Or, maybe it really is homegrown. If everyone everywhere is an American, then the proposition of America must extend to the four corners. Hmm. Regardless, we’re getting more activity:
Jihadist threats from homegrown terrorists in America continue to increase each month, with at least nine foreign born individuals living in the United States arrested or convicted in June of attempting to launch attacks on behalf of ISIS and other global terrorist organizations, according to newly released information by Congress.
“Cases of homegrown Islamist extremism in the U.S. continue to be an issue of concern,” according to the House Homeland Security Committee’s monthly report of terrorism in America, which has been tracking an increase in homegrown jihadists for some time. “Since 2013, there have been 154 homegrown jihadist cases in the United States” from at least 30 different states.
The information highlights the ongoing threat posed by rogue jihadists influenced by international terror groups, but not necessarily directly tied to them, which makes these would-be attackers more difficult to track for federal authorities.
Homegrown foreign-born individuals. See the confusion?
Not to worry; we’re assured all of this is offset by a solid boost to the GDP.
Da Gubmint.
Sadly, there will be no TPC article this week. This may have to stand in.
I love Boston. I really do. The Union Oyster House. Sam Adams. Looking a Red Sox fan in the face and saying, “It’s just a game.” Hitting I-93 North as hard and fast as possible. There’s all that history.
Yet, sometimes I pause to wonder about the future. Now is one of those times. Boston City Council President Andrea Campbell proposes giving non-citizens the right to vote in City elections:
Non-U.S. citizens living in the country legally may one day be allowed to vote in Boston elections.
The City Council is holding a hearing Tuesday on the idea at the request of Council President Andrea Campbell. The council is considering ways to make city elections more inclusive, including allowing immigrants with legal status in the country the right to vote in municipal races.
I’m a little upset about this “legal status” requirement, honestly. And why do they have to live in the country? Are not all 7 Billion people on the planet Americans? Bostonians? It’s not very inclusive to deny them their voices. I’m sure there’s a real new American, in Haiti or Uruguay or somewhere, just itching to write in Vladamir Putin or Theresa May as a replacement for Andrea Campbell. Is this not just?
Keep an eye on this. And look for it to spread regardless of how they handle it in Bean Town.
Paul Brandus does a pretty good job of summing up America’s standing one-fifth of the way through the 21st Century. He touches on several important subjects. However, in the touching, he seems to miss much of the “why,” shunning some analysis for popular sentiment.
This part, for instance, caught my attention:
We seem to have been overcome by pettiness and cynicism, incapable of doing anything big anymore. How did we descend from the country that cured polio, built the interstate highway system and put a man on the moon—to one in which millions see nothing wrong with the government ripping babies from their mother’s bosom?
This being one of several leftist talking points soft sells. How? Well, when millions see nothing wrong with ripping babies from the womb, how much consternation can there be about the bosom?
Liberal policies have been “separating children from their parents” for years.
The beasts! What kind of monsters deliberately separate innocent children from their parents? This descends to a level of barbarism that is unspeakable!
There are big money and a lot of votes in these anti-child rackets. Cash and curry aside, “Barbarism” is the right word.
Happy Independence Day, America! Or Independence Week, the week of July Fourth – I’m not sure about the week’s publishing schedule. I truly appreciate the comments, here an on the socials, on last week’s installment about the Vampires of Austin. One mentioned that the subject was “very disturbing and incredibly sad.” Yes, yes it was and was so intended. So, too, might be the tone of this column; consider it a call to festivity and a warning.
This Fourth is the 242nd birthday of that unique nation we know as The United States of America. For Americans, it is good and right to celebrate, so long as the celebration is for the right reasons. Folks, while hot dogs, beer, and fireworks are worthy accompaniment for Independence Day, they are not the heart or focus of the holiday. Freedom is. Freedom and tradition.
On July 4, 1776, a small group of men, with vested interests, signed off on a Declaration against the King of England. They essentially gave him the finger. They were serious enough about freedom to risk a war with the world’s most powerful Empire.
Today, are we that serious? Are we serious at all? What, exactly, do modern Americans celebrate independence from? From rule by the British, sure. I do note that many, many Americans are held in rapt attention by Royal weddings and Downton Abbey. But that’s cultural. We are free from the long list of injuries and usurpations set forth in the Declaration – as committed, then, by George III. Go down that list and see how we’re really doing all these years later – with the usurpations of Washington.
Happy Independence Day to all Americans, the Posterity of 1776 and 1787. To all others, happy Fourth of July.
Two literary announcements:
1) After 15 or so years of stalling, yesterday I commenced work on a secret project. More on that later.
2) Yesterday I bought a book which I intend to review (here and at Amazon). It’s from an “enemy” camp though I hear rumor it may be partly amicable. More on that later too.
God Bless America!
PS: Expecting the TPC of the week; more on that later as well.
If you ever need much evidence that the growing “God gap” in American politics fosters an immense amount of ignorance and occasionally outright bigotry, look no farther than the concern — the alarm, even — that Amy Coney Barrett is on President Trump’s short list to replace Anthony Kennedy on the United States Supreme Court.
The alarm isn’t about her credentials. She’s checked every box of excellence — law review, appellate-court clerkship, Supreme Court clerkship (with Justice Scalia), elite law-firm experience, law professor at an elite law school, and now experience as a federal judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. She’s a young, brilliant woman at the apex of her profession.
So, beyond her obvious originalist judicial philosophy (shared to varying degrees by every person on Trump’s list of potential nominees), what’s the problem with Judge Barrett. Why do some progressives single her out for particular scorn?
It turns out that she’s a faithful Christian who lives a Christian life very similar to the lives of millions upon millions of her fellow American believers.
No, really, that’s the objection.
It’s not just that they’re afraid of losing Roe v. Wade (the Dred Scot of the 20th Century, but worse and so wrong even Jane Roe came around). They’re afraid of losing the battle to finish off what’s left of America. They’re afraid of failing their prince, not realizing that it’s a lost cause, win or lose.
Imagine if Barret was Jewish or Muslim. Or an atheist. Or a satanist. If she was, then the howls from the same progressives happy to attack a Christian would be audible on the moon.
Somehow this “highly respected web log” missed the cut for Time’s 25 Most Influential People on Them Interwebs. I’m sure we fell in the second 25 … second 25,000 certainly…
In a field of pop culture garbage, a few figures stand out. Drudge is a given. Trump too; Tweets with a purpose. I imagine he’s the one right-winger safe from the safety and trusty councily SJWs.
The inclusion of “Q” was a surprise. His entry was tinged with doubt but there, too, was a sense of foreboding. What if he’s right about some things?
And, what if he is? Q or not, things keep changing. Dinesh D’Souza has a new documentary coming in August: Death of America. I’m not sure if that’s already happened, something we’re desperate to head off, or if it’s just a historical certainty. My gut feeling is that it’s a mix of all three.
If you’ll excuse me, I have to go work on the blog CV for next year’s list…
About a quarter of US adults meet guidelines for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening exercise in their spare time, according to new data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
The US Department of Health and Human Services recommends that people between the ages of 18 and 64 engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity each week, as well as muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week.
Subtracting 23% from the whole (apologies to Detroit Public “School” grads) leaves 77% not exercising. Oddly, this remainder is roughly the same as that percentage of Americans who are either overweight and/or obese and/or severely obese.
Friends, this ain’t gonna cut it. Not unless you’re in the mortuary business should this news be seen as anything but evidence of decadence and decline.
Some suggestions for those majority heavies wishing to shed flab and tone it up a notch (or ten):
Eating right and exercise are obvious – and easier than many would imagine. Perrin agrees with a government agency here!!! Just walk 2 1/2 hours per week – 30 minutes or 2 miles, Monday through Friday will do. That and cut the sugar and carbs. Got 30 minutes? I’ll bet you do. Find the time by:
Turning off the G-D television!
Consider NOT checking the Tweets, texts, and cat videos for half an hour. You’ll live.
Allowing your fantasy sports team half an hour to play on their own. They do that anyway.
Postpone that next cool and I’m-sure-yours-is-so-meaningful tattoo. Especially if it’s a facial tat…
While you walk, think about what you’ve read here, today, or over at TPC – new column coming ASAP.
Alternatively, consider doing your family a favor and make those final arrangements yourself as you see fit. Otherwise, you’ll burden them with decisions like whether to go all wood or steel or to simply dump your fat ass in the closet ditch.
Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. In each of these cities, The Intercept has identified an AT&T facility containing networking equipment that transports large quantities of internet traffic across the United States and the world. A body of evidence – including classified NSA documents, public records, and interviews with several former AT&T employees – indicates that the buildings are central to an NSA spying initiative that has for years monitored billions of emails, phone calls, and online chats passing across U.S. territory.
Big ugly buildings. Big, ugly purpose. Just kidding! Keeping the kiddies safe from cigars or whales or something…
I know I’ve covered this subject before … the first disclosed tower in NYC. Can’t find it. Hmm. Sure the NSA has a record of that somewhere.
It’s not your imagination. People are really getting dumber.
Over the weekend I started a draft on a similar subject, something I noticed. Here and now, I finish it with a few changes. Those were brought about by several stories which surfaced yesterday, which largely validated what I was suspecting all along.
Young people’s IQ scores have started to deteriorate after climbing steadily since Wold War Two, a new study has found.
The fall, which equates to about seven points per generation, is believed to have begun with those born in 1975, according to the first authoritative study of the phenomenon.
“Wold” War Two is likely a plain, old error and not an example of the point…
It’s true. But it’s not technology causing the trend. It’s not the fish or lack thereof. And it is not some nebulous social “force.” There are three causes:
1) Smarter people are having fewer children, passing on fewer genes. This has particularly dire consequences for the West. This works in conjunction with the other two.
2) Lower-IQ peoples are increasing in number, passing on their genes.
3) Modern Western immigration is geared toward the importation of non-Western peoples from countries with populations known to correspond with number two, immediately above.
What prompted my drafting earlier is immaterial. Last fall I reported on the various national IQs and the world average (86). Then, I wrote:
“I’m a little surprised the USA came in as high as it did. I would not be surprised if that number (and the global average) slips a little with each coming decade and/or generation. …”
Back then I had it in my head that the US was somewhere in the mid-90’s, I’d have settled for 95 (and this wasn’t via random guessing). 98 is just too high. More likely, it’s around 94.5. It’s not that big of a difference but, as its a point on a downward trend, it’s especially troublesome.
Last year I quipped: “98 will have trouble returning to the moon. 86 will not go the first time. 72 might have trouble finding the thing with a telescope.” This principle applies to all areas of society. Space travel is one thing. Running water, indoor plumbing, electricity, gasoline refinement, and relative judicial stability are others.
It’s become a vicious cycle – and yes, 1975 would be about the time it should have started manifesting itself. A crazed and deteriorating culture drives brighter people to work longer and harder while embracing the selfish and the trivial and delaying or foregoing starting families. They pay taxes to support the others, who keep having children. This is, obviously, not sustainable. Those on the right tail of the curve are increasingly squeezed by those in the shifting middle.
And, societally, it’s the middle, the average that really counts. If you’re reading this and understanding it, you’re above average. Surely you have noticed the decline of late during your interactions with the masses. It’s real. And it’s a real problem.
Others have noticed as well. Vox Day on the subject yesterday:
Vox Day/Youtube.
By the way – related good news here: Youtube assigns “related” channels to a particular creator. How? I’m not exactly sure. Regardless, I now have three related channels:
Vox appeared last night. It’s an honor to be algorithmically included in his and Stefan’s company. Banshee Moon was a prepper-esque channel. Now it’s more a bikini lifestyle channel – which I am also proud to associate with…
Note: the decline in the schools does not really factor into the general lowering. It fits with the general decline, however. Children with less base intelligence have less need for real education.
