September 17, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Two weeks ago, Princeton University’s president, Christopher Eisgruber, issued a letter to the Princeton community in which he admitted that the institution he has run for seven years is plagued by “systemic racism.” This is quite an admission for a number of reasons. One of them, as I pointed out, is that it confesses to a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Title VI provides that “No
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September 17, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Stanley Crouch died yesterday at the age of 74. Crouch is best known as a great jazz critic. His biography of Charlie Parker is a classic. But Crouch was also a literary critic and a critic of our culture. Here are some gems from his criticism: On rap: It is “either infantile self-celebration or anarchic glamorization of criminal behavior.” On Toni Morrison: She has a certain skill, but she has
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September 17, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Attorney General Barr spoke last night at Hillsdale College. The Washington Post labels Barr’s address “remarkable,” and I agree. It’s remarkable that a public official spoke in public as plainly and as truthfully as Barr did. Here are some of the comments that made the Post’s Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky unhappy: In response to criticism that Barr is “interfering” by overruling the decisions of career prosecutors, the Attorney General
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September 16, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports that a “clear racial gap persists in District’s pot arrests.” In other words, D.C. police officers (a majority of whom are Black, by the way) are far more likely to arrest Blacks than Whites for marijuana-related offenses. According to the Post, Blacks account for almost 90 percent of those arrested on marijuana-related charges in D.C. and 84 percent of those arrested for public consumption of the
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September 16, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Alejandro Villanueva plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He is a military combat veteran, having served in Afghanistan. This season, all of the Steelers except for Villaneuva will wear the name of Antwon Rose on their helmets. Villaneuva intends to wear the name of Alwyn Cashe, instead. Cashe, a black man, was a U.S. Army sergeant. He died of injuries suffered in Iraq in 2005. Rose, also black, was a criminal.
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September 16, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Israel’s peace agreement with the UAE and Bahrain, signed yesterday at the White House, is historic. It hasn’t happened before, nor has Israel entered into such a deal since 1994 (with Jordan). The extent to which the deal is historically significant can be debated (but won’t be in this post). However, for those who wish Israel well (and who don’t have an ax to grind with Donald Trump or Benjamin
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September 15, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports on statistics released today that show “the coronavirus is killing Hispanic, Black and American Indian children at much higher numbers than their White peers.” According to the stats, more than 75 percent of children killed by the virus are Hispanic, Black and American Indian children. Yet, these groups represent only 41 percent of the U.S. population [note: in that age category]. The most significant finding here,
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September 15, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
According to Rasmussen, President Trump’s job approval rating stands at 51 percent. That’s about where it’s been since late August, and it’s a rating that, one expects, would carry an incumbent president to re-election, especially against a relatively weak opponent like Joe Biden. It’s similar to Barack Obama’s approval rating just before he won in 2016. But what about other surveys? Fox News, in a survey that’s several days older
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September 15, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Lovely Warren is the mayor of Rochester, New York. This week she fired the city’s African-American police chief, who, by Warren’s own account, had already resigned. According to the Washington Post, she fired him based on findings that “the police department did not take the death of Daniel Prude seriously enough and engaged in conduct that may have been designed to mislead the public.” (Emphasis added) The findings Mayor Warren
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September 14, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Count American Jews among the minority groups that appear to be more disposed to vote for Donald Trump in 2020 than they were four years ago. A poll by the Jewish Electorate Institute found that Jewish likely voters favor Joe Biden over President Trump by a split of 67-30. Exit polling in 2016 found that Trump received only 25 percent of the Jewish vote, while Hillary Clinton garnered 70 percent
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September 14, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Some are touting Sweden as a success story, relatively speaking, when it comes to dealing with the Wuhan coronavirus. For example, this story in the British press claims that “Sweden got the last laugh on coronavirus.” Unfortunately, Sweden’s high number of per capita fatalities attributed to the virus is no laughing matter. Per capita fatalities number 578 per one million people. That’s comparable to the U.S., the UK, and Italy,
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September 14, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Today’s Washington Post includes a front page story the essence of which is that Democrat operatives are frustrated that President Trump is making inroads with Latino voters. The Post attributes Trump’s inroads to (1) lack of direct outreach by the Biden campaign to Latinos and (2) lingering resentment over deportations that occurred during the Obama administration. I have no reason to doubt the reporting that Team Biden hasn’t done a
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September 13, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
There has been considerable reporting about a second wave of the Wuhan coronavirus in Europe. The reporting reflects increases, often significant ones, in new reported cases in many European countries. However, so far and for the most part, the number of new reported cases is much lower than it was in the early Spring, even though there is probably more testing going on now. And the increase in the number
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September 13, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Which father-son pitching major league duo holds the record for most combined wins? I believe the answer is Mel and Todd Stottlemyre with 302, followed by Dizzy and Steve Trout with 258. Which combo holds the record for most wins plus saves? The answer is still the Stottlemyres with 304, I think. For second place, though, the answer changes. It’s Dick “Turk” Farrell and Richard Dotson with 300. But Farrell
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September 12, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Have you seen the clip below in which Jessica Krug, the white professor who pretended to be Black, imitates what she takes to be a mode of black speech? Her riff begins at about the one minute mark. Watch the latest video at foxnews.com Krug’s rant reminded me of Robin Williams imitating black argot and speech patterns when I saw him in San Francisco as a warm up act for
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September 11, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
As I write this, the New York Yankees are pounding the Baltimore Orioles like it’s 2019. Nothing special about that. What might be noteworthy is that the Yankees players are wearing “NYPD” or, some cases “FDNY,” on their caps in place of the team name. The message isn’t political. Rather, it’s in honor of what the City’s police and fire departments did 19 years ago on 9/11. No serious person
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September 11, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
I didn’t watch the NFL’s opening game last night between Kansas City and Houston. However, I’ve read several accounts about the players’ approach to the National Anthem and related activity. Apparently, the NFL decided to play both the National Anthem and a song called “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which is sometimes referred to as the black national anthem. The idea of a black national anthem should be offensive to
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