I haven’t done a grab-bag column in a fair while, and the “Future Columns” folder is about to burst, so...
1. Convergence.
If you haven’t yet read this piece by Wolf Howling, please do so. Wolf accurately (and without distortion) integrates the many seemingly independent anti-American initiatives of the Left into a single, cohesive attack that should terrify any thinking person. Indeed, anyone who’s had his finger on the pulse of events will already be terrified:
This is, collectively, the predicate to the coming storm. On the ground, the armed wings of the Democrat Party, BLM and Antifa, have executed over 570 violent riots in 22 cities during the past several months, most tolerated, if not outright aided and abetted, by local and state officials, including DA’s funded by George Soros. The left is stoking a race war even as they comprehensively attack the pillars of our society and Western Civilization as a whole....Does anyone expect that the progressives, having thrown everything that they have against Trump over the past four years without driving him from office, will accept a Trump reelection?...
The storm is coming and indeed, we may falter. How bloody and bad it will get, only time will tell.
Wolf’s assessment is ironically reinforced by this execrable, counterfactual screed at the Atlantic:
Liberals had enough trouble accepting the results of the 2016 election. In some sense, they never really came to terms with it. The past four years have witnessed the continuous urge to explain away the inexplicable, to find solace in the fact that the voters betrayed them. How could so many of their fellow Americans side with a racist and a fabulist, someone so callous and seemingly without empathy? It was easier to think that those Americans had been lackeys, manipulated and deceived, or that they simply hadn’t understood what was best for them. Moreover, the Russians had interfered, and tipped the balance in an extremely close election through propaganda, fake news, and collusion with the Trump campaign. Perhaps, as former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid suggested, the Russians had even tampered with the vote itself.That was then. This time, it would be worse. In 2016, Trump hadn’t ever held political office, so no one could truly grasp just how bad, and exhausting, a president he might become. Perhaps in 2016, too many voters were unwilling to believe that America was “already great” (and, for too many, it wasn’t). They had no reason to be content with the status quo, so their willingness to try something quite risky was understandable. Now, though, everyone should know the risks. Moreover, Hillary Clinton was an unusually polarizing candidate, whereas Joe Biden tends to attract attention for not attracting attention.
(Note that the Atlantic had already argued for the elimination of the Nobel Peace Prize, specifically because Trump has been nominated for it.)
With slanderers and propagandists like Shadi Hamid trying to “relax us” to the notion, there might be no way of averting a full-scale civil war. But in that case, hadn’t you better know which side you’re on and what you plan to do about it?
2. The Use Of Alternative Punishments.
The Feral Irishman has an example. I don’t know how to embed the video he presents here at Liberty’s Torch, so please hie thee hence and view it at his place. Also, recall what Robert A. Heinlein said about “cruel and unusual punishment:”
Dubois had mused aloud, "I do not understand objections to ‘cruel and unusual' punishment. While a judge should be benevolent in purpose, his awards should cause the criminal to suffer, else there is no punishment—and pain is the basic mechanism built into us by millions of years of evolution which safeguards us by warning when something threatens our survival. Why should society refuse to use such a highly perfected survival mechanism? However, that period was loaded with pre-scientific pseudo-psychological nonsense.
"As for 'unusual,' punishment must be unusual or it serves no purpose." He then pointed his stump at another boy. "What would happen if a puppy were spanked every hour?"
"Uh... probably drive him crazy!"
"Probably. It certainly will not teach him anything. How long has it been since the principal of this school last had to switch a pupil?"
"Uh, I'm not sure. About two years. The kid that swiped—"
"Never mind. Long enough. It means that such punishment is so unusual as to be significant, to deter, to instruct. "
Indeed.
3. A Genuinely Tough – And Nice – Chick.
Gina Carano may not be everyone’s favorite actress. However, for my money she’s a genuine star: a model of strength and femininity in combination. Recently the “trans bullies” decided it was time to get on her back about her pronouns:
Last time the transextremists (there are an awful lot of them in antifa and BLM) were demanding she repeat "All Cops are Bastards."Now these lunatics are demanding she put her pronouns in her Twitter bio-- or else they'll pressure Lucasfilm to fire her from The Mandalorian.
She did partly agree to their demands: She put "beep/boop/bop" in her name, suggesting those were "her pronouns." When it was actually her making fun of NPC Robots for always making the same three robot noises.
They didn't like that, either.
Oh, I’m sure they didn’t – and I’m sure Miss Carano couldn’t care less. She, you see, is a really strong woman: one who has decided to test herself to her limits, and has passed with flying colors by anyone’s standards.
If you haven’t seen Haywire, see it. Buy a copy of the DVD and run it whenever some Leftist twit starts nattering about “transgender rights” and / or “strong women.”
4. Pro Football Is For Leftists.
On Thursday night, the NFL hosted its season opener, and it was just as woke as other sports have been in their respective seasons so far. And the ratings seemed to show that fans are not happy about it.Breitbart reports from Deadline Hollywood:
“…the Kansas City Chiefs pummeled the Houston Texans 34-20, and the ratings were down — a lot. In early numbers, the primetime NBC game scored a 5.2 among adults 18-49 and 16.4 million viewers between 8-11 p.m. ET.“Now, those numbers for the 8:25-11:30 p.m. ET game will certainly be adjusted upward later, but right now they mark a 16.1% drop over the spectacle of the September 5, 2019 season opener in the advertiser-rich demographic. In an America and a NFL still adjusting to the new normal of live sports in the era of COVID-19, last night’s game also fell 16.1% in total sets of eyeballs from last year’s fast affiliate results.
It wasn’t enough of a shock to the NFL’s managements when Americans started looking away as athletes deliberately and visibly disrespected the National Anthem. That was when the C.S.O. and I decided to forgo pro football viewing. Now, with the open endorsement of the fascistic Black Lives Matter “movement” by the league and many of the players, the NFL will be fortunate not to have its TV contracts canceled by season’s end.
“Get Woke, Go Broke.” Some people need it tattooed on their foreheads – backwards, so they can read it in the mirror.
5. A Win For Freedom.
A U.S. District Court judge has ruled Pennsylvania’s lockdown orders unConstitutional:
U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV concluded the governor’s stay at home orders, limits on gatherings and closure of “non life-sustaining” businesses violated citizens’ Constitutional rights. The judge was responding to a lawsuit brought by a group of Pennsylvania businesses.
Which is exactly correct. Here’s the complete text of the ruling. Now could we get something like this from the Second Circuit, or perhaps the Supreme Court?
6. As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap.
Some time ago, PowerLine’s John Hinderaker noted a disturbing development in educational practice in Edina, Minnesota. Today, he notes another disturbing development:
Life-threatening crime in elite suburbs like Edina is a new phenomenon, but residents had better get used to it if they continue to support BLM and other anti-law enforcement causes. What do they think is going to happen if law enforcement is dismantled?The stark choice between law and order and violent crime is on the ballot in November. Frankly, I suspect that a majority of Edina residents are too far gone to make a rational decision. One hopes that is not the case in most suburbs across the country.
Now, one cannot ascribe the rise in crime in Edina directly to the changes in the schools, but one can easily understand that a force capable of suborning a community’s public schools must have made substantial inroads elsewhere in the community. Why would the Leftists who’ve colonized Edina’s schools stop there? They’re always looking for new worlds to conquer...and it appears that in Edina, they’ve found one ripe for the plucking.
7. “Let Us Kill You, Racist Pigs!”
In Lancaster [Pennsylvania], an officer responded to a domestic violence call at a residence where a man had stabbed four people last year. As the officer approached the house, a female escaped out the front door. A man — the suspect from the previous slashings — then emerged and ran at the officer, brandishing a knife over his head. The officer shot him, as the officer was by all appearances legally authorized to do, to stop the threat of deadly force. Twenty-seven-year-old Ricardo Munoz died from the officer’s gunfire.The response from the “community,” after this summer of lethal cop hatred, was predictable. Rioters pelted Lancaster cops with bricks, glass bottles, and sharp projectiles ripped from road barricades. They smashed the windows of police cruisers, the downtown police precinct, the post office, cafés, and stores. They torched a dumpster dragged from another part of the city. They pulled street signs and bike racks out of sidewalks to use against the police.
If it isn’t yet time to go to live fire, when will that time arrive?
That’s all for today, Gentle Reader. I have a ton of work ahead, so do your best to enjoy your Tuesday. I’ll probably be back tomorrow.
1 comment:
Once again, the object of this "movement" (as in bowel movement) is to destroy western civilization, and its chief pillar, Christianity. What the "movement" will replace western civ with isn't articulated. Perhaps the whole country will look like Capital Hill in Seattle. Wouldn't that be wonderful? What this "movement" fails to notice, since it's fighting "systemic racism," is most of our institutions are controlled or dominated by the left. Media, entertainment, sports, all dominated by the left. If there's "systemic racism," doesn't it stand to reason that it rests in the lap of the left? The "movement" has been conned. Worse, it's conned itself.
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