Friday, September 01, 2023
Black women, white masters
Friday, October 30, 2020
Testing transmissibility of SARS CoV-2 in ferrets
This may possibly have some actual research on SARS CoV-2 and masks. Ferrets.
"The study comes weeks after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged that the novel coronavirus can spread via aerosols. The agency updated its guidelines to include airborne transmission in mid-September, but removed the language the next day. If the virus were found to spread among people predominantly through aerosols, Marr says, that would carry practical implications for recommendations of types of masks and ventilation systems best suited to filter out airborne particles.'
In other words, recommendations for masks haven't been based on science. This may help with that.
I think this was a very clever, but very small test using SARS CoV-2 (2019) SARS (2003) and H1N1 (2009). Their transmissibility differs, and it really doesn't have anything to do with who was president of the United States when the virus appeared. Some viruses like SARS and MERS have had death rates up to 50% yet have disappeared quickly. There was no way to know at the beginning. Again, nothing to do with who was president, or who the science advisors were. That's all politics. When Democrats say that, remember, it's politics and they want to elect Biden. When the science disagrees, that's just science. Picking those you wish to believe may be more politics than science.
Monday, October 05, 2020
Media, disinformation and science
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/
For a number of years, I followed this blog, "Junkfood Science". She did amazing research. Unfortunately, she retired the blog in 2009, but I see she posted her concern in a letter to her readers in May 2020. I think it's worse now than in 2009. Click on over and read her May letter. It's so appropriate in this politicized pandemic.
"Media has become an expanse of junk science, disinformation and doublespeak, politics and marketing. All of us are now on our own to question everything, seek out original sources and do our own fact-checking, research and critical thinking. You'll be surprised at how much of what "everyone knows" is not true."
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
The great divide
Why is the divide over opening or not opening falling along party lines, conservative vs. liberal, red state vs. blue?
First of all, it's Trump. Whatever he advises, the left and the Trump haters will fight. They oppose anything that looks like recovery because he will look good.
It's also class. Many more white color and government workers have kept their jobs but they really don't employ people. The risk takers and entrepreneurs tend to be Republicans--they actually employ people and are small businessmen. They are the ones who have borrowed from their parents or taken a 2nd mortgage to start up a business. Also farmers and blue/pink color workers are more suspicious of government control of their lives and livelihood.
Third. The news is out how the Obama administration tried to undermine/destroy the incoming Trump administration. That's political terrorism and the best way to keep that mum is to keep the focus on something else. Pump up the fear.
Fourth. Academics, upper management and entertainers do not mind waiting it out--they have resources, they know how to get around the rules, they've got treadmills in their remodeled basement and can sneak that Hispanic housekeeper and Asian immigrant hair stylist in the back door (because they certainly don't live in their neighborhood). They just love those TV commercials with the cute kids putting puzzles together with dad in his jammies with sappy music and ridiculous slogans--they may even own the marketing company being paid to make them!
Fifth. Not all Republicans are pro-life, but they haven't carved the initials of death into their political platform for 3 decades, for several generations of voters. In short, their moral compass is different. They are happier, more positive, more likely to be people who live their faith, more likely to be married and have families, and respect life at all ages including the unborn and the very elderly. They know without reading an academic paper or the Wall Street Journal that the longer the economy is closed the more people will die of a multitude of problems than Covid19 would ever touch.
Friday, January 18, 2019
Jennifer, mother of 5, has lost friends. . .
She was always a Conservative, always a Christian, and enjoyed friends from many different lifestyles, until . . .
“I always found a lot of fulfillment in having open conversations with people unlike me- and enjoyed growing and learning from all new perspectives, upbringings, and cultures and religions- it made me proud to be American and felt it embraced free speech and thought.
I became so disheartened over the past few years as it became obvious those kinds of conversations could no longer be had by my many of my friends and family that ran along a more left or liberal leaning line- since voting for Trump I have lost two of my lifelong best childhood friends - friends that were like sisters for 25 years or more. I was devastated to be called a bigot and a racist and worse- a fake and hypocritical Christian simply for my conservative beliefs- and the told we could no longer be friends. I was in shock. Even though I never supported Hillary, it didn’t even occur to me to end friendships over someone else’s difference in opinion or political views.”
I feel your pain, Jennifer. [from her Walk Away post on Facebook]
Thursday, January 10, 2019
Wisdom according to Joan
“Sanctuary” cities (in clearer language) are hideouts for lawbreakers. These cities are providing “aid and comfort” to people who have broken our laws to enter this country. Aiding and abetting criminals is not a “humanitarian” goal; it is, in itself, another crime. If I provide a place for a burglar (another kind of lawbreaker) to evade capture, I am also arrested and charged with a crime. Why is this not applicable to those local elected representatives who openly help lawbreakers evade the law?”
Joan Shaw Turrentine is blogger and Facebook friend, former teacher and pastor’s wife. And also,
"The truth about all the political crazy that's creating havoc in DC? It's not about immigration. It's not about Trump. It's not about taxes. It's not about the wall or even abortion. It IS about hanging on to power and keeping a seat on the gravy train that is public office."
I agree with Joan on this, and I add that no one in my lifetime has threatened that power base as much as President Trump. So by deflection he is hated, and those of us who voted for him are reviled and kicked out of our social circles and families.
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Politics and healthcare
At the coffee shop today I was reading the Oct. 9, JAMA and noticed an editorial on "Politics and Healthcare." JAMA's left of center, but I thought I'd take a look. Praise for Lyndon Johnson and Medicare in 1965, praise for Barack Obama and PPACA (Obamacare) in 2010 and then 3-4 paragraphs lambasting President Trump who, but for McCain, would have been able to undo Obama's disastrous grab of the private sector and 1/5 of the economy. It's one of the reasons Trump was elected--the people hated it, especially those who lost good coverage or lost their doctor or were forced to buy coverage for contraception and abortion. Obamacare was the only significant piece of social legislation that got zero support from Republicans, who had supported FDR and social security, and LBJ and Medicare. In fact, it's doubtful those programs would have passed without Republican support. It is the Obama administration that created the extreme partisanship we see today, not President Trump.
Yes indeed. Politics and healthcare in black and white in JAMA. So I looked up the author, Donald M Berwick--he's retired, but has been on just about every government board and committee to give us socialized medicine, was part of the Clinton administration, and even worked with the British National Health Service and was knighted by the Queen! I would not have expected anything else from him.
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Which party has an unabashed record for violence?
At 47%, Trump's approval rating at mid-terms is higher than Obama's in 2010, and 6 bombs didn't go off right before elections giving Democrats free air time to talk about how awful Trump is.
It's the Democrats who have been encouraging violence--Clinton, Holder, Waters, etc. Just Google "violence against Fox" and you'll find stations attacked with bombs and trucks in Baltimore, Boston, and LA, and that's as far as I got. What comedians have shown Trump’s severed head on YouTube/TV? Who thinks it’s funny to threaten his son with rape, and produce a rap video of the first lady as a stripper. Then subscribe to Washington Post on line and have 9 out of 10 articles be not just anti-Trump. but full of lies. The intent is to outrage their readers, and if it brings some unstable people to violence Nancy Pelosi gets her “collateral damage.” Who has been attacking members of the Trump administration in restaurants, malls and elevators? Who tells their supporters to get in the faces of Republicans and drive them out, or kick them when they are done?
The left is so undone with their collective inability in government, academe and entertainment to thwart we the voters, they are moved to violence.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/pipe-bombs-story-why-no-one-trusts-media/

Tuesday, September 18, 2018
Truth is stranger than fiction
In Barbara Boxer's 2005 novel, A Time to Run, the "heroine's dilemma is presented by a journalist, Greg Hunter, with pronounced right-wing views. Hunter is a figure from the senator's past. They had been lovers while he was in college; he lost her to his roommate, Joshua Fischer. Joshua later dies in the middle of a campaign for Senate; Ellen steps into his place and wins, launching her political career. Now, Hunter has returned, bringing with him information that could derail the judicial nominee's appointment. Fischer is buffeted by new revelations about Hunter and a well-founded distrust of his motives." (Wikipedia)
Hmm. Apparently it didn't get very good reviews, not even for the sex scenes.
Friday, February 24, 2017
She's not going to get over it
"That's probably a good idea. That's what conservatives did in 2009 and managed to get a number of seats changed in 2010 and 2012, although Republicans in Congress ignored them. At the state level Republicans control the majority of state houses probably as a result of the so-called Tea Party and Glenn Beck's 9-12 groups and reading clubs. The average American voter is running on what they learned in civics classes in high school if they even teach that in the 21st century. In classes I attended in 2010 we learned about the differences and importance of Supreme Court picks to determine if we had a real constitution or a plastic constitution. Also learned some history which has been pretty much covered up since even the 1920s. What a shock to some people to learn the origins of the KKK, lynchings and Jim Crow (Democrat party) and that it was the Republican administrations that led the fight for Civil Rights even in the 1960s. The biggest advantage was meeting like minded, lovely people after being demonized for so long. Some things were discouraging, like learning how committees at the local level for both parties control just about everything and don't want starry eyed newcomers upsetting their comfortable spots. You'll find out the same in your city, county and state elections. Our government at all levels is only quasi-representative. We elect a board at our church, or elect a school board, or a library board, or we answer to a team at work, and so forth. If we don't participate at some level of committee or board, our voices aren't heard. By the time of the election, it's too late. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in the 2008 primaries against Barack Obama. But the popular vote didn't matter--it was number of primaries."
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
More Mortgage Mischief and ways to stall the recovery
- "The new federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's website proclaims that no financial company "should be able to build, or feel pressure to build, a business model around unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices." How ironic, then, that the bureau itself is trying to extend its reach by extorting billions of dollars from private mortgage servicers, regulating their business by fiat, and stalling a U.S. housing market recovery."
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Obama needs to relearn the art of politicking
E.J. Dionne Jr. - Obama needs to relearn the art of politicking
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tea Party Candidate Opposes Abortion Even In Cases Of Rape, Incest
If you believe a fetus is a viable human being, is she less viable if the impregnation were violent or despicable? The headline is about pushing the "oh no" button rather than thinking something through logically. Why would any sane person want to compound a terrible crime with one even more violent, one that leads to death when the helpless victim has done nothing wrong?