Needing More Information About Nashville Bomber

There are details on the Nashville bombing and bomber I can't understand, but that should inform the discussion. The building outside which the van exploded was owned by AT&T, but was unusual. No windows, no signs, no details. There's another such building in New York, just many more stories. It houses the national interface between big telecom and the National Security Agency. It is at least a 50-50 proposition that the Nashville building houses a similar regional interface. Warner, the bomber, was in position to know that. A 5G delusion seems more difficult to believe than a belief than a Big Brother opponent.

Warner lived in Antioch, a community that's a transition between urban Nashville (Davidson County) and more-rural Rutherford County. Nashville may be the most integrated larger city in the country, but it includes a lot of majority-white and -black neighborhoods. Antioch is genuinely integrated and mostly moderate conservative. Warner seemed to get along with his neighbors, something that would not have been the case had he been on either a left or right fringe.

My speculation is a middle-class man gone into pandemic overload taking out his frustration on a symbol of nationwide intrusive government.

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Meditations on the Remaining Time in our Lives

“The trouble is, you think you have time.” Jack Kornfield, in Buddha’s Little Instruction Book.

I have found that I can better feel my remaining time on Earth by calculating it in terms of months rather than the years. That number is easy to calculate. Merely consult a mortality calculator such as this one. And then, once you see that number, you might ask yourself whether that number is a threat or whether it is a challenge and an opportunity.  My age is 64, which means that I have roughly 18.6 more years before I die.  Multiplying by 12, I can see that I have only 223 months remaining and I don't know whether I will be in good health for most of those months.  I don't know whether those will be months that streak by or whether they will be slowly-passing months like the ones many of us are experiencing during COVID.

When a friend of mine was 30, he told me that he had been accepted to a medical school, but was having second thoughts. He decided to talk with the school counselor, saying: "If I proceed, it will involve 4 years of medical school, one year of internship and 3 years of residency. By the time I am a doctor, I'll be 38 years old!"  The counselor replied, "How old will you be in 8 years if you don't go to medical school?"

“The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live.” Seneca

“You are living as if destined to live forever; your own frailty never occurs to you; you don’t notice how much time has already passed, but squander it as though you had a full and overflowing supply — though all the while that very day which you are devoting to somebody or something may be your last. You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire." Seneca. On The Shortness of Life

How often do you sternly ask yourself this question: "Why are you here?" Do you have an answer that you actually believe? Or are you living a life based on "I don't know"?

What if there really were pearly gates and you really were judged after you were died. What if you were judged by a jury of the 50 people you most admire.  How would you fare?

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Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to Decide Who Qualifies as a “Woman” Athlete in Idaho

Is a particular person was a "woman"? For most of my life, everyone I knew would say that the question is answered by considering what kind of genitals that person had. For many people, the answer to that question is no longer answered purely by biology. And to make the discussion all-the-more confusing, transgender activists insist that "intersex" conditions are relevant to this discussion while others consider intersex a red herring.

Lindsay Hecox v Bradley Little [Governor of Idaho] will weigh in on this issue.  This appeal is pending in the Ninth Circuit (and perhaps headed to the United States Supreme Court). The context is transgender sports competition involving students in Idaho. A new Idaho statute is the focus of this lawsuit. The following excerpt is a description of Idaho law taken from the appellate brief of Idaho (the Defendant):

The statute at issue is the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, Idaho Code §§ 33-6201 through -6206. The Act excludes members of the male sex from participating in sports designated for athletes of the female sex due to males’ physiological advantages, consistent with settled Ninth Circuit law . . . . The Act also permits male and co-ed teams, both of which are open to members of either sex. See Idaho Code § 33-6203.

To ensure the Act’s protections for female athletes, the Act provides that if a dispute arises over a student’s sex and eligibility for female sports, the student may establish female sex in one of three ways: through a high school health examination and consent form signed by a health care provider, which all student-athletes must submit; through another written statement signed by the student’s health care provider; or through a sports physical examination, in which the health care provider relies on one of three specified criteria to determine sex. See Idaho Code § 33-6203(3). See also ER 417-19 (Idaho High School Activities Association Health Examination and Consent Form); IHSAA Rule 13 (requiring high school athletes to submit form). The Act does not provide any sex-verification procedures for male or co-ed sports, because they are open to all, regardless of sex. In support of the bill, the Idaho Legislature made a number of findings based on court decisions, scholarly publications, and scientific studies recognizing the physiological advantages members of the male sex have over their female counterparts. Idaho Code § 33-6202(8)-(11). The Legislature also described the Act’s purpose:

Having separate sex-specific teams furthers efforts to promote sex equality. Sex-specific teams accomplish this by providing opportunities for female athletes to demonstrate their skill, strength, and athletic abilities while also providing them with opportunities to obtain recognition and accolades, college scholarships, and the numerous other long-term benefits that flow from success in athletic endeavors. Id. § 33-6202(12).

Plaintiffs describe the Idaho law at page 8ff of their brief.

A federal trial court granted an injunction, holding that the above law violates federal law. See the Idaho Brief at pp 6-7 and the Plaintiffs' brief, pp. 2-4 for more detail. This is a fascinating set of briefs for many reasons, one of them being that if you read both briefs, it is often hard to believe that they are describing the same lawsuit. That is because the crux of the case is whether one of the two plaintiffs, Lindsay Hecox, is more accurately described as male versus female. Consider Hecox's descriptions in the two briefs:

[From the Plaintiffs' Brief, p. 15: "Lindsay is a woman athlete living in Idaho who is transgender." Plaintiffs' brief includes a photo of Lindsay:

[From Defendant Idaho's Brief] "One plaintiff is Lindsay Hecox, who is transgender, and whose sex is male but whose gender identity is female."

Both sides agree that Lindsay is "transgender." As you can see, Plaintiffs claim she is "a woman" while Idaho states that the "sex is male."

I haven't yet read every word of every brief, but I have reviewed a lot of the filings.  In case anyone is interested in following along to see exactly what is being claimed as far as the "facts" or the law, you are welcome to click on the links below.  My focus is biology, but the Plaintiffs claim that biology does is not determinative.

Continue ReadingNinth Circuit Court of Appeals to Decide Who Qualifies as a “Woman” Athlete in Idaho

Your Inner Fish For the Holidays!

You've seen all of those standard fare Christmas shoes over and over.  It's time to shake things up this holiday season.  Instead of watching predictable shows, or a show with a ghastly ending, the Grinch that Stole Christmas, open your mind and take a look at this much-stranger-than-fiction trilogy created by biologist Neil Shubin. These informative and entertaining shows are available at no charge at PBS.

Episode I - Your Inner Fish
https://www.pbs.org/video/your-inner-fish-program-your-inner-fish-2/

Episode 2 - Your Inner Reptile
https://www.pbs.org/video/your-inner-fish-program-your-inner-reptile/

Episode 3 - Your Inner Monkey
https://www.pbs.org/video/your-inner-fish-your-inner-monkey/

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Keira Bell’s Case is Unfreezing News Media that Have Been Reluctant to Discuss Rampant Transgendering of Teenaged Girls

The legal proceedings regarding Keira Bell are forcing the reluctant news media to begin discussing this serious issue regarding a vulnerable population of teenage girls being cajoled into harsh medical treatment for undiagnosed gender dysphoria. The silence of the news media has found synergy with bad science and dangerous medical practices.  Here's an excerpt from Quillette article titled "Like It Or Not, Keira Bell Has Opened Up a Real Conversation About Gender Dysphoria":

The policy reckoning we are now beginning to observe has been a long time coming. And Ms. Bell’s role is an important one, as trans activists have long sought to discredit or ignore the growing ranks of desisters—those, such as Ms. Bell, who once presented sincerely as trans, but later reverted to an identity consistent with their real biological sex. Even media that formerly had toed the progressive line on the issue of gender dysphoria are now finding the courage to run articles about vulnerable girls—many of them autistic, depressed, or socially insecure—who suffer regret after a period of trans self-identification.

Continue ReadingKeira Bell’s Case is Unfreezing News Media that Have Been Reluctant to Discuss Rampant Transgendering of Teenaged Girls