The floors in our rental house are getting redone Wednesday, which means everything on the main floor of the house has to be packed up and moved out of the way. Yes, this is disruptive, but not to no purpose. After three years here, and now with Biblical Training Group meeting here on Friday nights every week, we reckon as glad tidings even the moving of furniture, books, fabric, and computers for what we will get on the other end.
Discrimination, then, is not always a bad thing. For instance, discriminating against broken tiles and worn-out carpets is good. Discriminating against folks who refused to get the COVID vaccine, on the other hand, not so much. But the Canadian province of Alberta has a new premier in Danielle Smith, and she has some thoughts on adding vaccination status to the Alberta Human Rights Act.
Speaking of human rights, an MSNBC pollster recently made what was doubtless, to the folks on the Left anyway, an alarming discovery. That is, Gen Z might just be against feminism. Coming of age amidst the #MeToo movement, several responders expressed ambivalence, and one even used the language of 'extremism' to describe what she's observed in popular women's empowerment drives.
But mortgage rates have now risen past 7% according to The Washington Post. And what this means is that homebuyers will not be buying like they were, nor will home-sellers be selling like they were. As a result, the inventory will increase, of both people wanting to buy and sell homes, as well as homes available to purchase. Consequently, the asking price of homes will have to come down even as both the inventory and mortgage rates goes up.
The good news is that the latest polling for the mid-term elections here in the U.S. next week shows Republicans have a good chance of retaking both the House and Senate, as well as picking up five state governorships - in Wisconsin, Oregon, Nevada, Michigan, and Kansas specifically - for a net increase of 3 states nationwide, even as Maryland and Massachusetts are slated to flip blue.
But Kathy Hochul, New York's Democrat governor, says she's an underdog in her bid for retaining office in a state that's not seen a Republican governor in 14 years, despite an RCP average of 7.3 points lead over Lee Zeldin. But why do we care so much who the underdog is or isn't?
Speaking of underdogs, Elon Musk now officially owns Twitter, as of SEC filings Thursday. But lest we suppose this will translate into an anything-goes hellscape, he's announced the outlines of a new content moderation strategy. Don't feed the trolls. This is fine by me, generally speaking. The important question is whether cross-examination of opposing viewpoints will be permitted to the end of truth and goodness getting a hearing again in the public square.
