The Unexpectedly Chronicles: Trained in Fear & Helplessness

Posted: May 19, 2020 by datechguy in culture
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One of the least surprising things that I’ve seen in the last few weeks has been people so willing to jump on the fear of re-opening bandwagon.

Despite the data, despite what we’ve seen in Florida, Texas and elsewhere there is a solid population that are terrified of the thought of re-opening the country.

Now I’m not talking about those driven by political considerations, (a economy that comes back helps Trump) I’m talking about actual people afraid of what might happen if we do.

Some might be surprised at this development but I’m actually shocked it’s not worse.

For a generation we gave out participation trophies because we were afraid of hurting feelings of those who didn’t win.

You people pushing the idea that grades and tests were bad because it might affect the self esteem of some.

In fact we reached the point where in colleges, places of supposedly higher education we had grief counselors assigned not only over election results that people didn’t like, but also over people who dared utter opinions that differed from the status quo.

And in the last year the use of a pronoun that one didn’t like caused people to crumble

In short we spent twenty years training people not to be able to cope with little things, in fact think of the fairly new word “microaggressions” it’s very name this suggests something small and meaningless, yet for thousands it represents something unbearable.

And now take these people weaned on fear and panic and introduce a virus that can actually kill you.

Do you really expect people who have been weaned on abject panic concerning trifles to be able to cope when faced with the prospect, however small of dying from an actual deadly disease?

So if you find yourself shaking your head over their fear that chunks of the country have over re-opening consider, the surprise isn’t that so many people are gripped with fear, the surprise is that after a quarter century of conditioning more aren’t

Report from Louisiana: Closing the Classroom

Posted: May 18, 2020 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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By:  Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – I went up to do my end-of-the-year cleanout in my classroom this week.  It was incredibly sad.

On a Friday morning at 10:30, second block should have been winding to a close and kids should have been anxiously waiting for the lunch bell at 10:40. The mid-day announcements would be coming over the intercom.

By the time I left, about 11:00, there should have been kids in the halls, duty teachers monitoring those kids, microwaves across campus warming up teacher lunches. The office should have been bustling, Mrs. Kiper, the secretary, laughing and lobbing wise cracks with kids and administrators. The library should have been filled with kids using the computers or playing board games at the tables. The courtyard should have been filled with kids burning off a little energy before third block. Teachers should have been making that last dash to the restroom before the long afternoon classes start.

None of that was happening.

The parking lot was empty.

There were ZERO students on campus.  My room was quiet as a tomb.

My room would have normally had a couple of kids in there eating lunch about that time of the day.

Instead, I found empty desks, library books abandoned in the baskets underneath.

I sighed, looked around, and went to get my things that I needed to work from home.

I missed the sound of kids, and the notes they would leave for me if they came by while I was out.

Every single kid was important to me, is important to me, and it just feels like we didn’t get to finish what we started. It feels tragic and sad…unfinished.

Their journals were still on my desk, graded, ready to return.

We left school on the Friday before Spring Break: March 6. My assignments from that day are still written on the board.

We all expected to come back to school when we left that day. Kids took library books home, textbooks, projects to finish, uniforms to wash, schedules to fill out for next year, and plans. They had plans for their graduation, prom, ring ceremonies, sporting events, and yes, academics. None of that happened.

So yes, all of that literally hangs in the air when you walk in the halls now. It’s a tangible thing.

I cleaned out the snacks I kept in my desk for kids that needed something to eat; that won’t keep until August. I took home my coffee cup, emptied the water in the Keurig. I looked through projects that weren’t finished, some that were, and I scored a bottle of GermX from my supply closet. I erased my board, bagged up things I needed to take home, and I turned out the light.

I am very curious, and perhaps nervous, about what school will look like when we return in August. While the Moderna coronavirus vaccine shows some early promise, there is still a long way to go before we have that option. A larger trial is expected this summer, but obviously won’t be ready before fall.

So, what will opening of school look like this fall? Smaller classes?  Online options? The typical high school classroom is not overly large and is usually filled with thirty or more students. Crowded lunchrooms, auditoriums, and even at university level, think of the crowded lecture halls. How are we going to manage these things?

Schools in Denmark opened several weeks ago with new distancing and hygiene measures in place and restrictions all across Europe are easing. Things such as staggered classes, sectioning off parts of campus, and no large gatherings are all options to consider. What of transportation? School busses filled with kids could also be a danger zone.

What are we to do? Hide from this virus? Wait for a vaccine? Or ignore it and get back to life as usual?

I don’t have the answers. All I know for certain is my own little world, my own small classroom, where sixty-five kids were upended in the middle of their academic year.

So much unfinished business.

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.

Under the Fedora Irish Democracy, The “New Rules” , the Sullivan Precedents, the Obama Precedents, and a realistic Mass Livestream

Posted: May 18, 2020 by datechguy in business, catholic, crime, culture, economy
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I oppose the whole sanctuary City business as a violation of the rule of law, however if there is one thing you can say about the Sanctuary City movement is that it is in keeping of the American Tradition of completely ignoring laws that they don’t like.

We’re now seeing a glimpse of this in NYC:

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When you have a one party state or city it usually takes an “I’m mad as hell and can’t take it anymore moment. I’m wondering if this might become the case in blue states that remain locked down as other places open.

One other thing about Sanctuary Cities is they work both ways.

“A resolution of the city council of the city of Atwater affirming the city’s commitment to fundamental rights of life, liberty, and property, and declaring the city of Atwater a sanctuary city for all businesses,” the resolution read.

A statewide shelter-in-place order has been in effect since March 19, with gradual easements happening this month. While some counties were reportedly approved to move to “Phase 2” of the state’s reopening plan, which would allow some non-essential lower-risk business to reopen, Atwater’s Merced County was not included.

It will be fun to see the left object to these thing as they’ve objected to sanctuary gun counties. Perhaps they should have thought about the “new rules” as Kurt Schlichter calls them, before imposing them.

The same thing applies to liberals rushing to cheer Judge Sullivan who is doing all he can to pretend that he’s in a Soviet Courtroom rather than an american one. In one respect given how this entire Mike Flynn business has gone such actions by the left should be unsurprising but I’d remind our friend on the left that Donald Trump has appointed a 3rd of the judiciary at this point and you might not like the Sullivan Standards if they are applied to their allies.

The left will not consider these tactics an outrage until they are used against them and under a Jacksonian president, I’d not be surprised to see it, except for the fact that he’s not to my knowledge appointing Jacksonian judges. As Razor put it on twitter:

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It’s not often that I disagree with President Trump but I think this is a VERY bad idea:

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It’s worth noting that the reason why President Trump has been able to so effectively pack the courts with conservatives is that Harry Reid changed the rules when he presumed that the left would hold the Senate forever.

It’s also a bad political move. I suspect that while Black Americans intellectually know that Barack Obama was a disaster in the White House for America in general and them in particular they cling to the myth of the light-bringer culturally to the point where they might actually turn out to defend that fantasy.

Turned on a livestream of a Sunday Mass on the Roku (I keep ending up finding different ones) and I noticed that there was a chat option.

I thought this was odd considering you aren’t supposed to be talking in Mass but if nothing else said option is an exercise in realism.

Masks dehumanize us

Posted: May 17, 2020 by John Ruberry in business, culture, economy, News/opinion, politics
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Discarded medical mask, Miami Woods, Morton Grove, Illinois

By John Ruberry

On my way to work here in Illinois–where Democratic governor JB Pritzker says I have to wear a mask–I was listening to Dennis Prager’s show when he said something along the lines that people connect to each other by way of seeing their faces. Very true. The most obvious example is by way of dating sites, nearly all of the profiles include face pics. Whether you are old or young, thin or heavy, bald or hairy, every expert on creating profiles for LinkedIn recommends using a quality head shot on that employment networking site. 

Faces are how we remember people. When you think of Angelina Jolie her lips come to mind. With Jay Leno it’s his prominent chin. With John Bolton his bushy mustache is his visual trademark. If they are wearing masks you won’t see their distinctive facial features. 

A masked face doesn’t allow you to see smiles.

It’s unclear how effective masks are in preventing the spread of COVID-19, with the exception of the N95 mask, which gets its name because it’s supposed to block 95 percent of small particles.  

What is clear is that the projections of the death total from the novel coronavirus have been alarmist. The most dire one predicted 2.2 million COVID-19 deaths in America–and that prediction likely led to many shelter-in-place orders being put in place, including the one that was extended by Pritzker, most likely illegally, until the end of May. The latter order opened a few more places, such as golf courses, but added a mask requirement for businesses open to the public, such as big box stores. Dine-in restaurants, hair salons, and health clubs remain shuttered. Churches too. 

Humans are primates and primates are social beings. We’re not cats. While there are a few among us who choose the life a hermit, even existences commonly connected with solitude, such as that of a monk or a nun, involve a community where people see each other. Monks typically live in monasteries with other monks. Nuns dwell in convents with other nuns. 

So far COVID-19 is not nearly as deadly as the 1918 Flu Pandemic which killed anywhere from 50-100 million people worldwide–and many of those who died of it were in their twenties and thirties who were otherwise healthy. It is not the Asian Flu of the late 1950s which killed roughly two million. While every death of course is a tragedy, so far 300,000 people have died of COVID-19. In 1918 the world population was about 1.6 billion, in 1958 it was a bit short of 3 billion. Today’s world population is 8 billion. 

A few weeks ago I questioned whether the draconian methods to shut down our economy were worth it, bankruptcies and unemployment are common triggers for substance abuse, depression, spousal and child abuse, and suicide. Since that post we’ve learned nearly all of the coronavirus fatalities suffered from pre-existing conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and obesity. 

Now because of masks we are becoming the faceless, like the disturbing images in the “Life of Julia” Obama-Biden campaign video from 2012 that preached to the masses–not to individuals–the inherent power of a government that does everything for you. But remember Barry Goldwater’s warning, “Any government that is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.”

Like Prager, I’m not a conspiracy nut. But a couple of weeks ago he wrote that the coronavirus overreaction is a dress rehearsal for a police state. Chicago’s vast expanse of lakefront parks–which is 18 miles long–have been closed for six weeks and counting. Churches and dine-in restaurants are closed statewide, as I mentioned earlier. In regards to the latter, for health reasons will the state or local governments in Illinois retain the power to shutter restaurants that serve, let’s say, too much high-fat food? That possibility is no longer far-fetched. 

The lakefront parks won’t be closed forever. But I can easily see Lori Lightfoot or a future Chicago mayor limiting Lincoln Park or Jackson Park to a few hundred visitors each day–with government workers with internal passports first in line of course–in the name of nature preservation or fighting global warming. It will of course all be done in the name of the faceless masses. 

I’m running low on orange juice. I may need run to the supermarket. Where is my mask?

I’ll be less of a human wearing that mask. Is that the plan?

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

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