Category: Essays And Commentaries

Long essays or op-ed length commentaries on the issues of the day or on topics of special interest.

Can the Democrats offend enough people to make even their aggressive election tampering impossible?

3:24 pm

Are Americans finally waking up and emulating their country's founders?

I normally pay little attention to polls, since for the last two decades they have not only been unreliable but generally weighted unfairly against Republicans. More often than not they have been used not to give us a sense of the state of the political campaign but to make us all believe a Democratic Party victory was inevitable.

However, a poll this week was so astonishing that I think it deserves some discussion. According to a national USA Today-Suffolk University poll published on January 2, 2023 by USA Today, large numbers of blacks, Hispanics, and young voters are now willing to abandon the Democratic Party, and do so in numbers that are shocking and unprecedented. As noted in this article about the poll,
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23 comments

National Labor Relations Board files complaint against SpaceX

9:51 am

Elon Musk, a target for destruction by Joe Biden
Elon Musk, a target for destruction
by Joe Biden

The Biden administration’s continuing legal harassment of SpaceX and Elon Musk was escalated yesterday when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a new complaint against the company, accusing it of firing eight employees illegally for writing a public letter criticizing the company in 2022.

The letter, circulated in 2022, criticized Musk’s actions and the allegations of sexual harassment against him, claiming they were negatively contributing to the company’s reputation. The letter also said the company was failing to live up to its “No Asshole” policy and its policy against sexual harassment.

The letter, whose authorship was not known at the time it was first reported, called on SpaceX to “publicly address and condemn Elon’s harmful Twitter behavior,” to “hold all leadership equally accountable” for bad behavior, and to “clearly define what exactly is intended by SpaceX’s ‘no-asshole’ and ‘zero tolerance’ policies and enforce them consistently.”

According to the NLRB, one SpaceX employer held interviews to determine the writers of the letter, after which they were fired. The case will go before the NLRB in March.

Is this another case of blacklisting, similar to the numerous stories I’ve reported for the last four years where someone was fired for having political opinions? I don’t think so, though some could argue otherwise. In those many other cases, the opinions expressed were generally political in nature and unrelated to the work environment itself. If a company is demanding you bow to critical race theory and admit you are racist simply because you are white and fires you when you refuse, that is not the same as writing a letter accusing your employer of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment, and then soliciting signatures from the entire workforce before releasing it publicly. The first case is a direct slander against the employee and is an unreasonable demand. The second is a concerted effort to foster a workplace mutiny, something unacceptable to all employers. It seems the company would have the right to remove such malcontents from its place of business.

Gywnne Shotwell, SpaceX’s CEO, made these facts very clear at the time the letter was published.
» Read more

12 comments

Sunspot update: Are we now in the next solar maximum?

9:57 am

Time for my monthly update on the Sun’s sunspot activity has it proceeds through its eleven-year sunspot cycle. NOAA has released its update of its monthly graph showing the number of sunspots on the Sun’s Earth-facing hemisphere, and I have posted it below, annotated with further details to provide a larger context.

In December sunspot activity increased slightly for the second month in a row, but only by a little bit. The number of sunspots for the month was still significantly below the highs seen in the summer, and continue to suggest that the Sun has already entered solar maximum (two years early), and like the previous two solar maximums in 2001 and 2013, will be double peaked.
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11 comments

The global launch industry in 2023: A record third year in a row of growth, with dark clouds lurking

10:37 am

In 2023 the world saw a continuing rise in the global launch industry. As happened in 2021 and 2022, the record for the most launches in a single year was smashed. In 2023 nations and companies managed to complete more than 200 launches for the first time ever, with the number of launch failures so small you could count them on one hand.

Furthermore, if the predictions by several companies and nations come true, 2024 will be an even greater success. These predictions however all depend on everything continuing as it has, and there are many signs this is not going to be the case. More and more it appears the political world will act to interfere with free world of private enterprise, in some cases intentionally, in others indirectly.

Let us begin by taking a look at 2023.
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22 comments

Republicans propose another deep state bureaucracy to enforce civil rights laws

12:10 pm

Failure Theater!

Failure theater: In their typically impotent attempt to fight the leftist movement that is imposing a new racial bigotry across America, several Republicans in Congress have proposed a new special government office in Washington that will be specifically assigned the job of preventing racial discrimination at universities.

The College Admissions Accountability Act, introduced by Sen. J.D. Vance (R., Ohio) and Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.), would establish a special inspector general within the Education Department—separate from the Office of Civil Rights—to probe potential violations of the colorblind standard set forth in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ruled that race-conscious admissions programs violate the 14th Amendment. The bill would also bar schools that flout the decision from receiving any form of federal aid.

…The bill, which appropriates $25 million for the new role and is cosponsored by Sens. Ted Budd (R., N.C.), Mike Braun (R, Ind.), Josh Hawley (R., Mo.), Eric Schmitt (R., Mo.), and Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), does include a sunset clause that would terminate the office after 12 years. Republicans seem to be betting that recalcitrant universities will, after a decade of robust enforcement, throw in the towel and evolve colorblind norms.

These senators and congressmen, along with several conservative think tanks, think naively that this office will the place for anyone of any race to go to get justice should a university receiving federal funds create a program that specifically excludes them solely because of their race. The aim will supposedly be to target specifically the new Diversity-Inclusion-Equity programs at universities and in governments that are imposing this new discrimination against whites, Asians, and Jews.

The foolishness of this plan is hard to measure. » Read more

10 comments

All I feel is fury at the bankruptcy of academia decades ago

1:55 pm


A modern Ivy League education: “But Brawndo’s got what plants crave.
It’s got electrolytes!”

Recently Bari Weiss, former New York Times journalist who it blacklisted because she refused to follow the leftist narrative when the facts said otherwise, wrote a heart-wrenching column about the fall of American academia. She began as follows:

Twenty years ago, when I was a college student, I started writing about a then-nameless, niche ideology that seemed to contradict everything I had been taught since I was a child.

…What I saw was a worldview that replaced basic ideas of good and evil with a new rubric: the powerless (good) and the powerful (bad). It replaced lots of things. Color blindness with race obsession. Ideas with identity. Debate with denunciation. Persuasion with public shaming. The rule of law with the fury of the mob.

People were to be given authority in this new order not in recognition of their gifts, hard work, accomplishments, or contributions to society, but in inverse proportion to the disadvantages their group had suffered, as defined by radical ideologues. According to them, as James Kirchick concisely put it: “Muslim > gay, black > female, and everybody > the Jews.”

I was an undergraduate back then, but you didn’t need a PhD to see where this could go. And so I watched, in horror, sounding alarms as loudly as I could.

I was told by most Jewish leaders that, yes, it wasn’t great, but not to be so hysterical. Campuses were always hotbeds of radicalism, they said. This ideology, they promised, would surely dissipate as young people made their way in the world.

It is essential to repeat her second paragraph again to understand the utter bankruptcy of this new “philosophy.” It was…

… a worldview that replaced basic ideas of good and evil with a new rubric: the powerless (good) and the powerful (bad). It replaced lots of things. Color blindness with race obsession. Ideas with identity. Debate with denunciation. Persuasion with public shaming. The rule of law with the fury of the mob.

» Read more

11 comments

The violent animals on the left who support Hamas

12:20 pm

Hamas protesters threaten blind children
Hamas protesters threaten blind children

I am in no mood this day to be polite or diplomatic. The ugliness exhibited in the past week by pro-Hamas demonstrators — using the violent techniques of Antifa and BLM and copying Nazi storm-trooper tactics — deserve no politeness. They are no longer acting like civilized rational human beings, but mere animals eager to kill and only held back from that goal by the last few shreds remaining of civilization’s rule of law.

Thus, at this moment they only attack innocent people in ugly ways, not intending to kill but clearly hoping to intimidate and strike fear into the hearts of everyone else. Some examples from the past three days:

The last story in this list is especially egregious. The screen capture above shows two demonstrators on stage. In the video at the link they are screaming and yelling, with the one on the right charging at the children in a threatening manner. Remember, this is a fund-raiser for blind children. Those kids cannot see, so all they know is that someone unexpected has appeared on the stage and is screaming at them, and their helpers are desperately trying to get them to safety.

This behavior illustrates perfectly the hatred and viciousness of all these pro-Hamas demonstrators. » Read more

4 comments

Repost: The real meaning of the Apollo 8 Earthrise image

11:19 am

I wrote this essay in 2018, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission to the Moon. I think it worth reposting again, especially because stories about Apollo 8 still refuse to show the Earthrise image as Bill Anders took it.
———————————————

Earthrise, as seen by a space-farer
Earthrise, as seen by a space-farer

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the moment when the three astronauts on Apollo 8 witnessed their first Earthrise while in orbit around the Moon, and Bill Anders snapped the picture of that Earthrise that has been been called “the most influential environmental picture ever taken.”

The last few days have seen numerous articles celebrating this iconic image. While all have captured in varying degrees the significance and influence of that picture on human society on Earth, all have failed to depict this image as Bill Anders, the photographer, took it. He did not frame the shot, in his mind, with the horizon on the bottom of the frame, as it has been depicted repeatedly in practically every article about this image, since the day it was published back in 1968.

Instead, Anders saw himself as an spaceman in a capsule orbiting the waist of the Moon. He also saw the Earth as merely another space object, now appearing from behind the waist of that Moon. As a result, he framed the shot with the horizon to the right, with the Earth moving from right to left as it moved out from behind the Moon, as shown on the right.

His perspective was that of a spacefarer, an explorer of the universe that sees the planets around him as objects within that universe in which he floats.

When we here are on Earth frame the image with the horizon on the bottom, we immediately reveal our limited planet-bound perspective. We automatically see ourselves on a planet’s surface, watching another planet rise above the distant horizon line.

This difference in perspective is to me the real meaning of this picture. On one hand we see the perspective of the past. On the other we see the perspective the future, for as long humanity can remain alive.

I prefer the future perspective, which is why I framed this image on the cover of Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 the way Bill Anders took it. I prefer to align myself with that space-faring future.

And it was that space-faring future that spoke when they read from Genesis that evening. They had made the first human leap to another world, and they wished to describe and capture the majesty of that leap to the world. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

Yet, they were also still mostly Earth-bound in mind, which is why Frank Borman’s concluding words during that Christmas eve telecast were so heartfelt. He was a spaceman in a delicate vehicle talking to his home of Earth, 240,000 miles away. “And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth.” They longed deeply to return, a wish that at that moment, in that vehicle, was quite reasonable.

Someday that desire to return to Earth will be gone. People will live and work and grow up in space, and see the Earth as Bill Anders saw it in his photograph fifty years ago.

And it is for that time that I long. It will be a future of majesty we can only imagine.

Merry Christmas to all, all of us still pinned down here on “the good Earth.”

12 comments

The Biden war against Musk is a war against America

1:33 pm

How the modern Democratic Party has evolved madly to the left, according to Elon Musk
How the modern Democratic Party has evolved
madly to the left, according to Elon Musk

In 2022 Elon Musk essentially completed the long process of going from what he described as a moderate who had previously voted overwhelming for Democrats to a Republican voter strongly hostile to the present Democratic Party.

He announced this shift in a tweet on May 18, 2022, in which he said the following:

In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party.

But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.

Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold. [emphasis mine]

In the almost twenty months since Musk made that statement, his prediction of a “dirty tricks campaign” by the Democrats has become quite evident and true. Numerous federal agencies under the control of President Joe Biden began taking strong actions to stymie Musk’s companies, sometimes abusing the law in what appear to be legitimate ways, and sometimes abusing power in ways that are absurd. Below is a short list, many of which have been repeatedly reported here at Behind the Black:
» Read more

18 comments

What makes a Nazi?

1:10 pm

The user's manual for today's pro-Hamas demonstrators
The user’s manual for today’s
pro-Hamas demonstrators

If you have any doubts that we live in a revised version of 1930s Germany, you need only open your eyes for only a few seconds and read these stories below. The list is hardly comprehensive, as it only provides a small sampling of the vicious, violent, and hateful demonstrations, riots, and violence that began after October 7th in support of the rape, torture, and murder by Hamas of more than 1,400 Israelis, many of whom were women and children, and have since morphed into an anti-Jewish compaign designed to intimidate and oppress Jews everywhere, merely because they are Jews.

The mob in front of the Israeli embassy in the third link above made very clear, in blunt chants, what all these pro-Hamas demonstrators want, as well as who they are:
» Read more

26 comments

Is the pushback against the bigots in academia finally and actually becoming real?

2:04 pm

The Liberty Bell
“Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all
the inhabitants thereof.” Photo credit: William Zhang

To end this week on a positive note, a plethora of stories in the past few days strongly suggest that the bigoted status quo in most universities in America is finally facing some real pushback, pushback that includes the arrests of lawbreaking protesters, actual budget cuts to universities for having racial quotas and promoting race hatred, and the passing of new legislation to better enforce the civil rights laws that have been on the books since the 1960s.

First we have the news out of Pennsylvania. Yesterday the state legislature, led by the Republican caucus, voted down a $33.5 million budget item for the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school, doing so expressly because of that university’s apparent toleration of anti-Semitism as well as its extensive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) program.

Annual state aid for Penn’s veterinary school normally draws strong bipartisan support in Pennsylvania’s Legislature and, earlier Wednesday, had won overwhelming approval in the Republican-controlled Senate.

However, it failed late Wednesday night in the House after the Republican floor leader spoke against it, saying Penn must do more to make it clear that it opposes antisemitism. “Until more is done at the university in terms of rooting out, calling out and making an official stance on antisemitism being against the values of the university, I cannot in good conscience support this funding,” GOP House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler said during floor debate.

Though the funding bill was supported by the entire Democratic Party caucus (whose base pushes these bigoted policies and so at heart so do the Democrats) as well as about 25% of the Republican caucus, it failed to gain the needed two-thirds majority to pass.

While this vote is a start, it hardly does enough. The state government still funds UPenn’s racial quota program, which includes programs that give favored treatment to women and minorities while discriminating against others, merely because of their sex or skin color.

Meanwhile at Brown University in Rhode Island, college officials called the police to have forty-one pro-Hamas students arrested for occupying a building.
» Read more

13 comments

The long term deep-rooted bigotry at MIT, sadly typical of modern academia

1:41 pm

MIT student body, broken down by race

In doing my essay yesterday about the deep roots of corruption and bigotry within American academia, focused specifically on Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylanvia, I came across some revealing graphs proudly posted on the website of MIT’s own Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office that I decided needed to be highlghted more prominently.

The first graph is to the right. It shows the student percentages of various races at MIT, from 2005 through 2023. It clearly proves that the administration of MIT is aggressively discriminating against whites in order to meet the demands of its “MIT Strategic Action Plan for Belonging, Achievement, & Composition” [pdf] (webpage here). Since 2005 there has been a 25% drop in white students at the school, with the main beneficiaries of this discrimination international students and Asians. Other minorities, such as Hispanics and blacks, also gained but to a much smaller extent.

The key word in that Strategic Action Plan’s title is the word “Composition.” Sounds so benign, doesn’t it? What is refers to however is the entire racial quota system the school has instituted to reduce its white population. As noted on the webpage describing this term:

The composition of our community, and of our leadership, should reflect a commitment to diversity. Establishing objectives, defining steps for achieving them, and improving processes for collecting more nuanced identity data will empower us to see ourselves more clearly and make progress.

In other words, the university must make a person’s “identity” or race the most important component in considering them for admission. Talent, skill, education, or experience are irrelevant. All that matters is skin color.

That webpage goes on to carefully delineate the methods used to implement this racial quota system, while always using carefully worded language that — while it conveys its clearly bigoted intent — does so in a way to give the university deniability if it is ever accused of discrimination.

Below are similar graphs showing racial percentages for both MIT’s staff and faculty.
» Read more

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