COVID-19 III: No Politics For Thee

[JSngry]

Well, you know at some level that when it comes to choosing a partner, you like and want that safe falling on your head thing. So that's what you went with. Cost-benefit, anything not that would have not cut it for you, I'm sure you had options for finding/trying that out. Too much cost, not enough benefit.

I mean, don't get me wrong, you're not alone in this preference.

Other side of the coin - I'm convinced now more than ever that people who keep making bad/"bad" choices do so because whether they realize it consciously or not, that's what they really want. If it's not, they need to figure out how to want something different more than what they currently want or else just deal with accepting themselves as wanting what they want. But, you know, at what point does an "apology" become nothing more than a really personalized excuse. which itself is nothing more than a distraction designed to buy time to get it going to do the same thing over again and again and again?

The really powerful people in life, the ones who have real power, are the ones who are honest with themselves about themselves. They can be killed off, but they cannot be beaten into place.

Me, I try to keep that in mind when picking both true friends and true enemies, and everybody else in between.

[medjuck]

1 hour ago, ejp626 said:

 When I was a callow youth of 19, smoking was a deal-breaker.  In my mid 20s, I was hanging out with an "occasional" smoker.  Problem was she smoked under stress, and grad school was stressful, so there you go.  If she had decided to get more serious, it would have been a hard decision, and I probably would have waived my objections to the smoking... 

I think smoking would still be a deal breaker for me.  Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray.   Also smokers smell bad. 

[ghost of miles]

No words... just names.  The front page of tomorrow's New York Times:

[ejp626]

40 minutes ago, medjuck said:

I think smoking would still be a deal breaker for me.  Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray.   Also smokers smell bad. 

It is back to being a deal-breaker for me (not that it is really relevant).  But I spent an astonishing amount of time around smokers that year.  And as I point out to incredulous Millennials, you could still smoke inside all bars and most restaurants and even in the basement of Hart House at UToronto!

Sometimes I get a kick out of reading the advice to Dan Savage among others, and the mind boggles that there are people who tolerate being in relationships with major drug addicts (cocaine, meth, heroin, etc.) and are still trying to make things work out. 

[medjuck]

8 minutes ago, ejp626 said:

It is back to being a deal-breaker for me (not that it is really relevant).  But I spent an astonishing amount of time around smokers that year.  And as I point out to incredulous Millennials, you could still smoke inside all bars and most restaurants and even in the basement of Hart House at UToronto!

Sometimes I get a kick out of reading the advice to Dan Savage among others, and the mind boggles that there are people who tolerate being in relationships with major drug addicts (cocaine, meth, heroin, etc.) and are still trying to make things work out. 

Is that back when Hart House didn't allow women?  (As I think of it, it couldn't have been because they were already allowing women when I was at UofT in the '60's.)

I think of the big change as being in the '80s.  In Ghostbusters (1984)  the GBs all smoke.   By GBII in 1989 there's no smoking. 

[ejp626]

20 minutes ago, medjuck said:

Is that back when Hart House didn't allow women?  (As I think of it, it couldn't have been because they were already allowing women when I was at UofT in the '60's.)

I think of the big change as being in the '80s.  In Ghostbusters (1984)  the GBs all smoke.   By GBII in 1989 there's no smoking. 

Not that long ago.  This was 1993-4.  Actually Ontario didn't outright ban smoking in bars until 2005-6 (and this was basically the same in Montreal, though they were allowing smoking on patios a bit longer).  Toronto itself was slightly faster - 2001 to ban smoking in restaurants and 2004 smoking was banned in bars.

[Dave James]

Thought this was worth sharing:   

 

 

[ghost of miles]

Lockdown delays cost at least 36,000 lives, data show (NY Times)

 

[Brad]

Words can’t express the anger I feel about what happened at the Holyoke Soldiers Home.

They Survived the Worst Battles of World War II. And Died of the Virus.

[mjazzg]

Tragic and so unnecessary.  

The Care Home sector has been largely hung out to dry over here, horribly large numbers of deaths despite valiant efforts of underpaid and under-recognised staff. My mother has just come home from a 6 week stay in one where her care was tremendous. 

[felser]

My sister's mother-in-law, 89 and advanced dementia and in a nursing home here in southeastern PA, has it and is not expected to make it.  Just found out this afternoon.

[Brad]

Sorry to hear it John. Thoughts are with you and your family. 

Edited May 25, 2020 by Brad

[jazzbo]

Oh sorry John. I hope for the best.

[ghost of miles]

Very sorry to hear that, John.  I feel as if this illness is going to end up touching nearly all of us either directly or indirectly.  

[Matthew]

3 hours ago, felser said:

My sister's mother-in-law, 89 and advanced dementia and in a nursing home here in southeastern PA, has it and is not expected to make it.  Just found out this afternoon.

Prayers fro her and the family

[sonnymax]

Safe, and stylin'

Joe Biden and his wife lay a wreath at the Veterans Memorial Park at the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

[Jason Bivins]

Sorry to hear that awful news, John.

[danasgoodstuff]

21 hours ago, Brad said:

Words can’t express the anger I feel about what happened at the Holyoke Soldiers Home.

They Survived the Worst Battles of World War II. And Died of the Virus.

Horrifying.

[ghost of miles]

On 5/25/2020 at 1:39 PM, sonnymax said:

Safe, and stylin'

Joe Biden and his wife lay a wreath at the Veterans Memorial Park at the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

👍👍👍

Speaking of veterans, the U.S. death toll is not just past 100,000—it’s more than the combined number of U.S. deaths in the Korean and Vietnam wars. So three months of the virus > 11 years of war. And yet people all over the place were acting this weekend as if it was V-Covid Day. WTF?! More dead in three months than Korea and Vietnam combined, and more dying every single day. I’m not here to argue a return to complete shutdown—I’m here to argue that any reopening plans based on “encouraging” people to behave responsibly are bullshit.  Thank God this particular generation of Americans didn’t have to fight WWII. They’re doing a great job of helping to kill off some of the remaining ones who did, though.

 

[Dan Gould]

11 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

👍👍👍

Speaking of veterans, the U.S. death toll is not just past 100,000—it’s more than the combined number of U.S. deaths in the Korean and Vietnam wars. So three months of the virus > 11 years of war. And yet people all over the place were acting this weekend as if it was V-Covid Day. WTF?! More dead in three months than Korea and Vietnam combined, and more dying every single day. I’m not here to argue a return to complete shutdown—I’m here to argue that any reopening plans based on “encouraging” people to behave responsibly are bullshit.  Thank God this particular generation of Americans didn’t have to fight WWII. They’re doing a great job of helping to kill off some of the remaining ones who did, though.

 

No question there are idiots out there, but how do you explain the fact that social distancing in fact started before official lockdowns went into effect? Phone data has shown this all over the place. I am not saying lockdowns weren't needed but people did start wising up before most state and local governments did.

[ghost of miles]

10 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

No question there are idiots out there, but how do you explain the fact that social distancing in fact started before official lockdowns went into effect? Phone data has shown this all over the place. I am not saying lockdowns weren't needed but people did start wising up before most state and local governments did.

Yeah, sorry, I was already thinking that I had used too broad a brush-stroke... I actually think the majority of Americans have done a good job and get the significance of what’s going on, out of concern for others and concern for their own wellbeing. But the idiots, or the willfully/defiantly ignorant or deluded, are a loud and large minority (non-Frank Foster edition), and it takes only a few of them to put us right back to square one in each state. 

EDIT: the science is still apparently out on how warmer weather will affect transmission of the virus. This Washington Post article points towards a possible slowing of transmission rates, IF people observe social-distancing and other health protocols. Autumn and winter will be a whole ‘nother deal. 

Edited May 27, 2020 by ghost of miles

[medjuck]

1 hour ago, ghost of miles said:

 EDIT: the science is still apparently out on how warmer weather will affect transmission of the virus. This Washington Post article points towards a possible slowing of transmission rates, IF people observe social-distancing and other health protocols. Autumn and winter will be a whole ‘nother deal. 

Speaking of the science:  there are people (e.g.Thomas Friedman) arguing that allowing  "healthy" people  to get the disease will cause "herd immunity". But doesn't that require those who've had the virus to become immune, which doesn't seem to be the case?   

[JSngry]

Herd immunity? Like what I have when I'm not buying the latest Woody Herman Mosaic?

[Dan Gould]

3 hours ago, medjuck said:

Speaking of the science:  there are people (e.g.Thomas Friedman) arguing that allowing  "healthy" people  to get the disease will cause "herd immunity". But doesn't that require those who've had the virus to become immune, which doesn't seem to be the case?   

Perhaps you missed the reporting but indications of "re-infections" have been discounted. What the re-tests were picking up were dead virus fragments which take a while to clear the recovered system's. 

[medjuck]

3 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

Perhaps you missed the reporting but indications of "re-infections" have been discounted. What the re-tests were picking up were dead virus fragments which take a while to clear the recovered system's. 

My wife said she also read that people don't get infected a second time :  they just think the original infection has gone away when it hasn't. They feel better for a while, then not so much.  But I'd also worry about who the healthy people are:  If you take out the old (which includes people much younger than me), the overweight, those with existing  illnesses, and smokers, haven't you excluded  a large percentage of the population?  

Edited May 27, 2020 by medjuck