Morning Briefing
For November 22, 2013
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1. Oxford Union Results: Winner
It is after midnight here in Oxford, UK as I write this.
Tonight, I debated in the Oxford Union — a society that has gathered each Thursday night for a black tie debate since 1823.
The proposition debated tonight was “that positive discrimination is a necessary evil.”
The side favorable to the proposition went
first and vice versa to the end with me as the final speaker of the
night. Each side had four participants — one student and three guests.
The proponents included both Martin Castro and Ada Meloy, along with
Carla Buzasi and Oxford student Toby Fuller. My side included Richard
Kahlenberg, Heather McGregor, and Oxford student Martine Wauben.
I must thank Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity
for encouraging me toward talk radio. I spoke for 8 minutes unaided by
notes, which would have been impossible, but for two years of doing a
talk radio show consisting of just me talking with no script. If you’ve
ever seen the British House of Commons, you know how it went. We all
stood beside dispatch boxes given by Winston Churchill. We all were
interrupted by points of information by opponents.
Everyone told me I should expect to lose.
Just last week the Oxford Union voted against patriotism. I simply made
the point that positive discrimination, or affirmative action, is still
discrimination and evil is still evil. Likewise, I pointed out that the
United States is 150 years removed from the Gettysburg Address, we have
our first black President, and we still have people clamoring for
positive discrimination. We cannot trust that those who benefit from it
will ever say we need no longer have it.
Likewise, I pointed out that we have had and
will always have racism. A government that claims we are equal under the
law, but still sees racism is not a government we can expect to write a
law to dramatically get rid of racism.
But we do know that those negatively affected
by positive discrimination will be bitter and those who benefit from it
will always be under a lingering doubt that they were chosen as tokens,
not on merit.
I
had a wonderful time, topped off by a pint of Guinness with my wife and
friends. Thanks for the prayers along the way. A guy who sounds like me
somehow convinced a group of Brits that affirmative action is wrong.
My side won by 9 votes. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
2. Senate Republicans Can Retaliate. Will They?
Who can blame Harry Reid for pulling the nuclear option, eliminating the filibuster on judicial nominees? He has punched Senate Republicans in the face all year and they have failed to respond. In
fact, Senate Republicans have turned around and fought their fellow
Republicans in the House, jamming them with bad legislation which they
helped Harry Reid pass out of the Senate. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
3. Senate Democrats have done what Harry Reid said would be the end of the Senate
Under the leadership of Harry Reid, and with the blessing of President Obama, Senate Democrats actually nuked the filibuster.
According
to Chris Cillizza, Sean Sullivan, the issue that Reid saw as important
enough to do something he said would change the U.S. Senate forever is
the confirmation of three nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals – D.C.
Circuit. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
4. Poor Performers: Obama’s NLRB Employees Give Their Agency Leaders Barely Passing Grades
When
it comes to workplace satisfaction, the employees within President
Obama’s National Labor Relations Board don’t seem too thrilled with
their leaders at the agency.
Every year, the National Labor Relations Board surveys its employees regarding their views on their work at the agency.
According to the most recent NLRB employee
survey (called the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey), it appears that
the “laborers” working for the agency that referees disputes between
labor and management have given “management” rather mediocre grades. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
5. The Case for Evidence Based Government
One
of the trends in modern medical practice is the growing popularity of
evidence based medicine (EBM), also called evidence based health care.
In the United States the leading advocate of EBM is the US Preventive
Services Task Force. Their methodology is widely used within the
Department of Health and Human Services. Under the EBM protocol, studies
are reviewed and assigned a rating . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
6. Mark Cuban Takes On the Security and Exchange Commission
The
existential threat to our way of life is not terrorism or nuclear
holocaust, it is the metastatic growth of the regulatory state. One of
the legacies of the New Deal is the proliferation of agencies composed
of unelected busy bodies who have two overweening ambitions: controlling
the lives of their fellow citizens and the aggrandizement of power to
their agency. The second great threat is the unchecked militarization of
our law enforcement organizations but that is a story for different
day. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
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