wokeness
December 29, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
I wrote here about the war on grades and homework in some of California’s largest school district. Inevitably, that war is spreading. It has come to Arlington County, Virginia, for example. Naturally, there is pushback in Arlington. Surprising, perhaps, some of the pushers are liberal. Let’s start by examining what the Arlington School Board is considering. Its preliminary proposal calls for the following: No late penalties for homework. No extra
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December 28, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
“Being the Ricardos” is a film about a week in the life of the cast of “I Love Lucy.” With so many sports events cancelled due to the Wuhan coronavirus, I watched this movie on Amazon Prime last week. The plot centers around (1) the marital problems of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and (2) the turmoil stemming from reports that Ball once registered to vote as a Communist. There’s
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December 23, 2021 — Scott Johnson
You may have heard that Elon Musk sat down with Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, EIC Kyle Mann, and Creative Director Ethan Nicolle for an in-depth interview on wokeness, Elizabeth Warren, taxing the rich, the Metaverse, which superhero Elon would be, and how the left is killing comedy. The interview has made news on those subjects and more. The conversation occasionally flags, especially in the second half, but Musk himself
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December 16, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post moans that “despite diversity vows, wide racial gaps persist in corporate leadership” (the quote is from the print edition headline). The “vows” occurred after the death of George Floyd. The “wide gap” amounts to the difference between black representation in the U.S. population (12 percent) and black representation among the “highest corporate leaders” (8 percent, according to the Post). If one takes this story at face value,
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December 13, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
One of the happiest developments of 2021 has been the national movement of parents pushing back against woke education. As Stanley Kurtz says: Nothing can beat parents organized to halt the erosion of core American ideals like freedom of expression or equality before the law. Thankfully, a record of early successes is rapidly building a larger movement to take back our schools. But Stanley warns that the movement risks committing
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December 9, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Increasingly, school districts are asking candidates for teaching positions questions about “cultural competency,” race, and “equity” during the application and interview process. Education Week has the details. They aren’t pretty. Lauren Dachille, CEO of a company that peddles teacher screening software to around 500 districts across the country, says: Now that we’ve become a little more aware of the concept of anti-racism and maybe a little more woke as a
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December 8, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
With three weeks still to go in 2021, at least 12 major U.S. cities have broken their annual homicide records. Two other cities are on the verge of doing so. The cities that have already suffered a record number of homicides are: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Columbus, Ohio Indianapolis, Indiana Louisville, Kentucky St. Paul, Minnesota Portland, Oregon Tucson, Arizona Toledo, Ohio Austin, Texas Rochester, New York Albuquerque, New Mexico Baton Rouge, Louisiana
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November 23, 2021 — John Hinderaker
How crazy are liberals? Whenever you think you have taken the measure of their nuttiness, you see something like this, from the Women’s March: We apologize deeply for the email that was sent today. $14.92 was our average donation amount this week. It was an oversight on our part to not make the connection to a year of colonization, conquest, and genocide for Indigenous people, especially before Thanksgiving. — Women's
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November 20, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Is it any wonder that Democrats are fumbling their response to the jury verdict fully acquitting Kyle Rittenhouse? The Dems are fumbling a host of issues, especially those related to criminal law and justice. Joe Biden initially reacted the right way to the Rittenhouse outcome. He said he stood by what the jury concluded. That’s what normal politicians, and certainly normal presidents, say in this situation. Joe Biden used to
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November 19, 2021 — John Hinderaker
It is getting harder and harder to stay neutral in the culture war that is tearing American society apart. That is how it seems, anyway; I don’t understand why so many companies feel compelled to choose a side–pretty much always the far-Left side, unfortunately. The latest case in point is the Breakers, a venerable luxury resort in Palm Beach, Florida. The Breakers dates at least to 1926, and has long
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November 8, 2021 — Steven Hayward
Every day I think optimistically that we have reached peak absurdity from the left, but every day there is a fresh new high in leftist (un)creative destruction. First up, this: Canadian woman becomes first person diagnosed as suffering from ‘climate change’ A Canadian woman could be the first patient to be diagnosed as suffering from “climate change” after doctors said heatwaves and poor air quality brought on acute breathing problems. Kyle
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November 6, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post has a lengthy article about how Tuesday’s election has dashed the hopes of black activists. The article begins this way: The summer of 2020 brought a renewed focus on addressing racism, with protesters filling the streets after the police killings of Black men; statues of Confederate leaders coming down from their prominent perches; and the leading Democratic presidential candidate promising systemic changes to right the wrongs of
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November 1, 2021 — John Hinderaker
William Hogarth, the 18th-Century British painter and printmaker, was a critic of the milieu in which he lived. In particular, his paintings and etchings satirized the privileged classes of his time. So you might expect him to be popular with contemporary liberals. But only if you didn’t understand contemporary liberals. Hogarth is now being canceled: [A] new exhibition at Tate Britain has suggested that [Hogarth’s] pictures are no laughing matter,
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November 1, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The other day, I wrote that baseball is not a morality play. I meant that the outcome of baseball games and baseball seasons has nothing to do with morality. There are no “baseball gods.” Nice guys finish first, last, and in the middle. So do guys who aren’t nice. This doesn’t mean that fans should keep their moral views on the sidelines when thinking about baseball. It’s normal for fans
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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
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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
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October 26, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Americans are worried about rising inflation, and a recent survey found that 60 percent of likely voters believe the Biden administration isn’t paying enough attention to the matter. To add insult to injury, a leading Democrat economist believes that even the Federal Reserve Board isn’t paying enough attention to inflation. Larry Summers, who served as Secretary of Treasury under Bill Clinton, has warned that the Fed and other central banks
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