Covid 19 - The "real" story

 

 

Yep, let’s go ahead and say it.  Right out front, I want to get this straight.  It’s a real disease and people are really dying from it.  Everything else you hear about it should get a healthy dose of skepticism.  I don’t know any more about this disease than the idiots on the morning news and I don’t even have someone writing copy for me.  Does that mean you should trust what I tell you?  I guess you will have to decide for yourself – how’s that for a unique perspective? 

I am totally convinced that it’s a real virus that came out of a chemical warfare laboratory in China.  Was it released intentionally or accidentally?  I have no idea.  It certainly has been a huge economic boom for China, but I have no way of knowing whether it was an accidental effect or intentionally planned.  I suspect we have a better chance of knowing for sure about the Kennedy assassination than we do this story.  For now, the jury is still out.

I have tried to get some real facts about the epidemic, but they just aren’t available.  General tendencies can be gleaned from the chaff but not enough info to really get the big picture.  This morning on the “news” they said yesterday was the biggest new case number in the history of the disease.  Reading the fine print below the numbers you see that the “yesterday” they refer to was nearly two weeks ago and that’s today’s tv news. 

What do we know?  Well, the latest variant is much less deadly than the previous versions so that’s good news.  On the other hand, it is much more contagious.  Oh well.  The vaccines, all of them, drastically improve your chance of not getting really sick if you catch the virus.  If you do catch it and survive, you have less chance of catching it again. 

Let’s talk about masks.  Let me say that I have a different outlook because I just can’t do the mask thing.  I have an unrelated disease which won’t allow me to breathe through a mask.  I say that just for perspective.  “They” said in the earliest days of the disease that the masks keep you from spreading the disease but do very little to protect you from catching it.  There has been lots of opinions by everybody including the guy who cuts my grass but very little hard info about effectiveness.  I encourage everyone to wear masks if you have any chance of having been exposed.  That is for my protection, not yours.  I have had all three injections.  I don’t think I got the chip, but would they tell you?  😉 

What a joke, huh?  These folks that are worried about the mythical tracking chip are carrying around a cellphone all the time that no one doubts can be tracked and they are worried about an injected chip?  My dog has one, and she doesn’t complain. 

One thing we have learned for certain is that when it wants to, our government can do many amazing things that I doubt were intended by the founding fathers.  Have you noticed that the current administration has quietly taken credit for all the things the previous administration did to fight the disease?  I mean like developing vaccines and getting them distributed and developing treatments?  The serious downside is there is no such thing as “temporary emergency” powers when it comes to government.  Our current government is using these extraordinary powers for things that help public health, but once established these powers never go away.  There will be nothing stopping them from using them for what ever they wish in the future. 

I was going to say something about “social media” but I think I’ll save that for another day. 

Opinions expressed here are just opinions – exactly like everything the media publishes except that I admit it. 

 

That’s the way I see it.  How about you?

 

Is it time for a peace pipe?

 I see that it is Native American month, or something like that.  Now I have a Cherokee ancestor so I am sympathetic, but let's reason a bit.  We seem to be all bound up over what we think was done wrong in the past, although we weren't there.  Let me say that again.  WE WEREN'T THERE.  Should we learn from the past?  Absolutely!  Just be careful what you learn.  You are judging a situation that you know nothing about when you try to see a past that was very different from the world you know today.  Just a century ago hardly anyone had electricity, or running water, or telephone.  Long range communication took weeks, or months, not seconds. 

Let's talk about the Indian thing.  Let's assume for a moment that your outrage is justified.  Let me ask what other solution do you offer?  If your ancestors stepped off a primitive ship into the new world, what would you have them do?  The natives would not have wanted them taking their land, now would they?  I doubt they would have wanted to sell.  Do you think your ancestors should have stayed wherever they came from?  I'm not offering answers, this is not a multiple choice.  I am asking the question.  

Did you know that the whole Trail of Tears started because they found gold on the Indian land in Georgia?  Yep, that isn't talked about too often, is it?

I don't believe that there would be a United States without the treatment of the native people that occurred, although I am open to alternative theories.  I feel that the world is a better place because the US is here but that is simply my subjective opinion.  I am open to other ideas if you have realistic justification for them.

Now we all know the ends don't justify the means, or at least that's what we have been taught; but maybe sometimes they do.  There's a subject for thought.  When something good comes from an evil deed is it good or bad??   Hmmm, maybe we need to re-evaluate that good or bad thing.  To me, the past is neither good or bad - it's just the past.    Maybe there is not absolute.  Is it always wrong to kill?  I'll bet you can think of some exceptions. 

Maybe it’s time for something different

 

 

There is a lot of “news” lately about the race problem.  You would think it was something brand new, but in fact I can remember the exact same thing for the last 60 years at least.  One definition of insanity is taking the same actions repeatedly and expecting different results.  Sound familiar? 

It seems that for the last sixty years, at least, black people have been treated differently from other people.  I have no way to know if that’s true or not, so let’s assume it is.  For all this time we have tried things like giving people who claim to be black priority on getting into good colleges.  We have given special priorities to black businesses on government contract bids.  Here in Jacksonville, we just moved all the covid 19 vaccination sites into black neighborhoods.  We gave special loan rates for mortgages for black people, allowing them to buy houses that they couldn’t afford.  We have let black people get away with nuisance noise levels from their radios, and we have allowed obscenities in public from them.  We have let them wear their pants around their knees and we allowed them to go through school without learning to speak intelligible English.  We have let them burn cities and rob businesses because somehow they have been mistreated.   In the black neighborhoods, we generally let them do whatever they want because it is impossible to enforce laws when the local citizens won’t cooperate with law enforcement. 

We elected one of these folks president, and somehow they still don’t think they have a fair chance to advance. 

Now I’m no expert, I’m not even a liberal, but I think it is high time we changed our approach.  How could it be any worse than what we have been doing? 

In attempting to clarify the problem, consider this.  Ever since the sixties (and possibly before) a sizable number of people of African descent have joined the mainstream of America and left the ghettos.  They dress like ordinary people and they talk like ordinary people.  They work at the same jobs as all other working people and earn the same income.  They live in the same neighborhoods as everyone else and they exhibit civilized manners.  Now there isn’t really a definition of “black” when it comes to people, but the people I speak of have dark complexions and usually black curly hair.  That’s about all they have in common with the black rioters.  Don’t misunderstand, most of the rioters are white liberals.  THEY aren’t black by any definition that I know of.  

But I digress.  The fact is that a large number of folks of African descent have simply merged with mainstream society.  Not “white society” because there is no such thing that I am aware of.  It would probably be illegal if it existed like a “United White College Fund”.  Or a “NAAWP”. 

Now that is probably humorous, but maybe there is a kernel of useful ideas in here.  Here is my suggestion.  Get rid of all racial stuff.  No black groups, no racial block on applications or drivers licenses, and no special or different treatment for anybody.  How’s that for a wild and crazy idea?  Maybe if we stopped talking about this problem it would resolve itself.  Making it the hot topic for the news certainly hasn’t fixed anything has it? 

 

That’s the way I see it.  What do you think?