Archive for the ‘covid’ Category

The Key Line From the Ironic Story of Charlotte Bellis That You Might Have Missed (and the obvious question)

Posted: January 31, 2022 by datechguy in covid, culture

By now you might have seen via the Washington Examiner the story of Charlotte Bellis who is a pregnant journalist from New Zeeland who was covering the Taliban for Al Jazeera. found to her utter surprise that she was pregnant and has been unable to get back into her native country for the birth of her daughter despite being vaccinated and boosted due to the stupid COVID rules her country has adopted.

The irony of course being that after leaving Qatar because it’s illegal to be pregnant and unmarried (oddly enough no protests by western feminists at the Qatari embassy, unexpectedly of course) and having to leave Belgium where her partner and father of her child NY Time Photo Journalist named Jim lives because foreigners can only stay there three months out of every six where could they go where they both had visa’s for?

The problem was the only other place we had visas to live was Afghanistan. I organised a meeting with senior Taliban contacts, “you know how I am dating Jim from The New York Times, but we’re not married, right?” “Yes, yes we respect you both and you are foreigners, that is up to you.” I nervously continued. “Well, I am pregnant and I can’t get back into New Zealand. If I come to Kabul, will we have a problem?” One translated for the other and they smiled. “No we’re happy for you, you can come and you won’t have a problem. Just tell people you’re married and if it escalates, call us. Don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”

Yes they were welcomed into Afghanistan while New Zeeland has continued to reject them despite the bad PR this is giving the country and the massive amount of paperwork hoops they have navigated to be rejected.

We got letters from New Zealand obstetricians and medical experts to confirm the dangers of giving birth in Afghanistan and the impact of high stress during pregnancy. We included ultrasounds, letters in support of our relationship, bank statements, our Covid vaccinations including boosters, evidence of my resignation and our travel itinerary since. Between Jim and I, we submitted 59 documents to MIQ and Immigration NZ, including a cover letter written by our lawyer summarising our situation.

Vup they’re vaxxed AND Boosted and they’re still not letting then in. That’s a pretty good hook to show the COVID insanity irony that’s sweeping the west.

In my opinion however there is a bigger irony to this story, one that you would not know if you had only read the Examiner piece but is hidden in plain sight at the very start of her piece in the New Zeeland Herald that the Examiner story is based on:

For years I had been told by doctors I would never have children. I threw myself into my career and made my peace with it.

Hold on, do you mean to say that her doctors, those people trusted with diagnosing illness and giving advice on survival, extensively trained in the west with degrees from universities, licensed by the state and the final arbiters of what the “Science” says concerning these matters were WRONG about her ability to have children, and not just one doctor, MULTIPLE doctors over the course of years had told this young woman that is was not possible to have children to the point where she had to mentally make piece with it got this completely and utterly wrong?

Did they get their degrees at the same university as Fauci?

So think about it New Zeeland is keeping her out of the country of her birth because of COVID rules Rules supposedly based on science and the advice of Doctors…

…which are the same folks that insisted for years that this woman was not capable of having a child.

THAT is the ultimate irony here that lays waste to the COVID madness but there is another irony that is illustrated in this piece that exposes a hole in western culture.

This lady and the NYT guy Jim clearly like each other. They got together in Belgium, they got together in Afghanistan and he was trying to get into New Zeeland to be with her at the birth of their child. They clearly value each other and the child they will have together they child she never thought she could have. The child she calls a “miracle”. As a devout Roman Catholic an obvious question came to me

Why didn’t they just get married?

Think about it for a second. If they had gotten married she could have kept her job and her health insurance and not had to start on this three country quest in the first place. Instead they are both jumping though multiple hoops through three countries as they attempt to get into a 4th when all of this could have been avoided if the these two people who at the very least seem to like each other VERY much simply said “I Do”.

Some say: Well marriage is just a piece of paper, well so are the visas and forms they are filling out to try to get back into New Zeeland and they didn’t have a problem with that did they? It would be no more complicated being married with a child holding jobs that send them around the world then it would be being unmarried with a child doing the same thing.

It’s moments like this when the advice my father gave me and that I’ve given my sons really rings out: “If she’s good enough to sleep with, she’s good enough to marry.”

Personally I think this miracle child is worth it.

The 49th Parallel and the horrible Parallels this movie has to today

Posted: January 20, 2022 by datechguy in covid, culture
Tags: , , ,
Via Wikipedia

The Oscar winning 1941 Movie 49th Parallel was available on Amazon Prime this month for free. Despite it being a famous movie and a WW 2 picture I had never seen it. The Basic plot is a German U-Boat is sunk in Hudson Bay but a landing party had been sent ashore to get supplies and so five sailors and an officer are stranded in Canada. It’s 1941 and the US hasn’t officially entered the war so if they can get across that 49th parallel they are safe. The story is about how they encounter Canadians on the way from a Trapper (Laurence Oliver) to a group of German immigrants of a religions sect including a young girl who lost family when a U-Boat sunk their ship ( Glynis Johns ), to a Professor studying the Blackfeet Indians (Leslie Howard) to a Canadian Soldier who has stayed behind his leave (Raymond Massy).

It’s a commentary on the character of Canada and free government vs the Nazi way.

As I watched this picture the portrayal of the Canadian national character that was portrayed was very familiar to me but I was surprised at how familiar the portrayal of the Nazi character was because it was what the Canadian, Australian and in many states run by Democrats, American character is becoming.

What’s horrible is that these nations that stopped Nazism have fallen so far and are so ignorant of what they were and are that they would not likely see what I saw.

What’s even worse is that I suspect a lot of people actually would see how far they have fallen but are too cowardly to acknowledge it because it would require them to act.

That’s the real tragedy here.

Closing thought along that line Manchin and Simena saved the filibuster yesterday in the teeth of their party.

The Wonder isn’t the Manchin and Sinema were willing to save the Filibuster the wonder is that the democrats have fallen so far that two were publicly willing to stand up for it.

Update: OK maybe not such a shock:

Nearly Half of All Democrats — Who Claimed to #Resist Fascism — Support Actual Internment Camps for the Unvaccinated

The 3rd Day of Christmas a COVID Christmas Story

Posted: December 27, 2021 by datechguy in covid
Tags: ,

Christmas day in the DaTechGuy House was first rate. It started with mass the previous night where the family got together and managed an updated picture:

That would be a good Christmas Card if we did Christmas Cards.

Anyways the boys crashed over our place, we all slept a tad late Watched the George C. Scott Version of A Christmas Carol (one of the best in my opinion) Cooked a solid late Breakfast and had a late ham dinner.

I had called my brother Dominic and it turns out that he was at home rather that with his son and grandson on Christmas. It seems both he and his wife had the sniffles and everyone decided it was best they stayed up just in case.

And that’s where the COVID came in.

My first instinct was to invite them down for dinner as it didn’t seem serious enough to warrant them being home alone for Christmas but under the rules where my wife works she is tested daily. If she ended up with a positive test, even if completely asymptomatic, she would be out 10 days and has only one sick day to play with and under the rules of my place if she was out with COVID I’d be in quarantine as well.

It wouldn’t matter if we were actually sick the test for the virus would have been enough to lose us work.

Because of this I reluctantly didn’t invite my brother and sister in law over and they spent Christmas with each other. Not a bad thing when you’ve been married 36+ years I’m sure but I think it’s a crying shame.

If this was 18 months ago when we knew a lot less I could see it, but with where we are and what we know it’s a crying shame. They’re not spending Christmas alone because of COVID they spent Christmas alone because under the current rules our income would be jeopardized.

Don’t get me wrong, my wife had long COVID and I’m very aware that for some it can be rather nasty, just like the flu can be nasty, but we’re reached a point where we’re cutting our throat out of irrational fear and or politics.

It’s become a lie that people are living and in a sense that’s appropriate, because by it’s definition a post Christian society is going to advance the cause of the father of lies.

Kyrie gets the last Laugh

Posted: December 18, 2021 by datechguy in covid, nba, Sports, vaccine mandates
Tags: , , , ,

I really cracked up when I read this story:

It’s kind of hard to argue that the unvaccinated Kyrie is a danger to the team when all over the NBA, NHL & NFL games are being delayed and postponed by COVID breakouts among fully vaccinated players but I give yahoo sports credit they give it their best shot:

Players of all levels are testing positive, so what’s the harm in bringing in a healthy body for road games, to help out the overworked Kevin Durant even in a pinch?

The harm, aside from common sense, science and everything believed to be true about teams with championship aspirations, consistent standards and chemistry concerns, seems to open a sliding door that may never be closed again, as Irving will be allowed to play in road games — except for Toronto.

Alas both common sense and science suggests that it’s Kyrie and not those who banned him that were right.

Now this doesn’t change the fact that Kyrie brings the same non-covid baggage that he always carried before there was such a thing as a pandemic and the fact that he almost immediately ended up in the COVID protocols means a delay in the Nets getting him on the floor.

But the bottom line is that Kyrie’s return is a blow to the narrative that has been pushed by the various sports teams in solidarity with the Biden Administration on the vaccine but reality doesn’t care about the narrative and the reality of the cost of cancelled games in cash is starting to have an effect to the point where leagues are reconsidering rewriting the rules concerning COVID protocols.

The NFL and the NFL Players Association continue to discuss changes to their COVID-19 protocols that could ease the burden on vaccinated individuals, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

The two sides are working to test vaccinated players less frequently and address player concerns about the number of vaccinated, asymptomatic players who are being forced to miss games because of positive tests.

The real losers in all of this are the players who took the jab and feel like chumps who’ve been played:

The NFLPA has been under pressure in recent weeks from players who are upset because they feel they were effectively forced to get vaccinated (because of the far stricter rules that apply this year to unvaccinated individuals) and as a result of the proliferation of COVID-19 variants are now testing positive and missing games anyway. This has led to player dissatisfaction with other of the league’s COVID-19 mitigation strategies, such as mask wearing and physical distancing in team facilities. 

Now as I’ve said repeatedly I have no problem with people getting the vaccine if they feel the cost benefit analysis works for them and I’m sure there are plenty of players in the all the major sports who took the vaccine and thought it was the right move for them.

Kyrie didn’t think so and in the long run it’s worked out for him, and if nothing else he will always be one up on those who took the vaccine unwillingly to play and now feel like chumps.

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