Category: Reason

Their Platform is Chaos

America, Education, Government, Health Care, Media, Politics, Reason, Religion, Science, Society & Culture, Technology, Values

Who but limousine liberals unaffected by government policy either through exemption (e.g. Leftist politicians) or due to inoculating wealth (e.g. Hollywood celebrities or tech tycoons)… the intellectually indolent, the perpetual victims, the “low information voters” as Rush Limbaugh calls them (a euphemism for illiterate or cerebrally lazy people easily swayed by demagoguery), the race-baiters or the grievance acolytes… could possibly support the Democrats in 2020?

Really, no-one who has any self-respect – who cares about principles such as meritocracy, excellence, achievement, probity, self-reliance, self-determination, traditional sexual identification, traditional education, traditional family structure, that life (or at least the potential of life) begins at conception, that there is a God (or at a minimum a set of eternal rules of right and wrong that are immutable and transcend all generations)…could support the Democrats in 2020!

I had a conversation the other day with my Board-certified internist during my annual physical exam who, when asked for his opinion on the Wuhan Virus pandemic, started to recite the scripts of WHO, CDC, AMA, Johns Hopkins, and other canned platitudes. Little did he know at first that I spent several years running an early intervention healthcare company based on epidemiological research. When I began to confront him, gently mind you as he was about to check my prostate, with the emerging evidence that the Wuhan plague/pandemic is no worse than a bad flu and cited evidence of how faulty is so much of the data on which decisions are being made and regulations being promulgated, did he start to back off and admit that “we just don’t know.”

I was going to let him off the hook until he said, “I’m concerned, however, about the Second Wave.” At that, I asked him the question, “What is the metric that will allow kids to go back to school normally, that will allow us to stop wearing face diapers, that will signal an end to the crisis?” I was gratified that he conceded that should the Democrats prevail in the coming election, everything will all be over beginning November 4th, not because he’ll vote Republican, but because it was an admission that most of what underpins the rhetoric and discourse is political.  I then ran down the list of disastrous economic and societal consequences the government response at all levels has wrought and then, fortunately, found common ground with him as we delved into a cost-benefit discussion and both agreed that rational decision making and critical thinking was sorely needed.

My half hour session went an hour. A nurse had to bang on the door of the exam room to remind my Doc he had another patient waiting.

As I left the office I got to wondering about how it is that a highly-educated, highly-skilled physician could be persuaded to lazily rely on and spout institutional pablum. I concluded that the damage caused to all our institutions: medical, educational, social, religious, economic, even family structures has created so much chaos that even the smartest among us are overwhelmed by the tsunami of, frankly, BS that has invaded every facet of our lives. Out of sheer enervation even the strongest of us have had to pause from the fight to catch our breath. Meanwhile, the ability of the Left to sew chaos through outright deceit, lies, projection (especially projection) and carpet-bombing with idiocy has continued unabated. The megaphone in the hands of the Leftist media, regrettably, doesn’t take much electrical power.

This is precisely what the Left wants to do. Create so much chaos that only THEY can fix things. Only THEY will be able to unravel the mess…so long as they are granted unlimited power to do so. For that is their goal…POWER! I didn’t used to believe it. I thought there were Democrats who were classic liberals, who believed in the American way of life but wanted to ensure that we looked after those who truly were less fortunate, were REAL victims… No more. Now the Democrats just lust for power as they arrogantly, absurdly believe that if they control everything and everyone they’ll move us all toward their utopian fantasy. That fantasy is the stuff of socialism/communism and while they know it’s a fantasy, it isn’t about actually creating a utopia. It’s about POWER, the thing Leftist politicians must have much as water or oxygen.

We must shake off our weariness and continue to fight to expose the Left’s dysfunctional, delusional, adolescent enchantment with and pipe-dream of utopia and their deplorable thirst for power.

In a small way, having that extended conversation with my doctor made me feel like I was able to get off a few rounds in that fight.

Prejudice and Discrimination

America, Morality, Politics, Reason, Society & Culture

I admit it. I am guilty of prejudice and discrimination. I am prejudiced against a whole host of things. And yes, I discriminate. I am discriminating in my choices of many things. Neither makes me a racist, a white supremacist, a misogynist, a warmonger or any of a range of other labels the Left would love nothing more than to attach to me.

I am prejudiced against uncivilized behavior. Growing up in Europe in the 60’s I cringed at the often loud, madras-clad American tourists who would act as if they owned the world, and I was embarassed by them. Today I’m equally repulsed by the barbaric behavior of so-called “protesters” rioting in so many cities across the country. I am put off by people in restaurants who speak loudly and laugh uproariously as if they were the only patrons in the establishment. People who walk through public places with boomboxes blaring on their shoulders are equally odious.

I’m also prejudiced against the abuse of the English language that violates my eardrums every time I venture into a public space and can make out the mumbling emerging from behind what are now affectionately referred to as face-diapers. It’s not just the prevalence of foul and profane diction – it’s also the incessant misuse of the simile “like”, and both “upticks” and “vocal fry!

Hypocrisy stirs up my resentment juices too. We’re all guilty of some hypocrisy of course. But that of the Left dwarfs by a thousand-fold that which is exhibited by the Right. I am prejudiced against people who pollute my neighborhood with Leftist slogans on lawn signs. Though I find the placement of arrows on the aisles of my local supermarket ridiculous, I am prejudiced against those who wantonly ignore them. And while I am yet to be convinced that wearing masks does anything more than fog up my glasses and make me uncomfortable and difficult to understand unless I yell, I am even more prejudiced against those who try to shame anyone who refuses to wear them!

And I’m prejudiced against megalomaniacal politicians or anyone else who deliberately deceives, prevaricates, dissembles, misrepresents or outright lies to gain power or recognition. It doesn’t matter what their skin color is, their heritage, their religion, their sex…it is their attempt to impose their warped and often evil ideology as well as the assault on my freedom and my principles that I find so abhorrent.

I discriminate daily…in my choice of which channel I watch on television, which websites I visit, which coffee or bread I buy at the market. I discriminate in what I read, what form of exercise I choose, what wine I serve at dinner, what soap I prefer in the shower. I will continue to eschew places and people I find offensive, will judiciously avoid vacation destinations where I’m made to feel uncomfortable as I seek to enjoy the finest things I can afford…things I worked so hard at for so long and deserve.

Keep it up Leftists and you’ll be able to apply even more labels to me. Soon you’ll pejoratively label me a “worshipper”. Perhaps you’ll even accuse me of being “a man”.

My Dad, as he saw what my generation did to the America his (The Greatest Generation) fought so hard for, used to quote the title of the 60’s Musical, “Stop the world I want to get off.” I’m close to begin repeating that quip as well.

Tactics of the Left

America, Economy, Education, Government, Headlines, History, Morality, Politics, Reason, Religion, Science, Society & Culture, Values

John Hawkins is one of my favorite conservative authors. In an essay penned back in October 2017 he listed, presciently, how the Left was then destroying and would in the future destroy our culture. With full credit and attribution to Hawkins, who’s full essay is available on Town Hall, here’s a summary:

First, to quote his introduction (Note: I’ve replaced the term “Liberalism with “Leftism, “Liberals” with “Leftists”:

“There was a time when we used to be a nation that pushed freedom, responsibility, decency, patriotism and hard work. Some of us still believe in those things, but because of Leftism, much more destructive values have seeped into our culture like toxic waste. There are many ways that Leftists have degraded our culture, but these are the worst of the worst.”

And here’s his list:

1.            The Politicization of Everything.

2.            Political Correctness.

3.            Victimhood.

4.            Leftist Feminism.

5.            Tribalism.

6.            “Non-Judgmentalism”.

Today, one has only to open one’s eyes and ears to see these weapons on display. I would add to his list:

7.            Atheism. While I believe that the only Being in the universe who can prove to you whether He exists or not is God, faith is a very individual thing. By way of contrast, Atheism is a collective imposition of an ideology that doesn’t just eschew faith, but condemns and seeks to eradicate it. It’s obvious that the Left, by seeking to destroy faith, is seeking to replace God with its own brand of religion.

8.            Saturation. The Left seeks to dominate the airwaves in every form and in every medium so as to crowd out, squash, eradicate any dissent.

9.            Falsehood. “Creative Misrepresentation” is the euphemism that Leftist intellectuals use to describe the outright lying and deception used to advance their poisonous ideology. This should be obvious to any paying-attention individual.

10.          Projection. Have you ever noticed that the Left screams at the top of their lungs accusations at the Right that represent precisely what the Left is doing? There is no end to the hypocrisy and deceit they will use to achieve their ends.

11.          Hijacking the Vocabulary. “Choice”, “Social Justice”, “Democratic Socialism”, “Extremism”, “Investment (a.k.a. ‘taxation and spending’), “Science”, “Fair Share”, “The Wealthy”, “Balance”, “Liberal”, “Progressive”, “Racist”, “Undocumented Immigrant”, “Domestic Terrorist”, “Universal Background Checks”, “Assault Rifle”, “Diversity”, “Inclusion”, “Affirmative Action”, “Globalism”, “Climate Change”, “Resistance”, “Human Rights”, “Tolerance”, etc. All of these terms and countless others have been utilized, twisted, turned into Orwell’s Doublespeak, used as euphemisms or been completely destroyed and replaced by the Left.

12.          Revising History. The 1619 Project, the tearing down of historical figure statues, Howard Zinn, the vilification and attempted discrediting of historical leaders like the Founding Fathers…need I say more?

I expect if I thought about it long enough I could expand this list considerably. No matter. My readers know exactly what I’m talking about anyway, and could similarly add to it. The key is to fight, advance and not retreat in the face of these Leftist tactics.

We must pick our battles, yes, but not shun the fight.

Right Before Our Very Eyes

America, Politics, Reason, Society & Culture, Values

I just read one of the most damning and frightening exposés ever written by my most respected conservative intellectual. Victor Davis Hanson has penned a piece describing not only what is currently happening to our country and society, but also what more could happen to it if the Left gains any more power.

I strongly recommend reading the entire essay, entitled “Will 2021 be 1984”, available here. To wet your appetite, the first paragraph follows:

“Cultural revolutions are insidious and not just because they seek to change the way people think, write, speak, and act. They are also dangerous because they are fueled by self-righteous sanctimoniousness, expressed in seemingly innocuous terms such as “social activism,” “equality,” and “fairness.”

I’ve often used the fable of the frog dropped in a pot of water as well as the adage “a death by a thousand cuts” to describe what’s happening to us. The former, just in case you’re not familiar with it, teaches us that if you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will immediately jump out. If, however, you place a frog in lukewarm water and turn up the heat gradually, it will remain until it is boiled to death. The latter, of course, refers to how we could bleed to death while hardly noticing it.

Referring to these in either case, what I’ve suggested many times is that it is by small steps and increments that the evil ideology perpetrated by the Left has infiltrated virtually every aspect of our lives. And, truth be known, it has gone past the point where we can openly criticize it for fear of our personal safety, livelihoods and property not to mention our communities. Teaching by example doesn’t work. “Hitting them up side of the head” doesn’t work. Shaming their disgusting behavior and exposing their lies, distortions and idiocies doesn’t work. Now, we have cause to be fearful that even the ballot box and our ability to vote out the fools will be violated.

Could it be that our pugilist/counter-puncher-in-chief and those on the Right, fractious and fractured as they may be, will nevertheless successfully defend what’s left of Good and triumph over Evil? Alas, I wish I were young again and had the strength, clarity of mind and resources to add my outcry and condemnation to the cause of preserving our liberty, meritocracy… in short, our way of life. I hope by bringing to the attention of my now hundreds of readers the words and ideas of people far smarter and articulate than I, I will have done a small service to countering the noxious noise with which the Left has saturated the air.

I fear that we’ve traveled so far down the slippery slope that it will take something akin to another 9-11 or a counter-revolution from within to leash or better, destroy this Leftist cancer. On the other hand, the optimistic view is that perhaps, what we’re seeing are the remaining, thrashing, death throes of a dying hydra. I pray it’s the latter and urge EVERYONE who values what’s RIGHT to courageously speak up, defend yourselves and your families against the scourge, and vote, futile as it may seem, accordingly.

Thank You Bari Weiss

America, Headlines, Media, Reason, Values

I’ve been saying for some time now that the Left will eventually implode on itself. Optimist that I am, my view has been that Right (.sic) will prevail over wrong (Left) as Americans eschew the nonsense that fills the airwaves and either: a) by example prove that the virtues of our country embodied in the ideology of the Right are, while of course not perfect, the best way to achieve the most prosperity for all and/or b) vote to support political candidates, imperfect as they too are, who support TRUE American values rather than the necrotizing vacuousness of the Left.

I sincerely believe, and I’m prayerfully hopeful I’m right, that that which fills our television screens, computer monitors and reading material these days represents the death throes of the evil hydra that seeks to gain ultimate power over our people. I used to believe that the Left was comprised of a benign, warm and fuzzyy people who just wished we “could all get along;” who believed that equality of opportunity needed to be preserved (rather than equality of outcomes). What has become obvious is that the Left truly is bent on dominating the minds and will of mankind by marshaling the forces of the Have-Nots against the Haves. In case this struggle sounds familiar, it is the essence of Karl Marx. It is war of Winners against Losers. I don’t mean winners at any cost, or losers who are such because of circumstances truly beyond their control. I refer to those who live by traditional principles like hard work and meritocracy, self-reliance and societal virtue, law and order, etc. fighting against those who don’t have the self-discipline or strength of character to adhere to these winning principles but rather envy these Winners and simply want to suck from them the fruits of their labor, their honor, their prosperity, alleging “unfairness” and all the other arguments advanced by Marx and his Leftist disciples and progeny.

And while I happen to agree with those who condemn crony-capitalism, a “the ends justify the means” approach to policy and a “winner take all” attitude towards the distribution of both resources and opportunities in our country, having lived and traveled extensively around the world I can state with unequivocal certainty that America, democracy and capitalism have done more for the advancement of humankind than any other country, form of government or economic framework in world history.

The amplifying megaphone that the internet has given to the Leftist hydra has all but drowned out voices of reason, honest debate or any view which opposes the hydra orthodoxy. Thinking people know this of course, but Bari Weiss’ scathing confirmation in her July 14, 2020 resignation letter from the New York Times corroborates and vindicates this understanding. It’s a shame. When I used to live in Los Angeles in the 1970’s I couldn’t bear to read the L.A. Times because of its Leftward inbrededness . Rather, I’d obtain copies of and/or read the New York Times because I felt, at the time, it was more balanced and much less biased.

The New York Times, of course, has become what the L.A. Times always was: a completely biased, nay, militant mouthpiece for every Leftist crackpot idea extant. Nowadays, the term is “woke”. To quote Bari, up until yesterday the Opinion Editor of the Times,

“But the truth is that intellectual curiosity—let alone risk-taking—is now a liability at The Times. Why edit something challenging to our readers, or write something bold only to go through the numbing process of making it ideologically kosher, when we can assure ourselves of job security (and clicks) by publishing our 4000th op-ed arguing that Donald Trump is a unique danger to the country and the world? And so self-censorship has become the norm.

What rules that remain at The Times are applied with extreme selectivity. If a person’s ideology is in keeping with the new orthodoxy, they and their work remain unscrutinized. Everyone else lives in fear of the digital thunderdome. Online venom is excused so long as it is directed at the proper targets.”

And there you have it. It’s worth reading the entire letter which can be found here.

It takes courage to so openly and transparently swim against the Tsunami. I commend Ms. Weiss and hope her valiance will serve as an example for others oppressed by the Hydra and yearning to share what they know to be true in their hearts.

On Propaganda

Government, Headlines, Health Care, Media, Reason, Science

The other day an organization I’d never heard of before was brought to my attention. It is a Swiss-based think tank named Swiss Policy Research Institute (SPRI). It describes itself as “an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit research group investigating geopolitical propaganda in Swiss and international media”. They can be found at https://swprs.org, and I highly recommend a visit to their site and reading some or all of their essays.

Among their recent studies are several dedicated to the COVID pandemic. For several months now I’ve been calming friends and acquaintances with what I’d call common sense analysis of the numbers and proven facts about the disease. The bottom line has been that the Wuhan Virus is no worse than a bad flu. The only difference is that individuals with compromised health and/or immune systems are at greater risk to contracting it and their bodies’ response to COVID when coupled with their existing medical conditions can become overwhelmed and hasten their demise. SPRI has documented precisely the same conclusion. I reproduce here with due acknowledgment and credit, their most recent research. Links are to supporting data and corroboration.

  1. According to the latest immunological and serological studies, the overall lethality of Covid-19 (IFR) is about 0.1% and thus in the range of a strong seasonal influenza (flu).
  2. In countries like the US, the UK, and also Sweden (without a lockdown), overall mortality since the beginning of the year is in the range of a strong influenza season; in countries like Germany, Austria and Switzerland, overall mortality is in the range of a mild influenza season.
  3. Even in global “hotspots”, the risk of death for the general population of school and working age is typically in the range of a daily car ride to work. The risk was initially overestimated because many people with only mild or no symptoms were not taken into account.
  4. Up to 80% of all test-positive persons remain symptom-free. Even among 70-79 year olds, about 60% remain symptom-free. Over 95% of all persons develop at most moderate symptoms.
  5. Up to 60% of all persons may already have a certain cellular background immunity to Covid-19 due to contact with previous coronaviruses (i.e. common cold viruses). The initial assumption that there was no immunity against Covid-19 was not correct.
  6. The median age of the deceased in most countries (including Italy) is over 80 years (e.g. 86 years in Sweden) and only about 4% of the deceased had no serious preconditions. The age and risk profile of deaths thus essentially corresponds to normal mortality.
  7. In many countries, up to two thirds of all extra deaths occurred in nursing homes, which do not benefit from a general lockdown. Moreover, in many cases it is not clear whether these people really died from Covid19 or from weeks of extreme stress and isolation.
  8. Up to 30% of all additional deaths may have been caused not by Covid19, but by the effects of the lockdown, panic and fear. For example, the treatment of heart attacks and strokes decreased by up to 60% because many patients no longer dared to go to hospital.
  9. Even in so-called “Covid19 deaths” it is often not clear whether they died from or with coronavirus (i.e. from underlying diseases) or if they were counted as “presumed cases” and not tested at all. However, official figures usually do not reflect this distinction.
  10. Many media reports of young and healthy people dying from Covid19 turned out to be false: many of these young people either did not die from Covid19, they had already been seriously ill (e.g. from undiagnosed leukemia), or they were in fact 109 instead of 9 years old. The claimed increase in Kawasaki disease in children also turned out to be false.
  11. Strong increases in regional mortality can occur if there is a collapse in the care of the elderly and sick as a result of infection or panic, or if there are additional risk factors such as severe air pollution. Questionable regulations for dealing with the deceased sometimes led to additional bottlenecks in funeral or cremation services.
  12. In countries such as Italy and Spain, and to some extent the UK and the US, hospital overloads due to strong flu waves are not unusual. Moreover, this year up to 15% of health care workers were put into quarantine, even if they developed no symptoms.
  13. The often shown exponential curves of “corona cases” are misleading, as the number of tests also increased exponentially. In most countries, the ratio of positive tests to tests overall (i.e. the positive rate) remained constant at 5% to 25% or increased only slightly. In many countries, the peak of the spread was already reached well before the lockdown.
  14. Countries without curfews and contact bans, such as Japan, South Korea, Belarus or Sweden, have not experienced a more negative course of events than other countries. Sweden was even praised by the WHO and now benefits from higher immunity compared to lockdown countries.
  15. The fear of a shortage of ventilators was unjustified. According to lung specialists, the invasive ventilation (intubation) of Covid19 patients, which is partly done out of fear of spreading the virus, is in fact often counterproductive and damaging to the lungs.
  16. Contrary to original assumptions, various studies have shown that there is no evidence of the virus spreading through aerosols (i.e. tiny particles floating in the air) or through smear infections (e.g. on door handles or smartphones). The main modes of transmission are direct contact and droplets produced when coughing or sneezing.
  17. There is also no scientific evidence for the effectiveness of face masks in healthy or asymptomatic individuals. On the contrary, experts warn that such masks interfere with normal breathing and may become “germ carriers”. Leading doctors called them a “media hype” and “ridiculous”.
  18. Many clinics in Europe and the US remained strongly underutilized or almost empty during the Covid19 peak and in some cases had to send staff home. Millions of surgeries and therapies were cancelled, including many cancer screenings and organ transplants.
  19. Several media were caught trying to dramatize the situation in hospitals, sometimes even with manipulative images and videos. In general, the unprofessional reporting of many media maximized fear and panic in the population.
  20. The virus test kits used internationally are prone to errors and can produce false positive and false negative results. Moreover, the official virus test was not clinically validated due to time pressure and may sometimes react positive to other coronaviruses.
  21. Numerous internationally renowned experts in the fields of virology, immunology and epidemiology consider the measures taken to be counterproductive and recommend rapid natural immunization of the general population and protection of risk groups.
  22. At no time was there a medical reason for the closure of schools, as the risk of disease and transmission in children is extremely low. There is also no medical reason for small classes, masks or ‘social distancing’ rules in schools.
  23. The claim that only (severe) Covid-19 but not influenza may cause venous thrombosis and pulmonary (lung) embolism is not true, as it has been known for 50 years that severe influenza greatly increases the risk of thrombosis and embolism, too.
  24. Several medical experts described express coronavirus vaccines as unnecessary or even dangerous. Indeed, the vaccine against the so-called swine flu of 2009, for example, led to sometimes severe neurological damage and lawsuits in the millions. In the testing of new coronavirus vaccines, too, serious complications and failures have already occurred.
  25. A global influenza or corona pandemic can indeed extend over several seasons, but many studies of a “second wave” are based on very unrealistic assumptions, such as a constant risk of illness and death across all age groups.
  26. Several nurses, e.g. in New York City, described an oftentimes fatal medical mis­manage­ment of Covid patients due to questionable financial incentives or inappropriate medical protocols.
  27. The number of people suffering from unemployment, depressions and domestic violence as a result of the measures has reached historic record values. Several experts predict that the measures will claim far more lives than the virus itself. According to the UN 1.6 billion people around the world are at immediate risk of losing their livelihood.
  28. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden warned that the “corona crisis” will be used for the permanent expansion of global surveillance. Renowned virologist Pablo Goldschmidt spoke of a “global media terror” and “totalitarian measures”. Leading British virologist Professor John Oxford spoke of a “media epidemic”.
  29. More than 600 scientists have warned of an “unprecedented surveillance of society” through problematic apps for “contact tracing”. In some countries, such “contact tracing” is carried out directly by the secret service. In several parts of the world, the population is being monitored by drones and facing serious police overreach during lockdowns.
  30. A 2019 WHO study on public health measures against pandemic influenza found that from a medical perspective, “contact tracing” is “not recommended in any circumstances”. Nevertheless, contact tracing apps have already become partially mandatory in several countries.

I don’t agree with all of their conclusions, but I urge readers to read their work and judge for themselves whether the pandemic is evidence of an apocalypse as much of the media would have you believe (remember, “if it bleeds it leads”) or evidence of propaganda and mass delusion.

Stay well.

The Death of Quality

America, Economy, Morality, Reason, Society & Culture, Values

I used to be able to pick up the phone sitting on my desk and 99.9% of the time I’d get a dial tone and be able to call out. Today about three quarters of the time I use my cell phone the call either gets dropped, I can hear him but he can’t hear me (I feel like the guy in the commercial, “Can you hear me now???”), or I get one bar or no bars from the start.

Technology has delivered many conveniences to be sure. But personal attention is certainly not one of them. And reliability (a.k.a. quality) has been a casualty as well. So help me, if I here the words, “It’s software, what do you expect?” one more time I’m liable to scream “arrrrrggggghhhh!” right in the face of whomever uses those words with me!

What happened to craftsmanship? What happened to companies who’d boast about the quality of their products and due to real competition, didn’t charge a highway robber’s take for it?

Technology is what happened. Benefits gave way to features. Reliability gave way to creature comforts. Stuff that would last forever gave way to planned obsolescence. In short, an honest profit gave way to greed and Good Housekeeping seals of approval gave way to “5 Star Comments” on Amazon, honest or not!

I have a personal example. About 30 years ago I bought a Black and Decker Workmate portable workbench. It folds up nicely, flexibly adjusts, and is made of solid steel and wood, the screw mechanism that adjusts the vice having many threads. It still serves me as well today as the day I bought it.

Wandering around Home Depot the other day, I saw my Workmate’s 2020 version. It was, to put it succinctly, a piece of, well you know what, compared to mine and cost in today’s dollars, roughly twice as much.

Another example. Over 40 (yes 40) years ago I bought a fun kid’s sled made by a Norwegian company called a Sno-kart for my own children. It was made of steel tubing and high density polyethylene plastic with strongly welded joints. My grandchildren still gleefully use it today.

I checked, and the company still exists but their sleds now are made of cheap plastic throughout. I can’t imagine they’d survive my grandson’s first run down the hill!

Another thing that technology has caused is a decline in honesty. Doctors will tell you, “Everybody lies about their health.” That may be true, but the phenomenon was, until the last twenty years or so ago, largely restricted to the medical field. Today, it seems everybody lies about everything! I don’t just mean blatant, with a straight face bald-faced lying. I also mean lying by omission, lying by “creative misrepresentation”, or “lying for the greater good.”

In other words, there has been a serious decline in the quality of truthfulness, of probity, of ethics, of morals…one could even say a decline in the quality of reality!

Quality being almost completely dead, a renaissance is needed.

I have re-committed myself to giving 100% to everything I do, of restoring quality to my everyday tasks and professional endeavors. I have also re-committed myself to be not just truthful and honest, but to being forthright as well.

The other side of this coin is that I will continue to throw the yellow or red BS flags on the field whenever I see they’re warranted. I will refuse to abide or tolerate dishonesty of all kinds in my interactions with vendors, agents, advisors and most definitely with politicians!

I sincerely hope and pray I’ll be successful and may be able to influence others to join in the fight to restore quality to everything we have and do.

Below Average Government Policy

America, Government, Health Care, Reason, Society & Culture

Government policy is based on averages. But there is no such thing as average…it’s an arithmetic concept, not a practical one. Average is intended to describe “tendency”, not reality. When a small group of outliers skews an average in one direction the picture painted by the data can be highly misleading. Let’s say there’s a small town where the average household income is $50,000 per year. If Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett were to move into the town and average household income recalculated, the average wouldn’t be very representative would it?

Government policy is also based on categorizations. – putting groups into neat boxes. But this also distorts reality. For example, the government’s definition of a ‘small business”, causes a 5 employee hair salon to be lumped together with a 500 employee manufacturing firm and be subjected to the same lockdown order. Policies that are intended to make people safe or ensure economic survival in a factory aren’t going to adequately or correctly help the hair salon, yet that’s the way government regulations are applied and assistance is apportioned. Makes for poor policy with obvious results like protests and defiance!

Someone famously pointed out that two quarters of declining GDP may technically be a recession, but for the family breadwinner out of work it’s a depression! It doesn’t matter to the mid 50’s manager whose job was eliminated in a “right-sizing” at the company he or she works for that unemployment is at 3.5%!

Permit me to rephrase an old saying:

“Government can help some of the people some of the time. It can help a tiny few people all of the time. But it can’t help the “average” person most of the time.”

In short, government and politicians’ reliance on data, statistics, numbers and all their associated manipulations is a very messy way to devise policy.

This is why the less government the better. The less government regulation the better And conversely, the more self-reliance, the better. The more self-regulation, the better.

Let’s consider for a moment what would happen in the absence of government mandated Wuhan Virus lockdowns. Reasonable, responsible and self-reliant individuals would protect themselves, sneeze and cough into their handkerchiefs or tissues, protect their elderly relatives by staying away from them, and no doubt wear masks and wash their hands frequently knowing there was an airborne, highly contagious, nasty bug around. People getting sick would call in sick, (“I’ve got the flu and don’t want to infect everyone around me!”) and as soon as they got better, would go back to work.

If you asked an epidemiologist whether there IS such a thing as a common cold, they’d respond by citing a laundry list of rhinoviruses and bacteria that cause “cold-like symptoms.” I urge you to read the description of the Common Cold on the Mayo Clinic website, here. And there’s no cure for it!

Now we’re finding out there are a lot of people who have had the Wuhan Virus, were either asymptomatic or had only mild, temporary symptoms…just like the common cold.

This is not to suggest that the Wuhan Virus is no worse than the common cold, nor diminish the severity of this bug for those with compromised immune systems, underlying risk factors, other ailments like chronic respiratory disease, etc. Of course people with these conditions are more vulnerable, and of course we need to take extra precautions with them. And of course they need to take extra precautions themselves!

Had the government simply warned us of the severity of the threat as data was received instead of fueling the “if it bleeds it leads” media crowd, I can’d help but suspect we’d all have been better off.

And, on a personal level, I happen to fit into the category of the more vulnerable. Would I have taken extra precautions as I am now without government megalomania? Yes. Would I have run to get tested when not having any symptoms? No. Is there a chance I’d have gotten sick. Yup.

But there’s a chance I might contract a severe case of the flu, bronchitis and then septicemia that I’d have to fight too. Or have a stroke. Or get hit by a car walking across the street.  Or contract Ebola. Or be shot by a crazed sniper. Or be hit by a meteor. Or be struck by lightening (er…well, I HAVE been struck by lightening but that’s another story…) That there’s a chance to get sick or die or be killed in any of a hundred ways doesn’t automatically mean the likelihood is greater.

If instead of displaying a graph showing the rising deaths from the Virus, we saw one that simultaneously displayed other deaths, Wuhan Virus, as horrible as it is, wouldn’t appear so horrible! Here are CDC’s numbers for 2017. I’ve added Wuhan VIrus to show where it stacks up. Oh, and by the way, let’s not forget that of the deaths attributed to the Virus, many were caused by underlying heart, metastatic, or chronic respiratory ailments exacerbated, no doubt, by the Virus.

Number of deaths for leading causes of death in 2017:

  • Heart disease: 647,457
  • Cancer: 599,108
  • Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936
  • Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 160,201
  • Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 146,383
  • Alzheimer’s disease: 121,404
  • Diabetes: 83,564
  • Wuhan Virus: 80,000+
  • Influenza and Pneumonia: 55,672
  • Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis: 50,633
  • Intentional self-harm (suicide): 47,173

    Source: CDC

As I’ve also noted often, EVERYTHING is political. Thus, it’s in the interests of Leftist politicians to report as many virus-related deaths as possible so as to support their case that the Trump administration is incompetent. That’s why Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York suddenly, one day a couple of weeks ago, increased the total of virus-related deaths by several thousand. He simply declared that any death that could remotely be associated either directly with the Wuhan Virus, or even indirectly, be counted as a virus-related death. Why? For the obvious reason stated above.

So, talk about shooting ourselves in the foot! We’re crippling our economy, causing immense emotional distress, and in just about every way doing exactly what our political, economic and military adversaries want us to do!

Hooray, therefore, for the protestors storming state capitols demanding the lifting of lockdown restrictions. Hooray for Shelley Luther, who stood up to a condescending, megalomaniacal judge. Hooray for the increasing number of law enforcement officers defying orders to arrest otherwise law abiding people defying lockdown orders. Hooray for the front line health care and other workers who  are choosing to help their fellow human beings. Hooray for the military and law enforcement of our country who are at risk every minute of every day while seeking to keep us safe. And finally, hooray for the AVERAGE (.sic) Americans who have had enough of this constant drone of gloom and doom and, despite risk, want to responsibly, thoughtfully and carefully return to living!

Re-Entry

America, Health Care, Reason, Society & Culture, Technology

It took just a minute to turn the switch off. But in the Northeast Blackout of August 2003, it wasn’t a matter of flipping the switch back on…the electrical grid had to be brought back on gradually lest some nasty power spikes set the whole system on fire! The COVID-19 mess is similar.

The parallels end with how relatively straightforward restoring power was as compared with restarting an entire economy. The complications: pragmatic, sociological, psychological, political, even spiritual, are mind-boggling. It amounts perhaps to the most intricate optimization problem society has ever faced. Compounding the problem is a lack of good will…the Swamp is the battleground.

One could argue that were the government at all levels to just step out of the way, the ship would right itself. Commerce, ingenuity, inherent good judgment and common sense could very well generate answers to the myriad problems.

On the other hand, so reliant, even dependent have our citizens become on the government to tell us what to do, leaving the re-entry to the good will of society and the workings of the marketplace, especially now that the government like the Blob has inextricably inserted itself into the equation, could result in an s-show of monumental proportions!

What to do?

Think for ourselves. Play strategic “what if” games. Start with the worst possible set of circumstances – there’s a renewed outbreak, the hospitals are overwhelmed, the therapeutic drugs don’t work and there is civil unrest, i.e. roving gangs of looters and killers. What, if anything, could you do about such a scenario?

Then, think of the more realistic dire but potential circumstances: you lose your job, your savings will last only so long, you’re healthy but it doesn’t look like there’s going to be any kind of meaningful recovery for you and your family in the near future and you know anything the government gives you is peanuts compared to what you were making before and your obligations. What do you do then?

Or let’s imagine the other extreme. The crisis was overblown and with a face mask on you return to work by, say, mid May. The kids go back to school with an extension of the school year into late June or July. How will you handle THAT?

To one degree or another any or all of the above scenarios are possible right now! Hard to believe since Netflix and the Internet are still operating, and even though the news shows look like the beginning of the Brady Bunch, with each co-host in his or her own square and your closet is stuffed with toilet paper and paper towels, life while different and crazy, goes on for most of us.

In short, assume the government is not the solution but the problem. How do we inoculate ourselves from a cure that is, indeed potentially worse than the disease?

Unfortunately, the time for preparation is gone. We’re in it now and have to make do with what we have and the circumstances we face. Certainly I cannot tell you what to do. Neither can some bureaucrat. Nor can some talking head on TV. Assume there will be no black and white decisions. All future forks in the road will be shrouded in fog, and ambiguity will reign over every decision we face.

Each and every one of us must think for ourselves, critically, pragmatically and do what is right to the best of our abilities. And each of us will have to be sole arbiters of “what is right”.  

Take heart! As bad as things are, they will get better, and better, and better. We can do this! Think of what the Apollo 13 astronauts faced. Think of what the battered bastards of Bastogne faced at the Bulge in December 1944. Remember Winston Churchill’s words, “When you’re going through Hell, keep going!” And think of what we went through on 9-11.

We can beat this thing. Those of us who have survived will be stronger. Those who have perished will be taken care of in a Better Place. Those who have lost loved ones will be comforted, in time. Those of us who have been knocked down will get up and fight again, for our families, for our friends, for our neighbors, for our communities, for our country. We will rebuild. We will rejuvenate, and we will once again re-assert our position as the greatest nation the world has ever known.

May God bless us in this novel (.sic) endeavor.

Faith and the Easter Bunny

America, Morality, Politics, Reason, Religion, Science, Society & Culture, Uncategorized

Easter Sunday, 2020. The pews are empty. This is our first “video celebration” streamed through thousands of digital mechanisms across the world. Earlier in the week Passover seders were celebrated similarly. A juxtaposition of the technological and the divine.

How one marks the day depends on one’s belief or lack thereof. There are, in my opinion, as regards religion, three states: either we are atheists, believers or agnostics. And, I hasten to point out, we may be one or the other at different points in our lives.

Atheists, a.k.a. secularists, non-believers or those who worship things other than a deity, make up a significant and growing percentage of the world’s population. While there are countless “studies” marking this growth, one has only to look around at the opposite phenomenon, the decline in congregations, to acknowledge this trend.

Aside from the numbers, there are also countless “studies” that seek to explain why religion is on the wane. Could it be that the rapid advancement of technology has simply made us “full of ourselves”? What need have we of a God when we can summon knowledge, convenience and even virtual human interaction instantaneously and effortlessly from the electronic gadget in our hands? Millennials (Gen Y) and Gen Z seem to be the most secular and least religious of any generation. They are, of course, those who grew up with this technology and don’t even recall much of what I call the Analog World (a separate article forthcoming on that subject).

And who among the political divides in America are the atheists? Exactly whom you’d think: the Democrats. On August 24, 2019 the Democratic National Committee passed a resolution recognizing the “value” of religiously unaffiliated Americans and describing them as the “largest religious group in the Democratic party “. (https://secular.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/DNC-Resolution-on-the-Nonreligious-Demographic.pdf) And here’s some Pew Research Center data that corroborates that boast: (https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-family/atheist/party-affiliation/)

Forget about broad trends for a moment, however, and examine what this means for our families, our local communities and our Country. What happens to a people when they get too full of themselves?

You’ll recall when Moses descended from Mt. Sinai he found this exact circumstance. Not a good scene. The party animals had taken over, they no longer had any need for God, faith or religion and things didn’t turn out well. Isn’t it obvious we’re duplicating that scene at the base of Mt. Sinai right now? What does the future hold if we keep this up?

The battle we as a nation are fighting is a civil war. It is a battle for its soul. I’ve often referred to Bill O’ Reilly’s contention that the fight is between Traditionalists and Secular Progressives. Will we follow a course plotted by a rudderless ship piloted by secularist atheists, or by a people who, irrespective of their denomination, subscribe to traditional principles of right and wrong stemming from a belief in God that have survived the vicissitudes of mankind since the Garden of Eden?

As regards my own views on God and religion. As I begin to think more and more about the subject I’ve yet to codify my beliefs. But here are some thoughts.

Thomas Aquinas tried to “prove” the existence of God in his book Summa Theologica. I’m reasonably well read and educated and no matter how hard I tried, I found it incomprehensible and far more confusing and doubt-provoking than enlightening. The proof can’t be conjured up from within ourselves or “proven” in some way. Whether or not to believe in God has to be an individual determination. Anything else but a personal conviction withers under fire or rusts with disuse. Thus, in thinking and talking to others about God I have often asked others the question: “Who is the only person in the universe who can prove to you whether God exists?” Frequently, the reply has been, “Me.””No,” I submit, “the only person in the universe who can prove to you whether God exists, is God.” Again, it is for each of us to come to our own conclusion.

As humans who reside on an earth that turns, causing sunrise and sunset; as fragile beings who are born and who eventually die, we think in terms of beginnings and endings. Thus, evidence of an expanding universe leads us to conclude that there was a Big Bang that started it all. But that begs the question, “What was there before the Big Bang?”

My suggestion is that if we eliminate the construct of beginnings and endings and assume that there never was either a beginning or end to the universe…that the universe is, in fact, infinite; that it has always existed and will always exist, it becomes a little more logical to think of man’s life as a very very small segment of time within that continuum stretching endlessly (literally, not figuratively) in all directions. It also makes it easier for me to comprehend that there is a being, God, who exists within this infinite continuum and, though I may not comprehend how, also has always existed and will always exist. Similarly, this Easter morning, I can accept that a man name Jesus died and three days later rose from the dead by means that I cannot understand, but which are based on principles and truths that are immutable and exist whether or not either I or anyone else believes them or not. And if the Atonement and Resurrection, and more importantly the purposes and reasons for them made it possible for me to wake up somehow after I die and transform into something else – a different life as wonderful or even better than this one has been, I’m thrilled it occurred.

This morning, thousands of children will go on Easter Egg Hunts. Many will receive gifts from the Easter Bunny. How many will have even an inkling of what Easter Sunday is all about? It has become another so-called Hallmark Holiday for many.

As for me, I pause this morning to reflect on my choice to believe in God. I will seek to do right rather than wrong. I believe in good and evil and hope to embrace the Good and eschew Evil. I believe there are many truths and eternal principles we have not yet uncovered and learned…things that logically explain what we presently see as miracles and the unexplainable. And I choose not to forget that Someone guiding us and worthy of our worship exists and through some truly extraordinary technology, is able to know and communicate and guide each and every one of us.

Happy Easter!

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