Archive for 2021
March 5, 2021
WEST VIRGINIA: Restaurants back to 100% seating capacity; small business & retail store restrictions lifted; but mask mandate still in effect. Restrictions also lifted on gyms, fitness centers, museums, youth travel sports.
Related: Reopen America Now.
Texans and Mississippians might be forgiven for wondering why their governors did not earlier follow the courageous path of Governor Kristi Noem (R-S.D.), who has garnered national headlines for her stubborn refusal to enact various mask-wearing mandates and other lockdown orders. But still: Better late than never.
Abbott now joins Florida’s standout Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, who recently finished second behind former President Donald Trump at the 2024 presidential straw poll conducted at the Conservative Political Action Conference, as a fellow leader of a highly populous red/red-leaning state who has dared to defy the histrionic groupthink and draconian lifestyle restrictions that have far too often defined America’s COVID-19 response. DeSantis’ leadership on getting Florida back to seminormal again (the conference itself, normally held outside Washington, D.C., was held in Orlando, this year due to laxer COVID-19 restrictions) has dramatically elevated his national political profile. Abbott, a less surefire 2024 presidential contender, similarly stands to benefit politically, at least within the Lone Star State.
Joe Biden, never known for his eloquence, lambasted Abbott and Reeves for making a “big mistake” and succumbing to “Neanderthal thinking.” But federalism is a stubborn thing, and Uncle Joe has no say in how Texas and Mississippi exercise—or don’t exercise, as the case may be—their “police power” regulatory authority over their respective citizenries.
No word yet if Biden’s “neanderthal thinking” crack also applies to Ned Lamont’s Connecticut: Capacity Limits to Be Lifted at Restaurants, Gyms & More; Mask and Distancing Guidelines Maintained.
WHEN DEMONIZATION IS YOUR STOCK IN TRADE, YOU WIND UP PARANOID:
During his opening monologue on Thursday, Fox News’s Tucker Carlson excoriated the ongoing military occupation of Washington, D.C. and explained why it’s still there and what has liberals so fearful.
While the left is admittedly scared of pretty much everything, he acknowledged, fear of “the other” has them most wound up now.
“When you’re a liberal, the world is a very scary place, but there is one fear that rises above all other fears in the liberal mind: The fear of “the other.” Like all primitive cultures, modern liberalism is tribal,” he said. “Liberals understand most of the American continent as a mysterious dark space, like a medieval map populated by drooling Trump voters and violent illiterates with extra chromosomes.
“Liberals despise people like this, of course, and on some level, they know they’re hated right back,” he continued. “They worry that someday there will be a backlash against the people in charge, which, of course, is them. That’s their biggest fear, a peasant revolt.”
And so, D.C. looks like Baghdad’s Green Zone, he said.
The left and right were fully prepared for another “insurrection” on March 4, but like a child fearful of the monster in the closet, the threat wasn’t real.
Open up the Capitol now. The People’s House for the People!
HOWIE CARR: Coronavirus has the Karens and Biden voters cowering.
Three states announced they were ending the absurd yearlong “mask mandates,” and the left’s collective head exploded in outrage.
The reason is because this isn’t about public health anymore, or even politics, if it ever was. COVID is now the state religion, and the decisions by these GOP governors aren’t seen as a policy dispute, they’re considered heresy. . . . Remember the 15 days to flatten the curve? That was a year ago. And there is no end in sight.
Masks have been transformed from tools that are moderately useful in the right circumstances to magical totems. The sort of thing that a . . . neanderthal might employ against disease.
HEADLINES FROM 2020: Spring Break COVID-19 Mayhem Is Coming for Florida.
Flashback: How it must hurt to have to admit: Jerry Falwell Jr. was right.
TAMARA KEEL: “Funnily enough, I’ve never noticed a single Chevy commercial ever mentioning that it’s illegal to operate their products in at least fifty states without a driver’s license, yet I don’t see the NYT clutching their pearls at General Motors’ ad agency. Anyhow, the point of the lawsuit isn’t to win, it’s to go on a hunt for something that, quite frankly, probably isn’t there. . . . Still, though, I wouldn’t want you rifling through my emails for stuff to cut-and-paste out of context, either. Would you want me rummaging through your stuff, Mr. Grewal?”
NEWS YOU CAN USE: 5 Great Types of Shotgun for Personal Defense.
21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: ‘Space hurricane’ that rained electrons observed for the first time.
IT DIDN’T WALK THERE BY ITSELF: How Did This Skull End Up All Alone in a Cave in Italy? We Finally Have an Answer.
GETTING ABDUCTED BY ALIENS IS NOT THE ONLY WAY TO GET A MANDATORY ANAL PROBE: Passengers Arriving in Beijing And Shanghai Being Forced To Undergo Covid-19 Anal Swab Testing.
BIDEN VOTERS POSTING THEIR L’S ONLINE:
Shot: Why Joe Biden Might Be the Best Bet to Beat Trump.
—Andrew Sullivan, New York magazine, May 3rd, 2019.
(Classical reference in headline.)
FAKE NEWS FROM AL JAZEERA: Sorry, but I take this one personally. As many of you know, last year, I co-chaired the “No on Proposition 16” campaign here in California. I was also the campaign’s second largest donor (behind the first highest by 1 cent), even though I am by no stretch of the imagination a wealthy woman. Our campaign was outspent by about 14 to 1. We tried as best we could to make up for that disadvantage by working 14 times as hard. And somehow, we managed to win. (It helped a lot that California voters agreed with us .)
Al Jazeera, however, has managed to find an American academic who attributes Proposition 16’s defeat to the supposed big money financing of an “anti-affirmative action industry.” I know … it’s just Al Jazeera. What was I expecting? Still, it’s annoying. I assume I’m not supposed to cuss on this blog, so I’d better stop now …
WHY ARE STEREOTYPES SO PERSISTENT? Research shows dating stereotypes still exist in the virtual world.
BLAME AMERICA FIRST (LAST AND ALWAYS): U.S. Adversaries Weaponize Woke Politics.
China responded to international criticism about the Uighur genocide on Monday by pledging to submit a “report on human-rights violations in the United States” that will discuss the Black Lives Matter movement. Russia, meanwhile, convinced Amnesty International in late February to revoke the “prisoner of conscience” label from Russian dissident Alexei Navalny by disseminating his decade-old anti-immigrant comments.
American rivals—from China to Russia to Iran—are using terms out of the woke dictionary, such as “white supremacy” and “systemic racism,” to peddle propaganda in the United States. Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said the progressive rhetoric allows propagandists to deflect criticism about their authoritarian politics and sow discord in America.
“This is a two-fer for them: It can sow dissent and unrest here, and then it can let them say to their own people, ‘Look how unruly and violent democracy can be,'” Gonzalez told the Washington Free Beacon. “It makes the conduct of our foreign policy much harder, in places like Hong Kong or Xinjiang for example.”
The Woke Left empowers autocrats at home and abroad.
GOD PUT THE REPUBLICANS ON EARTH TO CUT TAXES: House Republicans Working to Block New ‘Wall Street Tax’ Proposals.
(Classical reference in headline.)
I BLAME PREHISTORIC SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES: Global warming led to ancient mass extinction event, scientists say. “According to new research, a rise of greenhouse gases 250 million years ago led to the disappearance of most life on Earth.”
Exclusive video of the culprit most likely responsible:
WHERE THINGS STAND:
WITHOUT COPS, NOBODY GETS TO WORK: Except criminals, of course. It’s an important point that rarely gets made, as J. Warner Wallace reminds us. Lots of folks who happen to be Members of Congress ought to think about this, too.
21ST CENTURY HOUSING: Nation’s First 3D-Printed Homes for Sale Hit Austin Market. “ Logan Architecture designed the one-of-a-kind homes using ICON’s Vulcan construction system to deliver sustainable, resilient, and aesthetically pleasing housing. The first floor of these highly energy efficient homes were 3D printed using ICON’s advanced material that the company says is stronger and longer lasting than traditional building materials.”
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: A cyberpunk scene at SpaceX’s launch facilities: A robot dog inspected the wreckage of a Starship rocket prototype.
YES, THE WHOLE “POPULATION BOMB” THING WAS AT BEST MASS HYSTERIA AND AT WORST DELIBERATE DISINFORMATION: Experts sound the alarm on declining birth rates among younger generations: “It’s a crisis.”
But it’s not just misinformation. Testosterone levels show steady decrease among young US men. And pretty much everywhere else.
Flashback: I was blogging about the coming global baby bust when InstaPundit was shiny and new: Fertility rate: ‘Jaw-dropping’ global crash in children being born.
Related: The Parent Trap.