Let's Go Back Through the Listening Tube August 24-28

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Let's go back through the listening tube for this week in history.

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I'm Bob Woodley from the Listening Tube.

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The 1300s.

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This week in 1349, 6,000 Jews are killed in Mainz after being blamed for the bubonic plague. That century, about 25 million people died of bubonic plague, or more than a quarter of the population of Europe. More on that in a moment. This week in 1835, the New York Sun perpetuates the Great Moon hoax. Over the course of six days, the lowly New York Sun published a series of stories about an astronomer in South America who had built the largest telescope on the planet and thus brought the moon as close as a mere hundred yards as perceived by the human eye. The story, according to Britannica, described living beings on the moon as brown quadrupeds that looked like small bison or goat-like creatures. Long beaked cranes and large winged creatures that looked like a cross between humans and bats. The author would later claim that his stories were satire, but made no such claim while people were snatching copies of the paper off the news racks. Satire or not, people believed the stories. Even the New York Times said the story was probable and possible. Religious groups were trying to figure out how they could get to the moon on missionary expeditions. One person who didn't believe the stories was the master of made up stuff himself, Edgar Allan Poe. Poe claimed even his acquaintances would not deny the news. You might think that such a hoax would be impossible today, but we're constantly bombarded with absurdities by so-called news organizations. Like the great moon hoax of 1835, the media often take advantage of people's ignorance. It was hard to prove wrong the moon hoax because nobody else had a telescope described in the story. The claim couldn't be verified independently or disputed without evidence. Yet while we now have the world at our fingertips thanks to internet technology, while we have access to the most comprehensive catalog of information ever available to mankind, we still tend to believe what the media tells us, as long as it aligns with what we already believe or want to believe. Getting back to our first item, this week in 1894, Kidasato Shibasaburo discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in the Lancet. Originating in China, just like the most recent plague, it was spread throughout trade routes all over Asia and Europe. It only took nearly 500 years, but today we know it wasn't the Jews' fault. Bubonic plague is transferred from rat fleas to humans when the human is bitten. Humans can also get it through contact with infected animals through scratches or bites. This week in 1927, five Canadian women file a petition to the Supreme Court of Canada asking, does the word persons in section 24 of the British North America Act of 1867 include female persons? I wonder what the answer was. I'm going to look that up.

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He's gonna look it up. He's really gonna do it. I want the truth! You can't handle the truth.

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Before we get to the answer, let's hear why the question was being asked in the first place. Section 24 of the British North America Act defines who may be appointed to the position of senator. The five women felt that they may have found a loophole in the rules when the word persons was included in the description of those who qualify. Even though all of the other requirements use the masculine term he, such as he must be thirty years old, or he shall reside in the province for which he is appointed. But this was by no means an open and shut case. Many legal arguments and opinions were compiled and considered by the court. Many precedents were taken into account, drawing upon centuries of British law. In the end, though, on April 28th of the following year, justice would prevail, according to the Canadian Supreme Court, when they ruled that women were not, in fact, qualified persons as described in section twenty-four of the British North America Act of 1867. But that's not where the story ended. The five original women, Louise McKinney, Emily Murphy, Henrietta Edwards, Nellie McClung, and Irene Parlby took their grievance to the highest court in the land. Yes, there was a higher court than the Canadian Supreme Court. The Supreme Court to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council was the highest court in the British Empire. More than a year later, in October of 1929, the Canadian Supreme Court decision would be overturned, thus including women as qualified persons. Since 1992, October is recognized in Canada as Women's History Month.

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This week in 1941, Adolf Hitler orders the cessation of Nazi Germany's systematic T4 euthanasia program of the mentally ill and the handicapped due to protests. Although killings continue for the remainder of the war. Many people on the radical left have tried many times to find comparisons to Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump. They call him a Nazi. It doesn't get any worse than that. One of the ways they try to tie President Trump to Hitler is the claim that Trump is taking measures to intentionally harm people with disabilities through executive action and federal inaction. Anyone who follows politics in America knows that Trump has tried his best to put an end to diversity, equity, and inclusion practices and return to meritocracy. None of that has put an end to equal opportunity policies. All of those policies created to protect the rights of people with disabilities are still in effect. It was DEI that was giving people without credentials priority over those who do. DEI did absolutely nothing for people with disabilities that wasn't already covered in the Americans with Disabilities Act. As for DEI, it's an acronym with which we've all become familiar. But that didn't stop American Progress from making their own version of it just to weaponize it against the president in a way that makes it seem like Trump has a beef with the disabled. Like the alphabet soup that's come to include more than just gay people, American Progress added the letter A to DEI. What does the A stand for? Accessibility. Nowhere else have I ever seen DEIA, nor does accessibility belong in the acronym. But in order to compare Trump to Hitler, American progress has to embellish the phrase with which we're all familiar. Another underhanded way American progress tries to tie Trump to discrimination against disabled people is by claiming that, according to their website, the president signed an executive order in April 2025 that mandated that the federal government end the practice of recognizing disparate impact discrimination under civil rights laws. Key words Civil Rights Laws. Disparate impact discrimination is unintentional discrimination caused by seemingly neutral laws and regulations. American Progress's assertion that the executive order will negatively affect people with disabilities is incorrect. As, according to the Congressional Research Service, the Americans with Disability Act also bars disparate impact discrimination in public accommodations, disallowing criteria that have the effect of discrimination on the basis of disability. So, again, false claims by American Progress to make it look like President Trump is making moves to isolate and minimize the roles of Americans with disabilities. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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And if that wasn't enough.

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Just to add insult to injury, American Progress claims that the Trump administration's efforts to root out DEI, gender ideology, and sexual identity from policy decisions is also an affront to people with disabilities. They cite the end of funding for research with titles like Skeletal Health in Youth with Type 1 Diabetes and Gender Diversity, and partnering and programming for black, indigenous, and people of color, sexual, and gender minority pathway to HIV research. So while American Progress and the left won't admit that gender dysphoria is a mental problem, they want to lump them in with the protections afforded to people with disabilities. That sounds to me like an insult to people with disabilities. So the next time you hear that Donald Trump's policies are hurting disabled people, take it with a grain of salt. Or the whole shaker. When they try to compare Trump to Hitler, remember Hitler literally ordered the killing of mentally ill and people with disabilities. Follow the listening tube at thelisteningtube.com where you'll also find not the headlines and interviews with interesting people. Thank you for putting your ear to the listening tube. I'm your host, Bob Woodley, for Thou at Infinitum.