The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/bible" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bible</a> has been pulled from the shelves of libraries in a school district in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/utah" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Utah</a> after a parent claimed that it could be considered “pornographic.”
Elementary and middle school students in Utah’s Davis School District, located north of Salt Lake City, will no longer be able to find the Bible at school libraries after a district review committee <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/utah-parent-upset-book-bans-gets-bible-pulled-school-shelves-expose-ba-rcna87450" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decided</a> to make it only available at high school libraries. 
School district spokesman Christopher Williams told NBC News that the committee chose to &#8220;retain the book in school library circulation only at the high school level based on age appropriateness due to vulgarity or violence.&#8221; 
The decision came after a parent, upset by a recent state law designed to keep “pornographic or indecent” materials out of school, filed a complaint against the Bible. 
&#8220;I thank the Utah Legislature and Utah Parents United for making this bad faith process so much easier and way more efficient,&#8221; the complaint said. &#8220;Now we can all ban books and you don’t even need to read them or be accurate about it. Heck, you don’t even need to see the book!&#8221;
&#8220;Incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide,&#8221; the complaint continued. &#8220;You’ll no doubt find that the Bible, under Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1227, has ‘no serious values for minors’ because it’s pornographic by our new definition.&#8221;
Another person has already <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2023/03/22/utah-parent-says-bible-contains/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filed</a> a complaint to put the Bible back into circulation at all school levels, not just high school. 
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The controversy in Utah followed a host of complaints around the country about sexually explicit books being available at school libraries. This has prompted drives from conservative lawmakers and parents to remove the content. 
Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL), for instance, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/library-group-frames-removal-of-graphic-sexual-content-from-school-libraries-as-record-number-of-book-bans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently </a>pushed to remove volumes such as “Let’s Talk About It,” which shows graphic depictions of how children can masturbate, as well as “Gender Queer,” which includes cartoons of homosexual activity.
In Virginia, a mother named Stacy Langton <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/virginia-mother-who-exposed-pornographic-reading-material-in-curriculum-barred-from-entering-high-school-library" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was barred</a> from entering the school’s library after she exposed pornographic reading material available to Fairfax High School students. She made national news when she read from several books available to students that included graphic depictions of sex and pedophilia.

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Bible Pulled From Utah School District Libraries Because Of ‘Vulgarity Or Violence’

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TV fans are about to learn more about the troubled Duggar family.
There are two exposes currently in the works, and neither sounds like it will be friendly toward one of television’s most notorious big families. First up, the limited docuseries “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets” seeks to pull back the curtain on some of the scandals about the Duggars, including Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s affiliation with the controversial Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) church.
The Duggars rose to fame with their TLC reality show “19 Kids and Counting,” which premiered in 2008. Fans couldn’t help but marvel at the overly large family who espoused traditional values and mostly rejected modern society, including mainstream TV, music, dating, and even women wearing pants.
But then the family’s reputation went down in flames following the sexual abuse scandal involving the eldest brother, Josh. He admitted to sexually abusing five girls, including his own sisters, prior to the beginning of the show. His behavior was allegedly covered up by his church and his parents. The news led to TLC canceling “19 Kids and Counting.” 
Some Duggar family members came back for the spinoff series “Counting On” beginning in 2015. Then TLC canceled that as well after Josh was arrested for child pornography possession in 2021. He was later found guilty and sentenced to 12.5 years in prison last May.
“Shiny Happy People” shines a light on practices within the strict IBLP faith the Duggars followed. Their daughter Jill, who is now a married mother of three, participated in the documentary and plans to reveal some of the family secrets.
&#8220;There&#8217;s a story that&#8217;s going to be told,&#8221; Jill says in the series trailer, &#8220;and I would rather be the one telling it.&#8221;
Jill says in the Amazon series that she worries about people who were influenced to join IBLP because of her family. The church’s head and founder Bill Gothard resigned from the organization in 2014 following more than 30 claims of sexual harassment from former employees.
Now, Jill has personal reasons for telling the truth about her family. 
“I believe strongly that victims should always be protected. Victims should always be cared for,” Jill says in the docuseries. “You’re out there, your story’s out there. … I’d rather have some say in what that looks like.”
Jill also discussed the infamous interview she and her sisters participated in on Fox News after the news about Josh came to light in 2015. 
“In hindsight, I wouldn’t have done the Megyn Kelly stuff. I felt like I was in a place again of like bearing the burden and the weight of just — even though you volunteer, it’s like you feel obligated to help,” she said in the second episode of “Shiny Happy People,” per <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2023-05-30/shiny-happy-people-duggar-family-highlights-amazon-studios">The L.A. Times</a>. 
<div id="attachment_562209" style="width: 871px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-562209" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-562209" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/GettyImages-475765630-861x576.jpg" alt="" width="861" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/GettyImages-475765630-861x576.jpg 861w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/GettyImages-475765630-300x201.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/GettyImages-475765630-768x514.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/GettyImages-475765630.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 861px) 100vw, 861px" />FOX News Channel via Getty Images</div>
During the interview, Jill and her sister Jessa referred to Josh’s behavior as “mild.”
“It’s not something that I’m proud of,” Jill said in the new documentary. “If I hadn’t felt obligated to like, one, do it for the sake of the show and two, do it for the sake of my parents, I wouldn’t have done it,” she said of her statements about her brother. 
The reality star said the sisters did the interview and downplayed Josh’s behavior in part because they believed the show would continue if they did. “Yes, we were taken advantage of,” Jill said.
During the new docuseries, Jill also restated her allegations that she never got paid for participating in “19 Kids and Counting” or “Counting On” as she felt she deserved.
Per The L.A. Times, the reality star said she “never received any payout.”
“No check, no cash, no nothing. For 7.5 years of my adult life, I was never paid,” Jill said, laying blame on her father Jim Bob for promising her funds that never materialized. She had camera crews present at major life events including her wedding and the birth of her first child but claims she didn’t get paid for drawing in a viewing audience of millions. 
“Shiny Happy People” is not the only place where Jill is speaking out. The 32-year-old star will also release a new book called “Counting the Cost,” which will reportedly reveal “the unedited truth about the Duggars,” according to <a href="https://people.com/jill-duggar-dillard-memoir-counting-the-cost-7506108">People</a>.
“Jill Duggar and her husband Derick [Dillard] are finally ready to share their story, revealing the secrets, manipulation, and intimidation behind the show that remained hidden from their fans,” the book’s description says. The new book is due out in January 2024.
“For as long as they could, Jill and Derick tried to be obedient family members — they weren’t willing to rock the boat. But now they’re raising a family of their own, and they’re done with the secrets,” the description says. “Thanks to time, tears, therapy, and blessings from God, they have the strength to share their journey. Theirs is a remarkable story of the power of the truth and is a moving example of how to find healing through honesty.”
Jill shared more on her <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cs6dR2uAQAO/">Instagram page</a> while announcing the upcoming book. She said the tell-all &#8220;is meant to reflect a story that has been difficult, yet hopeful.&#8221;
&#8220;The challenges we have faced, including lack of respect for boundaries, greed, manipulation, and betrayal, are not that much different than what many people in our audience have faced,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;However, 15+ years of reality television, undergirded by secrecy and lies, is tantamount to pouring gasoline on the fire of our struggle.&#8221;
The Dillards say &#8220;time, tears, truth, and therapy&#8221; helped them move forward through &#8220;our painful journey as part of the reality-show-filming Duggar family.&#8221; 
&#8220;Though we would have never chosen this path, and it has cost us dearly, we want to use our voice to show others that there is hope beyond the pain,&#8221; the social media post said.

Jill And Derick Dillard Visit “Extra”

Another Bad Day For The Duggars: Jill Reveals Family Secrets In New Docuseries, Book

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‘They Never Talked About The War’: Honoring Our WW II Fallen Heroes & Veterans On Memorial Day With Author Andrew Biggio

‘They Never Talked About The War’: Honoring Our World War II Veterans On Memorial Day With Author Andrew Biggio

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The following is a chapter excerpt from the new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Betrayal-Failure-American-Jewish-Leadership/dp/163758878X" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Betrayal: The Failure of American Jewish Leadership</a>, compiled and edited by Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser (May 2023), from <a href="https://posthillpress.com/bombardier-books" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bombardier Books,</a> an imprint of <a href="https://posthillpress.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Post Hill Press</a>.
“We know the Zionist perspective,” a chorus of Jewish students at elite Jewish day schools across the nation continuously assure me. “We want to hear the other side. We want to know the Palestinian side.” Indeed, the tagline of IfNotNow, one of the most virulent anti-Zionist Jewish youth groups, is, “You never told me.”
It was my latest visit to a prestigious Jewish day school in North America that prompted me to re-evaluate how it is that we got to a place where I question the efficacy of Jewish and Israel education in America. It was at one such lecture that I had given on anti-Zionism and antisemitism that students complained of my bias, presenting me with a plethora of grievances with Israel. In that moment, I decided to switch gears: “You have presented criticisms of Israel, and you claim that you come from Zionist homes and a Zionist school. So, you tell me: Why should Israel exist as a Jewish country?” 
The Zionist challenge, as I have come to call it, was met with alarming rejoinders. One student proclaimed, “To be completely honest, as I am thinking out loud, I have to say, I would be willing to give up the land if human rights would be restored to the Palestinians.” Her friend further explained: “Yes, because I can pray and practice my Judaism here [America] without ever having to be there [Israel].” Another student stated: “I can’t trust Israeli courts when it comes to settling land disputes because they are majority Jewish and therefore, biased.” And finally, a student settled it all: “I don’t see a reason to call myself a Zionist. Zionism has fulfilled its purpose.”
How did we get here? How do our brightest and most dedicated Jewish students surrender the land, the trust in their people, and their history? 
It used to be that within Jewish families in North America, one sensible reason to send kids to Jewish day schools and to Jewish youth programs was to avoid anti-Israel bias in the classroom. This strategy, however, has proven to not only be ineffective, but more alarmingly, produced a generation of anti-Zionist Jews — or, as Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy call them, the “un-Jews.” Likewise, having Israeli parents or joining Israeli youth movements, such as tsofim, provide little to no real shelter from the dangers of radical leftism, which has ushered in anti-Zionism, today’s most potent form of Jew-hatred. 
A stark example is a graduate of a K–12 Jewish day school, Simone Zimmerman, the founder of <a href="https://www.ifnotnowmovement.org/">IfNotNow</a> (a Jewish organization whose goal is to oppose “Israeli occupation”). Zimmerman is but one, although vivid, example of how Jewish education provides little refuge from an education steeped in Marxist thought. But the phenomenon of Jewish young adults graduating Jewish day schools and joining anti-Israel groups such as J Street, Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, and even Students for Justice in Palestine, has been in the making for decades now. Indeed, Jewish day school graduates are at the helm of anti-Israel and anti-American movements on college campuses. They aren’t just members, they are leaders. How did this happen? 
To help answer this question, I turn to a Soviet policy enshrined during the Stalin years: “socialist in content, national in form.” Having formed a nascent Soviet government in 1918, several ethnic minorities (that is, Jewish, Ukrainian, Uzbek, and Armenian) found themselves under Soviet rule. Party officials had a problem to solve: how to unite these diverse ethnic minorities under the aegis of a common ideology.
What the central committee devised was ingenious: Allow ethnic minorities to speak their native language, publish newspapers and books in their native language, and support the arts of the minorities. The only caveat: The content had to promote socialism. Indeed, in the 1920s and even in the 1930s, there was a burgeoning of Yiddish in the Soviet Union. This is why Jews scanning the globe in 1919 declared the Jewish future not in Palestine or America, but in the Soviet Union! How wrong they were is for another time (anti-Semitism returned in greater force in the Soviet Union with the murder of Yiddish poets, artists, and writers during Stalin’s last years in power).
In a rather twisted turn of historic events that would make Stalin chuckle, Jewish day schools in North America practice “woke in content, Jewish in form.” Indeed, all major Jewish groups that oppose the “Israeli occupation” or promote the BDS movement have been started by Jews who either graduated from Jewish day schools or were involved in Jewish youth groups:
<ol>
<li><a href="https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/"> Jewish Voice for Peace</a>: Founder Julie Ivny joined Hashomer Hatzair, a Jewish youth group focused on social justice and Judaism, when she was in the third grade: “The older teens in the youth group,” a sympathetic article says, “encouraged their waist-high counterparts to think and talk about the world around them, to not ignore the inequality that persisted in Los Angeles’ neighborhoods and schools.” According to the ADL, Jewish Voice for Peace is a “radical anti-Israel activist group that advocates for a complete economic, cultural and academic boycott of the state of Israel.”</li>
<li><a href="https://jstreet.org/"> J Street</a>: Founder Jeremy Ben-Ami completed Hebrew school at Temple Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan, a Reform synagogue. Ben-Ami founded J Street as a reaction to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), whose goal is to foster a strong relationship between the U.S. and Israel. According to J Street, the “ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory is a major obstacle to the achievement of Israeli-Palestinian peace, is a systemic injustice violating the rights of the Palestinian people, and poses a severe threat to Israel’s long-term future as a democratic homeland for the Jewish people.”</li>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/IfNotNowOrg"> IfNotNow</a>: Founded by Simone Zimmerman, a graduate of two Jewish day schools in Los Angeles, the group calls itself a movement to end Israel’s “occupation.” In 2018, IfNotNow held a mourner’s kaddish service for Palestinians killed by the Israeli army in a Gaza airstrike. </li>
</ol>
This is not a coincidence. This is a pattern. And it comes from Jewish educational institutions that focus not on Judaism and anti-Semitism specifically, but on promoting “anti-racist” education, restoring “climate justice,” and battling gender and racial “inequity.” Moreover, at the root of it all is discomfort with Jewish particularism: a majority Jewish state with borders and, by extension, Jewish nationalism. Jewish mainstream institutions have abandoned Jewish particularism and gravitated toward universalism. Through universalism, we have re-written, so to speak, three major concepts in Judaism: tzedek, tzedek tirdof; tikkun olam; and derech eretz.
<ol>
<li> Tzedek, tzedek tirdof: “Justice, justice shall you pursue&#8230;” This phrase, taken from Deuteronomy 16:20, appears in most Jewish schools’ mission statements, at times even emblematized on the front gates of the school. The original text reads: “Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may thrive and occupy the land that Adonai your God is giving you.” In its entire context, it is an imperative from God that the Jewish people occupy and settle in Eretz Yisrael by appointing magistrates and officials who will “not judge unfairly.” Willfully forgetting the remainder of the passage, Jewish educators apply these words, “justice, justice shall you pursue,” as an ethical permission slip to embrace social justice causes such as racial and gender inequity, inclusivity, and immigration reform, to name a few.</li>
<li> Tikkun olam: “Repair the world.” While tikkun olam is a signature theme of Jewish tradition in North America, somewhere along the way Jewish educators came to believe that the goal for the Jewish people was to help to repair the world through solving world hunger, campaigning against occupations real or imagined, ending gender wage gaps, and fighting climate change; however, in its original formulation, tikkun olam is achieved through ethical and ritual mitzvot, such as keeping the laws of kashrut and observing the Sabbath. Similar to those who invoke tzedek, tzedek tirdof piecemeal, tikkun olam, which comes from the Aleinu, a seminal prayer in Jewish liturgy, appears in a passage that extends hope in “You, Adonai our God&#8230; to completely cut off all false gods; to repair the world, Your holy empire.” We make a grave error, therefore, in thinking that tikkun olam means embracing a woman’s right to choose, open immigration, or supporting equity of outcome policies. </li>
<li> Derech eretz: “Way of the land.” Although the literal translation is “way of the land,” Jewish educators have applied derech eretz to embrace compassion, kindness, and “common decency.” The problem, however, is that compassion and kindness to each person mean different things. I once asked my students to define kindness and received disparate responses. To one, kindness was giving something from oneself in order to benefit another person; to another, it was saying kind words in order to make someone else feel better. </li>
</ol>
Derech eretz appears in several iterations in rabbinic literature. Take, for example, the midrash from Exodus Rabbah (Shemot Rabbah 35:2). In this tractate, an example of derech eretz is “refrain[ing] from using wood from a fruit-bearing tree to build a house.”10 Here, derech eretz is not a commentary on kindness, but rather a frame to help people to make better economic and ecological choices. But as I once heard among a cohort of Jewish senior educators at a conference, practicing derech eretz was finding a way to incorporate LGBTQ awareness into the Jewish middle school curriculum.
To return to the dictum “socialist in content, national in form,” Soviet officials relied on this policy in order to unite a society around a shared system of values. In its entirety, the slogan, taken from Stalin’s 1934 essay “Marxism and the National-Colonial Question,” reads: 
<blockquote>“The development of cultures national in form and socialist in content is necessary for the purpose of their ultimate fusion into one General Culture, socialist as to form and content, and expressed in one general language.” </blockquote>
This “one General Culture” was emblematized by the “new Soviet man” — novyj Sovetskii chelovek — an archetype of the Leninist-Marxist ideals. Regardless of the chelovek’s ethnic background, he was a highly conscious individual, hyper-aware of his role to oppose private property and the greed of capitalism and to support the worker against the petty bourgeoisie. The policy to conform was a success. Within five to ten years, ethnic minorities touted the Soviet policy line; and within fifteen to twenty years, as was planned, the “national form” had disappeared. 
By the 1960s, Jewish homes in the Soviet Union saw a 66 percent decline in spoken Yiddish. But at least in the Soviet Union, it was done for a cause, granted a rotten one. What is the reason — the cause — for Jewish educators to practice “woke in content, Jewish in form”? Certainly, it is not due to external forces, as in the case of the Soviet government that mandated educational policy. In North America, we cannot point to a single leader, a legislative document, or unique event that demonstrates a widespread adoption of these principles. What we can do, instead, is look to the triad — tzedek, tzedek tirdof, tikkun olam, and derech eretz — and find a common denominator: the removal of God from each of the Jewish ideas. In each invocation of the triad, God is not present.
The consequence of an absent God is that man must step in to restore order. Therein lies the problem: The moral compass is thus defined by individuals and not the institutional codex from which the principles emanate. The lack of explicit theological grounding allows individuals to sanction ideologies and policies they see fit to promote.
My recent encounter with young Jews demonstrates that in each of their articulations — from discomfort with a Jewish majority court system to enshrining human rights, and, most significantly, finding no reason to be a Zionist since “Zionism has fulfilled its purpose” — somewhere along the way, Jewish educators, along with the institutions, have dropped the ball on Jewish identity. It was most painful to hear a young Jewish student surrender one of the holiest pillars of Jewish identity, the Land of Israel, in order to “restore” justice and human rights to the Palestinians. And what is most painful is that behind her reasoning is a well-oiled Jewish education system that has taught this young lady that, in order to be a Jew, she must repair the world, seek justice for the persecuted, and jettison her parochial Jewish nationalism. This young lady, therefore, surrenders the Land because she is a Jew, a Jew who has been taught social justice in content while national in form.
What then is the answer? How do we treat this alarming malaise? First and foremost, we address the root cause: discomfort with Jewish nationalism. Next, we unpack Jewish nationalism by reminding American Jews that we are, first and foremost, a people, not a religion. We are an indigenous people from the Land of Israel; the reason we have been dispersed around the globe is because we were exiled from our national homeland.
We need to stop capitulating to the Zeitgeist, that is the desire to fit Jewish identity into a woke framework. Yes, Zionism is a movement of justice; yes, Zionism sought to restore power to the persecuted Jewish people. But this is partial. We must inspire our Jewish youth in the idea that we are living in the most miraculous moment, a most supreme Zionist moment. Through Zionism, Jews have returned to history: We are not being written about, but rather are the scribes of history. What is Zionism? Zionism is a national Jewish movement — it is about returning the Jewish people to their homeland, with self-determination, with power, and with secure borders.
This chapter excerpt is published by permission from <a href="https://posthillpress.com/">Post Hill Press</a>. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Betrayal-Failure-American-Jewish-Leadership/dp/163758878X">Betrayal: The Failure of American Jewish Leadership</a>, is compiled and edited by Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser.
Naya Lekht received her Ph.D. from UCLA in Russian Literature, where she wrote her dissertation on how Soviet writers pushed communist-enforced boundaries of Holocaust representation in literature and film. A passionate educator and public speaker, Naya writes and teaches on the topic of antisemitism, and Soviet influences on contemporary anti-Zionism in particular. She is currently a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Global Study of Antisemitism and Policy, as well as a senior educator at Club Z, a rapidly growing Zionist youth movement.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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Woke In Content, Jewish In Form: On The Failings Of Jewish Education In America

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The following is an excerpt from U.S. Senator Josh Hawley&#8217;s new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/168451357X/?tag=regnerywebsite-20">Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs</a>, from Regnery Publishing.
<h2>Love and Hope</h2>
The man who makes war on the evil in his life and sacrifices his own pride opens his life, in the end, to something far more powerful. He opens it to love. Love is the burning center of the warrior’s existence and the secret of all true courage. The warrior loves something dearly and passionately more than himself. He loves his wife and children. He loves his nation. He loves God. And that love makes him strong.
Self-regard, by contrast, is a weak affection. It will consume your life, to be sure, as in the story of Narcissus, who loved his image so completely he wasted his life away staring at it. But it cannot inspire. If your life is relentlessly about you, you will never run toward danger. You will never confront the giants that threaten, whether your finances or your boss or an addiction. You won’t risk incurring the wrath of the powers that be by speaking the truth. You will always try to keep yourself safe, undamaged. And you will always have everything to lose. That way ends in despair and self-contempt.
A man’s conscience is a powerful thing. It will condemn the man who constantly avoids struggle and pain as a coward. But if you will abandon your focus on self, you will find the love that gives courage. And love, in turn, gives birth to hope.
Sometimes courage is portrayed these days as the refuge of the hopeless. J. R. R. Tolkien puts something that sounds like this sentiment into the mouth of Gandalf in his Lord of the Rings saga. “There never was much hope,” Gandalf says, as Sauron’s darkness grows and the quest to destroy the Ring seems to falter. “Just a fool’s hope.” Many have interpreted this passage to mean courage is most noble, most true, when the warrior believes he is doomed to fail. But that is not quite Tolkien’s point, and not the Bible’s either. Tolkien’s heroes soldier on not because they are fatalists, content to be mere pawns of chance. Nor because they are nihilists, believing all to be meaningless. They soldier on because they believe right will prevail. And they believe their lives can make a difference in making it so.
I have known men like this, and seen with my own eyes the power of their hope. In the fall of 2019, the Chinese Communist government in Beijing orchestrated a crackdown on the hitherto independent city of Hong Kong. Displeased with Hong Kong’s autonomy, and Hong Kongers’ (as they call themselves) criticism of the Beijing government, Communist leaders threatened to suspend self-government in the city, contrary to China’s own treaty obligations that guaranteed the city’s special status. In response, protestors took to the streets, only to be met in return by violent police repression. The protestors refused to back down, and the clashes turned bloody.
I was in my first year in the Senate at the time, watching these events unfold from afar. I learned from sources in Hong Kong that the protests were being informally led — it was in many ways truly a spontaneous uprising — by a group of young, very young, men and women. When I heard the accounts of their courage and listened to their pleas for help, I knew I had to go.
I traveled to Hong Kong in October of 2019 to meet with them and see the protests firsthand. The U.S. consulate in the city was less than delighted with my visit. Consulate staff advised beforehand against the trip. Once there, they strongly urged me to keep to my hotel. I politely ignored this advice. I wanted to see the protestors myself, see their courage and their stand, and lend whatever support I could.
One member of my staff had extensive contacts with the protestors. As soon as night fell, we left the hotel and headed toward where we believed, based on his information, the latest clashes between the government and the Hong Kongers were underway. We hailed a cab, but the driver refused to take us more than a few blocks. Eventually we walked, finding our way to the Mong Kok district, usually a bustling shopping and commercial hub, but on that night a battleground. The clashes between pro-Beijing police and the protestors had already turned violent by the time we arrived. A car burned in the street. Protestors were spray-painting “Free Hong Kong” on boarded-up windows. There were people running in every which direction. As we watched, a large group of Hong Kongers began to assemble in the middle of the road, peacefully, carrying signs decrying the crackdown. Suddenly a phalanx of pro-Beijing police in riot gear appeared opposite them, heavily armed. They took to loudspeakers and ordered the crowd to disperse. They threatened to disperse them by force if they did not.
The U.S. government often sends military liaisons with members of Congress when they travel abroad. In this case, at this moment, my military liaison leaned into my ear and said, “Sir, we should back away. If they begin firing into the crowd and we are caught up in it, it could cause an international incident.” He was right. But the protestors did not back away. We stayed too. I wanted to see with my own eyes what would happen. The protestors held their ground, and eventually it was the riot police who turned and moved back. All night long the protests continued, with explosions and violent exchanges in many parts of the city.
I met with the leaders of the protest the next morning. It was an honor. They were startlingly young — only in their early twenties, most of them. Several were veterans of earlier protest movements. A few had already spent time in prison. I promised to report what they were doing to people back in the United States, to explain what they were fighting for.
Why are you willing to face prison? I asked them — and though I did not name it, we all knew what else they faced, the other, ever distinct possibility: death. We love Hong Kong, they said, and we want to see it free. We believe we can be a beacon for the world. They had hope.
They were realistic at the same time. They knew the odds were long. They knew the Beijing government could destroy Hong Kong’s freedoms in a moment, if it chose. But they believed their stand was worth making, even if they did not live to see their cause succeed, because they believed their actions would echo and build and — in time — whether in their lifetimes or another’s, prevail.
That is the courage of hope. And even now, they go on hoping. After the events I witnessed, the Beijing authorities intensified the repression. They forcibly put down the protests. Many of the young people I met that October were later imprisoned or exiled. Yet their hope endures. And the light of that hope — in the right, in God — cannot be extinguished.
God made the world with a plan, to be something — an Eden. And even now that plan is advancing. Every man can play a part. We are born to play a part. That is a hope that pain and death cannot destroy. And a man who gives his life to that hope, and to its Author, will not be disappointed.
Josh Hawley serves as Missouri&#8217;s senior U.S. Senator.
This excerpt is taken from <a href="https://www.regnery.com/9781684513574/manhood/">Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs</a>, from Regnery Publishing.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Florida Governor Desantis And Former President Trump Headline Conservative Student Summit In Tampa

What I Learned About Manhood From The Hong Kong Protestors

Fathers

Hong Kong

Josh Hawley

Marriage

Masculinity

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/britney-spears-explains-why-she-moved-out-of-her-new-mansion-after-5-or-6-months" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Britney Spears</a>&#8216; &#8220;brutally honest&#8221; memoir is reportedly on hold now with no details about when it will hit bookshelves over concerns from &#8220;A-listers.&#8221;
Sources told <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/22282705/britney-spears-autobiography-delayed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Sun</a> that the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/britney-spears-slams-reports-of-her-family-planning-an-intervention-makes-me-sick-to-my-stomach" target="_blank" rel="noopener">41-year-old pop singer&#8217;s</a> highly anticipated tell-all book has been halted after the publisher Simon &amp; Schuster received &#8220;strongly worded legal letters&#8221; from celebrities who know the entertainer.
&#8220;Britney is brutally honest in the book — there are a lot of nervous A-listers,&#8221; the source told The Sun.
&#8220;Strongly worded legal letters have been sent to the publishers by people who know Britney and who fear what she has written,&#8221; the source added. &#8220;There is no movement at the moment and there are concerns over when it will eventually be able to come out.&#8221;
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Britney Spears’ ‘brutally honest’ book delayed over concern from A-listers: report <a href="https://t.co/bBgc6MM1dH">https://t.co/bBgc6MM1dH</a> <a href="https://t.co/mCjnF9Nbys">pic.twitter.com/mCjnF9Nbys</a>
&mdash; Page Six (@PageSix) <a href="https://twitter.com/PageSix/status/1655595394477314049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2023</a></blockquote>
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The &#8220;Womanizer&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/britney-spears-husband-sam-asghari-defends-her-manic-behavior-at-l-a-restaurant-said-he-didnt-storm-out" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hitmaker&#8217;s</a> book was reportedly due this fall.
The pop star reportedly worked on the memoir with ghostwriter Sam Lansky, a novelist and journalist who has written for Time, The Atlantic, and New York Magazine. It has been described as a &#8220;groundbreaking instant best-seller&#8221; and &#8220;inspiring,&#8221; <a href="https://pagesix.com/2023/04/13/britney-spears-finishes-brutally-honest-memoir-and-it-will-shake-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Page Six</a> reported.
&#8220;Britney&#8217;s book is a story of triumph,&#8221; one insider shared. &#8220;It will cover her most vulnerable moments, her childhood – being a little girl with big dreams – her breakup with Justin Timberlake, the moment she shaved her head, and her battle with her family over her conservatorship.&#8221;
&#8220;It is also a story of survival, finding her way out of the crippling conservatorship to finding happiness with her husband Sam Ashgari,&#8221; the source added.
<a class="c-link" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-53098">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
Another insider said, &#8220;Britney&#8217;s book is brutally honest and from the heart. No stone is left unturned. It&#8217;s truly a female empowerment story – her taking control of her life.&#8221;
Spears first revealed that she might be working on a book in January 2022 when she posted a photo on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CYnIxEiOr-H/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a> of a typewriter and captioned it, &#8220;Shall I start from THE BEGINNING???&#8221; Her publisher was reportedly &#8220;thrilled&#8221; with the project.
In November 2021, a judge ruled to terminate the conservatorship Spears had been under since 2008. Since then, some fans have worried the singer is struggling after posting numerous nude photos, rants, and strange videos on social media, while others say she&#8217;s just being herself.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shake-the-world-britney-spears-brutally-honest-tell-all-memoir-is-complete">&#8216;Shake The World&#8217;: Britney Spears&#8217; &#8216;Brutally Honest&#8217; Tell-All Memoir Is Complete</a>

Britney Spears – “I Am Britney Jean”

Britney Spears’ ‘Brutally Honest’ Memoir On Hold Over Concerns From ‘A-Listers’: Report

Britney Spears' ‘Brutally Honest’ Memoir On Hold Over Concerns From ‘A-Listers’: Report

Britney Spears

Celebrities

“Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret” could have easily been a smash hit at the box office. The film, which is based on the beloved coming-of-age Judy Blume novel by the same name has it all: nostalgic appeal, a star-studded cast, a fun retro vibe, and glowing reviews from both critics and fans alike. And somehow, it’s not even woke. 
But so far, “Are You There God” has been a box office bomb that hasn’t met financial expectations. Deadline <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/05/are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-box-office-bomb-1235351382/">reported</a> that the movie brought in $6.8 million opening weekend while predictions had it hitting closer to the $7 to $9 million range, with the most optimistic predicting close to $10 million.
One fan review on <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/are_you_there_god_its_me_margaret">Rotten Tomatoes</a> summed up the likely problem best: “Not sure who the audience for this movie is,” they said.
On the surface, the movie could be perfect for the same aged prepubescent girls who loved the book when it first came out. It turns out modern audiences are a little trickier, though.
“Are You There God” follows 11-year-old Margaret Simon (Abby Ryder Fortson) when she moves with her parents from New York City to the New Jersey suburbs. Margaret experiences a lot of confusion while going through puberty, including learning about her period and her developing body, having crushes, and being part of an interfaith family. The comedy/drama also stars Rachel McAdams as Maragret’s mom, Barbara Simon, and Kathy Bates as her grandmother.
The movie is set in the 1970s and stays true to the time period. Director Kelly Fremon Craig told <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/are-you-there-god-kelly-fremon-craig-talks-judy-blume-movie-all-about-boobs?ref=scroll">The Daily Beast</a> that the idea of Margaret with a smartphone “really ruined everything” for her, which helped solidify her resolve to keep the whole story set in the past. Fremon Craig talked about trying to be as authentic as possible, however, which led her to speak with real fifth and sixth graders to make sure she got it all right.
“We hung out in a fifth grade and sixth grade classroom and spent some time interviewing,” Fremon Craig told the outlet. “I completely believe in that research and that journalistic approach to begin with. There are so many details you can’t make up. There’s something about sitting in a room with somebody that you just absorb stuff that you can’t elsewhere.”
She also encouraged the young actors to ad lib when they wanted, which led to some funny candid moments. One example of this unscripted magic happened when Margaret’s friend Gretchen (Katherine Kupferer) exclaimed, “It looks like a thumb!” upon seeing an illustration of a penis in a book about puberty. Gretchen also said her developing breasts looked like “little wizard hats” compared to a model’s fully developed chest.
Penis drawings and breast pics aside, Common Sense Media gave the PG-13 film a <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vote of approval</a> for children ages 11 and up. Compared to other movies with the same rating, “Are You There God” is free from sexually suggestive situations and over-the-top leftist propaganda. At no point does Margaret or any of her friends question whether they are really girls or if the boys in the class will be getting their periods too. 
“Young women get their periods. Boys are weird. Adolescence is confusing. And, setting the story in the early 1970s, keeps the woke wave at bay,” Daily Wire contributor Christian Toto <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-review-woman/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> of the movie. 
But despite a subject matter that should appeal to both sides of the political spectrum, “Are You There God” seemed to rely too much on drawing in an audience of middle aged women eager to relive their childhoods. Deadline reported that 55% of the film’s ticket buyers were women over the age of 45, of which 70% were Caucasian. There’s a good chance they were the ones with fond memories of reading Blume’s books during their youth.
The publication noted that this has been the hardest audience to bring back to theaters following the pandemic. In contrast, 13 to 17 year olds only made up 6% of the audience opening weekend.
It’s too early to give up on “Are You There God,” however. Plenty of other films have suffered a slow start but kept attracting audiences as weeks went by. More would-be moviegoers may read the glowing reviews from both critics and fans, which could entice more women and teens to check it out.
The movie currently has a 98% critic score and 94% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
“We forget how much we wanted to rush to grow up, and also how, once it started happening, we weren’t sure how to adjust to this rattling new normal. Are You There God?, both funny and generous, brings it all back,” the Time reviewer <a href="https://time.com/6275438/are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-review/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. 
“It was made with care, humor and compassion and if those things guaranteed success at the multiplex, it would be a smash,” Minneapolis Star Tribune reviewer Chris Hewitt agreed.
“‘Are You There God?’ stays true to Blume’s book in ways that should connect it to future generations of confused teens. Its minor flaws hardly matter in the big picture,” Toto concludes in his review. “[The movie] understands the value, and cultural heft, of the source material and proceeds accordingly. Thank goodness!”

The Kelly Clarkson Show – Season 4

‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’ Bombed At The Box Office, But Not For Being Woke

'Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret' Bombed At The Box Office, But Not For Being Woke

Box Office

Film Reviews

Hollywood

Movies

Former presidential daughter Chelsea Clinton took some backlash going into the weekend for a Thursday tweet opposing bans of LGBTQ-themed books — some of which have concerned parents calling on school boards to enforce the boundary between literature and pornography.
Clinton started the furor by sharing an NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/half-2022s-challenged-books-lgbtq-themes-rcna81324">article</a> that decried the recent push to &#8220;ban&#8221; a number of sexually explicit books from elementary and middle school libraries. Of the top 13 &#8220;most-challenged&#8221; books according to the American Library Association, seven had LGBTQ themes.
&#8220;Over 50% of the attempted book bans last year involved books with LGBTQ+ characters &amp; themes. Books are a vital way that children, adolescents and adults learn about themselves and our world. Bans such as these are nothing but harmful,&#8221; she tweeted, quoting from the article.
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Over 50% of the attempted book bans last year involved books with LGBTQ+ characters &amp; themes. Books are a vital way that children, adolescents and adults learn about themselves and our world. Bans such as these are nothing but harmful: <a href="https://t.co/eblRSU7tZk">https://t.co/eblRSU7tZk</a>
&mdash; Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChelseaClinton/status/1651685293731246098?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2023</a></blockquote>
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But as critics quickly pointed out, many of the books were not being banned at all — they were simply being removed from school libraries based on the age range for which they were deemed appropriate. Others noted that at least some of the books that the article mentioned included graphic depictions and even literal illustrations of sex acts — and some included sex acts between minors.
&#8220;Chelsea Clinton has come out in favor of porn for kids,&#8221; The Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon tweeted in response, adding &#8220;&#8216;Satan and I think kids should have access to porn.&#8217; — Chelsea Clinton.&#8221;
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Chelsea Clinton has come out in favor of porn for kids. <a href="https://t.co/lPvbCHeHLF">https://t.co/lPvbCHeHLF</a>
&mdash; Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) <a href="https://twitter.com/SethDillon/status/1652701552300240904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 30, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Chad Felix Green added,  &#8220;The photo on the article you&#8217;re quoting features a book with explicit illustrations of sex acts, a book about incest, one a sex story about two 10 year old boys, one about a man raping and isolating a 12 year old girl, one about a teen girl who seduces a man who kidnaps her &#8230;&#8221;
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The photo on the article you&#39;re quoting features a book with explicit illustrations of sex acts, a book about incest, one a sex story about two 10 year old boys, one about a man raping and isolating a 12 year old girl, one about a teen girl who seduces a man who kidnaps her&#8230;
&mdash; Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) <a href="https://twitter.com/chadfelixg/status/1652704992690577409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 30, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
On several occasions, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-mom-reads-graphic-gay-porn-found-in-school-library-to-school-board" target="_blank" rel="noopener">parents</a> and even <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/11-year-old-shocks-school-board-reads-aloud-from-sexually-graphic-book-he-got-from-middle-school" target="_blank" rel="noopener">students</a> have attended school board meetings and read aloud from some of the books in question — and at times, they have been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-this-is-pornography-and-this-is-grooming-school-board-shuts-mom-down-when-she-reads-from-book-available-to-schoolchildren" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asked to stop</a> due to the &#8220;inappropriate&#8221; nature of the content.
&nbsp;

Dance Theater Of Harlem Honors Virginia Johnson At Annual Vision Gala – Inside

Chelsea Clinton Dragged For Defending Sexually Explicit Books For Kids

Children's Books

LGBTQ

De-stigmatizing obesity for kids may be the newest frontier of the fat acceptance movement.
At least, that’s the goal of author Virginia Sole-Smith. Her new book “Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture” advocates for parents learning to embrace their overweight children just the way they are. She also believes in letting kids eat whatever they want, including candy and sweets, without forcing them to try vegetables or enjoy balanced meals of traditionally healthy foods.
The author, who describes herself as an “anti-diet journalist,” spoke with <a href="https://www.thecut.com/article/interview-virginia-sole-smith-parenting-fatphobia.html#comments" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Cut</a> about some of her thoughts on kids and diet. In the article titled “What If You Weren’t Scared of Your Kid Being Fat?” Sole-Smith said that one of the most common questions parents ask is how often their kids should be able to eat certain foods. Using the example of ice cream, she gave her usual response. 
“There are seven days in a week. Your child can have ice cream seven days a week. There is no law against this,” she said, while insisting that if a parent inquired over their teenager asking for an entire box of Oreo cookies, her response would be, “Pour a glass of milk — so they can dunk them?”
The 41-year-old mother of two makes the argument that limiting certain foods just makes them more appealing to kids. Her approach assumes that children learn self-control by not having any rules at all, thereby making sugary treats less exciting. 
“Vegetables are the least important part of it to me,” she told the publication. “They have their whole lives to decide if they want to eat kale.” Sole-Smith also described some of the dinner rules at her house, which include, “No pressure/Listen to your body” and “You don’t have to earn dessert.”
Sole-Smith attempts to “debunk” the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States by arguing that society’s fear of fatness could be more detrimental than minors being overweight. “The real danger to a child in a larger body is how we treat them for having that body,” she writes in “Fat Talk.”
The fat acceptance activist’s arguments are similar to those made by individuals promoting “transgender rights” for children. They say that kids should be able to tell us who they are, no matter how young they are. But these adults seem to ignore the fact that they are meant to be the ones in charge.
Children learn eating habits from their parents. Parents and other trusted adults have traditionally served as guides to show children how to exist in the world. Minors literally don’t have the mental capacity to understand the long-term effects of eating cookies for dinner every night. That’s why there are age restrictions on certain activities, such as getting tattoos and purchasing alcohol. It’s also why up until now, most everyone agreed that parents should promote good eating habits for their children. 
Sole-Smith thinks kids should be running the show and that everyone should be more accepting of overweight people because ultimately, their mental health trumps the physical risks of being obese. 
Meanwhile, the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CDC</a> called childhood obesity a “serious problem” which leads to problems including “high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, breathing problems such as asthma and sleep apnea, and joint problems.” They reported that 19.7% of children aged 2 to 19 were classified as obese according to BMI charts. That’s 14.7 million children and adolescents who could face health problems due to their weight.
This week, Sole-Smith went on NPR’s “Fresh Air” podcast to promote her new book and further explain her pro-obesity stance. She said that the pursuit of weight loss is rooted in white supremacy.
“The thin ideal is definitely a white ideal. When we trace the history of modern diet culture, we really trace it back in the United States to the end of slavery,” Sole-Smith told host Tonya Mosley.
“Obviously, white supremacy is trying to maintain the power structure. So celebrating a thin white body as the ideal body is a way to ‘other’ and demonize black and brown bodies, bigger bodies, anyone who doesn’t fit into that norm. So this is really about maintaining systems of white supremacy and patriarchy.”
“If you can understand that, actually, by continuing to pursue thinness you are on some level, maintaining your complicity with white supremacy and patriarchy,” she continued.
Sole-Smith said that fat people are discriminated against in the same way that other minority groups experience “racism or other forms of bias.”
&#8220;We as a culture have really zeroed in on weight, because we think that&#8217;s the piece that we should be able to control. But not only do we not have very much control over weight, it also won&#8217;t fix anything else,&#8221; the author <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/04/25/1171112216/fat-talk-diet-culture-parenting-kids-virginia-sole-smith" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> NPR. &#8220;All it really ends up doing is pathologizing kids&#8217; bodies and giving parents extra pressure and extra guilt and these sort of unrealistic standards we can&#8217;t get to.&#8221;
The author used to write weight loss stories for women’s magazines such as Glamour. Her perspective on childhood diets changed after her one-month-old daughter experienced medical trauma and had to be put on a feeding tube.
Sole-Smith told The Cut that the ordeal led her to decide that “obsessing over it doesn’t fix it — it makes it worse.” Following that experience, the author decided to let her two children make their own nutrition choices. “It’s the power to say no, to be curious and try new things, and to decide when and how much they want to eat,” she explained of her approach.
As more and more people advocate for fat acceptance, it’s only a matter of time before activists decide that overweight kids existing on a diet of candy and soda should just be left to live as they please. Who are we to judge?

Cropped Image Of Tempted Boy Holding French Fries Packet

Fat Acceptance Activist Insists Childhood Obesity Isn’t A Problem After All — That’s Just White Supremacy

Fat Acceptance Activist Insists Childhood Obesity Isn't A Problem After All — That's Just White Supremacy

Children's Health

Fat Acceptance

Food

Obesity

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/matthew-perry">Matthew Perry</a> regrets using <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/keanu-reeves">Keanu Reeves</a>’ name in his memoir in a derogatory way.
The 53-year-old actor apologized for how he referred to Reeves in his tell-all 2022 memoir, “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/friends">Friends</a>, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” promising that any future editions of the book will have the name removed. 
“I said a stupid thing. It was a mean thing to do,” Perry said at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, according to the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2023-04-23/matthew-perry-keanu-reeves-friends-book-festival">LA Times</a>. “I pulled his name because I live on the same street. I’ve apologized publicly to him. Any future versions of the book will not have his name in it.” 
“If I run into the guy, I’ll apologize. It was just stupid,” the “Friends” star said.
Perry is referring to a section of the book when he discussed how it&#8217;s not fair that good men, like actors River Phoenix and Heath Ledger, die.
“River was a beautiful man, inside and out – too beautiful for this world, it turned out. It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down,” Perry wrote. “Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?”
The actor also recalled working on the 1988 film “A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon” with Phoenix, who died from a drug overdose in 1993 at the age of 23. Reeves was also friends with Phoenix.
Perry previously apologized for using Reeves’ name in the memoir in October 2022.
“I’m actually a big fan of Keanu,” Perry said in his October statement. “I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologize. I should have used my own name instead.”
The “Friends” cast member made headlines when the memoir came out because it detailed his addiction to alcohol and drugs, including during his time on the hit NBC comedy. 
“There is a hell,” the actor wrote in the book, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/there-is-a-hell-matthew-perry-says-hes-been-there-admits-he-spent-nearly-10-million-to-get-sober">reported</a>. “Don’t let anyone tell you different. I’ve been there; it exists; end of discussion.”
Perry said that he got to the point where he was taking 55 Vicodin a day in addition to drinking alcohol and taking Xanax. 
“When you’re a drug addict, it’s all math. I wasn’t doing it to feel high or to feel good. I certainly wasn’t a partyer; I just wanted to sit on my couch, take five Vicodin and watch a movie,” he said. “That was heaven for me. It no longer is,” he said, adding that he spent more than $9 million on his journey to sobriety. 
The actor said the thing that got him to stop doing drugs was the thought of wearing a colostomy bag forever, which he had to do while recovering from a perforated colon. Perry said doctors at the time gave him a 2% chance of survival.

Keanu Reeves

Matthew Perry Will Remove Keanu Reeves’ Name From His Memoir: ‘I Said A Stupid Thing’

Matthew Perry Will Remove Keanu Reeves' Name From His Memoir

Drugs

Friends

Matthew Perry

The following excerpt is taken from Heather Mac Donald&#8217;s new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/When-Race-Trumps-Merit-Sacrifices/dp/1956007164/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1O8S3UD04SV6E&amp;keywords=heather+mac+donald&amp;qid=1681832109&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=heather+mac+donald%2Cstripbooks%2C115&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">When Race Trumps Merit</a> now available from <a href="https://store.dailywire.com/products/when-race-trumps-merit-by-heather-mac-donald" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DW Books</a>.
<h2>Medicine’s Racial Reckoning</h2>
The a priori truth that health disparities are necessarily the product of systemic racism has devalued basic science and encumbered medical research with red tape. The fight against cancer has been particularly affected.
Cancer grant applications must now specify who, among a lab’s staff, will enforce diversity mandates and how the lab plans to recruit underrepresented researchers and promote their careers. White and Asian oncologists are assumed to be part of the problem of black cancer mortality, not its solution, absent corrective measures. According to the NIH, leadership of cancer labs should match national or local demographics, whichever has a higher percentage of minorities. In Baltimore, which is over 60 percent black, only 10 percent of black eighth graders can read proficiently. Should Johns Hopkins’s comprehensive cancer center nevertheless have 60 percent black physician-administrators? 
Grant applicants seek the services of the burgeoning diversity-consulting profession to make sure that their proposals sound the right diversity notes. As with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Freeman Hrabowski scholarships, an insufficiently robust diversity plan means that a cancer research proposal will be rejected, regardless of its scientific merit. Discussions about how to beef up the diversity section of a grant proposal have become more important than discussions about tumor biology, reports a physician-scientist. “It is not easy summarizing how your work on cell signaling in nematodes applies to minorities currently living in your lab’s vicinity,” the researcher says. Mental energy spent solving that conundrum is mental energy not spent on science, he laments, since “thinking is always a zero-sum game.”
A lab’s diversity gauntlet has just begun, however. The NIH insists that participants in drug trials must also match national or local demographics. If a cancer center is in an area with few minorities, the lab must nevertheless present a plan for recruiting them into its study, regardless of their local unavailability. Genentech, the creator of lifesaving cancer drugs, held a national conference call with oncologists in April 2022 to discuss products in the research pipeline. Half of the call was spent on the problem of achieving diverse clinical trial enrollments, a participant reported. Genentech admitted to having run out of ideas.
There is no evidence that racist researchers are excluding minorities from drug trials on nonmedical grounds, nor has anyone presented a theory as to why they would. The barriers to such drug trial diversity include a higher incidence among blacks of disqualifying comorbidities, more challenging personal lives, and a suspicion of the medical profession (which that same profession constantly amplifies with its drumbeat about racism). Those barriers to drug-trial diversity are not recognized by grant evaluators, however.
In May 2022, a physician-scientist lost her NIH funding for a drug trial because the trial population did not contain enough blacks. The drug under review was for a type of cancer that blacks rarely get. So there were almost no black patients with that disease to enroll in the trial in the first place. It’s better, however, to foreclose development of a therapy that might help predominantly white cancer patients than to conduct a drug trial without black participants.
The diversity-driven requirement of racial proportionality in drug trials is perplexing, since diversity advocates insist that race is a social construct, without biological reality. Suggesting that genetic differences exist between racial groups will brand you a racist. The AMA’s Organizational Strategic Plan to Embed Racial Justice and Advance Health Equity sneers that “much of medicine still looks for cultural, behavioral or even genetic explanations” to explain racial gaps in life expectancy. Such a focus rests on “discredited and racist ideas about biological differences between racial groups,” according to the AMA. In May 2022, the American Association of Pediatrics announced that it was eliminating “race-based” medicine, defined as including a patient’s race in assessments of some health risks. If race does not exist, as received wisdom now has it, then the racial makeup of clinical trials should not matter.
The idea that race is merely a social construct is anti-scientific, however. DNA analyses show that there are at least five distinguishable races. The refusal to acknowledge race is also anti-health. Blacks with sub-Saharan roots have a high rate of kidney disease, for example, thanks in part to a more frequent genetic mutation. Drug companies have sought a treatment for that mutation. The reaction to that research has been unhinged. A lecturer in ethics at Columbia University and author of the book Medical Apartheid told the New York Times in May 2022 that knowledge about the genetic variant might drive the medical establishment toward “a blame-the-victim approach signaling an inherent flaw in African Americans.” This is fictional. No one thinks that possessing a genetic mutation means that the possessor is inherently flawed.” The activists are terrified, however, that work in basic science will supplant the political crusade against white supremacy. They would rather stop medical progress than improve blacks’ quality of life, if doing the latter acknowledges biological reality.
Biological reality comes into play in another kidney-related area. A common blood test for kidney health understates healthy kidney function in black patients. Nephrologists therefore adjusted the test results for black patients to estimate their kidney function with greater accuracy. Then the activists showed up, arguing that this correction must be abolished. The American Society of Nephrology and the National Kidney Foundation announced that they no longer supported the separate reporting of the kidney function measure for black patients. The University of Pennsylvania health system, among others, proudly presented its changed reporting protocol as part of the fight against medical racism. A more complicated diagnostic formula was widely adopted. But no patient was damaged by the original, more straightforward formula, nor was that original formula based on racism.
This is an excerpt taken from Heather Mac Donald&#8217;s new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/When-Race-Trumps-Merit-Sacrifices/dp/1956007164/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1O8S3UD04SV6E&amp;keywords=heather+mac+donald&amp;qid=1681832109&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=heather+mac+donald%2Cstripbooks%2C115&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">When Race Trumps Merit</a> now available from <a href="https://store.dailywire.com/products/when-race-trumps-merit-by-heather-mac-donald" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DW Books</a>. Used with permission. 
Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and a New York Times bestselling author. She is a recipient of the 2005 Bradley Prize. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and The New Criterion.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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Heather Mac Donald Examines The Dangers Of Diversity Mandates In Medicine In New Book

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Doctors

Heather Mac Donald

Racism

Systemic Racism

The English king who was limned as one of the most villainous personages in all of history is getting another look after a 17th-century history was found.
Richard III, killed at the Battle of Bosworth in Leicestershire in August 1485, was memorialized by Shakespeare as a monster who had his two young nephews murdered in order to cement his claim to the throne.
But Richard III Society members obtained a republication of The History of King Richard III by Sir George Buck, and the text, approved by the esteemed Society of Antiquaries, states that Buck found “contemporary evidence” adding, “And Richard was accounted a good and faithful man all his life. And was reputed a virtuous prince and wise. And his law and government were of the best and without stain,” <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/republication-of-richard-iii-text-challenges-the-shakespearean-myth-jlvf55b0z">The Times</a> reported.
“It’s a really important text. The Society of Antiquaries guards its reputation fiercely. For them to give it their thumbs-up is huge,” historian Philippa Langley, who supervised the finding of the king’s body in 2012, told The Times.
Buck wrote his history in the early 1600s, but his death preceded its publication. His great nephew edited the piece “heavily” while hiding “its true contents” before publishing it, The Times noted.
Academic Arthur Kincaid published his recreation of Buck’s text in 1979, but it fell out of print. The discovery of Richard’s body prompted calls for its republication.
Richard III was the last ruler of the House of York; he was succeeded by Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch and the ancestor of Queen Elizabeth I, who was queen during Shakespeare’s lifetime.
Novelist Josephine Tey’s classic work, “The Daughter of Time,” considered one of the greatest and most compelling mysteries ever written and voted number one in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Top_100_Crime_Novels_of_All_Time">The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time</a> list compiled by the British Crime Writers’ Association in 1990, deals with Scotland detective Alan Grant conducting a painstaking search of the past to ascertain exactly what the truth was about the life of Richard III.
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In the novel, Tey references various historical myths in addition to the story of Richard III to illustrate the fact that the truth of events is often perverted, leaving behind a false picture of actual history. She cites the false claim that troops fired on the public at the 1910 Tonypandy Riot; the often mis-told story of the Boston Massacre, and the history of Mary, Queen of Scots.

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