Hi everyone and welcome to another edition of Laura's Links.
We are now "enjoying" the last few days of the Summer of Stupid, as Mark so rightly calls it. But it's also the Summer of Sinister as anyone with a brain and two eyes can plainly see. Allegedly free and civilized citizens continue to be subjected (with glee) to over-the-top, tyrannical and arbitrary rules and laws because of the Chinese coronavirus (which is pretty much over and done with).
There are too many repulsive policies to list here and I have covered the damage at length in other columns so I thought I'd talk about something else that is brewing.
When I started watching videos from China over Christmas break – about mass fumigations, the 'person drops dead in street' video, etc. – I still felt that we were looking at a very bad flu. Everyone around me was shrieking about how it's not the same as the flu, it's different! Worse! Apocalypse! We are doomed! Then things started shutting down and I knew that, despite whatever actual health issues were at play, this virus and its "management" were quickly becoming political.
And the goal posts kept moving: two weeks to flatten the curve, save the public health systems, save granny you granny killer, school is deadly, children are silent killers, nothing normal till a vaccine, social bubbles, no fun, lock down, you're arrested, wear a mask forever, new normal, etc.
This is a man-made, or should I say China-made, catastrophe – and we are willing participants. China made us sick in the body and the mind. The "management" of this crisis has been so wrong and awful. The treatment of children is evil. Parents understand this and but are being overruled. It's becoming too obvious to ignore the child abuse and the general catastrophic mess.
Thus, we are now witnessing the dawn of the era of The Great Walkbackening. This is when government bureaucrats, health policy "experts", medical officials and policy pundits start walking back their previous positions on the greatness and efficacy of our homemade Chinese Communist lockdowns to cover their butts and save their jobs. Who might clean up the mess? I remain pessimistic on the mess and the possibility of a clean-up. You might say I'm mess-pess in general, but this is an interesting development and gives me moderate hope that the nutter left in America will go down the toilet in the elections: CNN's Don Lemon acutely and clearly sounding the alarm bell to Democrats.
In other news, over the past week, Mark kept up his usual incredible pace. In case you missed it, in his Monday Notebook, Mark took a sombre look at the American political landscape and gave us a brief update about the Mann case in After the Ball. There were also shows! New episodes of The Mark Steyn Show included On the Road to Oblivion, Parking Tickets as Policy, and the Song of the Week was a digest of Hits from the Headlines.
There's lots to cover, so now let's take a look at the past week; the good, the bad and the ugly.
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America:
Florida gets Loomered! Despite being banned by most (all?) social media platforms and internet-based fundraising platforms, "she prevailed".
Meanwhile the professional conservatives of Conservative Inc. at NRO feel that Jewish women in politics are viruses.
From the RNC convention: A warning about what is at stake in America.
Don't let the government into your home.
What the future of America looks like: "Liberals will have to choose between two alternatives: either they will submit to the Marxists, and help them bring democracy in America to an end. Or they will assemble a pro-democracy alliance with conservatives. There aren't any other choices."
NYC Mayor Bill deCrazio has no plan for the return of indoor dining. No biggie I guess because Hizzzoner doesn't have a plan for anything else in NYC except to destroy it. Completely. I suspect he will get re-elected by a large majority because this is the Democrats' idea of success.
How data get misused to scare and terrorize populations.
Houston police chief recruits officers from defunded police departments. This is the Alinsky 'never let a crisis go to waste', but in a good way.
Will Twitter go the way of the dodo bird? Hopefully.
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Israel and Jews:
Israeli air force pilot fulfills the dream of a fourteen-year old Holocaust victim.
A twelve-year old Jewish hero of WWII.
Three Jewish student government leaders at USC are forced out by leftist activists in just two months.
My Idiot People. As a general rule, the more Anglicized and hyphenated and female a Rabbi's name, the more leftist they are. For example, most of the time a guy named Rabbi Yitzchak Shlomo Moshe Goldberg will likely be more traditional and non-leftist. As a general rule Rabbi Karen Wafflecatfood MacDonald-Smith (pronouns they/xe) will be kookier. I guess you could call it Rosen's Rule of Rabbis.
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Formerly Great Britain:
The great backtracking begins. This time in earnest. For the children.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the UK....
And, nothing to see here.
The Great Walkbackening is in full force so that bureaucrats and health policy morons can start covering their butts because of things like this. More here.
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Down Under:
Madness in Australia: Recovering from brain surgery not considered sufficiently exceptional reason to return home instead of COVID quarantine.
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Europe:
Ain't the diversity of love grand? I find it very disturbing that the biggest stones in Europe are currently French. First Macron et les statues, et maintenant THIS. Strange times.
And check out this French interview about the myths, facts and hysteria surrounding the Chinese coronavirus numbers in France. Also, French men really do dress exquisitely and there is something moderately arousing about hearing them question the Holy Only Acceptable Coronavirus Narrative with you know, facts, while dressed so nicely! The French professor of Medicine is one Jean-François Toussaint and for real and not for joking, he is totally alpha here. Just FYI, and to remind you of the important things, the interviewer is very cute. Great hair! Great suit! You're welcome, ladies and gay readers.
Unfortunately, simultaneously, a lot of France is going up in flames.
Great link from Spain here, in which a physician completely schools a journalist about the Kung Flu.
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Kook Left:
This is fugly. Sue me.
Another one for my D'UH file.
Mandatory gulag in Pittsburgh!
Meet your child's life skills coach.
Oddly enough, I'm completely short on Human Grace stories this week, so if I missed one that you saw, feel free to drop a note in the comments to tell me about it, and I'll see you there.
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