URLs du Jour

2021-08-13

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  • Lord, grant me chastity and continence, but not yet. The Lord seems to have granted the presidential prayer, as the NYPost editorialists point out. Biden’s energy idiocy: Kneecap US oil but beg OPEC to pump more.

    President Joe Biden’s latest policy push has us doing not just a double take but a triple take: The man who’s put roadblock after roadblock in the way of North American energy companies in pursuit of his vow to decarbonize the US economy is . . . begging OPEC to boost fossil-fuel production.

    Why? The prez complains the high price of gas is hurting the post-pandemic economic recovery. Seriously.

    Reference above from Saint Augustine of Hippo.

    I'm going to investigate changing my name legally to "Paul Sand of Hippo".


  • Doomed to repeat it. Gabe Kaminsky looks at the latest glorification of ignorance: Nike Claims Women's Basketball Tops A Man Who Conquered The World. Specifically, this tweet released about the USA's Women's Olympic basketball team winning gold:

    Nike’s video depicts a black lesbian high schooler complaining about studying history. In her view, it promotes “the patriarchy.” Instead of learning about actual dynasties of the past, she wishes to discuss the athletic “dynasty” of the women’s basketball team.

    “Today I have a presentation on dynasties,” the girl says. “But I refuse to talk about the ancient history and drama. That’s just the patriarchy. Instead, I’m going to talk about a dynasty that I actually look up to. An all-women dynasty. Women of color. Gay women. Women who fight for social justice. Women with a jump shot. A dynasty that makes your favorite men’s basketball, football, and baseball teams look like amateurs.”

    And she adds the team "makes Alexander the Great look like Alexander the OK."

    Good move, Nike. Tell young black women that they don't have to study history when they can just watch basketball on TV.


  • Orval Faubus would cheer. But Frederick M. Hess is less impressed with the latest academic trendy trend, and suggests we Say No to ‘Anti-Racist’ Racial Segregation in Schools.

    he fight over critical race theory (CRT) in America’s schools has featured woke “anti-racists” trying to justify a variety of troubling practices by insisting they’re grounded in expertise and evidence. This has been especially noticeable when it comes to the defense of “racial affinity spaces.”

    Just what are “racial affinity spaces”? Well, while President Biden likes to denounce various Republican policies as the “new Jim Crow,” affinity spaces are the old Jim Crow. Affinity spaces involve schools encouraging students or staff to separate into segregated, race-based groups. The practice usually entails one group for black participants, a second for “non-black people of color,” and a third for white participants, typically in order to discuss issues of race, “equity,” policing, and such. In all this, the “anti-racists” seem comfortable resurrecting practices clearly at odds with the 1964 Civil Rights Act — practices that would’ve been warmly cheered by segregationists of the American South or the architects of South African apartheid.

    Hess notes the "grounded in expertise and evidence" is bullshit.

    And, for that matter, somewhat contradictory to the claim that "diversity" was supposed to help students appreciate differing viewpoints and experiences. How's that going to happen when you're restricted to your racial affinity space?


  • The rent is too damn high. And also, as Jeff Jacoby points out: The census is too [damn] nosy.

    THE CENSUS BUREAU will release local demographic data from the 2020 enumeration this week, to be used in redrawing voting districts before next year's elections. But the information comes with a puzzle: Why did so many Americans leave questions unanswered?

    The Associated Press reports that a high proportion of people "did not respond to a multitude of questions about sex, race, Hispanic background, family relationships, and age" when filling out the 2020 questionnaire. Officials were startled to discover that, depending on the question and the state, "10 percent to 20 percent of questions were not answered in the 2020 census."

    Jeff suggests, wisely, that we return to the Founders' intent: enumeration of persons. And get rid of every single question that even resembles:

    [MYOB]

    Bonus 2020 URL from Reason: Tear Up Your Census Form for a Better America.


Last Modified 2024-02-01 6:01 AM EDT