Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

In The Wake Of Paris

133 Comments

Look for these nine aftershocks.

Listening to Obama right now is nauseating. I love how he continues to babble and repeat the same nonsense in response to incredulous questions from the press as though they’re the idiots.

“ISIS isn’t a state, they’re killers.”

I know it’s hard for such a dyed–in-the-wool statist as Obama to imagine, but it’s entirely possible for an entity to be both a state and “killer.” Just ask Hitler. Or Stalin. Or Mao. Or Pol Pot. In fact, historically, the most efficient human abattoirs have been states.

Seriously, what is it that makes ISIS not a state? It controls territory, it has a government, it has resources, it has an army. All it lacks is UN recognition and only fools think that’s of any consequence. It wants to be treated like a state, fine. If Westphalia still means anything, declare war on it in response to these ongoing acts of war, and don’t stop until it unconditionally surrenders.

Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Too Young To Vote

30 Comments

Instapundit says that what’s happening at Yale and in Columbia shows that we need to raise the voting age.

[Monday-morning update]

Glenn has changed his mind. It’s not the under-25s that are the problem. It’s the over-25s.

[Bumped]

Business, Economics, Mathematics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

A Vegan, Liberal Environmentalist

2 Comments

How he went from climate promoter to climate skeptic.

It’s amazing how pathetic the warm mongers’ “arguments” are. It’s one of the ways you can tell it’s not science; it’s ideology and religion.

[Update a while later]

Bjorn Lomborg on the trivial effects of current climate proposals. But the economic impacts would be far from trivial.

History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

Paris

33 Comments

My immediate hot take:

In general, it’s wise to say “We don’t know who did this or why and we shouldn’t speculate until we get all the facts.” In this case we know exactly who did it, and why. The French won’t be talking nonsense about “violent extremism.”

The (obviously) racist French have closed the borders. They are going to (GASP!) profile, to determine who can leave the country. For example, white (and probably many black) Americans will be allowed to leave. Adult male Algerians and Moroccans (and Syrians, to the degree that they’ve been invading recently) not so much.

This was an act of war, and I expect France to treat it as such. Unfortunately, with the apparent collapse of Westphalia, it won’t be obvious who to punish for it, but if ISIS takes “credit” for it, expect them to get a pounding in Syria and Iraq, Russians or no. And unlike us or Israel, the French know they will be immune from charges of “war crimes.”[Update a few minutes later]

#ProTip The French declaration of a state of emergency effectively suspends civil liberties.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Call me nuts, but I’m guessing that France, and Europe in general, is going to be tightening its Syrian-refugee policy as a result of this.

[Saturday-morning update]

Great timing, Barack: “We have contained [ISIS].” An asshat extraordinaire.

Also, oopsie, more bad timing: Al Gore in Paris this weekend for a summit on the “greatest challenge facing us,” too much plant food in the atmosphere.

Roger Simon: Why Paris happened. Yes, there don’t appear to be any world leaders today, least of all Barack Obama.

Mark Steyn: “The barbarians are inside, and there are no gates.”

And from Richard Fernandez: A Europe with no borders has taken a body blow:

It’s significant that the attacks occurred during a period of heightened alert associated with big soccer matches. French president Hollande himself was watching a game when he had to be unceremoniously shuttled to the safety of a government building. That suggests that French security forces and intelligence were genuinely surprised by the attack and therefore there exist terror networks they don’t know about capable of large-scale operations. Scotland Yard and MI5 must realize this and will inevitably be burning the midnight oil tonight.

DHS should be doing the same thing.

[Afternoon update]

Claire Berlinski checks in from Paris.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!