The Bookworm Beat 1/31/17 — the quick links edition

I’m working on an irritating little project that requires me to explain to a judge in a polite, non-insulting, ego-building way that I forgive him for not reading the facts or knowing the law, and that I just want to lead his brilliant, informed mind to the truth. Thankfully, Wolf Howling sent me a great email updating me on today’s news, so I’ll pass it on to you:

The thought of a civil war with California just warms my heart. The insane part of this is that the progs look to history and read only the parts of it that they find convenient at the moment. Right now, they are reading John C. Calhoun circa 1860.

Amazing news. Apparently the first human ancestor some 540 million years ago was a progressive.

Also an interesting list of famous historical rocks.

How much idiocy and factually incorrect information can be packed into two paragraphs? Quite a lot it seems.

VD Hanson plays political doctor. Finds the progs guilty of gross malpractice. Good.

Over at WUWT, as I’ve said many times, one of the most important things that Trump needs to do is restore scientific integrity.

Sheldon Whitehouse, a very proggy prog, getting shouted down by more hysterical progs for his vote to confirm Mike Pompeo as CIA Chief. The reaction of the hard left is going to end up with a party that is purged and ends up to the left of Marx in four years. That is good news so long as Trump improves the economy significantly.

The EU apparatchiks are quite concerned about Trump’s 90 day order. The author makes a good point at the bottom of the post: If Trump secures the US borders, the people in Europe will be holding Merkel et. al accountable.

And lastly, an interesting First Amendment case challenging the ability of a college and profs to punish students who do not support social justice policies.

Today’s joke: What do you call a deer who can use all four of its legs equally well?

— bambidexterous.

That was all Wolf Howling. From me, Bookworm, you get a PragerU video about the brake the Arab world has placed on its development:

My addition to the video’s analysis is that, throughout history, antisemitic societies have always been more authoritarian than other societies around them at the same point in history. The fact is that authoritarian societies are always going to be antithetical to human development.