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Fri, 29 Oct 2021
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Yet another study confirms lockdowns don't reduce covid deaths

lockdown doesn't work, lockdown
Studies which show social restrictions do not lead to lower Covid mortality and infection rates are numerous (see this collection of 31 from AIER, which is kept up to date).

We now have another paper to add to the collection. Published last week in Scientific Reports in Nature, it looks at whether the extent to which people stayed at home (measured using Google mobility data) is associated with Covid mortality in different countries. Doesn't look like it, they conclude. Here's an excerpt from the abstract:

Comment: By now it is patently clear that lockdowns do not work. See also:


Star of David

Palestinian children picking wild flowers arrested by Israeli forces at illegal settlers demand

children arrested picking flowers
© B’Tselem
An Israeli soldier detains a Palestinian boy in the Masafer Yatta area on March 10th, 2021
"This was obviously an attempt by the settlers to intimidate the boys by using the soldiers," eyewitness Basel Adrah tells Mondoweiss. "They didn't steal or damage anything. All they were doing was picking akoub. Is this a crime?"

Israeli forces arrested five Palestinian children, ranging between the ages of eight and 13, in the South Hebron Hills of the southern occupied West Bank on Wednesday, sparking outrage among local and international human rights advocates.

Videos of the arrest went viral on social media, showing a large group of masked and armed Israeli soldiers forcibly arresting the children, who were visibly alarmed and frightened as they were dragged into an Israeli military jeep.

"The kids were caught off guard and had no idea what was happening to them and why," Basel Adrah, a local activist from the Masafer Yatta area told Mondoweiss.

Fire

Six killed in explosion at factory in Tunisia

fire
© Twitter/@bedis_ba
THE explosion of an asphalt tanker in an industrial area of Gabes, in southeastern Tunisia, this afternoon (Saturday, March 13) has claimed the lives six people and injured one, according to the country's civil protection.

Four people died at the scene of the asphalt factory, and another two casualties died after being transported to a hospital in Gabes.

The regional director of Gabes' civil protection, Atef Hawij, told Arabi21 that "charred bodies were found, while two people died in the hospital."


X

Georgetown law professor fired for comments about black students in viral video

georgetown
© Robert Knopes/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
On Thursday, Georgetown Law terminated one of its professors who was recorded in a video discussing the academic performance of black students.

In the video that has gone viral on Twitter and sparked controversy and outrage, Professor Sandra Sellers and Professor David Batson can be seen generally discussing students' academic standings on a video Zoom call.

"You know what? I hate to say this, I end up having this angst every semester that a lot of my lower ones are Blacks," Sellers says. "Happens almost every semester and it's like 'oh come on.'"

Sellers then briefly laughs before saying: "I get some really good ones but there are also usually some that are just plain at the bottom, it drives me crazy...I feel bad."

Batson doesn't speak much in the video, but can be seen nodding his head a few times.

On Thursday afternoon, Georgetown Law Dean Bill Treanor stated that Sellers would be fired and that Batson has been put on leave awaiting the findings of an investigation being conducted by the Office of Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action.

Comment: Sellers was just stating the truth. One of the problems with affirmative action is that unqualified students are accepted based on the color of their skin. Many of these students - unprepared for the course material to follow - end up falling behind and receiving lower grades than they would have in a program for which they were qualified. The problem isn't the professors. And the solution isn't affirmative action - it is increasing school performance in grade school.

For an example of the wrong solution, there are calls for elite Thomas Jefferson High School to lower their academic standards so that more minority students can be accepted. As Harry Jackson, a black Naval Academy graduate points out, this is a bad idea:
As previously reported by National File, amid left-wing efforts to massively alter academic admissions and curriculum using critical race theory nationwide, officials at Fairfax County Public Schools directed administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School - a magnet school ranked #1 in the nation - to scrap the school's admission standards in favor of a race-based "merit lottery" meant to admit more "diverse" students to the school.

"The student body is notably diverse," wrote Jackson. "With 79 percent coming from a minority background. But according to state and local education bureaucrats, that last point isn't good enough — because, as it turns out, the school's population is made up of 'the wrong kind' of minorities: Asian students...By comparison, relatively small numbers of Black and Hispanic applicants meet TJ's demanding admission standards."

While Jackson says that he'd like to see more black and Hispanic students attend TJHS, the watering down of admissions standards by "paternalistic white liberals" shows that what they truly believe is that black and Hispanic students are inferior to white and Asian students.

"When I see the effort to water down the admissions standards to TJ — and let's be clear, that effort is largely led by paternalistic White liberals who are determined to "help" minority victims at any cost — I see it for what it is: a tacit admission that they don't think Black and Hispanic students have what it takes to compete on merit."
See Heather Mac Donald's Diversity Delusion for all the details.


Eye 1

Italy reimposes severe lockdown restrictions over half of the country

Milan mask italy
© REUTERS/Flavio Lo Scalzo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People wearing masks walk in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II as Lombardy tightens restrictions due to a surge in the number of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections in the region, in Milan, Italy, March 5, 2021.
Italy's capital Rome and its financial centre Milan will have curbs on business and movement intensified from Monday as the government ramps up its efforts to stem a steady rise in coronavirus cases.

In recent months Italy has calibrated restrictions in its 20 regions according to a four-tier, colour-coded system (white, yellow, orange and red) based on local infection levels which are revised every week.

Under an order approved on Friday by Health Minister Roberto Speranza numerous regions have been shifted into the toughest red zones, including Lombardy around Milan, and Lazio around Rome.

Comment: The previous lockdown was partly lifted amidst a massive campaign by Italy's business owners to 'open up' in defiance of the lockdown, and so it's likely that being forced into another unnecessary lockdown will only serve to reignite the protests:


Bullseye

National Guard Association calling for end of mission at the Capitol

national guard washington
© The National Guard
National Guardsmen at the Capitol building on January 12, 2021, in preparation for Biden's inauguration
Capitol Police staffing shortfalls prompted the force to request an extension of the National Guard mission for two months, but with a price tag now ballooning past $500 million and no clearly stated threat, the National Guard Association says now it is time for law enforcement to take over.

The idea of a true threat to the U.S. Capitol was dismissed at the Pentagon this week when spokesman John Kirby told the Washington Examiner that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's approval of a two-month extension for some 2,300 Guard members was in order to "buy them [Capitol Police] some time and space."

National Guard Bureau Chief Gen. Daniel Hokanson also said in an internal memo dated March 4 that he disagreed with Austin's decision given Guard responsibilities in their home states. Now, the National Guard Association representing the more than 450,000 citizen soldiers, has also denounced the extension.

Comment:


Russian Flag

Putin's progress: While Moscow remains way ahead of most other cities, inequality between capital & Russian regions slowly shrinks

red square tourists moscow
© Sputnik / Vladimir Astapkovich
Passers-by on Red Square in Moscow
For two decades it used to be said that there were two Russias: Moscow and everywhere else. The difference between the quality of life in Russia's capital and most of the other 84 (often far-flung) regions was sometimes enormous.

In 2020, living standards in most Russian regions remain practically unchanged, according to a survey carried out by state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.

The rating found that the best places to live, as in the previous year, remain Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Moscow Region, which is no surprise: They have scores of around 80,000 out of a possible total index score of 85,000.

NPC

Cancelling Family? NYC school encourages kids to stop using words like 'mom,' 'dad'

Grace church school , NYC, NY
© GHI/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
A private school in New York City is looking to ax terms like “mom” and “dad” from students’ vocabulary, according to its “inclusive language guide.”
A Manhattan private school aiming to use more "inclusive language" is encouraging its students to stop using the terms "mom," "dad" and "parents" because the words make "assumptions" about kids' home lives.

The Grace Church School in Noho — which offers academic courses for junior kindergarten through 12th grade — issued a 12-page guide to students and staff explaining the school's mission of inclusivity.

The detailed guide recommends using the terms "grown-ups," "folks," "family" or "guardians" as alternatives to "mom," "dad" and "parents." It also suggests using "caregiver" instead of "nanny/babysitter."

Comment: See also:


Fire

Why are we allowing the lawless madness of Seattle's CHOP autonomous zone to be repeated in Minneapolis' George Floyd Square?

george floyd memorial
© Michael Siluk / Education Images / Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Minneapolis, Minnesota, Flower memorial for George Floyd killed by police.
It's been a bad few weeks for the protest at the Minneapolis memorial site, with a shooting death and journalists being threatened. The authorities need to act now to shut the area down, before more lives are needlessly lost.

If I were to sit you down and tell you about an autonomous zone inside a major city where there are reports of violent crime and journalists are being threatened for approaching it, you'd probably think that I was referring to the madness of Seattle last year.

But no, the craziness has returned to another of America's big cities. You see, it seems that there is now another autonomous zone in Minneapolis.

Comment: See also:


Handcuffs

One year into '15 days to flatten the curve', why are we still tolerating authoritarian government clampdowns on our daily lives?

french cops lockdown
© Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP
French policemen control a driver's permission form on the Place de la Concorde, in Paris, on November 13, 2020, as France is on a second lockdown aimed at containing the spread of Covid-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus.
In the 12 months since states first started ordering citizens to stay at home under the pretext of Covid, we've come a long way. Particularly in our understanding of how illiberal our politicians can be and how supine we are.

One year ago, at noon on Tuesday, March 17, France went into total lockdown for the first time. Until then, Covid-19 was something of which we were faintly aware - background noise in our daily lives that was mostly relegated to Wuhan, China. But we all had that one moment when we realized that it was about to hit home hard.

In my case, that instant came two days before the lockdown, when the local outdoor pool posted a sign on the door drastically reducing the total user capacity to just 100, right before closing entirely the following day. On March 16, French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation to announce what he described as temporary measures, to be implemented for at least 15 days. Only essential trips outside the home would be allowed. Period. Case closed. All in the interests of protecting the French healthcare system, the long-suffering victim of perennial government cutbacks, from being forced onto life-support as it tends to be nearly every year during flu season.

Comment: See also: