Saturday Miscellany

First, I had been wondering about this myself. How does it happen that the media, both left and right, have completely ignored the story of Mary Richardson Kennedy?

The first wife of Robert Kennedy, Jr. hanged herself in a barn in 2012. I covered the story on my blog, in posts dated May 18, 2012; May 23, 2012; July 1, 2012.

As it happened, the couple was embroiled in a divorce dispute, at a time when RFK, Jr. had taken up with someone named Cheryl Hines.

And he had been trying to destroy his wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy in order to allow his paramour to take her place. He was suing for custody of their children and had cut off all of her financial resources.

So, this mother of four hanged herself in the barn. 

You would think that this is newsworthy. Apparently, the mainstream media does not think so.

Second, regarding the durability of solar panels. That is, of a major source of renewable energy. Apparently, these panels are not indestructible.

Will Tanner explained it:

In yet another massive L for 'green' energy boondoggles, a massive swathe of solar panels in Damon, Texas were taken out by a hail storm And not only were the expensive panels rendered useless by the weather, but now they're leaking a toxic compound, cadmium telluride, into the water So not only do Texans get intermittent energy instead of constant energy, not only do they waste thousands of acres of land with solar farms, but now the pointless panels are leaking into the groundwater Nuclear energy and natural gas are the answer. They're cheap, clean, reliable, and won't be shattered by a bit of hail. The other "green" energy is an expensive boondoggle that destroys the natural environment

One would like to know what the chorus of self-important prigs who tout the supreme virtue of renewable energy have to say about that.

Third, the Biden administration has promised that, as part of its infrastructure spending program, it will build hundreds of thousands of electric charging stations across the country.

As of today, it has built a grand total of seven:

President Biden vowed to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations in the United States by 2030. But now, more than two years after Congress allocated $7.5 billion to help build out those stations, only 7 EV charging stations are operational.

Way to go, industrial policy.

Fourth, firebrand Candace Owens declared that she was willing to bet her entire professional reputation that the wife of French president Emmanuel Macron-- that would be Brigitte-- is really a man.

It was the ultimate dumbass wager, and it cost the increasingly flaky Owens her job at The Daily Wire.

Justice exists. The moral of the story is: don't bet on stupid!

Fifth, it’s the grid, stupid. The electrical grid, that is. Our wondrous modern life consumes more and more electricity. At the same time, the Biden administration is doing its best to reduce production of electricity.

The Wall Street Journal editorialized yesterday:

Projections for U.S. electricity demand growth over the next five years have doubled from a year ago. The major culprits: New artificial-intelligence data centers, federally subsidized manufacturing plants, and the government-driven electric-vehicle transition….

A new Micron chip factory in upstate New York is expected to require as much power by the 2040s as the states of New Hampshire and Vermont combined….

Data centers—like manufacturing plants—require reliable power around the clock year-round, which wind and solar don’t provide. Businesses can’t afford to wait for batteries to become cost-effective. Building transmission lines to connect distant renewables to the grid typically takes 10 to 12 years.

Because of these challenges, Obama Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz last week predicted that utilities will ultimately have to rely more on gas, coal and nuclear plants to support surging demand. “We’re not going to build 100 gigawatts of new renewables in a few years,” he said. No kidding.

Sixth, vive la France. The following, from the London Telegraph, reports on a study sponsored by the French version of the Republican Party. It exposes the horror surrounding of what is unfortunately called gender affirming care:

French Senators want to ban gender transition treatments for under-18s, after a report described sex reassignment in minors as potentially “one of the greatest ethical scandals in the history of medicine”.

The report, commissioned by the opposition centre-Right Les Republicains (LR) party, documents various practices by health professionals, which it claims are indoctrinated by a “trans-affirmative” ideology under the sway of experienced trans-activist associations.

The report, which cites a “tense scientific and medical debate”, accuses such associations of encouraging gender transition in minors via intense propaganda campaigns on social media.

Jacqueline Eustache-Brinio, an LR senator who led the working group behind the report, concluded that “fashion plays a big role” in the rise of gender reassignment treatments.

Seventh, meanwhile on the social contagion front, the Twitter account called, Two Genders One Truth offers this observation:

Reminder that in 2012, UKs gender clinic GIDS received 250 youth referrals, mostly boys. By 2021, that number exploded to 5,000. 2/3 were female, a 5330% increase, indicative of a social contagion. [1] [2] 382 children under the age of 6 were referred to GIDS in a 10 year span, 70 were preschoolers. [3] The closure of GIDS cannot come soon enough.

Eighth, on the anti-Semitism front, Joe Biden’s efforts to validate the lunacy coming from the radical left has ushered in a free-for-all against Jews.

Thursday night at Radio City Music Hall, Heidi Bachram reports, anti-Semites were unrestrained:

Last night in New York pro-Pals harassed attendees to a Biden fundraiser. One man stalked a young woman screaming: “F*cking murderous k*ke.” “F*cking die.” “Keep it moving b*tch.” These are antisemitic, misogynist thugs and they’ve had free rein for too long.

Ninth, writing on the American Greatness site, Victor Davis Hanson exposes the truth and the lies about Israel. As you understand, the new anti-Semitism involves a series of specious arguments about Israel and Hamas.

Hanson begins with the concept of occupation:

Prior to October 7, there were roughly two million Arab citizens of Israel but no Jewish citizens in Gaza. Gazans in 2006 voted in Hamas to rule them. It summarily executed its Palestinian Authority rivals. Hamas cancelled all future scheduled elections. It established a dictatorship and diverted hundreds of billions of dollars in international aid to build a vast underground labyrinth of military installations.

So Gaza has been occupied by Hamas, not Israel, for two decades.

As for the claim that the Israelis are targeting civilians, it is far from the truth:

Hamas began the war by deliberately targeting civilians. It massacred them on October 7 when it invaded Israel during a time of peace and holidays. It sent more than 7,000 rockets into Israeli cities for the sole purpose of killing noncombatants. It has no vocabulary for the collateral damage of Israeli civilians, since it believes any Jewish death under any circumstances is cause for celebration.

Supposedly serious people are whining that Israel is using disproportionate force. It’s another lie, invented to slander Jews:

We are told Israel wrongly uses disproportionate force to retaliate in Gaza. But it does so because no nation can win a war without disproportionate violence that hurts the enemy more than it is hurt by the enemy.

The U.S. incinerated German and Japanese cities with disproportionate force to end a war both Axis powers started. The American military in Iraq nearly leveled Fallujah and Mosul by disproportional force to root out Islamic gunmen hiding among innocents. Hamas has objections to disproportionate violence—but only when it is achieved by Israel and not Hamas.

As for the calls for a ceasefire, Hanson puts it into context:

 The so-called international community is demanding Israel agree to a “ceasefire.” But there was already a ceasefire prior to October 7. Hamas broke it by massacring 1,200 Jews and taking over 250 hostages.

Hamas violated that peace because it thought it could gain leverage over Israel by murdering Jews.

Hamas now demands another ceasefire because it thinks it is no longer able to murder more unarmed Jews. Instead, it now fears that Israel will destroy Hamas in the way Hamas sought but failed to destroy Israel.

Tenth, reputation matters. The New York Times explains one of the consequences of Harvard’s mealy-mouthed approach to anti-Semitism, not to mention its choice of a manifest incompetent and plagiarist as president:

At Harvard, undergraduate applications were down this year, even as many other elite schools hit record highs. The drop suggests that Harvard's year of turmoil may have dented its reputation and deterred some students from applying.

Eleventh, over at Vanderbilt University they decided to have a sit-in in favor of the Palestinian people. Officials dealt with correctly. They locked the students in to the administrative building, depriving them of food, water and bathroom facilities.

The Daily Mail has the story:

Other video shared to social media showed fellow protestors slamming on the windows of the building, chanting over and over again: 'Let them pee, let them eat.' 

Eventually, four students were arrested and suspended from the university, while a further 12 were only suspended, for their role in the protest, after everyone inside left voluntarily.  

'All of the protest participants who breached the building will be placed on interim suspension,' the university said. The suspension means they must leave campus and can't return pending a Student Affairs review process.

Three students were charged with misdemeanor assault because they pushed a community service officer and a staff member who offered to meet with them as they entered the building, the school said. 

A fourth student was charged with vandalism after breaking a window.

It’s a long way from Harvard, don’t you think?

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