Monday, July 24, 2017




Defeating Progressive Ideology

Nothing facilitates forced subservience to the Left's noxious way of thinking more than political correctness

"Since the principles undergirding America's founding are beyond mortal law, they are beyond the reach of the progressives and the administrative state. Hence the war on the founding values, beliefs, and traditions was and is intended to, among other things, stop legitimate inquiry into and teaching of first principles or purposes. They are to be made intellectually and culturally off-limits. Consequently, what is left is only one acceptable and overarching agenda — the progressive agenda." —Mark Levin, from his book, "Rediscovering Americanism: And the Tyranny of Progressivism"

Perhaps nothing is more toxic than a progressive ideology that has become the default position that millions of unwilling people are expected to oblige. And nothing facilitates that forced subservience more than political correctness.

Yet what, precisely, is political correctness? It is totalitarianism — promoted as morality.

Thus one is not merely wrong for challenging the progressive status quo on same-sex marriage, transgenderism, "white privilege," illegal immigration, global warming, "hate speech," or a host of other leftist causes. One is evil, and the "appropriate" label defining what particular evil is applied: homophobic, transphobic, racist, nativist, anti-science, fascist, etc.

Labeling one as evil as opposed to wrong is critical. Wrong leaves room for debate. Evil makes debate unnecessary — and entrenches the progressive default position as a result.

It is an ever-expanding entrenchment. "Words can have a powerful effect on your nervous system," insists Northeastern University psychology professor Lisa Feldman Barrett. "Certain types of adversity, even those involving no physical contact, can make you sick, alter your brain — even kill neurons — and shorten your life."

What to do? "The scientific findings I described above provide empirical guidance for which kinds of controversial speech should and shouldn't be acceptable on campus and in civil society," Barrett asserts. "In short, the answer depends on whether the speech is abusive or merely offensive."

And who gets to define which is which? "There is a difference between permitting a culture of casual brutality and entertaining an opinion you strongly oppose," she states. "The former is a danger to a civil society (and to our health); the latter is the lifeblood of democracy." Thus, Barrett insists, it's "reasonable" to completely prevent "provocateur and hatemonger" Milo Yiannopoulos from speaking on campus because he's "abusive," while political scientist Charles Murray is acceptable because "you might find his view to be repugnant and misguided, but it's only offensive."

In other words, what Barrett and her fellow progressives define as abusive must be rendered "intellectually and culturally off-limits."

Attacks on the First Amendment are merely the tip of the progressive spear. Reality itself must also be aligned to suit progressive sensibilities. In Wales, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) is demanding that higher education teachers undergo gender diversity training, warning that the failure to use proper pronouns to address "non-binary" persons could precipitate legal action.

Jasper Williams, LGBT+ officer for NUS Wales, reveals the unbridled arrogance behind the effort. She singles out a teacher who "couldn't get anything that wasn't male or female," telling BBC News he made comments "making it sound like non-binary genders [are] made up and like a fantasy idea."

Thus by implication, biological and chromosomal realities are now "fantasy ideas" that must be rendered inoperable by force of law. The same force of law the Obama administration unilaterally imposed on schools around the entire nation when it insisted Title IX of the 1964 Civil Rights Act gave transgender students the right to use restrooms and locker rooms matching their gender "identities" — using the threat of withholding federal education funds as a hammer to enforce its "guidelines." The Trump administration rescinded the directive, but there is no doubt progressives will reinstate it if they regain power.

As far as progressives are concerned, the transgender science is "settled."

And they've got the documentation to "prove" it. "The evidence is clear — the American Left succeeded in lobbying the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to eliminate some of the sexual identity disorders from their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)," columnist Mark A. Hewitt explains.

The end game is also clear. "If you get enough votes," he adds, "you can negate, soften, redefine, and ultimately legitimize any of the mental disorders."

Toward what end? To achieve a "radical break from America's heritage," Levin asserts, further explaining progressive ideology is "an elitist-driven counterrevolution to the American Revolution, in which the sovereignty of the individual, natural law, natural rights, and the civil society — built on a foundation of thousands of years of enlightened thinking and human experience — would be drastically altered and even abandoned for an ideological agenda broadly characterized as 'historical progress.'"

As Victor Davis Hanson explains, such "progress" has brought the nation to a "dangerous climax" in which "the consequences of globalization, the growth of the deep state, changing demographics, open borders, the rise of a geographic apartheid between blue and red states, and the institutionalization of a permanent coastal political and culture elite — and the reaction to all that — are tearing apart the country."

And yet again, the progressive default position dominates, irrespective of the consequences. "It does not matter that the ossified European social model does not work and leads to collective decline in the standard of living," Hanson states. "The world knows that from seeing the implosion of Venezuela and Cuba, or the gradual decline of the EU and the wreckage of its Mediterranean members, or the plight of blue states such as Illinois and California."

Despite this plethora of evidence, Hanson believes the "near-religious idea of egalitarianism" progressives cherish "has all but won the war against liberty."

Hanson is somewhat in error. Egalitarianism is a means to an end. The end is suppression of the masses by all-knowing elitists who grant themselves the "near-religious" power of enforcing equality of outcome — and enjoying the unequal bounty engendered by their "noble" tyranny. Elitists who come to a unanimous conclusion regarding a historical record replete with ossified social models, collective declines and societal wreckage:

The wrong people were in charge.

And the war is not over. "Far from progress, the trajectory of progressives toward indolence, malice, violence, and unrestrained sexuality is as old as society," columnist E.M. Cadwaladr asserts. "It is just paganism with cell phones added."

It is paganism that may ultimately be fatal. "Through some process of increasing entropy, failed memory management, or unanticipated side effects, the status quo — the one dominated by the Left — is collapsing," writes PJ Media's Richard Fernandez.

Fernandez attributes that collapse to a higher power. "God killed the Left," he asserts. "Of course one could legitimately use some other term. 'Reality,' 'consequences,' the 'laws of nature,' 'economics,' even 'truth' will do."

So will terms like natural law, natural rights and civil society, all of which will prove far more enduring than progressive ideology.

Why? Because "only God is God," Cadwaladr explains. "Politicians, pundits, and opinion makers are not."

Thus, progressive efforts to create "utopia" are nothing more than monumental hubris. And when that hubris is rejected by a horde of "deplorables," it explains why so many formerly "tolerant" progressives are now full of anger and hate — and why Liberty and first principles will ultimately prevail.

SOURCE







Humanitarian Hoax in the Military: Killing America With Kindness

by LINDA GOUDSMIT

The Humanitarian Hoax is a deliberate and deceitful tactic of presenting a destructive policy as altruistic. The humanitarian huckster presents himself as a compassionate advocate when in fact he is the disguised enemy.

Obama, the humanitarian huckster-in-chief, weakened the United States military for eight years presenting his crippling policies as altruistic when in fact they were designed for destruction. His legacy, the Leftist Democratic Party with its "resistance" movement, is the party of the Humanitarian Hoax attempting to destroy American democracy and replace it with socialism.

In a stunning reversal of military protocols and procedures Barack Obama perpetrated the Humanitarian Hoax on the military. Scheduled to take effect July 1, 2017 Obama's "Tier Three Transgender Training" materials were presented as compassionate and deeply respectful of the minuscule population of transgender soldiers. In fact these protocols and procedures were designed to weaken the military by making the feelings of a few soldiers more important than combat-readiness, and by placing the needs of individuals over the well-being of their units. Obama's policies were not misguided they were deliberate.

The mission of the military is unequivocally national defense - the protection of America and her people. The military is one of the only appropriate collectives in a democracy. It is a unique culture with unique rules where collective units, not individuals, are prioritized and where the mission supersedes the men/women who serve. Police departments are another form of appropriate collective in a democracy whose similar mission is national defense at a local and state level. Obama and his leftist Democratic Party are deliberately trying to weaken and undermine American police departments as well.

Obama's long-term plan for socialism and its cradle-to-grave government control is a political power grab that steals individual right and replaces them with national government rights. Like any predator the Democratic Party focuses its prey on the short game and disguises its long term objective. Sexual predators do not lure children with vegetables - they offer candy. Political predators do not lure their voters with hard work - they offer them free college, free healthcare, free food, free housing, free everything - and then the windows close, the doors lock, and the prey is captured and exploited.

Socialism is political candy for Americans who have been indoctrinated to believe that it will provide social justice and income equality. There are no individual rights in socialism - all rights belong to the national government. There are no property rights in socialism - all property belongs to the national government. The only social justice or income equality provided by socialism is that everyone is equally poor and equally exploited.

The appropriate place for a collective in a democracy is the military which is only effective when the mission takes priority over the individual. The leftist Democratic Party is attempting to invert American life by democratizing the military and socializing the society. The Leftist Democratic Party presents itself as America's advocate but is in fact America's enemy.

The irony of the entire Leftist Humanitarian Hoax designed to destroy American democracy and replace it with socialism is that the Leftist Democratic Party is too arrogant to understand that they are the useful idiots in the larger and more sinister plan of the globalist elite. Socialism with its complete government control is the prerequisite social structure for the globalist elite to internationalize the socialist countries and impose one-world government.

One-world government is the new world order that the globalist elite intend to rule themselves. It is unapologetically described in chilling detail in Lord Bertrand Russell's 1952 book "The Impact of Science on Society." One-world government is a binary socio-political system of masters and slaves. There is no social justice in one-world government, there is no income equality in one-world government, there are no Leftists or political agitators of any kind in one-world government - only a docile, compliant population of slaves and their rulers.

One-world government is the goal and the underlying motive of the campaign to destroy America from within. American democracy is the single greatest existential threat to one-world government and President Donald Trump is its leader. If the globalist elite are successful in their efforts to weaken the US military, overthrow the US government of President Donald Trump, and transform America into socialism the next step is globalist conquest and the imposition of one-world government.

After 241 years of American freedom the world will be returned to the dystopian existence of masters and slaves because a willfully blind American public were seduced by political candy and followed the Leftists into the awaiting socialist sedan - the windows close, the doors lock, and the prey is captured and enslaved. Game over.   

SOURCE






Anti-Christian Bigotry Is Surging in UK and US

By Bill Donohue

Anti-Christian fascist sign at a gay rights protest at Federal Plaza, Chicago on November 15, 2008. (Wikimedia Commons Photo)
Premier Christian Communications has released the results of a survey of 12,000 Christians in the U.K. assessing prejudice and discrimination against them. The findings are disturbing.

93% say Christianity is being marginalized in society
80% say Christianity is not given equal respect
67% say they are unable to be open about their faith at work
50% say they have experienced prejudice because of their Christian faith
26% say they fear they will be persecuted for being open about their faith

Tim Farron, who resigned as the head of the Liberal Democrats last month, said that "we are kidding ourselves if we think we live in a tolerant liberal society."

What is going on in the U.K. is also going on in the U.S.

The Catholic League website records an extensive example of anti-Catholic incidents, listing offenses stemming from activist organizations, the artistic community, business and the workplace, education, government, and the media. We have noted that the biggest spike in bigotry in recent years has emanated from government; it is also the most problematic venue of anti-Catholicism.

Evangelicals have also noted a surge in bigotry. The Family Research Council recently published "Hostility to Religion: The Growing Threat to Religious Liberty in the United States." It noted a 76% increase in attacks on religious liberty over the past three years.

Earlier this year, First Liberty published "Undeniable: The Survey of Hostility to Religion in America." It found there was a 133 percent increase in attacks on religious liberty over the past five years.

In February, the Public Religion Research Institute did a survey of white evangelicals and found that they believe they face more discrimination than Muslims.

What's going on? Farron is right: There is no tolerance for practicing Christians in the U.K., and the same is true in the U.S. Yet both nations prize their alleged open-mindedness. Much of the animus has to do with Christian sexual ethics: Christianity values restraint and the dominant culture in both nations values the abandonment of it.

But even this explanation is incomplete. Muslims are more in agreement with practicing Christians on sexual issues than they are with militant secularists. Yet in elite circles, the British and American high priests of tolerance are more accepting of Muslims than Christians. How can this be?

For one, Muslims are feared and Christians are not. Two, due to the corrupting influence of multiculturalism, elites in the West are more likely to embrace outsiders than they are their own, and this is especially true of practicing Christians. Three, those on the left welcome everyone who seeks to undermine the basis of Western Civilization, namely the Judeo-Christian ethos. It's a sick admixture of these three factors.

Christians in both nations need to hang tough and work together to combat anti-Christian bigotry. The alliances they forge must not be sidetracked by bigots, or by arrogant and boneheaded leaders in their own ranks who wish to crush such coalitions.

SOURCE






The collapse of the taxi-medallion shakedown

by Jeff Jacoby

IT MADE HEADLINES in 2011 when two New York City taxi medallions changed hands for $1 million apiece. At the time, it was the highest price ever recorded for one of the numbered metal tags that are required to lawfully operate a cab on the city's streets. It was also a vivid demonstration of how a government-created monopoly can send prices rocketing to stratospheric heights — even the price of something with almost no intrinsic value, like a little aluminum medallion issued by the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission.

A million bucks for a taxicab medallion? That may have come as a shock in 2011, but the price kept climbing. By 2014, medallions were going for $1.3 million apiece.

And all anyone got for forking over that astronomical sum was the government's permission to operate a vehicle as a taxi for hire. They didn't get a list of established customers. They didn't get the right to ply a popular route. They didn't even get a car.

The only reason anyone would pay a fortune for something so insubstantial is that the supply was capped by the government. New York allowed just 13,587 taxis on its streets, far below the actual demand for cab ownership. With the quantity of medallions sharply limited, their value soared. Would-be cabbies were forced to go deeply into debt to buy a medallion, or pay staggering rates to lease a cab from somebody who owned one.

No longer.

Since 2014, the cost of a New York City taxi medallion has plunged. As CNBC reported the other day, some medallions sold in 2017 have gone for prices in the $200,000s. Three credit unions that specialize in financing the purchase of medallions are facing bankruptcy; a growing number of medallion owners now owe more on their loans than the medallions are worth.

Thanks to Uber and Lyft, the government's extortion racket — that's what the medallion system amounts to — has been beaten. With the rise of ride-hailing apps, tens of thousands of additional vehicles in New York are now providing millions of rides annually. For every medallion-affixed yellow cab working the city's neighborhoods, there are now four Uber and Lyft cars.

In November 2010, traditional cabs made an average of 464,000 trips each day. By November 2016, that was down to 337,000. It is doubtless even lower today. For a long time, City Hall's formidable barrier to entry — the restricted availability of taxi medallions — stood. But private-sector vendors found a way around it, and the results of innovation and competition have been what they usually are: better service, lower prices, happier consumers.

What happened in New York is happening in every other city that turned its taxi market into an oligopoly. In Boston, where the number of taxis was arbitrarily capped at 1,825, the pre-Uber price of a medallion climbed to more than $700,000. You can buy one today for one-tenth that amount. In Chicago, traditional taxis face so much competition that as of March, 40 percent of the taxi fleet was deemed "inactive" after not having picked up a fare in a month.

The medallion system was always an outrage. There was never a legitimate reason for government to limit the number of taxis. Regulators have no business determining how many cabbies belong on the road; just as they have no business determining how many appetizers should be offered on menus or how many homes real-estate agencies should list. Or, to allude to current headlines, how many benefits a health-insurance policy must cover.

When government tries to manage supply and demand, it inevitably generates shortages, poor service, and corruption. Even with good intentions, regulators cannot yield fairer and more flexible outcomes than a market made up of millions of autonomous buyers and sellers. The collapse of the medallion shakedown was a long time in coming. It should never have been allowed in the first place.

SOURCE

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and  DISSECTING LEFTISM.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here.  Email me (John Ray) here

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