Aiight y'all - I'm starting to get spooked by this COVID-19 situation. Not the virus itself of course. I come from a generation where we drank water out of garden hoses, rode in the bed of pickup trucks without even tethering in, rode bicycles without helmets, rode to the store without seat belts, and rubbed dirt into open wounds to clog them so they would stop bleeding. Clearly, therefore, I am among the superhumans who are immune to everything up to, and possibly including, the Black Plague. A bitty little sub-flu bug ain't gonna make me pee - not even a little bit. I ain't skeert to eat a big ol' bowl of corona virus with milks and sugar for breakfast.
Nope, what is spooking me is the hysterical response to the virus. Hysteria and mob rule are very dangerous things. I watch the stock market plunging and bucking over it, and realize that our entire financial substructure is being controlled by wussy cowards. I see politicians panicking and shutting down school systems and the like over entire states where 1.6 X 10^-6 of their population have even CAUGHT this bug, and not a one died from it - in one case, a state has shut down their entire school system and NO ONE ANYWHERE IN THE STATE has the bug!
I see people clearing out stores for no good reason, and wonder what in the hell they do for supplies when there AIN'T a bug about. People are getting in brawls in grocery stores and whacking one another with wine bottles, with the losers being carted out on stretchers. There are "testing stations" popping up like daisies in springtime all across the nation in parking lots where folks in HAZMAT suits are testing folks in long lines of cars for the bug. The news is increasingly looking like the opening scenes of a zombie apocalypse movie.
I see politicians with no goddamned idea whatsoever how many cases of the virus are even in circulation. they are picking numbers out of their asses all out of whack and unmoored from the reality of what actual health providers are reporting. The governor of Ohio says there are 100,000 cases in Ohio. The governor of Texas, not to be outdone, said there are 300,000 cases in Texas - has to be, because Texas is 3 times bigger than Ohio! Meanwhile, back at the ranch, talking heads on the American Zombie Apocalypse Show that the news has become are throwing around figures like "16,000 cases nationwide" and "11,000 cases nationwide" - far, FAR fewer than the clueless politicians are saying, but far, FAR higher than the health care professionals are saying. The last reliable figure I heard this morning was 2200 to 2500 cases, and 50 deaths - over 30 of those deaths come from ONE state, Washington, and the bulk of THOSE 30 deaths were at ONE assisted living facility.
Yet the reports of the Zombie Apocalypse march onward, unimpeded by pesky things like fact or logic... and the populace appears to be eating that crap up.
I'm getting so spooked that I'm about to make a run for the border. I saw a map this morning of Corona Virus cases nationwide, and now West Virginia is the ONLY bastion of virus-free air left in America... and that border is only 16 miles or so from me. I think I can make it to safety. Matter of fact, it appears that WV and a small area in the Amazon rain forest and another in the Congo are the only places on the entire Earth safe from the Coronavirus Zombie Apocalypse. The Amazon has those giant-assed spiders and snakes, and the Congo has those Houthi Rebels that run around and cut folks' hands off when they get bored, so those don't seem to be the safest of alternatives... and WV IS only a few miles from me, so WV it will be when I make my break to safety. I know folks are rough and mean there - they're SO rough and mean that even the COVID-19 is scared to cross the border into WV - but them's my peeps, so I'm willing to take my chances!
All of this fantasy is being spun-up and fed by a constant 27/7 news cycle that is now reporting on no news at all beyond the virus. it's as if everything in the world has stopped happening that is not being propelled by a bitty little sub-flu viral bug.
The news has planted seeds of madness, and the people... and even the politicians... are lapping it up like it was going out of style, spiraling farther and farther into lunacy over nothing.
I'm not scared of the virus at all, but all you zombies better keep yer damned distance. According to all the professionals, I WON'T catch the virus... and I don't want to catch the crazy, either.
The scariest part is I wonder WHY this is being spun-up. WHY has news stopped happening other than the virus. WHY are politicians losing their minds and closing down entire states. WHY are people in HAZMAT suits hanging out in grocery store parking lots? There has to be more to it than a mere overblown flu, and I worry about what is going to BE, what reality is going to look like, when the smoke clears and reality raises it's head again. WHY are they trying to scare the shit out of the entire world over nothing at all? What IS their game plan here, and why are they trying to make folks crazy enough that we don't notice it until it's too late?
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Nope, what is spooking me is the hysterical response to the virus. Hysteria and mob rule are very dangerous things. I watch the stock market plunging and bucking over it, and realize that our entire financial substructure is being controlled by wussy cowards. I see politicians panicking and shutting down school systems and the like over entire states where 1.6 X 10^-6 of their population have even CAUGHT this bug, and not a one died from it - in one case, a state has shut down their entire school system and NO ONE ANYWHERE IN THE STATE has the bug!
I see people clearing out stores for no good reason, and wonder what in the hell they do for supplies when there AIN'T a bug about. People are getting in brawls in grocery stores and whacking one another with wine bottles, with the losers being carted out on stretchers. There are "testing stations" popping up like daisies in springtime all across the nation in parking lots where folks in HAZMAT suits are testing folks in long lines of cars for the bug. The news is increasingly looking like the opening scenes of a zombie apocalypse movie.
I see politicians with no goddamned idea whatsoever how many cases of the virus are even in circulation. they are picking numbers out of their asses all out of whack and unmoored from the reality of what actual health providers are reporting. The governor of Ohio says there are 100,000 cases in Ohio. The governor of Texas, not to be outdone, said there are 300,000 cases in Texas - has to be, because Texas is 3 times bigger than Ohio! Meanwhile, back at the ranch, talking heads on the American Zombie Apocalypse Show that the news has become are throwing around figures like "16,000 cases nationwide" and "11,000 cases nationwide" - far, FAR fewer than the clueless politicians are saying, but far, FAR higher than the health care professionals are saying. The last reliable figure I heard this morning was 2200 to 2500 cases, and 50 deaths - over 30 of those deaths come from ONE state, Washington, and the bulk of THOSE 30 deaths were at ONE assisted living facility.
Yet the reports of the Zombie Apocalypse march onward, unimpeded by pesky things like fact or logic... and the populace appears to be eating that crap up.
I'm getting so spooked that I'm about to make a run for the border. I saw a map this morning of Corona Virus cases nationwide, and now West Virginia is the ONLY bastion of virus-free air left in America... and that border is only 16 miles or so from me. I think I can make it to safety. Matter of fact, it appears that WV and a small area in the Amazon rain forest and another in the Congo are the only places on the entire Earth safe from the Coronavirus Zombie Apocalypse. The Amazon has those giant-assed spiders and snakes, and the Congo has those Houthi Rebels that run around and cut folks' hands off when they get bored, so those don't seem to be the safest of alternatives... and WV IS only a few miles from me, so WV it will be when I make my break to safety. I know folks are rough and mean there - they're SO rough and mean that even the COVID-19 is scared to cross the border into WV - but them's my peeps, so I'm willing to take my chances!
All of this fantasy is being spun-up and fed by a constant 27/7 news cycle that is now reporting on no news at all beyond the virus. it's as if everything in the world has stopped happening that is not being propelled by a bitty little sub-flu viral bug.
The news has planted seeds of madness, and the people... and even the politicians... are lapping it up like it was going out of style, spiraling farther and farther into lunacy over nothing.
I'm not scared of the virus at all, but all you zombies better keep yer damned distance. According to all the professionals, I WON'T catch the virus... and I don't want to catch the crazy, either.
The scariest part is I wonder WHY this is being spun-up. WHY has news stopped happening other than the virus. WHY are politicians losing their minds and closing down entire states. WHY are people in HAZMAT suits hanging out in grocery store parking lots? There has to be more to it than a mere overblown flu, and I worry about what is going to BE, what reality is going to look like, when the smoke clears and reality raises it's head again. WHY are they trying to scare the shit out of the entire world over nothing at all? What IS their game plan here, and why are they trying to make folks crazy enough that we don't notice it until it's too late?
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Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’