Monday Miscellany

     1. The World Series.

     I was surprised that the Mets reached the Series. I’m not surprised that Kansas City defeated them. KC’s 2015 team is surprisingly powerful. However, I must admit that I’d expected Toronto to be in it at the finish.

     Several American League teams need serious breather years to rebuild, especially the Yankees. Aging former superstars cannot carry a team to the finish line when opposed by young, well motivated up-and-comers. That’s true in every sport, emphatically so in a “marathon” sport such as Major League Baseball.

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     2. “Yes Means Yes.” Doesn’t It?

     It’s no guarantee of legal safety that he get her to consent, however explicitly, at each “new level” of sexual contact. Stacy McCain is indispensable on this subject:

     At Washington and Lee University, an official reportedly told female students that “regret equals rape.” At Ohio State University, you are guilty of sexual assault unless you and your partner agree why you are engaging in sexual activity. At Harvard University, there were six false rape accusations in 2014. The organizer of a “Summit on Sexual Assault” conference at Darmouth College suggested male students should be expelled as soon as they are accused.

     This is what feminism means for college students in 2015: Every male student on campus is a suspected rapist, and every female student on campus is his would-be victim.

     The point? It’s quite simple: to cleanse college and university campuses of any vestige of a male presence. That will leave the feminists free to lesbianize entire cohorts of young women. Years afterward, when those girls' biological urges begin to assert themselves, they will find that good, decent men will have nothing to do with them.

     Conclusion: The mid-21st Century will be a boom time for sperm banks. Get in on the ground floor while you can!

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     3. R.I.P. Fred Thompson.

     Fred Thompson, actor, U.S. Senator, and quondam presidential aspirant, passed away yesterday at age 73.

     I’ve never encountered a word of criticism of Thompson. By every account he was a fine and well regarded actor, an American patriot, and an old fashioned Southern gentleman. His occupations were graced by his participation. The country will miss him.

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     4. The War Over The Language.

     The Politically Correct crowd doesn’t want us to call illegal aliens “illegal aliens.” What surprise could there be, then, in discovering that in the beating heart of PC, they don’t want to call thieves criminals?

     In the site's Crime and Safety area, where residents share strategies for fighting crime, Malkia Cyril of S.F. suggests that her neighbors stop using the label because it shows lack of empathy and understanding.

     Cyril pointed out that instead of calling the thief who took the bicycle from your garage a criminal, you could be more respectful and call him or her "the person who stole my bicycle."

     The last time I visited the City By The Bay – 1987 – it was already sliding downhill at speed. However, it hadn’t yet embarked upon this new campaign to conceal its degradation from itself by forbidding the ordinary use of ordinary words. Perhaps this will awaken the rational remnant of the city...assuming there is one.

     Were I required to attend some function in San Francisco today, I’d make a point of flying directly to it and leaving immediately afterward. With luck, I’d never have to leave my hotel.

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     5. Huh? Say That Again.

     The tide of illegal immigrants and the “sanctuary city” nonsense that enables it have caused one state, at least, to stiffen its spine:

     North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed a bill into law Wednesday that bans any policy that interferes with the enforcement of federal immigration laws....

     "We cannot allow our local officials in towns and cities in North Carolina to make up their own rules that conflict with our nation's laws and our nation's values," the governor stated during the bill signing.

     This “the law is the law” bill evoked a bit of cynical laughter from Jazz Shaw:

     First of all, the fact that there was even a need for a law such as this demonstrates just how far off the beam we’ve gone as a country. The actions of several liberal enclaves around the nation and the permissive attitude of the White House toward them has brought us to the point where a state had to pass a law saying, in essence, that it’s against the law to break the law. That is, quite frankly, insane. If we had a hand on the tiller in Washington which wasn’t willing to effectively hamstring the immigration services by turning a blind eye to states and cities which choose to flaunt the law, none of this would be needed. It should be accepted procedure for governments at every level in the nation to understand that they don’t exercise a veto option on border security… one of the few areas where the federal government does have a constitutional claim to supremacy.

     To those who advocate laws (or a Constitutional amendment) that require the federal government to abide by the explicit terms of the Constitution: Study the above.

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     6. “Climate Justice.”

     Time was, everyone understood what justice means. Today, the term is somewhat variably interpreted:

     At the upcoming United Nations Climate Summit in Paris, participating nations have prepared a treaty that would create an “International Tribunal of Climate Justice” giving Third World countries the power to haul the U.S. into a global court with enforcement powers....

     Policies once left to sovereign nations could be turned over to a U.N. body if the U.S. and its allies approve the proposed deal in Paris during the summit scheduled for Nov. 30-Dec. 11.

     According to the proposed draft text of the climate treaty, the tribunal would take up issues such as “climate justice,” “climate finance,” “technology transfers,” and “climate debt.”

     It’s heavily odds-on that were the U.S. to agree to be bound by such a treaty, what remains of our Constitutional order would dissolve. Environmentalists slaver over the prospect of such authority – and they wouldn’t allow any suggestions about individual freedom or national sovereignty to stand in their way.

     From the inception of the EPA, the newborn agency filled up with hard-left environmentalist ideologues. Their quest for unlimited, unchecked power was obvious from the outset. It would be foolish to expect European, Asian, or African enviro-fascists invested with power to behave any better.

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     7. For Those Who Expected Something Else...

     ...it appears that the Republican presidential “debates” will experience only a few detail changes:

     Representatives from more than a dozen campaigns met behind closed doors for nearly two hours Sunday night in suburban Washington, a meeting that was not expected to yield many results given the competing interests of several candidates. Yet they emerged having agreed to several changes to be outlined in a letter to debate hosts in the coming days.

     [Ben Carson for President campaign manager Barry] Bennett said the demanded changes include largely bypassing the RNC in coordinating with network hosts, mandatory opening and closing statements, an equal number of questions for the candidates, and pre-approval of on-screen graphics.

     That doesn’t sound like the sort of structural re-engineering that was ballyhooed immediately after the CNBC debacle. However, at least the aforementioned Barry Bennett appreciates where the GOP candidates’ true power lies:

     While the campaigns agreed to the changes in principle Sunday night, the media companies that host the debates are under no obligation to adopt them. Bennett suggested that campaigns could boycott debates to get their way.

     "The only leverage we have is to not come," he said.

     Exactly. Will they use it should the networks decline to accommodate the suggested changes? We shall see.