Category Archives: Liberal

Those in the know can tell you that American politics skew to the right, a binary of two pro-capital parties that maintain a stark cultural contrast. Within that framework, one might believe there to be a tremendous amount of daylight between left and right.

Im here to tell you that in our political discourse, the dead-center is precisely that: dead. We students have a choice to either abandon or uphold the same inequity we study and critique in class.

A moment does not constitute a movement. After George Floyd was murdered, I posted a black square on my Instagram feed because I did not know what else to do. Some took responsibility for their complicity to anti-Blackness and some moved to condemn white supremacy and excommunicate the nonbelievers.

Politics, however, is not a soap opera only existing to reaffirm our humanity. It exists as a group problem-solving tool to address large-scale issues and requires persistence, cooperation, and focus.

Robin DiAngelo, former UW professor and author of the book White Fragility: Why Its So Hard for White People to Talk About Race, would have you believe that racism is a social phenomenon that can be eradicated through corporate anti-racism training seminars.

This for-profit model of combating racism best encapsulates the liberal dilemma: How can coastal elites maintain their footholds while appearing to act in societys best interests? By ignoring US imperialism and the global political economy of race and class.

Today we quarrel with cancel culture. This issue has been monetized as well. Liberals practice a religion they pay taxes, recycle their plastics, and vote for Democrats on Election Day. Then, from the heights of Twitter, they decide who is naughty or nice and who goes to heaven or hell.

There is no more room for disagreement just short-term payoffs and righteous indignation through and through. This form of performative liberalism fails to critique itself and cedes power to its supposed challenger the conservative movement.

Sorting people into the good bucket and the bad bucket will no sooner lead to big structural change than a reality TV show would. Neither will the technocratic modes of policy wonkery, entrusting the destiny of the public to the wiser, specialized elites.

A popular movement that evolves past performative politics will require the direct participation of ordinary people. If they are continually excluded from the decision-making process, the poor and working class will receive minimal representation.

Advances in productivity and technology offer not only smart phones, but also complacency. We spend our time scrolling, each of us living in our own personalized fantasy world. But we can and must evolve past the self-fulfilling cycles of liberal woke-scolding and condescension.

Prior to his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote one final book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community, that emphasizes this sentiment.

Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic, King said. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.

Reach contributing writer Thomas DuBeau at opinion@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @thomas_dubeau

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Evolving past performative politics on a liberal campus - Dailyuw

Peter Leitharts recent contribution to the failure-of-liberalism genre opens with an arresting claim: Liberalism is centrally an alternate, anti-catholic ecclesiology. This assertion strikes me as correct, although too cryptic. We need to be more precise: Liberalism functions as an ism insofar as its proponents insist upon its magisterial authority, asserting that liberal principlesand only liberal principlesoffer a full, perfect, and sufficient basis for the ordering of common life.

Leithart directs us to A Letter Concerning Toleration, where we find John Locke at his most extreme. The key conceptual move comes in his definition of our civic interests. They concern life, liberty, health, and indolency of body; and the possession of outward things, such as money, lands, houses, furniture, and the like.

The only spiritual value on Lockes list is liberty. The others bear upon bodily life and are matters of utility. Winnowing down the higher goods we seek to share with others (the anti-catholic ecclesiology, as Leithart puts it) to ever-greater libertyand only ever-greater libertymakes consent supreme. The reason is evident. If we deem liberty the only matter of spiritual concern in public affairs, then we will demand that every man be free to consent or not consent to any authority invested with societys power of coercion, limited only by the principle that his consent (or lack of consent) does not impede anyone elses liberty or compromise his utility.

Over time, this demand for free consent erodes political respect for natural authority. In our time, feminism, gay rights, and transgenderism insist that the male-female difference deserves no authority over our laws and social mores.

The same demand erodes the authority of history. Norms of citizenship and duties of communal membership flow from our recognition of the authority of particularity. We are children of our time and place, and in an analogous sense we owe filial duties to our cultural and historical inheritance, duties our consent ennobles but does not create.

And, as Leithart notes, the requirement of consent is antithetical to a Christian understanding of life under the lordship of Christ. Yes, we can only participate in his kingdom as his disciples insofar as we freely affirm him as our lord and savior. But the legitimacy of Christs authority flows from his divinity. It in no way rests on our consent.

Leithart says that Patrick Deneen and I are satisfied to blunt the revolutionary character of liberalism. In the tradition of Burke, Tocqueville, and others, we call for a renewed respect for non-liberal modes of lifefamily, community, nation, and church. I cannot speak for Deneen. But as far as my own efforts are concerned, Leithart is correct.

It requires only modest awareness of the human condition to see that we share powerful civic interests: the integrity of marriage, family patrimony, historical memory, and communal pride, to say nothing of truth and justice. I call these commitments strong gods, because they rouse men to sacrifice health, wealth, and even life. And I urge us to minister to their return that they might pinion liberalisms imperial ambitions and leaven our liberal age with loves and loyalties that give direction and purpose to our freedom.

Leithart regards my political theology as too accommodating to liberalism. By his reckoning, my approach fails to challenge the liberal ecclesiology and its claim to magisterial authority. He suggests that I instrumentalize the church, turning her into yet another mediating institution. But it is perfectly possible to both honor marriage vows as sacred and point out that staying married leads to better health and material happiness. Just so, affirming the civic benefits of the church does not undermine affirmations of her supernatural foundation.

In his First Apology, Justin Martyr addresses the pagan charge of atheism, which in the ancient context amounted to the claim that Christians did not respect the gods of the city, and were therefore disloyal and treasonous. He notes that Christian teaching inclines men to virtue, not quarrelsomeness. Christians are ready to sacrifice their material goods rather than fling themselves into greedy and grasping endeavors. They are prompt in the payment of taxes and respect the law. We are in fact of all men your best helpers and allies in securing good order.

Because Leithart and many others share with me a staunch opposition to liberalisms arrogance, I want to end with a warning: Let us not be so foolish as to become Lockes negative. Liberty will (and should) remain an enduring civic interest. We need a society that is at least liberal, but not merely liberal.

Most of my critics press in directions opposite to Leitharts charge that I do not challenge liberalism head-on. They imply (or say outright) that my call for strong gods leads to illiberalism. To answer this charge, I draw upon Tocqueville. He recognized that our liberal age tends toward dissolution, which paradoxically breeds conditions of modern tyranny, not plenary freedom. We need the ballast of non-liberal loyaltiesstrong gods. And if I may rephrase Justin Martyr, those who minister to their return are in fact of all men the best helpers and allies of those who seek to preserve the modern culture of freedom.

R. R. Reno is editor of First Things.

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Leavening Liberalism | RR Reno - First Things

Its hard to keep track of the atrocities that play out on social media on a daily basis, but the events of Thursday, May 13, were particularly egregious.

At around 10.30-11 am, a livestream began on a YouTube channel called Liberal Doge, which has 87,000 subscribers. The owner of the channel posted photographs of Pakistani women, saved without permission from their social media accounts. The channels audience then rated the women, auctioned them off to each other, and posted sexually charged comments on their looks and clothes.

The women in the pictures had dressed up on the occasion of Eid. All the commentary directed towards them was misogynistic and Islamophobic in equal measure. This included comments like Aaj apni tharak aankho se ladkiyan tadenge alongside links to the channels Patreon, Paypal, Discord, Twitter and Telegram accounts.

When other Twitter users realised what was happening and posted about it, the livestream was made private.

Liberal Doge then posted on their Twitter handle:

By that evening, thanks to the outpouring of anger against the livestream, Liberal Doges Twitter handle was removed, while the video was taken down on YouTube.

Unsurprisingly, the handle also received plenty of support, with people tweeting the hashtag #IAmWithLiberalDoge.

But who is Liberal Doge?

In real life, hes Ritesh Jha, a 23-year-old resident of DLF Phase 2 in Gurugram.

Jha runs several social media accounts under the names Liberal Doge as well as Secular Doge, whose YouTube channel has 96,000 subscribers. The central character in his YouTube videos is a caricature called Maulana, represented by a dog wearing a skullcap. His videos have a common theme: vilification of Muslims, dog-whistling, and hate speech.

We confirmed that Jha is both Liberal Doge and Secular Doge using open source intelligence data reports, verified through Jhas contact number. This also gave us his email address which was linked to his Gravator profile. Jha had also handed out his UPI id seculardoge@UPI during his Liberal Doge livestream, which helped us cross-check his name.

Jhas antics extend beyond Twitter and YouTube. His Telegram channel has multiple posts slandering Muslims. One post, for instance, celebrates the viral video from March of a Muslim boy being beaten for drinking water at a temple in Ghaziabad. Another post, with a video of a girl being sexually harassed, carried the text that her Muslim father raped her.

On Telegram, Jha also runs a group called Secular Doge IT Cell, which predominantly spreads pornographic content. Currently, though, the group is busy planning their support for Jha.

They have entertained us a lot, a post from a supporter read. Its our payback time. Help them as much as you can. Tag the big rightwing handles and urge for the support. At least do this for them. Share it everywhere. Members were urged to use the hashtag #IAmWithLiberalDoge while tweeting in support.

Some of the tweets they came up with for this campaign included:

Then theres Jhas Discord group, which is named Secular Doge ft. Liberal. Again, Islamophobia is rampant a poster for Eid with a man demolishing a mosque in the background, multiple threads mocking Muslims using abusive language.

This is just a sample of Jhas content. His deep-rooted loathing for Muslims shines through across social platforms.

But Jha has been called out for his content before. Last May, a cyber complaint was filed against him for spreading hate and abuse on social media. No action was taken, however.

The person who filed the complaint told Newslaundry, on the condition of anonymity, that he had come across Jhas posts on Facebook. The person had objected on Facebook about the abuse directed towards Muslims, and soon after received a message from Jha on the platform.

He asked me why, as a Hindu, I support Muslims, instead I should hate them, the complainant said. I didn't get into a verbal spat with him. So, he started talking nicely and said his job is to brainwash secular people. After sometime, he told me that if I know any Muslim girls, hell arrange a room for me at my workplace. He said, You can get the Muslim girls, we can rape them together and will make MMS. He said I should promote Hindu dharma.

The complainant took screenshots of the conversation and filed a complaint with the cyber cell division of the Ghaziabad police. He also spoke to an officer at the Indirapuram police station, but there was no progress in the case since.

The complainant also emailed Swati Maliwal, the chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women, with details and screenshots of what Jha had said, but received no response.

Newslaundry tried contacting Jha several times for this story but could not reach him.

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Ritesh Jha aka Liberal Doge: The man behind the livestream spewing hate against Pakistani women - Newslaundry

In the popular imagination, Islams Sufi strand is viewed as being apolitical. Characterised by its virtuousness and asceticism, Sufism has been hailed for its pacifism and otherworldliness. But this impression has been punctured by two nascent political movements in the subcontinent, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan and the Indian Secular Front in West Bengal.

This notion of Sufism in the popular imagination isnt an accident. As Katherine Pratt Ewing noted in a volume titled Modern Sufis and the State, the strategy of pitting mysticism of Sufism against the austere severity of Salafism has been promoted by policymakers in the US and in many countries with large Muslim populations.

This was done in an effort to discourage the spread of Islamists who may be prone to violence, she notes.

In an essay in the same volume, Alex Philippon points out that since the beginning of War on Terror, Sufism, the Sufi shrines and Sufi saints in Pakistan have gradually become the symbols of the fight against creeping Talibanization, which is deemed to threaten the very fabric of the nation. The number of initiatives, often financed by the government, aimed at promoting Sufism have indeed proliferated.

But the viability of this strategy has been undermined by the upsurge of sectarian Sufi politics in South Asia.

In Pakistan, Sindh has been the crucible of Political Sufism. The idea of Political Sufism of Sindh has been, in many ways, at loggerheads with the idea of Islamic Pakistan. A Sufi Sindh and an Islamic Pakistan cannot co-exist, [just] as you cant put two swords in a scabbard, the prominent Sindhi politician named Ghulam Murtaza Syed had bluntly declared. If Pakistan continues, Sindh will die. If, therefore, Sindh is to live, Pakistan must die.

In 1972, Syed proposed the formation of an independent nation for the Sindhis called Sindhudesh. Sindhi nationalists designed their own version of Islam, which allowed them to argue for a separate Sindhi national identity based on what they claimed to be Sindhs unique experience with Sufism, writes Dutch scholar Oskar Verkaaik. Thus, Political Sufism posed a threat to the nation-building in Pakistan.

Philippon notes that since 9/11 created in a context in which Sufism has been idealised, the Barelvi group has been equated with tolerant and secular Islam. Barelvis, as the Oxford Dictionary of Islam explains, are often called Sunni Sufis because they emphasise personal devotion to Allah and the prophet Muhammad, adherence to Sharia, and Sufi practices such as veneration of saints.

The Barelvi tendency had been promoted by the Pakistan Peoples Party-led coalition government from 2008.

However, the Pakistan Sunni Tehreek, a Barelvi organisation, has been known for its strong support of Pakistans controversial blasphemy laws and for its hard-line support of the death penalty for those accused of committing blasphemy.

It was vocal in its support of Mumtaz Qadri, the bodyguard who murdered Punjab governor Salman Taseer in 2011 after Taseer called for reform of blasphemy laws.

In recent years, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, founded by Khadim Hussain Rizvi in 2015, has become the most virulent aspect of Political Sufism. The Pakistan government on April 14 decided to ban the radical Islamist party under the Terrorism Act after its supporters clashed with the law enforcement agencies, leaving seven persons dead and over 300 policemen injured.

Two days before, on April 12, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan had launched a country-wide protest following the arrest of its chief Saad Hussain Rizvi. He had been detained ahead of the April 20 deadline the Islamists had given to the Imran Khan government demanding the expulsion of the French Ambassador for the publication in the French satrical magazine Charlie Hebdo of caricatures of Prophet Muhammad.

The TLP became the fifth-largest vote-getter in the 2018 general election (and the third for the province of Punjab), Philippon noted. The recent acquittal of Asia Bibi, the Christian women accused of blasphemy in 2009 and imprisoned since, led in November 2018 to the TLP bringing the country to a standstill through massive nationwide demonstrations. The party called for mutiny within the army, threatened to kill the judges, and pushed for Bibi to be hanged.

Around the same time as the election, The EurAsian Times reported that that Khadim Hussain Rizvi of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik had said that if he managed to get hold of an atomic bomb, he would wipe Holland off the world map in response to Dutch politician Geert Wilders announcement that he was planning to hold a contest to draw caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

The phenomenon of Political Sufism is also present in India, as is evident from the formation in January of the Indian Secular Front floated by a Pirzada of the influential shrine at Furfura Sharif in West Bengal. In the Indian context, Abbas Siddique has been compelled to camouflage his partys identity as a secular moderate outfit. But his secular-liberal credentials are dubious.

As Snigdhendu Bhattacharya has written in the Outlook, ...Due to his speeches from religious events, Siddiqui,has earned the reputation of being a conservative and even a fundamentalist. Bhattacharya notes that Siddique has previously referred to Nusrat Jahan, the actor-turned-Trinamool MP, as one who earns showing her body and said that she should be tied up to a tree and beaten.

After the Delhi riots, he expressed the wish that Allah should send a deadly virus to India. After a schoolteacher was beheaded in France, Siddiqui said that those insulting the Prophet were illegitimate born and called for giving them proper treatment, Bhattacharya writes.

Of course, as Ewing has noted, the situations of Muslims in Pakistan and India are very different, and their political possibilities are in many respects incommensurable.

In India, Muslims are a vulnerable minority in a Hindu majoritarian environment. In Pakistan, debates on Sufi/Muslim politics have been intertwined with struggles to negotiate the type of Islamic state and society that Pakistan aspires to be.

Despite this, Sufi shrines like Furfura Sharif in Hooghly district in West Bengal where Abbas Siddique is Pirzanad, play remarkable roles in shaping political Sufism in both countries. These shrines are fiefdoms of specific families as chains of succession are perpetuated through hereditary descendants who retain the spiritual authority in the pir-murid system.

Political Sufism does not differ with Political Salafism in a notable aspect: both advocate a revolutionary strategy of Islamising society through exercise of state power. They are the birds of the same feather; but perched on different trees. As such, they pose a threat alike to democracy, secularism and liberal politics in South Asia.

Faisal CK is an independent researcher who specialises in constitutional law and political philosophy.

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The rise of Political Sufism poses a threat to liberal politics in both India and Pakistan - Scroll.in

Sean Hannity on his Fox News show. (Getty Images)

On Fox News the other night, Sean Hannity did a segment on the CDC dropping its rules on outdoor masks.

One of his guests, Judge Jeanine Pirro, led off by saying Biden was just trying to change the headlines away from the border and the recent Colonial Pipeline hack.

The truth is its distraction week for team Biden, she claimed.

And their medical expert, Dr. Nicole Saphier, was also critical of the CDC, saying they should have announced that you could take off all masks, indoors and outdoors.

The CDC is going to have to correct that, she said.

So everybody on the segment started out critical of the new mask rule (which the CDC did later change on Thursday).

But when Hannity brought up the breakthrough cases, the vaccinated members of the New York Yankees who still tested positive for the coronavirus, and said he wanted to know how many people who get the vaccine might still get sick anyway, thats when Dr. Saphier suddenly pivoted. She then started talking like Dr. Fauci, pointing out that the Yankees who tested positive had no symptoms, and that it actually proves the vaccine is safe and effective.

The benefit far outweighs the risk when it comes to getting the vaccine, she said.

She even went farther, saying we ought to just ignore the breakthrough cases.

We dont care we werent trying to get to zero cases, were trying to save lives, she noted.

So even the channel that believes Biden is addled, and that Fauci is one of the elitist lizard people, is spreading the message that everybody should trust the vaccine.

Even Sean Hannitys expert is saying: Get vaccinated.

Although if you listen closely, you could hear the theme music creeping in as she was trying to get that message out but she got it out!

Listen to Seattles Morning News weekday mornings from 5 9 a.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Ross: Another outbreak of liberal, conservative agreement on the vaccine - MyNorthwest.com

The Tasmanian Liberal Party is set to take majority government, 11 days after the state election, says ABCelection analyst Antony Green.

With thedistribution of preferences still underway, the Liberals are certain to win a crucial second seat in the Hobart-based electorate of Clark.

That gives the Liberal team, led by Peter Gutwein, the 13 seats needed for a majority in the 25-seat House of Assembly.

Green says Madeleine Ogilvie, a former Labor member who turned independent and is now a Liberal, will be elected as the second Liberal member in Clark.

The fifth seat will be won by independent Kristie Johnston.

Ms Ogilvie's election means the Liberalswill hold the crucial 13 seats needed to form majority government, with nine Labor MPs, two Greens MPs and Ms Johnston on the other side of the chamber.

ABC News: Jack Tegg

Another Liberal hopeful, Simon Behrakis, has been excluded in the counting, while Liberal-turned-independentSue Hickey has been defeated in her push to return to Parliament.

Mr Gutwein called the snap state election a year early, when his government was plunged into minorityafter Ms Hickey left the party.

At the time, Ms Ogilvie was sitting on the crossbench as an independent, but two days after the election was called she announced she would run for the Liberals.

Ms Johnston's election will mark the first time an independent has won election to Tasmania's Lower House since the 1996 election of Bruce Goodluck.

Mr Gutwein had committed to resigning if the Liberal Party failed to secure a majority.

On election night, he declared that his party had won the election convincingly, and said it appeared likely to govern in majority once counting was finalised a prediction that will now be realised.

Mr Gutwein said Tasmanians had voted for stability and certainty by giving the Liberal Party a third consecutive term.

"We have laid out a clear plan to secure Tasmania's future, and I thank Tasmanians for showing faith in my government and providing me the privilege of being your Premier and I will not let Tasmanians down," he said.

"We will continue building on our strong economic position, so we can create more jobs and ensure we have the skills and training pathways Tasmanians need.

"This will allow us to continue investing strongly in health, in education and in housing, and to continue delivering our record infrastructure program, which is building better and safer communities."

Despite polling day being on May 1,the Tasmanian Electoral Commission was forced to wait until Wednesday before it could begin distributing preferences in the race.

Continued here:

Tasmanian Liberals have won majority government, ABC's Antony Green says - ABC News

Got a kick out of the Records Left and Right column for CWU professors. Seriously, any professors on the right? Not likely.

I guess its up to us laymen to respond. So this latest professor is blathering about how stupid us Trumpers are for believing the elections were rigged. Why, yes we do! Kind of strange that at 6:31 a.m. on November 4th a dump of 149,772 votes were delivered to the state of Michigan and that 96% of them went to Biden or that at 3:42 a.m. a dump of 143,379 miraculously appeared for Biden in the state of Wisconsin. Both changed the states from red to blue at the last minute.

Then theres the recount in Arizona that Democrats are freaking about. It would seem they should welcome the recount to validate their victory. As inflation sky-rockets, Israel and Iran get ready to nuke each other, immigrants and drugs invade our country at record rates, and gas prices go through the roof, Trump should be looking pretty good for even the most naive of college professors. Oh, and they should be pretty happy that their ivory towers are in Ellensburg instead of some Seattle-like city where their defund the police policies would make them, especially, very ripe for victimhood.

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Letter: Trump should be looking good to even liberal professors - Daily Record-News

Joe Biden may have discovered the secret to time travel. Hear me out. We're currently seeing the Middle East unravel faster than Ilhan Omar's marriage to her brother. We're seeing inflation roaring back like the rash Kat got at Coachella. We are seeing absurd gas prices and a gas shortage. We're at the mercy of criminals trying to shut down a pipeline. And a president who actually did shut one down.

And speaking of - we have a bumbling leader who scares no one, except young women who use herbal essence shampoo. Oh - he'll send a stern letter to our adversaries - as long as its before his 4 PM bedtime.

Unemployment is rising, as benefits keep flowing. Crime is back and bloodier than ever -- we're witnessing shootings and murders like never before. Well, not exactly never before. We have seen it before. In fact - we've seen it all before. It's called...

Clip of parody song: The Seventies, soon well be making another run.

The Seventies, dont you leave home without a gun.

You could try to escape but sorry, theres no gas.

And inflation will leave you, broke on your ass.

Oh no, lets go.

The Seventies, yes were all going to hell.

The Seventies, shouldve voted for Trump.

Oh well, hey!

Its true, we've gone back to the '70s. A ten-year span so awful, we had to create the 80's and the 90's to erase it. On the plus side if this continues we might get another one of these. [Picture shown of Farrah Fawcett] Yea remember that? That was the 70s. But maybe we have! [Shows picture of Caitlyn Jenner on Vanity Fair cover] Seriously, she's this generations Farrah Fawcett. Or Jaclyn Smith. I can't make up my mind. And why should I? She didn't, until a few years ago!!

And by the way, it's not like Im stalking you, Caitlyn, ok? You dmd me first - and then I figure, I should start working my magic on you. And then she ghosts me! And goes on Hannity! I get it you're trans and you still date women! Whatever - but I feel like I was led on. And it kinda hurts.

Just like the 70's. And just like today. The crime. The joblessness. The turmoil of an unstable world questioning Americas resilience, Also - and no coincidence: Joe Biden in DC. Fact is - we are learning a harsh lesson. That progress, and stability, and success - is just one liberal away from disaster. Just one liberal away. Think about that.

Everything great about America can be unraveled by one leftist with some power and a vendetta against America. And we have an administration crawling with them. Take New York.

Rudy Giuliani took a city rife with rampant crime and hopelessness and turned it into the number one global tourist attraction. And then Bloomberg inherited it, and didnt screw it up totally. Then this ghoul [Bill de Blasio] came along. A vile, groundhog murdering idiot so clueless to human motivation that he might actually be from another planet. I think they call it "shaturn."

Hes like a giant lumbering Frankenstein made up of parts from lesser idiots. And it only took one card-carrying anti-American commie to drag the city back down to its worst. Two if you count his wife. So now we have Gotham City but minus the Batman.

But it's not just NYC. It's every city run by Dems. And now it's America. Joe Biden was so nostalgic for those years when he had real hair that he took us back there in a matter of months. It's a pattern: Republicans create the bank account that the Democrats end up blowing like Hunter's backup eight ball. Saddled with the attention span of fruit flies high on crank with IQ's lower than CNNs ratings, libs see the progress made by Republicans as wrong. And therefore an opportunity to experiment. And we are their guinea pigs.

Our jobs, our healthcare, our education system. And it's those experiments that lead to the devastation. It's a cycle. Liberals - like spoiled children - ruin things, which Republicans - like patient parents - fix -- creating a false sense of security that allows liberals to return and ruin them again. I say we put them up for adoption so we can have nice things in the house again. I wonder what the angry white male thinks.

Tom Shillue as Angry White Male: Its like the America I grew up in. Urban decay, crime, inflation, gas lines. Democrats, you make me feel young again.

So can we "time travel" out of this mess? Maybe if we didn't have so many options for entertainment. Back in the 70's we had 3 channels, and two restaurants that delivered. One was Chinese, and the other one was Chinese. We had almost no options for pornography unless you count the sexy Indian girl on the Land o Lakes box. Sometimes we got creative and went to work on the Sears catalog with an eraser.

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We had no choice but to save ourselves. Now it's different. We have Netflix and Hulu. There are 407 ESPN channels. Amazon delivers. And so does your dealer, Kat. Decriminalized pot keeps us ambivalent. And China and Disney+ keep us distracted. The whole world outside could crumble but were too happy binge-watching The Crown.

The question is, for how long. Thank God I still have this. [Shows a picture of Caitlyn Jenner on Vanity Fair cover] Don't worry. I laminated it.

This article is adapted from Greg Gutfeld's opening monologue on the May 12, 2021 edition of "Gutfeld!"

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Greg Gutfeld: Progress, stability, and success is just one liberal away from disaster - Fox News

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The Alabama Independent School Association baseball finals concluded Thursday at Paterson Field with Pickens Academy (Class A), Autauga Academy (AA) and Pike Liberal Arts (AAA) each earning state championships.

Pickens defeated Jackson Academy in a doubleheader sweep, with four players earning spots on the all-tournamentteam.

For coach Rush Hixon and Pike Liberal Arts, capturing his first title at his alma mater was a "surreal" experience for the 24-year-old head coach.The Patriotsswept Bessemer, 6-2 and 12-0,to complete its three-peat and win a fourth trophy in nine years. It also secured a trifecta for Pike, which also won the state's football and basketball titles.

Autauga Academy players celebrate after the AISA class AA state championship in Montgomery, Ala., on Tuesday, May 11, 2021. Autauga defeated Edgewood 2-0 (4-2,5-4) to win the series. (Photo: Jake Crandall/ Advertiser)

Hixon started his coaching career while nursing an arm injury with an American Legion baseball team when he was 17. After stints at Lurleen B. Wallace, Central Alabama and Troy, Hixon was tabbed to fill the shoes of Allen Ponder and the two titles Ponder brought to the Patriots. Hixon was a senior during Ponder's firstseason, and when Hixon was hired, his old coach reached out and told him he was the right fit.

"I reflect a lot at times," Hixon said, "I don't think I'm deserving of a lot of things. ... It's a blessing from God to be in this situation. Not a lot of people get the chance to do it, much less at a place they love and have a lot of pride for."

Walker Stallworth, Jayden Jordan, Skylar Kidd and Scott Taylor Renfroe were named to the all-tournament team.

AHSAA: Winning has followed Alabama's Allen Ponder, including now with Pike Road baseball

STATE SCOREBOARD: AHSAA baseball playoffs: Semifinal pairings, schedule

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In the Generals' case, coach Bobby Carr made a long-awaited return to the diamond and made an unlikely run with a young group.Autauga slid past Edgewood, outscoring the Wildcats 9-6 in two games, leadingto its fifth straight finals and first win since Carr joined the school.

Carr won 11 titles at Edgewood but focused on football upon his arrival at Autauga. His former assistant Scott Tubbs led the baseball team but when he took the same role at Holtville, Carr figured it was time to return to the sport he loves most. A college player and member of the New York Mets' developmental system, Carr spent the past few seasons watching games in left field, itching for a return.

The 2021 Generals featured no returning starters, Carr said. An underclassmen-led group was 9-7 but then won 11 of 14 to eventually top Carr's old school at Paterson Field. Postgame, surrounded by his team, Carr got emotional.

Autauga Academy coach Bobby Carr celebrates with his team after the AISA class AA state championship in Montgomery, Ala., on Tuesday, May 11, 2021. Autauga defeated Edgewood 2-0 (4-2,5-4) to win the series. (Photo: Jake Crandall/ Advertiser)

"They brought a lot of joy back into my life," Carr said, "It was much needed."

Noah Ray was one of four Generals' on the all-state team, which included Will Traywick, Josh Palmer and John Gabehart. Edgewood's Walker Hall, Alex Johnson and Mitchell Boyd were also honored.

Abbeville Christian (Class A), Southern Academy (AA) and Bessemer (AAA) captured state titles as well.

Macon East's Taylor McKinney against Tuscaloosa Academy during the AISA State Softball Tournament at Lagoon Park in Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday May 2, 2019.(Photo: Mickey Welsh / Advertiser)

REGIONAL SCHEDULE: AHSAA softball regional tournament for Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, Gulf Shores and Florence

Macon East was a runner-up in Class AA, dropping two games late to Southern. The Knights had reached the finals for the ninth straight year and hadthree players Taylor McKinney, Breane Morrison and Kylee Smith make the all-tournament team.

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Pike Liberal Arts and Autauga Academy capture AISA baseball titles, Macon East softball reaches final - Montgomery Advertiser

Imagine, I tell a friend in Philadelphia, that Camden is launching rockets at you across the Delaware.

It is night time here in Israel, on a Wednesday in which the country finds itself, yet again, in an all too familiar standoff. I field messages ranging from concern to accusation as I share what is happening here and why. I tend not to let widely circulated tweets or Instagram posts speak for me. Instead, I offer my own understanding. Some bring bizarre and irrelevant challenges into my private messages such as, But have you ever dated a Muslim woman? Others are disgusted by me. Others engage in demanding but beneficial dialogue, wanting to learn. Save for one person, all are Americans. On the phone with my friend in Philadelphia, I suddenly find it surreal (and a little frustrating) to have to graft the violence here onto towns and cities they are familiar with in order to make the terror palpable, if only in their imagination.

Over the weekend, the onslaught of infographics shared about Sheikh Jarrah on social media gave me hope that my American friends were paying attention and educating themselves and that, when the time for retaliation by terrorist factions in Gaza began, theyd stand with Israel too. I was wrong. As soon as Hamas began dispensing rockets from Gaza into neighboring cities, reaching as far as Tel Aviv, my feed went silent. Why? Why was I not seeing the same fervent condemnation of Hamas and Islamic Jihad as I was seeing about colonialist, apartheid Israel?

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The clue, in part, is the ideological activism that has become all but ubiquitous in colleges and universities and within liberal circles of friends of mine in America that has come to damaging conclusions about who is included under the intersectional umbrella. As postmodernist thought pervades social justice circles, all nuance is stripped away in favor of clean explanations that are not suitable for the chaos of conflict. The idea that power is the only thing that mediates human relationships means that one party must be the oppressor, and the other oppressed. Its easy, sitting comfortably from afar, to see the conflict in this way. No bomb shelters for my friend in Philadelphia. No heartbreaking imagination from their toddlers that the rockets falling around them are only dragons. The ideology put forth belies the complexity of the region and its many messy, violent chapters. Understanding that its not entirely warranted to apply brash certainty when discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict takes time, effort, context, and lots of reading.

Most dont care for that, instead defaulting to the reductive oppressor/oppressed binary popular in social justice circles today. Viewed through this lens alone, people run with narratives that are juicy, immediate, and satisfying. But these neat categories almost always do more harm than good when we talk about a situation that confuses, terrifies, and angers. Furthermore, the use of hyperbolic language like apartheid, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, etc. only seeks to deaden distinctions, obfuscate meaningful points, shut down debate, or downplay complicity on both sides.

These circles share hierarchies of what is considered good, and embrace a playground view of the world in which everyone can be divided into bullies or bullied all of which borrows heavily from allegorical and religious thought. In recent years, a dispassionate observation is favored less than pure feeling, and in this way the adherents to this ideology, in their telling silence, have amplified age-old condemnations of the Jews.

Consider why it is that Israel must always think twice about restraint. No other country would accept or stand for what is happening here, nor would they show their antagonists mercy or warn innocent civilians before airstrikes. Countries like China, Russia, or the United States seem to wield special licenses to show force with impunity in a way that would be, and is, geopolitically dangerous for Israel. So why the double-standard?

It would seem that the same people who wondered how Jews could just march into the gas chambers without fighting back are the same people, decades later, who cry foul that Israel and the Jewish people have too much power and a country to boot. Compounding the insult is the tired suggestion that weve learned nothing from the Holocaust, and that there is zero moral distinction between Zionism and Nazism.

As of this writing, over 1,200 rockets have been fired into Israel indiscriminately, injuring and killing Jew and Arab alike. That does not sound like helplessness or powerlessness to me. But the pains some of my friends and acquaintances are taking not to agitate the new orthodoxy is somehow more astonishing.

Those on the left constantly promote themselves as moral arbiters of social justice. Yet when the innocent lives are Jewish ones, there is a general silence that bespeaks a sinister subtext, namely: They have it coming to them. It should be obvious to say, Terrorists launching rockets against innocent people is wrong, and yet, it is not being said at least not out in the open to their followers on social media.

What is disturbing about the willingness to draw the intersectional line at Jewish lives is that, in private, liberals message me saying they are afraid to say what in every other situation would be obvious to say for fear theyll be cast as pariahs canceled, threatened, or ostracized by friends for stepping outside of an approved narrative that Israel is evil and has no right to defend itself.

Honestly, Id have more respect for Americans who are ignorant about the situation to simply shut up. But if they want to insert themselves into the debate, then theyd better be ready to not only condemn what is happening in Sheikh Jarrah, but to also condemn rocket attacks and mob violence in Israel. If your outrage doesnt extend past innocent Palestinians to innocent Jews, our idea of human rights are not the same.

Originally from Philadelphia, Royee Zvi Atadgy currently lives in Israel where he attends the Shaindy Rudoff Creative Writing program at Bar-Ilan University with a concentration in fiction.

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What I don't see: How liberal silence for Jewish lives shows progressive limits - The Times of Israel