Friday Thoughts: Disagreement vs. Misinformation

January 13, 2023January 13, 2023

Friday Thoughts: Disagreement vs. Misinformation

I know I’m likely preaching to the choir here, but I wanted to take a few minutes and examine the issue of disagreement vs. misinformation. “Misinformation” is flying about a lot lately and in most cases it is mildly to egregiously misapplied. “Misinformation” is a word that conjures up images of propagandizing evil dictators. People think “Soviet propaganda” or similar when they hear that term. Characterizing statements as “misinformation” conveys to the listener that the statement is not only false, but deliberately misleading and therefore dangerous. Put your hands over your ears immediately before you become contaminated!

April 4, 2022April 4, 2022

For Love of the Boot

Lately I’ve been thinking a bit about the people who insist that the US maintain all the Wuflu ridiculousness that has been “required” for the last two years. These are people who scream that they’re never patronizing their favorite restaurant again because it no longer requires masking inside. They still scream about social distancing. They double-mask when in stores or other public indoor spaces, they wear gloves when out and about. They’re still freaking out about friends and family who are not vaccinated. It’s as if they’re afraid to take up their previous lives again.

February 11, 2022February 11, 2022

Afflicting The Comfortable

Reporters and journalists like to say that their job is to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” That’s a nice, pat, rather condescending way of describing something that in the last couple of decades they don’t actually do. If you’ve been paying attention (and I know you have) you have noticed that the journalist crowd likes to bully those who dare to disagree with them (their definition of “the comfortable”), and present political opponents (their political opponents) in the worst possible light.

January 30, 2022January 30, 2022

Truckers, Speech, and Pushback

There are several things going on in the last few days that are making me laugh. There’s a huge convoy of trucks making its way across Canada to Ottawa to lodge a protest with (now fled) Prime Minister Justin “I like partying in blackface” Trudeau. Prior to fleeing Ottawa (yes, he really did) for a “safe” location, Trudeau commented that many of those in the convoy have “unacceptable views.” I’m kind of curious what specific views the PM believes are “unacceptable.” Could it be because they disagree with his policies? Is that unacceptable? Is disagreement with progressive/liberal/left/Democratic (in our case) politicians unacceptable?

January 14, 2022January 14, 2022

Friday Thoughts: Mandates

The Biden/Xiden/FICUS administration issued an Executive Order (EO) a while back saying that OSHA would make a rule that required private businesses employing 100 or more people to require their employees get vaccinated or tested weekly and wear a mask. Another EO (or maybe the same one, they all run together at this point) additionally required all health care workers in hospitals and clinics accepting Medicare/Medicaid had to be vaccinated. These came in as two separate cases to the Court. Obviously, the genius club running the White House didn’t consider the constitutional issues accompanying such orders (I’m not even going to start on what I think about EOs). Plus, they’re still going off of the “everybody has to be vaccinated or the vaccine won’t work” fallacy.

January 7, 2022January 7, 2022

Friday Thoughts: Normal Life

We’ve been living in Texas for just over a month now. And, for just over a month now, we’ve been living a normal life. Normal as in, the masks are no longer sitting in pockets, bags, or counters ready to be grabbed when leaving the house. Nope. They’ve been thrown away (except for the Mike Rowe ones). We don’t need them. They are not required anywhere. Going to the store? Just walk in. Restaurant? Walk in. It’s soooo refreshing.

December 28, 2021December 28, 2021

I Am So Done

I am getting very tired of reading that the “pandemic” caused businesses to close or prices to rise or suicides to increase or cancer deaths to increase or whatever other problem social or medical is on the rise. The pandemic didn’t cause those things. The response to the Wuflu caused those things to occur.

December 21, 2021December 21, 2021

A-Fisking We Will Go!

Oh, look – it’s another stupid article purporting to be journalism. That means I’m gonna do another fisking (fisking is fun!) This time, we’re going to be looking at the significant difference between the terms anti-vax and anti-mandate. These are two (obviously) completely different terms, yet these propagandists masquerading as objective journalists would have us believe that they mean the same thing. This time the less-than-gifted “reporter” is Kelly Weill at the Daily Beast (yeah, yeah, I know, but let’s give it a go anyway).

December 20, 2021December 20, 2021

Striking Differences

We are settling in here in Texas and I am constantly struck by how different and yet similar our life here is, compared to our life in Philadelphia. The most obvious thing is the weather. I grew up in San Diego, so I’m familiar with warm winters. But it’s been twenty years since I lived in southern California. And, those twenty years have been filled with snow, freezing rain, sleet, ice storms, and just plain damn cold weather every winter.

October 12, 2021October 12, 2021

I Aim to Misbehave

This report is maybe 12 years old. Parliament buried it, and it stayed buried ’til River dug it up.

This is what they feared she knew. And they were right to fear ’cause there’s a whole universe of folk who’re gonna know it, too. They’re gonna see it.

Somebody has to speak for these people.

Y‘all got on this boat for different reasons, but y’all come to the same place. So now I’m askin’ more of you than I have before. Maybe all.

As sure as I know anything, I know this: They will try again. Maybe on another world. Maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, 10, they’ll swing back to the belief that they can make people…better. And I do not hold to that.

So no more runnin’.

I aim to misbehave.

– Mal Reynolds, Captain, Spaceboat Serenity