Years back, people working for marijuana legalization tended to say their goal was simple — “legalize marijuana.” Then, after the momentum for legalization had built across America and it appeared that achieving legalization countrywide was just a matter of time, some people pulling the strings behind marijuana legalization efforts decided to tweak the message. Increasingly, the stated goal shifted from “legalize marijuana” to “tax and regulate marijuana.”
Continue readingThere seem to be few normal doctors around anymore. Try to have an appointment with many doctors over the last few months and they will demand that you put a mask over your nose and mouth — supposedly to block coronavirus transmission. You’d think, given they are doctors, they would know that there are health risks from you doing so and that it is not established that you doing so provides any net protection against coronavirus. Yet, they demand away. This is abnormal behavior.
Then, check out the big money news organizations and pretty soon you are likely to read or hear from one of the go-to doctors hectoring people to wear masks and “social distance” to protect against coronavirus. As with masks, the benefit of “social distancing” is not established. Further, for most people coronavirus poses little risk of death or even serious sickness. Many people, including some people who believe they have high risks related to coronavirus, would rationally choose to risk having coronavirus by proceeding with their lives unimpeded by mask wearing, “social distancing,” limiting activities to only those that are “essential,” closing their businesses, losing their jobs, and whatever other burdens abnormal doctors advise.
Continue readingThe Green Book was published from the 1930s through the 1960s. It proved to be a valuable aid for many people. The Green Book provided in its pages information about businesses — restaurants, hotels, gas stations, night clubs, and more — that welcomed black individuals. This was during a time when many businesses turned away black people or treated them much less favorably than they treated white people.
Continue readingThis week, Health Minister Christine Elliott of Ontario, Canada announced that the province is planning to implement what can be best described as a caste system that categorizes people, and determines their legally allowed activities, based on whether or not they have been vaccinated for coronavirus.
Continue readingOn Monday, Georgia Governor Brian P. Kemp and Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan issued a joint statement in which they rejected a request from some state senators for the calling of a special session of the state legislature for the purpose of the choosing presidential electors.
Continue readingIn June, as universities across America started announcing their planned coronavirus policies for the fall semester, I wrote that “oppressive rules put in place in the name of countering coronavirus at university campuses may tip the scale against spending tens of thousands of dollars or even over a hundred thousand dollars, or going into debt for that amount, for four years or more at college.”
Continue readingPoliticians across the world are pointing to the numbers of positive test results for coronavirus that they are terming as coronavirus “cases” to justify imposing extreme restrains on liberty, including ordering business operations and people’s movements curtailed and mandating mask wearing. But, experience with coronavirus testing in the National Football League (NFL) suggests that those case numbers used to justify coronavirus crackdowns are highly inflated.
Continue readingAcross the world, politicians are continuing and even expanding coronavirus crackdown measures including the shuttering of businesses, limiting of people’s movement, and requiring of mask wearing.
It is refreshing to see some national political leaders who have followed another course, rejecting using coronavirus as a reason for imposing a multitude of harsh restrictions on people. Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador went a step further on Wednesday, calling out other national leaders for “acting like dictators” in imposing coronavirus policies that suppress liberty.
Continue readingI don’t watch TV much, but when I do, I want my MTV.
Decades back that was often the case too. Then, the letters of the channel MTV stood for music television. In those days long past the channel played music videos most of each day. Now, I want my MTV again, this time with the letters standing for maskless television.
Continue readingIn October, I wrote about marquee musicians Van Morrison and Eric Clapton speaking out against coronavirus crackdown measures that greatly restrict live music performances, as well as Morrison’s preforming in concerts and recording protest songs to challenge the crackdowns, with profits from the protest songs being used to help musicians who have financially suffered due to the crackdowns.
Now Clapton and Morrison have moved beyond joint condemnation of some of draconian measures taken in the name of countering coronavirus. They have joined in a musical collaboration to record a song that challenges these measures. Sales of the song will raise money for Morrison’s charity helping financially harmed musicians.