Bits & Bytes

CLIMATISM: More than 2.5 million people in Texas are currently experiencing rolling blackouts as temperatures remain in the single digits in many parts of the state. The Lone Star state is currently short of electricity because half of the Texas wind fleet (the largest in the nation) is iced over and incapable of generating electricity. Additionally, the natural gas infrastructure Texas has become so reliant upon has also frozen up.

Texas’s experience highlights the perils of becoming overly reliant upon wind and solar (which depend upon the weather) and natural gas (which relies upon just-in-time delivery), rather than coal or nuclear power (which store weeks’ or months’ worth of fuel near the power plant).

• https://www.americanexperiment.org/2021/02/texas-winter-weather-iced-wind-turbines-and-rolling-blackouts/

FAUCI: My grands in Texas have been back to school since August.

• https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/538813-fauci-stimulus-bill-needs-to-be-passed-for-schools-to-reopen

IMPEACHMENT 2.0: Nancy Pelosi is now the only House Speaker in U.S. history to have presided over TWO failed impeachments.

The seven Republican senators who voted Trump guilty are already facing backlash from within the GOP, where Trump remains a popular figure. Sadly, of the seven, two (Collins, Sasse) were just re-elected to six year terms and two (Burr, Toomey) are not running again. The most vulnerable one is Murkowski, up for re-election in 2022, followed by Romney, up for re-election in 2024.

• https://www.theepochtimes.com/republicans-who-voted-to-convict-trump-face-backlash-from-within-party_3696114.html
• https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/02/trump-acquitted-nancy-pelosi-becomes-first-house-speaker-to-bring-two-failed-impeachments/

MEDIA MALPRACTICE: At first I thought the nose should’ve pierced the guy’s brain. But then I thought the heart was more appropriate. On third thought … the dead guy should be dressed as Uncle Sam.

MINNESOTA: Following George Floyd’s self-inflicted death, Minneapolis was one of the stupid places where “Defund the Police” caught on. An unprecedented number of officers quit or went on extended medical leave, dropping the number of experienced officers available by 200.

The ensuing crime wave has resulted in the City Council voting unanimously to spend $6.4 million to hire dozens of police officers. With new recruit classes, the city anticipates it will have 36 new officers available by the end of the year, with another 28 in the hiring process.

I wouldn’t recommend anybody move to Minneapolis any time soon.

• https://www.theepochtimes.com/minneapolis-to-spend-6-4-million-to-recruit-more-police-officers_3695981.html

TEXAS: On the ground reporting from our New York offspring who married a Texas boy – “This is truly historic weather for us! We’re in single digits, wind chill is below zero, we got about 6″ of snow last night and due to wind, we have snow drifts. Something I’ve never seen in Texas!

“Ground is covered in ice under the snow so everyone is hunkered down. Rolling power outages right now. It seems the electric companies are doing a good job though. Power isn’t staying off in our area for too long. House is in low 60s so not a concern!! In an odd way, this makes me feel close to my home roots. And it brings me complete peace.

“Please do pray for those without warmth. There are more than two million people in Texas without power right now. This front is huge and spans across multiple southern states so it’s impacting a lot of people and animals.”

THE RIG: You can get an electric wheelchair for less, but at $4,750, this light-weight, electric, wheelchair friendly, legal anywhere vehicle, with off-road and storage capacity, is a bargain. Unless you want to hit the beach, then you’ll need one of the $17K types with dune-buggy wheels.

• https://notawheelchair.com/

TRANS: LGBTQ activists are trying to ban researchers from studying transgender people, lest they, horrors!, find some way to cure them.

I’m guessing they know perfectly well that they’re all damaged goods, not “born that way”, and that research that supported the truth would limit their ability to make themselves the most super special minority group ever.

• https://thefederalist.com/2021/02/15/leftist-activists-try-to-ban-researchers-from-studying-transgender-people/

VIRGINIA: The Sheriff of Franklin County and four of his deputies all welcomed baby girls into their families within weeks of one another. They got together to mark the rare occasion with this adorable photoshoot. The girls’ onesies say, “My Hero.”

• https://www.theepochtimes.com/sheriff-and-4-deputies-all-welcome-baby-girls-at-same-time-share-adorable-photoshoot_3509430.html

GRAMMY NOTES: When Dearest and I are eating together, we play a game of Backgammon, then a hand of Rummy. For Rummy, we started out making two house rules. One was that aces can be both high and low at the same time, so K-A-2 is a valid set. The other is that you can go out with or without discarding.

As we’ve played more, we’ve added a few new ones. One is if you accidentally throw away a playable card and notice it before your opponent does, you can call “Rummy” and take it back without needing to discard again. The “accidentally threw it away” part is an honor thing.

Also, I was really uncomfortable playing 6-6-6, so I asked if we could ban sixes as sets. He was fine with it. We noticed it added an interesting dimension to the game, since it made sixes safer to discard.

Yesterday, we added a variation that should make things even more interesting. Only three sixes is banned; if you can play all four sixes at once, then that is a valid set. 🙂