Archive for 2022

COUGH IT UP, NIH: That’s the message from five GOP senators, led by Rand Paul, to the National Institutes for Health (NIH), about every royalty payment made by an outside source to any agency official, researcher or scientist since 2009. Open the Books, the non-profit government watchdog that first exposed $350 million worth of such payments to NIHers, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, has posted $12 Trillion in government spending at all levels of government. Now that’s what I call government transparency!

SOME POST-MEMORIAL DAY THOUGHTS from Andrew Davis.

DISPATCHES FROM THE MINISTRY OF TRUTH: BBC altered victims quote so she didn’t misgender her alleged rapist.

Last September the ACLU posted a quote from the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg talking about gender equality. Only the ACLU had decided Ginsburg’s actual quote wasn’t quite woke enough for modern tastes so they replaced the pronouns and removed the word “woman.”

Yesterday the London Times reported that the BBC went one step further than the ACLU. According to the report, the news outlet replaced the pronouns in a victim’s quote in order to avoid having her statement misgender her alleged rapist.

The BBC changed the testimony of a rape victim after a debate over the pronouns of her transgender attacker, The Times has learnt.

The woman referred to her alleged rapist as “him” but insiders said that her words were changed to avoid “misgendering” the abuser in an article on the corporation’s website.

The BBC article replaced every reference to “he” or “him” with “they” or “them”. A source said the quote was the subject of heated debate prior to publication. Some journalists argued that the quote should remain intact, while others said it should reflect the trans woman’s preferred she/her pronouns.

Winston Smith could not be reached for comment. But couldn’t there have been a setup paragraph to alert those readers who are likely to dive for the fainting couch about what’s coming next rather than alter quotes?

To be fair though, the Beeb’s gotta Beeb: 1984: How BBC ‘inspired’ George Orwell’s infamous torture cell Room 101.

Flashback: ‘A Powerfully Corrosive Internal Culture.’

TO BE FAIR, THEY’RE RIGHT: Top Russian Military Brass Caught Venting: ‘You’re Fucked, Putin—Motherfucker!’ “Two high-ranking Russian military officers have been caught shit-talking Kremlin leadership in unimaginably colorful language. The two colonels blast the defense minister and lash out at that ‘motherfucker’ Vladimir Putin for his poor strategy in Ukraine, according to a leaked recording of a phone conversation. While Western and Ukrainian intelligence agencies have routinely reported on plunging morale among rank-and-file Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, many of whom have been heard complaining of dysfunction in intercepted communications, the latest audio appears to be the first to expose frustrations among high-ranking officers.”

JIM TREACHER: No, There’s No Racist Backlash Against Star Wars. “Lando Calrissian is the coolest MF in the galaxy. He’s been around since 1980. Forty-two years ago! Before most of the people pretending this is a problem were even born. Back then, did George Lucas or Mark Hamill feel the need to put out a statement defending Billy Dee Williams? No. The two main changes to American society since then: 1) Now there’s Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and such, and 2) Star Wars is played out. Do racists say stupid crap in 2022? Sure. A lot of them work for CNN and MSNBC, but that’s another story. But is there some sort of racist backlash against Star Wars? No. Most people wouldn’t even know about any of this if Disney hadn’t put a spotlight on it.”

RECOVERY SUMMER: Gas prices hit new record; analysts wonder when we break $5 a gallon. “CBS’ analysts peg the date we hit $5 per gallon as the national average at June 17. I say… take the under, because Joe Biden’s “incredible transition” is accelerating.”

What’s the over/under on when we look back fondly on $5 gas?

BLAME WEED FOR MORE MASS MURDERERS: Ron Kessler makes a persuasive case for the proposition that the growing wave of states legalizing marijuana use is having two effects: First, the weed becoming available today is far stronger than what was common only a few years ago, and as a result, second, stronger weed contributes to increased mental illness and thus it’s no surprise to learn that many of the recent mass shooters were frequent smokers.

A BUMBLEBEE NEEDS FINS LIKE A FISH NEEDS A…: “It takes 35 pages of tortured logic in an opinion that reads like a parody, but the court concludes that bumblebees indeed are fish within the meaning of California’s environmental laws. I take it that all other insects, by the court’s logic, are also fish. I cite this decision as a warning to those who repose faith in our courts to check the excesses of the political branches. See also: Michael Sussman.”