The Return of McCarthyism, the Rearmament of Europe & and the Boredom of Rest
Here’s your weekly-ish roundup of everything I’ve curated or created online, March 16–22, 2025.
Thought-Provoking Content
US and Israel Look to Africa for Moving Palestinians Uprooted From Gaza by Josef Federman, Matthew Lee, and Samy Magdy at AP:
Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a secret diplomatic initiative, U.S. and Israeli officials confirmed the contacts with Somalia and Somaliland, while the Americans confirmed Sudan as well.
Two Sudanese officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic matter, confirmed that the Trump administration has approached the military-led government about accepting Palestinians.
One of them said the contacts began even before Trump’s inauguration with offers of military assistance against the RSF, assistance with postwar reconstruction and other incentives.
The Return Of The McCarthyite Chill by Andrew Sullivan in The Weekly Dish:
If the law [being used against Khalil] seems McCarthyite, that’s because it was passed in 1952 and aimed specifically at Holocaust survivors from Eastern Europe suspected of communist sympathies. According to historian David Nasaw in The Last Million, “suspected Communists were denied visas while untold numbers of antisemites, Nazi collaborators, and war criminals gained entrance to the United States.” It is one of the sublime ironies of this that the ADL now supports a law that once persecuted Holocaust survivors. Back in 1950s, the ADL called it “the worst kind of legislation, discriminatory and abusive of American concepts and ideals.” Now that the ADL can use the law to go after its foes, it’s fine.
Do we want to live in an America that tells any noncitizen that they can obey every law, and commit no errors in their immigration journey, but they are still not safe from deportation if they speak their minds … about Israel? Do we want to tell their American-citizen wives, husbands, and children that they have no right to keep their family intact because of problematic speech?
Last Boys at the Beginning of History: Thymos Comes to the Capital by Mana Afsari in The Point:
This is what the younger NatCons are: New Romantics. Young men looking for meaning, guidance, purpose and use, for a world where they could belong.
Rearmament Is a Noble Lie by Aris Roussinos in UnHerd:
Europe’s post-Cold War weakness is as much the product of cold American calculation as of European delusion. While the Continent’s inability to defend itself is shameful, Trump’s declared shock at this outcome rings hollow, given the great American efforts, over decades, to enable our present weakness and dependency. A Europe that does not rely on America’s defence umbrella, that develops its own defence-industrial base, its own surveillance and target acquisition capabilities, its own nuclear shield and own reliable sources of energy is also a sovereign Europe, whose interests will of necessity diverge from those of Washington. Vassals or rivals: either path is now fraught with risks.
The hour of Europe’s independence has dawned, but there is no Bismarck or Mazzini to meet it, merely Von der Leyen and Kallas, regional HR managers for Washington’s soon-to-be-wound-down European operation. Macron excepted, Europe has no great men waiting in the wings: but the conflict between a truly sovereign Europe and an imperial America presents challenges that have not yet been articulated, let alone planned for.
Do Black Babies Have Better Survival Rates with Black Doctors Than White Doctors? by Steve Stewart-Williams in The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter:
A re-analysis of the data, however, shows that the effect disappears when you account for the fact that Black doctors more often see normal weight Black newborns, whereas White doctors more often see low birth weight Black newborns—newborns that have much poorer odds of survival.
Democrats Have Four Theories to Beat Trump by Matt K. Lewis in Los Angeles Times:
Democrats are busy scrambling to find a strategy to regain power. As far as I can tell, they have four (not mutually exclusive) theories.
Trump needs to stumble; Democrats need to actually do the work, stop alienating everyone outside a liberal arts campus and find a candidate who excites people.
This Is What the Zizians Actually Believe by baroquespiral and Monia Ali in default.blog:
In a society straining under an accelerating “polycrisis”, there is a greater need for heroic action than ever before—but such action must be originary: mimetic models simply will not be available. Therefore, more and more people—the best and brightest—will throw themselves into the orbit of the Void, attempting to “jailbreak” themselves from the social fabric that constrains heroes.
Who Really Was Dietrich Bonhoeffer? by Preston Sprinkle with Mark Thiessen Nation on Theology in the Raw (podcast):
The conspiracy was not dependent on what Bonhoeffer was doing. It was a sort of parallel effort. ... You don't have to be willing to kill Hitler to be involved in that kind of [diplomatic] effort. ... He certainly was not directly involved [in the conspiracy to kill Hitler].
Rest Easy by Joseph Epstein in Commentary
Most of us simultaneously seek rest and yet are wary of the boredom implicit in it. The contradiction would appear to be irresolvable. Perhaps the only creature known to resolve it is cats.
For and Against Narrative by Todd Brewer in Mockingbird:
We can interpret Jesus’ teachings as components within a broader narrative mural to arrive at understanding, or we can view Jesus’ teachings strictly as data from which we derive our ethics, theology, or historical Jesus reconstructions. While both a narrative and non-narrative hermeneutic can stake a claim for their legitimacy, they are not value neutral. The choice of one’s interpretive approach will inform the kind of understanding one receives, and the appropriateness of that selection is to be judged by their fittingness to the uses they are employed.
Music
O Jesus, blest Redeemer,
Sent from the heart of God,
Hold us who wait before
Thee Near to the heart of God.
Painful sorrow, sad regrets
They've become a wilderness
And my heart can't heal in this loneliness
Jesus, find me and once again
Be my rest, be my rest
Sermon
Crossing Jordan (Series: The Story of God and Us, The Promised Land)