Random Notes from a Crank

The Washington Post has an exclusive report about police officers sexually abuse kids and get away with it. Please read this gifted article titled "Abused by the Badge." 

No one should be above the law. 

In other news, the ignoramuses who are members of the Southern Baptist Convention oppose in vitro fertilization, and a majority of the voters think women shouldn't be preachers. Check it out in "Southern Baptist Convention Votes to Oppose In Vitro Fertilization." 

You can't reason with stupid.

Random Notes from a Crank

 I'm trying to catch up on my public affairs magazine reading. 

Here are some factoids from the last three months of "Harper's Indexes":

• Percentage decrease in the number of flu cases in the United States this season: 99
• Factor by which U.S. police officers are more likely to use force against left-wing protesters than right-wing protesters: 3.4
• Percentage of Black Lives Matter protests during which the police used force against protesters: 5
• Of Stop the Steal protests during which police did so: 1
• Percentage of Americans who identified as Republicans and Democrats, respectively, at the outset of 2020: 47, 45
• At the end of 2020: 39, 50
• Number of U.S. members of Congress who are not affiliated with a religion: 1
• Portion of the American population that is not: 1/4
• Percentage of 2020 Trump voters who feel more loyal to Trump than to the Republican Party: 54
• Who would support a Trump party over the Republican Party: 46
• Minimum number of identified long-term effects from contracting COVID-19: 55
• Factor by which a solar farm was more expensive to build and maintain than a coal plant in 2009: 3.2
• By which a coal plant is more expensive to build and maintain than a solar farm today: 2.2
• Estimated number of Earths that humanity would require to sustain its current level of resource consumption: 1.6
• Year in which humanity  is expected to require two Earths: 2030
• Number of U.S. state legislatures that are considering new voting restrictions: 47
• Number of such bills being considered: 361
• Percentage of Democratic or Democratic-leaning voters who are "extremely concerned" about Trump supporters: 82
• Who are "extremely concerned" about voter suppression: 53
• Percentage of U.S. electric-car owners who are concerned about being able to charge their vehicles on the road: 47
• Portion of U.S. electric-car charging outlets that are in California: 1/3
• That support only Tesla vehicles: 1/5
• Minimum number of state governments that are funding efforts to modify the weather with cloud seeding: 6

Usually when I provide the stats and figures from the Harper's Index, I just leave them as for readers to ponder for themselves. But for this post since it's three-months worth of numbers and percentages, I thought I'd comment on some of them. 

With the drop of flu cases, it's clear that masks work, people. That's why people in certain countries in Asia wear masks during flu season. 

In response to the "Blue Lives Matter" crowd, it seems that the police feel conservative lives matter more. 

I hesitantly take the party affiliation changes from the start of 2020 to the end as a good sign. The Republican Party has lost any sense of a moral and/or philosophical compass with people's irrational support of Moscow Don. 

That long-term effects figure should be a part of PSAs about getting the COVID-19 vaccine. 

We need to build more solar farms and electric-car charging outlets. 

Back to the GOP, they want to restrict voting access because doing so helps them. But will it? I wonder if these ridiculous bills like the one in Georgia will only motivate people to vote. That's my hope. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Here's some factoids from the September "Harper's Index":

• Minimum number of police killings since 2010 in which restrained victims told officers they couldn't breathe: 32
• Number of those incidents that resulted in criminal charges against the officers: 5
• Number of those cases in which charges were not eventually dropped: 2
• Average number of times per day that Donald Trump tweeted in 2017: 7
• In 2020: 32
• Percentage of Americans who want Trump to tweet more frequently: 3

And here's some tidbits from Harper's "Findings" from that same issue:

• "The depression-prone are less attracted to the political right."
• "The presence of a professional sports team increases a city's seasonal flu deaths."
• "Recent toilet-paper hoarding was more prevalent among Americans than Europeans and more prevalent among the old than the young."

The Premier League had a trio of upsets on Sunday. One was mild. The other two were surprising. My Spurs whipped Manchester United 6 to 1 at Son and Kane both had a couple of goals, and the Frenchmen Aurier and Ndombele had a goal each. West Ham beat Leicester City early on Sunday, and Aston Villa demolished Liverpool 7 to 2 later in the day.

I know it's early in the season, but Everton sits atop the table, and Aston Villa is second. 

Musing of the Moment: The Thin Blue Line American Flag

The Marshall Project has a good read about the Thin Blue Line flag entitled "The Short, Fraught History of the Think Blue Line Flag." 

I get that being a police officer, if done correctly, is one hell of a tough profession. I understand. 

But to deny that there is systemic racism is happening is ridiculous. The first real viral video is the one of Rodney King getting hit fifty times while scads of LA cops sit around and watch the four officers beat the hell out of him. 

The past few weeks' events have created an awakening about systemic racism. That's good. 

But I have no respect or need for a doctored flag that has the stars and stripes in black and white with a thin blue line. 

To my mind, it's being used as a new Confederate flag.

Stay Positive: Kareem's Opinion Piece

One of the better op-ed pieces about the current civil unrest I've read is one from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: "Don't Understand the Protests? What You're Seeing Is People Pushed to the Edge"

Here are some significant snippets from the column.

"You start to wonder if it should be all black people who wear body cams, not the cops."

"You're not wrong - but you're not right, either. The black community is used to the institutional racism inherent in education, the justice system and jobs. And even though we do all the conventional things to raise public and political awareness - write articulate and insightful pieces in The Atlantic, explain the continued devastation on CNN, support candidates who promise change - the needle hardly budges." 

"Racism in America is like dust in the air. It seems invisible - even if you're choking on it - until you let the sun in. The you see it's everywhere. As long as we keep shining that light, we have a chance of cleaning it wherever it lands. But we have to stay vigilant, because it's always still in the air. 

"What you should see when you see black protesters in the age of Trump and coronavirus is people pushed to the edge, not because they want bars and nail salons open, but because they want to live. To breathe."

Music Friday: "Synchronicity I" and "Synchronicity II"

When I was a kid, I listened the hell out of my cassette tapes of The Police. 

I dug the band's post-punk, pop-rocky sound, Stewart Copeland's impeccable drumming, and Sting's lyrics. I still enjoy the band's work, in fact. It doesn't get old.

The first video is circa 1983, and the second video is the band playing in 2008. "II" was the more popular song, but I always liked "Synchronicity I" better. 

Music Friday: "Our Spirits in a Material World"

As I was driving the kids to daycare this morning, I was listening to a "classic rock" station. And they played this song by the Police, which depressed me.

You know you're getting old when music you listened to in high school is now classic rock.

Click HERE to watch a video from one of the best bands of the 80s.