Displaying the most recent of 90908 posts written by

Ruth King

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Are the Covid mRNA Vaccines Safe? By Martin Kulldorff

By on July 8th, 2022

https://brownstone.org/articles/are-the-covid-mrna-vaccines-safe/

A new scientific study entitled “Serious adverse events of special interest following mRNA vaccination in randomized trials” provides the best evidence yet concerning the safety of the mRNA Covid vaccines. For most vaccines in common use, benefits far outweigh risks, but that may not be the case for the mRNA covid vaccines, according to this study by Joseph Fraiman and his colleagues. It depends on your age and medical history. 

The randomized controlled clinical trial is the gold standard of scientific evidence. When regulators approved the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines for emergency use in December 2020, two randomized trials showed that the vaccines reduced symptomatic covid infection by over 90% during the first few months after the second dose. 

Pfizer and Moderna did not design the trials to evaluate long-term efficacy or the more important outcomes of preventing hospitalization, death, or transmission. 

The randomized trials did collect adverse event data, including the presence of mild symptoms (such as fever) and more serious events requiring hospitalization or leading to death. Most vaccines generate some mild adverse reactions in some people, and there were considerably more adverse such reactions after the mRNA vaccines compared to the placebo. 

That is annoying but not a major issue. We care about severe health outcomes. The key question is whether the vaccine’s efficacy outweighs the risks of severe adverse reactions.

Continue reading →
EDUCATION Comments turned off

The Purposeful Degradation of America’s Schools Christina Villegas

By on July 8th, 2022

https://americanmind.org/salvo/the-purposeful-degradation-of-americas-schools/

Radical ideologues fueled by billions of woke foundation dollars are destroying public education.

In the wake of school shutdowns, distance learning, and widely publicized school board battles, two trends have become increasingly difficult to conceal. The first is the failure of many of America’s primary and secondary schools to educate children competently—a failure marked by distressingly low levels of student proficiency and widening achievement gaps in core subjects like math and reading. The second is the growing prominence of radical ideology in the nation’s K-12 classrooms.

Equally disturbing is evidence that these trends are largely correlated and that an iron triangle of self-interested actors is contributing to their acceleration in school districts across the country—even those esteemed for high achievement.

Over the past decade, local school districts have proved easy targets for radical ideologues seeking to acquire cultural power. Though prolonged distance learning and draconian mandates have shaken the pre-pandemic confidence that many parents had in edu-crats to put the well-being of their children first, local districts and school boards have historically enjoyed a high level of public trust. Until recently, little attention was paid to union politics, school board decision making, classroom curriculum, or teacher training.  As a result, activists and special interest groups bankrolled by far-left foundations have inundated primary and secondary education with radical race, gender, and queer theory, usually under the guise of innocuous sounding phrases like equity-based education, culturally responsive teaching, and social and emotional learning. While children are increasingly being taught that western institutions are systemically and irredeemably racist, sexist, etc., they are not adequately learning to read or do math. The districts most vested in radical ideology often have the worst results in terms of academic achievement and racial disparities. Seattle has embraced left-wing initiatives for decades and has one of the worst black-white achievement gaps in the nation.

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Governor Newsom Is Only Consistent in His Hypocrisy: John Fund

By on July 8th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/governor-newsom-is-only-consistent-in-his-hypocrisy/

California governor Gavin Newsom’s campaign is running ads in Florida and other states touting his state as a beacon of “freedom” on key social issues. Observers say the ads are an effort to boost his standing for a possible 2024 run for president.

Back home, Californians quip that the “freedom” Newsom seems to be most interested in is the ability to practice blatant hypocrisy without limits.

This week, news broke that the governor was vacationing in Montana despite California’s ban on state-funded travel to Montana over its alleged anti-gay policies. The governor’s office refused to reveal whether or not state-funded security accompanied the governor on his trip.

This isn’t the first example of Newsom flouting the rules. He famously violated his own indoor-dining ban in 2020, when he attended a birthday party at the deluxe French Laundry restaurant in Napa. Months later he appeared maskless at a football game where face coverings were mandatory.

Last summer, he had to pull one of his kids out of a summer day camp that did not require kids to wear masks, a violation of state policy.

Continue reading →
EDUCATION Comments turned off

Florida’s New History Curriculum Is Pretty Great By Charles Hilu

By on July 8th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/floridas-new-history-curriculum-is-pretty-great/

Ron DeSantis’s state of Florida drew controversy over the Fourth of July weekend after the Miami Herald released copies of slides that the government used in civics training sessions for K–12 public-school teachers, which it partnered with Hillsdale College to create.

The slides cover reasons for the American Revolution and the philosophical underpinnings of the Constitution, while sometimes wading into contemporary debates about American government. The material is mainstream, historically accurate, and not unlike other curricula. Personally, I learned a lot of it a few years ago in high school when I took Advanced Placement U.S. History and Government & Politics. 

Overall, Florida’s syllabus is a good road map for teaching history. Most of the material is simply stating facts, and when it wades into controversy, it backs up its assertions solidly, for the most part. Nevertheless, some educators have complained that the instructional prescription was too Christian and conservative.

One of the central complaints centers on one of the presentations calling the idea that “the Founders desired strict separation of church and state and the Founders only wanted to protect freedom of worship” a misconception.

The state’s claim is certainly controversial, but it is true, nonetheless. While the Founding conception of separation of church and state protected freedom of worship, it was chiefly focused against creating an established church. The Framers did not view all public support of religion as illicit. After all, Congress held church services in the House chamber from when it first moved to Washington, D.C., until after the Civil War, with the speaker’s podium serving as the pulpit. That does not seem like an action of people who wanted religion and government in totally separate spheres.

For those who argue the contrary, the chief piece of evidence, which the Florida curriculum acknowledges, is Thomas Jefferson’s 1801 Letter to the Danbury Baptists, in which he wrote that the First Amendment creates “a wall of separation between church and state.” It is important to note the context of the letter. He was responding to a group of people who were fearful that the government would interfere with their free exercise of religion, and he was attempting to allay their concerns. In no way was he calling for the government to totally distance itself from religion. After all, he would often attend the services in the Capitol.

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Don’t Let The Democrats Claim The Mantle Of Freedom

By on July 8th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/07/08/dont-let-the-democrats-claim-the-mantle-of-freedom/

Psychological projection is the act of attributing one’s unpleasant traits to someone else. Psychological deflection is a way of shifting attention away from one’s poor behavior to another person. Both are used expertly by Democrats, who don’t want the voters to catch on to their act.

We could start with any of the Democrats’ many examples of projection and deflection, but let’s focus on one of the most recent instances of a Democratic pot calling a kettle black: California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Florida television ad.

“Freedom is under attack in your state,” Newsom said in a voice a bit less croaky than his usual raspy delivery. “Your Republican leaders, they’re banning books, making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors.

“I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate, and the freedom to love. Don’t let them take your freedom,” he finishes with a faux flourish that included a pointed finger meant to underline the sincerity the factory-made man sorely lacks.

The ad is a truly stomach-turning performance (typical of Newsom) for those who truly cherish freedom, and understand what it is – and isn’t. (It’s also filled with lies. Read this master Fisking of the governor’s tales.)

The California of Newsom, who many hope will save the Democratic Party from sinking under the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris millstones, is ranked 48th in the Cato Institute’s Freedom In The 50 States report. It’s where new prohibitions, such as bans on multiple plastic consumer goods, including single-use bags customarily given out by retailers, pop up on a regular basis, and food waste must be composted rather than thrown in garbage cans.

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Japan ex-leader Shinzo Abe shot in chest, in heart failure

By on July 8th, 2022

https://www.aol.com/news/japan-ex-leader-abe-reportedly-031004756-043411862.html

TOKYO (AP) — Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, an arch-conservative and one of the country’s most divisive figures, was shot and critically wounded during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan. He was airlifted to a hospital but officials said he was not breathing and his heart had stopped.

Police arrested the suspected gunman at the scene of the shocking attack in a country that’s one of the world’s safest and has some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Abe was in “severe condition” and he hoped Abe will survive. He called the attack “dastardly and barbaric” and added that the crime occurring during the election campaign, which is the foundation of democracy, was absolutely unforgivable.

Kishida and his Cabinet ministers hastily returned to Tokyo from other campaign events around the country after the shooting. “I’m praying for former prime minister Abe’s survival from the bottom of my heart,” Kishida said at the prime minister’s office after he arrived on a defense helicopter from Yamagata.

Continue reading →
ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

A people’s revolt against eco-tyranny From the Netherlands to Sri Lanka, people have had enough of the elite’s green hysteria.Brendan O’Neill

By on July 8th, 2022

https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/07/06/a-peoples-revolt-against-eco-tyranny/

If police were opening fire on protesters in a European nation, we would have heard about it, right? If there was a mass uprising of working people in a European Union country, taking to the streets in their thousands to cause disruption to roads, airports and parliament itself, it would be getting a lot of media coverage in the UK, wouldn’t it? The radical left would surely say something, too, given its claims to support ordinary people against The System. Cops shooting at working men and women whose only crime is that they pounded the streets to demand fairness and justice? There would be solidarity demos in the UK, for sure.

Well, all of this is happening, right now, in a nation that’s just an hour’s flight from Britain, and the media coverage here is notable by its absence. As for the left in Britain and elsewhere in Europe – there’s just silence. This is the story of the revolting Dutch farmers. These tractor-riding rebels have risen up against their government and its plans to introduce stringent environmental measures that they say will severely undermine their ability to make a living. They have been protesting for a couple of years now, but their fury has intensified in recent weeks. They’ve blocked motorways, blocked roads to airports, set fire to bales of hay, and descended on The Hague. Things are so serious that yesterday, in the province of Friesland, police opened fire. Mercifully, no one was injured.

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

NATO Family Picture in Madrid: This Will Not Be Erdoğan’s Last Blackmail by Burak Bekdil

By on July 7th, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18667/nato-family-blackmail

“I don’t know what Turkey’s trying to extract from them, but at the end of the day that’s what this is about. And maybe if we get in the game, they’ll want to extract from us too, which I will be vehemently opposed to. We don’t need for any extraction to take place or any concessions to take place to have two great democracies join NATO.” — US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-NJ), June 22, 2022.

Talking to Erdoğan in the language he understands best, in early June, the U.S. State Department and the European Commission expressed their support to Greece and its sovereignty over its islands of the eastern Aegean Sea, and called on Turkey to stop airspace violations and overflights, threats and provocative rhetoric.

That means, in Erdoğan’s language, further economic sanctions on Turkey. And further sanctions will mean Erdoğan’s chances for re-election will get even slimmer amid a punishing economic crisis.

Erdoğan controls 90% of the media in Turkey. That is a big asset in politics.

So, the whole choreography, from the beginning, was aimed at a domestic audience who would feel triumphant from Erdoğan’s victory over the infidels.

The “Nordics in NATO” issue is not entirely over. Full accession will require approval from all 30 NATO parliaments. This, and other future issues, will always give Erdoğan new leverage to blackmail the West’s strongest institution.

It was another happy time in Madrid, of half-baked, Kodak-moment pleasantries when the leaders of 30 NATO member states posed for the cameras with broad family smiles. They were on display for Turkey’s Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for having removed his veto against the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO. How did that happen? The stick.

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

American Confidence in the Presidency Drops by 15 Points Compared to Last Year By Eric Lendrum

By on July 7th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/07/06/american-confidence-in-the-presidency-drops-by-15-points-compared-to-last-year/

The latest poll from Gallup shows that Americans’ confidence in many major institutions in the United States, including the presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court, has dropped to a new low this year.

Fox News reports that the poll showed just 27 percent of Americans described themselves as having “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in 14 institutions, which is three points lower than the previous record low in 2014.

With 16 different institutions mentioned in the survey, Gallup noted “significant declines” in 11 institutions in particular, including the presidency and the Supreme Court. Compared to the last poll in June of 2021, American confidence in the presidency has gone down by 15 points, while confidence in the high court has dropped by 11 points. Similarly, Joe Biden’s approval rating has dropped by about 15 points in the same span of time.

Congress remains the lowest-rated institution in the nation. In last year’s poll, only 12 percent of Americans polled reported “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the federal legislative branch. This year, that number is down to a mere 7 percent.

Five other institutions recorded substantial drops in confidence: The police, the criminal justice system, big business, organized religion, and newspapers. The only major institution to see its approval rating hold steady was organized labor, at 28 percent once again.

Respondents across both political parties, as well as independents, all recorded drops in confidence compared to last year. Republican voters’ confidence in the military fell from 81 percent to 78 percent, while their confidence in the police dropped from 71 percent to 67 percent. Independents’ confidence in the presidency plummeted from 31 percent to just 18 percent. Meanwhile, in the wake of numerous major decisions on abortion, Second Amendment rights, and other issues, Democrats’ confidence in the Supreme Court dropped from 31 percent to 13 percent.

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Disappearing American? There are historical downsides—economic, cultural, social, and military—to nations that shun child-raising. By Victor Davis Hanson

By on July 7th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/07/06/the-disappearing-american/

“Help wanted” and “Now hiring” signs are everywhere. Flights, construction projects, and healthcare services are delayed—or unavailable—due to labor shortages.

Hourly and monthly wages spiral. There is a growing disequilibrium between the number of available jobs and the declining pool of workers needed to fill them. 

What is going on?

During the nearly two-year-long COVID shutdown and economic downturn, firms cut costs by laying off millions of employees. 

As a result, some in their early- or mid-60s simply retired early and never came back to work.

Federal and state governments also vastly expanded financial support to the unemployed. Other workers figured they would not make all that much more by working and so are staying home on government checks.

Still other former full-time employees became used to the new, more leisurely lifestyle and are loath to return to a full 40-hour work week.

Employers also are now convinced that a hard recession is on the early 2023 horizon when the trillions of dollars of newly printed money run out.  Many are willing to put up with worker shortages now, rather than hire too many employees only to have them idle when consumer demand soon crashes.

Still other workers fear yet another COVID pandemic and are not eager to return to daily contact with the public.

The government has no idea how Americans remain sick with the mysterious “long COVID” chronic aftermath of the infectious phase of the disease.

Well over 100 million Americans have likely had COVID. An estimated 10-30 percent do not recover for months—or even years.

So, millions of COVID long haulers remain either unable to work or can only work part-time. 

Yet no one yet has fully calibrated the effect of newly disabled millions on the American economy.

Add up all these dark clouds and America is experiencing a perfect storm, in which only 61 percent of the able workforce is currently officially employed.

Continue reading →