News of the Week for Feb. 14^th, 2021

• Corona Virus
• Gun Rights
• Hide the Decline
• Obamacare
• War & Terror
• National News
• Economy & Taxes
• International News
• Opinion

 

Corona Virus

 

White House looks at domestic travel restrictions as COVID mutation surges in Florida
The Biden administration is considering whether to impose domestic travel restrictions, including on Florida, fearful that coronavirus mutations are threatening to reverse hard-fought progress on the pandemic.

What Data Shows About Impact of COVID-19 Vaccines So Far
Are the COVID-19 vaccines effective? The early evidence is very encouraging. After the vaccine distributions began in December, we have seen a marked and sustained decline in hospitalizations in America for most of January.

World Health Organization: China’s Denials of a Lab Leak Resolve the Issue for Us
Remember two days ago, when the World Health Organization announced it will no longer be seriously considering the possibility of a laboratory accident playing a role in the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, based upon the findings of their team that visited Wuhan?

Is coughing a crime? Danish court hears appeal against pandemic-linked conviction
Denmark’s top court will on Thursday begin an appeal hearing in which it will be asked to decide if coughing at someone while shouting “corona” constitutes threatening behaviour.

Trump Was So Sick With COVID In October, Aides Thought He Might Be Put On A Ventilator
I for one am shocked that we didn’t get the full medical truth from someone who once sent his bodyguard to raid his doctor’s office for his medical files and who, to this day, still hasn’t explained that mysterious impromptu “physical” he got at Walter Reed in November 2019.

The Biden Administration Calls Out China for Not Cooperating with WHO Investigators
This morning, President Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, offered an eye-opening statement of skepticism about the World Health Organization’s investigation into the start of the pandemic in Wuhan, China

 

Gun Rights

 

Newly Released Interview Reveals Biden’s Plan To Pass Gun Ban
The interview with Joe Biden is a year-old, but for some reason the Las Vegas Sun decided not to release its full conversation with the then-candidate until now. The National Rifle Association is flat-out accusing the paper of burying the interview because it would have been too damaging to the Biden campaign, and since the paper itself hasn’t explained why the editorial board waited a year to release a full transcript, that explanation is as good as any at the moment.

Utah Eliminates Gun Permits
There’s a big change coming for residents of Utah on May 5th. The Governor is preparing to sign a new bill into law allowing most residents to carry firearms concealed on their persons without having to obtain a permit from the state. Anti-Second Amendment groups, including Moms Demand Action, had been fighting the passage of this law in the courts, but their efforts eventually failed. Utah now joins 16 other states in granting permitless carry rights to all citizens of legal age who have not otherwise disqualified themselves from gun ownership.

Carolyn Maloney unveils gun safety legislation package
House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday unveiled a legislative package of five bills focused on gun safety.

Judge rules Danforth shooting victims’ families can sue gun maker
Plaintiffs must now seek approval of other aspects to certify the class-action

 

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

 

Green Groups Object to Swedish Climate Geoengineering Experiment
If geoengineering was ever attempted on a significant scale, it would likely lead to crop failure and global famine. As a 2018 study discovered, plants need sunlight. But despite this rather disturbing drawback, scientists are pushing ahead with their experiments.

Dismay at Ismay
David Ismay, the Undersecretary for Climate Change for Massachusetts, told a group of environmental activists in Vermont in late January that most emissions in his state “come from residential heating and passenger vehicles.” They “come from you, the person across the street, the senior on fixed income, right. . . . There is no bad guy left, at least in Massachusetts to point the finger at, to turn the screws on, and you know, break their will, so they stop emitting. That’s you, we have to break your will, right? I can’t even say that publicly.”

Climate “Crisis” Update
The climatistas are urging President Biden to declare climate change to be a national emergency, thereby tripping enhanced presidential powers under the profligate National Emergencies Act. Trump employed the NEA to divert defense funds to build some of the border wall that Congress refused to fund, and Biden might well raid the defense budget for more windmills or something. My guess is Biden is holding back this step in case Congress doesn’t give him a big down payment on the “Green New Deal” in the stimulus bill—a down payment that Biden’s own people are apparently struggling to figure out how to spend.

14 State Attorney Generals Tell Biden They’re Reviewing Legal Options Regarding Keystone XL
“We cannot ‘Build Back Better’ by reflexively tearing down.”

Wind and Solar Energy Don’t Work
Leftists fantasize that before long, we can dispense with all reliable energy sources–coal, natural gas, nuclear, even hydro–and run our society entirely on wind and solar, two forms of energy that have been obsolete for 150 years.

 

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

CA Legislature Creating an “Office of Healthcare Affordability”: What Could Go Wrong?
Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed the establishment of an Office of Health Care Affordability

California Bill to Force M.D. Participation in Assisted Suicide
When activists successfully legalized assisted suicide in California, they persuaded the California Medical Association to shift from opposition to neutrality with the promise that no doctor would be forced to participate. But here’s the thing with assisted suicide: Such promises are made to be broken.

Socialist ‘Lancet’ Study Says 40 Percent of COVID Deaths in U.S. ‘Unnecessary’
A socialist critique of American society, American politics, American social policy, American wealth inequalities, American racial disparities, and most of all, the American health care system in The Lancet theorizes that 40 percent of deaths related to COVID-19 were “unnecessary.”

Fury at “do not resuscitate” notices given to Covid patients with learning disabilities
Vulnerable people have encountered “shocking discrimination” during pandemic, says Mencap charity

 

War & Terror

 

China’s New Type 075 Amphibious Assault Ship Could Threaten Taiwan
Beijing is copying American warships by building and fielding their own versions for amphibious operations.

Bombings, Shooting In MN Health Clinic
A shocking attack on a clinic in Buffalo, Minnesota involved multiple bombs and at least one active shooter. Police have one suspect in custody, but no one knows quite yet whether more were involved or what the motive might be. “This is a major, critical incident,” reports Paul Blume for the local Fox News affiliate, with multiple casualties, including victims in critical conditions:

Explosives are missing from the nation’s largest Marine Corps base and an investigation is underway
Explosives are missing from the nation’s largest US Marine Corps base, according to military officials who said Tuesday an investigation is underway.

The State Department’s Bipartisan Taiwan Diplomacy
When outgoing secretary of state Mike Pompeo announced a decision to rescind the State Department’s guidelines on diplomatic contact with Taiwan last month, one of the complaints was that the move would constrain his successor’s foreign policy. The problem with that argument was that Joe Biden has long been a supporter of Taiwan’s security and that his team would likely hold onto the Pompeo move.

Stealth Destroyer Zumwalt Is Getting Hypersonic Missiles
Could this upgrade give the troubled class of expensive warships a new lease on life?

China Bans the BBC in Its Territory After Report of Rape, Abuse in Uighur Concentration Camps
BBC interviewed the Uighur woman in the featured image. She spent eight months in a camp where she claims men raped, abused, and tortured women.

China is collecting the world’s DNA and the reason is sinister: Gordon Chang
Gordon Chang warns next disease could be far more deadly than COVID-19

With Trump Gone, Iran and India Seek to Deepen Trade, Military Ties
Iranian Defense Minister: Tehran wants “to take forward the relationship between India and Iran, in terms of military trade.”

France wades into the South China Sea with a nuclear attack submarine
The French nuclear attack submarine SNA Emeraude recently conducted a patrol in the South China Sea, Defence Minister Florence Parly announced this week, sparking questions over the timing and tensions in Asia’s hotly contested waters.

 

National

 

The Left-Wing Plot to Misinform Our Children
I wrote here and here about the promulgation of new Social Studies standards for K-12 public education in Minnesota. Under the direction of far-left Governor Tim Walz, a committee representing various left-wing pressure groups is trying to completely revamp what we teach our children about, among other things, world and U.S. history. My organization has taken the lead in opposing this effort, and you can read the basics here.

YouTuber Wins Darwin Award
Timothy Wilks had a great idea for a YouTube prank — fake a robbery by charging at people with a giant knife. The result wasn’t funny

California Proposed Ethnic Studies Curriculum A Subterfuge For Anti-American And Anti-Zionist Activism
The model curriculum has (once again) inspired public outrage for its reliance on the neo-Marxist academic framework known as “Critical Theory”

No Surprise — College Essays Are Becoming Politicized
For a long time, students who wanted to get into a college or university had to write an essay to accompany their application. The essay gave students an opportunity to shine, to explain more about themselves than their grades and SAT scores showed.

ACLU to push reparations bill, Southern expansion
The American Civil Liberties Union will announce Monday it’s embarking on an aggressive racial justice agenda that includes support for a reparations bill, expanding resources into southern states, and pushing for rural post offices to adopt basic banking services.

When Education Becomes (Literal) Indoctrination
It’s not as if this is going to come as any sort of shock to the system for most conservatives, but the nation’s public school systems and colleges have turned into a breeding ground for woke thinking and the spreading of the most progressive theories of social evolution. This evolution of groupthink has been going on for quite some time now, but for the most part, it’s been an unofficial policy. But as columnist George Will points out in his latest essay, even that trend has begun to change. In Illinois, legislators are poised to codify a State Board of Education proposal that would make it official government policy that all public schools “embrace and encourage progressive viewpoints and perspectives.” Yes, you read that correctly. No insufficiently woke viewpoints will be allowed to see the light of day in the state’s public schools and any wrongheaded mavericks exposing children to the “wrong” sort of thinking may find their careers cut short after having been found guilty of thought crimes.

Cory Booker Wants to Replace Major College Football With Federally Controlled Pro Game
Two young men grow up in the same neighborhood and spend four years together at the same high school taking the same classes from the same teachers and playing on the same winning football team.

In Other News, Despite Promises, the Leopard Has Yet to Change Her Spots
February 4: Freshman representative Marjorie Taylor Greene told her Republican colleagues she “believes school shootings are real and called them ‘awful,’ and apologized for her past support for QAnon conspiracy theories, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.”

LA Judge Rules Against DA Gascon On Some Sentencing Enhancements, Three Strikes Law
In December the union representing Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorneys sued the incoming DA over the issue of sentencing enhancements. Yesterday a judge ruled in their favor, issuing a preliminary injunction that prevents DA Gascon from dismissing sentencing enhancements in existing cases. Gascon will also be required to follow the three strikes law.

Hmmm: More Than A Quarter Of Republicans Say Those Who Voted To Impeach Are “Principled”
You can look at this poll in one of two ways. Obviously, it affirms everyone’s suspicion that most of the party is still extreeeeemely Trumpy and is apt to punish members of Congress who aren’t as extreme in their affection.

Van Jones, Trump Apologist?
I don’t watch The View, but it must have been a bizarre spectacle when Van Jones went on the program and found himself treated like Jeffrey Lord.

Dershowitz: I Have No Idea What Trump’s Lawyer Is Doing In Opening Arguments
Yeah, it was, uh, it was something special. When Newsmax lined up a Trump-friendly expert like Dersh for commentary on the trial, they were obviously expecting glowing praise for Team MAGA. That’s not what they got because Trump lawyer Bruce Castor didn’t allow for an alternative. Instead of honing in on the question of whether it’s constitutional to try a public official who’s been impeached after he leaves office, Castor just sort of … talked. Dersh was boxed in and had to tell the truth: It sucked.

Lawyer In Zoom Meeting Tells Judge “I’m Not A Cat”
If you’re having a bad day at work today, just remember it’s not nearly as bad as the one this lawyer from Texas is having.

The Crazy Interview with SF School Board President on How San Francisco Renamed its Schools
“Lincoln is not someone that I typically tend to admire or see as a hero”

White gay dad of mixed-race kids not diverse enough for all-women parent advisory group in San Francisco
LOL San Francisco, you’re so broken. From San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight

Florida Metal Musician Turns Uncle’s Skeleton Into :Skelecaster: Guitar
Tampa musician Prince Midnight made the ghoulish guitar to honor his Uncle Filip, “the biggest metal head I’ve ever known.”

Surprise: Marjorie Taylor Greene More Popular Within GOP After Dems Kick Her Off Committees
A predictable — and intended — consequence of the Democrats doing what they did. They wanted to make Greene the face of the GOP and they’re on their way, according to Morning Consult.

San Francisco School Board Ends Merit-Based Admissions To Its Top High School
San Francisco’s top high school will no longer admit students based on grades and test scores. Yesterday the SF School Board voted 5-2 to eliminate merit-based admission and instead set up a lottery system to determine who will attend.

Bloomberg: McConnell Declining To Whip For Acquittal In Trump Trial
The conscience argument does not bode well for Donald Trump, at least when coming from Mitch McConnell. But potentially even worse is the other argument that Bloomberg reports the Senate Minority Leader is making to his caucus. The constitutional argument has been settled, Bloomberg’s sources say McConnell is now arguing, and that should have no bearing on the decision to convict or acquit.

Hmmm: Fulton County Prosecutors Open Criminal Probe Into Trump’s Call To Raffensperger
Not unexpected, especially given the drama taking place in Washington, but certainly unwelcome news in Mar-a-Lago. Prosecutors at various levels in Georgia have investigated complaints filed over Donald Trump’s January 2nd phone call to Brad Raffensperger, in which the outgoing president pressured the secretary of state to find the votes that would reverse the election results in the state. Fulton County DA Fani Willis has decided to start the process of opening a criminal investigation on that basis

“Transition” Treatment Harms Kids, Veteran Psychiatrist at UK Gender Clinic Says
Children “have been very seriously damaged” in receiving treatment at the United Kingdom’s premier gender identity facility, a former psychiatrist there says in a bombshell interview.

College offers racially segregated mental health resources
Claremont McKenna College resources include options for black, Latino students

Inside the Times madhouse
We are rarely given a glimpse inside the struggle sessions at the New York Times. Last week New York Times science reporter Donald McNeil exited the newspaper as a result of an incident that occurred outside the Times two years ago. The Times made up a rule after the fact to justify McNeil’s exit. Aaron Sibarium recounts the background in the Washington Free Beacon story “New York Times Meltdown Plays Out in Private Facebook Group.”

Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban Cancels the National Anthem
The Athletic reports that billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has canceled the National Anthem at the NBA team’s home games.

SJW Coup of Board Game Industry in Progress!
Gamers are a touchy bunch. I’ve covered several SJW mob events within the gaming and comics community over the years, but this one might be the dumbest. Cancel culture is that term we use when rabid mobs of social-justice keyboard warriors band together to bully someone out of their life because the mob’s feelings got hurt or because its members were faced with an opinion they found repulsive. Dissent is not tolerated in our new world order.

Elon University cancels segregated ‘White caucus’ amid backlash
Elon University promoted a “White caucus” for “White-identifying” students.

Berkeley student newspaper creates “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” blog
The University of California-Berkeley student newspaper introduced a new diversity and inclusion blog.

Judge Nixes L.A. County District Attorney Gascón’s Questionable Directives and Criminal Justice “Reforms”
“The District Attorney’s disregard of the Three Strikes law ‘plead and prove’ requirement is unlawful.”

1619 Project Brainchild Hannah-Jones Doxxed Free Beacon Reporter
What does Hannah-Jones have to do for anyone to hold her accountable?

Einsteinium complex isolated
Experiments using scant nanograms of element 99 lead to first measurement of an einsteinium bond length

Wyoming Bill For Election, Recall Of State Health Officer Filed
A bill that would make the position of Wyoming State Health Officer an elected office has been filed for the 2021 session of the Wyoming Legislature.

The Belknap precedent
One of the good things about the impeachment of Donald Trump — maybe the only good thing — is that it has brought William Belknap into the spotlight. And that’s a good thing only for history buffs.

A look inside Spalding University’s $150 antiracism training
Spalding University launched a new professional development program centered on “antiracism.”

Pigs can be taught how to use joysticks, experiment finds
The intelligence of pigs has long been renowned — and scientists in the US have now found that they are clever enough to be able to use computer joysticks.

Study finds fewer older people are having strokes
A new study has found that people age 70 and older are having fewer strokes, and fewer people of all ages are dying from the disease. The study, which examined the population of Denmark, is published in the February 10, 2021, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. In older people, researchers found declines in both ischemic stroke, caused by a blockage of blood flow to the brain, and intracerebral hemorrhage, when a blood vessel bursts inside the brain.

Very Few Americans Believe Q Anon Conspiracy Theories
At least some of the people who rioted at the Capitol last month were motivated or at least associated themselves with Q Anon conspiracy theories. The so-called Q Anon Shaman who entered the Capitol wearing a horned helmet is just one example. Another man named Doug Jensen, who has since been charged, was wearing a Q Anon t-shirt when he became one of the first people to breach the Capitol.

Intentions, Inadvertent
So, the New York Times has reversed itself and declared that intent does matter when uttering racial slurs like the n-word.

It Begins: Biden Will Allow Asylum Seekers Waiting in Mexico to Enter the U.S.
The Biden administration announced on Friday that, starting on February 19, thousands of migrants waiting in Mexico who have open asylum cases will be allowed into the United States. The announcement comes as the administration opened a new tent city in Texas to handle part of the expected crush of illegal immigrants now moving toward the border expecting succor from the Biden administration.

Recall Newsom Petition Hits the Required 1.5 Million Signature Mark
Organizers going for 2 million signatures total as Newsom begins talking about reopening the schools.

Virginia bill would create reparations scholarships
A Virginia bill proposed a new scholarship exclusively for descendants of slaves.

Elementary School In Philadelphia Instructed Students To Simulate Black Power Rally To Free “Black Communist” Angela Davis
A public elementary school in Philadelphia recently had students participate in activities celebrating “black communist” Angela Davis, which included a Black Power rally simulation, Discovery Institute scholar Christopher Rufo reported.

Nikki Haley: We Shouldn’t Have Followed Trump Down This Path And He Has No Future In Office
“This is an incident of Nikki Haley breaking with Nikki Haley,” said House Dem James Clyburn about the quotes from Haley that are circulating this morning. “Just two or three weeks ago she was admonishing us to ‘leave the man alone,’ now she’s saying we shouldn’t have followed him.”

What Is “Critical Race Theory” and Why Are So Many Colleges Teaching It?
America is suffering from two pandemics — the actual disease of COVID-19 and the intellectual disease of a bunch of toxic ideas called Critical Race Theory. The latter is the subject of today’s Martin Center article by Cornell University law professor William Jacobson.

If You Thought the 2020 Elections Were Chaotic, Just Wait
H.R.1 packs into one 791-page bill every bad idea about how to run elections and mandates that the states must adopt the very things that made the election of 2020 such a mess. It includes all of the greatest hits of 2020: Mandatory mail ballots, ballots without postmarks, late ballots, voting in precincts where you do not live…. The Senate companion bill, S.1, might be even worse.

Senate ACQUITS Donald Trump of inciting MAGA storming of the Capitol
57 senators voting to convict, not enough to meet 67-vote supermajority after his defense launches fiery attack on case against him

Grenell lays groundwork for California gubernatorial run
The Trump ally could reorganize the Republican field in a recall campaign.

SF supervisor says lack of tourists has criminals now targeting residents
A San Francisco neighborhood is shaken after a close call with a would-be theft was captured on surveillance cameras appearing to case vehicles outside a home in Bernal Heights.

Democrats fear getting ‘caught with our pants down’ in 2022
House Republicans are already feeling confident of taking back the majority in 2022, and some key Democrats are focused on the warning signs.

Professor at distinguished Chinese university claims all of Western civilization, including the pyramids, were faked to “weaken the glory” of China
Professor Huang Heqing of Zhejiang University, one of the most eminent schools in China, is teaching his students that all of Western history is a hoax and that everything, from the pyramids to Shakespeare to the Mona Lisa, are modern fakes meant to belittle China.

Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Crooked judges, learned intermediaries, and laundering lawyers.

Why Math Is Racist
This is actually a claim that is being made often these days: the sciences in general, and math in particular, are racist.

Adding wokeness: Oregon promotes teacher program to subtract “racism in mathematics”
The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) recently encouraged teachers to register for training that encourages “ethnomathematics” and argues, among other things, that White supremacy manifests itself in the focus on finding the right answer.

N.Y. Times Doxxes Scott Alexander Because They Hate Free Speech
Once upon a time — young people may imagine that I’m speaking of an antique, mythical era — liberals believed in the First Amendment. Or at least, that’s what liberals said at the time.

Trump Impeachment Lawyer’s Home Vandalized, Law Practice “Under Siege”
“My home was attacked last night — windows broken, spray paint, really bad words spray-painted everywhere.”

 

Economy & Taxes

 

CBO on the Minimum Wage
The agency has a new analysis of the Democrats’ $15 plan.

Cuba to reform economy, allow more private enterprise
Cuba, the Communist dictatorship in the Caribbean, is to reform its economy to allow greater private sector activity.

The NYSE Isn’t Moving—Yet
A revived stock-transfer tax that is moving in Albany could force us to find a new home.

Anatomy of a flop: Why Trump’s US-China phase one trade deal fell short
The Biden administration plans to review the phase one trade agreement President Donald Trump forged with China in late 2019. Good. Much of the deal was a failure. Its centerpiece was China’s pledge to buy $200 billion more of US goods and services split over 2020 and 2021.

Poverty Is the Natural State of Mankind
Today, rapper and actor Common quoted Representative Ayanna Pressley as saying: “Poverty is not naturally occurring; it is a policy choice.”

Democrats Seek To Wipe Out Right-To-Work Laws Across The Nation
You knew (or at least should have known) that they were going to be coming for you the moment the Democrats took over both chambers of Congress and the White House. If we’re to be surprised at anything in this announcement, it’s that they waited an entire three weeks before doing it. House and Senate Democrats have reintroduced the PRO ACT, legislation designed to eradicate right-to-work laws in the more than half of the states that have enacted such legislation over the years. The bill, which has virtually no bipartisan support, would bring back mandatory unionization for pretty much every person who wants to be employed, impose mandatory wage confiscation for “dues” and eliminate an untold number of jobs. Small businesses would be hit the hardest, with many of them likely being forced to close after their labor costs are driven through the roof.

Deficit projected at $2.3 trillion for 2021, not counting additional stimulus, CBO says
That’s smaller than 2020 shortfall of $3.13 trillion but larger than anything the nation had seen prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Is The Stock Market About To Crash?
“Very, very concerning” echoes of the 90s dot-com bubble are being heard loud and clear by nervous market experts.

Businesses Are Fleeing City Centers In Seattle And Portland Because Of Crime, Homelessness And Vandalism
A chemical distribution company called TR International has decided it’s time to leave downtown Seattle. The company’s CEO told King 5 that because of ongoing safety issues, they were moving the company to Edmonds.

 

International

 

Another Example of Authoritarianism in Scotland
In a YouTube video from April 2018, “Ruth Davidson and the fatherless children,” Richard Lucas, a Scottish private-school teacher, said of the former leader of the Scottish Conservative Party and lesbian that she “wishes to normalize the production of fatherless children, does not value marriage, and follows the ABM childcare philosophy.”

Burma: What Happened?
In 2015, Burma held open elections, for the first time since 1990. The country held such elections again on November 8, 2020. The National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, won 83 percent of the available seats in parliament. The Union Solidarity and Development Party — the military’s instrument — won 7 percent.

Never Say Never Again
A horrifying report released last week by the BBC describes the “mass rape, sexual abuse, and torture” that have become commonplace in China’s “transformation through re-education” camps in Xinjiang province.

‘THIS HAS TO END’ Image of hundreds of homeless people queuing in snow at Glasgow soup kitchen compared to former “communist” countries
THE sight of hundreds of people standing waiting in heavy snowfall at a Glasgow soup kitchen has been compared to ‘decimated’ former communist countries.

Google’s $76 million deal with French publishers leaves many outlets infuriated
Alphabet Inc’s Google has agreed to pay $76 million over three years to a group of French news publishers to end a more than year-long copyright spat, documents seen by Reuters show, a deal one news publishers’ lobby deemed unfair.

UN’s Sexual Orientation-Gender Identity “Expert” Aims to Bully Foes of LGBT Agenda
A U.N. expert is shining a spotlight on those who dare oppose the world body’s ubiquitous LGBT agenda, singling out “actors” who resist the promotion of “gender ideology.”

 

Opinion

 

The Humiliating Art of the Woke Apology
There is one factor that undergirds every aspect of these confessions — fear.

The Neoracists
A new religion is preached across America. It’s nonsense posing as wisdom.

The Dangers of the Derp State
How we became a nation of so many dupes and fools is a matter at least as complicated as the causes of Donald Trump’s presidency.

“Equity”?
Who is that masked man, sitting alone at his desk signing “a flurry of executive orders”? There is dispute over whether he comes as a peacemaker promoting unity or as a progressive tool extirpating conservatism, but there is near-universal agreement that the thirty executive orders President Biden signed in his first days in office were aimed at reversing as many of President Trump’s policies as possible

Facing Reality
Charles Murray must be the bravest man in America. His new book, to be published in June, is titled Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America.

How I Learned to Relax and Accept That Impeachment Is Just Censure
In my young and naïve days — about a couple of weeks ago — I thought a snap impeachment and trial was absurd. What about the fact-finding? The committee hearings? The right of the president to present a defense? Etc., etc.

Are the Classics Racist?
To look at the marvels of Greece and Rome and see only “whiteness” speaks to an obsession with race that is destructive and self-defeating.

‘Spirit Murder,’ Neo-Segregation and Science Denial in American Schools
Plus: a Super Bowl mitzvah

To Win Again, the Oregon GOP Must Regain Its Sanity
A s a native of Portland, Ore., I often find myself defending my forlorn city against the derision of my fellow conservatives. Yes, the police force is often unwilling to enforce the most basic of our laws — but the food culture is just excellent. Sure, the mayor is an ineffectual toffee-nosed dweeb — but the Trail Blazers are going all the way next season. It’s true we have the worst homelessness problem in the nation — but have you visited the Rose Garden? (It’s beautiful this time of year.)

“This is Sparta” but not in a good way, helot.
The idea of a global elite ruling over the world for its own good is a gratifying one until you realize you may be canceled from inclusion. Everyone wants to be an agoge dancer but not everyone can make the cut.

Democrats’ Back-Up Plan: Let’s Do Something Unconstitutional Too
Put this one in the “we had to burn the village to save it” column of bad ideas … again. Despite the obvious unconstitutionality of the plan, McClatchy reports that Democrats still want to keep the so-called 14th Amendment Option in reserve in the all-too-certain case that the impeachment trial results in an acquittal for Donald Trump. Democrats want to defend the Constitution by violating one of its core controls on congressional power, it seems

Can Higher Education Be Saved?
In conservative and libertarian circles there is much despair over the future of higher education. It seems to be so thoroughly infiltrated by leftist ideology that many think we steer young Americans away from all but a small number of non-infected schools.

The Right to Pass Down America’s Founding Values Is Worth Fighting For
Last month, the San Francisco School Board voted 6-1 to remove the names of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Paul Revere, and other historic American patriots from 44 schools.

“There’s Nothing Left”: Why Thousands of Republicans Are Leaving the Party
In the days after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the phone lines and websites of local election officials across the country were jumping: Tens of thousands of Republicans were calling or logging on to switch their party affiliations.

State Level Republican Parties Have Gone Crazy
The decline of Virginia’s once-dominant Republican Party is a case study in how a party’s waning electoral appeal is often accompanied by a descent into madness. Rather than view the Virginia GOP’s experience as a cautionary tale, though, it seems state-level Republican Parties across the country see it as a model worthy of emulation.

The Next Republican Majority
Sometimes headlines don’t do justice to columns, as in the case of Henry Olsen’s latest. “Donald Trump may not have hurt the GOP as much as some might think,” it reads, but Olsen doesn’t provide any reason to doubt (and may himself believe) that Trump threw away his reelection campaign and the Republican Senate majority, too, which is plenty of harm for one man to do to a party.

Fusionism, Moderate and Otherwise
Stephanie Slade, a libertarian Catholic, defends fusionism in Reason. There are, she argues, both practical and moral reasons for believers in the basic moral obligations entailed by “the Judeo-Christian tradition” to deny that it is “the state’s job to enforce those moral obligations.” Both the danger of tyranny and the dignity of the individual suggest that we should tightly limit government. “Only when absolutely necessary—say, to stop one person from initiating violence against another—is it morally justifiable to overrule someone’s right to live his life as he chooses.”

Women and Mothers Aren’t “Chestfeeders”
Midwives working for Britain’s National Health Service at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals in England are now to follow a “gender-inclusive language policy”

Unspeakable Truths about Racial Inequality in America
I am a black American intellectual living in an age of persistent racial inequality in my country. As a black man I feel compelled to represent the interests of “my people.” (But that reference is not unambiguous!) As an intellectual, I feel that I must seek out the truth and speak such truths as I am given to know. As an American, at this critical moment of “racial reckoning,” I feel that imperative all the more urgently. But, I ask, what are my responsibilities? Do they conflict with one another? I will explore this question tonight.

How Equality Lost to “Equity”
Civil-rights advocates abandon the old ideal for the new term, which “has no meaning” and promises no progress but makes it easy to impute bigotry, says Shelby Steele.