News of the Week (December 30th, 2021)

Posted on December 30, 2021 by The Political Hat

 

News of the Week for Dec. 30th, 2021


 

Riots & Revolution

 

Two “Defund The Police” Democrat Lawmakers Carjacked In Less Than 24 Hours
“The legislation, sponsored by 125 Democrats, is supposed to make it easier for state and local governments to defund the police by instead funding mental health services to respond to emergency calls instead of armed officers”

Former NH Middle School Instructor Pleads Guilty to Threatening Anti-CRT Republican Lawmaker
“I truly hope you get skull f***ed to death you pathetic privileged white [expletive] boi”

How 12 public universities spent $230K on DEI training over 20 years
Campus Reform submitted multiple FOIA requests that revealed a dozen colleges have spent nearly a quarter million dollars on diversity, equity, and inclusion training since as early as 2001.

Racist school board unanimously approves plan to pay non-white teachers more
If you feel like you live in an alternative universe where reductionism replaces logic and superficiality trumps character, here’s more evidence that you may be right. We might just be living in a racist version of The Twilight Zone.

Former Philly mayor: White DA’s wokery nothing but “bulls*** … paternalism” as crime explodes
What happens when a progressive-reform DA meets a crime wave? In city after city, they have largely surrendered to the criminals while embracing wokery, and Philadelphia has been no exception to that experience. Earlier this month, as John noted, Philly DA Larry Krasner tried to jolly voters by claiming that there was no significant crime wave, which caused former Philly mayor Michael Nutter — no conservative — to erupt over his denial of the damage being done in primarily black neighborhoods.

Crime Comes to the Suburbs
Edina is one of Minneapolis’s wealthiest suburbs. At one time, its public school system was considered to be among America’s best. Formerly a quintessential Republican suburb, Edina has trended Democratic in recent cycles and is now considered a firmly Democratic town.

AZ State U. Students Disciplined For Harassing White Student Post Bizarre Video Accusing School of Racism
“We’re being persecuted for defending our multicultural center from racism and sexism.”

Washington state looks to reduce sentences for drive-by shootings for “racial equity”
Our latest update from the world of detachment from reality showed up in Washington state this week, where legislators are now considering legislation that would reduce the criminal penalties for drive-by shootings. We could sit here all day and scratch our heads over how anyone could believe that we’re being “too harsh” on people who gun down pedestrians from the windows of their vehicles, but that would skip over the rationale being offered. Democratic Representatives in the state legislature said that the sentencing guidelines need to be loosened in the interest of promoting “racial equity.” You really can’t make this stuff up, but this is actually happening. If this measure passes it will make all of the “empty the jails” advocates look like weak-kneed pikers.

 

Corona Virus

 

New York to Consider Bill Allowing Extrajudicial Detention in Health Emergency
The New York State Legislature will soon consider a bill that would allow the governor to detain people without a court hearing or an immediate right to a lawyer in a state of emergency declared because of communicable diseases. Note how far-reaching the authority would extend.

Nearly $100 Billion in COVID Relief Funds Have Been Stolen
But worry not! U.S. Secret Service is naming a pandemic fraud recovery coordinator.

Candace Owens: Trump supports vaccines because he’s old and not online enough
The cardinal rule of populist media is to never tell your audience what it doesn’t want to hear, even if what you’re telling them is the truth. So what do you do in a situation where you’re forced to choose between two messages that are sure to make some meaningful percentage of your fans unhappy?

Chinese lockdown rule-breakers are publicly shamed and paraded through the streets carrying placards with their names on in bid to ensure Covid rules are obeyed
Police in Jingxi city paraded alleged violators of Covid rules through the streets

MAGA Sycophant Calls for Staging an ‘Intervention’ Over Trump’s Vax Support
Ardently pro-Trump radio host Wayne Allyn Root wants to stage an “intervention” with Donald Trump over the ex-president’s support for the COVID-19 vaccine. “He needs an intervention from a friend,” Root explained this week on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ InfoWars program, adding that Trump is “in total delusion.” Root continued: “He’s been right on everything except this issue. He’s so horribly wrong on this issue, and the best way to put it, ironically, is that he’s dead wrong, because people are dying!” Root continued. “When everyone I know dies, you are getting the blame, President Trump!” This is not the first time a TrumpWorld ally has melted down over his recent praise for the COVID-19 vaccine, as both Jones and Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander turned on the ex-president over the vaccinations. The drama hit close to home late last week, as anti-vax protesters showed up at Trump’s New York hotel and called him a “fraud.”

 

Gun Rights

 

Stay of Mandate in Duncan Case Granted.
Plaintiffs in the Duncan v. Bonta “large capacity magazine” case recently were dealt a blow when the Ninth Circuit en banc panel of judges reversed two lower courts who initially sided with gun owners and their ability to possess magazines holding over 10 rounds as lawful, thus stating that Governor Newsom’s attempt to make those magazines illegal was unconstitutional. But, when the Ninth Circuit overturned both the lower court and the Ninth Circuit panel in favor of the state, it sent shockwaves through the Second Amendment community and showed once again the Ninth Circuit’s bias against the Second Amendment.

Beverly Hills Gun Store Owner Says Rich And Famous Are Coming In Droves, Arming Themselves For The First Time
A Beverly Hills gun store owner says he’s seeing a massive business boom from affluent clients as a crime surge in Los Angeles scares residents.

 

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

 

Winter Has Come: Europe’s Energy Mess
Angela Merkel has got out of Dodge just in time. Europe’s energy crunch has been building for some time, and now two key aspects of the former German chancellor’s dismal legacy — the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and her decision to reaccelerate the denuclearization of Germany’s energy supply — are likely to have the country caught in a vise.

EPA Focused on Gender, Ethnic Diversity to Fill “Purged” Advisory Posts
After the Environmental Protection Agency dumped advisers from regulated industries, the federal agency appears to have prioritized gender and ethnic diversity to replace them, EPA documents show.

Let’s Not Imitate Europe’s Disastrous Energy Policies
Remember when Americans couldn’t afford to heat their homes in the late 1970s, and President Jimmy Carter urged everyone to buy cardigan sweaters and burn wood in their fireplaces? That is pretty much where Europe is today, as reported in the Telegraph: “‘Unprecedented’ gas price surge threatens national crisis, suppliers warn.”

NASA Study: Mass Gains of Antarctic Ice Sheet Greater than Losses
A new NASA study says that an increase in Antarctic snow accumulation that began 10,000 years ago is currently adding enough ice to the continent to outweigh the increased losses from its thinning glaciers.

Eat Your Greenflation
The war against meat has become, so to speak, something of a staple for climate warriors, and one of the ways that it will be fought is by increasing meat’s price, perhaps indirectly, with the addition of new regulatory burdens, or directly, via some sort of carbon tax, or indeed, by a combination of the two.

 

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

Biden politicizes medicine by bribing doctors to adopt “anti-racism” plans and racial goals

Many racial differences in health outcomes have nothing to do with racism. For example, Hispanics live three years longer than whites, on average, but that does not mean doctors are giving Hispanics special treatment at the expense of whites.

 

War & Terror

 

Russia ‘plotting Christmas Eve invasion’ with 100,000 troops amassing on Ukraine border
Both the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office have refused to comment on what action the UK might take in the event of an invasion by Russia – which is looking likely

“We need men who want to sit on a throne of Chinese skulls”…
Jesse Kelly on Tucker — “We don’t need a military that’s woman-friendly, that’s gay friendly we need men who want to sit on a throne of Chinese skulls, but we don’t have that now. We can’t get women off of naval vessels.”

CCP Paid DC Radio Station $4.4 Million To Broadcast Propaganda
Potomac Media Group airs content from China Global Television Network

Harvard professor found guilty of lying about ties to China
It was nearly two years ago that Dr. Charles Lieber was arrested and accused of lying about his ties to China. According to a criminal complaint, Dr. Lieber was being paid as much as $50,000 per month as part of China’s Thousand Talents Plan. Dr. Lieber was indicted by a grand jury last June.

The terrifying future space weapons – “rods from God” meteorites, molten metal cannons and weaponised asteroids
The Sun Online takes a glimpse at the array of weapons and space tech under development which are set to make outer-space the ultimate battleground

Former U.S. Navy Sailor Is Sentenced for Selling Stolen Equipment to China
Her husband is a former member of China’s People’s Liberation Army.

Mach 5 Missiles Spur New Arms Race as U.S. Seeks to Match China
Top U.S. defense contractors are competing for billions of dollars of work tied to the next big technology focus in national-security circles: hypersonic weapons.

Intel apologises for telling suppliers to avoid products made in Xinjiang
More than a million Uyghur Muslims have been interned in the Chinese province, human rights groups believe

Exfil volunteers: State Dept “actively impeding” Afghan evacuation operations
Has the State Department moved from malign neglect of Americans and Afghan allies abandoned to the Taliban to a more actively malign position? Volunteers working overtime to do what the Biden administration apparently won’t tell National Review that Foggy Bottom has begun “actively impeding their exfiltration efforts. And thanks to a national media industry that has actively averted their eyes from Joe Biden’s disgraceful abandonment, State and the White House are getting away with it

Food prep robot ‘Alfred’ joins kitchen staff at Travis Air Force Base
California’s Travis Air Force Base’s Monarch dining facility has become the first in the Department of Defense to acquire an automated food preparation robot called “Alfred,” according to officials at the base.

China’s star wars threatened by. . .Elon Musk?
Red China is unhappy with Elon Musk. His SpaceX satellites supposedly are threatening the safety of China’s space station.

Chinese “brain control” warfare work revealed
The Commerce Department imposed sanctions on Chinese technology companies and announced last week revealed that China’s military is engaged in dangerous work related to “brain control” warfare research.

A Conservative Alternative to Biden’s National-Security Agenda
With the Biden administration expected to release a major, statutorily mandated document setting out the president’s broad-brush thinking on U.S. national security in early 2022, conservative national-security thinkers are gearing up to rebut what they anticipate to be its wrongheaded approach.

 

National

 

Former Staffer Jodi Shaw Sues Smith College Alleging Anti-White Racially Hostile Workplace
Federal Court Complaint alleges: “Smith adopted an official policy of viewing every aspect of its operations through a racial lens; one that distorts all whites into malevolent oppressors and all people of color into hapless victims, regardless of any individual’s actual position or status. This policy permeated every decision and action taken by the school.”

Democrats riled by Spanish-language radio attacks on Kamala Harris
Political operatives and the radio hosts themselves say the uptick in calls is notable. Who, if anyone, is behind them remains unclear.

With Hispanic Support, More Bad News for Democrats
When it comes to Hispanic voters — now the country’s second-largest voting bloc by ethnicity — things just keep getting worse for Democrats. The latest sign that the bottom is falling out is a new PBS/Marist poll, released Monday, which shows that Joe Biden’s approval rating is now lower with Hispanics than it is with whites. And it’s not even close: According to the new poll, just 33 percent of Hispanics approve of Biden, while 65 percent disapprove. In contrast, 40 percent of whites approve, while 56 percent disapprove. That’s a net decrease of 16 percentage points in Biden’s approval rating among whites — and 32 percentage points among Hispanics.

Pharmacy school organization updates new pharmacist oath to include commitment to diversity, “antiracism”
An organization representing college pharmacy schools and a group representing pharmacists have passed an update to their Oath of a Pharmacist, requiring new members to commit to “diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism.”

Things Get Worse at the University of Illinois at Chicago
The University of Illinois at Chicago seems unable to correct course and respect the academic freedom commitments that it has made to its faculty. For a year, the university has been hounding one of its law professors, Jason Kilborn, at the behest of some of its students. The fracas started when Kilborn included a hypothetical on his civil procedure exam involving an individual telling an investigating lawyer that former co-workers “expressed their anger at Plaintiff, calling her a “n____” and “b____” (profane expressions for African Americans and women) and vowed to get rid of her.” He has been suspended from teaching ever since as students demand that he be fired.

Biden DOJ: Convicts on Home Confinement Due to the Pandemic Will Not Be Returned to Prison
When the pandemic began, it was thought that prisons would turn into the same kind of superspreaders for the coronavirus that nursing homes became. Indeed, once prison infirmaries began to fill up, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice set up a program where many non-violent criminals could be released to home confinement.

No Critical Race Theory in Schools? Here’s the Abundant Evidence Saying Otherwise
Mary Nicely, who is now second-in-command at the California Department of Education, went on her personal Facebook page this summer to denounce conservatives who oppose teaching critical race theory in schools as “yet another White right and education reformer distraction.”

Inside The Dems Circular Firing Squad
I’m out of popcorn already, and it’s only Wednesday. I note that amidst the Democrats’ Manchinangst, clear signs of Venezuela-envy have emerged.

Democratic congresswoman carjacked in Philadelphia
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon represents Pennsylvania’s fifth congressional district. She was elected in 2018, as part of the wave that voter dissatisfaction with Donald Trump produced. The district encompasses part of South Philadelphia and a chunk of the city’s suburbs including all of Delaware County.

Wokeism Ended His Father’s Teaching Career. Now, This Teacher Has a Warning for Other Educators.
It was 9 o’clock on a Wednesday night. Albert Paulsson, who teaches high school civics in New Jersey, had finished another long day in class. He sounded tired when he answered my call.

Parents Accuse Virginia School District of Teaching Students to “Discriminate Based on Race”
A Virginia school district is indoctrinating students with an ideology that “teaches children to affirmatively discriminate based on race,” nine parents and eight minors allege in a new lawsuit.

Swimming World Editor Tells Truth about Transgender Competition in Women’s Sports
The Huffington Post just reported that a transgender swimmer :continues to smash records: in women’s college swimming meets. The athlete, Lia Thomas, was quoted in the story saying, “Being trans has not affected my ability to do this sport and being able to continue is very rewarding.”

Redistricting on Track to Help House Democrats
The Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman, who meticulously follows congressional redistricting, says the process is shaping up to create more districts that Joe Biden carried in 2020

Progressive DA Larry Krasner’s office in chaos after 261 attorneys quit during his first term
As you may have heard, shootings and murders are up around the country. That’s especially true in Philadelphia which had already recorded more murders this year than either New York City or Los Angeles. Progressive DA Larry Krasner’s response to that spike in violence has been denial. “We don’t have a crisis of lawlessness, we don’t have a crisis of crime, we don’t have a crisis of violence,” Krasner said earlier this month.

Astronomers spot up to 170 giant rogue planets floating through space
Nearly 200 giant planets have been spotted moving aimlessly through space, according to a remarkable discovery by astronomers. Researchers from the European Southern Observatory say these “rogue planets” float in space and don’t orbit a star — like the Earth and the rest of the planets in our solar system do.

Shocking video shows woman armed with a PICKAXE shoplifting in broad daylight at a Rite Aid in crime-ridden Los Angeles
A woman, armed with a pickaxe, was shoplifting at a Los Angeles Rite Aid

Biden Backs Democrats Eliminating the Filibuster to Ram Through “Voting Rights” Legislation
“That means whatever it takes. Change the Senate rules to accommodate major pieces of legislation without requiring 60 votes”

“Equity Challenge” in Michigan Public School District Suggests Staffers Join a BLM Protest
“Participants were told that telling a student America is the ‘land of opportunity’ is a ‘microaggression’ that minimizes their concerns about having a successful future””

Americans Don’t Buy the Democrats’ Line on Election Integrity
Democrats insist that there was little or no cheating in the 2020 election, and that election integrity measures are not just unnecessary but “racist.” Today’s Rasmussen survey indicates that a substantial majority of Americans don’t buy that line.

Shutuppery, How The Left Deals With Diverse Viewpoints: “Deplatform White Parents”
. . . and purge legacy media of white people. And stuff.

Here’s the evidence of Critical Race Theory lessons in schools
Radical regimen actually is ‘heavily promoted by the K-12 education establishment’

Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
A jurisprudential feast, compassionate releases, and superior addresses.

Prominent Dem Lawyer Predicts Lawsuits To Remove GOP Members From House Seats Next Year
Between Joe Biden’s poor poll numbers and his party being increasingly out of touch with the American public, the Democratic Party is widely expected to suffer devastating losses in the 2022 midterms.

It’s Good to Be Oppressed: Race Huckster Ibram X. Kendi Gets Paid $207 Per Minute for University Lecture
The leading intellectual light behind the Critical Race Theory that has already severely damaged racial harmony in the United States and is corroding American society itself, Ibram X. Kendi, has discovered the fundamental truth of our absurd age: the quickest path to elite status and highly lucrative remuneration is to be oppressed, victimized, and marginalized. Kendi has mastered the art of parlaying his alleged oppression into big bucks, fawning coverage from the establishment media, and respect and influence in the academic world. Many others have done this, but none with the breathtaking audacity and extraordinary success of Ibram X. Kendi.

Scientist E.O. Wilson, dubbed modern-day Darwin, dead at 92
Edward. O. Wilson, the trailblazing US scientist, professor and author whose study of insects and clarion call to protect Earth earned him the nickname “Darwin’s natural heir,” has died at age 92.

So Much for the Notion That Colleges Provide a Broad Education
Colleges like to claim that they provide students with a broad education, and, in the past, there was some truth to that. They used to require students to take general education courses that covered a wide array of the topics that would give them at least some familiarity with an array of the disciplines felt necessary for good citizenship.

Nikole Hannah-Jones Says She Doesn’t Understand Why ‘Parents Should Decide What’s Being Taught’ in Schools
The 1619 Project author Nikole Hannah-Jones said Sunday that she did not understand the notion that parents should have a say in what their children should be taught in school, a message mirroring comments made earlier this year by former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D).

Does President Biden Know What’s Going On in His Own Administration?
Vanity Fair, December 23: On October 22, a group of COVID-19 testing experts joined a Zoom call with officials from the Biden administration and presented a strategy for overhauling America’s approach to testing.

University of Michigan professor receives “anti-racism” grant to study “algorithmic reparations”
Another awardee will study why Latinos are racist against black people

Teacher Mocks Parents as Bigots at School Board Meeting for Objecting to CRT and Adult Content in Books
“These kooks hated reading, the whole reading season./ Please don’t ask why, no one quite knows the reason./ It could be perhaps critical thinking causes fright./ It could be their heads aren’t screwed on just right.”

Former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, Who Helped Pass Obamacare, Dies at 82
Harry Reid, a 30-year veteran of the upper chamber of Congress and former boxer who led the Senate Democrats from 2005 to 2017, passed away at the age of 82 on Tuesday.

The horror! Spanish actor plays a Cuban-American
“Being the Ricardos” is a film about a week in the life of the cast of “I Love Lucy.” With so many sports events cancelled due to the Wuhan coronavirus, I watched this movie on Amazon Prime last week.

Harvard Dropping SAT Requirement for Several More Years Enables More Anti-Asian Discrimination
Melissa Chen: “In light of the lawsuits, this seems convenient for Harvard. Now they can freely discriminate to achieve desired racial quotas without worrying about any data on file that would make such discrimination obvious to the casual onlooker.”

Senate Republicans Moving to Ban Federal Funds for Cities and States That Let Non-Citizens Vote
“if states and localities do let those who are not U.S. citizens to vote in elections, they shouldn’t get U.S. citizen taxpayer money”

President Daniels vs. Communist China, &c.
ChiComs on our campuses; working for Putin; Biden and federalism; the (new) birds and the bees; the King James Bible; a great rhyme; and more

Stalker Teacher Who “Stalked” Kids Online For LGBTQ Club Kept Hidden From Parents To Conceal Her Stalking Responds To Backlash About Stalking Kids – Says She Was Joke Stalking
A California middle school teacher who admitted she “totally stalked” student online activity to identify candidates for an LGBTQ club said her explosive comments were made “tongue in cheek,” according to a new report.

Human brain cells in a dish learn to play Pong faster than an AI
Hundreds of thousands of brain cells in a dish are being taught to play Pong by responding to pulses of electricity – and can improve their performance more quickly than an AI can

2022: The Soylent Green Year
The 1973 dystopian film Soylent Green is, James Pethokoukis notes, the only example of an overtly political project engineered by Charlton Heston, the film’s star, who used his newly reborn status from a now-forgotten film called Skyjacked to get the movie made. Heston was afraid that overpopulation was ruining the planet and commissioned the script. The movie begins with a dire notice that the year is 2022 and New York City’s population is 40,000,000.

 

Economy & Taxes

 

Joe Biden’s Economic Ratings Now Worse Than Jimmy Carter’s, Reports… CNN
“To put that in perspective, the average president at this point in the last 44 years (since we have been polling on the topic) had a net economic approval rating of +5 points.”

Bizarre World Economic Forum Video Orders Citizens to Stop Washing Their Clothes to Fight Climate Change
A bizarre new video of the globalist World Economic Forum is ordering citizens of western countries to cease washing their clothes in order to fight climate change, following the WEF’s commands that the populace of developed nations eat bugs and renounce all possessions in order to lower carbon emissions.

Progressives Are Bluffing on Build Back Better via Executive Action
After Senator Joe Manchin delivered the likely death blow to Build Back Better, House progressives responded alternately by declaring him a liar, proceeding as if negotiations were ongoing, and calling on President Biden to enact an unspecified series of executive actions.

China’s rising cost of business is prompting some companies to leave
A new data protection law is changing the calculus for doing business in China, with foreign and domestic firms scrambling to comply, and some companies including LinkedIn and Yahoo choosing to leave.

The Abuse of Antitrust: Unilateral Disarmament in the Face of China’s Tech Challenge
There can be no reasonable doubt about the scale and sophistication of the challenge that China is now mounting against the U.S.: It will be playing out on many fronts.

The Keys to Economic Progress for Disadvantaged Groups Aren’t What Progressives Think
We are constantly told by advocates of critical race theory that blacks can’t advance in America because of “institutional racism” and that only massive government intervention can change that.

 

International

 

Russia’s Hockey Team Raises Eyebrows With Throwback USSR Jerseys
Russia’s national ice hockey team sparked outrage in northern Europe by wearing throwback jerseys from its Soviet past during an overtime loss to Finland Sunday, amid rising tensions between the Kremlin and the West.

Leftist millennial wins election as Chile’s next president
A leftist millennial who rose to prominence during anti-government protests was elected Chile’s next president Sunday after a bruising campaign against a free-market firebrand likened to Donald Trump.

Good Riddance to Recorded “Hate Incidents”
Today, the U.K. Court of Appeals decided to get rid of the police practice of recording non-crime ““hate incidents” which, the judges determined, constitute an unlawful interference with freedom of expression.

Hong Kong “elections” swept by pro-Beijing candidates
You can file this article under the category of headlines that surprised absolutely nobody anywhere. Hong Kong held its latest set of “elections” this weekend and the results were sad but completely predictable. Virtually every one of the meager number of elected seats remaining on the Legislative Council (LegCo) were captured by members of the hilariously named Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong party. The name of the party is offensive since it is not only uniformly opposed to anything resembling a democratic process, but the members of the party must be approved by Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party before they can register or run as a candidate. And yet they somehow won all of the races by a wide margin. Anyone who has been following the news out of Hong Kong for the past couple of years won’t be the least bit surprised by this result.

Cuban dictatorship runs out of paper, unable to print new food ration books for 2022
Under communism, not only is food rationed, but the ration book used to distribute rationed food is rationed as well. Another glorious achievement of Cuba’s socialist revolution.

Taste the TV: Japan invents lickable screen to imitate food flavours
Prototype uses carousel of canisters to create flavour samples on hygienic film over flatscreen TV

China removes ‘Pillar of Shame’ with help from US law firm
The Pillar of Shame is a disturbing 26-foot-tall sculpture meant to memorialize those who died in the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. The sculpture has been on display at Honk Kong University since 1997, but with China’s crackdown on human rights in Hong Kong, the sculpture has now been removed

Canadian Court Declares Math Test For New Teachers “Unconstitutional” Because Of Racial Disparities In Passage Rates
Ontario public schools will no longer require incoming teachers to pass a basic math proficiency test after finding racial disparities in passage rates.

The 3,500-year-old mummy of an Egyptian king has been ‘digitally unwrapped’ for the first time
Egyptian scientists have digitally unwrapped the mummified remains of the pharaoh Amenhotep I, revealing tantalizing details about the life and death of the Egyptian king for the first time since the mummy was discovered in 1881.

This Mummy Finally Spilled Its Secrets After 3,500 Years
Ancient mummies can be found on every continent except Antarctica, but the best known are from Egypt, where mummification was an ornate and sacred practice for ensuring the dead could move on into the afterlife. Deceased royalty were mummified in the most elaborate and complex ways—so every mummified pharaoh is an opportunity to study a long-lost history and science.

Ancient DNA in a Stone Age tomb reveals the world’s oldest family tree
A Stone Age tomb is giving the world a look at the human race’s oldest known “single extended family,” according to a new study. Researchers in the United Kingdom say they found DNA from Stone Age Britons living in the nation’s West Country about 5,700 years ago.

China Made An AI “Prosecutor” That Can Charge People With Crimes
Chinese scientists reportedly developed an artificial intelligence (AI) program capable of filing criminal charges.

 

Opinion

 

A Voice In the Wilderness
In the corrupt wasteland of higher education, Mitch Daniels, former Governor of Indiana and now President of Purdue University, has long stood out as a beacon of common sense. His leadership was tested when a Chinese student at Purdue spoke out in favor of freedom. In China, and sadly in today’s academic world, that is a dangerous thing to do.

A Desperately Needed Counterweight to “Wokeness” That’s Engulfing Science
Across America, science is under attack from “progressives” who don’t want to hear voices that dissent from their beliefs.

Crime & The Sideshow Bob Democrats
Our friend Charles Lipson wrote in The Spectator a few days ago about how the problem of rising crime is hurting Democrats and threatening to add further to their midterm election woes, but relates that he got some reader feedback wondering why this is necessarily so on the national level since crime is chiefly a state and local government responsibility.

It’s up to us to ensure progress serves our ends.
The founding manifesto of the modern scientific enterprise—Vannevar Bush’s 1945 classic Science: The Endless Frontier—laid down a promise: that federalizing the academic sciences would protect the universities as bastions of free inquiry and curiosity-driven research. Without such support, Bush argued, the academic sciences would be captured and enslaved by government and corporate political interests. That argument was persuasive to the political authorities of the time. Now, seven decades later, that promise stands broken. Science’s “endless frontier” has become Big Science, a self-aggrandizing cartel organized around the aggressive pursuit of federal money.

Is Western Civ on the Way Out?
When a civilization decides it wants to destroy itself, it seems there is no stopping it. As Toynbee wisely said, civilizations do not die of murder but of suicide. It is in its way a perversely exhilarating spectacle: not many get to see in their lifetime a civilization coming to pieces before their very eyes, like a star going supernova. But it is also, and principally, a tragic spectacle, for this is the detritus we leave our children. In On the Eve of the Millennium: The Future of Democracy Through an Age of Unreason, Irish historian Conor Cruise O’Brien generously gives us until the third century of our millennium. He may be wrong. The momentum toward self-destruction proceeds slowly, gradually accumulating velocity until a moment arrives when the collapse appears to happen overnight. As John of Patmos warns in Revelation (18:10), :for in one hour is thy judgment come.”

Is the center-right collapsing?
The estimable Henry Olsen thinks so. He writes: “Many anti-Trump Republicans long for the day when they can retake their party and expel the populist deviations from orthodoxy that vex them so. Evidence from around the world shows this is a pipe dream.”

The War on Reading
George Leef asks whether we can get young Americans to appreciate reading. This young American’s answer: not if our public schools have anything to say about it.

Can We Get Young Americans to Appreciate Reading?
College professors often complain that their students avoid books. They don’t like to read; they just want to be told “the main point.” In the past, most Americans, even those who weren’t “educated” (no college credentials), read literature, but today many who are “educated” hardly ever open a book.

Conservative Media: Stop Using ‘Preferred Pronouns’
Chelsea Manning, Caitlyn Jenner, Rachel Levine, and Amy Schneider are men, and I will refer to them by male pronouns. Chaz Bono and Elliot Page are women, and I will refer to them by female pronouns. I’ve written about all of these people at least once here at PJ Media, and I will continue to recognize them by their biological sex, not their “gender identity.”

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