You may have read about the proposed ethnic studies curriculum developed for California public high schools, which caused an uproar because of its biased treatment of Jews and Israel, support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel, and fear that it fomented anti-Semitism. That is one of many battles over curricula as Islamists attempt to rewrite history and erase any mention of Islamic extremism.

The Islamophobia industry is engaged in a systemic effort to whitewash the history of Islam and perpetuate the myth that Islam has always been nothing but peaceful toward non-adherents. These propagandists seek to silence and smear their critics as Islamophobic.

We have seen this effort across college campuses, which have received nearly $3 billion since 2012 from Arab/Muslim states and individuals who hope to influence the next generation of Americans to adopt their view of Middle East geopolitics. These investments have paid off via the hiring of apologists for Islamist terror who teach, write textbooks, and serve as sources for the media.

Historian Martin Kramer has noted how American scholars have made a deliberate effort to turn Islam into a pacifist faith a kind of oriental Quakerism.

Equally disturbing, as I wrote in my book The Arab Lobby, is an increasing effort to shape the views of children from kindergarten through high school. The 9/11 terror attacks provoked fear and misunderstanding about Muslims and Islam, while political correctness allowed the lobby to present its sanitized version of events aimed at downplaying Arab/Muslim distinctions, ignoring differences in values and interests, and dismissing links between radical Islam and terror.

U.S. taxpayers underwrite some of these efforts through government-funded Title VI Middle East Studies centers at major universities. Todays Islamophobia lobby has an exponential impact through these centers, whose mandate is to educate teachers about the region. As Ive documented, as part of their obligation to engage in outreach, these Title VI-affiliated centers often produce materials that reflect the lobbys views. Teachers then pass on these views to their students.

Advancing the same politicized agenda that rules academia, Islamist organizations have allied with left-wing interest groups and pressured publishers to revise textbooks to better reflect multicultural ideologies. The result is a reluctance to discuss negative aspects of sharia law (such as the discriminatory treatment of non-believers, women, and gays), the role of radical Islam in pervading terrorism, and the Islamist animus toward the United States, Israel, and the West. A 2008 study by Gary Tobin and Dennis Ybarra concluded:

Discovering in our schools a pervasive set of erroneous beliefs about such a vital topic should alarm every taxpayer, every parent, and every school official. To allow biased textbooks and outright propaganda in supplemental materials into the schools is to pervert the very purpose of public education and a misuse of our democratic system.

One such battle occurring in Virginias Loudoun County centers around the misrepresentation of the meaning of jihad. Loudouns presentation of jihad and Islamic terrorism were criticized for bias. While it is understandable that American Muslims would not want their religion associated with radicalism, teaching that jihad is a wholly benign concept related to a believers internal struggle distorts the terms meaning by ignoring its relationship to extremism, even as terrorist organizations such as Palestine Islamic Jihad use the very word itself to convey their malignant mission.

As Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis once explained: Conventionally translated holy war, [jihad] has the literal meaning of striving in the path of God (fi sabil Allah). Some Muslim theologians have interpreted the duty of striving in the path of God in a spiritual and moral sense. The overwhelming majority of early authorities discuss jihad in military terms.

The Islamophobia lobby could veto Lewis, a Jew smeared by critics as a Western-oriented propagandist. But textbook authors could also cite the medieval Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun, who wrote: In the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the (Muslim) mission and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force.

Students can find a more contemporary definition in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, where Emile Tyan wrote: Jihad consists of military action with the object of the expansion of Islam.

Learning the meaning of jihad is also key for students to understand the Middle East today, where the commitment to jihad by terrorist organizations such as Palestine Islamic Jihad and Hamas perpetuates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Students should learn, for example, that Palestine Islamic Jihad considers jihad the only way to liberate Palestine. A Tel Aviv University analysis explains how the group believes that a Muslim victory and the elimination of Israel are foreordained by Gods words in the Quran.

By reading primary documents, students can see for themselves the true meaning of jihad. To understand the ideology of Hamas, teachers can direct them to the groups charter, which states that [t]here is no solution for the Palestine question except through jihad and calls on Muslims to raise the banner of jihad to rid the land and the people of their uncleanliness, vileness and evils.

American public schools could also use material taught about Islam in Muslim schools. A study of Saudi textbooks, for example, found that many encourage both violent and non-violent jihad against non-believers.

A Palestinian textbook for eleventh graders offered a definition of jihad very different from the one proposed for Loudoun school children: Jihad is an Islamic term that equates to the term war in other nations. The difference is that jihad has noble goals and lofty aims and is carried out only for the sake of Allah and for His glory.

Unquestionably, students should learn more about Islam. But they should learn it from unbiased sources, not from apologists for Islamism. It is a disservice, and intellectually dishonest, to teach them a sanitized version of history that whitewashes the extremist elements of the religion. If the Islamophobia lobby has its way, the next generation will grow up unaware and unprepared to face the danger from Islamists who threaten American lives, values, and interests.

Mitchell Bard, a Campus Watch Fellowwith the Middle East Forum,is the author/editor of 22 books, including the 2017 edition of Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict,The Arab Lobby,and the novel After Anatevka: Tevye in Palestine.

Read more:

BARD: In Whitewashing Islamism, Some K-12 Programs Advance Jihad - The Daily Wire

Author and Guardian columnist Stuart Heritage knows all too well how toxic masculinity has had a detrimental effect on womens fight for gender equality, freedom from sexual harassment and womens rights. So hes laying down the ground rules for his sons as they grow up in a post #metoo world

Words by Stuart Heritage

Hello! If youre anything like me, youll be waking up in the middle of night worrying about climate change, plastic pollution and why the world is such a horrible place. Ive just written a book called Bedtime Stories for Worried Liberals, a collection of short funny stories about this. One of the stories is called The Man Who Couldnt Even Hug Anyone Any More, about a middle-aged white man (well, Im 39 now) struggling to adapt in a post #MeToo world. While writing, I realised that traditional masculinity is responsible for a huge slice of the worlds ills. So, heres my letter to my two young sons, about how Id like them to grow up

Dear sons,

Im sorry. This is all my fault. Had you been born at literally any other point in human history, you would have had the run of the place by now. As a pair of boys and relatively white boys at that the whole world has always been purpose built for your needs from the ground up.

Seriously, it was crazy what people like us used to get away with. We had all the money and all the power. If we wanted to go around groping women, we could. If we wanted to go out to work and leave our wives to stay at home and raise the kids, we could. Get this: if we wanted to own a new country, we used to just find one and tell everyone that it was ours. We did it all the time! And people actually let us! Isnt that nuts? This is the world you could have been born into.

But no. I met your mum too late, and you were born too late, and now thats all disappeared. We live in a post #MeToo world now, and Im afraid to say that theyre on to us. Youre the first generation of men in history who wont get to swan around doing whatever they like without fear of reprisal. I know. Its my fault. Im sorry.

This basically leaves you with two options. The first is to rail against your predicament, spluttering that equality is a sign of political correctness gone mad and that white men are actually now the real minority. Id advise against this, though, on the basis that itll make you look like a right tit. Your other choice, however, is to try and figure out how to be good, strong, considerate men in the world. Hopefully your mother and I have already shown you how to do this. But heres a reminder, just in case:

Being a man can suck sometimes. Our role models have always been strong and silent. Were taught to push our feelings all the way down to the pit of our stomach. Were told to man up. And this is devastating. If we dont talk about it, all our sadness and frustration at the world will have nowhere to go, and it ends up coming out in horrible ways. Sometimes it makes us hurt other people. Sometimes it makes us hurt ourselves. Youve seen me swear at strangers in the car before, so you can probably see Ive still got some work to do in this area. But I want you both to know that you can talk to me about your feelings. Im always going to be here for you.

You are both such beautiful, weird, tender little boys. Im proud of how thoughtful and sensitive you are, and I never want you stop being yourselves. But the day is bound to come when men will start bullying you to be more like them. Maybe theyll take against your all-consuming infatuation with bowhead whales. Maybe theyll knock the books out of your hands and tease you for not liking sport. This happened to me, and I ended up caving in to their demands; my entire school life was essentially spent pretending to understand football. Id love for you to be able to do better than me. You dont need to bow to the rigid demands of masculinity. You can like anything you want to like. You can wear whatever you want to wear. You can love whoever you want to love. Stick up for yourselves. Be better than me. And, if you cant be better than me, do what I do and use Facebook to see how badly all your old classmates have screwed up their lives. Its a lot of fun, I promise.

This is a big one. If I believe anything at all, its this. Instagram is full of people who think the best way to teach a three-year-old how to be decent is to photograph them holding a book about feminism that was written for 15-year-olds. Its infuriating. That isnt how children learn. They learn by watching and mimicking their role models. When you both grow up to be decent men, I hope that itll be in part because you saw me trying my hardest to be a good man. There are studies showing that children with engaged fathers have better cognitive development and more satisfactory relationships. Just by watching me cook dinner every night, for example, youre subconsciously learning not to believe in traditional gender roles. Youll grow up smart and self-reliant, and less likely to push the burden of emotional labour onto your partners. And your kids, if you have them, will see you doing it and theyll grow up to be even better than you. This is how change works. I guess what Im trying to say and I want you to read this slowly, so it really sinks in is that Im pretty bloody amazing

As I write this, youre both incredibly into superheroes. You call them brave heroes, which is actually quite adorable. But try to remember that superheroes arent brave. Batman isnt brave; hes a bored billionaire with nothing to live for. The Hulk isnt brave; hes just strong and stupid. Superman isnt brave; hes literally an invincible godhead from another planet. To truly be brave is to feel sad or scared, but find the strength to carry on anyway. Youre both already so brave: you were brave on your first day of nursery, and on your first day of school, and when you shouted down the bigger boys who pushed you at soft play, and when you saw that dead crab on the beach that time. If you can keep this spirit of bravery alive within you for your entire life then, my god, youll turn out to be great men.

I mean, youd think that this one is just common sense. But it bears repeating. Do not, under any circumstances, send a picture of your dick to a stranger on the internet. Its weird and gross. Final warning.

I love you both so much

Dad

PS. I swear to god, though, if youre still waking me up at four thirty every morning when you read this, Im cutting you out of my will.

Stus book Bedtime Stories For Worried Liberals, is out Thur 3 Oct, 7.19 (hardback) on Amazon normal RRP 9.99, published by Profile

Read more:

Stu Heritage: Im raising my sons to be the very best feminists - Marie Claire UK

Perhaps, just perhaps, we have seen the end of the expectation of absolute, lifetime political correctness in Canada.

Surely we must, for the only solution otherwise would be for the Liberal Party of Canada to expel its leader, Justin Trudeau, the incumbent prime minister, in the middle of a federal election campaign.

Live by the sword, die by the sword, to paraphrase Matthew 26:52.

Im pissed off at myself, Trudeau said on his airplane in the evening of Sept. 18 in a hastily called press conference. This was after Time magazine published a school yearbook photo from 2000-01. In that photo, a 29-year-old school teacher named Justin Trudeau, teaching at an elite private school, wore brownface and a turban to an Arabian Nights-themed costume party. He also had his darkened hand draped across the neck of an attractive woman.

How could he? Shouldnt he have known the implications in the 21st century of ever doing something that could be considered wrong, in any way, shape or form? Of being risqu, or making some form of off-colour joke, of being anything but perfectly politically correct?

Didnt he know that any past action could be punished, severely, and without significant recourse, with no forgiveness? That all are to be perfect from the cradle to today?

How times has he written the political obituary of those whom have erred in some manner or another? Be it a tweet or some allegation, unproven in court? How many candidates have been dropped or not even considered due to a social media post? How many MPs, of his party and others, have been flambed at the stake of perfect political correctness?

Does the standard, the immediate political banishment Justin Trudeau has applied to so many others, apply to all? Or is that just a standard for everyone not named Trudeau?

Trudeau, and he alone, has to bear the consequences of his actions, and I dont mean for what he did some 19 years ago. If he expected others to fall on their swords for any past moment of impropriety, then he should do the same. If not, his apologies should not only extend to those offended, but those who he has punished for similar or lesser offences.

This event should spell the end of the 21st century requirement that everyone be perfectly politically correct for their entire lives, with no record existing anywhere of any bad behaviour, or, to use Trudeaus own terms in sacking two Liberal MPs, serious personal misconduct.

Every time he called someone else out for their politically incorrect behaviour in the past, was he thinking in the back of his mind, I hope to God that no one digs up that yearbook?

The Liberal government has been apologizing for all the wrongs of the last 152 years of confederation, based on todays current sensibilities. Now he is being judged for something that happened long ago.

Will he step down? In the middle of an election? As the incumbent prime minister?

I wrote a column back in 2017 about how Winston Churchill, the man who saved Britain from Nazi Germany, would never be electable today. He was a racist, through and through, and didnt have much respect for those with coloured skin. Sound familiar? But wait, theres more.

Churchill was an imperialist, and truly felt England should rule a large chunk of the world (see above on racism). The man had issues with Ghandi. Yes, that Ghandi!

He was an elitist who apparently, not once in his life, drew his own bath, and always had servants. He grew up the son of one of the most prominent parliamentarians of his respective age. Churchill was a chauvinist and sexist. Any one of his cracks made to or about women would today sink him as soon as it hit Twitter. Trudeau would surely have expelled him.

As I wrote back then, by todays standards, Churchill was deeply flawed, politically incorrect to the extreme. One social media search would sink his chances of ever getting elected again. There is not forgiveness for flaw of any type in todays society.

Now, Im not saying that Justin Trudeau is Winston Churchill. But I am saying that no one, but no one, is without sin. No one can attain the point of political correctness perfection modern society demands. Justin Trudeau has been the high priest of the temple of political correctness worship.

So that really leaves us with just two outcomes.

Either Justin Trudeau resigns as leader, and resigns from the Liberal caucus, essentially forfeiting the election, or the reign of terror of political correctness ends, now. We cannot have both. Our society must come to the realization that all people have made errors, that they are flawed, but are not beyond redemption.

Either the impossible standards are applied to all, or we become Biblical about this.

He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. John 8:7, KJV

Justin Trudeau has cast many a stone.

Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net.

Go here to read the rest:

Does Trudeau's brownface photo end absolute political correctness? - Estevan Mercury

If you thought Dave Chapelles: Sticks and Stones was just what America needed, then buckle up buttercup because Bill Burrs new comedy special Paper Tiger kicks it to overdrive.

Burr slays many of the progressive worlds sacred cows as he addresses everything from the insane turns the Me Too Movement has taken to cultural appropriation. If you are one who is easily offended this isnt for you, but if you need a break from the crazy Im offended by everything culture that has gripped our world over the past several years.

I highly recommend it.

Burr started off talking about how people were upset by Bryan Cranston playing a quadriplegic in his new film The Upside and that the idea of having a quadriplegic play in the role was ridiculous because it wouldnt be acting, So tell us, what did you do to prepare for the role? Well I dove headfirst into a pool when I was 23, I feel like Ive been preparing for this role my entire life,, Burr said.

Burr also points out the illogical thinking behind the modern feminist movement and how something like the Me Too movement which began with good intentions has turned into a witch hunt that would ruin a mans life as due process has been entirely replaced by a womans accusation of sexual assault against a man.

Burr jokes about how he was sexually assaulted by a woman while playing a private event. Bill says the woman who he followed while playing the event flipped him in the penis in a bullying manner, but how he couldnt say anything because he would be shamed and nobody would believe his story. In a laughable way he points out the double standard that feminists champion.

What I love about comedy it often takes certain stereotypes and points them out in a way that everyone can see how ridiculous they are. Burr does this in an excellent way when he discusses how his wife, who is black, got upset while they were watching a documentary on Elvis Presley. Burr says his wife got upset, as the man who discovered Elvis said the reason he became the King of Rock N Roll was because he was a white man who successfully blended white bluegrass music with the blues. Burr says his wife claimed Elvis was only successful because he was a white man who culturally appropriated Black music.

He countered his wifes statement by pointing out how he doesnt get upset at her when she attempts to ride a skateboard. Do I get mad at you when you get a skateboard and start going down the f*cking street? Do I get all offended like, hey man thats the white shit, stop appropriating my culture, some dirty white kid in Santa Monica came up with that, Burr said.

Burr finishes out his special talking about discussing potential problems that we are creating in our world by the abuse of technology. He particularly addresses how using something like a blowup sex doll used to be taboo, and now people are creating incredibly realistic sex robots and how it could potentially lead to people no longer wanting to have sex with each other, which would then lead to a war between the sex robots and hipsters with Civil War beards in Star Wars costumes.

The beauty of comedy is that it pushes boundaries and forces us to look at how utterly ridiculous we can be as people. Comedy takes hard topics that need to be discussed in our society and make them easier to talk about because they introduce an element of humor. Comedy is good for humanity because it forces us not to take ourselves so serious 24/7. Humor is one of the spices of life that makes life more vibrant and worth living instead of a dull and miserable existence.

It is indeed refreshing to see comics like Bill Burr and Dave Chapelle who refuse to let the PC police march us to our own doom as a society. Burrs Paper Tiger is certainly not a hidden dragon when it comes to humor. It will leave you roaring with laughter which contrasts starkly with the bleak walls of the politically correctness.

See more here:

Bill Burr's "Paper Tiger" is a Roaring Dragon Against Political Correctness - The Libertarian Republic

Perhaps, just perhaps, we have seen the end of the expectation of absolute, lifetime political correctness in Canada.

Surely we must, for the only solution otherwise would be for the Liberal Party of Canada to expel its leader, Justin Trudeau, the incumbent prime minister, in the middle of a federal election campaign.

Live by the sword, die by the sword, to paraphrase Matthew 26:52.

Im pissed off at myself, Trudeau said on his airplane in the evening of Sept. 18 in a hastily called press conference. This was after Time magazine published a school yearbook photo from 2000-2001. In that photo, a 29-year-old school teacher named Justin Trudeau, teaching at an elite private school, wore brownface and a turban to an Arabian Nights-themed costume party. He also had his darkened hand draped across the neck of an attractive woman.

How could he? Shouldnt he have known what the implications in the 21st century of ever doing something that could be considered wrong, in any way, shape or form? Of being risqu, or making some form of off-colour joke, of being anything but perfectly politically correct?

Didnt he know that any past action could be punished, severely, and without significant recourse, with no forgiveness? That all are to be perfect from the cradle to today?

How times has he written the political obituary of those whom have erred in some manner or other? Be it a tweet or some allegation, unproven in court? How many candidates have been dropped or not even considered due to a social media post? How many MPs, of his party and others, have been flambeed at the stake of perfect political correctness?

Does the standard, the immediate political banishment Justin Trudeau has applied to so many others, apply to all? Or is that just a standard for everyone not named Trudeau?

Trudeau, and he alone, has to bear the consequences of his actions, and I dont mean for what he did some 19 years ago. If he expected others to fall on their swords for any past moment of impropriety, then he should do the same. If not, his apologies should not only extend to those offended, but those who he has punished for similar or lesser offences.

This event should spell the end of the 21st century requirement that everyone be perfectly politically correct for their entire lives, with no record existing anywhere of any bad behaviour, or, to use Trudeaus own terms in sacking two Liberal MPs, serious personal misconduct.

Every time he called someone else out for their politically incorrect behaviour in the past, was he thinking in the back of his mind, I hope to God that no one digs up that yearbook?

The Liberal government has been apologizing for all the wrongs of the last 152 year of confederation, based on todays current sensibilities. Now he is being judge for something that happened long ago.

Will he step down? In the middle of an election? As the incumbent prime minister?

I wrote a column back in 2017 about how Winston Churchill, the man who saved Britain from Nazi Germany, would never be electable today. He was a racist, through and through, and didnt have much respect for those with coloured skin. Sound familiar? But wait, theres more.

Churchill was an imperialist, and truly felt England should rule a large chunk of the world (see above on racism). The man had issues with Ghandi! Yes, that Ghandi!

He was an elitist who apparently, not once in his life, drew his own bath, and always had servants. He grew up the son of one of the most prominent parliamentarians of his respective age. Churchill was a chauvinist and sexist. Any one of his cracks made to or about women would today sink him as soon as it hit Twitter. Trudeau would surely have expelled him.

As I wrote back then, by todays standards, Churchill was deeply flawed, politically incorrect to the extreme. One social media search would sink his chances of ever getting elected again. There is not forgiveness for flaw of any type in todays society.

Now, Im not saying that Justin Trudeau is Winston Churchill. But I am saying that no one, but no one, is without sin. No one can attain the point of political correctness perfection modern society demands. Justin Trudeau has been the high priest of the temple of political correctness worship.

So that really leaves us with just two outcomes.

Either Justin Trudeau resigns as leader, and resigns from the Liberal caucus, essentially forfeiting the election, or the reign of terror of political correctness ends, now. We cannot have both. Our society must come to the realization that all people have made errors, that they are flawed, but are not beyond redemption.

Either the impossible standards are applied to all, or we become Biblical about this.

He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. John 8:7, KJV

Justin Trudeau has cast many a stone.

Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net.

Read this article:

Column: Does Trudeau's brownface photo spell the end of absolute political correctness? - Pipeline News

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

The 2020 election cycle has witnessed some of the most bizarre proposals from Democratic candidates. From free health care for illegal immigrants to calls for the confiscation of AR-15s, 2020 Democrats are in a constant competition to outdo themselves in putting forward outlandish proposals.

One particular plan that has gained tremendous momentum on the left has been the campaign against meat. What started out as a movement only confined to animal rights and plant-based living circles has now entered mainstream political discussion. In fact, the talk about reducing meat consumption has gotten so shrill that Fox News host Tucker Carlson has chimed in about the matter.

In one of his latest episodes of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Mr. Carlson asserted the left is highly neurotic about food. A bold claim to say the least.

However, clips from his show demonstrate that the Fox News host is not so off base. From Kamala Harris to Andrew Yang, most candidates in the recent debates were in favor of reducing meat consumption in some form.

Mr. Yang and Elizabeth Warren linked meat eating to global warming. Mr. Yang believes that cutting back on meat consumption is good for the environment, its good for your health if you eat less meat. Certainly meat is an expensive thing to produce.

Ms. Warren added, there are a lot of ways that we try to change our energy consumption Some of it is with lightbulbs, some of it is on straws, some of it, dang, is on cheeseburgers, right?

The linkage of meat consumption to global warming has gained momentum ever since the Green New Deals rollout earlier this year by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Besides the blatant calls for the government to play a larger role in the economy by subsidizing clean energy and enacting new regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions, snuck inside the Green New Deal are plans to reduce meat consumption. All of this is in the name of fighting global warming.

Such a campaign marks a golden opportunity to double dip and rail against politically correct hobby horses. Indeed, the War on Meat can be seen as one theater of the political correctness wars being launched across the West to demonize otherwise normal activities for offending the sensibilities of PC gatekeepers in legacy institutions. Meat consumption is not only being connected to global warming but has also been tied to the bogeyman of white privilege.

For the activist left, politicizing everything from the television we watch to the food we eat, is paramount. This way, they can get our already massive administrative state to further infringe upon the basic property rights and the rights of association of millions of consumers nationwide. The meat bashing of the last debate has people wondering how 2020 candidates will reach their lofty goal of lower meat consumption. Looking at the Green New Deal would be a good place to start. The Green New Deals FAQ sheet details the differing approaches to achieving 100% clean and renewable energy and 100% renewable energy.

For the Green New Dealers, emissions from farting cows are the principal obstacle toward realizing the goal of a purely clean and renewable energy source. Although this assertion elicited widespread cackling across the Internet, the implications of such a claim are quite disturbing.

But how will the meat consumption be reduced?

If history shows anything, government-sponsored slaughter programs are likely the solution to this problem. And this is not a baseless political speculation. A trip down memory lane shows how in the original New Deal during the 1930s, the federal government presided over the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, which carried out emergency livestock reductions.

At the time, New Dealers argued there was an oversupply of pigs which depressed livestock prices. In a zealous fashion, the government started buying and sending millions of livestock straight to the slaughterhouse. Historian Tom Woods recounts that the AAA slaughtered some six million pigs with the intent of trying to keep prices up during the Great Depression.

The Green New Deal and 2020 Democrats proposals to slash meat consumption are lacking in policy specifics. However, the ideological background many of these proponents hints at a potential government mandate. For all we know, mandatory slaughters may be resurrected.

Appealing to science has become fashionable for political elites who desperately want to take action on political topics like climate change. Cliche expressions like the science is settled serve to silence any kind of dissent and facilitate the passage of legislation.

But if we want to remain faithful to the scientific process, we must be ready to do extensive inquiry and debate. Often times, the science is not so settled after all. Especially in the case of meat consumption and its relation to global warming.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates greenhouse gas emissions coming from livestock and their manure only constitute 2 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

Furthermore, the connection between livestock activity and global warming has been disputed by Virginia Tech and USDA-ARS. They concluded the elimination of livestock from agriculture production would merely decrease U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2.6 percent or 3.6 percemt.

We should always remember that science is a process, which is subject to change. It is not always settled. Quickly jumping to conclusions and mixing politics makes for bad policy decisions in the long-term. What we need is more rigorous inquiry and a desire to find ways to solve problems through civil society and market means, not the legislative process.

When discussing meat consumption, were talking about an activity millions of people peacefully partake in. Any form of government intervention would affect millions of lives. The world of government intervention is filled with unintended consequences that even the original drafters of legislation could never even account for. So, we should always tread lightly when trying to get the state involved in private affairs.

There are valid questions to ask about the ethics of meat production and how livestock are treated. But this belongs in the domain of civil society, where individuals and organizations are free to raise awareness and inform consumers about the consequences of these activities.

Getting the state involved in our food just opens the door for abuse and increased politicization of our daily lives, which are already sufficiently flooded with politics as it is. For once, lets have some lengthy discussions that come up with solutions that dont have to involve laws or bureaucratic ordinances. Free individuals are capable of finding a way to solve these problems.

Lets give that a try instead.

Jose Nino is a Venezuelan-American freelance writer.

Sign up for Daily Opinion Newsletter

More here:

The war against meat - Washington Times

"Downton Abbey" director Michael Engler responded to criticisms that the show and subsequent movie focused too much on wealthy, white people and their servants.

"I certainly understand that point of view," Engler said to Insider when asked about the criticism. "I don't disagree that some people don't necessarily have to be interested in [the show], and [some] aren't. And I'm OK with that."

Read more: The 'Downton Abbey' movie really makes you care about the problems of rich English people and sometimes, not much else

Engler emphasized that a wide range of stories should be told, even though the film and hit show mainly portrayed the struggles of the wealthy Crawley family (an aristocratic English family with a sprawling estate) and their servants.

"We all need to be thinking more about what stories we're telling, whose stories we're telling, who's telling them," he said.

But for the director, "Downton Abbey" wasn't quite the right project to do this.

"[The show] started as one thing, and that's what it is," Engler said, adding, "We weren't just going to change it for political correctness."

Read more: THEN AND NOW: The cast of 'Downton Abbey'

The director also spoke about the challenges of making a period piece.

"You kind of have to learn about whatever world you're working in, whether it's a different place or a different kind of profession," Engler said. "You just have to learn about that world and then try to portray it as realistic."

Engler helmed the upcoming "Downton Abbey" movie, which hit theaters Friday. A continuation of the beloved show, it focuses on the wealthy Crawley family and their servants as they prepare for a visit from the king and queen of England.

Read the original post:

'Downton Abbey' director Michael Engler addresses rich white people criticism - INSIDER

If a picture is worth a thousand words, the Aug. 6 Advocate cartoon depicting a confused equine at a political highway junction was a dandy. Should it continue the middle road of moderation, veer left toward more liberalness or veer to a more conservative right? The cartoon could as easily have portrayed a pachyderm confronting the same choices. To be sure, the character arrived at the junction perplexed and flustered. Perhaps, as never before in our history, the polarization of political viewpoints is causing America to lose its way; confused as to which road is the better choice.

Veering to the left side of the road are those typically convinced Americas problems are the result of its past. Advocates of this view think the nation has not evolved far enough from its founding principles of limited government, individual liberty, and free markets. They press for a living Constitution, believing our founding document was never intended by its writers to be static, but rather be interpreted in the light of constantly evolving experiences of the American people. This view was recognized as dangerous by Thomas Jefferson in 1781 when he wrote, Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. A living, fluid constitution would result in establishing a class of ideological rulers who could, and no doubt would, determine the rights of all the people. This would literally shred the Constitution as a document promoting freedom of choice and force citizens to conform to unchanging rules of code and conduct in fostering their general and personal welfare. Admittedly, the U. S. Constitution is not perfect and requires periodic fine tuning, but most believe doing anything more than that constitutes a clear danger of dismembering the very foundation of our constitutional republic. Unlike the founders, a far-left ideology strongly desires the government to be ever larger, yielding more malevolent authority and power. They see as good, the government taking more of corporate and individual income and redistributing it to whom they feel are deserving. Rather than safeguarding equal opportunity for all, this liberalism advocates the imposition and enforcement of equal outcomes to everyone, regardless of merit.

Veering towards the roads right side, we find others equally concerned about which path the nation is taking. But, their tendency is to view our most important problems being borne more recently, having their genesis within the last couple of generations. Through their eyes, the pillars of American history, including the U. S. Constitution; separation of powers; rule of law; freedom of assembly, religion, and speech; free market economy; and Americas role as a world peace-keeper, is crumbling. This group shudders when Americas public school, college, and universities are infiltrated by socialist administrators and educators teaching their children and grandchildren to be ashamed of those things that brought forth Americas greatness. They weep as they witness ex-presidents, governors, state legislators, members of the U. S. Congress and candidates for the highest office in the nation view the fruits of Americas accomplishments with contempt and disdain.

Regardless of validity, conservatists often accuse the liberalists as being a satanic false belief countermanding what the Founding Fathers set forth in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Believing like the founders that government must be fiercely constrained, the more conservative view todays trends toward secularism, humanism, political correctness, destruction of the traditional family, decline in faith, corruption within government, and out-of-control illegal immigration as major threats to the safety and well-being of the constitutional republic.

Perhaps their greatest apprehension is seeing the animosity directed toward themselves and anyone else who believes that there are moral and ethical absolutes; who promotes individual self-sufficiency; who advocates for family and parental rights; who dares to invoke the name of Jesus Christ in truth; or who is naive enough to believe that all of humankind is created equal with certain unalienable rights, granted them by their Creator.

The forefathers of this nation were willing to die to establish the rule of law, and many over the course of our history have given their lives sustaining our constitutional law. It must be remembered that the U. S. Constitution is the foundation of our Republic and the Ten Commandments are, in many ways, the foundation of the Constitution. The writers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution firmly believed that if Gods Commandments were not kept, the Republic would collapse. Their words and beliefs were never ever intended to be taken lightly.

A former president said, If we ever forget that were one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under. The right to choose and the road we choose to follow is ours. We must choose wisely.

Bobby D. Whitefield, of Victoria, is a former director of special programs for the Texas Water Commission in Austin. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor of biology at the University of Corpus Christi and head of the science department at Tuloso-Midway ISD in Corpus Christi.

The rest is here:

Guest column: The road we choose to follow is ours; choose wisely - Victoria Advocate

MIXED-ISH 9 p.m. on ABC. The premiere of the newest black-ish spinoff from Kenya Barris centers on the early years of that shows matriarch, Rainbow Johnson, as she recounts her experiences growing up in a mixed-race family in the 1980s. In the prequel series, a young Rainbow (whos called Bow, for short) and her siblings, Santamonica and Johan, try to adjust to life in the suburbs after their parents, played by Tika Sumpter and Mark-Paul Gosselaar, move them from a hippie commune. Bow is played here by Arica Himmell, with narration from Tracee Ellis Ross, who portrays the character on black-ish. Like black-ish and its sister spinoff grown-ish, the new series will explore ideas around race, identity and assimilation.

THIS IS US 9 p.m. on NBC. This fan favorite family drama returns for its fourth season, charting the Pearsons ups and downs through their past, present and future. This season, the show will continue to uncover more about the parents Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) and the Big Three the triplets Kate (Chrissy Metz), Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Kevin (Justin Hartley). But it will also introduce a few new characters. In the premiere, Rebecca introduces Jack to her parents, which may serve as the first time fans will meet Rebeccas father, played this season by the actor Tim Matheson. Jennifer Morrison has also been confirmed as a recurring guest star, though its not clear yet how her character connects to the Pearson clan. And the director M. Night Shyamalan, who was spotted in the Season 4 trailer, may even somehow make it into the mix.

EMERGENCE 10 p.m. on ABC. This new thriller follows Jo Evans (Allison Tolman), a police chief in a quiet Northeastern town who finds herself caught up in an atypical adoption scenario after she finds a young girl, totally unharmed, at the site of a mysterious plane crash. Not long after that act of kindness, Evans gets caught up in a conspiracy that surrounds the girls identity.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: APOCALYPSE Stream on Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. Just as American Horror Story: 1984, the newest installment of Ryan Murphys horror anthology series, begins its run on FX, fans can revisit Season 8, which focuses on the end of the world. Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, Evan Peters and Emma Roberts star in this crossover between Season 1 (Murder House) and Season 3 (Coven), where the worlds chosen elite wait out the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse in a secure, but mysterious, fallout shelter.

JEFF DUNHAM: BESIDE HIMSELF Stream on Netflix. The comedian Jeff Dunham tackles topics like parenting and political correctness with his unique brand of humor which just so happens to include a little help from a few ventriloquist dummies. In addition to his usual gang of puppets like Walter, Bubba J and Peanut, Dunham will introduce his hometown audience in Dallas to Larry, a chain-smoking, on-again, off-again adviser to the president.

Follow this link:

Whats on TV Tuesday: Mixed-ish and American Horror Story - The New York Times

President Donald Trump's vision of America's tomorrows looks much like its yesterdays.

He loves "beautiful" coal. "Beautiful" warships. And "those four beautiful words: MADE IN THE USA!" He speaks of the country's might as measured by its steel mills, farms and cars rolling off Detroit assembly lines.

He's not merely summoning happy memories. His nostalgia shapes policy and lives, too.

Trump glorifies the muscle and sweat (but not the labor unions) of those who toil in factories and till the soil, like those idealized depictions of labor in century-old murals.

He does not love wind power. He's a fossil fuel guy. A meat and potatoes man, too, he steers an administration that reflects not just his agenda but his pre-woke diet, as when it pulled back on requirements for whole grains in school lunches.

He's had it out for those newfangled light bulbs for years, ever since he warned flatly and falsely that they "can cause cancer."

He waves off modern worries about global warming by pointing to a cold snap. His campaign sells plastic straws to thumb its nose at what Trump considers political correctness.

Meantime the world moves on.

Industry, technology and much of the culture are finding new ways of doing and living.

Even the auto industry, which doesn't like being told by government what to do, has found itself unhappy about how Trump is easing fuel economy requirements . Crusty old Detroit has already moved on from its most gas-guzzling days and invested massively in more efficient vehicles, kicking higher even as Trump lowers the goal posts.

U.S. prosperity has been driven for decades by services, technology and new things, not the grunt work of old that is celebrated by Trump. He sees trade in terms of the exchange of goods and he ignores services, where long-standing U.S. strength in global competitiveness does not fit his world view of an America under siege by rapacious traders like China.

"We are bringing BACK," he likes to say, and always with exaggeration. "We are bringing back America faster than anyone thought possible! We are bringing back our factories, we are bringing back our jobs, and we are bringing back those four beautiful words: MADE IN THE USA!"

"All those things come from the '50s and '60s," said Irving Rein, a professor of communications at Northwestern University who has studied cultural trends for more than a half century. He says that when Trump cheers things such as king coal, big steel and trade protectionism with the "big, beautiful tariff" on China, he knows his audience a largely older one that takes comfort in a filtered view of the past.

Yet modernity advances.

"Popular culture is like a river; it just kind of floats by," Rein said. "Some of it stays." And Trump has captured those eddies.

In his own way, Joe Biden has, too.

While disagreeing with the 73-year-old Trump on almost all of the above, the 76-year-old Democratic presidential hopeful invokes a time of comity between political opponents "the feeling that, nostalgically, there was more compromise," Rein said and holds out the prospect of bringing back those days. This, while Trump and most of Biden's rivals seem ready to lunge at each other.

Trump's throwback tendencies are not unique in leadership. Ronald Reagan could be steeped in sentimentality, too, if without the sharp edges of this president.

Constantine Sedikides, a psychology professor who studies nostalgia from Britain's University of Southampton, said right-wing populists in Europe have romanticized the past to advance goals such as Britain's exit from the European Union and the marginalization of "outgroups" such as Islamic migrants and refugees.

"Trump is using collective nostalgia sentimental longing about the country's rosy past to his political advantage," Sedikides said by email.

By its nature, such cultural observers say, collective nostalgia is history seen through a veil, with old hardships and prejudices put out of mind in favor of wistful remembrance. "You cherry-pick things," Rein said.

Some of Trump's retro impulses are reflected by now in law or in the lifting of regulations, a trend most pronounced when it fits his pro-industry conservatism as well.

This past week his administration barred California's longtime authority to set stricter car and truck emission standards than federal rules require. Nearly half the states sued to block the Trump administration's action, which by its own reckoning is likely to result in additional fuel consumption of 500,000 barrels a day.

The auto industry, instead of being relieved, warned that their vehicles will become less competitive globally if the incentive to increase fuel efficiency is lost. Trump called them "politically correct Automobile Companies."

Trump has eased up a variety of environmental regulations, in part to serve his interest in reviving coal. But that effort is up against forces of the modern free market, awash in natural gas, as utilities continue closing coal-fired plants in favor of energy sources that are cleaner, cheaper or both.

This month the administration slowed a long push by Congress to wean the country from old-time incandescent bulbs in favor of LEDs and other lights that use less energy. Trump argues the savings aren't worth it, consumers should have a choice and under those new bulbs "I always look orange."

"And so do you," he told a Republican gathering, as if realizing he has been associated with that color anyway.

Continued here:

How the Past Informs Trump's Vision of America's Future - NBC Connecticut

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

When Thomas Paine appealed to common sense to make the case for American independence, it probably never crossed his mind that there would ever be a need to make the case for common sense itself, at least not in America, writes Robert Curry, author of Common Sense Nation: Unlocking the Forgotten Power of the American Idea (Encounter Books, 2015), contributor to a variety of journals and a director of The Claremont Institute, in Reclaiming Common Sense: Finding Truth in a Post-Truth World.

Today, however, common sense falls under steady attack. Deep thinkers have discarded it, elites have learned to disdain it, and leftist politicians reject all manifestations of it as reflections of the deeply flawed nature of our economic system and theory of government.

Examples of the war on common sense are now everywhere in public life. Mr. Curry points to the current unhinged national discussions about gender. Not long ago, a boy in a tutu and a tiara who claimed he was a girl would still be regarded as a boy. Today, academic and cultural elites as well as government officials insist that gender identity is more real than biology, with at least one website claiming there are at least 63 existing genders.

The war on moral common sense has reached new heights of absurdity. Mr. Curry points out that if we take common-sense steps to protect ourselves from Islamic terrorists, who demonstrably exist in the real world, we are said to suffer a psychological condition called Islamophobia, which unlike other phobias claustrophobia, for instance makes us victimizers rather than victims.

Also, when we attempt to secure our borders, we are met by cries that walls are immoral. Evidently the common-sense wisdom that good walls make good neighbors has been taken down by the masters of political correctness.

It would be inconceivable to the Founders, writes Mr. Curry, that the common-sense realism that structured our nation, saw it through our formative years, and made it unique in the world could fall victim to such irrationality.

But, as he points out, a great deal of effort has gone into assailing it. Proponents of irrationalist doctrines that came on in wave after wave beginning in the nineteenth century romanticism, Hegelianism, Marxism, progressivism, existentialism, postmodernism, and the like have been pounding away at common sense for a very long time.

For many years, the foundation of an American college education was common sense. But in the 1960s, the pounding of the irrationalists finally found a point of entry, and the rise of the New Leftists, whose victories seemed minimal at the time, resulted in populating American campuses with politically radicalized professors.

Those professors, eventually tenured and assisted by radical (or frightened) administrators, have replaced education with indoctrination in multiculturalism and an ever-changing array of politically correct doctrines that are inimical to the American foundational philosophy.

The struggle against common sense is the beginning of speculative thinking, wrote Herbert Marcuse, the philosopher who interpreted Marx for the New Leftists of the 1960s. And that Marxist/Marcusian struggle against common sense continues to motivate the leftists of today.

Unlike the American Revolution, which was successful by any measure, the revolutions based on Marxist thinking failed, and failed spectacularly. The Soviet Union murdered its own people in the tens of millions and then collapsed, in part as the result of attempting the impossible: trying to run a country according to Marxist economic ideas.

Moreover, this continues to be the case today in those countries North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba that still attempt to apply Marxian principles to the governance of their nations. But what no contemporary champion of those principles will admit is that the failure of those ideas to work wherever they have been tried must mean that the ideas are wrong.

Nevertheless, we find candidates competing for the presidential nomination in our own country campaigning on variations of those very principles.

As Mr. Curry puts it, Everyone knows, or rather everyone ought to know, that government is always and everywhere inefficient. Its a common-sense observation, based on the normal experience of government. Yet for the Left, government is always and everywhere the solution.

And that makes no sense at all, common or otherwise.

John R. Coyne Jr., a former White House speechwriter, is co-author of Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement (Wiley).

RECLAIMING COMMON SENSE: FINDING TRUTH IN A POST-TRUTH WORLD

By Robert Curry

With a foreword by Brian T. Kennedy

Encounter Books, $19.99, 107 pages

Sign up for Daily Opinion Newsletter

View original post here:

BOOK REVIEW: 'Reclaiming Common Sense' - Washington Times

WASHINGTON President Donald Trumps vision of Americas tomorrows looks much like its yesterdays.

He loves beautiful coal. Beautiful warships. And those four beautiful words: MADE IN THE USA! He speaks of the countrys might as measured by its steel mills, farms and cars rolling off Detroit assembly lines.

Hes not merely summoning happy memories. His nostalgia shapes policy and lives, too.

Trump glorifies the muscle and sweat of those who toil in factories and till the soil, like those idealized depictions of labor in century-old murals.

He does not love wind power. Hes a fossil fuel guy. A meat and potatoes man, too, he steers an administration that reflects not just his agenda but his diet, as when it pulled back on requirements for whole grains in school lunches.

Hes had it out for those newfangled light bulbs for years, ever since he warned flatly and falsely that they can cause cancer.

He waves off modern worries about global warming by pointing to a cold snap. His campaign sells plastic straws to thumb its nose at what Trump considers political correctness.

Meanwhile, the world moves on.

Industry, technology and much of the culture are finding new ways of doing and living.

Even the auto industry, which doesnt like being told by government what to do, has found itself unhappy about how Trump is easing fuel economy requirements. Crusty old Detroit has already moved on from its most gas-guzzling days and invested massively in more efficient vehicles, kicking higher even as Trump lowers the goal posts.

U.S. prosperity has been driven for decades by services, technology and new things, not the grunt work of old that is celebrated by Trump. He sees trade in terms of the exchange of goods and he ignores services, where long-standing U.S. strength in global competitiveness does not fit his world view of an America under siege by rapacious traders like China.

We are bringing BACK, he likes to say. We are bringing back America faster than anyone thought possible! We are bringing back our factories, we are bringing back our jobs, and we are bringing back those four beautiful words: MADE IN THE USA!

All those things come from the 50s and 60s, said Irving Rein, a professor of communications at Northwestern University who has studied cultural trends for more than a half century. He says that when Trump cheers things such as king coal, big steel and trade protectionism with the big, beautiful tariff on China, he knows his audience a largely older one that takes comfort in a filtered view of the past.

Yet modernity advances.

Popular culture is like a river; it just kind of floats by, Rein said. Some of it stays. And Trump has captured those eddies.

In his own way, Joe Biden has, too.

While disagreeing with the 73-year-old Trump on almost all of the above, the 76-year-old Democratic presidential hopeful invokes a time of comity between political opponents the feeling that, nostalgically, there was more compromise, Rein said and holds out the prospect of bringing back those days. This, while Trump and most of Bidens rivals seem ready to lunge at each other.

Trumps throwback tendencies are not unique in leadership. Ronald Reagan could be steeped in sentimentality, too, if without the sharp edges of this president.

Constantine Sedikides, a psychology professor who studies nostalgia from Britains University of Southampton, said right-wing populists in Europe have romanticized the past to advance goals such as Britains exit from the European Union and the marginalization of outgroups such as Islamic migrants and refugees.

Trump is using collective nostalgia sentimental longing about the countrys rosy past to his political advantage, Sedikides said by email.

By its nature, such cultural observers say, collective nostalgia is history seen through a veil, with old hardships and prejudices put out of mind in favor of wistful remembrance. You cherry-pick things, Rein said.

Some of Trumps retro impulses are reflected by now in law or in the lifting of regulations, a trend most pronounced when it fits his pro-industry conservatism as well.

This past week his administration barred Californias longtime authority to set stricter car and truck emission standards than federal rules require. Nearly half the states sued to block the Trump administrations action, which by its own reckoning is likely to result in additional fuel consumption of 500,000 barrels a day.

The auto industry, instead of being relieved, warned that their vehicles will become less competitive globally if the incentive to increase fuel efficiency is lost. Trump called them politically correct Automobile Companies.

Trump has eased up a variety of environmental regulations, in part to serve his interest in reviving coal. But that effort is up against forces of the modern free market, awash in natural gas, as utilities continue closing coal-fired plants in favor of energy sources that are cleaner, cheaper or both.

This month the administration slowed a long push by Congress to wean the country from old-time incandescent bulbs in favor of LEDs and other lights that use less energy. Trump argues the savings arent worth it, consumers should have a choice and under those new bulbs I always look orange.

And so do you, he told a Republican gathering.

PITTSBURGH (AP) A man was arrested Monday on suspicion of providing a white powdery substance tainted with ...

NEW CUMBERLAND The regular meeting of the Hancock County Board of Health will be held at 4 p.m., Oct. 1 at the ...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) President Donald Trump made his political priorities clear Monday within an hour of ...

Read more from the original source:

Past informs Trump's vision of future | News, Sports, Jobs - The Daily Times

NOTE: The Toronto Sun has offered column space to all of the major political party leaders to make their pitch to you, the voter. Here is Peoples Party Leader Maxime Berniers contribution.

MAXIME BERNIER

Populist sentiment is on the rise in almost every Western country, including Canada.

Populism does not simply express anger at the current government. Its a symptom of a deeper disconnect.

Its a reaction from disenfranchised citizens who have lost faith in our institutions capacity to reflect their concerns. And who feel that even their right to voice these concerns is being negated by the elites disdain and a curtailment of their free speech.

The Peoples Party is populist because it proposes solutions to Canadas problems that radically differ from those of all the establishment parties.

Or course, that doesnt mean theyre good solutions. You can have a reactionary type of populism with disastrous economic policies. Or smart populism, based on sound policies.

In all my career, I have always supported sound, small-government, responsible free-market policies.

Depending on the issue, the policies my party is proposing are supported by a majority or a substantial minority of Canadians. These Canadians deserve a voice.

The Peoples Party is the only one that will reduce immigration to a sustainable level, from 350,000 per year to a maximum of 150,000. We will increase the proportion of economic immigrants who bring skills in demand, choose immigrants who share Canadian values, and close the border to false refugees at Roxham Rd.

The PPC is the only party also that will end official multiculturalism and the constant glorification of diversity. We will focus on the integration of immigrants in our society.

The PPC is the only party that will abolish foreign aid, except for help in emergency situations. Before we send money to build roads or provide health care and education in Africa and Asia, we should take care of the many Canadians in need.

The PPC is the only party that will balance the budget in two years and then use surpluses to lower taxes. We will end the corrupt practice of pandering and buying votes from interest groups and political clienteles with taxpayers money.

The PPC is the only party that rejects political correctness, is not afraid to oppose radical Islam, and will protect free speech.

The PPC is the only party that opposes climate alarmism and will not increase taxes or regulations to fight global warming.

The PPC has a unique platform on so many issues that its hard to list them all. Its also the only party that will:

Stop Ottawas meddling in provincial jurisdictions such as health care. Provinces should have the autonomy to experiment and solve our long waiting lists for surgery.

Reduce equalization payments, and change the formula so that it stops being a permanent welfare program for poorer provinces.

Use article 92(10) of our Constitution to ensure that pipelines get built.

Abolish the costly system of supply management for dairy, poultry and eggs.

Abolish corporate welfare and lower corporate taxes equally for all businesses.

Reduce Canadas presence in corrupt UN institutions to a minimum, and withdraw from treaties such as the Global Compact for Migration and the Paris Climate Accord that threaten our sovereignty.

Defund the CBC.

Reinstate a fair disability pension to our injured or disabled veterans.

Eliminate interprovincial trade barriers and the capital gains tax.

I could go on and on.

Canadians have a real choice in this election.

Vote for one of the establishment parties with the same policies.

Or vote for the smart populist, principled alternative with sound policies.

Bernier is leader of the Peoples Party

Read the original post:

Maxime Bernier: Choosing smart populism with the Peoples Party - Toronto Sun

I differ with the Times Sept. 22 editorial, Dreadlock wrestling ref still has lessons to learn.

The high school wrestling referee in this issue, Alan Maloney, was recently suspended from officiating two years by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association for an incident in which he made an African American wrestler cut off his dreadlocks in the middle of a match. The editorial endorsed the suspension, but also asked why Maloney should be allowed to return as a high school referee in 2022.

I believe that Maloney was clearly a victim of political correctness. The NJSIAAs rules for high school wrestling regarding to hair length were established without regard to race. Maloney just happened to have enough integrity during the match in question to enforce the rule because the wrestler, Andrew Johnson of Buena Regional High School, chose to wear his hair in long dreadlocks.

If Johnson was humiliated by having to have his dreadlocks cut during that match in order to compete, it was due to his own lack of personal responsibility, in my view. The issue of his race is totally irrelevant. If he would have chosen to get rid of his dreadlocks before he even joined the wrestling team, this controversy would have never happened. (Johnson had been allowed to wrestle in earlier matches that were not refereed by Maloney.)

Political correctness is whats wrong in our country today. Its the reason why honest people like Alan Maloney, who believe everyone should follow the rules established for order, are persecuted by the media, the Hollywood left and liberal lawmakers who have no business at all governing our country.

George I. Anderson, Vineland

N.J. township would benefit from speed bumps

In Washington Township, driver speed-limit reminders have sprung up with great intentions. Some of the signs read, Drive like your child lives here.

On Whitman Drive, the main thoroughfare through Whitman Square, there are electronic signs that flash the speed to bring to drivers attention that the speed limit is 25 mph Many years ago, speed humps were installed in some sections of the township. However, there are no speed bumps, which are more aggressive in slowing down motorists.

Some claim that installing speed bumps are too expensive or that they are are unsafe. But how safe are our streets without them?

Speed bumps force drivers' attention and create a must-slow-down situation. In my conversations with neighbors, many expressed wishes that something would slow down the drivers on our streets. On many Whitman Square side streets, there are no speed limit signs.

I have observed cars taking less than two seconds to pass two houses on these side streets, which suggests that they are traveling at speeds greater than the speed limit.

My friend, the late Donald Dunn, walked throughout Whitman Square every day. In his retirement years, he often wrote letters complaining about cars speeding on Whitman Drive, as well as Johnson Road, another main thoroughfare.

In keeping with my friend's good example, I am writing this letter. Please slow down. Why race to the corner?

In the style of the old Burma Shave highway advertising signs: As on the Burma Shave signs of old: " When in school zone. Heed traffic instructions. Protect our little tax deductions.

Gerald Keer, Turnersville

Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.com

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.

See the original post here:

Suspended wrestling ref a victim of PC; N.J. township would benefit from speed bumps | Letters - NJ.com

In the 2017 film Roman J. Israel, Esq., Denzel Washington plays a civil rights veteran, who, while giving a speech to a group of young progressive activists, sees two black women without seats. Im sorry, excuse me. I see two sisters standing, Washingtons character Israel says. Why are the sisters standing and the brothers sitting?

This aint 40 years ago, spits back one woman.

What is the statute of limitations on chivalry? Israel asks.

Thats gendered and sexist, the other woman replies. The progressive Israel is bewildered. In his mind, hes on these liberals side.

I recall this illuminating scene almost every time I listen to pro wrestling legend Jim Cornettes popular weekly podcasts. You know what somebody called me on Twitter? posited Cornette in September. A cis gender white male.

Now I dont have a f***ing clue what that means, Cornette admitted, but it doesnt sound complimentary.

Cornette is arguably the greatest manager in the history of professional wrestling, becoming something close to a household name in the Southeast United States during the 1980s. Hes worked as a talent and producer for every major pro wrestling company over the last four decades, including Vince McMahons dominant World Wrestling Entertainment. Today, hes a key personality on Vicelands immensely popular Dark Side of the Ring series, currently shooting its second season.

Cornettes claim to fame? Being an a**hole. No matter your race, gender, weight, or any other possible category, the tennis racquet-wielding mamas boy will run you down and harshly. Hes called female valets ugly. Hes described wrestlers fathers as alcoholics and their mothers as whores. When he hit a woman in the stomach with his tennis racket in 1986 (as part of a wrestling storyline), he bragged that she may not be able to have kids. He claims to have received more death threats for that episode than anything else in his career, letters that he proudly displays on his office wall today.

If this sounds offensive, good. Hes just doing his job.

But like Denzel Washingtons character, Cornette has always considered himself a liberals liberal. A healthy chunk of his podcasts are spent blasting Donald Trump and anyone who supports the president. The self-described democratic socialist considers Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren the best candidates in 2020. Cornette regularly lectures listeners, many of whom dont agree with his politics, on why they should never vote Republican.

He does this all the time. Hes done it for a long time. He does not care if he chases away some of his audience. You would think any liberal this dedicated could join Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezs Squad.

But they wouldnt want him. The 58-year-old is liberal in the sense that most meant the term during the 1990s and aughts.

Things change.

Many wrestling fans branded Cornette homophobic in May for saying of flamboyant gay wrestler Sonny Kiss, Here comes Sonny Kiss who apparently got off his day job at the drag-show at the f**king Tropicana. Kisss fianc, a Cornette fan, was understandably hurt by the comment and tweeted a reply. That led to many more critical responses to Cornettes alleged bigotry.

Cornettes complaint was that a wrestler with an over-the-top gimmick wasnt being explained properly to fans by the TV announcers. He contended, I didnt know the guy was gay in real life, or say that he was gay on my show, or insinuate that that is a bad thing.

You can tell in Cornettes longer explanation that the charge of bigotry caught him off guard. After all, not only is he a liberal who supports gay marriage and LGBT rights, he also managed a controversial androgynous wrestler during the 80s, and worked alongside Pat Patterson in the WWE, who has been openly gay for years.

While Cornette is a fan of womens wrestling and has been a champion of contemporary young performers like Tessa Blanchard among others, hes been called sexist for suggesting that men and women are biologically different and therefore should perform differently in the ring.

Critiquing a womens match in 2018, Cornette said, The moonsault into the f***ing triangle was insane and the suplex off the apron to the floor, which was the second one of those Id seen in two days, that was too much for the girls. Im sorry. Yes, Im gonna be sexist there. Theres no reason for a vertical suplex off the apron on the floor. Those girls dont have any padding. They dont have enough fat on them to f***ing do that and its too much.

He admitted he knew his words would sound sexist to some, but as a wrestling purist, he proudly prioritized the quality of the match over political correctness. Of course, he was blasted for it.

When transgender wrestler Nyla Rose recently emerged as a player for the formidable, billionaire-backed upstart All Elite Wrestling, Cornette was immediately a fan due to her talent and large size. He also had an idea to make her famousclobber every other woman in her division using the national debate over transgender athletes competing in womens sports as the backdrop.

Turning national politics into wrestling storylines is as old as the business itself. Still, Cornette was taken to task for this suggestion too.

There are too many examples of these supposed transgressions to be listed here, but the dynamic is the same nearly every week: the liberal wrestling legend habitually offends many of his listeners, often the younger ones, by unintentionally challenging todays identity politics orthodoxy.

Many of these young fans might not even be overtly political, but theyve still absorbed this mindset from their peers. Its a largely generational civil war thats also applicable to some of the older 2020 Democratic candidates. For example, Joe Biden might defend LGBT issues, but he also calls women sweetheart while doing itand hears about it.

But was Bidens intent malicious? And if not, shouldnt that be taken into account? Or is the sin of not being woke enough too great? Likewise, does Cornette have ill will towards women or gay Americans? A fair listener of his programs would conclude that he does not.

Does Cornette talk like he doesnt give a damn what anyone thinks? Yes, but hes done that his entire career. Comedian Dave Chappelles style isnt drastically different from the early 2000s, but todays current illiberal environment makes him a villain to some. This ongoing totalitarian cultural shift has also affected the careers of other comedians of Chappelles generation.

As extreme as the woke Left can be, I have sympathy for those standing up for minorities or groups that have been historically oppressed. But as a lifelong Gen X wrestling fan stuck between the Millennials and Baby Boomers, I can also see where both groups, which often prioritize different values, talk past each other.

New York Times columnist David Brooks warns, The greatest danger of extreme wokeness is that it makes it harder to practice the necessary skill of public life, the ability to see two contradictory truths at the same time.

It can be true that Cornette uses words that offend, while also being true that he is not a hateful bigot in doing so.

Cornettes woke critics will likely never be able to accept both, and the unrepentant rasslin villain will continue to dismiss them all as a bunch of p*ssies.

Bad guys and good guys. Heels and faces. Who is which depends on where you stand.

Maybe Jim Cornette is even more of a wrestling genius than his haters give him credit for.

Jack Hunter is the former political editor ofRare.usandco-authored the 2011 bookThe Tea Party Goesto Washingtonwith Senator Rand Paul.

See original here:

The WWE Legend Who Wrestles the Woke Left - The American Conservative

Pre #MeToo, wed have been thrilled to hop into bed with Philip Roth. Interview by Helena de Bertodano

The Sunday Times,September 22 2019, 12:01am

Ann Patchett is not nice. At least thats what she wants me to believe. For years she has been fighting a charge of extreme niceness, with critics saying her award-winning novels are unrealistic as a result. John Updike once wrote that Patchett gives us the world as it should be, rather than as the dirty, abrasive place it is.

He thought I lacked teeth, says Patchett. And it is true that if my body of work has one glaring shortcoming, it is my inability to write villains. And yet Andrea [the wicked stepmother in her latest novel, The Dutch House] is truly a villain.

Spoken about in the same breath as the likes of Jennifer Egan or Dave Eggers, Patchett is one of the most

Want to read more?

Subscribe now and get unlimited digital access on web and our smartphone and tablet apps, free for your first month.

See the rest here:

The Interview: author Ann Pachett on #MeToo, political correctness and her book The Dutch House - The Times

When the news broke Sept. 10 that a lawsuit had been filed against NFL star receiver Antonio Brown accusing him of rape, Barstool Sports, like many other websites, published an article about it. But it was the comments on that article that told the real story.

Two comments alone I hate this guy but I think this is all BS and some chick is trying to get paid and Most obvious extortion attempt Ive ever seen racked up hundreds of likes on the sports and culture blog geared toward young men. A majority of replies to the article on Twitter elicited jokes about rape or crude remarks and captured a perspective popular with Barstool Sports' readers.

That was a direct and deliberate contrast to the ascendance of political correctness.

The current Congress is the most diverse in U.S. history, and American women have won more attention for sexual harassment issues in the years following the birth of the #MeToo movement. But Barstool Sports has found a base hungry for its politically incorrect content all the while also creating a steady stream of controversy.

Just last month, Barstool Sports' founder and president, David Portnoy, made headlines when he threatened to fire employees on the spot for discussing unionization. Last week, the company announced it was moving some of its videos that violate Instagrams terms of service to an app favored by the so-called alt-right.

Rather than being an errant blip amid an increasingly woke generation, Barstool Sports seems to exist as a parallel culture.

Not only has it been parallel, I think a conservative, reactionary response to women increasing prominence and equality is institutionalized by a place like Barstool Sports, said Soyaya Chemaly, a womens rights activist and the author of Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Womens Anger. I dont have any sense that #MeToo or even Trumps election was ever going to make a dent in that culture.

Conservative ideology appears to be a core part of Barstool Sports especially its portrayal of gender roles, with hypermasculine, sports-loving men and hypersexualized, submissive women. The sites reinforcement of conservative American values is what makes its content stand out from its competitors, Marie Hardin, the dean of Penn States Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, said.

In many ways, Barstool has resisted some of the more progressive discourse around sports. And I think theres a niche for that, she said. Theres a market there and theyre able to capture that.

Portnoy founded Barstool Sports as a weekly New England sports-centric newspaper in 2003. From its beginning, the brand labeled itself as an outlet by the common man, for the common man and has, in recent years, ramped up its chauvinistic coverage of pop culture, memes and women. (See: Barstool Smokeshows, a subset of Barstool Sports thats dedicated to posting hypersexualized photos of women.)

The company appears to be moving away from sports coverage and focusing more on manliness. (See: Saturdays are for the boys, a tweet from one of its contributors that went viral and became the companys catchphrase to describe drunken debauchery.)

I think Barstool is a nostalgic callback to the idea that the more offensive you are, the more free youre being, and its also a kind of cultural preservation project for bros."

Lisa Nakamura

I think Barstool is a nostalgic callback to the idea that the more offensive you are, the more free youre being, and its also a kind of cultural preservation project for bros, said Lisa Nakamura, a professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, who studies the intersection of digital media and race, gender and sexuality.

Barstool Sports, Nakamura said, strikes a chord with its primary target audience young white men because it casts them as the persecuted ones of mainstream, politically correct culture. Men who feel disadvantaged by the world around them see the platform as a safe space where freedom of speech means voicing unpopular and sometimes offensive opinions without consequence.

We will not bow down to the winds of PC culture whichever way they may blow, Portnoy said in an email to NBC News. If that makes us perceived as counter culture then so be it. Id say we represent the silent majority. There is always a line that cant be crossed. Anything that is said or written from a place of hate will never be acceptable behavior at Barstool.

The niche for a conservative callback culture built around sports seems to be growing. In the past two years, in the midst of the #MeToo movement, Barstool Sports has almost doubled its Twitter following, according to Social Blade analytics, and now has almost 1.8 million followers. Over the past month, its account has gained about 1,700 followers a day.

See the original post:

Barstool Sports and the persistence of traditional masculinity in sports culture - NBC News

Dr Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychologist who grew to international fame following his stand against political correctness and refusal to use gender pronouns, has been checked into a rehabilitation facility in New York, his daughter has confirmed.

In an eight-minute video released on her YouTube and social media channels, Mikhaila Peterson said her 57-year-old father was checked into the clinic after experiencing "horrific" physical withdrawal symptoms from trying to take himself off of the drug Clonazepam.

Peterson, who has previously been open about his relationship with depression, was prescribed the drug following his wife's diagnosis of a terminal cancer in April this year. Her illness also caused Peterson to suspend the speaking tour for his internationally best-selling book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, in addition to delaying publication of his forthcoming title.

Tammy, Peterson's wife of thirty years, has since made a "miraculous" recovery following numerous operations, surgical complications and months in and out of different hospitals, Mikhaila said, which has since triggered Peterson's desire to wean himself off the drug.

However, he was "like a lost puppy" and seriously needed the help of medical experts, she added.

"I've never seen my dad like this," Mikhaila said. "He's having a miserable time of it. It breaks my heart."

The 27-year-old, who has been one of the most active proponents of the controversial Carnivore Diet, along with her father, said that he was recovering and should be able to return to his career shortly.

"The situation is really sad. He looks like a lost puppy. But it will only last while he gets this horrible medication out his system and then he will be good to go again," Mikhaila said.

She also shared a video of Peterson from a recent visit to the rehabilitation facility where he appeared to be in good spirits and can be seen pushing his granddaughter, Elizabeth Scarlett, in a stroller.

The news of Peterson's admission into rehab comes shortly after the latest commotion surrounding the University of Toronto professor who has become no stranger to controversy since his rise to fame in 2016. Filmmakers who directed the documentary The Rise of Jordan Peterson said earlier this week that a Toronto cinema have cancelled a week-long screening of their film.

Director Patricia Marcoccia told Canada's The National Post that the film was scheduled for a theatrical run at the Carlton Cinema, but stated that the theater later cancelled the screening because some employees were uncomfortable with it.

Read more

Peterson's reputation as controversial traces back to his early, self-published YouTube videos that were titled "Professor against political correctness." He also refused to comply with Canadian law which would require him to address transgender students by the pronoun of their choice, stating that no time in British Common Law history has the legal code mandated what we must say, as opposed to simply what we must not say.

Critics have argued that this stance is "transphobic" however Peterson has maintained that the issue is not related to transgender rights, but to protecting legal precedents that keep authoritarian governments at bay.

He has since spoken in over 100 cities, often to sold-out arenas, and has over two-million YouTube subscribers.

Go here to see the original:

Jordan Peterson Checks into Rehab Following Wife's Cancer Scare: 'He Looks Like a Lost Puppy' - Newsweek

California, Have Our Consciences Been Seared?

Most might agree that California is slipping into an ocean of political correctness ... from forced vaccines and protection of criminals to the handcuffing of law enforcement officers to homelessness and financial woes. Are there answers? I believe there are, but it begins with the difficult process of self-examination and taking personal responsibility.

I respect the offices of government. Im assuming that most are sincere in their efforts, but we can besincerely wrong.Clearly, our consciences have been seared. For example:

Sadly, it takes tragedieslike the ones we are seeingto motivate most Christians. There is hope. Colonial America was at a low point when the Great Awakening cleansed the land, as was England when George Whitefields fiery sermons burned the chaff.

I believe that a great move of God must begin in the pulpits and prayer rooms. As a father of five, I understand the desire to move to protect our families, but God often calls us to fight instead of flee.As California goes, so goes the nation. Its not a matter of if, but when.There is a time and a place for action. In the same way that theFederalist Papersurged and influenced citizens to get involved and ratify the new United States Constitution, we must speak the truth in love. The silent pulpit is not Gods pulpit, and the passive pew is powerless.The day of the silent pastor must end. Are we pleasing God or men?Are we cowards or watchmen?

The game has changedCalifornia changed its rules pertaining to voter ballots before the 2018 election. Its called ballot harvesting. Now anyone can collect absentee or mail-in voter ballots and turn them in. This is how many of our politicians were elected in 2018 in California. Millions of dollars were given to people to canvas the streets and collect votes. Can you imagine the number of illegal votes? It staggers the mind.While Christians turned on Netflix, grabbed a beer, and went to sleep, the opposition was working overtime.We need to refocus our efforts and match their workload. Granted, the answer is not in politics, but silence has been our downfall. The silent Christian spoke volumes and lost ground while they were sleeping.

Additionally, we need to stop being so negative and critical. Yes, we have huge issues at hand, but we are called to be joy-filled Christians and are to be thankful for everything that God has given us. Despite circumstances, most of us live like royalty compared to other areas throughout the world. How many reading this need to repent and be filled again with love and compassion?

We must once again callSacred Assemblies(see Joel 1-2). Instead of banquets and fundraisers, while they have their purpose, we must return to prayer and seek God for revival and renewal. This is how we fight our battles. Gods call is not to Hollywood, Sacramento, or the media but to us. To paraphrase 2 Chronicles 7:14, If My people turn back to Me, I will heal and restore their land. Our hope is not in 2020 but in a sovereign God who rewards those who seek and obey.

There are times to encourage, but there are also times to contend for what is rightthat time is now. Let it not be said of us today: And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD (c.f. Judges 2:10).

Photo courtesy:Pixabay

More:

California, Have Our Consciences Been Seared? - Christianheadlines.com

Sixteen-year-old Swedish climate "activist" alarmist Greta Thunberg is all the rage right now. Thunberg, who has indubitably benefited from no shortage of formal public communication training, speaks with the moral certitude and dripping condescension so characteristic of the broader pagan cult that is "climate change" alarmism. Oppose the proposed totalitarian, socialist "remedies" for such a purported pandemic and one is called a "climate denier" at best or a depraved madman at worst. While evidence is thus far lacking, the circumstantial totality suggests the real possibility that, much like the well-organized Left during the Kavanaugh confirmation imbroglio, there may be a "well-orchestrated and well-funded P.R. campaign" here whose over-arching goal is the shaming of free market-oriented dissenters into submission at the pagan altar of enviro-statism.

The notion that policymakers ought to consider proposing policy due to the fraught and hysterical pleas of a 16-year-old is, naturally, insane. And the use of Thunberg herself who apparently began suffering from depression as a child as the leading global enviro-statist prop is, as Amanda Prestigiacomo put it, downright unethical.

My Daily Wire colleague Matt Walsh is correct that the deification of Thunberg amounts to child abuse. Indeed, the use of Thunberg as an emotionally compelling prop for zealous socialists foaming at the mouth for any excuse to enact anti-capitalistic policy ought to harken us all back to the last time leftists glommed onto malleable teenagers for use as political props: The aftermath of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Then, as now, the Left cynically decided that the easiest means by which to accomplish its ends was via the public trotting out of minors as spokespersons to emotionally manipulate a gullible public.

But such a tendentious use of minors for the promotion and advancement of a political agenda is not just wrong. It is affirmatively evil.

One can tell a lot about a society by how it treats children. In the United States, the eradication of mass legalized child labor via the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act represents that rare FDR/New Deal-era policy achievement about which even conservatives can be proud. Contrast that with the ubiquitous child labor that still exists in much of the Third World, and one sees a paradigmatic example of what sets apart the more advanced from the more barbaric civilizations. The darker world of child sex trafficking is, of course, far more harrowing still.

The innocence of children is something that every proper society ought to cherish and nourish. Tim Lott described well this sort of innocence for The Guardian in 2013: "Innocence goes deeper than ignorance. It is some mysterious operation of the imagination, the part that can enter into mental universes from which one is soon to be forever excluded." Societies that aim to maintain the pristine nature of childhood with its lack of adult responsibility, simplicity, carefree nature, and purity all remaining intact are societies that ought to be lauded. Societies that disabuse children of their innocence and foist upon children the responsibilities and sundry pitfalls of adulthood are societies that ought to be chastised. Even Hollywood, with its longstanding lionization of the child actor, is worthy of no small amount of scorn.

By all means, teenagers ought to be encouraged to think deeply about issues of global importance. They ought to be encouraged to educate themselves on current events and begin the slow, lifelong process of discovering the nature of truth. But to cynically prop up a teenager as an avatar for a political movement so as to better emotionally manipulate the masses as to the correctness of your political position is no act of valiance. It is an act of cowardice, an act of innocence deprival, an act of evil.

Read more:

HAMMER: Using Children To Advance Your Political Agenda Isnt Just Wrong. Its Evil. - The Daily Wire