Monthly Archives: October 2017

Projecting

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KKK robes are on display as part of Baltimore artist Paul Rucker’s installation entitled “Rewind,” now installed at York College’s Wolf Hall in York, PA. The college barred the public from seeing the art exhibition on slavery, white supremacy and racist violence against blacks, deeming it “potentially disturbing to some.”

York College spokeswoman Mary Dolheimer issued this statement, and she actually was serious:

The images, while powerful, are very provocative and potentially disturbing to some. This is especially the case without the benefit of an understanding of the intended educational context of the exhibit[.]

Because we ordinary American citizens are just too stupid to understand anything without our Betters to “guide” us.

We’re also just too far into our victimhood fragility to be able to handle a bit of art.

Or because the self-important Left is wrapped up in their collective learned helplessness, and they assume everyone is at least as fragile.

Protests

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Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that NFL players should voice their concerns about racial injustice without “alienating” people.

Whatever the players were trying to do in drawing attention to these issues, it’s gone another way now in that people have stopped listening to each other.

Indeed, the players’ “protest” could go no other way since their path centered on attacking our nation’s flag and anthem and insulting those who fought for what these symbolize.

The best form of protest against racial injustice, or any other form of injustice, is to succeed, loudly and publicly, despite the bigotry.  Like folks like Condoleezza Rice; Muhammad Ali; Martin Luther King, Jr; Jackie Robinson; and a potful of others, including old, dead guys like Martin Luther, Galileo, et al., have done.

The second best form of protest is to protest the injustice itself rather than going off message to protest via something else in an effort to cutesify the message.

Civil War

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Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy demanded that Catalonia “clarify” its position following its referendum on independence from Spain following Catalonian President Carles Puigdemont’s declaration of Catalonian independence and his immediate suspension of that in favor of a period of negotiation with Madrid.

However, Rajoy’s pretended confusion says volumes about him without adding a syllable to the subject’s discussion.  His pretense is nothing but an attempt to obfuscate and distract from his deliberate decision to use violence to suppress a referendum when he could have peacefully arrested the referendum leaders in the aftermath of its defeat at the polls.

Rajoy’s preference for violence and its import are confirmed by Rajoy’s subsequent step.

[T]he Spanish government triggered the first step toward invoking Article 155 in the name of preserving the unity of the nation.

Article 155 of the Spanish constitution—a brief provision modeled on a similar measure in Germany’s constitution—allows the central government to suspend some of the powers of a region under specific conditions.

This is just a naked exercise in power and not at all a willingness to accept—or even begin discussing acceptance of—Puigdemont’s olive branch.

Madrid, by acting in ways that would force a civil war seems more interested in that than in any peaceful resolution.  Indeed, Rajoy is seeking to preempt peace.

This is about Rajoy’s ego and his demand for power and the abject surrender of his enemies.

Progressive-Democrats and Harvey Weinstein

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I’m not going to comment on Weinstein’s guilt or innocence—after all, all we know is what the press has chosen to publish on that particular: women’s accusations and other Weinstein associates’ professions ignorance of his behavior (while lately claiming to be appalled after the Left disputed their ignorance).  I’m a throwback—innocent until proven guilty at trial, not guilt by woman’s accusation.

What interests me in this case is the status of Weinstein’s donations to Progressive-Democrat candidates for office.

Some have kept the money and are staying quiet about it: the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial and Congressional Campaign Committees, and Hillary Clinton, for instance.  Some have returned the money to Weinstein or to his donating organization and chosen not to wallow in their martyrdom about it.

However, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, NY), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D, MA), Senator Cory Booker (D, NJ), Senator Al Franken (D, MN), Senator Martin Heinrich (D, MN), Richard Blumenthal (D, CT), and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D, NY) have chosen to give money equivalent to the donation amounts they received from Weinstein to charity.

Notice that: they’re not returning the money.  No, they’re touting their alleged generosity in this scandal by making tax deductible donations with this tainted money.  They’re pocketing some of that Weinstein money and making us pay, with our tax money, for the “donations.”

Hmm….

Health Plan Coverage and Contraception

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The Wall Street Journal has noted that the Trump administration has taken regulatory action to reduce, if not eliminate (the Supreme Court still has to do its job vis-à-vis a Little Sisters of the Poor case, as does Congress legislatively, contra a short handful of Republicans who prefer Obamacare intact over any step toward getting rid of it), the requirement that health plan providers provide contraception to women at no cost to those women coverees and do so regardless of any question of conscience or religious tenet.

Naturally, Progressive-Democrats and the Left generally have their collective panties in a wedgie over that.  However, they carefully ignore certain inconvenient facts.

One inconvenience is the actual cost of contraception—to the user, not the rest of us who must pay for these “free” items.  Contraceptive pills can be had at places like Walmart for $9/mo, vaginal contraceptives are cheaper, condoms (don’t men have a role here, too?) are $6.50 the dozen.  These are not prices that will shatter anyone’s piggy bank.

Contraceptives are used to treat medical conditions, and they can be terribly expensive?  That’s the other inconvenience.  No they aren’t; those aren’t contraceptives.  They’re medications used for treating a medical condition; they happen to have a (if not the) major side effect of being anti-conceiving.  Insurance plans already covered such meds, and Obamacare could have, too, but the Progressive-Democratic Party eschewed that when they rammed through Obamacare.

In the end, there’s no reason anyone should pay for contraceptives other than the users.  Full stop.