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JULY 4,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

NEW YORK'S AGONY CONTINUES – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   Hate crime in the city is way up, skyrocketing by 139 percent this year, NYPD data show.  Cops say they’ve investigated 320 reports of possible bias attacks through June 27, up from 134 incidents during the same period in 2020.  Offenses against Asians surged by 400 percent, to 105 reported cases this year from 21 last year.  Anti-Semitic assaults went up 69 percent, to 113 incidents this year from 67 last year.  The NYPD reported 28 attacks on Blacks this year, nearly double last year’s 15.  There were also 11 hate crimes against whites, an increase from four in 2020; five incidents involving Muslims, up from two last year; and four offenses against Hispanics after none last year, the data shows.  In addition, the NYPD reported 31 hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation this year versus nine last year, a 244 percent increase.  This year’s tally includes 13 cases motivated by gender, four by ethnicity and six by religion, cops said.  “There’s no law and order anymore,” said a 26-year-old Upper West Side woman, who told The Post she and a group of fellow Jewish students were targeted outside Central Park on June 12.  The woman said she suffered a concussion after unidentified masked thugs hurled eggs at her group — “three modestly dressed women” and “three young men with yarmulkes” — at 92nd Street and Central Park West around 8:30 p.m.  “We were walking, everything was fine. We turned onto 92nd and right under the scaffolding of this building [at 322 Central Park West], I just felt like a rock hit the back of my head.  Six years ago, New York was the safest large city in America.  Look what's happening to it.  And, in the midst of a mayoral campaign, no one seems to have any answers.  I often urge people to leave New York and move to the exciting and vibrant smaller cities of the heartland.  Many seem to be doing just that.

July 4, 2021       Permalink

POISON ON OUR COUNTRY'S BIRTHDAY – OVERNIGHT:  Most Americans appear to have celebrated Independence Day in our traditional, peaceful and happy way.  With the Covid 19 virus fading, we've begun to resume our normal lives. 

Sadly, some "Americans" reserved their special vitriol for this day, describing a nation that no rational person recognizes.  As usual, the liberal press refuses to call them out, as if freedom of speech guarantees freedom from criticism.  What worries me is the severe heat of the words being used.   They are getting hotter by the week, and words can kill.  From Fox: 

One Democratic lawmaker and several left-wing used the Fourth of July to share controversial statements or disparage the founding of the United States.

Democrat Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo, tweeted out "When they say that the 4th of July is about American freedom, remember this: the freedom they’re referring to is for white people. This land is stolen land and Black people still aren’t free."

There were some who agreed with Bush's comments like congressional candidate Shahid Buttar. He replied to her tweet saying "Speak it, @CoriBush! It’s almost as if our entire country has been brainwashed to ignore our history—and how its worst elements continue today—despite our self-congratulatory rhetoric."

Former MSNBC anchor Toure was far more vocal, tweeting out "F--k Independence Day. Not only were we not free, the whole reason the Colonies wanted independence was because Britain was moving toward abolishing slavery. Why would Black people celebrate a day so wrapped up in our enslavement?"

He also tweeted out his own opinion piece for the website The Grio titled "F--k Fourth of July: The only independence day I recognize is Juneteenth."

Actress Alyssa Milano also disparaged the Fourth of July by sharing a TikTok video of herself reading "Reminder: The United States was founded on the unjust treatment of Native Americans, Africans and other people of color."

News organizations also took the opportunity to use the holiday to criticize the United States and its history.

NPR tweeted out a thread of the original Declaration of Independence, claiming it to be "a document with flaws and deeply ingrained hypocrisies." It also remarked immediately that the document "says ‘that all men are created equal’ — but women, enslaved people, Indigenous people and many others were not held as equal at the time."

The Washington Post went even further by posting several opinion pieces that critique the holiday or use it for political partisanship. These pieces included "The Fourth is for complainers," "Independence Day 2021 is an apt occasion to celebrate America’s liberation from Trump," and a perspective piece titled "July Fourth is Independence Day for two countries. But for one it is hollow."

This followed the New York Times opinion piece that suggested the American flag became a symbol of divisiveness. In the article titled "A Fourth of July Symbol of Unity That May No Longer Unite."

COMMENT:  It is not a sin to be ignorant.  It's a sin to be ignorant and not do anything about it.  So we have here a lot of sinners, with no hope for any of them.

The problem is, this stuff is being shoved into the brains of our children by those who've taken over whole school systems.  And, judging by the number of young people who say in polls that they're not proud to be Americans, the madness is having effect.  Other nations watch this, and some probably believe that we are growing increasingly divided and weak.  This can easily lead to a catastrophic miscalculation that melts into a major war, with mass casualties.  Words have consequences

July 4, 2021       Permalink

JULY 3,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

LET'S HEAR IT FOR OUR FEMALE ATHLETES – FROM BIZPACREVIEW.COM:   An investigative report published earlier this week by USA Today claimed that there is little evidence that biological males bring insurmountable physical advantages to female sports competitions, but a new study from Duke University blows away the paper’s findings.  “Across the nation, state lawmakers supporting transgender athlete bans have painted a picture that girls sports teams will be overrun by athletes with insurmountable physical advantages,” the paper reported Wednesday.  “But a USA TODAY investigation of the lobbying effort shows that narrative has been built on vague examples that have been overstated or are untrue, and lawmakers have accepted them as fact with little effort to verify their accuracy,” the report added.  However, a study published by Duke Law found that even the most elite female athletes cannot compare to, or compete with, even non-elite biological males. What’s more, the study found that on the elite level, biological females have no hope of winning competitions against biological men.  “If you know sports, you know this beyond a reasonable doubt: there is an average 10-12% performance gap between elite males and elite females. The gap is smaller between elite females and non-elite males, but it’s still insurmountable and that’s ultimately what matters,” the paper begins.  The paper went on to note that U.S. Olympic runner Tori Bowie’s lifetime best in the 100-meter sprint in 2017 of 10.78 was beaten a total of 15,000 times by both men and boys the same year. In addition, the paper noted that Allyson Felix’s best time for the 400-meter run in the same year was 49.26, which was beaten 15,000 times by men and boys around the world in 2017 as well.
“This differential isn’t the result of boys and men having a male identity, more resources, better training, or superior discipline. It’s because they have an androgenized body,” the Duke Law paper stated.  Case closed, but it will have no influence on the hard-left propagandists, including some "feminists," who put leftist ideology first, and women dead last.

BIDEN LOSES ON THE CRIME ISSUE – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   Americans are giving President Biden dismal ratings on his handling of rising crime, a new poll found.  The ABC News/Washington Post poll released Friday morning revealed that just 38 percent of Americans approve of the 46th commander-in-chief’s response to recent crime spikes nationwide.  On the other side, 48 percent said they disapproved.  As crime rates have continued to surge, lawmakers have been quick to point fingers to avoid their party taking blame.  Republicans have largely argued that Democrats’ efforts to defund the police, remove qualified immunity for police officers and introduce cashless bail have all contributed to the budding crisis.  Democrats, meanwhile, have blamed guns and economic hardship following the pandemic.  In New York, state officials have blamed a surge in shootings on gun trafficking from other parts of the country, largely ignoring the impact of bail reform on the state.  48 percent of those polled said they disapproved of Biden’s handling of crime.   If the crime wave continues, it may well be the decisive issue in the 2022 midterms.  That is not good news for the president's party.

July 3, 2021       Permalink

THIS IS WHAT WE FEARED, ISN'T IT? – OVERNIGHT:  When "diversity" takes precedence over human life, we are in serious trouble.  From College Fix: 

The National Institutes of Health recently announced a new requirement for participating in its NIH-wide BRAIN initiative: diversity.

The BRAIN initiative is an ongoing effort that joins scientists from various fields to work together to find treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease as well as autism, epilepsy, schizophrenia, depression, and traumatic brain injury, according to the NIH website.

But the initiative published a new diversity priority in its latest funding opportunity announcement — “enhancing diverse perspectives as a consideration for scoring,” NIH director Francis Collins announced.

In a commentary in @CellCellPress #NIH scientists, administrators, staff & leaders set forth a framework to end structural racism across the biomedical research enterprise & spur much needed widescale systemic change via the #UNITE Initiative. Read more: https://t.co/4duZFA1fGp pic.twitter.com/wNpaibYP9y
— NIH (@NIH) June 10, 2021

“Also, in keeping with our pledge to be transparent and accountable, the NIH Office of Extramural Research recently released an updated NIH Databook that reports, for the first time, grantee demographics by race/ethnicity,” Collins added.

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, scholar Heather Mac Donald explains how this decision effectively makes diversity more important than finding a cure for Alzheimer’s.

She first points out that “NIH is determining research priorities to maximize the number of black grant recipients” — which does not bode well considering that in 2019, only “20 blacks nationwide received a doctorate in a neuroscience field — 1.9% of all such degrees awarded in the neurosciences.”

But the problem runs deeper than that, Mac Donald adds:

Science isn’t a social-justice endeavor, despite NIH’s determination to “provide full opportunity and participation to individuals and groups underrepresented in neuroscience.” Those groups are underrepresented for reasons unrelated to discrimination by the academy. Science has one purpose: to advance knowledge about the fundamental workings of nature. Any agenda that imposes extraneous criteria will reduce the quality of the talent pool and divert attention away from the generation of new knowledge. China imposes no such deadweight on its cutthroat race for scientific dominance.

The diversity agenda subverts science in a more fundamental way. The standard argument for what is called “inclusive excellence” is that being black or female affects how one analyzes scientific problems. Skin color even influences the perception of scientific merit. The NIH intends to put more blacks on grant-review panels to increase the number of blacks getting grants.

But science is a universal language, one that unites its participants in a discourse of reason, transcending the particularities of today’s grievance-inspired identity categories. That universality is science’s beauty and its strength. NIH’s diversity obsession, now pervasive throughout the federal science bureaucracies and in academic STEM departments, is a betrayal of the Enlightenment ideals that have alleviated so much human suffering.

COMMENT:  We enter a dark night, a going back in history to a less advanced, more primitive age.  And people will suffer.

July 3, 2021       Permalink