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Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 14, 2014 41 Comments
I was talking with biologists yesterday, as part of a work project, and we all were becoming increasingly alarmed at the bureaucratic response to the reports that nurses in Dallas and Spain were stricken with Ebola. I stated that the "tipping point" would be reached if one of the nurses spread the disease to someone else outside of the hospital setting. Presently, 76 Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital workers being monitored for potential infection with Ebola. Once someone outside the healthcare setting was infected, then the chances of this being a more serious health threat to the nation escalate. We are coming perilously close to the tipping point, as it looks like an Alcon employee who is "closely associated" with the Dallas nurse, Nina Pham, is in isolation and under observation to determine if he displays "Ebola symptoms". The CBS Dallas-Fort Worth affiliate offers a video report and post.
Dallas nurse Nina Pham tested positive for the Ebola virus over the weekend. Pham was one of the medical workers who administered treatment to Ebola patient Thomas Duncan, who died from the virus last week. Pham first noticed that she had some of the symptoms on Friday, and her diagnosis was confirmed on Sunday.

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Posted by Andrew Branca on October 14, 2014 10 Comments
Dr, John Lott, head of the Crime Prevention Research Center and long-time researcher and perhaps best known as the author of the seminal book, "More Guns, Less Crime," has taken a thorough look at a recent report issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and found it severely flawed. The report, entitled "A Study of Active Shooter Incidents in the United States Between 2000 and 2013," (embedded below) purports to show that "mass shootings" have increased at an average annual rate of more than 16% over that time period.  Dr. Lott demonstrates that this figure can be arrived at only by a tortuous methodology that is rational only if showing a large increase in "mass shooting" is the actual goal of the report. Sadly, we live in an era in which "science" is routinely twisted in pursuit of purely political ends, and it appears that the authors of this FBI report may have adopted this approach. Dr. Lott's formal analysis is embedded under the FBI report below, I do encourage you to read the whole thing.  As a taste, the paper's abstract reads:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 14, 2014 11 Comments
We have covered extensively the anti-Israel academic boycott passed by the American Studies Association, including yesterday when Doron Ben-Atar, a Fordham University History Professor, revealed that he had been subjected to "religious discrimination" charges by the pro-boycott head of Fordham's American Studies Department, Micki McKnee, after he called the boycott anti-Semitic. Ben-Atar was cleared of that charge but faces administrative threats for vowing to "fight" the ASA boycott. The ASA is having its annual meeting in Los Angeles in early November at the Westin Bonaventure. The ASA has stated that it will apply its boycott rules to exclude from the conference Israeli academic institutions and any individual Israeli academics who are there on behalf of their institutions or who hold administrative capacity (e.g. Dean). Only individual Israelis who pass the test of not being there in a representative capacity will be allowed to attend. These rules are unique to Israelis, and constitute national origin discrimination and potentially religious discrimination in violation of California's expansive anti-discrimination and public accommodation laws. That puts the Westin Bonaventure at legal risk, because those discriminatory rules are being applied at a conference on its premises. The American Center for Law and Justice, headed by Jay Sekulow, has sent a letter to the Westin Bonaventure, its owner and operating management, alerting them to the Westin Bonaventure's legal risk and obligations. The letter is posted on the ACLJ website and press release, and reads in part:

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Posted by Bryan Jacoutot on October 14, 2014 7 Comments

"A better tomorrow is ahead -- I have absolutely no doubt -- but it's going to require a significant change in how we operate in Washington, D.C."...

Posted by Amy Miller on October 14, 2014 5 Comments
Any reasonable person keeping up with the news cycle knows that Democratic leadership doesn't inspire much confidence in the American people. Legislation dies in the Senate at the hands of a petulant majority leader; both the IRS and the DOJ have come under fire for targeting Americans based on political affiliation; our President golfs while the Middle East burns. In fact, one might say the only thing Democrats are really good at is riling up the base over token "hot button" issues that never go anywhere in Congress, but make for good primetime talkathon fodder. A new poll released by Gallup yesterday has quantified the skepticism of the American people, and shows empirical proof that the games Democrats play have serious consequences when it comes to the level of trust voters have in their ability to lead on the major issues. In late September, Gallup asked registered voters to rate the importance of 13 preselected issues, and then to identify which party they believed would do a better job handling those issues. The results looked like this: h7fjmcrciu6d7y5yx_-zjq

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 14, 2014 44 Comments
A progressive organization called the Agenda Project Action Fund has produced a new ad which attempts to politicize Ebola by blaming its spread on Republicans and budget cuts. Sahil Kapur of TPM reports:
Brutal New Ad Blames GOP Spending Cuts For Ebola Deaths (VIDEO) The one minute ad, called "Republican Cuts Kill," splices grueling images of body bags and workers in hazmat suits with footage of top Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) and House Speaker John Boehner (OH) calling for spending cuts. It also features 2014 Republican Senate candidates Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Pat Roberts of Kansas. The spot was produced by the Agenda Project Action Fund, the same progressive group that has made controversial anti-Republican ads such as "Granny Off the Cliff." The group's spokeswoman, Erica Payne, said Monday the ad would air in Kentucky, North Carolina, South Dakota and Kansas — all of which feature competitive Senate races that could swing the majority.
Here's the ad: Oh, where to begin?

Posted by Amy Miller on October 13, 2014 3 Comments
I was in high school when U.S. troops laid siege to Baghdad. My boyfriend at the time helped secure and eventually occupy several of the palaces, and his phone calls from the first warzone either of us had ever known helped me gain a deeper understanding into what it means to send our troops in to "take" a city. So you'll understand when I say that I find the recent developments in northern Iraq and Baghdad a little difficult to swallow. Today's report from Bloomberg details how ISIS militants are using their own unique tactics to push back against U.S. airstrikes in northern Iraq:
Islamic State claimed responsibility for a triple suicide bombing in northern Iraq that killed at least 58 people as militants defied U.S.-led airstrikes to stage attacks across Iraq and Syria. The group said on a jihadist website that three foreign fighters carried out the attacks yesterday in Qara Tappah in the ethnically mixed province of Diyala, 75 miles north of Baghdad. A roadside bomb also killed the police chief of the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, where security forces are struggling to repel militant attacks. Islamic State has so far resisted efforts by the Iraqi military to wrest back control of Sunni areas of the country, while continuing its own offensive in Iraq and neighboring Syria. President Barack Obama’s senior military adviser warned that militants were blending with Sunni populations in communities near Baghdad, increasing the likelihood of attacks on the Iraqi capital. “I have no doubt there will be days when they use indirect fire into Baghdad,” the adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Dempsey, said in an interview yesterday with “This Week” on ABC. Indirect fire can refer to use of mortars or artillery fire.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 13, 2014 9 Comments
Martha Robertson, once one of the brightest lights in the Democratic theater, long ago lost her shine as a candidate challenging Republican Tom Reed. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had reserved $465,000 of airtime for the last two weeks of the election, in the hope that Robertson would be competitive. She's not competitive, having run one of the worst campaigns in the country, and the DCCC pulled the reservation. But not to worry, Robertson is getting help from the House Majority PAC, to the tune of $49,138, about 1/10th the planned DCCC ad buy. Actually, it's not even new money, just money not being pulled. Via New York State of Politics:
The DCCC may have abandoned Democratic Tompkins County Legislator Martha Robertson in her quest to unseat Republican Rep. Tom Reed next month, but she isn’t completely going it alone. The House Majority PAC just announced it is releasing new TV ads in 10 congressional districts across the country – including NY-23, where the House Democrats’ political arm, led by Long Island Rep. Steve Israel, recently cancelled two weeks worth of reserved air time so it could rededicate resources to protect incumbent Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who is in a tight re-election battle with his 2012 opponent, former GOP Rep. Nan Hayworth, in NY-18. The ad, which appears below, is airing in the Elmira market only starting tomorrow. And the buy isn’t terribly large – $49,138 – although that goes a lot further in the Southern Tier than, say, the NYC media market....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 13, 2014 19 Comments
In December 2013, the American Studies Association passed an academic boycott of Israel, the first group of substantial size to do so. That led to a massive outpouring of outrage and rejection by over 250 university presidents and numerous university associations, not to mention the American Association of University Professors. The ASA boycott was passed with less than 20% of the membership voting for it, but so few people participated that it was enough. The anti-Israel political activists who dominated the ASA "activism" caucus and national council used their influence to the utmost, something we have detailed here repeatedly. The opposition to the boycott resulted in the ASA playing victim, claiming that criticism of the boycott and steps by university presidents to reject the boycott somehow was an infringement of the boycotters' academic freedom. As if academic freedom meant freedom from criticism and the ability to politicize an issue only when pro-boycott. But it appears that in the trenches, the attacks on those opposing the boycott have been even more vicious. One such incident involved Fordham professor Doron Ben-Atar, who writes about his experience at The Tablet today, Kafka Was the Rage:
The email arrived on the last Friday afternoon of the spring term shortly before 5:00 p.m. Anastasia Coleman, Fordham’s Director of Institutional Equity and Compliance, and its Title IX Coordinator, wanted to meet with me. “It has been alleged,” she wrote, “that you may have acted in an inappropriate way and possibly discriminated against another person at the University.” ... “Did it have anything to do with a student?” I shot back anxiously, hoping to get a sense of my predicament before the director left for the weekend. I was lucky. Coleman responded immediately. “This does not involve students and is about your behavior regarding American Studies.”

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 13, 2014 28 Comments
Last week, Democratic Texas Gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis' campaign ran an ad attacking Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, for being in a wheelchair. The ad received such intense blowback, Abbott's campaign turned the negative reaction into their own campaign ad: "Just keep digging" apparently being the Davis campaign mantra, Davis doubled down on the monstrous ad:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 13, 2014 6 Comments
We previously wrote about the uprising in the philosophy academic world against Brian Leiter, the pugnacious pejorative-prone University of Chicago law professor:  Brian Leiter, supporter of Steven Salaita, embroiled in his own civility controversy. Leiter's claim to fame was a publication of philosophy department rankings, The Philosophical Gourmet. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/04/20/the_philosopher_kingmaker/?page=full Leiter has a long history of conflict with other philosophers regarding that ranking publication, but the conflict was elevated to new heights recently after publication of emails Leiter sent. Leiter said it was a cyber-smear campaign by people who took things out of context. Some of Leiter's detractors set up an interactive timeline of the recent controversy, and have cataloged the accusations and responses.

Posted by New Neo on October 13, 2014 20 Comments

What the first cases transmitted in the west might be telling us...

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 13, 2014 10 Comments
As the news of the first Ebola case contracted within the country rivets the nation, Enterovirus-D68 continues infecting our children. Now it has claimed the life of a Michigan toddler:
A Michigan toddler has died of enterovirus D68, another reminder of the deadly potential of a disease that has infected hundreds nationwide in two months. Madeline Reid died at Children's Hospital of Michigan, where she had been transferred "for advanced services," according to the Detroit hospital's chief medical officer, Dr. Rudolph Valentini. "The CDC confirmed EV-D68 after her arrival here, and she subsequently succumbed to her illness," Valentini said.
News 8 Wood TV files this video report on Madeline's death. A little closer to my home, there has been a jump in the number of cases recorded.
California health officials Friday said they've now identified 32 cases of enterovirus D-68 statewide, a number that's jumped quickly in recent days. In Southern California, four cases were in L.A. County, three in Orange County and one in Ventura County, according to the California Department of Public Health. All 32 patients were identified as children ranging in age from a week old to 15 years old.
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