CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE....HAPPINESS AND CHEER... It's time to talk presents! I love hearing stories of getting...or giving the perfect gift. We're talking great gifts today! And I thought of this yesterday after the show on how Christmas can make someone blue. Charlie Brown is your spirit animal perhaps.
THIS IS HOW I WANT TO BE REMEMBERED I LOVE a good obituary and I hope I love a long life and have time to have a hand in mine before I go, but I don't think I'll be able to top this one. Written by her son, Renay Mandel Corren sounds like quite the dame in her obit.
THIS ARTICLE GIVES A GOOD LOOK INTO THE GUN CONTROL MENTALITY The article is about the FASTER program that teaches school employees and teachers how to safely carry and use a firearm in schools. The purpose is to provide an affirmative defense to deter a potential school shooter while also providing protection should someone decide to shoot up the school anyway. In this article the reporter interviews Abbey Winters, an Aurora teachers who does not believe teachers should be armed. Read this:
As a teacher, every day I show up and I bring evidence and research-based strategies and tactics to my teaching, to my instructional strategies. There is little evidence that arming teachers is effective in keeping our kids safe," said Winter.
Winter is also a member of Moms Demand Action, a group fighting for public safety measures to prevent gun violence.
“Federal, state and local school boards can promote secure storage practices. Keeping those firearms inaccessible in the homes is absolutely one of the most effective ways we can prevent school violence. Here in Colorado, last year, our state legislators passed a secure storage bill and that's been in effect since July of this year. So, keeping those firearms from children at home is one of the very first steps," said Winter. "Another step is a strong threat assessment program that empowers schools and school personnel to intervene with students who may be showing signs of harming themselves or others.”
Winter said teachers spend their days developing relationships with their students, and she could never look at any child and make a decision about life or death. She also said introducing guns into a school setting increases the risk of them falling into the wrong hands.
She must not know that Adam Lanza murdered his mother and stole her weapons to commit his atrocity at Sandy Hook, where he faced no resistance for nine minutes of terror inflicted on elementary students. But I'm sure it will work here. I'm glad she's self aware enough to know that she could not make a life or death decision and shoot a child. That's why FASTER is not required but something one volunteers to do. Other people may view that situation as an opportunity to save more lives. Let them handle it. So why is it that Ms. Winters wants to take away the ability of someone else to protect kids? For more great ideas read what else Mrs. Winters thinks:
"School should be safe. And instead of asking teachers and students to stand up to gunmen, we want school boards, state, and federal lawmakers to make sure they're standing up to the gun lobby. We want them to put in the legislation policies, practices, and strategies that we know will keep our kids safe and save lives."
Except none of the things she suggests will save lives if someone slips through her carefully constructed utopia that doesn't exist.
SEX OFFENDERS ARE STILL SEX OFFENDERS IN COLORADO The absurd name change that the board in charge of monitoring sex offenders has been reversed. The Board voted in November to scrap the term “sex offenders” in its own guiding principles in favor of “adults who commit sexual offenses.” The outcry was huge, including by me, and the Sex Offender Management Board has now reversed its decision after pressure from the Governor as well.
MAKING KYLE RITTENHOUSE INTO A RIGHT WING STAR HONESTLY SICKENS ME I want to stipulate that I think Kyle Rittenhouse killed two people in self defense and the justice system worked as it should in this case. But can we stop treating this guy like a HERO because he got off? He made the bad decision to take a firearm into a mob and that decision got two people killed, even if the killings themselves were legally justifiable. I even support him in his suits against the news media who painted him as a white supremacist before the case, but to get a standing ovation at Turning Point USA's conference and treating him like a rock star makes me ill. He needs to remove himself from the public eye because this kind of worship is fickle and damaging to someone so young imo. He doesn't need to be running around doing victory laps and the people enabling this need to understand they are glorifying the violence they spent the last two years condemning. Just saying.
THE JEFFCO HEALTH BOARD IS JUST MAKING CRAP UP And I have to give a huge shoutout to Twitter user @Arvada_Mama who has been creating videos from the JeffCo Board of Health Zoom meetings about things like masking. Check out this exhange when someone asks about the SCIENCE to show masking in JeffCo is working:
GOOD OMICRON NEWS: HOSPITALIZATIONS UNCOUPLING FROM CASES What does that mean? It means that in places that have already seen Omicron burn through there populations there is NOT a corresponding increase in hospitalizations or deaths. To be clear, if you are obese, have underlying health conditions, are over 70, or remain unvaccinated you are the most likely to get sick and end up in the hospital, even with omicron, but the chances of that happening appear to be 60% lower with this variant. We do have our first omicron death in the US, and he fits my description of those at risk. This Twitter thread has some great studies and date linked and this Twitter user has been VERY accurate with her data and conclusions thus far.
BUT THE COVID FEAR PORN ISN'T OVER This Heather MacDonald column is SO SPOT ON when it comes to the way the media is covering the omicron variant. It's ridiculous how they are ignoring the good news I shared above to try and terrify everyone about the variant that could mean the end of this pandemic. Read it here.
BETTE MIDLER SAYS WHAT SHE REALLY THINKS ABOUT WEST VIRGINIANS And it's exactly what you might expect. She's been forced to apologize after tweeting that West Virginians are "Poor, illiterate and strung out." Trust me, that's exactly how she feels about flyover country and all of its inhabitants.
MASK MANDATES ARE CULTURAL EXILE FOR DEAF PEOPLE And I must say, this never occurred to me as being an issue but WOW. This was written by a deaf man who has been struggling mightily during the pandemic because watching people's mouths is just one of the ways he compensates for his lifelong hearing loss. It's really sad.
PRESIDENT BIDEN TO ANNOUNCE MORE THINGS THAT WON'T STOP COVID I read this article trying to find out why he's giving a speech to announce he's doing pretty much the same stuff we've been doing, although the 1,000 military medical personnel is new. I know he has to try to show he's doing something, but if you listen to the show, say it with me: the virus is gonna do what the virus is gonna do.
PRESIDENT BIDEN TRADES IN BITEY DOG FOR SMALLER NON-BITEY DOG Major, the President's problem child German Shepherd, is out. Major has reportedly bitten numerous people so he is being rehomed. The Bidens can't be without some animal for photos though and the President's brother has already gifted him a new pup.
I'M GOING TO ADOPT THE SUMO GREETING AS MY NEW STANDARD
NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES But one guy heard a woman yelling about a purse snatcher and snatched it back. He also got some licks in, which had to feel good. I'd get some licks in if it were me. Watch it here.
YOU JUST NEED THIS OTTER VIDEO TODAY