Bookworm Room

Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.

Trump is not a racist; he’s pushing the Overton window to normal

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By stating the obvious about America-hating immigrants, Trump pushed the Overton window towards a more normal understanding of immigration and gratitude.

Trump Racism Overton WindowTrump started today with a bang:

The reaction from the Progressive and Democrat cohort, encompassing politicians, presidential candidates, and the media, was predictable: RACIST!!! It did not matter that Trump said nothing about race. There was a dog whistle there and, naturally enough, race-obsessed Leftists heard it.

(Before I go on, a brief moment of ironic laughter here. When Occasional Cortex accused Nancy Pelosi of racism, Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo), a member of both the Black and Progressive Congressional caucuses opined, “What a weak argument. Because you can’t get your way and because you’re getting pushback you resort to using the race card? Unbelievable. Unbelievable to me.” Likewise, Maureen Dowd also piped up with “A.O.C. should consider the possibility that people who disagree with her do not disagree with her color.” Coming from people who’ve spent the last 11 years insisting that racism is the only reason anyone can disagree with their agenda, that’s pretty rich. And now back to my post….)

Equally predictably, when he was again called a racist, Trump was not cowed. Instead, he doubled-down: [Read more…]

Taking back the rainbow for popular culture

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San Francisco’s ubiquitous rainbow flags, symbols of alternative sexualities, made me want to rescue the rainbow from its ghetto and return it to the world.

Rainbow

Noah and the rainbow covenant from the Trevelyon Miscellany 1608

And I will establish my covenant with you [Noah], neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:

And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. (Genesis 11-15.)

In the late 1960s or early 1970s, the de Young Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, bowing to the hippie ethos, put together a rainbow exhibition. Although I was young back then (somewhere between eight or ten at a guess) and was no stranger to museum exhibitions, for I came from an art-oriented home, this exhibition was the first I remember passionately loving. (The other two exhibitions that thrilled me in my youth were dedicated to Norman Rockwell and the Dresden art collection.)

I was reminded of that exhibition today, for a I made a rare trip to San Francisco and saw rainbow iconography wherever I looked. These rainbows didn’t give me the warm-fuzzies, though. Instead, they irked me, for they were a reminder that, in today’s world of obsessive identity politics, one group has laid claim to this universal symbol, effectively denying it to the rest of us.

[Read more…]

The DNC Server, the Russian Hoax, & the Murder of Seth Rich

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We still do not know whether the DNC, FBI and DOJ acted unlawfully to create an October surprise that would elect Hillary in 2016, nor do we know beyond reasonable doubt that Seth Rich’s murder was unrelated.

Two recent articles raise important issues regarding the Russia hoax.  At Real Clear Investigations, Aaron Mate has written “CrowdStrikeOut: Mueller’s Own Report Undercuts Its Core Russia-Meddling Claims.”  Mate points out that the FBI has never inspected the DNC server and that Mueller’s “evidence” that the server was hacked by Russians is speculative, not definitive.   At Yahoo News, Michael Isikoff has written “The true origins of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory. A Yahoo News investigation.”  In it, Isikoff claims that Seth Rich’s murder was unrelated to the theft of DNC emails and that claims to the contrary are Russian disinformation.  What — and whom — to believe?

To put this in perspective, per the Mueller Report, we now know definitively that neither Donald Trump nor anyone in his campaign conspired with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.  We do not know whether the Russian narrative Mueller was tasked to investigate was an illegal hoax, though there is ample reason to suspect various illegalities at its heart.

The central part of the Russian narrative is the claim that Russian agents hacked the DNC server.  Amazingly, inexplicably and criminally, we do not, to this day, know if that is true because the FBI has never examined the server. An entity employed by the DNC, Crowdstrike, asserted that the emails were hacked in a phishing scheme.  Both Comey and Mueller assumed that to be true without any verification.

Further, the answer to whether the DNC was phished could definitively answer an open question about the murder of DNC employee Seth Rich.  If the DNC server was phished, than Julian Assange’s charge that Rich, not Russia, was the source of the DNC emails and that he may have been killed because of it, can be definitively disproven.  But that is a charge that the entire progressive left claims is verboten to even ask.  The FBI decided not to involve itself in the investigation of Rich’s murder — inexplicable given the potential relationship to the DNC server hack — and Mueller chose not to interview Julian Assange.

[Read more…]

Adam Smith v. Karl Marx: Women’s Soccer Players and the Gender Wage Gap

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The real competition for the U.S. women’s soccer team isn’t on the pitch; it’s in the court room, where they are trying to defy the laws of basic economics.

women's soccerThe 26 members of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team, winners of the 2019 World Cup, are in the midst of a court battle against the US Soccer Federation, with whom they have a collective bargaining agreement signed in 2016. The ladies are screaming about gender discrimination and the gender pay gap. They want to be paid the same as the men on the U.S. Men’s Soccer Team. Or as CBS’s 60 Minutes frames it:

Few teams have been as glorious on the soccer field as the United States Women’s National Team. They’ve won three World Cups, four Olympic gold medals, and set the standard in the most popular sport on the planet.  But despite their achievements, the players say they have been discriminated against, paid less and treated worse, next to the U.S. men’s team. Soccer may be known as the beautiful game, but the team has embarked on a bruising and historic legal fight for equality and their opponent is the U.S. Soccer Federation, their own employer. For the players, it’s the match of their lives. They hope a victory will help close the gap, not just in sport, but in any job where women do the same work as men for less pay.

Heart rending, is it not? There is a reason everyone on the left is framing this as an equitable and emotional argument.  Neither statutory law nor the laws of free market economics are on the side of the ladies.

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How to block someone on Disqus

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Thanks so much to everyone for their feedback about Leftists who hog the bandwidth in the comments. The poll showed a strong preference for banning Sarah Waggoner entirely. However, when I read through the comments, the feedback was more nuanced. The most contented people were those who blocked her on their own initiative, putting the power in their own hands. Those who love a good debate argued in favor of keeping her on. And others wished that they could just limit the number of her posts. (Sadly, that last is impossible.)

I’ve decided that, for the time being, I’ll make sure that everyone knows how to block someone on Disqus. That way, people can take matters into their own hands. If you wish to block Sarah Waggoner, start going to one of her comments. If you move your cursor to the far right after her name, a little downward-pointing arrow will appear, indicating a pull down box. Click on the arrow and you’ll see a menu giving you the choice to block that person: [Read more…]

Poll regarding a Leftist in the comment thread

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Open Thread bubbleI like having comments at the Bookworm Room. I’m fortunate enough to have exceptionally intelligent readers, so their comments always add substance to my posts. I’m also willing to allow Leftists who are polite and interesting to comment, even if I know they’re minions of troll pod. Part of being informed is hearing what the other side has to say.

What I will not allow, though, are people whose comments are obscene, abusive, or threatening. I also do not want to host people who flood the comment section, effectively taking over discourse and driving out others who do not want 150 notices in their email with comments that are effectively spam.

As long-time readers know, I eventually got stuck with a Leftist Borg troll whom I couldn’t block using my traditional methods. That’s why I’ve switched over to the irritating comment moderation system. Under the old system, I could block bad guys, but everyone else could comment freely. Under the new system, only approved people can post, which gives me greater control. The first time someone posts, I review their post and their record. If they’re civil, I grant them future access — but I can always withdraw this access if they abuse the privilege. [Read more…]

Jeffrey Epstein and the war on sex crime in Trump’s America

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My sense is that Jeffrey Epstein will not hurt Trump, even if Epstein names names, because Trump is all about stopping pedophiles, not being one.

I first learned about Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest for sex trafficking when I saw this tweet from News-weak:

I found News-weak’s framing to be interesting, to say the least, given that the politician mentioned most frequently in connection with Jeffrey Epstein isn’t Trump but is, instead, Bill Clinton. After all, it’s Bill Clinton who famously flew at least 26 times on Epstein’s plane to the latter’s infamous “Lolita Island.” Clinton also apparently ditched his Secret Service agents for at least a few of these trips. Those are facts, not rumor. I leave you to draw your own conclusions about Clinton’s behavior.

Another tweet makes it clear that Trump, while he may have said nice things about Epstein (probably because it’s his usual shtick to compliment people who is not his enemies), nevertheless appears to have steered very clear of Epstein’s unsavory activities and, indeed, to have meted out what consequences he could to Epstein: [Read more…]

Driving through the desert makes global warming seem like a good thing

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I know it’s counter-intuitive, but global warming might turn America’s vast southern desert into useful arable land.

Mojave desert deserts arable landWhen driving through the deserts of New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California, my educated brain knows that those barren looking lands are, in fact, teeming with life. Plants that look ugly and scrubby to me provide provide shelter and sustenance to an abundance of small mammals, reptiles, birds, and insects.

Still, the American desert is not a land that provides much sustenance to humans. Driving through it, I made sure to be stocked up on water and never let my gas tank drop much below half full. I wanted some barrier against even the the thought of my car breaking down out there in the 104 degree heat.

If one shuts out the educated part of ones brain while driving down I-40, the one that says there is life out there, all that one sees is hundreds and hundreds of miles of . . . nothing. There’s very little human habitation (hence my always-semi-full gas tank), livestock are a rarity, and I couldn’t see anything that looked remotely like food crops. It’s just hot, dusty, and hostile. [Read more…]

Post-Independence Day thoughts from the road

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New Mexico desert Good morning. I am starting day five of my cross country journey and do not even have Internet this morning. Instead, I am dictating this quick post using my iPhone. Please forgive mistakes. It is very hard to proofread.

I spent most of July 4 driving through Oklahoma and New Mexico. It’s not my favorite kind of landscape – I prefer a more verdant terrain – but what was delightful was the fact that every small town through which I traveled, and I traveled through many, was festooned with red white and blue. No matter what’s going on in the big cities, lots of ordinary Americans were clearly celebrating the birth of our great national experiment in individual liberty.

One of the things I have to do is give a shout out to America as truckers. It is exhausting to drive for long stretches at a time. You must be constantly vigilant, lest something bad happen on the road. In other words, it’s a hard job.

I have seen hundreds of trucks during this trip, all of them obeying the rules of the road, all of them driving courteously, and all of them spreading throughout America the bounty of America and the world. These truckers are an impressive bunch and I think we should all be grateful for their willingness to live their life on the road. [Read more…]

July 4, 1776: The genesis and meaning of the Declaration of Independence

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The Declaration of Independence was written for the colonists, to justify our call to arms, and for Britain’s enemies, to assure them of our intent.

Wolf Howling’s annual annotated Declaration of Independence

Below is the Declaration of Independence annotated and its historical context.  Following that are some additional comments on the Declaration and its importance.

Update:  Read the Declaration of Independence while you still can.  Apparently Facebook recently censored a portion of its publication as “hate speech.”

Historical Commentary:  In 1760, Britain was on the verge of finally defeating France in the Seven Years War, the economy was growing, and virtually every American colonist was proud to be a British citizen.  Even as Britain, out of misplaced jealousy and greed, slowly tried to strangle its colonies over the next sixteen years, the majority of colonists still wanted nothing more than to remain in the British fold.

That finally changed among a bare majority of patriots after shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, in 1775, and after Thomas Paine published the most read pamphlet in American history, Common Sense, justifying rebellion against Britain.  A decision had to be made, though it was not clear that we would declare independence until, after several votes and much debate, we voted to do so on July 2, 1776.  The colonists themselves needed a sufficient reason to fight — to create a new nation that would be better than the old.  And we needed foreign support, particularly from Britain’s long term enemies, France and the Netherlands.  Both would only offer their support to us if we unequivocally proclaimed that our intent was to form a new nation.  The Declaration of Independence was commissioned for those two audiences.

Everyone knows Jefferson’s preamble, a restatement of Locke’s natural rights theory that itself is founded on Christianity.  It was the high water mark of the English Enlightenment.  Jefferson’s preamble provided the philosophical basis for our rebellion and the creation of our new nation. [Read more…]

Happy Independence Day!

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Independence Day

In 1776, a miracle happened: For the first time in history, men conceived of a nation dedicated to liberty. That the execution was imperfect and took time to be brought to fruition is irrelevant. All that matters is that something extraordinary happened on July 4, 1776 and that 243 years later Americans, as well as the entire free world, still enjoy the benefits of that miracle.

Have a happy July 4th — and let me know what you think of Trump’s celebration. I’ll be on the road again, so I’ll only be able to see it in re-runs later today.

Elizabeth Warren as imagined by Monty Python

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Watching Elizabeth Warren boast about her “plan” for Mitch McConnell shows she has a doppelgänger in the Monty Python universe — John Cleese’s Anne Elk.

Elizabeth Warren Anne Elk Monty Python John CleeseDo you remember how, during last week’s debate, Elizabeth Warren stated that she had a plan for dealing with Mitch McConnell and then promptly followed that statement with meaningless blather? Even TIME Magazine figured out that, her statement about a plan notwithstanding, Warren had nothing of value to say:

The same was true when it came to Warren’s plans about gun violence. Instead of having a plan, she wants to conduct a study. She can conduct studies until the cows come home, but that’s not a plan; that’s a process. [Read more…]

Scott Adams errs badly about Antifa

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Scott Adams errs badly in excusing Antifa on the grounds that it’s just risk-craving young men having fun committing non-lethal violence against bad guys.

Antifa LogoWhen Scott Adams first heard about the way Antifa brutally attacked gay Vietnamese-American journalist Andy Ngo, he was as outraged as any decent person would be. (Leftists, by celebrating the attack or, in Jim Acosta’s case, ignoring it despite an entire book about journalists — i.e., Jim Acosta — being under siege, have shown themselves to be indecent people.) A problem arose, though, when Adams, who rightly prides himself on being logical and thinking out of the box, watched a video that made him do a 180: suddenly, he has no problem with Antifa. All I can say is that this bright man had a short in his logic circuit.

Adams watched a video in which an Antifa member claimed that it wasn’t really a political group at all. It was just young men finding an outlet for their natural craving for risk and a way to prove their manhood. Pounding on neo-Nazis in non-fatal ways, he explained, is a fun proving ground.

Adams found that argument so compelling that he says we should ignore Antifa and just let its members and the neo-Nazi groups pound away at each other. He didn’t say so, but I think his theory is a combination of “boys will be boys” and “it would be great if both sides lost this war.” If we view Antifa this way, says Adams, its political powers goes away and it just becomes a gangster group. (I think he’s envisioning a kind of Wanderers versus Ducky Boys fight scene.)

By taking this position, Adams proves that, while he isn’t often wrong (indeed, I think he’s mostly right about things or at least thinking about them creatively), when he does go wrong, he’s really wrong.

First, regarding a young man’s urge to engage in risky activity, I agree that both Adams and the Antifa guy he listened to have a point. Many young men do feel the need to prove themselves through dangerous displays. As a mother, I worry every time my son goes off skiing or doing some other activity in which, through showing off, he can really hurt himself. I never have that worry with my daughter. However, the biological push to prove oneself through dangerous activity is not a justification for crime. [Read more…]

Notes from the road and open thread

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I am making another one of the big road trips that has characterized my life this year. Today I covered 622 miles, so I am really too tired to do any serious blogging. I can tell you that, as always, I am delighted by my travels through the United States. I am proud of this vast country.

Driving that much does give you a chance to think about things so I have a couple of ideas in rough form that I’ll put here and let you guys play with or ignore, as you please. The first idea is a riff on that old expression that the dark night of Fascism is always hovering over America but somehow always ends up in Europe.

[Read more…]

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