Random Observations - v4

Some random observations that I’ve collected over the past few weeks. Does it seem like the Babylon Bee has ascended to become our nation’s most reliable news source?

• Their little virtue signaling signs are everywhere. “Follow the Science!”, they said. It’s usually preceded by a list of dogmatic leftist beliefs. It’s proudly posted in their front yards on a colorful sign or sharing a bumper with some version of Coexist, Bernie!, and an upside down Darwin fish. But they don’t really mean follow the science.

Following science requires critical thinking and a questioning mind. What they really mean is that they are moral, right-thinking individuals that subscribe to the opinions of people in authority they consider to be experts, and the rest of us just need to shut up and obey. The field of science hasn’t been this politicized since the 15th century. Today’s its used more as a cudgel than a study of phenomena in the natural world.

A perfect example of this politicization is the various forms of vaccine mandates. If these were truly a science-based approach to limiting the spread of the virus, they would consider the natural immunity of the millions of people that have had Covid-19 and exempt them from the vaccine. They don’t. The only possible explanation for this approach is that it enables our totalitarian elites to demonstrate their ability to enforce their will on the rest of society.

• California just passed AB 1184 into law and Gov Gav gladly signed it. AB 1184 requires that medical providers of reproductive health services and “gender affirming care” (aka puberty blockers, hormones, and even surgery) conceal the abortion and gender related services they provide to minors from the minor’s parents or legal guardians. Now 12-year-old Johnny can become Jenny, being irreversibly damaged in the process, without his parents knowledge or consent. In California, we call this cutting edge progress (pun intended).

• One of the silver linings that have appeared through our pandemic nightmare is the new parental awareness of what our public education system is doing to our children. The public-school curriculum increasingly includes elements of critical race theory, intersectionality, anti-America propaganda, Marxist ideology, pornography, and promotion of deviant sexual behaviors. With kids doing remote school from home last year, parents began to take notice and many of them didn’t like what they saw. Add in the current ridiculous mask mandates for kids imposed by many school districts, at the urging of their local teacher’s union and you have a recipe for some parental pushback.

Across the nation moms and dads started speaking out at local school board meetings and expressing their extreme displeasure. The teachers’ unions and their hand-picked school boards across the nation didn’t appreciate this unwanted scrutiny over their realm, so the National Association of School Boards sent a letter to the DOJ claiming that, “America's public schools and its education leaders are under an immediate threat” and comparing angry parents to “domestic terrorists”.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has now issued a memorandum directing the FBI to work with local law enforcement agencies to begin implementing measures to “discourage these threats.” Honestly folks, you can’t make this stuff up!! Our federal government is deploying their elite law enforcement agency to deal with mom and dads that direct their displeasure at local school boards. We are literally watching our country disintegrate before the alter of woke incompetence, in real-time, before our very eyes. And I have absolutely no idea what to do about it. Pray! Pray fervently!

• Back in the early 2000s I spent a week working in Serembam, Malaysia. Since Malaysia had been tainted by the British Empire and drove on the left side of the road, I opted for using a driver from my hotel instead of renting a car to get to work. On the way into the job site one morning, while travelling in very heavy traffic I heard two police sirens approaching from behind us. I turned around and watched as the bumper-to-bumper cars did literally nothing to get out of the way to let the police cars pass. I asked the driver, “Aren’t there laws here that require drivers to get out of the way of emergency vehicles?”

He turned around with a smile and said, “The leadership here is corrupt and have very little credibility. The people no longer respect their authority, and we ignore them as much as we can.” The police cars remained stuck in traffic, falling even farther behind us, sirens blaring, lights flashing, and everyone on the road going about their business of trying to get to work, and paying them no attention.

“Hmm”, I thought, “So that’s what it means to be a banana republic.” Fast forward twenty years, and it seems our own federal government has achieved the same result!

• There are all kinds of hidden costs associated with our society’s increasing level of criminality. I was recently at a job site in an urban setting to help their maintenance group with some pump station improvements. All the necessary personnel were there, so being the impatient person I am, I asked if we should go on in and get started.

“No,” The lead tech said, “we have to wait until one of our other guys gets here so he can stay outside and watch the vehicles.” Apparently, over the past year, they have had thousands of dollars of tools stolen, and thousands of dollars of vehicle damage (broken windows and missing catalytic converters) when they leave their trucks unattended. So, their policy now requires that they always have an extra man outside to stand guard.

Keep your doors locked!