WHATEVER
"STUDY: Optimists live longer . . . " Drudge Report, 8/27
CRIMINAL MINDS
From Omaha World Herald 8/23: "Detention notice is emailed to entire school by mistake. Contrary to an email that went out to students & parents at Lincoln's North Star High School the entire student body didn't have to serve detention over lunch. A detention notification intended for a handful of students who were tardy the previous day went to all Lincoln North Star students. And their parents."
FREE SPEECH
The First Amendment is an important protection of press freedom. Yet nothing in it protects members of the press from criticism, let alone criticism over things they have written. Such criticisms are exercises of free speech in response to other exercises of free speech — i.e., public debate. --Rich Lowry, National Review Online 8/27
INSECTS
I hate to be the fly in the ointment, but not every reference to an insect is necessarily calling for someone’s extinction.
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Yes, Twitter and the Internet are a hive of this kind of name-calling, with every troll as busy as a bee, and it’s easy to stir up a hornet’s nest. These comments bug people. One day you think you’re the bee’s knees, covering a race that’s as tight as a tick, and then the next you’re bug-eyed in shock at some nasty insult and that leaves a bee in your bonnet. You’re a nice guy, who wouldn’t hurt a flea, but the idea of somebody hating you like that leaves butterflies in your stomach and has really loused up your day. For a while everybody was on Twitter, but now those who can’t stand the nasty name-calling are dropping like flies.
In a better world, our debates would be principled, respectful and focused on issues; the personal stuff wouldn’t be anybody’s beeswax. When somebody saw the value in our perspective, we would answer, “you have learned well, grasshopper.” It’s tempting to cocoon ourselves in a small circle of like-minded souls. But perhaps we ought to just follow Muhammad Ali’s advice: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” --Jim Geraghty, NRO 8/27
OIL & GAS
We hear little about the Trump effort to green-light more leasing and production of natural gas and oil, efforts that have already made the U.S. the No. 1 producer in the world.
For all the talk of “climate change,” does the Left tell us how many barrels of oil per day and cubic feet of natural gas they would wish to curtail, or whether the resulting higher costs for fuel, heating, and power are worth the cutbacks, or whether we wish to return to strategic dependence on Persian Gulf psychodramas? Do they have a plan to deal with Indian and Chinese coal-burning if we were to radically cut the use of clean-burning natural gas? Do they know why the signees of the Paris climate accord for the most part have not and will not meet their promises while the U.S. has?
In truth, Trump’s critics mostly stay silent, given that Sarah Palin’s 2008 much-reviled “drill, baby, drill” call to lower costs and achieve independence from Middle Eastern oil has more or less proven wise. --Victor Davis Hanson, NRO 8/27
LATE-NIGHT "COMEDY"
The parasite of Leftism has latched on to “Late Night” talk shows, with the quality of comedy declining as the claws of unabated radicalism dig deeper. The laughter and applause of audiences in search of ideological confirmation ensure that they remain blind to the complete inaccuracy or immorality of the Leftist talking points being fed to them night after night. --Ian Haworth, Townhall 8/27
TAXES
"Our 30th president, Calvin Coolidge, who was born in the tiny hamlet of Plymouth Notch, Vermont, on July 4, 1872, had abundant wisdom on numerous subjects. Horse, or common sense, they called it. About taxes, which today's Democratic presidential candidates believe are not . high enough, Colidge said, 'I want taxes to be less, that the people might hae more,' & 'The collection of any taxes which are not absolutely required, which do not beyond ereeasonable doubt contribute to the public welfare, is only a species of legalized larcy' & 'The wise & correct course to follow in taxation is not to destroy those who have already secured success, but to create conditions under which everyone will hae a better chance to be successful.' Copy to Bernie Sanders & Elizabeth Warren." --Cal Thomas, Norfolk Daily News
