Displaying posts published in

May 2021

EDUCATION Comments turned off

An Open Letter to Swarthmore President Valerie Smith . By Peter Berkowitz

By on May 2nd, 2021

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/05/02/an_open_letter_to_swarthmore_president_valerie_smith_145684.html

Dear President Smith,

Thank you for your “Reflections on Yesterday’s Verdict,” which you sent to Swarthmore students, alumni, faculty, and staff on April 21 and posted on the college’s website. Prompted by the announcement that Derek Chauvin had been found guilty of murdering George Floyd, you offered brief thoughts on the connection between liberal education and racial justice, social movements, and political change. As a Swarthmore graduate grateful for the long-ago introduction that the college provided me to liberal education, and as an observer of American politics troubled by the nation’s widening schisms, I read your message with great interest.

In the spirit of my Swarthmore studies, your reflections have left me with a number of questions. They revolve around the relation between politics and liberal education.

Your message asserts that “[a]lthough the verdict can never truly bring justice for Mr. Floyd and his family, it signals the impact of a powerful social movement.” You summon us to join in that social movement, stating, “We must dedicate ourselves anew to the struggle for lasting, meaningful change” in America to bring about “a more just, equitable, and safe society.”

You envisage a distinctive role for colleges and universities. “As an institution of higher learning, Swarthmore College is committed to contributing to that change — by continuing to foster an environment in which students can engage in deep, thoughtful, and frank conversations about the challenges facing our society,” you write. “This shared and vital work can and will continue to ensure we provide a transformative liberal arts education grounded in fearless intellectual inquiry.”

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Science, Politics, and COVID: Will Truth Prevail? Dr. Scott Atlas

By on May 2nd, 2021

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/science-politics-covid-will-truth-prevail/

The following is adapted from a speech delivered on February 18, 2021, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Phoenix, Arizona.

Scott W. Atlas is the Robert Wesson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He previously served for 14 years as professor and chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center. From July to December 2020, he served as Special Advisor to President Trump  as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. 

The COVID pandemic has been a tragedy, no doubt. But it has exposed profound issues in America that threaten the principles of freedom and order that we Americans often take for granted. 

First, I have been shocked at the unprecedented exertion of power by the government since last March—issuing unilateral decrees, ordering the closure of businesses, churches, and schools, restricting personal movement, mandating behavior, and suspending indefinitely basic freedoms. Second, I was and remain stunned—almost frightened—at the acquiescence of the American people to such destructive, arbitrary, and wholly unscientific rules, restrictions, and mandates.

The pandemic also brought to the forefront things we have known existed and have tolerated for years: media bias, the decline of academic freedom on campuses, the heavy hand of Big Tech, and—now more obviously than ever—the politicization of science. Ultimately, the freedom of Americans to seek and state what they believe to be the truth is at risk.

Let me say at the outset that I, like all of us, acknowledge that the consequences of the COVID pandemic and its management have been enormous. Over 500,000 American deaths have been attributed to the virus; more will follow. Even after almost a year, the pandemic still paralyzes our country. And despite all efforts, there has been an undeniable failure to stop cases from escalating and to prevent hospitalizations and deaths. 

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on May 2nd, 2021

This week, a deadly crush at a religious festival, still under investigation, brought shock and gloom to Israel’s citizens and the nation’s protagonists. The resilient nation responded swiftly with succor to survivors. America’s strong commitment to Israel suffered a setback with the Biden administration’s reversion to past discarded policies. Behind the headlines Israel’s contributions to science, health, agricultural innovation, water resource technology and quantum computing continued apace. Here is another dazzling list brought to us by Michael Ordman. rsk

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Panic over. Israel is recording less than 100 new Covid-19 cases a day, with under 1,600 total infections. Swimming pools, gyms and dining at restaurants are to be opened even to the unvaccinated. And a new Israeli report shows that any country can control Covid-19 if more than 50% of the over-60s are vaccinated.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/scientists-israel-proves-every-developed-country-can-subdue-covid-with-vaccines/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-sees-just-38-new-covid-cases-the-lowest-daily-tally-in-a-year/
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/coronavirus/1619419343-israel-sees-just-36-new-covid-cases-in-24-hours-less-than-2-000-active-patients-in-total

Masks cut asthma and allergies. A study by Israel’s Sheba Medical Center has concluded that the wearing of facemasks protected many citizens not only from Covid-19 but also from asthma and allergies. Urgent visits to Sheba’s emergency unit during the pandemic by asthma patients dropped by 49% and hospitalizations by 65%.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israel-sees-dramatic-drop-in-severe-asthma-due-to-face-masks/
https://www.israel21c.org/wearing-masks-for-covid-saved-us-from-asthma-and-allergies/

Nose spray blocks Covid variants. In recent trials at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center, the Taffix nose spray from Israel’s Nasus (see here previously) blocked 100 percent” of the British and South African variants of SARS-CoV-2 virus.  https://nocamels.com/2021/04/israeli-nasus-nasal-spray-taffix-covid-variants/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqdurzubL18

Poised to transform brain surgery. Israel’s Tamar Robotics (see here previously) is developing a surgical robot to revolutionize brain surgery. It will give doctors a minimally invasive tool to remove tumors and blood clots and treat other brain conditions that now require major surgery. See video of founder Professor Shohan.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/spotlight/israeli-startups-precision-robots-poised-to-transform-brain-surgery/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbPYQOycveU

Proteins that cause intestinal disease. Researchers from Tel Aviv University have developed an Artificial Intelligence platform that can identify the specific proteins that allow bacteria to infect the intestines. It should lead to new therapeutics that can neutralize the proteins and prevent disease, eliminating the use of antibiotics.
https://www.aftau.org/news_item/tau-researchers-identify-proteins-that-cause-intestinal-disease/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33707240/

Opening the arteries. MultiGeneAngio from Israel’s VESSL Therapeutics is in human trials for treating peripheral and coronary artery disease. The patient’s cells are extracted, enhanced with genes and re-implanted, to increase blood flow to oxygen-starved muscles. And VESSL’s MultiGeneGraft treats end-stage renal disease.
https://jewishbusinessnews.com/2021/04/25/vessl-therapeutics-is-a-medtech-startup-offering-new-cardiovascular-treatments/  http://vessltherapy.com/

Repairing bones. Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute have new technology for bone and soft tissue repair. Instead of grafting bone from elsewhere in the body, they used stem cells from the soft tissue inside discarded teeth. They then combined this with other cells to repair spinal cord in laboratory tests.
https://jewishbusinessnews.com/2021/04/27/technion-scientists-develop-new-technology-for-bone-and-soft-tissue-repair/   https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adfm.202008687

European approval for smart IVF treatment. Israel’s AIVF (see here previously) has received the CE Mark for its unique AI IVF analysis platform that avoids risky biopsies. AIVF’s system improves the success of IVF treatment – a costly and invasive process. US approval is now also being sought.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3906485,00.html

ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL

Arab woman is Vice President of Hebrew U. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has elected Professor Mona Khoury-Kassbari Vice President of Strategy and Diversity.  She will be responsible for broadening the mix of faculty members and students from Orthodox Jews, Arabs, Ethiopians and those with disabilities.
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/israeli-arabs/hebrew-u-appoints-arab-woman-as-vice-president/2021/04/28/

Saving life in Jerusalem. Khaled is one of nearly 700 Muslim paramedics in United Hatzalah – Israel’s emergency medical organization. During Ramadan, Khaled fasts during the day but still responds to all calls and treats patients of all religions equally.
https://www.jns.org/view-from-the-other-side-of-violence-saving-lives-in-eastern-jerusalem/

Making every drop of water count. (TY UWI) Great video of Israel’s globally enhancing water technologies. A single drop of saltwater taken from the Mediterranean, travels from an Israeli desalination plant to a domestic tap, is drunk, re-cycled, and piped across Israel to water crops via Israeli drip irrigation. Hardly a drop is lost.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YscEfqIllt4

La Parisien promotes post-Covid Israel. (TY JNS) Israel’s success in beating coronavirus attracts much attention in the international media. French magazine Le Parisien devoted a cover story to Israel as an example of “life after Covid”. It describes a busy Tel Aviv and Israel’s unprecedented national vaccination operation.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/04/25/french-magazine-devotes-cover-story-to-post-covid-israel/

Israeli and UAE jets in exercise together. Israeli Air Force planes flew alongside Emirati aircraft week as part of the Iniohos international aerial exercise hosted by Greece. The other countries involved were Cyprus, France, the US, Spain and Canada. The UAE and Israel flew together also in 2017 and 2019 (see here previously).
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-uae-fighter-jets-fly-together-in-large-international-exercise-in-greece/
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-idf-fighter-pilots-join-uae-troops-for-aerial-drill/

Another agreement signed with UAE. (TY JNS) Israel and the UAE signed a bilateral accord to tackle pandemics, cybersecurity and data protection. The agreement will also see the enactment of large-scale joint economic and health-related projects. Minister Yuli Edelstein said it would “bolster Israel’s healthcare system”.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/04/22/israel-uae-sign-healthcare-agreement/

AI for social good. (TY JNS) Google has partnered Tel Aviv University to launch a new program to promote AI-related multidisciplinary research for the benefit of society. AI for Social Good selected 10 researchers who are using Artificial Intelligence to advance humanity by addressing major global social issues.
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/on-campus/google-tau-launch-new-program-ai-for-social-good/2021/04/27/

Aid to Uruguay, Ethiopia, India & Caribbean. Doctors from Israel’s Sheba Medical Center are heading to Uruguay to help it tackle coronavirus. Also, from Assuta Ashdod Hospital to Ethiopia and equipment from Israel’s SmartAID to India. And IsraAID responders go to the Caribbean following a major volcanic eruption.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/israel-to-send-covid-aid-to-uruguay-665521
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israel-dispatching-team-to-ethiopia-to-help-fight-covid-19/
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/305115
https://www.jns.org/israaid-sending-team-of-responders-to-caribbean-in-wake-of-volcano-eruption/

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Media hysteria means Arizona election audit may be on to something By John D. O’Connor

By on May 2nd, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/05/media_hysteria_means_arizona_election_audit_may_be_on_to_something.html

While an uncertain public awaits  results from the Arizona election audit, the immediate major media outcry, prematurely denouncing it, should be viewed as the audit’s hitting a major media nerve.  The media’s reaction vividly demonstrates their fear of a searching re-examination of the election purity they have so arrogantly and unwaveringly proclaimed.

After all, if this election were as well run as touted (with the customary admission to the mere occasional and inevitable, but insignificant, error), then the Biden-centric media should be cheerleading the effort.  Shouldn’t the audit, to use a favored media word, be anticipated to “debunk” the claims of widespread irregularities?

The media have drawn great succor from numerous court cases turning down challenges to the 2020 election results.  However, these claims raised issues not properly cognizable by our judicial system.  Ordering a recount is one thing; relitigating a multimillion-vote election is quite another.  It looks tremendously suspicious that, after Republican poll-watchers were banished, massive blocs of Detroit votes were introduced in the early morning, with 95% Biden selection.  But what exactly is a smart person in black robes supposed to do with this tableau?  Overturn the election without taking evidence?  Convene a three-month trial with numerous witnesses and experts, while Biden and Trump cool their heels?  A wise court should toss the case, as each reviewing jurist did.  But this rejection should not be seen as validating the election process, as the major media did.

The election process itself, not the judicial system, is supposed to be administered so as to provide the public with confidence in the announced tallies.  For this reason, the only widely recognized judicial remedy, as in Bush v. Gore, is an order to recount, which brings the process back to its proper venue: the election centers.  So the unsuccessful Republican and Trump lawsuits to invalidate the various election results do not validate the propriety of election procedures; they merely demarcate the limited jurisdictional boundaries of our judicial system.

But that is not how major media, at once partisan and ignorant, have spun this string of unsurprising Republican defeats:

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Granting Value to the World Roger Kimball

By on May 2nd, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/05/01/granting-value-to-the-world/

By making happiness incompatible with man’s essence, Schopenhauer found himself deaf to Goethe’s wisdom: “If you want to delight in life, then you must grant value to the world.”

In the great contest to be the world’s gloomiest philosopher, there are many high-ranking competitors.

I won’t say that philosophers have cornered the market on gloominess. There are other walks of life that have always been abundantly supplied with people who can find a cloud in any silver lining.

But as a group, philosophers can give anyone a run for his money.

It is true that the sage Zarathustra is said to have been born laughing. And Aristotle seems to have been a happy, well-adjusted family man.

There are other cheerful chaps (interestingly, all great philosophers in history have been male) scattered here and there.

Some people will find it odd to find Thomas Aquinas on the list of those with a sunny disposition. But anyone who was so plump that he had to have a semi-circle cut out of the refectory table cannot have been too gloomy.

Then there was the great Nicholas of Cusa, the 15th century German cardinal, statesman, scientist, philosopher. He was a world-affirming fellow, as was proved by his having endowed a monastery with a vineyard for its perpetual support. Someone told me it is still going strong, 500 years later, though I haven’t checked up on that.

That Gloomy Philosophy

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MEDIA Comments turned off

Fake News: New York Times, WaPo, NBC forced to retract false claims about Giuliani By Kathianne Boniello

By on May 2nd, 2021

https://nypost.com/2021/05/01/new-york-times-wapo-nbc-forced-to-retract-false-clai

The New York Times, Washington Post and NBC News all issued retractions Saturday for their coverage of Rudy Giuliani following a raid of his Manhattan apartment by the FBI.

The Times appended their correction to a story about the role Giuliani may have played in the 2019 recall of ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch and whether he received a warning from the FBI about Russian disinformation.

“An earlier version of this article misstated whether Rudolph W. Giuliani received a formal warning from the F.B.I. about Russian disinformation. Mr. Giuliani did not receive such a so-called defensive briefing,” The Times wrote Saturday in a note attached to the piece.

The Washington Post’s correction, on a story about prominent Americans being targeted by Russian disinformation, was similar.

“An earlier version of this story, published Thursday, incorrectly reported that One America News was warned by the FBI that it was the target of a Russian influence operation,” the paper said.

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Biden’s Withdrawal from Afghanistan Undermines His Own Global Strategy by Richard Kemp

By on May 2nd, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17322/biden-withdrawal-afghanistan

Far worse than failing to intervene is intervening to fail. The withdrawal from Afghanistan is just that.

US allies who have themselves invested huge military and economic resources in Afghanistan fear a Taliban return to power and the blood-bath that would likely accompany it. Their concerns are shared by General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of US CENTCOM, responsible for Afghanistan, who told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week that Afghanistan’s forces might well collapse following US withdrawal.

Jihadists everywhere would be encouraged and empowered by a perceived US defeat at the hands of the Taliban, which was being trumpeted by Al Qaida within days of Biden’s announcement.

Biden justified his withdrawal with the need to counter challenges from China and Russia and strengthen democratic allies and partners against autocracy. His actions are likely to have the reverse effect.

The abandonment of Afghanistan will long be remembered by countries around the world as they weigh their choices between the US and authoritarian regimes. Already Saudi Arabia has recognised that Biden will not protect them from Iran….

Chinese President Xi Jinping says Taiwan must and will be “unified” with China, by force if necessary…. Xi will be… count[ing] the potential cost of moving against the country that he considers his own.

As Russian forces massed along the border with Ukraine last month, Xi will also have noticed that Biden cancelled a planned transit of the Black Sea by two US warships after Russia told Washington to stay away….

Like a kettle of vultures, Pakistan, Iran, China and Russia will all be circling the Afghan carcass following US withdrawal. Iran, which has long provided weapons, funding and safe haven to the Taliban, has been building its influence with them in recent months. Russia has also helped fund and arm the Taliban — sometimes in collaboration with Iran — to kill Afghan, US and NATO forces in order to challenge the US and increase its own influence in the country.

China too has been cooperating with the Taliban…. It also sees influence in Afghanistan as a means to confront New Delhi. Beijing knows that India, as a US ally and democracy, is the only regional power that could play a genuinely constructive role in a future Afghanistan. Xi is not willing to see that happen.

Pakistan, in cahoots with China, is also determined to keep India out of Afghanistan. Its Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate created the Taliban and today remains by far the greatest external backer of its campaign against Afghan and international forces. Islamabad sees the country as vital strategic depth in a future conflict with India and intends to hold sway over a future Taliban regime in Kabul.

The truth is this is a forever war only in the rhetoric of those who support surrender to the Taliban. The last US combat death there was over a year ago.

The net strategic effect of Biden’s unconditional withdrawal is shaping up to be the opposite of what his national security strategy seeks to achieve: diminished confidence among allies, increased boldness among adversaries, the vital strategic territory of Afghanistan ceded to anti-democratic autocracies, a destabilised region containing two nuclear powers with associated proliferation risks, a spiralling of the global jihadist threat and massive population displacement.

US President Joe Biden’s unconditional withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan by September this year has potentially grave and dangerous consequences far wider than that embattled country and is set to undermine the national security strategy he proudly unveiled only days before announcing his pull-out.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

A Palestinian State: What Would Ben Gurion Have Said? by Amir Taheri

By on May 2nd, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17331/palestinian-state

When the decision to hold the elections was first declared, some of us hoped that it would provide an opportunity for Palestinians to attempt three changes in their political trajectory: to organize a change of generations at the top levels of political decision-making, to forge a minimum of understanding among long rival political groups on the basic rules of the game, and, more importantly, to transform their various versions of “the cause” into a state-building project rooted in reality.

In its current form, Palestinian politics remains atrophied in a lost cause that, in zombie style, bars the route to positive energies.

He [the late Palestinian “negotiator” Saeb Erekat] ignored the fact that ceasefire lines exist in the context of a truce, not of peace and that, if achieving peace is the aim, there is no point in choosing them as a sine qua non in a negotiated deal.

The third “condition” concerned the status of Jerusalem as the capital of a putative Palestinian state. Here, too, the Palestinian position suited those for whom Palestine is a cause not a project for state building.

When the British mandate ended in 1948, there was no Palestinian nation, in the universally accepted sense of the term at least in the Westphalian treaties, to claim a state of its own. In fact, all mandate and subsequent United Nations documents refer to “inhabitants” of mandate Palestine presented as Arabs, Jews, Druzes, Armenians, Bahais, Turks and numerous Christian denominations, including Assyrians and Chaldeans.

Another missed opportunity?

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

America’s gender warriors in a deal with the devil It’s no surprise that today’s US high school students are by any measure far less happy than their antecedents. David Goldman

By on May 2nd, 2021

https://asiatimes.com/2021/05/americas-gender-warriors-in-a-deal-with-the-devil/

In a 1935 radio play, a man dies in a car accident and finds himself in a palatial home where a butler fulfills his every wish for wealth, women and so forth. The man (acted by Colin Clive, the first movie Dr. Frankenstein) cannot bear what he takes for Heaven, and tells his butler, “I want to suffer…I’m sick of Heaven…I can’t stand this confounded everlasting bliss…Well, whatever the devils do to me can’t be as bad as this. I want to go to Hell!”

The butler replies, “Why sir— wherever do you think you are? This is Hell, sir!”

America has turned into Hell — not the Hell of Christian theology, to be sure, but the real Hell in which the satisfaction of narcissistic desire drives the damned into ever more intense misery.

The playwright, John Balderston, wrote the 1931 film “Dracula” and other scripts in the horror genre. In 1960 Charles Beaumont, another genre writer, adapted Balderston’s playlet as an episode of The Twilight Zone. The theme derives from Goethe’s “Faust,” which in turn borrows from the biblical Book of Job.

The biblical Satan tormented Job by taking away what he needed, while the modern devil torments Faust by offering him whatever he wants.

Goethe’s protagonist rejects the devil’s blandishments, eschewing the “gold that runs through my fingers like quicksilver, a game that no-one wins, a girl who ogles my neighbor while I embrace her, honor that disappears like a falling star.”

Today’s Americans have taken the devil’s deal. As Faust told Mephistopheles, he is damned once he tries to hang on to the devil’s passing moment of pleasure. The Americans make a lifestyle out of it, and are just as miserable as the Colin Clive character in Balderston’s fantasy.   

Balderston and Beaumont wrote horror fiction, but not in their darkest imaginings could they have invented the tortures that the devil inflicts on the young people of the West today.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Race Demagogues Are Poisoning Our Politics By Andrew C. McCarthy

By on May 1st, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/05/race-demagogues-are-poisoning-our-politics/

Our racial problem is getting worse, even as we strive as a nation to marginalize racism.
S enator Tim Scott is entirely right: “America is not a racist country.” But America has a serious racial problem. Not a racism problem, a racial problem.

We have a party in power whose strategy for remaining in power is to divide the country along racial lines. Democrats calculate that urban-centered racialist tribalism, amplified by media and pop-culture allies and underwritten by cowed corporations, can cast mainstream America as a deplorable bastion of white supremacism.

The Republicans, the party out of power, generally lack Senator Scott’s confidence and tact in making the counter-case.

The Department of Justice is a key to the Democrats’ strategy. The Obama-Biden administration politicized the law-enforcement and intelligence apparatus of our government, peddling with relish the progressive portrayal of an indelibly racist America. They’re ba-ack.

Any good agitprop scheme needs a villain. In the Left’s scheme, the nation’s police fit the bill. The scheme also has an abracadabra element: “disparate impact” theory, which conjures proof of “systemic racism” out of thin air.

The Justice Department is critical because the scheme needs the might of the federal government to impose the non-enforcement approach of progressive “policing” on the whole country. This is exactly the opposite of the way the system is supposed to work.

According to our founding framework, the states are responsible for governing their internal affairs. The Constitution would never have been adopted were it not for the principles of federalism. Nothing is more internal, more close to home, than ensuring law and order so that our neighborhoods can enjoy community, security, and prosperity.

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