February, 2020 archive
Virginia Beach Drinking Liberally Tomorrow 0
Join us for fellowship and camaraderie and to discuss living in an age of catch-22.
When: Thursday, February 13, 6 p. m.
Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)
Read the chapter blog and sign up to have your inbox flooded with one or two emails a month here.
Epidemiology, Reprise 0
As I have mentioned before, the panic being fomented, primarily on cable news and “social” media, over the coronavirus is wholly disproportional to the threat. And now that panic is going viral in its own inimical way.
Alexandra Brewis and Amber Wutich explore this at Psychology Today Blogs. A snippet:
This is because growing fears toward groups associated with emerging epidemic diseases act to hasten disease spread. This may seem counterintuitive, but it is all because of the way stigma undermines effective public health responses. For coronavirus, that stigma is targeting people from China. It is happening all over, including at Arizona State, our own university campus . . . .
Follow the link for their description of how such reactions hinder effective public health responses.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Settle disputes politely.
“We determined the victim and his buddy were intoxicated and got into a physical altercation,” Nixon said. “A weapon was pulled out and accidentally discharged and hit him in the leg.”
The solution to preventing occurrences of this nature is, of course per the NRA, more guns. No doubt, had two portable instruments of male enhancement been pulled, no legs would have been shot.
Also, pigs, wings.
Twitterer-in-Chief 0
As David points out, this isn’t normal.
Or is it the new normal?
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
More child’s play.
Just another day in the NRA’s Garden of Bleedin’.
The Unfringed 0
An AP story in the Denver Post highlights the spread of unhinged conspiracy theories, assisted by “social” media and Donald Trump and the Trumpettes. Here’s a bit.
Conspiracy theories are nothing new, but experts fear the powerful engine of social media and a volatile political climate have ramped up the threat of violence.
Aside:
Methinks one of the fuels for conspiracy theories is persons’ inability to deal with the complexity of real life. Instead, they embrace the absurd in a search for the easy.
If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Be Better 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., rips the Republican Party’s faux outrage at Pelosi’s rip.
Arrogation Day 0
It occurs to me that a significant difference between Republicans and Democrats is this:
Democrats still have a touching faith in the rule of law.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Peace, love, and guns.
When police arrived on the scene they determined that a handgun was unintentionally discharged by a security guard.
(snip)
Police say that this incident occurred in the security guards’ office and there were five security guards in the room during the shooting.