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It’s time to get real about freedom of speech Neither side in the culture war understands how crucial this liberty is to human flourishing. Brendan O’Neill

Posted By on February 20th, 2021

https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/02/19/its-time-to-get-real-about-freedom-of-speech/

I’m glad sections of the left find the free-speech crisis so funny. Or ‘free-speech crisis’, as they always put it, those sarky quote marks signalling their scepticism towards the idea that there’s a censorship problem on campus and elsewhere in society. ‘Freeze peach!’, they cry at anyone who thinks it is a bad thing that people can be No Platformed, threatened with death or sacked from their jobs for expressing the ‘wrong’ opinion. Hilarious, isn’t it?

It’s hilarious when activists piss on the door of a feminist academic’s office because they don’t like her criticisms of gender self-ID. It’s hilarious when a disabled working-class grandfather is sacked from his job at Asda because he posted a Billy Connolly skit on social media that made fun of Islam. It’s hilarious when a Labour shadow minister loses her job because she dared to raise concerns about the grooming and rape of working-class girls in various parts of England. It’s hilarious when JK Rowling is bombarded with messages saying ‘fuck you bitch’, ‘bitch I’ll kill you’ and ‘choke on my cock’ because she wrote an entirely non-prejudiced essay on trans issues. It’s all so funny. ‘FREEZE PEACH’ lol.

Make no mistake: when the cultural and media elites mock the idea of a free-speech crisis, when they insist cancel culture doesn’t exist, this is the reality they are denying. This is the abuse, demonisation and, yes, censorship that they claim is not real. Actually, it’s worse than that. These censorship deniers do not merely question the reality of these grim assaults on people’s free expression – after all, we can all see the tweets calling JK Rowling a ‘cunt’ and a ‘whore’, and we all know what urine splashed on someone’s door looks and smells like, so we know this stuff is real. No, they also implicitly justify these chilling crusades against open discussion. By refusing to describe these attacks as attacks on freedom of speech, they normalise them, they green-light them.

MY SAY: Comments turned off

MY SAY: DIVERSITY HAPPENS WITHOUT QUOTAS

Posted By on February 20th, 2021

I went to the Bronx High School of Science, year of don’t ask, don’t tell. At that time the class was predominantly Jewish, immigrants as well as first generation Americans. The diversity was economic- wealthier kids from stately doormen buildings in Manhattan, and working class students from the Bronx, but all passed a highly competitive test to gain admission.

Formerly an all boys school, in 1946 under the guidance of Principal Morris Meister, the faculty and parents the school became co-ed without any local government mandates.

Over the ensuing years the demographics changed, and more blacks and Hispanics, as well as a significant number of Asians entered the school. No government or local intervention. Today, the majority of students are Asian, a fact that ruffles “progressive” feathers and local leaders lobby for a lowering of admission standards to achieve “diversity.”

That is really ridiculous! Great diversity exists in the Asian-American community. A Filipino has nothing in common with a Lebanese, who has nothing in common with  Korean or Chinese students, who have nothing in common with Saudis or Arab Israelis (Israel is an Asian nation).

Much of this mirrors higher education where universities and colleges opened admissions and abandoned formerly restrictive quotas without any legislative interference.

The obsession with diversity has had the pernicious effect of restoring the once reviled quotas…..rsk

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Biden Cannot Allow the Taliban to Destroy Trump’s Peace Legacy by Con Coughlin

Posted By on February 20th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17080/biden-afghanistan-taliban

Under the terms of that agreement with the US, the Taliban agreed to negotiate a peaceful resolution of this benighted country’s long-running civil war in return for Washington agreeing to withdraw all its remaining forces. In addition, they agreed to cut their ties with Islamist terrorist organisations such as Al-Qaeda.

While Mr Trump kept his side of the bargain, reducing US forces from around 13,000 at the time the deal was signed last February to just 2,500 when he left office, there has been little evidence of the Taliban fulfilling their commitments under the terms of the agreement.

Consequently, Afghanistan finds itself in the midst of a major security crisis, with militants concentrating their attacks on a broad cross-section of Afghan society, with judges, activists, journalists, moderate clerics, students and other professionals all being targeted.

Afghan officials believe the Taliban never had any intention of fulfilling their side of the deal, and just drew out the negotiations with the Trump administration so that they could secure the release of the estimated 5,000 militants being held by Afghan security forces, who were eventually released by the Afghan authorities last autumn.

“The only thing the Taliban have taken out of this agreement is to get their prisoners, then launch an offensive against the Afghan forces and government. That was, it seems, their plan from the beginning.” — Hamdullah Mohib, Afghanistan’s National Security Advisor, The Times, February 17, 2021.

Of major concern is the prospect that, if the Taliban are allowed to seize control of the country they governed prior to the September 11 attacks, they will once again allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven for terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS, which will then use the country as a base to launch devastating attacks against the West.

Thus, in making his decision about the future of American forces in Afghanistan, Mr Biden needs to take care that he is not responsible for causing a new wave of terror attacks against the US and its allies.

With former US President Donald J. Trump no longer able to dictate US policy on Afghanistan, the Taliban are exploiting the opportunity to increase their efforts to seize control of the country in spite of the peace accord they signed with the Trump administration last year.

Under the terms of that agreement with the US, the Taliban agreed to negotiate a peaceful resolution of this benighted country’s long-running civil war in return for Washington agreeing to withdraw all its remaining forces. In addition, they agreed to cut their ties with Islamist terrorist organisations such as Al-Qaeda.

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Formerly Happy Brits Now Sit Alone in their Cars Wondering about driving into a wall. Katie Hopkins

Posted By on February 20th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/formerly-happy-brits-now-sit-alone-their-cars-katie-hopkins/

My mother looked a bit flustered as I walked through her front door.

Do you know, a lady my age just stabbed her husband to death in their kitchen? They were a lovely couple, according to the neighbors. Always together, always working in their garden, always on holidays. Well, she stabbed him to death. Four times! In the kitchen!

Ok I told her I did not know that. Though, I assumed she stabbed him four times and not that he died in quadruple. I was also caught off guard by my mother’s repeated insistence that this had all happened IN THE KITCHEN as if that was some sacred place in the home where these things never happen. Unlike the study or the bedroom, for example, where Cluedo has taught us all sorts of maleficence can occur.

My mother was not done yet.

Well, quite frankly, I quite understand how she must have been feeling. Your father is doing my head in.

My mother is not alone in how she feels. Not that every married wife of 50-year standing is poised in their kitchens, bread knife in hand, ready to end their beloved in a row over an iPad charger. But endless lockdown in the UK is making Brits who were perfectly happy before, question the point of going on.

“On my drive to work, I seriously thought about driving my car into a wall” comments one follower on my Instagram feed. “I sat alone in my car from 5-6.30pm yesterday, just to have some time on my own away from my family. This is not life.” This, shared openly, by another.

We just aren’t supposed to be trapped indoors with other people for this long. I know marriage is about sharing your life, but part of that is that you are sharing the most mundane bits of you that others don’t get to see — amongst all the noise and chaos of others.

Turned off from all external stimuli, the mundane stuff we are recycling at home feels terminal, like an air-conditioning unit returning polluted air. We are all set on repeat, scratching about for something interesting to think, or some different way to feel.

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No Proof January 6 Was an ‘Armed Insurrection’ Not one person has been charged with possessing or using a gun inside the Capitol. Further, no one even has been identified as carrying a gun inside the building. By Julie Kelly

Posted By on February 20th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/02/19/no-proof-january-6-was-an-armed-insurrection/

Since the Justice Department launched its nationwide manhunt to track down and arrest anyone involved with the Capitol breach on January 6, hundreds of perpetrators have been arrested.

Most face misdemeanor charges for trespassing or disorderly conduct, but dozens are in jail and denied bond for the thoughtcrime of believing the 2020 presidential election wasn’t on the up-and-up. The acting U.S. attorney general overseeing the investigation promises to apprehend hundreds more, however, it’s been two weeks since authorities have arrested anyone in connection to the probe.

Almost as embarrassing as the bad behavior of a handful of Trump supporters that day is the conduct of the national news media and Washington lawmakers. The country has been subjected to a public group therapy session of sorts wherein grown adults—Republicans and Democrats alike, elected to defend the country at all costs—now recount their harrowing experiences on January 6, which include running away from no one in particular or insisting, without evidence, that they were on the verge of being “murdered.”

The media continue to promote any number of fabricated storylines intended to bolster the laughable narrative of an “insurrection” occurring at the Capitol. The concocted account of the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick recently fell apart; the New York Times, after pressure from outlets including American Greatness, effectively retracted its January 8 article claiming Sicknick was killed by a fire extinguisher at the hands of Trump “loyalists.”

So now it’s time to straighten out another twisted tale animating the folklore of January 6: The idea the random chaos amounted to an “armed insurrection.” Hundreds of crazed Trumpists carrying deadly weapons, the public believes, stormed the Capitol to injure or kill senators, representatives, and even Vice President Mike Pence in order to avenge a “stolen” election.

Most news outlets—as they did with the coverage of Sicknick’s death—unflinchingly repeat the “armed insurrection” trope, which can be traced back to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s January 7 press conference. “[Y[esterday, the President of the United States incited an armed insurrection against America, the gleeful desecration of the US Capitol…and the violence targeting Congress are horrors that will forever stay in our nation’s history,” Pelosi ranted.

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Black Sleep Matters By Eric Utter (huh???)

Posted By on February 20th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/02/black_sleep_matters.html

Teen Vogue magazine recently published an article by two writers who are calling for “rest reparations” in addition to the regular, old, garden-variety reparations for African Americans, which advocates have been advocating for years. Navild Acosta and Fannie Sosa contend that, on average, Black lives are shorter than white ones because Black people experience “generational fatigue” due solely to the fact that they are, in fact, Black.

The two allege that “the American dream is a sleepless one” for Black folks, and claim to have had an epiphany when they realized the reason they were always tired was because they were impacted by “hundreds of years of sleep deprivation” that was due to systemic racism. Their article, titled “Black Power Naps is Addressing Systemic Racism in Sleep,” reveals the Black Power Naps initiative, which purports to be an “artistic initiative with components including physical installations, zines, an opera, and more.” Huh?

Acosta told the magazine that black people and people of color inherited sleep deprivation through years of slavery and control, saying, “We’re dealing with an inheritance of sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation was a … deliberate tactic of slave owners to basically make the mind feeble. That same tactic has only evolved.” Huh?

Sosa insisted that generations of slavery have made it imperative for Black people and people of color to rest as much as they can in the following generations.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Hundreds of Illegal Immigrants, Dozens of Unaccompanied Children Apprehended at Border By Catherine Smith

Posted By on February 20th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/02/19/hundreds-of-illegal-immigrants-dozens-of-unaccompanied-children-apprehended-at-border/

Approximately 200 illegal immigrants including at least 40 unaccompanied minors were apprehended in frigid temperatures in Mission, Texas after being smuggled into the U.S., according to border officials.

The illegal immigrants were accompanied across the border by “human smugglers,” according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Rio Grande Valley Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings. It was around Wednesday night at 8 p.m. CST when Hastings tweeted about the apprehensions.

“Nobody comes across that river without a smuggler. Nobody just walks up to the bridge and goes across. A smuggler put them in a raft and paddled them across, probably told them to go up to that road, take a left until you walk into an agent,” CBP Public Affairs Officer Rod Kise told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

According to the report, most of the illegal immigrants were likely transferred from CBP into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, though it is unknown whether the illegal immigrants were deported or released into the interior of the U.S. since that is determined on a case-by-case basis, Kise told the DCNF.

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Gone Crazy A New York City public school principal calls on white parents to “subvert white authority.” Christopher F. Rufo

Posted By on February 20th, 2021

https://www.city-journal.org/east-side-community-school-tells-parents-to-become-white-traitors

New York’s East Side Community School recently sent a letter encouraging white parents to become “white traitors” and advocate for “white abolition.”

The message, sent by principal Mark Federman, showed a graphic outlining eight stages of white identity development—from the lowest form, “white supremacist,” to the intermediate forms of “white confessional” and “white traitor,” to the highest form, “white abolitionist.” The goal of this process, according to the graphic’s creator, Northwestern University professor Barnor Hesse, is to challenge the “regime of whiteness” and eventually to “subvert white authority” and “not [allow] whiteness to reassert itself.”

In the letter to parents, Federman went on a tirade against white conservatives, arguing that “racism and hate is often the underlying cause fueling their beliefs.” He denounced former president Donald Trump as a “lying, racist, sexist, classist, hateful, science-denying bully” and described the Trump supporters who attended the president’s January 6 rally as “a crowd of white supremacists.” Federman’s latest outburst came as no surprise, said one parent of children who no longer attend the school. The parent, who requested anonymity, said that Federman had pushed a divisive “progressive line” to students and families.

The language in Federman’s letter carries disturbing historical echoes. The Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis used the term “race traitor” to describe whites who crossed the color line to work, marry, or associate with nonwhites. The letter’s use of “white abolition” is also troubling. Federman and Hesse claim to want to abolish “whiteness” as a cultural and social construct, but they also use the term to describe an immutable racial essence. As University of New Mexico professor Geoffrey Miller has observed: “Applied to any other group, this would sound like a monstrous euphemism for mass extermination and cultural annihilation.”

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China Betrays Its Deal with the Vatican By Nina Shea

Posted By on February 20th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/02/china-betrays-its-deal-with-the-vatican/

Having secured the papacy’s help in weakening the Chinese Catholic underground, Xi Jinping’s regime is reneging on the commitments it made in return.

Beijing has quietly indicated that it will soon abrogate its “breakthrough” 2018 agreement with the Vatican, which was meant to settle a decades-long dispute over the appointment of bishops in China.

In November, shortly after exchanging diplomatic notes verbales with Rome to renew the deal for another two years, China thoroughly negated it in a dry public posting by the state bureaucracy. Order No. 15, on new administrative rules for religious affairs, includes an article on establishing a process for the selection of Catholic bishops in China after May 1. The document makes no provision for any papal role in the process, not even a papal right to approve or veto episcopal appointments in China, which was supposed to be the single substantive concession to the Vatican in the agreement. It’s as if the deal never happened.

Reneging on a deal with Pope Francis may not be as consequential as overturning the “one country, two systems” agreement that was supposed to guarantee Hong Kong’s autonomy after the city’s return from the United Kingdom to China, but it does reveal the peril of international partnerships with Beijing.

In October, when the two-year renewal of the deal was announced, the Vatican reported that the “results achieved” until then under the agreement were the appointments of two new bishops who had papal approval. Its press statement praised the appointments as “a good start.” “Thanks to the implementation of the Agreement, there will be no illegitimate ordinations,” the statement said, before expressing joy that the Chinese Church would experience “unity” once again. Order No. 15 now casts serious doubt on these claims.

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Fighter Jet Aimed at Attacking Taiwan: Leaked Documents By Alex Wu

Posted By on February 20th, 2021

https://www.theepochtimes.com/edition/china-insider-7-2_3694788/3690286

As the Chinese regime continues to intimidate Taiwan by repeatedly breaching the island’s airspace and escalating tensions in the Taiwan Strait, it is developing an advanced fighter jet aircraft in secret.

The Epoch Times recently obtained a military document from a trusted source which unveiled details of a concept fighter jet project, driven by China’s “military-civil fusion” strategy. It also reveals that the Chinese military is developing the new generation fighter jets for attacking Taiwan and competing with the United States.

Several countries around the world are developing a “sixth-generation fighter” aircraft that is more advanced than the fifth-generation fighter aircraft currently in service, including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Sweden, India, Japan, Taiwan, and Russia.

The Chinese regime is also developing its own version of a sixth-generation fighter. The Epoch Times recently obtained a document issued by China’s Ministry of National Defense in 2017, in accordance with Beijing’s 13th Five-Year Plan. The document revealed the CCP’s pre-research plan for sixth-generation fighter aircrafts, with a focus on developing an unmanned combat system.