In the 2020-2021 term, Thomas authored more concurrences and dissents than any other justice, including more solo concurrences and solo dissents.
As Nina Totenberg of NPR put it not too long ago, in a passage dripping with disapproval, “He is the only justice willing to allow states to establish an official religion; the only justice who believes teenagers have no free speech rights at all; the only justice who believes that it’s unconstitutional to require campaign funders to disclose their identity; he’s the only justice who voted to strike down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act; and the only justice to say that the court should invalidate a wide range of laws regulating business conduct and working conditions.”
But we are supposed to believe that his unexplained sole dissent in the Trump records case must be corrupt.
A while ago, the respected Supreme Court watcher Tom Goldstein wrote that if “the measure of a Justice’s greatness is his contribution of new and thoughtful perspectives that enlarge the debate, then Justice Thomas is now our greatest Justice.”
The doomsday prophets obscure the phenomenal progress of the human species to feed itself, cure its diseases, and shape its world to improve the lives of all humans.
Washington Examiner:
Deaths from hurricanes, landslides, tornadoes, earthquakes, droughts, floods, food and energy shortages, severe heat and cold, and other disruptions from Mother Earth have fallen sharply over the past century. The property damage from acts of nature as a share of our GDP continues to drop yearly.
For example, more accurate weather reporting prepares people for deadly weather events. Building technologies make mankind smarter about weather and earthquake-proofing homes, buildings, bridges, and other structures to protect against collapse and rubble. The real “green revolution” on agriculture output has dropped rates of famine and hunger to all-time lows. My mentor, the late, great economist Julian Simon, taught us that the “ultimate resource” to save us from Armageddon is the human mind.
Indeed, Simon’s 1980 wager with Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb, holds lessons for the climate change debate today.
Ehrlich wrote in 1980 that if he were a betting man, he would bet that England would not exist in the year 2000 due to a catastrophic rise in sea levels and unaffordable raw materials due to scarcity. Simon challenged Ehrlich to choose any raw material he wanted and a date sometime in the future. Simon said he would wager on the inflation-adjusted prices decreasing as opposed to increasing.
Ehrlich chose copper, chromium, nickel, tin, and tungsten, and 1990 as the payoff date. Erlich lost as all five commodities declined in price from 1980 through 1990. //
We have the supposed greatest minds in the world who have allegedly come to a solution to save the planet dramatically by hitting a “reset” button on energy by turning to some of the most inefficient sources. That’s the best they’ve got?
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson. And the consistently stupid “solutions” to any supposed climate crisis are advanced by little minds that don’t have the vision to see what the rest of us can see.
“The Gibson family appreciates the Court of Appeals’ thorough and thoughtful analysis which rightly rejected all of Oberlin College’s and Dean Raimondo’s challenges on appeal.”
The Ohio 9th District Court of Appeals has just issued a decision in the Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College case.
For those of you new to the case, Gibson’s Bakery was a 5th generation family business in Oberlin, Ohio, near the Oberlin College campus. It served baked goods to the public and also to the student dining service, as well as operating a general convenience store. As with many other small businesses, student shoplifting was epidemic, as we covered, Student journalist: Shoplifting at Gibson’s Bakery was part of Oberlin College’s “Culture of Theft”
A store clerk, a member of the Gibson family, caught an Oberlin black student shoplifting, a scuffle ensued that was joined by two other Oberlin black students. When the police arrived, they arrested the students who eventually pleaded guilty. But before that, the college officials and students accused the bakery of racial profiling, called a boycott, suspended Gibson’s business with the college, and organized protests outside the bakery.
At the protests, a flyer was handed out, according to witnesses who testified at trial, by Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo, who also handed out stacks of flyers for others to distribute. The flyers accused the Gibsons of a long history of racial profiling, including in the incident with these shoplifters. The Gibsons disputed that allegation and that they did anything wrong in this incident, and requested a public apology from the college in order to repair the reputational damage, but the college refused. (To this day it never has apologized.) //
Based on the actions of college officials in conveying and promoting the defamatory accusations, a lawsuit was filed, resulting in massive verdicts for the owners of the bakery, David Gibson and his father, Allyn Gibson. Legal Insurrection was the only national media outlet to have someone in the courtroom reporting, including when the verdicts came down:
Closing Argument: “When a powerful institution says you are racist, you are doomed”
VERDICT: Jury awards Gibson’s Bakery $11 million against Oberlin College
Oberlin College hit with maximum PUNITIVE DAMAGES (capped at $22 million by law) in Gibson’s Bakery case
Punitive damage verdict against Oberlin College “was like a seismic wave moving quickly through the courtroom”
In our individualist society, both sexes are bombarded with the lie that living for your own pleasure is the most fulfilling thing you can do. //
In a 2018 interview, Ginni Thomas — who has been married to the Supreme Court justice for more than three decades — asked her husband about the best part of being on the bench.
“It’d be impossible without you. It’s sorta like, how do you run with one leg? You can’t. It makes it whole when I have my wife,” was his touching reply. //
Contrary to the deranged voices suggesting this clip is any kind of dunk on the Thomases, Clarence’s praise of Ginni reflects a beautiful truth about marriage. When two people become one, they are both part of something greater than themselves — and living for someone outside of themselves (even more true for parents of children!). Marriage and family are no substitute for finding purpose and meaning in one’s relationship with God, but they are institutions designed to reflect and complement the eternal.
While cultural, political, and career investments can all be gainful, rewarding, and even necessary — and often have meaningful human impacts — investing in another eternal human soul carries infinitely more reward (though they are far from mutually exclusive). This isn’t limited to marriage; it’s the reason parents, teachers, mentors, pastors, friends, doctors, missionaries, counselors, and anyone who serves their fellow man sees so much worth (and finds so much satisfaction) in what they do. It’s the invested time and energy that people on their deathbeds never regret.
For men and women alike, there is a deep dignity conferred by knowing that someone else lovingly looks to you and depends on you. Good men take pride in protecting and providing for their families and pleasing their wives. Good women take pride in similarly serving and loving their families, knowing that they are cherished and that, as Clarence said so adoringly of Ginni, their husbands’ lives would be “impossible” without them.
Disable OneDrive Everywhere in Windows and Apps Completely
Press Win + R keyboard accelerator to open Run dialog box.
Type GPedit.msc and hit Enter or OK to open Local Group Policy Editor.
Navigate to Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> OneDrive.
In the right pane, double click on policy named Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage.
Select the Enabled radio button.
Disable OneDrive
Click or tap OK when done. //
Uninstall OneDrive
- Open an administrator command prompt
- Terminate any process of OneDrive by running the following command:
taskkill /f /im OneDrive.exe - Uninstall OneDrive app by running one of the following command:
1.1. In 32-bit Windows 10 (x86):
%SystemRoot%\System32\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall
1.1. In 64-bit Windows 10 (x64):
%SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall
One you ran the above command, OneDrive desktop app is uninstalled completely and cleanly. Most of the time, no progress bar nor confirmation dialog is shown. However, when you search for OneDrive, the app no longer be found.
Disabling OneDrive will prevent it from running as well as remove it from File Explorer, and you can easily re-enable it later if you want to. Unfortunately Windows 10 Home users don’t have access to the group policy editor, so they won’t have this option. But if you’re running Pro or another version of Windows 10, go to the Group Policy Editor (type in “gpedit.msc” in the search box) and go to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > OneDrive. Then enable the “Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage” setting.
To completely uninstall OneDrive:
- Open Command Prompt in Administrator mode: Right-click on the Windows icon in the taskbar and select Command Prompt (Admin).
- Type in taskkill /f /im OneDrive.exe to terminate any OneDrive processes and hit Enter.
- Then type in either %SystemRoot%\System32\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall if you’re using 32-bit Windows 10 or %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall if you’re using 64-bit Windows 10 and hit Enter.
You won’t see a confirmation dialog or progress bar when you do this, but if you try searching for OneDrive, the app will no longer be found. Your OneDrive folder and files, however, will still be available. //
Should you change your mind and want to reinstall OneDrive, head to the “%SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\” folder in File Explorer and run the OneDriveSetup.exe program. //
https://techjourney.net/disable-or-uninstall-onedrive-completely-in-windows-10/
Abigail Shrier
@AbigailShrier
The Biden Administration has now determined that "gender affirming care" - including puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries - is a right of trans youth and "appropriate" and "necessary" for their health.
The Biden Justice Department will come after states that disagree.
/1
9:15 PM · Mar 31, 2022
Abigail Shrier
@AbigailShrier
·
Mar 31, 2022
Replying to @AbigailShrier
The Administration now owns this absurd position at precisely the moment that many European countries (France, UK, Sweden and Finland) are backing away from these interventions, having examined a decade of evidence that failed to establish the purported benefits.
/2
Abigail Shrier
@AbigailShrier
Here's today's press release from the DOJ:
https://justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1489066/download //
Bernard Lane
@Bernard_Lane
·
Mar 31, 2022
The US administration has issued a series of statements endorsing medicalised gender change for minors, & claims that puberty blocker drugs & cross-sex hormones are "evidence-based".
In other countries, there's a shift to caution about these interventions. Who's got it right? 1/
Bernard Lane
@Bernard_Lane
Sweden: "The National Board of Health & Welfare in Sweden has urged 'restraint' in the use of hormonal drug treatments for medicalised gender change with minors, warning that the risks appear to outweigh the benefits."
genderclinicnews.substack.com
Sweden transitions to caution
10:53 PM · Mar 31, 2022
Bernard Lane
@Bernard_Lane
·
Mar 31, 2022
Replying to @Bernard_Lane
The UK: "The evidence for using puberty blocking drugs to treat young people struggling with their gender identity is 'very low", an official review has found ... existing studies of the drugs were small and 'subject to bias and confounding'.".
bbc.com
Evidence for puberty blockers use very low, says NICE
Bernard Lane
@Bernard_Lane
France: " 'Sterilisation risk' from gender medicine | The French National Academy of Medicine has sounded the alarm about an epidemic-like surge in young people seeking hormone drugs and surgery."
genderclinicnews.substack.com
'Sterilisation risk' from gender medicine
10:53 PM · Mar 31, 2022
IP2Location™ ISO 3166-2 Subdivision Code is a free data offered for your download. This data contains the ISO3166-2 code for the states/regions used in our geolocation database. You can easily retrieve the ISO3166-2 code by mapping the country code and subdivision name.
Boot Config To Force HDMI Output for Raspberry Pi OS
Raw
config.txt
Russia threatened “military and political consequences” against Finland and Sweden on Friday if they attempted to join NATO.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned against other countries attempting to join NATO after Russia started a war with Ukraine Thursday.
“Finland and Sweden should not base their security on damaging the security of other countries and their accession to NATO can have detrimental consequences and face some military and political consequences,” Zakharova said in a viral clip of a press conference.
The ministry later posted the same threat on its Twitter. Finland and Sweden have given significant military and humanitarian support to Ukraine since Russia invaded. //
Two Russian planes that violated Swedish airspace earlier this month were equipped with nuclear weapons, it has emerged.
The flyover near the island of Gotland on March 2 was a deliberate act designed to intimidate Sweden, according to Swedish news channel TV4 Nyheterna.
A total of four planes had taken off from the Russian air base of Kaliningrad.
They consisted of two Sukhoi 24 attack planes, which were escorted by two Sukhoi 27 fighter jets.
It was the two attack planes which were, according to TV4 Nyheter sources, equipped with nuclear weapons.
The violation of Swedish territory lasted for about a minute.
The country’s air force deployed two JAS 39 Gripen which took pictures of the intruders.
It was then, say Swedish media, that it was confirmed the Russian planes were equipped with nuclear warheads.
‘This is a signal to Sweden that we have nuclear weapons and we could also consider using them,’ military strategic expert Stefan Ring told TV4 Nyheter.
‘We assess it as a conscious action. Which is very serious especially as [Russia] is a warring country,’ added Air Force Chief Carl-Johan Edström.
‘I can not rule out incorrect navigation, but everything indicates that it was a deliberate act. That they violated Sweden’s borders.’ //
There are three things of note here. First and foremost, the decision to fly nuclear-armed aircraft into another nation’s airspace cannot be a mistake, and it is probably an event unique in the military history of the world. Second, the fact that the Swedish Chief of the Air Force did not bat down the story confirms its truthfulness. Third, there is only one reason I can think of that would inspire the Swedes to make this information public. //
Both Finland and Sweden have a lot of reasons for joining NATO. A few weeks ago, I posted on the subject in Putin’s Threats to Sweden and Finland Are Much More Real Than They Are Being Given Credit For. That fear has spiked in the wake of Putin’s war in Ukraine.
In that post, I point out that Finland and Sweden, which are not part of any military alliance, have borders with Russia, and they are in an area where Russia is trying to establish dominance. This childish stunt looks like it may do what the USSR could never do, convince Sweden and Finland to join NATO.
Jennifer Jacobs
@JenniferJJacobs
Scoop: Biden admin is weighing a plan to release roughly A MILLION BARRELS OF OIL A DAY from U.S. reserves, for several months, to combat rising gasoline prices and supply shortages following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, sources tell @AlbertoNardelli @SalehaMohsin and me.
8:15 PM · Mar 30, 2022
For context, the US uses about 20 million barrels of oil a day. Releasing one million barrels a day would translate to a savings of about 18 cents a gallon off the national average if it translated directly to the price of gas. It won’t, though. Much of the oil held by the government is no longer useable domestically because of environmental regulations. Instead, any oil released would be dumped into countries like China and India. That could possibly make a small dent in the global price of oil, but when you consider that the world produces 76 million barrels of oil a day, that one million barrels suddenly becomes even more irrelevant.
In other words, Biden’s ploy is completely useless. It’s also dangerous in that the strategic reserves exist to supply years of oil to the United States in the event of some kind of isolating event. They also exist for military use if oil can’t be otherwise garnered while fighting a war. Again, we are talking preparation for apocalyptic-type events, not gas prices being too high because of the left’s self-defeating green agenda.
Further, the Defense Production Act is not at all designed to operate as a communism cheat code for presidents who are too stubborn to change their damaging energy policies. If it’s not profitable now for American companies to go gangbusters producing “green energy,” it won’t be just because Biden makes them. Such a move would also spur more inflation as the supply of the products those companies originally produced will be reduced in order to make things Americans don’t currently want to buy. //
So let’s drain our strategic oil reserves and go full USSR on American companies. What could possibly go wrong?
People like Rogan — and me — cannot afford the mental bandwidth needed to logic out every possible response to every word we utter and then plan our speech according to those possibilities. If we can’t speak from the heart, and our own curiosity, we can’t encourage anyone to respond from the heart. Even the pouncing progressives would agree that being “emotionally honest” about something is a huge part of any meaningful discussion. They’ve been putting feelings over facts for years now. By their own measure, audiences cannot engage their feelings on an issue if they’re not being met with the honest feelings of the personality opining on the issue. Chilling the speech of the speakers chills all speech.
That is the goal, of course. To squash discussion and replace it with pre-formed ideas, given to you by the intellectual elite and their less-intellectual culture minions. You can’t respond to a bad idea you’re not allowed to hear in the first place. They don’t want our responses to their bad ideas.
That’s what makes places like RedState special…and guys like Rogan special. We do want your responses to our ideas. We do want emotion and rage and applause and laughter. We welcome the hate clicks as much as the love clicks. They all pay the same, but even better, they serve a function that we’re all on board with on the non-progressive political spectrum. They foster discussion. In this business, honesty makes for quality content.
Have you ever wondered why the production value of your tv and movies seems to have dropped lately? It’s because the number of calculations executives and their creative partners are required to make these days about possible responses, boycotts, hurt feelings, and social media backlash forces them to think more like machines and less like thinking, feeling human beings. //
Chilling speech on the world wide web, particularly in this nation, is effectively dumbing down entertainment quality. Worse than that, it’s making machines out of humans, at a time when we need much more humanity in this world.
Putting aside, for a moment, the fact that the people behind this assessment were the same ones that aided and abetted the Russia Hoax perpetrated against President Trump and who declared Hunter Biden’s laptop to be a Russian provocation is any part of this story plausible were it told by people capable of telling the truth?
Is it plausible that the entire Russian government was terrified to tell the emperor about his new wardrobe? I suppose, but if so, it speaks to an incredible level of self-delusion. I’m willing to credit that he was fed horsecrap on the operational abilities of the Russian Army because armies tend to lie about their readiness unless there is a system to enforce the rules, and there is not an ethic of lying on reports in the officer corps. I’m much less inclined to believe that he hasn’t been intensely monitoring Western sanctions as he whines about them so much. I also find it difficult to believe that Putin, the very “reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter” kind of guy described in the story, could give a public order that conscripts would not be used in combat and someone down the chain-of-command would have the cojones to say, “Igor, I don’t care that you are a conscript and I don’t care what Putin says, I’m telling you to get on the f***ing truck.” That makes no sense to me.
Even if we accept that the Russian military lied through its teeth about its capabilities to its political masters or even the upper ranks, we still have to wrestle with the idea that Putin doesn’t have any idea about what is happening on the ground in Ukraine, especially about casualties. //
Making the story less credible is that his evaluation of the situation was leaked now. Why now? Why not two weeks ago when the same information was available?
All in all, this intel leak seems to have another purpose. It is almost like they are giving Putin a pass for everything because his staff lied to him. Consider it to be an off-ramp to facilitate negotiations. It gives him the ability to purge the senior ranks of the military and bureaucracy by blaming them for both the crap intelligence and the disastrous plan. Then he’s only left with responsibility for the idea.
In addition to flying, landing, and returning from the moon in 1969 — NASA's Apollo 11 crew helped with a series of scientific experiments. One of them was to leave a special instrument with lots of little reflectors on the surface of the moon. The goal of that experiment was to beam a laser at the moon. Today on the show, Scientist-In-Residence Regina G. Barber talks to host Aaron Scott about the lunar laser ranging experiment — and how shooting that laser helped us better understand one of Einstein's theories.
Even as Democrats attempt to revive their stalled reconciliation legislation to impose prescription drug price controls, another group within the health care sector has come forward with a better solution. Their proposal, which would use competition to bring down prices, has the potential to benefit consumers — with fewer side effects than blunt government force.
A consortium of hospitals recently announced plans to build a factory that can manufacture insulin within two years. Once their plant gets up and running, the non-profit consortium said it would sell the insulin at a cost of $30 a vial — a fraction of what pharmaceutical companies currently charge. //
The Biden administration has its “solution” to the problem of high drug prices: Government-imposed price controls. Its proposal, incorporated as part of the $5 trillion spending spree being considered by Congress, would allow the federal government to “negotiate” (i.e., dictate) the prices of certain drugs. Companies who refuse to “negotiate” would be penalized with a 95 percent tax — a penalty so onerous that some companies could stop selling their drugs in the United States entirely. //
Price controls also would create other harmful effects on innovation. The Congressional Budget Office concluded that one version of Democrats’ price control legislation would result in approximately 60 fewer drugs during the first three decades following its enactment. Other estimates have suggested as many as 100 fewer drugs within the course of the first decade alone. In either case, these price controls would mean diseases not treated, and potentially lives not saved.
Too often, missionary families are seen as “super Christians” who are invulnerable to the negative consequences arising from their many sacrifices for the mission of God. And so, while missions agencies have a special responsibility to help MKs, local churches who partner with missionaries must also recognize that these kids are paying a high price for their parents’ commitment to God’s kingdom. //
Brazil is the second-largest sending country after the United States, with an estimated 40,000 outgoing missionaries. Brazilians often join an English-speaking team in other countries. Their kids may attend English-speaking international schools, which adds an additional language they must learn, said Alicia Macedo, who is the MK coordinator for the Brazilian Association of Cross-Cultural Missions.
Regardless of where these kids are from, however, the problems they face are largely universal. //
For missionary kids, the answer to the question of who sent them overseas is much clearer: God did. That adds complexity—and sometimes pain—to the MK experience.
Many missionary kids have grown up in a culture in which negative feelings are dismissed. They feel lost in the bigger purpose of God’s mission, and their grief gets hidden away. God is not seen as a safe place for some, said Wells.
If holding views about the 2020 election meant a justice couldn’t decide legal issues arising from it, then all nine would have to recuse themselves.
As of 2020-11-21 we are pausing development of Arigi and will cease offering new licenses and support contracts. Existing support contracts are honored until the end of their term. The latest version of Arigi, 1.1.9, is free to use with any installation size without a license, in perpetuity.
ARIGI -- manage and monitor multiple Syncthing installations from one dashboard
What is Syncthing doing when it says “Scanning”, and what’s the point of it?
To answer that we first need to talk about the index database.
The Index Database
Syncthing keeps a index database with information about each file, directory, and symlink it knows about. Each entry contains the name of the item, some metadata like size, timestamps, and permissions; internal information like a version vector and sequence number, and a list of the blocks making up the file. The index is keyed on folder ID, device ID, and file name.
files are divided in blocks - typically 128 KiB each, but possibly larger for larger files. Each device calculates the hash (cryptographic checksum) of all blocks making up a file and informs its peers about the file contents. When Syncthing gets an index update from a peer device, containing a new block list, it compares the new block list with the one it already has in the index. If there are differences that means the file contents have changed and we should synchronize the file.