Vaccines and Tylenol

I got my annual shots yesterday morning (Covid booster, and an 'elder American bonus' flu shot).  

This morning, my shoulder was a bit sore at the injection site, and I had just a touch of the post-vaccination blues, so I popped a couple of Daddy's-little-helper acetaminophen tablets (Tylenol, if acetaminophen is too hard for you).  

I don't generally consider myself to be a Devil-may-care chance taker, but today I take a bow.  

Now, to go find my water colors, in case these adventures have made me artistic.  

Child: Mummy There’s going to be a fire.

A moment of comic relief from Francois Truffaut's movie adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 came when a mother was walking her son across an overpass, as 'fire trucks' zipped by below, with sirens wailing.  The boy tugged at his mother's sleeve and shouted, 

"Mummy, look there! Firemen!  There’s GOING TO BE a fire!" (IYKYK)

I think we have a similar moment now, except in real-life, as Federal forces pour into otherwise peaceful cities ... "Look Mummy! Federal police forces!  There's going to be civil unrest!"

Science Doesn't Negotiate with Folklore

Science exists in the realm of verifiable reality.

It is not the responsibility of science to negotiate with folklore, or cultural norms, in pursuit of compromise.  

The best science indicates the Earth, and our Solar system as being about 4.5 billion years old, with the most rudimentary life emerging only after a sterile half a billion, give or take a hundred million years.  

Traditional beliefs generally date the beginning of life to a much more recent time - in some cases, less than 100 thousand years - or even less.  

It is ridiculous to look for a middle ground ... say, maybe two billion years.  This would be unsatisfying to both science and folklore.  Let each of them exist in its own lane, untroubled by the difference.  

Turning DEI into a Negative

DIVERSITY

EQUITY

INCLUSION

Say these words aloud ... slowly ... one at a time.  Let each linger in your mind for a moment.  Chew it intentionally; digesting it slowly before moving on to the next.  Don't mush them together; abbreviating and conflating them - denuding them of their meaning.  

Unless denuding them of their meaning is your intent.  In that case, just say the first letter of each word, and chant the resulting contraction rapidly, without any of the underlying reality.  Listen constantly to speech that is peppered with this abbreviation, spoken contemptuously, until you come to adopt that contempt as your own.  

Over time, in your mind, these concepts are no longer societal North Stars, and the source of our nation's strength - but are instead, part of an insidious plot to weaken us; fairness is now perceived as cheating; up is down, black is white, good is bad. 

Surrender yourself to the NewSpeak.  

Voltaire, the French Enlightenment writer and philosopher,  is credited with coining the expression, ‘Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities’.  As we learn about loyal employees losing their careers, accused of nothing more pernicious than being a 'DEI hire', or see American citizens rounded up, roughed up, and detained for no cause other than that they met the profile of a class of human beings our government intended for that treatment, how can we not ask ourselves what have we become?

Trump Justification for firing Fed Governor

 Trump's attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook is based on his claim of " ...  "sufficient cause" to remove Cook immediately, pointing to accusations that Cook made false statements on mortgage agreements."

Understanding the President's lifelong dedication to truth, lawfulness and the American way, it is understandable that he would react with such institutional repugnance to allowing her to continue serving in her role as a Fed governor.  

Considering his response to the mere appearance  of financial dishonesty, one can only imagine, if instead of APPEARANCE, she had actually been charged, tried and convicted.  

Just imagine his outrage!  

Trump Real Estate Fraud

Jewish Voices Against Genocide

I am blessed with many Jewish friends, and have been cautious about raising my voice in criticism of Israel, because I know that many of them identify with that nation.  

But, considering that the disproportionate power that Israel has in that region, the reality that this power comes directly from the United States ---and the reckless, often inhumane way in which they employ it, it has been hard to not scream in rage.  

It is gratifying to hear that many of the most outspoken voices calling attention to the ongoing genocide in Gaza are Jewish, including American Jews, it is time now (if not long ago) that we add our voices to that chorus.  

This Israeli woman is courageous, and correct, in her characterization of what is going on there.  

It is indispensable that Jewish voices take a lead in expressions of outrage, in order to draw a clear, bold line between themselves and the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity.

Churchill is often credited with the phrase, "History is written by the victors".  That might be better phrased as "History is written by the survivors".  The world is unfamiliar with the history of the Punic Wars, from the perspective of the Carthaginians.  And we have had few sources to learn the perspective of the indigenous people of North America of their conquest by European settlers.  

It is an all-too familiar story; a group of Europeans leave to find a new home; whether to escape religious intolerance, establish their own religious intolerance, to escape oppression, or to write their own new chapter in history.  When they 'discover' their new home, the people who already live there are seen as obstacles, to either be removed, slaughtered, or placed on reservations - which tend to not be on the best land, and shrink over time, or if resources are found on the rez.  If the indigenous people find the conditions intolerable, and rebel, they are labeled ''renegades', or 'terrorists', and whatever actions they take when they 'go off the reservation', are treated as though that's where the trouble began.  Often these actions are used as a justification to steal even more of their land, leaving them in even more dire circumstances - and to characterize them as more savage, and less deserving of even the substandard conditions that drove them to that desperation. 

The choices for indigenous people are the slow-motion genocide of privation and starvation, or the more rapid genocide that follows acting in rebellion.  

Scopes Trial Centenary

With all the monkey business constantly flooding all lanes of media, it would be easy to overlook significant milestones from the past.  

The trial of Tennessee science teacher John Scopes for teaching evolution was wrapping up a century ago this weekend.  Tomorrow will be one hundred years since defense attorney Clarence Darrow called, as his only witness, prosecutor William Jennings Bryan, and choreographed a self-destruction of possibly the most prominent religious fundamentalist of that age.  

Scopes Monkey Trial

Though the trial is viewed by history as a victory of science over the teaching of folklore as literal reality, the defendant was actually found guilty, and the law was not overturned until decades later.  Stranger yet, there are still many in this country that would, given the chance, reinstate such laws.