Just over a year ago, long before the term coronavirus had entered our collective vocabularies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that in just a few short weeks of the 2018-19 winter season, the flu had sickened between 6 million and 7 million Americans. About half of those had gone to the doctor for help. Somewhere between 69,000 and 84,000 had been hospitalized. The good news, the CDC announced, was that it wasn’t nearly as severe as the year before.

The previous year, 2018, the CDC reported 49 million Americans had been sickened by the flu. 960,000 were hospitalized and over 80,000 ended up dead. You read that right, in 2018 over 80,00 people died from the flu in the United States. Most of the victims were geriatric, many with compromised immune systems. There were a handful of pediatric deaths, most with immune systems not yet fully developed. All tragic deaths. All flu related.

Fast forward to 2020 and we find our world in utter panic due to something called the coronavirus. Monday morning the New York Stock Exchange halted trading when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by nearly 1900 points (7%) in the first 15 minutes of trading. Coronavirus induced panic.

The organizers of South By Southwest — which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors and some of Hollywood and music’s biggest stars to Austin, TX at this time each year — announced last Friday they had canceled the annual arts and technology festival, saying they’re “devastated” but recognize it is necessary to prevent a serious threat of contagion. This recognition came despite the fact Austin Public Health had stated as recently as Wednesday that “there’s no evidence that closing SXSW or any other gatherings will make the community safer,”

The Roots of Our Partisan Divide

February 2020  • Volume 49, Number 2 • Christopher Caldwell

Rethinking Drag Queen Story Hour

Librarians love Drag Queen Story Hour. Many parents don’t.

The concept of having drag queens read to children has the backing of the American Library Association, the oldest and largest library association in the world. Yet the five-year-old trend has set off controversies in local libraries across the United States, and some families feel as if their opinions on the subject don’t matter.

A Missouri lawmaker wants to put parents back in the picture.

The “Parental Oversight of Public Libraries Act,” a bill introduced last month by state Rep. Ben Baker, would require each library in Missouri to have “a parental library review board” made up of five adults in the community. The purpose of the board would be to “determine whether any sexual material provided to the public by the public library is age-inappropriate sexual material.”

“The most support I have received has been from parents who are concerned about the well-being of their children, as well as local government officials who have been ignored when they speak out against certain content and events that have been allowed in our libraries,” Baker said in an email.

Critics have focused on a section at the end of the bill, which specifies that those who defy it could be subject to “a fine of not more than five hundred dollars” or “imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year.”

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The Incompetence Party

The Democrats’ biggest problem isn’t Bernie Sanders. It’s that many voters doubt the party’s ability to govern anymore.

Now that Bernie Sanders—once an obscure socialist senator from Vermont—is officially the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, it is time to confront what that means.

It does not mean the U.S. is flirting with socialism. That’s not going to happen. The meaning of Bernie’s ascent is that the Democratic Party, older even than he is, has simply run out of gas.

The Democrats resemble Europe’s aging political parties—Britain’s Labour, France’s Socialists, Germany’s Social Democrats and Christian Democrats. All have simply deflated with voters.

Signs of public fatigue with the Democrats could be seen in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Besides incompetence, the big story out of Iowa was low turnout. In New Hampshire the story was voter indecision. Once past Bernie’s 25% cement-block base, many voters were flipping a coin in the voting booth to pick from the other candidates.

What does it mean that Elizabeth Warren, by now a household name, got dropped to fourth place? Joe Biden’s humiliating fifth is a personal disaster, but what does that say about the party itself?

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 www.conservativewomensforum.com

www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/make-architecture-great-again

Make Architecture Great Again

Washington, D.C., is a melange of architecture that makes little sense. Some of it is Roman, (the Supreme Court, the Capitol Building, etc.), some of it is French (namely, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building), and the rest is downright ugly.

The Trump administration wants to change that. A draft of an executive order entitled “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” would make classical Roman and Greek architecture the default for new federal buildings in Washington.

Spearheaded by the National Civic Art Society, the order attempts to restore Washington’s aesthetic and do away with the damage wrought by contemporary architecture, which has “created a built environment that is degraded and dehumanizing,” the society said.

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Not only were the kids in cages (this was done during the Obama Administration), but the dancing was lewd and distasteful, especially since children of all ages were watching this Super Bowl half time show.  I hope enough people complain so more thought will be put into next year’s halftime show that will be  more appropriate for all ages, including the children !   Nancy

WATCH: J-Lo and Shakira Super Bowl Halftime Show Features Kids in Cages