HMM: Study identifies exposure to common food-borne pathogen linked to rare brain cancer.

So it won’t just turn you into a crazy cat lady?

KAROL MARKOWICZ: Florida puts New York to shame in rational pandemic policies.

Stepping off the plane, we noticed something odd: Everyone was, in fact, masked. And keeping their distance. There was hand sanitizer everywhere. The COVID “Mad Max” world was nowhere to be found. Yes, everything was open, but precautions-wise, southern Florida looked a lot like New York.

The main difference: Masks aren’t worn in no-risk situations. In Gotham, it’s very common to see people masked even when all alone on empty streets. Small children wear masks outside. In Florida, we saw maskless children playing together outside. It looked like the Before Times.

Which is a good thing: We act like it’s no big deal to wear masks even where risk is nonexistent. But, of course, it does matter. In Florida, we saw the smiling faces of strangers for the first time in nine months. It’s hard to overstate how much that mattered to our well-being and the feeling of normality. There’s also the element of pandemic fatigue: Wearing a mask all the time, even when unnecessary, will at some point discourage use when it actually matters.

It’s a lie, though, that Floridians aren’t taking the novel coronavirus seriously. What they have done is discard the policies that don’t work, while retaining the ones that do.

Is Ron DeSantis mad? Has he abandoned all hope of winning an Emmy Award?!

DISPATCHES FROM THE “IT’S DIFFERENT WHEN WE DO IT” PARTY: Prosecutor Who Dropped Charges For BLM Riots Won’t Rule Out Charging Trump For Capitol Riot.

NEVER MISS AN OPPORTUNITY TO OVERREACH: IMPEACHMENT FOLLIES.

If the Democrats do impeach Trump, the Republicans should return the favor when they re-take the House in 2022 (or whenever). They should retroactively impeach Barack Obama. Obama was far more guilty than Trump of inciting violence: “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” When did Trump ever say anything like that? He didn’t. And the violence that Obama helped to incite–the BLM/Antifa riots–have killed at least 30 people, dwarfing the total who died in last week’s Washington riot. So if the Democrats impeach Trump, the Republicans should respond by impeaching Obama.

GOOD ADVICE: Why You Should Include Your Entire Family in a Home Defense Plan.

BREAKING: Parler Sues Amazon, Asks Court to Reverse Illegal ‘Death Blow.’

THE LEFT IS BUSILY CREATING A BIZARRO-WORLD NARRATIVE IN WHICH MOST OF THE VIOLENCE LAST SUMMER CAME FROM THE POLICE ATTACKING PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATORS: Gaslighting Last Summer’s Riots and the Law Enforcement Response.

SO HOW ARE THE LEFT’S EFFORTS AT POLITICAL ETHNIC CLEANSING PLAYING?

So, the Establishment has decided to address the grievances of people who feel disenfranchised, silenced, and subjected to double standards with much more disenfranchisement, silencing, and double standards. Seems like an on-brand move for the most corrupt, unwise, and incompetent – yet remarkably arrogant – ruling caste America has ever known. Good plan – deny them the right to pick their 2024 president, clap like trained seals as corporate overlords cut off their ability to express themselves, and continue to treat their own supporters well and dissenters much, much worse. That’s sustainable. Say, let’s put out this blazing fire with this handy can of gasoline.

Yeah, they are having fun for now. While the supine GOP is tweeting hack cliches about Muh Not Who We Are, the left is trying to tighten the noose. But we’re woke. Rasmussen puts Trump’s popularity at 51%, rising after the riots. We aren’t blaming Trump for the riots. And we sure aren’t rolling over for these bastards.

This sort of fascism won’t play well with Americans, I predict.

NOT THE BABYLON BEE: Instagram just pulled one of our posts for “violence and incitement” … It was a screenshot of Twitter’s trending topics. The irony is beautiful.

IT’S A GOOD, THOUGH HARD-TO-STORE AND NOT VERY ENERGY-DENSE, FUEL: Researchers take key step toward cleaner, more sustainable production of hydrogen.

YES. NEXT QUESTION? Did Pelosi Just Reveal the Motive Behind Her Desperate Last-Minute Attacks on Donald Trump?

PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATIONS INTENSIFIED: Cops, Kids, Reporters & Activists Were Murdered As Democrats Incited 2020 Riots… Now They’ve Accused Trump of Their Tactics.

(Classical reference in headline.)

IT’S NOT ACTUALLY THAT BIG A PUZZLE, BUT THE CHINESE ARE TRYING TO MAKE IT MORE OF ONE TO ESCAPE ACCOUNTABILITY: A year after first death in China, coronavirus source still a puzzle.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Stressed? Try screaming. Yes, really.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

Shot: Biden inauguration theme will be ‘America United.’

—The Hill, today.

Chaser:

History (via Charlie):

“Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer,” was a call for unity.

OH: Joe Biden says he will only prioritize non-white male owned businesses for aid.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How and Why You Should Start a Stretching Routine in 2021.

I stretch regularly and also do yoga. I couldn’t spend as much time at the computer as I do without doing that, and lifting.

KAROL MARKOWICZ: Florida puts New York to shame in rational pandemic policies.

It’s a lie, though, that Floridians aren’t taking the novel coronavirus seriously. What they have done is discard the policies that don’t work, while retaining the ones that do.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on the day he closed indoor dining in New York City, noted that COVID spread in restaurants amounted to 1.4 percent of cases. In Florida, they decided numbers like that meant indoor dining stays open. In New York, we foolishly didn’t.

In Florida, DeSantis prioritized school openings. In New York, Cuomo puffed out his chest and said he was in charge of schools but then washed his hands of them when it was time to do the hard work of getting them open.

And Florida’s policies bore good fruit. On Jan. 9, New York ­reported 17,839 new cases. Florida, with about 2 million more people than New York, had 15,445. An open state like Florida having fewer COVID cases than a mostly closed state like New York proves protracted lockdowns are a ­failure.

And that disparity has led people like Rich Azzopardi, a senior adviser to Cuomo, to spin bizarro conspiracy theories on Twitter that Florida has “cooked the book on case numbers.” It’s much harder to admit that his boss destroyed restaurants and other businesses for no reason.

Hell, the United Arab Emirates has a better handle on public health than Cuomo does:

While the American Left shrieks about “fairness” in distributing the vaccine, the UAE is just distributing it.

GLEICHSCHALTUNG: Parler Will ‘Be Down Longer Than Expected’ as More Vendors Drop Big Tech Alternative.

THAT’S GOOD, SINCE THE SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM WILL PROBABLY NEVER FLY, AND WILL COST A FORTUNE IF IT DOES: NASA’s Europa Clipper has been liberated from the Space Launch System. “As Ars Technica points out, launching the Europa Clipper on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy saves the mission $1.5 billion.”

Also, the Falcon has flown.

YES, I KNOW. A LOT OF YOU GO “BUT THAT’S NOT REAL FIGHTING.” YEAH.I GET IT. BUT INSURRECTIONS (WELL, THEY WANT ONE) NEED STRATEGY. IF YOU GO HOT NOW, AS THEY WANT, IT’S GOING TO BE A LONG, ARDUOUS MESS.  LET’S GET A LITTLE MORE SUPPORT. IT WON’T BE VERY LONG. I’M GIVING THIS THREE MONTHS:  Dance to the Line.

And if you think I’m just trying to hold people back? Not really. This thing is moving on its own train line, and what will happen will happen. I’m just advocating the tried and true tactics to make sure they’re over stretched and not functioning very well and that the majority of people actually know how evil they are.  Don’t believe me? Read The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. Remember Heinlein RESEARCHED. Doing this and not doing this could be the difference between the suppression of the Prague Spring or soldiers refusing to shoot on their grandmothers at the end of the USSR.  Making the beast show its hideous face is needed.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ SAYS HE WOULD DEFEND TRUMP IN ANOTHER IMPEACHMENT TRIAL: “And he said that by pushing impeachment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ‘are doing more to endanger the Constitution than even the thugs who invaded the Capitol, who will be appropriately punished.’”

LOCKDOWNS TODAY, LOCKDOWNS TOMORROW, LOCKDOWNS FOREVER: UK Government May Only Let People Out ONCE A WEEK. “Most chilling, however, is the revelation that cabinet ministers have privately debated preventing people from talking to each other in the street and in supermarkets, and even preventing people from leaving home more than once per week, and introducing curfews.”

COULD CONDESCENSION CAUSE A CIVIL WAR? Everywhere I look, the left takes it upon themselves to denigrate and show their disdain for the right. From the nastiness of Anderson Cooper’s remarks about Olive Garden (I love that place!) to the use of a “basket of deplorables” to describe their political opponents, the jokes and condescension on the part of the left never ends. As an avid student of human nature, I thought about how this condescension mixed with demonizing and dehumanizing their enemies (us) will result in an escalation of violence in our country. In particular, I read about 28-year-old Thomas Baranyi, who gave a recount of what happened to Ashli Babbitt in the Capitol:

“We had stormed into the chambers inside and there was a young lady who rushed to the windows,” Baranyi answered. “A number of police and Secret Service were saying ‘get back, get down, get out of the way.’ She didn’t heed the call….”

“I’m not injured. It could have been me, but she went in first. It was one of us.”

An emotional Baranyi asked the reporter to make this tragedy known.

“Just make sure people know, because this cannot stand anymore. This is wrong. They don’t represent anyone. Not Republican, Democrat, Independent, nobody. And now they’ll just, they’ll kill people,” Baranyi answered.

When asked who is he referring to, Baranyi answered: “Police, congressmen and women, they don’t care. I mean, they think we’re a joke. $2,000 checks was a joke to them. You know, there’s people filming us, laughing at us as we marched down the street at the Department of Justice. There’s a man in the window laughing at us, filming us. And here it was a joke to them until we got inside and then all of a sudden guns came out. But I mean, we’re at a point now, it can’t be allowed to stand. We have to do something, people have to do something, because this could be you or your kids.”

Of course there are many reasons for tension and violence right now, but belittling plays a part. According the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association:

Belittling is the intentional act of making another feel worthless, empty, and dismissed. It is one of many forms of psychological and emotional abuse. Belittling another often creates a personal emptiness and void. It can create a sense of loneliness and despair in the lives of many. It creates the attitude of “Why should I give a dam, nobody else does?” When someone belittles another he/she are often trivializing, minimizing, downgrading, running or playing down the personhood of another.

The left does not understand the personhood of those on the right, for example, J. D. Vance’s book, Hillbilly Elegy turned Netflix movie got bad reviews. Why? According to leftist director, Ron Howard, critics didn’t like the conservative politics of Vance and their bias gave way to negative reviews. While this is certainly true, it is also likely that critics did not like that the dregs of society that elected Trump were seen in the movie in a sympathetic light. This is their biggest fear, that others may see the “deplorables” as people who deserve respect and a voice. This would lessen their power.

But the problem is that the main attraction of leftist politics is to put people down in order to feel powerful. There is no incentive for them to stop and the media eggs them on and promotes belittling as a virtue. It is a vicious circle that may end in a very bad place.

SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Self-control may be key to longer, happier life, study suggests.