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My COVID pledge

Posted: September 5, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

As the news media rumbles and rants over the rise in COVID cases, including that of Doctor Jill, it’s time to prepare for an onslaught of information that provokes fear and misunderstanding.

I have many regrets about what I did during the pandemic. 

I wouldn’t come to Temple University because of fears that young people were incubators of the disease. 

I didn’t visit a friend who was dying of cancer. I didn’t keep in touch with friends who died because they couldn’t get the treatment they needed.

I waited in line for the first COVID shots—not protesting the inadequate features of the drugs and the many side effects of the shots. 

I didn’t try to stop the politicians from passing laws to make voting easier without showing up at a polling station. I believe these laws were responsible for Trump’s loss, one of the worst outcomes of the pandemic. 

Now, I’m making a pledge to myself and others.

I will not wear a mask. Various studies have determined that masks made little difference in preventing disease, except Dr. Tony Fauci continues promoting them. 

I will not get shots. When President Joe said he requested federal dollars “for funding for a new vaccine that is necessary, that works,” it gave me chills. After the pharmaceutical companies created remedies that didn’t work well, why should the taxpayers pick up the tab again?

I will not carry around a card that lists my shots.

I will not socially distance. I will boycott stores and companies that require masks and social distancing.

I will vote against anyone who closes businesses and schools. Only recently, national surveys show that math and reading skills have dropped dramatically, and school absenteeism is roughly 10 percent each school day. 

I will never retire to a nursing home where thousands of my fellow seniors died during the pandemic, a disgrace that still goes unpunished. 

Many of us learned a few things during the pandemic. You really can’t trust the media, and you really can’t trust politicians!

Fortunately, I live in central Pennsylvania, where many people share my sentiments. It was a relief when my wife and I moved here in March 2021 to find signs that said masks were optional.

Matthew Hennessey of The Wall Street Journal agrees with me. He wrote recently, “In hindsight, I can’t help but feel I sold my God-given freedom too cheaply. I won’t get fooled again.”

At least that’s how I would handle this story:

Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero directed the 3-ton Cold War relic to be installed in Friendship Park in a project titled, “A World Without Walls.” Written on the slab of concrete is the inscription, “May this be a lesson to build a society that knocks down walls and builds bridges.”

When asked why Caballero decided to erect the piece in Tijuana, the mayor said “How many families have shed blood, labor, and their lives to get past the wall,” according to the New York Post.

I must confess that having been born in 1963 and having a vivid memory of the cold war I don’t recall a whole lot of effort being made by the East Germans to keep people from entering, but maybe that’s just me.

Electric car sales might not have caught fire throughout the country but in Florida they’re catching fire for completely different reasons:

Owners were being warned to move their EVs at least fifty feet away from any structure. That’s how serious of a fireball can be created. Authorities said that the fires don’t happen immediately, but tend to break out several days or even up to two weeks later. Apparently, as the salt water dries up it can leave behind a trail of salt that can form a “bridge” between the terminals of the EV’s batteries. And if that causes the electricity to arc across, your battery is burning and you’re off to the races.

Well yeah, so your car can burn down and your house can be burned down but at least you can feel good about yourself when it happens.


I keep getting reminded of John Adams words concerning public business:

Public business must always be done by somebody. It will be done by somebody or other. If wise man decline, others will not; if honest man refuse it, others will not.

That came to mind when I saw this story:

City Health Department workers already making six-figure salaries allegedly ripped off thousands of dollars in gift cards purchased with taxpayer money and meant for HIV-prevention programs.

Three staffers from the agency’s Bureau of hepatitis, HIV, and sexually transmitted infections swiped a total of 131 gift cards worth $4,855, which they blew on pizza, iTunes, and Amazon purchases, according to Queens Criminal Co

That applies to all public business, not just elected office.


Ace reports on another bad sign for Disney:

I noted yesterday that the television app Samba reported that the new Force Is Female Star Wars failure Ahsoka had only garnered a Brian-Stelter-like 1.2 million views over its first few days of release, which is much worse than the previous Disney Star Wars disaster’s ratings. Obi-Wan garnered 2.4 million viewers in its debut, and was, as far as I hear, just a wretched piece of shit top to bottom and back to front.

I hear that Ahsoka is far less aggressively awful, and that’ a problem: You expect your terrible shows to get bad ratings. But if you put out a show that is good — well, let’s not get carried away; I hear Ahsoka is okay and at least has a bigger budget than these other cheapo-beepo Disney Star Wars shows — and that also gets terrible ratings, that means people aren’t deciding not to view based on the quality of a specific show.

Disney’s problem is a lot like Bud Light there are just too many other entertainment options for people to be forced to watch shows made by folks who hate them.


If you want to know why the Biden Admin’s diplomacy isn’t working you can’t do better than this line:

“But the truth is, when we’re engaged with the Chinese, we get an airport. And when we’re engaged with you guys, we get a lecture.”

The world isn’t full of liberal leftists no matter how much the right people want to pretend it is.


Finally something odd that I’ve noticed lately that doesn’t involve any links.

I’ve been driving for the past 40 years or so and I could count the number of times somebody passed me over a double yellow line on the fingers of one hand with digits to spare.

This week alone it has happened three times, this last month it has happened over a half a dozen, over the course of this year almost a full dozen and at least one of those times it was done in full view of a police car that didn’t bother to move.

I can’t account for this change except for the idea that people no longer worry about being pulled over because they know the police aren’t going to bother to take any risk that doesn’t have to be taken.

If you can think of a different reason feel free to let me know.

Today we give you two videos from Pintastic NE, the first is a glimpse of the extra ball lounge from Pintastic 2021.

And if that video of me in full beard at Pintastic 2021 tempts you into visiting Pintastic 2023 (get advanced tickets here) let me share with you this video from Pintastic 2022 which reveals one of the great secrets of how to max out your pintastic experience.

As the video notes there is always at least one game in the extra ball lounge that is never empty. Last year it was Toy Story 3. No idea what this years choice will be.