I’M SURE MY CAT WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME FOR ME, AREN’T YOU?:  “Loyal Adopted Dog Takes Bullet in the Face to Protect Owners When Armed Robbers Break Into House.”

STEVE HAYWARD:  Liberals are miserable.

HEROES AMONG US:  I didn’t know about the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission until very recently when I ran across its web site.  But it’s the sort of thing I can’t help but love.  Andrew Carnegie established it in 1904 to honor “individuals in the United States and Canada who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree saving or attempting to save the lives of others.”

“We live in a heroic age,” Carnegie wrote in the Commission’s founding document.  “Not seldom are we thrilled by deeds of heroism where men or women are injured or lose their lives in attempting to preserve or rescue their fellows.”

There is a “Search Heroes” function on the web site that allows visitors to search for past Carnegie Hero Fund honorees.  Hoping to find a relative, I searched “Heriot.”  Alas, no dice.  So I searched my mother’s maiden name, which is also uncommon–Vannah.  Bingo!  In 1913, someone named Bessie Vannah tried valiantly–though futilely–to try to save a boy who’d fallen through the ice.  She was 16 at the time.

I don’t recall my mother ever mentioning an Aunt Bessie, but the attempted rescue happened in the same rural county where my mother was born and raised.  I don’t think there are any unrelated Vannahs in Lincoln County, Maine–current population 35,237.  Or at least that’s what I’ve convinced myself.  But whether or not she was my lost long relative, Bessie was a heck of a girl. We have that on the authority of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, and they ought to know.

THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION HAS GONE FULL WOKE:  And the result is truly astonishing. Here is how it recommends that doctors speak:

 Table 5: Contrasting Conventional (Well-intentioned) Phrasing with Equity-focused Language that Acknowledges Root Causes of Inequities

Check out the full report:  Advancing Health Equity:  A Guide to Language, Narrative and Concepts.

While you’re at it, check this one out too:  Organizational Strategic Plan to Embed Racial Justice and Advance Health Equity.

These folks have seriously lost their minds.

MUSKOGEE’S LOCAL HERO:  Sixth grader has a busy day rescuing neighbors.

APOLLO 8 WAS THE FIRST MANNED SPACEFLIGHT TO ORBIT THE MOON:   And on Christmas Eve, 1968, as the tiny capsule circled the moon, its crew–consisting of Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders–read the Genesis creation story aloud for the folks back here on Earth.

It is estimated that roughly a billion people spread over 64 countries were listening.

A tape of the reading (along with a transcript) can be found on Wikipedia.  If you missed it in 1968 (I didn’t … why would I miss something like that?), it’s not too late.

HOLY TOLEDO!  HOW DID I MISS THIS?:  I include it now–more than a week late–in case you missed it too:  “Two major real estate search engines nix crime data in racial equity push.”  Maybe we haven’t reached “peak woke” yet after all.  You have to be out of your mind to believe that it is more “equitable” if home buyers are kept in the dark about crime in the neighborhood that they are investing their life savings (not to mention their actual lives) in.

HER PRONOUN WAS “YANKEE DOODLE DANDY”: From back when transgender men were … uh … men: On this day in 1760, Deborah Sampson was born. During the Revolution, she disguised herself as a man and joined the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment under the name “Robert Shurtleff.”

Did she see combat? You bet your sweet bippy she saw combat. And when she was shot in the left thigh, she extracted the pistol ball herself in order to avoid the possibility that she would be found out. (She was later “outed” as a woman when she fell ill, but received an honorable discharge.)

Can a woman like that return to her petticoats after the war? Well … yeah … why the heck not? She married Benjamin Gannet and had three children—Earl, Mary, and Patience.

GEORGE LEEF:  “Judge rules for UNC in Admissions Case.”

One of my organizations–Californians for Equal Rights–has filed a brief supporting SFFA’s effort to pair this case with the Harvard case at the Supreme Court level.  I’ll link to it as soon as it is posted.

JOHN FUND:  “Think Tanks Can Be a Frontline Defense against Pandemic Setbacks.”

“VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS CONTINUES TO LEAD ON MATERNAL MORTALITY ISSUES”:  That’s the latest press release from the Democratic Party.  They seem to think that the racial disparities in maternal mortality are a top-line issue–one worthy of major legislation–even though maternal mortality itself is very rare.  The Commission on Civil Rights did a recent report on the issue, with several of its members blaming racism for the problem.  Here is my dissent from that report.  If you want more African American mothers to seek medical care early in their pregnancy, telling them that the doctors and nurses are a bunch of racists is a poor strategy. 

IT WAS 80 YEARS AGO TODAY:  “A date which will live in infamy.”  I can tell you exactly where my mother was standing in her farm house in Nobleboro, Maine when the news came over the radio.  I know exactly what my grandfather said, and exactly how my grandmother responded.  It’s Vannah family lore.

JOHN FUND:  A bunch of old folks.

ON THIS DAY IN 1978:  ALMOST 1000 DIE IN THE HORRIFIC JONESTOWN MURDER-SUICIDE:  I blogged about this a year and a half ago on the anniversary of Jim Jones’ birth.  To me, the run-up to the massacre is more interesting than the massacre itself.  The part people forget is his close relationship with so many Democratic politicians.

THE 150^th ANNIVERSARY OF THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION: On this day in 1871, the NRA received its charter from New York. Soon thereafter, General Ambrose Burnside was elected its first president.

Prior to the then-recent unpleasantness between the states, Burnside had been a firearms manufacturer in Rhode Island. During the war, he became concerned about his soldiers’ lack of marksmanship skills, stating, “Out of ten soldiers who are perfect in drill and the manual of arms, only one knows the purpose of the sights on his gun or can hit the broad side of a barn.” He was thus a natural choice to be president an organization that was primarily concerned with advancing marksmanship.

Fun fact about Burnside: He has rather unusual side burns. In fact, that’s where we get the term “sideburns.” No fooling.

ANY BETS ON WHETHER MERRICK GARLAND WILL INVESTIGATE THIS ONE?:  “A pro-Critical Race Theory parent told attendees at a Texas school board meeting that he has 1,000 soldiers ‘locked and loaded’ for those who ‘dare’ question the need for race-based curricula.”

THEY’RE COMING FOR THE FOUR-YEAR-OLDS NOW:  The University of Texas is “conducting a project to help us better understand how we can support young children learning about anti-Black racial bias.”  UT’s website calls its program “GoKAR! (Kids Against Racism).”

MARTIN CENTER:  Here’s a transcript of the talk I gave at the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal in Raleigh last week:  “How Short-Term Thinking on Race Has Caused Long-Term Problems in Higher Education.”

AT THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY’S NATIONAL LAWYERS CONFERENCE:  I’m having a great time at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C with what looks like over a thousand Federalist Society lawyers.  Great discussions … as always.

(For some of you, spending three days with a thousand lawyers, even a thousand conservative lawyers, may sound like purgatory, but … well … these are my peeps.)

Tomorrow, I’ll be doing a book signing for A Dubious Expediency:  How Race Preferences Damage Higher Education.  If you’re here for the conference or you live around here and want to come by, I’ll be up on the Mezzanine level at the Mayflower from 10:30 to 11:15 am.  You can bring your own copy or buy a copy there.

“VOTERS ARE REVOLTING AGAINST WOKE EDUCATION”:  The piece discusses my anthology–A Dubious Expediency:  How Race Preferences Damage Higher Education (which you can still buy at Amazon or wherever you buy swell books written/edited by conservative law professors.)

JOHN FUND:  Ronald Reagan predicted all this.

AFTER THE VIRGINIA ELECTIONS: I’m still a little giddy about Tuesday’s elections (though Glenn is right about not getting cocky).

But here’s something that I can add: Don’t think electing a governor (or even a conservative state legislature) is going to solve the problem of critical race theory being taught at the K-12 level. The Virginia legislature would be spinning its wheels to pass a statute that says “Don’t teach CRT.” It might as well pass a statute that says “Don’t teach stupid stuff.” Nobody agrees on what constitutes CRT. And we are dealing in part with ideologues who don’t want to agree. They want to teach what they want to teach, and they’ll find a way to say that their chosen curriculum isn’t CRT, no matter how CRT is defined.

Instead, lawmakers would be lending real help by passing laws that allow parents reasonably easy access to a school’s curricular material. State freedom of information acts should already make this possible at public schools, but those may need to be beefed up. This summer I helped an organization called FAIR work on model state legislation that would allow parents of private school students that access too. State legislators might want to take a look.

Ultimately, however, the war must be (and is being) fought at the local level. Sensible people need to run for school board and clean up the curriculum. Yes, Instapundit readers, I mean you. Somebody has to do it.

HERE’S A PROGRAM FOR TODAY:  The John Locke Foundation presents “Racial Preferences in Higher Education” at 12:00 noon, Monday, November 1, via Zoom.

A DUBIOUS EXPEDIENCY:  HOW RACE PREFERENCES DAMAGE HIGHER EDUCATION:  Rich Vedder reviews my recently edited anthology.

(By the way, the anthology makes an excellent present for a birthday or anniversary or for Diwali, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, or Christmas!  This will be especially so if all those ships off the coast of Los Angeles that are laden with toys, games, negligees, fruitcakes, and Christmas sweaters are still anchored there in January.).

TRANSPARENCY:  The Commission on Civil Rights has now responded to what appears to be a legitimate FOIA request concerning Catherine Lhamon, its former chair and Biden’s controversial nominee to the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights.  But it did so only AFTER it was sued for failure to respond and (more significantly) only AFTER Lhamon was confirmed by the Senate in a 50-50 vote in which Vice President Harris had to break the tie.  Oh … and the Commission has evidently produced only 280 of the 3862 responsive records.