Every Single Person is Unique

I absolutely agree with Glenn Greenwald here. I would further add that there are no homogeneous groupings at all. To suggest otherwise is to start down the slippery slope to identity politics. Even the members of tight-knit families are dramatically different from each other, which can be seen when you take the time to get to known them as individuals.

And why is it that we leave out people from low-earning people without college degrees when we claim the need for "diversity"? I believe that it is because it is perfectly OK to treat low-earning working class people without college degrees as pariahs in modern society--just try to find some of them in featured roles on TV shows and movies. The heroes live in fancy apartments and they wear expensive clothes.

Even one step further, which member of the working class. They are not all the same. If you take the time to get to know people who don't earn much money this is indisputably clear.

One more for now: what about viewpoint diversity? When we speak of having a "diverse" environment, that is overlooked, often intentionally, I believe, because it blows apart the notion that merely recruiting a "woman of color" into the conversation would be a meaningful way to achieve true diversity.

How many people are there on the planet? Seven billion? There are seven billion types of people on this planet.

Continue ReadingEvery Single Person is Unique

NYT and WP Play Coy Regarding Sources for their COVID “Natural Origins” Cheerleading

The Biden Administration is rightfully looking into the COVID lab origin theory (even though it was seen as shameful to even ask this question in recent times). In the meantime, NYT and WP are now cheerleading for the "natural origin" theory based, in part, on the opinions of two thoroughly discredited infectious disease researchers. Follow the public evidence offered by Glenn Greenwald to see that Peter Daszak has a well-documented career-threatening conflict of interest (and history of deceit) and Robert Garry received a multi-million dollar NIAID research grant shortly before his 180 degree change of opinion. Glenn Greenwald's story is focused on the irresponsible reporting by the NYT and WP. Why would these newspapers fail to inform their readers that there are concrete reasons to distrust both of these two experts upon whom their recent stories rely? National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is the well funded agency directed by Anthony Fauci, who also has some explaining to do.

Greenwald's article is titled: "To Deny the "Lab Leak" COVID Theory, the NYT and WPost Use Dubious and Conflicted SourcesA bizarre and abrupt reversal by scientists regarding COVID's origins, along with clear conflicts of interest, create serious doubts about their integrity. Yet major news outlets keep relying on them."

Here is Daszak explaining his state of the art research back in 2017:

Here's another link to Daszak's video.

Continue ReadingNYT and WP Play Coy Regarding Sources for their COVID “Natural Origins” Cheerleading

The Story Behind the Iconic Photo of the Man Who Refused to Salute Hitler

I've seen this iconic photo periodically. It has always inspired me. I keep a copy of the image file on my desktop, and I periodically look at it and feel intense emotions.  Until today, however, I didn't know the story about the man refusing to salute Hitler.  I didn't know what happened to him.

[caption id="attachment_34346" align="aligncenter" width="792"] Employees of the shipyard Blohm und Vow from Hamburg gathered for the launch of the training ship 'Horst Wessel' and demonstrate the Nazi salute with the raised right arm. One worker in the right half of the picture denied it and crosses his arms in a defiant gesture - also a kind of resistance. The name of the worker is August Landmesser., 01.01.1936-31.12.1936[/caption]

Here is the opening paragraph of the story behind the photo from Wikipedia:

August Landmesser ([ˈaʊ̯ɡʊst ˈlantˌmɛsɐ]; 24 May 1910 – 17 October 1944) was a worker at the Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany. He became known as the possible identity of a man appearing in a 1936 photograph, conspicuously refusing to perform the Nazi salute with the other workers.[2][3] Landmesser had run afoul of the Nazi Party over his unlawful relationship with Irma Eckler, a Jewish woman. Later he was imprisoned, and eventually drafted into penal military service, where he was killed in action.

The Wikipedia article continues on and it is a story that is jarring, inexcusable, horrid. This is what can happen when bullies bring terror up a group (or nation) of people, causing them to form a destructive tribe.  There are millions of stories of the Nazi regime, but August's photo allows him to visually inspire the rest of us.  If only most of us had the guts and integrity to stand up to 1% of the social pressure and the danger that he faced. I wonder whether this photo was used in the case against him, or if his sin of falling in love with a Jewish woman (Irma) was more than enough evidence for his persecutors. Bullies don't need much evidence.  Actually, they don't need any evidence.

August's non-salute proves that one can stand up to massive social pressure to succumb.  The salutes of everyone else in this photo is evidence of something else, what what?  Is it that most people are sheep?  Is it that most people stop thinking when under social pressure, thus acting out Hannah Arendt's idea of the banality of evil?  Or did most people, at some early glimpse of trouble, decide to stop thinking? Or did most people knowingly live hypocritical lives day after day, laying low, passively hoping that the entire thing would wash over and that they and their families would emerge intact, though compromised?

This photo of August Landmesser inspires me, reminding me that nothing I ever face will compare to what he faced.  If he could stand up to the Nazi's, I will never have any excuse for failing to speak what I believe to be truth, no matter how upset people around me are getting.  August Landmesser's photo is an excellent reason for being the first one in the room to stand up and tell the mob that you disagree with them. 

Continue ReadingThe Story Behind the Iconic Photo of the Man Who Refused to Salute Hitler

A Growing Collection: News Media Not Wanting Us to Know Important Things

I will be adding items to this list, apparently for a long time. I was provoked to create this list after reading Andrew Sullivan's collection of topics that the left-leaning news media works hard to not cover. I'll begin this list up here in a post and then continue adding items in the comments.

This list begins today, with this entry by Batya Ungar-Sargon coupled with this NYP article, "Journalists today aren’t muckrakers — they are defenders of the liberal elite":

[Added Dec 5, 2021]

They treat us like toddlers who are incapable of hearing the facts and coming to our own conclusions.

Glenn Greenwald:

In the last 18 months, US political discourse has been mass-censored over significant issues based on 2 lies:

1) The Biden email archive was "Russian disinformation."

2) The Science™ had proven COVID was zoonotic rather than from a lab.

Both lies led to widespread repression.

Continue ReadingA Growing Collection: News Media Not Wanting Us to Know Important Things

A Few Questions about Race

I enthusiastically support Glenn Loury's Substack. He often discusses race issues with John McWhorter. Glenn invited questions for their upcoming question and answer session. Here is my question. I hope they have time to address it on their Q & A:

Here’s a hypothetical for the two of you.

Assume that God visits the United States next Tuesday. After sizing things up, God performs a miracle. He/She/They decide to make it impossible for anyone to know the “race” of anyone else. There are no longer any physical or historical ways to determine the “race” of any people you meet. Two questions: What % of people would like this new world? What % would be distressed because they no longer have a quick proxy for judging the character of others? I suspect that some people doing DEI work will get upset because they will lose their jobs. Some people will get busy trying to determine new immutable characteristics upon which to judge the characteristics of other people—perhaps astrology and phrenology theories will again flourish. In the midst of all this panic, distress and commotion of this non-racial reckoning, the news media reports that someone (race unknown) murders 15 people (race unknown). Many people watching the news reports don’t know whether to give a shit in the absence of “racial” information.

Continue ReadingA Few Questions about Race