UPDATED: Bruce Jenner And Chris Kyle: Is Either A Hero? (Or Ho?)

Ethics, Pop-Culture, Sex, The State, The Zeitgeist

“Bruce Jenner And Chris Kyle: Is Either A Hero?” is the current column on hedonism vs. heroism. An excerpt:

“True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world,” said a wise man named La Rochefoucauld, centuries ago. That man’s definition excludes most of America’s contemporary heroes.

La Rochefoucauld’s understanding of courage certainly rules out most black community leaders. In Baltimore, a city devastated by anti-police, race rioters, these “leaders” made sure they were seen calling for calm following the orgy of destruction. Away from the cameras, their lives have been given over to causing chaos by preaching racial grievance against white America.

The same imperative of privacy and consistency precludes Bruce Jenner. …

… The famous Olympian athlete turned TV personality has come out very publicly as a transsexual, who is in the process of transitioning to full womanhood; Jenner already has the psyche of a woman. For providing 17 million ABC viewers with a glimpse into his very real inner struggle with sexual identity, Jenner has been hailed as an American hero.

… This is not to diminish Jenner’s excruciatingly difficult journey. However, a stoic Olympian battling his demons in private would have more closely approximated the qualities of a hero.

.. Still, Jenner is more of an American hero than the late Navy SEAL Chris Kyle …

Read the complete column. “Bruce Jenner And Chris Kyle: Is Either A Hero?” is now on WND.

UPDATE (5/1): Heroes or Hos? The MailOnline pictorial, referred to in the column:

‘Honky’ Beaten Into Coma For Lending A Helping Hand

Crime, Criminal Injustice, Race, Racism

Maybe whites who come close to dying because of their self-effacing do-goodism ought to read the “The Talk” John Derbyshire had with his kids. For “The Talk: Nonblack Version,” in which the writer cautioned his kids about life’s dangers, Derbyshire was dismissed from National Review, where he freelanced. (My position is explained in “National Review Eunuchs.”)

“Do not act the Good Samaritan to blacks in apparent distress, e.g., on the highway,” Derb advised his youngsters, in the hope of prolonging their lives. (The father in “Sacrificing Kids To PC Pietism” was happy to make the sacrifice.)

This is Richard Fletcher before and after he intervened between “two girls fighting near his truck.” For his trouble, “a mass of youths, mostly from the nearby Baltimore Community High School, attacked him.” He is in a coma.

I bet that if he emerges from the coma, Mr. Fletcher will declare that he’d to it again in a heart beat.

MORE @ WND (where you can also read my latest column).

Spain And Portugal Pumped With Funny Money

Debt, Economy, EU, Europe

“The ingenuity, industry and activity of the ancient Greeks have nothing in common with the stupidity and indolence of the present inhabitants of those regions.” So said philosopher David Hume about modern-day Creeks.

The “land of moussaka, moochers and looters” and their Marxist leaders refuse to cease living on money borrowed from the more productive EU countries (Germany) .

“Greece,” marvels the Wall Street Journal, “has largely based its brinkmanship on an assumption that the eurozone will ultimately capitulate to its demands to prevent chaos spreading across the currency bloc.”

“Both Spain and Portugal are at risk from a Greek eurozone exit, but they have confidence their economies can withstand the shock.”

Yes, pumping funny money into the money markets has a way of inflating confidences.

UPDATED: Gray Snapped His Own Spine. Yeah. Right.

Crime, Criminal Injustice, Justice, Race

Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, who when calm speaks in CAPS, was super-excited tonight. The cause for her excitement was a stupid report released by the Washington Post, according to which Freddie Gray appears to have broken his own neck and spinal column. Ridiculous.

The source of this nonsense was a “prisoner sharing a police transport van with Freddie Gray,” and who was “separated from Gray by a metal partition and could not see him.”

That settles it, then. Mr. Gray severed his own spinal column.

“We disagree with any implication that Freddie Gray severed his own spinal cord,” said Jason Downs, one of the attorneys for the Gray family. “We question the accuracy of the police reports we’ve seen thus far, including the police report that says Mr. Gray was arrested without force or incident.”

I believe it is as I had surmised: The oafs likely dug their knees into the spinal column and snapped it.

The video “shot by several bystanders …shows two officers on top of Gray, their knees in his back, and then dragging his seemingly limp body to the van as he cried out.”

UPDATE (4/30): NO RESOLUTION, YET.

“Baltimore police,” reports the Wall Street Journal, “… have concluded their investigation into the death of Freddie Gray and turned the results over to the city’s chief prosecutor.”

Police officials also revealed that the police van carrying Mr. Gray after his arrest made a previously undisclosed stop before he reached the Western District police station and was taken to a hospital. Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said a privately owned surveillance camera captured the stop. He offered no additional details, and it was unclear if that stop shed any new light on Mr. Gray’s injuries.

Based on an earlier police timeline, this stop occurred after one where Mr. Gray was placed in leg shackles because he was acting “irate” and before another where police moved Mr. Gray off the van floor and placed him in a seat. At a fourth stop, police picked up an additional prisoner before reaching the station.

Mr. Gray wasn’t buckled into his seat and wasn’t offered medical attention he requested, police have said.

MORE.