Displaying posts published in

August 2022

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Drain the Academic Swamp If conservatives actually want to win the culture war, we must stop diagnosing our fallen republic’s ills by symptoms alone. We must address root causes. By Michael Robillard and Timothy Gordon

By on August 28th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/08/27/drain-the-academic-swamp/

Recently, a number of medical schools have joined the anti-European, anti-Christian, pro-Marxist woke bandwagon. According to physicist Lawrence Krauss, “the American Association of Medical Colleges has approved a Diversity-Equity-Inclusion based curriculum, which the AAMC Council of Deans Chair says is as important as teaching the latest scientific breakthroughs.”

Meanwhile, our military leadership continues to push incoherent gender ideology upon a captive audience of young soldiers, sailors, and airmen.And justices at the heights of our judiciary system, because of political correctness, dare not even define the word woman.

In response to these instances and instances like them within the present culture war, conservatives have offered much-needed criticism within the domains of news media, entertainment, government, and law. While these battles are necessary, of course, they have been largely impotent against the omnipresent spread of leftist ideas. This is so because conservatives consistently miss the mark when it comes acknowledging the true root cause of such radicalism: the ivory tower.

For some time now, American patriots have committed the grave mistake of overlooking the extreme aggregated impact of subversive, far-Left academics; individual rogue neurons in the cultural nerve center who have produced so much suffering in our body politic. The hypothetical, one-sided thought-experiments and hot-air pseudo-philosophies cooked up at run-of-the-mill liberal arts colleges across the nation have achieved the desired effect on all the cultural institutions downstream from the academy: complete destabilization and disintegration. From law and medicine to religion, government, media, and even to language itself (ze? zir?), the bottom has fallen out and the center cannot hold.

Conservatives can no longer afford to shrug off academy-bred, society-wide intellectual sepsis, as if what happens in academia stays in academia. It’s not true; the effete eccentrics and dangerous, sandal-clad subversives at the fringes of the sociology and lit crit departments have exercised maximum influence over our shared institutions and overall culture, and all for the negative. Conservative nonchalance in the face of intellectually weaponized neuropathy has now come home to roost.

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Tehran Debates the Bomb by Amir Taheri

By on August 28th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18840/tehran-debates-the-bomb

Interestingly, none of the problems that nation-states might have with one another, problems such as border disputes, competition for sources of raw materials and markets, water-sharing disputes, irredentism, maltreatment of kith-and-kin, and bitter historic memories, exist between Iran and Israel.

No Iranian leader, even under the present regime, could rationally explain why Israel should be regarded as Iran’s enemy.

The danger is that the mullahs might regard the bomb as a status symbol, using Biden’s weakness as an opportunity to humiliate the “Great Satan.”

After more than three decades, a debate that started during the Iran-Iraq war seems to be making a comeback in Tehran: Should the Islamic Republic take the final steps towards building a nuclear arsenal?

The original debate that took place behind the scenes was prompted by the revelation that, with French help, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein had been trying to build a nuclear capacity around Osirak, a nuclear power station and research center which was wiped out in a surprise attack by the Israeli Air Force.

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Biden’s Debt Transference and Enforcement Arm Work hard. Save your money. Pay your debts. Then get saddled with someone else’s debts because you didn’t have the foresight to be improvident at the opportune moment.  By Roger Kimball

By on August 28th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/08/27/bidens-debt-transference-and-enforcement-arm/

I have two subjects for you today: debt “forgiveness” and, once again, the raid on Mar-a-Lago by Biden’s secret police.

Let’s do the student debt wheeze first. “Forgiveness” without absolution: I think that just about sums up the Biden Administration’s latest publicity gambit, videlicet, the offer to “forgive” from $10,000 to $20,000 of the debt students have contracted. Note the scare quotes around “forgive.”

It is pointless to go into the details of the program because nobody knows what the details are. Tens of millions of Americans (whoever they are in Biden’s America) are apparently eligible. You are supposed to make less than $125,000 a year to be eligible, but who’s checking? The government agency handling the program, studentaid.gov, has been inundated with inquiries, since the announcement of “free stuff!,” as usual, has acted like a handful of fresh meat tossed into a pool of piranhas. How much will it cost? Who knows?

“The White House doesn’t know exactly how many eligible borrowers will actually end up applying for loan forgiveness,” one news source reported, “or how much it will cost.” According to a study from the Wharton School, however, the total tab might exceed $1 trillion. That is 1,000,000,000,000. It’s important to appreciate the number of zeros involved. 

I am not sure the Biden Administration has admitted yet whether the economy is in recession, but it is. And it is certainly suffering from inflation—or “Bidenflation” as some wags denominate it—the worst, we’re told, in 40 years. Gas prices have moderated a bit from their highs in May and early June, but they are still more than twice what they were when Biden took office, i.e., when Donald Trump was president, and everyone thinks prices will climb again this winter. 

So, prices are rising, your money is worth less, and, oh, by the way, you have less of it. On Friday, the Dow-Jones Industrial Average lost just over 1,000 points, wiping out billions in value. And if the “Prosperity Reduction Act” (the real name of the inflationary “Inflation Reduction Act”) weren’t enough of a blow—raising taxes and weaponizing the tax farmers of the IRS—Biden has delivered another sharp jab to the solar plexus of the American taxpayer with his hare-brained student loan “forgiveness” scheme. 

True, from time immemorial, the promise of debt forgiveness has been a powerful political gesture. But as has often been pointed out since the student loan subsidy was announced, Biden’s program is not really debt forgiveness. Rather, it is debt transference. That is, the debt doesn’t go away. It is just dropped in someone else’s lap. And that someone, Dear Reader, is you. 

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Translating ‘fascism’ from leftist-speak into the real world By D. Parker

By on August 28th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/08/translating_fascism_from_leftistspeak_into_the_real_world.html

With “President” Biden dropping yet another version of the political “F-bomb,” it’s time to break everything down to basic terminology and clarify the issue for everyone.

Was anyone surprised that the august head of the party of projection said the MAGA movement is “like semi-fascism”?  It was even more amusing when his media flack on CNN’s Don Lemon Tonight was unable to explain just what he meant by that pejorative. That is par for the course when they engage in the practice of accusing others of what they are doing.

Breaking things down into their constituent parts is the only way to figure out what is going on with certain issues. We’ve already proven, along with a number of others, that the anti-liberty left is fascist.  We’ve found that’s becoming easier than Biden falling off his bicycle.  As they become more fascistic by the day, the stark comparisons between regimes of the past and what they are doing now are stacking up like cordwood.

Since this is such a common practice on their part, we’re going to provide an explanation of the two sides based on the fundamental principles that will be Kryptonite to those making the usual nonsensical accusations that depend on complexity that simply doesn’t exist.

The hard truth is there are just two primary political ideologies: individualism and collectivism

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Biden couldn’t be bothered to talk to Israel’s prime minister By Eric Utter

By on August 28th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/08/biden_couldnt_be_bothered_to_talk_to_israels_prime_minister.html

Because he was “on vacation.” And yes, that’s the excuse his people gave

According to reports in Israeli media, Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid’s urgent request to hold an emergency telephone conversation with U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss the looming nuclear deal with Iran was rebuffed — with the excuse that the American president was “on vacation.”

According to Israel’s Channel 13, Lapid sought to speak with Biden in an attempt to prevent a return to the 2015 JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) nuclear pact, but U.S. officials denied the request, simply informing Lapid that Biden “is on vacation.”  End of story, I guess.  But this makes it difficult for the poor souls who, for whatever reason, need to speak to the current American commander-in-chief, as Biden is almost always “on vacation.”

Is this the right way to treat arguably your closest ally and the only representative democracy in the Middle East?  This administration has a history of feting our enemies and non-citizens while screwing over our allies and natural citizens.  Weird…and one would think counterintuitive to anyone hoping to remain in office.

I wonder how the White House phone message tree is set up now, what messages and prompts various incoming calls receive.  Perhaps:

*”Press 1 if you’d like to speak to ‘The Big Guy.'”  BEEP.  “Sorry, the president is on vacation.  Good-bye.

*”Press 2 if your nation is about to be attacked by Russia or Iran.”  BEEP.  “We’re sorry, but President Biden is away from his desk right now.  He may be back in a week or two.  Please press the pound sign to leave a message.”

*”Press 3 if you are inquiring about Hunter.”  BEEP.  “He’s the smartest guy we know, so go take a long walk off a short pier, loser.”

Continue reading →
ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

There are dark days ahead for the Jewish diaspora America’s Jewish leadership is far too complacent about left-wing anti-Semitism. Joel Kotkin

By on August 28th, 2022

https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/08/26/there-are-dark-days-ahead-for-the-jewish-diaspora/

Jews around the world, particularly outside the fortress of Israel, are threatened in a way not seen since the 1940s. A fundamentally unstable world, with rising class and racial animus, creates a perilous environment for history’s favourite target, as seen previously in such periods as the fall of Rome, the Crusades, the Black Death and the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Faced with rising anti-Semitism, Jews lack a leadership that is focused squarely on this challenge. Instead, the bulk of the community leadership concentrates largely on attacks from the right – on the shadowy white nationalists who, however small their numbers, most closely resemble the worst anti-Semites of the past, and who sometimes even use Nazi symbolism for inspiration.

Yet as noxious as the far right is, it is a fairly marginal force in places like the US. There are far-right brutes with guns, so the right can be lethal when stirred. But compared with the anti-Semitism of the ‘progressive’ left, the far right’s anti-Semitic agenda has little influence on Congress, academia or the mainstream media. Indeed, in the media, anti-Jewish hate crimes are consistently underreported, even though crimes against Jews are the highest per capita among any minority group. To the legacy media, these anti-Semitic crimes – unless they are committed by white nationalists – are simply less important than those against Muslims, Hispanics and African Americans.

To be sure, Jews still have reasons to fear the far right, which has long been infected by anti-Semitism. This threat has been exacerbated by the polarisation of US politics, which has pushed many more people to the extremes than usual, and by the popularity of conspiracy theories among ultra-conservatives. The serially disgraced Trump’s growing reliance on truly reactionary political movements has enhanced the far right’s position far beyond its actual numbers.

Indeed, some Republican Party spokespeople adopt tones that should make many Jews uncomfortable. Rightist media star and Trump ally Candace Owens, for example, once stated that Hitler would have been ‘fine’ if confined to Germany. Trump-backed gubernatorial candidates, likely losers in both Illinois and Pennsylvania, have also made statements that would make most Jews cringe. The fact that neo-Nazis have turned up outside right-wing meetings, like the Turning Point USA conference this summer in Florida, is a source of total embarrassment for the right – even though Turning Point denounced the Nazis and wanted nothing to do with them.

In at least one case, during last year’s gubernatorial race in Virginia, Democrats sent fake white supremacists to Republican campaign rallies in order to embarrass the GOP. But some Trumpians don’t need to be fooled in order to embrace extremist memes. Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Don Mastriano, for example, has embraced far-right activists who claim he will lead Pennsylvania into ‘the glory of God’. Trump may have Jewish grandchildren and only a short, opportunistic affinity to the cultural right, but last week Trump loyalists hurled hateful and anti-Semitic rhetoric at the judge who approved the search warrant for the raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

The bigger challenge, albeit still less lethal, comes from the left. Throughout the world, this is where the demonisation of Israel and its anti-Semitic implications have found their strongest support. We have seen hints of anti-Semitism in the UK Labour Party, in La France Insoumise, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, as well as in the ‘Squad’ of far-left US congresspeople. These leftists often adopt conspiracy theories about Jewish money and influence, embracing what German social democrat August Bebel famously described as the ‘socialism of fools’.

Continue reading →
MEDIA Comments turned off

The New York Times is eating itself Why is the world’s most liberal newsroom being accused of racism? Jenny Holland

By on August 28th, 2022

https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/08/27/the-new-york-times-is-eating-itself/

Gather round, children, it is time for another instalment in our fun-filled series of Watch the Woke Newsroom Eat Itself Alive.

This week a new report by the New York Times Guild – the New York Times chapter of the national journalists’ union, NewsGuild – contained a great bombshell: ‘The New York Times’s performance-review system has for years given significantly lower ratings to employees of colour, an analysis by Times journalists in the NewsGuild shows.’ And in 2020, not a single black employee was given the ‘highest rating’ in employee evaluations, while ‘white employees accounted for more than 90 per cent of the roughly 50 people who received the top score’.

This has been widely interpreted as as a sign of ‘racial bias’ and even ‘racial discrimination’ at the Times.

I haven’t set foot in the Times newsroom for a long time, and obviously I have no knowledge of the individuals whose evaluations are being questioned by the union. So I am neither defending the report nor denying its veracity.

I can confirm, however, that when I worked there – back in the olden days, before woke millennials made skin colour a major topic of conversation among the journalistic elite – I did not meet a single racist. The vast majority of the people I worked with were the most open, liberal, high-minded, Upper West Side-dwelling, well-meaning people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. There were a few grumpy old-timers tucked away in their messy cubicles. But even within the ultra-focused, deadline-driven environment, the vibe on the whole was more 1970s Sesame Street than 1950s Alabama.

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Lockdown and the price of suppressing dissent In times of crisis, we need more debate – not less. Fraser Myers

By on August 28th, 2022

https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/08/26/lockdown-and-the-price-of-suppressing-dissent/

‘You must stay at home.’ That simple instruction from prime minister Boris Johnson, issued before the first Covid lockdown in March 2020, changed the fate of the nation forever.

You might have imagined that in a democratic country such as Britain, a decision of this magnitude would not simply have been imposed by executive fiat. That the shutting down of schools, the economy and society might have been something worth debating and discussing. But for much of the pandemic, lockdown was never subjected to proper scrutiny, even though its harms were obvious from the start.

Indeed, the harms of lockdown are becoming clearer by the day. The near-collapse of the NHS, the crisis in education and runaway inflation can all be traced back, at least in part, to March 2020. And while the Russian invasion of Ukraine has since sparked a global energy crisis, lockdown is part of what left us so vulnerable to its effects.

After all, the lockdown was the biggest shock to the UK economy in the history of industrial capitalism. And in the words of one High Court judge, it was ‘possibly the most restrictive regime on the public life of persons and businesses ever’. Many of its awful impacts were predictable and predicted.

Continue reading →
MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Good riddance to Fauci and his calamitous, costly career By John Tierney

By on August 28th, 2022

https://nypost.com/2022/08/23/good-riddance-to-fauci-and-his-calamitous-costly-career/

Whatever comes next in the pandemic, we all have cause to rejoice at the best news since the arrival of the COVID vaccine: Anthony Fauci, the president’s chief medical adviser, has announced his retirement. His long and singularly disastrous career ends in December.

Never in the history of the public-health profession has anyone been so richly rewarded for doing so much harm to the public’s health. Whether or not he actually helped start the COVID pandemic — by funding dangerous research in the Chinese lab that may have created the coronavirus — he promoted a series of policies in America and the rest of the world that did even more damage than the virus.

Except possibly for the Great Depression, the lockdowns were the costliest public-policy mistake ever made during peacetime in America.

Fauci got away with it by invoking the authority of science while violating its fundamental principles. Before COVID arrived, the world’s leading epidemiologists had warned that lockdowns would be futile and cause catastrophic collateral damage, but Fauci simply ignored that advice.

As evidence mounted of the policies’ failure, he persisted by deploying the skills honed during five decades in Washington: bureaucratic infighting, media manipulation and fearmongering.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

How “human rights” believers fund evil Britain’s faith in Mahmoud Abbas’s regime has been a stunning misjudgement Melanie Phillips

By on August 28th, 2022

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/how-human-rights-believers-fund-evil?utm_source=email

This week’s Jewish Chronicle features a major story by David Rose, which reveals that Britain has been investing millions of pounds in training the Palestinian Authority in human rights even while the PA has been perpetrating torture and beating a prominent Palestinian democracy and human rights campaigner to death.

David’s story can be read here, here and here.

The opinion piece that I wrote for the JC to accompany the story follows below.

***

For many in the west, it has long been an article of faith that peace will only come to the Middle East when the Palestinians gain a state of their own.

Along with the EU and America, successive British governments have promoted a “two-state solution” to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs.

Central to this thinking is a key distinction. Hamas is considered beyond the pale as Islamist extremists who throw gay Palestinians off rooftops to their death and make no bones about their aim to destroy Israel. But the Palestinian Authority headed by Mahmoud Abbas is deemed “moderate” and entitled to run a future state of Palestine that would be part of the community of nations.

The JC has now exposed this faith in the PA as an excruciating misjudgment.

For while Britain has been investing millions in it in the arrogant belief that it can teach it western values, Palestinian officers have been murdering and torturing dissenters who campaign for their human rights.

Continue reading →