Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Zen Moment In The Circle of Life

 












Most of the comments to the last post are appropriate, and some quite insightful into the actual situation, both from those seeing something similar elsewhere, and from those seeing nothing of the kind. 

{Important Safety Tip, kids: Two things - or even...more! - can be true at the same time. It's a big country. Yes, this even includes Having A Big Pandemic That's Actually Killing Hundreds of Thousands Of People, and Evil Bastards Taking Advantage Of A Temporary Crisis To Crap On Your Freedoms And Screw You Over, For Their Own Ends. They aren't mutually exclusive, in any way. Who knew?! I mean, besides everybody, right?}

You might have noticed me in the comments, not arguing that the people describing being mostly or wholly unscathed by this somewhere else, so far, must be high, insane, lying, nor all three, but rather giving them sincere best wishes for their current fortunes. Crazy, I know.

The shocked surprise from some upon hearing factual and accurate reportage of the actual Kung Flu situation in a major metropolitan center is somewhat concerning, given the late date of this pandemic.

But the strident butthurt from a small number amuses the hell out of me*, and reminds me why every public high school has a Continuation School contiguously located, to serve those for whom a mere 12 years of attempted public education is clearly an inadequate amount of time, if not an entirely futile effort in the first place.

It's okay, though. You're certainly not going to hurt my feelings by turning up your nose at Reality, now or ever.

And after all, those aluminum cans and plastic bottles aren't going to recycle themselves. 

Best Wishes to anyone choosing ignorance as a life plan, and Rock On With Your Bad Selves.











But Prudence wasn't just the mayor's daughter in Support Your Local Sheriff.

Those who choose to profit from a modicum of free wisdom, and plan appropriately, will probably find a much more harmonious outcome, no matter what circumstances dish out.

Choose wisely.





*(Special treat: I've had to perma-ban a bare handful of strident trolls, going back to last spring's colossal butthurt over this pandemic, and the total failure of the VA 2A Buffalo Jump to accomplish anything useful in the long run except feelz, which seems like ages ago, but in fact was the last big kerfluffle before Kung Flu. Which is why comments are now moderated here, after over a decade of blogging. I ventured into the filter to do semi-annual maintenance, and found no less than 720 messages from the three biggest offenders. I'd never even seen them until yesterday, but apparently, despite them claiming to be "done" with me and my blog, they read here daily, - one commenting two-three times/week! - and bang out their little rants, totally to themselves, for the intervening months, because I never even see them. *Click.* Gone. Rent free in your heads, losers. Rent free. Thanks for the entertainment. And a special shout out to the guy who wrote the spam handling widget. Perfection. C'est magnifique! -A.)

11 comments:

Toirdhealbheach Beucail said...

Aesop - As I mentioned in the previous article, this whole thing depresses me - yes, from the actual cost of human life (and as you undoubtedly know, we know precisely zero about the potential long term impact of this but even something as simply as pneumonia can leave you - or your lungs - scarred for life), but in the complete and utter disregard for any sort of opinion that does not comport with their own (in some cases - more than I might have believed - virulently so).

The real danger that this leads is that this reinforces particular stereotypes about Americans in general, and potentially conservative minded folks in particular, as being non-science based people who are headed as far away as possible from solving problems and using science to do it and operating based on feelings or their own personal experience. When this all ends - as I hope it does (but realistically believe it will not for longer than I would like), how people acted and spoke during this time will be used against them, and not always in ways that they like.

As to the "Let us just get it all over with at one blow" group, my simple question is this: Are you willing to state - to your spouse, child, significant other - that you are willing to sacrifice them for common good? Oddly enough, I am not willing to do that (for the record, we have now had two deaths and a continued hospitalization for another relative in my larger family) to my family or yours.

If you want to pick a fight, pick it with your government officials who have demanded unreasonable lockdowns and a bite-sized handout to your fellow citizens. Unleash your ire and rage on them and demand that just as they are following medical advice in medical areas, they should follow economic advice in economic areas.

One final parting comment: I have known and worked with medical professionals (doctors and nursing staff) for 20+ years. In exactly zero cases have I ever found them to be somehow plotting to ruin their patients' lives.

Mario V Albano said...

Don't ever change, Aesop. Hey, throw it, and I'll take your pitch any time. Just ring the bells, for I am hard of hearing.

Oneissuevoter said...

Just got over "Mask bronchitis "
VA docs called it, and sent me home with stout atandard anti iotics and an enhaler. NO covid test. Why? Blood test and an xray set of images showed non covid consistent data.

The Doc explained if if I was not better in 3 days and fever gone or reduced, come back .

They were not wrong.

On my follow up visit he revealed that they are using the nasal swabs as a confirmation of evaluated data, not a detector. Too many false positives.

The doctor went on to ask me whether I have to work in a mask. I told him that yes I do for 12 hour shifts. He asked me how often I was changing my mask. I told him every 12 hours -whenever I was done with a shift. He told me that that would get me killed. He told me to ditch any of the vanity masks, that are cloth, and start using disposable sanitary masks like the ones his staff wear in the hospital. Change it every 4 hours minimum, or any time you cough orsneeze into one.

BILL said...

Hey, can you gaze into your crystal ball and see , how a guy who never left the usaa lives out of Denver,col has the next covid crud. how this happens .

Freakin mystery . and how reaction to the shot killed the nurse from Tenn. Another head scratch er to me

Like to see your take please.

Michael said...

Oneissuevoter what do they call the lowest grade point partier Graduate Med Student?

DOCTOR, just like the smart ones that worked hard to learn real life medicine.

Would you allow "Doctor Faci" to treat you for anything? His fondness for the camera makes him quite the spectacle to mock as his "Learned pronouncements" are contradictory over a few weeks of interviews.

As an education aside word of the day:

pronouncement
[prəˈnounsmənt]
NOUN
pronouncements (plural noun)
a formal or authoritative announcement or declaration.
"distrust of the pronouncements of politicians was endemic"
synonyms:
announcement · proclamation · declaration · formal statement · assertion · judgment · ruling · adjudication · decree · edict · ordinance · dictum · promulgation · deliverance · ukase · pronunciamento · ipse dixit · asseveration

Mask Bronchitis, SIGH from folks that have HAD to Wear them for 8-12 hour shifts for DECADES.

Aesop said...

@Bill,

Google "6 degrees of Separation".
None of the Seattle convo home patients who died ever went to China either, but Kung Flu still killed them. Because staff and family visitors, vendors, etc, all circulate out and about.
One guy in England gives it to one flight crew member who gives it to a guy in Denver who knows a friend of guy in CO who now has it. Five steps.
The guy who's tested positive is just the first one we know about.
Like cockroaches in the kitchen, for every one you see, there are 10 more you didn't.

And anybody could die from any shot.
Anaphylactic reactions happen all the time.
Why one person in particular died is a question for the local pathologist.

@Michael,

We took great care to point out that Fauci was in idiot, waaaaaaaay back in 2014, when he was talking out of his ass about Ebola, and how it wouldn't get here, but if it did, we could handle it, and how we had first-world health care, and specific plans to deal with an outbreak.
FTR, we were 4-0 on that, and @$$clown Fauci was 0-4.

elysianfield said...

Aesop,
Remember Mary Ann, the wholesome hottie from Gilligan's Island?

Dead.

The Covid got her.

This should be a warning to other "Gilligans", yes?

Nick Flandrey said...

"Mask Bronchitis, SIGH from folks that have HAD to Wear them for 8-12 hour shifts for DECADES."

--yup. a decade of 6-10s in hollywood sceneshops (not well known for safety), wearing 3M N95s. Outside of mask, black or brown at end of shift depending on what we were building, inside of mask and nose IE SNOT, clear. No mask = black snot for two days afterwards.

The masks are DESIGNED to be worn for whole shifts. Some snot rag tshirt is not. If it's only you breathing into the mask, where do you think the disease is coming into the mask FROM? YOU!

I BOUGHT my own half face cartridge based respirator when faced with sharing a company provided one (this used to be common). Wore that for days at a time too. Sanitizing wipes and alcohol were my friend for that one, if only to improve the smell.

Never got sick from wear the mask. Got sick plenty of times when I DIDN"T wear it. (Isocyanurate foam particles are SHARP and will irritate the hell out of your lungs, for example)

FWIW, 3M masks are showing up in local sales. Most are NOS in tattered boxes, meaning people are selling off their stash. Either they need money, or they think there is a window of opportunity before no one will need masks anymore. I'm betting on "need money" although they aren't going for crazy prices, usually $2/mask. They were bringing $4/mask or more at the beginning of the pandemic.

nick

ruralcounsel said...

"the total failure of the VA 2A Buffalo Jump to accomplish anything useful in the long run except feelz"

For an advocate of Reality, you should know better on this one. It has resulted in a much more vigilant and politically active group of gun owners in the Commonwealth of Virginia. In other words, it has helped increase the organizations supporting the 2A, which has resulted in increased political pressure on the state legislature. It resulted in the failure of most of Gov. Northam's proposed gun control legislation. Maybe something that people from out of state wouldn't be aware of. But thanks for playing.

Aesop said...

@ruralcounsel,

I'll take your word for it. I'm not seeing a graveyard of Northam's stupid gun control schemes from where I sit, but if it's done anything substantive in the long run, I stand corrected.

Toirdhealbheach Beucail said...

Sigh. Notified tonight my father's sister also past away today, Covid related. A long, slow decline over the last four weeks. For the record that is now two direct family members and an in-law.

For those that do not believe it is serious, I envy you. It may even be true in your part of the universe. Not over here on the other side.