Since Lloyd went all Fanboy on Petey Buttigieg and how he, as the US Secretary of Transportation, I had to comment on it here (“Another Word for Life Is Risk and You Can’t Eliminate It“) that with a computed risk percentage of 0.0117%:
You said 20K in the first half of 2021 – double it for the sake of argument to 40K. In a country of 340,000,000 people. That risk statistic, simply put, a ratio of 0.0117%…Life IS Risk.
And then Blue_Oak decided to take Lloyd to task for another kind of number – trying to compare apples to oranges and still have something to rant about. #Fail on Lloyd for cherrypicking (reformatted, emphasis mine):
…the increase over the previous year, 18.4%, is the largest since they started collecting the data.
Some context, please. We were coming out of a virus lock-down. No big surprise traffic deaths rose dramatically. Traffic volume fell so dramatically during the lock down that many Governors are demanding large refunds for customers from Auto Insurance companies. And many companies had even already unilaterally done so – we got a refund.
“I am increasingly optimistic that Pete Buttigieg might actually do something about this.”
– The TH promo email sub-head
Except that it is well known (political patronage) Secretary Buttigieg had largely been missing in action for several months. (It was OK for a TH story to point out Senator Cruz was out of town when Texas lost power even tho Senator Cruz was not even otherwise mentioned in that story. But this story is actually about Secretary Buttigieg.)
How about some apolitical (per TH’s founder) consistency?
Indeed. It’s like when the Renewables folks say “this year renewables grew 20%, 30%, 60%, 90%…”. Well sure, when you’re starting from zero, any increase in actual increase in absolute numbers is going to look large percentage. Blue_Oak is absolutely correct and if you go to the post, Lloyd remains silent on this. Getting slapped around mathematically, especially since a Professor of Architecture is supposed to know math, was rather interesting – it most likely left a mark.
So I gave an assist:
Yeah, didn’t you just LOVE that picture of him and his husband in that hospital bed for a photo op with their new kids?
Quick note:
How about some apolitical (per TH’s founder) consistency?
Yeah, well since then, TH has oft made is clear that they expect their leaders (aka, elected representatives) to put their worldview foremost and use the Force of Government to have everyone else Obey.
That, my friend, is the height of being involved in Politics. They’ve realized that most people don’t share their concerns TO THE POINT THEY DO – they must be told what to do either by removing Choice from their lives or by suffering some penalty from their “sin of not caring”.
Personal persuation? They’ve realized that their ideas are so bad to most that they have gravitated to using politics to FORCE people to do what they want. In essence, they believe in their “Utopia” so deeply they are absolutely willing to go Full Authoritarian to get it. They are as much “missionaries” as Nitzkahon as noted for a lot of Socialists and Communists. Their ideas as SO good that they have to force people into their systems – and use MORE force to keep them from leaving for the sake of “Unity” (the old “beatings will continue until Morale improves”). Like here.
And the THers (including Lloyd of “Eat the Rich” fame) are getting more and more strident – the Eco-Socialist mask is dropping more and more. Different emphasis but same result – you WILL live as we tell you to do and you will ENJOY it!
They used to say “this isn’t political” (just like the Mandatory Mask totalitarians using Government to issue said mandates) – the pretense has worn thin.
You know it’s political just from knowing that Lloyd is pinning his hopes on a small town politician that failed FAR upward than his capabilities.
