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De Bruin wins monobob bronze, Canada roars into women’s hockey final

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BEIJING — Christine de Bruin wore an Olympic medal around her neck for the first time in her career, and the Canadian bobsledder liked the feeling.

“It feels awesome,” she said of the bronze medal she claimed in the Olympic debut of the monobob. “It feels heavy. It’s nice.”

No doubt, the feeling of two medals would be even nicer.

The native of Stony Plain, Alta., picked up Canada’s first sliding medal of the Beijing Olympics on Monday when she raced to third place in the monobob in a time of four minutes 21.03 seconds.

She will have a chance to add to Canada’s coffers in the two-woman event on Saturday. She said the knowledge of the track at Yanqing National Sliding Centre gained during her monobob runs should serve her well.

“It means that I have a really good understanding of the track and with Buj (Kristen Bujnowski), my brakewoman behind me, we have a very competitive push,” de Bruin said.

“Put the two together and we should have a great result.”

Kaillie Humphries, de Bruin’s former teammate, led a one-two punch atop the podium for the United States with a dominating time of 4:19.27. American veteran Elana Meyers Taylor took silver in 4:20.81.

Humphries picked up her fourth Olympic medal. She won two gold and a bronze in the two-woman event as a competitor for Canada before switching to represent the United States after the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

Elsewhere on Monday, Canada assured itself of at least one more medal in Beijing with a 10-3 win over Switzerland in the women’s hockey semifinals. The Canadians will face the winner of a later semifinal between the United States and Finland for gold on Thursday.

Canada’s women’s curling team rebounded from a three-game losing streak with an 11-5 win over Russia, and looked to even its record with a win over Britain later Monday. The men’s curling squad improved to 4-2 with a comfortable 7-3 win over Italy. And the nation’s snowboarders look poised to add to their success after a total of five athletes qualified for the finals of the men’s and women’s big air events.

Max Parrot will be looking to follow up his gold-medal slopestyle performance from last week with a similar result in the big air, and appeared on form after topping the men’s qualifier.

Parrot said he was “stoked” by his performance, despite making a mistake on his third jump, but said his focus was firmly on the future.

“I’ve got my ticket for the final so really just focusing on that,” he said. “That’s what’s important. It’s not to finish first in (qualifiers) or second or third, it’s to make it to the final.”

Teammate Mark McMorris was eighth and Darcy Sharpe finished 12th to secure the last spot in the final. Sébastien Toutant, the event’s defending champion, fell twice and did not advance.

On the women’s side, Laurie Blouin qualified fourth for the big air final and Jasmine Baird was 10th.

Seventeen-year-old Olivia Asselin also qualified for the finals of the women’s freestyle skiing slopestyle. Asselin finished in 11th after scoring a 64.68 on her first run at the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou. Megan Oldham, who finished fourth in the big air, did not advance to the final.

Humphries’ first gold medal sliding for the United States came after a trying four years that included an acrimonious split with Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton — the sport’s national governing body.

Humphries filed a harassment complaint with the organization in 2018, claiming she was “repeatedly and horribly verbally and mentally abused by the head coach.”

Todd Hays, who led the U.S. women’s team from 2011 to 2014, has been Canada’s head coach since 2017.

The allegations remain under investigation.

Asked if she had any words for Canada, Humphries started off by saying “not really” before continuing.

“I’m still Canadian,” said the dual citizen. “I will never forget my time as part of Canada, and I am so proud and honoured to still consider myself Canadian. I am also American. To me, it’s not a rivalry. I’m not picking and choosing one country over the other.

“Canada will always hold my past. Every single time I represented Team Canada, I did so with my heart and soul. The U.S.A. has my future.”

Toronto’s Cynthia Appiah was eighth on the 1,615-metre, 16-turn track located about 90 kilometres north of Beijing.

In women’s hockey, team captain Marie-Philip Poulin scored twice and Claire Thompson had a goal and two assists as the Canadians set a new Olympic tournament record with 54 goals.

“I know when you look at the Olympic scores, you kind of think it has been an easy road for us, but that could not have been any further from the truth,” forward Sarah Nurse said.

“We want to generate a ton of offence but we know we have to clean things up defensively. I know going into the championship (game) we will have to tighten some things up defensively.”

In figure skating, Toronto’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Unionville, Ont., finished a disappointing seventh in ice dance in what could be their last Olympics.

Gilles and Poirier botched a rotational lift, which was reflected in their score of 204.78.

Gilles fought back tears as she tried to explain what went wrong. Poirier said to her gently: “You were amazing.”

They could still capture a medal in the team event, pending the decision on the Russian team. Canada was fourth in the team event, but Russia, which was first, could be disqualified after it was revealed that 15-year-old superstar Kamila Valieva tested positive for a banned heart drug.

Valieva was cleared to continue competing by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday, but any medal she wins could still be taken from her.

Those issues will be dealt with in a separate, longer-term investigation of the positive doping test that will be led by the Russian anti-doping agency.

The International Olympic Committee said Monday afternoon that if Valieva finishes in the top three, there will be no medal ceremony during the Games. There will also be no ceremony for the team event.

Canada’s Marion Thénault was seventh in women’s aerials. Thénault, from Sherbrooke, Que., just missed out on the superfinal with a 91.29 on her second run of the final. Thénault was part of the team that won the bronze medal in the mixed team aerials event.

China’s Xu Mengtao won gold with 108.61 points in the superfinal.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2022.

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Brownstone Institute

Deborah Birx Gets Her Close-Up

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From the Brownstone Institute

BY Bill RiceBILL RICE 

According to Birx, she intentionally buried the more draconian elements of the lockdowns in text at the end of long documents, theorizing (correctly apparently) that most reporters or readers would just “skim” the document and would not focus on how extreme and unprecedented these mandates actually were.

Most Americans will remember Dr. Deborah Birx as the “scarf lady” who served on the White House’s Covid Response Team beginning in February 2020.

According to a recently-released (but little-seen) 24-minute mini-documentary, it was Birx – even more so than Anthony Fauci – who was responsible for government “guidelines,” almost all of which proved to be unnecessary and disastrous for the country.

According to the documentary, the guidelines ran counter to President Trump’s initial comments on Covid, but ultimately “toppled the White House (and Trump) without a shot being fired.”

The mini-documentary (“It Wasn’t Fauci: How the Deep State Really Played Trump”) was produced by Good Kid Productions. Not surprisingly, the scathing 24-minute video has received relatively few views on YouTube (only 46,500 since it was published 40 days ago on Feb. 26).

I learned of the documentary from a colleague at Brownstone Institute, who added his opinion that “Birx (is) far more culpable than Fauci in the Covid disaster…Well worth the time to see the damage an utter non-scientist, CIA-connected, bureaucrat can do to make sure things are maximally bad.”

I agree; the significant role played by Birx in the catastrophic national response to Covid has not received nearly enough attention.

Brought in from out of Nowhere…

From the video presentation, viewers learn that Birx was added to the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force as its coordinator in latter February 2020.

Birx worked closely with Task Force chairman Vice President Mike Pence, a man one suspects will not be treated well by future historians.

According to the documentary, “career bureaucrats” like Birx somehow seized control of the executive branch of government and were able to issue orders to mayors and governors which effectively “shut down the country.”

These bureaucrats were often incompetent in their prior jobs as was Birx, who’d previously served as a scientist (ha!) in the Army before leading the government’s effort to “fight AIDS in Africa” (via the PEPFAR Program).

When Birx was installed as coordinator of Covid Response she simply rehashed her own playbook for fighting AIDS in Africa, say the filmmakers.

The three tenets of this response were:

  1. “Treat every case of this virus as a killer.”
  2. “Focus on children,” who, the public was told, were being infected and hospitalized in large numbers and were a main conduit for spreading the virus.
  3. “Get to zero cases as soon as possible.” (The “Zero Covid” goal).

The documentary primarily uses quotes from Scott Atlas, the White House Task Force’s one skeptic, to show that all three tenets were false.

Argued Atlas: Covid was not a killer – or a genuine mortality risk – to “99.95 percent” of the population. Children had virtually zero risk of death or hospitalization from Covid. And there was no way to get to “zero cases.”

Atlas Didn’t Shrug, but was Ignored…

Furthermore, the documentary convincingly illustrates how the views of Atlas were ignored and how, at some point, his ability to speak to the press was curtailed or eliminated.

For example, when Atlas organized a meeting for President Trump with Covid-response skeptics (including the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration) this meeting was schedule to last only five minutes.

The documentary also presents a report from the inspector general of the Department of State that was highly critical of Birx’s management style with the African “AIDS relief” program she headed.

Among other claims, the report said she was “dictatorial” in her dealings with subordinates and often “issued threats” to those who disagreed with her approach.

Shockingly, this highly-critical report was published just a month before she was appointed medical coordinator of the Coronavirus Task Force.

A particularly distressing sound bite from Birx lets viewers hear her opinion on how controversial “guidance” might be implemented with little pushback.

According to Birx, she intentionally buried the more draconian elements of the lockdowns in text at the end of long documents, theorizing (correctly apparently) that most reporters or readers would just “skim” the document and would not focus on how extreme and unprecedented these mandates actually were.

The documentary points out that Birx’s prescriptions and those of President Trump were often in complete conflict.

Birx, according to the documentary, once pointed this out to Vice President Pence, who told her to keep doing what she believed.

Indeed, the Vice President gave Birx full use of Air Force 2 so she could more easily travel across the country, spreading her lockdown message to governors, mayors, and other influencers.

Several Covid skeptic writers, including Jeffrey Tucker of Brownstone Institute, have noted that President Trump himself went from an opponent of draconian lockdowns to an avid supporter of these responses in a period of just one or two days (the pivotal change happened on or around March 10th, 2020, according to Tucker).

Whoever or whatever caused this change in position, it does not seem to be a coincidence that this about-face happened shortly after Birx – a former military officer – was named to an important position on the Task Force.

(Personally, I don’t give Anthony Fauci a pass as I’ve always figured he’s a “dark master” at manipulating members of the science/medical/government complex to achieve his own desired results.)

This documentary highlights the crucial role played by Deborah Birx and, more generally, how unknown bureaucrats can make decisions that turn the world upside-down.

That is, most Americans probably think presidents are in charge, but, often, they’re really not. These real rulers of society, one suspects, would include members of the so-called Deep State, who have no doubt installed sycophants like Fauci and Birx in positions of power.

I definitely recommend this 24-minute video.

A Sample of Reader Comments…

I also enjoyed the Reader Comments that followed this video. The first comment is from my Brownstone colleague who brought this documentary to my attention:

“… As I said, things can change over the period of 20 years but in the case of Birx/Fauci, I do not believe so. I have never seen people entrenched in the bureaucracy change.”

Other comments from the people who have viewed the mini-documentary on YouTube:

“Pence needs to be held accountable.”

“What does Debbie’s bank account look like?”

“(The) final assessment of President Trump at the 23:30 mark is, while painful, accurate. He got rolled.”

“This is very hard to find on YouTube. You can literally search the title and it doesn’t come up.”

“Excellent summary, hope this goes viral. Lots of lessons to learn for future generations.”

“Eye opening. Great reporting.”

Post from One Month Ago…

“37 likes after 3 years of the most controversial and divisive action in recent history. How can this be?”

“Oh never mind. YouTube hid it from the public for years.”

“Probably hasn’t been taken down yet for that reason, relatively low views.”

“Thanks for this! Sounds like everyone below President Trump was on a power trip and I didn’t think it was possible to despise Pence more than I already do.”

“…the backing of CDC, legacy media, WHO and government schools, business folding in fear are ALL responsible. Accountability for every person and agency is paramount!”

“Should be noted that her work on AIDS in Africa was just as useless and damaging.”

“First, any mature, adult woman who speaks with that much vocal fry should be immediately suspect. And the glee with which she recounts her role at undermining POTUS is remarkable and repulsive. This woman should NEVER be allowed to operate the levers of power again.”

Republished from the author’s Substack

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  • Bill Rice

    Bill Rice, Jr. is a freelance journalist in Troy, Alabama.

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International

German parliament passes law allowing minors to change their legal gender once a year

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Olaf Scholz

From LifeSiteNews

By Andreas Wailzer

“An exception to the unrestricted change of gender entry applies to men if the request for change is obviously in connection with an impending conscription in case of national defense,” the NZZ article states. “In such a case, the gender entry cannot be changed. Men must then remain men.”

The German parliament has passed the so-called “self-identification law,” which allows people confused about their sex, including minors, to change their legal gender once per year.

vote in the Bundestag (German federal parliament) on April 12 saw the law passed as 374 MPs voted in favor, 251 voted against, and eleven MPs abstained.

The new legislation, proposed by Germany’s left-wing government coalition, will allow anyone to change his or her legal gender entry once per year by simply stating their desire to do so to the registry office. Parents can decide to change the legal gender of their children under the age of 14 with their offspring’s “consent.”

Minors between the ages of 14 and 18 can apply to change their gender entry themselves but will need their parents’ consent. However, in the case of a disagreement between parents and their children, a family court can make a decision based on the “best interests of the child.”

Leaked communications of top pro-LGBT doctors have shown that so-called “gender-affirming care” can cause severe mental and physical disease and that it is impossible for minors to give “informed consent” to it.

These doctors “indicate repeatedly that they know that many children and their parents don’t understand the effects that puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries will have on their bodies,” journalist Michael Shellenberger wrote in his summary of the leaked files. “And yet, they continue to perform and advocate for gender medicine.”

While the “self-identification law” does not include any provisions on medical interventions such as gender surgeries or puberty blockers, a website established by the German government has promoted blockers and hormone injections for gender-confused children.

The head and co-founder of the German pro-family organization DemoFürAlle, Hedwig von Beverfoerde, criticized the new law and pointed out that “socially transitioning” by changing one’s name and legal gender increases the likelihood that minors will go down the path of medical “transition,” even though most children and adolescents grow out of their gender-confusion once they hit adulthood.

“Even if the [German] government claims that the SBGG [self-determination law] has nothing to do with trans-medical measures, this law removes all protective barriers.”

“This is happening at a time when more and more countries are banning the use of puberty blockers, and the evidence from studies is becoming increasingly clear. Most recently, for example, a comprehensive study commissioned by the British Health Service (‘Cass Review’) shows that social transition with name and pronoun changes fuels medical transition and that most young people reconcile with their biological gender if they are given sufficient time to think about it,” she continued.

Von Beverfoerde concluded by calling on the German government to ban puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone injections, and surgical interventions for minors.

READ: UK’s National Health Service to stop prescribing puberty blockers to gender-confused children

Chancellor Olaf Scholz from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) welcomed the law: “We show respect for transgender, intersex and non-binary people – without taking anything away from others.”

“This is how we continue to drive forward the modernization of our country,” he added.

The law was criticized by the politicians from the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU), the Alternative for Germany (AfD), and the Bünsdnis Sarah Wagenknect (BSW).

AfD MP Martin Reichardt said the law was “ideological nonsense” promoted by “trans-extremists” and that his party rejected the “ludicrous law” in its entirety.

Under the new law, anyone who reveals the former name or true gender of someone who changed their legal registry can be fined up to € 10,000 ($ 10,672) if they share this information “with the intent to harm.”

However, as a report by the newspaper NZZ points out, in the case of war, gender ideology has to take a back seat.

“An exception to the unrestricted change of gender entry applies to men if the request for change is obviously in connection with an impending conscription in case of national defense,” the NZZ article states. “In such a case, the gender entry cannot be changed. Men must then remain men.”

The Self-Determination law is due to come into force on November 1, 2024.

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