It’s having a new heyday.

Anti-Semitism is having yet another of its semi-annual flare-ups. It’s a disease that will never be eradicated. On Tuesday, Rabbi David Wolpe said on Twitter: “I remember when hating Jews wasn’t chic.” His memory is better than mine. You don’t have to be a Nazi to be a Jew-hater. I recently heard a university administrator describe a woman’s voice as “too Jewy.” Anti-Semitism is an equal-opportunity employer.

[You can find Eliot
Weinberger’s translation of “I, a Jew” in Borges’ Selected
Non-Fictions,
Viking, 1999.]

Open & shut case of Black privilege asserting itself.

Maybe. She dramatized and gold what many want to hear but couldn’t get it straight. Now what?

Forging ahead with Uncle Joe’s MAW* program.

In a move certain to increase prices across the board and heighten America’s energy dependence on foreign sources, the Biden administration will suspend oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will publish a secretarial order formally rescinding the leases, which were issued during Trump’s final days as president, according to sources familiar with the matter, per the New York Times.

The move comes after Biden’s executive order, on his first day as president, to place a moratorium on new Arctic drilling.

* Make American Weak.

Sanity from Fla.

Those two, however, seem like the fabled Dutch boy with thumb in dike.

For which they are to be applauded, of course. (Also of course, not to be dismissing of their constituencies, which is as it should be.)

As for the Dutch boy, a.k.a. Hans Brinker . . . Look it up.

The long form lives in this Chicago Contrarian series.

The face of failure

When Lori Lightfoot announced her bid to unseat then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel in May 2018, the Ohio native and former head of the Chicago Police Board and Chicago Police Accountability Task Force struck a pose as a seismic and completely heterodox politician. Over the past two-year period, Chicago residents have come to learn at halfway through her first term in office, Ms. Lightfoot has been a miserable failure. That Ms. Lightfoot has failed is not because of faulty policy, but because she has forsaken her duties as the leader of the City of Chicago. The three areas in which Lightfoot has failed most significantly are on budgetary matters, education and crime.

Etc.

Quite interesting . . .

“Masks are really for infected people to prevent them from spreading infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infection,” Fauci wrote in response to one person who was concerned about the use of masks on her upcoming trip.

“The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through material. It might, however, provide some slight benefit in keep out gross droplets if someone coughs or sneezes on you,” Fauci continued. “I do not recommend that you wear a mask, particularly since you are going to a very low risk location.”

If he had been that clear for the rest of us, he would have saved people a lot of trouble, even anguish and grief.

Quintessence of the blue, blue state.

Few things in the COVID-19 saga are more frightening than how casually most courts have let our most fundamental constitutional rights be voided by emergency orders, particularly in Illinois. Under those orders, which Illinois courts allow to persist with no time limit, the list of trampled rights is almost as long as the Bill of Rights itself, including freedoms of association, travel, assembly, religion, property, equal protection and due process.

Two rulings by Illinois courts this week continued the trend.

First, an appellate court upheld one of the most egregiously unfair elements of Illinois’ emergency orders – the eviction moratorium, which has essentially forced property owners to pay for a free housing program. . . .

For a quick, reportorial look at how the ruling party talks to voters, see this little book.

Illinois Blues: How the Ruling Party Talks to Voters

He loves a leftist.

2. Influence on U.S. elections: Soros once said that removing President George W. Bush from office in 2004 was the “central focus of my life.” He put his money where his mouth is, giving $23.58 million to various 527 groups dedicated to defeating Bush. His early financial support helped jump-start Barack Obama???s political career. Soros hosted a 2004 fund-raiser for Obama when he was running for the Illinois Senate and gave the maximum-allowed contribution within hours of Obama???s announcement that he was running for President.

‘Course, if you do too . . . But that’s another question.

Baseless accusations.

NEW YORK, May 28, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A New York District Attorney (D.A.) has thrown out allegations of assault against well-known priest Fr. George Rutler.

So far, this news has been confirmed by New York parishioner Jonah Bergman, who told LifeSiteNews over Twitter that Rutler told him the good news himself. In response to a tweet by Sohrab Amari saying that the D.A. had refused to charge the priest, Bergman wrote, “Yes, it is true! He is my pastor and he married me and my wife. Answered prayers!”

Also on Facebook, from the public group “news and events” about Fr. Rutler:

Samuel J. Howard shared a link.

This article from LifeSite news summarizes what I understand to be known so far. While I’m not always impressed with LifeSite’s credibility, I do find Ms. McLean to be reliable.

I also know Dr. Jonah Bergman and trust his word…