April 26
1607 – The colonists of the Virginia Company, chartered by King James 1st of England, makes landfall at Cape Henry at the northeast end of modern day Virginia Beach, Virginia.
1777 – Sybil Ludington, aged 16, daughter of Westchester County, New York Colonel of Militia, Henry Ludington, makes an all night horseback ride over 40 miles to alert militia in the towns of Putnam County, New York, and Danbury, Connecticut, of the approach of British forces.
1805 – During the First Barbary War, a squad of 8 U.S. Marines under the command of First Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon, supported by 500 Arab mercenaries, capture Derna, Cyrenaica in modern day Libya.
1865 – Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead, John Wilkes Booth, in the barn of the farm of Richard H. Garrett, about 2 miles south of Port Royal, Virginia.
1933 – On the day the Gestapo, Geheime Staatspolizei, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established by Hermann Göring, Nazi Germany also issues the Law Against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities limiting the number of Jewish students able to attend public schools and universities.
1945 –Filipino troops of the 66th Infantry Regiment, Philippine Commonwealth Army and troops of USA Forces In the Philippines-Northern Luzon and of the 33rd and 37th Infantry Divisions, U.S Army, are liberated from a prison camp at Baguio, Luzon and return to the fight against the Japanese forces under General Tomoyuki Yamashita.
1954 – The first clinical trials of Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine begin in Fairfax County, Virginia.
1956– SS Ideal X, the world’s first successful container ship, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey, for Houston, Texas.
1962 – NASA’s Ranger 4 photographic spacecraft suffers an onboard computer malfunction and crashes into the Moon.
1964 – Tanganyika and the island of Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
1981 – Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, performs the world’s first human open surgery on a fetus.
1986 – In the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, the No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explodes during a reactor test, rupturing the reactor core, causing an open air reactor core fire and releasing airborne radioactive contamination onto part of the Soviet Union and western Europe.
1991 – 55 tornadoes break out across Oklahoma and Kansas killing 21 people, with 17 of those in Andover, Kansas, by the only F5 tornado in the outbreak.
2012 – Indonesia suspends imports of American beef after a confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy -“mad cow” disease – was discovered the day before in a dairy cow at the Baker Commodities rendering facility in Hanford, California
2018 – Identified through forensic genetic genealogy comparison on the personal genomics website GEDmatch, the arrest on 24 April of Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. , a former police officer, as the serial killer “Golden State Killer”, responsible for 12 murders and 50 rapes in California, is announced to the public.
My mother knew this decades ago.
It’s Official: Cranberries Can Reduce Risk of UTI by 50% in Certain People.
Using cranberries to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs) goes back at least as far as the Native American Indians, but now there is solid scientific evidence to go with this traditional remedy.
UTIs can be incredibly painful and trigger a variety of bladder problems. If untreated, it can move to the kidneys and cause further complications, including sepsis in some rare cases. While most common in women, UTIs can also affect men and children.
In a new study, researchers reviewed 50 previous trials covering 8,857 participants in total. These earlier trials looked at how UTI risk was linked to cranberries delivered in juice, tablet, or powder form.
“The studies we looked at included a range of methods to determine the benefits of cranberry products,” says epidemiologist Jacqueline Stephens from Flinders University in Australia.
“The vast majority compared cranberry products with a placebo or no treatment for UTI and determined drinking cranberries as a juice or taking capsules reduced the number of UTIs in women with recurrent cases, in children and in people susceptible to UTIs following medical interventions such as bladder radiotherapy.”
The risk of developing a UTI was reduced by more than a quarter in women with recurrent cases of infection, by over a half in children, and by just over a half for people likely to get UTIs after medical procedures.
Only a few people across the studies reported side effects, with stomach pain being the most common. However, there are gaps in the data: Very few trials compared cranberry products directly to antibiotics or probiotics alone, for example, and these treatments may be as effective as the fruit.
Enemies, foreign….and domestic
Kinzinger: Gun Owners Should Help Dismantle the Second Amendment
By Lee Williams
SAF Investigative Journalism Project
OPINION: Adam Kinzinger is an angry and frustrated little fella.
For those who don’t remember the former Illinois Congressman, he served on the Jan. 6 House committee alongside Liz Cheney where he read from prepared scripts and cried a lot, was censured by the RNC and forced to leave Congress in disgrace, and then, of course, ended up with a job at CNN.
Today, Kinzinger has become a man without a country, of sorts. Republicans still despise him and Democrats could care less what he does, since his usefulness is at an end.
Kinzinger, who’s only 45, is struggling for relevancy, trying to find an audience that will listen to his angry rants. His memoir, “Renegade: My Life in Faith, the Military, and Defending America from Trump’s Attack on Democracy” is scheduled to be released Oct. 17, and will likely not exactly fly off the shelves.
In the meantime, the self-described renegade is trying to get back into the public eye by any means possible, and what better way to attract attention than by bashing the Second Amendment.
Last week, Kinzinger spoke at an event in Chicago that was organized by the Joyce Foundation, a private foundation with more than $1 billion in assets that is decidedly anti-gun. Barack Obama once served on their board. The event was hosted by David Axelrod, Obama’s former chief campaign strategist. Tim Heaphy, who served as the chief counsel for the Jan. 6 committee, was the other featured speaker.
“Second Amendment people should be on the front line of gun control,” Kinzinger told the left-leaning crowd.
The Chicago Tribune loved the idea, and wrote in an editorial that “those who want to see sensible regulations on gun ownership, such as background checks, age restrictions and red flag laws, should see ‘Second Amendment people’ as potential experts and allies. They know guns better than those who merely despise them.”
Sensible regulations? Experts and allies? As if …
To be clear, Kinzinger’s suggestion – that gun owners should help infringe upon the Second Amendment – may be the single dumbest idea we’ve heard since December 15, 1791, when the Second Amendment was ratified.
Granted, we do have far more expertise than the gun-ban industry – we can articulate the difference between a semi-auto AR and a select-fire “assault rifle” – but why the hell would we use this expertise to aid those who want to deprive us of the right to own weapons of our choice?
It would be like asking newspaper editors or television producers to help weaken the First Amendment, or asking lawyers for a quick way to overcome their clients’ self-incrimination protections. Like most of what Kinzinger and his gun-banning friends suggest, it makes no sense.
The only thing you can surmise about Kinzinger’s idea is that it is nothing new. The former Congressman strongly opposes our Second Amendment rights.
In May 2022, after the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, Kinzinger told CNN he would support a federal ban on “assault weapons,” which, of course, he could not define.
“Look, I have opposed a ban, you know, fairly recently. I think I’m open to a ban now,” Kinzinger told CNN. “It’s going to depend on what it looks like because there’s a lot of nuances on what constitutes, you know, certain things.” He added that he would also support additional licensing and training requirements for potential AR purchasers.
That same month, Kinzinger told ABC News that raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21 was a “no brainer,” and he claimed he was a “strong defender of the Second Amendment.”
“And one of the things I believe that for some reason is a very rare thing is that as a person that appreciates and believes in the Second Amendment, we have to be the ones putting forward reasonable solutions to gun violence,” Kinzinger claimed.
Kinzinger is right in one respect; It is rare for someone who supports the Second Amendment to put forward ideas to weaken it. In fact, it’s not only rare, it’s incredibly stupid – about what you’d expect from a laughingstock of a former Congressman with plenty of time on his hands.
There is no argument. They are!
Every Firearm Can Be Used For Self-Defense! Argues the Second Amendment Foundation
BELLEVUE, WA – Attorneys representing the Second Amendment Foundation and its partners in a case challenging the Illinois semi-auto ban today filed a 36-page response to Cook County’s motion for summary judgment in a case challenging Cook County’s ban.
Joining SAF, in this case, are the Firearms Policy Coalition and three private citizens, all Cook County residents. They are Cutberto Viramontes, Rubi Joyal, and Christopher Khaya. They are represented by attorneys David Sigale of Wheaton, Ill., David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson, and William V. Bergstrom, all with Cooper & Kirk in Washington, D.C. The case is known as Viramontes v. Cook County. It was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in August 2021.
“Cook County has made only one argument in its motion that seems to misread the Supreme Court’s Bruen ruling from June of last year,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The county is claiming that ‘arms’ applies only to firearms that ‘facilitate armed self-defense,’ and makes the arbitrary claim that the banned firearms are excluded from this definition because ‘there is nothing defensive whatsoever’ about them.
“Every firearm can be used for self-defense,” he added, “and either the county knows that already, or they are woefully ignorant about firearms in general, and especially the ones affected by the ban.”
SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut, a practicing attorney, noted, “The Bruen ruling made it clear that every Second Amendment case must proceed first by analyzing the text of the amendment and then examining the country’s history of firearm regulation, to determine whether the banned firearm is ‘dangerous and unusual.’ One look at the number of modern semiautomatic rifles currently owned by private citizens shows they are hardly ‘dangerous and unusual’ in any context.
“The county further argues the AR-15 is a semiautomatic version of the military M-16, which is nonsense,” Kraut continued. “All of the county’s arguments seem aimed at creating a false impression about the banned firearms, which operate no differently than any other semi-auto. The county is simply wrong in its arguments, and the motion for summary judgment should be denied.”
Standing Your Ground Is A Constitutional Right
There’s a problem in our society when people face prosecution for defending themselves in public, and when a major network props up an anti-gun activist on Sunday morning television to ridicule the basic right to self-defense with lies and rhetoric, the underlying issue and our rights at large as Americans face even greater peril.
Unfortunately, that scenario is exactly what America got this past weekend when ABC’s Martha Raddatz held a discussion with a Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence attorney on “stand your ground” laws, in which the so-called expert blatantly lied on the air claiming these statutes and precedents “upend centuries of common law on self-defense and allow people to carry guns outside of the home…” This is utter nonsense.
Instead, while she briefly alluded to it on air, this so-called “expert on state gun laws” clearly is a supporter of the ludicrous “duty to retreat” laws that many leftist states still maintain. Despite the recent reinforcement of the inherent right to self-defense in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, these statutes, as their names suggest, require citizens, when faced with a seemingly life-threatening situation, to determine whether they can refrain from the use of deadly force by essentially running away. Further, a citizen who uses deadly force — even when threatened — could lose a claim to self-defense and potentially be charged with a crime, up to and including homicide, if it’s determined that a “retreat” should have been made.
Self-Defense Considered In Fatal Shooting At Aspen Village Apartments
TUSCALOOSA, AL — The Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit has provided further details, including the identity of a man killed in a fatal shooting Sunday at Aspen Village Apartment on Sunday.
Captain Jack Kennedy, commander of the multiagency unit, told local media that the Tuscaloosa Police Department was initially called to Aspen Village Apartments on a shooting, where officers located Namarcus Giles, Jr. dead from his injuries at the scene.
He then explained that the primary residents of the apartment, who were brother and sister, along with other witnesses, were still on scene and cooperative.
“Giles had been in a previous relationship with the sister,” Kennedy said. “It was reported that Giles had been physically abusive to her in the past … The residents reported that during the day Saturday Giles made threats to come to the apartment. Giles later arrived at the apartment, broke down the door, entered, and began physically assaulting the sister. As this was occurring, her brother armed himself. The brother fired his weapon and Giles was struck, and did not survive.”
Kennedy went on to say the physical evidence on scene, as well as witness accounts, were consistent with this course of events, considering law enforcement was immediately contacted and all persons present were cooperative.
“At this time no arrest has been made, as reported issues of self-defense are present,” Kennedy said. “At the conclusion of the investigation, the case will be presented to a grand jury for review of any potential charges.”
Sorry for the paucity of posts. Ich bin had phase 1 of a teefus implant and it’s been an interesting afternoon, although not nearly as bad as when the prior occupant was extracted.
We now return to regular programming, MILES OUT
April 25
1507 – German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller is first to use the name America on his world map “Universalis Cosmographia”
1792 – Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.
1846 – Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War.
1859 – British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.
1898 – Congress officially declares war on Spain effective from the 21st of the month.
1901 – New York becomes the first state to require automobile license plates.
1928 – Buddy, a German Shepherd, becomes the first guide dog for the blind for his master, Morris Frank, in New York, City
1938 – In the case of Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, the Supreme Court rules that federal district courts in civil cases must apply the laws of the states in which they sit, not federal law, unless they conflict with federal law.
1945 – U.S. and Soviet troops meet in Torgau, Germany along the River Elbe, cutting through the middle of the Wehrmacht forces of Nazi Germany
1953 – In the April edition of the scientific journal Nature; English Biologist Francis Crick and American Biologist James Watson publish the article “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid” describing the double helix structure of DNA.
1954 – The first practical solar photovoltaic power cell is publicly demonstrated at Bell Telephone Laboratories, in New Jersey.
1959 – The Saint Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping.
1960 – The U.S Navy submarine USS Triton completes the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
1961 – Fairchild Semiconductor founder Robert Noyce is granted a patent for an integrated circuit.
1982 – Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula per the Camp David Accords.
1983 – American schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war.
2001 – President George W. Bush pledges U.S. military support in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan.
2011– 324 people are killed in the largest and deadliest tornado outbreak in the U.S. and Canada since the 1974 Super Outbreak.
SloJoe doesn’t think children belong to their parents, but to the state. Expect this clip to go nation wide next year during campaign season.
And those sunglasses again. Speed (amphetamines) cause the eyes to dilate and make open sunlight painful. Every time you see him wearing the shades, it’s because they’ve had to drug him up just to get him moving.
BIDEN: "There's no such thing as someone else's child. Our nation's children are all our children!" pic.twitter.com/scaZ4vDrPZ
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 24, 2023
Why Is Concealed Carry So Important In Modern America?
Concealed carry, or the practice of carrying a concealed firearm on one’s person, is a contentious topic in modern society. Some argue that it is necessary for personal protection, while others believe that it only serves to increase the likelihood of gun violence. However, there are many reasons why concealed carry is important and can be a valuable tool for self-defense.
First and foremost, concealed carry can provide a means of self-defense for law-abiding citizens. The world can be a dangerous place, and individuals who carry a concealed firearm have the ability to defend themselves if they are ever confronted with a dangerous situation. This is especially important for those who live in areas with high rates of crime or who work in professions that put them at risk, although trouble can and is found in even the safest of places.
In addition, concealed carry can act as a deterrent to criminals. The knowledge that a potential victim may be carrying a concealed firearm can dissuade criminals from attempting to commit crimes in the first place. This can help to create a safer environment for everyone, as criminals are less likely to engage in criminal activity when they know that there is a possibility that their intended victim may be armed.
Concealed carry can also be beneficial in situations where law enforcement response times may be slow. In an emergency situation, every second counts, and individuals who are carrying a concealed firearm can act as first responders to protect themselves and those around them. This can be especially important in rural areas, where law enforcement may be several miles away and response times may be longer.
Moreover, concealed carry is an important tool for protecting one’s home and family. A firearm is one of the most effective means of self-defense against an intruder, and having a firearm readily available can help to ensure the safety of one’s loved ones.
Finally, concealed carry is a constitutionally protected right in the United States. The Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the right of citizens to keep and bear arms, and this right extends to the carrying of concealed firearms. The ability to exercise this right is important for many Americans, who feel that it is their duty to protect themselves, their families, and their communities.
Of course, with the right to carry a concealed firearm comes the responsibility to use it wisely and safely. It is important for those who carry a concealed firearm to receive proper training and to understand the laws surrounding the use of deadly force. Additionally, individuals who carry a concealed firearm must be prepared to face the consequences of their actions if they ever do use their firearm in self-defense.
In conclusion, concealed carry is an important tool for self-defense and can provide a means of protection for law-abiding citizens. It can act as a deterrent to criminals, serve as a first response in emergency situations, protect one’s home and family, and is a constitutionally protected right. While carrying a concealed firearm is a serious responsibility, it can be a valuable tool in creating a safer environment for everyone.
This merely follows Federal Law.
What I always find interesting is that some law that benefits the people, like permitless or shall issue concealed carry, always takes months to become effective, but any criminal law that can be used against a citizen is always effective immediately.
New Indiana law redefines ‘machine gun’ to include conversion switches
A new state law makes it illegal for Hoosiers to attach to their firearms a “switch,” or any similar device, that enables fully automatic shooting with a single pull of the trigger.
Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb approved the revised state definition of “machine gun” in House Enrolled Act 1365 on Thursday after the legislation was endorsed 71-23 by the Republican-controlled House and 45-4 in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Rep. Kendell Culp, R-Rensselaer, and Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago, are the only Northwest Indiana lawmakers to not support the proposal.
The statute took effect upon the governor signing it into law.
Advocates for the measure said the plastic switches, also known as Glock switches, are being purchased or 3-D printed throughout the state and increasingly used to convert regular guns into machine guns — with deadly consequences.
“It’s very difficult to control a firearm with one of these devices attached to it. So our constituents’ homes, businesses, cars and our constituents themselves are being caught in the crossfire,” said sponsor Rep. Mitch Gore, D-Indianapolis.
“These devices allow shooters to fire off dozens of rounds in just a matter of seconds. When police respond to these shootings, they are quite literally being outgunned.”
The mere possession of a switch already was illegal under federal law. The new Indiana law ensures that any person with a switch attached to their gun is subject to a variety of state penalty enhancements for the possession or use of a machine gun.
“As a career law enforcement officer and a representative of a district that has seen several instances of gun violence, I know this bill will save the lives of citizens and cops alike and make our streets safer for Hoosier families,” Gore said.
In a statement, Gore thanked his Statehouse colleagues, especially the strong Second Amendment supporters, for recognizing the importance of holding accountable people who illegally convert their standard firearms into machine guns.
“The significance of passing a piece of bipartisan gun legislation in Indiana is not lost on me,” he said. “I also want to thank Governor Holcomb for signing this bill and helping the General Assembly keep families safe while respecting Hoosiers and their constitutional rights.”
Additional supporters include the Indiana Fraternal Order of Police, Indiana Association of Chiefs of Police, and the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council.
Pence Lays Out Pro-Second Amendment 4-Step Plan to Stop ‘Scourge of Mass Shootings’
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana — Former Vice President Mike Pence told Breitbart News exclusively here at the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual gathering earlier this month he has a four-step plan that is pro-Second Amendment to combat the “scourge of mass shootings” plaguing society right now.
“I think under the Biden Administration we’ve seen a steady assault on all the God-given liberties enshrined in our Constitution—freedom of religion, freedom of speech—but there’s no question that this administration has set its sights on the Second Amendment enshrined in the Constitution,” Pence told Breitbart News. “Now more than ever people that cherish the right to keep and bear arms need their voices to be heard. We need to elect leaders who will stand by our Constitution and stand by our God-given rights. We need to be educating the rising generation on the importance of all of our Bill of Rights’ freedoms including the Second Amendment, but I think we’ve got to lean into how to address this scourge of mass shootings.”
In his speech the NRA gathering moments later, Pence laid out some of these ideas—but in his interview with Breitbart News backstage he went in depth explaining how gun control does not work and there are policies that American leaders can pursue both at the federal and at the state level that will work.
The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World
The Puritans of the 17th century sought to refashion society in accordance with their own beliefs, but they were deep thinkers who were aware of their own fallibility. Today, in the grasp of the New Puritans, we see a very different story.
Leading a cultural revolution driven by identity politics and so-called ‘social justice’, the new puritanism movement is best understood as a religion – one that makes grand claims to moral purity and tolerates no dissent. Its disciples even have their own language, rituals and a determination to root out sinners through what has become known as ‘cancel culture’.
In The New Puritans, Andrew Doyle powerfully examines the underlying belief-systems of this ideology and how it has risen so rapidly to dominate all major political, cultural and corporate institutions. He reasons that, to move forward, we need to understand where these New Puritans came from and what they hope to achieve. Written in the spirit of optimism and understanding, Doyle offers an eloquent and powerful case for the reinstatement of liberal values and explains why it’s important we act now.
If You Want Fewer Shootings, Ask Politicians To Back Off
Headlines feature grim reports of senseless violence, including the wounding of Ralph Yarl in Kansas City, Missouri, the killing of Kaylin Gillis in Hebron, New York, and shootings of Payton Washington and Heather Roth in Elgin, Texas, and of 6-year-old Kinsley White and her parents in Gaston County, North Carolina. We’ll learn more in days to come, but the incidents seem the results of irrational fear and rage.
These incidents feed the usual debates, with “reformers” promoting gun restrictions or criticizing “stand your ground” self-defense laws. But while the impulse to do something is understandable, these eruptions of violence come after decades of plummeting crime that coincided with increasing firearms ownership and eased laws. Something changed: us. Boosted by bad pandemic policies, already agitated Americans became nuttier and more prone to conflict. Politicians and laws can’t fix that.
“In an era of frequent mass shootings, Americans know all too well that tragedy lurks nearly everywhere: schools, churches, offices, grocery stores, movie theaters. But these three incidents in the span of just six days have deepened a gnawing sense that no place is truly safe,” NBC News’s Daniel Arkin reported this week. “The incidents have renewed and intensified calls for stricter gun control legislation” and “have also put scrutiny on ‘stand your ground’ self-defense laws.”
Misunderstood America
Arkin captures the horror of such incidents, but he also neatly distills misunderstandings behind our debates. Of the incidents he describes, none really invoke stand your ground laws, under which people have no duty to retreat before defending themselves in public places. Yarl and Gillis were at their shooters’ homes which, if the shootings were justified, involves the common-law castle doctrine right to defend yourself at your dwelling. Washington and Roth (and White and her parents, whose case came after Arkin’s piece) were chased by their assailants, which isn’t self-defense by any understanding. Whatever the principles, and no matter the legislation, states allowed self-defense and people purchased firearms over the course of decades during which crime declined.
“Both the FBI and [Bureau of Justice Statistics] data show dramatic declines in U.S. violent and property crime rates since the early 1990s, when crime spiked across much of the nation,” Pew Research Center noted in November 2020, less than three years ago.
If we were well-armed and had wide freedom to defend ourselves while enjoying 30 years of plummeting crime what, if anything, changed?
“In the eyes of some observers, the shootings point to a more fundamental sickness in American life: the toxic brew of paranoia, distrust and suspicion that poisons so many of our day-to-day interactions,” Arkin adds. Unfortunately, the data supports his point.
We’re Nuttier
“Nine out of 10 adults said they believed that there’s a mental health crisis in the US today,” CNN reported last October of a poll conducted jointly with the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“Nearly 8 in 10 psychologists (79%) said that they had seen an increase in the number of patients with anxiety disorders since the beginning of the pandemic, and 66% saw an increase in demand for treatment for depression. Nearly half (47%) said they had seen an increase in demand for substance use treatment (up from 43% last year) and 64% saw an increase in demand for trauma treatment, (compared with 62% in 2021),” the American Psychological Association reported just one month later.
It’s easy to find evidence that people have become nuttier since we first heard the term “COVID-19.” Fear of illness and death, added to forced isolation and economic disruption, made people very antsy.
Pandemic Policy Broke Us
“My colleagues and I conducted a review of all of the studies on mental health conducted during the first year of the pandemic,” social psychology Professor Gery Karantzas of Australia’s Deakin University wrote last year. “We found that overall, social restrictions doubled people’s odds of experiencing mental health symptoms… Those who experienced lockdowns were twice as likely to experience mental ill health than those who didn’t.”
“Societal and lifestyle disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic may have triggered brain inflammation that could affect mental health,” Harvard researchers found. “Brain imaging revealed that people tested after pandemic restrictions had elevated levels of two markers of neuroinflammation—translocator protein and myoinositol—compared with those tested prior to restrictions.”
That’s not to say that we were doing great before the pandemic. America’s social and political divisions are the stuff of modern legend.
Well, Pandemic Policy Broke Us More
“Do Americans hate each other too much to find common ground?” the Los Angeles Times asked in 2017. “Large majorities of Americans say the tone and nature of political debate in the United States has become more negative in recent years,” Pew Research noted in 2019.
Two years later, Pew found that “a large majority of Americans say there are strong political and strong racial and ethnic conflicts in the U.S. and that most people disagree on basic facts.”
These conflicts came amidst collapsing trust by Americans in institutions and in each other. By this year, the Edelman Trust Barometer reported that only 30 percent of respondents would help those with whom they strongly disagreed; 20 percent would be willing to have them as coworkers or neighbors.
People have turned against one another and become more fearful. More than half tell pollsters they believe crime increased where they live. The data isn’t as ominous so far, finding “violent and property crime remained consistent between 2020 and 2021” as the FBI put it in December. But those numbers are old and at odds with headlines about senseless shootings, as well as reports of shoplifting, muggings, and businesses abandoning city centers. People act on what they see, not on aging crime statistics.
Spare Us Another Dose of Policy
Some lawmakers and activists see a nuttier and more conflicted country as requiring tighter control. But even before we grew more anxious and hostile, Americans were never prone to obey restrictive laws. New York’s registration requirement for “assault weapons” drew maybe 5 percent compliance not quite a decade ago. Today’s Americans who distrust government and each other aren’t going to submit to new dictates or put themselves at the mercy of a world they view as dangerous.
Let’s not forget that disagreements over the means of control—our political institutions—were already sources of division and conflict well before COVID-19. Tighter laws in the form of pandemic lockdowns exacerbated those tensions, made us all crazier and more hostile, and brought us to a moment dominated by headlines about senseless shootings and other crimes.
What we might need is less top-down control and fewer restrictive laws in order to reduce the points of conflict. But I doubt that improvements will come easily or quickly. It took years to break our society; we’ll be a long time making repairs.
One person dead in shooting during attempted robbery, Chattanooga
A person is dead after a shooting during an attempted robbery on Saturday night in Chattanooga, according to police.
Officers were called at 8:58 p.m. and found a person dead from apparent gunshot wounds in the 100 block of West 41st Street, a news release states.
The man who reported the shooting told police that he responded in self-defense when the shooting victim was robbing him.
An investigation is ongoing.
April 24
1183 BC – By reckoning of Eratosthenes, the chief librarian of the Library of Alexandria, Troy falls after Epeius’ Steed, the ‘Trojan Horse’, is taken into the city and 40 Greek warriors hidden inside open the city gates to let the rest of the Greek army attack.
1704 – The first regular newspaper in British Colonial America, The Boston News-Letter, is published by John Campbell.
1800 – The Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs into law an appropriation for $5,000 to purchase “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress”.
1885 – Phoebe Ann Moses, better known as Annie Oakley, is hired by by Nate Salsbury to be an exhibition shooter in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show
1895 – Joshua Slocum, aboard the sloop Spray, sets sail from Boston, to be the first to sail single handedly around the world.
1913 – The 60 story Woolworth Building in Manhattan, for the next 17 years the tallest building in the world, is opened.
1915 – The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide by the Turks.
1918 – During the second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux in World War I, 3 British Mark IV tanks engage 3 German A7V tanks in the first tank vs. tank combat action.
1967 – PER ARDUA AD ASTRA Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies aboard Soyuz 1, when its parachute fails to open during reentry. The first man to die during a space mission.
1980 – During Operation Eagle Claw, an attempt to rescue the American embassy members taken hostage by Iran, 8 U.S. servicemembers and 1 Iranian national are killed, and 5 U.S. servicemembers are injured at staging point Desert One, when RH-53D Sea Stallion helicopter Bluebeard 3 collides on the ground with EC-130 Hercules aircraft Republic 4, causing a massive fire.
1990 – During shuttle mission STS-31, the Hubble Space Telescope is launched from Shuttle Discovery.
1996 – The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 Public Law No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214 is signed into law by President Clinton.
1997 – Eugene Stoner, designer of a direct gas operating system for firearms and used in many different models, dies, age 74, at Palm City, Florida.
2011 – WikiLeaks starts publishing the Guantanamo Bay files; documents relating to detainees at the United States Guantánamo Bay detention camp.