Thursday, March 19, 2020


4 stages of the UK plan for coronavirus



With apologies to "Yes Minister":

 




This New York law is government bullying at its worst—and it has no place in America

In America, the government exists to protect freedom, not take it away. That’s why it’s so shocking when you hear about some of the laws being passed by government activists in our country today.

New York’s so-called Boss Bill is a perfect example. The Boss Bill can compel employers to knowingly hire employees who endorse and promote abortion, even when a business works to offer alternatives to abortion that protect and honor life.

Can you imagine the issues this could cause for a pro-life pregnancy center, John? What about a Christian school? Or a church?

New York has some of the most radical abortion laws in the country. Abortionists in the state commit more than 12% of all abortions in the U.S each year.

Abortion activists lit up the One World Trade Center in pink to celebrate passing a law that made abortion legal up until the moment of birth for almost any reason.

And now, New York is taking its abortion activism even further.

The government is compelling people with moral or religious beliefs about the sanctity of life to adhere to its pro-abortion orthodoxy in their hiring decisions.

This is a direct attack on religious freedom.

CompassCare Pregnancy Services has been serving vulnerable women in western New York for more than 35 years. Its Buffalo location is less than three miles from one of New York’s 57 Planned Parenthood facilities.

The doctors and nurses who serve at CompassCare know that women facing unplanned pregnancies are often scared and unsure of what to do. CompassCare exists to transform that fear into confidence by offering important medical services, honest information, and compassionate care. They want women to feel empowered to make the best decision for them and their unborn babies—not pressured.

And you know what they’ve found? When women are given the resources and information they need, they are more likely to choose life for their unborn babies.

Praise God!

CompassCare is doing incredible work, but the government is now forcing this life-saving place to undermine the very reason it exists. The Boss Bill could force pro-life medical facilities like CompassCare to hire an abortion doctor or a pro-abortion nurse as part of its staff.

And here’s where the state’s real intentions shine through…

New York could have provided an exemption for religious organizations—churches, schools, pro-life pregnancy centers like CompassCare that are operating according to their religious beliefs—but elected officials intentionally chose not to.

The only reason the Boss Bill exists is because pro-abortion officials—and Planned Parenthood, which has invested tens of thousands of dollars to get them elected—want pro-abortion ideology rammed down the throat of people of faith and pro-life advocates. Dissent will not be tolerated.

It is not illegal to be pro-life—but sometimes government officials sure act like it is.

In New York and other states, we are seeing direct attacks on the freedoms of your pro-life brothers and sisters. But all Americans should be free to live and work according to their beliefs without fear of unjust government punishment.

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The New York Times Begins Correcting the Historical Record on ‘1619 Project’

“I have been thinking about this and reading obsessively for 25 years about all the inequalities in American life that can be traced back to slavery,” Nikole Hannah-Jones of the New York Times told an audience at Harvard in December.

Now the Times admits: Her obsession bested her reason.

On March 11, the Times issued a correction to its 1619 Project, a sprawling journalistic exercise that has proved more editorial than historical.

And this wasn’t just any correction. The 1619 Project was based on the idea that slavery was “one primary reason the colonists fought the American Revolution,” but the Times is now hedging on that assertion.

In the paper’s correction, editors changed the wording of Hannah-Jones’ leading article in the series to say that “some of” the colonists fought the American Revolution to defend slavery.

The editors called this a “small” clarification, and it was indeed very small, although considering that the 1619 Project’s full-throated commitment to demonstrating that American history can only be explained through the lens of slavery, this correction appears nothing short of essential.

But the correction did not go far enough.

Writing in National Review, Timothy Sandefur explained, “The New York Times’ ‘1619 Project’ purports to ‘reframe’ American history by positing not only that the United States was founded ‘as a slavocracy,’ but that ‘nearly everything that has truly made America exceptional’ is the result of ‘slavery—and the anti-black racism it required.’”

The 1619 Project wanted no confusion: American history began with slavery.

Yet historians from both sides of the ideological divide and even one of the Times’ own fact-checkers cited problems with the Project. On March 6, Leslie M. Harris, a history professor at Northwestern University, wrote in Politico that she had “vigorously argued against” Hannah-Jones’ contention that “patriots fought the American Revolution in large part to preserve slavery in North America.”

“Despite my advice, the Times published the incorrect statement about the American Revolution anyway,” Harris wrote, even as she maintained her support for the project as a whole.

Sandefur and Harris aren’t alone in their critiques. The Wall Street Journal cited criticism from Pulitzer-winning historians Gordon Wood and James McPherson, with Wood saying, “It still strikes me as amazing why the New York Times would put its authority behind a project that has such weak scholarly support.”

Unfortunately, the Times’ correction may be too little, too late for thousands of students.

The 1619 Project’s creators accompanied their essays with sets of curricular materials designed for K-12 schools, and now some of the nation’s largest school districts are using these essays and instructional products.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice K. Jackson said the 1619 Project materials are “invaluable tools for our classrooms” in her announcement that the district would be using the materials.

Schools in Buffalo, New York, have “[infused] 1619 Project resources into the mainstream English and Social Studies curriculum.” According to Real Clear Investigations, five schools systems, including Washington, D.C.’s, are using the materials across their districts.

Scholars warned that schools should not use this material for historical instruction. Phil Magness of the American Institute for Economic Research told the libertarian Reason magazine that using the 1619 Project curricula in school “is at best premature” until corrections are made to some of the Project’s central ideas on the “economics of slavery.”

Concerned parents and educators should alert school district leaders about the correction and emphasize that many scholars have already said the curriculum is not appropriate for students.

Now that schools around the country are either closing, or considering doing so, due to the coronavirus, parents have an opportunity to talk with their children about the 1619 Project’s claims and to find alternatives.

Those looking for other materials have options, including the 1776 initiative, which was founded by leading black professors, journalists, and intellectuals, including Robert Woodson Sr., founder and president of the Woodson Center, and Columbia professor John H. McWhorter.

This rebuttal to the Times’ essays says that America is not “forever defined by its past failures” and offers “alternative perspectives” celebrating the “progress American has made on delivering its promise of equality and opportunity.”

The Times ushered the 1619 Project into classrooms, ignoring warnings that the material contained inaccuracies. In a strange twist of fate, a brief respite from classrooms due to the coronavirus allows families to intervene.

Let’s hope this and any future corrections receive as much attention as the original Project itself.

SOURCE 






We built this city

Bettina Arndt reports from Australia:

With all the dreadful news, I thought it might be nice to focus on something positive.

A man wrote to me the other day and reminded me of this wonderful 1932 poster, Lunch atop a Skyscraper.



My correspondent wanted to know if anything was planned to promote International Men’s Day, this year to be held on November 19, 2020. He suggested pairing this extraordinary poster with the slogan “We Built This City” – as a means of celebrating the men who “work in dangerous jobs to feed their families and build our civilisation.” 

I thought that was a great idea and was really happy when a little team of my supporters contacted me, volunteering to help bring people on board to make this happen. They are calling themselves the MensDay team. 

The idea is to make the day really positive. They suggest it should be a day to recognise the men around you at home and at work.  A day to celebrate the diversity of backgrounds, personalities, talents and experience they bring to tasks large and small, and to acknowledge men more widely as builders, providers, mentors and protectors.

Sound good? Well, to start with they want people everywhere to get to work, looking around them to see what local organisations, councils, workplaces were involved in International Women’s Day. And then start making careful, polite enquiries about whether these organisations would consider doing something to support IMD on November 19. They suggest you try to get a couple of people you know to work with you to start making these approaches, preferably including some women. Often having women make the case for doing something for men means organisations are more likely to take notice.

If you are willing to start working on this, contact the MensDay team so they can help coordinate activities. Eventually they will produce posters and flyers that could be used to advertise the event and also will circulate advice regarding possible activities. Write to MensDayPlan@gmail.com.

They would love more people to join the coordinating team so if you have time and skills to contribute please get in touch with them.

Bettina@bettinaarndt.com.au

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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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