O, great and kind journalism! We are not worthy! Worried about your gas stove? This comic will show you other ways to cook.
Good Morning, Redmonton!
Another installment in a long running series: You Get The City You Vote For.
Downtown Edmonton. Thanks Edmonton City Council. Your progressive policies are working. Why we need to ensure the NDP leave in May. pic.twitter.com/A2u8fGCywT
— OneTermNotley (@onetermnotley) February 12, 2023
For just desserts: narrative crumble
Better late than never is progress, one supposes, when it comes to the left-wing corporate media. The mantra of “listen to the experts” has less to do with informed consent and more to do with unquestioning obedience coupled with the gaslighting of dissenters. In the end, “team science” just succeeded in wrecking their own credibility.
What we did not properly appreciate is that preferences determine how scientific expertise is used, and that our preferences might be—indeed, our preferences were—very different from many of the people that we serve. We created policy based on our preferences, then justified it using data. And then we portrayed those opposing our efforts as misguided, ignorant, selfish, and evil.
We made science a team sport, and in so doing, we made it no longer science. It became us versus them, and “they” responded the only way anyone might expect them to: by resisting.
Easily treatable
Yeah, I know. It’s just an anecdote. No triple blind whirling somersault study to back it up. But it’s interesting nonetheless as it comes from someone who has been an unrelenting cheerleader for the mass vaccination program. It’s just not working out as well as hoped for, on a personal level.
….Vossoughian had mysterious aches in her chest for 10 days, culminating in chest and shoulder pain so severe that she wound up in the emergency room.
She was held for four nights before being discharged. But three days after that, she felt a “a butterfly” in her heart – or, less poetically, an arrhythmia – and was hospitalized again, with myocarditis, for five more nights, and was given a “battery” of tests before being released.Even Dr. Rochelle Walensky would not call a case of myopericarditis that required nine days of hospitalization “mild.”
Yes, she’s jabbed.
Incentive to embellish
What’s not to like about providing financial incentives to arrive at a particular conclusion? What could possibly go wrong? I have to disagree with the authors on one point: there’s nothing “well-intended” about any of this.
This well-intended gesture has created a strong incentive to conflate dying from COVID-19 with passing incidentally while infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
One reason is the added incentive for hospitals to screen nearly every hospitalized patient for COVID, no matter what the underlying diagnosis, whether it is a broken tibia or a gallstone, even for patients with no COVID-like symptoms. Sec. 3710 of the CARES Act stipulates when a Medicare patient tests positive for COVID-19, the facility receives a 20 percent add-on reimbursement as long as there is a National Emergency.
Retiring into insolvency
Like any government program that intervenes in a sphere in which the state should not be meddling in the first place, government run pensions are basically doomed to fail. It’s time to wind down the ones we have and let individuals choose their own retirement options.
Indeed, the Social Security scheme is an excellent example of how government programs, once established, gradually become far more costly—in real per capita terms, not just aggregate terms—as time goes by. Many recipients now spend decades collecting benefits on a program that had been sold as a program only for people who were too old, exhausted, and injured to work at all. Meanwhile, fewer and fewer workers are called upon to foot the inflated bill.
These growing commitments from Social Security are further aggravated by the fact that while the retiree population is growing, growth in the work force is stagnating. Since 1960, the total number of Social Security recipients has increased by 364 percent. Meanwhile, the prime age population (age 25-54) has grown by only 90 percent. Put another way, in 1960, there were 4.6 prime age workers per Social Security recipient. In 2020, that number was 1.9.
Good Riddance
Too bad it took so long, but one of the greatest foes of liberty in the Western World is finally relinquishing power.
“I no longer have enough in the tank” – an emotional Jacinda Ardern says she will quit next month as New Zealand PM.
Misinformation for $1 million, Alex
As if there weren’t enough places for tax dollars to get flushed away, along comes this.
Having failed to eradicate a virus, the public health agency will now try to eradicate viral ideas.
Remember PREDICT, the research programme funded by the US Agency for International Development and carried out in partnership with EcoHealth Alliance and Metabiota, with the goal of identifying potential emerging pandemic pathogens?
Well, the Centers for Disease Control now propose to take a similar approach to our thoughts. They’ve solicited grant applications from researchers pledging to “develop a public health tool to predict the virality of vaccine misinformation narratives.”
Ban All The Things
A federal agency says a ban on gas stoves is on the table amid rising concern about harmful indoor air pollutants emitted by the appliances.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission plans to take action to address the pollution, which can cause health and respiratory problems.
“This is a hidden hazard,” Richard Trumka Jr., an agency commissioner, said in an interview. “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”
Spot the Fallacies
As an intellectual exercise for a Sunday afternoon, try listing all the fallacies contained in this random Facebook post pertaining to pandemic policy. There could be enough to fill a small library. Whoever this person is, she’s not alone in promoting the fallacy that consensus is the measure of truth, and that dominant paradigms are only ever opposed by “a couple of discredited doctors” anyway.
The inevitable result of a philosophy that enshrines intellectual helplessness is a society in which nearly everyone unthinkingly accepts the ideas of the dominant authority figures no matter where they lead.
Climate Lockdowns
Coming soon.
Katie Hopkins explains the Oxford Council's approved plan to introduce climate lockdowns in 2024. This includes restricting travel into one of 6 zones. To leave a zone, you must ask permission from the council or face fines. Coming soon to a city near you. pic.twitter.com/uVinlnw7pJ
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) January 2, 2023
The Reuters fact check- Oxfordshire County Council to trial congestion-reducing traffic filters, not a ‘climate lockdown’
Full video here. h/t Antenor
Endless meddling
Canada’s newest central planner claims to have a real “passion” for, well, central planning. But this time, we are assured, the planning will work.
I have a concern: since I subscribe to Acorn TV precisely to watch British shows, is the CRTC going to force them to carry Canadian content? Doesn’t that undermine the whole reason that I watch Acorn in the first place?
Eatrides said in a brief conversation with the National Post Monday that she will look to make a tangible difference for Canadians, indicating a focus that includes lowering prices.
She said people should expect “somebody who’s really focused on and concerned about Canadians. So really, that that’s where my head is at.”
“I really want Canadians to be able to say, OK, what has the CRTC done for me?”
In reality, she probably doesn’t want people to ask that last question.
Missed Information
Even since the pandemic began, I’ve been looking for the perfect retort to the “misinformation” smear. At long last, I may have found it.
In 2020-2022, if you tweeted the following flavors of #wrongthink, you may have been shadowbanned by Roth’s team:
—the costs vs. efficacy of lockdowns
—the safety & efficacy of off-label drugs for COVID
—the safety & efficacy of COVID “vaccines” or new Crony Pharma antivirals
The end of entrepreneurship
When my rental property got to the point where it needed substantial upgrades, I took into consideration the hassles of chasing tenants for rent and concluded that it was best to have the fire department use it for a practice burn. I never regretted that decision.
Once the impact of rising interest rates fully collides with deadbeat tenants using the power of the state to delay eviction, there will be very little left of the rental housing market in this country.
Just last year, Marco had two houses to his name, but for months has been sleeping in his car — all because his tenants, whom he’s been unable to evict, haven’t paid their rent.
Marco, 33, lost his marital home in a separation agreement in January. He still owns an income property — a two-suite house in Collingwood, Ont. — but says his upstairs tenant hasn’t paid up since June; the one downstairs hasn’t since February.
(More rental tales in the comments – Kate)
Meta analysis
It appears that a certain group of social engineers are finally getting their well-deserved comeuppance. I’m surprised that the fact-checkers aren’t going all out to bury the news.
Meta is in a revenue slump for the long haul. The company sees $30 billion to $32.5 billion for the holiday quarter, missing the midpoint of consensus.
Expenses for 2023 are higher than expected, at $96 billion to $101 billion, as Zuckerberg pursues that metaverse vision.
Reality Labs and other metaverse initiatives are going to keep losing money. Operating loss is $3.67 billion.
Earnings also missed estimates, at $1.64 per share compared to the $1.89 per share estimate.
Zuckerberg says “prioritization and efficiency” are the focus for 2023. Some teams will be downsized, only priority teams get to grow headcount.
Lying to the Stasi
The fact that around 40% of the population routinely lied to the Covid Cops or ignored public health orders should not be seen as “alarming”. It should rather be viewed as a hopeful sign that a decent portion of the population still has some concern for individual rights and will do what they can to thwart governments that are bent on destroying civil liberties.
An alarming nationwide survey led by University of Utah health scientists has revealed that four of 10 Americans admit they weren’t truthful about contracting COVID-19 or complying with the public health precautions during the height of the global pandemic.
A City Of Regina Survey Goes Horribly Wrong
From the virtue signaling autocrats who banned plastic bags: Cosmetic Pesticide Online Survey Now Open to Residents
If you type the word “Regina” into the postal code field, it will helpfully provide one for you. The survey is open until October 10th. Those with time on their hands can pick a new code and play as often as they wish!
Taxing Tips
Governments always think they have a “revenue” problem. Its never a spending problem.
Financial Post- Restaurant finds itself in hot water with CRA over servers’ electronic tips
Another Sin Tax
Not a fan of sugary drinks anymore myself but as a kid I used to love a coke Slurpee on a hot day. Yes, too much sugar can be bad for you ( he types while sipping black coffee) but this is another tax on something that makes people happy.
CTV- Newfoundland and Labrador’s tax on sugary drinks takes effect
The province’s sugar sweetened beverage tax — which adds 20 cents per litre to the cost of soft drinks, as well as sweetened fruit-flavoured juices, iced teas, lemonades, sports and energy drinks, fountain sodas and slushies — is in place as of Thursday.
The charge also applies to concentrates, at a cost of 20 cents per litre that can be made after mixing, and will be charged on top of the provincial sales tax.
Mask Formation Psychosis
It’s a cult.
UC Berkley- Masks are required during flu season if not vaccinated for flu.