THIS STORY SEEMS TO BE MISSING SOME DETAILS: Daughter, grandson of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, RFK’s daughter, presumed dead in canoe accident.
Archive for 2020
April 4, 2020
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “In just ten days, we discovered that neither the tampon issue, nor the participation of transsexuals in the Olympic Games, nor the climate emergency were real problems, nor emergencies, nor anything of the sort. They were just fictitious problems, the pastimes of a generation that hadn’t known tragedy.” — Itxu Diaz, National Review.
Via Ricochet, which has further thoughts worth reading: “This crisis will be resolved by truckers running the long haul on deserted highways, doctors and nurse working double shifts in scavenged PPE, grocery store and gas station employees keeping services and food available, utility and telecom workers keeping a strained system functioning, grad students and other researchers poring over data and running countless tests in hopes of giving us an advantage, and ordinary people trying to follow often-contradictory guidance and do the right thing while facing a locked-down economy. At the top, we have leaders whose every move is scrutinized and fraught with potential peril – there might not be any good choices, just bad and not so bad. There is no room for our useless media and most of the commentariat. Activists can either pitch in or get lost. We no longer have time for indulging the delusion that they matter.”
OUT: WAR REQUIRES SACRIFICE. IN: Harvard Student op-ed: During this ‘state of war,’ Harvard should give all students a 4.0.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, BIG-TECH-COLLUSION EDITION: Twitter gives university access to student’s parody account. Then college deletes unflattering tweets.
THEY’RE AHEAD OF LESS CIVILIZED PLACES, LIKE CHINA: Gabon bans eating of pangolin and bats amid pandemic.
CNN SHOULD CHANGE ITS FORMAT BACK TO NEWS: “The country is deeply divided and wracked with anxiety. There is a market for straight reporting without the shouting. If CNN doesn’t want to change their format for the good of the public, they should do it for the profits. Because, at this point, their ratings can’t get much worse.”
SEEN ON FACEBOOK:
The debate over immigration is over: restriction wins.
The debate over borders is over: they are needed.
The debate over globalization is over: the era of autarky begins.
The debate over Europe is over: it is a geographic expression, not a polity.
The debate over global warming is over: it is irrelevant.
The debate over international institutions is over: only nations matter.
The debate over the People’s Republic of China is over: it is a menace to the community of nations, not a member in good standing.
Crisis is clarity.
This has been an era of clarification.
MICHAEL TOTTEN ON THE MIDDLE EAST IN 1979: The Year the Sky Fell.
ACTUALLY, THAT’S A PRETTY IMPRESSIVE ACCOMPLISHMENT FOR A DEMOCRAT: Biden Has Earned 11 Pinocchios From Fact-Checkers During Coronavirus Crisis.
AT AMAZON, Gerber Suspension Multi-Plier.
MARKOS “SCREW ‘EM” MOULITSAS STRIKES AGAIN:
And to think Markos was wondering where “decency” went, just last week:
THE LEFT’S GARBAGE POLITICS: Robert Kraft criticized for good deed – friendship with Trump cited.
1984’S TWO-WAY TELESCREENS HAVE ARRIVED: Google Will Hand Over Location Data to Health Officials to Supposedly Combat Wuhan Coronavirus.
SNOWFALLS ARE NOW JUST A THING OF THE PAST: NYT’s Thomas Friedman Spews Trump Climate Change Response Could Be ‘More Destructive’ than Virus Response.
Oddly, his only criticism of the Chinese government was that “China was reckless about importing and mixing ‘terrestrial wildlife’ — supposedly endowed with magical sexual and other powers — with regular meat and seafood in its wet markets.” [Emphasis added.]
Say, what?
Ironic that Bloomberg News just reported a day after Friedman’s op-ed that “China Concealed Extent of Virus Outbreak, U.S. Intelligence Says.”
To be fair, Friedman has been part of America’s “Manchurian Media” for years; recall his infamous September 9th 2009 column which began:
Watching both the health care and climate/energy debates in Congress, it is hard not to draw the following conclusion: There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today.
One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century. It is not an accident that China is committed to overtaking us in electric cars, solar power, energy efficiency, batteries, nuclear power and wind power. China’s leaders understand that in a world of exploding populations and rising emerging-market middle classes, demand for clean power and energy efficiency is going to soar. Beijing wants to make sure that it owns that industry and is ordering the policies to do that, including boosting gasoline prices, from the top down.
Our one-party democracy is worse….
As Jonah Goldberg, who had published Liberal Fascism the previous year, wrote, “Thomas Friedman Is a Liberal Fascist:” “I cannot begin to tell you how this is exactly the argument that was made by American fans of Mussolini in the 1920s. It is exactly the argument that was made in defense of Stalin and Lenin before him (it’s the argument that idiotic, dictator-envying leftists make in defense of Castro and Chavez today). It was the argument made by George Bernard Shaw who yearned for a strong progressive autocracy under a Mussolini, a Hitler or a Stalin (he wasn’t picky in this regard). This is the argument for an ‘economic dictatorship’ pushed by Stuart Chase and the New Dealers. It’s the dream of Herbert Croly and a great many of the Progressives.”
QED: China Appointed to U.N. Human Rights Group Despite Routine Human Rights Violations.
(Classical reference in headline.)
ARE YOU TIRED OF WINNING YET? Trump Taps Kavanaugh Ally for Seat on Influential Appeals Court. “Justin Walker, 37, who has served as a federal district court judge in Kentucky since October, would replace Republican appointee Judge Thomas Griffith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit if approved by the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate. Griffith, appointed by former President George W. Bush, had previously announced his plans to retire.”
YOU HAVE TO LAUGH, BECAUSE THERE’S SO MUCH TO CRY ABOUT: The coronavirus laughs never stop illustrated edition.
WHEN YOU DECIDE WHAT OTHER PEOPLE SHOULD WANT OR NEED, YOU’RE IN SOVIET TERRITORY: Essential Means Different Things To Different People.
If I were stuck at home with my kids, when they were under ten? And we had no ebooks? Bookstores would be essential. TRUST me on this.