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January 2019

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

‘Social Justice’ Is Unjust By Noah Rothman

By on January 25th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/social-justice-rhetoric-all-purpose-excuse-democrats/For a new generation of Democrats, what the phrase denotes is indistinguishable from retribution.

‘No other Congress has ever looked like this,” declared a CNN dispatch on the makeup of the 116th Congress. With such a diverse group of new legislators, that’s undoubtedly true. More importantly, though, no Congress has ever thought like this. As a new generation of Democrats assumes power, they’re bringing their ideas about what constitutes “social justice” with them.

It is particularly instructive to examine how this class of legislators defines social justice. When Representative Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) took the oath of office, for example, she initially planned on doing so on Thomas Jefferson’s 1734 translation of the Qur’an. But the Palestinian-American legislator reserved the right to use her own copy of the Qur’an. “Why uplift someone else?” she told the Detroit Free Press. “It’s starting a new era in social justice.” Why “uplift” Thomas Jefferson, indeed?

This self-referential attitude is a feature of the modern social-justice movement, and it helps to explain why it is so focused on engineering oppressive reversals of fortune.

Before coming to Congress, Tlaib told The Intercept that she is a proud supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to stigmatize activities that legitimize the state of Israel. To her, BDS brings attention to “issues like the racism and the international human-rights violations by Israel right now.” Representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) shares Tlaib’s proclivities. “I have always had a very social-justice-bent approach to everything that I do in my life,” Omar told ABC News.

On their way into federal office, these two lawmakers brought Women’s March organizer Linda Sarsour along with them. Sarsour was on hand in the Capitol on their first day in office, even though she was at the center of an anti-Semitism scandal not two months ago — a scandal rooted in the social-justice movement’s obsession with crafting racial and demographic pecking orders.

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BOOKS Comments turned off

It’s A Perfect Time To Rediscover The Virtues Of Andrew Jackson Bradley Birzer’s ‘In Defense of Andrew Jackson’ offers a lucid portrait of an American president who is often misunderstood and neglected, even by the conservatives who should most admire him. By Gordon Dakota Arnold

By on January 25th, 2019

http://thefederalist.com/2019/01/25/rediscovering-the-virtues-of-andrew-jackson/

Few Americans in the country’s history have received the polarized interpretations that President Andrew Jackson has. Once revered as the quintessential frontier hero, a statesman who saved rugged individualism from the corrupt forces of corporatists and government centralizers, Jackson has more recently been maligned as a brutal white supremacist who epitomized white, capitalist, and Southern bigotry in the 19th century.

On this point, there is an unlikely alliance between some conservatives and Marxists. Dinesh D’Souza attacks Jackson as an early “progressive Democrat” who ushered in the Democratic Party’s legacy of genocide. The neo-Marxist Howard Zinn, similarly, scorns him as a “slave owner,” a “killer of Indians,” and “the architect of the Trail of Tears.” Adding to the confusion, Jackson has been appropriated by rather unlikely allies, such as the government centralizers of the New Deal era, who argued that Jackson anticipated the New Deal’s concentration of power in the hands of the presidency for the purpose of fulfilling the will of the majority.

Against the facile misinterpretations and half-truths touted both by friends and foes of President Jackson, Bradley Birzer’s In Defense of Andrew Jackson offers a thoughtful, refreshing, and timely analysis of our hopelessly misunderstood seventh president. Birzer, a historian at Hillsdale College, paints a vivid portrait of Jackson as both a man and as a statesman.

He should be perceived, Birzer demonstrates, not as the ancestor of majoritarian New Deal democracy but as a principled defender of traditional American republicanism. Eloquently written and amply supported by historical evidence, In Defense of Andrew Jackson serves as a sorely needed reminder of the republican principles that inspired so many Americans in the 19th century—principles that Americans need desperately.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Who Runs the Census? How the bureaucracy takes power away from elected officials.

By on January 25th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/who-runs-the-census-11548376332

Another week, another liberal court injunction against the Trump Administration. This month a federal judge blocked the Commerce Department from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. At issue is whether the President and his appointees control the government bureaucracy or the other way around.

Liberals cheered when Obama officials invoked executive discretion to promote political objectives. Yet they’re now accusing Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross of improperly pursuing political purposes by reinstating a citizenship question on the 2020 census. Whatever his intentions, Mr. Ross acted within the purview granted by Congress.

***

The Constitution directs Congress once a decade to count every resident in the U.S. to reapportion House districts among the states. Congress has delegated Commerce, which houses the Census Bureau, broad discretion over survey subjects and directed the secretary to use statistical sampling if “he considers it feasible” to collect data.

A citizenship question was included until 1960 and later appeared on a long-form questionnaire received by one-sixth of households. The long form was replaced after 2000 by the American Community Survey, which samples about 2% of the population annually.

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MEDIA, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Mueller stages full body armor predawn arrest of Roger Stone for CNN’s cameras By Thomas Lifson

By on January 25th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/01/mueller_stages_full_body_armor_midnight_arrest_of_roger_stone_for_cnns_cameras.html

The latest “This is the beginning of the end for Trump…” orgasm in the mainstream media comes with serious action movie production values, courtesy of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. Roger Stone, who could easily have been notified to turn himself in the way white-collar defendants who are no danger of fleeing normally are handled, was instead subjected to a humiliating midnight predawn raid with cars full of riot gear-clad FBI agents, all staged before the cameras of CNN, which was exclusively granted access to the scene worthy of an action movie. [Update: It is not clear who leaked newsof the raid to CNN, having the effect of staging it for the most anti-Trump of networks. ]This is similar to the treatment of Paul Manafort, but with the added indignity of CNN cameras.

It is notable that Stone was arrested over alleged process crimes, not for conspiracy with Russia, or even “collaboration” (which is not a crime).

Further comment on the six crimes alleged in the indictment will have to wait for more information. But it is clear that Mueller was shown his man first, and then found the crime, following the dictum of Stalin’s head of the KGB, Lavrentiy Beria: “Show me the man, and I will find you the crime.”

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Desperate Embrace At Europe’s Core By Angelo Codevilla

By on January 25th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/01/24/desperate-embrace

Europe’s most powerful personages on Tuesday signed a treaty for the “unification,” of Western Europe’s biggest countries. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel inked the deal at Aachen/Aix la Chapelle. It was there in the chapel that Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer had knelt at Holy Mass to celebrate the signing of the 1963 Franco-German treaty of cooperation that sealed their peoples’ vow of friendship and cooperation. In the ensuing half century, it produced just that. France and Germany became the core of the Common Market and then of the European Union.

Today’s treaty, its pretensions notwithstanding, is between regimes that are overwhelmingly occupied trying, with decreasing success, to fend off domestic challenges to their legitimacy. The treaty is a desperate attempt by France and Germany to change the subject from their internal struggles. Nevertheless, the treaty cannot but have major and deleterious effects on intra-European relations as well as on relations between Europe and the United States.

In 1963, de Gaulle and Adenauer had hoped for even greater coordination in foreign and defense policy as well but, under U.S. diplomatic pressure, the German Bundestag added a clause to the treaty’s ratification that privileged the Federal Republic’s defense relationship with America. By contrast, the 2019 treaty’s main thrust is to sever that clause. The two countries will act “as a single unit with regard to relations with third countries.”

Lest there be any doubt, the final sentence reads: “The admission of the Federal Republic of Germany as a permanent member of of the United Nations Security Council [where it would share France’s seat] is a priority of Franco-German diplomacy.”

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Trump: ‘We have reached a deal’ to end government shutdown for three weeks

By on January 25th, 2019

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/25/shutdown-senate-leaders-talk-flight-delays-reported-airports/2676022002/

President Donald Trump said Friday he will support an agreement to end the partial government shutdown that does not include border wall funding, likely marking a close to the longest lapse in government services in U.S. history.

“We have reached a deal to end the shutdown and reopen the federal government,” he said.

Trump’s decision, which he announced during a hastily arranged address in the White House Rose Garden, came amid mounting pressure from members of Congress to end the impasse. That pressure only built Friday as airports along the East Coast reported delays due to a lack of air traffic controllers.

The deal, hammered out during negotiations with Senate leaders, would reopen the government for three weeks and does not include money for Trump’s proposed border wall. Democrats have flatly rejected funding for the wall until the government reopens.

Trump hinted at the possibility, once again, of declaring a national emergency to find money for his proposed border wall if Congress does not reach an agreement on that issue.

“I have a very powerful alternative, but I didn’t want to use it at this time,” Trump said.

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HISTORY Comments turned off

Is Jerusalem a sacred Islamic City? There is a big difference between a city being sacred in the eyes of God and it being a sacred Islamic city. By Imam Tawhidi

By on January 25th, 2019

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Is-Jerusalem-a-sacred-Islamic-City-578560

Jerusalem is home to around 400,000 Muslims, but is it a sacred city according to Islam?

This is a question the majority of Muslims within the political and academic world try to avoid, simply because it opens a rather uncomfortable discussion. In fact, a Muslim asking such a question could face serious consequences; such as society doubting in his/her faith.Until 2014, I was an Islamist who abhorred Jewish people and was open to waging war against them. Today, however, I am friends with many Jewish faith leaders. This transition wasn’t political, it was rather theological. In brief, I started to question certain claims taught to me by my teachers and Muslim community. I began by asking myself the question, does Jerusalem really belong to Islam and Muslims?

To answer this vitally important question, we need to inquire how cities become sacred according to Islam.

Sacred cities in Islam
Throughout human history, every religion has been associated with an area that has been sanctified, respected and revered. Islam is no different. There are tens of sacred cities in Islam, such as Mecca, Medina, Qum, Karbala and Najaf – due to clear verses of the Koran acknowledging their glory or sayings of Prophet Mohammad assuring Muslims of their exaltation.

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MEDIA Comments turned off

MY SAY: TIME FOR AWARDS FOR FAKE NEWS

By on January 25th, 2019

The news, printed and online is full of lies and the corrections come after opinions have been altered and bias implemented.

I think it is high time to create an award for those institutions and journalist prevaricators who write and disseminate fake news.

How about having the Apate awards? In Greek mythology, Apate was the goddess of deceit and fraud. And just to keep it genderally correct we could couple it with the Dolos award. Dolos is the Greek god of trickery, cunning deception, craftiness, treachery and guile. His Roman equivalent is Mendacious.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Who Wants These Professors? By Mark Bauerlein

By on January 25th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/01/24/who

Last year, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the industry periodical for academia, published a commentary under the title “The Whitesplaining of History Is Over.” The first sentence went like this:

When the academy was the exclusive playground of white men, it produced the theories of race, gender, and Western cultural superiority that underwrote imperialism abroad and inequality at home.

The rest of the commentary cited women and minority historians who are steadily correcting that white male supremacist record compiled by white male scholars in the past.

The author, a historian at Stanford, wanted to present the revision work taking place as a story of triumph. But as you can see from the denigrating first sentence, there is no joy in her expression. She can’t get past her own bitter resentment. As I read the piece, I didn’t quibble with the thesis. Instead, I wondered, “How many 19-year-olds want to spend 14 weeks in a class with her?”

The year before, the classics web site Eidolon published a commentary by a professor at Denison University with the headline, “We Condone It by Our Silence: Confronting Classics’ Complicity in White Supremacy.” In one paragraph, citing the “Greek Miracle” that produced the extraordinary burst of genius in the arts, philosophy, and literature, the author terms it a myth and adds:

It is a myth that gets trotted out frequently in the pages of elite magazines by those among us who wish to promote the study of the classical world as valuable to the present and by those who may be (un)consciously trying to continue to hide the field’s racism and misogyny behind a sanitized story of (white, male, Euro-American) greatness.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

WHY PROHIBITING BOYCOTTS OF ISRAEL DOES NOT VIOLATE FREEDOM OF SPEECH WRITTEN BY ALYZA D. LEWIN

By on January 25th, 2019

http://kolhabirah.com/index.php/israel-global/1768-why-prohibiting-boycotts-of-israe

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is campaigning against existing and proposed federal and local laws that would deter boycotts of Israel popularized by the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS). Their argument is that requiring all businesses who want to contract with the state to certify that they do not engage in a boycott of Israel violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.

The ACLU’s challenge of such a law in Arizona is now before the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The Brandeis Center, of which I am president, has filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the constitutionality of Arizona’s law; the brief was written largely by Akiva Shapiro, a partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and this op-ed borrows liberally from that brief.

Federal, state, and local governments across the United States regularly and appropriately use conditions in government contracts to promote equality under the law, combat discrimination, and ensure that public funds are not used for illegal or invidious purposes. Conditions on contracting are a pillar of anti-discrimination laws at all levels of government. The First Amendment does not require the government to subsidize discriminatory conduct.

However, these regulations only target discriminatory conduct, not speech,by state contractors. Contractors may speak passionately, associate, and advocate openly in any forum and on any subject, even an anti-Israel boycott. They may also forego state contracts if they choose to engage in an active boycott of Israel.

The Arizona legislature found “Companies that refuse to deal with United States trade partners such as Israel, or entities that do business with or in such countries, make discriminatory decisions on the basis of national origin that impair those companies’ commercial soundness.” Arizona joined 25 other states that have imposed similar conditions on those seeking government contracts. A majority of these states require contractors to certify their compliance. The federal government places similar anti-discrimination conditions on funding public and private universities.

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