SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE –  OVERNIGHT:

ONE SMALL STEP FOR SANITY – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  Brown University has backtracked on offering a “mindfulness” course exclusively to black, Latino and Indigenous students after a complaint was made to the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism.
Last month’s online “teacher training class in mindfulness-based stress reduction” was open only to “BIPOC” students, which stands for black, indigenous and people of color — although Asian students were not included in that category, the New York Post reported.
Brown reportedly established the course because “mindfulness instruction in the West has historically … failed to include and address the needs, life experiences, and priorities of marginalized communities,” according to a letter from a FAIR attorney Leigh Ann O’Neill.The universities represent the worst examples of political correctness and Marxist agitprop.  Rooting this stuff out will not be easy, as many professors and administrators have built their careers around know-nothingism.  We have a chance of progress with the newest generation of students, some of whom seem to understand what's being done to them.  We need more.

MOVING VAN POLITICS – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:   As the Washington Examiner reported this week, the end of the COVID-19 pandemic has done nothing to arrest the trend of people fleeing large cities in liberal coastal states for more pleasant and orderly locales, particularly in the Mountain West and the Sun Belt.
A mixture of unreasonable pandemic restrictions, rising crime, lawlessness, and hostility toward employers has forced this continued urban exodus.  A Census Bureau report released late last month shows which cities and towns have gained population and which have lost it. The data demonstrate that the states and cities that imposed the most draconian COVID-19 restrictions were very likely to lose population. But the fact is that the data are quite similar for the period between 2018 and 2019, when COVID-19 was not a consideration. What towns and cities gaining population generally have in common both before and during COVID-19 is that they generally live under laws made by Republicans. What towns and cities losing population have in common is that they generally live under Democratic rule.  It is hardly a coincidence that all 15 of the 15 fastest-growing cities and towns between July 2020 and July 2021 are in states that Republicans govern: Arizona, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Idaho. And 14 out of the 15 fastest-declining cities during the same period were in states that Democrats governed at the time.  What towns and cities gaining population generally have in common both before and during COVID-19 is that they live under laws made by Republicans. What towns and cities losing population have in common is that they live under laws made by Democrats.  Ah, it is so great to have good news, and this is good indeed. Now we have to translate the reality into votes in November.  The Dems will use every device to keep their power.

June 28, 2022