Family news and films

 because I have been feeling lousy I am getting tests from the local doctor. So far so good.

I wonder if the last cold I had was covid, since I now am tired and fuzzy minded (slow covid post infection?). But I wasn't sick with my last cold six weeks ago, whereas I was very sick last year with one: but both times I did not have the headache or body ache of covid, nor much of a fever, so I did not get tested.

In the meanwhile I am reading and watching films.

I have'n't seen most of the films up for academy awards, because they haven't been shown here yet on TV (I don't go to the theatre). I have already reviewed Dune (beautiful but confusing) and Don't look up (dumb) in past blogposts.

King Richard was a good sports movie: family friendly and about striving to win. So it probably won't win any awards, although Will Smith is very good as the father (i.e. King Richard)

I did see MacBeth: Interesing take. Good black and white cinematrography that emphasizes the dark tale.

And I did see the Power of the Dog about a man working on a ranch, and probably trying to adjust to his latent homosexuality. The reviews all said it was about his verbal mistreatment of a woman, but she was a hysterical wimp and had little to do with the plot, so I don't know if I was watching the same movie. And at the end, he tries to help the woman's son adjust to his gay impulses and to adjust to the macho society of the ranch. Given that he, not his brother (the wimpy lady's husband) was doing all the work, one does understand why he goes out of the way to ridicule these hoity toity parasites, but hey, that's just me.

Cumberbatch deserves and Oscar, as usual, but probably won't get it.

Speaking of Cumberbatch: Did anyone notice that the Last Enemy, a BBC series which he stars in,  hints at the conpiracies of government surveillence and also has a plot about the coverup of a bad vaccine that is killing people (so that people won't be suspicious of life saving vaccines in the future).

more here.

It's getting so that conspiracy theories are coming true, which proves that keeping an eye on Alex Jones and other nutcases might hint at what is going on.

Usually conspiracy theories are exaggerations of a small part of the truth, and of course a lot of them start because a paranoid or sociopath needs a reason to feel important. But censoring them just makes things worse.

An example of a conspiracy theory that has recently been revealed as true? Hunter Biden and the Ukraine policy of the US> Austin Bay, a military analyst, discusses LINK

Another conspiracy theory is something the right wing nuts knew since it started: That Trump did not conspire with Russia, that the Democrats concocted a story which justified the federal law enforcement to spy on his campaign and then undermine his presidency, including trying to impeach him twice, etc. and that the major newspapers in the USA got pulitzer prizes for reporting these things, which they echoed talking points instead of trying to find out the truth.

So will anyone go to jail over this? Nope. 

Hmm... was Q right (not Qanon, which is not the same). Next thing you know you will find about politicians, VIPs, and celebrities who are having sexual orgies with underage teenagers. 

and I won't even go into the covid conspiracies. 

I support vaccine, masking (which helps if done correctly) and limited quarantine should be done, but then it brings up the question of who put infectious people back into nursing homes so that other old folks could catch it and die? 

Too bad Dr Levine was rewarded with a job in the Biden administratio, even though she  took her mom out of a nursing home when the rule to place post hospitalization but still infectious covid patients back into their nursing homes: She knew this put her mom in danger, but implemented it anyway because hey, someone made this a rule and rules must be obeyed...even though he/she knew it would kill people, (but hey being trans means never having your malpractice revealed) (I have written an essay in the past about how our nursing home had to fight this Medicare bureaucrats to keep out a Vancomycin resistant strep aureus patient out of our nursing home) 

So remove the civil rights from low risk folk, but allow the infection be spread in high risk patients, because an old rule says it's okay? WTF?

the overblown way this has been done-- shutting down entire industries and putting people out of work and bankrupting small businesses-- is making people think that maybe it was all a conspiracy to try to impose a NWO on the world: and that vaccine cards will soon morph into a universal ID card so that you can be tracked, and maybe even have your savings confiscated and your licenses to work or drive be taken from you if you object.

And Canada's overblown reaction to the trucker's strike shows what can happen to you too if you complain too loudly.

They could have settled it in a day by suspending the new (not old) regulations, but never mind

I have some sympathy with the truckers: Because I know we had to pay a lot of money for our folks to get tested every time we delivered rice into Manila, and now of course we only need a vaccine card. But the conspiracy theories on vaccine side effects for young men, not to mention the use of fetal tissue, has made some people refuse vaccination. So fine; put them in a mask and no problem? No. And the refusal is framed as killing people, even though the vaccines don't completely stop transmission or getting the disease. Ah, but the real reason is that they are disobeying the government so how dare you. WTF?

Here, it's not so much a problem yet: In Asia we frequently use masks to stop people from spreading TB or colds. And with only half the population being vaccinated, a complete police state is not going to happen for awhile.