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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas.  It's here.

OCTOBER 11,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

THE INTELLECTUALISM OF KAMALA HARRIS – FROM FOX:   Vice President Kamala Harris is getting roasted on social media after appearing in a NASA video for kids while the Biden administration’s approval ratings continue on a downward slide.  Harris, who serves as chair of the National Space Council, talked to kids about her fixation with the "craters on the moon" during a NASA video on YouTube honoring World Space Week.  In the video, the vice president hosted the kids and gave them life advice at her official residence in Washington, D.C., where the U.S. Naval Observatory is located.  "You know, one of the most important pieces of advice that I can offer you guys, and I want you to really remember this: Never let anybody tell you who you are, you tell them who you are," Harris said in the video. "Never let anybody suggest to you that you are what they think you should be, you tell them who you are and who you know you are, and what you intend to be. Got that?"  Harris also talked about her own passion for science and "exploring the unknown," as well as what the kids could expect during their trip to the observatory.  "You’re gonna literally see the craters on the moon with your own eyes!" Harris exclaimed. "With your own eyes! I’m telling you, it is gonna be unbelievable."  Someone tell the vice president that we were seeing craters on the Moon decades ago, and some of her fellow Americans actually walked in some.  Yikes!  Unbelievable!

October 11, 2021       Permalink

A TRULY GREAT MOMENT – OVERNIGHT:  Cancel culture can be defeated, sometimes overwhelmingly.  We've just seen a great moment at Princeton.  From Fox: 

Cancel culture seemed to have backfired in one instance, as thousands have registered to attend a guest lecture at Princeton University by a geophysics professor whose initial speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was canceled amid pressure from campus activists.

"I'm delighted to report that we've expanded the Zoom quota for Dr. Dorian Abbot's Princeton lecture – the one shockingly and shamefully canceled by MIT – and literally thousands of people have registered," Princeton professor Robert P. George tweeted on Monday.

The lecture, titled "Climate and the Potential for Life on Other Planets," is scheduled to take place via Zoom at 4:30 p.m. ET on Oct. 21 – the same day it had been scheduled to take place at MIT.

George, who is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, wrote in a follow-up tweet Tuesday, "I extend a special invitation to those MIT students, faculty, and alumni who believe in truth-seeking and understand that its indispensable conditions include freedom of thought, inquiry, and discussion, to Zoom into Dr. Dorian Abbot's Princeton lecture. #solidarityintruthseeking."

Dr. Dorian Abbot, a geophysical sciences associate professor at the University of Chicago, was slated to deliver the John Carlson Lecture, which is billed by MIT as an annual lecture meant to communicate "exciting new results in climate science to the general public," in light of his research on climate change. But MIT retracted his invitation, not because of the content of his planned lecture, but instead after activists and MIT academics took issue with Abbot's past comments arguing academic evaluations should be based on merit, not on race or ethnic identity.

Abbot, and his colleague, Ivan Marinovic, had criticized diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives by universities and some employers in an August opinion piece for Newsweek titled "The Diversity Problem on Campus."

After MIT announced it had canceled Abbot’s participation in the lecture, the geophysicist wrote a piece on the "Common Sense with Bari Weiss" substack noting that, "a small group of ideologues mounted a Twitter campaign to cancel a distinguished science lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology because they disagreed with some of the political positions the speaker had taken."

"I am a professor who just had a prestigious public science lecture at MIT cancelled because of an outrage mob on Twitter," Abbot wrote. "This is not a partisan issue. Anyone who is interested in the pursuit of truth and in promoting a healthy and functioning society has a stake in this debate. Speaking out now may seem risky. But the cost of remaining silent is far steeper."

COMMENT:  The fact that thousands have registered is inspiring.  It also directs us to a new path around cancel culture on college campuses.  If a speaker is cancelled because of the pressure of the mob, find another way for that speaker to speak to the same audience.  Clearly, that takes us to online programs, either through Zoom or other venues. 

We can defeat the thugs.  We're now seeing a real parents movement growing up in America, to fight back against the takeover of school boards by the political left.  Is this the counter-revolution we'd been waiting for?   I hope it is.  It would be helped mightily if the Republicans take over Congress next year. I sense the momentum.

October 11, 2021       Permalink

OCTOBER 10,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:   

CONFLICT OF INTEREST – FROM DAILY MAIL:    An education firm that was co-founded by the son-in-law of US Attorney General and former Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland is under fire for issuing resources that claim former President Trump's supporters are white supremacists.  Alexander 'Xan' Tanner, 30, is a founder and the president of Panorama Education, an analytical software and services company in Boston. He married Attorney General Garland's daughter Rebecca in 2018.  Panorama recently put out a workshop which deals with systemic racism.   It includes a link to an article that calls both Ku Klux Klan members and President Trump's supporters 'examples of white supremacy.'   'SEL as Social Justice: Dismantling White Supremacy Within Systems and Self,' the Panorama workshop in question, features several 'resources' for teachers, including one that links to a Medium article titled 'How White Supremacy Lives in Our Schools, written by Altagracia Montilla.  Montilla's piece, published in July of 2020, says 'the rise in images of overt white supremacy in the media feeds into the confusion about white supremacy. While the Ku Klux Klan and MAGAs at half-empty Trump rallies (not that these are mutually exclusive groups) are in fact examples of white supremacy, they are not the only examples.'   More and more, these things sound more like businesses than educational organizations.  The race industry.  High profit and socially acceptable in some tofu-consuming groups.  As for Merrick Garland, he has a clear conflict of interest in dealing with racial issues because of his son-in-law's venture.  I doubt if the woke press will care.  Neither will the Biden White House.  I had hoped that Garland would at least conduct himself well.  Another hope gone.

October 10, 2021       Permalink

LA-LA LAND – OVERNIGHT:  IS THERE NO LIMIT TO THE MADNESS OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA?  APPARENTLY NOT.  FROM DAILY MAIL: 

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a woke law on Saturday forcing stores to have 'gender neutral' sections where traditional blue and pink toys and toothbrushes are banned.

Large department stores must now display products like toys and toothbrushes in gender-neutral ways - a win for LGBT advocates who say the pink and blue hues of traditional marketing methods pressure children to conform to gender stereotypes.

The new law, however, does not completely outlaw traditional boys and girls sections at department stores. Instead it says large stores must also have a gender neutral section to display 'a reasonable selection' of items 'regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys'.

That does not include clothes. The law only applies to toys and 'childcare items,' which include hygiene and teething products. 

The law also only applies to stores with at least 500 employees, meaning small businesses are exempt.

Author of the bill Evan Low - an assemblyman and Democrat from San Jose - said he was 'incredibly grateful' Newsom signed the bill this year. 

It was Democrats' third attempt in the state Legislature trying to pass this law, with similar bills failing in 2019 and 2020.

Low said he was inspired by the 10-year-old girl daughter of one of his staffers who asked her mom why certain items in the store were 'off limits' to her because she was a girl.

'We need to stop stigmatizing what's acceptable for certain genders and just let kids be kids,' Low said. 

'My hope is this bill encourages more businesses across California and the US to avoid reinforcing harmful and outdated stereotypes,' he added.

COMMENT:  With all the problems California has, this is what the government is concerned with.  Far more people are leaving California than coming, and I suspect that will be its fate for the foreseeable future.  Used to be called the Golden State.  Ronald Reagan was governor.

October 10, 2021       Permalink