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Ruth King

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DEI Still Lurks in Local Government By Jacob Koestner

By on May 12th, 2025

https://www.nationalreview.com/2025/05/dei-still-lurks-in-local-government/

Progress at the federal level in rolling back DEI will be slow to affect common citizens if we don’t realize what’s still in place locally, in cities like South Bend.

The right believes that it has won the war on DEI. The Trump administration is purging it from the federal government. Several states have followed suit. Corporations are pulling back their long-feigned support of diversity initiatives, and universities are retreating as well — if only out of fear of losing federal dollars. But the cancer of DEI has had a long time to metastasize at the local level before this recent charge against it at the highest echelons of government, the market, and the academy. DEI still needs to be eliminated from local government, where it receives less scrutiny but has an enduring pernicious effect.

Take South Bend, Ind., for example. It’s a small, post-industrial Midwestern city. It’s also one of the smallest cities in the country with a race- and gender-based public spending program.

I worked for South Bend as an engineer for seven months. One of the first tasks I was given was to calculate the race and gender quotas for an electric vehicle charger project. Wanting to conduct the task properly and legally, I decided to research the basis of the city’s race-based spending program. In doing so, however, I discovered that the program has an incredibly weak legal basis and a shrouded origin story.

Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg founded the city government’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion by executive order in 2016. Around that time, he ordered the director of public works to begin applying racial and gender quotas to public works contracts. The city’s legal team rightly indicated to the mayor that such quotas could not be assigned at a whim, and that a series of Supreme Court decisions clearly delineates the strict constitutional requirements for government actions involving suspect classifications such as race and gender.

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NATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENSE Comments turned off

Steve Witkoff and Those Iranian Nukes Although his name has been floated as one of Waltz’s successors, can he do the job?by Kenneth R. Timmerman

By on May 12th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/steve-witkoff-and-those-iranian-nukes/

My guess is, we will know soon enough whether the firing of National Security Advisor Mike Waltz heralds a shift in Trump policy, or was merely a personnel decision.

Trump hinted it was the latter just days after Waltz’s deputy, Alex Wong, invited a journalist to an encrypted Signal chat.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on April 3, the President applauded his national security team for their “big success with the Houthis,” but added this: “Always, we’re going to let go of people we don’t like, or people we don’t think can do the job, or people who may have loyalties to somebody else.”

And the fact that Waltz was not exiled to Outer Slobbovia but sent instead to New York as our United Nations representative, argues that the President continues to respect Waltz and his bold advocacy of America First positions.

That is not the case with Steve Witkoff, one of several people whose names have been floated as Waltz’s successor. Remember that during his first negotiating session with the Iranians Witkoff said it was just fine and dandy for them to retain their uranium enrichment capabilities, just as long as they limited it to 3.67%.

That is like handing them the keys to a dual-motor Tesla and expecting them to keep it below 30 mpH.

Witkoff was summoned back to Washington after he made that statement and was given a very public dressing down by the entire national security cabinet, after which he “remembered” that the President himself had said the Iranians had to totally “dismantle” their nuclear programs, just like Qaddafi did in Libya.

Witkoff is one of many Trump supporters who, while well-meaning, have zero experience or understanding of foreign policy. Just recently, for example, you had Charlie Kirk opining on X that Trump cabinet members and think tankers who opposed a Witkoff-negotiated Iran deal were evil “neo-cons” and “anti-MAGA.”

That kind of talk simply ignores the physics of uranium enrichment, as well as the history of Iran’s forty-year slow walk to a robust nuclear weapons capability.

Charlie Kirk was following on the heels of Tucker Carlson’s hour-long interview with Witkoff in which he blasted the “tremendous pressure for a war on Iran” from the Washington establishment, and heaped praise on Witkoff for his “hope” that dialogue with Iran could clear up “misconceptions” and lead to a full return of Iran to the “league of nations.”

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

Broadway Baby Statues of great men have been razed all over. But never fear! Statues of literal non-entities are taking their place. by Bruce Bawer

By on May 12th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/broadway-baby/

Two years ago, a new 12-foot-high bronze statue by British artist Thomas J. Price was installed outside Rotterdam’s main railroad station. It’s called Moments Contained, and its subject, to quote Guardian reporter Senay Boztas, is “an ordinary-looking black woman” – a plus-sized black woman, I might add – in “tracksuit bottoms and trainers.” When Boztas visited the statue, she encountered a middle-school art class that was there because the statue was part of its “colonialism and slavery” curriculum. One of the students told Boztas that it was “nice to see something other than a white man in a suit.” Boztas also quoted Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb’s praise for the statue: “She’s not a heroine, a character with an illustrious past….She is the future, our future, and this city is her home.” And she quoted Price’s own explanation of the statue’s purpose: “to challenge our current understandings of monuments, to critique this idea of status and value within society: who gets to be seen, to be represented.”

When I read the other day that another 12-foot-high statue of a black woman had been placed in Times Square – in the very heart of New York’s theater district – I figured it was Thomas J. Price at work again. (These days, after all, no artist worth his salt does anything just once.) Of course it was. To be sure, the two statues differ somewhat. The one in Rotterdam seems to be somewhat at ease – leaning back slightly, her hands in her pockets. The one in New York, which is called Grounded in the Stars, is standing up straight, her hands on her hips, and looks as if she’s about to spit on somebody or let loose a string of expletives. She’s even more overweight than her sister in Rotterdam, and her hair is in cornrows. Times Square’s website (who knew that Times Square had a website?) says that the statue “foregrounds the intrinsic value of the individual and amplifies traditionally marginalized bodies on a monumental scale.” You know, the usual. Price, for his part, says that he wants the statue to inspire “deeper reflection around the human condition and greater cultural diversity.” As for the bronze woman herself, “both her stature and her unbothered gaze are markers of status and authority; this is a figure who understands her worth.”

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Is Trump Breaking With Israel? Or is the far-left media trying to provoke such a break? by Robert Spencer

By on May 12th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/is-trump-breaking-with-israel/

Is Donald Trump really preparing to recognize a Palestinian state? The news hit like a thunderbolt on Saturday, amid an avalanche of stories claiming that Trump is angry with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is changing course from his previous wholehearted support of Israel’s defense against Hamas and the other jihadist entities that are determined to destroy it. As is so often the case in such matters, however, there was decidedly less to the story than there initially appeared to be.

The Jerusalem Post picked up the story Saturday from the American news agency The Media Line. The distancing from the claim began in the headline: “Gulf diplomatic source claims Trump will announce US recognition of Palestinian state.” As the story unfolded, the claim became even more tenuous.

The assertion that Trump would recognize a Palestinian state at the upcoming Gulf-US summit was attributed to “a Gulf diplomatic source, who declined to be named or disclose his position.” This anonymous individual claimed that “President Donald Trump will issue a declaration regarding the State of Palestine and American recognition of it, and that there will be the establishment of a Palestinian state without the presence of Hamas.”

Just three paragraphs later, however, The Media Line quoted a person who didn’t decline to be named, denying the whole thing: “Ahmed Al-Ibrahim, a former Gulf diplomat, told The Media Line, ‘I don’t expect it to be about Palestine. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan have not been invited. They are the two countries closest to Palestine, and it would be important for them to be present at any event like this.’”

So what we end up with is one anonymous source indulging in speculation about what Trump will do at the Gulf summit, and someone else denying that speculation. The pro-Israel activist known on X as Brian of London said of the story that it was “Completly [sic] irresponsible for @Jerusalem_Post to run it and especially with that headline. The internet will go crazy over this s**t quote to a 5th tier news wire which is even contradicted by a NAMED source a few paragraphs down.” And indeed, online Israel-haters immediately began celebrating.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Don’t let anti-Israel bigots pose as free-speech champions The ‘pro-Palestine’ crowd’s selective defence of freedom of expression is hypocritical and self-serving. Daniel Ben-Ami

By on May 12th, 2025

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/05/12/dont-let-anti-israel-bigots-pose-as-free-speech-champions/

It is more important than ever to remember that the right to free speech does not depend on what is being said. People have the right to make pronouncements, even if they are wrong, obnoxious or downright offensive. It should be up to the public to decide what to believe, rather than authorities outlawing ideas they deem illegitimate.

This reminder is particularly necessary given the Trump administration’s ongoing clampdown on free expression at American universities – ostensibly, in the name of tackling anti-Semitism. Most notoriously, it has arrested and plans to deport activist Mahmoud Khalil, one of the leaders of Columbia University’s Gaza encampments. One of the predictable but unintended consequences of this is that it has helped anti-Israel campus activists to portray themselves as free-speech heroes.

In reality, they are anything but. Their right to make outrageous statements should be defended, but not because what they say has any intrinsic merit. And when they engage in physical violence, as they sometimes do, a hard line must be taken against them.

A central element of the anti-Israel movement, the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, is aimed at denying freedom of expression to anyone with a connection to Israel. Yet genuine supporters of free speech must uphold the right for those they disagree with.

There is obviously a rational case to be made for Palestinian rights and self-determination. But the anti-Israel movement focusses much more on presenting Israel as the epitome of evil in the world and calling for its destruction. There are too many examples of activists on elite American campuses, including academics, who simply believe that Israel should not exist. Some have even claimed that Israel deserved what happened on 7 October 2023. Perhaps most notoriously, on the day of Hamas’s pogrom, 34 student organisations at Harvard held Israel entirely responsible for the attack against it. The same day that about 1,200 people – mostly Israeli Jews – were slaughtered and about 250 kidnapped, these organisations effectively justified the atrocities in a statement. A spurious call to ‘contextualise’ the attack was used to justify the largest killing of Jews since the Second World War. Nor was this an isolated incident. There were many instances of academics and student groups, particularly at elite universities, making such pronouncements in the wake of 7 October.

It is also striking that Hamas and Hezbollah flags have often been flown at anti-Israel student encampments. These are organisations that time and again have openly stated that their goal is to slaughter Jews. Hamas has made clear several times since 7 October that it intends to repeat such atrocities. Meanwhile, Hezbollah had planned to join the original attack, but – fortunately for Israel – hesitated before doing so.

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Who’s To Blame For The Left’s ‘Assassination Culture’?

By on May 12th, 2025

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/05/12/whos-to-blame-for-the-lefts-assassination-culture/

A university report published last month shows that more than half of those who identify as being left of center on the political spectrum believe assassinating President Donald Trump would be justified. This didn’t come about organically. It’s the product of a vicious campaign waged by the Democratic Party-mainstream media axis.

According to a Rutgers Social Perception Lab-Network Contagion Research Institute brief, 55.2% of American on the left “reported that if someone murdered Donald Trump, they would be at least somewhat justified.” Overall, 38.5% hold the same belief.

Trump, who has survived a pair of assassination attempts (one of which was celebrated), is not the only legitimate target, say many Americans. The data show that nearly half, 48.6%, say murdering Elon Musk would be justified.

It turns out that there has also been a shocking show of support for Luigi Mangione, who has been charged with murdering UnitedHealth Chief Executive Officer Brian Thompson. In addition, Mangione has a health care ballot initiative named after him in the California.

The report’s authors say “support for political violence – including property destruction and
assassination – is not expressed in isolation, but as part of a tightly interconnected belief system.”

It’s not hard to imagine who makes up that “tightly interconnected belief system.” Reading further we learn that there exists a pattern that “suggests a broader worldview in which violence is seen as a legitimate political response — not just a reaction to individual figures. Central to this belief system is Left-Wing Authoritarianism (LWA), characterized by moral absolutism, punitive attitudes toward ideological opponents, and a willingness to use coercion for progressive aims.”

This “broader worldview” has been crafted by Democrats and a leftist media that have whipped roughly half the country into a raging frenzy. The former, from party leaders down, have encouraged uprisings and unrest, while the latter have been telling Americans for a decade that Trump is a racist, an authoritarian, a dictator and the direct offspring of Hitler if not his reincarnation.

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Un-Happy Birthday, Karl Marx A refresher course Diana West

By on May 12th, 2025

https://dianawest.substack.com/p/un-happy-birthday-karl-marx?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2175125&post_

What follows is an essay I wrote to mark Marx’s 200th birthday. There may be less hoopla for the 207th, but that doesn’t mean the Marxists don’t have more to celebrate.

On this bicentennial birthday of Karl Marx, the figleafs are off but the full-frontal horror remains pixilated. What are we looking at? We don’t know, we can’t know. After generations of foreign, domestic, communist and pro-communist conditioning, including mass media agit prop and “higher education”; after generations of penetration, subversion, de-moralization, corruption and beguilement, the mainstreaming of Marxism continues on autopilot. That means freedom is “converging” with tyranny, which means freedom is disappearing in tyranny, which must make this the best birthday for Karl Marx ever.

It was FDR who quite enthusiastically set our national course on such “convergence” with the socialist revolution known as the New Deal; we put him on a pedestal. FDR’s Soviet-penetrated White House and policy shops then helped turned Allied armies into weapons of Communist expansion in Europe and Asia; we honor him and his hapless successor Truman as great war presidents. Never mind that they ushered in more, and more insidious “cold” war, which included preventable war in Korea and Vietnam, and misery and death for tens of millions of people, and a continuing assault on our core national character.

Thoroughly deceived, self-deceived or deceiving, Americans eventually called “victory” in the Cold War at the “end” of the Soviet Union. Never mind that this deceptively transitional phase seems to have operated as a giant smoke-screen for some much-needed regrouping and re-branding for Kremlin Inc., even as America and the wider West took that 1990s-opportunity to transfer billions to our “former” enemies, with Bill Clinton swapping US military secrets for campaign contributions from Red China on the side. Eventually returning to the “formerly” red well, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton initiated another more sophisticated tech-for-cash scheme known as Skolkovo, which netted “contributions” for the Clinton Foundation from many of the tech companies who were also getting Russian contracts. In other words, nearly a century later, something much much like Lenin’s NEP was going strong in updated ventures into state-controlled foreign “investment.” Communism was really “dead” this time, so it was all okay.

Lately, however, something does seem to different. As recently as 2008 and 2012, it was verboten to hint that Barack Obama was a socialist — and that went for his signature socialist program, Obamacare (Hillarycare). In 2016, however, a socialist relic named Bernie Sanders was probably the rightful presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. Now, in 2018, the New York Times reports, numerous Democrats are running for office quite openly as socialists.

No wonder on turning 200 this month, Karl Marx appears all bright and shiny new. Across the media, from Left to Left, we are seeing red-hot hosannas to Marx, would-be destroyer of God and morality, of property and liberty.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on May 11th, 2025

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

Today, in the Gatestone Institute Raymond Ibrahim asks: “380,000,000 Christians Persecuted for ‘Their Faith’: Where Is the Outrage?” https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21585/christians-persecuted

Well, the outrage is aroused only about Israel and its defense struggle against genocidal enemies. rsk

Another week where the media has again put tiny Israel “front & center” almost to the exclusion of any other major world events.  This newsletter highlights Israel’s positive achievements and activities in the past week, that far outweigh its size. Michael Ordman

POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR
 
IDF soldier’s Righteous great-grandparents. Noah’s great-grandparents hid a Jewish woman in their attic in the Netherlands during WWII. Her great-grandmother’s brother hid a Jewish couple and their three children, earning recognition as “Righteous of the Nations”. Today, Noah is proud to serve as a soldier in the IDF.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-how-an-idf-soldiers-great-grandparents-saved-jews-during-the-holocaust/
 
Saving the Syrian Druze. The Ziv Medical Center in Safed has admitted 32 injured Druze, victims of fighting in Syria during the past week. They include two pregnant women. The IDF has also has established a forward mobile medical triage facility near the Syrian village of Hader and is also protecting the Druze from massacres.
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/middle-east/levant-turkey/artc-32-syrian-druze-so-far-treated-in-israeli-hospital   https://www.jns.org/idf-sets-up-field-triage-facility-for-syrian-druze-civilians/
https://www.jns.org/idf-strikes-in-syria-amid-violence-against-druze-community/
 
A French exoskeleton in Israel. An IDF soldier, severely wounded in Gaza, took his first steps in recovery at Sheba Medical Center. Sheba is one of the few places in the world that offers the Atalante X robotic exoskeleton developed by the French-American company Wandercraft.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/severely-injured-idf-soldier-walks-again-thanks-to-robotic-exoskeleton/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_xnLd4yqDg
 
Chai. In celebration of Israel’s 77th Independence Day, internationally acclaimed singer Netta Barzilai has partnered with the Jewish Agency for Israel to release a new rendition of the iconic Israeli anthem “Chai.” The 1983 Eurovision Song has been reimagined to reflect Israel’s resilience in the face of current challenges.
https://www.jns.org/netta-barzilai-teams-up-with-jewish-agency-to-drop-independence-day-tune/
 
Look! How marvelous our people are.  (TY Ted Belman & Rhoda) Great article by Arlene Kushner highlighting Israeli resilience.  https://arlenefromisrael.info/look-how-marvelous-our-people-are/
 
Chance Gaza border encounter leads to new VC. “Only in Israel” story where a meeting between two IDF reservists resulted in the founding of Venture Capital organization TBC VC that has raised $35 million in three months for investment in Israeli startups. It will also donate money to non-profit Gav Lalohem to help others.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/35-million-vc-fund-launches-thanks-to-reservists-chance-encounter-on-the-gaza-border/   https://www.gavla.org.il/gav-lalohem-ngo-2024/
 
Help support therapy for Israeli soldiers. Beit Binyamin, near the spiritual town of Tzfat, is a therapeutic respite center for IDF soldiers and their families, displaced families and struggling spouses and parents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysXhDvC7PpA  https://causematch.com/beitbinyamin25/igno/
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEKpADkRdfV/?igsh=a3pucm90NW91dGd1 https://beitbinyamin.org/
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Successful life-support treatment. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Inspira Technologies (see here previously) used its INSPIRA ART100 system at Westchester Medical Center, New York to circulate and oxygenate a patient’s blood. It marked the first real-world implementation of Inspira’s innovative life-support technology.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/inspira-technologies-announces-successful-treatment-123000786.html
 
Safer cardiac treatment. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s CardioVia has just received U.S. FDA clearance for its ViaOne system. It provides safe (no needle) access to the pericardium – the thin sac protecting the heart where new minimally invasive treatments are having much success over conventional, risky, heart surgery.
https://www.cardiovia.com/
 
Breakthrough treatment for massive blood loss. (TY Ron M) Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the IDF’s Medical Corps have discovered a peptide to activate Protein Kinase C-epsilon (PKC-ε) and significantly improve survival rates of patients (including wounded soldiers) who suffer massive blood loss.
https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/bkler7vgxg
 
Monitoring vital signs from a distance. During the Covid-19 epidemic, Professor Yonina Eldar of Israel’s Weizmann Institute led the development of radar technology to remotely check health. Her lab has unveiled BRAHMS, the Bio-Radar Health Monitoring System which uses AI to analyze subtle chest movements.
https://www.israel21c.org/noncontact-radar-unit-monitors-patients-vitals-remotely/
https://www.weizmann.ac.il/math/yonina/manya-igel-center-biomedical-engineering-and-signal-processing
 
Live long and prosper. Researchers from Israel’s Bar-Ilan University have analyzed the differences in protein sequences across mammals with varying lifespans. They discovered that long-lived whales and humans have specific post-translational modifications (PTMs) that may protect against age-related diseases (e.g. cancer).
https://www.newswise.com/articles/new-research-reveals-nature-s-secret-to-healthy-longevity
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58762-x.epdf
 
How bacteria take control of infected cell. Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered that the protein CsrA in bacteria creates a “control center” inside a cell that manages the activation of disease-causing genes. Future treatments that disable the control center should stop infections before they take hold.
https://www.afhu.org/2025/04/29/a-hidden-control-center-how-bacteria-regulate-their-attack-strategies/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58829-9#Sec2
 
$125 million donation to Tel Aviv University. Blackstone Investment firm president Jonathan Gray and his wife Mindy are donating $125 million to Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Medicine – the largest donation in the university’s history – to increase the number of doctors in Israel. The faculty will now bear the couple’s name.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/blackstone-president-to-donate-125-million-to-tel-aviv-universitys-medical-school-nyt/  https://israfan.com/p/blackstone-gray-donation-tel-aviv-university
 
Celebrating Life. US ambassador Mike Huckabee received a United Hatzalah Defender of Israel Award at a special celebration for the Israel’s emergency response organization at the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem. He recounted the time when a UH responder saved the life of one of the delegates of a mission he was leading.
https://www.jns.org/huckabee-united-hatzalah-is-an-organization-worth-celebrating/
 

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Human Rights NGOs: A Crisis of Trust – The Root Causes and Recommended Remedies Dr Helena Ivanov

By on May 11th, 2025

https://henryjacksonsociety.org/publications/human-rights-ngos-a-crisis-of-trust-the-root-causes-and-recommended-remedies/

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are facing a deepening crisis of trust, with confidence in them steadily declining on a number of fronts across both developed and developing countries according to survey data. This erosion of trust threatens their ability to operate effectively. This report seeks to analyse the origins of this crisis of trust and offer targeted policy recommendations for NGOs. If implemented, these measures should help restore confidence in the sector, allowing it to carry out its vital work more effectively.  

The crisis of trust has worsened over the last few years. For instance, significant doubt surrounds the conduct and research of human rights NGOs towards Israel, particularly since the 7 October attacks. As Michael Powell tells us in his recent The Atlantic article: “organizations that explicitly valued impartiality and independence have become stridently critical of Israel.” In the same article, Powell argues that human rights organisations frequently apply double standards. He highlights how once-impartial groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which originally pursued clear and principled objectives, have become increasingly biased – particularly in their approach to the Israel–Hamas war. 

This report does not aim to assess the validity of the accusations of bias against these NGOs. Instead, it argues that the mere presence and frequency of such comments contribute to a substantial erosion of trust in the NGO sector. In a conflict where the stakes are so high, and given the critical role that NGOs play in protecting human rights both in times of peace and war, it is essential to find a way to address these concerns and restore genuine confidence in the work of these organisations.  

Another factor contributing to this erosion of trust is the increasing perception of double standards. When NGOs focus on and push for the highest ethical standards for Western companies, they create a perception that they are inadvertently distorting developing markets and contributing to worsening human rights conditions on the ground – as their activities result in critical strategic assets and operations being taken over by Chinese, Russian or other similarly less scrupulous entities.  

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The Power in a Papal Name By choosing the name Leo, Pope Prevost may be signaling a nod to both workers’ rights and world-saving diplomacy—channeling popes who spoke to chaos with clarity. By Roger Kimball

By on May 11th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/05/11/the-power-in-a-papal-name/

What’s in a name?

We all know that Juliet gave us this classic line, noting that (I paraphrase) even if you called a rose a hippopotamus, it would still smell as sweet as it did before you called it a river horse.

Things did not work out so well for that young Capulet, however, and the world at large has often taken a different view of names, according them an almost talismanic power.

Is that rational? You might as well ask, “Is the Pope Catholic?” which brings me to my theme.

When, to the surprise of many, the Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost got the nod from the College of Cardinals, the white smoke had not yet dissipated before the world was atwitter about the name the first American Pope had chosen: Leo.

What did it mean? I canvassed several knowledgeable friends about our new Pope. The responses ranged from cautious optimism all the way to avid enthusiasm. “All early signs are very positive,” quoth one pal who worked in the Vatican for Pope Benedict. “I think he will be a great pope.”

Given the source, I take that as a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.

Many respondents, and much of the general media commentary, noted Prevost’s choice of “Leo” as his papal name. Was the choice significant? Most thought it was. And if it was significant, what did it mean?

Prevost is now Pope Leo XIV. Much media commentary speculated that Prevost chose the name in homage to (or inspired by) Pope Leo XIII, whose papacy ran from 1878 until his death in 1903.

Leo XIII has become known as “the Social Pope,” the “Pope of Workers.” His famous (in Catholic circles) encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891) was both a plea to address “the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class” and a defense of private property. Leo rejected both socialism (“it is clear that the main tenet of socialism, community of goods, must be utterly rejected”) and the exploitation of the poor.

It is certainly possible that Prevost had Leo XIII in mind when he chose the name “Leo.” But I like to think that he might have harkened back to Leo the Great, the first Pope Leo, whose pontificate ran from AD 440 to 461.

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