FLAG OFFICERS FOR AMERICA COME OUT SWINGING:  On May 16th, 160 retired Admirals and Generals wrote a letter urging Congress to defund the military’s insane Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program.  The letter begins:

We respectfully request that Congress, pursuant to its constitutional powers “… to raise and support Armies …” and “… to provide and maintain a Navy …,” take legislative action to remove all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs from the Department of Defense (DoD).  Additionally, we ask that you ensure that no DEI related policies, programs, and funding are included in the 2024 NDAA.

As our Nation faces looming threats from “foreign” adversaries/enemies, our military is under assault from a culture war stemming from “domestic” ideologically inspired political policies and practices.  If not stopped now, they will forever change the military’s warrior ethos essential to performing the mission of deterring aggression and failing that, to fight and win our Nation’s wars.  Our military must be laser focused on one mission–readiness, undiminished by the culture war engulfing our country.

For generations, our military was a meritocracy, which, simply defined, means selection and advancement based solely on merit and ability.  Service Members (SMs) were judged not by the color of their skin but by their character, duty performance, and potential.  Meritocracy, coupled with equal opportunity, created conditions for all to advance and excel, which stimulates healthy competition, thereby raising standards.  Historically, our military has been one of, if not the most, diverse and inclusive institution in America.

The domestic cultural threat has an innocuous name:  “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI).  But, in reality DEI is dividing, not uniting, our military and society. … Under the guide of DEI, some people are selected for career enhancing opportunities and advancement based on preferences given to identity groups based on race, gender, ethnic background, sexual orientation, etc.

It’s quite the letter.  You can find the list of signatories at the link above.

ANOTHER LINCOLN STATUE IN JEOPARDY:  It’s so nice to know that the average college freshman is morally superior to every human being in history.  We should let those nice students get rid of all the statues and decorate their campuses with selfies.

UNSURPRISING:  Study Shows that Teachers’ Race Does Not Affect Students’ Outcomes.

HOLY TOLEDO, DOJ IS BARKING MAD:  “Justice Department:  Crime Statistics Are Racist, Shouldn’t Be Used to Focus Resources on High-Crime Areas.”

HOT! HOT!:  In An Originalist Approach to Prospective Overruling, my colleague Michael Rappaport and John O. McGinnis argue that the Supreme Court can prospectively overrule bad precedent as part of a strategy to get back to the Constitution’s original meaning.  It’s sure to be controversial.

HANS BADER:  “California Reparations Task Force Recommends Paying Black Residents Up to $1.2 Million Based on Their Race.”

NEITHER SIDE IS VERY BIG ON FEDERALISM:  As Dems push national gun control legislation, two Reps introduce national “Stand Your Ground” bill.  (Here’s my primer on “Stand Your Ground” laws.)

WIKIPEDIA’S ROBESPIERRE:  On this day in 1758, the bloodthristy Maximilien Robespierre was born in the French province of Artois.  Weirdly, Wikipedia has an almost hagiographic entry for him.  It emphasizes all the wonderful causes he endorsed–such as universal manhood suffrage (even for “people of color, Jews, actors, and domestic staff”) and the abolition of French involvement in the Atlantic slave trade.  His central role in the Reign of Terror is downplayed to a remarkable degree.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Wikipedia is dominated by leftists, and leftists’ Robespierran sympathies grow increasingly apparent.

RELATED:  The Babylon Bee on Hitler.

BIRTH OF THE COWBOY HAT:  On this day in 1830, John Batterson Stetson, inventor of the Stetson, was born in Orange, New Jersey.

Stetson’s father was a hatter, and he taught his son the trade.  But as a young man John was diagnosed with tuberculosis and told he didn’t have long to live.  Not wanting to waste the years he had left making hats, he headed west, first to Missouri.  He wanted to see the country before it was too late.  When gold was discovered in the Colorado Territory, he jumped at the chance to go.

But a splendid thing happened to him once he started breathing in the mountain air.  He started to feel better.  After a while, he felt fine.  Was he misdiagnosed?  Or miraculously cured?  I’m not sure we’ll ever know for sure.

What we do know is this:  While in Colorado, Stetson was unimpressed by the coonskin caps, straw hats, and wool derbies that so many Westerners wore at the time.  He believed he could make a superior hat of waterproof felt.  Soon he returned to the East and started a company that would manufacture a hat that he called the Boss of the Plains.

One of the features of the hat was that it could be molded into the shape preferred by the owner.  A crease could be put into the crown, the sides could be rolled up.  And lots of people who purchased the hat started to do exactly that.  Eventually, the Boss of the Plains became the familiar cowboy hat.

Stetson became a wealth philanthropist and lived to be 75–not bad for a guy who wasn’t expected to see his 35th birthday.

IDENTITY POLITICS IN THE NAVY: “Who Will Be the Next Chief of Naval Operations?”

NOT ENTIRELY WRONG, JUST INSUFFICIENT:  “Protecting Free Speech Is the Wrong Strategy.” We have to talk back.  Smiling politely and looking for somebody else to listen to isn’t the right strategy.

WAITING FOR THE SUPREME COURT:  If you are a journalist or just someone who wants to be informed ahead of the Supreme Court’s impending decision in the Harvard and UNC cases, maybe it’s time to read A Dubious Expediency:  How Race Preferences Damage Higher Education.

FIREWORKS AT MOST RECENT MEETING OF THE COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS:  “Biden Nominees Torpedo Own Confirmation to Kill Report on Whether Lax Crime Policies Hurt Minorities.”

COUNTDOWN TO THE SUPREME COURT DECISION IN THE HARVARD/UNC CASES:  IT’S NOT REALLY ABOUT DIVERSITY:  The Supreme Court has held that a college or university may engage in race discrimination in admissions so long as it is motivated by the desire to capture the pedagogical benefits of diversity for all its students. But as Carissa Mulder and I have written in The Sausage Factory, that is seldom the actual motivation behind these policies.  Here’s hoping the Supreme Court has figured that out.

WAITING FOR THE SUPREME COURT’S DECISION IN HARVARD/UNC:  If you’ve heard of the mismatch problem, but never read about it, here are two articles that are probably worth your time–one short and the other a bit longer (and more up to date).  Most Court watchers don’t expect a decision until June, but you never know.

CHANGE: The North Carolina legislature is making attempt to restore classroom decorum by putting teachers and principals back in charge. (Background on how that decorum was lost here and here.)

WANTED:  A LITTLE HELP WITH MY RESEARCH:  If you are a state university professor or administrator (or just someone with a little inside information), there is a chance you can help me out with some research.  I have long been interested in how accreditors pressure colleges, schools and universities into hiring faculty and/or admitting students based on race or sex.  I have plenty of evidence—much of it obtained over the years through freedom of information act requests—that this has been going on for a long time.  But every few years it’s important for me to get fresh evidence.  I often send out requests to all institutions in a given category.  But targeted requests can save me a bit of time and money.

Do you know of a college, school, or university that is being pressed by its accreditor to admit more students of a particular race, ethnicity or sex?  Or hire more faculty members of a particular race, ethnicity or sex?  If so, please let me know.  You can email me here.  I will keep your identity confidential.  I particularly would appreciate hearing about state institutions, because those are the ones I can submit freedom of information act requests to.

Campus wokeness is not going to disappear on its own.  It has to be attacked at its roots.  Woke accreditors are part of the system.  They are the “diversity” cartel enforcers.  All this needs to be documented.

Once the Supreme Court decides the Harvard and UNC cases (and regardless of the outcome), I plan to start trying to persuade Congress to intervene to prevent this kind of accreditor overreach.  This is obviously a long-term project, but everything needs to start somewhere.  Help me out if you can.

“IS IT TIME TO CHANGE OUR HURRICANE RATING SYTEMS?”:  I thought we’d already switched over from a “wind speed” system to a “damage inflicted to GOP politician” system.  Under the latter system, Katrina was a super hurricane, Maria was a really big hurricane, and Ian was a dud.

MORE LAWSUITS, PLEASE!:  “NIH study recruiting 18-year-olds to learn ‘unknown’ side effects of testicle removal for gender dysphoria.”  Now they tell us:  Evidently, transgender women (i.e. men who have surgically “transitioned”) are at greater risk of cardiovascular disease, and no one has figured out why yet.  It didn’t occur to these so-called doctors that chopping off some troubled teenager’s testicles might have undesirable health effects.

MORE REPARATIONS TALK:  “Duke professor calls for $14 trillion in reparations for black Americans.”

MORE EXECUTIVE ORDERS:  “Biden Marks Earth Day with New Environmental Justice Orders.”  (When the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights took on this issue, the results were almost comical.)

THOMAS SOWELL:  I was discussing Thomas Sowell with my gentleman friend this afternoon.  I was feeling a little sad to think that Sowell is almost 93 years old now and won’t be turning out any more books.  But I was wrong!   I found this–Social Justice Fallacies–a few minutes ago.  The release is scheduled for September 5, 2023.  Keep ’em coming, Dr. Sowell.