Some years ago, I wrote about the first contested presidential election between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson that the campaign was so dirty that to set the bar for future campaigns any lower, you would have to dig a hole. Last night in Cleveland, Donald Trump and Joe Biden dug a pit and kept on digging for over 90 minutes.  The “crapshow”, as one of my NET3D colleagues aptly described it, was an appalling debacle. I have been trying to come up with something positive to say about either man’s performance, and I’m simply unable.  The thought that kept running … Continue reading An Appalling Debacle

Rats!  You know what you want to say, can’t quite figure out how to say it, and somebody smarter than you beats you to it.  Oh, well, there’s always plagiarism. Jim Geraghty of National Review, whose beat is politics and who writes the Morning Jolt newsletter, entitled a segment of a recent Morning Jolt “Ninety-Five Theses, Nailed to the Door of Cable News”.  Read it, and read the blogpost upon which it is based.  Go on, I can wait.  https://www.arianapekary.net/post/personal-news-why-i-m-now-leaving-msnbc No one would mistake Geraghty or the magazine he writes for as anything but conservative, and Geraghty himself is a … Continue reading There’s Always Plagiarism

NET3D readers, if you’ll allow me a moment of personal privilege. I recently started a new job writing and editing for New Right Network (which I invite you to check out and subscribe to the newsletter or NRN+ site if you’d like. You’ll also find us on social media @ New Right Network). I’m not going anywhere, so you’re stuck with my continued wit and charm (as well as my good-natured modesty) here on NET3D. With my colleagues’ blessings, I may share things I’ve written over at NRN now and then. This is one they thought I should pass along … Continue reading Biden’s Case Against…Biden

Passing Passing for white used to be a thing, (sadly) understandable in the days of Jim Crow and near-universal racial prejudice, when a “single drop of black blood” could change one’s future for the worse, closing off most opportunity for education, advancement outside the ghettoized black community, and achieving financial well-being.  So what to make of people like Rachel Dolezal a few years ago, and this woman, who for years passed as black: https://www.foxnews.com/us/white-gwu-history-professor-lied-being-black I just don’t understand.  Institutionalized, legally-sanctioned and/or socially-imposed racial discrimination was almost extinguished well over 50 years ago, and American society has worked diligently to stamp … Continue reading Random Thoughts, Dazed and Confused Edition

Long after the passions of the moment pass, the history of the Covid-19 pandemic is going to be written, and it won’t be pleasant or ennobling.  The Chinese government will come off as villainous; it brazenly lied about what it knew was happening, then attempted to obfuscate the situation, then attempted to blame other nations.  The World Health Organization allowed the Chinese to lead it around by the nose and raised the alarm far too late; worse than useless, it helped create the disaster.  Only a handful of countries acted in time to effectively quash the illness, and they had … Continue reading Taking the Hit

Can we just stop all the negativity already? Every day, I trudge to the mailbox in the scorching heat and pull out a handful of political ads. Recently, most of them have been ugly…and I don’t mean the candidate photos. Negative campaign ads are certainly nothing new and they ramp up every election year near the primary and general elections. I rarely watch television, so I miss the negative commercials candidates spend millions to run. But between mailers, social media and ads, they have plenty of opportunities to tell us why we shouldn’t vote for their opponents; I just want … Continue reading Campaign Negativity: Make. It. Stop.

Bari Weiss is – sorry, was – an opinion writer at the New York Times.  She recently resigned, and wrote a resignation letter for the ages.  It is a damning indictment of a once-great newspaper.  Please read it here: https://www.bariweiss.com/resignation-letter A key excerpt: ”My own forays into Wrongthink have made me the subject of constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views. They have called me a Nazi and a racist; I have learned to brush off comments about how I’m “writing about the Jews again.” Several colleagues perceived to be friendly with me were badgered by coworkers. My … Continue reading The Education of a Young Jewish Writer

As a service to our readers, here is a list of candidates for various elections affecting Northeast Tennessee.  No endorsement of any candidate by NET3D or its writers should be assumed or implied.  The information is drawn from the very useful website, Ballotpedia, which has a great deal of information on many of the candidates and the election in general: https://ballotpedia.org/Tennessee_elections,_2020 Tennessee House of Representatives primary election Incumbents are marked with an (i) after their name. Office  Democratic  Republican Other District 1 No candidates filed for the Democratic primary John Crawford (i) District 2 Arvil Love Jr. Bud Hulsey (i) District 3 … Continue reading Everyone in the state is running for something!

Yes, let’s have a conversation about the police.  But I refuse to engage in a rigged conversation.  If we’re going to converse, it’s going to be respectful and 2-way.  I won’t be preached at by ignorant ideologues.  What I’m interested in – and what I think all honest people should be interested in – is data, hard facts.  I am not interested in “narratives” pushed by anyone, right or left.  We put aside our prejudices and presumptions, and we go where the facts lead. To hear the Left tell it, white Americans are inherently and incurably racist, and policing is … Continue reading By All Means, Let’s Have a Conversation About the Police