Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

In the tradition of Christian martyrs, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., lost his life but won the war.  In the years after his assassination, his call for America to live up to her founding principles, his vision of all people treating all people as fellow human beings regardless of color, became the national consensus.

A Young Progressive Agrees: Against the Tribalism and Politicization of Our Age

A fascinating alternative perspective from the left, from an Alison Willmore, at Buzz Feed:

Why I’ve Had Trouble Buying Hollywood’s Version of Girl Power

I get the desire to take comfort in cheerful stories of women’s triumph, from Ocean’s 8 to On the Basis of Sex. But in 2018, I haven’t found them very comforting.

Quick Thoughts on Identity Politics, Definition, History: Goldberg, Obama

When President Obama and the founding editor of National Review Online agree on something, it might be true.

Identity politics are bad.

Goldberg:

. . . Obama is right . . . . Slavery and Jim Crow were indisputably manifestations of identity politics. America’s system of legalized racism was just another form of aristocracy under a different name. And as such, it was a violation of the best ideas of the Founding. Perhaps the single most radical thing about the American Revolution was the decision to reject all forms of hereditary nobility.

It took longer — far too much longer — to recognize the rights and dignity of all Americans, but the idea that you should take people as you find them, and judge them not as a member of a group but as individuals, remains perhaps the greatest part of the American creed, regardless of whether you’re a liberal or a conservative.

Racism Down, Interracial Marriage Up

I was listening to a podcast, and one of my favorite political and cultural commentators, Jonah Goldberg, happened to mention rates of interracial marriage as one possible measure of levels of racism in America over the years.  I was curious; so I looked them up.

According to the Pew Research Center, between 1980 and 2017, intermarriage rates roughly tripled:

Share of black Americans marrying someone of a different race or ethnicity in 1980 — 5%
In 2015 — 18%

Share of white Americans marrying someone of a different race or ethnicity in 1980 — 4%
In 2015 — 11%

Conversations with Bill Kristol: Jonah Goldberg on Nationalism, Populism, and Identity Politics

Fascinating discussion of how we got to this point, and what you might call the political “cycle of violence”.  Lots of blame to go around.

I made some of these arguments myself, some years before the dynamic produced Trump.  My left-leaning friends in general didn’t see it, then or now.  Some seem to be responding by doubling down, even more of the same.  So I imagine this will all continue to get worse before it gets better.

England Uses Modern Technology to Recreate Ancient Monument Destroyed by Throwback Barbarians

This is beautiful.  Daesh/ISIS thugs destroyed another priceless ancient monument; so London has erected a new one.

‘Most people become “ready to get married” when they get married.’

Dennis Prager offers some incisive observations about our culture and growing up.

The same holds true for becoming a parent. Very few people are “ready” to become parents. They become ready . . . once they become parents. In fact, the same holds true for any difficult job. What new lawyer was “ready” to take on his or her first clients? What new teacher, policeman, firefighter is “ready”?

Muslims Mock Daesh

Speaking of helping delegitimize the terrorists, did you know that our Muslim allies and non-allies alike, as well as Israelis, are making fun of Daesh (ISIS) through sketch comedy and songs?  Check out these, from Kurds on TV in Iraq, Palestinians, and Israelis (warning, some rude content):

Call the Islamic State ‘Daesh’, Help Delegitimate the Terrorists

“The state of donkeys in Iraq and Syria”

Did you know that the term for ISIS or the Islamic State preferred by many of its Arabic-speaking victims is “Daesh” (pronounced “die-EESH”)? The reasons for this are complex, as explored at length by Alice Guthrie at Free Word, but the short version is that thanks to various connotations and cultural context in the Arabic-speaking world, calling the terrorist group “Daesh” delegitimates them by making them sound “little, silly, and powerless,” but also “implies they are monsters, and that they are made-up.”

Even NPR Agrees: Maybe the Culture of Fornication and the Atomization of Society Aren’t Such a Good Thing

In a pair of stories this evening, NPR wonders whether some of the secular left’s remaking of society has been such a good deal for most of us, and starts to sound almost like the church, or Mark Steyn.

From “In Twitter Rant, Tinder Blasts ‘Vanity Fair’ Article On New York Dating Culture”:

Nancy Jo Sales’ article devoted five thousand words to the modern dating culture spawned by Tinder and other similar apps. It wasn’t a pretty picture.

No, the South Isn’t Awful, It’s Awesome

More Responses to Obergefell vs. Hodges

The Anglican Church in North America responds at some length.

Scott Walker made a great statement in response to the Supreme Court decision.

Five unelected judges have taken it upon themselves to redefine the institution of marriage, an institution that the author of this decision acknowledges ‘has been with us for millennia.’ . . .

Culture > Politics

Blogging for the Hugh Hewitt show, John Schroeder reminds us that there are more important things than politics (and that politics is shaped by those things more than the other way around).

What is clear; however, is that if we are going to push government back within its boundaries other culture shaping forces have to step up and push it out. . . . It is not enough to elect a “small government” president unless we support big church, independent education, and other things that can push government out of the purely cultural spaces.

So, while you are asking which of the dozen or more GOP contenders you are going to support, are you donating to your church, school, museum or orchestra?  If not, you should think about it just as hard.

‘Bruce Jenner’s Transformation Is a Lose-Lose for Liberal Ideology’

Bruce ‘Caitlyn’ Jenner recently came out as “transgendered” and “a woman”.  The left wants to celebrate, but Daniel Davis at The Federalist points out that this has exposed a contradiction embedded in modern liberalism:

This is a problem for the broader liberal sexual movement. It wants to celebrate transgenderism, but it cannot do so without referring to—and thus, at least tacitly affirming—gender norms. . . .

A Searing Indictment of the Modern College Experience

I think this is pretty good writing.  The larger piece is about fraternities, but here’s college in one paragraph:

‘To a Jeweler’

Found in an old Mad Magazine (1971, No. 147):

Feminism = Liberalism?

Damon Linker at The Week asks, “Is ‘feminism’ just another word for ‘liberalism’?”  What do you think?

He (mostly) sounds like a liberal, for whatever it’s worth—e.g., he states without qualification, “Women continue to be paid less than men for the same work,” which we know either isn’t true or isn’t known—but even he is struck by the implicit tension between different “waves” of feminist doctrine.

Is this politically savvy anti-abortion woman an anti-feminist? Or a feminist role model?

New York State Fines Christian Farmers, Conscripts Them in Forced Re-education, Forces Them Out of Wedding Business

No, this is not a parody or a prediction; it’s already here.  Via Political Realities, the Daily Signal reports,

In 2012, Melissa Erwin and Jennie McCarthy contacted the Giffords to rent the family’s barn for their same-sex wedding ceremony and reception. Cynthia Gifford responded that she and her husband would have to decline their request as they felt they could not in good conscience host a same-sex wedding ceremony at their home. The Giffords live on the second and third floor of the barn and, when they host weddings on the first floor, they open part of the second floor as a bridal suite.

Review: ‘Who Murdered the Dinosaurs?’

You might think a story that sounds as if it were about which animals killed some dinosaurs would not be very interesting.

You’d be wrong.  (“Dead wrong,” Devereux giggled.)

Frank Fleming’s first short story at Liberty Island, “Who Murdered the Dinosaurs?”, is thoroughly entertaining and frequently laugh-out-loud funny—a “First Rate Farce”, in the words of one reader.  Perhaps one should have expected nothing less from the long-time PJ Media humorist whose previous work includes the funny “FAQ on Christianity”.

‘It is a messed up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh, and Phil Robertson gets suspended.’

Bobby Jindal responds to the news that A&E is “suspending” the star of Duck Dynasty (brief context and links at the Weekly Standard, but warning for content):

Phil Robertson and his family are great citizens of the State of Louisiana. The politically correct crowd is tolerant of all viewpoints, except those they disagree with. . . . It is a messed up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh, and Phil Robertson gets suspended.”