"I am 80 and figure I can speak the truth as I see it. Ignorant I am not."

Althouse: "I am 80 and figure I can speak the truth as I see it. Ignorant I am not."
"I am 80 and figure I can speak the truth as I see it. Ignorant I am not."

Said Duke professor Jerry Hough, defending himself after getting criticized for something he wrote in the comments section of a The New York Times editorial titled "How Racism Doomed Baltimore." Hough's I'm-old defense appears in a WaPo article titled "Duke professor, attacked for ‘noxious’ racial comments, refuses to back down."

Here's what Hough wrote in the NYT:

"This editorial is what is wrong. The Democrats are an alliance of Westchester and Harlem, of Montgomery County and intercity Baltimore. Westchester and Montgomery get a Citigroup asset stimulus policy that triples the market. The blacks get a decline in wages after inflation.

But the blacks get symbolic recognition in an utterly incompetent mayor who handled this so badly from beginning to end that her resignation would be demanded if she were white. The blacks get awful editorials like this that tell them to feel sorry for themselves.

In 1965 the Asians were discriminated against as least as badly as blacks. That was reflected in the word “colored.” The racism against what even Eleanor Roosevelt called the yellow races was at least as bad.

So where are the editorials that say racism doomed the Asian-Americans. They didn’t feel sorry for themselves, but worked doubly hard.

I am a professor at Duke University. Every Asian student has a very simple old American first name that symbolizes their desire for integration. Virtually every black has a strange new name that symbolizes their lack of desire for integration. The amount of Asian-white dating is enormous and so surely will be the intermarriage. Black-white dating is almost non-existemt because of the ostracism by blacks of anyone who dates a white.

It was appropriate that a Chinese design won the competition for the Martin Luther King [statue]. King helped them overcome. The blacks followed Malcolm X..."

CHILLING Video: Famous Liberal Law Professor Warns of Obama Dictatorship; Urges Congress to Act

CHILLING Video: Famous Liberal Law Professor Warns of Obama Dictatorship; Urges Congress to Act:

“Our system is changing, and this body [Congress] is the one branch that must act, if we are to reverse those changes,” Turley urged.

Turley said that there is a new model of government emerging, one in which our Founding Fathers thoroughly rejected, and pointed out that when Obama announced his unconstitutional dictatorial powers, Democrats in Congress cheered him on."

When Open Government Slams Shut

When Open Government Slams Shut - Reason.com
On March 2, The New York Times revealed that Democratic Party presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton had used a private email account to conduct official business for her entire four-year tenure as secretary of state. 
Clinton emailed President Barack Obama on an insecure server hosted in her own home. 
She destroyed many of her own messages, as she admitted after the Times article; the State Department had to conduct negotiations with her lawyers to get their hands on what remained of her official records. 
One can safely conclude that Hillary Clinton was more concerned about shielding her correspondence from scrutiny by American taxpayers than by foreign intelligence services.
Clinton's defenders made several half-hearted attempts to justify her behavior, but it was longtime aide Paul Begala who cut to the heart of the matter. 
"Voters do not give a shit about what email Hillary used," Begala told CNN. "They don't even give a fart."
It's depressing to contemplate, but as a strictly political calculation Begala may well be right. 
And here lies the paradox behind debates over government transparency: 
We don't know—and therefore have a hard time being outraged by—what we don't know. 
Maybe voters would have been incensed by the contents of the missives, but anything incriminating is likely long since deleted. 
The Democratic Party's presumptive 2016 frontrunner may well have made the shrewd calculation that it's better to violate transparency laws than be confronted with evidence of more serious wrongdoing...."

Sooo effective an advertising tool that NO Michigan company has added money to it!-------Pure Michigan Scare Tactics

Pure Michigan Scare Tactics [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
...The MEDC is the state’s corporate welfare arm, which hands out select subsidies to corporations and oversees the film incentive program and the Pure Michigan advertising campaign.

Specifically, the House GOP plan would redirect $185 million of spending on “economic development” programs to road construction and maintenance. The MEDC does not want its funding cut and responded with what is known as the “Washington Monument syndrome.” As noted by MIRS:

Steve Arwood, chief executive officer of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), said the plan "severely limits the state's ability to have an economic development strategy moving forward."

"Furthermore, it threatens to eliminate the entire Pure Michigan tourism effort – an industry which supports 214,333 jobs in our state," he continued. 

Here is a description of the Washington Monument syndrome, via Wikipedia:

The Washington Monument syndrome, also known as the Mount Rushmore syndrome, or the firemen first principle, is a term used to describe the phenomenon of government agencies in the United States cutting the most visible or appreciated service provided by the government when faced with budget cuts. It has been used in reference to cuts in popular services such as national parks and libraries or to valued public employees such as teachers and firefighters. This is done to put pressure on the public and lawmakers to rescind budget cuts.

Sure enough, after the press release from the MEDC, the media reports soon followed. An MLive headline said, “Pure Michigan campaign could disappear under House Republican road plan....”

Everything Is Awesome, Mideast Edition

Everything Is Awesome, Mideast Edition - WSJ
Ben Rhodes, President Obama’s deputy national security adviser, has been offering a reassuring view of the Iranian nuclear deal in the face of some Arab skepticism.
“If you can diplomatically and peacefully resolve the nuclear issue in a way that prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” he told reporters last week, “we believe that will lead to a much more stable region.”
Mr. Rhodes also contends that with a deal “there will be no need to see [a] regional arms race.”

So what’s more frightening: That Mr. Rhodes believes what he’s saying? Or that he does not?

Just for Mr. Rhodes’s benefit, here’s a refresher course on stability and the arms race in the Middle East since April 2, 2015, the day Mr. Obama announced his framework nuclear agreement with Iran.

April 2: Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif immediately accuses the U.S. of “spin” and contradicts Mr. Obama’s key claims regarding the terms of the deal.

April 12: A Swedish think tank reports that Saudi Arabia registered the biggest increase in defense spending in the world.

April 13: Moscow says it will deliver the S-300 air-defense system to Tehran. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei later boasts that the U.S. “can’t do a damn thing” militarily against Iran.

Read on. Long, sad and frightening list

**********

"I recount these events not just to illustrate the distance between Ben Rhodes’s concept of reality and reality itself. It’s also a question of speed.
The Middle East, along with our position in it, is unraveling at an astonishing pace. 
Reckless drivers often don’t notice how fast they’re going until they’re about to crash.

We are near the point where there will be no walking back the mistakes we have made.
No walking away from them, either.
It takes a special innocence to imagine that nothing in life is irreversible, that everything can be put right, that fanaticism yields to reason and facts yield to wishes, and that the arc of Mideast history bends toward justice."

Watch How Hillary Clinton Reacts When Ed Henry Interrupts Event to Ask if She’ll Ever Answer Press Questions | Video | TheBlaze.com

Watch How Hillary Clinton Reacts When Ed Henry Interrupts Event to Ask if She’ll Ever Answer Press Questions | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"After nearly a month-long shutout, Hillary Clinton took a few questions from the press on Tuesday — but not before she had some sly words for Fox News reporter Ed Henry.

As Clinton spoke with event attendees in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Henry cut in to ask if she would talk to the press.

“Maybe when I finish talking to the people here, how’s that?” the Democratic presidential candidate said."

‘It Sure Looks Like Some Ferguson Protestors Were Paid To Do So By Liberal Organize Missouri’

‘It Sure Looks Like Some Ferguson Protestors Were Paid To Do So By Liberal Organize Missouri’ | Ed Driscoll:
“Remember the protests (and riots) in Ferguson last summer? It looks like at least some of the protestors were told they would be paid to show up and now they’re upset the checks haven’t arrived yet,” Katie Pavlich writes atTownhall. “Weaselzippers has the full story and the screen shots showing “protestors” using the Twitter hashtag #cutthecheck in response to non-payment. Based on tweets, Organize Missouri is responsible for issuing payments:”

On May 14, protesters, upset with not being paid their promised checks for protesting, protested outside MORE, Missourians Organizing For Reform and Empowerment, an ACORN organization which had received funding through George Soros to fund the protests.

....And now we learn that a pro-Obama organization apparently paid for at least some of the protestors to swing into action. Call it a vast left-wing conspiracy, to coin a phrase.

Limbaugh Swats Down Media's Gotcha Question to GOP Candidates on Iraq

Limbaugh Swats Down Media's Gotcha Question to GOP Candidates on Iraq

...Rush Limbaugh is suggesting a better way for GOP candidates to respond -- reject the premise.
"The premise"? That the Iraq war was a monumental foreign policy blunder for which Republicans are solely responsible and should bow their heads in perpetual shame, despite ridding the world of the worst tyrant since Pol Pot.

Limbaugh went after it with a vengeance on his radio show Monday and it made for bracing audio --

Knowing what we know now, should somebody ask Hillary if Bill Clinton should have just gone ahead and killed bin Laden when he had the chance several times? Knowing what we know now, should Bill Clinton have pulled out of Somalia? Blackhawk down, because that's what convinced bin Laden that we were a paper tiger. Bin Laden said so to an ABC reporter, John Miller. He said, yeah, when I saw you guys cut and run from Somalia, I knew you could be had. So knowing what we know now, should Bill Clinton have pulled out of Somalia when he did?

But I've got an entirely different perspective on this -- why even accept the premise in this knowing what you know now? The premise in the knowing what you know now question is that Iraq was a mistake, that Iraq was a total boondoggle. .... Knowing what we know now, should Bill Clinton have used a condom with Monica when she had on the blue dress?

Following a commercial break, Limbaugh elaborated on his premise --

I know this will not happen but I would love to see it -- I wish one of these Republicans would not accept the premise in this knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion of Iraq, or should Bush have, or was it a mistake, or what have you. Because the premise is that it was a mistake.The premise is that it was a debacle. The premise is that it was the worst damn thing that ever happened in America, was the Iraq war.  And that premise need not be accepted.

I would love it if Rubio or Jeb or anybody says -- well you know what, Chris (alluding to Fox News's Chris Wallace), you know what George (Stephanopoulos, purported ABC newsman/Clinton cheerleader), you know what, pick your native liberal reporter, knowing that the Democrats would rip this country apart because of the Iraq war, knowing that the Democrats would actively seek the defeat of the U.S. military, and knowing that the Democrat party would do everything they could to sabotage the war effort, I might have rethought it.

Knowing what I know now that the Democrat party was going to take the occasion of the Iraq war to rip this country apart, that they would use it to elect an unqualified president who would then cut and run, Barack Obama, I might not have, George. I might not have, Chris...

Read it all and wonder why it seems no one connected with the republicans ever listens to Rush. 

Mom Arrested, Shackled, Jailed Because Her Honor Roll Son Had 3 Unexcused Absences at School

Mom Arrested, Shackled, Jailed Because Her Honor Roll Son Had 3 Unexcused Absences at School | The Free Thought Project:
"Screven County, Georgia – Mother and substitute teacher Julie Giles was arrested this week because her son had too many unexcused absences from public school.
Writing on her Facebook page before turning herself in, Giles said “If anyone feels the need to go public with this feel free to do so….the facts are Sam originally had what they consider 12 unexcused absences, 6 are allowed per year, so he had 6 more than is acceptable, but the doctor reissued 3 excuses that Sam didn’t turn in, so basically I am being arrested for THREE days.”
She also noted that her child has all A’s and B’s in school.

The Girl Scouts Transgender Stance That Has Conservatives Up in Arms: ‘Stop This Nonsense…Now!’ | TheBlaze.com

The Girl Scouts Transgender Stance That Has Conservatives Up in Arms: ‘Stop This Nonsense…Now!’ | TheBlaze.com:

"Conservative critics are once again expressing frustrations with the Girl Scouts of America over the group’s transgender policy — and a recent blog post that affirms its stance."

HoneyBaked tradition leaves Detroit

Paul W: HoneyBaked tradition leaves Detroit:
 "Harry Hoenselaar felt he had Detroit’s best ham in 1957.
In fact, his ham was good enough to grow his family business into 382 corporately owned and franchisee-owned stores, with nearly a half billion dollars in sales.
That’s a lot of Ham.
HoneyBaked Ham.
The nearly 60 sweet years in Detroit apparently drawing to a close. 
The three families that now control HoneyBaked Ham have decided to move their main headquarters out of Detroit to Alpharetta, Georgia..."

History for May 20

History for May 20 - On-This-Day.com
Dolley Payne Madison 1768 - U.S. First Lady, wife of 4th President James Madison, John Stuart Mill 1806 - Editor, philosopher, Jimmy Stewart 1908 - Actor (Philadelphia Story [1940]; The Glenn Miller Story, It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) 


Joe Cocker 1944 - Singer, songwriter, Cher (Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPierre) 1946 - Singer (Sonny & Cher), actress (Moonstruck [1987]; The Witches of Eastwick, Silkwood, Mask), Bronson Pinchot 1959 - Actor (Courage Under Fire, Beverly Hills Cop series, Risky Business) 


1506 - In Spain, Christopher Columbus died in poverty. 


1774 - Britain's Parliament passed the Coercive Acts to punish the American colonists for their increasingly anti-British behavior 


1830 - The fountain pen was patented by H.D. Hyde. 


1874 - Levi Strauss began marketing blue jeans with copper rivets. 


1899 - Jacob German of New York City became the first driver to be arrested for speeding. The posted speed limit was 12 miles per hour. 


1902 - Cuba gained its independence from Spain.

1916 - Norman Rockwell’s first cover on "The Saturday Evening Post" appeared. 



1927 - Charles Lindbergh took off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris aboard his airplane the "Spirit of St. Louis." The trip took 33 1/2 hours. 


1932 - Amelia Earhart took off to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She became the first woman to achieve the feat. 


1939 - The first regular air-passenger service across the Atlantic Ocean began with the take-off of the "Yankee Clipper" from Port Washington, New York. 


1969 - U.S. and South Vietnamese forces captured Apbia Mountain, which was referred to as Hamburger Hill. 

Smoking Gun! Obama Administration was Secretly Running Guns to Syria through Benghazi! - Eagle Rising

Smoking Gun! Obama Administration was Secretly Running Guns to Syria through Benghazi! - Eagle Rising:

"Well the truth about Benghazi is finally starting to see the light. As we have theorized in several articles, the Obama administration was involved in an international Fast and Furious by trafficking arms through Benghazi into Syria. Today that theory has been confirmed.

Newly released documents show that US intelligence agencies were fully aware that weapons were moving from the Islamic terror stronghold in Libya to Syria before the attack on the Benghazi compound on September 11, 2012."

I Checked My “White Privilege” and Found It Wasn’t There - Eagle Rising

I Checked My “White Privilege” and Found It Wasn’t There - Eagle Rising:

"I was having a discussion recently with a colleague, wherein I expressed the opinion that Dr. King’s dream was for all Americans.  His dream was not to turn the world upside-down, so that white people would be discriminated against instead of minorities.  My fellow teacher was stunned at my statement, insisting that the only racism that existed was against minorities.  White people, he said, have it easy.  I was then asked to “check my privilege.”

It was at this point in the conversation that I decided to explain something to my friend."

Cuz trucks are cool------Truck Cheats Death

Dude, where's my height??-----Boys who smoke cannabis ‘are four inches shorter’

Boys who smoke cannabis ‘are four inches shorter’ - Telegraph
Boys who smoke cannabis before puberty could be stunting their growth by more than four inches, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that youngsters who were addicted to the drug were far shorter than their non-smoking peers.

And they also discovered that rather than being a relaxing pass time, smoking dope actually makes the body more stressed in the long term.

"Marijuana use may provoke a stress response that stimulates onset of puberty but suppresses growth rate,” said study leader Dr Syed Shakeel Raza Rizvi, of the Agriculture University Rawalpindi in Pakistan.

Scientists at the Pir Mehr Ali Shah Agriculture University Rawalpindi in Pakistan studied the levels of certain hormones involved in growth and puberty in the blood of 220 non-smoking and 217 cannabis-addicted boys.

Levels of puberty-related hormones such as testosterone and luteinising hormone (LH) were increased in the cannabis smokers. In contrast, growth hormone levels in the group were decreased.

• Super strong cannabis responsible for quarter of psychosis cases
• Cannabis use shrinks and rewires the brain
• Even casual use of cannabis alters the brain
• Cannabis can be highly addictive, major study finds

It was also found that non-smoking boys were on average four kilos heavier and 4.6 inches taller by the age of 20 than the dope smokers.

The researchers also looked at the effect of smoking cannabis on levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, in 10 cannabis addicts.

They found that dope smokers have significantly higher levels of cortisol than non-smokers...

Benghazi chairman: Panel’s findings could be inconclusive | TheHill

Benghazi chairman: Panel’s findings could be inconclusive | TheHill:

"The chairman of House Select Committee on Benghazi says the panel’s final report might not offer a definitive account of what transpired during the deadly attacks in 2012.

“If you do a good enough job laying out the facts, the conclusions will either speak for themselves, or you’ll have competing factual narratives, and you can draw your own conclusions,” Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) told the Greenville News."

Our cities are SOOO safe we need to divert cops to stopping, penalizing, harassing non-criminals?!!!-----Click It Or Ticket Force Zones Ramp Up

Click It Or Ticket Force Zones Ramp Up | Right Michigan:
Never happy enough with mere taxation and over burdening regulatory efforts, state officials want to remind you who is boss.

Michigan State Police are stepping up efforts to imprint their thumbs on Michigan motorists this coming holiday weekend.

Ever since the seat belt legislation was foisted upon a gullible electorate, millions of dollars have been used to cajole, threaten, and punish drivers who have threatened no one’s safety but their own. Since the inception of the law that was NEVER meant to be a primary offense, TENS OF THOUSANDS of citizens of our great lake state have been harassed by authoritative desires of some in law enforcement, and have had their 4th amendment rights violated under the guise of suspicion that they were not properly buckled in.

From the state department of propaganda today (with commentary inserted):

May 18, 2015

For the first time, federally funded seat belt enforcement efforts will take place in all 83 Michigan counties to help jump start an increase in seat belt use and reduce traffic deaths and injuries. Starting today through May 31, police departments, sheriff’s offices and the Michigan State Police will conduct stepped up seat belt enforcement as part of the annual Click It Or Ticket campaign.

The enhanced effort coincides with the 15th year since Michigan adopted a law allowing law enforcement officers to stop motorists for not being buckled up. According to the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, 2,659 lives have been saved since the law began in 2000 as a result of substantially higher belt use. States with primary enforcement laws have higher rates of seat belt use.

15 years of jackboot tyranny, now enhanced courtesy of an overreaching federal bureaucracy.

The estimated ‘2659 lives saved’ justifies the means right? Want to bet that a do-good Michigan legislature could save even more lives with similarly focused measures? Michigan’s secretary of State rides a motorcycle, but merely outlawing those would make for an incredible result in ‘transportation death’ count reductions, right? And even helmets were once mandated, but now are not, sooo …

“The life-saving properties of a seat belt are well established yet some motorists continue to risk more than a $65 ticket by not buckling up,” said Michael L. Prince, Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP) director. “To help promote seat belt use, law enforcement officers will conduct dedicated seat belt enforcement in every corner of the state.”

See “helmets” again, and don’t ignore the subtle threat of the “$65 ticket” mention above.

Research shows when seat belts are used properly, the risk of being killed in a crash is reduced by nearly 45 percent. However the state’s seat belt use rate has fallen in recent years from a high of 98 percent in 2009 to 93 percent last year. Every 1 percent increase in belt use results in approximately 10 fewer traffic deaths and 130 fewer injuries.

So which is it?  Primary enforcement increases use, or not?...