WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER: On June 4, 1940, Churchill gave his famous “We shall fight on the beaches” speech before the House of Commons:

I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once more able to defend our island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty’s Government – every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation. The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength.

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

Not too shabby.

ON THIS DAY IN 1539: Hernando de Soto claimed Florida for Spain. Then, 461 years later, he published the highly influential book—The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Succeeds in the West and Fails Everywhere Else. No … wait … my mistake. That was a different Hernando de Soto. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t read his book. It’s a classic.

ON THIS DAY IN 1692, Bridget Bishop was convicted of witchcraft. Days later, she was executed, making her the first of 14 women and 6 men to suffer that fate during the witchcraft panic then gripping Salem, Massachusetts. Among other things, Bishop was accused at one point of having three nipples—a sure sign of being in league with the devil.

Thankfully, panics like that don’t happen anymore … except when they do.

MUTUALLY NONCONSENSUAL SEX:  Even the Atlantic is noticing the excesses of Title IX.

THE GERMAN ATTACK ON BOAC FLIGHT 777: On this day in 1943, eight German Junkers Ju 88s shot down a civilian airline flight en route from Lisbon to Whitchurch Airport near Bristol. The plane crashed into the Bay of Biscay, killing all 17 on board.

Portugal was a neutral state, and the attack was considered unusually aggressive. Why would the Germans want to violate Portugal’s neutrality?

One theory is that they mistakenly believed Winston Churchill was aboard. Churchill had been in Algiers, so it wasn’t crazy to think he might return via Lisbon, and a man who looked somewhat like Churchill was among the passengers. Churchill himself seems to have accepted this theory.

Another theory is that the Germans correctly believed that Leslie Howard was aboard. Yes, that Leslie Howard—the actor. Howard (born Leslie Howard Steiner) sometimes played seemingly ineffectual men who were either really ineffectual (Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind) or really heroes (the title character in The Scarlet Pimpernel or the Nazi-fighting archeologist in “Pimpernel” Smith). During the war, Howard had devoted himself to making anti-Nazi feature films and documentaries. The story goes that he made fun of Goebbels in one of those films and that Goebbels considered him an exceptionally effective propagandist. He therefore wanted him dead. Another version of the story argues that Howard was on a top-secret mission that involved persuading Franco to stay out of the war. There is enough to “Howard theory” to put it in the “not crazy” category too.

Other passengers included Wilfrid Israel (department store scion of Kindertransport fame), oil businessman Tyrrel Shervington, and engineer Ivan Sharp. A case can be made for why the Germans would have liked to see any of them dead.

Is it all just rubbish? Was the attack on BOAC Flight 777 just a mistake?  An “error in judgment” (as the lead German pilot later put it)? Maybe. But the mystery continues to fascinate many.

VOTE FOR THE BARONESS FOR CONGRESS: Hey, Baron von Steuben worked out pretty well. But then, he wasn’t really a Baron ….

TRANSGENDER BATHROOM CASE HEADED BACK UP ON APPEAL?: Last week, Federal District Court Judge Arenda Wright Allen ruled in Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board that Title IX requires schools to permit an anatomical female who identifies as male to use the boys’ room (and presumably vice versa).

To understand why Judge Allen is wrong, you could do worse than reading the Amicus Curiae Brief filed by Peter Kirsanow and me back when this case was last in the Supreme Court. As you may recall, the Supreme Court remanded the case to the lower courts in light of the Trump Administration’s decision to withdraw the Obama-Era “Dear Colleague Letter” that had instructed schools that they must allow transgender students to use the showers, locker rooms and toilets of the sex they identify with rather than the sex that corresponds to their anatomy.

“IF [THE TOMMY ROBINSON CASE] DOESN’T BOTHER YOU, YOUR CIVIL LIBERTARIAN INSTINCTS HAVE ATROPHIED”: And yet the media seem to think that only “right wingers” care. If they are right, we are doomed, doomed, doomed. Alas, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are wrong.

HISTORY LESSON: On May 31, 1852, Julius Richard Petri was born.  He was the inventor of the … uh … Julius dish … something like that.

YOU CAN HAVE MY KIDS’ LEMONADE STAND WHEN YOU PRY IT FROM OUR COLD, DEAD FINGERS:  Steve Hayward is ready to bring out the pitchforks.

ON THIS DAY IN 1787: Five days into the Constitutional Convention, Virginia Governor Edmund Randolph offered the “Virginia Plan” to the delegates. The plan, which was primarily the work of James Madison, was no mere tinkering around at the edges of the Articles of Confederation. It called for a wholly new structure of government (which … uh … isn’t what the state legislatures that sent the delegates thought they were going to be getting).

The Constitution ultimately produced by the Convention differed in significant ways from Madison’s scheme. But the Virginia Plan nevertheless set the tone for the gathering: The Articles of Confederation are fatally flawed. Start from scratch.

#COFFEEWOKE – I was reminded today that I can make a better cup of coffee at home than Starbucks can make for me.  Cheaper too.

SYRIA? ARE YOU SERIOUS? SYRIA?:   The United Nations is beyond parody, says Paul Mirengoff.

THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE, CLASSED AS ONE OF THE “SEVEN WONDERS OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD,” OPENED ON THIS DAY IN 1883: The brainchild of German immigrant John Augustus Roebling, it took 14 years to build, and Roebling himself died as a result of an on-the-job injury before the project was completed. Instead, it was his son, Washington Roebling, who saw the bridge to completion.

The old line about “if you believe that, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you” is based on truth. At least two con men—George C. Parker and William McCloundy—did time in Sing Sing for “selling” the Brooklyn Bridge to naïve purchasers.

IF HALF THE EFFORT CURRENTLY PUT INTO COMING UP WITH CUTE ACRONYMS WERE PUT INTO COMING UP WITH GOOD POLICIES INSTEAD, WE MIGHT BE IN MUCH BETTER SHAPE:  The House Committee on the Judiciary recently approved the proposed “Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act”  “FIRST STEP Act.”  I’d really like to wring the neck of the folks who come up with these acronyms, but … well … if I did I’d end up in prison, so I guess I won’t.

Like most “nice sounding” stuff that comes out of Congress, this one should be looked at with a critical eye.  Paul Mirengoff talks about some of the downsides.

Meanwhile, here’s an interesting statistic from the new Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report on prisoner recidivism:  “An estimated 68% of released prisoners were arrested within 3 years, 79% within 6 years, and 83% within 9 years.”  Yes, it’s a complicated subject.  But make sure your eyes are wide open, before you start thinking that de-incarceration is the answer to our problems.

ON THIS DAY IN 1856, CONGRESSMAN PRESTON BROOKS (D-SC) BEAT SENATOR CHARLES SUMNER (R-Mass) WITHIN AN INCH OF HIS LIFE ON THE FLOOR OF U.S. SENATE: Two days earlier, at the height of the “Bleeding Kansas” crisis, Sumner had given an impassioned speech against the Kansas-Nebraska Act and against slavery itself. Brooks, whose cousin Senator Andrew Butler had been instrumental in the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, viewed the beating with a cane as an acting of retaliation for defamation. Sumner was lucky to survive.   It was years before he was able to continue his work at the Senate full time.

If you think we’re polarized now, try 1856: William Cullen Bryant in the New York Evening Post wrote: “Has it come to this, that we must speak with bated breath in the presence of our Southern masters?… Are we to be chastised as they chastise their slaves? Are we too, slaves, slaves for life, a target for their brutal blows, when we do not comport ourselves to please them?” On the other hand, the Richmond Enquirer editorialized that “vulgar abolitionists in the Senate” should be “lashed into submission.”

THE MEDIA SEE ONLY ONE COLLUSION STORY:  Anyone examining FBI and Justice Department abuses is smeared and ridiculed, writes John Fund.

RESOLUTION REJECTED: “BE IT RESOLVED, WHAT YOU CALL POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, I CALL PROGRESS”: Friday night’s Munk debate in Toronto shows that Canadians (in general not exactly a rough bunch) reject political correctness.

Even before Michael Eric Dyson & Michelle Goldberg (FOR THE RESOLUTION) squared off against Stephen Fry & Jordan Peterson (AGAINST THE RESOLUTION), the crowd was already strongly against the resolution (36% FOR vs. 64% AGAINST). But after the debate it was overwhelming (30% FOR vs. 70% AGAINST). The shift of 6% to AGAINST made Fry & Peterson the declared winners of the debate.

Ho hum, right?  It’s not like this is surprising.  Yet the identity politics juggernaut marches forward both in Canada and the USA, aided by a strong and effective ethic of political correctness, which makes open discussion of the issues more difficult than is should be.  The Trump Administration has had only the most marginal effect. There is a special look of terror that comes over the eyes of conservative political leaders when one brings to their attention the opportunity to say or do something that would help. Alas, I have witnessed that look too many times to count.

MORE YALE STUDENTS DEMAND EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMALS: Federal law says universities have to make “reasonable accommodations” for students who claim emotional trauma.  But if anyone believes this can be reasonably contained, they are being naive.  I had a student a couple of years ago who was gleefully upfront about how he was taking advantage of the law just to be annoying.

Your constitutional right to free speech may not be secure on campuses these days. But your roommate’s right to bleating, pooping aardvark may be. Not that there’s anything wrong with that …

RESPECT VOLCANOES:  On this day in 1980, Mount St. Helens blew its head off.  Fifty seven people were killed.  Among the dead was 30-year-old vulcanologist David A. Johnston, who was stationed as an observer on a ridge six miles away.  His famous last words were radioed:  “Vancouver!  Vancouver!  This is it!”  And indeed it was.

Over 230 square miles of vegetation and buildings were flattened.

It could have been worse.  Swarms of earthquakes had started in March.  Because of the work of people like Johnston, we knew enough about volcanoes at the time to close the park and tell people in the vicinity that this one was likely to get ugly and that they should get the heck out of there.  (There was apparently pressure not to close the park, but caution prevailed.)

One guy who refused to leave was 83-year-old innkeeper Harry R. Truman.  He’d lived nearby for 54 years.  Like Johnston’s, Truman’s body was never found.

FLASHBACK:  UC DAVIS LAW SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT 1978:  California Supreme Court Justice Stanley Mosk’s Finest Hour.  (Yes he did have a finest hour.)  At the Volokh Conspiracy.

GOOGLE  EXPANDS LIST OF REASONS IT MAY DE-INDEX A WEB SITE:  When an administrative agency (like the FDA) finds that a site illegally distributes material that risks physical harm to consumers …

FATHER JACQUES MARQUETTE AND LOUIS JOLLIET: On this day in 1673, a 35-year-old Jesuit priest and a 27-year-old fur trader began their exploration of Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, leaving from St. Ignace at the north end of Lake Michigan. From there, they went up the Fox River and then overland (carrying their canoes) to the Wisconsin River, which took them to the Mississippi River. Out of fear of running into the Spanish, they turned back at the Arkansas River. By then, they had confirmed that the Mississippi does indeed run to the Gulf of Mexico.

The route back was different. And this becomes important to the history of the country and especially of the City of Chicago: Friendly Native Americans told them that if they go up the Illinois River and the Des Plaines, rather than the Wisconsin, it would make the trip easier. That’s because the portage distance from the Mississippi watershed and the Great Lakes watershed was shortest there. The Chicago River, which dumped into Lake Michigan was only a short distance away.

If you’ve ever wondered why Chicago grew into a major city so quickly, this is why: Location, location, location.  In the modern world it’s easy to miss how much topographical issues like that mattered (and in different ways continue to matter).  But cities don’t just crop up in random places.

HE’D HAVE MY VOTE (IF I LIVED IN DOUGLAS COUNTY, OREGON):  Paris train hero runs for Douglas County commissioner.  Electing heroes to office doesn’t always work out well, but … well … I can’t help but have a good feeling here.  Go Alek Skarlatos!

TODAY IS THE 52^nd ANNIVERSARY OF THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION:  The consensus minimum death toll figure for that period in Chinese history is 400,000. Jung Chang and Jon Halliday place the number at up to three million in Mao: The Unknown Story. But even without a single death, the Cultural Revolution would have been horrific. It was an attempt—in some ways entirely successful and in other ways not—to destroy the fabric of Chinese civilization.

The opening event was the Politburo’s issuance of the so-called “May 16^th Notification.” That fevered document laid out Mao’s justification for the attack:

Chairman Mao often says that there is no construction without destruction. Destruction means criticism and repudiation; it means revolution. It involves reasoning things out, which is construction. Put destruction first, and in the process you have construction.

The May 16^th Notification is full of class warfare and conspiracy-minded paranoia:

Those representatives of the bourgeoisie who have sneaked into the Party, the government, the army, and various spheres of culture are a bunch of counter-revolutionary revisionists. Once conditions are ripe, they will seize political power and turn the dictatorship of the proletariat into a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Some of them we have already seen through; others we have not. Some are still trusted by us and are being trained as our successors, persons like Khrushchev for example, who are still nestling beside us.

In the coming months, things spun out of control. Red Guard students (often financed by the Party) were instructed to attack the “Four Olds”—old customs, cultures, habits and ideas. And attack they did. Entire libraries, temples, monasteries and mosques were destroyed. Clergy were arrested and sent off to camps. The national police chief declared that it was “no big deal” if Red Guards were beating “bad people” to death. Countless enemies of the people were denounced, humiliated, and made to confess their sins.  Many were tortured.  Many were sent off to the countryside for re-education, where they often died, since the villages did not have enough to feed them.  China was brought to its knees by gangs of thuggish teenagers, drunk with power.

Can it happen here? Probably not—at least not the way it happened in China.   America’s equivalent of the Chinese “counter-revolutionaries” have more resources to fall back on and hence can afford to push back.  (They are also increasingly armed. Even I, the original Miss Fumblefingers, have a mean-looking (though antique) firearm in my bedroom.  Just thought you’d want to know.)

Still, when faint echoes of the Cultural Revolution occur here—as they frequently do these days—I get butterflies in my stomach.  Our civilization, like every civilization, is in many ways more fragile than most people understand.