Interesting News 2/13/2022

Democrats in New York are trying to gerrymander the GOP out of the NY contingent in the US House of Representatives.  I'm sure this sort of gerrymandering is fine with our leftist friends.  It certainly isn't being reported by their allies in the news.

OK.  This isn't new.  But it is still relevant to the current political conflicts raging throughout the west.  University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds wrote an essay on the current class war.  It isn't poor workers vs. rich capitalists.  It is working-class vs. ruling class.  The ruling class, the people we employ to run the government, expect our  unquestioning compliance to their petty dictates.  The working class expects their unquestioning compliance with our rules as indicated in the Constitution.

It looks like Enis Kantor Freedom is about to get bounced from the NBA.  He was recently part of a trade deal that left him with the Houston Rockets.  They fired him.  Mr. Freedom has been a powerful voice against authoritarian governments such as the one in his home nation of Turkey as well as the Chinese Communist Party with their pogram against the Uighurs.  He appears to have a few good NBA-level playing years in him.  It would be a pity if the CCP was able to influence the hiring decisions made by the American NBA.  At least one assumes that the N in NBA stands for "National" and that the nation in question is the USA.

Michele Tafoya is leaving her position with NBC Sports.  She has been a feature on the football sideline for decades.  I was surprised to learn that she is leaving sports broadcasting for political projects.  Turns out that she is a libertarian-leaning Conservative; which is how your humble interlocutor describes himself from time to time.  We wish her good fortune in the coming years.

 Saw this elsewhere.  Covers the issue well enough.

The intolerance on the part of those supporting vax and mask mandates is astounding.  Wrecking careers.  Destroying businesses.  All in pursuit of one end -  You Will Comply.

A retiring Marine Corps Lieutenant General, Gregory Newbold, has some thoughts to share about Critical Military Theory; a doctrine that has fallen out of favor with our civilian and military leadership.

People have been having a time tearing into Canadian PM Justin Trudeau over his invocation of emergency powers.  I found video of a Conservative Party MP pointing out the change in Mr. Trudeau's position about trusting the people to be interesting as there are a couple of people in the background who appear to be some flavor of POC.  They stand and applaud enthusiastically when MP Melissa Lantsman is done asking her question of Mr. Trudeau.  One may be a Sikh.  I'm not sure.  Ever the classy leader, Mr. Trudeau immediately "re-frames" the situation as the Conservative Party is standing with those that wave the swastika.  One small issue.  Apparently MP Lantsman is Jewish.  Hard to see her siding with Nazis on anything.  Perhaps Mr. Trudeau's rampant insulting of his countrymen and women is a diversion from his government's oppressive policies?  That seems to be the bulk of the political playbook from the left these days.

Interesting News 2/6/2022

Some of these items may be a bit older, but I think they are worthy of some consideration.

A young American is labeled as a white supremacist (and most of the other foul names that get blithely tossed about these days) for daring to support conservative individuals and organizations on her college campus.  They try to make her bend the knee to their collective.  She refuses.  She wins.  Also, Olivia Gallegos happens to be Hispanic.

Former head of the ACLU, Ira Glass, is quite critical of the ACLU's abandonment of their historic mission of supporting civil liberties for every American.  Mr. Glass understood that when the ACLU stops defending speech based on the content of that speech, then the government gets to decide who gets to speak.

A local CPS agency decided that a single mother shouldn't be able to have her 14-year old daughter watch the rest of her kids.  The 14-year old seems reasonably competent.  The mother as well, yet she ended up in handcuffs in front of her kids.  Our government clearly does not want to remain limited in size and scope.

We are regularly informed by the media that climate change is the proximate cause of a great many natural disasters.  It turns out that while climate change might be a partial factor, our land-use policies are a much more significant factor.

Others have been having a lot of fun criticizing the Biden Administration's proposal to foster racial equity with a bill that includes funding for free crack pipes.  This isn't a harm mitigation proposal such as done with needle exchange programs.  This is facilitating harm by giving out the equipment needed to allow the harmful behavior.  The supposed "fact check" sites responded by saying the story is "mostly false" because the bill included spending for things beyond crack pipes.  While that is true, the point...the irrefutable fact...is that the government was planning on handing out crack pipes!  Notice how that sort of "nuance" and "context" from "fact-checking" sites is never present when they are criticizing Republican initiatives?

The Luddites of the environmental movement like to claim that plastic waste accumulating in the oceans is largely the fault of the United States.  Nope.  China, India, and the Philippines are the three most significant sources.

The CDC recently promoted a graphic suggesting that masks were effective against Covid.  When one reads the actual report behind the graphic...you know - the science...you learn that the data does not justify the information in the graphic.  I won't hold my breath waiting for the media to confront the CDC for their disinformation campaign.  I'm sure that none of the CDC's social media accounts will be held to account for that disinformation as well.

I recently came across this image of the moon passing between the earth and the sun that was recorded by a satellite located on the far side of the moon.

Pretty neat, huh?

Researchers have come up with a plastic sheet that is stronger than steel.  Up until recently, we were only able to make plastics in long linear chains.  The chains coil up around each other to form solids.  But effectively, we are talking about linear strings of various plastic formulations.  These researchers found a way to get the plastic molecules to form in a two-dimensional sheet rather than in the traditional linear string.  They still have to find a way to get it out of the lab and into a factory, but that is just a matter of time.

Interesting News 1/24/2022

Being ghoulish now being the norm, I will rush to point out that we were assured by our "betters" that mass shootings don't occur in Europe because they have restrictive gun laws over there.  Our "betters" aren't really better. 

Do you know what killed mass transit?  It is the incontrovertible fact that personal vehicles provide a better experience for car/truck owners while mass transit fails to provide a convenient, safe, and reliable form of transportation.  "Fetch" isn't going to happen.  Neither is a return to trains in lieu of automobiles and airplanes.

It seems that some prominent government scientists doubted that the Wuhan/Covid-19 virus evolved naturally.  And they were told to keep their questions to themselves.  Which, being paid by the government, they promptly did.  Given the scale of differences between the naturally occurring bat virus and Covid-10, the odds are quite good that human intervention was involved.  Given that agents of the US government, including Saint Fauci's organization, were soliciting government funds to perform gain of function research on this type of virus, in China, ... well the odds just get better and better.

Interesting News 1/17/2022

Context is important.  If you have been hearing about 2021 being tied for the sixth warmest year on record, then you might think that this is part of an ongoing upwards trend in temperatures.  If you go back far enough, then some sort of argument could be made for that assertion.  If you just look at the last ten years, then it's hard to see a continuing upward trend.  Climate alarmists habitually claim that temperatures are in a terminal upward trend.  They are habitually wrong.  They are also unlikely to reassess the science behind their assertions.

A little late on this one.  Early in the pandemic, a scientist developed a reasonably accurate Covid test.  The US federal government stood in the way of the company looking to deploy this test.  They provided no clear direction on the company could correct any perceived deficiencies in their application.  The performance record of federal decision-making is underwhelming.  I'm being polite.

In 2020, the Wisconsin Elections Commission issued guidance to local elections clerks that permitted the use of a wide range of ballot drop boxes.  One problem.  The laws governing Wisconsin elections only permit two methods for submitting absentee ballots; via mail and in-person.  Did this influence the outcome of the election in Wisconsin?  It's hard to say.  However, last-minute attempts to change the rules for conducting elections do undermine confidence in the elections process.

One issue that makes it hard to accept "the science" is when "scientists" alter the historical temperature record.  Seemingly, such alterations make early years colder and/or later years warmer.  Scare quotes applied as appropriate.  Real science involves revising computer models to fit the data rather than fitting the data to the computer models.

Here is an interesting tidbit for those following the news out of Canada.  Last year, a researcher announced that they have found a mass grave near the site of a former Kamloops Indian Residential School.  The residential school system is a well-known source of harm to the First Nations people of Canada.  In the wake of the announcement, 68 Canadian churches were subjected to arson.  Here is the tidbit, not one single human body has actually been identified to date.  The investigation should continue as they might find bodies, but they also might find tree roots that look quite similar to human bodies in LIDAR returns.  And there was an apple orchard nearby.

They know they are being racist.  You know they are being racist.  Yet I predict that no one of any consequence will call them out on their racism.

#china #Olympics
Black athletes are greeted in China by a crowd using the "N" word

Enjoy your Martin Luther King day... pic.twitter.com/v8B91eJ5Ki

— Charles R. Smith🔹 (@softwarnet) January 17, 2022

We now have a video of elections officials that suggests that the elections laws of Pennsylvania were broken in the 2020 election.  Were those violations of the law sufficient to change the outcome?  Who knows.  No one is interested in answering that question.

I'm pretty much on the record of supporting protections for women's ability to compete in athletics on a fair basis.  Permitting biological men to compete against women, even after taking testosterone blockers, would compromise women's athletics.  Even Caitlyn Jenner agrees.

I am more than a bit tired of Democrat complaints about the legitimacy of elections.  They have spent most of the last 20 years alleging that the elections that they lose are illegitimate.  Pretty much, they expect to play a "heads we win, tails you lose" game without any complaints.  Nope.

Interesting News - 1/10/2021

Hookay...so I haven't done one of these in a while.  Here we go.

Apparently, California is going to levy the highest tax in the nation on solar power generated by homeowners and other small entities.  This is just another example of why climate change isn't as much of an issue as some suggest.  Solar power in California, unlike in other states, is cheap and reasonably reliable.  And the state government is making it more expensive to install and operate your own system to "save the planet".

Leftists have a continuing case of the vapors over the 1/6/2021 riot at the Capitol building in Washington D.C.  Yet they very little about the many other instances where federal facilities were assaulted by rioters.  Oh...that's right...those were Chekas doing the assaulting.  Leftists never criticize anyone to their left.

While we are talking about rampaging American Chekas, let us recall the disparate treatment being given to rioters by prosecutors.  American Chekas are rarely punished, any punishments are light, and they are tried in a prompt manner as befits their rights as American citizens.  Most of the right-wing 1/6 rioters, also American citizens, are still sitting in jail awaiting trial one year after their event and those that pled guilty were given quite stiff sentences.  Equality before the law matters if one is intent on preserving our great Republic.  Leftist prosecutors apparently aren't interested in that objective.

James O'Keefe's Project Veritas has another bombshell.  It turns out that the proposal to fund gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was first submitted to DARPA.  DARPA is the research wing of America's military agencies.  DARPA noped right out of that proposal and pointed out the many flaws.  Those flaws have been eerily appropriate since January of 2020.  The project proposal was then submitted to the NAIAD.  It was approved.  Our esteemed Dr. Fauci is/was the head of the NAIAD at the time.

Courtesy of our outstanding private pharmaceutical companies, we have a couple of new anti-virals that are effective in limiting the impact of Covid.  True to form, the federal government is micromanaging doctors by placing questionable restrictions on when these effective treatments may be prescribed.  It's like Covid isn't a threat or something.

The hits keep on coming.  Even the EU isn't serious about CO2 emissions.  They appear poised to exempt CO2 emissions from private planes and yachts.  I'll take the issue far more seriously when the rich and powerful are being inconvenienced more than the common person.

Interesting News - 11/21/2021

A pro-CRT parent recently threatened to bring over 1,000 armed soldiers to act against a school board and fellow parents during a recent school board meeting.  Does anyone want to bet about how quickly Attorney General Merrick Garland will tell the Justice Department to investigate?

As I have pointed out Hunter Biden's use/abuse of his family connections in the past, it is only fair to point out that Neil Bush is doing the same thing to play footsie with a Chinese company that is on an official US government list of banned companies.  If these are our elites, we need a better group of elites.

I take NYTimes writer Paul Krugman's pronouncements with a huge grain of salt.  He has a bad habit of selecting facts to fit his dogma rather than the other way around.  Case in point.

Rent control is a losing proposition.  It hurts the poor more than everyone else each and every time it is tried.  St. Paul, MN is just the latest example.

Capping the SALT tax deduction was one of those actions from the President Trump era that I supported 100%.  I can't imagine a better choice.  Allowing for the dedication of SALT taxes ends up making lower-income areas subsidize higher-income areas.  Yet the Democrats want to repeal it and give a tax cut to the super-rich.  It's pretty bad when even the Washington Post has figured that out.

Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all charges.  Turns out that self-defense is still possible in Kenosha, WI.  However, MSNBC's first story on the trial verdict was to run down all of the theoretically possible ways that the federal government could charge Rittenhouse with other felonies.  They eventually conclude that there isn't any other way to get at Mr. Rittenhouse.  They could have saved themselves the trouble and just covered the story straight.  Nope.  Instead, they keep introducing theories and fantasies that are unrelated to reality.

A news reporter who is close friends with Democrat politicians writes a story about how the Democrats are seeing a disconnect with rural voters.  In other news, water is wet.  Maybe going all-in on identitarian politics wasn't the best approach?

Interesting News - 11/7/2021

There is no such thing as choice without a downside.  People consider solar energy to have no negatives.  That isn't quite true.  To generate enough power for the US, you would need to cover most of a large, southwestern state.  And even in those desert areas, there is still enough ecology that large solar farms will have a negative impact.

But technology is still a good thing.  Consider how they are now using lasers to kill weeds instead of using herbicides.  The 21st century is a marvelous place where free minds can enter the free market with better ideas that improve everyone's lives.

It seems that the American approach to cutting CO₂ emissions works better than anything being proposed by various climate activists.  I'm sure they will be acknowledging our progress presently.

This is the kind of thing that drives normal people nuts.  For those of a certain age, the phrase "Jane you ignorant slut" has a certain context/meaning that supersedes the language being used.  For the uninitiated, check out some early seasons of Saturday Night Live.  You know...when it was still funny.  Here is the story of when one of our humorless technological "betters" responds to obvious humor.

Earlier this year, the USS Bonhomme Richard was in port for major repairs.  A small fire turned into a large fire.  The US Navy was unable to fight the fire and now the ship will be scrapped.  This after-action report is just sad.  I shudder to think of how our sailors are prepared (or unprepared) to fight an onboard fire.

I'm not a fan of the "let's go Brandon" chant.  I also wasn't a fan of Robert DeNiro's act of incivility towards Mr. Trump - or those that emulated him.  Rich Lowry's reminder of the past is worthwhile for anyone that wants to push the nation back towards a more civil practice of politics.

When “tax the rich” really means “let’s write catchy slogans on dresses but actually give the rich a $36,000 tax cut.”

Yes, this is what Democrats want to put in the reconciliation bill. No, this is not a joke.

Price hikes for you, tax cuts for rich New Yorkers. pic.twitter.com/bgGXLL4XWK

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) November 4, 2021

While I have areas of disagreement with Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I wouldn't follow her into a restroom to continue to harass her into accepting my position.  Nor would I disrupt someone's wedding to do the same thing.  These protesters either lack shame or maturity.  In either case, their perspective should be discounted accordingly.

I've long hoped that the Democrat party would seek to limit the influence of the progressive/socialist wing.  I hope this is a sign of progress on that front.  New York City's newly elected mayor certainly seems more committed to a functioning government that wants to reduce crime and allow businesses to operate effectively.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz laid into Attorney General Merrick Garland over he sicced federal agents on parents exercising their First Amendment rights to protest at school board meetings.  Professor Glenn Reynolds follows up with a piece that says it all.  Thank goodness that Merrick Garland isn't on the Supreme Court.  He is unfit to serve as either a Justice of the Supreme Court or, quite frankly, as Attorney General of the United States.

Lampreys with teeth.

Click to embiggen.

Nope-nope-nopity-nope-nope-nope

In case you missed last week's most idiotic political stunt, the grifters of the Lincoln Project paid Democrat operatives with tiki torches to stand near Glenn Youngkin's bus and pretend to be racists that supported him.  The first detail that the MSM missed is that one of these "racists" was a black guy holding a tiki torch.  Unless the Klan has established some sort of new affirmative action program, it was pretty clear to most normal people that this was a false flag operation.

Most people now know that the news reporting about the content of Hunter Biden's laptop was factual and relevant.  The media's suppression of that information influenced the outcome of the 2016 election.

Periodically, I say something pretty radical.  Today, my radical statement is that people should not be pressed to have sex with people that do not "do it" for them.  Part of that "do it" factor is the genitalia that one will encounter in that prospective...ummm...encounter.  If one is fumbling beneath the sheets expecting to find sausage, one should find that sausage.  Alternatively, if one is fishing for clams, then a clam is what one should find.  Yet there are some that aren't sympathetic with that perspective and are bullying clam fishers to accept sausage as a suitable substitute.  As is frequently the case, women are the first and biggest losers.

The space continues apace.  As it has been with all other technology, the leap from government-centered projects to private enterprise will mark the single most important shift in space exploration and space colonization.  Elon Musk is serving the interests of future generations of humanity.

It seems that we have some new anti-viral meds that will be useful in the fight against Covid.  The more viable tools in our medical toolbox, the better.

Thread.

This is Ryan Ferguson. When he was 17 years old, a man in his Missouri home town was murdered. pic.twitter.com/f3eendf1WN

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) November 6, 2021

With a podcast version of the story for those that like audio.  Why that former prosecutor is not in jail (instead of sitting on the bench as a judge) is beyond me.

News for some - The USSR really was an evil empire.

Interesting News 10-24-2021

Many people will recall the years when we were lectured about how it is important to keep religion out of politics while Mr. Trump was being supported by some Christians.  It was suggested that the IRS ought to review the non-profit status of any churches making political statements.

Our Vice President, Kamala Harris, recently recorded a political message to be rebroadcast in 300 churches in Virginia.  Predictably, we get crickets from the same people that were previously concerned about mixing religion and politics.

I rarely agree with former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg when it comes to the law.  I have found myself in agreement with her several times when she was speaking outside of her role as a Justice.

Katie Couric recently acknowledged censoring Justice Ginsburg for the Justice's own good in Ms. Couric's recent memoir.  As it stands, I largely agree with Justice Ginsburg's comments on the topic of people kneeling at sporting events.

Ginsburg went on to say that such protests show a 'contempt for a government that has made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life.' She said: 'Which they probably could not have lived in the places they came from ... as they became older they realize that this was youthful folly. And that's why education is important.'

...

'Would I arrest them for doing it? No,' she told Couric. 'I think it's dumb and disrespectful. I would have the same answer if you asked me about flag burning.' She added: 'I think it's a terrible thing to do, but I wouldn't lock a person up for doing it. I would point out how ridiculous it seems to me to do such an act.'

When Couric pushed further, asking if she believes athletes are 'within their rights to exercise those actions,' Ginsburg replied: 'Yes. If they want to be stupid, there's no law that should be preventive.'

'If they want to be arrogant, there's no law that prevents them from that. What I would do is strongly take issue with the point of view that they are expressing when they do that,' she added.

Indeed.

Good news for those interested in effective technologies that reduce carbon emissions.  Nuclear power is the only productive path forward, in my opinion.  These microreactors will allow smaller communities to maintain the productivity caused by cheap power.  Faster, please!

Reason number 494,623 to not trust the American mainstream media.  Dude shows up to say "I like Dave Chappelle".  He does not use foul language.  He does not physically abuse anyone.  People protesting Netflix do use foul language towards him and physically assault someone that was with him.  The MSM makes it sound like the dude was the problem.  He wasn't.  But clearly the MSM still is.

According to this report, Target is set to close a major Target store in downtown San Francisco due to losses associated with shoplifting.  I saw a later story where Target said the location was not closing.  That doesn't change the massive shoplifting that is being created by the policies of the San Francisco mayor and prosecutor.  The abuse being heaped upon those Target employees and the city police is unconscionable.

Interesting News 10/10/2021

This week's Interesting News includes things that are new and things that I just came across.

For example, the Missouri department that manages foster children has managed to lose over 900 kids.  Their absence was not reported to the federal government as mandated by law.  They have even discovered that dozens of these children were found by child traffickers who were exploiting them for prostitution purposes.  The GOP holds all of the important cards in the Missouri state government, yet the official responsible for this tragedy is still on the state's payroll.  

While not really a surprise, I did unearth this article about how armed citizens fare when it comes to limiting or preventing active shooter events.  94% isn't a bad batting average.

Big tech's lack of interest in promoting free speech and diverse viewpoints should be abundantly clear at this point.

• The band Five for Fighting had a song about our retreat from Afghanistan censored by Facebook.
• Google banned all ads from the pro-life group Live Action.

The many problems with the media and the government investigation of the Trump/Russia hoax were made manifest once again.  A lower-level figure involved with misleading the federal government was indicted.  The NY Times lede was dismayingly inaccurate.  About the only encouraging point is that the investigation will continue.  Putting some senior-level FBI agents in jail for malfeasance would be nice.  Seeing Hillary one cell over would be better.

Interesting News - 9/13/2021 - 9/19/2021

So those of us with reasonable concerns about the integrity of our elections keep being told that our concerns are not reasonable.  The experiences of California voters are not very supportive of that perspective.

Ben Stein's YouTube channel has been suspended and they have declined to broadcast the most recent episode.  Why?  He and his guests discussed Covid-19 and the various vaccines.  They indicated that they had received the vaccines and would be getting the boosters once they are approved.  So why punish Ben?  Because they actually discussed the positives and negatives of the vaccines.  No deviation from the established narrative is allowed, apparently.

Interesting News 8/30/2021 - 9/5/2021

The courts just rolled back a Trump administration rules governing American wetlands.  The Biden administration is now looking at creating new rules in the wake of this decision.  The Trump administration rules unmade Obama administration rules colloquially known as Waters Of The US or WOTUS.  WOTUS took every damp patch of earth with a tenuous connection to an interstate waterway and forced property owners to abide by EPA regulations.  The relevant law was passed in 1986.  None of the "rules" discussed above were ever passed by Congress and signed into law by a President.  Maybe we should return to Congress passing laws and the administration enforcing them?  Just a thought.

Interesting News 8/26/2021

 Yes, I'm still interested in these weekly collections of interesting items.  Yes, I went a few weeks without publishing one.  And yet you are back for more!

Brad Torgersen has a great essay regarding Covid, vaccines, mandates, masks, etc.  I generally agree.  The technology behind the vaccines is sound.  Almost everyone should get one.  A bit of commonsense about masks, handwashing, etc. will go a long way.  The folks pushing mandates are really very scary.  It's almost as if they've been waiting for an excuse to send rough men to hold people down and do "things" to them.

They found 300 recall election ballots in the car of a thug.  But sure...the election system is safe and sound.  One is foolish to wonder about election security breaches associated with using a mail-in system.

This is old news, but so is the theory of gravity and the knowledge that water is wet.  Children do far better living in a home with both their mom and dad present.  Single-parent households are a self-reinforcing spiral into poverty.  Solutions aren't easy, but you will never find a solution if you are not first willing to accurately identify the problem.

In another victory for Trump administration policies, the NY Times has an extensive piece on the billing/pricing of medical procedures and how providers and insurers are colluding to make pricing models as opaque as possible to improve their respective profits.  Red State has the news with links to the NY Times.

A final item comes in a National Review piece about a recent US Supreme Court decision that confirms Joe Biden's prediction that the court would strike down the CDC's moratorium on the eviction of renters.  At the center of the piece is the observation that the leftist faction of the court wants the administrative branch to pretty much be able to do whatever it wants with the thinnest of legislative justifications.  I would add that the American left wants the entire government to be able to do whatever it wants without any Constitutional justification.

Interesting News - 6/28/2021

Robocalls by scammers probably will never end.  But we can hope that they will be reduced for a bit at the end of June 2021.  At that point, all telecommunications providers will be required to utilize Stir/Shaken technology to confirm the identity of callers.  The scammers will undoubtedly find another vector, but a respite from scam callers would be most welcome.

The news of Donald Rumsfeld's death will be old-ish by the time this posts.  My initial reaction was that we will see some pretty ghoulish behavior from some of the more prominent leftist folks in the wake of his death.  Maybe I'll get lucky and be completely wrong on that count.  I'd like to be wrong.  But history is on my side.

Interesting News - 6/21/2021

If my opinion isn't persuasive, then please listen to these American parents talk about how the methods being used to present CRT in their local schools are racist.  There are elements of CRT that are useful.  We certainly need to teach a broader review of American history.  There are other elements that are, without question, racist.

As I already knew, the key to addressing the California wildfires is forest management.  California has denied foresters the authority and funding to do their job properly.  Californians have paid the price for their government's malfeasance.  Hopefully, this policy change for the better is the start of a trend.

The new Miss Michigan is Vivian Zhong - currently a medical student studying pediatric cancers.  Congratulations Vivian!

The IRS has denied non-profit status to a Christian educational organization on the basis that biblical teachings are exclusively Republican.  I'm OK with that decision as long as they use the same rationale for de-certifying left-wing groups such as Move On who exist to educate voters in a manner that exclusively supports Democrats.

FTR, I'm sorry to hear that the Bidens lost Champ.  Also FTR, I've not seen anyone in my media stream mocking the Bidens over their loss.  That won't stop leftists from claiming otherwise.

David Chipman is Mr. Biden's nominee to head the ATF.  He said he wants to ban "assault weapons".  But he cannot define with any degree of specificity what constitutes an "assault weapon".  Unsurprisingly.  If it can't be defined, then it can be enforced on a whim.  George Orwell has had a few words to say about government based on the whims of a few.

Requiring positive identification for voters to be eligible to vote is popular among Americans across the board.  All races.  All party affiliations.  All income levels.  Based on Byron York's breakdown of the polling results, the people that are most opposed to requiring voter ID are white, rich, college-educated Democrats.  Not terribly surprising as they seem to have the least in common with average Americans.

The same building.  The same sort of activity.  Two very different outcomes.  Justice is certainly not blind in Washington D.C.  Protesters that stormed the Senate chambers in the Capitol building over Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court were given the option of being arrested.  Those protesters that stormed the same building on January 6, 2021 were not.  I have issues with the motivations of both groups, but that isn't the point.  The point is that the government is apparently electing to enforce laws based on whether the viewpoint of the perpetrators is pleasing or offensive to the government agents doing the enforcement.  Selective enforcement of our laws undermines our system of justice and threatens the basis of our great republic.

An American Senator is a member of a racist club.  He will not be called to account for that membership.  He is a Democrat.  The Democrats routinely get a pass from our leftist-dominated media on their bigotry.

More good news from the world of medicine.  Another treatment for AIDS is on the horizon.  As the blogfather says "faster, please!"

A final item about Joe Bolanos.  He attended Mr. Trump's rally on January 6th, but left the ellipse for a hotel rather than walking to the Capitol Building.  He was not there when the protesters broke into the Capitol.  He never entered the building.  Yet his home was raided, he was taken into custody in front of news cameras, and his property seized in the raid has yet to be returned.  I you ever wonder why folks are skeptical of the FBI and DoJ, here is a prime example that justifies that skepticism.

Interesting News - 6/14/2021

I am not against the idea that black lives matter

I am not against opposing fascism

I am not against teaching true history in schools

I am not against a holiday celebrating the end of slavery

I AM against people using these things as a Trojan horse to push radical ideology

— Leonydus Johnson (leave/me/alone) (@LeonydusJohnson) June 18, 2021

The bottom line for me is that the crowd would not have been in DC on January 6th were it not for the lies about the vote and lies about then-Vice President Pence's ability to alter the counting of the electoral votes.  The larger...and one might correctly point out mostly peaceful...crowd provided cover for those elements that wanted to engage in violence in an attempt to stop the just process of counting the electoral votes.  If President Trump and his allies had been telling the truth, then the crowd of protesters would have been much smaller and would not have been able to provide that sort of cover for those bent on mayhem.  That being said, I do think it is useful to understand how they got into the Capitol building.  I think it was largely incompetence on the part of Capitol hill police, but who knows.

This sort of thing drives me a bit nuts.  If we were talking about one of Donald Trump's progeny, the left and the media...but I repeat myself...would be consumed in near apoplectic rage declaiming the entire enterprise as thinly veiled corruption.  But it is Joe Biden's son, so our media "betters" cannot be bothered.

The latest in the saga of the real Lady A; vocalist Anita White.  The woke crowd continues their pattern of using their position of privilege to abuse minorities in the cause of appearing moral.

The Babylon Bee has won against The New York Times.  Great news for those in favor of free speech and fact.

Is the tide turning against Cancel Culture?  Probably not...yet.  But I trust that people like Kevin Hart and Charles Barkley will help lead the way out of that wilderness.

According to climate change theory, an increase in global temperatures should cause an increase in extreme weather. May is the month with the most tornados.  Yet not only was May 2021 pretty quiet, but almost all of the low tornado months on record have also come in the last 20 years.  Maybe...follow me on this...the dominant theories are subject to a significant level of uncertainty that should cause us to be reasonably cautious about accepting the climate models used to express those theories.

Continuing with the climate change trend, one theory is that humanity is the driving factor in the increasing level of CO2 in the atmosphere.  The Wuhan/Covid pandemic of 2020 caused a significant reduction in global travel as well as local travel.  Yet the trend of increasing CO2 in the atmosphere has not altered one iota.  Maybe human activities aren't quite as influential as some folks suggest.

Recently, the socialist news agency Propublica presented a report on the taxes paid by a couple of the wealthiest Americans.  They attempted to calculate an effective tax rate.  Unsurprisingly, they utterly failed.  The tax rate is based on one's income, not on one's total wealth.

Here are (one - two) a couple of good articles on race and racial issues in America from Quillette.  Read the whole thing.

An attorney with the ACLU claims that liberals are leaving First Amendment free speech behind.  I disagree with his assessment that these are liberals.  Being a liberal requires being open-minded and tolerant.  The people the attorney is referencing are either leftists or potential future American Chekas.  They neither understand nor desire to be open-minded or tolerant of anything that disagrees with their theology ideology.

One last item for the week is a look back at how the feds were interested in Hunter Biden's fiscal issues back in 2016.  Hunter neglected to pay his taxes - I mean a LOT of unpaid taxes.  Something that would invite the full-court press from the IRS if it were a normal citizen.  But Hunter has connections.  Naturally, the left and the media...but I repeat myself...are disinterested in this wealthy American that can't be bothered to pay his fair share.  Nor are they interested in the appearance of impropriety surrounding his finances.

Interesting News - 6/7/2021

 Another weekly roundup.  Enjoy!

Funny how things worked out; A Dry Bones comic.  Not haha funny.  The other funny.

Interesting News 5/31/2021

The continuing hatred for Tim Tebow mystifies me as well.  He has done nothing to deserve it.

Requiring positive identification isn't a controversial process in Europe.  It should not be controversial in the United States either.

Democrat Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton may not have gotten the memo from the DNC.  But gender is not supposed to matter according to some.  Common sense and human history suggest that it does.

Old but still relevant.  Evergreen, one might say.  Why the Hammer and Sickle Should Be Treated Like the Swastika

Early on, people labeled concerns about the Covid/Wuhan virus originating from a laboratory located in China as xenophobic and fundamentally flawed.  Their allegations of xenophobia were wrong when they were made.  We may never have 100% proof of it coming from a lab thanks to the secretive CCP government.  But we should never have allowed the media and their leftist political allies to prevent the reasoned discussion of the lab origin theory.  It's looking more and more like there was some sort of lab accident and the American people were partially funding certain activities at the lab.

An interesting profile of Sen. Tim Scott (R)-SC.  I'm not sure if he will run for the Presidency, but I think he would make a good one.  Scott-Sasse 2024?  Or the other way around.  Either option works for me.

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Interesting News - 5/24/2021

This is the second installment of our Interesting News series.  Enjoy!

Sinfest 5/22/2021 - Tatsuya nails it in one!

Excessive TV rots the brain and the body.  TV time may be a proxy for just being sedentary.  In either case, go for a walk, do something that requires actual thought and action to maintain your health.

Matt (or Mat - I'm not sure) is someone that I have been following (on and off) for several years.  It turns out that he has an affinity for numbers (hence his handle "Polimath") and a talent for data formatting and presentation.  He has had a productive year analyzing Covid numbers.  In his latest from Substack, he challenges people to not believe stories that are too good to be true.  In this case, the media narrative that the D or R behind a state governor's name is not a useful proxy for evaluating Covid related public policies.

Jordan Peterson responds to "REAL communism has never been tried" and murders it with fire 🔥⚰️ pic.twitter.com/Xyj2e1UFpI

— Not the Bee (@Not_the_Bee) May 25, 2021

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Interesting News - 5/17/2021

We are introducing a new feature here at Liberty At All Costs.  "Interesting News"

We can add exclamation points if that helps create enthusiasm.

Rather than trying to write a lengthy epistle based on some news item, we are simply going to link to the news item.  The link should be attended by nothing more than a pithy paragraph.  For now, the week will begin on Monday with the final product being pushed out on the following Sunday.

These are news items that I might ordinarily share via various social media feeds.  The inclusion of an item does not mean outright endorsement.  Merely that there is some bit of news or a unique perspective that is worthy of consideration.

Let us begin with the inaugural Interesting News, the flotsam and/or jetsam of my reading.

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Meeting in the middle on religious and LGBTQ rights - Ironically, the state of Utah is the source of some groundbreaking legislation that accommodates both the rights of LGBTQ folks to live and work while also respecting the religious beliefs of the faithful.  In 2008, Utah supported Prop 208 in California that banned same-sex marriages.  In 2015, the Utah legislature worked in cooperation with LGBTQ advocates to craft a law that met most of the objectives of both groups.  Both sides are loath to call it a compromise.  Jonathan Rauch calls it a quintessential example of the sort of collaboration that the Constitution was designed to foster.

I suppose if you misspell "sorcerer", it's a sorcerror?

— LK Lohan (@LKLohan) May 11, 2021

The Order Of The Stick #1234 - OOTS is a long-running comic featuring semi-self-aware fantasy role-playing game-type characters.  Periodically...perhaps frequently...OOTS will correspond with reality a little too closely.  I wish more people would appreciate this approach to a thorny issue.

Sinfest 11 May 2021, 14 May 2021, 15 May 2021, and 16 May 2021 - Sinfest is over 20 years old.  It started off as one type of strip and has gradually shifted over the years.  I walked away from it for a while as it thematically became a bit of a one-note strip.  While I didn't mind the "one-note" so much, I did mind that being the only thing going on.  The artist, Tatsuya Ishida, has expanded his scope of topics.  The strip from 12 May 2021 happened to occur close to a time when I encountered this Chemical Brothers video.  An intriguing combination.

What do you call it when the media purposefully skews reporting about political campaigns?  Perhaps it is time to call them something other than the "media"; propagandia?

Stolen from somewhere - click to embiggen

What is the difference between aerosol and droplet transmission of a virus? The science - it is not settled.  Even though the medical community thought that 5 microns size was the magic number, the truth was that the 5-micron value only told part of the story.  Science is a process.  It is fallible.  But, when the scientific process is followed, it is self-correcting.

Donald Fagen recently released a new album titled "Cát Bụi Cuộc ĐỜI" which is apparently (thanks Google translate) Vietnamese for "Sand and Dust of Life".  I'm still waiting for it to come up in my Spotify rotation, so I cannot comment on the music.  I just happened across the album while setting up my queue of music.  I couldn't find news about the album anywhere on teh Interwebbers.  This is about as stealth of an album drop as I've seen in a long, long time. [update - made it halfway through the album.  It's nothing like his other work.  Unremarkable music.]