OUR FAVORITE ECONOMIC HISTORIAN IS ON TODAY AT 1 Larry Reed is the President Emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education (find their amazing website here) and he's on today to talk about the foolish notion that government made Covid better and whether or not Hitler was a Christian or a capitalist. He's also written lately about the attempt to cancel economist F. A Hayek from the London School of Economics where he taught for several decades because Marxist students don't like what he's talking about. You really need to follow Larry on FB so you don't miss anything he writes and you can find that here.
MY NEW FAVORITE SHOW ON HGTV IS TOTALLY ABOUT GENTRIFICATION And this cute, talented and funny gay couple buys these shacks that are abandoned in Detroit and they put a little money into them and sell them at very affordable prices to people who want to return to these run down neighborhoods. They design these houses to appeal to the urban, mostly black clientele that will be checking them out and they are FABULOUS. But what gets me is how many older black folks stop by to thank them for bringing back the neighborhood. They don't hate gentrification, they recognize the good these two are doing. It's called Bargain Block and you should watch it so it gets picked up.
SWEDEN GOT IT RIGHT. FOR REAL. And it's about time we start to recognize that their laissez-faire strategy was a solid one. Their covid deaths have fallen off a cliff, their cases are super low and they never shut down, they never mandated mask wearing (except on public transit) and they are sitting pretty right now. So much so that Iceland, which has avoided a huge breakout UNTIL now, is adopting a similar no lockdown strategy to let the delta variant rip through their country to get it over with. Read more about Sweden here and Iceland here. THEY GOT IT RIGHT. The key to both of these stories is that vaccinations has rendered covid a very manageable disease with low fatality rates. Please consider getting vaccinated if you haven't already, they work to prevent serious illness and death.
AFTER NOT BEING ABLE TO GET HUMANS ELECTED, CONSERVATIVES TURN TO BALLOT MEASURES And they learned this from the Democrats who used our health ballot initiative process to get legislation done they couldn't pass when they didn't have a complete monopoly on our Legislature. Now Republicans and conservatives have turned the tables and are running ballot initiatives to further tie the hands of this Democratic bunch who are running roughshod over the people who vote against their initiatives but then they pass them anyway. Read more here.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO WEAR A MASK IF YOU'RE A SOPHISTICATE This is what I learned when all the video of the Obama mask-free party hit the web this weekend. By the way, that "scaling back" was a total lie. But luckily, this CNN reporter was here to explain it to all of us rubes who are told we have to mask up our three year olds. We're just not sophisticated enough.
THE SIMPSONS SAW THIS YEARS AGO How many times have the Simpsons been prescient? Watch this.
THERE IS A PROTEST BREWING OVER VACCINE MANDATES...FROM HEALTHCARE WORKERS Who didn't see this coming? And doesn't this create a huge PR issue for the vaccine? Healthcare workers are mad about being told they must take the covid vaccine or not come to work, as they should be. Now they are organizing. Many of them have already HAD covid and rightly believe they have immunity that is better than the shot provides. But what about those who simply don't want to get the shot yet? What does this say about what information they have or don't have, or what kind of complications from vaccination they have seen? I'd like to know the answer to that question.
FOURTEEN PEOPLE WERE SHOT AND TWO WERE KILLED IN DOWNTOWN DENVER THIS WEEKEND But I'm sure everything is fine. Nothing to see here. We're just becoming Chicago, but I'm sure it's fine.
WISCONSIN IS SPENDING 50 GRAND TO MOVE A ROCK BECAUSE 100 YEARS AGO SOMEONE CALLED IT A RACIAL SLUR I can't even with this story it's so stupid I just can't. Read it here but your IQ will drop. For real.
#DINGERGATE IS ON So I saw this very dramatic post from the Rockies this morning:
And I was immediately horrified that a Rockies fan would yell the N word at anyone, opposing player or not. Without checking it out, I reposted the Rockies statement without question. Thankfully many told me the real story. They guy was yelling at DINGER, the freaking mascot. Listen for yourself. But it's too late, this guy is already branded a racist and the Rockies are talking about banning him. Why not rename the stupid mascot if this is going to be a problem? Nothing rhymes with Orange, let's just call him that.
SOMEONE WHO HAS RECOVERED FROM COVID IS SUING OVER VACCINE MANDATES And THANK GOD. We need to force out incompetent government to recognize the natural (and superior) immunity conferred by a covid infection. Now a professor at George Mason University is suing to do just that. I'm going to see if Dave can get him on the show.
SOME PEOPLE ARE AFRAID TO GO BACK TO THE HANDSHAKE And I am not one of them. I am back to hugging, shaking and all that. But some people are concerned and don't want to ever touch anyone again. Read more here.
IF GOLF AND SWIMMING ANNOUNCERS CHANGE PLACES This made me laugh too hard today.