MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Dem Expert Witness Couldn’t Cite Evidence of Benefits of Trans Procedures for Children By Matt Margolis

Posted By on June 16th, 2023

benefits-of-trans-procedures-for-children-n1703599

On Wednesday, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) grilled a so-called “expert” witness on the issue of transgender procedures for women, during which she failed to cite even a single study showing that cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, or surgeries have any positive impact.

Dr. Meredithe McNamara, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine, testified in a hearing in opposition to a provision that would block federal funding for hospitals that provide transgender services for minors.

“This is taxpayer money, and when 70% of taxpayers opposed these barbaric treatments on minors, then taxpayers should not fund it,” Crenshaw told her.

During the exchange, McNamara accused Crenshaw of cherrypicking data to support his position against transgender procedures for children.

“It is very unscientific and flawed to pick a single study or a single statistic and to discuss it in isolation,” she said.

“Totally agree,” Crenshaw said.

“All the medical experts are able to talk about all the evidence as a whole,” she added.

“Totally agree. So it’s good to look at systematic reviews right?” Crenshaw asked. “That’s the gold standard of evidence when you’re trying to understand whether something works or whether it doesn’t. So the British Journal of Medicine looked at 61 systematic reviews with the conclusion that, quote, ‘there is great uncertainty about the effects of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries in young people.’ Journal of Endocrine Society came up with the same conclusion. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics — all cite the lack of evidence.”

“So here’s the thing,” Crenshaw continued. “If you’re doing a therapy, and it’s you know, temporary, whatever, fine, maybe let’s try let’s see if it works. But when you’re talking about permanent physiological changes, do you not agree just from an ethical standpoint that you might want extremely strong evidence of the benefits and there is no systematic review, that that states that there is strong evidence of benefits?”

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Activists Attacking Art Climate hysteria strikes again. James Freeman

Posted By on June 16th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/activists-attacking-art-44b29637?mod=opinion_lead_pos11

We’re still waiting for an example of a great civilization built by progressive leftists. Now there’s still another reason to doubt whether the contemporary mania to attack society’s traditions has any value at all. How can one take seriously warnings that climate change threatens civilization from people whose vandalism targets civilization itself?

“Ruining the most beautiful art in the world is probably not going to win people over to your cause,” observes RealClearPolitics President Tom Bevan on Twitter as he links to an Associated Press story about the latest attack by global warmists on a cultural treasure.

AP reports:

Two women were detained in Stockholm after they threw “some kind of paint” at a painting by French artist Claude Monet and then glued themselves to the frame, Sweden’s National Museum said Wednesday.
The painting, “The Artist’s Garden at Giverny,” was on display as part of an exhibition at the museum. Spokesperson Hanna Tottmar said artwork was encased in glass and “is now being examined by the museum’s conservators to see if any damage has occurred.”
The exhibit, titled “The Garden,” was closed but expected to reopen to visitors on Thursday. ”We naturally distance ourselves from actions where art or cultural heritage risks being damaged … regardless of the purpose,” Per Hedström, the museum’s acting director, said.

Yes, let’s all distance ourselves from this destructive zealotry, which has sadly become popular on the radical left. “Why Are Climate Activists Throwing Food at Million-Dollar Paintings?,” asked a headline last year in Smithsonian magazine. Margaret Osborne reported:

Wearing neon orange vests, two climate activists splattered mashed potatoes on the protective glass that covers Monet’s Grainstacks at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany. They then glued their hands to the wall below the painting and began to speak.

But who would want to listen when the speakers have just self-identified as unreasonable and untethered to any standard of decent behavior?

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Newsom vs. DeSantis: Bring It On The U.S. needs a debate between the California and Florida Governors.

Posted By on June 16th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ron-desantis-gavin-newsom-debate-sean-hannity-florida-california-donald-trump-joe-biden-a746e8f7?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

The two shouty debates between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in 2020 were not exactly the stuff of Lincoln and Douglas, and if next year brings a rerun, many TV viewers would probably flip the channel in favor of something else, anything else, “Fast & Furious 17” or women’s air hockey finals. Yet serious public arguments can matter.

So kudos to Fox News’s Sean Hannity, who floated a series of “great debates” in an interview this week with Gavin Newsom. “Love it,” the California Governor said.

Mr. Hannity: “You would do a two-hour debate with Ron DeSantis?”

Mr. Newsom: “I’d make it three.”

The Florida Governor responded at a news conference Thursday, without addressing Mr. Newsom’s hurled gauntlet. “What I would tell him is, you know what, stop pussyfooting around,” Mr. DeSantis said. “Are you going to throw your hat in the ring and challenge Joe [Biden]? Are you going to get in and do it? Or are you just going to sit on the sidelines and chirp?”

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Charter Schools: New Evidence of Student Success A nationwide Stanford study shows huge learning gains over union schools.

Posted By on June 16th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/stanford-credo-charter-schools-study-student-performance-traditional-schools-education-math-reading-1d416fe5?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

School choice is gaining momentum nationwide, and charter schools are a large part of the movement. A new study shows that these independently run public schools are blowing away their traditional school competition in student performance.

Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (Credo) report is the third in a series (2009, 2013, 2023) tracking charter-school outcomes over 15 years. The study is one of the largest ever conducted, covering over two million charter students in 29 states, New York City and Washington, D.C., and a control group in traditional public schools.

Credo’s judgment is unequivocal: Most charter schools “produce superior student gains despite enrolling a more challenging student population.” In reading and math, “charter schools provide their students with stronger learning when compared to the traditional public schools.” The nationwide gains for charter students were six days in math and 16 days in reading.

The comparisons in some states are more remarkable. In New York, charter students were 75 days ahead in reading and 73 days in math compared with traditional public-school peers. In Illinois they were 40 days ahead in reading and 48 in math. In Washington state, 26 days ahead in reading and 39 in math. Those differences can add up to an extra year of learning across an entire elementary education.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Why Donald Trump Cannot Get a Top-Tier Lawyer by Alan M. Dershowitz

Posted By on June 15th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19725/donald-trump-lawyer

There are disturbing suggestions that among the reasons lawyers are declining the case is because they fear legal and career reprisals.

There is a nefarious group that calls itself The 65 Project that has as its goal to intimidate lawyers into not representing Trump or anyone associated with him. They have threatened to file bar charges against any such lawyers.

I wrote an op-ed offering to defend pro bono any lawyers that The 65 Project goes after. So The 65 Project immediately went after me, and contrived a charge based on a case in which I was a constitutional consultant, but designed to send a message to potential Trump lawyers: If you defend Trump or anyone associated with him, we will target you and find something to charge you with. The lawyers to whom I spoke are fully aware of this threat — and they are taking it seriously…. It may even be worse today….

Good lawyers… generally welcome challenges, especially in high-profile cases. This case is different: the threats to the lawyers are greater than at any time since McCarthyism. Nor is the comparison to McCarthyism a stretch. I recall during the 1950s how civil liberties lawyers, many of whom despised communism, were cancelled, and attacked if they dared to represent people accused of being communists.

Our system of justice is based on the John Adams standard: he too was attacked for defending the British soldiers accused of the Boston Massacre, but his representation of these accused killers now serves as a symbol of the 6th Amendment right to counsel. That symbol has now been endangered….

Trump’s lawyers have now alleged that one of the prosecutors has suggested to Stanley Woodward, the lawyer for Waltine Nauta, Trump’s co-defendant, that his application for judgeship may be negatively affected if he persists in defending Nauta vigorously rather than encouraging him to cooperate against Trump. If that is true – and I have not seen the evidence to support it – then it represents a direct attack on the 6th Amendment.

Whatever one may think of Trump or the charges against him, all Americans must stand united against efforts to intimidate lawyers and chill them from defending unpopular clients pursuant to the 6th Amendment. Bar associations must look into the threats and actions of The 65 Project and of prosecutors who try… to influence the representation of clients by threats to their careers or other means.

Hard cases may make bad law but partisan cases endanger constitutional rights. We must do everything to assure that all defendants, including Donald Trump, get the zealous representation to which the Constitution entitled all Americans.

Former President Donald Trump has now been arraigned and pleaded not guilty. He was represented by two lawyers, neither of whom he apparently wants to lead his defense at trial. He has been interviewing Florida lawyers, and several top ones have declined. I know, because I have spoken to them. There are disturbing suggestions that among the reasons lawyers are declining the case is because they fear legal and career reprisals.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Indict Walt Nauta? Why Not the Biggest Liars First? The last thing this country needs is any more bottled-piety lectures on the rule of law from Special Counsel Jack Smith, Joe Biden, and the array of admitted lying former high government officials.  By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on June 15th, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/06/14/indict-walt-nauta-why-not-the-biggest-liars-first/

Walt Nauta is a 10-year-Navy veteran and served as an aide to former President Trump both in and out of office. 

Special Counsel Jack Smith has now indicted him for allegedly “making false statements in interviews with the FBI.” The indictment’s subtext is that Nauta refused to cooperate with, and turn state’s evidence to, the special counsel in its efforts to convict the former president. 

But why stop the indictments with a man who loyally served and followed the orders of the former president of the United States, was a Navy veteran, and a hard-working immigrant from Guam? 

Are there not far bigger fish to fry to remind Americans that justice is blind? 

After all, when Special Counsel Smith announced his indictments of Trump, he lectured America on the rule of law and the cherished notion that no one is above it. 

So let us start with the former interim director of the FBI itself, Andrew McCabe. 

McCabe admittedly lied four times about his illegally leaking sensitive information to witnesses and mishandling classified information. 

Have those crimes suddenly ceased being felonies? 

Or is it now the policy of the United States government that an FBI director can lie with impunity, and leak, and mishandle sensitive classified information? 

Yet Walt Nauta may be sent to prison while McCabe will continue to earn a fine salary at CNN as a paid “expert” to deplore . . . what exactly? 

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel, What Have You Done For Us Lately? (#754 in a Series) All the best people are rooting for you. by Hugh Fitzgerald

Posted By on June 15th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/israel-what-have-you-done-for-us-lately-754-in-a-series/

1. Cyber Defense

“Security Aces: The Israeli startup that’s taking Europe by storm,” by Daniel Gal, Israel Hayom, June 7, 2023:

Israel’s startup scene is constantly moving forward and crossing new borders where innovative and revolutionary developments are concerned, with one of the country’s prominent strengths being the security field. The world has always looked to Israel for groundbreaking defense and security solutions, with the main emphasis being on cyber defense developments.

One of the newest and most promising players in cyber defense is startup company GlobeKeeper. The company, founded in 2016, aims to deal with one of the most complicated challenges in the world of secure communications – the older generation of communication systems, which are not protected from cyberattacks – and has developed an advanced multichannel communications app for security entities, specialized to meet their needs and offering maximum security.

The Israeli success story of young entrepreneurs Dan Peleg and Shai Slobodov begins with their first acquaintance, at the IDF’s elite Unit 81. “I came from Moshav Shilat and my partner Shai came from Lehavim. We’re two moshavniks who enlisted to the Intelligence Corps with no background or financial backing, we met there and today we’re marketing the system we’ve developed ourselves to Europe’s largest law enforcement agencies. At the end of the day, if that kind of entities are using products developed in Israel, that’s an Israeli success”.

Q: What advantages does the app have?

GlobeKeeper’s app is installed on smartphones and replaces the old-school radios used by cops, security guards and other security officials”, explains Dan Peleg. “It enables them to access all communication channels under one Virtual Command Platform (VCP): multidirectional communication, live streaming video, location sharing, chat, notifications and transferring files, images and videos. The system allows users to monitor, manage, operate and integrate all equipment in real time. Unlike WhatsApp, the communication is secure and cyber-protected using some of the strongest and strictest measures available”.

BOOKS Comments turned off

The Soros Agenda by Alex Grobman

Posted By on June 15th, 2023

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/372753

Who is George Soros? Why does the mere mention of his name provoke a torrent of pejorative comments including many expletives? Antisemites are accused of using his name to foster hatred against Jews in the same way they used to invoke the Rothschilds. Soros is an easy target not only because he is Jewish, but more importantly because of what he does to undermine the West and specifically the US, which he calls “the main obstacle to a stable and just world.”

Attempt to Transform America

To learn more about Soros’ plan to transform the US, I turned to Rachel Ehrenfeld’s latest work The Soros Agenda. (Rachel Ehrenfeld, The Soros Agenda, New York: Republic Book Publishers, 2023 ISBN: 978-1645720478). Ehrenfeld is the director of the American Center for Democracy and its Economic Warfare Institute, and an expert on terrorism and corruption, including terror financing, economic warfare, and narcoterrorism.

She exposes his strategy to advance radical causes by supporting Left-wing public figures, groups and politicians that have significantly increased the violence and sown discord and division in the country, while “weakening” the nation from within and reducing its prestige and influence throughout the world. By identifying his modus operandi and his “tenuous” direct and indirect links that effect domestic and international affairs, Ehrenfeld hopes to thwart them from implementing his “full-scale revolution.”

Soros’ objective is to liberate the US “from the restraints of constitutionalism, American exceptionalism, free-market capitalism, and other obsolete isms,” according to the late journalist Stefan Kanfer, whom Ehrenfeld quotes.

Through his myriad of nonprofit organizations and foundations, Soros and his family fund the elections of Democrat candidates on the local, state and presidential level and district attorney campaigns, providing him with enormous influence. The media documented his very significant support of the elections of Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and others, although the amount of his direct and indirect contributions is by design not made available.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Video: Soros’ Son Boasts About Meeting With VP Harris But the Left wants us to believe Soros’ influence is just a conspiracy theory.

Posted By on June 15th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/video-soros-son-boasts-about-meeting-with-vp-harris/

In this short video from Fox Business’ Varney & Co., Matt Palumbo — author of The Man Behind the Curtain — discusses the insidious influence of the Soros family on the Biden administration.

Don’t miss it!

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

From Science to a Suicidal Cult Replete with terrorist fanatics and an anti-human worldview. Bruce Thornton

Posted By on June 15th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/from-science-to-a-suicidal-cult/

The death in prison last week of ecoterrorist Theodore Kaczynski, the notorious Unabomber who in the Nineties killed three people and wounded 23 with package-bombs. The occasion of his death reminds us how an environmental movement that started by focusing on improving human well-being––providing clean air and water, and practicing prudent resource management–– has devolved into an irrational cult replete with terrorist fanatics and Disneyesque fantasies about humanity’s relationship with the natural world.

More dangerous is the transformation of global public energy policies into “net-zero carbon” and “green renewable” energy despite being based on incomplete, if not dubious, science. Worse, their trillions in cost are currently endangering the economies of the rich West, and the economic development of poorer underdeveloped Rest, by proscribing the cheap, abundant fossil-fuel energy that powered the West’s creation of the richest, freest, most well-fed human beings who ever existed.

The Nineties were when the “global warming” crisis ramped-up the justifications for these dangerous policies––a few years after the brief apocalyptic fad of an impending new ice age. From well-heeled professors and celebrities, to politicians and disaffected suburbanites, romantic environmentalism began colonizing academic research, school curricula, and government policy, while propagating numerous corporate grifters exploiting government mandates on recycling refuse and developing “alternative energy” to replace icky energy from cheap fossil fuels.

The Unabomber was the most visible expression of this new, dangerous sensibility, by dint of his murders and blackmailing the New York Times and Washington Post into publishing in September, 1995, his 30,000-word manifesto. A rambling, incoherent, cliché-ridden screed typical of autodidactic cranks, the manifesto encapsulates the mashup of romantic nature-myths, Marxism’s hatred of free-market economies, and the utopianism and antihumanism of totalitarian technocrats––all of which define our current environmental received wisdom.