Tag: Weird Shit

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I had this weird dream last night…

I guess the dream was brought about by a conversation I had with my Sister. She’d mentioned that my Niece (her Daughter) was very Pro Green Energy and extremely left leaning.

My Nice is no dummy, but she is in college, I suppose I can forgive her for being leftist. I hope she grows out of it.

I’d asked my Sister how my niece justified being so Pro Green given that she’s amazing at math.

My Sister missed my meaning.

I explained that the current total energy output from “renewable” sources provides less than 20% of the current energy we use in America. That number includes Nuclear power. Some say Nuclear isn’t green, but for the sake of argument let’s include it in the discussion because it doesn’t emit carbon like those evil coal and oil burning power plants.

My Sister said my numbers must be wrong. I sent her the following chart from the Government.

My Sister rightly pointed out that the chart speaks of energy consumption, not specifically how much is generated by each source. She’s right! I countered with you can only consume what is available and cannot pick and choose what source the energy comes from.

She considered my point and grudgingly agreed.

I went on to say that we could shut down all of the coal, oil, natural gas power plants. My Sister said that’s exactly what my niece was in favor of.

Because I’m the uncle that likes to stir up trouble I suggested my sister tell my niece that I was in favor of using only green energy. My Sister knows me well enough to ask, “Buuuutttt???”

I continued, “Tell her I’m just not sure how to manage cutting my energy consumption by 80%. Do I turn off my cellphone when I’m not using it? Should I turn off the internet and my computer 80% of the time? Do I not listen to anything but live music? Do I go to bed at sundown? Turn off the air-conditioning and heat? I suggested my Niece send me the specifications on the solar panels she’s using because they must be more efficient than mine.”

My Sister laughed, “You’re so evil! I’ll ask her… Probably at dinner.” My sis also commented that my Niece had invested in a new iPhone but that she did so because her old iPhone wasn’t holding a charge anymore.

My sis said, “I wish I’d thought about the solar panel angle. That’s why you should live here! You’d have suggested she buy an external battery and solar panel to carry with her instead of buying a new phone.”

I chuckled at the thought. My Niece would have taken a very dim view of the suggestion because it wouldn’t have been convenient.

Full disclosure… My Sister likes to rattle people’s cages too.

I suppose I was still chewing over the conversation when I went to sleep.

In the dream I was living in a world where 80% of the power had been removed from the grid.

Our leaders touted this as a victory because the entire country was now using 100% renewable energy.

It was a true statement. Ignoring that the 80% we weren’t using, shut down many aspects of the country. Shipping, Manufacturing, Hospitals, etc.

In the dream, I was scheduling my day to empty the water collected in my refrigerator and wishing I’d opted for the drain tubes to send the ice melt to the plants. I had to carry the water not saved for drinking down stairs in a bucket to the yard.

I was annoyed because my solar panels had the capacity to power my refrigerator. In fact the panels could power all the electrical devices in my home during the daylight hours.

A state mandate had come out saying that in the interest of “Community Good”, all of our houses had to be connected together so that those less fortunate without solar power, could benefit from those of us with solar panels.

This resulted in my house having few operable electronic devices, and my refrigerator being nothing more than an old style Ice Box. The upper shelves now contained blocks of ice.

The melt water, I hand pumped through the reverse osmosis system for drinking and cooking, the waste water from that process was carried in a bucket down to water the plants.

But the ice blocks were free. They were delivered every 2 days courtesy of the state.

While my lighting was generally candles and occasionally an LED lamp, the local State representative enjoyed air-conditioning, an electric vehicle, and a real refrigerator. Their holiday season lights were spectacular.

We were told this was because of the importance of the work and the burden of responsibility the local State representative shouldered.

For my part, I was anticipating being able to fire up my internet for an hour or two. By using my portable solar panel, the battery pack was finally charged.

It took two days of moving the panel around in the sun to get the pack and my computer charged. I hoped to be able to catch up on the national news and if I was lucky, I could possibly watch a show on the computer before it and the power pack died.

Unfortunately, some of my power would have to be spent logging onto the state taxation website to pay my monthly taxes. I hoped the state site would work properly this month because I was already carrying late charges from last month.

The State didn’t accept that their site was broken, or completely down, as an excuse for not paying your monthly tax. After all, “The law was The Law.”

I’d probably be okay though because it had been a very sunny month. The offset and efficiency of my solar panels was in the upper 1% of the producers in my community, so I had credit to declare and both tax months would be covered.

Every household had a single electrical socket that worked. The socket was only powered during the daylight hours.

It was a nice socket, provided by the State and wired to my Solar panels by State Technicians. The socket provided a single A/C current outlet, there were four USB ports that allowed for charging of cell phones and tablets. Usually, the A/C socket couldn’t power the coffee pot until around noon.

While I was filling the toilet tanks with some of the waste ice water, there was a knock at the door.

When I answered it. On my front porch there were several armed workmen. They presented me with a “Reallocation Order”.

The order said that 3 of my solar panels were to be removed and taken to another less fortunate person’s home. It had been determined that my offset and energy production was inequitable to the rest of the community.

Looking toward the State representative’s house, I could see workmen on his roof installing rails, cabling, and standoffs, all necessaryto accommodate additional panels…

A car alarm sounded somewhere in the neighborhood waking me up.

It was 3am. A cool breeze was blowing through the front windows of the house. Shaking my head to dispel the dream? Nightmare? I got up and peed. Realizing I wasn’t going to be able to sleep for a while, I put some ice in a glass and poured myself a stiff bourbon.

I hate having dystopian dreams! They make me cranky the next day.

The next time I’m talking to my Sister, I’m going to suggest that she and my Niece watch the movie Brazil. If I recall correctly, there was some interesting retrofitting of devices.

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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.