March 2, 2023 — John Hinderaker
On February 16, Joe Biden issued an order titled “Executive Order on Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.” The order demands “equity” throughout federal agencies. “Equity” is simply a fancy word for race discrimination. Earlier today, U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Peter Kirsanow wrote to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, urging Congress to take action against Biden’s race discrimination order. Kirsanow’s letter is
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March 1, 2023 — John Hinderaker
A report recently found that there are 53 public schools in Illinois where not a single student can do math at grade level. That report made international news, and my colleague Catrin Wigfall wondered whether there could possibly be any such low-achieving schools in Minnesota. So she investigated. It turns out that there are 19 public schools in Minnesota, 11 of them public charter schools, where not a single student
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March 1, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Marjorie Taylor Greene made headlines by suggesting that it may be time for a “national divorce,” with red states and blue states going their separate ways. She was roundly denounced in nearly all quarters, as though she had called for a civil war. But in fact, her point was the same one I have made more than once: disunion is a real possibility, and the alternative to disunion is a
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February 28, 2023 — John Hinderaker
As pollution has declined worldwide and damage from extreme weather events has grown less and less, the environmental movement has become ever more shrill and demanding. It has become obvious that catastrophic anthropogenic global warming is no longer a scientific hypothesis–it failed, in that regard–but rather is an unhinged pseudo-justification for every left-wing policy prescription. At the Spectator Australia, Alan Moran documents the fact that the Earth is getting along
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February 27, 2023 — John Hinderaker
We are fans of Italy’s new, populist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Now it appears that a similar figure is rising in Spain: Madrid’s President, Isabel Díaz Ayuso: Fresh from freeing Madrid from lockdown, Isabel Díaz Ayuso is waging a war on woke and seeking to turn Madrid into the “Florida of Europe” in a campaign that could ultimately lead to her becoming Spain’s first female prime minister. The “Florida of
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February 27, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The DFL’s Blackout Bill, requiring that all electricity be produced by wind and solar energy by 2040, has now been signed into law by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The bill’s proponents have not offered any estimate of its cost to ratepayers, nor have they produced a feasibility study purporting to show that 100% wind and solar electricity can reliably power our state. My organization, on the other hand, has authored
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February 26, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, has been canceled: More newspapers say they are dropping the “Dilbert” comic strip after creator Scott Adams this week advised white people to “get the f–k away” from Black people. Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the US, has announced it will no longer run the workplace comic “effective immediately” over remarks Adams, 65, made on his online show “Real Coffee with
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February 26, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Via Kevin Roche, we come across this NBER paper, titled “Cross-State Strategic Voting,” which is embedded below. This is the paper’s Abstract: We estimate 3% of the U.S. voter population is registered to vote in two states. Which state these double-registrants choose to vote in reflects incentives and costs, being more prevalent in swing states (higher incentive) and states which automatically send out mail-in ballots (lower cost). We call this
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February 25, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Via John Nolte, I learn that a group of left-wing media companies now wants access to the January 6 tapes that Kevin McCarthy has given to Tucker Carlson: A group of media organizations, including CBS News, is demanding access to a tranche of surveillance and police videos from the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol that U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy provided to Fox News host Tucker Carlson. In
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February 25, 2023 — John Hinderaker
You may think you fully appreciate how inept our criminal justice system is, but most likely you are wrong. It is worse than those of us who don’t experience it daily can imagine. If your blood pressure can stand it, check out this post by my colleague David Zimmer. It is titled “Gun offender murders man just 40 minutes after leaving court,” but that doesn’t convey the half of it.
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February 24, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Survey data indicate that a high percentage of people who underwent sex-change operations when they were young eventually regret it. The data also suggest that most minors who express gender dysphoria have a multitude of problems, including, in many cases, autism. Yet sex-change clinics around the world frequently hustle disturbed minors into permanent, life-altering chemical regimes and brutally invasive surgery. Most people, if asked, don’t support sex change operations on
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February 24, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Rumor has it that NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley may be going to work for CNN. CNN staffers are not happy about it: Page Six has confirmed that execs have been in talks with the NBA legend and longtime broadcaster about appearing on the news channel in hope he can help the numbers to rebound. I trust everyone got the joke. But insiders tell us a deal with Barkley
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February 23, 2023 — John Hinderaker
It is a frightening thought, but Joe Biden’s administration may yield depths of incompetence that have not yet been plumbed. The derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous chemicals should have been an easy opportunity for the administration. It was, after all, an environmental disaster, and Democrats think they own environmental issues. The fire, the smoke plume, the derailed cars, the worried citizens–all offered easy photo ops. And yet
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February 23, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The mania for electric vehicles is a fad that is driven 100% by government regulation. The consumer verdict on EVs has been in for a century. Some of the earliest cars were battery-powered, but they lost out to gasoline-powered cars because gasoline-powered vehicles are better. Those who have been paying attention understand that there is zero chance that our existing motor vehicle fleet will be converted to EVs. Mark Tapscott
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February 22, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Yesterday the stock markets had their worst day of the year, so far. From today’s Wall Street Journal: Walmart and Home Depot offered cautious outlooks as consumers spend more on food and less on electronics, apparel and home improvements, with inflation and changing habits hitting demand for many goods. All of this is, and has long been, blindingly obvious. The federal government engaged in trillions of dollars in mostly wasteful
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February 21, 2023 — John Hinderaker
In the movie This Is Spinal Tap, the over-the-hill band explained its declining crowds by saying that its “appeal is becoming more selective.” Donald Trump’s latest harangue put me in mind of that euphemism: Former President Trump has railed against the New York Post, one of the nation’s top tabloid newspapers, after it published an extensive profile of possible 2024 White House candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) over the
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February 21, 2023 — John Hinderaker
David Horowitz comments on the recent mayhem in Austin, Texas: In the news reports about the anti-police mayhem by young people in Austin Texas, one common element is missing: the obvious fact that Austin is a college town, home to one of America’s once-great educational institutions. This fact is not peripheral to the outbreak of lawlessness that tore apart Austin that night but central. Like virtually every major academic institution
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