Archive for 2020
June 5, 2020
DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY: George Floyd Rioters Deface Civil War Monument… Celebrating Black Union Patriots.
SOCIAL-DISTANCING IS FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE:
OUR FEVERED TIMES: Liberty Unyielding: “Los Angeles Starts to Defund Its Police.”
(For more on the ridiculous view that tolerating more crime somehow benefits African American communities, see this statement of mine from a year or so ago.)
FRANK WHITE WROTE A BOOK ABOUT THIS IN THE EIGHTIES: The Psychological Effect of Seeing Earth From Space Changes You, Astronauts Say.
HOW’S THAT SPACE PROGRAM COMING ALONG? Asteroid to pass by Earth tomorrow.
THE INSIDE STORY OF THE TOM COTTON OP-ED THAT ROCKED THE NEW YORK TIMES: “When a newspaper publishes a bombshell op-ed, it doesn’t want the chief casualty to be its own credibility. But this is what has happened with the New York Times and the op-ed it ran by Arkansas senator Tom Cotton this week advocating using federal troops to quell riots.”
Earlier: The New York Times and the Vanguard of the Incognizant.
BILL DE BLASIO HAS HIS PRIORITIES: The NYPD is policing Jewish mothers while the city burns.
TANK MAN: Short Film About Tiananmen Square Hero.
On June 4th and 5th, 1989, the Chinese government violently put down the pro-liberty Tiananmen Square student protest. One man stood alone against a column of tanks, and for his extraordinary heroism became known as “Tank Man,” though nothing more is known about his identity. Some say he was arrested and killed, others that he is still in prison in China, and still others that he is alive and in hiding. Regardless, he has become a symbol for resistance against tyranny.
Tank Man is a powerful short film (15 min.) dramatizing events leading up to his moment of extraordinary courage. He is little known in China, where all images of him have been erased and all mention of him banned. This film does him some small justice.
The video is at the link.
I BLAME THE MEDIA. THEY’RE LIKE A TOBACCO INDUSTRY FOR THE MIND. Depression, anxiety up 3-fold since start of COVID-19 pandemic.
BECAUSE OF COURSE HE IS: Jack Dorsey is giving millions to Colin Kaepernick’s criminal justice group.
Vox link, but the headline tells you pretty much everything you need to know.
QUESTION ASKED: Is Black Lives Matter a religion for woke white people?
While Nietzsche assured the Jurassic “woke” class of the late 19th century that “God is dead,” most of the branches of the “Progressivism” that followed are forms of a substitute religion to fill the void, including both radical environmentalism, and even socialist health care. As the late Tom Wolfe wrote in his epochal 1976 article, “The ‘Me’ Decade and the Third Great Awakening,” “It is entirely possible that in the long run historians will regard the entire New Left experience as not so much a political as a religious episode wrapped in semi military gear and guerrilla talk.” (That line was written with early ‘70s radical chic in mind, but reverberates quite nicely today, given Antifa’s current love of paramilitary cosplay.)
STUDIES: WHAT WOULD WE DO WITHOUT THEM? Study: Autonomous vehicles won’t make roads completely safe.
PJ MEDIA WEEK ON THE MARK GRIFFITH SHOW:
Today’s guest is Jeff Reynolds, who will talk with Mark about police and National Guard kneeling before the Floyd protesters, and undoubtedly other things as well. The show is from 3-4 PM Eastern, 1-2 PM Mountain, noon-1 PM Pacific, and you can listen via:
- KLZ 560 AM in the Denver area
- on the internet at klzradio.com
- or on iHeart Radio.
PROJECT VERITAS: New Video Exposes Antifa ‘Fight Club Training’ in New York City.
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: In Show Of Solidarity, COVID-19 Vows Not To Infect Anyone Protesting Inequality.
There are plenty of police reforms that could be enacted from a libertarian perspective that would improve matters. Qualified immunity reform is libertarian. Holding police accountable for misbehavior is libertarian. Reducing the power of police unions is libertarian. Getting rid of overtime and pension abuse is libertarian. Banning no-knock raids is libertarian. Reducing bloated police department bureaucracies is libertarian.
Broader reforms that would reduce the need for police and reduce police/civilian encounters are also libertarian. Getting rid of victimless crimes, especially the drug war, and certain categories of criminal business regulation that should be handled civilly is libertarian. Getting rid of taxes that lead to black markets that in turn lead to police/civilian encounters is libertarian. Abolishing laws that allow local governments to put people in jail for failure to pay civil fines is libertarian. Separating forensic science services from prosecutors’ offices is libertarian. Holding prosecutors accountable for misconduct is libertarian. Finding alternatives to prison for certain categories of offenders is libertarian.
By contrast, “defunding the police,” if that just means willy-nilly cuts, is not libertarian.
If you get rid of the police, they will be replaced by vigilante justice and mob “protection.”
THIS WILL END WELL: Minneapolis City Council May Eliminate Police Dept. for ‘Transformative New Model.’ “If you are a comfortable white person asking to dismantle the police I invite you to reflect: are you willing to stick with it? Will you be calling in three months to ask about garage break-ins? Are you willing to dismantle white supremacy in all systems, including a new system?”
NEVER LET A CRISIS YOU ENGINEERED YOURSELF GO TO WASTE: Riots Are Part of Weeklong Campaign to Defund Police. In Some Places It’s Working.