In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.
Senator Joe McCarthy, AKA “Tailgunner Joe”, was always a controversial figure. Let’s look back sixty years ago when William F. Buckley, Jr. debated Leo Cheme on the question of McCarthyism and it’s past, present, and future.
Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.
The focus this time: There is no quick fix for wokeness.
First, a little mood music:
Carrying on…
Bans on DEI are more of a suggestion…
“The University of Texas at Austin says it has ‘fully implemented’ the state’s diversity, equity, and inclusion ban in response to a recent undercover video that showed a gender studies employee saying the law “doesn’t do anything yet other than create more work.”
“But Accuracy in Media President Adam Guillette told The College Fix that the law itself is part of the problem. His organization investigates universities in conservative led states ‘to find out if they’re following the law.’
“‘The Texas DEI ban isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on,’ Guillette said in a recent interview. ‘DEI staffers have simply changed job titles and DEI is still being promoted in the curriculum.”’
“However, Guillette also said AIM does not believe Texas universities are fully complying with the state’s restrictions.
“‘Multiple administrators have lost their jobs after appearing in our videos,’ he said. ‘It’s clear that these universities think they’re above the law.’”
Critical Theory, originated by Max Horkheimer of the Frankfurt School is not so much a series of policy objectives, but of a worldview, as James Lindsay explains.
The origin of the Critical Theory was an essay by Frankfurt School director Max Horkheimer, titled “Traditional and Critical Theory,” written in 1937. It says the same crap we deal with today.
The essence of Horkheimer’s essay is that traditional theory, which is concerned with facts and figures and math and stuff, cares about understanding the world as it is without wanting to see beyond it or change it.
Therefore, the traditional theorist reproduces the society in which he works, un-Critically.
In fact, he doesn’t even realize he’s part of a historically contingent moment and just repeating and reaffirming the assumptions and class conflict of his time. (For Marxists, all of history, wrote Marx, is the history of (the evolution of) class antagonisms, so any particular moment in history is a particular set of class antagonisms based on a stage of historical development.)
Horkheimer writes,
“In this view of theory, therefore, the real social function of science is not made manifest; it speaks not of what theory means in human life, but only of what it means in the isolated sphere in which for historical reasons it comes into existence. Yet as a matter of fact the life of society is the result of all the work done in the various sectors of production. Even if therefore the division of labor in the capitalist system functions but poorly, its branches, including science, do not become for that reason self-sufficient and independent. They are particular instances of the way in which society comes to grips with nature and maintains its own inherited form.”
In short, knowing what you’re talking about is just a means of reproducing the oppressive society, so it’s not actually that good. In fact, Horkheimer says the Critical Theory is suspicious of the very idea that the society we have produces good things at all.
Unsurprisingly, Europe is embracing digital “Big Brother” by requiring verification that you aren’t a minor to use social media, or as they might call it in France, “Grand Frère Électronique”, where the French Parliament passed an act to do just that.
“On July 21st, Parliament gave final approval to the bill introducing a minimum age for accessing social media in France. The legislation establishes the principle of a ban on social media for those under the age of 15. Platforms will now be required to verify the age of their users before they open or maintain an account, using a ‘double anonymity’ verification system. Users will have to prove their age to a trusted third party, which will issue a cryptographic token certifying only that they are of legal age in relation to the set threshold, without disclosing their identity to the platform. The implementation schedule is phased: from September 2026 for new accounts, then from January 2027 for existing accounts.
“However, many observers doubt that this law will actually come into force under the announced conditions. The Act of July 7, 2023 on the digital age of majority already provided for mandatory age verification of users and penalties for non-compliant platforms, before being blocked due to a lack of implementing decrees and because of its incompatibility with the European Digital Services Act.
“The Senate’s rapporteur for the bill explained that its future implementation would depend “almost exclusively on the European Commission.” Once again, it is Brussels that will have the final say on the legal and technical details of online identity verification. On an issue as sensitive as the identification of internet users, France is thus effectively accepting a further curtailment of its sovereignty.”
So not only are they requiring permission to use social media, but are handing over this power to unelected Eurocrats.
News of the Week for July 26th, 2026
In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.
Let us look back on twenty years of world leaders from forty years ago, as we see highlights of William F. Buckley, Jr. discussing world affairs with the likes of Richard Nixon, Eugene McCarthy, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Ferdinand Marcos, Robert J.L. Hawke, Harold Macmillan, Hubert Humphrey, and Gerald Ford.
Until next Friday.
Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.
The focus this time: Making it harder to get to the bottom of the legalized death business.
First, a little mood music:
Carrying on…
Bipartisanship is surprising in this day and age, but homicidal doctors can frighten both Republicans and Democrats.
“Assisted suicide legalization is bad medicine and even worse public policy. It abandons the sick, destroys human equality by creating a killable caste of people, and cheapens the intrinsic dignity of human life. Moreover, the supposed ‘strict safeguards’ are neither strict — for example, relying on doctor self-reporting — nor particularly protective. Besides, as soon as the law goes into place, the safeguards are quickly redefined as ‘obstacles’ to a good death and the process of loosening the law commences.
“These and other myriad problems have gotten the attention of Senators James Lankford (R., Okla.) and Tim Kaine (D., Va.), who along with two representative sent a letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asking for oversight over the practice in the hospice context.”
News of the Week for July 19th, 2026
In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.
The question of human rights, our foreign policy, and how we juggle the two is an old question. Let us look back forty years ago when William F. Buckley, Jr., Michael E. Kinsley, and Arthur M. Schlesinger discuss Human Rights, Foreign Policy, and Ronald Reagan.
Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.
The focus this time: Unscholarly scholarship.
First, a little mood music:
Carrying on…
What are “2SLGBTQI+ Picture Books”? This “queer early childhood educator” is going to find out! From the abstract:
“At a time when 2SLGBTQI+ identities are targeted with increasing hostility, criminalization, and attempted erasure by government officials, binary gender norms saturate the field of early childhood education (ECE). While there has been a surge in the publication of gender-diverse children’s literature in recent years, many of these books are now banned in the United States, which impacts their reception in Canada, including BC, Alberta, and New Brunswick. This study elicits children’s responses toward picture books about gender nonconformity, demonstrating how circle time can be queerly reimagined and practiced in ECE. Grounded in queer theory and trans studies, queer circle time is presented as an urgently needed and replicable pedagogical practice for ECE.”
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