Firing Line Friday: A Firing Line Debate: Resolved: That the New Anti-Terror Bill Is Good for Americans

     In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.

     The question of whether certain measures are necessary for safety to protect out liberties or an attack on the same is nothing new. A formal debate thirty years ago over whether a proposed anti-terror bill is good for Americans was debated by William F. Buckley, Jr., Arlen Specter, Ira Glasser, Victoria Toensing, Steven Emerson, David Cole, Anthony Lewis, James J. Zogby, with moderator Michael E. Kinsley.

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Quick Takes – Nature Rights: Indigenous Ways Of Knowing At Harvard; Democrats In Wisconsin; Gaia The Corporatist

     Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.

     The focus this time: The more “rights” for Mother Nature, the fewer for you.

     First, a little mood music:

     Carrying on…

     Who needs science when you have indigenous ways of knowing? Not at Harvard you don’t.

“As part of Harvard Climate Action Week 2025, the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights convened a panel titled Human Resources: Indigenous Leadership in Protecting Water as a Fundamental Right. The discussion, moderated by Faculty Director Mathias Risse, brought together three inspiring Indigenous leaders: Bryan BainBridge, CEO of the Great Lakes Intertribal Council Inc.; Charitie Ropati, water engineer and climate adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General; and Dr. Kelsey Leonard, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of the Environment at the University of Waterloo. Together, they explored how Indigenous knowledge, law, and lived practice shape the fight for water security in an era of climate disruption.

“Risse opened the session by situating water within the human rights framework. ‘You need a stable climate and a healthy environment for any kind of human rights to be exercisable,’ he said. He reminded the audience that the right to safe drinking water, recognized by the UN in 2010, and the more recent acknowledgment of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment represent important progress. Yet he also noted the limits of these frameworks, which often treat the environment as something external to humanity, existing for human use. Indigenous perspectives, he emphasized, challenge this division by recognizing water ‘among our relations, among the greater nature into which we are all embedded.’

“…

“[J]ustice must extend beyond human beings. “Justice is not something solely for humans, but justice for all living beings,” she said. Leonard described the growing global movement to recognize the inherent rights of rivers and waters—an approach already embraced by Indigenous legal systems for millennia. Examples include the Menominee River (recognized by the Menominee Nation), the Whanganui River in New Zealand, and the Klamath River in California. Such recognition, she argued, allows ecosystems not only to survive but to thrive.”

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Queering The European Union

     Perhaps becoming more like Europe and embracing their modern degeneration of “Western Civilization” may not be such a good idea if you aren’t down with elevating “LGBTIQ+” people to “more equal than others” status. Case in point is the European Commission’s “LGBTIQ+ equality strategy 2026 – 2030”.

“The strategy aims to mobilise a collective commitment across all levels of governance to safeguard fun-damental rights and the values of equality and non-discrimination, enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights and binding on all Member States as primary EU law. It also sets a framework that requires active engagement and cooperation from the European Parliament, Council, Member States, and civil society, to ensure its successful implementation.

“Implementation   of this strategy   will follow a   dual approach of   targeted measures and   strengthened equality mainstreaming across different policy areas. This strategy, as its predecessor, will use intersec-tionality as a cross-cutting principle. It will address how the combination of sexual orientation, gender iden-tity/expression and sex characteristics with other personal characteristics or identities, such as sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability and age, contributes to unique experiences of discrimination. In this way, it complements existing and upcoming EU initiatives to promote equality for all(8). Furthermore, the strategy takes into account how geographic isolation can further compound these situations of vulnerability.”

     Let’s look at some of these “strategic objectives”.

“Trans, non-binary and intersex people also continue to face severe violations of their bodily autonomy: some EU Member States still impose surgical or medical intervention requirements for legal gender recogni-tion.

“…

“To help Member   States ban conversion   practices, the Commission   will publish a   study analysing the nature, prevalence and impact of these practices on LGBTIQ+ people. To facilitate coordinated action, the Commission will also promote structured dialogue on the topic, in particular through the expert group on LGBTIQ+ equality, under the High-Level Group on non-discrimination, equality, and diversity.”

     This is basically California’s ban “conversion therapy” while also declaring self-mutilation to be a human right.

“In 2021, the Commission proposed that the Council decides to include hate speech and hate crime in the list of ‘EU crimes’ under Article 83(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Such Council Decision would provide the legal basis for secondary legislation that harmonises criminal law definitions of hate offences on grounds not currently provided for under relevant EU law.

Given the absence of progress on such a Council Decision, the Commission is considering a legislative ini-tiative based on the existing areas of crime covered by Article 83(1) of TFEU to harmonise the definition of hate offences committed online. A comprehensive definition of hate offences at EU level was also one of the key recommendations adopted by those participating in the 2024 European Citizens Panel on tackling hatred in society. The Commission is committed to following up these recommendations.”

     Restrictions on free speech to the point of criminalization and targeted action? No stranger to the Europeans!

“LGBTIQ+ youth often face multiple forms of   discrimination, experience prejudice,   hate crimes and   are particularly vulnerable   to sexual abuse”

     Yup, they’re goin’ after the kids.

“It encourages Member States to ensure that all children, in all their diversity, can enjoy the same rights of access to and benefit from protection across all of their territories. All children are to be protected, supported and empowered by promoting inclusive, coordinated and systemic approaches within national child protection systems and responding to the specific vulnerabilities.”

     Remember, these children are being given the same “right” to bodily mutilate themselves as adults.   It also gives them the same right to sexual freedom and expression as adults.

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The Eschaton Is Always But One Immanentization Away

     There is a utopian mirror-universe version of Hobbes that channels Rousseau. The default is utopia and we’d have it if only evil forces were gone.   When this utopia isn’t achieved, blame must be placed just as the Soviets did with “wreckers” and Kulaks (or Nazis with Jews). James Lindsay notes as much, which is quoted in full below due to the limitations of Twitter/X embeds.

Why totalitarianism always produces mass murders:

The belief in any totalitarian system is that there is some “enemy” that holds back society. Once that enemy is destroyed and purged, society will flourish, or so the cult belief goes.

That doesn’t happen, though, because the “enemy” isn’t actually the cause of the problem, and purging the “enemy” doesn’t build society.

The power, by then vested in the totalitarian state, still operating on the belief that the “enemy” is the problem, always insists that the lack of prosperity is due to the “enemy” remaining, but in hiding.

That hidden “enemy” must then be found and purged. This also fixes nothing and usually starts making things much worse, and the cycle repeats until collapse.

It only works this way every time.

     This also leads to the justification where the purge or punishment justifies itself. If you are the “good” and they are the “evil”, then it is their “evil” that causes you to defend yourself and your goodness. It doesn’t matter if you can point to any actual reason or brook any defense they may pose. That you crushed them is the only proof you need that you are justified.   The punishment is its own justification.

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Glock Block Crock

     Way back in 2008, 2nd Amendment advocates and conservatives won a resounding victory with District of Columbia v. Heller which explicitly stated that the 2nd Amendment protects the individual’s right to keep and bear arms, including arms in common use such as handguns. One of the brands of handguns in widespread common use is Glock.

     California has decided to ban them anyway with the signing of AB 1127 by Gov. Newsom.

“The bill’s language is highly specific — and clearly aimed at one of the most popular handgun platforms in America. Glocks, known for their striker-fired simplicity and reliability, use a cruciform sear mechanism that meets the exact technical definition outlined in the bill. With the added stipulation that the pistol must be ‘readily convertible,’ lawmakers are essentially banning the sale of Glock models like the G19, G17, and others that have been repeatedly associated — legally or not — with illegal full-auto conversion devices.

“Supporters of the bill say it’s a necessary step to prevent the illegal use of Glock switches, which convert standard handguns into fully automatic weapons. These switches are already banned under federal and California law, but AB 1127 goes further — cutting off sales of entire handgun models based solely on the potential that they could be modified.”

     This comes amid other anti-RKBA laws:

“AB 1127 is just one of three new gun-related laws Newsom signed this week. AB 1078 imposes new requirements on concealed carry license applicants, including listing each firearm by make, model, and serial number. SB 704 mandates that all firearm barrel sales go through licensed dealers and background checks — targeting what lawmakers describe as a growing market for ‘ghost gun’ parts.”

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News of the Week (October 19th, 2025)

 

News of the Week for October 19th, 2025


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Firing Line Friday: A Firing Line Debate: Resolved: That the Flat Tax Is Better than the Income Tax

     In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.

     Once upon a time, there was serious debate about replacing the existing income tax scheme with a flat tax so that the tax code was about economic prosperity and fairness, rather than a means of economic and social central planning. Let us look back thirty years ago when this was formally debated by Willian F. Buckley, Jr., Jerry Brown, John C. Goodman, George S. McGovern, Lester C. Thurow, Robert Kuttner, Steven, Mann, and Pierre S. Du Pont, with Michael E. Kinsley moderating.

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Quick Takes – College Word Crimes: Same DEI Office Different Name; Same DEI Office Different Title; Same DEI Essay Different Applicants

     Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.

     The focus this time: “Why don’t you judge a book just by it covers unless it covers just another” — Johnny Rotten.

     First, a little mood music:

     Carrying on…

     Just because they’ve gotten rid of a name for an office doesn’t mean you got rid of the office or change what it does.

“West Chester University in Pennsylvania has changed the title of its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) office, but a university official has admitted that it will keep the same goal of promoting DEI.

“The new Office of Equal Opportunity and Compliance was so named a few days before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, as reported by The Quad, the university’s student paper.

“Dr. Tracey Robinson, Vice President of the school’s Division of Access, Compliance and Engagement, announced the change in a memo, and claimed the new office name was a form of ‘preemptive compliance,’ The Quad wrote.

“‘The goal was to safeguard our work and it was to ensure that there is some opportunity to describe and categorize the work that we do . . .Was it an offensive move? Yes, it was, it was to have some choice before it was no longer a choice,’ she continued.

“She added that the new office will keep providing the same DEI programs and initiatives despite the name change.”

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Motte & Bailey à la Vance

     One of the most common fallacies in modern politics, particularly growing with the Right, is þe olde Motte & Bailey fallacy. Take, for example, the oft quipped “fight like the Left”. The Motte here is that it means standing up to the Left and proactively pushing back. In this form, it just means not being part of a “surrender caucus” that clutches at pearls before giving in to go to some purported “cocktail party”. The Bailey, as has become increasingly obvious, it to adopt the tactics of the Left. But even then that is only a peak into the Bailey as when it comes to socialism, it’s never just the tip. Increasingly we’ve seen endorsements of Communist analysis and even Communist frameworks, such as those from Antonio Gramsci, forming a type of Right-wing critical theory complete with praxis, while concomitantly we’ve seen acceptance of National Socialist thinkers like Carl Schmitt. Thus, we see a warped type of Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with American characteristics.

     Replete with such underpinnings comes a cessation of worrying about an unbridled government and a learning to love Leviathan, complete with corporatism, where the power of the state is used to guide society towards a purported Common Good. And that same Motte & Bailey trick was used to get us here, as, once again, J.D. Vance has demonstrated.  First, the Motte:

     We can see that this is presented as the more innocuous call to use political power rather than let it fall by the wayside after elections. That is what brings people in and allows the Bailey argument to worm its way in sub rosa. And what is that Bailey?

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Smashing the Duo-Normative Diarchy In Canada: Three Men And A Kid

     After vanquishing the “irrational animus” against same-sex marriage and achieving total victory even within the GOP, we now clearly see the next target against the “system of oppression” that dares define marriage as between a man and a woman is now being fought, specifically the duo-normative diarchy!

     We have already see mixed male-female “thruples” of three people, all female “thruples”, and even many all male “thruples”. But it’s not quite “equality” with those duo-normative “oppressors” unless they can all be mommies/daddies… and that’s something Canada is addressing.

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