McCain’s Da Man! Takes On Code Pink.

Just when you think you’re done with Senator John McCain because of his infuriating, RINO, “maverick” ways, he does something to redeem himself yet again. This time, he took on Code Pink “peaceful protesters” who disrupted a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

Ferguson Irony

Under ordinary circumstances, the mainstream media would be profuse with their mea culpas over this fiasco; but these are not ordinary times: [emphasis added to quotes]

One of the most frequently quoted and photographed Ferguson protesters was charged Saturday with setting fire to a Berkeley convenience store last week.

St. Louis County police arrested Joshua Williams, 19, of St. Louis, on Friday after several local media outlets and store surveillance captured images of him trying to set a pile of wood on fire outside the QuikTrip on North Hanley Road early Wednesday.

Williams confessed to setting fires at the store in a videotaped interview, according to court documents. …

The Spiral of Silence and the Enforcers of Right Think

In our last post, we learned that researchers have found that people tend to self-censor their speech, both in person and on social media, if they believe that their opinions are unpopular or in the minority. Researchers call this phenomenon the spiral of silence. The tendency to self-censor is one that others, particularly progressives, use to political advantage, when they seek to punish or destroy those with whom they disagree. Depending upon how politically incorrect their points of view are perceived to be by others, speakers quickly learn to self-censor their speech lest they find themselves singled out, investigated, and punished by the enforcers of right think. Let’s look at some recent examples of this type of punishment that goes far beyond ridicule or ostracism.

The “Spiral of Silence”: Self-Censorship and Political Correctness

Despite that it’s commonly believed that the Internet facilitates free speech, a new study indicates that on social media people tend to not speak out if they believe that their views are unpopular or if they perceive that they may be negatively criticized for expressing their heart-felt opinions. The authors explain that it’s long been known that people self-censor in face-to-face interactions:

A major insight into human behavior from pre-internet era studies of communication is the tendency of people not to speak up about policy issues in public—or among their family, friends, and work colleagues—when they believe their own point of view is not widely shared. This tendency is called the “spiral of silence.”

Some social media creators and supporters have hoped that social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter might produce different enough discussion venues that those with minority views might feel freer to express their opinions, thus broadening public discourse and adding new perspectives to everyday discussion of political issues.

Will Police Stand Up or Stand Down?

If we’ve learned anything from the civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, it’s this: When you need them, the police may not stand up to protect you or your property. If you own a home, you probably pay your property taxes. If you own a business, you probably pay your business taxes. If it’s required in your city, county, or state, you probably pay income taxes and other taxes as well. As a good citizen, you probably also pay your federal income taxes.

In return, the deal that you may believe exists between you and your various governments is that the taxes you pay will fund anything necessary to ensure a civil society, including the various police forces, which exist to ensure tranquility (to keep the peace), to enforce the law, and to protect life and property. In other words, to protect and serve. To ensure Law and Order.

Or, at least that’s what we all used to believe. 

Environmental Migrants and Fundamental Transformation

Nowadays, everything is political and everything is tainted with politics. Nothing much that happens these days is an accident or a coincidence.

A previous post explained how many fields of scientific study are being systematically corrupted by political correctness, which infects anthropology, paleontology, psychology, sociology, archaeology, history, meteorology and of course political science, among others. The issue of man-caused climate change is among the most obvious of examples where political correctness rears its ugly head. Why is this important to recognize?

Let’s speculate a little about how politically corrupted science can further efforts to “fundamentally transform” our free Republic.

Out of Africa? Political Correctness and Science

Regular readers may know that I’m wont to joke that we are all African-Americans, and so should be eligible for minority set-asides, scholarships and/or reparations (should they ever be awarded). My joke is based upon the prevailing hypothesis about the origin of modern Homo sapiens sapiens.  Personally, I’ve never accepted the Out of Africa model (aka single replacement), but it’s been the favored scientific “wisdom” for some time. The proposals of Milford H. Wolpoff, who advances the multiregional hypothesis, have always seemed to make more sense, but even that model envisions Africa as our ultimate homeland.