And the single shot Johnson and Johnson shot is now being given out in our town.
Thursday, July 29, 2021
miscellaneous stuff
And the single shot Johnson and Johnson shot is now being given out in our town.
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Weightlifting Fairy: in real life she's a Pinay
Duterte gave his state of the nation address yesterday, but no one was watching or cared. Because everyone was watching Hidilyn Diaz win the gold medal in weight lifting at the Olympids.
Sunday, July 25, 2021
march of the toads
Whatever motivates bufo toads to undertake a seemingly desperate and perilous annual march to the summit of 829-meter Mount Homanzan here, even at risk to their lives, reached its climax in early July. The toads spend several years on the peak of the sacred mountain before making their descent. They take more than 50 days to reach the summit and encounter numerous hazards along the way, mainly from predators....
Family news
Thursday, July 22, 2021
the gain of function kerfuffle: The facts
Someone posted a snippet of this on twitter:
Ah: Fauci lied. He knew that gain of function research was dangerous> but what is being overlooked is that this basic rexearch is needed to understand dangerous viruses so scientists can figure out how to protect people.
the snip on facebook was taken out of this longer video which is a long discussion about the risks and benefits of doing gain of function research. from Dec 2012... and it was about bird flu, not SARS.
Dr. Rand Paul was right: by funding Wuhan, it gave money to that lab to do gain of function research.
why send the money to China to do the research? the problem is that the US labs had had accident problems so it was banned in the US....but a loophole let the funding be sent to Chinese labs to do the research... ignoring of course that lab accidents happen in China too...where corruption is widespread and covering up mistakes is the norm.
and it didn't even bother to discuss "dual use" of the research: I.e. it could be used for biowarfare.
But Dr Fauci made things worse by denial to Dr. Paul: instead of giving a nuanced answer, he simply denied the fact that is well documented.
In both of their defences, I should add the MSM and the right wing counterculture news would probably distort their answers.
Which brings us to epidemic threats in the modern world.
The lecture is about bird flu, which had infected a few hundred people mainly in Asia, but had a very high mortality.
Bird flu jumped the species and infected humans, but it did not mutate to the next step, which was to enable human to human transmission. And it is simply a matter of time until this happens.
So a lot of the research was about bird flu, and a lot of the adenovirus and mRNA research for vaccine was being done so that there would be a fast development of vaccine for bird flu.
The adenovirus technology was used for Ebola, and is one reason that, despite the chaos/war/refugees etc. in central Africa, that the public health authorities managed to keep that epidemic under control.
as for the conspiracy types who see the covid epidemic as an evil plot to kill off excess population:
Well, if that was the plan, they chose a weak virus to do their dirty work. (indeed, the shutdowns probably killed more people than the virus. The problems of the supply chain the increase in prices of commodities, and as my earlier post on increase in fertilizer prices suggest, the possibility of famine related deaths, not to mention riots and uprisings when food becomes too expensive for people, will be a threat for the next few years).
I have to wonder about conspiracy theorists who see this as a bio attack by China, or by the NWO. (it was probably an accidental release, covered up to save face, similar to how the Chernobyl disaster coverup attempt).
Sorry, guys, it just isn't that lethal.
Bird flu would be a better way to kill off the population. Half of the patients died.
the threat of bird flu was so scary that the US prepared plans on how to stop or minimize the epidemic: LINK
The conspiracy theorists see the Johns Hopkins meetings about a Sars like outbreak before Covid appeared as a NWO plan to give the world a dangerous disease: but like hospital disaster drills, city EMS disaster drills, or like war games, the meeting was about figuring out what one should do if something happened.
for example, the Dark Winter exercize ( June 2001) posited a terrorist attack with small pox. After 911, this became a big worry, and our public clinic was sent the plan of how we should set up ring vaccinations and isolation of patients outside of hospitals. I was put in charge of reading and teaching our clinic how to do this. Luckily, Saddam's small pox was not released on the USA, (destroyed or maybe just never existed) only a weak type of anthrax was released, the same strain one finds in barnyards and is used to make vaccines.
as for vaccines:
Anti Vax is not limited to the right: it was a big push by KGB disinformation in the third world in the past, and in the US and UK it was pushed by celebrities not scientists.
The pseudo science against the vaccines just say vaccine, nothing specific. But the Sinovax (Chinese) uses an old fashioned technique that goes back 100 years.
And the Astrozeneca and Sputnik use an adenovirus template, which is new, only a decade of so old. But adenovirus based vaccines have stopped recent epidemic of Ebola in central Africa.
As for the mRNA: this is more experimental, but the science suggests it is working and will be an easy and fast way to make vaccines in case of a really scary epidemic.
So if you don't want to contaminate your body with newfangled vaccines, hey, ask for Sinovax. And if you are a radical prolife catholic who shouts about using vaccines that use fetal cell lines that came from fetuses aborted many years ago, then find, use Sinovax.
This group is more catholic than the pope ( yes, I know: Some of them don't consider Francis Catholic, but several previous popes said it was okay to use rubella vaccine derived from fetal tissue from long ago aborted fetuses, as long as the fetus was not aborted to make the vaccine, but aborted for other reasons.)
and if you are young and healthy, then fine. Get the disease. no problem.
one of these days the experts will say you should be checked for immunity instead of being checked if you had the vaccine, especially when there have been break through cases.
but for the vaccine, it comes down to risk/benefit ratio;
https://www.businessinsider.in/photo/81968506/one-chart-explains-why-the-uk-pulled-the-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine-for-under-30s.jpg?imgsize=89123
============
related item:
inflation in the rice fields
we mainly use organic fertilizer for our organic rice, but do grow non organic rice on some of our fields.
So Kuya complained last night that the price of fertilizer has increased greatly in the last year, which means less profit for our farmers.
From the Inquirer:
The sharp increase in fertilizer prices has prompted several farmer groups to renew their call on the Department of Agriculture (DA) for a onetime production subsidy of P15,000 for small-scale farmers who each own less than three hectares. In a statement, the Amihan National Federation of Peasant Women, Bantay Bigas and Anakpawis Partylist noted that prices of urea—the most basic type of fertilizer used in planting rice—surged by between 49 and 53 percent this month in the major rice-producing provinces of Nueva Ecija and Isabela against quotations between December last year and April this year.
italics mine.
why has this happened? This article blames the lockdowns.
Due to the shortage of labor and the shutdown of fertilizer plants located in the integrated chemical complexes, shipments were affected in the initial lockdown process.
countries with natural gas resources can make their own urea fertilizer but many need to import it.
It seems to be a widespread problem: I checked out various trade publications, but they all seem to say the price has been going up for awhile. Much of this is not my area of expertise, so I am mainly noting the problem.
intensive cultivation (2 or three crops a year) mean you need fertilizer.
-----------------------
and right now we have heavy daily monsoon rains made worse by Typhoon Fabian nearby, which mean it is hard to decide when we should start plating the rice.
and Manila streets are flooded: this is common, alas, due to the low lying land and because the sewers don't drain the water: not enough drainage and clogging of drainage by litter etc.
Chinese aggression, unchecked
Austin Bay has an essay summarizing Chinese aggression against the Philippines (and VietNam and Malaysia) in the west Philippine sea, and ignoring international law to do so.
China used its "sea militia" to invade Filipino territory. Here's how that worked and continues to work in the EEZs of several Southeast Asian nations. Hundreds of Chinese fishing boats enter the smaller nation's EEZ. Acting as a gray-zone warfare armada, they drive off local fishermen. China Coast Guard vessels arrive to protect the Chinese boats.
China's response to the Court's censure vacillates. It attempts to ignore it; it flaunts new violations. Chinese diplomats have criticized the ruling so fiercely their vehemence suggests someone in Beijing fears the decision. China has a face culture. Did the ruling deal the CCP and its president, Xi Jinping, a severe loss of face? The ruling did not halt Chinese expansion and aggression strategy.
they have sent large flotillas of fishing boats which has resulted in overfishing the area, and their dredging has harmed the ecology of the area. Longer report here:
The fisheries and fishers of the South China Sea warrant much more attention. The disputes over the islands, reefs, and waters in the area have made effective fisheries management impossible even as a calamitous stock collapse threatens livelihoods around the region.
translation: no one dares to stop Chinese overfishing or destroying the ecology by dredging for giant clams or dredging to build their so called islands.
Tools like VIIRS and SAR show that the number of fishing vessels operating in the disputed Spratly Islands is exponentially higher than AIS transmissions suggest. Improving the monitoring of these fleets will be critical if the claimants hope to save the South China Sea fisheries and reduce the frequency of unlooked-for incidents between vessels.
translation: Chinese ships have been threatening local Filipino fishermen, and now this has expanded to collisions with Filipino small fishing boats. And there have been incidents against larger boats transversing international waters: so far nothing major but it is only a matter of time. The essay uses the phrase "unlooked for incidents".... duh.
Meanwhile, a different kind of fishing fleet, one engaged in paramilitary work on behalf of the state rather than the commercial enterprise of fishing, has emerged as the largest force in the Spratlys. The numbers of militia vessels operating in the area on behalf of China is much larger and more persistent than is generally understood. Experts and policymakers focused on the South China Sea will need to devote a proportionate amount of their attention to these actors and the role they play in the area.Translation: Today the small Filipino fishing boats, tomorrow the commercial shipping.
deep in the report they notice that a lot of these "fishing vessels" could not actually fish, meaning they are quasi military force who have been chasing out Filipino fishermen... and maybe doing more things: a quiet threat to the sea lanes to other east Asian countries comes to mind, but also their long term plans to steal the petroleum and natural gas resources in the area.
PhilInquirer has the story of what is going on there.
not only are they destroying the fishing ecology but it appears they are planning to check out if oil is there, and most suspect their long term plan is to steal oil resources.
Zarate said that during the term of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, China used the Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking to explore the country’s territory to their advantage, but with the absence of the agreement now, “it seems that they are doing so on the sly.”
It was suspected GMA was bribed by the ZTE deal.
But now Duterte, has been harassed by "human rights" activists from the USA because of his drug war (a war that kept the Philippines from becoming a narco state, but never mind. My neighbors killed by druggies robbing them don't count as drug war murders). President Obama didn't help the Philippines stop China when they started grabbing the area, and now it's too late, especially with Biden in the WH. So Duterte is trying to make nice with China, but alas China keeps screwing him and not keeping their promises. Sigh.
from the Inquirer article:
In October 2020, President Duterte lifted the moratorium on oil exploration in the WPS, a move closer to implementing a joint exploration deal with China.
Fishermen from Infanta, Pangasinan, recently found a device reportedly used for oil exploration, which was later confirmed by an expert to be an ocean bottom seismometer or OBS, north of Scarborough Shoal. The device had been turned over to the Philippine Navy. Zarate said Malacañang should not dismiss the issue and “once again protect China’s imperial interests.”
-
--------------
related article on "Blood Cobalt": StrategyPage on the mess in Central Africa, including China's grab of their mineral resources, especially cobalt to be used for electric car batteries.
Amnesty international report on child labor in cobalt mining.
and the irony is that many greens will celebrate the increase in China using electric cars, but they won't notice that they use electricity from (high sulfur) coal burning electric plants nearby.
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
And now they are coming for ancient history
I link to a lot of lectures on ancient history and antiquity.
Pretty apolitical right?
Then I ran across this:
Monday, July 19, 2021
in the Heights the movie
Saturday, July 17, 2021
Gee, didn't I see this in a film a couple years ago?
“A schismatic Church put up by the communists, whom we suppose will be rejected by the Chinese people, will die out soon,” Cardinal Zen told Religion Unplugged. “There is no foundation in the culture, in a tradition. Their leaders have no credibility, respectability… They will have no market.”
These new regulations seem to completely sever Roman influence from management of the Chinese Catholic Church — a move that would intrinsically make the CCP’s regulated church schismatic and no longer part of the Catholic communion....
ah but deep in the article, the PC version takes over: it says all of this is about the Pope's favorite stalking horse, the synodality movement, meaning every area of the church can make up it's own rules.
Indeed, that part of the essay compares the takeover of the Catholic church in China by the atheistic communist government as merely an example of synodality, and compares it to the takeover of the German catholic church by their (atheistic) bishops who want to introduce the latest intellectual fads into the world wide church under the guise of "synodality".
again, none of this is new: the CCP takeover of the church has similarities to Henry VIII takeover of the British church, but also has roots in the investiture conflict (1076) which was about if kings or the Pope could appoint bishops and direct the church.
As for the German bishop's attempt to change the Catholic church into a church of what's happening now, well, one is sort of reminded of all those bishops of late antiquity against Athanasius .
sigh.
.........
GetReligion BLog on the dating app story.
Lots of concern that this liar was caught because his app was hacked.
Sheesh. Years before the Altoona diocese scandal broke, all the laypeople knew which priests were sneaking out to tha gay bars in Pittsburgh ,(or being seduced by sex starved ladies). In other words, if the average church lady knew whatwas going on, why were the bishops blind to openly sinning priests?
But the important part of the article is that it points out how the promiscuous and the predators got away witg it...because the bishops were vulnerable to blackmail.
This is a claim Ann Barnhart has made in the past...like the National Enquirer, a lot of her most radical claims about the church have come true. She is however still paranoid when she discusses vaccines...at least I hope its just paranoia
End sarcasm
----------------
update: A history of why China is afraid of outside religions: It dates back 1500 years.
Friday, July 16, 2021
Film of the week
quick before the copyright cops find it and remove it:
Thursday, July 15, 2021
catching up on the news
Joy is flat in bed with a cold and fever symptoms. I put her on zithromax and tylenol... I had severe aches and asthma/uri symptoms yesterday but no fever so took prednisone and feel better today. The maid is sick with the same symptoms and probably gave it to us, but Joy runs around with business so might not have the same thing.
The internet is back on after Kuya changed the modem (a yearly problem:? cheap Chinese made modem or is it from the thunderstorm related surges we get all the time).
Asthma and diarrhea are going around too, and some ask for money to take their kids to the hospital ER. Public hospital is free, but not the medicine or tricycle fare. But many prefer to be treated in the private hospitals/clinics because of the crowded waiting rooms and danger of catching Covid.
Our family has had one shot so have partial immunity. Second shot due in August.
In the meanwhile, the news is crazy.
forget Godzilla: THE CAT IS COMING!
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Move over Elon Musk and Brason
Nor was this the only such attack article in the past two days. Here is just a sampling:
- Boston Review: Lost in Space
- The Independent: The global super-rich are taking joyrides in space as our precious planet burns
- Jacobin: Leave the Billionaires in Space
While the last two op-eds above are partly in response to Richard Branson’s suborbital flight on July 11th, their timing and linkage to the FAA’s revelation yesterday is no accident. Forces in and out of government that are strongly hostile to private enterprise and its ability to get things done are working together hard to squelch the new renaissance in commercial space, precisely because it shows how successful capitalism and freedom are compared to the bloated, wasteful, inefficient government-run space programs that we have been saddled with for decades and have gotten us nowhere during that time.
Family news
Friday, July 09, 2021
yup. just move along folks
and this is how you get homophobia:
ThePG rated version of the story can be found on PJMedia.
x rated version LINK
A joke? (so just ignore the double entendres)
The singers insist the song is all about tolerance, so who dare to object unless one is a evil right wing bigot (or a parent who objects to the toxic sexual waste that is being pushed onto their children by the cultural elites).
those charming singers would never really harm your child. It's a satire, right? so don't be a bigot and object.
this is a song glorifying the fact that the American culture is busy normalizing any and all sexual activity, and is teaching indoctrinating children into sexuality at an early age.
First you remove the taboo in discussing it, then you hint it's okay, then you print propaganda stories making it sympathetic, then you decriminalize it as "consensual", then you stigmatize those who criticize it as bigots.
Got it.
Update Daily Wire via Tea At Trionon points out how the sex education trends are leading to children being sexualized and easily recruited, and suspects the porn epidemic is part of the reason.
Ballard noted that by exposing children to sexualized materials, government schools are employing the same tactics as traffickers.
“Candace and I talked about teachers who are now teaching children to masturbate and to learn terms like ‘clitoris’ and ‘erection.’ As I said to Candace, this is exactly what the traffickers are trying to do to children. If they can get access, they will try to desensitize them by showing them sexual things. Now they have teachers doing it for them… you’re just softening up these children and making them ripe for victimhood.”
“Or, you teach them that sexuality is so okay that a fourteen-year-old on Instagram is showing as much skin as they can,” he continued. “If you’re paying attention, there are traffickers commenting under the photos. ‘Hey, you’re so beautiful, why don’t you come to a photoshoot?’ That’s how they’re recruiting kids into trafficking.”
“Anyone that’s pushing that mentality — especially in public education — the reader can decide who’s doing that,” remarked Ballard. “Whoever’s doing that is on the wrong side of history.” (Read more.)
I am old enough to remember when Germany's green party attempted to legalize sex with children by lowering the age of consent.... and Johns Hopkins had a clinic where two prominent physicians insisted that folks having sex with children needed to be treated, not jailed (1992 article here).
and this idea is undergoing a renaissance today....
The idea is if a type of sexual activity is being done by some folks, then hey, don't be judgemental.
And the dirty little secret is that there is something attractive about the pubescent innocent (of both sexes, but especially of pubescent boys in the gay community) that attracts some people, so some argue since this is a fact, we should tolerate such behavior.
And hey, the kids like it (so a Project Sigma report in 1993 said 35 percent of male gays had intercourse below age 15, including ten percent under age 10 but hey, that didn't mess them us psychologically so stop worrying.. and one suspects the numbers are much higher nowadays, since fatherless boys are now more common in society and fatherless boys are especially vulnerable to being groomed).
That was the story we were taught in medical school back in the early 1970s. Freudian theory and Kinsey affirmed it.
... until the victims grew up and blew the whistle.
italics mine.
Summary here does note that the statistics might be too low because most cases of sexual abuse are not reported. From shame, from denial, or because they are told that their reality isn't true.
New Yorker article about the problem.( the link can be found with other links on the subject HERE.)
When monsters roam free, we assume that people in positions of authority ought to be able to catch them if only they did their jobs. But that might be wishful thinking. A pedophile... is someone adept not just at preying on children but at confusing, deceiving, and charming the adults responsible for those children.
So am I a bigot to worry that this song is just another MSM and internet manipulation to desensitize you?
Too many examples out there, but mostly on right wing sites like the Washington Post editorial who says hey, letting kids see the perverts acting out sexually during a parade is okay, or the LATimes spins a story as transphobia in their report that Antifa is attacking women who object to a pervert exposing himself in a woman's spa by pretending to be a lady, or good morning America and other MSM outlets promoting gay child drag queens on stage.
you know, a lot of us opposed the sexualization of little girls on stage and screen, something the Ramsey murder brought to our attention. So how is this good for children?
the full court press to ridicule the traditional morals of the world (not just Christians, but Confucian ethics, Islamic ethics, and the ethics of many traditional religions oppose this type of behavior).
So we see stuff like the "football is gay" meme being lauded in the MSM as something to be celebrated, which made me think: Uh, Joe Paterno?
ah yes, poor Joe.
His family insisted he just didn't understand the issue: but even USAToday noted the similarity with the lack of understanding that this was abuse that needed to be reported with the moral collapse of the catholic church in Pennsylvania.
And I thought WTF, until I remembered how the local Altoona diocese in the 1990s and early 2000s promoted gay friendly policies: the psychologist who screened our seminarians told the State College school board that the gay agenda was not a problem, and we had lots of articles supporting the gay agenda in the diocesan newspaper .... LINK..., and fired priests who objected. Penn State is located within that diocese, and it's gay friendly outreach might have led to the failure of Catholics at Penn State to ignore the Sandusky incident in 2002.
Sigh.
As this column in the NYPost notes that minorities who are traditional Democratic voters are pushing back the agenda of the elites (who now run the Democratic party and who are fighting the Trumpieboy led populist takeover of that party).
and all of this might be the reason behind the uberreaction of the snowflakes about "micro aggression", which is often pushback after these folks have been gaslighted by authority figures. (and alas sometimes it is fantasy or attention getting behavior or suffering from low self esteem and adjustment issues so are exaggerating their experiences to fit into the latest social fad).
So we see kids, especially celebrity's kids go from proclaiming they are gay to proclaiming they are "pansexual" to proclaiming they are transgender... and now they claim they are "Demisexual".
Demisexual people only feel sexually attracted to someone when they have an emotional bond with the person. They can be gay, straight, bisexual, or pansexual, and may have any gender identity. ..
Demisexual people do not feel primary attraction — the attraction you feel to someone when you first meet them. They only feel secondary attraction — the type of attraction that happens after knowing someone for a while.
In other words, if you don't immediately see a person as a sexual object and feel you have to jump into bed with them, you now have your own psychiatric desription.
And I'm old enough to remember when that was normal.
);
Thursday, July 08, 2021
Catsup post of the day
here, we can get several versions of tomato catsup: regular, sweet, and hot/spicy.
But we also have Banana catsup, which is a bit cheaper.
and it has an interesting history.
Sunday, July 04, 2021
the Firefighter's prayer
we live in Asia, so tend to watch a lot of Korean dramas: romance, ghosts, class vs class, etc.
So there we were watching an old (2010) K drama The Secret Garden, where an uberrich guy switches souls with a lower class lady stuntman. There are usually historical reasons for these things in K dramas: and it turns out that the lady's father rescued the guy from a fire and when the fireman realized he wouldn't make it, told the rich guy to take care of his daughter, but the rich guy developed PTSS and blocked out the memory, so the father's ghost brought them together years late to do this.
Silly, but hey, it's a drama.
But in the midst of the story, there is a flashback to the man's rescue, and the narrator, presumably the fireman is saying the Fireman's prayer as they search for survivors. (49 minutes into the drama):
One, because American dramas censor any reference to God, but in a secular Korea, the shamans and priests and religious icons are just part of the cultural background in these dramas.
That we were put on earth to Know, love and serve God in this world.
And that every action in our ordinary life, done with love, is a prayer.
That we were his hands here in the world. And that all of us: Artists, mothers and fathers, retired old ladies, doctors, cops, office workers, farmers, street cleaners, shop keepers, etc. are part of his work."
Saturday, July 03, 2021
Why Blood clots? genetic problems, vaccine, and IV administration
technical discussion about the blood clot problem from some of the covid vaccines: is it partly from inadvertent IV injection?
this is about the adenovirus vaccine, (UK/Astrozeneca) vaccine, not the mRNA vaccine.
Thrombocytopenia has been consistently reported following the administration of adenoviral gene transfer vectors. The virus activates platelets and induces platelet-leukocyte aggregate formation. Polyethylene glycol modification of adenovirus reduces platelet activation, endothelial cell activation, and thrombocytopenia, (Human gene therapy, 2007)
Recently a rare and novel complication of SARS-CoV-2 targeted adenovirus vaccines has emerged: thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS). TTS is characterized by low platelet counts, clot formation at unusual anatomic sites and platelet-activating PF4-polyanion antibodies reminiscent of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. Here, we employ in vitro and in vivo models to characterize the possible mechanisms of this platelet-targeted autoimmunity. We show that intravenous but not intramuscular injection of ChAdOx1 nCov-19 triggers platelet-adenovirus aggregate formation and platelet activation. After intravenous injection, these aggregates are phagocytosed by macrophages in the spleen and platelet remnants are found in the marginal zone and follicles. This is followed by a pronounced B-cell response with the emergence of circulating antibodies binding to platelets. Our work contributes to the understanding of TTS and highlights accidental intravenous injection as potential mechanism for post-vaccination TTS. Hence, safe intramuscular injection, with aspiration prior to injection, could be a potential preventive measure when administering adenovirus-based vaccines.
and there are genetic reasons for thrombocytopenia: LINK
it seems to be a problem from the adenovirus part of the vaccine. This has implications for other vaccines using the adenovirus template.
for all the kerfuffle about the vaccines, it still comes to a risk benefit ratio.
For we elders, the risk is smaller than dying from covid or complications related to covid.
We have had some cases in town, but in the last three weeks we have had quite a few elders die, and lots of people asking for help because they have asthma. The overcast from the monsoon is making my asthma worse, and of course it means more mold in house. But I wonder if there is a covid related problem in the area. Most have no fever, so probably not.
article on how to tell the difference between covid and allergies.
fever and general body aches and pains are one way to tell.
________________
From above link about platelet clumping...
We conclude that Adenovirus-induced thrombocytopenia: (the role of von Willebrand factor and P-selectin in mediating accelerated platelet clearance) are critically involved in a complex platelet-leukocyte-endothelial interplay, resulting in platelet activation and accelerated platelet clearance following adenovirus administration.
Wikipedia article about vWF here.
Thursday, July 01, 2021
volcano alert
Sit back and smile
There is so much angst and hysteria on line that I thought I'd link to Minnesota nice.
Garrison Keillor's essay today is about returning home and just having supper with friends.
It was a jovial two hours and because I am fifty years older than either of them, I did not natter. There was no nattering, no reminiscence about the Swinging Sixties back when pop songs made sense.
I asked them questions about their lives and it was illuminatory and inspiring, to hear about real things. Two hours, during which we did not spend one minute talking about the issues and crises that newspaper columnists have been agonizing over for the past five years. The political fortunes of Vlad the Impaler did not occupy us for five seconds.
She is heading into the business of listening to troubled people and he is managing a venue for punk bands and stand-up comics and both are doing well and this makes me happy: young people avoiding the many dark corridors available and pursuing what makes them happy. This gives me hope for the future, which I have much less of than they, that friendship will see us through whatever happens.
For awhile Keillor was in a bitter period but now he's back to being the mellow fellow who gives you hope.
and his Writer's Almanac podcast is now on Youtube:
Saving the Union: Gettysburg July 1-3, 1863
If Lee had won the Battle of Gettysburg, he would be able to surround Washington D.C. and probably would have won the war.