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  • Sigfor: A Data Driven Pandemic Response Policy Evaluation Tool

    George Rebane

    The Covid-19 pandemic has called on hundreds of local jurisdictions to fashion response policies that are suitable for their particular locales and demographics.  In technical note TN2007-1 we introduce Sigfor, a computational tool that policy makers can use for monitoring the effectiveness of the current policy and yield an early prediction of the effectiveness of a policy change.  The tool inputs a continuing stream of mortality data, and forecasts the expected maximum number of deaths and when this number would be reached, given that the current response policy remains unchanged.  The technical note can be downloaded here – Download TN2007-1_Data Driven Pandemic Response Policies

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  • Sandbox – 19aug20

    [Please keep Nevada County fire comments under the appropriate topic headings.  gjr]

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  • Wildfire Diary – 18aug20 (updated 20aug20)

    George Rebane

    1. PG&E turned off power on Hind Tit Road and told us it was part of the 1-2 hour rolling blackouts all across the state. Our blackout has now been rolling along for 17 hours.  Moreover, it was beyond cynical that they decided to turn off power to neighborhoods hurriedly preparing to evacuate from the Jones Bar Fire.  Our power does not come through the fire area, it comes from the other direction.  As I mentioned before, there is no power shortage, the outages we are suffering are politically mandated by the state’s Democrat super-majority who have taken offline natural gas and nuclear power generators.
    2. Government incompetence and incapability has been on parade again during this fire. All information outlets, loudly proclaimed and lauded during calmer times, outlets that we’re supposed to access when the fire emergency comes, all of them were dysfunctional.  This in the sense that websites were down, phones weren’t answered, and media outlets not informed, most certainly not in any useful timely manner, of the state and extent of the fire.  County and Cal-fire failed utterly, informing us for hours of a 30 acre fire that was already over 300 acres, and no idea of its progress toward populated areas.  They couldn’t even “confirm” whether a home had burned.  Apparently in an environment of low winds and high humidity, the firefighters are doing a better job in the field than their colleagues sitting in command centers and emergency management offices.  No doubt through no fault of their own, Yubanet and KNCO have been particularly worthless as sources of useful and timely fire information.  And the nation’s useful idiots want government to nationalize our healthcare system??!
    3. Memo to county emergency management: have someone in the incident command center, that always has an updated map of the current burn area, draw the fire contours on the map in their pad, timestamp it, and then send it to the webmaster who can post on the advertised fire information sites.  Do this at least hourly.
    4. Yesterday afternoon we got multiple notifications, all concurrent and inconsistent, of “evacuation warnings”, “evacuation advisories”, and “evacuation orders”. You could take your pick by just choosing which outlet (website, radio), robocall, or text message you wanted.  After the power had been off for two hours, we had the Jeep and truck packed with some important irreplacables and more immediate necessaries, and evacuated to our daughter’s house in Alta Sierra.  It was a redo of a similar evacuation we did to her house in 1993 (more here).  We all had a laugh about it when we arrived – we now owe her two evacuations to our house. 
    5. This morning I caught up on the Democrat doings. They’re still singing lyrics from their tried and true TDS Anthem.  Nothing about policy specifics for their promised Socialist America – the leftwing constituent demands very little information from his politicians, as long as he hears promises of OPM coming his way.  In this regard Bumblebrain Biden is his man.  Biden has called for “an end to the era of shareholder capitalism.”  According to him, it’s “untrue and a farce” that "a company’s primary responsibility is to generate returns for shareholders."  (more here)  As I have pointed out countless times, the progressive has no idea how a functioning economy works.  EVERYWHERE in the world where they have gotten their hands on an economy, it either flushes immediately or immediately starts circling the drain hole. 
    6. Then there’s carefully cultured Kamelion Kamala who “when she changes her stands it tends to be politically convenient, slowly acknowledged and poorly explained. There are signals of seeing policy as an external thing, not an outgrowth of one’s own belief structure, and things can change.” She was born into a very liberal, upper-class, educated family, and enjoyed all the privileges that our land could offer.  She is a political powerhouse with few public service accomplishments save some very critical ones about which, perhaps, only Willie Brown knows the particulars. (more here) 
    7. Last night we gathered all the potpourri of fire information we could, mixed it with our own considerable experience about such things, and decided to spend the night in our own bed. We arrived in the dark, fired up the generator, and had a restful night listening to the fan we set up in the bedroom.  This morning we got up, checked the web for updates (no joy), listened to KNCO (no joy), and had breakfast.  The neighborhood up here on the ridge is very quiet; every once in a while we can hear an airplane in the distance.  No S-2 bombers in sight, but we’re told that Calfire is getting good use out of 800-gallon, single-engine, converted crop dusters since they can maneuver better in the South Yuba River canyon.  So, we’re still all packed up, with our bags staged by the door, ready to high-tail it out of here once there is some visible evidence to recommend that.  Otherwise, we just check on the fire info outlets that contain little besides yesterday’s newspaper.  At 930am PG&E's bullshit rolling blackout, it don't say nothin' but jes keeps rollin' along.
    8. [1313 hrs]  NC Emergency Service Fire Dashboard is over 13 hours old.  I just drove the peripheral roads of the fire and talked to stationed police and firefighting personnel.  No one in the field knows what's happening, the extent of the fire, or even where the incident command center is located.  The closest was a congenial CHP on 49 who opined that it was located in the Helling Library.  Turns out its in the Rood Center as expected.  When you try to call Emergency Service, you get blown off.  The government beat goes on; no one knows and everyone is quite sanguine about the fire.  And PG&E tells me that the dolts working for them are still trying to figure out the "cause" of my "outage".  Apparently the idiots can't determine if it's still their announced "rolling blackouts" or God knows what – power has now been out 22 hours.  And their Lucky Strike extra is that they have no information as to when they might get additional information about my outage.

    [20aug20 update]  Last night Jo Ann and I got texted that it was safe to return home, our part of Cement Hill Rd had its evacuation order lifted.  We were hunkered down at our daughter’s house in Alta Sierra, she had been the perfect hostess during our stay and made the sojourn actually fun (save for trying to find out what the Jones fire was doing).  We made numerous trips into town to get more groceries and pick-up some necessaries that we left behind.  During these forays we always stopped in Morgan Ranch at a spot that overlooks our entire ridge to the north, and also provides a view of the fire’s smoke coming up from behind a closer ridge to the northwest from our observation point.

    (more…)

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  • RL Crabb misses by a mile

    “The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.” Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV)

    George Rebane

    RLCrabb_2020Our county’s celebrated and beloved political cartoonist and prominent leftwing thought leader, RL ‘Bob’ Crabb, got a twofer in the 15aug20 Union (on the editorial board of which he sits along with the wife of my life).  In addition to his regular weekend cartoon (here), he wrote a major piece titled ‘Whose town is it anyway?’  Bob is a longtime resident of Nevada County and his words go a long way to shaping our community’s understanding of the county’s rich and historic past.  Do not dismiss them lightly.

    In today’s column Bob takes on the task of comparing the happenings and attitudes of half a century ago with what is going on in the county today, and what went down on the streets of Nevada City a few days ago.  We then witnessed a protest march of BLM supporters – locals and from sources unknown – sporting a variety of signs emblazoned with what have become common leftwing anti-American sentiments seen for weeks in the country’s cities that host violent riots and demonstrations by contingents of Antifa and BLM cadre and supporters.  In our town, these marching protesters were met by a handful of counter-demonstrators who did not take kindly to having their community being designated as the next target of the Left’s declared foment of revolution.

    The counter-demonstrators did not act wisely with their emotional response, during which they tore up some protester signs and pushed back individual protesters.  All in all, the ‘violence’ we saw on Broad Street compared favorably with what is the everyday norm for commuters on the workday subway platforms of New York and Tokyo.  And it didn’t even qualify for comparison with what has been happening nightly in the downtowns of Portland, Seattle, Chicago, New York, … .  But Nevada City is now a hard-left town, and their own were being manhandled in the streets.  This clearly called for a good dose of social justice administered under the prominent flutter of virtue signalling flags.

    So the town’s police launched what is undoubtedly their first “complete investigation”, and from the perusal of numerous videos of the dust-up, perpetrating suspects were identified, with the first already arrested and booked into the county jail – more arrests are promised.  The county’s Left continues in the lather of righteous outrage, as witnessed by the number of contributed editorials that surround Bob’s contribution on the newspaper’s op-ed page.  And it is with this background that we dive into Mr Crabb’s literary contribution.

    Bob opens with a fine memory lane jaunt recounting the days of yesteryear when the aftermath of the social unrest and riots of 1968 gave rise from the cities to an exodus of hippies, free-thinkers, counter-culturalists, and other various misfits.  They lifted their eyes toward the hills from whence cometh their salvation, dotted with communities which promised the freedom to let them do their own thing, unmolested by those pesky norms of established tradition and nosey cops.  A goodly cohort arrived in Nevada County, and Bob details their somewhat rough reception by the locals while crediting their arrival with all kinds of good things that befell our community in the subsequent years after the dust had settled.

    So far so good.  But then our pencil-pushing philosopher attempts to cross one historical bridge too far with his vivid recounting and unfolding attempt to dovetail the ‘then’ with the ‘now’.  He claims that the decades-separated episodes are really birds of a feather, and a reprise of what our community had once before successfully handled, digested, and integrated.  Then he concludes his considerable comparison and counsel with the lament, “So it is disappointing to see history repeat itself on these same streets.”

    Not even close – there is nothing here that represents history repeating itself.  Fifty years ago the hippy migrations were strictly a resocialization of urban misfits into kinder climes.  There was neither a national movement underlying it, nor did it include a concerted and much-advertised goal of fomenting a revolution to fundamentally transform America, a revolution which has now successfully co-opted the nation’s established leftwing political party and jerked its leaders into compliant mouthpieces for the movements’ socio-political ideology.

    Today’s proto-communist protestors have no desire to quietly integrate into our communities as profit-seeking merchants, service providers, and professionals; or even as workers for capitalist companies competing in minimally regulated open markets.  Today’s rioters and protesters are neo-Marxists, whose limited and jaundiced view of history sees America as a terminally evil country in a world in which socialism has suffered many faulty starts, corrupt capitalist conspiracies, and mistakes by the various leaders of leftwing movements.  All of these are seen as correctible, and will be corrected this time around as we once more unite and march to the strains of the Internationale.  

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  • Scattershots – 14aug20 (updated 20aug20)

    George Rebane

    Facebook is going to up the ante on their campaign against ‘hate speech’ as if they really know what they’re talking about.  Their current semi-manual process of censoring content is already causing some serious pushback with customers and even customer nations (e.g. India).  There, as here, they run into problems of politicizing their users’ contents, and doing it very inconsistently.  Now we learn that Facebook is going to start applying advanced AI speech recognition software to make sure that we don’t violate the undefined and undulating hate speech principles of that leftwing corporatist giant.  “Advances could help unlock realtime identification of hate speech on Facebook.”  I tell you Martha, pretty soon we ain’t gonna be able to post much beyond pictures of our grandkids without getting it yanked or having someone knocking on our door. (more here)

    Who cares to offer their thoughts on or definition of ‘hate speech’ in a manner that would allow third parties to reliably identify it in posted copy?  Nobody?  That’s what I thought.

    Mail-in election chaos anticipated by tech giants (here).  This in spite of the crap that has been thrown at President Trump for his warnings that the coming election is going to be chaotic at best and rife with fraud at worst.  Now we learn that corporatist giants such as Facebook, Alphabet, Twitter are all girding their loins for the chaos, but not for problems with ballots.  Instead, they will apply themselves to “how the social-media platforms can prevent the spread of misinformation in the days before and after the election, after the U.S. intelligence community warned of foreign interference and President Trump called the vote’s integrity into question.”  So again the question is how to identify ‘misinformation’.  Recall that the lamestream and corporatists have the ability to erase entire topic areas from the national dialogue.  An example is the removal of HCQ as a demonstrated C19 therapeutic.  It continues to be used beneficially in hospitals here and around the world, but because Trump first mentioned it, HCQ can no longer be discussed in the public forum because it will spread egg all over the face of the Faucis to the NYT and WaPo.  HCQ has been eliminated from Newspeak.

    Anybody know what’s on the policy platform of the Biden/Harris team?  Go to his website here, and all you get is two tons of bupkus, or more precisely a big fat policy nothing burger.  Besides asking you for money, the only things you get to read are an endless stream of TDS content, and lame pieces like ‘Statement from Joe Biden on the 55th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.’  A lot of media outlets are beginning to notice that there’s nothing there, and no one is willing to put up anything that would let the voters compare what the hard-denying, hard-left duo will subject the country to if/when they’re elected.  The reason is clear – they don’t dare, because then the socialist programs of Bernie, AOC, BLM, Antifa, and the rest of the progressive anti-American crowd will be obvious to even the dimmest of their already deficit-burdened constituency.  Best keep everyone focused on the fresh-baked-daily fake news.  The lamestream stands ready to broadcast, and the corporatists are there with their wallets.  Talk about buying a pig in a poke.

    [16aug20 update]  Mail-in ballots don’t work corroborated NJ Gov Murphy on FN’s Chris Wallace show.  When asked about the fact that somewhere between 10% and 20% of mail-in ballots are sent to non-existent voters still on the voter rolls, he studiously and immediately ducked the question and gave out a line of bullshit that had nothing to do with that problem.  Things go worse when the subject of the Paterson NJ mail-in fraud came up.  Beyond all belief, the logic-deprived governor claimed that having caught that fraud demonstrates that mail-in voting works.  Somehow Gov Double-dummy was not able to understand that such a discovery demonstrates that mail-in fraud exists, and 2) that there’s a high likelihood that more incidences of fraud were NOT discovered, as opposed to that only one existed and they nailed it.

    Kamala Harris was a racist pick, and is now the ‘Sec 8’ candidate on the Dem ticket.  This is admitted by ALL liberal talking heads who celebrate the race-based strength that she contributes to Biden’s chance.  None of them want to discuss her record, either as California’s AG or a US Senator, a record that should contribute some consideration of merit as the reason for her selection.  She’s black and doesn’t have too many black marks on her record are all the qualifications that Democrat constituents desire and need to know.  But if you actually point this out, you’re a racist. Period end of story.

    [17aug20 update]  Green Power Blackouts are now the new norm during hot weather since California has converted almost 40% of its power generation to extremely expensive, unreliable solar and wind – 60% mandated by 2030.  Having rejected natural gas and nuclear, these power outages are totally manmade by ideologically-blinded, ignorant Democrats.  Their stated objective remains countering preventable manmade global warming (PMGW), and unstated objective is still Agenda21 – concentrate humanity in ‘stack & pack’ cities.  Since the state’s electorate is now made up of more than half double dummies, there is no hope for change.  (more here)

    (Reminder to readers that I don’t like to use ‘climate change’ as the ambiguous and political catch-all label for the more precise PMGW, which is what everyone is actually talking about, and the policies against which are causing all the havoc in our economy and the reduction of freedoms in our daily lives.  Climate has always been changing, and continues to do so now.  Real science is divided on its direction, causes, preventability, and impacts.  Leftwing consensus science is not.)

    The recent rise NYC crime rates under idiot mayor DeBlasio is “suspected” by, some but not all, “elected officials and criminologists” to be caused by NYPD’s new enforced policy of fewer arrests for criminal acts.  “NYPD officials, politicians and criminologists debate whether a link exists between fewer detentions and more homicides and shootings.”  Ya think??!  (more here)

    Today the nationwide TDS epidemic goes on steroids.  The Democratic National Convention launches its online version tonight 6-8pm PDT with a stunning array of speakers ranging from former RINO Kasich, through Michelle and Cuomo, to comrade Bernie himself. (more here)  The number of Big Lies told to the American public for two hours every night will be uncountable.  Readers recall RR’s definition of ‘Big Lie’ as one that actually impacts how Americans behave and plan their lives, as opposed to the bravura and bombast that Trump regularly spews (and Democrats count).

    Another Big Lie du jour by the Left is that mail-in balloting will present no problems since the USPS regularly delivers millions of SS checks by mail.  But even that is wrong since the overwhelming share of SS payments are direct deposits to recipients’ bank accounts.  And even these residual mailings are presenting a big problem to today’s USPS as announced very publicly by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who warns states of their totally insane schedule of distribution and reception of mail-in ballot.  It seems that most states (led by guess which party) do not understand the means and methods of USPS mail handling and delivery.  Everything from multi-year cost cutting, including eliminating/reducing overtime, to pandemic increased mailings of parcels and packages has placed the USPS in an already over-stressed condition as it anticipates the mail-in ballots surge.  The TDS Dems, of course, will expand their Big Lie by blaming the whole thing on President Trump.  (more here)

    [20aug20 update]  Even Bumblebrain Biden’s colors don’t run true.  Take a look at his red, white, and ‘blue’ backgrounds and logos.  There is no such barfy turquoise-tinged blue in the American tri-color.  His new socialist tri-color makes an intended statement that they will no longer be like the rest of us.  These are the colors of a new age that seeks to difference itself from what has been a longstanding American tradition in all its dimensions and shades.

    BidenColors

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  • Oi weh! – A new pain index

    George Rebane

    Due to my bride’s unfortunate fall that shattered her elbow and required urgent and complex orthopedic surgery to put the pieces back together, there has been a lot of talk about pain with the attending surgeon, medical techs, and physical therapists.  Everyone was interested in the magnitude or intensity of the pain.  And today the only way to extract that from a patient is to ask them to assess their pain level on a scale of one to ten, a scale which no one knows how to anchor, calibrate, or even claim whether it is normative.  In clinical lingo something is normative if a large cohort of people in a ‘similar’ situation agree, here in assigning the same pain number to the same intensity of pain.  As you would expect, no one knows; yet they still keep asking and dutifully writing down that number from one to ten.

    After noodling about the problem on which I’ve had an opportunity to witness numerous times recently, I have come up with an alternative scale that should at least be more normative and therefore useful to the attending medicos.  My approach is based on behaviorism and requires the patient to relate the level of pain to either ongoing (chronic), planned, or executed behaviors.  Here is a first cut at it.

    Level 0 – No pain, or that the former episodes of pain have ceased.

    Level 1 – Chronic pain or pain episodes continue, but are inconsequential in that the patient does not think about the pain before acting, and during/after which act only a mild discomfort is noticed that is not intense enough to make it memorable.

    Level 2 – Pain that causes patient to become conscious of it or anticipate it before the act, but at an intensity that induces no hesitation to act and suffer the resulting pain.  The episode remains memorable.

    Level 3 – Chronic or anticipated pain at intensity that causes patient to consider delaying the pain-causing act.  The episode remains memorable.

    Level 4 – Chronic or anticipated pain at intensity that causes patient to contemplate how to entirely avoid the pain-causing act.  After the act, the episode definitely remains memorable.

    Level 5 – Pain at an intensity that causes patient to consider changing after-act plans, but most likely will not actually bring about such a plan change.  The episode creates/reinforces a very memorable episode.

    Level 6 – Pain at an intensity that causes patient to either avoid the painful act or definitely change after-act plans.  Previous completion of the act created/reinforced a very memorable episode, that made it unlikely that the act would be repeated without some mediation to reduce the pain’s intensity.

    Level 7 – Chronic or anticipated pain at intensity such the contemplated act will definitely not be undertaken without some known mediating effect or agent to reduce the pain to an acceptable intensity.  At this level, such prophylaxes and their former absence are vividly remembered during the next precursor to the act.

    Level 8 – Chronic or anticipated pain that is/was suffered with attempted analgesics which are/were ineffective.  The sensation/memory of this pain summarily prevents the patient taking/repeating the action since there is no known way to reduce the pain to a level at which the act may again be contemplated.  Suffering is intense and ongoing, causing the patient to essentially avoid all activities that may repeat this level of pain.

    Thoughts?

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  • Ruminations – 11aug20 (updated 13aug20)

    George Rebane

    Countering imported BLM demonstrators.  Given that BLM has shown its true colors as a political ‘black lives don’t matter’ movement created to transform the country into a socialist state, and demonstrating their violent methods in other towns and cities, I suppose it’s not surprising that people in Nevada County are turning out to defend home and hearth from imported ‘protesters’, no matter how many like-minded local leftists join them.

    ‘Mayhem Continues, Protest Narrative Crumbles’  The lamestream media has done it damnest to foist the Big Lie that the country’s riots, burnings, shootings, lootings, … are just “peaceful protests” of people seeking “social justice” in the wake of George Floyd’s death.  None of them admit to the existential evidence generated nightly across the land, and none of them admit to the greater political purpose of a socialist revolution to which the various factions of rioters readily admit and publish.  And this selective blindness is dutifully aped by our local leftwing loonies as demonstrated in these pages and elsewhere.  (more here)

    ‘Fighting Back Against the Woke Corporation’  The country’s mega-corporatists are doing their best to sell rope to our socialist cum communist revolutionaries in Congress and the streets.  Today their size is such that “Corporate power can enforce cultural conformity—through marketing, through lobbying, through firing.”  Is this not the perfect time for some unwoke, say retailer like Walmart, to make the big move against the market dominance of Amazon?  Just advertise that you are not woke and that you are a capitalist corporation which makes its profits by putting the interests of its customers (not the list of “stakeholders”) first.  For millions of us it will then quickly become the go-to place for online shopping as it builds up its SKU inventory. (more here)

    [Update]  The NC BOS defeated the most recent version of the draconian covid ‘urgency ordinance’ at the end of a very lengthy meeting late this afternoon.  The best the proponents could do was to reduce – yes, reduce – the fines for violating the mask, gathering, and dining-in provisions to $500, $2,500, and $5,000 for the first three offenses.  The heroes of the session were Supervisors Ed Scofield and Susan Hoek with their no votes.  If covid ever becomes an ‘urgent matter’ in Nevada County, the BOS can always revisit such an ordinance.  In the interval, let’s respect the common sense of our residents who are well aware of the pandemic’s dangers.

    [12aug20 update]  ‘Black’ is a categorical political identity.  Kamala is advertised by the lamestream as being ‘black’.  Her ancestry is way more complex than that, and returns us to the question of how much Negroid blood qualifies one as black or African-American. (more here) In legal terms she’s classified as black if that’s how she wants it.  But what fraction of Negroid ancestry should our society demand before accepting such a politically beneficial de juris racial classification?  (more here) We answered that question for Elizabeth Warren’s Indian ancestry.  Today the answer is ‘whatever works’.

    Surprise2020

    AP News suckers our local Union again.  AP (All Propaganda) is an unabashedly leftwing fake news outfit that still manages to bamboozle the news editors of most of the country’s newspapers.  The latest piece – ‘Virus surge make the United States weak link in global economic recovery’ – that appears in the 12aug20 Union is utter editorial bullshit passed off as news copy.  At best it should appear on the newspapers’ op-ed pages.  But the fact that it passes off as news goes a long way to explain why today’s Americans have such a low opinion of journalists and journalism.  Did any of them ever take a critical thinking course in journalism school?  (The article on Union’s page A6 could not be found on the AP site, nor on the Union’s website.  It looks like a piece of fluff propaganda passed down to small town newspapers that need to fill some real estate in their print editions, and are not that alert or savvy about what qualifies as real news.  You can read it if you look in the print edition on their website – try here.)

    [13aug20 update]  President Trump is finally putting some balance into his C19 ‘science team’ with the invitation to a couple of physician scientists who are part of the cohort of thousands of such professionals that has a markedly different take on what our proper response policies should be for this highly politicized pandemic.  Perhaps there now will be some meaningful backroom discussions between Fauci et al and the newcomers.  (more here and here.  H/T to reader.)

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  • Civil Authority Unbridled

    [Rev Dan Prout is a Nevada County Christian minister of the evangelical persuasion, and a friend.  He sent this thoughtful piece to a circle of his friends and congregants.  It addresses an important viewpoint shared by many concerned Christians in the land, myself included, and a call to stand for what we believe.  I post it as received.  gjr]

    Rev. Dan Prout

    One of Jesus’ most famous statements is, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.” The verse has been often referenced when talking about separation of Church and State. Jesus was applying a very subtle but important concept regarding societal authority. It is a concept and distinction largely lost in America today.

    It is in our day, today, that we again see civil authority competing for power over everyday life and living. Jesus demonstrated in one sentence that there are two realms of authority simultaneously governing community life. In one statement, he affirmed the legitimate role of civil government while maintaining the religious, moral authority of God and godliness. These twin authorities are to govern in concert, their proper exercise providing a safe and blessed life experience, “that our lives may be quiet and peaceful” as the Apostle Paul put it.

    All political issues are based in social issues. All social issues are based in values. All values come from religious precepts. It is, therefore, impossible to separate political matters from faith matters. The laws of a society are based inescapably in moral law. The first written law of the Bible, the Ten Commandments, demonstrates this point. Every one of the Ten – from Worship No Other Gods to Do Not Covet Your Neighbors Goods – establishes boundaries for one’s personal relationships both with God and with one’s neighbors. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and goodness represent the biblical law for our behavior, all standards for our relationships. These qualities are so universally accepted that Paul says there is no law against such things. (Galatians 5:12)

    The purpose of Law, as Frederic Bastiat, the French philosopher, points out is not to guarantee justice but rather to prevent injustice. Understanding this reality, the Founders, in developing the U.S. Constitution, worked to bind the reach of government misbehavior by decentralizing powers. They leaned heavily upon the principles of the Bible which call individuals to personally restrain themselves from wrong doing and they expected the generations to follow to do the same. The strength of a nation’s social fabric is directly dependent on the level of individual liberty. Individual liberty is directly dependent on virtuous morality. A nation with liberty unbridled from strong virtue will fail. Daniel Webster wrote in 1823,“If the power of the gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of this land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end.” His words spoken nearly 200 years ago have an inescapably prophetic accuracy for our present social and spiritual condition, and, as predicted, we have a government gone astray.

    Civil authority must be informed and restrained by moral authority. It is the role of the Church to be bold enough to advise and even correct civil authority when it goes astray. Dr. Martin Luther King rightly observed, “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state. It must be the guide and critic of the state and never its tool.”

    The problem today is not that government and its leaders have lost their way; that is to be expected in the absence of vigorous moral argument. Rather, it is the Church, its leaders and its people, which has become complacent and ineffective in providing clear moral guidance in the society. To its great discredit, the Church has expected that civil authority can well function without the tangible presence of moral virtue. To its discredit, the Church has failed to bring preserving, moral salt to society, relegating the nation’s inhabitants to a hopeless life amidst moral and cultural decay.

    Let us heed the admonition of Russian historian and philosopher Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn spoken at Harvard University, “A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today.” It is time to stand.

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  • A Batscat Challenge

    George Rebane

    Led by local leftwing intellectual legend Mr Steven Frisch, the readers and yours truly have been labeled “batshit crazy” in comment streams here and leftwing blogs elsewhere for doubting or debating the science behind major public issues like preventable manmade global warming, Covid-19 response policies, and even the effect of taxes on economic behavior.  While making these hubristic accusations, they totally ignore the actual batshit crazy policies and proposals constantly issuing from the country’s putrid progressive pundits and politicians highlighted by such intellectual compositions such as the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, Common Core curriculum, the BLM and Antifa manifestos, America’s new revisionist history a la Zinn and the 1619 Project, and … the list goes on indefinitely.

    Today the Left has elevated their batshit crazy propositions onto steroid levels with their claims that STEM studies are really expressions of white supremacy and racist.  More and more leftwing academicians are hoisting their true intellectual colors with such statements as from Brooklyn College Professor of Math Education Laurie Rubel who claims that math is an expression of “white supremacist patriarchy” and, joined by other pinhead peers, to insist that “math should be reevaluated because it was primarily developed by white men.” (more here)

    Instead of hiding behind their beloved and well-practiced Alinsky Angle with which the socialists loudly accuse their political opposites of doing exactly what they have done and continue to do, I challenge these socialist sages to step up and publicly defend their ideas with similar dedication and depth that we of the conservetarian leanings here employ in our apologetics.  After many years in these pages, we are still looking for something besides baseless ad hominems from their side.  Where is their defense of, say, the Green New Deal, or the joys of socialism, or that ‘2+2=4’ is racist, or … .  (also see comment stream of the last Sandbox and at Bob Crabb's)

    So here’s a thesis to debate – ‘It is proposed that dedicated Democrats, following in the footsteps of their political leaders and notable academics, are in various forms intellectually disabled or delinquent (aka batshit crazy).’  No one should hold their breath that this challenge will be answered.

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  • Doing it to ourselves – why? (updated 12aug20)

    [The Nevada County Board of Supervisors will again vote on Item 26 this coming Tuesday.  Item 26 involves the passage of an "urgency ordinance" that will levy draconian fines on NC residents and businesses for violating any of the decrees and diktats regarding Covid-19 passed by higher up government jurisdictions, and piles on a passel of additional ones in the form of a county ordinance (here) to which we who live here will be subjected.  None of this local government overreach and virtue signalling is necessary since we are all aware of the Covid-19 infection dangers and know how to mitigate the risk – our stats demonstrate.  We don’t need our local pols to establish a legion of STASI-like plain clothes snitches who will cite innocent infractions with fines of thousands of dollars.  We don’t have to do it to ourselves.  Write to your supervisor about opposing Item 26 on the agenda.  My sweetie-pie Jo Ann is doing her part, so I asked if I could publish some of the drafts of letters and emails she is sending to the Supes and senior county staff members.  Hopefully, some of these will inspire you to drop them a line.  gjr]

    Jo Ann Rebane

    BOS Agenda, Tues. 8/11/20, item 26 – live public meeting             

    Consideration of item 26, the urgency enforcement ordinance should be held during a live public meeting.  As a board you previously sat through not hours, but DAYS of public comment on the Marijuana Urgency Ordinance.  The public needs to personally express their comments and personally see and hear your reactions thereto on this version of the urgency enforcement ordinance.  Surely you can figure out a way to let the public address your board in person while maintaining social distancing and other covid precautions. 

    BOS Agenda, Tues. 8/11/20, item 26 – OPPOSE

    I oppose the revised and current version of item 26, urgency covid enforcement ordinance.  This version is draconian.  It encourages the public to “snitch” or “tattle-tale” on individuals, businesses and commercial enterprises to cause code enforcers to levy excessive and confiscatory fines.  There is enough acrimony in this county already.  Don’t stir up more divisiveness.

    BOS Agenda, Tues. 8/11/20, item 26 – OPPOSE

    I oppose agenda item 26 for the express OVERREACH which makes it unlawful for any individual, business or commercial enterprise to do anything contrary to orders of ANY governmental body, agency or individual at any level in California.  It is impossible for the public to know all those rules, regulations, edicts, and orders.  Send this draft to the waste can.

    BOS Agenda, Tues. 8/11/20, item 26 – OPPOSE

    I urge you to oppose agenda item 26.  This county and its businesses, including restaurants did everything the governor required under the initial order in March.  This county qualified for special opening status and re-opened carefully.  Restaurants and others invested heavily in costly infrastructure and what did they get – another shut-down.  This county continues to qualify for the special relaxed opening status but the governor’s recent order doesn’t recognize this.  We comply and he punishes us.  Does one size fit all counties? 

    BOS Agenda, Tues. 8/11/20, item 26 – OPPOSE

    I urge you to oppose agenda item 26.  The Nevada County Board of Supervisors should be fighting the governor not our local businesses.  Scrap the urgency ordinance and fight for our county’s businesses and not against them.

    BOS Agenda, Tues. 8/11/20, item 26 – OPPOSE

    Please oppose agenda item 26.  I urge the board of supervisors to petition/urge/lobby the governor to rescind the statewide “close all restaurants” order.  Nevada County is one of the “open” counties (but how can we tell?).  There is not one case of covid emanating from a restaurant here,  our hospitals are not impacted, and this county has done everything it was required to do to move to the current phase of opening. 

    BOS Agenda, Tues. 8/11/20, item 26 – OPPOSE

    That the governor threatens to withhold recovery funds feels like blackmail for an offense that wasn’t committed.  Arbitrary, capricious, politically motivated, and wrong-headed. 

    I would rather see the BOS stand up for the community and its businesses than to enact a punitive urgency ordinance.  You, Supervisors and the city councils should be doing all in your power to NOT lose another business (tax payer).   

    Address comments by email for this BOS item in this format:

    To: bdofsupervisors@co.nevada.ca.us, bos.publiccomment@co.nevada.ca.us
    Cc: Dan Miller <dan.miller@co.nevada.ca.us>, Heidi.Hall@co.nevada.ca.us, Sue.Hoek@co.nevada.ca.us, Scofield Ed <ed.scofield@co.nevada.ca.us>, Anderson Richard <richard.anderson@co.nevada.ca.us>
    Subject: BOS Agenda, Tues. 8/11, Item 26

    [11aug20 update gjr]  Mercifully, the ‘urgency ordinance’ with its revised, yet still draconian, fines was defeated yesterday by the BOS, thanks to Supervisors Scofield and Hoek.  Why Supervisor Dan Miller pulled a ‘John Roberts’ on us is still a mystery, or is it?  His suggestion that the fines be “reduced by half” to (seatbelts please) $500, $1,000, $2,500 for the first three offenses defined by ordinance was jaw-dropping.  And it begs an answer to ‘why are we doing this to ourselves?’

    Well, the answer may have been in front of us all these years, and is still there – Nevada County remains anti-growth and anti-business.  Under this policy the county has struggled for decades to collect enough tax revenues to barely make ends meet, and with the ongoing and insane ‘greening’ of government, it is clear that taxes from our remaining businesses and residents will not cut it.  So, the answer to the shortfall now in progress is a quiet but still visible shift to increase punitive revenues with a marked step-up in collecting fines and fees from code violations.  This tack is exactly the socialist counter to policies required for our county’s long overdue economic growth.  In the 12aug20 Union Michael Taylor expands on all this in his ‘Nevada County is ramping up enforcement to generate revenue’, and it most certainly explains away Dan Miller’s vote.

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