Shining A Spotlight On Critical Race Theory In New York High Schools

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  • Last summer a woman named Bari Weiss had a very public separation from the New York Times, where she had been briefly employed as a high-ranking opinion writer and editor. Weiss describes her political identity as “centrist.” Clearly, that’s not where Pravda is today; and in her writings she had a way of not going along with the radical wokist groupthink that has taken hold there these days.

  • Around the beginning of 2021, Weiss launched her own newsletter at the Substack site.

    In her letter of resignation from the Times, Weiss described the treatment that she received as a non-conforming thinker in those precincts.

  • Since getting started at Substack, Weiss has quickly developed a specialty in exposing the extraordinary penetration into academia of the toxic neo-racist ideology that goes by the Orwellian name of “antiracism.” Indeed, in one of her first pieces at her new site, on January 22, after first revealing that she had voted for Biden, she asked a series of question to the new President, focusing specifically on how he would deal with Critical Race Theory. . . .

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State Budget Time In New York And Florida

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  • Many people of a libertarian bent, such as myself, often express frustration with Republican politicians for their lack of dedication to small-government principles. But then, the alternative is Democrats, who have somehow turned into the party that believes there are no longer any limits on government spending and taxes.

  • If you think there isn’t a whole lot of difference between how the two parties govern when in power, you might want to compare what’s going on these days in Florida versus New York. In Florida, both state legislative chambers, and the governorship, are controlled by Republicans; in New York, it’s Democrats.

  • April is the time of year that the states tend to finalize their budgets for the coming fiscal year. In New York, the state Constitution sets an April 1 deadline for enacting a budget for the upcoming July 1 to June 30 fiscal year. The deadline is often missed, sometimes by a lot, but this year the process has just concluded.

  • Florida also has a July 1 to June 30 fiscal year, but the process of enacting the budget can extend into June. Nevertheless, by this time there are good indications where it will end up.

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The Georgetown Affair: New Levels Of Progressive Reality Denial

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  • Just a few months ago (December 2020) I declared that the “essence of progressivism is refusal to deal with reality.” I had some pretty good examples in that post, but none of them can top the current convulsions that are upending Georgetown Law School.

  • At Georgetown recently, a teacher made the mistake of uttering a small dose of reality while speaking to a colleague. This occurred after a recorded class had concluded and everyone else had signed out, but while the recording of the class was still running. Needless to say, the recording of the teacher’s remarks promptly hit Twitter. Thereupon, all hell broke loose.

  • The subject of the reality that must not be spoken is of course the current all-consuming obsession of academia, namely race. The question I pose is, are Georgetown, and for that matter all of academia, taking this obsession so far as to fully undermine their principal mission?

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Lessons In Woke "Science": Covid-19 And Climate

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Lessons In Woke "Science": Covid-19 And Climate

  • Over time, I have had many posts on the scientific method, most recently in January 2021 here. You posit a falsifiable hypothesis. Then you collect and examine the evidence. If the evidence contradicts your hypothesis you must abandon it and move on. Really, that’s the whole thing.

  • Then there is woke “science,” most visible these days in the arenas of response to the Covid-19 virus and of climate change. Here the principles are a little different.

  • In woke “science” there is no falsifiable hypothesis. In place of that, we have the official orthodox consensus view. The official orthodox consensus view has been arrived at by all the smartest people, because it just seems like it must be right. The official orthodox consensus view must not be contradicted, particularly by the little people like you. Based on the official orthodox consensus view, those in power can take away all your freedom (Covid) and/or transform the entire economy (climate). After all, it’s the “science.”

  • But what if evidence seems to contradict the official orthodox consensus view? I’m sorry, but as I said the official orthodox consensus view must not be contradicted.

  • Today’s news brings a couple of extreme examples of that, one on the virus front, and the other relating to climate.

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A Look Into New York Times-Think On "Food Relief"

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  • Several years ago I would make a practice about once every few weeks of ridiculing some New York Times article or other. More recently, as Pravda has increasingly abandoned any pretense of being a news organization in favor of pure political advocacy, I haven’t bothered. But every once in a while, it is worth looking at one of their pieces to get some insights into how the progressive brain works.

  • For today’s lesson, I select the article that appeared at the top right on the front page of the print edition on Monday April 5. (Top right of the front page would be the article that they designated as the most important “news” piece of the day.) The headline of this one is “Many Need Food, Energizing Push To Expand Relief.” The byline is Jason DeParle.

  • The subject of this article fits under the “poverty” category of DeParle’s beat, rather than immigration. It is a given that this article will be an exercise in political advocacy.

  • That is not why we are looking at it. We are looking at it to try to understand this fundamental issue: Is DeParle, after covering “poverty” for the Times “extensively” for over 30 years, still completely ignorant about the subject? Or, alternatively, is he intentionally misrepresenting the facts in order to deceive the readership for his noble cause?

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The Hunter Biden Story Is Mainly About Presidential And Media Corruption

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The Hunter Biden Story Is Mainly About Presidential And Media Corruption
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