Archive for 2022
January 30, 2022
TRUMP’S FOREIGN POLICY CONTINUES TO BEAR PEACEFUL FRUIT: Kuwaiti paper pushes normalization with Israel, criticizes Palestinians. “An editorial published over the weekend in the Kuwaiti daily Arab Times called for Gulf states to normalize relations with Israel, questioning why they supported the Palestinians despite the Palestinians repeatedly insulting the Gulf states.”
BOOK RECOMMENDATION: Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, Sexy, and Smart–Until You’re 80 and Beyond. #CommissionEarned I have read this a couple of times. At first I thought it was kind of goofy but the authors have some good ideas about aging.
Does Rogan give space to some crackers views about the Covid vaccines? Yep. So what? And I ask that as someone who is very pro-vaccination. If you dislike what Rogan says, then set up your own podcast to counter him. How about doing that, Neil Young? You could be pro-science for a change. Here’s the thing about Rogan: his success is the least mysterious thing in the 21st-century media landscape. It is the colonisation of the mainstream media by woke elites who all think in the exact same way, and who will hound you off their turf if you don’t, that created the conditions in which a questioning, dissenting pod like Rogan’s could become a global phenomenon. It is the mainstream media’s failures that birthed the success of Rogan and others; it is the stifling of free, frank, deep discussion in the old media that created the space for new media to emerge and flourish. The old hippy Neil Young would have understood that; the newly square Neil Young clearly doesn’t.
Meanwhile, in great moments in mutually assured cancellation: AWKWARD: Lefties CHEERING Neil Young for trying to cancel Joe Rogan TRIP spectacularly over his homophobic past.
Since the Washington Post believes that Eric Clapton should still be accountable for a drunken racist outburst in 1976, shouldn’t the same rules apply to Young?
Finally, also joining the cancel-culture brigade is Joni Mitchell — and Nils Lofrgen(?!): Springsteen guitarist Nils Lofgren latest to pull music off Spotify in protest.
Lofgren wasn’t exactly a best-selling solo artist in the 1970s, which is both why he joined Springsteen’s band after “Miami” Steve Van Zandt left temporarily in the mid-1980s, and why Lofgren is eager to get an extra 15 minutes of fame in 2022 by pulling his solo tunes from Spotify. But why is he defending someone who has made such homophobic statements? Why is he anti-free speech and pro-big government? Particularly when Springsteen himself has said that “blind faith in your leaders, or in anything, will get you killed:”
SCIENCE! Princeton course explores link between ‘settler colonialism’ and ‘nuclear science.’
Princeton University is offering a course this spring semester called “Nuclear Princeton: An Indigenous Approach to Science and the Environment,” which seeks to connect nuclear science to settler colonialism.
“How do we grapple with the lasting, unintended impacts of conducting science, engineering, and medicine in ‘the nation’s service and service of humanity?’” the course description says, with reference to Princeton’s motto. “What lessons can we learn from the University’s past to conduct morally sound research and generate culturally inclusive knowledge?”
Students will learn about the Ivy League university’s history with nuclear science and how it relates to the perspective of Native Americans.
Why are they smearing a discipline that is so essential to reducing carbon footprints? They’re climate criminals who should be canceled!
Exit question: Is Princeton really just concerned that nuclear engineering programs attract too many Asians?
ANNALS OF LEFT-INSTITUTION AUTOPHAGY: NCAA officer resigns amid transgender policy controversy as reports of Lia Thomas’ ‘entitlement’ surface.
Dorian Rhea Debussy, a member of the NCAA Division III LGBTQ OneTeam program, recently resigned over the organization’s updated policy on transgender athletes.
“I’m deeply troubled by what appears to be a devolving level of active, effective, committed, and equitable support for gender diverse student-athletes within the NCAA’s leadership,” Debussy said, according to Fox News, after the national organization adopted a “sport-by-sport” approach to determining transgender athlete’s eligibility to compete on opposite-gender teams.
According to Fox News, Debussy said, “As a non-binary, trans-feminine person, I can no longer, in good conscience, maintain my affiliation with the NCAA.”
Prior to this announcement, reports of University of Pennsylvania transgender swimmer Lia Thomas have recently surfaced accusing him of being arrogant and self-satisfied.
One of Thomas’ teammates came forward in an interview with the Washington Examiner, telling the outlet that the swimmer has compared himself to Jackie Robinson, the African-American baseball player who pioneered racial integration in the sport.
The teammate, who chose to remain anonymous, told the Washington Examiner, “She said she is like the Jackie Robinson of trans sports.”
The teammate also explained how the trans athlete’s sense of, “entitlement, selfishness, and a general disregard for overall performance,” has caused a “toxic” team environment.
Which is funny, because Jackie Robinson displayed none of those qualities.
CLARICE FELDMAN: The Democrats Make Their Own Racism Explicit.
FELONY MURDER IN A GOOD CAUSE? “The relevance of the story is enhanced by the fact that sentencing judge Wilhelmina ‘Mimi’ Wright is now reportedly on the shortlist of potential nominees to succeed Justice Breyer on the Supreme Court.”
ROGER KIMBALL: Bad Portents for Biden.
I thought of that episode the other day when I read of the dramatic collapse of a bridge in Pittsburgh just before Joe Biden was due to arrive to rally his troops for a further assault on American independence and prosperity.
That wasn’t how the agenda was described, of course. No, it was supposed to be the “unofficial launch of a new strategy the President devised to shore up his political fortunes by changing how he spends his time.”
In particular, we are told, Biden will be spending less time wrangling with Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D- Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D- W.Va.) over why they refuse to rubber-stamp his agenda and more time “jetting to places where he can highlight his achievements to ordinary Americans.” I do like to think about what “highlighting his achievements” might mean. I think this is where logicians start talking about “null sets.” Bridge collapse or no bridge collapse, however, I don’t think that was meant ironically. To quote Donald Trump, “Sad!”
But this just underscores the uncomfortable possibility that, when it comes to Joe Biden, the signs and portents are addressed as much to us as to him.
Biden talks about infrastructure. We’re the ones that have to drive over the crumbling bridges.
Democrats have been talking about — and spending hundreds of billions — on “infrastructure” for decades, but somehow the bridges keep crumbling.
DEAL OF THE DAY: Greenworks 40V 12″ Chainsaw, 2.0Ah Battery and Charger Included. #CommissionEarned
WELL, HE’S NOT WRONG: Bill Maher Boasts ‘I’m a Hero at Fox These Days’ Because ‘Liberals Have Their Head Up Their Ass.’
It’s not me who’s changed, it’s the left, who is now made up of a small contingent who’ve gone mental. And a large contingent who refuse to call them out for it. But I will.
That’s why I’m a hero at Fox these days. Which shows just how much liberals have their head up their ass, because if they really thought about it, they would have made me a hero on their media. . . .
People sometimes say to me, You don’t, you didn’t. You didn’t used to make fun of the left as much. Yeah, because they didn’t give me so much to work with. The oath of office I took was to comedy. And if you do goofy shit, wherever you are in this spectrum, I’m going to make fun of you because that’s where the gold is.
Plus: “Maher went on to cite some of his favorite targets: ‘Canceling Lincoln and Dr. Seuss. Teaching children they’re oppressors. And math is racist, making Mr. Potato Head gender-neutral, and now an emoji for pregnant men.'”
“I CAN THINK OF NOTHING ELSE BUT THIS MACHINE”: On this day (N.S.) in 1736, James Watt was born. He did not invent the steam engine. But the improvements he made on Thomas Newcomen’s steam engine were so significant that the invention of the Watt Steam Engine was arguably the act that began the Industrial Revolution.
P.S. Heriot-Watt University in Scotland has forever linked Watt’s name with mine … or, more accurately, with somebody else with a first initial G and the surname Heriot.
FOR ONE THING, THE PRESS IS CONSTANTLY ENCOURAGING IT: Why Masked, Unmasked Have Disdain for Each Other.
Among the many unbridgeable divides between Americans is a completely antithetical view of mask wearing.
On one side are those who wear masks almost everywhere outside their homes and who demand that others do so, including young children in class and on outdoor playgrounds, and 2-year-olds on airplanes. On the other side are those who only wear a mask where they are punished for not doing so (most obviously, airplanes). They regard masks as essentially pacifiers for adults.
Generally speaking, these two groups have disdain for each other.
Why the pro-mask half of America holds the anti-mask half in contempt needs little explanation. They believe anti-mask Americans are putting others in grave danger. Pro-maskers believe that even children who do not wear masks put their own lives and the lives of other children and teachers at risk.
Consequently, pro-mask Americans regard those who do not wear masks, let alone those who actively oppose mask wearing, as selfish, anti-science potential killers.
What may be less obvious is why anti-maskers hold pro-maskers in equal contempt. So, this needs explaining in greater detail. After all, anti-maskers don’t believe that maskers are putting people in hospitals. First, anti-maskers regard the charges made against them by pro-maskers as baseless. Therefore, as odd as it sounds, anti-maskers have contempt for the pro-maskers’ contempt.
To wrongly charge people with causing mass death is, to understate the case, immoral. And if this charge is demonstrably wrong, the people who level it are the ones who are anti-science.
Since each side regards the other as “anti-science,” what is the science? Nearly all public health authorities claim that masks are absolutely necessary to save lives. But they have virtually no science to back up the claim.
Anthony Fauci says mask, and as he informed us recently, he is science. He was also science, I suppose, back when he told us not to mask. So, really, both sides in this debate can claim to have science on their side. Or at least to have had it on their side at some point.
NONE OF THIS WOKE STUFF APPEALS TO THE NORMAL-AMERICAN MAJORITY: Poll: Americans oppose relocating Theodore Roosevelt statue.
HE’S RIGHT, YOU KNOW: John McWhorter: It’s Time to End Race-Based Affirmative Action.
I don’t want an admissions officer to consider the obstacles my children have faced, because in 2022, as opposed to in 1972, they really face no more or less than their white peers do.
I don’t want that admissions officer to consider that, perhaps here and there, someone, somewhere, underestimated them because both of their parents aren’t white. In the 2020s, that will have happened so seldom to them, as upper-middle-class persons living amid America’s most racially enlightened Blue American white people, that I’m quite sure it will not imprint them existentially any more than it did me, coming of age in the 1970s and 1980s.
I don’t want the admissions officer to consider my children’s “diversity.” For one thing, their diversity from the other kids in their neighborhoods, classrooms and lives is something of an abstraction. They wear clothes from Old Navy, watch (and rewatch) “Frozen” and “Encanto,” and play a lot of Roblox, just like their peers. And I will never forget a line from a guidebook that Black students at Harvard wrote two decades ago: “We are not here to provide diversity training for Kate and Timmy.” Yep — and if we salute the enterprising undergrads who wrote that, we must question the general thrust of the sundry amicus briefs that will be offered in the Harvard and U.N.C. cases, about how kids of color are vital to a campus because of their diversity, echoing the statement of Harvard’s president, just this week, that “Considering race as one factor among many in admissions decisions produces a more diverse student body which strengthens the learning environment for all.”
“Diversity” has become one of those terms (and ideas) that makes us feel cozy inside, like freshly baked blueberry muffins and “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” But how would you feel about looking a Black undergraduate in the eye and saying, “A lot of the reason we wanted you here, on our campus, is your differences from most of the other students and the life lessons they can learn from them”? Someone says, “I want my kids to interact with Black students before they go out into the world.” I ask, “Just what was it about Black people that you were hoping your kids would learn?”
Related: “Yes, it’s quite clear — if you look straight at it — that the diversity rationale for affirmative action is about the benefit to the whole student body, that is, to the mostly white students who are admitted. The black students are used as a means to an end, and the end is something quite vague and — as McWhorter demonstrates — actually embarrassing to say clearly.”
THE SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM SEEKS VOLUNTEERS TO SERVE ON LOCAL DRAFT BOARDS:
Local Board Members play an important community role closely connected with our nation’s defense. In the event of a draft, approximately 2,000 Selective Service local boards would decide which registrants in their respective communities receive deferments, postponements, and/or exemptions based upon established criteria. . . .
In order to meet the minimum requirements for serving as a Local Board Member, you must be at least 18 years of age and a U.S. citizen who registered with Selective Service, if male. Further, you must not work in law enforcement (e.g. police officer or judge), must not be an active or retired career member of the Armed Forces, Reserves, and/or National Guard, and must not have been convicted of any criminal offense.
Just FYI.
WHAT IS DUMBER THAN STARTING A WAR WITH RUSSIA IN WINTER? Zelensky Slams Biden: ‘I Think I Know the Details Deeper Than Any Other President’.
Trying to start a war with Russia in Winter and failing. But hey, Obama picked Biden due to his — stop me if you’ve heard this one before — “foreign policy experience.”
WELL, THE RUSSIANS MADE THEM DO IT: Nova Scotia Moves Quickly Using Emergency Declaration to Ban Truck Convoys and Highway Cheering, $10,000 Fine For Cheering on Roadway.
Giggle. Sure. This will end well….
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): A friend comments:
1. Government does something unpopular to a sizable percentage of the public.
2. Public organizes a protest; people join and Assemble to express their displeasure.
3. Government cries out that the assembly is an insurrection and uses subterfuge and violence to punish the people.Welcome to the 21st century.
Demonstrations are only for establishment-approved groups. That is, demonstrations are only okay when they’re used to cow people who oppose the establishment, not when they’re used to challenge the establishment itself.
WE’RE WELL PAST PORTENTS: Bad Portents for Biden.
So we get Cat! Supreme court justice!
Next up: Squirrel.
Even I am not falling for those, and I’m ADD as heck.
SCRATCH A MARXIST — ANY MARXIST — AND YOU’LL FIND A MONEYGRUBBING, AMORAL GREEDYGUTS: Black Lives Matter sent millions to Canada charity to buy mansion.
It’s almost — almost — like being devotees of a cult that considers envy a virtue deforms your mind and soul. Nah. That’s un-possible.
TO ALL THE COURTS WHO REFUSED TO HEAR LAWSUITS UNTIL THE FRAUSIDENT WAS SWORN IN: Pennsylvania Court Finds State’s Mail-in Voting Law Unconstitutional.
We will not forget. That’s all. When you go to bed at night, or get up in the morning, remember: Americans remember. Your deeds won’t be forgotten. They also betray who refuse to stop a soft coup.
ABOLISH ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND LEFTIST PUDDING HEADS INSTEAD: The war against police: we’ve learned more about Oscar Rosales…