News of the Week for Mar. 10th, 2019
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Gun Rights
Bill would reclassify many older guns as non-regulated antique firearms
A U.S. Senate proposal would scrub the current federal definition of an “antique firearm” from one made before 1899 to one that is 100 years old.
Defence secretary Gavin Williamson says military ‘ready to respond’ to knife crime crisis
Offer comes as police chief admits ‘we just don’t have enough officers’
North Carolina teachers who carry guns to school could get a pay raise under a new bill
North Carolina lawmakers are once again pushing to arm teachers with guns, and they’re trying to make it worth teachers’ while.
British PM Theresa May Holds Summit to Address UK Knife Crime Epidemic
UK police chief Sara Thornton: Knife crime now a “national emergency.”
Mothers send sons to Somalia to avoid knife crime
North London community believes police cannot protect teenagers against county lines gangs
Hide the Decline
Environment &
“Green Energy”
The Nuclear Option
As atomic power fades, a new band of supporters argues that it is still our best source of clean, reliable, and—yes—safe electricity.
Ecofascism for Real
I normally resist throwing around the “ecofascist” label, partly because the general term “fascist” is overused, and usually with great imprecision. It’s a synonym for “everyone I don’t like is Hitler.” But sometimes it fits.
Life in the Green New Deal ‘Paradise’? Nasty, Brutish, and Short.
Not long ago, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC — one of the best comedy accounts on Twitter) released (then retracted, and then disclaimed) the “Justice Democrats'” Green New Deal FAQ. (See @AOC and the Magic Choo-Choo.)
Re-Engineering Humans: An Old Solution to Climate Change
It’s no coincidence that global warming took off as an issue just as the Soviet Union fell; it’s top-down centralized government’s last best hope of controlling the masses. And like other forms of totalitarian worldviews, it doubles as a religion as well
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
Bernie Sanders On Private Health Insurance Under His Plan: “That’s Gone”
After admitting that he would “raise your taxes,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said, “that’s gone,” when referring to private health insurance under his healthcare proposal while on “The Breakfast Club” show on 3/4/19. Be sure to like, subscribe, and comment below to share your thoughts on the video.
Dad Of Sick Child Explains Why Single-Payer Always Leads To Rationing
Giving bureaucrats the power to deny access to health care could have devastating consequences for some of the most vulnerable Americans.
NHS transgender clinic accused of covering up negative impacts of puberty blockers on children by Oxford professor
An Oxford University professor has accused the NHS’s only specialised clinic for transgender children of suppressing negative results while undertaking experimental treatment on adolescents.
Finnish Government Collapses Due to Rising Cost of Universal Health Care
The government of Finland collapsed Friday due to the rising cost of universal health care and the prime minister’s failure to enact reforms to the system.
War & Terror
Massive Database Leak Gives Us a Window into China’s Digital Surveillance State
Earlier this month, security researcher Victor Gevers found and disclosed an exposed database live-tracking the locations of about 2.6 million residents of Xinjiang, China, offering a window into what a digital surveillance state looks like in the 21st century.
South Korea says North Korea is restoring dismantled launch site
South Korean intelligence officials have reportedly seen signs of new activity at North Korean nuclear sites that the country previously pledged to dismantle.
GOP senator says she was raped by superior officer while serving in military
Arizona Sen. Martha McSally (R) on Wednesday revealed in an emotional speech that was raped by a superior while serving in the Air Force. She called for reforms to how the military handles sexual assault.
Muslim Student Group Graduates to Outright Terror Recruitment
The Muslim Student Association (MSA) is comprised of hundreds of chapters at universities and colleges across the U.S. and Canada. Founded in 1963, with its roots in the land grant universities of the American Midwest, it now boasts chapters in every state in the country and is unquestionably the largest Muslim student group in American higher education.
U.S. Officials: Chinese Hackers Attacked American Universities to Steal Maritime Technology
“The University of Hawaii, the University of Washington and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are among at least 27 universities in the U.S.”
Analysts: Normal operations restored at NKorean launch site
U.S. analysts say North Korea appears to have restored normal operations at a long-range rocket launch site it partially dismantled last year as part of disarmament steps.
National
‘Hawaiian Day’ party flooded by cultural controversy wave
The University of South Dakota Student Bar Association faced criticism over a planned “Hawaiian Day” party.
Google Moves to Address Wage Equity, and Finds It’s Underpaying Many Men
When Google conducted a study recently to determine whether the company was underpaying women and members of minority groups, it found, to the surprise of just about everyone, that men were paid less money than women for doing similar work.
Kavanaugh Comes Out Strong for Religious Liberty in Comment
Statement on cert denial might presage bigger SCOTUS fight
Nevada Senate Majority Leader Kelvin Atkinson resigns
Senate Majority Leader Kelvin Atkinson announced his resignation Tuesday amid federal charges accusing him of misusing campaign funds for personal use.
Poli sci dept nixes ‘White Privilege is a Myth’ student event ad, cites ‘fake facts’
Rider University’s Turning Point USA chapter tried to advertise an event through the political science department.
“A Win for Freedom”: Colorado Drops Second Case Against Christian Baker
Colorado baker Jack Phillips is 2-0 now after state officials dropped their second attempt to coerce him into baking products that violate his beliefs.
As New Evidence of Progressive Bigotry Emerges, Jack Phillips Finally Wins His Case
Today my former colleagues at the Alliance Defending Freedom announced that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission will dismiss its pending discrimination charge against Masterpiece Cakeshop’s Jack Phillips. Even after Phillips won a 7-2 decision at the Supreme Court rebuking the commission for its clear anti-religious bias, it had pursued new charges against Phillips for failing to design a cake celebrating a male-to-female gender transition.
Alabama Court Rules Aborted Baby Is A Person With Rights
In a landmark case, an Alabama court became the first court in the nation to recognize an aborted baby as a person with rights.
Ohio groups fight back after parents lose custody of daughter for refusing gender “transition”
Ohio family and life advocates gathered Monday morning to oppose the government removal of a child from her parents’ custody so that she can take hormones for so-called gender transition – calling the case a “dangerous affront to the rights of parents and the health and well being of children.”
Campus memorials to progressive racists, eugenicists largely escape scrutiny
Over the past several years, universities all over the American South have been forced to confront their racist pasts, as students and professors have urged either removing or renaming landmarks dedicated to notable Confederates.
White privilege lecture tells students white people “dangerous” if they don’t see race
During a guest lecture at Boston University on Monday, University of Washington Professor Robin DiAngelo told the audience a “dangerous white person” sees people as individuals rather than by skin color.
“I Have a Girl Brain but a Boy Body”: Virginia Kindergartners Are Read Transgender Story
It looked like your typical reading class. Dozens of kindergarten students sat cross-legged on the floor watching their teacher turn to the first page. It didn’t take long for the 5-year-olds to realize: This was no ordinary children’s book. “I have a girl brain but a boy body,” Miss McBride started. “This is called transgender. I was born this way.”
Female Athletes Fear Criticizing Trans Women in Sports Because ‘It’s Not PC,’ Olympian Says
Former British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies has joined a few lonely voices in taking a stand against biological men competing with biological women in women’s sports, but she said a great many female athletes keep silent for fear of retribution. She also suggested that young women might want to avoid sports because they fear unfair competition.
Nikki Haley lays the foundation to seize Trump’s mantle in 2024
Republican Nikki Haley is meticulously laying the foundation for a presidential bid in 2024, forming a nonprofit organization to sustain her political-rock-star profile while she builds a financial nest egg so her family can afford her political ambitions.
Top Democrat Tells Holocaust Survivors To Check Their Privilege
According to Rep. James Clyburn’s logic, it’s OK to hate Jews if you rank higher than them on the pyramid of victimhood.
Lesbian Feminist Defends ‘Misgendering’; It’s Not ‘Inhumane’ to Tell the Truth
On Thursday, lesbian feminist Julia Beck shot down the notion that “misgendering” a transgender person is “inhumane.”
Chicago grand jury indicts Jussie Smollett on 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct
I didn’t think he’d end up with jail time but 16 is a lot of felonies. Even if he makes a deal, how do they let him go with no time served after the grand jury threw the book at him?
Good news from Pelosi: Ilhan Omar has a “different experience in the use of words”
Serious question: Does Pelosi think Omar is mentally disabled?
Ilhan Omar: Obama was just a pretty face; “hope and change” was an illusion
Having escaped condemnation for her anti-Semitic remarks, and indeed having avoided even a straight resolution condemning anti-Semtism itself, Rep. Ilhan Omar has gone on the attack. That’s not surprising, but some might be surprised at the target of her latest attack.
University affirmative action plan calls for hiring more women than men
School also wants to boost minority rate
The Mothers Who Can’t Speak On The Record
Here’s a very sad story. Those who wish for the collapse of our culture are now celebrating children deciding they’re not the gender they were “assigned at birth.” A few years ago, The Washington Post front page celebrated a child as “Transgender at Five.” We’re increasingly finding troubled parents whose children suddenly decide — with no prior signals — to declare themselves transgender at age 20, 17, 13 or … 5.? They have discovered they have no power to resist a politically correct course of biological incorrectness unless they are prepared to become social outcasts, or worse, much worse.
H.R.1 passes in the House, “For The People Act” DOA in the Senate
After a horrible week putting out fires set by the new Congresswomen on the far left, Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally got a victory. Her first item on the Democrat agenda passed in the House by a vote of 234 to 193. I think Minority Whip Steve Scalise put it best when he described the legislation as a solution in search of a problem. The “For the People Act” is chock full of all kinds of Democrat hopes and dreams.
Pete Buttigieg struggles to explain what “intergenerational justice” is
As you may have already heard, Pete Buttigieg is running for the Democratic nomination to be president in 2020. (And if you haven’t, you are to be forgiven since he’s still polling at less than one percent.) Speaking strictly as a writer, I’m rooting against him because I can neither pronounce his name or spell it correctly without the copy/paste function. But the man has thrown his hat in the ring and is out there giving interviews so I suppose we owe him a bit of coverage now and again.
Economy & Taxes
What you REALLY earn after taxes in each state if your salary is $50,000 vs. $200,000 – and Oregon is the worst
The amount of money you take home after taxes varies from state-to-state
Hyperinflation Shatters Venezuelan Manufacturing
Venezuela’s 2 million percent rate is ravaging savings and salaries, devastating a once-vibrant sector by suppressing consumer demand
High-Tax States Make It Hard For The Rich to Leave
Wealthy Americans contemplating a move to a low-tax state might want to reflect on these five tales of woe.
International
Boris: How do you kick out ‘bastards’ running the EU?
Brexiteer Boris Johnson has stated his firm opposition to a second referendum and pointed out the ridiculous lack of democracy within the European Union’s structures, saying: “I have no idea how to kick those particular bastards out.”
Guaido returns to Venezuela amid threats of arrest after weeklong travel
Self-declared Venezuelan leader Juan Guaido on Monday returned to the country, where he faced arrest, after traveling throughout Latin America for the past week.
Scientists Just Confirmed The Discovery of The First Ever Denisovan Skull Fragments
A chunk of a Denisovan skull has been identified for the first time – a dramatic contribution to the handful of known samples from one of the most obscure branches of the hominin family tree.
Hmmm: Danish study shows vaccinated children less likely to develop autism
More than twenty years after British medical journal Lancet passed off a half-baked and dishonest observation as a reliable study, parents still refuse to vaccinate their children in fear of autism. The US now is dealing with outbreaks of diseases like measles that had once been thought eradicated within the country. One teen who defied his anti-vax parents to get inoculated became a folk hero of sorts last week.
Brexit, The Musical
We have Hamilton, the musical, but the British now have its, um, very rough (strong language warning!) equivalent about Brexit. I think the continuing clown show within the British government over Brexit is one of the key stories of our time, and the outcome, like the 2016 vote itself, contains significant meaning for the United States, for the question of Brexit is the same as the question with Trump: Are the people still sovereign?
Is Realignment Coming to British Politics?
In the U.K., a small group of Labour Members of Parliament joined by an even smaller group of Tory MPs have formed a politically centrist coalition, the Independent Group (TIG). Though the influence of these disgruntled and Europhile MPs is debatable, the fear of more defections may help explain why the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is now backing a second Brexit vote.
Canada shows us the endgame of transgender extremism
In case you weren’t already having enough trouble sleeping, let’s take a look at some new events on the transgender front, this time coming to us from our neighbors to the north. In Canada, the idea of “transgender kids” is nothing new and parents have been dealing with some troubling situations for a while now. But this year, the courts are stepping in to take the side of these children against the judgment and wishes of their parents in a big way. A report from Salem’s Albert Mohler asks if we’re seeing the end of parental rights.
Surveillance in Canada, yes they’re doing it to everybody.
Something to consider for y’all Canadians today, the cops are hooked up with Ontario Ministry of Health records. Big time.
Merkel’s Successor Under Fire for Mocking Gender-Neutral Bathrooms
Kramp-Karrenbauer: Gender-neutral toilets are for “men who cannot decide if they want to sit or stand.”
More than 140 children may have had their hearts removed in ancient sacrifice in Peru
Anthropologists have found evidence of a mass ritual killing that involved the deaths of more than 140 children, three adults, and at least 200 young llamas on the northern coast of Peru.
Venezuela questions, deports U.S. journalist
Venezuela’s government expelled the German ambassador and detained a U.S. freelance journalist in Caracas for several hours Wednesday as President Nicolás Maduro sought to maintain control amid a Western-backed opposition campaign to unseat him.
UK “porn block” starts April 1 – but you can unlock it by handing over ID or buying £5 “porn card” on your local high street
Here’s what randy Brits will soon need to do before they can watch porn
China’s superrich are losing faith in the country’s economy, with some even worried it will turn into the next Venezuela
China’s superrich are losing their faith in the country’s financial future as fears around the impacts of slowing global trade and slowing economic liberalization cause worry.
Poland plows through with Baltic canal project, despite green activist anger and EU demands
The EU and green justice warriors will probably also be upset Poland is supporting Brexit and is a new home for US Air Force predator drone facilities.
Will socialism die in darkness? Massive country-wide blackout hits Venezuela
How does an oil-rich nation lose electricity across the entire country? Just a day after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) predicted that Venezuela had almost run through its oil reserves, a massive blackout struct throughout all bu one state. “The Maduro regime calls it sabotage,” reports CBS Miami, and Nicolas Maduro may be right – but he also may be the ultimate cause.
Venezuela Is No Joking Matter
Two of my favorite jokes about socialism come to mind with today’s news out of Venezuela that the electricity is out. The regime is claiming “sabotage,” and they may ironically be correct: the “sabotage” has a name, and that name is socialism.
Internet Collapses in Venezuela with 80% Offline; Twitter, YouTube, SoundCloud Blocked
In the midst of a second nationwide power outage in Venezuela, the vast majority of the country is engulfed in a massive internet outage. The first electrical blackout, which swept across the nation on Thursday, left Venezuela with only two percent connectivity amid the ongoing presidential crisis. Most of the country has been offline since Thursday with limited or no connectivity being reported across large swaths of the South American nation. The NetBlocks Group, a private internet watchdog organization based in the UK, reported on Saturday that 96 percent of the country was offline
“This is chaos”: Death toll rises and protests rage on as Venezuela blackout continues
Demonstrations roiled Venezuela’s capital Caracas on Saturday as a near total blackout continued in the country.
Opinion
One party rule is one party to skip
The stories come at us from every direction, relentlessly, 24/7/365, our newsfeeds bombarding us with scandals and catastrophes both natural and man-made, with obvious outrages demanding our immediate attention, as well as a steady stream of lesser or localized transgressions we just don’t have the bandwidth to absorb.
Indie Sci-Fi Authors Are Upending Traditional Publishing, And It’s Turned Into A War
As mainstream sci-fi publishing has gotten more and more political, writers have discovered there’s a huge market for apolitical, independent books.
Schumer’s 2020 Problem
Chuck Schumer has a problem: The 2020 presidential election. Not only is 13 percent of his caucus on the campaign trail – so many Democrats are running for commander in chief that Schumer’s dreams of becoming Senate majority leader are in jeopardy.
Too Much Democracy?
A new book argues that the problem with the U.S. political system is not insufficient participation but weakened parties.
How Animal Farm is Playing Out in the Democrat Party
Tennis great Martina Navratilova until recently had long been coronated as a social justice trailblazer. She was one of the first marquee celebrity athletes to come out as gay, and then to advocate lesbian issues in and out of sports. But suddenly the icon seems out of step with her progressive legend status.
Don’t Lower the Voting Age, Raise It
Liberty requires limiting majority rule; limited suffrage could be part of it.
America’s Disappearing Private Colleges
Wall Street Journal op-ed: America’s Disappearing Private Colleges
7 Reasons Conservatives Are Losing the Culture Wars
Every experienced political observer knows that polls of adults are much more liberal than polls of likely voters. What that means is that for political purposes, a poll of adults doesn’t mean much. On the other hand, it also means that the culture at large is significantly more liberal than the group of people that turn out to vote.
Republicans can win in 2020 if they dial back the spin
As the Democratic Party continues its left-wing metamorphosis, the prevailing narrative popular among Republicans is: This is a good thing. The increasingly radical positions taken by presidential candidates in a seemingly endless sprint for the party’s base, so the narrative goes, sets the stage for Republican victories as the Democrats concede the political center to the GOP.
‘Intersectionality’ and the New Anti-Semitism
The real Ilhan Omar scandal isn’t that a high-profile member of a powerful House committee hates Jews and Israel. The real scandal is that progressives don’t think her hate is a problem, and in fact they don’t even consider it hate.
Europe Isn’t Realistic. It’s Weak.
The EU has committed to outsourcing its dirty work to authoritarians in the Middle East and Africa—and to confusing dependence for maturity.
“Bring People Together” Always, Always Means “Do What I Want”
Kevin notes that Representative Hakeem Jeffries’s response to the question of Ilhan Omar is as follows: “Nothing good is accomplished by being distracted by issues that divide the nation. We want to bring people together. There are folks in this town who want to tear folks apart.”
Boys Without Dads: Feminism’s Collateral Damage
Scripted television does not reflect reality as it exists. Rather, in addition to dramatizing for entertainment, the creators often also intend to create a guide to what reality should be. Television programs tell us what is cool and what is not; they tell us what is desirable and what is not. A more precise way of saying this is that television programs often have political agendas.
Before Trump, What Did Conservatism Conserve?
Aside from life, liberty, and prosperity, not much at all.
The politics of the Democrats’ “anti-hate” resolution
Yesterday, the House passed a meaningless, vacuous resolution condemning hate in many of its forms. House Democrats were unable to bring to a vote a specific anti-anti-Semitism resolution and never seem seriously to have contemplated a resolution condemning Rep. Ilhan Omar, who caused the fuss with her blatantly anti-Semitic remarks.
California Cronyism and its Consequences
If the goal of public policy is to optimize the role of government, cronyism must be identified and curbed wherever possible. Cronyism wastes the limited resources of governments, at the same time as it reduces the efficiency of the private sector by using subsidies and other incentives to undermine healthy competition.
The Politics of Cooties
One of the peculiarities of Trump-era (and Trump-style) conservatism is that it is fundamentally ahistorical – and ahistorical conservatism is an oxymoron.
I Have Gender Dysphoria. But your Trans-Identified Child May Not
A recent response published in The BMJ, titled Safeguarding adolescents from premature, permanent medicalisation, argues that when treating cases of gender dysphoria, “it remains legitimate to listen, assess, explore, wait, watch development, offer skilled support, deal with co-morbidities and prior traumas, and consider use of a variety of models of care. While respecting individuals’ right to a different viewpoint, it is neither mandatory to affirm their beliefs nor automatic that transition is the goal, particularly when dealing with children, adolescents and young adults…With 85% desistance amongst referred transgender children and increasing awareness of detransitioning, unquestioning ‘affirmation’ as a pathway that leads gender dysphoric patients to irreversible interventions cannot be considered sole or best practice.”
Socialism as Deliberate Destruction
The economic illiteracy of liberals should never surprise us, despite repeated experience seeing liberals impervious to empirical findings about the perverse results of many liberal policies such as rent control and the minimum wage.
Martina Navratilova is at a political change crossroads, whether she realizes it or not
Most coverage of this story is about the transgender athlete controversy aspects of it. But the portion of Navratilova’s words that I bolded is what caught my attention. What I see here are the glimmerings of at least the possibility of political change on Navratilova’s part, depending on how she answers the questions she posed.
