THIS SHOULD BE TERRIFYING TO ALL.....

 

• 1/3 of American High School graduates never read another book in their lives.

• 42% of college graduates never read another book after college.

• 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.

• 70% of US adults have not been in a book store in 5 or more years.

• 57% of new books are not read to completion.**

**Source Simon Schuster 2012

Can you imagine this?  This is terrifying.  Our brains, as humans, are wired to learn and gather knowledge our entire lives. If we aren't growing our minds, what are we filling them with?

Reality TV?

Social Media?

TikTok videos?

Make it a point in 2022 to READ A BOOK!  Or two!

  

SLAVERY, HISTORY, and TODAY

 Yeah - I'm wading into the thick of it again today. Call me crazy - maybe it's just that. I like to think it's because I am wired to find solutions - and solve problems.

Today, I am looking at solutions and positive actions. Today, let's focus on what the protestors this spring - are actually 'protesting'. These protests are supposed to bring attention to the "oppression" and "systemic racism" of blacks.

Throughout the history of this great nation, we have had some chapters that were less shining than others. Slavery is one of those chapters. When we speak about Slavery in the US, most often it refers to slavery of blacks from the Caribbean or Africa. There were also other slaves in the 'New World'. Indeed, the Irish were enslaved - in Europe and the Americas earlier and longer than African blacks - past the Civil War years, by way of conscription, kidnap and indentured servitude. It is historical fact, and can be researched as such. The Irish were treated viciously in our nation - no less than Africans. We will, however, keep that topic for another day.

Slavery started in the colonies in 1612 and was first legalized in the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1625. Slavery was ended as an institution in the US in 1865. In that 240 year span, many blacks of Caribbean and African descent were held as slaves. There is nothing to say on this topic other than slavery and enslaving of another human is abhorrent and evil.

When slavery ended, there was a time that blacks were considered to be less intelligent, less capable than whites - and that view is also abhorrent. We had Jim Crow, discrimination, segregation, desegregation, and civil rights movements and laws that helped usher in equality for all in the US. It seems crazy, to us, that our forefathers would hold these beliefs - but there it is. And, in fact, there are still sects of the KKK and White Supremacists in existence - though those beliefs will die out with those throwbacks to a darker time.

I think then, based on the previous information, we can all agree that no one alive today - in the US - has been held as a slave as part of that institution in the US. In fact, no one has been held a slave as part of that institution in the past 152 years.

Today, black Americans have nothing in law or legislation that prevents them from being anything they want to be - indeed - up to and including the President of the US. The only limit is your ambition and the only method of getting there is hard work.  Anything is achievable.

**One note - slavery still exists today in our world.  Today - as we speak - Africans and Christians are enslaved, bought, auctioned, sold and traded in the Middle East and Africa.  I would ask where the outrage is for these people from those who think looting and burning businesses is an effective means of "change".

TRANSGENDERISM - AND REALITY

 As we approach "The Olympics" - and as the topic of "transgenderism in sports" is in the forefront of news and talk, I wanted to share some thoughts.

Sorry for the bluntness if it offends any 'sensitivities' - but some common sense and logic is needed here - and less "feels" and emotion. People can live as they choose to live - provided it doesn't harm others. This is one of those places where harm is huge. No matter what hormone, drug, surgery people have - they will continue to have the physiology they were born with. 

Specifically - medical science cannot change the skeletal, muscular, endocrine, circulatory systems and DNA. The physical body of an XY person will always be XY. And the same for XX.  Yes, hormones will affect size of muscle - but not the attachment points and placements. No - bone will not change - an XY pelvis will not ever 'flex' for giving birth like an XX one. That's just facts and medical science. 

A man or woman can simply NEVER in full fact change to the opposite sex. 

If that's upsetting to some - that is just life and facts. Live as one chooses - but don't think to force the world to embrace all of that in the same way the person does - it's just not reality. 

That said - letting people who have a natural, biological, physiological advantage and difference in capabilities compete with those who don't will never be fair, equitable - or morally correct. 

Why then, is there not a separate category for trans sports? This is truly the only way to ensure that all the strides made in women's sports over the past 100 years is not lost and women themselves are not erased from competition?

This isn't about actual science of sex and gender. Those are binary - as we see in nature. There are male and female - period. In language - there is also neutral; that is a language construct - not science, but social science.

In nature - we don't see 58 genders - we see 2, binary. And, that's it.

What trans and others are actually talking about is something mutable - and sex/gender is not mutable. So, it's personality characteristics - not gender - that are mutable. We have girls who are rough and tumble - or tomboys and we have so many variations and flavors of that. And, we have guys who are more feminine and many variations there.

This is more "social science" than medical or physical science. 

If people wrapped their heads around that - it would make things a lot more sensical. As people mature - they go through different phases and changes of exploring their person, character, self - and that can and does shift through time and even days. But, having surgery or taking hormones to permanently affect ones person isn't the best approach. And, they will never be the "other" that they think in a moment is wanted.

I think this is a better - more realistic take on things. 

Oh, and......Men shouldn't compete with women. Period.

GOVERNMENT'S PLACE - Get Out of Our Liberty! (Or, Gov't, YOU work for US)

 

My ancestors - by that I mean my "Great-Greats" - grandmothers, fathers, aunts, and uncles - all had a MUCH healthier distrust of the federal government than people today.

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People who came before us came from places where government ran roughshod over people's very lives. They were serfs - not much more than slaves really - or subjects, and were at the whim of those in government or the "peerage".

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When they came here - they held a strong arm straight out at the government - because they embraced what we have here - our freedom - and they didn't want those politico types getting their talons into the lives citizens built for themselves.

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Our Founders formed a Republic - not a democracy or aristocracy or any other type of government - it was the first of its kind - and is still materially different than any other place on earth - and our very existence changed the lives of the common people in every other place on earth.

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Sorry to say this - but people have been "dumbed down" by our "government" school systems to think such ridiculous things as "the US is a democracy" (it's not) or "a democracy and our Republic are the same and interchangeable terms" (no, they aren't )

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We need to return to that healthy distrust of federal collective power - and we need to stop relying on the government as some benevolent nanny. They aren't our parent - and they are NOT benevolent.

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Stop thinking they are some cuddly entity with our best in mind - and realize that government - all government - is a leviathan that wants to gobble up more and more power and control - and start understanding that we must force them to work - ONLY - in the ways we TELL them to work.

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America and the entire world depends on this.

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The more we take from government - the more they have their hand in our private business.

The reality with this entire pandemic - government had no business forcing any of the things they did.

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They had responsibility (which they botched badly) to quantify the virus, and determine the risks, characteristics and WHERE it came from. And, to find out what types of medicines we had in the tool chest that would work on it.

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What they did NOT have was the authority to force everyone into 1-size fits all mandates and other. No one but an individual should determine if they wrap a cloth around their faces and restrict their breathing or not - and sure as Hell not forcing people to be test subjects in some global medical Frankenstein experiments.

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WE - as a people - need to be a heck of a lot better at TELLING government where they are and are NOT welcome.

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And most Americans need a clear and deeper understanding of the fact that government works FOR us - not the other way 'round.