Newsbusters.

For some American Jews, the months since Oct. 7 have felt like a horror movie, as they watch, with increasing alarm, as our president—for whom many voted, and in whom many placed inviolable trust—seemed to, moment after crucial moment, throw Israel under the bus.

Earlier this month, a U.N. report from its Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General revealed what Israel has been saying for months, namely that Hamas committed the most vile sexual violence and torture on Oct. 7, and such treatment likely continues to be perpetrated on hostages. Experts from the U.N.—an organization that is routinely hostile to the Jewish state—actually found “clear and convincing information that some [hostages] have been subjected to various forms of conflict-related sexual violence including rape and sexualized torture and sexualized cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and it also has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing.”

In reaction, Joe Biden’s State Department chose to level the charge of sexual abuse—at Israel. Recently, IDF Brig.-Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi recounted his meeting with a senior State Department official—since identified as Jill Hutchings, director of the Office of Israeli and Palestinian Affairs—who proceeded to accuse Israel of “systematically sexually abusing Palestinian women.” The State Department’s claim was based on information from Hamas pushed by Al Jazeera—which ended up deleting the story after it proved to be fabricated.

Read it.

Baltimore leader Brandon Scott appeared on Joy Reid’s MSNBC show to assert that white conservatives “should be afraid” of the consequences of calling him the ‘DEI Mayor’ and that his “purpose in life” was to make them uncomfortable.

Watch the white people leave your city. Whom will you get to run it then?

Read it.

Conclusion

Findings from the studies reviewed in this paper indicate that the consumption of SFA is not significantly associated with CVD risk, events, or mortality. Based on the scientific evidence, there is no scientific ground to demonize SFA as a cause of CVD. SFA naturally occurring in nutrient-dense foods can be safely included in the diet.

Steve Sailer.

The late Daniel Kahneman (1934-2024) was an IQ researcher for the Israeli military in an era when it did a world-historical good job at figuring out who its brightest guys were.

The problem with IQ science, however, is that it get pretty repetitious pretty quick. So with his IQ researcher pal Abram Tversky, Kahneman progressed into researching shortcomings in human cognition, for which he became extraordinarily famous among the nerdier sort of online thinker in the early 21st Century.

Quillette. 

After the end of the Second World War, the American Old Right underwent a transformation from being a loosely connected band of libertarians, nativists, and isolationists towards a more cohesive ideological conservative movement aimed at confronting the threat of collectivism and atheism posed by the Soviet Union abroad and the left at home. A small band of libertarians and traditionalists debated and discussed first principles, which ultimately resulted in what Frank Meyer termed “fusionism”—a compromise position that incorporated both traditions’ insights. 70 years later, after the Soviet threat was extinguished, that consensus has fractured, and a possible anti-elitist successor has emerged, colloquially known as the New Right. And as it’s begun to take form, it finds itself in an eerily similar place to the early conservatism.

Read it.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-Va.) took action on 67 bills on Tuesday, including vetoing 30 that he said would “punish” law-abiding citizens and impinge on their 2nd Amendment rights.

“I swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of Virginia, and that absolutely includes protecting the right of law-abiding Virginians to keep and bear arms,” Mr. Youngkin said in a statement.

Power Line.

St. Louis Park, Minnesota, used to have very good public schools. I suppose it was a matter of demographics: the suburb was, at one time, referred to as “St. Jewish Park.” But those days are long gone. Today the St. Louis Park school district is in the hands of the same kinds of morons who generally run our public schools. Minnesotan David Strom has the story:

The Saint Louis Park School District, located in the suburbs of Minneapolis, is hiring an assistant superintendent to “examine the presence of Whiteness” in the district.

It’s a good gig, paying between $134,000 and $201,000.

I suspect that Celebrating Whiteness would be a best-selling book that nobody would dare to write. (Go to Amazon and search for ‘whiteness’ for a taste of what would happen.)

UnHerd.

Ohio Republicans have a new candidate for US Senator: Bernie Moreno, who was endorsed by Donald Trump over establishment-backed Matt Dolan. With Moreno’s victory in last week’s hotly contested primary, the party’s MAGA faction has further entrenched its hold on this pivotal Midwestern state, with its large share of factory towns and labour voters. And should Moreno prevail over the Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown in November, he would go on to join Ohio’s sitting Junior Senator J.D. Vance, probably the most intellectually sophisticated champion of America First nationalism in Congress.

Such a pairing would make for a politically fertile synthesis: while Vance built his electoral brand on his working-class roots, Moreno has advertised himself with a more traditional set of Republican credentials — namely those of a small businessman or, to be more precise, a car dealership owner.

Between these two poles, the outline of a post-realignment GOP may be sketched. Where the Reagan coalition of the Eighties united Wall Street with Main Street business (with some working class defectors), the emergent Trump coalition of the 2020s and beyond will be different. Because of the exodus of the corporate and college-educated segments of America to the Democrats, it will most likely be composed of a more solid pool of working-class voters allied with the petit-bourgeois class of the red-state and hinterland regions, sometimes known as the “American gentry” and stereotypically represented as rock-ribbed conservative car dealers, like Moreno. Yet while much ink has been spilled trying to understand the mindset of the MAGA working class (Vance’s 2016 bestseller Hillbilly Elegy was about precisely the kind of people who would go on to vote for Trump), comparatively little attention has been paid to the Bernie Morenos of America.

Read it.

Transgender weightlifter Vicki Piper’s first place win in the Masters National Weightlifting Championships in Reno, Nevada, resulted in outrage from some concerned about fairness in women’s sports.

Read it.

New Mexico’s top election official won’t disclose key information about a new electronic signature-verification system for putting candidates on the ballot, a lawsuit alleges just months after she settled a court case over lack of transparency.

Last August, New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver settled the public records dispute with a think tank over voting information for $22,000, after initially blocking access to documents.

Last week, the same organization—the Southwestern Public Policy Institute—sued again in New Mexico’s 13th Judicial District in Sandoval County over records regarding the state’s signature-verification portal.

Read it.

A studio apartment at the upscale Illume apartments in DC’s Navy Yard neighborhood currently rents for $1,747 a month. The complex boasts rooftop pools, “luxe quartz countertops with modern tile backsplashes” and the chance to “pamper your pup at Luna’s pet spa.” Not mentioned on its sleekly designed website: “escaping gunmen running through the courtyard.”

“We have been informed by the police that there is an armed suspect in the area,” the building emailed residents Tuesday afternoon. “We strongly advise all residents to stay inside their home with the door locked until further notice.”

A statement from the Capitol Police said, “Our patrol officers spotted a vehicle that was connected to a previous shooting that occurred in MPD’s 2nd District. The people, who were near the car, ran into an apartment complex.”

A SWAT team arrived on the scene. Footage from residents shows a young African-American man in a light-colored hoodie running through the courtyard after passing through a fob-accessed door.

Newsbussters.

Communist Chinese government-tied TikTok censored videos of women exposing the health risks of hormonal contraceptives after apparently receiving pressure from a leftist legacy media outlet.

The Washington Post released a now-infamous report attempting to discredit women speaking out about many of the well-known side effects listed on the blanket-sized warning label that comes with oral contraceptives. In its report, The Post highlighted the fact that TikTok had censored some of the people it had reached out to for the piece, including The Daily Wire commentator Brett Cooper who hosts The Comment Section and TikTok influencer Nicole Bendayan. The newspaper took credit for the part it played in the removal of multiple videos.

Brett Cooper’s The Comment Section is one of the best things that ever happened to YouTube. Highly recommended.

The Register.

More than half of Americans are using ad blocking software, and among advertising, programming, and security professionals that fraction is more like two-thirds to three-quarters.

According to a survey of 2,000 Americans conducted by research firm Censuswide, on behalf of Ghostery, a maker of software to block ads and online tracking, 52 percent of Americans now use an ad blocker, up from 34 percent according to 2022 Statista data.

More striking are the figures cited for technically savvy users who have worked at least five years in their respective fields – veteran advertisers, programmers, and cybersecurity experts.

Read it.

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.”

New York Post.

The “migrant influencer” encouraging others to invade the US and squat at the homes of citizens skipped out on authorities shortly after arriving in the country and is on the run from immigration officials, The Post can reveal.

Venezuelan national Leonel Moreno crossed the southern border illegally in April 2022 at Eagle Pass, Texas, and was enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention program, which allows federal authorities to track migrants using ankle monitors or other technology.

However, Moreno didn’t follow the rules and is now listed as an “absconder” from the program, according to internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) documents seen by The Post.

Read it.

The New York Post is speculating that the infamous ‘knockout game’ could have made a return after numerous women reported being punched in the head by “strangers” in New York City.

Note that they wisely don’t try this on men.

The American Mind

A disturbing new trend emerged recently of publishers altering and modifying various literary works to make them more consistent with contemporary attitudes. Puffin Books, the publisher of Roald Dahl’s works, decided that his description of a character in Matilda as “fat” and “ugly” was offensive, and replaced them with terms deemed to be more sensitive. References to Rudyard Kipling and Joseph Conrad were replaced with John Steinbeck and Jane Austen. The adoption of such practices has led to the creation of a new career field—like community organizers and social media influencers—of “sensitivity readers,” who examine manuscripts in search of words and phrases which need to be changed to avoid offending modern sensibilities. The works of Agatha Christie have also been subject to this mutilation, and Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels are about to undergo the same treatment. This type of thing appears to be a growing trend in the U.K., but U.S. editions of Roald Dahl’s books have not yet been changed.

Read it.

A United Nations report released Tuesday detailed allegations of Russia having executed 32 Ukrainian prisoners of war and using them as human shields to hunt mines.

Read it.

The Turd World lives up to its name.

Read it.

The gaffe machine that is President Joe Biden let out another howler on Tuesday and the Big Three networks dutifully ignored it.

During a press conference on the tragic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Biden recalled he had passed over “many, many times commuting” from Delaware “either on a train or by car.” There’s just one problem. The bridge was constructed just for car use and never had any rail lines.

ABC, CBS, NBC overlooked Biden’s botch — just like they have done for much of his administration and career.

That’s my approach to life in general. SEP does not need me.

“If there is no boogeyman, no one gets paid.” — Rollo Tomassi

ZMan points out some inconvenient truth.

Human societies assume permanence and that means they require a story for how the society came together. The Romans, for example, had the legend of Romulus and Remus who founded the city of Rome. The Rape of the Sabine Women is another important part of the story of the Roman people. The origin myths of a people are specific to a people; thus, their history is specific to them. In other words, a people’s identity is exclusive to them.

This is why a multiracial egalitarian society is impossible. You have different people with different identities rooted in different origin stories. Any effort to write the origin of one people into the story of the other people will be viewed as theft. Vivek Ramaswamy in that tweet was trying to steal a part of European history on order to insert his people into your story. No doubt he saw the resistance to this as a slight against him and people like him. This is now part of his people’s story.

You see this with the old race divide in America. Black people have an origin story that depends on white people being the villain. White people have an origin story that does not include black people. Inserting blacks into the white story requires whites to accept guilt for things they did not do and shame for ancestors who made it possible for any of us to have this discussion. It simply cannot work, so any effort to make it work aggravates the natural racial friction in America.

Read it.

Homeowners who go on vacation or a business trip, even for just a week, are returning to find their house overtaken by trespassers who fraudulently claim a right to be there. It’s happening to tens of thousands of homeowners from New York City to Atlanta and Los Angeles.

When owners call the police, they’re told police can’t help. It’s a civil matter, and they have to file an eviction lawsuit, which can drag on for months or years because housing courts are backlogged.

Meanwhile owners are out on the street while squatters are living free, destroying houses and even selling off owners’ belongings.

Read it.

President Joe Biden’s decision to undo Donald Trump’s order to leave 2,500 U.S. special operations troops, CIA officers, and contractors in Afghanistan sealed the country’s fate and its collapse in August 2021, Afghanistan’s exiled top generals told Newsmax.

Read it.

Books can be dangerous because they shape the way we think. Our thoughts shape our actions, and our actions shape our characters, which of course affects how we live our lives—as individuals and as communities. Our age is one quick to laud all things that appear creative, usually with praise for authors who shape our values, whatever that means. The best books, particularly those that have remained important for many centuries, do not create something new or shape anyone’s values. Rather, they are great because, in ways that may be new and exciting, they help us see more fully the structure of reality so that we might better live in accord with the order of creation.

Saint Augustine’s City of God is without doubt on the list of great books that continues to help us see how the natural order is not something bracketed off or separated from spiritual reality. It was written in the 5th century in response to the intellectual class that insisted that Christianity was to blame for the fall of Rome. Christians who insist on being peacemakers on earth while awaiting their rewards in the afterlife made the Romans’ commitment to the city weak and pathetic, it was claimed. Pagan rites bred manliness; Christians, however, preached turning the other cheek. Augustine’s magnificent response provided a strong case that Rome would have fallen regardless of Christian influence, because its foundations were poorly laid.

Of course, for the Greeks and Romans ‘city’ had a broader meaning than it does for us today; the Romans distinguished between the urbs and the broader civitas, just as the Greeks made a distinction between the astu and the broader polis.

Read it.

People who receive Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine have a greater risk of developing chronic hives, according to researchers in Denmark.

Read it.

The United States’ top intelligence agency wants to ban its spies from using “biased language,” including the terms “radical Islamists” and “jihadist,” saying these words “are hurtful to Muslim-Americans and detrimentally impact our efforts as they bolster extremist rhetoric,” according to a language guide published internally.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which is responsible for handling the country’s spy apparatus, seeks to ban a range of common terms because it says they offend Muslims and foment racism against employees. In addition to terms describing Islamic terrorists, ODNI instructs employees to avoid phrases such as “blacklisted,” “cakewalk,” “brown bag,” “grandfathered,” and “sanity check.”

“Blacklisted,” for instance, “implies black is bad and white is good,” while “cakewalk” is said to refer “to a dance performed by slaves for slave owners on plantation grounds.” “Brown bag,” a term most often used to describe a paper bag that holds one’s lunch, actually “refers to the ‘brown bag’ test practices in the 20th century within the African American community,” according to ODNI, which outlined these terms in an internal magazine produced by the agency’s Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility.

Most activities in schools are merely training people to be ‘good losers’. Eventually you wind up with a country full of losers, with results as you see them.

StrategyPage.

The Russian Black Sea fleet has disappeared from the Black Sea. Russian warships are still in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov extension in the northeast, and the more distant naval base at Novorossiysk, but rarely move out of port, even for a few days. Current ships in the Black Sea Fleet include six guided missile cruisers, one corvette, seven diesel attack submarines, seven landing ships and dozens of High-speed landing craft. sea-going minesweepers, anti-saboteur boats, missile boats and anti-submarine ships.

What keeps these Russian Navy ships from going to sea is the very real threat of attack by Ukrainian USVs (Unmanned Surface Vehicles), also known as drones. There are several models, including Sea Baby (Malyuk in Ukrainian), Mother (Mamai), and MAGURA which means Maritime Autonomous Guard Unmanned Robotic Apparatus. Sea Baby and Mother were developed by the SBU (Ukrainian secret service) and the navy. They are used by the 385th Separate Brigade which specializes in naval warfare. MAGURA was developed by GUR (translated as, Main Intelligence Directorate project) and SpetsTechnoExport, a state-owned enterprise. At the end of 2023 SBU unveiled an updated Cossack Mamai with a claimed top speed of 100 kilometers an hour. Manufacture of these drones is done in underground production facilities to avoid Russian missile and guided bomb attacks.

Read it.

Separatist Islamic insurgents in Pakistan appear to be engaging in all-out war with the government and its Chinese partners who are building Belt and Road Initiative projects in the south Asian country. Beijing has been investing billions into Pakistan, but some regions are very high-risk in terms of the security situation.

After a string of attacks on locations hosting major Chinese infrastructure projects, there’s been a fresh suicide attack which killed five Chinese nationals Tuesday. A Pakistani driver was also killed when a suicide attacker crashed his explosive-laden vehicle into the group’s convoy, in northwest Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The Chinese nationals were engineers on their way from the capital of Islamabad to Dasu, which is the location of a new hydroelectric dam being constructed by a Chinese company.

Face it, Muslims just like killing people and blowing shit up, even when it’s shit designed to benefit Muslims.

Read it.

It’s not easy being green.

Power Line.

Last March 27, in the run-up to the April 1 “Trans Day of Vengeance,” Audrey Hale shot her way into the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. There Hale murdered Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9, Mike Hill, 61, William Kinney, 9, Katherine Koonce, 60, Cynthia Peak, 61, and Hallie Scruggs, nine years old and the daughter of Covenant Presbyterian pastor Chad Scruggs. The victims died of multiple gunshot wounds and Hale also applied blunt force trauma to William Kinney and Katherine Koonce.

A former student at the school, Hale carefully planned the attack for months. Police and the FBI blocked release of her “manifesto” and trans activists were adamant that the material not be released. The Trans Resistance Network proclaimed that Audrey Hale “had no other effective way to be seen than to lash out by taking the life of others.”

Over at the White House, Joe Biden failed to identify or condemn the shooter, failed to name a single murder victim, and did not attend any of the funerals. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said “our hearts go out to the trans community as they are under attack right now.”

UnHerd.

“The transformation of Ireland over the last 60 years has sometimes felt as if a new world had landed from outer space on top of an old one,” wrote Fintan O’Toole, a commentator who is generally approving of this new status quo, in 2021. But the past weeks and months have proven that the “old” country has very different ideas about this extra-terrestrial political order. After Ireland rejected two liberal amendments to the constitution, tabled and sponsored by their government, civic disturbances on a scale not seen for generations continue. They even wear the aesthetic of an older Ireland, with youths on horseback leading a recent protest against a new asylum centre in Dublin.

The Foundry.

Traditionally, teachers unions have kept a laserlike focus on improving members’ pay, benefits, and working conditions.

Although not educational outcomes for the children they’re supposed to teach. Let’s not get crazy here.

Now, though, teachers unions are diverting their energies from fighting for the well-being of teachers to fighting over a host of unrelated issues. Teachers unions now have foreign policies.

Because they’re unions and therefore a part of the Democrat base.

Read it.

Who could possibly have seen this coming? California’s minimum wage for fast food workers is going up next week and some chains are already planning layoffs in response. Newsom signed the bill raising the minimum wage last September.

The businesses will eventually move to business-friendly places like Texas and Florida.

The (former) employees will be unemployed and dependent on government benefits, thereby ensuring more votes for Democrats, the Party of Government Dependency.

Don’t think that this happens by accident.

Read it.

During a speech at the Human Rights Campaign Dinner in LA Sunday, Jill Biden suggested that not having gay porno books available in children’s libraries in schools is akin to Nazi Germany.

Biden’s wife stated “Rights are being stripped away. Freedoms are eroding. More and more state laws are being passed…Just last night, we had to fend off more than 50 anti-gay amendments that Republicans tried to force into the government funding bill… they served only one purpose: to spread hate and fear.”

She continued, “History teaches us that democracies don’t disappear overnight. They disappear slowly. Subtly. Silently.”

Well, Democrats certainly know about that….

Newsbusters.

MSNBC’s Rich, White, Liberal, Wine Mom Story Hour (aka Deadline: White House) made sure Monday afternoon to add its voice to the shrieking, almost infantile-like meltdown across the liberal media over parent company NBC’s decision to hire former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor.

Over three segments, host Nicolle Wallace melted down over McDaniel (or, to be honest, any Trump supporter) polluting “our sacred airwaves.” By Tuesday afternoon, the outrage worked as Puck’s Dylan Byers first reported she’d be dropped from the company.

Read it.

Several states are making progress empowering their citizens with access to education freedom and opportunity.

Earlier this month, Alabama became the 15th state in the nation to enact a program providing education savings accounts and the 10th state to enact universal education choice.

Last week, South Carolina and Louisiana took steps to become the 11th and 12th states to make every K­-12 student eligible for education choice.

Two words: Khan Academy.

Jonathan Turley.

Below is my column in the New York Post on reported plan of the Democratic National Committee and allied groups to try to block third-party candidates from the 2024 ballot. The contradiction is stunning as these groups raise money to “save democracy” by limiting democratic choice.

Read it.

It’s not easy being green.

Read it.

Austria, France, and Italy have all issued warnings of potential terrorist threats to Europe by the Islamic State (IS) following the group’s Moscow concert hall attack that killed 139 people.

The French government increased the country’s security alert to its highest level, which means more soldiers will be put on standby and ready to patrol sensitive sites, including schools. According to Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, France has thwarted two attack attempts by IS since the start of the year, including a foiled attack on the city of Strasbourg.

While Austria will retain its second-highest security alert level, officials have said there will be an increased police presence during the upcoming Easter holidays in the capital, Vienna, especially in places where large crowds are set to gather. The branch of the IS, which claimed responsibility for the Moscow attack, the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), was the same group that planned an attack on the St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna in December.

Can you imagine the headlines if countries had to increase security because of Christian terrorist threats during Ramadan?

TechCrunch.

Today, large swaths of the globe haven’t adopted air-source heat pumps because they don’t work as well when the mercury drops. Most of those places still rely on natural gas or heating oil, and convincing people to switch will require a drop-in solution that’s cheaper to run than their existing furnace or boiler and works at extreme temperatures. The basic technology that’s inside your car or your house hasn’t changed in over a century, and it still doesn’t work well at low temperatures.

“Let’s say it’s -30 degrees Fahrenheit in Minnesota, and you have a forced baseboard hot water heater,” Walker said. “No heat pump on the market can do that at any temperature, let alone really cold temperatures.”

Read it.

So we are effecctively at war with Mexico. Except that only one side is fighting.

Watch it.

“Yew caint always git what you wownt….”  — Mick Jagger

Check it out.

The new, immersive way to learn a language.

Learn vocabulary the natural, immersive way. Build your skills in French, Italian or Spanish whilst you read your favourite books.

This is a very intriguing concept. It attempts to mimic the natural way we expand our vocabulary in our native language, i.e. by inductive reasoning from seeing words in context in actual use. Of course, it makes the ‘reading’ more work, but it would seem to be more enjoyable than stolidly memorizing vocabulary lists. Can’t say that it’s a complete solution but it sure looks like a great first step. (And it appears to be free–always a plus.)

Read it.

“A sound Conservative government,” said Taper, musingly. “I understand: Tory men and Whig measures.”

—Benjamin Disraeli, Coningsby 

In American terms, Republican men and Democrat measures.

Sound familiar?

Read it.

The Ven Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, Archdeacon of Liverpool wrote on X “I went to a conference on whiteness last autumn. It was very good, very interesting and made me realise: whiteness is to race as patriarchy is to gender.”

Threlfall-Holmes, who is white, added “So yes, let’s have anti-whiteness, and let’s smash the patriarchy. That’s not anti-white, or anti-men, it’s anti-oppression.”