Ever heard of “swan upping”? Me neither. It’s a British term. For taking inventory of the Queen’s swans. “The ceremony dates back 800 years to when the English crown first claimed ownership of all mute swans,” Reuters, a U.K. news service, reports. (Read story her[...]
Archive for July, 2021
Federal judge refuses to block college’s vaccine policy
A federal judge rejected a lawsuit by students objecting to Indiana University’s fall semester vaccine requirement, AOL News reported on Monday, July 19, 2021 (read story here). The school offers exemptions, but requires exempted individuals to “follow separate COVID-19 mitigation strate[...]
July 19th, 2021 - 1:00 pm § in Health
Self-portrait of a fool
Unfortunately, this is all too typical of a certain mindset and group of people. I certainly don’t wish illness or death upon him. I hope for the opposite — that he doesn’t get Covid-19-delta — for his sake, his family’s sake, our sake. The odds seem stacked against him[...]
July 18th, 2021 - 7:09 pm § in Politics
The Confederacy’s founding principle
“The constitution [of 1787] … rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. … Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man;[...]
Sanctions and accountability are necessary
It takes time for deliberative processes to play out, but signs point to judges cracking down on Trump lawyers who filed baseless lawsuits and lied to courts (read story here), and that’s a good and necessary thing. Rudy Guiliani, Sidney Powell, and Lin Wood, among others, should not come out [...]
A short lesson in federal supremacy
Florida Governor Death Vader’s anti-mask, anti-vaccine policies are squarely at odds with the pro-survival approach championed by the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the conflict came to a head in a battle over cruise ship regulations in a federal courtroom where a Bush-appointe[...]
Are you in Leonardo da Vinci’s family tree?
Probably not, unless you’ve got some Italian blood in your veins, and even then still probably not. If you’re 1 of 14 currently living people, you might be. Researchers wanted to know so badly they dug up what are thought to be his remains to get a DNA sample, then went hunting for desce[...]
July 18th, 2021 - 12:40 pm § in Donald Trump, Politics
GOP “auditor” revives a false assertion about Arizona ballots
Tell people what they want to believe, and they’ll believe it. From day one, the Arizona Senate GOP’s sham “audit” of 2020 Maricopa ballots was always about trying to give legitimacy for false election conspiracy theories. To conduct the “audit,” they passed over [...]
Wouldn’t D.C. statehood make the flag ugly?
Nah. Getting 51 white stars into a rectangular blue field is easy. Just divide 51 by 3 to get 17, then split 17 into 9 + 8. Three rows of 9 stars and three rows of 8 stars gives you 51 stars. See video below. But if Puerto Rico gets statehood, too, how do you […][...]
July 16th, 2021 - 6:08 pm § in Misc.
2 Maine cops fired for torturing porcupines get jail time
Two Maine cops were fired and charged with felony animal cruelty for beating 11 porcupines to death with their batons while on duty, a Maine newspaper reported. One also pepper-sprayed the animals. They’re also charged with wildlife violations. Another officer is on administrat[...]