Here are some of the things in the news that caught my eye as unusual.
I heard that an unknown bidder paid $518,000.00 for the football Tom Brady used to complete his “last touchdown pass.” I thought that was interesting, but also wondered if Tom Brady would stay retired or if, as so many have, he would come back before next season. As this thought was passing through my mind the commentator continued his story by saying the bidder completed his transaction less than 24 hours before Brady announced he was coming back. I laughed out loud (alone in my truck running errands). Now my mind (the river with many branches that it is) started going in all sorts of directions. Will Tom Brady offer to re-imburse the buyer as a good will gesture? Will Lelands (The auction site that sold the football) offer to refund the money? Will the football grow in value because of the circumstances?
Another thing that struck me was how anyone could afford to speculate with over $500.000.00 on a football. I am not ignorant about the value of collectables. I watch “Pawn Stars” and “American Pickers.” I am also anchored by the memory that when I bought my last house, I was required to produce pay stubs, work history, bank statements and more to be allowed to sign the next 30 years of my financial life away to purchase an edifice that the bank could take back if I missed payments. NOTE: My house cost me about half of what was paid for that football. NOTE II: If the check bounces and the football speculation is a bust the bank can “repossess the football” but still collect only about $25- $50 of the $500,000.00!
I know, that’s how the other half lives and I hope the guy who speculated on the football doesn’t lose too much. I just wish they would have released his name; I have some Norman Rockwell collectable plates I’d like to sell him, if the price is right!
Another interesting story is that biological men and boys, who identify as women and girls, are being allowed to participate on female college and high school teams. I ordinarily try to stay an arm’s length from these stories because it’s usually a personal choice that doesn’t affect outsiders, such as transgendered marriage or lifestyles.
I do have a great deal of sympathy for how this decision affects biological female athletes who compete against the transgendered athletes. In every case I have read about biological males who had mediocre records on, or were not able to make, the men’s or boy’s teams compete on the female teams and have great results winning and, sometimes, breaking long held records.
As our newly awakened society often does, the coverage centers in on the main characters- the transgendered athletes. We hear how they are trapped in the wrong body and suffer as a result. Little effort is made, in the stories I have read, to look at the other side of the story. There is no search into the high school athlete who has been successful her whole life as a result of training, hard work and sacrifice. The young lady who, at the apex of her career is forced to compete, under new rules, against competitors who have a biological advantage. In my research I have read about high school athletes who have lost scholarship offers based on losses to transgendered foes.
In the name of fairness transgendered athletes have been allowed to compete against biological females. A blind eye is turned to the gender it affects. Females who have struggled for generations to be able to play sports in school, to be able to compete for college scholarships and to achieve an equal footing with their male counterparts are now being deprived of those milestones they have achieved. Biological males are now allowed to cross that natural gender line by making a statement as to how they identify. I don’t believe that is fair in any way!
My daughter was a 4-year varsity college softball player. She trained hard from the first day she put on spikes. She fought to earn a place on the local park district softball team, then the traveling team, then the elite traveling team. She kept working hard and made the high school team and then the college team. After the achievement of making the college team she had to fight every year to maintain her position against talented newcomers. The competition was fierce among those of her own gender.
I look at my daughter’s lifelong fight to succeed in her sport and the stories I have read of other girls being deprived of success after the same struggles by, what amounts to, a last-minute rule change. I am disappointed to say the least. I wonder if we’ll have the same problem in a few years when someone petitions on behalf of the thinking robots?
The third recent story I’d like to touch on is the vaccine situation. I have said a lot about the vaccine, and there is still a lot more to say, but I would like to mention a couple of things here. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that, in their opinion, the laws they enforce to protect workers do not apply to workers who refuse to get vaccinated. The EEOC statement went on to say that when employers require all employees entering the facility to be vaccinated for Covid 19 workers who refuse can be sanctioned up to and including being fired. Thes statement added employers must “consider” reasonable accommodations. Finding this information after the federal and many local governments have started laying off, or firing, workers who refuse to be vaccinated is upsetting.
These are not workers who took a job that had a mandate that all employees must act in a certain way, and then refused. These are workers that, in many cases, are nearing retirement age and fear that the virus may damage their hearts (There have been thousands of verified cases, and many more allegations being investigated) or (In female employees) cause permanent gestational or reproductive problems. Some refuse the vaccination because of religious concerns (Some of the research for the vaccines was done using stem cells from aborted babies).
Here is a summary of some facts I am aware of that are not commonly reported. Many of the politicians calling for mandatory vaccines today, announced they would not take any shot Trump recommended when he was president- so much for not making the virus political. Millions of vaccinated people are testing positive. Tens of thousands of vaccinated people died of Covid. Many healthy people who dutifully took the vaccine died from it or developed heart problems shortly after receiving the vaccine. Every medicine advertised on TV must, by law, list possible negative reactions or side-effects, except the vaccine. Our government is still pushing for 100% compliance through commercials, mandates and coercion while vaccinated people continue to have negative reactions from the jab including serious heart problems and, in many cases, death.
I hope you liked my view of the strange news.
Please share if you liked what I have to say. If you disagree, please comment here.