First off, The Reason for the Season, at least the reason for today (Festivus): Yeah, I’d air my grievances but we’d be here a while. Lots of reasons for grievances, including one I’ll aim at a certain senator, with apologies to ol’ Charlie Dickens: “Spirit! are they yours?” Manchin could say no more. “They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware of them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow … Continue reading A Festivus For The Rest Of Us
Things had slowed down in New Orleans on the COVID front, but it looks as if we’re about to be hit with another wave. I know of at least 10 people who have been exposed to the highly contagious Omicron variant. I’m glad the Carnival parading season is late this year. We may still be able to salvage it. Stay tuned.
This week’s seasonal theme song was written by Aimee Mann for her classic 1993 album, Whatever. It’s more of a Dickensian song than a holiday song, which is why I like it so much.
We have two versions of Jacob Marley’s Chains for your listening pleasure: the studio original and a live solo acoustic version with an amusing introduction by the songwriter.
We’ve all been foolish, but I for one have never been part of a chain-chain-chain of fools:
It’s time to stop fooling around and jump to the break.
Back in February I wrote about the US passing the 500,000 mark in people who died from Covid. Today we crossed the 800,000 mark, and there is no end in sight to the unnecessary death. I tweeted this a few days ago: “Everyone wants to report back who died, but far fewer people want to talk about grief.” I was actually talking about the Sex and the City reboot “And Just Like That”, but it fits the real world, too. Even if you have not lost a loved one to Covid, the grief is palpable everywhere. In this moment as … Continue reading Two Years and Counting of Magical Thinking
The glory of the human condition on full display at an anti-Covid lockdown protest in 2020 in Ohio.
Maybe it’s a lack of sleep due to our one cat who had successful surgery yesterday keeping me awake all night with his meowing and rubbing his cone against my head, as if to torture me for making him wear it. Maybe it’s overwhelming workload at my day job. Maybe it’s the general level of anxiety that anyone who is paying attention at the moment feels. But my general skepticism that humanity, as it is today, can overcome our problems might be at its highest.
For starters, we’re merrily skipping onward toward the 800,000 American deaths mark, and this happened last night.
Also, there seem to be more people lately who are like Tristan here:
Vaccines aren't scary – people like you are. People who support the permanent radical empowerment of the state and transformation of our societies on the basis of a virus which would have barely caused the world to shrug in the more enlightened 20th century.
COVID is shrug-worthy and not a big deal. That’s one helluva take. No doubt, we will eventually see plenty of “while one million deaths is, of course, bad, COVID has proven to be not near as bad as the experts claimed” type posts by the Smartest Boys and Girls on Substack.
Ezra Klein has noted before that we as a society are very good at ignoring suffering. Klein used the example of the millions of deaths that occur globally each year related to pollution, and how we more or less just ignore it. This was something I heard him say in a podcast pre-COVID. I wonder if he ponders how COVID has made that concept even clearer.
Never forget that last year, a conservative talking point was “old and immune-compromised people dying is no big deal, they’d die anyway.” Or in May of this year, the worst thing was how those darn silly libs were addicted to the pandemic. Scared people are to be understood if they are conservatives. Mocked if they are liberals/progressives.
What does the death of others even mean anymore? I’ve said before, for a lot of people, the answer to the question “is it okay to murder someone” for almost everyone is “of course not” but for a lot of people, the honest answer is “it depends.” We saw that play out in social media reactions to the Rittenhouse trial.
Seriously, anyone who works in climate change mitigation, pay attention to what is happening right now. COVID is in that “sweet spot” where there are just enough deaths to worry some people, but enough for many to ignore or deny. I should probably call that the “bitter spot.” We will no doubt see that with climate change. Just enough deaths to alarm some, not enough to alarm the self-centered.
“I don’t give a shit if that west coast storm killed over 100, I live in Indiana, why should I have to buy an electric car?”
Just wait until the climate refugee crisis gets going in earnest.
So while everyone waits with baited breath on the results of the further tests on the Omicron variant of COVID I have a selfish reaction to the news.
Fuck, there goes my vacation. Maybe.
Yes, the wife (Cruella) and I were going to be heading to South Africa in about six weeks. Why South Africa? The beauty and wonder of a land so far from our own. The chance to leave winter behind and regale in the warmth of the southern hemisphere. And, ironically, it had until last week, one of the lowest COVID infection rates IN THE WORLD. The U.S. has a rate of 25 cases per 100,000 people. South Africa has a rate of less than one per 100,000. In a country of 59 million that means, hold on let me get the calculator out, let’s see divide by 100K, multiple by one percent, oh crap the calculator battery ran out, anyway that means like 59 people in the entire country diagnosed as COVID positive.
Those are the kinds of odds I’ll take a chance on. Besides I wanted to photograph lions and hippos and elephants oh my.
I’ve been on the side of vaccination, social distancing, mask wearing, et al throughout the pandemic. Do I think the world is overreacting to Omicron? Hell no, until we know more everything should be shut down. Seal off any country where it rears it’s spikey little head. That includes those European countries that relaxed their testing and sequencing efforts (looking at you Belgium, you frivolous Flemish fop).
Here’s the thing about Omicron, at the moment hospitals aren’t overrun with Omicron variation patients. As a matter of fact, few have gone to hospital and even fewer have ended up in Intensive Care and those who do tend to be (say it with me) unvaccinated. The symptoms that present seem to be along the lines of general achiness and a bad cough. Um, I don’t know about you, but that’s how I wake up each morning. And yes, all those who have tested positive for it are on the younger side so are more likely to be able to fight it off with relative ease, but compare that to original COVID-19 where people got it and ended up on a ventilator eventually.
Here’s a thought. What if Omicron is the end stage mutation of COVID? What if it is like the mutation that turned the Spanish Flu of 1918-1920 from deadly killer to winter time annoyance? I have no epidemiology training and I don’t play a doctor on TV, but the fact that no one is dying of it suggests that there is at least the possibility of this being true. And if that’s the case, don’t you actually want that variation to reach as many people worldwide as possible? Is there a lab somewhere in the world where an original strength COVID molecule is being put into the proverbial ring with an Omicron microbe to see who bests who? I mean even Coke and Pepsi did that.
And now from the beautiful Sands Hotel in fabulous Las Vegas Nevada, it’s fifteen rounds to determine the heavyweight virus championship of the world!
Drizzle drazzle drazzle drome click the link for more
I’m not sure what Louie Gohmert Piles is praying about in the featured image. If I were the praying sort, I’d pray for the people of Texas. Gohmert is going home to run for Texas Attorney General on an anti-corruption … Continue reading Gohmert Gone To Texas
When I retreated from the world in August because Covid was once again out of control in West Virginia I was pretty angry at having to restart all of that bullshit again. But 3 months later, just about everything has changed. I got my vaccine booster 2 weeks ago, and although West Virginians have decided they like still spreading Covid so our rate has suddenly stopped its steady downward progress, I’m back to in-person shopping and in-person church and generally anything that allows me to keep my mask on until I’m back outside. And along with all of this, my … Continue reading happier days are here again
Ok -good people – every so often, threads start up that even the Freeperati can’t stand.
Bear in mind that when the Qberts first appeared on the scene, they were hassled by some of the Freepers to the extent that Jim Rob took action.
And by “took action”, I don’t mean mass bannings like the Romney Purge, or forbidding any “Q” posts, I mean he gave them their own threads! And warned other Freepers about posting derogatory replies in them.
Yep. He gave them their very own “safe space” and cancel cultured any dissent in it.
Until now, anyway : (composite of two threads)
Hundreds of QAnon Fans Are Going to Texas to See JFK Return. No, Seriously. Vice ^ | 11/2/2021 | Vice
Hundreds of QAnon supporters are currently traveling from all across the U.S. to Dallas, where they expect to see John F. Kennedy suddenly reappear on Tuesday night and ordain former President Donald Trump as the “king of kings.”
Some QAnon followers were so eager to secure their place for the return of JFK that on Monday night hundreds of them gathered in Dealey Plaza, where Kennedy was shot in 1963, waiting for the latest QAnon conspiracy theory to come true.
This, by the way, this statement is at the very top of all official Jim Rob sanctioned“Q – trust the plan” threads:
“Do not enter onto a thread on a topic you don’t like just to disrupt, rattle cages, poke sticks, insult the regulars, or engage in trolling activities, etc.” ~ Jim Robinson
Ok – back to the “King of Kings”/ Dead Kennedys thread, where the Qberts finally show up to bash the non-believers.
I’m still in a post wedding state of unaccustomed happiness. The snark will probably return next week. In the mean time this story came across my radar a couple of days ago and at least got the deeply buried snark vibe going a bit.
In the past few years my involvement with the National Football League has grown dimmer and dimmer. Can’t tell you exactly when it started, maybe when routine quarterback sacks were turned into occasions for dance recitals. My high school coach always said not to celebrate anything on the field, it makes it look like it’s the first time you did it. At any rate my passion for the game has ebbed to the point of total disinterest.
But this is America, where the NFL owns a day of the week (and is trying to buy another one) so it is hard to totally discount the organization. Like it or not you, as a member of the American public, can not help but be aware of at least some of the league’s goings on. Television networks, either those who currently show the games or those currently trying to get the rights to show the games, will make sure of that.
And so we come to what is now being referred to as the “Aaron Rodgers situation”.
For those who don’t know, Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. You might better know him as an insurance pitchman or a wanna be Jeopardy host. Or you might know him as the guy who dumped Olivia Munn for Shailene Woodley, a move which, in my opinion, makes his judgement suspect.
Wednesday he tested positive for COVID. And if that wasn’t bad enough, his positive test brought the entire NFL under a viral microscope.
You see Rodgers earlier in the year had been asked by a reporter if he had been vaccinated. His reply was that he was “immunized”. The reporter, and thus the public he was feeding information to, took that to mean Rodgers had gotten the jab. Turns out he hadn’t gotten jabbed. Instead he claimed to have gotten an “alternative treatment”, a treatment he petitioned the league to accept as the same as vaccination. To their credit (and this is likely the only time I’ll use that phrase in the context of the NFL) the league said they would not.
Yet the league allowed Rodgers to act as if he were vaccinated. Vaccinated players don’t have to wear masks on the sidelines, can be within six feet of others, and generally act the way they would have acted pre-COVID. Unvaccinated players must be COVID tested nearly daily and basically follow all procedures that were in place before the vaccines became available. Rodgers has been seen prowling the sidelines sans mask and in close contact with other players and coaches. Again, reporters all did interviews up close and personal with him while admittedly unvaccinated players did their interviews from six feet away or even over Zoom. And why not, he had told them he was “immunized”.
All of this came crashing down after his post Halloween party (where he dressed as John Wick) COVID test showed him positive. Hope Shailene enjoyed her Keanu Reeves fantasy night.
I agree with everything that Cassandra said this morning. Glenn Youngkin is about to make Virginia safe from Critical Race Theory and Beloved. It’s racism pure and simple. It’s what the party of stupidity and sedition does. Let’s move on … Continue reading A Good Night For The Party Of Stupidity & Sedition
“This change may result in mailed statements, new or replacement cards, and payments you mail, taking longer to arrive.” – I received this message in my online bank account this evening. I have a different account that is required to mail me a monthly hard copy. Five years ago, that statement would arrive before the 10th. More recently, around the 15th. This month, already the 20th, and still no statement. Let’s Go, Brandon!
This should be good. Since this is being caused by The Darnold’s very own appointment Louis DeLoveless, the Freeperati have two choices here:
1. Proclaim it as a good thing, since it’s another step in the dismantling and destruction of the hated USPS.
2. Proclaim it as “fake news”, as neither The Darnold nor his appointees can do any wrong.
.
Let’s replace screwy Louis with Folger’s crystals and see what happens.
To: zeestephen
The Brandon administration is just AWESOME!!
2 posted on 10/20/2021, 1:16:10 AM by kiryandil (China Joe and Paycheck Hunter – the Chink in America’s defenses)
Oh – and because you’re reading this and pay attention to all that weird politicking stuff, you already know what the “Let’s go, Brandon” trope is all about.
But somehow, it hasn’t penetrated all the gutters and glory holes of Freeperville yet :
To: zeestephen
Who the Hell is Brandon?
14 posted on 10/20/2021, 7:39:15 AM by BuffaloJack (Socialism always ends in concentration camps and murder.)
To: BuffaloJack
LOL you need educated.
“You need educated”.
Maybe he can tag along with you to Remedial English class?
just look up “let’s go Brandon”
17 posted on 10/20/2021, 8:16:48 AM by RebelTXRose (Our Lady of Fatima, Pray for us! PRAY THE ROSARY!)
Let’s don’t and say we did.
Anywhoo, back to the attempt to depict Louis De Idiot as President Biden’s appointee :
To: telescope115
The elites are raising their expectations—it is the masses that will need to learn to obey and lower their expectations.
Think of it as “progressive” policies in action…
18 posted on 10/20/2021, 8:20:42 AM by cgbg (A kleptocracy–if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
I hear people don’t want to work in America. At least that’s how the stories in the media are painting the picture.
Employers are claiming they can’t get people to even apply for work because unemployment benefits are so generous that people don’t NEED to work. Never mind that the federal unemployment add-ons ended in September and many states ended paying them out in June or July. According to many employers people are just too lazy to work when the federal government is handing out the cheese.
I’ll be nice and just say Bunk. And I’ll add in, I’m insulted.
Not that I’ve been looking for a job. I’m employed doing what I love to do, give tours. I will say that a lot of the companies that employ me to do tours are saying it’s hard getting tour guides right now. Well part of that is many of the guides who worked in the industry had to get into new industries when our industry collapsed because of COVID. I call that industrious. The employers understand that and are making adjustments to accommodate the fewer number of guides available. Some of the guests we are hosting though, well, they have that “nobody wants to work” attitude.
On the other hand, there are a few employers in the business who don’t want to pay the going rate for good tour guides. Never mind that it’s the same rate we all were charging in the before times, these employers were expecting us all to “just be grateful” for the employment we’d work at any price.
Guess again Sparky.
You may have seen a story from Business Insider that was making the rounds of the internet last week. In it a Florida man, tired of hearing how businesses couldn’t find people to work, applied for sixty (60) entry level jobs. Out of the sixty, he got one (1) interview. That interview was from a construction company that advertised a payrate of $10 per hour, but when he went to the interview he was told the pay was actually $8.65 per hour (the Florida minimum wage) and that “with seniority” it would rise to $10. He was qualified for all the jobs he applied for, in fact he made sure to only pick jobs he was qualified for and not over qualified for. He was trying to make the sample as pure as possible. I think he should apply for a job as a statistician.
What’s truly amazing is that all those companies were ones complaining they couldn’t get people to apply. If that was the case our friend should have been inundated with interviews since according to these companies he would have been practically the only one applying for the job. 20% sent back an email acknowledging the application and nothing else. 5% called him but did not invite him in for a face to face interview. Only the one actually had him in for an interview. See the graphic at the top.
There is a terrific new TV series on Hulu right now called DOPESICK. It’s the story of the OxyContin plague that still continues to plague the American public. Told from many viewpoints the audience gets to see the machinations of the manufacturer Purdue Pharmaceutical and it’s owners the Sackler family as they scurry to create “the greatest drug ever”, the effects on one particular woman who becomes addicted, the Justice Department’s two hotshot prosecutors who go after the manufacturer, a DEA agent, the sales reps for Purdue and one coal country doctor who is initially hesitant about the drug then becomes a spokesperson for it before he realizes how devastating and deadly the drug truly is. The doctor is played by Michael Keaton and for the first time in many years I was able to watch a performance by him and not half expect to hear him say “I’m Batman”.
Also Richard Sackler, the head of Purdue Pharma is played by Michael Stuhlberg who is the greatest actor on the planet today and if you don’t know who he is that just proves how great an actor he is. He’s played real life characters before, from Lew Wasserman to Edward G. Robinson to Arnold Rothstein to Richard Clarke. He brings a bit of each one to this performance.
OK, so that’s enough of an ad for Hulu. Let’s talk COVID vaccine hesitancy.
It’s been bandied about in the media that African Americans have been reluctant to vaccinate because of doubts and worries about the vaccine. Many in the community see it as just another example of the government using them as human guinea pigs. They have a justifiable right to that fear, inspired in no short part by the Tuskegee Experiments of the mid to late 20th century where black men were unknowingly inoculated with syphilis to see how the disease progresses in the human body. I understand that fear, especially when it’s then boosted by the anti-vaxxer crowd.
Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
What I’ve had a hard time understanding is lower class and poor whites who are against the vaccine. Where did that come from? Yeah I know, Faux News and Repugnicant politicians are the easy ones to blame, especially when they sow doubt in the general population as to the vaccine’s efficacy and safety while being first in line to get the jab. But lower class and poor people are the ones least able to afford getting sick in general and specifically in the case of COVID. They should have been at the front of the line demanding access to a FREE ounce of prevention. Instead they were willing to take their chances with non-vaccination and the possibility of getting a preventable deadly disease.
Steve Bannon is “not required to respond” to a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol because former President Donald Trump says their communications are protected by executive privilege, his lawyer claimed in a letter Wednesday.
Trump’s lawyer told Bannon that the ex-president “is exercising his executive privilege” and instructed him “not to produce documents or testify until the issue of executive privilege is resolved,” lawyer Robert Costello wrote.
“That is is an issue between the Committee and President Trump’s counsel and Mr. Bannon is not required to respond at this time,”
Costello wrote in the letter, posted on Twitter by an ABC News producer.
Let’s see if Pelosi and gang forcibly have Bannon arrested (no-knock entry, etc.). They probably figure the American public would just shrug if it happened, and I suspect they would be right.
2 posted on 10/14/2021, 1:54:24 PM by CatOwner (Don’t expect anyone, even conservatives, to have your back when the SHTF in 2021.)
The hell with shrugging – I’m stocking up on popcorn.
To: ChicagoConservative27
Bannon is the real deal and will go down with the ship shit…
FIFY.
But not so Patel and Meadows, as I’m led to understand, they are in the process of flipping big time. We’ll just have to see
5 posted on 10/14/2021, 2:00:25 PM by AmericanInTokyo (Green Bay Packers. Yeah. + Ohtani-san, you better not move on from Angels to NY!)
To: Col Frank Slade
I don’t remember a D ever responding to a subpoena.
15 posted on 10/14/2021, 2:47:06 PM by redgolum (If this is civilization, I will be the barbarian. )
I’m sure the Commission will let Bannon off with a warning…
January 6 panel moves to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt CNN ^ Posted on 10/14/2021, 12:59:32 PM by janetjanet998
CNN)The committee investigating the January 6 Capitol Hill riot announced Thursday it is moving forward to hold Trump ally Steve Bannon in criminal contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena, as his game of chicken with the House panel now enters a new and critical phase.
“Mr. Bannon has declined to cooperate with the Select Committee and is instead hiding behind the former President’s insufficient, blanket, and vague statements regarding privileges he has purported to invoke,” Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chairs the committee, said in a statement on Thursday. Bannon was scheduled for a deposition in front of the committee on Thursday, and Bannon’s lawyer wrote in a letter the day before to the panel saying that his client will not provide testimony or documents until the committee reaches an agreement with former President Donald Trump over executive privilege or a court weighs in on the matter.
Shortages of, well, everything. Fuel, groceries, hope. The party in charge of the government shucking and jiving at it’s party conference, on the one hand singing karaoke and on the other blaming everyone but themselves for the country’s problems. Citizens incensed that even after election year promises not to raise taxes, taxes will indeed be raised. All as inflation rages, a pandemic endures, and no end is in sight for the misery.
More specifically this is Boris Johnson’s England. The England of Brexit, the England of “You can’t tell us what to do Brussels”, the England that reveres it’s monarchy as the monarchy becomes more soap-operay and less relevant every day. This is the England that said “21st Century? Nah, thanks mate, we’ll stick with the 20th. Course it’d be better if it were the 19th”.
Rue Britannia.
A recent article in the no longer failing New York Times points out the disconnect the English public is experiencing with their Tory government. While the Tories spent a weekend partying at the party conference in ever so manly Manchester, the public was attempting to find food at the grocery stores and fuel for their cars. A shortage of lorry drivers (that’s truck drivers for all us US of A types) has the supply chain for many items ground to a halt. Why the shortage? Lots of them were older men who took the pandemic as a sign to retire. Meanwhile newer younger drivers were prevented from getting the proper licenses because the licensing offices were closed because of the pandemic.
Ah you say, so it’s all about COVID. Well, it’s a contributing factor, but a bigger reason is that 20% of the nearly 100,000 drivers needed to keep the English economy moving left the country when it voted to leave the European Union. Why? Because they were the so-called “wave of immigrants” who were keeping the English working man from having a good paying job according to the Brexiters. Hence those immigrant workers took the attitude that it was better to jump than be pushed and went over to the Continent for a surer paycheck, oops I meant pay cheque, and the better employment standards they were used to under the EU, standards that the English were proudly declaring they were going to do away with.
All products ultimately make it to your shelves via a motor vehicle. It’s the basic number one fact of the consumer society. And if there is no one to drive the motor vehicle, despite the best intentions of Waymo or their competitors, the shelves don’t get stocked. Same for the gasoline that your dino-mobile runs on. It doesn’t get to the pump without someone bringing it there first.
Thus England has lines down the block for petrol (gas) stations. Headlines in newspapers scream about “lines lasting days”. That fabled English stiff upper lip gets more and more difficult to maintain when sitting in a queue just to get some petrol. Keep in mind also that just as petrol stations can’t get the black gold, Texas tea, neither can the public buses that ferry so much of the population. And when a modern country’s population can’t move about freely the economy of said nation starts to grind to a halt.
And what does the Prime Minister, the head of government, say to all of this?
Once upon a time you could buy a home and have it shipped to you.
Some assembly required.
Sears Roebuck and Company, the Amazon of it’s time, sold everything. At first they sold everything via their catalog, everything shipped via the US Mail and the Wells Fargo Wagon. Later they opened those stores so many of us will forever associate with the smell of fresh popcorn, an aroma artfully aimed to draw in passersby who might otherwise wander into the Montgomery Wards.
They didn’t call Richard Sears a marketing genius for nothing.
After years of selling all the stuff to stuff into a house, Sears decided well why not just sell them the house as well? At the height of their popularity, Sears offered almost 400 different styles of homes all ready to assemble. All you had to do was select the model, send in the money, then wait for the railcar to appear down by the train depot and start hauling out the precut, fully numbered, ready to assemble components along with the building instructions. With no skills at all you could have your new home ready to occupy in as little as 90 days.
And you complain about putting a bookcase from Ikea together. Wimp.
In one of the first of the 75 pages or so of the instruction manual was a warning to follow the directions given to the letter. Don’t succumb to the professional carpenter who happens to wander past your home site and sniff “That ain’t the way I’d do it”. No, why should you listen to a professional who has spent his entire life building homes when you have an instruction manual that details how to build THIS house.
And you were wondering where all of this was headed.
This notion that anyone can do anything a professional can do and obtain the same, if not better, results has been around since the dawn of time. But the internet has made it even more pervasive. It’s moved beyond putting your own house together to being your own information gatherer, transportation specialist, accommodations guru, and even research scientist and/or medical professional. I mean why should you employ a travel agent who spends her day researching all options for your only two weeks of vacation in the year when you can spend all day trying to navigate Kayak just to find the worst hotel in all of Hilo (“but it’s such a bargain!”). And by the way, you don’t pay the travel agent, the best hotel at the best price in Hilo would pay her.
Travel is the least of the problem.
The worst of the problem isn’t even the yahoos who spend a couple of hours reading online forum posts about how “COVID isn’t real” or “Trump won the 2020 election” or “Biden was secretly replaced with a lizard alien shape shifter” and then yell and scream about it so much that you, me, all of us have to spend time shouting him down. I got news for you, COVID is real, Trump lost, and Biden was replaced with Jim Carrey not a lizard alien. OK, that last one isn’t true. Maybe.
So here we are, a year an a half into the pandemic, coming up on nine months since the release of the vaccine, and we still have those for whom the vaccine is a non-starter. I honestly don’t know which is worse, the general public who refuse to get the jab or the health care workers who refuse to get it. The general public refusers are unaware idiots who believe in conspiracy theories and the rantings of right wing talk shows. The healthcare workers, that’s another story. To have heard patients struggling to gasp their last breath, to have seen the anguish of a spouse or a child and to still say they won’t take the simplest of precautions, that takes a special kind of asshattery.
So here’s a little story to brighten the day of sarcastic hearts like mine.
It seems that the Conway Regional Health System of Arkansas has mandated that all employees must get the vaccine or have a COVID test done every 48 hours. They are being generous though and offering an out of a kind to employees who have sincerely held religious beliefs regarding the vaccine because it was developed with the help of fetal cell tissue. For the uninitiated that means cells from fetuses that were either spontaneously or surgically aborted. Many abortion opponents feel that nothing short of burial is the proper disposition for the mass of cells constituting that which is removed from a woman’s body during an abortion. Use for the development of new drugs or the upgrading of old drugs is out of bounds to these folks.
So many “religious” anti-vaxxers who refuse to get the jab do so with this as their reasoning. And they probably feel all smug and sanctimonious about it. But the folks at Conway have decided to call their bluff.
If an employee claims a religious exemption they must sign the statement that you see above. If you don’t see it, it basically says, “okay I agree that by saying I have a religious reason for not wanting the jab because it was developed with the aid of fetal cell tissue therefore I agree to ALSO not use any of the 30 drugs listed in the document”. This list of drugs includes Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, aspirin, Tums, Lipitor, ibuprofen, Sudafed, Benedryl, Senekot, and many other common over the counter and prescription medications that also were developed with the aid of fetal cell tissue.
So good luck if you get a cold while also having an upset stomach and heartburn which elevates your cholesterol count and makes you unable to take a shit. Man I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
I take that back, I would wish it on anyone who uses religion as a convenient excuse to avoid doing their part to end this pandemic. The gullible Fox News genuflecting gentry who do it simply to “own the libs” are bad enough. These folks pushing the religious angle are a whole dimension away from sanity. Continue reading “Thou Shalt Not Lie”
In real life outside the world of internet punditry, my profession is that of a tour guide. I take people from all over the world on tours of any and all of the sights around Northern California, from as far south as Monterey up to the Napa-Sonoma wine country. The wife (Cruella) also is a tour guide. She’s the one who got me into the profession for which I am forever grateful. I love doing it.
After all how many professions can say the job is to pick up strangers at elegant hotels and show them a good time? OK, yeah, there is that other one as well. My job doesn’t pay nearly as well as the other one but I do get to keep my clothes on for which my guests are forever grateful.
I recently took a group of Texans for a tour to some of the Napa wineries. Along the way we passed by the notoriously expensive ($350 per person without wine for a pre-fixe tasting menu) restaurant The French Laundry. That particular restaurant has been on the minds (and thus on the tongues) of conservative media lately as Gavin Newsom had a misstep early in the pandemic of being photographed having dinner there right after he enacted strict COVID restrictions on all restaurants. Mind you, The French Laundry was adhering to all those restrictions when the picture was taken. Also the picture had been cropped to make it appear he was dining indoors when in fact that room is open on two sides. Nevertheless, bad optics and it was a rallying cry used in the catastrophically lopsided recall election that kept Newsom in office and may have destroyed the Repugnicant Party here in the Golden State.
Now I bring this up because as we drove past, the gentleman seated in the front seat of the bus snickered “Bet Nancy Pelosi eats there”. We’ll forget for a moment his mixing up of liberal California Democrats. My response was a simple “to be honest, I wouldn’t know” and a quick moving on to other subjects. I reserve my liberal snarck for my dear readers.
As you read this Californians are going to the polls to decide the fate of the recall effort against Governor Gavin Newsom. Yeah who am I kidding? Statements like that are a thing of the past. Californians have been voting for almost a month by now on this insipid recall referendum. The days of standing in line to dutifully cast one’s ballot are as quaint and old fashioned as going to the malt shop with your high school sweetheart to sock hop with all the cool cool cats. I mean you could do it, but you’re gonna get some odd … Continue reading It’s Election Day Dude!
Another boring week in Freep City, people. It’s pretty much this, over and over and over : Republican governors threaten to sue over Biden’s sweeping vaccine mandates RNC Says It Plans to Sue Biden Administration Over Federal Vaccine Mandate Biden’s Vaccine Mandates MUST Be Opposed Through Every Legal Means Available: The true existential threat to America was unveiled today. IF YOU DON’T WISH TO COMPLY WITH VACCINE AND MASK MANDATES HERE IS A LIST OF LAW FIRMS THAT CAN HELP (includes list of organizations, and lawyers by state) Governor Stitt Responds To Biden: ‘There Will Be No Government Vaccine Mandates … Continue reading Today on Tommy T’s obsession with the Freeperati – “If the suit fits” edition
As the rains from Hurricane Ida fell across the Gulf Coast I thought of this moment from THE WEST WING. It has been floating in my brain for the past few weeks for other reasons, but I took the storm as a sign to bring it out. It’s an old joke, but it perfectly summarizes the state we find ourselves in vis-a-vis some in the community who believe they don’t need vaccines because “god will protect them”. Of course it never hurts to have a great actor like Karl Malden deliver it. But really I do have to wonder why … Continue reading The Man Who Lived By The River
It’s always fun when a corporal holiday collides with a religious one.
I write this on Monday which is Labor Day here in the States as well as Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, around the world. It feels like we ought to be throwing confetti so long as it is union made confetti from a factory that practices profit sharing, respect for labor, and a low highest paid employee to lowest paid differential.
Those would all be very Jewish ideals and after all, isn’t New Year’s when we think about the ideal way in which to live?
By the way, while it is certainly fine and acceptable to wish your Jewish friends a “Happy New Year” keep in mind that the holiday to follow in a week or so, Yom Kippur, is officially the Day of Atonement when you ask forgiveness from all you may have hurt in the recently ended year. Don’t wish those same friends a “Happy Yom Kippur”, it’s bad form. Kinda like sending your Catholic friends a sympathy card on Good Friday.
But speaking of Labor Day, Delta Airlines and many other companies have decided the cost of insuring employees against COVID has gotten to the point where they will be imposing at $200 per month surcharge on the health care plans of any unvaccinated employee. In addition
in compliance with state and local laws, COVID pay protection will only be provided to fully vaccinated individuals who are experiencing a breakthrough infection.” Unvaccinated employees who contract Covid, without exemptions, will have to use their sick days after that.
I’m usually not in favor of large corporations picking out a minority of employees and targeting them with lower wages (deducting $200 from their paycheck makes their wages lower) but there are two mitigating factors here.
It’s already being done for other health related matters. For instance, smokers pay a higher premium than non-smokers.
GET THE FREAKING VACCINE. It’s not just about you. This is an airborne communicable disease that has killed 4.5 Million people worldwide and in this instance your “rights” are not greater than anyone else’s right to not be infected. Those same rights you claim come with responsibilities, to your fellow workers, your customers, to the world at large. Just as I have a right to free speech I also have a responsibility to not yell “There’s a gremlin on the wing of the plane trying to make it crash”. (The only time I will go with Shatner over Lithgow)
Back to Rosh Hashanah. I am what is referred to as a “Eating and Gifts” Jew as in I only celebrate the holidays that involve a big feast or presents. Rosh Hashanah is a big feast holiday. Besides looking forward to the new year it is a celebration of the fall harvest. The table groans with the weight of beef brisket, potato kugel, late summer vegetables, and sweets for as far as the eye can see. Not a one of them pumpkin spice flavored for which I am eternally grateful.
Greetings, good people – this week’s “Obsession” is going to be about something that should lift your spirits in these trying times – COVIDiots getting what they asked for but didn’t really want – to choke to death lying on their bellies.
First up – that’s a sweet Bernier!
Conservative Anti–Vaccine Talk Radio Host Marc Bernier Dies of COVID Newsweek ^ | 8/29/21 | KHALEDA RAHMAN
Kinda makes me wish that El Rushbo had held on long enough to do the Macorona.
To: bhl
Third conservative host to die of Covid. Interesting coincidence.
7 posted on 8/29/2021, 7:19:43 PM by ResistorSister (Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. I Cor. 16:13)
Isn’t it just?
To: ocrp1982
It appears only conservatives, anti vaxxers, and children die “from” kung flu. No left wing democrats die from the disease,
116 posted on 8/29/2021, 11:36:18 PM by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden’s eyes.)
Maybe – just maybe – that’s because “left-wing democrats” aren’t stupid enough to go around unmasked to large gatherings of idiots, practice social distancing, and don’t take horse dewormer instead of using common sense.
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Maybe that’s why?
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And now – this week’s Freeperville clown slap fight – between someone who has “done their research”, and an actual doctor.
To: George from New England
I don’t think people are getting effective treatments if they don’t push for it (ivermectin, monoclonal antibodies, hcq)
Just who are you exactly? I mean, I see a name on Free Republic with the letters ‘dr’ in it but I can’t find anything about you professionally
Well, if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that he’s an Anesthesiologist (known in the parlance for over 50 years as a “gas passer”)
when I do research.
On the other hand, I can find individual names on the FL Doctors and make my mind up. How about that? You say it’s a quack organization and I’m thinking maybe anyone who knows you might call you a quack for your advice. How about letting people make up their own minds?
42 posted on 8/29/2021, 7:51:48 PM by LibertyWoman (Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil… Isaiah 5:20)
