CHANGE: Fun without alcohol? Sober bars offer social connections without peer pressure to drink. If I don’t want to drink, I just order something non-alcoholic. Nobody seems to care, but maybe that’s just my crowd.
Archive for 2019
July 3, 2019
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Theodore Dalrymple on “Burning Indignation — A law student’s callous treatment of a homeless man sparks a national outrage:”
In February 2017, an 18-year-old Cambridge University law student, Ronald Coyne, was filmed on the streets of Cambridge at night burning a £20 note in front of a 31-year-old homeless man, Ryan Davies, who had asked him politely for spare change. According to Davies, Coyne said, “I’ll give you some change. I’ve changed it into fire.” Coyne then continued down the street as if he had done nothing worthy of note. A member of the university’s Conservative club, he was drunk at the time—though not dead drunk, for he was more swaggering than staggering—and dressed in white tie and tails.
The video of the encounter went viral; a picture of the young man, looking very pleased with himself, appeared in most British newspapers. Public condemnation swelled. Before long, 23,000 people signed a petition calling for his expulsion from the university.
In a drop of rain, said the eminent British historian Sir Lewis Namier, can be seen the colors of the sun: and in this episode, brief and simple as it appeared, all the social, political, and philosophical conflicts of modern British society, and perhaps of Western society in general, can be seen.
No decent person could witness, or read of, Coyne’s conduct without revulsion. But expressing a universally shared disgust is not enough; it is necessary to go deeper and analyze the reasons for it. Why did the incident—relatively harmless, compared with the examples of violence and savage acts that fill the British tabloids daily—provoke such outrage?
Well worth reading the whole thing, as all the parties involved in the story eventually come under the thorough scrutiny of Dr. Dalrymple.
NEW SOCIALIST “IT GIRL” CONTINUES TO PAY DIVIDENDS: The U.S. is ‘headed to fascism,’ says woman who wanted to ban all of America’s planes, internal-combustion vehicles, and cows, and rebuild every building in February.
FACT CHECK: Trump Treating Illegals As Well Or Better Than Obama. “The numbers are roughly equal at about 1 death per month, even though Trump is handling more immigrants.”
MSNBC GUEST COMPARES BETSY ROSS FLAG TO SWASTIKA, BURNING CROSS:
MSNBC guest Michael Eric Dyson compared the Betsy Ross American flag to the Nazi swastika and a burning Ku Klux Klan cross during an appearance Wednesday.
Nike canceled a release of shoes featuring the iconic flag with the 13 stars representing the original colonies, after former NFL quarterback and liberal activist Colin Kaepernick objected because it was “offensive.”
Dyson, a Georgetown University professor who frequently comments on racial issues from a left-wing perspective, defended the cancellation, citing its connection to the revolutionary period and that it was “deeply embroiled in enslavement.”
As Steve noted earlier, “It’s weird how many things became offensive only after Obama left office:”
Never thought I’d see an MSNBC regular tacitly call Obama a Nazi. I’m so old, I can remember when the only lefties who did so were Lyndon Larouche-ites:
Exit question: “Who had the Democratic Party coming up with ‘our flag is racist’ on the Fourth of July on their Self-Destruction Bingo card?”
SHOCKER: Pregnant mothers’ exposure to sunshine linked to babies’ learning. “Kids whose moms don’t get enough sunshine during pregnancy may be more likely to develop learning difficulties, researchers report. . . . Because only UVB rays were implicated, the researchers suspect the effect relates to insufficient vitamin D production.”
WE NEED A COMPLETE AND TOTAL SHUTDOWN OF GOOGLE UNTIL WE CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON THERE: Google’s Anti-Harassment Training Identifies Failing To Use ‘They’ Pronouns As A ‘Problem.’
But did he use the correct pronouns? That’s the real question here.
COLD WAR II: Engineer faces 219 years in prison for smuggling US military chips to China.
On Tuesday, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said that Yi-Chi Shih, a part-time Los Angeles resident, attempted to secure semiconductor chips used in US military applications in order to transfer them to Chinese associates.
The 64-year-old was subject to a six-week trial in a Los Angeles, California federal court.
Prosecutors alleged that Shih, alongside co-defendant Kiet Ahn Mai of Pasadena, California, conspired to gain access to a sensitive system belonging to an unnamed US firm which manufactured semiconductor chips and Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs).
The victim company’s PC systems were accessed fraudulently after Mai posed as a potential customer, giving Shih the opportunity to obtain custom processors. While the firm in question believed the chips would only be used in the United States, Shih transferred the products to the Chengdu GaStone Technology Company (CGTC), a Chinese firm building an MMIC manufacturing plant.
Evidence suggested that Shih managed to “defraud the US company out of its proprietary, export-controlled items, including its design services for MMICs.”
China’s been stealing our seed corn for a long time now.
DAN MARKEL UPDATE: Wendi Adelson Gives Defense Deposition In Dan Markel Murder Case.
OLD AND BUSTED: L.A. in 2019 would feature robots so sophisticated, they would blend in with humans.
The new hotness in 2019? LAPD Deploys Germ-Fighting Robot for Typhus-Stricken Station.
The 21st century is not working out as I had hoped, to coin an Insta-phrase.
YOU’RE NO FUN ANYMORE: Built Ford-Wuss: Ford Forces Dealership to End ‘American Flag, Bible Shotgun’ Promotion.
FOR SOME THEY’RE DANGERS. FOR OTHERS, THEY’RE REASONS. Hong Kong Protests Show Dangers of a Cashless Society: Many digital payments can be tracked, potentially assisting an authoritarian crackdown.
The move away from cash isn’t being done for your benefit.
THAT WAS DIFFERENT BECAUSE SHUT UP:
It’s weird how many things became offensive only after Obama left office.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Julian Castro praises Nike, compares Betsy Ross flag to Confederate flag. Someone should ask Barack Obama if he plans to apologize for this racist display.
BUT DON’T QUESTION THEIR PATRIOTISM: Gallup: Pride in being an American reaches modern low — thanks to rock-bottom numbers from Democrats. “The current Democratic numbers are less than half what they were during the darkest days of the Iraq war. I blogged during that period and, let me tell you, I never dreamed that Democratic animosity towards a Republican president would be worse than it was then.” Bush Derangement Syndrome was a pale shadow of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Plus: “In lieu of an exit question, here’s a Trump-sized dook that was dropped on the NYT op-ed page yesterday because, I guess, there’s only one mood a right-thinking liberal newspaper can properly have when Independence Day rolls around. Actual title of this piece: ‘Please Stop Telling Me America Is Great.’ It’d make a terrific Democratic slogan in 2020.”
OLD WHITE MEN CONTINUE TO DOMINATE DEMOCRATS’ POLLING. “In current preferences, 29% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents support Biden and 23% favor Sanders, with 11% apiece for Harris and Elizabeth Warren.”
DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY: “Folks, this guy is about to be appointed chief of the EU’s diplomacy.”