Noem more is South Dakota's governor a champion of freedom

Since governments starting issuing edicts to private businesses and citizens last spring at the onset of the Wuhan Chinese virus surge, most discussions among conservatives as to which state governor handled things best included South Dakota's Kristi Noem.

Noem, Florida's Ron DeSantis, and Texas' Greg Abbott are consistently mentioned as the executives who handed down the fewest orders and dictates, and let people make their own decisions as to how to best protect their health.

Abbott and DeSantis were initially overrated, because they ended up issuing some closure orders and restrictions before relaxing or repealing them, but Noem was consistent in her opposition to a heavy-handed approach. She basically trusted her constituents to do what was in their best interests.

The obvious common denominator for all three is that they're Republicans. Those in this area who were chafing under the mandates issued by Gov. Andy Beshear initially looked with envy to some of our neighbors, but even they ended up caving in to the fear and panic.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine was a disaster from the start. In fact, Beshear often took his cues from DeWine as to what to close and when. It was commonplace for DeWine to issue some order one day, and Beshear to duplicate it the next day.

Other neighbors, such as West Virginia's Jim Justice and Tennessee's Bill Lee, stood strong at first. Beshear even took to criticizing Lee for not doing unto Tennessee what he was doing to Kentucky. Eventually, Justice and Lee both relented and took steps such as ordering restaurants closed.

And when things began to open back up, Beshear publicly called out Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb of Indiana for his decision to repeal some of the restrictions, prompting Holcomb to retort that Beshear had his cell phone number if he wanted to call him in person to discuss his concerns.

Meanwhile, Abbott and DeSantis saw the error of their ways and took steps to reopen their states and to make sure that future lockdowns would be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. Part of DeSantis' motivation may be that he has presidential aspirations and is frequently mentioned as the GOP frontrunner in 2024 should Donald Trump not run.

All the while, Noem's fans pointed out that unlike DeSantis and Abbott, she had never shut her state down. They had flip-flopped on their stances, while she had never had a need to reverse course. She had come under criticism by some conservatives for her stance on not allowing biological males who identify as females to participate in women's sports, but her position on virus restrictions had been rock solid.

That all changed last week, when Noem made a statement that angered those who are opposed to any forced vaccination requirements.

A number of private employers are making their workers take the shots, as have some government agencies, and the federal government has mandated it for its workers and contractors. One establishment GOP big shot even proposed mandatory shots for public employees in Kentucky. There's growing pushback among people who have valid reasons for being skeptical of the vaccine's long-term safety.

This is something that Republicans, who present themselves as champions of individual rights, should oppose. The great state Rep. Savannah Maddox is pushing legislation in next year's General Assembly session that would restrict the ability of employers to require their workers to get the shot, and U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie is fighting against a military plan to require the Kung Flu vaccine for American service members.

But what did Noem do? She told people whose employers mandate the shot to find another job.

That's not always possible, for a variety of reasons. One is that there's incredible pressure being brought to bear on businesses to require their employees to take the shot. The federal government's edict extends to contractors as well as federal employees. What if it becomes required for any company who does business with the federal government? That would extend to all vendors, such as car manufacturers, office supply stores, and any other type of business you can think of. In addition to health care settings such as hospitals, there have already been reports in Kentucky of private employers requiring the vaccination. Churchill Downs is one.

But beyond that, not everyone can easily change jobs. It might be a job-seeker's market right now, but not in every field. It's difficult for some people to find jobs requiring similar skill sets to what they have, at a similar rate of pay, without being terribly inconvenienced by either having to move or by enduring a long commute.

Noem had an opportunity to establish herself as a true champion of individual freedom. The proper response would have been for her to say she'd be pushing for legislation to prohibit vaccine passports or required immunizations in her state. But she failed that simple test.

DeSantis may have fumbled early, but he's recovered nicely. He's worked against vaccine passports, even opposing the federal government's attempts to institute vaccine requirements for cruise ship passengers. With Noem taking a giant step backwards, DeSantis has established himself as the country's foremost champion of individual freedoms among the nation's governors.

So, while Noem may have once looked good, her recent gaffe leads me to say, "Noem more." No longer can she be looked at as a leader in the fight against overreaction. She's certainly taken herself out of consideration for any higher office. When Trump or DeSantis go looking for running mates should either of them get the presidential nomination in 2024, Noem's name shouldn't even come up in discussions.

Conservatives expect their elected officials to be freedom fighters. Time and time again, they let us down. Why is it so hard for Republicans to comprehend that their constituency expects them to act like Republicans and not RINOs or liberals?

Requiring Kung Flu shots is a liberal viewpoint. All we ask of our Republican leaders is that they don't act like liberals. Noem failed bigly in her latest test.

Math for covidiots

 To paraphrase Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, "I'm a writer, not a mathematician!"

I got A's in math when I was in school, but I never really had an aptitude for it, nor was it one of my favorite subjects. I was blessed with a great teacher in high school, a gentleman by the name of Russell Stamper, who made learning easy and fun through five classes in four years, but I knew early on that math wasn't going to be my strong suit. I performed well in spelling bees, but not in math bees, which were basically speed-computation contests.

Indeed, as I've gotten older, I find that calculations I could easily do in my head now require pen and paper. And computations that I could quickly solve in writing now call for the use of a calculator.

But I've still retained enough of the knowledge I gleaned under the expert tutelage of the man I still respectfully call Mr. Stamper to know the concepts behind current common societal concerns that are easily explained by math just don't add up.

Years ago, there was a series of books called Something for Dummies, where "Something" was some topic that might be hard to understand or comprehend. The books used simple language to make the complex understandable. So call this lesson "math for covidiots."

I've always been suspicious of the way the threat level of the Wuhan Chinese virus was determined. The metric used to determine a county's color code, number of cases per 100,000 residents, seems skewed to produce panic-inducing results in smaller counties, while downplaying the threat in larger cities. It doesn't reflect reality, nor does it provide a really accurate measure of just how much a community is being impacted by the virus.

The nice, easily-rounded numbers associated with one recent result show that if you take an in-depth look at the figures, using common math concepts I learned more than four decades ago, things aren't as dire as they appear.

One day last week, it was announced that Clay County in southeastern Kentucky was the state's leader, with 73.9 cases per 100,000 residents. For the sake of rounding, let's bump that rate up to 75.

The latest population figures from the United States Census Bureau, from 2019, show Clay County with a population of 19,901. That rounds easily to 20,000.

Now, it's time to do a little math. Both 20,000 and 100,000 are evenly divisible by 5, as is our rounded-up rate of 75. So an incidence rate of 75 translates to an actual number of 15. That means there were, on that day, 15 Kung Flu cases in Clay County out of 20,000 residents.

Next comes figuring of percentages. You determine percentages by cross-multiplying by 100 and then dividing. Divide 1,500 (15 x 100) by 20,000 and you get 0.075 percent.

You read that right. A fraction of 1 percent of the people who live in Clay County have the Kung Flu. Or put another way, only one out of every 1,300 people in the county are positive for what one friend has taken to calling "batfluenza."

When you look at it that way, is there any reason to panic? Does the county's threat level need to be elevated to red, with the potential of again restricting public activities?

We're constantly reminded to "follow the science" on everything from business and event shutdowns to wearing masks to getting the vaccine. Last time I checked, mathematics is a science too. And this particular science suggests that there is much panic over nothing.

I've long maintained that actual percentages would be a much more accurate accounting of just exactly how prevalent the virus is. But those numbers, when examined closely, don't justify the heavy-handed dictatorial measures that have been taken in response. Maybe if 10 percent of a county's population was sick, then there might be a need to panic -- remember that the most liberal estimates indicate that only about 20 percent of the American population has tested positive for the virus, and testing positive doesn't mean you're ill -- but less than one-tenth of 1 percent certainly doesn't warrant it.

"Discernment" is a word I've used with increasing frequency the past 18 months. People really need to take a discerning look at what the government is telling them, and question the information accordingly.

Liberals undermine their credibility with their lies

 Sometimes it seems like there's a race to see which entity is the least-trusted: Congress or the news media.

When putative members of the media spread outright falsehoods and make crazy untrue accusations against people they don't even know merely because they disagree with an opinion someone expresses, it doesn't help their credibility at all. It calls into question everything they say and every allegation they make.

Enter Jacob "Jake" Payne. Payne, a native of Morgan County who now appears to live in Louisville, is best known as the proprietor of the now-defunct blog and news aggregator site PageOne Kentucky, and a companion site focused on Louisville called The 'Ville Voice. His major claim to fame is going after Joshua Powell, former school superintendent in Montgomery County. For some reason, he's taken his Web sites offline, but he still maintains an active Twitter presence, which he uses to attack conservatives and fellow liberals alike. He's just as likely to go after Gov. Andy Beshear for what he calls a timid Wuhan Chinese flu response (seriously?), or Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer just for breathing, as he is U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie or Sen. Rand Paul, two of his favorite targets on the right. He markets himself as a political consultant, opposition researcher, and "journo."

Payne seems especially sensitive to topics involving the Kung Flu, as he has stated on Twitter that he caught the virus early on last spring. He rails against "misinformation" and claims that anyone who suggests publicly that people should make their own decisions on whether or not to take the shot is putting people's lives in danger.

And that's where this tale takes us. As noted here last week, GOP bigwig Tres Watson publicly advocated forced vaccinations of public employees, and he was called out for that anti-freedom stance here. And then after that, liberal Lexington Herald-Leader columnist Linda Blackford made mention of Watson's suggestion that schools be financially rewarded when their employees reach certain immunization goals. Payne is a big fan of Blackford's, so that's what kicked this saga off.

From my personal Facebook account, I commented on Blackford's column that Watson showed his RINO credentials by suggesting forced vaccinations. That comment set Payne off.

On his Twitter account, he launched into a series of bizarre and utterly untrue accusations against me. The only things he got right in his screed were that I'm fat and I disagree with him politically. Everything else he alleged was undeniably false.

I have never met Jake Payne. I probably wouldn't recognize him if I met him on the street. It's highly doubtful I have ever been in the same room with him. We don't move in the same circles. I avoid Louisville like the plague and only go there occasionally for work-related conferences. I also don't go to Frankfort unless it's for work purposes, and I don't stick around town when those meetings are over. I don't attend political fundraisers, especially not the ones for liberal candidates he'd be likely to attend, nor do I go to functions like Lincoln Day dinners or meet-and-greets. And I don't think he would have ever attended or been interested in any of the work-related meetings I've had in his hometown of West Liberty over the years. I certainly have never run from a room screaming in any instance, much less after encountering him face-to-face.

I have never seen photos of his deceased mother, much less distributed any in an attempt to harm or discredit him. I don't even know what her name was. The only autopsy photos I've ever seen were of Dale Earnhardt and Neil Bonnett, and that's only because they were shoved in my face 20 years ago in a NASCAR group I was in. (Something like how I couldn't avoid seeing garish photos and videos of Louisville basketball player Kevin Ware's gruesome leg injury years later).

Payne blocked me on Twitter months ago when I corrected an error he made in one of his tweets, when he mistook former Kentucky basketball player Fred Cowan with the former Kentucky attorney general of the same name, but I have sources who informed me of his tweet. Because I was unable to respond directly to him, I created a backup Twitter account and posted a reply. He blocked it, too, but not before doubling down on his crazy allegations. He claimed to have screenshots where I had distributed photos of his mother, and claimed he had sued me over it. Funny, I never got served with that lawsuit.

Think about it. If he can so easily and falsely accuse me of doing that, who else has he falsely accused? He's frequently made that claim, and not too long ago accused a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives of doing so. He even went so far as to call her a particularly vile name that rhymes with hunt.

I don't agree with Payne's world view at all. He seems to be one of the most liberal pundits the Bluegrass State has to offer. But we don't disagree on everything. Neither he nor I have any use for Jamie Comer, who now represents Kentucky's First District in Congress.

But if he can lie so easily and loudly about me, what else is he being untruthful about? How can he be expected to have any credibility when he got those accusations about me all wrong?

At least I made my point -- to him, directly, on Twitter through a backup account, and to the public here. He obviously has me confused with someone else. Spreading autopsy photos of a political opponent's relatives isn't something I'd do. Attack the message, sure, but in general, it's not cool to attack the messenger with something unrelated to the topic at hand. I don't believe in cancel culture. I don't want liberal viewpoints silenced. The way to combat free speech is with more free speech. I want liberals to have a voice. They let us conservatives know what we're up against, and the vast majority of the time they validate our positions and prove us right.

And proving our point becomes easier when the loud liberal voices tell outrageous lies for the world to view.