GlibFit 4.0 – Coronavirus Edition VII: Groundhog Day

by | Apr 26, 2020 | Fitness, GlibFit | 196 comments

This is the end of my fifth week of shelter in place/cower in place/safer at home/ whatever-the-fuck-my-incompetent-governor-calls-it. Life is starting to feel like an outtake from Groundhog Day. There is an off-putting sameness to each day in semi-captivity. This week’s change of pace came when our internet went down for the better part of a day. Thanks Spectrum.

I had believed my fellow Californians were simply supine tax cattle that would put up with the bullshit until the “science” said it was safe to leave your home. Celebrity attorney Mark Geragos proved me wrong. Some San Diegans proved me wrong. Some businesses are asserting their constitutional rights. Some of the natives are restless and have adapted in a way government bureaucrats never anticipated. Maybe the flame of liberty isn’t dead yet.

The weather has really heated up this week. There is no way the government is going to keep us all inside when daytime highs are in the 80s and 90s. I am increasingly of the belief a few weeks of hot weather coupled with the current restrictions will lead to violence. I do not know who, when, or where. But I expect it to happen.

My banker contacted me on Wednesday about my PPP application. He emailed me shortly before midnight. I am nearly certain the stories about smaller banks getting whipsawed by vague and changing regulations are true. I provided the additional information requested on Thursday morning. The federal government provided more funding on Friday, so we will see if this round is any different or if I’ll continue to wake up to the same song on the alarm day after day.

A teleconference with one local court was held to update on us on the court’s plan to reopen. In truth, there isn’t one. The Chief Justice of California’s Supreme Court has granted authority to our Governor to close public facilities and suspend or extend various time limits in accord with his declaration of a public emergency. I seriously doubt this is any longer constitutional. But the only vindication will come in federal court because two of three branches of state government are in bed together and our legislature will happily fellate the Governor. Realistically, no local court is going to open for anything but emergency matters before the third week of May. We are screwed.

The silver lining in this morass is I’ve been consistently running for weeks as part of my conditioning. My routine is a 5-minute warm up jog followed by intervals and ending with a 5-minute warm down jog. When I started, it was 5 intervals of 20 second sprint/20 second jog/20 second walk. I am now up to 8 intervals. My post interval jog has been getting longer and not much of a warm down but I stopped timing it. I am using visual markers for distance. For whatever reason, it is bringing me a degree of satisfaction I wasn’t getting from timing. Under the current circumstances, I’m taking any satisfaction I can get.

This week’s music choice has lyrics that seem terribly apropos.

 

 

 

About The Author

Chafed

Chafed

I'm looking California but feeling Minnesota

196 Comments

    • l0b0t

      HOLY MACKEREL! Those ladies all need to eat a stick of butter and a few sammiches.

    • Spudalicious

      Pretty much any of them.

    • Chafed

      Yes. Yes it is.

    • DEG

      Some of those women are simply thin. Not what I’d call fit.

      #29 is kind of intriguing. Her one hamstring has a shape that indicates she spends time working her legs. I volunteer to find out more.

      • Chafed

        You’re a good man DEG.

      • DEG

        Thanks!

    • Plinker762

      Lara Croft (14) needs a real pistola

      28 may be carrying a concealed pistol, if you know what I mean.

  1. Spudalicious

    I’m still in slug mode. The weight gain has at least stopped.

  2. Q Continuum

    I got a subscription to Les Mills On Demand and the workouts have actually been great. I’ve had to be a little creative with what I used for weights, but I don’t feel like I’ve fallen off the wagon nearly as much as I would have thought.

    Gym will (hopefully) open in the next 7-10 days and then I can get back to crushin’ it.

    • Chafed

      I’m not familiar with Les Mills. What is his approach?

      • Q Continuum

        There’s a wide variety of classes: BodyPump (high rep low weight weights), BodyCombat (kick boxing), BodyAttack (calisthenics), RPM (spinning, fortunately I have a stationary bike). Those are the ones I’ve done.

  3. Fourscore

    Switched from the treadmill and free weights to a chain saw and firewood. I give myself credit for exercise, just a different kind. I wanted to clean up around some deer stands anyway and the wood will need to be split and stacked. Got the garden tilled, still too early to plant. Busy now that spring is here and a few small tasks to do.

    • westernsloper

      You just shamed me into going and splitting some wood. Thanks, I needed that.

  4. Suthenboy

    The central planners attempting to re-order the economy clearly do not understand why the economy is what it is. It is what it is in spite of them and when it re-opens with them or without them, it will be the same.

    • Fourscore

      My guess is that as soon as one place opens others will follow suit, without a ‘captain may I’ being involved. Restaurants are going to have as many chairs as customers, in spite of the government.

      Are the fuzz gonna bust everyone that doesn’t comply or ignore the crime wave?

      • Bob Boberson

        My theory is that once one state reopens it will create a domino effect. As people flood in from neighboring states that are still locked down to shop and recreate and COVID cases do not spike dramatically in those locales, the governors of the neighboring states will be under increasing pressure to open back up.

      • Hyperion

        “My guess is that as soon as one place opens others will follow suit”

        Not immediately. They’ll hold out as long as they can. But what they’re going to get is, when people who cannot go back to work, start seeing other states back to work, they are going to start getting pissed, and then you’ll see mass exoduses from those states to the states that are open because people have to choice but to flee and try to find employment.

        That’s actually scary, because who the hell wants a bunch of NY or Cali people moving to their state, so that they can vote back in the same policies that made them flee? This has already been going on for a long time, but now instead of a trickle it will be a flood.

        Maybe that’s part of the plan? Turn fly over blue?

      • Grosspatzer

        Call me an incurable optimist, but if this happens, I’m pretty sure the next wave of NY and Cali people will be a different demographic with a different attitude. It certainly won’t be the people currently dependent on the “social safety net” – that lot will stick around and continue to collect whatever scraps the local pols are offering. There are a surprising number of people here who understand what is going on and are sick of being outvoted by the bread and circuses consumers. These are most likely to be the ones who pick up and leave.

      • Hyperion

        That would definitely be a welcome change. But you see what has happened to Virginia, Colorado, and is starting to happen in North Carolina, and other places. It’s not that the natives there suddenly turned into progs, it’s that the people fleeing unaffordable places like Cali, have flooded in and starting voting in the same policies that made them flee their former proggy enclaves. Some people will just not learn, no matter what. VA is a little different in that it’s spillover from DC.

      • Grosspatzer

        You’re probably right, but I’m hoping it will be different this time.

        This time for sure!

      • Chafed

        Completely agree.

      • IRBE

        Hi Chafed, Thanks for the links and the article. I respectfully disagree with the premise that Cali voters moving into a state change the politics of the state. The numbers don’t add up and the people moving into these states are not exactly proggies. My take is that the sudden increase in voters give the politicians (pimps) cover to do all the proggie shit they have been planning for years. They just now have the “excuse” or cover to get it done and the local populists are not pushing back because they are not paying attention…like all Cali residents.

        I have lived in Cali for 30yrs and quite honestly don’t give a shit about local politics since I have been successful in maneuvering within the stupid rules that are here. I am not all the sudden going to move somewhere and go proggie. Hell I wouldn’t probably vote like most Cali residents.

        The reason that all places eventually go proggie is that it is the best and easiest way for these pimps to manage their re-election and garner power.

  5. Sean

    I’m holding down my couch and digesting bbq. #Glibfit

    • westernsloper

      ?

  6. DEG

    A teleconference with one local court was held to update on us on the court’s plan to reopen. In truth, there isn’t one.

    To some extent, same as in NH. Courts are open for emergency filings/hearings, but everything else is shut down.

    Life goes on. I started spreading mulch. I think I aggravated my disc herniation a bit as my morning pain was a bit worse than usual, so I decided I’d take the day off from yard work. My only physical activity today so far has been walking, but I will bring some firewood in after dinner for a fire in the fireplace. I’ll resume yard work once the storm that is moving through the area goes away. That storm is supposed to bring snow. Yay.

  7. westernsloper

    I hope every small business that was shuttered sues their respective Governors and in some cases local officials. IANAL and don’t know how discovery would work as it pertains to a governors office but I would put money down that there are emails pushing the overblown models of the Gates backed IHME, which has an agenda, and turned out to be the biggest crock of bullshit ever pushed on the American people.

    As to glibfit goals, I spent more time on the rower and only started drinking before noon four days this week. Almost fiddy percent!

    • hayeksplosives

      I am all for taking a challenge all the way to the Supreme Court to deter the govt from this again.

      2 worries though:
      Who has the best case and standing? Have to chose carefully,

      And:
      The Liberal judges might side with the governors since it was “saving lives”, and the pro-law and order conservatives might like the added policing power. In other words, would this Supreme Court overturn arbitrary closures?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Korematsu
        Schenck
        Plessey
        Dread Scott

        I’m not counting on the Federal Courts to do the right thing based on the black lettering of the constitution.

      • cyto

        All you have to do to come to that conclusion is to read the plain text of the bill of rights. They are so stark in the language, they brook no compromise. Yet we have federal laws regarding weapons of all sorts, political speech, …. and let’s just jump ahead to 9 and 10… which mostly don’t exist at all according to the courts.

      • westernsloper

        Was it really saving lives though? I think in the west it can be proven this was here in Dec if not Nov and the peak of cases was probably in Feb or early Mar prior to ever testing one person for it in most places.

      • Hyperion

        “Was it really saving lives though?”

        The evidence is starting to pour in, that is was not, and not only that, it caused way more harm instead. But don’t expect the NYT or CNN to change the narrative, no matter what.

      • Chafed

        When we have final numbers from Sweden and Denmark we will know. It’s an excellent natural experiment.

  8. hayeksplosives

    My current health is preventing most vigorous exercise, so I’m working on diet. No booze since Feb 26 has helped a lot.

    Now that the rain is done, as Chafed mentioned, it’s time to get out walking!

    Went for a drive today and saw people on jogging and walking trails, some golfers. Beaches are open for the most part, with 6 ft distance encouraged.

    The weirdest part is that along with these initial relaxations, we have to start wearing masks in public May 1.

    Mixed messages, but mostly positive.

  9. RAHeinlein

    Six miles of walking today and three miles every day this week, plus some yardwork. Hoping for more business opening announcements tomorrow.

    Thanks for keeping everyone on-track and good luck with your PPP loan!

    • Hyperion

      I’ve got to get back to walking soon and add some strength exercises. Or I am not going to make it through this. The official cause of death of the certificate will be ‘Hangover’.

    • Hyperion

      I’ve got to get back to walking soon and add some strength exercises. Or I am not going to make it through this. The official cause of death on the certificate will be ‘Hangover’.

      • Hyperion

        Wow, I wondered how people did that, double posting. Now I know.

      • Spudalicious

        You’re double poster of the month t-shirt is in the mail.

      • Chafed

        It’s not a double post. You have double vision.

    • Chafed

      Thanks RAH.

  10. robc

    Saw a link to a study measuring effectiveness of 7 different social distancing strategies (20 western countries).

    They fell onto 3 groups, 1 in top tier, 4 in middle, 2 mostly ineffective. The two worst were, in order, cower in place and closing schools.

    Lockdown was the single most ineffective strategy.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      What were the more effective ones?

    • Chafed

      Link?

    • Hyperion

      That only means that it’s more dangerous than we thought. It can sneak up on you, just like the boogeyman. Gotcha!

      Now we have to stay locked down forever.

  11. robc

    I have lost 1 lb per week since started wfh. If this last until labor day, I will hit my goal weight.

    • Tulip

      I was doing really well until I hurt my knee. Then, because I was babying the knee, I hurt my ankle. Then, most recently I hurt my other knee. I’m still hobbling along to walk the dog three times a day, but nothing else.

  12. AlmightyJB

    Done with Bloody Marys, moved on to Arnold Palmer.

    • Hyperion

      The one thing I promised during this lockdown is that I would not drink hard liquor. I have actually managed that. But wow is it ever possible to get drunk on beer. My wife is really mad at me for leaving the grill in the rain. At least I turned the gas off. And I mean, it wasn’t raining when I passed out, who would have thought it might rain!

      • Suthenboy

        Are you kidding? Rain dance, shmain dance. Leaving the pit out is how you get it to rain.

      • Hyperion

        “Leaving the pit out is how you get it to rain.”

        I think you are onto something there.

  13. robc

    I have an article coming on Thursday, but have the germ of another as a new covid based chapter in Bastiat’s classic. I wish I was a skilled enough writer to imitate his style.

    • robc

      Top was closing restaurant/bar/entertainment facilities.

      Mid tier was banning gatherings 50+, banning non-family small gatherings, closing non-essential businesses, and closing borders.

      I dont remember order, but the numbers were very close. I think borders and big gatherings were the top 2.

      Costs were not included, this was just how effective the policy was in terms of confirmed cases.

      • robc

        This was a reply under #12.

  14. Count Potato

    I have a glibfit question. I’m looking for a small simple bench to use with dumbbells. So it doesn’t need a bar rack. Incline/decline would be good, but most I’ve seen are either flat or only do incline. Does anyone know a good place online to look?

    • Spudalicious

      Craigs List? Check and see if there’s a used sports equipment shop in your area.

      • Count Potato

        I’d rather not deal with Craig’s List. There was a used sports equipment shop right near me, but they went out of business.

        I’m OK with something new. So far they seem to be around $50 to $120. The problem is they are all out of stock. So maybe increased demand because gyms are closed?

        I’m also not familiar with the different brands. I don’t want to spend more than I need, but I also don’t want it falling apart. Having to buy something twice is no bargain.

      • Chafed

        CP when cower in place went into effect gym equipment sold out everywhere. It may be a while before you can find what you want. I’m not familiar with the quality of the home gym brands so I can’t help you there.

      • Count Potato

        “when cower in place went into effect gym equipment sold out everywhere”

        That’s it then. Maybe I should look into what I can do without a bench. No idea how I could do bench presses, etc. without one though.

  15. Plinker762

    Not sure why, but my PPP experience was a lot different. I went through a NW regional bank which I have been banking with for the last three years. Filled out the application and provided copies of the documents they asked for; payroll records, health insurance invoices and payroll tax forms. I got the documents to them on the Thursday of the week after the start. Received my loan notice on the morning when it was announced funds were exhausted and it was deposited in my account on that Friday. One of my friends uses the same bank and he had his paperwork done a couple of days before me and received his loan two days before me.

    Maybe higher application numbers where you are?

    • Chafed

      It’s mystifying to me Plinker. I’m glad you had a better experience.

      This morning, Sunday!, my banker emailed me saying a new regulation was implemented requiring proof I was in business this February. He is asking for my payroll records nearest to February 15th. He invited me to call him day or night.

      I don’t what is going on. As far as I can tell, my bank is doing what it can as quickly as it can to process the application. I’m getting exasperated.

  16. Suthenboy

    “I’m not counting on the Federal Courts to do the right thing based on the black lettering of the constitution.”

    It would definitely be a mistake to count on the courts given the absurd rulings we have seen recently, not to mention the ones Hayek mentions above.
    In the past we have speculated about the political divide in this country and the possibility of the country breaking in two.
    NC, SC, CO, UT, NE, OK, AR, IA did not shoot their economies in the head. They will recover faster than the others, not to mention the states that are now about to lift their house arrest.
    Either the states that are most adamant about staying locked down will relent or there will soon be a huge economic divide as those that don’t relent descend into 3 world shitholes while those that start up again will prosper.

    Damn, I am drunk already.

    • Hyperion

      Yeah, but check my post above about that. The fear is that the locked down states will flee to the not-locked down states to find employment. And we all know what happens then, to formally nice states.

      • cyto

        We have seen that effect in Florida. Travelers from NY definitely boosted that initial bolus of cases, causing Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties in particular to have a much, much higher rate of infection than they otherwise would.

        But people are starting to really get antsy. They are going along with the masks and keeping your distance thing at stores…. but parents are letting their teenagers just go out and meet up now in much larger numbers.

      • Spudalicious

        That’s how Sun Valley became a hot spot. Lot’s of private jets at the Hailey airport.

      • Hyperion

        There’s virtually zero risk to teens from this thing. Which makes it even more stupid, as someone her already stated, that the first thing they did was close down schools and universities. And no one is going to tell me that hey did it to protect people over 50 who are the most vulnerable, those people could start collecting medicare and SS soon. Especially those over 65, some of who are already collecting. Those people cost money and are paying less, or no taxes.

      • robc

        Sweden didnt cancel schools at the request of the hospitals. Over 20% of health care workers would have stayed home to take care of kids instead of working.

      • Rhywun

        Over 20% of health care workers would have stayed home to take care of kids instead of working.

        Good point. I keep hearing about all the pubsec workers calling in “sick with the ‘vid” without any speculation about that particular explanation.

      • Suthenboy

        Did I mention that the Texas Highway Patrol have roadblocks and ID checks at all roads entering TX, right? You are from Louisiana? No soup for you!

    • Trials and Trippelations

      Just a small correction for anyone reading late like me. NC should be replaced by TN. Here in NC we still have cower in place with a three phase plan for reopening with vague benchmarks for entering the phases (read when the Gov says so).
      TN joined SC and GA in essentially reopening this past week

  17. Crusty Juggler

    Today’s dumbbell workout:

    step ups
    suitcase deadlift
    sumo squat
    bulgarian split squat
    step ups

    Today’s reward dinner: Central New York treat chicken riggies. Daddy misses some things!

    • westernsloper

      WTF is a chicken riggie?

      • Spudalicious

        Don’t you know? It’s chicken and rigatoni in a tomato cream sauce with either sweet, or hot peppers.

        /I looked it up too

      • westernsloper

        So chicken parmigiana with rigatoni and peppers. Got it.

      • Spudalicious

        Dice the chicken, no breading.

      • Crusty Juggler

        Get some culture, rube.

      • Crusty Juggler

        It’s delicious, you monster.

      • Jarflax

        Rigatoni is my pasta nemesis, I just cannot manage to get it properly al dente, either the ridges get overcooked or the core is undercooked

      • Count Potato

        Use rapidly boiling water.

      • Invisible BEAM of the comment stream

        First heard about it on an episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives years ago. It’s rigatoni stuffed with shredded chicken (and pretty much anything else that tastes good as binder, i.e., cheese, eggs, etc.) and served with a “Rosa” sauce (some kind of tomato cream). It’s okay, but nothing I couldn’t do as well as or better in my own kitchen.

        For one thing, I’d add gin to the tomato base. Gin really livens up tomato-based sauces and soups.

      • Crusty Juggler

        You keep that garbage out of central new york.

    • Trials and Trippelations

      Any of these nurse and doc hijinx tiktoks are likely from othro units. With no elective surgeries they don’t have shit to do, but be floated elsewhere or make stupid tiktoks

  18. Rhywun

    Today in OFFS:

    De Blasio appoints wife head of coronavirus racial inequality task force

    This is the same chick who mishandled hundreds of millions of dollars aimed at “solving” the mental health problem by studiously making sure none of the money went toward people with mental health problems.

    • Hyperion

      So what exactly is her job? Form a task force to go out and forcibly inject whitey with the virus?

      • cyto

        Absolutely… if you are going to pull a Harrison Bergeron, you pull a Harrison Bergeron.

      • Crusty Juggler

        Nah dude, I can’t get the chess team over to Winston’s Mom’s during the pandemic.

      • Grosspatzer

        Chess team? *perks up, dons rain gear*

      • Rhywun

        So what exactly is her job?

        Money launderer.

      • Hyperion

        Lava Jato.

    • Count Potato

      I’m pretty sure some of went to someone who thought it was a good idea to marry DeBlasio, which sure sounds like a mental health problem.

    • cyto

      Surprisingly, “wife who mishandled hundreds of millions” isn’t the most idiotic thing in that announcement. Coronavirus Racial Inequality Task Force…. Are you effing kidding me?

      • Hyperion

        This entire thing started with the ‘Health Equity’ bullshit being pushed in academia. According to those geniuses, the most important job of medicine is not to innovate and advance the cause of medicine, it’s to make sure that everyone is equal health wise. Even if that means everyone is equally sick. Wood-chipp-ers, now I know the real reason those things were invented.

    • grrizzly

      But who will head the COVID-19 age discrimination task force?

      • Hyperion

        If you don’t think they will quickly swing from the ‘protect the most vulnerable’ phase of this, to ‘no one needs to live past 50’ phase, you really haven’t been paying much attention to the left the last couple of decades. And it’s not that I want to pay attention to them, but they can’t keep their yaps shut for 3 seconds. They really cannot help themselves.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Sheer opportunism and use any excuse to grab power.

      • Suthenboy

        Does DeBlasio have any children?

      • Hyperion

        The best thing about progs, is that they don’t procreate too much. And when they do, they get their kids sex changes at 5 that renders them unable to reproduce.

        Some things eventually go extinct for a reason. In this case, it needs to hurry up.

      • Rhywun

        Yes. His son’s center-stage giant afro was widely credited for him winning the Dem primary.

      • Suthenboy

        Well, there is the answer to grrizzly’s question.

      • Rhywun

        I think he’s out of college now and ready to embark on the “public service” he’s been groomed for. So yeah, why not.

  19. kinnath

    Progressives. The true virus.

    • Hyperion

      That one is worse than the Bubonic Plague, Smallpox, and Ebola combined. And there’s no cure.

      • kinnath

        full metal jacket at 3000 feet per second.

  20. Derpetologist

    Did a 6 mile hike today – 40 pound vest and 3 pounds of water. Pace was a bit over 3 mph. I saw a really big turtle basking in the sun. There are alligators here at Camp Swampy. I haven’t seen any but there are warning signs.

    On another nature hike, a saw a wild goose on a nest. It gave me the death stare. I went back the other way on the circular path and it gave me the death stare from the other direction.

    when geese attack – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS4edlvY-ks

    As for running, I go to the track sometimes, run the straightaways and jog the curves.

    I wonder why backpacks became so popular. Seems splitting the weight between the front and the back would be more comfortable and make it easier to reach things. Civil War soldiers carried most of the weight at their sides. The light stuff was on their backs.

    • IRBE

      That is a humping pace (3 mph) if there is any elevation. Now that the trails here have dried up pretty good, I have switched from hiking shoes to trail runners. I think the lack of stability with the runners give a better core workout and increase balancability, which is important for those who occasionally overindulge.

  21. Gustave Lytton

    WTF is going on with comments??
    —-

    Anyone else doing kettlebell/medicine balls besides Tejicano?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Trust the Army to fuck something up. Distance should be from the thrower at an arc, not straight lines. Like the hammer throw, discus, or shot put.

      • Derpetologist

        Eh, it’s his fault for not throwing it in a straight line. It’s not that hard.

        If the demonstrator is who I think he is, he is one of those legendary pt studs – like a dozen perfect scores in a row.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Btw, have a link to your new PT shirt up thread.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Maybe? I left the initial A off of mine above.

    • westernsloper

      I am having no problem with commenting but I am still using “avoid page refresh” turned on in eyepiece and then refreshing. I can honestly say I have never picked up a kettlebell. And it shows!

      • Rhywun

        I am still using “avoid page refresh” turned on in eyepiece and then refreshing

        I tried that but it’s now missing some new comments after a refresh, unlike before. I’m back to “post, wait 3 seconds, press escape, refresh”.

    • Gustave Lytton

      What an opportunistic little shit and a man child.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Victim, my ass.

    • Rhywun

      Tapped out almost half-way through. Who the fuck cares about that shit?!

      • Tres Cool

        She gots that Jennifer Grey nose, but I still prolly would. Seems she’s a goer.

      • Crusty Juggler

        A JG nose and a goer?

        Count me in.

    • Derpetologist

      Mancala might be the oldest game. Wiki sez:

      ***
      Some historians believe that mancala is the oldest game in the world based on the archaeological evidence found in Jordan that dates around 6000 BCE. The game might have been played by ancient Nabataeans and could have been an ancient version of the modern mancala game.[7]
      ***

      In Swahili, the game is called mbao (board). Checkers (drefti/draughts) is also popular. I spent a lot of time playing board games in the local bar while I lived there. They used beetle bottle caps for pieces – one side turned down, the other side turned up.

      The verb for to deal cards is kulamba, which also means to lick.

      • hayeksplosives

        I have a nice mancala board. I play a few times a year.

        I could believe it’s an early game. Easy rules, but then lots of strategy and a little luck.

      • Ted S.

        Luck?

      • commodious spittoon

        Of course you did. The most interesting thing about my day is that I stumbled across this ridiculous video, and you’ve actually been to Africa. I don’t hold it against you, but I do hold it against.

      • Derpetologist

        When I got done, they gave us a pamphlet which basically said: you’re going to think that what you did was really cool, but a lot of people just aren’t going to care. If someone asks, give them a 5 minute story and shut up.

        Anyway, here’s a cool style of painting called Tingatinga I saw while there. I bought a bunch and handed them out as presents when I got back.

        Tingatinga is the last name of the guy who invented the style.

      • commodious spittoon

        Do zebras really clean themselves like cats?

      • Derpetologist

        Uh, I never saw a zebra doing that. Swahili for zebra is punda milia, which means striped donkey.

        There’s a debate about why people were able to domesticate horses, reindeer, and donkeys, but not zebras.

      • Suthenboy

        You must have missed that discussion.
        Most wild animals are easily tamed by simply giving them food and then of course selectively breeding them.
        The animals that arent tamed are not tamed for usually the same reason….they are dangerous even when tamed.

      • Derpetologist

        beetle bottle?! beer bottle is what I meant

        When the navies of tweedle bettles fight, it’s a tweedle beetle puddle paddle battle. And don’t get me started about that noodle eating poodle.

      • commodious spittoon

        I kinda figured beetle bottle is some local thing, but I couldn’t bring myself to google it.

      • Derpetologist

        There’s a kind of big flying termite called kumbikumbi that people eat. They gather in great swarms at the end of the long rainy season.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN7yLXf6hgU

        The Swahili speaking lady says it makes men strong in all the right places.

      • commodious spittoon

        The abs? All those movie guys have strong abs.

        I kid, I kid. We know what the women want. Rock hard glutes. Crush a walnut in those things.

      • Derpetologist

        So in Swahili, ngano means wheat and ngono means sex. One of our cohort went to buy wheat flour (unga wa ngano) but she accidentally asked for unga wa ngono (sex powder).

        Many an eyebrow was raised that day.

        The Peace Corps – Fighting Fire With Marshmallows Since 1961

      • commodious spittoon

        Ngonoads, of course.

  22. Derpetologist

    food for thought

    I read that the body prioritizes metabolizing alcohol over all else. So if you eat and drink at the same time, the body will not burn the food calories until it burns all the alcohol calories.

    That explains a lot.

    • The Hyperbole

      Is the no scrubs outdoors thing a new with this covid business. I live right next to a hospital, they use the lot next to me for overflow parking, and I see people in scrubs all the time, or at least I use to I’m going to have to pay attention tomorrow.

      • Gustave Lytton

        That’s the point. They wear their scrubs both ways, bringing in contaminants into the hospital/clinic/nursing home and bringing anything from there out into the rest of the world. It’s been going on before and is still going on now. Just one of several less than best practices that continues due to inertia and laziness.

      • The Hyperbole

        I get the problem I just never heard anyone bitching about it before, but then again why would I? I agree it seems like a basic precaution people in the hospital business should have addressed before.

  23. grrizzly

    The Atlantic. In the debate over freedom versus control of the global network, China was largely correct, and the U.S. was wrong.

    As surprising as it may sound, digital surveillance and speech control in the United States already show many similarities to what one finds in authoritarian states such as China. Constitutional and cultural differences mean that the private sector, rather than the federal and state governments, currently takes the lead in these practices, which further values and address threats different from those in China. But the trend toward greater surveillance and speech control here, and toward the growing involvement of government, is undeniable and likely inexorable.

    In the great debate of the past two decades about freedom versus control of the network, China was largely right and the United States was largely wrong. Significant monitoring and speech control are inevitable components of a mature and flourishing internet, and governments must play a large role in these practices to ensure that the internet is compatible with a society’s norms and values.

    • Gustave Lytton

      William F Buckley was right.

    • Rhywun

      Define “right” and “wrong”. I have a feeling we will differ.

      • hayeksplosives

        Right means i collect more game pieces in this game where totalitarian control is the object of the game.

    • Derpetologist

      Half of that moron duo making chin music with career windowlicker Bill Kristol:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXGVIM8Gewo

      Don’t look at it, Marion! Keep your eyes SHUT!

    • Q Continuum

      “As surprising as it may sound, digital surveillance and speech control in the United States already show many similarities to what one finds in authoritarian states such as China. Constitutional and cultural differences mean that the private sector, rather than the federal and state governments, currently takes the lead in these practices”

      Regardless of the dopey value judgement, I think this is accurate.

      • grrizzly

        See an example of this in my comment below at 36.

      • cyto

        The thing to disagree with is the conclusion that this is a good thing. It is unarguably a bad thing. Freedom is the objective. If you don’t have that at the top of your “pyramid of government”, then you should choose another country. In the good old USA, we value freedom and eschew tyranny.

    • Suthenboy

      Fuck those two morons.

      Remember those caravans of ‘migrants’ from Latin America that the Democrats organized and marched north to the border? We need to organize a few of our own…round up these goddamned boot lickers and about 3/4 of our pols and march them down to Venezuela.

  24. Tres Cool

    since its not 6 pm yet (here): Mandatory.

    • Invisible BEAM of the comment stream

      Probably comes from the same DNA line as Elizabeth Hurley.

      • cyto

        Remember when they said 40 is the new 30? Well, they need to revise that again. There are a lot of genetic freaks running around out there. When I was a kid, a 40 year old woman was a grandma. There were no 40 year old leading women in Hollywood. Today? There are some absolutely smoking hot 50 year old women running around that can play the romantic lead as if they were 30.

        I think of all of that, and then I look at my mid-50’s frame in the mirror.

        Dang.

    • hayeksplosives

      Notice the distinct lack of coverage of her (even on the pure fashion count) compared with Michelle, who was always complemented for her beauty, elegance (snort), and style.

      I don’t care about your politics, FLOTUD watchers, get real about your comparisons of Mooch to Melanie.

      • Mojeaux

        Michelle Obama had the worst stylist(s) in the world and showing off her guns was not complementary.

        She’s not a bad-looking woman. In fact, she’s quite handsome (the way it’s meant for women). If she had better stylists, she could have really been spectacular.

      • hayeksplosives

        I hated when she’d wear a sweater with a belt fastened OVER the sweater. Looked awful.

        I could never see her as handsome. Her face makes a fist when she smiles.

        Plus I am aware of the hatred she has for me and my kind. “This is the first time in my adult life that I am proud of this country.”

      • Mojeaux

        Plus I am aware of the hatred she has for me and my kind. “This is the first time in my adult life that I am proud of this country.”

        True.

      • Q Continuum

        Better get used to her because she’s going to be your President either this year or in 2024.

        She’s got a vagina! She’s got extra melanin! *swoon*

        *WaPo writers masturbate themselves to death*

      • Hyperion

        Well, it’s all your fault for refusing to eat your kale pudding. Now you will and you will like it!

  25. grrizzly

    Twitter has suspended the account of a Colorado biotech company which is working with Cedars-Sinai to test and develop a potential coronavirus treatment using UV light inserted into the lungs – the same week as Homeland Security’s head of Science and Technology, Bill Bryan, suggested that UV light could have a significant affect on viruses such as COVID-19.

    Link.

    I’m getting tired of staying in this simulation so long.

    • Rhywun

      Yeah, unreal.

      • Hyperion

        When I get the source code, I’ll let you guys out also, as long as I’m made Supreme Overlord for life with Zardoz as Supreme Enforcer.

    • cyto

      The shift in the narrative of the alt-media the last 48 hours has been stunning. The new focus on tech companies disappearing evidence that is damaging to DNC causes has come swiftly. I wonder if this is because a new push is underway from the left, or if the alt-right has found a new toy and is just looking.

      The media conspiring to bury the story of Tara Reade was pretty strong, but once the video from Larry King showed up, it seems like everyone was energized. The NYT dismissive articles after a two week search for debunking information really set that one up well.

      And now we have the over-the-top made-up stories about Trump’s press conferences. If this is real – disappearing an entire company’s presence in response to the potential damage it might do to a popular leftist narrative about Trump….

      It is a pretty big deal. We’ve been hearing complaints about Twitter, Google, Facebook, et. al. hiding alt-right views for a long time, and that story had kind of been forgotten. But you start hiding evidence of major wrongdoing by the DNC presidential candidate immediately after you spent 2.5 years flogging a fake story about the RNC candidate and president and I think the people of this country might just cast you out.

  26. Mojeaux

    There is a crap-ton of construction going on in my neighborhood (and it’s Sunday!). I don’t know what they’re doing but it sounds like road work, tree trimming, utility digging, and playing marbles with bowling balls all at the same time.

    I’m going to chalk this up to somebody saying, “Fuck it, shit needs to get done.”

    • Hyperion

      They’re building the wall around your community, with the gate you have to pass through to go out again, after your full inspection by the experts and you are given your ‘COV19 FREE’ gate pass. Don’t worry, the anal probe and the political questions were just routine procedures. As long as you don’t have the virus you will be free again, until we decide you aren’t.

      • Mojeaux

        I guess I’m going to have to learn how to climb a rope after all. I’ve successfully avoided it for so many years…

      • Hyperion

        That’s what the deplorable safety netting on the top is for. See how right they are that we can’t be trusted to stay safe with dangerous freedoms?

      • Mojeaux

        Where’s my basket?!

      • Hyperion

        It’s coming with your monthly gruel rations inside.

  27. cyto

    Per the conversation about protecting seniors and coronavirus and the left – they touched on this on The Fifth Column, briefly.

    The take? Matt Welch says that there is absolutely no argument that there is a number of acceptable deaths from this. They were fairly apoplectic that anyone would dare suggest such a thing.

    This is why we can’t have nice things. There is unequivocally an argument… and the fact that we did not consider such things from the jump is a major failing. If I said that 3 people would die if we didn’t spend three trillion dollars you’d say I was insane. And if I further demanded that we ding the economy for another 5 trillion in lost productivity, drive thousands of small businesses to the brink of bankruptcy and put millions of families on the edge of homelessness, you’d have me committed.

    So let’s not pretend that there isn’t a number on both sides of the scales. There unquestionably is. We just decided which way to go without ever considering either side of the equation. If we end up at a total of 100k deaths of mostly elderly people, I think you’d have a really, really strong argument that we’ve spent way, way to much, both in cash and in lost productivity. Remember, 80k died of flu two years ago and nobody even noticed that it happened.

    If the number is a quarter million… now you’d have to believe that more than status quo was required. But trillions of dollars and shutting down the economy? I don’t know….

    And if we were talking about 20 million deaths… well, then it is obviously all hands on deck.

    So claiming there is no argument to be had is not just stupid, it is dangerously irresponsible. Someone needs to play that Remy video “people will die” for Matt and the boys. I can’t believe that “our team” has fallen so terribly far into TDS that they can’t even acknowledge something this obvious.

    • robc

      See my article coming on Thursday.

    • creech

      Is it TDS at this point? I just talked to a friend, a Trump guy and an M.D., who is one of 300 residents in a Delaware retirement community. They’ve been on lockdown for 5 weeks now – can’t leave your unit or yard unless it is to go to the doctor. Staff drops your grocery list at the door or delivers all your meals. So far, not one case of ChiComVirus in the community. So he believes total lockdown is the only way to kill this virus. He acknowledges the economy can’t exist forever on lockdown but thinks maybe everyone over 60 ought to isolate for as long as it takes for a vaccine to be developed. I asked him about Trump and the injection thing. He said that every medical conference he every attended, every meeting, etc., there is always someone who asks “Is there a way to…….” First asking questions is what science is all about.

      • Hyperion

        So, ask your friend why businesses cannot reopen and people who are 60 or over, can either stay home if retired, or WFH if they can? I mean how much of the workforce is over 60? It has to be a pretty small percentage. I know people over 60 who are still working, and I just turned 60, but all of us can work from home. So you snappers get your asses back to the office and I’m fine to stay here and keep working. Just keep delivering my food and beer and all the other stuff I want. I’m good.

      • creech

        Note that he did say “everyone over 60” not “everyone.”

      • cyto

        I had the same response to the questions Trump asked. They were very familiar from my time working in medical research. Even if you are a PhD running a major lab, there are areas that you are only peripherally familiar with. So when the guy from that field comes to your school to speak, you might just ask one of those semi-literate questions.

        I’ve asked a few of those. Answering them without saying “you are a moron” is part of being a professor.

        And sometimes you are right.

        I asked a question in class that prompted a 3 minute aside with a prominent biochemist. He caught me after class and said he’d been interested in something related, and invited me to join his lab to investigate my idea as a PhD project. I was afraid that I was to ignorant of chemistry to go into a full biochemistry lab. idiot.

        I also asked a question of Linus Pauling at the Burly Earl and had several prominent PhD’s laugh at my ignorance. But after I fought for my idea for a few minutes, Dr. Pauling jumped on my side and the two of us convinced the rest of them that I was right.

        It isn’t every day…. but sometimes not knowing what you don’t know is actually a benefit. And any good scientist knows this.

    • hayeksplosives

      Time for permanent house arrests to prevent road traffic deaths.

      “If we can save just one life, aren’t we obligated to try?”

      • Hyperion

        Sigh… until we have common sense butter knife control, people can still stab each other’s eyes out (probably from insanity from being locked down too long, for their own good).

  28. JaimeRoberto Delecto

    Went for a 50 mile ride taking advantage of the light traffic to ride some roads I wouldn’t risk otherwise. Also did some gravel but turned around when I started hearing gunshots. I don’t think I was trespassing, but I didn’t want to become a coronavirus statistic.

  29. Mojeaux

    I have gotten all my work goals accomplished today, so I think I’m bailing from the office for the night. I’m tahred.

    • Hyperion

      Me too. I didn’t do jackshit.

      • Mojeaux

        I have a whole laundry list of major things on my dun-did list but I am not getting that sweet, sweet dopamine hit of accomplishment.

      • Hyperion

        ” that sweet, sweet dopamine hit”

        Needz moar alcohol.

      • Mojeaux

        Nope.

        *pops Bit o Honey*

  30. hayeksplosives

    New Thread Up.

    • commodious spittoon

      LIES. All lies.