THE DEVIL SHALL NOT BE MOCKED: Ocasio-Cortez Throws Hissy Fit Over Twitter Parody Account.
Archive for 2023
May 31, 2023
DUMB INDEED: Dumb Company Tricks.
May 30, 2023
OPEN THREAD: It’s a short post-holiday week for many.
THERE IS, IN SHORT, INCREDIBLE CORRUPTION IN MINORITY BUSINESS ENTERPRISE PROGRAMS: Welcome to the World of Minority Contracting.
When writing my book Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America (currently, btw, at its lowest price on Amazon to date), three things struck me about MBE affirmative action. One is that the Supreme Court issued two pretty strict rulings against in in 1989 and 1994, everyone thought this would be the end of minority contracting quotas and preferences. As it turned out, government at all levels was so committed to these programs that they exploited loopholes in the decisions and took advantage of the limited resources of preference opponents, such that racial preferences in contracting are more prevalent than ever. Which shows, in turn, that if SCOTUS want to get rid of such programs, whether in education or contracting, they need to hold them unconstitutional, period.
The second is that these programs were instituted in the 1970s to help black Americans integrate into the national economy, but the vast majority of such contracts go to post-1965 Hispanic, Caribbean, African, and Asian immigrants and their descendants, and to people with distant Native American heritage. Very few MBE contracts to descendants of American slaves. I tried to get some hard data on this from friends in the Trump federal Department of Transportation, but word came back that the statistics were so embarrassing that no one would ever release them. Meanwhile, given immigration and intermarriage rates, within a few decades eighty percent or more of Americans will be eligible for an MBE preference. If almost everyone gets a preference, does it still count as affirmative action?
Third, not only can people with only vague, distant minority ancestry claim MBE status, there is an incredible amount of fraud in these programs. Paper-only majority ownership by minorities, with the real owners being white men. White men pretending to be American Indians (finally, in 2019 the DOT started requiring tribal membership instead of self-identification), white men buying membership in Indian tribes, white men inventing otherwise non-existent Indian tribes and getting state legislatures to recognize the new tribe … and so on. It’s remarkable given the level of fraud and the amount of money involved that there is no book on the subject, and precious few investigations by journalists.
THIS TWEET FROM AN MLB PITCHER IS SURE TO MAKE LEFTIST SPORTS MEDIA MELT DOWN:
As the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball club continues to hem-and-haw its way through a controversy created by its decision to honor a group called The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for their supposed contributions to the City of Angels — more on their, ahem, activities from Mia here — a growing number of baseball fans and faith-based organizations have registered their disapproval of the Dodgers’ decision.
Among them, as of Tuesday afternoon, is Trevor Williams, a 31-year-old pitcher for the Washington Nationals who happens to be Catholic and decided to use his platform to speak out against the Dodgers and Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in a statement on Twitter. His admirable decision to use his voice rather than remain silent is sure to send left-wing media — especially leftward-lurching sports media — screeching into the abyss.
“As a devout Catholic, I am deeply troubled by the Dodgers’ decision to re-invite and honor the group ‘The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’ at their Pride Night this year,” Williams said in his tweeted statement. “A Major League Baseball game is a place where people from all walks of life should feel welcomed, something I greatly respect and support. This is the purpose of different themed nights hosted by the organization, including Pride Night,” he continued.
Exit quote: “Say a prayer for this man. The demons are gonna come for him with everything they have. They cannot risk others showing this kind of courage.“
THE NEW SPACE RACE: China launches 3 astronauts to Tiangong space station on Shenzhou 16 spacecraft.
JOHN STOSSEL AND DAN MITCHELL ON the entitlement problem.
More here.
$1.5 TRILLION HERE, $1.5 TRILLION THERE, PRETTY SOON YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT REAL MONEY: CBO Projects Debt-Ceiling Deal to Reduce Budget Deficits by $1.5 Trillion over Next Decade.
WELL, THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA: Chick-fil-A hires VP of diversity, equity, inclusion; Twitter says it is going ‘woke.’
To be fair, it’s a bad idea for anyone. But it’s off-brand and horribly timed, too.
IN ANSWER TO THE LATTER, A SHITTY LEADERSHIP CLASS, FOR ONE THING: What Makes America Work, and Why Is It Stumbling?
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: With All Other Companies Going Woke, Conservatives Make Last Stand At Texas Buc-ee’s.
I was at the Fort Worth Buc-ee’s two week ago, and it looked remarkably unwoke. No word yet if there will be rainbow Beaver Nuggets for Pride month, though.
The French historian Fernand Braudel remarks in Out of Italy that “decadence” is what occurs in a civilization when it rejects the ideas and ideals responsible for its origin and growth. In her recently published book, Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race, Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Professor of Religion and Science in Society at Wesleyan University, offers just such a bold rejection of everything that Western humanist civilization stands for or has ever stood for. If you think that the world has had quite enough of freedom, progress, science, and reason, this is the book for you.
It should be well-received in academia, then.
I DON’T BELIEVE THIS HEADLINE, SINCE IT CONTAINS THE WORDS “HOLLYWOOD THINKS.” Hollywood Thinks You Need More Movies About Climate Change.
AOC INADVERTENTLY ADMITS YOU CAN’T DISTINGUISH HER OWN WRITING FROM A PARODY ACCOUNT: AOC upset over parody press account cracking up conservative social media.
REVIEW: Ruger Security .380. “One of the recent trends in the firearm world is pistols that are designed for use by people who may not be in prime physical condition. Features commonly found on these typically compact models include slides that are easy to move back and forth and triggers that are shorter and lighter than what are commonly found on today’s striker-fired offerings. These features are present on the new Ruger Security-380, and as an added touch, the Security-380 is chambered in .380 ACP, which has less recoil than the 9 mm used in so many defensive pistols.”
UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: Scientists discover two underwater cities built by octopuses.
MISINFORMATION:
This is the best video I’ve seen on @twitter. Watch it. Have any of these people apologized for being 100% wrong on covid and “the science?” Trust me, watch it: pic.twitter.com/NnsmOCMMsT
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) May 24, 2023
But be fair, they weren’t more than 99.5% wrong.
UNEXPECTEDLY: Wealth Taxes Result in Rich People Fleeing, Turns Out.
If your net wealth is approximately $135,000 or more and you live in Norway, you’ve long been subject to a 0.85 percent wealth tax. That rate has, as of this year, been hiked to 1.1 percent by the center-left government, and even more gobs of cash will be taken from rich people worth roughly $1.8 million, who will be taxed at a rate of 1.3 percent.
Unfortunately for the Norwegian lefties—and their American counterparts who argue for similar taxes to be instituted here—this wealth tax hasn’t really generated the revenue they’d expected. It has instead resulted in rich people boarding their superyachts and leaving those fjords behind forevermore.
Per the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv, 30 of the country’s multimillionaires and billionaires left the country last year in advance of the wealth tax hike. “This was more than the total number of super-rich people who left the country during the previous 13 years, it added,” noted The Guardian. “Even more super-rich individuals are expected to leave this year because of the increase in wealth tax in November, costing the government tens of millions in lost tax receipts.”
“Bad luck.”
READER FAVORITE: Sun Joe SWJ803E 10 inch 8.0 Amp Electric Multi-Angle Pole Chain Saw. #CommissionEarned