Gifted Canadian songwriter, Leonard Cohen, recorded an album in 1984 he titled, “Various Positions.” One track from the album did not do very well for Cohen yet found much popular and critical success after being covered by other artists, most notably by Jeff Buckley who recorded a version of the song in 1994 after hearing a John Cale adaptation. Over 300 recordings of various revision have been made of Leonard Cohen’s song, Hallelujah.
Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord That David played, and it pleased the Lord But you don’t really care for music, do ya? It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth The minor fall, the major lift The baffled king composing “Hallelujah”
Cohen authored around 80 verses when composing Hallelujah and was known to sing differing arrangements, using some of the unrecorded prose, during live performances. Hallelujah is said to describe an argument with God from the perspective of somebody who feels as though they always disappoint other people. Deep and thought provoking, not overly uplifting; apart from a soulfully magnificent melody. Christians have set their own lyrics to Hallelujah’s rising, powerful sound and emotive cry of, “Hallelujah!” creating beautiful spiritual song.
Which brings us from North America to the isles of the United Kingdom.
In Northern Ireland rests a special school called Killard House. Established 1958, Killard House moved in 2009 from it’s original family home location in Newtownards into their present school facility located along Cannyreagh Road in the bay town of Donaghadee, Ireland. The student body of over 200 pupils range in age from 3-19; some have speech and/or hearing challenges that make learning difficult, others have found diagnoses all along the autism spectrum. Like most schools, Killard House has a full array of programmes and activities for the children to enjoy, including a cherubic school choir performing songs of the season for a Christmas Concert. It’s a beautiful holiday experience for many Christian families, listening to the pure, sweet voices of uniformly garbed children raised in unison and praise. The Killard House School Choir offers all of the usual pleasures found at a Christmas concert performed by children, bringing a wee bit more fidgeting about than might be observed during chorale presentations enjoyed in most local schools and churches. This Irish school choir has more than restlessness to distinguish them from other children’s singing groups, there is also a tender treasure in their class named, Kaylee Rogers.
Little Kaylee is a primarily non-verbal autistic child, also diagnosed with ADHD. A shy child, she barely spoke a word her whole life, all thoughts and feelings trapped inside her head, unable to find a way out using verbal expression. Until, she was taught how to sing. This amazing young girl is able to enunciate thought and phrase when same is set to song. She is also able to learn and memorise the words to songs and sing her little heart and soul out! Freedom from entrapment! Kaylee’s spirit soars when she sings, and she brings every listener with her, lifting hearts with her most gracious gift of song.
A few years ago, Killard House had their Christmas concert professionally filmed and produced so as to create a timeless keepsake for students and their friends and families. After going public with the video on YouTube, the school could no longer keep their secret to themselves. We all have opportunity to enjoy a joyous moment with then, ten-year-old Kaylee Rogers and the Killard House School Choir as these precious children celebrate God’s great gift to mankind that we call, Christmas.
No matter how insistently pushed, truth almost always prevails over hogwash. Seeing as how the poorly constructed COVID Cooties Communism 101 Carnival tent was pitched on a foundation of miasma, it is not surprising to see such breathless illusion begin to seriously sag under reality’s inexorable force. There have been too many contradictions, there is too much anecdotal and medical evidence . . . Fauci et al do not have poles and stakes strong enough to prop the thing back upright. Since it seems like the ability to say, “I was wrong,” disappears from people’s language skillsets after a certain number of years in Washington, DC, looks like it is on We, the People, to huff and puff and blow this shyster show the rest of the way down.
SIDE RAMBLE – Assigning whole mindsets to people with whom one disagrees, even a tiny bit, has become too commonplace when it was once the favorite utility of intolerant extremists. Though I view much of what has been going on for the past year and a half or so as an unscientific exercise in fear manipulation, I am neither a COVID denier nor anti-vaccines. Yes, COVID-19 is a real disease that can sometimes be very severe and/or fatal for people with now known risk factors. (Perhaps the extremity in illness is due to improper treatment and withheld therapeutics, time will tell.) Yes, the ability to inoculate ourselves against serious disease is an amazing tool in our healthcare arsenal, after a vaccine has been proven safe and effective. Differing opinions on those two topics is decidedly expected, that’s a good thing. Our freedom of speech is an indulgent luxury being exploited rather than respected of late; a blessing no longer recognised as such by some seeking to destroy the system that provided them both bully pulpit and microphone. Using our rights to explore differences rather than destroy has an intriguing side effect, it is how we learn. While self-segregation is a natural happenstance – we are comfortable with our own, however a person chooses to define their own – it can evolve into something deadly to growth and understanding if one never leaves the Sameness. Defining others, dismissing ideas and values not ours with a pre-glued label reading TRASH, those are excellent traits to indulge if one enjoys staying perfectly still, existing in a state of pure ignorance. (In this ‘Merican’s often other than humble opinion, of course.) – END RAMBLE
Vaccination Of all the words and phrases being twisted and bastardised from their original definitions into Idiocy-ese, vaccination sobs alongside marriage as their defining characteristics are raped and reutilised to fit Party Messaging. A quick re-introduction to the original vaccine seems respectable. The New Lexicon Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language (1972 edition, 1987 printing) defines vaccine as:
n. a preparation consisting of the living viruses of cowpox, used in vaccination || a preparation of microorganisms, either dead, or virulent and living, or attenuated and living, that are administered so as to produce (or increase) immunity to a particular disease. adj. of or pertaining to vaccinia or vaccination.
The first formal vaccine against human disease was formulated to wipe out smallpox, a devastating global disease that had been killing off mankind for thousands of years. New vaccination against disease technology was developed using cowpox, a disease found in cattle that can be transmitted to human caretakers. British physician Edward Jenner determined there were enough similarities between cowpox and smallpox infections to suggest a person who’d recovered from a mild case of cowpox would be protected from the far more deadly disease caused by Variola virus, smallpox. He was correct. On May 14, 1796, Jenner injected a serum containing fluids the doctor had collected from a cowpox-infected woman’s skin lesion into an eight-year-old boy. After recovering from a few days of light illness with cowpox, James Phipps was successfully inoculated against potentially dying from, “the scourge of mankind.”
While vaccine research has evolved beyond sickening a person with one disease to combat it’s cousin, we still use inoculations containing live, attenuated (which basically means greatly weakened) viruses that are designed to spark our immune systems into a protective stance without causing grave illness. Vaccines for measles, mumps, chicken pox and rubella are examples of live, attenuated virus vaccines. Yet, times and definitions, they are a-changing.
noun 1: a preparation that is administered (as by injection) to stimulate the body’s immune response against a specific infectious agent or disease: such as a: an antigenic preparation of a typically inactivated or attenuated (see ATTENUATED sense 2) pathogenic agent (such as a bacterium or virus) or one of its components or products (such as a protein or toxin) b: a preparation of genetic material (such as a strand of synthesized messenger RNA) that is used by the cells of the body to produce an antigenic substance (such as a fragment of virus spike protein) 2: a preparation or immunotherapy that is used to stimulate the body’s immune response against noninfectious substances, agents, or diseases
Huh? Certainly, the New Lexicon Webster’s Dictionary definition is a bit dated since we’ve learned how to use other live viruses as immune system stimulants, still, it’s interesting to see how a simple, clear definition has evolved into hyper technical speak, suggesting the concept of vaccination is not to be entertained by uneducated minds. Merriam-Webster.com doesn’t even offer the second definition for vaccine that has popped up in this ever changing world of ours: “a software program that helps to protect against computer viruses, as by detecting them and warning the user.” Thank you, Dictionary.com, for offering up another reasonable definition for an easily grasped concept, in plain English.
The two-dose vaccinations for COVID-19 are not akin to Dr. Jenner’s concoction that ultimately ended smallpox. Rather than using the whole virus, mRNA vaccination formulas utilise messenger RNA to introduce our immune system to the spike proteins on the SARS-CoV-2 molecule so our body will recognise same as hostile and go into protective/kill mode. Like with attenuated virus vaccines, the mRNA formula sparks our immune system, using a sightline different from the usual angle. Some professionals say mRNA vaccines are not true vaccines as they do not stop the spread of illness. At all.
A bug or two have shown up seven months or so into the COVID-19 vaccination push, as is often the way with new, unproven technology. (Downsides, a common “uh oh” issue readily avoided when products are properly tested before finding a shelf in the retail marketplace.) One bug – it stops working. Six or seven months post-injection, some vaccines lose 60% of their original efficacy.
Another bug – there is good reason to believe the irresponsible vaccination rush has actually made SARS-CoV-2 more aggressive. We are now wrestling with an animal previously rumoured to exist in this Cooties “Crisis” – the asymptomatic carrier. Before the vaccine there were no real asymptomatic carriers, only carriers experiencing mild symptoms or not yet displaying any at the time of testing. Now, they are everywhere.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the disease COVID-19 is able to take up residence in a vaccinated body without causing the host any illness, replicating with the greatest of ease. It is undeniable, scientifically, that vaccinated people are carrying heavy loads of virus and exhaling it all over the place, causing more manmade problems. If unvaccinated, people infected with SARS-CoV-2 will display symptoms, helping them self-diagnose, providing a warning system for others, and allowing the infected person to enjoy the freedom of naturally derived antibody immunity once recovered. People do recover from COVID-19, approximately 98.2% of diagnosed patients in the USA live to tell their tale.
Because of this poor public protection effect that helps the virus flourish, hurriedly packaged and mandated boosters will be rolling out every six months until people realise that a living organism must be accurately identified and successfully killed, not wounded, if one wishes to claim the title, Conqueror. Waning protection, breakthrough cases at a rate higher than expected and declared . . . more and more evidence makes it clear that, even if you’ve been vaccinated with one of the mRNA formulas, you can still make others sick and are able to fall ill, yourself. Even die. Who is it in all of those hospital beds that are sick with COVID-19 these days, anyway?
Hospitalisations Alarming, headlines screaming things like, “99% of hospitalised COVID patients are unvaccinated.” Is that true? Following are excerpts from a piece broadcast and published 7 September 2021 by WBAL, a Baltimore news outlet:
“It’s scary, very scary. You think you’re safe, but you’re not,” said Deborah Hernandez, of Baltimore County.
Hernandez got her second dose of the Moderna vaccine in the beginning of February. Seven months later, she got COVID-19. Hernandez was at the Baltimore Convention Center Field Hospital on Tuesday for a two-hour infusion with monoclonal antibodies.
Over the past three months in Anne Arundel County, about 30% of the people hospitalized with COVID-19 are fully vaccinated.
There’s a similar timeframe and trend in neighboring Howard County, where health officials said roughly 30% to 40% of people hospitalized with COVID-19 are fully vaccinated.
“In that group, we’re finding that it tends to skew older and that it tends to be people with other conditions as well,” [Anne Arundel County Health Officer Dr. Nilesh] Kalyanaraman said.
For those wondering what’s the point of getting the vaccine if they can still get COVID-19 and get sick enough to need an infusion treatment, the experts weighed in.
“It’s critical to get your vaccine to decrease your chance of getting hospitalized, and also it turns out, long-COVID, those lingering symptoms, are much less likely to happen in the vaccinated as well, so there are a lot of good reasons to get vaccinated,” Kalyanaraman said.”
Huh. Up to 40% of the COVID Cooties patients taking up space in Howard County, MD hospitals are fully vaccinated. Fully. That means it has been at least two weeks since their second shot. That’s a lot of very sick, fully vaccinated people.
Oh oh yes, Long COVID . . . buzz buzz. Sensationalism must be a job requirement for public health officials. First, it was death numbers monopolising all MSM COVID coverage. When those most at risk of dying from COVID-19 had either already perished or were protecting themselves, the breathless death watch turned to outrage over case numbers. The case numbers begin to drop, so, here comes Delta and her aggressive, socially transferred ways. This mutant kills kids, the MSM folks are telling us. An age demographic least likely to suffer from a severe or fatal case of COVID-19, until now. If we embrace the idea that Delta is more lethal to children than other COVID variants, that would be testimony that we ought to have let the little buggers get sick last year. Antibodies generated in a child who recovered from a COVID-19 infection early in the outbreak would make him or her far less likely to fall to Delta or any other anthropomorphic virus change, naturally.
COVID-19 is a real disease, sometimes deadly. Vaccines are excellent tools for humanity to use in the battle against potentially lethal diseases. When proven to be safe and effective.
The Variola virus responsible for infecting humankind with the disease smallpox is prehistoric in age. Lesions have been found on Egyptian mummies dated 1570 to 1085 BC/BCE. Asian cultures identified the disease circa 1100 BC/BCE before it finally made its way to Europe, the West Indies, Africa, and the Americas. Western European records of outbreaks show a 30-35% mortality rate. Smallpox is a horrific disease we are blessed to have contained.
Though there is evidence that ancient healers treated their new smallpox patients using the biological product of recovered smallpox patients – scabs and other bits of previously stricken patient were used as therapeutics to heal newly infected smallpox patients (treating infection with antibodies, before they were “discovered”,) a safe, effective vaccine was not to be found until the late 18th century. In the USA, a serious smallpox outbreak throughout New England spurred Boston to issue the first vaccine mandate for American citizens in 1902 – over a century after James Phipps had been inoculated by Dr. Jennings. Twenty years after this local mandate, a U.S. Supreme Court’s 1922 decision upheld mandatory vaccination against smallpox for schoolchildren requirements. Nearly 200 years after vaccine discovery, in May 1980, the World Health Organisation formally declared smallpox eradicated from all of the world’s populations.
COVID-19 vaccine formulas are less than a year old, most utilise technology that is less than 30 years old (the mRNA transfer system was patented in 1993,) none have gone through the usual rigorous and detailed testing processes determined necessary to ensure the safety and efficacy of pharmaceuticals, and, as is legally required by the U.S. Federal government to receive approval for general distribution. Yet, this same government is now insisting, mandating, that a brand new and barely tested drug be injected into U.S. citizens. A drug designed to thwart the spread of a disease with a 1.8% mortality rate, if infected. And, these folks who are unable to admit that maybe this vaccine is not what so many had hoped for, expect to kick COVID to the curb in a manner of months. We’re told it can happen, if all of us “volunteer” to be part of a long term study. More lies, more irresponsible medicine.
Ponders beyond virus origin that can keep me up at night, because they deserve reasonable answers . . .
If mRNA vaccines are so easily developed to fight a coronavirus, why wasn’t one developed to stop the first SARS (Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in 2002-2004? It was known technology, then. Why wasn’t a mRNA vaccine developed to stop the MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic when first identified in 2012? Why did SARS-CoV-2 shoot around the world so fast when SARS and MERS were pretty well contained? How about ebola? That mess can kill you DAYS after being infected, yet, no vaccine. One can live a good, long life if infected with HIV, though. Is this blatant elitism, Westerners and their interests matter while the rest of the world does not? Or, is COVID danger hype a huge con the fearful willingly fell for because they are afraid of being sick and dying? You decide, and share why and how you came to that conclusion, if you’d like. Let’s be people of motion, share our Life lessons and stop paying attention to those too afraid of death to actually have lived and learned a few.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. – Edmund Burke, 1770
Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. – John Stuart Mill, 1867
It has been said that for evil men to accomplish their purpose it is only necessary that good men should do nothing. – Rev. Charles F. Aked, 1916
Swarms of inexpensive drones, please meet your archnemesis – THOR
Task & Purpose photo illustration / Air Force digital image
A new Air Force weapon will wipe out drone swarms with the push of a button
One of the biggest threats to U.S. troops abroad isn’t a stealth fighter, a nuclear missile, or a massive cyber attack. It’s a swarm of cheap drones that can overwhelm the expensive defense systems troops have on hand now.
“I’m talking about the [drone] you can go out and buy at Costco right now in the United States for a thousand dollars, four quad, rotorcraft or something like that that can be launched and flown,” Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command said last summer. “And with very simple modifications, it can be made into something that can drop a weapon like a hand grenade or something else.”
In sufficient numbers, those drones can spy on friendly bases, destroy infrastructure and attack personnel, explained the Air Force Research Laboratory in a recent video. How? Because machine guns don’t have the range or accuracy to destroy the nimble fliers; anti-aircraft missiles are too expensive to use on the cheap devices; and most military bases don’t have enough missiles to destroy an entire swarm.
Enter Thor, the Norse god of Thunder, who serves as the namesake to one of the Air Force’s newest weapons. While the Air Force’s Tactical High Power Operational Responder (THOR) may not look like a hero, it could save the day for American troops if their far-flung combat outposts are ever attacked by hundreds of cheap kamikaze-style enemy drones.
THOR isn’t much to look at: the weapon consists of a big satellite dish mounted on top of a 20-foot long shipping crate. But simplicity is a virtue, as the weapon can be transported easily aboard a C-130 transport plane and set up within three hours by a crew of two, according to the Air Force Research laboratory, which is leading the development of THOR.
Once THOR is set up, it can detect an incoming threat and silently shoot a beam of energy to knock out drones in a wide target area, exactly like what you might find in a drone swarm. The beam is a high-powered microwave that instantly triggers a counter-electronic effect in the targeted drone. AFRL boasted that the system took out hundreds of drones in real-world tests. That real world setting may have been somewhere in Africa, where the Air Force tested out THOR starting in December.
“I’ve watched it in action and it’s really quite impressive,” said Air Force chief scientist Richard Joseph at the time.
The State of New Hampshire and some of its residents have schooled “River Dave” Lidstone in most brutal fashion: A good man living off the grid on other people’s property may reap bad rewards, if government finds out
David Lidstone, 81, who for nearly three decades has lived in the woods of Canterbury, N.H. along the Merrimack River in a shack, growing his own food and cutting his firewood. JODIE GEDEON VIA AP
Fire burns cabin of New Hampshire man jailed after nearly 3 decades in the woods
For almost three decades, 81-year-old David Lidstone has lived in the woods of New Hampshire along the Merrimack River in a small cabin adorned with solar panels. He has grown his own food, cut his own firewood, and tended to his pets and chickens.
But his off-the-grid existence has been challenged in court by a property owner who says he’s been squatting for all those years. And to make Lidstone’s matters worse, his cabin was burned to the ground Wednesday afternoon in a blaze that is being investigated by local authorities.
Lidstone, or “River Dave” as he’s known by boaters and kayakers, was jailed July 15 on a civil contempt sanction. He was told he’d be released if he agreed to leave the cabin, but he has stayed put.
“You came with your guns, you arrested me, brought me in here, you’ve got all my possessions. You keep ’em,” Lidstone told a judge in a court appearance Wednesday morning. “I’ll sit here with your uniform on until I rot, sir.”
A female driver in Los Angeles has shown us there is no need to change one’s plans for the day after causing an automobile accident, even if the accident was running over and killing a 91-year old woman
Up to $50,000 reward offered by LAPD for info on the driver of this vehicle
Fatal Hit-and-Run NR21202
Los Angeles: The Los Angeles Police Department’s South Traffic Division detectives are asking for the public’s help in providing any information that would lead to the identification of a hit-and-run driver involved in a traffic collision that resulted in the death of a pedestrian.
On August 2, 2021 at 7:00 a.m., an elderly woman, approximately 91-years-old, was struck while walking across an alley on Ellendale Place just south of Adams Blvd. The vehicle was traveling westbound in the alley backing unsafely when the suspect vehicle collided with a pedestrian that was walking westbound in the alley.
The driver exited the vehicle and observed the pedestrian laying on the roadway. The driver moved the vehicle out of the roadway, stood around her vehicle for approximately three minutes, then returned to her vehicle and left the location failing to render aid.
The Los Angeles Fire Department responded and transported the victim to California Hospital where she died from her injuries.
The Offspring drum kit has a revolving stool and it looks as though it’s been set aspin, again. Pete Parada has been beating drums for the rock band since 2007; following Atom Willard’s four year stint that followed Ron Welty’s 16 year occupation after Ron replaced original drummer for The Offspring, James Lilja. Now, it looks as though a new rhythm maker will be motoring the band through their hits as The Offspring sets off on a ten month world tour.
Due to pre-existing health experiences, Parada has decided to not get the COVID-19 jab(s). This choice has rendered him somewhat unemployed as the music industry has decided unvaccinated people present a health risk for the vaccinated people around them. He’s still part of the band, he just will not be on stage as the drummer for The Offspring when they get things kicked off in Los Angeles this weekend; or during any leg of the tour, as things stand today.
Parada explains why he will not be performing with the band in a succinct, clear thread of 17 twitter posts free of negativity, blame, victim whinging and other unnecessary accompaniment. His words offer sound sense offered from a space of personal experience and present a serious caution. The cynic in me does wonder if there is not a wee bit of Social Justice Warrioring going on . . . just a wee bit. As specters of BIPOC vaccine hesitant citizens continue to obnoxiously evidence themselves amongst the contrived miasma of under-enlightened, selfish, pigheaded Deplorables being projected as the nations only vaccine resisters, Parada’s support for people who have chosen to not be injected with the proffered COVID-19 vaccine(s) can wax a bit “woke.”
In Pete Parada’s words as tweeted, presented with my formatting, including added emphasis and grandiose titling:
“Why the COVID-19 shot is not for everyone, and ought not be expected to be, with a polite nod toward the grand idea of minding one’s own business while still offering support when able.”
I’ve got some unfortunate and difficult news to share. I know many of my close friends and family would’ve preferred to hear this privately first – and I apologize for the public nature of my disclosure, but I don’t know how to have this conversation multiple times.
Given my personal medical history and the side-effect profile of these jabs, my doctor has advised me not to get a shot at this time.
I caught the virus over a year ago, it was mild for me – so I am confident I’d be able to handle it again, but I’m not so certain I’d survive another post-vaccination round of Guillain-Barré Syndrome, which dates back to my childhood and has evolved to be progressively worse over my lifetime. Unfortunately for me, (and my family – who is hoping to keep me around a bit longer) the risks far outweigh the benefits.
Since I am unable to comply with what is increasingly becoming an industry mandate – it has recently been decided that I am unsafe to be around, in the studio, and on tour. I mention this because you won’t be seeing me at these upcoming shows. I also want to share my story so that anyone else experiencing the agony and isolation of getting left behind right now – knows they’re not entirely alone.
I have no negative feelings towards my band. They’re doing what they believe is best for them, while I am doing the same. Wishing the entire Offspring family all the best as they get back at it! I’m heartbroken not to be seeing my road community, and I will miss connecting with the fans more than I can express in words.
While my reason for not getting this jab is medical, I want to make sure I’m not carving out a space that is only big enough for me. I need to state, unequivocally, that I support informed consent – which necessitates choice unburdened by coercion. I do not find it ethical or wise to allow those with the most power (government, corporations, organizations, employers) to dictate medical procedures to those with the least power.
There are countless folks (like me) for whom these shots carry a greater risk than the virus. Most of us don’t publicly share a private decision we made in careful consideration with our doctors. We know it’s not an easy conversation to unfold.
If it looks like half the population is having a shockingly different reaction to these jabs than was expected – it’s probably because their life experiences have actually been shockingly different, and their reasons range from a conscientious risk/benefit analysis, to the financial inability to take time off work/lack of health care in the event of potential side-effects, to an understandable distrust in a system that has never prioritized the health or well-being of their communities.
I hope we can learn to make room for all the perspectives and fears that are happening currently. Let’s avoid the unfortunate tendency to dominate, dehumanize and shout down at each other. The hesitant population is not a monolithic group. All voices deserve to be heard.
In the meantime, I’m in the midst of launching a project and releasing some music with my daughter, so please stay tuned for all of that. I deeply appreciate your understanding and support as my family and I find a new way forward.
Sending love to everyone who has been impacted by this pandemic, in all the ways lives have been lost and altered.
Pete Parada @PeteParada 2-Aug 12:03 PM · , 2021·Twitter Web App
Good luck on the new family venture, Pete, and thanks for the heaping helping of good, old-fashioned common sense.
In 1983, Dr. Kary Mullis (December 28, 1944 – August 7, 2019) developed a replication method for DNA sequencing called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) while working at Cletus Corporation. The Nobel Prize winning biochemist’s discovery changed the way biomedical research, criminal forensics laboratories, and all other fields of DNA study, process and explore DNA. Having the ability to rapidly create and expand millions of DNA sequence duplications using a very small master copy sample allowed a variety of genetic research scientists to access the exact same data, testing and analysing duplicated DNA sequences in their own laboratory settings. PCR was a significant game changer in the world of DNA processing, it is not just a helpful tool. Those outside of the world of DNA studies have grown familiar with the term, PCR, as it pertains to testing for COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
The inventor of PCR was a bit of a maverick, an eccentric genius – a real whack job according to some. Fiction writer, astrologist and one-time marketer of jewelry imbued with celebrity DNA, Mullis was a Carolina boy by birth, California surfer by choice. His higher education includes earning a BS in Chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and being awarded a PhD in Biochemistry by University of California, Berkeley. While at Berkeley, Mullis manufactured his own hallucinogenic drugs. He has openly admitted to using LSD and other psychoactive substances throughout the 60’s and 70’s, claiming he’d learned more by tripping than he was ever taught at Berkeley. Mullis has attributed the PCR method discovery to LSD, attributing part of the process as having come to him while he was under the influence.
After Mullis’ death from pneumonia in 2019, Coby McDonald penned an Opinion piece for the UC Alumni magazine entitled,Intolerable Genius: Berkeley’s Most Controversial Nobel Laureate. A talented, highly intelligent man who was also disruptive, strong-minded, challenging, determined, irreverent (other than ordaining a buddy to be a Minister of Life so he could officiate at his second wife’s wedding) and impossible to contain is the impression one gets of Kary Mullis from McDonald’s article. He most decidedly upset the Establishment apple cart.
As Mullis’ professional life moved away from managing a bakery during the post-grad years toward profound discovery into the role of respected consult scientist, Mullis found there was not a lot of data to support statements being presented as scientifically supported fact. He became skeptical about the ozone hole theory while developing a UV sensitive ink for Xytronyx. During a 1994 grant writing process necessary to appeal for research funds from NIH, Kary Mullis was surprised to see there were no peer-reviewed studies at the time showing HIV caused the disease, AIDS. Manmade driven climate change assertions were also relying on shaky footings while being presented as standing on solid, science-based foundation, he asserted.
Mullis mourned the loss of pure scientific discovery, publicly and often. Research had moved away from pure impersonal, empirical discovery and into a bureaucratic chasm of agenda support, according to Dr. Mullis. Rather than seeking truth, research studies had morphed into missions funded by a handful of underinformed, unqualified entities. Missions with clearly defined objectives, limited in scope to proving or disproving a pre-defined theory, only. Not all theories were deemed acceptable for research funding by those entities willing to pay the bills, Mullis noted. Mainstream Science professionals who had disliked opinions Kary Mullis expressed while in post-graduate work continued to turn their noses up to the upstart in their midst; labeling his discoveries and challenges to their stance, pseudoscience.
It is certainly a simple task, criticising the words and actions of a character like Kary Mullis. To dismiss his contributions due to eccentricity of conduct seems petty, limited and self-defeating. If we believe a man is deserved respect for the tangible product of his mind, would we be wise if we chose to wholly dismiss his other thoughts and opinions?
In May of 1996, Mullis was interviewed by Dr. Gary Null. (Null supports alternative healing methods, sells his own line of dietary supplements and is considered by the Establishment scientific community to be a pseudoscientist.) The interview is long, about two hours long. It is a fascinating dive into a fascinating mind – the number of nods outnumbered the times an eyebrow lifted while listening to the two “pseudoscientists” talk shop. In the following excerpt from the Null interview, Dr. Mullis, the Nobel Prize winning biochemist, makes it clear that he is no fan of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the long time Director of NIH’s NIAID. Again, the interview was conducted 31 May1996; 25 years before the COVID Cooties “pandemic.”
If interested, here is a link to the full video of Gary Null’s interview of Kary Mullis. Highly encouraged if not only for the breath of fresh, honest, unaffected person factor. Even if an eyebrow goes up and down a few times.
Born around 1735 on either the Pennsylvania or the North Carolina frontier, Ann Morgan Hart, better known as Nancy, played an important role in the American Revolution as a notorious female rebel and spy. A cousin to American General Daniel Morgan, Hart was a stalwart Patriot, who employed her own heroic means of supporting the American cause for Independence.
When she was in her thirties, Nancy married Benjamin Hart, a prominent North Carolinian, and the couple had eight children. Sometime in the 1770s, the family moved to South Carolina and then into the Broad River Valley region of Georgia, where Nancy became accustomed to the frontier lifestyle.
Standing six feet tall, the red-headed and muscular Hart made an imposing figure for those who dared to cross her. Her fearlessness prompted Cherokee neighbors to call her “Wahatche,” which meant “war woman.” This nickname would prove appropriate as the Revolution moved into the Georgia backcountry, and Hart became a staunch defender of the Patriot cause. Though Hart was illiterate, she was well-versed in the skills needed for surviving on the frontier. Hart’s husband fought in a band of the Georgia militia, and while he was away, Hart’s abilities as an herbalist, hunter, and markswoman proved imperative to protecting her family and community.
As the Revolution moved into the Southern colonies, Nancy played an important role fighting against Tories in the Georgia backcountry. Hart succeeded in outsmarting British opponents on multiple occasions, frequently disguising herself as a “crazy man” and wandering through British camps to procure information for the Patriots. When one of Hart’s children discovered a British soldier spying on the Hart home, Nancy doused the man with boiling water that she was using to make soap before tying him up and turning him over to Patriot forces. Some accounts hold that in addition to her more covert operations, Hart was also present for the Battle of Kettle Creek, which took place in Georgia on February 14, 1779.
Though Hart gained recognition after the war for a variety of exploits, one of the most popular stories involved her capture of several British soldiers. According to local legend, six British soldiers entered the Hart home to question Nancy about assisting a Patriot in escaping from the Redcoats. The soldiers then demanded that Nancy feed them, and displaying unusual hospitality, Nancy agreed to host them, providing a fair share of food and drink. With help from her 12-year old daughter, Sukey, Hart succeeded in discreetly removing several of the soldiers’ muskets from the stack they had formed in the corner of the room. Hart had passed two of the firearms to Sukey through a gap in the wall before the soldiers noticed. Hart instructed the soldiers to remain where they were, and when one of them rose to approach her, she shot him dead and wounded one of the others before taking the remaining four men hostage. Sukey ran to inform Benjamin, who returned to the cabin. After debating whether to shoot the remaining men or hang them, the Harts and their neighbors decided to hang the soldiers from a nearby tree. The story became a local legend after the war, and variations of the tale have continued to circulate since then. In 1912, a railroad company’s archaeological excavation of the land near the Hart’s cabin unearthed six skeletons, suggesting that some version of the myth was true.
After the death of her husband, Hart moved with one of her sons to Henderson County, Kentucky, where she became a devout Methodist and lived past the age of ninety.
In the decades after the Revolution, many of Hart’s adventures became the stuff of legend and inspiration. During the Civil War, a band of Georgia women formed a militia unit named in honor of Nancy Hart, illustrating how the legacy of Hart’s heroism has lived on. Today, the state of Georgia has memorialized Hart in several ways, including one of the state’s counties, a state park, a lake, and a highway. In the 1930s, the Daughters of the American Revolution reconstructed the Hart’s cabin, which had been washed away in a flood many years before, in order to commemorate one of Georgia’s most famous female Patriots. Nancy Hart, like many American frontierswomen, played an important role not only in defending her family and community during the War for Independence but also in shaping the memory of the American Revolution in ways that still resonate today.
A patriot, soldier, and hero, Prudence Cummings Wright defied traditional gender roles to protect her town during the American Revolution.
Born on November 26, 1740 in Dunstable, Massachusetts, Prudence Cummings was reared in a home with divided loyalties. As unrest and revolutionary sentiments disseminated amongst the colonists, Prudence found herself on the side of the Patriots, while two of her brothers pledged allegiance to the Crown. In 1761, Prudence married David Wright, a stalwart Whig and avid supporter of independence.
The couple settled in Pepperell, Massachusetts, where they became indispensable leaders of the cause. David, along with other patriotic Pepperell men, responded to the war’s first shots at Lexington by marching to a nearby town to intercept advancing British troops. Meanwhile, Prudence spearheaded a novel and ingenious venture for the women left at home: a female militia. Dubbing themselves the “Minutewomen”, Prudence, who had been elected as the militia’s captain, and about 30-40 other townswomen dressed as men, shouldered muskets, wielded pitchforks, and marched to Jewett’s Bridge. It was here on the Nashua River that the “Prudence Wright Guard” planned to intimidate the approaching Redcoats. The courageous women successfully stopped the British, captured several soldiers, and intercepted vital dispatches regarding troop movements. To this day, a marker near Jewett’s Bridge honors the event, reading: “Near this spot a party of patriotic women, under the leadership of Mrs. David Wright, of Pepperell, in April, 1775, captured Leonard Whiting, a Tory who carrying treasonable dispatches to the enemy at Boston.”
Both Prudence and her husband continued to fight for independence throughout the war, while raising their eleven children. Prudence died in 1823. Her epitaph reads: “In Memory of the Captain of the Bridge Guard.”
To write a biography of Molly Pitcher’s life is a difficult task, partially because the woman is ultimately more legend than fact. In fact, the Molly we know may not have been a single woman, but rather a composite character of multiple figures who fought in the war. As potentially thousands of women aided the Continental Army throughout the fighting, whether as camp followers, field nurses, or those who disguised themselves as men to enlist, it is impossible to know just who served as the main inspiration for the legend. There is some evidence, however, that one woman, Mary Ludwig Hays, matches the most famous Pitcher tale closely enough to fit the bill.
Mary Ludwig was born in either Pennsylvania or New Jersey in 1754 to a family of modest means. She was therefore likely uneducated, as spending money to educate a boy over a girl was seen as a more useful investment. In her early twenties, she married a barber named William Hays, who soon enlisted in the 4th Pennsylvania Artillery and served in the Continental Army. Like other soldiers’ wives, Mary followed her husband on campaign, typically performing mundane tasks like washing clothes and sheets. This may have been where the name “Molly Pitcher” originated, as “Molly” was a common nickname for women named Mary, and “Pitcher” referred to the buckets of water the women would carry for cleaning.
But when William was wounded at the Battle of Monmouth, Mary made the fateful decision to take his place on the artillery piece, watching her husband drill enough in Valley Forge to understand the basics. Soldier and diarist Joseph Plumb Martin attested to her valor, writing how “a cannon shot from the enemy passed directly between her legs without doing any other damage than carrying away all the lower part of her petticoat. Looking at it with apparent unconcern, she observed that it was lucky it did not pass a little higher, for in that case it might have carried away something else, and continued her occupation.”
After the battle, George Washington himself supposedly asked about the brave woman working with the artillery crew, and promoted her to a non-commissioned officer. Mary would not serve directly in battle again, but enjoyed her new nickname of “Sergeant” Molly, and used it for the rest of her life.
William died after the war in 1786, and though he left Mary a good deal of land, her second husband, John McCauley, misspent her inheritance and impoverished the family, only to disappear sometime after 1807. Mary spent the rest of her days in Carlisle, Pennsylvania as a poor, gruff, but well-liked member of the community. In 1822, Pennsylvania finally awarded her a veteran’s pension of $40 per year. She died in 1832 and was interred in the Carlisle Old Graveyard, where a cannon and a statue of “Molly Pitcher” stands above her burial site.
Saturday past, the National Education Association (NEA) concluded their 2021 Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly. America’s largest teacher’s union/PAC describes their annual event as “the largest democratic deliberative assembly in the world.” From the NEA Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly website:
“NEA’s Annual Meeting takes place during the final week of June and/or the first week of July. Various committees, constituencies, caucuses, leadership groups, and delegates from state and local affiliates gather to set policy and chart the direction of NEA business.
The Representative Assembly (RA) takes place during the final four days of the Annual Meeting. It is the primary legislative and policymaking body of the Association and derives its powers from, and is responsible to, the membership. The Representative Assembly adopts the strategic plan and budget, resolutions, the Legislative Program, and other policies of the Association. Delegates vote by secret ballot on proposed amendments to the Constitution and Bylaws. Those delegates with full voting rights elect the executive officers, Executive Committee members, and at-large members of the NEA Board of Directors, as appropriate.
The RA consists of nearly 8,000 educator delegates representing state and local affiliates, student members, retired members, and other segments of the united education profession.”
This year, the RA held their virtual assembly June 30-July 3 during which time members considered over 100 different policies and NEA governing document amendments. By Assembly’s end the NEA had adopted 67 of them, including:
Two NEA Constitution Amendments
Two Bylaw Amendments
Four of five proposed Resolutions
Five new Policy Statements
11 of 15 Legislative Amendments
The RA was also offered 66 New Business Items (NBI) for contemplation. 23 of the NBI’s were straight out Adopted, one other adopted item has been Referred to the NEA President and another 21 have been Referred to the Appropriate Committee. The 20 remaining NBIs were Defeated (10), Withdrawn (7) with another four, Ruled Out of Order. The following article highlights some of the NBIs and other Items adopted into NEA law/policy last week. Links are provided at the end of the piece for anybody interested in perusing all Items presented for Assembly consideration.
AMENDMENTS – Constitutional, Bylaw and Legislative
An overwhelming majority of the Amendments – Constitution, Bylaw and Legislative – are money oriented, including demands that the federal government provide goods and services the NEA has identified necessary for a teacher to be able to execute their duties. New legislation outlines requests for higher wages and unemployment compensation be accorded all union members in education department employ, lowers membership dues for some and broadens union member eligibility definitions. A few pieces of adopted business focus on getting retired members back into the fold. Looks like the PAC is trying to bulk up their membership base; collect those union dues and create a few propagandists in the process. (I was not planning to editorialize or opine, simply share some news. Plans changed about four lines into reading the meeting minutes.)
Interesting bits of policy adopted include a fairly predictable Constitutional Amendment 2, expanding NEA union membership eligibility language to include, “… and gender identity/expression, …” to the section describing classes of peoples protected against hiring discrimination practices already contained within the document. (No, Virginia, a girl cannot be denied NEA union membership because they are possessed of pesky male biology.) Three of the new Legislative Amendments pique interest insofar as “what exactly is the NEA’s Mission Statement and how big is their political hammer?” arena.
Legislative Amendment 4 was adopted by the NEA’s Assembly, permitting the union’s voice and power to be used in efforts to re-write the U.S. Constitution. “The 13th Amendment allows the enslavement of people convicted of a crime. Forced prison labor should be unethical and perpetuates systemic racism,” says the NEA.
Legislative Amendment 11 references changing federal voting rights and practices.
Legislative Amendment 13 proposes “to end programs that facilitate the militarization of local police forces.”
Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and federal voting law have been deemed causes best addressed by representatives of public school employees. Adopting these measures, alone, effectively silences NEA posits of being an industry-specific trade organisation working for their members. The teacher’s union’s role and sole purpose is a Political Action Committee (PAC) existing to change federal laws using lobbying funds gleaned from the pockets of good teachers who are mandated to pay via obsolete labor union constructs.
Policy Statement Amendments
Existing policies were clarified/defined under the sub-sections Privatization and Subcontracting Programs, and Charter School definitions. Public-private partnerships as well as official stances on “social impact bond” practices are strongly represented in the new Policy Statement Amendments. After a cursory skim, one gets the idea that the NEA is trying to eliminate via fiat all private sector competition, at all levels of education. Even non-union bus drivers are to be shunned. Competition from the private sector creates an inequitable world for the public sector employee, it’s been declared.
Adopted Resolutions and Amendments
Plans to fund the exploration and implementation of virtual learning constructs, for teachers and students, abound.
Resolution 1 ensures translation services for students throughout the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process. The IEP is part of federal law, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It has been defined as a program designed to meet the unique needs of a student; we used to call it Special Education.
Resolution 4 updates policy language protecting the privacy of “LGBTQ+” students; “… educators and peers must respect these students and their choice of whether or not to reveal their orientation, identity, or expression.” Two thoughts – first, if everybody kept their sexuality to themselves, we’d not have to worry about respecting privacy or being considerate of preferences. Second thought – MUST respect? Or, what? Off to the re-education camps?
Resolution 5 was adopted to ensure public school system denizens – employees of education agencies and students – are not forced to act against public health department advice. (Resolution 5 appears to be at direct odds with Resolution 1; it is not possible to provide for a special needs student when not sharing physical surroundings. If kids are not in school, does the Special Ed student need a translator? Logic seems to be the only thing missing from the NEA agenda.)
While there are a handful of nods toward student and staff safety, asking for money to conduct building inspections and repairs for example, most of this year’s business illuminates the racist, anti-American agenda that drives our teacher’s unions. The NEA is, officially, a device of systemic racism. They are out of the closet. You can tick off every box. Some real insanity can be found in the New Business Items (NBI) that were Defeated. Unfortunately, too many of the other bizarre NBIs were Adopted; let’s start with ‘A’.
NEW BUSINESS ITEMS
NBI A creates a task force to identify “… criteria for safe, just, and equitable schools …” The task force will root out all racism and race-based discrimination in the public school system AND in U.S. society. The force is tasked with many, many responsibilities; including, finding a way to, “eradicate racist laws, policies, and practices, the over-criminalization of communities, students, and families of Native people and people of color, as well as the criminalization of poverty.“
NBI 1 is about voting rights and not overturning the will of the voter. NBI 2 promises to publicize the names of any entity that does not wish CRT, or any bigotry, taught in our public education facilities. NBI 5 encourages defiance against state law – supporting transgender youth and warning of the dangers of anti-trans legislation for students, including sports-related. NBI 6 adds something called Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) definitions to the IEP program to promote “full inclusion.” NBI 11 states the NEA will use its voice to raise awareness about “period poverty;” a lack of access to menstrual supplies. NBI 16 promises to enlighten teachers to the importance of proper name spellings and pronunciation via a series of articles slated to appear in trade publications. The cultural and historical importance of names will be taught and teachers will be provided tools to help with the quest to spell and pronounce names, properly. NBI 18 encourages and supports teacher efforts in “decolonizing the curriculum.” NBI 22 authorizes advocation for equal access to health care endeavours, focused on “rural and/or multicultural areas“. (and/or – that’s significant) NBI 38 promises to, “…publicize via appropriate social media a call to end Title 42, the Trump-era racist policy of turning away immigrants at the southern border and forcing family separations. NEA will further publicize via appropriate social media a call for the shutdown of all child detention centers and support granting refugee status, as well as an increased number of work and family visas, to immigrant children and their families.” This is the type of important, national security issue we hire our public education department employees to resolve. Preferably, using blatant partisanship to curry support for their taxpayer-funded, anti-American activism. Score, NEA.
There is a nugget of good hidden amid the toilet flush – honesty. Critical Race Theory (CRT) is definitely to be found in United States public education system classrooms. People who’d suggest anything otherwise are filthy liars, says the NEA via New Business Item 39. Here, have a read for yourself:
“The NEA will, with guidance on implementation from the NEA president and chairs of the Ethnic Minority Affairs Caucuses:
A. Share and publicize, through existing channels, information already available on critical race theory (CRT) — what it is and what it is not; have a team of staffers for members who want to learn more and fight back against anti-CRT rhetoric; and share information with other NEA members as well as their community members.
B. Provide an already-created, in-depth, study that critiques empire, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society, and that we oppose attempts to ban critical race theory and/or The 1619 Project.
C. Publicly (through existing media) convey its support for the accurate and honest teaching of social studies topics, including truthful and age-appropriate accountings of unpleasant aspects of American history, such as slavery, and the oppression and discrimination of Indigenous, Black, Brown, and other peoples of color, as well as the continued impact this history has on our current society. The Association will further convey that in teaching these topics, it is reasonable and appropriate for curriculum to be informed by academic frameworks for understanding and interpreting the impact of the past on current society, including critical race theory.
D. Join with Black Lives Matter at School and the Zinn Education Project to call for a rally this year on October 14—George Floyd’s birthday—as a national day of action to teach lessons about structural racism and oppression. Followed by one day of action that recognize and honor lives taken such as Breonna Taylor, Philando Castile, and others. The National Education Association shall publicize these National Days of Action to all its members, including in NEA Today.
E. Conduct a virtual listening tour that will educate members on the tools and resources needed to defend honesty in education including but not limited to tools like CRT.
F. Commit President Becky Pringle to make public statements across all lines of media that support racial honesty in education including but not limited to critical race theory.”
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NBI 40 wants to ensure historically black colleges get the federal funds they are deserved and have not received due to federal incompetence, or something. NBI 41 seeks to create a coalition of pop stars to declare anti “anti-racism” legislature as heinously racist. NBIs 37 and 42 mandate the teaching of the white man’s genocidal ways; the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust, in particular. NBI 45 wants NEA resources to focus on programs and partnerships concerning genocide, femicide and ethnic cleansing. NBI 44 proclaims support for and offers tools to help unionise Amazon workers. NBI 48 is, surprisingly, good for kids and the nation! Beginning this Fall, the NEA will begin an awareness campaign spotlighting the importance of fathers in a students life. Hallelujah. NBI 49 takes on environmental pollution. NBI 51 promises to “educate members and the general public about the history, culture, and struggles of Palestinians, including the detention and abuse of children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.“ NBI 54 takes on the business of the NEA’s business meeting. The organisation will not be doing business in “any state that openly supports voter suppression, including states that revoke voting rights for people who are convicted of felonies who have completed their sentence.“ NBI 55 . . . savvy reader, you are most welcome to work on the meaning of this particular piece of twistyspeak. “NEA will promote the use of strength-based labels and titles rather than deficit-based labels in existing communication channels, by publicizing that school-ascribed designations in reading and language can reinforce negative self-concepts and the perception that students cannot achieve.” Are they trying to paraphrase, most dogs respond to positive reinforcement moreso than they will using punishment, without sounding speciesist? NBI 56 ensures teachers they will never, ever have to show up to school when they don’t want to work, again. Resolutions and Policies and Amendments about virtual learning are not enough. With New Business Item 56, the NEA says they want to be part of Public Health-related decision making processes, not just the willing followers of agency edicts. The union seeks to establish their own Department of Health and Safety. It will be a partnership shared with existing federal, state and local agencies. Oh, and the NEA will also help organise new unions, safely.
The adopted amendment re/following public health official guidance seems unnecessary in light of this news. This group is not playing when they say nobody who followed a vocational call because they care about kids is going to be forced to go to school if he or she does not want to go to school. Besides, there are unrepresented laborers to influence. Summer and holiday breaks, while working from home? Dangle that carrot.
NBI 57 directs the NEA to write a letter to the Secretary of Education asking for a national, federal education guideline mandating all children in grades pre-K thru 6 have a one half hour recess period in their school day. Funny how kids didn’t get diagnosed with ADHD and medicated into a state of complacency when typical grade school days did contain recess and P.E. periods. Kids need to move. Unless they are online. Then, they are free to fidget so don’t need recess to build physical coordination along with a few social skills. NBI 58 outlines the need for students to be factually educated about the “Tulsa Massacre.” Factually, heh. NBI 59 demands charter schools be held to the same standard as all public education facilities when it comes to safe construction. Building codes allow schools to be built in an unsafe fashion, or on toxic ground? Who knew? NBI 61 gives permission to spend money on suicide alertness classes for a limited number of delegates sent from each school. Hope the kid who has given up on life decides to talk to a trained delegate rather than waste their time sharing problems with an unalert teacher. NBI 62 goes on and on about ganging up with other socialist organisations to help distracted or disinterested women rear their young. It’s got money and language and cultural relevancy topics, amock. The good part about NBI 62 is how the program is described to be for “working mothers and parents.” They said “mothers.” Naughty naughty.
And, the final ingredient in our NEA Socialist Stew to receive the spotlight treatment today is NBI 64. “The NEA will educate its members, using existing electronic media, about the positive effects that having a tax-supported, single-payer health care plan for all residents of the United States, its territories, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico would have on reducing the U.S. health care gap.” Yeah, no.
Beyond one item addressing the importance of fathers being in a child’s life, there were no rules adopted suggesting parental responsibility and support, at home and for the schools, would greatly improve student behaviour and GPAs. An NEA awareness campaign requiring parents to be active participants in their child’s education process would be interesting. Particularly if guardians of public school attendees were told they MUST respect that edict.
I encourage anybody who has the time to review all of the Representative Assembly’s business items, those adopted and otherwise (links, below) to fully immerse oneself into the predatory nature of the National Education Association. They enjoy using our children to further their own end. If we, as a nation, wish to have a public education system that teaches our children how to think, not what to think, we need to be rid of the teacher’s unions. Until they are gone, all of the ranting at School Board meetings is for naught. The Boards do not make the rules, the teacher’s unions make the rules.
2021 National Education Association Annual Meeting & Representative Assembly – Business Items
(click BOLDED, CAPITALIZED link for summary item page which will also contain links to the full Item)
