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Culture Tag

Few things make me as simultaneously sad and frustrated as what is happening to higher education in this country.  In an apparent effort to boost the number of anti-Second Amendment high school walkouts, colleges and universities are now announcing that suspensions for anti-gun protests won't harm their chance of admission. It's not difficult to understand from these announcements that such suspensions would actually make the applicant more attractive to these very institutes of higher learning.  In this socio-cultural climate, nothing says "top admissions candidate" like a proven record of social justice agitation and protest.

If you've spent any time on the internet, you know that school shootings bring out the worst in people and in supposed constructive discourse. If there's any "at least" this time around, it's that the conversation has largely passed up gun control advocates seeking to capitalize on tragedy and has shifted to "this is how we need to discuss these things with one another" and "this is how the system has failed our children." The latter is more deserving of our time and attention, but the former is necessary if we're ever to get to the point where we can rationally and earnestly discuss solutions.

Lobsters have gone from being considered "trash" food fit only for servants, the poor, and cats to being a much-loved, often expensive delicacy. Everyone has heard the myth that lobsters "scream" when tossed in a pot of boiling water—they don't, they have no vocal cords, but research does indicate that lobsters (and crabs) may feel pain. It is on this basis that Switzerland passed a law last year banning the boiling of live lobsters.  The law goes into effect on March 1st.

Until the prof sent me this story, I had never heard of a pangolin, and my initial impression (as a Southerner) was that it looks like a giant armadillo.  The pangolin, however, is an anteater that is currently endangered because its scales are seen as medicinal and its meat a delicacy in Africa and Asia.  As such, this scaly anteater is the most poached and most trafficked mammal in the world. seeks to illuminate the plight of the pangolin and to ensure that this mammal survives into future generations.

Our collective personification of animals has done far more harm than good. It began by pretending pets veritable children (they're not) and now, Reuters is seriously considering a "glass ceiling" for female dogs at the Westminster Dog Show.

You know the radical left has gone well and truly off the rails when uber-progressive Bill Maher is among the only consistent voices of reason.  Maher is well and truly over the #MeToo movement's insistence that a comment a woman finds offensive is just as onerous as a violent rape. Disgusted with the #MeToo warlock hunt, Maher recently referred to the movement as #MeMcCarthyism.

Oh how the tides have turned. Democrats have thought latching onto celebrities would keep their brand afloat, but that has slowly died down with Trump's victory being the climax. Well, so we thought. Democrats and celebrities have a tough time accepting reality...you know, like how us regular Americans don't give a damn about what they think. Trump delivered them ANOTHER blow with his State of the Union last month while ANOTHER awards show dipped in ratings because we are sick and tired of being lectured by over paid snobs.

Adam Carolla and Dennis Prager have partnered to make a documentary film about political correctness and the danger it presents to comedy and free speech, particularly on college campuses. The film is called "No Safe Spaces" and will be released this fall.

Sunday's Grammy Awards proved once again that the American entertainment industry is increasingly disconnected from the people they're meant to entertain. As part of the show, artists read excerpts from Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury', an anti-Trump book. 'Fire and Fury', a problematic work (the veracity of which Wolff himself is unsure) blew up the news cycle prior to its release several weeks ago.

According to its website, New York City's Guggenheim Museum "collects, preserves, and interprets modern and contemporary art, and explores ideas across cultures through dynamic curatorial and educational initiatives and collaborations.". Therefore, when given the opportunity to send a Vincent Van Gogh piece to display at the White House, so First Lady Melania Trump could demonstrate American support for classic art, the representatives at the Guggenheim behaved in the professional and exemplary manner that you would expect from the New York City art world:

Democrats have spent years trying to "Raise the Wage" for workers in entry-level and part-time jobs, to no avail. Their approach was all wrong. Though they successfully installed minimum wage hikes in blue locals, the exact population they sought to help experienced layoffs, hour cuts, and even store closures as a result of the mandated wage increases (we've cataloged this ongoing story extensively). Thanks to recent changes in tax laws, Starbucks employees will finally get the wage bumps Democrats have spent years trying to deliver.

As the #MeToo movement faces backlash from the left and backlash to the backlash from other elements of the left, Bill Maher wades into the controversy.  Maher, who is unafraid to say things that will be unpopular with his leftist audience, stated that he is "down with #MeToo, I’m not down with #MeCarthyism.” Maher notes that the #MeToo movement has developed into a McCarthy-like witch hunt that does not distinguish between degrees of offense or even between a joke and sexual harassment.  He labels them "distinction deniers."

I look forward to Martin Luther King Jr. Day every year because it affords me the opportunity to post one of my favorite speeches of all time, Dr. King's "Loving Your Enemies" speech. Speaking at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, on 17 November 1957, King implored those in attendance to love their enemies, no matter the cost.