Daily Shaarli
July 22, 2020
We’re surrounded today by evidence that too few of us know our history, and too many have been mis-educated to see only its flaws. //
When we obsess over our faults, we lose perspective and forget that aspect of our past. Never before had a country been built upon the idea that it was not the rule of kings but the dignity of each person that formed the basis of political and social order. We did that.
Our liberty is founded not upon the gift of a favored few, but on the idea that each of us has certain inherent rights, bestowed by God and woven into the fabric of nature itself. The magnificent fireworks we set off on this day every year symbolize one of the most explosive ideas in all human history.
Yet we take it far too much for granted. We assume that these commitments represent the default position of the human race. We’re surrounded today by evidence that too few of us know our history, and too many have been mis-educated to see only its flaws and appreciate none of its grandeur.
After years of teaching American history, I’ve come to the conclusion that to appreciate America properly, we need to know much more than we do about the rest of the world, and about how the American story compares with its real-world alternatives. That’s why I’ve often wished that every course in American history could begin with a reading of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “Gulag Archipelago,” or Robert Conquest’s “The Great Famine,” or Jung Chang’s “Mao,” books that offer a horrifying glimpse into an alternative reality of tyranny, murder, and degradation that even the worst moments in our history cannot rival.
These are large books, so let me suggest a shortcut for this Fourth of July. Before you go out to take in the fireworks and festivities, set aside a couple of hours to watch the recently released movie “Mr. Jones,” directed by Agnieszka Holland, an eminent Polish screenwriter and director.
You've heard 'The numbers don't lie,' right? //
And here’s a head-scratcher, from RS contributor Brad Slager July 14th:
Local news channel Fox 35 in Orlando pored through the individual reports from labs across the state and found that an alarming number of these clinics are reporting 100% positive results with coronavirus tests. This defies the running averages seen in most areas, which typically are 85-90% lower. The station contacted a number of the clinics reporting these wildly high figures with one of them announcing that their report of 98% positive results should have in fact been only 9.4%.
While there is no set time limit for a vote, we should know the answer within about 10 days. And if we haven’t heard by then, here's what it likely means. //
Judge Emmett Sullivan has no business seeking a rehearing by the full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals of the panel decision granting Michael Flynn’s petition for mandamus. Both Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell, and the U.S. government hammered that point yesterday in their answers to Sullivan’s petition for rehearing en banc.
Powell had sought mandamus from the D.C. Circuit after Sullivan refused to dismiss the criminal charge against her client. After uncovering exculpatory evidence Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team had withheld from Flynn’s defense attorneys, federal prosecutors moved to dismiss the single charge of lying to the FBI that the special counsel’s office had levied against Flynn in late 2017. //
That evidence included notes establishing the FBI had no legitimate investigative purpose to question Flynn about his telephone conversations with the Russian ambassador and suggested instead that the ambush interview provide a perjury trap to out Flynn from the Trump administration. Even then, as revealed by additional notes disclosed last week, the agents who questioned Flynn did not believe he had lied during the interview.
The U.S. treatment protocol for 22- and 23-week newborns must be grounded in the latest science and in clinical judgment for each newborn's unique circumstances.
As politicians are working to find solutions to police violence, having a comprehensive understanding of the statistics is essential. //
If Democrats truly want to solve police brutality they should do a little research.
The current media trend indicates that blacks are targeted by the police; however, new research reports just the opposite. A study released in late 2019 found “no evidence of anti-Black or anti-Hispanic disparities” across police shootings. //
The findings continue, citing that “white officers are not more likely to shoot minority civilians than non-White officers.”
Rather, police are far more likely to kill whites during a confrontation. For example, in 2017 457 white Americans were shot to death by the police in comparison to 223 black Americans.
This trend continues into 2020 where statistics show that police more commonly kill whites during confrontations. The ratio of police violence by race has not changed much over the past five years. //
When taking population differences into account, the argument against systemic racism holds up as well. Despite representing 13% of the population, the FBI reported that in 2017 black Americans committed 53% of homicides and 54% of robberies. Further, when looking into violence committed against police, black American men represent 33% of cop killers despite being only 6.6% of the population.
There are very few things in life more annoying than someone who is at once condescending and wrong. Included therein are people who pretend they are helping us – while they’re screwing us. Or even worse: They know we know they’re screwing us – and they continue to pretend they’re helping us while they screw us. The condescension of thinking we don’t know – is... //
Here is a truth of life from Roger Scruton – destructive Leftists fail to grasp:
“Conservatism starts from the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed – but not easily created.”
Intellectual Property is a very good thing.
There a thousand ways to very easily destroy it.
Creating it – ain’t quite so easy.
We must protect these miracles whence they occur.
Google appeared to test its ability to blacklist conservative media Tuesday from its monopolized search engine which dominates 94 percent of internet searches.
Four days, six comment requests, and one follow-up story later, The Atlantic issued major corrections that confirmed The Federalist's investigation,
As the crowds need to be proactive against racism — and more importantly, to be noticed for doing so — the accusations of racism are stretching thin.
Defeating cancel culture becomes easier once understand what it really is.
Racists and social justice warriors are pretty much twins. //
Both racists and the social justice obsessed want segregated spaces, have a love of racial identitarianism, defining all things through the lens of racial experience, and believe discriminatory practices should not only be legal, but also encouraged.
Perhaps we have put too much weight on ideas and political philosophy //
Christopher Caldwell’s essay on the roots of America’s partisan divide the other day. He makes a fascinating argument: the two seminal dates in American history are not 1619 and 1787, but rather 1787 and 1964, the year the Civil Rights Act passed.
That year, for all intents and purposes, a second constitution was created. American constitutional law pivoted from the ethos of ‘one law for all’ to ‘different laws for different races, sexes, sexual orientations, etc.’–seemingly a move to boost the historically disadvantaged but actually a regression to tiered inequality which America had slowly but surely been moving away from since the founding with votes for women, desegregation, and decriminalization of homosexuality.
The civil rights constitution turned old injustices around and granted poorly defined identity groups permanent privileges not available to Americans as a whole (‘privilege’ = ‘private law’). Caldwell writes:
Now we can apply this insight to parties. So overpowering is the hegemony of the civil rights constitution of 1964 over the Constitution of 1787, that the country naturally sorts itself into a party of those who have benefitted by it and a party of those who have been harmed by it.
This weekends outrage at Trader Joe's proves how outlets like the New York Times use phony anger to make companies and politicians do what they want. //
up an article claiming “Ford Pressured to Stop Selling Police cars” because of a petition with a tenth of the signatures as a call for more updates to “EA Battlefront 2,” see it for what it is. Likewise, when you see articles covering outrage about splash mountain with half the support of anger at Ms. McLernon, kicking police officers out of schools with just 2,000 signatures, and of course, claims that Trader Joe’s is imperialist with 1,500, recognize the outrage was manufactured. The vast majority of Americans could not care less about a grocer selling Chinese food labelled with ‘Trader Ming.”
These articles say a lot more about confirmation bias than they do about popular opinion.
That’s a provocative headline, I know. But the odd nature of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation leaves you