November 26, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Are journalists, as a group, the least intelligent of any profession? I think they may be, and the war between Israel and Gaza is bringing out the worst in them. Check out this exchange, in which a clueless reporter floats the theory that the ratio of terrorists to innocent hostages released under the recent agreement is evidence of Israeli racism: The first question that left me speechless (but only for
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November 26, 2023 — John Hinderaker
I have been in Paris for the last week, my first visit to this city. This is a fun time of the year to be in Europe, as the Europeans generally make a bigger deal out of Christmas than we do. Before we left, friends warned us against two things: pro-genocide demonstrators, and bedbugs. So far we have seen the same number of each: zero. Yesterday we visited one of
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November 25, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The Disney Company has fallen on hard times, with one movie after another bombing or, at a minimum, failing to live up to expectations. Disney’s troubles are widely blamed on its far-left corporate culture, which prioritizes pushing woke themes over entertaining the masses. But is that how Disney sees it? Yes, actually. A site called That Park Place has reviewed Disney’s most recent 10K filing with the Securities and Exchange
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November 25, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Hundreds of students rioted at Hillcrest High School in Queens on Monday, trying to assault a teacher who posted a photo on Facebook of herself with an “I Stand With Israel” sign: Hundreds of “radicalized” kids rampaged through the halls of a Queens high school this week for nearly two hours after they discovered a teacher had attended a pro-Israel rally — forcing the terrified educator to hide in a
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November 25, 2023 — John Hinderaker
I have been in Paris for the last week; hence my fewer than usual posts. What is the biggest news in France today? Derek Chauvin was stabbed by another inmate in a medium-security federal prison in Tucson. Prison employees administered life-saving first aid, and Chauvin is now hospitalized in serious condition but expected to survive. After he was convicted, Chauvin’s lawyer requested that he be isolated from other inmates, foreseeing
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November 24, 2023 — John Hinderaker
On October 7, Gaza murdered 31 Americans and is believed to have kidnapped 13 more, including a three-year-old child. Yesterday an initial exchange of hostages for prisoners was carried out. Ten Thais and one Filipino were let go, but no Americans were released: The U.S. does not know when the Americans held hostage would be released or all of their conditions, Mr. Biden said. We don’t know what their conditions
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November 24, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The Evangelical Lutheran Church In America, of which I was a member until recently, has become a left-wing political organization rather than a religious one. So what was the ELCA’s proclamation for Thanksgiving, a holiday that is intended to express gratitude to the Almighty? Yup, it’s a National Day of Mourning. No gratitude to God for bringing Europeans to begin new lives in the New World. On the contrary. (And,
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November 23, 2023 — John Hinderaker
For reasons that are hard to fathom, “mainstream” news outlets are nearly unanimously biased in favor of the genocidal maniacs of Hamas, and against the Israelis whose only goal is self-defense. Thus this rather snippy tweet yesterday by ABC News: I think that most reporters for outlets like ABC News are less well-informed than the average person. And they can’t understand why no one pays any attention to them.
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November 22, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Minnesota, the North Star State, has long had a state seal and flag that depict a pioneer and an Indian, along with other elements appropriate to the state and its history: The Minnesota flag is simply the seal on a plain background. The seal and flag have come under attack as “racist,” on the ground that the Indian is riding away, having been chased out by settlers. As Bill Walsh
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November 21, 2023 — John Hinderaker
An agreement between Israel and the government of Gaza for a partial hostage release apparently is about to be finalized. The details are not yet clear, but it looks something like this: Various reports of the deal have indicated that somewhere between 50 and 100 Israeli and foreign hostages would be released, in exchange for a five-day break in fighting and the release of somewhere between 150 and 300 Palestinian
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November 19, 2023 — John Hinderaker
That is the question posed by Henry Kopel in this long essay. Israel will win the war with Gaza, but what comes next? The Biden administration is already demanding that Israel not occupy Gaza. What then? Kopel writes (links in original): [M]uch like what faced the victorious World War II allies upon Nazi Germany’s surrender, there will remain the critically important job of expunging from Gaza’s institutions and society, Hamas’s
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November 19, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Commentary on the war between Gaza and Israel has descended to a level of epic cluelessness. As, for example, this headline in the Star Tribune: “Their families wiped out, grieving Palestinians in Gaza ask why.” Why? Because you started a war, dummies. Maybe this will teach you not to do it next time.
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November 18, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Electric vehicles have been around for 100 years or so. They lost out to gasoline powered cars because gasoline powered cars are better. Is that ever going to change? At the Telegraph, Michael Kelly draws an analogy to the Concorde: The man in the street has failed to embrace BEVs for the same reason he failed to embrace Concorde nearly 50 years ago: the extra cost – of order £10,000
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November 18, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Controversy has been swirling around Elon Musk and Twitter. Musk issued a tweet that was at best stupid and at worst anti-Semitic: You have said the actual truth — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2023 Musk’s tweet apparently was part of his running battle with the Anti-Defamation League, which you can read about here. A number of companies, including IBM and Apple, have suspended advertising on Twitter, and the Biden
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November 17, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The Jews are just a warm-up. Many people have made this observation, but this is a nice data point: earlier this year, Minnesota’s legislature enacted a statute that requires “Ethnic Studies” to be incorporated into every single class from kindergarten through 12th grade. Including math and biology. And Minnesota is not alone. The “Ethnic Studies” dodge started in California, but it is expanding across the country. And “Ethnic Studies” is
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November 17, 2023 — John Hinderaker
When I see hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating, rioting, carrying signs, organized and following some kind of leadership, I always wonder: who paid for this? In the case of the anti-Semitism that currently is sweeping across America, there seems to be a pretty simple answer. At the Free Press, Francesca Block answers the question: The pro-Palestinian protests over the last month, where tens of thousands in the U.S. have
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November 16, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Ferdinand Magellan was one of the world’s greatest explorers. He led the first expedition to sail around the world, although he didn’t finish the voyage, having been murdered by natives in what is now the Philippines. Magellan’s greatness as an explorer and navigator has been recognized in many ways. For example, he discovered the Strait of Magellan at the bottom of South America. And his expedition observed and recorded the
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