According to a new study and data from the U.S. Census Bureau, she was one of thousands of people who migrated out of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas and into smaller ones during the pandemic.
The study found that, like Linder, many of the migrants weren’t driven by new jobs or weather — or even a fear of the virus — but a desire to be closer to family and a freedom to make it happen because of remote working. Although the pattern of people moving from larger to smaller cities has been going on for several years, the pandemic exacerbated that trend, said Peter Haslag of Vanderbilt University, who conducted the study on migrant motivations with Daniel Weagley of Georgia Tech. Their paper has not yet been published.
The data adds to understanding of how the pandemic has changed where and how Americans live. The moves were most common among those with higher incomes and more job flexibility. If the trends continue, it could have long-term implications for real estate markets, tax bases and the wealth inequality in cities, according to researchers.
Category: Culture
Biden Supports Violating Intellectual Property Rights and Patents
I guess the pharmaceutical companies will have less motivation to develop vaccines and treatments for the next pandemic.
President Biden’s trade representative released a statement saying the White House would support a waiver on the intellectual property rights owned by the makers of Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic.
The campaign for this has been going on amongst NGOs, some US Congressional Democrats and some developing countries such as India and South Africa. And as recently as March the US, the UK and the EU were resisting the moves in negotiations at the WTO in Geneva.
COVID Fear Porn Peddlers Reach Hysterical Pitch
There are two pieces in the Washington County Daily News today by lefties who claim that Righties are all anti-vax and are unpatriotic for being so. Both assertions are false. Here’s one:
Still, mandate or not, it makes no sense that workers won’t step up for a shot and help move toward herd immunity for their community and the good of their country. Right-wing dogma insists on individual rights, but what about a civic obligation to get a shot and help achieve herd immunity so we can all go about our personal lives without restrictions?
In effect, the anti-vaxxers are freeloaders. They are riding on the backs of the majority of the people who get their vaccinations and thereby make everybody around them more safe.
It’s just too bad that the politics of the day put individual liberty and indulgences ahead of obligations to our fellow Americans. It’s a fake kind of patriotism that says, “I’ll do what’s good for me, and to hell with my fellow man.”
They are like draft dodgers in days of national military crisis. We are in another form of national crisis. It does not involve weapons and killing combatants, but it is a war against an insidious infection that will take more lives than all the battles this country has ever faced.
First, while there vaccinations have slowed, it is not all people who oppose vaccinations. There are some, sure, but the largest group seems to be people who are just not that upset about the whole thing and haven’t made the time to do it. In any case, looking at the county map of vaccination rates in Wisconsin, there is no evidence that more conservative counties are lagging behind liberal counties. Washington, Ozaukee, and Waukesha counties – the famed conservative “WOW” counties – all have a comparable or higher vaccination rate than liberal Milwaukee, Rock, or Eau Claire counties. The difference in vaccination rates seem to be driven more by demographic factors than ideological ones. In our personal lives, we know this to be true. So the premise that “conservatives are anti-vaxx” is a hoax being perpetrated by Leftist propagandists.
Why are they making this accusation? Because of the second accusation – that people who do not want a vaccine are unpatriotic and uncaring about their fellow man. That is also a lie – a wretched and destructive lie. It is based on a Marxist or Fascist (two branches of the same tree) notion that the collective is more important than the individual. Under that doctrine, all individual choices become subject to the will of the collective. It is authoritarian and hateful. It is the doctrine of a ruling class – or those who want to rule. It is not a doctrine based on freedom or live of your fellow man.
By lying that conservatives are anti-vax and then lying that anti-vaxers are unpatriotic, the Leftist propagandists are using a very old tactic to sow distrust and unrest prior to the next election. It is about the acquisition and use of power. It is not about you, your health, or vaccines. Those are just a tool in the propagandists’ belts. If it wasn’t vaccines, it would be environmentalism, justice reform, gun rights, or any other issue where the Leftists claim that any opposition to their position is unpatriotic and, therefore, invalid.
Make your own choice. If you want to get vaccinated, go for it. If not, that’s fine. That is the choice of a free person.
Presidential Perspective
I believe this is authentic picture for the simple reason that nobody could botch a piece of photoshopped propaganda that badly.
Armed Patron Confronts Armed Protesters
I watched a peaceful, if loud, BLM last summer where several of the BLM organizers were armed with AR-15s and the like. There were also several counter-protesters with similar weapons and handguns. Nothing violent happened. An armed society is a safer society.
Video shows the diner pointing his handgun at the protesters who were arguing with him as one female demonstrator urged the group to keep moving down the block.
Louisville Metro Police spokesperson Alicia Smiley confirmed to Fox News that the protesters were also armed. Kentucky is an open carry state.
At least five people were arrested in connection with the incident. Charges include possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, failure to disperse and evading police, TMZ reported.
The man with his gun drawn does not appear to have been arrested.
[…]
Smiley, the LMPD spokesperson, said a restaurant worker described ‘multiple armed protesters entered the restaurant property, which included outdoor dining space’.
‘During the encounter both patrons and protesters brandished firearms,’ Smiley said.
‘This incident occurred after the arrests of southbound protesters in the area on the 1500 block of Bardstown Road.
‘The arrests of that group were made after protesters repeatedly blocked the roadway despite officers giving multiple verbal requests for them to utilize the sidewalk.’
A reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal also confirmed a ‘few protesters’ were armed, adding: ‘It was a very tense few minutes.’
People Flock to Vegas
Weary Americans get back to having fun.
Las Vegas has been almost elbow-to-elbow lately with pandemic-weary tourists looking for excitement and entertainment, after casinos rose from 35% to 50% occupancy March 15 under state health guidelines.
Capacity limits in Las Vegas casinos drop again Saturday — allowing 80% occupancy — while person-to-person distancing goes from 6 feet (1.8 meters) to 3 feet (0.9 meters). Masks are still required.
“People were just yearning to go someplace and let loose,” said Alan Feldman, a former casino executive who is now a fellow at the International Gaming Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Among the first arrivals were people ages 60 and older who were recently vaccinated with time and disposable income, he observed.
Analysts said pent-up demand, available hotel rooms and $1,400 pandemic recovery checks from the federal government have contributed to the rush.
Trans Guv Candidate Supports Biological Divisions in Sports
Former Olympian and transgender reality star Caitlyn Jenner said she does not believe ‘biological boys who are trans’ should compete in girls’ sports in school.
In a brief interview with TMZ in Malibu as she was getting into her car, Jenner, who recently announced her bid to run for Governor of California, said: ‘This is a question of fairness, that’s why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls’ sports in school.
‘It just isn’t fair and we have to protect girls’ sports in our schools.’
EAA AirVenture Returns
It’s great to see Wisconsin’s summer fun returning! So the good folks who run EAA can host an event that attracts hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world, but Cedarburg can’t have their little Strawberry Festival. It’s not about the science. It’s about priorities and will.
OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) — The aviation event that draws hundreds of thousands of people to Oshkosh returns this summer after the coronavirus pandemic forced organizers of EAA AirVenture to cancel last year’s gathering.
[…]
Masks will be strongly recommended if attendees are unable to socially distance. Proof of a COVID-19 vaccine will not be required to attend. The convention runs from July 26 through Aug. 1.
Strawberry fields for never
My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a part:
By canceling the Strawberry Festival, the organizers are not preventing the spread of COVID-19. All they are doing is robbing their community of an influx of economic activity that is desperately needed after a year of lockdowns and business restrictions. The board is strangling their own community with the fear of a preventable and treatable virus. It is not rational or compassionate. It is stupid and cruel.
Wisconsin’s summers are legendary for the bevy of local festivals, fairs, concerts, and events that draw people together with the bond of humanity. Citizens must demand that their events and traditions continue. If local organizers balk, then they should be replaced with people who actually care about the health of the community beyond the virus. We could all certainly use more community and human interaction after this long, long winter of isolation.
Gun Sales Surge
Here is a gun store owner in Oregon, WI, who appears to neither understand, nor like, his customers.
OREGON, Wis. – As demand for firearms in Wisconsin continues its year-long surge, fewer new buyers are going through any sort of formal training process, according to Max Creek Outdoors Owner Steve D’Orazio.
“If we had ten new people walking in, we’d have one person signing up for some type of training,” D’Orazio said. “It scares me. It scares me because again, people are coming in thinking they need a gun in their home for their own protection, but they’re not so much interested in training like they were in the past. I have a problem with that.”
[…]
“It’s awful, and it’s awful for me to say, but when there’s a shooting, whether it’s locally or in other parts of our country, more customers are walking through our door,” D’Orazio said. “It’s bringing more fear into their home. I think they’re replacing that with putting a gun in their home.”
With first-time gun owners purchasing out of fear, D’Orazio says some quickly realize they regret their purchase.
“What we’ve seen here at the shop over the last several weeks is customers coming back asking for them to buy the gun back or putting it on a consignment program where we’ll sell the gun for them,” he said. “That tells me they woke up one morning and said ‘I need a gun in my home’, and two or three weeks later, they’re thinking ‘I don’t need a gun in my home’.”
The Armenian Genocide
Good for Biden. This has been too long in coming. Now call out the genocide being perpetrated on the Uighurs.
President Joe Biden on Saturday issued the document Armenian Americans have pursued for decades: a declaration that the Ottoman Empire’s slaughter of an estimated 1.5 million Armenian civilians was genocide.
It’s a deceptively simple action, carrying no force of law. Yet it’s a bold move for Biden, who has gone beyond what any American president has ever been willing to do. Until now, presidents have declined to formally apply the term “genocide” for fear of sparking a backlash from Turkey, which vigorously denies it. According to the Turkish account, World War I-era violence between Muslim Ottomans and Christian Armenians led to large casualties on both sides. According to most historians, however, the evidence is clear the Turks engaged in a years-long ethnic cleansing campaign that included forced death marches and mass starvation.
The Warrior Rests
Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News last week.
Doctor John McAdams passed away last week. He leaves behind a legacy as a warrior for freedom of thought and speech in an era that desperately needs more warriors like him.
In the spring of 2003, I received an email from an old friend asking if I wanted to start a weblog, or blog, with him. The internet was in its toddler phase. It was before Facebook and Twitter existed. Internet Explorer was the most popular browser, Yahoo was the most popular search engine, and the first iPhone was still four years in the future.
Blogging was just coming into its own as a way for amateurs to share their thoughts with the world. It was a revolution in media access where a pajama-wearing basement-dweller could rival media giants with the power of thoughts, well-constructed arguments, and the right mix of style and character. For a few years, the Wisconsin blogosphere was a vibrant avant-garde exploring cultural and political discussions hitherto controlled by the mainstream media or consigned to sloshy conversations at the end of the tavern bar. We were of different ages, backgrounds, circumstances, philosophies, and motivations, but were united in the celebration of this new medium of free expression. We ventured out of our homes to meet each other in person at blog summits and casual gatherings. It was at was one of these blog events that I first met the Marquette Warrior in person.
Doctor John McAdams was a conservative professor at Marquette University during the time of the radical leftist takeover of that once Jesuit center of learning. His blog was titled “Marquette Warrior” with the stated goal of providing “an independent, rather skeptical view of events at Marquette University,” and it certainly fulfilled that mission.
Doctor John McAdams passed away last week. He leaves behind a legacy as a warrior for freedom of thought and speech in an era that desperately needs more warriors like him. McAdams was jovial, witty, occasionally crass, extraordinarily intelligent, and unapologetically conservative. His professorial tone and pleasingly lax physique belied his steely spine. McAdams was not one to casually suffer affronts to liberty or what he thought was right. While he fought a long, brawling ideological battle with his employer and the leftists reshaping his beloved university with many advances and setbacks, he will be best remembered for taking that fight to the Wisconsin Supreme Court and winning a landmark ruling that will protect academic liberty for generations.
McAdams has been blogging about incidents at Marquette University for over a decade when, in 2014, he blogged about yet another incident of woke indoctrination that has become commonplace throughout academia. A graduate student was teaching a class when she lectured her students that gay marriage was ethically and morally correct and that any arguments against it were automatically homophobic and immoral. When a student objected that it was at least worthy of debate — especially in an ostensibly Catholic university — the instructor shut down debate as illegitimate.
McAdams blogged about the incident arguing that irrespective of one’s views on gay marriage, a university classroom was supposed to be a place where divergent ideas could be debated openly and honestly. That is the difference between education and indoctrination. Education invites scrutiny and debate. Indoctrination rejects all discussion as inappropriate and immoral.
That post by McAdams began a story that would end in his unequivocal victory. In retaliation to the blog post, Marquette University suspended McAdams and offered him the opportunity to return to the classroom only if he would prostrate himself before the university overlords and beg for forgiveness. But McAdams was made of stiffer stuff. He fought. He fought hard. And he won.
McAdams fought the university all the way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In the landmark 2018 ruling of McAdams v. Marquette University, the court ruled that the “University breached the Contract by suspending Dr. McAdams for exercising his contractually-protected right of academic freedom,” and ordered him reinstated. McAdams humbly returned to the classroom for the remainder of his life.
Dr. McAdams’ fight was a fight for all Wisconsinites. When others were swept away by the Legions of Woke, the lonely Marquette Warrior was the rock upon which they broke. He will be sorely missed.
BLM Leader Advocates for Big Tech After Receiving Millions
Tech moguls who made their fortunes from Facebook, Twitter and Netflix have donated at least $7.5 million to groups tied to BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who has in turn publicly backed their policy goals, according to a new report.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, and Patricia Ann Quillin, the wife of Netflix’s billionaire CEO, all gave generously to Cullors’ PAC and associated charities, according to the New York Post.
Cullors for her part has strongly advocated for ‘net neutrality’, a policy that financially benefits online content providers such as Netflix and social media sites.
And the cozy relationship has even seen Facebook and Twitter censor perceived criticism of Cullors, with Facebook going so far as to block users from sharing a DailyMail.com article detailing a controversy over her expensive real estate holdings.
Cedarburg Cancels Festival
CEDARBURG — The 2021 Strawberry Festival has been canceled. The Festivals of Cedarburg Board made its decision Wednesday night based on current CDC guidelines and COVID-19 trends. The festival was scheduled for June 26-27.
“It wasn’t an easy decision to make,” said President Jim Pape in a press release. “We’re all looking forward to a sense of normalcy, to summer days when we can get out of our homes and gather together again. With vaccines becoming more and more prevalent, Strawberry Festival seemed like it might be the perfect opportunity for that — a smalltown early summer outdoor festival. But we need to make sure we’re doing it safely, and current statistics and restrictions just make it too difficult to predict what conditions will be like in June.”
Strawberry Festival was also canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Festivals of Cedarburg decided to turn it into a mini virtual festival. Almost 1,000 people logged into the Virtual Strawberry Festival.
There are large gatherings going on all over the country and there is no evidence that COVID has an easy time spreading through them. Baseball games? Fine. Riots? No COVID there. Tourist attractions? Open and doing just fine. Elections? Good.
Furthermore, everybody over 16 in Wisconsin is eligible for a vaccine and they are readily available. In fact, there are areas where they have vaccines sitting around waiting for people. By the time June comes, there will be absolutely no reason that anyone who wants a vaccine shouldn’t have one.
Finally, if you don’t want to attend a festival or keep you shop open during it – don’t. Don’t go! The fact that you are worried about an event doesn’t mean that you get to cancel it for everyone else. If there’s anything we have seen, it’s that there is an enormous demand for anything that is open. Every time something opens, it’s mobbed. Restaurants that have opened to capacity are filling it. And the people who want to stay home for good or bad reasons are perfectly able to do so. Our society shouldn’t cater to their FOMO.
These board members aren’t following any science or common sense. They are just lazy, fearful hacks who don’t want to get off their butts and continue Cedarburg’s marvelous traditions. Shame on them.
Who is on the board? I have no idea. They don’t put their board members on their website. But you can find their generic contact information here if you are in the mood to be ignored.
Police Officer Stops Knife Attack
Why let the facts get in the way of a good narrative?
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the fatal cop shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant shows police violence ‘disproportionately impacts black and Latino people’ during Wednesday’s press briefing.
She suggested the shooting was an example of racial bias after Columbus police released bodycam footage showing the teen lunging at another girl with a knife.
[…]
On Wednesday Columbus police released more graphic footage showing Bryant lunging at another girl with a knife.
The Warrior rests
My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. In it, I think back on the impact of the Marquette Warrior, Dr. John McAdams. The world needs more people like him.
Doctor John McAdams passed away last week. He leaves behind a legacy as a warrior for freedom of thought and speech in an era that desperately needs more warriors like him. McAdams was jovial, witty, occasionally crass, extraordinarily intelligent, and unapologetically conservative. His professorial tone and pleasingly lax physique belied his steely spine. McAdams was not one to casually suffer affronts to liberty or what he thought was right. While he fought a long, brawling ideological battle with his employer and the leftists reshaping his beloved university with many advances and setbacks, he will be best remembered for taking that fight to the Wisconsin Supreme Court and winning a landmark ruling that will protect academic liberty for generations.
Oklahoma City Bombing – 26 Years Later
Just a reminder that today marks the 26th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred R. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. I happened to be in town yesterday and stopped by to pay my respects. Pray for a 9:01 world.
Lockdowns and Isolation Drives Dramatic Increase in Drug Overdoses
Ouch.
“Isolation is really one of the toughest things for people with addiction. It’s easier to drink and to use if people aren’t noticing you. I think it’s easier to hide out,” Pierquet-Hohner said.
Troubling data recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed the dangers of not getting help.
From September of 2019 to September of 2020, there was nearly a 30 percent increase in drug overdose deaths across the country. In Wisconsin, the rise was 27.9 percent over that same time period.
“People when they take a substance like an opioid, it sends off pleasure responses in the brain that sort of tell people, ‘oh. this feels good,’” Dr. Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar said. She’s an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.
Vaccine Surplus
We’re turning a corner. The cultural and policy implications are paramount. Will government officials force people to get vaccinated, or, at least, make participation in modern life impossible without it? Will the social nagging and shaming kick up a notch? I think “yes” to both questions.
In a larger sense, if vaccines are available to anyone who wants one and you have yours, why do you care if someone else doesn’t? We used to be OK with letting people accept their own risks. Are we now shifting to a culture where personal risk is centrally managed by our government?
Many U.S. states and cities have a growing surplus of Covid-19 vaccines, a sign that in some places demand is slowing before a large percentage of the population has been inoculated, according to an analysis by Bloomberg News.
The data indicate as many as one in three doses are unused in some states. Appointments for shots often go untaken, with few people signing up.
[…]
Federal officials are in the early stages of rethinking distribution. Vaccines have so far been doled out based on population.
“We’re going to go through stages, as we vaccinate higher and higher portions of populations, where it will make sense for us to continue to watch where vaccines are needed, how vaccines are distributed, the best way to reach more people,” Andy Slavitt, senior adviser for the White House’s Covid Response team, said at the end of March.
RIP John McAdams
He was one of the good ones… one of the best… a warrior to the core… and he will be greatly missed. RIP, Marquette Warrior.
He wasn’t scared of the fight; he was willing to take it on. He had a cause, and he had principles and he had courage, and he was willing to stand up for what he believed in. Mostly, I think, he couldn’t stand how afraid conservative students were to share their beliefs and how liberal thought was an orthodoxy on campus. I admired him then. I came to admire him all the more as he took on the politically correct totalitarians at Marquette, stood up for conservative students even at peril to himself, and toiled away in the blogging and writing trenches, offering a rare conservative counterpoint in the towers of academe and in Wisconsin media.
And so it was with great sadness that I learned that, according to the Marquette Wire, Prof. McAdams has passed away. He continued blogging almost to the end. His last blog post was in March. Last August, he wrote, “There is no reason to believe that the basic instinct of university bureaucrats — to pander to politically correct leftists — has changed at all.” He was standing up for a conservative student in that post – again.
What a great loss his death is.