THE WINE YOGI IS BACK WITH COOL GIFT IDEAS AND SOME BUBBLY Kristal Alfonso, both trained sommelier and yoga instructor hence the name, is BACK and we're talking wine glasses (do they matter), gift ideas (they do matter) and holiday wines for your table. Read her excellent blog here!
ONE TEEN IS BEGGING FOR NORMALCY IN COLORADO And Kaden Piel wrote a GREAT column asking for kids to be allowed to return to normal because lockdowns are destroying mental health and causing suicides. Read it here. I've invited Kaden on the show at 1 to discuss it and what's happened since he wrote it.
GRANT NEEDS NEIGHBORHOOD CHRISTMAS LIGHTS! And we're hoping you can help us out with that. Where should he go?
WE ALL NEED TO WATCH SEATTLE Because what's happening right now on the Denver City Council is looking eerily similar to the nonsense happening in the Pacific Northwest. I say that because Portland is also a bellwether we need to pay attention to. Seattle's City Council, which has legalized homelessness to a point that homeless people have taken over large parts of the city, is now considering allowing criminals to simply claim they needed something to survive as a defense. This is INSANE and will lead to even bigger issues with homelessness and anarchy. They would essentially decriminalize misdemeanors. This means a drug addict living on the streets in Seattle could walk into Whole Foods, help himself to the food bar and leave EVERY SINGLE DAY and NOTHING would be done about it. And don't act like that couldn't happen, it already has. This could lead to the same situation that Portland finds itself in now, where insurance companies are simply refusing to insure new businesses in downtown Portland because lawlessness rules. There are LOTS of unintended consequences and I see very similar attitudes developing on our activist City Council.
UC-DENVER IS A FREE SPEECH EMBARRASSMENT With an email policy that is vague, overly broad and nonsensical. The College Fix calls them out for a policy that says:
Here’s the first section under “Restrictions”:
Do NOT use email:
a. To create, send, forward or store emails with messages or attachments that might be illegal or considered offensive by an ordinary member of the public. (e.g., sexually explicit, racist, defamatory, abusive, obscene, derogatory, discriminatory, threatening, harassing or otherwise offensive).
Here’s another stunningly overbroad prohibition:
e. To send any disruptive, offensive, unethical, illegal or otherwise inappropriate matter, including offensive comments about race, gender, color, disability, age, sexual orientation, pornography, terrorism, religious beliefs and practice, political beliefs or national origin, hyperlinks or other references to indecent or patently offensive websites and similar materials, jokes, chain letters and hoaxes, charity requests, viruses or malicious software.
f. For any other illegal, unethical, or unauthorized purpose.
The email policy even orders students not to “store” supposedly offensive messages, meaning “they’re even on the hook for failing to immediately delete someone else’s offensive email,” Laura Beltz, senior program officer for policy reform at FIRE, notes in a blog post.
The problem is, we no longer have "ordinary members of the public" who share the same sense of what is offensive and what is not. Plus, this is a GOVERNMENT SCHOOL and they are not allowed to censor speech they find offensive. Period. Way to go, UC-Denver. Way to go.
I'M GLAD IT'S NOT JUST ME WHO THINKS THE GOVERNOR'S PHOTO OP WITH THE VACCINE WAS RIDICULOUS Even Jimmy Fallon thought it was super stupid.
DID YOU SEE TAY ANDERSON'S LATEST BIT OF OBSCENE SELF PROMOTION? No word on if he's going school to school teaching little children the F word while promoting all his media clips or if they have to go to Tik Tok to get it. Just so you know, this is NOT SAFE FOR WORK. BAD LANGUAGE ALERT. This is what passes for classy in Tay's world.
ANOTHER GEORGE SOROS DA IS PUTTING CRIMINALS FIRST And I'm not exaggerating. How does the elimination of cash bail and the refusal to add enhance charges that can keep someone behind bars longer make our streets safer? Trick question, they don't, but those are two of the big agenda items for the new Los Angeles District Attorney. Read this and then understand why it's necessary to keep these Soros funded progressives out of the District Attorneys office.
YES LOCKDOWNS ARE A VIOLATION OF OUR RIGHTS And this is a book review about just how badly our governments are running all over us and we are letting them. Read it, but it will make you angry, just so you know.
WE NEED TO INCENTIZE MARRIAGE AND FAMILY AND THIS SIMPLY WELFARE REFORM MEASURE CAN DO JUST THAT Regardless of what the BLM types say about nuclear families, the research is considerable that intact families raise children who are less likely to get into drugs and crime, more likely to graduate from high school and less likely to live in poverty. We need to incentivize this. Welfare DISINCENTIVES intact families because income limits are not adjusted for dual incomes. This disproportionately penalizes the people who need it most and I and many others believe has lead to the destruction of the family, especially in poor communities. This is a GREAT idea that would allow parents to get the help they need without displacing the very important fathers.
HOW ABOUT THE TOP SCIENCE RETRACTIONS OF 2020? Unsurprisingly a LOT of these have to do with covid. Check out #9 though:
9 After a preprint they relied on for epidemiological data from China was withdrawn, researchers at Imperial College London corrected a paper that, in the words of The Washington Post, “helped upend U.S. and U.K. coronavirus strategies.” The study projected that COVID-19 would kill half a million people in the UK, and more than 2 million in the US, if restrictions were not put into place, which prompted the UK government to implement social distancing and isolation measures. The authors told us they were confident that data available later had affirmed their overall findings.
The study in question was the modeling that said 2.2 million Americans were going to die of covid. Not just wrong, SPECTACULARLY wrong and it was used to justify all the rights violations that Americans have taken since. And NO ONE will be held accountable. Experts indeed.
NOW SOME RETRO CHRISTMAS MUSIC FOR YA We're starting off with a little Tony Bennet singing Silver Bells.
And a little Frank Sinatra with Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas because these two guys style a song like nobody else.
And one more super retro with Frank and Bing Crosby singing Bing's classic White Christmas
THIS LITTLE GIRL IS AN OLD SOUL And a hilarious one at that.
GRAND COUNTY SAYS COLORADO IS JUICING THE COVID DEATH NUMBERS And if this is true, it only represents TWO deaths, but this is ONE county. I'm sure in Denver county it would be easy to slip this kind of stuff under the radar. I sure hope other coroners double check the state's numbers.
TOM CRUISE IS A COVID RESTRICTION NAZI ON SET And though I understand where he is coming from and appreciate his effort to make sure they can keep filming so they don't put people out of work again, he was a total AHOLE about it. Read it here.
NEW YORK LAWMAKERS HAVEN'T HEARD WHAT'S HAPPENING IN CALIFORNIA RIGHT NOW Or what has been happening in their own state as the wealthy relocate to avoid the ridiculously high taxes levied on them Now they are talking about raising taxes AGAIN on the super rich. My guess is the super rich will simply relocate again.