Pun Salad

My apologies for linking to a paywalled article in the current print issue of National Review. But I just loved that cover art; it's by Roberto Parada. Beautiful, right?

Anyway, the cover article is by Andrew Stuttaford: The False Promise of Electric Cars. Excerpt:

Unfortunately, it seems NR policy is to leave paywalled articles behind the paywall for eternity.

To reinforce the Hayekian observation about "state 'plans'" Stuttaford quotes, see a recent WSJ editorial bemoaning Biden’s Green-Energy Mineral Lockup.

Not only do government "plans" make it more difficult for individuals to plan, it seems that government planners can't seem to get out of their own way.

The WSJ further notes that "if minerals aren’t mined in the U.S., they will be extracted in countries with far less stringent environmental and labor standards." No way that could go wrong.

Briefly noted:

• Michael Graham is amused by a report from Commie New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) and the political reaction thereto: NH Parents Use Ed Money to Educate Kids, Democrats Pounce!

  NHPR reported on publicly-available data released by the New Hampshire Department of Education showing “participants spent a total of about $805,000 at Amazon.com and approximately $2.76 million at private schools last year.”

  Given that Amazon is both the world’s largest marketplace and the biggest online bookseller (with more than 1,000 items under the “homeschooling materials — 1st grade” category alone), it’s hardly a surprise that parents buy education supplies there. And spending education money at private schools is a no-brainer as well.

  NHPR also specifically noted that “Among the program’s biggest supporters in the legislature is House Majority Leader Jason Osborne. According to records, a homeschooling company run by his wife received $28,750 last year in Education Freedom Account funding.”

  "Pouncing":

  “Among the program’s biggest supporters in the Legislature is House Majority Leader Jason Osborne. According to records, a homeschooling company run by his wife received $28,750 last year in Education Freedom Account funding.”
  
  Corruption doesn’t get much more blatant #NHPolitics https://t.co/sILODEWISp

  — Colin Booth (@ColinGBooth) January 30, 2023

  As Graham points out: nobody shouts "corruption" when Democrat pols with spouses and other relatives employed by government schools support more spending on government schools.

  And in a later article, Graham points out that State Senator Debra Altschiller, A Private School Parent, Wants to Force EFA Kids Into Public Schools. She is, of course, a Democrat. Corruption might not be rife in the New Hampshire statehouse, but they've got plenty of hypocrisy to make up for it.

• Kevin D. Williamson refutes a recent Nicholas Kristof piece in the New York Times headlined A Smarter Way to Reduce Gun Deaths.

  Smarter? Perhaps in the sense that Kristof thinks it would be "smarter" if gun-grabbers soft-sell their proposals as promoting "safety" instead of prohibition, making it easier to sell legislation to the public. Who could be against "safety"?

  KDW isn't having it: ‘Gun Safety’ Isn’t the Issue. He describes Kristof's article as "full of sloppiness bordering on intellectual dishonesty."

  Kristof’s argument is that we can use “gun safety measures” to reduce violent crime in the United States. But most guns sold in the U.S. market are not lacking in safety features—the problem is not “gun safety” but the fact that people point perfectly functional, well-designed firearms at other people and then pull the trigger for the purpose of killing them. “Gun safety” is not the issue. Murder is the issue. Suicide is, by the numbers, an even greater issue.

  I don't see one of those annoying paywall-indicating padlocks on KDW's article, so get thee hence and readeth the entirety.

• The latest AP Stylebook misfire was a few days back, but AEI's Joshua T. Katz has something to say about The Associated Press vs. the French. (As Henry Kissinger said in a much different context: "It's a pity they both can't lose.")

  On Thursday, the Associated Press Stylebook issued the following statement: “We recommend avoiding general and often dehumanizing ‘the’ labels such as the poor, the mentally ill, the French, the disabled, the college-educated. Instead, use wording such as people with mental illnesses. And use these descriptions only when clearly relevant.” A hilarious backlash ensued, especially about “the French”: The French Embassy suggested that it might now be “Embassy of Frenchness in the US,” and many French people were up in arms, not just nationalistic figures like Éric Zemmour, who tweeted simply, “We are the French.” By the next day, the AP had deleted the original tweet, while still doubling down: “Writing French people, French citizens, etc., is good. But ‘the’ terms for any people can sound dehumanizing and imply a monolith rather than diverse individuals.”

  You'd think someone at the AP might have noticed the infelicitous sandwiching of "the French" in between "the mentally ill" and "the disabled".

  But it's nice to see that someone in the French Embassy has a bon sens de l'humour.

• In Pun Salad's "What Did You Expect?" Department, Phillip W. Magness notes a small streaming problem: Hulu’s 1619 Project Docuseries Peddles False History. Specifically, from the series' first episode:

  The scene opens in Williamsburg on the grounds of its reconstructed colonial Governor's Palace, where Hannah-Jones joins University of South Carolina professor Woody Holton—one of a handful of heterodox historians who defended the 1619 Project's original narrative. As the cameras pan across streets filled with historical re-enactors and tourists in front of restored colonial buildings, the pair take another stab at resurrecting the 1619 Project's narrative about the American Revolution. The evidence that a British threat to slavery impelled Virginians—or perhaps "the colonists" at large, in Hannah-Jones' imprecise phrasing—to revolt may be found in the November 1775 decree of John Murray, fourth earl of Dunmore, Virginia's last Royalist governor. Facing the collapse of British rule, Dunmore announced that any enslaved male from a household in rebellion would be granted freedom in exchange for military service on the British side.

  Dunmore's decree made him the author of an "Emancipation Proclamation" of sorts, both Hannah-Jones and Holton contend. Their language intentionally evokes parallels to President Abraham Lincoln's famous order freeing the slaves of the rebellious Confederacy in 1863. Prompted by Hannah-Jones' questioning, Holton then recounts his version of the lesser-known events of some four score and eight years prior. "Dunmore issued that Emancipation Proclamation November 1775," he explains, "and that Emancipation Proclamation infuriated white southerners."

  We see the visual power of the Hulu production at this moment as Holton lifts his finger, pointing at the Governor's Palace, the centerpiece of the Colonial Williamsburg historical park. The camera quickly shifts to the recreated structure as he begins to speak. "Because this building is supposed to symbolize white rule over blacks, and now the guy inhabiting that building," Dunmore, "has turned things upside down and is leading blacks against whites." Hannah-Jones interjects, "So you have this situation where many Virginians and other southern colonists—they're not really convinced that they want to side with the patriots. And this turns many of them towards the revolution. Is that right?" Holton answers without a flinch. "If you ask them, it did. The record is absolutely clear."

  The scene is an authoritatively delivered pronouncement set to stunning cinematography, but it's also false history.

  Click through for a truer history. I envision Professor Magness doing a Homer Simpson imitation: "Stupid TV! Be more honest!"