Quote of the Day
The heights by great men reached and kept,Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Dumb Bleep of the Week
Soho Forum discussion of COVID with Tom Woods
I used to sample Woods' content years back in the blog. I originally followed because of some earlier books he wrote on the Catholic Church and Western civilization, the free market and on American history. I've had 2 unpleasant exchanges with him. The first was on Facebook. The context is Woods idolizes Ron Paul and was involved in Paul's 2 failed GOP POTUS runs. So one day Woods posted a birthday wish for Paul and unnecessarily took a cheap shot at Mitt Romney, saying in effect Paul is not a phony like Romney. Me, I have my own issues with Romney, but I try to keep my differences objective. So I posted a related criticism, and Woods pounced on it, calling me a Romney interloper and encouraging his minions to attack me. I broke off his feed for some time. Eventually, I moved on and started sampling his content again in the blog. During the COVID pandemic, he became obsessed with public policy restrictions, one motive for my clipping this "debate" event. Keep in mind Woods is not a credentialed emprical researcher; his schtich is graphs and charts compiled from third parties and namedropping befriended elite university skeptics. And I was on his referenced email list, and his podcasts and emails soon reflected his obsession. Me, I have served as a peer reviewer for academic journals and national conferences and have published my own empirical research. I have a special interest in methodology, including the apples and oranges of interstate statistics that Woods liberally cites here.
So I eventually tired of Woods' rants and wrote back to one of his emails, I seem to recall it had something to do with COVID and its questioned relevance to kids. I cautioned him to tone it down. I was actually surprised that he replied to my response. He pushed back with a paraphrased response of the type "Who the f*ck are you--a credentialed epidemiologist from Yale?" He pushed my buttons enough to the point I challenged him to a debate, which he laughed off, claiming "I don't debate nimwits." I once again warned him he was risking my following his content, and he responded by dropping me from his email list. I already get 500 or more emails daily, so I really don't miss it.
So I eventually tired of Woods' rants and wrote back to one of his emails, I seem to recall it had something to do with COVID and its questioned relevance to kids. I cautioned him to tone it down. I was actually surprised that he replied to my response. He pushed back with a paraphrased response of the type "Who the f*ck are you--a credentialed epidemiologist from Yale?" He pushed my buttons enough to the point I challenged him to a debate, which he laughed off, claiming "I don't debate nimwits." I once again warned him he was risking my following his content, and he responded by dropping me from his email list. I already get 500 or more emails daily, so I really don't miss it.
As you probably know, Woods' opponent had a family emergency and couldn't make the debate. Why present this clip? First, I've been covering SOHO events for some time in the blog, and unlike Woods' podcast, it's not a one-sided rant. Second, while I'm a COVID realist and pro-vaxxer, I do think it's legitimate to review effectiveness of public policy during the pandemic
Green Energy Guts Africa
Choose Life
Political Cartoon
Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via Townhall
Musical Interlude: Duos
Daryl Hall & John Oates, "Say it Isn't So"
