Shutdown Diary
The latest stats from Washpo:
So now at least two-thirds of American adults are now at least partially vaccinated (about 3 points below Biden's July 4 goal), closing in on 55% overall and almost 48% fully vaccinated. Over the weekend, daily counts dipped into the 4-figures, and the rolling average dipped back down to the 11K range.
As a libertarian I'm more accepting of vaccine mandates (short of health tolerance issues) than many, because I don't think you have the moral right to spread your disease to others. I've written multiple tweets about Congressman Massie's position that multiple military members have told him they would quit if forced to take it. The background story is the military is rumored to be considering a mandate over the weeks ahead. According to the latest numbers I've seen, the Navy is about 77% compliant and the Army 70%. Massie wants to pass legislation prohibiting a DoD mandate. So all hell broke out over the weekend on Twitter as mask fetishists have converted to vaccine fetishists, accusing Massie of intentionally encouraging desertion. Of course, short of not reupping to another multi-year contract with the military, you don't have the option of refusing a lawful order. You must maintain a military readiness for duty and especially for overseas assignments, this may include a number of preventive immunizations against health risks in related areas. A reasonable argument can be made an unvaccinated military person poses a risk to himself and others (including the vaccinated although their risk is likely very low). As I wryly tweeted, I don't understand how a guy would take a bullet for his buddies, but not a needle to protect them from a potentially fatal infection.
Life's Little Problems
One of my favorite open source apps is Joplin; think of it as a web clipper of sorts. I have been an Evernote basic/free user for years but I think there were caps at which point you have to upgrade to a premium account.
I've been a voracious packrat of sorts since my doctoral student days. One of my favorite stories is about an article I wrote for Data Base (ACM), as I recall; the editor wrote back saying they would accept the article if I cut down my reference section from over 400 citations to half the number. I stopped writing academic articles and book chapters by the mid 1990's, being unable to continue my academic career with a follow-up appointment in a recession and tough job market and having to reinvent myself as a computer database administrator. To a certain extent I've resurrected some of my old habits although the content is different; I certainly haven't been trained for scholarly work in economics, public policy, history and other disciplines related to my political blog, but some of my old interdisciplinary skills come into play as I can fixate on certain topics literally for days of Internet searching. Many of the essays I write, like my recent one on the state/local funding of this year's COVID-19 relief bill, are replete with hyperlinked references. Many times these come from my web clipping folders; for example, I have over 100 clippings each on COVID-19 and opinions (a great number of George Will columns). I have a variety of other folders, including Internet purchases, investment options, etc.
Joplin works with a desktop client and a browser clipper. The client generally must be open and a port open for the web clipper to operate. So very recently I guess my browser extension got automatically upgrades. I went to clip a page one day when I got a puzzling message that permission was requited and some unidentified process was starting. I wasn't sure what was going on--did the extension require some explicit approval? Was it trying to escalate an approval on Windows itself? I remember checking for an upgrade in the help menu; I see one now, but maybe I overlooked it at the time. It depends on the product, of course, but many products will display an "update available" notice on the home page..
Somehow I ended up on a Joplin FAQ page and noticed someone posted a similar type question, and there was a response to the effect: have you installed version 2.1.x/? What the heck was my version on the desktop app? About Joplin version 1.x.x. The Joplin app site had a Windows 2.1.x version available for download. Long story short: a desktop replacement install, start a web clipping, the message reappears, go to the desktop client, and there's an approval hyperlink. Click the link, go back to the web clipper and the usual pulldown menu for clipping options appears as expected.
I do product upgrades all the time, but this one was definitely more unusual.
Entertainment
In the last journal post, I looked at some of my favorite Christmas in July for Hallmark Movies and Mysteries ending later this week. This Friday it begins on Hallmark Channel itself. Here are some of my favorites on the schedule. For the full schedule, see here.
There are some modest differences. Hallmark Channel doesn't run movies around the clock. It'll run sitcom reruns until about 9-10AM or so (Eastern time) plus on weekdays an hour-long late morning show. (This schedule may slightly differ by day.) Second, it looks like the Christmas movie schedule runs longer, through the end of the month.
7/9
5 PM, The Nine Lives of Christmas
7/12
