Robert Reich: Greed is the Real Cause of Inflation

I don't think this is how it works.

The Wokeification of the Military is Undermining Preparedness

link

Faculty are retiring from academia because they are disgusted by the wokeificaiton of universities. I expect the more level-headed kind of person who tends to got into the military has even less tolerance for such blatant bullshit.

Bill Barr: Time to Appoint a Special Council to Investigate Bidengate

link

Don't Say 'Gay': Monkeypox Edition

Politically incorrect facts are hatefacts, bigot.

UNC BoT Passes Huge Resolutions: Adoption of Chicago Statement and Kalvin Report, Student Fees Must Be Viewpoint-Neutral

Any "university" that doesn't / wouldn't accept the Chicago statement and the Kalven report is not actually a university.

From the story:

   One [resolution] states that funds collected from mandatory student fees are to be distributed in a viewpoint-neutral fashion. That is to say, without favoritism for “progressive” organizations or hostility toward conservative and libertarian ones. University administrators have often played favorites and it’s a good thing that school policy now forbids it.

   The second resolution affirms the university’s commitment to the Chicago Principles and UNC’s 1967 Kalven Committee Report. Both uphold academic freedom and the role of the university as a place for debate and scholarship rather than activism.

This is huge. This is a model public universities should all follow to fight the totalitarian left's takeover of  academia. 

Higher Education: "Whorehouses and Mental Wards Would Be Cheaper"

link

Postmodern Biology?

I guess I'm not sure what this article is really supposed to be about, nor why it was in the Guardian. I don't necessarily think there's going to be perfect unity at the end of biological inquiry either...but...I'm not sure that counts as the absence of a so-called "grand metanarrative." Not that I think it's really worth it to think much about postmodernism.

Epigenetics and Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics

I've long guessed that something roughly like this is true.

Total WAG (in my part), for the record.

Tucker: It's Only an Insurrection When the Red Team Does It / The Walls Are Closing In On Biden

Once again let me marvel at the state of a world in which Tucker Carlson has become the voice of reason.

Not to mention: a more reliable source of information than the NYT:

NAS: Against Transgenderism

I couldn't have said it better myself.

"If I Get Cancelled, Let Them Eat Me"

Exactly the wrong attitude.

If you think this will stop the woke Reavers, you must not have been paying attention.

There Is No Climate Emergency

link

1/6 Committee Suppressing Evidence That Undermines Their Anti-Trump Storyline

They're suppressing more than just this stuff. 

Trump crossed the line so far as I'm concerned even just on the basis of what we actually seem to know, and independently of anything that's come to light during the Long TDS Marathon.

That doesn't make the unhinged Dems an option--just to be clear.

The Central Park 5 Were Guilty

Also: murderous thugs.

And Trump's full-page ad in the four NYC papers was perfectly reasonable. The left pretends the ad is somehow evidence that Trump is racist. But, like most of what they say, that's just plain stupid.

Robert Knight: "From Oil To Monkeypox, Truth Is Elusive To Mainstream Media"

It's not eluding them--rather they're not trying to catch it. They only care to capture the truth when it's politically correct. As for politically incorrect truths, the MSM eludes them. Knight argues that the media is harming homosexual men by suppressing the fact that Monkeypox is currently primarily a sexually transmitted disease afflicting gays almost exclusively. The media's aim, of course, is to avoid "stigmatizing" a left-favored demographic group. Neither argument impresses me. The important fact here is that the MSM no longer takes reporting the truth to be an end in itself.

Biden: "Climate Change Is Literally An Existential Threat To Our Nation And To The World;" It's An "Emergency," A "Crisis"

I don't think Biden's exactly lying. He, like most of the extreme left, mostly believes this stuff. So it's mostly ignorance, not mendacity. Now, I don't see how anyone who is even moderately well-informed on this stuff can believe what Biden said without a large measure of intellectual dishonesty. So I doubt it's entirely honest. There's a good chance that he is--whatever else he might be doing--trying to appease the apocalyptic left. As I've noted before, even the alarmist IPCC doesn't think it's an "existential threat" to humanity--much less "the world," as Biden claimed.

Nicholas Wade: Rosalind Franklin and the Myth of the Wronged Heroine

Feminist/leftist philosophy of science is basically nothing but myths.

WSJ: The President Who Stood Still On January 6th

link

Greenwald on Tucker: The Deep State Lied About Afghanistan for Years + Its Open Anti-Trumpism More Dangerous Than Trump

 

Lomborg: How The Climate Elite Spread Misery

Climate hysteria is, in my humble and nonexpert opinion, one of the greatest dangers we face. If the hysteriacs win, it means that we will fail to utilize our best sources of energy while pouring untold $trillions down the drain chasing technologies that simply can't (yet?) do what they'd have to do. And we'll be doing that while China is continuing to use the cheap, energy-rich sources just laying around under the ground. 

   I'm not saying there's no reason for concern. I'm not saying we shouldn't be working on better energy alternatives. I'm certainly not saying we shouldn't step our use of nuclear way, way up. I'm saying that my assessment of the evidence I--remember: an extreme nonexpert--can understand is that it does not provide sufficient support for the climate apocalypse hypothesis.

   In short, I think that people like Lomborg, Curry and Koonin are right.

Brett Stephens: "I Was Wrong About Trump Voters"

I could hardly agree with this more. 

   My only real complaint would be at the end, where I'd add: but what are we to do if a man who tried to break* the republic turns out to be our only option against a powerful, extremist elite that is engaged in a vast, dedicated, and thus-far-disturbingly-successful project that, though not exactly intended to break the republic, has that as its likely outcome? (Well, Trump seems to have also thought he was saving, not breaking, the republic, too. So neither side exactly aims at harm to it. But both are radically confused--among other things.)**

*Stephens's word.

**Incidentally I read this thinking he was going to harsh on Trump and his voters and wanting to see what he had to say.

"If This Isn't A Climate Emergency What Is?"

Mostly weather?

Maybe some climate.

So: mostly it's a weather emergency--or at last that's a plausible answer. 

I'd guess that weather emergencies vastly outnumber climate emergencies...but I'm not sure how to individuate emergencies. And one climate emergency would presumably produce lots of weather emergencies...so that must not be the right way to think about it.

link

Silly title, but probably not the author's fault. 

Lots of people, myself included, spend too much time making fun of dumb titles. 

OTOH: apparently lots of people just read the title and maybe the first paragraph, imagine what the content of the article must be like, assimilate the "information," and move on.

Does AGW Contribute to the European Heat Wave?

Cliff Mass says: probably yes--about 5-10%.

Sounds like a lot to me. 

(Not: I think that's too high--because I have no right to an opinion on it. Rather: Damn, that sounds like a big contribution to me.)

Cold Snap, Heat Wave

Cold snap:

Conservative: Where's yer global warming now?

Liberal/progressive: Weather is not climate!

Heat wave:

Liberal/Progressive: GLOBAL WARMING WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE WHEN WILL YOU NAZIS BELIEVE THE EVIDENCE RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES?!?!?!?!?!?!?!???!

Why the Rush for Toddler Vaccines?

link   Things look different to the casual reader of the news than they do to experts in the thick of things. But from the perspective of the former, the push for kiddie vaxing does seem bizarre. When I think of vaxing little kids, I think of COVID-hysteriac "AWFL"s--the kind who wear a mask in their Twitter pics and "team up" on the basis of which vax they got--"Team Pfizer," "Team Moderna"...  But presumably some little kids have relevant comorbidities, too. Some are diabetic, some have respiratory problems... It's not mentioned in the op-ed, but maybe it's such kids the vax approval is really aimed at? Or is it aimed at all kids generally? Because, again, the latter seems prima facie puzzling. 

How Universities Weaponize Freshman Orientation

Princeton, in particular.

Jim Baker and Jimmy Carter Also Try to Save the World: Reform the Electoral Count Act

Also by saving the nation.

(Actually I don't know much about the ECA nor surrounding issues. I haven't even read the whole thing. So I'm talking out my ass. But, given Trump's post-election lunacy, the riot, etc., everybody seems to acknowledge that something needs doing.)

Joe Manchin Saves The World

Well: the nation, anyway. 

Though: as goes America, so goes the world...

The Wiki-Left Has Lysenko'd Wikipedia's Articles on Human Intelligence...and Thereby Affected the Actual Scholarly Discussion of the Topic

The Lysenkoing of Wikipedia is a microcosm of what's happening all across academia...and the entire nation.

U. of Washington Wants to Fire Stuart Reges Because He Won't Bend the Knee to Compelled "Land Acknowledgement"

Universities give us a glimpse of what the totalitarian pomo-prog left wants for the entire country. 

Uncle Tom

I think this is a great documentary by Larry Elder et al.:

Michael Tomasky: "Democrats Have to Make the 2022 Election About the Republican's War on Freedom"

Uh...

I'm not unconcerned about some Republican views on abortion. But, given the left's complete unhinging and headlong rush into totalitarianism and unreason, there's no way I'm buying the idea that Dems are going to protect our freedom in any more general way. Their position on abortion, unlike the majority of their positions, just happens to be the more libertarian one in this case. Start taking the First and Second Amendments seriously and I'll be more sympathetic.

The Progressive Left in Yet Another Nutshell: The Tekle Sundberg Case

Sundberg tried to kill a woman he did not know, in front of her children. Police killed him during an armed standoff. Lefties protest outside the woman's home, and hassle her for objecting.

Josh Hawley vs. Berkeley Law Prof. Khiara Bridges; or: Men Get Pregnant, Bigot

Ten years ago, if you'd have recounted this event, liberals and Democrats would have laughed you out of the room--justifiably. They'd insist--again, justifiably--that it was a preposterous straw man only Rick Santorum could believe.

   But here we are.

   Bridges does manage to state one true thing...that has never been in question: not all women can get pregnant. So...there's that, I guess... But after that, she slips the surly bounds of reality...to touch the face of...Cthulhu...or something.

   Of course progressive Newspeak is crucial to her sophistry. Specifically the transparently ridiculous term 'transman'/'trans man.' Which of course means: woman who wants to be / thinks she is / represents herself as a man. But they also think that "trans men" are men. Which, of course, they are not. Thus "trans man" functions mainly as a mechanism for equivocation between man and (roughly) woman-pretending-to-be-a-man. Hawley's response was good, but he might also have asked: So, do you mean that men--actual men--adult male humans--can get pregnant? Or do you mean that women representing themselves as men can get pregnant? Because the former is astonishing...but false...and the latter is an irrelevant distraction.

   Lefties across the interwebs are apparently REEEEing gleefully and claiming that Bridges pWoNz0rEd Hawley--which is clearly ridiculous. Some conservatives are saying the reverse, which is certainly truer, but not really right. Hawley asked the right questions, but he was playing by old rules, according to which one could at least hope that one's interlocutor might not be willing to outright assert contradictions...and call you a bigot for refusing to accept them. Bridges proudly, condescendingly asserted the left's tribal falsehoods on this issue. Hawley asked the right questions to prompt her to do so. But if he was hoping for some hint of a sign of cognitive dissonance to attend her insistence that night is day, well, he had to have been disappointed. 

   I'll give Bridges this much: she stated the left's case flawlessly. The form of that case is, roughly: stage contradiction--e.g. night is day--as if it were the most obvious and uncontroversial truth in the world. Do not acknowledge that your faction has simply adopted an idiosyncratic redefinition of a word to mean its opposite. I.e. pretend you aren't engaged in mere semantic fuckwittery. Call your interlocutor a racist* (in this case "transphobe") for refusing to accept your patently absurd, sophomoric, witless neologism-pretending-to-be-a-substantive-claim. The whole case, such as it is, of course, comes down to that last bit there.

   And don't forget: Bridges is faculty at Cal Law.

Norwegian Feminist Faces 3 Years in Jail for Pointing Out That Men Can't Be Mothers (Nor Lesbians)

Truth is politically incorrect, bigot.

Kimball: "Regime Propaganda, Ray Epps, and the New York Times;" or: Fed, Fed, Fed...

Yet another of those stories that, ten years ago, I would have derisively dismissed...

And I'd like to do just that.

But if you've been paying attention, you know that's not rational any longer.

If Epps is not a fed, he's the most fed-like non-fed to ever fed around in...oh, fuck it: fed, fed, fed...*

* That last bit's a joke. The rest is serious. Epps may well not be a fed. But he damn sure plays a pretty convincing one on tv.

Vox and a Dem on "How to Effectively Combat the GOP's Culture Wars" [sic]

link

   They're so immersed in the cult that they think that resistance to the cult is the problem.

I couldn't read more than a few paragraphs in. It does sound as if, to some extent, she may be up against a Q-tard or somesuch. There's no doubt that some on the right are going too far in their opposition. And I'm not a fan of the "groomer" charge...even though it's awfully close to the truth in more than a few cases. I prefer the extremely accurate charges of brainwashing and sexual mutilation... But really. Imagine how delusional you have to be to think that it's conservatives who are prosecuting the culture war... Basically refusing to mouth insane postmodern/critical-theoretic gibberish about men being women...pointing out that all women are female...counts as starting a culture war...

   But I'll give it to the right--the "groomer" charge has been the only such propaganda/rhetoric they've hit on that's been anywhere near as effective as the ubiquitous "racism" accusation from the left--and its cognates. Racism! Misogyny! Homophobia! "Trans"phobia!...and on and one ad nauseam.

   Gosh Vox is stupid.

Trump (Allegedly) Will Run

shit

Leftist Institutions Descend Into Hysteria and Madness: Ruy Teixeira Edition

The left, as we know, tends to take over organizations and institutions. And since the progressive left has been descending into spittle-flecked hysteria, it has tended to wreck the institutions in which it is a significant presence. This story Teixeira tells is exactly like the account we've gotten from the New York Times, The Washington Post, Facebook, Twitter...academia, of course...and innumerable others:

At age 70, he hasn’t changed his views on the importance of economic class. Yet he said CAP is being warped by a junior staff for whom identity politics is everything. “It’s become very hard to have a conversation about race and gender and trans issues, even crime and immigration,” Mr. Teixeira said. “You know, ‘How should the left handle these?’ There’s a default assumption about how you’re supposed to talk about these things, even the language. There’s a real chilling effect on all of these organizations.”
   He’s exhausted by internal staff politicking. “It’s just cloud cuckoo land,” Mr. Teixeira said. “The fact that nobody is willing to call b—, it just freaks me out.” He’s also frustrated by the lack of support he received for a project that aimed to unite the black and white working classes. “Nobody wanted to touch it,” he said. “You could tell. People were leery of talking about the white working class, as if it was de facto racist.”
   Wow, and you thought your office had issues. Last month the Intercept ran a story about similar woke meltdowns inside groups like the Sierra Club and the Guttmacher Institute.
   “A lot of staff that work for me, they expect the organization to be all the things: a movement, OK, get out the vote, OK, healing, OK, take care of you when you’re sick, OK,” complained an anonymous executive director. “Can you get your love and healing at home, please? But I can’t say that, they would crucify me.”
   These are signs of political and cultural sickness. How do lefty outfits expect to achieve anything if they spend their time trying to decolonize their own HR handbooks? Sorry, the Guttmacher Institute isn’t your mommy.

This is Ruy Teixeira we're talking about. Not some fringe dude. Not some despicable centrist [spit]. An icon of the American left--or near to it. Ruy Teixeira is insufficiently woke to work at lefty policy outfits today. He had to go to AEI to do his thing. 

   Of course if this were just one case it could be explained away...

   ...but it's not just one case...

The Curious Case of Ray Epps

Ten years ago I'd have thought this was hilariously paranoid.

It's a very bad thing that, today, it would be irresponsibly stupid to do so:

Obligatory P.S.:

How did Tucker Carlson become a voice of reason?

Bonus P.P.S.:

Imagine what Jon Stewart would have to say about this.

Truly we are in the upside-down...

Will a Thrashing in the Midterms Cause Dems to Revolt Against Their Progressive-Left Overlords?

Things look grimmer than ever, but I hold out hope that Democrats will evolve a spine and revolt against the antiliberal, pomo-prog leftist "elite" vanguard that's now calling the shots for the blue team. A right good thrashing in the midterms might do the trick...or, rather, it might at least slap some sense into them and put the fear of the electorate into them. I doubt a small loss will do much. Both parties kick into excuse mode after ordinary electoral losses. We already know what they'll say: incumbent parties always lose seats in midterms, inflation isn't our fault, "didn't get our message out", etc. (That latter, inevitably employed by both Dems and Pubs, drives me crazy. It's always a "messaging" problem--never a substantive problem with unpopular policies...) A massive, devastating, crushing defeat however...harder to ignore.

   I want whatever will wake the left up from its woke insanity. I thought Clinton was the answer in '16, because I thought she'd stiff-arm the crazies like Bill did--and that Trump would inflame them. And maybe she would have. And maybe he did. But now I doubt the former and somewhat doubt the latter. I thought Pelosi would, too--but she caved. Bernie has caved. The whole damn party has caved. And the crazification of the left was well under way before Trump. I'm not sure he did much to worsen it. 

   Anyway. Here's hoping for a world-historical red-team win in November, and the beginning of a rightward readjustment, ultimately returning control to a sane center.

Ohio Rape/Abortion Case Involving 10-Year-Old Girl

Now it looks like there was such a case (contrary to earlier denials). It was apparently perpetrated by an illegal alien. Some reports say there was no reason for the child to go to Indiana for an abortion, because it would have been permitted by Ohio law. Others say that there's an investigation in Indiana of the doctor there who did it... So it sounds like we won't know what happened for some time.

Are U.S. Public Health Agencies "Following the Science"?

Sounds like no.

Political correctness seems to be infecting everything, including medicine and science. It would be rather surprising--though heartening--if CDC, NIH and FDA were holding out.

Stolen Election Dogma on the Right

Just want to mention that, in some quarters of the right, it's become basically unquestioned that the 2020 election was stolen. It's moved from being a conclusion to being a premise. And some of them freak out if you express skepticism. 

   And remember, I think many of the Dems' actions in 2020 undermined election integrity (blasting out mail-in ballots, drop-boxes, Zuck bucks, courts illicitly rewriting laws, etc.) But--currently and for quite awhile now anyway--I agree with Barr: there's plenty of cause for concern, but there was not widespread fraud. Anyway: I'm not among those who think it was the very best and fairest election in all of human history or whatever the talking-point was. But I'm concerned to see how the stolen election hypothesis has become dogma in some sectors of the right.

Bidens' Chinese "Business Dealings": The Bidens Have Actually Done What The Trumps Were Groundlessly Accused Of

 But the MSM is covering it up:

Fake News Watch: The 10-Year-Old Pregnant Ohio Rape Victim Who Couldn't Get An Abortion

I fell for it.

"Radical Is Now Rational"

This seems to me to be a fair summary of a (non-deductively) valid radical/leftist argument. However, it isn't sound, as its premises are false. If we did have very strong reason to believe, say, that we face a climate apocalypse, then radical action would be warranted. But we don't--not so far as I can tell anyway. And, as many have noted, it's telling that they only radical measures the left is pushing are measures it already wanted for independent reasons. E.g. nuclear power, the best and only real replacement for fossil fuels. The left has always been against nuclear despite the evidence, and they remain against it despite apparently believing that fossil fuels are going to destroy the Earth. No one, anywhere, thinks that the risks of nuclear have any chance of doing that kind of damage. A rational person--even one convinced that nuclear is very bad--would accept it over destruction of the Earth. The author's other examples are even worse. And here's one of the general problems with radicalism--especially of the leftist variety--it' always claims we're immersed in crises that make its radicalism justified. It starts with radical "solutions," and then says--and often brings itself to believe--whatever it takes to make those radical "solutions" seem reasonable. We're not in a climate crisis. We're not in a race crisis. We're not in a police violence crisis. We're not in a campus sexual assault crisis. We are, however, in a "gender"/"transgender" crisis...because the left has manufactured that crisis with its own fantastical, pseudoscientific, anti-realist ideas and its illiberal attachment to propaganda and to brainwashing children. But that real crisis apparently isn't a crisis, you see. In fact, we need more of it!

   This is why I have to force myself to read more stuff on the other side--it just tends to drive me away more strongly. Granted, that's a really crappy essay. But it's damn close to par for the course over there.

Hitler > Trump > DeSantis!!!111

linky

[Where 'x>y' = y is worse than x]

Every Republican candidate is equal to or worse than Hitler, of course. Trump is DEFINITELY worse, you know, what with all the concentration camps and Russian assetery and impeachments and insurrections and whatnot. And now, as DeSantis starts looking like the odds-on '24 candidate, Dems have discovered that he is actually worse than Trump!!!1 So, by transitivity of the is worse than relation...etc. (The drawing of the conclusion is left as an exercise for the REEEEEEer.)

Leor Sapir: "The Assault on Children's Psyches"

link

The left has adopted a cluster of patently false--in fact, insane--political/philosophical/cultural ideas that derive from e.g. Marxism (including critical theory), postmodernism, and other recent Continental literary/philosophical views. 

   These views have taken over the less-rigorous areas of the humanities and social sciences--disciplines and areas that dabble in philosophy, but which do not teach the history nor analytic skills required to do philosophy competently. Insane views have proliferated in these disciplines and areas. 

   Now, there's nothing wrong with thinking about and discussing insane ideas--in philosophy classrooms where such discussion is routine, (almost) everyone knows how to address and evaluate/criticize such views...and knows better than to try to remake society on the basis of them. 

   However, the philosophical dabblers don't know those things. And the disciplines in question are typically the ones in which natural analytical ability is least-common.

   Furthermore, they tend to be disciplines afflicted by politicization and a commitment to activism. Afflicted, that is, but an uncritical acceptance of Marx's dictum that the point of philosophy is to change the world, not understand it.

   And now these views have spread from academia to all our other institutions--as rational observers feared they might.

   This means that the nation is now afflicted by these ideas in practical ways. And that includes the psychological--and often physical--destruction of children.

   One tenet of the New Progressive Madness is that truth doesn't matter--or, at least, it doesn't matter as much as political results. So it should be subordinated thereto.

   One would think, however, that destroying the minds (and bodies) of children would count as a bad consequence. But here's a newish thing we have discovered about the New Progressive Madness: it does not, in fact, recognize those consequences as bad. In fact, it considers them good.

   This should be enough to convince every remaining sane American that the NPM is an abomination that must be rejected in the strongest possible terms. 

   Finally, though any of the above should be enough: it's also illuminating to understand that the destruction of the nation is a goal of the views from which NPM springs. That shouldn't matter. The incoherence of the ideas should be enough. Their rejection of truth should be enough. The horrific practical consequences should be enough... But it's also relevant to realize that the destruction of the West--and the USA in particular--is a feature, not a bug.

Did TX K-12 Working Group Advocate Describing Slavery as "Involuntary Relocation"?

Sounds like a rare case of conservative political correctness...which is what I initially thought it was.

   A little thought casts doubt on this account, though, and, indeed, that doesn't seem to be what happened.

   Of course if it were true, it would be grotesquely absurd and inaccurate--the kind of linguistic absurdity we are deluged with from the left.

   My guess was--and this seems right--that 'involuntary relocation' was supposed to be a description of one aspect of slavery: among other abominations, enslaved people from Africa were involuntarily relocated to the Americas. They were kidnapped, imprisoned, sold, taken ("relocated") to the Americas, and forced into a life of bondage in which they were denied the most basic rights and forced to work for the benefit of their "masters" All of this was completely involuntary, of course--including the relocation. 

   It would be mad to describe all this as mere "involuntary relocation"--but it's accurate to describe the relevant part of it that way. So far as I can see, anyway. 

  We might still object that 'involuntary relocation' isn't quite powerful enough to describe this particular kind of involuntary relocation. Being told to step back from a police line could also be called involuntary relocation. Being hauled in chains through the Middle Passage is quite different, obviously. But that seems to be a matter of tone and emphasis. Or something. At least the use of the term isn't obviously crazy when properly understood. 

   Of course I could be wrong about the intended use of the term.

"Scientists Studying Temperature at Which Humans Spontaneously Die With Increasing Urgency"

First, of course, there is the humorously ambiguous title...

Second, this is the kind of thing that drives people like me to take climate change less seriously. I reckon there's a grain of truth at the bottom of this. That is, there's obviously some point at which the heat and humidity kill you. But it's pretty obviously being spun up into yet another bit of climate hysteria. One or two such cases are to be expected. But this nonsense has become, as our friends on the left might say, "systemic." It's now SOP. And this article is particularly hilarious. It seems like a parody. Tales about the destruction of Earth in 30 12 8 years are no longer good enough. Here's a different angle: people will start dropping dead regardless of how healthy they are or anything they do!!!111 Which, of course, means: you may drop dead etc.!!!111 I'm kinda surprised there wasn't some additional bullshit like even if you are in air conditionig set at 60 degrees....THERE IS NO ESCAPING WET-BULB DOOOOOM!!!!  

   Next up: SPONTANEOUS HUMAN CLIMATE-RELATED COMBUSTION!!!

Dangers of Homeschooling

 link

"When a Quarter of the Class Identifies as 'Trans' "

Madness.

Cipollone to Testify Before Capitol Riot (1/6) Commission

Good. 

I guess.

I mean...I want to know the truth, and testimony by Cipollone would help get that. But this commission has already lied and distorted evidence. Ideally, we'd scrap the whole thing and start over with people who are objective. But neither the Dems nor the Pubs really want that. The purpose of this is to get Trump, not find the truth. Maybe Trump needs to get got--but we can't know that without an objective investigation. Or, I suppose, an objective sifting through of what this commission uncovers. Hutchinson's testimony was a dud represented as some kind of decisive revelation. Presumably Cipollone's testimony won't be a litany of hearsay evidence.

Youngkin Appoints Wokeness Critic to UVA BoV

link

Terms just ended for many members of BoVs and, even more importantly, SCHEV. I don't know anything about any of Youngkind's appointees other than Ellis, about whom I know only little.

   I'm sure I don't see eye-to-eye with all of them on everything...but it doesn't matter. All that matters right now is saving universities from the woketarian cult.

Boris

I don't pay enough attention to UK politics, but Boris--and Brexit--were hard to miss. I like Boris. And Brexit was a rare win for anti-globalism. But--and this observation isn't unique to me--after that he went all green, pushing climate apocalypticism and Net Zero madness. Not that I don't think some long-term version of "net zero" wouldn't be fine or even good. Anyway. Many are noting that he was elected as a conservative then governed like a lefy. A familiar arc, unfortunately. But at least he got in one really good populist punch before, almost inevitably, going over to the dark green side. 

But the point of this really was just supposed to be that I like Boris.

Shinzo Abe Assassinated

Everything seems crazy to me.

NYT Disinformation re: the Ministry of Disinformation

Progressivism has become impossible to parody.

Steve Sailer: "Surviving the Happiness Explosion"

Heads up: you could be fired for even knowing that Steve Sailer exists. 

He is a very, very naughty wrongthinker of the very most wrongthinkiest kind.

Specifically, he cares about the truth regardless of its political associations and consequences.

He's a baaad man.

Hutchinson 1/6 Commission Testimony: About That "Armed And Dangerous" Crowd...

See, I thought they actually had information backing up Hutchinson's claims--e.g. about riflemen in trees...

But if they do, it hasn't been produced.

Starting to sound like yet another aspect of her testimony was bullshit...

Julie Kelly, as you probably know, has been all over this stuff.

You're Blue Future: War Zone: Minneapolis

Just a little taste of the Democrats' America.

(Sort-Of) High-Level Biden Staffer Defended Underage Gay Prostitution Site

Freak.

via Instapundit.

Pima Co., AZ Democratic Party: "Fuck the Fourth"

link

Many Democrats do not hate the USA. Many are patriotic. Many have given life and limb for the nation. I've never thought that Republicans cornered the market on patriotism.

And yet...there's clearly a large faction on the radical left that hates the country. There is absolutely no doubt about that. IMO the Dems used to keep such loons at a distance. But since the cult of Woketarianism took them over...well...it's not so easy to defend the Dems on that--or any other--score anymore. 

OTOH: meh. One county organization. You get that shit for free, according to me. Lemme know if the number doubles.

OTOOH: f*cking jackass progtard shitheads. I mean seriously. Asshats.

OTOOOH: It's a free country.

OTOOOOH: It is unless/until you f*cktard asshats take control of it.

Civilization Is Bad For Earth: Episode the Zillionth: Rocket Launches Oppress The Ozone Layer

Musk should partner with Black Lives Matter. Write "B-L-M" in huge letters down the side of every rocket. See how fast it takes for the ULC crew to decree that racism is a bigger threat to the ozone layer than rockets, ergo launches are AOK. Also: "black soot?" Really, science? Your racism is showing...

Long TDS Watch: THE SUPREME COURT IS IN LEAGUE WITH TRUMP TO STEAL THE 2024 ELECTION Z0MG!!!!!!1111

Jesus Christ these people.

"Urgency" is "White Supremacy"

Insanity.

VDH: "Who Are The Real Insurrectionists?"

I'm very sympathetic to this--though not to excuse the Capitol rioters.

Highland Park Shooting / Mass Murder

Abject insanity.

   I can't wrap my head around such things.

   He seems to have purchased the gun legally.

   Some progressives are already arguing that he's a wingnut/Trumpista. Seems odd for such a person to attack a 4th of July parade...though the very far right hates the USA about as much as the left does. Apparently the town has a large Jewish population. That could be relevant.

   Not to compare tragedies, nor to politicize it, but: this seems awfully comparable to the Waukesha Christmas parade mass murder. Six people killed in each--though more than twice as many injuries in the Waukesha case. I doubt this one will be quietly stuffed down the memory hole, however, as Waukesha was.

   Almost a sidebar: there's suddenly some chatter about a possible link between murder and antidepressants. I don't know anything about that.

Quassim Cassam: "Why Is It So Difficult To Face Grim Realities?"

I could hardly disagree with this more.

   Skepticism about climate apocalypticism is in no way analogous to (Cassam's example) Jews who were taken to Auschwitz and saw trucksfull of dead bodies but refused to believe the truth. And the Allies refusing to bomb the camps and railroads leading there is a different case entirely--they had grounds for suspicion, but--understandably--doubted the incredible, implausible stories...that turned out to be true. And of course they hesitated to bomb concentration camps full of innocents. And bombing railroad tracks is notoriously ineffective--they are too easily repaired. 

   But more to the point: so far as I can tell, the evidence simply doesn't support climate apocalypticism. Skepticism about extinction-level climate change is the rational position--at least for a layperson, given the evidence available to us. It's certainly not something we see with our own eyes and can dismiss only because the obvious truth is too painful to accept.

Must Read!: Jacob Howland: "Ideology Has Poisoned the West"

I say this is excellent--though there's nothing really new in it. It's mainly familiar points (familiar to obsessives like me, anyway) explicated well and fit together into an excellent, tight overview. So says me, anyway.

5ex Eagle: Best 4th-Gen Fighter on the Planet?

Already was.

I wonder whether the upgrades will make it de facto 4.5 gen?

Independence Day!

I usually allow myself to indulge in more expansive and less-critical feelings of patriotism on the 4th, e.g. when listening to the annual reading of the Declaration on Court Square...

Miriam Cates MP on "RSE" ("Relationships and Sex Education")--i.e. ("Trans")"Gender" Indoctrination--in British Schools

Absolutely devastating.

Is there any way this could have been better?

If so, I can't find it.

Alex Berenson: On COVID, Schools, and the Death of the Expert Class

link

Noonan: "The Courage Of January 6th Witness Cassidy Hutchinson"

Meh.

   I'll be right up front: I doubt Hutchinson's tales. But, then, I don't want them to be true. Because if they're true, then I'm an idiot. Oh and: the country is even more screwed than we thought we were. So there's that too.

   Also, her story certainly seems like the latest in the long list of breathless, implausible lies that have periodically been pushed into the news by the rabid resisterators.

   Don't get me wrong: she's no Christine Blasey Ford--she's not obviously and overtly nuts. My guess is that her stories have some grounding in truth, but not a lot. Or not enough, anyway. Some of what she said is consistent with things we already know. Some have already been refuted. More refutations are allegedly on the way. It was mostly hearsay. And some of the most important bits were hearsay about interpretations and representations of Trump's words and actions--e.g. the tale of the metal-detectors. The gut-wrenching awfulness of that story depends largely on second-hand reconstructions of Trump's exact words, tone, demeanor, etc. What he said may have been terrible--or may have been, y'know, ordinarily trumpian bad/stupid. 

   And, admittedly, I'm sick of the credulous anti-Trumpers who believe every stupid-ass story about Trump's depravity that comes down the pike. They collect them like prizes. Even the refuted ones never go away. Even Russiagate survives in their minds. They lovingly build shrines to their own delusional hatred of the guy. They've been wrong, wrong, a thousand times wrong...and still they never learn--or refuse to. 

   But then, suddenly, they were right.

   And that burns me up.

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UT-Austin Administrators Subvert an Intellectual "Diversity" Initiative

This is so outrageous it surprised even me.

Transformer Barbie

facepalm

I don't remember even the most hysterical members of the religious right in the '80s predicting anything like this.