In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.
With the half-baked attempt to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as the 28th Amendment, let us look back half-a-century when the ERA was the centerpiece of Feminist political activism as William F. Buckley, Jr. debated Clare Boothe Luce.
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: Inorganic Lives Matter!
First, a little mood music:
Carrying on…
A mountain in New Zealand has been declared a person complete with legal rights.
“A mountain in New Zealand considered an ancestor by Indigenous people was recognized as a legal person on Thursday after a new law granted it all the rights and responsibilities of a human being.
“Mount Taranaki — now known as Taranaki Maunga, its Māori name — is the latest natural feature to be granted personhood in New Zealand, which has ruled that a river and a stretch of sacred land are people before. The pristine, snow-capped dormant volcano is the second highest on New Zealand’s North Island at 2,518 meters (8,261 feet) and a popular spot for tourism, hiking and snow sports.
“…
“The law passed Thursday gives Taranaki Maunga all the rights, powers, duties, responsibilities and liabilities of a person. Its legal personality has a name: Te Kāhui Tupua, which the law views as ‘a living and indivisible whole.’ It includes Taranaki and its surrounding peaks and land, ‘incorporating all their physical and metaphysical elements.’
“A newly created entity will be ‘the face and voice’ of the mountain, the law says, with four members from local Māori iwi, or tribes, and four members appointed by the country’s Conservation Minister.”
Chief Justice John Roberts said that the way to stop discriminating is to… stop discriminating. Sadly, the existential need by some to adopt the same racial framework abet with oppressor/oppressed reversed is just the reverse to the Woke Left’s racial obverse.
Critical Race Theory has many central arguments. People have forgotten them, but they would be wise to refresh because 1.) CRT is still everywhere, especially education 2.) The framework is being adopted by fringe elements on the Right that will subvert MAGA.
A 🧵
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) January 16, 2025
It has become de rigueur on the Right to openly despise any notion of the Rule of Law as anything other than dead and something to be mocked or mock other over. Indeed, the point is to cause pain “forever”. It’s no surprise, then, that in all irony, those who speak in martial terms of “fighting” now seek to punish their political enemies for “fighting” political rhetoric by launching an investigation the utterance “You have unleashed a whirlwind, and you will pay the price”.
Did Senate Democrat leader Schumer just threaten two conservative justices? Where is the media?
“I want to tell you Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Gorsuch: You have unleashed a whirlwind, and you will pay the price”pic.twitter.com/MellytNNp5
— Mark Meadows (@MarkMeadows) March 4, 2020
Schumer should not be investigated for making a true threat or creating a þe olde “clear and present danger” anymore than any of Trump’s, or anyone else on the Right, heated rhetoric should lead to a similar investigation. But then, as we are told often enough, “there are not rules” but rather we live in a world with an oppressor/oppressed dynamic.
News of the Week for February 26nd, 2025
In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.
In this day and age, it feels as if journalists on both sides of the political divide not only filter the truth through their ideological lens, but expect said lens to form the truth itself as if in conformance to some inviolable narrative. Half-a-century ago, William F. Buckley, Jr. debated the very question of words redefining reality and how it impacts the intertwining of integrity and journalism with Iris Temple, Blanche Cook, Paul Cohen, William Safire, and Tom Wicker.
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: Just as coincidence of policy does not establish consanguinity of doctrine, non-sanguinity of doctrine does not preclude a coincidence of policy.
First, a little mood music:
Carrying on…
Let it not be said that your humble author won’t give credit for doing the right thing where credit is due. The original LBJ-era “Affirmative Action” executive order has been rescinded.
“It is being reported that President Trump has rescinded Executive Order 11,246, which has long required ‘affirmative action’ programs for companies doing contract work with the federal government. You can skip the first paragraph of this old NRO post and then read why this EO’s notorious implementing regulations — which, one presumes and hopes, will vanish with the EO itself — are riddled with bad law and bad policy.”
Wokeness isn’t just some social affectation of evil or even just something unnatural or objectionable. Beyond the superficial level that most people recognize is the underlying falsity of foundation that underlies how it works, and how it end up manifesting regardless of the particulars of the manifestation.
How Woke works in plain language.
1. Awaken to "the truth"
2. Claim Victimhood Status
3. Argue your insight is infallible because of your "positionality" within the power hierarchy
4. Demand/coerce your way to illegitimate power
5. Destroy anyone in your way
6. Utopia🧵
— Logan Lancing (@LoganLancing) December 6, 2024
News of the Week for January 26th, 2025
In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.
With President Trump declassifying the files on the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy (or so the Stonecutters would have us believe), let us look back half-a-century ago when William F. Buckley, Jr. and Allard K. Lowenstein discusses the question of who killed Bobby Kennedy?
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