Category: Gummint

Mandatory

Disaster, Gummint

A couple days ago I went to the supermarket to top up our supplies of various necessities (you know:  cleaning products, milk, vegetables, chocolate, etc.) and had two different experiences.

Firstly, there was Kroger, which was busy, but basically allowed one to walk in, shop around and keep a “safe” distance from other customers.

At Central Market, there was a long line outside the store, each customer standing at a “social distance” from each other, and only being allowed to enter the store at three-minute intervals.  (Thank gawd it was a cool day [45F];  had it been Dallas mid-summer broil [100F++], I wouldn’t have stayed.)

At both stores, I estimated that face masks were being worn by about 50%-60% of all customers, in both stores (I not one of them).  And I have to confess that I felt as though I should have worn one —  even though Plano’s Chinkvirus infection rate is tiny, and the death toll less than a rounding error.

So as much as I have railed against the fucking lockdown and accompanying regs, I find myself curiously conflicted by this little piece of officialdom:

All persons shall wear facial coverings before they enter any indoor facility besides their residence, any enclosed open space, or while outdoors when the person is unable to maintain a six-foot distance from another person at all times.

I have to say that of all the stupid Gummint shit that has taken place recently, and loath as I am to ascribe any kind of sense to Southern California governments in general, this regulation actually makes a great deal of sense to me.  I know that face masks are not perfectly efficient, but they do work from a logical perspective in that they prevent sneezes and coughs from spraying aerosol germs all over the damn place.  It’s not perfect, but it is also a good prophylactic device — and the old “perfection is the enemy of the good” warning definitely applies here.

So the next time I go out on a shopping trip, I’ll be wearing a face mask from my Grab ‘N Go stash, and at all times in the future.  And yes, I already carry a bunch of steri-wipes in my pocket, and clean my hands and touching-surfaces obsessively.  All that plus our already-low COVID infection rate should suffice to keep me safe.  Me, in a face mask?

I’ll have to take a lesson from one of our elected Texas politicians…

…after all, she does have a BA from Yale and a law degree from U. of Virginia.  Or I can just go for a full-face cover:

Add To The List

Gummint

A summary of more than a few emails I’ve received on the topic:

“Kim, when you talked about disbanding the FDA, how about the CDC?”

An excellent point.  Here’s a piece which catalogs the awfulness of the CDC, who while investigating “diseases” such as childhood obesity and gun violence, completely fucked up when it came to their actual mission.

Toss ’em all overboard, say I, and forget not the concrete boots.

Enough Already

Bad News, Disaster, Gummint

Via somebody else, I see a couple of pleasing statistics at ZeroHedge (my emphasis):

Jurgen Brauer, chief economist at Small Arms Analytics, told Bloomberg News, that handgun sales increased 91.1% year-over-year, per Brauer’s analysis, and long-gun sales were up 73.6%.

Well, they’re pleasing statistics for me ;  for some others, not so much:

Governor Ralph Northam (D) signed legislation Friday creating universal background checks in Virginia and limiting law-abiding Virginians to one handgun purchase per month.
Northam’s office announced his signature on Senate Bill 70 / House Bill 2, creating the universal checks and thereby outlawing private gun sales.
He signed Senate Bill 69 / House Bill 812 resurrecting Virginia’s “one-handgun-a-month rule to help curtail stockpiling of firearms and trafficking.”

So… let’s just say ad arguendum  that this were to happen nationwide (I know, I know;  but run with me on this one).  Now we’d be faced with a situation where private gun sales are outlawed, you can’t buy more than one at a time, and if gun dealers were the only sales outlet, a simple order of mass denial at the poxy NICS would prevent any sales, at all.

But why Kim, you may ask, is government so afraid of all this?  ZeroHedge gives this simple and succinct reason:

It’s only matter of time before this lockdown of American — leaving citizens jobless, broke, and without options — becomes the flashpoint that leads to an explosion of civil unrest and violent crime.

So as the title of this post suggests, it’s time to end this sanitation theater, and let Americans go back to work.

And it’s not just commerce I’m talking about.  We also need to start dismantling the mechanisms that federal and state governments have installed (starting with this bunch of assholes) that have enabled them to deprive citizens of their liberty, their ability to work, and (in some places) their ability to gather the means of self-defense.

Here’s a quote from the late- and much-missed Joseph Sobran on just this topic:

“By today’s standards King George III was a very mild tyrant indeed. He taxed his American colonists at a rate of only pennies per annum. His actual impact on their personal lives was trivial. He had arbitrary power over them in law and in principle but in fact it was seldom exercised. If you compare his rule with that of today’s U.S. Government you have to wonder why we celebrate our independence…”

George III would never have contemplated arresting Americans for walking in parks, going out to dinner, selling the “wrong” merchandise or swimming alone in the ocean.  Never in a million years would he have shut down fish markets, outlawed the sales of seed, or spied on our religious observances.   Yet our post-Revolutionary government is doing all that to us — and, apparently, without much public resistance because “it’s for our own good”.

We need to get back to work, and tell the government to fuck off and leave us alone.  Or else.

Wait… You Mean This Is NORMAL?

Disaster, Gummint, Lies and Untruths

Hector Drummond (who is rapidly becoming my go-to guy in matters of Britishland Chinkflu stats) has some graphs*, and comes to this conclusion (my emphasis):

Even I am astonished by these graphs.  I was expecting to see something in the graphs by week 13, even if I wasn’t expecting anything scary.  But there’s just nothing.  And you can’t say the lockdown caused this, because the UK lockdown had only been going for four days by this time.  We’ve locked down the country for a supposed mass killer that still isn’t visible in the stats even after the lockdown was declared.  We locked the country down for something that at the time only existed in Neil Ferguson’s dodgy computer models.

Our numbers may (repeat:  may ) be better than the BritGov’s, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that our response to the Chinkvirus has been as overblown and pointless as theirs.

*I’m not sure, but I believe that “ONS” stands for Office of National Statistics.  Maybe one of my Brit Readers can confirm.

Sanity

Disaster, Gummint, Two-Minute Hate

Very long; well worth the read.  (Come on:  you’re shut up indoors with fuck-all else to do;  read  the damn thing.)

If just about all the diseased are old-timers and/or people set with preexisting diseases, the entire response to the pandemic, by individual countries as well as by the global community, may very well be one huge overreaction.
…
According to the video of a Frenchman who claims to have lived 25 years in Hong Kong, one part of the world (and of China!) that is experiencing a low number of deaths in spite of all, or most of, its businesses remaining open. What is the secret? Every single person in the street is wearing a mask.
…
A nationwide scandal erupted in France a week or two ago when a Nice Matin journalist interviewed a woman on the town’s rocky beach. Christiane was tanning in a bikini, and declared that she wasn’t about to give up the sun rays. The next day, the written press picked up the story. They would quote her remarks, only to mention with disgust to what extent she was irresponsible, and selfish, and a shame to her community.
Truth to tell, Christiane may have come across as a bit snobbish and self-centered, but there was just one problem. Christiane was almost entirely alone on Nice’s long rocky beach near la Promenade des Anglais. The beach was virtually empty of people. There were perhaps 3 or 4 sunbathers or sunbathing couples in the background, perhaps 50 to 100 meters away, but otherwise it was deserted. (Indeed, the only time that Christiane was in potential danger or that she was a danger to others was when the Nice Matin journalist showed up!)

Makes sense to me.  Instead of our local KrimPo (Kriminal-Polizei)  arresting people for sunbathing on a deserted beach, or buying “non-essential” products to take home, why don’t they just arrest, detain or fine people for not wearing a mask in public?

Oh, but that would be too simple, you see;  not enough incentive to bully and/or fine people or look into their shopping bags.

Fuck ’em.  At some point, the history of this sad era will be written dispassionately, and the overarching conclusion is going to be that we overreacted, massively, our economy was shut down for no good reason, and governments needed to print trillions of non-existent dollars to “bail” people and businesses out of trouble — when all we needed was several hundred million cheap paper facemasks, and a temporary public order for everyone to wear the damn things outdoors.

Clinical Observation

Disaster, Gummint

Following on from Peter Hitchens’s take (as referenced here) on mass quarantining of the population comes this clear-headed analysis from Hector Drummond:

Communicable disease epidemics almost always rise and fall in a bell-shaped curve. That’s what you rarely hear from the media. They’re always talking about the exponential growth. What they usually fail to mention is that soon after the period of exponential growth, there’s a plateau, and then an exponential drop-off. With these sorts of diseases the curve usually follows the seasons, at least to some degree. Coronaviruses, as far as I can gather, typically die back by mid-spring.
…
When we look at all the daily graphs from the various countries there’s not much sign that the skyrocket is just around the corner. I don’t trust China’s figures at all, so I’m not going to mention them, but with most other countries we’re seeing either a plateau, a mild recent increase, or a dying back. If you’re an epidemiologist you may want to take issue with my analysis (and please do so if you want), but this doesn’t look like a disease that is threatening disaster upon us all. It looks like a disease that is thinking of putting its feet up for the Easter hols. Perhaps there will be a few weeks increase in some places, some of which may look alarming at the time, but then, most likely, a dying off. Then maybe a new wave in the northern hemisphere in November-December. That’s the time to prepare for. Get some more intensive care beds ready, and some ventilators built for then. Now is not the time for a shutdown and economic self-harm. Now is the time to make hay while the sun shines, and be prepared for when winter comes.
In other words, the horror stories are all in the modelling, not in real life. Sound familiar? This is what the climate change scam was based on. Scary computer models that somehow never got confirmed by real-life data, yet justified government and other institutions in grabbing more power for themselves. This is just another example, only a more effective one than climate change. Here’s a scary-looking computer model, we have to be given wartime powers right now before it happens, if you wait we’ll all be dead. It’s the oldest trick in the book for the ruling class.

And there it is, in a nutshell.  As for proof of government’s intentions and its baleful oppression, you need look no further than (of course) California:

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti threatened “non-essential” businesses Tuesday that if they do not obey the city’s “stay at home” order to close during the pandemic crises, he will cut off their water and their electricity.

Here ya go:

Or, as they say in Chinese:

By the way, while I urge you to read the whole of Drummond’s post above, I think you should go to his Home page and read everything he’s written on the topic.