Category Archives: Jordan Peterson

Growing up as a middle child in suburban Chicago, Drew Peterson was something of a sport contrarian. When his family rooted for the Cubs, he was in Yankee pinstripes. On Sundays, he was cheering the Chiefs rather than the hometown Bears.

And while his father and older brother considered Michael Jordan the greatest basketball player ever, Peterson preferred LeBron James.

That could simply be a generational bias at play, but its also revealing about the type of player Peterson always wanted to be, and has become as a member of USC mens basketball the past two seasons: A pass-first guard, despite his height at 6-foot-9.

Peterson was not a point guard who had a late growth spurt in high school. He was always taller than his classmates, towering over other kids while playing first base in Little League.

But because he was also so skinny and could not keep up with the physical battles in the post, his father, Mike, emphasized guard skills.

And that suited Peterson just fine.

He likes to make plays, his father said. As much as he likes to score, he likes to drive the ball and dish and make people happy. Its as much his personality as any training he had.

I always liked to pass the ball growing up, even as more of a three, Peterson added. So I always tried to develop my handle and just be able to prove that I can control the ball for more of the game.

Peterson spent his first two college years at Rice, where he displayed many of the same tendencies as a pass-first guard. But he struggled to control the ball against quicker defenders with lower centers of gravity, averaging a career-high 2.7 turnovers as a sophomore.

When he entered the transfer portal in the early months of the pandemic, he rushed into a commitment to Minnesota. But he backed out, wanting to further explore his options.

A scholarship had opened at USC in the meantime, and Peterson was attracted to the university and the basketball program.

Early after Peterson enrolled at USC, head coach Andy Enfield began to emphasize Petersons ability to spread the ball around and run the offense. In Petersons first year with the Trojans, he got some opportunities to back up the teams point guards.

But this season as a senior, Peterson has acted as the Trojans primary ball handler for long stretches of games. As he led 17th-ranked USC in every major category in last weeks win over UCLA, he was bringing the ball up the court on most possessions.

And as impressive as his scoring was that game with a career-high 27 points, Peterson still found opportunities for his teammates, like a perfect skip pass to Chevez Goodwin for an easy dunk.

We were able to flourish together, [Enfields] philosophy and how I play, Peterson said. I always had the confidence, I always wanted to play point guard. Now Im just trusted in big situations to be able to come off ball screens and be able to make plays for my teammates.

When: 4:30 p.m. Sunday

Where:Galen Center

TV/Radio:Fox Sports 1/AM 790

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USCs Drew Peterson and the development of a point forward - The Pasadena Star-News

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Jonathan Turley transcended his own meticulously cultivated clown status with an epic performance yesterday. In recent years, the George Washington University Law School professor embraced the role of national joke by contradicting his own scholarship and wildly misstating basic principles of law, all in service of getting one more sweet, sweet five-minute cable news hit.

Its a lot easier to get on TV when youre giving voice to utter nonsense people want to hear than when youre constrained by legal reality. But Turley upped the game like Michael Jordan playing through the flu yesterday. And, like Jordan, it was all avoidable with a vaccine.

Turley went on Fox News to talk about the Canadian truckers running an impromptu blockade of the nations capital because they dont want to get vaccinated. After days of letting the toddlers cry about it, the Canadian government invoked emergency powers to clear the streets.

Fox wanted to talk to a Canadian legal expert ABOOT the decision. So they brought on Turley?

Turleys credentials to opine on the Canadian legal landscape run no further than mine and mine are limited to the value of tag up offsides. Can Fox News not recruit at least one Canadian professor to prostrate their academic reputation at the altar of anti-vaccination nonsense? Isnt Jordan Peterson available? Eh?

Anyway, heres what Turley offered by way of cogent legal analysis:

Wow! Imagine if overzealous law enforcement had tried to crack down the Civil Rights movement or arrested Martin Luther King? Would we even have literary classics like Letter From Birmingham Day Spa?

Actually, that was a popular joke construction and social media quickly flooded with references to Birmingham Summer Camp or Birmingham Starbucks. Others just wondered if Turley thought the letter was written from the visiting room.

Martin Luther King Jr was arrested 29 times. Many of those times, he entered the situation anticipating an arrest, knowing that civil disobedience would be met with charges. Southern law enforcement engaged in a lot of abuses like arresting King for loitering when he would show up at a courthouse to monitor another injustice but other times the whole point was to take actions reasonably expected to end in arrests. News of the arrests was part of the strategy to wake up the rest of the country.

But Turley and Fox want their precious anti-vaxxers to enjoy the benefits of escalating protests to the point of technical illegality with none of the costs. Its like Diet Protest, to compare it to a substance thats certainly way more dangerous than the vaccines theyre complaining about.

While its easy to misspeak on television, Turley cant wipe away this error as an off-the-cuff mistake. The entire frame for his commentary involves drawing parallels to the civil rights movement. This bonkers analysis stems from his prepared remarks on the subject. His rhetorical strategy from jump is to tie anti-vax hosers to the iconography of anti-segregationism.

Or more specifically to the whitewashed iconography of Martin Luther King,TM the fictionalized construct of the civil rights leader based on a childrens book mythologizing where King led a march without incident and then delivered a couple cherry-picked lines about having a dream. This revisionist King is central to Foxs editorial mission as the ever-shifting signifier that they can whip out to brand quarterbacks kneeling as too extreme and truckers blockading all access to a national capital as heroic.

But dont mistake his willing contribution to this cynical agenda for some sort of intentional action on his part. Hes soaking up and spitting out talking points with little regard for their actual truth or falsity he just knows its what the bookers on these shows want to hear and hes more than happy to give it to them for another hit. Theres nothing calculated about Turleys latest public depantsing.

Hes just an idiot.

Joe Patriceis a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free toemail any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him onTwitterif youre interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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Remember When Martin Luther King Was Arrested? Because Jonathan Turley Sure Doesn't! - Above the Law

HEAVENIn a surprise reversal from long-standing policy,Jesus has decided to announce the date of his Second Coming, which will now occur right before Amazon is able to ruin Lord of the Rings.

"After seeing what Jeff Bezos's company is doing to Tolkien's work, the King of Kings decided to go ahead and just call it," said Spokesangel Gabriel. "He will come in August of this year, sparing mankind from the horrific tragedy of seeing Tolkien's life's work dismantled and destroyed on their TV screens. Seriously, Amazon? DWARF WOMENHAVE BEARDS! What are you thinking?"

Some sources reported Jesus moved up his second coming at the urging of Tolkein himself, who has not stopped bugging the Almighty about it since Amazon acquired the rights to the story.

"Fear not," said Gabriel. "You will all be spared the suffering and unbearable cringe of a timeless myth being turned into a soulless product by a woke corporation."

The Spokesangel went on to remind Christians that they only have a few months left on earth to watch Peter Jackson's trilogy a few more times and get Jordan Peterson baptized before time's up.

Hallelujah!

This woman - er, wymxn? - was pulled over for driving alone in the carpool lane. But she's got a surefire way to get out of the ticket: her preferred pronoun is they!

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Hallelujah: Jesus Announces Plan To Return Before Amazon Can Ruin Lord Of The Rings - The Babylon Bee

During his childhood, the French social historian Ivan Jablonka rarely saw his father cook. It was a traditional and sometimes unhappy family set-up. His father worked as a nuclear physics engineer and his mother taught literature at a secondary school. While his father would occasionally change Ivans nappies, as a husband he wouldnt share in the household chores. When he was upset, he sometimes turned violent and beat his son.

Speaking to me from his home study in Paris, Jablonka told me his father was orphaned by the Holocaust. His parents my grandparents were murdered during the Second World War, and as an orphan he embodied this figure of masculine vulnerability. This complicated Jablonkas childhood because he was both under the influence of a traditional male role model and aware of his fathers shortcomings. I could feel that as an orphan my father was weak he was fragile; he was weak.

After the publication in 2019 of Jablonkas book, Des hommes justes: Du patriarcat aux nouvelles masculinits, his father, who is now aged 82, visited him. My father came to me and said: You know, I think that I was a problem father. This expression was interesting, Jablonka told me. He meant not only a father who had personal problems, but also a father for whom masculinity itself was a problem. And I inherited this reflection.

With his silvery hair swept to the side and wearing black-rimmed glasses, Jablonka, 48, has the look of a tech entrepreneur rather than an academic. He graduated from Pariss prestigious cole normale suprieure and eventually became a professor at Universit Sorbonne Paris Nord, where his research topics have included gender violence, masculinity and the Holocaust.

In 2016 Jablonka won the prestigious Prix Mdicis for his book Latitia, ou La fin des hommes, which recounted the real-life murder of an 18-year-old woman. The book forced him to confront the question of what a just man was: could masculinity and justice be reconciled? Soon after, in Pariss bars and cafs, Jablonka began to write Des hommes justes, which became a surprise bestseller in France.

His work has now found a much wider audience: a lucid English translation by Nathan Bracher was published at the start of February, entitled A History of Masculinity: From Patriarchy to Gender Justice. Jablonkas study of masculinity, by which he means the cultures, institutions and norms that shape ideas of the male self, begins in the Palaeolithic period. He traces how the unequal division of labour kept women in the home, having and raising children, while men were free to hoard resources and pursue power. Over millennia, a patriarchal system that benefited the majority of men was established, bolstered by a masculine culture of domination through which women were subjected to sexual violence and sexist stereotypes.

In the second part of the book, Jablonka explains why traditional concepts of masculinity are outdated and harmful. He argues that the value societies place on traditional masculinity serves to undermine and control not only women but also men whose masculinity is deemed illegitimate. Jablonka calls on men to rid masculinity of its pathological tendencies: he points to sexual violence, discrimination in the workplace and sexist stereotypes as perversions of masculinity that need to be excised. To combat this, he proposes a new form of gender ethics that starts with sharing household chores and listening to what women say.

Jablonka does not want to abandon masculinity completely, but rather make it compatible with gender equality. He argues that men are suffering under the traditional conception of masculinity and must redefine it to keep up with a changing society. While the 20th century brought feminist progress, it was also a period of masculine decay. Deindustrialisation stripped men of their role as breadwinners. In many societies, suicide rates for men are several times higher than for women, and since the 1970s, this disparity has widened in the US, Japan and several European countries.

[see also: Why do students still want Jordan Peterson to tell them how to live?]

Today, masculinity is often portrayed as being in a state of crisis, with some men seeking to push back against what they see as an attack on the traditional standards of manliness. Personalities such as the controversial psychologist Jordan Peterson have attracted huge support from young men looking for answers about how to live and behave.

It seems to me that the lives of so many men are poor, are narrow, Jablonka told me. So many men are imprisoned in what I would call a gender prison, with the model of compulsory virility, the model of hyper-masculinity and what we should call a male alienation This male alienation can be summed up with social facts, such as the shrinking of psychological life, or addictions, or car accidents, or suicides, and so on. The result, as Jablonka argues in his book, is that some men are worried about no longer being dominant.

This fear breeds inertia. Jablonka believes that many men resist social change and act as their grandfathers did. The truth is that many men still live in what I would call the old world The risk is less of being an alpha male than of being an archaic man, shaped by patriarchy and completely overwhelmed by the march of society. Jablonka thinks that men, stuck in a bygone era, no longer embody modernity. Instead, women are the archetypes of freedom and equality.

Jablonkas solution is to task men with stripping masculinity of its misogyny. He argues that there are a thousand ways of being a man, and that enabling men to express their gender in multiple ways can help build a culture that supports gender equality. If a man wants to drive a fast car or a motorcycle, or eat meat, or have a knife in his pocket to cut wood in the woods, well, I dont care A man can be the man he wants provided that [his form of] masculinity doesnt rhyme with misogyny or homophobia.

He takes comfort in the example set by a younger generation more open to different expressions of gender and sexuality, which he thinks partly demonstrates a distrust of patriarchy. He cited the Korean band BTS as an example of young people challenging traditional conceptions of masculinity. I can feel that its a real issue for young people and something they feel they must reflect upon. I can feel that there is something new in the air and it makes me more optimistic.

Whether masculinity can become compatible with social progress is a personal question for Jablonka. He has three daughters, aged eight, 13 and 17. For me, equality is no longer a theoretical word, he said. As a father of three daughters, equality became a daily struggle and a very concrete challenge. So, I wrote the book for mens use, but also for the sake of my own daughters I would like to change the world for the sake of my daughters, because I would like a safer and happier world for us, but also for them.

Jablonka used this conviction to steel himself against some of the criticism his book received in France. On the right, people would sneer at the book in a condescending tone and say I had undertaken a kind of feminist act of contrition, Jablonka said, while on the left, people were upset that a straight, white man dares to take part in the debate.

But Jablonka rejects the notion that feminism is solely for women. Equality of the sexes very much concerns men, he writes in the book. The problem is not of sex, but of gender; it is not about biology but rather about culture. As such, everyone can fight against it: feminism is a political choice.

[see also: Whose freedom?]

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This article appears in the 16 Feb 2022 issue of the New Statesman, The Edge of War

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Men are trapped in a gender prison: Ivan Jablonka on the crisis of modern masculinity - The New Statesman

Conversations with Tyler

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Tyler Cowen is a man who leaves you at once in awe and perturbed. He is the Holbert L. Harris chair in the economics department at George Mason University, and the co-host of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution. But his intellectual interests are staggering in scope, enough almost to unsettle. He is a true polymath. He embodies the American work ethic. He goes through five or ten books a day. His Marginal Revolution blog is not for the faint of mind: up to five emails a day. Tyler pops into your inbox to show you a new study hes found (which words do men use more than women?), tips for getting better at watching films (get a mentor!) or news from Norwegian sex resorts. He recently confessed that the only thing hes not really interested in is geology (still, he said hes fascinated by the role of the Massif Central in French history). You wonder how he has the time to eat, though he is also an acclaimed food author who has written dining guides and runs his own ethnic dining blog.

His views? He has described himself as a state-capacity libertarian hes incredibly pro-growth, favourable towards immigration, and a supporter of same-sex marriage, as well as a fan of state-led megaprojects. It sounds slightly esoteric, but state-capacity libertarianism is the ideology that could have reigned supreme in the UK had Dominic Cummingss stay in Downing Street been longer.

How does one man have all this intellectual energy? Perhaps its the lack of booze. He says hes with the Mormons on alcohol, and thinks it would be better if we all just didnt drink: wed be a smarter species for it. His podcast Conversations with Tyler is certainly not one to be listened to hungover. Unlike the gentle meanderings of other intellectual discussion shows such as In Our Time, this podcast is a one-hour-long bracing interrogation of some of the worlds smartest people by one very smart man. Miss ten seconds to a daydream, and youve fallen behind.

The format is very idiosyncratic Cowen stresses that these are the conversations that he wants to have with his interlocutors, not the one that he thinks we want to hear. There are no formalities: in the last episode, with the financial historian Sebastian Mallaby, he kicked off the show with do the observed high returns to venture capital funds constitute a counterexample to the theory of efficient markets?: obviously a question we all ask the cosmos regularly.

Given the amount of information it offers, Conversations with Tyler initially struck me as the kind of podcast I wanted to extract intelligence from: to fast-forward to the end with the knowledge in my head without a real care for the journey. But over time, I have come to adore Cowens style of questioning and his gloriously unconstrained relationship with his guests.

Take the episode with the author and sometime Spectator contributor Andrew Sullivan. Cowen had been asking Sullivan about his HIV diagnosis and the gay community: the opening to the show was sensitive and contemplative. Sullivan said that he found himself more candid with his gay friends, more rude, at ease in a way that he isnt with straight people. Ever the utilitarian, Cowen responded as we all would taking a hetero person such as myself, if I want more of this element at the margin that you have with your gay friends, whats the needed input to produce that? It is this a wickedly precise question in a frankly hilarious lexicon that makes the show so compelling. Cowen is a master of positing a scenario: instinctively conservative, he asks: If you took the 200 most woke people in San Francisco and gave them more influence all over the world, doesnt that make for a better world? Its a way of asking a critical question that sidesteps tribalism.

Many of the episodes border on the impenetrable. I have not found myself gravitating towards Pierpaolo Barbieri on Latin American FinTech. But scroll down the list and there is a quite fantastic range of guests: Garry Kasparov, Peter Thiel, Jordan Peterson, Margaret Atwood, Slavoj Zizek and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

While some may listen to it with their stock portfolios interests in mind, I have ended up getting surprising life advice from surprising sources, such as General Stanley McChrystal (if you go looking for trauma long enough, youll find it). Particularly brilliant was the artist David Salle on how to develop taste: go to a flea market, buy the cheapest vase, and eventually as its sat there in your kitchen youll make distinctions and realise what you dont like about it.

In an age where the judgment of an imagined audience is ever present, Tyler Cowens lovable lack of care for the listener is refreshing. This podcast is simply about listening to a very clever man ask interesting people some tricky questions in unorthodox ways. Its just nice to eavesdrop.

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Glorious and bracing interrogation of the world's smartest people: Conversations with Tyler reviewed - Spectator.co.uk

A powerful faction of Canadas ruling elite, including the official opposition Conservatives, much of the corporate media and sections of big business, have incited and promoted the far-right Freedom Convoy, which has been besieging parliament and downtown Ottawa for the past 22 days.

They have used the Convoy as a bludgeon to overcome widespread popular support for anti-COVID public health measures and to push politics in Canada far to the right.

A crucial element in this political conspiracy has been the promotion of the Convoy as a grassroots movement of truckers. Even after Convoy protesters ran amuck on the streets of Ottawa on the weekend of Jan. 29-30flouting COVID restrictions, intimidating workers, and waving Confederate flags and swastikasleading Conservatives, Sun Media and the National Post leapt to the Convoys defence. Interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen has hailed the Convoys participants as patriotic, peace-loving Canadians and repeatedly demanded that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meet with Convoy leaders and offer them an olive branch.

The Convoys leadershipas this article will documentis in fact comprised of notorious right-wing extremists and outright fascists. The most prominent Convoy organizers and representatives are drawn from a cesspool of far-right, anti-Muslim, Christian fundamentalist, Alberta and western separatist, and libertarian groups. Many were previously active in the far-right truckers group United We Roll or in the Yellow Vests (which, despite its name, shares next to nothing in common with the 2019 uprising of working people in France against social inequality and economic insecurity).

The claims that the Convoy is a movement of and for truckers are no less a fraud. Some 90 percent of Canadian truckers are fully vaccinated. In so far as the Convoy does involve truckers they are largely independent, owner-operator truckers, a generally better-off and distinct petty bourgeois social layer.

Earlier this week, the World Socialist Web Site documented how the Convoy has benefited from significant political, financial and logistical support from the American far right. The ex-president and coup-plotter-in-chief Donald Trump and his co-conspirators in the attempt to nullify the 2020 presidential election, such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz, have hailed the Convoy. Fox News has given it saturation coverage. Many of those now occupying Ottawa are active in the cross-border network of far-right organizations that provided the shock troops for the January 6, 2021, storming of the US Capitol. (See: Donor list leak exposes business and far-right forces sponsoring Canadas Freedom Convoy)

The Ottawa Police has warned that Americans constitute a significant portion of the core group of Ottawa occupiers, and that many of that core group could be heavily armed. Earlier this week, the RCMP seized a cache of weapons and body armour from a group of more than a dozen right-wing extremists participating in the now dispersed Freedom Convoy border blockade at Coutts, Alberta. Four have since been charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

James Bauder is the founder of the group Canada Unity, which initiated the Convoy. He also authored a document prominently displayed on Canada Unitys websitea so-called Memorandum of Understandingthat calls for the countrys democratically elected government to be overthrown via a putsch and replaced by an emergency 90-day junta regime.

Bauder, a far-right QAnon supporter, is also a member of United We Roll, a group of far-right truckers responsible for acts of violence and intimidation against locked-out oil refinery workers at Federated Co-operatives Ltd. in Regina in 2020. Earlier that same year, the group attacked Indigenous protesters who were opposed to a proposed gas pipeline, earning them praise from Conservative Party politician and former cabinet minister Peter McKay. On Facebook, Bauder has propagated the Wuhan lab leak conspiracy theory regarding the origins of the coronavirus.

Tamara Lich is a self-described spokesperson for the Convoy and organized its now defunct GoFundMe page. She is a former member of the far-right Wildrose Party in Alberta and served as the right-wing western separatist Maverick Partys secretary, until she stepped down earlier this month to focus on the Convoy. Lich previously was an organizer for Yellow Vests Canada, where she promoted conspiracy theories about the Muslim Brotherhood. In 2019, she had to propose a change in the name of the Yellow Vests group in Medicine Hat, Alberta, because it had been associated with repeated death threats against Prime Minister Trudeau.

Benjamin Dichter is a podcaster and truck driver who stood as a candidate for the Stephen Harper-led Conservatives in a Toronto riding in 2015. Immersed in far-right politics, he subsequently joined Maxime Berniers ultra-right Peoples Party of Canada (PPC), which models itself on European right-wing extremist parties like Germanys AfD and Marine Le Pens Ralliement national. Dichter gave a speech at the PPCs national convention in 2019 in which he decried the stench of political Islam in Canada. Like Lich, he describes himself as a spokesperson for the Convoy and was listed with her as a co-director of its GoFundMe page.

Pat King, another key Convoy organizer and Canada Unity leader, is prominent among those encamped outside Parliament. A far-right provocateur, he has gained notoriety for his racist comments online towards Jews, Muslims and Chinese people. King claims there is a plot for the depopulation of the Caucasian race. Asked in an interview late last year how COVID-19 measures could be ended, he responded, The only way that this is going to be solved is with bullets. He has claimed that the virus is a man-made bioweapon and the vaccine is a government surveillance mechanism.

Jason LaFace is listed on the Canada Unity website as another Convoy organizer. According to Global News, his Facebook page carries far-right images, including one that refers to Canadian politicians who are not born in Canada as traitors. In another, he poses in a hat with the initials of the Finnish neo-Nazi group the Soldiers of Odin.

Chris Barber, another organizer, is a Saskatchewan trucker who was fined $14,000 last year for violating provincial health measures. He was invited to appear on Fox News as the guest of far-right host Tucker Carlson. Barber, like Pat King, was photographed with Conservative MP Jeremy Patzer.

These Convoy leaders are drawn from a broader far-right and fascist milieu that has developed in Canada in recent years with the support of sections of the political establishment and state apparatus. Rebel Media, a prominent far-right website with an international audience, was founded by Ezra Levant, a onetime rising star in the Conservative Party. Since the middle of the last decade, and emboldened by Trumps election in 2016, white supremacist and fascist groups, such as La Meute in Quebec and the Proud Boys, have markedly increased their public profile.

Among the lesser known sitting politicians who have expressed support for the Convoy is Ontario MPP Randy Hillier, who sat in the legislature as part of the governing Progressive Conservatives for more than a decade prior to being removed from the party in 2019. He founded the group No More Lockdowns and plans to run for re-election to the provincial legislature this year under the banner of the far-right Ontario First Party. His daughter ran unsuccessfully as a PPC candidate in the last federal election. Hilliers No More Lockdowns group is supported by the fundamentalist preacher Henry Hildebrandt, who has appeared at the encampment in Ottawa. He has described public health measures as a harbinger of the End-times and has repeatedly flouted them.

While 63 percent of the donations to the Convoys GoFundMe page reportedly came from the United States, various Canadian businesses also provided significant financial support. In examining the figures, the investigative news outlet PressProgress noted the common thread was a consistent and vehement anti-socialism. Andrew Jakubow of Marine Tech Industries, a ship repair company, donated $5,000, telling PressProgress that life during the pandemic was akin to living under communist dictatorship. Leslie Buzzell, the CEO of ESI Rail, gave $5,000 to the Convoy and has expressed support for the Peoples Party. Describing most Conservatives as in Trudeaus pockets, he is now backing Pierre Poilievre, the most outspoken Convoy supporter on the Conservative frontbench, for the party leadership. His LinkedIn profile says the company employs 72 workers and boasts that revenue has doubled every year since its founding in 2010 through 2018.

Support for the Convoy has also come from the far-right academics Jordan Peterson, known for his self-help blather and virulent hostility to socialism and equality, and his associate Dr. Julie Ponesse, who was terminated from her teaching position for refusing to get vaccinated. In Ottawa, the occupation was addressed by Sandra Solomon, an anti-Muslim bigot, and the anti-Semitic holocaust denier Chris Sky (real name Saccoccia). Roger Hodkinson, a pathologist from Alberta who has disseminated COVID-related conspiracy theories on the website Rumble, where he refers to the disease as a hoax and akin to the flu, also spoke at the occupation in Ottawa.

Convoy leaders boast that they have received scientific advice about the pandemic from Dr. Paul Alexander, a former Trump administration official who, in the name of achieving herd immunity, argued people be actively encouraged to get COVID-19. According to a Feb. 10 CBC report, Alexander had been at the Ottawa Convoy occupation site for days, had appeared at Convoy press conferences and spoken to Convoy supporters alongside PPC leader Bernier.

Another key constituency of support for the Convoy consists of military veterans and former police officers.

Tom Mazzaro, a Convoy leader, is a software developer who spent decades as an officer in the military. He is a member of the group Police on Guard for Thee, which describes itself as a group of concerned retired and active duty peace officers looking to see the end of unconstitutional public health orders. As the most polished and media-savvy figure, Mazzaro has been front and centre during the groups choreographed press conferences.

Tom Quiggin, another Convoy organizer, is a former military intelligence officer and former employee at the Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies. He was also an adjunct lecturer at the Royal Military College. During a stint with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Quiggin was posted to the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET), a post-9/11 security panel that includes members of CSIS, Canadas principal domestic spy agency, the Canadian Border Services Agency, and various municipal police forces. An author, he has penned far-right screeds, combining Islamophobia with red-baiting. He has peddled conspiracy theories such as the Great Reset and has claimed the pandemic is a secret plot to bring about economic collapse. In 2019, he claimed that Islamist entryism is rotting away at our society like syphilis.

Daniel Bulford, another organizer, is a former RCMP officer who quit due to his refusal to get vaccinated last year. He is associated with the Mounties for Freedom group, which has called for the government to be unconstitutionally removed from office. In a news conference held by Convoy leaders, Bulford pointed to their close relationship with local police, the RCMP and the Parliamentary Protective Service. Addressing law enforcement officers directly, he said, Were doing this all for you as well.

Support for the Convoy is not restricted to former members of the military and police. Many commentators have noted that their logistical expertise suggests they have considerable support from members of the security forces. The military has admitted that six active duty soldiers are being investigated for their connections to the occupation. The Ottawa Citizen reported that two soldiers from the elite counterterrorism unit JTF2 are under investigation. The army also announced last Friday that they were investigating an officer in New Brunswick who in uniform denounced the government as traitors, vaccine mandates as genocide, and called on military and police to rise up in opposition to them.

The group Police on Guard, formed during the pandemic and composed of former and active police and military members, has endorsed the occupations and its members have taken part. These revelations indicate the role of the security establishment in incubating far-right forces, a trend the government has conspicuously done little to address despite the near attempt on the Prime Ministers life by a far-right army reservist less than two years ago.

One of the largest donations to the Convoys fundraising drive ($18,000) came from The Range Langley, which hosts an indoor shooting range. It describes itself as a proud supporter and employer of Canadian military and police. The range is managed by a former sergeant in the armed forces and carries a statement in support of the Convoy on its website.

This rogues gallery exposes the real social composition of the Convoy and its supporters. The claim that they represent workers is a transparent lie, designed to shield their reactionary efforts to scrap even the mildest restrictions on business during the pandemic and to shift politics in Canada far to the right.

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Would-be putschists and other leaders of Canada's far-right Freedom Convoy - WSWS

Diversity, inclusion and equity are destroying academia, the conservative author has warned

Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson has announced he is resigning as a tenured professor at the University of Toronto, citing concerns with academias shift towards Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity mandates, which he appreciates as DIE. The abbreviated term is one of reasons behind Petersons resignation, which he announced in a Wednesday piece for the National Post.

The appalling ideology of diversity, inclusion and equity is demolishing education and business, Peterson wrote.

The now-former professor said he loved his job and students, but voiced frustration that his qualified and supremely trained heterosexual white male graduate students face a negligible chance of being offered university research positions, despite stellar scientific dossiers.

Impossible-to-meet diversity and political correctness standards are affecting both students and fellow staff members. Peterson refers to himself as persona non grata in his field because of his unacceptable philosophical positions.

How can I accept prospective researchers and train them in good conscience knowing their employment prospects to be minimal? he wrote, later adding that his colleagues must craft DIE statements to get research grants today.

They all lie, he said of many modern professors, adding they teach their students to do the same.

They do it constantly, with various rationalizations and justifications, further corrupting what is already a stunningly corrupt enterprise, he added about many of his colleagues, blasting teachers for undergoing modern so-called anti-bias training.

Accrediting boards for Canadian graduate clinical psychology training programs will refuse accreditation programs unless they include a social justice orientation, according to Peterson.

All of you going along with the DIE activists, whatever your reasons: this is on you, he added. Cowering cravenly in pretence and silence. Teaching your students to dissimulate and lie. To get along. As the walls crumble.

In a lengthy thread later posted on Twitter, Peterson highlighted students and professors confirming his concerns about wokeism standards destroying academic standards.

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Jordan Peterson drops tenured professorship, blasts ...

Date handling is difficult at the best of times.

But sometimes developers must be reminded of some of the most simplest of facts when it comes to time formats, one of which is the fact that there is no such thing as 12pm.

Theres no such thing as 12am either. Those two times do not exist. If they exist within your applications, they must be removed.

The italicization am stands for anti-meridian. Thats the time before the sun is highest in the sky.

The italicization pm stands for post-meridian. Thats the time after the sun is at its highest point.

The sun is highest in the sky at 12 noon. 12 noon is neither post-meridian nor anti-meridian. At 12 noon, the sun is exactly on the meridian. The am or pm notation makes no sense.

The same goes for midnight. 12 midnight is the logical antithesis to 12 noon. It cannot be denoted as either 12am or 12pm, because neither notations make any logical sense at midnight.

Is this a pedantic argument? Simply an ostentatious word game? Ask my Mom who got this notification about her Walmart order:

The hours of 12 noon or 12 midnight should never be marked as am or pm.

What time do you think that Walmart order will arrive? Will the Clover Leaf Salmon be delivered on the witching hour? Or will Nestle Drumsticks to show up just in time for lunch?

One of Jordan Petersons 12 Rules for Life is to always be precise in your speech. I think thats a pretty good rule to apply to software development as well.

Be precise in the units of time you use. There is no such thing as 12am or 12pm. Only midnight and noon are acceptable.

Continued here:

There is no such thing as 12am. Remove it from your programs. - TheServerSide.com

Although Joe Rogan recently apologized for spreading misinformation on his Spotify podcast and said he never intended to purposely be inaccurate, fellow comedian John Oliver thinks hes missing the point.

Oliver, the star of the HBO series Last Week Tonight, pointed out that whether Rogan intentionally spread lies is beside the point if the information is not true to begin with.

People like Rogan will say they didnt intend to misinform, but if you did misinform people, your intention doesnt fundamentally matter that much since the consequence is the same, Oliver told HuffPost.

Oliver has spoken out against Rogans penchant for misinformation in the past, but he admits the issue may be endemic among podcasters and TV personalities.

I think there is also an issue regarding people on podcasts or TV just confidentially pontificating about something they havent really done the research on, Oliver said.

However, Oliver needed only two words to sum up his desire to do his own podcast on Spotify: Fuck no.

Would you like to talk with [Canadian professor and anti-trans activist] Jordan Peterson every month with a laptop next to you? No. Im good, actually.

Of course, Oliver is pretty busy preparing for the season premiere of Last Week Tonight on Feb. 20.

The rest is here:

John Oliver Needs Only 2 Words To Express Any Ambition To Join Joe Rogan On Spotify - HuffPost

At Curtis HS, University Place

Team scores 1, South Kitsap 166.5; 2, Graham-Kapowsin 158.5; 3, Union 132. Also: 5, Skyview 109; 6, Camas 89; 10, Battle Ground 51.

Local state qualifiers

113 1, Noah Koyama (Union); 120 1, Dylan Dalgord (Union); 4, Kyler Nelson (Skyview); 126 2, Spencer Needham (Union); 3, Jordin Jimenez (Union); 132 1, Owen Pritchard (Skyview); 3, William Gomez (Skyview); 138 2, Armando Nicacio (Union); 3, Devin Padilla (Camas). 145 1, Gunnar Henderson (Battle Ground); 2, Elijah Cassidy (Union); 152 3, Andrew Webber (Camas); 160 1, Jon Schoenlein (Skyview); 170 3, Noah Cardenas (Skyview); 182 4, Lorenzo Gunn (Skyview); 195 1, Elliot Scott (Camas); 4, Owen Wann (Battle Ground); 285 3, Ameer Shaeen (Camas).

3A REGION 2 MEET

At Eastside Catholic HS, Sammamish

Team scores 1, Kelso 208; 2, Mountain View 199.5; 3, Ingraham 190.5. Also: 4, Prairie 190; 7, Heritage 57; 15, Evergreen 24.5.

Local state qualifiers

106 1, Wesley Leeper (Kelso); 2, Preston Myren (Kelso); 3, James Stager (Prairie); 5, Alex Ovando (Prairie); 113 1, Ashton Ammons (Kelso); 2, Andy Santos (Mountain View); 3, Evan Sturdivant (Prairie); 120 2, Lucas Lyle (Prairie); 126 2, Justin Broxton (Kelso); 4, Nicholas Crousore (Prairie); 132 1, Ethan Freund (Kelso); 5, Kingston McPherson (Mountain View); 138 1, Jeffrey Chilson (Mountain View); 145 1, Nathan Wadleigh (Mountain View); 4, Felix Estrada (Evergreen); 152 1, Mason Frei (Prairie); 2, Quincy Lopez (Heritage); 160 1, Alex Ford (Prairie); 2, David Mirenta (Kelso); 170 CJ Hamblin (Mountain View); 4, Tyler Roggow (Kelso); 5, Josh Blick (Prairie); 182 1, Michael Hause (Kelso); 3, Caleb Blick (Prairie); 4, Jurell McDade (Mountain View); 195 3, Ayden Denbo (Mountain View); 4, Seth Blick (Prairie); 220 2, Austin Taylor (Mountain View); 3, Jose Garcia (Mountain View); 4, Austin Steinbach (Heritage); 5, Tate Steinbach (Heritage); 285 1, Brady Phillips (Kelso); 3, Quincy Preston (Mountain View); 4, Myles Greener (Prairie).

2A REGION 3 MEET

At Washougal HS

Team scores W.F. West 296, Washougal 149, Aberdeen 130.5, Columbia River 120

Championship matches

(Both advance to state)

106 Brody Davis (Wash) p. Wesley Leeper (A) 6:47; 120 Jesus Campos (Cen) d. Lucas Golphenee (Wash) 18-2; 126 Drew Lock (A) p. Mason Rickard (Wood) 5:32; 138 Tennyson Kurtz (CR) p. Cristo Parriott (WFW) 2:47; 145 Blake Ely (WFW) d. Adam Deeney (CR) 11-2; 160 Tucker Land (WFW) p. Gage Newman (CR) 3:14; 195 Cody Wheeler (Hoc) p. Liam Hiekkila (A) 5:36; 220 Henry Jones (Wash) d. Andrew Penland (WFW) 12-2

Third-place matches

(Both advance to state)

113 Caleb Davis (Wash) d. Michael Hatton (A) 5-3; 126 Jake McKee (Hoc) d. Tucker Alexander (Rid) 11-8; 132 Ethan Hsu (Hoc) p. Grady Lieziert (Wash) 2:20; 138 Ryan Langston (Wash) p. Drevon Cooper (Rid) 4:15; 145 Ty Foister (WFW) p. Blake Mattern (Wash) 1:19; 152 Caden Porter (CR) d. Eathan Labouff (BH) 18-0; 160 Hayden Sciera (WFW) p. Austin Wilson (Hoc) 3:33; 170 William Cooper (Wash) d. Tyler West (RAL) 7-5; 182 Christian Barragan (CR) d. Cota Stover (Rid) 5-2; 195 Logan Busig (Wood) p. Zander Escobar (MM) 1:45; 220 Sabastian Bustos (Cen) d. Sebastian Vasquez (MM) 4-2; 285 Aiden Aguero (T) p. Diego Carrion (CR) 1:49

1A REGION 1 MEET

At Hoquiam HS

Team scores 1, Blaine 187; 2, Eatonville 186.5; 3, Mount Baker 185.5; Also: 4, Castle Rock 184; 6, La Center 146; 17, Columbia-White Salmon 28; 19, Kings Way Christian 26; 20, Seton Catholic 25.

Originally posted here:

High school scoreboard, results of Feb. 12 - The Columbian