Libertarian: ‘Conspiracy Theory,’ Chuck?
Bare months after Sen. Chuck Schumer “assured everyone that government gas-grabbing was a MAGA conspiracy theory,” and “mainstream media fact-checkers said much the same,” snarks Reason’s Christian Britschgi, it turns out “the conspiracists did have something to worry about.” Namely, New York just banned new gas hookups. “Supporters of gas stove bans argue that the gas needed to fuel them is bad for the climate.” But “mandated electrification of appliances is probably worse for the climate,” as generating electricity from gas to use to power appliances is much less efficient. Congress seems likely to prevent a federal ban, but it won’t help “lovers of gas stoves” in New York.
Eye on Schools: SF’s Failed War on Algebra
Studies show that the San Francisco Unified School District policy of delaying Algebra I until ninth grade and “detracking” kids in math has failed to produce “equity” among black and Hispanic students as it was meant to do, thunders Helen Raleigh at City Journal. Not only did the policy fail to change racial enrollment patterns in AP math courses, it impeded kids (including minorities) who needed to complete “prerequisites” to take AP Calculus before graduating. Yet California is “seriously considering adopting SFUSD’s math curriculum for the rest of the state.” If it does, beware the adage: “As California goes, so goes the nation.” Critics of SFUSD’s policy say expanding it would “exacerbate inequality” by reducing access to the skills needed for social advancement and thus “cripple the country’s economic competitiveness.”
Foreign desk: China’s Revenge Threats on Trade
“Although senior economic policymakers in China often talk about opening up,” observes Nouriel Roubini at The Guardian, “China’s policies still prioritise security and control.” Officials threaten that the Chinese government will “play hardball if its firms and interests are treated harshly in the US” and “that while China aims to maintain an open global trading regime, the country would respond forcefully to any attempt to drag it into a new cold war.” Recent “American actions limiting trade with China” raise “concerns that America is trying to ‘contain’ its rise and decouple from its economy.” “Assuaging China” will be all the more “difficult when the US is reportedly planning to introduce far-reaching restrictions on Chinese investments in the US and on American investments in China.”
Conservative: Woke Navy’s Recruitment Woes
The “national obsession with sexuality, race and gender is focused on self rather than on purpose, ability or service,” fumes Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) at The Wall Street Journal. He’s demanding “every senior military nomination receive a separate vote in the Senate” so Congress can “scrutinize more closely the leaders at the very top. Are they part of the problem”? After all, the Biden administration seems “determined to turn the Pentagon into a five-sided faculty lounge” bent on “left-wing social engineering.” The military is having “a Bud Light moment. [Defense Secretary Lloyd] Austin and his Democratic allies in Congress need to wake up.”
Mideast beat: Riyadh New ♥ for Tehran, Beijing
Nothing John Hannah heard at a November meeting with top Saudis last November would’ve led him “to predict that less than four months later, the world would wake up to the shocking image of China’s top diplomat clasping hands with senior Saudi and Iranian negotiators,” Hannah writes at The Jerusalem Post. “But in hindsight, there were plenty of clues.” President Biden had “put his uniquely anti-Saudi spin” on an increasingly popular impulse to turn away from the Middle East. Saudis fear that Washington no longer “has the kingdom’s back” and that they must “accommodate” arch-rival Iran — especially since China seems willing to “use its growing regional clout in support of Saudi security.” And if that’s the case, “both Washington and Jerusalem should be concerned.”
Compiled by The Post Editorial Board