Suppose that you were in the food service business, and suppose that you wanted to order those little packets of mayonnaise. Good luck getting them, at any price, these packets (which most of us take for granted) being just one of many items that have become scarce as a result of the Biden administration’s supply-chain crisis:
Maybe you’ve seen the pictures of queues of cargo ships strung out in the Pacific trying to get into American ports to unload their containers. You will hear the scene described as part of something called the global supply chain, but that intentionally understates what it actually is. What you’re looking at are America’s supply lines. At this point, we’re effectively an outpost totally dependent on a faraway headquarters for the things we need to live. Here’s what it looks like:
REPORTER: Why so many empty shelves? US ports are backed up.
REPORTER: Take a look at this. Cargo ships sitting in the sea waiting to pull into port. It’s causing major US retailers like Walmart, Home Depot and Costco to charter private cargo ships in a rush to fill shelves for the holiday season. On the roads, there’s a shortage of truck drivers
REPORTER: The White House says it’s addressing the issues fueled by COVID 19, a labor shortage and increased demand.
Suddenly, for the first time in generations, Americans are having trouble buying basic necessities, the things they need. A new poll by Rasmussen found that 62% of Americans said they have shortages in stores where they live. The things they can buy are suddenly much more expensive.
REPORTER: The Labor Department reporting Wednesday meats, poultry, fish and eggs increased a combined 10.5% since September 2020, but it’s not just food prices skyrocketing, the consumer price index shows overall prices are up 5.4% from a year ago. More pain at the pumps The national gas price rose a dollar since last year, AAA showing the average price per gallon, up from $2.18 in 2020 to $3.29 this year. The Social Security Administration says inflation is why nearly 70 million Americans receiving Social Security benefits will see a nearly six percent increase in payments next year, the highest increase in four decades.
There are no signs that fundamentally any of this is going to improve any time soon. In fact, on Wednesday, the administration acknowledged that you’re heating bills are likely to jump by more than 50% this winter. Those are the kind of things that people actually notice. It hurts when you get poorer and many people are getting poorer.
Salaryman Yoshida gets turned down by a woman at work and takes it hard – he promptly goes out and gets trashed in a local bar. On his way home, he finds Sayu, a runaway teenager sitting on the curb who offers to sleep with him in exchange for being allowed to stay at his apartment. Yoshida is revolted by the idea of taking advantage of Sayu and makes a counter-offer: she can stay at his pace, but she has to work. And no sex! Our hero is determined to get Sayu’s head screwed back on straight, but his problems are just beginning – his protégé at work seems awfully interested in him (and not in a professional way) and the woman who rejected him is having second thoughts. Higehiro is the manga version of a successful light novel series, and shows quite a bit of promise.
Komi Can’t Communicate, on the other hand, is up to its 15th volume, and our heroine is making slow but steady progress towards her goal of making 100 friends – no easy thing for a girl that can barely manage to hold a conversation with her closest friends and communicates with most people by writing on her notepad. Her icily standoffish classmate Kiyoko is running for class president – will supporting her get Komi another friend – or a bitter enemy? I am enjoying this series tremendously, because I remember very well what it was like to be socially awkward in high school, and also because the slowly developing Komi/Tadano relationship is just so darn cute. Highly recommended.
She may not be a Japanese schoolgirl, but Richard Sharpe’s lady Teresa is in more trouble than usual – the fierce Spanish partisan “La Aguja” (the Needle) is trapped inside the French-held fortress of Badajoz, the object of Wellington’s attention, with her daughter by Sharpe, and the prospect of being in a city stormed by the British Army isn’t a pleasant one, even for the armed and very dangerous Teresa. As if that weren’t bad enough, Lieutenant Sharpe’s gazette to Captain has been denied, and his old enemy Sergeant Hakeswill has shown up with the South Essex’ new colonel and a captain who’s bought Sharpe’s position as commander of the Light Company. Still, this is Richard Sharpe, and you know in the end that the South Essex’ Light Company will be, as it always was, Sharpe’s Company. This is one of the better books in the series by Bernard Cornwell, and full of juicy historical tidbits from the Napoleonic Wars.
Nearly 200 years ago, a resident of Fairfax County, Virginia, wrote a letter to introduce a teenage boy — his niece’s grandson, who wanted to attend West Point — to the Secretary of War:
Ravensworth Feb 7th 1824.
My dear Sir,
I cannot permit the young gentleman, who will hand you this letter, to make his intended application, without carrying with him, such testimony in his behalf, as a long & an intimate acquaintance both with himself and his family, justify me in giving. He is the son of Gen. Henry Lee, with whose history, you are, of course, acquainted; and who (whatever may have been the misfortune of his latter years) had certainly established, by his revolutionary services, a strong claim to the gratitude of his country. He is the son also of one of the finest women, the State of Virginia has ever produced. Possessed, in a very eminent degree, of all those qualities, which peculiarly belong to the female character of the South, she is rendered doubly interesting by her meritorious & successful exertions to support, in comfort, a large family, and to give to all her children excellent educations.
The young gentleman, who I have now the pleasure of introducing to you, as a candidate for West-point, is her youngest son. An intimate acquaintance, & a constant intercourse with him, almost from his infancy, authorize me to speak in the most unqualified terms of his amiable disposition, & his correct and gentlemanly habits. He is disposed to devote himself to the profession of arms. But his final determination on this subject, must, of course, depend on the result of his present application, and you will find him prepared to acquiesce in whatever decision, circumstances may require you to make in his case. Next, however, to promising him the commission, which he asks, the greatest favor you can do him will be to tell him promptly if you think the obstacles to his success are insurmountable. His own age (eighteen I believe) and the situation of his mother require that he should lose no time in selecting the employment to which his future life is to be devoted.
Accept my dear Sir the assurance of the very great respect with which
I am
Yo’ &c
W.H. Fitzhugh
Readers will excuse the excess commas typical of formal writing in that era, and note the address — Ravensworth, near Braddock Road in Springfield, Virginia, was the Fitzhugh family plantation. The estate was later inherited by the son of the boy for whom Fitzhugh wrote that letter of introduction — of course, it was Robert E. Lee.
Living as we do in an age of disrespect and ingratitude, when Americans permit the memory of our ancestors to be defamed and erased, I wonder how long it will be before the name “Ravensworth” will be obliterated, denounced as a painful reminder of slavery, etc.?
These little detours in history always fascinate me. The Secretary of War to whom Fitzhugh’s letter was directed was young John C. Calhoun, who in the administration of President James Monroe “proposed an elaborate program of national reforms to the infrastructure that he believed would speed economic modernization. His priority was an effective navy, including steam frigates.” We are not today disposed to think of Calhoun as a proponent of “modernization,” nor are Americans taught to respect Calhoun for his services to the nation as Secretary of War.
John C. Calhoun as Secretary of War, 1822
Our nation’s history has been obscured and distorted by academics whose purpose is not to educate young people, but rather to indoctrinate them with a radical ideology that serves narrow partisan interests. Under the influence of this ideology, Americans are taught to remember their past only to despise it, to look upon our ancestors with hateful contempt, so that practically every American of the 19th century is a villain.
There is today little appreciation of the tremendous challenges that faced the United States in its infancy, at a time when Britain, Spain and France still possessed extensive colonies in the Americas. The capacity to build the strength of the nation, so that it might maintain its independence in a dangerous world, was by no means certain. “Manifest Destiny” may appear, in retrospect, to have been inevitable, but the great westward expansion of the United States across the continent required extraordinary efforts by extraordinary men. Indeed, the addition of the Southwest — including California — to the United States was work in which young Robert E. Lee was destined to play a notable part, as an officer on the staff of Gen. Winfield Scott during the Mexican War.
We live, as I say, in an age of disrespect and ingratitude, where Americans disregard the obligations we owe to our forebears. Anyone who carefully reads that letter that Fitzhugh wrote will note how, in introducing young Robert E. Lee to the Secretary of War, he made mention of how Lee’s father (Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee) “had certainly established, by his revolutionary services, a strong claim to the gratitude of his country.” If the United States owed anyone a military education, Fitzhugh was saying, young Lee was at the head of the line.
Our history is now viewed as a source of grievance — e.g., an excuse for accusing Walmart workers of “white supremacy” — rather than as a s0urce of gratitude and national pride. The main cause of this is, of course, that academia is now controlled by partisan Democrats, who believe that teaching young people to hate their ancestors will help elect more Democrats. But there is no reason why intelligent Americans should let ourselves be bullied into cooperating with the academic elite’s pet political project. I’m long past the age where I have to worry that I might be expelled from school for talking back to teachers, and I don’t think such a consideration would have restrained me from speaking my mind even when I was a schoolboy. One of the benefits of a true knowledge of history is that we may be inspired by the example of our courageous ancestors. Stand tall and speak the truth. Deo Vindice.
You might think that hourly wage employees stocking shelves at Walmart would be the antithesis of “privilege,” racial or otherwise, but that just shows what an unenlightened racist you are:
Walmart Inc. has launched a critical race theory training program that denounces the United States as a “white supremacy system” and teaches white, hourly wage employees that they are guilty of “white supremacy thinking” and “internalized racial superiority.”
According to a cache of internal documents I have obtained from a whistleblower, Walmart launched the program in 2018 in partnership with the Racial Equity Institute, a Greensboro, North Carolina, consulting firm that has worked extensively with universities, government agencies, and private corporations. The program is based on the core principles of critical race theory, including “intersectionality,” “internalized racial oppression,” “internalized racial inferiority,” and “white anti-racist development.” Since the program’s launch, Walmart has trained more than 1,000 employees and made the program mandatory for executives and recommended for hourly wage workers in Walmart stores. When reached for comment, Walmart confirmed that the company has “engaged REI for a number of training sessions since 2018” and has “found these sessions to be thought provoking and constructive.”
The program begins with the claim that the United States is a “white supremacy system,” designed by white Europeans “for the purpose of assigning and maintaining white skin access to power and privilege.” American history is presented as a long sequence of oppressions, from the “construction of a ‘white race’” by colonists in 1680 to President Obama’s stimulus legislation in 2009, “another race neutral act that has disproportionately benefited white people.” . . .
As the company denounces “white supremacy culture”—with components including “objectivity,” “individualism,” and “hoarding”—its entire nine-member top executive leadership, except technology chief Suresh Kumar, is white, and its top six leaders made a combined $112 million in salary in 2019. Chief executive officer Doug McMillon, whom the whistleblower described as a “true believer” in critical race theory, hopes to export woke ideology to every Fortune 100 company through his role as chairman of the Business Roundtable.
The formula is clear: American executives, among the most successful people on the planet, can collect accolades and social status by promoting fashionable left-wing ideologies. Meantime, their hourly workers, making between $25,000 and $30,000 yearly, are asked to undergo dishonest and humiliating rituals to confront their “white privilege” and “white supremacy thinking.”
You can read the whole thing. To think that a company like Walmart, which began as a five-and-ten-cent store in Arkansas, should be promoting radical nonsense like this, just boggles my mind.
Police said a 25-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder after the attack at a church in Leigh-on-Sea.
They recovered a knife and are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident. A counter terrorism team will lead the investigation.
Nothing whatsoever can be learned about the identity of the stabber, or the motive for his deadly attack. Surely by now, police must know who this man is, and why he did what he did, yet it is remarkable — and rather suspicious, really — that the press has reported nothing about it.
One immediately suspects that this must be Islamic radicalism, but that is mere suspicion. The one thing we can almost certainly rule out is any sort of “right-wing extremist” motive, because the press would have been shouting that from the rooftops already, were it so. Probably by Saturday afternoon, or Sunday at the latest, we’ll have most of the details, and then we’re likely to get some huffy sermons against “Islamophobia.”
All we have now is suspicion and speculation, so until we get more, it’s best to reserve judgment. Stay tuned . . .
A 25-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murdering Amess on Friday is believed to be a British national with Somali heritage, official sources have told the PA news agency. . . .
The UK’s Counter Terrorism Command will lead the investigation into the murder, police said later Friday. “It will be for investigators to determine whether or not this is a terrorist incident. But as always, they will keep an open mind,” Ben-Julian Harrington, Chief Constable of Essex Police, told reporters.
The off-duty NYPD officer who allegedly shot her ex-girlfriend and killed the woman’s new lover may have snapped because she was clinging to hope that they’d get back together, a high-ranking police source told The Post Thursday. Officer Yvonne Wu, 31, had recently split with her ex, Jenny Li, 23, but was still spending the night on occasion at Li’s home in Brooklyn — and may have lost it when she saw her there with another woman, the source said.
“She was still staying there on and off. She was still staying there some nights. It’s not that strange, maybe she thought it could still work out,” the source said.
Wu, who works at the 72nd Precinct and lives on Staten Island, allegedly opened fire on Li and her 24-year-old new lover, Jamie Liang, at the home on 19th Avenue near 79th Street in Bensonhurst Wednesday night, according to police.
“When the cops get there, she says, ‘I shot them both. The gun’s inside,’ calm as can be,” the source said.
Liang was found with a bullet wound to the chest and was taken to Maimonides Medical Center, where she died. Li was in serious but stable condition on Thursday, police said.
Notice something about this story? Neither the word “lesbian” nor the word “gay” appears anywhere in it. This is standard practice when referring to homosexuals who commit crimes, whereas if a homosexual is the victim of a crime (e.g., Matthew Shepard), “gay” is in the headline. In this case, where one homosexual (allegedly) shoots two other homosexuals, they went with the former rule, I guess.
As if the headline “Killer Cop in Lesbian Love Triangle” wouldn’t sell more newspapers? See, that’s my real beef with this kind of political correctness — insofar as journalism is a business, the profit motive would suggest the word “lesbian” in the headline of a story like this, much the same way that the word “rape” should always be in the headline of a story about rape. A legalistic term like “sexual assault” doesn’t sell papers the way “rape” sells papers. One reason the news business is in such dire condition is that political correctness is the enemy of the kind of lurid scandal-sheet mentality portrayed in L.A. Confidential.
What America needs is journalists who think more like old-school reporters — wearing fedoras and wide lapels, smoking Chesterfields and driving a 1949 Packard — and less like college professors.
If you ever get a chance to use “Lesbian Love Triangle” in a headline, why would you pass up such an opportunity? Like you’re afraid of being sued or something? Let’s stipulate the possibility that one or more of the women involved here — including the deceased Jamie Liang — may have been bisexual, but the nature of this particular love triangle would justify the word “lesbian” as an adjective, if not as a noun.
Or that would be my defense, anyway, if it turned into a libel suit.
Speaking of libel suits, Ace thinks Joe Rogan may have a case against CNN for smearing him by claiming he took “horse dewormer” as treatment for COVID-19. And whether or not that were defamation, per se, I certainly hope Rogan will sue CNN over this, because discovery is a bitch. If Rogan can get clear the “motion-to-dismiss” hurdle, he might obtain some internal CNN memos about how they’ve been covering COVID-19. Anything bad that happens to CNN is good for journalism.
Anyway, the alleged lesbian cop — notice how I used the word “alleged” there? — has worse problems than being called names by a blogger. New York City has gone kind of soft on crime with De Blasio as mayor, but I’m pretty sure that murder is still a felony there. Maybe she’ll plead insanity, and her defense team can call me as an expert witness.
ATTORNEY: “Would you say my client is crazy?” McCAIN: “Definitely. She’s deranged, demented, berserk, bonkers, daft, wacky, zany, nutty as squirrel farts, a few fries short of a Happy Meal, and cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.” ATTORNEY: “And how does that apply to her shooting rampage?” McCAIN: “Like I always say, Crazy People Are Dangerous.”
