SITUATION IN NUMBERS
Globally
9826 confirmed
China
9720 confirmed
15238 suspected
1527 severe
213 deaths
Outside of China
106 confirmed
19 countries
| Positive | 6 |
|---|---|
| Negative | 114 |
| Pending§ | 121 |
| Total | 241 |
Florida bills would allow concealed weapons at school churches, armed city officials in meetings
TALLAHASSEE — With supporters pointing to attacks on churches and synagogues, a House panel Tuesday approved a measure that would allow people to carry concealed weapons at religious institutions that share properties with schools.
The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee also approved a separate bill that would allow county commissioners, school board members and elected city officials to be armed at their public meetings.
State law generally allows people to carry concealed weapons at religious institutions, but it bars being armed on school properties. That has effectively meant that people cannot carry guns to churches or synagogues that meet at places with schools.
The measure (HB 1437) approved Tuesday would allow religious institutions to authorize people with concealed-weapons licenses to carry guns at such locations.
“Right now, if a church was located on the same property as, say, a preschool, and that preschool met from Monday through Friday, people at that church would not be allowed to carry concealed on Sunday and Wednesday night during those services, and this bill would change that,” bill sponsor Jayer Williamson, R-Pace, said.
Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey supported the proposal, saying he considers it a “property rights bill” instead of a gun bill.
Perjury charge filed against woman who tried to have CSU officer’s weapons confiscated
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A perjury charge has been filed against Susan Holmes, the woman who recently tried to use Colorado’s new “red flag” law to have a Colorado State University officer’s weapons confiscated.
Earlier this month, Holmes filed an extreme risk protection order against Cpl. Phillip Morris. It was denied.
Morris shot and killed Holmes’ son in 2017. The district attorney found the shooting to be “clearly justified.”
A petition for an extreme risk protection order requires the petitioner to have a connection to the respondent, such as being a blood relative, a marriage or domestic partner, or having a child in common with the respondent.
Under penalty of perjury, Holmes claimed she had a child in common with Morris when in fact, she does not.
On Thursday, Colorado court records showed Holmes is charged with one count of perjury and one count of attempt to influence a public servant. The latter charge is for allegedly lying to a judge.
The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office said a warrant is out for Holmes and she is not in custody. The sheriff’s office confirmed the warrant is in relation to the ERPO case.
The warrant has been active for about one week.
Holmes’ bond is currently set at $5,000.
Coronavirus spread now a global emergency declares World Health Organization
The rise in new coronavirus cases outside China, now constitutes a global health emergency, the World Health Organization’s Emergency Committee declared on Thursday, calling on all countries to take urgent measures to contain the respiratory disease.Latest WHO figures state there are more than 7,800 confirmed cases globally, with 7,736 confirmed in China, and a further 12,167 suspected cases inside the country where the outbreak began in Wuhan, a city of around 11 million which remains in lockdown.
Latest figures
So far, 170 people have died in China, and 1,370 cases there are officially described as severe. A total of 124 have recovered and been discharged from hospital.
Outside China, there are 82 confirmed cases, in 18 different countries, and only seven had no history of travel in China.
“There has been human-to-human transmission in three countries outside China”, according to a statement released by WHO’s Emergency Committee. “One of these cases is severe and there have been no deaths.”
Army Rangers Conducted the Most Successful Rescue Mission in U.S. History 75 Years Ago
After the end of the war when all the PW records could be correlated with the lists of the still missing in action, it was determined that a great uncle was one of those who had died on the Bataan Death March.
Seventy-five years ago a company of Army Rangers and Filipino guerrilla fighters conducted the most successful rescue mission in U.S. military history, freeing over 500 prisoners of war being held by the Japanese.
The raid took place at Cabanatuan prison camp, located about 65 miles north of Manila, in the Philippines.
Most of the POWs in the camp were survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March, which took place in the spring of 1942………
In early January 1945, U.S. forces landed on Luzon island and began the push toward Manila.
By this time, most of the American POWs had been transported back to Japan or Manchuria to work as slave laborers.
However, among those remaining were over 500 being held at Cabanatuan.
When one of MacArthur’s top generals, Sixth Army commander Gen. Walter Krueger, learned of the camp, he green-lit a mission to rescue the POWs, knowing they were in danger of being killed by the Japanese as American forces drew near……
Charlie Company of the 6th Ranger Battalion, beefed up with an extra platoon to be 120 strong, was chosen for the perilous mission to slip 30 miles behind enemy lines, undetected, liberate the camp and lead the POWs back to freedom.
They would be supported on the mission by 200 Philippine guerrilla fighters.
Opposing them would be approximately 250 Japanese guards and other troops housed at Cabanatuan, with nearly 1,000 Japanese soldiers positioned less than a mile from the camp.
Only four miles away, at Cabanatuan City, were an additional 9,000 Japanese forces……
Armed with intelligence provided by Filipino guerrillas and the 6th Army’s Alamo Scouts, Mucci and his men crossed into enemy-held territory on the morning of Jan. 28…….
The Rangers launched the raid of Cabanatuan on the evening of Jan. 30.
A P-61 Black Widow fighter plane flew low over the camp creating a diversion, so the U.S. troops could draw in close to the fence-line undetected.
Suddenly, at 7:44 p.m. local time, the night sky lit up with a fusillade of gunfire as Rangers took out the Japanese guards in their assigned sectors.
The Americans quickly broke through the front gate and fanned out into the camp.
The frenetic scene during the liberation was depicted in the 2005 film “The Great Raid.”
All the POWs were directed to go to the front gate if they could walk (or Rangers carried them). There, they were met and escorted to a nearby riverbed.
The most fragile among them were then loaded onto caraboa (ox) carts provided by the local Filipinos.
Meanwhile, less than a mile from Cabanatuan, 200 Philippine guerrillas under the leadership of Captain Juan Pajota held off nearly a thousand Japanese soldiers.
Pajota’s men managed to partially blow a bridge over the Cabu River, which ran between Cabanatuan and the Japanese forces, which prevented tanks and other heavy vehicles from crossing.
The liberated POWs, guarded by the Rangers and guerrillas, marched through the night toward the American lines, only encountering some light Japanese resistance along the way……..
Statement from the Press Secretary Regarding the President’s Coronavirus Task Force
Today, President Donald J. Trump announced the formation of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force. Members of the Task Force have been meeting on a daily basis since Monday. At today’s meeting, which the President chaired, he charged the Task Force with leading the United States Government response to the novel 2019 coronavirus and with keeping him apprised of developments.
The Task Force is led by Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, and is coordinated through the National Security Council. It is composed of subject matter experts from the White House and several United States Government agencies, and it includes some of the Nation’s foremost experts on infectious diseases.
The Task Force will lead the Administration’s efforts to monitor, contain, and mitigate the spread of the virus, while ensuring that the American people have the most accurate and up-to-date health and travel information.
The President’s top priority is the health and welfare of the American people. That is why, in 2018, President Trump signed the National Biodefense Strategy, which improves speed of action in situations such as this. The Administration, led by the President’s Task Force, will continue to work to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
The risk of infection for Americans remains low, and all agencies are working aggressively to monitor this continuously evolving situation and to keep the public informed. For more information, please visit CDC.gov.
Members of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force:
Secretary Alex Azar, Department of Health and Human Services
Robert O’Brien, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health
Deputy Secretary Stephen Biegun, Department of State
Ken Cuccinelli, Acting Deputy Secretary, Department of Homeland Security
Joel Szabat, Acting Under Secretary for Policy, Department of Transportation
Matthew Pottinger, Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor
Rob Blair, Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the Chief of Staff
Joseph Grogan, Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council
Christopher Liddell, Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Coordination
Derek Kan, Executive Associate Director, Office of Management and Budget
You Can Now Stop Facebook From Tracking Your Activity on Other Websites. Here’s How
The ‘Off-Facebook Activity’ tool allows you to control what information about you is tracked and associated with your Facebook account.
As of Tuesday, you can now turn off the collection and sharing of data that sites and apps send to Facebook. You might have had some idea that Facebook was keeping tabs on what you do, but I’m willing to bet you’ll be surprised by the volume of information Facebook has about you. In fact, as I wrote earlier today, even your Ring doorbell app is sharing information with Facebook.
Websites and apps use Facebook’s Pixel and software development kit (SDK) to collect information about your device and your activity, and send that to Facebook. Facebook uses that information to then show you targeted ads.
It’s why people are convinced Facebook must be listening to their conversations since they see ads in their News Feed for the very products or items they were just talking about. Here’s a newsflash: Facebook doesn’t need to listen to your conversations. It already knows so much about you, it can practically read your thoughts.
If you don’t believe me, the “Off-Facebook Activity” tool that Facebook announced back in August is finally available. Go take a look at exactly what Facebook has collected about you. You might be surprised at all of the sites and apps you use on a regular basis who are sharing information about what you do.
Here’s how to find out what sites are sending information to Facebook about you. The “Off-Facebook-Activity” tool isn’t easy to find (though you can click that link to go directly to it). If you want to navigate there, click on the drop-down carrot in the top right of the desktop version of Facebook. Then select “Settings” and “Your Facebook Information.” There you’ll find an option for “Off-Facebook Activity.”
JASON ATEN
There you’ll find a list of all the sites that are sharing information with Facebook, and you can clear your history (removing this information from your account), turn off tracking for specific sites, or disable this tracking completely. To be clear, if you turn it off, Facebook will still receive information about your activity, it just won’t be associated with your account.
also, turning off this type of data sharing does mean that you won’t be able to use Facebook to log in to other apps or sites. Never mind that you shouldn’t be using it, for this very reason, but if you are, you’ll be logged out and have to create a new login for those accounts or apps.
I don’t often give Facebook credit for considering the privacy interests of its users, but this is a welcome step in the right direction. The company has often had a hard time balancing its need to know as much as it can about you so that it can monetize that information, with the ability for users to control what information is being collected and tracked. While there are still a lot of changes Facebook will have to make before it can really claim to be a “privacy-protective” platform, this is a good start.
Lyft driver uses firearm in self defense after Cape Coral man pulls knife
When a Cape Coral man pulled a knife on a rideshare driver on Tuesday morning, the victim retrieved his firearm in self-defense and forced the suspect out of the car, authorities said.
The suspect, Adam John Mormon, 28, now faces a charge of Aggravate Assault.
While the Lyft driver was driving around 1:10 a.m., the passenger retrieved a small, black knife and began dictating where to drive. According to the Cape Coral Police Dept. arrest report, at the intersection of Chiquita Blvd and El Dorado Pkwy, Mormon banged the dashboard with the knife while waving it in a “threatening manner.”
The driver told Mormon to exit the vehicle because he was in fear for his life. When Mormon did not listen, the victim pulled out a firearm and told Mormon once again to exit the vehicle. The arrest report states that Mormon complied and the victim left the scene.
It is against Lyft’s policy to have any kind of weapon, with the consequences of being banned from the company. People living nearby do not want to see the driver face any kind of consequences from the company.
“You have to look at the situation,” said Joanne and Bob Syversen, “before you clamp down on exactly what the rule says or what the law says.”
Police detained Mormon, who was found with a black pocket knife in his jeans. The victim later identified the detained suspect for officers with a request to press charges. Right now, Mormon is at Lee County Jail with a trial date on Feb. 10.
WINK News reached out to Lyft to see if the driver will face punishment for brandishing a gun to protect his life. So far, the rideshare company has not responded.
Akron pizza delivery driver pulls gun on would-be robbers
AKRON, Ohio — A man delivering pizzas pulled a gun on a three robbery suspects, scaring them off, police say.
It was one of two incidents involving pizza delivery drivers on Monday and investigators believe they are related. No one was injured in either incident, but police are still searching for the suspects.
At about 7 p.m., a 26-year-old driver for Papa John’s tells police he went to a house to make a delivery and realized it was vacant. Three teen males walked from behind the house toward the driver.
The driver tells police that one of the males began reaching for his waistband. The driver, who has a concealed carry permit, pulled out his handgun, causing the three suspects to run away, police say. No shots were fired.
The suspects were 15 to 18 years old. One was about 6-feet tall and was wearing a black hooded sweat shirt with a white stripe across the chest, police say.
An earlier robbery occurred at about noon Monday on the 1100 block of Fourth Avenue in East Akron. A 30-year-old driver for Domino’s tells police he was robbed by two teen males, one armed with a handgun, when he tried to deliver a pizza to a vacant home. The suspects took cash and a bag with two pizzas.
The suspects were 16 to 18 years old, with one about 5-foot-10 to 5-foot-11, 150 to 160 pounds, wearing a dark windbreaker and dark vest. The other suspect was wearing a white hooded sweat shirt with a colorful logo pattern.
Police Arrested Burglary Suspect Allegedly Fired Upon By San Rafael Homeowner
AN RAFAEL (CBS SF) — A burglary suspect who allegedly was thwarted by an armed San Rafael homeowner who fired several shots to defend his residence has been arrested, authorities said.
Police said Jamal Jay Bseiso, a 60-year-old man with no fixed address, was being held in Marin County Jail on burglary and burglary of an occupied dwelling charges.
The case began on Jan. 17th when San Rafael police received a 911 call from a homeowner in the 200 block of San Marino Dr. The homeowner was reporting that someone was breaking a window to his residence and was trying to enter his home.
Officers were dispatched to the home. While they were enroute, the homeowner called back saying he had fired shots towards the back of the house in the area where the suspect was trying to break into the residence.
The homeowner told officers he did not know if he struck the suspect. A search of the neighborhood failed to turn up any sign of the man.
A San Rafael police detective followed up on all leads which included a search for any video evidence, re-interviewed the victim, and re-interviewed witnesses who lived in the area.
Through this investigation, he learned that Bseiso was possibility the suspect in the burglary as well as other misdemeanor cases in the area involving vandalism and petty theft.
On Wednesday morning, detectives located Bseiso’s vehicle in the 1300 Block of Hamilton Parkway in Novato. They located Bseiso in the area and arrested him. He apparently was not injured by the homeowner.
China counts 170 virus deaths, new countries find infections
BEIJING (AP) — China counted 170 deaths from a new virus Thursday and more countries reported infections, including some spread locally, as foreign evacuees from China’s worst-hit region returned home to medical observation and even isolation.
India and the Philippines reported their first cases, in a traveler and a student who had both been in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the new type of coronavirus first surfaced in December. South Korea confirmed a case that was locally spread, in a man who had contact with a patient diagnosed earlier.
Locally spread cases outside China have been a worrying concern among global health officials, as potential signs of the virus spreading more easily and the difficulty of containing it. The World Health Organization is reconvening experts on Thursday to assess whether the outbreak should be declared a global emergency.
The new virus has now infected more people in China than were sickened there during the 2002-2003 outbreak of SARS, another type of coronavirus.
Thursday’s figures for mainland China cover the previous 24 hours and represent an increase of 38 deaths and 1,737 cases for a total of 7,711. Of the new deaths, 37 were in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, and one was in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
Three of Japan’s confirmed cases were among a group of evacuees who returned on a government-chartered flight from Wuhan on Wednesday. Japan’s foreign ministry said a second flight carrying 210 Japanese evacuees landed Thursday at Tokyo’s Haneda airport. Reports said nine of those aboard the flight showed signs of cough and fever.
India’s health ministry said a student in Kerala state who had been studying in Wuhan was confirmed to have the virus after returning home during the Lunar New Year break. Philippine health officials say a woman who traveled to the country from Wuhan via Hong Kong had tested positive.
Vietnam, meanwhile, confirmed three new cases on Thursday— all people returned from Wuhan — bringing its total to five. The patients, who are receiving treatment in Hanoi and Thanh Hoa provinces, are all in stable condition, Do Xuan Tuyen, deputy minister of health, said in a statement.
The United States evacuated 195 Americans from Wuhan who are being tested and monitored at a Southern California military base. A statement from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said additional evacuation flights were being planned for Monday or surrounding days.
Concealed-Weapon Permits Have Tripled in North Carolina.
With an unprecedented number of shootings happening around Charlotte, an increasing number of residents are turning to concealed weapons for protection.
According to North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigations, concealed-carry gun permits increased from 177,787 in 2010 to 647,553 last year. Current permit holders make up about 8% of our population – the 10th highest level in America.
All that is required to obtain the permit is an 8-hour course, a gun firing test, and a criminal and mental health background check.
The permits allows the owner to conceal their firearms in all places guns are not prohibited. It also allows NC residents to buy an unlimited number of guns with no additional background checks required for each new purchase.
Two hundred Americans to face quarantine in California
Some 200 US citizens are due to be quarantined in California after arriving from Wuhan, China amid the coronavirus oubreak.
The passengers, mostly diplomats, were evacuated via a chartered flight that landed on US soil on Wednesday.
They will be quarantined for at least 72 hours, but could be kept isolated for up to two weeks if they have any symptoms, officials said.
The flight landed at a US air base near Riverside, California.
Earlier, the flight stopped in Anchorage, Alaska, to refuel while the 201 were given an initial screen for symptoms. None exhibited any signs of the coronavirus, according to the state’s chief medical officer. Five cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the US as of Tuesday.
The Department of State, which chartered the flight, said places aboard were offered to government workers, with unfilled seats sold to US citizens on a “reimbursable basis”, though it was unclear if the agency was offering to pay back the reported $1,000 per ticket cost.
It was originally scheduled to land at the civilian Ontario International Airport, some 30 miles (48km) from Los Angeles, but was diverted to the March Air Reserve military base.
The Ontario airport had prepared for the arrival of the chartered flight on Tuesday by setting up showers, bathrooms and beds in a hangar. The decision to move the flight to the air base came that evening.
The switch was made for logistical reasons, Curt Hagman, a San Bernardino county official said.
Yeah, the logistic idiocy of housing these people in a ‘hurry-up’ barracks at a public airport instead of flying them direct to a military base with the attendant security already in place.
Mexican children pictured taking up rifles for community police force after cartel attack
Grupos de autodefensa juvenil para la victoria!
I feel the need, the need for AKs.
Nearly two dozen Mexican children whose fathers, all musicians, were killed last week in an attack blamed on a drug cartel were photographed taking up arms for an indigenous community’s police force.
Around 20 children, who range in age from 8 to 14 years old, according to the BBC, were depicted holding rifles and carrying out military-style exercises in the town of Chilapa, 200 miles south of Mexico City.
A total of 10 musicians were killed in an ambush while returning home from a performance — and some of the boys in the photos are believed to be their sons, the BBC added…….
A group that represents local indigenous people told the BBC that the children are being trained to defend Chilapa from gangs. Community police forces are said to be common in the region.
Local media claimed the photos were taken to send a message to Mexico’s president that there needs to be more security forces sent there.
Sutter County Sheriff Alerts CCW Permit Holders About Public Records Request From SF Newspaper
YUBA CITY (CBS13) – The Sutter County Sheriff is alerting concealed carry weapons holders after a public records request prompted him to release some of their information.
Sheriff Brandon Barnes says the San Francisco Chronicle recently put in the request for information about CCW permit applications and permit holders.
The sheriff says he “personally” declined to release much of the information requested, but was advised by the county counsel to provide some data. CCW permit numbers, the names of permit holders, and the dates of issue and expiration have been released.
Exactly what the Chronicle is using the information for has not been stated, according to the sheriff’s office.
I know what they want the information for, to ‘out’ people who have CC permits no matter the denials.
On Tuesday, the sheriff’s office posted the letter they will be sending out to CCW permit holders in the coming weeks.
In response to the sheriff’s decision to publicize the Chronicle’s request and to notify CCW permit holders, San Francisco Chronicle Editor In Chief Audrey Cooper issued the following statement:
“I am deeply disturbed by how some sheriffs have handled a routine request for public information from a respected and established news outlet. As a result, they have put our journalists in personal danger for their own political gain.
“It is a journalist’s job to investigate trends, and we do not intend on publishing personal information of private citizens. Unfortunately, the sheriffs sought to play up distrust in media when it became clear that they cannot deny access to public information.”
Cooper later added the newspaper would refine its Public Records Act request out of concern for their reporter’s safety. His name will be removed. Cooper will instead use her name in the Chronicle’s request for the data.
Sheriff Barnes says he will alert CCW permit holders if any more information is requested.
Trump makes Palestine an offer too good to refuse.
Today, President Trump followed through with a Middle East proposal that creates a Palestinian state, opens Temple Mount to all three Abrahamic religions, and invests $50 billion to create a million jobs for Palestinians…….
The plan states, “The sovereign capital of the State of Palestine should be in the section of East Jerusalem located in all areas east and north of the existing security barrier, including Kafr Aqab, the eastern part of Shuafat and Abu Dis, and could be named Al Quds or another name as determined by the State of Palestine.”
That’s a huge concession by Israel.
Palestinians angrily reject Trump Mideast peace plan.
They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said “a thousand no’s” to the Mideast peace plan announced Tuesday by President Donald Trump, which strongly favors Israel.
The Palestinians remain committed to ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a state with its capital in east Jerusalem, Abbas said at a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the Western-backed Palestinian Authority is headquartered.
“After the nonsense that we heard today we say a thousand no’s to the Deal of The Century,” he said.
The plan would create a Palestinian state in parts of the West Bank, but would allow Israel to annex its settlements in the occupied territory. The plan would allow the Palestinians to establish a capital on the outskirts of east Jerusalem but would leave most of the city under Israeli control.
“We will not kneel and we will not surrender,” Abbas said, adding that the Palestinians would resist the plan through “peaceful, popular means.”
The Islamic militant group Hamas rejected the “conspiracies” announced by the U.S. and Israel and said “all options are open” in responding to the Trump administration’s plan.
Paul mentioned this in a comment on a previous post.
It bears serious reading.
When Cathy Newman’s absurdly hilarious interview with Jordan Peterson exploded across the internet, it wasn’t just because it was so funny. To a lot of conservatives, myself included, it sounded way too familiar. What we’ve known for a long time, Cathy Newman made blindingly obvious: Liberals really don’t listen. Maybe liberals can’t listen.
I’m seeing it again in a book I’m reading on the history of America’s culture wars. Conservatives’ opposition to new views on morality in the 1910s and 20s was “driven by fear,” the author says. Never mind that when the Pope Pius XI weighed in on the question, his answer was balanced, focused both on the real good that comes for all from true morality, and what dangers may follow upon straying from it. No, it was all “driven by fear.”
Liberals don’t see both sides. In fact, it’s almost as if they can’t. Or maybe we should drop “almost” from that sentence. For there’s some fascinating — and disturbing — research that says conservatives have the ability to understand liberals, but liberals literally can’t understand conservatives.
It has a lot to do with seeing moral issues from multiple points of view. The Pope could do it; can liberals?
I’m sure they think they can. Suppose you went out and struck up a conversation with a liberal friend of yours, or a teacher or a co-worker. Suppose you asked them, “Who’s better at seeing moral issues from more than one point of view: liberals or conservatives?” What would you bet they’d claim they could do it better? I’d put a lot of money down on that one.
Five Moral Foundations
But then along comes New York University psychologist Jonathan Haidt. He and his research team set out on a global project seeking to understand human morality. They found that wherever you go, you’ll find five basic “moral foundations”: Caring, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority/Respect, and Purity. He explains all this brilliantly in a TED talk, if you can overlook some lingering bias. (In his book The Righteous Mind he includes a sixth, Liberty.)
But there’s more. Haidt found a glaring difference between people on the left and people on the right. Conservatives, by and large, tend to live with all five of these moral dimensions in balance. Liberals don’t. They’re strong on Care and Fairness, but they’re weak on Loyalty, Authority and Purity.
And that’s a problem. Jonathan Haidt, who viewed himself as a liberal before doing this study, extended his research to look at what societies need in order to maintain stability and security. And he realized it isn’t just the left’s favorite pair. It takes all five moral categories. He paid attention: he’s a moderate now.
Conservatives could do it. Liberals couldn’t.
The Really Interesting Difference Between Liberals and Conservatives
But hang on — we’re just now getting to the interesting part. Haidt asked liberals and conservatives to put themselves in one another’s shoes; to imagine how the other side would answer a list of ethical questions. Conservatives could do it. Liberals couldn’t. People on the right had the ability to understand people on the left; even to empathize with them to a degree. People on the left couldn’t do the same in return.
The reason, Haidt says, is because liberals’ moral scope is unbalanced. They’re so focused on Care and Fairness, they can’t imagine anyone thinking other values being important. Therefore, he says in this excerpt from his book The Righteous Mind, “If you don’t see that Reagan is pursuing positive values of Loyalty, Authority, and Sanctity, you almost have to conclude that Republicans see no positive value in Care and Fairness.”
And if we don’t value Care and Fairness — liberals’ most important values, by far — then we must be Really Awful People.
Misunderstanding Conservatism
Think I’m overstating it? Go back to the link and re-read the rest of the excerpt. Read the New York theater critic who wrote, “Republicans don’t believe in the imagination, partly because so few of them have one, but mostly because it gets in the way of their chosen work, which is to destroy the human race and the planet. … I personally think they should be exterminated before they cause any more harm).”
It isn’t just that liberals don’t want to understand us. Many of them simply can’t. Not without considerable effort and coaching, at any rate; but which of them puts in that effort? Why would anyone want to empathize with Really Awful People? “Many readers,” writes Haidt, “ stayed locked inside their Care-based moral matrices and refused to believe that conservatism was an alternative moral vision.” He continues, “One reader … thought it was ‘sad’ that Republican narcissism would prevent them from understanding my perspective on their ‘illness.’”
We could go on all day explaining our positive reasons for the positions we take; all they’ll hear is us playing cover-up games. We must be driven by fear. Or power, or hate. Anything but decency. “What you’re really saying is…”
They can’t even imagine anything better of us. Why? According to Haidt, they don’t have a place in their minds to process Loyalty, Authority or Purity. For a large proportion of the liberal world, those values don’t even belong in the “ethics” category — even though human societies can’t survive without them.
So What Do We Do?
Need I say it? There’s no magic formula to fix this. It’s going to take time, and patience, and even love on our part, along with constant clear explanation of who we are and what we believe. It’s going to take real relationships, in other words.
Even that, though, may be difficult, since both conservatives and liberals have gotten ourselves fenced off in different towns and cities, or different parts of town, and certainly on different parts of the internet. It’s going to take real relational outreach on our part, in other words.
And even then nothing is guaranteed. Considering how many people ignored Jesus right up until the end of His life — and how eager some of them were to end His life — we need to be realistic with our expectations.
Yet some responded to Him then, and some will respond still today. I’m not giving up. And in the meantime, I for one find this insight from Haidt to be very interesting — and helpful.
WHO Has Admitted an Error in Its Assessment of Wuhan Coronavirus Risk.
The World Health Organization, which has sometimes been criticised for its handling of past disease outbreaks, admitted an error on Monday in its risk assessment of China’s deadly virus.
The Geneva-based UN agency said in a situation report late Sunday that the risk was “very high in China, high at the regional level and high at the global level.”
In a footnote, the WHO explained that it had stated “incorrectly” in its previous reports on Thursday, Friday and Saturday that the global risk was “moderate”.
The correction of the global risk assessment does not mean that an international health emergency has been declared.
The WHO on Thursday stopped short of declaring the novel coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern – a rare designation used only for the worst outbreaks that would trigger more concerted global action.
The virus, which was first identified in the city of Wuhan in China on December 31, has since infected more than 2,700 people worldwide, including a few cases identified in over a dozen other countries.
Eighty-one people have died – all of them in China.
A ‘sizeable’ mistake
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is visiting China this week to discuss ways of containing the outbreak, came under intense questioning from reporters on Thursday over his decision not to declare the emergency.
Some reporters asked whether the decision was politicised.
At the briefing at WHO headquarters, however, Tedros had said that the designation could be changed at any moment and that the global risk from the outbreak was “high”.
“This is an emergency in China but it has not yet become a global health emergency. It may yet become one,” he said.
“WHO’s risk assessment is that the outbreak is a very high risk in China, and a high risk regionally and globally.”
Brown County 13-year-old shoots man assaulting teen’s grandmother
Yet, the demoncraps want any access to a gun to be illegal for anyone younger than 21. Tell that to grandma.
Brownwood News – According to a press release from the Brown County Sheriff’s Department, on Sunday, January 26, 2020, Brown County deputies responded to a domestic disturbance with reported shots fired.
Deputies arrived and found an adult male with a gunshot wound to his lower back. Deputies learned that the subject that had been shot was actively assaulting his mother. Another family member, a 13 year-old male, shot the subject with a .30-30 cal. rifle because he was fearful that his grandmother was going to be killed. Deputies also learned that the subject that was shot had threatened several members of the family and had threatened to kill a juvenile family member.
The subject that was shot was transported by helicopter to an out of town hospital. No arrests are anticipated, according to the Brown County Sheriff’s Department.
Armed gas station clerk shoots perp in the leg to stop attempted knifepoint robbery
DULUTH, Ga. — A gas station clerk shot a man and stopped an alleged attempted robbery at knifepoint before it really began early Tuesday morning, according to Duluth Police.
The department said that around 3:35 a.m., 21-year-old Christian Saint Amour rushed with a knife into the gas station mart at a Shell on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard.
“Surveillance video showed a black male run into the Shell, with a red shirt covering his face armed with a knife,” a release said.
Police described how the “male continued to run in the store towards the cashier area still armed with the knife,” before he was stopped in his tracks by the store’s armed cashier.
“At this time, the cashier shot the armed male one time in the left leg,” the release said.
According to police, the cashier then called 911. When officers arrived, they found Saint Amour lying on the floor of the store, and they gave him first aid.
He was taken to the hospital by the Gwinnett County Fire Department. Police have since charged Saint Amour with attempted armed robbery, aggravated assault, possession of a knife during the commission of a felony and wearing a mask to conceal identity.
Germany and Japan Report First Coronavirus Cases in People Who Haven’t Visited China.
Germany, Japan, and Taiwan have all reported the first cases of a new SARS-like virus in people who haven’t recently visited China. The announcements, made on Tuesday, come as the number of confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV worldwide reached 4,587 and the death toll hit 106.
The first person to contract the virus in Germany reportedly got it from a “Chinese colleague” while the two were attending a work training session in the state of Bavaria one week ago, according to German state media outlet DW. The 33-year-old patient, who’s from the town of Starnberg, roughly 18 miles from Munich, was infected by a woman who had been in Wuhan recently to visit her parents. The man, an employee of car parts supplier Webasto, is in a “medically good state,” reports DW.
In Japan, a man in his 60s has also contracted the new coronavirus, according to Japanese news outlet NHK. The unnamed man has not recently traveled to China, but reportedly works as a tour bus driver and came in contact with tourists from Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak, at least twice this month.
The Japanese patient lives in Nara prefecture in western Japan and first developed symptoms on January 14 and was hospitalized on January 25, according to the Strait Times. The man’s condition has not been released.
Taiwan, which has eight confirmed cases of the virus, also reported its first case of human-to-human transmission outside of China. The patient is a man in his 50s was infected by his wife who had recently been working in China. The man is in stable condition, according to a new report from Reuters. Taiwan has placed restrictions on people traveling from China and now bans the export of facemasks as it tries to control the spread of the new virus…………
Virginia Sheriff Richard Vaughan Explains Why He Won’t Enforce Gov. Ralph Northam’s Gun Control Laws
Seattle Shooting: Looks Like Gun Group was Right about Gun Control Fail
“Prior to 2014, incidents of shots fired in Seattle never topped 300,” Ammoland reported. “Since 2015—the first full year following passage of the gun control measure—the number of shooting incidents has not dropped below 300.”
The story also recalled how the Seattle City Council adopted a “gun violence tax” on the sale of firearms and ammunition inside city limits in 2015. In 2016, the city posted 18 slayings of which 11 were gun-related. In 2017, the city recorded 27 murders, including 16 involving firearms. In 2018, the number was 32, according to SPD data, and 13 of them involved guns. Last year, SPD said, there were 28 slayings.
Further demonstrating gun control’s failure are the FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics. In 2016, Washington reported 195 total homicides including 127 involving firearms. In 2017, the state posted 228 total slayings including 134 killings with guns and in 2018 there were 232 murders including 138 committed with firearms.
“We find it beyond ironic,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “that the exact opposite of what gun control proponents predicted has occurred. Their extremist agenda has failed to reduce gun-related crime as was implied when they pushed through their various measures.”
