Ranger from the North

Going to work in the midst of a pandemic is "essential" for doctors, nurses, first responders, and even grocery store workers and delivery people. House Democrats don't think it's "essential" for a Congress in the middle of a national emergency and a three trillion dollar spending spree...

This is nothing less than an abdication of office in the face of a national emergency. If Congress needs to protect itself from the COVID-19 pandemic, they could have appropriated money to rent out a local five-star hotel for weeks on end, disinfected it, and then used it as a dorm for its members, complete with quarantine options if necessary. Meeting rooms could have been used for committee hearings or simple negotiations with all social distancing protocols observed. Capitol Hill has been closed to outsiders, so that isn't an issue, and Congress could have arranged for reserved buses to transport members back and forth between the hotel and the Capitol.

Instead, we have the Brave Sir Robin Congress, who deserted their posts when their country needs them on the job most. In contrast with all of the other Americans showing up to do their jobs to serve their communities, it's an utter disgrace, and the stain of their abdication deserves to follow this Congress and its leadership for years to come.

Sen. Ted Cruz is drafting legislation that would prevent movie studios from receiving Department of Defense assistance if those studios censor their films in China.

The Stopping Censorship, Restoring Integrity, Protecting Talkies Act would keep the Defense Department from participating with studios that censor movies for a Chinese audience.

There is a particular brand of rich white lady wellness pseudoscience that I've never fully understood, but obviously has such consistent appeal that it can sustain the Goop Labs of the world. It typically comes across as ineffectual and silly – the people who insist they can, for example, battle off all types of harmful diseases using expensive food products and supplements in lieu of typical "western medicine" solutions which contain, you know, actual medicine. Most of the time these tendencies are of the variety that are just amusing and relatively harmless, such as butt-chugging sunlight. But then enough of these ladies decide that vaccines contain autism and suddenly people are getting measles and mumps at Disneyland and the whole thing becomes a lot less funny and a lot more Darwin award in tone.

This brings us to Cristina Cuomo, whose magic virus cures – shared in a series of public blogposts – is a masterclass in pseudoscience and elitism. The wife of CNN's Chris Cuomo, who was making headlines this week by staging a dramatic emergence from COVID-19 isolation (after actually emerging several days earlier) and announcing his complete recovery, Cristina took up her fight against the virus with the use of 'food medicine' and Clorox bleach, among other therapies infrequently prescribed because they do not work.

The coming higher-ed crisis would, in an ideal world, take out the student-services bureaucracy—that dizzying edifice of associate vice chancellors for student engagement and assistant vice presidents for student development—starting with its most destructive component: the diversocrats. Their job is founded on a patently false proposition: that colleges are filled with racists and sexists who impede the advancement of females, blacks, and Hispanics. To the contrary, virtually every college today is trying to admit, hire, and promote as many females, blacks, and Hispanics as possible. Belonging to those identity categories confers a large advantage on the academic job market and in admissions. Nevertheless, the diversity bureaucracy spends its days devising new ways to promote the culture of victimhood, at the cost of millions of dollars in student loans and private tuition.

Here's a hint: If your cushy job conflicts with your "personal values," get another job. If you're not willing to give up your cushy job for your personal values, don't expect anyone else to give up anything for them either. You're just a selfish poser.