Here are a few things I read recently that I found interesting.

  • Derek Lowe wrote about why he’s not blogging on COVID-19 all the time, especially given that some people still think the vaccines don’t work or aren’t safe enough to give to billions of people. He notes that one can’t argue people out of a position that they haven’t arrived at by reason. And he then goes into some detail about the types of assurances some people seem to want about the safety of these vaccines for everyone, and notes how these same assurances can’t be given about common antibacterials, for example. The article is worth reading. For those who remain adamantly opposed to vaccination, I think a key question is, “How much evidence, and of what kind, would you need to see before you would support it?” I’m not saying everyone should be vaccinated – but rather that there’s no reason to adamantly oppose vaccination at this point.
  • From Twitter, this 58 second video on critical race theory is too cute not to share.
  • Rutgers Law tried to force student organizations to host events viewing events through the lens of Critical Race Theory in order to receive funding.
  • Finland is prosecuting a member of parliament and a bishop for teaching what the Bible says about homosexuality ; the charge is incitement against a group of people, though those charged note everyone is made in the image of God. One, Pohjola, said, “As a Christian, I do not want to and cannot discriminate against or despise anyone created by God. Every human being, created by God and redeemed by Christ, is equally precious.”
  • I saw this linked in a couple places and thought it was interesting – a study analyzed birth rates in the US and finds that car seat regulations probably reduce birth rates because it’s hard to fit three car seats in the back of normal cars. This is not a small effect; it’s likely thousands of births a year. I’m merely noting this because it’s interesting (and I’m a fan of surprising statistical effects) and I draw no conclusions about the merits of car seat laws.
  • The State of California has agreed to pay two churches because of its unconstitutional restrictions on worship
  • One US COVID tracking site is giving up tracking because case counts are going so low – the lowest since the pandemic began. The brief article makes a strong case this is due to the success of our vaccines.
  • In one of Al Mohler’s daily updates, he looks at the new three child policy in China (scroll down to the third part), and how it likely won’t have much effect because of a kind of “anti-natalism” that affects the west, too. We’re seeing a shift from seeing children as “incredibly infinitely valuable gifts, each one of them made in God’s image [and] given to society, to being additional costs and lifestyle encumbrances”. I’m convinced we see a lot of that in our society today. I know I had that kind of mindset myself when I first thought about having kids; I wanted to ensure the number I had wouldn’t be too big a disruption to the kind of life I wanted to have. Mohler notes someone who said, “I’m too selfish to have children”.
  • Another of Mohler’s articles looks at how the polygamy/polyamory discussion is now mainstream, making the New Yorker. This is part of the ongoing redefinition of marriage and family and is, as he also notes, already showing up in mainstream TV and advertising.
  • Bari Weiss has a guest post looking at what’s going on with race issues in medicine and it’s not good news.