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As some of you may know I am on the far side of fifty and thus closer to sunset than to sunrise. I suspect that a lot of us “older sort” remember Looney Tunes, which were cartoon shorts featuring cherished characters including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Tweety, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Taz, Marvin the Martian, and Beaky Buzzard.
Oh … the nostalgia! However, for the younger readers who do not recall the old Looney Tunes, there are 206 strange characters that are we can now refer to as “looney.” These are the 206 House Democrats who on 1/14/25 voted against the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which excludes males from participating in women’s sports sponsored by organizations that receive federal funding.
The text stipulates that “sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”

From Clay Travis on X
“Only two Democrats voted yes to keep men out of women’s sports. How insane is this? I can’t believe that it is Democrat party orthodoxy that men pretending to be women should be able to play women’s sports. Legit crazy town.”

I would love to be a fly on the wall when each of these 206 loonies individually explain his/her rationale to their daughters and granddaughters!
1/17/25

The initial part of what follows is taken from a blog of mine from 12/21/22:
“‘ … this vaccine is not completely safe, and has unprecedented harms.’
This was said by British cardiologist, Dr. Aseem Malhotra, who initially encouraged the widespread use of COVID-19 vaccines until his father passed away suddenly of cardiac arrest after receiving the jab.
His father’s death prompted Malhotra to begin researching the safety profile of the vaccines. Based on his findings, he no longer believes the theoretical benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the very real risks.
Dr. Malhotra is not alone.
In June 2022, the FDA’s Tom Shimabukuro, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., identified as part of the CDC COVID-19 Vaccine Coordination Unit, reported that: “Current evidence supports a causal association between mRNA COVID-19 vaccination and myocarditis and pericarditis.”
Six months later, as of Dec. 2, 2022, there have been a total of 35,718 cases of myocarditis/pericarditis reported to the government’s Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System.
This skepticism is not confined to Britain and the U.S.
After witnessing as many as 70 cases of vaccine-related heart conditions, Australian Cardiologist Dr. Ross Walker is now saying publicly that he believes there should be a ban on the use of mRNA booster vaccines.”

Fortunately for them, none of the above mentioned individuals practice medicine in California, because the California Medical Board considers the expression of the doctors’ dissenting views on the disease as potentially dangerous misinformation that should be suppressed. The board argues it has legal authority to discipline the doctors for speech it deems to be medical misconduct.

Three doctors are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent a California agency from investigating them over their opposition to state-approved COVID-19 policies.
The physicians counter that just because they have medical licenses doesn’t mean they forfeit their free speech rights under the First Amendment.

This rigamarole has been now going on for years with appeals, appeals to appeals, etc. While I do not consider myself to be an expert on the Constitution, I do not recall any provision in that document that says or even implies that the right to free speech is suspended in case of a pandemic.
IMO, in this case the California Medical Board has again overstepped its authority.
Hopefully the Supreme Court will agree.

1/16/25

I was just reading about Trump’s recent press conference at Mar-a-Lago, and it occurred to me that part of it was classic Trump. When he was asked about potentially using military or economic measures to control Greenland or the Panama Canal, he responded, “I’m not going to commit to that.”

His comments during that press conference left many reporters puzzled, prompting repeated questions for clarification.
The president-elect emphasized that the United States needs both regions for economic and national security reasons.

Whatever measures president-elect Trump is considering or not considering, he is certainly not going to state them now. Part of “The Art of the Deal” is to always keep them guessing, and to always let them know that even some extreme positions are always a consideration.
From the Epoch Times:
“One of the benefits of Trump’s approach, whether intentional or not, is that it creates public discourse on issues that would typically be handled behind the scenes, Michael Walsh, a U.S. foreign policy expert, told The Epoch Times.
‘It stirs discussion and debate. And you’re seeing that right now. You hear people on the metro talking about Greenland and Panama,’ Walsh said.”

Perhaps within the next four years we’ll be talking about considering Greenland as the 51st state!
Remember: You heard it here first!
1/15/25

How many of you know much about Trump’s nominees to the various health agencies? I did recognize the names of the recent appointments, but to be honest, that’s are far as it went. Therefore when I read an article in Epoch Health, I thought that some of it would educational for my readers.
All of the following are excerpts from that 12/14/24 article from Epoch Health.

NIH Director: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya

The National Institutes of Health is the largest funder of biomedical and behavioral research in the United States and worldwide.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford University and the new pick for the head of the NIH, would be making decisions on allocating potentially $50.1 billion of funds into research that would benefit American’s interest. Some expect Bhattacharya to reform the funding process to ensure that priorities for research grant approvals are driven by uncovering the root causes of the chronic disease epidemic in the United States rather than symptom mitigation medications.

“The NIH haven’t focused on any of the issues like obesity, they’ve done very little work on diabetes … smoking, these are major problems In the United States,” Dr. Cody Meissner, professor of pediatrics and medicine at Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, told the Epoch Times in an interview.

The thing that I remember most about Dr. Jay Bhattacharya
is that he co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration with two other researchers. The Declaration advocated for focused protection, proposing that public health measures be primarily directed toward high-risk individuals while allowing young and healthy people to return to normal life.

As we have since learned the Great Barrington Declaration was spot on!

FDA Commissioner: Marty Makary

Dr. Marty Makary, a professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and author of several books, is seen as a person who values evidence more than consensus.

Makary’s op-eds throughout the pandemic showed an evolving view that adapted as more research emerged.

Makary criticized the way the CDC was keeping records on COVID-19 deaths, arguing that it has inflated COVID-19 mortality numbers by not differentiating people who died from COVID-19 as compared to those who died with COVID-19.
Makary welcomed vaccinations but has criticized the policymakers’ sole focus on driving up vaccination without considering herd immunity and also that children had significantly lower risks of dying from COVID-19 provided they did not have chronic health disease.

On problems with food and chemicals, at a congressional roundtable discussion hosted by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc), Makary echoed beliefs Kennedy said during his campaign.

CDC Director: Dr. Dave Weldon
Prior to reading the aforementioned Epoch Health piece, I do not recall ever hearing Dr. Weldon’s name before, and consequently knew nothing about him.

Weldon is well known for being a skeptic of vaccine safety and a critic of the CDC.
During his time in Congress, from 1996 to 2008, Weldon tried three times to introduce a bill that would ban mercury vaccines. The bill was blocked each time by the health subcommittees.
Weldon’s views align closely with Kennedy’s on examining vaccine safety and removing conflicts of interest in health agencies.

At the start of his testimony at a 2002 hearing discussing vaccines and autism, Weldon praised vaccination systems as significant breakthroughs. However, he criticized the lack of transparency from agencies like the CDC, which does not allow researchers to access the vaccine safety data, and suggested “to open it up and let objective scientists look at it.”
He added that unless there is an open dialogue on vaccine safety, he will “never be satisfied that there isn’t some data suggesting that some children may have serious side effects,” including potential side effects of autism.

Three interesting picks for these health agencies. The next four years will certainly be very interesting!
1/14/25

Back on Halloween of this year there was a wildfire in San Diego. Luckily there were no concomitant Santa Ana winds and within an hour or so this fire was contained and subsequently extinguished. A friend of mine had that wildfire come right up to his back fence. Yes, it was a close call. The cause of that wildfire was a homeless encampment. For even though it does not freeze here in San Diego, it does get cold at night. The nighttime cold temps as well as the need to have a fire for cooking are the two main reasons that the homeless encampments have fires.
At this point no one knows what started the horrendous L.A. fire in Pacific Palisades. In general the more common reasons for wildfires include lightning, arson, downed power lines, and campfires which get out of control. At this point we know that there was no lightning, and there is no evidence that arson was involved. There is a suspicion by some that arcing between power lines may have been involved, but nothing definitive at this point. In terms of causal possibilities, what are we left with?
Could a campfire in a homeless encampment have been the prime cause in conjunction with the Santa Ana winds? I guess that only time will tell. However remember that the vast majority of homeless are not up-to-date on the latest info on the Santa Ana winds, and wildfires caused by homeless campers are not rare in SoCal.
From PJMedia
Here are just a few recent wildfires started by drug-addled “homeless” campers.
* Jan 7, 2025: Santa Ana Riverbed Fire one acre, destroyed tents, RVs, and at least 12 cars.
* Nov. 14, 2024: Van Nuys, impacted commuters on freeways throughout San Fernando Valley.
* May 2024: Hollywood Boulevard, aforementioned electrical fire, threatened nearby buildings.
* Jan. 7, 2024: Hollywood, Cahuenga Pass, during high winds. Two cars and some trees were destroyed.
* April 20, 2021: Venice Beach, one home was destroyed and a dog killed. Believed linked to a string of homeless encampment fires in the area.
Keep in mind that Gavin Newsom’s plan to help the homeless has resulted in not only missing and unaccounted for billions of dollars, but also a nearly doubling of the homeless population in California.
It will certainly take months to figure out the cause of the Palisades fire, but could it be in the future that this fire will be what Gavin Newsom is mostly remembered for?
1/13/25

For quite awhile I have been using Sundays to write about individuals who deserve our praise and respect for something they did. Daljit Soni is such an individual.
From the Epoch Times:
Truck driver Daljit Sohi made a stop at the rest area on Nov. 29, 2024, when he saw Shailly James, of High River, Alta., inadvertently drop her purse during the stop while assisting her 4-year-old child.
As James drove away, Sohi got into his truck and followed, intending to return the purse, which contained James’s ID cards, $1,100, a gold chain, and her credit cards.
James was concerned when she noticed a truck following her, she said in a message she wrote to Sohi’s trucking company later. When she stopped about three hours later to fill up at a gas station in Sicamous, B.C., Sohi took the opportunity to return her purse.
“I was incredibly grateful for his honesty,” James wrote to Sohi’s employer in a note shared with The Epoch Times. “As a token of appreciation, I offered him a $500 reward, but he kindly refused and did not provide his name or any details about his company and left.”
James took note of Sohi’s trailer number and was able to contact his B.C. employer, Abbotsford-based trucking company Triple Eight Transport Inc.
James said she wanted to express her gratitude to Sohi for his “integrity and kindness,” and later sent him an iPhone to the company’s address as a token of appreciation, a spokesperson for the company told The Epoch Times.
Sohi was named a TCA Highway Angel on Dec. 9 and has been nominated for the 2024 Highway Angels of the Year Award.

Kudos to Daljit Soni. I hope that he wins the Highway Angel of the Year Award.
1/12/25

I do not often agree with the present governor of California, Gavin Newsom … in fact I am having difficulty recalling if I have ever agreed with him. But today I am agreeing with what he said on 1/8/25, when California Gov. Gavin Newsom accused President-elect Donald Trump of politicizing the ongoing wildfire crisis after the incoming president blamed his leadership for the fires currently raging through the Los Angeles area.
Speaking to CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday, 1/8, Newsom said: “Kids have lost their schools. Communities have lost their churches. Families have lost their homes. Some have even lost their lives. And the president-elect’s response is to politicize it.”

Memo to President-elect Trump: “Now is not the time to throw stones! It doesn’t matter whether your contention about who is at fault or partially at fault is true or not … Now is not the time.”

From the Epoch Times:
Newsom’s comments were made in reply to Trump’s comments on Wednesday that Newsom had refused to sign a water restoration plan “that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the north” to flow into other parts of the Golden State, including those currently impacted by the fires.
Trump criticized what he described as “gross incompetence and mismanagement” by the state and federal government in a series of posts on Truth Social.
There has been an ongoing debate about whether California should divert some water to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay to protect smelt and other fish or instead send it to Central Valley farmers and Southern California cities.
Trump, who has championed diverting the water to farmers and residents in those areas, has repeatedly clashed with Newsom over the issue.

All of the finger-pointing has just started, however, with the risk of unnecessarily repeating myself, I say to DJT, … “Now is not the time!”
1/11/25

Today I again have to admit that I do not understand the political system in England. Labour Party … ? Tories … ? From the way a vote turned out on 1/8/25, I am going to guess that the Labour Party is our equivalent of the Dems, while the Tories are the conservatives. You might ask, ‘which vote?’
The following from X tells the story.
UK’s Labour Party Votes Down National Inquiry Into ‘Grooming Gangs’

Labour MPs have defeated a Tory proposal for a national inquiry into grooming gangs — roving groups of migrants accused of rap*ng and s*xually assaulting girls — by a vote of 364 to 111 against the motion.
The vote follows heated political debate and public pressure, including demands from tech billionaire, Elon Musk, who criticized the government’s refusal to support a nationally led inquiry in Oldham.
Musk earlier reacted to a report that British PM Starmer would EXPEL Labour MPs unless from the party unless they vote AGAINST the national inquiry.
“Unbelievable,” Musk said. “Starmer must go.”
While complaints about the “grooming gangs” skyrocket, many point out that the divisive term even downplays the severity of the egregious crimes. Many of the victims have been recorded as minors, thus causing some to call these groups “ped*ph*le gangs.”
The Labour Party has attempted to quell public outrage by pointing to public complaints about migrants rap*ng and s*xually assaulting young girls as nothing but “Islamophobia.”

IMO, here the Labour Party is using a typical leftist strategy of going after and insulting those who hold opposing views (ad hominem attacks) instead of addressing the actual issue at hand. Again I find myself taking the side of Elon Musk. Can we hope for some common sense to suddenly to come to the Labour Party?
1/10/25

After years of discussion and haggling finally on 1/5/25 New York City’s controversial ‘congestion pricing’ program went into effect. Basically it charges exorbitant fees for commuters to enter Manhattan in their vehicles from areas surrounding the city. One of the intents of the law is to push more people to public transportation.
While I cannot thoughtfully argue the pros and cons of ‘congestion pricing,’ I thought that Vickie Paladino had a creative way to voice her opposition. Ms. Paladino is a Republican council member representing parts of Queens. In other words, her constituents are the exact people who the congestion pricing is harming.
Ms. Paladino tweeted the following”
“Important warning: A high-powered green laser pointer like the ones you find on Ebay for under $30 can destroy a camera sensor. So if you buy one of these lasers, be sure to NOT point them at any cameras, because they could be permanently damaged!”
It is interesting that in London, ever since the government enacted ‘Ultra Low Emission Zones’ that punish people for driving older cars with higher emissions, people have been destroying the cameras used to spot those violators.

While neither any law-abiding person nor a city councilwoman can officially support disabling traffic cameras with a green laser pointer, will the sales of these gadgets soon start to skyrocket on eBay or Amazon?
Is Vickie Paladino advocating for using these laser pointers to destroy these cameras or is she advocating for NOT using these laser pointers to destroy these cameras? Read her words carefully! … Hmmm!
1/9/25

On 1/7/25 the House passed the Laken Riley Act with a majority of Democrats voting against the bill. The Laken Riley Act is the first bill in the 119th Congress addressing illegal immigration, requiring that aliens charged with theft or burglary be detained.
As we can all recall Laken Riley was a 22-year-old nursing student who was brutally murdered by an illegal alien while she was jogging at the University of Georgia.
As would be expected a majority of Democrats voted against this bill … despicable Dems! However, despite the overwhelming resistance from 159 Democrats, 48 voted with 216 Republicans to pass the legislation.

Speaker Mike Johnson praised the legislation, saying it will “ensure criminals like Laken’s murderer are detained & deported before they can commit such evil acts.”
Actually, this Democrat resistance is not surprising as “President Biden never apologized to Laken’s family for allowing her killer into our country, but he DID apologize for calling that monster an illegal,” added Mike Johnson.
Joe Biden, another truly despicable Dem!
1/8/25