Uncommon good sense

Why airport security was right to stop four year old Isabella?

The incident strikes at the very heart of the issue of profiling at airports and border crossings. We know from history that when terrorist profiling is used (the deliberate selection of people who resemble most closely the profile of a probable terrorist) that terrorists adapt. During the Battle of Algiers, the French pursued a policy of stopping and screening native Algerians at checkpoints, but allowed European settlers through with little or no monitoring. The terrorists responded by planting their bombs and other weapons on European looking women, who were easily able to infiltrate across the checkpoints, moving weapons across at will. In recent years, the Chechen insurgents have attempted to adopt similar practices through their use of ‘black widows’: women suicide bombers (usually the grieving relatives of Chechens killed by the Russians) who they believe are less likely to seem suspicious to Russian officials.

Related:

The Folly of Heather MacDonald

Good article on the perils of profiling

We need better press critics

It is bad enough that reporters still use Wendy Murphy as an "expert" source. It is more disappointing still to see press "watch dogs" and "ethicists" try to justify it.

KC Johnson

The effects of this non-accountability: those who engaged in misconduct (or worse) in the lacrosse case are free to offer repeat performances. Take, for instance, so-called sex crimes expert Wendy Murphy. Fresh from being deemed not merely an expert but an appropriate instructor for a Poynter seminar—even after a Poynter representative was informed of Murphy’s fabrications—Murphy was interviewed by AP education writer Justin Pope, who labeled her a “victims’ advocate who has filed numerous Title IX complaints on behalf of victims.”

Related:

What is the true function of a public editor

Media criticism and corralled rebellion

The long shadow of the low, dishonest decade

How One Left-wing Academic Star Portrays Lillian Hellman as a Role Model for Today

When she concludes that we should celebrate Hellman because she was proud of opposing only the opponents of Communism and rationalizing the Communists as well-meaning individuals, Kessler-Harris reveals that rather than being an impartial, above-the fray scholar, she is simply another member of left-wing academia whose members talk to themselves, bemoan the American victory in the Cold War, and eulogize apologists for Communism like Lillian Hellman as heroic.

Trayvon Martin

Maybe it isn't impossible that the facts support George Zimmerman's version of events.

Clarice Feldman

'A Struggle Ensued': Lynch Mob Justice In Florida

The affidavit she has filed in support of this claim reveals she has no new evidence of a dispositive, persuasive nature to justify overruling Wolfinger's action.

Jeralyn Merritt

Reaction to the George Zimmerman Bail Hearing

"What stood out to me was the number of disclosures that suggest the state's evidence is speculative, at best."

"Gilbreath acknowledges he has no evidence Zimmerman "confronted" Trayvon as opposed to that the two just met up"

"The state has no evidence contradicting that Zimmerman started to walk back to his car after the dispatcher told him he didn't need to follow Martin."

"He never claims Zimmerman attacked Trayvon or Trayvon didn't attack Zimmerman."

Why is this impossible?

Rob Dreher writes:

Unless forensics comes back with some smoking-gun evidence, it’s hard to see at this moment that Zimmerman’s guilt could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

This case may turn on poor police forensics work on the night of the shooting. But that’s not George Zimmerman’s fault.

What evidence do we have (evidence, not the self-serving statements of lawyers) that the forensics work is poor? Or that the police investigation was slipshod?

Why is it inconceivable that the police work and the forensics evidence confirm the basics of Zimmerman's story?

I'm not saying that is the case, but isn't it possibile that Zimmerman is telling the truth?

NBC News makes Joseph Goebbels proud

Daily Caller:

NBC: We deeply regret our error that made George Zimmerman sound like a racist, and now you should leave us alone

Ann Althouse:

"That is the most outrageous, truly evil editing I've ever seen."

UPDATE:

Ace:

NBC Calls Its Deliberate, Frame-Up Editing of George Zimmerman an "Error;" Washington Post Then Calls It A "Screw-Up"

Malpractice or malfeasance?

Just a couple of guys doing the work that press critics won't (can't?) do.

Trayvon Martin - Is Everything You Think You Know Just Media BS?

How Can We Trust the Media?

Matt Gutman and the mainstream media’s anti-Zimmerman bias

A new low for David Frum

Given his history that's very, very low.

David Frum: Trayvon Martin, and the backlash against the backlash

 It is bad enough that Frum's "analysis mixes facts that are flat out wrong ("He was 100 pounds lighter than his killer.") and wild conclusions that are unsupported by real evidence ("Martin was hunted down by a trigger-happy bully").

What's especially interesting is how Frum-- rich, white, Canadian-born-- plays the race card to attack America's gun laws and Jacksonian culture.

He finds Florida's gun laws "peculiar" He implies that a majority of the states passed shall issue concealed carry laws as part of a post-Obama "backlash" by "fearful elderly whites in the South."

Is Frum lazy and ill-informed or is he dishonest? It is one or the other because anyone who spends 10 minutes with Google knows that the shall-issue movement has been active and successful for twenty years. It has nothing to do with Obama's election nor is it only a Southern phenomenon.