Notes On The Collapse

I Do Not Stand With Ukraine

It’s the new hit hashtag: #StandWithUkraine. People putting up blue-and-yellow flags.

Which means what, exactly?

Seems to me, it’s nothing more than an atheist’s version of “sending thoughts and prayers” — which is nothing. There’s not even the chance of a friendly deity intervening. It’s just an excuse to buy a militant tee shirt.

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The Lessons Of War

“If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them.

But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”

– Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, from “The Gulag Archipelago”

Today, again, we stand on the brink of global war. Its spectre is never far from us; for all that our nations are inextricably intertwined by the bonds of commerce, natural resources never increase, and there will always be a country that wants what another has. There will always come a generation that doesn’t remember how terrible war can be, and that dreams of glory.

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Wisconsin D.A.: Sic Semper Tyrannis!

In Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, five people were criminally charged with felony voter fraud on Thursday. Their offense was, allegedly, using a post office box rather than a physical address on registration forms. The charges carry sentences of up to three and a half years in prison and a $10,000 fine, and would suspend the right to vote of any person convicted.

One of the people charged was homeless, and living in his truck at the time; a married couple was reportedly living in an R.V. and traveling the country.

And only three out of the five voted in 2020.

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There Is No War In Ukraine. (Or Albania.)

“There are two things I know to be true: There’s no difference between good flan and bad flan, and there is no war.”
– C.I.A. Agent Mr. Young, “Wag The Dog”
(image courtesy New Line Cinemas)

So if you haven’t seen the movie “Wag The Dog”, watch the movie. And I’m not just telling you that in order to dodge a “Take It Down” notice; frankly, I doubt any studio would waste the effort on the likes of me. Rather, it will inform you about what’s not going on in Ukraine right now.

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The Case For Capitalism

EDITORIAL

The newly-crowned World’s Richest Man, Elon Musk, is a favorite target of the purveyors of internet outrage. Those who don’t despise him for hoarding wealth without ending world hunger or homelessness can find hundreds of things to take offense at in his social media accounts alone. His support for blockchain currencies, his apparently artless attempts at market manipulation, and his single-minded drive to solve humanity’s “One Basket Problem” each would attract the ire of the militant Twittarchists*, and yet he keeps coming up with more in what would, to a cynic, almost seem a deliberate effort to taunt them.

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There Is No “Great Resignation”

Twitter and Reddit are celebrating a national victory of labor over employers, who are forced to increase the wages they offer in order to fill an estimated 10.4 million job openings with 7.4 million available workers. Meanwhile, with such a high number of open positions, employees are moving on from their jobs in droves. There’s a nationwide shortage of truckers, nurses, and fast-food workers, grocery shelves are routinely empty, and retailers hoping to ramp up for the holidays are having to pay massive bonuses to get help.

This has been labeled the “Great Resignation”. It’s not.

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Always Check Your Sources

EDITORIAL – ANALYSIS

Recently, The Not Fake News reached out to Prof. James Naismith concerning what we believed to be deliberate misrepresentations of his work in alternative media. You may recall the story, or wish to revisit it; the short version is, they reported him as being anti-mask when in reality he’s strongly in favor.

We’ve spent some little time tracking down the origin of the deliberate lie, and were intrigued at the source.

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Prof. Naismith’s Letter

Recently, The Not Fake News reached out to Prof. James Naismith concerning what we believed to be deliberate misrepresentations of his work that were made by alternative media. Following is the complete text of his response to our query. We ask anyone who shared the disinformation to share this too:

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Is It Safe To Travel 2: COVID and Air Filtration

OPINION — ANALYSIS

by John Simpson, Editor In Chief

It’s been a month since I posed the question: “Is it safe to fly to Florida?“

It was a few days later that I did the math — very rough math, mind you; I’m no statistician, and The Not Fake News is a long long ways from The New England Journal of Medicine. (On the other hand, toss dice against me at your peril. Wargamers take note.) And, in the intervening weeks, the answer has changed a bit.

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Debunking Bad Science: Masks?

HEADLINE: Official Data Shows Face Masks “Made No Difference”, Says Oxford Professor

Yes, he actually said this, and yes he’s a real Oxford professor, and yes the data is real. The story still isn’t what you probably are starting to think it is.

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