Bookworm Beat 12/22/16 — the random news edition

Random news squaresThis is a random news edition because I’ve spent the day doing such scintillating things as cleaning the kitchen (including behind the refrigerator) to quell an ant infestation and spraying clothes with Pemethrin to prepare for an upcoming trip to some malarial hot spots. Throughout the course of the day, whenever I had a minute, I grabbed random, but interesting links I found on Facebook, through my favorite blogs and, always my best source, from friends who email me. Because I’m heading out soon for Cirque du Soliel, brevity will be the name of the game.

How to handle rape. In America, we’re told that telling women actions they can take to defend against rape is a no-no because it constitutes “blaming the victim.” Instead, men should be taught not to rape. In Austria, which is yet another European country overrun by non-white, non-Christian (or Jewish or Hindu or . . . ) men who come from a decided rape culture, it’s all up to the women to protect themselves.

How to deal with terrorism. Writing at The Atlantic, Uri Friedman looks at the frighteningly simple truck attack in Berlin and concludes that there are only three ways to deal with terrorism on European soil: secure public spaces, expand government surveillance, or learn to live with it. He seems to have forgotten a fourth approach: Expel all the recently admitted refugees. And then expel all known trouble makers. And then break down the ghettos in which the remaining Islamic communities incubate fanaticism.

Progressives say their massive freakout is warranted. Even Progressives are realizing that their complete meltdown is out of the ordinary. But the LA Times is there to assure us that Trump is so horrible — and his supporters so evil — that Progressive mental collapse is an appropriate response. Really.

Ivanka is too good to help women. Elle, yet another women’s magazine that sells Leftism, assures us that Ivanka is a disaster for women. Hillary’s many (ahem) accomplishments were an inspiration, of course, but Ivanka is so damn accomplished that she’s intimidating and sets women’s rights back by decades, maybe even centuries. Moreover, the entire goal of her father’s upcoming presidency is an exercise in nepotism to benefit her alone. Really.

Postmodernism made graphic. Both post-modernism and moral relativism get their chance in this great cartoon.

MTV attacks white guys; white guys attack back. MTV is apparently getting some deserved flak for a disgraceful video insulting white men. I’m not too distressed. White men have become so self-abnegatory that they’re pretty much worms. It’s time for those worms to turn, and gratuitously insulting videos such as MTV’s latest exercise may be helpful in bringing some pride and honor back.

Antisemitism comes from Progressives, not Trump. For decades, Progressives have been incubating antisemitism. And moderate Progressives have been ignoring it, of course. Only with Trump’s election did Progressives suddenly start saying “Oh, my God! It’s like, you know, antisemitism and it’s all Trump’s fault.” This list of 40 American universities — all of them hard Left — that are bastions of antisemitism is another reminder that it’s the Democrat party that’s antisemitic. I put this on Facebook, but I doubt any of my Progressive friends will be enlightened.

You can read more about antisemitism on American campuses (the heartbeat of the American Progressive movement) here.

Fake news forum. The Watcher’s Council tackles how to deal with the Progressives’ newest censorship tactic, which is to label anything they don’t like as “fake news.”

Trump on the Middle East. Everything Obama has done vis-a-vis the Middle East is wrong, although he’s been following in the path of previous presidents. He’s just been wrong on a grander, more vicious, more anti-Israel, antisemitic scale. Thankfully, Israel is made up of tough people, so Obama could not destroy them.

Trump, however, has grabbed onto the right end of the stick when it comes to dealing with the Middle East. It’s no surprise that leaders in Arab nations are pleased about Trump, feeling he’ll be a more reliable ally for moderate states and for those states horrified by Iran’s push for nuclear hegemony in the region.

David Friedman will be a great ambassador. You’ve probably read a lot of articles at conservative sites about what a great ambassador to Israel David Friedman will be (Jeff Dunetz, for example). Robert Avrech has a personal take on what kind of a person Friedman is — and it’s all good.

The best way to bring peace to the Middle East. Because the Arab/Muslim idea of peace with Israel is one Tacitus would recognize (“They [the Romans] make a desert and call it peace.”), negotiating with them in good faith will never bring peace. The only way to bring peace is the way the Allies did with Germany and Japan: win the war. Win it totally. Israel and her allies need to reduce the Palestinians to defeated status, at which time the actual negotiations can really begin.

Good summary on the value of a gun. When David French is on, he’s really on, as he is with this post explaining just how dangerous the Progressives’ anti-gun hysteria is for the well-being of law-abiding Americans. He writs with great clarity. Thomas Sowell adds that this is yet another example of the Left gambling with other people’s lives and suffering no consequences for its endless failures. (That’s because it owns the media.)

There’s nothing crazy about Trump’s tweets. The only crazy thing about Trump’s tweets is that he’s crazy like a fox. They’re a brilliant strategy to bypass the media, control the message, distract the media, and do all sorts of other things that upset the dominant paradigm — a paradigm that badly needs upsetting.  For example, media people who are the victim of anti-conservative discrimination now have ways to vent their spleen, which is part of taking down the old communist media and allowing a flow of actual truth.

Immigration and Progressives. If the Progressives’ identity-politics model is broken, and they can no longer force more immigration and own incoming immigrants, it’s going to be very difficult for them in upcoming years to get the votes they need. The working class knows that Progressives are the enemy and, as legal immigrants enter the working class, they’ll get that message too. Daniel Greenfield explains in detail.

Explaining the CIA’s war on Trump. Virgil has a fantastic (but long) article explaining how entrenched interests in Washington, D.C., are desperately afraid of Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp,” and will do everything they can to keep him from getting anything done — starting with attacking the validity of his election.

There are no fixed principles on the Left. One of the points Orwell made in Animal Farm is that the leadership’s rules change as the leadership’s needs change. There are no fixed principles; there are only rules that benefit the ruling class. (This is typical, incidentally, for all narcissists, whether as individuals or as a group.) Victor Davis Hanson gives a good rundown of the way in which all of the Progressives’ so-called “principles” changed overnight with Trump’s election.

Interestingly, Piers Morgan, who adored Obama, has grasped just how dangerous the slippery Progressives are with their entirely false “the Russians are coming” narrative. He’s a bright guy and when he gets things right, he’s worth reading.

Obama isn’t going away. If you thought Carter and Clinton were like a meal of bad shellfish — they keep coming back up, no matter how much you wish they wouldn’t — you ain’t seen nothing yet. Obama has no plans to be an éminence grise. He intends to organize a community in opposition and control America from outside the White House.

Gotta run. More later.

Photo by shioshvili