Cross-Examination

• American Spirit: FedEx snake handler: A dangerous prairie rattlesnake hanging out on a front porch was put out of commission by an alert FedEx driver. Delivering a package to a home in Sumner, Nebraska, FedEx driver Matt Govier spotted the lethal reptile and elected to go above and beyond the call of duty, quickly dispatching the critter with tools from the nearby garage. Govier then texted the home owner: “I hope you didn’t have a pet rattlesnake at your front door because I killed him. Sorry about the blood.” The homeowner, Christie Jones, responded by calling for Govier to be named the “FedEx employee of the year.” She also noted that she wasn’t home at the time, “but my daughter had just left out this front door 23 minutes before it slithered up my step. Eeeeek.”

• Back in masks: Several universities and colleges, as well as at least one Hollywood studio, are reimposing mandatory masking over reports of a minimal uptick in COVID cases. Morris Brown College in Atlanta is requiring students and staff to wear masks at all times, except staff can remove their masks “in their offices while alone.” Rutgers University and Georgetown University are requiring “indoor masking” as well as proof of vaccination for all students. Out in Hollywood, Lionsgate studio is requiring that “employees must wear a medical grade face covering (surgical mask, KN95 or N95) when indoors except when alone in an office with the door closed, actively eating, actively drinking at their desk or workstation, or if they are the only individual present in a large open workspace.” Maybe Lionsgate can be given a pass for this masking theater since it is a movie company. But make no mistake: It is theater. COVID has become endemic, and many randomized controlled studies on the efficacy of masking during the pandemic found that “wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference” for the transmission rates. In other words, these masking mandates are not being driven by science or data but by the desire to impose a political ideology that eschews individual liberty in favor of rule by a class of self-declared authoritarian elites.

• How many are gang bangers? A recent analysis conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 2021 set a record of 4,752 minors killed with firearms. The analysis unsurprisingly noted that over 80% of those killed with a firearm were males 19 and younger. Of those males killed with firearms, a higher percentage of black males died due to homicide, whereas a higher percentage of white male deaths with guns was attributed to suicide. Pushing the anti-Second Amendment lobby’s false talking point that guns are a “public health crisis,” pediatric trauma surgeon and lead author of the study Dr. Chethan Sathya asserted: “The most likely reason that your child will die in this country is at the hands of a firearm. That’s not acceptable.” That’s not rational or realistic; it’s simply fearmongering. Of course, the biggest problem with this claim is one of missing context. How many of these minors — the vast majority of those killed (82.6%) were age 15 to 19 — were engaged in criminal activity? Furthermore, the misleading “gun violence” term is used to dismiss the notion of individual culpability. This is not a health crisis but a behavioral one. The issue is not firearms. The issue is a growing number of young people are motivated to kill others or themselves. This analysis justifies the objection of Second Amendment advocates to allowing the CDC to conduct firearms-related studies. Firearms are not a disease, nor are they health related. They are simply tools.

• “Follow the science”: Science is not religion, but a recent study found that science is increasingly being used in an effort to establish dogma. According to the study, over the last two decades, scientific literature has increasingly embraced language that implies certainty rather than the more scientifically accurate and humble language of possibility. For example, the study notes that the frequency of words like “might” and “probability” used in scientific papers has decreased by 40%. Some fear that this trend will lead to an increasing number of unreliable and exaggerated claims. Indeed, the history of unreliable and exaggerated claims of many climate change scientists would appear to confirm this fear. Looking at the study, linguist Ken Hyland contends that one of the likely motives for this change of language used is “an increasing reluctance to undersell one’s research in a competitive academic world.” In other words, if making grandiose claims is the way to get noticed, then it might explain why this rhetorical game has gained traction within scientific literature.

• $80K or else: Thanks to Bidenflation, the annual salary demand for workers being wooed to switch to another job has risen by 8% in just one year to an average of $78,645. That represents the highest one-year jump since the data set was first collected back in 2014. Since COVID, the average salary demands for switching jobs has risen 22%. Most of this increase can be tied directly to increasing cost of living. At the same time, the likelihood that people would switch jobs has fallen down to 10.6% from 11% a year ago. Meanwhile, the amount of money that companies have to entice workers to switch jobs is drying up, as companies have been decreasing the size of salaries offered.

Headlines

• What to watch for in Wednesday’s GOP primary debate (Just the News)

• Biden family huddles in secrecy in exclusive Lake Tahoe home amid special counsel investigation into Hunter (Fox News)

• Biden’s vacation under investigation after POTUS rented $18 million home (Daily Caller)

• FEMA officials are staying at $1,000-a-night luxury hotels in Maui amid recovery efforts in Lahaina (Daily Mail)

• With church salary, Raphael Warnock blew past Senate’s outside income limit in 2022 (Free Beacon)

• Looking for a new car under $20,000? Good luck. Your choice has dwindled to just one vehicle. (AP)

• Mortgage rates hit their highest point since 2000 (CNBC)

• Oliver Anthony makes Billboard history with “Rich Men North of Richmond” (Daily Wire)

• Denmark joins the European “gender-affirming care” backpedalers (National Review)

• Policy: Biden’s hostage deal would boost Iran’s threats (Daily Signal)

• Humor: Following tropical storm, California’s homeless begin the hard work of re-pooping all the sidewalks (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.