Category: Weird Shit

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Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it.

It is with some amount of schadenfreude that I’ve been observing the reaction of the LGBTQI+ (whatever the hell other letters are in it now,) reaction to Monkeypox.

There was an interesting article in Outspoken that I read with some sadness.

In my opinion, the author is pretty dead on.

The trouble is that so few people who lived through the early days of HIV are listened to, or taken seriously these days.

I’ve written elsewhere in this blog about those early days, I’ll not repeat myself.

What I will say is that in the early days when no-one was really sure how HIV was spread there was a lot less touching. In fact there was a lot less of anything if you were concerned for your life.

Monkeypox is far more obvious. HIV wasn’t something that you could see someone had, until they were in the latter stages.

Monkeypox also has a very defined life cycle. Onset, Symptoms, Resolution of Symptoms, and finally the person generally returns to health. (Yes, I know there have been some deaths.)

The strange thing is that Monkeypox has a fatality rate of about 10%. That rate is less if the person seeks appropriate treatment.

So let’s compare and contrast. For the sake of argument let’s say Monkeypox is 90% survivable. COVID is 98% survivable. Monkeypox is generally transmitted via physical contact with an infected person or biological residue from an infected person. COVID is transmitted via airborne particulates.

With COVID we shut the world down for two years.

With Monkeypox we’re nowhere near shutting the world down.

What can we derive from this?

One

Since Monkeypox is mostly affecting the LGBTQI+ community, the government’s response is pretty much the same as it was during the early days of HIV, laissez-faire.

One might infer this means that the powers that be are only interested in the LGBTQI+ community at election time. So perhaps the LGBTQI+ community should remember that at the midterms and beyond.

Two

If the LGBTQI+ community were as smart, educated, and responsible as they claim to be. They’d put the word out that the quickest and easiest way to shut this down is to stop congregating. It would probably take less than 2 months.

Just 2 months of solo, or Zoom sex and Monkeypox wouldn’t be sweeping through the LGBTQI+ community. Remember, this is the community that joined the “Karens” on masking, vaccinations, and self isolation during COVID. Why aren’t they following the rules now?

I’m not suggesting that the LGBTQI+ community never have sex again. I’m suggesting that by abstinence for a couple of months the Monkeypox virus would burn itself out like all viruses do, when they are unable to inhabit new hosts.

For those who may have a problem thinking this through, allow me to elaborate.

Monkeypox infects a person. That person makes antibodies naturally that kill the virus. The virus is eliminated from the person’s system, leaving immunity from further infection. The person can no longer be infected, nor can they spread the infection.

This is called immunity.

If the person does not spread the virus during the time they’re infected. The virus dies. Think of this as starving the virus…

If, on the other hand the person continues to interact with others and isn’t very careful about cleanliness, (maintaining their own laundry, properly disposing of any disposable materials that came into contact with their sores or bodily fluids,) then the virus finds new hosts and spreads.

It’s a simple fucking equation.

It was not so long ago when we were all being told to wear a mask everywhere and go get vaccinated to prevent the spread of COVID.

Remember? It was our patriotic duty to forego our petty desires, it was patriotic to subject ourselves to discomfort for the protection of others.

Monkeypox is no different. In fact the straight-line solution is simpler.

STOP fucking around!

The LGBTQI+ community in New York, San Francisco, and every other large city needs to step the fuck up. Quit your bitching and moaning about the availability of vaccines and take responsibility for yourselves.

Take a couple of months off! It won’t kill you to not go out to the bar, the disco, the local orgy, or whatever.

What better way to flip the bird at the government than to essentially say with your actions.

“Fuck you! You bunch of useless old political hacks. You wouldn’t take action so we did!”

How better to demonstrate that the LGBTQI+ community is in fact responsible?

An added benefit is that it buys time. Time for the big Pharma to get enough of the vaccine into the system so that everyone can get a proper effective vaccine against not only Monkeypox, but Smallpox as well.

I’d remind you Smallpox is still a thing is small pockets of the world. While it was effectively eliminated from the Western countries, it still exists elsewhere.

That should factor into your thinking when you look at the southern border and realize that the folks making that journey aren’t only from Mexico or South America.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to go into the whole mess regarding the border, but having a border and enforcing the law isn’t only about people. It’s also about diseases for which our population may have zero immunity.

Minor things like Ebola, Smallpox, Cholera, Malaria, Typhoid, you know, nasty shit.

One Hundred years ago on Ellis Island the primitive medicine of the time recognized that some people would have to be turned back and denied entry into the country to prevent plagues gaining a foothold.

The indigenous peoples of North America learned that harsh lesson. Smallpox & Measles decimated their population. Diseases, carried on blankets given to them by the immigrants coming from Europe.

Just food for thought…

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One of those times I’d love to do the Moe slap!

As in Curly, Larry, and Moe.

I was skimming the news and ran across a case of a 13 year old boy and two of his friends being brought up on sexual harassment charges.

First, 13 year old boys inadvertently sexually harass everyone. They’re riding the testosterone horse through no fault of their own, other than biology. They’re thinking about sex at least 40 seconds out of every minute.

That’s not to excuse it, but 13 year old boys are trying to learn how to be in control and honestly they’re going to slip up.

As I read the article, I was expecting them to have made some inappropriate comments about a particularly hot teacher.

(I know I had some seriously inappropriate thoughts about a particular teacher when I was their age. Oh Ms. Ivy, you were every boys dream!)

Picture Kelly LeBrock in Weird Science The line she leads off with after the boys have called her into existence is priceless, “So what would you little monsters like to do first?”

Reading further, it turns out the boys were being accused of sexual harassment because they’d failed to use the preferred pronouns of one of their classmates.

The classmate in question was a female… a girl… who identified as non-binary and her preferred pronouns are They/Them.

You know, it’s hard enough for kids to learn English! Then when you start throwing improper use of plural pronouns into the mix for special cases it’s going to make it far worse.

Further into the story, it comes out that the non-binary girl had for the entire school year gone off on these three boys in profane inappropriate language since November. The girl had only come out as non-binary in March.

It was apparently during one of these profane tirades that one of the boys rightly pointed out that his constitutional right to free speech didn’t mean he had to call anybody by incorrect pronouns. She was a She/Her not a They/Them.

Bravo! Young man! You were obviously paying attention in Civics and English!

Later on the boys side of the story gets more interesting. This girl was always accusing them of talking about her. Anytime she heard one of them say the word “She,” the girl automatically assumed they were talking about her. It sounds a lot like the girl has issues.

This is a possibility the boys were talking about her, if she was hot. The other possibility is that the boys were talking about her simply because she was such a pain in their collective asses. If she wasn’t hot, and hadn’t pissed the boys off during the day it’s more likely they were talking about their sisters, mothers, or a video game character.

Mothers and 13 year old boys often find themselves locked in conflict.

Clean your room!
Put your clothes in the hamper!
Stop leaving bowls and plates of mostly eaten food under your bed! Rinse the damn plate and stick it in the dishwasher when you’re done with it.
Why does your room always smell like a feral animal lives in there? (Technically Moms, a feral animal does live there.)
You’re not going out with your friends until your homework is complete and I’ve checked it!

All of the above common comments from Moms will generate griping and whinging one 13 year old boy to another.

It’s called puberty and adolescence. Generally everyone survives.

Little sisters have an annoying propensity to go into their big brother’s rooms.

At 13, your little sister finding your wadded up Kleenex and hand lotion could be devastating. Especially since your little sister is duty bound by her pact with Satan to bring these items to the attention of your mother..

Usually at the dinner table, in front of everyone, including your father. Some little sister’s hold onto that information until a large family gathering with Grandma and Grandpa and all the Aunts, Uncles, and cousins.

I can assure you that it’s not nearly as funny as the scene in Parenthood where Steve Martin goes searching for a flashlight during a blackout at his sister’s house and comes back asking how to turn the flashlight on.

In the darkness you hear a buzzing and then the lights come on.

It’s a little sister’s job to stir up as much shit as she can… Trust me, they usually get over it and turn into really nice people. Before they turn into nice people, they’re the topic of a lot of discussion between their brother and his friends. Those discussions are not usually nice.

The really screwed up part of this is that this allegation is going to be on the boys record. It could cause them problems in the future, say in college admissions?

At the end of the article, it was pointed out that currently the charges are in an investigation stage. But the accused boys families have all lawyered up.

I’m hoping to find a followup to the article. I’d like to see how the investigation comes out.

I also have to say, as an adult I’m going to be hard pressed to remember all the improper usage of pronouns when I’m out and about. I honestly cringe at the thought of having to return to an office and deal with crazy people freaking out about some bullshit weird pronouns.

Obviously I’m going to have to have some kind of scorecard just to function.

And the people I’d like to do the Moe Slap on…

Every member of the school board in these kids town. For that matter, I’d love to smack every single one of these “Woke MORONS” who have, and are still, bastardizing our language.

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Calendar Cleaning! That’s better!

Where did all these observances come from?

A while ago, I subscribed to an online Calendar that neatly stuck all the US holidays into my digital Calendar.

It was nice at first. Everything that I wanted to know was there. I could plan long weekends and knew when it was likely to be a bad day to go to the bank or post office.

As is usual for me with these things, I simply forgot about it and was content that I wouldn’t have to enter holidays that moved around from year to year depending on Fridays or Mondays closest to the actual date if the holiday fell on a Saturday or Sunday.

Years go by. There was small additions to the observances, but they were pretty mundane. One here, one there, in a month. No big deal.

A few more years go by.

Today I opened my calendar to full month view for the first time in I don’t know when.

WTF?!?!

My once simple calendar was now loaded with all kinds of observances and holidays that mean nothing to me. There were literally hundreds of Civil Servants days. Obama Day? Librarians Day? 4 different wordings of Juneteenth? Columbus Day, Indigenous Peoples Day, National Indigenous Peoples Day?

In some cases there were so many observances on a single day that the “All Day” section of the calendar was saying +9 more because it couldn’t display them all in the space provided.

There were also duplicates… So Many duplicates! (I hate duplicate data.)

Come on…

Unless it’s a national holiday and therefore a day off from work, or the banks are closed. I don’t care.

There was a time when it was nice to see “National Secretaries Day” but now, it’s become easier to find a day without some observance or another than to pay attention to all the observances.

It’s all become noise, a distraction. Is my calendar free for that day? Who can tell at a glance anymore?

After spending a few minutes trying to figure out the best way to flush all the random crap that had become meaningless. I decided instead to simply unsubscribe from what had once been a very useful service.

My calendar took 2 minutes to reconcile itself.

When it was done…

AHHHHH! Once again at a glance, I can see my schedule without having to open the day to specifically check.

My appointments, and mine alone show up. Their little green tags clearly show how much of my day they occupy. They’re not being overwritten by events and observances that don’t matter.

My historical calendar is visible again. This is a calendar that I created years ago with neat facts about the day in history. Amelia Earharts take off, the first man in space, the first woman in space, the date of the Norman invasion, that kind of thing. In each of these entries notes section I’d put detailed information about the event.

Suddenly Anniversaries, Birthdays, and my stuff is all there, with the original color coding I’d selected, instead of a muddy mess.

You know, it’s not so hard to enter “Real” Holidays into my calendar. There are some that require special treatment, but it’s a small price to pay for a clean readable schedule.

This is what happens when you pander to everyone.

Maybe we should pick just a few biggies and leave the rest to be observed by those who care?

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Random Stuff

Power is off, The electric company is replacing poles and lines that were burned in the fire.

Looks like it’s going to be a long outage. On the plus side we had internet for about 12 hours! Whoo Hooo. With the power down, now we don’t.

I’ve still got 5G on the phone. That’s a serious improvement from the 1 bar of LTE that I’ve had since Saturday.

Saw an article in Apple News this morning, about a pet store in Thousand Oaks, CA where the owner has made addendum to their pet adoption policy. Part of the adoption questionnaire asks about gun ownership, gun control, membership in the NRA etc. They will refuse to allow you to adopt a pet if you don’t agree with their views on the matter.

They go so far as to say if you’re a member of the NRA and lie to us on this form we’ll prosecute you for fraud. Because we will find out…

That seems a bit improbable, but whatever.

I applaud the owner for taking a stand. I think it’s partially incorrect, especially the part about the NRA. Then again that organization has been demonized for so long, then plagued with their own scandals… I supposed it makes sense that a liberal couldn’t help but see the NRA as a boogyman.

It will be interesting to see if the owner’s stance has any impact on their business, positive or negative.

I think they may find that their traffic will drop because some folks, regardless of their gun ownership or views on gun control, will look at these rules as an infringement on their privacy. That alone may be enough to drive business away. There are a lot of shelters, and breeders to select from.

Inadvertently this pet adoption place may add to the number of pets that eventually need homes if folks go the breeder route.

Nonetheless, This business owner’s policy is clearly stated and they have the right to refuse to do business with anyone they choose. (Unless it’s a member of some specially protected group.) It’s probably a good thing they’re a pet adoption business not a baker of wedding cakes…

So I support their right. I also compliment them on putting their money where their mouth is.

The insanity over the FedEx package that’s missing continues.

Yesterday I spoke with someone who seemed to think I should go back to the store where I handed the package to a person acting as their agent, who scanned the package while I watched, and start searching the place.

Frankly this rebooted my brain. This FedEx corporate moron was suggesting that I essentially perform an illegal search of a place of business where I was not an employee, nor was I law enforcement, nor was I that business owner.

When I asked the person very specifically if that was what he was suggesting he decided to back down on that completely unreasonable request.

I’m still blown away that a FedEx corporate employee would tell a customer that, the Customer should go search the premises of one of their Agent locations.

This however is demonstrative of the lack of training on the part of FedEx and may provide insight into why FedEx has become so damn unreliable.

I wonder if that’s why there are so many private bonded carriers operating in LA, Orange County, and San Diego. I was surprised recently when some documents were delivered to me via courier instead of UPS or FedEx. It was pleasant but the first time that’s happened.

I’ve got the BMW… Perhaps I could get a nice tailored suit and become “The Transporter” What are the rules? “No Names, Never open the package,” seems pretty easy to me. Gas prices on the other hand… hmmm.

Speaking of gas prices. I paid 6.79 a gallon recently. Amazing! Not in a good way. The only reason I’m not bitching up a storm about it, is that It had been more than a month since I’d last purchased gas. I figured, ehh, if I amortize it over the time since I last filled up it’s a big deal, but not world ending.

I was tinkering with going on a road trip just to blow the cobwebs out of the car and my brain. But I’m thinking that would be excessively extravagant.

I’d still like to do a road trip. I suppose if I drove straight to the California border then filled up in another state a road trip might be more reasonable.

I caught another article on Apple News I think it was originally printed in The Wall Street Journal, (I’m not too sure about that,) that reported a record number of Californians were taking up residence in Mexico. Apparently, the real estate market south of the border is booming.

Some of the reasons cited were, lower cost of living, lower cost of real estate, lower gas prices, lower food prices, and better quality of life.

One person interviewed for the article said that his family had saved 50% per month on their living expenses from their previous living arrangements in California.

He still commutes to San Diego daily for work, but in terms of better quality of life for his family, he said it was a reasonable trade off.

I’ll admit that when I first moved to San Diego, I considered renting a place south of the border. At the time I could have gotten a 2 bedroom 1 bath condo for $800 a month. The place was 2nd floor, 4 blocks from the beach, you could even see the ocean from the lanai.

Instead I settled for a 1 bedroom 1 bath for $1500 a month in Escondido. It was a choice that was about avoiding San Diego traffic. Had I done the Mexico condo, I’d have to drive through the nightmare of downtown San Diego morning and evening. In the end, I worked a goofy schedule which would have made the Mexico option viable… But that’s another story entirely.

In a twist of unintended irony. The article mentioned that with so many Californians going south of the border. It was pricing Mexican citizens out of the housing market and contributing to rising prices in other things.

Free market capitalism can be a stone bitch! I suppose the Mexican government hasn’t gone “Woke” yet and started regulating for the greater good.

For shits and giggles, I watched Atlas Shrugged I, II, & III last night. These movies are adaptations of Ayn Rand’s book of the same title. The production quality is good. The disconnect with different actors playing the key parts is a bit disconcerting moving from one movie to the other but it’s easy to get over. I prefer Grant Bowler’s portrayal of Hank Reardon over the other two actors. Not that the other actors didn’t do good jobs with the character, I simply liked Bowler the best.

I know, there are lots of people who say that Atlas Shrugged is a Republican propaganda piece and that it has no merit in today’s world. Blah Blah Blah.

To them I’d say, “Turn off your bias, read the book or watch the movies and then tell me you don’t see some parallels between what happened in the story and what our government is becoming.”

Lots of regulation, ever expanding government, lofty idealistically admirable yet unachievable goals, do nothing committees, hearings which produce nothing and go nowhere, politicians making decisions without due consideration of the effects those decisions will have. Shaming of the wealthy for their achievements, etc. etc. etc.

I’ve read some biographical information about Ayn Rand, in some cases it’s said she was just writing fiction. In other cases it’s said she based the fiction of Atlas Shrugged on things she remembered from her childhood in Russia. Still other say she was prescient.

I don’t know which, if any of these conclusions are true. What I do see is, at best life is imitating art. At worst whatever madness led Russia to communism and all the horrors that we now know happened in soviet Russia, may well have taken hold in American politics.

Perhaps it was never a matter of IF it could happen, instead it was only a matter of When.

I know I’d like to be spirited away to “Atlantis”, by someone like John Gault.

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You know, This seems a little “Off”

I caught this in Reuters today.

The top GOP Gubernatorial Candidate against, Gretchen Whitmer in MI, Ryan Kelley was arrested today by The FBI in connection with the Jan 6th Riot.

I thought, “Okay, what are the charges? Gotta be something BIG if The freakin FBI is involved.”

Nope, it’s all misdemeanor charges.

Misdemeanor???

What the fuck? I suppose it’s an FBI matter since it’s federal. But surely the freakin FBI has better things to do with their time!

How about hunting down ANTIFA or BLM protesters who firebombed the Federal Building in Portland? That seems far more worthy of the FBI’s time.

An FBI agent’s sworn testimony says Mr. Kelley was seen in a video, standing in a crowd of people who were “assaulting and pushing past law enforcement officers”.

Note, that this testimony does not say Mr. Kelly was “assaulting and pushing past law enforcement officers,” only that he was standing in the crowd.

The criminal complaint charges Kelley with, “…knowingly entering restricted grounds without lawful authority, disorderly conduct, knowingly engaging in acts of physical violence against property on restricted grounds and willfully injuring U.S. property.”

You know, this seems pretty damn thin… Wonder how they’re going to prove it in court. I could see the Restricted Grounds charge. But the others, they better have video, fingerprints, and DNA.

There are other images alleged, (I added alleged. Reuters and the FBI statement, said it as fact,) to show Kelly climbing a feature near the northwest stairs of the building. The FBI Statement further says, “He then can be seen in video footage waving his hand to encourage the crowd to move toward the stairs.”

Again, they missed the word alleged. The FBI, the courts, and the jury, won’t actually know if Mr. Kelly was waving to an individual, with whom he may have been traveling, who was separated from Kelly in the melee, until the trial.

I find it so interesting, that a dude drives an SUV through a crowd injuring a bunch of people, and he’s always referred to as the alleged driver. Or that a carjacker in LA seen running from the carjacked vehicle and is caught by the police is always referred to as the Alleged criminal. Even if every single TV station has video of the entire carjacking and the perpetrator exiting the vehicle. But in cases where it’s someone who could be deemed an enemy of the state, Alleged is often forgotten.

Further in the article, reference is made to a confidential tip coming into the FBI.

Hmmm, You mean like all the confidential tips about angry parents at school board meetings?

Here’s a link to the actual article.

Michigan Republican governor candidate Ryan Kelley arrested for Capitol riot role

I suppose I’m just super skeptical… This sounds more like dirty tricks than anything else.

I wonder if he’ll take it all to court and demand a full public trial by jury?