May, 2020 archive
Test Flailure 1
An excerpt:
That’s the Trump strategy in a nutshell: If we don’t have evidence, there’s no way for people to know about it . . . .
Unmasked Marauders, Reprise 0
The writer of a letter to the editor of the Portland Press-Herald reports a close encounter of the menacing kind.
Unmasked Marauders 0
The editorial board of the Hartford Courant looks ahead at the “reopening” of Connecticut (and, by extension, other states) and has concerns (emphasis added). A nugget:
First, politicians have turned over communication and key decision making to scientists and public health experts, encouraging community responsibility and backing sweeping rules and regulations that were universally applied. That worked in South Korea, Vietnam and New Zealand. It also worked in Washington state, where the governor took a backseat to doctors and epidemiologists.
Second, effective leaders have learned from past failures in fighting pandemics and used those lessons to adjust their approach. A key lesson from a 2007 public health report “Lessons Learned from the 1918–1919 Influenza Pandemic in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota,” identified a lack of clarity and coordination among local, state and federal authorities as a critical problem.
Both those lessons are being ignored by too many, and we are now at serious risk of losing the gains of the last two months, fueled in no small part by the illusion that not wearing a mask to the grocery store is an act of political will.
Do please read the rest.
Immune to Information 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Joe Pierre examines the “infodemic” of conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and how they interact with anti-vaxx propaganda. Here’s a snippet:
In order to understand why this informational battle is being lost, at least online, it must be first understood that the anti-vaccination movement is not just a rag-tag group of people worried about vaccines, but a highly organized and strategically coordinated political campaign. And while its members are indeed comprised of parents from both sides of the political divide who are worried for their children, there are larger, dare we say conspiratorial forces operating behind the scenes of the movement.
Follow the link for the full article, including links to and citations of his sources.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet another responsible gun owner discharges his responsibility.
The Void 0
At the Tampa Bay Times, retired military officer and public servant Robert Bruce Adolph admits to being less than sanguine as regards the “leadership” emanating from the White House during these viral times.
I don’t wish to excerpt of summarize it in any way beyond the above. It’s a short article, just on the other end of the link.
The Right To Scary Arms 0
Harry Litman drills through the smokescreen to explain the NRA’s definition of the second amendment (and that of its dupes, symps, and fellow-travelers) and suggests its not about the right to hunt, target-shoot, and, if necessary, to protect, but rather about the right to intimidate.
Give it a read.
Geeking Out 0
Mageia v. 7 with the QMMP media player with the Chinese Beauty skin playing music that swings, Claws-Mail and Firefox tabbed and shaded, Konsole (also shaded), GKrellM, and xclock. The Fluxbox window manager is using the sunlense theme.
The background is from my collection.
