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As I have previously indicated, I believe the anti-Israel academic boycott resolution of the American Studies Association calls into question ASA's 501(c)(3) tax exemption. Voting on the resolution ends at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, December 15. If the resolution passes, I intend on challenging ASA's 501(c)(3) status through...
The European Union has halted work on a trade agreement with Ukraine, an official said Sunday, after Kiev failed to show "clear commitment" to signing the deal. Stefan Fule, European commissioner for enlargement and European neighborhood policy, said on Twitter that the words and deeds of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his government on the proposed pact were "further & further apart. Their arguments have no grounds in reality."
The White House systematically delayed enacting a series of rules on the environment, worker safety and health care to prevent them from becoming points of contention before the 2012 election, according to documents and interviews with current and former administration officials.
In no other context does the ASA discriminate on the basis of national origin—and for good reason. This is discrimination pure and simple. Worse, it is also discrimination that inevitably diminishes the pursuit of knowledge, by discarding knowledge simply because it is produced by a certain group of people.Nonetheless, the anti-Israel venom is so strong among the leadership and membership of the ASA, that there is a strong possibility the resolution will pass. Reading the comments and arguments of those favoring the anti-Israel academic boycott, there is little doubt that they view Zionism as Racism and would equally support the now discredited 1975 U.N. Resolution if put to a vote at the ASA. (full speech embedded at bottom of post)
But those polls dealt in generalities. It's easy to support negotiations in principle; it's much harder to support a specific deal, which would necessarily require U.S. concessions as well as placing a degree of trust in the Iranian government, which is not exactly popular here in the United States. The reason this latest poll merits special attention is that it asked Americans whether they would support the deal currently under discussion between Iran and the major world powers at Geneva.But in subsequent weeks, a funny thing has happened, support the deal has eroded as Shmuel Rosner shows in a recent column tracking polls on the topic.
While the first polls following the the recent interim agreement with Iran all showed that the deal was met with a generally positive reaction by the American public, the latest Pew survey puts this view in question (according to Pew, there are more Americans who disapprove of the deal than Americans who support it). Is this a result of some of the public criticism the deal has received- or is it a matter of phrasing the question and of methodology?Even a Reuters poll from the end of November that shows support for the deal by a ratio of two to one (44 percent to 22 percent) found 34 percent had no opinion on the deal. (Rosner supplied the "no opinion" number.)
Many in New York’s professional and cultural elite have long supported President Obama’s health care plan...They are part of an unusual, informal health insurance system that has developed in New York, in which independent practitioners were able to get lower insurance rates through group plans, typically set up by their professional associations or chambers of commerce... But under the Affordable Care Act, they will be treated as individuals, responsible for their own insurance policies. For many of them, that is likely to mean they will no longer have access to a wide network of doctors and a range of plans tailored to their needs. And many of them are finding that if they want to keep their premiums from rising, they will have to accept higher deductible and co-pay costs or inferior coverage.For this group, will the experience constitute the proverbial being "mugged by reality" and cause them to change their political affiliation? Perhaps for some, but probably not for most, since it takes a great deal to effect political change on a more permanent basis. Soon many doctors will be getting the same bad news, too:
High school juniors Zade Abdullah and Kyle Nutt have been posting hilarious videos to their YouTube channel for a year and a half, but their latest creation has the duo providing acts of kindness instead of comedy. "My parents always wanted me to do good and 16-year-olds are stereotyped for being rotten kids," Abdullah told HLN. "We wanted to show people that all 16-year-olds are not like that. We can be good and do good in the community and make the world a better place." The Dixon, Illinois, teens did what they had to do to spread the word about small acts of kindness. They put on tights.The duo dressed up as superheroes and proceeded to surprise unsuspecting strangers by paying for a meal at a drive-thru window, handing out poinsettias, paying for the movies one shopper couldn’t afford, and various other acts of kindness. A friend helped to capture it all on video.
More than anything, the response to these latest images of Michelle Obama speaks volumes about the expectations placed on black women in the public eye and how a black women’s default emotional state is perceived as angry. The black woman is ever at the ready to aggressively defend her territory. She is making her disapproval known. She never gets to simply be. Maybe the first lady is irritated with her husband or someone else, maybe she’s indifferent, maybe she’s thinking about the long plane ride home, maybe, just maybe, she’s recalling Nelson Mandela’s life and legacy. We will never know. Meanwhile, the Internet is speculating about Michelle Obama’s mind-set, her motivations and the state of her marriage because if a married black man, always on the prowl even if he is the commander in chief, is seen smiling next to an attractive white woman, well, that’s curtains for the marriage. The white she-devil strikes again! The first lady can’t win. Last month, Michelle Obama was a “feminist nightmare.” Today she is angry and on the verge of losing her marriage.From Oliver Willis of Media Matters (tweeting his own opinion, of course):
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.
Snow hits Cairo for the first time in 112 years....
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....
No polygamous marriages yet, but polygamous family relationships no longer illegal in Utah....
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...
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...
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...
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...
