News Weakly - 10/17/2020

The Hateful Truth
According to the Washington State Department of Health, it is legal in that state to have your sex designation changed on your birth certificate to reflect your gender identity. So when Seahawks radio host Dori Monson tweeted about Washington governor discussing the state's adherence to science in a state where changing your birth certificate to reflect a different birth sex, the crowd went wild. The Seahawks suspended him. Seattle Pride demanded he be fired. This kind of "mockery" and "transphobic hate" will not be tolerated. It's actually true, but that doesn't matter. In this case it's hateful to recognize what's true. Monson was ridiculing a governor who "adheres to science" while ignoring biology, and that's hate. Besides, he made some comments critical of the BLM movement, so that was just career suicide. Note: When we can define "stating the truth" as "hate," we are proving my point about redefining words and then shoving them back down our throats.

A Good Example
Capitol Hill Baptist Church got its ruling. They had been meeting outdoors, wearing masks, and maintaining social distancing, but were refused a waiver from the city to be allowed to continue meeting. On the basis of the mayor's refusal to allow the church to meet while observing proper procedures, yet personally attending massive gatherings without any safeguards, the church asked the court to extend them the same First Amendment rights. The court agreed. And the church did it well. Of course, the city might appeal -- it may not be over -- but it was refreshing to see a church trying to do everything right while maintaining biblical integrity.

When Preference is Offensive
On the hot seat in front of the Senate, Amy Barrett (Why is everyone using her complete name?) was asked about whether she would roll back freedoms and protections for the LGBT community. She answered, "I have no agenda. I do want to be clear that I have never discriminated on the basis of sexual preference and would not discriminate on the basis of sexual preference." And the crowd goes wild. An MSNBC producer tweeted that the term is "offensive and outdated." Senator Hirono took her to task for it. Keep in mind, Biden and Ginsburg and Feinstein and Durbin and even the Huffington Post and The Atlantic have used it all recently, but now it's offensive. So Merriam-Webster changed their definition (compared with this earlier one) to align with this brand new offense. Because, you see, if we can establish that there is choice involved -- any kind of choice at all -- then we can continue the discussion of the morality of it, and that will never do.

Monument Elite
The news has been filled for months with monuments being dismembered, toppled, and removed around the country. Racist, all. We will not tolerate it. Unless, of course, if it's Disney. Classic Disney films have been classified as "racist." You might think immediately of The Song of the South, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Disney itself has included films such as Dumbo, Peter Pan, and Jungle Book. They put a warning on them about "negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures." But, unlike the many monuments around, they have not removed them. They added, "we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together." Because with their money-making ability, they're valuable, while those stinkin' ol' statues are not. That kind of income must be tolerated.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
This week ABC hosted Biden's town hall where he "laid out his vision" while NBC faced backlash for hosting Trump's town hall in a "combative" event. There were calls to boycott NBC because Trump had tested positive for COVID early in the month even though Dr. Anthony Fauci and NIH clinical director Dr. Clifford Lane reviewed his most recent test and agreed that he was "not shedding infectious virus." Hosting Trump was "indefensible" because, well, it's Trump and he's bad and Biden is good. I think the whole thing speaks to the ugliness of most of today's media and the American public's inability or simple refusal to see it.

What We Have Here is a Failure to Get It
Former governor Chris Christie told Good Morning America that he regretted not wearing a mask to the White House. "It was a mistake," he said. "I was led to believe that all the people I was interacting with at the White House had been tested, and it gave you a false sense of security." Dear Mr. Christie, your mask, had you worn it, was never intended to prevent you from being exposed to the virus. Your mask was intended to protect others from you according to the CDC. People just don't seem to get that.

Dirty Underwear
C-SPAN's Steve Scully who was supposed to moderate a debate between Trump and Biden got in trouble after asking Antony Scaramucci if he should respond to Trump's accusation that Scully was a "Never Trumper." Scaramucci, if you recall, was a White House Director of Communications for 10 days in 2017 and is now opposed to Trump. Scully got in trouble because he was caught and then lied that he had been hacked, leaving the media's underwear -- anti-Trump bias -- exposed for all to see.

Shocked, I Tell You, Just Shocked
We've had a horrible year economically thanks to Trump. No, you know that's not accurate. Thanks to COVID and the draconian actions we've had to take to slow it down before it killed us all. But they'll blame it on Trump because I've already heard it. "He mishandled this crisis and we have massive unemployment" which, by the way, we would have had if you had been running it. Currently unemployment is at 7.9%, up from 3.6% in January but down from 14.7% in April. The news item Friday was that the U.S. budget gap tripled to a record $3.1 trillion. Yikes! Oh, wait ... that number seems familiar. Where did I ... oh, yeah, the $3 trillion the government gave out for COVID relief. So, you're telling me that because the government gave out $3 trillion in relief, we're $3 trillion in debt? I am shocked, I tell you, just shocked! Of course, if the Democrats had their way, that number would have already doubled. I'm not at all sure how Medicare and Social Security and all those other things will survive, but we shouldn't be surprised.

Unusual Babylon Bee Story
The Bee is mocking a news item of the week in this headline, "You Should Absolutely NOT Read The Disgusting, Totally False Story About Joe Biden's Son That We've Linked To In This Article." They're mocking the outrage against the "false" story that is well documented and that Twitter cut off the Trump campaign for repeating it. Their story is unusual for the Bee because they actually link to the story. Watch it, Babylon Bee. You might be accused of real news. But, then, it might be necessary this time since most of the MSM (mainstream media) seems to be skipping it themselves.