This has occasioned a small miracle in the form of the school board simply dropping the matter, rather than doubling down and, say, accusing the six-year-old of using a tiny, Lego-sized computer to hack into the CCTV and swap out the footage or similar.
However, Kevin goes on to note that a child in Baltimore continues to struggle with the permanent stain on his record caused by his taking bites out of a pastry until it was vaguely gun-shaped, thereby traumatising all the other students by exposing them to an approximate right-angle. This kid is having the book thrown at him:
"This is a student-specific matter," the spokesman said, in case anyone thought they had suspended every student in the district, "and our school system is not going to have any comment on it, except for this: This is a matter between the school, a student and his parents. It's not, and it should not be, fodder for a publicity stunt by an attorney who seems to believe that his young client's best interests are somehow served by trying this case in the media." News flash: this has been in the media since long before they ever had an attorney, and that is not their fault.
The next step was said to be an appeal to the superintendent of schools, so the battle continues.
Lego Gun Incident Ends Better Than Pastry Gun Incident
    




Obama explains lipstick on his collar | The Ticket - Yahoo! News

Obama explains lipstick on his collar | The Ticket - Yahoo! News:

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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Liberal Hypocrisy Isn’t Free

Liberal Hypocrisy Isn’t Free:

To drone or not to drone? President Barack Obama recently demonstrated his most valuable political talent – fooling liberals into supporting Bush policies under another name. Obama’s latest soliloquy on his personal struggles in justifying his actions as president hit just the right tone for every establishment apologist liberal. Yes, Obama was carrying on Bush Administration policies and in some cases introducing even worse violations of civil rights, but he is really struggling with it. He is really giving it a lot of thought. And really, isn’t that what matters?
Before the speech previous liberal watchdogs became Obama Administration lapdogs when it broke that Obama’s DOJ was spying on journalists. Think Progress decided  government spying was OK once a Democrat did it while Media Matters tried to dishonestly re-frame the debate. And now after Obama does his Hamlet routine, the commissars are at it again.
The New York Times, seemingly channeling Judith Miller after getting an exclusive, claimed Obama was acting to “curtail drones” despite this is no way the case. Nowhere in his speech did he offer any new limitations on drone strikes let alone, as a Times editorial later said, propose an end to perpetual war – it didn’t happen. Obama simply thought out loud about the consequences of his belligerence. He thought about the consequences of drone strikes on Americans, torture at Gitmo, and the degradation perpetual war has on open societies. President Obama never said he would change his policies, he just acknowledged the validity of the criticism of his policies. Admitting flaws in your policy and changing your policy are two very different things.
But the real issue is the consequences of knee-jerk liberals offering support to the Bush/Obama policies. The rank partisan hypocrisy shown by groups and individuals that opposed Bush’s application of the same policies now supporting Obama is beyond shameful – it’s dangerous. When the next Republican president begins assassinating Americans without a trial or spying on journalists what exactly are these people supposed to say? “We oppose this now because you have an R next to your name.” Not exactly convincing. The liberals accepting and promoting Obama’s extreme executive power policies are destroying any credibility they will have in opposing a future conservative administration’s application of that authority.
What does this mean? It means mobilizing opposition to future executive branch power grabs or rolling back current ones becomes considerably more difficult. It means perpetual war and the degenerating effects it has on an increasingly less free society will continue. And it means that the next Bush will be inoculated from a good deal of criticism because potential dissenters have de-legitimized themselves by supporting violations of civil liberties and international law today.
Liberal hypocrisy isn’t free. We are going to be paying for it for years to come.
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House panel probes whether Holder misled lawmakers on reporter records grab | Fox News

House panel probes whether Holder misled lawmakers on reporter records grab | Fox News:

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Friday, May 24, 2013

Good news from the “New Yorker”: Unlike Bush, Obama’s pretty conflicted about all the people he’s killing

Good news from the “New Yorker”: Unlike Bush, Obama’s pretty conflicted about all the people he’s killing:

Feelings.

Via Matt Welch, behold the ne plus ultra of Obama counterterror apologetics courtesy of “New Yorker” contributor Jane Mayer. The next time The One launches a war that even his own lawyers think is illegal or drops a bomb on someone in Yemen because their movements are suspicious or detains someone indefinitely without trial, know [...]
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Attack Casts Spotlight on Radical Preachers - ABC News

Attack Casts Spotlight on Radical Preachers - ABC News:

ABC News


Attack Casts Spotlight on Radical Preachers
ABC News
The slaying of a British soldier in southeast London cast a spotlight on radical preachers that influenced Michael Adebolajo, the attacker seen in videos with bloody hands holding a butcher knife. It also raised questions about the reach of the terrorist group ...

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2 on Diverted Pakistani Plane Made Threats They Called Jokes - NYTimes.com

2 on Diverted Pakistani Plane Made Threats They Called Jokes - NYTimes.com:

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