Finding a magazine article at PubMed does not mean that the article is any good

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) has an amazing medical database called PubMed, whose home page explains that:  

 

“PubMed comprises more than 32 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.”

 

Its companion, PubMed Central (aka PMC) is smaller, with only 7.1 million articles. The PMC home page explains that:

 

“PubMed Central (PMC) is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM).”

 

These databases are the crown jewels of the world’s medical literature, and contradict silly claims by libertarians that government never ever can do anything better than the private sector could.   

  

At the McGill Office for Science and Society on June 10, 2021 there is an article by Jonathan Jarry (who writes about critical thinking) titled Finding a paper on PubMed does not mean the paper is any good. He wrote it as a reply to encountering the argument that if an article is listed there, then it must be good and trustworthy. Jonathan notes that there are more than a few stinkers listed in PubMed, and even some articles from predatory journals (low-quality academic magazines catering to those researchers who need to publish so they do not perish). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He says you can think of PubMed as being like a Google search engine for the life sciences, (a vacuum cleaner which sucks up everything, as is shown above).

 

Conversely, PubMed does not cover everything. Reputable polling organizations like Gallup, Pew, and YouGov put their stuff out on the web, not into medical magazines. So, if you wanted to know if Gallup had ever done a survey on fear of public speaking, then you could Google to find the well-known article by Geoffrey Brewer on March 19, 2001 titled Snakes Top List of Americans’ Fears.

 

You really need a whole box of search tools. On April 25, 2021 I blogged about how The Joy of Search, a 2019 book by Daniel M. Russell, is an extremely useful guide about how to do research both offline and online.

 

Images of the NLM building and a Numatic Henry vacuum cleaner both came from Wikimedia Commons.

Another Dilbert cartoon about Zoom backgrounds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On June 21, 2021 I blogged about a Dilbert Cartoon about Zoom Backgrounds. The next day, June 22, he had another cartoon titled Zoom Background Say A Lot with the following dialogue:

 

Dogbert: Your video call background needs improvement. I’ll fill your shelves with sports trophies, plus photos of you shaking hands with Jesus.

Dilbert: Who would believe I shook hands with Jesus?

Dogbert: The same people who believe you won lots of sports trophies.

 

The image of trophies was cropped from this image by Slayym at Wikimedia Commons.

 

Giving a better wedding speech or toast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the New York Times on June 15, 2021 there is a succinct article by Dina Gachman titled Struggling to write a wedding speech? It’s all in the details. Her main points are:

 

Ask yourself, ‘why me?’

Don’t do it alone

Ditch the thank yous

Find a theme

Cut the cliches

Know your audience

Keep it short, and speak up

 

Of course Brides magazine has articles. On April 2, 2021 there is one by Elizabeth Mitchell titled Public speaking experts share how to give a killer wedding speech. But the web address more helpfully has amazing rather than killer in the title.

 

Back on July 1, 2014 there was a brief press release from Toastmasters International titled 10 Tips for the Perfect Wedding Toast. An edited version with 9 tips later appeared on page 8 of the July 2019 issue of Toastmaster magazine, titled Tips for the Perfect Wedding Toast. It left out Tip #8:

 “Limit alcohol consumption. You'll want to be in top form when delivering the toast.”

 

Wedding toasts or speeches are one type of speech for special occasions. In this blog I have discussed introductions repeatedly, but not many other types. The December 2016 issue of Toastmaster magazine has an article on pages 22 to 25 by Maureen Zappala titled It’s a Special Occasion which discusses their former advanced manual, Speeches for Special Occasions.

 

The 1881 painting by Wojciech Piechowski of a wedding toast was cropped from an image at Wikimedia Commons.

 

Donald Trump and his zombie 2020 reelection campaign

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just before Halloween, on October 25, 2020, the Trump re-election campaign posted a 15-second YouTube video mocking Joe Biden that is titled How to spot a zombie.

 

But now Trump is the zombie for continuing with his reelection campaign. He really did lose on January 6, 2021. But he keeps lying that he didn’t. So, on May 6, 2021 there is an article by Hope Yen titled AP Fact Check: Yes, Trump lost election despite what he says. Still, at the Washington Times on June 21, 2021, there is another article by Seth McLaughlin titled ‘I have not conceded’: Trump stands firm on stolen election charge. The Donald truly is nuttier than a fresh jar of Skippy. I guess we need to keep reminding him both that “You’re fired!” and “The tribe has spoken.”

 

The zombie silhouette was adapted from one at Openclipart.

 

More Americans are afraid of public speaking than of being judged, but they are only slightly afraid of public speaking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have read many articles about the fear of public speaking. Some say it comes from the fear of being judged. For example, an article by Ashley Stahl at SoFi on April 15, 2021 titled 5 Steps to overcome your fear of public speaking says:

 

“….Before large speaking engagements of my own, I have often wondered, where does all this fear come from? And is it really as simple as being afraid of speaking in public?

Upon reflection, I realized it’s not actually about the fear of public speaking itself; it’s about a fear of being judged, humiliated, or being ostracized from a group of friends.”

 

Articles often say that, based on a survey, some percentage of people fear public speaking. (The one at SoFi says incorrectly that it is 77% of the U.S. population). However, I don’t recall seeing any give a percentage for the fear of being judged.

 

But the 2015 Chapman Survey of American Fears had asked in detail about being judged. All their surveys can be found via the home page for The Division on the Study of American Fears. If you go to the FAQ page, you can find all the data from the 2015 survey (Wave 2) in a .pdf file.

 

Their October 13, 2015 blog post titled America’s Top Fears 2015 lists a half dozen fears near the bottom of the list under the Fear Domain titled Judgment of Others (Weight, Appearance, Age, Race, Gender, Dress). But they forgot to include just Being Judged by Others. Three other related fears (Dismissed by Others, Ridicule, Gossip) are under another Fear Domain titled Daily Life. Those three related fears were relabeled to summarize: Dismissed by Others is Not being taken seriously, Ridicule is Being laughed at, and Gossip is Others talking about you behind your back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of those fears are shown above via a bar chart for their valid percentages, and compared with the fear of public speaking, 28.4%. The highest other fear is 12.5% for Not being taken seriously (aka Dismissed), followed by 11.4% for Being judged for your weight, 10.6% for Being laughed at (aka Ridicule) and 9.8% for Being judged by others.

 

That Chapman survey asked about four levels of fear: Very Afraid, Afraid, Slightly Afraid, and Not Afraid. Raw data include a percentage labeled System for people who answered Don’t Know. The valid percent column in the data tables come from rescaling as 100x(Raw percent)/(Raw Percent – System) to put them on a zero to 100 percent scale. The blog post lists the valid percent for the sum of Very Afraid and Afraid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another bar chart shows the valid percentages for the grand sum of Very Afraid, Afraid, and Slightly Afraid. Public speaking at 60% was first, followed by 37.2% for Not being taken seriously (aka Dismissed), 34.9% for Being judged by others, 31.9% for Being laughed at (aka Ridicule) and 31.4% for Being judged for your weight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is another useful way to describe the Chapman data - via Fear Scores. Instead of percentages we can put results on a scale where 1 = Not Afraid, 2 = Slightly Afraid, 3 = Afraid, and 4 = Very Afraid. Psychologists call these fear survey schedules. On October 30, 2015 I blogged about how to do this with the Chapman data in a post titled According to the 2015 Chapman Survey of American Fears, adults are less than Afraid of federal government Corruption and only Slightly Afraid of Public Speaking. Results are shown above on yet another bar chart. Public speaking has a Fear Score of 2.022 (barely above Slightly Afraid), followed by even lower scores of 1.538 for Not being taken seriously (aka Dismissed), 1.476 for Being judged by others, 1.47 for Being judged for your weight, and 1.459 for Being laughed at (aka Ridicule).

 

The image of a judge was adapted from a Pearson Scott Foresman line drawing at Wikimedia Commons.

 

Dilbert cartoon about Zoom backgrounds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s Dilbert cartoon is titled Zoom Background Designer. The dialogue is as follows:

Dogbert: The background of your video calls says a lot about you. For example, it’s obvious you have no woman in your life, and your knickknacks suggest you are a latent serial killer.

Wally: Spookily accurate.

Dogbert: Exactly. That’s what we don’t want.

 

On March 20, 2016 I blogged about why you Don’t dress like a ninja when you are going to speak! A poorly chosen black or white background also can be awful, if your clothing matches it.

On May 8, 2021 I blogged about Creating wallpapers for Zoom virtual backgrounds.

  

The image of Vejigante masks on display in San Juan was adapted from one by the Eloquent Peasant at Wikimedia Commons.

 

Excellent advice on business writing that applies to speech writing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the back of the July-August issue of the Harvard Business Review, under the topic of managing yourself, there is an article on pages 139 to 143 by Bill Birchard titled The Science of Strong Business Writing, with advice that can be applied to writing better speeches. You can read it here at their web site. Bill discusses the Eight S’s:

 

Simplicity

Specificity

Surprise

Stirring language

Seductiveness

Smart thinking

Social content

Storytelling

 

The image was adapted from a cartoon at Wikimedia Commons.

 

Spouting nonsense: Sherri Tenpenny says the COVID vaccine magnetizes you

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes you cannot believe what people tell you. For handling our current Coronavirus crisis the last thing we need is useless disinformation. A web page at the Rational Wiki says that:

“Sherri J. Tenpenny is an osteopath and an American professional anti-vaccination liar…”

And there is a page on her at the Encyclopedia of American Loons, which never a good sign.

 

There is a three-minute YouTube video from June 10, 2021 taken from the Brian Williams show, The 11th Hour, on MSNBC and titled Conspiracy Theorists Think Covid Vaccines Make You Magnetic. Sherri spoke to a committee of the Ohio legislature and delivered information worth even less than the $0.10 her name might imply:

 

“Is it a combination of the protein which now we’re finding has a metal attached to it? I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures all over the internet of people who’ve had these shots and now they’re magnetized. You can put a key on their forehead, it sticks. They can put spoons and forks all over them and they can stick. Because now we think there’s a metal piece to that. There’s been people who’ve long suspected that there was some sort of an interface, yet to be defined, an interface between what’s being injected in these shots and all of the 5G towers.”  

  

On May 22, 2021 BBC News had a reality check article with a video titled Covid Vaccines: No, your jab isn’t magnetic. Joe Schwarcz of the McGill Office for Science and Society has an article on June 11, 2021 titled Can vaccines make our body magnetic? where his answer of course is NO! The Centers for Disease Control has a web page titled Myths and Facts about COVID-19 Vaccines. Under the question Can receiving a COVID-19 vaccine cause you to be magnetic? they have this  reply:

 

“No. Receiving a COVID-19 vaccine will not make you magnetic, including at the site of vaccination which is usually your arm. COVID-19 vaccines do not contain ingredients that can produce an electromagnetic field at the site of your injection. All COVID-19 vaccines are free from metals such as iron, nickel, cobalt, lithium, and rare earth alloys, as well as any manufactured products such as microelectronics, electrodes, carbon nanotubes, and nanowire semiconductors. In addition, the typical dose for a COVID-19 vaccine is less than a milliliter, which is not enough to allow magnets to be attracted to your vaccination site even if the vaccine was filled with a magnetic metal.”

 

Why can keys and other objects stick to your skin? At Skepchick on June 15, 2021 there is an article (and a ten-minute YouTube video) by Rebecca Watson titled The long history of people who think they’re magnetic. She explains that the skin secretes an oily, waxy substance called sebum. (Look at another article by Mary Salisbury at howstuffworks titled Sebum Overview). Rebecca explains that if you coat skin with baby powder, then objects won’t stick anymore.

 

The Center for Countering Digital Hate has a web page for their March 24, 2021 report titled The Disinformation Dozen (Why platforms must act on twelve leading online anti-vaxxers). Sherri is number four on the list of twelve who are responsible for almost two-thirds of the web disinformation.

I am awarding Sherri a special pink Magnetic Spoutly for her spouting a whale-load of nonsense.  

 

What mistakes should you run away from?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tips on how to speak can either tell you what to do - or what not to do. At CNBC on May 20, 2021 there is an article by John Bowe titled Fear of public speaking? The biggest mistake to avoid – and 5 things to focus on, according to a speech expert. He says not to highlight your differences from the audience.

 

A second article by Fia Fasbinder at Inc. on January 19, 2017 is titled Troubleshooting TED: How to avoid 3 public speaking mistakes, which are Distracting Movement, Filler Words, and A Podium-Shaped Crutch.

 

A third article by Kathy Caprino at Forbes on November 16, 2011 is titled Why so many “experts” are terrible speakers: top 5 public speaking mistakes. They are failing to:

 

1]  meet the audience where they are

2]  make a heartfelt human connection

3]  show respect for the listener

4]  inspire follow-up thinking

5]  leave a lasting message of significance

 

A decade ago on April 1, 2011 I blogged about the first, in a post titled Where is your audience starting from?

 

A fourth article by Patricia Fripp on June 12, 2013 is titled Ten pitfalls to avoid in public speaking. Her list of things to avoid is:

 

1)    Unclear thinking

2)    No clear structure

3)    No memorable stories

4)    No emotional connection

5)    Wrong level of abstraction

6)    No pauses

7)    Irritating non-words

8)    Stepping on the punch-word

9)    Not having a strong opening and closing

10)  Misusing technology

 

The cartoon of a running man was adapted from one on page 61 of F. Fox’s Funny Folk, a 1917 book of cartoons you can find at the Internet Archive.

 

Is public speaking the safest activity in the world?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I doubt it. But at Medium on January 27, 2020 there is an article titled What is the safest activity in the world? – Frances Cahill. She said the following:

 

“I have been researching the dangers of public speaking on your behalf, prompted by the usual reaction to someone being asked to speak.

 I’ll just die!

 After many years, I can confidently state that never in recorded history has ‘Public Speaking’ been registered as a cause of death!

 Never!

 I know you are thinking but when I start to panic – my heart rate goes up and my breathing starts to become labored!

 True! But if you die – it will be from a heart attack or high blood pressure, aneurysm blowing – all the other stark realities of terror.

 You won’t die because you are speaking in public!”

 

She never gave any evidence that public speaking was safer than any other activities though. I  instantly thought of four other activities which also may be relatively safe:

 

Birdwatching

Flower Gardening

Sleeping

Watercolor Painting

 

Except for sleeping they involve walking around, which like public speaking, possibly can lead to falling and being hurt (or killed). How common are falls? The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a website called WISQARS, which is an acronym for the Web-based Injury Statistics Query And Reporting System. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a WISQARS page for Leading causes of nonfatal emergency room visits. As shown above for 2019, Falls (8,049,882) by far are number one in the Top 20 causes. Birdwatching, Flower Gardening, and Watercolor Painting all might involve walking around outside, and even more risk of falling than Public Speaking.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is another WISQARS page for Leading causes of deaths. As shown above, heart disease is the number one cause of death (659,041 people) followed by Malignant Neoplasms (cancers, 599,601). Hypertension (high blood pressure) is twelfth, and Aortic Aneurysm is twentieth. Although sleeping may be safer (since you won’t fall), people do die in their sleep. An article at Healthline titled Sleep apnea mortality statistics and the importance of treatment says:

 

“The American Sleep Apnea Association estimates that 38,000 people in the United States die each year from heart disease with sleep apnea as a complicating factor.”

   

That’s only about 5.8% of the heart disease deaths.

 

Back on May 31, 2017 I blogged about Spouting Nonsense – Nobody ever died from public speaking. In that post I pointed out that a few people indeed had died of heart attacks and strokes while speaking in public. Some others were assassinated. It also goes the other way. On September 27, 2020 I blogged about how In 1912 a speech may have saved Teddy Roosevelt’s life.

 

I recently saw Cahill’s claim discussed on June 7, 2021 in a Public Speaking with Peter George podcast.

 

The 1908 image of prominent political orators came from the Library of Congress.

 

Multiple Intelligences and better public speaking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How can you get better at public speaking? Some might say that since it calls for a combination of wit (IQ) and grit (perseverance), you just need to keep trying. But what should you try first? It would be helpful to focus.

 

Psychologist Howard E. Gardner asserted that there are eight kinds of intelligence. There is a Wikipedia article on his Theory of Multiple Intelligences. He discusses them in a 17-minute  TEDxBeaconStreet talk posted at YouTube on December 10, 2015 and titled Beyond Wit and Grit: Rethinking the Keys to Success.

 

Logical-mathematical intelligence  is being 'number or reasoning smart'. It is the intelligence of a scientist or a computer programmer.

 

Linguistic intelligence is being ‘word smart.’ It is the intelligence of a poet, or a journalist.

 

Spatial intelligence is being ‘picture smart.’ It is the ability to deal with local space like a chess player, or a broader space like a sailor or navigator.

 

Interpersonal intelligence  is being ‘people smart.’ It is the ability to understand other people.

 

Intrapersonal intelligence is being ‘self-smart.’ It is the ability to understand yourself.

 

Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence is being ‘body smart.’ It is the intelligence of an athlete or a craftsperson.

 

Musical intelligence is being ‘music smart.’ It is the intelligence of a conductor or of a performer.

 

Naturalistic intelligence  is being ‘nature smart.’ It is the ability to understand nature.

 

Having a combination with most of these intelligences (the first six) will make you an excellent public speaker. There are large individual differences though. Think about which of your intelligences are low, and which are high. Then you can decide to focus on improving one or more of them. Look to others you know for examples of how you can get better. Try new things, and get evaluated on which worked well.

 

There is a 15 page pdf article by Kristi A. Schaller and Marybeth G. Callison from the 1998 Basic Communication Course Annual titled Applying Multiple Intelligences Theory to the Basic Public Speaking Course that discusses exercises you might try. Another 10 page pdf article by Julie Probst Wheeler is titled Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom.

 

 I didn’t start with much spatial intelligence. When I began writing this blog in 2008, only two of the 53 posts had graphics. Then I began adding photos, paintings, cartoons, and charts that would help communicate my points. I read several books about producing informational graphics, and learned to use PowerPoint and Photoshop Elements. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I discussed vectors in an August 10, 2016 blog post titled Just words alone won’t always work. Sometimes you need simple graphics too. As shown above, a vector has both a magnitude and a direction shown by an arrow. It can be expressed via perpendicular components which can be added. To get from Boise to Seattle, you need to both go west ~350 miles and north ~350 miles.

 

On June 7, 2021 I blogged about how Your speech has more reach than you think. In that post I illustrated multiplying time by persons to produce an area. In another post on September 2, 2018 titled An ineffective graphic about personal growth for effective leadership I showed multiplying three dimensions  to produce a volume.

 

This post was inspired by an article at SlideModel on May 4, 2021 titled Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences (8 types of intelligences). The image of an octahedron came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

Such Confidence

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s Savage Chickens cartoon shows that if you confidently talk loud and act proud then your audience will assume you actually know what you are doing - even if you don’t. Look closely and read the very small subtitle: "I am such a fraud!"

 

Your speech has more reach than you might think

 

At his Manner of Speaking blog on May 24, 2021 John Zimmer has an excellent post titled Do this calculation every time you speak in public. (He talked about this topic previously on February 26, 2016 in another post titled Every time you have to give a speech or make a presentation, do this calculation). John says to multiply your speaking time by the number of people who will be in the audience. He calls this the true amount of your speaking time. Doing the calculation will make you focus on your audience, each of whom are giving you their valuable time. For example, as he discussed in the earlier post, at work you might speak for 30 minutes to an audience of 20 people in your department for a total time of 600 minutes or 10 hours.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I instead call it the reach of your speech, in units of person-minutes - a product illustrated above in a graphic via the area of a purple rectangle. As a retired engineer, I think it’s important to carry along the units. That process is known as Dimensional Analysis. I blogged about it on November 25, 2020 in a post titled A million times too large.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How about a 60 minute speech to an audience of 120 people? Now the reach is 7200 person-minutes, or 120 person-hours, or 5 person-days. That’s huge! (Industrial engineers used to talk about man-hours, which are a sexist form of person-hours). Back on June 22, 2015 I blogged about Visualizing emotional equations with PowerPoint or flipcharts and also showed multiplication as an area to illustrate how Authenticity = Self-Awareness x Courage.

 

Is ten trillion dollars a lot of money if it is spread over the whole world?

 

Not really. It is difficult to make sense of abstract gigantic numbers. (Look at a movie clip from Austin Powers where Dr. Evil switches his demand from a million dollars to 100 billion dollars). This week Donald Trump issued a statement:

 

“Now everyone, even the so-called enemy,’ are beginning to say that President Trump was right about the China Virus coming from the Wuhan Lab. The correspondence between Dr. Fauci and China speaks too loudly for anyone to ignore. China should pay Ten Trillion Dollars to America, and the World, for the death and destruction they have caused!”

 

An article by Tom Hussey at the Express on June 6, 2021 titled ‘China must pay!’ Trump demands 10 TRILLION dollars from Beijing for ‘starting’ COVID-19 said he had repeated that number yesterday in a speech.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is in in for me? That is, what is my share of that amount? Ten trillion dollars is $10,000,000,000,000. The world population is about 7,900,000,000, so it’s just $1266 per person. But the U.S. population is 331,449,281 so, if we instead got it all, that would be $30,170 per person. (We are only about four percent of the world population).

 

Another way to put a gigantic number in perspective is to compare it with others. How does ten trillion dollars compare with either the U.S. National Debt or the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP)? A web page at Statista titled Public debt of the United States of America from April 2020 to April 2021, by month lists $28.175 trillion for April 2021. On January 8, 2021 the Bureau of Economic Analysis estimated US GDP for 2020 was $20.3 trillion. $10 trillion is about 35% of our debt, or 49% of annual GDP.

 

How about the Trump claim that the virus came from the Wuhan Lab? I think that’s highly questionable. China has a population of 1.44 billion, or ~18% of the world. Just by chance it could have come from there.

 

When Idaho’s Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin was Queen for a Day she issued an executive order getting rid of mask mandates

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Idaho politics has peculiar twists. An AP article by Keith Ridler on May 19, 2021 reported Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin announces run for Idaho governor. She was acting governor on May 27, 2021 when Brad Little was over in Nashville at the Republican Governor’s Conference. As the state’s Queen For A Day she issued an executive order, described in another AP article by Keith Ridler titled Idaho lieutenant governor bans mask mandates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When he got back, Brad hit the undo button, as described in still another Keith Ridler AP article on May 28, 2021 titled Idaho governor nixes lieutenant governor’s mask-mandate ban. (The ban might not even have been legal, as was discussed by Audrey Dutton at the Idaho Capitol Sun on May 28, 2021 in an article titled McGeachin’s order was likely unconstitutional, Idaho Attorney General’s opinion says). Anyhow, Little said that:

 

“ ‘Taking the earliest opportunity to act solitarily on a highly politicized, polarizing issue without conferring with local jurisdictions, legislators, and the sitting Governor is, simply put, an abuse of power,’ Little said. ‘This kind of over-the-top executive action amounts to tyranny - something we all oppose. How ironic that the action comes from a person who has groused about tyranny, executive overreach, and balance of power for months.’ ”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On May 23, 2021 at the Gem State Patriot News blog Bob “Nugie” Neugebauer posted an article titled Will conservatives shoot themselves in the foot again? Of course they will. He lamented about four of the candidates who had announced for governor, Brad Little, Janice McGeachin, Ed Humphreys, and notorious activist  (and desk-chair cowboy) Ammon Bundy. Bob commented that:

 

“We have Eddie Humphries (sic) who is supposedly a financial wizard with other people’s money but has never held a public….

 

Ammon is certainly a man of principle and a devote(sic) Christian so he will have a decent following but I still doubt that he would be able to win the independent and the moderate republican vote to take down Brad Little.”

 

I think Janice shot herself with that high-handed executive order. Late last October she also was involved with a Declaration and video I blogged about on November 5, 2020 in a post titled A childish, whining ‘Declaration’ about pandemic restrictions.

 

 As for Bundy, he had not even registered to vote, and also listed himself as campaign treasurer. An article at Wonkette on May 22, 2021 by Robyn Pennacchia was gleefully titled Ammon Bundy hates the government so much he wants to be governor of Idaho.

 

Images all came from Wikimedia Commons. One image was adapted from a painting of Queen Victoria. The DO and UNDO buttons were adapted from another there with an emergency stop button. Images of a foot and a pistol also came from there.