How did “make your bed” become a philosophical tenet? Why do young men need a guru to tell them this? Jordan Peterson has become a father figure to what I snarkily call the “lost boys,” espousing generally fine ideas of personal responsibility and maturity. Make your bed, clean your room, are among them.

You need to be told this?*

For the most part, Peterson’s advice is banal. Not wrong, necessarily, but banal. And as a result, he’s gained a significant and loyal following. On the one hand, it’s good that someone is telling young men to grow up, put away their childish toys and do big boy things like make their bed. I have no particularly issue with Jordan Peterson’s advice here. And as the insipid will respond if you question anything about Peterson’s fans, why undermine someone giving young men positive advice? Continue reading →

One of the shrillest and least rational of voices for feminism emits from Jessica Valenti’s fingertips. Yet, even Valenti has the occasional point.

On Thursday, Gina Haspel, President Trump’s choice to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, was confirmed by the Senate, making her the first woman in that position. That same day, Fox News announced that Suzanne Scott would be the company’s first female chief executive.

There is a distinct lack of feminist celebration over these women ascending in these jobs — an absence that Republicans have criticized as hypocrisy. Shouldn’t we feminists be pleased by these shattered glass ceilings?

Stop it. You have to wait for Valenti’s answer before you can start screaming at the screen that she’s full of it. Continue reading →

Steven Brill made his bones publishing a rag called “The American Lawyer.” It was nicknamed the American Liar within the bar, kind of the National Enquirer for lawyers. It was like the original, pre-SJW, version of Above The Law when David Lat was still in charge and it was viciously witty, except the American Lawyer wasn’t witty.

Brill, a baby boomer, explains in Time magazine why it’s all boomers’ fault (though not his) and why government should chew the Millennials food and gently, lovingly put it in their mouths so they don’t starve. After all, if government does not tie their shoes, wipe their cute little tushies, they will fail. Who is this “they”? The 90% of America who has been frozen out of success by the evil 10%, who has built a “moat” around their success to keep the riff raff out.

The protected overmatched, overran and paralyzed the government. The unprotected were left even further behind. And in many cases, the work was done by a generation of smart, hungry strivers who benefited from one of the most American values of all: meritocracy.

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Was it anger seething for the past 30 years, or was it some desire to have a story to tell so that they wouldn’t be left out of the tears of #MeToo victimhood? After all, no woman wants to gut the narrative that they’re a victim of toxic masculinity while their contemporaries are getting “likes” galore on Instragram. And it’s hard to hold on to one’s pain for 30 years, particularly when it wasn’t considered painful in the least at the time.

But when you have a luminary to accuse, the temptation is hard to pass up, as journalist and Wayne State professor Jack Lessenberry learned.

Lessenberry is a longtime Detroit journalist who served as the head of journalism faculty at WSU, senior political analyst for Michigan Public Radio, ombudsman for the Toledo Blade and host of public affairs program for Toledo’s WGTE-TV, according to the Crain’s article.

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When I first saw the video, I assumed the guy was a tourist, as it seemed unfathomable that any New Yorker could say something so utterly idiotic and outrageous. Not only was I wrong about that, but it got worse. He was a New Yorker. He was Jewish. He was a lawyer.

Naturally, this led to the first shrew calling for his lawyer-head. But hardly the last.

A recording of the exchange promptly went viral earlier this week, and the Intercept’s Shaun King soon identified Schlossberg as the xenophobe in the video. Then, on Thursday, two government officials took action: Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York and Democratic Bronx borough president Ruben Diaz Jr. filed a formal complaint against Schlossberg with the discipline committee of the New York State Unified Court System. Their grievance asks the committee “to affirm that such misconduct and behavior will not, and must never be tolerated.” Although the letter does not request a specific action against Schlossberg, Diaz told the Washington Post that he wants the attorney to be disciplined, suspended, or disbarred.

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Having absolutely no actual knowledge of what the world of being a stunt person is about, I always assumed that the criteria for getting a gig was the ability to perform the stunt plus some sufficiently close appearance to whomever the stunt was for. If you were replacing the female lead, you would be a female. If the lead was a black woman, the stunt double would be a black woman.

Apparently not.

But Deven MacNair said her most risky move has been speaking out against “wigging,” the age-old practice of stuntmen donning wigs and women’s clothes to double for actresses. And she’s done more than just complain – she alerted her union and filed an EEOC complaint. She was accompanied to the event by her attorney, Brenda Feigen, who’s trying to get more stuntwomen to come forward to file a class-action lawsuit.

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In a deep dive, Chris Moraff explained who was behind the blatant appeal to emotion. And for anyone watching the downward spiral of thought into the cesspool of emotion, it came as no surprise.

But it’s worth acknowledging that many of the worst aspects of our criminal justice system are either directly or indirectly tied to an overzealous push to weigh the scales of justice in favor of crime victims over those accused of crimes, and the hijacking of this movement by powerful public sector unions that benefited politically from the rhetoric of fear that accompanied what began as a noble effort to give crime victims a voice.

The argument in favor of victims had surface appeal, particularly to those who lacked the strength of mind to realize that the criminal law system wasn’t about vindicating the interests of victims but about enforcing societal rules. And it was too easy for those with lesser appeal, cop unions and pandering politicians, to seize upon the rhetoric of fear and empathy for their own purposes. When you’re crying, anyone who wipes your tears is your bestest friend. Continue reading →

Trump’s joke was that if he murdered someone on Fifth Avenue, his supporters wouldn’t care. And for some, that’s likely true. Can the same be said for Michael Avenatti, at least for the moment?

So, if you’re counting, this makes at least three media outlets @MichaelAvenatti has made blustery, buffoonish legal threats to. But, by all means, keep being an uncritical worshiper. https://t.co/twMepfDKAB

— Popehat (@Popehat) May 17, 2018

What made this curious is that Ken has been calling out people who threaten defamation suits for years, invariably to the applause of those who despise the blustering assholes who try to silence criticism. But this time was different. Continue reading →

When the video first appeared, I was sure it had to be a tourist. By tourist, I meant either an actual tourist or some out-of-town businessman, someone who wasn’t a New Yorker. That’s because I couldn’t fathom any New Yorker noticing, lest being bothered, by the fact that Spanish was being spoken in restaurant.

And this guy wasn’t merely bothered, but lashed out.

A Midtown lawyer was caught on video yelling racist comments at Spanish-speaking restaurant workers — and threatening to call immigration officers to have them “kicked out of my country.”

The nearly minute-long viral clip picks up with the unhinged man (right) railing, ­“Every person I listen to — he spoke [Spanish], he spoke it, she’s speaking it — it’s America!”

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The ruling, per se, wasn’t at all unique. As K.C. Johnson has kept count, this is the 97th adverse decision against a college for its reliance on the Department of Education’s “Dear Colleague Letter,” compelling schools upon pain of loss of federal funding to extend Title IX into realms neither the law nor Supreme Court directed.

What makes the decision of Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., of the District of Rhode Island, stand out was that it didn’t require months of deliberation or judicial gymnastics. He announced it from the bench.

TEXT ORDER For reasons state in today’s hearing, 26 Motion to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim is granted in part and denied in part as follows: The motion as to Count 3 is granted as to promissory estoppel, as to Count 4 is denied as to Title IX; as to Count 5 is granted as to intentional infliction of emotional distress; as to Count 6 is denied as to negligent inflection of emotion distress, and as to Count 7 is granted as to injunctive relief as a separate cause of action. – So Ordered by District Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. on 5/14/2018. (McGuire, Vickie) (Entered: 05/14/2018)

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