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Louisiana Tag

Decades before wild-haired Bernie Sanders, there was Louisiana Democratic Gov. Huey Long. He served as the state's 40th governor from 1928 to 1932. Long was a tyrant and dictator. A hypocrite who lectured others, but filled his pocketbook. He also ruined lives if you betrayed or didn't show loyalty to him. Even if death Long continues to haunt the family of the man who supposedly assassinated him.

An acquittal in a murder case out of Louisiana provides a real-time illustration of the difference between the application of what I refer to as “hard” Stand-Your-Ground provisions versus “soft” Stand-Your-Ground provisions. (Details here are as reported by The Advocate and other news sources.) The facts of the case involve a bare-handed attack by a large aggressor against a smaller defender, one Jacob Westbrook, who was armed with a knife. Westbrook, who testified at trial that he had never been in a fight before, stabbed the aggressor once in the chest after, he says, the larger and stronger aggressor punched him in the head. It is noteworthy that the aggressor was a guest, perhaps little wanted, in Westbrook's home at the time of the conflict.

Another one bites the dust. I blogged last week that the National Organization for Women (NOW) decided not to donate to the Women's March anymore due to the anti-Semitic and racism attitudes of those who lead the organization. NOW's Baton Rouge chapter announced on Saturday that it will cancel the planned Women's March in New Orleans in January.

During a math discussion, a student being helped by another student with a math problem was told the square root symbol he'd drawn looked like a sketch of a pistol. (NARRATOR: But it was not a pistol). It was a principal square root symbol. One of the students then popped off with something along the lines of, "well, let's get to work before I shoot you with a pistol!" A horrible game of telephone later and the cops were called, the student was removed from campus and his home investigated.

We have seen this movie before, particularly on campuses. Anti-Israel activists from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement have a Plan A - to get a student council, company, university, faculty group, artist or government entity to adopt the BDS economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel. Sometimes that works, but mostly it doesn't. The goal is not so much to actually boycott Israel, which they describe as just a "tactic," but to demonize and dehumanize Israel. It is a goal created at the Tehran and Durban conferences in 2001, to isolate Israel and to equate it to apartheid South Africa.

A disabled Navy veteran has refused to receive an honor from the New Orleans Saints due to some players taking a knee during the national anthem. From NOLA.com:
Retired Navy Cmdr. John Wells, executive director of the national Military Veterans Advocacy, was named a Peoples Health Champion, an award given by the Medicare health insurance advantage organization to citizens over 65 who have made significant accomplishments after reaching "senior citizen" status.

The right of the private citizenry to make a public record request has, at least until recently, required local and federal governments to maintain a certain level of transparency. But a disturbing new trend has private citizens and even journalists flummoxed. In Louisiana, Michigan, Kentucky, and Oregon, individuals requesting public records have been sued by the agencies whose documents they requested. This new lawfare front has successfully kept public records out of the hands of requestors and made others think twice before making FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests.