URLs du Jour

2020-04-20

  • I used to quote Michelle Malkin all the time, but there was a dramatic dropoff starting 10-11 years ago. The last time I quoted her was back in 2018, and then in November 2019, I noted her excommunication by the Young America's Foundation. I wondered if she had "gone off the deep end."

    But I kept checking out her blog, Until a few days ago, when I was redirected to a new site, where she announced she was Settling into a new home.

    And that link goes to the Unz Review.

    Look, I'm aware of the SPLC and their ilk tarring all conservatives (and a lot of libertarians) with a very broad and dirty brush. But … geez … the Unz Review deserves every bit of tar you can sling at it. Bring on the clichés: it's a cesspool of antisemitism, a dumpster fire of racism, an Augean stable of conspiracy theories, a garbage heap of revisionism…

    The Moon landings were a giant hoax. 9/11 Was an Israeli Job. And (exercise for the reader) go through this article on tax policy and count how many times "Jew"/"Jewish" appears.

    So I've dumped Ma Belle Michelle. She's gone to a place I can't follow. Hope she gets better soon.


  • At Instapundit, David Bernstein has a detailed look at why no sensible person should blindly trust the New York Times. Case in point: an article by reporter Ginia Bellafante which details the Covid-19 death of one Joe Joyce. Who was unlucky enough to take a cruise on March 1. Wife Kristen is quoted as to who was really to blame for her husband's demise:

    “He watched Fox, and believed it was under control,’’ Kristen told me.

    David takes this apart by looking at what everyone was saying around the beginning of March.

    Responsible reporters would […] point out that whatever the family believes, no important institutions or media networks were calling on people to stop traveling (or gathering) when the individual in question set off on his cruise. It turns out that we likely should have started serious social distancing at least a couple of weeks earlier than we did. But to blame our not doing so on “Fox News” is just batty.

    And some bright person unearthed a Ginia Bellafante tweet from 2/27 saying that she "fundamentally" didn't "understand the panic."


  • Arnold Kling predicts that Lockdown Socialism will collapse. And I usually excerpt, but:

    I’ve seen headlines about polls showing that people are afraid of restrictions being lifted too soon. To me, it sounds as if they prefer what I call Lockdown Socialism.

    Under Lockdown Socialism:

    –you can stay in your residence, but paying rent or paying your mortgage is optional.

    –you can obtain groceries and shop on line, but having a job is optional.

    –other people work at farms, factories, and distribution services to make sure that you have food on the table, but you can sit at home waiting for a vaccine.

    –people still work in nursing homes that have lost so many patients that they no longer have enough revenue to make payroll.

    –professors and teachers are paid even though schools are shut down.

    –police protect your property even though they are at risk for catching the virus and criminals are being set free.

    –state and local governments will continue paying employees even though sales tax revenue has collapsed.

    –if you own a small business, you don’t need revenue, because the government will keep sending checks.

    –if you own shares in an airline, a bank, or other fragile corporations, don’t worry, the Treasury will work something out.

    This might not be sustainable.

    That last bit is classic understatement.


  • I temporarily gave up on posting about Google News Alerts for occurrences of "Live Free or Die". Because nearly every one of late has been an undercurrent of snideness about people at lockdown protests, some of whom (they invariably point out) are carrying LFOD signs.

    At Reason, Robby Soave has a simple request: Celebrities and the Media Shouldn’t Sneer at Coronavirus Lockdown Protesters.

    In their desperation to get back to work, some Americans are taking to the streets to demand that the government end the quarantine. Comedian Patton Oswalt is unsympathetic.

    "Anne Frank spent 2 years hiding in an attic and we've been home for just over a month with Netflix, food delivery & video games and there are people risking viral death by storming state capital buildings & screaming, 'Open Fuddruckers!'" he tweeted on Saturday.

    This is hardly Oswalt's first display of smug liberal condescension: His tweet denouncing Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann as a "leering, privileged little shit" was one of the most vile celebrity attacks on the wrongly maligned teenager.

    It's not a good look for not-very-inconvenienced celebrities to punch down at actual people who are hurting.


  • At Granite Grok, Steve MacDonald highlights a local story: UNH Student Lied About being Drugged by Frat. The Union Leader news story is here.

    A Manchester woman has been arrested for filing a false report to law enforcement after she claimed she was drugged during an off-campus fraternity event at the University of New Hampshire.

    Olivia LeClerc, 20, was arrested at the Durham Police Department on Thursday. She is scheduled to be arraigned on May 13, according to an arrest log.

    LeClerc is accused of presenting police with a drug test which showed she had benzodiazepines (Xanax) in her system after a social at Kappa Sigma the last week of February. Later, she recanted her story, police said, admitting that she had forged the document.

    Steve comments, correctly, that "the tendency to report fake rapes does an injustice to women who are actually assaulted. Rape is real, and it happens, and it is awful. These women need support and deserve justice."

    In the meantime, UNH suspended the Kappa Sigma frat. One can only wonder if they'll be desuspended and apologized to.


  • And I have to share this wonderful video brought to my attention by Viking Pundit: Somber music playing in these unprecedented times. Because I've been driven slightly bonkers by this:

    And Mrs. Salad is beginning to dislike my frenzied screaming every time one of the ads appears…


Last Modified 2021-05-10 2:25 PM EDT