Ideas, Opinions, Genealogy, and Book Reviews
The filibuster in the US Senate is now being abused to prevent the Senate passing legislation needed to govern the country. In the latest example the Minority Leader announced he will not allow any Republicans to vote to raise the debt ceiling.
Continue reading “Filibuster and debt ceiling”
The other day I wrote a rather long piece on freedom and COVID-19 vaccines. I mentioned that there was lots of misinformation out there. But did not say much more on the subject of misinformation. I wanted to correct that.
The Centers for Disease Prevention (CDC) has a few paged that address various untruths about the COVID vaccines and general question.
If you want to do an internet search for more information, make sure you are looking at information from reputable sources such as the World Heath Organization, medical schools, schools of public heath, major medical centers, etc.
Apparently the Republican assault on democracy is not content with the sham audit in Arizona. The sham audit or fraudit will move on to other states.
Continue reading “Republican assault on democracy continues”
Your freedom ends where mine begins. My freedom ends where yours begins. We have to get better at dealing with that tricky area where 2 or more of us have a valid freedom claim and they interfere with each other.
If each of us lived in total isolation, we would have something approaching absolute freedom. We could do what we want and not affect anyone else. But that is not the case. There are always others to consider. It could be family, friends, neighbors, or just people you pass on the street. The list is long. Like it or not, you can’t avoid it.
Continue reading “Your freedom ends where mine begins”
I am presently reading A Republic, If You Can Keep It by Neil Gorsuch. The title comes from Benjamin Franklin who was asked after the Constitutional Convention what type of government we would have. He replied “A Republic, if you can keep it.” Now that the republic has lasted several centuries the question is still whether we can keep that republic. This book is Justice Gorsuch’s answer.
Continue reading “A Republic, If You Can Keep It by Neil Gorsuch”
I’ve enjoyed the Scotland mysteries I’ve read so I thought I would try a new series and I did like the first one. I just finished The Suspects by Jodie Lawrance. I enjoyed this book and thank Netgalley and Joffe books for the chance to read it before publication.
Detective Sergeant Helen Carter is the central character in this series. Like the earlier books in this series it is set in Edinburgh in the 1970s when it was unusual to see a woman in her role. Work is often difficult for her in this male dominated environment but in this third book in the series she is more accepted on her own merits.
The main story focuses on the return a major criminal and suspected cop-killer to Edinburgh, probably to collect some of the loot from a 1971 robbery. Of course there are a number of other crimes occurring shortly after his return which may or may not be related to his return. Like the other in this series I have read. this is a good detective story that is engaging and well written,
I believe each book can stand on its own but would suggest reading the first in the series before reading this one. It is not at all that following the mysteries in this book is dependent on prior books but reading the first will give you useful background on DS Helen Carter.
There seem to be many people who believe a recommendation of COVID-19 vaccination by public health officials somehow interferes with their freedom. Well, it is just a recommendation. They do point out that not being vaccinated endangers the person not getting vaccinated as well as others but force is not involved and it is a recommendation.
You are free to get the vaccine or not.
I do not see why freedom is involved. If someone recommendations something you are free to accept that or not. Of course your choices can have consequences. in this case, the consequence may be your death and the death of family members, friends or others. And there could be lesser indirect consequences such as being denied admission to a place where you will endanger others.
Vaccinations save lives, maybe your life or someone you care about will be one of them. But you are free to do as you want.
The full title is Google Drive & Docs In 30 Minutes: The unofficial guide to Google Drive, Docs, Sheets & Slides by Ian Lamont. I think this is an excellent introductory guide and reference book.
I’ve used Google Drive a little bit, especially Google Docs and I find 30 minutes to be overly optimistic. In 30 minutes you can enjoy the author’s overview which I found helpful and well done.
The explanations on using the various applications and how they fit together are also very helpful but I think being able to do a good job with any of them would require much more than 30 minutes He is very clear that these are free applications and someone may need a more polished product for presentations.
But there is much that can be done and done well with these free tools.
They may be more than adequate for many purposes. And why pay when free does the job. Many of us learn by trial and error and that takes time. Quite often a good reference is well worth the price.
We need to know more about why and how the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol occurred. I’ve been trying to follow the news and sometimes write about this attack and the attempts to learn about it.
Today I ran across an interesting website that contains a number of articles about this including various timelines and original documents. The site is https://www.justsecurity.org/ and calls the area concerned with this attack on the Capitol the January 6 Clearinghouse.
Continue reading “January 6 Clearinghouse”
A history that is important today as we try to understand the United States constitution. The full title is The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840 by Akhil Reed Amar.
Continue reading “America’s constitutional conversation begins”
As I’ve said before, COVID-19 vaccines protect prevent severe disease and death. They are not 100% but pretty close.
Continue reading “Get your vaccine yet?”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy deserves our thanks for his important role in the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Let me explain but first say “Thank you, Kevin“.
I thank you and so should the approximately two-thirds of Americans who support an investigation (1,2). Unfortunately there is a large political divide on that and Republicans have prevented the National Commission to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol Complex and tried to block the House Select Committee on the January 6 attack but failed.
Continue reading “Thank you , Kevin”
It should be obvious to anyone following the news that COVID-19 vaccines protect. They are not 100% but pretty close.
They do protect against getting the disease but more importantly they prevent severe disease and death. Again not perfect but close. A recent article shows that of almost 9000 deaths in Texas in recent months 99.5% were in people not fully vaccinated.
Vaccination saves lives, maybe yours will be one of them.
After Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan National Commission to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol and Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected 2 of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy nominees for the House Select Committee (which was her right as Speaker under the terms of the bill establishing the committee), Kevin McCarthy pulled his other 3 members from the committee.
As of now, it looks like the committee will go forward with only the 1 Republican nominated by the Speaker. Kevin McCarthy says he will have his own investigation which is surprising since he and other members of his party seemed opposed to investigating this attack.
Since the Minority Leader will not participate and has threatened any who accept the Speaker’s invitation, perhaps the Speaker will fill those empty slots with reasonable Republicans. In any case I hope this investigation by the House Select Committee will help us better understand this attack on the United States Capitol.
I have taken what I think is or should be a non-controversial position on the January 6 insurrection on the US Capitol. I favor a nonpartisan investigation into what happened when a pro-Trump mob attempted to storm the Capitol to prevent certification of the Presidential election and maybe in the process manage to hang the vice-president and kill a few members of Congress. In the process a number of police officers were killed or injured. Who would oppose such an investigation?
Continue reading “Nancy Pelosi is right”