Archive for 2014

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: ‘You are a ‘Teabagger!” Long Island Woman Receives $1.12 Million For False Prosecution.

Southhampton cops searched her and found a legally owned rifle that she was transporting from a nearby rifle range. She contends a deputy sheriff arrived on the scene later and said to her, “I bet you are one of those Tea Party people.” When Genovese said she’s gone to Tea Party rallies, he allegedly said, “You’re a real right-winger, aren’t you?” and “You are a ‘Teabagger’” and then added that she’d be arrested for terrorism to make an example of other “right wingers.”

That’s just pathetic. Glad she hit ’em hard in the pocketbook. I think someone should also refer this to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division for . . . what? Why are you laughing?

P.J. O’ROURKE: They Made Me Write About Lena Dunham. “The young people in Girls are miserable, peevish, depressed, hate their bodies, themselves, their life, and each other. They occupy apartments with the size and charm of the janitor’s closet, shared by The Abominable Roommate. They dress in clothing from the flophouse lost-and-found and are groomed with a hacksaw and gravel rake. They are tattooed all over with things that don’t even look like things the way a anchor or a mermaid or a heart inscribed ‘Mom’ does, and they’re only a few years older than my daughters.”

RICHARD FERNANDEZ IS POSTING UPDATES ON THE Sydney Cafe Siege.

As most readers may know by now, a gunman or gunmen has taken about dozen hostages (or more, accounts differ) prisoner in a cafe in Martin Place, which is the ceremonial heart of Sydney. It’s the Cenotaph war memorial and but a stone’s throw from the US Embassy. The US embassy has warned citizens in country to be aware of their surroundings, in sense of being on guard against possible assailants.

The scene of the incident is an upscale cafe, which now has a black “shahada” flag draped across it, saying “there is no God but Allah”. There are reports that the police have rounded up a number of the suspect’s associates in Auburn, which is a suburb heavily populated by Muslims.

Much more at the link.

GENE LYONS: No Defense For The Mistakes In the Rolling Stone Rape Story.

Preppy WASPs, of course, are America’s last acceptable criminal class. A journalist can “profile” them all she wants with no fear of chastisement. On a recent Slate podcast, Erdeley explained she’d decided to write about UVA’s heavy-drinking “elitist fraternity culture” even before she’d met “Jackie,” the alleged victim.

“Southern” was a big part of it, too. . . .

If Rolling Stone’s story reads like a Stephen King novel, that may be because it’s largely imaginary.

UVA pledge events take place during spring semester, not September; there was no fraternity party. The side door Jackie escaped from doesn’t exist. Her three friends say they encountered her about a mile from Phi Kappa Psi that night, telling a lurid, but very different story involving forced oral sex. Jackie had no visible wounds. It was she who insisted on keeping quiet.

They also say Erdeley never interviewed them.

Jackie’s alleged seducer “Drew” never belonged to the fraternity and denies ever dating Jackie — an easy alibi to break, unless true.

The scales having fallen from my eyes, I keep returning to the scene where guys outside an off-campus bar supposedly called Jackie a “feminazi bitch.”

“One flung a bottle at Jackie that broke on the side of her face,” we’re told, “leaving a blood-red bruise around her eye.”

Maybe an NFL quarterback could throw a beer bottle hard enough to break on somebody’s face, but I doubt it. The victim, however, would be more than bruised. She’d be lucky to survive.

And there would definitely be a police report.

Indeed. Interesting to see this coming from a Dem columnist generally regarded as part of the Hillary orbit.

THE FUTURE OF LAW: I Am An Artisanal Attorney. “We—and many others like us—insist on authenticity in everything in our lives. We don’t want to eat. We want the fullness that only comes from a meal created by the human experience. We don’t want to drink. We want the buzz that is produced by the draught of a person’s skill. It occurred to me that people who demand realness in their food and homes should also demand it in their legal representation. That was when I became an artisanal attorney. . . . Like other artisans, I pay close attention to my ingredients and process; I am intimately involved in all stages of creation. Other attorneys print their documents on paper they buy in mass-produced boxes, tens of thousands of sheets at a time, using ink that mechanically jets onto the page. I make my own paper by hand, using the traditional methods of 14th-century book publishers, who printed their works on linen and vellum. The flax for the linen grows along the sides of a nearby swimming hole, and the plants’ growth is influenced by the laughter of children in the summer, when I pick it by hand. The vellum comes from the grass-fed cows of an area farm; to give the cows more agency in the vellum-making process, I let them choose the pumice I will treat their hides with after slaughter. I also make my own ink, using the ink of squid I raise myself in a PETA-approved salt-water aquarium in my office. You can meet all my squid during our initial meeting and pick which one you want for the ink on your will or healthcare power of attorney.”

A NEWER, LIGHTER Audi Q7.

VITAMIN D UPDATE: Vitamin D deficiency common, even in Sunshine State.

Related: 5 Important Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Vitamin D. Actually, InstaPundit readers probably did know these things.

I take Vitamin D every day. My supplement routine is still pretty much as described in this post, except that I stopped taking the fish oil because of research suggesting it might increase prostate cancer risk, and I’ve started taking Niagen.

GARY TAUBES, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Can High-Fructose Corn Syrup Make You Hungrier?

Distinct from sugar known as glucose (produced by the natural breakdown of complex carbohydrates), fructose is also a “simple” sugar and a natural component of fruit.

However, “in a series of studies we have found that when compared to glucose, the simple sugar, fructose, is a weaker suppressor of brain areas that help control appetite and the motivation to eat,” said study co-author Dr. Kathleen Page, an assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

In other words, people are more likely to remain feeling hungry after a meal with lots of fructose versus one with lots of glucose.

Hmm.

GREEN ARROGANCE: Peru Is Indignant After Greenpeace Makes Its Mark on Ancient Site. “The Peruvian authorities said activists from the group damaged a patch of desert when they placed a large sign that promoted renewable energy near a set of lines that form the shape of a giant hummingbird. . . . Greenpeace issued a statement apologizing for the stunt at the archaeological site, about 225 miles south of Lima. Its international executive director, Kumi Naidoo, flew to Lima, but the Peruvian authorities were seething over the episode, which they said had scarred one of the country’s most treasured national symbols.” Worrying about environmental impacts is for the little people.

ADVOCACY JOURNALISM: So new DOJ figures come out showing that campus sexual assault is less common than off-campus sexual assault, and that the rate is a tiny fraction of what activists claim, and what’s the spin? Sexual assaults go unreported. Not even a mention of the other, narrative-threatening, findings.

IN THE MAIL: From Mitzi Perdue, Tough Man, Tender Chicken: Business and Life Lessons from Frank Perdue. Mitzi Perdue is a longtime InstaPundit reader, and this biography, which I opened up and read as soon as it arrived, is a great story of making it big through hard work, attention to detail, and focus on customers.

Plus, today only: Miracle-Gro AeroGarden 7-Pod LED Indoor Garden with Gourmet Herb Seed Kit, $99.95 (50% off).

And, also today only: Up to 64% Off “True Blood: The Complete Series.”

UPSIDE: PLENTY OF FACILITIES FOR THE AIRBRIDGE TO RESIST A RUSSIAN INVASION. EU funds help Poland build ‘ghost’ airports. “The European Union has given Poland more than 100 million euros ($125 million) to build at least three “ghost” airports in places where there are not enough passengers to keep them in business. The result is gleaming new airport terminals which, even at the peak of the holiday season, echo to the sound of empty concourses and spend millions trying to attract airlines.”

SHOCKER: “Green” Europe Fudging Car Emissions Numbers.

Europeans sip gasoline while Americans guzzle it, or at least that’s how the story goes. But as the Economist reports, once you look under the hood, Europe’s fuel efficiency emissions standards are a little suspect. . . .

Contrast that with the U.S., which, under President Obama, has enacted some very strong fuel efficiency standards that are putting a sizable dent in our nation’s carbon footprint, even without the kinds of test fudging seen across the Atlantic. Europe likes to think itself a paragon of green policies, but with electricity costs spiraling and coal consumption rising, it looks like it’s having to resort to some fuzzy math to defend its eco-friendly status.

Pretty typical, for the EU.

IT BEATS A REAL JOB: Why Would Anyone Sign Up to Be the Next Mary Landrieu? “She was trounced by a Republican and abandoned by Democrats. Now her party has to convince a promising young politician to risk running the same gauntlet.”

AT AMAZON, 20% off on Chocolate, Coffee & Gourmet Specialty Gifts.

Plus, up to 30% off on Pet Supplies.

Also, Gift Cards for the Holidays.

And, today only: Supernova 300 Lumens Ultra Bright LED Camping and Emergency Lantern, $27.30 (45% off). I have a similar — but less bright — Rayovac lantern and it’s very nice during power outages.

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HOWIE CARR ON THE PEOPLE WHO ONCE CALLED THEMSELVES “THE REALITY-BASED COMMUNITY:” Moonbats defend fable not the facts. “Not familiar with Rolling Stone? What Tiger Beat used to be for teenybopper girls, Rolling Stone is for the Pajama Boy generation . . . . The UVA fiasco is what happens when they try to write something other than a mash note to a heroin addict.”