OPEN THREAD: Now the UFOs are real.
DON’T GET COCKY: Allen West Says Dobbs Won’t Prevent a Red Wave in November.
THEY DON’T LIKE YOU, LIZ, THEY’RE JUST USING YOU: Liz Cheney Gets a Rude Awakening. ” Think about it: how many on the left pretended to ‘respect’ Liz Cheney for her ‘bravery’ for standing up to Trump, and yada, yada, yada? Well, Liz Cheney is learning the hard way that she was just a useful idiot for the Democrat Party by being a part of their partisan Jan. 6 Committee and that they really don’t look at her any better than they do any other Republican, especially now that she expressed support for the Supreme Court after Dobbs.”
JOSH BLACKMAN ON THE DOBBS DISSENTERS: The “Judges of Wisdom” and the “Mystical Aphorisms of the Fortune Cookie.”
SPACE: X Prize Foundation studying active debris removal competition.
Meanwhile, here’s a piece that Rob Merges and I wrote about orbital debris removal a while back.
WHY IS THE LOS ANGELES TIMES SUCH A CESSPIT OF RACISM? Is California ready for more Black people to legally carry guns in public?
Screenshot, in case they change the headline.
UPDATE: Some thoughts on the actual column from Ed Morrissey: LA Times wonders: Are progressive Californians ready for gun-totin’ black people?
Er … wut? Don’t let the headline throw you entirely because Erika Smith scores real points in the column, but that headline alone is worth attention in the wake of the Bruen decision last week. Let’s screencap it just in case someone at the Los Angeles Times thinks twice about the message it actually sends, rather than whatever it is they intended. Assuming those are two different things, that is:
[Screenshot included above — Ed]
Are they two different things? YMMV, but that headline strongly implies that the oh-so-progressive state of California is pretty danged racist, no? Actually yes, as Smith argues, and it’s not limited to the rapidly decreasing number of conservatives in the Golden State. Smith has a strong enough point to sustain that headline, emphasis mine:
Read the whole thing.
(Updated and bumped.)
THIS SEEMS RIGHT: The SCOTUS Abortion Leak Backfired: The shock of the ruling doesn’t seem to be there. Because it wasn’t a surprise.
Oft evil will shall evil mar.
THREE PEOPLE DEAD AFTER AMTRAK TRAIN DERAILS IN MISSOURI: “Roughly 243 passengers and 12 crew members were aboard the train when it derailed and there are early reports of injuries, though the railway company did not specify how many people were wounded. The incident occurred after the train struck a dump truck at a public crossing in Mendon, causing several cars to derail, Amtrak said…The derailment in Missouri occurred just one day after an Amtrak train collided with a car in Brentwood, California, killing three people and injuring two others, ABC 10 reported.”
IT’S THE RETURN OF “MOSTLY PEACEFUL PROTESTS!” This time thanks to ABC15 Arizona reporter Melissa Blasius:
We’ve been here before, of course: Bari Weiss’s November 21st Substack on “The Media’s Verdict on Kyle Rittenhouse” contained this now-viral screenshot of the unintentionally ironic Chyron by CNN from the previous year:
In accordance with the prophecy: Authorities Warn Tonight’s Protests May Escalate From ‘Mostly Peaceful’ To ‘Somewhat Peaceful.’
—The Babylon Bee, Friday.
HMM: Robots With Flawed AI Make Sexist And Racist Decisions, Experiment Shows.. “We’re at risk of creating a generation of racist and sexist robots.”
Skynet smiles, and cracks an unacceptable joke. Seriously, though, as far as I can tell they’re assuming the AI is flawed because it’s manifesting sexism and racism, which are assumed a priori to be evidence of flaws. That doesn’t seem like a scientific approach to the problem.
SALENA ZITO: Flown over: The impact of airlines cutting service to flyover country.
American Airlines is not the bad guy in this story; the cuts are in response to a regional pilot shortage affecting the entire industry, which could last for a long time.
But as the very phrase “get rid of the losers” implies, many influential people in elite institutions just shrug off or ignore the economic and emotional effects that this kind of thing has on a small-to-medium-sized city. It is much like when they shrugged when manufacturing, opportunity, and stability left such cities between 30 and 50 years ago.
When an airport stops serving your city, it denies the region’s industries (and travelers) the use of the aviation network, the common denominator that determines successful business and tourism across the country and the globe.
If there were a concerted effort to undermine the economy of Middle America, how would it look different from what’s happening now?
WATCH: Leftists Turned the Boy Scouts Into an LGBTQ Grooming Organization.
My dad and I were both Scouts, but I pulled my oldest out of scouting after his first year as a Cub.
COOLING IS WORSE THAN WARMING: How Many Ice Ages Has The Earth Had, And Could Humans Survive Another One?
THE LEFTY JUSTICES THINK IT’S BULLSHIT BECAUSE IT’S USUALLY THEIR BULLSHIT: Scalia’s “Prophecy” in Lawrence And The Joint Dissent in Dobbs: That awkward moment when Justice Breyer joins an opinion that criticizes his join in Lawrence.
Now, fast-forward to Dobbs. Here, the dissenters argued that Justice Alito and his ilk cannot be trusted on Lawrence and Obergefell. Their repeated promises that those precedents are safe are illusory. And how do we know the conservatives can’t be trusted? Part I of the joint dissent–which I think was written by Justice Kagan–highlights Justice Scalia’s Lawrence dissent. . . .
We should all learn from the prophecy of St. Nino. (This past week revealed at least three judicial miracles for legal canonization–overruling Roe in Dobbs, overruling Lemon in Kennedy, and expanding 2nd Amendment in Bruen!) But there is a special awkwardness for Justice Breyer. He joined the Lawrence dissent which promised, scout’s honor, that marriage laws were not at issue. And there is similar awkwardness for Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, who pinky-sweared that Windsor would not lead to the nullification [of] marriage laws. None of us believed them. Not for a second.
But I do believe Justice Alito, et al.
I sorta do.
WALTER JON WILLIAMS: “Four days after the workshop ended, I successfully tested for my 6th degree black belt in Kenpo Karate. In the days since, I’ve been judging at the tests of lower-ranking belts, and participating in a demonstration in front of a live audience. All with a torn achilles tendon which requires me to walk with a cane much of the time.”
Not everyone is this badass.
NEW YORK SUPREME COURT DELIVERS A VICTORY FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY: “The New York State Supreme Court delivered a crushing blow to the Democrats’ power grab in New York City, ruling that non-citizens cannot vote in local elections.”
MADE IN THE USA: The Classic Leather Everyday Belt. #CommissionEarned (Bumped)
YOUR TERMS ARE ACCEPTABLE: Pop Star Pink Demands Pro-Life Americans ‘Never F**king Listen to My Music Again.’
Related: ‘F*** America:’ Green Day Star Billie Joe Armstrong says he’s renouncing his U.S. citizenship during London concert in wake of SCOTUS overruling Roe. “The musician said he was staying in the UK and that ‘there’s just too much f***ing stupid in the world to go back to that miserable f***ing excuse for a country.'”
As Jim Treacher notes, “Okay. Goodbye and good luck. Hey, wait… he’s moving to England? Doesn’t the UK have stricter abortion laws than California? Forget it, he’s rolling.”
MILTON FRIEDMAN ISN’T RUNNING THE SHOW ANYMORE: Millions in California to Get up to $1,050 in ‘Inflation Relief.’
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced late Sunday night that he had reached an agreement with state legislators on a $17 billion “inflation relief package.”
“Millions of Californians will be receiving up to $1,050 as part of a NEW middle class tax rebate. That’s more money in your pocket to help you fill your gas tank and put food on the table,” he tweeted.
What could possibly go wrong? Hint: Bloomberg’s use of scary quotation marks in the headline seems quite appropriate in this case.
(Classical reference in headline.)
WELL, GOOD: Clearwater, Florida Woman Shoots and Kills a Neighbor Who Attacked Her in Her Own Bedroom.
UPDATE: A reader emails: “In the spirit of bipartisanship, I propose that we refer to self-defense firearm killings by women as ‘ballistic abortions’ in order to reassure crestfallen Democrats that it’s still legal to kill someone in order to save a woman’s life.”
UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: Someone Dropped a C8 Corvette Interior in a ’92 Chevy Camaro.
READER FAVORITE: Kitchen Mama Electric Can Opener 2.0. #CommissionEarned
INTERPRETING CRIMINAL STATUTES MORE STRICTLY: Supreme Court Sets Higher Bar for Prosecuting Doctors Who Prescribe Opioids for Pain. “Approximately 20 percent of medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are legally prescribed “off‐label,” i.e., for different purposes than those for which the FDA approved them. The originators of off‐label uses fall outside the mainstream of prescribers, but they are not treated as criminals. And many off‐label uses are later approved by the FDA. This is one of the ways clinical medical science advances. The lower court convictions of Drs. Ruan and Kahn treated what, at worst, could have been medical malpractice or standard of care violations as criminal matters. This amounted to, in effect, cops practicing medicine. Cases and convictions like these have sent chills up the spines of other health care practitioners who are trying to help their patients in pain, causing many pain patients to be under‐treated or, worse, abandoned.”
SAY ANYTHING: Michigan Governor Won’t Stop Lying to Voters About Job Gains. “Gretchen Whitmer says the state has added 25,000 auto jobs since she took office. It has actually lost thousands.”
HOW MSNBC ACCIDENTALLY KILLED ROE: Tell your viewers conservatives are Neanderthals and they just might get complacent. “Democrats, here’s your game-changer: third-trimester abortions at every post office. And then, when you get shellacked in November, when you lose both houses of Congress, just remember this: the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards frantic attempts to normalize the gruesome.”
FAUXCAHONTAS ON THE WARPATH: Mad About Abortion, Elizabeth Warren Calls for the Destruction of the Supreme Court As We Know It.
THAT’S DIFFERENT BECAUSE REASONS: The Supreme Court Just Did Exactly What Joe Biden Voted for… in 1982.
21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Relationship Success: 8 Reasons to Marry a Fit Person.
YOU STAY CLASSY, CHICAGO! (Video) Chicago Mayor Lightfoot: “Fuck Clarence Thomas.”
Chicago’s last Republican mayor left office in 1931.
SOME PRETTY CHOOSY COERCION CONCERNS FROM SOTOMAYOR’S DISSENT IN FOOTBALL COACH PRAYER CASE…
Second, schools face a higher risk of unconstitutionally “coerc[ing] . . . support or participat[ion] in religion or its exercise” than other government entities. The State “exerts great authority and coercive power” in schools as a general matter “through mandatory attendance requirements.” Moreover, the State exercises that great authority over children, who are uniquely susceptible to “subtle coercive pressure.” Lee, 505 U. S., at 588; cf. Town of Greece v. Galloway, 572 U. S. 565, 590 (2014) (plurality opinion) (“[M]ature adults,” unlike children, may not be “‘readily susceptible to religious indoctrination or peer pressure’”). Children are particularly vulnerable to coercion because of their “emulation of teachers as role models” and “susceptibility to peer pressure.” Accordingly, this Court has emphasized that “the State may not, consistent with the Establishment Clause, place primary and secondary school children” in the dilemma of choosing between “participating, with all that implies, or protesting” a religious exercise in a public school.”
(PDF page 55; most cites removed for readability.) Great. Can we apply this to the endless, relentless pressure on K-12 public school kids to adopt and parrot state-established views on issues race, sex, LGBTQ issues, etc.? Oh, wait, those views aren’t “religious,” so publicly funded propaganda on that is OK, but a football coach offering optional prayers on the field is not. Got it.
Does anyone actually find this reasoning convincing, as opposed to convenient?
WE COULD USE MORE OF THOSE: Dobbs Wasn’t a Pro-Life Victory, It Was a Victory for Federalism.
TIPPI HEDREN, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Dive-bombing crows targeting visitors to California park.
THE MILLION VOTER MARCH: Guess who’s winning the party-switching sweepstakes this cycle?
Hint: Don’t get cocky.
IN OTHER NEWS, THE NYPD HAS BEEKEEPERS ON STAFF: NYPD beekeepers called to remove 2,000 bees from Manhattan restaurant.
FALLOUT: Russia ‘Defaults on Foreign Debt’ for First Time Since 1918 Amid Western Sanctions. “The $100 million interest payment deadline due to be met by the Kremlin had initially been set to May 27 but a 30-day grace period was triggered after investors failed to receive coupon payments due on both dollar and euro-denominated bonds.”
I’d like to know how Powell got fooled the first time.
A VICTORY OVER BIGOTRY AND DISCRIMINATION: Brown University ends no-whites-allowed course after complaint.
MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: One American Gun Manufacturer Is Fighting Back Against the Left’s Wrath.
SPACE: The Webb Telescope is already exceeding NASA’s expectations.
On July 12, NASA plans to release a suite of teaser observations that illustrate Webb’s capabilities. These will show the beauty of Webb imagery and also give astronomers a real taste of the quality of data they will receive.
After July 12, the James Webb Space Telescope will start working full-time on its science mission. The detailed schedule for the coming year hasn’t yet been released, but astronomers across the world are eagerly waiting to get the first data back from the most powerful space telescope ever built.
I can’t wait.
NOW OUT FROM PETE HEGSETH: Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Unhinged Abortion Left Should Probably Focus on Mental Health Care for a While. “The reactions ran the gamut from America’s Dumbest Bartender belching up her last three brain cells to the most mentally unbalanced progressives sharing their emotional weakness with the world.”
MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Elitist environmentalists hate the working class.
CALM BEFORE THE STORM? Washington Free Beacon reports little in the way of actual protesting at the homes of Supreme Court Justices Kavanaugh and Thomas. But an odd lot of Grannies “storming” the Kavanaugh spread isn’t necessarily a sign the worst is over, given those reports linked earlier this morning by Glenn.
IT’S NOT SUCH A REACH FOR THEM, TO BE HONEST: Desperate Dems turn to Chinese spyware to reach young voters.
A PROPHET IS NOT WITHOUT HONOR, EXCEPT IN HIS OWN COUNTRY, OR IN THE SQUISHY PARTS OF HIS OWN POLITICAL PARTY:
MICHAEL WALSH: Guns N’ Roeses.
After their twin defeats at the Supreme Court last week, regarding two of their most sensitive issues (both of which derive from their devotion to cultural suicide, which is their principal objective), don’t expect them to give up easily. They subscribe to their version of Islamism or the Brezhnev Doctrine: once they’ve conquered moral or physical territory, it can never go back to the way it was. They see themselves as the heroes of their own movies, good red-diaper babies constantly battling the forces of revanchism and irrendentism, which are you. The idea that they’re the bad guy never occurs to them.
These are, after all, the same people who refused to accept George W. Bush’s narrow presidential victory in 2000 (“selected, not elected”); refused to accept Bush’s win over John Kerry in 2004; rained hellfire and brimstone down on poor Sarah Palin, whose only crime was a surfeit of motherhood, and snarlingly turned on her running mate and their erstwhile favorite maverick, John McCain in 2008; and went bonkers over the surprise victory of Donald Trump in 2016, thus triggering the entire “Russian collusion” hoax that started with Hillary Clinton and eventually came to embrace the FBI, the intelligence community, the media, and the judicial system. . . .
All we want, by contrast, is to be left alone with a culture we love and prize and wish to pass on to our children. But they want to take us with them because, as we all know, misery loves company. Either we’ll learn to care, or they’ll die trying. Because in their world, right now, everything’s coming up guns and Roeses, and they can’t have that, not now, not ever.
Yep. Leftist politics is weaponized neurosis.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, AMERICAN STASI EDITION: American University Launches Title IX Investigation Of 8 Law Students Who Criticized A Student’s Pro-Dobbs Views In Group Chat.
I’m glad to see the Title IX shoe on the other foot, though. Fair is fair.
FOR DEMOCRATS, IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT TARGETING THEIR ENEMIES: State Attorney General Suggests Considering Applicants’ Ideological Viewpoints in Denying Carry Licenses: The California AG endorses denying licenses based on the applicant’s “hatred” or “racism.” “This strikes me as clearly unconstitutional under the First Amendment, even apart from the Second Amendment. The government can’t restrict ordinary citizens’ actions—much less their constitutionally protected actions—based on the viewpoints that they express.”
No, but that’s the goal.
YOU DON’T SAY: Global economy ‘flashing red’, warns world’s central bank. “In analysis that suggests the federal government will struggle to meet its pre-election promises around real wages growth and budget repair, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) used its annual report, released on Sunday, to warn of a global ‘regime shift’ that could lead to a repeat of the economic turmoil of the 1970s.”
19TH CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: I Married The Wrong Person, And I’m So Glad I Did.
DEAL OF THE DAY: Under Armour Men’s Charged Pursuit 2 Running Shoe. #CommissionEarned
RACISM AND HATE AND DISCRIMINATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA’S GUN POLICY: Another gun case waits in the wings.
Allen Whitaker is a resident of Washington, D.C., who holds a handgun license. In April 2019, police stopped Whitaker, who is Black and wears dreadlocks, and his male cousin at gunpoint when they were returning from a gun range with Whitaker’s daughter and girlfriend and stopped at a gas station at which a few of the other patrons got into an altercation. Noticing that Whitaker wore an empty pistol holster on his waist, the officers handcuffed the two men. They searched the vehicle as well as Whitaker and his family, found an amount of marijuana legally permissible in the District belonging to Whitaker’s girlfriend, and seized both the marijuana and Whitaker’s gun that was stored in a lockbox in the trunk. The police eventually released Whitaker and his family without charge, but they refused to return the handgun.
After applying to register a new firearm, Whitaker received notice from the Metropolitan Police Department that his gun license would be revoked. D.C. law allows the MPD to determine whether a person is a “suitable” applicant to own a handgun. The notice explained that the gas-station incident, combined with Whitaker’s misdemeanor criminal history that had been evaluated in his originally approved application for a gun license, demonstrated a “propensity for violence or instability” unsuitable for a firearm owner. The Concealed Pistol Licensing Review Board denied Whitaker’s administrative appeal. Whitaker filed suit in the D.C. Court of Appeals, which dismissed the case as moot after the MPD voluntarily reinstated Whitaker’s license mid-litigation. In Whitaker v. District of Columbia Concealed Pistol Licensing Review Board, Whitaker asks the justices to review two aspects of the appeals court’s dismissal.
On the merits, Whitaker argues that the D.C. regulation is unconstitutionally vague. The “propensity for violence or instability” standard, Whitaker says, “confers standardless discretion on the MPD to disqualify anyone [for a gun license] based on the agency’s subjective judgment.”
I agree, and the Court should, too.
ANNALS OF LEFTIST VIOLENCE: Report: Rudy Giuliani attacked by worker at Staten Island supermarket.
Our speech is violence, their violence is speech: Blue-check professor asks if the alleged attack on Rudy Giuliani today really qualifies as an ‘attack.’
JONATHAN TURLEY: The Dobbs Decision and the Resumption of the State-by-State Abortion Debate.
26 states asked the court to overrule Roe and its successor, Casey. With Dobbs, we will now have a new political debate over access and any limitations for abortion. Most citizens are in the middle on this debate.
While a strong majority support Roe v. Wade, they also support limitations on abortion. Polls also show that 65% of Americans would make most abortions illegal in the second trimester, and 80% would make most abortions illegal in the third trimester. (The United States is one of only 12among the world’s 198 countries that allow abortions for any reason after 20 weeks.)
President Joe Biden responded to the opinion by calling, again, for a federalization of the Roe standard by Congress. Even if the votes could be found to pass such a law, it is not clear that it would be upheld by a court that has now returned this issue to the states.
One thing Biden said was clearly true. Abortion will now be “on the ballot.” The justices were indeed motivated by the need for the public to make these decisions and wrote that “Roe abruptly ended that political process.”
The issue will loom large in the upcoming election now that states will decide their own laws, ranging from prohibitions to restrictions to absolute guarantees. And the outcome will turn on the votes of millions of citizens rather than nine justices.
Letting voters decide. How anti-democratic.
SOMETIMES, RARELY, THE PROMO POST AND VIGNETTES GOES UP ON TIME*: Book Promo And Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.
Its a promo post for mostly indie writers. And the vignette challenge often attracts very good writers.
*Okay, almost on time.
I SWEAR THEY HAVE A TIME MACHINE IN THEIR BASEMENT: This is one of The Babylon Bee’s best.
IN OTHER NEWS, MORMONS THREATEN TO ABSTAIN FROM COFFEE, ALCOHOL: Sex Strike! Abstinence trends on Twitter in wake of Roe v. Wade ruling.
TO BE FAIR IT’S A SHORT ROAD AND WELL PAVED: Looking around: the “free money revolution” is eating its children; observations on Roe vs. Wade repeal and how it is driving US left insane(r).
THOSE RADICAL LUTHERANS! Oslo, Norway residents go to Pride parade after gunman kills at gay bar.
BUT FORTUNATELY NORWAY HAS GUN LAWS THAT MEAN THIS CAN’T HAPPEN! What can the U.S. learn from Norway’s gun laws?
Oh, wait, never mind….
WAIT… WAS IT MEANT TO? The Roe Decision Won’t Save the Democrats.
OH YES, WE CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT CASTREAU’S INPUT: So now we have Justin Trudeau weighing in on the overturning of Roe…
THINGS ARE JUST GOING TO CHANGE: Wrecking Ball.
THE LEFT IS NOW OFFICIALLY RIDICULOUS: Today’s blacklisted Americans: Lawyers who won NY gun rights case in Supreme Court blackballed by their law firm.
AND YET AMERICA WILL SURVIVE: America Is More Fragile Than the Left Understands.
It’s going to be rough, but we’ll survive. Things are just going to change.
OH, BEHOLD MY SHOCKED FACE: Illegal Immigrants Quietly Being Pardoned By Biden Administration.
OH, DEAR LORD: Gloria Steinem Offers Free Lodging For Abortion-Seekers.
OTHER FEMINISTS MOST AFFECTED: ‘Feminists’ Propose ‘Sex Strike’ After Supreme Court Abortion Ruling.
IT’S TIME TO DEPEND ON US: Shortages of Neon, Other Rare Gases Likely in Wake of Russia Limiting Exports.
A free country dependent for essentials on totalitarian countries isn’t free. We need to be dependent on us.
AND THEN THE GOVERNMENT CAN CLOSE IT AT WILL…. It Costs $22,648 And Requires 11 Agencies To Start A Restaurant In San Francisco.
June 26, 2022
MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Elitist environmentalists hate the working class.
THE ABYSS WINKED BACK AND BLEW THEM A BRONX CHEER: Joe Biden and Democrats Stare Into the Abyss After Latest Poll Drops.
OPEN THREAD: Bring the sugar.
DAVID BARON, CALL YOUR OFFICE: A coyote attacked a 2-year-old girl in Orange County, California.
My own feeling is that dangerous animals should be trained to fear humans and their works.
SETH BARRETT TILLMAN: Fisking Professor Simon Schama, Columbia University, Department of History. “Schama’s writing illustrates the ancient adage: —Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.”
“THOUSANDS.” IN A NATION OF 330 MILLION? In 48 hours of protest, thousands of Americans cry out for abortion rights. I don’t think this headline’s doing the work Vox wants it to.
Related: John Hinderaker asks, Why the abortion hysteria? “The extent to which liberals have gone bananas over the Dobbs case is a phenomenon that demands explanation. Most liberals, after all, understand that the Court has not banned abortion, or in fact placed any limits on it whatsoever. It has simply remitted the issue of abortion to the political sphere where it was prior to 1973, and where it always has belonged, thus ending a half century of usurpation by the Court. Moreover, abortion laws in the U.S. have been extremely liberal compared with most countries–almost every country other than North Korea, in fact. This chart shows in striking fashion how liberal our laws have been compared with Europe’s. . . . One of the many ironies of post-Dobbs hysteria was French President Emmanuel Macron denouncing the decision, even though the Mississippi statute that the Court upheld was more permissive, more liberal, than France’s own abortion law.”
Yes, the Mississippi law in question in Dobbs would be among the more liberal laws in Europe. But I’m wondering how much actual hysteria there is outside of the media, Twitter, and Democratic politicians. And they don’t count because they’re always hysterical about something.
But why? Well, Hinderaker has a suggestion: “Liberals don’t want to debate, they don’t want to persuade. They want to censor. They want some higher authority, whether the Supreme Court, Twitter, or corporate America, to declare all views but theirs out of bounds. They don’t want to participate in democratic politics, they want to rule by fiat. For all their wailing about ‘our democracy,’ the last thing liberals want is the actual give and take of a democracy, which usually entails compromise. I think that is the key reason for the Left’s hysteria over Dobbs. For liberals, having to argue, to persuade, to run for office, to participate in the messy work of democracy where you don’t always win, is a step backward. They had everything going their way, and now…this. Viewed in that light, I think the demonstrations, insurrections, encouragement of assassination of Supreme Court Justices, and arson at Christian maternity centers are understandable.”
Elvis is 2 hours and 40 minutes of camera swoops and dissolves and wipes clearly intended to evoke not only Luhrmann’s own past work but Elvis’s own physical gyrations. This thing never slows down to the speed limit, not even for a second. The problem is that after 10 minutes of dazzlement—the sets and costumes and cinematography are absolutely gorgeous—the whole project starts seeming crazily desperate rather than refreshingly exhilarating. By the time the first hour has passed, you feel simultaneously overstimulated and under-entertained. By the time the second hour mark has come, you start wondering where Fat Elvis is already so you can see the end coming. And when it’s over, you may feel like you never want to go into a movie theater ever again.
Aside from Luhrmann’s welcome insistence that Elvis’s use of African-American musical tropes was born out of love and respect rather than an act of cultural appropriation, he has absolutely nothing of interest to say about Presley and clearly has no clue what the man was about. That is no sin—Elvis’s best biographer, Peter Guralnick, points out that it’s very hard to get a bead on Elvis because he “never kept a diary, left us with no memoirs, wrote scarcely any letters, and rarely submitted to interviews.” Still, if you’re going to make a biopic, you have to present a compelling character we’re willing to follow for the length of the movie—and Elvis here is a total cipher.
Read the whole thing.
JEFF DUNETZ: After SCOTUS Abortion Decision, CNN’s Ana Navarro Pushes Eugenics.
Ana Navarro, a pseudo “GOP strategist” and a CNN commentator shocked the news channel’s audiences on Friday when she said that she supports abortion to kill off autistic and mentally challenged people like her own family. In other words, she supports eugenics.
Navarro’s words sounded like those of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood. Sanger created the organization to practice eugenics–a sick belief that the human “gene pool” would be improved through selective breeding and sterilization. In Sanger’s case, improving the gene pool meant keeping African-Americans, morons, those with a family background with a history of illnesses, mental disease (like Ana?) serious physical defects, and other undesirables from reproducing.
Perhaps she should used the original German phrase, “Lebensunwertes Leben.”
DOMESTIC TERRORISM: Colorado Christian center burned in mostly peaceful fashion.
InstaPundit is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.