News Weakly - 5/23/2020

Misplaced Aim
I had to laugh at the NFL "testing new facemasks" where they are trying to incorporate COVID-19 style facemasks into football helmets for protection during those times that these players don't practice the proper social distancing on the field but do practice ramming their heads together causing brain damage and death. So funny it sometimes makes me want to cry.

Potential Side Effects
You've heard those ads, I'm sure. Loudly, "Take this wonder drug and it will solve all your problems," followed by -- rapidly and quietly -- "potential side effects include leprosy, obesity, loss of sex drive, and death." And you have to ask, "When is the cure potentially more dangerous than the disease?" UW Medicine is a healthcare system in Seattle. They've announced that, due to the stringent orders to protect us all from the virus, they're furloughing 1,500 staffers with more possible. When a healthcare system has to furlough healthcare workers in a healthcare crisis, that cannot be a good side effect of the "cure."

Sad Passing
I just want to mark the passing of a dear man of God. This week Ravi Zacharias went home to be with the Lord. I don't call it a "sad passing" because he died and went to be with His beloved Savior. I call it that because we are now without an amazingly gentle, kind, well-spoken reasonable, defender of the faith. He will be missed.

The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly?
You decide. The story goes that President Trump (bad) demanded action, so the Department of Health guaranteed AstraZeneca $1.2 billion to accelerate COVID-19 vaccine development in exchange for 300 million doses for the U.S. (good) in order to restart the economy and get an edge over global competitors (ugly). It's a tough story in today's environment where, if the name "Trump" is connected, it must be bad, but it looks like he's working hard for our people so it ought to be good, but an underlying motive is capitalism which everyone knows is ugly. How are we to think about this news item? Sure, it might save lives, but it also might reflect well on Trump. Tough call.

Religion in Government
Chicago has started fining churches that hold services, not because they're not observing any safety considerations or packing in too many people, but because the governor has deemed religious services as nonessential. (That's what the story says; not just my take on it.) One church allowed 10% of their capacity to meet with 13 safety requirements for attendance and paid a $500 fine. Since religion is deemed nonessential, they are limited to less than 10 people. Since liquor stores, superstores, and marijuana dispensaries are, they aren't limited. This is clearly a religious belief in the government that religion is nonessential. They forget that liquor stores are not protected under the First Amendment, but churches are.

Trump-Haters
In an attempt to exonerate Trump's COVID-19 response (yes, that was sarcastic), the New York Times has published the results of a Columbia University disease model that says that if Trump had locked down the nation on March 1st, he would have saved 50,000 more lives. That is, they aren't simply reporting that Columbia suggests that an earlier national quarantine would have prevented more deaths; they are blaming the president. Because no report goes unbiased. (I would publish the link to the Times report, but the NYT only allows limited views, so I'm putting this link that reports on the Times report ... with the same anti-Trump bias.)

Note: Consider the claim. If the nation had locked down earlier, less people would have been sick. Given. If the nation had locked down in January, almost no one would have been sick. We'll give them that. If we practiced social distancing as a matter of course, all sorts of illnesses would be nearly nonexistent. This isn't news. It is the blame that is news. Oh, and in the U.S., any State could lock down when they want to according to the 10th Amendment ... but no one is blaming the states. It's the Trump we love to hate. (Coming from someone who warned against Trump as president and didn't vote for him and won't. This isn't a "Trump-lover" thing.)

COVID-Related Church Death
No joke. Police suspect a church in Mississippi was torched this week for having a Bible study with more than 10 people and an Easter service. A note was left at the scene: "Bet you stay at home now you hypokrits [sic]." It is, literally, a COVID-related death ... at least of a building. And it says something about a society so terrorized by reports on this virus that someone will hate enough to do something like this.

Justice Denied
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a convicted Idaho pedophile suffering from gender dysphoria will get his state-funded sexual mutilation after all. SCOTUS believes that the way to relieve his "ongoing and extreme suffering" is to deny science and alter his physical appearance so that, when it's all said and done, it will only look like he committed rape of a minor and not homosexual rape. It may not be all bad news. Sure, science is no longer to be believed (God hasn't been able to be believed in this society for a long time), but the aim is to castrate him, so ...

Latest Definition
This was just stunning. Joe Biden informed a black interviewer that if he didn't vote for Biden, "you ain't black." Brand new to me. I thought "black" was defined in terms of genes, origins, skin color, lots of things, but never "votes for Biden." This will come as a real shock to all the African-Americans who didn't vote the Democratic party line or didn't vote at all. Or was this rich old white guy telling him, "Black people do what I say and I say vote for me. If you don't, you ain't black"? I don't know. Sometimes I can't follow Biden's thinking.

Too Close to True
Yes, it's the Babylon Bee. Yes, it's satire. Yes, they advertise themselves as "Your best source for fake news." Still ...

The headline reads, "'I Can't Believe Christians Think It's Safe To Go Back To Church,' Says Woman In Line At Walmart." Waayy too close to real.