Author Archives: Scott Alfter

Multiple standards aren’t better

Singing a stupid song is an unpardonable offense, but knocking a girl out so hard she was left with broken facial bones is OK?  This sort of moral inversion is what happens when you put Democrats in charge:

OU: Tough On Racism, Weak On Assault, Burglary

University of Oklahoma president David Boren’s immediate expulsion of students involved with a recently-leaked racist video stands in sharp contrast to the lighter treatment the school has given to football players found responsible for violent crimes.

Just two days after a video leaked of Oklahoma students, mostly freshmen, singing a racist song on a bus, Boren took decisive action by summarily expelling two students he claims played a leading roll in the chant. The students, he said, had created a “hostile learning environment” for other students and had to be kicked out immediately, with no opportunity to reform. Boren has suggested that more expulsions could be on the way.

“There is zero tolerance for this kind of threatening racist behavior at the University of Oklahoma,” Boren said.

However, while Boren might have zero tolerance for racist songs sung in private, Boren and OU have taken a very different approach to the privileged members of the school’s elite college football team, emphasizing the importance of second chances and allowing the team to welcome back players with a history of violence and even sexual assault.

One such player was Joe Mixon, a freshman and one of the top football prospects for the Sooners. Last July, Mixon was caught on video in an altercation with another OU student, 20-year-old junior Amelia Rae Molitor. During the altercation, Mixon punched Molitor so hard he broke four bones in her face and knocked her unconscious.

On Friday the 13th

8d65004afb88f3dcc0e40d1bcf14bf68This is the second month in a row we’ve had a Friday the 13th.  That occurrence doesn’t roll around all that often, as it can only occur in March on a year that isn’t a leap year.  Some quick calculations indicate that the next one won’t roll around until 2026.  Looking further ahead through the rest of the century, the remaining occurrences are in 2037, 2043, 2054, 2065, 2071, 2082, 2093, and 2099.

How stupid does she think we are?

Yesterday, the excuse that Hillary Clinton gave for conducting official business through a private email server was that she had two phones to access multiple email servers. There are multiple problems with that “explanation, but since when do you need multiple phones to manage multiple email accounts? I have access to my personal email server (like the Clintons’, but more secure because mine runs Linux instead of Windows) and a Gmail account through my phone. It’s lame email software (Outlook comes to mind) that can’t handle multiple accounts.

A certain substitution is easily envisioned here

Faded glory. Faded freedom.

Quoting Edward Gibbon:

In the end, more than freedom. they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all……security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished foremost was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.

Something to think about. Keep our current predicament in mind as you do so.

Major Museums Start Banning Selfie Sticks

Could this mark the beginning of a return to sanity?

Major Museums Start Banning Selfie Sticks

Selfie sticks, the logical ‘extension’ of an already irksome activity, were recently banned in Premier League soccer stadiums. Now museums around the world are starting to do the same over worries of accidental damage to artwork. The Smithsonian barred their use effective last week as a ‘preventative measure to protect visitors and museum objects,’ especially on crowded days. Meanwhile, a formal ban is pending at Versailles palace and Centre Pompidou in France, and visitors are now being told to stow their sticks by guards at the Louvre. Both Pompidou and the Louvre will continue to allow regular photography and selfies.

Private email accounts for me, but not for thee

Liberal hypocrisy knows no bounds:

Bob Shrum: “This is [just] a ‘process’ story”
Catherine Herridge: Internal State Cable Sent From Clinton’s Office Forbade Personal Email Accounts, For Security Reasons

Worthy of the flaming skull.  Ace quotes this:

Just got this document from FNC’s Catherine Herridge about Secretary Clinton and personal emails

Fox News has exclusively obtained an internal 2011 State Department cable that shows Secretary of State Clinton’s office told employees not to use personal email for security reasons, while at the same time, HRC conducted all government business on a private account.   Sent to Diplomatic and Consular Staff in June 2011, the unclassified cable, with Clinton’s electronic signature, makes clear to “avoid conducting official Department from your personal e-mail accounts”  and employees should not “auto-forward Department email to personal email accounts which is prohibited by Department policy.”

…and in a related vein:

Hillary’s State Dept. Forced The Resignation Of An Ambassador For Using Private E-Mail

Although Hillary Clinton and her allies may be claiming that her private e-mail system is no big deal, Hillary’s State Department actually forced the 2012 resignation of the U.S. ambassador to Kenya in part for setting up an unsanctioned private e-mail system. According to a 2012 report from the State Department’s inspector general, former U.S. ambassador to Kenya Scott Gration set up a private e-mail system for his office in 2011.

The inspector general’s report offered a scathing assessment of Gration’s information security practices — practices that are eerily similar to those undertaken by Clinton while she served as Secretary of State.