A movie just waiting to be written and produced, based on King Putz’s administration: “Feebs: We’re the government; we’re here to help (ourselves)”
A Chillingly Reasonable Conspiracy Theory
A comment at The Belmont Club post, “Ebola in America,” is chilling in the manner it parses federal “incompetence.” Or maybe federal “incompetence” really is, à la John Ringo’s “The Last Centurion”–genuine institutional and political stupidity. You decide.
From the comments to the post linked above:
“1) Responding to epidemics/pandemics is NOT something that has never come up before. The very fact that we are here, with our pre-Ebola life expectancies, is based on the ability of medical science to respond to disease outbreaks.
“2) The standard first response, backed by millennia of successful experience, is isolation of the infected community/individuals with quarantine for those who are suspected and at risk.
“3) The deliberate, considered, and premeditated response of Federal agencies across the board has been to bring as many disease vectors into this country as they possibly can, to forcibly prevent them from being medically screened, to scatter them throughout the country, and to actively impede state and local health authorities from responding to any disease outbreaks triggered.
“We now have Ebola being spread by government actions within our borders. We now have previously eradicated TB being spread by government action within our borders, except now drug resistant. We now have an epidemic enterovirus all over the country attacking children, now killing them, and mutating into a form of polio which we had eradicated within our borders. We now have Dengue Fever spreading within this country, which has not been here in any volume for a century.
“And all of it spread in the last couple of years with the help of all agencies of the Federal government.
“This is a level of ‘incompetence’ that cannot be blamed on one or two individuals. It crosses several Cabinet level departments with them working together for a common result. Which we are seeing now. That level of “incompetence” is in fact planning and premeditation. The odds of multiple departments committing reinforcing acts to bring this result by pure chance are beyond credibility. Especially, since not one of them are responding to the breaking reality with changed behavior.
“The proper domestic response to the initial outbreak would have been stopping all direct flights between the US and the affected countries, blocking entry of anyone who has been in those countries until they can prove that they have been outside those countries for 30 days, the cancellation of student and tourist visas for people from those countries, and [oh, yes] securing our borders so that anyone who comes in is screened for health and legal status. Noting that 15% of the illegal invaders who cross our deliberately-erased-by-the-Federal-government are NOT from Mexico, Central, or South America. And that from January-August this year 71 nationals from the Ebola infected countries were caught at the former border. And that we only catch a small percentage of those crossing.
“I would also note that we have done the travel restrictions relatively recently for H1N1 flu. This is not breaking new ground. It is deliberate avoidance of proper epidemiological procedure.
“Prediction: sometime soon, the Federal government will institute movement and quarantine controls inside the country for US citizens only. The national borders will remain wide open. Foreigners, legal or invaders, will be allowed to move as they please. And all anti-discrimination laws will be firmly enforced.
“I have expressed doubts about a real election in November. This reinforces those doubts.
“And it would not be a bad thing for those that can to prepare for a period of self-imposed isolation, and self-defense, during it.”–Subotai Bahadur
It sure seems to be a good fit for King Putz’s consistent implementation of Cloward-Pivens, doesn’t it?
In closing, competing aphorisms:
“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”–Ian Flemming
and
“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”–attributed to Napoleon
So, which is it? Or, is it essentially both: stupid malice?
Update: While considering the above, add this into your ponderings:
Immigration Expert: Obama Admin Responsible for Letting Ebola Patient into U.S.
Perhaps we should quarantine all US Ebola patients in the WH–along with the “foist” family
Changing Tastes
It’s been a relatively long journey getting to the point where I enjoy my coffee with a little sweetener of some kind. I think it just brightens it a wee bit and aids some of the high notes, but I could just be fooling myself.
The thing is, I have also come to dislike sucrose. So, what to do.
Honey won’t do. It adds a flavor I find doesn’t agree with my coffee preferences.
“Stevia”? Oh, please-ia, no. It’s sort of OK in cold things, but coffee? Nuh-uh.
Aspartame? Emphatically no! That stuff’s just nasty!
Saccharin? In its calcium and potassium salts formulations, it’s not half bad. Sort of almost OK. Will do in a pinch, though it seems to add a slightly bitter aftertaste, in my mouth.
Sucralose? The recent Italian study that found a “high” incidence of leukemia in cancer-prone mice when they were fed “varying” (read, “varying excessively high”) doses of sucralose from birth doesn’t concern me. IMO, from what I could see from the abstract and what little other material from the study was freely available, the “researchers” should be flogged, tarred, feathered and run out of whatever town they seek to dwell in. JMO, of course. YMMV. But as to its use in coffee (an anti-carcinogenic beverage :-)), it is just about right, IMO. It’s sweet in hot stuff, doesn’t actually do anything to cancel out the lovely acidic nip of coffee, and has a “mouth” that approximates sucrose without the offensive stickiness. High/flowery notes in the coffee seem more pronounced with its use. Sucralose wins the race.
When I want to be really fancy-schmancy, I add some heavy cream (NO “CREAMER” EVER!!! *gagamaggot*), sprinkle a bit of ground cinnamon on top (or use a cinnamon “stick” as a stirer), froth it with a whisk, and drink up.
Lovely.
Sidebar:
A bonus? I like the fact that sucralose was discovered/invented by a guy who was trying to create a new insecticide. He noticed that while the bugs fed sucralose were dying, it was taking a really, really long time. More research. Nope. The insects were not being poisoned. They were dying of starvation, because they ate the super-sweet sucralose preferentially, avoiding other, nutritious, foods.
As a result, I also use sucralose in my own “insect powder” devised of sucralose, a very wee tad of cornstarch and boric acid, whirred together in a food processor. Kills crawling insects effectively and is much, much safer to use than most commercial preparations.
I Wouldn’t Exactly Shout “Crucify Him!”
. . .though his embrace of the “messiah” title a few years ago might make that seem appropriate, and I suppose *sigh* that drawing and quartering are right out the window (that pesky Eighth Amendment), but. . .
IF the outbreaks of enterovirus sweeping the country can be and are traced back to illegals encouraged to enter and allowed to stay by executive action in violation of immigration law, then wouldn’t it be a Good Thing for suit to be brought by the various states (and individuals; class action, perhaps) affected against the administration seeking relief from damages? And would it not be just and proper to press for the voiding of qualified immunity for individuals whose ILLEGAL actions led to the outbreak (if the above linkage could be demonstrated) in order that they might be held personally responsible and punitive damages sought against them as individuals, all the way to the White House?
These suits could then be followed by prison and terms on chain gangs making little rocks from big ones. For life. In lieu of execution for treason.
Flogging, tarring and feathering would just be icing on the cake.
I Need This on a T-Shirt
[Seen in a comment over at Sarah Hoyt’s place–and I DO want this on a t-shirt!]
“I am a member of the White Male Patriarchy. I have places to go, and women and minorities to oppress.”
Good Neighbors
The last couple of decades living here in a relatively small town (fewer than 2,000 souls populate the town) in America’s Third World County™ have been good. The first 40-*mumble* years of my life I spent mostly in metro areas ranging from a couple of hundred thousand folks to a million and more. The whole county contains around 25,000 folks, with about 60% spread out back in the hills-n-hollers-n-piney woods. . . although there are some areas with more developed farmland.
Although I’ve been leisurely nosing around for 40-80 acres to “get lost in,” just to get away from the crowding and noise of this major metropolis *snerk* where I now live, it is nice to have the neighbors I have now. Example:
Heading on down to the post office, just before the one-lane low-water crossing, a tree had downed a pretty good-sized limb. Traffic coming, I slid on by and once I rounded Joe _____’s place, I made a turn around, to come back and haul the thing off to the side of the road.
A couple of neighbors beat me to it. One was the young(ish) dad of the best kids in the neighborhood* (really!) and the other was his uncle from a bit further on down the street. They had it dragged on off to the side of the road by the time I had turned around and come back.
Good neighbors.
Now, I won’t say things like that NEVER happened in the cities I lived in, in years past, but around here, it’s just normal.
*Yeh, his 9-year-old son is the neighborhood organizer/leader. I had a basketball goal I had taken down (‘cos some drunk had driven off the road and down the hill into our yard, taking the pole out. *shrugs* Son & Heir had stopped using it a few years ago anyway). Asked him if he could use it. Said no, he already had one, but he’d ask around. Came back later with his younger brother, and they took it down to a family with kids who could use it. Another time, he was mowing some of his granddad’s property (a grassed drive beside our house leading to a large storage building just above the creek). He went ahead and mowed my front lawn, too. Uh-huh. One of those times when I had twisted my bad knee again and was using a cane. The kid notices things.
Good neighbors.
I’ll miss them when I move out to live on Goa Way, but not enough to keep me from moving, if I find the place. *heh*
Pubschool Education is in the Very Best of Hands. . .
. . . or not.
[Names and location withheld to avert–justifiable–assault upon the guilty.]
Read/seen somewhere else. Woman happy to report via selfie that she and her friend were “Getting our nails did.”
A grade school teacher.
*sigh*
Oh, and the nail work was disgusting. Bad taste AND non-existent connection to logic and grammar. No, I wouldn’t dare “share” the pic. Why open myself up to charges of causing blindness. I had to exercise strict self-control to keep from putting my own eyes out after seeing what I can never unsee. . . The horror!
Remember: I do these things so you don’t have to.
Defining Terms #1,386
Exhausted, wet, lost, uncomfortable, hungry and cold=”good training”. *heh*
Pejoration of Language is Inevitable
But why does it always seem to stem from illiterates and liars?
Illiterates, for example, tear down useful words and phrases through simple ignorance and sometimes stupidity. An example from something I read recently will illustrate this point: “[I]t’s the exception that makes the rule.” This corruption was obviously drawn from the old adage, “The exception proves the rule,” which actually means, “The exception TESTS the rule.” The writer of “the exception. . . makes the rule” never bothered to learn what the original adage actually said and so his corruption makes at least some sort of (non)sense, based on his poor literacy.
Worse are those who wittingly corrupt words, terms and phrases to mean something opposite of their once common senses. Take for example a self-proclaimed “liberal democrat” whose words and deeds prove him to be a tyrannical statist bent on corrupting democracy.
That’s why I so often call out and condemn both illiterate and disingenuous abuse of English. “Rage, rage against the dying of the light,” as it were.
In a Civilized Society. . .
. . . you know, one that actually recognized private property rights, the natural progression illustrated below would be perfectly acceptable.
A simple statement, easily understood, establishing a clear boundary saying, “Not yours. Stay out.”
If a trespasser were to proceed, then a second warning might justifiably be issued by an exceedingly patient and forbearing landowner:
If that failed to deter a malefactor, then *sigh*. . .
OK, MORE than excessively generous, kind and gentle landowners might include, between #2 and #3 (or #1 and #2), a sign stating,
Fence and “No Trespassing” Signs
Security/Surveillance System
Guard Dogs
Armed Response
For clearance to enter the property try calling 1-800-UGO-AWAY
Is “No Trespassing” Clear Now?