Spiderman

Fear of flying? No? You might want to reconsider. Authorities arrested a man who was attempting to board a plane while smuggling over 300 tarantulas, and hundreds of other creepy crawlies. On his person. 

What could possibly make him think this would work? Could it be experience? Perhaps this wasn't the first time, just the first time he was caught. Mull that over. Now, the next time you board a plane try your very best not to consider that the bloke sitting right beside you might be doing his very best to make sure hundreds of spiders don't break free. And that tingling feeling on your leg? That's all in your head.

Your Childhood Is Illegal

If you are pushing forty or are older, the childhood you enjoyed, the childhood that made you the adult you've become has been outlawed. You probably played. With other children. Without adult supervision. 

Then came molester vans.

Parents' paranoia went through the roof. No more free play. No more unsupervised anything. In the real world, parents became hyper-vigilant and unarguably over-protective.

Then came smart phones hosting social media. Irony set in. These helicopter parents allowed their little darlings unfettered, unsupervised access to the anything and everything on the internet in their little hands. Swipe at will. How could these same vigilant parents become so laissez faire?

Does it even matter?

Somebody thinks so. Seems evolution is a real thing, and we evolved to develop as humans by way of human interaction. As children. Often with other children. Exclusively. A necessary playhouse with no parents allowed.

But we've made that illegal. Right here in Georgia. A mother, in Mineral Bluff, is potentially facing a year in jail because her 11 year old son was out and about and decided to go to a nearby store. Less than a mile away. Some random busybody dropped a dime on the sheriff, who intervened with the full force of the law. We don't know anything about the busybody or if there is a backstory there. Never will. What we do know is that in your day an 11 year old was baby sitting neighborhood kids but now would not be allowed to walk to and from a neighbor's house.

This is beyond nanny state.

But How Do They Know?

Shortly after the election you probably  heard from CBN (Click Bait News) about the text messages sent to big b Black folks. Messages they, rightly, found offensive. Now CBN is reporting on offensive text messages being sent to italic l Latinos. Reactions range from disgust to "something must be done" even if that undermines our democracy. No one, definitely not CBN, is asking a key question.

How do they know? They being the folks sending these text messages. How do they know that a phone number is for a big b Black or a italic l Latino? Is there a directory with demographics somewhere? Is it on the dark web? Really? Do we have to fire up TOR to find out? Probably. No one in the fourth estate is going to tell us.

It could be something else. Maybe little w whites are getting these texts and just concluding: wrong number. Maybe CBN feels there are no clicks in reporting everything so they've selectively reported only those things they find profitable. 

So how do we find out? We probably can't and we'll probably never know.

Get Schooled

Biden went to Peru recently and got schooled by Xi Jinping. He should have already learned the lesson since his border tsar was faced with protests of "trade not aid" when she went on her tongue wagging tour down south. He knew the problem. They gave him the answer. He ignored it.

Xi has been listening. China is opening a major seaport in Peru. Is that "aid?" Yes. But in this case it is "aid" in support of trade. After all, that is what a seaport is for, isn't it?

You have to cut Biden some slack. Dead Aid is more than a book. It's an industry. One that is well entrenched in western countries, none more so that the U.S. It is a powerful industrial-governmental-nonprofit combine with many beneficiaries that sadly includes no one who is the alleged target of this aid. This system is dangerous and it will not be fixed from within. China will take care of it because they understand the real trade war.

Hope

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

Cry A River

Not A $1B Face Plant; Still A Problem

How Will They Kill Cytisine?

What? What is cytisine? It is a plant based compound that has been used for decades in Eastern Europe for smoking cessation. It is considered similar to varenicline and more studies indicate it is more effective than patches. Oh, and it has milder and fewer side effects. It is receiving broader interest outside of Eastern Europe. It is not available in the United States.

Want to guess why? Because it is easy to manufacture and it is inexpensive. 

Big Pharma is likely to team up with Big Gov to ensure this kind of competition does not invade their market. They've done it before, demonizing and all but outlawing a therapeutic used throughout the world, leaving US patients with nothing, until it was frankly too late. It's early days so now is the time to watch so you can see the opposition unfold. It is amazing if you will just look.

It's Not What You Say

And it isn't how you say it. It's what you don't say.

Case in point: not too long ago a city councilman was quoted in the Blue Bag Rag as saying "there is a lot of demand for services," without any evidence to back that up. How are the "demands" issued? To whom? Exactly who gets these? Name. Position. Who? Where can we get a copy of these demands? Where is the process for issuing demands documented? Is it publicly available? What is the definition of "a lot?" In the absence of clear, on point answers to these and other questions we're left to conclude we've just been treated to another politician spouting political bullshit in support of something that is out of touch with the public. But of course, nothing was said about this.

The same Rag has the City Manager confessing that staff are looking into any and every way they can possibly jack up the millage ceiling, with a rate hike to immediately follow. A favored approach is for the city management (bureaucrats) to bypass a referendum and unilaterally change the charter, eliminating the ceiling. There is also some blather about avoiding a decrease in city services. OK, what isn't said is how many of these "services" are the result of profligate spending of one-time COVID funds. Of course not. That would suggest that these "services" should go away, so let's not bring that up.

This "we don't need no stinkin' referendum" scheme was discussed on social media (surprise, surprise). The mayor chimed in and at no point clearly and definitively stated that there would be no rate hike, no ceiling lifted without a referendum, as was promised when the city was being sold to the voters. Instead, the mayor was crying poor-mouth because the founders of this city committed, then and for the future, that this city would be limited and spending would stay under control. The political blather sank into a claim that the State Farm complex would have been apartments were it not for the city, and yet, because of the city they're building apartment towers at State Farm. Can any politician put together two sentences without a contradiction? And nothing was said about keeping commitments made to the voters. There was something said about "solving this" (whatever that means) before leaving office, but that assumes there won't be a recall vote. If citizens must demand that their voices be heard at the ballot box do not be surprised if they rise up and do so.