Hello again and welcome back to yet another batch of Laura's Links.
As I put together the various bits and pieces of this week's column, I tried really hard to think of a blockbuster glass-half-full intro. I focused my energy on trying to bring something to really make your spirits soar β to bring hope and peace and love and all that other good stuff right from my computer to yours.
Unfortunately, the first and only thing that came into my mind was "well, at least people aren't hoarding toilet paper anymore". SORRY GUYS! I promise to keep trying to think of the "fluffy bunny" (Mark's term, not mine) stuff and maybe we will return to full and total normalization next week so I'll have lots to be chipper about (snort β ya, like that's gonna happen).
I actually have had other optimistic-ish thoughts over the week, but every time I see a little bit of progress toward normal, or feel a little bit of that sunshiny normalish sunbeam hopeful kind of thing, the freaks come out at night. With sincere apologies to Whodini though and for real and not for joking they are out all the time now. Everywhere. They are everywhere nowadays. Expect more of this. Gird yer loins, people. It's still going to be a rough ride for us normals for a long while.
Over the past week, my totally-so-completely-peachy, normal, honourable and gracious host Mark Steyn also kept up his usual proclivity for productivity and shared new episodes of The Mark Steyn show like From Covid to Canceled, Terrors and Triumphs and Looting the Loop. But wait, there's more! Make sure you don't miss a whole whack of new Steynian thoughts about the upcoming American elections in his Elections 2020 Notebook dispatch Who Needs the Plague? And if the politics get you down, you can take a musical break with the Song of the Week: Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. Don't miss the song! Read about the song! As Mark Steyn Club member Robeekay pointed out in the comments, Mark's lovely essay is "full of hidden Easter eggs as usual". So true!
Now let's take a look back at the week that was as we try to keep our chins up.
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North America:
Our children are suffering. Nobody seems to care.
Apparently, black-owned businesses don't matter.
Flatten the curve, save the health system, just a few weeks, suck it up, wear a mask, you're under arrest.
Finally, something Canada did right.
The Canadian Human Rights Museum (or as my buddy "scaramouche" used to call it, Mausoleum) is raaaaaaaacist. This is the funniest thing. Laughed so hard.
Two enterprising Princeton grads hope to cash in on the remote university scam.
Virginia: A rape suspect is freed from prison due to coronavirus fears (why and on what planet does this make sense?). He promptly murders his accuser then commits suicide.
The legendary Thomas Sowell on race, poverty and culture.
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The Formerly Great Britain:
Rowan Atkinson valiantly attempts to save free speech in Britain.
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Europe:
Some charming information about the colonization of France.
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Down Under:
What the actual hell? Not crazy. Nope. Carry on. Nothing to see here.
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Jews and Israel:
"We must confront Muslim anti-Semitism." Good luck!
What is a Jew? What is a Jewish country? A Jewish country is one where a terrorist who murdered two soldiers is allowed to first donate bone marrow to his sick brother and then be arrested. For better or for worse, this is Israel. This is the Jewish people. Read about Miriam Peretz here.
Curses and blessings. Some Jewish ideas to ponder.
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Asia:
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Humourless and Kook Left, Wokestapo and Trans:
Educators: Your moral and indoctrination superiors. This is not unsurprising, but revolting just the same. More here.
Ricky Gervais keeps blasting cancel culture.
Jewish meteorologist fired for describing riots as Nazi-like.
Orthodox Jewish professor under fire for refusing to go to Indoctrination Gulag.
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Human and Canine Grace:
Walking up stairs.
Celebrating "alive day".
Have a great week and I'll see you in the comments!
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We must begin enjoying that we live in strangely marvelous times. The silent Mr. Bean, suffering Mr. Magoo-like indignities, getting his head stuck in the Christmas goose (was it a turkey or a goose?), emerges as a most courageous defender of robust free speech.
God bless us, everyone!
While reading VD Hanson's "New Old Obama", I had to sit on my hands to keep from stretching one and then the other toward the ceiling for teacher to see. Why is Obama speaking out now? Ooh-ooh, I know! But then, VDH--wise and benevolent--gave the answer to the whole class, and saved this know-it-all from the beating he was sure to take later on the playground.
Obama is now independently wealthy, several generations' worth. He has "made enough money". Proselytizing about global warming has earned him a fabulous 30-acre compound on the water of low-lying Martha's Vineyard. Excoriating private wealth and those who have amassed it when they "didn't build that" has rewarded him with a 8,200 sq. ft. mansion in DC, next to Jeff Bezos and Jared and Ivanka. (Imagine the frosty stares over the driveway on recycling day!)
Why hasn't he returned to Chicago when the city's black youth are bleeding out in the street? He already has what he wants from the city: the promise of 21 acres of the Olmstead-designed Jackson Park for his Taj Mahal to himself. Only "community organization" in opposition to the land seizure stands in his way.
But why now? It's the election, stupid, and a chance to exert influence over a former acolyte now enfeebled by age and infirmity. (I thought Susan Rice would have been Obama's choice, but he's also expressed "admiration" for Kamala Harris, who has been known to take guidance from older men.) Nobody wants to back a loser, but with "Dr." Jill Biden on one arm and himself on the other, they might just be able to steer the poor befuddled man over the threshold of the White House. Oh, and if the heart of the progressive movement has moved on from Obama's pleats to AOC's teeth, well, he's here to remind folks who was The One they were waiting for while she was slinging drinks in The Bronx. And if it means hijacking the memorial service of a true civil rights hero to relaunch the Obama Brandβ’ ("75% more woke!"), John Lewis wouldn't mind. You could see him up in Heaven, mirroring every jab and cross Obama threw at President Trump in the eulogy.
But that's just politics, more sordid than most, but far below the Clinton Standard of public self-service. What even more deeply motivates Obama is his legacy and reputation. Trump was never supposed to win; having won, he was never supposed to last. And none of the Russiagate hoax was ever to see the light of day. The Swamp has kept its gaseous secrets for for years. Asking for eight is pressing its luck.
"Why hasn't he returned to Chicago when the city's black youth are bleeding out in the street?"
Indeed. We should all write modest letters to our local daily rags expressing this question.
Eh. We all know the answer anyway. The left prefers its public righteous indignation and its private, utterly indifferent, hypocritical, cloistered (very conservative) life.
Good Morning Laura,
I was never a fan of Rowan Atkinson. His "Bean" Schlick just grated on me rather like Michael "some mother's do have em" Crawford and, away from the UK, Jim Varney's Ernest creation. Still each to their own. (If any American club members are unaware of Crawford highly successful bbc series of that name they are indeed fortunate. Stick to Barnum please Michael).
Having said that Rowan has now joined the likes of Ricky Gervais and John Cleese as old-fashioned liberals who have simply had enough and retain the balls and self-respect to go on record about it. If the madness ever ends they can all hold their heads high.
Hi John, I also was never a big fan but I agree with you completely that there is an issue of self-respect, balls and holding one's head up high. Such a low bar and yet so rare in this time of cowardice.
Laura, thank you so much for posting that profile of Thomas Sowell - I was fortunate to see it earlier this week but it was worth reading again. Proud to say the two most well represented authors in my library are Sowell and Steyn.
With George Floyd/BLM dominating the media, I went the other way and really jumped into black conservatism. I'd highly recommend Larry Elder's film Uncle Tom which came out about two months ago; an entertaining, informative, (slightly depressing), look at black Republicans. It sent me down a rabbit hole of YouTube videos featuring Walter Williams, Shelby Steele, Jason Riley, Wilfred Reilly, etc. This is all a roundabout way of getting to my point: you know how sometimes a random comment on the internet can seem so profound or put everything in perspective? I was watching an old episode of Firing Line where Sowell was just shredding the examiner and her comments on blacks failing due to "a legacy of slavery," "women making less than men for the same work," the usual liberal tropes. This one commenter was something like "DubstepGuy," he'd uploaded a few hundred videos of nothing but the most horrible electronic dance music with the same vinyl background, but he commented that "Thomas Sowell had this s*** figured out forty years ago and we're still arguing the exact same issues today."
Thanks for the film tip. Will check it out. Sowell is a genius. He has been cancelled and ignored for as long as he has been producing his most excellent work.
Agreed, Richard, profile of Sowell definitely worth reading -- I need to read more of his work. Like you the BLM idiocy has driven me to learn more about black conservatives. I watched "Uncle Tom" recently, twice, bought the DVD, am passing it around - highly recommended. Found, also, 1776 Unites, confronting the wrong-headed 1619 project. I find it encouraging that so many are refusing to be victims.
Funny you say that - I've been doing the same thing with my DVD!
Mark has devoted a bunch of time to the Australian brand cancelling Coon Cheese, but I wasn't really familiar with the term "coon" as a racial slur until I learned about the 1776 Project and started following some of those folks on Twitter. Lo and behold, it seems like coon is the go-to insult for other blacks to smear black conservatives. I'm with you Kim, I think it's awesome to see people who reject the role of victim, but man, the media love to talk about how difficult it is to be a minority in America. Just imagine being a black Republican!
Ezra Levant has done a very good piece on Scotland's suggested "Hate Crimes" law. He has footage of the laughably designated "Justice Minister," Humza Yousaf, having an anti-white rant in the Scottish Parliament, which is supposed to represent an overwhelmingly white nation. In practice, it represents a few postcodes in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee, but, despite the corruption and incompetence of the Scottish National Party, recent opinion polls suggest a clear victory for the SNP at the next Scottish elections.
Which means the Scots will have voted for yet more insanity like the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill. Like all such legislation, that bill is a monstrosity, because it puts thought crime into law. Not only does it abolish the presumption of innocence, but it abolishes the concept of innocence itself. If one individual (A) claims to have identified statements by another individual (B) which might be construed as offensive to a (potentially entirely hypothetical third party - C), the onus is on B to disprove the accusation, which is obviously impossible.
The most dangerous part of the proposed legislation is that most of it is plainly a smoke-screen for the bit Humza Yousaf really cares about. While the bill contains a shopping-list of identity-groups which would, supposedly, benefit, the one which would take most advantage would be islam. Any criticism of islam is already denounced as "islamophobia," the non-existent medical condition which is now being turned into a crime. As Ezra Levant points out, clauses in the legislation would protect islam from criticism even of practices associated with islam: FGM, jihadi terrorism, rape gangs and, I suppose, "honour killings," too. I've a funny feeling that criticism or mockery of any other faith would not be so rigorously patrolled.
In 1914, early on in the First World War, a number of British servicemen were convicted by courts-martial for cowardice. Voices in the army quickly expressed disquiet, on the grounds that no kind of court was qualified to establish a state of mind, which is what cowardice self-evidently is. Although discipline was harsh in the British Army in the '14-18 war and many more death penalties were carried out, principally for desertion, the principle prevailed that thoughts were not crimes. More than a century later, many Western governments are determined to unlearn that lesson.
My favourite is the Atkinson clip.
It is ironic that in my youth it was largely conservatives who tried most vigorously to shut up people with views other than their own. Protection from views other than their own in my view contributed greatly to the inability of conservatives - not only those who were advocating the shutting up of views they didn't like - to respond critically and eloquently to the views which had previously been shut up. Once the case had been made for freedom of speech, and views once shut up got out, the toothpaste of left-wing discourse was never going to be coaxed back into the tube. Happily, conservative discourse has evolved massively in the space between my youth and my present decrepitude, and so has conservative thought, unruly as it remains. The champions of free speech are now largely conservative, and its most devoted enemies are on the left. I like it like that.
Sadly, there will be a new generation whose conservative members do not remember when an earlier form of cancel culture was very much the flavour of conservatism, and who will conclude that freedom of speech is synonymous with the expression of conservative views. And eventually only of conservative views. We mustn't let that happen.
The fight for freedom of speech must continue independently of the fight against socialism, the fight to possess and bear arms, the fight to imbibe cold-drinks through plastic straws like children, the fight over abortion, the fight over protection of borders, the fight against private medicine, the fight for slavery reparations for people who aren't slaves and never in their lives have been, and all the rest. Freedom of speech will not guarantee the outcome of those fights, but I believe that it will contribute to achieving, if not the best solution, then at least a less-awful one.
So, thanks for speaking out, Mr Atkinson, thanks to the author for sharing his words with the likes of me, and pity he needed to cite Mr Obama in making his case. Still, it makes the case for not thinking of the fight for freedom of speech in party-political terms that the same president who did so much harm to race relations, the containment of nuclear proliferation, respect for the American justice system and constitutional governance did speak up for freedom of speech.
Damned liar that he is.
That U Experience thing, trying to attract students to hotels in Hawaii and Arkansas... Well, if you're going to gather students together on a quasi-campus, I suppose you could add tuition and call it - oh, I dunno - how about a "university"?
I can't help but feel just a little schadenfreude over what is happening in the upper west side. These liberal types are perfectly content to have the homeless urinating, masturbating, shooting up and passing out in public, just as long as it's done in someone else's neighborhood. They're similar to the BLM supporters who occupy the tonier sections of DC; they're the first ones to call the cops when BLM shows up in their neighborhood.
Matthew, exactly-who did these people vote for?
My reaction was "couldn't happen to a more deserving neighborhood".
Our children are suffering and no one seems to care is right. Since the start of the virus, for those under 20 years old, my county has had 9 hospitalizations and zero deaths due to Covid. Our school district polled parents and 85% voted to send our kids back full time. All available guidance (CDC/state/etc) says kids need to go back to school in person, subject to accommodations for any at-risk teachers, students, etc. So what does our school board do? Buckles to the teachers union and changes course to go to full virtual learning, just weeks before school is set to begin in person.
The power that the teachers union wields over our school board is staggering. To hell with students, parents, anyone that gets in their way. The teachers union here in the US is a despicable and remorseless source of evil. They use kids as pawns in their raw pursuit of power. It's absolutely disgusting.
Jamie, I could not agree with you more. I am livid about the plans here in Ontario and they are better than your county's. There is a lot of vile, disgusting and completely corrupt governance happening now and everything will be about "health and safety". Ultimately "health and safety" may be the ideological cudgel that bludgeons democracy to death.
Sincere thanks Laura for at least trying to see the glass as half full. I agree that finding any liquid at all in the glass requires a suspension of all reason.
Stories such as the freeing of a victim's rapist so he can murder her in Virginia and the multiple atrocities in France are beyond comprehension. I recall Douglass Murray cautions us that we never understand a true crisis while we're going through it. But that's the best I've got, as far as optimism. I sincerely hope there's something I'm missing about all this. Otherwise, the only thing to hope for is Trump's victory, which will never be accepted anyway,even if it is too obvious to deny.
Victor Davis Hanson tried to cheer me earlier this week with a piece promising a potent counter-revolution. I hope he's right, but even he admits it's uncertain. It's hard to admit how hollow we've become. I never thought we were invincible but to be ruined by packs of infantile morons is shameful beyond measure.
Enduring the campaign of China Joe and Heels Up Harris would have been mildly amusing in a previous era (pre-March, 2020). Now, having to hear thousands of adults enthusiastically support the end of the rule of law is too much.
Do we collectively deserve our liberties anymore? Or has our "culture" since the 1960s rendered us deserving of our demise? The only hopeful sign I've seen lately is the beat down some good Ft. Collins, CO citizens gave some Antifa soy boys who ventured into town without a police escort. So yes, I still want VDH to be right and Trump to win but at this stage it seems like a long shot. Too many people need a beating. Too few of them will get one.
Michael, I'm totally on board with your pessimism but I did laugh at the idea that finding any liquid at all is actually the challenge. LOL. Nice.
Well said, Bean. Yet bringing the insufferable Barack Obama into the debate smells like a pandering gesture. (Could it be have implanted to offset Mr. Atkinson's prior use of the term "liberal-minded"? Or to mollify Scottish leftists?) I don't recall Barack's sweeping odes to an open society prior to or after his UN speech, referenced by Mr Bean, other than his rather casual shift of a Deep State monster into overdrive to kill-off an entire duly elected opposition government.
Total pandering ("I'm not a hatey hatey yucky kucky right winger I am quoting the Messiah Obama"). But still, takes some stones to go public with such an initiative.
Rowan is in danger of being cancelled...as long as they don't touch Blackadder!
Living an hour north of Seattle, I read Prof. Mass' essay, and immediately marked him as a brave but doomed public figure. The only reason the mayor of Seattle reacted at all was because they came after her! The only reason the (black female) police chief reacted was because they wanted to defund her job. I don't believe in karma, but idiocy has consequences.
I have been heartened to see the "brownshirts" in black have been resisted by armed citizens in at least a couple of place in the Northwest. Seattle and Portland willfully committed suicide and now they want sympathy . . . Not bleeding likely.
Sympathy AND money from the taxpayers.
John, it reminds me of Mayor Bill deCrazio wanting federal money "or else" he will have to fire 20,000 city employees. As my friend Shiela Gunn-Reid says "don't threaten me with a good time".