JULIETTE “BALDILOCKS” OCHIENG: A Californian’s Day: “Over a year ago, I walked into Trader Joe’s without donning a mask and no one said a thing. Since then, I’ve never put on a mask there, though almost all other customers do, as does the entire staff. Keep in mind that we’re talking about Los Angeles here. Every member of the staff has said nothing about my maskless face and has been unfailingly polite and friendly, as was so before January 2020.”
MCGILL UNIVERSITY SCIENTIST PAT KHAMBAMPATI ON HOW WOKENESS IS RUINING SCIENCE:
OPEN THREAD: I wonder if my rope’s still hanging from the tree.
Background here.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: China’s new rocket for crewed moon missions to launch around 2026.
SCIENCE, UNSETTLED: It Turns Out That Everything We Know About The Runner’s High Could Be Wrong.
Related, a friend’s comments on pandemic policy: “The problem is the government told people to stay home and watch Netflix to keep everyone safe. If they’d said eat your veggies and go run a mile, people would have said this is bullshit.”
TOP SELLER: RIVBOS Polarized Sports Sunglasses Driving Sun Glasses shades for Men Women Tr 90 Unbreakable Frame. #CommissionEarned
THIS IS CERTAINLY TRUE FOR SOME FRIENDS OF MINE: Dogs are unsung heroes of COVID-19 pandemic for many, experts say. “Coping with the isolation, fear and sadness of the pandemic may have been a little easier if you had a trusting and loving dog by your side.”
It’s more the isolation, fear, and sadness of the lockdowns.
NO THANKS TO THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: 39 Americans Evacuated From Afghanistan In First Major Airlift Rescue Since Taliban Takeover.
ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Now That The Beatles’ Get Back Is Out, Why Can’t We See Let It Be?
However, in the 2010s, the bitter feelings within The Beatles’ camp toward Let It Be started to fade a bit. McCartney expressed interest in seeing the film re-released in 2016, saying that if anyone should be wary about people seeing Let It Be, it should be him (referencing the sometimes bossy manner in which McCartney is seen trying to corral the other Beatles). He then became even more receptive about re-releasing the Let It Be footage in some form when Peter Jackson came to McCartney with the idea of reappropriating the material into Get Back, convincing the Beatle that there was actually a lot of joy and camaraderie in the footage, despite the fact that it also shows some of the internal rifts within the band at the time. While Get Back shows a much more comprehensive view of the Let It Be/Get Back project, it was never meant to replace Let It Be as the definitive document of this time period, as Jackson specifically wanted Get Back to be a companion to Let It Be, intentionally only using footage that wasn’t featured in the 1970 documentary unless they were essential shots where no other footage existed.
Additionally, when the release of Get Back was announced, it was also announced that a remastered version of Let It Be would be released for consumption. Any more specific details about when or where this release will be available haven’t been elaborated on, though one would assume (and hope) it will be available on Disney Plus in the near future. This, of course, is an easy thing to be cynical about, considering how ridiculously hard The Beatles have made it to see Let It Be over years and how many aborted attempts there have been to make it more widely available. Yet considering the warm reception that Get Back has received (both from fans and from the living Beatles themselves), there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic that Let It Be will easily be available. Either way, Get Back serves as ample compensation for fans that have been waiting to finally see (or revisit) Let It Be for all these years.
I’m hoping Let It Be will be bundled with the Get Back Blu-Ray discs in time for next year’s Christmas shopping season. And maybe even a limited theater release to promote it. Who wouldn’t want to see a restored version of the rooftop concert on a 25 foot tall movie screen?
Earlier, from your humble narrator:
● The Beatles get Back in Peter Jackson’s New Three-Part Documentary.
● The Beatles’ get Back: The Long and Grinding Road.
● I Question the Premise: The Beatles: Get Back shows that deepfake tech isn’t always evil.
GOOD NEWS IN MY NECK OF THE WOODS: KCHD: Omicron variant detected in Knox County. The less-deadly Delta strain being displaced by the basically-not-deadly Omicron strain is good news, right?
I’M HOLDING OUT FOR SUPER-DUPER IMMUNITY: COVID-19 vaccine plus breakthrough infection may offer ‘super immunity.’ But this isn’t really surprising.
IT’S COME TO THIS: Quidditch to change name, citing J.K. Rowling’s ‘anti-trans positions.’
Real-life quidditch, inspired by the magical game in “Harry Potter,” is changing its name, citing author J.K. Rowling’s “anti-trans positions in recent years.”
US Quidditch and Major League Quidditch announced in a joint news release Wednesday that they will conduct a series of surveys over the next few months to decide on a new name for the sport, which resembles soccer and field hockey, but as a contact sport with broomsticks.
“For the last year or so, both leagues have been quietly collecting research to prepare for the move and been in extensive discussions with each other and trademark lawyers regarding how we can work together to make the name change as seamless as possible,” Major League Quidditch Commissioner Amanda Dallas said in the release.
The leagues say there are a few reasons for the name change. Among them is that the name “quidditch” is trademarked by Warner Bros., which produced the “Harry Potter” movies, and as a result the sport’s expansion has been limited in its sponsorship and broadcast opportunities.
The name change is also part of an effort by the leagues to “distance themselves from the works of J.K. Rowling,” according to the statement, “who has increasingly come under scrutiny for her anti-trans positions in recent years.”
Stunning and/or brave.
WE NEED TO START WORRYING ABOUT WHAT KIND OF WORLD WE ARE GOING TO LEAVE FOR KEITH RICHARDS: Happy 78th Birthday, Keith Richards!
Past performance is no guarantee of trunalimunumaprzure:
I LOVE BARBECUE AND I LOVE ETHIOPIAN, SO THIS SOUNDS LIKE A WINNER: An Arlington Family Has Created a New Must-Try Cuisine, Tex-Ethiopian Barbecue. And any loser scolds concerned with cultural appropriation or whatever can fuck right off.
NEWS YOU CAN USE? 12 things you should never put in your vagina including whipped cream and Vaseline.
Via Iowahawk who tweets, “gotta say that’s a surprisingly short list.”
JAMES LILEKS: “I’m looking forward to the female-centric retelling of 1984.”
Really. There’s no prohibition on telling other sides of a famous story it’s all the rage these days. We retell Oz from the Witch’s point of view, 101 Dalmations from the dog-napper’s side. The trick will be making Julia adhere to the book, and I don’t think that will happen. What we know of her will be chalked up to the Male Gaze, and the character will take inspiration from Susanna Hamilton’s stern performance in the remarkable movie of the same name, and year. She radiates a fierce sense of self-contained power and intelligence.
The Julia of the book is a rather shallow. Almost lightweight.
Publisher Granta said that Julia understands the world of Oceania “far better than Winston and is essentially happy with her life”.
See, that’s not quite right. She has no interest in understanding it at all. She’s “essentially happy” in the sense that a file clerk in Hitler’s office was happy in 1941.
Read the whole thing.
READER BOOK PLUG: From Hodge Golson, Ph.D. Leadership in Organizations: A Blueprint for Success (Active Leadership Update). #CommissionEarned
ROGER KIMBALL: Who’s a vigilante anyway?
But of course, the agreement was only rhetorical, not to say disingenuous. It was a little smoke bomb deployed to make room for a distinction made by Garry Wills that deeply impressed the Bezos Bobblehead.
“American distrust of government” [Wills noted] comes in different forms. At one end of the spectrum are insurrectionists, who “take arms against the government because it is too repressive.” At the opposite end are vigilantes, who “take arms to do the government’s work because the authorities are not repressive enough.” They become “vigilant,” Wills writes, in times when they believe “the government is too slow, indifferent, or lax.”
Translation: we do not circa 2021 have enough government in our lives. We need the state to be bigger, more intrusive, more censorious. We need more police bursting into Arby’s and handcuffing patrons for not being vaccinated. We need more social media censorship against people who dissent from The Narrative, especially if they are now or have ever been supporters of Donald Trump. Do you think that it was right that Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted? Then you are part of the problem.
Inquiring minds might wonder where this chap was in the summer of 2020 when gangs of Black Lives Matter roamed city streets throughout the country, smashing up property, setting the Minneapolis police station ablaze in their “mostly peaceful” protests. Those gangs murdered or maimed scores of people and caused an estimated $2 billion damage. Were they not “vigilantes” protesting the death of career criminal (now Saint) George Floyd? Where was left-wing media then?
Ah, but the Capitol is the sacrosanct citadel of “our democracy,” as Nancy Pelosi kept babbling. It’s one thing to torch a police station or federal building, quite another to intrude about the hallowed halls of the Capitol.
But then where was our scribe and his brethren when the mob, which included Senator Karen (h/t Elon Musk), stormed the Capitol to protest the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and intimidate some still wavering senators? Where were those defenders of The Narrative then?
That’s different, because reasons.
Related: Actor Jay Johnston Banned From ‘Bob’s Burgers’ Over Capitol Riot. The ‘Mr. Show’ and ‘Anchorman’ actor will no longer be voicing the character of Jimmy Pesto Sr. on Fox’s animated hit after he was allegedly spotted at the Jan. 6 insurrection.
A SMALL MEASURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY: New York Times Fires Editor Who Left Profanity-Laced Voicemails for Gun Rights Group After School Shooting.
It must be difficult being a New York Times employee. It can be really hard to know what conduct the company considers acceptable and what will get you canned.
Sarah Jeong has a long history of issuing racist tweets, yet she’s still an editorial writer for the Gray Lady. Reporter Taylor Lorenz has serially embarrassed herself and the newspaper over the years, but still apparently meets the paper of record’s high standards for accuracy and rectitude.
However, when a Wirecutter (a NYT property) editor left some, uh, intemperate voicemails for Great Lakes Gun Rights after a Michigan school shooting, she apparently crossed an invisible line.
The lined dividing bigshots from worker bees.
BE PREPARED: MTP-6 Tactical Pen – Military-Inspired Multitool Pen. CommissionEarned
PROJECT VERITAS RELEASES NAME OF CNN PRODUCER INVOLVED IN NEW PEDOPHILIA SCANDAL:
Project Veritas has released the name of the latest CNN producer to be embroiled in a pedophilia scandal. Rick Saleeby, the staffer in question, is a producer on “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”
Project Veritas released the name after ensuring that the family involved was safe, according to a press release.
The mother of the children sent a note via Project Veritas that read:
“I wanted to reach out to sincerely thank you again. I am very grateful toward you guys and everything you’ve done for me and my children. Our world has just been completely flipped upside down, but none of that matters. We are all safe. I’m hoping, praying, and pushing for charges to be brought against him, so he can never do this to another child/family again.”
Related: Another Day, Another (Alleged) Perv at CNN. “What kind of corporate culture have they got over at CNN? Judging by the behavior of some of the media company’s staff, it’s a culture conducive to employing sexual degenerates.”
HEADLINES FROM 1987: Using ergonomics to reduce pain from technology use.
TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! In an Incoherent Speech, Biden Calls His VP ‘President Harris’ and Stokes Anti-GOP Fears.
ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why Does Kenny G Drive Critics Crazy? New video from Reason TV:
COLONIZATION GETS EASIER: Researchers discover water in expansive canyon on Mars.
WINSTON SMITH TO THE RED COURTESY PHONE, PLEASE: Wikipedia Threatens to Purge ‘Communist Mass Killings’ Page, Cites Anti-Communist Bias.
A SOPHISTICATED, VACCINATED CROWD: Buzzfeed Holiday Party, With Masking and Vaxing Rules in Place, Is a #SuperSpreader Event.
Several BuzzFeed staffers have been infected with Covid-19 following the company’s Holiday party in Manhattan last week, according to a report from Insider.Three BuzzFeed employees who tested positive following the party told Insider that they were vaccinated and received their booster shots prior to contracting Covid-19 at the event, and are experiencing mild symptoms.
BuzzFeed has reportedly strengthened Covid-19 protocols following the party and amid a surge of cases in New York City, including putting a temporary freeze on group meetings over six people, requiring masks in the office until further notice, and freezing all non-essential business travel until the new year.
The company is also conducting contact tracing, as well as offering free testing for close contacts.
The rules were strict, but did not stop the #SuperspreaderEvent:
“BuzzFeed requires vaccinations for staffers, and partygoers had to present their vaccination cards to get into the event,” Perlberg reported, noting that CEO Jonah Peretti was in attendance. “Two days before the party, BuzzFeed updated its rules to require masks ‘unless you are actively eating or drinking.'”
Related: Ben Shapiro asks, “What if I told you there was a variant nearly everyone would get, but that would kill almost no one. Would you shut down society over that? Because that appears to be Omicron. And for a lot of people, the answer appears to be yes.”
Especially now that New York-based media is getting Omicron; their job was to create fear porn even before COVID; they’re going to be doubling their efforts now: As Jon Gabriel writes at Ricochet:
BuzzFeed hosted a staff holiday party in Manhattan that turned into a super-spreader event among the 100-percent vaccinated and boosted attendees. Other Gotham CEOs canceled their soirées and opted for yuletide classics like online yoga and meal delivery.
The Atlantic published a piece, “I’m Starting to Give Up on Post-pandemic Life,” with the subhead “Despair is not a mild symptom.” CNN’s Chris Cillizza wrote about his “long December” and how his “Covid anxiety is spiking.” Neurotic journalists keep using their day jobs as free therapy and insult readers for not being as miserable as they are.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom stopped attacking Ron DeSantis long enough to announce yet another state mask mandate. Politico noted that “many Californians have already reconciled themselves to a perpetually masked lifestyle.”
* * * * * * * *
The shrieking reports from coastal media bewilder those of us in free states. Outside of doctor’s appointments and air travel, I haven’t worn a mask since … I don’t know … May 2020? A handful of my neighbors wear masks while shopping, perhaps 5 percent and nearly all elderly. The rest? We moved on a year and a half ago.
A NYC-based journalist friend was dumbfounded when I told him this, and more than a little envious. The national media is stuck in a different world, and a different time. It’s like the White Witch’s Narnia, but with the additional horror of online yoga.
I wish a Merry Christmas to the vast majority of the country and a Dreary Covidmas to those unquestioning minds trapped in locked-down cities. If these New Yorkers, Angelenos, and Washingtonians happen to own an old wardrobe, perhaps they could step through it to celebrate Christmas with the rest of us.
STILL POPULAR: Kitchen Mama Electric Can Opener: Open Your Cans with A Simple Push of Button. #CommissionEarned
THIS KEEPS HAPPENING: Flu vaccine may not protect against main flu strain, study says.
‘THE OLD NORMAL IS NOT GOING TO RETURN:’ Federal Appeals Court Rules Biden Vaccine Mandate Can Continue. “It’s very likely this case will be further adjudicated at the Supreme Court. In the meantime, many employers are already beginning to implement the provisions of the ETS—and many employees are either submitting (fearing for their jobs) or leaving their professions for greener and less-Stalin-like pastures.”
JIM TREACHER: Now the Cops Want to See Alec Baldwin’s Phone.
The last time anybody cared about Baldwin’s phone was 10 years ago this month, when he refused to turn it off on a plane because he was playing Words with Friends. He got kicked off the flight, because the rules apply to him too, and then he whined about it.
Delaying a flight to play your dopey little phone game is between 5-7 on the Asshole Scale. Killing somebody is off the charts.
Read the whole thing.
THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Harris says Biden administration failed to see either delta or omicron variants coming.
Related: Our veep is not having the best of times this holiday season: Kamala Harris was asked during an interview who the “real president” is and man she got mad about it.
THE 21st CENTURY IS NOT TURNING OUT AS I HAD HOPED: Huge Yikes! Lutheran Church Hosts Drag Queen Prayer Time For Children.
In accordance with the prophesy:
GREAT GIFT: The Double Dangerous Book for Boys. #CommissionEarned
NEW YORK TIMES FIRES ‘WIRECUTTER’ EDITOR ACCUSED OF LEAVING PROFANE VOICEMAILS FOR GUN RIGHTS GROUP:
The New York Times has fired an editor for Wirecutter, its popular product recommendation service, who was accused of leaving profane voice mails for a gun rights advocacy group, the newspaper said Friday morning.
The editor, Erin Marquis, had joined Wirecutter in July as lead editor for a section of the reviews site.
On Dec. 2, two days after a high school student shot and killed four classmates in Michigan, Marquis posted a message on Twitter criticizing a group called Great Lakes Gun Rights for urging supporters to oppose gun control legislation proposed in the aftermath of the shooting.
“Just got a news release from the Great Lakes Gun Rights organization about protecting gun rights from democrats in Michigan and I am literally shaking with rage,” wrote Marquis, who has since deleted her Twitter account following online criticism that she had violated journalism standards by promoting a political viewpoint. “I hope there is a God and they meet that God someday.” She also tweeted out a phone number and email address for the group, which is the Michigan state affiliate of the National Association for Gun Rights.
The national organization reacted by publishing an audio recording that it said contains voice-mail messages that Marquis had left at its offices, expressing her anger at the group. In the messages, which could not be independently verified as coming from Marquis, the speaker identifies herself as “a journalist at the New York Times” and asks: “How do you sleep at night? And aren’t you just, like, a little bit worried that there might be a hell, and when you meet God, he will send you there?” The speaker then says she is “letting everyone at the New York Times know” what she thinks of the organization.
Letting this person go is a bold statement by New York Times owner Tom Cotton.
WOKE ACADEMICS: WE NEED MORE PEOPLE OF COLOR IN STEM. ALSO WOKE ACADEMICS: Professor of color denied funding for cutting-edge laser research due to ‘insufficient’ equity, diversity and inclusion enthusiasm.
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Deadliest Political Gaffe Of The Year Goes To: Keeping Parents Out Of Classrooms.
At least people like Sharon Kass of Washington seem to get it. In a Nov. 22 WaPo letter to the editor, she noted that public school libraries, though full of pro-LGBTQ material, are “leftist indoctrination centers.” Moreover, she notes, they would never feature books like former diplomat and Voice of America Director Robert R. Reilly’s “Making Gay Okay: How Rationalizing Homosexual Behavior Is Changing Everything.” There’s that pesky double standard again!
The current education debate in this country is the gift that keeps on giving. The more we press secular educators, curriculum developers, and their advocates in the media, Hollywood, and the academy, the more they disclose their true intentions. They want our children’s minds (and bodies), and they want us to either surrender them or play along by what Cohen calls “child-to-parent intergenerational training.” It’s ideas like that parents need to keep demanding leftist activists explain. I have a feeling the answer will be yet another gift.
EPIC DAILY DEAL: Luxsego 3 Settings Shower Head High Pressure Water Saving Showerhead with Filter. #CommissionEarned
NEW YORK SUN: The Wages of Inflation.
Today’s high inflation means salaries aren’t keeping pace with the growth in prices. “Real wages” — salaries minus price increases — are actually in negative territory, Federal Reserve data show. For November, real wages, far from rising, were down 2.3 percent from last year. No wonder the Deere workforce held out for big raises. They need them just to break even as household expenses keep rising. It calls to mind the old adage: Inflation is the silent thief.
“A vicious cycle of expectations,” is how economist Judy Shelton recently put it. As she explains it, employees are demanding raises to be able to afford products on store shelves. Companies in turn have to raise prices to pay the higher salaries. Yet the wage increases are being offered by companies without any boost in productivity in return from the workforce. That’s a recipe for the so-called stagflation that plagued the American economy in the 1970s.
Beating stagflation required political heroics by President Reagan and the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker. It was “a triumph of economic policy,” Robert Samuelson recently wrote. “Volcker imposed a ferocious credit squeeze, and Reagan supported this wildly unpopular policy.” Interest rates soared to 21 percent. Unemployment spiked at more than 10 percent. Bankruptcies ensued. “The triumph over inflation was bought at a huge personal and social cost,” Mr. Samuelson writes.
It’s hard to imagine any politician today able to take the heat for such an economic course.
Plus, Paul Volcker’s warning: “Don’t let inflation get ingrained … there’s too much agony in stopping the momentum.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: I’m sure that there is.
PARTS OF AMERICA STILL WORK: SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket on record 11th flight carrying 52 Starlink satellites. “With its record 11th flight in the books, the Falcon 9 booster is SpaceX’s most-flown rocket yet.”
THE UALR LAW ADMINISTRATION IS HAVING A BAD YEAR, AND DESERVES IT: ADL supports professor.
I’ll bet good folks at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and its Bowen School of Law continue yanking out handfuls of hair after months of contention over a law school professorship named for former governor and President Bill Clinton until faculty questions canceled those plans.
More recently, the failure to support the religious needs of Jewish law professor Rob Steinbuch has also made headlines.
And last week, a leading official with the Anti-Defamation League wrote Bowen Law School Dean Theresa Beiner, along with the leadership of the University of Arkansas and UALR, a strongly worded letter over the dean’s handling of Steinbuch’s religious rights in his classrooms.
Beiner, who also clashed with Steinbuch over the professorship quietly named after Clinton, objected to Steinbuch’s using a guest speaker to address his classes while he was participating in Jewish holidays, which he had done without conflict in previous years.
Contention over the matter made news and was addressed in my column, which apparently wound up directing the ADL’s attention to Steinbuch’s situation. “They read about it in a link to your column and responded from that,” Steinbuch said.
I had no idea my written words from here in Harrison had that kind of range.
In his letter, Aaron Ahlquist, the Director of Policy for the ADL’s Southern Division, said he was writing about Beiner’s role in accommodating Steinbuch’s request to observe Jewish High Holidays.
Ahlquist began by explaining how the ADL was founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of antisemitism and bigotry.
Well, nowadays antisemitism and bigotry are mostly to be found in institutions of higher learning. But wait, there’s more:
State Sen. Jason Rapert, a candidate for lieutenant governor who chairs the Senate’s State Agencies Committee, also sent me strong words about the treatment Steinbuch received.
“People who work and serve in the public sector expect that they will be treated as fairly as anyone could ever hope to be treated in our state and nation,” said Rapert.
“The ongoing targeted harassment of Dr. Steinbuch due to his conservative beliefs and willingness to be outspoken on issues of concern is bad enough. But to read that he has suffered insults and punitive actions related to his desire to observe the Jewish high holy days is over the line and must not be tolerated.
“The Arkansas Senate State Agencies committee has already heard testimony about the hostile work environment Dr. Steinbuch has had to endure. I call upon the leadership of UALR and the U of A system president to get to the bottom of all this at once. They should be able to address this and restore fairness for all concerned.
“It’s an embarrassment and mark on the reputation of UALR that Dr. Steinbuch has endured what amounts to actions that one could argue are antisemitic. Dr. Steinbuch and the people of Arkansas deserve much better,” added Rapert, who also is the founder and president of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers.
The Dean’s politics of petty revenge seem to be backfiring, and that’s good.
BUILD BACK BUNGLE: Major fail: Just 38% back BBB, only 62% Democrats. “As Democrats scramble to save President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion Build Back Better spend-and-tax plan, more voters are sending a signal that it’s time to cut bait and move on. In the latest gauge of the slumping support for the controversial leg of Biden’s social welfare agenda, Rasmussen Reports said Friday morning that just 38% of likely voters support BBB. Another 45% are opposed. What’s more, Democrats are bailing on the program. The pollster found that just 62% of Democrats ‘support’ the plan that spreads money across several social welfare issues.”
CIVIL ASSET FORFEITURE: Police Oversight Board Demands Answers After Dallas Cops Seized Traveler’s Cash. “Now a member of the city’s oversight board is demanding answers. ‘What I want to know are: What are the rules? And did this woman break them?’ Brandon Friedman, a member of Dallas’s Community Police Oversight Board, said to a local CBS affiliate. He added: ‘It’s not my business why someone’s carrying $100,000 at the airport unless it’s illegal, and from everything we’ve seen it doesn’t seem to be.’”
CHANGE: Growing Number of Companies and Organizations Are Walking Back Vaccination Requirements. “A range of businesses and institutions have begun scaling back vaccination requirements as the Biden administration’s mandates get tied up in court, retrenching out of fear of losing members and employees who refuse to comply.”
Irish democracy works.
PORTLAND MORPHED INTO DETROIT SO SLOWLY, I HARDLY EVEN NOTICED:
Shot: The Tragedy of Portland: ‘It’s a Ghost Town, Except for Zombies.’
For seven months, Dylan Carrico Rogers slept in his bike shop with a shotgun. TriTech Bikes, located in the Montavilla neighborhood of northeast Portland, Ore., where Rogers grew up, had been battered by three break-ins, two nearby shootings, and countless instances of vandalism. Portland’s serially understaffed police force was nowhere to be found. And in the face of $25,000 of stolen bike parts, TriTech’s insurance company was ready to jump ship. “They said, ‘if you claim another one, we’re just gonna drop you,’” Rogers told National Review. “So I’m paying $1,200 every three months to be told that I have to replace [everything] on my own dime. And then at the same time, the cops don’t show up. So we’re just in a free-for-all.”
The lifelong Portland resident finally packed up and left in August. By that point, he said, the building landlord “told me that it wasn’t worth it anymore.” The graffiti, property damage, constant break-ins, and unattended-to police reports were just no longer worth the investment. “He tore up a three-year lease. The building’s vacant now,” Rogers said. The gloomy metropolis of 660,000, perched at the northwestern tip of Oregon, is not quite the anarchic dystopia that it is occasionally made out to be in some corners of conservative media. But in the wake of spasms of political violence, a slashed law-enforcement budget, a wave of early police retirements, and punitive lockdown measures that have devastated small businesses such as TriTech, it’s inching ever closer to genuine lawlessness.
This is the Portland way of life. “You have people that are just blatantly taking advantage of the fact that there are no police officers,” Rogers said. “I mean, this has spread everywhere now. It’s not just the Portland bike shops. Grocery-store workers are getting attacked, because we have drug addicts that are literally walking in and doing these blitz raids.”
—National Review, yesterday.
Chaser:
In their years at the Tailwind, the Aboud brothers have never been held up—a record that Aboud attributes to the family’s honest business practices and its militance. “When we caught shoplifters we never used to call the cops,” said Aboud, preferring the past tense. “We took care of things in our own way. If somebody killed my brother, I’d get even, that’s the type of family we are. People who think we’re crazy are right—we are crazy. But we don’t look for trouble. We’ve got a friendly store. Come over any night and you’ll see.”
The following Friday I took him up on his offer. After all the horror stories I had heard, I was surprised by the relaxed atmosphere in the Tailwind. Customers, mostly black, bantered with Aboud and his brother Mike, exchanging neighborhood gossip. John Aboud flirted amiably with several of the young women and they flirted back. Over the cash register there were snapshots of kids from the block.
After each customer left, Aboud provided me with a thumbnail biography. Some were solid working people, but many were drug addicts or dealers, teenage mothers and ex-cons. Each story was told in a flat, nonjudgmental way. Aboud is a merchant, not a missionary, and he accepts the foibles and weaknesses of human nature philosophically.
Aboud’s tolerance has not impaired his vigilance, however, and the Tailwind’s security system could be fairly characterized as forbidding. The front door has a permanent squeak, to let the brothers know when someone comes in. They work behind a thick shield of bullet-resistant glass (Aboud told me that when they come out from behind it, they wear bulletproof vests) and on the shelf behind the counter there was a small arsenal: a .44 Magnum, a 9-millimeter pistol, and a couple of AR 15 semiautomatic assault rifles—tools of the shopkeeper’s trade in Detroit.
—Devil’s Night: And Other True Tales of Detroit, Zev Chafets, 1990.
THIS DOESN’T FIT THE NARRATIVE: South Africa Hospitalization Rate Plunges in Omicron Wave.
BEN SHAPIRO: The Death of California.
It is strange, however, to see the language of sanctuary adopted to protect precisely the sort of activity abhorred by anyone of religious bent: abortion. The secular sacrament of abortion has become so sacred, however, that the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, recently announced his intent to make his state the first abortion sanctuary in the nation. “We’ll be a sanctuary,” Newsom announced. “We are looking at ways to support that inevitability and looking at ways to expand our protections.”
The state of California, according to Newsom’s Democratic legislative allies, could provide travel expenses including gas, lodging, transportation and child care for those seeking to kill their unborn children. Already, some 15% of America’s abortions occur in California, according to the Guttmacher Institute. That number would skyrocket if the state began subsidizing abortions across the land.
None of this is particularly surprising. It is telling, however, that as California sinks into the mire, it embraces ever more radical social policy. This is a state that currently houses — no pun intended — some 162,000 homeless people, a number that increased approximately 24% from 2018 to 2020. About a quarter of all homeless people in the United States currently reside in California.
Meanwhile, crime in California has become endemic, with smash-and-grabs roiling major cities and even wealthy residents murdered in their homes. This week, the head of the Los Angeles police union, Jamie McBride, warned people to stay out of the city, explaining, “We can’t guarantee your safety. It is really, really out of control.” Even former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa laments, “Rome is burning.”
How bad has California gotten under Newsom? This bad: Jerry Brown tells the L.A. Fox affiliate, “You’ve heard about the redistribution of wealth. We need a redistribution of incarceration! You go steal a car or something…you got to spend some time!”
December 17, 2021
THEY DON’T LOOK LIKE MAGA TYPES TO ME:
Story here:
The suspects allegedly targeted Asian women exclusively, according to the Santa Clara DA, and had a pattern of attacking women walking alone to their cars.
In the wave of attacks on Asian Americans since the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, the attacks on Asian seniors stand out as particularly offensive. But a prosecutor needs an ironclad case with proof to win a hate crime conviction, and must settle the question — did the attacker really choose the victim because of their Asian heritage? Or is it just that older people are easier marks, and easier to overpower?
On Wednesday, the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office announced hate crime charges against six suspects in 70 crimes after a sprawling year-long investigation, according to the Bay Area News Group. And it definitely appears that yes, some of the most prolific attackers do specifically target Asian women, often seniors. They know this because according to the DA’s evidence, “ethnic slurs were allegedly used against some of the women,” and “the men allegedly targeted Asian women because they believed [Asians] ‘don’t use banks’ and would be carrying cash.”
They should have been carrying, period. But remember how the claim was that Trump’s blaming the Chinese government was going to lead racist white people to go after Asians in America? Yeah, this is what’s really happening.
OPEN THREAD: Make no mistake about it, but things ain’t what they seem.
IT’S ALSO WHERE THEY STRIKE: It’s Not Actually Size That Determines How Deadly a Meteor Is. “Using this new method for assessing the mineral content of the meteorite ejecta blankets, we show that every time a meteorite, big or small, hits rocks rich in potassium feldspar it correlates with a mass extinction event.”
Plus: “Feldspars are aluminum-silicate rocks, crystallized from magma, making up around 60 percent of Earth’s crust. Potassium feldspar is common in many soils, and unlike other substances smashed into our atmosphere during these meteor impacts – like acid rain causing hydrocarbons – it is a safe and un-reactive chemical. However, potassium feldspar is a powerful ice-nucleating aerosol – meaning it can massively alter cloud composition.”
WILL COURTS SHUTTER PELOSI’S J6 SELECT COMMITTEE? Suits by Meadows, Eastman and four White House rally staffers all point to multiple ways House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol is violating its legislative authorization.
THIS IS WHY THOSE ENCOURAGING THE CROSSINGS SHOULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE: Study: Migrants crossing US-Mexico border subject to dehydration, death.
I mean, you don’t really need a study to find that crossing a desert can lead to dehydration and death, but. . .
ANTI-COP HATE EVEN REACHES PUPPIES: Kansas police officer’s puppy beheaded in ‘targeted’ attack.
OH, THAT WAR ON CHRISTMAS: Frat house cannot hang its own Christmas wreath, university insists.
XFINITY BLOCKING CUSTOMER ACCESS TO EPOCH TIMES WEB SITE: The Epoch Times techies are telling the newsroom that Xfinity is blocking customers from opening the news web site, as well as the backend editing functions. Any Instapundit readers encountering this problem? If you are, please call Xfinity and RAISE HOLY HELL!
Update (from Steve): For what it’s worth, I’m on Xfinity and can’t get Epoch Times to load. But it loads just fine on cellular when I turn my phone’s wifi off.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): It’s working fine for me, on both Xfinity and Starlink.
UPDATE: Works for me if I go through Verizon via Hotspot.
UPDATE: Turns out it really does appear to be a Stackpath connectivity problem. Thanks to Instapundit reader Ron. I shared that info with Xfinity customer service and they then confirmed it. Stackpath doesn’t at this moment know the root cause.
UPDATE: Xfinity is again accessing the Epoch Times web site. Still no official word on what happened to block access for much of the afternoon and into the late evening.
TOP SELLER: Waterpik Cordless Water Flosser, Battery Operated & Portable for Travel & Home, ADA Accepted Cordless Express. #CommissionEarned
THE GOLDEN AGE OF MUSCLE HASN’T ENDED YET: 2022 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500KR Gets 900 HP, New Suspension, and Lots of Carbon.
IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: DC bar restores status of convicted ex-FBI lawyer who deceived the FISA court during Russia probe. “Typically, a case like Kevin Clinesmith’s would end in disbarment, but not this time.”
BE PREPARED: LifeStraw Personal Water Filter for Hiking, Camping, Travel. #CommissionEarned
WELL, HE’S RIGHT: Manchin yells at reporter: ‘You’re bull—-.’
“This is bullshit. You’re bullshit,” Manchin yelled at Arthur Delaney, a reporter for HuffPost Politics, who asked him to confirm the report that the child tax credit has become a major sticking point in talks with the White House.
“I’m done, I’m done,” Manchin fumed, his voice rising, after Delaney asked whether the senator could support continuing $300 monthly payments to families with young kids.
The testy exchange followed another contentious back-and-forth between Manchin and a group of reporters, including CNN’s Manu Raju.
Raju reported that talks between Manchin and Biden were not going well because Manchin wants to cut the child tax credit out of the bill.
Manchin denied the report and said members of the media are hearing “a lot of bad rumors.”
“I’m not opposed to child tax credit, I’ve never been opposed to child tax credit,” he insisted.
Manchin also made clear that he’s getting sick and tired of being grilled about his position in the negotiations with Biden.
A US Senator is being bullied by the press over a partisan vote. That is most certainly bullshit.
IT’S NOT A “WATCHDOG REPORT,” IT’S A PRO-CENSORSHIP REPORT: Google still running ads for anti-climate change content, watchdog report says. From the “Center for Countering Digital Hate.”
WELL, THAT’S GOOD BECAUSE MOST PEOPLE WILL EVENTUALLY GET THEM: Breakthrough infections generate ‘super immunity’ to COVID-19, study suggests.
THE DEVIL HATES TO BE MOCKED: Adam Carolla mocks the Covid tyrants.
HMM: CDC panel votes to recommend preferred status to Moderna, Pfizer vaccines over J&J.
What ever happened with Novavax’s non-MRNA vaccine? Oh: “Bureaucracy has created a mess.” Though the production problems seem mostly of Novavax’s own making.
THE FBI IS NOT TRUSTWORTHY: The FBI Said It Busted A Plot To Kidnap Michigan’s Governor. Then Things Got Complicated. “The case seemed like a lock — until an informant and one FBI agent were charged with crimes, another was accused of perjury, and a third was found promoting a private security firm. And that wasn’t all.”
Plus: “Those issues may well affect the course of the trial. But beyond the integrity of the case, the problems are serious and widespread enough to call into question tactics the FBI has relied on for decades — and to test the public’s trust in the bureau overall.”
Flashback: “I’d rather have a sister in a whorehouse than a brother in the FBI.”
STILL AVAILABLE: New Apple AirPods Pro. #CommissionEarned
THIS IS A BIG DEAL: Researchers discover water in expansive canyon on Mars. “Alexey Malakhov, a researcher at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences who co-authored a study on the findings, said in a statement that the unexpected amount of water is ‘very much like Earth’s permafrost regions.’ Water in these regions is stored in ice that permanently persists under the dry soil because of cold temperatures, he said.”
YEAH, THAT’S A REAL MYSTERY: How is there no public record of Congressional insider trading?
SOMETIMES I ENJOY TILTING AT WINDMILLS: Stick It to the Man: Get Yourself on Washington’s Terrorist Database. “It’s like something right out of George Orwell’s 1984 — if Oceana had bothered with niceties like buying a woman a drink before intimidating the hell out of her.”
MARK JUDGE: The Kavanaugh War and the End of Honor Culture.
THE METAVERSE IS TURNING OUT EXACTLY HOW I EXPECTED: Meta alerts 50,000 users to targeting by ‘surveillance-for-hire’ companies. “Targets included journalists, dissidents, critics of authoritarian regimes, families of opposition, and human rights activists, the post said. The surveillance was uncovered in a monthslong investigation in which Meta identified spying groups and removed them from the platform.”
KEVIN DOWNEY JR: ‘White Privilege’ Isn’t Getting People Killed, Democrats Are.
WELL, IT’S CERTAINLY NOT JOE BIDEN:
STILL POPULAR: Let’s Go Bourbon!: The Bourbon Reader You’ve Always Needed. #CommissionEarned
HMM: Uh oh. Search warrant for Alec Baldwin’s phone issued. “From the beginning of this entire mess, I’ve been of the opinion that this truly was just a horrible accident caused by a cascading series of gross failures in safe firearms handling procedures. At most, I assumed that Baldwin might have been accused of gross negligence by failing to check the weapon and the ammunition himself upon being handed the revolver. I still can’t imagine how he could be culpable beyond that, but perhaps the investigation has revealed information that we’ve not been given yet.”
Well, that’s why we have investigations and trials and such, instead of just going on initial news reports, even though the latter is in fashion these days.
STANDING UP AGAINST FOREIGN COLLUSION: Purdue president calls harassment, intimidation of pro-freedom Chinese student ‘unacceptable.’
Daniels was responding to a recent article in ProPublica that detailed the intimidation and harassment faced by Chinese Purdue student Zhihao Kong after he spoke out against the Chinese government.
Kong, an engineering student, had recently gone public with his complaints against China, saying he was appalled that the Communist regime had claimed the COVID-19 virus originated in the United States. He further said China had worsened the pandemic by covering up the presence of the virus.
Finally, he posted an open letter praising the Tiananmen Square protesters who died at the hands of the People’s Republic of China three decades ago. . . .
Chinese officials saw his post and paid a visit to his parents, trying to intimidate them into getting Kong to stop posting pro-democracy statements. When he finally talked to his parents, Kong said they “were crying in the phone call. My father was urging me to stop such activities.”
Members of the Purdue Chinese Students and Scholars Association began threatening Kong in an online chat.
I think these students should be investigated for doing the work of a foreign power. Mitch Daniels’ comment:
“Joining the Purdue community requires acceptance of its rules and values, and no value is more central to our institution or to higher education generally than the freedom of inquiry and expression,” said Daniels, adding, “Those seeking to deny those rights to others, let alone to collude with foreign governments in repressing them, will need to pursue their education elsewhere.”
Daniels’ whole statement is here.
I’M OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER WHEN IRAN WAS BROKE AND INCREASINGLY BOXED IN: Iranian Newspaper Publishes a Map With List of Targets in Israel: ‘Just One Wrong Move.’
EPIC DAILY DEAL: Greenworks 13 Amp 20-Inch Corded Snow Thrower. #CommissionEarned
HIGHER EDUCATION: Frat house cannot hang its own Christmas wreath, university insists.
FOREIGN COLLUSION: NFL Marks Taiwan as Part of China. “The map, which introduced markets for 18 NFL teams in eight countries, shows Taiwan unlabeled and colored in as part of China. The erasure of Taiwan comes two months after President Xi Jinping gave a speech in October calling for the ‘reunification’ of the island nation with China, whether in a ‘peaceful manner’ or by ‘firm will.'”
Out: Standing for the national anthem.
In: Bending the knee for the CCP.
InstaPundit is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.