PROSPECT OF A MUGGING CONCENTRATES THE MIND WONDERFULLY: Almost 2,000 women in Detroit get firearms/self-defense training. Journalist Stephen Gutowski, by the way, is a byline worth following.
Author Archive: Mark Tapscott
August 24, 2020
NIH’S DR. FRANCIS COLLINS ON HIS JOURNEY FROM ATHEISM TO FAITH: Elite media’s narrative typically bars unbiased mention of highly accomplished scientists who are also men and women of faith.
So it’s not surprising that Collins — a renowned geneticist who understands a thing or three about DNA and its sequencing — is far better known as a scientist than as a Christian who views evolution as God’s creative process. But, as he makes clear in this video, the two are inseparable and he has launched the Biologos Foundation to advance public understanding of why that is so.
MAYBE THIS HELPS EXPLAIN CHINA FAVORING BIDEN: Things are not going well for the Confucius Institutes on American campuses, thanks to President Donald Trump.
NOT SURE WHAT TO MAKE OF THIS: Trump senior counselor Kellyanne Conway announces her departure from the White House
August 22, 2020
VIRTUAL DNC WAS A REAL RATINGS FLOP: If it was a pilot, nobody would be talking about a first-season contract.
NO, HEALTHCARE PRICE CONTROLS DON’T WORK: Ross Marchand of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) explains why in such simple and straightforward language that even Members of Congress and journalists can understand.
August 21, 2020
POLYAMORY, THE NEXT STEP DOWN THE SLIPPERY SLOPE: Glenn Stanton says don’t confuse it with polygamy or polyandry. What polyamory is — basically, a sexual free-for-all among two or more individuals — is just fine with the New York Times.
Stanton thinks somebody at America’s former newspaper of record ought to do a little research on what the top scholars on children and family health almost unanimously say is the healthiest arrangement for kids and society. It ain’t polyamory.
REMEMBER HOW BATTY RELATIVES USED TO BE KEPT IN THE ATTIC? The Issues & Insights crew sees one Democratic innovation – keeping batty Biden in the basement.
August 20, 2020
RESEARCHERS FINDING LOTS OF REASONS ‘JUNK DNA’ ISN’T: Sooner or later, the mounting evidence for Intelligent Design will get its day in the court of public opinion.
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN YOU THINK ON CAMPUS: Heather MacDonald, writing for City Journal, shows why the typical American college campus has become a kill-zone for learning, logic and liberty:
“Fealty to ‘diversity’ and denunciations of white privilege have been a unifying theme in academia for decades, of course. What’s different this time is the sheer venom of the denunciations. College presidents and deans competed for the most sweeping indictment of the American polity, rooted in the claim that blacks are everywhere and at all times under threat.”
ONE OBAMA PHOTO SAYS IT ALL: Former President Barack Obama took a gratuitous shot at his successor during Night Three of the Democratic National Condemnation for Trump’s alleged mis-use of the U.S. military. The Issues & Insights crew offers one that tells the whole truth about Obama’s attitude toward Americans in uniform.
August 18, 2020
VIRGINIA DEMS SET TO FREE MORE CRIMINALS FROM PRISON: Hans Bader, who lives in the state that gave us Washington, Jefferson and Madison, sees no good coming from what the special session of the state legislature is about to do.
HAVE YOU TAKEN YOUR MORALITY PILL YET TODAY? “Ethics” Professor Parker Crutchfield of Western Michigan University wants to use hormones and other unspecified drugs to “morally enhance” the rest of us. Uh huh.
UH, NO, JESUS WAS NOT A SOCIALIST: Not even close.
TIME TO END THE LOCKDOWN LUNACY: J.B. Handley clearly, logically and cogently argues that the science shows we have lost our collective minds over Covid. And that’s hugely significant because we should all “follow the science,” right? Right?
Now, Handley wrote this longish post on July 28, so why am I encouraging you to read it today? Well, when you reach the point in his essay where he explains the significance of August 25th, it will all make sense.
August 17, 2020
A MEDITATION ON AUTHENTICITY: Do we really believe what we say we believe? A question for all of us, not just our elites at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, in the media, on campus, and atop the “commanding heights” of American culture.
EXCELLENT JOURNALISM RUNS IN THE HEMINGWAY FAMILY: Mark Hemingway, Mollie’s lucky husband, has the goods on how David Brock’s Media Matters and three other groups in his left-wing echo chamber illegally assisted Hillary’s doomed 2016 presidential campaign.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I hired Mark at the Washington Examiner back in the day and would have Mollie as well but she, wisely it turns out, had a different path in mind. Let us pray the Hemingway offspring will follow their parents into journalism, too.
WHY CAN’T NYTIMES HONESTLY REPORT RUSSIAGATE? Because it is effectively an un-indicted co-conspirator in the three-year campaign to con the American public, according to The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway.
August 16, 2020
YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW BIG IS THE SOROS NETWORK: But Capital Research Center’s Hayden Ludwig does.
GOVERNMENT CREDIBILITY WAS IN THE DUMPSTER BEFORE COVID: But what will it be when pandemic restrictions are finally lifted or simply ignored on a wholesale basis? Good question posed by Jeffrey Tucker, writing for the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER).
Among much else, Tucker offers this observation:
“In 2006, the great epidemiologist Donald Henderson warned that if government pursued coercive measures to control a virus, the result would be a ‘loss of confidence in government to manage the crisis.’ The reason is that the measures do not work. Further, the attempt to make them work turns a manageable crisis into a catastrophe. Prophetic.”
WHY CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT FAILED AND HOW TO FIX IT: Jason Foster, former long-time congressional chief investigative counsel, has the answers. Congress is the first branch and it has all the ultimate weapons in any constitutional showdown with either the executive or judicial branch.
Having oversight authority that is respected and responsibly and firmly exercised is essential to maintaining the constitutional balance established by the Founders. But it’s been a long, long time since Congress used its advantages properly.
TEACHERS UNIONS ARE MAKING A PROFOUNDLY STUPID MISTAKE: By effectively withholding services they are paid billions of tax dollars to deliver, they are forcing millions of Americans to discover that there are alternatives available, including one that could dramatically improve their financial situations now and their children’s prospects tomorrow.
The following is from a family member who prefers to remain private, but who is happy to share what I view as a superb summary of the situation being forced upon so many Americans by the teachers unions. He was responding after I encouraged him to read and react to the National Review piece Glenn linked earlier today:
“For context, we are definitely in the privileged group here, and I don’t mean that in the woke social justice warrior sense, but we have highly performing public schools here due in large part to being predominantly upper middle class with residents who work in the private sector. This means that while we are certainly not immune to the leftist dogma found in other places, generally speaking, our teachers are from and live in our communities where they teach, and are often two-income families with their own kids in the school system.
“That said, we are seeing a few things that lead me to believe that we are reevaluating the entire way we view the role of the government in schools. To the writer’s point, Covid19 has [forced] the frustration which has historically only been felt by those living in major cities, and especially in poor minority communities, into the suburban mainstream.
“As I type this just a few weeks from the start of public school, nearly every family we know is either struggling to make arrangements for their kids or has already decided to pull them out of public school for private or homeschool options. And to be clear about those ‘arrangements’ for the ones who have to give online public school a try, many of those parents are choosing between their jobs and childcare. They are literally having to decide which of their two jobs has the better income, healthcare benefits, schedule flexibility, etc. and leaving the other. (Emphasis added) Consider the financial and macroeconomic impact of these decisions being made all over the country, specifically in the middle class who drive our country’s GDP.
“And, for the families who either cannot leave a job or are not interested in what has been proposed by the public school systems, they are either spending tens of thousands of dollars per year on private education or are now for the first time acquainting themselves with homeschooling options. I will also add that in many cases, private schools are full and homeschooling curriculum options are sold out leaving families with no idea what they will do in a few weeks.
“Based on all of this, my prediction is that within the next six months we will see renewed calls for school choice in counties all over the country. The combination of poor choices available for those who must attend public schools with boiling frustration from those now spending tens of thousands of dollars on private school, while simultaneously continuing to pay the same amount in taxes will cause voters to demand vouchers or the outright closing of public schools all over the country, which I think ultimately will be a good thing for the country. When the general public demands that public schools compete for our tax dollars the options will get better, but it is going to be a painful bumpy road getting there.”
“That said, we are seeing a few things that lead me to believe that we are reevaluating the entire way we view the role of the government in schools. To the writer’s point, Covid19 has [forced] the frustration which has historically only been felt by those living in major cities, and especially in poor minority communities, into the suburban mainstream.
“As I type this just a few weeks from the start of public school, nearly every family we know is either struggling to make arrangements for their kids or has already decided to pull them out of public school for private or homeschool options. And to be clear about those ‘arrangements’ for the ones who have to give online public school a try, many of those parents are choosing between their jobs and childcare. They are literally having to decide which of their two jobs has the better income, healthcare benefits, schedule flexibility, etc. and leaving the other. (Emphasis added) Consider the financial and macroeconomic impact of these decisions being made all over the country, specifically in the middle class who drive our country’s GDP.
“And, for the families who either cannot leave a job or are not interested in what has been proposed by the public school systems, they are either spending tens of thousands of dollars per year on private education or are now for the first time acquainting themselves with homeschooling options. I will also add that in many cases, private schools are full and homeschooling curriculum options are sold out leaving families with no idea what they will do in a few weeks.
“Based on all of this, my prediction is that within the next six months we will see renewed calls for school choice in counties all over the country. The combination of poor choices available for those who must attend public schools with boiling frustration from those now spending tens of thousands of dollars on private school, while simultaneously continuing to pay the same amount in taxes will cause voters to demand vouchers or the outright closing of public schools all over the country, which I think ultimately will be a good thing for the country. When the general public demands that public schools compete for our tax dollars the options will get better, but it is going to be a painful bumpy road getting there.”
To which I must add: Where are the Republicans? Why aren’t they loudly and insistently responding to the plight of these millions of Americans? Why aren’t they demanding school choice now??? This could be a momentous turning point in American politics and culture, but are Republicans smart enough and courageous enough to show the needed leadership?
August 14, 2020
WHAT DO THESE FOUR THINGS HAVE IN COMMON? Plastic straws, plastic bags, gas-powered cars and trucks, and the death penalty. Give up? They are just four of the many things Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want to ban if they are elected in November, according to Issues & Insights.
IS THIS KAMALA HARRIS’ TICKET TO THE OVAL OFFICE? Check out Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, then ask yourself how long before it’s announced that President Biden suffers from severe dementia and has been removed “according to the Constitution,” thus elevating Vice-President Harris to the presidency?
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
MARYLAND’S RINO GOVERNOR: Larry “Snitch Line” Hogan was elected and then re-elected as a tax-cutting Republican. Then along comes the coronavirus pandemic and he transforms into a never-Trumping little tyrant. His latest is a telephone number for reporting to the authorities Marylanders who don’t properly social distance or wear masks.