Mandy's Wed Blog: Cool Airport Tech and Sanctimoniousness on Cancel Culture

WHAT WOULD MAKE YOU FEEL SAFE FLYING AGAIN? I'm talking to Chris McLaughlin of Denver International Airport about restoring traveler confidence and what that means for getting through the airport using contactless, biometric solutions to reduce customer contacts. There is some cool stuff happening so join us at 1 for that.

SOME SANCTIMONIOUS LIBS SIGNED A LETTER ABOUT CANCEL CULTURE And now, in what can only be described as ENTIRELY predictable, some of them are now apologizing for co-signing the letter to be published in the next issue of Harper's Bazaar. The letter is here:

A Letter on Justice and Open Debate
July 7, 2020
The below letter will be appearing in the Letters section of the magazine’s October issue. We welcome responses at letters@harpers.org
Our cultural institutions are facing a moment of trial. Powerful protests for racial and social justice are leading to overdue demands for police reform, along with wider calls for greater equality and inclusion across our society, not least in higher education, journalism, philanthropy, and the arts. But this needed reckoning has also intensified a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments that tend to weaken our norms of open debate and toleration of differences in favor of ideological conformity. As we applaud the first development, we also raise our voices against the second. The forces of illiberalism are gaining strength throughout the world and have a powerful ally in Donald Trump, who represents a real threat to democracy. But resistance must not be allowed to harden into its own brand of dogma or coercion—which right-wing demagogues are already exploiting. The democratic inclusion we want can be achieved only if we speak out against the intolerant climate that has set in on all sides.
The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted. While we have come to expect this on the radical right, censoriousness is also spreading more widely in our culture: an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty. We uphold the value of robust and even caustic counter-speech from all quarters. But it is now all too common to hear calls for swift and severe retribution in response to perceived transgressions of speech and thought. More troubling still, institutional leaders, in a spirit of panicked damage control, are delivering hasty and disproportionate punishments instead of considered reforms. Editors are fired for running controversial pieces; books are withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity; journalists are barred from writing on certain topics; professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class; a researcher is fired for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study; and the heads of organizations are ousted for what are sometimes just clumsy mistakes. Whatever the arguments around each particular incident, the result has been to steadily narrow the boundaries of what can be said without the threat of reprisal. We are already paying the price in greater risk aversion among writers, artists, and journalists who fear for their livelihoods if they depart from the consensus, or even lack sufficient zeal in agreement.
This stifling atmosphere will ultimately harm the most vital causes of our time. The restriction of debate, whether by a repressive government or an intolerant society, invariably hurts those who lack power and makes everyone less capable of democratic participation. The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away. We refuse any false choice between justice and freedom, which cannot exist without each other. As writers we need a culture that leaves us room for experimentation, risk taking, and even mistakes. We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences. If we won’t defend the very thing on which our work depends, we shouldn’t expect the public or the state to defend it for us.

And it signed by a bunch of people I've never heard of plus Noam Chomsky, Gloria Steinem and JK Rowling. And since we ALL KNOW JK Rowling (the billionaire author of the Harry Potter series) is the Devil Incarnate because she believes that trans women are NOT the same as biological women, and trans men are NOT the same as biological men, others on the letter are not APOLOGIZING BECAUSE THE MOB CAME FOR THEM. This is HYSTERICALLY funny in an ironic way. Here's the thing. If any of these people REALLY cared about making sure opinions are being heard, they would have stood up for the right wingers that have been cancelled already. But they didn't. They only got concerned when it started happening to them. They can all suck it as far as I'm concerned.

IF REP ILHAN OMAR WERE A REPUBLICAN AND WHITE SHE'D ALREADY BE UNDER INVESTIGATION Because her campaign has funneled $900,000 to her new husband's firm since she took office. This after he said in his divorce filings from his first wife that he was "almost broke" and his business was floundering. Here's the kicker...this isn't against the law. But it damn well should be. And now that I'm on this horrible woman, did you see this? Just watch the first five minutes.

She essentially says that everything and everyone is racist and must be dismantled. It's been fun to watch columnists like this one in the WaPo try to rationalize away what she says be saying that conservatives are just too dumb to understand what she said. No, I most certainly did understand. She's a gawdawful person.

THIS VENEZUELAN SAYS OMAR IS DEAD WRONG In this interview on Fox News. Watch it here.

ONE MORE REASON TO NOT GO TO JERSEY New Jersey has decided to mandate masks EVERYWHERE, indoors and outside too. Not that I've been dying to visit Jersey, but this is one more reason to resolve to never live in the Northeast again.

COLORADO IS THE SECOND MOST RESTRICTED STATE FOR CORONAVIRUS And this is not surprising to me, and it's a bit surprising that we haven't had more pushback from Coloradans. I do believe though that we are overall an agreeable population and I think the Governor making the case early and often was effective. But are you cool with this?

THIS IS WHY SCHOOL CHOICE MATTERS

THE SUPREME COURT AFFIRMS RELIGIOUS RIGHTS At least when it comes to birth control. They have allowed a religious exemption to stand when it comes to employers being forced to offer birth control coverage. The challenge came from The Little Sisters of the Poor and now allows ANYONE, not just religious organizations to opt out of providing birth control based on a religious exemption. Read more here.

WEARING A MASK IN YOUR CAR...IT'S LIKE FIGHTING WORLD WAR II

WE ARE SO SCREWED Because if college students are willing to give up their free speech rights to make other people "feel more comfortable". We are effed.

THE BROOKS BROTHERS LOOK IS BANKRUPT And the company is looking for a buyer. We'll see what happens if they can't find one. But if you're running low on preppy shirts and ties, there may be a deal to be had.

THE BUCS COACH SAYS WHAT WE ALL KNOW...HIS PLAYERS ARE ALL GONNA GET THE RONA And he was very matter of fact when saying it wasn't if, but HOW sick his team gets and when. He's probably right. It seems ridiculous to think that people smashing together in a pile while breathing heavily isn't a hotbed for spread.

WHY HEINZ? WHY? Heinz is selling a handy kit (just in the UK for now) where you can take your favorite Heinz condiment, like say ketchup, and TURN IT INTO ICE CREAM. What the ACTUAL YOU KNOW WHAT, Heinz??? Why is this a thing? And what twisted soul buys this? We need to make a list of whoever purchases this abomination and keep an eye on them.

A STUDY THAT SHOWS WHITE OFFICERS DON'T SHOOT OUT OF RACISM IS RETRACTED But not because the data and analyses are wrong, but because the authors, who clearly intended their research to PROVE a connection between the race of the officer and the race of the deceases victim, don't like that it's being used to PROVE THE OPPOSITE. This is why people who shout 'BUT SCIENCE" need to actually understand that soft sciences are constantly manipulated to create the desired results.

CORONAVIRUS DEATHS ARE STILL DECLINING BUT THE NYTIMES NEEDS YOU TO KEEP PANICKING So they wrote this long article about how it's the response of the medical system that is bringing deaths down BUT WE COULD ALL STILL DIE AT ANY MINUTE.


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