Thursday, May 28, 2015

PEGGY NOONAN: The Trigger-Happy Generation. Trigger warning happy. We can be grateful (? -ed.) that global warming isn't happening, 'cuz these precious little snowflakes wouldn't survive. Assuming they should....

[Just in case] If this is still behind the WSJ paywall, you can still access it by going to Google, putting the exact title above in the search box, and clicking search.
VIDEO: Carly Fiorina on how she would fight ISIS.

I concur with Jazz Shaw: "I do like the cut of her jib."
I MISSED THIS ONE ON MEMORIAL DAY: Never forget the price of freedom. My sense is that the little boy is (or should be) Obama.
BECAUSE #OPPORTUNITY: "Even the Democratic base doesn’t want to live in deep blue territory, since progressive policies lead to higher costs, higher crime and reduced economic opportunity."
WITH DEMOCRATS IN CHARGE? Why do you ask? Can Baltimore survive its epidemic of murder?
OH, THE IRONY: Obama is nostalgic for “white” Israel.
JEFF JACOBY: Yes, let's ask some more historical (hysterical?) history gotcha questions.
THE SCOREKEEPER: 'Baltimorons' embrace chaos. And PowerLine identifies the leading 'Baltimoron'. Well, in addition to its mayor.

When Baltimore state's attorney Marilyn Mosby announced the charges against the six police officers, I remember thinking that she was throwing everything against the wall hoping that at least something would stick. It looks like I was right ... and at least 9 more Baltimore residents are dead.
HOW REPUBLICANS can capture the millennial vote: Don’t alter the message — change the package.

While I don't agree with all the details, I think the prescription is basically right. In my mind Carly Fiorina and Bobby Jindal are the most successful practicioners. They're the ones I'll be keeping my eye on....
'RENEWABLE' MINIGRIDS should be the end goal for rural poor. Yes, we certainly wouldn't want them to, you know, industrialize, would we?
X-37B SPACEPLANE’S orbit discovered, but the real action's in the comments.
MARCO RUBIO: impressive on foreign policy. I like Rubio; he's an impressive candidate, and has a much-more-than-voting-present resume ... but he's still a first-term Senator.
SLINGSHOT:


We saw several of these during the Rolling Thunder parade last Sunday. It would be one hell of a golf cart, if only I played golf.
IMMIGRATION REFORM, Obama-style. The courts don't approve....
REPUBLICANS ARE PRO-CHOICE; Democrats ... not so much.
IMPRIMIS: What’s next for religious liberty in America?
Consider the following:
Cultural conservatives answered the Left’s attempted Chick-fil-A boycott with a “buycott” that swamped stores nationwide, even causing some to run out of food for customers eager to show their support for a beloved restaurant, owned by people who share their moral principles.

Leftist pressure against Hobby Lobby failed. Customers were either supportive of the owners or indifferent to politics, and boycotts had no effect on Hobby Lobby’s bottom line or its willingness to fight. Not only did Hobby Lobby win its Supreme Court case, its owners are set to open a massive new Museum of the Bible near the National Mall.

Efforts to drive Phil Robertson—of Duck Dynasty fame—off the air after controversial comments on sexual morality failed, giving cultural conservatives a victory in a medium (cable television) seen as almost uniformly hostile to orthodox Christianity. While Robertson has remained a polarizing figure (and often says things that make many of his supporters uncomfortable), there has been no serious repeat effort to remove him from the air.

In Houston, leftist government officials were forced to backtrack within days after issuing subpoenas requiring area pastors to turn over the contents of their sermons and other communications. The public outcry was so swift and so great that the city capitulated even before a judge could rule on motions to quash.

Even in Indiana, as Republican politicians quickly caved to corporate and media pressure, the grassroots response in support of Memories Pizza soon swamped the Left. A GoFundMe account set up to support the owners raised more than $800,000 in small donations in a matter of days (including over $200,000 in one day), putting the pizza restaurant in a far superior financial position than it had enjoyed before the controversy. The message was clear: Cultural conservatives are not, in fact, culturally isolated but rather have the support of millions of Americans who oppose leftist bullying.
While the Left has proven adept at using social media, so have cultural conservatives. And now when the Left overreaches, attempting to drive Christians out of work, there is often an opposite (and greater) reaction.
Punching back works.
A (VERY) BIG BANG: What would it take to send people to Pluto?
UNEXPECTEDLY, OF COURSE: Do you want fries with that?
Customers at the new San Francisco McDonald's on Sutter Street are greeted not with a friendly smile but with the impersonal glare of two human-sized electronic tablets ready to take their order. Not coincidentally, San Francisco’s minimum wage increased to $12.25 an hour earlier this month. The city has long had one of the highest wage floors in the country.

These automated ordering systems are a stark reminder that employers can automate jobs when the cost of entry-level service employees becomes higher than what consumers are willing to pay for that service. Employers don’t do this because they’re unkind; business is a Darwinian struggle where only those who can control costs to maintain their often razor-thin profit margins can survive.

The reduced job opportunities that come as a result of these cost-cutting measures disproportionately impact society’s most vulnerable. The academic evidence clearly shows minimum wage hikes price some of these less-skilled employees out of the job market entirely.
There's always soma.
'FRUSTRATING' CAMPAIGN: U.S. pilots claim their hands are tied in ISIS fight.

You know there is something badly wrong above the level of the Joint Chiefs when stuff like this hits the mainstream news....
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: Clinton Foundation hit with racketeering lawsuit.
WASHINGTON EXAMINER: We're all at the mercy of feds' incompetence. That's what happens when Americans vote to be governed by an 'idiocracy'.