Here are some of the important news stories and opinions from recent days.
Beauprez Leads: My previous prediction of Bob Beauprez’s political demise seems to have been wrong. Beauprez, Republican candidate for governor of Colorado, now leads incumbent John Hickenlooper by ten points—at least if you believe the latest Quinnipiac University Poll. See the Denver Post‘s report (hat tip to Complete Colorado). This may be a bad year for Democrats.
Boots on the Ground? Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Geneneral Martin Dempsey said “that almost half of Iraq’s army is incapable of working against the Islamic State militant group, while the other half needs to be rebuilt with the help of U.S. advisers and military equipment,” Fox News reports. He is also “open to U.S. ground troops fighting ISIS,” the Week reports.
Another American Jihadist: “A Rochester, New York, man has been indicted on charges of trying to provide material support to the Islamic State militant group and attempting to murder U.S. soldiers,” Reuters reports.
Islamist Turkey? “Erdogan’s new Turkey requires all students to study the Qur’an,” Jihad Watch reports.
Space Ferries: NASA awarded “$6.6 billion worth of contracts to two different companies [Boeing and SpaceX] that will transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station,” the Week reports.
Skeptic Blog: Michael Shermer’s Skeptic has a new blog out called Insight.
Zubrin vs. Climate Alarmists: Bob Zubrin, the iconoclastic scientists who advocates sending humans to Mars and who now works in the energy industry, has out three new articles arguing that CO2 emissions are good and that environmentalism is bad. See Zubrin’s “Carbon Emissions Are Good,” “The New Holocaust Deniers,” and “Debating Phil Cafaro.”
Paranoia about Kids: As Reason relates, Child Protective Services of Texas harassed a woman and her son because the son was playing outdoors near his home. One of these idiot bureaucrats told the woman, “You just don’t let them play outside.” Sheesh.
Concrete: Concrete is a vastly underappreciated part of modern life, I point out in my recent Objective Standard article.
Unhappy Doctors: “Only 6 percent of doctors are happy with their jobs,” reports John Goodman for the Independent Institute. What, you mean turning doctors into stooges for bureaucrats doesn’t promote job satisfaction?
Poverty: Robert Rector argues, “The War on Poverty Has Been a Colossal Flop.” He writes, “Over 100 million people, about one third of the U.S. population, received aid from at least one welfare program at an average cost of $9,000 per recipient in 2013. If converted into cash, current means-tested spending is five times the amount needed to eliminate all poverty in the U.S.”
John Boyd: My dad uses Boyd’s OODA Loop—Observe, Orient, Decide, Act—in his self-defense training. Now the Art of Manliness has an article out about it. If you can wade through the enormous amount of nonsense philosophy in the article, you can pick up some good tips about preparing for and engaging in conflicts. From the article: “[W]hen it comes to winning a competition or conflict, our actions need to be surprising, ambiguous, and varying; speeding up and slowing down your actions quickly and irregularly can create confusion.”