Read it.

The Oversight for Members And Relatives, or OMAR, Act was introduced Friday by Wisconsin Reps. Mike Gallagher (R.) and Tom Tiffany (R.), and specifically references the millions of dollars Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar (D.) has sent from her campaign to her husband’s consulting firm. In the most recent cycle Omar’s campaign sent $2.9 million to the firm, accounting for nearly 80 percent of its political business.

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Franklin Roosevelt with the apparently untouchable achievement of 3,721 executive orders. FDR signed nearly as many executive orders per year that all other presidents averaged over their entire presidencies (many of which were two terms). Interestingly, the executive orders of Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson make up 43% of all the executive orders of all of our presidents in history.

Equally interestingly, the tyrant Donald Trump signed 220 executive orders, which is 3,500 less than FDR. Since the year 1900, the only presidents with fewer executive orders than Trump were JFK, Ford, and Bush I. Trump apparently did not like executive orders. Odd behavior for a tyrant. But never mind.

Read it.

“Disinformation” and “misinformation” are used to excuse incompetence and punish opposition.

Read it.

Now Omar is the first member of Congress to be recognized in one of those bills whose titles make for a relevant acronym. Yesterday Wisconsin Seventh District Rep. Rep. Tom Tiffany and Eighth District Rep. Mike Gallagher introduced the Oversight for Members And Relatives Act, which would put an end to the practice of candidates for office tapping their campaign accounts to enrich their spouses (and themselves). Rep. Tiffany’s press release on the proposed OMAR Act is posted here.

Read it,

If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em (and suck up the government subsidies).

Read it.

In a speech delivered at a degree ceremony at the California Institute of Technology, Richard Feynman, a noted physicist and Nobel Prize winner in 1974, compared the social sciences to the cargo cult. Representatives of the social sciences, he argued, imitate the behaviour of other sciences but to no effect. Feynman did not end with this comparison, but added examples from the fields of rehabilitation, psychotherapy, and parapsychology. He stated that despite the enormous effort invested in researching and perfecting teaching methods, students’ results are worse every year. The same goes for criminality and the other problems which the social sciences attempt to resolve. Was Feynman right?

Looks that way to me.

Read it.

Another attempt in the ongoing proglodyte effort to convince people First World Bad Turd World Good.

Look at the ‘categories’ of stuff this web site deals with. They’re obviously ‘artists’ aimed at other ‘artists’, and (as Scott Adams never tires of pointing out), they’re idea of ‘science’ is ‘stuff that sounds good and agrees with our preconceived notions’. (As a general rule, if an ‘artist’ – someone whose job is working with words, art, music, or film – tells you something arguably scientific, don’t believe it. They work in a world of feelings, and feelings aren’t science.)

Note that I do not say that the information presented is false; I think the information is probably true. But it is presented in a tendentious way that attempts to canonize a viewpoint a being Objective Science. And this disease affects all such fora, even ones that use to be trustworthy, such as ‘Scientific’ American, Popular ‘Science’, and Wired ‘Science’, and it’s even infecting purportedly rigorous scientific journals like Nature

CNN

Investigators are struggling to build a federal murder case regarding fallen US Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, vexed by a lack of evidence that could prove someone caused his death as he defended the Capitol during last month’s insurrection.

Authorities have reviewed video and photographs that show Sicknick engaging with rioters amid the siege but have yet to identify a moment in which he suffered his fatal injuries, law enforcement officials familiar with the matter said.

Emphasis added. Notice the entire attitude: We have to find somebody to pin this murder on, and REALITY IS JUST NOT COOPERATING WITH THE NARRATIVE. They obviously think this is a bug, not a feature.

This is what passes for journalism these days. And nobody seems to care.

Scott Alexander on a problem of modern life.

WebMD is the Internet’s most important source of medical information. It’s also surprisingly useless. Its most famous problem is that whatever your symptoms, it’ll tell you that you have cancer. But the closer you look, the more problems you notice. Consider drug side effects.

…

Drug 1 is aspirin. Drug 2 is warfarin, which causes 40,000 ER visits a year and is widely considered one of the most dangerous drugs in common use. I challenge anyone to figure out, using WebMD’s side effects list alone, that warfarin is more dangerous than aspirin. I think this is because if WebMD said “aspirin is pretty safe and most people don’t need to worry about it”, people might use aspirin irresponsibly, die, and then their ghosts might sue WebMD. Or if WebMD said “warfarin can be dangerous, be careful with this one”, people might refuse to take warfarin because “the Internet said it was dangerous”, die of the stuff warfarin is supposed to treat, and then their ghosts might sue WebMD. WebMD solves this by never giving the tiniest shred of useful information to anybody.

Read it.

ust one week after making the decision to close its Union Square store, b8ta CEO Vibhu Norby announced via Twitter on Wednesday that the Hayes Valley store is now closed “indefinitely” as well due to a store manager having a gun pointed at him during a robbery.

“Our story is not exceptional,” Norby said. “I think the city will say it’s a b8ta-specific problem because we have a visible storefront and high-value merchandise, but everybody’s witnessing this.”

He said since his story has been covered in the media, other Hayes Valley merchants have reached out to share stories of their break-ins. Norby said he won’t reopen the store until he sees a month free of break-ins on the block.

The Union Square b8ta store closed last week because there were three muggings on the street it is on this year. “It doesn’t matter how expensive it is,” Norby told SFGATE in January. “We can’t send our employees into a store where there’s even a 2% chance they get mugged.”

The basic problem with Democrats running a city is that they can’t even get right the essential job of a government, protecting the people from harm. They can’t (or won’t) protect them from riots, they can’t protect them from crazy people wandering the streets, and (appently) they can’t protect them from violent crime.

B8ta has stores around the globe, and Norby told SFGATE last month that the crime in San Francisco is unlike anything the company experiences elsewhere. “This actually doesn’t happen anywhere else in the country,” he said. “We have 17 other stores, including three internationally. This just doesn’t happen anywhere else. It’s only here.”

Read it.

Watching American liberalism in action always reminds me of Churchill’s observation about Stanley Baldwin: “Occasionally he stumbled over the truth, but hastily picked himself up and hurried on as if nothing had happened.”

Hunter Biden Still Hasn’t Sold His Stake In Chinese Investment Fund

Read it.

Don’t ever say we never have useful stuff here.

Biden Vows To “Defend Democracy Globally”, Says “Days Of Rolling Over” To Russia “Are Over”  Is there anything in Joe Biden’s career that would give any credibility to this bloviation?

Biden’s Energy Plan May Be Costly For Consumers  Oh, ya think?

US Government Spends $500 Million for Guard Troops in DC

Anti-Israeli staffers keep joining the Biden administration

Biden Won’t Cut Down $1,400 Stimulus Checks: ‘That’s What The American People Were Promised’  Hey, votes are expensive these days.

Hunter Biden’s New Book ‘Beautiful Things’ Listed As No. 1 Under ‘Chinese Biographies’ On Amazon

If Biden Really Wants ‘Unity,’ He Will Call Off Kangaroo Court Impeachment Trial

Cuomo: Racist Republicans Now GOP-Q, AOC Had a War Experience  Fredo. *sigh*

Republican Congressman Considers Suit Over ‘Unconstitutional’ House Gun Ban

‘More Weight’: An Academic’s Guide to Surviving Campus Witch Hunts

Cockburn’s short, handy guide to the new political language

Lib Media Group Launches Woke Journalism Initiative for 17 Schools

Biden Resurrects Claim That He Was ’Shot At’ While Overseas  I’m a victim, you’re a victim, he’s a victim, she’s a victim, wouldn’t you like to be a victim too?

RNC CHAIR MCDANIEL: The RNC Is Holding Biden Accountable For Sweeping Executive Orders  As if that trick ever worked.

Cancel Culture Is Back For More: Chris Pratt & The Case of the Fake Tweets

The Next Woke Push: Abolishing Admissions Requirements In America’s Best High Schools

Rep. Rashida Tlaib Breaks Down Crying On House Floor Over Capitol Riot  Whose turn is it to be the victim?

‘It’s Over!’: Joe Scarborough Comes Absolutely Unstuck About Kevin McCarthy’s Threat To Strip Democrats Of Committees  He can dish it out but he can’t take it.

‘Was This Something Happening In AOC’s Mind?’: Newt Gingrich Laughs When Asked About Ocasio-Cortez Capitol Riot Story

CBS Skips Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘Murder’ Smear During Gushfest

REPORT: 3 Chinese Spies Posing As Journalists Were Expelled From UK In Past Year

David “[Camera”] Hogg Calls For Marjorie Taylor Greene To Apologize To Families Who Have A ‘Permanently Empty Bedroom’  Hogg’s parents ought to apologize for raising such an asshole.

Pennsylvania Lawmakers Introduce Bill To Allow Drivers’ Licenses For Illegal Aliens

Democracy = Democrats! TIME Lauds Anti-Trump ‘Conspiracy to Save the 2020 Election’

Reilly: BLM Main Cause of 2020 Murder Rise

Healthy Roots Dolls Lands $1M Seed For Product Line That Represents All Children  Except that they don’t; they represent ‘diversity’, which means Fashionable Minorities.

Actress Sarah Paulson Tackles ‘Challenge’ of ‘Finding Humanity’ in ‘Deplorable’ Linda Tripp  I’m undertaking the challenge of finding a shred of talent in Deplorable Professional Negro Sarah Paulson. Not finding it.

H.R.127 – Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing and Registration Act

White Democrat Apologizes For ‘Privilege’ After Trying To ‘Blend In’ With GOP During Riot

USA Today Op-Ed Denounces Tom Brady For Being White

Imagine If The Virus Had Never Been Detected

The Reopen Schools Debate: California Teachers Vs. Gov. Gavin Newsom  Less a debate than an arm-wrestling match.

Democratic Governors Have Devastated Their States

Sweden Joins Denmark, US In Issuing “Immunity Passports”

Bipartisan Group Wants Separate Vaccine Package  Roll out the Pork Barrel, we’ll have a barrel of Pork….

Hospital Cancels COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments Because Signup Process Wasn’t ‘Equitable’ Enough  Let’s just kill enough people until we achieve equality in health care.

Life Will Return To Normal In Seven Years, Vaccine Database Shows  Lucky us.

CDC Announces Over 600 Cases Of COVID-19 Variants In The US  Gotta keep that Panic goin’….

Who’s Hiring And Who’s Firing: Government Accounted For 88% Of All January Job Gains

School District Forced To Hire ‘Classroom Monitors’ Because Teachers Refuse To Return To Schools  “Paychecks, si! Labor, no!”

Measuring melting ice

Claim: California’s Rainy Season Starting Nearly A Month Later Than It Did 60 Years Ago  ‘Highiimpact short-form reports with immediate implications’ means click-bait shrieks of DANGER WILL ROBINSON!

Are you ready for the climate lockdowns?

Read it.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently penned a column titled “A Letter to My Conservative Friends,” with the subheading “Hold us accountable, but please do the same for the charlatans who deceive you, use you, and cheat you.”

Kristof doesn’t name any conservative friends, so we can’t be sure he has any. It’s fascinating to insist he holds the cheating, manipulative “charlatans” on the conservative side accountable; this sounds like a fine idea. But Kristof isn’t writing from a position of strength.

A Nexis database search reveals Kristof has never written anything critical in his two decades of columns about Rev. Al Sharpton, a perennial charlatan in Kristof’s newspaper’s hometown. The Times has routinely celebrated Sharpton over the years, despite his long record of deception, racial hatred, and inciting violence.

Kristof is a notorious self-righteous one-way proglodyte mouthpiece; I’m surprised he thought he could get away with this.

Paggy Noonan punches right, as she likes to do these days.

I am very disappointed in Peggy Noonan.  I never pegged her for a Romney Republican.

Read it.

Yeah, an ex-con is a tech executive’s first choice for a coding job.

“So what am I going to work on?” “You’re not. Your job is to sit here and Be Black so we can’t get sued for Lack Of Diversity. Just don’t touch anything.”

Millenial snowflakes are bad enough.

Read it.

A Russian physician who treated opposition leader Alexei Navalny after his poisoning has died “suddenly,” according to a statement from the Omsk emergency hospital given to CNN.

Sergey Maximishin, deputy chief physician at Omsk State Medical University, “suddenly passed away” at the age of 55 a few months after Navalny fell ill during a flight and had to make an emergency landing in Omsk, where he was taken to the emergency hospital.

How … convenient.

Popular ‘Science’.

Used to be people would put guns, swords, or a piece of art above the fireplace.

Now it’s all just television.

Read it.

Suddenly, the concept of “Equity” is ubiquitous. Where did this idea come from and why has it emerged now as a central metric of the Progressives? It emerges concurrently with Big Tech stepping into the forefront as arbiters of what ideas are allowed to be expressed in the public square and their apparent bias toward Progressive ideology. I submit that the two things are related.

Read it.

Now that Apple is involved, I’m waiting for the inevitable day when Snoopy reveals that xhr is really transgender dog Snoopina.

ZMan’s weekly podcast. Highly recommended.

One of the weird parts of the mass media age is the constant bombardment from the firehose of mass media warps our sense of time. The Pretender Biden was installed just a couple of weeks ago, but it feels like a long time ago. It always feels like so much is happening in the moment, that what happened in the prior moment has tp be stashed in long term memory. Just as you are processing one bizarre thing from the ruling class, they are firing the next bizarre action at us.

It is a relentless succession of events, one more stranger than the next. The most powerful tool of managerial authoritarianism is constant disruption. The thing is, it is not a deliberate strategy. They are not sitting around thinking about what loony thing they can do next to create disruption. They have a need for the constant crisis. They need to feel as if life is on the knife edge at all times. it one result of the feminization of the managerial class. It is endless drama.

Progressive believe that Progress Is Inevitable. But Progress requires Change, so they must always be Changing Stuff, in order that Progres will arrive; they can never just Leave It Alone, because doing that would mean Less Progress, and who wants that? And, since Progress Is Inevitable, any Change will do, because Progress will inevitably result, no matter what it looks like to Your Lying Eyes. All Change is Good. They can never rest.

Read it.

Amid rising regional tensions, Iran continues to seek ways to target Israel and the United States abroad.

Iran deployed several agents to collect intelligence on the diplomatic missions of Israel, the U.S., and United Arab Emirates (UAE) in an undisclosed East African country ahead of a potential attack, Israel’s Kan News reported on Monday, based on insight from Western intelligence sources. The attack was foiled last month.

The report claimed that Iran sought to target the embassies in response to the January 2020 U.S. strike that killed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani and November’s targeted assassination of senior nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, which was widely attributed to Israel.

Iran has previously threatened the UAE directly and condemned the Gulf state for normalizing diplomatic relations with Israel last summer.

Actually, it taste’s like squirrel.

Read it.

Mushrooms are good for more than just pizza toppings….

SHROOOOOMS!

Explosion Reported Near Israeli Embassy In New Delhi 

Senior ISIS Leader Killed During Iraqi Intelligence Mission, Prime Minister Says

Daniel Pearl’s Family to Challenge Pakistan Murder Acquittals  Good luck with that.

Jihadist Rebels Drive Car Loaded With Explosives Into Somalian Hotel Before Deploying Armed Men

Jihad in Spain

US Watchdog: Taliban Attacks Increased in Afghan Capital

Students Arrested In Turkey For Insulting Islam After Displaying Poster Depicting Sacred Sites With LGBT Flags

‘Palestinians’ Demand ‘Big Ben’ Back

Islamic Scholar Says Muslims Should Leave The West To Flee LGBT Teachings  I agree.

At Least 10 Dead, 30 Injured After Mogadishu Hotel Seige Ends

Cultural Enrichment: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

When will Pakistan take a stand against terror?  I’m going to guess ‘never’.

Iranian-Backed Forces Receive New Missiles As Tensions Grow In Iraq  Now that a Democrat is back in the White House, let the jihad roll!

The Muezzin Yodels in the Ruhr

Court In Belgium Sentences Iranian Diplomat Over 2018 Bomb Plot In A First For Europe

Biden Announces End Of US Operations In Yemen War  Let them ragheads kill each other, what do we care?

Google and Apple Cave to Pakistani Pressure, Take Down Ahmadiyya Muslim Apps

Read it.

If you’ve got enough money, acres upon acres of undeveloped land and an “innovative technology,” you soon could form a new local government in Nevada.

If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

UPDATE: Nevada bill would allow tech companies to create governments

Yeah, but you’re still in Nevada.

Read it.

Hey, it’s free.

Read it.

On February 27, 2020, CDC Director Robert Redfield was asked at a hearing Capitol Hill whether healthy people should wear a face covering. His answer? “No.”

Two days later, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams went full Trump – never go full Trump – and tweeted “STOP BUYING MASKS!”, claiming they are “NOT effective in preventing (the) general public from catching coronavirus.”

On March 8, the government’s leading expert on infectious diseases, the un-fireable Anthony Fauci said “there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask”.

Good times.

Not only are they lying to us, we’re paying then to do so.

Read it.

I can believe it.

For Female Athlete, Biden’s Transgender Executive Order Is ‘Heartbreaking’

Psaki Refuses to Apologize for Mocking Space Force, Lies About LGBTQ Cabinet Members

The anti-science presidency?

‘Joe Biden Is An Empty Suit’: Leo Terrell Says President Can Only Offer Lukewarm Support To Police Because He’s Not In Charge

Biden Sued by Trump Appointee Over Attempted Ousting

Biden to Freeze Trump-Ordered Withdrawal of US Troops From Germany  Invade the world! Invite the world!

Biden Off to a Divisive, Partisan Start With Executive Actions  My, what a surprise.

Report: Anti-Israel Activist Heading to Biden State Dept

Biden Threatens to ‘Raise the Cost on Russia,’ Demands Navalny’s Release  When has that ever worked?

GOP States Weigh Limits on How Race and Slavery Are Taught

Denzel Washington Praises Police, Denounces BLM Protesters  Cue Cancel process.

Biden Appointee’s Slogan: Black Women Best

BLMTV: Race Radicalism Takes Over the TV Season  Which is why only proglodytes are watching TV these days.

Ice Cube: Biden’s Administration Has ‘Reached Out’ For Meeting To Discuss ‘Contract With Black Americans’

COVID-19: Life won’t return to normal for at least two years, expert warns, saying pandemic ‘isn’t over until it’s over globally’ (SkyNews) The Permanent State of Emergency means you have to DO WHAT YOU’RE TOLD no matter how stupid or arbitrary it might be.

COVID-19 rarely spreads through surfaces. So why are we still deep cleaning? Because we have to keep the Panic going, silly; didn’t you get the memo?

Hong Kong Cops Threaten To “Kick Door Down” For Anybody Who Dosn’t Open For COVID Test  Repeat after me: C-O-M-M-U-N-I-S-T D-I-C-T-A-T-O-R-S-H-I-P.

ABC, NBC Omit CDC Director Saying Vaccines Not Needed to Reopen Schools Safely  Gotta keep that Panic goin’….

Seven indictors that show infections were falling before Lockdown 3.0

UK COVID Conundrum: The Mysterious Case Of Disappearing Flu

Medical Journal Editor: Govts Guilty of COVID ‘Social Murder’

Biden’s COVID Team Reportedly Mulls Sending Masks To Everyone In America, A Plan The Trump Administration Abandoned In April 2020

Armed, Maskless Man Steals Fried Chicken And Waffles After Being Denied Service

‘Let’Em Die’: ER Doctor On Twitter Says America Shouldn’t Waste Time On Those Not Wearing Masks  I guess primum non nocere is White Privilege or something.

Lori Lightfoot Demands A Deal From Chicago Teachers Unions  BRAAAAAAAINS!

Not The Onion: CDC Warns Against Shouting, Cheering During Sunday’s Super Bowl

This Governor Faces Impeachment Over COVID-19 Mandates

New York Public School Students Feel They Have Been ‘Forgotten’ By Officials  No, no, not ‘forgotten’ — ‘ignored’.

Fauci Says We Can Fight Virus By Wearing Up To Three Leeches  Babylon Bee.

Cuomo’s Office Lashes Out at Republicans Calling for Subpoena Over Nursing Home Deaths

NASA Announces New Role of Senior Climate Advisor  Why does NASA need a ‘climate advisor’? Who knows?

Politico: California Gov. Newsom Recall Now ‘Unavoidable’  Perhaps other states ought to have the robust recall mechanism that California has.

‘Hell of a Path’: Meghan McCain Calls Out GOP Over Marjorie Taylor Greene Support (CNN) I’m curious as to who, exactly, gives a shit what Meghan McCain thinks?

Navy has fallen short in addressing lack of diversity, task force says (CNN) Diversity or competence, you can’t have both.

AOC faces backlash as critics point out she wasn’t in Capitol building during riots

‘BAD OPTICS’: Spanish Nets HIDE News of Reopened Cages for Migrant Kids

These Are The Words Colleges Don’t Want You To Say

‘#AlexandriaOcasioSmollett’ Trends On Twitter After NY Rep Rejects Claims She Wasn’t At Capitol During Riots

Ironic: Joy Reid Invites Rep. Maxine Waters to Discuss ‘Threats’ and ‘Violence’

“Incitement,” then and now

Report: Campus Anti-Semitism Skyrockets Even as Coronavirus Forces Remote Learning

Economists Slam NYT Propaganda that Dem Presidents Are Better for Economy Than GOP  The NYT is being increasingly up-front about its role as propaganda organ for the Democrat party.

Snopes RAGES at ‘Bad-Faith Smears’ Factually Noting AOC Wasn’t In The Capitol  Snopes is a good illustration of Sullivan’s Law that every organization not explicitly right-wing becomes left-wing over time.

Lawyers Are Facing Reprisal for Representing Trump

Ocasio-Cortez Enlists Followers To Report Anyone Calling Her ‘Ocasio Smollett’: Report  Assemble the Mob!

‘No Insurrectionists Stormed Our Hallway’: Rep. Mace Slams Media Over Coverage Of Ocasio-Cortez’s Capitol Riot Story

Still Her Publicist: Seth Meyers Fumes, ‘Racist’ ‘Disgusting’ to Compare Ilhan Omar to GOP Rep!

Maxine Waters: Trump Needs To Be Charged With Premeditated Murder

Leftist Journalist Regrets Calling For Silicon Valley Censorship After It Happens To Him  The biter bit.

‘You Have Done Nothing For Me’: Trump Resigns From Screen Actors Guild

The Netherlands experiments with gender quotas for business

Canadian Olympic Committee Warns Athletes Not to Criticize China

PolitiFact Editor-in-Chief Calls to Save America by Censoring Free Speech

‘Baseless Propaganda’: Critics Slam ACLU For Claiming Biological Men Have No Advantage Over Women In Sports

Stephen Colbert’s Late Show Slimes Founding Fathers as ‘Douche Nozzles’  Oddly enough, that’s the same opinion about Colbert.

North Carolina Approves New, Radical History Curriculum for K-12 Students

Mayor Of Oakland Goes After City Council For Wanting To Slash Police Budget After Another Brutal Attack Caught On Video

‘Don’t Disparage Little Girls’: Brianna Keilar Chastises Guest For Calling Kevin McCarthy ‘A Little Girl’

Read it.

Last month, the Washington Football Team (formerly known as the Redskins) proudly announced that Jennifer King would be an assistant coach. She is now the team’s assistant running backs coach and the first full-time Black female coach in NFL history.

If King is a competent coach, and I have no reason to doubt that she is, then I’m happy for her. But look again at her title — assistant running backs coach.

How many NFL teams have such a coach? I checked the websites of every NFC team. It appears that none of these teams had an assistant running backs coach in 2020.

The reason seems obvious teams. Teams typically have only five running backs, counting members of the practice squad. A unit that small isn’t viewed as needing two coaches. Assistant position coaching jobs are normally reserved for larger units like the offensive and defensive lines.

It seems, then, that the Washington Football Team has invented a coaching job and filled it with a Black female.

Maybe she’s in charge of relieving their tensions after practice.

The Other McCain surveys the swamp.

Journalists who actually bothered to check the facts — there are precious few of those in D.C. nowadays — pointed out that Ocasio-Cortez’s office is not in the Capitol building, which was stormed by a mob of Trump supporters Jan. 6. Instead, her office is in the Cannon House Office Building, on the south side of Independence Avenue, across from the Capitol. None of the rioters ever entered the building where AOC was in her office, cowering in her bathroom and allegedly fearing for her life.

Read it.

At last! RINOs are getting their just desserts.

Read it.

Romney has fully transitioned into a big-spending vote-buying Democrat. He’s no more a Republican than Bloomberg.

Read it.

The best way to get a book deal these days is to be dysfunctional and well-connected.

Read it.

On Tuesday the Washington Post covered the brainy lady who points to the future of the Democratic Party showing how to go full victim: “Ocasio-Cortez reveals she’s a sexual assault survivor, recounts ‘trauma’ of Capitol riot: ‘I thought everything was over.’” Sam Dorman now follows up in the FOX News story “AOC faces backlash as critics point out she wasn’t in Capitol building during riots.”

The backlash derives from AOC’s claim that she suffered a “near-death” experience hiding in the bathroom of her office in the Cannon Building across the street from the Capitol during the riot. She further characterized the Capitol Police officer who sought to evacuate her from the office as threatening — as terrifying. We have yet to hear the other side of the story from the officer, but I’m guessing there is another side. The Post story leaves it as AOC posits it.

UPDATE: ‘Alexandria Ocasio Smollett’ Trends As Critics Punch Holes In Her Dramatic Cap Hill Story

Victor Davis Hanson.

The corruption of the Renaissance Church prompted the Reformation, which in turn sparked a Counter-Reformation of reformist, and more zealous, Catholics.

The cultural excesses and economic recklessness of the Roaring ’20s were followed by the bleak, dour and impoverished years of the Great Depression.

The 1960s counterculture led to Richard Nixon’s landslide victory in 1972, as “carefree hippies” turned into careerist “yuppies.”

So social, cultural, economic and political extremism prompt reactions — and sometimes counterreactions.

The Bush-Clinton-Obama continuum of 24 years cemented the bipartisan fusion administrative state. Trump and his “Make America Great Again” agenda were its pushback.

The counterreaction to the populism of the Trump reset — or Trump himself — is as of yet unsure.

Read it.

Certain parts of academia seem to wish to turn the study of classics away from a historical, language- and evidence-based discipline whose focus is understanding the ancient world on its own terms, in favor of preaching to students about the evils of ancient imperialism, slavery, racism, sexism, privilege, all keenly advocated by anyone who has ever taught it. There should be added to that list of shame the ancients’ hopelessly misguided views about what it meant to be ‘liberal’.

Latin lîber meant ‘free’, and lîberalis meant ‘relating to the free, worthy of the free’; also ‘gentlemanly, ladylike’, by extension ‘magnanimous, obliging’ and so ‘munificent, generous’. Another crucial mark of the lîberalis was education, especially the wide-ranging knowledge and understanding arising from the study of history and the rich examples it provided of admirable and disgraceful human behavior. The associated noun was lîberalitas (‘liberality’), and in his dialogue On Duties the statesman Cicero linked lîberalitas with justice. His reasoning was that ‘we are not born for ourselves alone… but as humans we are born for the sake of humans, to contribute to the general good by common acts of kindness, and by our skill, industry and talents to cement human society more closely together’.

Read it.

Tjeu can’t do that, of course – the Civil War settled that – but I have to say their hearts are in the right place.

ZMan reminds us of some ancient wisdom.

There is an old expression that has fallen out of favor in the post-scarcity age, but it may be the key to understanding the current crisis. That expression is, “Idle hands do the Devil’s work.” When people do not have anything productive and useful to do with their time, they are more likely to get involved in trouble and criminality. A variant of this is “The Devil makes work for idle hands.” The idea there is if you want to avoid Old Scratch, then make sure you keep yourself useful to God.

The source of these proverbs is unknown, but variations of them go back to the early middle ages, so it is probable they evolved with Christianity. It is not unreasonable to think the idea is universal to civilization. After all, every human society has had to deal with the idle, lazy, and troublesome. Making sure these people are kept too busy to cause trouble is one of those primary challenges of civilization. Every ruler has known that too many idle young men is bad for his rule.