Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

USA Men's Hockey Team Wins Olympic Gold in Absolute Thriller

Intersectionality is an "intellectual foundation for violence, terrorism, antisemitism, and anti-westernism"

Purges of Conservative and pro-Israel Faculty leave "very few to speak up for Jewish students"

FEATURED POST

One official will continue to direct NSA and Cyber Command

Posted by Mandy Nagy on December 14, 2013 3 Comments

The National Security Agency director and Commander of the United States Cyber Command will continue to be served as a single position with dual responsibilities, rather than splitting the roles into two separate positions. From the NY Times:

President Obama has decided to keep the National Security Agency and the Pentagon’s cyberwarfare branch under the same command despite concerns that it concentrates too much power in the hands of a single military official responsible for both surveillance and directing a growing arsenal of cyberweapons.
As a practical matter, the decision means that Mr. Obama must appoint a four-star military officer to succeed Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the first person to simultaneously run the two organizations, when he retires early next year. Only a military commander can run Cyber Command, which is responsible for defending the military’s computer and sensor systems and carrying out offensive computer-network attacks.

Shovel snow like an E-gyp-tian

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 14, 2013 7 Comments

Snow hits Cairo for the first time in 112 years....

Self-Destructive Week at College Insurrection

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 14, 2013 5 Comments

This is how a People self-destructs: Swarthmore Hillel Opens Door to Anti-Zionist Speakers With a little help from their "friends": Anti-Israel Activists at U. Michigan Serve Dorm Eviction Notices First they came for the couch burners: Michigan State. U. Police to Throw Book at Student Couch Burners Then the snow hooligans: U....

Utah federal judge strikes down key part of anti-polygamy law

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 14, 2013 70 Comments

No polygamous marriages yet, but polygamous family relationships no longer illegal in Utah....

Mahmoud Abbas rejects boycott of Israel as American Studies Association votes on boycott

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 14, 2013 6 Comments

An interesting thing happened at the funeral of Nelson Mandela. Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, rejected the Boycott Divest and Sanction campaign against Israel, urging only a boycott of Israeli products made in the West Bank. While in South Africa this week for the memorial...

North Dakota State Urges ‘Safe Zone’ Trainees to Sign LGBT ‘Ally’ Pledge

UT-San Antonio Consolidating Race and Gender Departments

Villanova U. Prof Says Academia Should be Used as a 'Trojan Horse' for Socialism

Texas Tech Prof Arrested for Alleged Involvement in Fentanyl Ring

Kennesaw State U. Students Yell ‘F*** ICE’ During Walkout Protest

College Fires Prof for Calling Charlie Kirk, TPUSA ‘Racist Pieces of Sh*t’ in Class

圣诞快乐

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 14, 2013 3 Comments

Merry Christmas [transliteration: shèng dàn kuài lè] from Nanning, Guangxi Province, China. From Helen: This is in Nanning, Guangxi Province, Wm. Yes, I took it yesterday evening (my time) as I was coming from the local Walmart which is chockfull of Christmas cheer. Everywhere you go, Wm., you...

Media Matters raises the white flag of victory

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 13, 2013 55 Comments

The years' long Media Matters War on Fox News was intended to destroy Fox News, as expressed by David Brock in 2011: The liberal group Media Matters has quietly transformed itself in preparation for what its founder, David Brock, described in an interview as an all-out...

There’s a place (in the blogosphere) for us, somewhere a place for us

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 13, 2013 19 Comments

The big are getting bigger, and better. Michelle Malkin's Twitchy was sold to Salem Communications, which owns Hot Air and Townhall. Congratulations Michelle for a briliant idea, brilliantly executed. Now, according to Buzzfeed, Salem also will be acquiring Eagle Publishing, which owns Red State and Human Events: Salem Communications, the...

Sarah Palin moves to dismiss copyright suit over Ground Zero Firefighter photo

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 13, 2013 10 Comments

We previously have written about the copyright suit by North Jersey Media Group, Inc. (NJMG) against Sarah Palin and SarahPAC based on a Facebook note by Palin commemorating the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001:

The Facebook note used an iconic image of three firefighters raising the flag at Ground Zero.

Sarah Palin Facebook Page Three Firefighters Image

Although the Complaint and Amended Complaint alleged that the photo was used for fundraising, neither of those court filings demonstrated specific fundraising use. Instead, the claim appears to be that anything Palin did for SarahPAC implicitly was fundraising. I expected the case to settle, not because of any inside knowledge, but because the use was not for commercial advantage, and was taken down immediately. There was question as to whether Palin and SarahPAC even received actual notice of a take-down demand. Suit in federal Court was filed just two days after the Facebook entry. Apparently the suit has not settled, because Palin's attorneys filed a Motion to Dismiss in court yesterday. (Full motion and supporting Memorandum embedded at bottom of this post.) In the Motion to Dismiss, Palin and SarahPAC argue:

PolitiFact declares Obama’s ‘you can keep your plan’ pledge ‘lie of the year’

Posted by Mandy Nagy on December 13, 2013 12 Comments

President Obama's "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it" promise was yesterday declared the "lie of the year" by Politifact. It was a catchy political pitch and a chance to calm nerves about his dramatic and complicated plan to bring historic change...

2nd Murderer of Lee Rigby offers no evidence in defense

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 13, 2013 13 Comments

The murder trial of two Islamic radicals who hacked British soldier Lee Rigby to death on the street continues. We noted how the murderer pictured in so many of the newpaper covers holding a bloody machete argued in his defense that he was a "soldier of Allah" and that he was in a war, Killer of British soldier Lee Rigby: “I am a soldier and this is war” The second murderer decided to offer no defense evidence, as reported by the Daily Mirror, which has a live blog of the proceedings:

The second man accused of hacking Fusilier Lee Rigby to death has refused to give evidence. Michael Adebowale, 22, was due to take the stand to explain the attack on the 25 year-old soldier near Woolwich Barracks in south London. His co-defendant Michael Adebolajo, 28, has already told the court that he tried to decapitate Lee Rigby to protest against British foreign policy. Abbas Lakha, representing Adebowale, told the court: "I call no evidence on behalf of Mr Adebowale." ... The judge sent the jury of eight women and four men away for the weekend and told them the court will contact them by mobile phone when they should return to court. He said there was more legal argument to sort out before closing speeches start but said the case was still due to conclude by Christmas.

Here's video of his capture immediately after the attack:

Lawrence Summers: Academic boycott of Israel is “anti-Semitism in effect”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 13, 2013 15 Comments

Lawrence Summers, former President of Harvard University, has commented on the proposed resolution by the American Studies Association to boycott Israeli academic organizations. The membership voting on the anti-Israel boycott resolution concludes on December 15. For background on the proposed academic boycott and those anti-Israeli "academics" who worked for years on the resolution and then ambushed pro-Israel and/or pro-Academic Freedom members, see my prior posts:

Here is the Summers interview with Charlie Rose specifically on the ASA boycott resolution (full interview here, segment starts at 35:00)):

This particular academic boycott is much worse, it is much worse because the idea that of all the countries in the world that might be thought to have human rights abuses, that might be thought to have inappropriate foreign policies, that might be thought to be doing things wrong, the idea that there's only one that is worthy of boycott, and that is Israel, one of the very few countries whose neighbors regularly vow its annihilation, that that would be the one chosen, is I think beyond outrageous as a suggestion.... Charlie, I said some time ago with respect to a similar set of efforts, that I regarded them as being anti-Semitic in their effect if not necessarily in their intent. And I think that's the right thing to say about singling out Israel. If there was an academic boycott against a whole set of countries that stunted their populations in some way, I would oppose that because I think academic boycotts are abhorrent, but the choice of only Israel at a moment when Israel faces this kind of existential threat I think takes how wrong this is to a different level.

Bloomberg’s anti-gun money fails to get results in Congress

Posted by Anne Segal on December 13, 2013 6 Comments

According to the left-leaning Sunlight Foundation, "Thanks in part to outgoing New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, gun control groups could match or outspend gun rights forces in 2013 electoral contests, and are heading into 2014 with formidable campaign war chests." It was Bloomberg, via his "Mayors against...

Hunter Yelton case: Girl’s mother says conduct “IS SEXUAL HARASSMENT”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 12, 2013 59 Comments

We reported on the 6-year old boy who was suspended for "sexual harassment" for kissing a girl in class on the hand and cheek. The school has since downgraded the charge, and dropped the "sexual harassment" claim. That always was a ludicrous charge given the age of the students involved, and likely the result of federal guidelines putting funding at risk for districts that do not address sexual harassment. James Taranto has an extensive column about that:

Clearly buffoons are in charge of the school and the district, but what does that have to do with Obama? The answer is that these buffoons are following orders from Washington. In April 2011 Russlynn Ali, then assistant education secretary for civil rights, issued a directive in which she threatened to withhold federal money from any educational institution that failed to take a hard enough line against sexual misconduct to ensure "that all students feel safe in their school." The directive's preamble declared: "The sexual harassment of students, including sexual violence, interferes with students' right to receive an education free from discrimination and, in the case of sexual violence, is a crime." ... "If a school knows or reasonably should know about student-on-student harassment that creates a hostile environment, Title IX [of a 1972 civil rights law] requires the school to take immediate action to eliminate the harassment, prevent its recurrence, and address its effects," Ali wrote. The music teacher and other school officials were faithfully if ridiculously executing that command when they investigated the tip from the kids who tattled.