Displaying posts published in

March 2021

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Biden Should Ditch the Doha Deal with Taliban by Amir Taheri

By on March 7th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17150/biden-taliban-afghanistan

There is at least one issue on which Biden would be wise to adopt the anti-Trump posture: Afghanistan.

Today, Biden could ditch Trump’s cut-and-run plan and re-commit the US to helping Afghans protect what they have achieved and move on to build more. By doing so, Biden would burnish his anti-Trump credentials and also please Obama nostalgics.

This week, Khalilzad offered the chasing wolves a much bigger morsel: a plan for a coalition government in which the terrorist outfit would secure a leading place.

It is worth remembering that, until the 9/11 attacks, Khalilzad and Karzai were lobbyists for Taliban in Washington…. By early August 2001, those interested in the issue already knew that Karzai was to be the first Taliban ambassador to Washington.

[T]he US has invested heavily, in blood and treasure, in making Afghanistan what it is today, a chunk of the world freed from one of the darkest forces mankind has seen for centuries.

Finally, it is clear to anyone familiar with Afghan realities that a scheme that may have worked 20 years ago has no chance of succeeding now. The Doha “peace deal” would be nothing more than a prelude to a new tragedy.

For the Taliban to enter government in Kabul they should give up their arms, accept the Afghan constitution, take part in elections and let the world see how much support they have.

President Joe Biden’s first foreign policy moves so far make at least one thing clear: he is looking for areas where he can distance himself from his predecessor without committing to dramatically different courses.

He has promised to return to the Paris climate accord that, requiring congressional approval, doesn’t imply doing anything in particular.

He has flattered European allies by talking about multilateralism, forgetting that even the most multilateral arrangement still needs leadership and a program, something he tries to avoid for fear of being accused of Trumpian arrogance.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION, P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Tearing Down Our Castles Home and family, bulwarks of freedom and freedom-making in their turn, are hated by those who hate mankind and want to subject it to vast systems of social and political control. By Anthony Esolen

By on March 7th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/03/06/tearing-down-our-castles/

“Of all the modern notions generated by mere wealth the worst,” says G. K. Chesterton, “is that domesticity is dull and tame. Inside the home (they say) is dead decorum and routine; outside is adventure and variety.” As is so often the case when a people derive their opinions largely from mass entertainment, mass schooling, and mass media, all it takes is a little consideration, or a few minutes of experience, to see that a given popular notion is not only false, but wildly and ridiculously so.

Enter the home of someone who really has a home to enter. What will you find there? You can assume there will be beds in bedrooms, a stove in the kitchen, and a table to eat from; you can assume there will be electric lights, and some form of heating; you can (nowadays) assume there will be indoor plumbing. Beyond that, you dare not go. “For the truth is,” our Apostle of common sense goes on to say, “that to the moderately poor the home is the only place of liberty. Nay, it is the only place of anarchy. It is the only spot on the earth where a man can alter arrangements suddenly, make an experiment or indulge in a whim.” 

I have sometimes imagined an Armageddon to bring down our vast structure of standardization in business, schooling, and government: a lone worker at a McDonald’s somewhere in Idaho, in a fit of cheerful and human lawlessness, sprinkles the French fries with paprika. Or a teacher in one of those public enclaves built to resemble a factory or a prison gets a wild idea—perhaps it is springtime, and the scent of a long-forgotten blossom is in the air—and teaches his students an old Hebrew poem, beginning, “The Lord is my shepherd.” Or the workers sitting opposite one another on a commuter train shut their computers and begin to—what is it called?—have a conversation.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Peak Cancel Culture? Don’t Bet on It By Roger Kimball

By on March 7th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/03/06/peak-cancel-culture-dont-bet-on-it/

Last week it was a book by Ryan Anderson and a speech by Donald Trump. This week it is some books by Dr. Seuss. We don’t call it “totalitarianism” for nothing.

Here’s a question that I do not know the answer to: Is the current insanity of “cancel culture” cresting or just getting started? 

Last week in this space, I told you about how Amazon suddenly and without any explanation decided to delist Ryan Anderson’s book When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment from all its emporia—audible.com and abebooks.com as well as Amazon itself. (The link I provide goes directly to the publisher). 

We published that book at Encounter some three years ago. Why did Amazon, the self-described “world’s largest book store,” finally get around to placing it on their unofficial but still very potent Index Librorum Prohibitorum? Since Amazon has thus far refused to enlighten us, I don’t know.

Yes, the retail giant flagged a new policy that permits it to refuse to sell works that are “inappropriate and offensive” or that trade in “hate speech.” But Anderson’s book is a serious, deeply researched, and humane investigation of a deeply controverted public issue. Some people might disagree with his analysis or his conclusions. Does that make it “inappropriate and offensive”? Does it render it an instance of “hate speech”?

Let’s pause here for a moment. “Inappropriate” and “offensive” describe a wide range of expressions. “Hate speech,” when you come down to it, is really just shorthand for “speech that I do not like.” A free society allows, indeed encourages, robust disagreement. Some may find your expression of certain opinions “inappropriate” and/or “offensive.” But a free society does not interdict in your expressing of them because, while it values comity and good manners, it also values free expression and open debate. 

The Way We Live Now

That said, almost everyone apart from extreme libertarians would admit that there are limits. The expression of some ideas is forbidden in almost all societies. Where are our limits? We know that Amazon thinks it is OK if people express certain kinds of inappropriate and offensive opinions because it cheerfully sells Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, anti-Semitic fantasia deriving from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and various writings by Louis Farrakhan and other anti-white writers. (This is not by any means a complete list of books that some or many consider inappropriate and/or offensive that Amazon sells.) 

Yet Anderson’s scholarly investigation of transgenderism doesn’t make the cut. What does that tell us about “the way we live now”? 

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POLITICS Comments turned off

8 Senate Democrats Help GOP Send Minimum Wage Bill Down to Defeat By Rick Moran

By on March 7th, 2021

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/03/06/8-senate-democrats-help-gop-send-minimum-wage-bill-down-to-defeat-n1430467

A split in the Democratic Party over whether or not to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour has cost Senator Bernie Sanders and the radicals a victory. The margin of victory suggests the issue is dead, at least for the next two years.

The eight defectors had varied reasons for their opposition.

Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jon Tester of Montana, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire voted against proceeding, though the tally remains open. So did two close Biden allies, Chris Coons and Tom Carper of Delaware. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with the Senate Democrats, also opposed it.

Sinema indicated that she supports raising the wage, which last increased in 2009, because she understands “what it is like to face tough choices while working to meet your family’s most basic needs.” But she said a standalone debate on the issue made more sense than putting it in a coronavirus relief package.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel Updating Plans to Attack Iran Nuclear Sites By Rick Moran

By on March 7th, 2021

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/03/06/israel-updating-plans-to-attack-iran-nuclear-sites-n1430485

It wasn’t until February 17 — almost a month after he was inaugurated — that Joe Biden got around to calling America’s main ally in the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. If his goal was to alienate the prime minister, he was fantastically successful.

Israel has dealt with presidents who offered lukewarm support for Israel in the past, so Biden’s disapproval of settlements, the treatment of Palestinians, the moribund peace process, and Netanyahu personally doesn’t really matter. Israel will pursue its own security goals and if the U.S. doesn’t like it, that’s their problem.

You might think it was a sea change in relations with the United States when Biden took office. Donald Trump was an enthusiastic supporter of the Jewish state and had its back at every turn.

But Israel has never put all their stock in the U.S., realizing the fickleness of public opinion and the rising anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party. They will act and plan according to their own interests.

That includes updating their plans to attack Iranian nuclear sites.

Fox News:

The Israeli military is updating plans to strike Iranian nuclear sites and is prepared to act independently, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz told Fox News.

Israel has identified numerous targets inside Iran that would hurt its ability to develop a nuclear bomb.

“If the world stops them before, it’s very much good. But if not, we must stand independently and we must defend ourselves by ourselves,” Gantz said in his first sit-down interview with an American outlet.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

More Iranian nuclear cheating uncovered By Majid Rafizadeh

By on March 7th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/03/more_iranian_nuclear_cheating_uncovered.html

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors held its quarterly meeting last week. The meeting was one of several events taking place simultaneously that provide outlets for dueling recommendations about how the international community should approach the Iranian regime’s nuclear development and other malign activities.

On Monday, March 1, European political and business leaders met virtually with Iranian counterparts for the Europe-Iran Business Forum, a three-day event sponsored by the European Union and aimed at expanding bilateral trade relations without regard for the unresolved tensions over such matters as the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. 

The next day, a news conference organized by the main Iranian opposition exposed new information about a major Iranian nuclear site, called Abadeh. The latest report by the IAEA says that it has found anthropogenic uranium particles at two sites in Iran, including Abadeh in Fars province.

Former US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Robert Joseph and former member of the European Parliament Struan Stevenson also spoke at the press conference.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Putin’s Former Chief of Staff Calls Trump a Champion against New World Order By Lynn Corum

By on March 7th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/03/putins_former_chief_of_staff_calls_trump_a_champion_against_new_world_order.html

Sergey Ivanov, Vladimir Putin’s former chief of staff, currently on the Russian Federation Security Council, has weighed in on the “historical scale of the personality and achievements of President Donald Trump” in an op-ed for Eurasia Daily.  I have changed not a word of what he has to say.  In his national ideology, Putin warns repeatedly of the dangers from the “Transnationalists” (Proekt Rossiya [Project Russia], EKSMO Press, 2014).  The Russians are joined by the British with their Brexit and the French with their Front National led by populist Marine Le Pen.  Populism actually straddles the Atlantic, and Donald Trump is regarded as its hero.  

As Ivanov observes, if Joe Biden, the American Deep State, and the world global elites have called Donald Trump the “worst president in U.S. history,” well, it is because they know best who is the worst — for them.

In contrast, those on the Russian side of the world itself correctly see Donald Trump as perhaps the best president in the history of the United States, a “modern George Washington.”  As Ivanov explains, if the first president of America fought to lay the foundation of the nation and state, the beginning of American freedom, then Trump fought, still fights to preserve the legacy of the founding fathers, to defend freedom, so that in the end, he will not come to be the last truly elected president of the United States.  He, like Washington, is of the flesh of his people, 100% American, a classic self-made man, a living embodiment of the American dream.  Trump is a successful entrepreneur, a man of action, and a man of his word.  He built up America all his life and became its true national leader.

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MEDIA Comments turned off

The New York Times doesn’t understand what a conspiracy theory is By Andrea Widburg

By on March 7th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/03/the_new_york_times_doesnt_understand_what_a_conspiracy_theory_is.html

Even as Biden blatantly violates American law and sovereignty by erasing our southern border, remember that the Hispanic culture meshes with conservative values. Hispanics are pro-life, pro-marriage, and pro-gun; believe there are two sexes; and, until leftist activists get hold of them, have a solid worth ethic. Unsurprisingly, then, Hispanic men are drawn to conservativism. To the New York Times, this is as baffling as believing in the “conspiracy theory” of violent Black Lives Matter protests.

On Saturday, the New York Times took up “A Vexing Question for Democrats: What Drives Latino Men to Republicans?” The subheading to that caption provides an admirable summary of exactly what it is that makes Hispanic men support conservative values:

Several voters said values like individual responsibility and providing for one’s family, and a desire for lower taxes and financial stability, led them to reject a party embraced by their parents.

In other words, they like conservative values for the same reason people of other races and creeds like them: They’re universal values that create strong, stable families and, in turn, strong, stable nations. Take, for example, Erik Ortiz, 41, a hip-hop music producer who now lives in free and open Florida, but who grew up in the South Bronx:

“Everybody was a liberal Democrat — in my neighborhood, in the Bronx, in the local government,” said Mr. Ortiz, whose family is Black and from Puerto Rico. “The welfare state was bad for our people — the state became the father in the Black and brown household and that was a bad, bad mistake.” Mr. Ortiz became a Republican, drawn to messages of individual responsibility and lower taxes. To him, generations of poor people have stayed loyal to a Democratic Party that has failed to transform their lives.

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HUMOR AND SATIRE Comments turned off

Dr. Seuss Books Deemed Inappropriate By Drag Queen Story Hour

By on March 7th, 2021

https://thegloriousamerican.com/law/drag-queen-story-hour-deems-dr-seuss

As we all know, the last thing the crew over at Drag Queen Story Hour wants is a controversy.  So when everybody learned that Dr. Seuss was a raging racist, they felt obligated to protect the children from such inappropriate material.

“Perhaps when they get a little older they can hear about this content,” Alotta McFilth explained.  “And frankly, this type of thing should be coming from their parents.  We wouldn’t feel comfortable robbing their innocence with these books.”

The news was a devastating blow to the Dr. Seuss brand who quickly added “AND A BLACK ONE!” to the end of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  But the damage was done.  The men and/or women from Drag Queen Story Hour had made their decision.

“Kids don’t want to hear absurd and ridiculous stuff anyway,” Giggles La Bang Bang added.  “What kids want these days is to know how much we hate our fathers.”

Update: Should a drag queen see any Dr. Seuss literature at a library, they have been instructed to aggressively twerk towards the book, a well-known sign of hostility within the community.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on March 7th, 2021

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
90% of over-50s vaccinated or recovered. Israel’s Health Minister Yuli Edelstein has announced that 90% of Israelis over the age of 50 have been vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19. 75% of them are eligible for a “Green Pass,” as they had their second vaccine over a week ago or have antibodies after virus recovery.
https://www.jns.org/israels-health-minister-says-90-percent-of-those-over-50-vaccinated-or-recovered/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/88-of-israelis-aged-50-have-been-vaccinated-or-recovered-from-covid-19/
 
Israeli vaccine study answers global question. Researchers at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center have published the results of their study on medical staff, showing the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to be 75% effective two to four weeks after a single shot. Many countries were pleased to know that they were right to prioritize the first shot.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/75-protection-from-1st-covid-shot-alone-so-okay-to-delay-2nd-israeli-study/
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00448-7/fulltext
 
Racing to a Covid-19 cure. Excellent summary of Israel’s involvement in five highly promising treatments for coronavirus. Also, separate news of Phase 2 trials of the two Covid-19 treatments from Israel’s Redhill.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/corona-cure-five-israeli-teams-racing-toward-prize/
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3895977,00.html
 
Vaccines for animals from microalgae. Israel’s TransAlgae has developed microalgae to deliver oral vaccine powder for animals. Current tests include against diseases affecting fish. Eventually the technology could produce oral vaccines for humans. TransAlgae has signed an agreement with giant French-based Virbac.
https://www.israel21c.org/microalgae-deliver-animal-vaccines-orally-covid-next/
 
Using the microbiome to fight infections. Israel’s MyBiotics has partnered Swiss multinational Ferring to use MyBiotics’ microbiome-based treatments for women’s health. The aim of the alliance is to reduce the need for antibiotic use and provide a long-term treatment solution. https://mybiotics-pharma.com/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/ferring-israels-mybiotics-look-to-microbiome-to-treat-vaginal-infection/
 
Pandemic research center opens. (TY UWI) Tel Aviv University has now launched its new Center for Combating Pandemics (plans reported here previously). Thought to be the first of its kind, the center connects hospitals, government and academic institutions in Israel and around the world to prepare for future epidemics.
https://www.israel21c.org/tel-aviv-u-opens-unique-center-for-combating-pandemics/
 
Femtech monitoring in hospital. Israel’s Sheba Medical Center says it is the first hospital in the world to introduce patient-operated devices for hospitalized Covid-infected pregnant mothers to self-monitor their unborn babies. Israel’s HeraBEAT and PulseNmore devices are supported remotely by hospital medics.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/hospital-launches-system-to-remotely-monitor-fetal-health-in-covid-ward/
https://israelactive.com/?s=femtech+sheba
 
Heart attack patient saved with minimal invasive surgery. Doctors at Beilinson Medical Center performed the first cardiac accessory implant surgery in Israel. A patient had suffered heart failure during heart valve replacement. Doctors avoided open heart surgery by using a subcutaneous (beneath the skin) procedure.
https://www.jpost.com/health-science/first-ever-heart-accessory-implant-surgery-performed-at-beilinson-hospital-660580
 
Millions can benefit from synthetic cornea. (TY David F) Israel’s CorNeat KPro synthetic cornea, which was successfully implanted into Jamal Furani in February (see here), is now to be trialed in Israel, Canada, France, the US and the Netherlands. 30 million people are blind in at least one eye, due to corneal injury or disease.
https://nocamels.com/2021/02/israeli-startup-corneat-vision-corneal-blindness/
 
Training nurses and pharmacists. Jerusalem College of Technology (JCT) has launched an MA course to train nurses in internal medicine to assess and care for those with complicated illnesses. JCT has also launched 4-year Pharmacy degree in association with the Hebrew University to resolve an acute shortage of pharmacists.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/297272
 
 

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