My new desk

Good for bird watching.

My June tithe

Yes, I do believe my church--including local congregation, synod, and the general concept of visible and invisible church--have failed those they are to lead, protect and send out. At least for June, I hope to send our tithe to groups who are supporting churches that are fighting the absurd laws and regulations or even suggestion that churches are not essential services when bars and Home Depot are.

Dr. Fontana—do your research and rewrite your blog

From the website, KevinMD.com: "Health care workers need to start talking about white people killing black people, and here’s why: every victim of racial violence will be seen by a health care professional at or near the time of the event."

Except, Dr. Elizabeth Fontana, MD, (the author), you've not given the facts. 93% of the injured or killed or assaulted black people you will see who called the squad or the police have had a black assailant, NOT white. Not police. Even so, fatal injuries caused by police officers is miniscule and you as a health professional/provider are more likely to treat a police officer hurt by a black youth or gang member than the other way around.

All criminal violence has been reduced drastically, about 50%, since the early 90s. Millions of black lives have been saved because the crime rates for blacks reduced more than whites after the Omnibus Crime Bill of 1993. By 2010, the rate of firearm homicide for blacks was 14.6 per 100,000, compared to 1.9 for whites, a decline of 51% for blacks and 48% for whites. Nationwide, there were over 1.5 million firearm non-fatalities in 1993 compared to about 478,000 in 2011. Because of the bias in research based on political and religious views, it’s difficult to tease out the details, but one thing is for certain, the media distort reports of violent crime and despite your excellent education, you've fallen for the big lie.

That said, millions of black babies die in the womb from chemical and surgical abortions. That's at genocidal levels. Rates for heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and obesity are much higher for blacks than whites, and yes, that IS something you as a doctor can tackle, but with them, not me. I have my own health problems.

Violent crime is committed close to home; black on black, white on white, Hispanic on Hispanic, gay on gay. Except for women. And you Dr. Fontana, should be concerned about all young male victims (usually), not just those black men assaulted by whites or police. When George Floyd was killed, there were many other black men killed that same day in Minneapolis, Chicago, Cleveland, and LA, but because a black man killed them, you didn't hear about it on the news. 24/7. But it's in the statistics. Their families grieve also. So too, if they died of a stroke or heart attack. Get to work, doctor. You have a job to do.

https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/elizabeth-fontana

Police brutality, blacks and whites

Listening to people call the Mike Gallagher show to talk about what's open during this Covid19 crisis in their town. One from Virginia called to complain that during this time of protest and pandemic his governor (Mr. blackface) is addressing removing statues. Another from North Carolina (a Democrat) reports gathering for protests is encouraged and winked at, but the Republican convention which would have brought millions to the state coffers, is cancelled. Another (I think he was from California) complained that only 10 people are allowed at a private party and social distancing must be maintained, but 100 are allowed at a protest, and no social distancing. Now tell me folks, what part of this whole mess isn't political?

Grieving for a man who was killed in a terrible way during an arrest is understandable; allowing the nation to be destroyed based on a myth of police brutality is an evil, ugly plot to destroy the lives and living of millions. In 2019, 9 black men died at the hands of police during a confrontation. 19 white men died during a confrontation with police. Most were in the act of committing a crime. This information is from the Washington Post data base and is real, deep digging research investigating all the circumstances. So who blows it up? Our news media and social media.

39 black men had fatal confrontations with police in 2015 and 9 in 2019. We are a nation of 330, 000,000. Even for Obama's era, that's a tiny, tiny percentage of millions of confrontations with police.  However the drop is significant under Trump.

https://www.pnas.org/content/116/32/15877 is the link to the research. Probably to save their P & T promotion, the authors of this article, which makes perfectly clear that more whites are at risk than blacks in confrontations with police are trying to walk it back. I guess too many people were quoting it to bust the myth that unarmed black men are at terrible risk.

Academe is so far left, it's amazing anything but the party line ever got in to print. The hurdle would be funding, probably figured it was an easy thing to prove--systemic racism and police brutality. Then the next hurdle, finding a publisher--all the journals are also liberal with gate keepers who can shut the door. Then to get a group of people to do a peer review--that must have been a challenge once the results of the study were known. Of course, purchasing it had already been done. PNAS is on subscription and librarians (also gate keepers) probably couldn't reject it. I fully expect that after their clarification and apology, and after they've been run out of town, tarred and feathered, their careers have been ruined and the offending volume will be removed from library shelves.

Yale, May 1970; the Floyd protests in context

Putting the Floyd protests in context--May Day, 1970 at Yale by Al Kresta. https://avemariaradio.net/audio-archive/kresta-in-the-afternoon-june-3-2020-hour-1/

Al Kresta was 18 during the turbulent years of campus protests, including the Kent State disaster. He says what is happening today happened then, but our media haven't learned or even researched. He also explains the 2019 study (using the Washington Post data base) on police vs. unarmed citizens, white and black. There is NO gross epidemic of police violence against blacks. Black citizens are more likely to be killed by black officers, not white. And what correlates is the race of the criminals. It's the best predictor of fatal shootings. In 2019 there were 9 fatal shootings of blacks and 19 of whites out of millions of encounters with the police. This flies in the face of every TV report, newspaper opinion or Facebook meme you see. Fatalities of whites rarely get any media attention. Our main stream media do not do their research. [njb: Our local news last night did a great disservice featuring a white mother of 2 young black sons and the inaccurate information and myths surrounding the police and blacks.]

Kresta was there in 1970, and he says it's the same today. There are three groups: the largest group are the peaceful protestors, next are the revolutionaries with an ideology--then as now, usually Communist, socialist, globalist, anti-government (Bobby Seal, etc.), and third is the criminal element, looters, rioters, long time criminals just stealing and creating mayhem.

It's very useful to put today's problems in the context of these 3 groups including Nixon (who was no more popular than Trump), Revolutionary white groups, Black Panthers (would work with any left wing group), the Yale students with their ideals and white privilege and their liberal president; 4,000 national guard troops. There was no serious violence and rioting in New Haven . Unfortunately, Kent State was to come.

This discussion continues on June 4.

It’s not fake, but it is false

There is so much propaganda using statistics about men who commit crimes--black and white. It's not exactly "fake," but it is meant to mislead. A man (or occasionally a woman) committing a crime is more likely to be shot or restrained by police than one who is out at a ball game not committing a crime. That's their job. Blacks commit crimes at a higher rate than whites or Hispanics or Asians, but for their numbers are less likely to be shot or restrained. It's something like 8x the rate of crime of whites, and blacks have a victim rate 6x that of whites. They are not being victimized by police--they call the police and report the crime. They want police protection. The police come, it's their job, and the assailant is black 93% of the time.

So how do the anti-police researchers figure this? By percentage of total population, not by percentage of criminal acts that put them in harm's way. The number of blacks killed by police has dropped dramatically since 2015 (although it was very small even then). Why? We may never know since the media won't investigate, but it is probably that the economy improved and they had hope with Trump as president instead of that slippery, feel-good guy who never lived in the 'hood, but preached hope and change because he had brown skin.

Here's the irony. When Obama was president that awful Dylan Roof shot a number of black people in a church, and the president blamed the Republicans for their deaths and demanded more gun control. When Chauvin killed Floyd in Minneapolis with an all Democrat controlled government top to bottom, governor to mayor to attorney general to senators (one a former prosecutor who should have put him away), the Republican president Donald Trump is blamed, and people rise up all over the nation demanding reform, when police killings are so much lower under Trump than Obama.
Republicans are so lame in defending themselves. Some even kneel and squeal. I used to be a Democrat and the spineless wimps in the GOP was quite a pill to swallow.

It's getting bizarre.

A sports announcer was fired because he tweeted "all lives matter," something President Obama said in 2015.

Young females were commanded to kneel to show they weren't racist for a YouTube cameraman, and they obliged him. That gesture was originally a Colin Kaepernick stunt to show disrespect for the American flag at sporting events, now it's become a BLM symbol and  has evolved to an anti-Trump gesture.

On channel 10 (Columbus) tonight a fearful white mother with her two young black sons who had questions about the Floyd story was interviewed and she suggested more meetings, programs and "discussions" on systemic racism. Every statistic kept for the last 30 years shows she and the reporter are wrong and are needlessly scaring her children and the viewers. There were 10 blacks killed by police in commission of a crime in 2019, a reduction of about 20 from 2015 (when Obama was president).  https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/07/white-cops-dont-commit-more-shootings/
General Mattis blamed Trump for the behavior of the Democratic administration in Minnesota and Minneapolis that didn't investigate thoroughly a rogue copy for previous crimes and couldn't control criminal gangs based on race. He used an anti-Trump publication, Atlantic, to criticize the man who fired him

Media criticize Trump for his brave and generous demonstration of unity with an historic church with presidential ties, because demonstrators were removed for his safety. They object to his using a Bible or quoting it when that's a staple for all politicians, especially Democrats like Pelosi. The Bishop of the church preaches the [Democrat] party line.

Drew Brees is forced to apologize for supporting and admiring the American flag and criticizing kneelers.

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/drew-brees-apologizes-criticizing-nfl-players-protesting-during-national-anthem-n1224786

New study on police, race and shootings

https://www.pnas.org/content/116/32/15877?

“There is widespread concern about racial disparities in fatal officer-involved shootings and that these disparities reflect discrimination by White officers. Existing databases of fatal shootings lack information about officers, and past analytic approaches have made it difficult to assess the contributions of factors like crime. We create a comprehensive database of officers involved in fatal shootings during 2015 and predict victim race from civilian, officer, and county characteristics. We find no evidence of anti-Black or anti-Hispanic disparities across shootings, and White officers are not more likely to shoot minority civilians than non-White officers. Instead, race-specific crime strongly predicts civilian race. This suggests that increasing diversity among officers by itself is unlikely to reduce racial disparity in police shootings.”

Religious symbols—a church and a Bible

Imagine a president using a church as a symbol, or holding up a Bible. Shocking. I remember when Obama went to Notre Dame. Quite a stir. The most pro-abortion politician in the history of the country at a Catholic school named for Our Lady, the mother of Jesus. It was quite a mess--liberal and conservative Catholics squabbling and conservative pro-life Protestants butting in who were clueless that Catholics lead the way in the pro-life department.

Then there was President Obama at Georgetown, another Roman Catholic institution, and the religious symbols, not exactly being used, but being covered up so as not to detract from his royal presence. Yes, it sure is a shame that President Trump is the only president to ever have made use of religious symbolism. At least he wasn't thumbing his nose at the symbols.

The lies about  the tear gas and the bunker are just ridiculous.  No matter how many times it is denied, the left just keeps chattering about it.

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/uspp/6_2_20_statement_from_acting_chief_monahan.htm

David Meyers, guest blogger, on demonstrations and crimes

David Meyers writes at Facebook: “I have no issue with demonstrations. They are an important component in keeping our country from straying off course. But I am interested in what the demonstrators will do after they have called attention to “the problem.” Will any of them actually seek to become part of the solution?

For 30 years, I worked in corrections—both adult and juvenile. I know that the challenges we faced are similar to those faced by police departments. It’s a tough and dangerous job. And the pay is seldom commensurate to the risk. As a result, it is not always possible to hire the caliber of staff you want and need.

I personally spent thousands of hours trying to weed out the bad employees. All of them were represented by unions. I am not saying that unions are a bad thing. As I learned in graduate school, “Any organization that has a union deserves it.” And by that measure, corrections certainly does. However, that means that due process has to be followed in disciplining a bad employee—even those who have committed felonies on the job.

Not only does management find this frustrating, but many good employees as well. As I wrote in my first book on Ohio’s prison system, “Some of the finest people I have known were working in some of the most thankless jobs imaginable.” I was glad we had them, but we always could have used more. A lot more.

It’s the same with police departments, too. In fact, I have never belonged to any large group of people that didn’t have some miscreants. But in most cases, they aren’t tasked with life and death decisions. They don’t have to deal with violence on a near daily basis. It takes a special type of person to do that. Unfortunately, not all people who are attracted to this type of work want to make things better.
Watching the demonstrations, the confrontations, and the wanton vandalism and looting play out on television, I am concerned that it will drive away exactly the type of people we need to be peace officers and attract those we don’t."

David Meyers is the author of many books that reflect his interest in music, Ohio history, crime, and black history.

“We need to have a dialogue. . ." I'm so sick of that phrase

1. How about: no more senseless government programs that just increase bureaucracy.

2. Maybe we could: reduce or eliminate the rewriting of history and teaching victimhood to minorities and blame for whites from kindergarten to college.

3. Possibly: looking at skin color for positions of power, from president to police chief to hiring actors, isn't the best plan.

4. Think about: removing racialists, people who constantly beat the drum of hate, from writing, editing, selecting, and overseeing content in media, school text books, entertainment, staff positions for politicians, etc. and require that they develop a skill/talent not based on race or ethnicity or gender.

5. Think about: loving your neighbor as yourself after first putting God first. One of the most famous men in history commanded that based on thousands of years of Jewish traditions.

An interesting book review

Famous Stutterers: Twelve Inspiring People Who Achieved Great Things while Struggling with an Impediment by Gerald R. McDermott

Last night I listened to a fascinating book review and author interview of Gerald R. McDermott.  I knew Moses was a stutterer, but I didn’t know about Marilyn Monroe, and that they had to do 47 takes to get one line right in “Some like it Hot.”  Moses, Aristotle, Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain, King George VI, Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, distinguished historian Peter Brown, TV journalist John Stossel, Senator's wife Annie Glenn, ABC correspondent Byron Pitts, novelist John Updike.  I did know about Annie Glenn, who recently died, and had seen the movie about George VI, and John Stossel has talked about it.  McDermott said that millions suffer from the embarrassment and challenging disability of stuttering, and that 98% of them are men. I believe he said he is also a stutterer, although there wasn’t anything in the interview to indicate it. Singing, for some reason, is no problem, and each stutterer finds ways to handle it, and takes training or lessons to calm it. I remember almost 60 years ago helping a Russian graduate student with his first draft (or more) of his PhD thesis.  He had a terrible stutter, but only in Russian, not in English (which wasn’t very good).

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2017/02/20/12-famous-stories-determination-stutterers/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/northamptonseminar/2016/09/04/marilyn-monroe-stutterer/

The book review reminded me of the many, many people with  disabilities who struggle everyday to challenge, improve, or maybe despair. Some are bullied, some are teased, some give up. 

Did closing the churches contribute to the chaos?

Still thinking about two of the videos I saw on Tucker last night. One was a young white man who was standing alone beaten senseless by a group of young black men, and from the position of his body, I'd guess both arms and legs and maybe his neck were broken. Bystanders did nothing to protect him or stop his assailants. (Sound familiar?) They used ladders, pieces of lumber to bash him. It looked like he was just in the wrong place, perhaps separated from his friends, or maybe he lived in the area. There were many white people in these protest groups who had gone along to get along, thinking they'd show solidarity. All he had done was pull out his phone and supposedly was trying to call the police.

The other was an Asian woman, standing her ground, maybe Korean American, in front of her small grocery. I think she was trying to salvage some produce--her livelihood. Maybe it was paying the tuition for her son who was in medical school. The men beating her were twice her size and half her age. Her husband, or some other man, rushed out and they beat him too.

After the shock of seeing such inhumanity and lust for killing, I began to wonder if declaring churches, libraries, and museums as "non-essential services" had encouraged the greed, hate and thirst for revenge and blood. None of those young men knew George Floyd, and the main threat to their lives up to yesterday has been other black men, not the police, despite what grandma told them, unless they are part of a criminal element like a gang. If it weren't for the schools and TV reminding them daily they are victims of racism, they probably were leading fairly normal lives, until the last two months.

Was it smart for mayors and governors to close sports and entertainment venues? While maybe not essential for spiritual health, they do bind certain groups in society together. Competition and aggression are played out on teams, and aside from the occasional broken bone or brain injury, most just watch the aggression. Men could always talk about sports if they had nothing else in common.

I did see some young women bashing in car windows and harassing the helpless drivers, and maybe they were looting those high end stores in Santa Monica. But for the most part, the blood thirst was 16-30 year old men. Testosterone and youth, not race. Antifa, which is white, both genders and privileged had probably been a little more cagey--placed the bricks and lumber around. They arrived with a plan--anarchy.

And I know that's not an original thought, because I believe I first learned it in a "Sociology of Education" class when I was a sophomore in college. All societies have glue and shared interests, which schools need to encourage, we were told then in the 1950s, which educators promote in the form of athletics, clubs and special interest groups.

Perhaps our political leaders educated in the last 40 years never learned that there is more to creating a function society than race and gender. Unfortunately for us, our enemies knew.

The shifting stories

If the shift from Covid19 stories to riot stories wasn't your clue, the wealth gap stories had just made their appearance again as the economy was set to rebound. Forget all that "we're in this together" nonsense. The Columbus Business Journal has a lock on the article, but you can see the same stories, different characters that were appearing in 2005.

Here's my take. It takes marriage and family backing usually by parents or grandparents to live well. You only need to look as the highest income people in America, and that isn't "whites" as the demographers and dividers like to call people like me. Those would be "Asian," or more specifically Indians, Filipinos, and Japanese Americans. They have the highest marriage rates and strong support from the couples' parents.

I live in a very nice neighborhood with great amenities, good school system, many churches, and good shopping (although not as good as in the 80s since retail chases the money). It would be difficult for a mom with 3 children who does not have a handsome divorce settlement and alimony to live here. However, I would look low income compared to the areas northwest of my community. Wealth gap is relative. I'd look like a pauper compared to Colin Kaepernick and yet he whines about injustice because he didn't get picked for the NFL and wanted his own rules.

Let’s check with Minneapolis

In the wake of rioting and looting in Columbus the last 2 days during peaceful protests, Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin says we need to confront structural racism with police reforms in Columbus. (Columbus Business First)

Hmm. Has he looked at the black Attorney General, Black police chief, black officers in the incident, Jew hater Ilhan Omar, battling Somali gang warfare and far left mayor of Minneapolis for guidance in that reform? How about Amy Klobuchar who ignored the problem for years?

On Birthdays

Facebook makes a big deal about birthdays.  And often I forget or overlook those notices, even though many people just love receiving congratulations from people they never see, or often haven’t met. It might be the only time anyone makes a fuss over her or him to make the day really special with images of birthday cakes and balloons.

Father Peter John Cameron, author, editor and playwright, reflected on the birth of John the Baptist (celebrated June 24).  Just in case you don’t know that story from the Gospel of Luke, John was Jesus’ cousin. Their mothers, Elizabeth and Mary, were pregnant at the same time and John recognized Jesus in the womb and leaped for joy:

“The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist is a sacred reminder of the fact that every day I need born in my life:

someone who leaps with joy before the presence of the Lord, who makes me want to live my own relationship with Jesus with greater ardor and fervor;

someone to prepare the way of the Lord and to give me knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of my sins;

someone who turns my attention away from my distractions and preconceptions so that I will behold the Lamb of God as the true desire of my heart;

someone who models for me that there is no greater joy in my life than for Jesus to increase and for me to decrease, especially as regards my self-reliance, my self-assertion, my self-absorption;

someone who is a burning and shining lamp whose radiance gives light to my path and courage to my heart, making me want to live for others;

someone so committed to the truth that he is willing to lay down his life for the Truth-become-flesh—witnessing to me that all true happiness comes through self-sacrifice;

someone whose sanctity proclaims that there is no man born of woman greater than he is, but that I can share his greatness if I love Jesus as he did.”

Today is Pentecost Sunday, Acts 2:1-11

2 On the day of Pentecost^[a] all the Lord’s followers were together in one place. ² Suddenly there was a noise from heaven like the sound of a mighty wind! It filled the house where they were meeting. ³ Then they saw what looked like fiery tongues moving in all directions, and a tongue came and settled on each person there. ⁴ The Holy Spirit took control of everyone, and they began speaking whatever languages the Spirit let them speak.

⁵ Many religious Jews from every country in the world were living in Jerusalem. ⁶ And when they heard this noise, a crowd gathered. But they were surprised, because they were hearing everything in their own languages. ⁷ They were excited and amazed, and said:

Don’t all these who are speaking come from Galilee? ⁸ Then why do we hear them speaking our very own languages? ⁹ Some of us are from Parthia, Media, and Elam. Others are from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, parts of Libya near Cyrene, Rome, ¹¹ Crete, and Arabia. Some of us were born Jews, and others of us have chosen to be Jews. Yet we all hear them using our own languages to tell the wonderful things God has done.

http://preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Hymni/VSS-2.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY8fDjBN1LU

The riots have bumped Covid19 from the news

Even without an investigation and a trial, there was almost universal agreement that the white policeman killed an unarmed black man in Minneapolis. With such unity on a charged racial matter, the left had to move in and stop the peaceful protests with organized rioters in many major cities. Looting, burning, assaults and arrests.

Michael Rechtenwald wrote yesterday: “Just watched for hours as sectors of Minneapolis were burned to the ground, killing whatever message was being conveyed--although I don't think the rioters had a message, other than to reap and sow chaos and destruction. This is the work of the media, the left, and the wantonly depraved. It's not the mere loss of property that I lament. Thousands of people will suffer from this, including blacks, whose livelihoods will be lost and whose lives will be otherwise diminished. Whoever is behind this, and I have my suspicions that it was sown by particular contingents and their masters, they are enemies of the people.”

What has happened recently in Minnesota with the police is deeply disturbing, and seeing it is now turning into looting and rioting even in Columbus, Atlanta, and Los Angeles forcing people to take sides based on race when we know it is a small number of people doing criminal acts should give us pause. My nephew, a California policeman, has written an impassioned post on the grief and anger he feels that a member of his profession has done the unthinkable--caused the death of someone he should have protected. With other officers standing by and not intervening! I have heard all conservatives/Republicans in media condemn this from the very beginning. And now it's time for the liberals/Democrats to condemn the demand for retribution when there's been no trial.

It is disturbing to see people rushing to judgement with no trial, evidence or protection for the accused (by video) until proven guilty, reenacting the old lynch mob mentality of 60-100 years ago. They've made a joke of our justice system--a joke that has been used on minorities many times in the past. Instead of realizing this lynch 'em high method was used against blacks and poor whites to terrorize by mob demonstrates the failures of 60 years of passing and enforcing laws guaranteeing civil rights or assuring trials for criminals.

The looters, the Democrat leaders and finger pointing self righteous by-standers on social media haven't read the police statistics--more whites are killed by police and at a higher rate than blacks. Who riots then? The leading cause of death of black children under 5 is not guns or whites or police--it's the people who care for them--fathers, mothers, boyfriends, step-parents. And 38% of abortions are for black babies. Someone in the "black lives matter" movement doesn't know or care that even black children in the womb and crib and Head Start have lives, too. It's easier to have his buddies take a video in front of a smashed store window to show his bravery and manhood and rush in to steal a pair of shoes.

In 2016 there was an increase in gang violence and assaults in Minneapolis. No one rioted when the police chief said she was proud of the stats because they were lower than expected!

Affordable housing destroyed during protests

“Midtown Corner's upper five stories were planned affordable housing. The building would have had 190 units, with rent keyed to households making between 60 and 80 percent of the area's median income.

The apartments were the final piece in Wellington's development of the former Rainbow Foods space on East Lake Street. It had already finished adding an Aldi and a charter school called Universal Academy. Both of those buildings were also damaged in the protests.”

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2020/05/28/affordable-housing-minneapolis-burned-wellington.amp.html?

Ted Talk by Jonathan Haidt applies to today’s division

https://youtu.be/8SOQduoLgRw Jonathan Haidt on the moral roots of liberals (and conservatives, but he's a liberal talking to liberals). He's lecturing (Ted Talk) during the Bush years, so that's where the laughs are. By understanding more about our moral roots, his hope is that we can learn to be civil and open-minded. And by "we" he means liberals (he surveyed the audience first). Still useful for the Covid divisions, on why liberals want to keep the lockdown, and conservatives want the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. This of course, is a flip of the usual vision of liberals as progressive, because in 2020, they are the regressives.