Saturday Miscellany

First, thanks be to Maureen Dowd. Joe Biden has finally acknowledged his seventh grandchild, named Navy Roberts. Having been shamed by Maureen Dowd, Biden finally did right by the little girl. Now we know what it takes for Joe Biden to do the right thing-- bad press, especially in the New York Times.

Second, during a Senate committee hearing on extraterrestrial beings, the issue apparently arose, that if such beings exist, why have they not communicated with us. A burning issue, you will agree, one worthy of the United States Senate.

Louisiana Senator John Kennedy put the matter to rest:

In Washington, D.C., common sense is illegal. I swear to God and all the angels that’s true. You know, I remember when the kitchen table issues mattered more than pronouns, when boys weren’t allowed to compete in girls’ sports, when truth mattered a lot more than political correctness…. Maybe that’s why the aliens won’t talk to us.

Dare we mention, the cultural markers that Kennedy highlights are not only visible to aliens. They are visible to people around the world. Do you really think that nations observe the current madness of American culture and conclude that they need more liberal democracy? If you wonder why countries are not buying what we are selling, consider these points.

Third, on the Bud Light death watch. The marketing team thought it would be a good idea to promote the beer using trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The result, sales of the beer have declined by nearly 25%; they do not look like they are coming back. 

Now, the parent company Anheuser-Busch has been forced to lay off 2% of its workforce, around 400 executives. One hopes that the marketing executives who produced the debacle are on the list.

Fourth, said Dylan Mulvaney is now charging $40k to give lectures on women’s empowerment. As I just said, when the nations of the world look at this, do you think that they want to emulate America?

Fifth, when someone has achieved gargantuan success we often ask what his secret has been. When it comes to Elon Musk, one Esther Crawford, a woman who used to work for Musk, told us why Musk is so successful. He has a singular lack of empathy.

Obviously, all of the people who are out and about telling you to develop your capacity for empathy are leading you down the wrong path.

Sixth, one Elise Jordan, a woman who served in the George W. Bush White House, declared on national television that President Trump was being charged with “inciting an erection.” 

You can’t make it up.

Seventh, the country is in the best of hands. We are currently lacking in 32,000 pilots, mechanics and air traffic controllers. But, fear not, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is on the case. He wants the airlines to solve the problem by scheduling fewer flights.

Eighth, in a prior post I opined briefly on the fact that the decisions concerning the atomic bomb were made by American presidents, like Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. They were not made by J. Robert Oppenheimer.

I could not opine further on the matter, because I had not seen the movie. Happily for us all, Financial Times columnist Janan Ganesh emphasized the point in his Wednesday column:

The fact that J Robert Oppen­heimer agon­ised over his part in the cre­ation of the atomic bomb is not inter­est­ing. Was he meant to whistle to work? Harry Tru­man, to whom it fell to use the “gad­get”, is the more dra­matic fig­ure, pre­cisely because he made what might be the most his­tory-alter­ing exec­ut­ive decision since Pon­tius Pil­ate without much in the way of out­ward qualms.

Chris­topher Nolan’s biopic of Oppen­heimer gives the 33rd US pres­id­ent just one scene, in which he shambles around as a pro­vin­cial buf­foon who can’t say Naga­saki right. Apart from its over-reli­ance on dia­logue for expos­i­tion, and its naiv­ete about the chances of total Axis sur­render, this account of the father of Nato is the most jar­ring thing in a fine film whose three hours sel­dom drag.

Ninth, on the transgender front, recent studies have shown that those who have undergone surgical reconstruction, which has appallingly been labeled gender-affirming, are suffering from very high rates of  post-op pain, especially during intercourse, and bladder problems.  

The Daily Mail has the story:

A huge majority - 81 percent - of those who had surgery on their genitals in the past five years said they endured pain simply from moving around in the weeks and months after going under the knife.

Researchers from the University of Florida and Brooks Rehabilitation, a health non-profit, showed that more than half of trans surgery patients endured pain during sex, and nearly a third could not control their bladders.

Tenth, a sad coda from Canada, via Twitter:

Lois Cardinal, a First Nations transgender woman, has expressed severe disappointment with Canada's healthcare system for refusing his euthanasia request due to his persistent pain from a constructed vagina.

Have a wonderful weekend and don’t forget to subscribe to my Substack.