News of the Week for Mar. 28th, 2021
- Riots & Revolution
- Corona Virus
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Riots & Revolution
College hosts “community radical” who claims White people must be willing to say “I am a racist”
Rocky Mountain College hosted a “community radical” who told students that only White people can be racist.
UNC’s “Common Language” Advances Leftist Agenda
The University of North Carolina is not content just to hire faculty who are expert in their fields (yes, a lot of those fields are academically bogus, but put that aside for now), but now insists on “training” them to support the administration’s leftist agenda.
Chauvin trial day 11
When I was trained in as a trial lawyer defending companies in personal injury litigation, I was instructed by one of my mentors at the firm that we wanted to avoid post office workers on the jury. His advice became something of a standing joke. It may even have been a standing joke at the time I joined the firm, but watching voir dire in this case over the past two weeks has brought it back to mind.
Black Lives Matter Traps Shoppers in Rochester Grocery Store
A mob of Black Lives Matter agitators in Rochester, N.Y., physically trapped shoppers in a Wegmans grocery store on Tuesday, the one-year anniversary of the death of Daniel Prud, a41-year-old black man. As shoppers struggled to escape, the agitators wrote Black Lives Matter slogans on the parking lot asphalt with chalk. The shoppers did find a way out and the store appears to be closed.
Chauvin Pre-Trial Day 12: We Have a Jury, Final Juror Selected
Trial beings Monday, March 29, 9:00am CT with opening argument
Chauvin Pre-Trial Day 11: 14th Juror Selected, One More Needed
Defense Compelled to Burn Two More Peremptory Strikes
Chauvin trial day 12
In part 11 of this series yesterday I concluded that juror 116 — the deer hunter — filled out the profile of the optimal juror for Derek Chauvin. The prosecution exercised a peremptory challenge to strike him, as it has the few other prospective jurors who turned up with a neutral view of Chauvin and a a mind open to his defenses.
Chauvin Trial: Meet the Jurors
Chosen jurors are broadly diverse in terms of gender, race, and age
Man’s Anti-Asian Rant Caught on Cop’s Camera at NYC Protest
“Suck a dog’s d—k, p—-y. Then cook it and eat it in front of your mother.”
Minnesota Theater Company Cancels Cinderella for Being Too White
Ever since a man named George Floyd died in the custody of a multiracial group of Minneapolis police officers, America has been in a panic about something called “whiteness.” As it has been explained to me, “whiteness” is something separate from white people or even skin color itself. “Whiteness” seems to be a sort of free-floating evil that can infect pretty much anything and make it bad. The worst thing you can do in 2021 America is perpetuate “whiteness.”
6 Goals in Black Lives Matter’s New “Impact Report”
Political activists who call for defunding police and ending what they call systemic racism used the banner of Black Lives Matter to raise tens of millions of dollars and launch a political action committee, according to the main organization’s “2020 Impact Report.”
New Universal Basic Income Program in Oakland, Calif., Excludes Low-Income White Families
The city of Oakland, Calif., has just launched a universal basic income program, providing low-income families $500 per month, with absolutely no strings attached regarding how they must spend it. According to a report from CBS News, this program, which is privately-funded, “is the latest experiment with a ‘guaranteed income,’ the idea that giving low-income individuals a regular, monthly stipend helps ease the stresses of poverty and results in better health and upward economic mobility.”
Final Chauvin pretrial notes
At least for purposes of double jeopardy, the trial of Derek Chauvin for the alleged murder of George Floyd begins tomorrow with the empaneling of the jury selected to sit in the case. Opening statements will follow.
China Weaponizes Social Justice Warriors and Black Lives Matter In Covert War Against the U.S.
Beijing wages all-out campaign to sow chaos and discord in the US.
Journal of American Medical Association Embraces “Structural Racism” Dogma, Succumbing To Critical Race Activism
Allegiance to CRT pledged after Deputy Editor committed thought crime of saying: “Structural racism is an unfortunate term. Personally, I think taking racism out of the conversation will help. Many of us are offended by the concept that we are racist.”
Corona Virus
EU To Vote On Vaccine Passports This Week
Sometimes I really hate it when I’m right. As I predicted last Christmas, the world is moving steadily closer to a two-tier society comprised of those with and without immunity to the novel coronavirus. In order to prove that you’re one of the lucky, free people who have gained immunity, you were obviously going to need some sort of official documentation, ushering in the need for what I’ve been calling “immunity passports.” We’ve seen the beginnings of such a plan in some American cities and in the travel industry, but the European Union will be meeting this week and likely voting on a sweeping system of that sort. They’re calling them “vaccination passports,” but the upshot is the same. And why are they doing it? Because tourist season is nearly here and they need to open the resorts.
56% Say They’ll Still Wear Masks Occasionally Even After The Pandemic Is Over
A shocking result given the excitement that’s building for a return to normalcy this summer. Even more surprising is that the numbers don’t divide sharply along partisan lines, as they did in the Gallup poll that John wrote about on Friday. As you’d expect, Republicans are less likely to say they’ll go on wearing masks after the pandemic. But not as less likely as you’d think.
Former CDC Director Believes COVID-19 Escaped from Wuhan Lab
Robert Redfield, the former director of the CDC, told CNN that he believes COVID-19 “escaped” from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and that it was spreading as early as September or October of 2020, roughly two to three months before China alerted the World Health Organization about it. He stressed that it was his opinion.
Mexico’s real COVID-19 death toll now stands at over 321,000
Mexico’s government acknowledged Saturday that the country’s true death toll from the coronavirus pandemic now stands above 321,000, almost 60% more than the official test-confirmed number of 201,429.
Gun Rights
Biden: We Need Gun-Control Legislation Now. Manchin: No Thanks.
Alternate headline: “Biden encourages Americans to go out and buy more guns.”
The Problem with the Latest Anti-Gun Talking Point
I see this talking point doing the rounds
Biden Tries to Turn Tragedy into Political Capital
“As president, I’m going to use all the resources at my disposal to keep the American people safe.” It’s a wonderful sentiment. But for longtime observers of Joe Biden and his party, it marked an ominous sign of things to come early on in his remarks about the shooting in Boulder, Colo., yesterday.
Filibuster or Not, Gun Control Faces Uphill Battle in Senate
The shootings in Colorado and Virginia have prompted many of the filibuster’s critics to add gun control to the list of Democratic agenda items that the 60-vote threshold is supposedly throttling. Having looked around a little today, though, I’m really not sure that’s true.
Gun Bans Don’t Stop Killers
After the Atlanta shooting last week, progressives dove headfirst into another round of moral panic about “white supremacy,” even before they knew if there was any racial motivation involved in the killings. When the shooter’s identity inconveniences that well-worn narrative, as it does in the Boulder shooting today, liberals will jump straight to pushing for more useless gun regulations.
Is It Easier to Buy a Gun Than Vote? Let’s Find Out
Barack Obama used to claim, absurdly, that it was easier for a kid to buy a “Glock than get his hands on a computer, or even a book.” Contemporary liberals have updated this talking point with more recent legislative obsessions.
“Assault Weapons”: Some Numbers
Estimated number of “modern sporting rifles” in the U.S.: 15-20 million
Ninth Circuit: Hawaiian Tradition Trumps 2nd Amendment On Right To Carry, Or Something
Law and Crime calls this decision in Young v Hawaii “lengthy and scholarly.” My friend and colleague Cam Edwards calls it “bizarre” at Bearing Arms. I’d call it something else — “short-lived.” In a case destined to become emblematic of the Ninth Circuit’s reputation for insanity, the court ruled that Hawaiian tradition trumps the Constitution and the 2nd Amendment when it comes to the right to carry firearms outside the home.
The Battle of the Arm Brace
Every so often, some very strange and exotic-seeming financial instrument goes bust in a categorical fashion, and people ask: “Why does this thing even exist in the first place?” The answer is almost always regulation, if you drill down far enough. This isn’t to say that regulation is categorically bad or that we shouldn’t regulate finance, only that regulations produce reactions. Credit-default swaps, for example, are a way of providing default insurance on bonds and other debt obligations in a way that avoids some regulatory hassles.
Mass shooters are not disproportionately white and aren’t more likely to survive because of police favoritism
In case you’ve forgotten some of the knee-jerk responses to the Boulder shooting, let me remind you. Here’s a Deadspin editor bringing up a “white man with an AR-15” and a USA Today editor replying “It’s always an angry white man. Always.” (She was fired over that tweet.)
Hide the Decline
Environment &
“Green Energy”
The Harm Done By Environmentalists
The damage done by contemporary environmentalism is a big topic. For now I want to note two important instances that are on my mind because they are fronts on which my organization, Center of the American Experiment, is battling self-interested or misguided environmentalists.
California senators calling on Biden to set date for phasing out gasoline cars
The two U.S. senators representing California are calling on President Biden to create a deadline for U.S. automakers to end sales of gasoline-powered cars, according to a new report.
Climatista Fragility
You just knew that sooner or later the climatistas would grow anxious about the fact that our current national panic about race might come to eclipse the ongoing leftist panic about climate change, which is of course The Greatest Existential Threat to Humanity.
13 States Sue Over Biden Ban On New Drilling on Federal Land
We need more of this. A lot more of this. Sue over everything, in jurisdictions with plenty of Trump judges. Bring this lawless regime to its legal knees.
UK University to Unveil $32K Greta Thunberg Statue Amid Staff Cuts
Next week, Winchester University in Britain will unveil a bronze statue of Greta Thunberg that cost £23,760 ($32,792.48 U.S.) amid student outrage. Winchester University has laid off a tenth of its staff and made cuts to library services. Both the Student Union (SU) and the University College Union (UCU) have slammed the statue.
Why Does American Infrastructure Cost More and Take Longer To Build Than It Used To?
A series of laws passed in the 1970s may have permanently hamstrung American infrastructure development.
The “Green Energy” That Might Be Ruining the Planet
The biomass industry is warming up the South’s economy, but many experts worry it’s doing the same to the climate. Will the Biden Administration embrace it, or cut it loose?
Do Greens Want the World to Be Like the “Blackout State?”
Electricity is essential to modernity. Prosperity depends on it. So does longevity and health. If you doubt that, ask those in impoverished nations who still don’t have access to reliable electrical power! Indeed, if we could create a continental power grid in Africa — regardless of the means — it would ameliorate so much human misery.
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
Americans for Prosperity Releasing “Personal Option” Health-Care Model at Odds with Dr. Big Brother
With Senate Democrats ready to spring a health-care public-option bill in the coming weeks, while House Democrats are rallying behind a Medicare-for-all push, it comes fortuitously timed for Americans for Prosperity to launch the next phase of its Personal Option effort, which contends health care can be better, have greater access, and be affordable.
War & Terror
Read the Shocking Pentagon Training Materials Targeting Conservatives in the Military
I have obtained a copy of all the materials regarding the sudden new threat of “Extremism” used for training in the United States military. Throughout the services, service members have been shocked at the Biden blitz to root out ideas and people who stand in the way of the administration’s transformative agenda.
China’s confrontational military buildup to be laid bare by U.S. spy agency in unprecedented reveal
Disclosure mandate was folded into the $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill signed into law by Trump
Report: Woke Pentagon Worried Troops View BLM/Antifa and Capitol Hill Riots Equally
“The Pentagon is also weighing whether any additional mechanisms are needed, such as ways for service members to confidentially report potential extremist behavior within their units.”
Concerns raised as Cornell considers dual-degree program with China’s Peking University
As Cornell University considers establishing a dual-degree program with China’s Peking University, some are voicing concerns that the Ivy League institution should not partner with the communist regime.
Who Will Stand Up To the Chinese and Russians?
It is early days, obviously, but nevertheless it is reasonable to expect the Biden administration to return to the passive posture of weakness and international retreat, including, at times, outright anti-Americanism, that characterized the Obama years. With both Russia and, especially, China resurgent, is there anyone else who can stand in their way? Actually, there may be.
EU Imposes First Sanctions Against China in 30 Years
Brussels freezes Chinese assets and sanctions senior officials over human rights abuse.
The Taiwan Emergency, Explained by a Top Commander
Yesterday’s exchange between Admiral John Aquilino, who has been nominated to lead the U.S. military’s Indo-Pacific Command, and Senator Tom Cotton provides another look at military planners’ expectations about a potential invasion of Taiwan by Chinese forces.
‘Agile’ F-35 fighter software dev techniques failed to speed up supersonic jet deliveries
Watchdog bites Uncle Sam and Lockheed Martin over $14bn-and-counting efforts
Senator Cotton’s Stand
The Arkansas lawmaker is introducing a bill to protect the military from critical race theory indoctrination.
Mystery Drones Kept Buzzing U.S. Destroyers During Exercises Off California
New details have emerged of how mysterious drones harassed U.S. warships off California on multiple occasions in 2019. The Navy has yet to determine where the drones came from, who was operating them, or why they buzzed around a group of U.S. destroyers.
The Growing Scrutiny of Peter Daszak’s Chinese Research Collaboration
On the homepage, Jack Crowe has an explosive report on Peter Daszak’s conflicts of interests as a WHO investigator into the origins of the coronavirus.
Largest Ever Incursion Of Chinese Air Force Near Taiwan
Reuters is reporting that the Chinese air force sent another incursion of military aircraft near the island of Taiwan today. This has become a somewhat routine occurrence lately but today was a bit different because of the size of the incursion.
China’s growing firepower casts doubt on whether U.S. could defend Taiwan
In war games, China often wins, and U.S. warships and aircraft are kept at bay.
National
Kay James Resigns From the Heritage Foundation
On Monday, the Heritage Foundation announced that its current president, Kay Coles James, will resign later this year. Executive Vice President Dr. Kim R. Holmes, who rejoined the Heritage Foundation when James took over in 2018, will resign next month.
Anthropologists say this common practice in their own field is racist
Two professors used “critical race theory” to determine whether ancestry estimation based on bone structure is inherently racist.
Report: Democrats Going All In to Take Iowa House Seat They Lost by Six Votes
The Democrats seem willing to do anything to get rid of their slim House majority.
Report: Cigna Insurance Subjects Employees to Abusive Critical Race Training
Other employees allege Cigna cares more about diversity than qualifications when it comes to hiring new people.
USC College Republicans expose abusive messages sent to conservative students
“A peek into the harassment that conservatives face on campus every day”
Border Patrol Releasing Illegal Immigrants Without A Court Date
When Karen discussed the latest moves the Biden administration is making to try to deal with the crisis on the southern border yesterday, she highlighted the fact that the President is taking what look to be some rather desperate measures to handle the human wave of migrant families and unaccompanied minors flooding our facilities. But there was another order coming to the Border Patrol from the White House that makes the situation seem even more dire. In what’s being described as an unprecedented decision, immigration enforcement officials are now releasing hundreds of illegal aliens into the interior of the country without even scheduling a court appearance for them. This takes the entire idea of “catch and release” to another level.
NY GOP Congressman Retiring After Sexual Misconduct Claim
Another political career is crashing and burning due to a sexual harassment claim, this time taking down a Republican congressman from upstate New York. Representative Tom Reed (R-NY22) announced yesterday that he will not be seeking reelection next year, nor will he be seeking any other elected office after allegations surfaced on Friday that he had “behaved inappropriately” with a female lobbyist named Nicolette Davis at a bar in 2017. (Disclosure: I worked on a couple of Reed’s campaign events in 2010, though I was never formally employed by the campaign.) After initially claiming that the descriptions of his actions were “not accurate,” Reed issued full apologies yesterday to Davis, his family, and all of his constituents before confirming that he would be leaving political life at the end of this term.
The Murky Effects of Mail-In Voting
Harry Enten offers some pieces of evidence suggesting (although not proving) that expanding mail-in voting hasn’t had a strong pro-Democratic effect on election outcomes, and that restricting it wouldn’t have a strong pro-Republican effect. The lesson he draws is that “it’s not at all clear Republicans will succeed in helping their electoral prospects” by enacting new limits on mail-in voting.
Federal Judge Blocks South Carolina’s Heartbeat Bill
A federal judge has blocked a pro-life law in South Carolina that prohibits abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which usually takes place around six weeks into pregnancy.
NAS Debuts Coalition to Stop Action Civics
The National Association of Scholars (NAS) has announced the formation of a coalition to promote authentic civic education. The new NAS Civics Alliance will oppose attempts to replace proper courses in American government with politicized “action civics.” Most conservatives still haven’t even heard of action civics, where K-12 and college students are required to protest and lobby for (invariably leftist) political causes for course credit. At a moment when the public and legislators are eager to restore long-neglected civic education, radicals are attempting to smuggle partisan leftist activism into K-12 education under the misleading label of “civics.” The new NAS Civics Alliance aims to block these moves and restore genuine civic education instead.
West Chester University implements mandatory diversity training for all employees
West Chester University in Pennsylvania has recently instituted mandatory diversity training for faculty and staff.
Astronauts in crewed missions to Mars could misread vital emotional cues
A study simulating the effects of weightlessness also finds that impaired cognitive performance cannot be counteracted by short periods of artificial gravity
Did SCOTUS Tip Its Hand Against Union Organizing On Private Property?
A Supreme Court clash between union organizing rights, private property, and the Takings Clause might end in broad new restrictions against unions and possibly government inspectors as well. The Los Angeles Times reports that today’s oral arguments in Cedar Point Nursery v Hassid revealed that a consensus emerged against a California union-access regulation as a constitutional violation
GLAAD Adds Jesse Singal To “Accountability” List Of Very Bad People
Last week I wrote about the ongoing effort to cancel reporter Jesse Singal because his writing about trans issues is a bit more nuanced then some activists would like. Today he discovered that GLAAD had added him to a list of anti-LGBT bigots.
Sidney Powell statement to court says that only morons believed her “Kraken” BS about the election!
This *should* be a nail in the coffin of the embarrassingly stupid conspiracy theory that the corpse of Hugo Chavez hacked our election, but sadly, it won’t even register a blip. Sidney Powell, the lawyer who defended Mike Flynn and bellowed out that she had all the evidence that Venezuela helped steal the election away from Trump, has responded in a filing that it was all so stupid only a moron could believe it:
QAnon now pushes alarming conspiracy myths targeting China and Jewish people
Experts on extremism are warning about a troubling shift in the right-wing QAnon movement toward a new vein of conspiracy that blends anti-Chinese and anti-Jewish tropes with fears of vaccines and a global plot to take over the world.
How CEOs Can Effectively Bounce Their Woke Staffers: If All Else Fails, Pay Them to Leave
Over the past year, CEOs and other leaders have been bowled over by a small group of loud and combative woke activists intent on bringing concepts that are corrosive to the bonds that are essential for teamwork and productivity into the workplace and our public institutions. The ideas come under the broad heading of critical race theory. This ideological push started to bubble up in 2017 when Denise Young Smith, a black female employee and 20-year veteran of Apple, was forced to resign after saying diversity was more than skin deep.
Woke Wheaton College to ‘Reword’ Plaque Honoring Missionaries Speared to Death in Ecuadorian Jungle
Christian missionaries Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Nate Saint (a missionary pilot), Roger Youderian, and Pete Fleming were speared to death for no reason except that’s what the Huaorani tribe — aka the “Auca” — in the Ecuadorian region of the Amazonian jungle had done for centuries to outsiders.
Bill Maher Slams ‘Stalinist’ Cancel Culture
The proximate cause of the latest battle in the Cancel Culture War: Teen Vogue.
Appalachian State pairs ‘Black Male’ housing initiative with ‘Black Panther’ course
Appalachian State University announced the launch of a new “Black Male Excellence Initiative.”
With Children Fully Indoctrinated, Schools Have A New Target: Parents
PTA works with school “equity” office to subject parents to divisive racial “trainings”
Boulder: 10 Dead, Including Police Officer; Suspect in Custody, Not Yet Identified
There is something . . . off about this story, and I don’t know what it is yet. We saw the suspect walked out in handcuffs and yet, several hours later, police have still not identified him. While I have seen some speculation online about the gunman’s identity, the fact that police did not name him at their press conference strikes me as significant, because why not name him? Certainly, his identity will be public very soon, so what is accomplished by delaying the release of this information?
Police Identify Ahmad Al-Issa as Boulder Shooting Suspect
Looks like the alleged shooter hated Trump, too.
Biden’s HHS turns San Diego’s famed Convention Center into shelter for “unaccompanied migrant children”
“Instead of Comic-Con, San Diego gets COVID and ‘kids-in-cages’.”
Beach Lives Matter? Black Leaders Say Miami’s Curfew Is RAAAAACIST!
When I reported Saturday that Miami Beach had imposed an 8 p.m. curfew because of spring break mayhem (“Miami Beach Mayor: ‘If You’re Coming Here to Go Crazy, Go Somewhere Else'”), I wondered if anyone else noticed the demographic of the rowdy scene on South Beach
Senate Dems: Biden Has Failed Us On Cabinet Diversity
Has he? If so, this is an awkward time to raise this particular complaint — although it looks more like an attempt to exploit a momentary public passion. Less than a day after Senate Democrats confirmed the final Cabinet official in Joe Biden’s administration, two Senate Democrats accused Biden of failing their expectations of diversity, Axios reported this afternoon
Feds Discover Baltimore State’s Attorney Is Doing Very Well For Someone Who Can’t Pay Her Taxes
Here’s a name that hasn’t been cropping up in the news all that much lately. You may recall Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby from some of our coverage here over the years. She’s the one who botched the response to the Freddie Gray riots and subsequent attempts to blame the police for them. Well, she and her husband, City Council President Nick Mosby are back in the headlines this week, but not because of any high-profile prosecutions she has going on. It turns out that federal investigators have been looking into the couple’s finances and finding, shall we say… some irregularities. The Mosby’s have been in trouble with the IRS for a while now and the State’s Attorney’s private finances have been under scrutiny. So for someone who seems to have so much trouble managing her money, it seems rather odd that she purchased two vacation homes in Florida worth more than a million dollars in just the past six months.
Kristi Noem: Here’s Why I’m Not Signing The Bill Barring Transgender Women From Women’s Sports
An odd, even shocking turn here from an up-and-comer who’s clearly angling to run for president in 2024 if Trump doesn’t. Remember that Trump himself recently flagged the unfairness of trans women competing against biological women in his speech at CPAC. Republican state legislatures have taken up the issue too, passing a raft of bills aimed at drawing biological lines for school sports in hopes that that might win back a few suburban parents who defected to the Democrats last November. And with good reason: Polling shows that a majority of Americans agree that trans athletes should be barred from competing in women’s sports given their biological advantage.
Honest Elections Project Tells It to Us Straight on H.R. 1
The battle over H.R. 1, the “For the People Act” — and more accurately described by National Review as “a partisan assault on American Democracy” — is scheduled to begin Senate consideration with hearings tomorrow before the Rules Committee. Your spider sense should be tingling. Jason Snead, an expert on election reform and the executive director of Honest Elections Project, has drafted an important memo (sent to members of Congress and state legislatures) explaining how H.R. 1 blatantly disregards the strong-majority positions American have voiced for serious election reform, especially desire for greater protections against voter fraud. The memo, a worthwhile primer on this vital debate, merits the attention of all conservatives and all voters.
New Report Shows Long-Term Declines in Teen Pregnancies and Abortions
Last week, the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute released long-term data on rates of pregnancies, births, and abortions in the U.S. The national data range from 1973 to 2017 and include breakdowns by age demographics, and the state-level data range from 1988 to 2017.
Iowa-2 Update: Rita Hart Asks Democrats to Ignore the Law and Steal a Congressional Seat
Democrat Rita Hart, seeking a seat she did not win representing Iowa’s second congressional district, is at least being honest about what she wants: House Democrats to not just ignore, but flout Iowa state election law.
Man Sentenced to 196 Years as Teen And Released After Law Change Accused in Violent Robbery
A man who was sentenced to 196 years to life in prison for his role in a series of San Diego drive-by slayings, but was released last year due to changes to state law regarding juvenile defendants, was charged Monday with robbing and stabbing a stranger earlier this month.
Ben Sasse To Dems: How Come The Filibuster Wasn’t “Racist” When You Used It To Block Tim Scott’s Police Reform Bill?
A good speech, worth watching in full if you can spare the time but certainly at least five minutes’ worth from the point where I’ve cued up the clip below. “The filibuster is racist” is a common talking point of late among Senate Democrats, a caucus that just wrapped four years of using that same racist implement to obstruct the Republican agenda. But the man who took the argument fully mainstream was Barack Obama, a former filibusterer himself in the Senate, who used the occasion of John Lewis’s funeral last summer to remind his party that the procedure had been used to block civil-rights legislation. Our first black president was looking ahead to a possible Biden presidency, remembering how successful McConnell had been in thwarting Hopenchange and signaling to his party that they should feel free to demagogue centrist Dems inclined to let that degree of obstruction recur.
Cigna To Employees: Make Sure To Check Your “Religious Privilege” — And Tell Us Your Sexual Orientation
Is religion an immutable characteristic? According to this stunning report from the Washington Examiner on Friday, “religious privilege” is one of several issues of extreme importance to Cigna in its “anti-racism” initiatives. The insurer has adopted critical race theory wholesale, and has begun to enforce a diversity program on its basis.
Feds investigate Marilyn and Nick Mosby
Marilyn and Nick Mosby are Baltimore’s leading power couple. She is the State’s Attorney in Baltimore — the one who indicted but failed to convict half a dozen police officers in the Freddy Gray matter. He’s the City Council President.
Cigna’s critical race theory training: Don’t say ‘brown bag lunch’ and be mindful of ‘religious privilege’
Employees at one of the nation’s largest health insurance providers are routinely subjected to far-left critical race theory lessons and asked not to consider white men in hiring decisions, according to leaked documents and chat logs obtained by the Washington Examiner.
UCLA student government creates fund to pay illegal immigrants who serve in office
The Undergraduate Students Association Council at UCLA recently voted to create a fund to allow students in the country illegally to be paid if they are elected to the student government.
Feds investigate Marilyn and Nick Mosby
Marilyn and Nick Mosby are Baltimore’s leading power couple. She is the State’s Attorney in Baltimore — the one who indicted but failed to convict half a dozen police officers in the Freddy Gray matter. He’s the City Council President.
Congress Tells Government Agencies to Release Everything They Have on UFOs. Will They Comply?
Stuck in the last $2.3 trillion pandemic relief bill passed in December last year was a little-noted rider to the intelligence authorization language. Underneath the heading “Advanced Aerial Threats,” the bill mandated that the defense secretary and the director of national intelligence work to issue a report detailing everything the government knows about unidentified flying objects. Not just what the air force or navy has on UFO’s but everything known by every agency about the phenomenon.
North Carolina’s New K-12 Standards Push Critical Race Theory Deep Into Curriculum
Driven by an “anti-racist, pro-equity consultant” who was handpicked to serve on the State Board of Education.
Masterpiece Cake Shop On Trial For Refusing To Bake A “Transition” Cake
The litigation against Jack Phillips hasn’t subsided after his Supreme Court victory. Now he’s on trial for refusing to bake a cake celebrating gender transition. The Bake Shop attorney says “Masterpiece Cakeshop has regular customers who are transgender. The issue has to do with the message …. This lawsuit isn’t about discrimination, it’s about the freedom to disagree.”
McConnell Threatens ‘Nuclear Winter’ if Democrats Get Rid of Filibuster
The war is ostensibly over the new and improved Voting Rights Act and the differences between the two sides on the issue couldn’t be more pronounced. Democrats see the voting rights bill as their ticket to domination in Washington for the next quarter-century. Republicans see the bill as an existential threat to their party and the very idea of an American “republic.”
Biden To Historians: How Can I Remake America As Quickly As Possible?
Doesn’t he mean “How can Joe Manchin remake America as quickly as possible?”
Austin City Officials Planning to Build Segregated “Black Embassy”
The facility will service based on skin color.
Sidney’s Powell doctrine
I began my exit from President Trump train asserting that the election was “stolen” from him with a viewing of the Trump legal team’s 90-minute press conference of November 19, 2020. Linking to videos of the press conference, I commented in “A conspiracy so immense” and in “Exit Sidney Powell.” I didn’t understand President Trump’s endgame and failed to complete my exit until January 6 in “A shameful day.”
University of Arkansas pays communist speaker over $200 per minute. Take a look at the total bill.
Angela Davis was paid $20,000 to speak at an event at the University of Arkansas.
Sen. Tom Cotton Introducing Bill to Ban Critical Race Training in U.S. Military
“bill would prohibit the armed forces from directly promoting the core tenets of critical race theory”
Cops: Botched Order Prompted Big Mac Attack
Minnesotan, 39, charged with assault following domestic beef
“Bigger and Faster than the Public Might Anticipate or Stomach”
Judging by the rhetoric of its elected members and its apologists in the press, the Democratic party believes itself to be the tribune of the people. Republicans, we are told, hate democracy and don’t care what voters think. Democrats, by contrast, have the public on their side, and they are only thwarted in executing their will by structural constraints — such as the Senate or the electoral college or the persistent existence of the states.
The Madness Comes for the Mathematicians
Andrea Bertozzi is a distinguished mathematician. A professor of mathematics at UCLA and the author or co-author of over 250 publications, Bertozzi has been elected to both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
Optical Experiment Mimics Futuristic System for Space Propulsion
More than three centuries ago, Isaac Newton in his Principia stated that for any action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The ramifications of this law of motion are now being reconsidered by a team of researchers from the University of Central Florida and Germany who recently carried out an optical experiment that one day may help lead to new propulsion systems.
Japanese Manga Artists Being WARNED About Western Twitter Art Trolls!
Japanese artists: Western Twitter is NOT your friend and “Cancel Sulture” is rampant in the Twitter art “community.” Japanese artists are being warned in Japanese about malicious art trolls who have been attacking Japanese fan artists for making characters too light-skinned, too busty or a litany of other complaints. Japan, STOP listening to Western “Twidiots!”
This Day In History
On March 26, 1921, the London Times reported on a trade overture by Soviet Russia to the Warren Harding administration
Silicon Valley giants provide tech support in Newsom recall fight
Some of Silicon Valley’s biggest tech names are urging Californians to reject the “politically motivated” recall drive against Gov. Gavin Newsom, arguing it would “roll back growing progress” the Democratic governor has made on vaccines and business recovery in the pandemic.
Brian Kemp Signs Landmark Georgia Election Integrity Law
An election integrity bill for Georgia was must-sign legislation for the Republican-led legislature and Governor Brian Kemp. Thursday evening, they unlocked that achievement with Kemp’s signature. A disaster of national proportions happened on election night 2020, with private money flooding selected election offices, a weakening of election security laws with widespread mail-in balloting and dropboxes, and insecure ID requirements for absentee balloting.
6th Circuit upholds First Amendment rights of Shawnee State professor
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled Friday in favor of Dr. Nicholas Meriwether, a philosophy professor at Shawnee State University, reversing a district court’s dismissal of his lawsuit against university officials. The university punished Meriwether because he declined a male student’s demand to be referred to as a woman, with feminine titles and pronouns. The court ruled that, based on the allegations in the complaint, the university violated Meriwether’s First Amendment rights.
Hmm: Biden Nominates Joe Manchin’s Wife For Federal Commission Post
Joe Biden has somewhat quietly appointed Senator Joe Manchin’s wife to a powerful federal commission. She won’t just be a member of the commission, Biden chose her to be the federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission. This is a position that must be approved by a vote in the Senate.
McConnell, Senate GOP Demand Corporations Halt Donations To Democrats Trying To Steal Iowa House Seat
Major corporations quickly came out with announcements of pausing donations to Republican lawmakers who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s election victory in January. Specifically, the closing of the corporate coffers was a reaction to the Capitol Hill riot on January 6. Now there is a House race in Iowa which Democrats are trying to steal from the Republican who has been certified by state officials as the winner. Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, now demand that turnabout is fair play.
SF School Board Votes 5-2 To Strip Alison Collins Of Leadership Role (Update)
Thursday the SF School Board met and considered a resolution to strip Board Vice President Alison Collins of her leadership role and committee assignments. After some discussion the board voted 5-2 for the resolution.
Representative Ted Lieu on Discrimination
The California Democrat lost it at a hearing on diversity among federal judges. Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission (and an NR contributor), pointed out that discrimination against Asian Americans by colleges lowers their numbers on the federal bench. Representative Lieu yelled at him for bringing up “irrelevant” issues, claiming he had nothing to say about the topic at hand.
Sesame Street Surrenders to Racial-Identity Thinking
“Sesame Street” is introducing two new Muppets, a Black father and son, as part of an effort to help children understand racial literacy. The two Muppets, Wes and Elijah, were introduced in a short video created by Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind the long-running show. In the video, Elmo wants to know why Wes’s skin is brown, so his father Elijah explains the concept of melanin and how “the color of our skin is an important part of who we are.”
Michigan GOP chair Weiser rebuffs attacks on assassination, ‘three witches’ quips
Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser labeled the state’s top Democratic officeholders “witches” and referenced “assassination” when pressed Thursday for answers about how to remove two sitting GOP congressmen.
Transgender Female Complains TSA Scanners Set Off Alarms for the ‘Anomaly Between My Legs’
A transgender female’s video rant about the “transphobic” Transportation Security Administration went viral after complaining that the airport scanning devices trigger an alarm for the “anomaly between my legs.”
More Bisexual Tumblrina Craziness (and Other Random Insanity Updates)
No sane person is on Tumblr, and if you add bisexual to the descriptor (i.e., “crazy bisexual Tumblrina”), you’ve just wasted two words, because basically everyone on Tumblr is bisexual, or at least somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum. But mostly, yeah, they’re bisexual.
“Redesigning Admissions … Through A Racial Equity Lens” – College Admission Counseling Group Rolls Out Agenda
“to develop specific proposals for reimagining financial aid and college admission systems and ultimately eliminating racial inequity in postsecondary educational access”
Escape From NY: Big Apple Ends Qualified Immunity For Police
If the remaining members of the NYPD who have somehow stuck with their jobs amid all of the police defunding and abolishment talk still haven’t found a reason to flee the Big Apple, the City Council may have just delivered the straw that breaks the law enforcement camel’s back. The Council voted this week to end qualified immunity for law enforcement officers as part of a package of so-called “police reform” bills. Given his previous track record, Mayor Bill de Blasio will almost certainly sign it into law. Meanwhile, many of the remaining members of the New York City Police Department have to be wondering why they signed up for this job in the first place.
University’s Transgender Pronoun Policy May Have Violated the First Amendment, Court Rules
An Ohio university may have violated the free speech and religious freedom rights of a Christian philosophy professor by requiring him to refer to a biological male student with feminine pronouns and a feminine title, a court ruled Friday.
Democrats’ Proposed Changes To Section 230 Will Shut Down Conservative Outlets
While Congress was grilling some Big Tech CEOs this week, Democratic leaders were busy in the background, working on proposals to change how Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is written. Sadly, there are plenty of people on both sides of the ideological divide who have become so angered by the actions of Twitter and Facebook, along with the other social media heavyweights, that support for this sort of action seems to be growing. But what House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and his cronies are planning to do won’t stop some of the worst abuses of Jack Dorsey and company. Instead, it will open the door to unofficial censorship of anyone with insufficiently woke views and could lead to endless lawsuits, not just against the social media platforms, but all publishers of online content.
Intellectual magazine removes professor’s column critiquing critical race theory
Scholar republishes it on his personal blog: “I offer no apology for stating reality”
Kent State establishes “Anti-Racism and Equity Institute” to become an “exemplar in race scholarship”
University officials did not explain funding source or metrics
Student suspended for saying “a man is a man, a woman is a woman” reinstated by university
A student who was suspended from his public university’s education program for an Instagram video in which he stated “a man is a man and a woman is a woman” has been reinstated by administrators.
“Party of Science” once again ignores … science
There she was: US Women’s Soccer star Megan Rapinoe at the White House complaining, again, about how poorly she is compensated — merely because she is a woman.
‘Zombie genes’ spur some brain cells to grow after death
When people die some cells in their brains go on for hours, even getting more active and growing to gargantuan proportions, new research shows.
Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Threats to the community, lubricated desks, and SWAT donning and doffing.
Scientists Thrilled to Observe The First Milliseconds of Gold Crystal Formation
We now know how gold crystals start to form at the atomic scale.
Baltimore Will No Longer Prosecute Drug Possession, Prostitution, and Other ‘Low-Level’ Crimes
Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby declared the “war on drug users” is over and her office will no longer prosecute low-level crimes like drug possession and prostitution.
The Murder of Mohammad Anwar
The word “tragedy” is often used by the media to describe deaths that aren’t really tragic, but the murder of an Uber Eats driver in Washington, D.C., last week certainly deserves that description. Mohammad Anwar, 66, was a grandfather, a native of Pakistan whose family described him as “a hardworking immigrant who came to the U.S. in 2014 to build a better life for himself and his family.” His killers were subhuman scum.
Economy & Taxes
Biden Team Preparing Up to $3 Trillion in New Spending for the Economy
President Biden’s economic advisers are preparing to recommend spending as much as $3 trillion on a sweeping set of efforts aimed at boosting the economy, reducing carbon emissions and narrowing economic inequality, beginning with a giant infrastructure plan that may be financed in part through tax increases on corporations and the rich.
Biden Determined to Tax Rich After Windfalls During Crisis
President Joe Biden’s economic team at the White House is determined to make good on his campaign pledge to raise taxes on the rich, emboldened by mounting data showing how well America’s wealthy did financially during the pandemic.
U.S. Republican lawmakers urge Biden to pursue FTA with Taiwan
A total of 23 Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday called for the Biden administration to pursue a free trade agreement with Taiwan.
Biden Admin Prepares $3 Trillion Infrastructure Bill With Climate Measures, Universal Pre-K
It includes spending money on human infrastructure. Yes. Human infrastructure.
Joe Biden’s Plan: $39,901 in New Spending per U.S. Household
The Biden administration is reportedly considering a package of bills to add $3 trillion in new infrastructure, education, and climate-change spending to the federal budget. While the New York Times reporting on this is anonymously sourced, it is entirely plausible: It has the hallmarks of a trial balloon floated by people in the administration, and in any event is less than half of the spending Biden proposed on the campaign trail just on the Green New Deal. Combined with the $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” bill Biden already signed (which was stuffed with completely unrelated-to-COVID-relief spending on progressive wish lists and interest-group payoffs, much of it not even scheduled to be spent in 2021), passage of the new package would bring the new spending introduced by Biden to $4.9 trillion, larger than the entire federal budget in 2019, which was $4.448 trillion. Biden’s new spending would be five times the size of the federal deficit in 2019, meaning that he is adding that much to taxes, the deficit, and/or the debt, to be paid for sooner or later by the rest of us. The 2020 defense budget was $738 billion; Biden would spend 6.6 times that, plus of course continuing to spend the defense budget as well as the whole rest of the previous budget.
Oakland launches guaranteed pay plan for low-income people
The mayor of Oakland, California, on Tuesday announced a privately funded program that will give low-income families of color $500 per month with no rules on how they can spend it.
Hoo Boy: I’m Hoping For An “Enormous” Infrastructure Package, Says Joe Manchin — And Maybe We’ll Have A VAT To Help Pay For It
I’d been idly hoping that the sticker shock of what Biden wants, upwards of $3 trillion, would scare Manchin away or at least lead him to give the infrastructure bill a serious haircut. (A shaved head, really.) He bid his party down a bit, although only a bit, on elements of the COVID relief bill so one would think that a new package that would spend a trillion dollars more than that bill did might freak him out.
John James Mulls a Run for Governor of Michigan
John James is reportedly exploring a run for governor of Michigan in 2022. This makes sense. True, James lost statewide elections in both 2018 and 2020, in each case running against incumbent Democratic senators. But James made relatively strong showings. He got 48.2 percent of the vote in 2020, losing by 1.7 percentage points and running half a point ahead of Donald Trump. In 2018, against the more-entrenched Debbie Stabenow, James got 45.8% percent of the vote. These are the two best showings by a Michigan Republican senate candidate since Stabenow defeated Spencer Abraham in 2000, and James improved with more exposure to the voters. With the Democrats now holding the presidency, the climate should be more favorable in the 2022 midterm, and Republicans have had more success in gubernatorial than Senate campaigns in Michigan, with Rick Snyder winning two terms in 2010 and 2014. Without a lot of other obvious strong candidates, the Michigan GOP may as well try James one more time.
How to Win Constitutionally
Over in First Things, John Finnis made the case that abortion is unconstitutional. You should read it. He rests his case on the 14th Amendment, particularly its first section. He argues, persuasively in my view, that if the original public meaning of “persons” was wide enough to include colorations as legal persons, the due-process clause should also apply to the unborn.
Sasse’s Warning: Scrapping the Filibuster Will Make American Politics More Extreme
Nebraska GOP senator Ben Sasse gave a 30-minute speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday in defense of the keeping the legislative filibuster.
Big Dope, the Alarming Power of the Cannabis Industry
I have written a heavily reported cover story for Spectator USA on the alarming power of the marijuana industry, or “Big Dope.” The artwork, by Morten Morland, is splendid and summarizes my argument better than I could hope to do in a few sentences.
Masks and Hand Sanitizer Are Tax Write-offs, the IRS Says
Face masks, hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes can qualify as medical expenses for tax deductions or can be paid for with money from tax-advantaged health accounts, the Internal Revenue Service announced Friday.
Vehicle mileage tax could be on the table in infrastructure talks, Buttigieg says
Pete Buttigieg, the Transportation secretary, said a vehicle mileage tax could be on the table in infrastructure talks.
San Francisco to give $1,000 a month to artists in basic income program
Certain San Francisco artists may receive $1,000 a month under a new city program, the latest in a series of universal basic income initiatives cropping up in cities across California.
Buttigieg: How About We Tax You For Every Mile You Drive?
I was reliably informed that the middle class wouldn’t be taxed under this administration.
Cargo Ship Stuck in Suez Canal is Wreaking Havoc on Global Supply Chains
“We’re stuck big time,” said an officer on the bridge of the Japanese-built, Taiwan-owned Ever Given cargo vessel after the huge ship banged against the wall of the Suez Canal and settled on the silty bottom. No one is sure yet exactly what happened. Visibility was poor and wind had picked up just prior to the accident.
Business standing up to China
China is the bad guy. Whoever stands up to China’s misdeeds is the good guy. Those good guys will suffer for their stances, and so, all people of goodwill ought to support them.
International
“Kill List”
My piece today is on Ethiopia — where civil war is taking place in a northern region, Tigray. Worse than war, if such a thing is possible, there are war crimes and crimes against humanity. The head of state in Ethiopia is Abiy Ahmed — who in 2019 won the Nobel Peace Prize. Should he have?
Scientists will test the world’s first nuclear fusion reactor this summer
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will, if things go according to plan, move one step closer to becoming the world’s first functioning nuclear fusion reactor this summer when scientists conduct its inaugural test runs.
Researchers Found a Way to Send Tiny Robots Into Mouse Brains
In a mind-bending development, a team of researchers in China have managed to treat brain tumors in mice by delivering drugs to the tissues using microscopic robots. The robots jumped from the mice’s bloodstreams into their brains by being coated in E. coli, which tricked the rodents’ immune systems into attacking them, absorbing the robots and the cancer-fighting drugs in the process.
Opinion
Battlefield ‘Burbs
America’s political future turns on our last contestable places.
Asian-Americans Under Attack?
Blame our soft-on-crime leaders.
Sex, Drugs, and Antiquity
A growing appreciation of plant medicines over the past few decades has allowed the media to shine a favorable spotlight on the previously proscribed use of ayahuasca, psilocybin, and other lesser-known plant allies in the “Age of Entheogens.” In the Entheogenic (“manifesting god within”) Era, for the first time since Nixon declared a “War on Drugs” 50 years ago, not only are entire universities and medical schools like Johns Hopkins conducting studies on these plants, but advocates are coming out of the most unlikely corners of the sober professional class to advocate for their proper use.
Ethnomathematics
Ethnomathematics, like many specialized terms in Critical Social Justice (and, more specifically here, critical pedagogy) is a term that lacks a precise definition and means several things at once. On the one hand, perhaps the narrowest, ethnomathematics refers to “the mathematics of illiterate cultures,” as was originally defined in the 1980s. On the other hand, and as we will understand the term, ethnomathematics refers to an approach that sees math ultimately as a cultural artifact that is contingent to the culture in which it is applied and thus not universal. In that regard, ethnomathematics is a critical project in the postmodern social sciences that seeks to apply its underlying assumptions of cultural relativism and radical egalitarianism (and liberationism) to the study and practice of mathematics.
Can We Add States to the Union Without Starting a Civil War?
On Monday, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing on the prospect of Washington, D.C., becoming a separate state. During the hearing, members of Congress suggested that Puerto Rico could also gain full statehood. I would urge caution regarding this process.
If I Knew You Were Comin’, I’d Have Baked a Cake! Just Not That Cake
So goes the theme tune to poor Jack Phillips’s life. The baker and owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo., is a Christian with traditional views on marriage and sexual morality. In 2012, he declined to bake a custom cake for a same-sex wedding on religious grounds and was, as a consequence, hauled all the way to the Supreme Court by monomaniacal activists. Phillips won on the grounds that the commission had expressed “clear and impermissible hostility” to his beliefs. But as Phillips’s defense team explained, he didn’t refuse the customer on the basis of sexuality or any other characteristic, but rather refused a specific product, because it expressed sentiments contrary to his religious beliefs.
Education and Naive Libertarianism
Charlie Cooke is a friend and a treasured colleague, but I am finding it a little difficult to launch the next volley in the conversation about education policy, because I don’t think Charlie has really written a response to my piece.
Critical Race Theory Would Not Solve Racial Inequality: It Would Deepen It
Critical race theory is an ideology which maintains that the United States is a fundamentally racist country and that American institutions such as the Constitution, property rights, color blindness, and equal protection under the law are vestiges of white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalist oppression—all of which must be overthrown in the name of “antiracism.” Ultimately, critical race theory and “antiracism” policies would deepen racial divisions and undermine the very institutions that are essential to addressing poverty and inequality across all racial groups. Policymakers concerned about these issues should reject critical race theory and orient public policy toward rebuilding the institutions of family, work, and education, which have been proven to lift Americans of all racial backgrounds out of poverty.
How Federalism Thwarts Dystopia
People on the left are correct that our constitutional system makes it harder for them to get what they want. To which I say: Thank God.
The Racist Sound of “Whiteness Is a Pandemic”
The Root is obviously a hyperbolically racial magazine, since its slogan is “The Blacker the Content the Sweeter the Truth.” It’s not surprising that it frequently publishes writer Damon Young, author of the memoir “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker.” We’re told he asked important and dramatic questions like “Will this white person’s potato salad kill me?”
Offshore Core
Imagine you are a teenager newly arrived at college. You’ve had a couple inspiring teachers of literature or philosophy in high school and you’re eager to read some of the books that have come up in conversation with them and seem to be reference points: Plato, say, or Shakespeare, Voltaire or Thomas Aquinas. You are uncertain about the best way to live your life and would like to ponder your choices carefully under the guidance of great thinkers. You hope you can find a teacher or two at college who knows about all those famous authors and is willing to teach you. You wish you could find other students with similar interests whom you could trust to respond in a friendly way as your ideas unfold and mature. You want to use some of your time in college to go further down the road of finding out who you are and what you believe.
In defense of Speedy Gonzales: The left’s latest “cancel culture” target
Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe cartoons are not propaganda tools of white supremacy? If it didn’t, you’re a white supremacist. Or that’s what the left believes.
Facebook’s Zuckerberg Doesn’t Want to Reform Section 230, He Wants Government to Strangle His Competition
Conservatives who oppose Section 230 should understand what this means in practice: It means that Facebook is co-opting their misguided and often demagogic opposition to the provision in order to make itself more powerful at the expense of smaller players.
When Cancel Culture Comes for the Person With the Pitchfork
The leader of the mob follows the victim to the gallows.
Hutchinson Should Sign Arkansas Medical-Conscience Bill
The Arkansas Legislature has passed a bill to protect the medical conscience of professionals and medical institutions in the state.
Here’s Why Mom and Dad Ought to Be Big Tech’s Biggest Worry
Big Tech censorship is out of control when the president of the United States can be kicked off Twitter with impunity, Facebook can remove an estimated 12 million posts expressing unapproved views on the Covid crisis, and Google can lead a Silicon Valley charge that silences an upstart rival like Parler for more than a month.
Critical Race Theory: The Great Evil of Our Time
Critical Race Theory, which is just an updated form of racism, is the most destructive force of the 21st century. If you had told me 50 years ago that a half-century hence, there would be a successful social movement, dominating academia, politics and even the business world, holding that the most important thing about a person is his skin color, I wouldn’t have believed it. But that is where we are now.
Culture, the Humanities, and the Collapse of the Grand Narratives
Since the late 1950s, scholars and critics have proclaimed the decline and fall of the liberal arts. The crisis in the humanities is, as Geoffrey Galt Harpham argued in the Humanities and the Dream of America, no longer an affliction but a way of life. It is simply hard to imagine the humanities not being in a crisis. Perhaps we cling to this notion because a crisis is, at least, something we can overcome. If we discuss the death of the humanities, all hope is lost.
Whatever Happened to Writing?
In Lee Child’s thriller Personal, his audacious hero Jack Reacher lays down the four attributes of good spycraft: hard work, attention to detail, lateral thinking (“outside the box,” as the phrase has it) and unconventional or creative adaptations to circumstance. These are precisely the traits that characterize the mindset and practice of the good writer in any field or genre. Apart from the pragmatic aspects of, let us say, writecraft, one may add, as Ernest Hemingway did in A Moveable Feast, a moral component as well. “All you have to do is write one true sentence,” Hemingway said. “Write the truest sentence that you know.” The rest follows.
How the Media Destroyed the Reputation of a Great President
Warren G. Harding’s short presidency was a monumental success. So progressive mythmakers set out to smear him.
