Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the editor:

President Trump shut down parts of the federal government because he couldn’t get congressional funding for his wall. Mexico won’t pay either.

We can’t build a wall on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande across from Texas, and it can’t be done down the middle of the river either. So, the effect of building Trump’s wall is that we will be ceding the north bank of the Rio Grande to Mexico.

Walls are built to keep people out, but they’re also built to keep people in. Americans won’t be fishing or letting their cattle drink from the north bank anymore—and Trump wants Americans to pay for what amounts to ceding much of our border to Mexico.

Keith Ensminger, Merced, Calif.

CNN & others within the Fake News Universe were going wild about my signing MAGA hats for our military in Iraq and Germany. If these brave young people ask me to sign their hat, I will sign. Can you imagine my saying NO? We brought or gave NO hats as the Fake News first reported!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 27, 2018

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In August 1305, Wallace, taken near Glasgow, was hurried to trial in Westminster Hall and executed with all the horrors of a traitor's death. Some of his bravest supporters followed him to the scaffold.

Wallace was the leader of a résistance. He and his men had ravaged England and taken English lives; but a traitor he was not. He had never given his fealty to the usurper. Edward mangled his body and impaled his head on London Bridge; but he became the national hero of Scotland and his spirit lives still.

(J. D. Mackie, A History of Scotland, 2d ed. [New York: Dorset Press, 1978], 71)

Here.

Here.

This is a scene (click to enlarge) from today's 44-mile bike ride. It rained quite a bit yesterday, which caused Village Creek to overflow. I had to take an alternate route. The weather today was gorgeous. It was cool, sunny, and breezy. Okay, it was downright windy, but I was in no hurry, so I didn't mind. I'm two rides away from my goal of 7,500 miles in 2018.

Yesterday evening, at a local theater, Katherine and I watched The Mule (2018), which stars 88-year-old Clint Eastwood. On a superficial level, I enjoyed the movie. I liked the Western scenery; I liked the small towns; and I enjoyed watching and listening to Eastwood, who is one of my favorite actors. But the plot sucked. When the movie ended, I was shocked by all the loose ends. Why didn't the bad guys get their comeuppance? What was going to happen to Eastwood's character (Earl) in prison? Would the drug cartel get to him? How did Earl's face get bloodied? Some reviewers on Reddit complained about Earl's "racism" and "homophobia." Jesus christ. It's a movie! Are we so sensitive that we can't (or don't want to) see depictions of racism and homophobia? Some people have no understanding of the difference between fact and fiction, or else they insist that fiction conform to their political values. These people are the new puritans. That said, I would not watch this movie again, and I will not purchase it on DVD, as I do many of the movies I watch in the theater. Once is enough. Maybe too many.

Here is the trailer.

Here is Kurt Schlichter’s latest column.

This interesting essay by Columbia University linguist John McWhorter is marred by Trump hatred. McWhorter says, for instance, that “Bias and ignorance remain ‘under the surface,’ from films like Crash to the election of Donald Trump.” I take it that McWhorter thinks President Trump (and, by implication, those who support him) are biased and ignorant. Of what facts are they ignorant? We are not told. As for bias, the only bias on display is McWhorter’s own.

Another example of Trump hatred appears later in the essay, where McWhorter says that Republican “concern for all-but-nonexistent voter fraud” is a “sham.” (Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed concern about voter fraud by Democrats.) McWhorter provides no evidence for the claim that voter fraud is “all-but-nonexistent.” Does McWhorter think that even a single case of voter fraud is acceptable? Is a single case of rape acceptable? Are we to become concerned about voter fraud or rape only when it rises to a certain level?

Still later in the essay, McWhorter implies that President Trump is “a repulsive, bigoted excrescence.” McWhorter gives no reason to think that Trump is bigoted, or even to explain what he means by the term in this context. Nor does he explain what it is about Trump that he finds revolting. Many of us find Trump the opposite of revolting, namely, attractive. We support his agenda; we like him personally; we value his ability and willingness to fight for what he believes in; we admire his courage and selflessness; and we’re proud to have voted for him. We will vote for him again in 2020.

Linguistics is a social science, and McWhorter therefore a social scientist. Social scientists have as their goal getting things right, i.e., understanding the world as it is and not as they wish it to be. The factual claims McWhorter makes in this essay float free of reality. What’s ironic is McWhorter’s pathetic attempt to signal his virtue to readers of the Atlantic. He seems to be saying, “Don’t dismiss me as a Trump supporter or even as a sympathizer; like all right-thinking people, I hate the man!” The point of the essay is to condemn virtue signaling. Can you say “hypocrite”?

(By the way, the essay is badly written, which shows that taking language as the object of one’s study is no guarantee of facility with it.)