Last week the president of the University of Pennsylvania resigned after criticism and pressure from her admission to Congress that the call for genocide could be perfectly acceptable on their campus1. Some are crying, "Free Speech!" and "Cancel Culture!" I ask, "How is a rally to foment genocide of Jews different than calling 'Fire!' in a crowded theater?" That is, was she canceled because she said the unpopular? Was she canceled because she violated the current acceptable position? Or is she out because her position defending the call for genocide cross the line against free speech? I'd suggest the latter.
When Race Matters
A Catholic priest was stabbed to death in his small Nebraska church rectory this week. Motive was not listed. Oddly, neither was race. The priest was white and the guy they arrested was black. Had it been reversed, the headline would have read "White burglar stabs black priest." That is, after all, the only way it works, right?
The Hate is Great with This One
A Norwegian tanker was hit by a Houti missile launched from Yemen. Why? They were carrying palm oil for biofuel to Italy, but Yemen attacked them thinking they were carrying fuel oil to Israel. And the Houtis have promised to attack any ship dealing with Israel. As any good, law-abiding, Jew-hating terror organization will do. That's what hate's about.
Word of the Year
Merriam-Webster has given its "word of the year" for 2023. The word is "authentic." That, they say, is because "We see in 2023 a kind of crisis of authenticity." How true! They cite AI and deepfake photos and videos. Beyond those, the lack of authentic love and authentic marriage, the failure to grasp even authentic gender, and, of course, the complete disavowal of the authentic Word of God even among many who call themselves "Christian" are all glaring examples of our "crisis of authenticity." Good choice, Merriam-Webster. I bet you didn't know how good.
Religious War
The UN has passed a resolution calling on Israel and Hamas to cease shooting at each other. Israel's "I will if you will" is not good enough and Hamas is unwilling to violate their religion to comply. Hamas is openly aiming for genocide, but it's Israel who is the real bad guy. Dastardly "self-defense" types2.
Strange Twists
In a clever move to garner support for their cause, a group of Jewish protesters sat down on the southbound lanes of the 110 freeway in the middle of rush hour demanding that Israel stop defending itself against those whose declared intentions are to wipe Israel from the map. Yeah ... Jewish protesters. Strange, right? Now, I don't know about you, but when I find a sudden obstacle to my commute like this, my first reaction is, "I wonder who they are ... so I can make sure I oppose them like they have opposed me." But, hey, that's just me. Most people love to support causes that make their lives more miserable.
All You Have To Do Is Look
The teachers who are supposed to teach kids how to read and write are suing the state of Florida over the right to use pronouns that disagree with birth sex (read "biology"). "We will teach your kids, but we will teach them what we think they should know and not science and not logic and not biology, and you will embrace it." Let's get names and fire the incompetent teachers who literally can't recognize truth that would be staring them in the face if it was legal to do so.
You May Do What We Approve
Toledo, Iowa, just removed their longtime, traditional Nativity scene from the local fire department after an atheist group argued that it was "divisive" to allow a Christmas scene on public property. Mind you, the atheist group will not be removing Christmas from their calendars and will indeed still be expecting Christmas off. Those aren't "divisive," you see. The problem is only the public recognition of Christmas ... which happens everywhere in the U.S. every year. Illogic and double standards abound.
Too Funny to Bee Ignored
The Bee is reporting that Pope Francis has excommunicated St. Paul for having outdated views on women and marriage. Is that really satire? Seems more likely than humorous. Elsewhere, you heard that the president of Harvard, Claudine Gay, was under fire for agreeing that "genocide" is a suitable topic on the campus. In the review, it turns out she has a habit of plagiarizing other peoples work (actual story). (Harvard has cleared her by redefining "plagiarism" to "improperly citing".) In response to her critics, Gay has given an inspiring "I Have a Dream" speech. Good move. Iowa's state capitol has a display honoring Satan next to the nativity scene (actual story). People are complaining about the Democratic statue because "Sick, disturbing, Democrat displays have no place in the house where state laws are passed."
Must be true; I read it on the Internet.
FOOTNOTES
1 Note: FIRE is the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an organization seeking to defend fundamental rights on American college campuses. Of the 248 institutions they rank, Harvard is 248th on free speech. The University of Pennsylvania is second to last. "Free speech" is a fluid term, apparently, where "free speech" is encouraged as long as the message is acceptable ... like calling for intifada on campus.
2 I think I need to point out that calling out Hamas as an agent for evil 1) does not necessarily reflect on the casual occupants of Gaza and 2) does not constitute support for Israel's current actions. To say that Hamas's intent to eliminate Israel does not require that I concur with Israel's current approach in Gaza. I am not offering a defense for Israel's actions even if I can understand them. I am simply pointing out that Hamas's genocidal aims are evil over against the loud voices that endorse their intent to wipe Israel from the map.
4 comments:
She refused to say that calling for genocide is violence, but I guarantee she would say that "misgendering" someone would absolutely be violence without hesitation.
Similarly, there were two teens that intentionally ran over a retired sheriff. What the headlines never said was that the boys were black and the sheriff was white, but you can be sure if the races were swapped it would have been in build print. Though, I doubt race was in the mind of these boys, only a total disregard for life. But in today's legal system, if the roles were reversed, they would have been charged not only with murder but also with hate crimes, but apparently only white people can have their motives called into question and have hatred applied.
Guess we can look forward to more shipping issues as companies stop sending anything around that area lest they be sunk for even looking at Israel.
At least Merriam-Webster is taking their word seriously. Another of the dictionary sites decided that "rizz" was their word of the year.
Yet another example of the uselessness of the UN. They passed a resolution to tell people to play nice? I can just see it in the great history books: "Resolved- ask other people to be nice to each other even though the stated goal of one is the total eradication if the other."
It's not quite as bad as this stop oil people stopping traffic. Yes, completely interrupting people's lives is not a good way to get people to agree with you, but you're also causing more of the problem you're fighting against when you force hundreds of cars to sit and idle for hours. Not a whole lot of thinking going on in the part of many liberal protestors.
I really hope Florida wins this, and I'm kind of on the hopeful side in this one because Florida has been doing a decent job on this lately.
And yet the atheists supported the Satanic display in Iowa. I was glad to hear someone took it upon themselves to destroy that display, even though they're going to be punished for it.
It used to be that the Bee would put out this satire and only months and years later would it come true, now they're almost concurrent sometimes.
Given the story of the missiles being launched at the freighter, why isn't the UN calling for a ceasefire there, I wonder.
One of the most irritating things about that Satanic statue on display in the state capitols is that it is absolutely not about "the freedom of religion" or even "free speech." The group states they "do not believe in Satan as a magical or spiritual being, but instead use the name as a metaphor for opposing mainstream religions and free thinking." (Interesting how "free thinking" means "You can't think about the existence of God.") They are self-evidently aiming to oppose Christian freedom of religion (I don't see them attack Islam or other religions). They aim to eliminate God from the public marketplace. When the image they put up is not something that they believe in, protecting it seems ludicrous.
Give them time. They're a beauracracy after all, and nothing moves fast there. I'm a month they'll be sure to start asking freighters to stop triggering those poor Houthi rebels.
I was surprised to hear that there was a nativity scene up too. As far as I knew, no Christian iconography was allowed in any government building.
Post a Comment