WHOSE SIDE IS BLINKEN ON? NEVER MIND, I KNOW:

OPEN THREAD: Yeah, it’s Saturday night, everybody’s havin’ fun. I’m in the blogosphere, tryin’ to get my bloggin’ done. Watchin’ the blogs go ’round, watchin’ the blogs go ’round. . .

MODERATION IN ALL THINGS: Vigorous Exercise May Have a Concerning Effect We Didn’t Know About. Human beings evolved leading active lives, but with a lot of down time too. That said, I don’t find this study very impressive, due to its size and its use of firefighters, who get exposed to all sorts of chemicals, as subjects.

THE “INSURRECTION” WAS AS GENUINE AS THE “RUSSIAN COLLUSION.”

INTERNATIONAL LAW IS MOSTLY A SWORD FOR “ACTIVISTS” AND OTHER TOOLS TO WIELD AGAINST THE WEST: Prof. Samuel Estreicher (NYU) on The Laws of War, as to the Hamas-Israel War.

It is highly doubtful that Israel qualifies as an “occupying” power of the Gaza Strip because once it withdrew all military forces from Gaza in 2005, it has exercised no authority over the territory, which is a requirement under international law before assuming the responsibility of an occupying power. UN groups like the Human Rights Council counter that the status of “occupier” still applies because Israel has imposed stringent limits on travel to and trade with Gaza. And yet Egypt has (mostly) sealed off Gaza’s other border without being termed an occupying power.

In any event, even if Israel were an occupying power, that status would not justify Hamas’ intentional attacks on civilian targets in Israel or prevent Israel from using force to protect itself. For example, it was not considered illegal for the United States, as the occupying power of Iraq in the immediate aftermath of the 2003 Iraq War, to use force against Iraqis who were attacking U.S. forces within Iraq.

The second argument against Israel’s right of self-defense—that it cannot invoke this right against non-state actors like Hamas—is equally untenable.

Article 51 of the UN Charter states that nothing shall “impair the inherent right” of self-defense possessed by all member states. In recent years, many governments, including the United States, have adopted the view that this right of self-defense applies against non-state actors like al-Qaeda and ISIS in situations where the government of the state in which the non-state actors are operating is “unwilling or unable” to prevent attacks by the non-state actor. The case of the Gaza conflict is much stronger for Israel than the “unwilling or unable” rationale; Israel is protecting against Hamas’ direct, indiscriminate killing, beheading, torture and hostage-taking of Israeli civilians.

There’s also a traditional right to hang pirates on sight.

RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT: What two words would you choose to characterize the Biden administration? Reckless endangerment are the two selected by Issues & Insights and here’s why:

“Interest payments are through the roof. Real wages continue to fall. And a record number of illegals crossed the border. That’s just the domestic news. As of this writing, Americans are being held hostage by Iran-supported Hamas terrorists who killed nearly two dozen other Americans when they invaded Israel.

“Our military forces face increasing Iranian-sponsored attacks in Iraq and Syria. While President Joe Biden lets Iran off the sanctions hook for another four months. The worry isn’t just whether Biden – the architect of these disasters – will be voted out of office next year. It’s whether the U.S. can survive until then.”

That’s exactly what I worry about.

GREAT MOMENTS IN WORD OF MOUTH: Marvels Plummets up to 80 Percent in Box Office Nightmare.

It didn’t help that director Nia DiCosta slammed critics of the MCU’s woke makeover earlier this week.

“There are pockets where you go because you’re like, ‘I’m a super fan. I want to exist in the space of just adoration — which includes civilized critique … then there are pockets that are really virulent and violent and racist — and sexist and homophobic and all those awful things. And I choose the side of the light. That’s the part of fandom I’m most attracted to.”

Those so-called racist, sexist, homophobic and violent movie goers stayed home, apparently.

As a legendary fictitious rock manager famously said, I wouldn’t say that Marvel’s audience is shrinking; their appeal is merely becoming “more selective.”

Particularly as Disney continues Hollywood’s decade-long trend of trashing their own audiences:

Or to paraphrase Principal Skinner, “Am I so out of touch? No, it’s the moviegoers who are wrong.”

HOW AMERICAN COLLEGES GAVE BIRTH TO CANCEL CULTURE:
“In 2010, FIRE saw 19 attempts to get professors punished. But then came an explosion. From 2014 to mid-2023, we know of more than 1,000 attempts to get professors fired, punished, or otherwise silenced. About two thirds of these attempts are successful, resulting in consequences from investigation to termination. But even unsuccessful attempts matter, because they are more than sufficient in chilling speech [….]

To give a sense of proportion, only three professors were fired or forced out of schools over something they said in the post-9/11 panic. The modern era of cancel culture (2014 to present), by contrast, has resulted in almost 200 professor terminations. That exceeds even the standard estimate of 100 professors terminated in the second Red Scare (1947 to 1957).

To gauge a better sense of the actual scale, FIRE surveyed college faculty and found that 16 percent of professors said they have either been disciplined or threatened with discipline for their speech, teaching, or academic research. Seven percent even said they have actually been investigated. And a whopping 29 percent said they’ve been pressured by administrators to avoid controversial research.

It’s especially alarming that cancel culture is concentrated in the most influential universities in the country. The top 10 of U.S News & World Report’s top-ranked colleges account for more than 10 percent of all cancellation attempts. The top 100 account for more than 40 percent. At the top 10 colleges, less than a quarter of cancellation attempts are launched by conservatives.”