GUNS: Schools need to be hard targets; not shooting galleries

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

https://nypost.com/2023/03/27/mother-of-nashville-school-shooter-audrey-hale-shared-several-gun-control-posts-on-social-media/

News nashville school shooting
Mother of Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale shared several gun control posts on social media
By David Propper 
March 27, 2023 8:04pm Updated

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The mother of the Nashville school shooter who killed six people — including three 9-year-olds — appeared to be a gun control activist who once urged friends on Facebook to sign a petition calling for keeping firearms out of schools.

“So important!” Norma Hale wrote in a March 8, 2018, Facebook post as she shared the petition to “Keep Guns Out of School” that appeared to be from the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation.

The webpage’s domain to the petition did not appear to exist anymore.

In another post from Feb. 21, 2018, Hale shared another petition from Sandy Hook Promise urging lawmakers to “Make Large-Capacity Gun Magazines Illegal.”

Hale’s adult child, Audrey Hale, carried out Monday’s horrific mass shooting at the Covenant School on Monday morning. 

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Like the war on drugs, Gooferment seems to deliberately fail at its mission.

Schools should be “hard targets” like a bank.  You don’t hear about “mass shootings” at banks or pawnshops. Hell, my local jewelry store had better security than that school apparently had.  The shooter blew out the glass front doors. Most datacenter are secure by “man trap” entrances.  You don’t just waltz in unchallenged.  Schools in New Jersey require visitors to be admitted; hell, parents don’t even get in without a “pass”.

I feel sad for the parents of all involved.  It’s a cold cruel world out there populated by crazy people and evil doers.  We need to end gun-free zones and reengineer our society to protect itself.

I note that the shooter skipped another target because it “had too much security”.  So while these shooters are evil, they are not stupid.

Argh!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Biden, and his inept team; has managed to fuse China and Russia while destroying the USA as a power in the world

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11889045/Democracy-Western-leaders-paving-way-autocrats-world-author-warns.html

EXCLUSIVE – The DEATH of democracy: As Xi Jinping declares ‘change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years’, expert explains how inept Western leaders are paving the way for autocrats to take over the world by failing to tackle domestic issues

  •     Democracy is in a fight with autocracy for control of the future, author warns
  •     Charles Dunst says it is in danger of losing unless it rapidly gets its act together 

By Chris Pleasance for MailOnline
Published: 03:45 EDT, 22 March 2023 | Updated: 07:07 EDT, 22 March 2023

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Taiwan has fallen to China. The war lasted years, cost tens of thousands of lives, and ruined the economy – but that was a cost Xi Jinping was willing to pay to write his name into history.

America fought back, but despite having the superior military there was simply too much political division at home and amongst its allies to put up a proper defence.

Beijing’s iron will won the day, and the world has taken note. Autocracy has triumphed over democracy. The war of ideals has been lost. 

It is Xi’s world now. We just live in it.

That is the apocalyptic vision put forward by expert Charles Dunst in his new book Defeating the Dictators as he warns that democracy is now in a fight with autocracy for control of the future, and is in danger of losing unless it rapidly gets its act together.

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I think Biden has eclipse Jimmy Carter as the “worst” in my life time. 

By failing to cut spending, he has destroyed the dollar.  By his sanctions, he has empowered Russia to form global coalitions to the detriment of the USA.  And, probably worst of all, he has exposed the USA and NATO as powerless in the Ukraine.

One can assume that the bio labs in Ukraine and the meddling of the USA in the Ukraine leadership forced Putin to take action to protect his people and country. The bribery from the Ukraine and China has created a fog of mixed motivations.

It’s hard to imagine ANY actions that the next President can do to reverse this disaster.

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I’d like to be an extrovert

Monday, March 27, 2023

What’s a secret skill or ability you have or wish you had?

An extrovert seems to have a natural advantage in life. One that I envied.

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RANT: Can’t the FDIC clawback all such “bonuses”?

Monday, March 27, 2023

https://palexander.substack.com/p/did-you-just-say-the-svb-owners-silicon?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=579356&post_id=109517456&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email

Did you just say SVB owners, Silicon Valley Bank owners took bonuses just immediate before the banks were taken over by FDIC? These crooks ‘deserve to be in jail’; crooked criminal thieving bitch*s!

Dr. Paul Alexander

# – # – # – # – # 

I don’t understand.  It would seem to me that all transactions for the year prior to the collapse would be examined under a microscope.  Stock sales, bonus, and expenses would be fair game for the IRS, FDIC, SEC, and DOJ to clawback everything that isn’t justified.

Argh!

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HAPPINESS: Iconic picture person dies — “Be Kind”

Sunday, March 26, 2023

https://nypost.com/2023/03/22/bobbi-kelly-featured-in-iconic-woodstock-album-photo-dies/?utm_source=sailthru

Bobbi Kelly, featured in iconic Woodstock album photo, dies
By Patrick Reilly  — March 22, 2023 12:12am Updated

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Bobbi Kelly, who was featured in the iconic photo used as the cover of the Woodstock album, died over the weekend, according to her husband.

“It’s with beyond great sadness that I tell my FB family and friends, that after 54 years of life together, of the death of my beautiful wife, Bobbi, last night surrounded by her family,” Nick Ercoline posted on Facebook Saturday. “She lived her life well, and left this world in a much better place. If you knew her, you loved her. She lived by her saying, ‘Be kind’.”

“She didn’t deserve this past year’s nightmare, but she isn’t suffering from the physical pain anymore and that brings some comfort to us,” he wrote.

*** end quote ***

When I read this, it made me sad.  That was a great concert and I missed it. 

Requiescat In Pacem, sweet soul.

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DISCOURAGING: How can we contaminate women’s athletics with men “transitionoing”?

Saturday, March 25, 2023

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11846123/Trans-womens-advantage-sports-analyzed-photos.html

The photos that will stop you in your tracks: As more states seek ban on trans women competing in women’s sports, experts insist the ‘undeniable’ physical advantage CAN’T be undone by gender-affirming care

  •     The hugely divisive issue of trans participation in sport returned to the spotlight after a school girls’ team won a state title with help from a trans girl
  •     It’s the latest flashpoint in the debate that was thrust into the mainstream when trans swimmer Lia Thomas became an NCAA champion in March 2022
  •     Researchers and elite athletes say the science speaks for itself: Trans women have a physical advantage that can’t be undone

By Lewis Pennock For Dailymail.Com
Published: 13:06 EDT, 18 March 2023 | Updated: 13:06 EDT, 18 March 2023

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The incendiary issue of transgender participation in sports returned to the fore this week after a high school girls’ team won a state championship with help from a biological male. Olympic medalists were among critics who joined the backlash to Chloe Barnes’ role in Brookline High School’s victory in Massachusetts . Barnes is a junior who competed under rules that allow students to ‘participate in a manner consistent with their gender identity’. This is just the latest flashpoint in the debate that was thrust into the mainstream when trans swimmer Lia Thomas became an NCAA champion in March 2022. Supporters of inclusion claim fairness can be maintained when biological males compete against women, while opponents that argue women’s sports must be protected face accusations of transphobia. But cut through the often toxic political mudslinging that dominates the debate and, according to researchers and elite athletes, the science speaks for itself: trans women have a physical advantage over biological females – and no treatment exists which can unravel that. 

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It’s just not fair!

And, it’s a contra-survival of the species to allow it to continue.

It’s not like we have to permit these individuals to turn society’s norms on their head.

Time to get our “definitions” correct!

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PHILOSOPHY: Is it moral to torture intelligent animals for food?

Friday, March 24, 2023

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-64814781?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

World’s first octopus farm proposals alarm scientists
Published << 2023-03Mar-16>>
By Claire Marshall
BBC Environment & Rural Affairs Correspondent

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A plan to build the world’s first octopus farm has raised deep concerns among scientists over the welfare of the famously intelligent creatures.

The farm in Spain’s Canary Islands would raise about a million octopuses annually for food, according to confidential documents seen by the BBC.

They have never been intensively farmed and some scientists call the proposed icy water slaughtering method “cruel.”

*** and ***

Prof. Peter Tse, a cognitive neuroscientist at Dartmouth University, told the BBC that “to kill them with ice would be a slow death … it would be very cruel and should not be allowed.”

Adding that they were “as intelligent as cats” he suggested that a more humane way would be to kill them as many fishermen do, by clubbing them over the head.

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Having seen how intelligent these animals are and how unique they are making them “food” is hard to justify.  Torturing them is just unacceptable.

Sigh!

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RANT: No vegetative state for me

Thursday, March 23, 2023

What tattoo do you want and where would you put it?

DNR

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INNOVATION: Alweays beable to describe your exact location — what3words app

Thursday, March 23, 2023
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpUtCBpjtcW/?utm_campaign=w3w.Community%20biweekly%20newsletters
 
“This app saved my life” says rescued paddleboarder Rebekah She was struggling to describe her location somewhere off the coast of Virginia Beach when she remembered she had the what3words app.”
 
​FYI FWIW YMMV​
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INNOVATION: Another significat contribution to the public domain

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

https://news.mit.edu/2023/low-cost-device-can-measure-air-pollution-anywhere-0316?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

Low-cost device can measure air pollution anywhere

  • Open-source tool from MIT’s Senseable City Lab lets people check air quality, cheaply.

Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office
Publication Date: March 16, 2023 

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Air pollution is a major public health problem: The World Health Organization has estimated that it leads to over 4 million premature deaths worldwide annually. Still, it is not always extensively measured. But now an MIT research team is rolling out an open-source version of a low-cost, mobile pollution detector that could enable people to track air quality more widely.

The detector, called Flatburn, can be made by 3D printing or by ordering inexpensive parts. The researchers have now tested and calibrated it in relation to existing state-of-the-art machines, and are publicly releasing all the information about it — how to build it, use it, and interpret the data.

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“We” should have an award for people who make a discovery and make it free to use because of its great benefit.

It should be named for Frederick Banting (note below) for insulin or Volvo for the three point seat belt.

Maybe Volvo would sponsor it.

I’d nominate these folks from MIT for this invention and releasing it to the public domain.

# – # – # – # – # 

Note: When inventor Frederick Banting discovered insulin in 1923, he refused to put his name on the patent. He felt it was unethical for a doctor to profit from a discovery that would save lives. Banting’s co-inventors, James Collip and Charles Best, sold the insulin patent to the University of Toronto for a mere $1.

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