Friday, December 21, 2012

COMING SOON: The 2012 Fabulous 50 Blog Awards... #fab50

Forget the Pulitzers! Flush those stinking Nobel Prizes! There's only one award worth winning and we all know what it is.

Every year at this time we are pleased to announce the winners of the Fabulous 50 Blog Awards™, recognizing the year's 50 most important blogs and websites in the conservative world. No debates. No voting. No nominations. Just facts. Immutable truths, chiseled in stone and then forged on Zeus' anvil for all of human history. No prize carries more panache, more prestige, or more sex appeal than a Fab 50 Award, save something you might find in a Crackerjacks box.

The talented illustrators at the peerless iOwnTheWorld have created a stunning set of award icons, suitable for framing, the inspiration for your next tattoo, or even inclusion on the templates of the award winners.

If you are a winner, click the award icon that you would like to use, then copy the text in the HTML block below to paste into your template:

300 x 400 Deluxe200 x 267 Midsize
180 x 241 Intermediate160 x 185 Mini160 x 185 LOSER


HTML to use in your template:

Related:
2011 Fabulous 50 Blog Award Winners
2010 Fabulous 50 Blog Award Winners
2009 Fabulous 50 Blog Award Winners.

And be sure to press your browser's Reload button continuously from now until New Year's Eve to make sure you don't miss this immense event, which could very well be televised on ESPN 8 ("The Ocho"), as far as you know.


SHHH, NO ONE TELL PIERS MORGAN: Violent crime in the U.K. five (5) times worse than in the U.S.

Maybe this is why Piers Morgan's bowels loosen whenever people try to have a rational discussion about firearms. He seems so... defensive.

Britain’s violent crime record is worse than any other country in the European union, it has been revealed.

Official crime figures show the UK also has a worse rate for all types of violence than the U.S. and even South Africa – widely considered one of the world’s most dangerous countries.

The Tories said Labour had presided over a decade of spiralling violence.

In the decade following the party’s election in 1997, the number of recorded violent attacks soared by 77 per cent to 1.158million – or more than two every minute.


...Britons suffer 1,158,957 violent crimes per year, which works out at 2,034 per 100,000 residents. By contrast the number in notoriously violent South Africa is 1,609 per 100,000.

The U.S., meanwhile, has a rate of 466 crimes per 100,000 residents, which is lower than France’s, at 504; Finland’s, at 738; Sweden’s, at 1123; and Canada’s at 935...

If I were a lesser man, I'd call Morgan a pompous, euro-trash fraud who was fired in England for publishing doctored news photos.

But I'm too polite for that.


Related: Piers Morgan Quiz.

COLOR ME SURPRISED: Another Fatal Smart Car Accident

Driving around a golf cart on roads populated by real vehicles is like a 150-pounder trying to play offensive line in the NFL:

An Upland man was killed Wednesday... following a crash on the eastbound 210 Freeway east of Towne Avenue. Antonio Sanchez, 62, was pronounced dead at the scene around 2:45 a.m., according to a California Highway Patrol news release.

Sanchez was traveling east on the 210 freeway near Towne Avenue when he was involved in a minor crash, according to CHP officials... Sanchez's Smart Car was disabled and remained in the fast lane of the freeway without it's lights on, officials said.

Shortly after the initial crash, a motorist in a 1996 Toyota Camry rear-ended the Smart Car... The driver of the Camry was taken to Pomona Valley Community Hospital with minor to moderate injuries.

This was a Camry versus a Smart Car. You can only imagine, say, a Lincoln Navigator hitting one. Or a semi.

And these are the kinds of cars that the Obama EPA intends all of us to drive, at the trifling cost of only $6,700 per car.


Image: SmartCarWreck.com.

Larwyn's Linx: "Get the hell off the stage, Boehner"

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

"Get the hell off the stage, Boehner": Scoop
446 Children Shot in Chicago This Year, Media Curiously Silent: NoisyRm
Boehner's "Plan B" a Miserable Failure: Times

What the Looming Port Strike Is Really About: Malkin
Gun Control and Sandy Hook: Boortz
Harvard: Firearm Ownership Doesn't Correlate With Violence: CFIF (2007)

"Nothing more dangerous to liberals...": Scoop
Apocalypse now: Cold Fury
Transgender Teen Planned Shooting, Bombing at AZ H.S.: Sooper

Economy

The Law That Could Have Prevented the Newtown Massacre: NoisyRm
Obama: Raise Tax On The Rich....For The (Murdered) Children: Ace
Why Are Broke Local Governments Paying For Agenda 21?: LoneCon

The 7 most illuminating economic charts of 2012: AEI
The GOP's Horrific Political Strategy: Hawkins
Boehner Kills Vote on Plan B, Recesses for Christmas: Bruce

Scandal Central

Three Debate Tips for Those Calling for More Gun Restrictions: Ari
Colorado Teacher Union Coordinator Gets Caught “Off Camera”: Spotlight
The Feds Can't Unload GM Quick Enough...: Reason

Climate & Energy

Steven Chu to leave Department of Energy?: Moe Lane
CLIMATE CHANGE FAIL: New leak shows predictions of planetary warming have been overstated: Times
Massive snowstorm blamed for deaths in 5 states: USA Today

Media

An Open Letter To Dr. Janet Rosenbaum: Finem Respice
The 40 Most Obnoxious Quotes Of 2012: Hawkins
Jordan Bred 11 riots, deaths: Twitchy

Attention, Piers Morgan: Is Saturation Coverage Encouraging Mass Murderers?: Ace
GOA’s Larry Pratt DESTROYS CNN’s Piers Morgan on CT Shooting: NoisyRm
In Which Obama Fails To Mention A Single Instance Of Gun Violence in Chicago: Glob

Piers Morgan berates another pro-gun advocate on his show, calls John Lott a liar: RedAlert
It's Handguns Now? Mental Midget Soledad O'Brien Repeatedly Asks Democrats About Limiting Handguns: NB
Personage of the Year Magazine Covers: Cube

World

Benghazi Whitewash Report: Systematic State Department Failures: JWF
Proof of a Scandal: U.S. Policy is Making Syria into an Anti-Western, Antisemitic Islamist State: BRubin
Spec ops troops’ stress ‘worse than we thought’: ArmyTimes

Violent Britain: NRO
A Soldier's Eye View of Chuck Hagel: Tom Cotton
Turkey Endorses Iranian Nuke, No One Notices: Mauro

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

China now blocking encryption: Schneier
The top 4 career trends for 2013: VenBeat
Air Force asks ESPN for help in analyzing drone footage: Fox

Cornucopia

Other Refinement: Worst. Gingerbread. House. Ever.: R&R
Just in time for Christmas: Obama Barbies: Henneman
Annual Company Christmas Party: AmPower

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Allen West: Boycott All Travel to Mexico!

QOTD: "I agree [U.S. Marine Jon] Hammar’s treatment is an “absolute disgrace and it is unconscionable that Jay Carney knew nothing about this. There is no excuse for this and the picture of an American, a Marine, chained to a cot is despicable.

In some ways, Lance Corporal Hammar is another victim of the botched “Fast and Furious” program. Mexico has stringent gun control laws in part because of weapons illicitly purchased in the US and trafficked back into Mexico.

I pray that, just as with Benghazi, the new normal for Time magazine’s Man of the Year is not to abandon this Marine, as his Administration did two Navy SEALs. These actions only serve to erode the trust and confidence in the Commander-in-Chief from our men and women in uniform – and all Americans, for that matter.

Support the travel boycott to Mexico, and call the White House to let this Administration know we do not tolerate abandoning LC Hammar.”--Rep. Allen West

Thursday, December 20, 2012

BUMMER: EPA suffers slight setback in attack on America's family farms

The American Farm Bureau Federation is helping publicize the EPA's methodical extermination of the family farm.

In a surprise about-face, the Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn an order demanding that West Virginia poultry grower Lois Alt obtain a Clean Water Act discharge permit for stormwater runoff from her farmyard or face up to $37,500 per day in penalties. While the action is a great victory for Alt, it leaves unresolved a major legal issue with serious implications for other livestock and poultry farmers that must be addressed, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia ruled in October that AFBF and West Virginia Farm Bureau have the right to join Alt’s lawsuit. EPA had aggressively opposed the Farm Bureaus’ participation. EPA’s withdrawal of the order comes six months after Alt filed her legal action and a mere six weeks before Alt and AFBF are scheduled to file briefs challenging EPA’s interpretation of the law.

In withdrawing its order, EPA cited new management practices identified during a May 2012 re-inspection of the farm. However, EPA’s inspection report also states that dust, feathers and small amounts of manure were still observed on the ground at the farm – which was the very same basis of EPA’s original order, according to AFBF General Counsel Ellen Steen. “EPA still has not backed away from its position that any amount of pollutant on the ground at a livestock or poultry farm requires a Clean Water Act permit,” according to Steen. “The more likely reason for EPA’s withdrawal is that it does not want to defend its position in court.”

“This is a personal victory for Lois Alt, but it should not have taken a federal lawsuit to convince EPA to withdraw an order that was illegal from the start,” said American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman. “EPA’s withdrawal of the Alt order without correcting its legal position still leaves other farmers and ranchers hanging in uncertainty, vulnerable to the same threats that Ms. Alt faced.”

EPA’s November 2011 order threatened Alt with $37,500 in fines for each time stormwater came into contact with dust, feathers or small amounts of manure on the ground outside of her poultry houses... EPA also threatened separate fines of $37,500 per day if Alt failed to apply for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. Alt responded by filing her own legal challenge to the EPA order in June 2012.

“EPA says its withdrawal is based on a May 2012 re-inspection of the farm, but I can’t help but notice that EPA only withdrew the order after Farm Bureau was granted intervention in October,” Steen explained. “It’s like upsetting the chess board when you know you are in danger of losing. All signs are that EPA does not want to defend its position in court.”

“EPA knows very well that most farmers lack the resources to fight back when they face an EPA order – even if the order has no legal basis,” noted Stallman. “We are happy for Ms. Alt that EPA has flinched, but the principles for which she stood remain in danger.”

As an aside, this is all out of the playbook.

ALERT THE MEDIA: New iPhone OS "Suspected of Draining Batteries"

I don't think Steve Jobs would be pleased:

The iOS 6.0.2 update released earlier this week may have cured some people's Wi-Fi woes, but others now claim it's reducing their battery life too. First reported by TidBITS' Adam Engst and supported by a number of posters in Apple's Support Communities, some (but seemingly not all) iPhone users have begun seeing dramatically reduced battery life on their iPhones after performing the update.

...As noted by the team at TidBITS, this change in how devices connect to Wi-Fi may be related to the apparent battery drain. "Our speculation, based on some quick testing that Michael Cohen did, is that the problem is related to a change in Wi-Fi behavior, which maps with Apple's sole release note for iOS 6.0.2," Engst wrote. "[I]t's far from conclusive, but indicates that the problem may be related to wireless communication in some fashion."

Given the battery performance I see and hear about from my friends and family members with iPhones, this ain't exactly breaking news.


BEFORE AND AFTER: Capitalism vs. Socialism

Der Spiegel has a startling series of before and after shots of buildings and towns in East Germany. The original photos were taken just after the fall of the Berlin wall and now some 20 years later.


Every person who voted for Barack Obama in November elected to move America closer to the first photograph.


Hat tip: Whale Oil.

SAY, WHATEVER HAPPENED AFTER THE LAST ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN EXPIRED? Oh, that's right: murders and violent crime went down.

I wonder if our betters ever review history before trying to slam more unconstitutional diktats down our throats?

That's a rhetorical question: of course they don't.

When the federal assault weapons ban ended on Sept. 13, 2004, gun crimes and police killings were predicted to surge. Instead, they have declined.

For a decade, the ban was a cornerstone of the gun control movement. Sarah Brady, one of the nation's leading gun control advocates, warned that "our streets are going to be filled with AK-47s and Uzis." Life without the ban would mean rampant murder and bloodshed.


Well, more than nine months have passed and the first crime numbers are in. Last week, the FBI announced that the number of murders nationwide fell by 3.6% last year, the first drop since 1999. The trend was consistent; murders kept on declining after the assault weapons ban ended.

Even more interesting, the seven states that have their own assault weapons bans saw a smaller drop in murders than the 43 states without such laws, suggesting that doing away with the ban actually reduced crime. (States with bans averaged a 2.4% decline in murders; in three states with bans, the number of murders rose. States without bans saw murders fall by more than 4%.)

...violent crime also declined last year, according to the FBI, and the complete statistics carry another surprise for gun control advocates. Guns are used in murder and robbery more frequently then in rapes and aggravated assaults, but after the assault weapons ban ended, the number of murders and robberies fell more than the number of rapes and aggravated assaults.

It's instructive to remember just how passionately the media hyped the dangers of "sunsetting" the ban. Associated Press headlines warned "Gun shops and police officers brace for end of assault weapons ban." It was even part of the presidential campaign: "Kerry blasts lapse of assault weapons ban." An Internet search turned up more than 560 news stories in the first two weeks of September that expressed fear about ending the ban...

...The fact that the end of the assault weapons ban didn't create a crime wave should not have surprised anyone. After all, there is not a single published academic study showing that these bans have reduced any type of violent crime...

Research funded by the Justice Department under the Clinton administration concluded only that the effect of the assault weapons ban on gun violence "has been uncertain"... Gun controllers' fears that the end of the assault weapons ban would mean the sky would fall were simply not true. How much longer can the media take such hysteria seriously when it is so at odds with the facts?

How much longer? As long as it takes to eviscerate the Second Amendment.

Which is why you haven't heard about any of this in the antique media. Or the hypocritical, would-be potentates in the Democrat Party?


GOOD NEWS: Verizon plans to monitor your activities -- laughing, sleeping, singing, playing with pets -- inside the home for better ad targeting

What could possibly go wrong with Verizon monitoring your every move inside your own home?

Verizon has filed a patent application for targeting ads to viewers based on information collected from infrared cameras and microphones that would be able to detect conversations, people, objects and even animals that are near a TV.

If the detection system determines that a couple is arguing, a service provider would be able to send an ad for marriage counseling to a TV or mobile device in the room. If the couple utters words that indicate they are cuddling, they would receive ads for "a romantic getaway vacation, a commercial for a contraceptive, a commercial for flowers," or commercials for romantic movies, Verizon states in the patent application.

For years, technology executives have discussed the possibility of using devices such as Microsoft's Xbox 360 Kinect cameras to target advertising and programming to viewers, taking advantage of the ability to determine whether an adult or child is viewing a program. But Verizon is looking at taking targeted advertising to a new level with its patent application, which is titled "Methods and Systems for Presenting an Advertisement Associated with an Ambient Action of a User."

Similar to the way Google targets ads to Gmail users based on the content of their emails, Verizon proposes scanning conversations of viewers that are within a "detection zone" near their TV, including telephone conversations.

"If detection facility detects one or more words spoken by a user (e.g., while talking to another user within the same room or on the telephone), advertising facility may utilize the one or more words spoken by the user to search for and/or select an advertisement associated with the one or more words," Verizon states in the patent application.

Verizon says the sensors would also be able to determine if a viewer is exercising, eating, laughing, singing, or playing a musical instrument, and target ads to viewers based on their mood. It also could use sensors to determine what type of pets or inanimate objects are in the room.

"If detection facility detects that a user is playing with a dog, advertising facility may select an advertisement associated with dogs (e.g., a dog food commercial, a flea treatment commercial, etc.)," Verizon writes in the patent application.

Several types of sensors could be linked to the targeted advertising system, including 3D imaging devices, thermographic cameras and microphones, according to the patent application...

Creepy doesn't begin to describe this "innovation".

Larwyn's Linx: Disastrous Gun Law Sparked School Shootings

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Disastrous Gun Law Sparked School Shootings: GunWatch
“Gun Owners, Segregationists, and Jim Sleeper”: Protein Wisdom
Five-Point Action Plan to Reduce Violence by the Mentally Ill: NRO

‘Before banning our guns, please recover the ones you sent to Mexico’: CFP
The New Racial Derangement Syndrome: Hanson
Where do we go from here?: Ace

We Know How To Stop School Shootings: Coulter
Crazy GOP Senator Proposes Putting National Guard In Schools: RWN
Missouri Police Chief Recommends Arming School Personnel: GunWatch

Economy

Foreigners Now Own $5.48 Trillion Of US Debt: S&L
Beware! Regulations Incoming!: Foundry
ATR Statement on "Plan B" Tax Plan: ATR

Boehner's Plan B Exposes Obama's Grade-A Tax Lie: IBD
Here’s how to get $2 trillion in new tax revenue without raising taxes: Peth
The End of the University As We Know It: AEI

Scandal Central

Obama’s Benghazi Fall Guys: RSM
Treasury Prepares to Lose Big on GM Bailout: Beacon
Obama stimulus: Gun buyers nationwide tweet about long lines, empty shelves: Twitchy

Climate & Energy

Climate Change Draft Undermines U.N.'s Claims: IBD
No bigs: Head of EPA does a bunch of her work on alias e-mail account: Hot Air
Obama Says Hotcoldwetdry One Of The Top 3 Issues He’ll Blow Off In 2nd Term: RWN

Media

“President Obama to push assault weapons ban in second term”: Protein Wisdom
NY Times Really Loves Anti-Gun Letters: Cove
Judge Robert Bork dead at 84: DC

Hudson’s, the Buhl Café and Mrs. P’s Maurice: MOTUS
Krauthammer: Obama's use of a child massacre to say GOP must accept his terms is a SACRILEGE!: Scoop
Following School Shooting, 86% Want More Action to Identify and Treat Mental Illness: Rasmussen

Yes, Supporting Gun Control Is Racist: Bookworm
Lefty Media Tweeters Go After Reporters at Obama Presser For Not Obsessing Over Gun Control: BizzyBlog
#Metaphor: Academics Sign Their Own Death Warrants by Defending Loomis: RSM

World

Benghazi: State Department fail: Fausta
Benghazi Report Disqualifies Hillary For White House: IBD
A Challenge to All Progressives and RINOs, Who STILL Believe Obama is NOT a Communist: Loudon

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Netflix Encodes Every Movie 120 Different Ways: NetFlix
Maya Rise and Fall Photo Gallery: NatGeo
The Ultra-Legacy Problem - Systems so old...: Infosec Island

Cornucopia

Racists White Teabaggers Attack Black SC Republican Tim Scott: AWD
California substitute teacher inherits cousin's $7.4M gold coin fortune: Fox

Image: Lame Duck President Wins Prestigious Gun Competition
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: An open call to gun-control advocates and gun supporters

QOTD: "The results of the Gun Free School Zone act’s passage have been devastating. The first mass school shooting occurred in 1997. As prominent researcher John Lott has noted, mass shooters are attracted to defenseless victim zones. While zones that ban armed citizens are a tiny percentage of the nation’s area, according to Lott, only one of the “successful” (four or more victims) mass shootings in the past thirty years occurred outside of a defenseless victim zone (gun free zone).

Why do mass shooters chose defenseless victim zones? Because they want the fame that goes with the media attention that a mass killer gets, and to get the attention, they have to kill a lot of people. If they are stopped by an armed citizen, they lose their chance to make the “record books”, and there is no point in mass killing.

Armed citizens stop about one in ten of mass killings before they become “successful”, but they are rarely mentioned because of this fact. Most of these life saving actions occur outside of defenseless victim zones.

We have a real world counterexample to the Gun Free School Zone act in Israel. Israelis were confronted with a similar problem after the Maalot massacre in the 1970s They responded by allowing teachers, responsible older students, and volunteer parents to be armed in their schools. They have not had a child shot in a school since.

Since the Gun Free School Zone act was passed for the second time in 1996, 13 mass school shootings have occurred. This unconstitutional law has been a disaster and should be repealed." --Dean Weingarten

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

AWESOME: Facebook plans autoplay video ads

Well, this ought to work out swimmingly.

The seemingly desperate quest for Facebook to make money out of its 1 billion users has taken another twist with rumours strengthening that it will roll out video ads that play automatically in news feeds.

The monetisation imperative already is facing an enormous backlash over a move by Facebook-owned Instagram to make money out of selling user images posted on the photo-sharing site.

Reggie Middleton predicted what would happen to Facebook nearly a year ago. His advice is well worth a review.


Hat tip: @Slone.

SEASONS GREETINGS FROM BARACK O'BOEHNER

Relayed by The Looking Spoon.


And could someone please -- pretty please? -- ask John Boehner to stop negotiating with himself?


PIERS MORGAN'S TOP 10 FIREARMS TIPS. Oh, did I say Piers Morgan? I meant the Founding Fathers

Gee, I wonder whose counsel is more valuable and timeless: that of America's Founding Fathers -- or of Piers Morgan?

10. "It may be laid down, as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every citizen who enjoys the protection of a free government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even of his personal services to the defence of it, and consequently that the Citizens of America (with a few legal and official exceptions) from 18 to 50 Years of Age should be borne on the Militia Rolls, provided with uniform Arms, and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the Total strength of the Country might be called forth at Short Notice on any very interesting Emergency." ----George Washington, First President of the United States

9. "[The Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation...(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." --James Madison,The Federalist Papers, No. 46.

8. “And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the Press, or the rights of Conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; …” --Samuel Adams, 1789

7. “...the people are confirmed by the next article in their right to keep and bear their private arms" --Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789, Article on the Bill of Rights

6. "The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full posession of them.” --Zachariah Johnson, Elliot’s Debates, vol. 3 “The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution.”

5. "Those who hammer their guns into plowshares will plow for those who do not." --Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States

4. "The great object is that every man be armed.” and “Everyone who is able may have a gun." --Patrick Henry

3. "I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them." --George Mason, Co-author of the Second Amendment

2. "The best we can help for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." --Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-8

1. "The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that … it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; … " --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Justice John Cartwright, June 5, 1824.

If Piers Morgan, Dianne Feinstein, Barack Obama, and the rest of the progressive Left want to limit the right to keep and bear arms, then they must accomplish it the lawful way: by offering a Constitutional Amendment and then passing it.


Hat tip: @RayWatts.

REMEMBER HOW DIANNE FEINSTEIN USED TO CARRY A SEMI-AUTOMATIC AROUND TO PROTECT HERSELF? Yeah, that was fun. Good times.

There's hypocrisy. There's weapons-grade hypocrisy. And then there's Feinstein-level hypocrisy.

On April 27, 1995, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) spoke at the US Senate hearing on terrorism shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing.

During the hearing, she referenced her concealed carry permit and how she carried a gun with her in the 1970's, citing the urge to arm yourself for protection- in her case from threats...


"I know the sense of helplessness that people feel. I know the urge to arm yourself because that's what I did. I was trained in firearms. I walked to the hospital when my husband was sick. I carried a concealed weapon and I made the determination if somebody was going to try and take me out, I was going to take them with me."

In 1994, Sen. Feinstein championed the federal assault weapons ban which expired in 2004 due to sunset provisions in the law.

Now, after recent shooting tragedies, Feinstein is making another push for tighter gun control.

In order to advance its ideological agenda, Mark Levin notes that the Left always twists the language:

• A "military-style weapon" is a semi-automatic rifle that resembles a military weapon, but operates precisely like a traditional hunting rifle;

• An "assault weapon", likewise, is a hunting rifle that looks scary;

• And a "high-capacity magazine" is a clip that holds more cartridges than some arbitrary threshold your betters arrived at.


As for the British CNN host Piers Morgan -- who invites actual experts on his show only to shout apoplectic epithets at them -- perhaps a brief history lesson in in order:



It's called Democide. And, if history is any guide, free people have much more to fear from their governments than each other.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

10 Reasons the University as We Know It is Doomed

Culled from an excellent article at The American Interest (hat tip: BadBlue).

10. In fifty years, if not much sooner, half of the roughly 4,500 colleges and universities now operating in the United States will have ceased to exist. The technology driving this change is already at work, and nothing can stop it.

9. MIT is the first elite university to offer a credential for students who complete its free, open-source online courses. (The certificate of completion requires a small fee.) For the first time, students can do more than simply watch free lectures; they can gain a marketable credential—something that could help secure a raise or a better job. While edX won’t offer traditional academic credits, Harvard and MIT have announced that “certificates of mastery” will be available for those who complete the online courses and can demonstrate knowledge of course material. The arrival of credentials, backed by respected universities, eliminates one of the last remaining obstacles to the widespread adoption of low-cost online education.

8. In 2007 Princeton completed construction on a new $136 million luxury dormitory for its students—all part of an effort to expand its undergraduate enrollment. Last year Yale finalized plans to build new residential dormitories at a combined cost of $600 million. The expansion will increase the size of Yale’s undergraduate population by about 1,000. The project is so expensive that Yale could actually buy a three-bedroom home in New Haven for every new student it is bringing in and still save $100 million... What these universities are doing is pure folly, akin to building a compact disc factory in the late 1990s. They are investing in a model that is on its way to obsolescence. If these universities understood the changes that lie ahead, they would be selling off real estate, not buying it—unless they prefer being landlords to being educators.

7. The biggest obstacle to the rapid adoption of low-cost, open-source education in America is that many of the stakeholders make a very handsome living off the system as is. In 2009, 36 college presidents made more than $1 million. That’s in the middle of a recession, when most campuses were facing severe budget cuts. This makes them rather conservative when it comes to the politics of higher education, in sharp contrast to their usual leftwing political bias in other areas.

6. Student loan debt is at an all-time high—an average of more than $23,000 per graduate by some counts—and tuition costs continue to rise at a rate far outpacing inflation, as they have for decades. Credential inflation is devaluing the college degree, making graduate degrees, and the greater debt required to pay for them, increasingly necessary for many people to maintain the standard of living they experienced growing up in their parents’ homes.

5. The live lecture will be replaced by streaming video. The administration of exams and exchange of coursework over the internet will become the norm. The push and pull of academic exchange will take place mainly in interactive online spaces, occupied by a new generation of tablet-toting, hyper-connected youth who already spend much of their lives online. Universities will extend their reach to students around the world, unbounded by geography or even by time zones. All of this will be on offer, too, at a fraction of the cost of a traditional college education.

4. Recent history shows us that the internet is a great destroyer of any traditional business that relies on the sale of information... The higher-ed business is in for a lot of pain as a new era of creative destruction produces a merciless shakeout of those institutions that adapt and prosper from those that stall and die. Meanwhile, students themselves are in for a golden age, characterized by near-universal access to the highest quality teaching and scholarship at a minimal cost. The changes ahead will ultimately bring about the most beneficial, most efficient and most equitable access to education that the world has ever seen.

3. Technology will also bring future students an array of new choices about how to build and customize their educations. Power is shifting away from selective university admissions officers into the hands of educational consumers, who will soon have their choice of attending virtually any university in the world online. This will dramatically increase competition among universities. Prestigious institutions, especially those few extremely well-endowed ones with money to buffer and finance change, will be in a position to dominate this virtual, global educational marketplace. The bottom feeders—the for-profit colleges and low-level public and non-profit colleges—will disappear or turn into the equivalent of vocational training institutes. Universities of all ranks below the very top will engage each other in an all-out war of survival. In this war, big-budget universities carrying large transactional costs stand to lose the most. Smaller, more nimble institutions with sound leadership will do best.

2. What happens when a limited supply of a sought-after commodity suddenly becomes unlimited? Prices fall. Yet here, on the cusp of a new era of online education, that is a financial reality that few American universities are prepared to face.

1. The most important part of the college bubble story—the one we will soon be hearing much more about—concerns the impending financial collapse of numerous private colleges and universities and the likely shrinkage of many public ones. And when that bubble bursts, it will end a system of higher education that, for all of its history, has been steeped in a culture of exclusivity. Then we’ll see the birth of something entirely new as we accept one central and unavoidable fact: The college classroom is about to go virtual.

Big changes are coming, and old attitudes and business models are set to collapse as new ones rise. Few who will be affected by the changes ahead are aware of what’s coming. Severe financial contraction in the higher-ed industry is on the way, and for many this will spell hard times both financially and personally. But if our goal is educating as many students as possible, as well as possible, as affordably as possible, then the end of the university as we know it is nothing to fear. Indeed, it’s something to celebrate.

Larwyn's Linx: Gun Control, Thought Control and People Control

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Gun Control, Thought Control and People Control: Sultan Knish
GOP Leaders Capitulate on Core Conservative Principles: Foundry
Obama’s Obnoxious Obstructionism: Hillyer

Yes, It's Time For Bus Control: Bookworm
Team Obama still raising money--off Sandy Hook shootings: Exam
Obama backs new assault weapons ban: USA Today

A Short Open Letter to Joe Wilson: Hawkins
When Seconds Counted, The Police Were 20 Minutes Away: Howling
The Post-Newtown Witch Hunt: Malkin

The Return Of The Scary Gun Ban. 2012 Edition: RS
Police find no evidence Connecticut gunman was on medication: Fox
Michigan GOP Governor Vetoes Concealed Weapon Bill: ABC

Economy

Summary of Saul Alinsky's "Rules For Radicals": Union News
Boehner’s House Has Increased Debt $18,944 Per Household: CNS
Domino’s Founder Files Lawsuit Challenging HHS Mandate: Foundry

Scandal Central

This is Awkward: SDA
Fast and Furious guns claim another victim in Mexico; Time for a national conversation?: Twitchy
The Detroit Political Machine: Charged With Stealing From Widows and Orphans: Mead

Mandatory Voting: Is This The Obama Administration's Goal?: IBD
Texas Democrat Party Official Calls For Murder Of Fellow Americans: Rhymes
Detroit's Tragic Decline Is Largely Due To Its Own Race-Based Policies: IBD

Climate & Energy

Great news: EPA regulating water: Times
EPA emails under internal probe: Hill

Media

Ezra Klein: Mark to Myth: Finem Respice
Nanny Bloomberg Just Keeps on Making No Sense: Powers
Gun owners need weapons to protect themselves from anti-gun violent thugs!: AWD

Liberal Talk Station Folds; Blames Obama Campaign, Lack Of Like-Minded Financial Support: Katz
Press Gives Bloomberg a Pass for ‘Only Happens in America’ Remark on ‘Meet the Press’: BizzyBlog
1999 CT “Zero Tolerance” Law Outlawed State Employees From Carrying a Knife, BB Gun or Taser: Sooper

Anti-gun Michael Moore’s body guard arrested on gun charges in 2005: Greenroom
NBC News crew freed from captors in Syria: AT
Our Next Historic President: MB

World

Dems Aim For Gun Control Laws, As Another Fast and Furious Gun Shows Up at Murder Scene: MenRec
German TV Compares the Muslim Brotherhood With Communists and Nazis: GoV
Japanese Conservative Victory: A Welcome Development for the U.S.: Foundry

A Complete Whitewash: The Accountability Review Board Report On Benghazi: Howling
State Dept. defends arrest of Marine Veteran being held in Mexico on gun charge: Scoop
New Jersey Papa John’s robbed by hijabis: Creeping

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

“In the beginning”...bringing the scrolls of Genesis and the Ten Commandments online: GoogleBlog
DARPA begins work on 100Gbps wireless tech with 120-mile range: ExtremeTech
No, what Instagram just did to its users is not acceptable: ZDNet

Invisibility Cloak Allows Combat Vehicles To 'Disappear' And Change Shape: Insider
Facebook Destroys Instagram: Ritholtz
Will Oracle Cloud Block Customers' Monitoring Tools?: TalkinCloud

Cornucopia

The Hand In the Pocket: American Digest
The Decline of Western Title Sequences: Finem Respice
The Racist Roots of Gun Control: Firearms & Liberty

Image: Arizonan Helps Nab Bank Robber--All He Had to Do Was Show the Suspect He Was Armed
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Maggie's Farm

QOTD: "We hear an awful lot about heartless predatory corporations, but corrupt urban machines prey more viciously on the poor than does any corporation. Kids have been defrauded of education, pensioners are now looking at insecurity and cutbacks in their retirement years, homeowners have been ruined by failures of governance, and businesses have been destroyed—by failures of governance, by bureaucratic ineptitude, and by systemic corruption.

There are cities in this country where party organizations have become indistinguishable from criminal enterprises. Some smart lawyers could do a lot of good by ripping the curtain of denial aside. If Teddy Roosevelt were around today, this is the kind of issue the Bull Moose would be charging head on." --Walter Russell Mead

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

MEET YOUR PROSPECTIVE NEW SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Chuck Hagel's Greatest Hits

So long, Israel: it was nice knowing you.
• "The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here."

• "I'm a United States Senator, not an Israeli Senator."

• In 2002, a year in which 457 Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks (a figure proportionately equivalent to more than 20,000 fatalities in the U.S., or seven 9/11s), Mr. Hagel weighed in with the advice that "Israel must take steps to show its commitment to peace." This was two years after Yasser Arafat had been offered a state by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at Camp David.

• In 2006, Mr. Hagel described Israel's war against Hezbollah as "the systematic destruction of an American friend, the country and people of Lebanon."

• In 2007, he voted against designating Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization.

• In 2009, Mr. Hagel urged the Obama administration to open direct talks with Hamas.

• In 2008, Mr. Hagel and John Kerry co-authored an op-ed in this newspaper titled "It's Time to Talk to Syria."

• "The United States and Israel must understand that it is not in their long-term interests to allow themselves to become isolated in the Middle East and the world," he said in a 2006 Senate speech. It's a political Deep Thought worthy of Saturday Night Live's Jack Handey. Does Mr. Hagel reckon any other nation to be quite so blind to its own supposed self-interest as Israel?

I don't think we've ever had a SECDEF with such a, eh, predilection for terrorists before. But, then again, this administration is historic.


IT TURNS OUT GUN OWNERS REALLY DO NEED WEAPONS: To protect themselves from left-wing thugs who threaten them with murder

Whatever happened to the post-Gabbi Giffords calls for civility? Oh, that's right: there's always a double standard for the Democrat Party and its hard left, progressive leaders:

Texas Democratic Party Official Calls For Murder of NRA Members

John Carburruvius tweeted this out after the Sandy Hook School shootings: "Can we now shoot the #NRA and everyone who defends them?"


John Carburruvius is a Democrat precinct committeeman in Bay Area Houston. He is a well-known Democrat in the state, worked on Noriega for US Senate campaign. He also SERVES ON THE TEXAS STATE DEMOCRAT COMMITTEE. On Friday he urged his twitter followers to murder NRA members and anyone who supports them.

His was hardly the only call for murder:

University of Rhode Island Professor Erik Loomis calls for killing NRA executive.

Actress Marg Helgenberger: ‘One can only hope’ NRA members get shot.

• Radio host Tony Katz, among others, was among many conservatives who received threats.

• And columnist/author Katie Pavlich collected additional threats.

Angry White Dude is right: "Gun owners need weapons to protect themselves from anti-gun violent thugs!"


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

BARRY RITHOLTZ: Facebook Just Destroyed Instagram

Well, these developments don't seem customer-friendly:

Over the past few years, I have been fairly critical about Facebook — starting first with its absurd valuation, and then moving to its abuse of privacy and data mining about its users, its frequent unannounced changes to its terms, and the general disdain with which it treats its users.

Although I was an Instagram fan, once [Facebook] bought the company, I stopped using the app (there are lots of alternatives)... This morning, I was reading the latest terms of service for the photo app — and they are nothing short of insane.

THE CASE OF THE MISSING MASSACRE: "How Come Obama Did Not Mention Fort Hood?"

Mark Levin catches a troubling omission by President Obama at a memorial service that turned -- surprise! -- into a political speech:

Over the weekend, the president was speaking and, really, when he got to his politics it was just stomach turning. There he is, in the middle of that little town … and he named four instances in where there were, what, massacres? But he left one out. I immediately realized -- and my brother emailed me too -- what happened to Fort Hood? How come he didn't mention Fort Hood? How come Obama did not mention Fort Hood where 13 human beings were slaughtered and there were several survivors. Because, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, Fort Hood is a military enclave, it's a base. You can't have more control than that.

Number two, they had all kinds of rules of who can carry weapons and who can't there. And unfortunately, a lot of men and women in uniform aren't allowed to carry weapons unless they're on duty. All kinds of gun control on that base.

But, number three, it had nothing to do with gun control. It had everything to do with political correctness run amok, costing the lives of 13 human beings. CBS News, July 19, 2012:

The FBI was too concerned about political correctness and did not launch an investigation into a man who was later charged with killing 13 people in the 2009 attack in Fort Hood, Texas, despite significant warning signs that he was an Islamic extremist bent on killing civilians, according to a lawmaker briefed on the new report.