COVID Coaxing, Jan 6, Afghanistan,
Climate, Labor Strikes, Child Poverty

  • At The Moderate Voice, Dorian de Wind sees a reflection of American character in the rescue from Afghanistan of individuals and their families who could be marked for death for helping US personnel.
     
  • Sometimes you hope something like this will come back to haunt. M. Bouffant at Web of Evil watches a Fox Network personality dismiss climate change. We’re strong, and besides, how bad can a little bit of weather get?.
     
  • Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged sees biblical level climate tragedy and notes parallels with the occasional wisdom of ancient mythology. Icarus gives us warning, Daedalus gives us hope.
     
  • Infidel753 looks to undercovered labor strikes in Kansas and Alabama and concludes that mainstream news outlets, including sites on the left, no longer report on real American struggles. Left leaning internet, he says, can and should do better.
     
  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger points to success by Democrats that will cut child poverty by half. Not at all bad, he says, but not good enough.
     
  • Another shooting experience. In Hackwhackers Ben Wexler can’t believe a baseball game happened right next to America’s national pastime.
     
    Funny because it’s true.
     
    Tragic because it’s too true.
     
  • Sometimes exaggeration is funny because it’s close to not being exaggeration at all. Sarah Cooper gets the ID treatment from her favorite Karen – personal note: who decided to call them Karen? (apologies to every real Karen)

  • Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara decides that those who point to “implicit racism” in American society are full of it. He reads about a court ruling ordering that a defendant be given a new trial because of implicit bias by prosecutors in attacking a juror. The prosecutor, says Michael, was unfair and real wrong, so race had to be incidental.
     
    Therefore anyone who sees implicit racism anywhere is just full of it.
     
    Or something.
     
  • SilverAppleQueen publishes a few reactions to the notion that radical feminists are to blame for male violence. She includes mention of her personal experience.
     
  • Imani Gandy reviews a new Texas law putting a $10,000 bounty on women suspected of having abortions. If you think your neighbor’s miscarriage might have been an abortion, turn her in for the reward.
     
    Remember the good old days when we pointed out that, in theory, women could face criminal penalties? Reductio arguments went right past those who called themselves “pro-life”. We were dismissed as inventing creative straw arguments that would never occur. Besides, women were innocent victims. Religious activists only wanted to prosecute evil doctors.
     
    We never thought of exaggerating to the point of describing a bounty on women!
     
  • Cato Institute’s own Julian Sanchez takes a look at the p‑p‑paranoid sensationalism of Tucker Carlson, who thinks the National Security Agency has targeted him for professional extinction. If Tucker’s charges are true, Julian is unperturbed. Just find the culprits doing the unthinkable targeting and fire them. He suspects nothing improper or illegal is actually being done, which is a possibility he finds especially disturbing.
     
  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz explains how to become an influencer. Step 1 seems to be recognizing you are already there!
     
  • It isn’t just social media and right wing network sites. In MadMikesAmerica, Glenn Geist reacts to clickbait offered uncritically by mainstream media, and explores one instance of purchased space for lies appearing on CNN’s website: The appearance is contrived to seem like a link to a legitimate magazine, but is a provable falsehood.
     
  • In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, onetime pastor, current atheist, Bruce receives an indignant email from one of my Christian brethren demanding to know, since it was his, Bruce’s, own decision to walk away from the faith why he can’t let evangelicals make their own decisions. Bruce answers.
     
  • PZ Myers seems shocked and awed by one of the dumbest propaganda devices ever. The movie storyline involves a fictional skeptical journalist, borderline atheist, who decides to do a hit piece on Ken Ham’s great Ark-work in Kentucky. Her hostile rage eventually turns to awe at the vastness of God’s work and she becomes a religious convert. Good job there, Ken.
     
    Come on, Professor Myers, where’s your sense of humor?
     
    It’s an old device. Fifty something years ago an anti-war journalist, played by David Janssen, went to Vietnam to expose the monstrous violence propagated by US imperialism. But he encountered Green Beret John Wayne and became a pro-war enthusiast. The movie was The Green Berets, and was one of the better efforts of the comes-to-mock-and-stays-to-worship genre.
     
    Sometimes it happens in a warped sort of way in real life.
     
    In my existence, I’ve known perhaps five truly great men. My dad was three of them.
     
    He once explained how the late conservative Christian bloviate Jerry Falwell had turned him around on homosexuality.
     
    After listening to one of Falwell’s sermons on how sodomy went against God’s own creation of nature, my dad had gone from being mildly tolerant, favoring legalization and equal rights under law, to flat out wanting to become gay.
     
  • The Onion brings us a slide show on shocking things that no one told us about childbirth. One was the presence of a famous sports announcer.
     
  • @momwino98 shares the joy of parenthood:
    @momwino98

    I just want some peace and quiet..I’ll be peace….😂😂🤦🏼‍♀️…##tiktokmom ##foryourpage ##kids ##nobreak

    ♬ original sound – @Momwino98

  • Finally the advice we need. Reductress tells us how to stay calm in stressful situations when you can’t stay calm in relaxing ones.
     
  • Watch what you wash, I suppose. The Journal of Improbable Research links to a new tracking device developed by researchers hoping to monitor whether soap is properly used. It’s to be imbedded in the bars.
     
    Geez. Does Bill Gates have to know everything?
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life has been struggling with new computer technology and expressing himself in frequent expletives, yet still has managed to come up with an excellent series of links to worthwhile sites.
     
    Okay, okay. This one included.

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