Category: Uncategorized

Earlier post reported chronic absenteeism rate for students in California tripled as a result of the pandemic shutdowns.

Two more articles describe the skyrocketing rate of chronic absenteeism in Minnesota and across the nation.

What could possibly be driving this? On twitter, Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) said:

“We told the kids that school wasn’t essential. They listened.”

That’s about right. Schools were shuttered anywhere from six to eighteen months in most places around the country.

In terms of the so-called remote learning, there wasn’t much teaching going on. In one district near me in California, teaching time during the pandemic was 45 minutes in the morning and then 45 minutes in the afternoon. Class time was merely 90 minutes a day.

Yeah, our education leaders, political leaders, religious leaders, and public health leaders all said school wasn’t important. A whole bunch of kids got the message: school is optional.

I hope against hope that the allegedly educated educators someday will be held accountable for the destruction they willfully caused.

New reports describe widespread chronic absenteeism:

9/15/23 – Washington Examiner – Chronic absenteeism skyrockets in Minnesota public schools – Before the pandemic, chronic absenteeism in Minnesota public schools was 15%. That is the number of students who were missing 10 or more days in the school year.

The most recent data for 2022?

Continue reading “Destruction from lockdowns is becoming more obvious, education impact – part 4”

Santa Clara County in California has been putting pressure on Calvary Chapel San Jose for daring to hold worship services during the pandemic.

We now know the efforts to suppress Christian worship were a flagrant violation of the First Amendment, as determined by the Supreme Court in multiple rulings. See end of this discussion for list of posts describing the rebukes from the Supreme Court. (If you want to see the results when ideologues write feeble legal briefs, I heartily encourage you to read the dissents from the Supreme Court’s rulings.)

The county levied plenty of fines and a temporary injunction against the church. Previous article describing Calvary Chapel San Jose’s efforts to exercise their first amendment right to free expression of religion:

• 11/13/20 – Continued pressure on churches in California to restrict worship as strip clubs open their doors in San Diego under protection of First Amendment.

Since my post back in November 2020, we have learned the county was allegedly conducting surreptitious surveillance on the church during the pandemic. A neighboring church allegedly assisted with the surveillance. Fines issued by the county have been dismissed at the appellate level.

Now the church has filed suit against the county for their surveillance. They are standing up for the rights of all Christians to gather in worship.

This discussion is posted here on Nonprofit Update blog, as well as Outrun Change, because this affects the freedom of many in this audience.

By the way, if you see an above average amount of ridicule and sarcasm in this post, it is here in the hope that out-loud, belly laughter directed at officials will encourage said officials to reconsider their foolish ways. Supreme Court rulings don’t seem to have had that effect yet.

3/16/23 – The Christian Post – California church denies working with gov’t officials to surveil lockdown-defying Calvary Chapel

Continue reading “Updates of efforts by California county to crush local church and the church’s efforts to stand up for the rights of all Christians.”

For my remembrance of the 9/11 attacks during which 2,996 Americans were slaughtered by 19 terrorists, my family watched 9/11: The Filmmakers’ Commemorative Edition.

The movie started as a documentary following one rookie New York firefighter through training and his nine months of probation.  In doing so, the two filmmakers were following an engine company on a call when the first hijacked airplane hit. The strike was on camera.

Continue reading “9/11: Never Forget”

The destruction caused by government imposed pandemic restrictions, especially lockdowns is becoming more obvious as researchers look at the damage.

Articles discussed below:

• Increased illness from alcohol abuse.
• Chronic absenteeism in California schools tripled after the pandemic shutdowns.
• High portions of colleges that are closed since the pandemic are Christian.
• The lockdowns actually did affect your perception of time.

8/3/23 – SciTechDaily – Lockdowns and Liquor: Surging Severe, Alcohol-Related Liver Injury During Covid Pandemic – One study quantifies what was obvious at the time of the government ordered shutdowns. Sales of booze accelerated and abuse of alcohol skyrocketed.

Continue reading “Destruction from lockdowns is becoming more obvious – part 3”

As our alleged experts in the so-called public health sector lay groundwork to impose another round of Covid restrictions, it might be worth paying attention to the research demonstrating ineffectiveness of the vaccinations.

In fact, looks like the bivalent booster is dangerous because it increases your risk of infection.

Continue reading “Getting a Covid booster shot makes you *more* likely to get sick. Imagine that.”

Wind turbines and solar panels don’t grow on trees.

By Joshua Antonini.

Reprinted with permission of Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Wind and solar energy do not generate much electricity, but they have a great power to cloud people’s minds. It is now fairly well known that wind and solar can pose serious threats to the nation’s wildlife — from endangered right whales to tens of thousands of bird deaths each year from solar. But optimistic green energy advocates still don’t realize the many environmental impacts associated with manufacturing, maintaining, and disposing of solar panels and wind turbines.

It takes a great deal of material to produce solar panels and wind turbines. Wind and solar energy technologies collect diffuse and intermittent gusts of wind and rays of sunlight to generate electricity, which means they have a very low energy density in comparison to other generation technologies, like fossil fuels or nuclear.

Because of the diffuse nature of their fuel sources, renewables consume orders of magnitude more materials for the same electricity output, thereby causing greater environmental burdens than do more dense energy sources.

A single 100-megawatt natural gas-fired turbine about as large as a residential house will power 75,000 homes. Replacing that energy output with wind requires 20 wind turbines that occupy around 10 square miles of land, and it also needs “enormous quantities of conventional materials, including concrete, steel, and fiberglass, along with less common materials, including ‘rare earth’ elements such as dysprosium,” Mark Mills, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, wrote in a 2020 report.

Increased demands for materials leads to the first major impact: Wind and solar require massive increases in mining.

Continue reading “Clean energy isn’t clean.”

The following text is a transcription of the Stone Engraving of the parchment Declaration of Independence (the document on display in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum.) The spelling and punctuation reflects the original. Courtesy of the National Archives.

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Continue reading “Declaration of Independence”

Need to catch up on discussion on devastation caused by government policies in response to the Covid pandemic. Two articles from last year are still timely because they describe the deliberate effort expended by the public health community to destroy the reputation and create severe skepticism of anything they ever say.

7/16/22 – Brownstone Institute –Dr. Birx Praises Herself While Revealing Ignorance, Treachery, and Deceit – Presumed Doctor Deborah Birx admits in her biography that she willfully lied and deceived to push harsh lockdown. She seems quite pleased with her deceptions.

Read this article a year ago and reread it today (6/19/23). I am more staggered today than a year ago at her arrogance, ignorance, willful deception of the US president, and willful deception of the US public.

Remember this is the person that completely ignored travel restrictions and size restrictions in order to travel several states away to have a four generation Thanksgiving celebration. There was a time that you want to post to leave your state and certainly not have more than 10 people of your immediate family at any gathering of any sort.

Her goal all along was complete lockdown of the entire country for an indefinite period of time. She had no concern, nary any indication of the least bit of awareness, of the economically devastating, educationally destroying, and society crushing impact of her dictatorial feelings.

Continue reading “Public health community put lots of effort into destroying their reputation.”

On March 13, 2020, President Trump signed the order kicking off government mandated restrictions in a failed effort to slow the spread and prevent further infections. On April 10, 2023, President Biden signed an order ending the emergency.

Yes, that is one thousand one hundred twenty-three days of the promised fifteen days to slow the spread.

1,123 days is enough time to have 74 rounds of 15 days spread slowing.

As a gauge of how silly it was to hold open the ongoing emergency, the Senate passed a resolution calling on the President to end the restrictions. Vote was an overwhelming 68-23. The House passed a similar resolution by 229-197 vote.

It will take decades to count the full cost of the damage caused by all the government imposed dictats allowed in the guise of slowing the spread. Areas which need study to determine the extent of harm include lost education of children, disrupted education of college youth, declining mental health, deteriorating physical health, increased suicides, increased addictions, deteriorated supply chains, damaged economic production, soaring inflation, labor shortages, lost freedom, damaged churches, disrupted spiritual health, and drop in economic vitality.

Rap video from a few years ago showing the failed arguments for Keynesian economics and the consequences of messing around with the money supply and artificially forcing interest rates low.

Pushing down interest rates leads to mal-investment in projects that are not really good plans. When interest rates eventually rise, lots of plans need to be abandoned.

The results? “Bailouts, payouts, and machinations.”

The ‘cheap credit dog’ will come back to bite hard.

When the economy is flooded with trillions of dollars during COVID, the fully expected inflation forces the Fed to raise interest rates, in turn dropping vaue of bonds and then in turn tanking the value of the securities portfolio of every bank in the country. No wonder the FDIC and FRB think Silicon Valley is just the first bank to go.

We saw it in 2008. We are seeing it again today.

The 10 Key Campaigns of the American Revolution by editor Edward Lengel and a collection of contributing authors is a delightful description of key fights in the battle for American liberty and freedom.

A side discussion in the text is pertinent to the ongoing debate over the Second Amendment.

The book explains every free male in the colonies from the age of 16 up to 60 was required to report annually for training as a part of the militia.

Continue reading “What is a “militia?””

The American Revolution is a delight to study. A few tidbits from Edward Lengel and the contributing authors in The 10 Key Campaigns of the American Revolution are relevant to this blog. Some fun stuff:

• Perseverance in face of ongoing reversals.
• Paying Continental soldiers in specie, that means silver.

Next post will discuss What is a “militia?”

Perseverance in face of ongoing reversals.

Author points out George Washington had more losses in battle than wins. In spite of that he led the patriot forces to victory over the greatest world power of the time.

An overarching feature that shows throughout the book is perseverance in face of trials, tribulations, and battlefield defeats.

Continue reading “Some tidbits from the American Revolution.”

If the politicians don’t start relaxing the lockdown and letting people pay their rapidly accumulating bills, bunches of people are going to take the initiative and do so on their own.

I sense there is a limited time for those in power to start loosening the extreme restrictions or people are going to start ignoring parts of the rules.

At a deeper level, the concern I have is what’s referred to as the “social contract.” Government gets its authority from consent of the governed.

If a large number of people get to the point of concluding the rules in places like California and Virginia are unnecessarily severe and are causing more health, mental, social, and economic damage than they prevent, people will conclude our leaders have broken the contract.

If we get to that point, respect for law and respect for public officials will decline. That is not a good place to go.

 

Next two articles point out a small number of people who have already reached that conclusion:

4/20/20 – Daily Wire – “Social Shredding”: Defiant Residents Grab Shovels, Dirt Bikes After Cali Authorities Dump Tons of Sand In Skateparks For ‘Social Distancing’ – Officials in San Clemente California noticed teenagers were committing the grave sin of skating in the city’s skate park. Well, that is patently unacceptable, so the city dumped 37 tons of sand into the skate park in an effort to shut down the skating. Since the park is at the beach, sand was readily available.

Well, the city officials did not take into consideration the incredible level of creativity present in humans, especially Americans.

Continue reading “The shutdown will be relaxed, one way or another.”