Sep
16
2018

URLs du Jour

2018-09-16

[Ziegler Toon]

  • I got a schadenfreudistic chuckle out of a recent LTE in my local paper, Foster's Daily Democrat: Write in Wayne Burton for state rep.

    The writer of the letter: Wayne Burton.

    To the Durham and Madbury residents who have expressed deep concern that the heavy student vote in the primary replaced on the general election ballot a 50-year resident with years of civic involvement in this district (me) with a recent UNH graduate who has experienced Durham living on Young Drive while a student, I have a suggestion: write me in and check me off on the general election ballot on Tuesday, Nov. 6.

    There were six candidates on a vote-for-five Democratic primary for the New Hampshire State House Strafford District 6 ballot, and Wayne came in … sixth. And in this district, comprising Madbury, Durham (and hence the University Near Here), the Democrat nominees are shoo-ins. (There'll be only one, doomed, Republican candidate on the district's November ballot.)

    The "recent UNH graduate" to whom Burton refers is Cam Kenney, who obviously out-campaigned Burton, especially among UNH students who still enjoy relatively unimpeded access to the voting booth, no matter where they live when they're not in school.

    Burton's a sore loser, and his grapes are especially sour. He can't come out and say that he's entitled to his seat, but he comes pretty close. How dare that young whippersnapper run against me? Damn kids today… no respect for their elders!

    Our pic du jour is a relevant New Yorker cartoon from the late, great, Jack Ziegler. Click to see a bigger version, or buy a print.

  • At NR, Kevin D. Williamson identifies The Marlboro Man’s Best Friend. It's not who you'd think!

    Well… if you've been paying attention, it's exactly who you'd think.

    A couple of Stanford engineers who had been cursed with smoking habits invented what is now the most popular smoking-cessation tool on the market — and the FDA has just declared war on it, because it looks trashy.

    The FDA has ordered five big players in the vaping business — JUUL, Vuse, MarkTen, blu, and Logic — to submit plans for keeping their products out of the hands of minors, giving them 60 days to do so — and threatening to take their products off the market if Washington is not satisfied.

    As KDW notes, the FDA's annoucenment gave tobacco stocks a huge boost. Way to go, FDA!

  • And Baylen Linnekin (at Reason) has more stupid-FDA news: The FDA’s ‘Added Sugar’ Labeling Rule Is Sugar-Coated Nonsense.

    The FDA announced last week that it had decided not to require producers of sugar, honey, or maple syrup to label their products as containing "added sugar," under the agency's ongoing implementation of rules finalized in 2016 under then-Pres. Obama.

    As the FDA explained in its announcement, requiring makers of foods that contain no added sugars to state otherwise could "inadvertently lead consumers to think their pure products, such as a jar of honey or maple syrup, may actually contain added table sugar or corn syrup because there are 'added sugars' listed on the label."

    This goes back to Michelle Obama, who had a bee in her bonnet about "added sugar". The FDA tried, and failed, to make rational-sounding regs out of her sentiments.

  • George F. Will is on record as advocating Republican defeat in November, as penance for its current Trumpish behavior. He looks at a Texan Democrat: In Houston, a Democratic template for national victory in 2020

    Nationally, the Democratic Party, which gave indispensable assistance (”Basket of deplorables”!) to the election of today’s president, seems intent (”Impeach!”; “Abolish ICE!”; “Free stuff!”, “I am Spartacus!”) on a repeat performance. Here, however, in the 7th Congressional District, in what might turn out to be the year’s most instructive House race, Democrats seem serious about winning, and if they do with Lizzie Fletcher, they will have a template for 2020 nationally.

    One of her handouts inexplicably describes her as a “fierce advocate,” as though Americans are experiencing a fierceness deficit and pine for a ferocity infusion. Actually, she speaks with the measured precision of an attorney who has worked at a major law firm (Vinson & Elkins) and who is fluent in the business school patois (”The delta last time was ... “) of her corporate clients. The ginger group Our Revolution, which is a residue of Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, supported a candidate to her left in the seven-candidate primary, perhaps because Fletcher would not genuflect at the requisite altars: She has endorsed neither a single-payer health care system nor Medicare for all nor putting lipstick on socialism, least of all a ban — this is Texas, for Pete’s sake — on off-shore drilling.

    She is running against John Culberson, who (apparently) sold his stake in Innate Immunotherapeutics for 7.35 Australian dollars last year; two weeks later, it was worth less than a nickel. This is the same company about which GOP Rep. Chris Collins was indicted for insider trading. As GFW notes, the optics are not good.