Soft on Ebola
Mark Davis at Townhall writes of the Ebola crisis that “there is no doubting that haughty and wholly unearned self-assurance, from the CDC to the White House, has played a huge part in the deception of the American people as to our readiness and willingness to fight this pernicious disease. Throw in a heaping helping of political correctness and feelings-based leadership at the Dallas County level [where the first Ebola death in the United States occurred] and the stage is set for an exercise in weakness and incompetence that could have a considerable death toll.
“Many articles of leftist faith are on display along the road to the sorry spot we find ourselves in. Begin with the infuriating unwillingness to enact the first and simplest sensible protection: a ban on any incoming travel from the West African nations that are the global Ebola hot zone. This stems from the unwillingness to stigmatize a remote part of the world filled with non-whites.”
Black men in jail
The New Pittsburgh Courier picked up a Huffington Post piece by Antonio Moore: “America as a nation has become a tale of two cities: one for young black men and one essentially for everyone else. While we can argue with this blanket statement, what cannot be refuted is that young black men are one of the most imprisoned groups in modern history.
“African-American men comprise a mere 6 percent of the American population but, according to the Department of Justice, they make up nearly half of the 2 million inmates in U.S. jails or prisons. These men are largely imprisoned for nonviolent offenses …
“During South African apartheid, one of the most horrific instances of racism the world has seen, the prison rate for black male South Africans, under immensely unfair laws, was 851 per 100,000. In America today, young black men face a rate of imprisonment effectively 10 times that number.”
Get rid of the methane
Jon Geeting at Keystone Politics notes that “center-left environmentalist opinion in this state has generally taken the view that growing natural gas market share can be a force for good, because the big short-term impact has been to greatly accelerate doom for the coal industry, which heretofore has been thought to be the biggest greenhouse gas villain.
“But a bunch of recent research on this has changed that calculus. It turns out that if we don’t control methane leakage, natural gas extraction is actually worse for the climate than coal. A lot of Democratic politicians are invested in the idea of gas as a ‘bridge fuel,’ and it still can be, but not if we don’t require companies to capture all the methane.”
Overthrow Obama?
Our local Spork in a Drawer blog noticed a news item about Debbie Dunnegan, a Republican recorder of deeds in Jefferson County, Missouri, just outside of St. Louis, who is running for re-election. Ms. Dunnegan wondered on Facebook why the military hasn’t rid us of President Barack Obama:
“I have a question for all my friends who have served or are currently serving in our military … having not put on a uniform nor taken any type military oath, there has to be something that I am just not aware of. But I cannot and do not understand why no action is being taken against our domestic enemy. I know he is supposedly the commander in chief, but the constitution gives you the authority. What am I missing? Thank you for your bravery and may God keep you safe.”
Compiled by Greg Victor (gvictor@post-gazette.com).