…Florida. Apparently direct comparison of mortality and cases between Florida, a US state that dropped all lockdown measures last year, has an infection / mortality curve significantly lower than ‘hard lockdown’ states like New York and California.
Watch, share, then cry a little for all those who didn’t get their serious health problems treated because all the hospital systems were fixated on SARS/COV-2. For all those who lost hope because of lockdowns and took a step off this mortal coil.
For my part, I’ve been trying to keep our household and that of ‘South’ (Via video message) jollied along. Which has been a trying task. My normally genial disposition has almost gone into acute failure mode on at least thirty occasions in the last twelve months alone. You see the despair of those you love and it twists a knife in your guts because they are trapped far away, and you are precluded from visiting them to offer succour.
The real world data does not lie. You can talk up ‘R’ numbers and ‘cases’ all you like, but the corollary evidence that lockdowns do more harm than good is all out there. In the real world, not in the shonky mathematical models coming out of places like Imperial College.
Maybe Boris Johnson will hear of this, sack the current bunch of time pleasers in SAGE and decide to lift the UK lockdowns. If he does, other nations will follow. And the more quickly the better. The world, social, economic and scientific needs to heal from this Lysenkoist Government-induced disaster.
A great reset needs to happen, but not the one the World Economic Forum want. We need a great reset where people are free to go about their everyday lives. Free to trade, create, live, love and work again. That, as the data coming out of Florida tells us, is what will fix everything, not some neo-fascist totalitarian nightmare pushed by the mega-rich, who it seems don’t have enough so they want everybody else’s money and possessions.
I’d like to believe that there is a light ahead in the darkness of lockdown, but my native cynicism tells me this may yet be another false dawn. Please let me be wrong on this specific point.
One thing we need to be reassured about though, is that lockdowns are never, ever used again. For any reason whatsoever.
Do lockdowns cause more deaths than not? Well now, so they do. Now there’s a thing. Not to mention wearing a mask, or even two creating a lovely environment for rebreathing all those lovely pathogens and lowering your blood gases, thus a mask wearer’s mental acuity.
Is a great deal of the issue exacerbated by nosocomial infections? By over 40%, according to reliable sources of information. Not the mainstream or the politicians. Proper science sources. Source data and peer reviewed studies.
Can I just say; “Told you so.”
But no one cares what people like me think, because according to them I’m just a ‘science denier’ with a lifetime of experience across a range of industry sectors, from Engineering through IT and front line healthcare, amongst others. We must be shut up because we have valid reasons for disagreeing with the propaganda merchants.
Got up this morning to find that yesterday’s snow is all gone. Still cold and breezy out, and I’ve got some kindling to cut and dry later for our wood burning stove in the front room for when the central heating needs a bit of help. I try to keep busy.
On the topic of keeping occupied, that’s the last but one jigsaw finished. A 1000 piece rendering of Vincent Van Gogh’s famous painting ‘starry night‘. As jigsaws go it rates a ‘Pretty fiendish’ on the scale of difficulty. Took me five days. The Yin and Yang swirls in the middle were the most difficult to make sense of. Rather like the chaos of life.
A thought about life slunk into my hindbrain while I was making the coffee this morning. It was about how much we as humans need stories. Not only that, but how we need to be involved in those stories. How we need to create our own tales, not just about what we saw on TV, but what we’ve experienced in our own lives. From discussing what happened at the weekend to a bit of gossip, or the book we’ve just read, we need to share our personal stories to confirm to ourselves that we are not alone. To confirm to ourselves that we still have all our marbles. We need to communicate.
To enlarge; we need to communicate face to face. Because I’ve noticed that when I hear someone telling their story, I’m not so much focussed on the what as the how. Because the what is just the narrative, but the how lets us know about the person telling the tale. Are they being less than honest or are they just being entertaining? Some people are good at joke telling and making others smile, others, with exactly the same words, can relay an entirely different message. Our styles of communication alters meaning. A sidelong meaning glance and twitch of the mouth can fill a million gaps between sentences, but we do need to see all these micro-expressions up close and personal. And it is an emotional need.
Not only that but we as humans need physical contact, even a simple handshake, which can tell you a thousand details about someone else in less than two seconds. About what kind of person they are and their level of sincerity. Handshakes convey a litany of mood and emotion. A hug volumes more.
Deprive people of that contact and they lose touch, not only with other people, but with their own inner selves. People get broken. Without touch we lose our will, our impetus. It’s why solitary confinement can break even a moderately strong willed person. We as humans are not designed to live in our own heads all the time.
This is why we need the lockdowns to end now, whatever the risk of disease (Even if it is minimal). These repeated lockdowns are stripping us of our humanity, damaging our sense of commonality, of our shared experience and turning us into isolated screaming online mobs.
What we are seeing is that lockdowns encourage hate and division, increase civil disunity. They make it easy for certain people to be manipulated and others marginalised. Which is why Twatter and Farcebook can be such toxic environments. Isolation is not good for us. Even me, and I’m used to long periods of working alone. But at the end of a working week I still need to go wandering down a crowded street or walk into a pub, even if I end up drinking on my own.
On the topic of risk, for those who want a clearer picture of the current statistics, you could do worse than read this article.
Busy doing nothing effective and getting rather fed up. It’s like the whole business world has dozed off. Emails don’t get answered.
Voicemail boxes are full. Enforced inactivity is fine for a few days, but for the best part of a year? For a virus that has a mortality rate not much higher than seasonal Influenza and can be killed by soapy water (Amongst other things)?
That and nearly half the population seems to have lost their reason. I need at least another two very fiendish Jigsaw puzzles to tide me over this lot, as it doesn’t seem likely that we’re getting out of this nutty lockdown situation anywhere soon. For light relief I shall be playing a little Johannes Sebastian Bach in the background. Ignore the flailing hands, I’m probably miming to “Toccata in Fugue” on the headphones, again. If I’m swaying from side to side it’s Brandenberg concerto no 3 allegro moderato.
Outside it’s been snowing, landlords kids have been out snowballing and tobogganing and I’m wondering when all the global warming we keep getting promised is going to turn up. All that job lot of sun cream I bought as an investment is starting to go off.
The lockdowns that don’t work. The numbers say so. Lockdowns that have no real effect upon either infection rates or mortality.
Which begs the question; when will this madness end? Because it is madness. Social and economic suicide. Murder by numbers. And these lockdowns are murder. Every single suicide of people stripped of the means of making a living and now can’t make their mortgages. By their own government. People whose savings ran out. Stripped of their self-esteem with no way out. Murdered by every government agency. Murdered by the Police who force them to stay in their own homes with little respite. Despite the evidence that lockdowns are harmful. Over a hundred scientific papers have proven that salient fact.
As one who is on the cusp of being in an elevated-risk age group I will say only this; I’d rather take my chances with SARS/COV-2.
Update: Yes I know this only ‘allows’ the extension of lockdowns, but does anyone out there for one minute think that this power won’t be (ab)used?
Is the PCR test fit for purpose? Does it really say “For lab use only” on the packaging of all of these tests, like the warning on many mask packages “Will not protect against viruses”
A Dr Sam Bailey puts forward her observations after she was ‘fact checked’ by some self appointed ‘fact checkers’
Mrs S and I had a difference of opinion yesterday morning. She opined that it was a good thing that the sitting US President with the initials DJT had all his social media accounts suspended and deleted. Apparently for spreading “disinformation and hate”. Which is interesting. Apparently he was trying to tell his supporters to “Go home.” because “We need peace.” So Arsebook and Twatter decided this was not what they wanted their users to hear. So his accounts were suspended. Along with thousands of others. Took the screenshot below just before posting. Video from GABTV here. Does that sound like ‘hate’?
I disagreed vehemently with my other half, referring to these social media shutdowns as ‘fascist’. I told her that shutting down someone just because you don’t like them much, is a very, very bad idea. It’s like smacking the phone out of someone’s hand when they’re talking to someone else. Principally because how do you know someone is being an arse and ‘spreading hate’ if the only ‘evidence’ there is comes from some dodgy rumourmongers and propagandists (Calling themselves ‘journalists’ ho bloody ho)? Even on the supposedly neutral BBC (Guffaw) and even hitherto respected organs of the UK press (FT, Times, Telegraph and Guardian). Can what they say be verified by primary source information or not? If so, okay. If not, they’re more full of it than I am. Likewise, if the primary source is denied to me using the argument “We will tell you what to think.” or “You wouldn’t understand it”, then my subconscious tends to cry “Foul! Ref!”
Seems to even my limited intelligence that someone is telling massive porkies or at least misrepresenting what really happened at the US capitol. For my part, as a staunch advocate of fair play, I actually try and find out what the recently unseated DJT actually said on a given occasion, and it is so often at odds with what the mainstream tell us he said. Far from being a ‘spreader of hate’, DJT tells his audiences that he loves them, repeating allegations that the mainstream will not touch. “Oh noes!” Scream the lamestream. “He’s spreading hate and disinformation!” Despite information being in the public domain that supports the case for prosecution of those favoured by the mainstream media.
Say for example that old you-know-who had destroyed possibly incriminating computer hard drives and phones, his feet wouldn’t have touched the floor, but someone from a family beginning with ‘C’ only had to state that this was not so, presumably with her fingers crossed behind her back, and magically there was no case to answer. Or fact based allegations that a specific politician was taking foreign money and making a crooked buck by peddling influence, not to mention being a possible paedophile.
The public too often get patted on the head and told “Nothing to see here, move along.” But we can see what’s going on. Only the wilfully blind cannot, it’s that blatant.
Despite not liking DJT much as a public persona, I had to admire some of the things he was doing. Scaling back US military interventions in the Middle East and Afghanistan for example. When of course his military staffers did what they were told. Bringing jobs back to the USA despite the lockdowns and civil unrest perpetuated by mostly Democrat administrations. He also liked BREXIT, which his successor doesn’t.
Not to mention the election shenanigans that gave the victory to the Democrats, despite evidence of fraud that the courts point blank refused to examine, not entirely sure why. Yes there is evidence. Shady stuff was done. But those perpetrating such deeds presumably steered far enough to the windy side of the law that the courts couldn’t do much. So dies the US Republic.
Regarding the US Elections, satirically commented upon by JP. Were some of those ‘Trump supporters’ actually Antifa? Certain tattoos tell an interesting story.
How long before poor old JP gets hauled off to the Gulag for revealing state secrets?
Drone strikes incoming to all the pro-Trump faction. Must invest in those companies before the share price goes up. Personally I’m with Viva Frei as below.
Well, it’s 2021 chums! Aaaand here we go again. More useless, futile lockdowns following all the other futile and useless lockdowns which didn’t work throughout 2020. Frankly I’m amazed, not at the obvious lack of intelligence on display, but at the sheer lack of imagination. Hey! Let’s do the same thing which didn’t work last time around, just change the name. Genius, eh? No.
I’ve noticed there’s a lot of pressure from public sector unions, which I know from experience form the least productive part of the economy. Frankly, if you shut all the daycare centres masquerading as the state sector education system, and maybe all those pressuring for the additional lockdowns should have their salaries cut by 50%+ during the next ‘wave’ or ‘spike’ or whatever excuse the powers that be are using, like the few private sector workers currently being ‘furloughed’ into penury. But maybe the UK public sector is indulging in a little sabotage, having been told their wages will be frozen for the next three years they’ve decided to watch it all burn to the ground.
Personally, if a union is one of those pressuring the government to shut down schools, then maybe the union’s members should be sent home on the quarter pay pittance offered to those not on the public dime. Like the teachers unions. What are they going to do when the schools are shut anyway? Go on strike? Who would notice? In the meantime, just like in the early 1970’s, UK education, politically correct mish mash that it appears to be, of the next generation suffers.
Yep. It’s a crazy old world out there and no mistake. My current major issue is the banking system, and shifting funds from Canada back into Europe and the UK keeps my head slamming into the nearest wall. Mrs S and I had a bit of a row over it. She had a go at me for no good reason twice in the same day. Which almost made me lose my temper, which for me is an event akin to finding the manure pile in a rocking horse stable. I was rather annoyed though. I’m not a bloody doormat and get really pissed off when my good nature is mistaken for me being anyone’s bitch.
However, sanity has prevailed, we’ve talked things through, and we’re back to our more usual selves, although after a particularly stressful session with a not so helpful help desk today, my rabid Donald Duck impression as I walked downstairs made her jump, then she burst out laughing. So we’re all good again. Life is too short not to see the ridiculous side. Even if the continual repetition of stupidity gets right on my tits.
Now I need a drink.
Update. By the way; for those of you thinking I may be full of it. Have a look at the analysis below. No ‘denial of science’, no propaganda, just the numbers and nothing but the numbers. In context. Like being compared to like. Peer reviewed studies and information derived from proper, reputable scientific publications.
Now would anyone carefully explain to me, using proper science and without resorting to the pejorative, why the hell we’re still doing lockdowns?
The mainstream media over here in Ireland have picked up on the ‘Numbers don’t lie’ theme and are abusing it by misrepresenting the data on their front pages, by posting overall death stats without context, or how they fit in with the seasonal norms. Mr Cummins, see below, gives the context the mainstream media and politicians won’t, or can’t provide. He points out that overall mortality (All deaths) is down on 2015, 2016 & 2019 according to the Euromomo all cause mortality stats. To clarify, overall mortality, not just deaths attributable to SARS/COV-2 is less than ‘normal’, (albeit marginally) despite an increasing population and the spike of deaths in March and April 2020.
Derived from the statistical analysis, a great deal of the ‘cases’ appear to be nosocomial (Hospital originating) infections, meaning that if you didn’t have the infection when you went in to hospital, there is a better than average chance you would catch a dose whilst a patient or visitor. Outside, not so much. Hospitals appear to be the sinks of infection, so therefore the only people who should have to be covered by the mask and lockdown regulations are patients, visitors, health care workers and support staff. The rest of the public should be able to go about their business in the world outside the hospital system with minimal risk. The numbers, taken in context, don’t lie. Only those seeking to profit from an unjustified public panic would say otherwise by presenting seasonal norms as something new and outlandish.
So, no need for mask wearing and lockdowns in the general population. Only at hospitals and medical facilities. This is where the effort to contain the spread of any bug is most effective, by improving disease control measures where they can do the most good. Where the sinks of infection are. Which is infection control 101. Control the source, contain the disease.
As for those of you thinking a mask does any good, try the following bit of real experimental science you can do at home. No tricks, no unpleasant bending. Put on a dark coloured jumper. Charcoal or dark blue is best. Being careful not to get talc anywhere else, lightly (lightly! not throw it all over the flaming place!) dust a surgical or cloth mask with ordinary talcum powder on the outside only. Now carefully put on your mask, having first wiped your face with a wet wipe. After that, simply go around the house, doing normal chores for half an hour or so. Now stop. Take a careful look in the mirror. Where is the talc residue on your chest and shoulders? Wipe your face again. Do you find any traces of talcum powder and where do you find them? Around your mouth and nostrils or on the inside of your mask? On your hands? Did you find yourself wanting to sneeze or cough more or less than usual whilst wearing your mask? Look around the house where you’ve been lounging / working / whatever. Where do you find traces of talc? That is where all the germs and viruses go. All over the smegging place. Mask or no.
This is how good a surgical mask is at stopping disease spread in an uncontrolled atmosphere (Your home) whilst you are wearing street clothes. This is why surgical masks work best as part of a structured regimen of disease control. Specifically wearing a disposable apron over freshly laundered scrubs in conjunction with a surgical cap or hood in a controlled atmosphere and regularly disinfectant-treated surfaces, they work just fine at helping reduce the spread of a given pathogen.
This is not to say people aren’t dying from SARS/COV-2 infections, just that as far as a cause of death is concerned, it’s even taken the place of the seasonal influenza toll in parts of the Southern Hemisphere, no idea why that is. Maybe SARS/COV-2 is simply scything down those who would otherwise have been offed by a milder and less infectious, but equally lethal to those with compromised immune systems, seasonal influenza. Which is good, for a given value of ‘good’ because by reducing the numbers of those who are infected with flu, it means those strains of coronavirus caused influenzas may well die out altogether. Why? Because no hosts mean no disease. Viruses, to the best of my knowledge do not multiply without a host, i.e. you or another living creature. Including plants. Funny old thing life, isn’t it?
As for Mrs S and I, we’re healthy and doing very well, having received unexpected gifts and some excellent personal news over the last three days. All we really need to get going properly with the next phase of our grand adventure is for these pointless lockdowns to be removed and we’ll be verily flashing along like greased lightning. As will everyone else. Speed the day that sanity returns.
So much for a white Christmas although we had a three degree frost last night. Oh well, it was a long shot anyway. Well chums, hasn’t the last ten months been a real barrel of feckin laughs? Frankly, if 2020 was a person, I’d be tempted to throw it face down in a puddle and firmly plant my boot on the back of it’s neck until the bubbling stopped. Which is roughly how I feel about the people responsible for all the panic mongering over SARS/COV-2.
The terminally terrified, media and panicking politicians have done incredible damage to everyone else, just in case they’d catch a nasty dose of the flu. Yes it’s a nasty bug, yes it is worse than the normal seasonal influenzas, but not by that much. And it has done it’s worst. as I and many others have pointed out before. We effectively have ‘herd immunity’, regardless of new mutations that don’t seem to be doing much. The only thing that made the stats look bad is the misapplied PCR test, which was never intended as a diagnostic tool. The death stats are back to around seasonal norms. But I repeat myself. Yet again.
Update: see screenshot of stats for the UK below.
The renewed lockdowns mean Mrs S is chafing over every tiny detail, getting uptight with me for anything less than perfection. I do not blame her for this. I blame the arseheads responsible for closing everything down, yet again. For so little cause.
On the upside, a BREXIT deal has been agreed, with no serious tariffs between the EU and UK, which will work well for us here in Ireland. Just a little customs paperwork, which will be streamlined over the next few months. The markets like the outcome, and sterling took over a three cent uptick in price when the news hit, which should help any people on pensions and bode a little better for those reliant upon funds from the UK. Some are calling the fisheries part of the deal a ‘sell-out’, but it buys time for the UK to rebuild it’s fishing fleet and set up conservation zones. So it’s not a total shitshow. Silver linings abound. If you know where to look.
Overall 2020 has been a very frustrating year. Complicating for us what should have been a relatively simple move. The constant delays have resulted in our search for a place to refurbish is taking three times as long as it should. Getting out to view properties has been a constant game of sneakaround when no one, least of all the local law, is sure what the damn restrictions are anyway. Hell, we’re on ‘business’ anyway. The business of a little property development. So no-one is going to bother us much.
Originally, we were all told three weeks lockdown to ‘save’ nationalised health services, which turned into three months, and now at the current rate, with vaccines that don’t really give that much immunity, looks like heading into three stuffing years. When does this torture end? When no-one can die of anything any more? Don’t hold your breath for that one. Now the politicians have claimed the power over the minutiae of our lives, they will be loathe to let it go. Which is a very depressing thought.
Apropos of nothing, might I mention in passing that over here in the Wilder West of Ireland, Michael Collins is still a figure of deep reverence, the picture of this legendary guerrilla fighter hanging on many an Irish wall, as well as being portrayed by Liam Neeson in a very watchable feature film. After all, it was Collins who was the key figure in founding the Irish Free state, the birth father of the modern Republic of Ireland.
Even my family, protestants and heretics all, used to speak well of the ‘big fellow’ or ‘big man’ as he was known, despite one of our remote relatives being murdered by republicans back in the early 1900’s. Although fair’s fair, we had distant relatives murdered by both sides in the struggle for Irish independence, like so many others of Irish descent. And I was never a fan of what the paramilitaries did during ‘the troubles’. Neither side. But Collins was a realist and man of his people.
I try to look at it this way, it was all a long time ago and life is too short to hold that kind of grudge. The killers and order givers are all dead and long cold in their graves anyway. The fires of hell have claimed the wicked. Justice of a sort has happened.
Funny thing though, a few days ago between lockdowns, Mrs S and I were sitting in a pub having a quiet drink and I found myself looking up at a picture of Mr Collins in army uniform and wondering; “What would Michael Collins think about these curbs on Irish freedom and hate speech laws?” For a moment all the pub sounds faded into the background and I slipped into a short daydream until Mrs S Prodded me back to reality. Was it my imagination, or had I heard a ghostly chuckle and the double-snick of a well greased rifle bolt? Nah. Probably just my over-active imagination.
Anyway. Happy New Year all. Let’s try not to make a complete 2020 of the new year. Although no doubt the political classes will give it their best try.
It’s Christmas, and one of the things this means is that it’s Jigsaw time. Put simply, this means that Mrs S and I get the most fiendish puzzle available in the shops, and proceed to complete it. Usually a map or montage of some kind of around 1000 pieces.
Personally I find completing a jigsaw an engrossing and wholly cerebral pleasure. Helps me think clearly because it forces me to focus my dusty frontal lobes on the task at hand. It calms me down and dispels the darkness from my soul. And there’s a lot of that at the moment. Governments reneging on promises to their populaces not to interfere with Christmas, then U-turning over a relatively mild viral mutation that’s been around for ages without bumping the death count outside of the seasonal norms. Go figure.
Whenever I’m annoyed or unsettled, I go down to the kitchen table and force myself to focus on the task of completing the puzzle, normally a process that takes up an hour or so a day over two weeks. Such is the Tao of Jigsawry, the Zen of a thousand pieces. To be honest I find it very relaxing. Focussing on the emerging pattern brings a crystal clarity that would take a zen master six months to attain. Me, I find it inside an hour of settling down to bring order out of the semi-chaos of a puzzle.
Regrettably this year we may need yet another Jigsaw as I’ve already almost completed our current one inside seven days. Mrs S is not best pleased, but she appreciates what is driving me to spend three times my normal schedule. It’s all these on again off again lockdowns that are driving me to distraction. Not that the lockdowns work. They’re all just an excuse for the political classes lack of courage and vision. The politicians haven’t a clue, and as the saying goes, if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
Fortunately we have a few days before the fascist state tries to drive us all nuts with yet more tiers and more restrictions and one of my tasks if to buy another bottle of Jameson’s for me and a Vodka for Mrs S, thence yet another, more fiendish puzzle still. I think I’m going to need all the Jigsawry and associated calm available over the next few weeks.
One upside is that we’ve been promised a white Christmas. Which should annoy the living fuckwittery of the SJW mob. Does this mean though that the idle little shits will risk getting blisters shifting all the raaaaaacist snow? Not holding my breath. Although I wish they would.
Now as a grown up I’m told you don’t exist, but if, on the off chance you somehow do, I’d like to point out that I’ve been very, very good this year and would like to ask for a few things. If you think some of my listed items are a bit of an ask, I’d like to point out that I haven’t asked or begged for anything from you before in my entire life, but I would very much appreciate one or all of the following;
1. An end to all the palaver over BREXIT. I’d just like to see no deal happen so the EU wakes up and give the UK a Canada style free trade deal so we can all move on.
2. An end to the relentless propaganda over this virus thingy. Some unpleasant accidents to befall those constantly advocating for lockdowns. The demise or shutting down of Piers Morgan and his entire propaganda team would be nice. Something messy and public please, so we’re left in no possible doubt why it’s happening to them and their fellow travellers.
3. An end to the lockdowns and mask restrictions please would be appreciated. They serve no useful purpose.
4. Some kind of legal safeguard to be put in place so that these lockdowns can never ever happen again.
5. A return to pre-COVID normal life and sanity please.
6. Some kind of serious poetic justice against the most enthusiastic COVID enforcers and snitches would be much appreciated.
You see Santa, I’m not asking for myself, but for the rest of humanity who are continually watching their human rights and livelihoods being trampled. Not by any virus, but by stupid panicky people whose brains have shut down with all the fear being pumped out by the politicians and media.
Would really, really appreciate some intervention. Please and pretty please with sugar on it.
Many thanks in advance and a happier 2021 to us all.
Bill Sticker
P.S. For me, a small Christmas stocking with a Satsuma orange or two, a small bar of chocolate and maybe a packet of wine gums would be highly appreciated on Christmas morning. There’s a large bottle of vintage Port in the drinks cabinet. Put your boots up, give the reindeer a breather and have a large drink on me.
Here we go for WTO BREXIT. Amazon sent me an email the other day saying that anything ordered from their UK site (There isn’t an Amazon.ie) may be subject to extra duties, so they’re ready. The main UK ports have been ready for several years, with ‘pop-up’ customs posts ready to clear lorry loads of merchandise as they come in and go out of the UK. A good thing (for me) is the pound losing five points almost overnight against the Canadian Dollar a couple of nights ago, which made it a good idea to buy sterling. No idea why the markets react in this way. The UK is ready, customs posts set up, exporters informed and the RN getting set to arrest and detain fishing boats without proper licenses in UK waters. The only people who seem ill-prepared, bent over a chair with their trousers around their knees are the EU states.
Out here in the wilder west of Ireland, all these COVID restrictions are starting to be ignored. Dropped by my local butchers to make my Christmas order today. No masks, seasons greetings, all very civilised. The local supermarket still enforces the anti-social distancing and masks bullshit, but other people are starting to not bother.
No idea what’s going on in the US. Obvious vote rigging and dismissal of legal challenges, probably dismissed on technicalities, evidence of, but not court admissible proof. As for Biden, it’s well known he’s pro-EU, anti-BREXIT, but that’s okay because with congress and the senate on the flip side of the coin, he’s going to be in a lame duck administration. One hopes.
There’s a reported problem with the voting machines ‘flipping’ votes and all sorts of other dodgy things going on. Nothing that constitutes definitive proof, but man, I would be asking for a thorough review and re-run of the elections right now, without the voting machines, with proper oversight, with voter ID and the absolute minimum of postal voting. But that’s just me. At least an obviously fair vote would shut up all the dissenting parties and give them less to kick off about.
Up in the not so great not so white as you think it is North, there’s Trudeau allowing Chinese troops to ‘train’ on Canadian soil. Does that corrupt little toe-rag not trust his own military? How long before those exercises allow Chinese troops to ‘assist’ the Canadian armed forces against their own people? Say those uppity Midwesterners in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan? No idea. We’re out of there and our investment money is following us.
For us the aforementioned is now rather academic. We’re hunkered down in the wilder west of Ireland. All our Christmas shopping is done. We have found out where to get some superb mini-rhubarb tarts and some of the finest Mince Pies known to man fresh on most weekdays. Right on our doorstep. Our accounts are well in the black and all credit cards fully paid off. The halls are decked etc and there’s food in the larder to see us clear through to February, and a suitably fiendish 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle on the kitchen table to stretch our pattern recognition software. I might get another, just in case we get a bit too clever and finish it before Christmas. There’s Oak logs drying ready for the stoves. The kids may be with us some time in January. Fingers crossed. We’re going to be okay. Hope you will be too.
Like a lot of people I won’t be staying up for the latest end of the world show on the 21st December when an optical illusion makes it look like Saturn and Jupiter are going to collide. I’ll be hitting the ‘snooze’ button for that one. If these people are that keen to see the end of the world, I’m sure there’s a high cliff they can jump off and stop mithering the rest of us with their ridiculous utterances. All the hand-waving man made climate change panic mongers can follow them for all I care. They’re all busy telling the rest of us how to live while ignoring their own rules, buying waterfront property and jetting off to conferences all over the planet. If they didn’t clock in tomorrow on account of being too dead to work, would anybody really care?
Hope my last reader can stand the suspense.
Merry Christmas, Yuletide Greetings and all that Jazz.
Having had a look at some of the ‘Vaccination’ cards supposedly to be used as ID, I’m amazed at how easy to fake they will be. A picture of both sides of the card, fake batch number and appointment date and Robert, as they say, will be one’s fathers brother. Any modest home office could turn out hundreds. A photo printer could probably print out better looking copies. I believe there are even pre-cut ID card templates on sale via stationery stores.
No doubt this has occurred to everyone with a working brain cell, but a combo scanner / fax / printer, scissors, card and glue with a small home pouch laminator and you have all you need to charge ten quid a pop. Flash one of these at the average security guard (or below average if you’re talking about ‘COVID Marshalls’) and all of a sudden you’re a solid vaccinated citizen. Keep a few spares in your wallet to sell to friends. Charge your enemies ten times more.
No doubt certain enterprising gentlemen in the illegal intoxicants trade already have copies rolling off backstreet printing presses, out of the back door and via their distribution networks. Soon to appear on every dodgy mobile phone cracking market stall or via some slightly shady home delivery service.
Don’t you just love private enterprise?
Did say this whole COVID restriction business was as flawed as the idea of Prohibition. All you need is a plausible copy of a ‘vaccination’ card and you’re in to whatever gig / pub / club you want to, no dodgy jab necessary.
Went out today. Snuck up to Galway, to see if we could get out of the rain, which has been quite persistent. Bought a Tea Brack, which is a tea cake type of halfway house between fruit cake and bread. Very nice too. But oh, the calories, the calories. This is one of those treats that has to be rationed carefully.
Ireland, we are finding, as we sneak around the tiers and lockdowns, is full of tiny places to grab some of the tastiest baked goods it’s ever been my pleasure to get teeth into. Today we stopped at a tiny filling station on the road between Tulla and Ennis. Not much of a shop to look at, but stocking exquisite individual rhubarb crumbles and mince pies, all home baked. Their flaky pastries being crunchy all the way through and cooked perfectly. I’ve had far worse at the much smarter run of cafe.
Unfortunately, according to some people our little pleasurable perambulation contributed to destroying the planet. Supposedly because of that deadly killer carbon dioxide stuff pouring out of our exhaust. We are continually told we must “Save the world” by cutting back on everything we do. No more air travel, nice meals or personal transport, and turn down that thermostat you heretic! Then when the greater number of humanity have died through cold and famine brought on by so-called anti-global warming policies the world will be ‘saved’. Or will it?
Can I ask a few pertinent questions? First; how will anyone know when the world is truly saved? Second; if most of people are dead, who is the world being ‘saved’ for? Furthermore, who gets to decide if the world is ‘saved’ or not if a bloody great asteroid (That might have been averted if there were enough people to fund an asteroid aversion programme) slams into the Earth? These things do happen from Epoch to Eon, and might it be a better idea instead of messing around with atmospheric trace gas levels, if human activity has any effect upon those at all, to ensure the Earth doesn’t get wasted by a rogue chunk of rock from outer space?
Just my ten cents worth of course, but every time you ask these serious questions, all the fanatics can do is splutter and do an impersonation of Donald Sutherland at the end of “Invasion of the body snatchers.”
Which begs the question; does the world need saving from humanity in general, or just saving from the global warming fanatics? I have formed my own opinion, what say the rest of you?
Update: or should we be more worried about the latest asteroid to explode over New York state last Wednesday? It was part of a larger debris field. So don’t say you weren’t told.
