Culture wars
March 30, 2023 — Elizabeth Stauffer
One New Year’s Eve in the 1990s, I was seated on a train out of Manhattan when a huge man dressed as a woman took the facing seat directly across from me. Although he had caused quite a stir as he moved through the car, he seemed oblivious to the eye rolls from my fellow passengers. With his bare midriff, I remember thinking he must be cold given the freezing temperatures
»
March 27, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Whenever there is a mass shooting it is usually wise to wait until full details are available, as early reports are often wrong or incomplete. I did think it odd this morning that the mass shooter at the Christian school in Nashville was reported to be a female, as female mass shooters are extremely rare—only four in U.S. history according to one report I’ve seen. Then it was reported that
»
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
»
July 18, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Angel Blue is an African-American opera singer, who I assume is very good. She made news a few days ago when she walked out on a production of La Traviata being staged by the Verona Theater because–not in her opera, but in a different production at the same theater, Aida–a Russian singer was slated to play the title role in “blackface” makeup. The Telegraph reports: A renowned Italian Opera theatre
»
June 26, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Buzz Lightyear (voiced by the great Tim Allen, one of the few right-leaning stars in Hollywood) became an iconic character in the Toy Story series of films, but the new standalone Buzz Lightyear movie, with Buzz voiced by Chris Evans instead of Allen, has bombed at the box office, perhaps because it decided to go fully woke by prominently featuring a lesbian relationship. As Kyle Smith puts it, “today Hollywood’s
»
May 16, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The new (Spring) issue of the Claremont Review of Books has just been posted online this morning. I asked the editors if they would make their interview with the great Norman Podhoretz accessible for our readers. Here it is: “Present at the creation.” Subhead: “Norman Podhoretz on the rise of the anti-American left.” The interview opens with a reference to the 2019 CRB interview of Mr. Podhoretz by CRB editor
»
May 10, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Wilfred McClay is the formidable historian and a leading light of our intellectual life. On May 17 he is to be recognized with one of this year’s Bradley Prizes — this one — along with Glenn Loury and Chen Guangcheng. Bill wrote me last night: “That is such sad news about Midge. I loved that woman She had more soul in her little finger than any seven other people. I
»
May 9, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Midge Decter via Ruthie Blum’s post on Facebook: “My mother, Midge Decter Podhoretz, died today, two months shy of her 95th birthday. Thankfully, I managed to arrive in New York just in time to say goodbye to the greatest woman I’ve ever known. As soon as we figure it all out, we will provide info about the funeral and shiva.”
»
March 23, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I thought the humorous video below represented nothing more than a light-hearted display of wit with a postmodern twist or two. I greatly enjoyed the video when a busy friend took a timeout from his work to draw my attention to it yesterday. Reading Ben Shapiro’s column this morning, however, I note, not for the first time, that I am slow on the uptake. Jeremy’s Razors is a real thing.
»
March 11, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Justin Danhof is executive vice president of the National Center for Public Policy Research and a shareholder gadfly. Earlier this week he spoke in favor of his Disney shareholder proposal seeking “to protect Disney from a myriad of legal and reputational risks stemming from its race-based employee training programs.” The center has posted background here. It has also posted the text of Danhof’s statement here. FOX News covers it here.
»
March 4, 2022 — John Hinderaker
This is a familiar story: at Marquette University, Native American students complained that the school’s seal was “disrespectful to indigenous people.” Here is the old seal. It shows, among other things, Father Marquette, after whom the university is named, in a canoe with an Indian who is said to be his guide: Per the College Fix, the seal was taken from this painting of Marquette with a group of Indians:
»
December 31, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
So there was Ted Koppel, innocently working out on a treadmill, when he came across an episode of the Andy Griffith Show. Later, he went online and discovered that the show was one of the most watched television programs of the 1960s. Koppel had also heard a conservative complain about how “woke” the Washington, D.C. area has become and how much nicer it is to live in the south, where
»
November 2, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
John and I both wrote last night about the use of the tomahawk chop by fans of the Atlanta Braves. I speculated that even if the Atlanta Braves tried to stop fans from chopping, the effort would probably be unsuccessful. Today, a Braves fan informs me that the Braves did, in fact, try to do away with the tomahawk chop two years ago. He writes: On the first day of
»
October 28, 2021 — John Hinderaker
The weird phenomenon of woke capitalism persists. This time it is Mars, Inc., maker of Twix candy bars. Mars released this two-minute video for Halloween, no doubt the biggest season of the year for Twix sales: Via InstaPundit. I won’t try to improve on James Lileks’ comments, quoted there: So yes, it’s real, and it’s Twix endorsed. It doesn’t really matter how you think about it. What you learn is
»
October 27, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The cultural transformation of the United States proceeds at an astonishing pace. It is assisted by the titans of Big Tech, of course, against whom a president and lowly congressman are powerless. In what should be another installment of my Shapes of things series, Rep. Jim Banks has been suspended by Twitter for allegedly “misgendering [Biden administration] trans health official” Rachel Levine (per the CBS News tweet below). The AP
»
October 26, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Campaigning in Virginia for Terry McAuliffe this weekend, Barack Obama said this to supporters: We don’t have time to be wasted on these phony trumped-up culture wars, this fake outrage, the right-wing media’s pedals to juice their ratings. And the fact that [Glenn Youngkin is] willing to go along with it instead of talking about serious problems that actually affect serious people? That’s a shame. That’s not what this election’s
»
October 25, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
As John discussed here, the National School Boards Association retracted and apologized for urging federal authorities to target unruly school board meetings. That letter spurred (or was the coordinated pretext for) the Justice Department’s decision to call in the FBI. The apology was reported by the Washington Times, among other outlets. However, I’ve seen no mention of it in the Washington Post. The Post, though, has published a piece by
»
