P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Honoring Country (Music) By David Solway

Posted By on January 26th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/01/honoring_country_music.html

Country music has almost always been counter-counter-culture. Country music honors ancestors and traditions, while hardcore rocker bands like Stick To Your Guns glorify felons Eric Garner, Mike Brown and Trayvon Martin, the ludicrously named Prophets of Rage mock “the chosen whites” who “wear[ ] badges” (“Killing In The Name”), and Vampire Weekend and Foster the People shill for socialist retread Bernie Sanders.

Often featuring sharp and witty lyrics and hummable tunes, Country fosters a patriotic love of the land and its people, and displays a spirit of proud independence. As such, it is among the most engaging of musical idioms. It is at its purest an amalgam of swagger and humility. True, its subject matter can’t help but touch the world out there and can’t help but convey attitudes and beliefs, often of a patriotic nature, but it is certainly not an agenda-driven program for incendiary or subversive or revolutionary change. It purveys no drummingly sociopolitical message. Rather, Country in its essence expresses natural and universal feelings of love and home and basic human experience — “the basics of love,” as Waylon Jennings put it in “Luckenbach, Texas.” Anchored in everyday life, it does not hector or seek to persuade but treats of perennial themes while retaining a distinctive artistry in melody and lyric.

As Alan Jackson sings in his haunting 9/11 requiem, Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning, he is not “a real political man,” unlike the smug patricians of the reigning Western cultural elite. Jackson’s elegy for Hank Williams, “Midnight in Montgomery,” is unforgettably poignant and as unpolitical as it can get, very much like Williams’ signature “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” Williams is reputed to have said: “God writes the songs. I just hold the pen” — a way of articulating a felt truth and a welcome antitoxin to the malignant spirit of decay and subversion that has permeated the cultural, political and institutional life of America today. Such cultural decadence is the reason why so much of its music is trash.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iran’s Kidnapping Industry British Mother Held in Prison by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on January 26th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13542/iran-kidnapping-hostages

This international breach of justice should be a lesson to the UK and other governments: It does not matter if the mullahs reach out their hands out in peace; the Islamist regime of Iran will continue to harm innocent victims on a daily basis.

In response to the snub, the British government should consider bringing to a halt its appeasement policies toward the ruling mullahs. The more they are appeased, the more emboldened and empowered they become to continue violating human rights.

It must be made clear to Iran that, apart from its unacceptable nuclear and ballistic missile build up, the UK — and every country — will also not stand for the capture, torture and imprisonment of the innocent. If the British government speaks in actions rather than words, perhaps these captives could be free to resume the life they deserve again, and the world could be free of a major nuclear threat.

“Sometimes when I come back from the visit with Gabriella, after saying goodbye to her, I feel as if I cannot live without her, I want to go back and hold her. She kisses me so hard. It is hard to say goodbye to her. She blows kisses all the way as she goes up the stairs, and everyone stands there watching.” These are the words of a grieving British mother, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, held in prison in the Islamic Republic of Iran, as she describes saying goodbye to her child.

MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

Never Look Away – A Review By Marilyn Penn

Posted By on January 26th, 2019

http://politicalmavens.com/index.php/topic/politics/

If you happen to be a 6′9″ inch German man named Florian Maria Georg Christian Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck, it’s not surprising that you would be comfortable with an oversized movie that plays longer than Gone With the Wind. At over 3 hrs, the film needs editing and shortening but if you cut it to 2 1/2 hrs., you’d have a minor masterpiece. Even in its present frame, it’s a powerful and moving experience merging World War II with post-war communist Germany seen through the filter of a budding artist searching for his authentic and singular form of expression.

It begins with a visit to the Degenerate Art Exhibition organized by the Nazis against Jewish artists and others who defied classical standards. A beautiful young woman accompanies her very young nephew who loves to draw and we quickly learn of her quirkiness and his talent – two themes that are harbingers of his and her life stories. Hitler’s arm rapidly extends from art to disabled and mentally deficient people and the lovely but erratic Elisabeth is first hospitalized until more drastic measures are taken. As the young boy, Kurt, grows up, we see the further damage that Nazi control wreaks on his family, but he remains dedicated to becoming an artist and enrolls in a school in Dusseldorf where he is exposed to all the trendy aspects of the art world in the 60’s and 70’s, trying desperately to determine how he can contribute something original to a very crowded and chaotic scene.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

How Real Is Systemic Racism Today? written by John Staddon

Posted By on January 25th, 2019

https://quillette.com/2019/01/25/how-real-is-systemic

John Staddon is a James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Professor of Biology, Emeritus, at Duke University.

Racist attitudes of whites towards blacks have long become socially unacceptable in America, although the reverse, racism of a minority directed at the white majority, is still tolerated or even encouraged. However, statistical racial disparities persist. African Americans, as a population, continue to suffer income, crime and incarceration rate, health, housing and family-structure deficits by comparison with the white population.

These disparities cannot easily be attributed to racist behavior by whites. The disparities have either increased or remained the same while individual racist behavior has declined. What then is the cause of these disparities? There are two possibilities: causes within individuals, what I have elsewhere called endogenous causes; or external, exogenous causes.

Endogenous Causes of Black-White Disparities

Endogenous causes were in fact the first ones to be studied, with unfortunate results. Bigots stigmatized the entire “black race” as inferior because of lower average scores on, for example, IQ tests. Blacks’ under-performance in terms of status, health, incomes, etc. was then comfortably attributed to their alleged built-in inadequacy.

The usual presumption was that IQ is fixed at birth, that it is the most important factor in life success and that it cannot be altered by later experience. None of these is true; although the fixity-of-IQ view seemed to be supported by several studies showing relatively high (statistical) heritability for IQ. But heritable is not the same as fixed: high statistical heritability for a behavioral trait does not imply that it is fixed at birth and independent of the rearing environment. Language is the most obvious counter-example. It is a learned behavior that also has high heritability. Language is 100 percent learned and 100 percent heritable—kids learn the language of their parents.

The only reason we know that language is not a sort of instinct is the “natural experiments” provided by adoption. Despite the high heritability of language, adopted infants learn the language of their adoptive, not biological, parents. It follows that high heritability does not mean genetic determinism. Statistical heritability depends on rearing environment as well as genetics.

What kind of experiment would be needed to prove that intelligence, which is also (statistically) heritable, is in fact genetically determined? What would it take to show that there are irreducible average-IQ differences between races: that no matter how rich the environment, blacks and whites would still have differing average IQ, leaving genes as the only cause? Only a very elaborate, unethical, and in practice un-doable, experiment could do it.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel gives Irish ambassador severe dressing down for ‘anti-Semitic’ Dáil Bill Israel says Dublin should concentrate on ‘dark dictatorships’ Mark Weiss

Posted By on January 25th, 2019

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/israel-gives-irish-ambassador-severe-dressing-down-for-anti-semitic-d%C3%A1il-bill-1.3770529

Irish ambassador to Israel Alison Kelly has been warned of “serious consequences” for Irish-Israel relations and Dublin’s standing in the region if the controversial Bill prohibiting importing goods from the occupied territories in Palestine becomes law.

The ministry said Ms Kelly was given an “angry rebuke” over the “scandalous” Bill. The severe diplomatic dressing down at the foreign ministry in Jerusalem on Friday morning followed Thursday’s passage of the first reading of the measure in the Dáil.

The Israeli government described the Bill, which covers goods produced on the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Golan Heights and in east Jerusalem, as “hypocritical and anti-Semitic.”

Israeli officials told the ambassador that Dublin should “concentrate on dark dictatorships and terrorist organisations instead of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Czech lawmakers adopt common definition of anti-Semitism

Posted By on January 25th, 2019

http://www.israelhayom.com/2019/01/25/czech-lawmakers-adopt-common-definition-of-anti-semitism/

Anti-Semitism in the Czech Republic is at a relatively low level, according to The Associated Press.

Although the definition by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance is not binding, Czech lawmaker says it could help authorities deal with hate crimes • The definition has already been adopted by a number of European parliaments and Israel.

The Czech Parliament’s lower house on Friday adopted a resolution that recognizes a common international definition of anti-Semitism.

Although the definition by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance is not binding, lower house speaker Radek Vondráček says it could help authorities deal with hate crimes.

The 2016 definition says anti-Semitism is “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.” It includes attacks against Jewish religious and community institutions, Jews and non-Jews and their property that are attacked for anti-Semitic reasons.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Trio of family members jailed for having terrorist propaganda

Posted By on January 25th, 2019

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/25/trio-family-members-jailed-having-terrorist-propaganda/

Three members of the same family have been jailed for terror offences after police foiled a jewellery raid they believe was intended to fund Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

Asma Aweys, 30, her partner Abdulaziz Abu Munye, 27, and her brother Ahmed Aweys, 33, were all arrested when police investigating a burglary plot found terrorist propaganda on their mobile devices.

In one message, Aweys, a mother-of-two from Edmonton in north London, labelled Ariana Grande as “the devil” in relation to the Manchester bombing and described the Westminster terror attack as the “decree of Allah.”

Aweys was also found to have three copies of the English language IS magazine Rumiyah on her phone last April.

Articles in the publications offered advice such as how to “inflict misery and destruction on the enemies of Allah” through methods including vehicle attacks.
Ahmed Aweys was arrested following an investigation into a jewellery heist plot
Ahmed Aweys was arrested following an investigation into a jewellery heist plot

Tips on the best way to injure people using knives, including which type of blade is most effective, were also contained in the magazines.

There was also information about how to make Molotov cocktails and napalm to be used in arson attacks.

Munye, who lived with Aweys also sent a a 58-minute IS propaganda video, called Flames Of War 2, to his brother in law.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

‘Social Justice’ Is Unjust By Noah Rothman

Posted By on January 25th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/social-justice-rhetoric-all-purpose-excuse-democrats/For a new generation of Democrats, what the phrase denotes is indistinguishable from retribution.

‘No other Congress has ever looked like this,” declared a CNN dispatch on the makeup of the 116th Congress. With such a diverse group of new legislators, that’s undoubtedly true. More importantly, though, no Congress has ever thought like this. As a new generation of Democrats assumes power, they’re bringing their ideas about what constitutes “social justice” with them.

It is particularly instructive to examine how this class of legislators defines social justice. When Representative Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) took the oath of office, for example, she initially planned on doing so on Thomas Jefferson’s 1734 translation of the Qur’an. But the Palestinian-American legislator reserved the right to use her own copy of the Qur’an. “Why uplift someone else?” she told the Detroit Free Press. “It’s starting a new era in social justice.” Why “uplift” Thomas Jefferson, indeed?

This self-referential attitude is a feature of the modern social-justice movement, and it helps to explain why it is so focused on engineering oppressive reversals of fortune.

Before coming to Congress, Tlaib told The Intercept that she is a proud supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to stigmatize activities that legitimize the state of Israel. To her, BDS brings attention to “issues like the racism and the international human-rights violations by Israel right now.” Representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) shares Tlaib’s proclivities. “I have always had a very social-justice-bent approach to everything that I do in my life,” Omar told ABC News.

On their way into federal office, these two lawmakers brought Women’s March organizer Linda Sarsour along with them. Sarsour was on hand in the Capitol on their first day in office, even though she was at the center of an anti-Semitism scandal not two months ago — a scandal rooted in the social-justice movement’s obsession with crafting racial and demographic pecking orders.

BOOKS Comments turned off

It’s A Perfect Time To Rediscover The Virtues Of Andrew Jackson Bradley Birzer’s ‘In Defense of Andrew Jackson’ offers a lucid portrait of an American president who is often misunderstood and neglected, even by the conservatives who should most admire him. By Gordon Dakota Arnold

Posted By on January 25th, 2019

http://thefederalist.com/2019/01/25/rediscovering-the-virtues-of-andrew-jackson/

Few Americans in the country’s history have received the polarized interpretations that President Andrew Jackson has. Once revered as the quintessential frontier hero, a statesman who saved rugged individualism from the corrupt forces of corporatists and government centralizers, Jackson has more recently been maligned as a brutal white supremacist who epitomized white, capitalist, and Southern bigotry in the 19th century.

On this point, there is an unlikely alliance between some conservatives and Marxists. Dinesh D’Souza attacks Jackson as an early “progressive Democrat” who ushered in the Democratic Party’s legacy of genocide. The neo-Marxist Howard Zinn, similarly, scorns him as a “slave owner,” a “killer of Indians,” and “the architect of the Trail of Tears.” Adding to the confusion, Jackson has been appropriated by rather unlikely allies, such as the government centralizers of the New Deal era, who argued that Jackson anticipated the New Deal’s concentration of power in the hands of the presidency for the purpose of fulfilling the will of the majority.

Against the facile misinterpretations and half-truths touted both by friends and foes of President Jackson, Bradley Birzer’s In Defense of Andrew Jackson offers a thoughtful, refreshing, and timely analysis of our hopelessly misunderstood seventh president. Birzer, a historian at Hillsdale College, paints a vivid portrait of Jackson as both a man and as a statesman.

He should be perceived, Birzer demonstrates, not as the ancestor of majoritarian New Deal democracy but as a principled defender of traditional American republicanism. Eloquently written and amply supported by historical evidence, In Defense of Andrew Jackson serves as a sorely needed reminder of the republican principles that inspired so many Americans in the 19th century—principles that Americans need desperately.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Who Runs the Census? How the bureaucracy takes power away from elected officials.

Posted By on January 25th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/who-runs-the-census-11548376332

Another week, another liberal court injunction against the Trump Administration. This month a federal judge blocked the Commerce Department from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. At issue is whether the President and his appointees control the government bureaucracy or the other way around.

Liberals cheered when Obama officials invoked executive discretion to promote political objectives. Yet they’re now accusing Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross of improperly pursuing political purposes by reinstating a citizenship question on the 2020 census. Whatever his intentions, Mr. Ross acted within the purview granted by Congress.

***

The Constitution directs Congress once a decade to count every resident in the U.S. to reapportion House districts among the states. Congress has delegated Commerce, which houses the Census Bureau, broad discretion over survey subjects and directed the secretary to use statistical sampling if “he considers it feasible” to collect data.

A citizenship question was included until 1960 and later appeared on a long-form questionnaire received by one-sixth of households. The long form was replaced after 2000 by the American Community Survey, which samples about 2% of the population annually.