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Three more dead in Philly, and the Inquirer doesn’t care But Larry Krasner and the Inquirer sure do care about cops who are exonerated!

As both of our regular readers know, I check the Philadelphia Police Department’s Current Crime Statistics page on weekday mornings, and the news was pretty depressing. As we noted on Wednesday, the city had crept to one above the same-day homicide total for 2021. But as of 11:59 PM EST on Wednesday, February 23rd, the total had jumped by three to 79 homicides, vis a vis ‘just’ 75 on the same date last year, and 53 in 2020.

Make no mistake here: 2020 was a bloody year, finishing with 499 murders, just one short of the then-record of 500, set during the crack cocaine wars of 1990. But 2021 didn’t just surpass the old record; 562 homicides blew it out of the water.

Wednesday’s killings? There wasn’t a single story on any of them either on the main page or the crime page of The Philadelphia Inquirer’s website, something which was no surprise at all. There were, however, a couple of related stories which caught my attention. In one, “The Inquirer’s look at itself ignores the paper’s history of exposing racial injustice: The sweeping claims in ‘Black City, White Paper’ are overly broad and shamelessly short-sighted, writes Huntly Collins, a reporter who spent 18 years at the newspaper,” a LaSalle University journalism professor and former Inquirer reported responded to the newspaper’s crying 21st century judgement about its 19th and 20th century history. Though he avoided the use of the term #woke[1]From Wikipedia: Woke (/ˈwoʊk/) as a political term of African-American origin refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice. It is derived from … Continue reading, he was clearly referring to them as he made it clear that the paper’s history needed to be viewed through the lens of the circumstances of the times. He noted that perhaps the paper could have hired more minority staff, but also noted that newspapers in general had been shedding journalists’ positions for a couple of decades now, and union contracts specified that, in layoffs, the last hired were the first fired.

The Inquirer’s look at itself also glossed over the economic crisis facing local newspapers as they strive to hire more minority journalists at a time when newspaper jobs are in steep decline. Since 2004, some 1,800 newspapers have folded, including 60 dailies. Nationwide, newspaper employment of editorial staff has plummeted to just 30,000, down a whopping 57 percent from 2008. The Inquirer once employed some 680 reporters, editors and other editorial staff. Today, that number is down to about 200. Even the best laid plans to diversify the staff falter when confronted with economic forces that shrink the size of the pie rather than enlarging it.

Publisher Elizabeth “Lisa” Hughes has basically told readers that the newspaper she runs will not report on things which could lead to a negative image of minority populations, that the newspaper she runs will self-censor the truth in favor of “anti-racism” and social justice.[2]Commenter Lavern Merriweather stated that I must be racist for noting that the Inquirer hides the racial aspect of the news even in the stories that it covers, and that, not being black myself, I … Continue reading The plain truth, the unvarnished truth, is apparently a bad thing.

Then there was this gem:

DA Krasner denounces dismissal of charges against two officers charged with beating man with special needs

Krasner said he sees “a disturbing pattern” of judges dismissing charges against police officers.

by Mensah M Dean | Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner on Tuesday criticized the decision by a judge to dismiss charges against two police officer brothers whom he charged in April with chasing and beating a man with special needs after falsely accusing the man of tampering with cars in their far Northeast neighborhood.

Krasner, who pledged after taking office in 2018 to hold accountable officers who break the law, suggested that the decision by Municipal Court Judge William Austin Meehan Jr. during a preliminary hearing to clear the two brothers — former Police Inspector James Smith and former detective Patrick Smith — was part of a larger pattern of judges going easy on accused police.

“We are seeing a disturbing pattern of criminal cases against police officers getting charges against them thrown out by judges during the preliminary hearing phase, only to be reinstated on appeal. The law applies equally to everyone,” Krasner said. “Philadelphians should ask why some judges are finding no accountability at a preliminary hearing for police when they commit the same crimes that get everyone else held over for trial.”

Krasner, who has frequently clashed with the officers’ labor union, added: “My office will consider all possible avenues for seeking justice in this matter, and to hold accountable the individuals who chased, terrorized, and assaulted a young and innocent man with Asperger syndrome.”

There’s more at the original, but Judge Meehan heard the testimony of the alleged victim, and then dismissed the charges against the tweo former police officers.

“The court dismissed all charges…because the evidence presented by the prosecutor failed to prove that a crime was committed,” said defense attorney Fortunato Perri, who represented James Smith. “Inspector Smith and Detective Smith have dedicated decades of their lives proudly protecting and serving the citizens of Philadelphia. They look forward to continuing those efforts in the future.”

Of course, the District Attorney ought to be familiar with dismissed charges, because that’s what he does very frequently: since District Attorney Krasner took office, the percentage of firearms charges resulting in convictions has dramatically decreased. In Mr Krasner’s first year in office, 2018, 57% of Violations of Uniform Firearm Act only arrests resulted in convictions, with 35% having the charges dismissed. Those trend lines crossed the following year, with a larger percentage of charges dismissed, 47%, than resulting in convictions, 43%, and only got worse in 2020 and 2021, 49%/42%, and 62%/36% respectively. In their attempts to get illegal firearm possessions off the streets, the Philadelphia Police Department increased the number of VUFA arrests each year, and each year Mr Krasner’s office let the (alleged) malefactors off the hook in increasing numbers. Mr Krasner said:

This office believes that reform is necessary to focus on the most serious and most violent crime, so that people can be properly held accountable for doing things that are violent, that are vicious, and that tear apart society. We cannot continue to waste resources and time on things that matter less than the truly terrible crisis that we are facing.

The alleged injuries that the officers’ alleged victim suffered included “a black eye and abrasions on the back of his head, elbows, and knees,” pretty much the type of crimes the District Attorney doesn’t care about prosecuting anyway . . . unless they are committed by a police officer.

So, we have seen 79 homicides in 54 days, 1.4630 per day, ahead of the pace set last year, and at least at the time of writing this article, 10:38 AM EST on Thursday, February 24th, the Inquirer hadn’t even noticed, but was still promoting the softer-than-soft on crime, George Soros-sponsored District Attorney’s story from two days earlier. I have said it before: to the “anti-racist” Philadelphia Inquirer, black lives — and if any of the victims had been white, the paper would have been all over the case — really don’t matter.

References

References
↑1 From Wikipedia:

Woke (/ˈwoʊk/) as a political term of African-American origin refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice. It is derived from the African-American Vernacular English expression “stay woke“, whose grammatical aspect refers to a continuing awareness of these issues.
By the late 2010s, woke had been adopted as a more generic slang term broadly associated with left-wing politics and cultural issues (with the terms woke culture and woke politics also being used). It has been the subject of memes and ironic usage. Its widespread use since 2014 is a result of the Black Lives Matter movement.

I shall confess to sometimes “ironic usage” of the term. To put it bluntly, I think that the ‘woke’ are just boneheadedly stupid.

↑2 Commenter Lavern Merriweather stated that I must be racist for noting that the Inquirer hides the racial aspect of the news even in the stories that it covers, and that, not being black myself, I have no right to comment on the black community in the City of Brotherly Love.
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Los gringos estan locos!

I had to take a screenshot of this tweet, in case Dana Houle deletes it, and I can only say that I am highly disappointed that someone named Dana could be so boneheadedly stupid. You can click on the image to get to the original tweet . . . if it still exists.

Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the Lost Kos, tweeted something similarly stupid.

The bombs are falling, people are trying to flee — at least as of this writing, the roads out of Kyiv are jammed — and the American snowflakes are worried about whether the Ukrainians are wearing masks. https://i0.wp.com/www.thepiratescove.us/wp-content/plugins/wp-monalisa/icons/wpml_wacko.gif?w=612&ssl=1 Los gringos estan locos!

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Bidenflation! The price of a gallon of milk has increased 121.21% since Joe Biden became President

Photo by Dana R. Pico, © January 4, 2022. Free use is granted, with appropriate credit. Click to enlarge.

In 2020, back when Donald Trump was President of the United States, a gallon of milk at the Kroger on Bypass Road in Richmond, Kentucky, was 99¢ per gallon. In 2021, the price had increased to $1.29 per gallon, in the same store.

Then, on January 4, 2022, I took a photo of the increased price, to $1.79 per gallon, and posted it on Twitter. That was a pretty big jump, 38.76%, but I at least hoped that the price would remain stable.

Photo by Dana R. Pico, © February 23, 2022. Free use is granted, with appropriate credit. Click to enlarge.

Well, I might have hoped that, but my hopes have been quickly dashed; a gallon of 1% milk, at the same store, even in the same dairy case, is now $2.19 per gallon, a 22.35% increase in 50 days! Milk has risen, in the same store, 121.21% since the end of 2020, since the end of President Trump’s term, since Joe Biden has moved into the White House.

121.21%!

We had previously noted that the January year-over-year inflation rate was 7.5%, higher than economists’ guesstimates, the highest in 40 years, and higher than the average hourly wage increase of 5.7%.

It’s one thing to see that statistics printed in The Wall Street Journal, and something entirely different to see them, in yellow and red cardboard signs, as you are reaching in to buy a gallon of milk.

The average working stiff might not read The Washington Post, might not pay attention to the statistics as given on finger-blackening newsprint or a flickering monitor screen, but he’s likely to have noticed how everything has gotten more expensive.

On September 16, 2016, Heather Long, then with CNN, published “Problem: Most Americans don’t believe the unemployment rate is 5%,” noting that, despite the ‘official’ U-3 unemployment rate, people believed that unemployment was much higher, around 9% or more, which I pointed out was close to the U-6 unemployment rate at the time. And no matter what the official ‘numbers’ are, when a gallon of milk has gone up 121.21% in just over a year, inflation certainly feels higher than 5.7%

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Killadelphia Ho hum: the killing rate in Philly has crept higher than last year's

Jonathan Akubu, mugshot by Philadelphia Police Department, and is a public record. Click to enlarge.

The good, anti-racist Philadelphia Inquirer would not, of course, publish the mugshot of an accused murderer with a long past criminal record, but Steve Keeley of Fox29 did.

The Inquirer did have the story on his arrest:

The suspected leader of a Philadelphia carjacking ring has been arrested for two murders

Jonathan Akubu, suspected of leading a carjacking operation, has also been charged with committing two shootings and may be connected to dozens of other incidents.

by Chris Palmer and Anna Orso | Tuesday, February 22, 2022

A 28-year-old man who police say led a loosely organized carjacking ring has been charged with committing two murders and two shootings as part of a weeks-long crime rampage — and investigators are probing whether his group is connected to dozens of other crimes.

Jonathan Akubu of Drexel Hill was arrested Saturday in connection with the fatal carjacking of a 60-year-old man killed Feb. 6 in Northeast Philadelphia. He is also charged with killing another man, a 28-year-old car locksmith, less than a week later in the city’s Eastwick section.

Detectives used ballistics and cell phone records to connect Akubu to at least five incidents in the last two months. He was arrested at an apartment in Lansdowne, where police found a stolen handgun and an AK-47-style rifle.

Akubu is so far the only defendant charged in each case. Homicide Capt. Jason Smith said Tuesday that investigators believe his carjacking operation targeted Toyota SUVs and involved at least three other people in their teens or early 20s who are at large.

There’s more at the original, including the fact that Mr Akubu is being held without bail on multiple counts of murder, aggravated assault, conspiracy, robbery, theft, and illegal possession of firearms.

The Inquirer article then gives us several paragraphs detailing Mr Akubu’s alleged crimes, before getting to this:

Akubu has several past arrests, records show, including in Chester County in 2020 for charges that included robbing a car. But nearly all counts were dismissed in municipal court, the records show. It was not immediately clear why. Akubu pleaded guilty to a summary charge of harassment, the records show.

Years before that, Akubu pleaded guilty to committing a 2013 aggravated assault in Southwest Philadelphia. According to charging documents, he fired shots at someone in a car using a gun he was barred from possessing. He was sentenced to 38 to 96 months in jail plus 17 years of probation, court records show, and in 2018 was sent back to jail for violating his probation.

Larry Krasner was the District Attorney in Philadelphia in 2018. Clearly, he shouldn’t have been released, and should have served out the rest of the seventeen year sentence. Unfortunately, the Inquirer doesn’t give us the details. How many of those 38 to 96 months in jail did he actually serve? Obviously not all eight years, or he wouldn’t have been on the street in 2018.

In 2015, Akubu filed a federal lawsuit against the city, saying that a prison guard beat him and bit him on the head while he was handcuffed, an incident that was captured on surveillance video. The city settled with Akubu for $99,999, which was paid in November 2015.

From the Inquirer’s embedded link:

Attorney Guy Sciolla says inmate Jonathan Akubu was being escorted through a common area, he was handcuffed, hands behind his back, when he was overpowered and punched repeatedly by correctional officer James Weisback.

According to prison documents, Officer Weisback claimed Akubu threatened and spit in his face, but Sciolla says there’s no evidence of that.

Sciolla and co-counsel in this case, Patrick Link, say they will also refer this case to the District Attorney for possible criminal action.

Akubu is in prison charged with a shooting. His attorneys say it was domestic in nature and no one was injured. A source says Akubu has accumulated nearly 20 disciplinary infractions while in custody.

Well, of course his attorney is going to minimize Mr Akubu’s actions; that’s what he’s paid to do. How Mr Akubu could afford sharks like Messrs Sciolla and Link was not indicated. “Nearly twenty” disciplinary problems while in prison seems like it would be a testament to Mr Akubu’s character.

District Attorney Krasner could have had Mr Akubu still behind bars when he (allegedly) killed George Briscella, but didn’t. Mr Krasner did not pull the trigger, three times, resulting in Mr Briscella’s death. But Mr Krasner might as well be named an accomplice, given that his actions allowed Mr Akubu to be out on the streets earlier this month, (allegedly) jacking cars shooting people.

In related news, with 76 homicides as of 11:59 PM EST on Tuesday, February 22nd, the City of Brotherly Love has moved one ahead of the killings pace set in 2021’s record-setting year. Nothing to see here, folks. Please, just move along.

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Tulsi goes to CPAC

While I like the concept of the Libertarian Party, supporting maximum freedom and individual rights, I will admit to not having much use for it. The primary function of a political party is to bring like-minded people together to win elections, to get their policies and principles into governing power; that’s the definition given to me by Dr Malcolm Jewell, one of my political science professors at the University of Kentucky, back in the horse-and-buggy days.

And that is where the Libertarian Party fails: whether people like its positions or not, the party fails in its most important function, getting people elected to office. On June 8, 2018, I went to the Libertarian Party’s website, to find their list of Libertarian Party candidates who were actually elected to public office. They claimed a total of 166 elected officials, with 52 of them holding partisan offices. Their highest, at the time, elected officials were three state representatives from New Hampshire, all of whom were elected as Republicans or Democrats, and none of whom were re-elected.

Representative Justin Amash (L-MI) switched to the Libertarian Party, due to his disagreements with President Trump, but he, too, was elected as a Republican. To date, there have been exactly zero candidates running as Libertarians who have been elected President, Senator, United States Representative, Governor, state Senator or state Representatives. For a party which has been around since 1971, that’s a pretty massive failure.

Former Representative Ron Paul, elected as a Republican, was the Libertarian Party candidate for President in 1988. Following that, he won the House seat again in 1996, and served in the House of Representatives until January of 2013. He twice ran for the Republican presidential nomination, in 2008 and 2012, failing both times.

His son, Rand Paul, was elected to represent Kentucky in the United States Senate in 2010, as a Republican, and re-elected in 2016; he is currently running for a third term, and is heavily favored. The Bluegrass State is home to two of the libertarian Republicans, with Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY 4), first elected in 2012. Dr Paul and Mr Massie used the TEA Party movement to help win election.

The electoral history has been simple: lower-case libertarians can win, if they run as Republicans, but running as upper-case Libertarians, the lose, and lose badly.

Now comes former Representative Tulsi Garrard Williams (D-HI 2). A Bernie Sanders supporter in 2016, she ran for the Democratic presidential nomination herself in 2020, but withdrew on March 19, and endorsed Joe Biden after doing poorly. The odious Hillary Clinton later floated rumors that Mrs Williams was going to run as a third-party candidate, to throw the 2020 election to President Trump. Mrs Williams is very much a liberal, but she’s also a libertarian, believing in people’s individual rights.

    Contrarian Dem Tulsi Gabbard To Headline CPAC

    by Paul Bedard, Washington Secrets Columnist | Monday, February 21, 2022 | 9:19 AM EST

    Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a 2020 presidential primary candidate who has been critical of President Joe Biden and liberal lawmakers, will be the headliner at the main CPAC dinner event this week, officials told Secrets Monday.

    Gabbard, the former Hawaii congresswoman, will speak at the annual Ronald Reagan Dinner held by the American Conservative Union’s Conservative Political Action Conference. Glenn Beck is slated to be the keynote.

    Having a popular Democrat speak at the group’s main dinner, to be held Friday, is an “extraordinary event,” said a spokeswoman.

    Gabbard has recently roiled Democratic circles with her criticism of Biden’s handling of the Russia-Ukraine crisis and decision to only consider a black woman for the U.S. Supreme Court. She has also blasted Vice President Kamala Harris as a weak vice president.

    CPAC opens in Orlando Thursday and ends Sunday. Former President Donald Trump and virtually every conservative politician and pundit is expected to speak.

Again, Mrs Williams is no conservative, but her inclusion at CPAC tells us one thing: the GOP has completely co-opted libertarianism, and the future for the Libertarian Party is to stop being stupid, and become part of the Republican Party to which it naturally belongs.

Conservatives will never go along with everything for which the Libertarian Party stands, but there is much we can appreciate. And today’s Democratic Party, with its ‘progressive’ bent, is one which demands conformity over individuality, one which seeks to punish those who do not go along with its social demands and conformity policies. Mrs Williams may support universal health care, and even a guaranteed annual income, but she also supports our First Amendment rights, supports freedom of speech, and of the press, and or religion, of peaceable assembly, and due process of law. She has called out President Biden and his saber-rattling (sanctions-rattling?) against Russia, in a matter in which we cannot stop President Putin from taking. She has criticized his odious vaccine mandates. She was the best candidate the Democrats had, and while Republicans would have been upset that President Trump had lost, we wouldn’t be nearly as upset with Mrs Williams as President as we are with the dummkopf from Delaware and his ‘progressive’ filled administration.

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The left cannot tolerate dissent.

Since the Pennsylvania state Supreme Court invalidated Governor Tom Wolf’s in-school mask mandate, local school boards have been — albeit slowly — relaxing their COVID-19 restrictions, not because the local school boards really want to do so, but because much of the public demand it.

    More Philly-area schools are ending mask mandates, but the question of how and when is dividing communities

    The shifting landscape — in absence of any unified standard — has brought new tension over how to move beyond pandemic restrictions that have shaped the last two years.

    by Maddie Hanna | Sunday, February 20, 2022

    As a group of students walked out of Conestoga High School a little more than a week ago in defiance of mask requirements — banging lockers and shouting “Freedom!” along the way — they set off a social media feud that reflected a broader debate.

    With omicron retreating, and mandates at the state and city level being rolled back, suburban schools that have maintained universal masking in line with public health recommendations now find themselves asking: When, and how, can they move beyond the restrictions that have shaped the last two years?

No, they “maintained universal masking” in line with state government orders; many districts were ending or at least reducing the restrictions last fall, before Governor Wolf stepped in. He had previously said that he would not impose such a mandate, leaving it up to local authorities, but when they didn’t do what he wanted voluntarily, he used a trick to get around the voter-passed constitutional amendments limiting his power. The reporter, Maddie Hanna, knew this; she was one of the three reporters credited with the story noting the Governor’s mask mandate!

    But not everyone agrees on the right approach.

    While a growing number of health-care professionals have called for school mandates to end, the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics have continued to endorse universal masking in schools given still-high transmission levels. (The CDC said last week it’s considering a change to its mask guidance, though it was unclear how that might apply to schools.)

The Inquirer, which editorially favors all of the restrictions, and even more, that have been imposed on the public, illustrated the article with a photo of people holding up signs in favor of universal masking in a Havorford Township school board meeting.

But the most important passage of the story might not have been one Miss Hanna intended, but I spotted:

    In Wallingford-Swarthmore, one mother, believing the district has moved to optional masking too quickly, started crying while describing her fear that parental discord would now be reflected by children; others worried about risks to immunocompromised or disabled students, concerns that have spurred lawsuits.

    In West Chester and Downingtown, residents are petitioning to remove school board directors for ordering masking, while in Tredyffrin/Easttown — where threats following the Conestoga walkout prompted the high school to close for a day — a father was banned from district property after giving a fiery speech in the boys’ wrestling locker room encouraging defiance of the mask mandate: “They cannot defeat you if you stick together. Do not let them f— with your minds.”

Nothing in the current referenced story, or the ones internally linked, stated that this unnamed father advocated violence, or issued or was connected with any threat, but Conestoga High School banned him from school property for a “fiery speech”. But the father was right: if the students stick together, and ditch their masks en masse, they will win . . . and the school board cannot tolerate that.

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If someone was out to destroy transgender acceptance, what would he be doing differently?

We have covered the University of Pennsylvania’s transgender swimmer several times, and the question has always occurred to me: if ‘Lia’ Thomas really, really, really wants to be accepted as a woman, why engage in activities which prove him so radically different from real women?

Lia Thomas wins second Ivy League title with record-setting 200m swim

By Ryan Glasspiegel | Friday, February 18, 2022 | 8:30 PM EST

Getty Images. Click to enlarge.

Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer for University of Pennsylvania, won her second Ivy League title this week with a record-setting effort.

Friday night, Thomas won the conference’s 200-meter freestyle competition with a time of 1:43.12, beating second-place Samantha Shelton by over 2.5 seconds.

Thomas’ finish set a new record at Harvard’s Blodgett Pool, besting the previous mark of 1:43.78, and comes a day after she won the Ivy League’s 500-meter freestyle. Her time of 4:37.32 in Thursday’s event was also a Blodgett Pool record.

Thomas swam for three years at Penn as a male, before transitioning to female.

There’s more at the original.

Will Thomas was, according to the University of Pennsylvania’s athletic department’s swimming and diving 2018-19 team roster, a sophomore member of the men’s team. He was “Second-team All-Ivy in the 500 free, 1,000 free, and 1,650 free after reaching the ‘A’ final of the Ivy League Championships and finishing second overall in each of the events.” The 2019-20 roster lists him as Lia Thomas, and states that he “Competed in four of Penn’s eight regular season events (as a male, and) won the 500 free against Villanova (Nov. 15).” The 2017-18 roster notes that he was “Ivy League Championships qualifier in 500 free (A final), 1000 free (A final), 1650 free (A final).”

Penn, an Ivy League school, erased Mr Thomas portrait from those rosters. For the 2021-22 season, he is now listed as Lia Thomas on the roster, complete with his portrait after ‘transitioning’. His individual biography page no longer lists his top times, or his past accomplishments on the men’s team, and simply notes that “All 2020-21 Ivy League winter sports were canceled on November 12 due to a nationwide outbreak of coronavirus COVID-19.”

Also see: Robert Stacy McCain: Exposing Gender, Inc.

Bruce Jenner, the 1976 Olympic Decathalon winner who thinks that he’s a woman now, said:

I’ve said from the beginning, biological boys should not be playing in women’s sports. We need to protect women’s sports.

Obviously this is about Lia Thomas who has brought a lot of attention to this issue. First of all, I respect her decision to live her life authentically. 100 percent. But, that also comes with responsibility and some integrity. I don’t know why she’s doing this. For two reasons: 1. It’s not good for the trans community. We have a lot of issues in the trans community that are very difficult and very challenging. We have a suicide rate that’s nine times higher than the general public.

Her hands are bigger. She can swim faster. That’s a known. All of this is woke world that we’re living in right now is not working. I feel sorry for the other athletes that are out there, especially at Penn or anyone she’s competing against, because in the woke world you have to say, ‘Oh my gosh, this is great.’ No it’s not.

I’ve asked it before: how does Mr Thomas, who grew up male, who competed athletically with men, doing well and occasionally winning at the collegiate level, justify in his own mind beating a bunch of real girls? How does Mr Thomas, in his tremendous concern to be accepted as a woman and not a male, justify competing in events which only serve to point out the differences between him and biological women? And now a third question has come to my mind: if someone was actively trying to sabotage the concept that #TransgenderWomenAreWomen, what would he be doing differently from what Mr Thomas is doing right now?

In the Bluegrass State, the General Assembly is working on legislation which would ban biological boys from competing as girls in sports, and other states have been doing similar things. Naturally, what my best friend used to call the Lexington Herald-Liberal gave activists OpEd space to complain about the bill. These legislative attempts might still exist had the world never heard of ‘Lia’ Thomas, but it is unquestionable that his actions have increased the pressure for them.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, which has been beating the drum for the acceptance of Mr Thomas as a legitimate women’s sports contender, reported on his latest victory:

Penn’s Lia Thomas wins third title, breaks another pool record in final day of Ivy swim championship

Penn secured itself as the top freestyle team in the league, as just before Thomas’ feat, junior teammate Catherine Buroker also notched a second Ivy League title in the 1,650-yard freestyle.

by Ellie Rushing | Saturday, February 19, 2022 | 8:41 PM EST

BOSTON ― For the third night in a row, University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas stood atop the medal stand and was named an Ivy League champion.

And in as many days, she broke a third Harvard University Blodgett Pool record, and a second Ivy League meet record in a thrilling 100-yard freestyle race.

It was the closing day of the Ivy League championship, and Thomas was seeded second in the 100 freestyle to Yale University’s Iszac Henig. In the preliminaries, Henig beat Thomas by about a second and established a Blodgett pool record.

Further down:

That performance including Penn securing itself — by far — as the top freestyle team in the Ivy League.

“There’s no secret, it’s just work,” (junior Catherine Buroker) said of that success.

Well, hard work, and having a biological male compete against real women, anyway.

That’s the part which will never go away: Yes, the University of Pennsylvania won the Ivy league Championship in women’s swimming, but everyone will know that Penn’s team might not have done so were Mr Thomas not competing, and many will assume that Penn just would not have won without him competing. As sixteen members of the team noted, in an unsigned letter, Mr Thomas went from being ranked “#462 as a male to #1 as a female”.

Was there ever any more convincing evidence that Mr Thomas is simply different from real women, in ways that actually matter when it comes to competitive sport?

What Will Thomas, in his selfishness, has done is to bring Penn a championship that will forever be questionable in people’s minds, and to convince people who were on the fence about transgender participation in women’s sports that no, it just isn’t fair. What more damage could he have done if he had consciously tried?

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Philadelphia 12-year-old charged with murder Why do we have to rely on the New York Post to tell us what The Philadelphia Inquirer will not?

This site has noted many times previously the Lexington Herald-Leader’s refusal to print mugshots of people accused of crimes, even violent crimes, if they are black. The Philadelphia Inquirer takes it further, and, as far as I can tell, doesn’t print mugshots at all, which means that, in the case of 16-year-old Qiyam Muhammad, readers of the Inquirer don’t know what he looks like, and cannot help the Philadelphia Police Department find young Mr Muhammad, who, as of Friday morning, was still on the lam.

We shouldn’t have to go to the New York Post for the information, but we do:

    Teens and boy, 12, charged with murder in Philadelphia carjacking

    By Joshua Rhett Miller | Friday, February 18, 2022 | 10:22 AM EST | Updated 10:46 AM EST

    John Nusslien. Photo by Philadelphia Police Department, and is a public record. Click to enlarge.

    A 12-year-old boy and two teens are facing murder charges in the savage beating death of an elderly man during a carjacking in Philadelphia, authorities said.

    The trio of young suspects are accused of attacking Chung Yan Chin, 70, during a violent carjacking in the city’s Mayfair section on Dec. 2, police said.

    Prosecutors allege the youngsters walked up to Chin and knocked him to the ground as they started punching and kicking him to the face, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

    Police said “unknown offenders” then took off with Chin’s Toyota Camry.

    Chin was rushed to a hospital in critical condition with a brain injury and facial fractures, court documents show. He died from his wounds weeks later on Dec. 21.

    “Justice has to be done,” Mayfair resident Amy Ford told WPVI. “It is just not fair. It is sickening. It is terrible. It is too close to home.”

    Qiyam Muhammad. Photo by Philadelphia Police Department, and is a public record. Click to enlarge.

    John Nusslein, 18, of Northeast Philadelphia, was charged last month in Chin’s slaying, while an arrest warrant has been issued for Qiyam Muhammad, 16, police told The Post.

    The 12-year-old boy, who has been charged with murder as an adult, is not being identified by The Post due to his age.

    Both Nusslein and the 12-year-old are being held without bail and attorneys representing them did not return calls seeking comment, the Inquirer reported.

Note that the Philadelphia Police Department had a mugshot of Qiyam Muhammad on hand, which tells us the obvious: young Mr Muhammad had been arrested previously.

Will District Attorney Larry Krasner really continue to charge the 12-year-old as an adult? I would guess not, because Mr Krasner is both soft-hearted and soft-headed. And it is always possible that the presiding judge will refuse to accept an adult charge for a 12-year-old. Would the courts accept a charge which could keep a 12-year-old locked up for the rest of his miserable life? Any competent attorney hired by the boy’s parents — assuming that he has any — or appointed by the court, would move to transfer the charges to the juvenile justice system.

Murder is not normally an entry-level crime, so I have to wonder: is this the 12-year-old’s first (alleged) crime? He was, again, allegedly, running with an 18-year-old and a 16-year-old, obviously out to commit a violent crime, even if they never intended to kill the victim. Normally, boys the ages of Messrs Muhammad and Nusslien don’t run gang with 12-year-olds.

There’s more to this story than we have been told.

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When a credentialed media article gives numbers, it’s always wisest to check the math

Screen capture from the Weather Channel, February 12, 2022, showing a woman getting the charging cord for her car, in the weeds, while wearing flip flops for shoes. Note the dilapidated building, complete with broken window, to which the charger is attached. Video provided to Weather Channel by Plug In America.

As our regular readers — both of them! — know, I have not been a fan of the Brandon Biden Administration’s plans to mandate that all new vehicles sold in the United States be zero-emission by 2035. The technology is not ready, and the problems many people will have in charging their plug-in electric cars will be enormous. Those who do not have a garage or secure parking area in which they can install at home charging units will have to depend on commercial chargers, which are very time consuming — it can take an hour or more to charge an electric vehicle, as opposed to five minutes to fill up your tank with gasoline — and more expensive than gasoline.

There are, however, some applications in which plug-in electric vehicles could be practical. William Teach noted that Biden Administration is planning to replace the entire federal government’s 600,000-strong fleet of vehicles with plug-in electrics by 2035. If we’re talking about electric vehicles which will be parked at federal facilities, there will doubtlessly be private contractors being paid to install overnight charging stations for them. Assuming that they are all driven less than range, and all parked back at the fed garage/parking lot, they can at least be practical.

Now comes the School District of Philadelphia:

    Electric school buses are coming to the Philly School District, which plans to replace its diesel fleet in 10 years

    Electric buses have a higher price tag than diesel buses — $365,000 per bus compared to $150,000. But they save money in the long run.

    by Kristen A Graham | Friday, February 18, 2022

    Electric school buses will soon begin rolling on city streets as the Philadelphia School District starts the process of greening its transportation fleet.

    The school system has purchased five electric buses and ordered six more. The 11 electric buses, which will begin carrying students this spring and summer, represent less than 1% of the district’s fleet of buses.

    “We understand the impact that gas emissions has on student health and we’re committed to leading the way to reducing emissions to positively impact health and wellness in our communities,” Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said Friday at a news conference at the district’s North Broad Street garage. . . . .

    Electric buses have a higher price tag than diesel buses — $365,000 per bus compared with $150,000. But they save money in the long run, said Teresa Flemming, executive director of transportation services. She estimated each will save the district about $5,000 annually. Once the entire fleet is electric, the district will save between $1 million and $1.5 million annually on fuel costs, officials estimate.

There’s more at the original.

The guesstimated fuel savings, of course, are based on guesstimates as to how much electricity will cost. But if the electric buses cost $365,000, rather than $150,000 for diesel buses, and the annual savings from operating the buses are $5,000 per bus, it would take 43 years per bus to break even. Does the School District of Philadelphia keep its buses for an average of 43 years?

Kristen Graham, the article author, didn’t do that very simple math. That’s not exactly good journalism.