Month: April 2022

Finally it appears that sanity is beginning to peek it’s head through the dark clouds of leftism. Lately all of the news has suggested that the extremists on the far left were winning, but lo-and-behold the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals appeared to stop the momentum and restore some sanity. Most of what follows is from BlazeMedia:

“The Court ruled that Shawnee State University, a public university in Ohio, will pay $400,000 to a philosophy professor who refused to use a student’s preferred pronouns. The settlement arrives four years after the school punished the professor for not using a student’s preferred pronouns. The legal team for the professor argued the university violated the professor’s First Amendment rights.”

The case dates back to 2018 when professor Nick Meriwether responded to a biological male student’s question by saying, “Yes, sir.” When the class ended, the student confronted Meriwether. The student declared to be transgender, and to be referred to as a woman, with feminine titles and pronouns.

When Meriwether did not instantly agree, the student became belligerent and promised to get Meriwether fired. The student filed a complaint with the university, which triggered a formal investigation into the incident.

Meriwether said the pronouns would force him to speak and act “contrary to his own Christian convictions and philosophical beliefs.”

Shawnee State University also rejected a Meriwether’s compromise to use that student’s first and last name only, when the Dean of Students and his department chair, Jennifer Pauley, came to Meriwether’s office and said that he had to use the chosen pronoun for the student. 

The school  claimed that “he effectively created a hostile environment.” The university also slapped the professor with a written warning in his personnel file and threatened “further corrective actions” unless he used the student’s preferred pronouns. Meriwether countered with a lawsuit, asserting that the Portsmouth, Ohio based school violated his First Amendment rights and his 14th Amendment right to due process.

“[Shawnee State University] punished a professor for his speech on a hotly contested issue. And it did so despite the constitutional protections afforded by the First Amendment,” a three-judge panel wrote in their unanimous opinion. “The district court dismissed the professor’s free-speech and free-exercise claims. We see things differently and reverse.”

As discussed by in a column by law professor Jonathon Turley, “Many faculty members are now abandoning the use of pronouns to avoid such complaints. The university likely spent in excess of a million dollars in the litigation. It created precedent that can now be cited by other faculty to decline to use such pronouns.”

Finally, sanity has prevailed and justifiably Shawnee State University must pay … $1 million in legal fees +$400,000 to professor Meriwether !Hopefully those administrators who thought that they had a right to bully and then punish professor Meriwether for his opinion will also pay a price. Perhaps the outcome in this case will de-enlighten other leftists when they are presented with similar situations. One can only hope that in similar circumstances further sanity will prevail. Thank God that Nick Meriwether had the courage to stand up for his beliefs 

BTW, do not expect to read about this story in your local liberal “newspaper!”

4/20/22

On 4/12, I listened to an interview of Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone on “Your World with Neil Cavuto.” The interview mainly centered on inflation. As it’s the start of the MLB season, a lot of us have baseball on our minds, and as I listened, my mind wandered a bit and I wondered if Langone could hit. 

When he stepped into the batter’s box, the Home Depot guy immediately came out swinging; he was obviously a free-swinger when he answered questions about inflation. He said that because of dithering, the Piper will now have to be paid. [On his first swing, he struck the ball well.]

Langone said, “This was not transitory, this was a real serious case of inflation. We lost a whole year on addressing the issue. Only because, frankly, we have leadership today in America that isn’t willing to admit when they’re wrong. They made a terrible blunder here, and now the price has got to be paid.” [He easily rounded first, heading to second.]

 Mr Langone was just getting started:

“The other thing is we’ve exacerbated the problem. For example, the energy issue in America, we didn’t have to be deficient like we are. Hell, by now, that pipeline would have been almost complete. And Biden’s now saying, he’s now blaming the oil companies. This is a disgrace. …

It’s wrong. It’s absolutely wrong. And nobody’s doing anything about it yet, in a way that going to address the issue.” [Easily around second, and cruising toward third.]

As he was circling the bases, the founder of Home Depot predicted a recession, most likely in early 2023, and also predicted interest rates to go to at least 8.5%.

Langone continued, “The steps we’re taking right now will not help. And who’s going to get hurt? The little guy, the poor guy that’s living from paycheck to paycheck.” [Easily into third!]

(This is something I have been harping on for years … namely that the Democrats repeatedly do things that hurt the little guys the most, and it is reassuring to see that a heavy business hitter agrees with me.)

Langone closed out the interview by calling President Biden worse than former President Jimmy Carter … [a home run!]

4/19/22

In criminal cases the defendant has a constitutional right to a “jury of one’s peers.? In practice what does that mean?

The following is from the Legal Information Institute (LII):

“This right can be found in the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution where it states, “the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury.” The purpose of this provision is to ensure that a jury’s verdict is not tainted by biases that jurors may harbor before being presented with the evidence of the particular case. Readily recognized biases include gender, race, sexual orientation, nationality, etc. …”

My question is “does ‘etc.’ ever include ‘political affiliation’ as a readily recognized bias?”

You scoff!!

What if these political affiliations are extreme? For instance, do you think that a bunch of far right conservatives in a town could be unbiased in a situation where the defendant is a far left individual, who is accused of doing something, like burning down a gas station to prevent the selling of gasoline, in the name of global warming. For me, to be honest, the bastard is guilty! I could not be unbiased here. What if the defense were out of peremptory challenges, and could not boot me off the jury? Would I then comprise a part of a jury of peers? … No!  No! As I am not unbiased!

Perhaps the defense attorney should have opted for a change of venue if he knew that the community in which the trial was being held was a hard right community. I bring this up because of the upcoming trials of those accused in the January 6th incident at the Capitol. For the most part the accused obviously are going to be pro-Trump conservative Republicans … otherwise, for the most part, why would they have been there. The jury pool comprises those who live in D.C., and for the most part, they are liberal, anti-Trump Democrats.

An opinion survey found 72 percent of D.C. residents said “they are likely to find defendants guilty—even when given the choice, ‘It’s too early to decide.’” Eighty-five percent characterized events of Jan. 6 “as acts that are criminal in nature,” even when given an option to reserve judgment on the issue.

About 7 in 10 of the D.C. respondents said that the people who entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 “planned in advance to do so,” even when given the option to reserve judgment on the question. More than 40 percent said they believe all of the Jan. 6 events “were racially motivated.”

Nearly 85 percent of D.C. respondents characterize Jan. 6 as involving insurrection, an attack, or a riot. That compares with 40 percent in Florida, 52 percent in North Carolina, and 57 percent in Virginia.

If I am a defendant who resided in Virginia or North Carolina or Florida, should my peers be Virginians or North Carolinians, or Floridians? Or should my peers be residents of D.C., a lot of whom appear to have already made up their minds?

So I again ask, “Should far left or far right political affiliations be included in the category of recognized biases?

4/18/22

In keeping with my Sunday tradition this piece will be about an individual who we can admire and respect. Different from my past Sunday essays, I only know the first name of this individual … Josh.

Josh was minding his own business standing on a Phoenix street corner waiting for the stoplight to change when it happened. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a man accosting a woman nearby. There was no one else around. Josh basically had a simple choice … he could do something, or he could do nothing!

“I just did what I thought was right, Josh later said. 

From the Epoch Times:

“Surveillance camera footage captured the scene of a man randomly assaulting an 18-year-old female who was talking on her phone, while alone in downtown Phoenix. The harrowing incident took place near Roosevelt Street during a Suns game on Feb. 1. In the footage, the victim is seen waiting for her boyfriend on a street corner when a man approached and forcefully grabbed her.

“Josh immediately walked over and after a brief struggle pulled the man off, freeing the victim from her assailant. He wrestled the suspect to the ground and then applied his weight on top of him, pinning him down while he waited for Phoenix Police officers to arrive A patrol vehicle then pulled up, and officers took control of the situation.

“Josh’s good deed wasn’t forgotten, however. He was later recognized for his altruism. On March 17, the Phoenix Police Department honored Josh in a ceremony, presenting him a Citizens Award for his courageous action.

The Phoenix Police Department on March 22 posted the surveillance footage on their Facebook page and thanked the good Samaritan who had intervened. ‘Josh stepped in during an assault, and apprehended the suspect until police arrived. Thank you, Josh!’ the department captioned.”

Since I do not know Josh’s last name, I will merely echo the same sentiments, “Thank you, Josh!” Despite the fact that Josh may not look like the prototypical hero to some, in reality he is just that … truly someone whom we can all admire and respect. 

4/17/22

From Dinesh D’Souza: 

“In a stunning defeat for the Biden Justice Department, a jury has acquitted two men accused of conspiring to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer in the fall of 2020. The jury also deadlocked on a verdict for two other defendants, which meant a hung jury, a mistrial. So another way to put it is the DOJ, in one of the most high-profile terrorism cases in which they put enormous resources, they could not convict a single defendant.

“Essentially, the defense mounted a case of entrapment. They said that the FBI, in a sense, made us do this — they came up with the idea, they moved the plot forward, it was their plot, not ours, they made us into terrorists that we wouldn’t otherwise have been.

“Think about the stunning implications of this. And yet, the jury agreed. The jury found entrapment. The jury basically let these guys walk. The jury did not believe the FBI and they did not believe the Biden DOJ in a case that, quite honestly, was being portrayed just a few months ago as kind of a slam dunk, a kind of a sure thing.”

We’re the yo-yos who were entrapped naive and gullible?  Undoubtedly, yes.

Now to be honest and truthful this entire plot took place before Joe Biden was “elected.” However, to me, this fact makes the entire episode even more terrifying, because it indicates mendacity and malfeasance of the FBI prior to the November election. Recognize that I am not suggesting that everyone in the FBI is crooked, but this scenario indicates that wrongdoing in violation of the public trust is okay with some in the FBI. Think about the implications of this! If one told the same story without mentioning Gov. Whitmer, Michigan, or the FBI, I would immediately think that it had occurred in Venezuela or Iran where a deep state is actually in control.

Now let’s switch gears. Similar to the aforementioned Whitmer story in Michigan, many of those who participated in the events of January 6, 2021 were angry yahoos who felt that they had been wronged. Right from the git-go, let me be perfectly clear … I did not approve of the plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan, and I did not approve of the storming of the Capitol in January, 2021. However, the question must be asked: “We’re the yo-yos who stormed the Capitol provoked, encouraged, or led on? In other words were they entrapped. Was there a group of “good guys” embedded in the crowd and more importantly did these “good guys” act as provocateurs?

Hmmm!

Before you scoff … Since the first arrests of Jan. 6 defendants in early 2021, there has been extensive speculation and questions from attorneys, defendants, case observers, and members of Congress about the role law enforcement played that day.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Jan. 11, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) grilled top FBI officials on the subject.

“How many FBI agents or confidential informants actively participated in the events of Jan. 6?” Cruz asked Jill Sanborn, executive assistant director of the FBI’s national security branch.

“Sir, I’m sure you can appreciate that I can’t go into the specifics of sources and methods,” Sanborn said.

Double Hmmm!

Then Cruz replied, “Did any FBI agents or confidential informants actively participate in the events of Jan. 6, yes or no?”

“Sir, I can’t answer that,” Sanborn said.

Triple Hmmm!

“Did any FBI agents or confidential informants commit crimes of violence on Jan. 6?” Cruz asked.

“I can’t answer that, sir,” Sanborn replied.

Quadruple Hmmm!

To me, refusing to answer a question because of XYZ always generates suspicion. Recall that in the alleged Whitmer kidnapping the Biden DOJ didn’t want its own agents to testify, were constantly trying to exclude evidence communications among FBI agents, one to the other, communications between the FBI and the defendants — they wanted to keep all of this out of the trial. In other words, they wanted to keep their orchestration out so the jury didn’t hear about any of it.

Should the refusal to answer Sen. Cruz’s questions to the FBI rep concerning infiltration and thus potential entrapment be concerning? If the refusal had occurred in Venezuela or Iran, the answer would be “undoubtedly, yes.”

But it occurred in the USA.! 

Quintuple Hmmm!

4/16/22

In April, 2020 Devin Nunes (R,CA) said the following”

“The schools were just canceled out here in California, which is way overkill. It’s possible kids could have gone back to school in two weeks, four weeks.” Back then I agreed with Nunes … see my blog of 6/18/2020.

Not surprising,”those that knew best” as well as the Main Stream Media (MSM) scoffed at him. From the L.A. Times at that time: “Nunes’ comments on Fox News conflict with urgent guidance from local, state and federal governments as well as from medical experts who say the restrictions on movement are essential to slowing the virus and preventing many deaths.”

Now here we are two years after Nunes expressed his opinion on school closures and was then promptly ridiculed by our astute governor, Gavin Newsom, who said, “I’ve not sourced [Nunes] for advice on pretty much any issue …” Perhaps someone from the MSM should now ask Governor Newsom if he should have paid more attention to Rep. Nunes back in April, 2020. Since that would never happen, perhaps we could look at some of the consequences on teenagers of what turned out to be prolonged school closures.

Andrea Hussong, professor and associate director of clinical psychology and neuroscience for the University of North Carolina, said in a November interview that teen mental health has been deteriorating since as early as the first few months of the pandemic’s onset, with severity varying on the individual teen.

One thing is for certain, according to Hussong.

“Youth in the United States are reporting that the biggest impact of the pandemic is on their mental health,” she said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new report on April 1 based on a survey on adolescent behaviors during COVID-19. It found more than one in three high school students felt sad or hopeless during the pandemic. One in three students also reported using alcohol and other drugs more during the pandemic.

“I’m seeing the effects of these government shutdowns, lockdowns, closures, social distancing measures, quarantines, masking, shutting down schools, just now coming to fruition,” Dr. Mark McDonald, a child and adolescent psychiatrist.

Studies confirm McDonald’s warning. A recent JAMA systematic review of 36 studies from 11 countries found that “school closures and social lockdowns during the first COVID-19 wave were associated with adverse mental health symptoms (such as distress and anxiety) and health behaviors (such as higher screen time and lower physical activity) among children and adolescents.”

“It’s just devastating,” McDonald said. “I have so many children in my practice who are unable to spend time with their friends at sleepovers because they can’t separate from their mothers. I have children who have punched through plate glass windows with their fists at age 8 out of frustration because they can’t go outside.”

And the beat goes on!  There are many more of like-minded opinions and studies concerning all of the harm that the past isolation and school closures are still causing. (If you are interested, see Epoch Health , 4/11/22 on the continuing adolescent consequences of suicides, drug use, and drug overdoses.)

From that same Epoch Health article:

“There’s no meme in the virtual universe that encompasses the kind of disappointment teens faced when their schools remained closed.”

So to me the question of the necessity of the prolonged school closures still remains. Were any lives saved by this drastic measure? … Possibly.

Did we trade the possible saving of some lives, mostly of older people, in exchange for a significant set of prolonged, continuing, and serious problems in adolescents? … Probably!

Was Devin Nunes right when he said that extended school closures was overkill, and likewise was Governor Newsom wrong with his churlish response? In my opinion a definite, “yes!”

4/15/22

If you haven’t had the chance to view the video clip of President Biden recently speaking at a podium on the south lawn of the White House, you must watch it. He is flanked by newly confirmed Justice Jackson and V.P. Harris and the three of them are there ostensibly to celebrate the confirmation of Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Granted I only watched about ten seconds of J.B. speaking, but that was enough. The word that best describes this part of his speech is “gibberish.” I defy anyone to make sense of what Biden is saying, or trying to say. What can XI Jinping and the Himalayas possibly have to do with anything?

The following is a quote from our President on the video:

“I’ve long said America is a nation that can be defined in a single word: ahwazinnafoothiminnawhu — foot — excuse me, in the foothills of the Himalayas. Xi Jinping. Traveling with him. (Inaudible) traveling 17,000 miles when I was vice president. I don’t know that for a fact.”

Keep in mind that this gibberish is being seen all over the world. It is being seen by our NATO allies. It is being seen by the Ukrainian President,

Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It is being seen  by India, Israel, and Australia. It is being seen by our friends in the Pacific including Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, all of whom must be scared sh**less after watching this display of ineptitude. Furthermore, other than being viewed by other good guys in the world, unfortunately, it is also being viewed by our enemies including China and Iran. Putin must be ecstatic!

I watched this same video three times. This word-salad is coming from the mouth of the man who is supposedly in charge of our country!

For those of you who think I am “too tough” on Joe Biden, I challenge you to listen to the gobbledygook in the video clip, and explain to me what the hell he is saying!

OMG! How embarrassing is his gibberish for the U.S.A.!

How scary is his gibberish for the rest of the free world !

4/14/22

This morning I read two separate stories that indicated to me that school boards and school districts have autonomous powers that I never realized! I understand that certain rules and procedures are necessary in order for public schools to be able to fulfill what I thought was their purpose … to educate our children in the 3Rs. Nonetheless I never thought that they were beyond reproach or questioning concerning their seeming “my way or the highway” philosophy.

First from Townhall about Montgomery County, Virginia:

The girl’s lacrosse team at Blacksburg High School in Montgomery County, Virginia wanted to honor their coach, who had spent ten summers volunteering in Ukrainian orphanages.

T-shirts were designed and created – adorned with a simple, but profound message: “Pray for Peace.” These were warmup shirts to be worn before games.

Montgomery County Public Schools sent every team member an email ordering them to never again wear the shirts. … Ever.

“The Girls Lacrosse Team is no longer permitted to wear the Pray for Peace t-shirts at home or away events as warm up gear,” the email read. “The message conveyed by the shirts, although positive in nature and well meaning, can be interpreted as religious and political in nature.”

The school district said the shirts were too religious and too political. A double-whammy.

Parent Clare Levison said the girls offered to replace the word “pray” with the word “play.” However, that compromise was rejected.

The Roanoke Times reported that the school’s librarian was ordered to remove a display sign that featured books about Eastern Europe. The sign read, “Stand for peace.”

If “pray for peace,” “play for peace,” or “stand for peace” are not acceptable in Montgomery County, could it be “peace” that is really not acceptable. (It is rumored that an administrator at the Montgomery School District was overheard saying, “no ‘peace,’ under any circumstances!”)

OMG! Where do these power hungry imbeciles come from? 

Read on and I think you will get an idea as to where they come from.

Nicole Solas is a parent in Rhode Island. She had the audacity to ask what her daughter would learn in kindergarten.

From Nicole Solas via Townhall: 

“I’m just like any parent—when I enrolled my daughter in kindergarten, I wanted to know what she would learn. In response, our school district bullied, harassed, defamed, evaded, and stonewalled me. Then the teachers union sued me.”

Hmmm, the teacher’s union!

She goes on, “I called my principal in the South Kingstown School District in Rhode Island to ask if they teach concepts of Critical Race Theory or gender theory. That question and the events that followed changed my life.

“The principal said they don’t call children “boys” and “girls,” and teachers embed values of gender theory into classroom lessons.”

The story goes on from there, and the details can be read on Townhall.

Solas went on:

“Two months later, the Rhode Island branch of the National Education Association filed a frivolous lawsuit against me to silence me and send a message to other parents that they could be punished for asking questions too.”

(This sounds like eerily similar to our Attorney General’s (Merrick Garland) proclamation threatening parents who speak at School Board Meetings.)

OMG! Where do these power hungry imbeciles come from? How can merely wanting to know what your five-year old is going to be taught in kindergarten cause obviously defensive teachers, principals, and school districts to react with such venom?

Nicole Solas continued, “I hope that my story encourages more parents to ask questions about what their children are learning in public school. Remember that your taxes fund public school, and you are entitled to know exactly what you are paying for. I know the risk of retaliation is real—it happened to me—but our kids are worth the risk, and I’m still here fighting back. We have to show our kids how to stand up for themselves. If we don’t teach them that, who will?”

Amen!

4/13/22

Back in my early teenage years my friends and I used to play a lot of cards, usually Penny-ante poker. Although at this point I cannot precisely remember a lot of the details, one of our favorite games was a three card poker game called “Man or Mouse.” That particular game involved three cards being dealt to everyone, betting, followed by a draw (exchange) of up to two cards, more betting,  a declaration that you were either a “man” (going for the high hand) or a “mouse” (going for the low hand). Because “Man or Mouse” was a game in which the high hand and the low hand split the pot, there was no pejorative in consistently being a “mouse.” We usually had a group of five or six playing at once, and for the most part we all were aware that certain guys usually were “men,” while others were usually “mice.” Interestingly the declarations, over time, followed the individuals personality. For instance, B.D. who was rather outspoken and self-confident, more often than not,  would be a “man,” whereas J.G., who was quiet and somewhat introverted would more often than not, be a “mouse.”

[While my recollection is that I was usually a “man.” In all honesty, … err … the more I think about it, I think that yes, my recollection is correct … I was, more often than not,  a “man!”].

At an early age I learned that in real life, the psychology and predictability of that penny-ante poker game often held up. For instance, if your boss, who is a mean s.o.b., suddenly is “Mr. Nice Guy,” something funny is going on. And vice versa, if your boss is a schmaltzy ne’er-do-well, you would not predict that suddenly he would turn into “Mr. My Way or the Highway.” 

Likewise, when a schmaltzy ne’er-do-well politician threatens to act tough despite demonstrating his lack of a backbone in the past, should anyone believe him? … Specifically should Putin believe him?

BTW, I’ll bet Putin probably played “человек или мышь” as a young teenager.

4/12/22

Someone I know did not get into the college of her choice despite having a 4.52 high school grade point average. For those of you not aware, a high school grade point average (GPA) is calculated using all of the high school grades attained, including those of the first semester of freshman year. An A counts as 4.0 while a B counts as 3.0. In general, if an individual had an equal amount of A’s and B’s, then that individual would have a GPA  of 3.5. The next question that I can hear you asking is, “If a student had all A’s, his/her GPA would calculate out to a 4.0. So how does one attain a GPA of 4.52?”

The answer is actually quite simple … Advanced Placement (AP) and Honors course are worth more than regular classes when calculating one’s GPA. According to an A.P. teacher that I know, these Advancement Placement and Honors courses are significantly harder than the typical class in just about any subject. They cover much more material, in more depth over a shorter period of time. He further said that the extra boost in a student’s GPA that these courses provide, is well worth it the hours and hours of extra work and effort.

On a somewhat related note does the Peter Principle apply when talking about the other type of “principal?” For those of you not aware of this term … the Peter Principle, the following is from Wikipedia:

“The Peter principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to “a level of respective incompetence”: employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another.

After reading a front page article in my local “newspaper,” I think we have a local example of the Peter Principle. Michelle Irwin, a  principal at the largest high school in San Diego, has apparently been quietly cutting several Honors and Advanced Placement classes without the knowledge or input from parents of students at her school. Why?

From the example noted at the beginning of this piece, not being able to take AP or Honors classes would put a student at a distinct disadvantage when competing against other students whose high school offers these classes. In fact the more AP/Honors classes that a high school student takes, the better for him/her in the highly competitive situation of getting into college.

Why would someone who has been an educator for twenty-five years and then a principal at Middle Schools for eighteen years before being promoted in 2020 to being a high school principal, do that? 

According to Ms. Irwin she cut these classes for “equity reasons.” She wanted to remove the stigma of non-honors courses, and sited racial disparities in Honors course enrollment. What that means is that “experts” have pointed out that Honors and A.P. courses disproportionately enroll lower numbers of students of color. 

Apparently Michelle Irwin is going to remedy this nationwide problem by punishing some students at her own school.

My take … Either this is a classic example of the Peter Principle, right here, literally, in my own backyard … or it’s just another blatant example of “wokeness” personified in education  … or most likely, both!

4/11/22