Boots & Sabers

The blogging will continue until morale improves...

M
Category: Culture

Media Portrayals Skew Demographic Representations

by | 2047, 5 Jun 22 | | 5 Comments

This is for Britain, but I bet it holds in the U. S. of  A.

The public also hugely overestimates the number of vegans and vegetarians – suggesting about 20 per cent refuse to eat animal products, when it is just four per cent. Results of the survey, commissioned by the Common Sense Campaign, have been used to gauge the accuracy of minority representation in the media. Those surveyed were asked 16 questions to work out the overall perception of the make-up of the UK.

 

Tory MP Sir John Hayes said: ‘This distorted impression created by much of the broadcast and online media is so out of tune with the facts as to befuddle people about the true character of Britain. There are, of course, all sorts of minority groups that deserve our respect and regard.

 

‘The overwhelming majority of British people are drawn from a small number of groups. Media preoccupations with minorities are skewing the facts.’

 

The poll revealed that the public thinks 10 per cent of people are bisexual and 15 per cent are gay or lesbian. The true figures, official statistics say, are 1.3 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively.

Roe Ruling Could Spark Massive Increase in Adoptions

by | 1932, 4 Jun 22 | | 3 Comments

What a blessing that would be.

With the Supreme Court seemingly poised to overturn Roe v. Wade this year, adoption agencies around the country are now strategizing their next steps — including securing additional funding and hiring staff — should the reversal lead to higher demand for adoption services. At the same time, some experts are warning that the highly unregulated industry also should guard against a rise in “coercive adoptions” and improper vetting of adoption workers.

 

In the decades since Roe, the percentage of children who have been put up for adoption has declined. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about nine percent of children born to never-married women under 45 were put up for adoption before abortion was legalized in 1973. That number dropped to 2 percent in the 1980s and fell even further — to 1 percent — in 2002, the last year for which data is available.

 

Private domestic adoptions are estimated to be about 0.5 percent of the annual number of births, or about 18,300 to 20,000 adoptions per year, according to a study by Gretchen Sisson, who used data from the National Council for Adoption, CDC and Guttmacher Institute to analyze patterns from 2002 to 2014. The share of adoptions could jump up significantly in a post-Roe world, perhaps even reaching pre-Roe levels, said Sisson, a sociologist at the University of California San Francisco whose research focus includes pregnancy decision-making.

 

Sisson said such a jump, a 20-fold increase from the current rate, would be “astronomical.”

Musk’s Companies Go Back to the Office

by | 1634, 2 Jun 22 | , | 5 Comments

I, for one, appreciate this.

Tesla boss Elon Musk has ordered staff to return to the office full-time, declaring that working remotely is no longer acceptable.

 

The new policy was shared in emails that were leaked to social media.

 

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on the messages, one of which appeared to be addressed to executives.

 

People who are unwilling to abide by the new rules can “pretend to work somewhere else” Mr Musk said on Twitter, when asked about the policy.

 

“Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week,” he wrote in one of the emails. “If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.”

Don’t get me wrong.. I am not making a statement on the policy. I have been a remote worker for 15+ years and don’t think I would ever go back to work in an office unless 1) I had to, or 2) they paid me a LOT of money. I think remote workers can be very effective, but it is not appropriate for all job roles. It is also not appropriate for all people. It takes some self-discipline.

It is also perfectly acceptable for a company to want workers in the office for the inherent benefits the company gets in terms of culture and collaboration. Musk believes that working in an office is better for his business’ outcomes and is not going to coddle employees who won’t accept that condition of employment. Good for him. And if that stance costs him great employees, then that’s a consequence he will have to manage. We need to get back to having workplaces that are mutually beneficial for all parties. If it isn’t working for one of the parties, then they are free to make adult decisions about their future.

Purchasing and protecting our liberty

by | 0737, 31 May 22 | | 4 Comments

Here is my full column that ran on Saturday in the Washington County Daily News.

Memorial Day is the one day every year we set aside to pause our lives, bow our heads, remember, and thank all of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have given their lives to preserve the cause of freedom. For over 240 years, Americans have fought and died so that we may enjoy the blessings of liberty purchased with their blood.

 

Last week, my wife and I sailed through Norfolk, the home of the mighty United States Fleet Forces Command. We passed three Nimitz class aircraft carriers, submarines, cruisers, destroyers, and countless other supply and warships built for the purpose of defending freedom throughout the world. Nestled among the great grey ships of war was a single white one. The hospital ship USNS Comfort sat in the shadow of the USS George HW Bush as a reminder that those ships go to war full of Americans and not all of them come home.

 

We continued up the York River to spend the week in Yorktown, the site of the final armed engagement of the Revolutionary War. In the visitor center, we learned the history and stood under the green flaps of General George Washington’s actual campaign tent. We strolled through the pastoral battlefield still wrought into defensive berms and ditches to shield men from iron, peeked over the siege lines, and tried to imagine the violence of 1781.

 

Redoubts 9 and 10 stand barely 150 yards apart and it strains the modern mind to think of the brave Americans Alexander Hamilton led with fixed bayonets and unloaded guns up the scarp of redoubt 10, through the palisades, and into the nest of the waiting British. At nearby redoubt 9, our brave French allies had a tougher go, but fought like lions to push the redcoats out of their defensive position. These last two clashes proved to be the final major bloody engagements, save continued bombardment of the British in Yorktown, to secure America’s independence.

 

At the northern end of the defensive lines, across the street from what was the Royal Welsh Fusiliers Redoubt, lies the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. The museum is packed with artifacts from the colonial period and Revolutionary War, including a pair of the Marquis de Lafayette’s pistols, an early Brown Bess musket from 1741, and rare July 1776 broadside of the Declaration of Independence. A walk outside finds a living history showcase of a Revolutionary War camp and colonial farm.

 

It is difficult to view such things without being filled with appreciation for the liberties we enjoy, and the sacrifice made by so many Americans to secure those liberties. It is also difficult to not think of the millions of Americans who stand watch today willing to give all of their tomorrows to secure the blessings of today.

 

Such sacrifices by the dead impose responsibilities on the living. One of the admonishments made throughout the museum is that the siege of Yorktown was not the end of the revolution, but the beginning. The liberties won with bullet and blade must be preserved and expanded with voice and vote.

 

With the smell of liberty still filling my nostrils, I reflect with remorse on how easily too many of us give up the liberties secured for us by the precious blood of so many Americans. Too often we are unwilling to endure even discomfort or incur offense for the sake of liberty even though it is a small price compared to the price paid by so many others.

 

We must use our voices and votes to preserve our liberty on every front. When we read or hear things that cause offense or discomfort, we must respond with robust debate and not resort to using the power of government or technology to silence those with whom we disagree. We must return to the national ethic that we may disagree, but we will defend to the death each other’s right to speak freely.

 

When evil people commit violence, we must not react by restricting the civil rights of Americans to keep and bear arms. The story of mankind is the story of the conflict between the individual yearning for liberty and the collective power of authority to crush it. An armed citizen is the last and best defense against the tyranny of government whether they wear coats of red or blue.

 

We must ensure that every American citizen can cast their vote. Government without consent of the governed is illegitimate and innately tyrannical. Securing the right to vote also means ensuring that every vote cast is legitimate and counted.

 

And so with every natural right, we Americans must first seek to protect those rights from people who mean to restrict them. Our overriding bias in public discourse and public policy must be on the side of more freedom — not less. Yes, a free society is messy, but it is far preferable to orderly oppression. The price we pay for our liberty is vigilance, discomfort, frustration, anger, and compromise, but it is far less costly than the blood of heroes. Rights surrendered with ink are often only recovered with blood.

 

This Memorial Day, we remember and thank those Americans who paid the ultimate price for our liberty. May their sacrifice weigh heavy on our hearts and give us strength to protect the liberties their sacrifice secured.

 

Purchasing and protecting our liberty

by | 0905, 28 May 22 | | 10 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. I know that it usually runs on Tuesdays, but with the Memorial Day Holiday, they decided to run it today. Here’s a part:

It is difficult to view such things without being filled with appreciation for the liberties we enjoy, and the sacrifice made by so many Americans to secure those liberties. It is also difficult to not think of the millions of Americans who stand watch today willing to give all of their tomorrows to secure the blessings of today.

 

Such sacrifices by the dead impose responsibilities on the living. One of the admonishments made throughout the museum is that the siege of Yorktown was not the end of the revolution, but the beginning. The liberties won with bullet and blade must be preserved and expanded with voice and vote.

 

With the smell of liberty still filling my nostrils, I reflect with remorse on how easily too many of us give up the liberties secured for us by the precious blood of so many Americans. Too often we are unwilling to endure even discomfort or incur offense for the sake of liberty even though it is a small price compared to the price paid by so many others.

 

We must use our voices and votes to preserve our liberty on every front. When we read or hear things that cause offense or discomfort, we must respond with robust debate and not resort to using the power of government or technology to silence those with whom we disagree. We must return to the national ethic that we may disagree, but we will defend to the death each other’s right to speak freely.

 

When evil people commit violence, we must not react by restricting the civil rights of Americans to keep and bear arms. The story of mankind is the story of the conflict between the individual yearning for liberty and the collective power of authority to crush it. An armed citizen is the last and best defense against the tyranny of government whether they wear coats of red or blue.

 

We must ensure that every American citizen can cast their vote. Government without consent of the governed is illegitimate and innately tyrannical. Securing the right to vote also means ensuring that every vote cast is legitimate and counted.

 

And so with every natural right, we Americans must first seek to protect those rights from people who mean to restrict them. Our overriding bias in public discourse and public policy must be on the side of more freedom — not less. Yes, a free society is messy, but it is far preferable to orderly oppression. The price we pay for our liberty is vigilance, discomfort, frustration, anger, and compromise, but it is far less costly than the blood of heroes. Rights surrendered with ink are often only recovered with blood.

 

This Memorial Day, we remember and thank those Americans who paid the ultimate price for our liberty. May their sacrifice weigh heavy on our hearts and give us strength to protect the liberties their sacrifice secured.

Most Americans Do Not Want Stricter Gun Laws

by | 0655, 26 May 22 | , , | 17 Comments

I was kind of shocked to see this on CNN.

Perhaps the best way to understand the public mindset on the gun control debate is to look at Gallup polling from earlier this year. The survey asked a simple question and a follow-up: Are you satisfied with the nation’s gun laws? And if you’re unsatisfied, do you want stricter or looser gun laws?

 

This year, only 36% of Americans said they were dissatisfied and wanted stricter gun control laws. Sixty-one percent were either satisfied (41%), dissatisfied but wanted less strict laws (13%) or dissatisfied and wanted no change (7%).

 

These numbers do shift somewhat from year to year, but the “dissatisfied and want stricter gun laws” opinion has never been a majority one this century.

 

The reason I like the question is because it gets at the intensity of feelings about the gun debate. Most people are generally fine with our country’s gun laws (to the degree that they are satisfied) or want them to be less strict.

Regents Bring California Values to Wisconsin’s Flagship Campus

by | 2056, 16 May 22 | , , | 0 Comments

Disgraceful.

(Reuters) – Jennifer Mnookin, the longtime dean of the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law, has been named the next chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Officials announced her appointment Monday, saying she will take over the top administrative post at the state’s flagship public university on Aug. 4. Mnookin has led UCLA’s law school since 2015, during which time the school has expanded student financial aid, increased fundraising and student diversity, and added several academic centers.

Abort Democrat policies, not babies

by | 2022, 15 May 22 | , , , | 0 Comments

Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News last week:

The issue of abortion had been simmering on the back burner of the midterm election as the nation awaited the Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. After the egregious breach of trust and decorum when someone leaked the draft ruling, the issue may still be on the back burner, but it is boiling over.

 

While the leaked ruling is a draft and not the final version, it does indicate that the Supreme Court has decided to reverse and strongly reverse the terrible Roe v. Wade ruling in the same virtuous spirit as Brown v. Board of Education. Justice Samuel Alito’s draft is a masterpiece of legal reasoning written in a strident prose designed to firmly correct the court’s 50-year injustice.

 

When the Supreme Court issues its ruling, and assuming that it will be to reverse Roe, it will not make abortion illegal or legal in the United States. Such a ruling will simply divorce the federal courts from making that decision for anyone and restore the issue to the elected branches of state government to decide. Roe was a massive usurpation of rights and responsibilities left to states in our federal Constitution and hopefully Dobbs will return the issue to the appropriate public policy forum.

 

Several liberal states have already passed laws legalizing abortion up to the point of infanticide. Other states have been increasingly restricting abortions. In both cases, states have been acting to ensure that their state laws will reflect the will of the people should Roe ever be overturned.

 

In Wisconsin, attempts to change abortion laws for the better or the worse have failed to make it into law. Consequently, should the Dobbs decision reverse Roe, Wisconsin’s current abortion law passed in 1849 will be in effect. That law makes it a felony to conduct or assist in an abortion in all circumstances except in the case that the mother’s life is at risk. For those of us who ardently oppose killing babies, the Wisconsin law is ideal. In a politically divided state like Wisconsin, we are in the minority. Public opinion polls for years have shown that a majority of people support abortion very early in a pregnancy with steadily declining support for abortion as the pregnancy progresses with late-term abortions being opposed by a strong majority of people. Should Roe be overturned, abortion policy will no longer be a theoretical policy plank in a party platform and Wisconsin’s elected officials will be responsible for their positions. Earlier this year, the Republicans failed to advance a bill that would have revise Wisconsin’s abortion statute to make abortion legal up until the point that the baby’s heartbeat is detectable. The abortion abolitionists and the secretly pro-abortion wings of the Republican caucus united to bottle up the bill without a vote. It may be an untenable position for Republicans to hold in the long term in a politically divided state. For the sake of the babies, let us hope that they can hold it.

 

While abortion policy is critically important to the thousands of babies who are murdered in Wisconsin every year, it is not as powerful a political issue as those on either side of the issue would like to think it is. There is a sliver of the electorate for whom abortion is the most important, and sometimes only, issue that decides their vote. Polls and electoral results in Virginia and Ohio seem to indicate that the anti-abortion single-issue voters outnumber the pro-abortion single-issue voters by a smidge. But either way, these voters tend to be extremely reliable voters and abortion stances are already strongly divided along party lines. There are a few pro-abortion Republicans left, but there are almost no anti-abortion Democrats to be found anymore. In other words, these voters were already very likely to vote, and their votes were already baked into the political projections.

 

If anything, Democrats are desperately hoping that a vigorous debate about abortion will distract some voters from the fact that Democratic policies are ruining our country. Runaway inflation not seen since the early 1980s is destroying our quality of life and erasing the economic gains of the middle and lower classes. Gas prices are through the roof. There are shortages of necessities like baby formula. Rising housing prices and interest rates are robbing young families of the dream of home ownership at the same time as rent is rising. Criminals are gutting neighborhoods.

 

If Democrats are hoping that a reinvigorated debate about abortion will save them from an electoral correction for their disastrous policies, they are mistaken. At the end of the day, most people care far more about themselves than they do about tiny innocent unwanted babies, but that is why abortion exists in the first place.

 

PETA Protests for Cheaper Nut Juice

by | 1916, 10 May 22 | | 1 Comment

Could you be more out of touch with real people? Protesting expensive nut juice for your $8 coffee? Really?

Cromwell and another man, however, appeared to have stayed inside longer than other protesters, their hands stuck to the counter near the cash registers.

They eventually freed their hands from the glue, as police officers watched.

Cromwell, who plays Ewan Roy in “Succession,” has appeared in several TV shows and films since the 1970s, including roles on “Six Feet Under,” “ER” and “Dallas.”

“My friends at PETA and I are calling on Starbucks to stop punishing kind and environmentally conscious customers for choosing plant milks,” Cromwell said in a statement. “We all have a stake in the life-and-death matter of the climate catastrophe, and Starbucks should do its part by ending its vegan upcharge.”

Returning to the Office is Racist

by | 1900, 30 Apr 22 | , | 1 Comment

FYI

A group of Apple employees have accused the big-tech giant of racism over its push for corporate workers to return to the office, saying that the shift back to an in-person model will make the company ‘younger, whiter, [and] more male-dominated.’

 

The employees, organized under the newly-formed group Apple Together, petitioned the company on Friday in an open letter after CEO Tim Cook told staffers that they would need to work from the office one day a week starting on April 11, two days per week after three weeks, and three days per week after May 23.

 

They wrote that the decision to bring employees back to the office was not motivated by a ‘need to commune in person,’ as Cook wrote in his letter to staff, but rather was driven by the company’s ‘fear of the future of work, fear of worker autonomy [and] fear of losing control.’

 

BLM Siphoned off Reserves to Board Member’s Firm

by | 1233, 25 Apr 22 | , | 3 Comments

It appears that almost the entire BLM national movement was just a giant grifting operation.

Black Lives Matter PAC burned through nearly all of its $116,000 cash reserves in just the first three months of 2022 – paying the most significant chunk to a firm owned by a BLM board member.

 

Bowers Consulting Firm, a company run by BLM board member Shalomyah Bowers, was the highest-paid BLM PAC vendor during the first quarter of 2022, having received $45,000 from the PAC for ‘strategic consulting services,’ the Washington Examiner reported.

 

Two additional law firms also received a large portion of the funds. Democratic lawyer Marc Elias, received $8,000 for legal services and the Perkins Coie law firm received $8,350 for compliance services.

RIP CNN+

by | 1240, 21 Apr 22 | | 11 Comments

I would really like to see the business plan that said this would work.

Warner Bros Discovery will shut down CNN+ after less than a month because the $300million flop failed to take off.

 

CNN CEO Chris Licht said it would be pulled at the end of April due to consumers wanting ‘simplicity and an all-in service’ rather than ‘standalone offerings’.

 

He admitted the decision was ‘incredibly difficult’ but claimed it was ‘the right one for the long term success’ of the company.

 

CNN+ Andrew Morse will leave the firm but it was not clear what will happen to at least 200 reporters and hosts such as Chris Wallace and Eva Longoria.

 

Licht said those who worked for CNN ‘will get opportunities to apply for jobs elsewhere inside Warner Bros Discovery’.

Florida Moves Forward with Termination of Special Districts

by | 2108, 20 Apr 22 | , | 45 Comments

Hopefully more corporations will stick to business instead of using their platforms to wage culture war on over half of the population.

“I am announcing today that we are expanding the call of what they are going to be considering this week. And so yes, they will be considering the congressional map but they also will be considering termination of all special districts that were enacted in Florida prior to 1968, and that includes the Reedy Creek Improvement District,” DeSantis said Tuesday, referring to Disney’s district.

 

The Florida Senate passed the bill in a 23-16 vote, and it’s expected to go to the House swiftly for a vote by Thursday.

 

If passed by the House and signed into law, it would terminate the special district that Walt Disney World uses to operate as its own municipality and could set up a court battle over the theme parks’ future.

Dozens Being Voted Out of the Tribe

by | 2058, 20 Apr 22 | | 3 Comments

I’m confused as to when self-identifying as something is respected and when it is not.

Rabang was still a teenager when she and 300 other members of the Rabang family were disenrolled from Nooksack in 2016. The move to disenroll had started years earlier when a former tribal chair questioned the Rabang’s ancestral lineage to the tribe.

 

The “Nooksack 306”, referring to the members and families being disenrolled, were “incorrectly” enrolled in the 1980s, according to former chairman Ross Cline Sr. The tribe claims the people being disenrolled have no lineage to Nooksack.

Now, Santana and many others are still fighting to preserve their family history and their lives on the reservation.

 

“We’re going to fight as long as we can,” Santana said. “If it gets to the point where they’re going to come here and physically remove us, then that’s the point that we’ll get to. But we’re not going to go anywhere.

 

As part of the disenrollment process, over 60 people who self-identify as Nooksack, but who have been disenrolled, are facing eviction from their homes.

Russian Atrocities

by | 0854, 4 Apr 22 | , , | 13 Comments

No matter how civilized we think we have become, humans always return to barbarism. It is one of the many reasons that I vehemently defend the 2nd Amendment.

The BBC’s Yogita Limaye is on the ground reporting on new evidence of atrocities emerging in areas around Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, after Russian forces pulled out.

She took the photo below of a shallow grave in the village of Motyzhyn, where four people allegedly shot dead by Russian forces were left. We have blurred parts of the picture.

Three of the bodies have been identified as members of one family, including the head of the village, Olha Sohnenko. The fourth body has not been identified.

Yogita is on her way to Bucha – a town where the discovery of many dead civilians has shocked the world, and seen Russia accused of war crimes.

 

Violence Ignored at Oscars

by | 0718, 28 Mar 22 | | 7 Comments

Remember that these are the people who insist that they are our moral guides.

As was widely predicted, Smith won the best actor Oscar for his performance in King Richard. And so, just a few minutes after he had been on stage assaulting someone on live television, he was back on the same stage, receiving a standing ovation, and tearfully declaring: “I want to be a vessel for love”. Seriously. Who knows what he’d be like if he wanted to be a vessel for hate.

 

[…]

 

The women made some ill-judged gags about wanting to grope the best-looking actors in the room…

 

[…]

 

And then we had Samuel L Jackson, John Travolta and Uma Thurman presenting an award together to celebrate the 28th anniversary of Pulp Fiction. Are we really celebrating 28th anniversaries now?

Academy “Awards”

by | 1039, 25 Mar 22 | | 0 Comments

It has been true for some time, but just recognize that the Academy no longer celebrates film excellence. Some of the greatest works of cinematic art were created by some of the most vile people. Hollywood is full of monstrous people who make great art. So the Academy may recognize a dog of a movie that was created by a pedophile but was staffed with the “correct” quotas.

The Academy of Motion Picture will disqualify films from Best Picture contention that do not have enough black, gay and disabled actors in the cast and crew – a move many industry insiders fear will be the final nail in the coffin for the already flagging award show.

 

The Academy passed its Aperture 2025 initiative in 2020, five years after the #OscarsSoWhite controversy in order to promote more diversity in the industry, but the move has been under fire ever since.

 

The initiative was spearheaded by black filmmaker Ava DuVernay and developed by the academy to set criteria – which included diversifying nearly every aspect of a movie, from cast and crew to production, marketing, financing, distribution and even internships by 30 percent.

I enjoy good movies. When I was younger, I’d look to the Oscar lists as movies that I should check out to experience our culture. Perhaps it was naive at the time. Now I view the Oscar lists as movies that are more likely to be a waste of time.

Most People Are Pretty Nice

by | 2001, 13 Mar 22 | | 2 Comments

I noticed this too.

Most people you meet in everyday life — at work, in the neighborhood — are decent and normal. Even nice. But hit Twitter or watch the news, and you’d think we were all nuts and nasty.

[…]

Reality check: It turns out, you’re right. We dug into the data and found that, in fact, most Americans are friendly, donate time or money, and would help you shovel your snow. They are busy, normal and mostly silent.

  • These aren’t the people with big Twitter followings or cable-news contracts — and they don’t try to pick fights at school board meetings.
  • So the people who get the clicks and the coverage distort our true reality.

Three stats we find reassuring:

  1. 75% of people in the U.S. never tweet.

Shackleton’s Ship Found

by | 0545, 9 Mar 22 | | 0 Comments

The pictures are amazing.

(CNN) — More than a century after it sank off the coast of Antarctica, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship HMS Endurance has been located, apparently intact and in good condition.
The ship, which sank in 1915, is 3,008 meters (1.9 miles or 9,842 feet) deep in the Weddell Sea, a pocket in the Southern Ocean along the northern coast of Antarctica, south of the Falkland Islands.
[…]
However, due to the extreme conditions, the ship got stuck amid thick, impenetrable ice in the Weddell Sea. The 28 men on board, including Shackleton himself, abandoned the Endurance and set up rudimentary camp facilities on board ice floes that were floating northward.
Eventually, the team made it to the uninhabited Elephant Island, then some — including Shackleton — volunteered to get in a lifeboat and head toward South Georgia Island, finally crossing it on foot to reach Stromness whaling station, which was then manned by the Norwegians, and organize a rescue of the men left behind on Elephant Island.
Although the expedition was a failure, the team’s survival and eventual rescue months later, without any loss of life, was seen as a triumph of their tenacity and the incredible leadership skills of Shackleton.

Login | Register

Archives

Categories

Pin It on Pinterest