Archive for 2024

OLD AND BUSTED: “Queers for Palestine.”

The New Hotness? Islamists Are Reenacting the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, and the Green Crowd Couldn’t Care Less.

Do America’s environmentalists oppose the Houthis’ blowing up oil tankers because it results in massive spills and a “severe ecological disaster,” or quietly support them because they represent attacks on the fossil-fuel industry?

It’s easy to wonder about the latter, as life stateside is full of people who will give you grief about your Big Mac, your SUV, your gas stove, and now your air conditioning. Meanwhile, these kidnapping, humanitarian-aid-obstructing, cholera-exacerbating Islamists who carried out a “partial and limited reintroduction of slavery” are reenacting the Exxon Valdez spill, and you barely hear a peep from the green crowd. It’s easy to conclude their movement is primarily focused upon hassling you, not about protecting the Earth.

The current president of the United States — that’s Joe Biden if you’ve forgotten. I know it’s easy to forget when he only does one public event per week — has not made any substantive remarks about the threat from the Houthis since January. The Biden administration would probably prefer if you forgot that one of its first actions was to remove the Iranian-backed Houthis from the U.S. list of global terrorist organizations.

As with those who attack Christianity but steer very far away from attacking Islam, now we know the limits of the crowd that glues themselves to the floor and throws paint at priceless artwork.

JESUS IS A CAPITALIST: Silicon entrepreneur and evangelical social media influencer Rod Martin is circulating his 2021 Facebook column with that arresting title. Martin knows his scripture and his economics, so his essay is sure to anger a bunch a folks across the ideological and spiritual spectrums.

DISPATCHES FROM THE PARTY OF TOLERANCE FOR DIVERSITY: How a beloved comedy actress became liberal Hollywood’s public enemy number one.

Describing Kennedy Jr’s decision to run on the principle of “unity”, [RFK Jr’s wife Cheryl Hines] concluded that “It’s been my experience that the vast majority of all parties are truly good people who want the best for our country and for each other.”

Unfortunately for Hines, many of these “truly good” people are deeply opposed to her. The actor Bradley Whitford, who starred in The West Wing and is well-known for his liberal and progressive politics, tore into her publicly, writing “Hey, @CherylHines, way to stay silent while your lunatic husband throws his support behind the adjudicated rapist who brags about stripping women of their fundamental rights. Gutsy. Great example for the kids.” He sardonically referred to Kennedy Jr’s uncle JFK’s famous 1956 book about the courageous actors of American senators in his tweet, concluding “Profile in courage.”

And although most actors have remained silent about the matter, Hines has now become a public laughing-stock both because of her marriage to RFK Jr and her recent statement. One wit, mocking her use of the word ‘presidency’, wrote “I didn’t realize he was president. Or in your worm eaten brains, maybe he already was.”

Other social media users have been quick to pillory Hines. One complained that “You suck. I can’t even enjoy the episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm with you in them anymore”, while another, either deliberately blending fact and fiction or acting out of confusion, declared that “It’s no wonder Larry divorced you.” There have, admittedly, been many statements of support for Hines, but these have come almost exclusively from Trump supporters.

If only someone had warned that for a company town that allegedly hates blacklisting, it doesn’t take much at all to blacklist yourself there.

YOUR MOVE, XI: No U.S. Navy Aircraft Carriers Deployed In The Pacific. “The departure of USS Abraham Lincoln coincides with the change in homeport of USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) from Yokosuka, Japan to Bremerton, Washington. The Ronald Reagan‘s replacement, the USS George Washington (CVN 73) still in San Diego on a scheduled port visit.”

IN A NUTSHELL:

SURVEY FINDS PUBLIC OPPOSES JUDICIAL ETHICS ‘REFORM:’ Big majority of American voters aren’t buying President Joe Biden’s far-reaching judicial ethics reform proposal, according to a new survey for First Liberty Institute by Mason-Dixon.

DECOUPLING: Chinese firms import record levels of chip making equipment.

The country imported a record $26 billion worth of such machinery, while ASML — a Dutch firm that makes the world’s most advanced chip lithography devices — reported surging sales to China.

A Washington-based semiconductor trade association, meanwhile, warned that Chinese tech giant Huawei was building a secret set of chip making facilities to evade US sanctions, according to Bloomberg.

Semiconductors have emerged as a key issue in the US-China rivalry, with Washington enlisting allies to restrict Beijing’s access to the most advanced chip technology: A think tank said this week China lags the sector’s global leaders by about five years.

Intel continues struggling and China looks serious about catching up to Taiwan Semi.

WOEING: Major Tom Not Coming Home on Starliner — What Next for Boeing? “There’s no way NASA will certify Starliner for manned missions without yet another crewed flight test to the ISS. You know, one that ends successfully with the astronauts coming back home in the same space capsule they arrived in. Since Starliner is done on a fixed-price basis, that extra flight test — just like the extra unmanned flight test in 2022 — will come out of Boeing’s pocket.”

A BLOW AGAINST BIGOTRY: U. Missouri black group ‘heartbroken’ over having to change racially exclusive event name: ‘Welcome Black BBQ’ now called ‘Welcome Black and Gold BBQ.’ “The Legion of Black Collegians, which according its website is ‘the only Black Student Government in the Nation,’ noted on Instagram that it was ‘heartbroken’ by the university’s name-change decision, and that it spent ‘several months’ fighting it. Mizzou’s school colors are black and gold.”

HARRIS, HOUSING, OPEN BORDERS: It may seem at first glance to be an unexpected connection — the cost of housing and the rate of legal and illegal immigration into the U.S. — but it is nevertheless quite real and damaging, according to Wintery Knight.

Among much else, Wintery Knight points out Canada’s experience in this area:

“The same thing happened in Canada, after nine years of Justin Trudeau. He let in MILLIONS of illegal immigrants and refugees – people who pay less in taxes than they collect in benefits. And you can bet they need somewhere to live.

“Unfortunately, Trudeau’s anti-business policies have killed the home construction industry. Demand went up, supply went down. Now the average price of a single-family home in Canada is up to $801,600 CAD. ($593,406.75 USD) And if that were not bad enough, the massive influx of unskilled immigrants has caused health care costs to skyrocket – up to $17, 713 CAD for a two-parent family with two children. Demand is going up, but supply is going down, as many Canadian doctors leave to work in countries that pay more, and tax less.”