A Quick Run Around the Web--January 11, 2016

Signing of Declaration of Independence by Armand-Dumaresq, c1873

• "The Western Spring"--Richard Fernandez at PJ Media. From the article:

News that CAIR has demanded an apology from Donald Trump for evicting a Muslim protester at his rally and reports that left-wing protesters and police have turned out in force to bottle up "far-right" demonstrators in Germany bookend a single story.  It's on -- the long-awaited fight against PC orthodoxy is finally on. Trump is unlikely to apologize, and CAIR is even more unlikely to back down.  With 3 million Middle Eastern and African refugees due to arrive in Europe this year, the clashes between German protesters are only likely to intensify.

The commotion you hear is not going to stop, it will only get worse. The Western Spring is finally here, and before it's done it threatens to change everything.

The tension between the forces of political correctness and the pent-up forces of repressed cultural traditions is now bursting like a spring wound up beyond containment. ...

* * *

A political crisis of the kind which may engulf Europe has a destabilizing effect analogous to free-surface flooding in ships. This occurs when tons of liquid slosh inside a ship and slam it from one side to another. The great transatlantic liner SS Normandie sank during WW2 in New York harbor from the water pumped into her by firefighters trying to put out a blaze. Suggestions from her designer to flood her to shallow bottom were rejected in favor of a failed program of flooding and counter-flooding which caused her to heel over and capsize.

In the same way, periods of political upheaval will threaten to overturn societies unless people pay attention.  One advantage the United States theoretically enjoys over Europe during periods of free-surface flooding is the Constitution. This serves as a foundation, a sort of ballast which lowers the meta-centric height of the ship of state and keeps it on an even keel in all but the roughest sailing.

It was meant to provide a check against excesses from either side in a political duel. The Constitution itself  used to rest upon an even more basic rock, a widely shared set of assumptions, moral and religious beliefs which obtained at the beginnings of the nation. That gave it tremendous stabilizing power.  Unfortunately the left has steadily chipped away at this Constitutional ballast and the stone on which it was builded, a fact they may regret before long.

Unfortunately for these immigrants, they may find that Europe is harder to escape than to enter.

• "FBI's Clinton probe expands to public corruption track"--Fox News. "The FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email as secretary of state has expanded to look at whether the possible 'intersection' of Clinton Foundation work and State Department business may have violated public corruption laws, three intelligence sources not authorized to speak on the record told Fox News."
• "Pretend to be Christians: ISIS urges UK jihadis to cut beards, shun mosques & wear crosses"--Daily Express. The article is about a new ISIS manual entitled "Safety and Security Guidelines for Lone Wolf Mujahideen and Small Cells." You can download the manual in English (PDF) here.
• "Man in failed attack on Paris police lived in German shelter for asylum seekers"--Washington Post. "The Islamist extremist who staged a failed attack on a Paris police station last week had been living in a shelter for asylum seekers in western Germany, police said, deepening fears that militants may be infiltrating Europe disguised as migrants." The worst kept secret in the world.
• "Female student at centre of Rolling Stone false gang rape claim created a fake identity for 'rapist' to lure in her love interest"--Daily Mail. The Daily Caller also has a story about Jackie Coakley's lurid fairy tale, reporting: "The former University of Virginia student whose false claim about being gang-raped was published by Rolling Stone is a “serial liar” who– in addition to fabricating the rape story — made up a second identity and lied about having a terminal illness, all so that she could win the affections of a student she had a crush on, attorneys representing a dean at the school claimed in a recent lawsuit filing." 
• "Simplistic Ballistics: Shooting on Inclines"--The Firearms Blog.