Society

America isn’t having enough sex. Phew. Cockburn thought it was just him — but now the New York Times is issuing a call-to-arms: Americans need to bump uglies more! In the national paper of record, Magdalene J. Taylor wrote a guest essay in favor of sex, arguing that it is a "critical part of our social wellbeing, not an indulgence or an afterthought" and explaining “across almost every demographic group, American adults old and young, single and coupled, rich and poor are having less sex than they have had at any point in at least the past three decades.” She goes on to say that, “In the 1990s, about half of Americans were having sex weekly or more — that figure is now under 40 percent. For many who are having sex, the frequency has dropped precipitously.

Ever since I can remember, I have always been aware of something called the “Doomsday Clock,” a symbolized calculation produced by a panel of prominent scientists of just how close humanity is to destroying itself. Published on the cover of every issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a journal founded in 1945 by Manhattan Project physicists, the clock’s hands would move toward or away from the dreaded midnight hour depending on how near Armageddon was believed to be. As a kid, the Doomsday Clock seemed an appropriate warning of how the conflict between the US and the Soviet Union might accidentally spin out of control.

Cockburn absorbed a lengthy segment on Tucker Carlson Tonight along with his nightcap last night, that reported on an undercover Project Veritas video purporting to show a Pfizer executive admitting to all kinds of alarming practices. Namely that the company is considering carrying out the same type of experiments that caused the Covid pandemic. The video shows Pfizer director of research and development, Jordon Trishton Walker, who evidently thought he was on a date with the Veritas reporter, talking freely about Pfizer’s operations. Walker explains, amid giggles, how the company is “exploring” mutating Covid variants themselves “so we could create — preemptively build new vaccines, right?

Elon Musk’s Twitter is holding a massive auction to sell its surplus office assets — and it is quite an eclectic selection. Cockburn is wowed by what the company's old guard has blown on superfluous products (the Kegerators, however, were an excellent choice). Here are some of the most interesting "assets" Twitter is liquidating. Neon Twitter Bird Light Electrical Display With a current bid of $35,500, this display tops the list for expensive lots. Ideal for anyone who wants a giant glowing bird in a booth for their living room. At ten feet tall, you may have to carve a hole in the ceiling to fit it into your home. Twitter Bird Statue Want to save a little money but still have a giant blue bird? This lot is the right fit for you!

TikTok likely hasn't been too bothered about a bunch of crusty old senators and governors denouncing their social media platform. But Cockburn thinks the Chinese-owned company may be a little concerned by the latest wave of resistance as it directly affects their core demographic: young Americans. One of the South’s largest universities, Auburn, has banned TikTok from campus WiFi. The move was ordered by Alabama governor Kay Ivey, one of many Republican governors to bar the use of TikTok on state devices in December. “China doesn’t care if they are building a dossier on a nine-year-old or a ninety-year-old," Ivey said. "They will build it on all of us and really that’s a part of their five-year plan and really part of how China conducts their global affairs.

Stanford professor Paul Ehrlich's recent appearance on CBS’s 60 Minutes reminds us what can happen when those with impressive academic credentials begin making end-of-the-world predictions. It was 1968 when Ehrlich published The Population Bomb, a book that declared with absolute certainty that “the battle to feed all of humanity is over.” Because so many people were living so close together and consuming so much of the world’s limited resources, the inevitable future was one of “mass starvation” on “a dying planet.” A year after the book’s publication, Ehrlich went on to say that this “utter breakdown” in Earth’s capacity to support its bulging population was just fifteen years away.

As 2022 slipped away, so did Benedict XVI, quietly and without enormous impact on world affairs. Popes generally die in action, their hands still gripping the helm of Saint Peter’s barque, giving up the job only with their last breath. But Benedict had long ago passed the wheel over to Francis and settled in a sheltered spot away from the wind and the waves. No major change will follow his death. The man in charge is, and has been, Pope Francis. With the death of Benedict, Catholics can simply expect more of the same. The great tragedy of Benedict XVI concluded years ago, on that fateful February day in 2013 when he announced his abdication. The shock of his loss was felt with heightened poignancy, since it was of his own choosing.

Cockburn, like every other American, finally thought we’d seen Covid's last hurrah. But right on cue, in the dreaded month of January, the Wu-flu is resurgent. Public-health experts have begun sounding the alarm about a new Omicron variant dubbed XBB that is rapidly spreading across the Northeastern United States. It's not yet clear if XBB is any more lethal than other variants, but its mutations can make any prior vaccine useless. Growing evidence also suggests that repeated vaccinations may make people more susceptible to XBB and could be fueling the virus’s rapid evolution. “It might not be a coincidence that XBB surged this fall in Singapore, which has among the highest vaccination and booster rates in the world," writes the Wall Street Journal.

Rachel Levine, the United States assistant secretary for health, has become a lightning rod for attention and controversy in the Biden administration. Levine is a nonbinary transgender woman who, as a biological male, was married with two children. Levine was named Woman of the Year by USA Today. When the Christian satire website Babylon Bee published an online post calling Levine “Man of the Year,” Twitter suspended the Bee’s account, which was then unsuspended under new Twitter owner Elon Musk. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has put Levine front and center in the cultural and medical fight over treatment for minors under eighteen who claim they are trans.

With the recent release of the “Twitter Files,” we’ve learned what so many of us already knew. Or I should say, strongly suspected. The government has been colluding with social media companies — in this case Twitter — to censor people and content that do not support the agenda of the Democratic Party. The primary focus of the Twitter Files thus far has been on election interference and the banishment of President Trump from the platform. Multiple government agencies — including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security — were involved in tracking individual citizens and pressuring Twitter to de-platform them. What remains to be clearly laid out is why and how more than 11,000 people were banned for questioning Covid policy: lockdowns, masks and vaccine mandates.

We descended, one weary traveler at a time, down an ancient stone staircase that winds underneath one of the oldest churches in the world. When we arrive in the tiny grotto, we sing Silent Night, our faces dimly lit by the light of a single lantern. This is where many believe a peasant couple, traveling for the Roman census, gave birth to the baby Jesus as described in the second chapter of Luke’s gospel. The Church of the Nativity, commissioned around 330 AD by Constantine, was destroyed by an invading army in 529 AD and then rebuilt by Justinian. Situated in perhaps the most highly contested piece of real estate in the world, it hosts millions of pilgrims every year. This would have been a surprise to the Bethlehem of Jesus’s day.

Another day, another headline about Elon Musk. But as the new Twitter CEO has announced plans to resign in the future — only after finding a suitable candidate to replace him — we may see a bit less of him soon. But who would be foolish enough to replace him? Cockburn has put together a list of potential heirs. Jared Kushner The former senior advisor and current son-in-law to Donald Trump may not be accustomed to the tech world, but he does have the face for it. Kushner also is a proven ally of Musk, after appearing alongside him at the Qatar World Cup final last week. He’s also in the market for a job after turning down his father-in-law’s offer to help run Trump 2024...