In economics, religion, and politics, the moral path is freedom.

Destruction from lockdowns is becoming more obvious, education impact – part 4

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Earlier post reported chronic absenteeism rate for students in California tripled as a result of the pandemic shutdowns.

Two more articles describe the skyrocketing rate of chronic absenteeism in Minnesota and across the nation.

What could possibly be driving this? On twitter, Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) said:

“We told the kids that school wasn’t essential. They listened.”

That’s about right. Schools were shuttered anywhere from six to eighteen months in most places around the country.

In terms of the so-called remote learning, there wasn’t much teaching going on. In one district near me in California, teaching time during the pandemic was 45 minutes in the morning and then 45 minutes in the afternoon. Class time was merely 90 minutes a day.

Yeah, our education leaders, political leaders, religious leaders, and public health leaders all said school wasn’t important. A whole bunch of kids got the message: school is optional.

I hope against hope that the allegedly educated educators someday will be held accountable for the destruction they willfully caused.

New reports describe widespread chronic absenteeism:

9/15/23 – Washington Examiner – Chronic absenteeism skyrockets in Minnesota public schools – Before the pandemic, chronic absenteeism in Minnesota public schools was 15%. That is the number of students who were missing 10 or more days in the school year.

The most recent data for 2022?

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Updates of efforts by California county to crush local church and the church’s efforts to stand up for the rights of all Christians.

…closed due to government violation of First Amendment. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Santa Clara County in California has been putting pressure on Calvary Chapel San Jose for daring to hold worship services during the pandemic.

We now know the efforts to suppress Christian worship were a flagrant violation of the First Amendment, as determined by the Supreme Court in multiple rulings. See end of this discussion for list of posts describing the rebukes from the Supreme Court. (If you want to see the results when ideologues write feeble legal briefs, I heartily encourage you to read the dissents from the Supreme Court’s rulings.)

The county levied plenty of fines and a temporary injunction against the church. Previous article describing Calvary Chapel San Jose’s efforts to exercise their first amendment right to free expression of religion:

Since my post back in November 2020, we have learned the county was allegedly conducting surreptitious surveillance on the church during the pandemic. A neighboring church allegedly assisted with the surveillance. Fines issued by the county have been dismissed at the appellate level.

Now the church has filed suit against the county for their surveillance. They are standing up for the rights of all Christians to gather in worship.

This discussion is posted here on Nonprofit Update blog, as well as Outrun Change, because this affects the freedom of many in this audience.

By the way, if you see an above average amount of ridicule and sarcasm in this post, it is here in the hope that out-loud, belly laughter directed at officials will encourage said officials to reconsider their foolish ways. Supreme Court rulings don’t seem to have had that effect yet.

3/16/23 – The Christian Post – California church denies working with gov’t officials to surveil lockdown-defying Calvary Chapel

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

9/11: Never Forget

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

For my remembrance of the 9/11 attacks during which 2,996 Americans were slaughtered by 19 terrorists, my family watched 9/11: The Filmmakers’ Commemorative Edition.

The movie started as a documentary following one rookie New York firefighter through training and his nine months of probation.  In doing so, the two filmmakers were following an engine company on a call when the first hijacked airplane hit. The strike was on camera.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Destruction from lockdowns is becoming more obvious – part 3

Visual illustration of what lockdowns did to our health, perception of time, and our children’s education. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The destruction caused by government imposed pandemic restrictions, especially lockdowns is becoming more obvious as researchers look at the damage.

Articles discussed below:

  • Increased illness from alcohol abuse.
  • Chronic absenteeism in California schools tripled after the pandemic shutdowns.
  • High portions of colleges that are closed since the pandemic are Christian.
  • The lockdowns actually did affect your perception of time.

8/3/23 – SciTechDaily – Lockdowns and Liquor: Surging Severe, Alcohol-Related Liver Injury During Covid Pandemic – One study quantifies what was obvious at the time of the government ordered shutdowns. Sales of booze accelerated and abuse of alcohol skyrocketed.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Destruction from lockdowns is becoming more obvious – part 2 – Did government policies drive up the number of deaths during the pandemic?

When the negatives outweigh the positives, it was not a good decision. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The damage caused by government imposed Covid restrictions and lockdowns is beginning to be quantified.

The following pair of studies suggest restrictions caused far more deaths than lives saved. If this research holds after further study, government policies increased the number of deaths during the pandemic.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Destruction from lockdowns is becoming more obvious – part 1

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The economic, educational, medical, and social costs caused by the government lockdown during Covid are becoming more obvious. A flood of reports is describing the damage that is increasingly visible.

Hopefully this will be first in a series of posts describing government imposed destruction.  

A few articles describing the devastation in education:    

6/21/23 – Wall Street Journal – Pandemic Learning Slide Continues for 13-Year-Olds, Making Full Recovery Unlikely – The destruction of learning for a generation of students is becoming visible in test scores. The National Assessment of Educational Progress report for testing during the last half of 2022 shows the willful devastation imposed by the educational and political world.  

Math scores for seventh and eighth graders dropped to the lowest point since 1990, while average reading scores only dropped to the lowest level since 2004. There is a loss of 32 years progress in math and 19 years progress in reading.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Declaration of Independence

The following text is a transcription of the Stone Engraving of the parchment Declaration of Independence (the document on display in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum.) The spelling and punctuation reflects the original. Courtesy of the National Archives.

The Declaration of Independence with a candle holder, glasses and a quill pen. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
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By Jim Ulvog, ago