In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.
With so many people saying that we are living in “crazy times”. Thirty-nine years ago, Dr. Thomas S. Szasz argued that there are no mental illnesses, just bad behavior. Is society crazy, or just bad? Or perhaps modern psychiatry is just nuts.
The November 5th elections signal a complete cycle (save for the Gubernatorial run-off in Louisiana) of off-Presidential year elections in the United States. If we can learn anything from this odd-year election it is that all the trends in elections since the 2016 Presidential election are unabated: The suburbs, especially amongst college-educated White women, have turned away from the Republican Party under Donald Trump, and may very well be calcifying.
Oh, there were victories for Republicans, such as winning the Mississippi governorship, picking up seats in the New Jersey Legislature, and Washington state’s Referendum 88 being behind by a few percentage points (mail-in ballots are still being counted—or “discovered”). However there were even worse losses.
In Kentucky, the Republicans won all but one state-wide race by large margins. However, the one they did lose is the governorship. In this case the lose was due primarily to the unpopular incumbent, Matt Bevin. But even then, a Left-ward shift could be seen.
Too close to call KY gov election data dive
➡️ Beshear won 21 counties that voted for Trump
➡️ Beshear won 23 counties—most by a D candidate since his father's 2011 win
➡️ 13 counties flipped from Bevin to Beshear
➡️ 4 counties flipped from Conway to Bevinhttps://t.co/XvqWWVIL43 pic.twitter.com/0i4fWXrTbA— Ballotpedia (@ballotpedia) November 6, 2019
Some may hope that this is just due to “Trump Voters” who sat home and will only come out for Donald Trump. However…
High turnout can be a double-edged sword. https://t.co/spdPli1jKz
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) November 6, 2019
Even in Mississippi, where the Lt. Gov. defeated the still relatively popular Atty. Gen., there were noticeable shifts Left-ward.
Lots of talk about Kentucky, but some big shifts blue-ward in #Mississippi last night.
(Plots only include counties w/ 100% precincts in) pic.twitter.com/fzdlZGwfFu
— Alexander Podkul (@apodkul) November 6, 2019
Mississippi also echoes a national trend seen in this election, and elections in 2018 and 2017: The suburbs are becoming more Democratic voting while Republicans are doing better in rural areas.
In #MSGov, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves (R) looks to be in pretty decent shape, leading 53%-46% over Attorney Gen. Jim Hood (D). Hood is running ahead of his 2015 AG numbers in urban/suburban areas, but is WAY behind them in more rural areas. Sound familiar in this day and age?
— Geoffrey Skelley (@geoffreyvs) November 6, 2019
While this is a beneficial trade-off in states like Mississippi, which was already highly Republican and more rural than many other states, it bodes ill for those states whose rural populations are much small compared to the growing suburban and exurban communities which are embracing the Democrats/Anti-Trump party. Far too many swing states don’t have enough rural votes to counter the massive shift in the suburbs/exurbs.
Scientists have grown tissue that in the lab that is spontaneously generating human brain waves.
“Neuroscientists may have crossed an ‘ethical rubicon’ by growing lumps of human brain in the lab, and in some cases transplanting the tissue into animals, researchers warn.
“The creation of mini-brains or brain ‘organoids’ has become one of the hottest fields in modern neuroscience. The blobs of tissue are made from stem cells and, while they are only the size of a pea, some have developed spontaneous brain waves, similar to those seen in premature babies.”
Aside from the fact that such moral questions seem not to apply full human beings in utero, this raises the possibility of growing non-human brain tissue, or of adding these “organoids” to animals to achieve sentience!
“[Elan] Ohayon [the director of the Green Neuroscience Laboratory in San Diego, California] wants funding agencies to freeze all research that aims to put human brain organoids into animals, along with other work where there is an (sic) reasonable chance of organoids becoming sentient. Ohayon has developed computer models that he believes help identify when sentience is likely to arise, but adds there is an ‘urgent need’ for more work in the area.”
This cold mean only one things: Creating in the lab the brains of synthetic cyborg catgirls!
Science already has developmental research including synthetic muscle, synthetic skin, and integrating neurons with electronic circuits, let alone creating biologically based cyborg parts!
For the better part of a decade a shirt maker who wouldn’t make a shirt that expressed a belief he didn’t feel was appropriate. The Kentucky Human Rights Commission, a non-elected bureaucracy, ruled that he was compelled to express speech he didn’t want to because not doing so was doubleplusungood. Since then, the shirt maker has had to go through court after court after court.
Now, the Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that NO, the shirt maker can not be compelled to speech.
“The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that a printer cannot be forced to print T-shirts that violate his faith.
“In a case that dragged on for seven years, Blaine Adamson, owner of Hands On Originals, a promotional printer in Lexington, declined to print T-shirts for the Lexington Pride Festival, hosted by the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization.
“…
“The state’s high court wrote in its opinion, ‘this matter must be dismissed because the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization, the original party to bring this action before the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission, lacked statutory standing to assert a claim against Hands On Originals under the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government ordinance.;
“A concurring opinion from Justice David Buckingham cited recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent prohibiting compelled speech, writing, ‘Hands On was in good faith objecting to the message it was being asked to disseminate. … Forcing free and independent individuals to endorse ideas they find objectionable is always demeaning.’”
News of the Week for Nov. 3rd, 2019
In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.
Win or lose in 2020, the question asked thirty-five years ago appears to be evergreen: Is there a liberal crack-up? This episodes features discussion with R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and Christopher Hitchens.
Here is the silent classic, “Häxan: Witchcraft through the Ages”
This guest post was delivered by a real estate agent screaming about rats, rats, rats, thousands—millions of them… all red blood.
I bid you… welcome.
An increasing number of mortals have been asserting that their culture is not someone else’s costume. Mere human mortals are almost always pathetic little creatures, and though they will too bow down and serve us as Mr. Renfield does, in this case they are indeed correct.
We monsters insist that people stop dressing up as us. No more vampires, witches, mummies, &c. This is our culture; not your costume.
And yes, we have embraced the work “monster” much as your human Blacks and LGBTQ have embraced the “N-word” and “Queer”, respectively.
While we are on the subject, you human mortals need to check your privileges!
They are not “zombies” or the “undead” but simply identify as living, and thus or trans-living… and trans-living are living.
Frankenstein’s monster, who you human mortal oppressors won’t even call by xyr’s real name, Abby, has had monster-affirming surgery and should not be mocked for having surgery to change parts to be true to who xyr is.
Further, we call on all the so-called “monster movies” to be banned as HATE SPEECH; Also for all “assault stakes” made from white oak and white ash, all silver, and pitchforks to be made illegal.
We await your apology.
The impetus of some to grant legal rights to “nature” and even to specific non-human species, while clearly insane, it to actually use these “rights” to achieve dominion over others by suing on behalf of some critter.
The thing is, while animal welfare laws could apply, the people pushing this still insist on (pseudo-)human rights for non-humans, even though such critters have no duties or obligations that the rest of us have.
“Lawyers representing an elephant have argued in a New York City court that their trunked client be considered a person, in a fresh attempt to upend human dominance over this designation.
“Happy the elephant is, contrary to her sunny name, being detained by the Bronx Zoo ‘illegally’, due to her personhood, and must be released, according to the pachyderm’s self-appointed legal team.
“The case’s instigator, an animal rights group, hopes it will cause a legal breakthrough that will elevate the status of elephants, which the group calls ‘extraordinarily complex creatures’ similar to humans that should have the fundamental right to liberty.”
This does not elevate animals, but diminishes human beings.
“The distinction between animal rights and animal welfare is crucial. Animal rights is an ideology that humans and animals are equal. Thus PETA once argued that owning a leather couch is the moral equivalent of purchasing a lamp made from human skin from Auschwitz. Animal-rights believers believe that there should be no human ownership of animals for any reason.
“In contrast, animal welfare sees the proper care of animals as a human duty in keeping with our exceptionalism. This approach accepts the propriety of making instrumental use of animals, but requires us to do so for proper reasons and in a humane manner, based on the particular characteristics of the animals in question.”
Your humble author, nonetheless, will extend human rights to elephants when they can demonstrate that they are capable of the same level of civilization that many humans have achieved.
Transgenderism, which posits concomitantly that gender is separate and distinct from biological sex while also claiming that taking on not just the appellation and manner of the opposite sex but also the superficial physical apparent of said opposite sex is necessary to “transitioning” genders.
Though cloaked in academic robes and incomprehensible jargon, the view of transgenderism is fundamentally unscientific, ignoring basic biology and promoting the lie that one can literally become the opposite sex, via a form of sympathetic magic whereby taking on the appearance and appellation of the opposite sex, one becomes the opposite sex, lest someone use the “wrong” pronouns and thus break the ritual chant.
The reality is that such “gender affirming surgeries” no not and can not change one’s sex, but result in a Frankenstein’s monster of a body. This is an unpleasant truth, and the evidence for that truth is horrid, but some truths are so important to be known that we ought to all know just how terrifyingly monstrous “transgender surgery” is.
Fair warning: The following is NSFW.
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