NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Misuses of a Colorado Atrocity Redefining decency. by Bruce Bawer

Posted By on November 22nd, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-misuses-of-a-colorado-atrocity/

When the news broke that an armed man had entered Club Q, an “LGBTQ” nightclub in Colorado Springs, at about midnight on Saturday, on the eve of something called the “Transgender Day of Remembrance,” and had proceeded to kill five people and wound at least twenty-five, one thing seemed all but certain. It was too early to know what had motivated the perpetrator, Anderson Lee Aldrich (who apparently was arrested last year, after a “brief standoff with law enforcement,” for making a bomb threat against his mother). But it seemed a safe enough prediction that the usual “LGBTQ” activists and their allies in the media would soon be spinning this atrocity to their advantage.

Sure enough, within a few hours, Colorado’s largest daily, the Denver Post, had posted an article in which one Elizabeth Hernandez linked the murders to “hateful rhetoric directed toward transgender people and the broader LGBTQ community.” The recently re-elected Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, stated Hernandez, “has been vocal against LGBTQ and transgender issues, including in a June tweet saying ‘Take your children to CHURCH, not drag bars’ and a 2021 speech on the House floor during which she warned of ‘young girls across America who will have to look behind their backs as they change in their school locker rooms just to make sure there isn’t a confused man trying to catch a peek.’” Hernandez also noted the controversy surrounding “all-ages drag shows at public libraries and other locations” and a Colorado librarian who was “fired from her job for planning LGBTQ youth programming.”

What do all of these specifics cited by Hernandez have in common? Simple: not a single one of them is about hatred for transgender people or anybody else. They’re all about legitimate questions of public policy.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

The Inflation Reduction Act Comes for Medicare It will cut benefits and increase premiums, upsetting millions of elderly voters. By Casey B. Mulligan and Tomas J. Philipson

Posted By on November 22nd, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-inflation-reduction-act-comes-for-medicare-ira-elderly-voters-payments-benefits-cuts-revenue-losses-subsidies-11669060307?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

President Biden has accused Republicans of scheming to cut Medicare. In fact it is his signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, that will lead to benefit cuts and premium increases for seniors. Medicare’s popular drug-coverage program is headed for a painful amputation.

The private plans participating in Medicare’s prescription-drug program, known as Part D, currently draw on three sources of revenue to finance prescriptions: out-of-pocket payments from patients, premium payments made by plan members, and subsidies from the federal government. In 2025, under the Inflation Reduction Act, both government subsidies and out-of-pocket payments by patients are scheduled to be cut sharply. The difference will have to be made up by premiums. But the statute inhibits this third revenue source, which is also subsidized, from increasing more than 6%. That’s hardly enough to cover inflation, let alone compensate for the other two revenue losses.

We estimate that beginning in 2025, plan subsidies—specifically, the reinsurance subsidies for the beneficiaries with the most drug spending—will be cut $30 billion, out of revenue that currently totals about $110 billion. With $30 billion less to finance prescription benefits, something will have to give. Plans currently have far too little profit to span the chasm that the Inflation Reduction Act opens between expenses and revenue.

Existing plans have room to cut benefits, although the original Part D statute limits their ability to do so. As plans are under no obligation to take a loss, their other choice is to exit the market, which from the patient’s perspective means that all the benefits disappear. In essence, the Inflation Reduction Act statute may prohibit Part D plans from being economically viable, even if it doesn’t explicitly ban them.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

The Progressive Paradox on Marijuana Tobacco, bad. Vaping, bad. Marijuana, good, for some strange reason.

Posted By on November 22nd, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-progressive-paradox-on-marijuana-new-york-weed-kathy-hochul-john-hickenlooper-11669072860?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

New York state’s Cannabis Control Board voted Monday to approve its first 36 licenses to run marijuana dispensaries. It’s another big step toward legal pot sales, though the black market isn’t struggling to meet demand, as every nose in Manhattan can attest. Meantime, the paradox in progressive attitudes toward marijuana continues to grow like skunk weed.

A study published last week in the journal Radiology finds that smokers who used marijuana (often in addition to tobacco), instead of tobacco alone, had higher rates of emphysema, airway inflammation, and other conditions. “There is a public perception that marijuana is safe and people think that it’s safer than cigarettes,” one radiologist told the Journal. “This study raises concerns that might not be true.”

Where might people have gotten the idea that marijuana is safe? To blame politicians for this would vastly overstate their persuasive powers. Yet it’s remarkable how liberal politicians have tried to take a rhetorical puff to fit in with the cultural cool kids. On April 20, which is cannabis culture slang, Twitter was a veritable haze.

“Happy 4/20 Colorado! You’re my best bud,” said Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

As Shortages Persist Under Biden, It’s Time To Ask: Is This On Purpose?

Posted By on November 22nd, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/11/22/as-shortages-persist-under-biden-its-time-to-ask-is-this-on-purpose/

Did the United States suddenly become a socialist basket case? It’s hard not to come to that conclusion after reading about the endless shortages plaguing the nation. Each of which President Joe Biden either seems clueless to resolve or determined to make worse.

Let’s start with the biggest one: the shortage of diesel fuel. While Biden was busy draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to tamp down gas prices before the midterm elections, the real worry was that supplies of diesel fuel have been running short.

Two years after the short-lived COVID lockdowns ended, diesel inventories continued to trend downward to their lowest levels since 2008. The cost for a gallon of diesel fuel is 46% higher than it was a year ago, according to AAA, and now costs more than $5 a gallon.

That affects every corner of the economy because, while passenger cars mostly use regular gasoline, diesel powers just about everything else that makes the economy move, and many homes, especially in the northeast, rely on heating oil – a related product – to keep their families from freezing to death.

The American Farm Bureau Federation tried to alert Biden to the scale of this problem weeks ago. “Our nation’s food supply is driven by diesel. High diesel prices are severely impacting our farmers and ranchers, causing increased costs to consumers, and adding to food insecurity.”

One big factor for all this: declining refinery capacity. After trending upward for years, it has fallen off each year since. A big reason: Biden’s war on fossil fuels.

“If you are a refiner forecasting billions in losses — and you require massive investments in order to keep your refinery operating safely and in compliance with the laws — you may very well simply make the decision to close down,” writes Robert Rapier in Forbes.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Elon Musk’s overturning of woke censorship is a wonderful thing. Brendan O’Neill

Posted By on November 22nd, 2022

https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/11/21/donald-trump-and-the-blue-tick-pricks/

So Elon Musk has done it. He’s brought back Trump. After conducting a Twitter poll on whether Trump should be unbanned – by far the most transparent thing the Twitter company has ever done – Musk and his minions pressed a few buttons and The Donald was back online.

Whether or not he’ll actually tweet again is another matter (he says he won’t). Regardless, Musk’s reinstatement of Trump’s account is a great blow against the tyrannical meddling of the worthy, woke, censorious fainthearts of Silicon Valley who have bizarrely come to exercise such extraordinary power over what may be thought and said in the 21st century.

The usual suspects are agog, naturally. There’s been a great relapse into Trump Derangement Syndrome. Trump’s return will ‘plunge Twitter deeper into chaos’, says CNN. Jack White has melodramatically fled the Twitter hellscape. ‘Absolutely disgusting, Elon’, wept this rocker who’s strangely scared of other people’s words.

Sadiq Khan, London’s pint-sized Torquemada, issued a statement saying Trump ‘must not be allowed to use social media’. Mate, who do you think you are? Mayor of the world? ‘Freedom of speech is vital’, said Khan, ‘but’ – there’s always a massive, unsightly but – ‘it must be balanced against keeping other people safe to protect our democracy and society’. Do we really need to remind folk, in 2022, of Benjamin Franklin’s words, about how those who would ditch liberty for safety deserve neither? Khan would have banned Franklin, too. A free-speech extremist? Deplatform.

Against all these unhinged demands to keep Trump banned – forever, one presumes – we should remind people of just how undemocratic and outright imperious Silicon Valley’s banning of Trump was in the first place. It was the most sinister act of social-media censorship to date. And that’s saying something.

BOOKS, EDUCATION Comments turned off

Debunking the grievance industry in our schools A new book shows how the 1619 Project is being taught to students Casey Chalk

Posted By on November 22nd, 2022

https://spectatorworld.com/book-and-art/debunking-1619-project-exposes-the-grievance-industry/?utm_source=Spectator+World+Signup&utm_

City Journal last month released a survey that asked eighteen-to-twenty-year-olds whether they had been taught six concepts related to critical race theory. These included: “America is a systemically racist country,” “White people have white privilege,” “White people have unconscious biases that negatively affect non-white people,” “America is built on stolen land,” “America is a patriarchal society,” and “Gender is an identity choice.”

Each of these was answered in the affirmative by a majority of participants, of whom more than 80 percent attended public schools.

That’s curious given that public educators and their defenders in corporate media have been claiming for years that CRT is not taught in schools. “Teaching critical race theory isn’t happening in classrooms, teachers say in survey,” reported NBC in July 2021. The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson in June 2021 called the controversy over CRT “manufactured,” while his colleague Karen Attiah the same month called it “hot air.”

Since then, the narrative has evolved into “well, various themes associated with CRT may be taught in public schools, but not CRT itself.” A November 2021 report from PBS, for example, explained, “There is little to no evidence that critical race theory itself is being taught to K-12 public school students, though some ideas central to it… have been.”

That’s naïve if not disingenuous. Few high-schoolers know the names of the philosophical schools of utilitarianism and scientific materialism, but most of them are trained in their premises.

There’s an added dimension to this, given that the 1619 Project’s curriculum has been disseminated across the country to public schools responsible for teaching millions of students. There are other CRT-friendly public school curricula: the Southern Poverty Law Center for years has been pushing its “Teaching Hard History” program, which has been adopted by many school districts, including in my home state of Virginia.

Concerned parents need guides to effectively respond to these anti-racist curricula, and thankfully scholar Mary Grabar has written one, called Debunking The 1619 Project: Exposing the Plan to Divide America.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

RADICAL GENDER THEORY IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS My investigative reporting establishes the facts. Christopher Rufo

Posted By on November 22nd, 2022

https://christopherrufo.com/support/?mc_cid=569a7c5199&mc_eid=9bde3e8efb

I’ve finished my investigative reporting series on radical gender theory in America’s schools. These stories had a dramatic impact on the national conversation, driving nearly 500 million direct media impressions and changing the national debate. But, more than anything, they established the facts: America’s public education system has taken the most destructive principles of academic Queer Theory and injected them into the public school curriculum—starting in kindergarten.

Here is a summary of the stories:

The War on Innocence: A Kentucky summer camp teaches “sex liberation,” “BDSM,” and “self-pleasure” to minors.
Radical Gender Lessons for Young Children: The Evanston–Skokie School District adopts a curriculum that teaches K-3 students to “break the binary” of gender.
“Banging Beyond Binaries”: The School District of Philadelphia encouraged teachers to attend a conference on “kink,” “BDSM,” “trans sex,” and “masturbation sleeves.”
The Gender Variant Universe: A consortium of publicly funded nonprofits wants to “decolonize gender” and normalize male genitalia as a form of authentic womanhood.
Sexual Liberation in Public Schools: Los Angeles Unified School District adopts radical “trans-affirming” programming and instructs teachers to work toward “the breakdown of the gender binary.”
In Portland, the Sexual Revolution Starts in Kindergarten: The city’s public schools teach K-5 students to subvert the sexuality of “white colonizers” and begin exploring “the infinite gender spectrum.”
The Dismantlers: San Diego public schools want to overthrow “heteronormativity” and promote “genderqueer,” “non-binary,” “pansexual,” and “two-spirit” identities.
Soldiers for the Gender Revolution: Left-wing activists have smuggled radical gender theory into more than 4,000 schools.
How Gender Radicalism Conquered Sacramento Schools: Sacramento City Unified School District instructs teachers to “normalize gender exploration” and promotes such identities as “genderqueer,” “polysexual,” and “two-spirit.”
Radical Gender Theory Comes to the Heartland: A Missouri school district promotes the idea that “gender is a universe.”
Unholy Alliance: In Chicago, local school administrators and the city’s largest children’s hospital promote “kink,” “BDSM,” and “trans-friendly” sex toys for minors.
Concealing Radicalism: Michigan’s Department of Education encourages teachers to facilitate child sexual transitions without parental consent.
Sexual Disturbance: The teachers union promotes a how-to guide for “anal sex,” “bondage,” “sadomasochism,” and “fisting.”
Pronouns Unbound: San Francisco Unified School District facilitates secret child sexual transitions and allows students to identify as “it.”
The Real Story Behind Drag Queen Story Hour: Aimed at children, the phenomenon is far more subversive than its defenders claim.
My work on radical gender theory is shaping the national agenda. Please support it with a $5 or $10 monthly contribution here.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Qatar’s Double Game: Funding Islamists While Pretending to Be America’s Ally by Khaled Abu Toameh

Posted By on November 21st, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19143/qatar-islamists-america-ally

Hamas leaders [who have relocated to Doha]… are using Qatar as a base for calling for the destruction of Israel. Yet this does not seem to bother the rulers of Qatar or its allies in the West, including the US.

This is the same Qatar whose leaders claim that they condemn all acts of terrorism and violent extremism.

It is disquieting, to say the least, that a county that hosts the leadership of a Palestinian group that carried out thousands of terror attacks against Israel is talking about Qatar’s desire to help eliminate terrorism and extremism.

It is also disquieting that Qatar… continues to pour millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip, thereby emboldening Hamas, whose leaders and charter champion violence and call for the destruction of Israel.

Haniyeh is not the only Hamas leader living under the patronage of Qatar. Several other Hamas leaders, including Khaled Mashaal, Hussam Badran, Izzat al-Risheq and Sami Khater, have also been welcomed to move their offices and homes to the Gulf state.

In addition to hosting the Hamas leaders and their families, Qatar has been providing millions of dollars to Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip…. [T]he Qatari aid indirectly helps Hamas to hold on to power. Qatar’s beneficence exempts Hamas from its responsibilities towards the Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip and allows the terror group instead to direct its resources and energies towards building tunnels to attack Israel and manufacturing weapons, including rockets, in preparation for their next war to try to destroy Israel.

The Hamas leaders have often been criticized by Palestinians and other Arabs for leading comfortable lives in Qatar while calling on their people in the Gaza Strip to continue the jihad (holy war) against Israel.

Qatar, however, evidently cares nothing about the interests of ordinary Palestinians, such as boosting their economy and improving their living conditions. What it cares about is embracing the leaders of Hamas to make Qatar appear to the Arabs and Muslims as the main supporter of the Palestinian “resistance” – a euphemism for the “armed struggle” against Israel.

In spite of Qaradawi’s public support for terrorism and inflammatory rhetoric, the Qataris continued to host him and many of his followers, as well as the leaders of Hamas — in this way turning the emirate into a center for spreading global jihad and terrorism.

It is this detrimental role that, in 2017, prompted four Arab countries — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt — to break diplomatic relations with Qatar. The four countries also barred Qatari citizens and closed all their borders to Qatar.

The Saudis accused Qatar of “embracing various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilizing the region, including the Muslim Brotherhood group, Daesh (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda…” — Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington, DC, June 5, 2017.

Qatar has long hosted the largest US airbase in the Middle East, but Qatar is not hosting the base out of love for the Americans. Rather, it is a way of distracting attention from its support for the Muslim Brotherhood and other extremist groups.

Qatar might even have convinced some Americans that it is doing the US a favor by allowing the airbase to be there. How comfortable it must be to export terrorism while having the protection of the US military right on your own soil.

Qatar, however, is no friend of the US or its Arab allies. In fact, Qatar’s endorsement of global jihad remains a source of intense concern for many Arabs, who are asking when the US will wake up and see how the Qataris have been using their wealth to subvert America by showering it with gifts, including financial contributions to US universities and think-tanks.

As long as Qatar continues to fund and host the Hamas leadership, and as long as it continues to use Al-Jazeera to encourage jihad and extremism, the only real game that the emirate is playing, apart from the World Cup, is one of successfully deceiving the Americans.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Bill Barr’s latest anti-Trump diatribe explodes the myth that he’s a wise man By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on November 21st, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/11/ill_barrs_latest_antitrump_diatribe_explodes_the_myth_that_hes_a_wise_man.html

The Bible holds that “Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise…” (Proverbs 17:28.) In the modern era, with attribution to Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, or others, that’s been reworked as “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.” Former Attorney General Bill Barr’s latest embittered statements about the documents the FBI stole from Mar-a-Lago place him squarely within that quotation.

In the government, where it’s almost impossible to get fired, those who stick around long enough become respected, even revered. That’s especially true for attorneys who work in the Department of Justice. Having the entire weight and resources of the government tends to give them a track record they wouldn’t earn in the free market. Barr’s pronouncements about Trump’s potential criminal liability when it comes to the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago raid leads me to believe he earned his august reputation, not because he’s knowledgeable or bright, but just because he stuck around.

Barr appeared on PBS to opine about Merrick Garland’s politicized, despotic decision to investigate Trump the moment that Trump announced he was running again for president. Barr gave it as his opinion that the DOJ has a case:

Regarding the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago earlier this year as part of their criminal investigation into Trump’s handling of U.S. government records, Barr said, “If the Department of Justice can show that these were indeed very sensitive documents, which I think they probably were, and also show that the president consciously was involved in misleading the Department, deceiving the government, and playing games after he had received the subpoena for the documents, those are serious charges.”

When asked if Trump’s actions were a “serious enough crime” to prosecute, Barr said, “That’s serious.”

“Well, I’ve said that I personally think that they probably have the basis for legitimately indicting the president. I don’t know, I’m speculating,” he said. “But given what’s gone on, I think they probably have the evidence that would check the box. They have the case.”

Barr is totally and completely wrong because his premise is wrong. “If the Department can show that these were indeed very sensitive documents which I think they probably were….” Nope, that’s not how it works.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on November 21st, 2022

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Peptides with anti-cancer potential. (TY Ron) Scientists from Israel’s Technion Institute and from Japan have discovered peptides (short proteins) with the potential to destroy cancer cells. The scientists made the discovery while researching the cell-recycling protein ubiquitin, that won two Israeli scientists the Nobel Prize in 2004.

https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-721804

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33808-6

Exercise can stop spread of cancer. Tel Aviv University researchers have found that regular aerobic exercise reduces the risk of metastatic cancer by up to 72%. In data studies of 3,000 humans, plus lab tests, they have shown that exercise increases glucose consumption, thereby reducing the availability of energy to the tumor.

https://www.israel21c.org/physical-exercise-lowers-risk-of-cancer-metastasis-by-72/

https://english.tau.ac.il/exercise_defeats_cancer_2022 https://europepmc.org/article/med/36084256

Exercise can cure long COVID. Studies by Israeli researchers on patients suffering from post-COVID ailments show that these can be safely relieved by exercise therapy as it stabilizes the autonomic nervous system. Other treatments include nutraceutical supplements, steroids, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT).

https://www.israel21c.org/vaccine-may-prevent-long-covid-oxygen-might-help-cure-it/

Gel to help grow bones. Researchers at Tel Aviv University are developing a water-based gel (hydrogel) that will encourage bones to re-grow. It has extensive dental and orthopedic applications (e.g., for implants and repairing bone defects). Following lab tests, clinical (human) trials are now planned.

https://nocamels.com/2022/11/new-gel-could-transform-dental-implants/

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcpe.13725

Longevity center. Israel’s Sheba Medical Center plans to open a Longevity Center by Sept 2023. Patients over 40 will be able to register for around $500 per year and receive tests and consultations with experts in internal medicine, endocrinology, psychogeriatric, gynecology for menopause and brain scientists.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/h10l9bnbi

Healthy aging center. Israel’s Technion Institute is establishing the Healthy Aging Center, as part of the Technion Human Health Initiative (THHI). It brings together Technion researchers from medicine, biology, chemistry, biotechnology, food engineering, computer engineering, architecture, and more.

https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2022/11/healthy-aging-center/

https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2022/03/human-health-initiative-thhi/

Connecting patients with the same condition. More details of Israeli-founded Alike.Health (see here previously). The app connects people who are suffering from similar conditions and going through the same experiences. Some 100,000 users in the USA have already uploaded their medical data anonymously to the app.

https://nocamels.com/2022/11/healthcares-answer-to-facebook-waze-and-tinder/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D26OkcWaVs

MDA AI dispatch software for New Jersey. Hatzalah emergency service organizations across the US will use the artificial intelligence-powered dispatch software of Israel’s national emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA). The AI system instantly locates and dispatches the nearest first responders to a medical emergency.

https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/article-721981