Weather or Not

Severe Outflow by R. Edwards

Scattershooting 201124

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Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to pro-life, strong-military, low-tax Democrats…like John F. Kennedy!
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TOP-10 STORM-OBSERVING PHOTOS from 2020
I’ve posted my top-10 in 2020 storm-intercept photos page a little early this year, and also, added links to each of the other years going back to 2010. Enjoy this journey through ten amazing skyscapes!
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UTERINE TRANSPLANTS? I didn’t even know uterine transplantation existed, much less is being done in East Dallas a couple miles from my old neighborhood. A marvel of modern medical science, the process only will get safer and smoother with time. Still, this seems an extreme measure for childless couples. If you want to plunk down a big bag of Jacksons to get a baby that’s genetically yours, that’s your call. I won’t deny your freedom to do so, but I also have the free-speech right to question it. I advocate for adoption instead, even knowing (through experiences of colleagues) how difficult it can be bureaucratically.

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CHUMP EFFECT: No, this has nothing to do with “Two Chumps” storm chasing. Instead, please take 10-15 minutes to indulge this long but worthwhile essay on the “Chump Effect” and why real, legitimate backlashes happen to “social justice”-justified injustices.
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VIRAL HYPOCRISY in the BOURGEOIS ELITE: Between California’s hypocritical governor at his fancy restaurant, and state legislators with their Hawaii junket, it’s all “Rules for thee, not for me.” But of course, that’s long been the case in politics. The hoity-toitys in the connected class are too important to abide by the rules they want to impose on us mere proletariat.

Let us eat cake! I’ve said it before and stand 100% by this: the virus is not partisan, and does not care about the purpose of the gatherings of its hosts. Also, masks are good for slowing spread, but as note below, not absolutely foolproof. The more people together (regardless of reason!), the riskier. That’s just scientifically based reality. Virology and immunology are what matter, not anyone’s opinion.

Conferences largely have been canceled, and will be until disease spread, some pre-existing coronaviral immunity a minority of people already have, and vaccines (which are coming and surprisingly effective in trails so far!) combine to bring about herd immunity. This conference was arrogant, ignorant and stupid. Even if nobody catches or spreads the illness from it, I stand resolutely by that statement. Those Who Are Above You are not learning lessons from both what medical science now knows about the Wuhan coronavirus, and what happened with the Rose Garden super-spreader event at the White House.
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HARMFUL BITTERNESS over ELECTION OUTCOME: I’ll have more to say about the outcome of the 2020 national election and the impacts of the Trump presidency once the final popular and electoral vote tallies are known. Getting the facts precisely and literally correct absolutely matters. Until then, and to the extent we can know the truth, it appears that the Biden/Harris (or for the sake of reality in the face of his obvious cognitive enfeeblement, Harris/Biden) won the executive election, while Democrats unexpectedly lost House seats and gained fewer in the Senate than anticipated (also pending Georgia). Nonetheless, some are very, very bitter.

I understand why and how she got there. Her attitude toward voting sounds like some friends regarding OU football after a particularly ugly loss. Still, reasoned and reasonable people, independent thinkers, must consider the long game. The more people like her throw in the towel, the more the acceleration into totalitarian collectivism will proceed apace. These are the fruits of the two-party duopoly, as are the lack of better options on the ballot. To every lash there is a backlash, however. And believe me, there will be one to Harris/Biden, both in the 2022 midterms and in the future. The left will overplay their hand. They always do, because they have no self-restraint. Watch. She may wish to participate in that backlash, in the voting booth, once she calms down.

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CORONAVIRUS MASK USE and SEX ABSTINENCE: The following is indisputable, objective fact. Pregnancy and venereal disease can be avoided by abstaining from sex. Period. This is irrefutable. For strict logical consistency, those promoting abstinence from sex for disease safety (and avoiding pregnancy) should be promoting abstinence from people to avoid the Wuhan virus too. I promote both kinds of abstinence. In both cases, the best option from a factual standpoint (and objective facts are what matter) is avoiding the risky behavior. Stay away from people the best you can until you either have had the disease, or a shot for it.

I recognize it’s harder with the Wuhan virus, because it’s airborne, highly contagious, and you don’t have to contact somebody’s genitals to get it. Masks are loosely analogous to condoms (but far leakier). Yet when you can’t avoid crowded public places, especially indoors, they absolutely are better than nothing, both for slowing transmission and reception of the airborne virus, but are far from foolproof. At least with consensual sex, that’s 100% a chosen and optional behavior, self-controlled (though people still fail to exercise said self control). So we still see venereal diseases spread. With avoiding contagious airborne viruses, it’s harder, because a lot of folks aren’t in a position to avoid being around others. Ultimately it’s about choosing to do the best we reasonably can to minimize spread, knowing there’s still risk of catching the virus anyway.
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“WOKE” LEFTISM as a MARKER of PRIVILEGE and ELITISM: Elitist, privileged, soft, sheltered, pampered little “woke” students have been, are, and are going to, get many millions of dollars in student loans covered by the taxpayers for this inane horseshit. A mind is a terrible thing to waste…on “social justice” propaganda.

Scattershooting 181203

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Scattershooting while wondering what happened to respect for the Constitution precisely as it was literally written…

NEIL TYSON SEXUAL MISCONDUCT ALLEGATIONS: Famous astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson has been accused of sexual misconduct. Did it happen? I don’t know and you don’t either. Still, as he noted in his eloquent and dignified response, even if the majority of the accused are guilty, some are not, and due process is needed. I’ll add, ALL accused in this nation are Constitutionally entitled to due process. The lynch mob of social-media opinion is unhelpful. Yes, I am aware of the overtones of the latter sentence, and yes, I state it deliberately, because it applies to these situations, as it did to Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh.

False accusations also do happen. The Duke Lacrosse and UVA Rolling Stone events are high-profile examples, and thousands more men (including at least two I know) have been accused falsely. Was Tyson? Or is he just lying in an eloquent and dignified manner? Again, you don’t know and neither do I. Other hot takes here that I’ve seen on Twitter include patently irrational ones to the effect of, “He’s guilty, because all men are to some extent”, “Believe her no matter what” and the dangerous and hypocritical, “Even if he’s innocent, the sacrifice of innocent men is worth it if it means justice in the end.” So instead of rushing to conclusions (were you in those rooms?), why don’t we be *mature* about this, avoid hot takes and “instapundit” reactions, evaluate credibility with facts, logic and reason (not emotion), and wait until more actual evidence arises, one way or another.

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PLAYOFF-BOUND SOONERS AGAIN: Beating the Whorns is a great occasion whenever it can happen, but especially in the Big 12 (-3) Championship game in JerryWorld. As Lincoln Riley rightly noted, OU earned the final playoff spot by beating every team on the schedule (including the one to which they had a close loss earlier). If other teams’ fans want to complain, my answer is straightforward: don’t get blown out by Purdue (tOSU) nor lose twice, including by 20+ to LSU (UGa). That said, as in the last two playoff appearances, and despite an insanely good offense led by the sort of dual-threat dynamo at QB that historically has given Saban defenses fits, expectations are tempered by a lack of defensive skill and talent that an occasional big turnover play only can cover so much. Yes, most of this defense’s problems are related to lack of talent. That is not going to go away in one month. Until OU recruits taller, stronger, stickier defensive backs, and gets back to bringing in powerful, disruptive interior defensive linemen in the Tommie Harris and Gerald McCoy modes, who can generate upfield pressure and collapse the pocket, improved coaching or scheming (which aren’t that evident yet) are only going to go so far. So we have no pass rush at all, and the secondary is undersized and easily confused. A high-scoring playoff loss is in OUr future, but regardless, it has been a fun and exciting season, one to remember well regardless of playoff results.

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PUBLICITY STUNTS in the SOCIAL-MEDIA ERA: Hey kiddos, the screen-capture below represents an outstanding example of what we know as a publicity stunt, as well as people falling for it. This is an activity designed to portray an image via social media, a form of passive-aggressive psychological manipulation. They’re crooks, but not dummies. They knew this would be filmed and propagated. Scanning Twitter responses and retweets, I see plenty of suckers for this false “commoner” schtick, despite the fabulous wealth and dubious history of both of these individuals. “No security”? That’s crap too. Bet your life savings there’s undercover Secret Service seated very near, since one of the passengers is an ex-President.

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R.I.P. GEORGE H.W. BUSH:
Our 41st President, George H.W. Bush, has passed on, and now is reunited with his bride of 73 years, Barbara. He is the only person I’ve met who ever was President. Then-Vice-President Bush visited an “at risk” youth job fair I was attending in Dallas in 1985, and I shook his hand and had a brief conversation. I was there seeking part-time summer work opportunities, and he was pleasant, congenial and seemed genuinely curious about my aspirations. I later didn’t agree with some of his presidential decisions; nevertheless, my admiration of him was and remains large. I don’t regret voting for him twice, especially given the alternatives, and thoroughly enjoyed my visit to his interesting and insightful library and museum in College Station. Few ever served this greatest of nations so long and honorably, from before the Japanese shot his plane down in the Pacific theater of WW2 to his successful fight to get Nixon out of office, loyal service to the great Ronald Reagan, to his post-presidential charitable works. Bush was a good man who fought for his nation in battle and inside the Beltway…and a statesman the likes of whom we haven’t seen in the presidency since. Much respect…

Scattershooting 170926

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Scattershooting while wondering why Mike Stoops is still OU’s defensive coordinator…nevermind: nepotism.

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HELP UNDERWAY AND ON THE WAY IN PR, VI

While many on social media are still wasting time playing “masters of the obvious” by sanctimoniously reminding everyone that Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are part of the U.S. (duh…of course they are…and 2+2=4 as well!), real military/governmental aid has arrived, is happening around-the clock, with more on the way. The latter is great news, and a development not covered to such an extent in the sensationalistic, corporate media as in this piece from USNI. The nonprofits (Salvation Army, Samaritan’s Purse, etc.), churches, and NGOs are swarming in to PR and USVI as well, and will remain after the media move on to the latest celebrity “scandals”. But help is happening and more is on the way, even if you are not being told about it. Pragmatically, the help can never be good enough, and the reality is that the scope of destruction and misery are large. Sadly, lives will be lost. The flip side: far more lives are being saved. The lives that are saved don’t get counted and mostly aren’t publicized. Those whose lives are spared by this aid may not even know it. But be assured it’s happening. Please keep donating at the links I provided so it can keep happening.

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RECOVERING COWBOYS’ WINNING STRATEGY
Winning ugly is still winning. The won/lost column doesn’t include style points. Watching the last 2-1/2 quarters of the hard-fought yet palliative Blue Star win in Glendale against the Cardinals, I was thinking, “this is how we win, whether we do tonight or not…get back to pounding it and keeping them honest with the deep ball!” The Denver debacle partly was the result of an amazing defensive scheme by them, with exactly the right personnel by the Broncos; Bruce Arians was spot-on in that pre-game assessment of the Cowboys. Yet he knew his team didn’t quite have that level of players, and could be worn down — he not-so-subtly hinted at such himself, before the game! And so it went. Recall in Denver how close the first 2-1/2 quarters were before the game got away. It also was a coaching and player-execution problem in terms of wandering astray from a formula that has won the Cowboys over 70% of games started by Prescott and Romo the last few years. The QB should be throwing less, but deeper. Instead of going into details that would be largely redundant with the following, I’ll simply present the following: a good analysis of what turned around and some improvements still to be made from Bryan Broaddus.
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FLEETING REALIZATIONS of a CLUMSY PERSON
There is that moment before the car door slams shut on the hand, or you’re sailing through the air over the handlebars of that bicycle, or those yellow jackets are swarming out of that hole in the ground beside the lawn mower, or that tree limb you thought you ducked enough to miss is closing in fast at eye level, where you realize things are about to get more painful. The flip side is thankfulness it wasn’t worse!
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ILLIBERAL LIBERALISM:
In this masterfully conceived column, Matt Walsh summarizes the problem with the poisonous combination of leftism and liberal Christianity well:

“Christians are “free” to think whatever thoughts they want in their heads (a generous concession, to be sure), and they’re “free” to be as religious as they want while within the walls of designated religion buildings, but anything beyond that is oppressive. Meanwhile, Leftists can force you to make a cake, they can force you to share the bathroom with the opposite sex, they can force you to fund the abortion industry, they can force you to pay for their birth control, they can force all sorts of beliefs and doctrines on your kids in the school system, they can literally march down the street half naked in a celebration of sodomy and hedonism, and none of that can be construed as oppressive. In fact, you’re oppressing them by objecting to it.

“It’s truly amazing that they’ve been able to frame the argument this way. Somehow, they succeeded in redefining “force” as “refusing to do what we tell you.” They were greedy in their lie, and it paid off. Rather than being satisfied with shoving their ideology down our throats and pretending they haven’t shoved it down our throats, they went for the home run and claimed that we’re shoving our beliefs down their throats by not swallowing whatever crap they feed us. And they got away with it. Many Christians have bowed down and apologized for not being quite submissive enough, and now they lay their like beaten dogs, awaiting instructions from their cultural overlords.”

Those are the so-called Christian Left, whose title is literally true when you read “left” as a verb, and who have fallen for (and genuflected to) the idol of worldly cultural fads, while losing sight of divine righteousness.