Lock-downs killed…

The per-capita death rate for the coronavirus is  75% lower  in states that did not panic into lock-down mode.   That means that Speaker Pelosi’s  insane claims  about the GOP being responsible  for murder are actually backwards.   Yes,  the states that didn’t panic were mostly smaller,  more rural states,  but the Democrats and their media handmaidens want you to believe that if you have COVID-19 you will die.  At the same time,  they are reluctant to point out the communities and cultures and age groups now reporting more cases.  Guess what:  the more testing you perform,  the more cases you will discover.   Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues to lie about how many deaths his orders caused, and the Dems all pathetically claim the lock-downs and other restrictions are to protect the citizenry!   And keep in mind that research shows that thousands of travelers carried coronavirus from New York to the rest of the U.S. in early March, which is responsible  for 65% of  cases.

Democrats are desperate to keep the lock-down going and economies closed because they believe that  no one will remember that Pres. Trump got the economy going to start with.   The DNC is terrified that blacks and other minorities will recall that they enjoyed the lowest unemployment rates ever.   The media is driven to misinform and outright lie to further that agenda,  and thus they pressure Republican governors to do the same stupid stuff the Democrats are doing.

Most of them are resisting that pressure,  some magnificently and gloriously.  The Democrats have already put themselves on record demanding we taxpayers should bail them out financially.  No thanks – their budgetary problems are caused by crony capitalism, corruption, incompetence and deliberate malfeasance.  They have invited the riots and looting and assaults and chaos so let them deal with their own hideous creations and the consequences of the same. Tell your Congress critters, newspapers,  and the President your views.

How testing works…

This is an understandable article on what COVID-19 testing can and can not accomplish, and its very real limitations.  Most of those running about screeching “TESTING! TESTING!” don’t understand what the test can show,  much less what it means.   Not even virologists can say with certainty that having had the disease makes you immune to it, but the current view is that antibodies don’t recognize the whole virus.  Each antibody,  essentially trained to recognize a piece of a puzzle but not the whole,  binds only to a small piece of the virus.  Antibodies made by a person previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 may not recognize the parts of the virus used in a particular diagnostic lab test.   Or perhaps  the person’s immune system needed to develop only a small amount of antibodies,  beneath the level that a test could detect.   In either case, the test would show that the person didn’t have antibodies to SARS-CoV-2,  delivering a “false-negative” result.  Similar mechanisms could present a “false positive” result.  They are working with plasma from patients who recovered or showed no symptoms as a treatment for the seriously ill.   They are hoping that the combined antibodies will overwhelm the virus.

Testing is good for statistics.  It is helpful to know how many people were infected,  how many were asymptomatic,  how many cases were mild,  how many were serious, and  how many proved fatal.  The latter category will be tricky, as doctors are being urged to claim COVID-19 as the cause of death,  when an underlying health problem  actually caused the death of an infected patient.  We went through this same numbers game with HIV/AIDS, and to a lesser extent Ebola and other pandemics.  Medical facilities and health charities and governments get more more money if they have a pandemic and higher death rates.   If somebody lays some numbers on you,  ask if the patients died WITH or FROM COVID-19.  It makes a very large difference.

Some people have very robust immune systems.   I am one of them,  having nursed family members through rotavirus and norovirus,  neither of which I caught.   I have not had a cold in over 50 years,  and have never had seasonal flu.  I skipped the customary childhood diseases,  and my childhood was so long ago that they had few vaccines against them.  I can remember being given a sugar cube with Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine on it.  Remember that  polio was  never the raging epidemic portrayed in the media  (sound familiar?) .   Even during its height in the 1940’s and ’50’s,  ten times as many children died in accidents and three times as many succumbed to cancer.   It was still a very scary disease.  So is COVID-19,  but virologists and researchers are hard at work to learn how to defeat it.   They will succeed in at least taming it,  if not destroying it.

The experts don’t know it all, and are quite reluctant to admit how much they don’t know.    Take what they say with a large grain of alt and apply your own logic and common sense.   Be of good cheer and stay vigilant and prepared against those who are trying to use this crisis to destroy the economy and make you permanently dependent on the government for survival.  In the end,  I think we will find that the  lock-downs are  producing more deaths than the disease it is supposed to protect us against.

Replacing SAT with Imbellus…

The Left has long bitched about the SAT, which was originally known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test.  In 1993,  it was renamed the SAT Reasoning Test (or known as SAT I).  The we had subject tests were called SAT II: Subject Tests.    Now it’s just a brand name and doesn’t stand for anything at all.  Despite assorted flaws,  the tests have always done a pretty good job  of assessing which students were prepared for good college ,  as did the ACT.  In my case, they showed I had plenty of aptitude but not much desire since my school grades were middling in subjects which held little interest to me.  That’s probably a character failing which I have never fully corrected.

In March 2016, the SAT underwent an enormous redesign, including changing the scoring system from a 2400-point scale to a 1600-point scale.  The reasoning behind any of the changes made little sense to me,  but if you wish to compare your old scores, you  can here.

Now one Rebecca Kantar has them all in her sights. She has developed a new test called Imbellus.    Professor Mark Bauerlein  of the Martin Center does a splendid job of  explaining why  this proposed new test is a disaster.

I can only add:  why is it that people who attended Harvard continue to think they are the smartest people ever, even when they fail to graduate?  I think imbecilic would be a better name for a test which seems to measure little more than arrogance and conceit.

 

 

 

Mining kids for data…

The Obama Administration is using your tax dollars to bribe schools to test students’ mental health  under the rubric of gun safety.   The data will be maintained by the feds,  who also want DNA samples.  So far only Rhode Island has swallowed that particular poison pill, but you need to read this and investigate your local schools,  because the education bureaucracy will not volunteer the information.   Educrats are not your friends.

 

 

 

Iceman mummy relatives found…

The Tyrol region of Austria  contains at  least 19 males who share the same ancestors as Ötzi the Iceman.  identified by a particular and uncommon genetic mutation he carried.   Genetic sequencing is providing a new avenue to history,  one that will no doubt provide more than a few surprises.

Education non-fixes…

If you’re interested in education,  and you know you should be,  listen to this John Miller  interview of  Diane Ravitch,  who has no enthusiasm for the testing regimes,  among other things.