Lysenkoism—and the concern for merit in science and engineering

For John, BLUF:  Lysenkoism is "any deliberate distortion of scientific facts or theories for purposes that are deemed politically or socially desirable."  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Researchers Fight Back Against ‘Ideological Capture’ of Modern Science

Here is the sub-headline:

Jerry A. Coyne and Anna Krylov argue that narrative-based ideology now dominates research in the U.S. more pervasively than it did at the Soviet Union’s height.

From Legal Insurrection, by Blogger Leslie Eastman, 30 April 2023 at 02:00pm.

Here is the lede plus two:

For over eight months, I have been chronicling the “ideological capture” of our scientific institutions, which has led to the reduction or elimination of funding to scientists whose research challenged “settled science”; to the deplatforming scientists, engineers, and technical professionals who go against the narrative; and to the denial of tenure, promotions, or hiring because research doesn’t meet the currently approved world view.

. . .

Scientists are now adding the weight of their experience and observations to the fight against this trend.  The Wall Street Journal recently published a truly insightful opinion piece by Dr. Jerry A. Coyne (professor emeritus of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago) and Dr. Anna Krylov (professor of chemistry at the University of Southern California).

In their article, entitled “The ‘Hurtful’ Idea of Scientific Merit,” Coyne and Krylov argue that narrative-based ideology now dominates research in the U.S. more pervasively than it did at the Soviet Union’s height.

My Middle Brother, who had a very successful career in high tech acquisition for the Department of Defense, accuses me of, by pushing merit, excluding members of the accepted minority groups,  I am not for excluding anyone.  If you are the best qualified, the most innovative, you should be the hire.  If being hired into a supervisory role, you should include in your tasks, fostering meritocracy and helping all people improve their game, their merit, regardless of who they are.

So, is this perceived flight from merit because women in Academic STEM have an advantage over men in hiring decisions, as researchers have found?  Or is it because of the domination of academia by Progressives?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

What Sin Have We Committed, Only to be Revealed in Death?

For John, BLUF:  Actually, they may be hidden at death, only to be exposed after the dirt covers our coffin.  If we so denigrate the dead, who will we model ourselves after?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Corpses to the people said, “You’ll be racists when you’re dead.”

Here is the sub-headline:

Death in America is acquiring new terrors.

From Samizdata, by Blogger Niall Kilmartin (Stirling), 7 March 2021.

Here is the lede plus four:

It was already understandable if a dying Republican feared rising from their grave to vote Democrat, like a vampire harming what their life valued.  (A democrat who voted “early and often” could anticipate this too, of course, but without dreading it – their undeath would echo their life.)

But now, even the politically correct must wonder what very different character they will acquire after death.

– In the 1940s, Dr Seuss author Theodor Geisel urged writers to avoid racist stereotypes, but the dead Geisel has been resurrected onto the public stage in the 2020s as a racist.  His book ‘If I Ran the Zoo’ shows two visiting Africans in native African garb!  What racism!!!  (?) Everyone knows it is terribly racist not to portray Africans in culturally-appropriated western garb because African dress is so inferior to western, er, um, what I mean is because it’s so hurtful to remind Africans of their pre-colonial, er, well, er, that is, um, maybe I should avoid trying to explain the subtle critical race theory involved lest I travesty it – or, worse offense still, summarise it more clearly than the original.

– Sidney Poitier spent many of his 94 years defending his race – and had better cling to life because he is scheduled for resurrection as (too) white.  He looked pretty black to me in ‘Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner’ but Critical Race Theory makes it hard to be black enough.

– Adam Smith wrote that slavery was ‘cruel’, slaveowners ‘contemptible’ and blacks in the Americas not innately inferior to their white owners – and taught the economic superiority of free enterprise over slavery.  But his grave is the resting place of an appalling racist who despicably recorded that slavery in his day was almost universal, being absent only in the British Isles and parts of western and central Europe.

If you think this is ridiculus, remember that the new Government, of King Charles II, had the deceased Lord High Protector, Oliver Cromwell (died 1658) dug up from his grave in 1661, and the dead body drawn and quartered.  That was the year Tyngsborough was founded and King Charles II explicitly forbade Massachussets from executing Quakers (eg, the Boston Martyrs) and curtailed the independence of the Massachusetts Bay Coloney.  Compared to China, relatively recent history.

I oppose naming buildings after the living, because time has not tested them and allowed their secrets to be revealed.

However, the recent effort to excoriate the dead is applying today's sensitivities to yesterday's problems and understandings.  It is also failing to give credit to those who went before us, who did their best.  We should honor them, while learning from their mistakes.

What is it we don't know, which might lead to our own future condemnation?

Regards  —  Cliff

The Lost

For John, BLUF:  The arrogance of the Progressives is almost too much to bear.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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I Guess I’m the Intolerant Left But I Don’t Really Care Anymore

Here is the sub-headline:

A letter of resignation to “finding common ground”

From the Medium, by Mr Smm Corey, 3 November 2020.

Here is the lede plus two:

here are many legitimate reasons to despise Joe Biden — enabling white supremacy is not among them.  In a nation beset by any number of ongoing, unattended, worsening calamities, many millions of Americans will turn out to vote more or less on “Do you like Trump or hate him?”  Biden is a bumbling, right place at the right time failson who’s about the bare minimum the Democrats could do to be better than a racist game show host.  This is undeniably a garbage choice, but it shouldn’t be a difficult one.  Diving too deep into the incredible clusterfuck that is 21st-century America will make you feel like your sanity is unraveling into a crazed state of constant self-gaslighting,  where you think to yourself, “maybe Chris Martin was the best part of Graduation.”  Blaming the state of this desperate and miserable present on general abstractions like partisanship or divisiveness is a cheap, if not downright evil, way of avoiding pinning the blame for our shitworld squarely where it belongs.  I don’t believe the majority of Trump voters possess some seething, menacing hatred towards marginalized groups, mostly because it is both a gross generalization and an unhelpful interpretation of a multi-faceted phenomenon.  But your average Republican is profoundly ignorant about systemic oppression — or doesn’t meaningfully oppose its existence.

I don’t loathe conservatives, at least on an individual level. Looking at the world through a rigid good/bad person binary is a disposition that is both childish and Puritanical.  Like any other human, they are products of their environment, which, in this case, is a thunderstorm of retrograde boomerisms, a failing education system, right-wing disinformation, and a ruthless political party that is contemptuous of anyone who earns less than a six-figure salary.  Above all else, it is both disappointing and depressing that many Americans, whether out of denial or principled spite, struggle to acknowledge conservatism for what it is, or at least what it has morphed into:  Rationalized ignorance and selfishness.  Of course, among the red state lumpenproles, this cultural malignancy is a jumble of venal gossip, some urgent taking of offense at a faraway abstraction, fife-and-drum patriotism, a dissonant mix of resentment and worship of capital, garbled rehashes of some vague outrage they saw on Fox or scrolled past on Facebook, Blue Lives Matter, and all things Maximum America (white people stuff).

I don’t particularly enjoy being a jaded person with dwindling respect for those with a certain party affiliation.  But when Sarah Palin was graciously plucked from the murky depths of Republican depravity, she became the gateway idiot that led to Donald Trump.  Of course, the Republican Party has always been a clammy culture-war grift in service of their abiding and only area of interest — an insatiable appetite for more of America’s wealth that they feel is rightfully theirs. Rape-happy Mexicans, tyrannical undergrads, Trump’s ongoing siege against deep state pedophile rings — the GOP’s deliriously servile cult faction actually believes this dreck.  Debate club prigs like Ted Cruz and Paul Ryan built successful careers as ostensible conservative thought leaders pretending to care about clownish pseudo-economics while mastering the kind of rhetorical bad-faith and starchy euphemisms it demands.  While capital ultimately pulls the levers on the Republican Deathstar, these supply-side doughnuts are withering in their cultural influence.  They lost to the QAnon cranks and the herrenvolk populists.

First off, it isn't like he doesn't care any more.  He never cared.  The bitter clingers, the deplorables, the chumps, have always been below the salt.  Those are the Trump Voters.

And the nasty attitude toward Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is pitiful.  Ms Palin had a real job in Government and while at it cleaned up the local Alaska Swamp.  Looking down on her is not just ignorant, but an example of the overweening cultural imperialism.

People like Mr Sam Corey just mean I am stuck praying for more people to develop a less harsh spirit.  It is a burden.  But maybe good for my soul.

Regards  —  Cliff

J'accuse

For John, BLUF:  It is funny how bureaucracies, of any sort, once locked in, are unable to admit they made a mistake.  Even the Louisiana State Police are unable, all these years later, are unable to admit they are the ones who shot Senator Huey P Long.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Remember the Schiff memo vs. the Nunes memo?

From The New Neo, 11 December 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

Remember back in the early days of 2018 when there was the clash of the dueling memos on Russiagate and the role of the FBI and the FISA court applications?  The Nunes memo was criticized by Democrats even before it was released, and afterwards Adam Schiff released his own memo that contested what Nunes had asserted.

And of course the MSM trashed Nunes (for example:  the memo is “a joke and a sham”) and lauded Schiff.  Now we have the Horowitz Report that represents an examination of some of the same facts that Nunes and Schiff were duking it out over, and Nunes is completely vindicated and Schiff should slink away in shame along with most of the MSM.

When I think of Russiagate it reminds me of l'affaire Dreyfus, with perhaps Rep David Nunes in the role of Journalist Émile Zola.

So what roles do Rep Adam Schiff and former FBI Director James Comey play?

Regards  —  Cliff

First Reports

For John, BLUF:  It is the Human way to start forming a theory as the first data point comes in.  As Napoleon Bonaparte tells us, "First reports are always wrong."  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Tlaib Blames ‘White Supremacy’ for Anti-Semitic Murders Carried Out by Black Assailants

From The Washington Free Beacon, by Reporter David Rutz, 12 December 2019.

Here is the lede plus two:

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) blamed "white supremacy" Thursday for a mass killing in New Jersey carried out by two black assailants, one of whom had ties to a nationalist hate group.

Tlaib linked to a tweet from IfNotNow naming three of the victims of Wednesday's rampage in Jersey City, two of whom were Orthodox Jews.&Nbsp; She wrote, "This is heartbreaking.  White supremacy kills."

Tlaib, who represents a majority African-American district in Detroit, deleted her tweet after respondents pointed out the race of the suspects.  She didn't send any follow-up tweet acknowledging her error, condemning the perpetrators, or expressing condolences for the victims.

From the headline I had expected some convoluted theory about how Caucasians had created a situation that led to this shootout.  Alas, it was an ignorance of the actual situation, informed by prejudices.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Is Senator Harris Presidential Timber?

For John, BLUF:  I think the American voting population is not hesitant about a woman President, or a Black President (although I think of Senator as being Indian, as in Sub-Continent), but they are not interested in novelty for novelty's sake.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Kamala Harris’ Campaign In Free Fall, ABC Blames ‘America’

From The Daily Wire, by Mr Ashe Schow, 16 November 2019.

Here is the lede plus three:

As Sen. Kamala Harris’ (D-CA) campaign for her party’s presidential nomination continues to implode, some in the media are looking for answers.

ABC News shot first, asking if Harris “proof that America isn’t ready for a woman of color as president?"  The article began with quotes from Harris making the argument herself.

She had previously spoken about her “electability” several times, and in May she went ahead and wondered whether “America was ready for a woman and a woman of color to be president of the United State of America.”   She made the claim on “The View.”  This statement set her mmmmup with the tired and ready-made excuse in case she lost the primary:  It’s because America is racist and misogynist.

Of course, that ignores the two elections of former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 nomination.  It also ignores the fact that she is currently in a Democratic primary, meaning the people she is calling racist and sexist are her fellow Democrats.  The point seemed lost on ABC as well, since it asked if “America” was ready for a black woman of president, when they were really asking if Democrats were ready for a black woman nominee.

And there you are.  If Senator Harris can,t be nominated, it is on the Democrats, not on America as a whole.

We should acknowledge that what most recommends Senator Harris is the fact that Willie Brown likes her, or at least used to.

NB:  Democratic Presidential Debate tonight.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Respecting Your Fore Bearers

For John, BLUF:  Senator Harris seems to be snakebit.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Kamala Harris’ Dad Blasts Her for Jamaican Pot Joke.

This was picked up on InstaPundit.

From Front Page Magazine, by Mr Daniel Greenfield, 19 February 2019.

Here are the InstaPundit Excerpts:

Professor Donald Harris Kamala Harris’ Jamaican father, has vigorously dissociated himself from statements made on the New York Breakfast Club radio show earlier this week attributing her support for smoking marijuana to her Jamaican heritage.  Professor Harris has issued a statement to jamaicaglobalonline.com in which he declares:

“My dear departed grandmothers(whose extraordinary legacy I described in a recent essay on this website), as well as my deceased parents, must be turning in their grave right now to see their family’s name, reputation and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker and in the pursuit of identity politics.  Speaking for myself and my immediate Jamaican family, we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty.”

As Law Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds said, "Ouch."

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Spartacus Concerned About Sin

For John, BLUF:  I guess this plays to his base, and it dirties up future SCOTUS nominees.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Cory Booker Launches Inquisition Against Trump Nominee:  'Are Gay Relationships ... Sinful?'

From PJ Media, by Mr Tyler O'Neil, 5 February 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

On Tuesday, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a 2020 candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, asked Trump judicial nominee Neomi Rao if she considered homosexual relationships to be sinful.  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) immediately called Booker out on this line of questioning.

Booker seized on Rao's 2008 article opposing the Supreme Court decision Lawrence v. Texas, which decriminalized homosexual activity. He then directly asked her, "Are gay relationships in your opinion immoral?"

In a pluralistic society, such as ours, we need to distinguish between illegal and sinful.  We all have friends who have sinned.  Forgiveness is a useful attitude and one God probably agrees with.

On the other hand, we should avoid an "anything goes" attitude.  Stable families, raising stable, hard working kids, is the bedrock of a successful long term society.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Deep State v Trump

For John, BLUF:  Yes, President Trump was within his rights, and doing his duty, when he fired FBI Director James Comey.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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FBI looked into whether Trump was working on behalf of Russia

From The Boston Globe, a New York Timess article by By Messers Adam Goldman, Michael S. Schmidt and Nicholas Fandos, 12 January 2019.

Here is the lede plus three:

In the days after President Trump fired James Comey as FBI director, law enforcement officials became so concerned by the president’s behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests, according to former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation.

The inquiry carried explosive implications. Counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether the president’s own actions constituted a possible threat to national security.  Agents also sought to determine whether Trump was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow’s influence.

The investigation the FBI opened into Trump also had a criminal aspect, which has long been publicly known: whether his firing of Comey constituted obstruction of justice.

Agents and senior FBI officials had grown suspicious of Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign but held off on opening an investigation into him, the people said, in part because they were uncertain how to proceed with an inquiry of such sensitivity and magnitude.  But the president’s activities before and after Comey’s firing in May 2017, particularly two instances in which Trump tied the Comey dismissal to the Russia investigation, helped prompt the counterintelligence aspect of the inquiry, the people said.

So, The Old Gray Lady publishes old news and does it based on information leaked to the Press.  But that is how that city (DC) works.  When I was a lowly colonel on the Joint Staff the watchword was to not share anything that one would not wish to see on the front page of The Washington Post.  Someone I knew and worked with from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, an organization with a huge number of people, was incorrectly accused of leaking information to the press and it took months to clear it up.

As for not knowing how to proceed if they were suspicious of the loyalty of someone high up, there was precedent.  After all, FDR replaced one of his VEEPs with Harry Truman for his run in 1944.  surely the late FBI Director, J Edger Hoover, left some notes on how to move forward.

This was a slow news day regurgitation of already known material.  And, it lacked any real insight, any real analysis, and real nuance and balance.

I do hope this is not the Press carrying water for Mr Comey, who is not a shining example of what a Federal Civil Servant should be.

But, what really grabbed me was the comments at the end of the article.  Some, like mine, were brilliant.  Some were so bad they were deleted before we could view them.  Some were printed, but were just vitriol.  A lot of them of them did not speak well for the readership of The Boston Globe.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Dem Dog Whistles

For John, BLUF:  Representative Adam Schiff is draining the dignity away from Congress.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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GOP rep slams Dem’s ‘false’ charge of bigotry

From Fox News, by Reporter Maxim Lott, 19 October 2018.

Here is the lede plus five:

On Thursday, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff accused a GOP colleague of bigotry against Koreans -- tweeting that New Jersey Rep. Tom MacArthur “says his Korean American opponent is 'not one of us'... The dog whistles of bigotry have been put away. Now they’re using trumpets."

The problem?

"I didn't say that," MacArthur, who is in a tight race this November and also happens to have two adopted Korean children, responded on Twitter within hours.

The claim from Schiff, the top intelligence committee Democrat, is based on a TV ad from the Congressional Leadership Fund in which a female narrator says of MacArthur's Democratic opponent: "Andy Kim is a Pelosi liberal.  He's not one of us."

The ad seems to criticize Kim as "not one of us" for being a "Pelosi liberal" and a "Washington insider" -- not for being of Korean descent.

The ad also was not authorized by MacArthur's campaign.

If you hear "dog whistles", does that not suggest you are the dog?  The people hearing the dog whistles appear to be Democrats.

Oh, and has Rep Schiff apologized or deleted the tweet?  Of course not.  The ends justify the means—for Democratse.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Does She Really?

For John, BLUF:  The thing about discrimination is that it costs you the value of talent.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Vox: Sarah Jeong Was Just Talking The Way Most People On The Left Talk About White People

From Hot Air, by Mr John Seton, 3 August 2018.

Yes, this is about the new Member of the Editorial Staff at The Old Lady, Ms Sarah Jeong, who is female and of Korean extraction.

I wonder if she thinks that in addition to excluding Japanese military Self Defense Force members from helping repel some future North Korean military assault on South Korea, male caucasians (US, Aussie, Kiwis and Brits) should also be excluded?

And, in the back of one's mind is the question of if we can, in the future, expect a fair shake from 620 Eighth Avenue.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Jeff Sessions on SPLC

For John, BLUF:  Turning around DoJ is hard work.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Jeff Sessions:  The DOJ 'Will Not Partner With Groups That Unfairly Defame Americans' Like the SPLC

SPLC = Southern Poverty Law Center, a hate group.  Just ask Ms Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

From PJ Media, by Mr Tyler O'Neil, 8 August 2018.

Here is the lede:

On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions denounced the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for weaponizing its "hate group" designations against conservative organizations, and pledged that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will not partner with hate groups or groups that defame Americans.  He spoke in front of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian legal organization that has won 9 Supreme Court cases in the last seven years and that has been unfairly defamed as a "hate group" by the SPLC.

I want to hear what the FBI does as a result of this direction.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Science and Built in Prejudice

For John, BLUF:  I think it iss still early days for the social sciences and there is still much to learn.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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How Social Science Might Be Misunderstanding Conservatives

From New York Magazine, by Mr Jesse Singal, 15 July 2018.

Here is how it starts out:

Imagine you and I are out for drinks at a bar. A couple beers in, apropos of nothing, I announce to you, “You know, liberals are way more authoritarian than conservatives.” “No way,” you respond. “Way,” I say, confidently. I pull a sheet of paper from my shirt pocket and slide it to you. “This is my Jesse Singal Authoritarianism Scale, or JSAS for short,” I tell you. “I had 500 people take this short scale and liberals scored way higher than conservatives.”

You look down at the scale and it reads:

For each of the following items, please indicate your level of agreement, from 1 (disagree completely) to 7 (agree completely), with a score of 4 indicating neither agreement nor disagreement.

1. In certain cases, it might be acceptable to curtail people’s constitutional rights in order to stop them from spreading climate-change denialism.

2. The government needs to do a much more comprehensive job monitoring Christian-oriented far-right terrorism.

3. Some people want to act like the causes of racism are complicated, but they aren’t: Racists are moral failures, and that’s that.

If you’re a thoughtful reader, you will, of course, find my claim ludicrous. By dint of the subject matter of my questions the test is basically built to “discover” that liberals are more authoritarian than conservatives. All my questions are rigged in a manner that will, in almost all likelihood, cause political liberals to score more highly than political conservatives on the scale, thus spitting out the “finding” that liberals are more authoritarian.

Actually, being a classic liberal, but not a progressive, I thought the questions quite reasonable.  However, they are a reflection of how political psychologists ask questions in a way that has given us the Rigidity of the Right model.

This reminds me of a presentation at a Conference I attended in 1972, at Notre Dame University.  The presenter talked about a hand scored psychological inventory of the people in a small, rural, economically depressed region of the United States.  There were a high percentage of Pentacostal Protestants in the largely Protestant area.  When the scorers knew who were the Pentacostals they scored those people as being less emotionally stable.  However, when it was blind scoring the Pentacostals were scored the more stable personalities.  We all have our built in prejudices.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Lowering Education

For John, BLUF:  Parents, leading their children are what can make our schools better.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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"No Ethnic Group Owns Stuyvesant.  All New Yorkers Do.  Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan would destroy the best high school in New York City"

This is not Professor Althouse's headline, but the headline of the article she linked to in her Blog Post of 13 June 2018.

She doesn't comment on the article, but does balance it with a second item from The Old Gray Lady, "De Blasio’s Plan for NYC Schools Isn’t Anti-Asian.  It’s Anti-Racist.  It gives a diverse group of working class kids a fairer shot, which shouldn’t be controversial," by Minh-Ha T. Pham.

Here is the quote that Professor Althouse led with:

"Admission to Stuyvesant was and remains determined by a single test available to all middle school students in the city.  There are no soft criteria for admission no interviews, no favoritism for legacies, no strings to be pulled.  It’s all about whether you do well on the test, which best determines whether or not you can do the academic work.  You would think that Mayor Bill de Blasio would celebrate Stuyvesant as the crown jewel of the city’s school system.  Instead, he has announced a plan that will destroy it in all but name.  This month, the mayor said he would seek legislation that would eliminate the test completely.  Instead, he’d guarantee automatic admission to Stuyvesant — and the seven other specialized high schools in the city — for the top students at every middle school, regardless of their abilities.  The mayor says he is trying to address what is undoubtedly a heartbreaking problem:  the gross underrepresentation of black and Latino students at Stuyvesant and schools like it....  But the mayor’s solution is no solution at all.  For one thing, his plan seems purposely oblivious to his administration’s utter failure to prepare students across the city for the admissions test — and for a school as challenging as Stuyvesant.  In nearly one quarter of the city’s public middle schools, zero seventh graders scored at the advanced level on the annual New York State Mathematics Exam in 2017.  Mr. de Blasio would send the top 7 percent of students at every middle school to the specialized high schools, but at 80 middle schools — or one out of every six — not even 7 percent of seventh graders passed the state math exam."

Deep down inside that paragraph is the idea that New York City Mayor Will de Blasio is trying to cover for the fact that he can't get the City Schools to perform by wiping out the high quality examine high schools, like Stuyvesant.  He won't change the names, but he will change the quality of education in those high schools.

Here is an excerpt from the second article, supporting Mayor de Blasio:

[F]or school admissions to be truly unbiased, all students would need to have equal access to elementary schools and middle schools that receive equal shares of property taxes and state and federal aid and have the same cultural, educational and social resources.

I think the second author makes the point about cultural, educational and social resources.  Within Lowell all students have access to the property taxes and State and Federal aid.  But, students coming from families, and neighborhoods, where education is valued and parents facilitate education, will do better.

The real tragedy here is that Mayor de Blasio, and those like him, are hurting the students by not recognizing the critical importance of parents (even if a single parent) in motivating students to learn.  Here in Lowell we missed an opportunity when we didn't follow up on then City Councilor Franky Descoteaux's idea for adopting the "Promise Neighborhoods" approach.

Oh, and, yes, this will hasten the growth of alternative systems of education, like charter schools, parochial schools and home schooling.

Hat tip to the Althouse Blog.

Regards  —  Cliff

One Dimensional Thinking

For John, BLUF:  I think this goes with the "flat earth" item I posted just before this.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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CNN ‘Cultural Critic’ Guest: ‘All of The People’ Who Voted for Trump Are Racist

From The Washington Free Beacon, by Mr Conor Beck, 30 May 2018.

Here is the lede plus two:

CNN guest Michaela Angela Davis said Wednesday during a discussion about "Roseanne" that all of the Americans who voted from Donald Trump in 2016 are racist.

Davis, a culture critic, writer and self-described image activist, joined CNN's "New Day" to discuss the cancelation of "Roseanne" and Tuesday's cultural sensitivity training at Starbucks.

Ms Michaela Angela Davis.  She is of West African, German and Irish descent, like me.

Ms Davis seems pretty convinced of her position.  If, as is asserted by Ms Davis, ALL of us who voted for Mr Trump are Racist, what does that mean for our relationships with those who are not Caucasians?  What is the new American bargain?  For example, are the Racists voting for Mr Trump who are not Caucasian just dupes?  Do they not have the right to be dupes?  And if Mr Trump brings more to his side in 2020, what does that say about the meaning of Racism?  Does it move from an all encompassing hatred into something wherein some live-and-let-live accommodation is made, and is that good enough?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Roseann the Insensitive

For John, BLUF:  Ms Roseanne Barr leaped too far out and no one can bring her back without her doing a lot of penance.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Idiot …

From Commentator Rob Eno, originally from Lowell, 30 May 2018.

Here is the item:

You can’t say this … I can’t believe I need to type this in 2018.  At no time is it acceptable to compare a black person to an ape, gorilla, or any other primate.  It’s disgusting, its racist, and it’s horrendous.  Roseanne Barr should have known that, and her tweet likening Valerie Jarrett, who is black, to a character from “Planet of the Apes” was disgusting.  I’m not faulting ABC for firing her.  I’d have done the same thing.

That doesn’t mean that ABC and Hollywood don’t have double standards.  Of course they do.  But defending Roseanne is not the hill any of us should want to die on, because what she did is indefensible.

Hyperbole … You can always count on the media to take an event and spin it out of control.  That’s what MSNBC’s Chris Hayes did last night.  Hayes tweeted:

Roseanne’s problem turned out to be that she far too authentically represented the actual worldview of a significant chunk of the Trump base.

What Hayes and his ilk don’t get is hot takes like that are exactly why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.  People felt emboldened to vote for Trump because no matter what they did, the elites like Hayes were going to call them racist backwoods yokels.

Ms Valerie Jarrett was on President Obama's White House Staff, as Senior Advisor to the President, and lasted eight years in that job.

But Rob is correct.  If you want more Trump the way to get more Trump is to denigrate those who support Mr Trump.  Remember, as the analysis of the 2016 Election, The Great Revolution, tells us, Mr Trump flipped the Electoral College in several states by attracting some 80,000 people who had voted for Senator Barack Obama in 2008 and President Obama in 20212.  They were looking for hope and change and in 2016 they didn't see it coming from Senator Clinton, so switched to Mr Trump.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Valerie Jarrett

Blindness in Academia

For John, BLUF:  We are becoming more divided, not less.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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What’s Wrong With Being From the South?  Just Ask an Academic in the North

Here is the sub-headline:

In the well-educated Northern imagination, the rural South is a vast, forbidding wasteland of poverty, prejudice, and despair.

From The Chronicle of Higher Education, by PhD Candidate Adam Kirk Edgerton, 25 May 2018.

Here is the beginning:

When I arrived at the University of North Carolina as an undergraduate in 2004, I had a meeting with a professor who soon asked where in the state I had grown up.  I remember the moment distinctly because she was surprised that someone like me — gay, dressed entirely in pastels and white linen — came from such a place.  My county had a particularly terrible reputation thanks to a billboard on U.S. 70 welcoming drivers to the home of the Ku Klux Klan.  The billboard was unavoidable for families driving east to the beach, and it remained in place into the late 1970s.

Considering this reputation, my professor’s first question was, "How did you escape?"

The word "escape" has stuck with me.  She meant no harm, of course (and was one of my favorite professors), but it was my first of now countless experiences with the stereotypes applied to my place of birth.  At Chapel Hill, and to an even greater extent later at Harvard, I heard that I must be one of the "good ones" who had escaped a place known for racism, ignorance, homophobia, bigotry, sexism, and any other social ill that comes to mind.

That kind of crass regionalism creates well-earned suspicion of ivory-tower elites.  The stereotyping works in both directions.  Each sustains the other, leading to electoral results that help neither the professors up north nor the pig farmers where I grew up.  Regionalism creates openings for populists to exploit and worsen these divides.  These attitudes pit rural against urban, college-educated against non-college-educated.  If those of us in academe are truly so smart, we ought to be the ones taking the first step toward bridging this divide.

The author must feel strongly to write and have published this short piece.

Of course, this means that we have to provide some space for the Academics, as they should provide some space for us Deplorables.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

R Lee Ermey, (RIP)

For John, BLUF:  A great actor.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Hollywood Blacklisted R. Lee Ermey for Thought Crimes Against Barack Obama

From Breitbart, by Reporter John Note, 16 Apr 2018.

Here is the lede plus two:

Actor R. Lee Ermey, who died at 74 of pneumonia Sunday morning, was Exhibit A in the New Hollywood Blacklist.  After criticizing Barack Obama in 2010, Ermey’s thriving film career immediately dried up.  Even after apologizing, he was ostracized, fired by GEICO insurance and never did another commercial.  After disappearing completely for a few years, he managed to appear in a couple of C-grade reality shows in the last few years of his life.

Iconic and talented, Ermey was a walking-talking example of left-wing Hollywood’s intolerance toward those they condemn as thought criminals.

Ermey, who was known to his friends as “Gunny,” enlisted in the Marines in 1961 when he was only 17, and spent 14 months in Vietnam before earning a honorable discharge after 11 years of service.

I have never seen the movie Full Metal Jacket, but the character played by Mr Ermey is, even in the outtakes, iconic.

He voted for Senator Barack Obama for President and then two years later became disillusioned, and made the mistake of saying so publicly.  And thus he was blacklisted by Hollywood.

A Marine.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Prejudice Flows in Many Directions

For John, BLUF:  We are still a polarized nation.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Tech Founder: Middle America Is Too ‘Violent, Stupid And Racist’ For New Jobs

This is from a year ago, but I don't think this kind of prejudiced thinking has much changed.

This is from The Daily Caller, by Mr Robert Donachie, 8 January 2017.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Martin Luther King Jr Holiday

For John, BLUF:  Prejudice gets in the way of progress, and of our humanity.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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I had thought we were making progress on race relations, at least compared to my youth, when there were sundown towns and restrictive covenant.  It seems the Reverend King was a sort of high water mark in our progress.  Sadly.

I still hope that we can achieve Reverent King's vision:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

We need to all be working in that direction.

Regards  —  Cliff