Cultural Resiliency

How are we doing, America?

Apparently some think that a good way to answer that question is by asking, “What scares you most about the coming year?”

Things people fear:

• DC becoming a state
• Puerto Rico becoming a state
• Undocumented people becoming voters
• Becoming a Communist country
• America turning into Venezuela
• Packing the Court

Frank Luntz summarized:

• “They're afraid.”
• “They're petrified.”
• “They're nervous that the country won't be the same America that they remember.”
• “They're nervous that the social and the cultural aspects of the country are changing.”

When liberals hear such resistance to social and cultural change, they conclude conservatives are racists who “don't like black and brown people.” This is not correct.

America is changing in multiple ways, and there is a lot of nuance to how those changes work out. Changes in the racial composition of this country are not the same as changes in its ideological composition.

COVID-19 Vaccine Web site: 'you have no reasonable expectation of privacy'

The CDC's Vaccine Administration Management System requires this consent to begin registering for the vaccine:

Security Alert - This warning banner provides privacy and security notices consistent with applicable federal laws, directives, and other federal guidance for accessing this Government system, which includes all devices/storage media attached to this system. This system is provided for Government-authorized use only. Unauthorized or improper use of this system is prohibited and may result in disciplinary action and/or civil and criminal penalties. At any time, and for any lawful Government purpose, the government may monitor, record, and audit your system usage and/or intercept, search and seize any communication or data transiting or stored on this system. Therefore, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy. Any communication or data transiting or stored on this system may be disclosed or used for any lawful Government purpose.

(emphasis added)

Tech lanes

There's a limit to how much complexity a system can handle, especially when going outside one's longtime area of expertise.

Microsoft has long been a software company. It may be software that deals directly with hardware, but it's still primarily been about software.

The Surface line of products is an example of Microsoft venturing beyond software into hardware.

Who takes care of you?

While speaking on the House floor today, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was wearing a mask with writing on one side that said, “I take care of you,” and on the other side, “You take care of me.”

If this sounds like God's instructions to “love one another,” that's not a mistake. This is an intentional re-appropriation of instructions given to the individual and instead taken by the government.

More theater in the name of security

In the wake of the Capitol being overrun last week, “the most visible safety measure yet put in place” by House Acting Sergeant-at-Arms Timothy P. Blodgett is to put metal detectors in place at the entrances to the House floor.

For all other entrance screenings, such as at office buildings, Members of Congress have been not been required to pass through those screenings. (Interestingly, the late Sen. Tom Coburn would go through them.)

How would this have changed the incident last week?

3 Vaccine History Periods

I can identify 3 periods of vaccine use that are all very different from one another.

First, there was the kind where they discovered how to ward off debilitating diseases like polio. I'm old enough to remember an elderly man I knew as a child who was wheelchair-bound because he caught polio before he could be vaccinated against its paralyzing effects.

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