David Strom:
Evil things happen because human beings have evil within them. Most people don't act on their darker impulses or learn as they grow up how to sublimate the wolves within their souls. But certain people, and certain cultures that don't teach people to become civilized, do awful things.
Civilized people don't excuse these acts. They don't provide "context." Context for violence is knowing that self-defense is involved, or some other mitigating circumstances. There is no context in which gangs of youth assault a couple and film themselves laughing at the harm they are doing.
And civilizations that employ law enforcement officers who blather on about context, equity, and other irrelevant concepts rather than cracking down--hard--on barbaric behavior are agents of evil, even if they believe they are doing good. No civilization can survive if it excuses evildoers who are undermining it.
Ed Morrissey:
Should Israel call off the war due to starvation in Gaza? Or should they defeat an enemy who started the war with mass atrocities, and who continues to insist that they will persist in attempting a genocide in Israel?
A few decades ago, Europe had a much different idea about how to deal with genocidal regimes that decided to start wars of annihilation. Back then, the free French and the Brits demanded nothing less than total victory and capitulation against the Nazis and Japan, and the complete destruction of their regimes and ideologies.
And:
If France and the UK recognize a Palestinian state in Gaza under Hamas control, then Israel will have no choice but to fully destroy it, just as France and Britain did to the Nazis and the US did with the bushido cult that controlled Imperial Japan. They cannot afford to wait while Hamas forms a recognized terror army and rebuilds for an even more devastating invasion of Israel than the one that took place on October 7.
If the Gazans want an end to war, they need to take care of business with Hamas themselves. They elected Hamas to rule Gaza, and they celebrated the start of the war of annihilation in October 2023. They have the same choice that Germany and Japan did in 1945: capitulate or face complete destruction. That is the only way to end genocidal regimes and remove any incentives for their rebirth.
John Hinderaker:
But, apart from the fact that the Left has once again shown itself to be humorless, there is something going on here. A few years ago, American Eagle was a woke company. Its ads endorsed “body positivity,” meaning that some of its models were obese. Others were not conventionally attractive in other ways. By historical standards this was an odd way to sell clothing, but it was in keeping, apparently, with the zeitgeist of the time. But those days are gone. “Woke” is dead. Advertisers are getting back to normal.
And that, no doubt, is what the Left hates.
More from David Strom
here.
John Hinderaker:
Today Judge Talwani converted her TRO into a preliminary injunction, evidently following a hearing. The Associated Press covered Talwani’s order dishonestly. The AP headlined: “Judge blocks Trump administration’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood.” But it wasn’t the “Trump administration’s efforts” that were at issue, it was a federal law, duly enacted by Congress. The AP tries to obscure the fact that a left-wing judge has gone to war, not against President Trump, but against Congress.
John Hinderaker:
I don’t understand why the Houthi terrorist group still exists. We and the UK have bombed them off and on over recent months. Whatever we have done obviously hasn’t been enough. They should share the fate of pirates through the centuries: we should kill them all.
Ed Morrissey:
Say, remember that time that Joe Biden decided to unilaterally amend the Constitution just because he felt like it? No, seriously. With just three days left in the Biden Regency, the outgoing (p)resident declared that the Equal Rights Amendment had become "the law of the land," because he believed it.
John Hinderaker:
This won’t come as a surprise to regular Power Line readers, but there is no such thing as cheap “green” energy. Remarkably, some liberals are still trying to sell that concept—wind and sunshine are free, so “green” must be cheap! Yeah, wind and sunshine are free, but wind turbines, solar panels, batteries and transmission lines are horrifically expensive. As is the backup reliable power that is always needed because wind and solar don’t work, most of the time.
David Strom:
Refugees are tearing European countries apart. Governments are raiding citizens--even throwing them in jail--for complaining about the problem. Muslims are marching in the streets calling for Sharia law, and crime is shooting through the roof.
The elite want more of this for some reason. I can understand why the transnational elite dislike the hoi polloi; what I cannot understand is importing a hostile population to replace them. Do they really believe that their countries can remain wealthy and relatively peaceful when they import the entire Middle East into their midst?
Even the hostility toward Israel is a reflection of this suicidal impulse. European leaders, with few exceptions, blame Israel for not going quietly into the night. It is their responsibility to sit there and take it as homicidal maniacs rape, murder, and terrorize their citizens.
I suppose you could applaud Europeans for practicing what they preach by offering themselves up for similar human sacrifice.
A better solution is to recognize the reality that some cultures are incompatible with our own. The Muslims recognize that--this is why they want to establish Sharia law in European countries and are agitating to make it happen.
John Hinderaker:
I think considerably stronger measures need to be taken. Democrats like to compare what is happening now, with their support, to the mostly peaceful demonstration on January 6, 2021. But what the Democrats are doing is orders of magnitude worse. The only person who was shot at on January 6 was Ashli Babbitt.
It is only a matter of time until federal officers are murdered, with the full-throated encouragement of the Democratic Party. What we are seeing bears more resemblance, I think, to 1861 than to 2021. The federal government should use its full powers to crush (and defund) the insurrection before it is too late, and violence spins out of control.
John Hinderaker:
The Times hopes that Democrats will “win future elections” because voters love high taxes and want illegal aliens to enjoy endless health care and other benefits. I guess we will have to see about that. But Democrats live in a parallel reality: the idea that children will starve and elderly adults will die because they “don’t have access to health care” is delusional. We should check back in a year or two and see whether Congresswoman Pettersen’s mother is still with us.
John Hinderaker:
We are about to celebrate Independence Day. July 4, 1776, was of course an important day. But I think a case can be made that the most important single day in American history was actually July 2, 1863. There were many heroes on that day—Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s 20th Maine regiment, which held Little Round Top against all odds, is justly revered—but the First Minnesota’s suicide charge will always rank at or near the top. So, as you celebrate the Fourth, please take a moment to remember the brave men who made the ultimate sacrifice to give our nation a new birth of freedom.
