Pondering

economic freedom

Lockdown protest songs from Van Morrison and Eric Clapton.

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:

9/25/20 – Rolling Stone – Van Morrison Has Been Complaining For Decades. This Time It Could Be Harmful.
10/23/20 – Rock Cellar Magazine – Van Morrison Shares “No More Lockdown,” the Third and Final in His Series of Aggressively “Anti-Lockdown Protest Songs”.
12/21/20 – Los Angeles times – Eric Clapton’s anti-lockdown protest song by Van Morrison is totally worth protesting.
1/6/21 – Belfast Telegraph – Van Morrison’s Covid protest songs “worst of 2020”.

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:

(more…)

By Jim Ulvog, 3 yearsApril 19, 2021, 10:01 am ago

economic freedom

Protest song against lockdowns from Mick Jaggar. Wait… What?

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*****.

The video of Easy Sleazy, then more lyrics:

(more…)

By Jim Ulvog, 3 yearsApril 18, 2021, 7:10 am ago

Other stuff

You may now exercise your religious freedom in California as you see fit. State consents to reinstating First Amendment.

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.”

(more…)

By Jim Ulvog, 3 yearsApril 13, 2021, 10:38 am ago

Supreme Court to California: Read the First Amendment. We really, really, really, really mean it this time.

On Friday, 4/9/21, the Supreme Court issued an injunction prohibiting California from enforcing an arbitrary rule that no more than three families may gather for in-home worship or prayer meetings.

The unsigned opinion stated:

“This is the fifth time the Court has summarily rejected the Ninth Circuit’s analysis of California’s COVID restrictions on religious exercise.”

This is the fifth injunction against California restrictions on religious worship. For this moment in time at least, the Free Expression clause of the First Amendment is still in place and operational.

Why do I say “for the moment?” Previous decisions have been 6-3. Justice Roberts disagreed with this ruling but did not sign on to the dissent. The justices in favor of keeping the First Amendment in place may have slipped to 5-4.

The injunction is titled Ritesh Tandon, et al. v. Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, et al.

Other comments in the ruling are equally amusing.

The first paragraph says:

“The Ninth Circuit’s failure to grant an injunction pending appeal was erroneous. This Court’s decisions have made the following points clear.”

(more…)

By Jim Ulvog, 3 yearsApril 10, 2021, 11:33 am ago

economic freedom

Cost of the devastation caused by closing schools.

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.

Read the full article. Please.

Recap of the highlights

(more…)

By Jim Ulvog, 3 yearsMarch 25, 2021, 7:10 am ago

economic freedom

Devastation visible after an entire year of “15 days to smooth the curve”, college edition. Part 3.

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.

(more…)

By Jim Ulvog, 3 yearsMarch 24, 2021, 7:15 am ago

economic freedom

Devastation visible after an entire year of “15 days to smooth the curve.” Part 2.

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: