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DECEMBER 29-30,  2022

FADEOUT:  As 2022 drifts to an end, it is entirely proper that we pay tribute to those moments of highly educated insanity that have come to mark our times.  I find it moving, don't you?  From American Thinker: 

This is one of those stories that you’re certain is from the Babylon Bee, and that is stunning in its implications when it turns out to be the truth. In this case, the truth is that, in accordance with UN and WEF climate recommendations, the city of Oxford (home to the famed university) approved plans mandating that citizens may not drive more than 15 minutes distance from their homes without permission. It’s called the “15 Minute City” and is intended to reduce auto emissions. Mostly, though, it will reduce liberty, which is what climate change madness has always been about.

In many ways, the 15 Minute City (which the WEF and UN approvingly tout) is an old, unexceptional idea: Even in big cities, people like vibrant neighborhoods that allow them to travel very short distances (walking, riding a bike, or driving) to fulfill their daily needs (food, clothing, haircuts, etc.). Indeed, there are lots of people who pick homes based on their proximity to amenities. They don’t want to spend their lives in their cars or on public transportation chasing from one thing to another. And that’s fine. Making choices based on lifestyle preferences is a perfectly sound, market-based way to go through life.

But the marketplace is not what globalists want. They want control. Certainly, that’s the case in and around Oxford, England. Word is trickling into America that both the leftist Oxfordshire County Council and the Oxford City Council have plans. Big plans.

… Oxfordshire County Council, which is run by Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party, wants to divide the city of Oxford into six ‘15 minute’ districts. In these districts, it is said, most household essentials will be accessible by a quarter-of-an-hour walk or bike ride, and so residents will have no need for a car.

On the surface, these 15-minute neigbourhoods might sound pleasant and convenient. But there is a coercive edge. The council plans to cut car use and traffic congestion by placing strict rules on car journeys. Under the new proposals, if any of Oxford’s 150,000 residents drives outside of their designated district more than 100 days a year, he or she could be fined £70.

Run by a Labour administration, Oxford City Council takes a similar line.
Since Spiked wrote the above, the Oxford City Council went from theory to fact by a council vote on November 29 to implement trial traffic filters as of January 2024 that will require residents to get permission to leave their neighborhoods, all in the name of saving the planet:

Oxfordshire County Council yesterday approved plans to lock residents into one of six zones to 'save the planet' from global warming. The latest stage in the '15 minute city' agenda is to place electronic gates on key roads in and out of the city, confining residents to their own neighbourhoods.

Under the new scheme if residents want to leave their zone they will need permission from the Council who gets to decide who is worthy of freedom and who isn't. Under the new scheme residents will be allowed to leave their zone a maximum of 100 days per year, but in order to even gain this every resident will have to register their car details with the council who will then track their movements via smart cameras round the city.

COMMENT:  Coming soon from a Democratic city council near you.   It's such fun to run other people's lives.  And what exciting ideas are next?  I don't know, but I'd imagine that some enterprising Democrat (oops, can't say that)...uh, some Democrat seeking diversity, will propose that the color schemes of cars be regulated to insure that all colors have an equal right to be represented on a woke city's roads.  I personally am outraged when I travel on a road and don't see a generous number of black-and-white cars.  We all know what that is. 

We'll improve this society.

December 30, 2022       Permalink

I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT, WHEN A GOOD GUY SOUNDS OFF:  In this case the good guy is one of the founders of Home Depot, and he has a serious warning for us.  From Daily Mail:

'Nobody works. Nobody gives a damn': Billionaire Home Depot co-founder, 93, blames socialism for destroying capitalism - as he slams Biden, 'woke people' and Harvard grads for putting obstacles in the way of entrepreneurial success

The co-founder of Home Depot slammed 'woke people,' said nobody wants to work anymore and called Joe Biden 'the worst president in history' for putting obstacles in the way of entrepreneurial success.

Bernie Marcus, 93, believes that the success the company he began with Arthur Blank in 1978 couldn't happen today. 

He said: 'We would end up with 15, 16 stores. I don’t know that we could go further' because of people standing in the way of the business community.

Marcus added that he's worried about capitalism and said thanks to socialism, 'nobody works. Nobody gives a damn. ‘Just give it to me. Send me money. I don’t want to work - I’m too lazy, I’m too fat, I’m too stupid.'

A vocal Donald Trump supporter and member of the White House reopening task force during COVID, Marcus said he's given money to both Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Trump's potential rival for the 2024 GOP nomination. 

He said: 'It’s going to be very interesting in ‘24 because I think that DeSantis will challenge him. And may the better man win.'

Marcus was unequivocal, however, in calling Joe Biden 'the worst president in the history of this country' saying that 'we used to have free speech here.' 

'We don’t have it,' he said. 'The woke people have taken over the world.'

He also listed human resources executives, government bureaucrats, socialists, Harvard graduates, MBAs, Harvard MBAs, lawyers and accountants as the obstacles to entrepreneurial success in 2022. 

Bernie Marcus, 93, cited Biden and many others as reasons that the success the company he began with Arthur Blank in 1978 couldn't happen today

Home Depot has 2,300 stores across North America, a market capitalization of $300-billion and an annual revenue of more than $150-billion, according to Financial Times.  

Marcus cites his charity, having joined the Gates family's and Warren Buffett's Giving Pledge, promising to donate at least half his fortune to good causes, as how he gives back.
He also backed the construction of the Georgia Aquarium and has given $2-billion to over 500 organizations through the Marcus Foundation.  

The Marcus Foundation has also donated to autism, stem cells, cancer, stroke and military veterans' PTSD causes.  

In 2019, he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 'I want to live to be 100 because I want to be in a position to give it away to those things that I really believe in.

'I've got all the houses I need. I live very well. My kids are taken care of. Everything I live for now is finding the right things to put my money into and that can give me a rate of return in emotion and doing good things for this world.'

COMMENT:  As I said, one of the good guys, and he's right in citing the obstacles placed in the way of today's entrepreneurs.  They are placed by people who've turned to socialism, a failed system that can destroy what this country has built.

Please note that Marcus does not shy away from naming universities as among the offenders, the institutions holding America back.  We're now hearing this more and more.  A revolt is building, similar to the parents' revolt in Virginia.  Colleges that once were seen as beyond reproach are facing well-deserved skeptism. 

In 1948 Yale announced that it was trying to develop a curriculum as good as its reputation.  I think they're still working on it.

December 29, 2022       Permalink

DECEMBER 27-28,  2022

I WAS DELIGHTED TO LEARN, ON ELECTION NIGHT, THAT MY OLD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT, THE ONE I GREW UP IN, THE THIRD DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, HAD ELECTED A REPUBLICAN.  Now, I'm not so delighted.  Turns out the elected "Republican" is actually a professional liar.  He lied about his entire background.  From Fox: 

Rep.-elect George Santos, R-N.Y., who flipped a hotly-contested congressional seat on the edge of New York City, responded to criticism of misleading or fabricated items on his resume in a contentious interview on Fox News Tuesday, insisting he is not a "fraud" or a "fake."

Santos has come under fire for claims he graduated from Manhattan's Baruch College, his connection to Judaism and work in the financial sector. He defeated Robert Zimmerman, a longtime Democratic activist who has also appeared on Fox News in the past, as the two vied for outgoing Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi's seat encompassing part of Nassau County and northeastern Queens.

On "Tucker Carlson Tonight," former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who was guest-hosting for Tucker Carlson, grilled Santos on the claims and whether the voters in New York's 3rd Congressional district should be able to trust the person they elected.

Gabbard asked Santos what the term "integrity" means to him in light of the revelations, to which the congressman-to-be replied it means to carry oneself "in an honorable way." He repeated admitting to making a mistake.

"I think humans are flawed, and we all make mistakes, Tulsi," he said. "I think we can all look at ourselves in the mirror and admit that once in our life we made a mistake. I'm having to admit this on national television for the whole country to see. And I have the courage to do so because I believe that in order to move past this and move forward and be an effective member of Congress, I have to face my mistakes, and I'm facing them."

Santos said he nonetheless remains committed to the issues he campaigned on this year, saying he is "not a fraud" and worked "damn hard to get where I got my entire life."
In response, Gabbard said integrity does mean carrying oneself with honor but also indicates commitment to the truth.

"[I]f I were one of those in New York's third district right now, now that the election is over and I'm finding out all of these lies that you've told… my question is, do you have no shame?" Gabbard asked.

COMMENT:  This was no simple "mistake."  Santos, if that is his name, lied about where he went to school, his professional record, even his religion, claiming that his parents were Holocaust survivors.  I know that some people on our side are saying that, yes, this is wrong, but that Democrats have gotten away with such lies for years.  We recall how Elizabeth Warren built her career around a Native American heritage that never existed.   We recall Dem Senator Richard Blumenthal lying about his military record.  And we certainly know that Joe Biden has, over his career, embellished virtually everything he's ever done.  One fib after another.  Always given a pass by an obedient press.  And, oh yes, Hillary Clinton never was under fire in a war zone.  But, whatever.

And yet, I have to believe that cynicism has its limits.  Yes, life is unfair.  The media has covered for the sins of its liberal pals.  But I do feel we must be better, and say out loud that we are.  This man Santos should be expelled from the Republican Party.  It is rumored that Kevin McCarthy may need Santos's vote to become speaker.  I think McCarthy should say right now that he doesn't want that vote, that he won't accept it, and that anyone who would is unfit to serve as speaker.  What do the anti-Kevin holdouts say to that?  I think we'd be hailing Speaker McCarthy.

We've been here before.  In the 1950s a Republican congressman from Utah, Douglas Stringfellow, was running for his second term.  He had been elected the first time on his claim that he'd been a war hero, a recipient of the Silver Star, wounded in action, and the sole survivor of a secret mission.  It suddenly became known during his campaign for re-election that none of this was true.  The Republican Party immediately demanded that he withdraw as a candidate and named another man to take his place.  That was the right thing to do.  The replacement candidate won.

I guess we're just in a different age. 

December 28, 2022       Permalink   

ARE WE APPROACHING A NUMBER OF BREAKING POINTS IN THE "CRISIS" OF EDUCATION?  I don't like the word "crisis."  It's overused.  But I do think we can safely use it in describing the overall crisis in American education.  Rarely do we find an area in which so many components have gone so wrong so quickly.

In his race for governor of Virginia, Republican Glenn Youngkin made a parents' revolt against failing schools the centerpiece of his campaign, and flipped Virginia red.  He hit a sensitive political nerve, and voters responded.

But the crisis in education involves much more than state-run public schools.  It was first publicly identified, as early as the 1980s, in colleges and universities, where students who thought they were getting a first-class liberal arts education found they were getting a lifetime dose of racial division, topped by a generous serving of anti-Americanism.  That has gotten much worse.

Now we are seeing a serious increase in speeches and articles dramatically questioning the investment that families make in "higher" education.  The market is starting to work.  From Fox: 

The exorbitant costs of attending college sets students up for failure — and higher education is often a "scam" and unnecessary in some fields, a writer and researcher on market influences and monopolies said.

"I think that the financial aspects of college or higher education have overwhelmed the ability to create a citizenry on a very basic level," Matt Stoller, a research director at the American Economic Liberties Project, told Fox News. "This is kind of like a slow-burning crisis that we have to look into."

The average cost of going to a private college — including tuition, fees, books and room and board — went from $2,930 per year in 1971 to $51,690 in 2021, according to data from the nonprofit group College Board. Nearly a third of parents and students believe that college is overpriced, according to a recent Sallie Mae and Ipsos study.

"The Columbia Journalism School is sort of in an existential crisis because they have a nine-month degree that costs $120,000 and they're like, ‘Are we the problem?’" Stoller said.

"Yeah, you guys are the problem. You're not the only problem. You're more of a symptom."
Stoller also sees elite institutions' high prices as a moneymaking scheme.

"There is a scam there," he told Fox News. "I haven't been able to figure out what that scam is."

"That's what's causing this problem," he added.

Undergraduate enrollment declined by over 650,000 students — more than 4% — from the spring of 2021 to 2022, according to a report by the National Student Clearinghouse.

"I think that schooling exists to make citizens and to build a moral, self-governing society. Also, it's there to let you get a job and build a life," Stoller said. "I think that we're falling down on all counts of that, and we have to look at why that is."

Colleges are "such a mess in terms of administrative bloat" and are "saddling people with a lot of debt," he added. "You can't come out of a school with lots of debt and be a good citizen — you are now a dependent of someone else."

Stoller also questioned the necessity of some degrees, like journalism. The high cost associated with journalism school, he said, "shows that it's just a credentialing mechanism for a social class more than it is like a practical way to think about free expression in a democracy."

COMMENT:  Many are actively questioning the value of the bachelor's degree.  Is it really needed?  Is much of value taught by over-politicized "professors"?  Would most students be better off going into career training or apprenticeships? 

Those questions were once rarely asked.  Now they are becoming routine.  I'll be on the lookout for developments in this area.  Don't be shocked if some colleges close or others cut whole departments.  Already, many history departments are being abolished.

A revolution is in the air.

December 27-28, 2022       Permalink