School lunches are drastically different today than they were a century ago. Today's youth would be beyond confused if you presented them a plate of cheese meatloaf and even a baby boomer might not recognize what today's school kids are eating for lunch. Like clothes and music, foods go in and out of style, and it's incredible to see how each decade brings new and exciting things for kids to eat. Source

It's hard to believe that The Beatles' rooftop concert is 50 years old. Not only was it the climax to the film that was operating with the working title of Get Back, but it was also a return to their rock roots. Londoners looked on in awe and excitement as the world's biggest band played their first live concert in over two years. The album and film would be released in May 1970 as Let It Be. Source

While transgender orthodoxy seems rooted ever deeper in American education, entertainment, and society, the LGBTQ lobby’s stranglehold over big business is finally loosening. A key organization that uses mafia-like tactics to pressure companies to toe the line on gender ideology has faced setbacks. Molson Coors Beverage Company, the company that produces Coors Light beer, announced to employees Tuesday that it will no longer participate in the Human Rights Campaign’s corporate equality index. Robby Starbuck, a former music video director who exposes and combats the Left’s diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, revealed Molson Coors’ announcement on X. “We will no longer participate in any voluntary ‘best of’ third-party company rankings in the U.S., including the HRC corporate equality index,” the Molson Coors leadership team wrote in the email to staff. Molson Coors’ announcement follows similar opt-outs from Ford, Harley-Davidson, Jack Daniels, and Lowe’s, according to Axios. What Is the HRC Equality Index? The Human Rights Campaign bills itself as “the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization,” and it takes credit for “transforming the institutions and systems that shape our everyday lives by advancing LGBTQ+ inclusive policies and practices in schools, workplaces, hospitals, communities and beyond.” That sounds noble. Americans support being “inclusive,” right? Yet many Americans vehemently disagree with HRC’s interpretation of this purported “inclusion.” When it comes to transgender orthodoxy, “inclusion” means allowing men into women’s intimate spaces. In the corporate setting, it means forcing employees to endorse the lie that a man can become a woman and vice versa. It means celebrating as “joyful” behaviors that many Americans of good conscience consider sinful or depraved. The “inclusion” travels only in one direction. How does HRC “transform” institutions? Its corporate equality index gives every major company a rating to show just how pro-“equality” the company is. Investors in the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) movement use the index to determine where their money goes, and this makes the index extremely powerful. Like the mafia or Al Capone, the Human Rights Campaign promises these brands protection from the Left’s activist investors and protester shock troops in exchange for a generous cut. In order to demonstrate their “inclusion,” companies make contributions to LGBTQ groups, partner with transgender influencers like Dylan Mulvaney, and promote rainbow products. Gone is any notion that this messaging may be divisive for the millions of Americans who believe in traditional Christianity, Judaism, other religions that teach that humans are male and female, or simple biology. “I’d say the HRC certainly resembles something like a Marxist mafia that uses LGBTQ related issues to advance their far left politics,” Starbuck told The Daily Signal. “The politics and policy seems like their real goal.” Starbuck explained the HRC score as “a social credit system to push leftism into corporate America.” Big news: Last week I messaged executives from @CoorsLight @MolsonCoors to let them know that I planned to expose their woke policies. Today they’re preemptively making changes.Here are the changes:• Ending participation in the @HRC’s woke Corporate Equality Index social… pic.twitter.com/RuOVb1IuNU— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) September 3, 2024 Sunlight Is the Best Disinfectant Why are companies abandoning HRC’s index? Robby Starbuck has been asking them pointed questions, revealing how controversial the index is. He reached out to companies like Molson Coors, asking how they respond to criticism about the index’s left-wing bias, and these business leaders realized the index isn’t an unmitigated benefit for their brand. Last year, two companies suffered tremendous losses after pursuing ever more radical LGBTQ messaging, likely spurred on by the HRC index. Transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney promoted Bud Light, and the publicity didn’t go over well for Bud Light’s customers. America’s best-selling beer lost its top spot in sales rankings. Similarly, Target infamously launched a new transgender line of products, including “tuck” swimsuits designed to make male bodies appear female. The designer who made many of the products also used the Devil in designs such as “Satan loves pronouns.” Target sales slumped following a massive backlash. When both Bud Light and Target started to distance themselves from this LGBTQ messaging, the Human Rights Campaign downgraded their index ratings. These examples revealed what many Americans already knew—that LGBTQ messaging drives away many consumers. The companies that have distanced themselves from HRC in recent weeks have consumer bases that are unlikely to agree with HRC’s messaging, so they are vulnerable to backlash of the kind that Bud Light and Target faced. As Robby Starbuck threatens to expose their woke advocacy to their un-woke consumers, they reconsider their decision to take sides in the culture war. HRC’s Heated Response The Human Rights Campaign hasn’t exactly taken these defections well, however. It launched a campaign urging supporters to “tell Corporate America: Robby Starbuck is an extremist troll and dropping DEI initiatives is not okay!” “Far-right extremists like social media influencer and failed political candidate Robby Starbuck are using Corporate America as pawns, demanding they abandon LGBTQ+ people, people of color, women and the disabled community by dropping commitments to inclusion,” HRC wrote. (Starbuck ran unsuccessfully as a write-in candidate for U.S. Congress in Tennessee in 2022.) “We will send your message to corporate executives at Ford, Jack Daniel’s, Lowe’s, Tractor Supply Co., Harley-Davidson and Deere & Co. who have cowardly succumbed to these anti-business demands.” Screenshot HRC’s claim that Starbuck is using Corporate America as a pawn represents a classic case of psychological projection—attributing to its opponent the very thing HRC is doing. Starbuck wouldn’t be pressuring companies to reconsider their involvement in the index if HRC hadn’t launched it as a comprehensive strategy to pressure them to adopt its ideology in the first place. HRC can play the victim all it likes, but it launched this corporate culture war, and Starbuck is merely encouraging companies to return to neutral. The post Breaking the Power of the LGBTQ Mafia appeared first on The Daily Signal.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—An Illinois school board president gave a presentation at a “White Privilege Conference” accusing “white parents” of stirring controversy against racial progress, according to documents obtained by Parents Defending Education and shared with The Daily Signal. Pat Savage-Williams, the school board president at Evanston Township High School District 202 in a northern suburb of Chicago, gave a presentation called “Our Equity Journey — Evanston Township High School” on April 14, 2023, at a a “White Privilege Conference” in Mesa, Arizona. Parents Defending Education uncovered a copy of the presentation through a Freedom of Information Act request. white-privilege-conference-presentationDownload Savage-Williams says in her presentation that many people do not welcome racial change, as “proposals for structural and policy changes towards dismantling what has been in place for decades are not often met with universal approval.” She says this can divide a community because “there is significant controversy surrounding racial equity work.” “The fact that this controversy is almost exclusively generated by white parents, educators, policymakers and other community stakeholders, most of whom have never personally engaged in racialequity training, presents another significant challenge,” Savage-Williams’ presentation says. “While it is important to continue engaging with them as community members, employ careful and thoughtful responses and strategies.” In addition to her position as board president, Savage-Williams works as director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at a high school in the district, according to her employee profile. Her base salary in the 2022-2023 school year was $149,478. School should divide data on student performance on the basis of race to target “inequity,” Savage-Williams says in her presentation. “Identify areas of inequity in student success and participation, disaggregating data by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, disability, and English language proficiency,” the administrator and board member says. “Develop statistical measures to assess equity in these areas.” According to Savage-Williams, “Equity is the process, equality is the product.” Students should not be taught that their skin color is their defining characteristic, Parents Defending Education President and Founder Nicole Neily, told The Daily Signal. “Evanston Township High School has been prioritizing equity over student proficiency and subject mastery for far too long, all to the detriment of the teenagers that the district purports to serve,” Neily said. “With this continuous governance style from the district, it is unlikely that students will learn how to cooperate and thrive in the fast-paced multicultural environments that future jobs might require.” Savage-Williams promoted her school district’s “Social Consciousness Series” programming, which features “Special events open to the Evanston community that encourage participants to engage in critical thought about their racialized experiences and its relation to the systemic oppression rooted in anti-blackness.” Programming also includes professional development classes for staff “that center conversations on race and the historic presence of racism within education,” and student summits aligned with the theme “Year of the Black Male.” Student summits are divided by identity group, with programming for black, Asian and Middle Eastern, LGBTQ, and “Latinx” students. Speakers at school district events have included Critical Race Theory celebrities like Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of “Between the World and Me;” Ibram X. Kendi, author of “How To Be An Anti-Racist;” and Robin DeAngelo, author of “White Fragility.” The presentation mentions that the school district has a team of 25 teachers dedicated to developing lesson plans using “research based culturally relevant pedagogical standards to engage their students of color.” This is called the Collaborative Action Research for Equity, or CARE, Team. Evanston Township high schools also has a Students Organized Against Racism, or SOAR, group, which the presentation describes as a “venue for students to talk about race with one another using the protocols.” “There are several ongoing conversations/field trips where students engage in challenging discussions where they discuss their racialized experience at school and in the larger Evanston community,” according to the presentation. The district has also worked in “continuing to examine and refine grading practices” and “raising student awareness for racial equity,” the presentation says. Savage-Williams’ presentation discusses the district’s history of addressing “white privilege.” She says the school district established a cohort to “explore Critical Race Theory” in 2008. In June 2009, the district had a “Beyond Diversity” seminar which is “a nationally recognized seminar aimed at helping administrators, teachers, students and parents identify, define and examine the powerful intersection of race and schooling.” The presentation notes that “100% of staff [have] gone through Beyond Diversity.” The Evanston Township High School District did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment about the presentation. The post EXCLUSIVE: School Board President Targets ‘White Parents’ in Presentation at ‘White Privilege’ Conference appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Will Kamala Harris Renew a Push for Reparations?

In a disgusting display of how vicious the left can be, Sara Haines, a co-host for ABC’s The View lashed out at the Gold Star families who posed with former President Trump in Arlington National Cemetery, on Wednesday. She instead that Trump should have ignored their requests for a photo and suggested listening to them was like swimming in the 9/11 Ground Zero Memorial. Additionally, co-host Joy Behar didn’t understand why outrage would be directed at President Biden over the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. For the second day in a row, The View cast fixated on the photo-op. This time however, one of the cast members couldn’t resist taking a swing at the Gold Star families that wanted to be around the former President. According to Haines’s unrestrained hatred, Trump should have ignored the families because it was like a family of a 9/11 victim telling her to go swimming in the memorial fountain, an analogy for which she received back up from faux conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin: HAINES: And that's why the Arlington thing bothered me because what Donald Trump's people keep saying is, ‘Those families invited us. They told us.” But that’d be like a 9/11 family member telling me I could swim in the memorial fountain. FARAH GRIFFIN: Right. HAINES: Just because they lost someone doesn't mean there isn't sanctity. And rules and it's not just about one headstone in the back of a video, it’s about every life that is there for us.     Besides delivering being a ridiculous analogy, Haines and the rest of the cast didn’t care that those same families have not gotten any respect from the Biden-Harris administration. Farah Griffin hasn’t had the spin to mention that Biden and Harris have refused to say the names of the service members who died in the Abbey Gate suicide attack not talk to them. In that same vein, co-host Joy Behar feigned ignorance of why Republican Governor Ron DeSantis (FL) said people should be outraged at the Biden-Harris administration for making them Gold Star families to begin with (shared in a soundbite at the top of the show): DESANTIS: They invited him to be there. They asked him to pose for photos with the family members of the fallen. So, I don't see, you know, the outrage. But here's the thing, if people like Harris and the media are going to express more outrage at that than the people that made them Gold Star families in the first place, something is wrong. That is unacceptable. [Cuts back to live] BEHAR: What does that mean? Behar was drowned out by the ramblings of moderator Whoopi Goldberg but circled back to her question a short time later. “And when he says -- is he blaming the Democrats for wars?” she asked the rest of the cast. “He's blaming, I think, President Biden,” Haines sheepishly said. Farah Griffin added: “He's talking about the wall from Afghanistan and the deaths at Abbey Gate.” Behar proceeded to blame Trump for the withdrawal Biden managed and suggested the absolute chaos we all witnessed was just the operation getting just “a little messy.” The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s The View September 4, 2024 11:03:26 a.m. Eastern (…) GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): They invited him to be there. They asked him to pose for photos with the family members of the fallen. So, I don't see, you know, the outrage. But here's the thing, if people like Harris and the media are going to express more outrage at that than the people that made them Gold Star families in the first place, something is wrong. That is unacceptable. [Cuts back to live] JOY BEHAR: What does that mean? WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Well, actually what you're saying, Ron, is that it's okay to break the law. (…) 11:04:51 a.m. Eastern BEHAR: And when he says -- is he blaming the Democrats for wars? SARA HAINES: He's blaming I think President Biden and- ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: He's talking about the wall from Afghanistan and the deaths at Abbey Gate. BEHAR: But the withdrawal from Afghanistan had a date on it given by Trump. Am I understanding correctly? SUNNY HOSTIN: Yes, you are. BEHAR: So, they had to get out at a certain point, so it was a little messy. FARAH GRIFFIN: Arguably. But just the way in which – I think there bears a lot of responsibility Republicans and Democrats for the withdrawal from Afghanistan. But I do want to speak to Jimmy McCain, because I think this was incredibly honorable of him. BEHAR: Can I just finish this one idea. This Ron -- whatever his name is – HAINES: DeSantis BEHAR: DeSantis. [Laughter] Didn't Trump call him meatball Ron? (…) 11:09:01 a.m. Eastern HAINES: And that's why the Arlington thing bothered me because what Donald Trump's people keep saying is, ‘Those families invited us. They told us.” But that’d be like a 9/11 family member telling me I could swim in the memorial fountain. FARAH GRIFFIN: Right. HAINES: Just because they lost someone doesn't mean there isn't sanctity. And rules and it's not just about one headstone in the back of a video, it’s about every life that is there for us. [Applause] GOLDBERG: Yeah, right. HOSTIN: They gave their lives for this country. GOLDBERG: Listen, people keep making excuses for this cat. (…)

Before I was a radio talk show host, I was a reporter for about a decade. I believed then, as I do now, that the role of the press is to keep the government accountable and the citizens informed. It’s why I am critical of many journalists for the way they cover politics and culture. And it’s why I find myself very reluctantly willing to vote for Donald Trump in 2024. I have never voted for a Republican or Democrat for president in my life. I have either voted Libertarian or abstained from voting. I don’t consider that abstaining or voting for a third-party candidate is a “wasted vote.” It’s also not a vote for another candidate. Refusing to vote for Trump in 2016 and 2020 was not a vote for Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden. It was a tiny signal to the parties to offer better candidates. It was my personal, ineffectual protest. But it was mine. This is not normal. In 2016, I was a host on a conservative talk radio station in Asheville, North Carolina. Surrounded in the lineup by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, I urged my audience not to support Trump in the primary. I spent months highlighting why Trump should not be the choice. I knew I was risking my job and my career in doing so, but I did not believe he was the best candidate in that field. And while my listening area went for Ted Cruz (barely), Trump easily carried the state. In the general election, I believed the polling. I chastised my audience for supporting the guy who couldn’t possibly beat Clinton. It would be a blowout! Of course, we know how that turned out. I was completely wrong. I ate a lot of crow dished up by my audience. But I vowed to cover Trump honestly — giving him praise when he deserved it and disagreeing with him when I thought he erred. Deep institutional corruption In the ensuing seven years, I watched the agencies of our bloated and corrupted federal government conjure all manner of attacks on the man, feeding a resistance press with false, anonymously sourced tales and accusations. At first, it was easy to believe these stories because, as a former reporter, I could not fathom so many journalists so willing to mislead. But as story after story fell apart upon closer inspection, I grew horrified at the corruption of the institution of journalism. The weaponization of the fabricated Steele dossier. The corrupt FBI Crossfire Hurricane operation. The denial and burying of the Hunter Biden laptop story and what it meant for our national security. The “fine people on both sides” lie that was purportedly Joe Biden’s reason for running, which no reporter ever asked him to explain. The media promoted these stories, which gained traction as a result. When they were proven false, journalists issued no retractions and returned no industry awards. It was just another episode in the ongoing “Orange Man Bad: Threat to Democracy” series we’ve all been forced to endure for seven years now. The most egregious example is the ongoing cover-up of Biden’s cognitive decline. I’ve documented it for years, and I’m not the only one who noticed. Yet nobody in the D.C. press corps acknowledged it — or else they all simply chose to ignore it — until that fateful debate in June. Adding to this scandal was the Democratic Party leaders’ palace coup to replace the president in the manner they did. Adding to the insult was California Governor Gavin Newsom’s laughter over the whole corrupt process on a podcast with former Obama staffers. This is not normal. My vote, my choice One thing I know for certain is that the legacy media and Beltway journalists will continue to pursue, prosecute, and hold Trump accountable. If he abuses his power, there will be investigations and repercussions. Yes, the pursuit will be biased and deranged in many ways. But their record is clear. They will continue to work hand in glove with the same unnamed government officials “with knowledge of the story” to bring down Trump. (I suspect some are working up an AI-generated fake “pee tape” as we speak.) But I am also certain these same people will not pursue Kamala Harris or Tim Walz with the same zeal. And that makes all the difference to me. Because my first principle is the belief that the press must hold the government accountable, I have no faith it will do so if Harris wins. Absolutely none. A Harris defeat would punish the media and the Democrats for their corrupt actions. I know of no other way. This, too, will be a single, ineffectual, one-person protest vote. But it’s mine. And for that reason, I will vote for Donald Trump. Even if I am not happy about it.

Remember when our government shut the economy down, ordered us into quarantine, and demanded we all get vaccinated, stay 6 feet away from each other, and mask up? Remember how every single one of those “protections” from COVID-19 failed miserably? But those policies weren't the only government initiatives that backslid. The Paycheck Protection Program was yet another federal plan intended to help Americans — in this case, help businesses stay afloat amid the shutdown.But like every other measure it took to “protect” us, PPP loans ended up only contributing to the catastrophic mess that was the COVID-19 pandemic. - YouTube www.youtube.com Scammers sniffed out an opportunity to exploit the system, and exploit it they did. Overnight, $200 billion dollars disappeared in what is perhaps the greatest fiscal failure in the history of the nation. And the money didn’t go to businesses, either. It went to "jewelry, exotic cars, first class tickets, fancy restaurants, and trips to South Beach,” says BlazeTV's Alex Stein (@PrimeTimeAlexStein), who traveled across the country to find out how these scammers were able to pull off such gross fraudulence as he spoke with experts like Peter Schiff, Rep. Thomas Massie, and even a former FBI agent.Join the Pimp on a Blimp TODAY as he dives into the murky world of PPP loans to find our lost money. You can find “Scamdemic: How Fraudsters Cashed In On Billions” on BlazeTV. If you’re not already a subscriber, go to blazetv.com and use promo code SCAMDEMIC for a seven-day free trial plus $30 off an annual subscription.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis showed up to her daughter's arrest last month with former Georgia special prosecutor Nathan Wade after insisting the two had previously ended their workplace affair.On August 24, Willis' pregnant daughter, Kinaya, was pulled over by officers who spotted her using her cellphone while driving, the DailyMail.com reported.'Obviously don't put my address down.'According to a police report reviewed by the news outlet, Kinaya stated that she was using her phone "due to her mother calling her related to her pregnancy." She told officers she was unaware that her license had been revoked three months earlier over unpaid tickets in Florida.Kinaya, 25, was reportedly driving the vehicle with her sister, 26-year-old Nia, in the passenger's seat. Nia had phoned their mother following the arrest.The DailyMail.com reported that Kinaya cooperated throughout her arrest and did not attempt to use her mother's position to avoid the charge. After Kinaya was already placed in a police cruiser and en route to Fayette County Jail, Willis showed up at the scene of the arrest with her alleged former partner, Wade. At one point, officers referred to Willis and Wade as Kinaya's parents, to which Willis corrected them, calling him "just a friend."“Why was she stopped?” Wade asked the officers at the scene. Willis stated it was "news to me" when authorities notified her that Kinaya's license had been revoked. During her exchange with officers, she provided her address by stating, "Obviously don't put my address down ... y'all can have my address, the rest of the world, no."One officer responded, "For obvious reasons," suggesting he was aware of Willis' position as DA.Kinaya was later released from jail and ordered to attend the Town of Tyrone Municipal Court for an October arraignment. Last year, Willis charged former President Donald Trump with 41 criminal counts for allegedly violating Georgia's anti-racketeering law by attempting to change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in the state — one of four indictments lodged against Trump.Willis hired Wade to lead the case, but he later stepped down after their romantic tryst was exposed.In a January court filing, Willis was accused of having an "improper, clandestine relationship" with Wade. She admitted to the affair but claimed that it started after he was hired and ended in 2023. The case against Trump has been pushed back due to Willis' inappropriate workplace romance, but she remains on the case.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The murder of a sacrificial victim has always been justified as a healing, purifying, strengthening, fortune-producing, or empowering act. "The Ox-Bow Incident" is a movie about this mercy and violence. In the scene where the vigilantes gather under a hanging tree, they have a festive meal. Nooses dangle at the ready, but there’s no urgency, only shadow. Fueled up, the members of the posse tear off toward their victim. When the town judge hears about the posse, he gasps, 'That’s no posse; that’s a lawless lynching mob.' Then the lynch mob demands a sacrifice. Without even noticing, they get sucked into ritual, the presence of the sacred. Someone guides some horses beneath the dangling ropes. Right before the victims mount the saddles, the vigilantes announce two minutes of prayer. They remove their hats and bow their heads. The cinematography in these moments is frightening and beautiful. Otherworldly. Luminous. Gruesome. Deadly. "The Ox-Bow Incident" does not look, sound, or feel like a Western from the early 1940s. There’s a lot of silence, interrupted occasionally by a horn blast on the soundtrack. Other times, in heightened anxiety, the ugliest noises take over. There are lots of long shots where the camera barely moves. Lots of shadow. Lots of one-sided lighting. If you paused at the right moment and put a fancy frame around the TV, you’d have highbrow art on your wall. "The Ox-Bow Incident" could easily be a mid-1990s neo-noir Western. The only thing that kept it from winning Best Picture was a movie called "Casablanca." There’s an attention to symbols — literal attention. The movie directs your focus until you can’t look away. Something fishy Dialogue is natural yet poetic and constantly evolving. There are strange moments of comedy, like the man who goes by Major Tetley and wears a full Civil War uniform. Further humor arises when Gil Carter (Henry Fonda) and his buddy Art Croft comment on it. Gil Carter: “That renegade Tetley, strutting around in his uniform, pretending he's so much. He never even saw the South till after the war. Then only long enough to marry that kid's mother and get run out by her folks. Art Croft: “Figured there was something fishy about him, dressed like that.” Scandal and crisis Among the group of men is a large lady named Jenny “Ma" Grier with an Irish accent and a gruff demeanor. She fits in without ever trying. Some Westerns have bombshell pinups who shoot guns at outlaws. Others offer a woman whose motherhood is her refinement. In the case of "Ma" Grier, we have a wild lady with traits that seem masculine. Why else would she join a testosterone-fueled lynch mob? Then there’s Rose Mapen, the Venus figure. When she glances at the lynch mob, all the men raise their hats in salutation. This is her power. Don't forget that Venus caused the Trojan War. Mimetic violence Many Westerns offer a display of violence. "The Ox-Bow Incident," instead, looks at the causes of violence and how it comes to life. The film doesn’t show the founding murder, the act of violence that instigated the entire scapegoating cycle, but only the discord that caused it and the explosive and primitive response. This in-between is fascinating to me. It is a place of uncertainty, where people work together — or ought to. It’s the moment before a hangman yanks the lever, that pause when everyone is still alive, so the situation might take a sudden turn. When violence is involved, this whole bubbling mess becomes even more volatile. One dumb remark could ignite a crisis that can’t be undone. "The Ox-Bow Incident" finds its home in the strife between one tragedy and the next. So while the brutality is never directly shown, it is felt. And it becomes a noose to anyone who instigated the scapegoating. "The Ox-Bow Incident" captures every stage of this process. All against one At the start of the movie, the vigilantes have not formed a posse yet. One by one, the men gather outside the saloon to discuss the murder of a man they all knew. There is a slow escalation. At the start, all but one of them are practical. Then they begin to threaten one another in what seems to be a defensive maneuver. But nothing strengthens a lynch mob better than each person’s unspoken fear of becoming the victim. The ratio flips: The violent contagion spreads to all but one of them. Suddenly they are unanimous in their hunger to kill. This collective fever-mind transforms them into a single organism, ready to sacrifice the criminal. In these situations, the sacrifice is framed as a fulfillment of justice, with equal emphasis on compassion. Fueled up, the members of the posse tear off toward their victim. When the town judge hears about the posse, he gasps, “That’s no posse; that’s a lawless lynching mob.” In response, the deputy sheriff says he’ll deputize the men. The judge balks: That is illegal; it wouldn’t hold up. But the violent contagion spreads to the rest of town, and the lynch mob expands. With a little coaxing from the judge and bartenders, the lynch mob dissipates, except for one of the men. But that’s all it takes: one person. He manages to revive the lynch mob. Worse, the deputy sheriff follows through and deputizes the mob, so that the men can use their lawman status to make exceptions to the law. The legal nature of this dilemma is no accident. Several times, the film offers commentary on the meaning and value of law. The tension of the movie arises from the barbaric expulsion of law. The fact that self-awarded sovereignty doesn’t work, that scapegoating doesn’t work, that semantics and force didn’t change the essence of the law are proof of the God-given nature of rights and freedoms. But it’s difficult to stop a frenzy, because it usually reverts to majority rule and lynch mobs are full of people eager to enforce punishment — and eager to cede responsibility for their actions to the leader of the mob. Sacrifice In Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," Brutus suggests murdering Caesar “for the good of Rome.” He alters the meaning of words to incite and persuade his fellow conspirators, whom he calls “gentle friends.” He tells them: Guys, let’s be sacrificers, not butchers. “We aren’t going to kill Caesar; we’re going to ‘stand up against the spirit of Caesar / And in the spirit of men there is no blood.’ I mean, we’ll kill him boldly, but not wrathfully.” Unfortunately, he tells them, this will require dismembering Caesar — but just literally, and that’s not what matters. Then the most disturbing line of his speech: “Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the gods / Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds.” This distinction is important. It offers two definitions for sacrificial murder. In the first, the victim is sanctified by his own death; he becomes sacred, acceptable to the gods. In the second, the victim is so far from sacred that he can’t even be considered human. Neither one is correct. Both are murder. The scapegoater never wants the angry crowd to slow down enough to realize this. Anyone who tries to appeal to rationality and mercy becomes an outcast, making him a candidate for sacrifice. Between these two extremes, we find humanity. It leads us back to the local, a gathering of people who choose law over violence. The tricky part is keeping a foothold on that middle ground. "The Ox-Bow Incident" captures a view of this struggle, which each member of the lynch mob undergoes. It's a moral stress test. Everything is moving too fast for anyone to think clearly. It becomes a matter of instinct — and of hoping that your instincts won’t lead to tragedy, that you really are a good person. Nobody wants to see his reflection in the tree with dangling nooses.