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‘The Canceling of the American Mind’ Review: Shut Up, They Said Express opinions at variance with the rigid orthodoxy of the righteous elite and you will be said to be inflicting ‘harm.’ You will be canceled. By Meghan Cox Gurdon

Posted By on October 9th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/the-canceling-of-the-american-mind-review-shut-up-they-said-361f80c5?mod=opinion_reviews_pos1

We’re in a terrible spot, and everybody knows it. Americans on the right and left detest each other, excoriate each other and, with every flaring of rage, move further from any sense of pluralistic common cause. Citizens have lost confidence in officialdom. Fashionable ideologies that brook no good-faith dissent have surged into every corner of life. Make a minor demurral, even a joke, and you risk being subjected to the ghastly nullification rituals of what is called cancel culture.

It is this predicament, all of it, that Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott address in “The Canceling of the American Mind,” a lucid and comprehensive look at where we are and how we got here, and, less persuasively, what we can do to make things better.

The authors do not merely analyze; they are in the fray. Mr. Lukianoff is the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which defends free speech in workplaces and on campus. He is also co-author, with New York University’s Jonathan Haidt, of “The Coddling of the American Mind,” an important 2018 book about emotional fragility among young adults. Ms. Schlott’s college interest in “Coddling” eventually brought her to FIRE; she’s also a columnist for the New York Post.

“Cancel culture” is an imperfect term, but its meaning is well understood: incidents of public shaming and professional defenestration, often ginned up by activists high on their own sanctimony. “Cancel Culture has upended lives, ruined careers, undermined companies, hindered the production of knowledge, destroyed trust in institutions, and plunged us into an ever-worsening culture war.”

When did it start? The authors say 2014, when cancellations “exploded” in higher education. By 2017, following the outward migration of campus groupthink, canceling moved into art, publishing, comedy, journalism and, more recently, medicine, science and law.

BOOKS, MEDIA Comments turned off

Glazov Gang: Anderson Cooper, the CIA and Operation Mockingbird The dark truths about where the media gets its marching orders. by Glazov Gang

Posted By on October 9th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/glazov-gang-anderson-cooper-the-cia-and-operation-mockingbird/

This new Glazov Gang episode features Leo Hohmann, a veteran investigative reporter and author whose book Stealth Invasion is now banned by Amazon. Order it at BarnesAndNoble.com. Visit Leo at LeoHohmann.com.

Leo discusses Anderson Cooper, the CIA and Operation Mockingbird. unveiling The dark truths about where the media gets its marching orders .

Don’t miss it!

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Kids as Young as Kindergarteners Will Be Allowed to Use Cannabis at School if Michigan Passes New Law The legislation would legally allow students with approved conditions to consume medical marijuana in the form of edibles, beverages, and other low-THC products on school premises By Sandra Rose Salathe

Posted By on October 9th, 2023

https://people.com/kids-cannabis-school-michigan-if-law-passes-8348098

Michigan K-12 students may soon be permitted to use medical marijuana and CBD-infused products at school under a new bill presented last week.

Proposed by Democratic representatives in the Michigan House, the legislation would legally allow students to consume edibles, beverages and other low-THC marijuana products on school premises or buses.

The administration of these products would be overseen by a designated school staff member. Only students with clear written authorization detailing the timing and purpose, such as for emergency relief or symptom prevention, could use them.

“What it does is allow medical marijuana pediatric patients to have their medication in the schools the same way anyone else has their medications stored,” Michigan State Rep. Jimmie Wilson Jr., told CBS News. “The same way, whether it be in a nurse’s office or an administration office, they would go up and access their medication the same way anyone else would, and they would go back to class.”

The new initiative aims to increase accessibility to medical marijuana for eligible students.

In addition, the bill showcases Michigan’s evolving stance on drug policies, aligning with both its legal and illegal drug environment. For example, a bill introduced in September aimed to decriminalize psychedelic plants, and there was a recent revision to the drug-testing policy for new hires this month.

State Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) expressed his intent to broaden the dialogue regarding specific substances and their place in society.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Thoughts on Proclamation 7463, or ‘Digital McCarthyism’ on the Move As I say, things are always worse than they seem. By Roger Kimball

Posted By on October 9th, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/10/08/thoughts-on-proclamation-7463-or-digital-mccarthyism-on-the-move/

On September 14, 2001, George W. Bush, exercising “the power vested in [him] as President of the Untied States,” issued Proclamation 7463, a “Declaration of National Emergency by Reason of Certain Terrorist Attacks.” That got the ball rolling on the construction of the surveillance state.

At the time, the extreme measure seemed justified. Three days earlier, the United States had suffered its most devastating terrorist attack in history.

But how about this: On September 8, 2023, Joe Biden quietly renewed the Bush era emergency measures for another year. I was told there would be no math, but that makes 22 years and counting that a vast array of surveillance assets have been mobilized against—against whom?

When George W. Bush was president, they were focused on al Qaeda and kindred groups. Today?

Today, that fearsome governmental power is still assembled. Increasingly, however, it seems to be focused against those the administration fears or dislikes.

Traditional Catholics, for example, or parents upset with their local school boards.

At the head of the list of potential “domestic extremists” are the tens of millions of people who support Donald Trump (not to mention, of course, Trump himself). A couple of days ago, Hillary Clinton took to CNN (it would be CNN) to say that something needed to be done to silence those misguided people who supported Trump. “Maybe,” she said, “there needs to be a formal deprogramming” of MAGA “cult members.”

Apparently the FBI agrees. According to a much-cited article in Newsweek, the agency has created a “new category of extremists that it seeks to track and counter: Donald Trump’s army of MAGA followers.” That article suggests that the FBI is struggling to combat genuine threats without attacking people who simply support Trump and other populist candidates. I wonder, though, how scrupulous they are being in protecting people’s Constitutional rights to free speech and political dissent.

Actually, I do not wonder. It is quite clear, as The New York Post observed, that the agency is deploying “some of the same counterterrorism methods honed to fight al Qaeda” in its scrutiny of Trump supporters and “AGAAVE,” i.e., “anti-government, anti-authority violent extremism” (an acronym that, as the Post suggested, “looks like a typo for a sugar substitute”).

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Ronald Reagan’s Warning by Lawrence Kadish

Posted By on October 9th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20031/ronald-reagan-warning

The free-fall that is now the Republican majority in the House of Representatives is a needless self-inflicted political wound that only serves to distract the GOP caucus, and the nation at large, from the very real crises facing America.

Rather than focus on the open borders that are transforming our nation’s cities into migrant camps and threats from foreign adversaries such as the Chinese Communist Party, we are engaged in recriminations and intraparty personal feuds. Rather than tackle a crippling debt of nearly $33 trillion, we are witnessing a political drama associated with selecting a new Speaker of the House. Rather than advance American energy independence, we are parsing possible votes for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s replacement. And instead of confronting those who would seek to steal the results of the next presidential election, we are engaged in recriminations and arguments about who and what sparked the historic firing of the Speaker.

These actions will not protect the integrity of the ballot box any more than chaos will rescue a democracy that is under cyber-assault and intellectual property theft by foreign states hostile to our role as leader of the free world.

This is distraction from the genuine challenges that will determine America’s standing in this century.

In the middle of this muddle is a Democrat-Progressive coalition content to watch that descent into political turmoil. It works to their advantage. The coalition may well be thinking — not without justification — that if Republicans are engaged in a needless ideological food-fight among themselves, the GOP is bound to lose focus on the truly important issues that will chart our future, thereby allowing us to set the agenda and win more Congressional seats in 2024.

What House Republicans have forgotten is the primary instruction offered by President Ronald Reagan:, “Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.” They also seem not to remember a California colleague of Reagan, Gaylord Parkinson, who served as that state’s GOP Chairman, who warned, “Henceforth, if any Republican has a grievance against another, that grievance is not to be bared publicly.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Ayatollah’s Plan for Israel and Palestine by Amir Taheri

Posted By on October 9th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20032/khamenei-plan-israel

The book has received approval from Khamenei’s office and is thus the most authoritative document regarding his position on the issue.

Khamenei makes his position clear from the start: Israel has no right to exist as a state. He claims his strategy for the destruction of Israel is not based on anti-Semitism, which he describes as a European phenomenon. His position is based on “well-established Islamic principles.”

According to Khamenei, Israel, which he labels an “enemy” and “foe,” is a special case for three reasons. The first is that it is a loyal “ally of the American Great Satan” and a key element in its “evil scheme” to dominate “the heartland of the Ummah.”

Khamenei describes Israel as “a cancerous tumor” whose elimination would mean that “the West’s hegemony and threats will be discredited” in the Middle East. In its place, he boasts, “the hegemony of Iran will be promoted.”

Khamenei’s tears for “the sufferings of Palestinian Muslims” are also unconvincing. To start with, not all Palestinians are Muslims. And, if it were only Muslim sufferers who deserved sympathy, why doesn’t he beat his chest about the Burmese Rohingya and the Chechens massacred and enchained by Vladimir Putin, not to mention Muslims daily killed by fellow-Muslims across the globe?

In the early days of his mission, the Prophet Muhammad toyed with the idea of making Jerusalem the focal point of prayers for Islam. He soon abandoned the idea and adopted his hometown of Mecca. For that reason, some classical Muslim writers refer to Jerusalem as “the discarded one,” like a first wife who is replaced by a new favorite. In the 11th century the Shiite Fatimid Caliph, Al-Hakim even ordered the destruction of Jerusalem.

Dozens of maps circulate in the Muslim world, showing the extent of Muslim territories lost to the infidel that must be recovered. These include large parts of Russia and Europe, almost a third of China, the whole of India and parts of the Philippines and Thailand.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

“Our Political State” Sydney Williams

Posted By on October 9th, 2023

https://swtotd.blogspot.com

Yes, Virginia, some people are above the law. They are known as politicians, asses and pachyderms; they can be found in barns, zoos, but also in the circus that is Washington. Exhibit ‘A’ includes both the current President and his immediate predecessor. Unlike spider monkeys or black-footed ferrets, politicians are not endangered. In fact, they rank with nematode worms as one of the more prolific animal species on earth.

And, yes Virginia, if one had to classify into one word our two main political parties it would be that Republicans are dysfunctional and Democrats mean-spirited. Two episodes this past week provide examples: Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and his group of eight self-serving, dissident Republicans colluded with Democrats to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. A day or so earlier, as Congress was trying to pass legislation to extend government funding for forty-five days, Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) pulled a fire alarm, so as to delay the vote. Incredulously, he had the temerity to claim he mistook the bright red alarm for an automatic door opener, a mistake impossible to believe of anyone, least of all of a former middle school principal. 

In the wake of the French Revolution (1789-1794), the philosopher and monarchist Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821) is alleged to have written, “Every nation has the government it deserves.” Has that become our fate? Is it our fault that we have a cognitively-challenged President, an ego-centric ex-President as his main challenger, a Democratic U.S. Senator who dresses like a slob, and eight Republican Congressmen willing to sacrifice their Party for purposes of self-aggrandizement. Our Founders included Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison, giants by today’s standards. Like all humans, they were imperfect, but their positive qualities outweighed their negative ones. After 250 years, can we say our politics have evolved in Darwinian fashion? Or is our current state of political affairs an example of dysgenics – a decrease in the prevalence of traits deemed to be socially desirable?

ISRAEL Comments turned off

A 50th Anniversary War? Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on October 9th, 2023

https://twitter.com/VDHanson/status/1710741034320417027

Why did Hamas stage a long-planned, carefully executed and multifaceted attack on Israeli towns, soldiers, and civilians—one designed to instill terror by executing noncombatants, taking hostages, and desecrating the bodies of the dead?

And how were the killers able to enter Israeli proper in enough numbers to kill what could be hundreds and perhaps eventually wound what could be thousands? a) Ostensibly, radical Palestinians wanted to stop any rumored rapprochement between the Gulf monarchies—the traditional source of much of their cash—and Israel, by forcing the issue of Arab solidarity in times of “war”, especially through waging a gruesome attack aimed at civilians and encompassing executions and hostage taking.

Iran likely was the driving force to prompt the war—given its greatest fear is a Sunni Arab-Israeli rapprochement. b)  Arab forces have had only success against Israel through surprise attacks during Israeli holidays, as in the Yom Kippur War (i.e., was it any accident that the present attack began 50-years almost to the day after the October 6, 1973 beginning of the Yom Kippur War?).

And so they struck again this Saturday during Simchat Torah, coming at the end of a weeklong Jewish celebration of Sukkot—in hopes that others will join in as happened in 1973. (So much for the Arab warnings not for Westerners to conduct war during Ramadan).

c) Hamas may have reckoned that recent Israeli turmoil and mass leftist street protests over proposed reforms of the Israeli Supreme Court had led to permanent internal divisions and thus a climate of domestic distraction if not an erosion of deterrence. But, more importantly, in a larger sense the Biden administration has contributed both to the notion that Hamas was a legitimate Middle East player, and to the perception that the U.S. was backing away from its traditional support for Israel—to the delight of Hamas—based on the following inexplicable policies:

1) In February Secretary of State Blinken had bragged that not only had the Biden administration resumed massive aid to the PLA cancelled by Trump, but cumulatively had transferred $1 billion—even as Palestinian authorities bragged that they would continue to pay bounties to the families of “martyrs” (i.e., those killed while conducting terrorists attacks against Israel). And millions of American dollars also went into Gaza, run by Hamas—despite the Biden administration’s efforts to keep mostly quiet the resumption of such inexplicable support. In this regard, note the current shameful State-Department (“U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs”) website news release that was posted after today’s attack. It ended with this quite embarrassing, morally equivalent admonition: “We urged all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks. Terror and violence solve nothing.” “All sides?” “Refrain from retaliatory attacks?” So Israel is the moral equivalent of terrorists executing civilians and brutalizing their corpses? And the IDF then is not supposed to retaliate against these killers? This Biden State Department insanity cannot stand. So expect some apparatchik to take down this Munich-like posting as soon as possible.

2) The Biden administration had recently released some $6 billion to Iran through a prison swap deal that saw South Korea hand over embargoed Iranian money to Qatar—despite Tehran’s  increased anti-Israeli rhetoric and its loud brag about the escalation. We should assume money for rockets (Hamas claims they have launched 5,000, and have received 100,000 of them via the Damascus airport) and weapons in general for Hamas were supplied by Iran, which again is likely the chief catalyst for this surprise attack.

3) Almost immediately, after his inauguration Biden mobilized to resume the bankrupt Iran deal. And in unhinged fashion he appointed the anti-Israeli bigot, pro-Iranian journalist Robert Malley as America’s chief negotiator. Note that Malley is now under FBI investigation for security breaches, involving disclosing classified U.S. documents and also for allegedly helping pro-Iranian activists and propagandists land influential billets inside the U.S. government. In short, there was a general Hamas and Iranian perception that the Biden administration had resumed the discredited Obama madness of empowering Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas.

This discredited agenda was to “balance” the power of Israel and the moderate Arab Gulf governments to achieve “creative tension”, exacerbated by Biden’s loathing of the government of Benjamín Netanyahu (who has been snubbed by Biden and never invited for an official visit).

Note as well that the Biden administration has siphoned off key weapons and munitions from stockpiles inside Israel to transfer them to Ukraine. The so-called “War Reserve Ammunition—Israel” is all but depleted of just the sorts of weapons needed in the present crisis. In this regard is there not a pattern here? Upon the ascension of Biden and his woke military agendas, we saw the following: the complete humiliation of the U.S. in Kabul in its most shameful flight in 50 years and greatest abandonment of equipment in its history; followed by Vladimir Putin’s opportunistic invasion of Ukraine; followed by China’s new belligerence and escalating threats to Taiwan; followed by Turkey’s new de facto alliance with Russia and recent drone encounter with the U.S. air force in Syria; followed by the Hamas/Iranian inspired attack on Israel—with more to come unfortunately.

And will Biden finally get the message from the attacks on the Ukraine and Israeli borders, that borders matter and we too are being invaded, with the encouragement of the Mexican government and to the advantage of the cartels whose fentanyl exports kills 100,000 Americans a year?

What to expect in Israel? Expect the following: the usual Hamas/terrorist selling and/or execution of Israeli hostages, the use of Israeli hostages as “human shields” in Gaza,  the bargaining/sale of the remains of Israeli dead, occasional killings of Jews inside Israel by Arabs who falsely believe there will be a winning Middle East-wide existential war against Israel. And finally, a devastating Israeli counter-response that will eventually earn a U.S. rebuke. What should the U.S. instead do? It should quit talking to Iran and restore full sanctions against it. It should cut off all aid immediately to all the Palestinians. It should undertake a 1973-like massive arms lift of key munitions to Israel and warn Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and others in the Middle East not to intervene or else, given that Israel will need several weeks to deal with Hamas and Gaza. And if it shows any hesitation or weakness, other terrorist groups will opportunistically jump in.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel’s Counter-Offensive Will the Israeli military finally be allowed to do whatever it takes? by Joseph Klein

Posted By on October 9th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/israels-counter-offensive/

With the support of the Iranian regime, its terrorist proxy Hamas unleashed horrific attacks on a massive scale against Israeli civilians by land, sea, and air on October 7th. The terrorists launched their savage rampage on the Jewish Sabbath and holiday of Simchat Torah, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against defenseless Israeli civilians in what is being called Israel’s 9/11.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that “We are at war, not an operation, not rounds, but at war.” He vowed that Hamas will pay an “unprecedented price,” adding, “We will defeat them to death and take revenge for this black day.”

The war could be on the cusp of widening, with Iran’s Lebanese-based terrorist proxy Hezbollah firing missiles into the northern part of Israel. A two-front war would put all of Israel’s population in mortal danger.

Israel has not faced a war of this magnitude since the Yom Kippur War that Egypt and Syria launched against Israel on October 6, 1973.

Israel’s counteroffensive has already begun. Hopefully, this time the Israeli military will finally do whatever it takes to destroy Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad once and for all and that Israel will reject any calls for a ceasefire in the interim.

Hamas fired several thousand rockets into Israel from Gaza in one day. The huge barrage overwhelmed Israel’s Iron Dome defense system, which could not prevent some of the rockets from reaching their targets with devastating results. The terrorists also broke through border fences between the Gaza Strip and Israel to carry out their barbaric ground attacks.

The terrorists so far have murdered at least 700 Israelis and wounded many more. Several Americans were also reportedly killed. The terrorists have taken at least 100 hostages, including dozens of American citizens, and transported them to Gaza. In scenes reminiscent of Nazi Germany, the terrorists shot civilians at point blank range and abducted Israeli women, children and the elderly from their homes and Israeli streets. Some of the hostages have been reportedly taken into the tunnels beneath Gaza where the Palestinian terrorists store their weaponry, effectively turning the hostages into human shields. No doubt, the hostages who remain alive will serve as bargaining chips for the release of terrorists imprisoned in Israeli jails.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Did Biden’s Policy To Isolate Israel Lead To Hamas’ Deadly Attack?

Posted By on October 9th, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/10/09/did-bidens-policy-to-isolate-israel-lead-to-hamas-deadly-attack/

“With our ally Israel at war today, we can only hope the conflict is brief and settled in Israel’s favor with minimal bloodshed. In the meantime, U.S. weakness and overtly anti-Israel policy is a main cause of this nightmare and is yet another reason for Americans to think seriously about how they vote in 2024.”

It’s a tragic fact that Hamas’ attack that killed hundreds last weekend was a deadly salvo against the very existence of the Jewish state of Israel. But it was also an attack on the West’s weaklings who have once again enabled terrorism. And, sadly, that includes the U.S.

It was no accident that Hamas used a “Festival for Peace” concert near Gaza as an offensive on the very existence of the multi-ethnic, democratic state of Israel. Those attending no doubt thought their good intentions and good wishes for peace would be a shield against such atrocities.

Sadly, terrorists saw this as vulnerability, and took advantage. But it wasn’t just the concert that tempted them.

No, it was weakness among the political left in Israel, which seems to believe that calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “fascist” and craven acquiescence to terrorists will buy peace, and also among leaders in Europe, who somehow imagine that terrorist groups in the West Bank and Gaza are the moral equivalents of Israel.