This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Wednesday, September 21st, 2022. Happy hump day everyone! Let’s start today’s show, with a little on this day in history!
- On this day in history, September 21st, 1776 Nathan Hale, spied on British for American rebels, arrested
- September 21st, 1780 Benedict Arnold gives British Major John André plans to West Point
- September 21st, 1784 Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser becomes the 1st successful daily newspaper in the United States
- 1823 Moroni first appears to Joseph Smith, according to Smith
- 1827 According to Joseph Smith Jr., the angel Moroni gave him a record of gold plates, one-third of which Joseph translated into The Book of Mormon
- 1937 J. R. R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’ is published by George Allen and Unwin in London
- 1938 British politician Winston Churchill condemns Germany’s Adolf Hitler’s annexation of Czechoslovakia
- 1944 Operation Market Garden: Last British paratroopers at Arnhem Bridge surrender after several days of fighting
- 1970 “Monday Night Football” created by Roone Arledge, premieres on ABC – Browns 31, Jets 21
And that was, on this day in history for September 21st.
FLF Magazine:
We are on a mission to make magazines great again. So, subscribe to our Fight Laugh Feast magazine. This is a quarterly mini-book like experience, packed full of a variety of authors that includes theologically-driven cultural commentary, a Psalm of the quarter, recipes for feasting, laughter sprinkled throughout the glossy pages, and more. Sign your church up, sign your grumpy uncle up, and while you are at it…sign up the Pope, Elon Musks, and Russel Moore.
Disclaimer: This magazine will guarantee various responses and CrossPolitic is not held liable for any of them. Reading the whole magazine may cause theological maturation, possibly encourage your kids to take the Lord’s Supper with you, and will likely cause you to randomly chuckle in joy at God’s wondrous world. Sign up today! Four issues and $60 per year, that is it. Go to fightlaughfeast.com right now to sign up!.
https://thenationalpulse.com/2022/09/20/study-finds-mask-made-no-difference-in-classrooms/
Study Reveals Masking Kids In School Made ‘No Significant Difference’ In Stopping COVID Spread.
The use of face masks in classrooms made “no significant difference” in COVID-19 infection rates, according to a new study.
A cohort of researchers from several universities and hospitals in Spain came to the conclusion by analyzing COVID-19 transmission rates, age, and the mandated use of face masks in classrooms across the region of Catalonia.
The study – “Unravelling the Role of the Mandatory use of Face Covering Masks for the Control of SARS-CoV-2 in Schools: a Quasi-Experimental Study Nested in a Population-Based Cohort in Catalonia (Spain)” – compiled data from 1,907 schools with a total of 599,314 pupils during the first term of the 2021 academic year. It was included in August’s edition of the peer-reviewed journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, which is a part of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Group.
Though COVID-19 variants such as Omicron occurred outside of the timeframe of the study, researchers maintain it is “unlikely that the effectiveness of the mask mandate measure will increase with a more transmissible variant.”
“We analysed routinely collected health data to compare the incidence of SARS-CoV-2, secondary attack rates and the effective reproductive number among school children, comparing those without mandatory face covering masks (FCM) and those with FCM during the first term of the school year 2021–2022, to assess the effect of FCM mandates on SARS-CoV-2 transmission within schools,” explains a summary of the work.
Researchers focused on comparing children in the last year of preschool (P5) and the first year of primary education, as the younger group had no face mask mandate, whereas the older group did.
“The main findings of the study show no significant differences for children in the last grade of preschool (P5) and the first year of primary education in COVID-19 transmission indicators during the study period, despite their difference in FCM mandate and the strong age dependency of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in schools,” explained researchers.
“In conclusion, FCM mandates in schools showed no significant differences in terms of transmission. Conversely, we found that age is a key component explaining transmission in children,” summarized researchers.
The Spanish case study follows additional studies demonstrating the failed efficacy of face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, even exacerbating the spread of the virus in certain demographics.
Study: Americans Own More Than 415 Million Firearms
Americans now own more than 415 million firearms, according to Georgetown professor William English.
This was a key finding of the National Firearms Survey that was conducted last year by Denver-based research firm Centiment at the request of English, a professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. English is a political economist interested in ethics, education, and public policy. The survey, which is part of a larger book project, is reportedly the largest ever undertaken regarding U.S. gun owners.
The survey was administered to about 54,000 U.S. residents aged 18 and older, focusing on 16,708 gun owners who were provided with in-depth questions about their ownership and use of firearms, including defensive uses.
The purpose of the survey was to “shed some light from a social-scientific view on the reality of how guns are used and owned in America today,” English said during a Sept. 11 podcast produced by The Reload, a publication focused on the policies and politics surrounding firearms.
“And the attempt was to make it the largest survey of gun owners yet done, particularly so that we can get statistically informative information in all 50 states. Probably the last survey of this scope was done back in 1994 … but it’s now more than a quarter century old,” he said.
English teased the findings of the survey in a May 18 summary on an academic website called Social Science Research Network but updated the summary on Sept. 13 to add the 415 million figure for gun ownership.
Because the U.S. Census Bureau now estimates the U.S. population to be 333 million people, the 415 million figure means that there are now about 1.25 firearms for every person living in the United States.
Of those 415 million firearms, Americans own about 171 million handguns, 146 million rifles, and 98 million shotguns, according to the update. About 39 million individuals, or 48 percent of gun owners, have owned magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds. Some jurisdictions regulate magazine capacity.
The newly released information helps to put facts that English previously released from the study into a broader context.
The study found that the United States has an overall rate of adult firearm ownership of 31.9 percent, which suggests that more than 81.4 million Americans aged 18 years and older own firearms. The average gun owner owns about five firearms, and handguns are the most common type of firearm owned, the summary states.
Among gun owners, 57.8 percent are male and 42.2 percent are female. About 34.3 percent of whites own firearms, compared to 28.3 percent of Hispanics, 25.4 percent of blacks, and 19.4 percent of Asians, according to the summary.
Nearly a third of gun owners, or 31.1 percent, reported in the survey that they have used a gun to defend themselves or their property, often more than once. The report summary estimated that firearms are used defensively by their owners in about 1.67 million incidents each year.
Handguns are used in 65.9 percent of defensive incidents, although in most such incidents no shot was fired. About a quarter (25.2 percent) of defensive incidents took place inside the gun owner’s home, and a little more than half (53.9 percent) happened outside their home but on their property. Almost one in 10 (9.1 percent) of defensive gun uses took place in public and about one out of 30 (3.2 percent) took place at work, according to the summary.
The report comes after a landmark Supreme Court ruling on June 23 finding for the first time that there’s a constitutional right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. The court also found that gun regulations must be deeply rooted in U.S. history if they’re to survive constitutional scrutiny, prompting a raft of new lawsuits across the country challenging gun control measures. Applications for gun permits in states that require them have been rising following the court decision.
President Joe Biden is pushing for a federal ban on so-called assault weapons after Congress approved new gun control measures in June, including financial incentives to encourage the enactment of state-level red-flag gun confiscation laws.
The research paper also comes as major credit card companies, at the behest of gun control activists, are implementing what critics characterize as backdoor gun control. The International Organization for Standardization recently announced that one of its subcommittees had decided to create a new merchant category code for firearms, which were previously under the general merchandise category.
Critics say the policy change will make it easier for governments both to track and discourage firearms purchases and could lay the groundwork for a national gun registry.
Accountable2You
Is your smartphone a tool in the service of Christ, or a minefield of distractions and temptations?
With soul-killing seductions just a few taps away, our families and churches must embrace biblical accountability on our digital devices.
Accountable2You makes transparency easy on all your family’s devices, by sharing app usage and detailed browsing history—including “Incognito” mode—with your spouse, parent, or chosen accountability partner.
Accountable2You helps your family to proactively guard against temptation, so you can live with integrity for God’s glory! Learn more and try it for free at Accountable2You.com/FLF
Biden Starts Handing Out Grants to Rid Us of Racist Highways
Joe Biden has now officially taken his overcompensation for being an old white guy to the next level by handing out the first federal grants to dismantle our nation’s racist highways.
That is not a typo.
Rather than devoting federal resources to improving our national infrastructure, Biden is wasting millions to address the problem of “racist roads.” What makes a road racist? I’m just the messenger here, but according to MSNBC, so-called “racist roads” being targeted by Biden were “designed to facilitate white flight and deprive black communities of housing and commercial opportunities.”
Fellow white dude Pete Buttigieg, who occasionally makes appearances pretending to be the Transportation Secretary, confirmed that $104.6 million in federal funds from last year’s bipartisan infrastructure bill will be used to dismantle Interstate 375 in Detroit.
“This stretch of I-375 cuts like a gash through the neighborhood, one of many examples I have seen in communities across the country where a piece of infrastructure has become a barrier,” Buttigieg told the Associated Press. “With these funds, we’re now partnering with the state and the community to transform it into a road that will connect rather than divide.”
https://www.foxnews.com/media/don-lemon-roasted-royal-expert-answer-britain-paying-reparations-ready
And now this!
Don Lemon schooled by Royals expert on the topic of Britain paying ‘reparations’
British royals expert Hilary Fordwich stunned CNN anchor Don Lemon into silence with her argument that African slave owners owe “reparations” rather than the British Empire, in a viral clip from CNN’s coverage of the death of the queen.
Conservatives on Twitter found the clip hilarious, as it depicted Lemon getting swift pushback for trying to promote the narrative that the British crown owes reparations for slavery.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1572145367512190978 – Play Video
Observers noted Lemon meekly switching topics without protest after Fordwich’s unexpected response
And now… it’s time for my favorite topic, sports!
Fan Arrested After Attempting to Jump into Pit with Texas Longhorn Mascot ‘Bevo’
Few things are less advisable than jumping into a pit with a 1500-plus pound Texas Longhorn. But, then again, mix passionate fandom with eleventy bottles of beer, and ill-advised decisions will ensue.
This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Wednesday, September 21st, 2022. Happy hump day everyone! Let’s start today’s show, with a little on this day in history!
- On this day in history, September 21st, 1776 Nathan Hale, spied on British for American rebels, arrested
- September 21st, 1780 Benedict Arnold gives British Major John André plans to West Point
- September 21st, 1784 Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser becomes the 1st successful daily newspaper in the United States
- 1823 Moroni first appears to Joseph Smith, according to Smith
- 1827 According to Joseph Smith Jr., the angel Moroni gave him a record of gold plates, one-third of which Joseph translated into The Book of Mormon
- 1937 J. R. R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’ is published by George Allen and Unwin in London
- 1938 British politician Winston Churchill condemns Germany’s Adolf Hitler’s annexation of Czechoslovakia
- 1944 Operation Market Garden: Last British paratroopers at Arnhem Bridge surrender after several days of fighting
- 1970 “Monday Night Football” created by Roone Arledge, premieres on ABC – Browns 31, Jets 21
And that was, on this day in history for September 21st.
FLF Magazine:
We are on a mission to make magazines great again. So, subscribe to our Fight Laugh Feast magazine. This is a quarterly mini-book like experience, packed full of a variety of authors that includes theologically-driven cultural commentary, a Psalm of the quarter, recipes for feasting, laughter sprinkled throughout the glossy pages, and more. Sign your church up, sign your grumpy uncle up, and while you are at it…sign up the Pope, Elon Musks, and Russel Moore.
Disclaimer: This magazine will guarantee various responses and CrossPolitic is not held liable for any of them. Reading the whole magazine may cause theological maturation, possibly encourage your kids to take the Lord’s Supper with you, and will likely cause you to randomly chuckle in joy at God’s wondrous world. Sign up today! Four issues and $60 per year, that is it. Go to fightlaughfeast.com right now to sign up!.
https://thenationalpulse.com/2022/09/20/study-finds-mask-made-no-difference-in-classrooms/
Study Reveals Masking Kids In School Made ‘No Significant Difference’ In Stopping COVID Spread.
The use of face masks in classrooms made “no significant difference” in COVID-19 infection rates, according to a new study.
A cohort of researchers from several universities and hospitals in Spain came to the conclusion by analyzing COVID-19 transmission rates, age, and the mandated use of face masks in classrooms across the region of Catalonia.
The study – “Unravelling the Role of the Mandatory use of Face Covering Masks for the Control of SARS-CoV-2 in Schools: a Quasi-Experimental Study Nested in a Population-Based Cohort in Catalonia (Spain)” – compiled data from 1,907 schools with a total of 599,314 pupils during the first term of the 2021 academic year. It was included in August’s edition of the peer-reviewed journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, which is a part of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Group.
Though COVID-19 variants such as Omicron occurred outside of the timeframe of the study, researchers maintain it is “unlikely that the effectiveness of the mask mandate measure will increase with a more transmissible variant.”
“We analysed routinely collected health data to compare the incidence of SARS-CoV-2, secondary attack rates and the effective reproductive number among school children, comparing those without mandatory face covering masks (FCM) and those with FCM during the first term of the school year 2021–2022, to assess the effect of FCM mandates on SARS-CoV-2 transmission within schools,” explains a summary of the work.
Researchers focused on comparing children in the last year of preschool (P5) and the first year of primary education, as the younger group had no face mask mandate, whereas the older group did.
“The main findings of the study show no significant differences for children in the last grade of preschool (P5) and the first year of primary education in COVID-19 transmission indicators during the study period, despite their difference in FCM mandate and the strong age dependency of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in schools,” explained researchers.
“In conclusion, FCM mandates in schools showed no significant differences in terms of transmission. Conversely, we found that age is a key component explaining transmission in children,” summarized researchers.
The Spanish case study follows additional studies demonstrating the failed efficacy of face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, even exacerbating the spread of the virus in certain demographics.
Study: Americans Own More Than 415 Million Firearms
Americans now own more than 415 million firearms, according to Georgetown professor William English.
This was a key finding of the National Firearms Survey that was conducted last year by Denver-based research firm Centiment at the request of English, a professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. English is a political economist interested in ethics, education, and public policy. The survey, which is part of a larger book project, is reportedly the largest ever undertaken regarding U.S. gun owners.
The survey was administered to about 54,000 U.S. residents aged 18 and older, focusing on 16,708 gun owners who were provided with in-depth questions about their ownership and use of firearms, including defensive uses.
The purpose of the survey was to “shed some light from a social-scientific view on the reality of how guns are used and owned in America today,” English said during a Sept. 11 podcast produced by The Reload, a publication focused on the policies and politics surrounding firearms.
“And the attempt was to make it the largest survey of gun owners yet done, particularly so that we can get statistically informative information in all 50 states. Probably the last survey of this scope was done back in 1994 … but it’s now more than a quarter century old,” he said.
English teased the findings of the survey in a May 18 summary on an academic website called Social Science Research Network but updated the summary on Sept. 13 to add the 415 million figure for gun ownership.
Because the U.S. Census Bureau now estimates the U.S. population to be 333 million people, the 415 million figure means that there are now about 1.25 firearms for every person living in the United States.
Of those 415 million firearms, Americans own about 171 million handguns, 146 million rifles, and 98 million shotguns, according to the update. About 39 million individuals, or 48 percent of gun owners, have owned magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds. Some jurisdictions regulate magazine capacity.
The newly released information helps to put facts that English previously released from the study into a broader context.
The study found that the United States has an overall rate of adult firearm ownership of 31.9 percent, which suggests that more than 81.4 million Americans aged 18 years and older own firearms. The average gun owner owns about five firearms, and handguns are the most common type of firearm owned, the summary states.
Among gun owners, 57.8 percent are male and 42.2 percent are female. About 34.3 percent of whites own firearms, compared to 28.3 percent of Hispanics, 25.4 percent of blacks, and 19.4 percent of Asians, according to the summary.
Nearly a third of gun owners, or 31.1 percent, reported in the survey that they have used a gun to defend themselves or their property, often more than once. The report summary estimated that firearms are used defensively by their owners in about 1.67 million incidents each year.
Handguns are used in 65.9 percent of defensive incidents, although in most such incidents no shot was fired. About a quarter (25.2 percent) of defensive incidents took place inside the gun owner’s home, and a little more than half (53.9 percent) happened outside their home but on their property. Almost one in 10 (9.1 percent) of defensive gun uses took place in public and about one out of 30 (3.2 percent) took place at work, according to the summary.
The report comes after a landmark Supreme Court ruling on June 23 finding for the first time that there’s a constitutional right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. The court also found that gun regulations must be deeply rooted in U.S. history if they’re to survive constitutional scrutiny, prompting a raft of new lawsuits across the country challenging gun control measures. Applications for gun permits in states that require them have been rising following the court decision.
President Joe Biden is pushing for a federal ban on so-called assault weapons after Congress approved new gun control measures in June, including financial incentives to encourage the enactment of state-level red-flag gun confiscation laws.
The research paper also comes as major credit card companies, at the behest of gun control activists, are implementing what critics characterize as backdoor gun control. The International Organization for Standardization recently announced that one of its subcommittees had decided to create a new merchant category code for firearms, which were previously under the general merchandise category.
Critics say the policy change will make it easier for governments both to track and discourage firearms purchases and could lay the groundwork for a national gun registry.
Accountable2You
Is your smartphone a tool in the service of Christ, or a minefield of distractions and temptations?
With soul-killing seductions just a few taps away, our families and churches must embrace biblical accountability on our digital devices.
Accountable2You makes transparency easy on all your family’s devices, by sharing app usage and detailed browsing history—including “Incognito” mode—with your spouse, parent, or chosen accountability partner.
Accountable2You helps your family to proactively guard against temptation, so you can live with integrity for God’s glory! Learn more and try it for free at Accountable2You.com/FLF
Biden Starts Handing Out Grants to Rid Us of Racist Highways
Joe Biden has now officially taken his overcompensation for being an old white guy to the next level by handing out the first federal grants to dismantle our nation’s racist highways.
That is not a typo.
Rather than devoting federal resources to improving our national infrastructure, Biden is wasting millions to address the problem of “racist roads.” What makes a road racist? I’m just the messenger here, but according to MSNBC, so-called “racist roads” being targeted by Biden were “designed to facilitate white flight and deprive black communities of housing and commercial opportunities.”
Fellow white dude Pete Buttigieg, who occasionally makes appearances pretending to be the Transportation Secretary, confirmed that $104.6 million in federal funds from last year’s bipartisan infrastructure bill will be used to dismantle Interstate 375 in Detroit.
“This stretch of I-375 cuts like a gash through the neighborhood, one of many examples I have seen in communities across the country where a piece of infrastructure has become a barrier,” Buttigieg told the Associated Press. “With these funds, we’re now partnering with the state and the community to transform it into a road that will connect rather than divide.”
https://www.foxnews.com/media/don-lemon-roasted-royal-expert-answer-britain-paying-reparations-ready
And now this!
Don Lemon schooled by Royals expert on the topic of Britain paying ‘reparations’
British royals expert Hilary Fordwich stunned CNN anchor Don Lemon into silence with her argument that African slave owners owe “reparations” rather than the British Empire, in a viral clip from CNN’s coverage of the death of the queen.
Conservatives on Twitter found the clip hilarious, as it depicted Lemon getting swift pushback for trying to promote the narrative that the British crown owes reparations for slavery.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1572145367512190978 – Play Video
Observers noted Lemon meekly switching topics without protest after Fordwich’s unexpected response
And now… it’s time for my favorite topic, sports!
Fan Arrested After Attempting to Jump into Pit with Texas Longhorn Mascot ‘Bevo’
Few things are less advisable than jumping into a pit with a 1500-plus pound Texas Longhorn. But, then again, mix passionate fandom with eleventy bottles of beer, and ill-advised decisions will ensue.
Such was the case at the Texas-UTSA game on Saturday when a fan attempted to jump into the pit with the University of Texas’s mascot, Bevo. The mascot’s handlers tried to wave the fan off but to no avail. Thankfully, a Texas DPS officer intervened and prevented the fan from getting himself killed.
It’s unclear what the fan’s intentions were, but it’s pretty clear what Bevo’s intentions would have been if he had felt the slightest bit threatened. The last time Bevo felt an unwelcome presence, it nearly cost “UGA,” the Georgia Bulldog mascot, his life.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1546151851346874370 – Play Video
Now don’t worry folks, Georgia’s mascot, UGA the bulldog was just fine, and you can find the link to these videos in the show notes. But the point stands, don’t mess with Texas…
This has been your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief. If you liked today’s show, go ahead and click that share button down below. If you want to sign up for a club membership, sign up for our conference with that club discount, and then sign up for our FLF magazine, you can do all of that at fightlaughfeast.com. And as always, if you want to email me a news story, ask about our conference, or sign on as a corporate partner for CrossPolitic, email me, at garrison@fightlaughfeast.com. For CrossPolitic News, I’m Garrison Hardie. Have a great day, and Lord bless.
Such was the case at the Texas-UTSA game on Saturday when a fan attempted to jump into the pit with the University of Texas’s mascot, Bevo. The mascot’s handlers tried to wave the fan off but to no avail. Thankfully, a Texas DPS officer intervened and prevented the fan from getting himself killed.
It’s unclear what the fan’s intentions were, but it’s pretty clear what Bevo’s intentions would have been if he had felt the slightest bit threatened. The last time Bevo felt an unwelcome presence, it nearly cost “UGA,” the Georgia Bulldog mascot, his life.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1546151851346874370 – Play Video
Now don’t worry folks, Georgia’s mascot, UGA the bulldog was just fine, and you can find the link to these videos in the show notes. But the point stands, don’t mess with Texas…
This has been your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief. If you liked today’s show, go ahead and click that share button down below. If you want to sign up for a club membership, sign up for our conference with that club discount, and then sign up for our FLF magazine, you can do all of that at fightlaughfeast.com. And as always, if you want to email me a news story, ask about our conference, or sign on as a corporate partner for CrossPolitic, email me, at garrison@fightlaughfeast.com. For CrossPolitic News, I’m Garrison Hardie. Have a great day, and Lord bless.