There haven’t been high visiblity examples in the last couple of months where political or medical leaders exercise their divine right to ignore the rules they impose on everyone else. Or perhaps I just haven’t been paying enough attention.
Well, the governor of Michigan and two of her aides have broken the dry spell of flagrant hypocrites getting caught in their hypocrisy.
Make a completely wild guess what the governor did while urging her subjectscitizens to avoid travel to Florida for spring break and warn that snowbirds could easily bring infection back with them when returning from Florida?
Yup. She took a trip to Florida.
To visit her father.
Since the purpose wasn’t to frolic on the beach the trip is okey-dokey.
In fall 2020 Van Morrison and Eric Clapton released songs protesting lockdowns, describing the damage the economic shutdowns were causing and focused attack on our freedoms. A host of articles referenced on my blog describe the damage they were referring to.
On 9/18/20 Van Morrison announced three songs:
Born To Be Free
As I Walked Out
No More Lockdowns
Eric Clapton also released a song:
Stand and Deliver
For reasons you can easily figure out for yourself, which I will not state explicitly, the songs were trashed in public. I will not link to or summarize the articles complimenting the songs because they get more political than I choose.
Before going into further discussion of the songs, with links to Amazon and some highlights of the lyrics, here are four out of dozens of articles trashing them:
Merely from the titles of the articles, you can tell how much venom was poured out on the songs.
A hint of what the self-appointed critics did not like:
As I walked out all the streets were empty The government said everyone should stay home And they spread fear and loathing and no hope for the future Not many did question this very strange move
After reading several articles, including some that were favorable, I wasn’t going to look at the songs any further. However, I decided to at least take a quick look. After I listened to Born To Be Free, I looked up the lyrics and listened again. Then I was intrigued and listened to all four songs, following along with the lyrics.
If you read my blog and especially if you got this far in this particular post, you will enjoy the songs.
Born To Be Free
By the way, all four of the songs are available for a mere $0.89. This one is available at Amazon at the link:
Um, yeah. Rolling Stones, well Mick Jagger by himself (since the band can’t get together), weighed in with a song protesting the lockdowns.
A protest song.
Song ridicules the ongoing lockdown, describing the lobotomizing effect of being isolated.
It compares the forced quarantine to prison confinement.
There is one recurring line, which you have to think about a while:
It’ll be a memory you’re trying to remember to forget.
Aha…we will have to work to forget this horrible time.
It is a nightmare for those who lost businesses, will never catch up on their rent, whose education has been harshly disrupted if not destroyed, all those who now have severe depression, and those with well-advanced cancer because they couldn’t get in to see a doctor for so many months to check out that odd thing and now it is stage 4.
Yes, we will all have memories that will we be trying to forget.
A hint of the lyrics:
We took it on the chin The numbers were so grim Bossed around by p*****.
In California, you may now resume in-person bible studies, prayer meetings, and worship services. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
On 4/9/21, the Supreme Court told the state of California for the fifth time that the Free Exercise of Religion clause of the First Amendment actually, really, truly does allow free exercise of religion. Oh yeah, the injunction mentioned this was the fifth injunction against the unconstitutional state rules.
On 4/12/21, attorneys from the Thomas More Society called state officials, according to a press release from Thomas More Society, wanting to confirm a telephone call at 1 PM that day to discuss the next round of the South Bay United Pentecostal Church lawsuit against the state. An evidentiary hearing had been scheduled sometime in May.
According to the press release, attorneys for the church asked if the state was going to allow worship at 100% capacity. If not, the church would proceed to the hearing which would “inevitably result in the 6th rebuke from SCOTUS.”
The devastating side-effects from government-imposed lockdowns keeps growing. The lack of benefits and damage from lockdowns is becoming more obvious with every week that passes.
Merely a few of the recent articles in the news:
Suicide attempts amongst youth increasing.
Long-term care residents in Canada remain in solitary confinement in spite of 90% of them having been vaccinated.
Unemployment rate higher in states with harsh lockdowns, lower in states with freedom.
To the extent there was ever justification for closing schools, emerging research demonstrates it has been an extremely long time since any such justification evaporated. Research from Wharton shows the severe, lifelong cost of losing out on two or three semesters of education.
This is the fifth in a series of posts reminding us we have completed one year of “fifteen days to smooth the curve.” In California, we have started our second year of curve smoothing.
10/12/20 – Penn Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania, Budget Model website – Covid: Trade-offs in School Reopening– Detailed economic analysis is thoroughly devastating to any argument there is any value in keeping schools closed and in fact there are substantive questions whether there was any value to closing any schools.
Summary
There will be permanent damage to the education level of most students with a serious adverse impact on lifetime earnings with a disproportionate impact on kids who are poor kids, disadvantaged kids, and persons of color.
Empty college campus. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Articles describing the destruction in the education world have been noticable to me over the last several weeks. Most of the articles have discussed the devastation in primary and secondary education.
Here are a few articles describing disruption in higher education:
Alternatives to traditional non-campus higher education are growing.
What might a post-covid higher education world look like? One scenario.
Lots of class-action suits against colleges for refunds are getting dismissed.
One student who is focused on distance learning. She will do fine; notice she has two computers and her own space to study. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Destruction in the education world has been noticable to me over the last several weeks. Most of the articles have discussed the devastation in primary and secondary education. There will also be major disruption in higher education.
Today’s articles:
3 million missing kids.
Kids from poorer neighborhoods will suffer most from lost education.
Last December UNICEF warned against keeping schools closed.
