IF I CAN’T HAVE ORION I AT LEAST WANT A TORCHSHIP: The Direct Fusion Drive That Could Get Us to Saturn in Just 2 Years.
Archive for 2020
October 25, 2020
SOMEBODY’S STARTING TO NOTICE THE PROBLEM OF CORONAVIRUS FALSE POSITIVES. “Although false positives may seem relatively harmless in comparison with their false-negative cousins, ‘people can absolutely get hurt,’ said Dr. Benjamin Mazer, a pathologist and diagnostics expert at Johns Hopkins University. . . . In places where the virus is relatively scarce, false positives may even outnumber actual positives — eroding trust in tests and, under some circumstances, prompting outbreaks of their own. A positive result on a coronavirus test sets off a cascade of consequences. According to guidelines published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who test positive should immediately isolate for at least 10 days after their symptoms start (if they experience symptoms at all). That is 10 days spent away from friends and family, and 10 days of potential productivity in a school or workplace lost. . . . False positives can also be disastrous from a treatment standpoint, said Linoj Samuel, a clinical microbiologist at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. People with the flu or Covid-19, for example, often show similar symptoms, but may only be tested for one of them at a time. If a patient is given an incorrect diagnosis of Covid-19, that person could be deprived of treatment that could alleviate their illness, or be given a costly therapy that does little to speed their recovery.”
Plus: “As testing in the United States continues to increase, experts have expressed concerns that frequent and high-profile diagnostic errors could seed disillusionment among the general public.”
And if you get sent to isolation with other coronavirus-positive people, you could catch it, when you were actually disease-free before.
FLASHBACK: Make DC A Swamp Again.
HUNTER BIDEN’S MAGICAL MOSCOW LAPTOP. “The only Russian disinformation operation here is the one being waged by the media.”
Flashback: Russians! Under my bed!
Related: Mueller report: Donald Trump collusion conspiracy theories are now exposed. Will they end? Spoiler: No.
ARE MILLENNIALS AND GEN Z DOOM FOR THE GOP? Earlier in the 21st Century, the demographic silver bullet for Democrats was the “Rising Electorate” of Blacks, Hispanics and other “voters of color.” Now, Ronald Brownstein says the silver bullet is the Millennial and Gen Z generations.
And why do these younger voters — who will soon make up the largest generational voting block — represent the end of the line for Republicans? Here’s Brownstein’s governing assumption: “Given that the younger generations align much more closely with Democratic ideological views on almost all policy questions …”
But is that “given” actually a given? What if Trump wins another four years, gets the economy expanding again, as it was just prior to the pandemic lockdown, and continues the trends of increasing household income, record low-unemployment among Blacks, women, Hispanics and young people, and new-job creation?
Where will Democrats find a new silver bullet?
BRYAN PRESTON: From the Avengers to Coyotes and Nylon Rope: Blue-Check Ignorance and Intolerance Threaten Freedom and Our Way of Life.
What if the Avengers actors hadn’t defended Pratt? Would we have seen cancel culture destroy a good and decent man not for saying something offensive, but for saying nothing at all? Probably.
Recent blue-check stupidity doesn’t stop at the Avengers’ defense of the Bill of Rights. During the final presidential debate, President Trump brought up the issue of “coyotes” smuggling people across the border. Twitter idiots erupted with guffaws. Because they’re stupid.
Someone went and gathered blue-check reaction to the president’s factual and accurate coyotes remark. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so tragic.
A couple of those blue-checkers are actually famous. Peri Gilpin, originally from Waco, Texas, played Roz on Frasier. Lexa Doig has starred in a few B-grade and below TV series and movies.
As both of them and all Americans ought to know, coyotes are human smugglers and traffickers. They charge poor people exorbitant sums of money to get them into the United States against our laws by whatever means their evil minds may devise. Coyotes do not care about the welfare of their customers at all. They care about cash and breaking laws. They tend to move the human cargo in the backs of trucks and in conditions that subject them to the real threat of injury and death. No food. No water.
Given Snopes’ target audience, no wonder they get the vapors over the Babylon Bee’s headlines.
TWITTER ALSO CENSORING REAL CLEAR POLITICS: Just tried to tweet RCP’s link to new Biden revelations from Peter Schweizer and Seamus Bruner in The New York Post. Check out the result (giving it another shot produces the same result, over and over):
UPDATE (Charlie): Here’s a link to the story: Hunter’s Emails Confirm Claims of Biden Corruption.
GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Episcopal Church Marriages Plunge by Two-Thirds.
THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: Some Groups, Residents Say Gov. Cuomo Has Taken Criticism Of Orthodox Jewish COVID-19 Noncompliance Too Far.
The governor’s words came a day after he announced he would withhold funding from local governments that do not enforce the rules at schools, including yeshivas.
“If the local government does not effectively enforce the law, we will withhold funds from the local government… If they don’t, we will withhold funding from the government. I don’t like to do that. Budgets are tough all across the board. I don’t know how else to get them to do the enforcement they need to do. So, hopefully that will motivate them because nothing else I have done has motivated them – not my rapier wit, not my sense of humor, not my guilt, not my blame, not my admonition, and not my pleas. Maybe money works,” Cuomo said.
He later pointed out that yeshivas receive a significant amount of funding.
“I guarantee if a yeshiva gets closed down, and they’re not going to get state funding, you will see compliance,” Cuomo said.
The above link goes to CBS’s New York affiliate. Though I assume Cuomo’s attacks against New York Jews are approved by the top-level CBS brass: Former Comedian Stephen Colbert Bows Before ‘Your Excellency’ Andrew Cuomo.
WHY IS CNBC TAUNTING THE OWNER OF THE NEW YORK TIMES? NBC Host Taunts Cotton About Big Tech Suppression Of Biden Story. Cotton’s Matchless Answer Leaves Him Speechless (Video).
IS THERE A STRONG MAN DICTATOR THE NEW YORK TIMES HASN’T ADMIRED? Biden is Wrong: U.S. Didn’t Have a Good Relationship With Hitler — But the New York Times Did.
SLATE REALLY NEEDS TO STOP IMITATING THE BABYLON BEE: Beethoven Has a First Name. It’s time to “fullname” all composers in classical music.
There will be a time when we’ll go to concerts again. We will buy our tickets, shuffle shoulder to shoulder down the aisle, and find our seats. The lights will dim, and the conductor will walk onto the stage to introduce the program. They might talk about Beethoven, Schumann, and Bartók. And they might talk about Alma Mahler, Florence Price, Henry Burleigh, and Caroline Shaw. Many of us, used to the conventions of classical performance, will hardly notice the difference: “traditional” white male composers being introduced with only surnames, full names for everyone else, especially women and composers of color.
The habitual, two-tiered way we talk about classical composers is ubiquitous. For instance, coverage of an early October livestream by the Louisville Orchestra praised the ensemble’s performance of a “Beethoven” symphony, and the debut of a composition memorializing Breonna Taylor by “Davóne Tines” and “Igee Dieudonné.” But ubiquity doesn’t make something right. It’s time we paid attention to the inequity inherent in how we talk about composers, and it’s time for the divided naming convention to change.
* * * * * * * *
As we usher wider arrays of composers into our concerts and classrooms, this dual approach only exacerbates the exclusionary practices that suppressed nonwhite and nonmale composers in the first place. When we say, “Tonight, you’ll be hearing symphonies by Brahms and Edmond Dédé,” we’re linguistically treating the former as being on a different plane than the latter, a difference originally created by centuries of systematic prejudice, exclusion, sexism, and racism. (Dédé was a freeborn Creole composer whose music packed concert halls in Europe and America in the mid-19th century.)
Going forward, we need to “fullname” all composers when we write, talk, and teach about music. If mononyms linguistically place composers in a canonical pantheon, fullnaming never places them there to begin with. When we say, “Tonight, you’ll be hearing symphonies by Johannes Brahms and Edmond Dédé,” we’re linguistically treating both composers as being equally worthy of attention. And while fullnaming might seem like a small act in the face of centuries of harm and injustice, by adopting a stance of referential egalitarianism, fullnaming at least does no more harm.
The author is right about one thing: There will be a time when we’ll go to concerts again. I’m especially looking forward to seeing new concerts performing the splendid works of Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern-schplenden-schlitter-crasscrenbon-fried-digger-dingle-dangle-dongle-dungle-burstein-von-knacker-thrasher-apple-banger-horowitz-ticolensic-grander-knotty-spelltinkle-grandlich-grumblemeyer-spelterwasser-kurstlich-himbleeisen-bahnwagen-gutenabend-bitte-ein-nürnburger-bratwustle-gerspurten-mitzweimache-luber-hundsfut-gumberaber-shönendanker-kalbsfleisch-mittler-aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm.
ROGER KIMBALL: A Momentous Election.
A preview of this new order was recently vouchsafed by the diminutive satrap Robert Reich. “When this nightmare is over,” he tweeted, “we need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It would erase Trump’s lies, comfort those who have been harmed by his hatefulness, and name every official, politician, executive, and media mogul whose greed and cowardice enabled this catastrophe.”
Noted. And the truly frightening thing is that it would be susceptible neither to repeal nor revision but, having cast our political life into a Manichaean struggle between heresy and the regime, would hearken only to competing entreaties from its own medium of exchange, naked power.
The prospect of that malign dispensation is why I believe the 2020 election is the most momentous of my life.
Read the whole thing.
LIKE THE NYPD, FORMER NEW SOCIALIST “IT GIRL” ALSO NOW JUST PHONING IT IN: AOC returns to her tiresome and hypocritical victimhood stunt.
“AOC is a name given to me by community & the people,” she continued. “Y’all can call me AOC. Government colleagues referring to each other in a public or professional context (aka who don’t know me like that) should refer to their peers as ‘Congresswoman,’ ‘Representative,’ etc. Basic respect 101.”
This is asinine. Male or female, politicians are commonly referred to by last names or abbreviations. Consider how often you have heard President Trump called “Trump,” former President Barack Obama referred to as “Obama,” and so on. Ocasio-Cortez is creating a sexist victim narrative for herself where none exists.
In fact, she has referred to government officials and colleagues in this exact manner many times. Just on Aug. 20, Ocasio-Cortez referred to “Kamala” and “Biden.” On multiple occasions, the congresswoman has referred to Hillary Clinton as “Hillary.”
Ironically, Ocasio-Cortez regularly refers to Vice President Mike Pence as simply “Pence” but has publicly chastised him for referring to her without her title.
Plus:
There’s also something inherently condescending and reductive about Ocasio-Cortez’s complaints. She claims to be advocating on behalf of women and speaking out against sexism. But in reality, the view Ocasio-Cortez is espousing suggests that women in politics can’t handle being referred to in the same manner as their male colleagues. She’s essentially using woke vernacular to say that female politicians are particularly delicate and fragile.
It’s all about getting attention, by any means necessary.
GLEICHSCHALTUNG! School district fires principal who questioned ‘coercive’ Black Lives Matter measures. You shall not question the woke ideology!
Somebody report this to the Department of Education, and the Justice Department.
ANSWERS TO THE MOST BAFFLING QUESTIONS: “How the hell did Milton Friedman’s epic, pro-capitalism Free To Choose series air on PBS, of all networks, in 1980?,” Nick Gillespie of Reason tweets. Gillespie answers that question here: Bob Chitester: How Free To Choose Changed the World. Here’s the inside story of Milton Friedman’s path-breaking PBS series about economic and political freedom, from the man who produced it.
IN OTHER NEWS, CADILLAC DEALERS CLAIM FREE CADILLAC PLAN WILL PAY FOR ITSELF: Profs claim Joe Biden’s free college plan will pay for itself. Other experts disagree.
SALENA ZITO: Why Pennsylvania miners are voting Trump — even though he didn’t bring jobs back.
He doesn’t hate them, and the Democrats do?
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