URLs du Jour

2021-04-19

  • Guess What My First Thought Was after seeing the Tweet du Jour at Ann Althouse's blog.

    If you guessed something like If New Hampshire is gonna have Democrat senators, why can't they be more like Kyrsten Sinema?: congratulations, you are at the right blog.

    Instead we got Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan. Sigh.


  • But It's Patriots' Day! And to celebrate, Gary M. Galles is Remembering The Patriot With The Most Thorough Understanding Of Liberty.

    Today is patriot’s day [sic], marking the Revolutionary War’s opening shots at Lexington and Concord. An excellent way to commemorate it is by remembering Samuel Adams, who Murray Rothbard called “the premier leader of the revolutionary movement,” as far more than a name on a beer bottle.

    Samuel Adams’ most important contribution to America’s cause, however, was that, in his cousin John Adams’ words, he had “the most thorough understanding of liberty,” which was the central spark in America’s creation. The threats liberty faces today, including a host of government actions that treat the trampling of liberty as non-issues, make recalling his ideas particularly important. 

    Click through to read a good quote from Sam.

    True fact for punctuation pedants: in most states that celebrate it, it is "Patriots' Day". But in Maine it is (according to statute) "Patriot's Day".

    And in New Hampshire, it's nothing, except an early start to the Red Sox game on NESN. And maybe crack open a bottle of Sam Adams? Naw, I guess not.


  • Also: "Physician-Assisted Suicide" Elle Reynolds at the Federalist submits for your approval: 10 Politically Correct But Factually False Words To Stop Using Now. Here's number one:

    1. ‘Mainstream Media’

    The public communication cartel headed by The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, CBS, and MSNBC does not represent mainstream Americans. Earlier this year, Axios (another culprit of heavy-handed political spin) reported that 56 percent of Americans believe “Journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.”

    Big Media has engaged in deception through false and misleading “reporting” on Georgia’s election laws, the trespass and unrest at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, and more. Embracing “Russiagate” and the allegations of the Steele dossier against President Trump was one indicator of crumbling credibility. The cover-up of the Hunter Biden laptop story just before the 2020 presidential election was another.

    Even more recently, CBS’s “60 Minutes” invented a scandal about Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, while giving minuscule coverage to New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s cover-up of COVID-19 nursing home deaths his policies caused.

    Leftist propaganda outlets who are running cover for Democrats and spreading inaccurate opposition research on conservatives don’t deserve to be called mainstream. Instead, use “Big Media,” “corporate media,” or — as DeSantis says — “smear merchants.”

    I take her criticism, but I don't care for her proposed substitutes. Something to work on.


  • Cronyism Comes Before Compassion in Joe's Dictionary. Scott Shackford notes Biden Chooses Cronyism Over Letting Puerto Rico Rebuild.

    Not long after taking office, President Joe Biden released an executive order to fight climate change and called for evaluating the impact of environmental policies on the poor. Yet in a separate executive order, Biden affirmed his support for the 1920 Jones Act, a maritime law that harms both the environment and disadvantaged communities. It seems the residents of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Alaska are no match for an entrenched industry and union cronyism.

    The Jones Act—technically the Merchant Marine Act of 1920—shields the American shipping industry from foreign competition by requiring that ships engaging in trade between multiple U.S. ports be made in America and owned and crewed by American citizens. Supporters say the Jones Act is necessary for national security, but research from the Cato Institute has shown the law's biggest impact is driving up consumer prices for many Americans by forcing isolated states and territories to import necessities from other countries.

    Shackford's bottom line: "Biden's embrace of this archaic law undercuts his economic, environmental, and transportation policy goals." Which avoids the real problem that his highest goal is preserving advantages and handouts to unions and other well-connected interests.


  • I Can't Believe We're Debating This. Capitalism vs. Socialism, that is. And neither can Kevin D. Williamson, but he reports (in an NRPLUS article) on the predictable result of a recent debate: Socialism Loses, Again.

    Professor Richard Wolff of UMass–Amherst seems to be a courteous man, so I will put this question as courteously as I can: Rounded off to the nearest 100 million, how many people have to be put to death under socialism before the world’s most murderous school of economics runs out of second chances?

    Last week, Professor Wolff debated Arthur Brooks, formerly the president of the American Enterprise Institute and now a professor at Harvard, on the resolution: “Socialism is preferable to capitalism as an economic system that promotes freedom, equality, and prosperity.” The debate was hosted by the Abigail Adams Institute, which is “dedicated to providing supplementary humanistic education to the Harvard intellectual community.” Here, that worthy mission was not accomplished. I do not deny that socialism is an important subject for the consideration of students at Harvard and elsewhere, but to put “socialism or no?” forward as a contest between two propositions on equal intellectual footing is akin to hosting an earnest debate on whether the Earth is flat.

    I've been an Arthur C. Brooks fan for years.


  • It Doesn't Mean Staying Awake During a Trig Lecture. Katya Rapoport Sedgwick writes on Woke Math And The Intentional Destruction Of Free, Independent Thought.

    There are features of American wokeness that make me gasp that socialism in the U.S. is going to be worse than the USSR where I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s. The ongoing effort to transform mathematics education into a crypto-Marxist indoctrination vehicle seems like the sign of things to come.

    The California Department of Education recently drafted “Equitable Math” framework that, if implemented, will destroy what’s left of mathematics education in the Golden State. Along with the directive to privilege students on the basis of sex and skin color, the proposal essentially calls for the end of math. Fox News explains, “Another document calls for centering ‘ethnomathematics,’ designing a ‘culturally sustainable math space,’ and supporting students  ’to reclaim their mathematical ancestry.'”

    The only possible upside: the destruction of government schools, when people realize they ain't doing education there.


Last Modified 2021-04-20 4:03 AM EDT