My company is giving away annual awards so I could either pay attention to the Zoom call that has the audience muted…or listen to this.
I regret nothing.
This is my review of Guinness Imperial Gingerbread Spiced Stout:
This week the media spent an awful lot of mental energy over Jill Biden—excuse me—Dr. Jill Biden, which then began a trend on Twitter where users began listing their credentials in their handle.
The issue like many is rooted in antiquity. The title itself is a derivation of a Latin word, Docere, which means to teach or refers to a scholar. The medieval university system bestowed the title to any “learned” individual that willingly completed such a program to build an expert level of knowledge to a level to be able to teach others. Teaching is the key. Did you learn about history? Doctor…Philosophy? Doctor…Astronomy? Doctor…And so on so forth that this happened to include physicians and surgeons:
Europe’s formal medical education system started in the late Middle Ages, with the rise of the universities in what is now Northern Italy. From approximately ad 1100 until the mid-19th century, two tiers of medical practitioners existed: (1) academic doctors and (2) practically trained surgeons (which consisted of a motley collection of practitioners, including barber–surgeons, traveling practitioners, ship’s surgeons, tooth extractors, etc.). Academic doctors were learned gentlemen, and their training was exclusively theoretical, except maybe for learning the skill of drug preparation.
Too bad for them, they were unable to see 900 years into the future and know medicine would somehow become the ultimate applied science in the view of a significant segment of society. I’m sure they are sorry about their lack of foresight.
For the rest of us watching the intellectual dick measuring went from amusing, to eye-rolling, to “Goddamnit Tucker, don’t you have anything better to complain about?” I would think a cheap joke from the right is unlike her husband she actually did legitimately earn her title?
I am sure these people worked for their degree, and there are reasons within the credentialed class for why it is appropriate or inappropriate to refer to people in such ways. Here’s Grandpa Joe’s explanation for why his wife got her degree:
Image search result for “Michelle Obama bottled urine”
Ultimately, this is stupid because it doesn’t matter. Its anti-intellectual, culture war, hogwash endemic of a society searching tirelessly for things to be offended about—they won’t call her that because they’re sexist. No, its because they would rather not listen to the media rhetorically bottle her farts, infuse it with oil and sell it on Ebay. This is especially ironic given how medical doctors be-clowned themselves over the past year—no we must lionize real doctors, they’re HEROES. Well, perhaps then they shouldn’t turn applied science into a running joke at best, and a death cult at worst? Besides. any non-clinician working in health care will tell you how often MDs are almost to a person, insufferable pricks.
Much like the pronoun people asking to be referred by their preference: ask me nicely and I’m probably going to do it; be a jerk and I’m probably going to be one in return.
Signed,
mexican sharpshooter, not a doctor.
This is a white girl beer. It may look like a spiced stout aged in whiskey barrels, but its definitely a white girl beer. Its meant for white girls that like whiskey barrel stouts over 10% abv. I’m sure there is one of them out there somewhere. Guinness Imperial Gingerbread Spiced Stout: 3.9/5
I thought I might be a white girl, but probably not if it means I have to like that sort of beer. I’m probably Haitian Creole or something.
That’s easy. If you didn’t vote for Biden, you ain’t Haitian or Creole.
C:\run identitycrisis.bat
Apparently Haitian Creole is just a language and not a distinct ethnic identity? Just Haitian. I’m not a language. If I was a language I would be eyebrow semaphore. Dr. Eyebrow Semaphore.
Yes; creolization is the process by which a pidgin language becomes the native language of a group of speakers.
Another creole language is Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea.
The HM signal is ablaze like the entire line of beacons in Lord of the Rings.
A stout sounds good on this chilly morning. But for me it will be cider or coffee, sans spirits.
I met a friend for breakfast at a place that is skirting the Clown Prince’s rules.
It was 2 degrees Fahrenheit when I left my house.
It’s a balmy 27 degrees Fahrenheit now.
Mmmm. We got down to 39 overnight but it’s 62 F now.
I still wouldn’t want to eat outside in it. Sitting still in the cold weather ain’t my bag.
But now that a California judge smacked down Newsom’s decree to shutter restaurants in San Diego, we get to go back to dining indoors! Wheee! Just in time for Christmas, New Year’s, and the Mr Splosives birthday Jan 6.
I hate that Newsom guy.
Heh. Cold in San Diego. My husband’s from SoCal, and we went there just after XX was born to see his family. I saw all the steep hills in SD and asked, “But what about snow in the winter?”
*headdesk*
In my defense, seeing steep hills and thinking winter snow is a conditioned reflex.
A seeming lifetime ago, my NOLA bar regulars from Ohio mocked me to no end when I planned on having my washer/dryer outside when I moved to NYC.
Not a pool table in the back yard?
Always worth repeating: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L3wMesI8aiw
Not that steep overall. Many flat sandbars and plateaus.
HE, I hate to break it to you, but check the news about an appellate court (cuz I can’t bear to pursue it).
78 with expected high of 82 and a low of 76. Freaking winter weather.
The Trades are above average today. It should be a good sail but the high swell will make whale spotting hard.
When my swell is high, the whale is pretty easy to spot.
/I’m sorry
In fairness to you, he should’ve conceded that an hour’s drive east and north puts you into fairly reliable snow. But that’s upwards of 4000 ft above sea level.
The Beer doesn’t sound right, coming from me, that tells you something…..
People playing Doctor……
Its fine. Its mostly whiskey.
I feel this post is missing something, now what is it?
Ah yes, this.
Nice frock, love.
I was always kinda partial to both her and Black Spice. She was Slutty Spice, right?
How many of them are now Old Spice?
Meow.
Lol
Heh, heh, heh.
Slutty is still looking pretty Milfy. She is married to Christian Horner, the Team Principal of Red Bull Racing for Formula 1.
“When you’re feeling sad and low…” ? Aw, I still like that song (and that one alone).
This is a white girl beer. It may look like a spiced stout aged in whiskey barrels, but its definitely a white girl beer. Its meant for white girls that like whiskey barrel stouts over 10% abv. I’m sure there is one of them out there somewhere. Guinness Imperial Gingerbread Spiced Stout: 3.9/5
If you find one of those women, send her my way.
I might actually try this beer if I find it. I like gingerbread.
There is no way there’s any such thing as a “white girl beer”.
What about Bud Light with Lime?
You have never heard of Zima, have you?
not beer
What was that sound? It sounded like ‘whoosh’.
Zima, because zhit happens.
I know a girl like that… but she drives a Suburu and prefers the company of women.
I think RC nailed it when he said, and I am paraphrasing, “If you insist on being addressed as ‘Doctor’, you dont deserve it.”
Doctors (IMO) can prescribe. MD / DO, DDS / DMD, DVM.
Not: PhDs, chiropractors, naturopaths, et al.
No phone yet?
My dad was a freelance PI for a couple of medical malpractice law firms. I helped with his busines. Anyway, one thing I learned is that lawyers are smarter than doctors. Doctors are mechanics.
Present MD Glibs excepted.
We in the medical transcription business liked to call them M.D.eities.
I’m assuming “freelance PI” is a lot more boring than it sounds.
You assume correctly. But it paid well, and how my dad felt about getting paid what he was worth is a different topic of discussion.
Yea, I’ve heard the majority of PI work is stalking people on “disability” who are playing volleyball or washing their car or something.
Nevertheless, sounds more exciting than any job I’ve had.
Heh. I used to know a PI whose favorite trick was to have his assistant, a super-hot blonde 20-something, have a flat tire just outside the ‘disabled’ person’s house and then she would ask assistance in changing her tire. It worked every time.
All the exciting jobs I’ve had in my life were described in their job postings as “a position requiring a tolerance for high levels of ambiguity.”
“High levels of ambiguity” = stressful, leading to early death via heart attack or stroke.
Here’s to your boring job.
What if it manages to be both boring and stressful?
Needless to say, I’ve been exploring career options lately.
He was an investigator for KCMO, so he did that only a very little bit, but he was a glorified insurance adjustor. Pothole damage, claims by people who were on a city bus that crashed, stuff like that. Sometimes he was called out toan accident like the time a fire truck ran halfway through a brick soul food restaurant.
He was hired by a firm (med mal AND personal injury) he helped beat in court, so long as it wasn’t a conflict of interest with the city.
Much of his work involved interviewing people who were witnesses, putting pieces of a puzzle together, collecting medical records. I could drive, so I could go collect medical records and the other thing I did was transcribe the recorded statements he took and turn those in because he felt that was added value. They loved it. That was where I learned how to transcribe, and I learned how people really talk and how to write good dialogue. You learn a lot trying to punctuate all those ums and uhs and nuh uhs.
My work station was in my bedroom at a little Sears French provincial desk and a kitchen chair on a manual typewriter with my boombox.
I want to be a PI. Jim Rockford is my god.
?
Obvious link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1zYNrsx9Pw
I’m a mechanic. I had an OB/GYN neighbor and I don’t think she cared for the comparison of Dr’s and mechanics. I’ve got a couple of Dr. customers though that say what I do is similar to what they do.
it’s just pumps and chemistry both ways
the problem is those of us with British wiring
Your clutch and gear shift are on the wrong side of the bike?
His harness was assembled on Friday afternoon by a chav that had started drinking already.
He wanted a tranny with a stick, but got a continuously variable tranny instead.
Smoke in a Jar is all British wiring needs.
IMO, OB/GYNs are a little different. Once I asked my wonderful and kind OB why he chose that specialty.He said, “Because my patients don’t die.”
Oh and especially orthopedists. Maybe they’re more like contractors. Saws, screws, drills, plates …
Do you guess at the problem and start replacing parts until you find one that works?
If you actually diagnose the issue first, you’re better than most doctors.
A lot of problems that existed in the 80s when I was doing this are gone now with superior imaging and operative time-out procedures (verifying the correct limb or side of the body).
Things like MS and fibromyalgia and heart disease in women are harder to diagnose, I would imagine.
In a book I read (Outliers? Freakanomics?) it said competent physicians who had horrible bedside manners got sued more often than incompetent doctors with wonderful bedside manners.
I think what gives doctors a reason to be sued is if the doctor misses something (that should be) fairly obvious, but he’s dismissive of the patient (e.g., fat ones) and/or rude about his dismissal.
I read a similar thing recently, that it’s less dispiriting for a doctor to say merely “Sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with you” than to mis-dx or blame the patient. Might have been re chronic fatigue.
(Mo, I find Primatene is inferior to Bronkaid (unavailable at Wmt last time). I do see the 2:1 ratio. Just grousing.)
Me too but I haven’t stacked in a long time. My shrink gave me something to keep me awake that works well. I still take the caffeine part of it, though.
chloride v. sulfate? IDK.
Depends. Research physicians are generally either fairly brilliant themselves, or else they’ve latched on to someone fairly brilliant to do their bottle-washing and button-sorting.
Public health doctors, on the other hand, are generally the epitome of the credentialed idiot.
I just worked on too many medical malpractice cases where the doctor was just that or he was a junkie surgeon or working past his level of intelligence.
“What do you call a doctor who graduates at the bottom of his class?”
“Doctor.”
The core problem with the medical profession, IMO, is that they don’t require enough math.
Require more math and you’ll have fewer doctors. Guaranteed.
The AMA understands the math – control the creation of new doctors to keep supply from over-running demand.
lawyers are smarter than doctors
*shudders*
Hey, I resemble that remark.
My company is giving away annual awards so I could either pay attention to the Zoom call that has the audience muted…or listen to this.
Good choice.
NEEDZ MOAR HIPSTER JUICE!
*pops a tasty Stella Artois non-hipster juice*
Good choice.
Just cracked a DAB 16.9oz can. I love this beer. Ordered a bunch of those and some Carlsberg.
No one told Joe that being a senator and being an Ed.D. are both retarded shit? So they’re equally third-class citizens?
Merry Christmas everybody! Here’s my Spotify Christmas playlist “christmas stuff”.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2KlvMEddixgzzzJlCzJtvd?si=Wso7qsy-QBCHfmwBzS0WVw
Some classics, but mostly alternative/indie/punk. With Americana, surf. country and other stuff about Christmas and winter. There is no order, so random play is the way to go. NSFW. There are some off-color lyrics. Overall, a pretty festive bunch of tunes. Best part is, they’re not overplayed. Give it a listen.
For those on Pandora, here’s my Punk Christmas station.
40F and drizzling in MEM
so perfect weather for golf
enjoy your day!
I’m glad I quit that wretched, wretched “sport”.
try a Disc….
Looks fun. But I don’t need to take on new hobbies. I’m sticking with guitars and running. Also working on a record label idea for 2021.
a good walk spoiled?
(Have never tried except mini golf)
My mom dragged me along once with my future step-dad. I was bored out of my fucking mind. I told her before-hand but did she listen? Heh JK. Try new things etc etc.
Gee-whiz futurism- it never goes out of style
As cities morph in response to changing work habits and the memory of the pandemic, architecture will be pivotal to redesigning existing spaces so that they reflect new concerns surfaced by the pandemic, experts predict.
The most obvious change will involve improving both air flow and natural light in buildings, said Michael Murphy, CEO of Boston-based architecture firm, MASS Design Group. He added that restaurants and museums will need to be particularly watchful given their tendency to attract the masses.
“Architects and designers will need to play a large role in rebuilding systems of trust through the design of safe and healthy spaces that remind us of our shared humanity,” he said.
If politicians at the highest level don’t turn their attention and funding efforts toward big cities — where the poor and people of color were physically and fiscally impacted disproportionately by the pandemic — life in our leading metropolises is only likely to get worse, said Richard Florida, a professor at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities and author of “The New Urban Crisis.”
——-
Florida points to how some cities have been adding bike lines and closing streets to car traffic as evidence that the pandemic will only accelerate urban trends that already are underway. He’s bullish on the growth of so-called 15-Minute Neighborhoods, a concept wherein residents of a revitalized city will be able to shop, work and socialize within a few minutes’ walk of where they live.
The cities will come back, better than ever, say the city-lovers.
We just need to put the planners in charge. They know what the people want.
The planners know what the people ought to have, not what the people want.
Road diets, unfortunately not merely regional. But fairly easily remediated: see recent activity in Kensington High Street, London. Nigel Havers evidently helped to get it reversed. They sound counterproductive to their emissions aims!
“He’s bullish on the growth of so-called 15-Minute Neighborhoods, a concept wherein residents of a revitalized city will be able to shop, work and socialize within a few minutes’ walk of where they live.”
Why in the world would anyone want to live like this? Voluntarily sequestering yourself to a fifteen-minute (on foot, no less) radius of your home? This sounds horrible and unnatural.
Let’s recreate medieval London!
100+ years ago, a great advance from the horse and carriage age.
I don get it either. Sounds crowded and expensive. Purposely limiting your options is the exact opposite of intelligence.
People have different preferences. Film at 11.
It’s like power plants, garbage collection facilities, quarries, slaughterhouses, warehouses, construction, factories, rail yards, ports, etc. are just minor employers. These people live in white-collar enclaves and have no idea how 90% of an economy works.
Certainly explains the lockdowns. They think the real world is just a big version of SimCity.
I can think of several educational interstate routes.
Let’s see:
Tilde key, then
Moarcash 10000000
“10000000 Simoleons Added”
Winning!
Architects are typically solely interested in their own egos, which are only sated by imposing their ideas on everyone else.
I consult on decorative concrete projects occasionally, the architects are usually the least well informed of the group. They saw it in a magazine and it looked cool so they specified it with zero consideration for the practical issues.
I like this (at least to look at): https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/seating/slipper-chairs/frank-gehry-wiggle-chair/id-f_585173/
Don’t like this: http://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/5936ea5258381603535672d3/master/pass/Lou%20Ruvo%20Center%20%E2%80%93%20Las%20Vegas%201.jpg
Both are on the “nope” list for me
Hogarth Line of Beauty re 1? Is OK.
Hasn’t this already been tried, with rather mixed results, in Brazil and Burma?
The planners know what the people ought to have, not what the people want.
=:-0
Fauci is not a clinician but a career bureaucrat, AFAIK. He has taught me to not believe a word he says. So, Doctor?
An excellent point, and an example of how dangerous that ‘Dr.’ tag can be. It leads others to assume a level of knowledge or proficiency that may or may not really exist.
Hence, if you demand to be called ‘Doctor’ and you’re anything other than a medical physician in current practice, you’re probably a fraud.
While many experts predict a Big Apple return once a vaccine lets life resume, they are less bullish on the prospects of San Francisco, whose boom and bust cycles date back to the 1850s Gold Rush. The main reason: fleeing technology companies, which for the better part of 20 years have fueled the region’s soaring standard and cost of living.
In the past week alone, Tesla and Oracle both announced they would be leaving the Bay Area for Texas, eager to avoid paying Bay Area wages and pricey office rents.
“I’m worried about San Francisco,” said urban expert Florida. “Cities like Austin have been eating its lunch.”
Beyond being expensive — San Francisco’s median home price is now $1.3 million — some residents have started to leave due to a pressing homelessness issue exacerbated by the pandemic, said Tom Radulovich, executive director of transportation advocacy group Livable City and a former director of Bay Area Rapid Transit.
“The city has in many ways rested on its laurels while the tech economy boomed,” he said. “Now we might find ourselves in a position smaller cities are familiar with, needing to up our game in order to attract business.”
I’m absolutely certain San Francisco’s leaders will pretend to engage in deep and serious introspection before returning to the tried and true policies which have made their city a world-renowned shithole.
There is no chance they will change without a fiscal emergency.
Things that are good:
Having a diner that, even with all the shutdown bullshit still recognizes its regulars by giving them a Christmas Card and a plate o’ cookies this time of year. The puppet bears an uncanny resemblance to the owner’s youngest daughter.
Having a well built house. That massive snowfall a couple days back buried the furnace intake and outlet and so tripped whatever sensors are involved and shut it down. It wasn’t until this morning that I noticed the temperature being too low, and it was 1 degree Freedom this morning outside. I shoveled it out, and it jumped 15 degrees in less than an hour.
Drinking tea, eating cookies and kunik and watching birds feeding on your back steps.
Also, my squirrels completely excavated out my steps from the snow looking for food, so good for them earning their keep for once.
I have a soft spot for squirrels. Even though I don’t let them pig out at the sunflower seed feeder (a high voltage but low current special), I get them their corn and do what I can.
Had an albino squirrel as a frequent visitor back in Minnesota. Rarely see squirrels in my neighborhood here north of San Diego, aside from the golf course.
I have befriended a pair of ravens that nest outside my window at work, and we have some stalwart ravens near the house who stubbornly resist eviction by crows.
Silly birdies!
I can’t tell ravens from crows. If only the internet could help (but I should get back to doing stuff).
Er, didn’t know there were ravens here, that is.
A murder of crows can consist of several individuals while an unkindliness of ravens is usually a pair of birds. Ravens can be two to three times the size of a crow. Another difference involves their tail feathers.
A crow’s tail feathers are all of equal length, making their tail look like a fan while in flight. The two center feathers, or pinions, of a raven’s tail are longer than the rest of the tail feathers, making the shape of a rounded half diamond.
So next time you see a melanistic corvid, just remember that distinguishing between crows and ravens is a matter of a pinion.
Boo.
*chuckles*
Is that Placebo? I like it!!, for a mask…
“I get them their corn”
Our neighbor does this. We have to dig cornstalks out of backyard every fall.
I’m feeling the need for another new avatar:
https://i1.wp.com/glibertarians.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/60A8577-for-oil-paint.jpg
Powerline, good stuff this week,
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/12/the-week-in-pictures-doctor-who-edition.php
Paging Nephilium, Neph to the tomahawk shaped courtesy phone.
/puts on Chief Wahoo garb
Tee hee.
I particularly like the Broken Glass one.
I’ve been enjoying the escapism provided by the DerpTube channel for Dry Bar Comedy. Josh Blue is hilarious – https://youtu.be/kqs18nd0qgk
My fave DB so far (helps if you know Chihuahuas): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GX3AK9IgTx8 See 2:12
Don’t know if you caught this link in the last thread lol, but you admired the Glencairn whiskey glass. If you need an Xmas present to yourself get one of these. It’s my preferred whiskey vessel.
https://www.glencairnwhiskyglass.com/
I got lucky, the first year those came out they came to Brewzilla (beer fest at the end of Cleveland Beer Week in years past) and were handing the glasses out for free. I snagged two.
Noice. Those things are a bit pricey but good whiskey demands a proper glass.
Ooh… Thank you very much. I think I’ll treat myself.
“Up next… opioids or aliens? Stay tuned to find out!”
Why not both?
Or? Why not both?
Hey?! Why not both?
Next up — Aliens on Opioids; Explaining the Presidential Election Results.
Golf…I have never taken it up but I get it. It is about competing against yourself. Discipline, precision…putting a small projectile at long range to a small target.
I always used a pistol instead of a club.
My brother and I used to whack balls a hundred yards or so to try and knock out a street lamp. We never managed to do it, but it was fun trying.
Golf was always an excuse to daydrink away from your spouse and other undesirables. Which is fine, and there is nothing t anybody else has to say about it to convince me otherwise.
I agree with this statement, Zen as fuck, and Beer!
That’s how I’ve tried to explain the shooting sports to people who think that participation in said activity makes you a sociopath who is itching to murder someone.
“I was a sociopath itching to murder someone before I started shooting competitively.”
Hey, RC, I was trying to talk to you in a dead thread the other day. How do you like Tuscon? We were thinking about moving there in the spring. It’s between there and SC. Tuscon is more expensive for sure.
I like it. Good size town for us. We like the climate, mostly. Assuming the current trends/madness die out or modulate soon, we’re planning to retire here. It’s a college town, so city (and increasingly county) politics to be the typical shallow sophomoric lefty stuff. Easily ignored, so far. Lots to like here.
The commonalities between golf and shooting are deep and wide.
The kind of shooting I do is more dynamic than meditative. Less Tai Chi, more kickboxing. But the self-mastery and the personal improvement is still there, and still important.
OFFS what horseshit.
Ain’t it cute? That little woman wanted a doctorate so the little people would have to genuflect in her presence.
Just like a real doctor (pat pat).
I can’t believe America is now picking sides over something this stupid and pointless.
Just kidding. I totally can.
Shiny object, nothing more, oh and people are Morons, and water is wet,
Wet streets cause rain!
The coroner, Brenda Bock, says two of their five deaths related to COVID-19 were people who died of gunshot wounds.
I knew it. The coronavirus figures were completely overrated.
By 2.
*overstated
The point is that while these sorts of distinctions are easy to spot and in many states are being found and removed, they highlight what can happen in more ambiguous cases. Like when an 88 year old dies from pneumonia and tests positive for COVID.
The end result is deaths from all the other usual medical causes this year has plummeted. It’s clear that the COVID death totals are capturing at least a portion of deaths that would be occurring with or without COVID’s existence. What’s harder to know is how much. This dynamic looks far more in play now than it was back in April and May.
What I find interesting is that all cause mortality is WAY up in the 25-44 age cohort, despite very few of those deaths being attributed directly to COVID.
The data really is a mess, and therefore it’s quite easy for people to throw out numbers to make all sorts of claims when the reality is a lot more complicated.
Someone posted this the other day
https://notthebee.com/article/a-few-days-ago-johns-hopkins-published-a-study-saying-corona-is-nbd-they-then-deleted-it-read-it-here-in-its-entirety
That was widely talked about here as well. I’d like to see more analyses such as that one.
I read that. They were a little clumsy saying what they were trying to say. All cause mortality is up and up significantly this year, with a really significant spike in April and May (the one that killed all the New Yorkers). So saying that the death totals aren’t up this year is wrong, they are up and up significantly. I’m not sure that’s what the author meant to say, but many people took it that way.
What the author did get correct is that if you count up all the COVID coded deaths and compare that number to the difference between what the other major medical causes of death usually are and what they are this year, the numbers are very similar.
This is one of those weird situations where there’s at least some truth to the arguments being made on all sides when it comes to the death statistics. COVID is real and it is killing significantly more people who otherwise might have lived. But it’s all true that many of the COVID deaths are deaths “with COVID” and not “from COVID,” and it also appears to be true that out “mitigation efforts” have killed a fair number of people as well (and may possibly continue to do so long after COVID stops).
One final thing I saw mentioned today is that the economic suicide the West has committed is already causing a bunch of downstream preventable deaths _outside of the developed world_.
“All cause mortality is up and up significantly this year, with a really significant spike in April and May”
Is it? I thought totaldeaths for the year were basically flat with previous years.
Both can be true, if the Vid pulled forward deaths by a matter of months.
I haven’t gone to primary sources but I’ve seen estimates of up to 300,000 excess deaths. The claim is that the “flat total death” numbers aren’t taking into account the “data lag” that the CDC has to adjust for, so yes as we sit the numbers are flat but 2019, 2018 have already been adjusted while 2020 is still just an estimate.
In our country it is indeed up. Now it does go up every year, but it’s up enough to be more than what you’d expect. Like I said the spike in April and May was very significant, the smaller increase now _may_ (or may not) be solely due to continued “lockdown deaths.” Currently our death totals are high, but not high in a way that is unusual. Spring was different.
In Sweden it does not appear to be up significantly over average, but it is up over 2019, which was a low year there. Sweden’s overall mortality numbers are not markedly different than it’s Scandinavian neighbors.
It should note, DO NOT use the CDC’s “excess death” figures. Those numbers have IMO been gamed. They’re using a week by week system whereby if deaths are up by 100 one week, that counts as +100, and if they’re down 100 the next week, they count as +0 for a total of +100. They gave a full explanation as to the reasoning behind why they do it this way, and it’s hot buttered dogshit.
It’s also important to note that many of these excess deaths are occurring in groups that have almost certainly nothing to do with the COVID illness itself. Deaths from 25-44 are up, overdose and suicide deaths, etc.
Anti-science Trumptard is anti-science!
Hysterical douchebag is hysterical
The First Amendment offers wide protection for free speech in America. But that right to express an opinion is not unlimited. Everyone knows you can’t run into a crowded theater and yell fire. There are also long-established limits on what you can lawfully say and write about individuals and organizations.
During a deadly pandemic, spreading disinformation about the novel coronavirus is the equivalent of yelling fire in that crowded theater. The result is the same: it puts people’s lives at risk. Yet, over the last nine months, Fox News has done everything in its power to discourage the behavior needed to mitigate the risk of contracting the virus. And now, as cases in the US exceed 17 million, Fox News — with Tucker Carlson being one of the chief carnival barkers on this one — is fanning the flames of skepticism around the Covid-19 vaccine.
——-
The science denial, vaccine skepticism and falsehoods that are spewed on Fox News pose a clear and present danger to the health of many Americans. This dangerous rhetoric should be framed as such and make headlines in our major newspapers and television news. Sure, there are exceptions — CNN’s Brian Stelter, who regularly calls out Fox in his newsletter, has written a book that details the network’s many distortions. But he is the exception rather than the rule.
Most major news organizations have aggressively covered the role of the Trump administration and statewide leaders, holding their feet to the fire on a regular basis over their inadequate response to the pandemic. But we don’t see enough coverage about the media organization that has undeniably played a role in spreading so much disinformation that one study found that Fox News fans consistently practiced fewer preventative measures than CNN viewers.
So why is it that we don’t see enough coverage about the dangers of the rhetoric coming from Fox News hosts? I believe it’s a combination of two things: journalists, acting in their own interests, may be protecting the rights of the First Amendment for news organizations and operating under the outdated belief that Fox is still a news organization. As far as I can tell — it’s not. It does not appear as if Fox gathers the news in the interest of the general public. Instead, it seems to create an alternative news ecosystem that pushes a reality that is appealing to a large segment of America.
Speaking of “hiding behind the First Amendment”…
People who disagree with me should be shot. People who ask me to support my opinions with verifiable facts should be drawn and quartered.
Imagine people like that in positions of power, Ah Fuck!
“CNN: The Alternative News Ecosystem for the Acela Corridor”
I always remind people that the “fire in a crowded theater” ruling was from a ruling justifying jailing someone for protesting a war. Most people seem to assume it had something to do with a fire.
Not to mention that there are perfectly valid reasons for shouting “fire” in a crowded theater.
The roof…
The roof…
The ROOF IS ON FIRE
Also, I’m pretty sure that decision was overturned almost 60 years ago.
More side-stepped than overturned. Even OWH the turd had second thoughts within a couple of years.
Also, I’m pretty sure the opinion didn’t say that yelling fire would be illegal, just the opposite, but Imma go read it again to make sure.
Well, I was wrong. Oliver Wendell Holmes was saying that it would be illegal, although it was just an example, and not binding precedent.
What would these people bitch about if Fox news didn’t exist?
CNN.
How do those assholes stay on the air? Airports? Doctor’s offices?
Contracts with airports. Doctors’ offices, IDK.
That is, the former has been established. Latter: ?
I haven’t verified this, but Glenn Greenwald says they (and most big corporate media networks) were on the verge of collapse before Trump gave them fuel for 24/7 panic porn, and now they’ve rebounded quite handsomely.
I think there’s that. But also, CNN on-air is a content farm now. They clip out segments, put them on YT and other aggregators, and YT pushes them to the front. CNN International also sells all this stuff worldwide. So they don’t actually need CNN to have high ratings, because their also getting revenue elsewhere.
It’s a bit like how Disney-Marvel treats their comic book division. It operates at a loss but they don’t care because it’s both an IP farm and an easy ideological bone to throw at complainers. Plus they get to repackage it all into paperbacks and digital, so the physical books basically don’t matter.
I’m up way too late. had to work an extra half shift and now my whole sleep schedule is off.
-CPRM BFA
Anybody watch China Uncensored on the Utubes? if not you should, anyweird, Little Tim did a show with Chris and Shelley from CU that’s worth a watch,
there are also clips if it’s too long for ya,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_oxd4Zyt-s
Where is The Tuber One?
If he wants to see a hot chick….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g65oWFMSoK0
He needs a new crush
For those of you who say twitter is a cess pool.
NEW! and IMPROVED!
Millions of people in London and the U.K.’s southeast will be forced to cancel their Christmas plans after scientists said Saturday that a new coronavirus variant was spreading more quickly.
——-
Johnson spoke out after he was advised by scientists that the new coronavirus variant was spreading more rapidly.
The chief medical officer for England, Professor Chris Whitty, said in a statement Saturday that the U.K. had informed the World Health Organization about the mutant strain.
“As announced on Monday, the U.K. has identified a new variant of Covid-19 through Public Health England’s genomic surveillance,” he said, adding that preliminary modeling data and rising cases in the country’s southeast showed “the new strain can spread more quickly.”
Keep fear alive.
The rational response would be to ask why we’re still trying to end it with lockdowns (at massive human cost) when that doesn’t work and new strains just come up anyway.
Maybe one out one hundred people actually know what a virus is.
Pathogens tend to evolve to being benign. That story is horseshit, just like everything else said about the cooties by ‘experts’.
Ben Bailey (the Cash Cab guy) is a funny man – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAtsboZcD7o
Saw him in person not too long ago. I felt we as our wee audience failed him. Sorry, dude!
So you got kicked out one block away?!
*slow clap*
Poor, poor Rhywun….
?♂️ Not even paying the slightest attention to it this year. Not with all the games on pay-streaming.
Oh never mind, that’s the EPL. I already pay for ESPN+ but I’m still not paying attention to the Bundesliga.
More thought provoking musings from the folks who brought you The Great Reset.
Well, that and it’s proximity to an ever heating sun. But it was the SUVs what done it.
What the fuck are they talking about?
By the way, I understand England’s premier booger eating moron, Prince Charles, is on this Council.
Nothing says “meritocratic rule” quite like hereditary title.
It is well known that the English nobility are the product of generations of inbreeding. Prince Charlestard is the poster boy example of that.
Hitchens once made a comment that it really wasn’t fair for him to criticize Charles because it was such low-hanging fruit.
He does have the look of a “mistake”, doesn’t he.
He looks like some of the inbred people I saw in Appalachia when I was a kid. He’s white trash with money.
Predictions about news headlines regarding negative side-effects of the rushed-through Covid vaccine:
“Experts agree that there is almost no risk of negative side-effects from the vaccine.”
“Fact check: While some people report having grand mal seizures immediately after receiving the vaccine, there is no evidence that the events are related.”
“We have updated our community standards to prohibit statements that endanger public safety by spreading false or exaggerated claims of negative side-effects of the Covid vaccine.”
“We have updated our community standards to prohibit statements that endanger public safety by spreading false or exaggerated claims of negative side-effects of the Covid vaccine.”
The people making decisions about what qualifies or doesnt qualify for these disclaimers are in their 20’s and still haven’t figured out which shoe goes on which foot.
They’re the types who think that college made them smart.
There’s a pharmacist at work who is probably 27 if I had to guess – she exemplifies this perfectly. She once went on an AOC-like tirade wherein she stated, “But there’s like, soooo much money out there, and we could have, like, all this stuff like Europe does if we would just, ya know, take some of it!” I’m not paraphrasing or exaggerating. Complete with arm-flailing and throwing her head back for emphasis. She also mentioned in passing one time that she enrolled in an “adulting” class.
Sometimes I think it would be beneficial if everyone spent a year working in a factory after high school.
I was just mentioning to someone the other day that there is a certain kind of (mostly college edumacated) American who went to Europe once for a couple weeks and has this mystical vision of how awesome it is there and if we could only socialism harder like they do we could have all sorts of neato stuff, like free college and healthcare. My family is all from Ireland and I have been going there since I’ve been a kid every five years or so to visit. I lived in the NL for over two years. Anyone who has actually spent some time there could tell you that there is a reason that immigration happens in one direction between the US and any European country.
The spousal unit’s Dutch. Her relatives, on more than one visit, casually remarked to us about how much better a life/lifestyle we have in Canada than they have in NL. (All of them have visited Canada at one time or another, several for longer than a year.)
OTOH, my French rellies (being, y’know, French) can’t quite bring themselves to admit that there’s any place in the Galactic Arm — or mebbe just the Orion Spur — that’s better than France. ;-)
Heh,heh. Indeed. Most of the Dutch households that I knew then either did not have a clothes dryer at home or if they did it was half the size of a typical US one and used sparingly. If they owned a car it was a compact one or subcompact one. I know many many immigrants from Europe, but only know a handful of people that have emigrated to Europe from here. And those were typically for very specific reasons.
Last time I was in NL (a few years ago now), their electricity rate/kWh was ten times ours in Alberta. Everything electrical is used there very sparingly.
Cuomo et al. are jealous of that.
Lefties argue that Europeans have “more stuff”, but if you point out those disparities in home ownership or car ownership, the argument immediately changes to “Well it’s better like that anyway; I mean Americans are way too materialistic. Why do you even need to have your own car or your own house with a yard?”
There was a Mexican comic that did a routine on that – how Mexicans won’t say “Mexico sucks” even when they’re in Barstow saying “this ain’t bad”.
So, ‘There is so much stuff to steal we should just steal it’?
By we I assume she means someone else will be holding the gun.
This year has really taught me the Commie disdain for the parasitic bourgeoisie, tbh. I totally understand how the useful idiots get gulaged and purged.
Working in a factory for a year after dropping out of college changed my life for the better. Even though I was impoverished and miserable most of the time…
I’m not the slightest bit afraid of the vaccine but this kind of censorship is asinine. It’s what’s actually promoting these theories and keeping them afloat.
I just wanted to clarify that I was making predictions about what the headlines would look like if the vaccine were rolled out and some significant number of people started having negative side-effects.
… Of course, it could already be happening.
The ensuing zombie apocalypse in which it is found all zombies took the vaccine, will also be a total coincidence. Move on citizens, and take your vaccines!
Oooh, this is cool. I linked the Glencairn whiskey glass for lol above, but looking through their site I see you can now get a personalized image and text on one for a mere five bucks more. Glibs logo with “Fuck off slaver” anyone?
https://www.glencairnwhiskyglass.com/glencairn-packages/glencairn-whisky-glasses/the-glencairn-glass/personalized/custom-engraved-glencairn-whisky-glass.html
You have to get petmission from L Brooks to us “Fuck off, slaver”.
All of the Christmas music in the air brings up the question: Why are some of these songs “Christmas music”?
OK, I get the songs about Baby Jesus (O, Little Town, Silent Night) and even the ones about Santa Claus (Rudolph) but some I wonder about. Prime example is “Jingle Bells”. Nothing in the song is specific to Christmas. “Winter Wonderland”, same thing. Even “Baby, It’s Cold Outside*” The only time that these songs are ever heard is during Christmas Season (i.e., the period between Hallowe’en and New Years Day). Isn’t it a Winter Wonderland in January, too?
*This song being the only tenuous link to “Die Hard” being a Christmas movie.
Why are some of these songs “Christmas music”?
Chime bells?
Die Hard takes place entirely at a Christmas Party. Gremlins is least there is a legit argument against.
Isn’t it a Winter Wonderland in January, too?
No. By the time January rolls around, it’s just another cruel reminder that winter’s here for months and months yet.
There’s a “snow” storm at the end of Die Hard as well.
*This song being the only tenuous link to “Die Hard” being a Christmas movie.
They sang it in Elf. Is Elf not a Christmas movie?
Also, Kenny Loggins’s “Celebrate Me Home”.
Neat (and on topic)! My niece and her fiance sent me a pack of beer from California for Christmas. Only one of them was one I’ve had before.
Which beers?
Apropos, for those of you that like Christmas music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iAaEH_dR_Y
That’s lovely.
Interesting piano cover of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck … not necessarily for the piano playing.
A picture of my yule log ?That’s awesome. Sadly, nothing like that around here.
A little part of me was expecting a ratemypoop link.
I am not clicking that. You dont even have a NSFW warning.
It’s safe.
You were right not to click. ?
Needz moar korn.
GO BILLS!
Thanks for the reminder! I’ve got it on my TV w/ rolling stand and a Roku (Fubo).
Digital TV can be a pain in the butt, but I like my slimmed down roving TV that only needs AC power.
Bills game: acquired!
PAY MY BILLS!
-Barista with college debt.
Pulling something from the morning lynx.
Venus may well have been more like Earth a few billion years ago, yes.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-climate-modeling-suggests-venus-may-have-been-habitable
There are a few other reasons why Venus may have been more temperate in its youth. The Sun likely wasn’t as hot then as it is now. The planet may have had an orbit further away from the sun than now.
And there are absolutely shitloads of extinct volcanoes on the surface of Venus. They would have pumped plenty of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
To my knowledge, human technology hasn’t advanced enough to allow us to control how hot the sun is, or how far from the sun the earth orbits, or to prevent volcanoes from forming and erupting. So the root causes of Venus’ climate change are things that we couldn’t prevent anyway.
Not with that defeatist attitude.
Elon Musk reveals prototype time machine to transport humanity back to prehistoric Venus?
Something tells me when they show it off it will accidentally get stuck in Uranus.
I don’t care for the EuroFootie but this is an impressive offering from LEGO – https://www.lego.com/en-us/campaigns/old-trafford
And I really need this. If only it had ANY Muppet other than that awful kiddie-touching Elmo.
https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/123-sesame-street-21324
Looks like it has also comes with Ernie, Bert, Trashy, The Cookie Monster, and Bird Bird. However I’m not certain that BB counts as a “Muppet”.
Sadly no Roosevelt Franklin.
Here’s your Fucking Christmas Music!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQpqL3gWZIY&feature=youtu.be
Yusef, I start my plants about the the first of April, earlier and they will get too tall/leggy. Never grew the black tomatoes, I like the big yellow ones, low acid and covers a slice of bread in a sammich, that I have to make myself. Put the plants in the garden about June 1.
I’m doing smaller things this Winter indoors, peppers, the Black Tomatoes and Pot, your seeds will go in my Bunnyproof, raised bed come Spring, Thanks again! A fine gift, well used,
Silicone Saturday.
https://archive.li/vgLqZ
No face diapers in this gallery or the one posted earlier today. Excellent!
In the gallery posted earlier today: I had to do a double take on #2. She looks a lot like a bartender that used to work at a local pub I frequent. A bit bustier than her and the smile is a bit different. #24 is Angela White.
In this gallery: I wonder if #9 is a RealDoll or photoshopped. Something doesn’t look right about her skin. #19, except for the tattoo, nose piercing, and red hair from a bottle (note the eyebrows), reminds me of an ex-girlfriend.
I’m heading out for some food and drink, plus live music. The Clown Prince hasn’t shut things down yet. Better enjoy it while I can. I’m waiting for him to do it.
TIL the guy who voiced Tony the Tiger (frosted flakes) for decades is the one who sang the Grinch song.
That is also grrrrrrrrrreat.