College students increasingly taking emotional support animals to campus

College students increasingly taking emotional support animals to campus:
"...The last few years have seen a growing number of college students requesting, and being approved, to keep a personal cat or dog with them on campus, in the name of an emotional support animal.
While traditional service dogs for people with certain disabilities have been around for many years and are protected under the Americans With Disabilities Act, emotional support animals have become more of a recent phenomenon as a new way of treating mental illness.
...While doctors can refuse to diagnose individuals as needing an emotional support animal based on the severity of their condition, online advertising by several online companies has emerged as a way for willing providers to conduct telephone screenings with patients in need.
A spokesman for one company, CertaPet, acknowledged the likelihood that many clients likely fake their symptoms, but defended the animals as being medically appropriate..."
Read on.

That weird silence from Democrats over Venezuela's massive rejection of socialism

That weird silence from Democrats over Venezuela's massive rejection of socialism
"All over the world, nations and leaders are throwing expressions of support and praise for Venezuela's leaders and people, who after many years of oppression and missteps, have come together with a courageous plan to non-violently shake off a detested socialist dictatorship that has left their country in ruins.
Television pictures from yesterday's demonstration covered the story in spades, showing the magnificent human spectacle to U.S. viewers.

• President Trump and Vice President Pence have been right there for them. 
• The Organization of American States and the Inter American Development Bank are loudly supporting them. 
• The European Union is openly encouraging them.

There also are the skunks, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin's government...
Then there are the Democrats, who are curiously, weirdly silent.
...You know, like they support Putin.
Or wouldn't dream of criticizing him and his effort to keep Venezuela socialist.
Nope, not a thing from nearly any of them to say..."
Read on.

Caring: House Democrats Defeat Second (UPDATE - Third) Bipartisan Effort to Pay Federal Workers During the Shutdown

Caring: House Democrats Defeat Second (UPDATE - Third) Bipartisan Effort to Pay Federal Workers During the Shutdown:

More Democrats are breaking ranks on substance, too; it's not just Republicans feeling some heat back home. Nancy Pelosi certainly had, and perhaps still has, the upper hand politically on this matter.  But she's bungled the petty SOTU episode by insulting the Secret Service, and is on more perilous ground after Trump's weekend offer -- especially as she instructs her caucus to defeat legislative vehicles to pay federal employees as the shutdown stretches on.  She is taking zero steps to realistically resolve this ongoing mess. In case you missed it yesterday, I'll leave you with my piece outlining an imperfect shutdown exit strategy that could at least be palatable to both sides:

New EMP warning: US will ‘cease to exist,’ 90 percent of population will die

New EMP warning: US will ‘cease to exist,’ 90 percent of population will die:
"At a time when the military is starting to take the potential for an attack on the national electric grid more seriously, a newly declassified report is warning of an electronic world war launched by Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China that could wipe out North America, Europe, and Israel.
With ease and using a primitive nuclear weapon, a “New Axis” of those aggressive nations could “black out” the Western world, dismantle all electricity and electronics, end water and food supply, and lead to millions of deaths in America.
“Nine of 10 Americans are dead from starvation, disease, and societal collapse. The United States of America ceases to exist,” warned the report declassified by recently decommissioned U.S. Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack.
...He explained it this way to the Washington Examiner: “This new warfare uses cyber viruses, hacking, physical attacks, non-nuclear EMP weapons, and a nuclear EMP attack against electric grids and critical infrastructures.
It renders modern armies, navies, and air forces obsolete.
It paves the way for asymmetric warfare by small nations and terrorists.”
Read all!

The 4 Horsemen of the Philosophical Apocalypse | Intellectual Takeout

The 4 Horsemen of the Philosophical Apocalypse | Intellectual Takeout
"Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899-1977) was the dean of Yale Law School, the president of the University of Chicago, and one of the more influential philosophers of education in the 20th century.

In a stirring passage from a series of lectures he gave in 1951, Hutchins identified four intellectual trends that had been absolutely disastrous for modern education. He called these trends “the four horsemen of the philosophical apocalypse”:

“If the object of education is the improvement of men, then any system of education that is without values is a contradiction in terms. A system that seeks bad values is bad. A system that denies the existence of values denies the possibility of education. Relativism, scientism, skepticism, and anti-intellectualism, the four horsemen of the philosophical apocalypse, have produced that chaos in education which will end in the disintegration of the West.”

Here are brief descriptions of each of “the four horsemen” and their impact on education:...

Read all!!

Lunch video-----Professor Jordan Peterson on climate change and climate policy at the Ca...

Noon-toon

The Shutdown Shows How Unnecessary Much of Government Is

The Shutdown Shows How Unnecessary Much of Government Is:

During a shutdown when Barack Obama was president, government officials were so eager to make a point by inconveniencing people that they even stopped visitors from entering public parks.
Trump’s administration isn’t doing that, so PBS found a new crisis: “Trash cans spilling … [P]ark services can’t clean up the mess until Congress and the president reach a spending deal,” reported “NewsHour.”
But volunteers appeared to pick up some of the trash.
Given a chance, private citizens often step in to do things government says only government can do.

A few years ago but worth the read.-----British power stations are burning wood from US forests – to meet renewables targets

British power stations are burning wood from US forests – to meet renewables targets
"Last year, 6m tonnes of “wood pellets” harvested from forests in Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Virginia were shipped across the Atlantic, to be burnt in (British) renewable “biomass” power plants. 
This was almost double the 2013 figure – the US “wood pellet” industry is booming.

Demand is largely driven by European countries wanting to meet targets set out in the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive. 

Half of the pellets exported from the US were used to generate electricity in Britain’s massive Drax power station, which is slowly converting from coal to biomass in order to reduce carbon emissions and claim valuable “Renewable Obligation certificates” for green electricity. 

So can it really be sustainable to transport wood halfway round the world to burn in a power station?...

Read on!

THEY ARE DESTROYING THEMSELVES WITH TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME...

Instapundit  Blog Archive  
"THEY ARE DESTROYING THEMSELVES WITH TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, AND EVEN THE ATLANTIC HAS NOTICED:
The Media Botched the Covington Catholic Story. And the damage to their credibility will be lasting. 
“The full video reveals that these kids had wandered into a Tom Wolfe novel and had no idea how to get out of it.”

As have we all. 
Well, I have some idea.
UPDATE: Okay here’s more:

How could the elite media—The New York Times, let’s say—have protected themselves from this event, which has served to reinforce millions of Americans’ belief that traditional journalistic outlets are purveyors of “fake news”? 

They might have hewed to a concept that once went by the quaint term “journalistic ethics.” Among other things, journalistic ethics held that if you didn’t have the reporting to support a story, and if that story had the potential to hurt its subjects, and if those subjects were private citizens, and if they were moreover minors, you didn’t run the story. You kept reporting it; you let yourself get scooped; and you accepted that speed is not the highest value. Otherwise, you were the trash press.

At 8:30 yesterday morning, as I was typing this essay, The New York Times emailed me. The subject line was “Ethics Reminders for Freelance Journalists.” (I have occasionally published essays and reviews in the Times). It informed me, inter alia, that the Times expected all of its journalists, both freelance and staff, “to protect the integrity and credibility of Times journalism.” This meant, in part, safeguarding the Times’ “reputation for fairness and impartiality.”

I am prompted to issue my own ethics reminders for The New York Times. Here they are: You were partly responsible for the election of Trump because you are the most influential newspaper in the country, and you are not fair or impartial. Millions of Americans believe you hate them and that you will causally harm them. Two years ago, they fought back against you, and they won. If Trump wins again, you will once again have played a small but important role in that victory.

All they have to do is not be crazy. 
And they just can’t do that.-- Posted by Glenn Reynolds"

#1 This day 1986-----Dionne Warwick - That's What Friends Are For

This is a "MUST READ"------Nolte: NBC Pens Fake News About Gay Valedictorian's Banned 'Covington' Speech | Breitbart

Nolte: NBC Pens Fake News About Gay Valedictorian's Banned 'Covington' Speech | Breitbart
"Far-left NBC News smeared Covington Catholic High School by spreading fake news about “Covington” banning of a gay valedictorian’s speech.

"...Nevertheless, the media jihad continues, and that includes NBC shamelessly running a debunked and deceptive smear story that had been reported on and debunked all the way back in May.

NBC’s deliberately misleading headline reads: “Gay valedictorian banned from speaking at Covington graduation ‘not surprised’ by D.C. controversy.” 

The story accuses “Covington” (I’ll explain the quote marks in a bit) of “banning” a speech that was to be given by an openly gay student.

Here’s the fake news from NBC:

In May of last year, the Catholic diocese ruled just hours before Holy Cross High School’s graduation that the openly gay valedictorian [Christian Bales] and the student council president could not give their planned speeches at the Covington school’s official graduation ceremony.…

Bales, now 19 and a freshman at the University of Louisville, spoke to NBC News on Tuesday about last year’s incident and the recent viral video that has dragged Covington back into the national spotlight.

“I was not surprised at all,” Bales plainly told NBC News when asked for his reaction to last week’s D.C. confrontation. “It was only a matter of time that something this school community did would blow up to this degree, and I think they need to be held accountable.”...

...According to USA Today’s original story, which ran in May, the openly gay Bales attended a Catholic school in “Covington,” and did so while wearing “makeup and bobby pins” — which sounds pretty tolerant to me. 

He went on to graduate as valedictorian but was not allowed to give a class speech for two reasons that had nothing to do with his homosexuality: 1) he turned the speech in late and 2) the speech was political....

And now I am going to lay out all the facts NBC News withheld in order to mislead their readers and further demonize a group of children who are guilty of nothing more than being well-behaved, white, Christian Trump supporters:

1. NBC News does not concede the fact that Bales submitted the speech late, instead framing it only as an allegation — an excuse from the diocese.
2. Nowhere does NBC News reveal that Bales’ speech was a Parkland-inspired diatribe about gun control.

And now we come to my favorite part….

Are you ready for this…

Seriously, because this is a wowser…

3. Christian Bales was not a student at Covington High School.
4. Christian Bales graduated from Holy Cross High School, a completely different high school.
5. If his speech had been approved, he would have given it at Holy Cross High School, not at Covington High School.
6. Holy Cross High is run by the same Catholic diocese as Covington High, but they are two completely different schools.
7. NBC News bombards the story with more than a dozen references to “Covington” but goes out of its way to obscure the fact Bales attended a completely different school…

In May of last year, the Catholic diocese ruled just hours before Holy Cross High School’s graduation that the openly gay valedictorian and the student council president could not give their planned speeches at the Covington school’s official graduation ceremony.

See what NBC did there?

If NBC and the rest of the media are willing to lie this openly when the facts (and video) are right there for the world to see, imagine the lies being told using unnamed sources and the like.

And if the media are willing to destroy the lives of innocent children for political purposes, imagine what they are willing to do to the rest of us. "

Strength!

Dobson: N.Y. adopts 'pure barbarism rarely seen since Middle Ages' - WND

Dobson: N.Y. adopts 'pure barbarism rarely seen since Middle Ages' - WND:

“New York’s law is barbaric and inhumane and rejects modern science and medical advancements that reveal the development and humanity of life in the womb. Millions of Americans are waking up to the barbaric reality of abortion and rejecting it. A recent Marist poll showed 75 percent of Americans believe abortion should be limited to – at most – the first three months of pregnancy. This includes 61 percent of those who identify as pro-choice, 60 percent of Democrats, and 78 percent of independents,” she said.
“One thing that this law reveals to the nation is the extent and the extremism of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which allows laws such as this one to exist. It was Roe that legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy in this country. If Roe is not soon overturned, any state could follow New York’s monstrous example.”

AOC Asks: 'At What Level Are We Really Just Living in Excess...?'

AOC Asks: 'At What Level Are We Really Just Living in Excess...?':
(CNSNews.com) - Appearing on "The Late Show" with Stephen Colbert Monday night, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said her call for high taxes on extremely wealthy people addresses the question, "At what level are we really just living in excess, and what kind of society do we want to live in?"
She indicated that "billionaires" who "have their own personal Uber helipads" should not co-exist in the same city "as people who are working 80 hour weeks and can't feed their kids."...
Read on.

AM Fruitcake

History for January 25

History for January 25 - On-This-Day.com
Robert Boyle 1627, Robert Burns 1759, W. Somerset Maugham 1874


Virginia Woolf 1882, Eduard Shevardnadze 1928 - President of Georgia, Dean Jones 1931 - Actor


1858 - Mendelssohn’s "Wedding March" was presented for the first time at the wedding of the daughter of Queen Victoria and the Crown Prince of Prussia.


1924 - The 1st Winter Olympic Games were inaugurated in Chamonix in the French Alps.

Trump Uses MSNBC Footage Of Illegal Border Crossing To Make Case For Border Wall | The Daily Caller

Trump Uses MSNBC Footage Of Illegal Border Crossing To Make Case For Border Wall | The Daily Caller:

President Donald Trump used footage from MSNBC to make the case for a southern border wall Wednesday.
Trump is currently in gridlock with Congress over border wall funding, leading to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. A major contributing factor to the stalemate is the Democrats’ reluctance to give the president border wall funding.

The way we were-----Dovells Bristol Stomp HD video Excellent quality

Boob-tube-----58 TV Commercials from 1977

WELL, THAT’S BECAUSE YOU’RE AN IDIOT: CNN commentator on Covington: I’m as triggered by a MAGA ha…

Instapundit  Blog Archive  WELL, THAT’S BECAUSE YOU’RE AN IDIOT

WELL, THAT’S BECAUSE YOU’RE AN IDIOT: 
CNN commentator on Covington: I’m as triggered by a MAGA hat as I am by a KKK hood.
Related: Joy Behar: We jumped to conclusions about the Covington Catholic kids because we desperately want Trump out of office.---Posted by Glenn Reynolds 

When you see the immigration system up close, you're confronted with its bottomless unfairness. --Fans of Best of the Web Today

Fans of Best of the Web Today:--Michael Smith
"When you see the immigration system up close, you're confronted with its bottomless unfairness.
The system assumes that people born outside our borders are less deserving of basic rights than those inside.
My native-born American friends did not seem to me to warrant any more dignity than my South African ones; according to this nations founding documents, we were all created equal.
Yet by mere accident of geography, some were given freedom, and others were denied it.
If people outside America's borders are as "deserving of basic rights [as] those inside", then let them do the things Americans have historically done to earn it.
This statement is patently offensive - "Yet by mere accident of geography, some were given freedom, and others were denied it."
Geography has nothing to do with it and no country in the world has ever been "given" freedom.
America fought a war of revolution in 1776, fought off the British who didn't get the message in 1812 and then fought a bloody civil war in 1861 to to correct its path and went to war in 1917 and again in 1941 to secure freedom for the world.
Nothing was given - only pasty, gender confused, effete poofters at the New York Times, who have benefited from the blood of others as they recline on their down filled fainting couches, think freedom is free.
"The [American] system assumes that people born outside our borders are less deserving of basic rights than those inside"
No it doesn't.
What it assumes is that what exists inside our borders is deserving of protection and defense from all enemies, foreign and domestic. 
America has no obligation to protect freedom for anyone but its own citizens. 
If "outside" people are truly deserving of freedom, let them create their own - America has proven it will help them do it.
This Times article argues for the complete devaluation of American citizenship. 
If the borders were opened and anyone crossing it becomes equal to the citizens here before them, there is no value in being a citizen. What they are proposing is nothing less than the end of America.

Republicans Aim To Jump-Start Judicial Confirmation Push After Recent Lag | The Daily Caller

Republicans Aim To Jump-Start Judicial Confirmation Push After Recent Lag | The Daily Caller:

The renomination effort is supplemented by a $1.5 million national and digital ad buy from the Judicial Crisis Network (JCN), a conservative advocacy group that organized and messages on judicial nominations.
“Because of Democrats’ unprecedented obstruction of judicial nominees we now have significantly more vacancies than when President Trump took office,” said Carrie Severino, JCN’s chief counsel. “Senator McConnell has restated his commitment to filling the vacancies and has maintained that this is a Senate priority. It’s time for Democrats to end the bullying and smear campaigns and confirm the judges.”
The Senate has confirmed 53 district judges, 30 appeals judges and two Supreme Court justices since Trump took office.

More Budget Reform Ideas for 2019 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

More Budget Reform Ideas for 2019 – Michigan Capitol Confidential: Commentary
"...I now offer additional budget reform ideas worth up to $291 million in General Fund savings, which are based on fiscal 2019 appropriations.
Eliminate most if not all general fund dollars to the University of Michigan’s main campus. 
Savings: $212 million. 
The Mackinac Center first recommended this cut in 2004.
The University of Michigan is wealthy enough to pay its own way.
It is worth mentioning that this appropriation from the General Fund is not the only source of state funding for the university.
It also receives dollars from the School Aid Fund, which could also be redirected to some higher priority.
The university could afford this cut, as the subsidy is only a small part of its operating budget, and it’s small in comparison to its wealth. In addition, equity calls for a cut.
According to a 2017 New York Times article, the median family income of the university’s students is $154,000, and two-thirds of them come from families in the top 20 percent of income earners.
It is actually unfair that state taxpayers must subsidize students and families who could pay full freight..."
Read on.