What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread
I’ll start things off…..
1. First, a good news story.
From TheIndependent “A teenager has been hailed as “the most beautiful student in China” after spending three years giving piggy-backs to his disabled friend so that he doesn’t have to miss a class.
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2. The terrorist attack in Texas is raising some questions about the 1st Amendment. And of course, some on the left want to use it as an excuse to limit free speech they find offensive.
From McClatchy “The two gunmen who opened fire with assault weapons outside the exhibit on Sunday were killed by a police officer. They have been identified by law enforcement as Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, both of Phoenix. They appear, from social media posts, to have been motivated by a desire to become mujahedeen, or holy warriors.
The attack highlights the tensions between protecting Americans’ treasured right to freedom of expression and preserving public safety, and it raises questions about when – if ever – government should intervene.
There are two exceptions from the constitutional right to free speech – defamation and the doctrine of “fighting words” or “incitement,” said John Szmer, an associate professor of political science and a constitutional law expert at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
“Fighting words is the idea that you are saying something that is so offensive that it will lead to an immediate breach of the peace,” Szmer explained. “In other words, you are saying something and you should expect a violent reaction by other people.”
The exhibit of cartoons in Texas might have crossed the line, Szmer said.
“I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect what they were doing would incite a violent reaction,” he said.”
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3. As much as I dislike Ms. Geller’s methods, to say they had it coming is a bit much to swallow.
From HotAir “When political commentators note that there is no justification for sexual violence, they aren’t adhering to doctrinal feminism but the tenets of civilized Western thought. No woman, a responsible citizen would say, invites violence merely because their assailant was uncontrollably stimulated by their victim’s choice of attire. This is such a bedrock principle of human decency that it barely needs to be said. Only the most brutish and crude among us would contend otherwise. Why then does it appear vogue to imply that a terrorist attack on a Texas American Freedom Defense Initiative event organized by the group’s president, Pamela Geller, was the inevitable result of provocation on the part of the victims?
Yes, the event that was targeted by Islamist militants in Texas was specifically designed to provoke an inflamed response. The AFDI event promised a $10,000 reward for the attendee who drew the best caricature of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed – an offense that inspired the massacre of editors and cartoonists at the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Far from being spontaneous, this act of violence was preceded on Twitter by users praising the attackers as “mujahideen” and approving of their decision to martyr themselves for the cause of radical Islam.”
“To suggest that by attacking the censorious sensibilities of Islamist fanatics with this display of protest is absurd and dispiritingly defeatist. Nevertheless, that’s what so many of the usual suspects have done today.”
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4. Some Democrats are saying the problems in Baltimore could be solved with more money. Of course they always say that. But how much is enough? And why hasn’t that worked in the past?
From TheWashingtonPost/MSN “Along the street where Freddie Gray was arrested, abandoned houses are gashed with gaping holes. The roof on an old red-brick building is collapsed. A storm drain is clogged with concrete.
Sandtown-Winchester is crumbling, and there is little to suggest that two decades ago visionary developer James Rouse and city officials injected more than $130 million into the community in a failed effort to transform it. Instead there are block after block of boarded-up houses and too many people with little hope.
“It’s frustrating,” said Stefanie DeLuca, a Johns Hopkins University sociologist who has studied the neighborhood. “How much money would it take? It certainly seems on an instinctual level that $100 million should have made some difference.”
But for much of Sandtown, life remains bleak. Once home to Thurgood Marshall, Billie Holiday and Cab Calloway, the West Baltimore neighborhood has suffered from unemployment, crime and poverty rates well above the city’s average, census and other data show. The state spends nearly $17 million just to incarcerate its former residents. Life expectancy is 10 years below the national average.”
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And when is it time to say enough is enough? If the past is any indication, the problems are not gonna be fixed by throwing more cash at them.
From TheFreeBeacon “The city of Baltimore received over $1.8 billion from President Barack Obama’s stimulus law, including $467.1 million to invest in education and $26.5 million for crime prevention.
President Obama claimed last Tuesday that if the Republican-controlled Congress would implement his policies to make “massive investments in urban communities,” they could “make a difference right now” in the city, currently in upheaval following the death of Freddie Gray.
However, a Washington Free Beacon analysis found that the Obama administration and Democratically-controlled Congress did make a “massive” investment into Baltimore, appropriating $1,831,768,487 though the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), commonly known as the stimulus.
According to Recovery.gov, one of Baltimore’s central ZIP codes, 21201, received the most stimulus funding in the city, a total of $837,955,866. The amount included funding for 276 awards, and the website reports that the spending had created 290 jobs in the fourth quarter in 2013.
Of this amount, $467.1 million went to education; $206.1 million to the environment; $24 million to “family”; $16.1 million to infrastructure; $15.2 million to transportation; $11.9 million to housing; and $3.1 million to job training.
ZIP code 21202 received $425,170,937, including a $136 million grant to “improve teaching and learning for students most at risk of failing to meet State academic achievement standards.” Twenty-nine other ZIP codes listed in Baltimore city received a total of $568,641,684.”
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Wandering Views 
#1. In 1999 I saw something I have never seen nor heard of before.
When Chuck was living in Charleston, SC, Linda, his wife went to College of Charleston to get her degree. She graduated in 1999 and we went to the ceremony.
During the ceremony a degree was awarded to a handicapped person who had fulfilled her requirements. But the administrator awarded another degree.
Seems that she had a caregiver who took this person to class and assisted with all her assignments. Did this for four years.
So this person has an honorary. Bachelors Degree from the College of Charleston.
A standing O, and a couple of tears.
I’ve never heard of an honorary bachelors before.
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You know, I’d be interested in a follow-up story to what happened to the people caught in the New Orleans diaspora–the ones who were relocated to other parts of the country and for the first time caught a glimpse of life outside of their community.
Are they better off? Did they return to New Orleans? Did living elsewhere make a difference?
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Interesting, guess this was an actual dilemma among many on social media this past week:
“Who to root for in the big Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. After all, one has a record of domestic abuse, the other is–gasp–a born-again Christian who is against abortion and gay marriage”
http://www.breakpoint.org/tp-home/blog-archives/blog-archives/entry/4/27303
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Good piece as election year approaches:
http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/you-cant-hide-from-the-culture-wars
” … I’ve discovered that we can’t escape the culture wars. That may not be what Christians want to hear, but it’s the reality of fully obeying the demands of the gospel in a fallen world. The shape of our witness may change, and the culture we serve may look different than it did a generation ago. But if we care about obeying all that Jesus commanded us, we will have to die to our desire to be liked and recommit to doing as the early church did, “obeying God rather than man.”
“Why can’t we take a timeout or take a year off from the culture wars? In my experience I’ve found three reasons why the true gospel will always be at odds with any fallen culture. …”
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And yet they did nothing but watch?
http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/05/fbi-had-taped-terrorism-plans-of-gunman-in-garland-attack-as-early-as-2007.html/
“Elton Simpson had been the subject of a terrorism investigation in Arizona where he lived beginning in 2006, court records show. Five years ago he was convicted in that state for lying to federal agents about his plans to travel to Somalia in 2009 to engage in “violent jihad.”
He received three years’ probation, which ended last year. He did not receive a stiffer sentence because the federal judge who heard the case said prosecutors failed to show that Simpson’s planned travel to Somalia was related to international terrorism.”
“Simpson told agents in 2010 that he planned to study Islam at a madrassa in South Africa, records show. He said he would be gone for five years and didn’t have “firm plans” for what he would do after his studies.
But in a 2007 recorded conversation, Simpson spoke about fighting non believers for Allah. He also spoke about Afghanistan and Iraq and “Jewish oppression of Muslims.” And he criticized those who “don’t believe that they should be over there fighting.”
Also, Simpson told someone his planned studies were “just a front” and that he was ready to “bounce” if needed.”
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Much of American law and the American Constitution was based on the Commentaries of William Blackstone. He was a British Justice whose study of common law inspired the likes of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson as they crafted the new republic. This is what he had to say about free speech and its limits:
Source: http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendI_speechs4.html
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