Category: Review

Random Musings on Current Events 6.10.22

Once again it is time for some Random Musings On Current Events from the mind of a quiet, unassuming (at least in my own opinion) person observing the ramblings, rumblings, rants and revelations in the media. Additionally, I know, and it has been proven that Twitter and Facebook would censor what I have to say so I will say what I feel the need to say in this medium. However, with Elon Musk purchasing Twitter perhaps I will have to take Twitter out of my introduction but not just yet. Time will tell I suppose and for that reason I will not remove Twitter just yet from my Random Musings On Current Events introductory paragraph.

Why is an attempt on the life of a Supreme Court Justice not being decried from every corner of the land? Why is it that none of the liberal media outlets made this their top headline? Who really are the violent ones in our society? Congressional Democrats block bill to provide Supreme Court Justices additional security yet at the same time want to limit my ability to protect myself? Does anyone else see a pattern here? A pattern of subjective application of logic and law. A subjective application in which chaos, is being fomented and allowed to flourish.

I cannot believe that I am paying more than $5.50 (now it is $5.70 since I wrote the initial draft four days ago) per gallon for low grade gasoline and now I am also having to increase my food budget more than $200/month! This is happening while the Congressional January 6th committee hearings are happening. Hey Congress and media! Do you think I give a rip about this committee and its televised broadcast with commercials? No, I will be too busy working extra hours to make ends meet thanks to you! Besides it really is just a bone being thrown to the media by Congress to boost some ratings. Nothing substantial will come out of the Kabuki Theater show being put on because there is nothing to it. If something does come out of it it will just be further proof of how corrupt the ruling elites, Democrats and RINO Republicans, truly are.

Another item closer to home is my local newspaper/media outlet that happens to be a Gannet owned rag and an article on their website yesterday. The headline mentioned that Democrats are turning out more early voters that the GOP in the county that I live in. I read the article and there is much speculation and reasoning as to why this is the case but I will not go into detail. However, call me cynical, I cannot help but think what a bunch of bull or how meaningless all the debate can be. My state’s Legislature used COVID to pass an initial mail in ballot law and then made it permanent in the most recent Democratic majority legislature. I cannot help but wonder if we will ever see a Republican win in this state again considering that we are neighbors of the one party Peoples Republic of California and the power hungry elite that controls the Golden State. This on top of the rumors that Speaker Pelosi and her minion, Governor Gavin Newsom, have funneled large quantities of campaign money to the Democratic coffers of my state’s Governor and other Democratic candidates.

What I would have considered, at one time, my two favorite basketball teams are playing for the Nike Basketball Association’s (NBA’s) championship, and I will not watch a game. The NBA’s self-congratulatory statement of feigned pious self-appreciation explaining how the NBA has lost hundreds of millions of dollars due to being shut out of the Chinese market after the former Houston Rocket General Manager Daryl Morey’s “Fight for freedom, stand for Hong Kong” Tweet does not elicit one tear from me. Mr. Silver, you and your advertisers do not deserve my attention let along my financial support. I have been to Hong Kong and what was once a free, healthy and vibrant city is no more. There are more important things in life than a sport created by Naismith to keep his students occupied during the cold Massachusetts winters. You may want to explain that to your boss, Mr. Knight, as well explain that my Constitutional Freedoms far outweigh any entertainment product that you offer. I only wish that Mr. Morey had stood his ground and not apologized. After all, despite his groveling, he still lost his job.

President Biden said, “enough is enough” regarding gun violence in this country. I agree Mr. President, when will you support the right for all law abiding citizens to carry firearms whenever and wherever they choose? Because, as I saw in Uvalde, Texas, I cannot rely on law enforcement to protect me and my family. Mr. President, give me a break! 

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vetoing a bill earmarking $35 million for a Tampa Bay Rays facility days after the team went on an anti-gun tirade. I think this is awesome!

The US Department of Justice announce they will not prosecute Scavino and Meadows but Navarro is arrested on the same day this is announced. I must agree that there is a witch hunt underway, and people will continue to be arrested until finally a charge sticks somehow and somewhere to someone. Talk about the rotten politicization of what should be an objective law enforcement organization. Can anyone say GESTAPO, STASI, KGB, or FSB?

I watched “Top Gun Maverick” the other day and have to say that I enjoyed it. It was a fun movie to watch, and it even elicited some emotion, like movies did in my youth. This without the overtly political garbage being pushed by Hollywood these days. Sure, there was some changes from the original such as female fighter pilots which certainly different than the US Navy that I joined shortly after the first Top Gun was released. However, this is the new reality, and it is my understanding that some of the female pilots are good. I think the Vice Admiral Beau “Cyclone” Simpson played by Jon Hamm is actually an accurate representation of most flag officers in the US Navy today. That of being risk adverse and valuing their careers more than mission. Of course, there were the stretches, for example stealing an F-14, pulling 10 g’s as a 50+ year old, and location realism, however, I really did not care. It was an entertaining movie that I did not mind paying to see in a theater. Additionally, judging by the reports, I am not alone as revenue records are being broken by the movie.

Early results are coming in for the first round of primary elections and it does look like left wing cities may have pushed too far to the left. This is most evidenced by the recall of San Francisco’s District Attorney. Maybe there is a ray of sanity left in the world and in this nation’s once vibrant and healthy cities, but I am not going to hold my breath. San Francisco keeps reelecting Nancy Pelosi, so they have a long way to go to recapture its lost brilliance.

I went to a high school graduation ceremony for a niece and a nephew and it was held in one of the local auditoriums in the city nearest me. It was full of people with no regard for social distancing or vaccination status. Albeit there were still a few people wearing masks, but they were doing so of their own volition. For my wife, daughter, and myself, however, there was a cloud over the ceremony because our youngest daughter, who graduated two years ago from high school, did not get to have this experience thanks to the COVID scam. She and countless others missed out on their graduation ceremony’s along with however many others missed out on events thanks to the mass hysteria created, generated, and foisted upon us by our so called leaders in politics, the press, and bureaucratic institutions. Let me say that I am happy for those who get to have ceremonies this year, but it is a bittersweet moment for myself, my family, and others like us whose children did not get to have this experience.

In closing this week I have only one thing to say, “God bless America and to all who are in this country both patriots and enemies equally.”

Mask Madness 

Mask Madness                                                                         

Sitting here at my desk a few days after the governor of my state reinstituted mask mandates for all indoor public activities and places and finally decided to research and see if I could prove one of my hypothesis. The hypothesis being that besides a N95 mask all other masks do not have tight enough weave or properties to stop a virus. Following are the results of an hour or so of rooting around the internet and looking at the specification sheets for paper masks and N95 masks currently in my possession. I will add that the only information I could find on cloth are results from Wake Forest Baptist Health from earlier this year.

What I found is the National Institute for Health has published that the size of the COVID-19 virus is about 1 micron. For those of you who do not know what a micron is think of it as 1/1,000th of a millimeter. If the thickness of a dime is 1 millimeter then the size of a coronavirus is 1/1000th of the thickness of a dime. Pretty dang small in other words.

As expected the N95 mask is able to filter particles greater than 0.3 times the size of a coronavirus 98% of the time. This is definitely a suitable mask to wear, however, the cost is nearly ten times that of a typical paper face mask one can purchase and who knows how much more costly than a bandana or other homemade face mask?

Moving onto the” paper face mask its labeling shows nothing concerning the size of particle that it will filter. However, there is a box on the carton that clearly states in all capital letters, “Not for medical use. Intended for single use only – discard after use. This general use mask cannot eliminate the risk of contracting and infectious disease”. I want to point out that this is the mask I see being worn by the far majority of people out in public. I also want to note that I know several who wear their masks more than once to include me.

Lastly, according to the Wake Forrest study, “The best homemade masks achieved 79% filtration as compared to (paper) surgical masks (62% to 65%) and N95 masks (97%). But other homemade masks tested performed significantly worse, sometimes demonstrating as little as 1% filtration…The best-performing design was made of two layers of high-quality, heavyweight quilters cotton with a thread count of 180 or more, and those with an especially tight weave ad thicker thread such as batiks. A double-layer mask with a simple cotton outer layer and an inner layer of flannel also performed well”.

What does my limited research tell me one may ask? It tells me that if I truly want to protect myself I need to spend nearly ten times as much money for a mask that will protect me. It also tells me that the mask mandates are arbitrary and really do not help the public. If it was to help the public the government and quasi government agencies (i.e. CDC and NIH) would make these facts easily accessible to the general public. Based on my previous conclusions it further tells me that politicians and bureaucrats in the health industry and government writ large are essentially intellectually lazy and or really are just trying to appear to do something or have another agenda or who knows what else that I have not thought of.

I say intellectually lazy because if I were to impose an imposition on a state or county I think that I would want to explain the facts to those I purportedly seek to protect. Not providing this information or worse not even thinking to look this information up before making a decision independent of the CDC or NIH or whatever agency shows a lack of discernment, healthy skepticism and or a basic lack of science and math. Of course the more nefarious explanation of this could be that there is a hidden agenda behind the gross overreach of executive power but I will not go into that in this writing. What I will say is that at a minimum we have elected officials who (including their staffs) who appear to have very little if any comprehension of basic math and science. Additionally, we have given career bureaucrats with dubious agendas the power to tell us what to wear and not to wear.

Lastly, this tells me that I really have nothing to gain wearing a mask other than making others feel better for a threat that really is no worse than an influenza. Additionally, I am not going to spend my money on a N95 mask for a virus that is no more virulent than influenza at worst and the common cold at best. Additionally, my next course of action will be to ask anyone who confronts me with not wearing a mask to state the science they are basing their decision to wear a mask on. I will not accept because this is what the CDC or NIH has said as an answer.

Article III Section 2

Having now had two days since the Supreme Court chose not to hear the case between Texas against the four states whose elections rules were changed by their executive and or judicial branches, I am troubled. First, however, I thought I would inform my readers of sections specifically of the US Constitutions and some legal definitions. I inform because I first had to inform myself before writing this

First is Article III Section 2 paragraph 2 which reads:

In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.

Second, I call attention to Article II Section 1 paragraph 2:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding and Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

It seems to me the case that the Supreme Court made the decision not to hear centered upon these two paragraphs. The first paragraph provides the Supreme Court jurisdiction and responsibility and the second seems to be a valid argument to justify a hearing. However, all except two justices chose not to hear the case which I cannot find a justification for their actions in my mind.

In the Supreme Court response they said, “The State of Texas’ motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution. Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.”

So, looking up the legal meaning of standing I found the following definition on the freedicitionary.com which reads, “The legally protectable state or interest that an individual has in a dispute that entitles him to bring the controversy before the court to obtain judicial relief.”

I will admit that I did not read Texas’ briefs provided to the Supreme Court and so cannot be sure of their arguments and for the sake of this post on what is otherwise an obscure blog in an obscure corner or the internet it does not matter. I say it does not matter because I am not a constitutional scholar nor am I an attorney. What I am is a practitioner of applied physics. A world in which, except on the fringes, the laws are absolute and work in nearly all applications that they are applied.

Looking at this and using the definition of standing I can agree that a state really does not have grounds to argue how another state’s legislature prescribes the way their electors are chosen. After all, as I typed above Article II states that a state’s Legislature may direct the way their electors are chosen. What I do not understand is in the contested states the state’s Judicial and Executive branches subverted or elaborated upon the manner which the electors are being chosen. In that case it does affect me because it crosses boundaries separating powers and is grossly unconstitutional and undermines and sets precedent for the same sorts of actions in my state. What the Supreme Court has essentially said is this is acceptable conduct in any state which makes me very uneasy.

Granted I am not a Constitutional scholar and the erudite students of law can probably come up with all sorts of reasons why the Supreme Court was justified in their decisions I cannot. To me it seems like s shirking of responsibility and displays a total disregard for the Constitution by the justices. In a time of struggle between judicial activism and a disputed and questionable election that threatens to destabilize and erode confidence in our Constitutional republic the Supreme Court Justices punted by saying their decision was based on merits but rather grounds. I for one would like to see an explanation of why the justices chose not to hear the case besides a curt two sentence statement.

BlacKkKlansman

I watched the movie BlacKkKlansman the other night and felt disturbed after watching it. One might think I was disturbed because of the subject matter which in and of itself is disturbing. Particularly the white supremacist violence and dirty cop portions of the movie. However, the fact that the first black police officer, Ron Stallworth, on the Colorado Springs, Colorado police department was able to infiltrate the local and national Ku Klux Klan was amusing to me. I thought it was great and showed great initiative from the police officer in the 1970’s. What disturbs me is the language used in the movie. It seems to me that the language used in the movie was not period language and was, in fact, eerily similar to language used by the left against President Trump and others who love the United States.  Even to the point of including a picture of President Trump at the end of the movie in a disparaging way. In fact it even led me to do a double take to see when the movie was made (2018).

The only thing I have to say to Spike Lee, the film’s director, is way to inject your own current political opinions into a great story that easily could have stood on its own merits. I ask if you are now on the payroll of the Black Lives Matter Marxist movement and if I should support any more of your movies? This is disappointing to me because I consider you to be one of the greater directors of my generation dating back to when I watched Jackie Brown and She’s Gotta Have It in the theaters. Mr. Lee if you are going to make a contemporary political commentary in a historical piece you have strayed into the realm of propaganda to which I find it hard to forgive. Mr. Lee there actually is a whole other world that exists between the Hudson and Hollywood.