Labels

Quick Jots: May 2021



Kentucky LP called antisemitic by a bunch of antisemites by their own definition
#libertarianparty

I'm generally not in favor of invoking Naziism or the Holocaust as a parallel analogy, but it has been particularly thick for people on the left to be complaining so badly about the referenced tweet. These people often invoke Naziism and the Holocaust at the drop of a pin often with very little correlation. Have they really already forgotten about the Trump presidency and how they were all calling him "literally Hitler" and comparing his supporters to Nazis despite very little resemblance between it and National Socialism? That was only a few months ago. This tweet is far less than that, comparing the underlying logic of marking certain people as heretics. Moreover, the tweet is saying, "Hey remember the yellow stars and how bad they were? Maybe avoid that, m'kay?" Further, while the left has been deploying literal equal comparisons between those they disagree with and Naziism/Hitler/Holocaust, the LP tweet was an analogy. It appears most people completely failed the analogies portion of the  SATs. Analogies do not attempt to portray subjects on both sides as equal. If I say Usain Bolt is to the average person as I am to my two-year-old son, I am not saying I am as fast as Usain Bolt. That is not how analogies work and if you do think that is how it works, please go back and finish high school or get a GED before even looking at a political tweet again. Nevertheless, it brought out all the Twitter hypocrites calling libertarians idiots utilizing a head-spinning amount of strawman arguments illustrating a complete inability to comprehend libertarian arguments. What is it about Twitter that turns people into absolute morons? Maybe it's because people who use it for arguments actually think a coherent argument can be made in 280 characters.

Mass shooting prevented by a rifle in good samaritan's hands
#gunrights #media
Someone showed up at an apartment in Arkansas that wasn't a gun-free zone with a gun and killed someone in her apartment. When he stepped back out, someone in another apartment unit grabbed his hunting rifle and killed the shooter before he was able to kill more people. Had the good samaritan not been there, many more may have been killed. There has been pretty much zero national media attention paid to this and no politicians pondering gun policy after this defensive gun use. This imbalance of media attention, of course, skews the public perception of gun policy. 

California loses population for the first time in recorded history
#california #democrats
Losing population shouldn't be particularly shocking, as California's net domestic migration has been negative for a long time now. It was only a matter of time for domestic migration and deaths to exceed incoming foreign migration and births, though to be fair, the pandemic did significantly factor into this. Still, it speaks volumes that moving a U-Haul out of the state is up to four times more expensive than the other way around. The US Census also declared that California, along with New York, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia have lost a congressional seat. None of those were particularly surprising, with California, New York, Illinois, and Michigan as states that would be surprising if they hadn't lost seats. The states that gained were Texas (x2), Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon. The only surprising one was Oregon. Voting with feet has always been more indicative of policy outcomes than voting with hands.

We want sun! When do we want it? Later! Maybe.
#housingcrisis

This is so NIMBY. I have seen NIMBYs complain about new ugly houses while they live in houses that others before them have complained are ugly. I have seen NIMBYs complain about cookie-cutter houses while they push for cookie-cutter housing every time we try to do something transformative. I have seen NIMBYs complain about housing increasing traffic as they are erected in walking distance to major office complexes, which would reduce drive-miles. This is so NIMBY.

CDC outdoor mask guidance based on a flawed interpretation of study
#covid-19
This has been merged into the parent Coronavirus article, but it bears repeating. The CDC guidance for outdoor mask usage has been revealed to be derived from a flawed interpretation of a study. And that's a generous way of putting it. The CDC cited the study as being a metastudy showing less than 10% of cases being transmitted outdoors, which would be pretty high. But the study they cited was not a metastudy, but rather a review of studies. The former would be a homogenization of data, the latter simple a statement of what the studies say (like saying the highest percentage study was an outlier and was less than 10%). Five studies were referenced and three of those had outdoor transmission data. The highest was around 5%, but this study likely was in error in reporting construction workers catching the virus outdoors when it was just as likely they transmitted the virus while working in indoor situations. The other two studies showed numbers of 0.03% and 0.9%, indicating the CDC's data utilized for guidance was off by up to two orders of magnitude. Another more recent study found outdoor transmission to be around 0.1%. 

UFOs en vogue again
#democrats #republicans
A large amount of chatter lately in Washington DC has been concerning UFOs with politicians dissolving party lines to demand a report from the Pentagon. It was featured in a 60 Minutes "investigative" episode which I haven't watched and don't plan to watch. They can't cooperate to stop murdering people abroad, showering rich people with money, hold police accountable for murdering and stealing from innocent people, but when it comes to UFOs, watch out! This is important stuff here. It's probably a good thing to release the reports, but it's always a good idea to turn to The Skeptic Society for a dose of sanity in these areas.
Labels:

Popular Posts