Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Ricochet Member Making Waves
Last time we were bragging that our own @jennastocker had landed the cover story on Thinking Minnesota magazine. Now she’s in National Review and showing up on the TV.
.
Published in General
Awesome
Go Jenna, go Jenna, go Jenna ….
National Review? And I thought she was a good conservative. Feh. Nothing but NT cocktail-party David-French-assisted intellectual corruption from here on. Burn her! Burn the witch!
There is this odd idea that Trans people MUST be allowed to partake in athletics. This is incorrect. participating in athletics is a privilege and participants must meet a series of standards both physical, mental, scholastic, and moral to be allowed to participate and represent their schools (well maybe not the moral ones for the best athletes).
In pure technicality, what is called “men’s” sports are actually open anyone. Any woman is welcome to make the football, basketball, soccer, baseball, etc. teams, but they cannot because they cannot make the teams. There have been some rare exceptions of a female kicker, or even a female QB, heck my oldest in 8th grade was bigger than the entire line of her junior high team. I tried to get her to go out and play D-Line, but she wasn’t interested. By the time she was in 10th Grade, she would not have made the field because the boys caught up and their weight training made them much stronger.
Women’s sports as created by Title IX has actually been an amazing thing for women, for the schools, and frankly for all of us. No longer was a women’s sports opportunities limited to being a cheerleader for the men. In fact, the Title IX opportunities made it so that the US dominates the world scene in many sports because we encourage athletics for women. That will start to change the more trans athletes are allowed to compete. Note that we don’t hear about a trans man breaking records or even making the men’s team do we?
In the end, the question seems very simple to me…does everyone have a right to make the team, and if that is the case, then why are we keeping score/time and instead just give everyone a participation trophy and be done with it.
WAY TO GO JENNA!!!
When our son played youth hockey, there were quite a few girls in the youngest age groups (ages 6-12 or so). One year when he was still pretty young, the club’s 16-17 age group team had one girl who was pretty good, but not the star. That team won a national title in its age group, and it ended up getting invited to the old Soviet Union on some kind of hockey exchange tour. The commies wouldn’t let girls play against their kids, so she cut her hair shorter and used a name variation that sounded male. She managed to fool ’em.
How wonderful! And we get to claim she started here! I sure hope she’s still part of our club!
So much for Minnesotans sticking together.
I’m gonna miss her when she gets shanghaied over to the Federalist.
Lileks’ go-to defense of National Review is assuming the voice of a crude parody of its critics with little imagination. One would think with his abilities he’d come up with something more apt and cutting than “Burn the witch” and yet another reference to cocktail parties.
This was, as far as I can tell, a post about Jenna and the issue of transgender’s in women’s sports. But James chooses to focus on attacking critics of David French (of all people) and National Review’s unpopular editorial policy of denigrating the deplorables like Victor Davis Hanson and anyone to the right of Mitt Romney.
To be sure, I subscribed to the magazine before the age of the internet, and even then I remember how they were holding the line against girls being boys, and boys pretending to be girls as a line in the sand that was central to the idea of conservatism. Controversial then as now, National Review has always been a staunch defender of gender rights. Those were the days before Mr. French was a contributor, before he was even born (again). National Review will always hold a place in my heart and intellect as being on the right side of this issue. As difficult and nuanced as it is to articulate and defend, they stand athwart history yelling “Stop!”. Thank you National Review for daring to publish this article.
Can’t wait for the Never Transgender special issue to come out. That’ll show ’em how severely conservative they are!
Oh goodness gracious, I’m deeply humbled. I think most people here can relate to being passionate about one (or many!) issue or another that really fans the flames. This is what I love about Ricochet. Every time I hop on, I learn something new or have cause to reconsider something I thought I knew. It’s priceless, really, when living in an era when truth is a construct of some revisionist’s imagination and deep introspection and thought is overlooked in favor of soundbites and bumper-sticker slogans.
So in my gratitude, I’m going to do my best to be an ambassador for Minnesota and invite everyone over for a Tom & Jerry and hot dish. Lefse and relish tray included, naturally. Despite @jameslileks prickly sarcasm (endearing!) he’s also invited, though subject to at least a 45 minute goodbye at the end of the evening. In all seriousness, if anyone happens through the Minneapolis area (if you dare), there’s always an open door!
Ha! I’m content in my anonymity and nobody-ness!
Minnesota “nice”?!
Thank you, Susan – (you’re still my Dad’s favorite!)
I still get the dead-tree NR so I can flip to the Lileks page. After reading the latest, I thought how future historians will think these political disputes are so strange. Or at least I hope they will.
Bah. As one who has lobbed more than his fair share of overripe produce in Mr. French’s direction, I for one can take it.
The armorer says it’ll buff out.
Jenna, you ROCK!!!
Speaking of which, the idea of naming new variants of COVID after Pokemon characters cracked up my entire household since I read it to them with breakfast, and they’re still at it.
The same invitation is open to you and yours if you ever want a slightly milder version of Minnesota, which is what we get here in western NY. We can look at the frozen Niagara Falls, then come home for some serious mulled wine or local cider.
I’ll take that deal!
This is one for the meritocracy. Jenna’s missives from strife-torn Minneapolis were always substantive and well-written. We can always use that.
I am one of her biggest fans. She’s an EGA daughter, one of the family.
You go, Girl! @jennastocker
It was just a jape. I should have put in a cruise ship icon to complete the crude parody. But it’s not far from ace-of-spades-style hatred of NR. He’ll cross the street on a post about breakfast cereal to unzip his fly and unload on all the squishes he thinks sit around a table at HQ and worry about what the WaPo thinks about them. I was reading a reddit thread about a C.W. Cooke piece, and they were all chattering about how it was surprising the website would publish something like this. He was the last sane voice! He’ll be fired soon!
My dad always made Tom & Jerrys, which are basically eggnog drinks that make you walk into a wall. The hot dish, of course, must contain rice and hamburger and some sort of sauce to glue it all together. Or tater tots!
Of course. Radishes and celery.
WELP (slaps thighs)
(37 minutes later, womenfolk are still talking; everyone has moved to the door and has coats on; the menfolk say they’re going to go warm up the cars)
I’m old enough to remember the introduction of Tater Tots. It was a big deal. I was raised and remain Methodist, which means I believe in God and own at least four 9×13 casserole dishes.
I will keep that in mind next time I’m passing through. Maybe on my way to or from the WorldCon in Chicago next fall.
A Methodist woman can’t die & go to heaven without bringing a covered dish…
Here’s one of a gazillion tater tot casserole recipes:
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/222037/tatertot-casserole/
I don’t normally think about National Review nor can I afford to go on a cruise, but since we’re on the subject, I would imagine that we can all bond as conservatives about how absurd it is that men can compete as women and get away with it over drinks named after cartoon characters. I’ll have a Speedy Ganzolas thank you (tequila, vodka and Red Bull). And that’s exactly the problem I have with Conservative Inc. Yes, Conservative Inc. Roll yer eyes and respond “Ahoy” now…
Donald Trump is a difficult person to support. That’s some heavy lifting. I get it. There was no one with more polish and (possibly) better character who was advocating for the things rank-and-file conservatives (and/or libertarians) wanted. But you can’t have conservatism – or more importantly freedom – without some hard choices. Otherwise it’s just words to bandy about on a virtual cruise ship and when you get back on shore you’re in the same landlubbing predicament as when you left. Joe Biden gets elected and we have an Executive Order forcing our military to pay for treatment for transitioning troops while they retreat from the latest foreign adventure that enriched everyone but the American people to the land of rainbows and omnicorns. Did NR help with that? Not at all. They facilitated that. They could have defended our 45th President against lies and slander. They never did.
So I take umbrage when NR is defended on the basis that they are conservative, or in any way controversial or effective. The transgender issue is low-hanging fruit. You don’t even have to be conservative to think it’s insane. Regardless, it’s not earth-shattering. It’s not the blatant defiance of our Constitution and the wholesale destruction of our freedom and our American Dream for some pansy narcissist to break women’s 400 meter records. It’s much more a sign of how much we have lost.