Cancel Culture Bites Own Tuchus

by Laura Rosen Cohen
Laura's Links
October 9, 2019

https://www.steynonline.com/9775/cancel-culture-bites-own-tuchus

The real (wrinkly) face of the climate fight. Sorry Greta.

Greetings and welcome another instalment of Laura's Links. I have literally been slaving, slaving I tell you, over a steaming hot internet all week to make sure I provide you with a robust selection of links from around the world. I would have said it's a "fat" edition, but I think it's against the law nowadays to say fat. I guess I could say it's a chubby, or zaftig edition? I dunno.

Regardless, there have been a lot of interesting things percolating around the web over the past week. And I love the word percolating, perhaps because I endeavour to be a reasonably perky lady. I also had a hard time keeping up with all the great stuff Mark himself put up this week-that spiffy Global Content Provider never sleeps! So do make sure to check out the excellent Clubland Q&A playback, Mark's remarks on the passing of that rather ghastly politician, the anti-American French horndog Jacque Chirac and his particularly restrained and enlightening update on Dr. Michael E. Mann as relates to his case against Dr. Tim Ball.

Now away we go!

America and Western Civilization:

The great Victor Davis Hanson discusses the death of American citizenship.

Cancel culture bites cancel jerkoff right back, right in the tuchus. Can't we finally cancel "cancel culture"? What if everyone just started to say "yeah, I wrote that, so what". No apologies, no confessions, just "so what".

A good phrase and spirited Twitter thread here on cancel culture's "mutually assured cancellation".

I really hate it when I have to agree with disgusting, scumbag Jew-haters, but these are strange times. Free speech means you are free to be an antisemite. So he's an antisemite, so what? Really who cares? We Jews live in this nutter's head rent free. Pathetic!

Great essay here from City Journal: The Elites Against Western Civilization.

Israel and Jews:

Yossi Cohen, the Mossad spy chief who stole Iran's secret nuclear archives. As a friendly reminder, Yossi Cohen is his real name. So if the head of the Israeli Mossad is known and public, surely most cases made for internet anonymity must be at least slightly exaggerated. Feel free to disagree.

I definitely agree with this: Palestinian "solidarity" is the gateway drug to rabid anti-Semitism.

Here's an excellent essay via the Gatestone Institute about how conducting normal relations with Israelis/Jews is a crime in much of the Muslim world. It's actually really sad and pathetic. What a waste, to spend so much time hating and loathing. Palestinians selling real estate to Jews is a capital offense. There will be peace when Palestinians refrain from sentencing their own bretheren to the death penalty for selling property to Jews, and when saying hello to a Jew is not a moral or actual crime in Palestinian society.

A word about Israel's flailing democracy.

What happened to the missing me, or 'where do all the Jews go this month'. Cute.

Lastly: Jews! Fight back!

Middle East:

Celebrate diversity because all cultures are equal, blah blah etc...

Iran details family members of women's rights activist. Barbarians.

Europe:

What does one have to do to actually get deported from Sweden? What a hell hole it is. The extent to which Sweden and most European countries are perfectly comfortable sacrificing their women and children on the pyre of multiculturalism is absolutely disgusting. This is modern human sacrifice and it's actually profoundly evil.

No wonder ethnic Swedes do not wish to live in Sweden.

Interesting: why the radical right is no longer the exclusive domain of an older European demographic. (I always question the use of the word 'radical', it seems very loaded to me in most cases.)

This one is devastating: America, please take Meghan Markle back. Ouch!!!

A fabulous interview by James Delingpole with the amazing Douglas Murray. I feel like I probably sufficiently fawned enough over Mr. Murray in a previous dispatch, but if anyone feels otherwise, I shall return to Über Fawning Fan Girl Yes I Know He Is Gay So What mode the next time I link to him.

The Kook Left, Wokestapo and Trans:

In the UK, a doctor loses his legal battle against Big Trans.

In America, a teacher fired over transgendered pronoun fight (can you believe I actually wrote those words??????) files suit.

From the ever growing "what could possibly go wrong file", NHS guidelines now allow biological males to stay on female hospital wards.

Picture my surprised face: George Soros emerges as a major funder of the global climate strike.

Pope Francis inaugurates massive migrant sculpture in St. Peter's Square. Catholic peeps, help me out here!

Another "I can't believe I am actually writing these words" item...Trans athlete claims lesbians are transphobic for not liking penises. I just re-read that line and I'm laughing out loud. I just can't!

Person with brain tries to shame virtue-signalling rich people who think they can purchase a clean, green conscience. Amusing but pointless.

The Old Vic theatre goes woke. As per the Prophet Mark Steyn, PBUH's (Pocket squares Be Upon Him) great line, we in the West will still be talking about transgendered bathrooms when the Iranian mullahs nuke us.

The Wokestapo faces a backlash from women at British schools.

Mom solves daughter's "mystery illness"-school nurse inserted a birth-control implant in her daughter without parental consent.

Random:

Third grade student pen letters to G-d.

Nah, seriously don't worry, nobody will ever notice!

How to set your Google data settings to 'self-destroy'.

Human Grace:

Ohio 16-year old lifts 3,000 pound car off of his neighbour and saves his life.

President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence celebrate the lives of those with Down syndrome.

Husband plants thousands of fragrant flowers for blind wife. She emerged from a deep depression and from her home to enjoy the flowers. Ain't love grand?

And lastly, some daily affirmations that we can all learn from.

Now off you go, comment away. Due to the Yom Kippur holiday, I will only be able to join you in the commenting festivities sometime after sundown this evening. This will be the Cohen family after the fast, so please take good care of the comment section until I'm back!

While Laura Rosen Cohen atones for her incessant fangirling of Douglas Murray, do let your fellow SteynOnline readers know what you think of these stories or others from the past week in the comment section below. If you want to get in on the action, make sure your Mark Steyn Club membership is up to date, as commenting privileges are among the many perks for Club members.

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73 Reader Comments

Fran Lavery • Oct 12, 2019 at 13:30

Hi Laura, I showed the affirmation video to my three-year old grandson. He had a great bigger than average smile on his face. Wonderful!

Fran Lavery

Fran Lavery • Oct 12, 2019 at 16:07

Not so wonderful: Working backwards and just reached the link about the Baltimore high schooler who became sick after the school nurse gave her a birth control implant. If I were a parent to a high school student so endangered I would not hesitate for a second taking the entire school board and administrators in that district to court. That's up there with the ultimate outrageousness. Disgusting! Who the hell do these people think they are?

Laura Rosen Cohen

Fran Lavery • Oct 12, 2019 at 22:27

Aww. Glad he liked it!

tug • Oct 12, 2019 at 07:52

Laura,
Another Great Compilation".
Didn't know where to plug in my "comment" so I'll let it stand alone. "Death by a Thousand Cuts"
With the "woke" NBA and Nike telling America how Americans will practice "free speech" now and in the future the Washington Trail Blazers made this announcement " The WBT have ended it's Hero program with Leopold and it wishes them well" Leopold is an American Company (almost 100 years old) that makes rifle scopes that sells some to the Israel Defense Force They DENIED it was KOWTOWING to the anti-Israel BDS movement. "Two Birds with One Stone', Kowtow to China - Take a shot a Israel. Intersection of Hate America and Jews getting crowded. Still don't see many American Jews looking for the ""off ramps, please help Laura

Segnes Schonken • Oct 12, 2019 at 02:49

Particularly enjoyed the Delingpod interview with Douglas Murray, for which thank you. Mr Murray's obvious intelligence is inspirational. The author's prefatory comments about Mr Murray's sexual predilection were very funny, to be sure, but one of the many things which make him a credit to humanity at large is his rare ability to discuss the politics of sexual predilection reasonably and without trying to establish some kind of monopoly of virtue, as he demonstrated in the interview. I am allergic to people who try as a matter of course to demonstrate that they embody all and everything that is virtuous, but I have come to accept that we're all inclined to do it at least in areas of vulnerability. Mr Murray seems never to do it: an effortless abstainer, as it were. Another is his restrained manner. I have difficulty in liking strident people, and regard Mr Murray as exemplary.

Now, if only I could actually do likewise!

Fran Lavery

Segnes Schonken • Oct 14, 2019 at 13:56

Like you, S., I appreciate the way Mr. Murray can articulate the big problems: he gets straight to the nub of much of what we're facing today. The point he made about pride being more about being better than the other, "if you can manage it," and not so much equal, was something that bothered me every time I saw the pride parades or pride demonstrations but I couldn't quite say what was so annoying other than everyone was asked to stop what they did to pay attention.

The other one hit me like the reflex hammer on the patellar ligament, I laughed as if the hammer smacked the sweet spot: who wants sex at the bank, you want more tellers or the cash machine not to be out of order the morning you're running late on your errands. People want things to work the way they're supposed to work.

Lastly, about race: when we were growing up "the destination was clear," he says, "we were to be colorblind." Now we problematize being a certain color, today it's white, and he's quite accurate to say that most people don't want to be problematized because of their skin color and we can certainly expect there'll be a backlash. Look what's happening in South Africa. Here, with Obama's emphasis ad nauseum on race relations being abysmal when he came on the political scene when everyone thought voting for a black president would erase the last traces that existed.

It's that politics of division is now the fashionable industry. America wasn't that racist until he came along with his divisive race rhetoric, like "Trayvon Martin could've been my son." Yes? Maybe there would be more blacks if your pet Planned Parenthood wasn't in the big business of aborting so many black babies.

Well, Trump was America's backlash on all that. The new weapon of the backlash is IQ and Charles Murray's bell curve was mentioned. We could probably discuss the rest of this interview for next year.

Segnes Schonken

Fran Lavery • Oct 15, 2019 at 18:50

We could, F., but you've certainly pulled out some real plums.

"Who wants sex at the bank"? I worked in banking for a while, and have tales to tell. Happily, few entail customers. Those got away scot-free, as a rule.

Segnes Schonken

Fran Lavery • Oct 15, 2019 at 19:02

P.S.: I was in Pasadena when the Zimmerman verdict was delivered and the route to the airport was purposely congested with objecting objectionables egged on from the plush chair in the White House. Whatever one's politics, it is not a good look when the head of state encourages (and this was not merely tacit encouragement) not only lawlessness but also contempt for the state's organs of law enforcement.

Subject to correction, I think the last time this happened in a western nation went into history as "Kristallnacht".

As to "Trayvon Martin could've been my son," the man clearly put himself about a bit.

Fran Lavery

Segnes Schonken • Oct 15, 2019 at 21:19

If it were President Trump doing the encouraging in a similar situation,
it would be Impeachment round two! This Democratic Congress will be known as being on the Carousel of Hoaxes and Impeachment Inquiries. One goes down the other goes up and around and around it goes, when it stops nobody knows since the adults all left the carnival.

TxRebel66 • Oct 10, 2019 at 18:56

Yossi Cohen - and his entire Mossad group - are The Greatest People In The World.

Wayne Lanham • Oct 10, 2019 at 18:51

I desperately need someone to convince me that it's not all over except for the shouting. No matter which direction I turn, it seems depressingly clear that the Left has this battle won because they have utter and complete control of the schools and universities. In no more than twenty years, remorseless demography will hand them their victory. There simply isn't enough time left to unwind this.

Even if we could somehow recapture control of the education process TODAY, then we might have a chance. But we won't even regain reasonable opposition footing within the education system in my lifetime, much less control. They are going to have their way. The most I can hope for is that Trump may be reelected and his Supreme Court nominations will slow this down long enough for me to enjoy the time I have.

Ugh...

Journolist

Wayne Lanham • Oct 10, 2019 at 19:18

Globally the sunni community already commands a greater, more ruthless army than the left and it increases by the day. They are the remorseless future.

Wayne Lanham

Journolist • Oct 11, 2019 at 10:44

I almost want to live long enough to see that conflict between the Western Left and Islam, because it will happen. I assume Islam will win that one, but with Antifa being what it is now, I'm not as sure as I was a few years ago.

Mark sometimes says "united they fall, but divided some of them stand a chance" and I've come to believe that will be the only way. The survival of liberalized western civilization will require another revolution/secession in order to maintain physical control of a geography with some sort of cultural integrity. And I just don't see that happening.

Journolist

Wayne Lanham • Oct 11, 2019 at 12:45

Antifa do not have anything like the military organisation of the billions under sunni command. They prefer to see others die whereas there is no hesitation in "volunteers" from the ranks being sacrificed.

Laura Rosen Cohen

Wayne Lanham • Oct 11, 2019 at 13:53

It AIN'T over. Never give up. Cheer up, count blessings.

Wayne Lanham

Wayne Lanham • Oct 11, 2019 at 16:25

I wouldn't go so far as to presume Mark picked up this topic from perusing my comments today, but he did touch on it during his guest hosting duties for Rush. He astutely pointed out that the mathematics of this demographic exercise are more complicated than mere arithmetic because people tend to become more conservative as they age, which gives conservatives a fighting chance to change minds over time.

The worry for me comes from the fact that each successive generation since at least the Baby Boomers has started adult life from an ever more liberal perspective. And the Millenials seem hopelessly "woke" liberal to me. They see traditional conservatism as fascist, which is more horribly misguided than I can competently describe, but it is what it is.

So even if using calculus and not arithmetic to project a demographic tipping point, you still have to account for this second derivative of today's youth being grossly more liberal than the youth of the 1960s.

So even if millenials mellow with age and become more "conservative" in relative terms, where does that leave us? It seems to me that tomorrow's conservative millenial would probably equate to a garden variety liberal baby boomer such as a Bill Clinton from the 1990s. And that isn't going to get us very far.

Kate Smyth

Wayne Lanham • Oct 12, 2019 at 20:13

That's an important point about the remorseless left-shift as a starting point - due largely to "woke" schooling - such that conservatism is increasingly seen as fascism (by liberal fascists). Is it possible there'll be a major correctional tipping point as the left gets ever more extreme?

One can only hope that Mark's optimistic perspective - that it's ultimately not about numbers, and that nothing in life in certain (see David A's comment) - will prevail.

Fran Lavery

Kate Smyth • Oct 14, 2019 at 13:27

I'm eager to see the tipping point hurry it up and get here, Kate, just to see where the correctional direction will lead us? Douglas Murray suggests in his interview with James Delingpole we'll have other unimaginable dumb things people are working on in a couple decades instead of the current culture destroying issues. What could be worse than what we're living through now? Oh, better not ask the question to which you might already know the answer.

Kate Smyth

Fran Lavery • Oct 15, 2019 at 23:27

With you on the tipping point, Fran. But I'm not sure I agree with that aspect of Douglas Murray's forecast, because "unimaginable dumb things" are the sort of luxuries that will be the first to go when far more brutal tyrannies take hold. It would be interesting to hear DM combine his Strange-Death-of-Europe and Madness-of-Crowds theses.

PS. Not an original thought, obviously... perhaps Mark will discuss *his* prediction when he interviews DM.

Kate Smyth

Fran Lavery • Oct 16, 2019 at 03:51

Not *my* original thought (is what I meant to say).

Santa Cruzin • Oct 10, 2019 at 15:58

Another fabulous "size-challenged" Laura's Links. There is very little in this world I care less about than the British Royal Family. After Prince "Eco-Warrior" Charles fantasized about being a feminine hygiene product, how can one take anything they say seriously? As for the Duchess of Sussex--caveat emptor!

Kim Corwin • Oct 10, 2019 at 13:11

Love all the links, Laura! and a warning - on the White House tweet re: Down Syndrome, don't read the comments. Seriously, don't. What a contrast to the beautiful photo and caption. I shoulda known TDS trumps everything, a celebration of DS included.

Laura Rosen Cohen

Kim Corwin • Oct 10, 2019 at 14:56

Hi Kim, definitely won't. But even if I did, I would probably pity the pathetic haters more than anything.

Kate Smyth

Kim Corwin • Oct 10, 2019 at 21:18

That link and a related one from the last round are so uplifting. Many of the abhorrent (yet "civilised") comments for these stories are a reminder that civility should never be confused with morality. Most western countries are following the eugenics path of Iceland. We are just a small step away from Aktion T4 with the move to legalise "post-birth abortion".

Laura Rosen Cohen

Kate Smyth • Oct 11, 2019 at 10:41

Eternal and uncompromising vigilance is required.

Kate Smyth

Laura Rosen Cohen • Oct 12, 2019 at 20:36

The intersection of "rights", law and healthcare underlies the modern "humane holocaust" that Malcolm Muggeridge predicted. It ties in with Douglas Murray's point about diversity and equality; it's very difficult to be opposed to "compassion" etc.

Australia's esteemed "moral philosopher" - Peter Singer - has an article this weekend on abortion. It appears his once-extreme views in support of infanticide aren't so extreme anymore: highly civilised yet grotesquely evil.

Al Man from CA • Oct 10, 2019 at 11:20

Well Laura, I have a couple of things to thank you for with this issue of Links, and one item that gave me a headache, guess which one gave me the headache:
From the Spectator; "self-serving imbecility" (HAH!).
From City Journal; "liberal cretinati" (I can't wait to see the expression on lefties faces when I insert this into a lively discussion!).
From the Post Millenial; All things trans and penis.
Best Regards as always!

Laura Rosen Cohen

Al Man from CA • Oct 10, 2019 at 14:57

Hi Al Man, I aim to please. Sorry about the headache, but at least you got a few good phrases out of this edition!

Kate Smyth

Al Man from CA • Oct 10, 2019 at 21:20

Enjoyed "cretinati", and also the observation in American Thinker that "Virtue signaling is but another form of social climbing". As Mark noted, identity politics is simply a 21st century, progressive Downton Abbey.

Segnes Schonken

Kate Smyth • Oct 12, 2019 at 02:51

"Cretinati" was indeed brilliant.

James Morphew • Oct 10, 2019 at 07:53

At least now I know how to spell "tuchus". Been using it since I was little, but never sure of the spelling.

Laura Rosen Cohen

James Morphew • Oct 10, 2019 at 09:19

Glad to be of service, James!

Kate Smyth • Oct 10, 2019 at 07:13

Love the Links - and Laura's "voice"!! Excellent pieces by VDH, Joel Kotkin, Rabbi Aryeh Spero and Rod Liddle.

The best bits by LRC:
- "What if everyone just started to say 'yeah, I wrote that, so what?'"
- "Free speech means you are free to be an antisemite."

By the way, "Big Pape" (via the SteynOnline Twitter link) is perfect. Bergoglio is an abomination.

Also, "Palestinian solidarity" highlights the complete absence of Uighur solidarity - except for America's, noting the recent announcement by Mike Pompeo. It's as though Islam doesn't care about fundamental human rights - of Muslims. Never a peep from the Ummah. Go figure.

Laura Rosen Cohen

Kate Smyth • Oct 10, 2019 at 09:20

Thanks, Kate!

Kate Smyth

Laura Rosen Cohen • Oct 10, 2019 at 21:25

So many great discussion points, Laura. The "Jews Fight Back!" article hits the nail on the head. With anti-Semitism, a big problem - other than its very existence - is, in effect, media censorship through euphemistic generalisations about "intolerance" etc. (Not to mention the contortionist assertion that criticism of Jew hatred is a feature of "Islamophobia".)

PS. I love your comment below about the fact that *we* need a new pope!

Laura Rosen Cohen

Kate Smyth • Oct 11, 2019 at 10:41

LOL. Thanks.

Josh Passell • Oct 10, 2019 at 06:44

In a comment on an earlier LL column, I identified with the Hilltop Youth end of the Israeli political spectrum--with the qualifiers that I am neither young nor Jewish, and have a mild fear of heights. But I admire their pride in the Land of Israel and their certainty of their right to live in it. I would even have the chutzpah to recommend their attitude to all Jews, wherever they live (and conservatives, too). Even if it means occasionally having to "fight back". Coincidentally, Krav Maga, based on Israel Defense Force training, is one of the hottest self-defense systems on the market (and which I personally recommend).
I agree with you on the right of virulent antisemites to speak their minds. Better out than in. If Jews have the right to live where they please, including their ancestral homeland (shock! horror!), people have the "right" to hate them for it. I suppose. But I have to wonder why Columbia University, my alma mater, finds brownshirts so mesmerizing. They also hosted Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2007, who, between metaphors of Israel as disease, assured a questioner that Iran "[doesn't] have homosexuals like in your country." Not with all the rooftops, balconies, parapets, and cranes, you don't, 'Moud. At least not "out" ones.
As your other links attest to, Iran's Islamofascist regime is truly evil. Israel ought to be proud to have it for an enemy--certainly many of of the other Gulf states are coming to think so. Makes one wonder why President Obama was such a mullah-phile, but that's a whole nother comment.
PS: I read in one of the Israeli papers that Christianity is rapidly on the rise in Iran--underground, and mostly among women (who--just my opinion--don't get much joy out of the Ayatollahs' Allah). I don't know how true that is, but I think many of us--Jews, Christians, and even Muslims--would pray for just such a Christian miracle. It sure would beat nuclear conflagration.

Kate Smyth

Josh Passell • Oct 10, 2019 at 07:22

Agree about Krav Maga! And the rest.

"... a whole nother": something of which I'm guilty (and I once heard Mark Steyn say).

Laura Rosen Cohen

Josh Passell • Oct 10, 2019 at 09:25

Hi Josh, the "hilltop youth" have been really widely demonized by the leftist media in Israel, as have "settlers" in general. The "settlers" that I know personally are among the finest, most generous and brave people I know.

Columbia University is just a microcosm of the American left, a left that has never met a dictator it didn't like. It gravitates toward the most anti-Western forces on the planet and currently, the starring role is held by Iran. Not that I think Saudi Arabian Wahabism is any less dangerous, but I see very small signs of change in SA that point to a better direction (baby steps of course).

I haven't read anything recently about the growth of Christianity in Iran, but it wouldn't surprise me, in fact, I'd be delighted if that were the case. Kathy Shaidle can attest to the number of times we've had discussions and my (Big Jew) prescription is "these people need Jesus".

Josh Passell

Kate Smyth • Oct 10, 2019 at 09:30

I looked up "a whole nother" before hitting the submit button, Kate. There is some debate about its use. I love it, and there's a history nearly as old as language itself of eliding one syllable with another by the addition of a linking letter. "An apple" instead of "A apple" is an obvious example.

Sol • Oct 10, 2019 at 01:05

"It is eerie how such current American retribalization resembles the collapse of Rome..." Victor Davis Hanson writes. And from Vatican City State, or Virtue Signal State, Woke Francis sends up a Roman candle to hasten the decay of a civilization built on Roman ruins.

Journolist

Sol • Oct 10, 2019 at 06:35

I wonder whether the original business plan for the Roman Empire lacked the sort of procedures manual for its dissolution that banking regulators see as vital for "their" industry. Socialism is, of course, unaware of any need to engage with reality and can remain in a steady state of woke until Hell freezes over.

Kate Smyth

Sol • Oct 10, 2019 at 07:26

VDH makes an excellent case for the fact that there is no longer a First Amendment, practically speaking.

Sol

Kate Smyth • Oct 10, 2019 at 13:39

I like National Basketball Association Commissioner/China kowtower Adam Silver's formulation a few days ago: you can say what you want, but you'll have to suffer the consequences, which include being told you can't say what you want.

Brawndo • Oct 10, 2019 at 00:09

The Old Vic:

"Our loos now offer 'self-selection' rather than being labelled male or female. This takes a descriptive, rather than prescriptive, approach following advice from surveys conducted with focus groups. When you arrive in the theatre, you will see labels signposting which blocks contain cubicles and which contain urinals. We also have one specifically designed gender neutral loo. You can choose which one you want to use, rather than responding to a label placed on you which you may not identify with. This shift makes it easier for parents and carers of different genders too. Our ultimate aim is to be considerate of everyone's needs and safety. We really appreciate hearing from everyone. Audiences receive a feedback survey after each show and we will continue to monitor responses on this and other matters."

How insufferable can these people be? You just want to relieve your bladder and you have to wade through 7 tweets and a survey. Why does the Left have to make everything so complicated?

Owen Morgan

Brawndo • Oct 10, 2019 at 04:47

If patrons of the Old Vic read that, they'd nod their heads and take it very seriously. If the Old Vic put it in the mouth of a character on stage, they'd assume it was satire and would laugh. Real life is crazier than satire now.

Kate Smyth

Brawndo • Oct 10, 2019 at 07:36

Also good to see Laura drawing attention to the issue of discriminatory #GenitalPreferences. As Mark foretold years ago: a penis has absolutely NOTHING to do with being a man or woman. Ergo, heterosexual men who are not attracted to women-(with-penises), and lesbians who are not attracted to women-(with-penises) are total BIGOTS. Shame on them!!

Laura Rosen Cohen

Brawndo • Oct 10, 2019 at 09:27

Not just complicated but they truly enjoy wrecking everything. Then, as Kathy Shaidle has quipped, when things go south as they always do, their standard retort is 'how could we have possibly known'. Never any regret, never any introspection or change of opinion-just onto wrecking the next batch of humans and human relationships.

Brawndo • Oct 10, 2019 at 00:02

A statue depicting 140 migrants...well, that's over 10 times the number of migrants currently roaming the grounds of the Vatican, if they are indeed still living there. The Vatican museum looks like an episode of "Hoarders," if the featured grandpa had his hands in everyone else's pockets for centuries. Art of every stripe is stashed into every nook and cranny, sometimes piled three and four deep while the tourists jostle each other 10 deep on their pilgrimage to the Sistine Chapel. But out on the grounds behind St. Peter's? You will find just wide open spaces with nary a human being to be found, much less a poor immigrant child, yearning to breathe free.

Christina Comeault-Zarycki • Oct 9, 2019 at 18:33

Hi Laura, regarding your link about Francis I, (I can't even call him Pope anymore!) I don't think us Catholic peeps know our own Church anymore. This week alone during the Amazonian Synod, there was worship of pagan idols in the Vatican (!!!), and now it seems he's calling into question the divinity of Jesus Christ. We might see some backpedalling on that one in the next day or two, saying the reporter misquoted him or some such nonsense. His whole Papacy seems to be one "misquote" after another, that I don't believe anything he says anymore. He seems to despise faithful Catholics as he never fails to lecture and scold us about who we vote for, and our "obsession" with abortion, but sure loves Muslims and the environment! It seems our churches now are places where we learn to recycle and how we should take in complete strangers from an alien culture, (and we'll be damned if we don't) but nothing about God's actual Word and His plan for our Salvation. It's an absolute clown world we live in.

Love your links every week, by the way! Keep it up!

Journolist

Christina Comeault-Zarycki • Oct 9, 2019 at 19:23

I heard Hillary was offered the gig but declined. So "they" went and got the best dep they could lay hands on. Is the Pope woke or what?

Kate Smyth

Christina Comeault-Zarycki • Oct 10, 2019 at 07:40

Outstanding comment. There's no one I can think of who's more anti-Catholic than Pope Francis.

Owen Morgan

Kate Smyth • Oct 10, 2019 at 08:19

Francis reminds me of David Jenkins, late Anglican Bishop of Durham, who celebrated his enthronement by proclaiming his agnosticism. I have no problem with agnosticism, but a member of the church should demonstrate faith. What, otherwise, is any church for?

Laura Rosen Cohen

Christina Comeault-Zarycki • Oct 10, 2019 at 09:30

Christina, I had no idea about the idol worshiping OMG!! This guy is a kook. I really hope that we (obviously I use the word 'we' loosely) get a new Pope who is fundamentally committed to the sacred nature of human life. That's something that Jews and Christians could really unite on.

Christina Comeault-Zarycki

Kate Smyth • Oct 10, 2019 at 12:47

I thought something was wrong within the first few months of his papacy, and I remember talking to my Mother and the rest of my family, and they would all defend him, and say that things are being taken out of context. But even my Mother, who is as Catholic as they come, can not say that he is misunderstood anymore. Every day there is something appalling coming from the Vatican, or from some Cardinal's or Bishop's mouth, such as "child sex abuse victims? The Pope has bigger worries. What about the environment!?!" Unfortunately, even if Francis is called to the Great Beyond, there are many in the Church hierarchy that must be removed before we can say that the rot is gone.

Christina Comeault-Zarycki

Laura Rosen Cohen • Oct 10, 2019 at 12:54

Oh Laura, it is very distressing. Some of the "co-conspirators," as you will are trying to say that it was a statue of a pregnant Virgin Mary, but others are saying that it was clearly a pagan fertility idol. So either they have no clue what is going on right in front of them, or they are lying to cover their butts. Either way, it's not inspiring confidence in our Church leaders. What's to be done when the shepherds have abandoned their flock, or worse, wolves in shepherds' clothing?

Laura Rosen Cohen

Christina Comeault-Zarycki • Oct 10, 2019 at 14:59

Yah, whenever I hear the 'taken out of context' line, my standard reply is, oh-ok, so in what context WOULD it be OK? And usually it's none.

Kate Smyth

Owen Morgan • Oct 10, 2019 at 22:44

This is a man who JOKED on camera about the Charlie Hebdo massacre, and gave the green light to the murder of anyone who "insults the faith of others". Pure evil.

Kate Smyth

Christina Comeault-Zarycki • Oct 10, 2019 at 22:48

You've described my experience almost exactly!! Mark Steyn had him pegged as a "fatuous, social justice" type from Day 1: very generous of him, really. ICYMI...
https://www.steynonline.com/8365/virtue-signaling-while-rome-burns

Christina Comeault-Zarycki

Kate Smyth • Oct 11, 2019 at 11:38

As with everything (in my opinion,) Mark was right!

Owen Morgan • Oct 9, 2019 at 18:12

I should have added that the rude mechanical then turns to his comrades and says, "I need to crowdfund a shilling."

Robert Bridges • Oct 9, 2019 at 18:11

"Markle is a nightmare. At the time of her engagement to Prince Harry — hitherto a genial if somewhat dim young man who occasionally enjoyed Nazi dress-up for parties/"

What is it with British royalty and divorced American women... Wallace Simpson and now Markle? OK.. Harry has a passing "thing" with brown shirts which is far better than Edward and the REAL Brownshirts (and Boss Black uniforms, etc).

Journolist

Robert Bridges • Oct 9, 2019 at 19:18

Harry's handlers may not have watched "Suits".

Laura Rosen Cohen

Journolist • Oct 10, 2019 at 09:30

LOL, ya think?

Journolist

Laura Rosen Cohen • Oct 10, 2019 at 09:48

Curiously, the stars of the first-run of the controversial "Phone-Hacking" production are re-emerging to lend a hand to the H&M revival. From B. Cathcart, S.Miller through to C.Church. Well-rehearsed is the key-word.

Owen Morgan • Oct 9, 2019 at 18:08

I love the way the Old Vic theatre preeningly describes itself as "London's independent not-for-profit theatre."

Yep, there are lots of them like that. It's just that most don't boast about it. On the subject of woke thesps, the Royal Shakespeare Company has told BP that "I will none of your money," because eco-loons will carry on not buying tickets to RSC productions, if the luvvies carry on trousering the cash from the company which killed all the dinosaurs, or whatever.

Come to think of it, when Henry V says
"And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be rememberèd,"
he isn't expecting some rude mechanical to respond, "That's only eleven years, sixty-three days and twelve seconds, thanks to your carbon footprint at Harfleur, so thanks a bunch, Hal. We won't even make it to the Wars of the Roses. Here's your shilling back."

Journolist

Owen Morgan • Oct 9, 2019 at 19:28

Not-for-profit has morphed into for-the-prophet.

Kate Smyth

Journolist • Oct 10, 2019 at 07:41

Nice one.

Dave A • Oct 9, 2019 at 17:40

In Albert Speer's bestselling book "Inside the Third Reich" (1970) there's a chapter on the grandiose plans of Speer and Hitler to transform Berlin with massive new buildings. Scale models of the buildings were made and set out to show how the streets would look. The scaled down display was over 100 feet long.

Speer writes how his father, then 75 and a strong anti-Nazi, on one single occasion came to visit in Berlin in 1938. Speer says, "He only shrugged his shoulders at the array of models: "You've all gone completely crazy.""

I think of those words when reading articles and headlines such as those at the links provided here, or read about a mentally disturbed 16-year old girl lecturing adults on a world stage. "You've all gone completely crazy." It's worth noting that in 1938 Albert Speer, Hitler, and their many supporters were all serenely certain they were on "the right side of history", the progressive ones, whose ideas would certainly prevail. Less than a decade later they were mostly dead or in prison. Nothing in life is certain, absolutely nothing.

Laura Rosen Cohen

Dave A • Oct 10, 2019 at 09:32

Dave A, if you take a listen to James Delingpole's interview with Douglas Murray, toward the end there's an excellent bit about how important it is to see crazy things, insane things in real time, and not just after the historical record has been written. Murray discusses how these gender issues, the 'insanity of crowds' is the crazy of our time. It's a great bit within a great interview and really speaks to your comment.

Journolist

Dave A • Oct 10, 2019 at 11:41

Greta was granted a photo opportunity with BHO. By any chance, did they get to compare teleprompters?

Dave A

Laura Rosen Cohen • Oct 10, 2019 at 11:56

That is a great interview. Douglas Murray is both brilliant and courageous (not unlike our Fearless Leader!). I understand Murray will be a guest on the 3rd Steyn cruise October 2020, which is a good reason in itself to sign up. One would hope at some point gender issues become so absurd the lunacy would become obvious, but it hasn't happened yet. A man says he is a woman and the government says yes, he's a woman, and anyone who expresses skepticism will be fined or imprisoned. Then they say since he is a woman he is entitled to screening for cervical cancer, despite the fact he has no cervix. Presumably he would NOT be entitled to screening for prostate cancer. "You've all gone completely crazy."

It's worth reading Gustave Le Bon's book "The Crowd: a study of the popular mind." In Le Bon's time he was thinking of a skilled orator speaking directly to a crowd. He died in 1931 so never saw technology such as radio, television, and now the Internet increased the size of the crowd from a few hundred to millions.

Laura Rosen Cohen

Dave A • Oct 11, 2019 at 10:45

Glad you liked it, Dave A. And I believe Douglas Murray has referred to that Le Bon book in the course of some of the publicity for his own book. One of the terrifying things Murray points out is that very few people are willing to risk simply stating: that's crazy. Or 'no, I'm not buying that' because they work in hierarchical and not independent situations so the crazy metastasizes much more easily and rapidly.