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December 2015

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 30, 2015 6 Comments
2015 will be remembered as a wild year for many reasons, including the weather. While the Eastern part of the country was enjoying record high temperatures, the Great Plains was slammed by "Winter Storm Goliath".
Winter Storm Goliath, the seventh named storm of the 2015-16 season, brought more than three feet of snow and extremely dangerous blizzard conditions to parts of the Southern Plains. New Mexico was under a state of emergency, where the governor called the weather a "dire situation." The panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma were also hammered by this storm, and officials were forced to close Interstate 40, which runs through Amarillo, because of the life-threatening conditions. Major roads were covered in snow, and drifts up to 10 feet were reported.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 29, 2015 16 Comments
Tuesday evening, Republican Presidential candidate and former Governor of New York, George Pataki alluded to an exit from the Republican presidential primary race.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 29, 2015 5 Comments
Border Patrol agents at Texas' Rio Grande Valley Processing Center spent part of Christmas Day with unaccompanied immigrant minors. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection:
“These children are thousands of miles from home, and most of them are essentially alone for the holidays as they came here without their parents or another family member,” said Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla Jr. “Christmas is a tough time to be without your family, so management at the CPC got together and raised money to purchase gifts for the kids and help make Christmas better for them.”

Posted by Jonathan Levin on December 29, 2015 5 Comments
Russia's Navy is growing and playing a greater role is Russia's aggressive foreign policy posture for the first time in two generations, and the US seems - still - unprepared and unwilling to push back. Russia's military capacity has been severely limited since the end of the Cold War.  It's most noteworthy events were two Chechen Wars in the 1990s and early 2000s that went poorly, and the 2000 disaster that sank and killed all 118 sailors aboard the nuclear submarine Kursk. Even Russia's invasion of Georgia in 2008 was poorly executed against a nominal military power. Since Georgia, Russia has done better.  The invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2009 was more or less flawless.  The Russian involvement in Ukraine today is less so, but is also hampered by having to maintain the pretense of non-involvement.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 29, 2015 4 Comments
According to British newspaper Express, city of London and other European capitals have been warned about an imminent terror attack "on or before New Year's Eve." The security alert issued by an unnamed intelligence agency specifically mentions the likelihood of an attack on shoppers and revellers in crowded places around New Year’s Eve in a European city. The warning is considered credible, prompting the police departments across Europe to take security measures in a bid to avert another Paris-style attack. London-based Express writes:
The terror alert was handed to Austrian police from a "friendly" intelligence service, as evidence grows that jihadi sleeper cells are planning to hit Western targets. It has prompted police across the continent to increase security measures in a bid to prevent a Paris-style copycat attack on an unknown location in Europe. (...)

Posted by Mike LaChance on December 29, 2015 32 Comments
Actor Samuel L. Jackson let a little too much information slip in a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter. He was speaking to them about his new film The Hateful Eight but the conversation turned to current events. On the subject of the San Bernardino terror attack, Jackson had a different culprit in mind. P.J. Gladnick reports at NewsBusters (emphasis is his):
Samuel L. Jackson on San Bernardino Shooters: Disappointed It Wasn't 'Crazy White Dude' Rush Limbaugh has stated several times that the assassination of John F. Kennedy ushered in the era of modern liberalism. Liberals back then just couldn't handle the fact that the assassin was Lee Harvey Oswald, a communist who lived for awhile in the Soviet Union. So they attempted to blame America and the "rightwing" for Kennedy's assassination.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 29, 2015 20 Comments
One of the things that I find amusing about the Democrats' war on the Koch brothers is the fact that it seems to be based more in projection than in fact.  George Soros is notoriously behind and/or involved in a slew of progressive initiatives, websites, and assorted pot stirrings. It's usually a good idea to know what the opposition is thinking, so it's worth taking a look at the article he penned for The Guardian entitled "The terrorists and demagogues want us to be scared. We mustn't give in."   In it, Soros claims that terrorists have discovered that western, "open" societies have a key weakness that can be exploited:  a fear of death. Note how he singles out France's response to the Paris attacks as being particularly "irrational" (as we'll see, he's quite happy with America's president's non-response to terrorism.):
Open societies are always endangered. This is especially true of America and Europe today, as a result of the terrorist attacks in Paris and elsewhere, and the way that America and Europe, particularly France, have reacted to them.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 28, 2015 6 Comments
Scrolling through our Oberlin College tag presents a very sorry recent history of the campus. The Great Oberlin College Racism Hoax of 2013 was not used an opportunity to examine the campus grievance culture, but rather, as an excuse to to advance “even more extreme policies”. A student wrote to me at the time:
I’d like to personally thank you for your coverage of the Oberlin hate hoax. Many students… have been following your site and are glad that somebody is helping to get the word out about the Oberlin administration’s response. The Daily Caller story just grazes the surface of what really happened. The administration didn’t just allow students to live in fear, they actually used that fear to get students to push for even more extreme policies on campus. Many students formed into “working groups” to propose solutions for “institutional change”, nearly all of which have been approved by the administration and are being enacted.

Posted by Miriam Elman on December 28, 2015 29 Comments
According to media reports last week (see, for example, here and here) Scott Harrison, a Scottish anti-Israel activist, was sentenced last week to a year in jail. Back on October 25, 2014 he threw acid in the face of an 18-year-old woman manning a stall in Glasgow shopping center. The stall was owned by the Israeli cosmetics company Kedem. The victim, Greek-born Iona Georgianna, said she felt like her face was “melting” during the horrible attack. Luckily, a quick-thinking co-worker had the good sense to throw water on her head, sparing Georgianna from the worst of the acid’s effects. A Scottish court handed down the 12-month sentence for assault to injury. Harrison will be held in custody pending the results of an appeal filed by his lawyers.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 28, 2015 8 Comments
The mainstream media is having a lot of fun reporting that Hillary is this year's Gallup "Most Admired Woman" for a "record 20th time." What they are leaving out, however, is that it appears that the long list of scandals and controversies that have plagued her since leaving her position as Secretary of State in early 2013 may be catching up with her (read LI's Hillary coverage here). When one looks more closely at the Gallup poll, it becomes clear that while still topping the list, Hillary has fallen quite sharply since December 2012. Take a look at the following:

Posted by Andrew Branca on December 28, 2015 42 Comments
Today, a Cleveland grand jury declined to indict two Cleveland Police Department officers over the November 2014 killing of Tamir Rice, as reported by ClickOnDetroit.  We've posted repeatedly on the shooting of 12-year-old Rice by Cleveland police officers, including:

VIDEO: Shooting of Tamir Rice by Police Goes to Grand Jury (6/4/2015)

Cleveland Tries Out Baltimore Justice, Ignores Facts in Tamir Rice Shooting (6/11/2015)

Two Independent Reviews: Shooting of Tamir Rice “Reasonable” (10/11/2015)

The shooting was caught on surveillance camera, and presented what to us certainly appeared to be a pretty open-and-shut case of a justifiable use of force. Tamir Rice, who while only 12 years old weighed a whopping 195 pounds (see autopsy report embedded at bottom of this post), was the subject of 911 cals reporting he was pointing an apparent gun at people.  (The gun would later turn out to be a pellet gun rather than a firearm.)  A patrol cars with two officers pulled up rapidly to Rice's location, at which point Rice clearly reaches for the "gun" in his waistband. The officers respond to this reasonably perceived threat of deadly force by shooting and killing Rice.  (One of the 911 callers had reportedly told the operator that the gun appeared to be a fake, but this information was not passed on to the responding officers, who necessarily assumed the "gun" to be real.) That video can be viewed here:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 28, 2015 12 Comments
As embroiled Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel faces a chorus of criticism, the choir just got a little bit louder. MSNBC host and activist about town Al Sharpton called for Emanuel to resign. At the center of the controversy -- police-involved shootings.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 28, 2015 39 Comments
This is no surprise, particularly given the dismal economic situation in upstate NY. The government under pressure from political activists shut down any hope of fracking even though it works fine elsewhere and has kept parts of Pennsylvania economically alive for years; regulations and taxes are strangling businesses; and almost every day brings a news story about how much more control the state wants over our lives. So people continue to leave. (h/t @michellemalkin) The Albany Times Union reports on the large outflow, offset only by immigrants and immigrant children:
Once again more people are leaving New York State than arriving here, at least when it comes to people moving from one state to another. The Empire Center is out with findings, based on periodic Census updates, that “During the 12 months ending last July 1, 153,921 more residents moved out of New York than moved into it from other states.” ....

Posted by Jonathan Levin on December 28, 2015 1 Comment
Proponents of the Boycott, Divest & Sanction (“BDS”) campaign are faced with growing legislative opposition.  In the US, New York is poised to become the third state to enact binding anti-BDS legislation.  In Britain, new rules will essentially prohibit BDS in local government altogether. Proposed New York Law The New York Senate and General Assembly are considering legislation that would prevent the state from contracting with or investing in companies that boycott Israel.  The stated purpose of Senate Bill S6086 is “To prohibit New York State from contracting with or investing taxpayer money in corporations who have a stated policy of boycotting Israel.”  The Senate’s justification is:
The Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement (BDS) is a harmful discriminatory policy effectuated by a growing number of companies. The BDS movement is nothing more than thinly veiled anti-semitism. This bill would ensure that New York continues its long history of standing up to discrimination by condemning this movement and not doing business with these companies.

Posted by Mike LaChance on December 28, 2015 35 Comments
Virginia had an election in November which Democrats, including governor Terry McAuliffe, hoped would give them control of the state senate. They campaigned in part on gun control and lost, but that hasn't stopped them from pushing their agenda. After failing to achieve their goals through the democratic process, top Democrats are enacting gun control measures at the executive level. The Washington Post reported:
Virginia to stop recognizing concealed carry gun permits from 25 states
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