Race and racial bias
January 22, 2023 — Steven Hayward

One of Stan Evans‘s many great quips was that it was fortunate Republican politicians were pro-life, since they spend so much time in the fetal position. The lack of fight in congressional Republicans was a source of endless frustration for Stan, and despite some indications the new House GOP majority may pick some worthy fights, in some areas they are already proving to be a colossal failure. The Washington Free
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December 22, 2022 — Scott Johnson

A friend forwards Valley News columnist Jim Kenyon’s report from the frontiers of social equity in Vermont. High times have come in legal form to Vermont. Vermont’s Cannabis Control Board began issuing licenses for cannabis retail stores (a/k/a “recreational dispensaries”) on October 1. Kenyon celebrates the license awarded Miriam Wood to open a store in Hartford, Vermont, up the road a few miles from White River Junction: Wood, who is
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October 28, 2022 — Scott Johnson

The imminent midterm elections have instigated a flurry of public appearances and statements by President Biden. He denies, deflects, and minimizes the seriousness of the historic inflation he has inflicted on us. This week he took after “junk fees” in what I see in a pathetic exhibition of fighting inflation for those who don’t understand what inflation is. In this case he added a racial element that I don’t purport
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October 27, 2022 — Scott Johnson

Steve Hayward’s official thought of the day is lined up to go this afternoon. Until that time, I offer this preface to the thought of the day from the last chapter of Christopher Caldwell’s Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties (2020) (reviewed here by Helen Andrews in the Claremont Review of Books). Referring to the phenomenon of gangsta rap and its liberal use of the n-word, Caldwell notes the
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October 11, 2022 — Scott Johnson

On the morning after after President Biden’s proclamation of a pardon for all those convicted of marijuana possession last week I commented in “High on foggy Biden.” In response to the mind-numbing racial disparities shibboleths that Biden cited to support the pardons, I referred to part 4 of my 2015 Deep secrets of racial profiling series. In the linked part 4 I wrote about Michelle Alexander’s noxious The New Jim
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October 7, 2022 — Scott Johnson

Yesterday President Biden issued a blanket pardon of all those convicted of marijuana possession under federal law. The White House has posted the text of Biden’s proclamation of pardon is here.The White House has posted Biden’s video statement on the pardon on Twitter (below). Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. Hear from @POTUS on the three steps he is taking to right these
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September 26, 2022 — Steven Hayward

If you thought the whole idea of “race science” went out of fashion with eugenics, you’d be wrong. The University of California at Santa Cruz (where Angela Davis remains a tenured professor) is currently looking to hire a professor of “Critical Race Science,” which is no doubt the best kind. Here’s some of the job listing: Critical Race and Ethnic Studies: Assistant or Associate Professor Critical Race Science and Technology
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August 24, 2022 — Steven Hayward

One popular theory about the left’s obsession with racism is that they are the largest practitioners of it themselves. To wit, this report from National Public Radio: People of color at ‘New York Times’ get lower ratings in job reviews, union says An analysis of comprehensive data for roughly 1,000 The New York Times employees conducted by members of the union that represents its newsroom found that Black and Latino
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August 23, 2022 — Scott Johnson

Last week Alpha News reported on the blatantly racist contract provision in the new teachers’ union contract with the Minneapolis school district. John drew attention to the Alpha News story the same day. The contract provision is not only blatantly racist, it is blatantly illegal. Alpha News (on whose board I site) performed a public service in reporting on the provision and it has since become a national story. Teachers’
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August 21, 2022 — John Hinderaker

We wrote here about the new teachers’ contract for the Minneapolis School District, which provides that white teachers will be laid off first, regardless of seniority, and if teachers are called back after a layoff, white teachers will be called back last. The blatant racism of this contract provision attracted a great deal of adverse comment, but the teachers’ union is sticking to its story: The president and vice president
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August 14, 2022 — John Hinderaker

The answer to that question is, sometimes. One would think this is clearly such an instance: Minneapolis teachers union contract calls for layoffs of white teachers first. That sounds like naked race discrimination by a government entity, but is it illegal? First, some facts: A Minneapolis teachers union contract stipulates that white teachers will be laid off or reassigned before “educators of color” in the event Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS)
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June 30, 2022 — Scott Johnson

The great Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has set off the lunatic left that powers the throbbing heart of the Democratic Party and its media adjunct. He has set the left off ever since his nomination to the Court by President Bush in 1991. I’m so old I recall Joe Biden’s idiotic performance as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the confirmation hearing (and Biden’s descent from 1991 has
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June 7, 2022 — Steven Hayward

A few years back we flagged the article in Gender, Place and Culture on “Human Reactions to Rape Culture and Queer Performativity in Urban Dog Parks in Portland, Oregon,” wondering if it was a hoax. And it indeed was a hoax—part of the very successful Pluckrose/ Beghossian/Lindsay project to plant absurd articles in postmodern academic journals. I thought we might have a sequel involving on our hands in the current
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May 17, 2022 — Steven Hayward

I’m so old I can remember Bill Clinton blaming the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing on Rush Limbaugh. Heck, I’m so old I can recall MSNBC and the rest of the leftist hive mind blaming the 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords on Sarah Palin, when 30 seconds of observation showed clearly the shooter was severely mentally ill. Oh, wait—you don’t need to be old for that: the New York Times
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May 12, 2022 — Scott Johnson

Liz Collin’s Alpha News story exposing the fraudulent story retailed by Toshira Garraway about the death of her fiancé, Justin Teigen — supposedly beaten to death by the St. Paul police in 2009 — deserves the clichéd appellation “bombshell.” Liz quotes Garraway in a local media interview: “They caught him. They beat him to death. They threw him in the garbage…” Etc., etc., rinse, wash, and repeat. Liz reports: “Teigen’s
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May 8, 2022 — Scott Johnson

President Biden went to United Performance Metals in Hamilton, Ohio to talk up the Bipartisan Innovation Act this past Friday. The act has passed into law, so I can’t say don’t let it be. It is. The White House has posted the text of Biden’s remarks here. Biden took the occasion to look back on his career and reminisce about the good old days in the United States Senate. The
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March 25, 2022 — Scott Johnson

Harvard screwed Roland Fryer. That’s what happened to Roland Fryer. National Association of Scholars President Peter Wood’s Spectator column “When Harvard canceled a black professor” {UPDATE: published in accessible form by the New York Post here] applies Wood’s academic expertise to tell the story. As if we didn’t have enough to be indignant about, we now have the case — the rise and fall — of Professor Fryer to digest.
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