Nick Eldridge lives alone in a tiny house on the bank of a trout stream in western Colorado. While he enjoys material success as a nature writer, his memories are drawn back to his senior year of high school, to the girl Ceilidh O’Connor.
It’s been almost 30 years since Nick has last seen or heard from Ceilidh, but not a day’s gone by without her entering his mind.
One day a blizzard strikes, screaming down from Canada. A car has gone in the ditch on the highway a mile from Nick’s house, and out of the howling wind, a distant figure from the past comes to Nick’s door.
***
Sunday, October 11th
I woke up to the sound of the wind blowing as it had the previous thirty-six hours, but the light from the windows seemed a little brighter. I got up and peeked out the front door. The wind was dying down however slowly, and the sky was brightening up. I could see across the highway now, and when I leaned out to look around to the south, I could even make out the back of Ceilidh’s car sticking up out of the ditch. I brought in some more wood, hopping from one foot to the other on the cold boards of the porch, got the fire roaring up again, and then I went looking for Ceilidh. She was still asleep.
I stood in the bedroom doorway for a moment, riveted to the spot.
Ceilidh was laying on her back on the old double bed I’d picked up a few years before at a garage sale in Grand Junction. Her dark hair played out across the pillows, like a spill of some dark honey. Her chest rose and fell, softly, as she breathed. She was wearing some kind of black silk nightgown, and the effect was shattering.
As I watched, enthralled, she roused slightly, rolled to one side, and pulled the covers up. I shook myself, and turned away, closing the door softly. I felt all the old feeling; my heart pounded like a jackhammer in my chest.
“Oh, crap.”
I caught a quick shower and put on some water for tea. By the time the kettle started to whistle, I heard noises from the bedroom. A moment later, just as I was pouring hot water into the pot, Ceilidh came into the kitchen, wrapped up once more in my old robe.
“Good morning,” she said, brushing my cheek with her lips.
“Sleep well?” I asked.
“Pretty good. The wind’s dying down, don’t you think?”
“Yes, I had a look outdoors. I can see all the way down to the creek now. In fact, I can see your car. If things brighten up, I’ll get the tractor out and see if we can’t get it out of the ditch this afternoon.” And then you’ll drive away out of my life again.
“Are the phones working yet?”
“No,” I answered. I hadn’t tried the phone, but I had looked at the computer. The Internet connection was down, and I still use a phone line for that connection.
“That’s OK,” she said, sitting down across the table from me. “I’m not in that big a hurry. Won’t it take another day or so for them to get the roads cleared?”
“The radio says the road crews will be out late this afternoon,” I said. “That is, if the storm moves off to the east the way it’s supposed to. It will be morning before the passes are open again, though.”
“And it’s a four-hour drive from here to Vail, right?”
“In good weather, yes,” I answered. “Right now, better figure on six.”
“So, it looks like you’re stuck with me at least another day, Nick.” She smiled at me, making me feel all weak and watery.
“I guess so.”
“Good,” she said, sipping her tea. “That will give us a chance to talk some more.”
We didn’t talk much more for a while. We had some toast, and Ceilidh went off to take a shower, emerging in jeans and a white sweater. She sat on the couch with my Summer on Hardscrabble Mountain, paging slowly through the book as I spent a little time at my desk catching up on some correspondence.
It was strange how comfortable the silence was, as the morning passed with only the sound of my computer keyboard tapping and Ceilidh turning pages. It was as though, in silence, we regained a measure of the intimacy that we’d left in that small town in Minnesota all those years ago. I felt like I had my best friend back again.
But for how long? The question nagged at me.
I was finishing up answering letters and thinking about lunch when Ceilidh finally spoke up.
“I think I understand you a little better now, Nick Eldridge.”
“You always did, Kaye.”
“No, I don’t mean the high school Nick Eldridge.” She held up Summer on Hardscrabble Mountain. “I mean the guy who writes as Owen Bradley. Today’s Nick Eldridge.”
“Is that right?” I had to smile.
“Yes, that’s right.” She stood up, walking to the window.
“And what have you figured out about the new, improved Nick?”
She stood, looking out the back window of the cabin to the dim form of the mountain, just now beginning to be visible through the snow.
“You haven’t changed as much as you think you have, Nick. You’re still that shy kid in lots of ways.”
More than you know, I thought, but kept it to myself.
She turned away from the window to smile at me again.
“You put everything of yourself into your writing. You always were a generous soul, Nick. There wasn’t anything you wouldn’t do for a friend.”
“And?”
“And you’re still doing it. Your writing works because you’re writing about something you love, and you’re writing as though you were telling it to your best friend. Your heart just flows out onto these pages, do you know that?”
“That’s pretty much it,” I answered.
“And yet, it’s a one-way street for you, Nick. You pour all this love you have out into the pages, but nobody’s returning the favor.”
“That’s not quite true,” I told her. “The mountains are always there for me. The meadows, the aspens, the dark timber, it’s always there when I need it to be.”
“And you’ve never felt the need for a person in your life? Someone special to share all this love with?”
“Not for a long time now, Kaye.” Not for twenty-eight years.
“I’m glad we ran into each other again, Nick.”
We stood for a moment, looking into each other’s eyes. The sparkling in her green eyes was familiar enough. I’d seen it often enough, way back then. I didn’t know what it meant then. I was afraid I did, now.
“You know, I think we might be able to get your car out now.” I was beginning to sweat. Ceilidh looked out the window again, at the slowly clearing sky.
“OK, let’s give it a try.”
We bundled up – it was still around zero outside – and I got the old tractor out. Ceilidh sat perched on the fender as we chugged down the driveway, using the snowplow blade to clear the snowdrifts.
The Lexus was buried worse than I’d thought. We shoveled snow for at least two hours, trying to clear the wheels. Finally, I got a log chain fastened to the car’s rear axle, covering myself in snow in the process. I hooked the other end to the drawbar on the rear of the old Ford tractor, and we were finally ready.
“OK, start the engine and watch the chain. When you see me take up the slack, put it in reverse and give her just a little gas, just enough to keep the wheels turning. Keep the front wheels straight, and I’ll try to pull you right out onto the highway the way you went in. As soon as you’re all the way up on the highway, we’ll stop so I can unhook you.”
Amazingly, it worked. I stuck the tractor in low gear and pulled gently, and in a few moments the Lexus slowly began to move, wheels slipping and spinning, easing slowly out of the ditch, backing finally on up to the highway. I put the tractor in neutral and dropped the blade on the pavement.
“OK, back up a few feet,” I called. Ceilidh’s mitten-clad hand waved out the window, and the Lexus eased back a little. I climbed under and unhooked the chain. I bundled the heavy chain back into the toolbox behind the tractor’s seat and walked up to the car.
“Drive right on up to the house,” I told Ceilidh, “Park right in front. I’ll follow you up the drive and put the tractor back in the shed.”
She was waiting for me when I came around the corner from the shed. A snowball hit me right in the chest, followed by Ceilidh’s triumphant shout.
“Oh, it’s like that, is it?” I grabbed a handful of snow, flinging it after her retreating, laughing form. I let out an old Prairie Ridge High battle cry, “Boo-yah!” and raced after her.
We ran back and forth for the rest of the afternoon, throwing snowballs and laughing. At least growing up in Minnesota gets you used to snow and cold at an early age, and a good thing, too, because we were both covered with snow by the time the sky began to grow dark. I finally caught her as she ran into a drift at the edge of the aspen grove behind the house, and we both ended up falling into the snow, rolling over a few times, laughing.
She lay in the snow, her green eyes glowing. “OK, Nick,” she mock-scolded me. “Now my jacket’s full of snow, and I’m freezing, and it’s getting dark. You’re going to have to build that fire up.” She blushed suddenly, perhaps realizing her unintentional double meaning.
“Beats shopping in Vail, doesn’t it?” I asked, helping her to her feet.
We went inside, bearing armloads of firewood, the last of the pile I’d stacked up on Saturday morning. After we both changed into dry clothes, I built the fire up to a roaring blaze that radiated heat into the tiny living room while Ceilidh bustled about in the kitchen, heating up some canned soup for our supper. We drank our chicken soup from mugs as we sat on the floor in front of the fireplace. A faint steam rose from Ceilidh’s snow-dampened hair.
“I suppose you’ll be able to be on your way again in the morning,” I finally said. “The road crews will be out all night now that it’s clearing up. They’ll have the passes open by morning.”
“Yeah – so much for my little vacation at Vail,” Ceilidh laughed. “That’s OK – I wouldn’t have missed this reunion for anything.”
“Me either.”
She leaned against me, her hair warm and fragrant against my shoulder.
“I wish we were still seventeen,” she sighed.
“Why? A chance to do some things differently?”
“Yes, Nick. At the least, I’d like a chance to do one thing differently. At least a chance to tell someone how I felt about him, way back then.”
“I know what you mean.”
“I thought you would.”
“Oh, hell, Ceilidh,” I confessed. “There hasn’t been a day gone by that I haven’t thought about you. You wanted to know why I’m up here all by myself? Hell, I’ve had relationships. I lived with a girl for a year in Boulder, even. But it just never worked.”
She took my hand. “Why not?”
“Because I never met anyone who I felt about the way I felt about you, Kaye. The way I guess I still do.”
“The picture on your desk,” she said.
“Yes, the picture on my desk. There’s more than just the love I put in my books, Kaye, more than the love I have for the mountains. I could tell people about that. I never had anyone I could talk about my best friend, about how much I loved her.”
“You just did, Nick.”
“Yes, I just did. But that’s all there is ever going to be to it. Kaye, you’re going to leave in the morning,” I husked. “There’s a place in here,” I tapped my chest, “that will always be yours, Kaye. But tomorrow morning, you’re going to get in your new Lexus, and go back to St. Paul, to Ryan, to your kids, and your practice. And I’ll stay here, in my mountain cabin, writing my books.”
“But not until morning.” She stood up, pulling me to my feet. “Nick, I think we’ve waited long enough, don’t you?”
“Long enough?” It took me a moment to understand.
“Long enough,” she repeated, and led me to the bedroom.
Monday, October 12th
I woke up that next morning to find her gone, only the faint scent of her on the sheets. My framed print of her high school senior picture lay on the pillow she’d used, with a note on the letterhead of Ceilidh Ross, MD of St. Paul. Her neat, flowing handwriting had changed hardly at all since high school. My vision misted as I read her message.
“Nick,” the note said.
“I’ve always loved you. I always will. Someday, please let someone write something for you.
Goodbye – love always,
Ceilidh.”
I went to the door and looked out to see the tire tracks in the snow where the Lexus had gone down my drive and turned north onto the highway, towards I-70 and Vail. Someone has written something for me, Ceilidh. My best friend finally wrote me something that took her twenty-eight years, but it was worth the wait.
I folded up the note, tucked it under her photo in the frame, and placed her portrait back on my desk. I realized, suddenly, that for the first time since I’d moved in, the little cabin seemed empty. For the first time in the adult life that I’d spent mostly alone, I was lonely.
After the snow
In the months that followed, I thought of many things, entertained many notions. I thought of getting in my old green Bronco and heading for St. Paul. I thought of calling her, at her home, at her office, just to hear her voice. But I didn’t do any of those things. I just buried myself in my work, getting through the rest of the fall and winter as I usually did. Working, a bit of snowshoeing on nice days, a trip to town once a month for canned goods.
Spring came, as it always did, and summer, and in July I decided to pack my gear and head up into the Holy Cross Wilderness. I drove out to a trailhead up the road from Edwards, and spent a day hiking into Rainbow Lake, where I’d camped many times before. One sunny day found me perched on a ridgeline, sitting on a granite outcrop eating a strip of elk jerky, watching chipmunks play and thinking, as I often did, of Ceilidh.
The afternoon slipped past as I sat on the ridge, and the sun dropped behind me, shadows marching up the face of the mountain across from me as the light faded. I sat there until dark, thinking, watching the endless cycle of light turning to shadow, thinking how the light would come back in the morning, striking down into the valley below me through the firs on the mountain to the east. I thought about how fall would bring the snows again, how Rainbow Lake would freeze over, and how this valley would lie frozen until the sun came back in the spring.
Everything has a cycle, a season, I thought to myself. Everything has its time. Ceilidh and I had our time, all those years ago. We left some things unsaid, and it’s good that we got to say them, at last.
But that snow has melted. It’s time my own spring finally came.
A boy never really forgets that first love. I’ll never forget Ceilidh – not the best friend from school, not the three days in the storm. But now I realized what happened that last night, the acknowledgement that what we had between us wasn’t of the future, or even the present, but of the past. We were tying the last loop in a knot we’d begun thirty years before – and now that loop was closed.
Now I realized that after almost thirty years, it was finally time to move forward. For the first time since that October night, I smiled, as a million stars began to wink on overhead. I laughed once, feeling suddenly free, and got up to pick my way down the ridge to my camp.
When I got back home four days later, I took Ceilidh’s portrait, wrapped it carefully in tissue, and packed it away.
30 years to get over a gal is a long time.
At least he still has both his kidneys.
That’s some Love In The Time Of Cholera type shit right there.
Are we sure of that?
🙂
I admit, I’m a lil disappointed.
*YUSEF PLAYING A YOUNG ORPHAN BOY draws pictures of Firsts in chalk on the sidewalk*
OFFICER BLAKE: So you know about him?
YUSEF PLAYING A YOUNG ORPHAN BOY: Of course
Do you think he’s really coming back?
OFFICER BLAKE: I don’t know
Poor dear, picking on old people,
Bless your heart!
Age is just a number, Yusef. We can digitally de-age you for the role of Young Orphan Child #3 in The First Knight Rises. You will be a star.
I’ve already been a star, I’m retired, you go First.
WOW!
Ceilidh likes to party.
Three Days of Snow
*looks out window; triggered*
Yep. I got about a foot, whatch you get?
15″ on the ground this morning. Lights dimmed a little several times yesterday but haven’t lost power thankfully. Starting to worry a little bit about the snow load on the roof, given the extended cold spell and potential additional snow.
A little more, have to take a 1/2 pass at a time to keep the snowblower from plugging up.
Very nice, Animal. Very nice indeed.
Now I realized that after almost thirty years, it was finally time to move forward
Freedom is a beautiful thing.
I was going to say something like this albeit mine was less concise.
I’m going through things in my new house I packed up 2 years ago and lived without, wondering what they mean to me now. Now, almost nothing. I remember why they meant something to me once upon a time, but that time has passed and I am letting go. This isn’t just my normal decluttering/purging. This is me letting go with intention and purpose, acknowledging the past but saying goodbye to it.
Circumstances several years ago had me purging lots of meaningful objects. I took pictures of them. I don’t miss those things anymore, and it’s fun to run across those pics in my library from time to time.
*Animal sells the rights to this story*
*Publisher makes money, demands a sequel*
“Up next: The laff-a-minute comedy, ‘The Adventures of Nick Eldridge on Tindr'”
*canned laugh track plays*
“Up next: The laff-a-minute comedy, ‘The Adventures of Nick Eldridge on Tindr’”
/considers his time on tinder
I think I will pass.
“All humor is rooted in pain.” – Richard Pryor
I still think this is one of the best short stories I ever wrote.
It’s a good one.
Thanks Animal. Some of us can’t put the 30 years away and that was 20 years ago. Great story. Too much truth.
I liked it.
I got quite misty, Thanks for a great story Animal
Sorry to go OT, but I wanted to reply to Scruffy’s comment on the deadthread:
Not as much discretion as your friend thinks. The CFRs and statutes have developed over the years as a direct result of giant FDA fuckups. i.e. The FDA approval of deadly drugs, devices, and biologics. It’s happened over and over and over again. Ask your friend about the Cutter incident, or the origins of the 1962 Kefauver-Harris amendments to the FDCA, or the 1973 forced transfer of CBER to the PHS – (hint, the last one involved 11 years of CBER refusing to review prior biologics because…FYTW), the 1976 swine flu vaccine debacle, etc.
There is a very tight web that governs how vaccines can move through the regulatory process. The FDA has simply become the industry’s lawyers, helping to find any possible “interpretation” to allow drugs to move through the system more quickly. Because to follow the process correctly is why it takes 8-10 years to get a vaccine approved. What’s happening now is just a complete abandonment of the FDA’s regulatory oversight function and charter under the guise of “PANDEMIC!!1!11!”. No one who understands the FDA regulation of biologics can possibly justify what’s happening right now. What we’re witnessing isn’t the “exercise of discretion” – it’s the exact opposite. It’s following a pre-determined agenda, even in the face of all conflicting and contravening evidence and rule-breaking by the manufacturer… but again, just like anthrax in that regard. Maybe your friend’s correct, just not quite in the way he thinks. Give him my book and Marcia Angell’s and let him read them and then tell him you’ll be happy to discuss the subject.
Not just vaccine development and approval. See also Aduhelm.
Thanks Ozy.
If nothing else, it’s forcing me to up my knowledge.
I don’t mean to be flippant, but it’s very learnable. The rules and regs aren’t hidden – anyone can go online and just “scroll” and flip through the statutes and regs and begin to understand the structure. Look at a few clinical trials – also available online – and then go back to some investigational new drug application packages. It doesn’t take too long to get a feel for how it’s all supposed to work to protect people from the mass harm that can result if a company is allowed to dump a massive lot of pills that alter brain chemistry, for one example, on an unsuspecting market. My experience with the anthrax vaccine just happened to expose me to the shitty underbelly of the pharma industry’s push to get in bed with the DoD and become “mandatory” as prophylaxis against chem-bio warfare. (In that way, no different than the insurance industry getting Congress to pass Obamacare and essentially give control of healthcare to the insurance industry by compelling every person born here to be a part of a risk pool). All of what was being fought over and argued about in Congress through the 90s was essentially about control over your own body and health – between single-payer healthcare and “bio-terror preparedness.” And the Nuremberg Code was brought up again and again by people like George Annas in testimony to Congress and in his writings, especially WRT to “mandates” on healthy citizens. It’s fucking criminal and it’s been dressed up real purty, but it’s still as morally reprehensible as ever.
I’m comfortable bypassing the FDA. It’s the longest, most pointlessly expensive and corrupt drug approval in the world.
But it’s not bypassing the FDA. What’s happening is the the FDA is approving drugs that have no compelling evidence of safety and efficacy for the sole purpose of enabling government mandates.
OTC ivermectin would be bypassing the FDA. The Cathedral’s response in vilifying a drug that has had billions of safe human administrations over dozens of years has been illuminating to say the least.
Exactly, SSD.
If we had pure caveat emptor, then no one has the false sense of security that comes w/ having a “consumer watchdog agency” that’s on the take. It’s the same reason why corrupt cops in the War on Drugs are such a problem – it’s not just that the cops aren’t doing their job, it’s that they’re working for someone else’s contrary agenda while on the taxpayer’s dime.
That the FDA’s response to ivermectin wasn’t such a massive tell about how their bread is buttered was perhaps when I decided that we could still lose – even with the FDA obviously pissing all over itself. They no longer even try to hide it. They just brazenly say, “fuck you, discretion” and people like Scruffy’s friend believe that to be the case – and the way it should be.
Are they “approving” it or just saying taking it is ok?
It’s still looking like the vaccine more than doubles your chances of getting “mild” covid while the risks are statistically minor.
I agree giving it a stamp of “we know this is safe” seems like too much, but they should not holding up or discouraging anyone taking the vaccine either.
It’s still looking like the vaccine more than doubles your chances of getting “mild” covid while the risks are statistically minor.
The trial data from July showed you’re more likely to die from cardiac arrest after receiving the vaccine than from Covid if you are unvaxxed. Some here have argued that the numbers are too low to be meaningful, but if that’s the argument, than any risk from Covid is too low to be meaningful. The whole thing is a farce except in the elderly and a small subset of comorbid conditions.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.28.21261159v1.full-text
This is six months follow-up for Pfizer vax versus placebo in 44,000 study participants. 2 people out of 22,000 in the placebo group died from Covid. 2 out of 14 deaths.
If those two deaths are significant in any way, consider that 4 people in the vax group died from cardiac arrest compared with 1 in the placebo group. A much greater difference than deaths from Covid.
How do you explain more than twice the Covid death rate each month since March for the unvaccinated? Or is the CDC cooking the numbers somehow? If so, how?
Older and less healthy people are even more likely get vaccinated, so I’m skeptical that lack of controls in the raw data is a big problem.
You expect the liars to stop lying? LOL.
I’d believe UK/Israel data over US.
There data is roughly the same though.
*their
I don’t trust the CDC numbers. The trial data is the closest approximation we have for the real world population.
When the numbers are so low, the percentages are huge. I can’t calculate the percent increase with zero deaths for the vax population, but if we increase each death by one (1 for vax and 3 for non-vaxxed), then I could make a statement like the trial data showed that not getting vaccinated increased the risk of Covid mortality by 200%. Of course, you could also make a similar statement that receiving the vaccine increased your risk of cardiac-related death by 300% compared to those who did not the vaccine, and the absolute number of cardiac deaths was greater than that from Covid.
“I don’t trust the CDC numbers. The trial data is the closest approximation we have for the real world population.”
I’m not entirely sure I trust anyone’s numbers, but I find them compelling enough so far. I can completely understand someone vulnerable taking a vaccine.
Unfortunately, the wave of famous politicians and movie stars dying of the covid vaccine hasn’t happened. Yet.
First, I would want to see that data time adjusted for vaccination rates in the population.
Last month’s results would be more informative as the vaccination rate has plateaued.
How about this study on Denmark?
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/addendumcorrection-to-danish-ve-data
Taking data back to March is bullshit. Things have changed.
“statistically minor”
For some versions of minor, I suppose.
How exactly do we “know” that the risk is statistically minor? Especially when the absolute risk reduction (ARR) for the vaccines – the real number that matters – isn’t being published. In fact, instead, they’re using the bullshit relative risk numbers instead, to make it sound effective when the fact is it could and never did beat – just doing nothing. That’s why Pfizer collapsed the trial – because the vaccine would never beat the control (placebo) group of doing nothing against this virus.
And how do we know it’s “minor” when the FDA is disclaiming its own phamarco-vigilance data. i.e. the VAERS data. Is the under-reporting figure (URF) 41? Or is it 31? Or is it best to not calculate it at all – like the CDC is doing?
I don’t know what you’re reading, but it isn’t anything good.
Welp. About 1500 a day are dying of covid. 1000 of those are unvaccinated. Stats that anyone can look up.
How much of a statistical spike in heart attacks for the vaccinated has there been?
Isn’t this the support data we are supposed to get from the clinical trials they nuked?
We wouldn’t get access to these numbers now, but your comparison is off, anyway. What are the demographics of the 1,000 unvaxxed deaths? Then we’d have to look at the increased risk of heart conditions in similar demos. The question of whether to get the vaccine or not is a question for each individual to consider based on how they assess their own risk.
I have virtually no risk of dying from covid. So, even a small uptick in heart problems in males in my age bracket would be enough to offset the benefit of the vaccine. And that’s not even accounting for the fact that we really know nothing about the long term side effects of the vaccine.
“We wouldn’t get access to these numbers now, but your comparison is off, anyway. What are the demographics of the 1,000 unvaxxed deaths? Then we’d have to look at the increased risk of heart conditions in similar demos. The question of whether to get the vaccine or not is a question for each individual to consider based on how they assess their own risk.”
Of course.
Sort of what I was referencing. There’s no easy way to access those numbers, but it does appear that the vaccinated if anything skews towards the older and unhealthy though.
I personally find the data compelling enough.
“I have virtually no risk of dying from covid. So, even a small uptick in heart problems in males in my age bracket would be enough to offset the benefit of the vaccine. And that’s not even accounting for the fact that we really know nothing about the long term side effects of the vaccine.”
Sure. Completely agree.
About 1500 a day are dying of covid. 1000 of those are unvaccinated.
And? That doesn’t really help anyone calculate how much the vax will reduce their risk of dying of COVID. COVID deaths are still heavily associated with age and comorbities. If you’re not in the risk group, looking at overall data doesn’t tell you much.
There is also very disturbing data out of England, I believe, showing the excess mortality rate among the vaccinated is higher, and not by a little, than the excess mortality rate among the unvaccinated. Now, this is preliminary data, hasn’t been associated with mechanisms, etc. But it should scare the hell out people, and we should know what the hell is going on. Maybe its nothing, but you don’t whistle past data like that.
We are being pounded with relative risk data (like the COVID deaths of vaxxed v. unvaxxed). The absolute risk data is being buried, because it shows most people have a very small risk from COVID, and the vaccines reduce that very small risk by an even smaller amount, and then only for six months or so. The risks of the vaccine are also being buried, although every now and then somebody says something like the FDA did: IF you are a male under 40, you are more likely to die of the vax than the disease.
The corruption of the FDA is on full display – they said that, they backed it up, and they did not change their recommendations or approvals at all. In fact, they went on to approve it for minors, based on data so shitty even the commissioners admitted it didn’t support the approval.
Seeing how they completely shut down ivermectin whilst knowing it would help save lives just so they can foist these vaccines on us, I have absolutely no reason to believe the CDC wouldnt cook the books. Looks at all of the forces working on their side. You think they are going to let some silly stats get in their way?
I wonder what might be the career implications of publishing data that reflects badly on vaccine safety or efficacy. Wouldn’t be surprised if we’re getting into Lysenko territory.
Given that Fauci and Collins control the vast majority of research grants in virology and epidemiology (about $41B), I’d say we’re way into Lysenko territory.
Fauci in particular is known for being vindictive.
I wonder what might be the career implications of publishing data that reflects badly on vaccine safety or efficacy. Wouldn’t be surprised if we’re getting into Lysenko territory.
That’s a valid concern, but the journal gatekeepers will ensure it’s never published in the first place.
Relatedly, there have been physicians getting their licenses pulled in Europe and Canada who write medical exemptions or prescribe things like ivermectin. I imagine many American physicians are under similar pressure, especially who work for groups rather than their own practice.
Not to worry, once the GOP retakes Congress, they can open investigations into the Fauci regi—ahahahahah, who am I kidding, they’ll probably ramp up the January 6th charade out of “collegiality”.
And this proves absolutely nothing. About 95% of those who die “from” (?) or “with” (?) Covid have “at least 1 co-morbidity” (on average 3.9).
Second, we know the CDC intentionally changed the way deaths were counted, making the data entirely useless.
Third, we know the fedgov financially incentivized exaggerated reporting. That’s been backed up by subsequent reviews of the autopsy data in a number of counties upwards of 25% in some cases.
Then there was the statistical (coincidental) collapse of flu and other deaths. Cite that as “compelling data” if it helps you justify what you want to believe.
“Welp, on average, about 4500 people die each day from the diseases associated with those co-morbidities… Stats that anyone can look up.”
Did any of the people who ate themselves into those co-morbidities think they were building their immune systems with McDoubles and McMeals?
The average/median age of death from Covid in the US is almost the exact same as the average life expectancy – around 79.
So again, how is this anything other than a pandemic of those who are old and/or sickly by conspicuous lifestyle choice? And justified by what data of efficacy? The answer is that there isn’t any.
I imagine many American physicians are under similar pressure, especially who work for groups rather than their own practice.
From what I’ve heard through Reopen NH channels, they are in NH. The State Medical Board has been threatening doctors that prescribe ivermectin/other alternative treatments. The State Medical Board is following marching orders from NIH/CDC.
Wow. Great story, Animal. Just great. Thanks for sharing with us.
Melancholy without being sappy or gloomy. I like it.
Great stuff Animal. Thanks you.
Trying to imagine this scene set amidst that much cold, snow, and weather.
It’s an advert for yogurt and the replies are filled with tankies pining for this fictional Myazaki utopia without any of the supernatural elements that make Miyazaki fun, just masturbatory pastoralism powered by science fantasy tech.
Which isn’t too say the animation isn’t top notch or uninteresting, but so many commenters claim to want to chart a course to there from here without working out how that happens without markets and innovation. Strangely, all their answers start with ending capitalism…
Unlimited, free energy and replicators. How hard is that?
Looks nightmarish.
These are people that think electricity comes from an outlet.
It doesn’t?
They just want you to think that.
In reality, they have tiny cameras in your house that watch when you plug something in and then they use 5G waves to project the energy through your body and into the appliance.
That’s what gave me the swelling!
Good job, Animal.
I have a curious situation. I receive two medications through the VA. Have for two years now. They gave them to me for free. I never mislead them about my income or anything of that nature.. If I ever told them anything about my income, it would have been years ago when I just got out of the Army and was going back to school. Today I received a letter from the VA saying that the got my income from the IRS and that I would apparently have to start paying as well as possibly have to reimburse them for payments from March 2021 on. This isn’t some big deal to me, but I have to wonder as to why now.
The only reason I can think of that makes sense is that the Biden administration has returned to enforcing the individual mandate. When filing taxes, I lazily said I had healthcare through the VA. Why else would they suddenly start looking into the tax records of veterans?
My 24yo son recently got his own insurance, so I was able to cancel the family plan with my employer this December, in order to move to the VA. I got the call from the VA earlier this month telling me I was good to go, and that I could schedule my first appointment. A week later I get a letter in the mail saying my application had been denied due to my income; same story. Had to sign back up for insurance through work. Yes, I can afford to pay for it, but that healthcare is my benefit that I earned in the corps. Let’s go, Brandon. Proggies hate us.
I’ve used the VA for a few things since getting out in late 2012. Never had an issue, and as far as I can remember was never even asked about my income as a prerequisite for anything. So yea, it’s a bit strange. I only started seeing a doctor there in the last year and a half for annual check-ups.
When I first got out, I was prescribed something that I was only on a few months. They made me pay a few bucks for it, but that was the extent of it. I’m not an expert on the byzantine VA system, but I don’t see anything to tie this back to besides the Brandon administration.
Me, either.
My experience with VA healthcare enrollment is they work on the SSDI model of denying at the first application, and grant on appeal/reconsideration. From hearing from others, the disability process sounds the same.
They sent me a letter saying I was eligible based on my service records and fill out the enclosed enrollment form. Did and got a letter back saying I wasn’t eligible. Contact the local VA clinic, send them the same application again, and it’s approved.
The individual mandate penalty was removed by legislation, so they can’t start enforcing it.
At some point they automated the income requirements, getting the info straight from the IRS. Probably didn’t have the staff to handle verifications before that, so they just didn’t bother.
The VA automated income eligibility, that is.
Ah, gotcha. Thanks.
The penalty is gone, but not the mandate itself, as I understand it. Setting the penalty to zero means it isn’t a tax, but simply attaching any monetary amount as a penalty would be enough to beat any constitutional challenges to it.
Kicking people off the VA rolls is definitely one way to “encourage” people to get coverage. Especially if we are talking about younger, healthier vets.
Yes, the mandate is still there. But there’s no way to enforce it.
I wonder if the change came from the work they did to automate economic impact payments. The IRS worked with other agencies to set that all up last year.
I readily admit it may not be the individual mandate and their desire to see it back in full force driving this.
But when it comes to the bureaucracy, I put the odds of them randomly getting around to enforcing something lower than them having an ulterior motive.
Since Representative’s offices do offer constituent services. I wouldn’t stand on Libertarian principle. This is something I would bring up with your Congress critter.
Contact your Veteran’s Assistance Officer, maybe at the county courthouse. They are there for you, not saying they can help but give it a shot. Take your DD 214s.
I appreciate t4he feedback. I don’t even know if it’s worth going through the hassle. As I said above, it isn’t that big of a deal to me, particularly at this stage of my life. I just find it interesting that after using the VA for 8 years, they’re just like nah – you are ineligible. Or it requires co-pays? I don’t even know.
How many times do we have to tell you idiots, Loudoun isn’t teaching CRT?
We call it something else because CRT has a bad reputation.
Reading, writing, and arithmetic are so overrated anyway.
If they’re as successful pushing CRT as they are the rest of it, they’ll be graduating students who are illiterate, innumerate, and irretrievably based.
Gee I wonder what the result of feeding children a steady diet of racist garbage is going to be.
You’re evil, your parents are evil, your ancestors are evil, everyone who looks like you is evil, your faith is evil, even your gender is evil, not for anything you did intentionally or even consciously, but because people you don’t know or perhaps even existed with contemporaneously did things you don’t sanction and probably even abhor, or because you secretly think bad things, so secret that you don’t even know it and can’t possibly disclaim it, and no matter how hard you work or abase yourself, you will never, ever be forgiven and you and your children and your children’s children will forever be tainted by your awful bigotries.
I can’t believe this insidious fucking cult has gotten such a following, tbh.
“It can’t be objective, because we’re experiencing it.”
Ummm, what?
Basically, ‘We’re teaching the kiddies that they get immunity from criticism in direct proportion to their shade/orientation/gender.’
I guess I need to finish reading my copy of this, https://www.amazon.com/Babylon-Bee-Guide-Wokeness/dp/1684512719/ref=sr_1_1?
The world needs more CRT. Mass adoption of LED and LCD has coincided with the moral degeneracy which is destroying western civilization. So it is high time to return to the halcyon days of CRT, or dare I say it, vacuum tubes. Back to the future!
Psha! Rotoscope or thee to thine Home!
CRT is too large and heavy.
CRT is too large and heavy.
Solid and substantial, not like that cheap flimsy CCP shit.
My cheap, flimsy LED was made in Tijuana.
Hmm. I thought Tijuana was known for other delightful things.
Edit Fairy!!!
If it can’t be displayed on Nixie tubes or Solari boards, it’s not worth displaying.
Progressive, leftist, liberal, back to progressive. It’s like however many times we change the name the people still don’t like it.
Thanks again, Animal, a lot of memories are still there. I have to clean my yard from the snow, just so I can get my own truck out of the garage.
How much did you get down your way? We got somewhere around 6-8″ with 2-4″ predicted for tonight/tomorrow. The wind has picked up now, so visibility is zero in many places out in the country. I have this week off, so I’m staying snug and warm inside and waiting until tomorrow/Wednesday to clean up.
Stay safe. Take your time.
Reading up on the 1933 Cuban revolution I’m finding it odd that none of the pieces I’m reading mention anything about political ideology at all.
Also,
Sounds like Joe Biden, amirite?
Biden couldn’t organize his sock drawer.
Who actually organizes socks? And why do they get a whole drawer? Sounds like some Commie Union shit to me.
Who actually organizes socks?
Sock puppets?
All of my socks come out of the laundry basket anyway.
Me, and I still end up with orphans, then they become rags,
Who actually organizes socks?
Soldiers in Basic Combat Training.
The person at the laundromat I pay to wash my clothes?
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2021/12/27/italian-9-luger/
Huh.
I thought 9×21 was a 9×19 with the projectile pushed 2mm further back into the case.
https://thecovidworld.com/pharmacist-shocked-to-find-that-moderna-vaccine-information-inserts-are-blank/
Honk Honk.
In unrelated news, a local pharmacist lost license after the Board of Pharmacy conducted a thirty second investigation.
You mean they don’t already give those pages to every patient like they do for every other medicine one receives at the pharmacy?