JUST SOME POSTS

Just a brief post with some reminders (or maybe some original thoughts for some of you!) 1)  Censorship, especially of speech, is a bad thing in almost every case . Freedom of Speech was made as part the First Amendment to the Constitution (in the Bill of Rights) because it was recognized that the most effective way to silence dissent was to limit its spread. To limit the spread of differing ideas is to limit the possibility of dialogue and growth and leads to tyranny.  2) Discrimination against a group of people will never counteract or neutralize discrimination that was fostered upon another group of people . (also can be read: two wrongs don't make a right - no more comment is needed) 3) Diversity for the sake of diversity is discrimination . See #2. If you select a person for a position solely based on the color of their skin, their gender, or any other attribute other than their ability, you are practicing discrimination. Selecting the best candidate, based upon their qua...

  I have been wrestling with doing a post since shortly after the last one. As I gave written here before, when I don't post it is more likely that I have too many ideas rather than none. There are many, many things that I have thought about writing on and a few I have actually "roughed out" in my head. But, then something else would come along before I got it written and take the space. So, I end up writing neither. Sigh.. So, here we go... I thought I would just do a post on a new group I am founding and am going to be soliciting for members of shortly. It is the   S top T rying to U nderstand P eople with I deas that are D ifferent  group  or the acronym -  STUPID . We spend entirely too much time trying to relate to all those other people that think differently than we do. It is time to get together to celebrate our agreement with the correct thoughts - ours.  I am still working out the details but I know the ideas we will believe in will have to be det...

  As I write this the 2020 election is 11+ days past. The news media, for the most part (there are still some that have the integrity to not call it yet) has called it a win for Biden. The issue there is, it is not over. News organizations, no matter which one, do NOT call the election results. They can REPORT election results. They use algorithms and projections along with exit polls and real vote counts to forecast a winner of each race. The State legislatures must certify the results and appoint the electors. As of this writing only eight States have certified their results. (that is not unusual, the dates for certification is still in the future for the others - I am not implying anything, just reporting) Now, I am not saying that the odds are not showing that Biden/Harris have won. It would be a long shot for President Trump to hold on to his office. But, it the race is NOT over. Some are not being reported at all, and most are not being reported widely; but as best I can find...

  As I have not done a reminder in a while, first a bit of a review: 1) There is NO government money. There are detailed explanations in other posts on this blog as well as many other sites. Just know that any time you hear something is being paid for with "federal funds", a "federal grant", "State funds'' or any other euphemism for government money, know what it really means is - taxpayer's money - either current or future. 2) Corporations DON'T pay taxes! PEOPLE PAY TAXES! You can put whatever tax rate you want to on Corporations and the taxes will be paid by their customers eventually. I have seen arguments that try to explain why the taxes will be paid by the company due to market forces or other reasons. This is not true in almost all cases. Every Corporate P&L (financial statement/planning) has a line item for taxes. It is a cost of doing business and computed into the finances like any other cost and built into the price of their wa...

There are a lot of comparisons between Trump's appointment of Amy Barrett and Obama's appointment of Merrick Garland. There is one HUGE difference that makes all the difference. The President's party is in control of the Senate at the time of the appointment. People seem to not understand that the appointments to the Federal Judiciary are at the “Advice & Consent of the Senate”. The advice and consent of the Senate of the Garland appointment was “we will not approve him”. Although I thought at the time and still think now it would have been better to have the vote and the appointment be ended that way, it is well within the Senate’s purview to say “No” prior to the vote. It is forgotten that Garland would have not been approved in all likelihood even with the vote.  The other point is this: the people have spoken and had input into the appointment of the next Supreme Court justice - in 2016 they voted in Donald Trump (I know that argument is somewhat negated by the fact...

 Somewhere among all these posts is one where I talked about how the problems that the politicians were going to fix have been the same all my life. The political ads from the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s could be used today with a small bit of "polishing".  Our elected representatives have been correcting inequities and solving the same problems for as long as I have been hearing politicians. I am sure it goes back way before me! If the politicians wanted to (or giving them the benefit of the doubt - were able to ) solve these issues - they would have - period. There are also posts here where I try to delineate the powers and responsibility of the branches of our government as outlined in the Constitution. I will not go there again (if you care - go looking), I will just say that the three branches have to work together - at least somewhat - to get anything done. As a reminder the three branches are the Executive (President), the Judicial (the federal courts headed by the Suprem...

  Dr. Malcolm Kendrick is (as he describes himself) a Scottish MD, author, speaker, and skeptic. He is one of the folks that I "follow" and read fairly regularly. His take on the Covid-19 pandemic was one that I digested as I came with my own opinions early on. This post he just did sums up where we are and how we got here: https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/ It is a long read, but well worth it if you want to know the truth. The Covid-19 pandemic has been turned into nothing more than a political tool at this point. Almost all responsible scientific and medical-type folks have come to the conclusion that the world screwed up royally and caused severe disruption of the entire economy as well as the well-being of the population.  Please read his comments at the link above. (there are many other great reads here as well) No more needs to be said.