Outrage over Outrageous Outrage  Dear Jolters, In life, there are dark, real, and serious things over which one can and should be outraged -- as was the case in Ida Lupino's 1950 movie. But there are many who live to be outraged 24/7 (and not like the band Van Halen, because there were brown M and Ms in the bowl). Contrived and relentless outrage is a weapon for an ideological agenda, and an enemy of free speech. Has this sparked a backlash? In last week's WJ, and in this week's, Yours Truly promotes pieces referring to Canadian prof Jordan Peterson, who has come to symbolize some steel-spined public defiance to multicultural stratagems. Atop NRO this morning (Friday, as I get set to hit the Send This Drivel button to poor Phil DeVoe), is Heather Wilhelm's new column discussing Peterson, bestselling author Mark Manson, and the hope that their words -- and the popular reactions to them -- are a sign of the beginnings of a backlash. Of outrage over outrage. I recommend you read it. Editorials 1. Free traders we remain, and wisely so. Here's our editorial opposing President Trump's imposing of punitive tariffs on imported solar panels and washing machines. From the editorial: Protectionist measures always hurt consumers and often end up enlarging rather than reducing trade deficits as consumers abroad buy fewer U.S.-made goods. The president is obsessed with trade deficits, which are not "deficits" in any real sense of the word (there isn't any ballooning "trade debt" comparable to the national debt) but instead are mere record-keeping expressions that reflect certain economic realities. One of those realities is that people in relatively poor countries -- the so-called emerging markets -- have higher rates of savings, meaning that they use many of the dollars they earn selling goods in the United States to purchase dollar-denominated financial assets rather than consumer goods. The trade deficit is simply the flipside of the capital surplus. The Koreans are not getting over on us by providing Americans with excellent appliances at low prices. It is pure superstition to think that they are. 2. Our advice was simple: Don't buckle on immigration. From our recent editorial: Republicans in the White House and the Congress ought to make it clear that they will not accept a deal that encourages illegal immigration or raises immigration levels -- and will not accede to an unacceptable deal for fear of a Democratic shutdown in a few weeks. The Buckley Legacy Project National Review Institute is marking the tenth anniversary of Bill Buckley's death (he passed away February 27, 2008) with a series of forums around the country to celebrate his legacy. Half-day forums will be held in Palm Beach (February 6), Dallas (March 6), Houston (March 7), San Francisco (March 27), Newport Beach (March 28), and Chicago (April 12). Among those who will be on hand to talk about Bill, the First Amendment, the state of conservatism, and much more are Rush Limbaugh, Rich Lowry, Andy McCarthy, Ed Feulner, Brent Bozell, John Yoo, Neal Freeman, Jay Nordlinger, Kevin Williamson, Ramesh Ponnuru, Rick Brookhiser, Charles Kesler, David French, John O'Sullivan, Al Felzenberg (you've got to buy Al's terrific WFB biography, A Man and His Presidents: The Political Odyssey of William F. Buckley Jr.), and others. We hope you will join us at one of these excellent forums. To get complete information, visit here. Podcastapalooza 1. Mackerels of holiness, it is National School Choice Week, so Reality Check with Jeanne Allen is pumped! On the new episode, Jeanne talks with Betsy DeVos, Ted Cruz, Congressmen Paul Mitchell, Virginia Foxx, Luke Messer, school-choice expert Sylvia Simms, and many more. Get the popcorn and settle in for a great listen. 2. The Editors -- starring Rich, Reihan, Charlie, and Michael BD -- slices and dices the huge political week that was: On the new episode they talk about the end of the government shutdown, the prospects for DACA, and the Trump administration's new tariffs. Catch the wisdom here. 3. On the new edition of The Bookmonger, John J. Miller talks The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World with author Charles C. Mann. They chat about the struggle between innovation and conservation to define the 21st century. Listen here. 4. Then JJM swaps out for his Great Books cap, invites Hillsdale lecturer Dedra Birzer onto the new episode, and commences a terrific discussion of Willa Cather's My Ántonia. Do yourself a big favor and listen (and learn). 4. On the new episode of Political Beats, Funkmasters Scot Bertram and Jeff Blehar bring on Townhall political editor Guy Benson to yack about Billy Joel. Listen here. 5. The smorgasbord is ample and tasty as ever on the new edition of Jaywalking. From music about Jupiter to Old Man River -- who knows, maybe there's even a hint of "Moon River." Anyway, listen and enjoy here. 6. Charlie -- back from baby-having -- and Kevin saddle up for a long-awaited new episode of Mad Dogs and Englishmen. This time they jawbone about Charlie's new baby, the lack of transparency in healthcare, Charlie's impending citizenship exam, and the foods they couldn't live without. Pay deserved heed here. 7. The western returns are now coming in thanks to Radio Free California: On the new episode, David and Will examine the latest headlines from the California Resistance, the move to put coffee on the state's list of things that'll kill you, Sacramento's attempts to circumvent the Trump tax plan, the skyrocketing cost of Governor Brown's High-Speed Rail project, and yet another effort to divide the state into bite-sized Californias. Dig it here daddy-o. 8. Release the Memo! And the documents supporting it. David and Alexandra investigate the Russian investigation, and campus censorship, on the new edition of The Liberty Files. Listen here. 9. The Jamie Weinstein Show is a yapfest with David Brooks. On tap for the new episode: politics. And Bill Buckley reminiscing. And more. Listen here. 10. Space . . . between your ears . . . the final frontier. There's Star Trek talk and much more (piggy jokes and booze among them!) awaiting your listening pleasure on the new episode of The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg. This week's special guest is . . . Jonah Goldberg! Listen here. 11. Not least: The new episode of Projections finds Ross and Kyle dissecting the Oscar nominations, then talking about that time Paul Newman made a movie about fake news called Absence of Malice because he was angry with the New York Post for reporting he was only 5' 8". Listen here. A Dozen Hot-cha-cha Pieces from Your Favorite Website to Satisfy Many of Your Needs and Curiosities 1. I wrote about Jordan Peterson last week. Well, here's more on this emerging conservative phenom: In his new column, Ben Shapiro lauds the Canadian scholar for countering a key tenet of the Left: The "right" to not be offended. From his piece: This is the ground on which conservatives should fight, of course: acknowledgement that while manners matter, truth matters more. Unfortunately, too many conservatives have responded to Leftist censorship not with truth-above-manners politeness, but with theatrical displays of unconcern with manners themselves. Rudeness is now seen as a substitute for facts. If the Left uses manners as a weapon, the logic goes, let's just discard manners altogether. But there's no reason to do that. We all ought to behave with decency and truth. Those are the twin pillars of conservatism, after all: virtue and reason. Discarding reason undermines virtue by replacing virtue with emotion-based reactivity; discarding virtue undermines the social fabric necessary to undergird the effectiveness of reason. Yes, let's behave with manners. But let's recognize that only a society that values truth can afford manners. 2. Maybe you've heard about it: Congressman Devin Nunes has written a memo. And Andy McCarthy has written an analysis of the often-hysterical clamoring against it. You must read his piece. Here's a selection: The Justice Department and the FBI are reportedly angry that, after they complied with the Intelligence Committee's demand that they make classified and investigative materials available for inspection, Nunes will not permit the FBI to inspect his memo summarizing that information before moving to disclose it. The irony here is rich. These executive-branch agencies did not cooperatively comply with congressional investigators; they stonewalled for five months. To this day they are stonewalling: Just this weekend, they belatedly fessed up that the FBI had failed to preserve five months' worth of text messages -- something they had to have known for months. An American who impeded a federal investigation the way federal investigators are impeding congressional investigations would swiftly find himself in legal jeopardy. 3. More McCarthy. If you want to know why Hillary Clinton wasn't indicted over her email scandal, realize that it was really an Obama-Clinton scandal. Andy explains in a brilliant, detailed piece. 4. California's basket-case status is pretty well summarized in this new column by Victor Davis Hanson. A slice: California imposed new taxes on gasoline and licenses to raise $5.2 billion in order to fix decrepit roads -- which in some sense had been shorted by the decision to spend billions on high-speed rail. Some surveys rate the state's once-cutting-edge freeways among the worst in the country. There is not much of a fallback tax base. California has the nation's highest percentage of impoverished residents after factoring in cost of living. One in three welfare recipients in the U.S. lives in the state. One in four California residents was not born in the United States. California governor Jerry Brown just warned that in the foreseeable future it may be impossible to honor pension obligations to the state's retirees. They may already be underfunded by nearly half a trillion dollars. California's once-impressive annualized GDP is slowing. Despite the tech boom and the national economic renaissance, the state has recently slipped from fifth in the U.S. to 35th in annual economic growth. 5. I had four kids graduate UConn, none a snowflake. #5 is likely starting there next year. I'm worried. Kat Timpf reports on the school's pathetic reaction to a Ben Shapiro talk on campus this week. 6. Jonathan S. Tobin looks at the base-pleasing impact of lefty billionaire Tom Steyer on Democrat politics. From his piece: Anyone who ventured out into the streets at one of the many anti-Trump rallies this past weekend should be able to understand that Steyer is more in touch with the people Democrats need to turn out this fall than Pelosi or Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is. Pelosi and Schumer dismiss the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showing that 70 percent of Democrats back impeachment, while Steyer is giving the base what it wants. 7. Our esteemed editor in chief, R. Lowry, in his new column warns that the Graham-Durbin DACA deal might bestow amnesty on 5 million people. Zounds. From Rich's piece: Then there is the Graham-Durbin idea to give legal status to the parents of DREAMers as well. In theory, this would be another two beneficiaries of amnesty for every DREAMer. If you take the outer bound of the DREAMer amnesty at 3 million and add two parents, you get to 9 million. That's not going to happen. Not every DREAMer is going to have two parents in the country. Parents may not be living or may be ineligible under whatever criteria are established. But it's not far-fetched to believe that a DREAMer amnesty for 2 million could get as high as an overall amnesty for 5 million. 8. Ramesh Ponnuru lays out a worthwhile 2018 GOP agenda. 9. It's Oscar time. The nomination rigmarole was, of course, an anti-Trump exercise. Kyle Smith explains. 10. More women candidates, but hold the Republicans: Alexandra DeSanctis profiles the hypocrisy of the Pink Hats. From her piece: It turns out, then, that our female rescuers are heroic not because they're courageously working to advance their sincere desire for a better America, but because they're Democratic women pushing a left-wing agenda. It's the Women's March on steroids, carrying divisive identity politics from the streets right into political office. For the purposes of this narrative, conservative women might as well not exist. 11. Baseball on a canvas can be a beautiful thing. My NR amigo Nick Frankovich has written a special piece on artist Graig Kreindler, who brings love to the National Pastime through his talented paintbrush. 12. You've got to love an article that begins "Europe's energy policies are worse than stupid." Here is more from Rupert Darwall's piece on how Europe scolds while the U.S. leads: At the end of last year, Sir John Beddington, a former chief scientific adviser to the British government, lifted the lid on the scandal at the heart of the EU's renewable policies. According to Sir John, since the EU's first renewables directive in 2008, the growth of bioenergy -- much of it sourced from North American woods and forests -- has provided around half the expansion of renewable energy. To supply even one third of the additional renewable energy needed to meet Europe's new 2030 target will require an amount of wood roughly equivalent to the combined harvest in the U.S. and Canada. The fiction currently being peddled is that Europe is only burning wood residues -- the bits of trees left over from other uses -- but new EU rules agreed to last week by the European Parliament will expand the definition of bioenergy to include trees specifically harvested to be burnt in power stations. Eye Candy 1. Hey, it's that Guy Benson again. This time he is on the new Prager University video, I'm Gay . . . Conservative . . . So What? 2. Frequent NRO writer and financial whiz David Bahnsen is rip, roaring, and ready for the publication (February 13) of his first book, Crisis of Responsibility: Our Cultural Addiction to Blame and How You Can Cure It. He's also produced this short, neato video explaining the book. Go ahead and check it out. Eight Pieces from NRO Friends that We Happily Encourage You to Read 1. Crisis publishes this excellent observation by dear NR pal Fr. George Rutler about our current time's "clerical vacuity." From this must-read piece: In his Idea of a University, Newman wrote: "Neither Livy, nor Tacitus, nor Terence, nor Seneca, nor Pliny, nor Quintillian, is an adequate spokesman for the Imperial City. They write Latin; Cicero writes Roman." The Church needs a Roman vigor that persuades men to rise above self-consciousness. An English bishop reflected: "Wherever St. Paul went, there was a riot. Wherever I go, they serve tea." In spiritual combat, there is no teatime, and effective strategies cannot be plotted at conferences, synods, workshops, and costly conventions at resort hotels with multiple "break-out" sessions and mellow music. One fears that a fly on the wall at any of those conversations would drop to the floor out of boredom. "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" (1 Cor. 14:8) 2. Little Bobby Gets a Gender Fluidity Lesson: Lifezette's Elizabeth Economou reports on how Seattle kiddies are getting a big dose of multiculturalism: Teachers in a dozen elementary schools across Seattle have been testing a new set of books and lessons on gender diversity, expression, and identity -- topics many would agree are outrageously inappropriate for the classroom, especially for young children, and ones that parents, not public schools, should be addressing. Think about it: Teachers in elementary schools across Seattle are exposing students as young as five years old to curricula about gender fluidity. Parents, if you've been asleep at the wheel, it is time to wake up. Kindergartners are being introduced to "Introducing Teddy," about a teddy bear named Thomas who'd rather be called Tilly, because it feels more like a girl teddy bear than a boy teddy bear. 3. "Your Holiness, John Paul II is on Line One": As a boy, praying for the Catholic missionaries, I remember in particular pleas for Maryknoll bishop James Edward Walsh, an American who for years was imprisoned and tortured by the ChiComs. And now, the current Pope asks the "underground" church's Catholic bishops -- the heirs of those in the catacombs -- to stand aside for PRC-approved bishops. The Catholic Herald reports this most discouraging story. 4. The impoverished Empire State spent a quarter of a billion bucks between 2011 and 2015 on TV ads to promote various gimmicky state programs (the initial budget was $50 million). Reclaim New York wanted to know: Where did the money go? FOI requests have gone unanswered. So the group is doing a little suing of Andrew Cuomo and his bureaucrat lackeys. Here's the story. 5. One can never hear enough that the push to increase the minimum wage hurts consumers and the poor. Joseph Sunde explains for Acton Institute in this very worthwhile analysis. 6. Kellogg Community College in Michigan got you-know-what-slapped by a federal judge for arresting a student who passed out copies of the U.S. Constitution. As usual, with the campus insanity, Greg Piper at The College Fix has the maddening story. 7. Gay Rights movement, Western Division, proving amazingly gutless when it comes to the brutal treatment of LGBTers in many Islamic countries. Giulio Meotti has the story for Gatestone institute. Here's a slice: Gay fashion legends Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana faced a boycott and a backlash of controversy when they said they opposed gay "marriage" and adoption, find in vitro fertilization unnatural, and believe procreation "must be an act of love". The Italian pasta-maker Barilla caused outrage when its chairman Guido Barilla said he would only portray the "classic family" in his advertisements. But LGBT activists and celebrities have never once promoted a boycott of the Islamic regimes which stone, execute and jail their homosexual citizens. Why do they not orchestrate a campaign to boycott Iranian, Indonesian, Palestinian and Turkish goods? 8. The Koch folks and allied people of good will have launched a major effort to reduce crime, reduce recidivism, and change American culture. It's called Safe Streets and Second Chances. From the announcement: Today, a new initiative is being launched to reduce the high rate of recidivism by effectively rehabilitating and equipping incarcerated individuals with the tools they need to return home and become productive members of our communities. Called Safe Streets and Second Chances, the new effort uses proven approaches underpinned by academic research to develop comprehensive reentry activities for those releasing from prison to ensure they are successful once home in our communities. Jim Geraghty gave the effort a lot of attention this week in the Morning Jolt. Catch his take here. Keeping Up with Appearances Looks like David French will be on CNN's Reliable Sources on Sunday. And Rich Lowry will be on NBC's Meet the Press. Keep NR the Sabbath. Follow, follow, follow Elizabeth Economou, Chris Stirewalt, Peter Roff, Roger Ream, Kent Lassman, Joseph Sunde, Acton Institute, Greg Piper, Giulio Meotti, Guy Benson, Betsy DeVos, Ted Cruz, Representative Paul Mitchell, Rep. Virginia Foxx, Representative Luke Messer, Sylvia Simms, David Bahnsen, Jonathan S. Tobin, Ramesh Ponnuru, Representative Devin Nunes, Tuvia Tenenbom, Alexandra DeSanctis, Nick Frankovich, Graig Kreindler, Heather Wilhelm, Ed Feulner. I Recommend this Book I've written before, with praise and deservedly so, of the wise-guy eye-opening reporting / authoring of Tuvia Tenenbom, who has penned another best-seller (in Germany and Israel), this one titled Hello, Refugees. As with his previous acclaimed books (I Sleep in Hitler's Room and Catch the Jew!), Tenenbom, Borat-like, poses for whatever the situation demands: an Arab, a Jordanian, a German, a Jew (which he is), part of a man-in-the-street -- or, in this case man-in-the-refugee-camp -- shtick to befriend, mingle (and eat! and drink! and smoke!) with, and learn unguarded sentiments from an array of guard-down people. With Germany flooded by Syrian (and Afghani, and you-name-it) transplants, Tuvia ricochets throughout Deutschland -- talking to and schmoozing up politicians, officials, cops, refugees, guards, editors, hustlers, shop-owners, and tourists -- to discover the extent and condition of the refugee influx, its consequences, and the unvarnished views of both impacted citizens and the new wards of the Bundesrepublik. As he discovered in I Sleep in Hitler's Room, anti-Semitism -- masquerading in part as support for the Palestinian People and in part as ire at their Israeli "oppressors" -- thrives just under the topsoil of the former Third Reich. More overt is the blindness to the insanity caused by Angela Merkel's opening of Germany's borders. The contortions of the country's über politically correct board-up-der-hintern elites is amazing, and Tenenbom comes across it ad nauseam as he instigates and caroms from Munich to Bayern, Cologne to Dresden. Hello, Refugees is maddening and funny and blood-boiling. It is half-snark, half-goofball, half-indictment, half-excellent reporting by a nervy and talented and always hungry writer and raconteur. Get it. What follows is one of the book's encounters that captures Tenenbom's style, sarcasm, and commentary. A bit lengthy, ja, but it relays a scene confirming Europe's profound and persistent sickness: Near the entrance to the hotel I see three young people, all from Sweden, and we start schmoozing. Proportionally speaking, they tell me, Sweden took in more refugees than any other country. Why did Sweden take in so many refugees? I asked them. Because the swedes are the most humane of people, one of them says. Swedes, another one of them tells me, care more than others about human rights and that's why they took in more than their fair share. Swedish people, they go on to teach me, are the fiercest enemies of all the racists world over. If I'm not mistaken, I say to them, the Swedish people are quite obsessed with the Arab-Israeli conflict. Why is that? "Israel is a mini Nazi State," one of them answers and the others concur. I tell them that I'm German and that as a German I'm very offended by their statement. I shouldn't be, they tell me. The Jews, they said, should have never been allowed to live in what is today "Israel." They should have been directed to settle somewhere else. Where? Wherever. "When a Palestinian kills a Jew," the oldest looking of them says, "the Jews retaliate and kill 100 Palestinians." Constantine of Munich told me that the Israelis killed 36 Palestinians for every day Jew, but here the number jumps to 100. And as in Munich, this guy doesn't have more details. Still, the other swedes agree with his 100 figure. They try to argue with me, but no matter what I say they stick to their belief that the Jews are Nazis. End of story. How could these most you may know people be so anti-Semitic? Again and again, I'm shocked to see European lovers of refugees who are at the same time pure racists. A dios Auf wiedersehen. We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when. Wait a minute -- it's next week. Right here! See you then. God's blessings on you and yours in the meanwhile. Best, Jack Fowler jfowler@nationalreview.com P.S.: Gotta show a little WJ love to my man Phil: He calls out the hypocrisy of the NFL ad police. | 
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