Conservatives: The New ‘Blasphemy’
Britain ended its last blasphemy laws in 2008, but “from that moment on, people began to be persecuted for offending against the values that post-Christian society held sacred,” particularly on “A Theory of Identity Politics,” Sorry Dan Hannon at the Washington Examiner. When, for example, a 14-year-old boy with autism in northern England brought a Koran to school, which was then thrown and scuffled with, rumors flew that the book had been deliberately desecrated; The boy received death threats.
Yet the school suspended the boy, not the threats. “Authorities are acting not out of religious sensitivity but out of concern for unofficial, non-religious blasphemy codes.” The First Amendment has so far protected Americans from such “intolerance” — but “for how long?”
From right: Struggle over TikTok
“Should the US government ban TikTok from private US citizens’ phones?” asks Jim Geraghty of National Review. “In general, if you announce, ‘This app is Chinese spyware and will scrape all your personal data and put it where the Chinese government can use it,’ you can expect People will stop using it. We might think that the revelation that TikTok is Chinese spyware and that it’s offering inappropriate sexual content to minors and exploiting teenagers will be enough to make people ditch and uninstall the app. Yet it’s more is getting popular, so “I don’t want to ban TikTok; I want to ‘deorbit and nuke the site.’ “
Covid Watch: ‘Gain-of-function’ is too risky
Despite the latest federal assessment that Covid “likely escaped the Wuhan Institute of Virology” where “researchers were allegedly conducting ‘gain-of-function’ experiments on the coronavirus,” Sees David Zweig at Free Press, “Biden administration supports gain-of-function research,” which makes “organisms more virulent” and/or “more transmissible.” But “if there is evidence of a direct benefit from such research”, it is “not clear” – and often there are “experiments so that scientists can publish” in prestigious journals. In addition, lab “accidents are still high”. occur at safety levels,” to say nothing of the “bald inhibitions by government officials” around it and the unwillingness of scientists to ignore the risks. To quote an MIT biologist: “‘I work in this field. I appeal to every scientist, funder and nation: Please stop.’ “
From left: Dames Kamala Condroom
President Biden’s potential “decision to run for re-election at an older age” has “unprecedented prominence” over “his vice presidential running mate.” Harold Myerson of the American Prospect warned.
But does Kamala Harris have “any political identification with swing voters, or the general public, that would lead them to conclude that she could reach the presidency?” And “it’s hard to find Democratic pols or liberal activists who spring to his defense, either generally or because he played a significant role in promoting or defending a progressive cause.” Still, “kicking him off the ticket will create its own problems.” All “options — not least, renominating Harris — likely come with a major political disadvantage. These are byproducts of trying to stay in the Oval Office until age 86.
The Libertarian: The Truth on Vinyl Chloride
“Black smoke of burning chemicals” billowing from a train wreck for residents of East Palestine, Ohio. Josh Bloom roars at the cause, “The last thing they need is the news media spreading even more horrifying — but inaccurate — information about the accident.” They are being “bombarded with outrageous claims” about the health risks associated with vinyl chloride, “most of which are just plain wrong.” Fact: Vinyl chloride is “significantly less toxic than many common, everyday drugs and chemicals” such as caffeine and aspirin. Its cancer risk has also been “grossly exaggerated” – because “cancers do not result from single exposure to chemical carcinogens.” In fact, “the risk of an accident could have been much worse if the train had carried some of the highly toxic chemicals—even worse than vinyl chloride—that are routinely shipped across the country.”
– Compiled by the Post Editorial Board
