Charles Murray's Brave New Book
A new book by the libertarian scholar and author takes on the leftist brickbats of "white privilege" and "systemic racism."
Tuesday of this week marked the four-year anniversary of one of the most shameful episodes in the modern history of the American university. It happened at Middlebury College in Vermont, where political scientist, author, and American Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray was, as The Wall Street Journal put it, “shouted down by an angry mob clearly unable to challenge him intellectually.”
Murray was ultimately taken to another location on campus, but not before Allison Stanger, a Middlebury professor who escorted him away, was injured and sent to the hospital. (And we’re told students need safe spaces?)
Murray, a libertarian, has been a favorite whipping boy of the Left since the 1994 publication of his book, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. As Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, writes, “[The book] has very little to say about race. But it argues that a considerable portion of intelligence — 40 to 80 percent — is heritable; and it also argues that intelligence tests are generally reliable. Those ideas irritate people who have a deep investment in three beliefs: extreme human plasticity; the social origins of inequality; and the possibility of engineering our institutions to create complete social justice.”
No wonder the infantile little Maoists at Middlebury got so riled up. Their target, though, whom Power Line’s John Hinderaker dubbed “the bravest man in America,” has been undeterred.
Murray has a new book coming out on June 15 titled Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America. In it, he takes on the twin leftist cudgels of “white privilege” and “systemic racism,” and he does so by exploring what he calls “two known facts, long since documented beyond reasonable doubt” — namely, that our nation’s major racial and ethnic groups have different rates of violent crime and different means and distributions of cognitive ability.
Why would Murray want to explore such a sensitive topic? Perhaps, as George Mallory once replied when asked why he wanted to climb Everest, “Because it’s there.”
“America’s most precious ideal,” says the book’s description on Amazon, “is what used to be known as the American Creed: People are not to be judged by where they came from, what social class they come from, or by race, color, or creed. They must be judged as individuals. The prevailing Progressive ideology repudiates that ideal, demanding instead that the state should judge people by their race, social origins, religion, sex, and sexual orientation.”
The lie that must be repudiated, however, is that the U.S. is a nation irredeemably shot through with racism and white privilege. As Hinderaker points out, “As of 2018 Census Bureau data, whites are 17th among ethnic groups in median income, trailing not only just about every Asian minority, including Iranians and Pakistanis, but also African immigrant groups like Nigerian-Americans and Ghanian-Americans. The case for American ‘white supremacy’ is ludicrously weak, but it may be a capital offense to point that fact out.”
It’ll be interesting to see whether Jeff Bezos and his fellow book-banners at Amazon have the guts to keep Charles Murray’s book listed on their website.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/78188-charles-murrays-brave-new-book-2021-03-05
****************************************Tucker Carlson Zeroes in on the Left's 'Biggest Fear'
During his opening monologue on Thursday, Fox News’s Tucker Carlson excoriated the ongoing military occupation of Washington, D.C. and explained why it's still there and what has liberals so fearful.
While the left is admittedly scared of pretty much everything, he acknowledged, fear of "the other" has them most wound up now.
"When you're a liberal, the world is a very scary place, but there is one fear that rises above all other fears in the liberal mind: The fear of "the other." Like all primitive cultures, modern liberalism is tribal," he said. "Liberals understand most of the American continent as a mysterious dark space, like a medieval map populated by drooling Trump voters and violent illiterates with extra chromosomes.
"Liberals despise people like this, of course, and on some level, they know they're hated right back," he continued. "They worry that someday there will be a backlash against the people in charge, which, of course, is them. That's their biggest fear, a peasant revolt."
And so, D.C. looks like Baghdad's Green Zone, he said.
The left and right were fully prepared for another "insurrection" on March 4, but like a child fearful of the monster in the closet, the threat wasn't real.
"A lot of liberals were certain that March 4 was the day the right-wing revolution would finally begin. March 4, they believed, with something called 'QAnon Inauguration Day,'" he said, adding that they have no idea what that means and can guarantee the vast majority of Trump supporters don't either.
"They'd heard about it from Nancy Pelosi, who told her bodyguards to write up a report on the threat of QAnon Inauguration Day. So that's what they did. We never really learned any details, but members of Congress were not taking chances," Carlson continued. "Many of them fled the Capitol Thursday. House leaders rescheduled votes so that the rank-and-file legislators could escape with their lives, if not with their dignity."
What happened was predictable: nothing. More media showed up than anyone else.
This "credible threat" was just the latest in a series of lies to keep D.C. militarized, he argued, because the National Guard is there for political reasons more than anything else.
"This is very strange behavior for a democracy," Carlson pointed out. "In a democracy, leaders are supposed to rule with the consent of the governed. You would think that might have occurred to some people on Capitol Hill. If we're this afraid of American voters, maybe something's wrong. Maybe we're not doing a very good job. Maybe we ought to shut up for a second and listen to the complaints of the people whose lives we control. Maybe then we wouldn't need razor wire around the Capitol.
"Apparently, no one in Washington has thought of this," he added. "Instead, they've convinced themselves that the only Americans who have a problem with the way things are currently going must have been brainwashed by QAnon."
Meanwhile, as the left prepares itself for battle against imaginary threats, Americans are facing real ones on the streets.
"For all the concern over the safety of our elected leaders, there doesn't seem to be any concern for the safety of the people who elected them," he said. "Capitol Hill looks like the Green Zone in Baghdad, but the rest of the city looks like the area outside the Green Zone. Residential neighborhoods in Washington and in cities around the country haven't been this dangerous in years. Americans are dying in huge numbers from street crime, but no one in Congress cares. They're too busy spending tax dollars to shield themselves from the QAnon Shaman and his 70-year-old accomplices."
Maybe Democratic leaders will start caring if Americans blame QAnon for the crimes, he quipped.
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DOJ Has Dropped Dozens of Cases Against Portland Rioters
The Department of Justice has been quietly dropping dozens of charges against violent rioters in Portland. Local KGW8 has the story:
Federal prosecutors have dismissed more than one-third of cases stemming from last summer’s violent protests in downtown Portland, when protesters clashed with federal agents. KGW reviewed federal court records and found 31 of the 90 protest cases have been dismissed by the U.S. Department of Justice, including a mix of misdemeanor and felony charges.
Some of the most serious charges dropped include four defendants charged with assaulting a federal officer, which is a felony. More than half of the dropped charges were "dismissed with prejudice," which several former federal prosecutors described as extremely rare. “Dismissed with prejudice” means the case can’t be brought back to court.
Why is this happening?
In a recent interview with KGW, [Billy] Williams [then-U.S. Attorney for Oregon] explained the cases were dismissed in instances where prosecutors didn’t believe they could prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt.
“Each case was analyzed for the evidence that we had at the time," said Williams. "Careful decisions were made on whether or not someone should be charged based on the evidence."
Williams explained decisions are made on a case-by-case basis.
As a reminder, the Portland federal courthouse was under heavy siege for weeks on end last summer. Rioters used industrial grade fireworks to attack federal agents. They attempted to cement doors of the courthouse shut in order to trap agents inside and burn them alive. Many have permanent vision damage from lasers used against them.
"The firework came whizzing over the fence so fast that the agent didn’t have time to move. It exploded with a boom, leaving his hearing deadened and bloody gashes on both forearms. Stunned, with help from his cohorts, he stripped to his boxer shorts and a black T-shirt so his wounds could be examined and photographed for evidence. He told his fellow agents he was more worried about his hearing than about the gouges and burns on his arms," the Associated Press reported about one night of chaos. "By the end of the night, five other federal agents would be injured, including another who got a concussion when he was hit in the head with a commercial-grade firework. One agent was hospitalized. Several agents have lingering vision problems from the lasers."
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UK: Channel 4 is blasted for 'spineless surrender to the PC police' after sacking SAS Who Dares Wins star Ant Middleton for calling BLM protestors 'scum' and opposing Covid lockdown rules
Channel 4 has been blasted for a 'spineless surrender to the PC police,' over the sacking of SAS: Who Dares Wins star Ant Middleton after he shared controversial views on the Black Lives Matter protesters and Covid-19.
Channel 4 has said it will no longer work with the 40-year-old because 'our views and values are not aligned'.
Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan later tweeted: 'Absurd that Channel 4 fired Ant Middleton for his opinions. He's an SBS special forces war hero, what did they think they were hiring - a shrinking violet choirboy?
'Such a spineless surrender to the PC Police.'
The ex-Special Boat Service commando branded BLM protesters 'absolute scum,' along with EDL protesters, after groups were seen clashing in London last June.
He later apologised for the comments, saying he was 'anti-racist and anti-violence'.
At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, healso said he would ignore Covid-19 advice and told people to 'carry on as normal'.
The ex-special forces presenter said yesterday he had 'decided it's time to move on' from the hit show.
Following clashes between Black Lives Matter protesters and EDL members in London last summer, Ant Middleton tweeted: 'The extreme left against the extreme right. When did two wrongs make a right. It was only a matter of time. BLM and EDL are not welcome on our streets, absolute scum. What a great example you are to your future generation. Bravo.'
He later apologised for the comments, saying he was 'anti-racist and anti-violence'.
The tweet came after Middleton, 40, garnered controversy at the start of the pandemic.
In March last year he filmed himself saying: 'Am I still out travelling the world? Yes. Am I still shaking hands? Yes. Am I still cuddling fans at the airport? Yes. Am I washing my hands and keeping my hygiene to a high standard as always? Yes.
'Has my life changed? No. Am I going to let some disease, COVID-19, dictate my life? Absolutely not. Get out there, don't change, F**k COVID-19!'
He later admitted the comments were a 'mistake,' he made while filming in New Zealand. He said he had: 'probably been a bit insensitive towards the magnitude, the scale, of the crisis that's happening in the UK.'
Middleton's military career saw him serve in the Special Boat Service, the Royal Marines and 9 Parachute Squadron Royal.
He was jailed for 14 months after assaulting two police officers in his home town of Chelmsford, Essex, in 2013.
Last March he said his comments urging people to 'get out there,' during the Covid-19 pandemic was a 'mistake'.
Middleton said he had filmed himself in New Zealand and admitted he had 'probably been a bit insensitive towards the magnitude, the scale, of the crisis that's happening in the UK.'
A spokesperson for Channel 4 earlier told MailOnline: 'Ant Middleton will not be taking part in future series of SAS: Who Dares Wins.
'Following a number of discussions Channel 4 and Minnow Films have had with him in relation to his personal conduct it has become clear that our views and values are not aligned and we will not be working with him again.'
Celebrities including fellow presenter Ben Shepherd, ex-footballer John Terry and singer Olly Murrs have leant their support to Middleton, saying it 'won't be the same,' without him.
Middleton has been chief instructor on the Channel 4 show since 2015.
In a cryptic tweet sent earlier today, Colin MacLachlan, who was on the directing staff for the first series, responded to news of Middleton's sacking with the caption: 'Karma'.
His reaction is wildly different to many fans, who have slammed the 'PC brigade,' after Middleton told followers he had 'decided it's time to move on'.
Tweeting last night, Middleton said: 'After 5 incredible years I've decided it's time to move on from SAS: Who Dares Wins UK.
'Big respect to my fellow DS – it's been a journey I'll never forget. 'Thanks to everyone that took part and made the show what it is. Really excited about the future and what's coming this year.'
Good Morning Britain and Tipping Point host Ben Shephard replied today: 'Have loved every minute Ant Middleton, we’ll miss watching you on the show but will look forward to what’s coming next!'
Musician Olly Murs said he was 'gutted,' while former England captain John Terry said: 'It won't be the same without you mate'.
One follower replied: 'CH4 have made a massive mistake and I will be boycotting the programme in protest. You made that show and without you it will fail.
'Hopefully the other 2 quit after seeing the appalling way CH4 have treated you. Keep voicing your opinion & do not let these people silence you'
Another said: 'PC gone mad, great programme, will miss you in it. I hope to see you back on our screens soon.'
Fan Jacob Broughton wrote: 'Shock that woke channel 4 can’t stomach a veteran who may have differing opinions from them. Joke of a tv network.'
Another wrote: 'This was a good show. Wonder why he’s really left. Maybe his actions last summer haven’t helped but why now and not then?'
'Another person forced out because they dared to voice a different opinion,' wrote another supporter.
Middleton was reportedly forced to quit his role as the Royal Navy's Chief Cadet after just nine months, after his controversial 'scum' tweet about Black Lives Matter protesters last summer.
The TV tough guy, who took on the role in November, was said to have left his bosses furious after posting the since-deleted tweet, amid protests over racial injustice after the death of George Floyd in the US.
On June 14, Ant tweeted: 'The extreme left against the extreme right. When did two wrongs make a right. It was only a matter of time. BLM and EDL are not welcome on our streets, absolute scum. What a great example you are to your future generation. Bravo.'
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com TONGUE-TIED)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://john-ray.blogspot.com (FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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Kristina Pimenova, once said to be the most beautiful girl in the world. Note blue eyes and blonde hair
Bliss: What every woman wants: to feel safe and secure in the arms of her man. Robert Irwin and Rorie Buckey. See
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