ARSON SUSPECTED IN FIRE THAT DESTROYED HISTORIC NANTES CATHEDRAL IN FRANCE: “The cathedral in the city of Nantes in western France dates back to the 15th century. A French prosecutor said the fire started in three separate places. They treated it as a criminal act. Many of the tourists and people there said the fire reminded them of the devastating fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris last year.”
Archive for 2020
July 18, 2020
YET ANOTHER NATIVE AMERICAN IS CANCELLED: Mutual of Omaha insurance removing Indian head logo.
ARE THE SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS THE NEXT TARGET FOR A NAME CHANGE? In the San Francisco Chronicle, Rev. Salvatore J. Cordileone, the archbishop of San Francisco writes:
Symbols are communally created and communally shared. The naming of sports teams is right now carrying this larger symbolic battle. Which places ardent sports fans with a conscience in a real dilemma. Personally, I was horrified when I learned the history of California early in the American era (who wouldn’t be?); nonetheless, I still feel an emotional attachment to the name of our local football team. Which points to a notable quirk of our human nature: It is easy to tell someone else to change the name of their team or place or take down a monument when you are emotionally detached, but when it is personal, all of a sudden it looks and feels very different.
When is it acceptable to retain a name or monument when the historical record is mixed, and when does the reparation of injustice require a change? Does the name “49ers” honor a generation that committed unspeakable crimes against a vulnerable population, or does it refer to a pivotal moment of history that defined the life of our city then and far into the future? Such decisions should be made, not in the wake of acts of vandalism perpetrated by bands of aggrieved citizens, but in the context of reasoned debate based on historical accuracy and the weighing of moral principles.
Read the whole thing.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: U.S. Marshals selling three replica movie cars: Back to the Future DeLorean, Ghostbusters Ectomobile, and Batmobile, from Ohio federal criminal case involving Medicaid fraud. Vehicles will be sold August 1st via live/online auction.
SO I HAD A FLAT TIRE YESTERDAY. I hit a pothole and it literally tore the sidewall. Naturally I had to change it on the hottest day of the year, and although it took only about 15 minutes, I was roasting since the pavement must have been 120 degrees. (Happily, I had thought to put a large rubber mallet in with the spare tire, as even after the lug nuts were off it took a bit of “persuasion” to remove the wheel.)
This is my second flat tire in over 20 years, and my last one was about a year ago. Both were from normal road hazards — the one last year was literaly from a sharp rock. My tires are Continental Sport Contact SUV tires and they handle well in all conditions, but I’m thinking they’re a bit fragile.
Because of the heat, I was tempted to leave it to AAA, but when I called them I had to sit through — literally* — five minutes of recorded announcements, mostly on coronavirus precautions, before I got to the part where they told me that due to a high volume of calls (really?) it would be 20 minutes before anyone could answer, so I gave up. Kind of disappointing, but it wasn’t really any trouble to do it myself, except for feeling like a stoker on an old-fashioned steamship by the time I was done. I think having given blood on Thursday made me feel the heat more. Anyway, lesson: Keep a “persuasion tool” in the trunk.
*In the comments I am accused of the unpardonable sin of using the word “literally” figuratively. In fact, it was literally five minutes, by the call timer on my phone. It just went on and on, though to be fair I cursed loudly at one point, which may have reset something.
MR. JONES SHOWS FAKE NEWS IS A HISTORIC REALITY—AND NO LAUGHING MATTER.
Earlier, from your humble narrator: Me and Mr. Jones: A New Film Exposes one of the Oldest Deceits of the New York Times.
WHEN CRUSHING DISSENT ISN’T JUST A SLOGAN: Juniata College calls cops on student for sending email that mocked diversity demands.
Complain to the grant-making agencies under Executive Order 13864.
CATHY YOUNG: In Defense of The Letter.
One very telling critique of The Letter is offered by Jillian C. York, a writer and activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
It is a summer of justice, the summer of reckoning, the summer that the movement for Black lives went truly global. … And in the middle of this revolutionary summer, a group of elites from the worlds of media, publishing, and think tanks decided to publish a letter — not in support of the movement for justice (though they give a slight nod to it), but out of concern that perhaps the left has gone too far in pursuing it.
Likewise, CNN Opinion contributor Jeff Yang opines that among other things, the signatories of The Letter are guilty of “bad timing”:
As the streets fill with protesters shouting “Black Lives Matter,” they’re metaphorically shouting “Our Words Matter.” As society becomes increasingly aware of the devastating impact of police brutality, these signatories have chosen to shift attention to an imaginary political correctness police. …
In this uncertain, turbulent era especially, beset as it is by crisis and challenge but also suffused with real hope for transformative change, it’s puzzling that these prominent individuals would choose to stand athwart history.
Sorry, folks, but if you’re chiding people for raising a voice of dissent in a moment of crisis and mass emotion, you might be the baddies. And if your “revolutionary summer” has no room for people who “stand athwart history” by insisting on an open space for debate … it’s a sure sign that winter is coming, and not a nice one.
As Atlantic columnist Conor Friedersdorf points out, moments of crisis and mass emotion are ones in which it is especially important to heed dissenting voices. We should not be shutting off or shouting down debate on such questions as, “Which police reform proposals will work?” and even, “How much of a factor is racism in police brutality?” If a movement insists on unanimity and refuses to tolerate dissent or even neutrality, that should be a huge red flag.
Lengthy, but well worth a read.
Related Twitter thread:
WHY ‘CRITICAL THEORY’ IS A DISASTROUS, UNBIBLICAL WORLDVIEW: It’s long, at an hour, but theoretical chemist Dr. Neil Shenvi and journalist Allie Beth Stuckey cover a lot of important ground and do so in an accessible manner for those of us who aren’t PhDs. And the arguments and analyses are compelling, regardless of one’s faith perspective, or absence thereof.
SEGREGATION NOW, SEGREGATION TOMORROW, SEGREGATION FOREVER: University promotes students’ demands, including ‘Black Student Space’ on campus.
Are you really “protesting systemic racism” when you’re saying what the system wants to hear?
HONORING THE FALLEN: While flying over Joint Base Charleston, S.C., airmen in a C-17 display the American flag in honor of 1st Lt. David Schmitz, a 77th Fighter Squadron pilot. Two F-16 Fighting Falcons trail the C-17. Schmitz was recently killed in an F-16 crash at Shaw AFB. Photo taken July 4.
DESPITE REPORTS, KANYE WEST APPARENTLY STILL RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT.
And Jim Treacher has some thoughts on the perfect veep! Caitlyn Jenner Wants to Be Kanye’s VP. “First we had a president who wanted to be a reality star. Now we have a reality star who became president. With Kanye, it has nothing to do with reality. Just go completely bat$#!+, Kanye. The worst that could happen is that you’ll win.”
THEY’RE NOT WRONG: 63% say media biased, agree with Bari Weiss rip on New York Times.
IT’S DEJA MCGOVERN ALL OVER AGAIN: Biden campaign staffer mocked cops as worse than ‘pigs,’ called for defunding police.
A supervising video producer for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign tweeted a meme in June that urged people to stop calling the police “pigs” — but only because unlike the police, pigs are “highly intelligent and empathetic animals who would never racially profile you.”
The videographer, Sara Pearl, also retweeted a user’s comment that while “pigs are sweet, intelligent and compassionate,” police officers are “monsters” who “don’t deserve to be called pigs.”
On June 1, Pearl tweeted simply, “#DefundPolice.” Days later, she said Buffalo’s police department should be “defunded immediately.”
Flashback to Volume One of Steve Hayward’s The Age of Reagan from 2001:
While Nixon and other Republicans wore American flag lapel pins, the McGovernites found appeals to patriotism repellent, and wore the flag—if at all—upside down. Theodore White observed that “At McGovern headquarters, the word itself, ‘patriotism,’ was a code word for intolerance, war, deception … and phrases like ‘peace with honor’ actually did make them gag.”
Like McGovern in ‘72, as Tristan Justice writes at the Federalist, Joe Biden Is A Vehicle For The Revolution.
