BELIEVING IN SCIENCE: Canadian professor canned for opinion that biological sex is a real thing. “Kathleen Lowrey, a professor of anthropology at the school, technically was fired from her position as associate chair of undergraduate programs in the Department of Anthropology for creating an ‘unsafe’ environment for students, The Centre for Free Expression reports. The reality is more of an eye-roller: Lowrey is known for being open about her non-politically correct opinions on sex and gender, which is known as ‘gender-critical.’ In a nutshell, she doesn’t believe that sex/gender is a ‘social construct.'”

There is nothing “unsafe” about opinions students don’t like. (Updated with quote to make clearer what’s going on.)

EVERGREEN QUESTION: Has Hollywood Completely Lost Its Mind?

COOL: Elon Musk tells SpaceX employees that its Starship rocket is the top priority now.

SpaceX launched astronauts for the first time barely a week ago but CEO Elon Musk does not want the company resting on its laurels.

Instead, Musk urged SpaceX employees to accelerate progress on its next-generation Starship rocket “dramatically and immediately,” writing Saturday in a company-wide email seen by CNBC.

“Please consider the top SpaceX priority (apart from anything that could reduce Dragon return risk) to be Starship,” Musk wrote in the email.

The Falcon 9 rocket that launched the astronauts is the mainstay of SpaceX’s business, with 85 missions over the past decade. But Starship represents the company’s aim to make obsolete even the cost-saving advances of its Falcon 9 fleet. Its Falcon 9 rockets are partially reusable, as the company often lands the large “booster” stage of the rocket and recovers the rocket’s nosecone. But Musk’s goal is to make Starship fully reusable — envisioning a rocket that is more akin to a commercial airplane, with short turnaround times between flights.

Would-be competitors still trying to match the soon-to-be-obsolete Falcon 9 had better aim higher.

HEH: Speedway declares race a ‘protest’ to skirt coronavirus rules, draws 2,000.

GOOD NEWS FOR NEBRASKA: After receiving more than $15 million in COVID-19 aid, the University of Nebraska has lowered online tuition for its students. Other schools, however, aren’t being that generous.

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DON’T TRUST CHINA. CHINA IS ASSHOLE. Satellite data suggests coronavirus may have hit China earlier: Researchers.

Dramatic spikes in auto traffic around major hospitals in Wuhan last fall suggest the novel coronavirus may have been present and spreading through central China long before the outbreak was first reported to the world, according to a new Harvard Medical School study.

Using techniques similar to those employed by intelligence agencies, the research team behind the study analyzed commercial satellite imagery and “observed a dramatic increase in hospital traffic outside five major Wuhan hospitals beginning late summer and early fall 2019,” according to Dr. John Brownstein, the Harvard Medical professor who led the research.

Brownstein, an ABC News contributor, said the traffic increase also “coincided with” elevated queries on a Chinese internet search for “certain symptoms that would later be determined as closely associated with the novel coronavirus.”

Hmm. See post-title, above.

UPDATE: Link was broken. Fixed now!

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: We’ve Reached the Book Burning Phase of 2020 Riot Wokeness. “We learn a lot from books, of course, but reading for me is another form of escapism, even non-fiction. The wokescolds have ruined most of television and movies, now they want to come into my living room and start wagging fingers at my reading list. All hell is going to break loose when they find out that I decided to tackle Proust during the shutdown.”

KURT SCHLICHTER: “For way too long, too many conservatives and other normal people have failed to deploy our most potent weapon in the defense of free thought and expression – the utter refusal to go along with the demands of the carnivorous left. As has been said before by me and others, we need to introduce these spoiled brats to the concept of ‘no.'”

IN FORMATION ABOVE THE NIMITZ: Aircraft from the carrier USS Nimitz fly in formation above the warship. Yes, it’s a Navy photo-op, but a good one.

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR COMMENT: UN Agency: Iran Violating All Restrictions of Nuclear Deal.

Obama’s “deal” with Iran consisted of giving them most everything they wanted in exchange for vague promises to try and do a better job of hiding their nuclear weapons program.

FORTUNATELY, NO NIPPLE RINGS WERE OBSERVABLE: Chris Cuomo apparently caught naked in wife Cristina’s yoga video.

UPDATE: From the comments: “This is getting so confusing. Which one is Fredo, and which one is the other Fredo again?”

WELL, ONE OF THEM, ANYWAY: Tim Carney: Here’s the lie in the media’s defense of their protest two-step.

SEEN ON FACEBOOK:

I’M PRETTY SURE THEY DIDN’T VOTE FOR HIM IN 2016, EITHER:

The Bush Family and its retainers will never forgive him for beating Jeb! like a drum.

WHO? George Bush, Colin Powell, and Mitt Romney Say They Won’t Support President Trump but They Find No One Cares.

SHUT UP, KAREN: Minneapolis City Council President: If You Call the Cops When Your Garage is Broken Into, You’re a White Supremacist.

ANALYSIS: TRUE.

The riots will exacerbate that, of course, as people locate their homes and businesses in places where they expect a lower risk of that sort of violence, which will translate, roughly, into places where there are fewer black people nearby.

Related:

YOU’VE BEEN DEMOTED FROM IRREDEEMABLE AND DEPLORABLE TO DEAD AND STUPID: Clinton calls Trump ‘failure’ in blistering interview, questions how anyone ‘with a beating heart and a working mind’ supports him.

ICYMI: George Korda in USA Today:. Democrats have run Minneapolis for generations. Why is there still systemic racism?

On social media the other day, in discussions of George Floyd’s death, I saw an increasing number of references from Democrats and Democratic friends about the problem of systemic racism. I wrote the following post, citing only a few municipal examples:

“Below are pertinent questions, given the way the Democratic Party defines itself as being the party of tolerance and inclusion, and many Democrats’ characterizations of Republicans or conservatives as racists or racially insensitive.

“Minneapolis, Minn. has been under Democratic control since 1978. Chicago has been under Democratic control for 89 years; its present mayor is a black woman. Philadelphia has had Democratic mayors for 68 years; three of its last five mayors have been black men. Six of the last seven Atlanta, Ga., mayoral administrations were led by black Democratic mayors, and the present mayor is a black woman.

“A city runs its police department and other services; therefore, if there is so much ‘systemic racism’ in these organizations, why hasn’t it been corrected over so many years under Democratic leaders?

“Why aren’t these cities garden spots of racial tolerance, understanding, and virtue?”

There have been no answers.

Nor will there be.

STOLEN VALOR: White Liberals’ ‘I Am Spartacus” Moment.

ROGER KIMBALL: Racism, Inc.: Like the word “heretic” in an earlier age, “racism” is more weapon than word.