Archive for 2020
July 18, 2020
BECAUSE IT’S FOLLOWING IN THE RACE-BAITING TRADITION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY: Why is Wokeness so white supremacist? “It says something when you’re at a Black Lives Matter protest, you have more minorities on the police side than you have in a violent crowd and you have white people screaming at black officers: ‘You have the biggest nose I’ve ever seen.’”
THIS WILL END WELL: Berkeley City Council Slashes Police Budget 50% – No More Traffic Stops.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. America Was Not Conceived in Racism.
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Glenn Loury on Race and Equality:
I don’t know if you saw my piece in Quillette about the looting and the rioting, but I pick up these pieces published in the New York Times, respectable left-wing journals. I’m reading them, and the writer is saying, “America was founded on looting. What did you think the Boston Tea Party was?” Or, “You’re talking about looting when George Floyd lies dead? Oh, I see, black lives don’t matter as much as property.” These are, to my mind, incomprehensibly idiotic. I don’t mean that to cast aspersions. The civilization that we all enjoy rests upon a very fragile foundation. Look. I’m in my backyard. It’s very nice. I’ve got a lot of space. There’s a fence. The birds come. I have a lawn. It’s mine!
Now, if a homeless person comes and squats in my backyard, I call the police. I have him removed, forcibly. There should be no lack of clarity about whether George Floyd’s death somehow excuses or justifies burning a bodega to the ground that a Muslim immigrant spends his whole life building. Being confused about that, equivocating about that, splitting the difference about that—I don’t understand how we’re going to have a reasoned discussion. My thoughts go back to, protect civilization. Again, I know how that sounds. It’s hyperbolic. It’s exaggerated—but only a little! My gut response is that this is not the time for argument. This is the time to protect civilization and protect institutions. When people start toppling statues of Abraham Lincoln and spray-painting on statues of George Washington, “a slave owner,” things fall apart. The center cannot hold. We teeter on the brink of catastrophe.
Read the whole thing.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. Andrew Cuomo’s Coronavirus Response Has Been a Failure: The media’s fawning interviews obscure the New York governor’s record. To be fair, those fawning interviews are designed to obscure the New York governor’s record.
THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: Jamaal Bowman Upsets Rep. Eliot Engel In NY-16 Race.
Related: Jamaal Bowman’s Israel policy is too questionable for me to consider sending him to Congress.
More: AOC-Backed ‘Progressive’ Unseats 30-Year Incumbent In NY Democratic Primary.
UIGHURS AND MORE: Roger Kimball: Trump has been right about China for years.
Back in the summer of 2015, all the cleverest people made fun of Donald Trump for obsessing about China. One of them even made a video compilation of the candidate saying ‘China’ over and over again on the hustings. Ha ha ha.
It seems distinctly less funny now.
Indeed.
GENTRY LIBERALS CONTINUE THEIR WAR ON ASIANS: To Make Orchestras More Diverse, End Blind Auditions: If ensembles are to reflect the communities they serve, the audition process should take into account race, gender and other factors.
Why should ensembles “reflect the communities they serve?” And if they should, then I hope that our other institutions, like basketball teams and university faculties, will also look like America.
July 17, 2020
RIP: Georgia congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis has died at age 80. “Rep. John Lewis of Georgia died at the age of 80 on Friday, according to multiple reporters.”
UPDATE: Much longer obit at Politico: John Lewis, civil rights icon and longtime congressman, dies.
WHEN YOU ATTACK PEOPLE FOR SHARING THEIR PREFERENCES, THEY DON’T CHANGE THEIR PREFERENCES, THEY JUST DON’T TELL YOU ABOUT THEM: Poll: Majority Pennsylvania Voters Believe ‘Secret Trump Voters’ in Their Communities.
I FIND HIS IDEAS INTRIGUING, AND WOULD LIKE TO SUBSCRIBE TO HIS NEWSLETTER: Drink rum, eat fried eggs, and coronavirus will vanish: Karnataka Congress leader. A friend on Facebook remarks: “I’ve been doing this for months and I’m 100 percent virus-free.” So it’s basically science.
OPEN THREAD: Say something once, why say it again?
I fart in their general direction.
CHECK THE BACK OF THE HALL CLOSET. ALL SORTS OF STUFF TURNS UP THERE. Are there any black holes left over from the Big Bang?
FILE A LAWSUIT: Fordham student punished for holding gun in Instagram photo memorializing Tiananmen Square massacre.
And file a complaint with grant-making agencies under Executive Order 13864.
UPDATE: In the comments, it’s plausibly suggested that Fordham is upset at a picture of a Chinese immigrant student holding a gun and protesting the Tiananmen anniversary because Fordham doesn’t want to upset the Chinese government. Someone should look into whether Fordham is getting money from the PRC, and if they’ve properly reported it if so.