Monthly Archives: May 2022

Three U.S. Air Force Academy cadets whose refusal to get COVID-19 vaccines threatened their May 25 graduation along with the risk of a repayment demand for six-figure tuition costs will be awarded their degrees, officials said Saturday.

Following a standard review of graduation requirements for this years senior class, the Academys board recommended awarding Bachelor of Science degrees for the three cadets refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, a press release from the Colorado Springs, Colorado, school said.

However, the Academy stated, they will not be commissioned into the United States Air Force as long as they remain unvaccinated, and Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall will decide whether the graduates must reimburse the United States for education costs in lieu of service.

According to attorney Mike Rose, the unvaccinated cadets will not be allowed to attend the graduation ceremony.

That has been confirmed and is petty, vindictive, disrespectful and unnecessary, Mr. Rose, who represents unvaccinated cadet Jameson Barnard, said via email.

An Air Force Academy spokesperson was not immediately able to verify Mr. Roses claim but said they would investigate.

Originally, four senior cadets, known as firsties, refused the vaccine on religious grounds. Their requests for exemptions were denied, however, and one cadet took the jab.

This is a punishment for their religion, Gordon James Klingenschmitt, a former Colorado state representative and a former Navy chaplain told The Washington Times earlier this week. Its not about the vaccine. Its about their religious conscience and their politically incorrect Christian beliefs. Its a religious purge by the Biden administration, he said at the time.

Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Colorado Republican whose district includes the Air Force Academy, had decried the potential graduation refusal.

America was founded on the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which encompasses protecting the religious rights of the individual. That includes those who put on the uniform and volunteer to serve our nation. It is imperative that our military leaders uphold the constitutional rights of these cadets, he said in a statement this week.

Michael L. Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, was not pleased with the decision.

He said via email, These 3 USAF Academy cadets should be immediately charged and prosecuted under [the Uniform Code of Military Justices] Article 92 for their wretched failure to obey the lawful order of the Secretary of Defense to receive the FDA-approved COVID vaccines. They should be aggressively tried via a General Court Martial and, if convicted, be imprisoned as well as being compelled to pay back the hundreds of thousands of dollars per cadet which American taxpayers have forked over for their expensive education.

SEE ALSO: Air Force Academy cadets face expulsion, repayment demand over vaccine refusal

The Washington Times has reached out to Rep. Lamborns office and the Air Force headquarters for comment about the Academys decision.

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.

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Unvaccinated Air Force cadets will graduate Wednesday, but won't get commissions, academy says - Washington Times

Netflix, the Apple of online streaming services when it comes to in-your-face, take-it-or-leave-it high pricing, should be renamed Wokeflix, according to a section of the Internet that has been raging about the platforms out of touch with audience content.

For some time now, Netflix has been criticised for producing woke-safe content so married to political correctness and social justice that, at times, it ends up being moral discourse instead of entertainment. Netflix, as Internet favourite Elon Musk put it, suffers from the "woke mind virus". It chooses to live in a dream world that is far separated from the lives of its audiences.

A form of that critique was on display in India this weekend. The trigger was the release of the teaser-trailer of Zoya Akhtars The Archies. There was nothing politically incorrect about the trailer, but the criticism it attracted followed the same refrain: Yet another Netflix release that is oh-so-out-of-touch!

To be fair, it's hard to imagine many Indians connecting with the minute-and-a-half-long cast announcement video. The yellow-tinted teaser-trailer (for nostalgias sake, I guess) had a bunch of teenagers bouncing about in an orchard, picnicking with burgers-cupcakes pulled out of wicker baskets and cool summer drinks sipped from mason jars. The Archies, based on the evidence till now, screams South Bombay and its favourite picnic destination, Alibag.

That got the peoples goat (the fact that three of the six leading cast members are star kids also got the peoples goat, but thats a debate for another day). From Zoya Akhtar making yet another movie of the rich people, by the rich people, and for the rich people to Netflix wasting production money on a show/film that a majority of India wouldnt watch or identify with, the criticism was swift and severe.

But, here's my question to those so torn up over Zoyas latest production: What goes your fathers? Or, to put it in non-woke, cruder, and politically incorrect terms: Tumhare baap ka kya jaa raha hai?

Its Zoya Akhtars time and money that may or may not go down the drain. The film may or may not successfully launch the careers of Shah Rukhs daughter, Amitabhs grandson, and Booney Kapoors daughter. And, Netflix may or may not end up losing even more subscribers upset with the highly-priced platforms woke offerings.

Where exactly is your downside in all this?

Does Netflix have a content problem? Arguably so. The streaming platform has kind of recognised this itself, recently telling employees that if they have issues working on productions they dont agree with, they can take a hike.

Its not my case that Netflix does not have a content problem. But, my case definitely is that the debate and discussion over it belong in the meeting rooms of Netflixs Los Gatos headquarters in California.

Tell me how many of those so taken aback by The Archies teaser-trailers non-Indianness unsubscribed from Netfilx, and youll have the answer for why I believe its meaningless to outrage over it on social media.

Dont like whats on offer? Dont watch it.

Netflix and Zoya Akhtar have a right to produce a niche movie that perhaps a majority wont watch. Just like Ranveer Singh has a right to act in an arguably mediocre Jayeshbhai Jordaar (at least thats whats being said; I havent seen it yet) that, box office collections suggest, isnt being watched.

Not every Zoya Akhtar film has to be a Gully Boy just like how every Ranveer Singh film does not have to be, well, a Gully Boy.

This expectation from the Netflixes and Zoya Akhtars of the world that they must produce content that is bound to be a success, bound to be watched by millions is emblematic of a 'go big or go home streak that seems to be taking hold in society: Dont do anything if you cant do it big, right, or perfectly.

Why bother making a film if its not going to rake in hundreds of crores within the first few days of its release? Why bother launching a social media platform if you arent going to be able to satisfy anybody and everybodys definition of free speech? Whats the point of being a Gandhi if you cannot come up with (or arent interested in coming up with) a game-plan to defeat one of modern Indias sharpest political minds?

If a film isnt a big hit at the box office, it shouldnt be a headache for anybody except its director, producer, and perhaps the cast. If you arent happy with Twitters idea of free speech, quit it. If Rahul Gandhi partying in Nepal annoys you, dont vote for his party.

If the Congress chooses to remain in its existential crisis loop even after losing the peoples votes, as election after election has shown, it shouldnt be anybodys headache but the Congresss. Just like how Zoya Akhtars South Bombay-inspired adaption of The Archies tanking on Wokeflix shouldnt be anybodys headache but hers and Netflixs.

After all, what goes your fathers?

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Yes, Zoya Akhtars The Archies trailer is not relatable for most Indians. But what goes your fathers? - India Today

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has hit out at some political journalists and their coverage of the election campaign, saying it is putting some Australians off politics.

On the eve of a closely fought federal election, the Labor leader described some of the media pack's behaviour and coverage over the past six weeks as "nonsense".

Mr Albanese created headlines at the start of the campaign when he could not name the unemployment rate.

He apologised for the "memory lapse" and insists he "owned it"but, afterwards, he was repeatedly quizzed by journalists to list details of his policies.

Some of his team havebeen increasingly annoyed by the behaviour of a few journalists and media outlets.

Catch up on all the news about the 2022 Australian federal election from May 23 in our blog

During a wideranging interview with 7.30, Mr Albanese made it clear he was frustrated as well.

"With respect, some of the nonsense that's gone on from some of the journalists thinking that the campaign was about them and gotcha moments is one of the things that puts people off politics," he said.

The Labor leader has been criticised by some of his own supporters and pundits for not putting forward more policy ideas, and running a small-target strategy.

However, when asked whether he should be vowing to do more for some of the poorest Australians, he said he would not over-promise and under-deliver for voters.

"What I will deliver is what I say I will deliver," Mr Albanesesaid.

In a final pitch to undecided Australians heading to cast their ballots on Saturday, Mr Albanese also outlined his main priorities if he were to win the nation's highest political office.

"Cheaper child care, cheaper energy bills, a future made in Australia, end the climate wars, a national anti-corruption commission, and move forward with the constitutional recognition of First Nations people with a voice to parliament," he said.

National opinion polls throughout this campaign have consistently suggested Labor has a healthy lead on a two-party preferred basis. Newspoll on Friday had the Opposition ahead 53 to 47.

However, the situation in key seats is considered to be much tighter than those surveys suggest.

Both major parties are spinning that they are favoured or experiencing a last-minute surge.

"I think it will be tight everywhere," a Coalition minister said.

"There is a path for us to win a majority but it is very tight and a hung parliament seems more likely right now."

The Liberal and National Parties can't afford to lose any seats to retain a majority, while Labor needs to win seven and not lose any to win government.

A majority Coalition government is now considered by campaign strategists to be the least likely outcome.

Five seats are thought to be most at risk of falling to Labor or the Greens:Brisbane (Qld), Reid (NSW), Chisholm (Vic), Boothby (SA) and Swan (WA).

There are also manyother electorates where the Coalition is being closely challenged by the Opposition and high-profile independents.

Those includeWentworth (NSW), Longman (Qld), Leichhardt (Qld), Goldstein (Vic), Higgins (Vic), Nicholls (Vic), Bass (Tas) and Pearce (WA).

Some in Labor say they are now "quietly confident" of at least being the biggest party by the end of Saturday evening and potentially winning a small majority.

However, they expect to have to pick up one or two electorates in every state, as opposed to experiencing the benefit of a big national swing.

There is also some concern about how preferences from right-wing minor parties such asthe Liberal Democrats, One Nation and the United Australia Party could flow, particularly in Queensland.

"If it all goes bad tomorrow and we're trying to work out what happened, that's where I'd start," said one senior Labor frontbencher.

The Coalition is still hoping it can offset some of its losses by taking a seat or two off Labor. Its targets include Blair (Qld), Gilmore (NSW), Parramatta (NSW), Lingiari (NT) and Corangamite (Vic).

It has not been a campaign filled with many major policy announcements. Instead, large periods of time have been focused on "gaffes" or personal attacks.

As a result, neither leader is particularly well-liked and, in parts of the country, the Prime Minister is considered very unpopular.

While campaigning in Perth on Friday, Scott Morrison again shrugged off criticism and declared he could defy the polls, urging the so-called "quiet Australians", presumably referring to undecided voters, to stick with him.

"This isn't an election about me, or Mr Albanese, for that matter," Mr Morrison said.

"It's about you and what your aspirations are. It's about what you're hoping to achieve."

"Those opportunities are there, but we cannot take them for granted."

In his final pitch to voters, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce declared his National Party would continue to stand up for regional areas against what he claimed was the "Zeitgeist that socially belittles those who underpin the wealth of our nation".

"What the Nationals see as providing a fair outcome for people away from the capital cities, the Labor Party sneer at as pork-barrelling," he said.

"We stand up for jobs in mining, which the Labor Party believes [is]politically incorrect," he said.

"The Nats have a plan, to make our nation as strong as possible as quickly as possible and we accept we may be sneered at as we achieve that."

Millions of Australians have already cast their ballot or have applied for a postal vote, which should ease pressure on polling places on Saturday.

The Australian Electoral Commission hadbeen worried about staffing shortages and long lines due to workers pulling out after contracting COVID-19.

However, as of Friday night, all planned polling stations will open on Saturday morning.

"Our 105,000 workforce across Australia has had approximately 15 per cent turnover in the past week alone, and this risk will continue tomorrow morning," electoral commissioner Tom Rogers said.

"To those people working for us tomorrow, thank you for putting your hand up. Please, unless you wake up [COVID symptoms], come in to work to make sure that your polling place can open.

"To voters, if there is a queue, remember to treat our staff with kindness. You wouldn't have a local polling place with them."

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Posted20 May 202220 May 2022Fri 20 May 2022 at 10:26am, updated21 May 202221 May 2022Sat 21 May 2022 at 12:07am

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Labor leader Anthony Albanese slams 'some of the nonsense' election coverage as on-the-day voters set to decide his fate - ABC News

Kendrick Lamar is not a role model. The savior complex bestowed upon him after he echoed agreeable pro-Black politics on To Pimp A Butterfly at the tail-end of the Obama regime has been rejected. He made a whole album reconciling with the title, using DAMN. as a sounding board to chip away at the surface of his traumas, hoping hed done enough good to outweigh the demons he felt were destined to pull him down to internal damnation. To Pimp A Butterfly, for as great as it is, put a curse on Kendrick. He became a Progressive Liberal champion, the neat idea of what a Black man ought to be in this country. But the truth is, Kendrick Lamar is messy, complicated and deeply flawedand hes been trying to tell us since the beginning.

If I told you I killed a n-gga at 16, would you believe me? / Perceive me to be innocent Kendrick you seen in the street / With a basketball and some Now & Laters to eat / If I mentioned all of my skeletons, would you jump in the seat? M.A.A.D City offers a pivot in perspective; the chosen one is only an audience projection and expectation. Kendrick is just another kid from Compton.

Even on the seminal TPAB, near the end of Mortal Man, he questions fans loyalty by bringing up how they denounced accused abuser Michael Jackson: That n-gga gave us Billie Jean, you say he touched those kids? he scolds.

The difference between those times is Kendrick believed he was the new leader of rap and a beacon for Black America. But after years of reflection, Kendrick has finally accepted that he cant solve everyones problemshe hasnt even solved his own.

Therapy lays the groundwork to strip away external expectations and perceptions to reach the root of all past traumas. And this is part of the reckoning Kendrick goes through on his latest album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. The double album plays out like a two-act play, the set never changing from his therapists office. Its reminiscent of the Mr. Robot episode where Elliott is forced to confront his deep-seated trauma with his therapist, wavering over what caused his pain, but eventually finding the heartbreaking truth.

Throughout Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers Kendrick unpacks his sins. His longtime partner Whitney Alford urges him to seek counseling after his various infidelities are revealed. Kendrick, now the father of two children, is told to seek counseling from Oprah-approved German philosopher Eckhart Tolle to get to the root of what would cause his supposed sex addiction.

The production on the album mirrors Kendricks distress. Gone are the pleasant jazz compositions of TPAB and the cleaner rhythms of DAMN.in their place are scattered piano lines, manic drums, distorted vocal samples and panic attack-inducing synths, all designed to give the listener feelings of anxiety and discomfort. The album plays out like an open therapy session, filled with the raw and unfiltered thoughts of one of the greatest rappers to ever pick up the mic. These thoughts are vulnerable, unmanicured and, to the shock of some fans, politically incorrect and ignorant.

The first few songs of the album mimic when a person first starts therapy, complete with the rapid information dump while in crisis (United In Grief), the self-justification due to a broken society (N-95) and the disdain-filled tirade that begins taking account of past mistakes (Worldwide Steppers). These songs are the most confrontational on the album, as Kendrick grapples with his sins and takes a full account of whats brought him to this point of needing help. Its also where most of the considered singles or playlist-worthy tracks lie. The most tailor-made pop-rap earworm, Die Hard, featuring the smooth vocals of West Coast R&B hitmaker Blxst, has Kendrick taking a breath after the intense venting sessions, hoping he can atone for his past transgressions.

Kendrick begins to make a connection between his and others upbringings and the effects of familial trauma on Father Time. Samphas angelic hook powers Kendricks confessions: Tough love, bottled up, no chaser, neat, he sings, with Kendrick expressing how his fathers way of showing he cared created an environment where Kendrick could not show emotion, vulnerability or uncertainty.

Then, in a cloudy haze with just a building piano accompanying him, Kodak Black appears. Kendrick seems to see some of himself in Kodak, much like J. Cole also decided not to denounce the young South Florida rapper. Kodak is one of the most fascinating and important rappers of the 2010s, but his heinous actions (including the 2016 assault of a teenage girl) have clouded his legacy. Kendricks inclusion of Kodak is supposed to be a signal of empathy, understanding that if a few circumstances had broken differently, he, too, may have been involved in the same controversies. His presence dually acts as a provocative commentary on cancel culture, similar to Kanye Wests late additions of DaBaby and Marilyn Manson on Jail Pt.2. But Kendrick brings more nuance to the discussion, and doesnt just platform his guests to scream about metaphorical jails and whine about people not liking them.

If Drake is the embodiment of modern social media caption chasing and tailored image control, then Kendrick wants to be his foil. I would never live my life on a computer / IGll get you life for a chikabooya / More power to ya, love em from a distance / Why you always in the mirror more than the bitches? he taunts on Rich Spirit. For as much as Kendrick claims he isnt paying attention, hes still in touch with rap, because the flow on the chorus (and later the use of mud walkin on Purple Hearts) sounds like a direct homage to the late, great L.A. rapper Drakeo the Ruler.

We Cry Together, a six-minute skit-song, is like if Eminems Kim and Guilty Conscience fused. The scenario is well-acted by Kendrick and Zola star Taylour Paige, feeling authentic, like overhearing the couple next door at your apartment complex getting into a nasty argument. Its more of a long interlude than a song, attempting to make points about the dynamics between men and women and male toxicity, but gets bogged down in the theatrics, making it something most listeners will hear once, then hit skip on forevermore.

As the first disc closes with the hazy and slurred, Summer Walker-assisted Purple Hearts,featuring a meditative Kendrick supported by the hypnotic Ghostface Killah crying out for salvationKendrick begins to find clarity.

Throughout the album, Kendrick actively questions the listener on the artifice of celebrity, the idea that just because we see these people on Instagram Live and Twitter, we know them. Its true the last decadewith the revelations of #MeToo and the horrific actions of once-beloved cultural figures such as Bill Cosbyhas made people more skeptical of the morality of the rich and famous, but still, the projections continue. And if theres one thing Kendrick hates, its projection. If Kendrick is going to accept who he is, he must live his truth. To do that, the idea and image of Kendrick Lamar must be torn down.

Count Me Out, the first breakthrough, is complete ego death. Kendrick begins to let his guard down and lowers his defensive tendencies, taking accountability for the hurt hes caused. His rapping speeds up as his mind races: I care too much, wanna share too much, in my head too much / I shut down too, I aint there too much / Im a complex soul, they layered me up / Then broke me down. As Kendrick reflects amid the mental storm of the savior complex thats been imposed on him (and that he once accepted), he realizes the price of trying to be everything to everyone is neglecting the people he cares about the most. The calm comes on Crown, where he finally accepts that people wont always accept him, and that trying to chase validation will only continue the downward spiral that brought him to this point.

That acceptance sets up the Kodak Black-assisted Silent Hill, one of the main highlights of the album. The track paints a netherworld atmosphere, complete with decrepit keys twinkling in a haunted house and clicks that sound like playing House of the Dead with a light gun in an abandoned arcade. Having Kodak come on after Kendrick has accepted he cant please everybody seems like an intentional choice to illustrate how hes fine with making a decision that may prove unpopular.

Kendricks struggle with cancel culture is rooted in him being afraid to say the wrong thing, and his insecurities over if people will still rock with him if he isnt making anthems like Alright or DNA. Its easy to point out the fallacies in his logicKodaks last album sold 60,000+ in its first week, Kanye Wests Donda was the second-best-selling rap album of 2021 and Dave Chappelle has some of the most-viewed stand-up specials on Netflix. Kendrick is used to admiration, yet harbors insecurities: If shit hits the fan, will you still be a fan?

Savior anticipates the reaction, putting Kendrick on the offensive like hes making his own Kamikaze. Thereve been arguments over the provocative nature of the album and whether Kendrick intended to be this polarizing. But Savior is a blatant needling of anyone clutching their pearls. Kendrick regains his ego and confidence, blasting exactly how he feels to the masses, critiquing fake woke-ism, PC culture and the lack of free thought, and admitting he didnt trust vaccines. Hes cutting out the people who thought he was a role model, delivering divisive views that many will take issue with. Its clear hes been paying attention to how fans of Kanye denounced him after a multitude of controversies.

The albums content, ideas, revelations and attempts at tackling difficult subjects make it quite compelling, but there is an elephant in the room to address: is it something you actually want to listen to? Because for everything Mr. Morale is trying to do, the production elements and song structures of the album dont command replay value. Its most interesting as a musical podcast and act of psychoanalysis, rather than something youd play on the speakers around friends or in the car. Its quite an uncomfortable listen, like a private therapy session you werent supposed to overhear.

The peak of this discomfort manifests on Auntie Diaries, a track where Kendrick tries to unpack the very polarizing topic of how Black families deal with trans-identifying family members. The intentions were good; Kendrick clearly tries to make the song resonate with people who still havent fully accepted, or understood, people who choose to transition. But the execution is quite messy, complete with misgenders, dead-naming and the use of the F-bomb. One could argue its done to be provocative or show the progression of how he became more accepting, but ultimately, it leaves more questions than answers, putting the trans community in an uncomfortable situation, which theyve spoken on. Its another example of a track Kendrick would never have made before, but this newfound freedom from expectation allows him to make a track thats imperfect.

Through the contempt, sidestepping, breakdowns and catharsis, he puts it all together on Mother I Sober. Rapping in a cold whisper, Kendrick brings to the surface a repressed memory where his family believed he might have been molested. As he unthreads the knots of past pain, his voice grows aggressive, culminating in a primal scream when he connects the memory to his mothers sexual assault and the generational trauma that comes with the Black experience. The haunting track is woven together by Portisheads Beth Gibbons crooning like the ghost of the deceased family members who passed down their trauma.

But through this revelation, Kendrick officially rejects being the projection of what his fans want. I choose me, Im sorry, he says flatly on the closer Mirror.

Whereas Kanye and Drake have decided to inflate their images and egos further, Future stayed in his lane and J. Cole has become obsessed with being considered a legendary technical rapper, the true king, Kendrick Lamar, burns his crown, making it clear he is regular, not a messiahnot your savior.

Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers rejects conformity and leaves its flaws in on purpose, featuring some of Kendricks best and worst songs of his career.

As he steps into the next arc of his career, through finding solace in therapy, Kendrick Lamar destroys the mythology built up by his followers for 15 years. He leaves TDE in a blaze, burning down the persona and idea of innocent Kendrick, Kung Fu Kenny and any other identity but his own.

Josh Svetz is Reviews Editor/Content Coordinator at HipHopDX, with bylines at Passion Of The Weiss, SPIN and Pitchfork. You can find him trying to revive the word swag and arguing about Roscoe Dashs impact on modern music on Twitter and Instagram.

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Kendrick Lamar Tears Down the Persona on Revealing Opus Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers - Paste Magazine

Editors note: One common theme of late in The Daily Signals mailbag is our audiences dismay at the political uprooting of common sense and reality across the nation. Heres a sampling of what you sent to letters@dailysignal.com.Ken McIntyre

Dear Daily Signal: I am 74. In high school back in the 1960s, I had a teacher who developed in me a fascination with current affairs that exists to this day.

Over the years, a few stories have triggered a What the heck is going on? reaction. Today, it seems almost daily that I see a news story triggering that reaction.

But putting tampons in mens bathrooms for transgender individuals, as Tony Perkins writes about Oregons new law (Striving for Menstrual Equity, Oregon Puts Tampons in Mens Bathrooms at Public Schools, Colleges)?

Over 2,500 cellular and structural differences exist between mens bodies and womens bodies. But we are supposed to believe that after a few physical changes, a new hair style, and different clothes, presto chango, you no longer are the gender you were born into?

And people are buying into it.Edward Towle

***

Around 2019, the Massachusetts-based company I work for started to stock tampons in its mens rooms. When I first saw the move,I puzzled over it for a bit.

The median salary around here is at least around $150,000, so no question that any transgender employee could easily afford tampons. Clearly its a form of virtue signaling, and a rather cheap one at that.

To increase the cost to roughly where it ought to be for real virtue, I decided the ethical thing to do was to grab most of the tampons and donate them to my local church. (Id leave a few for any actual transgender folks.) My church runs a beeline down to places like South America, where women (and men) with limited resources often have to go without such personal hygiene items.

I recommend this as common practice.I also get a kick out of knowing that the same older ladies who count the collections also sort the donations.Mike S.

Dear Daily Signal: Although I share Douglas Blairs concern with ever-decreasing standards for children, to call this group of morons (i.e. English teachers) Marxist is giving them too high praise (Why the Left Wants Twitter Over Tolstoy in Our Schools).

Yes, they borrow Marxist language. But thereissuch a thing as legitimate Marxist critique (regarding self-reference, power structures, and so on). However, in order to understand any of it, you mustfirst be able to read.

What this is really about, ultimately, is half-educated whack-a-dos borrowing bits and pieces from things they half understand, and coming up with the conclusion that they dont have to teach children anything.

The emphasis needs to be on theincompetenceof so many teachers, not on some nefarious plot to indoctrinate the children. (It isnt what the children learn, it is that they dont learnanything.)

Seeing evil forces at work gives these people far too much credit. The evil force here is usnamely, that we round up some of the dumbest people we can find and let them teach. Dave Baxter

Dear Daily Signal: In this radically leftist, socialist-engineered environment that we live in, the Democrat purveyors of ambiguous truth may have left themselves open for the fallout of their own politically correct ambiguity, as Virginia Allen reports (Democrats National Abortion Bill Replaces Word Woman With Person).

Trapped by their own war on words, they successfully have blurred the lines of meaning to such an extent that now their own words clearly can be used against themor at least against any ill-conceived political intent to recast Roe v. Wade as a womens right or womens health issue.

First, we must acknowledge that, based upon the Democrats legislative record on abortion, the radical left is desperately trying to perfect and protect their claim on infanticide, a gruesome practice shunned by most developed cultures and people.

Secondly, in the current climate of gender pronoun fluidity, where the word person is substituted in preference to any gender specificity, and where vacillations of identity shall not be questioned, the only identifiers permissible for those who contributed to the conception of a new third party infant entity would be the 50% shareholder as sperm donor and the 50% shareholder as egg bearer.For ease of understanding, we shall refer to each party to the conception, as well as the conceived party, as it.

If it is a 50% shareholder in the 100% conception of it, then who or what is to say that it should not have a say in the disposition of it?Furthermore, if it decides that it now chooses to invoke the superior standing of the other 50% shareholder of it, then who is to say which it has superior standing? Certainly not the law.

Since the left is so gung-ho to preserve the right of it to elect federally sanctioned and enforced infanticide, then what is to protect it if there is a dispute over the disposition of it in the face of this brave new world that we are constructing, where homicide is permissible by federal law?

To what depths will we citizens of this once great nation stoop, to demonstrate tolerance for such abject lunacy?Greg Mann, Texas

Dear Daily Signal: Your readership should notethat despite claims to the contrary from some in the heterodox Jewish world, the predominant position of the major traditional authoritiesin Jewish law is that abortion is prohibited unless there is a direct physical or emotional threat to the health of the mother.

This position also allows for cases such as incest or rape, which is determined on a case-by-case basis by rabbinical authorities who are viewed as having the requisite knowledge.

The traditional Jewish position is a nuanced rejection of both an absolute right to life and the agenda of reproductive freedom that advocates abortion on demand for the full nine months of pregnancy, with some even advocating infanticide. It is tragic that our society today valuesdestruction of the family, sacrificing children rather than protecting the family and sacrificing for children

Judaism and Jewish law arestrongly pro-marriage, pro-children, and pro-family in the most traditional sense of those termsand reject the hook-up culture that we all confront.

Justice Samuel Alitos draft majority opinion, if it is the ultimate opinion of the Supreme Court, is an excellent survey of the principles of constitutional law and federalism, as well as a realization that sonograms today depict a growing life in the earliest stage of pregnancy. This was clearly not evident in 1973, rendering the first trimester rule of Roe v. Wade scientifically incorrect.

>>>Read Justice Samuel Alitos draft opinion

It is a disgrace that some are trying to force Justice Alito to live in a witness protection program for being intellectually honest, telling the truth, and reminding us that Roe v. Wade rivaled Dred Scott as an incorrectly decided ruling with no basis in the Constitution that failed to resolve a hotly debatednational issue.

The leak of the draft opinion represents what happens when the ends justify the means becomes acceptable as both a means of policy and as a means of intimidating public institutions and dissenting views.

The demonstrations and rhetoric since the leak are all too reminiscent of the riots of the summer of 2020 and the ongoing assaults against American Jewish supporters of Israel and their houses of worship by the woke left.

May we all pray in our own ways for domestic tranquility, as set forth in the Constitution. Please keep up your excellent work.Steven Brizel

***

One or more persons in the Supreme Courts internal organization is a Judas (Could Supreme Court Leaker Be Criminally Prosecuted? Maybe). That person has done grievous damage to the Supreme Courts decision-making process, which relies on confidentiality.

Why did that person violate his or her oath by leaking Justice Samuel Alitos prepared, but yet agreed to, majority opinion? Because the totalitarian Democrats mantra has been that the ends justify the means.

If that Supreme Court traitor is revealed, I predict the Democrats will lionize the person. If the deed serves the Dems quest for power, no deed, no lie, no crime, no deception, no tactic is wrong.

This is the historical route to an evil society. Remember Stalin? Remember Hitler? Look at what is going on in the streets in front of the Supreme Court justices homes. Take heed!George G. Rose, Charlotte, N.C.

***

Having worked as an RN in a college health service, I had more than ample time to counsel young women on pregnancy options. However, I was discouraged from talking with them about continuing the pregnancy, keeping the baby, or adoption.

Having had two miscarriages and three full-term pregnancies, I had actual knowledge of pregnancy and childbirth. I also had nearly eight years as a single mom,beginning four months before my first child actually was born and my husband left. I knew the struggles and joys of single parenting.

I am so disgusted what Biden, Harris, Pelosi, Schumer, and all these imbeciles are doing to my America.Deanna Turner, New York

Dear Daily Signal: The U.S. was energy independent on Jan. 20, 2021, and the price of gas here was $2.17 per gallon (the national average was $2.38 a gallon). But on that first day in office, President Joe Biden signed executive orders, one of which attacked the oil and gas industry and set into motion an inflationary spiral that has crippled every Americans budget.

Today, Biden says it was Putins war in Ukraine that caused inflation. But Putin didnt invade Ukraine until Feb. 24, some 13 months after Biden took office. Is this president being truthful?

Examples of this administrations failed, nonsensical policies are numerous and growing.

So where is the rest of the U.S. press, and why dont they question this president and his administration? A silent press is simply not a necessary press.Mike Simon, Glen Ellyn, Ill.

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I appreciate the time and effort it takes to publish a reasonable, conservative news product daily. It must be really difficult to dig through the liberal lies, innuendos, and mass hysteria createdby people preoccupied with tearing our country down.Jack Casebolt

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Thank you. Just nice to hear opposing views, what I hear as the truth, about all the hatred spewing from CNN, CBS, NBC, et al.J. Fawcett

The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation.

The rest is here:
We Hear You: Tampons in Men's Rooms, Marxists in Classrooms, and Abortions for 'Persons' - Daily Signal

Lykke Li is sick of being lovesick. She is sick of singing about being lovesick. She is also sick, period. As in physically sick. Unwell. Im in bed with a fever, the Swedish singer-songwriter mews down the phone from her hotel room. She is in London promoting her latest album EYEYE, a record that is all about breaking patterns. Lovesickness be damned.

People may wonder why someone in Lis position a singer who has weathered the storm of Noughties celebrity and come out the other side, the kind of elusive, enduring artist that many indie musicians aspire to be would want to break such a successful cycle. Anyone who has ever listened to a Lykke Li song will know why: she writes about heartbreak. Her own. Over and over. Across four now five records, Li has reached into the crevices of her bleeding heart and found catchy tunes. Albums move subtly between heartbreak and heartache, longing and yearning. The pain is most palpable in her torch ballads but listen close, and youll hear it pulsating like a migraine even in her most radio-ready pop moments. Fifteen years after finding success at 21, Li is ready to break the cycle.

I didnt want to get stuck in the repetition of being hurt and making songs about it, she says. Admittedly, EYEYE does chronicle the dissolution of another relationship, but it also examines Lis impulse to create art out of pain. I wasnt aware of it before. This was the first time that I took a step back and analysed my whole relationship to love from even before I was born, she says. Li dissected the many fantasies she had internalised as a young girl devouring films, poems, and art. Im ready to break my own repetition and perfect the circle to create some harmony and balance. Its an album to myself and what I started many years ago. Think of EYEYE as a last hurrah then, or rather a final sob.

The tracks on her previous record, 2018s exquisitely named So Sad So Sexy, drew on hip-hop with trap beats and rap features. An eclectic assortment of super producers including Vampire Weekends Rostam Batmanglij, and Frank Ocean producer Malay were brought in to assist. Li can see now that this outside intervention served a personal purpose at a difficult time. I was in a very hard place in my life, she says. She had just given birth but she had also separated from her partner, the Grammy-winning producer Jeff Bhaskar. Her mum had died of brain cancer. It was like all the worst things that can happen, happened. The album became a way of surviving. It was something for Li to cling to while the world around her atomised. Looking back, Li is both astonished and proud that she managed to pull it off. I dont understand how I got it done when I was in so much grief and pain, plus the exhaustion of having a baby. She finds it interesting that So Sad So Sexy is the album that sounds the least like me.

If So Sad So Sexy was a digression, EYEYE is a homecoming. Li can remember lying in bed, exhausted from touring and nursing another broken heart. She listened to the voice memos on her phone, where she records snippets of inspiration and melodic ideas. I really thought, I dont want to destroy the rawness of those this time. I want to make the most intimate and raw and alive piece Ive ever made, she says. To those ends, EYEYE was recorded without headphones or click-tracks. There is the sound of a dishwasher running in the background. Everything was one-take.

The writing process was low-key: at home alone in her bedroom. Well, my home is very much one big bedroom, Li says, explaining there is wall-to-wall carpet everywhere. I like to be horizontal and just dream. She also returned to the safe hands of her longtime collaborator Bjrn Yttling, who has worked on all her records except So Sad So Sexy. It was during that period that Li began psychedelic-aided therapy. She took psilocybin, ayahuasca and 5-MeO-DMT together with her therapist. Actually, not the ayahuasca, she clarifies. That was with a shaman.

Im quite sensitive when I have to be out there in the world, so I get sick a lot on tour, says the 36-year-old

(Theo Lindquist)

Like many of her best songs, EYEYE revels in abject feeling. On the album opener No Hotel, she sings to near nothingness. Her voice is long-breathed and solitary: I know I hold on/ To someone not here / But you wont go away. Her music is not so much a cooling balm for your wounds as it is a hot iron to cauterise them. Languish with me fellow sad-sacks, her songs seem to say, and I will make our pain into something beautiful.

If even half the anguish Li sings about is real she later tells me that sadly it all is you would not blame her for hardening to love. Instead, Li remains painfully open to it. I think its quite heroic, she laughs at her enduring belief. At 16 she was a complete romantic. At 36, she remains one. Li suggests that maybe it is because she is an artist. Im potentially more open in general. Like, Im trying to be open.

A side effect of that, though, is that she is often unwell. Im okay with being vulnerable in my work because its somehow protected but when I have to be out there in the world, I always get sick. Li hosted a listening event last night, hence this mornings fever. As if on cue, a doorbell rings and she politely excuses herself to answer room service who have brought her a cup of tea. A metal spoon dings against porcelain. She continues, Im quite sensitive when I have to be out there in the world, so I get sick a lot on tour. I ask if she thinks of herself as an empath, someone who feels the moods of others as though they are her own. I think so. I need to learn how to shield myself.

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That energy of celebrity and Hollywood is something I really detest

Speaking to Li, its easy to believe. She is not the husky-voiced chanteuse of her sad, sexy songs. Instead, she has a spacey air about her and a girlish lilt. She is the sort to giggle, rather than laugh. I feel myself lowering my voice, to match her whisper. Although Lis camera is not on, if it were, I might see her spectral face with big eyes and a small mouth framed by a dirty blonde pixie cut.

Li had a nomadic childhood, moving around several times with her family: Stockholm, Portugal, Lisbon, Morocco, Nepal, back to Stockholm. Winters were spent in India. Growing up, she spent her time reading and listening to music on her Walkman. Michael Jackson was her first CD. A bit politically incorrect now, she says. Li began dancing at five. At 15, she decided she wanted to do something more creative. She applied to music school in Stockholm but didnt get in. That was devastating but it somehow awoke the underdog in me and made me certain that I wanted to do music.

Li has been sure of herself ever since. Strangely, Ive always had a clear idea of what I dont like so Ive been able to say no quite easily. No, its not right. No, its not there yet. It was easy when I was younger because I was quite cocky. Her Swedish accent sticks on the double consonants like toffee. Li says her greatest regrets are the times she allowed things to slip through that she knew werent quite right. This idea of creative purity preoccupies Li endlessly. Naturally, she has dreamt of clearing out her catalogue. She would wipe it all other than I Follow Rivers and I Never Learn. Li is a perfectionist to the extreme. Even when I look at this room, I wish this or that was a bit to the right or to the left. When Im ordering food, I want this very specific thing. I carry a vision inside of me and then when it doesnt translate, its very painful. At last nights listening event, Li wished the lights had been less bright; that a hotel sign was not in view; that the audience were facing the other way. Im always imagining a better situation.

Li counts herself fortunate that her career has been mostly smooth sailing. Having entered the industry at 21, she knows how easily the opposite couldve been true. I wonder why I never had those #MeToo situations happen to me, Li says. Later, she posits a theory. Maybe its because I never leaned into my sexuality. I wasnt even aware of my sexuality. I never had that energy and I think maybe thats why it was completely shut off from me because it was always about the art.

But if being a young woman in music did not throw up challenges, becoming a mother certainly did. Overnight or rather nine months the industry grew increasingly dismissive of her. I feel like its improved a little bit now, she says. Im happy to see Rihanna out there with a belly. Its like the hottest thing ever and so pregnancy is becoming less destigmatised. You see power in it now. She pauses and circles back. But I guess thats not really true because she has infinite resources so its a false example.

Becoming a parent wasnt what she expected. For one thing, Li thought motherhood would temper her ambition. In reality, she has never been more driven. But practically, she asks, how are mothers expected to do this? I want to work; I want to be completely lost in my creation, but I also have to take care of this child. Its quite brutal, to be honest. And thats when you really see What is it called? Im not so good in English with these types of words. She searches her brain for a moment before finding it. Inequality. You see the inequality. Its very hard to be a woman. It really is.

Uninterested in fame, Li says she would be completely happy being an anonymous songwriter

(Theo Lindquist)

The effect motherhood had on her body image was similarly surprising. I have had a really complicated relationship with being a woman; I never felt like one, to be honest. I struggled a lot with self-hate and my looks and my body. I felt that I didnt have the power that women had, she says. In pregnancy, that changed. I found both the strength and softness, I was like, Wow, I am a woman. Li adds that on EYEYE, she leaned into her masculine side and realised she is quite androgynous. Its been interesting to play with gender identifications. Its yin and yang. Opposites. Duality. Everything is both.

On the subject of bodies, we speak about the time Rihanna once complimented Li on her tits. She giggles at the memory. Sadly, thats when they were fresh and quite large at the time, and now they arent anymore, she says. I really struggle with that, but I think its interesting to have body parts you struggle with, especially in this world where all these young girls get plastic surgery and fillers. Li is curious to see if soon itll be viewed as antiquated not to have had any plastic surgery. She isnt judging. Just curious.

The singer mostly keeps to herself. She lives in LA but never ventures west. That energy of celebrity and Hollywood is something I really detest. The only thing she cares about is the music, she says. I just want to write a good song. Li would also like to try her hand at writing for others, adding that she is completely happy being an anonymous songwriter. Perhaps she can smuggle any future heartbreak into songs sung by other people.

Lis most devoted fans view her as a patron saint of modern-day sadness. And they make countless memes to that effect, the best of which Li has compiled together on her Instagram. But Li wants a new challenge, and hopefully to find a lasting love. Its almost more difficult to describe the fragility of something good and beautiful. Complete love is something Im curious to try describing.

EYEYE is out on 20 May

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Lykke Li: I struggled a lot with self-hate and my looks and my body - The Independent