- The acquittal of Daniel Perry. He should never have been charged with a crime. Although there are instances of toxic masculinity, there was nothing toxic about Perry's manly behavior. He ought to count as a hero in the mind of anyone who can think straight.
- The decline of race-delusional BLM bullshit.
- The death of DEI.
- The de facto presidency of Donald J. Trump over a month before his inauguration.
- The decline of gas prices. I paid $3.099/gal for unleaded regular at Costco, Mesa, AZ two days ago. What did you pay?
- The resignation of Christopher Wray.
- And the list goes on. Morning in America!
Category: Current Affairs
The National Mood
It seems to be on the upswing. Expect your personal mood to follow. Assuming you are not a Dementocrat.
Morning in America!
Hats off to all the patriots who did their civic duty. But this is no time to gloat over the defeat of our enemies. They will not give up or give in. For these totalitarian dogs, the political is everything. They do not suffer, as we do, from The Conservative Disadvantage.
The war is just starting and the national sanitation project will take at least a generation to accomplish. To give you a taste of what we are up against, here is David Frum writing in The Atlantic this morning:
Donald Trump has won, and will become president for the second time. Those who voted for him will now celebrate their victory. The rest of us need to prepare to live in a different America: a country where millions of our fellow citizens voted for a president who knowingly promotes hatred and division; who lies—blatantly, shamelessly—every time he appears in public; who plotted to overturn an election in 2020 and, had he not won, was planning to try again in 2024.
Above all, we must learn to live in an America where an overwhelming number of our fellow citizens have chosen a president who holds the most fundamental values and traditions of our democracy, our Constitution, even our military in contempt. Over the past decade, opinion polls showed Americans’ faith in their institutions waning. But no opinion poll could make this shift in values any clearer than this vote. As a result of this election, the United States will become a different kind of country.
In a post from January of this year, Dueling Articles, I arrange a confrontation between Frum and Steve Cortes. The comment thread is a very good one, featuring contributions by the most distinguished among the MavPhil commentariat.
World leaders congratulate Trump.
UPDATE 3:42 PM
Leftist incomprehension:
Jonathan Chait, Americans Didn’t Embrace Trump, They Rejected the Biden-Harris Administration
But Lanny Davis, remember him? displays some self-awareness:
Ten Reasons to Vote Republican
By Peter Kalis. This list, reproduced here verbatim, receives the plenary MavPhil endorsement. I will only add that the first item in the order of listing is also the first in the order of importance.
1. I believe a nation that doesn’t take its borders seriously doesn’t take itself seriously.
2. I believe in a Reaganesque approach to foreign policy. That is, peace through strength.
3. I believe in an independent Supreme Court whose decisions are grounded in the Constitution and statutes it is asked to apply. From the ascension of Earl Warren as Chief Justice in the mid-1950s and for a half century thereafter, the Court acted as a super legislature and handed down a continuous thread of left-leaning decisions with little or no foundation in the Constitution. In response, Republican leaders did not seek to pack the Court or impose term limits on its Justices, as Democrat leaders routinely do now.
4. I believe that merit, not immutable characteristics like skin color or gender, should drive personnel and admission decisions and the distribution of governmental largesse.
5. I believe that biological males, however they might identify, do not belong in girls’ and women’s sports or in their locker rooms or restrooms.
6.I believe that excessive government spending results in burdensome taxes, mountains of debt, bureaucratic bloat and inflation.
7. I believe that overregulation imperils innovation.
8. I believe that many institutions of higher learning have dangerously replaced an emphasis on critical thinking with ideological conformity.
9. I believe that toleration of anti-semitism on American campuses and elsewhere is a stain on American history and that aggressive support of Israel against its enemies is in our national interest and is justified by an informed view of the history of the Middle East and the Jewish people.
10. I believe in a growth economy and that the “secular stagnation” heralded by the Obama Administration undercuts opportunity for all Americans.
Long live the Republic! Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. This an excellent time to be investing in precious metals in the broad sense of the term. Au sits at $2738/oz at the moment. But Pb has come down in price. Stock up. Catacomb Joe reminds us of the old Boy Scout motto: "Be prepared."
Bumper Stickers and Yard Signs
As November 5th approaches, I am seeing a lot of them, especially yard signs. I myself prefer to 'go gray' inasmuch as such signage will reliably trigger emotions, but never persuade anyone to change his position. Suppose you have good relations with your neighbor across the street. You share some interests, but have never talked politics. You display a Trump-Vance sign. He sees it, and thinks to himself, "I thought Ron was a nice guy, but what sort of person would vote for Hitler?" What did you accomplish by putting up the yard sign? Nothing, and you've made things slightly worse.
"But shouldn't you stand up for what you believe in?"
Generally speaking, yes. But there are more effective and prudent ways of proceeding. Vote, encourage your like-minded friends to vote, try to persuade open-minded fence-sitters, make a campaign contribution.
There are also safety considerations, especially if you have a family to protect. Take a gander at this, seeing once again just how vicious, vile, and dangerous our political enemies can be.
Trump supporters in Pennsylvania are reportedly being targeted with threatening letters from radical leftists, warning them that their visible support for the former President could lead to dire consequences.
Residents with Trump signs in their yards, particularly in Philadelphia, have reported receiving disturbing letters through the U.S. Postal Service, complete with fake Trump campaign letterheads, Post Millenial first reported.
The threatening letters, which start off as a seemingly benign “thank you” note for being engaged in the electoral process, quickly devolve into dark, ominous threats.
One Trump voter, Janet from Penn Valley, shared her harrowing experience to Post Millenial.After proudly displaying Trump signs in her yard, she received one of these letters, filled with hateful rhetoric and explicit threats to her family and property.
The unsettling message was far from an isolated incident. Janet, who reported the matter to the Lower Merion Police, revealed that other Trump supporters in her area had received similar letters.
Local law enforcement, however, has been unable to pursue the matter further, as the letters were delivered through the mail without any available video evidence.
Despite this, Trump supporters in the area have confirmed that this intimidation campaign is widespread, with reports of the same threatening letter being delivered both by mail and without postage directly into mailboxes.
The letter, which opens with pleasantries, swiftly transitions into a vitriolic condemnation of Trump supporters, labeling the former President a “felon, rapist, desecrator,” and blaming him for political violence in the country.
Policies Trump Personalities
I'm with Kevin Sorbo. You say character matters? I agree! Trump's beats Kamala's.
"That moment when someone says, "I can't believe you would vote for Trump.”
"I simply reply, “I'm not voting for Trump.”
"I'm voting for the First Amendment and freedom of speech.
"I'm voting for the Second Amendment and my right to defend my life and my family.
"I'm voting for the next Supreme Court Justice(s) to protect the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
"I’m voting for the continued growth of my retirement and reducing inflation.
"I’m voting for a return of our troops from foreign countries and the end to America’s involvement in foreign conflicts.
"I'm voting for the Electoral College and for the Republic in which we live.
"I'm voting for the Police to be respected once again and to ensure Law & Order. I am tired of all the criminals having a revolving door and being put back in the street.
"I’m voting for the continued appointment of Federal Judges who respect the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
"I’m voting for keeping our jobs to remain in America and not be outsourced all over the world – to China, Mexico and other foreign countries. I want USA made.
"I’m voting for secure borders and have legal immigration. I can’t believe we have actually have flown 380,000 illegal immigrants into our country. I am voting for doing away with all of the freebies given to all of the illegals and not looking after the needs of the American citizens.
"I'm voting for the Military & the Veterans who fought for this Country to give the American people their freedoms.
"I'm voting for the unborn babies that have a right to live.
"I’m voting for peace progress in the Middle East.
"I’m voting to fight against human/child trafficking.
"I'm voting for Freedom of Religion.
"I'm voting for the right to speak my opinion and not be censored. I am voting for the return of teaching math, history, and science instead of indoctrination of our children and pronouns.
"I'm not just voting for one person, I'm voting for the future of my Country.
"I'm voting for my children and my grandchildren to ensure their freedoms and their future."
Slouching Toward Totalitarianism
Can Trump save us?
Klingenstein: Is our regime totalitarian, emerging or otherwise? What makes it so? How far along are we? Can we fight back?
Ellmers: I think the essay that Ted Richards and I wrote for your website, and the several excellent responses that you published, cover this pretty well.
Klingenstein: How much can Trump fix it?
Ellmers: Very hard to say. Showing up, as they say, is half the battle. Or, as you have noted, the first step in winning a war is to know that you are in one. Trump knows this. He has to keep making the case to the American people that they are true sovereigns, and the arrogant ruling class is illegitimate. The outrageous incompetence of the Secret Service, which failed to prevent the attempted assassination of President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, is a good way to remind people that our so-called experts have no expertise. These bureaucrats are mostly blowhards, grifters, and phonies.
I agree with Trump’s decision not to talk any more about how he was almost murdered, but incoming Vice President Vance should… a lot. In fact, I hope that Trump will continue to do what he does best as president — using his wit and populist rhetoric and negotiating skills to good effect — while the vice president’s office acts as the day-to-day juggernaut that ruthlessly dismantles the administrative state.
Klingenstein: Will Trump win? What does it depend on? If you were his political consultant, what would you advise him to do?
Ellmers: I think he will win by a significant margin — too big, as people are saying, for the Democrats to steal. My friend Jim Piereson, writing in The New Criterion, has predicted that Trump will win the popular vote by six points, take all the swing states, and get 339 electoral votes. That sounds right to me.
He seems to have been changed somewhat since he nearly took a bullet to the head. I would encourage him to remain upbeat and positive.
Klingenstein: What will happen after Trump if he is elected in 2024?
Ellmers: Again, hard to say. Of course the Left will launch its resistance campaign, but I don’t think anyone knows how much support it will have outside the radical fringe. Some of my friends think I’m too optimistic, but I suspect that some energy and panache has gone out of protesting and rioting since the 2020 Summer of Left-wing Love. There will still be violence by Antifa and others, but I don’t think it will have the same mainstream support. And we should not discount the anger the hard Left will direct at the Democrat party. The media and the Beltway establishment really screwed up this election by lying about Biden, and I think the radicals will not take kindly to having their agenda thwarted by the complacency and arrogance of the Democrat’s leadership.
Klingenstein: Is Vance MAGA? Is he the right choice for VP? He abhorred Trump before he lauded him. Does this make you hesitate?
Ellmers: It’s extremely important that Trump 1) went outside the decrepit establishment and picked someone who will help him fight the Beltway blob head-on; and 2) picked someone young and energetic who can carry on the MAGA agenda. That means Trump is thinking long-term. It was a good choice.
Having just finished Hillbilly Elegy, I would say that Trump's VP pick was an outstanding choice, the best he could have made from the outstanding candidates on his short list. A second brilliant move was his welcoming of RFK Jr. into his coalition. Here is the Kennedy clan's black (red?) sheep's Arizona Trump endorsement.
Victor Davis Hanson on Tim Walz
13 hours ago. About 22 minutes long. Penetrating analysis of the recent rollercoaster of events, and excellent advice for Trump if he can rein in his ego sufficiently to take it and act on it.
More: The Harris Flop Would Be Scarier Than Her Flip
No one voted for the Biden-Harris ticket to borrow trillions sparking hyperinflation, to wage war on fossil fuels, to go woke, to welcome in 10 million illegal aliens, to abandon $50 billion in weapons to the terrorist Taliban, and to find America facing existential wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and soon perhaps over Taiwan.
But getting leftists elected requires fooling the American people into thinking their "moderate" campaign veneers will continue into their presidencies — even though they never do.
So, for now, Harris and her new vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz, will smother all their cherished left-wing positions — at least until November.The two left-wing chameleons will assume the temporary identities and policies of "moderates." That is a de facto admission that they know that the public does not want any of their true agendas.
The temporary metamorphosis means that the leftist nominees superficially feign agreement with what most Americans support –energy independence, low taxes, limited government, strong defense, deterrent foreign policy, secure borders, legal-only immigration, and assimilation rather than woke/DEI tribalism.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are the most brazen and extreme examples of left-wing flip-floppers in memory.
Kamala the chameleon is stupider than Pelosi, more mendacious than Hillary, and farther to the left than Joey. And like him, nothing but a puppet. Her much-vaunted 'joy' is the laughing-gas inanity of an over-grown adolescent ingenue. She is of the ilk of AOC, she of the occasional cortex.
Sunday Morning Sermon: Stay Calm
Stay calm. Take some deep breaths. Be careful what you say. Quietly prepare.
If you are a Democrat, ask yourself whether Joe Biden's open-border policy might have something to do with a breakdown in civil order, and who will profit from such a breakdown.
Rod Dreher's take.
Victor Davis Hanson on Assassination Porn and the Sickness on the Left. It is this sort of thing that Hanson has in mind.
Jonathan Turley weighs in, making a point Dmitri made in the combox.
This image by Evan Vucci of the AP is quickly becoming an iconic one. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Donald Trump, his face bloodied by a bullet, raised a fist and said, "Fight! fight! fight!" on Saturday as Secret Service agents helped him from his rally stage. In doing so, he "struck one of the iconic poses in US history," writes Nico Hines at the Daily Beast. The sentiment is a common one:
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"Make no mistake, the image of a bloodstained Trump standing with one arm aloft instantly takes its place alongside the greatest photos in American history," writes Hines, up there with Neil Armstrong on the moon and the Times Square kiss. In his view, the moment is historic in part because it all but seals Trump's victory in November. [A naive prediction which shows a failure to grasp just how vicious and vile the cadre Left is. There will be further attempts to stop him, either by assassination or by some other means. As a defender of the American republic, Trump stands in the way of the Left's relentless effort to "fundamentally transform" (Obama) our country. It's a war over the soul of America. If you don't see that, you are a fool, whence it follows that Milquetoast Mitt and the nattering nabobs of his ilk are fools living in the past — to put it charitably. Time to ask yourself a serious question: Which side am I on? If you give the Right answer to that question, then you must ask yourself: what will I do to help insure that the Right side wins?]
Open Thread: Last Night’s Trump-Biden Debate
I wrote something about it but lost the post when my connection failed as I was uploading it. What did you think of the 'debate'?
A Question about Donald Trump
Things are getting interesting. How long until we collapse into hot civil war? The replacement of the rule of law with the rule of lawfare is a bad sign. The following repost, slightly redacted, is from January 2022, and more relevant that ever.
…………………………..
This from a reader:
It would be very interesting to hear your take on Trump — why do you think that his leadership of the country, despite obvious personality flaws, is less risky for the US and the world than a reasonable alternative? Yes, the ideological, thoughtless, and totalitarian far-left is dangerous, but isn't unprincipled, pugilistic and me-and-my-family first leadership any better? Is your thinking driven by "the lesser of two (or three) evils"?
1) I avoid talk of the lesser or least of evils. I prefer to speak of the better or the worse.
2) Politics is not theoretical; it is practical. There is political theory, of course, and it divides into political science (empirical and non-normative) and political philosophy (normative). But politics is neither of the two, despite the fact that politics is informed by political theory. Politics is a practical game! It is not mainly about having the right views. That does no good unless one can implement them. And no one with practical sense lets the best become the enemy of the good. Politics is a matter of better or worse, not perfect or imperfect. Politics is about accomplishing something in the extant suboptimal circumstances with the best implementable ideas.
3) And which ideas are those? The ideas, values, and principles of the Founders. They arrived as close as anyone ever has to a sound and viable political theory.
4) Now if you accept (2) and (3), then the choice is clear: you support Trump over Hillary, and Trump over Biden. For Trump, unlike Hillary and Biden, supports those values and not just with words. He proved his support for them in the teeth of vicious opposition by pseudo-cons and leftists alike in his four years as POTUS. A long list of his accomplishments could be inserted here. To mention just one, and a very important one: the SCOTUS appointments.
5) If you complain about Trump's character, I will agree that he is flawed but go on to point out that the same is true of Hillary and Biden. Character-wise, either the three are on a par, or the two Democrats are worse. This fact is invisible to many because Hillary and Biden are professional politicians deeply practiced in the arts of deception: mendacious to the core, they know how to hide their flaws, faults, and foibles. But anyone with life-experience and knowledge of human nature can see that Biden is a fraud and a phony rooted in no principle except that of the promotion of himself and his family's interests. The same goes for Hillary to a lesser extent. But as I said, they know how to don masks and play the game. Trump, on the other hand, crudely lets it all hang out. He tells you what he thinks. He is blunt, brusque, boorish, and sometimes pointlessly brutal. (I am thinking of that nasty slur he hurled against Carly Fiorina.) He probably knows that his alpha-male strut and swagger is off-putting to many, but he refuses to play the game.
6) What decides the question for me is that Trump alone supports the American system of government whereas this is plainly not the case with Hillary or with Biden who is the puppet of puppet masters out to undermine the American system. That should be blindingly evident to anyone who has been paying attention.
7) There comes a time when a corrective is needed, an outsider self-powered, un-owned, and unafraid to kick the asses of the Dementocrats to his Left and expose the fecklessness of the cuckservatives to his Right. A corrective and a clarifier. No more of the usual Left versus Right. The battle for the soul of America is now a contest between the borderless globalism of the greedy elites and an enlightened nationalism, populist and patriotic. Hillary/Biden versus The Donald, to personify it.
But 'the virtuous' and the upholders of 'norms' are too scrupulous to rouse the people against their tyrants.
Here:
Describing Wilkes and two of his allies, Walpole wrote, “This triumvirate has made me often reflect that nations are most commonly saved by the worst men in [them].” Why? Because, he concluded, “The virtuous are too scrupulous to go the lengths that are necessary to rouse the people against their tyrants.”
Until the coming of The Donald, that had certainly become the case in recent American politics. Until the Orange Menace loosed the fearful lightning of his terrible swift tweets, the “virtuous,” rather battle-fatigued traditional conservative movement—even when controlling both houses of the Congress—had been out-shouted and outmaneuvered by the unholy alliance of a Left-dominated, morally nihilist pop culture and educational establishment, and what is laughably referred to as the “mainstream” media, all nudging an increasingly radicalized Democratic Party further and further to the left.
Trump and the ‘Losertarians’
The Libertarian Party is for losers. If you are a conservative who votes Libertarian, you are behaving foolishly. You say you stand on 'principles'? Principles are great. And some of the Libertarian ones are salutary. But principles without power are just paper. Politics is a practical game. Wise up and get with the program. Don't throw away your vote on unelectables. If it comes down to Trump versus Biden, you must vote for Trump. Nikki Haley gets it. To paraphrase her recent endorsement: Trump is not perfect, but Biden is a catastrophe.
You have heard me say many times that politics is a practical game. I don't mean that it is unserious. Some games are serious; chess is one, life is another.* Life is as serious as cancer, and the wrong people in power can put a serious dent in your living of your life. You know who these are at the present time.
Politics is not about perfect versus imperfect, but about better versus worse in the concrete circumstances in which we find ourselves. That's what I mean when I say that politics is practical. I'm a theoretician myself, and unlikely to do much in the political sphere beyond vote and exercise my free speech rights. But you must understand the political if you are to have any chance of ameliorative action within the political sphere. Ameliorative praxis presupposes true theory. Libertarians, standing on 'principle,' have as little understanding of the nature of the political as do integralists. (See my Substack entries on integralism, here and here.) Their respective candidates are unelectable.
Practically, you are a fool if you let the best become the enemy of the good by supporting candidates the probability of whose election is near zero. Don't waste your time with third parties, which are nothing more than discussion societies in political drag.
Old Karl said that whereas the philosophers have variously interpreted the world, the point is to change it. He got it backwards. Job One is to understand the world; only then will you have any chance of changing it for the better. I hope you all agree that the commies changed things all right, but for the worse. Pace Barack Hussein Obama, progress is not change; progress is change for the better. And to repeat myself, in the realm of praxis the realizable better is to be preferred over the unattainable best.
Politico reports here on foolish 'losertarian' opposition to Trump.
“The vast majority of Libertarian Party members are not happy with this invitation,” said Bill Redpath, a 40-year veteran of the Libertarian Party and a former national party chair who’s helped organize their presidential ballot access for decades. “There are some people who call Trump the most Libertarian president of our lifetimes. That’s utterly ridiculous.”
What is Redpath's point? That Reagan was more libertarian than Trump? Maybe so. But Reagan is long gone. What is practically relevant is that Trump is more libertarian than any other electable candidate at present. Who will stand up for 2A? Joey B.? RFK Jr.? Gavin Newsom? 2A is the lead that backs up the paper of the other ten. Catch my drift?
Do libertarians really value liberty? Or do they just like to talk? In his address at the Libertarian National Convention, Trump said that if the libertarians are not happy with their usual 3% of the vote, they should nominate or at least vote for him. They nominated some unknown by the name of Chase something. Oh yes, Chase Oliver. I'm already having trouble remembering a name I first heard two days ago.
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*Bobby Fisher famously said, "Chess is life." But we needn't go that far!
UPDATE (5/29) Walter E. Block: Libertarians should vote for Trump. https://www.wsj.com/articles/libertarians-should-vote-for-trump-4ef84994?mod=opinion_lead_pos8 But of course! Block has his head screwed on Right even if he is a libertarian.
If we pull the lever for Mr. Trump in these swing states, we may get a slightly more libertarian president and help free Mr. Ulbricht. If we vote Libertarian everywhere else, we make a statement and help preserve our ballot access.
Some Libertarians find Mr. Trump unacceptable on grounds of principle. True, he is no libertarian, but Mr. Biden—the wokester, the socialist, the interventionist—is much further from us on the political-economic spectrum than Mr. Trump.
Others are put off by Mr. Trump’s obnoxious behavior. He engages in name-calling. He puts ketchup on filet mignon.
Mr. Trump grew up in Queens. I’m roughly his contemporary and come from Brooklyn. I assure you that everyone in New York City is personally unbearable (except Staten Islanders). It is a geographical-genetic disposition. Ignore it. This act of his is mostly tongue-in-cheek. New Yorkers actually have contests to see who is the most insufferable. Prizes are given out.
On the ‘Congressional Catfight’
Some friends to my Right think women have no place in politics. I strongly disagree. But there's no denying that the recent 'catfight' in Congress supplies these extreme Righties with ammo.
Tulsi Gabbard is one member of the distaff contingent who has more right to be in politics than a lot of men I could mention. Here she takes on the stupidest bunch of women on TV.
Who Are These Hamas Supporters?
This just in from Tony Flood:
"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” chant the useful idiots at elite institutions and parades in the West. Who are these people? Atheists who support theocratic lunatics, democrats who endorse medieval tyrants, feminists who defend misogynists who parade with the desecrated corpses of women, gays who defend maniacs who would joyfully hang them or toss them off the roof of a tall building. They talk of a secular, democratic and socialist Palestine. As George Orwell observed: “One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.”
Walter E. Block, "The Moral Duty to Destroy Hamas." (Emphasis added.) This is the text of the 927-word WSJ op-ed, published October 11, 2023, behind their paywall; Block posted it the next day on his Substack.
Austrian School economist and first-generation Rothbardian (i.e., anarcho-capitalist libertarian), Block is a co-author of the 962-page The Classical Liberal Case for Israel (Springer 2021). For me, this book is prohibitively expensive; its argument, however, can be read for free in a documented-to-the-hilt article that the authors had published five years earlier in a peer-reviewed journal: Block WE, Futerman AG, and Farber R, The Legal Status of the State of Israel: A Libertarian Approach, Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law, No. 11, July 2016, 435-554. This link will open a 119-page pdf.
I reiterate my stock disclaimer: Linkage does not constitute plenary endorsement. I stand for free speech and open inquiry, and thus against those leftists, and in particular those leftists in cahoots with Islamists, who dishonor these classically liberal and traditionally American values. That being said, I fully endorse the material from Block quoted by Flood supra.
Addendum. Here is Hans-Hermann Hoppe's reply to Walter E. Block's "The Moral Duty to Destroy Hamas," above cited. I am not qualified to enter this debate, but I will repeat the following from my partially autobiographical essay From Democrat to Dissident:
We were friends for a time, but friendship is fragile among those for whom ideas matter. Unlike the ordinary nonintellectual person, the intellectual lives for and sometimes from ideas. They are his oxygen and sometimes his bread and butter. He takes them very seriously indeed and with them differences in ideas. So, the tendency is for one intellectual to view another whose ideas differ as not merely holding incorrect views but as being morally defective in so doing. Why? Because ideas matter to the intellectual. They matter in the way doctrines and dogmas mattered to old-time religionists. If one’s eternal happiness is at stake, it matters infinitely whether one “gets it right” doctrinally. If there is no salvation outside the church, you had better belong to the right church. It matters so much that one may feel entirely justified in forcing the heterodox to recant “for their own good.”
Related (5/11): Douglas Murray, Choose Life, not the Death Cults. If, like me, you have no time to spend during working hours listening to slow-moving speeches, Murray provides an article adaptation of his speech before the Manhattan Institute, which adaptation is accessible via an internal link.
And then there is this: Why Edmund Wilson Saw Judaism as the Key to America's Cultural Survival.
Finally, I see that Malcolm and 'Jacques' are debating, civilly but trenchantly, over at Pollack's place.
Jubilant over Trump’s Win, Let Us not Forget the Colorado Baker
You and I are more like the baker than like The Donald.
Jack Phillips is the Colorado cake baker who is constantly hauled in and out of court by lawsuits, and by actions by state officials, against him for refusing to bake specialized cakes that offend his conscience.
In 2018, one of the Christian baker’s antagonists went after him like this:
"I'm thinking a three-tiered white cake. Cheesecake frosting," the customer wrote in the June 4 email, according to Phillips' lawsuit filed in Denver's federal court on Tuesday. "And the topper should be a large figure of Satan, licking a 9" black Dildo. I would like the dildo to be an actual working model, that can be turned on before we unveil the cake."
Poor Phillips is now going to be hauled before the state Supreme Court again, in connection with this case, and his refusal to bake a cake meant to celebrate a gender transition. Guess who is now on the record backing the persecution via lawfare of this man?
Continue reading “Jubilant over Trump’s Win, Let Us not Forget the Colorado Baker”