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Thought of the Day “Illiberal Liberals” Sydney Williams

Posted By on September 20th, 2021

http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com

“The individual is foolish, but the species is wise…We have inherited from the past the instruments

 which the wisdom of the species employs to safeguard man against his own passions and appetites.”

                                                                                                                Russell Kirk (1918-1994)

                                                                                                                The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot, 1953 

While healthy policy differences separate Republican from Democrat, extremist woke culture, propagated by sanctimonious, illiberal progressive elitists, has infested schools, universities, the arts, churches, banks, large corporations and sports teams. It threatens to transform our Country and do irreparable harm, with emotion replacing reason. It was behind the fatal decisions in Afghanistan, where military leaders had debated single-sex bathrooms and focused on gender identity and white oppression, rather than considering the consequences of an inauspicious withdrawal. Wokeism is a danger to all who love freedo

Wokeness is a belief in presentism. It is an ideology endorsed by people ignorant of history and unaware of consequences for the future. It exists under the banner of social justice, embedded in words like diversity, equity and inclusion. It inspires virtue-signaling by privileged whites feigning awareness of “social inequities.” It is a manifestation of the illiberal liberal. Its leaders are intent on uprooting liberal democracy, which cherishes free markets and individual freedom and replacing it with authoritarian socialism, where government’s powers are enhanced, and individual’s rights and liberties are suppressed. The responsible citizen is replaced with the obedient subject. Fear of government too large was important to the founding fathers. In 1787, Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison: “I own I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.” Yet, a 2018 Gallup Poll showed that 57% of Democrats had a positive view of socialism, while only 47% felt the same way toward capitalism.

 

The world of the woke is filled with hypocrites: During the recent California gubernatorial election, a white woman wearing a gorilla mask threw an egg at Republican Larry Elder, an African American who the Los Angeles Times called “The Black face of white supremacy.” There was nary a peep of complaint from mainstream media. To be racist is okay if it is worn under a mantle of wokeness. Last year, California’s Governor Newsome kept public schools closed to in-person learning, while sending his children to private schools where all classes were held in person. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wore the words “Tax the Rich,” embroidered in red on her white, designer gown, to a $30,000-a-seat benefit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, an annual event where elites outdo one another, to impress the media and the masses, knowing that their wokeness, despite their privilege, exempts them from condemnation as oppressors. Hypocrisy and wokeness are partners among illiberal liberals.

EDUCATION, ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Checking In With The “Smart” People At Harvard Francis Menton

Posted By on September 20th, 2021

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2021-9-18-checking-in-with-the-smart-people-at-harvard

Are the “smart” people really very smart? That is, do the people who score at the top on standardized tests and then turn up at the fancy universities actually have a superior level of reasoning and rationality that they can apply to solving the problems of the world? Or are they instead just trapped in the same sorts of groupthink and mass irrationality as everyone else?

Well, let’s consider the latest information coming out of Harvard University. Harvard — you can’t get any “smarter” than that. This is America’s premier institution of higher learning. You don’t get to go there unless you are at the very top of the top of intelligence. And the people who run the place have to be even smarter still. If you want to see what “smart” really is, this is where to look.

About a week ago Harvard President Larry Bacow decided it was time to send out one of those occasional missives addressed to all “Members of the Harvard Community.” Likely, you might think, this would be an occasion for Harvard to announce some incremental enhancements to its efforts to fulfill the core mission of educating the students. Hardly. People, this is Harvard — we don’t think small. So instead, the purpose of the communication is to tell us that Harvard is on the front lines in the battle to save the world. Bacow:

Climate change is the most consequential threat facing humanity. . . . We are going to need a little optimism to preserve life on Earth as we know and cherish it today.

And how exactly do we know that “climate change is the most consequential threat facing humanity”? Easy — in the Harvard way, we just look to the evidence before our very eyes:

The last several months have laid at our feet undeniable evidence of the world to come—massive fires that consume entire towns, unprecedented flooding that inundates major urban areas, record heat waves and drought that devastate food supplies and increase water scarcity. Few, if any, parts of the globe are being spared as livelihoods are dashed, lives are lost, and regions are rendered unlivable.

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Why Arabs No Longer Trust the Muslim Brotherhood by Khaled Abu Toameh

Posted By on September 20th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17776/arabs-muslim-brotherhood-trust

The people of Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Sudan, who gave the Muslim Brotherhood a chance to rule, discovered that the organization is as corrupt and incompetent as the secular Arab regimes and heads of state.

As with the Islamists in Tunisia, many Arabs are now also celebrating the downfall of the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated party in Morocco.

[O]ne of the main reasons for the downfall of the Muslim Brotherhood is related to the ideological component of the organization’s groups, including lack of separation between religion and politics, their alleged monopoly over the absolute truth, and their claim to represent the true Islam. — Amr Al-Shobaki, a researcher at the Egyptian Al-Ahram Center for Studies, Al-Hurra TV, September 12, 2021.

Al-Shoqiran continued: “After a decade of the rule of the Islamists in Tunisia and Morocco, the Muslim Brotherhood only contributed to the spread of corruption, disregard for the state and its institutions, and the theft of people’s lives and money.” — Ashraq Al-Awsat, September 16, 2021.

“[T]he Muslim Brotherhood parties…. rule without providing those they govern with any services other than illusory victories and corruption.” — Hafez Barghouti, Palestinian columnist and editor, Al-Khaleej, September 17, 2021

Tunisia got rid of the Islamists because they destroyed the economy and “stole the people’s money.” In Morocco…the Muslim Brotherhood was in power for many years, plunging the country into an economic and social crisis. — Hafez Barghouti, September 17, 2021

“The great fall of the Muslim Brotherhood, politically and intellectually, began in Egypt, then Sudan followed Tunisia and finally Morocco. Due to their spectacular failure in those countries, they are expected to fall also in Libya during the upcoming legislative and presidential elections.” — Mounir Adib, Egyptian expert on Islamic movements and international terrorism, Elbalad, September 10, 2021.

The question, therefore, remains: Will Western apologists for Islamists also wake up to this fact and cease dealing with them as though they are good guys who seek to improve the living conditions of Arabs and Muslims?

Since its establishment in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood’s main motto has been “Islam is the solution” (to all problems). The organization’s followers have used this slogan over the past decade to rise to power in a number of countries, including Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Sudan.

The past few weeks, however, have shown that many Arabs and Muslims no longer believe in the Muslim Brotherhood’s ability to govern or in the claim that “Islam is the solution.”

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Biden’s Vaccine Browbeating Backfires … But COVID Rates Fall Anyway

Posted By on September 20th, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/09/20/bidens-vaccine-browbeating-backfiresbut-covid-rates-fall-anyway/

“It’s almost enough to make one wonder whether there isn’t some other agenda lurking in the shadows behind all this COVID authoritarianism.”

How can you measure President Joe Biden’s sway over the public? Try looking at the impact his attacks on the unvaccinated have had on immunization rates. He’s managed to drive them down. Not that it matters, since the number of new COVID cases is falling, even in states with low vaccination rates.

In his remarkably antagonistic Sept. 9 speech announcing vaccine mandates, Biden did everything he could to disparage and shame the unvaccinated.

He blamed them for overcrowding hospitals and “leaving no room for someone with a heart attack.” He said they were causing “a lot of damage” and have “cost all of us.” He said they were “keeping us from turning the corner.”

He tried to pit the vaccinated against them, claiming those who had the shot needed protection from the unvaccinated (which is odd, since the vaccine is supposed to protect the vaccinated, isn’t it?). 

Biden basically called unvaccinated Americans selfish morons. “What more do you need to see?” he asked after saying the vaccine is FDA approved and free.

He all but encouraged hate. “Many of us are frustrated with the nearly 80 million Americans who are still not vaccinated,” and “I understand your anger.”  

The topper was when Biden declared that “this is not about freedom or personal choice.”

So how has Biden’s bullying worked so far?

Let’s look at the data.

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

10 Top Rated Cyber Security and Technology Experts

Posted By on September 20th, 2021

https://kevsbest.com/best-cyber-security-and-technology-experts/

Security is a necessity for everyone. That’s why it is important to have the right professional who will support you through a protective issue.For those who are in need of good expertise, we’ve devised a list of the top 10 cyber security and technology experts to watch out for. These professionals are trained to find weaknesses in databases, networks, hardware, firewalls, and encryption. Let’s take a look!

#1 Ron Sharon 

Ron Sharon is no stranger to danger with an interesting background as a former Israel Defense Forces Military Policeman. His work with the government didn’t stop there, with his list of achievements in providing technology solutions to the US Government.

With his long-enduring passion for technology and cyber security as well as his impeccable list of experiences on his back belt, he is your go-to guy for all your protective needs.

#2 Tyler Cohen Wood

2nd on the list is Tyler Cohen Wood, a renowned cybersecurity expert in the field. She has worked with an array of notable companies and clients, making a name for herself. With all her experience she is working as an author and mentor, recently releasing her book,  ‘Catching The Catfishers’. Being noted in a few reputable news outlets, its no wonder why Tyler is in the top 10 list.

#3 Bob Carver 

Bob Carver holds the bronze medal for his years of experience in the cyber security field, currently working in a senior management position at Verizon. He has a unique background due to his prior history of working as an architect. Combining both experiences, he has tailored a security service never to be seen before.

#4 Kevin Mitnik 

Kevin Mitnik has been on both sides of the coin. As a former of FBI’s Most Wanted, Mitnik had been a hacker getting into the systems of over 30 big companies but has since turned a major 360 degrees. He is now a reliable and renowned cybersecurity expert, with the in-depth knowledge on the mindset of the hacking system to understand how to keep you in safe hands.

5# Katie Moussouris 

Katie Mossouris is special with a capital K! She has an impressive range of accolades with her experience working with MIT and Microsoft to name a few. Watch out!

6# Chuck Brooks 

Chuck Brooks is next on the list of the top cyber security experts to watch out for his incredible list of experiences especially running Brooks Consulting. An advisor at Georgetown University, he is in the know on everything related to the field.

#7 Theresa Payton 

Theresa Payton is the President of Fortalice Solutions, LLC with over 10 years of running. She has recently put out a book called, ‘Campaigns and Electrons’ on Amazon.

#8 Richard Stiennon 

Next on the list is Richard Stiennon who is the lead chief research analyst at IT-Harvest. With an education background at King’s College in London, he has state-of-the-art knowledge and experience in the cyber security and IT field.

#9 Bruce Schneier 

Known as the security guru, Bruce Schnier is the go-to expert as the Chief of Security of Architecture at Inrupt, INC.

#10 Joseph Steinberg 

Founder of CISCO and CEO of Secure My Social, Joseph Steinberg is up to date when it comes to the technology and cyber security trends to help you have the best protection services on your side!

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Afghanistan and climate change: the West’s twin failures: Both have the same cause: a failure to accept reality Rupert Darwall

Posted By on September 20th, 2021

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/afghanistan-climate-change-west-failures/

The West’s humiliation in Afghanistan has an older brother: climate change.

As siblings, the two share characteristics, most obviously an inability to confront unwelcome facts. In Afghanistan, there was a large constituency led by the Pentagon invested in the mantra of proclaiming progress in the fight against the Taliban. Climate has its own industrial complex of NGOs, climate scientists, renewable energy lobbyists profiting from the energy transition, eager helpers in the media, and politicians posing as world saviors.

Energy experts tell us renewable energy is cheaper than building new fossil fuel power stations. If they’re right, why did China build the equivalent of more than one large coal plant a week last year? Its slave labor camps help produce materials for Chinese solar panels, which make them the cheapest in the world. This led the Biden administration to ban their importation. In 10 years, India — a country more susceptible to Western fads — increased the amount of electricity it generated from coal nearly six times faster than from wind and solar. In 2020, fossil fuels accounted for almost 90 percent of India’s primary energy consumption.

These facts help explain the biggest fact of all. The first 20 years after the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change saw carbon dioxide emissions rise 60 percent. From 2012 to 2019, they rose a further 5.4 percent. However this is dressed up, it’s failure. Meanwhile, the West’s energy emissions have been more or less flat for nearly three decades and on a downward trend since 2007. Emissions from the Rest of the World account for all the growth in global emissions, suddenly accelerating in 2002 from an average of around 1 percent a year to nearly 5 percent a year in the 12 years until 2014.

As a matter of simple arithmetic, the West’s declining share of global emissions means that whatever it does or doesn’t do is of diminishing relevance to the future of climate change. The West’s solipsism of ‘we’ — as in ‘we must act’ — is a profound self-deception.

This delusion is mirrored in the West’s climate diplomacy. At the 2009 Copenhagen climate conference, Western nations made their most determined attempt to include the powerhouse economies of the rest of the world in a legally binding global emissions reduction regime. It failed. China and India, joined by South Africa and Brazil, said no. Without a global emissions regime, unilateral emissions cuts are senseless. The Senate understood this in 1997 when Joe Biden, John Kerry and 93 other senators voted unanimously to adopt the Byrd-Hagel resolution, effectively vetoing American participation in the Kyoto Protocol on the grounds that it excluded the majority of the world.

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Buffalo Philharmonic: No White or Asian Conductors Need Apply By David Thomas

Posted By on September 20th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/09/buffalo-philharmonic-no-white-or-asian-conductors-need-apply/

The orchestra has taken to addressing old racism by using the tool of racism itself. For decades, orchestras have worked to address racial imbalances in their ranks by creating new pipelines for young artists. They have built outreach-and-engagement departments bringing classical music to young people who were rarely exposed to it, developed music programs in public schools, and mentored young, diverse musicians. These efforts are now bearing fruit, as many of these young artists continue to land coveted orchestra jobs.

Along with much of our society over the past year and a half, however, orchestras have begun to replace the goal of ensuring “equal opportunity” with “equity.” Wracked with guilt over racial exclusion in classical music in the distant past, many are adopting the strategy of redressing old racism with new racism. In so doing, they risk transforming some of our greatest artistic institutions from unifying meritocracies of mutual respect and artistic excellence into musically mediocre social battlefields.

One such example has been the attack on the “blind audition” process. In blind auditions, orchestras evaluate prospective players by listening to them behind a screen, allowing the judges to select musicians without respect to race, gender, or other nonmusical characteristics. Recently, this audition innovation — which was widely credited with reducing gender bias in orchestra hiring — has come under attack at some of the nation’s top orchestras, on the grounds that it has resulted in the hiring of too few non-Asian musicians of color.

Equally dangerous — and less discussed — is mounting discrimination in the employment of artistic leaders. This is occurring not just during candidate selection but as early as the job-posting phase. It is evident in most conducting postings, particularly for assistant-conductor positions (i.e., the first leg up the ladder for young conductors), which now contain some variation of the phrase: “Members of underrepresented groups in classical music, particularly members of [racial group x, y, z], are encouraged to apply.”

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The Immigration Radicalism of the Democrat Reconciliation Bill

Posted By on September 20th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/09/the-immigration-radicalism-of-the-democratic-reconciliation-bill/

We are all familiar with the fiscal radicalism of the Democratic reconciliation bill, but it’s time to focus more on the immigration radicalism of the bill.

The proposal includes a sweeping amnesty and large-scale increases in legal immigration. These provisions make the bill one of the most far-reaching immigration plans of the last decade, although almost no one has paid attention because the changes are tucked into a gargantuan $3.5 trillion spending plan. 

This Russian-nesting-doll approach may be a clever legislative strategy, but it is terrible democratic accountability. There is no way that this immigration proposal would pass if it were a stand-alone measure subject to normal scrutiny and debate.

The amnesty would cover an estimated 8 million illegal aliens, easily constituting the largest amnesty in American history. 

The bill has a broad definition of so-called Dreamers. To benefit from DACA, illegal immigrants had to have entered the United States when they were under the age of 16 and resided here since 2007. In the reconciliation bill, the standards shift to include people who came under the age of 18 and resided here on or before January 1 of this year.

On top of that, the amnesty includes “essential workers,” more or less any illegal immigrant with a blue-collar job; those with or eligible for Temporary Protected Status, which keeps illegal immigrants from being deported back to a country experiencing unrest or a natural disaster (even if the event occurred years previously); and those with or eligible for deferred enforced departure, another form of protection from deportation. 

EDUCATION Comments turned off

‘Universities are turning into ideology mills’ Peter Boghossian on why he resigned from Portland State University.

Posted By on September 20th, 2021

https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/09/17/universities-are-turning-into-ideology-mills/

Peter Boghossian was assistant professor of philosophy at Portland State University until he felt forced to resign last week. His resignation letter went viral – it was a righteous blast against the growing intolerance on his campus.

Much of the trouble began in 2018, when Boghossian, with fellow academics James Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose, revealed they had successfully published scores of fake academic papers to highlight the degradation of scholarship in the woke era. This led to disciplinary measures from his superiors. And once he became known as a critic of wokeness, he was harassed by students, too. Eventually, after 10 years at Portland State, Boghossian had finally had enough.

spiked caught up with him to find out what he thinks is going wrong on campuses across the West.

spiked: Why did you resign from Portland State University?

Peter Boghossian: I resigned because the university prevented me from doing what it had hired me to do: to teach philosophy.

Over time, the university became less of a symposium and more of a church. It became less of a place where people went to engage with ideas, to think through issues and to try to figure out what was true. And it became more of a place where the catechism reigned. More of a place where there were right answers to moral questions. People at the university felt that they knew the answers and they tested you on them. I just couldn’t maintain my integrity there any longer.

spiked: In your resignation letter, you spoke about being harassed by students. How did you become a target?

Boghossian: I started asking questions. Ideologues don’t like questions. I didn’t receive answers, or when I did they were flippant or dismissive. People looked at me as if I had some kind of moral problem, as opposed to just not having the right information. It was very bizarre. They thought that I had to be a bad person, because I was asking questions.

If you read the Platonic dialogues, Socrates doesn’t paint his critics as bad people. In fact, he says explicitly that people act the way they do because they don’t have perfect information. So it was very unusual to see people run out of my class screaming and freaking out.

ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

SUKKOT EXPLAINED BY AMB.(RET) YORAM ETTINGER

Posted By on September 20th, 2021

https://theettingerreport.com/sukkot-feast-of-tabernacles-guide-for-the-perplexed-2021/

Sukkot (September 21-27) Commemorates the Exodus and is named for the first stop during the 40-year-Exodus from Egypt – the town of Sukkot – as documented in Exodus 13:20-22 and Numbers 33:3-5. This holiday underscores the gradual transition from the spiritual state-of-mind during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to the mundane of the rest of the year. The construction of the Holy Tabernacle, during the Exodus, was launched on the first day of Sukkot (full moon).

Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, is a national Jewish liberation holiday. It is the 3rd Jewish pilgrimage holiday (following Passover and Shavou’ot – Pentecost), which highlights faith and optimism, commemorating the transition of the Jewish people from bondage in Egypt to liberty and sovereignty in the Land of Israel.
The roots of the Hebrew word Sukkot (סוכות) are wholeness and totality (סכ), shelter (סכך) and attentiveness (סכת). The numerical value of סכך (every Hebrew letter has a numerical value) is 100 (ס=60, כ=20, ך=20), representing the totality/unity of the Jewish people, history, roots, education and legacy.
The 7 days of Sukkot are dedicated to 7 monumental principle-driven leaders, who were compassionate and brave shepherds, representing leadership qualities in the pursuit of ground-breaking initiatives: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron and David. They were endowed with faith, reality-based-optimism, humility, compassion, tenacity in the face of daunting odds, courage and peace-through-strength.