Chris of Rights

R.I.P. Cowboy Great Dan Reeves

2022-01-01T14:42:00.001-05:00

NFL coach Dan Reeves dies at 77 | Washington Examiner

R.I.P. Betty White

2022-01-01T11:32:00.001-05:00

A great career, but to me, she’ll always be Sue Ann Nivens from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Is anyone from that show still alive? I don’t think so. How sad.

I’ll miss you, Sue Ann.

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Farewell. Rest in peace.

The Week in Pictures–01 January, 2022

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The Week in Pictures: Happy New Year Edition | Power Line (powerlineblog.com)

The Week in Pictures–25 December, 2021

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The Week in Pictures: Merry Xmas Edition | Power Line (powerlineblog.com)

The Week in Pictures–18 December, 2021

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The Week in Pictures: Unhappy Liberal Holidays Edition | Power Line (powerlineblog.com)

The Week in Pictures–11 December, 2021

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The Week in Pictures: Smoldering Smollett Edition | Power Line (powerlineblog.com)The Week in Pictures: Smoldering Smollett Edition | Power Line (powerlineblog.com)

The Week in Pictures–04 December, 2021

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The Week in Pictures: The New New Deviant Edition | Power Line (powerlineblog.com)

The Week in Pictures–27 November, 2021

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The Week in Pictures: New Deviant Edition | Power Line (powerlineblog.com)

The Week in Pictures–24 November, 2021

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Mid-Week in Pictures: Special Thanksgiving Holiday Edition | Power Line (powerlineblog.com)

The Week in Pictures–20 November, 2021

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The Week in Pictures: Well-Acquitted Edition | Power Line (powerlineblog.com)

The Week in Pictures–13 November, 2021

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The Week in Pictures: Inflated Edition | Power Line (powerlineblog.com)

The Week in Pictures–06 November, 2021

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The Week in Pictures: Total Schadenfreude Edition | Power Line (powerlineblog.com)

The Week in Pictures–30 October, 2021

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The Week in Pictures: Brandon’s Halloween Edition | Power Line (powerlineblog.com)

The Week in Pictures–23 October, 2021

2022-01-01T10:51:00.001-05:00

Let’s start the New Year off with some humor.

It’s been a while since I’ve caught up with these. New Year’s Resolution: stay on time with these in 2022.

The Week in Pictures: Supply Chain Edition | Power Line (powerlineblog.com)

2021!

2021-12-30T17:44:00.001-05:00

2,021 posts in 2021.

Wow.

There will be no “On This Day” post tomorrow. I’m done for the year.

See you in 2022.

30 December, 1922

2021-12-30T17:43:00.001-05:00

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is officially founded.

In post-revolutionary Russia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is established, comprising a confederation of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine and the Transcaucasian Federation (divided in 1936 into the Georgian, Azerbaijan and Armenian republics). Also known as the Soviet Union, the new communist state was the successor to the Russian Empire and the first country in the world to be based on Marxist socialism.

During the Russian Revolution of 1917 and subsequent three-year Russian Civil War, the Bolshevik Party under Vladimir Lenin dominated the soviet forces, a coalition of workers’ and soldiers’ committees that called for the establishment of a socialist state in the former Russian Empire

Battleswarm Blog Respects Paul Krugman as Much as I Do

2021-12-30T17:29:00.001-05:00

In other words, not at all.

Paul Krugman Is Always Wrong: Inflation Edition « Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog

If you’ve been reading this blog long enough, one recurring theme is that Nobel-prize winning leftwing economist and pundit Paul Krugman is always wrong. Back in the day, Larry Kudlow made a career pointing out Krugman’s errors, and you may remember such Krugman howlers as “the Internet is no more important than a fax machine” and “markets will never recover from Trump.”

Lately he’s been in the news for dismissing the idea that inflation is a problem.

Paul Krugman, May 7: “[Treasury secretary] Janet Yellen and I believe that the Fed can contain any inflationary risks.”

Paul Krugman, June 21: “For those paying closer attention to the flow of new information, inflation panic is, you know, so last week.”

Paul Krugman, July 23: “Overheating is still possible, and the Fed should keep its eye on that possibility. But the big numbers aren’t as scary as they seem.”

Paul Krugman, August 12: “Anxiety about the inflationary impact of public investment just doesn’t make sense if you work through the numbers.”

Paul Krugman, September 10: “Companies aren’t acting as if they expect lots of future inflation, where they can hike wages without losing competitive advantage. They’re acting, instead, as if they see current inflation as a blip.”

Paul Krugman, November 11: “So yes, that was an ugly inflation report, and we hope that future reports will look better. But people making knee-jerk comparisons with the 1970s and screaming about stagflation are looking at the wrong history. When you look at the right history, it tells you not to panic.”

The New York Times, this morning:

Inflation jumped to the highest level in nearly 40 years, fresh data released on Friday showed, as supply chain disruptions, rapid consumer demand and rising housing costs combined to fuel the strongest inflationary burst in a generation (emphasis added).

I am always amazed that anyone listens to Krugman. If I’m in an internet discussion and someone quotes him, I just tell the person to stop right there. There’s no point in continuing an argument if Krugman is your source, because I havef no respect for him at all.

Look, this is just complete idiocy:

Proving that some of the most basic facts of economic life for ordinary people elude some Nobel-prize winning economists, Krugman dismisses the idea that inflation hurts the poor worse than the rich.

Aside from priorities, is this even true? Is there any good reason to believe that inflation hits low-income households especially hard? 1/ https://t.co/72hxWaL5zW
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 11, 2021

Read the whole thing.

Facebook’s Actions Don’t Support Their Leaders’ Words

2021-12-30T17:15:00.001-05:00

Meta's soon-to-be CTO: "If your democracy can’t tolerate the speech of people, I’m not sure what kind of democracy it is." (reclaimthenet.org)

I totally agree. I guess these words don’t apply to Facebook itself, though.

He contradicted the anti-free speech stance of his company by saying: “I don’t feel comfortable at all saying they don’t have a voice because I don’t like what they said.”

Bosworth added: “If your democracy can’t tolerate the speech of people, I’m not sure what kind of democracy it is. [Facebook is] a fundamentally democratic technology.”

The statement is particularly jarring considering the constant censorship of thought the platform engages in, under the guise of censoring “misinformation.”

It will be wonderful to see his company take actions that go along with these words. I won’t hold my breath, though.

The Only Thing Wrong With This Is the Number of Zeros

2021-12-30T17:12:00.001-05:00

They should be forced to pay more than this.

Virginia Hospital Found In Contempt Of Court, Subject To $10k Per Day Fines After Denying Patient Ivermectin | The Daily Wire

Family trying to get docs to give mom Ivermectin. She’s in the hospital with the China virus and not doing well. The docs wouldn’t do it. The family got a court order. And the hospital still has not given mom the medicine.

$10,000/day isn’t enough. Several people here need to have their licenses to practice medicine taken away. Or thrown in jail. Either one.

Chris Davies and his father Donald have been fighting for their mother and wife Kathy Davies’ right to try the drug Ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment at Fauquier Health hospital in Warrenton, Virginia, for the past few weeks. But the hospital — where Chris happens to work as a radiologic technologist — had put his mother through a series of legal hoops seemingly designed to block the treatment from being given to her.

On Monday, December 13, Virginia’s 20th Judicial Court found Fauquier Health in contempt of court after refusing to comply with previous orders and ruled that by 9:00 p.m. Eastern time tonight, Kathy Davies must be given the dose of Ivermectin as prescribed by a doctor retained by the Davies family. Additionally — if the hospital did not comply — the state had the right to fine the hospital $10,000 per day. That order would have been applied retroactively from December 9 onwards. The court also ordered that the Davies family be given police escort if necessary to administer the drug to their mother.

The judge has clearly lost patience. Good. If the woman dies, these people need to be punished. Hard.

Doesn’t This Mean It’s Not a Mandate?

2021-12-30T16:44:00.001-05:00

New York Won’t Force Counties to Comply With Mask Mandate – PJ Media

News: @GovKathyHochul says that NY will NOT be forcing counties to comply with the mask mandate going into effect today. Some county executives say they will not.

“ I do hope that the businesses will enforce this. And individuals will understand how important it is.”

— Morgan Mckay (@morganfmckay) December 13, 2021

I wonder if this is just bowing to reality. As I pointed out previously, several counties have already indicated they weren’t going to enforce it.

More Censorship From Big Tech

2021-12-30T16:36:00.001-05:00

I’m going to keep calling these when I see them. You need to understand how much Twitter and Facebook hate you.

Facebook bans former professor Dolores Cahill over Covid stance (reclaimthenet.org)

Want some irony here?

Cahill retired from her position at UCD amid, but seemingly not because of, backlash from her comments about the virus and its vaccines.

The school dismissed calls to fire her because of the principles of academic freedom.

Her employer wouldn’t muzzle her, but Facebook has no problems doing so.

I Don’t Know if I Have Much to Say About This Yet

2021-12-30T16:32:00.001-05:00

2024 Election: Potential Republican presidential candidates - Deseret News

Obviously, former President Donald Trump (R-USA) is the Elephant in the room. He’s just hated in suburbia, though. I’d prefer to see a candidate who can maintain the Trump coalition, and expand into suburbia. It’s very possible that such a candidate does not exist.

Right now my #1 is Nikki Haley, and my #2 would be Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL). Governor Kristi Noem (R-SD) is also interesting.

And what to you know. I just named the top four candidates from the article.

Read for yourself.

A Win for Team Biden on the Mandates

2021-12-30T16:19:00.001-05:00

Not their mandate, but it still shows SCOTUS is willing to consider the idea.

BREAKING: Supreme Court Denies Bid To Prevent Enforcement Of New York Vaccine Mandate For Health Care Workers | The Daily Wire

On Monday, the United States Supreme Court rejected two emergency bids seeking to prevent enforcement of the state of New York’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in the Empire State.

CNBC was one of the first outlets to report on the breaking news:

The legal challenge was filed by a group of 20 doctors and nurses who argued that the state’s vaccine mandate violates the First Amendment to the Constitution because it fails to include a religious exemption.

The request for an injunction had been presented to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who is assigned to handle cases from New York.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito — three of the court’s six-member conservative majority — said in the order that they would have granted the bid to block the mandate.

There’s a tug of war here. Anti-mandaters are winning, but they’re not running away with it.

It Figures

2021-12-30T16:10:00.001-05:00

Jim Clyburn Says Democrats Will ‘Get Around’ Filibuster To Pass Progressive Voting Expansion | The Daily Wire

There’s nothing less democratic than the Democrats’ proposals to overhaul voting in America, so it makes sense they’d work to “get around” other traditional democratic principles to pass it.

For the record, again, I am not opposed to filibuster reform. And I think it will eventually disappear. It’s really just a matter of which party eventually does it. My money is on the Democrats, but I really wouldn’t be surprised either way. I know that whenever it happens, the opposition party and media will hyperventilate about it for weeks.

However, “getting around” things bothers me.

Clyburn made the comments to “Axios on HBO,” telling the program that passing the Democrats’ desired legislation “may require some jiu-jitsu, but that’s not beyond the Senate to do that.”

“They’ll come up with some way to get around it,” Clyburn added. “We had better come up with some way to get around it, because this democracy is teetering on collapse.”

He doesn’t get the irony of his statement. Democracy is teetering on collapse, and yet we have to “get around” the rules in the Senate to “fix” it.

I’ve Lost Track of the Score Here

2021-12-30T16:01:00.001-05:00

And it doesn’t really matter. SCOTUS will have the final say. But the lower courts have been overwhelmingly against the mandates, and that does not bode well for Team Biden’s chances before the Supreme Court

Court Denies Biden’s Emergency Motion For Stay Pending Appeal Of Vaccine Mandate Case | The Daily Wire

A federal court denied Democrat President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice on Monday from being able to stop a temporary block on vaccine mandates on healthcare workers.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said in a statement: “The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Department of Justice’s motion for stay pending appeal in our lawsuit against the vaccine mandate on healthcare workers, meaning our injunction will stay in place.”

The statement included the court order, which stated: “Appellants’ Emergency Motion for Stay Pending Appeal is denied.”

NEW this morning: The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Department of Justice's motion for stay pending appeal in our lawsuit against the vaccine mandate on healthcare workers, meaning our injunction will stay in place.

See the order --> pic.twitter.com/L7ClJgonzR
— Attorney General Eric Schmitt (@AGEricSchmitt) December 13, 2021