Collaborative Writing
How Chauvin’s conviction frustrates the radicals
“Guilty on all counts?” One can almost hear the more astute radicals saying in Minneapolis. “What good does Derek Chauvin do us in prison?” Even a lesser charge would have given them a license to riot. While the angry young mill about in the streets not quite sure where to place their anger, the Democratic leadership blathers on about “systemic racism,” indifferent to the fact that the left controls every system in America more influential than My Pillow.
Then too, the fact that a jury was quick to send a white police officer to prison, possibly for life, for the incidental death of a black career felon suggests that the “system” is not terribly supportive of its “racists.” As to the easily frightened right, including the more “responsible” conservative media, they exhausted their moral energy defending Dr. Seuss. A century ago, as today, fear drove much of the reporting on the Sacco-Vanzetti phenomenon.
Where Have You Gone, Atticus Finch?
In the archives of legal fiction, two characters best embody historic liberal self-perception. One is attorney Atticus Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird fame. The other is Juror #8 in the 1957 film, 12 Angry Men. Today, each is an endangered species.
Atticus was once the left’s role model. Now the mob is.
In his defense of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of rape in 1930s Alabama, Atticus ignored public opinion. He stared down the mobs intent on extra-legal justice and protected his ”mockingbird” as best he could. The unlikely mockingbird today is former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. As Chauvin learned quickly, if he did not know it beforehand, today’s vestigial liberals identify not with Atticus but with the mob.
The N.Y. Times imagines an ‘anti-violence’ Nation of Islam
As the NY Times acknowledged, even the absurd Southern Poverty Law Center has condemned the Nation for its “deeply racist, anti-Semitic and anti-gay rhetoric,” but apparently the editors thought a little nuance was in order.
To learn more about the Nation of Islam read Sucker Punch.
To help answer the question of Green’s motive in the April 2 attack, they dispatched a five-person squad of multi-ethnic reporters to find a specialist “in American Islam.” They came up with Michael Muhammad Knight, an assistant prof at the University of Central Florida.
“The Nation has a very strong anti-violence discourse that goes all the way back to the beginning,” Knight told the credulous reporters. “Consistently, if you look at the Nation, you don’t see the body count that white supremacist organizations have.” That’s it. Knight’s word is allowed to stand uncontested. The Nation doesn’t believe in violence; thus, Noah Green’s motive can remain officially “unclear.”
How Augusta National Mastered Cancel Culture
The letter ran just nine sentences and concluded threateningly, “We urge you to review your policies and practices in this regard, and open your membership to women now, so that this is not an issue when the tournament is staged next year.” Hootie Johnson decided to take the battle to the enemy. To Burk, he sent a short letter. To the news media, he sent a press release so forceful that it negated the news value of anything Burk might say in response.
“We will not be bullied, threatened, or intimidated,” Johnson wrote in the release. “We do not intend to become a trophy in their display case. There may well come a day when women will be invited to join our membership but that timetable will be ours and not at the point of a bayonet.” Would that Major League Baseball had a Hootie Johnson of its own!
For the larger story, read Scarlet Letters.
