Borderline Insanity

 

Democrats $1.5 trillion omnibus bill would provide funding for border security in eight foreign nations-- several of them adversaries of the U.S.-- while providing no new money whatsoever for border security of their own nation, the United States of America. The legislation allocates $370 million for “enhanced border security” measures in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman. In addition, the legislation graciously provides funding for border security measures in Libya, Nepal, and Pakistan-- a longtime U.S. adversary.

You can’t make this stuff up.

This is like a guy paying for the installation of security devices in others’ homes but refusing to put one in the home he shares with his own family. It is akin to a dad taking the neighbor kids to the game or amusement park, but not his own son or daughter. It’s like a husband buying a new car for eight of his neighbors’ wives but not for his own. Not a good recipe for domestic tranquility.

Combined with its mind-boggling disaster in Afghanistan, its assassination of the American energy industry, and its policies that have led to skyrocketing inflation with record increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the unprecedented crime wave sweeping the nation, a rational person is forced to believe that the Biden administration is diligently working to bolster various other countries around the world while simultaneously attempting to destroy its own. Bizarre doesn’t begin to describe this. Depressing, scary, and sinister come closer.

Ideological Intolerance Invading Science Classrooms

 

Students are increasingly displaying “ideological intolerance in the science classroom,” according to Williams College Associate Professor of Biology Luana Maroja. Or so reports The College Fix. Maroja wrote about the trend in a recent piece for Heterodox STEM, a new Substack for science scholars to weigh in on issues pertaining to science and society.

One example she cited was “a marked increase in students asking for ‘trigger-warnings’ for ‘offensive content.’” Such as the use of the word “dyke” in geology, not as a derogatory reference to lesbians, but as a technical term. Geologically speaking, “Dyke” is a layer of rock cutting into another layer. (Another definition of “Dyke” is: a wall to prevent flooding. Surely this, too, would be traumatizing to many of today’s young scholars.)

Maroja also noted that “some students in physiology refused to use the word ‘woman’ and instead used ‘person with a uterus.'”

If we can separate “woman” from “person with a uterus” because “woman” is not welcoming enough or inclusive enough, then why not do the same with cars and…everything else. “Car” could become “vehicle with 4 tires and an engine.”

“Table” would instead be referred to as a “flat surface atop 4 legs.”

“Zebra” would instead be “mammal with stripes.”

What is the point of this?

Maroja says students have also informed her that “IQ tests were invented to ostracize and marginalize minority groups.” Yes, that is why they were invented. And the A-F grading system was invented to punish minorities, too. As was the pop quiz, chapter test, and performance review. And literally everything else ever invented or employed to measure intelligence, competence, effectiveness, success, grasp of subject matter, standards of behavior, etc., etc. What does it tell you about leftists/progressives that they don’t believe certain minorities are capable of being…capable? Or reasonable?

Professor Maroja also said that students “feel uncomfortable discussing kin selection, or the idea that when individuals take actions for the benefit of their offspring and siblings they indirectly perpetuate their own genes.” Why? They think it is a “problematic concept” because Donald Trump hired his own daughter. Really.

And about Joe and Hunter Biden? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

It is very likely true that students are increasingly displaying “ideological intolerance in the science classroom.” And everywhere else, for that matter.

And the same can be said of scientists. And professors, teachers, actors, “journalists,” Big Tech titans, CEOs of multi-national corporations……

 

 

U.S. Marines, Army Lowering Standards In Favor Of "Wokeness"

 

Various branches of the U.S. military, long steeped in tradition, are now making changes…to accommodate wokeness.

For example, the U.S. Marine Corps is altering its uniform regulations. The erstwhile “Leathernecks” are introducing new maternity clothes for pregnant Marines. Other changes include an allowance of increased hair length, the edging up of one's hairline, and additional manicure options for female Marines. I guess this shouldn’t be too surprising since even the Navy SEALS have gone woke.

1^st Lt. Phillip Parker, a spokesman for the Marine Corps Training and Education Command, recently told the Marine Corps Times the changes are intended to help "positively impact diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Inclusion? In the Marines? Is this a good idea? Would femininity have aided the Devil Dogs on Bataan or Corregidor in WWII? Should people of all genders, ages and physical fitness levels be welcomed into the Corp? Should diversity, equity and inclusion trump combat readiness and effectiveness and the ability to protect and aide your fellow marine —and, if necessary—carry him off the battlefield…dead or alive?

Not to be outdone, the U.S. Army has made significant changes to its fitness program. The six-event Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) will no longer be meant to prepare soldiers for combat, but instead will simply serve as a general fitness assessment. It will also have different scoring standards for men and women across different age groups. Most of the standards will be lowered, of course, after a congressionally mandated report from Rand Corp found that nearly half of the service’s women could not pass earlier standards for the test.

I’m not certain that lowering standards to make it easier for “menstruators” and “birthing people” to serve is a good idea. But it is abundantly clear that the Biden administration is rapidly purging the military of “toxic masculinity,” and is hell-bent on ridding it of competence, as well.

Startling changes such as these make one wonder what is next, and just how far down the woke road the U.S. military will travel before the wheels and tracks fall off.

The way things are going, my guess is that, in 2030, the Army will update and revamp its ACFT again. This time, it will announce that it will thereafter be pared down to a three-event evaluation comprised of tag, hopscotch and Simon Says. (It will soon become known that dodgeball was to be one of the three events but was ultimately deemed “too dangerous.”)

The U.S. Air Force will subsequently announce that its training regimen will consist of Hide and Seek, Duck, Duck, Goose and Mother May I. This, in turn, will prompt the Marines to state that they are going with line dancing, ladder ball and Yahtzee for their conditioning program.  

Finally, in a stirring show of diversity, equity and inclusion, all branches of the military will announce that their service members may choose to wear rainbow, lesbian or transgender pride flag pins on their uniforms in place of the traditional unit pins or pins of the American flag. Now that’s cohesiveness. Bring on China.

 

 

Some Things You Can Question, And Some Things You Can't

 

In today’s America, there are some things one can question…and some things one cannot. You can question the existence of God. Indeed, you are encouraged to question the intellect and judgement of those who still believe in Him…or Her…or They. You can question any Republican or “conservative” candidate or office holder (usually referred to by the mainstream media as a “far right extremist”), vehemently and rudely, ad infinitum, about anything whatsoever. You cannot, however, question a “progressive” candidate or office holder if they happen to be a woman and/or a person of color….without being summarily smeared as a misogynist and/or racist. And a bigoted “far right extremist.” You can question anyone who is leery of lockdowns or mask mandates, but you cannot question the mask mandates or lockdowns.

You can question your own gender, but you can’t question the LGBTQ agenda in any way, shape or form-- for any reason. Nor can you question the process or results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, in any way, whether on a national, state, or local level. If you do, you will promptly be cancelled, disappeared, or otherized. Seriously questioning how COVID-19 was loosed upon the globe is also strictly verboten. As is asking questions about the Biden family’s ties to—and relations with—China or Ukraine. In fact, you can’t ask a pertinent question of Biden at all. Unless you want to be called “silly” at best or “a stupid son of a bitch” at worst.

These are sacred and inviolable principles, ergo neither the use of the scientific method nor dissent is allowed. Period. Because the experts said so. And the science is settled. “So there!” they say. “There’s nothing to see here, ha, ha! Oh, one more thing: you must question what you think you have seen with your own eyes over the past few years. Because you haven’t seen what you think you’ve seen. Understand? Verstehen sie? Ja? Now go lay by your dish, you stupid rubes! And don’t question that directive, either!”

 

England NHS-Funded Clinic Promotes Transgender Prostitution

 

One of England’s National Health Service-funded clinics is promoting prostitution as a way for transgender people to pay for their transition treatments. That’s a great use of taxpayer’s money! The NHS and some in the LGBTQ community may think this is a capital idea, or even a “twofer.” In truth, however, it is using other people’s hard-earned tax dollars to promote an amoral way to earn money for the desecration of one’s body, which is an affront to God.

There is nothing healthy about that. Will Jolly Olde England’s NHS soon recommend that folks start selling illicit drugs as a way to pay for their stays in substance abuse rehabilitation clinics? Or try their hand at a roulette table and put everything on “red” in hopes of paying off their gambling debt? Perhaps the NHS would suggest people pay their parking tickets with money obtained by robbing a bank?

The Ten Commandments have long since been banished from the public square. The Golden Rule is no more. Common sense has fled the coop along with any notion of shame or dignity. Not so long ago, the conventional wisdom was to “treat your body like a temple.” Today, wisdom is almost extinct. (Must be the result of “climate change.”)  So, people are encouraged to treat their bodies like a Mr. Potato Head, adding and removing parts as they see fit.

Insanity rushes in to fill the void where wisdom once resided. A belief in…anything else…replaces a belief in a higher power. Too many of us second-guess God, but not mortal “experts” like Dr. Fauci or “Bill Nye the Science Guy.” That just might be one reason why, despite countless medical and technological breakthroughs, life spans and mental health are both declining.

 

Illinois Democrats Pass Law Forcing Private Businesses To Display Message

 

Illinois Democrats recently passed legislation requiring privately-owned gas stations to display stickers at gas pumps informing customers that the government postponed a gas tax until after the election. (Illinois was scheduled to impose a 2.2-cent-per-gallon gas tax on July 1, but the government pushed back the tax by six months to January 2023.) The mandatory stickers will read: "As of July 1, 2022, the State of Illinois has suspended the inflation adjustment to the motor fuel tax through December 31, 2022. The price on this pump should reflect the suspension of the tax increase."

The legislation also requires grocery stores to display a similar message on their cash register receipts. Many state Republicans and business leaders are arguing that the legislation is a thinly-veiled scheme to boost Democrats' election year prospects by forcing private businesses to display what amounts to free advertising-- or propaganda.

 Incredibly, gas stations that refuse to display the stickers will face a $500 daily fine. This means that those refusing to comply each and every day between July 1 and election day on November 8 would be subject to $65,500 in fines.

The U.S. federal government taxes all gas sold in the country to the tune of 18.4 cents a gallon. The individual states add on their own taxes, with California taxing gasoline at a gob-smacking rate of 51.1 cents per gallon. Illinois isn’t far behind, punishing its citizens with a 39.2 cents a gallon tax. So, it is wildly disingenuous that its Democratic lawmakers, responsible for those taxes in the first place, want credit for delaying an additional tax increase for all of 6 months. Calling it an “inflation adjustment” just adds to the inanity/insanity/insult, as it is Democrats’ policies that have caused the recent unprecedented inflation.

More pertinent yet, how is it that a supposedly representative government, even if it’s essentially a one-party government, can force private companies to post its preferred partisan messages under threat of penalty of law? What will Illinois legislators do next, enact a law mandating private companies post signs stating, “As of August 1, the State of Illinois has delayed randomly confiscating private property until January 1, 2024. That’s how kind and generous your Democratic representatives in charge are. Just sayin’?” Or “Until further notice, the State of Illinois has decided to postpone the mass execution of conservatives indefinitely. Please vote accordingly?” Or perhaps a simple and understated, “Democrats are way cool, Republicans are evil?”

And what if Republicans ever again came to power in the Land of Lincoln? Should they get a pass if they passed a law forcing private businesses to display stickers trumpeting their tax cuts, common sense energy policies, pro-life stance…or…anything else?

Sexual Assault Now Sanctioned In Our Schools

 

Teachers and administrators at New Jersey’s Pearl R. Miller Middle School forced students to watch a video about a transgender man’s hormone treatment without notifying the student’s parents. The video, “Ten Years on Testosterone,” was part of a social studies class and detailed the transition of an LGBTQ activist.

The garden State will put in place “updated” health standards this September, guidelines that were approved by the governor-appointed New Jersey Board of Education in 2020. The new “standards” mandate teaching second-graders about genitalia, reproduction, and “gender expression.” Fifth-graders will be required to define masturbation. Eighth-graders will have to define gender identity, gender expression, vaginal sex, oral sex, and anal sex. (“Damn, I can’t believe I got the question about anal sex wrong, dude. Guess I should’ve studied harder.”)

Naturally, Planned Parenthood praised the state’s plan, noting that it aligns with the similarly updated National Sex Education Standards.

Moving from the East Coast to the West Coast we find that a packet distributed by the California Teachers Association discusses the formation of gay and transgender clubs in schools. The packet contains an almost overwhelming array of disturbing content and recommendations. One section encourages elementary school teachers to proactively recruit students to be leaders of these clubs-- and provides room for teachers to list the names of the students they think would be interested. The packet also asks teachers to list supporters and enemies of these clubs. And to make a list of those who could be a “barrier to your success.” Why? Chilling.

The packet’s suggested activities section is particularly troubling. For example, it recommends that teachers identify their students’ Kinsey Scale rating, a tool used to determine their level of homosexuality based on their answers to questions about their sexual desires and interests. It is often referred to as the “Am I gay? Test.” That doesn’t seem intrusive or inappropriate at all! The Kinsey Scale is also frequently used to analyze sexual perversions and asks participants to describe their feelings and emotions about things like sexual fantasies.

But that’s not all! The packet also helpfully contains a recommended YouTube videos list, containing 52 fun and educational titles to titillate traumatize confuse edify the kiddies. Such magnificent short films as “Drag as a Tool for Self-Advocacy,” “Queer Black Cosplay,” “Coming out GAY to my 5-year-old brother,” “Everyone is Gay,” and “The Importance of Being Cliterate” populate the list.

Don’t tell me that kids don’t learn anything in public schools anymore! Sure, it may not be reading, writing and arithmetic. Or history, physics, chemistry, the classics, philosophy, economics, etc. But our youngsters do learn about pansexuality, anal sex, the limitless number of genders, and queer Black cosplay! Who wouldn’t take that trade-off any old day?

So you can look forward to your child coming home from school one day soon to inform you that his/her/they teacher told him/her/they that him/her/they are gay. Him/her/they may even be asked to lead a gay and transgender student club, but, if so, him/her/they may not tell you much about it, because, apparently, California Teacher Association best practice dictates that “what happens in the student club, stays in the club.”

Let’s be honest: what is happening in our public schools is an assault on children, dignity, and morality. It is inarguably indoctrination, not education. And teachers and administrators are behind it all. In fact, the CTA packet reveals that teachers are (partially) funding the gay and transgender clubs and asks teachers how much of their money they are “willing to put into this project.”

Sickeningly, school officials are using students as pawns, pre-teen purveyors of propaganda in an attempt to brainwash their peers into thinking—and acting— in certain ways.

Forget the “pandemic,” we are experiencing an epidemic of violence, homelessness, hopelessness, substance abuse, child abuse, and insanity. According to “progressives,” God is dead, and the United States was founded by racist bigots. The science is settled.

Think there might be a connection?

Taxpayer-funded educators can teach our elementary school kids about pansexuality—or tell them they are gay—yet could be charged with a hate crime for sharing a Bible verse on Facebook.   

What is the best way forward? How do we regain what we have lost? How do we recapture our dignity, raison d'être…and hope?

Do we repeatedly just say “Gay, gay, gay, gay” or do we humbly bow our heads and pray…pray, pray, pray?

 

 

Mushrooms Can Talk, Study Claims

 

According to the New York Post, the British journal Royal Society Open Science has published a surprising and groundbreaking new study that claims that mushrooms can “talk” to each other. And that the fungi even have “a bountiful vocabulary.”

The study was conducted by Andrew Adamatzky, a computer science professor at the University of the West of England. The professor asserted that his team of researchers “found that the ‘fungal language’ exceeds the European languages in morphological complexity.” So, the “language” of these fungal species is more advanced than French, more complex than English, superior to Italian or German?

Professor Adamatzky reportedly based his study on an analysis of the “electrical impulses of four species of mushrooms: the enoki, split gill, ghost and caterpillar fungus.” He accomplished this by “inserting tiny electrodes into the dirt colonized by the mushroom’s hyphae — the threads that compose the organism’s roots, known as mycelium.” He and his team “found that the electrical spikes often occurred in clusters, mirroring human vocabularies and employing up to 50 words.” He noted, “We demonstrate that distributions of fungal word lengths match that of human languages.” The study found that “split gills — a species that resides in rotting wood — generated the most complex ‘sentences’ of the four fungi.”

Scientists hypothesize that fungi “chat” to make their presence known to other members of their cluster, much like wolves howling to alert the pack. They theorize that mushrooms could also be trying to warn their fellow fungi about potential threats, such as the weather.

Really? What are they going to do about it? “Oh, shit, guys…we’re about to get hailed on! Run for your—son of a bitch!”

Or, it could be that all this is bunk and fungal growth is not particularly chatty or articulate. That there is no split gill in any rotting wood anywhere that is quite as eloquent as, say, Winston Churchill.

Adamatzky himself admitted: “There is also another option — they are saying nothing.” He added, “Propagating mycelium tips are electrically charged and, therefore, when the charged tips pass in a pair of differential electrodes, a spike in the potential difference is recorded.” So, there’s that.

Some researchers, like progressives, have a preposterous propensity for projection. Can toadstools ponder their place in the universe? Could ferns play chess or a compose sonatas if they just had opposable thumbs?

Where will this end? Progressive environmentalist whackos may soon be demanding that it be made illegal to eat mushrooms. (Other than “magic” ones, that is. Perhaps that is what Adamatzky and his researchers were doing when they decided their study showed that mushrooms can talk.) I mean, aborting babies is fine, but “murdering” a fungus in mid-oration is beyond the pale!

This could backfire on many progressives, though. It would be a disaster for vegetarians and vegans if their fellow bleeding-heart leftists decided that a growing number of plants and vegetables shouldn’t be “killed” and eaten because they can talk, have feelings, or might vote Democrat in the next presidential election!

                       *************************************************

Mushroom, definition of: a fungal growth that typically takes the form of a domed cap on a stalk, with gills on the underside of the cap. (See also Adam Schiff, Brian Stelter)

 

 

Washington School District Going To Race-Based Disciplinary Policy

 

Washington state’s Clover Park School District recently approved a new policy which will almost certainly encourage Tacoma area school administrators to consider race when disciplining students.

The new district directive urges school staff and officials to establish disciplinary policies that “may be adapted to individual student needs in a culturally responsive manner.” In a culturally responsive manner?

Critics understandably claim the new approach is in effect a race-based disciplinary policy that will encourage harsher or lighter punishments based on a student's race, with white students being disciplined more severely. 

However, the district insists that it is simply following a state law passed in 2021 that compels districts to “align with Cultural Competency, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion standards.” It insists the new guidelines neither are nor will be largely race-based.

Now tell us the one about the three bears, please. We know Diversity, Equity and Inclusion standards have nothing whatsoever to do with race, right?

John Arbeeny, a former deputy mayor of Lakewood, is also a skeptic. He expressed skepticism of the district’s assertion in a letter to the editor of the Suburban Times. Arbeeny wrote: “So 'culturally responsive discipline' is merely a deceptive cover term for 'racially/ethnically based discipline' which seeks to 'even out' the numbers of disciplinary incidents based upon racial/ethnic populations or some other undefined criteria.” Just so, John. Just so.

How come “progressives” believe everything should be based on race? How can this seem like a good idea, whether logically, spiritually, or based on historical fact?

“Black people aren’t able to control themselves. It’s not even their fault, really. They just can’t help it. They were born that way because of their skin color. Melanin, you know. White people? They are all racist. Inherently. Due to their skin color. They can’t help it. Just are. Then there are Native Americans, Asians, Latinos …and don’t even get me started on the Jews.”  

What could possibly go wrong or be wrong about a policy such as this? In a society gone stark raving mad, one that is shedding its long-time anchors of religion and equal justice under the law, inverting the notions of morality and tolerance, shaming the pursuit of excellence and the very idea of objective “standards,” and mocking traditional concepts of morality? Everything.

Race-based discipline and justice? How’d that work out for us before? Why not race-based health care? A race-based wage scale? Race-based restaurant reservations?

It is once again time for us to abandon race-based policies in favor of sanity-based policies. That much is clear.

One might even say it is black and white.    

 

Scientists Developing Self-Transmissible Vaccines

 

Free will and bodily autonomy are soon to be quaint memories of a bygone era, fleeting, sepia-toned visions hovering somewhere in the dusty attic of our minds.

Scientists are currently developing “self-spreading vaccines” that could transmit themselves to others in close proximity. According to National Geographic, they are feverishly working, engaged in experiments to come up with a vaccine that will spread to unvaccinated people—or even animals—as if by osmosis.

The report states that the scientists are currently developing “contagious vaccines” for Ebola, bovine tuberculosis, and Lassa fever, a viral disease spread by rats. The scientists are also planning to expand their studies to other diseases-- including rabies, West Nile virus, Lyme disease, and the plague.

The goal is to create a vaccine that would “infect” its recipient in such a way that they could pass on vaccination to others around them, in much the same way that they could pass on a disease. Thus, one vaccinated person or animal in a given community would spread the purported benefits of the vaccination to those around them. With or without them knowing that fact. Full disclosure?

These new vaccines would be so-called recombinant viruses and use a cytomegalovirus, or CMV, proud member of the herpes family of viruses.

National Geographic reported:

Imagine a cure that’s as contagious as the disease it fights—a vaccine that could replicate in a host’s body and spread to others nearby, quickly and easily protecting a whole population from microbial attacks. That’s the goal of several teams around the world who are reviving controversial research to develop self-spreading vaccines.

Advocates for the infectious vaccines claim the goal is to revolutionize public health by disrupting infectious disease spread, potentially preventing the next pandemic.

But skeptics argue that the viruses used in these vaccines could themselves mutate, jump species, or set off a chain reaction with devastating effects across entire ecosystems.

For example, Jonas Sandbrink-- a biosecurity researcher at the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute—noted: “Even if you just start by setting it out into animal populations, part of the genetic elements might find their way back into humans.” He added, “Once you set something engineered and self-transmissible out into nature, you don’t know what happens to it and where it will go.”

Oh, don’t be such Debbie Downers! Experts would make sure nothing like that could possibly happen, right? Right?

I’m old enough to remember when vaccines were supposed to prevent transmission, infection and contagion, not promote them.

And I can’t help but think these vaccines are being developed to make it impossible for people to avoid getting vaccinated, impossible to choose not to be infected with a given vaccine/experimental gene therapy. “Deniers” would be effectively, and perhaps unknowingly, forced to cede their own bodies to the vaccines—and the will of the government or other entity. Shades of the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

As of this writing, no one has yet conducted any field or laboratory studies assessing the impact and safety of these self-spreading vaccines.

The Canadian rock band Rush wrote a popular song (released in 1980) called Freewill, the last line of which reads: “I will choose a path that's clear, I will choose free will.”

Soon, we may no longer have that choice.