Leslie’s Top Posts of 2021
“Endurance” was a most fitting watchword for the year.
Happy New Year!
Last year, I concluded my Top Post picks with this wish:
The US Air Force Academy Class of 2024’s motto is “United We Endure”. Let “Endurance” be our watchword in 2021.
Sadly, the watchword was apt, as we were forced to endure quite a bit in 2021.
DUMBEST MEDIA SCIENCE TAKE OF 2021
There were so many awful hot takes from the establishment media. Still, the one that was the most oblivious was conflating COVID-deaths with the type of mortality experienced during the Spanish Influenza.
“I TOLD YOU SO” POST OF 2021
I wrote too much about COVID in 2021 and hope posts are fewer and more positive next year. However, toward the end of the year, the media began promoting the assessments I had given in 2020.
However, of all those analyses, the biggest “I told you so” was when I wrote that Biden’s 6-pronged Plan to battle COVID was doomed to failure due to the nature of the virus and the fact the containment strategies being proposed were not going to work.
FAVORITE SPACE POST OF 2021
I am thrilled to cover the science and technology beat for Legal Insurrection. After dealing with COVID for nearly two years, it is wonderful to cover the usually much more positive reports about our nation’s space efforts.
With much joy, I covered Star Trek star William Shatner’s trip on the Blue Origin suborbital vehicle.
CALIFORNIA CRAZY POST of 2021
Living in the Golden State as a conservative is a testament to my endurance. Fortunately, I can always rely on my love of gallows humor when covering the California news for Legal Insurrection.
My favorite California post this year features “pillaging” in the headline. As I do love history, I have seen it used often…but never thought I would do so in this more modern context.
MOST CONCERNING POST of 2021
While COVID was the dominant topic of 2021 on my radar, I followed the US military’s adoption of Critical Race Theory and other woke elements with growing alarm. I fear this is an issue that will be of increasing concern for those of us interested in military readiness and national security. This is especially true for those of us serving or who have family members who are.
MOST PRESCIENT POST OF 2021
This summer, I noted that the Russian Flu pandemic of 1889 was traced genetically to a coronavirus that caused a very similar suite of symptoms, with the same effects on the population as we are currently experiencing with COVID.
A line from that piece stands out:
In a nutshell, the Russian flu evolved from a serious pathogen into another common cold virus. A glance at the number of deaths associated with COVID-19 within this country indicates that this virus appears to be trending in the same direction.
Even The Washington Post reports show that we are seeing the transition of a serious pathogen to one with a much more mild impact on the infected.
It starts with a sneeze, maybe a sniffle.
You think to yourself, it’s just mild allergies or a minor cold. You’re not worried about covid-19, because the symptoms don’t match up with the distinct, often severe indicators of covid-19: joint aches, violent coughing, a fever or chill, and the dreaded loss of ability to taste or smell.
But with the omicron variant now the dominant strain in the United States infecting the unvaccinated and fully inoculated alike, health experts warn the symptoms that previously helped people to gauge whether they had a cold, flu or covid-19 are no longer the useful marker they once were.
Dr. Anthony Fauci is the hardest hit.
MY FUN POST OF 2021
While my science and tech posts don’t usually feature memes, the piece I did about the FBI’s Entrapment Theater during the ‘Justice for J6’ rally was filled with hilarious takes. It took the edge of a serious topic, as it appears that the agency can only solve crimes that it stages itself.
PROPOSED WATCHWORD FOR 2021
As 2021’s watchword turned out to be apt, I will offer this one for 2022: VICTORY.
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Comments
Victory indeed.
Every morning I wake up hoping to smell something that smells like victory. Perhaps I have been permanently hobbled by the Corona, and you can take that either way.
I really appreciate your posting and hope to read more in 2022.
The article on Russian Flu was timely and encouraging, thanks for your efforts.
I’d love to see a headline of you moving to a state with a better chance of electing conservatives. It’s a waste of your time in Cal. Dems have the cheat so locked up they hardly have to leave their house to win.
Personally, I would love to move to an area where the politics is at least “purple” and there is a real autumn. However, that will not be happening until after my son graduates from the US Air Force Academy. But I am finally talking to my husband about an “exit strategy”.
I’m talking to my wife about the same from WA. Also my daughter who is locked into a crappy apartment near Tacoma. With what I’d get from this house, I could by both of us a house in TN or TX. I got a WONDERFUL surprise from her last night. She listens to Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro. It’s a start – I thought she was a liberal what with being employed by the medical industry. We never talk politics – so I didn’t know. MY KID HAS A WORKING BRAIN!
I think the SARS-2 virus took so long to join up with a common cold virus is because of Chinese genetic manipulation of DNA for their “Gain of Function” research.
One of their research grants spoke of combining it with MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome) type DNA and testing it on mice. Then it escaped the lab (My theory).
The inability of ANY researcher to find any natural virus that more than 95% similar tells us something, but all the DNA is found in other Corona viruses naturally. So it was their research/manipulation that created it.
The first virus SARS (Now called SARS-1) was found to to have a relative in the wild that was 99.8% identical, which would show a natural evolution/mutation caused it to jump species.
Since SARS-1 was natural, it self limited fairly quickly. That is what I think fooled President Trump (He looked up SARS I’ll bet.) to say “Very soon it’s just going to go away” because if it was natural as SARS(1) and MERS were, they “Burned Out” fairly quickly.
The ending of SARS-2 as a total menace is almost over. It will still be around, as it is now Endemic but it’s mostly a threat to the old, immuno-compromised, and the morbidly obese. Which no doctor or scientist will talk about, because we can’t hurt the obese’s feelings.