I PAID WAY TO MUCH ATTENTION TO STUFF LAST WEEK But I've decided to pretend I disconnected instead. And I've got some fun stuff today and some political stuff too.
THIS IS HOW YOU TAKE ADVANTAGE OF AN OPPORTUNITY! My friend Therese Rocca loves to travel. As in she goes ALL. THE. TIME. She wanted to take a trip recently and ended up going to Turkey with a total stranger and now they are in business together helping other people do what they did. And oh yeah, she ended up on CNN because of it. Follow them and get travel updates by signing up for their website here or follow them on social media of your choice by clicking here.
DENVER HAS AN OUTDOOR MASK MANDATE AND I'M OUT And I said so on Twitter last week and Blake Street Tavern owner Chris Fuselier asked me to make an exception for his place. I asked him to come on today to talk about how things are going and why I shouldn't take out my ire on downtown business owners. He's on at 1:35 to discuss.
CASPER STOCKHAM IS ON TODAY AT 2:05 He's running for the Congressional District 7 seat and he's going to tell you why he wants your vote. Find out more by clicking here.
SPEAKING OF THE OUTDOOR MASK MANDATE, IS THERE ANY SCIENCE BEHIND THIS? And I'm very serious here. Mayor Michael Hancock has now issued an OUTDOOR mask mandate. The science on mask wearing is still not as complete as people would like to believe, but there is a study going on in Denmark that will hopefully give us some clarity soon. From this article from Nature:
Denmark was one of the last nations to mandate face masks — requiring their use on public transport from 22 August. It has maintained generally good control of the virus through early stay-at-home orders, testing and contact tracing. It is also at the forefront of COVID-19 face-mask research, in the form of two large, randomly controlled trials. A research group in Denmark enrolled some 6,000 participants, asking half to use surgical face masks when going to a workplace. Although the study is completed, Thomas Benfield, a clinical researcher at the University of Copenhagen and one of the principal investigators on the trial, says that his team is not ready to share any results.
I can assure you when they publish you will read it here first. I do find it odd that they didn't even want to give a HINT as to what early results might look like. Surely they have SOME idea of what the results might be?
ONE MORE MASK COLUMN FOR YOU And this chemical biologist says not only are masks stupid, they are counter productive and giving people a false sense of security.
OH, AND THIS COLUMN SAYS LOCKDOWNS HAVE MADE EVERYTHING WORSE Because they have. But don't let that stop our fearless leaders from threatening us with this again.
ARAPAHOE AND ADAMS COUNTY, YOU'RE NEXT With the Tri County Health Department issuing new restrictions on people in those counties. DougCo remains free for the moment, but I'd love to ask what we are doing here. The numbers are not remotely where they were in the spring, and yet, we're acting like they are. Outcomes are far better now than in the spring, and yet we're acting like they are not. What are we doing here? Let me break down some numbers using the state's dashboard here. Right now, just under 87% of new cases are in people under the age of 60. That same group makes up just 11% of deaths in Colorado, most of those occurring early on in the pandemic. Currently 76% of deaths have occurred in people over 70 here in Colorado. And yet, they are shutting down bars and telling college students they can't gather in groups of four even though there is a statistically insignificant chance they will even have a serious issue with covid. This doesn't make sense, people. It just doesn't. But maybe this next story explains why.
WHY ARE DEMOCRATS SO SCARED OF COVID? Especially Democrat women? This survey came out last week from Gallup and it's STUNNING when you break it down by political affiliation and gender. Democratic women are especially afraid of getting covid, especially compared to Republicans. We shall discuss.
LISTENER HOLT NAILS ELECTION SEASON And he sent me this, which I think is highly accurate:
"Politics is not about smarts, intelligence, being right, or even factual. And it certainly is not about the issues, although we like to think we make it about them.... Politics is about DESIRE. We gravitate towards whichever of the parties we feel/think will work towards the fulfillment of some imagined desired final outcome.........The party that appeals the most to our imagined desires with their advertising, marketing, even news making or news suppressing. All those efforts are just for us, special "snowflakes" because they really, really, really care about..........our vote. But nothing else about us has value to them. We are just crops to be harvested and processed in the cycle of voter farming........Why else do you think they call it the ELECTION SEASON?"
Yup.
THESE AVALANCHE CHARGES ARE GOING TO BE COUNTER PRODUCTIVE Two men who were back county skiing set off an avalanche. Okay. They then called the police and provided their helmet cam video to authorities. Okay. Now they are being charged with causing an avalanche and ruining an expensive piece of snow mitigation equipment and being asked to pay $168,000. This may seem like a good idea to charge them, but it will absolutely change the behavior of other backcountry skiers and not in the way the charges are hoping. They just won't admit it, or call 911 or turn over helmet cam footage that can help understand avalanche behavior. THAT is not good. There has to be a balance here.
COMEDY GOT SUBVERSIVE AGAIN WHEN BILL BURR HOSTED SNL And he is being LIT UP by sensitive upset people who were very uncomfortable with his in your face monologue. The best part is the slightly uncomfortable laughing during it.
RESTAURANT OWNERS IN DOUGCO ARE BEING HIT WITH ADA LAWSUITS And it's about whether or not their websites are accessible for blind people who want to use them. I have no issue with blind people making it known to business owners that they need to bring their websites up to snuff, but when the FIRST action is to file a lawsuit, I am immediately suspicious. Why? Because the ADA has to be the most abused law of the land in history. There are people with disabilities who roll through communities filing lawsuits over petty, easily correctible issue for the money. I know several businesses who have gone through it, and it's just a money grab. I know of several people who have been banned from filing these lawsuits because they were deemed a nuisance. If you have an issue, notify the business owner and LET THEM FIX IT. If they don't, THEN file suit. It's not that hard.
THE DENVER POST WANTS YOU TO BELIEVE THAT COVID IS RACIST TOO At least that's what I gleaned from this article about poor outcomes for Hispanic/Latino, Black, Native American and Pacific Islanders. They have been hit hard by covid, but the Post glosses over the fact that all of these populations have higher rates of obesity and lifestyle related illnesses than white people do in Colorado. We know covid is VERY hard on obese people with underlying conditions, and unfortunately, that is a bigger problem in minority communities than in white communities. But that doesn't mean medicine is racist, or covid is racist. It means we need to do a better job helping people understand that obesity is not a vanity issue, it's a serious medical situation that causes many, many other problems. Read the whole story here.
NOW, DOLLY PARTON ANSWERS THE QUESTIONS THE INTERNET ASKS And I just love Dolly so here you go.
I'VE ALREADY GOT MY SOUTHERN CARD And now you know the process.
LAW ENFORCEMENT EXPLAINS WHY BIDEN'S SHOOT THEM IN THE LEG STRATEGY IS JUST DUMB And I shouldn't need them to explain why it's a bad idea to suggest that a sound law enforcement strategy is shooting criminals in the leg instead of the body. But here we are.
WILL HUNTER BIDEN'S LAPTOP EMAILS EVER BE TREATED THE SAME AS THE STEELE DOSSIER? If a laptop belonging to Donald Trump Jr was found to have emails that indicated President Trump used his office to enrich himself, what would the media do? What would the FBI do? I think we all know. But the media has been rushing to give cover to Joe Biden when HIS son's laptop shows the very same thing. And now we know this ISN'T part of a Russian disinformation campaign or a dirty trick by the Trump campaign (like the Steele Dossier was paid for by Hillary) so where are the front page headlines? Here is a great column in National Review that lays out exactly how Biden used his office to benefit his son's and HIS own bottom line.
GET SOME DEEP SOUTH IN YOUR MOUTH FROM POPEYE'S THIS THANKSGIVING If the thought of having deep fried turkey is appealing, but the thought of actually deep frying it yourself isn't, Popeye's can help.