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In a major about-turn, British education secretary Gillian Keegan has finally admitted what most ordinary people knew all along. She has said she will no longer use the phrase “trans women are women” after a major review found that treatments for children questioning their gender are based on “remarkably weak evidence.”

Keegan claimed that her understanding of the issue has “evolved” and she has “learnt a huge amount more about this complex and challenging subject.”

The Cass Review, conducted by leading paediatrician Dr Hillary Cass, found that studies are often “exaggerated or misrepresented” to support gender ideology. It also said that children who claim to be questioning their gender may need simply to be treated for mental health issues.

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understood by even the most progressive educators that some rules need to be put in place to keep kids in check. Structure has always been a good thing for small people with developing brains and uncontrollable emotions. Sadly, the educational system has been inexorably hijacked by the most extreme elements of the far left and by extension the principles used to maintain order among often impetuous and impulsive children have been quickly eroded in the name of “deconstruction.”

For those outside of what is now referred to as “Gen Alpha” (the generation born from 2010 onward), most people grew up with restrictions in school, including dress codes. While some institutions might have been more oppressive than others, overall there was a balance between “expressing one’s individualism” and keeping that expression from disrupting one’s education – Schools should focus on academia, not catering to people’s narcissism.

Today, the progressive ideology has devolved into a bizarre form of cultism in which almost all behavior is justified as long as it is minority behavior. This includes the behaviors of the mentally unstable and deranged; such people are swiftly becoming the most popular minority on the victimhood totem pole.

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The latest instance of the migrant invasion and escalating crime wave was a 20-year-old illegal alien from Venezuela who attempted to rob a bank in Sandusky, Ohio.

On April 4, Sandusky Police were called to the West Perkins Avenue bank for a ‘suspicious man loitering’, according to local media outlet Sandusky Register.

“While en route to the bank, officers received additional information that Yeixon Brito-Gonzalez, who only spoke Spanish, was asking tellers to put money in a white trash bag,” the paper said.

Video released of the attempted robbery shows the illegal alien using a translator app on a smartphone to instruct the teller to load a trash bag full of cash.

UnHerd.

By now, you will surely have seen the video of actress Sydney Sweeney at the end of her Saturday Night Live hosting debut last month. She’s enthusiastically waving goodbye, her breasts barely contained by a dress that looks like it was designed to reveal as much of their surface area as possible, while also preventing them from floating away into space — which seems, in this case, a genuine risk. There was no reason why this moment should have been so remarkable, this being neither the first plunging neckline nor first set of boobs to grace the SNL stage, and yet, a consensus swiftly emerged that Sweeney’s physique was more than the sum of its perfectly spherical parts. Conservative writer Richard Hanania summed it up when he tweeted the video with a three-word caption: “Wokeness is dead.”

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In January, FOX 26 reported on what police thought was a robbery turned homicide when a bystander shot the robber, but an investigation now shows that the robbery was fake.

22-year-old Rasshauud Scott was staging a robbery that two victims were in on when Jesus Vargas, a bystander, shot and killed him.

Court records say that Scott was working with William X Winfrey, who instructed Scott to stage the robbery in exchange for money.

The documents say the two victims were in on the robbery, so they could file for U-Visas. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a U-Visa is granted to victims of certain crimes to aid law enforcement in solving cases. It grants the victim temporary immigration status, including work authorization; temporary immigration status for qualifying family members of the victim; and the possibility of lawful permanent resident status.

This probably would have worked in New York or California.

Read it.

That cackling sound you hear is the ghost of Orval Faubus and all his Jim Crow buddies.

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In a bizarre news segment, a transgender person who used to refer to himself as the “human Ken doll” attempted to lecture JK Rowling on what a woman really is, declaring that the author should “stick to what she knows.”

OffGuardian.

You know how #SolutionsWatch replaced #PropagandaWatch three years ago? Well, I found a piece of propaganda so crazy, so self-contradictory, so hilariously reaching, so weirdly self-deconstructing that it has to be heard to be believed. Feast your ears on this wet hot dumpster fire of nonsense served up by the very confused propaganda pushers over at NPR.

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There is no path to appeasement – nothing is ever green enough for climate fanatics.

The Spectator.

Mirabile dictu, as we Latin lovers like to say. In other words, wonderful news! Attractive women have fallen for ancient Rome — and for classicists.

Well, that’s what the British Museum thought when it cooked up its advertising campaign for its new show, Legion: Life in the Roman Army, about Roman legionaries. The museum put up a controversial social media post, promoting the exhibition as an opportunity for single women to find single men.

I spotted a lissom blonde in green T-shirt and tie-dye trousers. We fell in step as we approached the gift shop

The post read: “Girlies, if you’re single and looking for a man, this is your sign to go to the British Museum’s new exhibition, Life in the Roman Army, and walk around looking confused. You’re welcome x.” It added: “Come for the Romans, stay for some romance.”

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The city of Sacramento, California has passed a resolution declaring itself a “sanctuary city” for transgender individuals, who apparently don’t have sufficient ‘sanctuary’ in women’s lockers, bathrooms, or sports.

The resolution prohibits city employees fromm using “staff time” and “resources” to prevent individuals from getting transgender medical procedures, or cooperating “with jurisdictions seeking to enforce laws criminalizing gender-affirming care in other jurisdictions.”

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A District of Columbia library sought to engage a drag queen with a criminal background to perform at pride-themed Drag Story Hours for children.

A staff member at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library solicited drag queen Latrice Royale, otherwise known as Timothy Wilcots, to sing and dance in drag before children, according to an email obtained by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news outlet).

According to that May 17, 2023, email, the library employee was under the impression that the LGBTQ organization the Human Rights Campaign would pay the drag queen’s travel fees and $10,000 performance fee. Wilcots ultimately proved too pricey for the event, the HRC’s Brandon Hooks shared in a later email (neither Hooks nor the HRC responded to requests for comment).

You’re the Star of the Show With Main Character Syndrome

The Trouble with “Main Character Syndrome”

4 signs you have ‘main character syndrome,’ according to therapists

How to Recognize the Signs of ‘Main Character Syndrome’

The cornerstone of modern personality appears to be narcissism.

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Tonight is Hollywood’s biggest night, the 96th Academy Awards, when the liberal bubble of the movie industry puts on a TV show expecting the rest of the nation to pay rapt attention. So it’s a good time to dig out the absolute worst quotes we’ve collected over the years from the “stars,” as they championed their favorite liberal politicians and badmouthed conservatives.

Democrats, the Hollywood elite tells us, are virtual deities walking amongst us. Back in 2012, actor Jamie Foxx saluted “our lord and savior, Barack Obama,” during the Soul Train Awards on BET. “It would be wonderful to give this man all of the power that he needs to pass the things that he needs to pass,” actress Gwyneth Paltrow not-so-constitutionally enthused at a Democratic fundraiser for Obama in 2014.

But Republicans are foul creatures who need to be exterminated. “If we were in other countries,” actor Alec Baldwin screamed after Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998, “we would stone [GOP Congressman] Henry Hyde to death and we would go to their homes and kill their wives and children!” Nearly two decades later, actor George Takei sneered that Justice Clarence Thomas was “a clown in blackface sitting on the Supreme Court….He is a disgrace to America.”

Read it.

Canada’s $3.02 billion in financial and military support for the Ukrainian war effort includes $4 million in funding for “gender-transformative mine action,” a move that has brought questions and criticism on social media.

“This project from the HALO Trust aims to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of Ukrainians, including women and internally displaced persons, by addressing the threat of explosive ordnance present across vast areas of the country,” the line item says, The National Post reported.

“Project activities include conducting non-technical surveys and subsequent manual clearance in targeted communities; providing capacity building to key national stakeholders; and establishing a gender and diversity working group to promote gender-transformative mine action in Ukraine,” the item, coming in a press release about the war funding, stated.

Count the buzzwords. This is what people mean by the phrase ‘word salad’.

UnHerd.

A decade later, I’m struck by the astonishing prescriptiveness of this line: the notion that any sexual encounter preceded by flirtation, negotiation, or indeed any assessment of a suitor’s desirability should be understood as “less-than-ideal” — and that any man who seeks to make himself desirable to an as-yet-uncertain woman is doing something inherently sleazy. Granted, the anti-Game backlash began in the form of reasonable scrutiny of controversial seduction techniques like “negging” (a slightly backhanded compliment deployed for the sake of flirtation).

But since then it has morphed into something much stranger: the idea that anything a man does to impress a woman, from basic grooming to speaking in complete sentences, should be viewed with suspicion. Behind this is the same low-trust mindset that leads women to treat every date as a hunt for the red flags that reveal her suitor as a secret monster. If he compliments you? That’s lovebombing, which means he’s an abuser. If he doesn’t compliment you, that’s withholding, which also means he’s an abuser. Other alleged “red flags” include oversharing, undersharing, paying for the date, not paying for the date, being too eager, being five minutes late, and drinking water — or worse, drinking water through a straw.

Cf. the innumerable TikTok videos by women complaining that men don’t come up and talk to them any more. (Really? And why would that be?)

Go to YouTube and search for ‘Rollo Tomassi’ and be prepared for a trip Down the Rabbit Hole.

Steven Hayward at Power Line.

Okay, this is officially the funniest thing on the internet right now: “Tucker Carlson” explaining the real story of Lord of the Rings.

AI is cheap entertainment.

I’d be more impressed if it were done in Sindarin. Or even Klingon–that would be entertainment.

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White supremacy remains so prevalent in Christianity today because it took root in the early church, theologian Anthony Reddie told a Baylor University conference this month.

Reddie, a professor of black theology at Oxford University in England, said in his Feb. 15 speech that white supremacy has “distorted” Christianity since the time of Jesus Christ, according to Baptist News Global.

‘Black theology’? More accurately ‘anti-white theology’. (Oxford appears to be going the way of Harvard. Pity.)

Jesus was a white supramacist? Who knew?

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President Joe Biden’s fitness to stand trial and his fitness to serve as president are not comparable standards, the forensic psychiatrist who led the movement to oust Donald Trump from the presidency via the 25th Amendment contends.

Dr. Bandy X. Lee, who edited “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President,” first released in 2017, said earlier this month that she did not judge Biden’s cognitive decline to be a danger to his service as a president.

Last week, several Republican lawmakers responded to her comments, with many alleging a “double standard” for judgments of Trump and Biden.

Oh, ya think?

Read it.

During a recent appearance on MSNBC, a black activist lawyer suggested that crime in the United States could be completely eliminated if all crime was just legalized.

The comments were made by Ben Crump, who specializes in civil rights cases and was the attorney for the families of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

Be the first in your Blue State….

The Guardian.

Chicago will not renew its ShotSpotter contract and plans to stop using the controversial gunshot detection system later this year, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office announced on Tuesday.

The system, which relies on an artificial intelligence algorithm and network of microphones to identify gunshots, has been criticized for inaccuracy, racial bias and law enforcement misuse. An Associated Press investigation of the technology detailed how police and prosecutors used ShotSpotter data as evidence in charging a Chicago grandfather with murder before a judge dismissed the case due to insufficient evidence.

Chicago’s contract with SoundThinking, a public safety technology company that says its ShotSpotter tool is used in roughly 150 cities, expires on Friday. The city plans to wind down use of ShotSpotter technology by late September, according to city officials. Since 2018, the city has spent $49m on ShotSpotter.

“Chicago will deploy its resources on the most effective strategies and tactics proven to accelerate the current downward trend in violent crime,” the city said in a statement.

“Doing this work, in consultation with community, violence prevention organizations and law enforcement, provides a pathway to a better, stronger, safer Chicago for all.”

Young male black gang-bangers will vote for Johnson for a hundred years, per Lyndon Johnson.

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Users of London’s famous rail network will soon be forced to think of Britain’s racial, feminist, and LGBT history whenever they step on an Overground train.

The six lines that make up the Overground network—suburban rail services, not to be confused with the Underground—are “fondly” known collectively as the “Ginger Line.” But Transport for London (TfL), the local government body responsible for the city’s transport networks, chaired by Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan, last August set about renaming them. Khan promised this scheme in 2021 and said it was aimed at making the network easier to navigate. The new names, unveiled this week, reveal another, far more political motive.

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Students in a Seattle English class were told that their love of reading and writing is a characteristic of “white supremacy,” in the latest Seattle Public Schools high school controversy. The lesson plan has one local father speaking out, calling it “educational malpractice.”

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“Can Selecting the Most Qualified Candidate Be Unfair?” asked researchers in a recent study published by the American Psychological Association.

Read it.

Buy those votes! Buy those votes!

Kill those jobs! Kill those jobs!

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The ascent of AI has naturally lent itself to the rise of AI adult content, which people have used to get their jollies off by employing the hot new technology to craft women in various states of undress. Obviously, this has come with some serious ethical issues, but it isn’t all that surprising, as new technology tends to cut its teeth in NSFW content before becoming mainstream.

This has made a recent trend where people appear to be doing the opposite and use AI to make real women more clothed peculiar, and this new #DignifAI trend has sparked intense debate on social media.

Apparently putting virtual clothes on half-naked women is mysoginist. Who knew?

Politico.

California never had slavery. Why do they need to establish a ‘reparations package’?

Time to leave…

Read it.

Michael Cassidy, a Christian veteran who decapitated a Satanic shrine on display in the Iowa State Capitol building, has been charged with a ‘hate crime’.

Iowa. That’s where we’re at these days. (If he were Muslim, of course, to charge him with a hate crime would be Islamophobia.)

UPDATE: Satan Needs a Red Carpet Interview

The Spectator.

Now the environmentalists are going after the “Mona Lisa.” Because of course they are. Just when you thought you couldn’t dislike these apocalyptic irritants anymore, now they’ve gone and pelted soup at another priceless artwork, the most famous artwork in the world no less, because they think their fever dreams about climate change are more important than ordinary people getting to marvel at da Vinci’s masterpiece.

Two activists from Riposte Alimentaire — France’s answer to JustStopOil, only with a particular interest in food policy — took their chance at the Louvre yesterday. After emptying a bottle of orange gloop on to the “Mona Lisa,” one of the women was captured on video shouting: “What is more important: art or the right to a healthy and sustainable diet?” They were blocked off by screens before being removed.

Thankfully, the painting wasn’t damaged. The “Mona Lisa” has been behind safety glass since the 1950s, after a vandal hurled acid at it. In 2009, a Russian woman — apparently upset by the rejection of her citizenship application — threw a mug at the painting, smashing only the mug. This isn’t the first time a climate nutter has had a go, either. In 2022, a young man disguised himself as an elderly woman, so he could get close enough to smear cake over the glass, all while shouting “think of the planet.”

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The noise you hear is flapping and grunting.

New York Times.

Fifteen months after city officials were ready to throw a party in the Noe Valley Town Square to celebrate funding for a tiny bathroom with a toilet and sink, nothing but mulch remains in its place.

The toilet project broke down the minute taxpayers realized the city was planning an event to celebrate $1.7 million in state funds that local politicians had secured for the lone 150-square-foot structure. That’s enough to purchase a single-family home in San Francisco — with multiple bathrooms.

Read it. And watch the video.

While wearing a Trump wig….

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I didnt’ see any mention of it, but I’m sure the resolution calls for a free pony for every child in Gaza as well.

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A key reason that Yemen’s Houthis are unlikely to halt their attacks on Red Sea shipping as well as Western warships parked there is because immense pressure on the global transit waterway can be kept up, while it costs little to persist with such launches.

Many of the Houthis drones which are capable of reaching vessels far off the Yemeni coast have been estimated at not more than $20,000. Some of them are as low as a few thousand dollars to build. They can easily be intercepted by US and UK coalition warships, but at an immense cost for these Western militaries.

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How could this get funnier? Azerbaijan, once described as the nation where it rains oil, has just appointed a state oil company veteran as COP29 President.

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Secessionism is in the political eye of the beholder. Propose the restoration of the Republic of Texas and you’re a dangerous secessionist, but open fire on Congress in the name of Puerto Rico’s independence and you’re a hero of social justice. Then there’s Hawaiian secessionism.

The restoration of the Hawaiian monarchy seems both secessionist and anti-democratic which hasn’t stopped the quixotic project from winning the support of the anti-American Left.

Hawaii was a feudal society with nobles who believed that they were descended from the gods, and the kauwa pariahs, the actual descendants of the original conquered indigenous peoples, who were born as slaves, had their foreheads tattooed, and were used for human sacrifice.

America’s Neo-Communist lawyers would like to bring Hawaii’s glorious nobility back to power.

Because sometimes the right side of history requires fighting to restore a system based on slavery and human sacrifice, not just in Syria, Libya, and Egypt, but in the Hawaiian islands.

Call it the 1319 Project.

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The Methodist Church in the UK has issued an ‘inclusive language’ guide, advising followers to refrain from using terms such as ‘husband’, ‘wife’, ‘brother’, and ‘sister’, reasoning that some people might find them “hurtful”.

You can’t make this shit up.

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Georgia’s top election official is pointing to the Biden administration’s failure to secure the southern border as a reason the state Legislature must act to prevent voting by foreign nationals in state elections.

“With open borders, citizenship verification for voter registration is more important than ever,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said Monday in a public statement.

Raffensperger called on the Georgia General Assembly to amend the state Constitution to clarify that only U.S. citizens may vote in elections. He warned that liberal organizations are trying to use the courts to overturn citizenship verification ahead of the 2024 election.

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The Atlantic magazine’s unintentionally hilarious IF TRUMP WINS series warns its readers of the scary apocalyptic future should Donald Trump emerge victorious in 2024, but Helen Lewis brought a mildly moderating tone to the flock, urging the Trump-loathing readers not to “go bonkers” again as they did after Trump won in 2016. Should the unthinkable happen again, Lewis urged her readers not to go full mental jacket as explained in the title, “THE LEFT CAN’T AFFORD TO GO MAD.”

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For no other reason than historical, the entire European Parliament migrates from Brussels to Strasbourg for one week each month. To orchestrate the move, the parliament charters entire trains. This practice has drawn criticism and ridicule at the best of times. Earlier this week, due to a switching error, dozens of Members of European Parliament heading for Strasbourg found themselves at Disneyland instead. The symbolism of the error invites numerous jokes, such as POLITICO recalling that the EP is regularly seen as a Mickey Mouse Parliament – though I would say that Mr. Mouse probably runs a tighter ship than Europe.

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Whenever I leave my Berlin apartment, the first thing I see is a sign saying CHICKEN HAUS BURGER; the second is a café blackboard announcing: « You can’t buy happiness but you can buy CROIFFLE and that’s kind of the same thing. » A billboard advertises an upcoming film as « ein STATEMENT für GIRLPOWER »; one shop promises a wide range of Funsocken. Rather more disturbing — particularly here in Neukölln, a neighbourhood copiously populated by leftie Americans and families from the Middle East — is the Arabic-German barber shop called WHITE BOSS. And when I go downtown to the bookstore where I occasionally host readings, the only good coffee nearby is served by a place unbelievably named PURE ORIGINS.

Being an English native speaker in Berlin means wading daily through a sea of linguistic nonsense. « Be Coffee My Monkey » orders one café; another says « Make Coffee Love Magic ». At one of those cafés you might overhear Germans saying things like « das ist ein Gamechanger! » and « Hast du’s geliket? » and « Oh my God was für ein Fuck-My-Life-Moment ». On bad days, I worry that English has turned primarily into a status symbol — a tool of pure Habitus, a means for young elites to signify their cosmopolitanism and savviness. On days like that, it’s also hard to avoid the feeling that English — the language I inhabit, the tool I use to pay the rent and tell my wife I love her — is like too little butter spread out across too many bits of toast. In the battle of the languages this absolute anglophone triumph might be as Pyhrric a victory as a victory can be. Ease of access means seeing the worst of yourself plastered everywhere; it’s a privilege, sure, but a source of embarrassment and solitude as well. If das Grindset is what winning looks like, then count me tired of winning.

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Next year’s presidential election here in America could turn out to be the most absurd in the nation’s history.

On the one hand, Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, much like Navalny in Russia, would be under indictment by the justice machine led by his own opponent, the sitting president. On the other hand, Joe Biden, the sitting president himself, could be under impeachment by a Congress led by his opponent’s own party.

There is a fair chance that when we get to about this time next year, neither Trump nor Biden will be on the ballot. However, this is already gearing up to be such an unprecedented presidential campaign that previous experience is of limited use in predicting its outcome. For one, the left still has not been able to establish that their indictments against Trump also make him ineligible to run for president. This opens many absurd scenarios, including one where Trump is found guilty of whatever charge they have thrown at him, goes to jail, wins the presidential election, takes the oath of office, and pardons himself.

But wait, it gets better.

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“One of the surprising privileges of intellectuals is that they are free to be scandalously asinine without harming their reputation.” – Thomas Sowell

Sowell’s truth has been demonstrated amply over the years, but during the current administration, it seems to be underlined, italicized, and emphasized. It does not seem to matter what an intellectual does. Even when it blows up in their faces, they walk away with their reputation unharmed and generally a promotion.

It is like watching a real-life version of a Roadrunner cartoon. Wile E. Coyote (a metaphorical intellectual) has the boulder he intended for the roadrunner land on him. He is flattened, but soon staggers away and by the next scene is intact, plotting another asinine scheme to get the roadrunner. So, too with our intellectual. No matter how staggering the setback, in the next scene our intellectual is back at it, sometimes at another job, but with no loss of prestige.

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How can you not love America? It is possibly the only country where someone can find a bag of cocaine inside the president’s office, where the world’s most technologically skilled police services can find no way to trace the perpetrator who left it there, and where the country’s political leadership does not get ridiculed by the media over this.

Let us not even begin with all the questions about White House security (anthrax anyone?) and simply note that nobody has been blamed, nobody has resigned, and nobody is forced to answer any questions about the incident.

Read it.

The recent controversy surrounding Ben & Jerry’s and its calls to reclaim “stolen Indigenous land” is heating up.

An Indigenous tribe, descended from the Native American nation, originally controlled the Vermont territory where the ice cream giant’s headquarters is located, and its chief wants it back, Newsweek reported Friday.

According to the report, Don Stevens, chief of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation — one of four descended from the Abenaki that are recognized in Vermont — said his tribe was “always interested in reclaiming the stewardship of our lands.”

Ben & Jerry’s has yet to reach out.

Proglodytes have absolutely no capacity for thinking things through. And these guys are supposed to be the smart ones? I think not.

Quilette.

Kathleen Stock tweeted recently that ‘Many philosophers have existed only in their own minds, but I think I may well be the first to exist only in other people’s.’ She was responding to the latest outbreak of leftist moral panic about gender-critical feminism, in this case a series of actions taken by student activists at the University of Oxford in protest against her being invited to participate in a debate hosted by the Oxford Union—which describes itself as ‘the world’s most prestigious debating society’. In commenting that she exists only in other people’s minds, Stock meant that the version of herself and her views being objected to by the student activists was unrecognizable to her.

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We are always told by today’s woke Stasi that “language matters.” They’re quite correct: that’s why their own attempts to police our words have to be so assiduously resisted by conservatives. When the language being policed is scientific in nature, the need for resistance is even greater. To redefine the discourse of science along political lines is to redefine the very parameters of reality itself.

The latest attempt to do so comes in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Language Project (EEBLP), launched in February 2023 by a network of clearly left-leaning scientists from universities across the U.S. and Canada. Predictably, the EEBLP commissars seek to decolonize their subject, whose very origins are supposedly steeped in the Western civilizational filth of white supremacy and cis-heteronormative oppression alike.

In their online “Team Statement of Positionality” (‘positionality’ here being a fancy euphemism for ‘sexual, racial, and political bias,’ but in a good way), EEBLP proselytizers are encouraged to “critically assess their subfield’s terminology,” asking whether it helps “celebrate dominant narratives or oppressive norms”—norms such as the sole existence of the two traditional binary human sexes of ‘male’ and ‘female,’ and not any recently invented new made-up ones like those of the popular entertainer Sam Smith, who self-identifies both as ‘non-binary’ and as a professional singer.

John Hinderaker at Power Line.

Time was when a politician like Patrick Henry (“Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace–but there is no peace!”) or Abraham Lincoln (“A house divided against itself cannot stand”) could quote from the Bible and assume that pretty much everyone in his audience got the reference. Those days are gone, of course. But most Americans still have at least a nodding acquaintance with the Book. Not, however, those who write and edit articles for the New York Times.