Month: May 2015

Surprise, surprise, surprise: Laura Kipnis suddenly cleared of Title IX charges.

(Via Instapundit) Amazing how that happens, huh?

Laura Kipnis, the Northwestern University professor who became the subject of two Title IX complaints after publishing an essay in The Chronicle Review, has been cleared of wrongdoing by the university under the federal civil-rights law, which requires colleges to respond to reports of sexual misconduct.

Ms. Kipnis said in an interview on Sunday that she received two letters Friday night from the law firm Northwestern had hired to investigate both complaints. In each case, the firm judged that the ”preponderance of evidence does not support the complaint allegations.”

Because surely it had nothing to do with the fact that her story blew up on Friday itself, to what was largely a pan-spectrum reaction of horror and disbelief at what was going on.  Surely.  Undoubtedly.  Ya, you betcha. Anyway, the real problem here, of course, is that it’s the people who can’t trigger a viral storm of visceral disapproval who are most affected by this sort of thing…

My colleague Caleb Howe put together a brief on tonight’s Patriot Act vote…

…here.  I am, ah, unconvinced that we’re going to end up better off for junking these provisions.  But, on the bright side?  Maybe Ed Snowden will now think that the coast is clear, and go somewhere where we can extradite him and put him on trial for espionage.  That’s worth something, at least.

Quote of the Day, The History Of Climate Predictions Is A History Of Getting It Wrong edition.

While we’re on the subject of climate alarmists, here’s fellow-lackey Noah Rothman pointing out an inconvenient truth:

There is perhaps no field of study (or commerce, as the case may be) as flawed as the climate-related catastrophic prediction market. The late 20th Century, contentions that a coming ice age and the “population bomb” would leave the planet as dystopian Hellscape by no later than the year 2000 should have shown all aspiring Malthusians the error of their ways. Unfortunately, the last generation’s example has not stopped their forbearers from staring dismally into computer models and warning of 50 million climate refugees by the year 2010 or the end of snow.

Alas, I don’t really expect the alarmists to calm down any time soon. In my experience, apocalyptic cults do not moderate their behavior when their apocalypses do not occur; they either double down, or implode.  And they tend not to implode at the first opportunity.  …Sorry?  I can’t really do anything about this, either.

Moe Lane

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse wants to wage a RICO lawsuit against climate skeptics. This means YOU.

16In case you need a reason to vote next year: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse* wants to feature you in a RICO lawsuit. Yes, you.

The tobacco industry was proved to have conducted research that showed the direct opposite of what the industry stated publicly — namely, that tobacco use had serious health effects. Civil discovery would reveal whether and to what extent the fossil fuel industry has crossed this same line.

[snip]

To be clear: I don’t know whether the fossil fuel industry and its allies engaged in the same kind of racketeering activity as the tobacco industry. We don’t have enough information to make that conclusion. Perhaps it’s all smoke and no fire. But there’s an awful lot of smoke.

Continue reading Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse wants to wage a RICO lawsuit against climate skeptics. This means YOU.

Tweet of the Day, For The Benefit Of Future Anthropologists edition.

Seriously, we should probably be footnoting this stuff whenever possible.  It’ll make it easier for grad students in the year 3000, and whatnot.