Liberalism is so unlikely and fantastic, John Milbank observes, because it proceeds by inventing a wholly artificial human being that has never actually existed, conceived in abstraction from his gender, birth, associations, beliefs, and equally indifferent as to whether he is a creature of God, a rational animal, an accident of evolution, or a puddle of genes. And then it imagines that we are all instances of such species.
Progressive students have absorbed the idea it’s good to be militant in your views, it shows you’re authentic. No, it shows you got the talking points.
Sensing the vibes weren’t right, Columbia postponed its annual Giving Day, which usually raises tens of millions for the school. It’s really hard to shake down Jewish alumni when your faculty and students are also trying to do a pogrom. The list of donors who are pulling their gifts keeps growing: the latest is billionaire Leon Cooperman, who declared on television: “I think these kids at the colleges have shit for brains.”
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State suicide is now a top cause of death in Canada: New statistics have come out that show a shocking 4 percent of all deaths in Canada are now thanks to the country’s assisted suicide scheme, the fifth leading cause of death.
So a couple of things: we have not seen any credible threats. I know there’s been all these questions about credible threats, and so I want to be sure that that’s out there. But look, Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim have endured a disproportionate number of hate-fueled attacks.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, pooh-poohing rising antisemitism, via Nellie Bowles.
According to FBI data, Muslims make up about 1 percent of the population and are the target of 9.6 percent of hate crimes. Jews make up about 2 percent of the population and are the target of 51.4 percent of hate crimes.
In [disgraced attorney Jenna] Ellis’s case, she complained that Trump wasn’t doing much to help her raise funds for her legal defense, even though she was being targeted for working on his behalf. “I simply can’t support him for elected office again,” Ellis said on her podcast last month. “Why I have chosen to distance is because of that frankly malignant narcissistic tendency to simply say that he’s never done anything wrong.”
Elsewhere, Nick Cattogio muses about Forgiving Jenna Ellis and concludes that he’s not ready yet — partly because her remorse follows a lot of high dudgeon after and about her indictment, and partly because he can’t believe that Trump’s toxic narcissism only now registered with her.
He has a point, doesn’t he?
Education in Oregon
Students don’t need to learn things: You don’t need another rant about the logic behind letting teachers stop measuring whether their teaching is working. So I’ll just leave this here, from the Oregon-based Observer:
Oregon high school students won’t have to prove basic mastery of reading, writing, or math to graduate from high school until at least 2029, the state Board of Education decided unanimously on Thursday, Oct. 19, extending the pause on the controversial graduation requirement that began in 2020.
Pair that with this chart of American ACT scores:
At this point I’m convinced American public school teachers have been captured as foreign agents bent on weakening the population. There is no other explanation. Moon landing was fake and teachers are all CCP assets.
Conquest’s Third Law: “The behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies.”
Via Rod Dreher
A swarm of MAGA lawyers
There is no question that a swarm of MAGA lawyers surrounded Trump at each step of the process, much like a cloud of dirt surrounds the character Pigpen in the “Peanuts” cartoons, but if the lawyers themselves have admitted to engaging in criminal conduct, then that weakens his legal defense. This was no normal legal team, and their conduct was far outside the bounds of normal legal representation.
A fundamental reality of human existence is that vice often leaves virtue with few good options. Evil men can attach catastrophic risks to virtually any course of action, however admirable.
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Tipsy Teetotaler ن 