NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

COVID Statistics by Dummies for Dummies Peter Smith

Posted By on October 26th, 2021

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2021/10/covid-statistics-by-dummies-for-dummies/

“More mundanely, two problems attend the use of statistics. One is sheer statistical ineptitude among medical researchers and the media. A second is confirmation bias among researchers aiming for plaudits and publications rather than the truth. A bias common to many fields of inquiry; including, of course, most notably, to climate change.”

Statistics should be kept out of bounds to non-statisticians; most particularly, right now, to medical researchers and epidemiologists. I say this because of the statistical garbage they’re cobbling together and feeding to the gullible press. Incidentally, this is no disrespect to the press. It’s just a matter of fact not condemnation.

To wit, a headline in The Telegraph (UK): “Vaccinated people dying of Covid have average age of 85 and five underlying illnesses.” It turns out that this result came out of the Italian Health Institute which had examined deaths from COVID between February 1 and October 5, 2021. And the point? To show that deaths among the unvaccinated occurred at a younger average age of 78; to boot, suffering only four underlying illnesses. It’s worth a laugh.

How many 85-year-old Italians with five serious underlying illnesses survived the first waves of the virus? I suggest that the population of such people would have been seriously and disproportionately depleted. It is therefore unsurprising that their marginally younger and fitter septuagenarian cousins are more recently taking the brunt. Was this allowed for? I doubt it. Also, it is more likely that those aged around 85 are in protected care than those aged around 78. Was this allowed for? I doubt it.

I have seen research on people in hospital which is then extended to the broader population. For example, an observation (from a CDC study) that the unvaccinated are disproportionately represented in hospital beds was spun by the press to suggest that those vaccinated are less likely to be infected and thus less likely to pass on the disease. But if the vaccines work to reduce the severity of the illness, then there may be many more people out there who are vaccinated passing on the disease than there are unvaccinated people. Who knows? What we do know is that the population in hospital is unlikely to be representative of people not in hospital. Wrong population upon which to base any general conclusion.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Virtue Signaling And Wokeness: A Return To The Primitive

Posted By on October 26th, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/10/26/virtue-signaling-and-wokeness-a-return-to-the-primitive/

Last week, activists at Dartmouth College reacted to notices of Republican-sponsored events by vandalizing property and harassing conservative students. Like so many other woke fits pitched by Democrats and their fellows travelers, the infantile behavior was driven not by policy differences but instead by primitive impulses, which have come to be regarded by the ruling class as acceptable responses.

According to Campus Reform, zealots tore up flyers announcing a speaking engagement and a panel discussion, and tried to intimidate members of the Dartmouth College Republicans. The topic of the talk was abortion, quite clearly a divisive issue in this country.

But it was not opposition to ideas that fed the thuggish behavior. It was fueled by a need for some to feel morally superior over others. It’s the same inclination that drives kids to pick on the least popular and the different among them on the playground. They feel better about their own inadequacies when they have a target to attack.

The ugly display at Dartmouth is an example of what we see frequently on college campuses. But bullying and threats are also widespread on social and mainstream media. We see it as well in Democratic politicians. They rely on their own “Big Lies” to spread misinformation, and actively try to pit American “deplorables” and bitter clingers against the cool kids.

This mob mentality intended to hurt has infected the left and radicalized a large segment of the country. Those living the out an “us vs. them” mindset have neither the inclination nor apparently the time – so busy in their efforts to ostracize that there’s not a moment for reasonable thought – to examine the facts they’re constantly screeching about.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Liz Peek: Biden vs. Americans – his priorities, like climate change, ignore top worries of most voters Joe Biden has suffered the worst ratings slide of any president since World War II

Posted By on October 26th, 2021

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/biden-polls-ignoring-voter-concerns-liz-peek

“When a majority (52%) of middle-income Americans and of Independents (51%) think Biden has abandoned them, Democrats should hit the panic button and radically rethink their agenda. Unhappily for Joe Biden, a reboot seems unlikely, as does a turnaround in his ratings anytime soon.”

Joe Biden has suffered the worst ratings slide of any president since World War II. That is probably not the kind of history Biden hoped to make when he secretly met with White House chroniclers in March and asked them how to be a “consequential” president like FDR.  

Why has the country turned against Uncle Joe? Simple: Biden is ignoring voters’ concerns. 

Voters are worried about inflation, jobs, crime, education and our open border, while the Biden White House is laser-focused on climate change, transgender rights, racism and reducing inequality. 

In a recent CBS/YouGov poll, only 37% of respondents said Biden and Democrats are focused on issues they “care a lot about.” That’s not good. 

Joe Biden is not walking down this misguided path alone; he is hauling nearly every agency of his government right along with him.  

For instance, the FBI, instead of focusing on the surging murder rate in our nation, has been ordered to hunt down “domestic terrorists” among the parents rightfully objecting to the racist curriculums being taught to their children.  

The State Department, having abandoned hundreds of Americans in Afghanistan and grievously misplaying every encounter to date with China, recently took time out to celebrate “International Pronouns Day,” issuing an explainer about “Pronoun Proficiency.”  

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Why Is America Financing the Chinese War Machine? by Lawrence Kadish

Posted By on October 26th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17891/financing-china-war-machine

How did the Chinese come to possess such prowess? From us.

The Chinese… know that a democracy whose economy is weakened by COVID of a curious origin, a multi-trillion dollar budget that would plunge us into historic debt; a nation staggering under the burden of a possibly enfeebled national leadership, and a military humbled by being ordered off the Afghan battlefield by its commander-in-chief may be a once great country that has lost its way.

Washington needs to pivot and provide appropriate and necessary incentives for businesses to expand our once formidable manufacturing base here in the United States. America has the means, skills, and resources to return to its role as a super exporter, but to do so will also require us to get our economic house in order and freeze our nation’s debt ceiling. An economy that stands on the brink of a multi-trillion dollar self-induced debt makes us vulnerable to a fiscal collapse. Financial discipline will be required if we actually wish to stop our financing of the Chinese war machine.

Historians who have studied the decline and fall of great modern empires must be queasy these days.

Many have chronicled how a once mighty China lost its sovereignty to colonial powers during the early years of the 20th Century. Their enfeebled empress and a humbled military were swept aside by a European coalition of nations only to find that China was to become the bloody prize of Japanese generals whose forces raped and massacred their way to Beijing.

FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Blinken Seems Intent on Sparking a Crisis Over Jerusalem The State Department wants to open a consulate to the Palestinians there despite Israel’s objections.By Eugene Kontorovich

Posted By on October 26th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/blinken-biden-foreign-policy-crisis-over-jerusalem-embassy-consulate-israel-palestine-11635195523?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

The biggest diplomatic spat between Israel and the U.S. in recent memory is brewing over the Biden administration’s insistence on opening a consulate to conduct diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority and locating it in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem. Despite vociferous Israeli protest, the State Department has repeatedly said it would push forward with opening a consulate anyway, and Secretary Antony Blinken will personally lead the effort.

The U.S. Embassy to Israel is already in Jerusalem, and it has a consular department that provides services to Palestinians. Opening a separate, independent diplomatic mission would undermine a longstanding bipartisan policy of treating Jerusalem as the exclusive capital of Israel.

The consulate plan is a way to undo in part President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem without paying the political price of fully repudiating a move that had broad support even among Democrats. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh understands this and recently crowed that Mr. Blinken’s consulate is a stepping stone to a recognition of Palestinian sovereignty in Jerusalem.

Under settled international law, Israel’s consent is required for any diplomatic mission to be opened on its territory. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Justice Minister Gideon Saar have all forcefully rejected the idea, as has the opposition Likud party. Jerusalem is one of the few issues that unite Israelis across the political spectrum.

The State Department won’t take no for an answer. After Mr. Lapid made Israel’s opposition clear, Mr. Blinken said: “We’ll be moving forward with the process of opening a consulate as part of deepening of those ties with the Palestinians”—a clear démarche to Jerusalem to acquiesce or face consequences. This contempt for Israel’s government is extraordinary.

When Mr. Trump in 2017 recognized Jerusalem as being in Israel and subsequently moved the U.S. Embassy there, he implemented the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, enacted with massive bipartisan support. That put to rest an absurd and anachronistic U.S. policy that treated Jerusalem as not being located in Israel at all, a legacy of an abortive 1947 U.N. initiative to make it an “international city.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Doing the Enemies’ Bidding Eileen F. Toplansky

Posted By on October 26th, 2021

In his 1980 book titled Seeds of Progress, Leonard E. Read reminds the reader of the prescient words of George Washington.

There is a natural and necessary progression from the extreme of anarchy to the extreme of tyranny, and arbitrary power is most established on the ruins of liberty.

Leonard E. Read then goes on quote Dr. Ludwig von Mises who wrote “Socialism is planned chaos.  Anarchy is unplanned chaos.”

Consider the weeks of violence and anarchy in Portland and other cities.  It was the first step in the communists’ designs upon America.  The continuing erosion of our culture is intended to restrain America’s potential in every conceivable way.

Furthermore, in the chapter “Two Ways to Go Wrong” Read emphasizes that those who would deny impartial justice will heartily support anarchy and tyranny.

First tell me who you are and then I’ll tell you what your rights are.

A society in which gross inequalities before the law are tolerated will prevent the market from operating in its economic life.

And so socialism and communism worm their way into the fabric of our lives aided and abetted by the most Leftwing President this country has ever experienced and our economy is worsening.

As Read asserts “[w]hen the government enters your home, takes your possessions, keeps them for himself or gives it to others to obtain their votes, it is coercive force.”  

When Biden mandates what people must do with their bodies and when his henchmen (DeBlasio, Murphy, Lightfoot and Newsom) dictate where Americans can dine, shop and enjoy life, we are in the throes of a dictatorship.

The internal enemies of the state are ensuring that America’s youth are denied learning about their birthright and the foundational ideas such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  Without understanding and valuing these basic principles, the young cannot perceive they are worth defending.  Mull over the erasure of the 1776 Project by Biden.

Instead, indoctrinate them with misinformation and outright lies and demand they regurgitate the information.  Create at least two generations of historically illiterate youth.  Consider the administration’s embrace of Critical Race Theory.                                                                                           

Eliminate literature that emphasizes character building. Instead advocate tracts of repetitive hate-filled ideas that  pit student against student based on their skin pigmentation. Reflect on the adoption of the works of anti-White author Ibrahim Kendi with nary a word from the Department of Education.

Distort language so students are ignorant of the nuances of words and ideas and cannot engage in genuine critical thinking or introspective questioning.  Heck, men are women and girls can be erased altogether. Confusion abounds because as Jacques Barzun stated, “[i]ntellect deteriorates after every surrender to folly.  Unless we consciously resist, the nonsense does not pass us by but into us.”

Should one, however, dare to speak out, quickly punish the offending individual. Consider the ongoing censorship and assault against speakers on campuses and no rebuke from the administration. Consider the inhumane incarceration of Americans who marched on January 6, 2021.

BOOKS Comments turned off

Book Review: ‘Woke Racism’ by John McWhorter For the left, antiracism is the new religion, and ‘pious, unempirical virtue signaling’ is a form of political activism.By Tunku Varadarajan

Posted By on October 26th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-woke-racism-by-john-mcwhorter-11634596283

‘This book frankly leapt out of me,” writes John McWhorter, “during the summer of 2020.” The country was convulsed not just with Covid-19, but with protests in response to the killing of an unarmed black man by a white policeman whose actions were caught on camera. Mr. McWhorter began to write in the first week of August. Eight weeks later, he’d finished “Woke Racism,” a book that hits back at the “antiracists” who prowl public life in search of transgression, and whose mission to rid America of “racist” thought he likens to that of a religious cult. His book is a cry from the heart, and readers should gauge the depth of his indignation from the fact that its working title was “F*** ’Em.”

This eloquent manifesto is Mr. McWhorter’s 22nd book, a majority of those on the subject of linguistics. His is a split personality: A linguist in his day job as a professor at Columbia University (specializing in creoles, particularly the Saramaccan language in Suriname), he’s also an outspoken commentator on race whenever the national mood requires it. As Mr. McWhorter’s thinking on race is in conflict with that of the black American political mainstream, he’s often miscast as a black conservative by glib taxonomists. But he’s careful to point out that he wasn’t “thinking of right-wing America as my audience,” even as he acknowledges that many liberal readers will think him “traitorous” for writing this book.

Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America

By John McWhorter

Mr. McWhorter’s target audience is, precisely, the one that would regard him as racially incendiary. It includes white progressives who have “fallen under the impression that pious, unempirical virtue signaling about race is a form of moral enlightenment and political activism.” Equally, it comprises black people who have succumbed to the “misimpression” that the way to their own salvation lies in “a curated persona as eternally victimized souls.”

Mr. McWhorter’s targets in “Woke Racism” are antiracist crusaders whom he calls the Elect—borrowing a term used by the essayist Joseph Bottum in his book “An Anxious Age” (2014). Mr. McWhorter chooses not to call these people Social Justice Warriors or Inquisitors, deeming those labels “unsuitably dismissive” and “mean,” respectively. He’s not the first to trace the “rootstock” of their ideology to critical race theory. This is a once-fringe belief, now muscling its way into mainstream thought, that every individual’s fate is determined by racial “hierarchy” and power. The theory contends, writes Mr. McWhorter, that a nonwhite in America is “akin to the captive oarsman slave straining belowdecks in chains.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

France: Can Éric Zemmour Be the Next President? The Journalist Who Is Reshuffling the Cards in French Politics by Yves Mamou

Posted By on October 25th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17888/france-eric-zemmour

Zemmour represents the France of yesteryear: the France of Napoleon, Notre Dame de Paris and General Charles de Gaulle, a France that does not want to become an Islamic Republic. “The danger for France is to become a second Lebanon,” Zemmour often says, meaning a country fragmented between sectarian communities that hate and fear one another.

He is the man who broke through the glass ceiling to insert into the media discussion topics such as “immigration” and “jihad” — which no one had ever dared to talk about publicly. He is a man who embodies the fear of seeing traditional France — the one of church steeples and the “baguette” — disappear under the blows of jihad and political correctness.

The meteoric rise of Zemmour has had a second effect: he has broken a degrading electoral trap in which the French people are stuck…. dividing the right to prevent them from returning to power.

From the middle of the eighties until now, the media and the left, together, manufactured an industrial-strength shame-machine to stigmatize as “racist” and “Nazi” anyone who dared to raise his voice on issues of immigration…

The Zemmour fight is just beginning. One thing, however, is certain: Zemmour is restoring an authentic democratic debate about topics — security, immigration, Islam — that really matter to the French. For many, Zemmour is the last chance for France not to become an Islamic nation or a “Lebanon in Europe.”

The Financial Times calls him “the extreme right-winger”. For the New York Times he is the “right wing pundit”. For Die Zeit, he is “the man who divides France”… Eric Zemmour, journalist and essayist, is not (yet) an official candidate for the French presidency, but because of his popularity, France is already living at election time.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Palestinian Prisoners No One Talks About by Khaled Abu Toameh

Posted By on October 25th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17880/palestinian-prisoners-no-one-talks-about

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad prisoners, who have been convicted of terrorism against Israel, received wide coverage because they are being held in Israeli prisons. They are being held in prison because many of them were involved in major terror attacks against Israel, including murder. The international media and the Palestinian Authority (PA), however, refuse to call the prisoners terrorists. Instead, they call them “militants” or “political detainees.”

While the world’s attention remains focused on the Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, there is hardly any mention of prisoners and detainees held by the PA security forces in the West Bank

A Palestinian who goes on hunger strike in a Palestinian prison can only dream of being noticed by a foreign journalist or a human rights organization in the US and Europe. A Palestinian who declares a hunger strike in an Israeli prison, on the other hand, has nothing to fear. He or she knows very well that within minutes the whole world will learn about his “grievances.”

A report by the Committee of the Families of Political Detainees revealed that the Palestinian security forces committed 217 “violations” against Palestinians just during September.

If Abbas cares so much about Hamas and PIJ prisoners, why is he ordering his security forces to arrest and beat Palestinians for being affiliated with the two groups? If he thinks that these prisoners should be released from Israeli prisons, why doesn’t he first release those who are being held in Palestinian prisons?

A final, damning question: Why are the Palestinian security forces arresting or interrogating prisoners shortly after their release from Israeli prisons? How can the PA condemn Israel for arresting these men, but later arrest them on suspicion of belonging to Hamas or PIJ?

In public, Abbas demands that Israel free all the prisoners; but when Israel complies, he rushes to arrest them for “security reasons.” The Palestinian prisoners were lucky when they were in Israeli prisons: they attracted the attention of human rights organizations and journalists around the world.

Those who are now being held in Palestinian prisons are undoubtedly wishing that they could be sent back to Israeli prisons, where they would be better treated and win international sympathy.

A recent hunger strike by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) prisoners held by Israel caught the attention of many journalists and media outlets. Reports about the hunger strike appeared in newspapers around the world and were included in dispatches by major news agencies.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Ground Zero of Woke Universities are making themselves not just disliked and disreputable but ultimately irrelevant and replaceable. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on October 25th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/10/24/ground-zero-of-woke/

Many of our once revered and most hallowed institutions are failing us. To mention only the most significant ones: our top-ranking military echelon, the leadership of our federal investigatory and intelligence agencies, the government medical establishment—and of course the universities.  

For too long American higher education’s reputation of global academic superiority has rested mostly on the sciences, mathematics, physics, technology, medicine, and engineering—in other words, not because of the humanities and social sciences, but despite them. The humanities have become too often anti-humanistic. And the social sciences are deductively anti-scientific. Both quasi-religious woke disciplines have eroded confidence in colleges and universities, infected even the STEM disciplines and professional schools, and torn apart the civic unity of the United States. Indeed, much of the current Jacobin revolution was birthed and fueled by American universities, despite their manifest hypocrisies and derelictions. 

Never in U.S. history have elite universities piled up such huge endowments, which soared during the lockdown. Harvard has $40 billion, Yale $30 billion, Stanford $28 billion, Princeton $25 billion and so on. The tax-free income from these huge sums ensures equally extravagant budgets that are somewhat insulated from market realities—at least in the sense that the larger endowments grew, the more likely university costs rose beyond the annual rate of inflation, and the greater aggregate student debt rose. 

Just as importantly, spending per pupil is rarely calibrated to whether graduating students leave better educated than when they arrived—the ostensible purpose of universities. 

There are certainly no “exit tests” for certification of the BA degree, in the manner of, say, a bar exam, that might set a minimum national standard for any acquisition of knowledge. Such standardized reassurance would rescue the BA degree from the growing general public perception that the campus has become politically warped, therapeutic, a poor measure of real knowledge, and is now largely a cattle brand of a sort that qualifies its holder for some sort of non-physical labor.