(Image: Larry Reed)
ARE WE ACCELERATING OUR DECLINE WITH SPENDING? HISTORY SAYS YES And I've got the smartest guy I've ever met when it comes to economic history on the show today in Larry Reed from the Foundation for Economics Education. This is the article that made me reach out this time about how prices are getting ready to rise as we inflate our currency to pay down debt. He's also written a new book you should read (and I should read) that fully debunks the notion that Jesus was a Socialist. Buy it here.
FIND FEE.ORG IS YOU WANT GREAT ECONOMIC EDUCATION And they have revamped their website with lots of videos, and they offer classes that can help anyone understand why free markets are the best markets. Find it here.
THE MINISTRY OF TRUTH IS DEAD. FOR NOW. As the bill pushed by Senator Kerry Donovan that was a full trample on the First Amendment has been kicked out of committee with a commitment of a "study of how state lawmakers might address online consumer issues including privacy, the spread of disinformation and the promotion of violence." Senator Donovan seemed surprised that people would take issue with her putting government in charge of what people have access to when it comes to information. Imagine that.
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO LEARN ABOUT THE VICTIMS And this article does a nice job of giving just a few things about each of the kind souls lost to evil on Monday in Boulder.
A HORRIBLE PERSON WITH AN AGENDA IS HARASSING JACK PHILLIPS ABOUT CAKES AGAIN The Masterpiece Cake story has turned into a never ending saga that needs to be ended. After winning at the Supreme Court over his refusal to bake a same-sex wedding cake (although on narrow grounds because the Colorado Civil Rights Commission displayed it's anti-religion bias), he is now being hauled BACK into court by a transgender LGBT activist who sought out his cake baking services with the express intent to sue him if he declined to bake a cake celebrating her gender transition. How is this not blatant harassment using the court? And she is an attorney, by the way.
A SHORT ESSAY ON MASS SHOOTINGS, COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND DOING SOMETHING One of my favorite emailers sent me this yesterday and he told me I I could share it. It's a short note by Joe:
Cognitive dissonance and gun control
Why is the immediate response to many tragic shooting incidents an immediate cry (and proposals) for "More Gun Controls" even when the data shows that none of what is being called for/proposed would have prevented the tragedy? The answer lies in what psychologists call "Cognitive dissonance"
Evolution and nature have trained us to make a safe environment for ourselves and our families. That is why we lock our doors at night and put new batteries in our smoke detectors once a year. Those members of our species that didn't follow this instinct fell prey to various threats over the past millennium. Cognitive dissonance (psychological stress) occurs when new information is received that challenges or conflicts with existing beliefs or values. When that occurs, the human instinct is to minimize the conflict. A smoker who knows smoking is bad for you suffers from cognitive dissonance every time they buy a pack of cigarettes or lights up a cigarette. They try and minimize the conflict by telling themselves that "not everybody who smokes gets cancer" or by buying the ultra-light version, believing that those cigarettes are not as harmful as regular cigarettes. So now we come to mass murders of innocent kids in school or strangers in public places. The fact that you, your kids or your entire family could be killed in less than minute, with no warning, by a total stranger in a public place sets up a cognitive dissonance event that conflicts with your beliefs that you have created a safe environment for your family and/or that the government should be able to keep you safe and that you should be able to live your life without the fear of harm by others. Just like the smoker who buys ultra-light cigarettes, the need to reduce the level of cognitive dissonance results in the natural instinct to do something, anything, regardless of the ultimate effectiveness of that action. Those governed by emotion will fixate on the tool (the gun) and not deal with the fact that a crazy or evil person can always find a way to commit mass murder, even without a gun. The terrorist who drove a truck into the Bastille Day crowd in Nice France in 2016 killed 86 and injured another 458. Why fixate on the gun? Trying to control the access to the type and quantity of the tool provides the person ruled by emotion with a tangible course of action, which, if achieved, will reduce the level of cognitive dissonance associated with the perceived threat to him and his family, even if achieving that goal hasn't actually reduced the threat. Those ruled by rational thought and a broad knowledge of the many ways to create mass casualties without a gun understand that further restricting access to various types of guns won't meaningfully reduce the threat to ourselves and our families because the threat is not the gun, the threat is the evil/crazy person.
We have reduced our cognitive dissonance not by lobbying for more gun controls but by altering our beliefs and accepting the fact that there is no way to create and live in an environment that is 100% safe for ourselves and our families and that we can't control the actions of those who evil/crazy people who wish to do us harm.
So lobbying for more gun controls is a coping mechanism used by those ruled by emotion in an effort to reduce their cognitive dissonance with regard to how dangerous the world is vs. how they believe it should be. The alternative would be for them to acknowledge that the world is a dangerous place and that you can't protect yourself or your family from the random acts of evil or crazy people. Getting people to discard their belief systems is not an easy thing to do, hence the 50 year (and never ending) cry for more gun controls.
He's not wrong.
THIS NEWBORN BABY WAS CREATED TO BE SOME KIND OF CRITIC And I love him.
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FINALLY YOU CAN GET A SODA AGAIN ON SOUTHWEST But no cocktails yet. Are they going to send me new free drink coupons now that all my old ones are expired? Inquiring minds want to know....
BLACK WHITE SUPREMACIST HURLS ANTI-ASIAN SLURS ON A BUS And I want to be clear that this man, though he is black, must be a white supremacist because we know from the White House that the rise in anti-asian crime is because of white supremacists. Read more here.
A GIANT SUPERCARGO SHIP IS STUCK IN THE SUEZ CANAL And this is why they don't let me drive these things because this would happen all the time. Check out the photos in this story. This is a BIG deal as 10% of the world's cargo traffic goes through the Suez.
A BIG GROUP OF AMERICANS SAY THEY ARE STILL SCARED TO DO THINGS EVEN AFTER THEY ARE VACCINATED I find this baffling. Two weeks after your second injection you are not going to die of covid, even if you get it. So why do people say they still don't want to do stuff even after they are vaccinated? Because they want everyone ELSE to be vaccinated too. These are the same people who believe that 50% of people who get covid need hospitalization I'm guessing.
MAZIE HIRONO AND TAMMY DUCKWORTH BACKTRACK WHEN THEY REALIZE THEY ARE RACISTS Oh, my bad, they didn't realize they were racist for saying they would not vote to confirm any Cabinet members that were white and not gay. They got a new "White House Liaison" for Asian-American/Pacific Islanders so they dropped their racist stance.
TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY, PITCHER RANDY JOHNSON OBLITERATED A BIRD And not on purpose, the bird simply got in the way of a nasty pitch.
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RIP ACTOR GEORGE SEGAL Who passed away yesterday from complications from a bypass operation. Most recently seen in The Goldbergs he was a fine actor and great comedian, and those things don't often happen in one actor. There are no easy operations when you are 87.
TOP HIGH SCHOOLS HATE ASIANS AND ARE DOING AWAY WITH MERIT BASED ADMISSIONS BECAUSE OF IT I have no idea if they REALLY hate Asians but considering Asian-American students make up the bulk of the student body at two merit based high performing high schools, I'm going to say they do. Two high schools that are regularly among the top schools in the country are doing away with their entrance exams and going to a lottery system in the name of diversity. Why? Because there are too many high performing Asian-American students in the student body and not enough black kids. This column asks a simple question: when are we going after the NBA or NFL or MLB to make their teams more representative of the general population?
WHAT DID YOU LOVE AS A KID AND HATE NOW? This Reddit thread asks that question with some really funny answers (Children). Mine is definitely laying in the grass. Used to love it, now it just makes me itchy.
THE MIAMI HEAT HAVE A SPECIAL PLACE FOR VACCINATED FANS And this is only the beginning, trust me. From fully vaccinated cruises to fully vaccinated sections at Heat games, there will be PLENTY of incentive for people to get the shot.
THIS DAD NEEDS TO REALIZE HIS DAUGHTER KNOWS WHERE HE SLEEPS.
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TEST YOUR AWARENESS WITH THIS QUICK VIDEO!
A SALIVA TEST CAN DETECT CONCUSSIONS NOW And it's not ready for wide use just yet, but a new spit test accurately diagnoses concussions in a short period of time. This is huge for sports, but also for parents of toddlers who smash their heads into the corners of tables and need staples.