BA.2 is considered to be more transmissible but not more virulant than BA.1. This means that while BA.2 can spread faster than BA.1, it might not make people sicker. Some scientists have called BA.2 a “stealth” variant because, unlike the BA.1 variant, it lacks a particular genetic signature that distinguishes it from the delta variant.
Commentary
On Gun Sales and Gun Violence in Pandemic America
For several years, the demographic profile of gun owners in the United States has been broadening as women and members of underrepresented groups started purchasing firearms. People buy guns more for protection than for all other reasons put together.
Ukraine War Kills Long-Spurious ‘Clash of Civilizations’ Theory
By Katherine Bullock “The clash of civilizations,” wrote the late American political scientist Samuel Huntington in a famous 1993 article, “will dominate global politics.” He predicted: “The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.” Picked apart by critics for conceptual and empirical errors, the tragedy of 9/11 breathed new life […]
The Jesuits, Lightning Rods of Controversy
Jesuits have worn many hats: missionaries, educators and preachers; writers and scientists; priests with the poor and confessors to the royal courts of Europe. They are also among the church’s more controversial groups.
Sunshine Sunday: Keeping Open Government From Eclipse in Florida
Today, there are 1,138 exemptions to Florida’s open government laws, almost 200 more than 20 years ago, and growing. The public cannot simply rely on the good-natured commitment of those in government to safeguard transparency. Sunshine Week is the collective national effort to keep government doors to the public open, and its roots began in Florida.
Mason-Dixon 2.0: Some States Make It Easier To Vote, Some Harder.
There’s been a good deal of crying foul about what are being called anti-democratic new state laws that make it harder to vote. But it turns out such laws might have little impact on voter turnout and vote margins in an election.
Sanctions Will Not Push Russians to Abandon Putin
Russians are used to turmoil and instability. They endured cruel social experiments during the 20th century, and the early 21st, performed upon them by their own political leadership.
Ukraine, a New Spanish Civil War? Not Quite.
Tempting as it is to compare the Spanish Civil War and Ukraine in how they drew foreign fighters, doing so does more to obscure than to explain either of the conflicts. In some instances, the analogy relies on distorted frames inherited from the Cold War; in others, it seems to be driven by blatant opportunism.
Corporations Are Using Inflation to Cloak Price Gouging and Score Record Profits
Low-income Americans are pinching pennies to feed their families and pay their bills. And while mega-companies can use their market power to raise prices and generate record profits, small businesses and independent retailers are struggling to keep their doors open.
The Risks of a No-Fly Zone in Ukraine
Implementing and enforcing a no-fly zone in Ukraine has significant risk for escalating the conflict. It would be the first U.S. imposition of a no-fly zone during an international conflict. It would also represent the first time that a nuclear power like Russia has been subject to such a ban.
How to Use Plantations (i.e. Forced Labor Camps) to Teach About Slavery
School boards are attempting to ban books that deal with difficult histories. Lawmakers are targeting initiatives that promote diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education. Such efforts raise questions about whether students in the U.S. will ever be able to engage in free and meaningful discussions about the history of slavery in America and the effect it had on the nation.
We Bought a Home in the Hammock. Vacation Rentals Are Turning Our Street Into a Commercial Strip.
Angela and David Bailus bought what they thought was their dream home on Hernandez Avenue in the Hammock. Now their short street is a cluster of vacation rentals that has changed the complexion of their residential serenity into a commercial zone.
Affordable Housing Is Increasingly Scarce. Where Are Renters to Go?
Workers have faced stagnant wages for the past 40 years. Yet the cost of rent has steadily increased during that time, with sharp increases of 14% to 40% over the past two years. Now, more than ever, workers are feeling the stress of the affordable housing crisis.
The Puerility of Putin’s Machismo
A scholar who has spent years writing a book on George Washington’s leadership and masculinity has no qualms about stating that, for that long-gone generation that created an independent country, wars didn’t feed their egos.
Understanding the Latest Oil Shock, Minus the Spin
Price shocks aren’t new. Viewed historically, they are an integral part of oil market dynamics, not anomalies. They have occurred since the birth of the industry. Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prices were climbing rapidly because of roaring demand and limited supply growth.
For the Flagler Youth Orchestra, an Unsettling and Emotional Moving Day
After 13 years in one location, Friday was moving day for the Flagler Youth Orchestra, which has been providing string-music instruction to hundreds of students every year for 17 years. Its director reflects on a transformative day amid anxious and enduring uncertainties.
Daylight Saving Time Sucks. Here’s What You Can Do to Unsuck It.
Is there something to be done to help to deal with this loss of sleep and change of body clock timing? Of course. The first step is increasing awareness and using the power of knowledge to combat this issue. Here are some quick tips to prepare yourself for the upcoming weekend.
I’m a Christian Mom. I Love My Trans Daughter. The State Sees Me as an Abuser.
Texas Governor Abbott recently issued horrifying, unconstitutional orders directing our state’s office of Child Protective Services to investigate parents of transgender children for child abuse. The only one engaging in child abuse here is Abbott — and his equally cruel attorney general, Ken Paxton.
How a Hurricane Fueled Wildfires in the Florida Panhandle
It might sound odd – hurricanes helping to fuel wildfires. But Michael’s 160 mph winds left tangles of dead trees that were ready to burn.Here’s an explanation of the role the hurricane played in wildfires that forced over 1,000 people to evacuate their homes.
An Ida B. Wells Barbie Is Nice. But It Doesn’t Combat Persistent Anti-Blackness.
Having a doll that honors Wells’ legacy can help today’s children “know they have the power” to bring about a better future, an Instagram account for Barbie said in a post. However, the mere existence of a Black doll does not combat anti-Black racism. Representation alone does not equal racial justice or stop messages of anti-Blackness from existing.
‘Trust Me, I’m a Politician’: Dr. Ladapo’s Irresponsible Recommendation Against Vaccinating Young Floridians
Dr. Stephen Playe, a retired ER physician living in the Hammock, questions the motives behind Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo’s announcement that he would recommend against administering the Covid vaccine to young, healthy children .
Support for Democracy Is Waning Across the Americas
People are losing faith in democracy throughout the Western Hemisphere. Across North, Central and South America, and parts of the Caribbean, only 63% of the public expressed support for democracy in 2021, possibly explaining the growth of support for authoritarian leadership in places like the United States, Peru and El Salvador.
Battles Over Book Bans Reflect Conflicts from the 1980s
The attacks on books in the 1980s bear similarities to the current attacks. Both object to the critical teaching about race and racism, historical as well as contemporary. Both accuse schools of tearing down America and weakening patriotism. Both object to teaching about gender roles, sexual orientation and alternative models of the family. Conservative institutions like the Heritage Foundation have been involved in both periods.
Conservatives Profit from Anti-Transgender Agendas to Rally Their Base
Anti-transgender health care bills and legal interpretations are part of a package of initiatives that mark 2021 as a “record-breaking year” for anti-LGBTQ policies introduced in state legislatures across the country. And 2022 is already on track to surpass this record.
Ukraine and the Fallacy of ‘All Lives Matter’
Every war brings out the best and the worst in human beings. Ukrainian resistance has been heroic and inspiring as Russia carries out its war crimes. But there’s also a strong element of bias at work in the public reaction. You know, the way a blue-eyed blond child gone missing will get page one sympathy while a missing Black child will be ignored.
‘We the People’ Are In Dangerous Territory
The state of the union is precarious because some of us have lost faith in democracy and have begun to flirt with other means to achieve political goals, other means to obtain and keep power, means based more on brute force and intimidation than on persuasion and compromise.
Death: How Long Are We Conscious For, and Does Life Really Flash Before Our Eyes?
Experiments have been conducted in an attempt to better understand reports from people who have had a near death experience. Such an event has been associated with out-of-body experiences, a sense profound bliss, a calling, a seeing of a light shining above, but also profound bursts of anxiety or complete emptiness and silence.
Zelenskyy’s Putin Antithesis: Grit and Grace of Leadership
Putin demonstrates a tendency toward authoritarianism in both political action and in political style. Zelenskyy, in contrast, presents a more modest and understated vision of political leadership – one more appropriate for democratic institutions, in which the leader is not thought to be morally superior to the governed.
Stripping Bare the Illusion That Sports Are Apolitical
FIFA has suspended Russia from international competition, potentially excluding Russia from the World Cup in Qatar later this year. There are several reasons why the Ukraine invasion has served to break FIFA’s policy of viewing national teams apolitically. The brutality of the Russian aggression is one, the self-evident innocence of Ukraine is another.
A Parent’s Counsel to FPC Principal Greg Schwartz: Accommodate LGBTQ Students, Don’t Suspend Them
Randall Bertrand, the parent of an LGBTQ student who was at the forefront of the effort to protect gender-identity rights in the district, recommends to Flagler Palm Coast High School Principal Greg Schwartz how to diffuse the situation at FPC after the principal opted to suspend student-protest organizer Jack Petocz following today’s walkout protesting anti-LGBTQ legislation.
Sanctions Won’t Topple Putin
Putin’s support was not so big anyway: why else would the administration indulge in massive election fraud? Sanctions that make Russians poorer are therefore unlikely to motivate them to vote differently.
Can Rich Nations Stop Buying Russian Oil?
Sanctions against Russia’s oil industry would have a greater impact than limiting natural gas flows because Russia’s oil receipts are higher and more critical to its state budget. Russia earned over US$110 billion in 2021 from oil exports, twice as much as its earnings from natural gas sales abroad.
Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis Are in a Race Back to the 1950s
Sen. Rick Scott proposes to take us back to the 1950s, that glorious era when Black people were beaten and arrested for trying to vote, when women of all colors were expected to stay home and raise the children, when Christianity dominated the culture, when gay people had to stay in the closet, and we lived in mortal terror of socialism.
Putin’s ‘Denazification’ Slur on Ukraine
The victims of the genocide claimed by Putin are Russian speakers; the Nazis he referenced are the elected representatives of the Ukrainian people. Russian speakers have more freedom in Ukraine than they have in Russia, where Putin’s authoritarian government routinely suppresses political dissent.
Who Is Ketanji Brown Jackson?
Ketanji Brown Jackson is supremely qualified. She has not just an elite education – she went to Harvard for both college and law school – she clerked for the retiring justice whose place she will take, Stephen Breyer.
Setting the Record Straight on Ukrainian and Russian History
Much of the history of Ukraine and Russia the public is hearing is incomplete, some of it is wrong, and some of it is obscured or refracted by the self-interest or the limited perspective of who is telling it. Here’s a corrective.
Taxpayers: Expect Serious Delays from IRS This Year
Over 15 million returns and 5 million pieces of taxpayer correspondence from 2021 sit untouched – including 6 million original 1040s. Amended 2021 returns are taking more than 20 weeks to process. It’s not just complicated returns that are getting delayed. Even simple individual returns are caught in the backlog.
At Least 650 Migrants, a Record, Died on the US-Mexico Border in 2021
A majority of people crossing the border are not from Mexico, having traveled instead from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. People migrate and attempt to cross the U.S.-Mexico border for complicated reasons, including violence and lack of work opportunities in their home countries.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on Ukrainian Nationalism and Separatism
“Russia and the Ukraine are united in my blood, my heart, my thoughts,” Solzhenitsyn wrote in The Gulag Archipelago half a century ago. “But from friendly contact with Ukrainians in the camps over a long period I have learned how sore they feel. Our generation cannot avoid paying for the mistakes of generations before it.”
Putin Orders Troops Into Ukraine: 5 Essential Reads
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a provocative address that could be construed as a pretext to war, claimed today that all of Ukraine belongs to Russia and formally recognized the independence of two breakaway regions in Ukraine that are controlled by Moscow-backed separatists. His government then ordered troops to those regions.
The GOP Is Using ‘Parental Rights’ to End Public Education as We Know It
The Florida GOP is using the Parents’ Bill of Rights to weaponize a minority of insurrectionist parents against schools, giving parents the right to violate privacy and autonomy where it counts most at school: between students and teacher. No wonder there’s a teacher exodus. It’s just what the GOP wants. Destruction from within.
How the Loudest Voices in the Room Distort Democracy
Not all voices are pitched the same. Amplified by technology, it’s easy for a loud and relentless minority to dominate the soundscape and drown out all other points of view. That’s not democracy. It’s a form of repression.
Why Calling Covid the ‘Chinese Virus’ Encourages Racist Violence
The way media frame, depict and describe events can have a profound influence on the public’s perception of those events. Researchers have found that audiences are prone to interpret media stories in the context of their biases, especially in relation to racial groups.
The GOP Is Now Openly Aligned Against Democracy
Majorities of Republicans report believing the ridiculous lie that the 2020 election was stolen — something not even GOP-led investigations have found a shred of evidence for. And an alarming 40 percent of Republicans now say violence against the government is justified.
On False Flag Attacks
In the past few weeks, U.S. officials have warned several times that Russia plans to create the appearance of an attack on its own forces and broadcast those images to the world. Such a “false flag” operation, they alleged, would give Russia the pretext to invade Ukraine by provoking shock and outrage.
Blue-State Cities Led the Wave of Anti-Asian Violence in Pandemic
Before 2020, the average number of Asian Americans killed or injured in anti-Asian attacks was just over eight per year. In 2020 and 2021, however, 49 were physically harmed, an average of almost 25 per year. Almost half of the anti-Asian attacks in 2020 and 2021 were motivated, at least partially, by anger and animosity associated with COVID-19, a disease first identified in Asia.
A Flagler Palm Coast High School Student’s Message to Lawmakers: Stop Policing My Education
A spate of GOP bills in the Florida Legislature seek to sever the trust and safety inherent in the confidentiality of student-teacher discussions, putting the safety of students at risk and further accelerating an exodus of teachers and other education professionals from the profession at a time of critical teacher shortages in Florida.
Women’s Freedom and Autonomy? Not in Florida.
These magnanimous Republicans will allow women and girls to have control over their own bodies until the fetus inside them gets to be about the size of an apple. After that, ladies, you’re nothing but a “host body,” as former Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva famously said.
When Presidents Lie. And Why.
Presidents who lie to save their own public image or career are unlikely to be forgiven. However, those who appear to lie in the service of the public are often celebrated.
Sarah Palin’s Appeal of Libel Loss Could Set up Supreme Court Test of Decades-Old Press Freedom Rule
Before the 1964 Sullivan standard Sara Palin’s appeal could potentially overturn, the libel landscape in the U.S. consisted of a patchwork of state laws that made it easy for political figures to selectively persecute newspapers and public speakers who espoused opposing or unpopular views.