Victim’s sister: Keep Manson Family Locked Up
The sister of actress Sharon Tate, the most famous of Charles Manson’s 10 murder victims back in 1969, says she’s not “breathing a sigh of relief” now that the killer-cult leader has died at 83. After all, says Debra Tate at Newsweek, Manson only gave the orders to “his minions, most of whom came from middle-class homes and who had all the opportunities of the ‘all-American dream.’ ” Yet some still revere them as “renegades, urban legends or even dissident unwashed rebels.” The five who remain behind bars “are still asking us to forgive them for their lapse in judgment, as if they don’t have to be held accountable.” But, as with other serial killers, “we must never let these people see the light of day.”
From the right: Merkel’s Disastrous Sentimentalism
The collapse of negotiations to form a new government and keep German Chancellor Angela Merkel in power “is yet another shock to the liberal world order,” says PJ Media’s David Goldman. Because “the crack in German society has been exposed and will only deepen in the future.” And “the elephant in Merkel’s parlor” is “the migrant issue,” complicated by her refusal to brook any criticism of her decision to admit “almost a million and a half migrants” — only some of whom were actually refugees from the Syrian civil war. Yet Merkel at least “is an American ally; whoever might replace her will be more eager to cut deals with Russia.” In the end, though, too many voters “refused to indulge her sentimental humanitarianism at the expense of German’s national identity — whatever that might be.”
Historian: The First Thanksgiving’s Real Story
Most people’s image of the first Thanksgiving in 1621 is “more or less a cartoon we were taught in grade school” about “peaceful Indians and well-meaning Pilgrims” feasting together, contends The Federalist’s John Daniel Davidson. The real story is “far more interesting and complex.” In fact, “the Pilgrims were able to survive and establish their colony because they were drawn into the political machinations of Massasoit, a shrewd and calculating Indian leader who was trying to figure out how to save his people from apocalypse” threatened by “diseases brought by earlier European traders.” Their fragile peace lasted 50 years, until “one of Massasoit’s sons launched an attack and triggered a conflict that would encompass all of New England.”
Numbers cruncher: Ignoring Science on Mammograms
Gov. Cuomo is deciding whether to sign or veto a bill requiring health plans to cover digital breast tomosynthesis, a three-dimensional mammography. But Bill Hammond at NY Torch says that if Cuomo lets it become law, “it would be a classic case of health-care politics rushing ahead of medical science.” The US Preventive Services Task Force, he notes, “has declined to recommend the procedure,” citing a lack of long-term research on its benefits and harms. Yet “despite the scientific uncertainly,” the Legislature passed a bill requiring coverage of annual screenings, even without a proven medical necessity. Says Hammond: “The bill fits an Albany pattern of imposing coverage mandates based on lobbying by provider or patient groups, but without consulting independent experts.”
Reporter: Top Donor Threatens To Cut off New School
One of The New School’s top donors is threatening to halt his contributions over a planned event on anti-Semitism featuring two left-wing activists, reports Armin Rosen at Tablet. Ken Bialkin, a top attorney and philanthropist, notified the university that the panel would jeopardize his future involvement, charging the New School “has seemingly institutionalized the anti-Semitism of the radical left.” The panel, set for next week, features anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour and Rebecca Vilkomerson of Jewish Voice for Peace. Given their past statements, says Bialkin, this panel “will propagate animus and bigotry towards the Jewish people.” That’s especially ironic, he noted, since The New School served as a refuge for Jewish scholars who fled Nazi Germany.
— Compiled by Eric Fettmann
