News of the Week for December 3rd, 2023
- Abortion
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Abortion
Dobbs Decision
‘It was a wake-up call’: After Roe v. Wade, French lawmakers seek to enshrine abortion rights
When the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, French women were paying close attention. They watched with alarm as those across the Atlantic lost their long-standing right to abortion, seemingly overnight. What if France came next?
Man pleads guilty to 2022 firebombing of Wisconsin anti-abortion office
A Wisconsin man pleaded guilty Friday to firebombing the office of a prominent anti-abortion group last year.
Gun Rights
Boom: Majority now lives in gun-owning households
But for the first time in modern history, those living in gun-owning homes have reached slightly more than a majority, boosting the Second Amendment into a status that makes it a rival to the top left-wing topic.
What’s Inside the Senate’s Latest ‘Assault Weapons’ Bill? Nothing But Bad News for Gun Owners
One of the biggest problems with have with our system of government is that laws are generally crafted by people who often don’t know what they’re actually talking about. Most members of Congress are lawyers, which means they were trained in how to practice law, but they don’t necessarily have expertise outside of that.
How Plausible Is Newsome’s Gun Control Amendment?
California Gov. Gavin Newsom hasn’t actually announced he’s running for president, but that sure looks like the only thing he hasn’t done before launching a campaign for his party’s nomination.
California Imposing Restrictions on Carrying Guns Despite SCOTUS Ruling
In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the Supreme Court upheld the Second Amendment right to carry guns for self-defense outside of the home. But California is looking to circumvent that right by imposing dubious restrictions on where citizens can carry guns.
Hide the Decline
Environment &“Green Energy”
Eat Less Meat Is Message for Rich World in Food’s First Net Zero Plan
The world’s most-developed nations will be told to curb their excessive appetite for meat as part of the first comprehensive plan to bring the global agrifood industry into line with the Paris climate agreement.
Reporting From Paris
I have been in Paris for the last week, my first visit to this city. This is a fun time of the year to be in Europe, as the Europeans generally make a bigger deal out of Christmas than we do. Before we left, friends warned us against two things: pro-genocide demonstrators, and bedbugs. So far we have seen the same number of each: zero.
Green Ideology as Class Warfare
I generally think of green dogma as something that the gentry class imposes on the rest of us–you peons have to live more poorly, never mind my yacht and private jet. But there is another side to it, as well, as we see in the Guardian: environmentalism as a manifestation of class envy.
UN Sez U Can’t Haz Cheezburger
It’s 81° in Dubai right now, with a low tonight of 73°. Sounds like a great place for a conference, no? Well, by George, there’s one scheduled – The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC or COP28 for you hep cats.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Signs Law Essentially Banning Fossil Fuel Use by 2040
The “Clean Energy and Jobs Act” relies on technology that has not been developed and converting vast swaths of Michigan’s beautiful woodlands to solar and wind farms.
The World Isn’t Running Out of Oil
“We only have X years left to save the planet.” “The world population is at carrying capacity.” “New technology will permanently disemploy millions of people.” There are many breathless predictions that are made over and over again, no matter how many times they turn out to be wrong.
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
Michael Higgins: ‘Anti-racist’ doctors would put social justice above medical expertise
New proposal would centre Canada’s framework for physician training around ‘anti-oppression’
Obamacare, Then and Now
America’s health-care system had a great number of flaws, many of them caused or worsened by misguided government policies, before Barack Obama set out to overhaul it. Obamacare took the system further in a wrong direction.
Russia, Iran, and China are Weaker Than They Appear
Matthew Continetti is on the money when he argues that today’s global tide of violence is, in a way, all part of the same broader assault on the Western rules-based order. The attacks on Ukraine and Israel are part of the same “vast international effort.” “The rabid dogs,” he notes, “are Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Holding the leash is Communist China.”
War & Terror
American Naval Forces (with a Japanese assist) Capture Pirates
it’s a busy world
US Navy Arrests Pirates Who Seized Israeli Tanker, Missiles Fired
There was an interesting and potentially deadly turn of events in the Gulf of Aden this weekend, increasing the escalating tensions in the Middle East. A Liberian-flagged tanker sailing in the area was approached by a small vessel carrying eight armed attackers who boarded and seized control of the vessel. An American warship, the destroyer USS Mason, was dispatched to the scene to assist. They drove the attackers back into their small vessel and later captured them after returning control of the tanker to the captain. But things became even more interesting when Houthi rebels fired two ballistic missiles from Yemen that splashed down in the vicinity of the Mason. It was “a helluva day at sea, sir,” to quote one mostly forgettable movie scene.
Houthis Fire Missiles at U.S. Destroyer, No Injuries Reported
Following the apprehension of the pirates who boarded an Israeli-linked cargo ship earlier on Sunday, the USS Mason (DDG 87) was fired upon by Houthi rebels, reports Jennifer Griffin for Fox News. The Houthi forces fired two ballistic missiles, both of which fell short of their intended target . . . just another couple of splashes in a waterway that has seen its share of missiles and pirates.
Kamikaze drone takes out missile factory in major blow for Putin
Footage shows the blast ripping through the roof of a workshop at the Smolensk Aviation Plant in western Russia, where Kh-59 missiles are reportedly produced.
Turkey faces scrutiny as exports to Russia surge, fuelling concerns of sanctions evasion
Turkey’s significant increase in exports of critical goods to Russia sparks fears of sanctions evasion, leading to urgent diplomatic discussions and potential ramifications for Turkey’s relations with NATO.
CIA’s secret office has conducted UFO retrieval missions on at least NINE crash sites around the world, whistleblowers reveal
The CIA has a ‘system in place that can discern UFOs while they’re still cloaked’ and special military units are sent to salvage the wreckage, sources said
Father of Emily Hand, 9, Says She Can’t Stop Whispering or Crying: ‘She Didn’t Want Any Comfort’
“She went under the covers of the bed, the quilt, covered herself up and quietly cried.”
Anti-Israel Protesters Plan to Interrupt Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony
Of course these people want to interrupt the biggest tree lighting ceremony in the country.
IDF: Hamas Handed Over the Bibas Family, Including 10-Month-Old, to Another Terrorist Group
It’s hard to believe Hamas. I won’t believe anything until we see proof of life.
‘Abandoned Twice’: Daughter of Freed Hostage in Critical Condition Rips Apart Red Cross
“The Red Cross refused to bring her her medications.”
New Harvard Sustainability Action Plan aims to unite climate justice with DEI
The sustainability plan seeks to make historical buildings become ‘climate-neutral,’ such as the 300-year-old Massachusetts Hall. Student climate activists praised the new plan for its goals like becoming fossil fuel-neutral by 2026, in addition to promoting DEI.
Everything the Germans Touch Is Coming Up Fahrvergnügies
Life has been no smooth driving adventure as far as anything the Germans have manhandled this year. From the government to industry to the average Frau und Herr tryin to navigate the economy and roiled social waters, Germany’s been a bumpy ride to nowhere lately.
Lather, Rinse, Repeat: TX Gonna Roll(ing Blackout) Through Winter Again
Your parents – at least mine did – always told you mistakes were there to learn from, be it burnt fingers, electrocution, a bad bet etc. Whatever the mishap or misstep, there was supposedly a lesson buried in the hurt, humiliation, missing limb or digit that would be the reminder to do things differently next time.
Vietnam upgrades ties with Japan to highest level
Vietnam and Japan on Monday officially upgraded their relations to a “comprehensive strategic partnership” during a visit by Vietnamese president Vo Van Thuong to Tokyo.
How About One More War on Biden’s Watch — Much Closer to Home?
When I was a young boy, we believed that what the world needs now is “love, sweet love” because, if we’re being honest, that’s really the only thing that there’s just too little of. What the world needs under Presidentish Joe Biden is just one more war, this one much closer to home than Ukraine or the Gaza Strip.
Women held hostage by Hamas in Gaza kept in cages – report
Israeli hostages released by Hamas speak out about the state of their captivity in Gaza.
Russia warns of tension as Finland shuts last border crossing
Finland has closed the last crossing on its long Russian border, prompting the Kremlin to condemn an “absolutely redundant measure”.
Anti-Israel Protesters Fight With Cops, Set NYPD Hat on Fire a Block From Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony
The anti-Israel crowd has been targeting Christmas tree lighting ceremonies across the country.
In Latest Blow to U.S. Military Readiness, Biden Administration Set to Spend Nearly $270 Million on DEI
Even as U.S. military forces are forward deployed to the middle east in a big way, the Biden Administration insists on forcing DEI on DOD military personnel
Images surface of pro-Palestinian UCLA students wielding knives around campus
One image shows an individual donning a surgical mask and a knife, standing alongside a person wearing a keffiyeh while removing posters of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas.
Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago
A blueprint reviewed by The Times laid out the attack in detail. Israeli officials dismissed it as aspirational and ignored specific warnings.
Are You Ready for the ‘Trans Day of Revenge?’
Revenge for what? That was my first reaction to the notice that the University of Iowa will suffer through a “Trans Day of Revenge” on December 8th.
Should South Korea Have Nukes?
It is now believed that North Korea has as many as a dozen nuclear warheads and Kim Jong-un’s growing coziness with Russia is expected to accelerate his development of more advanced, long-range missiles potentially capable of carrying them. This has the people in neighboring South Korea growing increasingly nervous. Recent polls show that a strong majority of South Koreans would like their country to have nukes of its own. Failing that, they would like America to bring back the nuclear weapons we had staged there until Bill Clinton ordered them removed in the nineties. But is that a good idea? If the South is going to have nukes, they won’t be able to develop them from scratch in a short amount of time, so they’d probably have to buy them from us, and such a move would carry repercussions of its own.
Las Vegas police, FBI foil reported terror plot involving Islamic State
Las Vegas police and the FBI thwarted a potential terror plot involving a 16-year-old, police said Friday. During a news conference, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officials detailed an investigation into a terror threat on a social media platform.
U.S. Warship, Multiple Commercial Ships Under Attack in Red Sea: Pentagon
An American warship and several commercial ships faced attacks in the Red Sea on Sunday, the Pentagon said.
China’s (Possible) Baltic Adventure
Some months ago, a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was damaged (just in time for winter) as were two telecommunications cables, one between Sweden and Estonia, the other between Finland and Estonia.
National
The Case That Could Destroy the Government
This Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear a case that poses the most direct challenge yet to the legitimacy of the modern federal government. The right-wing legal movement”s target is the “administrative state”—the agencies and institutions that set standards for safety in the workplace, limit environmental hazards and damage, and impose rules on financial markets to ensure their stability and basic fairness, among many other important things. The case, Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, threatens all of that. Terrifyingly, this gambit might succeed.
Marty Krofft, of producing pair that put ‘H.R. Pufnstuf’ and the Osmonds on TV, dies at 86
Marty Krofft, a TV producer known for imaginative children’s shows such as “H.R. Pufnstuf” and primetime hits including “Donny & Marie” in the 1970s, has died in Los Angeles, his publicist said. Krofft was 86.
Instagram’s Algorithm Delivers Toxic Video Mix to Adults Who Follow Children
U. Tennessee Rebranding DEI Department as ‘Division of Access and Engagement’ to Fool Public and Lawmakers
“The university’s commitment to the Board of Trustees’ Diversity Statement has not changed.”
Rolling Brownout
“Reporters want to fan the flames of conflict leading to war because they’re so damn stupid. That is my belief of your profession.” As Sir Bedivere (Terry Jones) might say, who is this who is so wise in the ways of the media and world peace? Why, it’s Jerry Brown, billed by the allegedly damn stupid reporter as a former governor of California. That is true, but there’s so much more to the man.
GOP Candidate’s Loss by 1 Vote Prompts Calls for Whole New Election After Issue of Shady Count Raised
A tight Louisiana election has now become an even more complex issue now that two people have been found to have voted twice in an election decided by one vote.
‘F*ck White People’: YAF chapter shares video of campus group speaker blaming white people for ‘where we are in our world’
The YAF chapter at Utah Valley University took to Instagram to share a clip of a guest speaker for the Center for Social Impact saying ‘F*ck White People.’ ‘I think that decolonization is already happening. This conservation is decolonial. You are a white educator and I am talking to you about the dismantling of the system,’ she continues.
New Jersey Teachers Union Calls For End Of Basic Skills Test For Teachers
One of New Jersey’s main teachers unions is calling for the end of the basic skills test for certifying teachers.
Montgomery County Considers Renaming Francis Scott Key Middle School
Maryland’s largest school district wants to rename Francis Scott Key Middle School because Key, a Maryland native, owned slaves.
Woke California Legislature Getting Even More Ridiculous
California’s elected Democrats are blinded by their cult-like Marxist ideology over any sense of public service to the people, or desire to govern
GOP Candidate’s Loss by 1 Vote Prompts Calls for Whole New Election After Issue of Shady Count Raised
A tight Louisiana election has now become an even more complex issue now that two people have been found to have voted twice in an election decided by one vote.
Evanston, Ill., Adopts Exciting New Solution to Underperforming Minority Schoolchildren: Jim Crow
Evanston, Ill., is a town with many problems. Crime is way up in the leafy Chicago suburb, taxes are going up too, the city’s “slavery reparations” program disappointingly failed to cure African-American poverty, and worst of all it remains home to Northwestern University, forever the resentful and less prestigious rival to the glorious University of Chicago. It’s a tough burden for any small town to carry, and that’s all before I tell you how progressively Democratic they vote (their representative in Congress is the laughable Jan Schakowsky). But test scores in public schools have been falling precipitously as well, making the plight of hardscrabble Evanstonians — many of whom escaped the city hoping for a better education in the pricey suburbs — even harder.
How Did San Francisco Become the City in a ‘Doom Loop’?
Perhaps you remember when two high-profile crimes in San Francisco this spring put the city’s woes in the spotlight.
Scholarships Discriminating Against Asians and Whites At U. Colorado Challenged By Equal Protection Project
CU-Denver and CU-Boulder’s “voluntary and ongoing participation in and active promotion of the McNair Scholarship program, which awards funding, research and scholarship opportunities to students based on their race and skin color, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as well as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ….”
The Real World Confronts the Ivory Tower
Campus ideology can go only so far before the public pushes back.
Henry Kissinger, former secretary of state who shaped decades of U.S. policy, dies at 100
He came to be seen as one of the leading diplomats and international relations intellectuals of the 20th century. But he was also one of the most singularly reviled public figures of his age.
Pay attention to California’s new mandatory ‘media literacy’ law
K-12 kids will now be taught about ‘ethical media’ … from the government
Chicago Mayor Goes Full Jussie Smollett, Blames ‘Right-Wing Extremism’ for City’s Migrant Crisis: ‘They’re Still Mad That a Black Man Is Free in This Country’
Everybody remembers the crazy storyline from January 2019: In the wee hours of a Tuesday morning in Chicago, actor Jussie Smollett claimed he was returning from a trip to a Subway sandwich shop when he was attacked by two white men wearing “Make America Great Again” caps, who shouted racist and homophobic slurs, poured bleach on him, tied a noose around his neck and exclaimed: “This is MAGA country!” As fake hate-crime hoaxes go, this was one of the least plausible narratives ever. Republican terrorists in Chicago? At 2 a.m.? In below-zero weather? Targeting an actor who most people never heard of?
Rep. George Santos expelled from Congress in historic vote
The House on Friday voted to expel Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) over his many fabrications on the 2022 campaign trail and his two federal indictments.
Trump doesn’t have presidential immunity from lawsuits over January 6, appeals court rules
Former President Donald Trump isn’t immune from being held accountable in civil lawsuits related to the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot in a long-awaited, consequential decision from the federal appeals court in Washington, DC.
The Bogus Historians Who Teach Evangelicals They Live in a Theocracy
A new book on the Christian right reveals how a series of unscrupulous leaders turned politics into a powerful and lucrative gospel.
Sandra Day O’Connor, first woman on Supreme Court, dies at 93
The court said that O’Connor died “of complications related to advanced dementia, probably Alzheimer’s, and a respiratory illness.”
Can Universities Ban Students for Justice in Palestine?
The legal and ethical issues at play are trickier than might be supposed.
‘New and Improved’: Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, and McDonald’s Burgers
I was trying to think of a way to break this to you gently, but couldn’t. We’re all adults here, so…suck it up. They’re messing with favorites again.
Professors Cancel Classes, Host ‘Healing Circle’ Ahead of YAF’s Chloe Cole Lecture at University of Utah
University’s ‘Armed Queers’ group prepares for “deployment”
Behind the Curtain — Scoop: The Trump job applications revealed
We told you in a “Behind the Curtain” column last month that Trump allies are pre-screening the ideologies of thousands of potential appointees and employees in case he wins back the White House. Now we have copies of the exact questionnaires Trump allies are using — and that then-President Trump used himself during his final days in office.
Why the first-ever space junk fine is such a big deal
A fine handed to the US TV firm Dish by the FCC could help kick-start the market for solutions to space debris.
Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Retaliating against a harbormaster, retaliating against a prisoner, and official-act immunity.
Activists at University of Iowa Planning a ‘Trans Day of Revenge’
“The flier instructs attendees to cover their face and hair.”
Trans activists tell straight, gay people they can’t have ‘genital preferences’
The debate is the latest example of the fallout of queer theory–concepts taught in college courses that attempt to erase biological reality. ‘Radical Gender Theory, and intersectionality as a whole, is a tool by cultural Marxists to keep people divided in struggle and on the defense as victims,’ Log Cabin Republicans President Charles Moran told Campus Reform.
Economy & Taxes
This lawsuit could disrupt the U.S. tax system. Key facts are in dispute.
The fate of an obscure provision of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax package, which will be reviewed by the Supreme Court next week, has many experts panicked over the potential to destabilize the nation’s tax system. In addition, some say the outcome could preemptively block Congress from creating a wealth tax.
Elizabeth Warren Wants the Government To Investigate America’s ‘Sandwich Shop Monopoly’
The owner of Jimmy John’s and Arby’s has bought Subway, and a Massachusetts senator has concerns.
Chinese Shadow Bank Announces Insolvency, Government Announces Investigation
The big concern about the failure of Chinese real estate titans Evergrande Group and Country Garden was that their financial collapse would spread into the rest of the economy. Specifically, the concern was that so-called shadow banks, which were involved in many of these property deals, would be impacted. And sure enough last week a major shadow bank called Zhongzhi Enterprise Group sent a letter to investors announcing it was insolvent.
A Few Fiscal Events We Should Worry about More
Until recently, the main rationales used to argue that we shouldn’t worry about government-debt accumulation were (1) interest rates were low and would remain low for the foreseeable future, (2) inflation was a thing of the past, and (3) the appetite — especially of foreign investors — for U.S. government debt was insatiable no matter how much of it the Treasury pumped out.
One Supreme Court Case Could Mess Up Chunks of the Tax Code
Justices will debate the meaning of ‘income’ under the 16th Amendment
International
Dancing slave monkeys kept on leads found to have disturbing levels of constant stress
The monkeys are taken from their mothers while young and are trained via negative enforcement and fear based methods to perform actions such as somersaulting, jumping and saluting.
Irish Police Investigating Conor McGregor’s Tweets About Dublin Riots
Irish MMA superstar Conor McGregor is subject to an ongoing investigation by Ireland’s national police service, Garda Síochána over tweets posted in relation to the Dublin riots last week, which erupted after a stabbing incident involving a man of Algerian descent.
GERMANY: Government-Funded Project Promoting “Age Play” and Diaper Fetishes to “Young Queers”
A government-funded youth project in Germany is promoting BDSM in a publication co-designed by minors. Lambda Bundesverband, an organization which receives financial support from the Federal Ministry for Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend – BMFSFJ), has created resources describing “humiliation play” and “age fetishes” in collaboration with children as young as 14.
Doctor Who Saves the World with the Power of Transgender Ideology
Doctor Who is back, but this time he’s bad because he’s not a woman. Why, he doesn’t even have the decency to pretend to be a woman. Boo!
China vs. Islam
The Financial Times has an absolutely breathtaking digital journalism project showing how China is destroying mosques or at least denuding them of Arabic, Persian, and other non-Chinese characteristics. The FT finds that nearly three-quarters of the more than 2,300 mosques in China have been demolished or significantly altered since 2018.
Ireland Attempts to Quell Riot with Hate-Speech Laws
After an Algerian-born man attempted to stab several children in Dublin last week, a riot kicked off in the center of Dublin. While it was attributed to the “far right,” it mainly consisted of the usual opportunistic lootings. A Foot Locker that had been ransacked in a 2006 riot was, again, looted in this one.
‘Doctor Who’ Has Regenerated Into a Woke Nightmare
Fans once considered Doctor Who the pinnacle of family sci-fi programming. Its relaunch in 2005 created nearly a decade of fantastic stories that became a global phenomenon. But like many beloved properties, new writers and producers butchered the show as time passed, turning it into an LGBTQ virtue-signal hour and turning off the loyal family audiences who made it popular. The most recent 60th Anniversary Special, titled “The Star Beast,” is an hour-long lecture on pronouns in the worst installment of the show yet.
Jewish Staffers Defy BBC
On Sunday there was a major demonstration in London, in opposition to anti-Semitism. It was peaceful and dignified, and stood in stark contrast with the pro-Hamas, pro-genocide demonstrations that engulfed the city on previous Saturdays. But the anti-anti-Semitism demonstration was controversial; too controversial for BBC employees to attend. Some did anyway.
New Zealand Scraps Tobacco Ban
In 2022, under the leadership of leftist Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand passed the most sweeping ban on tobacco products ever seen. They planned to “phase out” smoking by forbidding anyone born after January 1, 2009, from purchasing tobacco products permanently. But now, Christopher Luxon has been sworn in to replace her. He was previously the head of the opposition party and his agenda is considerably different. One of the first things he did was to announce that the smoking ban was going to be repealed. Now, liberal activists are up in arms, but Luxon insists that the ban would have done even more damage to the economy than the previous government had inflicted.
‘Citizens of the Reich’: Raids and suspicion as German group grows
On the outskirts of the eastern German town of Wittenberg, a corrugated iron gate painted with green leaves welcomes visitors to the “Koenigreich Deutschland” (Kingdom of Germany).
Ireland on the Verge of Establishing an Oppressive Censorship Regime
Despite superficial similarities to First Amendment jurisprudence in the U.S., the proposed Irish hate-speech statute would all but guarantee its politicized use.
Ireland Goes Fascist
Urgency to pass the anti-free speech bill increased after a Muslim immigrant stabbed three children in Dublin, and fed-up working-class Irishmen rioted.
China pneumonia warning: Taiwan urges citizens to avoid travel as virus cases spike in US
Taiwan has warned vulnerable citizens not to travel to China due to respiratory illness amid a surge in pneumonia cases. Other countries, including the US, have also seen a spike.
Double Standards On Hate Speech Follow Dublin Riots
A Limerick politician has called for the killing of participants in the November 23 Dublin riots. Abul Kalam Azad Talukder—celebrated as Limerick’s first-ever Muslim city councillor upon his election earlier this year—stated he wished to see the rioters shot in the head or beaten to death following last week’s violence, sparked by the stabbing of several children and a teaching assistant by a naturalised Algerian immigrant.
French Mayor Threatened With Beheading for Telling the Truth
Two weeks have passed since the murder of Thomas in Crépol, and the case—the subject of a vast enterprise of political manipulation—has found new heralds. The mayor of the town of Romans-sur-Isère, who is politically classed as ‘miscellaneous Right’ (divers droite), i.e., on the Right but with no party affiliation, has decided to raise her voice to defend the facts and what she has been subjected to for so many years in her municipality. She now faces a death threat.
Opinion
On Culture War, Doug Wilson, and the Moscow Mood
“Each of the great world civilizations,” Christopher Dawson wrote in his classic work from the 1940s on Religion and the Rise of Western Culture, “has been faced with the problem of reconciling the aggressive ethos of the warrior with the moral ideals of a universal religion. But in none of them has the tension been so vital and intense as in medieval Christendom and nowhere have the results been more important for the history of culture.” At the heart of Dawson’s provocative thesis is the insistence that Western European culture was the coming together of two cultures, two social traditions, and two spiritual worlds. The cultural formation of Europe combined “the war society of the barbarian kingdom with its cult of heroism and aggression,” leavened by “the peace society of the Christian Church with its ideals of asceticism and renunciation and its high theological culture.”
America Is Under Attack
The guided-missile destroyer USS Mason (DDG-87), one of the many American naval assets tasked with maintaining free navigation of maritime shipping routes, came under attack over the weekend.
Does Anyone Care about What Happens After the 2024 Election?
By all accounts, Republican voters have not tired of the Trump show. And “show” is the right word for it. To conclude from reporter Ben Jacobs’s dispatch from the still well-attended Trump campaign events, the atmosphere around the former president’s campaign is as electric as it ever was. But Jacobs doesn’t see its attendees as the former president’s supporters exactly. Trump doesn’t have “partisans” in the same way that other politicians do. He has “fans.”
7 Scariest Words on Earth – ‘We’re Doing It for the Common Good’
A lifetime ago – back in the Spring of this year – Ireland was taking almost unfathomable steps as a “free” country to bind itself with tyrannical restrictions. I posted about the unbelievable measures the Irish Oireachtas Éireann, or their bicameral parliament, was debating about enacting to restrict the Irish people’s free speech rights in the name of protecting a ginormous victim-class from “hate speech.”
The New Progressive Nihilism
Since the dawn of the modern age, the conquest of disease and death has been a central dimension of progressive optimism. Modern thought has long dreamed of a day when the human lifespan would know no upper limit—when, as Condorcet put it, “nature has fixed no limits to our hopes.” Declining infant mortality, increasing life expectancy, and a growing arsenal of cures for once deadly illnesses have encouraged these hopes. To be sure, the dream of life extension sometimes mutates into a hubristic denial that death and dying are a part of life, as with the transhumanist fantasies that captivate many of Silicon Valley’s techno-optimists. Nonetheless, as the philosopher Martin Hägglund has argued, the conviction that no life can ever be complete is closely linked to the broader modern conception of progress.
The wheels are falling off Canada’s diversity bus
Ethnocultural diversity is a prominent concern for businesses, educational institutions and governments nationwide. Canada chose the path to be a multicultural nation in 1971 when prime minister Pierre Trudeau introduced policies that promoted the inclusion of diverse perspectives and contributions while honouring Canadians’ unique differences. This commitment to diversity was enshrined within the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, and in 1987 Canada took a groundbreaking step by passing the Multicultural Act.
When & How Did Universities Become So Crazy Left?
I was fortunate yesterday to take in part of a two-day conference at AEI in Washington DC in honor of Princeton’s Prof. Robert P. George (Robbie to his friends, but still “Professor George” to me and most other mortals), and in particular a retrospective of his early book published thirty years ago, before he had achieved tenure in Princeton’s political science department, entitled Making Men Moral. It set out a strong case against the emasculating effects of modern liberal relativism, and its critique remains more relevant today in light of a number of trends, well illustrated yesterday by some excellent presentations on recent social science data from Mark Regnerus, Brad Wilcox, and Ian Rowe, among others. But Robbie’s book was politically incorrect then, and even more so now. As one panelist remarked, “If Robbie is ever up for canonization in the Catholic Church, earning tenure at Princeton after this book was published will be acknowledged as his first miracle.”
The Great Unlearning
A society-wide recovery of fundamentals is needed
The House May Regret Breaking Norms and Precedents to Expel George Santos
The House of Representatives has voted to expel George Santos. We can debate whether or not this was justified, but what is not debatable is that this is unprecedented in all of American history. The House has unquestioned constitutional power to expel any member at any time for any reason, but that sweeping power has long been constrained by norms and precedents against doing so simply on the basis of the House’s own conclusions of wrongdoing by a member. Rewriting those norms and precedents for this case may open a door that Congress will find difficult to close.
The Monroe Doctrine at 200
Two centuries later, the Monroe Doctrine still matters.
