“ZERO COVID” IS A FANTASY: Spread of COVID-19 to animals raises concern for further mutations.
I’m concerned that we’re still relying on vaccines built around the very first iteration of the disease, and as far as I can tell not developing new ones against newer mutations.
ROSS DOUTHAT: We Aren’t Just Watching the Decline of the Oscars. We’re Watching the End of the Movies.
Everyone has a theory about the decline of the Academy Awards, the sinking ratings that have led to endless Oscar reinventions. The show is too long; no, the show is too desperate to pander to short attention spans. The movies are too woke; no, the academy voters aren’t diverse enough. Hollywood makes too many superhero movies; no, the academy doesn’t nominate enough superhero movies. (A querulous voice from the back row: Why can’t they just bring back Billy Crystal?)
My favored theory is that the Oscars are declining because the movies they were made to showcase have been slowly disappearing. The ideal Oscar nominee is a high-middlebrow movie, aspiring to real artistry and sometimes achieving it, that’s made to be watched on the big screen, with famous stars, vivid cinematography and a memorable score. It’s neither a difficult film for the art-house crowd nor a comic-book blockbuster but a film for the largest possible audience of serious adults — the kind of movie that was commonplace in the not-so-distant days when Oscar races regularly threw up conflicts in which every moviegoer had a stake: “Titanic” against “L.A. Confidential,” “Saving Private Ryan” against “Shakespeare in Love,” “Braveheart” against “Sense and Sensibility” against “Apollo 13.”
That analysis explains why this year’s Academy Awards — reworked yet again, with various technical awards taped in advance and a trio of hosts added — have a particular sense of an ending about them. There are 10 best picture nominees, and many of them look like the kind of Oscar movies that the show so desperately needs. “West Side Story”: Steven Spielberg directing an update of a classic musical! “King Richard”: a stirring sports movie lifted by a bravura Will Smith performance! “Dune”: an epic adaptation of a science-fiction classic! “Don’t Look Up”: a big-issue movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence! “Drive My Car”: a three-hour Japanese film about the complex relationship between a widowed thespian and his young female chauffeur!
Flashback: The Left Ruined the Oscars and Super Bowl. What’s Next?
As Iowahawk has said:
Exit question: Is There Any Way to Save the Oscars?
MY DAD SUFFERED A YEAR OF DEEP DEPRESSION: Some patients suffer mental decline after a heart attack.
DAVID SOLWAY: The Pandemic State Is Here to Stay.
The “pandemic state” is here to stay for the indefinite future, though in different manifestations. Political authority has devolved into one or another form of totalitarian governance, characterized by disparate structures of repression as they arise across the political spectrum. In his must-read Scanned: Why Vaccine Passports and Digital IDs Will Mean the End of Privacy and Personal Freedom, Nick Corbishley exposes the technology of population control, showing that a return to normality is a mere fantasy.
No new virus need emerge. Pandemic psychology controls the public mind and pandemic policy has prepared the way for a new political order—Schwab’s “global strategic framework of governance,” that is, a fascist regime in all but name. The norms and customs we took for granted will not return. Metaphorically, it is as if someone who has been severely wounded or disfigured must still bear the scars and impediments of his trauma. The handicap is here to stay.
Moreover, far too many people seem to love their injury. There is no going back to a previous condition of comparative innocence and social flexibility. The state will continue to further corrode traditional liberties—privacy, assembly, mobility, communication, currency—towards the goal of citizen submission to a dominant citadel of power, an administrative panopticon. And as de la Boétie understood, the majority will willingly comply, the paradoxical source of their own affliction. The lockdown state has the blessing of the multitudes. When exfiltration is not possible, there is little option for the remnant but to resist inwardly and refuse to give consent to their political abusers.
The heritage of the Judeo-Christian West, based on faith in a higher power, the rule of law and the sovereignty of the individual, has been decisively breached. We now inhabit a time of domestic menace. For those who continue to cherish their liberty, the best we can do is plan and cope.
Flashback: Are you ready for the climate lockdowns? It’s only a matter of time.
DON SURBER: Sure, bring back the ’50s. “Liberals scoff. To them, the 1950s were too middle class. Liberals hate the middle class and always have. They want a world where they are the 1% and everyone else is poor.”
HELLO, I MUST BE GOING: Phil Collins bids emotional farewell to fans at his final concert.
CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL: The last American tourist.
I was driving along a curvy English road outside a village in Gloucestershire a few weeks ago when a sign loomed on our left. It said:
CATS
EYES
REMOVED
My first thought was: What a horrible way to make a living in this day and age, even out here in the countryside. So much for All Things Bright and Beautiful… Maybe those people who said that Brexit would turn the English into depraved monsters were right.
I was jumping to conclusions. It hadn’t been put up by an entrepreneur or veterinarian but by the highway authority. Cat’s eyes are what the English call those super-reflective bumps embedded in the stripes on minor highways to keep drivers from drifting across lanes. The sign was a warning that this curvy road had recently become much more dangerous. But how, in this heavily touristed part of England, was a non-English driver to know that?
It was a theoretical question. No place today is “heavily touristed.” The past two years have seen an extraordinary lull in international travel, due at first to Covid but later to the stubborn persistence of the measures taken to contain it, and all the exertion, expense, inconvenience and indignity they have entailed: The overzealous nurses who think “nasal swab” is Italian for “cerebral probe.” The angry flight attendants shaking you awake in the middle of the night to tell you your mask has slipped off your nose…
All this has changed the culture of yesterday’s hotspots. Americans — bossy, querulous, ubiquitous — have for the last two years been almost entirely absent. Foreign countries suddenly feel more foreign. Long before the invasion of Ukraine, the era in which we exuberantly measured our civilization’s advance by tallying new McDonald’s had come to an end. London’s fastest-growing franchise chain seems to the be the Indian teahouse Chaiiwala, which started in Leicester in 2015 (and is really superb). The one in Brompton Road has a prayer room downstairs.
Read the whole thing.
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Elon Says FSD, Fully Reusable SpaceX Starship this Year and Teslabot Next Year.
DEAL OF THE DAY: TurboTax Deluxe 2021 Tax Software, Federal and State Tax Return with Federal E-file [Amazon Exclusive] [PC Download]. #CommissionEarned
H.D. MILLER: The Abernathy Boys Go for a Ride.
The point, however, is that, before World War I, children did things that we don’t think of as childish, which is how it had always been. Children have always been much more capable than we currently give them credit for being, for better (the Abernathys) or worse (like poor Shorpy). Yes, children should be children, free to do childish things, but they also need to be challenged and given progressive responsibility as they grow older. Our failure to understand this is one of sadder things about our current world.
The second sad thing, of course, is the closing of possibility. 1910 America was a wild and wide-open place. It was exciting, loud, grubby, glittering, frequently coarse and surprisingly refined, all at the same time. There were righteous causes to champion, and great injustices to fight. But, above all else, you could do things. It wasn’t exactly a frontier, anymore, but close enough for a pair of boys to mount their ponies and ride across. And that’s the biggest change of all, so many possibilities are gone, so much has been foreclosed to us and our children.
Read the whole thing,
VIP ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERY (MAYBE): Some biblical critics contend the Hebrews were not a literate society when they entered the Promised Land, therefore the Old Testament could not have been written until much later. But now a recent archeological discovery in Israel, according to Dr. Sean McDowell on HillFaith, potentially sheds immensely important new light on the issue.
UPDATE: Just read through the 60 comments now on this post and I have to say thank you (especially Tex Taylor) for the great discussion among so many of you, including the references to additional sources and the role of literacy versus oral tradition. I didn’t expect this post to get much comment, so this is an unexpected blessing.
“I THINK WE CAN LAUNCH SATELLITES FASTER THAN THEY CAN LAUNCH ANTI-SATELLITE MISSILES:” Elon Musk said it would not be easy for Russia and China to ‘take out’ Starlink satellites if they attempted to.
USUALLY THEY LEAK LIKE A SIEVE IN FRONT OF A FIREHOSE: “The FBI remains very tight-lipped about its investigation into a plethora of bomb threats targeting historically black colleges and universities in recent months.”
JOHN NOLTE: Disney’s Support for Child Grooming Is a Game Changer.
We now live in a country where one of our two major political parties and the corporate media are pro-grooming. On top of a Supreme Court nominee who obviously does not see child porn as a terrible thing, who’s seeking to gradually de-criminalize child porn, the entire Democrat party has come out against a Florida bill meant to stop teachers from grooming little kids. All the Florida bill does is forbid the classroom teaching of sexuality in kindergarten through third grade. That’s all it does. In my mind, it doesn’t go far enough. Schools should not be teaching sexuality, period. But Democrats and the media are angry that kids aged four to seven are not having their innocence shattered when they should be learning to read and write.
Also in favor of sexual grooming is the Walt Disney Co.
In what will be remembered as one of the greatest betrayals in the world of entertainment, the Walt Disney Co. has not only come out against Florida’s “don’t-groom-little-kids” bill, Disney is agreeing to use its brand and platforms to take up the slack with its own grooming.
Disney’s first move was to add a same-sex kiss to its new theatrical blockbuster, Buzz Lightyear.
What decent parent wants to expose their little kids to that kind of sexual confusion, to any sort of sexuality?
Disney has also promised to ramp up its gay and transsexual content in children’s shows.
Think about what a betrayal this is…
Disney — Disney! —is looking to groom your kids, to come between parent and child, to manipulate and shape their sexuality before it develops naturally. To what end? For what purpose? We all know what the endgame is. To twist your kids into damaged and sexualized objects who can be exploited.
Read the whole thing.
DON’T GO FULL ‘LIBERTY CABBAGE’ ON RUSSIA: Orchestras Pull Tchaikovsky From Concerts Over Russia’s War on Ukraine.
Several orchestras have recently announced changes to their concert programs, removing the legendary Romantic-era composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky from their lineups amid the Russian war on Ukraine.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine at the end of February, and several large companies and corporations have since cut ties with Russia in response. Even more support for Ukraine has been shown as citizens across the world have personally boycotted Russian-based goods or services, but some internet users say that the banning of 19th-century classical music might be taking it a step too far.
On Wednesday, Wales’ Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra announced it would be removing Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” from a March 18 concert.
Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the Romantic Period, best known for his ballets, “The Nutcracker,” “Swan Lake,” and “Sleeping Beauty,” as well as several more famous concertos and symphonies, including “1812 Overture.” The composer died in 1893 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
A statement on the orchestra’s official website said, “In light of the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra, with the agreement of St. David’s Hall, feel the previously advertised programme including the 1812 Overture to be inappropriate at this time.”
Related: Do You Remember 9/11 And How They Cleansed World History Of All Mention Of Muslims? Neither do I.
(Classical reference in headline.)
WE DON’T ALLOW PEOPLE TO TEACH WHITE SUPREMACY IN SCHOOLS ANYMORE: Governor bans Critical Race Theory in schools, says it ‘threatens the integrity of education.’
And CRT is just a different — though surprisingly similar — flavor of racism.
DEAL OF THE DAY: GearLight LED Head Lamp – Pack of 2 Outdoor Flashlight Headlamps w/ Adjustable Headband for Adults and Kids. #CommissionEarned
OUR INSTITUTIONS ARE ROTTEN, BUT FEW ARE AS CORRUPT AS THE “JUSTICE” DEPARTMENT: Secret Seizure of James O’Keefe Cloud Email, Abusive DOJ Lawyers and a Vindictive Father President.
DEMOCRACY DIES IN AIRBRUSHING: Not a joke: The Washington Post is legit describing child pornography as just “pornography.”
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Holy Cringe: No, Elizabeth Warren, Student Debt is Not a ‘Gender Justice’ Issue.
Today’s a day that ends in y, so Elizabeth Warren is posting cringe again.
“Women owe over two-thirds of student debt,” the Massachusetts Democrat tweeted Thursday. “Canceling student debt would help give millions of women a fair shot at starting a business, saving for a home, and pursuing their dreams. Student debt is a gender justice issue. It’s time for [President Biden] to act.”
Suffice it to say that I find this attempt to put woke bubble wrap around a terrible policy proposal utterly unconvincing.
Someone needs to ask Warren if she can define what a woman is.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: Congress passed the Naval Act of 1794, which established a permanent navy and authorized the construction of six frigates, which (surprise!) ended up costing more than Congress originally appropriated.
The six ships were: United States (1797), Constellation (1797), Constitution (1797), Congress (1799), Chesapeake (1799), and President (1800). Of these, only the Constitution is still afloat.
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