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1.) Welcome to Obama’s America — In Obama’s America, teachers are suspended for lassoing students. TheDC’s Eric Owens reports:
“A history teacher at Schrade Middle School in Rowlett, Texas has been suspended because he lassoed a seventh-grader with a lariat. The unnamed teacher had some roping experience and wanted to teach students some basic lasso techniques that cowboys use on cattle drives, reports KHOU. He sought volunteers from the class, asked them to run, and then roped a 13-year-old student — around the neck. The student suffered bruises on his neck as a result. The boy’s distraught parents say that the bruises had gotten worse after a day, reports WFAA.”
Is this America? Or the Soviet Union? This country was founded by those who believe teachers should be able to lasso their students. No, none of the founders expressed their views on the matter precisely that way — or for that matter, at all. But they certainly didn’t condemn the practice, either. Therefore it is safe to assume they saw it as a bedrock principle of the nation.
“Marco Rubio’s political action committee is trying to capitalize on all the attention about his ‘sip slip’ on Tuesday night by selling official Rubio water bottles to supporters. ‘Send the liberal detractors a message that not only does Marco Rubio inspire you. … He hydrates you too,’ Terry Sullivan of the Reclaim America PAC said in a Wednesday evening fundraising solicitation to supporters.“
Of course, the press treated Rubio’s water sip rationally, as a barely mentionable aspect of his speech. Just kidding. They actually wondered whether his taking a sip of water during the midst of his speech would end his political career. Seriously.
3.) Aspire … to mediocrity — And from the sounds of it, that’s being generous. TheDC’s Patrick Howley reports on Magic Johnson’s media enterprise:
“NBA legend Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson’s African-American cable television network, Aspire, has been plagued in its early months by disinterest from Johnson, minimal programming ambition, budgetary constraints, conflicts of interest and perfunctory management, raising questions about the network created one year ago in an agreement with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) to increase African-American presence in cable television. … [I]nsiders are doubting whether Johnson — who led an ownership group that purchased the Los Angeles Dodgers shortly before Aspire’s launch in June — was ever really interested in creating diverse television at all. Chairman and CEO Johnson has visited the Atlanta-based offices of Aspire on no more than two occasions. Representatives of his company Magic Johnson Enterprises, the principal owner of the network, have visited Aspire no more than four times, according to a source. … Aspire’s schedule currently consists largely of low-cost syndicated reruns: episodes of the 1960s series ‘I Spy,’ ‘Julia,’ and ‘The Bill Cosby Show’ (not to be confused with the more popular ‘Cosby Show’ of the 1980s), ‘Soul Train’ from the 1970s, and the early 1970s sketch comedy program ‘The Flip Wilson Show.'”
4.) Kim Jung Crazy — Or perhaps Kim Jung Un is rationally pursuing what seem to us like crazy goals. Either way, conservative foreign policy intellectuals say the U.S. ought to recognize the reality of the regime. TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein reports:
“Nicholas Eberstadt, a scholar at AEI who has written extensively on North Korea, agreed that recognizing reality must be the first step in developing ‘a strategy for making a bigger North Korea problem into a smaller North Korea problem.’ ‘We have to start by recognizing that North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs are their highest priority of state,’ he said. ‘The second thing we need to recognize is whom that love letter is directed towards,’ he continued. ‘This program is directed at creating a pistol that it can point at America’s head. The intended destination of these nuclear tipped rockets is the United States mainland.’ … Like [former UN Ambassador John] Bolton, Eberstadt agrees that the only real solution to the North Korean question is an end of the current North Korean regime, which makes sense considering he is the author of the 1999 book, ‘The End of North Korea.’ ‘The North Korean nuclear problem is the North Korean regime,’ he said. ‘And the North Korean nuclear problem will face us until we deal with a post DPRK North Korea.'”
Read the full article to see how conservative foreign policy intellectuals would deal with North Korea, which admittedly is a thorny problem, to use a massive understatement.
5.) Tweet of Yesterday —David Burge: I’m glad the president is always the sane guy in the middle between his imaginary opponents.
6.) Today in North Korean News — BREAKING: “Equestrian Statues of Kim Il Sun, Kim Jong Il Draw Endless Stream of Visitors”
VIDEO: Sen. Tim Scott says “80 Percent of what [Obama] says we never see come to fruition”
