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As a neophyte graduate student in history in the late 1990s, I once asked a veteran professor how he managed to focus on grad school during the campus protests of the Vietnam Era. “Easy,” he replied. “You went to the library.”
In other words, the protesters might take themselves seriously, but that does not oblige you to do the same. Without wishing them harm, in fact, you might even quietly chuckle when they receive what looks like a mild comeuppance.
At Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, a Georgia state trooper took down a protester with a linebacker-style form tackle that drew high praise on social media.
A 13-second clip posted to social media platform X showed the tackle once, and then again in slower motion.
Photojournalist Billy Heath III of Fox 5 Atlanta called it “one of the first takedowns of many” on the day.
PROTESTER TACKLED BY TROOPER: Video captured at the Pro-Palestine protest at Emory in Atlanta shows the moment a protester is tackled by a Georgia State Patrol trooper. This was one of the first takedowns of many, several protesters were arrested today on the campus. @FOX5Atlanta pic.twitter.com/N96Ny9yqSr
— Billy Heath III (@BillyHeathFOX5) April 25, 2024
Some X users joked that the trooper must have had a background in organized football.
Definitely played HS football, lol!
— Arithia (@Arithia3) April 26, 2024
Wow , he must have played for Alabama
— Tom (@Syloustr) April 26, 2024
That brief clip, of course, provided no context. The trooper might have had a good reason for tackling the protester. Or, the trooper might have tackled the wrong person. Anything is possible, which makes speculation pointless in this particular instance.
In a broader sense, however, the trooper and his fellow officers had plenty of good reasons for being on campus.
Thanks to a video report from Fox 5’s Eric Perry, we do have some much-needed context for the tackle.
“It was something never seen on the campus of Emory University Thursday as pro-Palestinian protesters and those against the Atlanta training facility went head-to-head with law enforcement,” Perry’s report began.
Thus, the protesters at Emory also included antifa miscreants from Atlanta’s “Stop Cop City” movement.
For further context, Michael Doudna of WSB-TV posted a video of a “peaceful” antifa protest outside Emory’s theology school.
As they crowded around law enforcement officers, pushing them against the building, the protesters maintained a chant that equated the Atlanta Police Department (APD) and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
“A-P-D, K-K-K, I-D-F, they’re all the same!” the protesters chanted again and again.
Protestors here at Emory are pushing in on officers near the theology school. Things are starting to escalate here. pic.twitter.com/olCbWIntZg
— Michael Doudna (@MichaelDoudna) April 26, 2024
Perry’s report also showed Emory faculty and staff being led away in handcuffs after cosplaying as activists.
According to representatives of the university, the protest did not originate with members of the Emory community. Thus, university officials called on both Atlanta Police and Georgia State Patrol to help quell the disturbances.
All of this, of course, followed a pattern of ugly recent incidents at campus protests across the country.
In other words, one need not know the identity of the tackling trooper, or the tackled protester, or the reason for the specific tackle, to understand the broader context.
Violent and narcissistic leftist protesters have caused no end of trouble. But police, if given the chance, can handle them.
In the meantime, no one has an obligation to take those narcissists as seriously as they take themselves.
As for university students who must navigate the campus chaos, take a cue from my former professor. Ignore the protesters. Go to the library.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Watch: Georgia State Trooper Puts NFL Pros to Shame with Ruthless Tackle on Anti-Israel Protester appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Skin color, which vies with sexuality for distinction as the most tedious subject in America, has once again made headlines.
Stephen Jackson, who won the 2002-03 NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs and who happens to be black, illustrated the modern mind’s toxic obsession with race when he denigrated black journalist Gayle King, co-host of “CBS Mornings,” for using the first-person plural pronoun “we” when referring to fans who rooted for the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team and superstar guard Caitlin Clark, who happens to be white.
“I don’t consider her black media,” Jackson said of King in a short video posted to Instagram on Saturday.
The former NBA champion cited the veteran journalist’s conduct during an interview with South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley, who also happens to be black.
On April 7, the Gamecocks completed an undefeated season with an 87-75 win over Iowa in the NCAA championship game.
Clark, who helped elevate the popularity of women’s basketball, finished her career as the NCAA Division I all-time scoring leader. On April 15, the Indiana Fever selected Clark with the 1st overall pick in the WNBA draft.
Jackson who played 17 NBA seasons with eight different teams, had nothing negative to say about Clark.
He did, however, betray the ugly tribalism at the root of “race” consciousness when he criticized King for not behaving as he thought a black journalist should behave.
Race, of course, has no meaning outside of human tribalism. As a biological factor, skin color matters as much as eye color or hair color — that is to say, not at all.
Nor is this a new argument. In fact, lawyers for the plaintiff made this same anti-segregation argument — in vain, as it turned out — during the infamous 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
But this does not satisfy people who cling to tribalism and will not let it go.
“Y’all give her all these passes because she f*** with — she’s Oprah[‘s] friend. I don’t give a f*** whose friend she is. That don’t do nothing for nobody,” Jackson said of King.
In her interview with Staley, King said, “We were all cheering for Iowa, of course, and Caitlin Clark,” according to the New York Post.
Jackson took issue with a statement so offensive to tribalists.
“But you cannot demean Dawn Staley like that. You talkin’ to her about winning the championship, about going undefeated. And you have the nerve to get on there and say, ‘Well, we was rootin’ for Caitlin Clark, and you broke everybody hearts,'” Jackson said on Instagram.
He assumed that King, because of her darker complexion, should speak for others with a dark complexion.
“Who is ‘we’? Who is ‘we’? All the black people I know was rootin’ for Dawn Staley,” Jackson said.
Again, the former NBA champion did not attack Clark personally. But he did take issue with King celebrating Clark at what he regarded as Staley’s expense.
“We all fans of Caitlin Clark. But the way you put it? That s*** was trash,” he said.
“You just demeaned [Staley] and made it about Caitlin Clark. That’s trash — super-trash,” he later added.
Readers may view Jackson’s full comments in the video below.
WARNING: The following video contains vulgar language some readers may find offensive.
King, of course, did nothing wrong.
Nor did Staley, whose undefeated South Carolina team deserves all the accolades it gets.
Nor did Clark, whose playing style and scoring prowess attracted many thousands of new fans.
Only Jackson, who cannot let go of the shopworn tribalism we call “race,” came out of this looking boorish.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Watch: NBA Champ Goes on Race Rant, Says Journalist Isn’t ‘Black Media’ After Praising Caitlin Clark appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
More often than not, surveys tend to quantify what impressions have already conveyed. And when it comes to quantifying faith, those impressions might suggest few apparent reasons to hope for good news.
Nonetheless, a new “State of the Bible 2024” survey by the American Bible Society did reveal at least one piece of hopeful news: Amid an otherwise depressing set of revelations, 15 percent of respondents reported an increase in their personal Bible use from 2023 to 2024.
The Jerusalem Post called this a “resilient, albeit small, group of individuals deepening their engagement with scripture.”
Small and resilient, yes, but 15 percent represents a strong minority within a larger-yet-dwindling minority of adults who reported any meaningful Bible engagement at all.
For instance, the “State of the Bible USA 2024” survey revealed that, apart from church services, only 38 percent of American adults “engage with the Bible” as often as three or four times per year outside of church. That number marked a slight decrease from 40 percent in 2023.
Worse yet, as recently as 2011, 50 percent of respondents reported that same frequency of Bible engagement.
The most obvious explanation for that decline lies in generational priorities. As Americans born during the first half of the 20th century have passed away, their beliefs have died with them.
And if the loss of the World War II generation did not already fill us with melancholy, then the realization that Gen-Z values have begun to replace those older beliefs might make us despondent.
Indeed, the survey rated only 11 percent of Gen-Z adults as “Scripture Engaged,” based on a new Spiritual Vitality Gauge that uses nine important questions to assess respondents’ spiritual health.
Furthermore, as measured by the Scripture Vitality Gauge, the number of Americans categorized as spiritually “Ailing” rose from 21 percent to 28 percent since last year.
The decline in Bible engagement also has regional dimensions with partly historical explanations.
For instance, of all the survey’s Bible-engaged respondents, nearly twice as many hailed from the American South as from the Northeast or Midwest.
That makes sense in light of the Protestant influence in Southern history. By contrast, Northern cities in the 19th century experienced multiple waves of mass immigration from predominantly Catholic countries or regions, such as Ireland, Italy and Eastern Europe.
Catholicism, of course, offers its own kind of spiritual vitality. Historically, however, it has not encouraged believers to engage with the Bible in the same way that Protestantism has.
In light of all this, what should we make of Americans’ spiritual health in 2024?
To begin, we might borrow a phrase from prominent Canadian psychologist and political conservative Jordan Peterson.
In a 2022 appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, Peterson beautifully described Christ’s Passion and Resurrection.
“You look far enough into the abyss, you see the light,” Peterson said.
Readers may view a clip of those comments in the YouTube video below. Peterson began talking about the gospels around the 6:25 mark and continued for more than three minutes.
Seeing the light after staring into the abyss seems an apt description of one possible reaction to the spiritual-health survey.
Yes, things look bad, especially for Gen-Z.
On the other hand, in addition to the 15 percent who reported increased Bible engagement, another 53 percent said they wished they could read the Bible more often than they did.
That result would appear to confirm another impression derived from the recent experience of simply living in the world.
In short, as Gen Z’s woke values win cultural ascendancy, exasperated Americans know they can find an antidote in Biblical truth.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Hope: Polling Shows 1 Bright Spot for Christianity in America appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
At some point in the last five years, we stopped merely studying history’s darkest moments and began experiencing them.
For instance, in an 11-second viral clip posted Wednesday to the social media platform X, a woman identified as Loyola Marymount University graduate student Grace Obi-Azuike effectively re-enacted a scene from Nazi Germany when she spewed venomous anti-Jewish hatred and, significantly, incurred no apparent rebuke from the younger people around her who attended an event featuring Israel Defense Forces members.
“Get the f*** out of here, all you ugly-a** little Jewish people in this b****,” the California law student appeared to say in a clip shared by the StopAntisemitism X account.
Obi-Azuike made the comment while seated and signaling in the direction of people who did not appear on camera.
Her insidious remark drew a look of astonishment but also an open-mouthed smile from an androgynous-looking person seated to her left. The male-looking person to her right wore the cloth mask of the COVID cult. His reaction, therefore — perhaps thankfully — remains a mystery.
But some attendees clapped or otherwise voiced approval.
“Oooooh, hooooo, yeah,” an unidentified female voice said.
At that point, an older, suit-wearing man walked over to Obi-Azuike and stood to her left. The camera did not capture what happened next, but he did not appear pleased as he rubbed his chin.
Readers may view the clip below:
WARNING: The following video and post contain vulgar language and racism.
Loyola University Law School – Grace Obi-Azuike appears to be caught yelling “Get the f*ck out of here all you ugly ass little Jewish people in this b*itch”.
Shockingly, she was Loyola’s Anti Racism Center Fellow for 2022-2023.
Grace Obi-Azuike graduates in a few weeks. pic.twitter.com/Bpaxo05gxg
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 17, 2024
According to the Los Angeles school’s Jewish Law Students Association, the Adolf Hitler-like outburst occurred as part of a calculated effort by multiple law students to disrupt an event that featured firsthand accounts from Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
On Instagram, JLSA reported that “a few attendees left trembling as they made their way to their vehicles.”
As one would expect in this age of woke narcissism, the Loyola Law School boasts its own Anti-Racism Center.
The StopAntisemitism post referred to Obi-Azuike as a 2022-2023 fellow at the center — and the humor-focused, real-news site Not the Bee did likewise based on her now-deleted LinkedIn page.
Her intellectual profile certainly fits that of an anti-racist narcissist.
For instance, Obi-Azuike also belonged to the California ChangeLawyers organization.
“Our scholars and fellows are law students and recent law grads who are BIPOC, First Generation, LGBTQ+ and others whose lived experiences and identities are underrepresented in the halls of power,” the group’s scholar and fellow directory proclaimed.
As of Thursday afternoon, Obi-Azuike still appeared on the directory page. The following note appeared on her scholar profile:
“Our community has informed us of an incident that occurred earlier this week at Loyola Law School involving one of our scholarship recipients.
“ChangeLawyers exists to build a more inclusive multiracial democracy that protects and respects the humanity of all people — including our Jewish, Black, Muslim, and Women-identified communities. Any words or actions that denigrate the humanity of others flies in the face of our values. We do not condone racism or hate speech in any form, spoken or posted online.
“To all our community members: You Belong. ChangeLawyers will always be a place of compassion, empathy, and understanding.”
Obi-Azuike also appeared among the California Association of Black Lawyers‘ 2024 law student scholarship recipients.
On Feb. 2, LMU recognized Obi-Azuike among 11 graduate finalists who each received $5,000 to support research “focused on areas of diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism.”
She also has served as president of the LLS Black Law Students Association. In that role, with a paean to the Juneteenth holiday, she provided a glimpse into the mind of a young narcissist.
“We comprise the generation of individuals that have the strongest ability to dismantle and end racism throughout this country,” Obi-Azuike wrote.
Predictably, she also insisted on the need to “understand the intersection between law and systemic racism.”
In other words, like many young victims of woke education and culture, Obi-Azuike sees the world primarily through skin color — and she obviously felt empowered to count herself with the “generation” that could “dismantle and end racism.”
Oh, how our schools have failed to encourage humility in such self-important crusaders.
Nonetheless, though unfortunate to have come of age in an era that validates narcissism, Obi-Azuike is no victim here.
For one thing, she reminds us that anti-racism amounts to nothing more than institutionally approved racism.
More importantly, her ugly outburst called to mind a 1998 book by historian Christopher R. Browning.
In “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland,” Browning explained how a group of “average middle-aged Germans” transformed into executioners during the Holocaust.
In short, it did not take much for those initially reluctant killers to become eager instruments of mass murder.
Above all, it took an atmosphere in which officials encouraged such phrases as “you ugly-a** little Jewish people.”
Not long ago, we could study the past and wonder how things could have ever turned so dark. Now, however, we wonder no more.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Law College ‘Anti-Racism’ Fellow Caught on Camera Piling Vicious Hatred on ‘Ugly…Little Jewish People’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
They have good reasons for doing it. And we have good reasons for not trusting them.
Sometimes, two seemingly contradictory statements each contain essential truths.
Last week, Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, of Indiana, signed Executive Order 24-05, a statewide disaster emergency declaration in advance of Monday’s expected total solar eclipse.
Parts of Indiana lay in the eclipse’s path of totality. For that reason, Holcomb predicted “several hundred thousand visitors” to the state.
If that happens, then the massive influx of people “may well stress and/or interfere with first responder and public safety communications and emergency response systems such that a technological or other emergency may occur,” Holcomb’s order read.
Fortunately, according to WLS, Indiana’s membership in the Emergency Management Assistance Compact allows it to call on other member states for resources.
Indiana has not seen a total solar eclipse since 1869 and will not see another until 2099.
Thus, officials in The Hoosier State and elsewhere have begun preparations for a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Chairman Shaun Gilliant, of the Essex County New York Board of Supervisors, for instance, explained that he and other county officials declared a state of emergency in anticipation of heavy traffic and even cellular service disruptions, according to NBC 5 in New York.
According to WHIO in Dayton, Ohio, the city council in nearby Riverside will decide at Thursday night’s meeting whether to declare a temporary emergency.
“The City of Riverside is expected to more than double its population for this event,” the city said last month.
In other words, state and local officials across the path of totality expect an event that will tax their normal resources.
Richard Fienberg, of the American Astronomical Society’s Solar Eclipse Task Force, put that event in an understandable context.
“Having a total solar eclipse pass through the U.S. is kind of like having 20 or 30 Super Bowls happening all at once,” Fienberg said according to Time.
State and local officials, therefore, appear to have taken appropriate action in advance of the big event.
In so doing, however, some officials might have either observed or anticipated a curious reaction from a skeptical public.
“This is nothing negative about the eclipse,” county administrator Robert Hagemann of Jefferson County, New York, told WWNY-TV in an email.
That kind of reassurance says less about the emergency declarations than it does about the times in which we live.
For instance, during the total eclipse, sky watchers might also catch an otherwise impossible daytime glimpse of the Pons-Brooks comet. As it approached the sun in July, the cryovolcanic comet spewed gas and ice that gave it the appearance of having horns, which led to the nickname “devil’s comet.”
Total solar eclipses occur only rarely. And Monday’s eclipse might make visible a “devil’s comet” that passes Earth about once every 71 years.
Could God be sending his sinful children a celestial message?
Indeed, The Washington Times observed that social media had caught fire with “sensational conspiracy theories,” some of which “draw spurious connections between scriptural verses and the upcoming eclipse.”
The Times, of course, dismissed those theories as “unsupported by empirical evidence and stem[ming] from a misinterpretation of astronomical events.” And they may well be.
On the other hand, God could hardly choose a more appropriate time to warn us of the need for repentance.
Furthermore, dismissing “sensational conspiracy theories” misses the twofold point.
First, from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to the federal government’s COVID-era censorship of information that powerful people found inconvenient to their fear-mongering narrative, the conspiracy theorists have a far better truth-telling record than does the establishment media.
Second, state and local officials — to say nothing of the tyrannical federal government — do not deserve citizens’ trust. After what they did during COVID, for instance, they can do nothing without arousing rightful suspicion of their motives.
In short, government officials certainly can justify eclipse-related emergency declarations.
But we also know what they are capable of doing to us. So we must never trust them for any reason.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Officials Along Path of Eclipse Quietly Declaring States of Emergency appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
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