Stunning about-face account of an adult lifetime environmentalist and climate activist via Environmental Progress.
Learned, experienced, gutsy. Wow.
Month: June 2020
Flannery O’Connor Didn’t Care If You Liked Her Work
Fair enough . . .
Something fascinating about that point of view.
This is all to say that Flannery O’Connor did not care if you liked her work, and she certainly did not care, it would seem from her letters, if you liked her.
Writing was not for her a means of making a point or gaining admiration, though, being human, it is hard to imagine that she was not pleased at times with herself and her success.
Writing for her was a means of understanding herself: “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.”
GOP skepticism about that Russian ‘bounty’ story
Fakery on the Bounty . . .
Wash. Examiner’s Byron York does some sorting out:
Here’s the view of well-informed Hill Republicans about the New York Times scoop, “Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says.” “It sounds like something Russia would do,” said one Republican lawmaker. “The Russians are a very capable force,” said another. “They’ve had connections in Afghanistan that go back a long way, and they would love nothing more than to kill Americans.”
So there are no illusions about Russia. “If Putin can f–k with us, he’s going to do it,” said the second lawmaker. “We are constantly monitoring the Russians’ malign activities in Afghanistan. It’s no secret.”
That said, they are skeptical about the Times story and related commentary. “It’s entirely possible the intelligence was too tenuous, or contradicted by other intelligence, etc., to act on,” the first Republican said. Said the second: “They” — meaning the…
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Cook County Prosecutor to drop charges against riot-time curfew violators
The city can’t win for losing . . .
When is a curfew not a curfew? When offenders are not prosecuted.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is preparing to drop charges against many of those arrested for violating curfew earlier this month during days of protest and civil unrest, according to a local media report.
How many of these cases will be dismissed or what criteria will need to be met for these cases to be dropped is not known, but internal emails obtained by Fox 32 shed light on the plan.
“Cases are to be nolled (dismissed) where curfew violations or city disorderly conduct was the basis of a stop that led to a felony or misdemeanor case,” First Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph Magats reportedly said in those emails. “(I)f there are misdemeanor disorderlies where the conduct that was disorderly was a curfew violation, those cases are to be dismissed,” the email concluded.
She is sure a…
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White St. Louis couple point guns at protesters heading past their home to mayor’s house
Get a load of that all-purpose “protesters” as applied here to trespassers. (Elsewhere applied to, used for, rioters, statue-trashers, et al.)
How about “angry,” in quotes, citing the homeowners?
ST. LOUIS — A white couple stood outside their mansion and pointed guns at protesters in St. Louis as the group marched toward the mayor’s home to demand her resignation.
Mark McCloskey, 63, told a TV station that he and wife, Patricia, both personal injury lawyers, were facing an “angry mob” on their private street and feared for their lives Sunday night.
Signs clearly posted, area broken into. And that’s in the story, so fine.
But the goal is to write the story (and edit it, oh you AP customer Chi Trib) as if you don’t give a shit. Trouble is, you writers and editors find that preternaturally hard.
via Chicago Tribune
More mayhem in Chicago. CPD to put 1,200 extra officers on street for coming weekend.
Have we not heard this song before?
The move comes after another violent weekend, with 65 shootings, 18 of them fatal — including three children. “We’re all part of the city,” CPD Supt. David Brown said. “We can no longer turn a blind eye to the violence here.” [emphasis added]
We can’t? Blatant violation of “black lives matter” continues as usual. All who think the police are the problem, please respond.
New York Murders Jump as Democrats Demonize Police
Catholic priest among defenders of St Louis statue
Let us hear it for a smart, brave young man.
Fr. Stephen Schumacher, a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, was among the defenders of a prominent statue of the city’s namesake as protesters called for its removal Saturday.
Umar Lee, an organizer of the protests, said June 27 that the statue “is gonna come down,” reported Joel Currier of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “This guy right here represents hate and we’re trying to create a city of love. We’re trying to create a city where Black lives matter. We’re trying to create a city where there is no antisemitism or Islamophobia … this is not a symbol of our city in 2020.”
Fr. Schumacher, whose priestly ordination was in May 2019, addressed a shouting mob, attempting to inform them about St. Louis’ life, saying, “St. Louis was a man who willed to use his kingship to do good for his people.”
Meet [him] in St. [Looie, Looie] — where a bold, principled priest can be found.
via CNA
Why You Shouldn’t Have Kids
Pay attention to this advice.
Global warming. If you’re still trying to have a child at this point, you’re rooting for human extinction. We’re in a pandemic, don’t create another pandemic. If you hate doing laundry, that’s a clear sign you shouldn’t be considering it. Why would laundry exceed more than one load per week? Look in the mirror. Do you like what you see? Do you like your brief features? Think again, my friend. You might just be setting your kid up to be bullied.
You like to have money. Are you trying to make the wife lose her job? It spells less income for the family and an extra mouth to feed. Even as an armchair economist, you know this is a terrible idea. Heck, if you like your job, there’s no real reason to be giving it up. The task of shaping another human being should be left to the professionals. Did…
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Our Great Awokening and France’s Great Terror — today’s fanaticism is nothing new
As efforts intensify to purge anyone and anything from Western culture that offends the illiberal left’s sensitivities, the fanaticism which drives the Great Awokening has become abundantly evident.
To question the [error-filled] 1619 project’s factual veracity, for example, is seen as evidence of implicit racism.
Any confidence that the American Founding has something to teach the world is considered an instance of what Marxists call “false consciousness.”
References to reason, evidence, rule of law, or the West’s Jewish and Christian heritages are viewed as the language of someone hopelessly in thrall to “Eurocentric” outlooks.
Thou shalt not think, just emote.
What impresses me, however, is less the historically-illiterate justifications offered for the decapitation of statutes of Christopher Columbus, than the righteous fury visible in the eyes of those shouting slogans like “Rhodes Must Fall!”
Prudence, circumspection, and subtlety are out. Raw emotion and ideological purity are in. You are either with us or against us. And if you don’t endorse everything that we—the woke—think, say and do, be prepared to face the consequences.
The author probes wokery’s resemblances to the French Revolution, at length, including it cannibalism, including guillotining the not far enough left, the Girondins. He concludes with what our current revolutionists can expect.
In this light, those contemporary Girondins who dominate larger municipal governments throughout America and who rule the universities throughout Western countries, would be foolish to imagine that the illiberal left can somehow be placated by letting them riot, loot small businesses, and destroy public monuments.
Words like “compromise,” “tolerance,” and “moderation” do not form part of the lexicon of wokery. After all, once “one single will” has been established [Robespierre got the idea in part from Rousseau], such habits become superfluous.
One of the wokest of the revolutionary woke, he fell out of favor; and he and 21 followers were themselves guillotined. And that was it for the Reign of Terror which he had vigorously supported.
Our current revolutionists?
Perhaps at some point, the woke will turn on themselves as they try to outdo each other in showing whose consciousness has been raised the most. Unless or until that happens, however, anyone who sits on the vast spectrum from the liberal-minded left through to conservative traditionalists should have no illusions that the woke—like Robespierre—will be satisfied with anything less than complete submission.
And that would represent the end of liberty in any meaningful sense as well as the civilization which gave rise to it.
It’s come to that.
via Law & Liberty
Blithe Spirit 