Month: December 2023

As is my Sunday tradition, I write about someone who is deserving of our praise. Today this is the family of Jeremy Medina.

Jeremy Medina, 17, was at baseball practice in Georgia on Nov. 20. Medina suffered a horrific injury when he allegedly leaned into a batting cage net while a teammate was hitting balls.

Gainesville High School Principal Jamie Green explained, “As a player followed through on his swing, Jeremy leaned into the net and was struck in the head. There is no horseplay, no misconduct, and no intent.”

Medina was rushed to the hospital and has been hospitalized in a coma ever since.

This story struck home with me because of something similar that happened when I was about eight. During the summer my friends and I used to walk over to the Emmett grade school ball field to watch the older kids play softball. The good thing about this was that we could get very close to the field and hence very close to the teenage ball players. The bad thing was that we (I) got very close to the on-deck area where the next hitter was warming up by vigorously swinging a baseball bat. Yes, I was hit in the head. Unconscious temporarily? … I do not recall, but back in those days, nothing much was made of it, except I was a lot more careful about where I was in reference to the on-deck hitter.

“The initial trauma to his head was significant and caused him to lose consciousness. Medina was put on life support at Northeast Georgia Medical Center.

On Wednesday,, 12/6/23,  Medina had “progressed to death by neurological criteria, or brain dead.”

Jeremy’s father, David Medina, announced that they would donate the teenage athlete’s organs and tissue.

“Not only will lives be saved and improved, but the family members, friends, and communities of those who receive his organs and tissues will be forever impacted by the memories made possible thanks to a second chance at life,” the distraught father said. “Although his life ended so young, Jeremy’s legacy will continue through his selfless decision to give the gift of life. We encourage others to consider following Jeremy’s example and register your decision to be an organ and tissue donor.”

Medina said the family has relied on their faith to get through the heartbreaking situation. “We are a family of faith. We walk by faith and not sight,” Medina proclaimed.

Whereas we can all admire the resilience of the Medina family, perhaps a silent moment of prayer is called for.

12/31/23

As is my Sunday tradition, I write about someone who is deserving of our praise. Today this is the family of Jeremy Medina.

Jeremy Medina, 17, was at baseball practice in Georgia on Nov. 20. Medina suffered a horrific injury when he allegedly leaned into a batting cage net while a teammate was hitting balls.

Gainesville High School Principal Jamie Green explained, “As a player followed through on his swing, Jeremy leaned into the net and was struck in the head. There is no horseplay, no misconduct, and no intent.”

Medina was rushed to the hospital and has been hospitalized in a coma ever since.

This story struck home with me because of something similar that happened when I was about eight. During the summer my friends and I used to walk over to the Emmett grade school ball field to watch the older kids play softball. The good thing about this was that we could get very close to the field and hence very close to the teenage ball players. The bad thing was that we (I) got very close to the on-deck area where the next hitter was warming up by vigorously swinging a baseball bat. Yes, I was hit in the head. Unconscious temporarily? … I do not recall, but back in those days, nothing much was made of it, except I was a lot more careful about where I was in reference to the on-deck hitter.

“The initial trauma to his head was significant and caused him to lose consciousness. Medina was put on life support at Northeast Georgia Medical Center.

On Wednesday,, 12/6/23,  Medina had “progressed to death by neurological criteria, or brain dead.”

Jeremy’s father, David Medina, announced that they would donate the teenage athlete’s organs and tissue.

“Not only will lives be saved and improved, but the family members, friends, and communities of those who receive his organs and tissues will be forever impacted by the memories made possible thanks to a second chance at life,” the distraught father said. “Although his life ended so young, Jeremy’s legacy will continue through his selfless decision to give the gift of life. We encourage others to consider following Jeremy’s example and register your decision to be an organ and tissue donor.”

Medina said the family has relied on their faith to get through the heartbreaking situation. “We are a family of faith. We walk by faith and not sight,” Medina proclaimed.

Whereas we can all admire the resilience of the Medina family, perhaps a silent moment of prayer is called for.

12/31/23

In the past consistently I have not been reluctant to make fun of those individuals who appear to be incessant face-mask wearers. However on Christmas Day at church I had a “re-think” of sorts.

Shortly after the service had started, I observed that a middle-aged gentleman entered church with his wife. Whereas he was wearing a mask, his wife wasn’t. They sat in a pew that was well removed from any other church attendees.

In my mind as I was beginning denigrate the mask-wearing gentleman, I was having second thoughts about my rush to judgement. Perhaps because it was Christmas, I began to think more charitably. Could it be that there was a reasonable explanation for his wearing of the mask ?

Actually, I did think of two reasons that could sensibly explain his behavior. 

Could it be that he has some type of serious medical condition and is undergoing chemotherapy? Granted masks are far from the perfect defense against an infection, but if an individual is in a compromised situation, perhaps, even a little bit can help.

In addition, could it be that he was on the tail end of a recent Covid infection? As there seems to be a significant increase in Covid just recently, could it be that he was following the old recommendations of isolating for five days, and then masking and distancing from others for an additional five days?

Certainly either explanation could explain his masking while in church on Christmas Day.

I felt good that I was able to come up with a charitable explanation on Christmas. No, I did not follow him to his car. If he had continued wearing the face-mask while in his car, then all of my charitable thoughts would have been for nought!

12/29/23

“How many politicians are principled?” Granted this is a somewhat rhetorical question, as most politicians have a tendency to go the way the wind blows on various issues. However, if one does come across a truly principled politician, he/she is a keeper.

The recent partisan Colorado Supreme Court decision to keep Donald Trump off of the primary ballot would have been a perfect chance for the Republican candidates to demonstrate their individual principles. Most of the responses of the Republican candidates were not a demonstration of principle, but were rather milquetoast-like. The exception was Vivek Ramaswamy. Admittedly, as I did not watch any of the pseudo-Republican debates, I did not know much about Ramaswamy. 

Much of the following is from Wikipedia:

Vivek Ramaswamy was born in Cincinnati to Indian immigrant parents. He graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor’s degree in biology and later earned a law degree (JD) from Yale Law School. Ramaswamy worked as an investment partner at a hedge fund before founding Roivant Sciences. He also co-founded an investment firm, Strive Asset Management. In August 2023, Forbes estimated Ramaswamy’s net worth at more than $950 million; his wealth comes from biotech and financialbusinesses.

So basically, he is very well educated and very rich. But is he principled?

Almost immediately Ramaswamy  pledged to withdraw from the Colorado GOP primary ballot after the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the ballot.

Wow! No hesitation! No waiting to see what the polls were showing!

This guy is a keeper! POTUS ? … probably not. However, my guess is that he will find a spot in the next Trump administration, as he is a keeper!

12;28/23

For months prior to the start of the Russia-Ukraine War, I wrote more than a few op-eds chastising Joe Biden for essentially sitting on his hands. For months Putin was amassing troops in Russia along the border of Ukraine and Russia. While our illustrious commander-in-chief did nothing, the massive Russian troop build-up continued to increase, and in February, 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine. At that time what did Joe Biden think? Certainly Putin was not lining up 100,000 troops just for fun! However, Joe Biden appeared to be paralyzed … paralyzed with indecision.

At that time I was criticized by some for being too rough on “poor Joe Biden.” To those who were on my case for coming down on “poor Joe Biden,” I ask, “How did Biden’s fickle indecisiveness work out?”

Unfortunately, we were now in another one of Joe Biden’s indecisive periods with the what to do about the Houthi’s attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. Shortly after becoming President JB removed the Houthi’s from the list of terror organizations after former President Donald Trump’s administration had designated the Houthis as a terror organization. Certainly at this point with the Houthi’s terrorizing shipping lanes in the vital Red Sea by launching more than 100 drone and missile attacks against civilian transport ships, the Houthi’s are in clear violation of international law, and are clearly a terrorist group. 

 Biden’s response -> nothing! … indecision! inertia!

Hopefully Biden will not continue to fiddle while the Red Sea burns! It’s only a matter of time until an American gets killed as a consequence of a Houthi drone or missile!

12/27/23

californiacontrarian

Part and parcel with EVs is that they need to be charged.

From Real Clear Investigations:

“California is at the vanguard of the nation’s EV transition, with more than 1 million electric vehicles among the state’s 31-million-plus registered vehicles, and EVs accounting for about 25% of new car sales in the second quarter.”

This sounds pretty good for the future of EVs, however there are a few practical problems as EVs need to be charged.

In California, which is slated to ban sales of new gasoline-powered cars in just 12 years, government estimates indicate the state may need to install at least 20 electric chargers for every gas pump now in service to create a reliable, seamless network. California now has about 11,000 gas stations, convenience stores, and other businesses that sell gasoline, which roughly converts to about 110,000 individual gas nozzles, according to an estimate by Jeff Lenard, vice president of Strategic Industry Initiatives at the National Association of Convenience Stores. That means the transition from fossil fuels to electrons will require California to install at least 20 EV charging ports for every gas nozzle by 2035.

According to my calculations … 20 x 110,000 = 2,420,000 charging stations! … another practical problem.

Despite California’s massive infrastructure investment, now totaling nearly 94,000 public chargers, the state has fallen behind its goal of 250,000 public chargers by 2025 – and potentially 10 times that number by 2035, when the ban on new gasoline-powered cars takes effect. 

California has plenty of sunshine, and consequently there are many, many solar rooftop panels. However practically speaking these solar panels are for the most part restricted to the homes of the more affluent. And this leads to another practical problem. Namely, a “net zero” society inherently favors the haves over the have-nots. Renters and low-income families aren’t as likely to own private chargers, and electricity purchased from public chargers can cost five to 10 times as much as charging privately in a garage at home. To avoid penalizing the little guy, federal EV mandates require that 40% of benefits pay for public chargers in disadvantaged areas, while California requires that at least half go to such “equity” communities, where relatively few people currently drive EVs.

If the power for the EVs is not coming from solar rooftop panels, it most come from public charging stations. According to a California Energy Commission assessment, California will need more than 2.4 million public chargers to accommodate about 15.5 million electric cars, trucks, and buses by 2035. That breaks down to 2.11 million chargers (including 83,000 fast chargers) to support 15.2 million electric cars, as well as 256,000 depot chargers and 8,500 public chargers for 377,000 trucks and buses.

The sheer scale of a charging infrastructure means recruiting retailers and businesses to install and maintain chargers that are expected to lose money in the near future, with some likely to be written off as economic losses.

Massive public subsidies will be a crucial part of this effort because private industry is not willing to take the financial risks of betting on an uncertain future. Government subsidies mean complying with recordkeeping and reporting mandates and making sure chargers are online 97% of the time, while bearing the financial risk of vandalism, mechanical malfunctions, daily fluctuations in electricity pricing, and cashflow unpredictability.

Another issue with charging stations is, “how often do they not work?” Perhaps, another practical problem.

A University of California, Berkeley, study last year found similar results: only 72.5% of chargers in the Bay Area were functional. A newspaper columnist in California described the charging experience as miserable. “The misery was meted out in several ways,” he documented. “Charging stations were hard to find. Maps that locate stations were not reliable. Paying for a charge with a credit card often proved troublesome, sometimes impossible. Worst of all, way too many chargers were broken or otherwise out of order.”

12/26/23

On Sundays I identify individuals who we can all complement and praise.

On Dec. 3, at about 3:34 p.m., deputies and St. Francis Police officers arrived on the scene, located along Garnet St., north of Minneapolis, and found the men and pet stranded, having fallen through the ice.

A passerby who saw them struggling had managed to push a canoe out to keep them afloat while they awaited help. They had been immersed for an extended period and were hypothermic, as temperatures hovered just over freezing. The overly-thin ice and warmer temperatures were likely contributing factors in the incident.

From Epoch Bright:

After officers arrived, while they awaited marine rescuers, Deputy Chris Fjeld recognized the serious danger the men were in and took decisive action, placing his own life at risk. Cooperating with officers ashore, he secured himself to a rope held by his colleagues on the dock and crawled out onto the thin ice to fetch the men and dog.

“Where are you going?” one officer is heard saying. “Chris, I don’t like it.”“Either do I, but these guys are hypothermic,” Deputy Fjeld said.

The selfless deputy was able to reach the stranded party and help them crawl across the ice back to shore one by one. First responders then helped them onto dry ground.

“Deputy Fjeld made the decision to begin the rescue before the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office’s Marine Unit equipment and resources arrived,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “We are thankful all involved are ok and are proud of Deputy Fjeld’s selfless actions to help others in need.”

Deputy Fjeld recognized the gravity of the situation, and acted. He did not hesitate. He did not wait. He knew what needed to be done, and he did it without concern for his own safety. Truly a Minnesota hero!

12/24/23

As many of you are aware there is no doubt in my mind that that the 2020 election was fraudulent.

From BlazeMedia:

One in five voters who cast mail-in ballots during the 2020 presidential election admit to participating in at least one kind of voter fraud, according to a new poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports and the Heartland Institute.

The national poll of 1,085 likely voters was conducted between November 30 and December 6, with a margin of error of +/-3 percentage points and a 95% level of confidence.

Specifically, 21% of mail-in voters admitted they filled out a ballot for a friend or family member; 19% of mail-in voters admitted that a friend or family member filled out a ballot on their behalf; 17% of mail-in voters admitted they voted in a state where they were no longer a permanent resident; and 17% of mail-in voters said they signed a ballot for a friend or family member with or without his or her permission.

Each of these instances constitutes voter fraud.

Taking only the first instance, this means that 21% of all mail-in ballots were fraudulent in 2020. It is important to note this number was likely much higher because the survey questions were not mutually exclusive. Though there is certainly some crossover between categories, some voters committed fraud by filling out a ballot for a friend or family member, while an entirely different subset of voters committed fraud by casting mail-in ballots in a state in which they were no longer permanent residents.

Using a conservative estimate, it appears likely that more than 14 million ballots cast in 2020 were fraudulent.

“There are many reasons why mail-in voting is less reliable than in-person voting.

State voter rolls are notoriously inaccurate. In 2012, the Pew Center on the States analyzed state voter registration rolls and found that “approximately 24 million — one of every eight — voter registrations in the United States are no longer valid or are significantly inaccurate. More than 1.8 million deceased individuals are listed as voters. Approximately 2.75 million people have registrations in more than one state.”

The survey indicates that the percentages of voter fraud among Republicans, Democrats, and unaligned voters were largely similar. It is vital to note, however, that this does not mean these fraudulent ballots simply canceled each other out.

According to the survey, 38% of Biden voters submitted mail-in ballots, compared to only 23% of Trump voters. As such, Biden received a much larger overall share of likely fraudulent ballots.”

Despite all of these concerns, only 0.80% of all absentee and mail-in ballots were rejected in 2020, according to Ballotpedia. Clearly, nearly all fraudulent ballots made it through our country’s gaping sieve of an electoral system.”

In view of these multiple “irregularities,” I am even more convinced that the 2020 election was FRAUDULENT!

12/23/23

Just as  marijuana has an increasing number of slang terms there is an increasing number of adverse consequences that are now being attributed to its use.

I have recently pointed out a California study indicating that since it’s legalization, there has been increased ER use for those over 65 attributed to marijuana. Similarly a recent Canadian study documented increased psychosis due to cannabis use. 

And today I read about a recent study originally published in Psychiatry Advisor that demonstrated increased cardiovascular disease in cannabis users. More specifically,  individuals with cannabis use disorder (CUD) have an approximately 60% higher risk of experiencing incident adverse cardiovascular disease (CVD) events relative to those without CUD. The investigators examined longitudinal data, collected between January 2012 and December 2019, from multiple databases maintained by the Alberta Ministry of Health. Patients with CUD were identified using International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes and control patients were matched on age, gender, and time of health service utilization. The primary outcome of the study was an incident CVD event over the course of the study period. The investigators included acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina, other ischemic heart disease, ischemic stroke, heart failure, cardiac dysrhythmias, or peripheral vascular disease as eligible CVD event outcomes. Patients with a previous history of CVD events were excluded.

A total of 29,764 patient pairs (n=59,528 individuals) were included in the analysis, with a 0.8% prevalence of CUD overall for Alberta. The proportion of participants experiencing at least one incident adverse CVD event was 2.4% in the CUD group vs 1.5% in the control group (risk ratio [RR], 1.57).

These findings revealed that adults with CUD had a 60% higher risk of experiencing incident adverse CVD events relative to matched individuals without CUD. Study authors concluded, “Importantly, this evidence suggests that cannabis use may place a healthier population at increased risk of major cardiovascular events.”

I found this study interesting in that CUD appears to be not only a new but also an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Perhaps being a pothead is a prelude to being a deadhead, literally!

12/22/23

Many times in the past I have pointed out that Democrats insist on doing things that do the most damage to those of us who are least able to cope.

Now Biden’s inflation it’s is doing it again in spades

From CNN Business – “US homelessness hits highest level as rents have soared”

As housing in the US has become increasingly unaffordable over the past few years, the number of people experiencing homelessness surged to its highest level on record this year, according to an annual survey taken in January.

The number of unhoused people in the United States jumped by 12% early this year from the year before, an increase of about 70,650 people, according to an annual report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development released on Friday, 12/15/23.”

Now who do you think are most effected by high rents and thus the consequent expected higher rates of homelessness?

Still from CNN Business:

“Homelessness increased nationwide across all household types, the report found, but had an outsized impact on communities of color. While Black people make up about 13% of the US population, they comprise 37% of people experiencing homelessness and 50% of the people who are experiencing homelessness as a member of a family with children.

“The biggest numerical growth in people experiencing homelessness was among Latinos. There were 28% more Latinos who were unhoused in 2023 than the year prior. This population made up 55% of the total increase in US homelessness, with 39,106 additional Latinos without housing this year.

The survey also found a sharp jump in the number of people who became homeless for the first time.”

I do not profess to be an economics expert, but one does not need to be an expert to realize the obvious. The war being waged by Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats on fossil fuel, combined with their massive increase in Federal spending has caused massive inflation. With inflation the cost of everything has gone up significantly and this includes rents. Those in the lower socioeconomic groups are those most apt to be renters. Ergo, it is no mystery that many in this group cannot afford their increasing rents, and, voila! … they are now homeless.

This is not an example of “unforeseen consequences,” as any nincompoop could have predicted that this is a totally expected outcome!

Strong work, Dems!