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Sunday, May 31, 2020

Post #4636 M: Remy Parodies the Beach Boys; A Rare Open California Restaurant in the Lockdown Era

Quote of the Day

[T]here's no bad day that can't be overcome by listening to a barbershop quartet; 
this is just truth, plain and simple.
Chuck Sigars 

Remy Parodies the Beach Boys



A Rare Open California Restaurant in the Lockdown Era



NASA/SpaceX





Choose Life



Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via Townhall


Musical Interlude: The Beatles

"Act Naturally". Ringo does the lead vocals...

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Post #4635 Social Media Digest

Facebook











Twitter

It was a mixed bag on Twitter this week. After dropping off the viral tweet list  a few weeks back (my name for 1000+ impression tweets, I added 2 this week for 3 over the past 2 weeks. However, it was clear for about 2 days (around the time of the Amy Cooper kerfuffle), my tweet stats dropped off the cliff, e.g., less than 5 impressions on a trend, despite 75 followers at the time. It's difficult to know if my tweets were being filtered or Twitter manipulated the reporting of statistics; I didn't get any indications from Twitter what was going on. On 2-3 occasions over the past 15 months I've been been suspended for 12 hours or so, unable to tweet. It isn't so much the impressions because I don't tweet for the numbers, but let's face it: once a trend has passed, so does most of the audience for one's tweets.












































































































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Post #4634 J: COVID-19 Shutdown Diary

Watching Old Sitcoms

On several journal  posts I've mentioned a creative writing interest and have criticized storylines, particularly in pro wrestling and Hallmark Channel.

I really almost don't watch (other) network programming at all anymore; I watch maybe Blue Bloods. So, in addition to watching a number of movies and other shows on Prime Video, I've watched some old sitcoms on Antenna TV, like Dennis the Menace, I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched. I'm sure I've seen these shows all over cable since they originally ran in the 60's. Still, the writer in me is now looking at these shows as more than entertainment; how might I tweak or refresh them for today's audience?

To a certain extent, I cannot imagine Dennis the Menace being remade today Given sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, schools, and Scouts, could you imagine how many people might be suspicious of a retired Mr. Wilson taking a special interest in an unrelated young boy? How might we update the series for contemporary audiences? Maybe Grandpa and Grandma Mitchell would retire to a bungalow behind the Mitchell home. Maybe mother Alice is a caterer, dad Henry creates computer games, Dennis' buddies like Tommy are more diverse, and Margaret is a math/science geek who wants to be an astronaut.

The shows still hold up very well, although certain things are dated (like Sandy Koufax's guest appearance; he had retired before I started following major league baseball). But really what caught my attention was the transition between the Wilson brothers, George and John. Dennis' neighbor was George; now maybe they introduced John Wilson casually in earlier episodes (I don't think I've seen the initial series episodes in a while), but as I watched the episodes, the scripted transition seemed abrupt and awkward. They had scenes with Martha Wilson (George's wife and John's sister-in-law) that came  across as contrived.

I figured out something must have happened to the actor playing George and did an Internet search; I think they originally explained George had gone away on some trip. The actor had suddenly died, some people speculating it had something to do with an extreme diet he was following. I don't think they ever scripted what had happened to George and Martha, which is odd because fans were vested in the characters. Now, granted, you have to be subtle in dealing with death or serious topics like mastectomies, menopause, etc., but shows like M*A*S*H and All in the Family succeeded.  And maybe Dennis did have an episode or two about the death of a beloved hamster, frog or other that I've forgotten or haven't seen. Children do have to cope with things like a death in the family, divorce and other matters. I think there could/should have been a scripted way for Dennis to pay tribute poignantly to his friend Mr. Wilson and to provide closure for fans. For example, maybe George Wilson left Dennis his beloved coin or stamp collection, it brings up memories of moments they shared, Alice bakes Dennis some cookies from a favorite recipe that Martha shared before going to live with her sister in Nebraska over the summer.

The other scripted anomaly is on Bewitched where Darrin Stephens, witch Samantha's mortal husband, was recast from Dick York (first 5 seasons) to Dick Sargent (final 3 seasons). Maybe it's because my preferences and expectations were shaped by York's portrayal, but I did prefer the original Darrin. There were subtle differences in actors' portrayal of Darrin to such an extent I really thought of them as different characters.

So why did York leave the series? This is a better-known story. Reportedly York had suffered a back injury during past acting gigs, not discussed with show producers. Some of the show's scenes put York's body in physically demanding situations (e.g., hanging by wires) where York's back became an issue and hampered production as well as leaving York in miserable pain and/or bed rest.

Perhaps Darrin's death would have been difficult to pull off but it might have provided some interesting storylines  as disapproving mother Endora seeks to set up Samantha with an eligible warlock. But widow Sam soon falls for another mortal (let's call him Doug) who reminds her of Darrin in many ways.

The Walmart Test in Shopping

Well, some things are returning to near normal. Traffic is heavier, the shopping lot is fuller,  the aisles are more crowded, and I'm seeing more young kids wearing cute little masks. Toilet paper remains in stock and no unusual shortages (no frozen pepper strips I like to put in omelettes, but this is a normal type of thing; for example, they often sell out their value-brand 100% whole wheat bread, and I'll find it restocked by my next visit). They are still maintaining these unnecessary wraparound lines near the entrance staffed by one or 2 employees, and I think Hogan's face mask edict remains in place.

How I'm Monitoring the COVID-19 Situation

I suppose I could manually save daily US deaths and infection counts in a computer spreadsheet and plot them. Ironically, I've had to go to 2 separate sources for plots. CDC has a total new cases plot:

NBC, on the other hand, maintains a daily death plot:


So we clearly see a downtrend in cases and deaths, although it's somewhat of an anomaly how sticky high numbers have been given weeks of near-isolation practices and the expected duration of infection.

The press, in the interim, continues to stoke fear-mongering of a second wave as states start scaling back stay-at-home mandate.

Probably the most interesting article I've read on the spread of COVID-19 and its mitigation is here. This article pays special interest to the aerosols; whereas I've particularly noted larger droplets, e.g., in sneezing), I've earlier mentioned microbes which can infiltrate non-medical face masks:
A bioaerosol is an aerosol comprising particles of variable biological origin. This can be fungal spores, pollen grains, endotoxins, or particles of animal dander. Bioaerosols are complex mixtures consisting of several components that can stem from simple organic molecules (dimensions in the nanometer range), viruses, bacteria and bacterial spores, mold spores and hyphae, pollen (with diameters as small as 100 micrometers), and animal and plant debris (of various sizes)... Aerosolization ... takes place through wind and spray and through breathing, speaking, coughing, and sneezing... – just to name a few... 
Dust (10 to 100 micrometers) and droplet nuclei (smaller than 10 micrometers) are very small aerosols. Droplet nuclei consist of bacteria (or another biological agent) in a droplet. When the droplet fluid evaporates, the bacteria remain in a dried state. This is a form of bioaerosol. 
They are so small and light, they may remain suspended in the air for several hours. Also, air currents can widely disperse airborne droplet nuclei.
This article reinforces the importance of testing in order to identify the 30% or so of seemingly asymptomatic individuals responsible for the spread of up to 80% or more of COVID-19 infections.

[study citation above] it is particularly important to wear masks in locations with conditions that can accumulate high concentrations of viruses, such as health care settings, airplanes, restaurants, and other crowded places with reduced ventilation. The aerosol filtering efficiency of different materials, thicknesses, and layers used in properly fitted homemade masks was recently found to be similar to that of the medical masks that were tested 
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Saturday, May 30, 2020

Post #4633 M: IJ vs a Corrupt New Orleans Judge; Is It Time for Universal Basic Income?

Quote of the Day

A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous 
and then dismissed as trivial, 
until finally, it becomes what everybody knows.
William James  

IJ vs a Corrupt New Orleans Judge



Is It Time for Universal Basic Income? NO



Ron Paul on Immunity Passports



Choose Life



Political Cartoon


Courtesy of Lisa Benson via Townhall


Musical Interlude: The Beatles

"Yesterday". #1. In my judgment, the best song ever written over the past 60 years.

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Post #4632 Rant of the Day: Race Riots Are Like the Boston Tea Party?






The other day, in the aftermath of ongoing post-Floyd murder scattered riots nationwide, a Twitter thread surfaced comparing the riots to the Boston Tea Party. I responded with the above embedded tweet to one of the racial identity trolls spamming the thread; I struck a cord with the reply tweet attracting a decent 300 impressions to date. I want to expand on those comments to an extent the 280 character limit doesn't enable.

Let's review American history. The colonists prized self-determination; they didn't necessarily reject a British affiliation, but they wanted to be treated as equal British citizens. The British had imposed the first direct taxes on colonists with the 1765 Stamp Act, in essence to defray imperial expenses from the recent French and Indian War, imposed without the knowledge and consent of the colonists through representation in Parliament. Parliament expanded its newly asserted taxing authority with the 1767/1768 Townshend Acts on a variety of goods that were imported into the colonies, including tea. The revenue from these acts were used to fund Crown-loyal government administrators over the colonies, versus the colonies' own governments. It wasn't so much the amount of the taxes (English citizens had a much higher tax burden), but the principle and the precedent being established. The colonists resented this and looked for workarounds to British supply monopolies, including the smuggling of much cheaper Dutch tea. Many prominent patriots, like John Hancock, were involved in the lucrative smuggling trade. I've seen estimates that over 80% of the tea being consumed in the colonies were smuggled, and the politically connected East India Company's sales were hurt.

The 1773 Tea Act was basically a corporate welfare act, allowing East India Company a supplier monopoly to the American colonies, allowing the company to sell directly (without middlemen), and exempting duties that had to be passed along to the colonists--but retained the relatively modest Townshend Act three-pence tea tax, mostly for symbolic reasons over Parliament's right to tax the colonies and underwriting the cost of staffing Crown administrators. The net effect was that East India was able to sell tea to the colonists much cheaper, undermining the lucrative smuggling trade. Even though the real tax burden (English import duties) had been reduced, the revolutionaries resented this toehold of direct taxation by the remote Parliament.

The patriots tried to pressure consignees from receiving the shipments, but Royal Massachusetts Governor Hutchinson refused to allow the ships to leave without paying the relevant duties. On December 16, 1773, roughly 140 Sons of Liberty protesters, disguised as Mohawk Indians (symbolizing in part native American independence from British allegiance), climbed onto 3 relevant ships (Beaver, Dartmouth, and Eleanor), each containing more than 100 chests of Chinese-origin tea, and dumped all the cargo, into the harbor, roughly $1.7M of damage. Only 1 participant tried to steal tea and was stopped.

It should be noted that many revolutionaries, including George Washington, condemned the destruction of private property (the dumped tea). The British response included the Intolerable Acts, which basically provided the context for the Revolutionary War. One of the responses was to shutter Boston harbor until the property damage was repaid. Reportedly Benjamin Franklin offered to repay the East India Company for its losses if the British would lift its blockade, but the Crown refused. Note that there were subsequent sympathy raids down the coast.

Any comparison of the post-Floyd riots, looting and property damage to the Boston Tea Party is ludicrous on its face. The Sons of Liberty were highly organized and principled; there was no loss of life; they even swept up after themselves and replaced a broken padlock. Nobody personally gained from the destruction of the cargo (well, maybe smugglers in the aftermath of shortages of tea).

Stealing electronics from Target was spontaneous and opportunistic; Target had no connection whatsoever to George Floyd's murder. Violence and property damage were random and unfocused. There have been reports of black business owners putting signs in store windows, pleading for rioters to spare them. People are being hurt or killed. All of these violate unalienable rights to life, liberty and property.

None of this addresses the core issues facing urban minorities. We libertarians have been pleading for things like an end to qualified immunity, which basically exempts public servants from liability for misconduct. We continue to argue for overdue criminal justice reform, occupational licensing reform, ending prosecution of victimless crimes, unjust policies like mandatory sentences.
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Friday, May 29, 2020

Post #4631 M: Ray Stevens' New Parody; George Floyd Murder Aftermath; Are COVID-19 Lockdowns Constitutional?

Quote of the Day

I praise loudly; I blame softly.
Catherine the Second  

George Floyd Murder Aftermath



Political Humor



Are COVID-19 Lockdowns Constitutional? NO



Choose Life



Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Steve Kelley via Townhall


Musical Interlude: The Beatles

"Help!" #1

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Thursday, May 28, 2020

Post #4630 M: The 2020 LP Ticket; Ron Paul on a Silver Lining to CDC's Heavy Public School Guidelines

Quote of the Day

What one has, one ought to use: 
and whatever he does he should do with all his might.
Cicero  

The 2020 LP Ticket



Ron Paul on a Silver Lining to CDC's Heavy Public School Guidelines



Tom Woods on the Lockdowns and Millions of Lives



Choose Life



Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Tom Stiglich via Townhall


Musical Interlude: The Beatles

"Rock and Roll Music"

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Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Post #4629 M: Edward Snowden and the Surveillance State; Does Declining Growth Mean a Failing Economy?

Quote of the Day

Love is patient, 
love is kind. 
It does not envy, 
it does not boast, 
it is not proud. 
It is not rude, 
it is not self-seeking, 
it is not easily angered, 
it keeps no record of wrongs
1 Corinthians 13:4-5  

Edward Snowden and the Surveillance State



DEAD WRONG: Declining Growth Means a Failing Economy



The Worst of Biden



Choose Life



Political Cartoon


Courtesy of Henry Payne via Townhall


Musical Interlude: The Beatles

"Ticket to Ride". #1

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Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Post #4628 M: Stossel on Free Speech For All; Woods on Last Weekend's LP Convention; Ron Paul on COVID-19 Lockdown Mania

Quote of the Day

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions 
which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. 
Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
Albert Einstein  

Stossel on Free Speech For All




Woods on Last Weekend's LP Convention



Ron Paul on COVID-19 Lockdown Mania



Choose Life





Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via Townhall


Musical Interlude: The Beatles

"Eight Days a Week". #1.

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Post #4627 Rant of the Day 2: The Amy Cooper Kerfuffle

Internet kerfuffles come and go. This one will probably be forgotten within a week. Why write a post at all? I'm apparently in the doghouse with Twitter again. I'll append two relevant tweets on the kerfuffle at the end of the post. The first tweet, as I write, has almost 1800 impressions and some 100 engagements. Now Trump could dwarf that just by posting an image of his latest haircut, but for some obscure Twitter user those are amazing stats. The second one has officially gotten less than a handful of impressions over hours despite being provocative in a hot trend. I could probably get more impressions tweeting what I had for lunch. I don't tweet for the numbers but it's abnormal and you have to wonder what's behind it; did someone complain to Twitter Mommy? Is Twitter Mommy tracking my tweets? I decided to expand my discussion beyond 140 characters here, because I don't like what's being done to this woman.

Let's be clear here: I don't necessarily find what the woman did in the circulated clip admirable. In particular, she's all but hanging her sweet dog by the chain/collar; I don't know if she was aware of what she was doing or if she was doing it out of spite to make the point it was her dog, but I wouldn't treat my pet like that. Second, she is being tailed by someone filming her with the dog, but it looks like she is trying to report him to the police. Maybe the guy was annoying, but I don't think it was serious enough to get the police involved. So my response to Amy Cooper would have been to let it go; perhaps easier said than done. I wasn't there the whole while via the film clip.

Here's a summary of  what I've picked up (cf  here for a broader discussion):


  • Ms. Cooper, 41 years old, was walking her dog, a cocker spaniel, in a certain section of Central Park NYC.
  • Christian Cooper, a 57-year-old man of color, an avid bird watcher, took exception to Amy unleashing her dog in that area where posted signs said the dog must be leashed and confronts her. She argues the dog runs are closed and the dog needs its exercise. He suggests a different area, and she's not interested. 
  • The disagreement escalates. It's possible he threatened to report her as violating policy, although there's no video evidence. She feels hassled enough to counter reporting to the police that a black man is threatening her.
  • No one is arrested.
  • Christian Cooper's video of their encounter goes viral. Amy's dog walkers identify her. The "progressives" escalate a war of destruction against Ms. Cooper, identifying her as working for Franklin Templeton, an asset management firm, which immediately responded by putting Amy on administrative leave while it investigates, saying it had a zero-tolerance policy for violations of its diversity program.
  • Amy Cooper is being personally attacked as a racist and animal abuser by literally thousands of Twitter users, many advocating a boycott of Franklin Templeton if it doesn't terminate Cooper.
  • The animal shelter that gave the dog to Amy Cooper has taken it back.
My own take? I don't think Christian Cooper should have confronted Amy over the dog; this was a petty complaint, not worth the benefits of confrontation. If he had an issue, he should have taken it to park security. Stalking someone, filming them without consent could be perceived as threatening. As for Amy, escalating the issue to the police was really disproportionate, at least to the facts I've seen. Was it really worth her while to defend violating posted notices?

But the sheer vindictiveness of the Twitter lynch mob attacking Amy Cooper is morally repugnant. Her life has been nearly ruined by an incident which should never have been escalated.

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