Tag Archives: society

Civil Sanctuary in an Uncivil Society

06 Friday Jul 2018

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As I predicted a few months ago, efforts by the Trump administration to arrest the invasion by means of civil lawsuits, continue to go nowhere. A federal judge rejected (most of) the government’s case against California and its “sanctuary” laws:

A federal judge on Thursday rejected the bulk of a Trump administration demand to block three California sanctuary laws, allowing the state to keep in place its most significant legislative measures aimed at countering President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

Sacramento-based U.S. District Court Judge John Mendez rejected, for now, the Justice Department’s drive to halt a California law that limits the kinds of immigration-related information state and local law enforcement can share with federal officials. The judge also declined DOJ’s request to block another law guaranteeing California officials certain information about local and privately run jails that hold immigration detainees in the Golden State.

While the ruling is a setback for the Trump administration’s attempt to enforce immigration laws in states where leaders favor more liberal policies, Mendez did block parts of one of the disputed California laws, including provisions that banned private employers from voluntarily cooperating with immigration officials and from re-verifying the legal work status of employees.

Mendez, an appointee of President George W. Bush, took a narrow view of state and local governments’ obligations to allow their employees to assist federal immigration officials. He said California had broad authority to limit use of its resources for immigration enforcement.

“Refusing to help is not the same as impeding,” wrote Mendez.

Mendez is probably right about the refusals. And it’s good he rebuked the State’s criminal efforts to interfere with private enterprise. This really isn’t even a setback, being, in fact – as noted above, predictable. Speaking of criminal,

I’m confident there are incidents here and there where the refusals do turn to obstruction. In those cases, there is a ready remedy: 18. U. S. C. 1324. I almost tire of noting this law. Does no one in the DOJ have a copy of the USC or USCA? Maybe a direct letter to Trump is in order.

And, along with the lines of legal cracks, I couldn’t help but notice some are forming in the defense of the baby murder industry. NBC tries to reassure the hellish about their continued practices while roundaboutly admitting the failings of the cause.

Abortion will likely not be illegal in 20 states within 18 months. A new justice will certainly create a new balance on the court. Retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy was the fulcrum, now Chief Justice John Roberts is the median vote. But Roe will not be overturned just because there may be a new conservative majority on the court after President Donald Trump, who is set to announce his nominee on Monday, replaces Kennedy.

There are arguments for overturning Roe v. Wade. It was decided in 1973 on a shaky justification: The privacy right to an abortion does not explicitly appear in the Constitution, but it essentially radiates from the glow (the “penumbra”) of its text. Controversial when it was decided, the reasoning in Roe remains as controversial today.

In law schools, they actually teach that to properly read the Constitutional justification for things like Roe, one needs to wear x-ray goggles. Really. Maybe one should shoot up some drain cleaner too.

It’s not shaky, it’s just wrong. If the authority isn’t specifically granted the US, via the Old Parchment, then it is necessarily reserved to the States or to the People. “Liberty interests” were understood and defined in 1787 and they did not include any right to commit murder.

It’s a little funny and a little telling that they don’t even bother addressing the other justification – the allegedly inconclusive medical science part. That was specious at best 45 years ago. Today it’s a dead letter. Dead enough to kill the stare decisis surrounding this modern day Dred Scott.

Not that most care. Most wouldn’t even know what I’m talking about here if they could be diverted for a second from the potato chips and televisions. Some are too concerned about not separating a few thousand children, already separated by their criminal parents, to care about the killing of millions of other children. “Eff them.” Right? Yet others are too busy protesting other aspects of civil society while feigning self-serving outrage about this, that, and the other useless thing. Others … you get the point.

Tick, tick, tick.

2033

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You Get What You Pay For

05 Thursday Jul 2018

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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?

And, again, since when have liberals ever cared about separating children (the ones who survive “choice”) and families? Stephen Baskerville has some excellent thoughts on that:

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.

TPC Time! Garlic and Sunlight, Please

28 Thursday Jun 2018

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From today’s TPC: Vampires in America

(really can’t make this stuff up…)

The first great luxury and prestige point of being your C.F. Floyd National Affairs writer is the simple fact of being such. Really, I’m honored and grateful. The second great luxury is the wide latitude I’m allowed in picking subjects. Yet, therein, within the unbridled discretion, lurks the first menace.

Mine is an admittedly strange but active mind. Every week I literally have 100 potentially actionable ideas and maybe as many potential ways to present them. There are so many important issues which affect our culture, our freedoms, and our lives that it is hard sometimes to delineate the “one” for a given segment. You may have detected a slight tendency, here, towards the long-winded. It’s difficult, once a subject in pinned down, to limit it and prevent it from devolving into a novella. I do my best…

It’s also a minor goal of mine to keep the work here at least loosely interwoven with predecessor issues. In a way, all of this stuff is interrelated – at least in part. So here, today – and I’m getting to the subject matter de jure! – I picked a seemingly whacky and obscure story out of Texas which has slight bearing on what I’ve already printed and on some other features swirling. We’ll get into the other pressing matters of the maelstrom in due time. (I hear ya, “Perrin, hurry it the hell up!”). But. Now. On to the Vampires of Austin!

Frequently, if one really wants quality news about what’s happening in America, one has to turn to the European press. Even their tabloids do a better job of fact-finding than our sold-out CNNABCNBCBS cabal. Today’s American news of the weird comes courtesy of a story I read in The Sun (UK). There is in Austin, Texas, of all places, an active coven of vampires. (Here I’ll note that even the best fiction-minded author simply can’t make this stuff up to compete with reality).

…

READ THE WHOLE THING AT TPC

title

The Fit Minority

28 Thursday Jun 2018

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A CDC Study shows that only 23% of Americans exercise on a regular basis.

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.

The Art of the Postmodern Word Salad

20 Wednesday Jun 2018

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The trend in the US and much of the world is towards lower IQs. The US is also witnessing a steep decline in the quality of education. Something like half the population is functionally illiterate. Thus, it is somewhat surprising that, over the past few years, more and more folks are reading or at least buying books.

What are they reading? A giant percentage of book sales fall among adult coloring books (yeah) and romance novels. The latter category does require the minimal mental synthesis of words. But, what do those words mean? If you’ve browsed the stacks in a coffee shop toy store bookstore lately, then you’ve probably noticed the mass emergence of “postmodern literature.” Simply put, this involves the use of big words, without context, to wow the simple-minded and smugly reassure the nuevo elite trash. Much is said, nothing is communicated. Perfect for the Twitter Age.

Here’s a Website that showcases computer-generated literary gobbledegook.

2. Consensuses of defining characteristic

The main theme of von Ludwig’s[2] essay on socialist
realism is the dialectic, and eventually the absurdity, of postcapitalist
class. In a sense, Sontag promotes the use of Debordist situation to modify and
challenge language. Many theories concerning a self-fulfilling totality may be
revealed.

“Class is part of the futility of consciousness,” says Lacan; however,
according to Cameron[3] , it is not so much class that is
part of the futility of consciousness, but rather the genre of class. It could
be said that Sontag’s analysis of socialist realism holds that the raison
d’etre of the writer is significant form, but only if art is distinct from
truth; if that is not the case, Debord’s model of cultural situationism is one
of “patriarchial narrative”, and thus responsible for elitist perceptions of
society. If presemioticist construction holds, we have to choose between
Debordist image and capitalist objectivism.

It even adds footnotes. Use it to impress your boss. You’ll feel smarter, smugger instantly.

From TPC, Today: Suicide is Not the Answer to a Culture Gone Mad

14 Thursday Jun 2018

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This one really wraps up several pressing issues, particularly toward the end and in the notes I added:

The CDC reports strong growth in suicide rates nationwide over the past generation. These rates are up 30% in half the states. Self-inflicted demise is now the tenth leading cause of death in our country. This, at a time of supposed peace, prosperity, and economic growth. 54% of the recent suicides were by persons with no previously known mental disorder. No age, race, situation, or condition seems immune. Look through that report; odds are you’ll be staggered.

The venerable CDC suggests what can be done about the trend. I see good, bad, and incomplete in their advice. At a superficial level, they get it right about life stress being a major factor. Their solutions, some of them I think, are perhaps a little misplaced.

“Making sure government, public health, healthcare, employers, education, the media and community organizations are working together is important for preventing suicide.”
– CDC, Overview.

That certainly sounds fine and well. But, what if the government, the “public” health, and all those institutions are contributing to the problem? Contributing to all that stress, consternation, and perplexity. Then what?

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE AT TPC

TPC (1)

Falling Average Intelligence Will Have Consequences

13 Wednesday Jun 2018

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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.

Three takes on the same issue:

The Times: Dumb and dumber: why we’re getting less intelligent

The Week: Why IQ levels are falling

Daily Mail: Young people really ARE getting more stupid:

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:

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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.

Solutions? You tell me. My head hurts.

A Maryland Public Middle “School” Has a Problem

12 Tuesday Jun 2018

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Some are blaming this on MS-13:

Gang-related fights are now a near-daily occurrence at Wirt, where a small group of suspected MS-13 members at the overwhelmingly Hispanic school in Prince George’s County throw gang signs, sell drugs, draw gang graffiti and aggressively recruit students recently arrived from Central America, according to more than two dozen teachers, parents and students. Most of those interviewed asked not to be identified for fear of losing their jobs or being targeted by MS-13.

Although administrators deny Wirt has a gang problem, the situation inside the aging, overcrowded building has left some teachers so afraid that they refuse to be alone with their students. Many said they had repeatedly reported incidents involving suspected gang members to administrators, only to be ignored — claims supported by documents obtained by The Washington Post.

“Teachers feel threatened but aren’t backed up. Students feel threatened but aren’t protected,” one educator said. “The school is a ticking time bomb.”

The gang’s presence at Wirt comes at a time when the Trump administration has declared war on MS-13, and communities throughout the country are confronting a surge in MS-13-related violence.

Nearly a dozen parents told The Post that they were worried about gang activity at the school, which is 10 miles from the White House. Many said they were intent on transferring their kids. Several said they were scared their children would be killed.

The blame may be a little misplaced, methinks. I looked into this story.

The problem at William Wirt Middle “School” is not:

A culture decayed to the point of collapse;

Incompatible immigration (can’t really call it “policy” anymore);

MS-13;

Any other gang;

Gang violence;

The brewing race war;

Guns or the NRA (Young Hogg would have blocked the local dairy aisle if that was it);

Rapes, drugs, or fights;

The moldy, leaky building;

The 8% math proficiency rate;

The 20% reading proficiency (better than Detroit!);

The total failure of a “school” that should be closed;

The failure of a “school” system that spends close to 50% more per student than the national average;

The total failure of the police; and

Most certainly not the failings of any particular individual students (civilized behavior is, like education, so yesterday).

The real problem, which I have identified following hours of research, is:

THE NIKE CORTEZ.

Who, police and the military aside, needs such a dangerous assault shoe with hi-capacity laces and “bump” soles? This is not the footwear the Founders had in mind. No hunter wears them. You’re 285,000 times more likely to be killed in your own shoes than to use them to outrun a perp. Sweden made the Cortez illegal in 1979.

Ban them!

#ShoeControl! #NotAnimals #PublicSkoolz

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How many children? Nike.

*I wasn’t sure, am still not sure, if this one was education or 2A related. Maybe both. Is what it is.

Kim Kardashian Graduates

30 Wednesday May 2018

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From the reality of television to the reality of politics and law. This may represent a sea change as the curvaceous lady, formerly known for her … assets, lobbies for prison reform.

After months of back-channel talks between Kim Kardashian and Jared Kushner, the high priestess of reality television is coming to the White House. By late afternoon on Wednesday, Secret Service agents will wave Kardashian and her attorney through the southwest appointment gate to the West Wing, where they will meet Kushner to discuss prison reform before he walks with them to sit down with President Donald Trump, likely in the Oval Office, along with White House counsel. According to a person familiar with the meeting, Kardashian plans to ask Trump to pardon a woman serving a life sentence without parole for a first-time drug offense. (White House staffers have joked about who will get to accompany her to the West Wing, and what they should wear for the occasion. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.)

I’ve heretofore only understood Kardashian through the lens of trivial popular culture. The masses adored her for reasons which escaped me. Now, at last, I have good cause to celebrate her celebrity – she’s using it for a good and noble cause. Applause.

A life sentence for the first offense of a grandmother. For dope charges. I did not look into those charges, the case, or anything else associated with the matter. But I hope she gets the pardon. That’s because I have looked into the Constitution. You might recall that document which created (and supposedly limited) the federal leviathan. The creation part is indisputable. The limits part used to be debatable. Used to be. People all over the political spectrum love to discuss the Constitution. I recently witnessed a debate or sorts about Constitutional merits on Facebook (which I’ve come to detest) between two old friends, a liberal and a conservative. You’ve likely seen the same recently. It makes, I suppose, for good rhetorical sport. But little else.

I reviewed the old parchment again this morning and I still cannot find a single word about narcotics and criminal offenses. In fact, I only see three clearly delineated and named crimes: piracy, counterfeiting, and treason.

That point is, at this extremely late hour, moot. I used to professionally stand before the emissaries of Mordor and loudly proclaim the truth, such as that the federal government has no authority to prosecute drug offenders. In hindsight, it would have made a better comedy routine. But it’s still the truth.

The woman Kardashian champions should be pardoned and freed. As should all federal drug offenders. And most federal convicts, period. Given Kushner’s involvement and Trump’s affinity for the curvy ladies, I have high hopes for the grandmother. Not so much for the rest.

kim-kardashian-white-house

Suddenly serious. Vanity Fair.

Hey! You made it this far. As a reward, here’s a link to today’s cogent if speculative comments by Vox Day on what comes next: War Coming Soon. As he might say, you need not agree, nor even understand. If you do, however, then this issue may eclipse the Constitutional autopsy debates.

UPDATE: Of course the quislings at CNN say, ” She shouldn’t be here talking about prison reform.” On their planet maybe she shouldn’t; she certainly is not a swamp critter.

Twin Commentary on the Hyper-Sensitive Culture

17 Thursday May 2018

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PC “Right think” is a low-quality cover for no think. Joe Bob Briggs writes, today, for Taki’s Mag (a “wrong think,” thus, not politically correct, thus, actually correct publication) on the failure to grasp humor by the outraged, unintellectual masses.

He takes offense with the offended youth of today:

Satire is a machine gun on a swivel. You aim at a target, fire, move one foot to the right, fire, move again, aim and fire—you hit all the targets, without exception, and about one in ten targets will scream. When that happens, you hit that target twenty more times.

That’s how you identify the sacred cow, then exterminate the sacred cow.

The difference, in 2018, is that it’s not one in ten targets, it’s one in two. Everybody screams, like, all the time. Nobody ever says, “Oh, wow, you caught me, yeah, that’s pretty stupid.” And everybody assumes you have some kind of second agenda, usually political.

…

I stopped reading the Comments sections entirely, not because I couldn’t take the heat but because I often couldn’t even understand the context of the argument.

Unreasoned assumptions are bad enough; making an “ass out of u and me.” It’s much, much worse in an era and an area of rapidly declining intelligence. For instance, assuming (wow) that most could even read the above-selected Briggs’s quote, some might assume (again) that he’s promoting gun violence and nothing else.

He’s not communicating at the highest level but at one a good deal higher than the passing average. By strange coincidence, today’s Pearls Before Swine strip tackles the same subject from a slightly different, easier to comprehend angle:

Rat Swarmed by SJWs: (Click):

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Stephan Pastis, Pearls, 5/17/18.

Again, even here, a basic literacy is required, else the viewer merely sees three generic people and a rat holding a beer. But Pastis is saying the same thing as Briggs: mind your own business, brighten up, and lighten up!

The other day we lost the mighty Tom Wolfe. He made a mark offending the pretension, as Monica Showalter observes.

What a treasure he was. He wrote about the world as it is, telling our American story because he loved our American story. How sad that we don’t have him to write about the ongoing story of America. He wrote about the world as an outsider, and he examined the establishment as it needed to be examined, and naturally, that added up to making the left look stupid. There was no other way for a writer this honest, and we are the richer for it.

It’s true that I would love to step into Wolfe’s role, merely lacking the talent and those white suits…

I do hope all this offended someone.