By Selwyn Duke

The youngest officer to command a vessel in U.S. naval history, it may shock most to learn, was 12-year-old David Farragut, who served as a prize master in 1812. Such a reality certainly is incongruent with our age, in which 15-year-olds wile away hours playing video games and youth irresponsibility is rife. Mankind’s norm has been for kids to assume adult roles early, however, with the idealization of childhood being a modern phenomenon. But is this “Cult of Childhood,” as one writer put it, actually hurting children? And if “work ennobles man,” as the saying goes, can it also ennoble a man-child?

The left-wing Nation’s Steve Fraser apparently doesn’t think so, and he claims that loosening teen labor laws is partially responsible for a situation he frames in a title thus: “Child Labor in America Is Back—and It’s As Chilling as Ever.” Yet what’s perhaps more chilling is media malpractice that, in Fraser’s case, takes the form of conflating perhaps prudent labor-law reform with the illegal exploitation of migrant minors — and then blaming it all on “capitalism.”

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By Selwyn Duke

Interesting fact: Under the Mexican constitution, a naturalized citizen may never, ever be a police officer, even if he’s lived and paid taxes in the nation for decades. Yet under a bill passed by the Illinois Legislature, a Mexican — or any other foreigner — could enter the U.S. illegally, receive some kind of unwarranted amnesty, and then become a cop. What’s more, policies allowing such are already a reality in certain parts of our country.

Welcome to the third millennium, where citizenship means a lot — most everywhere but the United States.

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By Selwyn Duke

It’s the clash of two narratives. On the one hand, we hear that the youth vote’s breaking two-to-one for the Democrats neutralized the GOP’s expected 2022 “red wave” and that this is the wave of the (liberal) future. On the other, Reuters reported in 2018 already that Democrats were losing ground with millennials. Even The New York Times, just last month, wrote that “almost every cohort of voters under 50 has shifted rightward.”

But what is the reality? Are these voters actually embracing more Truth? And to what extent are they merely appearing to shift right because our frame of reference — our society — is shifting left?

Espousing the first narrative, The Hill cited last year the under-30s’ resounding 2022 rejection of the GOP and stated that “Gen Z and millennials are the two largest, most progressive and most racially diverse generations in American history. These generations are not the future of the Democratic Party – they are the here and now.” Espousing the second, author Ryan Girdusky noted just last month that while Barack Obama won millennials by 32 points, Joe Biden captured them by a mere seven or eight, despite having been the former’s vice president.

“That’s a gigantic swing and it’s not all based on ideology, although some of it is,” The Hill quoted Girdusky as saying.

Of course, with Obama having been fancied “cool” and charismatic, being an excellent speech-maker (not a great speaker), and being billed as a historic “first” (“black” president), it’s not surprising that Sleepy Joe wouldn’t be able to match his millennial support. But then there’s this….

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By Selwyn Duke

We've heard that we recently experienced the hottest global temperatures ever recorded. Is it time to panic?

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2023.07.11.X Climate Change or Climate Ho.. – Jim Schneider – 71123217398158

By Selwyn Duke

We discussed the Supreme Court's affirmative-action ruling and the reasons why AA is unjust and counterproductive. My appearance begins at 28:24. 

By Selwyn Duke

It seems as if Archie Bunkers are everywhere today — only, their prejudice has gone woke.

Bunker, the seasoned among us may know, was the famously amusing ’70s sitcom bigot in hit show All in the Family. Apropos to the story here, in one episode Archie was apoplectic because a black family was poised to move in to his all-white Queens neighborhood. His attitude was meant to be considered unenlightened, the epitome of risible racism born of ignorance. But much has changed in 50 years.

Now being upset about your neighborhood’s changing demographics is considered enlightened — if it’s the “wrong” kind of change. What kind would that be?

Well, leftists, who detest Archie Bunker-like bigotry, have a name for it: “whitewashing.”

Oh, it has also been called a “bleaching out.”

In another case of art imitating life, this casual-bigotry reality is reflected in a new television work….

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By Selwyn Duke

Ice-cream maker Ben & Jerry’s is committed to “truth,” (social) justice, and the un-American way. It’s so committed, in fact, that it, the very soul of class and timing, observed the U.S.’s birthday by tweeting that our nation sits on stolen “indigenous” land and should return it. In particular, the “Chunky Monkey” maker mentioned that Mount Rushmore should be “given back” to the Lakota. But now Ben & Jerry’s can test its commitment — because its headquarters also sits on “stolen” land.

And a Vermont Indian chief says his tribe wants it back.

Oh, and you can put hot fudge, whipped cream, and a cherry on top of that.

Read the rest here.

By Selwyn Duke

Perhaps it’s that a fat “trans” person identifying as in shape is small potatoes compared to identifying as the opposite sex in the first place. Whatever the case, it apparently doesn’t matter if “transgender” recruits’ pectorals are invading their belly as their belly conquers their belt’s last button because, according to a report, the U.S. Army is offering such enlistees “an indefinite fitness standards exemption.” So much for equality.

Reporting on the story, Hot Air writes, “Diversity is our strength. Except, apparently, the more diversity the military seeks, the less strength it requires.”

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By Selwyn Duke

In the wake of the 303 Creative v. Elenis ruling, leftists are very upset. “The Supreme Court is giving people the right to discriminate!” they howl. “What’s happening to this country!”

What’s happening is called freedom, actually. In fact, far from establishing a precedent, the court is simply preventing governments from doing the unprecedented: forcing Americans to express ideas they find morally objectionable.

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By Selwyn Duke

Imagine a scenario: An expansionist force that has already seized 70 percent of its neighbor’s territory invades another 15 percent of what remains. The defenders push back and, though outgunned, manage to oust the invaders from 25 percent of the newly taken territory. Yet despite still having lost much land, including during their adversary’s current campaign, something curious now happens:

The media portray the defenders as the aggressors for seeking to recapture what just last week was their own domain.

This would be a very effective con if you could pull it off, if you could, let’s say, somehow convince all and sundry that Ukraine is the aggressor for seeking to retake the eastern Donetsk from the Russian invaders. That’s not happening, of course, but this illusion is being effected in a different conflict: the culture war.

Read the rest here.