Cancer expert: Canceled for My COVID Views
At The Free Press, Dr. Vinay Prasad warns that the American College of Clinical Pharmacy’s decision to cancel his lecture after “a vocal minority on X (formerly Twitter) complained” should “alarm” anyone who cares about “free speech.” The complaints were “vague,” but one charged that he’d spread misleading info about COVID (though the canceled lecture had nothing to do with the virus). Prasad had questioned some COVID policies after his research (based “on a sober assessment of available evidence”) found, for example, “no strong data to back up masking kids,” closing schools or repeated jabs for young people who’ve had COVID. Yet the ACCP simply “caved to a mob.” “What does it say that small groups of people online can cancel talks?”
Israel desk: Of Course Iran Was Involved
“American and Israeli intelligence agencies’ lack of evidence” that Iran backed the Hamas terror attack “isn’t surprising, since they also failed to predict Hamas’s attack.” Fact is, Iran “fights the U.S. and Israel through proxies,” explains Shay Katiri at The Wall Street Journal — and Quds Force commander Gen. Esmail Qaani “met with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad officials in April and June” as “Iran began to claim responsibility publicly for the uptick in Palestinian violence in Israel.” Tehran’s “motives and timing are clear”: With the release of $6 billion for US hostages, Iran had “accumulated enough wealth to survive for several more years.” “Whether this bet will pay off” is unclear, but Iran supremo Ali Khamenei “approved of this war and stands to gain from it.”
Court beat: Outrageous Trump Gag Order
“If you’re cheering on a judge who’s inhibiting political speech on rickety grounds, you’re no friend of ‘democracy’ or the Constitution,” grumbles David Harsanyi at The Federalist of US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan’s gag order on Donald Trump. She ruled that “first amendment freedoms do not allow him to launch a pre-trial smear campaign against participating government staff, their families and foreseeable witnesses.” Asks Harsanyi: “Who is Chutkan to dictate the contours of a presidential candidate’s political speech?” And assuming “that without gagging, Trump will engage in a ‘smear campaign’ is as prejudicial to the case as any of the inflammatory things Trump has thrown around.” And: “It’s already illegal to intimidate witnesses. Charge him if he does it.” Fact is, “gag orders are almost always an unconstitutional prior restraint. For years, the ACLU and similar groups argued the same.”
Republican: Moms’ Righteous Anger
“We should trust parents to make the best decisions for their children. Joe Biden and the political class don’t trust them,” fumes Nikki Haley at The Spectator. “Moms are furious. They should be.” “Their daughters and sons were shut out of school during the pandemic, some for more than a year. Now they’re being indoctrinated with lies about America,” and “the leaders who are supposed to protect their children are actively attacking them — especially Joe Biden.” “He didn’t push to reopen schools. He wants boys to play girls’ sports, even sharing the same locker room,” and “the last thing Joe Biden wants is to give parents the freedom to pick the schools that are best for their children.” “Our leaders in Washington want to control parents and children alike. This is beyond insulting.”
IRS watch: New Contract for Security-Fail Firm
“The Internal Revenue Service recently awarded a lucrative contract to help modernize its computer databases to the same Washington firm, Booz Allen Hamilton,” involved in three “major” breaches “of confidential and classified government information” this last decade, thunders Paul Sperry at RealClearInvestigations. Former BAH contractor Charles Littlejohn just pled guilty to stealing “more than two decades of Trump’s personal tax records” and leaking “a trove of sensitive IRS data on Elon Musk, Michael Bloomberg and other billionaires” to lefty news site ProPublica. Federal prosecutors gave him a plea deal likely to mean a sentence of just eight to 14 months, and court papers avoid naming Booz Allen, which is “the most profitable government contractor in the world” and “connected to a number of high-profile Democrats.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board