The Battle of New Orleans

 The Crescent City, home to Mardi Gras and jazz, faces a double-barrelled threat now--the destruction caused by Hurricane Ida and the continuing surge in COVID cases. It is not being aided--nor is the rest of Louisiana--by the recalcitrance of the state's Republican-dominated legislature, which fights Gov. John Bel Edwards (a Democrat) on every measure he puts in place to combat the pandemic. Though they have not rescinded his mask mandate, they readily support those of their constituents who suggest nonsense such as "masks don't work" and proposals to prevent hospital over-crowding by promoting "healthier living".

Of course, now, with the power grid destroyed in New Orleans, those hospitals still operating are doing so on generators...and they can only continue as long as fuel for the generators holds out. Given the conditions of the roads, there's no new fuel being delivered, either.

While there's little any politician could do to prevent the devestation of a Cat 4 hurricane, there's much they could have done in the past year to have put the state's hospitals in a better position to deal with the aftermath of a natural disaster...and you would think anyone living Louisiana would realize the likelihood of such a disaster occurring.

What Does He Mean by "Science"?

 The following paragraph is from a letter written by a teacher to my local paper, The Delaware County Times. arguing against mask mandates in schools:

While Delco got some publicity and took some shots for its portrayal in HBO’s television series Mare of Eastown, one thing many Delco residents do have is common sense. It doesn’t take a lot of it to see that, in this case, the needs of our children should supersede the recommendations of “science”. The extremely minor health risks don’t outweigh the risks of what another abnormal year could do to our children, our families and our communities. I would need to write another letter to detail the damage done in Delco’s poorer districts, where students who needed the constant of school the most were deprived of it for more than an entire school year.

It appalls me to see a teacher put scare quotes around the word "science" while arguing against a policy recommended by the CDC, the AMA, the teachers' unions, and many other responsible and expert organizations.  What greater needs do our children have than to be kept safe from a highly contagious disease?

Follow-Ups

 On Monday, I spoke here of the former military and foreign affairs advisers who are saying that President Biden's decision to withdraw from the two-decade conflict in Aghanistan was ill-conceived at best and disastrous at worst. I described it as "asking the guy who set the fire to criticize the firefighters who are failing to put it out."

Well, it just continues in the aftermath of yesterday's tragic attack--not by the Taliban, let me remind you--at the Kabul airport. Leading the charge was H.R. McMaster,  President Trump's former National Security Advisor and a former commander in virtually all of our "anti-terrorist" campaigns in the Middle East and central Asia. He actually argued that, even with the withdrawal, the US should have maintained control of Bagram Air Force Base, in perpetuity. This strikes me as setting up the central Asia version of Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba: an island of US forces surrounded by...and under siege by...the enemy, where the only way out is by air, and the enemy have the clear capability to take down any plane taking off or landing.

That any military "expert" could support such a plan strikes me as ludicrous.

Then, on Wednesday, I explained why I have given up on any thoughts of being on a school board, because of the rancor being expressed at local meetings over COVID regulations. As an example of that rancor, I offer the following report on a school board meeting earlier this week:

Mask protests in Garnet Valley resulted in police being called to the August School Board meeting on Tuesday evening.

A group of 30-40 parents protesting the district’s mask plans for the fall appeared in person at the meeting which was held both in-person and on the meeting app Zoom.

One resident, who identified herself as Leah Hoopes of Glen Mills, took the microphone in the boardroom and read her comments to the residents in the audience.

Hoopes said what she called “scientistism” is being used when it fits the board’s narrative and she questioned the changing recommendations about masking during the pandemic. She said families had done what they were asked to do over the past 18 months but the continued masking requirements are in her opinion not about safety, just liability and compliance.

“This has become psychological warfare on developing children,” said Hoopes. “Fact. masks don’t work. My son’s civil liberties, my parental discretion, are not suspended because of a virus.”

Delaware County Daily Times, Thursday, August 26

 

A Job I No Longer Want

 There was a time, about 15 years ago, when I seriously considered running to be a member of the local school board. I had been a frequent and vocal attendee at board meetings, especially during the two-year-long battle to build a new high school, and I thought I had something to offer to a group that seemed relatively calm and reasoned, even in the face of sometimes irrational opposition.

Though I continued to think about it after my kids graduated, the events of the past 18 months have changed my mind. Our board has, thankfully, faced little of the violent confrontations over COVID regulations, critical race theory, or any of the other controversies that have come before other school boards in the area, but I fear it is only a matter of time before the crazies descend on us. An example is the Black Lives Matter gatherings in our town last summer--we were inundated by outsiders during those events, people who came from neighboring communities to use our peaceful demonstrations as a way to spark unrest.

Although only residents of our school district can speak at a board meeting, it is not unlikely that outsiders could populate the audience or form a protest outside the meeting instead. I'm waiting for the school year to start with trepidation.

Afghan Regrets

 I really wish all the news organizations would stop calling on the same military and intelligence advisors who got us into Afghanistan in the first place and kept us there for two decades to comment on the current situation. Since the vast majority of them think President Biden should not have withdrawn at all, they are naturally going to call the consequences all his fault and accept no responsibility themselves.

It is, quite frankly, like asking the guy who set the fire to criticize the firefighters who are failing to put it out.

Streaming Recommendations?

 Jill and I are rapidly reaching the end of all the things we've been streaming since the pandemic and are in need of new suggestions.

Our likes include British mysteries and crime dramas, on the order of Midsomer Mysteries, Vera, and Professor T. Also comedy panel shows such as QI or 9 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. From this side of the pond, we've enjoyed Longmire and the reboot of Leverage. Of course, SF and fantasy are always welcome, but we prefer things that don't get too dystopian, if you know what I mean.

We subscribe to Netflix, Disney+. Paramount+, Acorn, Britbox, HBOMax, IMBDtv, and Amazon Prime.

Any thoughts on what we might start watching?

Facebook and Conspiracy

 Today on MSNBC's Morning Joe, several people talked about friends and relatives who had fallen down the right-wing conspiracy rabbit-hole, blamed it on the things they were reading on Facebook, and yet described these friends and relatives as "educated and intelligent".

My immediate unspoken response was "No, they are not." No "educated, intelligent" person could possibly read the Qanon, Big Lie, anti-vax compendium of "theories" (in quotes because these things do not in any way meet the dictionary definition) and take them seriously. Further, I have to ask, "Why are these things even coming up in their Facebook feed?" I am on FB almost constantly--at least four or five hours every day, probably more--and I only see this nonsense when someone links to it to deride it, to cast scorn on those who believe it, to demonstrate how inane it is. If it's coming up on your feed in any other way, it can only be because you have searched it out, you have "friended" someone who regularly posts it, or you have joined a group dedicated to spreading it around.

Don't blame any of that on FB's algorithms, either. Unless you have expressed an interest in this claptrap, the algorithms will not send it to you. Yes, when I search for information on, say, air conditioners, I get ads for air conditioners on the FB wall for the next several days. But since I do not search for info on right-wing conspiracies, I do not get such material directed to me.

If you do get this stuff and you link to it, and then continue to link to it, and begin to believe it, you're just stupid. And as the old saying goes, "You can't cure stupid."

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jig

 Jill and I spent a lovely three-day (plus a little more) weekend at one of our favorite places, the Eden Resort hotel in Lancaster, PA. We first started going there when our friend Cat Calhoun organized a relaxacon called Grangecon there. (The con was cancelled the past two years for all the obvious reasons). We were joined for our stay by one of my oldest and best friends, Rich Kolker--best man at our wedding and godfather to our elder child. Cat also dropped by for a visit, as did Stephanie Allen (they are both local to Lancaster).

We had some wonderful meals together and it was great to see people face-to-face and talk without screens and microphones and headphones as accessories. We are all fully vaccinated and felt safe and secure.

Jeopardy! News

Sony has announced the new host for Jeopardy! and, as leaked earlier this week, it is Mike Richards, who will also continue in his position of executive producer of both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. But there was new information as well; Mayim Bialik will serve as host of a series of prime-time special editions of Jeopardy!, beginning with the National Collegiate Championship in the fall.

Apparently, Joe Buck is the last of the guest hosts and the show will go into hiatus (probably rerunning a couple of the tournaments) until the first episode of the new season on September 13.

 I'm pleased with this announcement, for the most part, though I might have preferred to see Bialik as the main host (however, her sitcom on Fox, Call Me Kat, has been renewed for a second season, so that probably made a full-time gig hosting the game show unlikely).

Return to Theater, Finally

 Finally had that rehearsal I've been talking about for the past week or so. This was a read-through and I was largely there to meet the cast and crew, as I will be working behind the scenes, possibly on lights and sound. But there were a few folks who couldn't make it, so I wound up getting my acting chops going by reading their lines. (It was fun coming up with a different sound for each of the characters.)

FTR, the play is A Few Good Men, opening in early November at Spotlight Theatre in Swarthmore, PA.

Misunderstanding Science 2

 Speaking of misunderstanding science, this morning I heard one of the dumbest things I've ever heard, in an interview with one of the un-masked, unvaccinated attendees of the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, ND:

"If they can cure COVID so fast, why haven't they cured cancer?"

Wrong on so many levels, I don't know where to begin. First, the vaccines don't "cure" COVID, they prevent serious infection. Second, cancer is not just one thing...it is caused by a multitude of things, depending on the kind of cancer--some of them are viral, but mostly it's runaway mutation in the cells, caused by radiation, infection from toxins, natural aging, and some stuff doctors are still not sure about. I just had my prostate removed because of cancer--when I asked my doctor why I got prostate cancer, he answered, quite honestly, "We still don't know what causes it, other than the aging process in some men."

Comparing COVID research to cancer research is like asking "If we can put men on the moon, why can't we end disease?" It's a fundamental lack of understanding about the process.

Misunderstanding Science

 What is it that causes anger over the COVID restrictions? I don't think it's the restrictions themselves, for the most part--they simply are not that onerous. (Of course, there is a part of the populace that will object to any attempt to control or police their behavior--there are still people who refuse to use seat belts in their cars!) No, I think it's confusion, caused by the constantly changing nature of the rules--especially when those rules seem to backtrack on themselves.

And that's because so many people do not understand the nature of scientific investigation. It's not something you do once and come up with a solution...it's an ongoing, ever-changing process. Want an example? The first polio vaccine was released to the public in 1954; by 1956 a better vaccine was created and released; an enhanced version was approved in 1987. With COVID, a virus that is far newer than polio was in the early 1950s, researchers are still discovering its effects and its development. Each new thing they learn can mean a change in the recommendations to the public.

We're far better off now than we were a year ago; the recommendations coming out now are a precaution against losing the successes of the past 12 months.

WWSD?

 This may seem frivolous or facetious, but it's aimed at my comics fan friends:

What Would Superman Do?

Confronted by something like the corona virus (and assuming it was of an origin such that he was as susceptible to it as normal humans), what would Clark Kent/Kal-el do? He'd get the vaccine, of course (he'd have to have someway to do it without injection, but you get the idea). And, in his guise as a reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, he'd publish articles that urged everyone else to do it as well. He'd make public appearances at vaccine clinics; he'd do TV spots for them; he'd supply transportation for anyone who couldn't get there on their own.

So, folks--why aren't you on Superman's side in this?

Require the Vax

 I truly do not understand how anyone who works in the healthcare industry, from a distinguished doctor down to the porters and maintenance workers, would refuse to be vaccinated for COVID. I mean, these people have seen, first hand, what the disease can do. Are they blind?

Further, I do not understand why any healthcare facility does not require its employees to be vaccinated. I mean if Disney, Broadway theaters, and other entertainment venues are doing it, why isn't the healthcare sector?