Register Your Chickens

For John, BLUF:  The British Government has gone overboard in its fight against avian flue by registering every owner of a chicken in England.  It has not gone well.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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As God Is My Witness, I Thought Roasted Chickens Could Fly

From VodkaPundit, by Blogger Stephen Green, 10:15 AM on 8 October 2024.

Here is the lede plus five:

Ordinary people need to enjoy a little taste of rebellion against their oppressors now and then, particularly when it comes in the form of a delicious roasted chicken. But there's something I need to get off my chest before we get to Britain's tawdry tale of chicken registrations and crashed government websites.

Watching the once-Great Britain slowly slide into soft totalitarianism has been a great disappointment. It's virtually impossible to do anything in the UK any longer without being surveilled on video, audited, indexed, reported to the authorities, or jailed for silently praying. You can't own a pistol, and they've considered banning knives. You'll be hounded or stabbed by Islamic colonizers or beaten with reeds for using the incorrect imaginary personal pronouns.

I made up the part about the reeds. But Britain's Labour government has considered making it a hate crime punishable by up to two years in jail for purposely using the "wrong" pronouns.

All this is from the people who invented the English liberty that evolved here into American exceptionalism.

True, it's sad, but glimmers of Ye Olde English Liberty remain.

Following a 2021 outbreak of avian flu that resulted in millions of culled birds, the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) was placed in charge of new registration requirements for chickens.

I was beginninhg to have my doubts about Vera Lynn and her singing There Will Always be an England:

There'll always be an England
And England shall be free
If England means as much to you
As England means to me

I am not English.  I am an American.  But, both. physically and politcally I am a descendent of England,  Thus, this gives me hope.  This tells me there are people in Merry Old England who still believe in individual freedom and who are willing to tweek the nose of oppressive government.

The point is that if you have just one chicken, even for a pet — and I won't judge you, I swear — as of Oct. 1, you have to register your bird with DEFRA. (I swear I keep reading that as "DERPA.")

This is when Britons have finally said, "Enough!" because pranksters hit the registration page so hard last week that they crashed it.

The prank registrations aren't limited to Tesco roasted chickens. Some people have reportedly registered rubber chickens and even chicken nuggets.

As of this writing, one week later, the website is still "unavailable due to technical issues."

Good on you People of England.  Good on you for standing up to petty bureaucrats who would crush the idea of individual freedom.  Good laws make everyone safer and happier.  However, oppressive petty restrictions are the bane of freedom and democracy.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Preserving Our Freedoms

For John, BLUF:  We are missing the erosion of our society, but an immigrant points it out to us..  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali:  We Have Been Subverted

Here is the sub-headline:

What is at stake in our ability to see the threat plainly?  Nothing less than the preservation of our way of life.

From The Free Press, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, 4 June 2024.

Here is the lede plus seven:

If you wonder why I—a woman of color, an African, a former Muslim, a former asylum seeker, and an immigrant—look at the antics of today’s anti-Israel, anti-American protesters with such fear and trembling, allow me to explain.

I was born in Somalia in 1969. The country had achieved independence nine years before. But less than a month before I was born—on October 21, 1969—a junior member of the brand-new Somali armed forces seized power with the help of the Soviet Union. The first two decades of my life were shaped by the upheaval that followed that coup.

The Somalia that gained its independence was a young, optimistic society full of national pride. We had such hope for growth, political stability, prosperity, and peace. But, in a story sadly familiar to many of my fellow Africans, those hopes were dashed.

What followed was a nightmare.

For me it is all captured in the earliest memories of my youth: statues of Mohamed Siad Barre, our dictator, sprung up across Mogadishu, flanked by a trio of dark seraphim: Marx, Lenin, and Engels. This particular communist experiment plunged Somalia into bloodshed, mass starvation, and a 20-year period of suffocating tyranny. I recall my grandmother and mother smuggling food into our house. I also remember the whispering: we felt the state was omnipresent. It could hear everything.

My father was thrown into prison. His friends—those other pioneers in pursuit of a democracy modeled on America—were either jailed like him or, in many cases, executed.

By the time I was eight, my family knew we needed to escape. We left in 1977. By 1990, the country had descended into a civil war from which it has never fully recovered.

I never stopped longing for the kind of freedom my father had taught me about. And at the age of 22, I fled to the Netherlands seeking it. There—and later, in America—I discovered what we’ve come to call “Western” values.

This is a companion piece to the one noted in an earlier blog post, "Niall Ferguson: We’re All Soviets Now".♠

We are where we are, in terms of political organization, because of those who went before us, stretching back thousands of years.  We have the Magna Carta, from 1215 AD.  It was kind of narrow when signed, but it grew in meaning until we had the Common Law protecting the rights of Citizens.  Before all thar we had the Decalogue, the Ten Commandmentd, brought down from the mountain by Charlton Heston.  It was a set of rules about how Citizens should relate to each other.

But, today these underpinnings are being dismissed or buried.  An example of this ahistoric approach is the recent outrange regarding a Louisiana Law signed Wednesdaay, by Governor Jeff Landry requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in every classroom.  But, not everyone is happy to see the Ten Commandments put forward as a guide for life, as this Slate article shows.

Our system of government works because there are rules and we follow them.  Author Ali is saying that is slipping away.  On the one hand, we have moral relativism.  However, it does not provide a solid basis for agreeing on the future, as discussed here.  On the other hand we have the Marxist Woke culture of group pitted against group, destroying unity.  Remember, our motto, as a nation, from 1782, was E pluribus unum ("Out of many, one").  What do we rally around?

We would do well to pay attention to Ms Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  The two authorw are married.

Today We Celebrate Freedom

For John, BLUF:  A Long Time coming.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Juneteenth

Happy Juneteenth

From IZON GOP, by Mr Dennis Galvin.

Here is the article:

June 19, 2024

JUNETEENTH AND THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION

    Prior to 1775, the history of humanity could be described as the story of masters and slaves. Starting in 1776 however, some historians believe a radical revolutionary period, championing human liberty, swept through both America and Europe for close to a century. This period ultimately changed human consciousness in western civilization. The capstone of this period was the American Civil War. One of it fruits was the destruction of American chattel slavery, commemorated now by the “Juneteenth Holiday”.

    The precipitating idea that gave rise to this century of revolutionary turmoil was the Declaration of Independence and the spirit that emanated from the words: “ all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator… with the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This bold aspiration was not unopposed. In Europe, the quest for liberty was resisted and in 1848 largely defeated by the established order. In the United States, the growth of a violent proslavery cabal threatened to reduce the nation’s initial promise of freedom to a discredited fantasy.

    Yet, a determined moral spirit persisted in the United States, bringing forth a second wind of change. Historian Charles Beard asserts that this “Second Revolution” was ignited in the US in 1861. It introduced a new cast of founding fathers and a renewed spirit, sufficient to muster the resolve to achieve what the original founders could not. The eradication of slavery.

    Who were these second founders ? Certainly, former President and congressman John Quincy Adams, a distinguished son of Massachusetts was one. He confronted powerful slave interests in the US Congress, braving continuous threats of violence and harassment, to defend the “right of petition”, which allowed the northern states to continuously demand the eradication of slavery. He helped craft the Missouri Compromise in 1820, which limited the expansion of slavery into the newly acquired territories of the Louisiana Purchase.

    Another was Frederick Douglas, a self-educated former slave, who through the example of his own life, discredited the stereotypes that supported the slave interest. As a minister, he railed against the heretical claims of southern preachers, that slavery was sanctioned by Christian teaching. His condemnation and agitation against the Fugitive Slave Act (1850) and the Kansas Nebraska Act (1854) awakened the moral consciousness of the north.

    Perhaps the most powerful and articulate antebellum voice challenging the slave interests was Senator Charles Sumner, another son of Massachusetts. He brilliantly argued against claims that the US Constitution supported slavey. Sumner was brutally beaten by South Carolina slave master Congressman Preston Books because of his views. Yet in 1860, Sumner delivered arguably one of the most significant orations in US history, entitled, “ the Barbarity of Slavery”. He delivered it on the Senate floor, denouncing not only slavery, but the moral fabric of the southern culture that supported it. Sumner graphically portrayed slave society as a legal, moral and religious perversion of civilization and boldly proclaimed that freedom was the national policy of the United States.

    The southern response was secession. It was left to the courage, wisdom and foresight of President Abraham Lincoln, to preserve the union, and the military genius and determination of Ulysees S. Grant to end the conflict. It was the direct efforts of both men that ultimately led to the eradication of slavery in the United States, at a cost of one million lives, to include Lincoln’s own. An entirely new nation emerged from this struggle, one that had now affirmed its original commitment to liberty in blood.

    It is important to commemorate Juneteeth. It animates the foundational intent of our nation. Rooted in a faith in God and moral law and christened by fratricidal conflict. this revolutionary era in history testifies to the original hope and belief of the American people, that the true destiny of humanity, is to be free

END

Sources:

John Quincy Adams, “American Visionary” , Fred Kaplan Harper-Collins, NY 2014

“Charles Sumner And The Coming Civil War”, David Donald, Alfred A. Knopf Publishers NY 1967

“Rethinking The Coming Of the Civil War: A Counterfactual Exercise,” Gary Kornblith, Oxford Journal 2012

“The Rise of American Civilization”, Charles A Beard and Mary R. Beard, 2 Vols in 1 New York, 1930

The Actual Speeches of Charles Sumner- downloaded ( These are very good to read, he was an exceptional orator)

-    Freedom is National Speech

-    Crimes Against Kansas

-    Barbarity of Slavery

I fully agree with Dennis on this.

I would add two names.

• One is Author Harriet Beecher Stowe, born in Mass on 14 June 1811 and passed in 1896.  She wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which helped raise opposition to Slavery.
• The other is Robert E Lee, who knew when it was time to fold his cards and did so with dignity.  The end of the Civil War could have been a lot more ragged than it was.  Geneeral Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House,♠ accepted with dignity by General Grant, avoided large groups of guerarillas carryinhg on the fight over several more years.  That would not have changed the outcome, but would have inflilcted much more suffering on all concerned.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Lowell's Pollard Memorial Library has, on the Second Floor, a painting of the surrender.

OVERLORD

For John, BLUF:  Freedom of the People is something we hold in commonn with the French.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Normandy is in party mood on the eve of D-Day's 80th

From The Times, by Historian Max Hastings, Monday, 3 June 2024, 12.01am BST.

Here is the lede plus three:

Normandy, where last month I was doing book research, proved en fête before the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Every shop and restaurant was adorned with period caricatures, flags and welcome signs. Banish the legend of French rudeness — everybody was delightful. There seemed more American than British visitors. The vast US memorial at Omaha Beach was a heaving mass — take a bow, Steven Spielberg — whereas when we visited two of the Commonwealth cemeteries, Tilly-sur-Seulles and Jérusalem, which seem much more moving because they're so intimate, we were alone.

Keith Douglas lies in the former, he who wrote "And when I prepare to die behind my gun/ I shall not glow with fervour like a sun/ Then, whatever will restrain/ the coward reasoning closely in my brain/ I think it will be that I am mad to see/the whole performance and what the end will be". He never did fulfil that latter ambition of survival, shared by almost every man of the millions who fought in Normandy, being killed on June 9, 1944, aged 24.

Driving through the lush Norman countryside, with so many golden-walled manor houses such as once we coveted, I recalled the 1980s when I began to write about the Second World War, and met a host of veterans. One of my favourites was an exuberant French former officer of the Special Operations Executive named Jacques Poirier. "Since you are to write about Resistance," he cried — I was then doing a book about that experience — "we must share the drink of Resistance!" And thus he introduced me to Kir, named for Canon Félix Kir, a famous Dijon Resister.

I have been drinking white wine with cassis ever since. If one orders it in most English restaurants they overdo the latter, but on Friday at Jeremy King's newish Arlington, it was just right.

So, it seems, we (and the British, Canadians and French and some Poles) were, in fact, liberators in 1944.  And, it was not a free ride for the French Civilians.

What is interesting is that the People of France, or at least the People of Normandy, at a distance of 80 years, still are appreciative of the efforts expended to liberate their territory from German occupation.

As an American I am proud of the fact that we went to the aid of the French.  Also, I am appreciative of the fact that those liberated, and the descendents of those liberated, are appreciative of our efforts.  We have had our differences with the French, but we pull together on the idea of the inherent right to freedom on the part of the people.

Regards  —  Cliff

Trust the People

For John, BLUF:  "If we’ve learned anything from the pandemic and earlier disasters, we ought to be doing precisely the opposite by enacting new limits on government power during emergencies. Americans need what Swedes have enjoyed:  legal protection against autocrats posing as saviors."  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Lockdowns:  the Self-Inflicted Disaster

Here is the sub-headline:

Governments’ use of the pandemic to claim sweeping new emergency powers has had destructive effects.

From City Journal, by Author John Tierney, 6 July 2023.

Here is the lede plus two:

Long before Covid struck, economists detected a deadly pattern in the impact of natural disasters: if the executive branch of government used the emergency to claim sweeping new powers over the citizenry, more people died than would have if government powers had remained constrained. It’s now clear that the Covid pandemic is the deadliest confirmation yet of that pattern.

Governments around the world seized unprecedented powers during the pandemic. The result was an unprecedented disaster, as recently demonstrated by two exhaustive analyses of the lockdowns’ impact in the United States and Europe. Both reports conclude that the lockdowns made little or no difference in the Covid death toll. But the lockdowns did lead to deaths from other causes during the pandemic, particularly among young and middle-aged people, and those fatalities will continue to mount in the future.

“Most likely lockdowns represent the biggest policy mistake in modern times,” says Lars Jonung of Lund University in Sweden, a coauthor of one of the new reports. He and two fellow economists, Steve Hanke from Johns Hopkins University and Jonas Herby of the Center for Political Studies in Copenhagen, sifted through nearly 20,000 studies for their book, Did Lockdowns Work?, published in June by the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) in London. After combining results from the most rigorous studies analyzing fatality rates and the stringency of lockdowns in various states and nations, they estimate that the average lockdown in the United States and Europe during the spring of 2020 reduced Covid mortality by just 3.2 percent. That translates to some 4,000 avoided deaths in the United States—a negligible result compared with the toll from the ordinary flu, which annually kills nearly 40,000 Americans.

Our response to COVID-19 was based on the twin pillars of "trust the experts" and don't trust The People.  And throw in a pinch of don't trust President Trump.♠  This seems just the opposite of the basis for our Republic, which is based, in large part, on trusting the People.

In honor of all those people who died unnecessarily in nursing homes in New York, or Veterans Homes in Massachusetts, we should dedicate ourselves to not letting timid Elected Officials and officious bureaucrats take away our freedoms and from feeding us false information,♥ and along with media, censoring debate.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  As exemplified by Speaker Nancy Pelosi decrying President Trump saying COVID-19 (Wuhan Flu) came from China and we should stop flights from there.
♥  As exemplified by the Government statements that we didn't need masks, followed by a mask mandate.

The World Economic Forum and Our Future

For John, BLUF:  There are a lot of concepts being presented for managing world affairs, which really all break down into oligarchies running the world.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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World Economic Forum chair Klaus Schwab declares on Chinese state TV:  'China is a model for many nations'

Here is the sub-headline:

Schwab praised China's achievements at modernization since the late 1970s

From Fox News, by Bradford Betz, 23 November 2022 7:58pm EST.

Here is the lede plus four:

World Economic Forum founder and Chair Klaus Schwab recently sat down for an interview with a Chinese state media outlet and proclaimed that China was a "role model" for other nations.

Schwab, 84, made these comments during an interview with CGTN’s Tian Wei on the sidelines of last week’s APEC CEO Summit in Bangkok, Thailand.

Schwab said he respected China’s "tremendous" achievements at modernizing its economy over the last 40 years.

"I think it’s a role model for many countries," Schwab said, before qualifying that he thinks each country should make its own decisions about what system it wants to adapt.

"I think we should be very careful in imposing systems.  But the Chinese model is certainly a very attractive model for quite a number of countries," Schwab said.

One wonders if Mr Schwab (WEF) is an advocste for ESG (environmental, social and governance) scoring for what he calls stakeholder capitalism?  One further wonders if he sees an equivelance with China's Social Credit System.

This line of thinking sometimes comes under the heading of The Great Reset.

For those of us who believe in individuaal freedom and the ability of peopl3e to rise or fall within their locl hierarchy, who believe in providing opportunities for the best to flourish, the idea of Mr Klaus Schwab and of Xi Jinping should be frightening.  They are about taking away individual autonomy and forcing conformance to the views of the State.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Energy Set Us Free

For John, BLUF:  The author's point is that the ability to extract energy, and the ability to use that energy to do work, were important to transforming the world economies from being based on slavery and serfdom to being based on the efforts of free men and women.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Samizdata quote of the day

From Samizdata, by Mr Johnathan Pearce (London), 7 August 2022.

Here is the lede plus one:

“When did you hear any public figure extol cheap energy as an agent of poverty alleviation? When did you hear any historian describe how coal, and later oil, liberated the mass of humanity from back-breaking drudgery and led to the elimination of slavery?  For 10,000 years, the primary source of energy was human muscle-power, and emperors on every continent found ways to harness and exploit their fellows.  But why bother with slaves when you can use a barrel of sticky black stuff to do the work of a hundred men – and without needing to be fed or housed?  The reason no one says these things (other than Matt Ridley) is to be blunt, that it is unfashionable. The high-status view is that we are brutalising Gaia, that politicians are in hock to Big Oil, and that we all ought to learn to get by with less – a view that is especially easy to take if you spend the lockdown being paid to stay in your garden, and have no desire to go back to commuting.”

– Dan Hannan

I remember reading TS Ashton’s book on the Industrial Revolution many years ago as an undergraduate, and it was emphatic that no serious civilisation lifts out of poverty without an Industrial Revolution.  Even Karl Marx, wrong as he was on so much around economics, gave grudging respect to the IR in his Communist Manifesto.  (Old Soviet propaganda posters would show pictures of rosy-cheeked workers in front of factories belching out smoke.)

Are we charging toward a major effort to limit energy use?  Are we charging toward a world where the production of food is limited?  Are our betters moving us toward a global planet popultion of 3 Billion people, vice the current 7.9 Billion?

As to that last point, one can read about it at A Planet of 3 Billion:  Mapping Humanity's Long History of Ecological Destruction and Finding Our Way to a Resilient Future | A Global Citizen's Guide to Saving the Planet, by Author Dr Chris Tucker.  I don't agree with Dr Tucker and we have exchanged friendly EMails.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Chosing Freedom

For John, BLUF:  It is always interesting to review old Bible stories, as they are eternal and instructive.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Jews Who Didn’t Leave Egypt

Here is the sub-headline:

A lesson from the past about choosing freedom over servitude

From The Tablet, by Ms Alana Newhouse, 14 April 2022.

Here is the lede plus two:

This [past] weekend, millions of people will sit around Seder tables and memorialize the exodus of the Jews from Egypt.

Guided by the Haggadah, or Passover text—one of the most popular Jewish books ever written—Seder participants are led along in a series of prayers, texts, and activities. We talk and talk and talk about the miracle of liberation; we parse the details of its unfolding, enumerating the many miracles involved; we go over whether we are supposed to commemorate the blessing of freedom only in this life or also in the next one; we assert in words and song the gratitude we feel for being the lucky descendants of those who escaped from slavery.

One thing we do not generally discuss, however, are the Jews who didn’t leave.

Yes, an interesting question.  And today?  Who would trade comfort for freedom?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

School Administrators Squashing Academic Freedom

For John, BLUF:  This is academic freedom and its errosion in American institutions of higher learning, is to our detriment.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Law Student Complains about a Question; Professor Sentenced to Re-education Camp

From The James G Martin Center for Academic Renewal, by Mr George Leef, JD, 2 March 2022.

Here is the lede plus four:

Law students are adults who have completed an undergraduate degree.  They’re in a professional school to learn the law, procedures, and skills they’ll need in a conflict-ridden, frequently harsh world.  You would expect that they would act accordingly.

Sadly, that’s not always the case. As we’ll see, law students can be petty and vindictive.

And you would also expect that the people who run law schools would act like responsible scholars, defending their faculty members against groundless attacks.

Sadly, that’s not always the case either.  As we’ll see, law school administrators can act like craven cowards, scurrying away from academic principles at the first hint of trouble.

Welcome to the case of Jason Kilborn, a professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago law school.  He has been on the faculty since 2010, teaching civil procedure, evidence, and other courses.

It isn't just in Law Schools.  There are indicztions that Dr Anthony Fauci was using his power of the purse to stifle researchers who were not following his line during the COVID Pandemic.

Academic Freedom is important, in that challenging old ideas and putting forward new ideas is how scientific progress (and other academic progress) is made.  We should not allow the powerful to stifle thinking.  The other path leads to a new serfdom and ignorant solutions imposed from on high to the detriment of the People.

One wonders if the profliferation of University Administrators is helping along this evil trend.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Give The Canadian Truckers Their Donations

For John, BLUF:  I hope this all works out well in the end, and the Truckers get their donations, but this has soured me on Go Fund Me.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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GoFundMe Shuts Down Canadian Freedom Convoy Account and Sends the Money Where It Decides

From The Red State Blog, by "streiff"♠, 4 February 2022, 7:57 PM ET.

Here is the lede plus three:

Over the past weeks, the GoFundMe account supporting the Canadian Freedom Convoy has raised over $9 million from small donors.  Today, at the request of the Trudeau dictatorship, that account was shut down.  To add injury to insult, GoFundMe has decided to repurpose the donations, sending them to a charity that has the approval of that corporation rather than returning them to the donors.  You have to submit an “application” to get your money back. Here is GoFundMe’s statement:

To ensure GoFundMe remains a trusted platform, we work with local authorities to ensure we have a detailed, factual understanding of events taking place on the ground.  Following a review of relevant facts and multiple discussions with local law enforcement and city officials, this fundraiser is now in violation of our Terms of Service (Term 8, which prohibits the promotion of violence and harassment) and has been removed from the platform.

The statement is utter bullsh** down to its core. GoFundMe is doing this because all of the big tech companies are acting as arms of progressive administrations to enforce their whims.  We see it on YouTube, Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, everywhere.  The Freedom Convoy is embarrassing Trudeau and shaking things up in Canadian politics.  That makes them a threat.  There is neither violence nor credible threats of violence associated with the Freedom Convoy, but we can’t have mere proles standing up to a fascist darling, can we?

So Go Fund Me is taking the contributions of many small contributors and redirecting those funds, without donor permission to where Go Fund Me wishes?

I find this contemtable.

i wonder if it is legal?

I do hope that word gets out and breaks their business model.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  "Former infantry officer, CGSC grad and Army Operations Center alumnus.  RedState member since 2004."

Be a Grownup

For John, BLUF:  You don't have to agree with someone's politics to approve of their stand on freedom.  Mr Van Jones, in my mind, has the right stand on freedom.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Best Anti-Fragility Speech Ever Came From a Surprising Source

Here is the sub-headline:

“It’s the best statement of anti-fragility I’ve ever seen,” says psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of 'The Coddling of the American Mind.'

From Foundation for Economic Education, by FEE Managing Editor Jon Miltimore, 11 July 2021.

Here is the lede plus three:

Jonathan Haidt has become one of the thinkers I make a point of listening to when he speaks or writes. Like the late Christopher Hitchens and Charles Krauthammer—two thinkers I often disagreed with but deeply respected—I may not always agree with Haidt, a social psychologist and professor at New York University.  But his sheer intellect, creative way of exploring ideas, and perspective on (mis)communication have a way of challenging my thoughts and assumptions in a constructive and sometimes challenging way. So when I saw that Haidt recently delivered a speech at the University of Colorado Boulder on his bestselling book The Coddling of the American Mind, I decided to see what he had to say.  (The entire lecture can be viewed below.)

And here is the speech by Mr Van Jones that was quoted:

The comments come from a surprising source:  CNN Host Van Jones, a best-selling author and speaker who served in the Obama administration.  As Haidt points out, Jones isn’t a hard-nosed conservative.  He’s a progressive activist, but he sees serious problems with the approach many universities are taking to stifle open discourse and debate.

Jones’ comments, made during a panel discussion on safe spaces at the University of Chicago in 2017, have been posted in their entirety below so they can be read in their full context:

I don’t like bigots and bullies. I just want to point that out… But I got tough talk for my liberal colleagues on these campuses.  They don’t tend to like it but I think they like me so I get away with it.  I want to push this. There are two ideas about safe spaces: One is a very good idea and one is a terrible idea.  The idea of being physically safe on a campus—not being subjected to sexual harassment and physical abuse, or being targeted specifically, personally, for some kind of hate speech—“you are an n-word,” or whatever—I am perfectly fine with that.

But there’s another view that is now I think ascendant, which I think is just a horrible view, which is that “I need to be safe ideologically.  I need to be safe emotionally I just need to feel good all the time, and if someone says something that I don’t like, that’s a problem for everybody else including the administration.”

I think that is a terrible idea for the following reason:  I don’t want you to be safe, ideologically.  I don’t want you to be safe, emotionally.  I want you to be strong.  That’s different.

I’m not going to pave the jungle for you.  Put on some boots, and learn how to deal with adversity.  I’m not going to take all the weights out of the gym; that’s the whole point of the gym.  This is the gym.  You can’t live on a campus where people say stuff you don’t like?!  And these people can’t fire you, they can’t arrest you, they can’t beat you up, they can just say stuff you don’t like-and you get to say stuff back- and this you cannot bear?!

This is ridiculous BS liberals!  My parents, and Monica Elizabeth Peak’s parents [points to someone in the audience and greets her] were marched, they dealt with fire hoses!  They dealt with dogs!  They dealt with beatings!  You can’t deal with a mean tweet?!  You are creating a kind of liberalism that the minute it crosses the street into the real world is not just useless, but obnoxious and dangerous.  I want you to be offended every single day on this campus.  I want you to be deeply aggrieved and offended and upset, and then to learn how to speak back.  Because that is what we need from you in these communities.

Very well put.

And actully not tht surprising a source.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

"Sanitarian Apartheid"

For John, BLUF:  In which the author, living behind enemy lines in France, takes the dystopian view of forced vaccinations.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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THE SEGREGATION OF CITIZEN COVID

Here is the sub-headline:

France brings out a SARS-CoV variant of leprostigma by fiat. Now where did I put my clapper and bell?

From the dissident frogman, Friday, July 16th anno domini 2021.

Here is the lede plus four:

YOU KNOW THAT FUNNY FEELING WHEN THE HEAD OF STATE ADDRESSES THE NATION AND DECLARES THAT YOU AND SOME OF YOUR FELLOW CITIZENS SHALL BE TREATED AS OUTCASTS AND ARBITRARILY DEPRIVED OF YOUR RIGHTS?

Or perhaps you don’t.

I know I didn’t until Emmanuel “Jupiter” Macron, President of Le Pays des Droits de l’Homme the “nation of human rights”, as some French like to call this country, appeared in the idiot box and announced, right on the eve of Bastille Day, that:

Our choice is simple:  to put the restrictions on the unvaccinated rather than on all.

Restrictions being Macron’s byword for segregation, to be implemented on people who have not been covaxxed into submission—whatever the reason we have, of which there are many, ranging from the borderline insane conspiracy theories to informed common sense and caution.

What ever happened to the battle cry, "My body, my choice"?  I guess it varies by location and year.

I have been vaccinated, but then I am over 60 and have co-morbidities.  Mine was a rational choice.  It I was 20 and in good health, then I might have considered an alternative choice.

For sure the varying offical word from the CDC and others does not inspire great confidence in the proclamations of the expert class.

Regards  —  Cliff

You're A Grand Old Flag

For John, BLUF:  Here in the United States we are having a periodic hissy fit over if we have perfect freedom for all.  We don't, of course, but we are working on it and we have more than most.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Left Can't Stomach This Symbol That Inspires Freedom Fighters in Cuba, Hong Kong, Venezuela

From PJ Media, by Reporter Tyler O'Neil, 12 July 2021, 12:15 PM ET.

Here is the lede plus two:

On Sunday, protesters took to the streets in 32 cities across Cuba, calling for an end to the Communist regime’s oppression. These protesters carried a symbol of freedom in their arms — the same symbol that freedom fighters in Hong Kong used last year when they marched against Chinese Communist oppression. Yet many on the Left have demonized this same symbol, denouncing it as an icon of white supremacy and “institutional racism.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) pointed out the tragic irony.

“Across the globe, there is no more ubiquitous symbol for freedom than [the American flag]. [It] inspires billions; drives American Leftists crazy,” the senator remarked.

I think the late George M Cohan said it best.

You're a grand old flag,
You're a high-flying flag,
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of the land I love,
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true
'Neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
But should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.

Let New York Times editorial board member Ms Mara Gay be free to express her fears of pickup trucks with American flags.  Let Olympian hopeful Gwen Berry protest the National Anthem.  We know, the whole world knows, this flag and its anthem stands for freedom.  Not perfect freedom, but more than most, and the aspiration for perfect freedom.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Ides of March

For John, BLUF:  This is all about Western Culture and its attraction to individual freedom.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Ides of March

The Ides of March (/aɪdz/; Latin:  Idus Martiae, Late Latin: Idus Martii)[1] is the 74th day in the Roman calendar, corresponding to 15 March.  It was marked by several religious observances and was notable for the Romans as a deadline for settling debts.  In 44 BC, it became notorious as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar which made the Ides of March a turning point in Roman history.

And, the assassination of Julius Ceasar was not the only event on this date. 

On the fourth anniversary of Caesar's death in 40 BC, after achieving a victory at the siege of Perugia, Octavian executed 300 senators and equites who had fought against him under Lucius Antonius, the brother of Mark Antony.  The executions were one of a series of actions taken by Octavian to avenge Caesar's death.  Suetonius and the historian Cassius Dio characterised the slaughter as a religious sacrifice, noting that it occurred on the Ides of March at the new altar to the deified Julius.

You lose your Republic and you end up with a dictatorship.  And that is not good for the People as a whole.

In fact, Reporter Salena Zito, writing in The Washington Examiner, examines this issue under the headline "The culture curators want to think for you".  Here is an exerpt:

One of the most significant reasons conservative populism began to rise in 2009 was that these people lacked a connection or commonality with our cultural curators, and they weren't wrong.  The people who run things in this country have little in common with the very people who use their products or watch their shows or attend their football or basketball games.

Part of that reason is the culture curator boardrooms have very little diversity — not only racial or by gender, but also in culture.  Rare is someone who attended a community college or state school with any input in how something is marketed.  There is also a scarcity of gun owners or churchgoers in newsrooms getting dispatched to cover gun control, hunting, religious freedom, or the anti-abortion movement.

And, back to the Ides of March, here is Actor Jeff Dunetz writing at The Lid Blog;

Remember March, The Ides Of March Remember

There is a nice embedded video of the movie Julius Ceasar.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Understanding Liberalism and Its Purpose

For John, BLUF:  Liberalism is not about Progressive ideas, but about an agreement to give deference to the ideas of others, without giving up one's own.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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A Machine for Preventing Civil War

From the Blog Chicago Boyz, by Blogger David Foster, 12 March 2021.

Here is the lede plus two:

People talk about “liberalism” as if it’s just another word for capitalism, or libertarianism, or vague center-left-Democratic Clintonism. Liberalism is none of these things.  Liberalism is a technology for preventing civil war.  It was forged in the fires of Hell – the horrors of the endless seventeenth century religious wars.  For a hundred years, Europe tore itself apart in some of the most brutal ways imaginable – until finally, from the burning wreckage, we drew forth this amazing piece of alien machinery.  A machine that, when tuned just right, let people live together peacefully without doing the “kill people for being Protestant” thing.  Popular historical strategies for dealing with differences have included:  brutally enforced conformity, brutally efficient genocide, and making sure to keep the alien machine tuned really really carefully.

Very insightful and correct, I believe, if by liberalism one means free speech, freedom of religion, and limited government, rather than the cluster of ‘progressive’ believe that often fly under the ‘liberalism’ brand today.

And when the above attributes of a society do not exist or are eroded, then live-and-let live become difficult to impossible, and all questions become politicized, because political outcomes determine everything.

This is why I call myself a Liberal, but note I am not a Progressive, as it is understood today.

Regards  —  Cliff

Wokeness Across the World

For John, BLUF:  The problem with immigrants is they bring the horrors from their home nations with them and react to them when they see the early indicators of same here in the US.  This is bad for Democrats.  Democrats should oppose immigration, except from Commonwealth Nations.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Wokeism Is Not Cool, Chinese People Know Too Well

From The Epoch Times, from Writer Jean Chen, 26 January 2021.

Here is the lede plus five:

Let’s begin with a true story that happened in China.

Mr. Zhang (an alias) was my father’s high school English teacher in the 1960s.  Twenty years before that, he worked as an interpreter for American liaison officers in China during WWII.  He and his wife were from rich families.  After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took power, they lived a low-profile life in order to avoid troubles that might arise because of their family backgrounds and his experience working with Americans.

In 1966, the Cultural Revolution began.  Young people were encouraged to accuse, turn in, or even beat up their parents to prove their revolutionary devotion, or to break away from their unfavorable family backgrounds.  Those who dared to do that were considered heroes.

Mr. Zhang’s teenage daughter, Ling (an alias), a classmate of my father, put up a poster accusing her parents of dancing the waltz and having capitalist thoughts.  This ignited a ferocious campaign against her father.  Posters attacking him were everywhere, calling him a “monster.”  In front of mass rallies, half of his hair was shaved.  With a big and heavy board hanging on his neck with his name crossed out with red ink, he was beaten, spat on, and cursed at.

As a result, Mr. Zhang’s son went insane and the whole family suffered tremendously.  Ling lived her life with immense guilt.  Two years ago, before her death from cancer, her parents came to visit her.  However, she kept her eyes closed, pretending to be asleep because she didn’t dare look at them.

This is just one of millions of sad stories that happened in China.  Families torn apart, friends betraying friends, teachers beaten to death by students….

Respect for the opinions of others is part of what free speech is about.

On the other hand, attacking people for their opinions, as opposed to reasoning with them, respectfully presenting your own opinion, is tyranny.

Regards  —  Cliff

Fixing Things the Wrong Way

For John, BLUF:  It seems a lot of folks think that they can stamp their foot and things will just happen.  Perhaps they are correct, but it seems like a bad precedent.  Free People should negotiate.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Armed Antifa Occupy Hotel, Shout at Cops:  'Pigs in a Blanket, Fry 'Em Like Bacon'

From PJ Media, by Reporter tyler O'neil, 1 February 2021, 10:43 AM ET.

Here is the lede plus three:

On Sunday, a group of homelessness activists who dressed up in antifa-style black bloc, armed with batons and knives, entered the lobby of the Red Lion Hotel in Olympia, Wash., demanding the hotel open rooms for homeless people.  Antifa agitators allegedly assaulted an employee while other employees hid in a basement room for more than six hours.  The police eventually secured the hotel, but in the skirmish, agitators chanted, “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon,” a death threat against cops.

Hotel employees first called the cops at about 11 a.m. Sunday.  The staff said a “mob of people wearing black” armed with hatchets, batons, and knives had entered the lobby and demanded the hotel open rooms to them, KIRO7 reported.  The antifa agitators wore gas masks, helmets, and goggles, apparently preparing for a battle.

The antifa agitators, organized with the group Oly Housing Now, occupied the hotel after advocates had booked 17 rooms and demanded that Thurston County continue to pay for the room with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding.

The Olympia Police Department (OPD) estimated about 45 antifa agitators stormed the hotel, both inside and outside the building.  After staff hunkered down in the basement for hours, police finally evacuated them from the building, the city announced.

I have my hand cupped to my ear, but I can not seem to hear any Democratic Party members condemning this action, this kind of action.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

A Venn Diagram of Religion and the Public Square

For John, BLUF:  Some people paint with a broad brush, but that tends to easily cover over the nuances of life.  Thus the Venn Diagram beloaw.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Previous Blog Post

I thought the article linked to in the previous blog post might have been a little unfair to Democrats.

Thus, this diagram to show how I think the anti-religioous attitude in the United States breaks down.  Yes, it is mostly the Progressive Democrats, who see religion as providing an alternative point of focus and thus encouraging individualism.♠

However, there are also Republicans who have this anti-religious attitude.  And that large segment of the population who are non-participants, who don't vote and don't otherwise get involved.  They too have a segment that is anti-religion,

This is fine.  In a pluralistic society there are bound to be differences of opinion on a range of matters.  Religion is one of those matters.  But, we have to be tolerent of each others views and leave space in the public square for such differences of view.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  That would go especially for Evangelical Protestants, with their emphasis on individual salvation.

The Brits and the EU Cut a Deal

For John, BLUF:  The report is an overly long Brexit agreement with the European Union, but the guarantees of sovereignty are in there.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The small print of Boris’s Brexit deal makes for reassuring reading

From The Spectator, by barrister Steven Barrett, 27 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus three:

The new UK/EU Treaty is needlessly long and turgid in its prose:  this document was not drafted by people who think the law should be understood by all.  Close inspection of the small print reveals that none of the details undermine sovereignty.  It has been restored and the UK has the power to control its own laws.

To understand what’s happened, consider the last two big treaties.  Under the Maastricht Treaty the EU’s ability to control UK law was extended on what came before but was confined to specific areas only. That was called 'spheres of competence'.  The 2007 Lisbon Treaty vastly expanded the EU’s power and the idea of restricting EU writ to areas of its competence fell away.  Marina Wheeler has written in The Spectator about the Lisbon power grab and its huge implications:  it’s worth re-reading for a sense of what Lord Frost was up against.  And what he has successfully uprooted.

The Brexit deal takes things back to where they were before Maastricht.  The EU is limited now in any meddling to very specific areas indeed.  It ends the oddity where because circa seven per cent of UK business trade with the EU, 100 per cent have their laws made by the EU (although that is a bit more blurred in supply chains).

In the small print of the deal, the remnants of failed EU attempts to fetter British sovereignty can be seen.  Consider the ‘precautionary approach’.  This slides in via footnote 49, disguising itself in footnote 52.  But by the time it gets in as actual law (article 1.2 page 179) it’s clear that it has lost the battle; its words have no force. British negotiators seem to have seen to that.  As long as one side has a plausible scientific argument, it may do as it likes.  There are other failed EU power grabs in the text, none carrying force.

This is good news.  I am happy to see Britain free from the Brussels Bureaucracy that runs the European Union.  Power to the People.

Maybe now the Brits will be more sympathetic to the Anglo-Phone People in Cameroon.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

A Government in Overwatch

For John, BLUF:  I don't see much about this in the media, but it smells bad.  We should be better than this.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Judicial Watch: State Dept Records Show US Embassy in Ukraine Monitored Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani, Journalists and other U.S. Citizens in Potential Violation of Federal Law

From Judicial Watch, 1 September 2020.

Here is the lede plus one:

Judicial Watch announced today that it received 372 pages of records from the U.S. Department of State that confirm prior Judicial Watch reporting that the Ukraine Embassy under then-Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch monitored, in potential violation of law, Donald Trump, Jr. Rudy Giuliani, and major journalists on Twitter on their commentary on Ukraine, “Biden-Burisma 2020”, and George Soros.

The documents list the targeted persons as Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Rudy Giuliani, Dan Bongino, Sebastian Gorka, John Solomon, Jack Posobiec, Ryan Saavedra, Sara A Carter, Donald Trump Jr., Michael McFaul, Lou Dobbs and Pamela Gellar.  The search terms that were flagged to be monitored by State Department officials on social media included Yovanovitch, Ukraine Ambassador, Ukrainian Ambassador, Ukraine Soros, Clinton campaign, and Biden-Burisma.

The emails show that Yovanovitch was aware of the social media monitoring program.

Additionally, a State Department contractor warned his colleagues that their monitoring of private citizens was potentially in violation of the Privacy Act of 1974.

“These new documents confirm Deep State officials at the Ukraine Embassy seemed to set up an enemies list to help illicitly monitor and report on the social media postings of President Trump’s family and lawyer, as well as journalists,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “The State Department hid these smoking gun documents for months.”

This is a blot on the record of the Department of State.  We, as Citizens, should expect better from those who are representing us overseas.  Now I have even more questions about what was going on in the Ukraine.

Regards  —  Cliff