The ritual of writing Ubi Libertas Blog is something I internalize, for the most part. Though I appear to speak to you, the reader, what I do here remains quite personal. There are rare moments, however, when I learn that my words have found their way to unexpected places.
A childhood friend thought enough of yesterday’s post, “For the boys,” to share it with his father. The man turned 97 just last month, a lifelong Massillon guy and U.S. Navy combat veteran of World War II. He also served as our troop’s assistant Scoutmaster when his sons and I were Boy Scouts.
According to my friend, his Greatest Generation dad will be subscribing to this Boomer’s humble blog. (He may be reading right now.) I sure didn’t see that comin’.
My first reaction, naturally, is that it’s an honor. It also has me feeling a little self-conscious — when I speak of my hometown now I’d better be accurate, and there’s a good chance I’ll drop profanity here that I never would’ve used in front of my Scout leaders.
So I’ll be sure to do my homework before writing about Massillon. As for my language, I hope an old sailor will make allowances should I get colorful.
There may be no better sport these days than watching The Woke hoist with their own newspeak. I mean, that whole “change the language, rule the world” thing is all well and good ’til somebody loses an eye (or looks like a complete idiot).
Let’s start this round with the opening lines of a press release from the governor of New York:
“Governor Kathy Hochul signed a package of legislation aimed at addressing discrimination and racial injustice. [One bill signed by the governor] declares racism a public health crisis.”
We already know that everything is racist. It follows, then, that racism can be whatever it wants to be — including the Left’s go-to “public health crisis” — as long as it creates victims, cultivates hate and fleeces unsuspecting taxpayers.
This week the chief medical officer at the NYC Department of Health banged out a bunch of tweets about the city’s “birth equity” initiative (related to the aforementioned statewide “public-health crisis”). Somewhere along the way she said this:
“Mortality rates of birthing people are too high, and babies born to Black and Puerto Rican mothers in this city are three times more likely to die in their first year of life than babies born to non-Hispanic White birthing people.”
Uh-oh. See what she did wrong? While straining to satisfy her race-identity quota, and despite dutifully invoking “birthing people,” she also said “mothers.” Worse, she applied approved and unapproved terms differently — horrifyingly, by race. That’s a double violation.
A department spokesperson cleaned up the mess, calling it an “oversight”:
“We apologize for inadvertently gendering Black and Puerto Rican birthing people.”
Leave it to the infanticide lobby to put it all into perspective — this from NARAL:
“When we talk about birthing people, we’re being inclusive. It’s that simple. We use gender neutral language when talking about pregnancy, because it’s not just cis-gender women that can get pregnant and give birth. Reproductive freedom is for every body.”
Can you imagine?
Seriously — what must it be like to be so empty-headed as to use terms like “birthing people” and “gendering” — with a straight [sic] face? To argue that a man can get pregnant and bear a child? To believe in 72 genders? To be catapulted into a full-blown panic attack by a pronoun?
To cast a mindless vote for legislation declaring racism a “public-health crisis”?
These imbeciles and their made-up language are an endless source of entertainment and should be treated as such. Just keep your family — and especially your kids — the hell away from them.
John T. Molloy famously wrote the best-selling book, Dress for Success, in the 1970s. He taught an entire generation — including me, back in the day — how to use clothing to help gain advantage. It’s only one tool, but it can make a difference.
Certain colors convey power. Others, according to Molloy and depending on locale, do not:
“Brown doesn’t work well in Washington. Washington is a blue and gray town. But a lot of people come here from out of town. In Seattle, brown is perfectly acceptable.”
A notable exception was Ronald Reagan — but that’s because he was Ronald Reagan. He radiated confidence, even in a seersucker suit. He could make brown work. Most people can’t and shouldn’t try.
The woman currently installed as Vice President of the United States showed up at last month’s State of the Union garbed entirely in Crayola-grade brown. I noticed it at the time and shook my head — a receding, unconfident persona draped in camo.
Not a strong play.
Amber Athey, editor for The Spectator and host at DC’s allegedly “conservative” WMAL-FM, tweeted a wittier take on the outfit:
“Kamala looks like a UPS employee — what can brown do for you? Nothing good, apparently.”
I wish I’d said that.
Eight days later, without warning or ceremony, Athey was fired by WMAL:
“They told me that the tweet I sent about Kamala was ‘racist’ and that subsequent follow-ups defending myself and making fun of the efforts to cancel me were unacceptable. I had violated the company’s social-media policy, they said, and I was terminated effective immediately.”
You read that right — the woman got canned over a clever comment about the VPOTUS showing up at the seat of federal power dressed like a damned Hershey bar. Because racist.
Amber Athey remains with The Spectator. She refuses to be silenced. She’s showing us all that being fired, censored and canceled isn’t a one-way ticket to victimhood. She’ll continue to actively defend Liberty and raise her voice for Founding Principles.
“Cancel culture” has no power that we don’t give it. Watch and learn, People — watch and learn.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB
(Today’s header image — Republic Steel, Massillon, Ohio in the mid-1950s.)