IRONY IS IN PLENTIFUL SUPPLY THESE DAYS: Andrew Sullivan: delicious irony. “So having spent the better part of the 90’s arguing that gay marriage will in no undermine traditional marriage, Sullivan is now fretting about transgenderism undermining homosexuality!”
Archive for 2019
February 3, 2019
SO MUCH FOR PRIVACY: Major DNA Testing Company Sharing Genetic Data With the FBI.
DEMOCRATIC MOUTHPIECE SAYS ORANGE MAN BAD: ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt: President Trump Is Racist.
AT AMAZON, save on Vitamins and Dietary Supplements.
JULIETTE OCHIENG: A Deeper Look At Northam. “We have been face-to-face many times with white Leftist hypocrisy and shadiness on race. So, that’s how I recognize the root.”
OPEN THREAD: Has Ralph Northam landed yet?
HEH: Seen on Facebook:
REMEMBERING the Tybee H-Bomb.
TO BE FAIR, SO DO A LOT OF DOCTORS: Many paramedics ignore hand hygiene rules, study finds.
SO DONALD TRUMP PLANS TO TALK ABOUT ABORTION IN THE STATE OF THE UNION. It would be amusing to see him call for “common sense abortion policies,” like those deployed in European nations like France or Sweden.
INTERESTING TO SEE JAKE TAPPER GO AFTER HOWARD SCHULTZ, who is scaring the Democrats with talk of a potential third-party run.
MEGAN MCARDLE: What the push for legal-until-birth abortion tells us about the abortion debate. “Some pro-choice purists have always been comfortable confessing, at least in private, that their highest priority is the right not to mother. Now they are, in effect, confessing it publicly, too. But this raises uncomfortable questions, most obviously: What sort of political party is willing to cheerfully advocate destroying infants even as they’re getting ready to be born?”
Related: Our Calhoun moment.
Also related: USA Today:. Most Americans don’t want a standing ovation for abortions until birth. But Democrats do.
CNN EXPLORES A NEW ANGLE IN PRO-NORTHAM SPIN: “Some of the biggest champions for black people in America’s past have been white politicians who were racists.” This is sort of like Bill Clinton’s defenders trying to argue that a semen-stained blue dress was “Kennedyesque.”
FROM BAUHAUS TO JERRY JONES’ HOUSE In the Bleat, James Lileks writes:
Then again, my books are rebuke to my own culture, since the architecure and art they contain are better than the tiresome products of the contemporary art establishment. This remarkable article in Forbes — not recent, but recently discovered — contains some gas-inducing quotes about the function and purpose of modern architecture, and it’s basically this: the brightest minds of the profession believe it is the duty of the architect to startle, confront, unnerve, dissolve, destroy, and also whip out the willie [to] irrigate the fusty bourgeoise notions like beauty and tradition.
The article discusses a piece that took modern architecture to the woodshed, where it said “look at this woodshed. It’s more humane than anything you design.” Someone wrote a defense, but had to be honest with himself:
Yet Betsky then admitted, “All those critiques might be true.” They are irrelevant, he claims, since architecture must be about experimentation and the shock of the new. (Why this should be the case he does not say.) And sometimes designers must stretch technology to the breaking (or leaking) point: “The fact that buildings look strange to some people, and that roofs sometimes leak, is part and parcel of the research and development aspect of the design discipline.” Ever brave, he is willing to let others suffer for his art.
But as Anne Beatts, one of the original Saturday Night Live writers famously said, “You can only be avant-garde for so long before you become garde.”
The fountainhead (sorry, Ayn) of modern architecture was the Weimar Germany design school, the Bauhaus. It’s celebrating the century of its birth this year, cranking out from 1919 to 1933 (when the National Socialists shuttered its doors), its specialty, what Tom Wolfe called in From Bauhaus to Our House, ultra non-bourgeois socialist worker housing. How ubiquitous — and non-shocking — has their socialist worker housing become? As I write over at Ed Driscoll.com, on the Friday before the Super Bowl, their newest and most famous tenant is “America’s Team.” Tom Landry would flip his fedora if he knew:
(Bumped.)
REPUBLICANS DODGE BULLET: “State Sen. Northam spurn[ed] GOP offer to switch sides,” the Virginia Pilot reported in 2011. “‘I guess it’s nice to be wanted,’ he said, ‘but I’m a Democrat, and that’s where I’m staying.’”
(Via Jim Geraghty.)
I HOPE HE STICKS AROUND LONG ENOUGH FOR A TRUMP CALL-OUT AT THE STATE OF THE UNION: Virginia governor clings to office, ignoring calls to resign.
Meanwhile, from the comments to this post:
“Ralph Northam Joke Book”
Who was Governor Northam’s favorite actor?
John Wilkes Booth
What does Northam call a maternity ward?
A morgue
What’s Northam’s favorite movie?
Partial Birth of a Nation
What’s his second favorite movie?
13 Years a Slave
What’s his favorite Clint Eastwood movie?
Hang ‘Em High
What was Northam’s least favorite movie?
Gettysburg
What kind of maternity card does Northam send new mothers?
A sympathy card
What’s the Governor’s personal motto?
“If at first you don’t Secede, try try again”
What’s the average life expectancy in Northam’s state?
Nine months
What’s Northam’s favorite Virginia auto dealer?
Coon’s ford
Who will Northam pick to head Virginia’s infant services?
Dr. Jack Kevorkian
What’s the Governor’s least favorite car?
a Lincoln continental
What’s Northam’s favorite part of any city?
the Hood
How does Northam describe his welfare system, and a maternity ward?
“From cradle to grave”
What’s the Governor’s preferred method of public transportation?
The Underground Railroad
Who was Northam’s favorite President?
Jefferson Davis
What are Northam’s favorite books?
the Clan of the cave bear
Confederacy of Dunces
What is Gov. Northam’s favorite bird?
Jim Crow
Who are Northam’s favorite aristocrats?
The Dukes of Hazzard, and David Duke
Who are Northam’s least favorite aristocrats?
Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Prince
What was Northam voted as in his college yearbook?
Most likely to Secede
Who is Northam’s favorite general, and his usual response to an accusation?
Stonewall
What are Northam’s chances of remaining Governor?
Gone with the Wind
How does Ralph Northam describe the sides of an isosceles triangle?
Separate But Equal
Heh.
IT’S BEEN QUITE A WEEK FOR THE DEMOCRATS: Philly Union Boss Indicted — 116 charges against IBEW officials, city council Dem.
Related: “This week Dems tried to remove God from witness oaths, advocated killing babies after they’re born, voted to give sexual predators a taxpayer funded pay raise, & attempted to give fed govt massive power over all Americans’ free speech. And that was all before Friday.”
IT’S COME TO THIS: “We have arrived at Super Bowl Sunday in 2019, and this is where we are. From the Daily Beast: The Patriots are the team of white nationalists.”
As one Twitter user spotted by Twitchy quips, “‘Completely untrue. I am not a Patriots fan.’ — Ralph Northam.”
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Progressive Hampshire College Reduces Fall 2019 Incoming Freshman Class, Continued Viability in Doubt.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): If only there had been some kind of warning. I mean, any kind of warning at all.
CRIME AND CREDIBILITY.
JEFF DUNETZ REMINDS THE LEFT, Maroon 5 Should Be Left Alone — Colin Kaepernick Earned His Unemployment:
Face it, Colin Kaepernick’s unemployment has nothing to do with the color of his skin, and everything to do with a disrespect for America which was seen by some as disrespecting the fans. Because of his insolence, the fans cut back watching the games on TV, which meant Kaepernick’s protest led to a revenue loss for the league’s network partners meaning that Colin Kaepernick’s protest demonstrated disrespect to the organizations funding his salary. With all that disrespecting of others, why should Colin Kaepernick deserve respect when he declares free agency and looks for a position that will pay him more money? Unless of course, you believe everything is racist.
* * * * * * * *
Why should Maroon 5, or anyone else turn down an incredible opportunity because of a self-absorbed mediocre quarterback who hurt the business who paid his salary?
But what (if anything) will Maroon 5 do to further tarnish the NFL’s reputation? Or, to put it another way, as with Kaepernick’s kneeling, what will Roger Goodell let them get away with?
THE MYTH THAT THE SUPER BOWL IS A MAJOR OCCASION FOR CHILD PROSTITUTION (AND OTHER MISINFORMATION ABOUT “SEX TRAFFICKING”): There is something in the human soul that likes to be titillated by stories of inappropriate sex. As a result, we sometimes overestimate how much of it is going on. I wrote about how that tendency can get in the way of wise and effective public policy here.
I’M EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Review: Big Horn Armory AR500. “Let’s start with the cartridge first. Big Horn basically takes a .500 S&W Mag. case, turns the rim so it becomes a rimless case, and then takes full advantage of a rifle-length barrel. It calls the cartridge the .500 Auto Max. . . . Who among us can complain about sub 2-MOA accuracy, with this power? Combine tack-driving accuracy with pile-driving power, and whatever you want to shoot will stay shot.”