Thoughts On A Sunday

Yesterday was our little town’s Old Home Day, a day set aside for present and past residents to come together to celebrate our town. There’s a parade, activities which include games and attractions for kids, numerous vendors of all kinds of goods, crafts, food, drink, as well as music acts. The local church also has it’s ‘fair’ at the same time, selling all kinds of items in order to raise money for the church’s charitable activities and events throughout the year.

In the evening there are fireworks. Over the past few years the fireworks have been spectacular. I know I look forward to them every year.

I do have to admit I had some concern about the weather as it looked as if we would have to deal with rain. But the weather pattern shifted just enough to give us great weather all day – mostly sunny and warm. It certainly helped attendance as I think we had one of the bigger crowds I’ve seen in a while.

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It seems that statistics are now racist because they “serve white racial interests”.

Uh huh. Yeah. Right. *sigh* Here we go again...again.

Science is racist. Math is racist. Philosophy is racist. What isn’t racist these days?

Three British professors recently claimed that statistical analyses have been weaponized to “serve white racial interests” within academia and beyond.

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To address the racism numbers reinforce, the professors advocate for the adoption of “QuantCrit”—a portmanteau for “quantitative analysis” and “critical race theory.” Quantcrit, they say, has five key tenets, including that “numbers are not neutral.”

Numbers are not neutral because “quantitative data is often gathered and analyzed in ways that reflect the interests, assumptions, and perceptions of White elites,” they contend, adding that even so-called objective analysis fails to take the pervasiveness of racism into account.

Other key tenets of QuantCrit theory include realizing that math tends to legitimate existing racial inequalities, acknowledging that numerical analyses disadvantage minorities, and understanding how numbers play to the benefit of white interests.

In the postmodern tradition, Gillborn and his team also argue that racism can be reinforced through numbers because they are social constructs.

“Numbers are social constructs and likely to embody the dominant (racist) assumptions that shape contemporary society,” they write. As a consequence, they assert that “in many cases, numbers speak for White racial interests.”

The professors also acknowledge the tension between social justice and quantitative analysis, saying that while statistics can be used to point out the failures of social justice programming, “data is often used to shut down, silence, and belittle equity work.”

It seems these professors have never heard the old saw about “Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics”. Statistics can be manipulated to prove all kinds of things, true or not. QuantCrit won’t solve that as it can also be used to manipulate statistics and anyone thinking otherwise, including the British professors, are lying to themselves.

Yet more useless lamentations about racism.

It looks like I need to paraphrase The Incredibles again: “If everything is racist, then nothing is racist.”

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Something I saw in the comments of today’s Day by Day cartoon had me thinking “This guy is exactly right!” I think you’ll agree.

I was born in the 1950s. I’ve lived in seven decades, two centuries, and two millennia.

My generation had the fastest cars, the prettiest girls, drive-ins, soda fountains, and happy days.

You could understand the words in our music, and you could dance to it.

We carried knives in our pockets, and guns in our pickup trucks, and nobody got killed.

I have seen the past.

And it works.

Amen.

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Talk about the Law of Unintended Consequences coming home to roost.

The push by climate cultists to replace plastic straws with environment-friendly paper straws has backfired because it turns out those environment-friendly paper straws may contain toxic ‘forever chemicals’.

Belgian researchers tested 39 straw brands from restaurants and retailers for synthetic chemicals known as poly and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The study found that the majority of straws contained those chemicals, but they were most common in those made from paper and bamboo.

The chemicals are referred to as “forever chemicals” as they can remain for thousands of years in the environment. The chemicals have been associated with health issues including thyroid disease, increased cholesterol, liver damage and kidney and testicular cancer and can harm the environment as well.

Just because something is made from natural materials doesn’t automatically mean it is safer.

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U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is raising warning flags about the return of mask and vaccine mandates.

“It’s alarming that the mandates are kicking in again,” he said. “It’s like, OK, we noticed masks didn’t work, particularly for children. We always knew they didn’t work for kids.”

Morris Brown College in Atlanta has reinstated a mask mandate, while Rutgers University in New Jersey continues to enforce both a vaccine mandate and a mask mandate nearly four years after the first COVID-19 case emerged in China.

“Masks might have some marginal impact. We can’t deny that fact,” Johnson said. “N-95 masks can have some marginal benefits — but not to deny people freedom.”

Johnson was always highly suspicious of the federal vaccine mandate and has advocated for those who have suffered an injury from the COVID-19 vaccines. He has attributed those positions to helping him win reelection last year.

The Wisconsin senator has also called on the Biden administration to admit its pandemic policies were a failure.

As I covered in yesterday’s post, masks are useless, something even the CDC agrees with. But that isn’t stopping some colleges from re-instituting mask mandates. Why mandate something known to be ineffective? Will government do the same stupid thing...again?

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I paid a visit to The Manse and its present owners this afternoon. It was a combination of business (town related) and personal.

I was pleasantly surprised to see they had made very few changes to The Manse, mostly minor things like some paint, replacing one screen door, and re-staining the decks. The said they loved the place and I told them I had too during the 13 years my family had lived there. I have a lot of good memories of our time at The Manse.

However, The Manse is no longer a part of my life. It’s part of the past. My focus is now on The Gulch and making plans for building The Redoubt in the future.

The town-related business dealt with changes in zoning that might have had some effect on them as they do rent out The Manse on an occasional basis via AirBnB. Fortunately it turned out there was nothing to worry about in that regard because they don’t rent it out very often during the year.

And life goes on.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where we had a great time at Old Home Day, I have no meetings to attend this coming week, and we’re fast approaching the unofficial “Last Weekend of Summer” all too soon.