A Quick Run Around the Web--December 28, 2015

• "Ramadi has been taken from ISIS, Iraqis say"--CNN. The Iraqi military is claiming victory after capturing the government compound in central Ramadi. However, other stories indicate that the city has not yet been wholly captured, and there still remains fighting.
• "Were US rock band real Bataclan targets? Killers shouted 'where are the Yanks?' as they hunted for Eagles of Death Metal whose lead singer is a devout Christian"--Daily Mail.
• "New riot ideology: Results through coercion"--by Fred Siegel at the Orange County Register. The article is mostly about the history of black politicians and political groups to gain power and money by threatening riots--essentially, large scale protection rackets. The author goes on to note how this seems to be the modus operandi behind the current Black Lives Matter, and the influence of writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. The part I want to point out, though, is this: 

The West Baltimore rioters of 2015 didn’t call for more LBJ-style antipoverty projects, but for less policing. In a “keep off our turf” version of belligerent multiculturalism, the rioters see police as both to blame for black criminality and as an embodiment of bourgeois white values. The old riot ideology referred to mostly white urban police forces as occupying armies; the new version sees even Baltimore’s integrated police force, under the leadership of a black mayor and (until recently) a black police chief, as an occupying army. Withdrawing the police from black neighborhoods is the only acceptable solution. 

* * * 

The cops, complains Coates, “lord over” young black men with “the moral authority of a protection racket.” There is a touch of truth in this. But, Coates goes on, the problem with the police “is not that they are fascist pigs but that our country is ruled by majoritarian pigs.” The solution, he implies, is a black population released from the ideals of the American dream and from the “false morality” of white Americans.

So, in other words, this new Black movement seeks to develop ghettos, enclaves, reservations, city states, fiefdoms--whatever term you prefer--that are politically (but not necessarily, economically or physically) independent. (I don't believe for one minute that Coates seek to terminate welfare support for the inhabitants of these enclaves). Is this where the breakup of the country begins?

• "Seeing the West as Worse"--by Joel Kotkin at the Orange County Register. The article is primarily about how, on one hand, Western civilization has created mass affluence and prosperity, which attracts immigrants who want the affluence without assimilating into the culture; but, on the other hand, an elite that want to rid the world of mass affluence, reserving it only to themselves. But I particularly like this bit:

As the great 15th century Arab historian Ibn Khaldun observed, societies that get rich also tend to get soft, both in the physical sense and in the head.

Such is Spengler's theory of decline, summed up in one sentence. And, as the Anonymous Conservative explains, it is because prosperity sets the conditions for the survival and proliferation of the r-strategists. 

• "Silent, invisible, deadly: The weapon that could change warfare"--New York Post. This has nothing to do with the weaponization of flatulence. Rather, the Air Force believes it will be able to mount laser weapons on aircraft (the AC-130, initially) by the end of the decade.
• "A 'historic blizzard' that threatens SEVEN FOOT drifts bears down on Texas - after tornadoes as Christmas storms across seven states claim 43 lives"--Daily Mail. Just remember, four-wheel drive has no impact on your ability to stop a moving automobile.
• Battery University--a website devoted to batteries. From its description: "Battery University™ is a free educational website that offers hands-on battery information to engineers, educators, media, students and battery users alike. The tutorials evaluate the advantages and limitations of battery chemistries, advise on best battery choice and suggest ways to extend battery life." (H/t The Silicon Graybeard).