Leonardo da Vinci, slavery’s ubiquity,
and its end in the West
Posted By: Judy W., 3/20/2023 7:43:01 AM
Few would dispute Leonardo da Vinci’s preeminence as one of the top thinkers and artists of the Renaissance era. According to an Italian professor, da Vinci may have been only half-Italian. The professor contends that da Vinci’s mother may have been a slave from the Circassia region in what is now Russia. That fact is worth contemplating when we think about the left’s desperation to do away with Christianity, fossil fuel, and capitalism. (Snip) Whether this revised history is correct or not, it’s useful to remind all of us that slavery was not a uniquely American institution. It was ubiquitous in the pre-modern world. Every society, at every time
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When Leaders Get Scared
6 replies
While it may look like the United States is being tough and forceful in Ukraine, the reverse is true. The US is showing incredible weakness, and it is wearing it on its sleeve.
Let's start with Ukraine. The US has gone all out to try and help Ukraine win a victory over the Russians. The Biden administration wants this to happen for two reasons: to show that Biden is not a wimp and won't cut and run like he did in Afghanistan and that he wants to "strengthen" NATO by eventually putting a NATO army in Ukraine.
Few would dispute Leonardo da Vinci’s preeminence as one of the top thinkers and artists of the Renaissance era. According to an Italian professor, da Vinci may have been only half-Italian. The professor contends that da Vinci’s mother may have been a slave from the Circassia region in what is now Russia. That fact is worth contemplating when we think about the left’s desperation to do away with Christianity, fossil fuel, and capitalism.
(Snip) Whether this revised history is correct or not, it’s useful to remind all of us that slavery was not a uniquely American institution. It was ubiquitous in the pre-modern world. Every society, at every time
The brutalism of government during the last three years was anomalous in western democracies. First of all, it was irrational, it contravened common sense, which almost everyone possesses, and it destroyed millions of household economies and small businesses. It impoverished and starved a billion people in the developing world. It killed the old, brutally, refusing them affection in their last days. (Snip) But this niggled at me. Who drew up the plan, instituted it in every country, bullied every citizenry, devised the advertising, instituted the protocols? What operation has that level of power, of discipline?
Only one answer: McKinsey. McKinsey innovated and executed the whole damned thing.
How to restore trust in the CDC and FDA
18 replies
There are many ways for the CDC and FDA to regain the trust of Americans. This article lists 20 ways.
I was not asked to speak at the conference, so I thought I’d prepare my list for people who attend.
20 ideas for how to restore trust
1. Stop lying to people
2. Stop ignoring people who disagree with you: Answer questions/engage in meaningful dialog from people who disagree with you
3. Support data transparency: Show us all the data that you’ve been hiding instead of making us spend millions in lawsuits to release it (v-safe data for example). Don’t force us to use FOIA to have you release the
Final Grades
13 replies
One dark December afternoon several years ago, while others were hanging mistletoe and holly and buying last minute gifts, Prof. Josephine K. was meeting with students. The very last student to arrive was Brett, a white athlete from a comfortable suburb.
“This is not a research paper.”
“You told us to write a research paper.”
“Yes, yes I did. And I told you what a research paper is – ”
“This is my research paper!”
“We’ve been going through the process in class for the past two months. (Snip)
“you were absent or you sat in the back and tried to hide the fact that you were sleeping, texting on your
News - All the World's a Stage for Soros
9 replies
For the past fifty years, George Soros (1930- ) has been influencing politics, societal norms and has acted to change policy on the world stage. He one of the earliest supporters of the WEF and worked hard to establish the European Union. But who is George Soros and what is he up to now?
Rather than me writing a backgrounder on the man, below is his approved WEF bio together with links to the Open Society Foundation, which is the organization that he founded and has led for the past forty years. Which he has funded to the tune of 18 billion US dollars (so far).
Bukele Blueprint: How to Dramatically
Reduce Your Nations Murder Rate With This
One Simple Trick 13 replies
Reduce Your Nations Murder Rate With This
One Simple Trick 13 replies
Escape from New York may be a work of fiction no longer. In El Salvador, the government plans to crush crime by opening a new prison that is quite literally the size of a city.
Two thousand suspected gang members have been moved to a new mega-prison in El Salvador, built as part of President Nayib Bukele’s self-proclaimed “war on crime.” …
The mega-prison, officially called the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT), was built to hold 40,000 prisoners. Bukele unveiled the center in January, saying it is “a fundamental piece to completely win the war against gangs.”
The prisoners transferred to the CECOT are reportedly members
Americans have been living with the idiosyncrasies of arbitrary racial classifications for almost five decades. These are now deeply entrenched and serve to drive political agendas while understandably fomenting divisiveness and resentment. That is the subject of David E. Bernstein’s impeccably researched book Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America.
In his review of the history of American racial classification, Bernstein, a professor of law at George Mason University, brings clarity to the contentious discrimination debate which began in earnest with the Statistical Directive 15 of the Office of Management and Budget of 1977, creating five inconsistent and haphazard racial categories: American Indian or Alaskan Native; Asian or
Maybe it's age, but I'm starting to warm up to the God of the Old Testament big-time.
That's the one you're not supposed to like. The one you're supposed to feel embarrassed by. Even outraged. (Snip)
My immediate response is: okay—maybe he was unpleasant at times. Who isn't? And besides, anyone who ever does anything big is "unpleasant" every once in a while. Goes with the territory. Nice guys finish last, remember? Sometimes you have to kick ass to get stuff done. Everyone knows that. And in this case, we're talking about the Being who created the heavens and earth, and everything therein. You want big? That's big.
AUSTIN, Texas—Elon Musk is planning to build his own town on part of thousands of acres of newly purchased pasture and farmland outside the Texas capital, according to deeds and other land records and people familiar with the project.
In meetings with landowners and real-estate agents, Mr. Musk and employees of his companies have described his vision as a sort of Texas utopia along the Colorado River, where his employees could live and work.
(Snip) They say Mr. Musk and his top executives want his Austin-area employees, including workers at Boring, electric-car maker Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, to be able to live in new homes with below-market rents.
Dear Conservatives, I Apologize
30 replies
There is no way to avoid this moment. The formal letter of apology. From me. To Conservatives and to those who “put America first” everywhere.
It’s tempting to sweep this confrontation with my own gullibility under the rug — to “move on” without every acknowledging that I was duped, and that as a result I made mistakes in judgement, and that these mistakes hurt millions of other people like you all, in existential ways. (Snip) The proximate cause of this letter of apology is the airing, two nights ago, of excepts from tens of thousands of hours of security camera footage from the United States Capitol taken on Jan 6, 2021.
Mainstream media correspondents for major US networks rarely, if ever, report from inside Crimea and certainly are nowhere near Russian-held territory in eastern Ukraine. However, this week NBC News chief international correspondent Keir Simmons went to Sevastopol, surrounded by a significant Russian military presence given it is home to the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet, and in a live segment admitted that it's not at all realistic Zelensky and Ukrainian forces can ever hope to take Crimea.
This is especially as the "the people there... view themselves as Russian." Simmons noted that "This is the closest that any US news crew has got to the Russian Black Sea Fleet
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
The day that Donald Trump proclaimed he’d be arrested is upon us. Will he or won’t he be processed and taken into custody on a weak attempt to relitigate the Stormy Daniels payoff? All we can do is wait, and since there is no timeline for grand jury deliberations, that wait could drag on.
In the meantime, Trump is keeping his eye on the ball in the face of possible jail time. No, he’s not focusing like a laser beam on Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. He’s insinuating Ron DeSantis is gay. [Tweet] Those are just two of the posts Trump put on on Desantis on Monday. His sons also spent
Climate Change is a religion. We all know that. The University of Helsinki has decided to make that official by giving Greta Thunberg an honorary Doctorate of Theology at the ripe old age of 20. Pretty sure she hasn’t graduated from High School, but maybe I am wrong. I thought she dropped out to become a climate change activist. Now that she is Dr. Thunberg she can glue herself to Volkswagens or something. Isn’t that what activists with Ph. D.s do these days?
Ford has unveiled its new 'trailblazer' Explorer electric SUV with a range of more than 300 miles from a single charge and a moveable touchscreen inside that conceals a James Bond-style hidden compartment.
The new family-friendly crossover - which will be in showrooms next year - is described as the first in a new breed of 'stylish, smart and road-trip ready' all-electric Ford vehicles with clever storage and sharp design designed to appeal as much to women as men.
And the only thing it appears to share with the larger outgoing internal combustion engine Ford Explorer SUV (which is more than half a metre longer than
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has finally taken the gloves off and launched a blistering attack on his former mentor President Donald Trump.
In an exclusive wide-ranging interview with me airing on Fox Nation’s “Piers Morgan Uncensored” on Thursday, he said “stay tuned” about his widely expected announcement that he’s running for president and declared: I have what it takes to be president and I can beat Biden. But it’s what he said about Trump that will ignite a firestorm in the Republican Party.
For months, DeSantis has said nothing as Trump’s escalated his verbal attacks on him, branding his ex-protégé “Ron DeSanctimonious” and “Meatball Ron.”
On Monday, Trump went nuts
California Reparations Task Force member
vows their 'recommendations will be breathtaking' 18 replies
vows their 'recommendations will be breathtaking' 18 replies
A member of the California Reparations Task Force vowed the committee’s "recommendations will be breathtaking." Lisa Holder, a task force member and president of the far-left Equal Justice Society, published an opinion piece advocating for the reparations committee and writing that Californians "must be prepared for remedies on a scale approaching the Great Society programs of Medicare and Medicaid." "Reparations is a paradigm for understanding harm and repair as it relates to people who suffered a human rights injustice because of government action," Holder wrote. "Harm and repair are the two sides of the spectrum." She added that reparations will
Writer David Goldman, who writes as the brilliant "Spengler" at Asia Times, foresees an ending of sorts to the Ukraine conflict, based on the West's inability to supply the resources to keep an extended war coming.
In his latest Asia Times piece, he noted the private thinking going on of people who make up the foreign policy community:
A gloomy assessment of Ukraine’s prospects for victory against Russia emerged from a recent private gathering of former top US soldiers, intelligence officials and scholars with resumes reaching from the Reagan to the Trump administrations.
Short of trained personnel and ammunition, one speaker argued, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky might consider a Chinese peace plan,
Brazil’s recently inaugurated leftist President Lula Ignacio Da Silva has initiated a process of taking back guns from citizens after a surge in sales toward the end of Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency.
The Wall Street Journal detailed in a report on Tuesday how Lula has already reversed looser gun restrictions from the Bolsonaro era and plans to force owners to register their firearms or face arrest.
“It’s time to put down your weapons, weapons that should never have been wielded,” Lula said after winning last year’s presidential election in contentious circumstances. “Guns kill and we choose life.” Lula has now given owners an ultimatum of March 31 to bring their guns to
Dr. Jill Shoots Joe Biden a Look as He
Claims He’s “A Student of the Persian
Culture” (VIDEO) 15 replies
Claims He’s “A Student of the Persian
Culture” (VIDEO) 15 replies
For the record, Joe Biden was raised in a Puerto Rican community, attended a black church when he was a teen and apparently he’s also a student of Persian culture.
Joe and Jill Biden on Monday hosted a reception at the White House celebrating Nowruz, the Persian New Year.
“You know, the Persian culture is amazing!” Biden said. “As a student of the Persian culture, not a practitioner, but a student,” Biden said.
Governor Ron DeSantis (R., Fl.) told Piers Morgan in an interview that he believes he can prevail over Donald Trump and lead the Republican Party to victory in the 2024 presidential election over President Joe Biden.
“I can win [the] presidency,” the Florida governor told Piers Morgan in an exclusive interview that aired Tuesday afternoon.
Although DeSantis alluded to challenging Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, the governor explained that much of his attention will be geared towards President Biden.
“If I were to run, I’m running against Biden,” DeSantis said. “Ultimately you know the guy I’m gonna focus on is Biden because I think he’s failed
Robert Costello, the former legal adviser to Michael Cohen, spoke to Tucker Carlson on Monday night after he testified to Manhattan Grand Jury investigating President Donald Trump.
Costello told the FOX News audience that he testified for two hours in front of Alvin Bragg’s Manhattan Grand Jury.
Robert Costello told Tucker Carlson, “I spoke to the jury for two hours… It was clear to me the Manhattan Grand Jury did not want to get to the truth.”Robert Costello: I just spent 2 hours or so testifying before the grand jury in downtown Manhattan, and I got my point across. Although it was clear to me that the Manhattan DA’s office did not
Los Angeles schools to close Tuesday as
strike goes forward; negotiations at a standstill 14 replies
strike goes forward; negotiations at a standstill 14 replies
The massive Los Angeles Unified School District will be closed Tuesday – and possibly Wednesday and Thursday – because of a planned strike by tens of thousands of teachers and other school employees.
"All schools across LAUSD will be closed tomorrow," Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, leader of the nation's second-largest school district, said at a Monday afternoon news conference. "Tomorrow will be a difficult day." Carvalho, who oversees about 600,000 students at more than 1,000 schools, expressed frustration with the union representing workers including bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers, campus security and teaching assistants. The union said talks with the school district broke down Monday
From groceries to baby formula and microchips to cold medicine for children, the supply chain issues that have arisen and grown into crises on President Biden and his administration's watch are nothing new. But worsening shortages in the supply of drugs used to treat cancers are drawing dire warnings from medical professionals and those who rely on such medical interventions to save lives. According to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, shortages of critical drugs are "the worst they've been in a decade" due to "[quality control issues, selected plant closures and
Comments:
There are many good points in this piece.