SRI LANKA, WE MAY BE JOINING YOU SOON:  “Here’s What Life Looks Like in a Country That’s Run Out of Fuel.“

AND SO IT BEGAN:  On this day in 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Regents of the University of California v. Bakke.   Four justices took the position that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act meant exactly what it says—that federally funded universities are forbidden to discriminate in admissions by race.  Four justices seemed happy to tolerate any amount of race discrimination so long as it favored under-represented minorities.  One justice—Lewis Powell, the man in the middle—apparently thought he could open the door to discrimination just a crack.  Colleges and universities promptly blew that door off its hinges.  We’re still paying for Powell’s error in judgment.

OH FOR GOODNESS SAKE:  Eye-rolling is a harmful practice rooted in white supremacy.

RICH VEDDER:  “In Princeton’s Contempt for Justice, Shades of Duke Lacrosse.”

HAPPY 119TH BIRTHDAY:  On this day in 1903, Eric Arthur Blair, better known to us as George Orwell, was born in Motihari, Bengal, British India.

IT STILL MAKES ME CRY:  Four years ago today, 12 boys–members of a youth soccer team–and their 25-year-old assistant coach were trapped by floodwaters deep in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Northern Thailand.  What followed was an amazing international rescue effort–a jaw-dropping combination of courage, skill, selflessness, and coolheadedness.

It took weeks to get all the children and their coach out.  But, against all the odds, all of them survived.  Alas, the same was not true of all their rescuers.  Former Thai Navy SEAL Saman Kunan lost consciousness during one of his dives and died.  Another Thai Navy SEAL, Beirut Pakbara, died a year later of a blood infection acquired during the rescue.  Bless them and their fellow divers.  They are heroes.

Here’s something I probably don’t need to tell you:  Many people–both men and women–helped in the rescue.  And that’s great.  But all the divers–the ones who risked their lives to save these children–were men.  Maybe, just maybe, masculinity isn’t so toxic after all.

OUT WITH “BREASTFEEDING,” IN WITH “CHESTFEEDING”:  It’s the new, inclusive way to talk about the thing that “birthing people” do for babies.  A new bill in the Massachusetts legislature, which will fund “doulas” for pregnant Medicaid recipients, uses that term.

The Massachusetts bill appears to be a response to the whole “maternal health crisis” that the Left keeps talking about.  As far as I can tell, the response to the “crisis” is all about getting government jobs for “doulas” who can then be expected to join the SEIU.  A lot of what I have to deal with in the world seems to be about that.

YUP, I’M ON RECORD AGREEING WITH THAT:  Order needs to be restored in NYC schools if we want students to learn.

IF WE OFFERED TO GIVE IT BACK, I DOUBT SPAIN WOULD WANT IT:  On this day in 1898, the American flag was first raised on the island of Guam.  Its capture was slightly comical.  Spain had had control of Guam since the 17th century.  But it wasn’t exactly considered the Pearl of the Spanish Empire, so Spain had stationed only a tiny garrison there.  And despite the fact that the Spanish-American War had been declared two months before, nobody had gotten around to telling the guys on Guam.

When the U.S.S. Charleston arrived on June 20 with orders to take the island, it fired on the Spanish fort.  It’s unclear whether it missed or only intended a warning shot.  In any event, the locals mistook the shot for a friendly salute.  Several eagerly went out to greet the Americans.  Among those who came out was Guam’s leading merchant–Francisco Portusach–who turned out to be a naturalized American citizen and an old friend of one of the officers.  When he learned the true circumstances of their visit, he wanted to help.

The capture of Guam was thus bloodless.  The Spanish governor wasn’t exactly thrilled to surrender to the Americans, but his forces were significantly outnumbered, and he wasn’t a fool.  On June 21, the Spanish flag came down, and the Stars and Stripes went up.  Easy peasy.

BILL OTIS ON THE RISE IN CRIME AND ITS EFFECT ON BLACK LIVES:  “The Klan Was Never This Effective.“

PLEASE LET IT BE SO … FOREVER SO:  “How Meltdowns Have Brought Advocacy Groups to a Standstill at a Critical Moment in World History.”

THESE FOLKS ARE BARKING MAD:  Gov. DeSantis was not exactly given a hero’s welcome in New York City on Sunday.  The protestors, there purportedly on behalf of the LGBTQ community, included Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), State Senator Brad Hoylman (D-Lower Manhattan), Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou (D-Chinatown), and candidate for Lieutenant Governor Ana Maria Archila.   Videos of protestors here.

A friend of mine was present for DeSantis’s speech.  As he left the event, he was followed down the street as by a deranged protestor who screamed “JEWISH NAZI!!!!” at him.  Lovely.

IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO THROW SEVERELY DISABLED WORKERS OUT OF A JOB, THIS IS AN EXCELLENT STRATEGY:  When the Commission on Civil Rights reported on requiring employers to pay the standard minimum wage to Down Syndrome workers, their families were overwhelmingly against it. 

STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE (TWO) YEARS:  The State Department Still “Hearts” BLM.

SCHOOL DISCIPLINE POLICY HAS RUN AMOK:  The local NAACP and local teachers association recently rallied for stronger school discipline policy from the Baltimore County Public Schools.  Local organizations like those are often pretty good on the issue.  It’s the inside-the-beltway, haven’t-seen-the inside-of-a-classroom-since-the-Clinton-Administration educrats who tend to do the most damage.  See The Department of Education’s Obama-Era Initiative on Racial Disparities in School Discipline:  Wrong for Students and Teachers, Wrong on the Law.  Alas, my understanding is that the Biden Administration is abandoning the Trump Administration’s approach and going back the Obama approach.

BECAUSE IT WOULD MAKE US ALL MISERABLE:  “Why Not Polygamy?”

IDIOTS DELIBERATELY MISCONSTRUE WHAT SEN. BILL CASSIDY SAID:  Racial disparities in maternal mortality is getting to be one of those issues for which one must robotically repeat the progressive talking points.  No further comment is permitted.

TEACHING LIBERTY:  At Reliance College in Chicago.

GEORGE WILL DISCUSSES HERIOT & MULDER:  In the Washington Post and in newspapers without pay walls.

UNDERSTANDING DISPARATE IMPACT THEORY:  It’s important for all of us to understand what a giant morass the Supreme Court pulled us into when it decided (quite wrongly) in Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971) that Title VII outlawed disparate impact.  Since then, the concept of liability for “disparate impact” has spread to other areas of the law (and to our way of thinking about race and sex issues).  Paul Taylor has done seven-part series on the subject on Substack:

Paul Taylor:  Disparate Impact Part 1.

Paul Taylor:  Disparate Impact Part 2.

Paul Taylor:  Disparate Impact Part 3.

Paul Taylor:  Disparate Impact Part 4.

Paul Taylor:  Disparate Impact Part 5.

Paul Taylor:  Disparate Impact Part 6.

Paul Taylor:  Disparate Impact Part 7.

It’s definitely worth taking a look.

FREE SPEECH 2022 CONFERENCE:  Monday! Monday! Monday!  Pepperdine School of Public Policy in beautiful Malibu is sponsoring a half-day conference on free speech.  Robby George will be the keynote speaker, and yours truly will be there to moderate a panel on free speech (or lack thereof) in academia.  If you can make it, we’d love to have you there.  Register here.  (Note that you can also register to receive a video, but the video will not be available until a week after the conference.)

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:  Paul Mirengoff and Bill Otis are now on Substack with “Ringside at the Reckoning.”

MATERNAL MORTALITY:  Try googling “maternal mortality” and click for “news.” Maternal mortality is a big issue on the Left.  From their point of view, even though the numbers are very small, the racial disparities are large, and American rates are worse than rates in many other countries (though that’s at least in part because we define maternal mortality broadly).  The abortion angle on the issue also interests them.  Oh … and climate change … Ms. Magazine is blaming climate change.

They’re not wrong that the death of a young mother (or father) is especially tragic or that we should do better.  But the emphasis on racial disparities and the solutions they offer won’t get us there.

The racial disparities are what has inspired the so-called “Momnibus Act,” which is getting a lot of attention in Congress.  But the attention is mostly misinformed.  The proposal is all about spending federal money to “invest” in minority communities, when the most useful thing to do would be to advise all obese or diabetic women (not just those of any particular race) to lose weight and keep their diabetes under control.  Meanwhile, one California county has declared “Latina Maternal Health Awareness Month,” even though Latina mothers are actually less likely to die in childbirth than non-Hispanic white mothers.  Nobody wants to talk about obesity in connection with maternal health (just like they don’t want to talk about obesity in connection with cancer).

The Commission on Civil Rights’ report on maternal mortality preferred to put more blame on the racism of doctors and nurses—even though doing so would only discourage minority mothers from seeking care early in their pregnancy (which is also a contributing factor to the racial disparities).

HEROES IN BUFFALO AND IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA:  They can turn up everywhere.

JP MORGAN CHASE & CO. SHAREHOLDERS ARE SICK AND TIRED OF THEIR WOKE COMPANY’S ILLEGAL ACTIONS:  Yesterday, JPMorgan Chase & Co. shareholders, through their legal counsel, the American Civil Rights Project, demanded that the company publicly retract a host of illegal, discriminatory policies that the company had been bragging about.  Shareholders are getting wise to this stuff (in part due to the work of the American Civil Rights Project … of which I am chairman).