Tuesday, May 31, 2022

We're not at Lakeside

 But today I'm sorting/deleting e-mails from July 2009!  They appeared when I was changing e-mail programs.  Here's what I said:

We're having a great summer. Some terrific seminars. Took one on astronomy that just blew me away. I really don't know how scientists and academics remain such agnostics! When I hear about 100 billion galaxies, not stars, but galaxies, it just confirms my faith even more in a 6 day creation exactly as it says in Genesis. And 200 billion stars in just our galaxy. Wow. This week is health and wellness. I was too tired from other classes to attended the one on fatigue! Yesterday was all about "exercise is medicine," and tell me about it! I don't like to take medicine! But I am getting about 4 miles of walking a day here--it's so much easier to walk the lakefront than our condo grounds in Columbus. I took a class on sonnets this week and if the schedule is right will do Chaucer next week. I am Brit Lit impoverished because I was a foreign language major in college--wasn't required. Visited a fabulous organic herb farm on Wednesday--your husband would have loved it. Are you following my Lakeside blogs?

Monday, May 30, 2022

And another fully vaxxed pooh-bah gets Covid

Rep. Liz Cheney ("R" - Deep State) announced on Wednesday morning that she tested positive for COVID-19, despite getting fully vaccinated and boosted. The Wyoming lawmaker has promoted COVID vaccines. Four other vaccinated Congress reportedly announced positive diagnoses over the weekend, including Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, as did Reps. David Price, D-N.C., and Susie Lee, D-Nev.

Where do you get your information?

Gary asked, "Where do you get your information?"  He watches only MSNBC and CNN--two channels that pretend to be objective and fair, but repeat the Democrat party talking points, in my opinion.  That is a great question, however, something all librarians and teachers emphasize when teaching research skills. And it’s essential for him particularly to ask because so much of the news is infused with opinion, not research, and he spends a lot of time watching news from one viewpoint. His method is why librarians and teachers usually don’t accept “magazines” as a valid source when teaching research. Some won’t even accept an encyclopedia, which is a shame, in my opinion. I love encyclopedias, and most articles are signed. Not many people own the 11th, 12th, and 13th editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica, but I do.

When I give an opinion, it’s that. Norma’s opinion. When I quote, I try to always cite the source, and my opinion may be learned from others over time, but by checking their sources. Dennis Prager’s recent tirade against Biden reflects mine, but I’ve followed Prager for years. He’s been on radio for 40 years, is Jewish, loves music, literature, politics, has great wisdom, and supports young conservative influencers like Candace Owens, Will Witt and Charlie Kirk who have gone on to their own careers. Pager was anti-Trump in 2016—converted to a fan when Trump accomplished conservative goals of lower taxes, less government control, border security, cutting red tape, best friend Israel had, priorities for prison reform, etc. https://www.creators.com/read/dennis-prager/05/22/joe-bidens-buffalo-speech-was-the-speech-of-an-indecent-man

My opinions are primarily built on my values, even if I don’t think about it. Christian, anabaptist, conservative fiscally, formed by the region I’ve lived in (Midwest U.S.), the language I speak, race/culture, college education, and career. However, my entire life I’ve been pro-life, even before I understood the science and politics of taking the life of a baby in the womb. Even in second grade, I remember thinking evolution was ridiculous and anti-science, because yes, evolution was being taught as truth at Forreston elementary in the 1940s. I learned to pretend I learne it, to answer the questions on the tests correctly, and not rock the boat. I love science—and I see my values about creator/created confirmed every day, especially astronomy and all the “new” critters found at the bottom of oceans. Love that stuff!

When it is rate, number, percentage, average, median, year, I am usually relying on a government or academic source (since academics have government grants it’s hard to know where one stops and the other begins). I always keep in mind those sources also have biases because they are collected and published by humans. For instance, after 2008, certain crime sources just disappeared. After certain years, census sources changed—for instance, additional groups or races were added or divided. What was called white was changed to create Asian or Hispanic (a made-up word that includes hundreds of cultures). Biracial white/black/Asian/Mexican/Cuban/Indian is almost always considered black—probably a carry over from segregation days. It's my impression that liberal/progressive sources are more likely to refer to numbers rather than rate. Most confusing (on purpose) is the writer moving from rate to number to percentage in the same article. For instance, violent crime may have black aggressors 8x the rate of whites, but because white criminals outnumber blacks due to the population, liberal sources will site numbers more often in crimes. You may have to go to the last paragraph or a graph/chart to see percentage or rate.

Over time, I’ve learned when there is a horrific tragedy like last Wednesday in Uvalde, Texas, the tsunami in 2005, or the Louisiana hurricane in 2006, or the strange conflicting figures for the 2020 vote, it may take years to sort out or find the truth. I’ve heard three versions by Saturday of how police acted/reacted to the Uvalde tragedy. Without even listening to the news we know there will be the anti-gun bills and the safety bills. We know Democrats will be anti-2nd amendment and the Republicans will focus on SRO, more cameras, better training.

For some reason, Gary often sites David Duke, a has-been, colorful Democrat, from many years ago, sometimes because he was a southerner, and that was the party of hate he grew up with, the party that held blacks back with various Jim Crow laws, and now do it with money from government programs. He’s really a creation of the media, unlike Antifa, which actually did roam city streets, who were well-educated, rich white supremacists, who covered their faces with hoods, who did burn down buildings, and had clout. When I was a Democrat I certainly didn’t associate my party with Duke, just as I don’t associate any Democrats I know with Antifa.

But Democrats do get in a rut.  They are very suceptible to "progressive" ideas and fall for the socialist clap-trap. They actually believe if we hand more money over to the government, it will be used for whatever purpose they claim.  Republicans have spaghetti spines and no balls, to stick with the body language. 

Sunday, May 29, 2022

The legal drugs given to children, especially boys

Think about the amount of prescription drugs given to school kids. Tucker Carlson had some great statistics about that the other night, but without a citation, I couldn’t provide it. And because the MSM demonizes him, it’s hard to sift through a search. Many kids, especially boys, are given drugs from a very early age for ADHD. Probably if they could labor on a farm like most generations until the 1920s some of that energy could be put to use. A consistent side effect for many of the mind/behavior altering drugs is suicidal thoughts and aggressive behavior. Mix that with alcohol when available and it’s a toxic combination. Until the 1950s, I think about half the U.S. population lived/worked on farms—did you hear of ADHD (or similar name) before the 1970s?

https://www.verywellmind.com/side-effects-of-adhd-medications-2633123

These ADHD medications now include:
Short-acting stimulants: Adderall, Dexedrine, Focalin, Ritalin
Intermediate-acting stimulants: Dexedrine Spansule
Long-acting stimulants: Adderall XR, Concerta, Daytrana, Dyanavel XR, Focalin XR, Metadate CD, Ritalin LA, Vyvanse
Nonstimulants: Intuniv, Strattera, Qelbree

That list makes it seem like there are a lot of different ADHD medications to choose from, especially if your child has side effects to one or more of them. Your choices quickly narrow when you understand that the stimulants are really just different forms and variants of the following two types of ADHD medications:
Methylphenidate-based ADHD medications: Concerta, Daytrana, Focalin and Focalin XR, Metadate CD, Ritalin LA
Amphetamine-based ADHD medications: Adderall and Adderall XR, Dexedrine and Dexedrine Spansule, Dyanavel XR, Vyvanse
Note from Norma: The warnings for Methylphenidate based meds are scary!

Also taken by many:

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/ss/slideshow-commonly-abused-drugs

Then add to that, the easily available, and now legal gate way drug, marijuana.

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Lakeside is open, and we're not there!

From the Lakeside Blog, https://blog.lakesideohio.com/hoover-shows-are-back/


 "Shirley Stary has been instrumental in creating the Lakeside experience we’ve known and loved and led the charge in bringing chart-topping performances to the stage of Hoover Auditorium for the last 17 years. She says, “The time has flown by,” but the last two seasons have been by far the longest in her career.

Due to the pandemic, Hoover has been mostly silent for two years. But this summer, the floor and walls will be vibrating, and seats will be filled for the first time since 2019 as shows return to Lakeside’s social and cultural hub.

“One of the worst things about the pandemic was not being able to use Hoover,” Stary said. “People come here to see each other as much to see the show, and that’s been lacking the past two years.”

While Stary agreed that Hoover should have been closed, it was also a cause for concern for her. Like everybody else, she didn’t have a crystal ball and had no idea what the future looked like.

“At one point during the pandemic, I was afraid I had done my last show at Hoover without knowing it,” Stary said. “I just thought, ‘What happens if we can’t open again?’ If you knew you were leaving, you’d stand on the stage and say, ‘All right, this has been a good run.’ So, I was mourning the fact that I didn’t relish that last show.”

During Hoover’s two-year hiatus, Stary was also concerned for her staff because shows were part of their income.

With much anticipation, the community will gather again in this central community gem as Masters of Soul take the stage on May 28 and Collision of Rhythm performing the following night.

Lakeside President & CEO Kip Greenhill says Hoover is a unique place that brings a sense of community that can’t be found anywhere else.

“Hoover Auditorium is one of several gathering places in Lakeside that brings people together from different backgrounds, varied geographic areas and a range of experiences to help enhance a culture of belonging,” Greenhill said. “The artistic programming done in Hoover, like the arts everywhere, further connects us into a true community feeling. We are so fortunate to have Hoover Auditorium open again and to bring us together.”

Jeannie Fleming-Gifford is entering her first summer as Vice President of Programming but is a Lakesider who knows how important and special Hoover shows are since she has attended several events there.

“The power of live arts experiences in a setting like Hoover Auditorium is nothing short of magical,” Fleming-Gifford said. “We are so excited to immerse Lakesiders of all ages and interests in a variety of quality, live entertainment programs and connect as a community through the power of the arts.”

Stary said this is a “rebuilding year,” but still has a solid lineup of shows, including The Spinners (June 25), Herman’s Hermits staring Peter Noone (July 16), Tony Danza — one of Stary’s “crushes” (July 23), family-friendly comedian Preacher Lawson (Aug. 6), We Are Messengers (Aug. 13) and Mercury: The Music of Queen & Freddie Mercury (Sept. 3). "

We are not there because Bob tested positive on Thursday for Covid, had a monoclonal antibodies infusion yesterday, and is resting comfortably (like a cold but more tired than usual).

Friday, May 27, 2022

PROTECTING AMERICA’S SCHOOLS--Secret Service Report, 2019

Executive summary https://www.secretservice.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/Protecting_Americas_Schools.pdf

Ensuring the safety of children at school is a responsibility that belongs to everyone, including law enforcement, school staff, mental health practitioners, government officials, and members of the general public. To aid in these efforts, the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) studied 41 incidents of targeted school violence that occurred at K-12 schools in the United States from 2008 to 2017. This report builds on 20 years of NTAC research and guidance in the field of threat assessment by offering an in-depth analysis of the motives, behaviors, and situational factors of the attackers, as well as the tactics, resolutions, and other operationally-relevant details of the attacks.

The analysis suggests that many of these tragedies could have been prevented, and supports the importance of schools establishing comprehensive targeted violence prevention programs as recommended by the Secret Service in Enhancing School Safety Using a Threat Assessment Model: An Operational Guide for Preventing Targeted School Violence.1 This approach is intended to identify students of concern, assess their risk for engaging in violence or other harmful activities, and implement intervention strategies to manage that risk. The threshold for intervention should be low, so that schools can identify students in distress before their behavior escalates to the level of eliciting concerns about safety.

Because most of these attacks ended very quickly, law enforcement rarely had the opportunity to intervene before serious harm was caused to students or staff. Additionally, many of the schools that experienced these tragedies had implemented physical security measures (e.g., cameras, school resource officers, lockdown procedures). Prevention is key. Some of the key findings from this study, and their implications for informing school violence prevention efforts, include:

• There is no profile of a student attacker, nor is there a profile for the type of school that has been targeted: Attackers varied in age, gender, race, grade level, academic performance, and social characteristics. Similarly, there was no identified profile of the type of school impacted by targeted violence, as schools varied in size, location, and student-teacher ratios. Rather than focusing on a set of traits or characteristics, a threat assessment process should focus on gathering relevant information about a student’s behaviors, situational factors, and circumstances to assess the risk of violence or other harmful outcomes.

• Attackers usually had multiple motives, the most common involving a grievance with classmates: In addition to grievances with classmates, attackers were also motivated by grievances involving school staff, romantic relationships, or other personal issues. Other motives included a desire to kill, suicide, and seeking fame or notoriety. Discovering a student’s motive for engaging in concerning behavior is critical to assessing the student’s risk of engaging in violence and identifying appropriate interventions to change behavior and manage risk.

• Most attackers used firearms, and firearms were most often acquired from the home: Many of the attackers were able to access firearms from the home of their parents or another close relative. While many of the firearms were unsecured, in several cases the attackers were able to gain access to firearms that were secured in a locked gun safe or case. It should be further noted, however, that some attackers used knives instead of firearms to perpetrate their attacks. Therefore, a threat assessment should explore if a student has access to any weapons, with a particular focus on weapons access at home. Schools, parents, and law enforcement must work together rapidly to restrict access to weapons in those cases when students pose a risk of harm to themselves or others.

• Most attackers had experienced psychological, behavioral, or developmental symptoms: The observable mental health symptoms displayed by attackers prior to their attacks were divided into three main categories: psychological (e.g., depressive symptoms or suicidal ideation), behavioral (e.g., defiance/misconduct or symptoms of ADD/ADHD), and neurological/developmental (e.g., developmental delays or cognitive deficits). The fact that half of the attackers had received one or more mental health services prior to their attack indicates that mental health evaluations and treatments should be considered a component of a multidisciplinary threat assessment, but not a replacement. Mental health professionals should be included in a collaborative threat assessment process that also involves teachers, administrators, and law enforcement.

• Half of the attackers had interests in violent topics: Violent interests, without an appropriate explanation, are concerning, which means schools should not hesitate to initiate further information-gathering, assessment, and management of the student’s behavior. For example, a student who is preoccupied or fixated on topics like the Columbine shooting or Hitler, as was noted in the backgrounds of several of the attackers in this study, may be the focus of a school threat assessment to determine how such an interest originated and if the interest negatively impacts the student’s thinking and behavior.

• All attackers experienced social stressors involving their relationships with peers and/or romantic partners: Attackers experienced stressors in various areas of their lives, with nearly all experiencing at least one in the six months prior to their attack, and half within two days of the attack. In addition to social stressors, other stressors experienced by many of the attackers were related to families and conflicts in the home, academic or disciplinary actions, or other personal issues. All school personnel should be trained to recognize signs of a student in crisis. Additional training should focus on crisis intervention, teaching students skills to manage emotions and resolve conflicts, and suicide prevention.

• Nearly every attacker experienced negative home life factors: The negative home life factors experienced by the attackers included parental separation or divorce, drug use or criminal charges among family members, and domestic abuse. While none of the factors included here should be viewed as predictors that a student will be violent, past research has identified an association between many of these types of factors and a range of negative outcomes for children.

• Most attackers were victims of bullying, which was often observed by others: Most of the attackers were bullied by their classmates, and for over half of the attackers the bullying appeared to be of a persistent pattern which lasted for weeks, months, or years. It is critical that schools implement comprehensive programs designed to promote safe and positive school climates, where students feel empowered to report bullying when they witness it or are victims of it, and where school officials and other authorities act to intervene.

• Most attackers had a history of school disciplinary actions, and many had prior contact with law enforcement: Most attackers had a history of receiving school disciplinary actions resulting from a broad range of inappropriate behavior. The most serious of those actions included the attacker being suspended, expelled, or having law enforcement interactions as a result of their behavior at school. An important point for school staff to consider is that punitive measures are not preventative. If a student elicits concern or poses a risk of harm to self or others, removing the student from the school may not always be the safest option. To help in making the determination regarding appropriate discipline, schools should employ disciplinary practices that ensure fairness, transparency with the student and family, and appropriate follow-up.

• All attackers exhibited concerning behaviors. Most elicited concern from others, and most communicated their intent to attack: The behaviors that elicited concern ranged from a constellation of lower-level concerns to objectively concerning or prohibited behaviors. Most of the attackers communicated a prior threat to their target or communicated their intentions to carry out an attack. In many cases, someone observed a threatening communication or behavior but did not act, either out of fear, not believing the attacker, misjudging the immediacy or location, or believing they had dissuaded the attacker. Students, school personnel, and family members should be encouraged to report troubling or concerning behaviors to ensure that those in positions of authority can intervene. A multidisciplinary threat assessment team, in conjunction with the appropriate policies, tools, and training, is the best practice for preventing future tragedies. A thorough review of the findings contained in this report should make clear that tangible steps can be taken to reduce the likelihood that any student would cause harm, or be harmed, at school.

Two men on trial, Sussmann and Hale

 

  

In the courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper, federal prosecutors have presented a detailed account of the greatest scandal in U.S. political history: the conspiracy of the country’s most powerful interests to fabricate the Trump-Russia collusion hoax in order to sabotage Donald Trump before the 2016 election. . . . 

Unlike Michael Sussmann, who walked free for five years following the commission of his alleged crime, Tim Hale has been in jail under pre-trial detention orders for more than 16 months.

Yet Hale’s alleged offenses were far less damaging to the country than the crimes Sussmann and his accomplices are accused of committing. On January 6, Hale, an Army reservist, drove to Washington after working the night shift at a New Jersey Naval station to hear President Trump speak. Later that afternoon, Hale walked to Capitol Hill. He entered the Capitol building around 2:14 p.m. through a set of open doors; Hale carried no weapon and didn’t assault anyone. On at least two occasions, Hale is seen interacting with police officers, who did not attempt to arrest either him or those around him. . . . 

Stolen Elections: A Tale of Two D.C. Courtrooms › American Greatness (amgreatness.com)

Thursday, May 26, 2022

No, we don't have the most frequent mass shootings

It turns out that not only did the U.S. not have the most frequent mass shootings, it was No. 62 on the list, lower than places like Norway, Finland, and Switzerland. There was also no relationship between the rate of gun ownership in different countries and the rate of mass shootings." 
 https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/02/20/the-us-has-the-most-mass-shootings-and-other-bogus-gun-research/?

What the U.S. does have are journalists who don't do research or ask questions. They have agendas and biases.

My goodness--Elizabeth Taylor would be 90!

 

  

I saw this at a librarian fashion website
1932-2011

Biden is a pathological liar

Biden announced we need a special data base on police because they are killing black people, and blacks are in fear every day. They might be fearful because of his lies. 7 unarmed blacks (while committing crimes) were shot by police in 2021, while 7,000 were killed, most by other blacks. There was a time when Biden saved thousands of black lives, but not today. He was a sponsor of the Omnibus Crime Bill of 1993, and violence against blacks plummeted. But a lot of blacks went to prison, so Kamala Harris used it against him in the 2020 campaign. Now he says, "Oh look over there--police, not policing, kill blacks."

He’s also killing blacks by pushing obscene abortion laws, worst in the world for life or common sense. Why do Democrats hate black people? It’s the party of the KKK, Jim Crow, genocide, segregated schools (which it is reinstating with Woke policies), and for years it fought the Republicans on civil rights laws, especially anti-lynching laws. Even the laws they pass to “help” have hurt generations by kicking Dad out of the home, and have kept black adults from climbing the ladder of success.

He’s a pathological liar, and that was known about him before he was elected.

https://the4pm.com/biden-told-2-egregious-lies-this-week-the-mainstream-media-barely-noticed/

https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/oct/30/joe-biden-is-a-pathological-liar/

Biden lies again about the Second Amendment

Why does Biden continue to lie? He's a pathological liar. There were no bans on cannons. Can't help himself. Democrats love liars.

"It does sound bizarre because it is factually and legally untrue. I have received calls from media for years about this claim and it does not improve by repetition. Even the Washington Post has declared Biden’s understanding of the Second Amendment to be false.

https://jonathanturley.org/2022/05/26/president-biden-repeats-false-claim-about-the-second-amendment/


Wednesday, May 25, 2022

More safety for the schools to repel intruders

I got a driver's license in 1956 and didn't have an accident, not even a fender bender, until 2021. That same accident which left me bruised and frightened, probably would have killed me in 1956. In fact, auto fatalities are half what they were in 1956--23.7 per 100,000 to 11.67 in 2019 (2020 and 2021 were bumped up due to Covid and are outliers). Cars are half as dangerous, despite the millions of more vehicles on the road and silly teen-agers behind the wheel. Cars, roads and bridges are much, much safer--I was driving a 22 year old SUV that had airbags (my only injuries), seat belts and padded dash; the bridge had concrete barriers which kept me from drowning in the river and the woman who stopped to help had a cell phone to call for immediate help (the black ice was still as dangerous as 1956 because some things don't change). The salt truck was behind me, instead of in front, but at least others were safe.

School safety is the same way. Although the President wants to make this a political issue to satisfy his base, it should be a safety issue. The President should be comforting and consoling not ramping up hatred. He continues to belittle the police even after we've seen such bravery yesterday. Even as all the data show minorities are more likely to be the aggressor in racial crimes. Children are much safer at school than anywhere else--we learned that during Covid when hunger, mental health issues, and on-line frustration and bullying increased because of school closings. However, young men like Salvador Ramos who are mentally ill are still dangerous, just as black ice on bridges is as dangerous as 55 years ago.

Arm the teachers. Train the staff. The Robb school had a lot of safety protections, but the fence was extremely weak. I really have no idea about schools in my own community, but I intend to ask. I hope all schools and churches and other soft targets continue to recognize that they are targets for hate and evil. It's not the 1950s or 1960s.

Although social media can shut down a president, it also allows dangerous and out of control people to post their intentions. At least they should be allowed to alert authorities in the community.  And have you noticed the media is not focuses on Ramos' ethnicity?

Cookie supreme recipe and how-to

 https://fb.watch/ddQ69nv7oj/

Cookie dough made into delicious muffin treat with Rice Krispies and chocolate sauce.

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Eighty three federal programs to help the low-income, poor, and single mothers

The abortion wars are building. The Pro-Aborts are threatening violence in the streets this summer, even though they will still be able to kill babies under state law. It's a power trip.
 
If you're tired of the old saw that pro-lifers don't care for children, only the fetuses, then you need to tell your accusers the truth. Welfare, under any name, has always been bipartisan, with Republicans often dumping more money on the programs than Democrats. EITC, for instance, was a Nixon plan, and until Obama, GW Bush was the biggest welfare spender. Many of the Covid supplemental programs were Trump's and continued by Biden. Republicans give more in their private lives, and when in government, they can't pass up a chance to be the do-gooder. The exception was Obamacare--which could not garner a single Republican vote because it was just BAD and horribly expensive.
 
Right now we have 83 means tested programs for the low income, poor, and single mothers. You really need to click on some of these and see what is involved. There are 27 programs just for single moms--everything from housing, to food, to medical care, to education. There were special supplements to these programs for Covid. Democrats didn't do this, Congress did, and it's been many years building. What HAS failed is Biden's sub-section of Build Back Better, called the American Families Plan. He's really flogging that dead horse--he makes it sound like we're pikers.
 
However, it will keep more people in poverty than just about anything they've dreamed up in DC. Uncle Sam is not a good step-father. Very few children of married parents ever live in poverty. The low income person will never be able to get ahead because it is too expensive to take a good job or a promotion. A $10/hour raise could cost them hundreds. They will pay a higher tax rate for a promotion than the wealthiest CEO in the country just by losing thousands in gov't benefits.

https://singlemotherguide.com/federal-welfare-programs/?

If you are married with 3 kids earning $57,414 (social worker, school teacher, pastor, retail manager, etc) instead of you paying taxes on it, the gov't will give you $6,728 (EITC).

If you've got a student loan Covid has paused your loan payments and set your interest rate to 0% starting March 13, 2020. This payment pause, also known as the administrative forbearance, will end Aug. 31, 2022. I'm guessing that will be renewed and renewed until we are stuck with complete loan forgiveness. I'd like to be proven wrong, but look who's in the WH.

A 3-person household which got $200 in SNAP, gets $458 as a covid supplement to bring it up to the $658 maximum benefit. No, SNAP doesn't mean you can eat on that amount, the S stands for supplement so you can afford healthier meals, not more chips and pop.

Women eligible for WIC get over $700, plus extra for fruits and vegetables. There is a formula shortage because the WIC program uses/buys 50% of the formula in the U.S. and the gov't really messed up on the supply chain.

Section 502 Direct Loan Program for rural low-income Americans to get decent housing. Special supplements for Covid with payment moratorium.

And on and on. You'll be amazed how generous you are. Because the government has no money except YOUR money.

Trick or treat

 


Words matter, less is more

 The Lord's Prayer has 56 words.

Gettysburg Address has 268 words.

The Declaration of Independence has 1458

The U.S. Constitution has 4,543 words, including the signatures, unamended

Right to Try Act (2018) 5 pages

Report from the National School Board Association's investigation about its letter to Biden suggesting parents could be terrorists is 55 pages.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA ) of 2009 is 407 pages.

Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was 2,700 pages at time of pages, not including 20,000 pages of regulations (this number is debated) which followed.

I can't find the number of pages in the "American Families Plan," which is a subset of pages/words of Build Back Better, but it's $1.8 trillion for starters.  

Archbishop Cordileone and Whoopi Goldlberg just doing their job

Archbishop Cordileone did what he's supposed to do--called out Nancy Pelosi for being a hypocrite and a bad Catholic--he has every right to refuse her communion. It's his job. It should have been done sooner, in my opinion, but as a Lutheran, I have no say in the matter. And Whoopi Goldberg, abortion defender, has every right to play the uninformed fool who knows nothing about "separation of church and state," or the Catholic church. Just because she played a fake nun who could sing in some movies doesn't mean she knows anything.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251305/archbishop-cordileone-nancy-pelosi-communion-abortion

https://dailycaller.com/2022/05/23/whoopi-goldberg-archbishop-cordileone-nancy-pelosi-communion/

Monday, May 23, 2022

How Biden's American Families Plan hurts the low income

I disagree with the premise of the headline of this article.  I think Progressives know exactly what they are doing and how their programs keep the low income at the bottom.  It keeps them dependent on the government and thus keeps the progressives in office.  I wrote a blog about this years ago using a fictional character and how she couldn't get ahead because her benefits would be cut if she accepted a promotion or a better job.    https://www.econlib.org/library/columns/y2021/richardsonmckenzieprogressives.html

 Progressives' Desires to Help the Poor Will End Up Hurting Them Instead

"How do no-income and low-income Americans pay “taxes” when they are welfare beneficiaries? Very simply. Public assistance programs are “means tested,” structured to target households below certain income thresholds. The level of benefits a beneficiary receives under a given program falls at some rate as earned income rises, eventually reaching zero dollars in benefits.

Consider a household that receives benefits from only two welfare programs, with one tapering off at 20 cents for each added dollar earned and another tapering off at 40 cents for each added dollar earned. Those cuts create an implicit tax rate of 60 percent, which means the worker has only 40 cents in additional spendable income for each added dollar earned. This implicit tax rate can be expected to affect work incentives in much the same way that a federal income tax rate does.

To further illustrate, consider a real-life, low-income single mother of two children in Forsyth County, North Carolina earning $10 an hour in a full-time job, which means she has a monthly earned income of $1,600 (or $19,200 annually). Suppose the single mother receives monthly benefits from five welfare programs: $425 in food stamps, $1,471 in subsidized childcare, $370 in housing subsidies, $180 in WIC benefits, and $493 in an earned income tax credit (EITC). Her monthly welfare benefits will total $2,939 (or $35,271 a year).

Now, suppose the single mother takes a new job paying $15 an hour, a 50 percent increase. Her monthly earned income will rise by $800 to $2,400 (with her annual income rising to $28,800 a year, an annual earnings increase of $9,600). However, she will face decreases in four out of her five monthly benefit streams, with each benefit reduction based on the same $800-increase in earnings (a problem known among welfare researchers as the “cumulative stacked effect”). The single mother will lose $231 in food stamps, $80 in childcare benefits, $216 in housing benefits, and $166 in EITC. Her total decrease in monthly benefits will reach $694 (which means her annual benefit total will drop by $8,328).4 Her implicit tax rate on her added monthly earnings of $800 is 87 percent—more than two times the highest explicit marginal tax rate proposed for the rich. (The details of our calculations are in a table we have appended to the end of this article.)

In addition, the single mother will be required to pay an added $185 a month in federal and state income taxes on her added earned monthly income of $800, which is an explicit tax rate of 23 percent. Adding the 87 percent implicit tax rate to the 23 percent explicit tax rate leads to an overall tax rate of 110 percent. Her raise has left her $79 per month poorer in lost wages and benefits—surely a strong disincentive for her to take the higher paying job.5

But the total (implicit plus explicit) marginal tax rate on poor and low-income workers can be worse, and actually spikes to 1,400 percent at an earned income of around $43,000 (which is known as the “welfare cliff”).6 However, studies in different areas of the country show that the total marginal tax rate on poor and low-income workers within an annual earned-income range of $15,000 to $80,000 moves between 28 and 53 percent for full-time workers earning up to an annual earnings of $24,000 (or $12.50 an hour). The implicit tax rate for workers earning between $24,000 and $40,000 jumps to 90 percent.7"


New Film for churches about abortion

  https://youtu.be/1TA8ebssiLc

Tracy Robinson, the producer and director of a new pro-life film shares her conversion story and why she felt compelled to create a documentary that dives deep into the abortion debate. Many women sitting the the pews of believing churches are choosing abortions, and many churches never speak out, or their leadership is not informed. Robinson had formerly been a "pro-choice" Christians, but

"a presentation on the topic of abortion at a church in 2016 changed her mind. The topic of the presentation was the case against abortion, she said.

“In less than two hours the message just clarified for me the true humanity of the unborn child, from the moment of conception and the whole reality of what abortion does really struck me,” Robinson said.

She continued, “and so I immediately felt compelled to make a documentary because I knew there were so many people in my shoes — young adults, who had never heard the message before clearly.”

Baby Formula mess

Biden to the rescue. He's having the military fly in 2 days worth of formula!

Women, Infants, Children (WIC): For the purpose of this program, about half the baby formulas produced in the United States are purchased by state governments with federal money.

“The production of baby formulas is a very regulated industry. In early 2022, the Food and Drug Administration forced the closure of a factory of Abbot Laboratories (producer of Similac) in Michigan. Abbot is the dominant American producer of baby formulas, partly because it is the monopolistic distributor chosen by most state governments. A germ had been discovered in the factory, but not in the products. Some 98% of all the baby formulas consumed in the United States are produced domestically, thanks to a customs tariff of 17.5%, not to mention the regulatory requirements. Industry concentration is a typical result of regulation and protectionism." https://www.econlib.org/how-londoners-survive-without-a-food-czar/

[In other words, it is completely government controlled and 50% is purchased by the government for WIC and it’s free for those families.]

This is called “central planning” and is a feature of Communist/Socialist countries with large bureaucracies that apparently have poor math skills. Women who usually got free formula through WIC are now having to buy it, making a shortage for those who always purchased formula. If you like central planning instead of free market and competition with minimal regulation and fewer monopolies, just keeping voting for Democrats.



The House Squad says Israel doesn't have a right to exist--Listen up America!

"Members of the “Squad” of far-left House lawmakers have called on the US government to describe the events surrounding Israel’s founding with the Palestinian term “Nakba,” an Arabic word meaning “catastrophe.”

The resolution, authored by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, was submitted nearly two weeks after Israel celebrated its independence day and one day after the anniversary of the Jewish state’s 1948 war of independence.

The measure demands the US “commemorate the Nakba through official recognition and remembrance,” while claiming that the word also refers to “an ongoing process of Israel’s expropriation of Palestinian land and its dispossession of the Palestinian people that continues to this day through the establishment and expansion of approximately 300 illegal settlements and outposts in the occupied Palestinian West Bank in which approximately 674,000 Israelis reside as of 2020.” " https://nypost.com/2022/05/17/squad-members-introduce-resolution-calling-israel-founding-catastrophe/ 

Sunday, May 22, 2022

It was 1922, 100 years ago

"The year is 1922,

One hundred years ago.

What a difference a century makes!

Here are some statistics for Year 1922:

The average life expectancy for men was 47 years.

Fuel for cars was sold in drug stores only.

Only 14 percent of homes had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of homes had a telephone.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.

The average US wage in 1922 was 22 cents per hour.

The average US worker made between $200 and $400 per year.

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2,000 per year.

A dentist earned $2,500 per year.

A veterinarian between $1,500 and 4,000 per year.

And a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births took place at home

Ninety percent of all Doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION! Instead,

they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned

in the press

AND in the government as "substandard."

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women washed their hair once a month. and, used Borax or egg

yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed law prohibiting poor people from entering into their

country for any reason.

The Five leading causes of death were:

1 Pneumonia and influenza

2 Tuberculosis

3 Diarrhea

4 heart disease

5 Stroke

The American flag had 48 stars ...

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was only 30.

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented yet.

There was neither a Mother's Day nor Father's Day.

Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write And, only 6 percent

of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were available over the counter at

local drugstores. Back then pharmacists said: "Heroin clears the

complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach, bowels,

and is a perfect guardian of health!" (Shocking?)

Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or

domestic help...

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A.

I am now going to forward this to someone else without typing it

myself. From there, it will be sent to others all over WORLD all in a

matter of seconds! It is impossible to imagine what it may be like in

another 100 years.

Never mind 100 years.......just 5 more years"

I'm passing this along without checking the statistics and details. My mother was 10 years old in 1922, so some of this sounds familiar from things she would tell me when we were doing the dishes with an enameled chipped dishpan in the 1940s. My father didn't use an inside toilet until he attended high school in Polo, Illinois--around 1926.  I can remember when gasoline was $.25 a gallon in the 1950s.   Use if you wish; I didn't write it.

I told you so

 


The Biden Crime Family---they are finally reporting

 https://youtu.be/o3tTZ0rgtBw

Conservatives knew this in 2020.  What happened to our free press?

Premiered May 18, 2022 Almost every week, new incriminating evidence is mined from Hunter’s wild laptop. And the proof is mounting that President Biden is lying about his knowledge of his family’s crooked deal-making. Everyone knows Hunter Biden is a seriously degenerate guy. Anyone who has handled his infamous laptop needs a tetanus shot. The salacious stuff on the laptop is sad and pathetic for sure, but that stuff is NOT what is most relevant to the United States. Glenn exposes how the laptop is REALLY about Joe Biden, his abuse of power as vice president, and his ongoing denials now as president. Now that the 2020 election has passed and their man is in office, the mainstream media have suddenly decided to admit Hunter’s laptop is not Russian disinformation after all. No one has done more research into the Biden family corruption than journalist and best-selling author Peter Schweizer. He has researched the depths of Hunter’s laptop and found more than racy photos. “These aren’t HUNTER’S business deals,” Peter says, “they benefit the WHOLE family.” And he has the emails to prove it. But the mainstream media still insist President Biden is as pure as his thinning white hair in all of this. As Glenn reveals tonight, he is not. But will anyone in the Biden family see jail time? Americans are fed up with two sets of rules – one for regular citizens and one for the ruling elites.

Saturday, May 21, 2022

Pelosi gets a 100% rating from NARAL

"Church leaders have been pleading with Pelosi for years, inviting her to repent and return to full communion with the Church. But she has been unwilling to let Catholicism inform her worldview. Even when personally corrected about her pro-choice views by Pope Benedict XVI in a private meeting in which he reminded her of her duty to protect life, the Speaker remained unmoved.

In the press conference following their conversation, she argued that all males—implicitly placing the pope and male Congressional members on the same plane—should refrain from interfering with abortions: “I love the pope. I have the highest regard for the pope…. But I don’t think that a lot of guys should be calling the shots.”

In a May 2022 interview with The Seattle Times, she confirmed that she believes her own judgment trumps the Church when it comes to abortion:
The very idea that they would be telling women the size, timing or whatever of their family, the personal nature of this is so appalling, and I say that as a devout Catholic…. They say to me, “Nancy Pelosi thinks she knows more about having babies than the Pope.” Yes I do. Are you stupid? . . . 
In 2021, Speaker Pelosi brought to the House floor and voted for the “Women’s Health Protection Act,” which codifies the right to abort a baby up until the moment of birth for any reason.

While delivering remarks to the House in support of WHPA, she condemned political forces that “don’t want in vitro fertilization” and “stand in the way of reproductive health and guidance in terms of family planning, birth control and the rest,” calling all efforts to limit such evils an “intrusion into the privacy of a family’s life.”

Additionally, Speaker Pelosi cited her Catholic faith as she voiced her support of this radical bill that directly contradicts Catholic moral teaching. She told the House of Representatives:
I come to this as a Catholic mother of five in six years and one week and with the joy that all that meant to us. But with the recognition that it was my husband and I – our decision. It was our decision. And we should not, in this body or in that Court, be making decisions for the women in America." https://catholicvote.org/public-scandal/

She may be many things, but she's not a Catholic anything.

 

TGIF: Conspiracy Theories, mostly from Democrats

 “All the news you need to know from the chaotic week that was.

By Nellie Bowles from Common Sense by Bari Weiss

 Three shootings in one week: On Saturday, in Buffalo, New York, a young white man traveled to a black neighborhood to shoot up a grocery store, killing 10 people and wounding 3. On Sunday, in Laguna Woods, California, a Chinese man went to a Taiwanese church with a gun, killing one and critically injuring four. In Dallas, a young black man went to a Korean spa, shooting three. 

In a single week, three mass shootings. Each appears to have been driven by specific racial hate—against black Americans, against Taiwanese, and against Koreans

Although the Buffalo shooter seemed to latch on to many deranged theories of both left and right wing varieties, his primary fixation was on the notion of a great replacement. This is a conspiracy that the Jews are bringing people of color into Western countries to overtake the white population and transform the character of the country. Remember how the white supremacists with the tiki torches in Charlottesville shouted “Jews will not replace us!” This was their ideology as well. It was also at least part of what motivated the Tree of Life shooter in Pittsburgh.

These shooters are all motivated by racist beliefs. Likely they are also mentally ill. (In the case of the Buffalo shooter, there were various red flags.) But somehow—and appallingly—this murderer has been cast as a . . . normal Republican. Here’s a Rolling Stone op-ed on it: “The Buffalo shooter isn’t a ‘lone wolf.’ He’s a mainstream Republican.” And after it emerged that the parishioners in the Taiwanese church tied up their shooter, Eric Swalwell, the congressman from California, wrote: “I’m sorry House GOP that the parishioners hogtied your boy.” 

This is a shockingly dark way to perceive half the country. We’ve long been the country of bowling alone, and you don’t need more reminders of falling church and community organization membership or of how few friends the average American man has now. Believing that half the country is a mentally ill murderous cult isn’t going to help.”

Really?  An 18 year old with mental problems known to all around him has a political/voting record? And Rolling Stone calls that "mainstream."  Evil stuff. Especially with no mention of the blood bath in Chicago every week-end. And wasn't it Swalwell who was "sleeping with the enemy."  Seemed to think he was attractive to a hot chick.



Friday, May 20, 2022

Two friends--joke sent by friend Robin Hall (our Scotland trip)



Two guys grow up together, but after college one moves to Georgia and the other to Texas. They agree to meet every ten years in Florida to play golf and catch up with each other.

At age 32 they meet, finish their round of golf and head for lunch.
"Where you wanna go?" "Hooters." "Why Hooters?" "They have those servers
with the big boobs, the tight shorts and the gorgeous legs." "You're
on."

At age 42, they meet and play golf again. "Where you wanna go for
lunch?"
"Hooters." "Again? Why?" "They have cold beer, big screen TVs, and side
action on the games." "OK."

At age 52 they meet and play again. "So, where you wanna go for lunch?"
"Hooters.
"Why?" "The food is pretty good and there's plenty of parking." "OK."

At age 62 they meet again. After a round of golf, one says, "Where you
wanna go?"
"Hooters." "Why?" "Wings are half price and the food isn't too spicy."
"Good choice"

At age 72 they meet again. Once again, after a round of golf, one says,
"Where shall we go for lunch?" "Hooters." "Why?" "They have six
handicapped parking spaces right by the door and they have senior
discounts." "Great choice"

At age 82 they meet and play again. "Where should we go for lunch?"
"Hooters." "Why?" "Because we've never been there before."
“Okay, let’s give it a try."

Ten ways Biden is creating inflation at the pump and endangering us all

 https://youtu.be/DmyNtzOJLPU  May 2022

1. Cancelled Keystone

2. Halted new old and gas leases

3. Killed off shore leasing programs

4. Nominated hostile, far-left activists

5. Invalidated Gulf shore lease 257

6. Pressured financial markets to abandon fossil fuel projects

7. Cut onshore permitting

8. Burdensome rules for greenhouse gas reporting

9. ESG for retirement savings investments

10. Begging Iran, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia to produce more oil

And others:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/11/15/fuel-inflation-oil-gas-energy-transition-climate-change-biden/  November 2021

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/biden-energy-policies-inflation-oil-gas  February 2022

https://thefederalist.com/2022/03/01/stop-letting-environmental-groups-funded-by-russia-dictate-americas-energy-policy/  March 2022

https://townhall.com/columnists/olivernorthanddavidgoetsch/2022/04/12/bidens-deadly-energy-policy-n2605764  April 2022

And while Biden and MSM blame GOP or Tucker Carlson, for coddling Russia, it is in fact Russia who is funding the anti-fossil fuel cabal.  For decades.   "In 2017, congressional investigators found that a money trail linked Russia to millions of dollars funding U.S. nonprofits to work against U.S. shale gas in order to influence the U.S. energy market. Specifically, investigators found that NRDC, Sierra Club, and Climate Action Network were all found to have received millions of dollars of funding in grants from a shady San Francisco-based company called “Sea Change” that a money trail linked back to the Russians. Indeed, it is an open secret that Russians have funded anti-fracking and anti-natural gas propaganda in America for decades, as environmental groups funded the campaigns of Democrats and pressured them to ban fossil fuels." https://thefederalist.com/2022/03/01/stop-letting-environmental-groups-funded-by-russia-dictate-americas-energy-policy/


Divorce statistics from divorce lawyers

 I was looking for an update on some 2005 divorce statistics from my blog and came across a website for divorce lawyers and these interesting tidbits.  These three professions have the highest rate of divorce, dancers (43), bartenders (38.4) and massage therapists (38.2). These three professions have the lowest rate, clergy (5.61), optometrists (4.01) and agricultural engineers (1.78).

The groups with the most divorces are downscale adults (adults making less than $20,000 (annually)  (39 percent), Baby Boomers (38 percent), those aligned with a non-Christian faith (38 percent), African-Americans (36 percent), and people who consider themselves to be liberal on social and political matters (37 percent).

Among the population segments with the lowest likelihood of having been divorced subsequent to marriage are Catholics (28 percent), evangelicals (26 percent), upscale adults (adults making more than $75000 annually) (22 percent), Asians (20 percent) and those who deem themselves to be conservative on social and political matters (28%).

A lot of other statistics that might surprise you--or not.  https://www.wf-lawyers.com/divorce-statistics-and-facts/


Who paid federal income tax in 2021--about 40%

 Who pays no income tax

"The share of households that paid no federal income tax hovered in the low- to mid-40s until the pandemic. In 2020, it increased to more than 60 percent. This was due in part to massive COVID-19-related job losses and a related decline in incomes. In addition, the three rounds of Economic Impact Payments (stimulus checks) in 2020-2021 were structured as refundable tax credits. And Congress increased the Child Tax Credit for the vast majority of parents. Combined, all this substantially reduced the income tax liability of more than a hundred million households and temporarily turned many from payers of small amounts of federal income tax to non-payers.

The share of those not paying federal income tax remained very high in 2021, at about 57 percent. But the economy recovered, federal assistance ended, and the number of non-income tax payers is falling sharply. TPC estimates that only about 42 percent won’t pay federal income tax this year and the share will fall slowly but steadily to the high 30s by the end of this decade.

It also is important to note that many of these households do pay other federal taxes, including payroll and excise taxes. For example, fewer than 17 percent of households will pay neither income nor payroll taxes this year—many of them lower-income older adults. And nearly everyone pays some state or local taxes, including sales taxes."

This is from a rant about a plan to make everyone have some skin in the game. It would raise taxes for those in the middle (the most wealthy already pay more than their "fair share."

https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/scotts-skin-game-plan-could-raise-taxes-100-billion-2022-mostly-low-and-moderate-income

Thursday, May 19, 2022

Letter from 2016 on abortion

 On Apr 7, 2016, at 2:30 PM, Norma Bruce wrote:

Today I mailed a contribution for the legal defense of David Daleiden, facing three crippling law suits from 1) Planned Parenthood which receives half a billion in federal funds every year to kill the unborn, 2) The National Abortion Federation, and 3) the biotech company Stem Express. They are after him for those damning videos--you remember, don't you? The Planned Parenthood abortionist who sipped her wine and nibbled her salad while discussing how she could crush a living baby just right to keep the body parts in good shape for sale to a medical research lab. Or the PP council member who joked about hoping to get enough to buy a Lamborghini sports car ($200,000). Now the AG of California (running for Barbara Boxer’s seat) who has contributed over $80,000 to PP is going after him with a raid on his home. It’s not nice to expose the President’s favorite charity and donor to his campaigns.

Twitter fake accounts

Our MSM has been allowing its stories and headlines to be guided by the Twitter mob, which consists of many fake accounts. And so when the government tries to build a fake disinformation department based on fake rage and lies of Twitter, we've got a real mess.
"Almost half of President Joe Biden's 22.2 million followers on Twitter are fake, according to a recent audit, and Elon Musk — who has put his deal to purchase Twitter on hold over the number of spam accounts on the platform — isn't surprised.

Newsweek reported Tuesday that a SparkToro audit tool found that 49.3% of followers on Biden's official @POTUS account are “fake followers based on analysis of a number of factors, including location issues, default profile images and new users.""  The Blaze TV staff


Wednesday, May 18, 2022

New Omicron variants


"In recent months, scientists have identified multiple new Omicron subvariants of SARS-CoV-2. First spotted in South Africa and the United States, the subvariants—BA.4, BA.2.12.1, and BA.5—have driven new upticks in cases in both nations. The new versions of Omicron are even better at evading the protection offered by vaccines, a previous infection, or a combination of the two. So far, it’s unclear whether the new subvariants will drive a spike in cases worldwide as their predecessors, the Omicron BA.1 and then BA.2 strains, did this past winter and spring, respectively.

“We’re definitely entering a resurgence in South Africa, and it seems to be driven entirely by BA.4 and BA.5,” Penny Moore, a virologist at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, tells Science. “We’re seeing crazy numbers of infections. Just within my lab, I have six people off sick.”


So let's see what the Biden administration does about this.  More fear and panic.  Forced closures?  Mask mandates.  It's obvious from the number of publicized cases of fully vaxxed plus 2 boosters (like Jen Psaki, Kamala Harris and Bill Gates), that this is highly infections and seems to laugh off the vaccines.

"Nature reports that if SARS-CoV-2 continues along this path, its evolution could resemble that of respiratory illnesses that are seasonal and come in waves. The coronavirus’s pattern of infection may also become more predictable, as new mutations in the virus exploit vulnerabilities in population-wide immunity, driving periodic waves of infection. “It is probably what we should expect to see more and more of in the future,” Moore tells Nature. Scientists may get better at predicting how long immunity to COVID-19 will last and when waves will hit."

The New York Times reports similar fears: “…A virus that shows no signs of disappearing, variants that are adept at dodging the body’s defenses, and waves of infections two, maybe three times a year — this may be the future of Covid-19, some scientists now fear. The central problem is that the coronavirus has become more adept at reinfecting people. Already, those infected with the first Omicron variant are reporting second infections with the newer versions of the variant — BA.2 or BA2.12.1 in the United States, or BA.4 and BA.5 in South Africa. Those people may go on to have third or fourth infections, even within this year, researchers said in interviews. And some small fraction may have symptoms that persist for months or years,

"It seems likely to me that that’s going to sort of be a long-term pattern,” said Juliet Pulliam, an epidemiologist at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. “The virus is going to keep evolving,” she added. “And there are probably going to be a lot of people getting many, many reinfections throughout their lives.”

Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Life expectancy fell 1.8 years

"US life expectancy fell by 1.8 years by the end of 2020. Increased deaths from COVID-19, heart disease, homicide, and diabetes led to the decrease, but Americans faced troubling health issues before the pandemic. Suicide was the 10th leading cause of death in 2019, up 30% from a decade before. The rates at which Americans died from heroin use (up 367% from 2009) and other synthetic narcotic use (up 1,100% from 2009) increased by much more than the nation’s leading causes of death."  This is reported in USAFacts. "

They'll be studying the death toll of the last 2 years for many years to come, and all the statistics will be influenced by politics. The toll on children of the closed schools, forced maskings and the constant fear drum beat will never be counted because it is government induced.
Additional facts about suicide in the US  The age-adjusted suicide rate in 2020 was 13.48 per 100,000 individuals.

The rate of suicide is highest in middle-aged white men.

In 2020, men died by suicide 3.88x more than women.

On average, there are 130 suicides per day.

White males accounted for 69.68% of suicide deaths in 2020.

In 2020, firearms accounted for 52.83% of all suicide deaths.

What is Ultra-MAGA?

 The Trump slogan, Make America Great Again, has always been disturbing for Democrats.  I think it was the disgraced governor of New York that said, America was never great, or was that his disgraced brother?

Democrats want to Make America Weak Again, MAWA, and they've succeeded very quickly. Failure in Afghanistan withdrawal has really hurt the women, but the leftist media don't really want to discuss that.  Apparently only American women deserve to go to high school and college; only American women should be free to show their faces (although lots of Democrats are happy for women to cover up with masks that do nothing but interfere with breathing). Putin wouldn't have invade Ukraine if Biden hadn't shut down the U.S. ability to supply Europe with energy.  Do you really think a Trump Justice Department would be ignoring the flagrant violation of the rights of SCOTUS to not be harassed and intimidated--which is against the law?  Would Trump have been cheering the destruction of the unborn, especially blacks?

The recently departed (for MSM) Jen Psaki tried to pretend that Biden's Ultra-MAGA remarks were of Joe's own making, but now Washington Post reports that a Democrat focus group/marketers actually came up with that ridiculous statement which actually means make America even more great! Republicans are having great fun with it. https://news.yahoo.com/biden-used-term-ultra-maga-221015104.html



Monday, May 16, 2022

The Chicago Bungalow

 When I was a child and the family or school group or church group would travel to Chicago, I was always amazed by the vast neighborhoods of bungalows.  But I didn't know they were this popular, 80,000, or 1/3 of the single family housing stock.

http://zachmortice.com/2022/02/25/chicagos-bungalows-are-where-the-city-comes-together/

https://www.chicagobungalow.org/chicago-bungalow


Charlotte Austin's story of freedom after 20 years in prison--a sweet success

After being released from prison in Wisconsin after 20 years, Charlotte was accepted in a Chicago transitional program, North Lawndale Employment Network, NLEN, which helps the formerly incarcerated adjust and join society, then a position with Sweet Beginnings  https://www.nlen.org/sweetbeginnings  and BeeLove, https://beelovebuzz.com/ which sells products made from honey.  You can read her story here:  
 https://wordpress-670334-206764.cloudwaysapps.com/insidesb-episode3/     
and here, http://zachmortice.com/2022/02/25/the-north-lawndale-employment-network-sees-through-employment-barriers-for-the-formerly-incarcerated/

Charlotte: And then, working with people that walk the same steps I walked. Amazing. I don’t judge them. If they laugh, I laugh with them. If they cry, I cry with them. They got something going on, talk to me because I know how it is. I’m not finna judge you because you went to prison or you had this. I went to prison too!

Alice: Right. Right. And you’re very open about the fact that you have a criminal background. Why is that?

Charlotte: It make me feel free. If I hold it in, and somebody else – somebody need to hear my story. Somebody out there need to hear my story. So by me telling my story – yeah, I did twenty years straight, I was on drugs, I was a prostitute, I used to do this, I used to do that, I’m still on ten years paper, and it’s sad to say prison saved me. ‘Cause I could’ve been dead. I think I could’ve been dead."

A TED talk film about BeeLove and NLEN.  https://youtu.be/hXjcRnYv1iU

Five important men for today (could change tomorrow)

 This list appeared in Townhall. When talking movie stars, academics or athletes, I would have nothing to say, but I know a little about all these guys, and I do mean guys.  No women on this list of five most important Americans alive today.  And I am familiar with all, having read their comments, essays, or heard their podcasts and followed their achievements.    https://townhall.com/columnists/scottmorefield/2022/05/16/the-five-most-important-americans-alive-right-now-and-the-missing-elephant-in-the-room-n2607278

"Tucker Carlson

It would be downright crazy to leave off the anchor of the highest rated primetime show on the highest rated cable news network in the nation, so Tucker Carlson has a well deserved place on this list. But if Tucker hadn’t spent years telling the truth - no matter the cost - and championing normal Americans while toppling shibboleths like pointless foreign wars, unfair trade, uncontrolled immigration, and cultural myths like systemic racism and gender theory, he would likely never have attained his current position and, with it, the love and dedication of millions of American viewers who count on him for unfettered truth and unapologetic analysis. Like no other media personality other than perhaps Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson is moving the Overton Window in ways that make the system seeth and long to destroy him. Which means he is very much over the correct target.

Ron DeSantis

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis started his role in the Covid-19 pandemic a bit slow, acquiescing to early lockdowns and restrictions and generally going along with the early prevailing narrative. But when the data became clear to him, he acted swiftly and decisively, seizing and going on to maintain the upper hand from early birds like South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem by also taking real action to combat the ongoing cultural rot. When it comes to key issues like critical race theory, gender insanity, parental rights, Covid tyranny, and virtually anything else that’s on conservatives’ radar right now, DeSantis doesn’t just talk, he backs up his words with real actions that mean something for the people of the state he’s running. In an ideal world, this guy would already be the GOP presidential nominee frontrunner going away. Unfortunately, whether or not that happens is not up to him at this point.


Elon Musk

If the lists being compiled were greatest business innovators, space pioneers or, obviously, richest Americans, Elon Musk would be at the very top. However, to make THIS list, the richest person in the world needed to do something truly audacious that would advance the culture in a positive way. Since nothing advances culture more positively than the kind of free speech and open debate leftists both hate and are deathly afraid of, a Musk acquisition of Twitter would rank right there at or towards the top of geopolitical earth shattering events this century. IF it happens, of course, and IF he sticks to and is able to accomplish his stated goal.

Joe Rogan

Joe Rogan isn’t even a conservative, but the left hates him all the same simply because he asks questions and is willing to have conversations that are uncomfortable for those who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. When you’re regularly having those conversations and doing it on the world’s biggest podcast platform, you’re a mortal threat to the left, and thus a super important person in my book.


Rand Paul

An argument can be made that most, if not nearly all, politicians don’t live to their principles and don’t truly care about the people they represent. However, libertarian-leaning Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul - son of the great former longtime Texas Rep. Ron Paul - is a bright, shining exception in a sea of ugly swamp creatures. Whether it’s standing up to Covid fascism, decrying the concept of a “Disinformation Governance Board” by pointing out that governments - including Republican-led ones - have been the biggest purveyors of disinformation, or doing everything he can to fight the the warmongers who ignore our own problems yet are more than happy to send billions we don’t have to Ukraine, Rand Paul is by far the best and most important U.S. senator of this generation, if not the last century. Listen to this guy speak for more than 30 seconds and you’ll quickly realize he knows exactly what time it is, and he isn’t afraid to let the world know it too."

The author, Kurt Schlichter, gives Trump his due for the accomplishments of his four years, but read between the lines, he does not see him as leading conservatives into a complex future.

Sunday, May 15, 2022

It would have been different if Trump were President

 If Trump were still President of the United States

We would not have raging inflation

Putin would not have invaded Ukraine

China would not be threatening Taiwan

The Department of Justice would not be surveilling parents of schoolchildren

The death toll for xxxxx would not be over one million

Therapeutics for xxxxx would have been available to save lives in early 2021

Doctors, nurses, police, military and truckers would still be on the job

Department of Disinformation definitely not needed; we’ve got Twitter and CNN for that

American businesses would not have been locked down

American businesses would be encouraged to restore loss to China industries

American businesses and consumers would have enough products from fossil fuel

Europe would be able to buy fuel without fear of Russia cutting them off

A billionaire from South Africa not needed to restore right to free speech

No leftist mobs would be intimidating Supreme Court Justices against the law

Teachers’ unions would not be corrupting your children and grandchildren

Fewer drugs would be crossing the border to kill Americans

Less sex and child trafficking at the border

Fewer xxxxx infections crossing the border to infect Americans

Honest and safe elections for all states

If your teen complains, show him this.

 

                                  Teens in Borodianka Ukraine, May 13, 2022.  Washington Post

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

I'm totally confused, but 3 people are dead

"Police say that a transgender woman (a man) was found shot to death after she (he) shot and killed her (his) transgender boyfriend (a woman) and her (his) twin brother."   https://www.theblaze.com/news/michigan-trans-murder-suicide-taverner

Ruby Taverner was formerly known as Martin Taverner; Ray Muscat was formerly known as Amber Muscat.  No matter how this is written up, someone gets insulted. According to this report, from a pro-LGBTQ news source:

"Ray is the 13th transgender person reported as a victim of fatal violence in 2022. He is the second white trans man reported murdered in 2022 that we know of so far. His death means a trans neighbor has been murdered every 9.8 days in 2022 in the United States. To date the victims include 7 Black trans women, 2 Latinx trans women, 1 AAIPI trans woman, 2 white trans men and 1 white trans woman. The youngest was 17, the oldest was 33. Ten were 25 or younger. Their deaths come on the heels of 2021, the most violent year in recorded history with the deaths of 57 trans, non-binary, and gender nonconforming people in the United States alone. Note that the tabulation includes a significant number of reports of folx murdered in 2021. This might be confusing. Of course it is confusing. I tried to sort it out below.

Domestic violence, including murder, is a form of terror. It is often dismissed as “not the same” as a murder by a stranger, as if the person most intimate to the victim was incapable of transphobia or damaged by that transphobia in our society. According to a recent study, intimate partner violence among the transgender community from purposive studies ranges from 31% to 50%."   https://www.pghlesbian.com/2022/05/24-year-old-white-trans-man-ray-muscat-shot-to-death-by-girlfriend-in-michigan/

And of course, it's society's fault. My fault.  Not the screwed up person confused about what or who killed them.

Friday, May 06, 2022

Biden needs to go back to school

“President Joe Biden raised eyebrows on Wednesday when he spoke sharply against “MAGA Republicans” during a speech at the White House. “This MAGA crowd is really the most extreme political organization that has existed in American history,” he said. “Let me tell you about this ultra-MAGA agenda, it’s extreme.” The Loop, May 6, 2022.

Joe has forgotten that the KKK was the terrorist arm of the Democrat Party and lynched both blacks and whites, burned down homes and businesses and made ANTIFA look like a play group.  Also he’s forgotten, if he knew, that Jim Crow was the policy developed by the Democrat Party. Joe has forgotten that Democrats voted down or filibustered all the Republican efforts to outlaw the lynch laws. Of course, the lynching deaths pale in comparison to abortion. Democrats, Planned Parenthood, etc. legally destroy more lives in 4 days than the 80 years of lynching. 36% of the abortion deaths are for blacks, far out of their representation in the population. https://www.aier.org/article/how-fdr-killed-federal-anti-lynching-legislation/  Joe has forgotten what FDR did to Japanese, German and Italian citizens. Joe’s forgotten how he tried to ruin Justice Thomas, a black man, but then all those videos are out there on the internet. https://youtu.be/863u2dzcmF0 Joe doesn’t seem to know about the violent crowds in front of the residences of SCOTUS members (but only the originalists), and has no one told him that his team hopes to disrupt the mass at Catholic Churches on Mother’s Day?

Yes, Joe needs to go back to school along with most of the writers/readers on CNN and MSNBC.

Gimme some of that

The St. Louis Federal Reserve website has an "Economic Equity Series" within its publications category. "Podcast about advancing a more inclusive and equitable economy." Sorry, Charlie, the job's already finished! Just watch the ads on TV. All the actors (and I assume writers, directors, stage managers, set designers, camera operators, editors, and producers) are 99% black and/or the occasional Asian or Hispanic. You can see for yourself that American blacks drive Mercedes, vacation in $100,000 RVs, wait in line for Starbucks $10 coffee, grill in the back yards of multimillion dollar homes with neighbors of all makes and models, wear designer clothes, visit the doctor and dentist regularly, and travel to exotic locations. The only white actors are filling the roles of the farmers, plumbers, wind shield replacers and gutter cleaners. Not only are the upper middle class consumers black, but the servers and salespeople are too! It's amazing how since May 2020 America has become so woke that there are no more "marginalized and poor" people of color. That must look pretty good to those border jumpers from 160 countries rushing our southern border.

The equity is that because most of the poor and marginalized 13% in the USA are actually white, the low income blacks can now sit in front of the TV just like low income whites and wonder how they can get on that gravy train.

As we merge lanes from pandemic to endemic

From an investment letter: "It is now clear from the data that Sweden, which never shut down other than for the very old and nursing homes, did not do worse than those that did shut down, and their kids got to go to in person school throughout. Florida never fully shut down for long, and reopened quickly relative to the rest of the country. While the mainstream media and the Biden administration blasted DeSantis, reality is, business here reopened fairly quickly for the most part, and recovered quickly, and the health issues, including hospitalization and death, were no worse per capita than CA which shut down completely, and kept kids out of school. It is my view that Fauci and the teachers’ unions did more damage to the country than the pandemic ever did. Many people died of untreated diseases like cancer and heart conditions as a result of the shutdowns. They never counted that. I have a tennis buddy whose prostate cancer spread because he could not get to see a doctor in time to prevent it. The Fauci ordered lockdowns did grave damage to the economy, and led to the $6 trillion of new debt we now have.

Were things left mostly open after the first wave, with certain restrictions and certain rules, and personal choice as to exposure, once the vaccines were available, it is far from clear there would have been a much worse Covid outcome based on the Swedish and Florida experience, when you take all the collateral damage of closure into account. Meantime the increased government spending is a disaster, and has created what many of us long predicted-inflation running out of control. The topper was the Rescue Plan in March 2021 for which there was no need other than for the money to be used to bail out Dem state and city governments which were in massive debt, and to illegally redirect billions to teach CRT. Meantime hundreds of billions are believed to have been stolen through fraud in the unemployment payments and PPP. If there had been a limited PPP, and money strictly for Covid vaccines, we would have saved trillions, and been far better off today. Had there been minimal lockdowns, there would have been no need for the extra unemployment and food stamp payments, and no non-eviction and no extension or canceling of student loans. We would not be experiencing the labor shortage to the extent we are now doing.

Maybe some more people might have become sick or died, but the trade was destruction of an entire generation of kids who were kept out of class, and real destruction of black kids who did not have good access to wireless service. We would not have the inflation which is hurting the lower and middle class and we would likely have had a moderate stock market instead of the huge runups we had."

A Biden gaff--he told the truth. He called the unborn baby a "child"

“I mean, so the idea that we’re going to make a judgment that is going to say that no one can make the judgment to choose to abort a child based on a decision by the Supreme Court, I think, goes way overboard.”-  Joe Biden, (May 3, 2022)

***
Did I say “a child”?....(I’m sorry!)
That’s not what I meant to say!
Heaven knows …what WAS I thinking?
Please forgive me…PLEASE I pray!!!

* * *

We uphold Self-contradiction.
It’s now codified to Law.
It’s the “virtue” we’re most proud of
(And delusion's gaping maw.)
 
Self-deception’s been upgraded
To a value we adore.
It’s the cornerstone of madness,
And we’re clamoring for more.

It’s the Fruit of Deconstruction.
It’s the snakebite from of old.
It’s The Lie that we all fell for,
And we love to have and hold.

It’s “the life” here East of Eden,
Where true up is known as down.
Where true truth's considered nonsense,
And the darkness is profound.

Used with permission. Tom Graffagnino. His book “No Border Land”, was published in 2020 and is available at Amazon. It is a book of poems and brief commentary dealing with cultural/secular issues that confront us from a Bible-believing perspective. https://www.amazon.com/No-Border-Land-Finding-Amazing/dp/1625861575

Misinformation about Trump is everywhere, subtle or blatant. All information has a bias.

 The first title on our book club list for 2022-2023 is "The Code Breaker; Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race," by Walter Isaacson, 2021.   https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Code-Breaker/Walter-Isaacson/9781982115852   Doudna is the co-founder of CRISPR — a technology that can edit or alter DNA and genetic traits.   It's our September selection  because it is a fat book about a complex topic and we'll need more time to read it. The author is a history professor, former CEO of the Aspen Institute (large Covid government grant; recently launched a disinformation program to fight "malicious actors"), advisory partner of Perella Weinberg Partners, chair of CNN and editor of Time.  In other words, a left of center academic. On page 1 of the introduction Issacson sets the stage as March 13, 2020 by saying the "government was fumbling its response to COVID." By this I assume he means the FDA, HHS, CDC and NIH with competing interests and miles of red tape.  Yet it was the  day after Jennifer Doudna had driven her son Andy a high school senior to Fresno on March 12 for a robot-building competition. This woman who was a gene-editing technology superstar at Berkeley was uneasy, given what we already knew about Covid, but not so alarmed she kept him home. Probably the smartest scientist alive.  But the government was fumbling? Is that true, or distain for President Trump's efforts--the man who closed travel with China on January 30, several weeks before the first death was recorded in Washington state (that date has been changed several times to other states). Let's review while we remember the scorn and insults from Democrats, even Biden and Harris denigrating the idea of such a vaccine BEFORE they took office and promoted it relentlessly.

"Former President Donald Trump formally announced Operation Warp Speed (OWS) on May 15, 2020. OWS was constituted as a projected $18 billion business-government-military partnership, charged to “produce and deliver 300 million doses of safe and effective vaccines with the initial doses available by January 2021, as part of a broader strategy to accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.” No date was set for fulfilling the 300 million doses target, other than the understanding that it would be “accelerated” relative to conventional standards.

The most innovative feature of OWS was government purchases of large quantities of vaccine types undergoing clinical trials, irrespective of the outcome (such as $2 billion and $483 million in early purchases from Pfizer and Moderna, respectively).

OWS called for clinical trials, manufacturing, and logistics to be conducted on a parallel rather than a sequential basis. The pursuit of multiple vaccine types built redundancy into the program to insure as many approved vaccine types as possible. (Currently, 251 vaccines are in the process of development).

Some ten months later, the results of OWS are as follows:

On Dec. 11, 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for emergency use authorization (EUA) a vaccine produced by Pfizer for “the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in individuals 16 years of age and older.” Approval of Moderna’s vaccine followed seven days later. The first Americans were vaccinated on Dec. 15, 2020, only four days after FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine. 
Consistent with OWS’s stated goal, some 50 million initial doses of approved COVID-19 vaccine were available on Jan. 31, 2021." The Hill, March 20, 2021
By anyone's measure of how the government gets around to cutting red tape and shipping money off to universities and corporations, that was beyond warp speed.  I know no one who could have accomplished this, yet Issacson dismisses his importance on the first page.  I'm sure Doudna was absolutely the right person in the right place at the right time, but without the $18 billion and a president who bullied, I doubt there would have been a vaccine in seven months. Universities live for government money. 

The index item, "Trump Administration" gets one reference, p. 411. Bill Clinton got  three. even Joe Biden got a mention. President Donald Trump, a huge cheerleader for the vaccine AND TREATMENTS, didn't get a single line in the index (and I assume in the book).  Now two years out and a year and a half of Joe Biden, we still have Emergency Use Authorization for the vaccine, don't we?

Gene editing raises huge ethical questions.  I hope Issacson is the one to present the problem without relying too much on government control and "science." As we've learned the last 2 years, science is putty in the hands of bureaucrats and politicians. It's a game of winners and losers.   As of page one, I'm not impressed, but it's a very deep and detailed story. I'm sure I'll learn a lot.