Category Archives: culture

A No-Deal Brexit

Posted on by
Reply

The Wall Street Journal opined earlier this week that, in the words of the piece’s subheadline,

A no-deal crash out of the EU may be the best outcome now.

The rest of the thing was a string of rationalizations of why this is true, but the heart of the matter is that subhead.

In fact, though, a no-deal departure always has been the best outcome.

A priori because that’s what the Brits voted for in their referendum—they wanted their sovereignty and control of their own borders back. Full stop.

In retrospect because Brussels has acted in bad faith, solely to punish the Brits for their effrontery, ever since. EU leadership, lately in the person of Donald Tusk, has acted in echo of Jacques Chirac’s slam on eastern European nations:

It is not really responsible behavior. It is not well brought-up behavior. They missed a good opportunity to keep quiet.

There’s no reason at all for the Brits to talk further with the EU regarding the terms of Great Britain’s departure for freedom.

Update: Yesterday, the British Parliament voted against a no-deal Brexit and in favor of going to Brussels and beg for more time to negotiate. What happened to the courage that led Great Britain to build a globe-spanning empire?

Fortunately, Parliament’s move is non-binding. We’ll see whether Prime Minister Theresa May has the courage required to stay with the scheduled date for British departure, currently 29 March.

Special Treatment?

Posted on by
Reply

Or just another sordid example of the Left’s double standard?

Recall the 29 cops, including SWAT members who did the dawn raid on an old man’s home in order to arrest that dangerous criminal Roger Stone.

Compare that with the treatment of a member of the Hollywood elite, Lori Loughlin, who’s accused of bribery and other crimes related to the current college admissions scandal.  She’s being permitted to present herself at a local police station at a time of her convenience pursuant to the allegations.

Loughlin has made arrangements to surrender when she returns to Los Angeles, TMZ, the celebrity news site, reported.

It may be true that Loughlin “working in Vancouver, Canada” at the time arrest warrants went out, but Canadian authorities have shown themselves capable of on-the-spot arrests—like with a Huawei executive.

She has, eventually, found it personally convenient and reported to an FBI station.

Hmm….

De Blasio Raises a Point

Posted on by
Reply

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) was asked whether he thought Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s remarks were anti-Semitic.

I did.  Let me be really clear, suggesting that support for Israel is beholden to a foreign power is absolutely unacceptable and illogical, too[.]

He went on, adding

as an Italian-American, he does not feel “beholden to my ancestral homeland” as Omar appeared to characterize some Jewish Americans in regard to Israel.

The point makes me wonder: is Omar, in assuming some groups of Americans have conflicting loyalties to America and to their home country, projecting her own allegiance to Somalia, neverminding the treatment she says she got there?

Wisconsin Progressive-Democrats for Choice

Posted on by
Reply

The newly elected Wisconsin Governor, Progressive-Democrat Tony Evers, has made plain the Party’s definition of “choice.”  Choose to do it our way.

Evers’ current budget proposal

caps voucher enrollment in 2020, entirely phases out the program for special-needs students and blocks the creation of new independent charter schools.

No need for all those charter schools.  Progressive-Democrats want to avoid confusing us with such a plethora of decisions to make; they’ll protect us by deciding for us.

With not too many apologies to a hypothetical Joseph:

My dear fellow, there are in fact only so many choices the mind can contemplate in the course of an evening. …there are simply too many choices, that’s all. Cut a few, and it will be perfect.

Does France Approve?

Posted on by
Reply

French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin was convicted in a French court of covering up the sex abuses of his priests.  The coverup? It wasn’t a one-off affair; Barbarin’s priest—Bernard Preynat—confessed to repeated abuses from the 1980s into the early 1990s.  That’s what Barbarin was so carefully hiding.

This court sentenced the Cardinal to a whole six-months.  Then the court suspended all of those months.

This implies that France doesn’t put much importance on child abuse, even sexual abuse of children.

The government’s action is an insulting slap on the wrist.