Archive for the ‘covid’ Category

The Worst Possible Case For The King (and the Fauci Flock)

Posted: July 26, 2023 by datechguy in covid, medicine
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Taurus Killgaren: [last words] This destiny of greatness is yours and yours alone, Syzygy. You can’t paint me a Villain trying to steal your place of glory. Once it becomes clearer to you you’ll realize your fate is one not many would covet. I know I’m about to die, but even so I’d not trade places with you for all the Treasures of the Universe.

The Price Jim Starlin 1981

It’s almost superfluous to start this post saying that I feel bad for LeBron James and wish the best for his family in general and his son in particular and hope that he still manages to achieve the goal of at least one NBA game if not a full season playing on the same team as his son Bronny.

As a father of two sons I’d hate to be in the position he is today worried about his sons health after a heart attack (or “cardiac arrest if you want to split hairs). It’s actually something I’ve thought about more than once. My father died of a heart attack at age 66 and had them regularly during the final five to ten years of his life, I’m only six years younger than him right now and run about 280 lbs. There is every probability that I will share that fate (although perhaps a bit later as I never smoked and rarely drink as he did for most of his life) and as both of my sons are bigger than me both in size and weight there is a possibility that I could live to see one of them have a heart attack. It’s not a pleasant thought.

But lets be real, I’m a sixty year old man from a family with a history of heart problems who is very overweight and I’m telling you right now if I was morbid enough to have approached a bookie a week, or a month or a year ago and put up $100 that Bronny James, the physically fit all American NBA prospect son of the greatest star in NBA history who is still active (I’d still take Russell over him all time) would suffer any kind of “cardiac arrest” or heart attack before I or one of my sons did today I’d be collecting enough money today to retire comfortably. The odds of that would seem astronomical, but there is of course one vital difference between myself, my sons and young Mr. James.

LeBron James declared that the COVID Vaccine was the right decision for him and his family and I’m sure this decision caused others who were hesitant to take the covid shot(s).

Nobody in my immediate family did. Not one of us.

And that is why I would hate to be Lebron today. He of course will be able to make sure his son gets the best medical care available in the world but a scenario where he might not be able to play basketball again at the college level or at all on the professional level is a real possibility and of course like any father he would gladly take that possibility in a second over anything worse that’s life threatening.

There is also the possibility that there will be no further issues with Bronny’s heart and we all hope that is the case here but regardless of the result it’s very likely that for the rest of his life LeBron is going to be second guessing his decision to take the shot and have his family get it. The fact that he also spent years carrying water for the Chinese communists who made the virus and did so for cash likely isn’t playing well with him either. I suspect these things are going to be a source of horrible pain, pain that I wouldn’t wish on anyone and I certainly wouldn’t trade places with him today, money and fame not withstanding.

But I’ll tell you this, as much I’d hate to be in Lebron’s shoes today I’d hate to be the Fauci and his vax pack in media and medicine who pushed this on people. They are likely the only people praying for Bronny’s full recovery as hard if not harder than the James family because if LeBron decides to blame these liars for misinforming him he has the cache to not be ignored or cancelled for it and thus is in a position to make things miserable for them for decades, and if he does a lot of other regular people who have been silent might just pick up the pitchforks behind him.

God help the Vax Pack if Bronny takes a turn for the worse and James decides he wants vengeance. Imagine a person with that kind of reach deciding their goal is your destruction.

Closing thought: I wonder how many professional sports players who had themselves and their families take the jab are jealous of Kyrie Irving today?

I’m old enough to remember when celebs dying young was all about drug abuse…

Posted: April 11, 2023 by datechguy in covid, Uncomfortable Truths
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…but these days when a 27 year old star dies unexpectedlyTM you can bet your bottom dollar it will say something like this:

Guardia posted about the loss and revealed Figueroa’s cause of death in an Instagram post shared Monday. “It saddens me to announce the passing of my beloved son Julián Figueroa, who has unfortunately preceded us in parting from this level,” read her post, translated to English per Billboard.

The actress said she was at the theater when her son was found unconscious at his home. “They called 911 and when the ambulance and police arrived, they found him already lifeless, with no traces of violence,” she wrote. “The medical report indicates that he died of an acute myocardial infarction and ventricular fibrillation.”

You know there was a time that if you went to twitter and clicked on the #unexpectedly tag nine out of ten tweet would be me noting something the left did “#unexpectedly of course” with the odd tweet or porn video mixed in. Over the last three years however it become dominated by pictures of young people and kids (and a few old folks 60 and up) who have suddenly dropped dead when they were the picture of health. #unexpetedly of course.\

When you think about it, I guess these are drug related deaths after all, just not the traditional ones like Coolio.

In a completely unrelated story:

Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) announced that COVID vaccines are no longer recommended—even for people at high risk.

I wonder what the rate of myocardial infarction and ventricular fibrillation is there compared to three years ago?

Review: Van Morrison’s Moving on Skiffle

Posted: March 12, 2023 by John Ruberry in covid, culture, media, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Last Friday, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Van Morrison released his 44th studio album, the exuberant Moving on Skiffle. 

What is skiffle? Well, the first time I heard of it was in was in an unusual place–maybe not for an American–in the movie This Is Spinal Tap. Before joining the band that would become the heavy metal act Spinal Tap, David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) was a member of a skiffle group.

Wonderful observation, you might be saying, but once again, what is skiffle? In the late 1920s, it developed as an offshoot of jug music, a genre of the American South and performed mainly by African Americans. The original skiffle was a bit country, a bit folk, and a bit delta blues. Then skiffle died once the Great Depression hit. 

Only it didn’t completely perish. 

Like a sprout from an errant wildflower seed, skiffle surprisingly blossomed again a couple of decades later in Great Britan. The UK’s biggest skiffle star was a Scotsman, Lonnie Donegan. Another skiffle performer, Chris Barber, a British aficionado of New Orleans style jazz, often recorded with Donegan. 

Growing up in 1950s Belfast, Morrsion was one of many UK youths listening to skiffle on the radio. Soon Morrison joined a skiffle band, but by the mid-1960s he was fronting Them, a blues-rock act best known for “Gloria,” before going solo in 1967. Well, you probably know the rest of his story.

Just as skiffle quickly reemerged in Britain, it all but vanished as a popular music phenomenon in the early 1960s. Only its disappearance wasn’t mysterious. The tsunami of the Beat Groups–known as the British Invasion in the United States–which included Them, was the culprit. 

The Belfast Cowboy maintained his love for skiffle thru the decades. Morrison recorded a live album with Donegan and Barber, The Skiffle Sessions – Live in Belfast 1998.

For Moving on Skiffle, Morrison issues a double album of additional classic skiffle songs–there are no repeats from the live collection.

Morrison, who turns 78 this summer, has been newsworthy of late because of his fervent opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns.

In 2021, Morrison released Latest Record Project, Volume 1, a double album. Many of the tracks, including “Stop Bitching, Do Something” and “Why Are You on Facebook?” pushed back on government and Big Tech power. Last year, on What’s It Gonna Take?, Van the Man more directly challenged the lockdowns and creeping totalitarianism, in such tracks as “Dangerous,” which was in response to comments made by Northern Ireland’s health minister, Robin Swann, about Morrison’s anti-lockdown stance. Swann has since sued Van the Man, Morrison has counter-sued. 

On what will likely be remembered as his”COVID albums,” Morrison penned all of the tracks. Moving on Skiffle is a covers collection.

Morrison, who is not a doctor or a scientist, has been proven, in my firm opinion at least, to be correct that lockdowns would not be an effective defense against COVID-19. The harm of lockdowns, such as an overall increase in mental illness and declining school test scores, is apparent.

Yes, COVID, along with pre-exisiting conditions, killed millions, despite lockdowns, masking, and vaccine mandates. But Florida, which didn’t pursue an aggressive lockdown and masking policy, didn’t see a higher COVID death rate compared to lockdown states like New York.

Moving back to Moving on Skiffle, this sparkling collection stays away from politics, except for the strongest track on the collection, “Gov Don’t Allow,” a reworking of the 1920s folk standard “Momma Don’t Allow,” with new lyrics authored by Morrison.

“Gov don’t allow any freedom of speech in here,” he sings, “but I think it’s going overreach–gov don’t allow any freedom of speech in here.”

Now that I have politics out of the way, let’s discuss the rest of Moving on Skiffle.

Other highlights of this ninety-minute collection include another musical reworking, “This Little Light of Mine” becomes “This Loving Light of Mine,” where Morrison adds “Amen” verses. “Gypsy Davy” has a Celtic feel, and there are two Hank Williams songs, “Cold Cold Heart” and “I’m So Lonely I Could Cry.” 

Overall, the collection has a Creedence Clearwater Revival flavor, partly because of the inclusion of Lead Belly’s “Cotton Fields,” which CCR covered on Willy and the Poor Boys. Their hit from that album, “Down on the Corner” has a classic has a jug band feel. 

If you are a Van and Man enthusiast from way back, you’ll adore the final cut on Moving on Skiffle, “Green Rocky Road,” a nine-minute-long track that echoes Morrison stream-of-consciousness gems such as “And The Healing Has Begun” and “Listen to the Lion.”

Skiffle has many definitions. So if you’d prefer you can define Morrison’s latest work possibly as an Americana collection, albeit one with gospel music overtones. 

Oh, I nearly forgot. As with all Van Morrison albums, the singing here, including the work of the backup vocalists, as well as the musicianship–down to the washboard–are spectacular. 

Moving on Skiffle can be downloaded from iTunes or purchased at Van Morrison.com.

Related post:

As Van Morrison turns 77, here are his ten best albums

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Definitions Under the Fedora: Safe, Woman, Illegal, Disinformation and Truth

Posted: March 6, 2023 by datechguy in abortion, covid, culture, the courts
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I wasn’t aware of the suit against Pfizer claiming they violated their contract with the Government over the COVID vaccine and thus doesn’t have immunity over their delivered vaccine. Given the ads constantly be running on radio about watching for signs of heart issues that are sponsored by them (ads we didn’t see three years ago) they might be worried but all of this depends on how the court defines “Save and effective”. If they make sure it’s defined in their favor it all doesn’t matter.

In Minnesota they’re having fun adjusting definitions of “woman” as a Transgender Powerlifter has won in court against the US Powerlifting federation. Apparently under Minnesota law, at least according to the court, to stop a man who believes himself to be a woman from competing against other woman is discriminatory and traumatic.

Hey if at least one justice on the Supreme Court can’t under oath define what a woman is how do you expect judges on the Minnesota courts to do so.

If they lose their appeals my advice is to drop all segregation by sex in powerlifting. I suspect once the prospects finishing in a medal round disappear so will these “woman” from competition.

Over at Legal Insurrection there is a piece about Germany banning protests against abortion as the “40 days for life” movement has come there and made quite a splash.

The left fear is always a good sign but there was something in the piece that jumped out at me:

Currently, abortion is illegal in Germany, but women and their doctors do not face penalties if the pregnancy poses a health risk to the woman or in cases of rape. There is also a loophole under which an abortion may be carried out within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy (14 weeks since the last period) after mandatory counseling.

emphasis mine

That seems a rather flexible definition of the word “illegal” in my books, but to a person of a certain age Germans finding a loophole allowing them to kill undesirables is almost tradition.

The Twitter files keep coming out an the government’s use of the word “disinformation” to justify their actions is looking worse and worse as the New Neo reports:

Maybe GEC’s involvement was a secret, but it was no secret – to anyone paying attention – that vast numbers of Twitter accounts were being censored for fairly ordinary viewpoints, the majority of them on the right. It wasn’t limited to Twitter, either – YouTube was heavily involved.

I can vouch for the Youtube censorship but to me the real key line of the story (other than this being,surprise an Obama initiative is this:

The center has a budget of roughly $74 million and “reportedly gave to at least 39 different organizations, whose names were redacted” in an inspector general report.

I submit and suggest that this was, and still is, all about funding leftist front groups to point to their political enemies to have them censored.

Land of the free my ***

Just over two thousands years ago Jesus Christ said:

you will know the truth, and the truth will set you fre

John 8:32

Apparently Scott Adams has confirmed this is true

This makes this particular bit about the Scott Adams story, via Roger Kimball, particularly interesting:

Oh, the howls of outrage that comment elicited! The woke beast was awake and on the prowl. “Dilbert has been cancelled from all newspapers, websites, calendars, and books,” Adams said. Why? “Because I gave some advice everyone agreed with. (My syndication partner canceled me.)”

Once whetted, the appetite of the woke beast is insatiable. A day or two later, Adams reported, “My publisher for non-Dilbert books has canceled my upcoming book and the entire backlist. Still no disagreement about my point of view. My book agent canceled me too.”`

It is true, by the way, that “everyone agrees” with the point that Adams made. Everyone knows it is true. But no one is supposed to admit that it is true. Adams made it all worse by observing that “There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps . . . then turn around and see somebody white and feel relieved.” Oh, wait. I got my notes confused. That wasn’t Scott Adams. That was the professional black Jesse Jackson in 1993. 

Perhaps the word “cancelled” might have to be redefined

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