It’s Never the Criminal

It’s always the victim, or the victim’s property, or—in some infamous instances—the producers of the victim’s property that are to blame for the crimes. It’s a modern day version of “if she hadn’t dressed that way, she wouldn’t have been raped. She invited it.”

The latest example is the Progressive-Democratic Party’s Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson’s decision to sue a couple of automobile manufacturers for Chicago’s spiking auto thefts. His rationalization is that those manufacturers didn’t install “standard” anti-theft technology on cars manufactured in the model years 2011 to 2022.

He’s carefully ignoring the fact that auto thefts in Chicago spiked during the latter years of his predecessor, Lori Lightfoot’s (D) term and continues in his own—with their decidedly soft on crime and no bail policies. All those model years prior, still lacking anti-theft tech acceptable to the mayor, weren’t getting stolen.

Nah, it’s the car manufacturers. It’s the gun manufacturers. It’s the woman’s attire. It’s any excuse Progressive-Democrats can dream up in order to avoid facing the fact that crimes are committed by criminals, and criminals need to be punished for their crimes. But, bleat these Leftists, that would work a hardship on the poor, misunderstood, downtrodden criminals.

“Let Ukraine Direct Its Own Counteroffensive”

US Army General Jack Keane (ret), once Army Vice Chief of Staff and current Institute for the Study of War Chairman, thinks US military personnel criticizing the way Ukraine is conducting its offensive should (my paraphrase) sit down and shut up.

Keane’s characterization of those sideline inhabitants’ behavior, chirping from the sidelines, is being generous. Whatever their own combat experience, if any, it has no relevance to the realized combat environment the Ukrainians are facing with the Russian up-armored barbarians.

No one in the American military today has designed large-scale mechanized operations against a serious and capable enemy that is employing a comprehensive defense. The last time was the Metz campaign in France in 1944, led by General George S Patton.

But in all their woke awesomeness, the Pentagon’s armchair junior high quarterbacks Know So Much Better. If these wonders truly want to help Ukraine, they’ll push President Joe Biden (D) to stop slow-walking and outright denying the weapons Ukraine needs to effectively and efficiently prosecute its offensive, and they’ll get their own bureaucrats out of the way of actual delivery.

Increasing Choice

New Jersey’s Progressive-Democratic Party Governor Phil Murphy’s Newspeak definition of increasing choice as he applies it to vehicles he will permit his subjects the citizens of New Jersey to buy goes like this:

“There’s a lot of misinformation about what this order does,” his climate director Catherine Klinger said in an interview with ROI-NJ that was published this week. “It requires that new vehicle sales in the state are zero emission by 2035. More than 50% of vehicles that are sold in the state are used. And there is absolutely no change to the used vehicle market.”
If you like your Jeep Cherokee, you’ll still be able to buy a used one….

While supplies last.

No, Murphy’s proclamation, made through his climate director, is nothing more than a cynical variation on Henry Ford’s marketing slogan of a century ago:

The customer can have any color they want as long as it’s black. A New Jersey citizen can have any vehicle he wants, as long as it’s electric. Never mind whether he can afford one.

Achieving Energy Security

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm thinks it would be good for our energy security were we to eliminate the 60% of our oil-centered energy that we import and switching over to 100% clean electricity by 2035.

It’s true that wiping out that 60% of our oil imports would help our energy security, but only if it’s done right. We shouldn’t be importing any energy, much less from enemy nations or from nations vulnerable to enemy nations. The right way to eliminate those imports is to release our own oil—and natural gas and coal, come to that—producers to produce from our own, domestic, hydrocarbon-based sources. It’s highly important, too, to get the regulators out of the way of our producers’ ability to produce nuclear power. Sadly, though, Granholm—Energy Secretary Granholm, mind you—seems unable even to say the words “nuclear power,” or at least she never does say them.

The problem with Granholm’s wish to supplant those imports with 100% clean electricity—as even Granholm knows full well—is that the raw materials needed for “renewable,” or “green,” or “clean” energy production come from Peoples Republic of China mines, or PRC-controlled mines in Africa and Siberia (the latter are not yet developed, but they will be). Beyond that, far too many components for “renewable” energy production come from PRC-domiciled factories. Granholm’s move in no way reduces our dependence on enemy nations for our energy.

It is, however, a distinct elimination of our ability to have energy security.

Whither Germany?

Or maybe it’s quo vadis, Germania? It seems that a number of German daycare centers have set up “sexual exploration rooms,” for the children entrusted to their “care.” The German newspaper Die Welt has the…sad…report. It’s behind a paywall, so I’m only quoting the headline and lede paragraph. Otherwise, I’m relying on Not the Bee‘s reporting. The lede image is quite graphic (not copied here; it’s NSFW—German nudity taboos are looser than ours).

Wo Männer Babys gebären und „Mann und Frau“ tabu sind
Stand: 24.08.2023 | Lesedauer: 6 Minuten
Von Till-Reimer Stoldt
Auf dem Foto sieht man Handpuppen mit extrem ungewöhnlich kombinierten Geschlechtsmerkmalen – die eine mit Bart und Busen, die andere mit Vulva ohne Busen. Sie stammen aus Deutschlands einzigem Studiengang zu „Angewandter Sexualwissenschaft“ in Merseburg
Ob Masturbationsräume in Kitas oder Werbung für Geschlechtsumwandlung in Schulen – in den Bundesländern hat sich eine kleine genderpolitische Revolution ereignet. Ganz vorn dabei: Nordrhein-Westfalen. Nur eine Partei protestiert gegen gebärende Männer. Und Eltern haben Mitspracherechte.

That translates to

Where men give birth to babies and “man and woman” are taboo
Status: 08/24/2023 | Reading time: 6 minutes
By Till Reimer Stoldt
In the photo [the lede image mentioned above] you can see hand puppets with an extremely unusual combination of sex characteristics—one with a beard and breasts, the other with a vulva without breasts. They come from Germany’s only course in “Applied Sexology” in Merseburg.
Whether it’s masturbation rooms in day-care centers or advertising for gender reassignment in schools—a small gender-political revolution has taken place in the federal states. At the forefront: North Rhine-Westphalia. Only one party protests against men giving birth. And parents have a say.

NtB cites Fox News for this part:

Die Welt reported that one daycare in Kerpen [in North Rhine-Westphalia, a few miles west of Köln] offers children the “freedom to try out childish sexuality.” The daycare also said that sexual self-pleasure on its property is of “great importance,” insisting that “masturbation is normal.”

NtB reports that the day care centers have some rules, though:

  1. Each child decides for themselves whether and with whom they want to play physical and sexual games.
  2. All children, especially preschoolers, are aware of the places in the facility where nudity and body exploration can take place.
  3. Girls and boys pet and examine each other only as much as is comfortable for themselves and other children.
  4. No child hurts another.
  5. No child sticks anything into another child’s body openings (bottom, vulva, mouth, nose, ear) or licks another child’s body.
  6. The age gap of the children involved is at most 2 years.
  7. Older children, young people, and adults are not allowed to take part in the doctor games.
  8. You can say “stop” at any time and will always be respected.
  9. Asking for help is not snitching.
  10. If there are not enough educational staff to ensure compliance with the rules, there may be restrictions on play, g., children are not allowed to go naked.

Well, that’s all right, then.

No, it isn’t.

NtB also reports that

a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education in the Lower Saxony state capital said, “The educational concept in this form endangers the well-being of the child.”
Later, the head of the nursery group’s management company stated that their head office had not approved the letter [announcing the special rooms and their purpose] sent to parents, and the kindergarten has since canceled the project.

It’s still not all right. This sort of thing never should have gotten this far, and to date, there’s no indication that the fools who dreamed up this sewage and started to implement it have been fired and had whatever licenses they might have held canceled with prejudice.

This is the degradation of Germany.