Quick Hits: Volume CCLXV

 - Just 2-1/2 weeks ago, smug self-righteous jackass Jim Acosta of CNN posted this: 

This is quite a map from the NYT… pic.twitter.com/FAgOms5o1V

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) October 2, 2021

The insinuation was clear. Thanks to those backwoods southern Trump supporters, COVID-19 deaths in America were highest in the southern region of the country from mid June until the end of September.  Instead of chalking it up to the fact that area of the U.S. is largely cramped indoors during the summer months due to the insufferably hot weather (thus breathing in each others' exhalations), progs chose to politicize the issue. 

With that in mind, I'm gonna guess no one left-of-center bothered to post this particular map: 

If you look at the New York Times’ “Hot Spots” map, there’s a broad swath of light-yellow counties - fewer cases per 100,000 residents - from Miami to the middle of Texas, up into Missouri, and across to North Carolina.https://t.co/dxURWTjwEuhttps://t.co/dHbFYcVBOm pic.twitter.com/RQhYMV8Jgk

— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) October 19, 2021

Huh. Ya mean as we move closer to winter, those in warmer climates tend to be outside (and thus not as susceptible to the virus) more so than the northern half of the country? Why, it's almost as if COVID is similar to other viruses in that it's impacted by seasons. 

- Just another in a series of friendly reminders why I will not support Donald Trump for President if he chooses to run in 2024. 

Even the basic human decency of not speaking ill of the dead is something that eludes Trump. What a buffoon. 

- America's civil liberties (aka the Bill of Rights) are comprised of the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The very first amendment, of course, refers to speech, specifically how our government shall make no laws abridging Americans' ability to speak freely. With all that in mind, you would suspect an organization entitled the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) would be quite assertive in protecting free speech. 

Sadly, today's ACLU seems more concerned with "wokeness" than it's bullish defense of the Bill of Rights. 

 

I read this ACLU brief. This is the first time, at least to my knowledge, that ACLU is explicitly arguing in court that the First Amendment's free speech clause has been interpreted *too broadly* by courts, and are advocating *a more restrictive view* of what free speech means. https://t.co/RKfmDVLGw7

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 17, 2021

Just as we have a right to speak freely, we should also have the ability to be free of laws which compel speech. A public school district (an arm of local government) requiring its employees to bend to the whim of students would seem to fly in the face of that. 

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