LIGHTNING DEAL: EverPlus Home Security Door Lock with 8 Screws. #CommissionEarned

PETER LAFFIN: How America’s literacy crisis will cripple our ability to combat China.

The past year alone has seen Chinese President Xi Jinping boldly advance Chinese international priorities, which suggests that he no longer fears the consequences of bucking the U.S.-led West. Among other things, he’s brokered a detente between ancient rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, entered the foray in Ukraine with deepening military ties to Russia, created distance between the U.S. and its European allies about Taiwan policy, and struck a unified pose with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who last week tweeted his intention for Brazil to work with China “to expand trade and balance world geopolitics” (emphasis mine).

Meanwhile, Americans appear uninterested in the implications of this international shift and consequently lack the urgency necessary to fend off the challenge. Headlines abound in the American press that must cause Xi to chuckle himself silly — especially reports that involve the ballooning failure of American education , particularly its inability to teach its students basic reading skills.

According to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress , a jaw-dropping two-thirds of American fourth graders lack basic proficiency in reading. (To put this in perspective, imagine three American schoolchildren sitting beside one another in a classroom. Two of them can’t read.) In addition, a full 86% of 15-year-olds are unable to tell the difference between opinion and fact. [Emphasis added.]

We know how American public education declined to its dangerously sad condition but that emphasized part explains exactly why.

HARSH, BUT FAIR: “At this point, I would place Biskupic in the same category as Linda Greenhouse.”

SEE ALSO, MUNCHAUSEN BY PROXY: Study Shows Mothers of Boys With Gender Issues Are Mental. “The abstract of a scientific study undertaken in 1994 has been making the rounds on social media, and it is shocking on two levels. The first wave of shock (although not surprise) comes at you from what the study discovered: the mothers of gender dysphoric boys tend to suffer from a host of mental illnesses of their own. . . . The second shock from reading the study abstract is that it draws conclusions that no one is allowed to suggest, much less study, these days. You look over your shoulder as you read to make sure nobody sees you. The very first few words of the piece — ‘This pilot study compared mothers of boys with gender identity disorder (GID) with mothers of normal boys…’ — are enough these days to cost someone their job. At that point, you are struck by the full weight of the precise extent to which discourse and honest research into this subject has been smothered, and it’s breathtaking. “

YA THINK? When Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) asked Gen. James McConville if the Pentagon’s new transgender-inspired policy of allowing biological males to shower with females would help or hurt recruitment, the latter responded “probably not.”

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth disagreed, telling Gaetz “women are more worried about being sexually harassed in the Army than they are about the kinds of things that you’re bringing up,” according to The Washington Free Beacon’s Claire Sprang.

ROBERT SPENCER: Working-class Houston Suburb Tries a Beautiful Way to Fight Crime, but With an Ugly Edge. “Alief, a working-class suburb of Houston that is 71% Hispanic and black, is planting 1,200 new trees, but the objective is not just to beautify the neighborhood. Rather, the idea is that trees will fight crime.”

ON SUNDAYS I TRY TO RUN A PROMO POST, MOSTLY FOR INDIE WRITERS. SOMETIMES I EVEN MANAGE TO DO IT ON SUNDAY AND NOT MONDAY OR… TUESDAY:  Book Promo and Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.

UALR LAW IS HAVING A BAD YEAR: Stanford Comes to Fayetteville:

The bad news, however, is that the entitlement and intolerance exemplified by leftist students at Stanford found kin at Fayetteville. After the discussion ended, a former UA-Fayetteville law student in his mid-30s sought me out.

This adult verbally attacked me and called me a “waste of space”–explicitly due to my research, which I was invited to present. Fortunately, my trauma abated.

Progressive students at other schools have exhibited identical intolerance of conservatives, because the diversity and inclusion relevant to the left is solely pigment-and-plumbing based–not the one that matters: diversity of thought.

Sadly, higher education’s genuflection before the leftist idols of trigger warnings and safe spaces spawned a generation of addled adults adopting ad hominem attacks over appropriate argumentation. That this occurs at respected law schools demonstrates a remarkable failing of legal academia.

After all, lawyering is about the art of persuasion–not the bludgeon of bluster. These students, however, apparently haven’t been taught that lesson.

We’re beginning to see pushback on this, and that’s good.

NEWS I’D LIKE TO USE. FASTER PLEASE:  Scientists may have finally figured out why hair turns gray — and how to stop it.

OH, THERE’S MY SHOCKED FACE:  NYPD employee relations boss Lisa White drives workers away with ‘crazy stuff’: sources.

AS THEY SHOULD:  IN-DEPTH:  Transgender Teacher Spoke About Wanting to Shoot Students, Parents Accuse District of ‘Cover-Up’.

I FIND IT INTERESTING THAT THEY BURROW COMMUNIST WORDING WITHOUT A BLUSH: “Political correctness” and “disinformation” were used by communist countries to suppress truth telling.   And yet, they go ahead and use the words, and act like they’re doing nothing wrong:  Oracle Will No Longer Collaborate with the GDI After the Company Is Identified in Lawsuit for Targeting Conservative Media Advertisers (Like TGP’s).

SURE, THAT’S PART OF THE PROBLEM; THE OTHER PART IS THAT IT’S UNBEARABLY STUPID, WHEN YOU KNOW WHY THE RATINGS ARE THERE:  Biden’s new rule on housing loans only rewards bad behavior.

WHEN IS FAILURE NOT FAILURE?  Halfway to Success by Thomas Kendall.

THEY WANT TO CONSIDER THEMSELVES CLEAN, BUT THE WHOLE OCEAN WOULDN’T SUFFICE TO WASH THEIR HANDS:  Clean vs. Dirty: A Way to Understand Everything.

THIS IS WHY TOTALITARIAN SOCIETIES ALWAYS CORRUPT INFORMATION:  Of special interest: Perun on how corruption, politics, and lies destroy armies [I would add: and republics, bureaucracies, corporations.]

BEHOLD, MY SHOCKED FACE!  IRS Whistleblower Implicates Merrick Garland.

YOU HAVE TO HAVE A HEART OF STONE NOT TO LAUGH LIKE AN HYENA: Twitter Blue Check Loss Causes Tantrums In Celebrity “Elites”.

THIS IS A PIECE OF RIDICULOUS:  Netflix Draws Ire and Complaints over ‘Blackwashing’ of Cleopatra.

No, not being upset at Cleopatra being depicted as black. The fact that she was. Look, yes, I understand in small theatrical companies, sometimes the role looks nothing like the character. That’s not a thing here. This is all in service of “ancient Egyptians” (Which Cleopatra wasn’t) were “black.”

In fact, all pieces of ancient Egyptian DNA we have show they have a higher percentage from Europe and lower percentage from Africa than current Egyptians, who, btw, are not “black” in the US understanding of the term.

Why does it matter? Well, unfortunately a lot of people get their understanding of history and the world from popular entertainment. There is a concerted effort to lie about race in history, in order to weaponize US minorities (who are themselves, genetically, mostly European.) This is in service of creating strife and hatred that can be used to divide and conquer. And I’m sick and tired of it. All the people doing this stuff need their nose stove in, metaphorically speaking. They’re shameless liars or ignorant fools. And they’re seeding poison.

THIS IS A PROCESS OF ATTEMPTED DESTRUCTION A LOT OF US ARE FAMILIAR WITH:  Embattled UPenn Law Prof Amy Wax Sets the Record Straight: “mainstream media coverage has been agenda-driven”.

JUST ANOTHER TYRANNICAL POWER GRAB:  Biden Signs Executive Order on ‘Environmental Justice’.

“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.

OPEN THREAD: Party on.

KAROL MARKOWICZ: Trump’s insane lies on DeSantis trash successful conservative policies.

Trump has a clear lane in the primary.

He has a record of accomplishment as president; he led the country to prosperity that has since sharply declined; he exposes the politicization and corruption of our government agencies when he’s personally targeted by leftist activist district attorneys like Alvin Bragg and when he is the subject of a baseless search for documents at his home.

He remains absolutely beloved by a segment of the Republican base.

Boom, boom, boom.

Yet he, and the not-very-smart people around him, have decided that for him to win the primary he needs to not only destroy Florida’s extremely popular Gov. Ron DeSantis (who has not yet even announced a presidential run), but also to demolish all of DeSantis’ conservative policies and practices that have been so wildly successful in the sunshine state.

Compare Trump’s staffers leaking to Rolling Stone…

…with DeSantis’ disciplined handling of the DNC-MSM: Not Good Enough, Andrea: ‘Was a Blatant Lie’: DeSantis Team Rejects Andrea Mitchell Saying She Was ‘Imprecise’ on Gov’s Education Views, Vow to Freeze Out NBC.

JOHN NOLTE: The Gloriously Inappropriate and Problematic Reversal of Fortune (1990).

Beware all frail and fascist woketards: Reversal of Fortune (1990) is 111 minutes of trigger-inducing emotional trauma.

The Trump-defending Alan Dershowitz is portrayed as a righteous hero fighting on behalf of a rich, heterosexual white guy.

The movie itself is determined to question our bigotry against this rich, heterosexual white guy.

Those of a certain age remember what was then (1980) called the Sunny von Bülow Case. The only thing our culture loves more than a beautiful socialite is a depressive and drug-addicted socialite. Now imagine a murder attempt thrown into the mix, and not just a murder attempt — a murder attempt in a palatial Newport estate at the hands of Sunny’s second husband.

Read the whole thing.