May 24, 2025

A COOL AND LOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BICYCLE MENACE: Julie Burchill: Do cyclists know how hated they are?

I’ve found that people who support green politics are slightly nastier than others in their everyday life, feeling that they had ticked the nice box and therefore somehow won the right to be nasty. When I was a volunteer at a blind home a while ago, I’d regularly take a couple of sightless ladies out for a walk; we’d set out along the bustling main streets of our city, one on each arm, only for me to have to shove them roughly into the nearest doorway as some hulking brute drove a bike at us right there on the pavement.

Inevitably, people have been killed by cyclists; when they are, sentencing is risible. Until last year it was based on legislation from 1861 only allowing for a maximum two-year sentence; things are better now, but cyclists who kill are still treated far more leniently than motorists.

It’s not being paranoid to believe that a lot of this behaviour is another form of male violence towards women, as female cyclists also report frequent harassment by their male counterparts. Victoria Pendleton said: ‘If I’m out about on my road bike and I overtake a man, I will hear a rapid crunching of gears as they try to “make amends for it”… usually followed with a pedal-mashing stomp past me.’

Funny, I would think male lefty cyclists would be uber-Alan Alda-style feminists, but as Kate of Small Dead Animals likes to say, “Scratch a leftist, find a misogynist.”

(Classical reference in headline.)

Posted at 10:45 am by Ed Driscoll 90

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: George Washington University Slapped With Lawsuit Alleging ‘Pervasive and Severe Antisemitic Harassment’ on Campus.

George Washington University (GW) was sued in federal court by Jewish students on Thursday, alleging it allowed “pervasive and severe antisemitic harassment” on campus for years without any action from the school’s leaders.

Students Sabrina Soffer, Ari Shapiro, and a group of anonymous plaintiffs accused GW of failing to address a surge in hostility towards Jewish students, particularly following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claims the university violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by allowing a “hostile educational environment” to flourish unchecked.

The 176-page complaint details a litany of incidents that paint GW as a campus where Jewish students face relentless intimidation. According to the filing, anti-Semitic acts include physical assaults, vandalism, and verbal harassment, with university administrators allegedly turning a blind eye. The lawsuit cites specific examples, such as anti-Israel protests that escalated into violence and Jewish students’ property being defaced with anti-Semitic slurs.

The lawsuit comes at a precarious time for elite universities as the Trump administration takes action against schools that fail to rein in campus anti-Semitism. The same day the complaint was filed, the Department of Homeland Security revoked Harvard University’s ability to accept international students, though a judge paused that order on Friday.

Still though, look on the bright side!

 

Posted at 10:14 am by Ed Driscoll 18

SHOULD DOJ BE ABLE TO SPY ON CONGRESS? Let’s do an experiment here. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is pushing legislation requiring that senators be informed whenever the Department of Justice (DOJ) asks a judge to approve listening to telephone calls by senators and staffers. This happens with Democratic and Republican Chief Executives.

As things presently stand, according to Daniel Schuman, editor of First Branch Forecast, there is essentially no limit on how much DOJ can spy on Members and staff of both chambers of Congress. Do you approve of this reality or would you support efforts by Wyden or others on the Hill to limit the ability of the executive branch to spy on legislators and staffers?

Posted at 8:49 am by Mark Tapscott 117

ANTINATALISM: The Latest Destructive Ideology That Must Be Eradicated.

Third, antinatalism sounds more like a pathology than an ideology.

Guy Bartkus’ social media posts — if authentic — are telling. He was depressed and felt worthless, so everyone must be worthless. He wanted to destroy himself, so he is somehow justified in destroying others.

Those interviewed in the Today.com article seem just as selfish and/or blinkered in their worldview. Ana describes herself as an “empath” whose heart is broken by human suffering, but concludes therefore that humans should not exist.

Amanda Sukenick, an activist from Chicago, describes her antinatalism as emerging from conversations about the Holocaust with her Jewish and Armenian parents. “I thought a lot about war and how conflict can’t be solved if we keep creating new people,” she says.

This is ahistorical nonsense. Human life on earth is dramatically better than it was 1,000 years ago or even just 100 years ago. There is less war, less suffering, less hunger, less misery. Modern humans have achieved that and more, and few of those living centuries ago could have foreseen it.

Sukenick describes her “perfect solution” to the problem of human suffering as “unplug(ging) the universe so there was nothing.” If this is her takeaway from the Holocaust, she has learned the wrong lesson.

But perhaps her most telling quote is this: “There aren’t children waiting in some sort of purgatory, desperate to be born. There’s nobody there, so we’re creating problems for no good reason.”

The real message here is that humans have no souls. There is no afterlife, no God, no meaning, no real value.

Walter Sobchak, call your office:

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll 87

DEMOCRATS NEVER IMAGINED THAT THEY’D LOSE POWER, EVEN IF THEY LOST AN ELECTION:

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds 56

GREAT MOMENTS IN ENTITLEMENT: Kamala Harris called Anderson Cooper a ‘motherf—er’ after tense interview on Biden’s debate meltdown: bombshell book.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris blasted Anderson Cooper as a “motherf–ker” to colleagues following a tense interview over former President Joe Biden’s catastrophic debate performance against Donald Trump last year, a bombshell new book revealed.

The then-veep unleashed the disparaging remark after the CNN host grilled her on Biden’s cognitive health immediately following his disastrous showing in June — that ignited widespread panic and ultimately led to the octogenarian dropping out of the race.

“This motherf–ker doesn’t treat me like the damn vice president of the United States, she said to colleagues,” according to the new book “Original Sin,” co-authored by Anderson’s CNN colleague Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson.

“I thought we were better than that.”

To be fair, after eight years of the Obama administration and nearly four years of the Obama Biden administration, no wonder Kamala felt like she deserved a similarly fawning treatment from her party’s operatives with bylines. Which helps to understand who the “we” is at the end of Kamala’s outburst.

Posted at 7:14 am by Ed Driscoll 79

IMMIGRATION THOUGHTS FROM A FRIEND: “There’s a big difference between wanting to be in America and wanting to be an American.”

Posted at 7:04 am by Glenn Reynolds 24