Displaying posts published in

June 2020

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Racism, Inc. Like the word “heretic” in an earlier age, “racism” is more weapon than word. By Roger Kimball ****

By on June 7th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/06/06/racism-inc/

For the last couple of months, your inbox, like mine, has been awash in nauseating communiqués from every school, club, or business you had carelessly entrusted with your email address. “Stay safe,” they urged—and stay home. A great plague is upon the land, and we must all respond with displays of ritual purification and groveling obedience. Shows of obedience were critical, as was the virtue-signaling that accompanied them. People were shamed for appearing in public without a mask or for walking too close to other people. The whole thing was an extraordinary display of communal insanity.

Suddenly, almost overnight, those communiqués vanished, replaced by others, no less nauseating. There are new items on the menu of virtue-signaling and ritual abasement. Now the theme is not a novel respiratory virus, but a spiritual virus: the virus of supposed “systemic” or “institutional” “racism” and police brutality.

A day or two ago Uber emailed me to announce that it “stands with the Black community”—how nice for them—and that it deplores “institutional racism, and the police violence it gives rise to.” The Yale Club of New York let it be known that it “unequivocally condemns racism, violence, and social injustice in our society.” Unequivocally! Meanwhile, the Harvard Club chimed in about its “broken” heart because of “racism, injustice, and violence.” Many politicians have signed up for this chorus, taking their cue from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz who decried the “stain . . . of fundamental, institutional racism.”

As all the world knows, the catalyst for this emetic display of meaningless verbiage was the unfortunate death of George Floyd, a black man and career criminal, who expired while being arrested by the police in Minneapolis. Much obloquy—to say nothing of a second-degree murder charge—has been directed at Officer Derek Chauvin, one of four police officers involved with the arrest, for his rough restraint of Floyd. Chauvin, who is white, pinned a handcuffed Floyd to the ground, kneeling on his neck. Was that what killed Floyd? Maybe. But maybe he died because his serious heart condition was fatally aggravated by the Fentanyl and methamphetamine he had ingested.

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Manhattan DA Won’t Prosecute Curfew Violators, Urges More Protests By Rick Moran

By on June 7th, 2020

New York City authorities have hit upon a brilliant strategy, one that Neville Chamberlain would certainly approve of. Give the rioters and protesters everything they want while looking the other way as they trash the city. Appeasing mobs and dictators doesn’t work out very well for the appeasers. But those who are being appeased make out like bandits — literally.

“The prosecution of protestors charged with these low-level offenses undermines critical bonds between law enforcement and the communities we serve. Days after the killing of George Floyd, our nation and our city are at a crossroads in our continuing endeavor to confront racism and systemic injustice wherever it exists. Our office has a moral imperative to enact public policies which assure all New Yorkers that in our justice system and our society, black lives matter and police violence is a crime. We commend the thousands of our fellow New Yorkers who have peacefully assembled to demand these achievable aims, and our door is open to any New Yorker who wishes to be heard.”

Continue reading →
EDUCATION Comments turned off

Academic malfeasance: Khaled Abou El Fadl on Judeo-Christian values By Daniel Pipes

By on June 7th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/06/academic_malfeasance_khaled_abou_el_fadl_on_judeochristian_values.html

Khaled Abou El Fadl, who revels in the title of Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Professor in Islamic Law at the UCLA School of Law, has a big theory. As explained in a talk on April 21, 2018, titled “What It Takes for Islamic Intellectuals Today” (at 37:34-42:05; transcript here), his breakthrough idea goes like this:

As the number of Muslims in the West grew in the late twentieth century, the Christian Right sought a way to counter this “dangerous” new population and devised the idea of promoting supposed Judeo-Christian values to which it connected all things modern – “from cars to planes to electricity to computers, everything.” The beauty of this myth lay in helping the Christian Right create an alliance with its “natural allies” in what Abou El Fadl calls the Zionist Right.

And who were the key figures in this alliance? Why, none other than Robert Spencer of JihadWatch.org and myself.

This is how Robert Spencer, from the Christian right, became wedded to Daniel Pipes, from the Zionist right. They met together. They met especially with a well-known and well-documented group of industrialists and financiers, convinced them of the danger that they meet; they convinced them that Western civilization is in danger by the rise of Islam and got them to fund everything. … The way they work is actually wonderfully synchronistic.

The two of us then found another twenty intellectuals who shared two attributes: being well-funded and failures in academia. Never mind our failures, we had the money and “with money you can create your own academic forum.” We twenty then “worked closely with a group of activists” and coordinated our movements “with well-known media outlets … and with certain politicians.”

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Black Americans Speak Out on George Floyd and the Riots By Elise Cooper

By on June 7th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/06/black_americans_speak_out_on_george_floyd_and_the_riots.html

George Floyd was killed by excessive force by a police officer in Minneapolis.  Across the board, Americans were outraged.  Peaceful protests arose, but with the protests came forces that initiated violence by killing innocents and police, burning buildings, destroying property, and stealing.  American Thinker interviewed black Americans for their feelings of what is happening in this country today. The black Americans are all in agreement that they are horrified by what happened to George Floyd, but they are equally horrified by the violence and lack of law and order.

These black Americans feel dismayed by what happened.  They recognize that there is legitimate anger over the tactics used by the Minneapolis police.

Stacy Washington is the co-chairperson of Project 21, founded after the 1992 Los Angeles riots to highlight black Americans’ political diversity.  She differentiates between a protester, someone who exercises his right under the 1st Amendment, and rioters who break the law.  Kathy Barnette, who is running in the general election for Pennsylvania’s 4th Congressional District, saw “the heart of a nation rise up in defense of George Floyd.  No one tried to defend the indefensible acts of these officers.  I was even more excited to see President Trump immediately have the Justice Department investigate and not sweep what happened under the rug.”

All interviewed want to emphasize that it is inexcusable for many of the cities to have abdicated the rule of law.  There are those who claim that the riots and destruction of property are understandable and excusable since it is not a life being destroyed.  Stacy responds, “Property is a life.  I agree buildings are not alive, but what happens inside of buildings enables people to live.  It is their livelihood.  Studies show there is a direct link between increases with poverty and suicide/homicide.  People turn to crime when they are not able to be employed.  In Ferguson, Missouri, after the riots, M1 Bank literally created investment vehicles.  The neighborhood became integrated, and young couples, both black and white, could afford a house.  Now things are getting burned down again.  I am not sure the neighborhoods will be rebuilt.”

Chris Arps, a Project 21 member, agrees with this Martin Luther King quote: “I feel that non-violence is really the only way that we can follow because violence is just so self-defeating.  A riot ends up creating many more problems for the negro community than it solved.  You can, through violence, burn down a building, but you can’t establish justice.  You can murder a murderer, but you can’t murder through violence.  You can murder a hater, but you can’t murder hate.”

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL: FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on June 7th, 2020

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com  

To the idiots and cretins who bash, libel, and propose boycotting and divestment from Israel, I say:

#Check your antisemitism – There is not an hour in the day when Israel does not contribute to the quality of life in every corner of the world including yours. rsk

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Keeping Covid-19 patients off ventilators. (TY UWI) Israel’s Respinova developed Pulsehaler to help COPD patients improve their lungs and avoid ventilation. Repinova is now preparing for clinical trials in Israel on patients suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) as caused by Covid-19.
https://www.israel21c.org/copd-innovation-may-keep-covid-patients-off-ventilators/
 
Detecting Covid-19 in India. Israel’s Zebra Medical was being deployed last year (see here) to detect TB cases across India. Zebra is now assisting Apollo (India’s largest hospital group) to diagnose coronavirus cases using its machine-learning algorithm that analyzes CT scans of suspected Covid-19 infected patients.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3829337,00.html
 
Testing CPAP on Covid-19 patients. Israel’s Itamar Medical (reported here previously) is funding a trial of its disposable WatchPAT ONE CPAP device. It will be given to 200 confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients in the Mount Sinai Health (US) system with respiratory symptoms but who do not require hospital admission.
https://ir.itamar-medical.com/news-releases/news-release-details/itamartm-medical-funds-clinical-study-evaluate-potential-impact
 
BGU doctors on the Covid-19 front lines. A webinar from Israel’s Ben Gurion University featuring a student developing software to help advance Covid-19 treatment trials and two alumni – one working for the World Health Organization, and another helping implement a Covid-19 surveillance system in the state of Oregon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYlm9PKm5JI
 
Bacteria protects cancer cells. Researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have discovered that bacteria exist inside all types of cancer cells. They protect the cancer by “digesting” and de-activating chemotherapy. These anti-cancer treatments may be made more effective by targeting or manipulating the bacteria.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/cells-inside-cells-bacteria-live-cancer-cells
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6494/973  
 
Nitric Oxide treats babies with Bronchiolitis. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Beyond Air announced positive top-line results from its third pilot study in bronchiolitis patients. 89 infants under 12 months were treated at 8 sites in Israel. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/05/20/2036389/0/en/Beyond-Air-Achieves-Primary-Endpoint-in-Pilot-Bronchiolitis-Study.html
 
US approval for latest exoskeleton. Israel’s ReWalk Robotics received FDA clearance of its Exoskeleton Personal 6.0  https://investorplace.com/2020/06/rewalk-robotics-news-boosts-rwlk-stock/
 
DNA editing to cure diseases. Israel is establishing a consortium to make CRISPR genome editing more precise. Israel’s Innovation Authority has allocated NIS 36 million to CRISPR-IL, for the country’s academic institutions and bio-techs to use AI to advance the technology for repairing disease-causing mutations.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-aiming-to-enable-unprecedented-dna-edits-to-help-cure-illnesses/
 
Free prosthetics for children. (TY Janglo, Hazel & ILTV) Scientists at Israel’s Technion 3D-print prosthetic hands for children in Israel, Gaza, the PA and Syria – all for free. They are built to the child’s specifications –and can be even better than a normal hand.
https://www.jpost.com/jpost-tech/iron-mans-hand-technion-gives-prosthetic-hands-to-children-629839
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCu8gIdPTeU  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgpSr5cFaHU
 
Keeping transplants alive. Israeli courier Mishel Zrian races against time for NGO Ezer Mizion, delivering life-saving transplants for bone marrow patients. During the pandemic he often performs logistical acrobatics to avoid quarantine and get transplants to their destinations amid the shortage of flights and restrictions on travel.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/70-days-in-airports-an-israeli-courier-keeping-global-organ-transplants-alive/
 

Continue reading →
CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Hillary Clinton asks appeals court to help her dodge Judicial Watch deposition on emails and Benghazi Jerry Dunleavy

By on June 7th, 2020

www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/hillary-clinton-asks-appeals-court-to-help-her-dodge-judicial-watch-deposition-on-emails-and-benghazi

A three-judge appeals court panel heard arguments this week from Hillary Clinton’s lawyer and Judicial Watch as the former secretary of state seeks to avoid a deposition about her private email server and the Benghazi attack talking points.

Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, argued Tuesday that the depositions of Clinton and Clinton’s former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, ordered by a D.C. district court judge was necessary to understand whether Clinton attempted to avoid the Freedom of Information Act when she improperly used a private server to conduct her State Department business and whether the agency adequately searched for all her emails.

“It is certainly within the authority of the district court to hear from the agency head herself about whether there was intent,” said Judicial Watch attorney Ramona Cotca.

Clinton wanted to “short-circuit this process by using the most potent weapon in the judicial arsenal to prevent the district court from ever being able to reach a determination of whether there was ever an adequate search,” Cotca said.

Continue reading →
CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Failing in their three-year coup, the left riots Glenn Beaton

By on June 7th, 2020

https://theaspenbeat.com/2020/06/05/failing-in-their-three-year-coup-the-left-riots/

We all know the story. In the first chapter, they transformed the laugh line “I demand a recount” into actual demands for recounts. But the recounts didn’t materially change the vote totals.

Then they asked the Electoral College to defy the will of the people they represented. That, too, didn’t work.

The next chapter was the smear that Trump had colluded with the Russians. But the only collusion they could find in their two-year investigation was the Dems’ own payment of millions of dollars for a fake Russian “dossier” fantasizing that the president – a noted germophobe – engaged in pee-pee sex.

Meanwhile, the outgoing Dem administration used this dossier they knew was fake to get warrants to spy on the incoming Republican administration.

Trump’s approval ratings held steady.

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Looting American Culture- Fiamma Nierenstein

By on June 7th, 2020

https://www.jns.org/opinion/looting-american-culture/

The young people destroying shops, stealing goods, shooting and beating have been shaped by a culture that bows to suffering and elevates victimhood.

 If George Floyd, the African-American strangled to death by the knee of Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin, had been white, his death would have elicited the same horrified reaction on my part.

A violent killing by a member of the police department is unfathomable and inexcusable.  But so is the behavior of the angry “Black Lives Matter” mob.  Martin Luther King Jr. surely would have agreed. He would have considered the current violence and looting to devalue the cause and decay the role of blacks.

King outlined his dream—as the best-selling author Douglas Murray recalled in his 2019 book, The Madness of the Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity—at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963.

Describing how black Americans first were slaves and then second-class citizens, he denounced the laws of racial segregation (that still existed in certain state at the time), and said that he dreamed his children should “one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

Why the uproar over sovereignty? Why, however, is this so controversial and upsetting? By Moshe Dann

By on June 7th, 2020

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/why-the-uproar-over-sovereignty-630551

Predictably, on cue, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement that he intends to extend Israeli law and sovereignty to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”) has elicited a tsunami of opposition, fears of dire consequences, threats of sanctions by the EU and threats by Jordanian and PLO leaders to abrogate treaties and agreements. 

Why, however, is this so controversial and upsetting?In Jerusalem, Hebron and other areas, there have been Jewish communities since the First and Second Temple periods. After the destruction by the Romans, they rebuilt.

In Hebron, a Jewish community was reestablished in the Byzantine period, and then reconstituted in the 16th century. It was destroyed in August 1929, when 67 Jewish residents were murdered.

Jewish communities such as Gush Etzion, built in Judea and Samaria during the 1920s and 1930s, were destroyed during the 1947-1949 war and were rebuilt and expanded since the 1967 Six Day War. About half a million Jews live in 121 “settlements” in Judea and Samaria.

PLO leaders and the international community recognized Israel’s claims to these areas (in Area C) in the Oslo agreements in return for creating a Palestinian National Authority under the PLO.

Why, then, do plans to extend Israeli law and sovereignty provoke such extreme responses? It seems to be nothing more than confirming what already exists and has been agreed upon.

Continue reading →
EDUCATION Comments turned off

I Must Object A rebuttal to Brown University’s letter on racism in the United States Glenn C. Loury

By on June 6th, 2020

https://www.city-journal.org/brown-university-letter-racism

Last week, in the aftermath of the national fury that has erupted, and continues, over the apparent killing by a Minneapolis police officer of a black man, George Floyd, while he was being taken into custody, a letter appeared in my inbox from Christina H. Paxson, president of Brown University, where I teach. The letter, sent to thousands of students, staff, and faculty, was cosigned by many of Brown’s senior administrators and deans.

“We write to you today as leaders of this university,” the letter begins, “to express first deep sadness, but also anger, regarding the racist incidents that continue to cut short the lives of black people every day.” It continues:

The sadness comes from knowing that this is not a mere moment for our country. This is historical, lasting and persistent. Structures of power, deep-rooted histories of oppression, as well as prejudice, outright bigotry and hate, directly and personally affect the lives of millions of people in this nation every minute and every hour. Black people continue to live in fear for themselves, their children and their communities, at times in fear of the very systems and structures that are supposed to be in place to ensure safety and justice.

I found the letter deeply disturbing, and was moved to compose the following response, which I shared with a colleague. I’m happy now to share it as well with City Journal’s readership.

Dear ____:

I was disturbed by the letter from Brown’s senior administration. It was obviously the product of a committee—Professors XX and YY, or someone of similar sensibility, wrote a manifesto, to which the president and senior administrative leadership have dutifully affixed their names.

I wondered why such a proclamation was necessary. Either it affirmed platitudes to which we can all subscribe, or, more menacingly, it asserted controversial and arguable positions as though they were axiomatic certainties. It trafficked in the social-justice warriors’ pedantic language and sophomoric nostrums. It invoked “race” gratuitously and unreflectively at every turn. It often presumed what remains to be established. It often elided pertinent differences between the many instances cited. It read in part like a loyalty oath. It declares in every paragraph: “We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident.”

Continue reading →