Bits and Pieces — September 23, 2021

BAD: Crazy Court Decision in Australia  A lot of weird stuff goes on in the land down under. Last week, I read that Australia’s highest court ruled that newspapers and television stations that post articles on Facebook can be sued for defamatory comments made by readers on such posts. Click here. While you’re at it, read what I had to say about the legal ramifications of defamation here.   WORSE: We Killed… Who?  After 13 American soldiers and dozens of civilians were killed in Kabul on August 29, the US launched a drone strike that, according to the Biden administration, targeted the terrorist responsible for their deaths. But turns out that the “terrorist” wasn’t a terrorist at all. It was Zemari Ahmadi, a worker for a US aid group. To make matters worse, the strike on Ahmadi’s car also killed 9 members of his family, including 7 children, who were in the car at the time. Click here.   PUZZLING: 2 Stories CNN Didn’t Cover 

1. Larry Elders, the conservative talk show host and Republican gubernatorial candidate (California), was attacked by about a dozen hecklers in Venice Beach. One of them, a White woman, yelled racial slurs at Elders (who is African-American) and then lobbed an egg at him. When a security guard stood in her way, she punched him.

Let me break this down. A White woman, on camera, wearing a gorilla mask, yells racist slurs at a Black man running for office. The incident was widely reported on Fox and other conservative media outlets, but barely mentioned elsewhere. Click here and here

2. A Google search will tell you that Ben Shapiro is, among other things, a political commentator whose views have been criticized by both the right and the left.

Shapiro vehemently denies being a White Supremacist, pointing out that he has actually received death threats from White Supremacist groups. But according to an internal document created by Google’s diversity training team for Google employees, he is part of the “White Supremacy Pyramid” responsible for fomenting racial hatred in the US. Click here to watch Shapiro’s response. Google denies that the document has anything to do with policy. But you have to wonder…   HOPEFUL: The Kids May Be Alright  The state of racial divide today is worse than at any time in memory. Identity politics and Critical Race Theory, its imbecile bastard child, have set Blacks against Whites and Whites against Blacks as a matter of principle. There are reasons that racial-based fear and animosity have seeped into our culture. But contrary to what some would have us believe, it is not natural. This little video of two five-year-old friends reminds us that racism – towards any and every race – is a product of nurture, not nature.  

 3 Bits About Korea: A Crash Course in the Difference Between Political and Economic Freedom and Central Control  

1.- In a recent issue of his blog, Bill Bonner wrote this:

Thank the long-suffering people of North Korea for their real-world/real-time test. The elite in North Korea has been telling them what to do for more than half a century… with predictable results – grinding poverty… and outright starvation.

And we are grateful. Otherwise, the theory – that the freer the society, the richer the people – would be just a theory… buttressed only by speculation, logic, and anecdotal evidence.

But the test on the Korean Peninsula was almost perfect. Same people. Same resources. Same climate. Same time (the test began in 1953). More or less the same starting position (the US had pulverized North Korea in the war; but so had it smashed up Japan and Germany).

The southerners chose freedom – moderated, as always, by government, social norms, and so forth.

The group in the North went for non-freedom… ruthlessly, sternly enforced by the Kim Il-Sung and then Kim Jong-Il communist governments.

The result? The South Korean economy is now nearly 100 times bigger than the economy of North Korea. The average South Korean has nearly 50 times more wealth.

He will live to an average age of 79, which is 11 years longer than the North Korean male (and a couple of years more than the average man in the US).

And to top it off, the free people of the South are between 1 and 3 inches taller than those in the North, thanks to getting enough to eat.

Conclusion: Freedom makes a big difference in the economic world.

2.- JS sent me this last week – an interview with Yeonmi Park, a North Korean defector. Click here for this firsthand account of the North Korean lifestyle. 3.- Book Recommendation: Long Road Home: Testimony of a North Korean Camp Survivor shares the remarkable story of Kim Yong, a former military official who spent six years in a gulag. Click here.   Unleash Your Inner Art Critic  Take a look at this list of Rembrandt’s greatest hits. The critics pick their faves. Mine’s “Herman Doomer.” What’s yours? Click here.   Well Said: 4 Worthy Thoughts  * “Over the years, I’ve learned that the first idea you have is irrelevant. It’s just a catalyst for you to get started. Then you figure out what’s wrong with it and you go through phases of denial, panic, regret. And then you finally have a better idea and the second idea is always the important one.” – Jessica Livingston * “Double down on your best relationship. It’s the investment with the highest return.” – James Clear * “If my hands are fully occupied in holding on to something, I can neither give nor receive.” – Dorothee Sölle * “The ability to forget a sorrow is childhood’s most enchanting feature.” – Phyllis McGinley