phoenixvoice
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I hear Charlie Kirk in this pro-life debate and am reminded about why I did not pay him much attention. I hear him use rhetoric to eviscerate his debate partner, and I formulate a cogent rebuttal to Charlie Kirk’s logic, but I can’t use it because it is a recording of a debate, not me in the debate. Thus, I find it frustrating to listen to the debate.
A fetus is a not presently a “human being.” It has “potential to become.” As such, we want to see it as a human being and we want it to have “human rights.” However, a fetus is, by definition, dependent upon the womb provided by mother, and mother is a mature human being. Unfortunately, seeing a fetus as more than a “human in embryo” reduces the human being that carries and nourishes the fetus into a “vessel.” A potential human being does not have a right to exist that is greater than the human rights of the mother host. Therefore, the mother host has the right and responsibility to direct all things for the fetus until the fetus is born, and becomes a human being in fact. At the point of birth, the mother may, if she wishes, relinquish the responsibility of raising the child to another. Pregnancy and childbirth are life-threats to the mother. Therefore, she has the right to choose to carry the fetus to term, to abort, or choose the method of childbirth.
I am horrified by people who treat abortion flippantly. While in my view the proper person to make decisions regarding the fetus is the mother whose body houses the human-in-embryo, the human potentiality of the fetus is something that should be regarded with respect. Terminating a pregnancy should be done with careful deliberation, not on a whim, and effort should be expended to avoid being in the position of evaluating whether an unplanned pregnancy be ended.
Dr D
We incarcerate them for unemotional, practical, measurable reasons: so they don’t harm themselves and others.Yes.
We need to be locking up the violent criminals, and probably also the “white collar” criminals who are committing gross negligence and fraud, some of which also results in violence. (Fauci, etc.). We need to stop locking up those who are merely pissing off The Establishment, The Deep State, A Protected Class, or violating the excess of laws that have nothing to do with violence. We don’t have the money nor resources to incarcerate all of the non-violent offenders. So let’s stop, and focus instead on locking up the violent criminals.Chronic disease in vaccinated kids
My son with level 2 autism also has “eoe.” Eosinophilia Esophagitis. It was diagnosed 9 years ago when he had a food impaction. The first recorded case was in 1977. It came increasingly into awareness in the 1990s, and was formally classified in 1993. Funny, isn’t it, that formal classification was only a few years after that vaccine act in the 80s?
There are only 2 treatments: drugs for life or elimination diets to identify the substance aggravating the esophagus so that it may be avoided. GI doctors routinely scare their patients and parents of their patients into the endless taking of prescription meds, and then more meds and specialist visits to manage adverse side effects. Of course, insurance pays for the drugs and regular endoscopies. It won’t pay for special expensive foods that make it easier to endure an elimination diet. The irony.
An eye for an eye hands the world to the blind.
This isn’t even “an eye for an eye.”
Just like “turn the other cheek” was a new idea, attempting to stop endless, mindless tit-for-tat, I suspect that “an eye for an eye” was an attempt to stamp out “I’m going to get you back worse!” “An eye for an eye” suggests that responses to violence be measured, rather than extreme.
Israel is not even following the proscription of the Torah here: 1200 dead on Oct 7, many by the hands of the IDF ironically, and they are inflicting death on a scale 100 times as high.
Divorce, 50/50 custody in Kentucky
Oh, it is very “fair.” But it means that a parent that is dangerous gets access to the children because it is virtually impossible for anyone who is of lower income (and most parents emerging from a failed marriage are low income) to persuade a court that the other parent is “dangerous.” Sure, alcohol abuse will work. But what about when the problem parent stops using alcohol but continues to self-medicate with a cocktail of prescribed drugs, including SSRI, Ambien, and Xanax? Oh, that is A-OK to the family court, because those are doctor-prescribed, all the concerns about SSRIs and homicide notwithstanding. I actually managed to have a court mandated “custody study” done…it cost $36,000. It found some concerning problems with the kids’ father, recommended a special program for fathers with anger issues, and still recommended 50/50 custody of the children. Then, because of concerns about children being taken from a parent, the court handling protective orders does not want to intervene, even when the child had self-inflicted injuries and her own handwritten journal stated that her angst was due to her father. For that matter, the family court judge also refused to intervene in the same circumstance.. It required the insertion of DCS (AZ’s CPS) into the problem to get the family court to intervene. I suspect that the DCS rep explained to the family court judge that either the judge ordered “no contact” with the father or he would have to put a 15 year old girl into foster care because her mother was prevented by the family court from keeping the girl from harm.
Yeah, 50/50 custody is great. For some. For others, it is tragic. (BTW – my daughter is doing very well 2 yrs later.)
Benny Johnson video on black crime…
Betrays the fact that he has no clue about how welfare works in this country TODAY, which is apparently how it has been for the past three decades.
Women don’t get “paid” for having no father in the home…TODAY. Perhaps it was that way in the far past. But, TODAY, that concept is MALARKY.
How do I know?
Because I read the damn policy manual and researched how TANF works in Arizona because there was a time, many years ago, when I made so little money each month that I was *very* eligible for TANF. (Temporary Assistance to
Needy Families.) I DECLINED to accept TANF because the program had exceedingly strict guidelines. I would have had to put my kids in daycare after school and found a job that paid me much less per hour for many more hours in order to comply with the program. That would not have worked because my level 2 autistic son did not have that diagnosis yet, and no daycare would have tolerated his behaviors. (At the time, I was called to the school once or twice a week — and he was not in a regular classroom, but a “behavior classroom” with extra aids.). My claims that daycare wasn’t a viable option would have fallen on deaf ears because his diagnoses at that time would have meant nothing to “officials.” Plus, it was hardly any money, and only available for a few months. It made no sense to jump through that number of hoops for such a small amount of money for such a short period of time. The trauma that complying with the program would do to my kids was not worth the program. And…although I didn’t realize it then, I was struggling with PTSD and could not handle the stress of a conventional job back then on top of everything else. (I did handle self-employment.)Reagan campaigned on ending the “welfare queen.” From what I understand, reform happened in the 1990s and “welfare” — implying cash payments to needy families — collapsed into TANF (a temporary program — hell, it is the first word in the name) — and the Earned Income Tax Credit. With the EITC, you get more money when you work more, up to a threshold, and then it is gradually phased out as the income increases. Neither program has anything to do with whether both parents are in the home — it is about income and household size — period.
I agree with Benny Johnson that the primary explanation for why black men commit more violent crime is because of lack of fathers in the home. It is my understanding that one of the reasons for the “drug war” was to incarcerate black men for non-violent crimes — a replacement for “Jim Crow” laws. Black men were incarcerated for non-violent crimes, their sons grew up and without proper guidance they tended to commit violent crime — and now we have a terrible, self-perpetuating cycle. I also suspect that the murder of MLK Jr, Malcolm X, and other respectable, black religious and community leaders meant that there was a vacuum of positive black male role models. In fact, being an upright, religious male black role model could be hazardous to one’s health. Instead, we have had male black role models like P Diddy and Barack Obama — smarmy, corrupt men.
We need to correct this societal ill. However, it cannot be corrected by stopping payments to single-parent households that hinge on there being only one parent in the home, because no such federal program exists. The TANF program has been jiggered to the point that it is only useful for a very small slice of the impoverished that may benefit from its strict guidelines. Also, it is temporary. Most folks don’t even realize that the primary form of “welfare” to impoverished families is the EITC — this is why low income families see “tax day” as “pay day.” It is the one time per year when they have a larger lump sum of money. There are all sorts of businesses that sell things to “the po’ folks” that have modeled their sales around this fact. Foolish people would jump on Benny Johnson’s bandwagon about stopping “welfare payments” and then, when it occurs, they are going to be furiously angry when, as a result, their own tax refund shrinks incredibly.
People dismissing AI’s potential to destroy human employment are living in a Fool’s Paradise
I think that wealth inequality is a more salient issue. If wealth is well-distributed in an economy, with the inequality not too great, then the economy will likely be able to adjust readily enough to current jobs being replaced by AI, and transitioning to an economy where new jobs are created and/or the workload of the average working-age adult is reduced. However, in an economy with drastic wealth disparity, (such as the really existing one, some compare it to pharaonic Egypt,) the result of AI is more likely to be mass unemployment, insufficient supports for those losing employment, and stagnation in either new job creation or task reduction for those who continue to be employed.
(Please note: I am aware that some who read what I just wrote are going to assume that because I used the word “distributed” that I am referencing a socialistic, communistic, central-planning style “redistribution” — probably because the word “distribute” is inside of the word “redistribute.” This is an incorrect reading. By “distributed” I am referencing an observation of the “really-existing” distribution of wealth throughout a society, not some sort of artificial system of redistribution. For example, following the Great Depression and WWII, in the US, the wealth inequality from the richest to the poorest was not as high as it had been in the “Roaring 20s,” nor as high as it is currently. The US in the 1950s experienced great and widespread prosperity — for many reasons, and the wealth compression is often cited as one factor among many.)
TDK
start by saying mr trump is a war criminal who needs to immediately be taken into custody, given a fair [and graphic] trial, and then sent to monster island to make licence plates.Let’s think that one through….
And then leave the government to JD Vance or Mike Johnson?
I hated the Russia!Russia! Junk before and during Trump’s first term because it rang to me as obviously false. While I did see Trump committing what, in my view, were impeachable offenses, the actual impeachments were about spurious issues that were, in my eyes, obviously fabricated. For all of that time, I disliked Trump. I still dislike Trump. I don’t like his brash style or the way he speaks (and acts) without fully thinking through what he says (does). (Like that ridiculous executive order about flag burning.)
Your assertion seems, to me, to be verisimilitude to all of the past (and many present) witch-hunts against Trump — a tendency to conflate what he actually does with things over which he might have some itty bitty influence.
A corollary example: a few weeks after my kids started spending increased time with their father seven years ago, all three of them displayed notedly changed behavior that was adverse in nature. Out of concern, I got my daughter into behavioral health services. (at that time, my sons already were.). My ex then manipulated the behavioral health staff for two of the kids into believing that the brand new fifty/fifty time split was the status quo, and framed me as a problematic parent who was the prima facie cause of my children’s “behavioral issues.” The staff discussed these things behind closed doors, documented the discussion in writing, and my ex then pulled the records of these concerns and put them into an emergency petition to the court to remove my custody.
To my eyes, you are doing something similar with Trump: framing him as “the man responsible” for the Gaza conflict, when it is very, very obvious that this is not the case.
I would like very much for Trump to end yesterday all military aid to Israel so that the US would have zero culpability moving forward for the death and destruction rained down on Gaza. I also know that Trump, sadly, is simply not going to by my champion in that arena. However, at the end of the day, the greatest responsibility for the genocide of the Gazan people lies with those who are using the weapons and directing the people using the weapons.
I hope that Trump’s desire to receive the Nobel Peace Prize incentivizes him to be a part of a successful action to stop the bloodshed in Gaza. It would be very nice if the people of Gaza could retain their homeland. However, that may not be a part of the equation. It isn’t right. It isn’t just. There are many things in this world, and in my own life, that are not fair. Often, all we can do is pick up the pieces and figure out what to do given the situation as it is.
Ran across this:
https://thegoodcitizen.live/p/delusional-tech-bros-forever-404?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=webAnd then realized that compared to the nut jobs in the article, Musk looks relatively comprehensible. I mean, at least he obviously understands that the way to “live forever” is through procreation, not by trying to hack your body to never die.
LNG market disruptions
I see.
If China reduces their purchase of US LNG, because they are getting pipeline methane from Russia, and Europe continues to purchase US LNG…then it seems we are roughly back to the way things were in 2021 — at least for the US. The prices for US nat gas should reduce some because demand is reduced. The difference is that China gets the price break for Russian pipeline nat gas instead of Europe.RFK Jr
Talk about high-stakes chess!
He fails to immediately remove the Covid shots from the market, and vocal members of MAHA crowd proclaim that he is corrupt and has sold them all out.
He removes emergency use authorization and changes the Covid vax designation, resulting in some states requiring a doctor’s prescription for the Covid vax, and the mainstream crowd are screaming for RFK’s resignation for “lying” about not removing vaccines from those who want them.Wealth graph
The most interesting part of the graph is how the two lines are near mirror images of each other. This suggests that the two are directly and inversely related.Technically, there was drug abuse in 1900, beyond alcohol and tobacco products. The current US system of restricted “prescription drugs” came into existence in 1938. It restricted drugs “considered habit-forming, toxic, or carry a potential for harm.” Prior to this, anyone could purchase opium (laudanum, etc.), cannabis, cocaine. Amphetamines were invented in the 1880s and became popular recreationally in the 1930s. Coca-Cola came on the market in 1886. Ironically, “ The Volstead Act of 1920, which raised the price of alcohol in the United States, positioned marijuana as an attractive alternative and led to an increase in use of the drug.” “ In fact, by the 1880’s morphine addiction was known as the “soldier’s disease,” because of its prevalent use by Union doctors in the Civil War. ”. “… , drugs were legal. All of them. You could go into a pharmacy and order up yourself some heroin, morphine, cocaine, etc., and so long as you didn’t look like an addict, they would sell it to you over the counter.” “ Most addiction in those days was accidental. The users didn’t even know they were taking opium—or morphine—or heroin—or cocaine—or some combination of them. What they did know was that when they took the medicine they felt better. (Probably a lot better.)”
So…it seems that most drug abuse around 1900 was accidental. Which was the reason to start regulating drugs — so people would know better what they were getting into. Beyond that, recreational use — opium by Chinese laborers imported to build the railroads in the late 1800s, cannabis by Mexicans after their revolution in 1910 — often leads to addiction. (So can social drinking!) However, if we think of how socially deprived rats become cocaine addicts while socially rich do not, a logical conclusion would be that healthy societies full of opportunity tend to have less drug abuse — people get “natural highs” off of positive situations, rather than seeking pharmacological pseudo-highs—and that drug regulation has a place, so that the purchaser of drugs and medications know what they are getting and the dangers and benefits. Prohibiting some drugs makes those who want to rebel more likely to seek out the prohibited substances. The current prescription drug environment monkey-wrenches with those prescribed drugs by taking away personal responsibility and trusting the “medical experts “ to direct all drug decisions. (My son was recently prescribed a PPI for acid reflux damage…we raised the head of his bed 7”. The doctor didn’t think to suggest that.)
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/buyers/socialhistory.html
http://www.dejohnsonauthor.com/blog/drug-abuse-at-the-turn-of-the-twentieth-centuryRed
The digital slavery part will stop itself. There isn’t the power available to run it at the conceived level required to enslave everyone on the planet.I believe that this is true.
The design of The Cabal is going to become very obvious when keeping the digital control grid going is prioritized over everything else. Then, finally, I hope, people will shrug off the control grid. Until then, it is wise to prepare for a rough ride through that period.From CA Skeet article:
Public schools across America are being forced to “fully integrate” students with severe behavioral disorders, emotional deregulation, and autism into normally functioning classrooms. The result, as anyone with enough common sense to see past their own savior complexes could have easily predicted, has been total chaos.It’s hard enough for teachers to manage their classrooms on a good day. If you “fully integrate” an autistic child with little or no impulse control into that classroom, that teacher spends an undue amount of time catering to that child alone, at the expense of the rest of the class.
This is true. My level 2 autism son did not spend ANY time in a regular classroom until late 7th grade. The special Ed classrooms sometimes struggled to manage him. He was mainstreamed in high school—sort of. Freshman year was remote learning—I managed him. The rest of the time his case manager and the school psychologist often had to intervene. His Junior year the case manager was changed and the new one didn’t get it — as a result, my son was nearly kicked out of the school before my intervention resulted in the school psychologist and one of the other special education teachers stepping up to the plate and helping my son to exit situations before they became too emotionally charged.
Bless you, poppie, for standing up to the very corrupt, predacious medical establishment and protecting your vulnerable family member.
“Department of War”
Changing a name is not terribly important. Trying to prosecute flag-burners and legal immigrants who support Palestine is much more egregious. It could be a positive thing to openly acknowledge that the military is about waging “war,” and not just “defense.” It could bring authenticity instead of doublespeak.I do understand name changes.
My mother was adopted at age 2 by her aunt and uncle who dropped her middle name, changed her last name, and changed her first name to her nickname. At age 20 she married my father, and added his surname. Around age 29 she changed every name before my father’s surname back to her birth names, and asked everyone to start calling her by her original given name. It was odd…but fortunately for my siblings and I, we simply continued to call her “mom.”
After the divorce, I wanted to start performing in public again. I couldn’t do it under my ex’s surname (still my legal name.). It felt *wrong,* and this feeling distracted me from the focus of performing. At the time, I felt so disconnected from who I had been prior to marriage that my maiden surname felt foreign. I came up with a “stage name” so that I could feel authentic when I performed. I still feel uncomfortable when others use my legal last name, (ex’s surname,) and I plan to change it back to my maiden surname some time in the next year—it has taken years, but I have healed much of the divide from my pre-marriage self, and feel whole enough to make the change.
My daughter is planning to drop her father’s surname and replace it with my family’s surname once she is 18.
There are cultures where it is common to change one’s name at certain life milestones. In our culture, the only typical name change is that of women upon marriage.
Obama’s mother called him by the surname of her new husband. Vance’s father abandoned him. These sorts of things can cause identity crises. One of the ways that this may be navigated is by changing names.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if, ultimately, the only way to save the vaxxed who didn’t receive saline, whose doses where stored at a low enough temperature, were by taking ivermectin?
@ Germ
The vaxxed often cannot see the obvious. My nephew, age 12, fainted while standing during their church service recently. A pediatrician in the congregation ruled it as due to “growing pains,” and not eating breakfast that morning. I asked my mother: “Did he get the Covid vax?” Her reply, “I don’t know — probably.” (Because, among the four siblings, there was a split: two vaxxed themselves and their families, my parents and the other two — including me — abstained for themselves and their families.). The boy’s father is going to have a cardiac procedure just like my dad — not strange that my father should be recommended for it, he is in his 70s, but strange that my BIL, in his 40s, should require it. *sigh*If vaccines are “safe and effective,” then adverse events cannot be caused by a vaccine. Of course, once upon a time, blood-letting was “safe and effective,” as were X-ray and thalidomide in pregnancy, unwashed hands during baby delivery, painting radium on watch faces, lead in gasoline, etc. One of these days I may fix the telephone wiring in my house. It may be that “wireless everything” was not such a great idea.
From Germ
What’s more, all of the studies we have stop before Donald Trump began his second term with enormous cuts to medical and health research and, now, to Medicaid.Personally, I do not believe that the cuts are going to necessarily result in more deaths. Too much of the “research” was about discovering more and more ways to maintain Americans in their sicknesses while propping them with pills and expensive treatments. I have been on Medicaid for over a decade. The kids and I can get any standard “appropriate” medical treatment that we desire. These treatments are often as likely to harm as they are to treat. Often, it is best to stay away from Western medicine. (Except for cases of trauma: one son tumbled over his electric scooter last week — broken wrist, compound fracture. One surgery later and a couple of titanium plates now secure his radius and ulna for mending. Western medicine does trauma treatment very effectively.)
Tulsi Gabbard was blinking too much on the Jesse Watters clip. I think someone got her to wear false eyelashes. Something was bothering her eyes…it was distracting from what she was saying.
Chinese drone show
If the Chinese — who invented gun powder and fireworks — now do light shows with drones, we could do that as well…rather than filling the air with acrid smoke and scaring all of the doggies and veterans.
@ kultsommer
It would be interesting for that graphic on homeownership to be extended back as far as there exist good records of the matter.
My own home was purchased in 2003 for about 2.5 times annual income. The current market value of the home is at least 12 times my annual income. (Although, my annual income — in unadjusted dollars — is somewhat less than what it was in 2003.) While a comparison to 1950 may not be very fair, given the differences in economic realities, home values seem to have become decoupled from incomes.
But why does that mean he can’t do anything now to enforce the law, to promote public safety?”
I can explain: Tribalism
As those functioning from a tribalism mentality get further and further into that perspective, those who are not functioning along those lines eventually find themselves struggling to understand the perspective of the “tribals” — the tribals will make statements that defy logic. “Orange man bad — even when he gets criminals off of the streets of DC — because orange man = bad.” To a woke tribalism, the statement makes perfect sense: their woke tribe is “right,” and the MAGA mob and their leader is “the enemy” and automatically bad. Tribalism is the reason why the IDF may have pushed live children into a mass grave — do they really hate the Gazans? Or is it that they see them as another tribe, inferior to their own tribe? In the matter of the land of Gaza, Israelis seem to see Gaza as belonging to their own tribe, and any Gazan who is there may enrage them, as they see the native Gazan population as interlopers occupying Israeli lands. Much the same way that I kill roaches that come into my home…or catch them and give them to my hens to eat.
Dr D
They say no one can figure out Bitcoin when everyone has Venmo on their phone.Bitcoin was supposed to be private. Venmo was never designed to be private. The platforms that are “user friendly” are surveillance tools with window dressings to attract users. Any Bitcoin transaction done solely with a phone is just as tracked as Venmo.
But complexity has drawbacks. Yesterday, my autistic son, age 19, braked too quickly on his scooter, tumbled, and broke both bones in his lower arm, one compound. He rode an ambulance to the hospital and I followed a few minutes later. I checked in with security in the ER and it was explained to me that although they knew my son was there (for about 15 minutes), he had not been entered into the computer so they could not permit me to go back and see him. I looked at the security man, amazed, and mentioned how all of this technology sure was not speeding anything up. I recalled how, more than a decade earlier, I had entered this same ER and immediately been ushered back to see a family member on multiple occasions. There was no delay “because it isn’t in the computer yet.” Why do people not see that we are becoming slaves to our accounting systems? It took nearly 45 minutes before I was permitted to see my son.
Bitcoin proves it is an answer to currency debasement.
Not really. It requires electricity and internet access to use it. This is fine for internet transactions, but irrelevant to face to face transactions.
The general populace lacks the technical know-how to use Bitcoin, especially if the user’s privacy is to be maintained. I am coming to the belief that having a technically ignorant populace is by design.
Currently, only a tiny fraction of the population holds significant Bitcoin. As the Bitcoin value soars, it simply becomes another way for a tiny minority to have a huge claim on the total physical output of the economy, while the claim by the rest of humanity shrinks. Sure, it is a different minority than otherwise would have that claim, and this new minority is very pleased at the outcome. However, how is this a benefit to the masses who hold no Bitcoin?
Youth crime in DC
Some people believe that the only way to stop crime is for the perpetrators to suffer punishment. My autistic son has run into this belief endlessly since he was five. Unfortunately for him, the driver of his “misbehavior” is typically anxiety, “fear of punishment” increases his anxiety, and his ability to exert control over his behavior diminishes. The end result: in most cases, punishment results in worsening behavior. I did not enter parenthood with this belief — and I understand that for other kids punishment may exert deterrence to some degree or another (for my other two kids it does) — but after years of trying different approaches with this son, typical approaches failing, and even approaches pushed by behavioral health agencies failing (!), I found what works to shape my son’s behavior. And it is not punishment. (Actually…it is a trust system with rewards. Because he trusts me, he suspends his anxiety enough that I can reach him.)
The reason why teens should not be tried as adults is because they often have not had sufficient life experience to fully understand the ramifications and consequences of their decisions, and because it is much less costly to society to reform a teen than to lock someone up for life. If yoga and crafts help even some of these teens get to a place where they trust the adults enough to learn why crime is not a life worth pursuing, then these programs have value. If the teens are being released back into the same environments that failed to teach them to avoid committing crime in the first place, then no reform is likely to transpire—such a program is useless. The reason why yoga and crafts have a place in any reform system is that, often, to reform a person, it is necessary to build a trust relationship with the individual. It is necessary to be kind — kinder than the individual may “deserve.” Christians should understand this concept — it is one of the foundational ideas of Jesus as “The Redeemer”—offering salvation to those who have, of course, committed sin. Also, yoga and crafts may help some people connect more fully with their authentic inner self and with their empathy, which are a part of the journey of reform.
If youth are committing violent crime, this must be speedily addressed, and the malefactors removed off the streets. But locking up youth criminals with adults is probably not the best way to go about this. (Unless…you have a special program where reformed adult criminals are mentoring these kids. But the vetting process on such adults would have to be intense, otherwise unreformed adult criminals would secretly ensnare the teens into worse crime.)
Re: laughter on Colbert both against and against gerrymandering…
This was not an example of hypocrisy, it was an example of tribalism. My team must win, the other team must lose! My team wins (Illinois!) and I cheer. And I cheer for any rhetoric that suggests that the opposing team may lose.
Trump WH briefing
1- Good. No one should have that much power, regardless of whether or not the ruling aligns with my point of view.
2- Good to be aware of.
3- Parents must be empowered to direct their kids. The state should only intervene in egregious cases. (Yes, some parents are awful—I’m aware, my so-called “co-parent” is problematic, and there are some much worse than he. Nevertheless, parents are usually a child’s best advocate.)
4- Fine. Adults who want this nonsense can still seek it at their own expense.
5- TDA gang arrested. Excellent—please mind the laws of the land as they are prosecuted, deported, etc. It is about who we are as a country, not who they are as a gang member, illegal entrant, etc.
6- Sounds good. Technically, I’d prefer a system where cities didn’t get federal funding in the first place. Shining light on this practice may eventually lead to a reexamination of everything the feds are funding. This is a good thing.
7- Peace is excellent. Getting am African mineral deal? Figures. Here’s to hoping the African’s don’t get ripped off.
8- Iran. No. No bombing sovereign nations who are not bombing us. Why is it those in power can’t seem to understand this simple concept?
9- What I’m curious about is at what point did it become “a thing” that anyone born here had citizenship (because I read that right after the amendment passed it was interpreted more strictly) and how and why did the looser interpretation come about? In the long run, I think that having a rule and enforcing the rule is what matters most, not which way it is interpreted. It may be that in the current day a more strict interpretation is better for the country.
10- This could get interesting.
11-@ RIM
Love the baby “product review” — apparently, it was stolen from the actual poster. This is the original link: https://x.com/TheRealCorpBro/status/1953558541929001060I gotta admit…I get wierded out by men who are either militantly for or against abortion. Either way, it is a male placing ownership rights over the reproductive organs inside of a woman. Women are fully capable of making their own decisions about their reproductive organs, and don’t need men trying to do it for them. (And, by the way, I personally abhor abortion, but I believe that the woman, being the human tasked with carrying the fetus until it is able to exist without her womb, is the human who should be directing the decision-making for both herself and the unborn child.)
I was in Argentina in the mid ‘90s. The Argentinian middle class was falling off a cliff in the province of Buenos Aires, in the city proper and surrounding suburbs. They had memories of when things were worse. I wish them well. There may be pockets of the US that have suffered comparably (Detroit?), but not the entire nation.
The Law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute these “minors” as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14
Ugh! There are many things that I really dislike about Trump—and this is a good illustration of one of them. He operates on several biases, and he shoots off his mouth frivolously, lacking the good sense to deliberate on an issue. Prosecuting minors as adults often destroys young lives. I agree that the problems must be addressed. I agree that part of the solution is being “tough on crime”—especially violent crime. I agree that youths committing crime should not be given a “slap on the wrist” and sent back out on the street. However, youths also are typically involved in crime because of an environment that creates incentives for them to be involved in crime, and because, in some way, an adult benefits from their crime. These youths do not need to be “thrown away” into adult prison. Rather, they need personalized interventions—a genuine attempt to get them off of the track that leads to prison and onto a track that leads to a happy, productive and FREE life. It won’t always work—but from both a standpoint of morality and economics, (it costs society a lot to warehouse a person for years on end,) it behooves communities to try to help these youths and not to throw them away.
Trump Admin prosecuting those who created, fomented, and directed the political, et al., attacks against his original campaign, first presidency, and 2nd and 3rd campaigns is a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. The first Trump Admin declined to pursue such prosecutions — because it creates “drag,” and it can be more effective to look and move forward. The deep state responded by doubling down and increasing the lawfare and deepening its conspiratorial actions — essentially, it saw Trump as “weak,” and pursued him further. The deep state also acted against the interests of the US population, encouraging illegal migration, censoring views it didn’t like, drag queen story hour, men in women’s sports, vaccine mandates, discriminating against the light-skinned, etc. This time around, it looks like the Trump Admin will pursue prosecutions. Of course, such prosecutions will be seen by those who dislike Trump as a vendetta against his enemies. If the Trump Admin declines to prosecute, his supporters will be upset that he is failing to stand up for himself and failing to be their champion. There is no ideal path forward.
(Which Candace Owens, in her world of pure right and wrong cannot today fully understand. I can’t help but wonder if, someday, she will understand that the cost of pursuing every potential litigation placed in front of her may be so steep that it requires sacrificing values that are worth more than the crux of the litigation.)
Prep Act
I get it. However, RFK Jr is not a lawmaker. He cannot sign any executive orders. It is the Prep ACT. It can be undone by Congress or by the Courts declared unconstitutional. Fortunately for us, RFK is a successful attorney — he is a litigator. He can pressure Congress and the President in his official capacity, but has no teeth to do much else in that arena. His “teeth” are in bringing evidence that will be respected by a court. Courts move very slowly. Preparing a case for court takes careful deliberation. Rushing such a case would lead to failure.RF radiation
A few months ago I made a deliberate change: I put my WiFi access point on a timer. Power to it is cut at midnight and returns at 6 am. I admit that I am not willing to ditch it entirely right now, but —seriously—my ex and I wired the home with Ethernet over 15 years ago! Roof rats made a mess of that, I’ve fixed most of it, but there are a few more that need to be redone. We don’t need WiFi when we are asleep. Period. If someone is up late…use Ethernet.I can’t control the 5G…so I will control what I can.
Feminism
I remember when my grandmother explained to me how when she was a young wife that the expectation, once married, was that a woman would cease working outside the home. If not upon marriage, certainly upon pregnancy or childbirth. I read Cheaper by the Dozen and pondered about the mother suddenly with 12 children to finish raising, after her husband died, and how difficult that would be, with no education to rely on for a steady income. My 92-year-old friend has reminisced about how, when she attended college, there were only two degrees open to women: nursing and education. She chose education. When her second husband, and love of her life, found out that she wanted a PhD, he encouraged her to pursue one, and she did, again in education.
I did not have these cultural restrictions. I wanted an education, and any major that caught my fancy was open to women. There was no expectation pressuring me to cease working outside the home, even after my twins were born. (Although I eventually limited the amount of work that I did outside the home sharply, due to the cost and difficulty of obtaining care for two babes, and 18 months later, three little ones.) At every juncture of parenthood, I have squarely chosen paths that enabled me to be the parent that my children needed in order to thrive, choosing motherhood over enlarging my income. However, I do not believe that all mothers should be societally pressured to do this. I chose my path deliberately. Other women may choose differently.
I see Tulsi Gabbard as DNI, and I respect her. While I had no interest in Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris as US president, it would please me for Gabbard to earn that role some day. She has no children. Hers is a path that I would not choose—I wanted children, wanted to raise them.
I agree that the face of feminism today is strange — it seems to deny women the right to be women, feminine, and mothers. However, feminism is also the reason why I had so many more options open to me than did my grandmother or my elderly friend. I prefer that my own daughter be free to choose her course in life. The weirdness of cutting edge feminism is today does not put barriers in front of my daughter, and I suspect that the current iteration of feminism will temper with time.
