By Selwyn Duke
The norm for most of history, intellectual Steven Pinker once pointed out, was brutal tribal warfare in which the winner would kill all the vanquished’s men and older boys (and take the women). The principle is simple:
Neuter a society — emasculate it thoroughly — and control is yours.
A similar phenomenon is occurring in America today, though it’s more of an intellectual/emotional neutering. Some call this “America’s Manhood Crisis"….
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By Selwyn Duke
Mind your manners, we were told as children. But may you one day have to mind your mind?
Mind-reading technology is still considered the stuff of science fiction, of, for example, the alien-origin children in movie Village of the Damned (1960) who could probe others’ thoughts. But China is already using “emotional surveillance technology” wireless sensors to monitor workers’ brain activity and emotional state. What’s more, this is mere small potatoes compared to what university researchers have just developed: a “noninvasive” means through which thoughts can be converted into text.
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By Selwyn Duke
It’s not that government can’t clamp down on people when it wants to. The J6 prisoners’ treatment proves that abundantly. It’s that when it wants to, it’s not driven by the imperative of justice but the incentive of politics. A prime example is the Jordan Neely/Daniel Penny affair.
Neely, 30, the violent, deranged man who died while or after being restrained on a New York City subway May 1, had a voluminous rap sheet of 42 arrests. On the list are the kidnapping of a seven-year-old girl and multiple assaults, one of which was a 2021 attack on an elderly woman on whom Neely inflicted serious injuries. Yet he was still on the streets.
Penny, 24, the ex-Marine who (with others) helped restrain the unhinged Neely on May 1 — doing the job the authorities wouldn’t do — has now been charged with manslaughter by hard-left Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. Perhaps the charge really should be something Bragg can’t brag about: “Being a real man in the third millennium.” Regardless, apparently upstanding citizen Penny could be off the streets for a long time. He faces 15 years’ incarceration.
What’s wrong with this picture?
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By Selwyn Duke
Some may call it having created a monster. Others may say he’s being hoist with his own petard. What’s for sure is that after helping create his state’s “Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans,” California Governor Gavin Newsom is stuck between a rock and a very, very expensive place:
His task force just recommended an $800 billion reparations scheme — and Newsom, realizing he doesn’t actually have a money tree and that 27 more California gold rushes aren’t nigh, is balking at the bill.
In fact, now, says he, dealing with the Legacy of Slavery™ “is about much more than cash payments.”
Apparently, Hair Gel Gavin forgot to ensure that his task force appointees shared his primary concern: posturing. And as Obama’s erstwhile pastor Jeremiah Wright might say, “The chickens have come home to roost.”
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By Selwyn Duke
Given that every member of his party voted for the legislation, perhaps it’s no surprise that Governor Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) signed into law Tuesday a bill that would allow his state to hide minors from parents. And why?
So the kids could proceed with sexual-distortion treatments (SDTs), euphemistically known as “gender-affirming care,” or have an abortion.
In other words, if destroying bodies is the goal, Washington state is all in — and the parents can be cut out.
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By Selwyn Duke
In 2010, a lame-duck Democrat Congress passed Michelle Obama’s brainchild, “Healthy and Hunger Free Kids Act.” Anyone acquainted with government-program “results” won’t be surprised to hear the outcome was the precise opposite of what the law’s name indicated: Starved of calories, many kids actually went hungry in schools.
The garbage pails didn’t, though, with one legislator complaining that the regulations were “filling the trash cans with uneaten food.”
And now, reflecting philosopher Georg Hegel’s observation that the only thing “we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history,” the fed diet Nazis are back — with new school lunch rules to torment the next generation.
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By Selwyn Duke
Anheuser-Busch’s mistake in making ties with “trans influencer” Dylan Mulvaney was not knowing, or at least not respecting, its market. The United States is making the same mistake on the geopolitical stage, pushing the “trans” and other woke agendas on a world either wholly uninterested, or actually disgusted, by what Uncle Sam is selling.
And, quite predictably, America is bleeding world support the way Bud Light is customers, as our allies take their “business” elsewhere — such as to the Chinese.
Anheuser-Busch’s response is to try to deftly walk back its support for the MUSS (Made-up Sexual Status, aka “transgender”) agenda. Our government’s response is different: It’s quadrupling down (it doubled down long ago).
This is all happening at a time, too, in which respect for the American military is cratering. And as history professor Victor Davis Hanson put it Thursday, “Sanctimonious hectoring while appearing weak is a bad combination.”
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By Selwyn Duke
Years ago at a recreational facility, I saw a man wearing a shirt stating, “Everybody lies. Nobody cares.” He didn’t seem like an aspiring politician (or any kind of lawyer!), but could a message about everyone stealing and no one caring be next? There is a connection there, too:
Liars rob their fellow man of the knowledge of Truth — that priceless resource that “will set you free.”
One man who may agree is Mark Corallo, former director of public affairs at the U.S. Department of Justice. Writing recently at RealClearPolitics, Corallo states how he was told early in his career that while “spin” was expected, “lying to reporters was the unforgivable sin.” (Note here that “spin” has a negative connotation because it often refers to propaganda; in such a case, it is a biased interpretation of events that, at best, reflects intellectual dishonesty — aka “lying to oneself.” And the normalization of this kind of deception paves the way for more brazen lies’ acceptance.)
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By Selwyn Duke
There has been a recent deluge of articles claiming, citing studies, that “red” states flow red with blood — the blood of their lax gun policies’ victims. The data, indicating that conservative states have significantly higher homicide rates than liberal ones, have been widely touted by anti-Second Amendment activists as an argument for gun control. Their math is absolutely correct — but, as one observer puts it, their “parameters” are not.
In fact, their analysis reflects a comic-book (mis)understanding of the matter that overlooks relevant factors such as demographics, wealth, climate, and, quite significantly, the states’ actual gun-control policies.
One of the studies in question, presented at Third Way’s website, contrasted Biden-supporting and Trump-supporting states’ homicide rates, analyzing data from 2000 to 2020. The source then writes, “Altogether, the per capita Red State murder rate was 23% higher than the Blue State murder rate when all 21 years were combined.” One problem is already apparent:
Not all states that supported Biden in 2020 voted for Democratic presidential candidates for the entire data period. Georgia, for example, went GOP in every national election from 2000 through 2016.
Put differently, while Third Way essentially lists it as a “Democratic president” state, it was a “Republican president” state for 20 of the 21 years in question.
Yet there’s more.
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