Conservative: Warren DNA Test Proves Nothing
What David Harsanyi at The Federalist calls a “ludicrously unskeptical” Boston Globe article reports that a DNA test found “strong evidence” of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Native American ancestry dating back six to 10 generations. Yet it actually only suggests the possibility Warren’s great-great-great grandmother was partially Native American — “a far cry from any reasonable threshold to embrace minority status for a job,” which is “exactly what she did starting in the 1990s.” Fact is, The New York Times has reported that “the average white person in America has nearly double the amount of American Indian DNA” as Warren. Moreover, “there’s little genetic data available from Native Americans” — such tests “merely rely on some guesswork by referencing the DNA to people from South America.” To suggest Warren’s dubious ancestral claims have now been vindicated “is an assault on reason.”
Foreign desk: Turkey Isn’t Exactly a Model Citizen, Either
A real irony over the Jamal Khashoggi affair, according to Bloomberg’s Eli Lake, is “the opportunity it has provided Turkey to polish its image.” Turkish authorities “have blown the whistle on the Saudis,” leaking surveillance footage and dossiers. Indeed, these days they’re “sounding like spokesmen for Human Rights Watch.” But Turkey for the last two years has been ranked “as the world’s leading jailer of journalists” like Khashoggi. Then “there is the Turkish campaign to kidnap its own citizens in other countries, much as the Saudis are accused of trying to do with Khashoggi.” None of this excuses Saudi Arabia — but punishing Riyadh “should not mean rewarding Turkey” and “Erdogan’s transgressions of basic international norms.”
Culture critic: Cardinal Wuerl Is Out … Or Is He?
Pope Francis last week accepted the resignation of Donald Cardinal Wuerl, recently named in the Pennsylvania grand jury report as responsible for covering up known predator priests. But Megan Fox at PJ Media notes that Wuerl “isn’t going anywhere: He’s staying right where he is, doing the same job he’s always done,” while the pope “searches for a replacement.” Yet, after months of scandal, “one would think the pontiff has a list as long as his arm of replacements already queued up.” This “non-action,” she says, merely “allows the pope to claim he is doing something while not actually doing anything that brings about change.” After all, “how many months do you think it would take a school to fire a principal who had covered up the rape of a child?”
Political scribe: No Attention for Nobel Peace Laureates
In the midst of the feminist “war on women” narrative, notes The Daily Signal’s Kelsey Harkness, Yazidi sex-slave survivor Nadia Murad was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize for “fighting a real War on Women in the Middle East” waged by ISIS. She shared the honor with Dr. Denis Mukwege of Congo, who has been “a relentless healer and advocate for women.” Yet “uncorroborated allegations of gang rape brought by porn lawyer Michael Avenatti” managed to “overshadow a gang rape survivor-turned-women’s advocate being honored with the most prestigious award in the world.” And even now, “Nadia’s story is falling on deaf ears,” despite her pleas that women’s voices be heard, “because being ‘heard’ requires others to listen.”
From the right: Harvard Anti-Asian Racism Cannot Stand
Oral arguments began Monday in a landmark case accusing Harvard of “systematically discriminating against Asian-American applicants in college admissions,” notes Ying Ma at Fox News. At stake: “the sham known as diversity in higher education.” An internal Harvard study of application data from 2007 to 2016 shows that, if judged purely by merit, Asian-Americans would have made up 43 percent of entering freshmen; the actual figure is 19 percent. Yet when “confronted with evidence of its racist practices, Harvard has dutifully trotted out the lingo of diversity.” Of course, Harvard is not the only elite university that engages in anti-Asian discrimination. Racial diversity, she charges, “is a sham” — it’s all “about identity politics, and identity politics is about grievance. In turn, grievance provides an excuse for racial discrimination against different groups.”
— Compiled by Eric Fettmann