Archive for July, 2020

The politicization of science has a staggeringly high body count

Posted: July 9, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , ,

As I’ve watched the media coverage of the Coronavirus pandemic unfold over the past several months I am continually amazed at how all aspects of the science associated with this crisis has been politicized.

Right from the beginning, when the computer models predicted a death total in the millions, the politicization was evident.  Those scientists that were predicting a far lower death count did not get anywhere near the same news converge, especially on the mainstream news stations. Could it be that the liberal journalists and politicians thought if they could generate enough hysteria governors would have no option other than shutting down states, collapsing the economy in the process just so they could influence the 2020 election?  How many businesses were destroyed because of the lockdowns?  How many deaths will result from suicides and delayed diagnosis thanks to the lockdowns? How many will have died needlessly because of the media attacks on the drug hydroxychloroquine? That was done solely because President Trump praised the drug.  Requiring masks is another example of the politicization of science.

The politicization of science is not new.  In the 1960s it led to the banning of the pesticide DDT.  This article sheds a lot of light on that deadly fiasco: Millions Died Thanks to the Mother of Environmentalism

Since the mid-1970s, when DDT was eliminated from global eradication efforts, tens of millions of people have died from malaria unnecessarily: most have been children less than five years old. While it was reasonable to have banned DDT for agricultural use, it was unreasonable to have eliminated it from public health use.

The science behind the banning of DDT did not hold up at all.

Environmentalists have argued that when it came to DDT, it was pick your poison. If DDT was banned, more people would die from malaria. But if DDT wasn’t banned, people would suffer and die from a variety of other diseases, not the least of which was cancer. However, studies in Europe, Canada, and the United States have since shown that DDT didn’t cause the human diseases Carson had claimed.

The politicization of science reached an absurd level with all of this global warming, climate change, global climate disruption nonsense.  It is difficult to measure a body count associated with that scientific malpractice but it is there because of impacts on developing nations being denied the use of cheap fossil fuel energy sources.

No politicization of science is more deadly that the politicization associated with abortion.  Only absolute scientific fraud can deny the unmistakable scientific evidence that an unborn child is actually a live human being.  The website Wordmeter documents just how many abortions happen worldwide:

According to WHO, every year in the world there are an estimated 40-50 million abortions. This corresponds to approximately125,000 abortions per day.

DaTechGuy Quick Thoughts: Self Flagellation in Minneapolis, The opposite in DC, White Girl irony , Cancelling the Civil war and why I’m not worried about Election 2020

Posted: July 9, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

I see the self made disaster zone in Minneapolis is making news again:

The Star Tribune reports on the third sexual assault in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood in as many weeks, although the report neglects to mention its no-police pledge it took after the killing of George Floyd. That led to an encampment of homeless people that now number in the hundreds forming in the park itself, which the neighborhood also seems determined to endure:

I don’t have a problem with this. Liberalism is the religion for these people and if their religion requires them to put themselves in danger of from these predators well who am I to interfere with their 1st amendment right to practice it?

In some sections of DC it’s amazing how well enforcing the law works

White allies spring to his defense to prevent the arrest. Then they try to argue, “What he being detained for” as if they didn’t just see him hit the guy and then falsely arguing the Trump supporter punched him first. That takes some gall but an important example of how they often falsely represent the facts of what happens in incidents.

More people start assembling and trying to stop the police from taking the guy away. It’s a basic principle in such situations to try anything to “de-arrest” the person, to grab him back and free him from the cops. But one guy takes it just a little bit too far…The only thing that’s more problematic than punching someone in front of the cops is punching one of the cops.

End result two arrests instead of one

At this point they’ve basically neutralized them in D.C., they let them walk aimlessly across the city all night and go home, they can’t destroy what they want or camp because everything is fenced off.

Now if they could just get this kind of policing in the areas that need it, but the mayor will never allow it.

The irony of two white girls using a Chinese app to post a video of themselves singing “ f–k Trump and f–k the USA.” when if they did such a thing in China they would vanish (unexpectedly of course) is lost on these two fools but if I had to bet money I’d say this victory girls profile is spot on:

Dollars to donuts she grew up in a nice middle-class family, never worried about the next meal or having to get a job as a teen to feed herself or family. She’s the product of politically squishy parent(s) who encouraged her to “find herself”, gave her an unconditional allowance, praised her regardless of performance and worried more about her grades than her character. She’s a college grad with a degree either in Angry Studies or Liberal Arts. Her gayness is as much a political posture as her anti-Americanism (the tip-off is her use of the word “queer”).

It will be fun when this comes up in google searches by potential employers. I hope they have the skills to produce something on their own.

I think the most interesting paragraph of Victor Davis Hansen’s latest piece is this:

Could Ken Burns now still make The Civil War, 30 years after its original release, with a folksy Shelby Foote contextualizing the Confederate defeat as thousands of brave men dying for a tragic cause beneath them? Would a liberal Southerner like the late Jody Powell still dare to voice the words of Stonewall Jackson or Horton Foote or Jefferson Davis? In our more enlightened revolutionary times, were all these players useful idiots in the cause of racism?

The answer of course is No.

Want to be a real revolutionary, Read American History told by Contemporaries. Actual history as spoken & written by people of the time rather than spun by Zinn & co. Volumes one two three & four are online at least for now. Volume five you’ll have to find and buy somewhere.

To read this history unapproved by the left is a revolutionary act these days

Don Surber notes a dire warning for both the Democrats and the Nevertrump “conservatives” who are allying with them

“As the leadership of Black Lives Matter is professedly Marxist and rejects the proposition that all lives matter, it is an overtly and violently anti-white, racist institution of the far Left. Antifa are violent, racist fellow-travelers. In failing to condemn these groups unequivocally, the Democratic Party will soon discover that it has been mortally infected by cohabitation with them.”…Finally, Black issued a strong warning to neo-conservatives, writing, “Former conservatives and pillars of the pre-Trump Republican Party are now facing the point of no return. If they confirm their support for the almost leaderless Democratic Party now closely allied with pestilence and racist mayhem, they will never have any political influence in any party again. The time to choose between irreconcilable opposites is almost at hand.”

The Democrat left is in my opinion reacting out of fear because they understand that these violent Marxists will come for them & their careers 1st (easier unarmed targets). The Never Trump right are simply consultants chasing the $’s that they are no longer getting via Trump and will play the useful idiot as long as there is a paycheck in it.

This is why I’m not worried about Election 2020. You don’t have to like Trump to see what the choice for America is and I think Americans in the privacy of the voting booth will answer loudly.

NOW is the Time to Overhaul our Schools

Posted: July 8, 2020 by datechguy in economy
Tags:

There is a lot of talk about if and when schools reopen but there is a factor that is not being considered.

We have reached the logical conclusion from the removal of prayer in school. Three generations later we have a highly medicated student body that intimidates their teachers, requires police to keep them in line and is taught that America is the source of all the evil in the world despite all the evidence being to the contrary.

And I haven’t even touched on professional teachers claiming that saying 2+2=4 is a sign of white supremacy and colonialism.

Why on earth would you want to send your children back to that kind of mess? I wouldn’t.

But as the schools are closed and their reopening is iffy, we have an opportunity. NOW is the time to examine the curriculum that exist and compel a change.

Toss Howard Zinn into the dustbin of history that his ahistorical history belongs in and bring back actual history, actual science, actual math, actual reading focusing on developing and informing. Teach the basics you actually need. Get rid of excess administration and keep the focus on education rather than indoctrination.

If that isn’t possible push a voucher system and remove public schooling all together. Allow a free market loose on primary and secondary education and watch schools fight to provide the quality to attract those voucher dollars. Watch black education rates and grades soar, watch the trades come back. Watch the need for school police drop and yes, if a market exists for liberal indoctrination for kids even that will be available for the few parents who want it.

There will likely not be a better chance in my lifetime to get this done. Let’s do it!

The gentleman journalist

Posted: July 7, 2020 by chrisharper in media
Tags:

By Christopher Harper

Hugh Downs stood far above the self-absorbed bloviators who pawn themselves off today as journalists.

For nearly a decade, I worked with Hugh for ABC’s 20/20. He was the consummate gentleman and Renaissance man who treated everyone with respect.

Hugh referred to himself as “a champion dilettante,” who dabbled in music, art, and science. His 1986 memoir, “On Camera: My 10,000 Hours on Television,” was no idle boast: For years, he held the Guinness record for most hours on commercial network television until Regis Philbin eventually passed him.

Hugh was born and grew up in Ohio. His father worked as a salesman who struggled to make ends meet during the Depression. Hugh had to drop out of college to support the family as a radio announcer in Lima, Ohio.

In 1940, after serving in the Army, he joined the staff of WMAQ, the NBC radio station in Chicago. Later in the decade, he made the transition to television, working on “Kukla, Fran, and Ollie,” a popular puppet show.
Eventually, he would appear on “The Tonight Show,” “The Today Show,” “Concentration,” “20/20,” and others.

At the beginning of his career, Hugh said he suffered from stage fright. He recalled those days in “On Camera,” his memoir:

“At the end of a piece of music, when I was supposed to say something, my knees would shake uncontrollably. My pulse and respiration went up. Fortunately, the fear never showed in my delivery, but it did in my hands. If I had to hold copy, the paper would rattle. As a defense, I learned to lay copy out flat on the desk, or, if standing, to grab my lapels along with the copy, so the paper didn’t move with my hands.”

In 1978, Hugh received a call from Roone Arledge, the president of ABC News, asking him to take over the newsmagazine “20/20.” Its debut just a week earlier had been a disaster. Hugh was the sole host until 1984, when his former “Today” colleague Barbara Walters became his co-host. He remained with the program until retiring in 1999.
­­­
In addition to his television work, Hugh was a composer. He wrote a prelude that was performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Hugh was an amateur guitarist and played for Andrés Segovia. He said he was pleased that Segovia did not leave the room.

Hugh also was a science buff and an adventurer. He piloted a 65-foot ketch across the Pacific and traveled to the South Pole.

During my time at “20/20,” I worked with Hugh on a project to create coral reefs near Miami. We had a great deal of fun, including the opportunity to blow up an old ship to start a reef.

But I truly appreciated Hugh’s fame when he was able to get a reservation for our team at Joe’s Stone Crabs in South Beach, where people lined up for hours to get inside in the usually first-come, first-serve restaurant.

Hugh died at the age of 99. I know he probably wanted to reach 100, but somehow 2020 seems more appropriate.

Older Entries
Newer Entries