2024 Elections Comments - Part 1

California's primary is March 5 of this year. 

This is the first of two parts on the upcoming elections. Part 2 will be posted on Monday.

 BACKGROUND

"Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have."

Philippians 1:27-30

Paul challenges the Church in Philippi to remain faithful to Jesus and live in a manner worthy of the Gospel. In this passage, he is calling for unity in the Spirit and the Gospel, to have courage, and not be afraid. This last part of Chapter 1 has much to unpack, so let's dive in.

Located at the bottom of a mountain that produced valuable minerals such as silver and gold, the city of Philippi was a strategic location for Rome both geographically and culturally. Citizens enjoyed a prosperous economy as a result of this. In addition, Philippi was located along the Ignatian Way, the primary East-to-West road in this part of the Roman Empire. 

Philippi was a hub for traveling like Las Angeles or Atlanta. Travelers on chariots had layovers. But, what made Philippi stand out was its connection to Rome. Philippi was a Roman colony patterned after the city of Rome. 

In 31 BC, Octavius, later known as Augustus, was the first Roman Emperor. He expanded Rome's influence and power. When he defeated Roman General Mark Antony, he took control of the empire after years of civil war.  

After the war, he rewarded his soldiers with plots of land in Philippi. He also showed goodwill to Mark Antony's soldiers by giving them land in Philippi and won their favor. 

After Octavius made Philippi a Roman colony and populated it with patriotic and dedicated citizens. When they rebuilt the city, they used Rome as their template, Roman architecture, and Latin as their official language. Even the citizen's clothing was Roman, with togas common sites. 

Philippians worshiped the Greek gods. In every way, this was a place that was pro-Rome. They flew Rome's colors when raising their flag. The city of Philippi's faith and culture were patterned after Rome's. 

The dynamic that this new Jesus community finds itself in is neither a favorable nor hospitable place for a Christian Church. That put the church out of place. 

There was pressure for this new church to conform to the faith and culture of Rome, but the Gospel's message was antithetical to the life and culture of Rome. Thus Paul's encouragement. 

“Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.”

Philippians 1:27

This admonition has been the hallmark of Christianity from the earliest days until today. That our faith and culture be rooted in the Word of God, not the changing cultural norms of society. 

Monday's post will deal with the importance of this election.

Special thanks to Pastor Gordon Wong, my pastor at Mission Church of the Nazarene in San Diego, California, for allowing me to share this.

C. R. Downing 
Good writing fosters great thinking! 
Award-winning author of Science Fiction and Mysteries
                                                                         
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#COVID-19 Who's line is it, anyway? Episode 3 - How do you define essential?

I first posted this last September. Many closures happened since then.

SUPPORT YOUR REMAINING SMALL BUSINESSES!!

Who’s Line Is It Anyway? was/is a television show first hosted by Drew Carey. The show’s ensemble cast was gifted at improv humor. 

 

Drew’s favorite line was something like:

 

“Welcome to the show where everything’s made up, and the points don’t matter.”

 

Several parts of the United States’ response to the current pandemic remind me of that line. Today I focus on one such situation:

 

Episode 3: Actually two lines…

 

During the course of the “pandemic,” two descriptors were used as excuses to wreak havoc on society as a whole. 

Essential and non-essential

• Essential businesses, jobs, and surgeries were allowed to continue with little, if any, disruption. 
• Non-essential iterations of those same categories were shut down, some of them for months.

 

There are problems with this abuse of power by our governmental agencies at all levels.

First Line

No surgery is essential. All surgery is elective.

Several types of surgery are performed so often that they seem essential. If any surgery was genuinely essential, 

every human being 

would require that surgery to live.

There is no such surgery.

Some surgeries listed as non-essential are probably considered that by most people. 

• Plastic surgery might sound like a non-essential procedure until you consider that many plastic surgeries are not for the perceived enhancement or refinement of a healthy body. 
• Amputees and burn victims usually require several to many surgeries to increase, improve, or allow physical activities. 

Postponing cancer surgeries or other surgeries intended to improve the condition of patients led to dire consequences for many.

• However, as unfeeling as this sounds, even if a person died as a result of postponed surgery, that doesn’t mean the surgery was essential. 
• Every human life ends in physical death.

When a government decides who deserves immediate surgery and who can wait, they far overstep their boundaries.

 

Second line

No job is non-essential. Every job is critically important to someone.

• If a person’s job provides money for her/his family to live, how can that job be considered non-essential? 
• To that person, her/his job is essential to living as a productive member of society.

Imagine your job was declared non-essential and you were laid off or your business was shut down. (I apologize to those reading this who don't have to imagine that situation.)

• What does that imply? 

More importantly, what was shown to be the reality of such arbitrary designations. According to a YELP survey

• 60% of businesses that shut down in the US from the start of the pandemic as of August 31 won't be reopening,  Yelp said Wednesday.
• As of 31 August, 163,735 US businesses have shut down, a 23% rise since mid-July. 
• Yelp said the restaurant industry was most heavily affected with closures totaling 32,109 as of August 31. 
• Fortune magazine reported 100,000 small businesses shut down permanently by September 28, 2020.

Not a single one of those businesses considered itself non-essential...

BECAUSE THEY WEREN'T NON-ESSENTIAL,

 AND NOW LIVES AND COMMUNITIES 

 ARE CHANGED FOREVER.

 

Sadly, “Welcome to the show where everything’s made up…” fits governmental ignorance and arrogance in their treatment of both this week’s lines perfectly.

Even sadder, the points did matter in these cases.

 

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#COVID-19 Who's line is it, anyway? Episode 2-Geography

Who’s Line Is It Anyway? was/is a television show first hosted by Drew Carey. The show’s ensemble cast were all gifted at improve humor. 

 

Drew’s favorite line was something like:

 

“Welcome to the show where everything’s made up, and the points don’t matter.”

 

Several parts of the United States’ response to the current pandemic remind me of that line. Today I focus on one such situation:

 

Episode 2: Geography?

 

I use California as the source for many of my examples because I live in that realm of unreality.

Recently, California’s governor unveiled a new, color-coded four-tier program to track state-wide progress in the COVID-19 pandemic by new cases and positive tests for the virus.

Purple, or Tier 1, indicates that the virus is widespread in the county — with more than seven cases per 100,000 residents or more than 8% of test results reported positive over seven days. Red (Tier 2) indicates “substantial” spread of the virus, while orange (Tier 3) indicates “moderate” spread, and yellow (Tier 4) indicates “minimal” spread of the virus in the county.

If one of the two metrics is higher than the other, the state will assign the county to the color associated with the highest rating. For example, if a county reports six cases per 100,000, but a 9% positivity rate, it will be rated purple.

https://edsource.org/2020/quick-guide-what-californias-color-coded-county-tracking-system-means-for-schools/639357

I couldn’t find a rationale for the amounts of new cases or the percentage of positive tests that led to those values. I wasn’t surprised by that.

“Welcome to the show where everything’s made up…”

ASIDE

Riverside County is purple.

(County’s Status Map as of 9/8/20) - Map will update

• Palm Springs is in Riverside County. The city’s demographics do not match the majority of the county, and their demographic has high numbers. 
• Imperial County is directly south of Riverside County. Imperial County has high numbers, too. People crossing the border from Mexico to find diagnosis and treatment for COVID-19 overwhelmed their medical facilities. Many patients were relocated from Imperial County to Riverside County. 

These situations ensure that Riverside will be purple for a long time. But the vast majority of the county is nothing like the inclusive data reflects.

Back to Episode 2

On 9/9/2020 in a sub-headline, front page, above the fold, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported “County now on brink of case rate that could put it back to lowest tier. [sic]” The article is about the impact of 400 positive tests at the San Diego State University campus.

There are currently about 2000 students going to classes on the main campus that covers 288 acres. 

1. San Diego County covers 2,897,000 acres.  SDSU makes up approximately .0001 percent of San Diego County’s physical size. 
2. San Diego’s current population is between 3-4 million people. SDSU’s current on-campus population makes up approximately .0006 percent of the total population.

Including isolated population anomalies without consideration of their isolation… 

sounds a lot like an improv theater move to me.

Until next week…

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#COVID-19 Who's line is it, anyway? Episode -Moving Targets

It's bad enough that much of the media reporting and decisions by government leadership during the pandemic is lacking in or completely devoid of sound scientific evidence.  I've posted blogs in the past about 

• viruses are not alive, 
• how viruses work,
• the four main types of immunity.

Today's post is about the way decisions are being made makes it seem like the primary goal of those in charge is instilling fear into their constituency. For the most part, it's fear motivating those constituents to blindly follow anti-constitutional mandates, ineffective procedures, and psychologically damaging limitations. 

This blog focuses on the first of various issues that irritate me. Or worse.

Who’s Line Is It Anyway? was/is a television show first hosted by Drew Carey. The show’s ensemble cast were all gifted at improve humor. 

 

Drew’s favorite line was something like:

 

“Welcome to the show where everything’s made up, and the points don’t matter.”

 

Several parts of the United States’ response to the current pandemic remind me of that line. Today I focus on one such situation:

Episode 1: Moving Targets

When government intervention began, the most important statistic was DEATHS. Every day, media of all types printed the most recent death count for their area, the United States, and the world.

California’s governor was among the avalanche of leaders who shifted their daily focus from deaths by COVID-19 total cases of COVID-19 as their justification for their tyrannical acts early in the pandemic. As far as I can tell, the “number of cases” is still the reported target.

That sounds a lot like an improv theater move to me.

Predictions for death tolls leading to state governors being handed the role of dictator were bleak. Minnesota’s governor justified his tyranny by insisting in early April that as many as 36,000 inhabitants would die from the virus. 

As of 9/7/2020 the TOTAL death count from COVID-19 in Minnesota was 13,764 with only thirty-three added that day.

“Welcome to the show where everything’s made up…” surely fits here.

Until next week…

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#COVID-19 What scientific studies show about the use of masks

#COVID-19 What scientific studies show about the use of masks
It's bad enough that much of the media reporting and decisions by government leadership during the pandemic is lacking in or completely devoid of sound scientific evidence.  I've posted blogs in the past about 

• viruses are not alive, 
• how viruses work,
• the four main types of immunity.
• inaccurately reported statements by the CDC about immunity. 

Today's post is about the way decisions are being made makes it seem like the primary goal of those in charge is instilling fear into their constituency. For the most part, it's fear motivating those constituents to blindly follow anti-constitutional mandates, ineffective procedures, and psychologically damaging limitations. 

This blog focuses on mandatory mask-wearing.

Viruses can't be seen. Even with an electron microscope, images are not like those in a light microscope, the kind you used in schools. In a light microscope, you seen an inverted image made by light passing through a specimen or reflecting off the specimen.

The electron microscopes most often seen, including the one at the top of this page, generate images by coating the specimen with a substance, or substances, then exciting those substances and capturing the image transmitted or scanned. For more detail on electron microscopes, follow this link.

One analogy for the ineffectiveness of masks is putting up a chain-link fence to keep mosquitos off your property. The size of the openings in the fence are much larger than the largest mosquito. You can see that, so you'd never use that fencing material to stop mosquitos.

I did the math to illustrate how many virus particles can pass through the typical home-made cotton-cloth masks. It's hard to show as a visual. My best shot follows this paragraph.

If you use 100-thread count cotton cloth, each "square" caused by consecutive up/down threads and consecutive side-to-side threads is large enough to allow at least (rounded numbers) 2,500 columns of 2,500 virus particles to pass through. 

And that's at every place the up/down crosses the side/side threads.

So what?

The links below take you to articles about masks and their benefit(s), if any. 

• Article 1 reports what is known in research as "a meta-analysis" of over forty articles on this topic published in academic journals.
• Article 2 is only slightly documented in a different manner and a good read, too.

I begin my conclusion with a quote from each.

Article 1
“If you use only proper studies – randomized, controlled trials with verified outcomes – they all unambiguously say that there is no statistical evidence of a benefit in terms of reducing risk of getting a viral respiratory disease. They all say it.”

Article 2
By making mask-wearing recommendations and policies for the general public, or by expressly condoning the practice, governments have both ignored the scientific evidence and done the opposite of following the precautionary principle.


Mask articles

1. https://uncoverdc.com/2020/07/15/a-scientific-look-at-the-mask-fallacy-and-why-were-told-to-wear-them/?fbclid=IwAR3-oKwLRLPyuqbclmNMHNyQZBh01P1aHwIlMXE3A4LLiH8AS_8xaGirtSw    
2. https://www.rcreader.com/commentary/masks-dont-work-covid-a-review-of-science-relevant-to-covide-19-social-policy

• I don't wear a mask unless required by current state/city mandates and only then until I'm outside the store. 
• My personal opinion is that wearing masks is scaring more little children than the number of people they can ever protect from getting COVID-19.

Final comments

If you are a mask wearer, accept people like me, even if their reason isn't based on scientific evidence.

• Understand that some people can't use masks for a variety of reasons.

If you aren't a mask wearer, shaming someone who's wearing a mask is bullying. 

• Don't do it. Some people have a variety of reasons for wearing it.

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My Christian Context. Posts M/W of discussion questions. Thursdays - Timeless Truths. Fridays - Expressions of Faith. https://mychristiancontext.blogspot.com/  

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#COVID-19 The case of the missing proofreading

It's bad enough that much of the media reporting and decisions by government leadership during the pandemic is lacking in or completely devoid of sound scientific evidence.  I've posted blogs in the past about 

• viruses are not alive, 
• how viruses work,
• the four main types of immunity.

Today's post is about the way decisions are being made makes it seem like the primary goal of those in charge is instilling fear into their constituency. For the most part, it's fear motivating those constituents to blindly follow anti-constitutional mandates, ineffective procedures, and psychologically damaging limitations. 

This blog focuses on an inaccurately reported statement by the CDC about immunity. 

Nearly all media presentations of current events have been edited by that media in some way. That's what happened to a CDC report on the extent of immunity a person achieves after having COVID-19 and recovering from that infection.

This is what I saw as a Notification on my Twitter feed on August 15 or 16.

I was appalled.
Read my blog about immunity and you'll see that NO immunity works that way.
My first thoughts were 

1. How can CDC release that erroneous statement?
2. Does that mean that COVID-19 mutates so rapidly that after three months it's like you never had immunity? [BTW: If this was the case, the only way to end the pandemic is to have everyone get the disease in a three month period.]

I stewed until Monday morning when I decided to begin this blog series. When I clicked on the link from the "News for you" post I arrived at this site

Notice the dramatic difference in this headline when compared to the Notification. Better still, notice the word "Correction" in the third line from the bottom of the text below the photo.

As I read through the list of responses to this Tweet, I came across this

Dated August 3, t his press release says nothing like what the Twitter Notification says.

I scrolled down the responses. Here are two of my favorites.

1. Notice blame is focused on the writer's displeasure with the CDC's response to the "fake news."

2. Although the first sentence in his response is a phrase I don't condone, the condemnation of the faulty reporting (hopefully just poor proofreading) is important.

Somewhere around 2,700 twitter users saw this post and reacted to it. The chances are twice that many saw it. Unfortunately, nothing can erase the first impression of the bogus statement. This misrepresentation happens a lot on page 1. Those might be retracted day(s) later on page 6, long after the damage is done.

I searched for the number of readers of an ABC press release to the public. I couldn't find that information. I did find these numbers and considerable reaction to this post on Twitter on August 17.

Not as many as I thought there might be, but that's 3x the reactions to the error on mainstream Twitter. 

So what?
How many already frightened people were hit with more horrific "news" that wasn't true this time? 
One person is too many. 
This should not be happening.

I hope this post causes you to consider what was really said or posted when you read, watch, or hear a "fact" or "statement" on any media platform.

This takes you to the Twitter reactions to that News for the image at the beginning of this post.

https://twitter.com/i/events/1294380836821721088

Next week I'll take a look at another type of reporting error on this virus and its impact.

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#Reading #Readers Reading to live... longer!

Reviewers agree that Betrayl in Blue is a great read.

The September 2017 issue of Reader’s Digest is titled “Genius Issue – Secrets to a Sharper Mind.”

The article “Why It Pays to Increase Your Word Power” on pages 66-73 begins with a question.

“How many hours did you spend reading books last week?”

In 2016, researchers at Yale School of Public Health began analyzing data collected from 20,000 people every other year since 1992. They narrowed the focus to the 3600 respondents over 50 years of age. Included in that data was an answer to the above question over almost one-quarter century.

“People who read books—fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose—for as little as 30 minutes a day over several years were living an average of two years longer than people who didn’t read anything at all [emphasis mine].”

Other research included suggests that

“[C]hildren as young as six months who read books with their parents several times a week show stronger literacy skills four years later, score higher on intelligence tests, and land better jobs than nonreaders.”

The article goes on to discuss the benefits of reading in adults.

Summary: 

Reading books is more beneficial for adults [maybe everyone] than reading newspapers and magazines.

Why?

First. Brains build many connections and pathways when keeping track of chapters and storylines. This doesn't happen when skimming headlines, as is common with newspapers and magazines.

Second. Empathy and emotional intelligence scores increase after reading even only a part of a chapter in a story.

Another concept discussed is “cognitive reserve”—your brain’s ability to damage. More reading, more ability over a wider range of damage types. Shocking to me was

“This [cognitive reserve built up by reading] could explain why, after death, many seemingly healthy elders turn out to harbor signs of advanced Alzheimer’s disease in their brains despites showing few signs in life.”

The article takes a turn in its story arc for the last part. Benefits of bilingualism are presented. That's another blog, someone else's blog.

If you are reading this post, you are most likely a reader. There’s a different level of probability involved with you being an author—but you might be one of those, too.

1. If you’re a reader, you should be fired up by the above content—especially if you read books.
2. If you’re an author, I hope you’re inspired by how you are contributing to more than just the list of books in print.
3. I suspect that writer’s brains have good-sized cognitive reserves.

I taught high school and college biology for 39 years. From what I know about brain function

• An author’s brain must build at least connections while determining the plot, fleshing out characters, and developing a plausible setting—while writing.
• The number of those connections must be at least as many as a reader builds while following those plots and characters in that setting—while reading.

Bottom Lines

• Because of restrictions on human movement and gathering during "the pandemic," you are likely to find yourself with more time for you than usual.
• Instead of googling or streaming or gaming, give your brain a boost...

READ A BOOK.

• I highly recommend all my books for great stories suitable for 8th-grade-->octagenarian readers. 
• To save you time, here's the link to my Amazon Author page

https://www.amazon.com/C-R-Downing/e/B00J29L16W/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1

💫 💫 💫 💫 💫 💫 💫 💫 💫 💫 💫 💫

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