AT HELEN’S PAGE: A new game: Virtue Signal: The Game of Social Justice is a card game parody of social justice activism. “A game for those who are ready to wake up from woke.”–Peter Thiel. You can purchase it at their website here.
Archive for 2021
July 5, 2021
COLORADO’S CALIFORNICATION IS NOW COMPLETE: Polis signs off on bill establishing Front Range high-speed rail district.
WHERE WAS THIS THINKING WHEN MICHAEL VICK NEEDED IT? ‘Responsible pet ownership’ regulations are racist, some scholars argue.
SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE IS ENJOYING THE THREE-DAY WEEKEND AND COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR THIS ITEM: Olympic Athlete Who Disrespected the Flag Turns Out to Be a Flaming Racist.
DETERRENCE: US and Japan Conduct War Games To Counter China.
HISTORY!: On this day in 1937, Hormel Foods first marketed SPAM. Since then, billions and billions of cans have been sold. There’s even a Spam Museum.
Among those who have had a good word to say about Spam are Margaret Thatcher, who called it a “wartime delicacy” and Nikita Khrushchev, who wrote, “Without Spam we wouldn’t have been able to feed our army.”
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: It Was A Fun 4th of July Despite Our Drunk, Downer President. “For reasons that aren’t clear, Biden’s handlers decided to let him off-leash a lot over the holiday weekend and those of us who don’t have to pretend know that’s a recipe for slurring, gaffe-prone disaster. He had to pull out some notes to answer a question while trying to pretend to be a normal guy in an ice cream shop and still couldn’t get it right.”
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Chinese astronauts perform the country’s first tandem spacewalk.
RYAN FAZIO: Young Americans need to appreciate the good fortune they take for granted.
An old college professor of mine who was born under a communist police state in the Czech Republic used to preach to his American students studying abroad in Prague, “Yours is the country of individual freedom. You should be proud of what it has given the world.” He and his countrymen have now enjoyed decades of relative prosperity and freedom under the Pax Americana.
But, as we approach another Independence Day, why are fewer Americans proud of that legacy? And why do many of us often think what we have here — wealth, freedom and safety — is normal in the course of human history or even in the world today? A little perspective is in order.
Young people taking good fortune for granted is nothing new. What is new is how many of our young people have been indoctrinated against the very things that have made their good fortune possible.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Biden Report Card: Slumping poll numbers, nixes Mount Rushmore fireworks.
I KNEW JOHN DENVER A BIT (HE WAS ON THE NSS BOARD WITH ME), AND I THINK HE’D LAUGH ABOUT THIS.
I wish they could bring John Denver back to life just so he could sue Mark Zuckerberg for this.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) July 4, 2021
But I’d be surprised if he were a Zuckerberg fan.
But since this didn’t happen by accident, why is Zuck suddenly trying to look like a patriotic redneck? Because there’s a reason.
UPDATE: From the comments: “Given the particular choice of song, I’d say it’s a love letter to Senator Manchin.”
Plus: “Why would Xi Jinping have Zuck do that?”
Zuck’s riding an electric hydrofoil surfboard. I have a retired colleague who has one of these. He’s about 75 but very fit, and his wife got tired of pulling him on the waterskis so he got one and does tricks on it. Was a Marine helicopter pilot in Vietnam. Keeps telling me to retire early and enjoy life.
COLLUSION: Senators Say DOJ Official Could Have Conflict of Interest In Trump Case. “Sens. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) in a letter this week asked Attorney General Merrick Garland about Susan Hennessey’s role in the Justice Department’s National Security Division. Hennessey, who previously held posts at the Brookings Institution and CNN, was a vocal proponent of the now-debunked theory that the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election. Politico reported in May that Hennessey joined the National Security Division as senior counsel.”
WHEN YOU’VE LOST THE TROTSKYISTS: I must have missed it when it happened, but a year ago the Trotskyist Fourth International declared the New York Times’ 1619 Project to be a load of hooey. The following is from the World Socialist Web Site:
To the extent that there is a method to the 1619 Project, it is pragmatic in the most vulgar sense of the word. The writers rummage carelessly through the past, cherry-picking incidents to concoct a narrative that conforms to their preconceived racialist viewpoint. They explain historical events in terms of what the authors claim, often incorrectly, to have been the immediate motives of the actors….
The Times justifies its racial approach by claiming that slavery and the experience of African Americans are subjects long neglected by historians. In fact, the slave system—its origins, changing economic role in pre- and post-revolutionary North America, and its social, political and cultural significance over a period spanning several centuries—has been the subject of voluminous research. The essays that introduce the 1619 Project evince no familiarity with the massive body of work produced by generations of historians.
So if Trotskyists are willing to say out loud that the 1619 Project was ill-informed drivel, who is left to view it as scholarly? The University of North Carolina for one.
NO, PRIDE IN AMERICA IS FAR FROM DEAD: Contrary to pundits who say patriotism is a thing of the past, a new survey from Issues & Insights/TIPP finds that 68 of those surveyed profess to be either “very” or “extremely” proud to be Americans. Another 15 percent say they are “moderately” proud. With two-thirds of those surveyed, that’s a rather stout contingent of people who claim to be proud to be citizens of the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
And look at the opposite end of the spectrum: Eight percent say they are “slightly proud,” and a mere six percent say they “aren’t proud at all.” That 14 percent likely comprises Ivy League professors and wannabes on other campuses, left-wing non-profit radicals, Democratic Party activitsts, BLMers, Fortune 500 human resources department operatives and the cranks down the street in your neighborhood.
And here’s perhaps the most striking result of the first survey collaboration between I&I and TIPP:
“Even among blacks and Hispanics, who are repeatedly described as victims of embedded American racism and intolerance, pride is strong. The poll found that 55% of blacks and 57% of Hispanics say they are either extremely or very proud to be Americans. Just 7% of blacks and 9% of Hispanics say they aren’t proud at all of their nationality.”
There is one down note in the result: The only age group to show less than a significant majority of responders professing pride in being American is the 18-24-year-old contingent, where only 36 percent did so.
Interestingly, the percentage jumped to 59 with the next age group, the 25-44 contingent, suggesting that the old maxim about youthful liberalism being abandoned as one acquires additional responsibility and maturity remains operative.
SPACE RACE II: China’s Ambitious Space Programs Raise Red Flags. “China has recently reorganized its space and counterspace forces … and placed them in a new major force structure that also has control over electronic warfare and cyber.”
MOST POPULAR PRESIDENT EVER: Joe Biden’s 4th of July Fail. “Even Joe Biden isn’t following his own 4th of July edict. And why not? No one else is, either.”
YES, I DO REALIZE I LINKED IT THIS LAST WEEK. SO? I’M LINKING IT AGAIN: It’s probably “extremist”… And therefore important.
FROM ROBERT ZIMMERMAN: Conscious Choice: The Origins of Slavery in America and Why it Matters Today and for Our Future in Outer Space.
The human race is about to go to the stars. Big rockets are being built, and nations and private citizens worldwide are planning the first permanent settlements in space.
When we get there, will we know what to do to make those first colonies just and prosperous places for all humans?
Conscious Choice answers this question, by telling a riveting and accurate history of the first century of British settlement in North America. That was when those settlers were building their own new colonies, and had to decide whether to include slaves from Africa.
In New England slavery was vigorously rejected. The Puritans wanted nothing to do with this institution, desiring instead to form a society of free religious families, a society that became the foundation of the United States of American, dedicated to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
In Virginia however slavery was gladly embraced, resulting in a corrupt social order built on power, rule, and oppression.
Why the New England citizens were able to reject slavery, and Virginians were not, is the story that Conscious Choice tells, a story with direct implications for all human societies, whether they are here on Earth or on the farflung planets across the universe.
MAYBE IF WE ASK JUST ONE MORE TIME…
WASHINGTON DC IS IN NEED OF EXORCISM: US priest: Exorcisms on the rise as demons now haunt victims by text.
RAGE, RAGE AGAINST THE DYING OF THE LIGHT: Happy Fourth of July.
And maybe light the torch again, and keep it lit till we pass it on.