The Bookworm Beat 12/3/14 — “Is it really only Tuesday?” edition, and Open Thread
It’s been a long week and it’s only Tuesday. I had originally written a four paragraph screed complaining about my week so far and then had a sudden attack of sanity and deleted it. Yay for me and lucky for you!
Here’s the good news: Massive amounts of rain. Yes, it’s inconvenient. Yes, it’s causing floods and mudslides in Southern California (where it never rains but it pours, man it pours). But I’ll take rain over drought any time. Rain is problematic, but drought is death.
And that mixed note of good cheer and horror, here are a few things that might interest you:
New York tees up to destroy Second Amendment rights across America
All of us remember New York’s hastily passed Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act (aka “SAFE Act”), which may be the most draconian gun-grabbing legislation in American history. Michael Filozof explains that the SAFE Act isn’t just bad for New Yorkers. Right now, it’s poised to be bad for all of America. You see, after a New York federal district court sustained almost the entire law, it’s now pending in a Manhattan federal appellate court:
It’s highly unlikely that the Second Circuit will strike the SAFE Act down (in fact, they could even reinstate the seven-round limit), but if they did, the case would then be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
And that’s part of the plan. The law’s backers are calling the bluff of gun owners in a very high-stakes gamble. They are attempting to force the hand of the Supreme Court to rule that all Americans have a constitutional right to an AK-47 and a 30-round magazine, and they are confident that a court dominated by justices from liberal states with the strictest gun control laws in the country will vote “no.” Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor are all ultra-liberals from New York City, and Stephen Breyer and Anthony Kennedy are from liberal Northern California. That could be five votes right there. Only one justice – Samuel Alito – has any military experience and any personal familiarity with the firearms in question. And Justice Scalia, a staunch advocate of the Second Amendment despite having grown up in New York, is getting on in years. If Scalia retires or passes on without ruling on the SAFE Act within the next two years, his replacement will be nominated by President Obama – and it’s curtains for the Second Amendment.
If you’re feeling like donating to a cause this Christmas, you might want to think about the NRA.
The world media’s massive deceit when it comes to Israel
A few months ago, Matti Friedman, a journalist, wrote an article for The Tablet entitled “An Insider’s Guide to the Most Important Story on Earth : A former AP correspondent explains how and why reporters get Israel so wrong, and why it matters.” To its credit, The Atlantic has published an much more in-depth version of that same report.
It’s a long article that can be summarized thusly: the world’s major media outlets engage in massive, systemic anti-Israel bias. The effect (this is Bookworm talking again) is to drive the development of equally massive antisemitism (disguised as bland anti-Israel feelings) around the world.
No, Ms. Sebelius. It’s you who don’t understand how insurance works
In a USA Today interview that saw Kathleen Sebelius say “I don’t know this Gruber fellow of whom you speak,” Sebelius then pulled a Gruber, and called ordinary Americans stupid:
“A lot of Americans have no idea what insurance is about,” she said. “I think the financial literacy of a lot of people, particularly people who did not have insurance coverage or whose employers chose their coverage and kind of present it to them, is very low — and that has been a sort of stunning revelation. It’s not because people hid it from folks. It’s because this is a complicated product.”
To the contrary. Americans understand perfectly how insurance works: It’s supposed to be a risk allocation device. The insured, worried about the risk of a large medical expense, pays an insurance company a relatively small fee, with the understanding that, should the risk become a reality, the insurance company will bear the large cost. The insurance company calibrates its fees so that, in the event any of its many insureds needs to make a claim, there is a pool of money available to pay that claim, leaving enough left over to pay the company’s ongoing costs of doing business and give its shareholders a profit.
That’s not what Obamacare is. It is simply a wealth transfer: Insurance companies receive massive amounts of government-coerced funds from Americans with some money, and then use those funds to provide limited medical benefits (including mandatory fees that have nothing to do with risk) both to the people who paid in (subject to huge deductibles) as well as to people who paid nothing.
It’s Sebelius who is either ignorant about insurance or dishonest — or, of course, both.
More and more and more people voicing suspicions about Rolling Stones’ UVA rape story
I believe I was one of the first to object on evidentiary grounds to the Rolling Stones’ rape story. I’m clearly not the last. Here are two more:
The Rolling Stone Saga: Everything That’s Wrong with How We Deal with Campus Rape
Myriad lies and misrepresentations in House Benghazi report
The Left is congratulating itself on the House Benghazi report, which said, in sum, that Hillary was a little careless, but nothing more.
“Not so fast” say several CIA security contractors, who provide chapter and verse explanations of the way in which the report erred — and each error worked in the administration’s favor.
“How do I know? The Bible tells me so.”
Jews have circumcised their sons since Abraham’s time. In Moses’s time, God made it very clear that he wants boys to be circumcized (Exodus 24-26):
And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the Lord met him, and sought to kill him.
Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.
So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.
It turns out that God and Mother Nature are two minds with but a single thought when it comes to circumcision. God wants it as a covenant and Mother Nature wants it because it keeps men and, by extension, their female partners more healthy:
In the new guidelines, the CDC says there is now strong evidence that male circumcision can:
Cut a man’s risk of getting HIV from an infected female partner by 50 to 60per cent.
Reduce their risk of genital herpes and certain strains of human papillomavirus by 30per cent or more.
Lower the odds of urinary tract infections during infancy, and cancer of the penis in adulthood.
Anne Lamotte epitomizes Leftist self-delusion
Anne Lamotte, a Marin-based writer, has written an article on forgiveness, but Salon’s titled focuses on the article’s actual point: “Anne Lamott: ‘Look at the Tea Party: Some of the angriest, most hateful people on earth, and they’re backed by what they think is Scripture”‘) As one would except from Lamotte, the piece is a gauzy, wandering celebration of herself.
I find Lamotte’s lack of rigor and incoherence unpleasant, but I was able to latch on to two sentences, the first of which Salon usefully quoted for me. The second is about Lamotte’s perfect day: “Like meditation or in my spiritual journey, or exercise – hiking … you never want to do any hard work – you just want to watch MSNBC and eat miniature Kit-Kats.”
So, Lamotte’s perfect day is MSNBC and Tea Party people are angry and hate-filled. Hmmm. Maybe Lamotte’s been watching a different MSNBC than the rest of us. The MSNBC we conservatives has hosts who say mean things. I can’t find anything current now because I have to do more family stuff, but here are some examples.
I am not the only mom who loves Pitbull
It turns out that there are a whole bunch of moms who love Pitbull — and they are honored (or, if I give up the denial, ridiculed) on a Tumblr blog entitled Your Mom Loves Pitbull.
***
Off to do more family stuff. It’s not that I have to do it that makes me crazy. It’s that nothing’s under my control and I’m always at the mercy of other people’s needs and agendas. (Mom needs a doctor? Must do that. Exchange student needs a ride because buses cancelled on account of rain? Must do that. Son’s window blinds broken? Must do that. Sewage backed up? Must do that. Husband needs food? Must do that. Daughter needs glasses? Must do that.) It’s fine. It’s my job. But I still hate the feeling of four wheels, no brakes.
