George Will was moved by Ken Burns’s new documentary, The U.S. and the Holocaust, which premiers this evening in the U.S. on PBS. Also moved by this documentary is Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby. A slice from Jacoby:
There are a number of interlocking themes in “The US and the Holocaust.” Among them: the entrenched antisemitism of prewar America, the stiff anti-immigration laws that excluded most refugees from the United States, and the way Jim Crow segregation in the American South provided a model for the Nazis’ infamous Nuremberg laws stripping German Jews of their rights. In his trademark fashion, Burns interweaves gripping human stories, some recounted by survivors who managed to avoid the fate that befell 6 million of Europe’s Jews, others told about those who struggled in vain for permission to enter America but ended up as corpses in the Nazi ghettoes, execution pits, and death camps.
Through it all, the US government, with some rare and heroic exceptions, not only refused to help Europe’s Jews escape the Nazi genocide, it went to extremes to suppress or downplay reports of the horror that was underway. Hull’s grotesque contention in the spring of 1933 that putting a lid on anti-Nazi criticism in America was the best way to ease anti-Jewish attacks in Germany was no aberration. Again and again, the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and especially the State Department, where FDR’s close friend and financial backer Breckinridge Long was a powerful assistant secretary of state, worked assiduously to thwart refugees from reaching safe haven in the United States.
Pierre Lemieux joins in to expose the damage done to America’s economy by the cronyist Jones Act.
Antony Davies and James Harrigan decry the weakening of the U.S. Constitution.
Wall Street Journal columnist Andy Kessler explains that one Michael Faraday is worth 1,000 Faucis. Three slices:
The public’s trust in scientists is way down this year, according to the Pew Research Center. Ya think? “Fifteen days to slow the spread” and “flatten the curve” may have something to do with it. Some airlines still hand out disinfecting wipes as you board—to combat an airborne virus. Real scientists, like Michael Faraday (1791-1867), whose birthday is this week, would be rolling their eyes.
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Why is science so maligned these days? To me, the turning point came in 1984, with (fictional) Columbia professor and ghostbuster Dr. Peter Venkman, played by Bill Murray, who when questioned said, “Back off, man. I’m a scientist.”
Venkman’s false claim of authority surely influenced Al Gore to claim during his 2007 congressional testimony on climate change, “The science is settled.” Wait, wasn’t that perjury? Science is never settled. Faraday was ahead of this, saying, “A man who is certain he is right is almost sure to be wrong.”
Same for Anthony Fauci, who was wrong on masks, social distancing and school closings, and who claimed his detractors were “really criticizing science, because I represent science.” Back off, man.
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Here’s the latest science hypocrisy. President Biden gave a speech last week in Boston on his “cancer moonshot” initiative, which will require lots of biology and chemistry. Yet his administration’s Federal Trade Commission tried to block DNA sequencer Illumina from buying and ramping up artificial-intelligence-enabled cancer-screening company Grail to find cancer early. Unscientific policy kills scientific advancement.
TANSTAFPFC (There Ain’t No Such Thing As Free Protection From Covid.)
I will be in Melbourne and Sydney this coming week, speaking at various events on covid policy. Information about these events are at the links below. It would be great to meet folks in person if you can make it!
