Alabama state Senate passes near total abortion ban in direct challenge to Roe v. Wade

Alabama state Senate passes near total abortion ban in direct challenge to Roe v. Wade:

The Alabama state Senate on Tuesday approved a bill essentially banning abortion in the state, a move specifically aimed at challenging more than 40 years of federal abortion protection under Roe v. Wade. The bill would make it a felony for a doctor to perform or attempt an abortion during any stage of pregnancy.
The House approved a version of the bill that had an exception for the mother's health, passing 74-3, then a Senate committee added an exception for rape and incest. Republicans in the Senate, however, suddenly tabled the rape and incest exemptions last week, leading to swift and vocal opposition from Democrats.

America doesn’t actually lead the world in mass shootings.

Instapundit Blog Archive FLASHBACK: NPR (!) ON “THE SCHOOL SHOOTINGS THAT WEREN’T.” This spring the U.S. Education Depart…
"...Related: America doesn’t actually lead the world in mass shootings.

The claim that the US has by far the most mass public shootings in the world drives much of the gun-control debate. Many argue that America’s high rate of gun possession explains the high rate of mass shootings.

“The one thing we do know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world,” President Barack Obama warned us. To justify this claim and many other similar quotes, Obama’s administration cited a then-unpublished paper by criminologist Adam Lankford.

Lankford’s claim received coverage in hundreds of news stories all over the world. It still gets regular coverage. Purporting to cover all mass public shootings around the world from 1966 to 2012, Lankford claimed that the United States had 31 percent of public mass shooters despite having less than 5 percent of the population.

But this isn’t nearly correct. The whole episode should provide a cautionary tale of academic malpractice and how evidence is often cherry-picked and not questioned when it fits preconceived ideas. . . .

Of the 86 countries where we have identified mass public shootings, the US ranks 56th per capita in its rate of attacks and 61st in mass public shooting murder rate. Norway, Finland, Switzerland and Russia all have at least 45 percent higher rates of murder from mass public shootings than the United States.

When Lankford’s data is revised, the relationship between gun ownership rates and mass public shooters disappears.

How could that be? One possibility is that guns don’t just enable mass shooters; gun owners can also deter and prevent such shootings. Another is that culture — not gun ownership — is a bigger factor in shootings.

The media should be wary of any researchers who fail to let others look at their data.

Well, you know, unless the researchers help the narrative along.---Posted by Glenn Reynolds"

Read all.

AM Fruitcake

History for May 17

History for May 17 - On-This-Day.com
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini 1900, Stewart Alsop 1914, Dennis Hopper 1936 - Actor


Bill Paxton 1955 - Actor, Sugar Ray Leonard 1956 - Boxer, Enya 1961 - Musician


1756 - Britain declared war on France, beginning the French and Indian War.


1792 - The New York Stock Exchange was founded at 70 Wall Street by 24 brokers.

Judicial Watch Obtains DOJ Documents Showing Andrew Weissmann Leading Hiring Effort for Mueller Special Counsel - Judicial Watch

Judicial Watch Obtains DOJ Documents Showing Andrew Weissmann Leading Hiring Effort for Mueller Special Counsel - Judicial Watch:

Judicial Watch announced today the U.S. Department of Justice released 73 pages of records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) containing text messages and calendar entries of Mueller special counsel prosecutor Andrew Weissmann showing he led the hiring effort for the investigation that targeted President Trump.
The document production came in response to Judicial Watch’s June 7, 2018, lawsuit filed after the Department of Justice failed to respond to a December 15, 2017, FOIA request (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:18-cv-01356)). Judicial Watch seeks:

The way we were-----Andrew Dice Clay 1987 At Rodney Dangerfields

Boob-tube-----Trump Can't Win, One Year Anniversary Gloatfest

Audio reveals pilots confronting Boeing official about 737 Max feature before 2nd deadly crash - CNN

Audio reveals pilots confronting Boeing official about 737 Max feature before 2nd deadly crash - CNN
"(CNN)Just months before a second deadly crash of a Boeing 737 Max airplane, American Airlines pilots angrily confronted a Boeing official about a computerized anti-stall system that preliminary reports have now implicated in both deadly wrecks, audio obtained by CBS News reveals.

..."We flat out deserve to know what is on our airplanes," a pilot is heard saying.

"I don't disagree," the unidentified Boeing official answers.

"These guys didn't even know the damn system was on the airplane," a pilot says, seemingly referring to the Lion Air pilots. "Nor did anybody else."

"I don't know that understanding this system would have changed the outcome of this," the Boeing official says. "In a million miles you're going to maybe fly this airplane, and maybe once you're going to see this ever."...

Read all.

Boeing knew about problems with the 737 Max the year before Lion Air crash and did nothing about them"

SAT to Give Students ‘Adversity Score’ to Capture Social and Economic Background - WSJ

SAT to Give Students ‘Adversity Score’ to Capture Social and Economic Background - 

SAT to Give Students ‘Adversity Score’ to Capture Social and Economic Background

The College Board plans to assign an adversity score to every student who takes the SAT to try to capture their social and economic background, jumping into the debate raging over race and class in college admissions..."

Read all.

Barr Reportedly Working Closely With CIA To Review Russia Probe Origins | The Daily Caller

Barr Reportedly Working Closely With CIA To Review Russia Probe Origins | The Daily Caller:

Attorney General William Barr is reportedly working closely with the directors of the CIA, FBI and Office of the Director of National Intelligence to review the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, as well as surveillance efforts against the Trump campaign.
According to CNN, Barr is working with CIA Director Gina Haspel, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and ODNI Director Dan Coats on the interagency review.

Don Surber: We now praise heroes, not villains

Don Surber: We now praise heroes, not villains

"When a Muslim refugee and his brother bombed the Boston Marathon in 2013, he made the cover of the Rolling Stone.
Now in making America great again, we praise the heroes, not the devils.
When two nutjobs (one is transgendered) opened fire on high school students in Colorado, Kendrick Castillo charged them and sacrificed his life for his fellow students.

Castillo was the only fatality in the shooting. Stories abound about him, not his killers.

Brendan Bialy, who helped subdue the assailants, told CBS, "What he did was legendary, like, he's a hero."

They were friends.

Bialy said he was a car buff and electronics whiz. And Bialy said, "Kendrick was a, like, just super kind guy, funny, incredibly intelligent, very memorable. He wasn't just somebody who sat in the back."

Later, when Democrat Senator Michael Bennet and Democrat Congressman Jason Crow showed up and tried to turn a memorial into an anti-gun rally, students and parents walked out, The Hill reported.

Last month, ROTC student Riley Howell took three bullets and died saving his fellow students when a gunman opened fire at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

He was buried with full military honors, Fox News reported.

Let us remember Kendrick Castillo and Riley Howell, two good young men who laid down their lives so that their friends may live.

As for the nutjobs, I favor execution, but if not imprison them for the rest of their lives.

Maybe Rolling Stone can put Castillo and Howell on their cover."

United Flight 93 phone calls to loved ones revealed in new Mitchell Zuckoff book | Daily Mail Online

United Flight 93 phone calls to loved ones revealed in new Mitchell Zuckoff book | Daily Mail Online
'You're strong, you're brave, you need to do it': That was the heartbreaking advice from a wife whose husband phoned her mid-air with a plan to take down his 9/11 hijackers. 
What happened next, as told in a new book, is an awesome tale of courage

• United Flight 93 was hijacked by terrorists on 9/11, but never hit its target of Capitol Hill in Washington DC  
• Passengers on the flight attempted to take the plane back from the four hijackers by breaking into the cockpit
• The plane crashed in Shankville, Pennsylvania, killing 33 passengers, seven crew and four hijackers on board
• Mitchell Zuckoff's new book Fall And Rise: The Story Of 9/11 recounts what happened on board the flight 
• Details of emotional phone calls made from people on the flight to their loved ones are in Zuckoff's new book

READ ALL!