tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88714191148263015822024-03-13T04:51:27.124-04:00Post AvenueReflections on personal experience and issues of our dayAnn Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.comBlogger82125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-23529741928566230192023-08-29T19:22:00.000-04:002023-08-30T00:49:51.373-04:007 States Later . . .<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiact3DMrV1bB1WyH-NZbmagAmFpJz51ZB71-v_xaRwULyF7Uw599VRLDRq0oVqaNjvw4KB7UC8tbtC6znBwWJv4yyDdFrYfeC7l4auTs_NXYCqXKaulchT_JH8vavP3H_9gj3eYzjsPtHQfqa3iVmLOFsoUG_ER9vdl9twhywcxO0W6d5FMQbQKheA3Zbn/s4032/SpringPoppies-4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiact3DMrV1bB1WyH-NZbmagAmFpJz51ZB71-v_xaRwULyF7Uw599VRLDRq0oVqaNjvw4KB7UC8tbtC6znBwWJv4yyDdFrYfeC7l4auTs_NXYCqXKaulchT_JH8vavP3H_9gj3eYzjsPtHQfqa3iVmLOFsoUG_ER9vdl9twhywcxO0W6d5FMQbQKheA3Zbn/s320/SpringPoppies-4.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Spring desert poppies in Arizona</i></span></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Last February we said goodbye to our home in St. Augustine, Florida, and drove across lots of states until we reached the snowy forests of central Arizona. I am still trying to adjust to this new home--which explains the nearly eight-month absence from this blog.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Old as I am, it
became clear soon after the moving van dropped off our stuff and
left that my flexibility for so much change ain't what it used to be. </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Everything is different in this town we chose: </span></span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Elevation (we went from 36 feet above sea level to 5000 feet [and there are consequences to that])</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Summer, spring, winter, and a fall</span><br /></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">An appalling lack of bagel shops</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Most major retailers don't seem to know about this place <br /></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Limited medical services </span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Five trash collection companies you have to somehow pick among and hire one<br /></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Jaw-dropping panoramas along any highway</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Friendly people</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Lots and lots of dogs</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Granite-based soil you can't push yard decorations into without power tools</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Troops of elk that roam the town and help themselves to your roses and pear trees <br /></span></span></li></ul><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXDD4efV-K3En0n7z_OO5-ysoS3Uh-VzA_fe5S2VND1ZZj2ieakbfc-PrsnEnPjuSicoMKZ-3UPRH_xgc305dFeM4Ul0nntZdHhZLHFPlp5JyVE9Yv-PxDV_2Rn9wQbZx2RVgffHAAzZ0v1z1CLGqEX0POZWmqAs-EOc-Lk2tx9eqxYHv6yhlFoQhMBU5J/s2537/Rodeo2023-4.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2537" data-original-width="2112" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXDD4efV-K3En0n7z_OO5-ysoS3Uh-VzA_fe5S2VND1ZZj2ieakbfc-PrsnEnPjuSicoMKZ-3UPRH_xgc305dFeM4Ul0nntZdHhZLHFPlp5JyVE9Yv-PxDV_2Rn9wQbZx2RVgffHAAzZ0v1z1CLGqEX0POZWmqAs-EOc-Lk2tx9eqxYHv6yhlFoQhMBU5J/s320/Rodeo2023-4.jpeg" width="266" /></a></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">When we left St. Augustine we lost our right to brag about living in America's oldest city. I knew I was going to miss that. But now we live in a town that hosts the country's longest-running rodeo, which of course we went to see last week. Few shows can match the spectacle of women racing their agile steeds around barrels in the dark brown dirt or young men hanging on desperately while thrashing broncos try to throw them to the ground.<br /></span></span><div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">We are beginning to learn the politics of the place and the layout of the local Walmart, but we have a long way to go. All of you who have moved a long, long way to a very different home know what I mean. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">More later from the Grand Canyon State.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></span><br /></p></div>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-73940213817383296532022-05-27T11:25:00.002-04:002022-05-28T15:30:08.063-04:00In Praise of Dracula<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7hiTYlceqfSYIlSLFDSWbBORfED1VEfQF3Dm8RUanR-Py0N7m1No5ZETYcszUyYybyFDotVdGlNU8valrZKAGFOY1yKWUVzoCP3xkSTJDt64-N2V5YRlnXiWWQYdpWFy6rkvMSs7kTIHNRlREieZ7jyvfXHux1HrFK8QFqAb3j-XIWi-uC8ghjB5cGA/s640/DraculaCover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7hiTYlceqfSYIlSLFDSWbBORfED1VEfQF3Dm8RUanR-Py0N7m1No5ZETYcszUyYybyFDotVdGlNU8valrZKAGFOY1yKWUVzoCP3xkSTJDt64-N2V5YRlnXiWWQYdpWFy6rkvMSs7kTIHNRlREieZ7jyvfXHux1HrFK8QFqAb3j-XIWi-uC8ghjB5cGA/s320/DraculaCover.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">I
speak not of the creature, but of the book. If you have not yet read
the original tale by Bram Stoker, first presented to the world in 1897,
then you can be sure you do not know the story at all. I thought I did,
having enjoyed Bela Lugosi's famous portrayal of the fiend, as well as
Frank Langella's mesmerizing interpretation of the bloodthirsty count. </span><p></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">But
none of this Hollywood mishmash presents Stoker's actual tale of
knee-buckling terror, courage, and faith. It's an important story for
our time, as evil seems to loom larger than ever today over what we were
used to calling normal life. Daily we hear of dark goings-on at a scale
we can hardly grasp, frightening machinations hidden in the
shadows, unholy deals struck behind a screen of deceit. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Halfway
through <i>Dracula</i>, Dr. Seward records in his diary a conversation with
Dr. Van Helsing, the one man who understands fully what they are up
against with the vampire:</span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">"Dr.
Van Helsing, are you mad?" [I asked]. He raised his head and looked at
me, and somehow the tenderness of his face calmed me at once. "Would I
were!" he said. "Madness were easy to bear compared with truth like
this." </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Have we not felt the same at discoveries we make while reading the morning's news (and
I am not referring to stories found in the mainstream misinformation
media)? <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">While <i>Dracula</i>
is a masterful tale of terror, it is much more. It is a story of heroic
bravery in the face of incomprehensible darkness, of men joining forces
to defend their women from ruin, of the triumph of this solidarity,
armed with the sword of Christian faith, against terrible odds. Sound
relevant?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Stoker
tells his story in a collection of diary entries, letters, and other
writings all penned by the various characters as their adventure
unfolds. This intricate account of their contest, the struggle for the very souls of their loved ones, offers as many lessons today as it did more than a
century ago.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">_____<br /><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Pictured: The Barnes & Noble Classics edition of </i>Dracula<i> by Bram Stoker, 2003. Quote, page 209.</i></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p><p><br /></p>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-91860673051936081352022-03-24T16:41:00.000-04:002022-03-24T16:48:06.900-04:00Who's Bombing Whom in Ukraine?<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjh2vv2nzmFjzkrjfq7TOzs6IXmtPMKDn51Ie61MXOQfYjr8vcGbr04s6eGsSV_UmlnzsPr2vWMKKZGQoci9XWxLzuUff-1BtFHt7Y1AASX5Dz7SKV5LZG5q0Q5psHYldmrP2mP_XQ9WmOkq8RCVGdG8d4OBtswKneevycbCru7KxFyKi_a53qX1x0sg/s630/Mariupol.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="630" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjh2vv2nzmFjzkrjfq7TOzs6IXmtPMKDn51Ie61MXOQfYjr8vcGbr04s6eGsSV_UmlnzsPr2vWMKKZGQoci9XWxLzuUff-1BtFHt7Y1AASX5Dz7SKV5LZG5q0Q5psHYldmrP2mP_XQ9WmOkq8RCVGdG8d4OBtswKneevycbCru7KxFyKi_a53qX1x0sg/s320/Mariupol.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Apartment building in Mariupol, ca. 2019.</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">We should certainly have learned during the last two-plus years of Covid drama and deception that things are not always what our unified press would have us think. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now we are asked to believe the reverberating story of unmitigated Russian aggression against an innocent and helpless Ukraine. Little to no background information appears in the mainstream media about the history of this conflict, about Ukraine's war against the separatists in the eastern part of their country who want to rejoin Russia (or at least get to speak their language and live a normal life), or President Zelensky's tactics since gaining office in a landslide three years ago.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Meanwhile, Zelensky issues impassioned pleas to the West for more arms and ever-tougher sanctions against their attacker. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Into this vacuum, the ever insightful and straight-talking Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has released his take on the conflict. It's long, fascinating, and fully footnoted. You can read it <b><a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/abp-vigano-globalists-have-fomented-war-in-ukraine-to-establish-the-tyranny-of-the-new-world-order/" target="_blank">here</a></b>. You'll be glad you did. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Allow me to provide a few highlights from the essay. First, Vigano provides a link to Zelensky's campaign spot when running for President of Ukraine. It shows his machine-gun (literally) approach to anyone in his government who was allied with a "corrupt" Russia. The fact that Zelensky was an actor and comedian cannot soften the horror of this ad: <b><a href="https://twitter.com/saluti37/status/1497895823962636290" target="_blank">Campaign spot</a></b>.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Apparently, his campaign strategy worked. In 2019 Zelensky won the presidency and promptly got to work. The Archbishop's essay tells us:<br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">He [Zelensky] liquidated the ministers of the old guard, first of all the powerful
Minister of the Interior, [Arsen] Avakov. He rudely retired the
president of the Constitutional Court who was acting as a check on his
laws. He closed seven opposition TV channels. He arrested and accused of
treason Viktor Medvedcuk, a pro-Russian sympathizer but above all the
leader of the <em>Platform of Opposition – For Life</em> party, the second party of the Ukrainian Parliament after his <em>Servant of the People </em>party.
He is also placing on trial for treason former President Poroshenko,
who was suspicious of everyone except for those who got along with the
Russians or their friends. The mayor of Kiev, the popular former world
boxing champion Vitaly Klitchko, has already been subjected to several
searches and seizures. In short, Zelenskyy seems to want to make a clean
sweep of anyone who is not aligned with his politics (<a href="https://www.fanpage.it/esteri/chi-e-volodymir-zelensky-il-presidente-comico-dellucraina-con-cui-e-meglio-non-scherzare/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">here</a>).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Zelensky is a member of the mighty World Economic Forum (crafters of The Great Reset) and has admitted that one of his heroes is Justin Trudeau of Canada. (If you followed Mr.Trudeau's approach to "caring" for his population during the last two years, this will tell you a lot.) And last year, "on February 4, 2021, the Ukrainian president shut down seven television stations, including <em>ZIK, Newsone</em> and <em>112 Ukraine</em>, all guilty of not supporting his government." They were accused of being "under malign Russian influence." </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Vigano also discusses the Nazi organizations in Ukraine. Any country can be home to such extreme groups, but in Ukraine they are recognized by the government and tasked with assisting in military operations. This includes employing the brutal Azov Battalion, an extreme nationalist group that the U.S. Senate suspended our help in training, until the CIA overruled that decision and brought them to our own shores to learn to become even more effective at crushing their opposition.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">The press has been reporting here in the U.S. that the Russians have been bombing Ukrainian cities mercilessly since February. Maybe that's true. But what are we to make of footage shot by French journalist Anne-Laure Bonnell back in 2017 in the Donbass region of Ukraine showing the grim remnants of residences bombed by the Ukrainian government, of families huddled underground, of grieving parents of murdered children? They are indistinguishable from today's images of blackened apartment buildings that the Russians are supposed to have incinerated. Watch the 2017 video <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Oh-IE2zmJc" target="_blank">here</a></b> (in French).<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"> And in a recent report from the ground, Ms. Bonnell attests pointedly that the destruction she was witnessing in Donbass was at the hand of the Ukrainian army rather than the Russian army. Watch <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAusGl5R0uk" target="_blank">here</a></b> (in French).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">So this war is very complex, and as in many wars, looks can be deceiving. Someone once said that in war, the first casualty is always the truth. May God help and comfort all the innocent people caught in the middle of this one, and bring the truth forward.</span></span></p><p> <br /></p>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-40317303452403895342021-10-20T10:58:00.003-04:002021-10-21T11:21:47.065-04:00The Accidentally-on-Purpose Broken Supply Chain<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2rRzuLntrmRvTItH-bLVv-I52r_Hzuotbeeb5axQWOc9VXPrLqmpmxkb5IK-oYYdUxcUmgCsX53S3LgMhiC_oY4pRnf4ittiJj_BgRO8-ZBc03eMnxZw49KqTxCEfOGlkEfmbi1isWfOR/s1287/PeteButtigieg.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="858" data-original-width="1287" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2rRzuLntrmRvTItH-bLVv-I52r_Hzuotbeeb5axQWOc9VXPrLqmpmxkb5IK-oYYdUxcUmgCsX53S3LgMhiC_oY4pRnf4ittiJj_BgRO8-ZBc03eMnxZw49KqTxCEfOGlkEfmbi1isWfOR/s320/PeteButtigieg.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Sec. of Transportation Pete Buttigieg*</span></span></i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This morning a couple of news stories pulled together for me what might underlie our growing supply shortages. One story described the chaos in a California port city, where shipping containers, now being unloaded from ships on a 24-hour schedule thanks to the resourceful Biden Administration's plan. They were then being parked on residential streets after being emptied since the trucking company had no more room on its lot for the empty containers.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The article from Breitbart quoted Pete Buttigieg, who's just getting back to work after a long paternity leave. Two things our Secretary of Transportation said raised crimson flags for me, as he tried to explain why things were such a gosh-darn tangle right now:</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">"There are so many pieces to the supply chain, and most of them are in private hands." Pause. The only word missing from that sentence is <i>unfortunately</i>, but it is implied. Would shipping and delivery work a lot better if the government ran it? Maybe Pete and his colleagues are angling to solve our supply chain woes by the sure remedy of sovietizing the complex business of getting product to market. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">He continued: "The Administration can act as an honest broker, and that's what we're doing . . . . There are $17 billion in port improvements in the President's infrastructure bill, and they're urgently needed."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Bingo. <i>So pass that (grotesquely inflated) infrastructure bill if you want to see this supply situation get any better!</i> is what he's saying. I see Pete has this nailed down.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Then I looked at a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/grocery-store-shoppers-surging-prices" target="_blank">Fox News story</a> that gave us man-on-the-street reactions, from a Costco parking lot, to half-empty grocery shelves and distinctly higher prices that these shoppers were seeing. One was a man who ran a grocery store himself. Unable to get product delivered to his store (he felt the supplies are going primarily to the very large retailers), he was buying cartfuls of groceries in an effort to stock his own store's shelves, while having to raise his prices 10 to 20 percent.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">If the small merchant was not run out of business by a prolonged Covid lockdown, he now struggles with an embarrassingly small inventory and sharply higher prices for his customers; not to mention being understaffed due to the mad labor shortage. This is not a prescription for success in the retail world.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">So if any of us suspected that the lockdowns unfairly targeted small businesses (I do), the current supply chain fiasco is dealing them another mighty blow. Debacles at this level are almost never accidental--to wit, the Afghanistan withdrawal. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisdqkao4L6BXAarnhKMVFZqehRhFSKv-CPvHxOKpnWX4USf6VzAxCbQBH265r0wbGqWRjTMnR29jc8D6KeeKRPF4Qhajq30gfEoDahebQYeynQ1TaiPh6P2kOSkDzL1eirOTu_WVJIbmKo/s474/LimboStick.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="474" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisdqkao4L6BXAarnhKMVFZqehRhFSKv-CPvHxOKpnWX4USf6VzAxCbQBH265r0wbGqWRjTMnR29jc8D6KeeKRPF4Qhajq30gfEoDahebQYeynQ1TaiPh6P2kOSkDzL1eirOTu_WVJIbmKo/w200-h174/LimboStick.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Of course, none of these things are really a problem if we just, as the Administration advises us, lower our expectations. But how low do we have to go, Joe? I'm sure he is going to show us.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span><i>Update 10-21-2021:</i> We must spread the credit where due for today's shipping troubles. The World Bank and IHS Markit, in their <a href="https://ihsmarkit.com/research-analysis/new-global-container-port-performance-index-cppi.html" target="_blank">ranking for efficiency</a> of more than 300 ports around the globe, put the L.A. and Long Beach ports near the bottom. Also, California's <a href="https://www.scdigest.com/ONTARGET/21-10-20_SURPREME_COURT_TO_DECIDE_TO_HEAR_AB5_CASE_FOR_TRUCKERS.PHP" target="_blank">Assembly Bill 5</a> (AB 5) has been credited with throwing that state's trucking operations into tumult since 2020. Port operations, of course, rely heavily on the truckers who take the products away, making room for more unloading. <br /></span></span></span></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">___________</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>*Photo credit: Reuters/Carlo Allegri</i></span></span></p><p> <br /></p><p> <br /></p><p> <br /></p>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-31947902966231457092021-10-09T17:17:00.000-04:002021-10-09T17:17:50.037-04:00Please Wear a Mask in the Living Room<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizbxZW8r3zuHTdfB7VRYFxHxVdErZSi0wt3D8s5y44XZb-8eg2Bbk32as0zdIRHAQPn0UuNz9MEArvKAPNQ8zy3h518zMxQepzp4u4GS3PSCJB6QOCb4AfIIijUwMgsDB0pi21rPB4CT9w/s2048/Swamp-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizbxZW8r3zuHTdfB7VRYFxHxVdErZSi0wt3D8s5y44XZb-8eg2Bbk32as0zdIRHAQPn0UuNz9MEArvKAPNQ8zy3h518zMxQepzp4u4GS3PSCJB6QOCb4AfIIijUwMgsDB0pi21rPB4CT9w/s320/Swamp-1.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Legendary Okefenokee Swamp</span></i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>My husband and I just came back from a brief getaway to the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. I've always wanted to see that legendary wetland. We had reservations for the night at a charming bed and breakfast nearby but were surprised, when we arrived, to be greeted by the proprietor in a mask. His wife soon joined us, also in a mask. Oh yeah, I remembered, we're not in Florida any more. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Our hosts seemed a little nervous as they welcomed us to their B&B, and at the end of a brief tour of the home, the husband mentioned that when we use the common areas, that is, the living room (the only room in the inn with a television, by the way), we will need to wear a mask. "Oh," I laughed, "we'll be in our room. Once you read the scientific reports on masks, you won't want to wear one again." He chuckled in a puzzled way but asked no questions. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">We carried in our slight luggage wondering how intelligent, competent people at this point can still think that wearing cloth masks makes any difference in the battle against the virus. We ran into this delusion again when we visited the main visitors center at the swamp, which is run primarily by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife folks. Feds, that is. Here again we had to don the useless face gear to explore their exhibits, look around the little gift shop, and book a boat tour of the swamp. <br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYfT8S7bYgkYrisT12Stng_Ry5B1PMoA4jVUjk8DbTHxRfz2EB72knwlIu4mMw6RC3vyF18_z4G2DUss1TyHbQGqDt2U7yyKXLIFB0hQZPCFqqfcddfjPzNCZ_URaD0vzgycEdQxJJfqdB/s2048/Diner.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1553" data-original-width="2048" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYfT8S7bYgkYrisT12Stng_Ry5B1PMoA4jVUjk8DbTHxRfz2EB72knwlIu4mMw6RC3vyF18_z4G2DUss1TyHbQGqDt2U7yyKXLIFB0hQZPCFqqfcddfjPzNCZ_URaD0vzgycEdQxJJfqdB/w200-h152/Diner.jpeg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">We enjoyed getting to know the blackwater swamp, though, and the small neighboring town of Folkston. (Supper in the local fried chicken diner gave us a good meal and a comfortable feeling of life in a smaller place, where everyone who walked in greeted people they knew and entered into animated conversations about shared interests and enterprises.) </span></span><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVi5mgRMkUhFTpQWwrlh3u95EdIvNg28D_APuZz3OTh6uF5_wi_B5vuzmhOujKSD8nPkI93ISDjmqVySx_f6GxaONWPhvUquax7VucNtT9QhTyityl-G3D12amy5rzjDJ7NP1d8QeJGfig/s2048/IMG_9072.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVi5mgRMkUhFTpQWwrlh3u95EdIvNg28D_APuZz3OTh6uF5_wi_B5vuzmhOujKSD8nPkI93ISDjmqVySx_f6GxaONWPhvUquax7VucNtT9QhTyityl-G3D12amy5rzjDJ7NP1d8QeJGfig/s320/IMG_9072.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>By Georgia's famous Folkston Funnel tracks</i></td></tr></tbody></table>Then there were the long freight trains that sang to us in our bed, not too loudly, as they rolled through the dark town. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">We headed home to the
Sunshine State the next day and were again grateful for living here,
where rules and regulations involve more common sense than in most of the
country, especially when it comes to the virus. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">There's no doubt that many people everywhere are still afraid of the virus and will follow
disproven protocols "just to be safe," as they tell me. When will all of this pretending finally end, and people be able to look reality in the eye and say what's true about the virus and what measures work and which absolutely do not? We continue to wait, taking some comfort in such things as the magnificent and timeless Okefenokee Swamp and the dutiful trains that continue to run through Folkston, Georgia, taking things where they need to go. <br /></span></span></span></span></p>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-62719260460349355442021-08-27T13:13:00.000-04:002021-08-27T13:13:22.973-04:00Shhh! The FBI Report Came Out<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdXMx3ayHtdgD6_rQCGv0Uc3dxc9hidMX9DrQtcEmITHK456XC5_DekhT0sqRgjUVnDrsLRXAxw_RqYEhAm2WLFy4aN72jVqSnmf77JkEmxFGTVv3-JGrh7tjdjn6Demc0brRXmN8LlOtH/s271/ShhhQuiet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="271" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdXMx3ayHtdgD6_rQCGv0Uc3dxc9hidMX9DrQtcEmITHK456XC5_DekhT0sqRgjUVnDrsLRXAxw_RqYEhAm2WLFy4aN72jVqSnmf77JkEmxFGTVv3-JGrh7tjdjn6Demc0brRXmN8LlOtH/s0/ShhhQuiet.jpg" width="271" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">While the Taliban's dizzying advance upon Kabul dominated the news last weekend, the FBI quietly released the results of their investigation into the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. They were largely hunting for evidence that this had been a planned, coordinated attack on the Capital by far-right groups, with the goal of overturning the 2020 election results or otherwise taking control of the U.S. Government. </span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> What did they discover? The FBI "at this point believes the violence was not centrally coordinated" and found "no evidence that [President Trump] or people directly around
him were involved."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">To quote the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-fbi-finds-scant-evidence-us-capitol-attack-was-coordinated-sources-2021-08-20/" target="_blank">Reuters report</a>:</span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">"Ninety to ninety-five percent of these are one-off cases," said a former
senior law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation.
"Then you have five percent, maybe, of these militia groups that were
more closely organized. But there was no grand scheme with Roger Stone
and Alex Jones and all of these people to storm the Capitol and take
hostages." <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">So much for the loud cries of <i>Insurrection!</i> and <i>Domestic Terrorism!</i> that have been flung by authorities, politicians, and rank and file liberals at all those who were peacefully present near the Capitol on that date or anyone who questioned the validity of the highly questionable election results that put Joe Biden in office. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This report will be a blow to Democrats, for whom characterizing that event as an unprecedented act of terrorism by Trump supporters was key to painting their opposition as a dangerous force that must be put down by any means necessary. After the event, this alleged crisis justified erecting fencing and posting a large military force outside the Capitol building to protect it from the imaginary mob to come, as well as deplatforming and censoring conservative voices on the Internet--including former President Trump himself--that mentioned election fraud or any number of topics that got stamped as "misinformation." After all, this was war. The nation was at stake! <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">William Moloney, writing for <i>The Hill</i>, provided an <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/has-the-fbi-demolished-democrats-insurrection-narrative-about-jan-6/ar-AANJpQ7?ocid=BingNewsSearch" target="_blank">insightful analysis</a> of the impact of the FBI report. He raises a question about the many Americans arrested in connection with January 6, still waiting for a trial. Why is that? Is the prosecution uncomfortable with what would come out at a trial, such as evidence of culpability but not on the part of defendants?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">If such evidence does indeed emerge and make clear the events of that day, in contrast to the broadcast narrative, I wonder how much news coverage it will get. Probably no more than the FBI report got, a mere whisper beneath the booming cannons of the latest calamity.</span></span></p><p><br /></p>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-67494490240728361172021-08-23T13:00:00.002-04:002021-08-27T11:51:04.346-04:00Covid: Prevent It or Treat It?<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Update 8/27/2021: A study just released in Israel demonstrates the huge advantage people have who have recovered from Covid versus those who have been vaccinated, in terms of resisting new infection. This is another argument for putting energy into <b>properly treating</b> Covid patients rather than trying to inoculate everyone. Study details are <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9930855/Natural-immunity-Covid-infection-stronger-vaccination-Israeli-study-suggests.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></i> <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBENIOOxzL-jsba0CH-YrOuN_2rvzEi_OaTaITTUTRtvjRV8SVtFP4MRLtgGRsV0Wl39z_6AtsjVEnFvvA_arsn8vjZVlgaRALGLW18UwnZnF3iEf-R0znxzUuYjX-qmt6VGxp-nf6rn-v/s612/Fear-2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="490" data-original-width="612" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBENIOOxzL-jsba0CH-YrOuN_2rvzEi_OaTaITTUTRtvjRV8SVtFP4MRLtgGRsV0Wl39z_6AtsjVEnFvvA_arsn8vjZVlgaRALGLW18UwnZnF3iEf-R0znxzUuYjX-qmt6VGxp-nf6rn-v/w200-h160/Fear-2.jpg" width="200" /></a></span><span style="font-size: large;">New waves of fear are sweeping the country over the rising number of positive Covid tests. (Note that I did not say "cases" since that word has in the past </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">always </span></span>meant actual sick people and still should.)</span></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">These rising numbers have propelled a variety of governors, medical professionals, and our own family members to urge us to, for heaven's sake, get the shot. Putting the vaccine into the arms of every citizen is our only hope! they cry.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">But is it? An article today in the Epoch Times reveals that in Israel more than half of current Covid hospital patients were fully vaccinated. Indeed, Israel has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world (around 78 percent), but is suffering mightily in this latest wave.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">And here in Florida, the data graphs from our own Department of Health seem to give the lie to the "more vaccinating, less Covid" mantra (<b><a href="https://floridahealthcovid19.gov/" target="_blank">see those graphs here</a></b> and go to "Weekly Florida Covid-19 Data").</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It is also instructive to look at Florida's Covid mortality numbers. These show a roughly 6-month pattern in the virus fatality spikes. For the current spike, many will point to the arrival of the Delta variant for explanation. I wonder.*</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQtSm7qA0fgvd2UZmSHoeOoQOaEZlMVOOTnRG-2BdRTPCbfMM4vaMRPqQZM20kwlLF-FdiCjO5PmAvn6FSZURs4nJ1t4y5oVbzYcl6eZ1T_GKNAf26LfrejETC0GWAjA9pLnkGBEbN1CU5/s1247/Screenshot+2021-08-23+at+11-59-22+covid19_data_latest+pdf.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1247" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQtSm7qA0fgvd2UZmSHoeOoQOaEZlMVOOTnRG-2BdRTPCbfMM4vaMRPqQZM20kwlLF-FdiCjO5PmAvn6FSZURs4nJ1t4y5oVbzYcl6eZ1T_GKNAf26LfrejETC0GWAjA9pLnkGBEbN1CU5/w363-h144/Screenshot+2021-08-23+at+11-59-22+covid19_data_latest+pdf.png" width="363" /></a></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> But let's suppose the Delta variant is driving more infection, which in turn is sending more people to the hospitals and even to their deaths. It's an established fact that viruses mutate. How many variants of Covid-19 will we be faced with? How can we possibly keep up with the vaccine development needed for the variants to come? </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">On the other hand, we could focus on <i>treatment</i>. Instead of trying to inject a controversial serum into everyone's arm, even those who are unwilling, we could use known therapies to treat patients with Covid. Most of these proven approaches have been forcefully repressed (hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin) to the point that doctors do not dare prescribe them for fear of losing their jobs. Aggressive vitamin mixtures have also seen good results. However, since these do not appear in the CDC's official protocol for treating in-hospital Covid patients, they are not being used. This defies all medical sense and even simple logic, but we have seen such unexplainable behavior a lot during the course of this pandemic.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">My advice: Know what your choices are should you fall ill with this virus, and stand your ground. Here is a <b><a href="https://rumble.com/vktdpt-our-first-hand-icu-story-what-is-actually-killing-people-in-the-hospital.html" target="_blank">revealing account</a></b> of one woman's effort to get her husband effective treatment for what a hospital labeled "Covid pneumonia," and how she succeeded--to the hospital staff's great surprise.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">And there are resources and more information at: <a href="https://americasfrontlinedoctors.org/" target="_blank">America's Frontline Doctors</a>.</span></span> </p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">______</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">*Note: Florida is making available monoclonal antibody treatments for people at high risk who have contracted Covid or been exposed to it. More info <a href="https://floridahealthcovid19.gov/" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>.</span></span><br /></p>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-51823934988071377112021-07-13T14:00:00.004-04:002021-07-13T14:00:20.222-04:00Report from Italy<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span></span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB36VAKKrbwIPKAmtcclVo2wH6QjzDVJ9enC7jKQkpvXhp7oXFQ5I-woV880nXkTPe-aW4Mx4LCeJ9to6SoekUMtCCvQlOH7Wrj7fFFevm2FT3nR3I4FkPQCImGTLxi7O_ctfyn18tOei9/s270/Italy--TowerOfPisa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB36VAKKrbwIPKAmtcclVo2wH6QjzDVJ9enC7jKQkpvXhp7oXFQ5I-woV880nXkTPe-aW4Mx4LCeJ9to6SoekUMtCCvQlOH7Wrj7fFFevm2FT3nR3I4FkPQCImGTLxi7O_ctfyn18tOei9/s0/Italy--TowerOfPisa.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">At a sandwich shop recently, I approached a customer in a well-fitting athletic outfit. I had overheard him mention that
he was from Italy. I wanted to know a little about whether Italy was
really open to travelers now since my son wants to go there in September
to see a specialist for some back problems.</span>
<p></p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span><div class="default-style" style="color: #333333;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>The man--we'll
call him Paolo--was in his 40s, I'd say, a strapping fellow with a
winning smile and an eagerness to talk about his home country. Yes, he said, your son could go there for medical care, but he will need to take PCR tests. And there are some curfews.<br /></span></span></span></div><div class="default-style" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span> </span></span></span></div><div class="default-style" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>He then shared
with us details on the situation in Italy. He himself had just moved his
business (he is a biologist) from Italy to Florida. He declared that the whole
virus panic was "bulls---" and was done to advance the agenda of
socialism. He agreed that it had nothing to do with science and pointed
to the deliberate suppression of known medicines that could have treated
coronavirus patients.</span></span></span>
</div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span><div class="default-style" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span><div class="default-style" style="color: #333333;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>Paolo said the
situation in Italy is much worse than we know. People, especially
journalists and lawyers whom he knows, are scared. They are afraid that
what they write, or whom they choose to defend in court, will land them
in jail. They are afraid that if they wait much longer their passports
may be taken from them and they will not be able to leave Italy. So,
many are making the move to the U.S., especially to Florida, now. (This
description immediately reminded us of the terrible decisions good
people in Germany had to make in the 1930s.)</span></span></span>
</div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span><div class="default-style" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span><div class="default-style" style="color: #333333;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>He said that
he believes the government is heading toward declaring another lockdown
this summer on any pretext and believes it is all engineered to bring
about socialism across Europe. I said we had similar problems here in
the U.S. with the current Administration, but he replied, looking at me
solemnly, "In Italy it is much worse. All of Europe is almost lost." He
mentioned Spain in particular, and how there is still a strong fascist
vein that runs through the country. He said that policemen there had struck
women, even older ones, whom they found not wearing masks, and
bystanders applauded. </span></span></span>
</div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span><div class="default-style" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span><div class="default-style" style="color: #333333;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>We thanked him
for the conversation, welcomed him to America, and after a handshake,
left him on the bench outside the shop to continue studying his Florida
driver's manual.</span></span></span>
</div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span><div class="default-style" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span><div class="default-style" style="color: #333333; font-family: helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>I had
not heard this level of detail even in alternative news sources, and I walked to the car more shaken than ever. </span></span></span>
</div>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-69427652328651120682021-04-16T18:59:00.004-04:002021-04-16T19:03:57.155-04:00Should I Get the Shot?<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_DRIjwee_4HumphxeSNHH1mN1fgfcfLlAkKPPCEpFLMVR7S0X7mtxrf2Fg9_wT-RTpxxuJlyWWfsHjHjph_z5nEAW3xwDJwnSxKPXXN8m6HfdV5Qn4KedWwCnRoMGcjG9tsNLIXVHL2vx/s320/syringe.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_DRIjwee_4HumphxeSNHH1mN1fgfcfLlAkKPPCEpFLMVR7S0X7mtxrf2Fg9_wT-RTpxxuJlyWWfsHjHjph_z5nEAW3xwDJwnSxKPXXN8m6HfdV5Qn4KedWwCnRoMGcjG9tsNLIXVHL2vx/w200-h200/syringe.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">Many of my acquaintances have told me how relieved they are to have gotten their Covid shots. A look of rejoicing comes over their faces. I tell them that I hope that goes very well for them. Why say more? The deed is done. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Indeed, the so-called vaccines (not true vaccines but something that in fact functions very differently) may prove to be benign. These shots do not claim to render people immune to the corona virus, one of the many differences between them and traditional vaccines, but maybe they will make people no worse off than the control group--all those who chose not to take them.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Today I came upon the best collection of reasons I have yet seen for hesitating to take the Covid shot. This young writer spells out all 18, stating in a simple way the many facts that give many great pause regarding this procedure. Like the up-front pardon for any liability that the pharmaceutical companies got who are supplying the shot, and the spectacular failure of previous efforts to develop a corona virus vaccine. You won't find this discussion on the news or on Big Tech's social media platforms because they don't allow it. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you're considering the "vaccine," however, this article will make profitable reading. Then you decide. We should all get to decide for ourselves. <b><a href="https://www.deconstructingconventional.com/post/18-reason-i-won-t-be-getting-a-covid-vaccine" target="_blank">The article</a></b>.</span></span><br /></p>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-45607790150109549312021-03-18T16:13:00.002-04:002021-03-18T16:13:59.090-04:00Whose Insurrection Is It?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5D1psgdwXrE6ni3uAhIuxCmgZXaw4mvOts4zbuZNQlgvPlr0_CPBHFOC_P7WsAcBw7hYHY6TG-P5cZORXaTJvzXwBc48_p2IN0-d9nTyciUboMA-H-Xvm1FzG2LnUjOtx3wg3mIyX0dEG/s612/Guillotine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="427" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5D1psgdwXrE6ni3uAhIuxCmgZXaw4mvOts4zbuZNQlgvPlr0_CPBHFOC_P7WsAcBw7hYHY6TG-P5cZORXaTJvzXwBc48_p2IN0-d9nTyciUboMA-H-Xvm1FzG2LnUjOtx3wg3mIyX0dEG/s320/Guillotine.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Three days ago my next door neighbor intercepted me in my driveway as I returned from a walk. She presented my house key to me, which she was returning. This trusted neighbor had kept it at her house for several years in case I needed her to water my indoor plants while I was away, or if I realized the stove was left on, that sort of thing. I was puzzled. She pointed to my small, legacy Trump sign beside my front door and declared that every time she sees it she sees "insurrection!" and "white supremacy!" </span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I was, of course, almost dumbstruck, but managed to ask a few questions like did she think I was an insurrectionist or a white supremacist, and what evidence was there that Trump is. No, she did not think I was those things, but I supported one, and then she quoted the usual assortment of inaccurate quotes from the man. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">So, I then asked, "Even though I have always been a good neighbor to you, and polite and friendly, you can't have anything to do with me now and you are giving me back my key?" That's right, was the reply.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Two days later I finished watching a very long movie about the French Revolution. It got me thinking about insurrections, and what usually follows them, as was the case in France--years of armed upheaval, corruption, and abuse of power. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Wait a minute, I said to myself. If you engineer widespread fraud sufficient to tip an election in your favor, then during your first month in the seat of power you ignore the elected legislative body and issue 32 executive orders (leaving all previous Presidents in the dust), refuse to answer questions from the press, and maintain fencing with barbed wire and National Guardsmen around the nation's Capitol building, this looks a lot more like an insurrection--or if you will, a revolution--than the intrusion into the Capitol by an assortment of unarmed people on January 6.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">In the years following 1789, when the French officially kicked off their revolution with the brutal storming of the Bastille, life did not go well in their country. The guillotine was kept very busy lopping off the heads of anyone who did not fully embrace even the most extreme measures of the revolution's leadership. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">We are far too civilized for that sort of thing here and now, of course, but it did call to mind the massive amount of deplatforming and censoring of opinion (and often fact) that we have seen lately when those opinions run contrary to narratives approved by the ruling party. Online censorship has become the guillotine of today. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">For those who don't operate a Big Tech company, shunning (including giving back your neighbor's house key and refusing to talk to your parents) has emerged as the favored weapon, and a powerful one it is.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">But hold on. Why are they so angry? Didn't they "win" the election and come out with an effective majority in Congress? Aren't they transported by all the great things their leaders can get done now? Why should they still be so upset with their opponents? Unless they suspect that maybe they actually did not win . . . </span><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">_______________<br /><i>For those interested in seeing the detailed evidence collected on what went awry in the 2020 election, see the very interesting <a href="https://peternavarro.com/the-navarro-report/" target="_blank">Navarro Report</a>.</i></span><br /></p>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-68765508210429269632021-02-17T15:04:00.002-05:002021-02-17T15:45:27.975-05:00Goodbye to the "Big Voice on the Right": Rush Limbaugh, 1951-2021<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Vms1s76Sk2sW8jsQu3V-CohFcrHtr5X1bAdyK9c8aqQkoi61SDqk6fdFFOY1wk5IDPXZ35ye-8O8qOrCHu6LBjEvUc8VYEywyC555l7no1pc8FlpAN-9Bm7WVkVPOfSr89SGHF27dXV-/s428/RushInStudio.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="226" data-original-width="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Vms1s76Sk2sW8jsQu3V-CohFcrHtr5X1bAdyK9c8aqQkoi61SDqk6fdFFOY1wk5IDPXZ35ye-8O8qOrCHu6LBjEvUc8VYEywyC555l7no1pc8FlpAN-9Bm7WVkVPOfSr89SGHF27dXV-/s320/RushInStudio.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Rush Limbaugh broadcasts from the EIB studio<br />shortly before his death on February 17, 2021.</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Republicans
and "thrill-seekers everywhere" (as Rush liked to call his listeners) mourn today the death of Rush
Limbaugh, a giant of conservative analysis and an expert in
communicating that analysis to his audience for more than 30 years. Ever
since he was diagnosed with lung cancer just over a year ago, we
suspected the day would come when we would turn on the radio at noon and
learn that the last time we had heard his confident voice opining on
the day's news was indeed the last time we would hear it. Today was that day.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEpogxOG_QCaA-31VQtjGb-X6dWbk8QxGWE5a-gEepCYmFqDrb50Tt0oyqMCOxVxkDvlGD7C8gri4nCNtC8Muxq2D3BR9P9voevdnRe6_X3ICPVQrlA9ofqHVkkiVKXseGjKZSp5OIvgsH/s2048/RedRoses.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1482" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEpogxOG_QCaA-31VQtjGb-X6dWbk8QxGWE5a-gEepCYmFqDrb50Tt0oyqMCOxVxkDvlGD7C8gri4nCNtC8Muxq2D3BR9P9voevdnRe6_X3ICPVQrlA9ofqHVkkiVKXseGjKZSp5OIvgsH/w145-h200/RedRoses.jpeg" width="145" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">We pause to honor the memory and enormous impact of Rush on the country he loved so much. Godspeed, Rush. </span></span><p><br /></p>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-29425740175941371552021-01-30T17:44:00.001-05:002021-01-30T17:47:06.565-05:00Masks: Why Not?<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3_Dr-C0_1a1zC99jkXAJiONpfWSC9ps9TsTbi-lwtNn_IREm0w89kW8pBFwrK-kzNiUELccEZHioTZynKZNmMRNGJ1FeGjOIl53MJa_tGiTYrMryBm608hGzz3VjIVrAkJpLI6SnZHe3G/s150/FaceMask.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="150" data-original-width="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3_Dr-C0_1a1zC99jkXAJiONpfWSC9ps9TsTbi-lwtNn_IREm0w89kW8pBFwrK-kzNiUELccEZHioTZynKZNmMRNGJ1FeGjOIl53MJa_tGiTYrMryBm608hGzz3VjIVrAkJpLI6SnZHe3G/s0/FaceMask.jpg" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>An alert reader of my last post (<i>Mask Required to Enter</i>, 1/27/2021) took issue with my puzzlement and, yes, objection to donning a face mask to enter my favorite bagel bistro the other day. Management had suddenly reverted to a mask requirement for all patrons with no explanation given. </span></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The reader seemed to not understand why I resisted wearing the cotton face covering that fogs my glasses, decreases my oxygen intake, and makes it harder to make myself heard and understood. I failed to mention that I have had the virus recently and cannot give it to anyone. I also failed to quote the numerous scientific studies and statements that found that cloth masks fail miserably at protecting their wearers from breathing in Covid-19 airborne droplets, which are very small indeed at less than 5 microns (with a micron, even on his tiptoes, measuring only one-thousandth of a millimeter). In fact, experts say that masks often lead to a false sense of protection that interferes with the user taking truly effective precautions against contracting the virus, namely, frequent hand washing and standing at least six feet from people.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2006372" target="_blank"><i>New England Journal of Medicine</i></a> in May 2020 summed up the situation this way:</span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="left: 150px; top: 427.616px; transform: scaleX(1.0877);">We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection </span><span style="left: 150px; top: 451.216px; transform: scaleX(1.09621);">from infection. Public health authorities defi</span><span style="left: 509.43px; top: 451.216px; transform: scaleX(1.06715);">ne a significant exposure to Covid</span><span style="left: 784.865px; top: 451.216px;">-</span><span style="left: 790.497px; top: 451.216px; transform: scaleX(1.02571);">19 as face</span><span style="left: 871.869px; top: 451.216px;">-</span><span style="left: 150px; top: 475.216px; transform: scaleX(1.16328);">to</span><span style="left: 166.748px; top: 475.216px;">-</span><span style="left: 172.379px; top: 475.216px; transform: scaleX(1.01456);">face contact within 6 feet with a patient with <i>symptomatic</i> Covid</span><span style="left: 708.679px; top: 475.216px;">-</span><span style="left: 714.31px; top: 475.216px; transform: scaleX(1.00349);">19 that is <i>sustained</i> </span><span style="left: 150px; top: 498.816px; transform: scaleX(1.07615);">for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The </span><span style="left: 150px; top: 522.816px; transform: scaleX(1.02466);">chance of catching Covid</span><span style="left: 361.574px; top: 522.816px;">-</span><span style="left: 367.205px; top: 522.816px; transform: scaleX(1.04083);">19 from a</span><span style="left: 460.653px; top: 522.816px; transform: scaleX(1.03995);"> passing interaction in a public space is therefore </span><span style="left: 150px; top: 546.416px; transform: scaleX(1.04085);">minimal. In many cases, <i> the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to </i></span><i><span style="left: 150px; top: 570.416px; transform: scaleX(1.07542);">anxiety over the pandemic. </span></i><span style="left: 150px; top: 570.416px; transform: scaleX(1.07542);">[Emphasis added]</span><i><span style="left: 150px; top: 570.416px; transform: scaleX(1.07542);"><br /></span></i></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="left: 150px; top: 570.416px; transform: scaleX(1.07542);">The authors admitted that the greater role of the mask might be as a "talisman," reminding others that a contagious disease was afoot. But I think we all know that by now.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="left: 150px; top: 570.416px; transform: scaleX(1.07542);">Speaking of The Science, Dr. Simone Gold, an emergency room physician with America's Frontline Doctors, delivered an <b><a href="https://www.americasfrontlinedoctors.com/the-stand-the-truth-about-the-covid-19-vaccine.html" target="_blank">intriguing address</a></b> on January 14 of this year titled <i>The Truth About the COVID-19 Vaccine</i> (and a few other things virus-related). This is thought-provoking stuff that will be of special value to those who are considering taking the experimental vaccine. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="left: 150px; top: 570.416px; transform: scaleX(1.07542);"><span style="font-size: large;">To your health!</span><br /></span></span></span></p>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-91570998761994030962021-01-27T14:33:00.001-05:002021-01-27T14:33:12.531-05:00Mask Required to Enter<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_vzNzajwIlTVwRzh18-TBypYP_i1gfhTAsqZA7l6BQ7MzPbI_wcC9gQSUCEOxwXDku6Hpyr51Pl-cmmJmokNZpglWQcqi-iK0cc8U7S4mzWggsY0u3ZkmVFuO4DpDOkyj_3wg5fKOnK4A/s350/BagelsAndCoffee.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="350" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_vzNzajwIlTVwRzh18-TBypYP_i1gfhTAsqZA7l6BQ7MzPbI_wcC9gQSUCEOxwXDku6Hpyr51Pl-cmmJmokNZpglWQcqi-iK0cc8U7S4mzWggsY0u3ZkmVFuO4DpDOkyj_3wg5fKOnK4A/w200-h190/BagelsAndCoffee.png" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">I was really looking forward to a fresh bagel and coffee around lunchtime today as my husband and I headed for our favorite bagel bistro, the one we pop into twice a week. We pulled open the door as we chattered together and got in line, socially distanced. The cashier up front started saying something to us. She pointed to the door. It took us a minute to understand that she was telling us we now needed a mask to enter their establishment. See sign on door.<br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> Why? we asked. What changed? We had been coming in for months without a mask, as had a number of other customers, after the local government dropped the mask requirement. Has there been some huge, deadly COVID spike we didn't know about? Was there a new mask edict from the authorities?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Turns out nothing had changed--or so we were told. It's just a small restaurant, so we need to be careful, the staff said. At home I checked the latest stats on the Florida Department of Health web site. Nope, no spike. And the virus has gotten less deadly: If you contract the virus, the chance of dying from it back in October was 2%, while now it is 1.5%. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">So what's going on? Maybe some frightened customer gave the bagel makers holy hell for endangering the public's lives by not mandating masks in their business. He might even have threatened to sue if he came down with the virus after enjoying his spinach-tomato bagel. (We have encountered such zealots. Shortly before Christmas, in a grocery store checkout line, a grizzled man in a Santa hat told us we were going to burn in hell for not wearing masks, even though we explained that we'd had the virus and could not give it to anyone.) </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Maybe someone in the bagel shop tested positive in the four days since we'd been there, and management figured this called for "masking up." Or is it just the Biden-Fauci effect, in which masks--even double masks--are being encouraged and even demanded even in the most non-threatening settings? <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I only know that I did not get my bagel or coffee. My husband turned on his heel and I followed him out. The day had just gotten a lot darker.</span><br /></p>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-7679769162203584572020-12-23T14:59:00.004-05:002020-12-23T14:59:53.977-05:00Times That Show Just Who We Are<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLnOwHW2amsBZoTLxWtjw_GabDrPcqFt85yCvaBVPm1L0ldiA0mHFEdOSGhc444jYUvc-BKriC5gWr2ee07MwhL9ATC3jjlwZqHoJcrtr8ss9cmShIRemnD4Tf6rFt93F2Gd4dz7erXB3F/s2048/RallyDec2020.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1495" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLnOwHW2amsBZoTLxWtjw_GabDrPcqFt85yCvaBVPm1L0ldiA0mHFEdOSGhc444jYUvc-BKriC5gWr2ee07MwhL9ATC3jjlwZqHoJcrtr8ss9cmShIRemnD4Tf6rFt93F2Gd4dz7erXB3F/s320/RallyDec2020.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Stop the Steal rally in December 2020 in St. Augustine, Florida.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><span style="color: #274e13;">These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country. But he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. <br /><i> Thomas Paine, 1776</i></span></b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Still true in today's crisis, 244 years later.</span></span> <br /></p><p><i> </i><br /></p>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-67929839826562977982020-11-06T09:47:00.002-05:002020-11-06T12:06:16.682-05:00Hold On Tight<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG6Sh0ERjupS3fq-UrDm-15cD0HKrK1gMLcXej_Il-tNCGD00HkLXB6lbs7rgGjg6S7Glu0WM4XbmoTwz1I9X0BH_VBMr-Z5dt4daE4bFa-C0ER2u3KKv4-hzXeEbNhQH9u8arqi9Lhvnq/s225/BuckingBronco.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="166" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG6Sh0ERjupS3fq-UrDm-15cD0HKrK1gMLcXej_Il-tNCGD00HkLXB6lbs7rgGjg6S7Glu0WM4XbmoTwz1I9X0BH_VBMr-Z5dt4daE4bFa-C0ER2u3KKv4-hzXeEbNhQH9u8arqi9Lhvnq/w148-h200/BuckingBronco.jpg" width="148" /></a></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It's clear now that the wild 2020 election will buck and stomp around
the corral until it is finally mastered and true vote counts come out.
Litigation rolling out in several states, charging election fraud of all kinds, may--God willing--lead to much-needed reform in some state election offices and more. Meanwhile, pray like crazy and hold on tight!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Extra credit:</span> Read Archbishop Vigano's <b><a href="https://onepeterfive.com/archbishop-vigano-to-american-catholics-do-not-be-discouraged-by-the-enemy-even-in-this-terrible-hour/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=FIRSTNAME+%2C+Archbishop+Vigan%C3%B2+Has+a++Message+For+You&utm_campaign=Vigano+Message+to+American+Catholic+Voters" target="_blank">post-election letter</a></b> to American Catholics and kindred spirits. The text is </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">as unflinching as it is inspiring.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></span></p><p></p>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-22706924966692942732020-09-21T13:48:00.002-04:002020-09-22T10:27:43.962-04:00Seeking MAN-na in the Desert<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhlT7QNItau-s-bqtd9qYpPhnI5Lf_TTV-cLJR0E_F8z_3SUVZw-VeqVHIWjkD_tIj7fnb0PkiuxIJcC9_zEpOJ1svdHfXmt8oK6ofuHtaXAPgZZVKgiPG8FV52MRzyBiXCqNK2eMN7YHU/s2048/WagonTrain-3.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1338" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhlT7QNItau-s-bqtd9qYpPhnI5Lf_TTV-cLJR0E_F8z_3SUVZw-VeqVHIWjkD_tIj7fnb0PkiuxIJcC9_zEpOJ1svdHfXmt8oK6ofuHtaXAPgZZVKgiPG8FV52MRzyBiXCqNK2eMN7YHU/s320/WagonTrain-3.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Robert Horton with guest in 1959 Wagon Train episode.</span></i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;">I've asked myself why I love westerns so much--<i>Wagon Train</i>, <i>Rawhide</i>,<i> Bonanza</i>, <i>Wanted Dead or Alive</i>, and so forth. I didn't used to. But now I arrange my day to ensure that I can sit down in front of the television at 4 p.m to watch another adventure in the life of that wagon train forever headed west.</span><p><span style="font-size: large;">These are solid stories that present a serious dilemma that the players must resolve within the hour. In them, deciding the wrong way will have serious repercussions. And if the wagon train crew drag their feet and do nothing, that will end badly, too. The situations call for tough decisions without second-guessing and shillyshallying. In short, it provides the perfect showcase for truly manly behavior.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">This would not be remarkable if we weren't suffering today from a dearth of manliness. Too many men in skinny jeans who know what brow waxing involves. And yes, we can argue that decades of radical feminism have driven men into this androgynous state. Indeed, a study in 2013 caused a stir when it found that women on the Pill felt attracted to less masculine-looking men than did women who were not on it.* Given the massive use of that contraceptive in the U.S. since the early 1960s, this may explain what we're seeing. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">But it's high time for real men--there are still some left--to lead the way back. Many women are starved for men who dress like men, walk like men, listen and laugh and display confidence. Men who are willing to take responsibility for their decisions and get on with it. Men who are not afraid to support a wife and children and understand the value of having a family.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">A frequent theme in Wagon Train episodes is drought. The train finds itself halfway across a wasteland with another several days still needed to put it behind them, and they've heard there is no water anywhere around. That's how I feel these days about real men. We are decades into this drought of masculinity, and no one knows how far we still need to go to emerge from it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In the meantime, I advise watching as many westerns as you can. Sit your children down to watch them. Boys need to see what good manliness looks like, and so do our girls. It doesn't matter that we are no longer engaged in the struggle to cross the wilderness and settle the West Coast. These lessons in wisdom vs folly, bravery vs selfishness, patience vs impulsiveness can all be transferred to life in the 21st century. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Let's get on with being real men and real women. Hitch up that team, strap on your water barrels, and "Wagons, Ho!" <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">_____</span><br />*More about the study in this <b><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/birth-control-attraction_n_2981391" target="_blank">Huffington Post article</a></b>.</p>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-23210631455893312362020-08-18T15:09:00.000-04:002020-08-18T15:09:21.118-04:00Too Many Faces<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPLpxVPFHZO8SyMQmK0subM4BVtScwK7__6t1EQagaAYOji6DCFj5tofhOJ0ni9OL9a0q3WYz7onJpgFDXs-p56hL4vgRiAfJS8lsYrae22qPaS23Z29eRIBdXD6yEdLNj5LK-t9sBBFEJ/s1600/TiltAWhirl.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="1600" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPLpxVPFHZO8SyMQmK0subM4BVtScwK7__6t1EQagaAYOji6DCFj5tofhOJ0ni9OL9a0q3WYz7onJpgFDXs-p56hL4vgRiAfJS8lsYrae22qPaS23Z29eRIBdXD6yEdLNj5LK-t9sBBFEJ/s320/TiltAWhirl.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I recently decided to back away from Instagram. Don't get me wrong--I love sharing good photos, brilliant quotes, and my own electric insights with zillions of people worldwide, or at least my 61 followers.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But I myself follow 32 excellent Instagrammers. Their fine photos and provocative declarations pile up in my feed faster than I can read them. I start to feel that I am falling behind, that I am missing things I should see, should know about. But I have only so much time in a day to scan that Instagram feed.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">How do those people feel who attempt to follow 100 folks and more? Like those young people I see hunched over their phones downtown, ignoring the passing parade of real, live people and even the companions sitting on the bench with them, rapidly scrolling through the latest postings. And then there is that haunting hope for just a few more likes and comments to bolster one's sense of worth.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It occurs to me that we were not designed to interact with hundreds of humans per day. At least not electronically. It's different if you are working the cotton candy stand at Coney Island.There you hand a wand of fluffy sugar to a real person. There are smiles and frowns and sticky fingers and small talk and directions on how to find the Tilt-A-Whirl. That job, most of us could handle.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Reading scores or even hundreds of postings a day is different. Each one demands something new from our brain: some analysis, a positive or negative reaction, or a much-needed comment on how wrong the person is. So the user flies along, covering as much virtual ground as possible, touching only lightly here and there.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rather than getting to know a few people well, we have glancing acquaintanceships with hundreds or even thousands.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And how much do we learn from the time spent scanning and posting on these feeds? Instead of reading a book on early 20th-century photojournalists and the world they revealed, you can just post some touching images you came across of little children in dirty white dresses in front of tenements. What does it mean?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">One social media researcher at Lincoln College, Oxford, predicted a baleful result of this activity: "The mid-21st century mind might almost be infantilised, characterised by
short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a
shaky sense of identity."* </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I ask this question: Would Napoleon have used social media much? I doubt it. He was too busy learning about Egyptian tombs and planning how to take over Europe. Like other towering figures from history, he was focused and he was busy <i>doing</i> things. He did not bother about how many strangers liked his ideas. His sense of identity was by no means shaky. Maybe when I'm tempted to slip back onto social media I'll ask myself, "What would Napoleon do?"</span> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">_____</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">* https://www.nib.com.au/the-checkup/healthy-living/what-social-media-is-really-doing-to-your-brain</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Photo: Marlon Brando as Napoleon with Jean Simmons in Twentieth Century Fox's 1954 film <i>Desiree</i>. </span></span><br />
<br />Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-24941947875208557532020-07-07T11:34:00.000-04:002020-07-07T11:34:09.926-04:00Got a Flag?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCDS31EG04a0z7K_txj7ZvvDm1aglPt6lZac1hMn2ZJGR2rCkZ-1RYJW1qA5NUSMByNxrbiZk1rScwAnrgdKO3ZW7-S1mAYLCIKosLOEprlbc9IAwmMMxYkmM5SkGAOotbZqNEH3mrnxnp/s1600/IMG_6626.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCDS31EG04a0z7K_txj7ZvvDm1aglPt6lZac1hMn2ZJGR2rCkZ-1RYJW1qA5NUSMByNxrbiZk1rScwAnrgdKO3ZW7-S1mAYLCIKosLOEprlbc9IAwmMMxYkmM5SkGAOotbZqNEH3mrnxnp/s320/IMG_6626.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">If you have an American flag somewhere in your house, now is the time to shake it out and put it on display. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Amid the frightening upheaval across the country, everyday citizens, homeowners, shop owners, pedestrians and drivers just trying to get somewhere, have been threatened, burned out, and assaulted by violent mobs. Revered statues and monuments to the nation's history have been spray painted, decapitated, and thrown into the harbor by the same mobs. American flags have been yanked off flag poles outside state capitols and burned.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">In many cases, the local police have not come to the rescue but have been told to stand down. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This is the essence of chaos. The assault on order is so shocking that many of us wonder what we can do to push back. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I suggest we can all start by displaying Old Glory. Whether on your house, your mailbox, your car, your school binder--just let it be seen. It says "I stand for America." We are many, and we must let that be known.</span></span><br />
<br />Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-84804147569960686642020-04-21T13:32:00.001-04:002020-04-21T13:32:50.999-04:00What's Wrong With Facebook?<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span data-offset-key="9g5ku-0-0"><span data-text="true">As many of you have heard, Facebook has been censoring content for some time. I'm talking about how they set their "fact checkers" to work on posted stories to see if they are accurate, and censor them if they feel the info is misleading. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span data-offset-key="763o3-0-0"><span data-text="true">This is a patently absurd process in the first place. It is rife with bias, in both the singling out of certain postings and in the judgment of fact checkers on what's true and what's not. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span data-offset-key="1422d-0-0"><span data-text="true">Facebook recently deleted the Epoch Times' posting for its new insightful and deeply researched <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bXWGxhd7ic" target="_blank">documentary</a> on the origin of the coronavirus. They called it "misinformation." How would Facebook know? Do they have undercover journalists in China digging up the real story? I doubt it. Fortunately, the video is available on Youtube--for now. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span data-offset-key="8gks5-0-0"><span data-text="true">Mark Zuckerberg also defended Facebook's censoring of postings by individuals who were putting together a (peaceful) protest of the coronavirus shutdowns in their state. Again, he labeled those postings "misinformation."</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span data-offset-key="73quv-0-0"><span data-text="true">Looking back at 2019, Facebook's valiant fact checkers labeled a documentary by the prolife group Live Action as "false," thereby protecting readers from being led astray. Actually, the video, which dispelled the myth that abortions are sometimes a medical necessity, was completely true.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span data-offset-key="8a2vb-0-0"><span data-text="true">Facebook is engaging in a shocking degree of censorship. We don't need them to tell us what's true and what is not. We can make up our own minds. </span></span></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="6k5hm" data-offset-key="hb27-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="hb27-0-0">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span data-offset-key="hb27-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="6k5hm" data-offset-key="sueo-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="sueo-0-0">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span data-offset-key="sueo-0-0"><span data-text="true">I use Facebook almost never. Given this tyrannical behavior, why would I trust them?Why would I want to rub virtual shoulders with them?</span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="6k5hm" data-offset-key="7labb-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="7labb-0-0">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span data-offset-key="7labb-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="6k5hm" data-offset-key="9ockd-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9ockd-0-0">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span data-offset-key="9ockd-0-0"><span data-text="true">My message to Facebook is: Send the fact checkers home. Unless a user is inciting violence, rioting, etc., or trying to post obsene content, leave your users' postings alone.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9ockd-0-0">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span data-offset-key="9ockd-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9ockd-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9ockd-0-0"><span data-text="true"><span style="font-size: large;">Until they do, you might reconsider how much we should be using their unbalanced platform. </span></span></span></div>
</div>
Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-16046762099090447542020-04-08T10:40:00.001-04:002020-04-08T10:40:58.506-04:00Ignore the Doomsday-ers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSvdFzkdyhjmK1GY2w1M_ZDQphlJfnzZu9kra2mrJKqfF_VBEutDwTjO1zmVUrnJCfSKgj6vZFLyHSgLWRqbkZ55vwlw89xcXlmfiaQOKc4h00VtzeQycf3qkNa_FSPTd-hfmAKBhn5S1K/s1600/DrFauci.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="140" data-original-width="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSvdFzkdyhjmK1GY2w1M_ZDQphlJfnzZu9kra2mrJKqfF_VBEutDwTjO1zmVUrnJCfSKgj6vZFLyHSgLWRqbkZ55vwlw89xcXlmfiaQOKc4h00VtzeQycf3qkNa_FSPTd-hfmAKBhn5S1K/s1600/DrFauci.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I'm not so impressed with Dr. Fauci. I was at first, and no doubt he knows a whole lot about infectious diseases. But just the other day he warned that the country might never get back to where it was before the coronavirus hit because the "threat" of the virus, even if a vaccine is developed, will always be there.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Really? I find it downright irresponsible to tell the public, in a time of pandemic and high anxiety, that the world will never be the same again; meaning, it will never be as good as it was. We'll never be as happy or free or healthy or what-have-you. Dr. Fauci doesn't know that. Neither does anyone else who is forecasting such gloom. Shame on them for this dark forecast--it's the LAST think people need to hear now. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">And it's probably nonsense. America, with its ingenuity and hard work and brilliance, has overcome dire challenges over and over. Not to mention the research and noodling going on around the world at this time. We will beat this virus and be better prepared for the next time some careless (or diabolical) scientist (or evil world power) manages to release a new deadly germ from a biosafety lab somewhere on the globe. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Let's turn off the terrifying talk and instead look forward, with our hard-working countrymen, to what God has ahead for us.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">_____</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Photo courtesy of CNBC.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></span>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-25256089567776330472020-04-07T11:44:00.002-04:002020-04-07T11:44:42.495-04:00Eye Openers in a Plague Year <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4uUSXz3e5926WDWMDNeyfYqKXmC3hyphenhyphenpqA_ViC_LKG3srNb9uH4devLpkU0wjwq9kJdhCuTu4tCiQjpV6CSWX5DPD5ZnYeB_Jns26dJi8y0kHYrAU2pjAFnBdL__9c62QYSPjy65gYpCda/s1600/Quilt-2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4uUSXz3e5926WDWMDNeyfYqKXmC3hyphenhyphenpqA_ViC_LKG3srNb9uH4devLpkU0wjwq9kJdhCuTu4tCiQjpV6CSWX5DPD5ZnYeB_Jns26dJi8y0kHYrAU2pjAFnBdL__9c62QYSPjy65gYpCda/s320/Quilt-2.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">What some family advocates have been preaching for years is getting put into practice--although not by choice. In the spring of 2020, as the coronavirus spreads across the U.S. and the world, many parents must stay home by order of their employers and their governors. More important, virtually all American children are staying home as both public and private schools lock their doors and post lessons on line.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So families are forced to spend days together, at home. The insidious stress of "following the program," whether in our fast-paced school institutions or workplaces, is suspended. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">With most amusements and activities closed, from ballet lessons to soccer practice, families are finding new ways to entertain themselves and to play. As restaurants close their dining rooms, parents dust off pots and pans and cookie sheets and make more of their own food.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A few days ago I heard about a recent study (sorry, I failed to write down the source) that found--imagine!--that a vast majority of children surveyed enjoyed being home. This has always been true for children, especially the young ones. But it has gotten buried by parents' need or desire to hold down jobs and enrich their children with sports, music, and a host of other scheduled activities.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Consider the relief of the child who, with his preschool closed and his mother working from home, wakes up in the morning to see the sun up, rather than the predawn darkness of the early hour when he is usually woken up to get started. Now he can get up and eat his breakfast slowly, decide on his clothes for the day, change his mind and redress himself, talk to each of his stuffed monkeys in turn and arrange them by size on his bookshelf. Later on his mother makes lunch and, to his wonderment, she sits down and eats with him.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Consider the relief of the middle school student when she realizes that she can wear the outfit that the mean girls made fun of--they won't see her at home. She can do her lessons in her own time and not rush from class to class, trying to work in a few minutes to slip into the girls' restroom when she can't put it off any longer. And she can ask her father for help with geometry because he is home a lot more now.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Indeed, families are finding that there is time to sleep in a little, time to teach children how to make a bed, and time for them to do it each morning. There is time to all go for a bike ride, learn to set the table, look at old family pictures, and read stories.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">With all the damage this vicious virus is wreaking upon our country, upon many families, let us learn what it might teach us from our new circumstances. Let's keep our eyes and our minds open to lessons we can take forward when the virus falls behind.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></span>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-8745372489586903362019-08-28T10:17:00.000-04:002019-08-28T10:17:04.364-04:00Another Reason to Dislike Drag Queen Story Hours<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Onq8H4GBaec_T219OnDV7nYKSL6Fp8QXnFw5_MrFGs4m2VxJ9mAjFYQDfeVYu2nQ3qXq4i6dcUi3UvVUNQg2f1_xPXNsViG_jeVcFyQheBrTs7NsjrcJ9Il4RgxlgXGvY9sU2HtF051N/s1600/DragQueenPink.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="111" data-original-width="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Onq8H4GBaec_T219OnDV7nYKSL6Fp8QXnFw5_MrFGs4m2VxJ9mAjFYQDfeVYu2nQ3qXq4i6dcUi3UvVUNQg2f1_xPXNsViG_jeVcFyQheBrTs7NsjrcJ9Il4RgxlgXGvY9sU2HtF051N/s1600/DragQueenPink.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="line-height: 110%;">Drag
Queen Story Hours are becoming quite the rage in public libraries across the
country. You’ve probably read about them or seem them on YouTube. The library staff
sets aside time in the children’s section of the library for a man,
extravagantly dressed as a female, to come in and read a story—often one
promoting some sort of nontraditional sexuality—to young children. Many of
these drag queens are quite animated and not shy about performing for the
children as well. </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="line-height: 110%;">These story hours have provoked a good deal of outcry for their goal of introducing children to diverse forms of gender identification—you can
be whatever you want to be, boy or girl, and love whomever you want to. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="line-height: 110%;">But I wonder why I have not heard any one protesting these drag queen shows for a
different reason. These men present a parody, a caricature, of a woman. With
their spectacular wigs, exaggerated foam-filled figures, overdone mannerisms, and
macabre make-up, they in no way resemble an actual woman. </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="line-height: 110%;">What
the drag queen is, in fact, is a mockery of a woman. How is this okay? I marvel
that in our enlightened and careful age, men are allowed to parade themselves
in this farcical way, to chuckles and applause. If the same man were to
entertain the crowd wearing black face, he would be shouted down and socially ruined
(as he should be). Yet, he is welcome to present an exaggerated and tasteless
parody of women with impunity. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="line-height: 110%;">I
am not one who is offended at every turn, but as a woman, drag queens offend
me. If they perform in an adult theater where consenting adults buy a ticket,
fine.<span> </span>But they have no place performing
in a public library, where, in their massive pink wigs and fishnet
stockings, </span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="line-height: 110%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="line-height: 110%;">they can mock everyone of my gender</span></span></span>.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="line-height: 110%;">All people, including women, have
enough opportunities to be made fun of in life without inviting someone into the
local library to do just that.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="line-height: 110%;">Photo courtesy of iStock.</span></span></i></span></div>
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Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-17310695736665706952019-06-18T09:18:00.001-04:002019-06-26T08:54:08.681-04:00Bundt Cakes and Abortions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXTRXcPfqdB7yYD_hhflk5mttagcqLpWS0Ck4i_fRHeWrONWZSOKuKrcI7qX-SepVL_fowu9TNSLWjiaR3rCOczWed8Zdw5dt-wzX7lx4Ppve_QScOEQG0EHBtY65v9g7Khfk0ao4YUno1/s1600/BundtCake.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="640" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXTRXcPfqdB7yYD_hhflk5mttagcqLpWS0Ck4i_fRHeWrONWZSOKuKrcI7qX-SepVL_fowu9TNSLWjiaR3rCOczWed8Zdw5dt-wzX7lx4Ppve_QScOEQG0EHBtY65v9g7Khfk0ao4YUno1/s200/BundtCake.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Some of our countrymen, like those in the New York State legislature, are having trouble understanding why some Americans (a lot, actually) would oppose abortion-up-to-birth laws. Just the other day a Democratic presidential candidate likened pro-life Americans to—yes—racists. This moves me to paint an analogy for these folks, as rudimentary as it may be.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Let’s suppose that a woman decides to make a chocolate Bundt cake to serve for dessert one day. As it is baking, she realizes that she has no whipped cream to accompany it. She also realizes that it will not go well at all with the entrée she will be serving. She considers and considers, and decides that she is indeed unprepared to serve chocolate Bundt cake that day. One minute before the timer dings, she puts on her insulated mitts, pulls the aromatic cake from the oven, and sets it on the stove.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It is perfectly formed, and she can easily picture it on a plate, with its lustrous chocolate finish. Still, it has to go. Grabbing her spatula, she scrapes the rich cake from the pan and lets it fall into the kitchen trash can, then bundles it away.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A few minutes later her neighbor arrives to return some books she had borrowed. Upon entering the house, she breathes in the tantalizing smell of chocolate cake. Her face lights up as she exclaims, “Oh, you made a cake!” As our baker knows, this woman, even with the help of her husband, has never succeeded in making a cake, as many times as she has tried.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Our baker explains that the cake turned out to be all wrong for tonight’s occasion, so she threw it away. Wide-eyed, the cake-starved neighbor rushes to the kitchen trash, hoping to rescue the unwanted product-of-confection. She stops short, seeing a clean plastic liner in the can. Just then she hears the trash truck out front and realizes that the cake is now beyond anyone’s reach.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Cakes like this one, which women think they want but later change their minds about, or that come together in the pan accidentally while the woman is planning something else, are tossed out each day at various stages of baking. Sometimes, indeed, it is the decision of the boyfriend who comes home and storms, “You haven’t made another Bundt cake, have you?” and insists on its disposal. Would it not be more compassionate to the cake-deprived people of the country, desperate for a cake of their own, to let the cake fully bake and offer it to them?</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Of course, this analogy breaks down in many ways. For one thing, even the most cake-addicted foodie would not claim that a cake is human (yet). But if the flagrant waste of a perfect chocolate cake makes your stomach contract, how much more the waste of a perfectly formed human child?</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ms. Gillibrand and Mr. Cuomo, I hope this helps.</span></span><br />
Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-37586849216295762282018-11-20T11:05:00.000-05:002018-11-20T11:05:28.539-05:00Outside the Garden<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvJ2lr4FSIoTGBwbpt_p4wrWhW92H9VdEj6UI1zidXMecyMpPaAwIj9Npa5QO9GMYU-8vzPCnR0U7SUAasy9UgEQ4KgwaCDa3jKcUJqILOqLaNPkltElDsXyCLnTLn_6API2AiXM4He93C/s1600/IMG_3067-Blog.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="641" data-original-width="606" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvJ2lr4FSIoTGBwbpt_p4wrWhW92H9VdEj6UI1zidXMecyMpPaAwIj9Npa5QO9GMYU-8vzPCnR0U7SUAasy9UgEQ4KgwaCDa3jKcUJqILOqLaNPkltElDsXyCLnTLn_6API2AiXM4He93C/s200/IMG_3067-Blog.JPG" width="187" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The British intellectual James Pierrepont Greaves (d. 1842) once advised:</span><br />
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="position: relative; top: -2pt;">"Do not run to this and that for comfort when you are
in trouble, but bear it. Be uncomfortably quiet—be uneasily silent—be patiently
unhappy."</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="position: relative; top: -2pt;">Since I seem to have reached the ripe age of knowing how scant are one's opportunities to fix anything, this strikes me as good advice. At 18, at 30, at 45, and even by 50, I was still pushed forward by a strong intent to Make Things Better. It might be a small thing like the need for a stop sign at a busy corner, or something much larger. And there have been small victories. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="position: relative; top: -2pt;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="position: relative; top: -2pt;">But defeats, even after protracted struggle and dedication of precious resources, have reached a high number. So that at 60, I find that Mr. Greaves' statement may provide me the key to making it through the next 40 years or so. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="position: relative; top: -2pt;">Still, I stay alert for those rare moments where something I could say or do might just help. These actions could be very small, but the key seems to lie in doing them with a simple boldness. A sentence uttered in calm conviction can prove more persuasive, over time, than any hour-long lecture. </span></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="position: relative; top: -2pt;">And a gentle word, a listening ear, and an unexpected smile have the power to redeem a person's entire day. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="position: relative; top: -2pt;">So while I see no point at present in chasing dragons or trying to move mountains, I can find no excuse for not speaking plainly, with charity, and persevering in small kindnesses. God will do with them as He will. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; position: relative; top: -2pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span>Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8871419114826301582.post-43595097729401343632018-08-14T12:28:00.003-04:002018-08-14T12:28:56.620-04:00Masculinizing Women Through Dance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1vm_zXaDMOXv-fNGCiL51IcBb0u2jZZ3LCvVX4sCLA_KDv3xnAYQotBFzKEdYNxX3ZgVIYh0fMTPaLQHkslPgOaKwKhMTleWDfbMErdz2SoMcn1l39o5BDUH8gmflr4sFkmU03OnOtWLT/s1600/h-and-m-2016-back-to-school-school-yard-dance-off-large-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="1000" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1vm_zXaDMOXv-fNGCiL51IcBb0u2jZZ3LCvVX4sCLA_KDv3xnAYQotBFzKEdYNxX3ZgVIYh0fMTPaLQHkslPgOaKwKhMTleWDfbMErdz2SoMcn1l39o5BDUH8gmflr4sFkmU03OnOtWLT/s320/h-and-m-2016-back-to-school-school-yard-dance-off-large-5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Did I just invent a new verb, "to masculinize"? If so, I apologize, but it's the only word that seems to serve in describing the wave we are all submerged in, where women are being encouraged to become more man-like in all they do. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This now extends to dancing, and I'm tired of looking at it. You've seen the commercials--whether it's a gang of children in almost unbearably hip clothing or a mother and daughter in their newly scrubbed kitchen, they've just gotta dance! And their dances all feature the same style of movement: jabbing, jumping, leg-spreading contortions that look like a new generation of the old breakdancing, with an extra dose of unspoken defiance for good measure. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">These brash moves and attitudes in young, testosterone-driven men we rather expect. We can even admire the agility and stamina required. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">But now the same traditionally masculine dance style seems <i>de rigueur</i> for female dancers in commercials, talent acts, what have you. And it does not look good. Women have long kept to a distinctively female mode of movement, which--except for the graceful, extended poses of ballerinas--proscribed throwing their legs wide apart. That is, unless the dance was done around a pole in front of a mostly male audience. Why was this stance avoided? Because, when done by a woman, it was naturally, genetically, unarguably, provocative in a sexual way. And it is not lovely.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Now, I'm aware that a thoroughly modern lass may say that she wants to express power, not prettiness. Yawn. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The other night I watched in sadness as yet another troupe of bright young dancers took the stage on a major talent show and proceeded to execute, in the usual frenzied way, a harsh choreography that had the young men leaping this way and that while the tightly-clad young women planted their legs wide and shook their rear ends at the audience. When all the vibrating and tumbling were over, the judges melted all over each other in admiration for this bold, <i>fabulous!</i> performance.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Is it just me? Or is anyone else out there dying to see some perky yet graceful dancing by those gals who are heading back to school or feeling just so excited about their new phones? Anybody?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">____</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><i>Photo from H&M's back-to-school campaign, 2016</i></span></span><br />
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<br />Ann Maureen Doylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08260012755408116029noreply@blogger.com0