Kathy Griffin

Thursday

Roger Kimball

The bloodthirstiness of the left is not new

The savage assassination of Charlie Kirk at a Turning Point rally at Utah Valley University yesterday prompts me to wonder, as I have often wondered, what is the leading characteristic of the left? There are several candidates. Intolerance is one. A rancid and anchorless do-goodism – think of Dickens’s Mrs. Jelleby and her “telescopic philanthropy” – is another.   But on balance I think that the late Australian philosopher David Stove was right: the leading characteristic of the left it is bloodthirstiness. Behind all the emollient rhetoric about brotherhood and equality, bloodthirstiness is the left’s most reliable calling card.   That is one reason that the nearly instant emission by prominent Democrats of their opposition to violence rings so hollow.

Charlie Kirk

Thursday

Stephen L. Miller

When ‘words are violence’ turns to actual violence

In the wake of comedian Dave Chappelle’s Netflix special The Closer, activists both online and off warned that Chappelle’s jokes about the trans community would lead to real-world harm, even murder. Instead the trans community has struck first by attacking Chappelle onstage. In his special, Chappelle tells the story of a trans person and friend who defended his stand-up material. Chappelle offered his friend career help by having her open for him on stage. Yet after being bullied by the trans mob for supporting Chappelle, his friend committed suicide. Earlier this week, Chappelle himself was physically attacked at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, during a comedy set that saw many famous faces, including Elon Musk and Chris Rock, in the audience.

Saturday

Cockburn

The talented Yashar Ali

Los Angeles magazine has ripped the extra-large curtain off Twitter socialite Yashar Ali. The publication detailed his feuds with celebrities, as well as his debts to an heiress and his rolodex of media moguls. Peter Kiefer studied Ali's rise from an unknown political operative for Gavin Newsom to a social media power broker — it's a backstory copied straight out of The Talented Mr Ripley. The profile is engrossing and full of scandal — yet has gone curiously unnoticed by most of the media in the last 48 hours. Perhaps journalists feared Ali might lock himself in their wine cellar for six months, or cancel them as he did New York Times food writer Alison Roman.

yashar