RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
March 15 to March 21, 2020 The gender identity movement has spread from elite bastions of higher learning such as Harvard and Wesleyan to the Walmart nearest you, Richard Bernstein writes for RealClearInvestigations. He reports that "preferred pronouns" have become virtually de rigueur with such remarkable velocity that much of the rest of the society hardly even noticed -- much less had an opportunity to debate the trend and weigh its merits: - Walmart employees are wearing gender pronoun buttons in the latest sign of the movement taking root in the United States, Canada, Britain, even non-English speaking countries like France.
- From the Associated Press and The New York Times to the American Psychological Association, the use of "they" in the singular is being endorsed to refer to individuals who may be transgender or just do not identify as either male or female.
- Store managers at Walmart or human resource personnel at IBM are probably not "woke" activists. The firms are simply responding to a demand that is difficult to resist, couched in the language of common courtesy, diversity, and tolerance.
- Yet the rapid acceptance of preferred pronouns blurs important issues ranging from the integrity of English syntax to freedom of expression to biological reality.
- Feminist Libby Emmons, movement critic: "The very act of stating your preferred pronoun is a capitulation to an ideology."
- Jen Manion, Amherst College professor, a movement supporter. "The singular 'they' and its many supporters have won, and it's here to stay."
Coronavirus Investigations: Top Articles Federal Vaccine Development Sites Ill-Suited to Fight Covid-19
Washington Post
During the last decade, the U.S. government has invested at least $670 million in four sprawling facilities that officials said could rapidly make vaccines and other lifesaving medicines if America were struck by an outbreak of infectious disease or a biological attack. But as the nation confronts the coronavirus pandemic, none of the sites — in Florida, Maryland, North Carolina and Texas — have developed or are close to delivering medicines to counter the outbreak. This article reports that when the projects were first proposed in response to the H1N1 virus, some medical and biodefense specialists warned about the expense and impracticality of rapidly producing such medicines at federally sponsored facilities. Today the unfeasibility continues as America faces a crisis of unknown dimensions with Covid-19. The promise of breakthrough medicines and treatments appears to rest with private companies. Greening Our Way to Infection With Reusable Tote Bags
City Journal
The coronavirus outbreak is giving new meaning to those "sustainable" shopping bags -- because the reusable tote bags can sustain corona and other viruses and spread them widely. John Tierney reports that researchers have been warning for years about the risks of these bags spreading deadly viral and bacterial diseases. But public officials have ignored their concerns, determined to eliminate single-use bags and other plastic products despite their obvious advantages in reducing the spread of pathogens. In New York State, a new law took effect this month banning single-use plastic bags in most retail businesses. And Democratic state legislators have been pushing a bill that would force coffee shops to accept consumers' reusable cups—a practice that Starbucks and other chains have wisely suspended to avoid spreading covid. More Coronavirus Investigations America Needed Coronavirus Tests. Government Failed., Wall Street Journal
Interactive: How Exponential Infection Works, Washington Post
Are U.S. Hospitals Ready for Corona? View Stark Maps, ProPublica
Iran, Italy Paying Price for Ties With Communist China, The Federalist
More Bio Labs to Fight Pathogens Risk More Outbreaks, New Yorker
Sens. Feinstein, Burr, 2 More Dumped Stock in Crisis, New York Times
Outbreak Exposes Failures to End Exotic Wildlife Sales, JustTheNews
Pandemic Panic Panacea: Indulgent Doomsday Digs, Guardian Other Noteworthy Articles and Series Harvard Chemist, 2 Others Face Charges Over China Work
Washington Post
The FBI has arrested Charles Lieber, the chair of Harvard University's chemistry department, accusing him of lying about his work for a Chinese university. Two others who worked in the Boston area have been charged with aiding China's efforts to steal scientific research. U.S. officials estimate that China's alleged thefts of trade secrets cost U.S. businesses tens of billions of dollars a year. In a separate article the New York Times reports that China is expelling journalists from the Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. TikTok Told Moderators: Suppress Posts by the Ugly and Poor
The Intercept
The makers of TikTok, the Chinese video-sharing app with hundreds of millions of users around the world, instructed moderators to suppress posts created by users deemed too ugly, poor, or disabled for the platform, according to internal documents obtained by The Intercept. Moderators were also told to censor political speech in TikTok livestreams; they punished with bans from the platform those who harmed "national honor" or broadcast streams about "state organs such as police.: The constraints are at odds with the app's corporate image - loudly echoed in glowing media coverage - as a global paragon of self-expression and anything-goes creativity. TikTok is working to achieve rapid growth in the mold of a Silicon Valley startup while simultaneously bringing down the heavy hand characteristic of its home country. Rep. Ilhan Omar Paid $586K to Her New Husband's Firm
Washington Post
A common expression of liberal bias is to frame questionable conduct by Democrats as a "Republicans pounce" attack. This article is a case in point. First it notes that after multiple denials of a relationship, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has married political consultant Timothy Mynett. It also reports that since 2018, Omar's campaign has paid about $586,000 to Mynett's company, E Street Group - 40 percent of total campaign expenses. Those payments are at the center of a pending complaint with the Federal Election Commission. But instead of just reporting these facts, the third paragraph works to diminish their importance by giving them a partisan flavor: "Folllowing Omar's marriage announcement, conservative critics raised concerns about payments by her campaign to E Street Group, which is run by Mynett." That looks less like journalism than spin. Hunter Biden's Foreign Visits Cost Taxpayers $200,000
Washington Free Beacon
While his father Joe Biden was vice president, Hunter Biden traveled with a Secret Service entourage to at least 10 different countries, including China, Qatar, and South Africa. As he zipped across the globe for his business deals, taxpayers paid $193,696 for his Secret Service entourage. He racked up 28 separate bills, all of which involved taxpayer payments to a "miscellaneous foreign contractor" or "miscellaneous foreign awardee." Many of the bills explicitly said the money paid for Secret Service accommodations, but others were scant on details. The Stabbing of Tessa Majors in Morningside Park
New York Magazine
Three African-American boys in their early teens went to New York's Morningside Park to rob people last December. When Tessa Majors, a white Barnard freshman, refused to hand over her phone, one of them stabbed and killed her. This long article details the crime, which became national news, and its aftermath largely through the lens of race - especially in what the reporter sees as the wake of Black Lives Matter movement and the Central Park Five case. The result is a fascinating piece that shows the tension between woke ideology and the reality of a horrific crime in one neighborhood dealing with rising crime. Think Cheating in Baseball Is Bad? Try Chess
New York Times
While the Houston Astros got all the attention for their high-tech sign-stealing schemes, far more extensive cheating occurs on the chessboard, this article says. Whether it's a secret buzzer planted in a shoe, a smartphone smuggled into the bathroom, a particular flavor of yogurt delivered at a key moment — or just online players using computerized chess programs — chess has perhaps more cheating than any other game in the world. As in baseball, an explosion in technology and data over the past 10 to 15 years has made the problem much harder to curb. While Major League Baseball has been widely criticized for leniency, chess players at live tournaments are now required to leave their phones behind and pass through metal detectors before entering the playing area. Some have even been asked to remove clothing and been searched. And some tournaments now put players behind one-way mirrors to limit visual communication. Inside Lucrative Marketplace of Mediocre Famous People
Marker
Would you like Leonardo di Caprio or the shaggier half of Insane Clown Posse record a personal shout-out video just for you? Leo would seem like a no-brainer, but he commands "Wolf of Wall Street" prices. On the other hand, less-buzzy B-listers offer budget-friendly brushes with quasi-greatness. These include '80s star Steve Guttenberg; Loretta Swit of "M*A*S*H"; the "take one for the team" Fyre Festival guy; ventriloquists; a plethora of "Real Housewives"; pro wrestlers; an Elizabeth Warren impersonator, and Santa Claus. They are just some in the stable of talent available from Cameo, a thriving, Chicago-based outfit spinning gold from has-beens, almost-beens and never-beens. For a price set by the less twinkly star —anywhere from $5 to $2,500 — you can buy video shout-outs, or "Cameos," running a couple of minutes and delivered via text or email. Too bad Red Buttons never lived to see this meal ticket. |
