MICHELLE ZELLNER IS ON TO TALK STRESS MANAGEMENT And she is also going to bring some of the really good nutrition information that we had planned on doing last month when she got bumped. Find Michelle, sign up for her classes and buy her books by clicking here!
INFLATION JUMPED TO 8.5% LAST MONTH which is the highest it has been since 1981. This long article says that high gas prices, war in Ukraine, supply chain issues and all that is to blame, but they get it partially right in this paragraph near the end:
Critics also blame, in part, the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion March 2021 stimulus program, which included $1,400 relief checks for most households, for helping overheat an already sizzling economy.
What they missed entirely is that the Federal Reserve has been printing money like there is no tomorrow. Look at this graph of dollars in circulation right now, using data from this Mises article as the key:
The money supply can be measured in a variety of ways depending upon the definition of money. Three measurements of money supply available on a monthly basis since 1959 include: BASE (“Adjusted Monetary Base”), M2, and MZM (“Money Zero Maturity”).6,7,8
BASE. Currency in circulation and deposits held by domestic depository institutions at Federal Reserve Banks.
M2 Currency in circulation, savings deposits, and retail money market mutual fund shares.
MZM. M2 with the addition of institutional money funds.
The Blue line is the current money supply, which is the cause of our inflation issues. Photo: Mises.org
. . . there is no record in the economic history of the whole world, anywhere or at any time, of a serious and prolonged inflation which has not been accompanied and made possible, if not directly caused, by a large increase in the quantity of money. — Gottfried Haberler, Inflation, Its Causes and Cures (1960)
Government created this mess, don't let them tell you otherwise. The Mises article I shared above is from 2013, and they've been warning about this since 2008. The chickens ALWAYS come home to roost.
SMALL BUSINESSES ARE RAISING PRICES BECAUSE OF INFLATION And before you get mad, take all this into consideration. They are paying higher prices too, and a small business usually operates on margins that are pretty thin so they have to get the money from somewhere. This article does a really good job of laying out how much inflation is hitting them too. Aim your fire at the right target on this, government.
WHEN A GOOD IDEA GOES BAD This article by Ari Armstrong about the new Right to Repair Motorized Wheelchair law working its way through the Colorado Legislature is spot on. Though we can all appreciate the pickle that wheelchair owners are in now, where they can't fix their own chairs and have to deal with a slow and cumbersome wheelchair manufacturers process for repairs now, but this bill is bad. Armstrong rightly points out that this bill would FORCE manufacturers to release parts and intellectual property to independent repair shops to allow them to do the fixes. A "right to repair" can't exist when it forces others to its bidding. That's not how rights work. It's a great article that applies to pretty much every "right" someone declares that requires something of someone else. He does offer a quick solution though.
FORMER AURORA CHIEF VANESSA WILSON'S PRESSER WAS GARBAGE And truly there is nothing more pathetic than watching someone trying to save face and not take responsibility for their own actions in a public setting, but that's EXACTLY what former Aurora PD Chief Vanessa Wilson did yesterday. She surrounded herself with minions and told her tale of woe where she was fired because of politics. Child, please. Let me spell it out for her. She was fired because she didn't do a good job sticking up for her officers when they needed her to. She was fired because her lack of leadership lead to a mass exodus that Aurora PD won't recover from for a long, long time. She was fired because she was great at crocodile tears and complete capitulation in the face of AG Weiser's ridiculous and unfair report. She was fired because she fired a critic who voiced his displeasure at her capitulation to that report. It's really rich she's claiming politics is to blame when she played just as hard as anyone else at it. She was awful and she happened to be female, and her playing the victim now is simply the chef's kiss to her performance as Chief. Of course she's the victim. Of course.
WE CAN LEARN ABOUT HISTORICAL CONTRIBUTIONS WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT SEX The new social studies curriculum, which is well-intended and designed to make sure that all are represented in our lessons, has removed direct mention of sexual preference until after third grade. Now the LGBTQ advocates are mad and saying that we want to erase gay people from history but they miss the point. We learned about the contributions of gay people, who weren't allowed to be openly gay, when I was a kid. But we never talked about who they loved or why. All parents want it to be able to have those conversations with their own children their own way. I get that. But that being said, we don't have to complicate this when talking to little kids. When my daughter was in pre-school one of her friends had two dads. Rather than make a big fuss about it when she asked why he had two dads, I just said, "sometimes a man gets married to a man or a woman gets married to a woman" and that was it. She was three and that was all it took for her question to be satisfied and when it came up as she got older we had age appropriate conversations about it. We don't need to overthink this, but we need to allow parents to address stuff like this for themselves. Not all parents will do a good job, but that's just how things go.
WHAT THIS TRANS WOMAN WISHED SHE'D KNOWN BEFORE SURGERY This is a haunting column of regret imo. In it a woman who transitioned at 19 speaks of her expectations versus the reality of her permanently life altering choice. This leapt out at me:
The sacrifices I made seemed irrelevant to the teenager I was: someone with gender dysphoria, yes, but also anxiety and depression. The most severe cause of dread came from my own body. I was not prepared for puberty, nor for the strong sexual drive typical for my age and sex.
Surgery unshackled me from my body’s urges, but the destruction of my gonads introduced a different type of bondage. From the day of my surgery, I became a medical patient and will remain one for the rest of my life. I must choose between the risks of taking exogenous estrogen, which include venous thromboembolism and stroke, or the risks of taking nothing, which includes degeneration of bone health. In either case, my risk of dementia is higher, a side effect of eschewing testosterone.
We need to support kids who have gender dsyphoria but do so with an abundance of caution. Take it from her.
ONE NEIGHBORHOOD IN SANTA MONICA IS SO BAD THEY'VE STOPPED MAIL DELIVERY But I'm sure the crime tsunami is just a right wing conspiracy. Watch this.
ABOUT THE FLORIDA BILL ON GENDER STUFF IN PRE SCHOOL And I refuse to call it by the pejorative being used by opponents because that isn't at all accurate. A new poll shows it has overwhelming support from Americans. I haven't talked much about this bill because it's Florida and not here, but I find it rather ironic that Dems are SUPER MAD about the use of the word "groomers" by parents who support the bill about those who oppose it. It's almost like calling someone a horrible name because you disagree with them is bad now or something. We probably should have thought of that when calling Republicans "evil" or "transphobic" or "racist" for years now, shouldn't we? Cry me a river, groomers.
EVEN THE LEFT IS GOING AFTER TEACHERS UNIONS NOW This is a very interesting article about the teachers unions taking fire from the Left. And taking a lot of it. One mom, who wanted to make a difference so she became a teacher, was so disillusioned when she saw the Man Behind the Curtain (or in this case Woman) in education she started a parents rights group. Read more here.
NO ONE PAYS TO RIDE SEATTLE'S TRAINS And guess what? They have the same system we have, with no turnstiles or gates, which seems so utterly stupid now. The Sound Transit Board says about 70% of riders don't pay. Because the trains are on an honor system, honor is required and Seattle riders have just decided to not participate. Only 5% of the system is paid for via fares instead of the 40% the STB requires. So what's next? Higher taxes to offset the losses.
GEORGIA MOM USES IPHONE TO TRACK HER KIDNAPPED KID A woman stupidly left her car with her keys and child inside to run inside a store and her car was stolen. She used her Iphone's Find My Phone feature to track the car and help police save her son. Please don't be like this woman, lock your dang car.
THE CDC COULD EXTEND THE MASK MANDATE AND I HATE THEM ALL RIGHT NOW The mask mandate on public transport is supposed to expire in three days. So far, Dr. Walensky hasn't been told by the teachers unions what to do so no announcement has been made. If they extend it, I will lose my mind.
PLASTICS ARE OVERLOOKED IN THE CLIMATE CHANGE DEBATE as they are made from petroleum and are expected to overtake energy production in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. So why are they totally unmentioned in any reports about climate change? Because we like cheap packaging.
CAN YOU GET AWAY WITH MURDER IN THE METAVERSE? The answer is...maybe? I think? Does it even matter? More importantly, who cares? These two attorneys do and talk about it here.
AND NOW, SOME TOMBSTONES FOR THE AGES
NORTH KOREA DOES MONTY PYTHON Whomever did this is next level genius.
CHINA INTRODUCES NEW COVID HEAD And he looks a LOT LIKE someone I know but I can't put my finger on it. The Babylon Bee has the exclusive.