On the Bull Run/Occoquan Trail – College admissions scandal – The mouse that roared: the WHO criticizes China (for once) – Abortion pills become easier to obtain – Kevin McCarthy still failing to become Speaker – Evening statistics
The mild weather continues. Yesterday I went with the Vigorous Hikers on the Bull Run/Occoquan Trail, a there-and-back between the Kincheloe Soccer Field and the southern terminus at Fountainhead. At times rain fell, but so lightly that one scarcely noticed it. We had lunch at the lake towards the end of the entrance road at Fountainhead. The dam, which is about ½ mile from the boating area, had been opened recently in a manner that led to flooding, but there were little signs of damage where we had lunch. At the end of the hike I encountered GP and BH. They had come down with COVID a few weeks ago – which of course in GP’s case is no trifling matter, since he is now well into his 90s – but they both have since recovered and have immediately taken back to the trails again.
William Singer, a self-labeled “college admissions consultant,” has been convicted of bribing coaches and rigging examination results to obtain admission for the children of his well-placed clients, who include various financiers in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and New York City. Using staged photographs and resumes filled with nonexistent accolades, a girl who’d never played soccer competitively found herself at UCLA on its nationally ranked soccer team; the daughter of actress Lori Loughlin was admitted to USC as a recruited coxswain on the basis of a posed photograph on a rowing machine; and the son of a Los Angeles businessman won a spot at USC after his father photographed him posing in water polo gear in the family pool, then paid a graphic designer to impose the boy’s image in a shot of an actual match. Singer has been sentenced to pay a fine of $10 million to the Federal government and to serve 3½ years in prison. In addition, prosecuting attorneys are leveling charges against 53 of his clients for obtaining admission for elite colleges for their sons and daughters to the detriment of thousands of other more qualified applicants.
That is all very well as far as it goes, but it does not address the root of the problem: namely, the colleges themselves. Singer himself outlined the issue when he described how he came to develop his scams in the first place. Students, as he said, could enter various elite universities via the “front door”: studying hard and pursuing an interest in sports, the arts, or other extra-curricular activities. But of course there are many applicants for every entrance opening, and there are no guarantees that any student, however qualified, can obtain admission to the college of his or her choice. And here matters become more murky. Wealthy and influential families have created a “back door” for their children: i.e., a massive donation to a university endowment. Even that measure, however, does not absolutely guarantee admission for their progeny who happen to be unentitled to such placement. So Singer created what he called a “side door” by cultivating relationships with coaches and other athletic officials willing to sell him admission spots earmarked for recruited athletes into colleges such as Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, USC, and UCLA, among others ease with which colleges allow themselves to be bribed, and the ever-increasing corruption associated with college student athletic programs, will cause scandals such as these to become commonplace. We urgently need reform in our collegiate system.
The WHO has done something truly astounding today: it has actually criticized China. We have seen in the past that the WHO has been shamefully subservient to that country, minimizing its responsibility for the emergence of COVID in the first place and even bolstering its fallacious claim to Taiwan by suppressing any references to the latter as an independent nation. But today the WHO has stated that the Chinese medical authorities are lying about the extent of the infections and deaths from COVID – the WHO has actually said “under-representing” instead of “lying,” but everyone knows what they mean – and has gone so far as to endorse, although in very muted terms, the precautions other countries are taking concerning travelers from China entering their borders. No doubt even these timid censures will draw upon them the wrath of the Xi Jinping administration, so that the WHO’s venturing even this far borders on the miraculous.
Right-to-lifers are now going to have to adjust to a new regulation enforced by the FDA that enables access to abortion pills to pharmacies and from them to their patrons. Women can now get a prescription for the pills via a telehealth consultation with a health professional, and then receive the pills through the mail, at any rate in states where this is permitted by law. This development will make the enforcement of anti-abortion laws much more difficult, even in the most Draconian of states. Thus if a woman in Texas desires to obtain an abortion, there is nothing to prevent her from obtaining an online consultation and then contacting relatives in, for example, California to pick up the prescription at a pharmacy in their area and then sending it to her. Obviously that does not resolve the issue entirely – doubtless there remain many women who may not have the necessary contacts to bring about such an outcome – but it does mean that our home-grown ayatollahs must be pulling their hair out in despair at this reduction over their control of women’s wombs.
Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday failed to secure the Speakership on the House’s sixth vote, the third vote of the day. It is the first time in over a century that the House has required more than one vote to select a Speaker. McCarthy needs 218 votes, but there are 20 representatives within the Republican party who have declined to vote in his favor, first voting for Jim Jordan and then, when it became apparent that Jordan was a non-starter, voting for Byron Donalds. Trump has endorsed McCarthy as Speaker, which leads one to hope that he may not obtain the position after all. As many are discovering, Trump’s endorsements are now beginning to become liabilities rather than assets.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 666,386,672; # of deaths worldwide: 6,703,047; # of cases U.S.: 102,852,514; # of deaths; U.S.: 1,119,624.