August 14, 2020
Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico
Are you ready for this week’s absurdity?
Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most
ridiculous stories from around the world
that are threats to your liberty, risks to
your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring
poetic justice.
NASA to rename insensitive cosmic objects
You may think NASA’s mission is to take
humanity to Mars and beyond.
But remember, we no longer live in a society
which prioritizes actual advancement.
Far more important is making sure no one is
offended.
So we may not make it to Mars, but at least
the Innuit people will not be offended.
NASA announced that it will rename the
“Eskimo Nebula” as well as the “Siamese
Twins Galaxy” because they include racially
insensitive terms, apparently rooted in
colonialism.
But what about the constellation Orion--
named after a Greek mythological hunter god
who is alleged to have raped the Princess
Merope?
Or the constellation Gemini-- named after
Green twins Castor and Pollux, who were part
of that Argonaut band of capitalist swine
who terrorized ancient civilizations in
search of the Golden Fleece. . .
And isn’t the name Mars also offensive--
because it celebrates the patriarchal,
heteronormative violent God of War?
What about Jupiter-- a notorious rapist who
slept with his children?
In fact, every planet named after a Roman
god should be considered offensive-- Rome
was the biggest colonizer of its day and
routinely enslaved captives and lower class
Romans.
Luckily the Visogoths held a ‘peaceful
protest’ in Rome in the year 410 which
resulted in much more equality-- everyone
was equally impoverished and defeated.
Click here to read the full story.
California to raise income taxes
RETROACTIVELY
California just doesn’t seem to understand.
The rich continue to flee the state in
droves. Companies like Tesla are out. Moving
companies are overwhelmed.
And what does the state legislature do?
Raise taxes on the rich. Retroactively.
A bill passed the Assembly that proposes
increasing tax rates on high income
Californians by up to 3.5%.
And if the bill passes, it will be effective
retroactively to January 1, 2020.
California already had the highest income
tax rate of any state in the US by far. But
this tax hike will bring the top rate for
those earning more than $5.9 million to
16.8%.
On top of that, yesterday several state
lawmakers introduced a wealth tax-- which
would take a slice of someone’s net worth,
instead of just their annual income.
Most of the people who are subject to paying
these taxes are already working from home
and incredibly mobile. They can easily leave
the state, which will result in a tax LOSS
for California. Another victory for
socialism!
Click here to read the full story.
Kindergarteners in Thailand sealed in
plexiglass cubicles
Thai kindergarteners’ days are so structured
now because of Covid, that any semblance of
free play and exploration is gone.
Take a look at the pictures from one
elementary school, and you will think you’re
looking into a dystopian future-- maybe
that’s where we are.
Children are separated by plexiglass
barriers at desks, and isolated in plastic
cubicles to play. They stand where they’re
told and wear masks and face shields all day
long.
This is not an education-- it is
indoctrination.
But in Thailand, just like in the US,
homeschooling is legal-- no one has to put
up with this.
Especially when the psychological factors
may be worse than the disease.
Click here to read the full story.
Cop can’t fit handcuffs on 8 year old
arrested in school
Body camera footage has been released from
an incident in December 2018 where a police
officer arrested, fingerprinted, mugshotted,
and charged an 8 year old boy with battery.
It took nine months in court before it
reached a rational adult-- a judge who
dismissed the case.
To be clear, this is a different incident
from others we have discussed, like the
cop who arrested a six year old girl in
school, and a
cop who handcuffed an 8 year old autistic
boy.
But the similarity in every case is that no
one stepped in to say, “hey maybe we
shouldn’t be arresting children for basic
childhood misbehavior.”
In this case, the boy wasn’t sitting
properly at lunch, whatever that means.
A teacher thought it was appropriate to
intervene physically, upon which the boy
yelled, “don’t put your hands on me!” and
punched the teacher in the chest.
She wasn’t injured because this is a tiny
eight year old we are talking about.
Still, that was enough for police to
respond, and attempt to handcuff the boy--
but the boy's wrists were too small.
Then the officer pats down the crying boy,
putting his hands all over him, and escorts
him to a police car. Meanwhile the cop seems
to delight in telling the boy that “this is
very serious” and “you’re going to jail.”
Apparently there was no sane adult to be
found anywhere in this school or police
department.
Click here to read the full story.
“Kindergarten Cop” cancelled
We thought the 1990 Schwarzenegger movie
Kindergarten Cop would be cancelled at
some point for insensitivity to
non-conforming-gender identity.
At one point in the film, as Schwartzenegger
teaches, a boy exclaims, “boys have a penis,
girls have vaginas.”
But no, that’s not why
Kindergarten Cop is being cancelled.
A planned 30th anniversary drive-in showing
of the film was cancelled because it
apparently glorifies police officers.
The sentence was passed, you guessed it, in
a Tweet from an angry local author:
“What’s so funny about School-to-Prison
pipeline . . . in which African American,
Latinx and other kids of color are
criminalized rather than educated. Five- and
6-year-olds are handcuffed and hauled off to
jail routinely in this country.”
As the last story shows, we also recognize
the problem with overzealous cops in
schools. (Not that it should matter, but the
boy from the last story was White.)
We’re just not sure censoring a playful
Schwarzenegger film is going to deliver the
revolutionary change required to tackle the
problem.
But homeschooling might.
Click here to read the full story.
Math “reeks of white supremacist patriarchy”
First it was a PhD student studying
mathematics who Tweeted that 2+2=4 is
“because of western
imperialism/colonization. . .” (we
wrote about this last month.)
But this idea is catching on.
Math professors and PhD candidates from
various academic institutions eagerly agreed
on Twitter--
One professor who teaches math education at
Brooklyn College said: “um, ya’ll must know
that the idea that math is objective or
neutral IS A MYTH.”
The professor also claimed that math “reeks
of white supremacist patriarchy. . .” (nevermind
that many early advances in arithmetic were
from Persian, Arabic, Indian, and Chinese
mathematicians.)
This was met with agreement from a professor
of Sociopolitical Perspectives on
Mathematics and Science Education at the
University of Illinois; a Harvard University
PhD student; and others.
In line with everything we have been saying
this week, the actual objective reality that
2+2=4 takes a back seat to the “woke” belief
that math is yet another racist tool of
oppression.
Click here to read the full story.
San Francisco Covid relief includes funding
meth lab
San Francisco has put up 2,500 homeless
people in hotel rooms as part of an effort
to help them social distance during Covid
lockdowns.
That provided the opportunity to, for
instance, start a meth lab in a tax funded
hotel room.
Run a business during Covid? No.
Start a meth lab with taxpayer funds? Yes.
Click here to read the full story.
To your freedom,
