Liberal Media Suppresses the Story of Transgender Swimmer Lia Thomas

I double checked Greenwald's claim and it is stunning true. You won't find a single word about Lia Thomas by the NYT, NPR or WP. That's today's favored way to win an policy argument: Make sure that opposing/inconvient facts don't show up. I think of this as the Tonya Harding strategy for winning an argument and it is disgraceful that major media outlets proudly practice it.

Truly, one of the best ways to lie is to tell only selective truths suppressing other highly relevant information. This method works well in a world where many people are afraid to stray from their long-trusted "confirmatory" news sources. Intercept reporter Ryan Grimm reported on a brand new extensive survey showing that people consider facts like these to be highly relevant to how they feel about this issue of transgender athletes. According to the survey, respondents are overwhelmingly opposed to people with male bodies smashing female athletic records. NYT, NPR and WP are working overtime to suppress this particular story because it runs counter-narrative.

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Beating the War Drums – Iran Edition

Sorry, New Yorker. I'm not buying that Iran is a threat to the U.S. This article has the fingerprints of the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex all over it. The U.S. is always lost and adrift unless it concocts existential-threat enemies.

I remember well. Before 9/11, we were pounding rhetoric about the "military threat" of China. Then we made a 180 degree turn and galloped off to a 20-year blank-check country-wide adventure in Afghanistan even though the 9/11 mayhem appears to have been financed by Saudi Arabia. Then it was time to shed blood in Iraq based on lies. Then it was urgent that we attend to other "domestic threats" in the Middle East, including Libya (based on lies) and missile strikes on Syria (based on lies).

Now, just in time to distract ourselves from our massive domestic dysfunction (and Biden's cratering poll numbers), it's time to remind Americans that Iran poses an imminent threat. It's amazing how this crap so often comes from left-leaning media (remember NYT's Judith Miller and Thomas Friedman re Iraq?). It's time for all of us to say FU to the military and slash it's budget by half, but that won't happen. The Dems just approved a 5% increase of the military budget. When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

This endless charade would almost be humorous if it weren't killing and maiming so many people, including U.S. soldiers who are being used like pawns by US politicians who are trying to look "strong."

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The Death of Romance?

What's going on with romance?

Earlier this year (2021), the Pew Research Center asked a representative sample of adults “What about your life do you currently find meaningful, fulfilling or satisfying? What keeps you going and why?”

Psychology Today summarizes the responses related to romance:

In 2017, 20 percent of adults in the U.S. mentioned a spouse, romantic partner, marriage, dating, or romantic love as a source of meaning, fulfillment, or satisfaction. By 2021, only 9 percent did so. Of the 16 sources of meaning and fulfillment that participants mentioned, none showed a sharper drop over time. (The decrease was the same for the category of material well-being.) . . .

The 9 percent who found fulfillment in romantic partners in the U.S., though, was the highest percentage of all the places studied, . . . In France, Greece, and Spain, only 3 percent mentioned a spouse, romantic partner, marriage, dating, or romantic love as a source of meaning, fulfillment, or satisfaction. In Japan and Singapore, only 2 percent did. And in South Korea and Taiwan, a mere 1 percent mentioned any sort of romantic theme.

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Sheep Versus Goats

From a London Times article (praising the bravery of J.K. Rowling):

A friend believes people divide into sheep and goats. The sheep will never stray too far from their flock’s received wisdom because lone dissenters are picked off by wolves. Sheep are pleasant, biddable, placid, and panic when cornered. Sheep mainly aspire to a quiet life.

Goats are not nice: they’re cussed, belligerent, solitary. They scrabble and climb, cling to frozen rock faces. It’s not bravery that leads them far from low-hanging fruit and shelter into barren places with precipitous drops, or to ram their heads into hard objects and bigger foes. It’s their nature. They’re goats.

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