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Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Post #5319 M: Stossel on Vaccines; Ron Paul on the Murder of Ashli Babbitt; McClanahan on SCOTUS Getting One Right

Quote of the Day

Be more concerned 
about making others feel good about themselves 
than you are making them feel good about you.
Dan Reiland  

Stossel on Vaccines

Ron Paul on the Murder of Ashli Babbitt

McClanahan on SCOTUS Getting One Right

Choose Life

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Chip Bok via Townhall

Musical Interlude: #1 Hits of 1977

KC and the Sunshine Band, "I'm Your Boogie Man"

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Monday, August 30, 2021

Post #5318 M: McClanahan on Preserving the America Idea?; Ron Paul on the End of the War in Afghanistan; Corporate Welfare

 Quote of the Day

When we are no longer able to change a situation, 
we are challenged to change ourselves. 
Victor Frankl  

McClanahan on Preserving the America Idea?

Ron Paul on the End of the War in Afghanistan

Corporate Welfare

Choose Life

It took a second for me to realize her Mom is dead... 

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via Townhall

Musical Interlude: #1 Hits of  1977

Stevie Wonder, "Sir Duke"

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Post #5317 Commentary; GOP Politics in the Post-Trump, Post-Afghanistan, COVID-19 World

 I can't promise any predictions or comprehensive, definitive analysis here; I'm not a political consultant (thank God!)  But it seems like the GOP is trying to muddle its way as the minority opposition party in the aftermath of the quixotic 2020 campaign where Trump was defeated for reelection but the Dems underperformed expectations, held on to the House by a razor-thin margin and regaining the Senate but not gaining an expected majority.

As we head into next year's mid-terms, the GOP Senate is clearly playing defense, defending 20 of 34 seats. Moreover, 5, maybe more of those 20 seats are open (meaning the near-lock of incumbent retention). I think the Dems have shots of converting WI, NC, OH, PA and MO. The GOP's best shots include the recent flips of  AZ and GA and perhaps NH, NV, and CO (I think easier said than done, but turnout of Dems tends to be softer during midterms). Objectively, you have to like the Dems chances: so far none of their 20 seats are open, and I haven't heard of strong Republican candidates emerging to flip those states, never mind retaining tough open seats in PA and NC. (Former pro athlete Herschel Walker could be a contender in GA, but I haven't seen any poll data.) I think Larry Hogan would make a credible challenge for Van Hollen's seat, but I don't see him resigning from his position as governor to do so, and I think his eye is on the 2024 GOP Presidential primary. We still don't know whether Johnson (WI), Grassley (IA) or Murkowski (AK) are running for reelection, although I expect the Dems' best chance is WI. I do think Trump's influence in Senate primaries could be a problem for the GOP's already decidedly uphill chances to regain the Senate. Still, the average loss of Senate seats in a midterm is 4 in favor of the POTUS' opposition. 

The prospects for the GOP are much brighter in the House, with red states probably getting an advantage in new Congressional districts after the Census, but blue states could offset that in redistricting (e.g., Illinois is rumored to be targeting Kinzinger's seat). Currently the Dems have an advantage of about 8 seats; that means if the GOP can flip a majority of those, they can regain control. The average loss of a President's party is 26 seats, so clearly the trend for GOP recapture of the House, while not a lock, is very favorable.

To a large extent, the Dems are acutely aware that their majority may be fleeting in nature, which is perhaps why you are seeing an emphasis on pushing big spending items (including the massive $3.5 trillion domestic spending initiative), voting rights, and pushes for ending the Senate filibuster. Naturally these votes put pressure on vulnerable Dems in purple and red states on the hot seat. 

Obviously, Dem chances in the midterms heavily rely on Biden's approvals, and it is not lost on the Dems how a reasonably popular Obama lost the House in his first mid-term. I don't see anything comparable to the Tea Party rebellion spawned by the morally hazardous government mortgage bailout legislation. It does appear like the Biden honeymoon is over in large part attributed to:

  • the Delta wave of coronavirus, with cases, hospitalizations and deaths in numbers we haven't seen since January, even as over half of Americans are fully vaccinated and over 72% of adults at least partially vaccinated. There has been a backlash against Biden policies pushing for vaccine mandates for government employees and universal masking.
  • some economic issues, particularly warning signs of (temporary?) food and energy inflation; this includes worries of Fed changes in policy possibly triggering a recession.
  • the messy ending of our withdrawal from Afghanistan.
  • continued issues at the Southern border
By and large, Biden enjoys strong support from his Dem base, and the GOP similarly retains consistent support against Biden. The warning for Biden comes from the growing base of independent voters who have recently turned net negative. 

The issue I see for the GOP is I don't see a strategy, just political opportunism as the Dems control the Congress and the White House and remain culpable for government policy failures, economics, the problematic status quo, etc. I think the fact that government spending and debt vastly increased under the Trump Presidency has undermined their fiscal credibility. I also think the party has a Trump problem as he seeks retaliation against GOP "traitors" and still enjoys strong support in the party base. I don't think Trump's hype of being uniquely qualified for the Presidency provides a long-term strategy for a post-Trump politics--and while Trump continues to imply he wants to run in 2024 (why else is he continuing his pep rallies?), I think that ship has sailed; he had failed to win more than 47% of the vote in 2 elections, and I don't think Trump's behavior after his loss and his role on Jan. 6 will ever win over undecideds. (But then again, I never thought a recently registered Dem who had supported Obama in 2008 would ever win the 2016 nomination.)

I think in the long term, the GOP needs to update its profile to voters. I think some vestiges of Trumpism, like nativism, unfortunately will persist into the future. But then Trump didn't invent nativism; right-wing talk hosts had railed against immigration for decades. He used the issue to win over right-wingers. I think or would hope that the GOP would frame its agenda on building realistic expectations for federal governance (including a more restrained foreign policy), a heavier reliance on federalism, and opportunity costs of public policy on the economy

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Sunday, August 29, 2021

Post #5316 M: Lessons From the COVID Crisis; Woods on the Paleo Strategy; McClanahan on Incorporation

 Quote of the Day

A society grows great 
when old men plant trees 
whose shade they know 
they shall never sit in.
Greek proverb

Lessons From the COVID Crisis

Woods on the Paleo Strategy

McClanahan on Incorporation

Choose Life

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Al Goodwyn via Townhall

Musical Interlude: #1 Hits of 1977

Leo Sayer, "When I Need You"

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Post #5315 Social Media Digest

 Facebook

Twitter

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Post #5314 Rant of the Day: Luddite Memes

 I tend to be wary about memes being shared on Facebook and Twitter. I remember when one of my female cousins, an impassioned Trumpkin, had posted a gun control meme on her Facebook page. I was confused because I was fairly sure that the Second Amendment is a litmus test issue for his Southern conservative base; however, Trump is anything but a principled conservative, and I know he's sometimes paid lip service after high-profile tragedies like school shootings to things like tightening gun registration criteria.

My cousin's father was my Dad's closest older brother who met and later fell in love with my Mom's best friend at my folks' wedding. My cousins friended me on Facebook after my widowed aunt suffered a major stroke and died a few days later; I attended her funeral.  So anyway I was confused by the cousin's shared meme but didn't want to confront her over it so I didn't comment directly; however, I noticed a clueless progressive had doubled down on the meme's theme, and let's just say I don't suffer fools gladly. What I didn't know was the commenter was apparently a close family friend, and all 4 cousins promptly attacked and immediately defriended me. So much for blood being thicker than water. 

Now I wasn't really that close to my cousins; my Dad had been USAF career enlisted, so we had lived in multiple states (and France) and my uncle's family was in Connecticut, not really close to the Fall River/Providence base of most relatives. But we had met on multiple occasions, and my folks would always manage to visit when we were in New England. There was one annoying difference; my uncle's surname was misspelled in an Anglicized fashion on his birth certificate, and I guess my grandparents never noticed or got it fixed. My uncle never changed it, wore it almost like a badge of honor. But I was not happy when years later I got an invitation to a relative gathering from my (only for that family) female cousin using my uncle's surname.

Now my friends and family (not all siblings have accounts and/or their kids are friended) are probably aware of my libertarian/conservative views from shared posts and/or my blog; very few of those draw any likes (maybe an occasional brother-in-law or Navy buddy depending on the topic). And really I don't get many non-libertarian memes hitting my feed. If and when they do, I don't want to repeat the mistake I made with my cousin's post.

So the following meme was posted by a former UT/Austin coed friend. (She was pursuing her Master's in math education. She shared an office down the hall from the one we graduate math students shared. I had a mad crush on her, but she was already in a relationship with an engineer and eventually married him; they are still happily married and have a number of kids and grandkids. She was the daughter of a UT engineering professor.)


This is part of a group of Luddite themes, all of a nature to pressure employers to hire workers in professions largely obsoleted by automation. I'm trying to remember the specifics of similar themes, but basically the idea is to boycott self-serve options and insist on worker assistance. 

Probably the most classic example is when I was driving back to Maryland from a relative's funeral and took an exit off a New Jersey turnpike to gas up. I think over the past 3 decades I've probably pumped my own gas all but maybe a handful of times. There have been a few times I had to go inside because of some convenience store setup to activate the pump, etc. But I literally jumped in my seat, startled when a NJ attendant came by to collect my credit card. Nope, not going to pay extra for someone to pump my gas. (It's factored into the price.)  I waited until I was back in Maryland, so NJ lost its share of excise taxes on my purchase. Why New Jersey has this make-work scheme, I don't know. (I don't think there are more than 1 or 2 states doing this nonsense.) It's politically corrupt. 

What really got my attention was the Amazon reference and/of course the reference to Walton family shareholders. allegedly saving money at the expense of cashier careers. There are other factors at play, including the customer's own time. I have been behind a "back-to-school" Mom while her cart was being rung up, including every single folded file folder, pencil cups, whatever. The cashier and customer were leisurely conversing, swapping gossip, but scanning was happening at a slow pace. I didn't have anywhere like that amount in my cart. I do have patience (I'm not the kind to complain that X has 17 vs. 15 items in the quick item checkout aisle), but it took forever for her to get rung up.

I wasn't crazy about my friend reposting the meme, but I didn't want her to get upset with me. So here is a transcript of the exchange:

Ronald A Guillemette

Not a fan of lines. I don't need others to scan barcodes for me. The last time I checked, Walmart provided a choice: wait in line or self-checkout. Amazon isn't the way to go for most beverages, frozen/refrigerated foods, bread, produce, etc. (It does offer grocery delivery in some locations.) I won't go to a store that doesn't offer a self-checkout option.

Friend:

That is a great option for you. I totally use self check for drinks and chips. However, many times My cart is filled with $300 worth of groceries for a group of 6 or more and the self check is not a good option. I feel sorry for other families who have to bring their young children in and are trying to check out a huge cart load of stuff. With only 1 real checker to assist, I resent Walmart’s current business model.

Ronald A Guillemette

Friend, the issue is the author isn't talking about Walmart opening up more registers. She's basically a Luddite arguing Walmart is trying to save on hiring cashiers by opening up self-checkout kiosks. A bachelor like me rarely has a full shopping cart, but when I do, I appreciate the way the cashiers can set up a round robin of shopping bags to sort groceries and other items. My initial response didn't rule out the traditional checkout option; I was focused on targeting kiosks. I do think if Walmart doesn't staff its regular checkouts adequately, it alienates customers.
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Saturday, August 28, 2021

Post #5313 M: McClanahan on the Greatest President, John Tyler; Free Market Environmentalists; Marxism, Black Widow, and Actor's Political Naiveté

 Quote of the Day

He who holds hopes for the human condition 
is a fool.
Albert Camus  

McClanahan on the Greatest President, John Tyler

Free Market Environmentalists

Marxism,  Black Widow, and Actor's Political Naiveté

Choose Life

Political  Cartoon

Courtesy of AF Branco via Townhall

Musical Interlude: #1 Hits of 1977

The Eagles, "Hotel California". I have a love/hate relationship with this song. I was working at an IBM subsidiary in Irving, TX in 1992 when a rock station I listened to on my earbuds abruptly changed its format, and this was literally their swan song. The first 4 or 5 times they played the song in a row I was mildly amused, but let's say after 20 times in a row, it gets on your nerves. I stopped listening after maybe 30 times. I don't know ultimately how long they played it, but it was starting to drive me insane.

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Post #5312 J

 Shutdown Diary

The latest stats from Washpo:

New daily reported cases rose 11.2% 
New daily reported deaths rose 40.9% 
Covid-related hospitalizations rose 6.6% 
Among reported tests, the positivity rate was 10.6%.
The number of tests reported rose 16.6% 
In the last week, an average of 886.3k doses per day were administered, a 6% increase  over the week before. An average of 300.2k adults received the first dose in the U.S. over the last week

According to CDC:


There isn't a lot of good news here; we haven't seen numbers in this range since the last wave peak around last January. On a more positive note, on the vaccination front, we are nearing the 75% partial vaccination rate among US adults, and just over half of Americans are fully vaccinated. The local federal installation shows that the area is now considered high saturation, a benchmark for compelling compulsory masking (including the vaccinated).

I did get my batch of N95 disposable masks via Amazon. It was one of my more unusual transactions, probably one of Amazon's small business partners. I was expecting an Amazon delivery on Thursday I recall. But one of my daily emails, a USPS daily email on upcoming deliveries, hinted was a UPS delivery from Michigan Monday or Tuesday. (I was confused why USPS was alerting me about UPS deliveries, never mind trying to remember what I had ordered  from Michigan.)

Speaking of facemasks, one of the points I've frequently made is most cloth masks do a terrible job filtering out bioaerosols. In fact, if you do a simple Google search, you'll find multiple European countries require use of a surgical mask or better. This Popular Mechanics article includes a good discussion of major types, including relevant sample online shopping links.

Another recent article of interest I've read is Marginal Revolution's Alex Tabarrok's discussion of FDA restrictions on COVID-19 tests. Germany allows over 10 times the number of different tests than the US, and costs can amount to under $1 a test  vs. the US' $10-20; in fact, the UK and Canada have been known to give out free tests. I've made it clear since the early pandemic in this segment that by far, I consider the delay and initial rollout/failure of testing Trump's biggest failure in leading a strategy to contain the virus.  The cost issue is going to discourage frequent testing or early testing with initial symptoms. This is far from a free market in healthcare.

It looks like Biden wants to shorten the elapsed time for boosters by a few months, e.g., from 8 to 5 months. In the meanwhile, some international organizations see boosters in a zero-sum fashion vs. getting COVID-19 vaccines distributed in the developing world countries.

One of the problems I've constantly worried about during the COVID-19 waves is what happens to patients who find themselves with serious but treatable problems when hospitals lack capacity to treat them. CBS recently covered the case of a 46-year-old veteran who had a stuck gallstone--and died because he couldn't get medical treatment fast enough.

I'll conclude this segment with a few video clips of interest:.


Life's Little Problems

One of my annoyances in dealing with Windows on my PCs is when for some reason something changes on the presentation level which violates my expectations. I wouldn't say I'm obsessive-compulsive, but when Windows swerves me, it's highly annoying. I'm usually not sure what if anything on my part contributed to the problem. I must have been responsible in the taskbar docking problem, probably dragged my mouse unintentionally, having left the taskbar unlocked. 

I'm talking about things like my display flipping upside down or the taskbar docking on one of the other 3 (versus bottom) borders. Some people actually prefer these settings (bur I have different preferences; for example, I never eat French fries with ketchup--not that on my lower carb regimen I eat French fries regularly). 

There's a standard fix to the docking problem--drag the taskbar back using unused space on your taskbar--which, of course, assumes you have empty space on your taskbar. I eventually got it back after a reboot.

Jimmy Fallon apparently had a bit on people reporting horrible first date. I saw a webpage featuring some of the reader contributions. I feel for the lady who was on a date with a funeral director--and he showed up with a corpse in the backseat, saying he had to drop by work on their way to the date.

I personally had some BAD first dates (I've had some bad luck in asking out the wrong women; it's never been for superficial reasons like looks). Probably the first one that comes to mind is this Latina I had met through Catholic Newman at UH. I knew she was on a break from a relationship with John. My employer was hosting a dinner at a very good southwest Houston restaurant. So all the way in driving her to the restaurant she's reminding me not to read anything more into the date. She then spent the evening flirting with the male guest of a female colleague. I was dying of embarrassment in front of my co-worker. I later heard a rumor my date couldn't figure out why I never asked her out again.

I think I've mentioned this other young woman in prior posts (I ended breaking up with her after a few dates; she didn't take it well and wrote me any icy typewritten letter on Merrill Lynch letterhead I never read beyond the first paragraph, basically calling me the spawn of Satan; I once went to an Astros game, and I came back to literally 18 answering machine messages. The next day she vented about my not asking her to the game; "I didn't think you liked baseball." "I don't, but you should have asked. I was willing to do that for you." She then flipped into this other persona, where she invented a boyfriend who had driven them past the Astrodome (yeah, this was years back) and they had wondered why there were so many cars in the parking lot. So not only was she trying to get me jealous with an imaginary boyfriend, but he was a clueless idiot who can't figure out a full parking lot on game day...

I was inexperienced in dating at that point, and she was like "Advanced Topics in Dating". She had actually made the first move while I was taking a break at the Newman Center off campus (she wasn't a student; she lived in her family home a few blocks from campus; I think her dad was in prison, and I never pried into that). She was tall at 5'10.5" (taller than me, not an issue with me, although most women I have dated are shorter). It was weird because she was wearing these jean "hot pants", talking about her college nickname of "Miss Legs", and constantly flexing her legs while we're talking. So she was really aggressive. 

I remember our first date was an Indiana Jones movie. (I know that's aging me.) How could that go wrong? Let me count the ways. Apparently I was in the doghouse for not noticing she had gotten her hair done (it's like maybe I saw her once a week at Mass); I really didn't know why a girl would get her hair done to go into a dark theater. And I guess she was trying to impress me by translating the German dialogue in the film, but to be honest, I found that presumptuous and annoying, a variation on those those idiots giving away a movie plot while you're trying to enjoy a movie. Maybe if I had asked her what she thought they were saying....

Entertainment

As much as Hallmark Channel specializes in forgettable romantic comedies, it seems Lifetime is partial to psycho dramas. But I'm pretty sure it was on Lifetime where I first saw the movie "August Rush". It just struck me I haven't seen that or other romantic comedies like "Sundays at Tiffany's" or Katharine McPhee's "In My Dreams" (the latter two fantasies) in quite some time, the latter one on Hallmark.

Unfortunately, the flicks aren't available (for free) on Amazon Prime. The August Rush movie is about a u young musical prodigy whose parents, a young unwed couple, were separated by the girl's disapproving father, who also separates the girl, pregnant from the encounter, from her newborn son. The musician father never learns about his son but eventually unknowingly encounters him on the street as August has escaped from his grandfather's arrangements. The movie winds to a climax whether August's parents can reunite despite adversarial circumstances. (Well, it's predictable they do, or the whole movie would suck, but you wonder how it'll work out.)

I love musicals (at least through Grease), and I am fond of certain tunes from the movie, a favorite from which I embed below. 

College football is back; as I write this, I'm watching Illinois/Nebraska (no favorite). It's almost surreal seeing a full crowd and almost not a single mask in sight.

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Friday, August 27, 2021

Post #5311 M: Will SCOTUS Revisit Kelo?; On Ashli Babbitt's Murderer

 Quote of the Day

You are not superior 
just because you see the world in an odious light.
Vicomte de Chateaubriand  

Abbeville Institute This Week

Will SCOTUS Revisit Kelo?

On Ashli Babbitt's Murderer

Choose Life

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of AF Branco via Townhall

Musical Interlude: #1 Hits of 1977

Glen Campbell, "Southern Nights"

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Thursday, August 26, 2021

Post #5310 M: McClanahan on a National Constitution; Biden's Evil Minimum Global Tax Scheme

 Quote of the Day

The only service a friend can really render is 
to keep up your courage 
by holding up to you a mirror 
in which you can see 
a noble image of yourself.
George Bernard Shaw  

McClanahan  on a National Constitution

Biden's Evil Minimum Global Tax Scheme

Choose Life

Political Cartoon

Musical Interlude: #1 Hits of 1977

Thelma Houston, "Don't Leave Me This Way"

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Post #5309 Rant of the Day Woods and Other Libertarian Vaccine Skeptics

 Vaccine skeptics almost seem to celebrate the increasing percentage of vaccine breakthrough cases. Consider these Michigan statistics:

What they don't point out, of course, is we have an increasing vaccinated base, vaccines don't guarantee against an infection during a pandemic (the mRNA vaccines mention 94-95% effectiveness), the more contagious nature of the Delta variant, and the percentage of  confirmed vaccine breakthroughs is statistically negligible (under 1%). Measles, for instance, virtually disappeared for years from the US, in large part due to herd immunity, but we have had some minor breakouts, e.g., from unvaccinated kids catching the disease outside the country and spreading it among other unvaccinated on their return. The Delta variant has been particularly contagious. And the extension of mask wearing has to deal with measured virus in breathing passages of breakthrough cases for the Delta variant, but:

By evaluating the breakthrough and overall case data, a report by The New York Times estimated that unvaccinated individuals in Michigan are 28 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 versus the fully vaccinated, and eight times more likely to die from coronavirus infection.

CDC notes:

As of August 16, 2021, more than 168 million people in the United States had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. During the same time, CDC received reports from 49 U.S. states and territories of 9,716 patients with COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infection who were hospitalized or died.

At least a fifth of those patients died or were hospitalized from non-COVID reasons, and at least 70% were at least 65 years old. In part, we probably are seeing declining protection among older people who were vaccinated 6 months or longer. 

Just to give one example, 3 well-known libertarian-conservatives (Massie, Rand Paul, ant Tom Woods) have resisted vaccination after their own infections with COVID-19, claiming natural immunity against reinfection. (Others want to suggest that the recent guidance for masking of vaccinated people undermines the credibility of vaccines.)  Let me quote CDC here:

 [L]aboratory evidence suggests that antibody responses following COVID-19 vaccination provide better neutralization of some circulating variants than does natural infection...This report details the findings of a case-control evaluation of the association between vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 reinfection in Kentucky during May–June 2021 among persons previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 in 2020. Kentucky residents who were not vaccinated had 2.34 times the odds of reinfection compared with those who were fully vaccinated 

Now are the 3 libertarians acting irrationally? I don't know their medical histories, but I think they're under 50 years old. I might be more cautious with Rand Paul, because I think he lost part of one lung over a neighbor's assault. I will say that reinfections are relatively rare, typically under 2% over the next several months (maybe 5 times less likely to be infected than the unvaccinated uninfected and usually less seriously when infected (e.g., asymptomatic or mild symptomatic). Is it worth vaccine shots to lower your risk of reinfection by over half, even with natural immunity? In my judgment, yes. Especially in the cases of Paul and Massie whose infections were maybe over a year ago and under less contagious early variants than Delta. We simply don't have enough data on how long any acquired immunity lasts. I will likely take a booster in early December when I become eligible. I like the evidence that boosters more than tripled the level of relevant antibodies. 

Many libertarians, particularly Ron Paul,  have been dreading the FDA's recent full approval of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine recently, seeing it as triggering a flood of vaccine mandates and/or vaccine passports. (See here for a summary of relevant COVID-19 state policies.)

I do not know to what extent these or other libertarians have been involved in spreading debunked misinformation like alleged DNA manipulation by mRNA vaccines, but the Ron Paul Institute got caught trying to imply that a COVID-19 outbreak at an Alabama nursing home was related to its recent vaccine rollout.

I have a more nuanced view on things like vaccine mandates and passports. There should be an exception for those who physically cannot tolerate vaccine shots (certain allergies). I do think employers have a vested interest to maintain a healthy environment for their workers, including state or federal employees, teachers, etc., e.g., mandating vaccination or testing. Woods has been for some time fear-mongering over prospective vaccination of children (approval likely deferred until this winter), arguing children have virtually no cases and no need for it. (This is a state of denial; of course, kids can get and spread viral infections.) Personally I think that libertarians should be more concerned about the FDA/CDC control over COVID-19 testing and vaccination. I think a lot of people got sick and/or died  which could have been averted without government monopoly control.

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Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Post #5308 M: McClanahan on What the Founders Never Intended; Woods on Politics the New Religion; When Politicians Panic

 Quote of the Day

Even in the darkest place, 
the light of a single candle 
can be seen far and wide.
Rabbi Lubovich  

McClanahan on What the Founders Never Intended

Woods on Politics the New Religion

When Politicians Panic

Choose Life

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Chip Bok via Townhall

Musical Interlude: #1 Hits of 1977

ABBA, "Dancing Queen". I'm a huge ABBA fan...

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Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Post #5307 M: Stossel on Lessons From Georgia (The Country); McClanahan on Imperialism is for Girls; Woods on Vaccine Passports

 Quote of the Day

Life consists 
not in holding good cards 
but in playing those you hold well.
Josh Billings  

Stossel on Lessons From Georgia (The Country)

McClanahan on Imperialism is for Girls

Woods on Vaccine Passports

Choose Life

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Henry Payne via Townhall

Musical Interlude: #1 Hits of 1977

David Soul, "Don't Give Up on Us"

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Monday, August 23, 2021

Post #5306 M: Pfizer Vaccine Fully Approved; Baby, Your Phone Can Drive My Car; McClanahan on Supremacy Nonsense

 Quote of the Day

I am always doing that 
which I cannot do, 
in order that I may learn 
how to do it. 
Pablo Picasso  

Pfizer Vaccine Fully Approved

Baby, Your Phone Can Drive My Car

McClanahan on Supremacy Nonsense

Choose Life

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Steve Breen via Townhall

Musical Interlude: #1 Hits of 1977

Hall & Oates, "Rich Girl"

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Post #5305 J

 Shutdown Diary

The latest stats from Washpo:

In the past week in the U.S. ...
New daily reported cases rose 9.2% 
New daily reported deaths rose 50.3% 
Covid-related hospitalizations rose 12.4% Read more
Among reported tests, the positivity rate was 9.4%.
The number of tests reported fell 44.2%  
An average of 333.2k adults received the first dose in the U.S. over the last week.
In the last week, an average of 845.1k doses per day were administered, a 15% increase  over the week before.

From CDC:


There's not much to say beyond the fact this Delta wave hasn't peaked yet, at an average of 160Kcases per day more recently. The vaccination rate edged upward, but just under 1% newly vaccinated adults per week, up around 3 points this month.

Probably the biggest news is that the FDA is rumored (by the Gray Lady) to be granting Pfizer full (vs. just emergency use) approval. Whether this will convince any vaccine skeptics remains to be seen.

I recently went on a shopping trip to my nearest Sam's Club, inside of Baltimore County (somewhat of a misnomer; it's actually a collar county of the City of Baltimore, a collar county. I mean, at least 90% of the patrons were wearing facemasks. I began wondering if Baltimore County had resumed a mask mandate; I think the City had. There was a greeter at the entrance with a box of disposable masks, but she didn't harass me over being unmasked. I was used to a significant percentage of people still wearing masks at my local Lidl's grocery store but it was quire some time before I saw another patron (also a white older male) who was unmasked. 

The politics of COVID-19 annoy me. The lieutenant governor of Texas was trying to blame unvaccinated blacks for the state's COVID-19 problem. But national statistics show that both whites and black are slightly below their relative proportion in vaccination statistics, and blacks make up under 12% of the Texas population. 

Miscellaneous Notes

My car recently had its second anniversary. I may have slightly more miles on it than the Little Old Lady from Pasadena's car, not even 3000 miles. (I didn't have new car fever;  my nearly 20-year old car didn't pass a Maryland exhaust inspection, and my mechanic couldn't diagnose the issue; the Olds had already just barely passed a couple of repairs where parts had become almost impossible to find when the brand  went out of business while I was still making car payments.) A lot of it, of course, is reduced driving during the pandemic, including stretches of remote work. After all, the grocery store is just a couple of miles away, and the barber shop and my doctor's office are just somewhat longer. The nice thing is my hybrid averages about 53-54 mpg and my full tank can go up to 500-odd miles between fill-ups. At least I'm about 40% through my car payments.

My blog readership is still struggling especially over the past 6 weeks or so..  Barring an unusual burst of pageviews like last month's closing 2-day 800 or so, I will likely see somewhere in the neighborhood of 1700 pageviews, maybe less, which would be the lowest in at least  6 or more months. Most of my posts are still hitting double-digits but it's become more hit or miss lately. The essays will do reasonably well, but the journal and social media digest posts aren't a lock. It's not for a lack of trying; I'm up already over 350 posts on the year; whether or not I can match last year's record of nearly 200 more is more of a stretch, because that was an election year.

On Twitter I'm back to a stretch of averaging over 1K impressions daily, but that's mainly the effect of 12K and 3K impression tweets over the past couple of weeks. A lot depends on the trends. Some days it's slim-pickings. Tonight for instance there was a trend on Trump2024, and it was a battle between Trump Derangement Syndrome folks and Trumpkins. I have issues with each side.

I may have mentioned that I had bought a bundle of disposable N95 masks from Amazon. I guess I mustn't have looked closely enough to in-stock or delivery time,  I think it takes about 2 weeks; I'm not really in a hurry because my county hasn't reverted to mask policy yet, and I do have cloth masks I've been using over the past year-plus. And I recall in the early weeks in the pandemic, Amazon had a backlog for several weeks of several products, including ordinary facemasks

Entertainment

SummerSlam has come and gone. Surprisingly, the show was better than I expected, but there were some questionable calls. On the one hand, the return of Becky Lynch (from pregnancy leave) had been anticipated for months--but not the way I expected. The long promoted rematch of Sasha Banks for her Smackdown women's belt lost to Bianca Belair at Wrestlemania didn't happen. It looked like Carmella instead was going to get her umpteenth fruitless challenge to Belair when Becky suddenly appeared to a monstrous pop from the crowd. This was a puzzling development; as I recall, Lynch last held the Raw title which she relinquished to Asuka. It's not clear why the babyface didn't involve herself in the Flair-Ripley-Nikki Cross ASH battle for her title, with 2 heels involved. Instead WWE booked her in something like a 12-second squash match led by a (heel turn?) sucker punch to Belair. (There have been squash belt matches before; two that come to mind were Diesel's win over Backlund; and Sheamus over Daniel Bryan)

The two men's championships were surprisingly good. It was clear Cena couldn't be booked as a champion because of his acting schedule, but the match had multiple credible near-falls. Brock Lesnar finally made his long-awaited return to confront Reigns at the end of the main event. It makes sense to send fans home happy, but I had thought they were going in the direction of a dream match with Bobby Lashley. As for the Lashley match, Goldberg gave a more serious challenge than expected, which Lashley won by presumably injuring Goldberg's leg to the point he couldn't compete. Now one thing that had puzzled me was why they were working Goldberg's teen son into the storyline. In hindsight, it is clear when the son jumped on Lashley's back post-match as Lashley looked intent on extending Bill's injuries. So Lashley takes out the minor Goldberg, with a full-nelson throwing him around like a rag doll; at the end, they show "how dare you touch my son" Goldberg glaring at Lashley's exit. So it seems we are going to have a Daddy's revenge rematch, not unlike Rey Mysterio's similar challenge to Reigns.

The rest of the card was okay although I have no clue why they booked the Alexa Bliss-Eva Marie match  Eva is probably the worst lady grappler I've ever seen. At least they had Charlotte regain her RAW women's title.

I watched NXT Takeover, and I wasn't happy to see Adam Cole lose or Karrion Cross lose his championship, but Cross has been transitioning to RAW now for a few weeks. I did notice Scarlett, his blond escort, was missing. There has been a rumor that Scarlett's presence is part of the storyline of his success. Some rumors Cole has been offered a 7-figure contract by WWE, but no word if he's signed.

I'm watching  "The Black Stallion" on PosiTV as I write this; I'm sure I watched it years back. I read the original series in my youth; I loved the books. It brings back to mind other juvenile series like Tom Swift, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and the Bobbsey Twins. I think the middle two had some TV projects, although I never followed them.

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Sunday, August 22, 2021

Post #5304 M: Woods on Medical Freedom; McClanahan on Reconstruction; Ron Paul on Biden's Afghanistan Speech

Quote of the Day

I will love the light for it shows me the way, 
yet I will endure the darkness 
for it shows me the stars.
Og Mandino  

Woods on Medical Freedom

McClanahan on Reconstruction

Ron Paul on Biden's Afghanistan Speech

Choose Life

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Chip Bok via Townhall

Musical Interlude: #1 Hits of 1977

Barbra Streisand, "Evergreen". Some of the weirdest lyrics: "Love, soft as an easy chair"

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