The Monk, the Kitten, and the Shinning Path of the Magical, Mythical Masks

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First, go read this. I’ll wait. <muzak> …</muzak)

Second: an organism can only contract Covid by coming into contact with sufficient viral load of the novel Corona virus to overcome the natural immune system of the organism. I ran that by my medical advisor who has medically advised me that that is an accurate statement.

Third: the following things, therefore do NOT cause covid:

  • singing
  • not wearing a mask
  • attending (insert gathering here)
  • having sex
  • standing within 6 feet of another person
  • Enjoying an adult beverage in a public house without, at the same time, enjoying what is describes as a “meal” by the local kleptocrats.

In the past week I have been informed by individuals with degrees from actual accredited institutions of higher learning that ALL of those things DO in fact cause covid. Especially the mask part.

In case you’re still missing the point here, go read this again. And stop fetishizing masks.

Europe’s Top Health Officials Say Masks Aren’t Helpful in Beating COVID-19.

Ignorance About Covid-19 Risk Is ‘Nothing Short of Stunning,’ Research Report Says.

The Failed Experiment of Covid Lockdowns: New data suggest that social distancing and reopening haven’t determined the spread.

Lockdowns And The CDC Data

Check out this useful, one-page capture of the key data about where we are on the Covid-19 situation. Wesbury COVID tracker — 6

Losing my religion

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If you’ve been reading my drivel for more than a year you know that I view the leftward lurching third of the country as religious zealots. The NICE thing is, this theory is catching on!

KATHERINE KERSTEN:  The Woke Movement is the new Puritanism.

Ideology, Religion, and Respect (addressing Trumpism as well)

Vice News Interview of Deceased Portland Shooter Is Quite Revealing — A Pathetic Psychosis Afflicts The Left. “It makes them feel important. It makes them feel like they have purpose and meaning.”

She blinded me with …

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SCIENCE! Actually I just felt the need to get something up here and I have a bunch of these links to get off my chest.

The Models Were Wildly Wrong about Reopening Too.

LOONY LOCKDOWN GOVERNORS MAKE A MEAL OF DEFINING WHAT A MEAL IS.

Or as America’s Newspaper of Record put it: Governor Cuomo Orders Restaurants To Put Pineapple On Their Pizza.

SPOILER: IT’S THE “PROGRESSIVE” LEFT THAT INSISTS THAT THE GOVERNMENT FORCE BIOMEDICAL RESEARCHERS TO USE TOTALLY UNSCIENTIFIC “RACIAL” CATEGORIES: Two Decades Ago, The FDA and NIH Mandated the Use of Race to Categorize Subjects and Report Results in Medical and Scientific Research They Oversee. It was a Huge Mistake.

Mayor: Health Officials Justify Mask Mandates For Political Reasons, Not Science

The land with no face masks: Holland’s top scientists say there’s no solid evidence coverings work and warn they could even damage the fight against Covid-19.

THE FEAR OF THE FEVER: how we are now living the authentic Victorian experience.

KAROL MARKOWICZ: All the COVID safety rules are little more than theater.

The Pandemic and Practical Wisdom

BAD SCIENCE DESTROYS ECONOMIES, LIVELIHOODS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES: Let me tell you a story. It’s about six passenger flights from Wuhan that led to an unprecedented global disaster.

AND that model was considerably saner than the one Colorado’s Paste Eating Polis STILL believes.

And I stand to pick up a few bucks tomorrow evening by winning wagers with a handful of individuals who SWORE back in April that the NFL would NEVER play this season.

Don’t know much about history …

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But sadly I still know more than most. And many will never know anything. And it makes communication hard. Time was when I could drop “Honi soit qui mal y pense” into a conversation with a group of educated people and get a point across quickly and succinctly. Even if THAT didn’t work I could drop in “oft evil will shall evil mar” and move on having made my point. But groups of educated people don’t KNOW those things any more. Do they even exist? I mean there are a lot of CREDENTIALED folks running around, but nobody knows anything.

Were I still in front of a college classroom I’m pretty sure I’d would be short lived. I was kind of a walking trigger warning. A student once asked an unintelligible question and I sought clarity. “‘Splain to me, Lucy.” The you male had no idea of the reference and was QUITE upset that i called him “Lucy.” After a three minute digression to explain who Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were and why my bon mot was an attempt at lightening the situation rather than an insult we moved on. But it only takes one or two of those in every hour of lecture to cost an entire hour of lecture.

MATT TAIBBI: Year Zero.

SO IT’S FICTION. BAD, DIVISIVE FICTION? AND WE’RE SUPPOSED TO TEACH IT TO THE CHILDREN, BECAUSE?  1619 Project Creator Admits “It Is Not A History” But a Fight “to Control the National Narrative”.

Fourth Grade Teacher Details How Schools Push Ban History And Leftist Agendas

FRANK FUREDI: The humiliation of Western history. “Those who zealously seek to pollute the past are very much devoted to gaining total cultural hegemony in the present.”

Deep Inside, Rioters Are Angry That They Never Learned Anything But Lies

Andromeda Ride sharing, part N

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realize I just touched on this a couple weeks ago but the events in California have forced my hand. I had a DOZEN links to stories regarding the coming implosion. We hoping U/L would just go black with a home page that said, simply, “Call Gavin” with a link to the Governor’s office.

Then this happened, at the last minute.

There are still some decent takes out there. This “unrelated” one: Students demand university offer ‘safe’ rides home at night after defunding police.

The next step COULD be: Anti-Tech Warriors Are Coming for Your Food Delivery Apps. All I can hear is my sister telling me, three years ago, “but they’ll never tear down statues of Washington or Lincoln.”

America’s newspaper of record nailed it: California Ends Exploitation Of Workers For Good By Banning All Jobs

And my personalized rant for this week: IF we take you a route different than what you’re used to most of us don’t mind going “your” way. It’ll mean either more time or more miles or both which puts more of your money into our pockets. But when you SEE that we’re sitting in the right turn lane with the right turn signal on please don’t wait until we’ve actually MADE the turn to erupt like a nine year old with Autism. If you have a preferred route, tell us. “I’d rather you take High than 4th.” THAT we can do.

Secondly, for about 43 seconds, think like a driver. Don’t give us a pick up point, or wait for us, in the middle of a construction are which we cannot access. Yes … it happens more often than you might think. We can’t just “turn around” in the middle of downtown during rush hour. That retaining well you can just step over between parking lots? We have to drive around it, sometimes in traffic. Don’t. Just don’t. And finally, you can SEE our approach on the app. You KNOW the direction from which we’re coming. Why on EARTH do you insist on standing on the WRONG side of the road, looking in the WRONG direction?

Heading into my sixth month. Substitute teaching license renewed. Schools can’t start soon enough under ANY plan to suit me.

Who WOULDN’T want a cut?

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So you provide a service that the government requires some people to purchase.  It require OTHER people to pay for it even if they DON’T utilize it, and they construct prohibitions should you seek to purchase it elsewhere.  And then you decide to NOT provide the service for some indeterminate length of time but DEMAND that you continue to be paid for it AND demand the government continue to prevent your customer base from purchasing elsewhere.

Ladies and gentlemen I give you the state of K-12 education in the United States today.

My great Aunt Edna taught in the one room school house in Oak Run Township a hundred years ago.  For those of you that got your US history solely from public schools I would point you to the Land Ordinance of 1785.  It mandated using one section of each township to be used for a public school.  Settlers pooled their money to hire a teacher to teach all the kids in the township.  And that’s where we’re heading today with all the little podlings.

From other  sources: Absolutely’ reopen schools: 5 of 5 pediatricians would send their kids back to class.  Personally, I favor abolishing the public schools and just giving parents vouchers. Probably better for public health, too.

Schools Are Closing Not Because They Should, But Because They Can.

A Pod for Every Child

I’m a Nurse in New York. Teachers Should Do Their Jobs, Just Like I Did. Schools are essential to the functioning of our society, and that makes teachers essential workers.

 

 

Midsummer Rideshare

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Had a few rough/long days the last few weeks.  Lyft streak bonuses have been scarce.  Uber surges have been nice.  Both systems seem to be tailoring their bonus structure to getting drivers back on the road between 7pm and 3am – prime time.

Px continue to amaze.  Actually had FOUR cancellations from my first six rides last Saturday.  Stand in the driveway.  Improper addresses.  Bad pin placement.  Story of the month:  20 something AA female complained that while she kinda liked my music I should play more black artists since I was driving in the hood.  The previous three songs had been “When Doves Cry” (Prince), Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer (Nat King Cole), and Birth of the Blues (Sammy Davis Jr.)

Been at this for five months solid.  Previous streak was three.  Ready to go back to school, but prepared to do this for the long haul (no pun intended) if need be.

In other related news, there’s a REASON I do the rideshare thang:  I Don’t Want To Be Anybody’s Employee.  If you do, go get a job.

I’m expecting more drivers on the road soon as this winds down, unless it doesn’t: Congress Is Paying People a Lot of Money To Not Work

I leave the mask thing up to my Px.  if they want me to wear mine I do it gladly.  Here’s why I’ve made that choice:  SAN FRANCISCO MUNI DRIVER BEATEN WITH BAT AFTER ASKING PASSENGERS TO WEAR MASKS.  Tell me I’m wrong.

It was a mistake from the start but became much worse:  New Film Exposes How California’s War On The Gig Economy Was Exacerbated By COVID although the word “film” in the headline does a LOT of work.

 

 

I’ll take that bet, you’re gonna regret ….

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Unrelated …. sad passing of Charlie Daniels.

More importantly there’s this: Two Americas: Risk-Tolerant vs Zero-Risk — Will One Ruin the Other?

Population of Ohio: roughly 11.7 million. Confirmed Covid cases: 91k. That’s 1 out of 128. That’s over a four month period. So currently there’s probably a 1 in 500 chance that any given person is shedding. I give 10 rides a day, mostly to solo passengers. That mean in a month I probably have ONE shedder in my car per month. I keep the windows open until the temp goes over 80, then I use the AC only when I actually have a passenger. My average ride is under 10 minutes long, although one or two rides over twenty minutes aren’t unusual in a day. Most infecting exposures have been in excess of 15 minutes.

So the odds of me having a shedder in my car who puts off enough of a viral load to survive the effective circulation of air, and deposits enough viral load that further survives the UV exposure to infect me is close enough to 0 that …. I ain’t worried.

Because it’s not Andromeda.

In other risk related news: FOLLOW THE SCIENCE AND LISTEN TO THE CDC! WAIT, NOT THAT SCIENCE! CDC director: Keeping schools closed poses greater health threat to children than reopening.

In American laboratories and universities, the spirit of Trofim Lysenko has suddenly been woke. Been awakened?

I’ve mentioned the unreproducability problem before: Red Flags Raised Over Chinese Research Published in Global Journals: Apparently fraudulent data in dozens of peer-reviewed articles spark fresh worries about ‘paper mills’ used by researchers under pressure to publish.

I’m peeling my mother and others off the ceiling on the reg: How COVID Control Freaks Cultivate America’s Culture Of Fear

Following the Science—Where? Medical evidence is not always clear, and it rarely mandates a clear policy direction.