Archive for March, 2020

Why Corona Panic? Because we’re so Insulated from Danger

Posted: March 10, 2020 by datechguy in culture, News/opinion
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Right now the panic over the Corona Virus is doing a lot more damage than the virus itself. The media for both political and rating reasons are pushing this for all it’s worth and the public seems to be buying into this hook, line and sinker.

One might wonder why this is the case. After all this isn’t the first new virus out there and it won’t be the last, moreover the death rate is rather small and there is a specific population that is most at risk (elderly and infirm) who can be targeted for protective measures.

So why is everyone acting as if the world is going to end and that we are all in danger? I suspect because we so rarely are.

Unless you are living in a gang controlled area of a Democrat run city or have a job that involves risking your life regularly odds are you rarely if ever face an actual non-accidental danger to your life. Oh there is the odd hurricane or tornado and once is a very great while some lunitic goes off on a binge, but the reality is that basic threats to one’s life that were common 200 years ago, from nearby enemies, brigands and raiders or from diseases which were common 100 year ago have generally been eliminated from ordinary life in he US.

We life in a society that rarely faces death, and while that is good thing one of the side effects culturally is that we as a people don’t cope with the reality or the possibility of death very well. We deny it, we duck and dodge but death as a reality of life just isn’t there for most people on a daily basis.

So just like college students at $50K a year universities who cry oppression without irony when ginned up by activists with an ulterior motive the public living in one of the safest societies in the history of humanity is stampeded by a media who knows better into a panic for a disease which while dangerous is when it comes down to it a severe flu and can be arrested in its spread by basic hygiene that people should be doing anyways.

This is the price of the life we currently have and given the alternative of living in much more dangerous times it’s a small price to pay, but I sometimes wonder how such people are going to cope when an actual crisis comes up..

I suspect not well.

The Paris Library: A Book Review

Posted: March 9, 2020 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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By:  Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – Add The Paris Library to your summer reading list. Any fan of historical fiction, or any book lover in general, will love this book! 

Coming out in June of 2020, The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles is an engaging tale that is narrated on dual timelines and is sure to become a best seller. A book lover’s delight, I could not help but think about Susan Orlean’s The Library Book as I was reading.  I was provided an ARC via NetGalley and Atria Books in exchange for a fair and honest review, and I am strongly recommending this book.

Navigating dual timelines, the author weaves an engaging plot between two characters, Odile and Lily. Set in both WWII Paris and 1980s Froid, Montana, we are drawn into both their stories knowing they will soon combine, and they do in a beautiful way.

As the book opens, a young Odile begins a new job as a librarian at The American Library in Paris at the onset of WWII, and her narrative is peppered with Dewey Decimal references which could have been very odd and distracting but is in fact absolutely charming. As the employees of the library work to protect their books, and themselves, during the Nazi occupation of Paris, it is interesting to note that many of the characters in this novel are real people and many of the events also all too real.

The author has drawn from the papers of Dorothy Reeder who served as the director of The American Library in Paris during World War II. At the end of the novel, Ms. Charles brings us up to date with what happened to the characters in real life after the war.

Perhaps because of the fact that many of the characters were real people, their story line in the novel is the more engaging and developed one, but the contemporary story line of Odile is still deftly drawn and merges beautifully with Lily’s in 1980s Froid, Montana, where Odile is considered “the war bride,” and an eccentric, odd sort of person. I won’t give any spoilers here, but the ending of the book is absolutely perfect and a very satisfying ending.

This is the kind of book you can get lost in for a few hours, or wade leisurely through over a couple of days. Either way I highly recommend The Paris Library. Mark your calendar for June 2020.

Pat Austin blogs at And So it Goes in Shreveport and is the author of Cane River Bohemia: Cammie Henry and her Circle at Melrose Plantation. Follow her on Instagram @patbecker25 and Twitter @paustin110.

The latest Hit on the MSM Charts: Joey & the Democrats My Corona

Posted: March 9, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

The Democrat party has been doing it’s best to use the Corona virus as a political weapon against the US economy in general and Donald Trump in particular. We can write about it, but why write when we can sing: With Biden on Vocals, Bernie on Drums here is their song My Corona

Hoo, it's Trump that's killing us, killing us
When you gonna go end his time, Corona?
When's that virus gonna come, gonna come?
Come on, come on spread, spread and thrive, Corona

Never gonna stop, give it up, oh it's panic time
Now that Trump Stock Market that' stock market it's gonna go
dive, dive dive dive dive woo!

M-m-m-my Cornoa

Come a little closer, huh, a-will ya, huh?
Close enough to cost a few lives Corona 
Election day is comin' down, comin' down
Runnin' down there ain't much more time, Corona

Never gonna stop, give it up, oh it's panic time
Then we can blame Trump, blamen' Trump for the people who
die div die die die , woo!

M-m-m-my Corona
M-m-m-my Corona

When you gonna win us D's, win us D's
Is it just a matter of time, Corona?
It's our party's destiny, destiny
Or is it just a game in our minds, Corona?

Never gonna stop, give it up, oh it's panic time
Now that Trump economy, Trump economy can 
die, die die die die,O woo!
[Obama cuts in:] Actually That economy was mine mine mine mine mine woo!

M-m-m-my Corona
M-m-m-my Corona
M-m-m-my Corona
M-m-m-my Corona

Hoooooo-ohhh, my Corona
Hoooooo-ohhh, my Corona
Hoooooo-ohhh, my Corona

Sung to the tune of My Sharona 1979 by the Knack

If Biden falters, then what for the Democrats?

Posted: March 8, 2020 by John Ruberry in Always look at the bright side of Trump, elections, elections, News/opinion, politics, primaries, primaries
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By John Ruberry

In their quest to cure themselves of Trump Derangement Syndrome, Democrats have lined up, albeit sometimes briefly, behind several frontrunners for the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, including Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bloomberg, Bernie Sanders, and now, Joe Biden.

Also, for a bit, Beto O’Rourke and Kamala Harris were seen as top tier candidates.

Biden certainly had a fabulous Super Thursday—yes, the gaffe-prone former vice president said that. It really was Super Tuesday, but his rise was largely brought about by the endorsements of Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, who may have slipped yesterday by saying she’ll be on the ticket with Biden this fall. That of course can only mean Biden has already asked her to be his running mate.

I won’t be surprised if Klobuchar dresses up as Princess Leia and utters, “Help me Jobi-wan Biden, you’re my only hope.”

But what if Biden fails? Oh, sure, he’s the favorite to win the Democratic nomination. But the general election is eight months away. A lot can go wrong, especially when you are Joe Biden.

For years Biden has behaved like a Chicago ward boss engaging in influence peddling, benefitting not only he son, Hunter, but his brother, James. Hunter formerly sitting on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings, despite having no experience in energy and not speaking Ukrainian, is the most egregious instance. And of course Joe bragged that he got a Ukrainian prosecutor fired who was looking into Burisma.

Then there are the Biden gaffes. They are so many of them that they can provide that material for a short book. Or maybe a long one, particularly when we figure in future gaffes.

Because, as Mark Levin phrased it on his show a few days ago–I hope I have the quote right, “Joe Biden’s best days are behind him,” quickly adding. “Then again, I don’t think he had any best days.”

If elected president Biden will be 78 on inauguration day. At age 77 Biden sometimes seems confused in his appearances. In its tepid endorsement of Biden last week, the Chicago Tribune touched on the gaffes and his mental state. “Biden is not the perfect candidate,” later adding, “He has demonstrated a propensity for gaffes and lack of clearheadedness on the campaign trail.”

So far in this campaign Biden has twice forgotten what state he was in. No where in the world, Levin explained in that same broadcast, do people vote on Thursday. Now that Biden is the frontrunner his upcoming gaffes will receive much more attention and yes, scrutiny. What if these upcoming verbal miscues and his, in the Trib’s words, “lack of clearheadedness,” turns Jobi-Wan Biden into Old Man Joe. 

Yesterday in St. Louis a shaky Biden said, “We can only re-elect Donald Trump.”

Yes, Donald Trump is the oldest man to be elected president in his first term. But few people half the president’s age can speak on the fly for over an hour as Trump does in his regular rallies. 

But if Old Man Joe and his twin–Influence Peddler Joe–becomes a liability to the Democrats, as Bernie Sanders’ socialism apparently has, where do the Dems turn for their next only hope? 

Is there anyone left on the Democrats’ bench? 

Maybe Al Gore. Or Hillary Clinton.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

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