3/21/2021

Thoughts On A Sunday

Spring is finally here, at least according to the calendar. We’ve certainly had spring weather, seeing temps in the mid 50’s yesterday and low 60’s today. The ice on the lake is getting thinner and I’ve seen a lot of bobhouses being pulled off the lake over the past 2 days. A few more days of this kind of weather and some wind would help the ice start breaking up.

We’ll be waiting for Ice Out (defined as when the M/S Mount Washington ship can make all five ports of call on Lake Winnipesaukee). This means boating season won’t be too far behind.

There is an annual Ice Out contest, calling for the date and time when Ice Out is declared. I’ve picked 1PM on April 12th. Now only time will tell.

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Is South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem being condemned unfairly for her opposition to South Dakota House Bill 1217 as it was passed by the legislature? The bill deals with banning transgendered athletes from competing in sports on teams that do not match their biological gender, i.e. transgirls competing on girls’ teams. The bill is meant to protect women’s sports, but as passed it has some problems and unintended consequences that will do more harm than good, something Governor Noem wants corrected before she signs it. As she posted to her MeWe page:

I believe that boys should play boys’ sports, and girls should play girls’ sports. I'm returning House Bill 1217 with the following recommendations as to STYLE and FORM.

As the legislative findings in the original version of the bill set out, “[w]ith respect to biological sex, one is either male or female[,]” and “[p]hysiological differences between males and females include ‘those most important for success in sport: categorically different strength, speed, and endurance.’”

That is why House Bill 1217 properly provides that females should have opportunities to play youth sports on teams comprised of females and against teams of females. Unfortunately, as I have studied this legislation and conferred with legal experts over the past several days, I have become concerned that this bill’s vague and overly broad language could have significant unintended consequences.

(I do not have the direct link to the Governor’s MeWe page, but the quote above came by way of a screenshot provided by a commenter linked above the quote, so take it as such. - ed.)

The linked quote includes more information from the Governor regarding the changes she states need to be made.

Better the bill be fixed beforehand rather than scrambling later to deal with the unintended consequences.

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Registration for Covid vaccinations for my demographic group (Misanthropic and Surly Curmudgeons Above the Age of 50) opens tomorrow in New Hampshire.

I will be registering, but I will admit I will be looking for vaccination sites that will be offering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. There are a couple of reasons for my decision which include that it is a single dose vaccine (so I only have to make one appointment, not two) and that its creation and manufacture uses a process that is very similar to that used for making flu vaccines rather than one that employs genetic engineering/gene therapy. (I choose not to be a test subject for a vaccine that makes use of mRNA to create immunity.) One has to remember these vaccines have not undergone the full testing suite usually required by the FDA. They received emergency authorization for use.

Does that make me a conspiracy theorist? No. I don’t believe Bill Gates is using the Pfizer/Moderna vaccines to insert chips into the populace to track and control the population. We all know it’s really the CIA and the Illuminati! /s

My decision is based upon my own research, a medical background (I was a EMT/Paramedic for over 15 years), I have old friends who are medical professionals (including one who is an epidemiologist), and an ingrained distrust of an ‘authority’ that keeps changing its mind (sometimes on a daily basis) about what is and is not effective regarding Covid-19 precautions and treatments.

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It seems Senator Rand Paul can’t catch a break.

First, a little over three and a half years ago he’s assaulted by a neighbor while mowing his lawn, the assault breaking five of his ribs.

Now he has a self-righteous Karen harassing him about not wearing a mask while he’s working out on a treadmill at a gym.

Senator Paul was fully vaccinated and as such, wearing a mask is merely a psychological sop to someone else that provides no additional protection. The Karen harangued a physician with more knowledge about infectious diseases, the efficacy of vaccines and precautions like masks and washing one’s hands than she could ever know. I guess Karens have got to Karen.

I know that two of our local gyms require masks when moving from one workout station to another and when entering or leaving the gym. They do not require them while actually exercising.

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Jo Nova has hit it on the head: The Chinese have nothing but scorn for our self-hating ‘woke’ upper-class.

That’s OK. Most of us in the US also have nothing but scorn for those same scumbags.

The Chinese know our leaders well. In fact, they have a name for our self-hating professional class.

They call them “baizuo.” The rough translation from Mandarin is “White liberal,” and it is definitely not a compliment. Chinese state media describes baizou as people who, “only care about topics such as immigration, minorities, LGBT and the environment, who have no sense of real problems in the real world, who only advocate for peace and equality to satisfy their own feelings of moral superiority, and who are so obsessed with political correctness that they tolerate backward Islamic values for the sake of multiculturalism.”

As Chinese state media notes, “former US [sic] President Obama was considered an advocate of baizuo ideology.”

So is “German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her decision to welcome more than one million third-world [sic] immigrants to Europe.”

Other observations about baizuo, as reported by Chinese state media, include the fact that they “advocate inclusiveness and anti-discrimination but cannot tolerate different opinions.” Baizuo’s political opinions are “so shallow that they tend to maintain social equality by embracing ideologies that run against the basic concept of equality.”

According to one scholar from Peking University, “[B]aizuo are phony and hypocritical and will make the situation in the West go from bad to worse.” And so on.

It is rare I would agree with something from official Chinese state media, but in this one case I have to agree with their assessment of our ‘betters’. It seems everything they do makes things worse for everyone, including themselves. They won’t recognize they are doing that because they are too busy congratulating themselves and virtue signaling for having “done something” about a problem, real or imagined. However, that ‘something’ usually comes back to bite them, too, but by then it’s too late to undo it. So what do they do?

They double down on stupid.

They “do something” that’s worse than the original ‘something’ they did, and perpetuate the cycle. Things get worse, they get crazier, and all of us suffer for it.

This is something we need to stop, and the sooner the better for everyone, even our ‘betters’.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where spring has arrived in earnest, the ice on the lakes is melting away, and we’re enjoying the weather...even if it’s on a Monday.