URLs du Jour

2017-06-03

Proverbs 25:13 serves up a refreshing simile:

13 Like a snow-cooled drink at harvest time
    is a trustworthy messenger to the one who sends him;
    he refreshes the spirit of his master.

Ancient Israelis considered themselves extremely fortunate when their messages were successfully transmitted to another.

■ Institution of higher education or psychiatric ward? The College Fix reports: Evergreen State faculty demand punishment of white professor who refused to leave on anti-white day. Nearly a quarter of the faculty signed on to a letter containing this demand, among others:

Demonstrate accountability by pursuing a disciplinary investigation against Bret Weinstein according to guidelines in the Social Contract and Faculty Handbook. Weinstein has endangered faculty, staff, and students, making them targets of white supremacist [sic] backlash by promulgating misinformation in public emails, on national television, in news outlets, and on social media.

That's bad enough, but the entire letter (available at the link) is Orwellian. And not in a good way.

■ And (of course) just when it was asserted that there was a dangerous "white supremecist backlash" against Evergreen State, what do you know? An anonymous mass-murder threat was called in to the local cops! John Sexton has the threat of violence that shut down Evergreen State College for two days.

Clearly, the caller presented himself as an armed and angry right-winger upset over the college’s progressive outlook. And it’s entirely possible that’s what he is. But it’s also entirely possible this is the kind of hoax hate crime we’ve seen many times in the last six months, i.e. the gay church organist who painted a swastika, a gay slur, and the phrase “Heil Trump” on his own church in order to “mobilize a movement.”

I know which way I'd bet.

■ David Harsanyi (at the Federalist) asserts and explains: Democrats Have Lost On Climate Change, And It’s Their Own Fault.

Whenever the United States fails to adopt climate-change policy favored by the Left, advocates like to point to polls that allegedly illustrate how a vast majority of Americans support “fighting climate change” or “reducing carbon emissions” or “believe in global warming.” These vague, feel-good moral declarations are equivalent to voters saying they are in favor “reducing poverty” or “helping children.” The more useful question is what are you willing to do? Give up one of your cars? Pay more for energy, food, housing, and everything else? Do you want to empower government to run the economy to help fix the problem?

It's all about power, isn't it? Glenn Reynolds has a recurring refrain: "I'll believe there's a climate crisis when the people who keep telling me there's a climate crisis start acting like there's a climate crisis." So keep that in mind as you read the NYPost story: ‘Eco-friendly’ [NYC Mayor Bill] de Blasio won’t give up SUV rides to gym.

But when asked to explain why he needs a motorcade of gas-guzzling SUVs to take him from Gracie Mansion to Park Slope, Brooklyn, just to exercise at a YMCA, he didn’t have an answer — and declined to give up the habit.

It takes two SUVs ("a regular GMC Yukon XL, which burns 16 mpg in the city, and a Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid, which is only slightly more fuel efficient at 20 mpg") to get the mayor from Manhattan to Park Slope and back.

The Mayor was confronted about this on a radio call-in show, just after he'd lectured listeners: "Everyone in our own life needs to change our habits to start protecting the Earth,”

■ Bruce McQuain reflects on the Paris Accord: Trump says ‘no’ to the global elitist scam and the globalists howl, and makes a good point for us at-least-sorta libertarians:

You know, I have to keep saying this to myself to remind myself that even a stopped clock is right twice a day – I’m not a fan of Donald Trump. But then I wasn’t a fan of Barack Obama. Or particularly, G.W. Bush. It’s a cross any libertarian has to bear. But it is also why, for the most part, we can look a bit more dispassionately at circumstances or events than can liberals or conservatives. They have a vested interest in protecting the reputation (and work) that their person is doing (and one of the reasons that you see so much hypocrisy on both sides). We have no such vested interest. However, since libertarians rarely see the work of liberty done, it’s somewhat surprising when it is.

I resemble that remark.

■ And finally, news you probably can't use, but maybe have been wondering about (I know I have): Most of the World’s Bread Clips Are Made by a Single Company.

Bread clips! Consider them for a moment, if you will. They’re those flat pieces of semi-hard plastic formed into a sort of barbed U-shape—you know the ones. They can be found keeping bread bags all over the world closed and safe from spoilage, smartly designed to be used and reused. They’re all around us, constantly providing an amazing service, and yet still, they’re taken for granted. And it turns out they’re almost exclusively all produced by a single, family-owned company.

Today's Getty image is this little bit of American genius in action.


Last Modified 2021-06-22 7:29 AM EDT