Did you see this headline in your local newspaper recently? “Tennessee moves to the forefront with anti-transgender laws” https://apnews.com/article/tennessee-transgender-laws-b8d81d56287d6ed9d56c5da2203596b0 Once again, the Associated Press proves that it’s more left-wing propaganda agency than press pool.  The article is supposedly news.  It’s actually radical left-wing opinion masquerading as news.  The bills the AP criticizes are nothing more than common sense; for example, keeping biological boys from competing against biological girls in sports, or forcing biological girls from sharing a restroom with biological boys.  These new laws are supposed to be, somehow, discriminatory, and aimed at oppressing transgender people, according to the AP.  … Continue reading Random Thoughts, Common Sense Edition (?)

Reports Bob Tamasy, columnist for the Chattanoogan.com:  “We are short staffed. Please be patient with the staff that did show up. No one wants to work anymore.” Supply and demand, baby.  Offer people money not to work, and they’ll take it.  In the early days of the pandemic, it maybe made sense.  We wanted people to stay home.  That ended, oh, last June or July.  No wonder that in April 266,000 jobs were created, only 734,000 or so short of expectations.  That’s a miss so epic, it’s almost comical.  Only the willfully blind could fail to see and understand.  Unfortunately, … Continue reading Random Thoughts, Too Lazy To Work Edition

Every now and then, if you’re very, very lucky, you’ll stumble on the work of a great mind that so clearly states the case, explains the data, and in the end, makes so much common sense, that it’s a revelation.  One of those rarest of men is Thomas Sowell.  He is one of the greatest thinkers of the last 100 years, and millions have been profoundly influenced by his voluminous, luminous writing.  Jason Riley of the Wall St. Journal and Manhattan Institute is out with a biographical film on him which is well worth the watch.  Enjoy: https://www.sowellfilm.com/press-kit#Watch-Film Kenneth D. … Continue reading Thomas Sowell’s Common Sense

One of the NET3D writers has been quite skeptical of the COVID 19 vaccines. As he correctly noted a few days ago, “9,245 people in the U. S. who have taken the Wuhan Flu Vaccination have tested positive again. 132 people who took the vaccination have died.”  It’s also true that the FDA hasn’t given full approval to any of the vaccines, only provisional emergency authorization for use. Well, yes, he’s right.  But do these facts add up to reason not to be vaccinated?  I ran some numbers to find out. The raw numbers: “As of 6 a.m. EDT April … Continue reading Vaccination Hesitation

I recently ran across this letter to the editor in a local newspaper: To the Editor: With the Tennessee House of Representatives’ final approval of SJR 0002, the Republican supermajority sent a clear message: our state is pro-business and anti-worker. In spite of repeated, powerful testimony against this harmful resolution over the past several months and hundreds of phone calls and e-mails, legislators once again chose to ignore the voices of working families and side with corporate special interests. This week, 67 representatives voted to enshrine low wages and dangerous workplaces in our state constitution. Sixty-seven representatives showed that they … Continue reading Do Tennesseans Have a Right To Work?

Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and other explosives, and manufactured weapons.  He proved to be as competent at business as at chemistry.  It made him a very, very rich man.  It also left him a very troubled man, prompting him to establish 2 foundations and give them most of his enormous fortune.  The Swedish one awards all but one of the prizes bearing his name.  The other prize – the Peace Prize – is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The Peace Prize has a record of quixotic utopian wishfulness in many cases, while in others it has been spot-on, recognizing … Continue reading Alfred Nobel’s Folly

Many years ago, I remember seeing a TV documentary set in a Brazilian forest.  A marmoset – a cute little monkey – thought it would be fun to tease a boa snoozing on a tree branch.  The snake had a full belly and just wanted to sleep, so it was not amused and did its best to ignore the joker.  The marmoset was having a wonderful time, however, and wasn’t about to quit.  Finally, the snake had had enough, grabbed the little pest, strangled it, and, even though it was hardly worth the effort, ate it.  Thus did another monkey … Continue reading Random Thoughts, Darwin Award Edition

I’m forever going back to the Founders for examples of exemplary political behavior.  They did, after all, pull off a rare feat, a successful revolution that didn’t turn into an awful bloodbath (not that it wasn’t bloody enough) and didn’t leave the nation’s people in fear of their new government. A recent article by the fine libertarian/conservative writer Kevin D. Williamson pointed out that the War for Independence was in fact an act of sedition, the difference being that ours was successful.  True; Benjamin Franklin joked to his fellow delegates to the Continental Congress, with characteristic dark humor, that they … Continue reading Hitting the Wall

Another teenager is dead in Knoxville, this one killed by police inside Austin East High School after he shot and seriously wounded an officer.  Four other kids who attended that school have been shot and killed this year.  According to brief news reports, there doesn’t seem to be a direct connection to the school itself until this most-recent episode.  Since all of the people involved are juveniles, the information available is limited, so trying to characterize these tragic killings is nothing more than speculation.  Children killing other children. Austin East is in East Knoxville, which, when I went to UT … Continue reading Random Thoughts, Soul-Searching Edition

One of my many problems with Donald Trump was his indifference to deficit spending. Not surprising, since, in his private business career, he never seemed to mind borrowing other peoples’ money and spending it on extravagant, over-the-top projects, their economic viability being an afterthought easily resolved by bankruptcy if things didn’t work out, which was, of course, never his fault.  You can get away with running a business like that, but not a country, at least not the one with the world’s largest economy and in charge of the world’s reserve currency; at least not for long. His indifference put … Continue reading Econ 101 Revisited