Writing on the Double Yellow Line

Militant moderate, unwilling to concede any longer the terms of debate to the strident ideologues on the fringe. If you are a Democrat or a Republican, you're an ideologue. If you're a "moderate" who votes a nearly straight party-ticket, you're still an ideologue, but you at least have the decency to be ashamed of your ideology. ...and you're lying in the meantime.

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Location: Illinois, United States

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

The Great Maskerade

The Great Maskerade

©2020  Ross Williams

 

 

 

 

Another virtue signal has been blinking recently, ostensibly aimed at those who fail or refuse to accept the GroupThink of the modern “progressive” [ironic term] socialist infantilism infecting this nation.  In all actuality, it serves in the form of hopeful lamb’s blood upon the lintel for the secular socialist Passover now occurring in various parts of the nation, and is a text-dense polemic that begins “We Believe…”.  You’ll see these in front yards and pasted on the inside of shop windows as you drive around town, often next to the laughably hypocritical Hate Has No Home Here.  The signs cannot be read while driving because the printing is too small, and there’s too much of it.  The left cannot only not meme, they also can’t make effective political signage.

The first pious scold under “We Believe” − and there’s 6 or 8 of them, depending on which version of the sign you happen to run across − is usually “Black Lives Matter”.  Just a head’s up, homie: when the riots come to your town, this will not save you, nor will it prevent your business or residence from suddenly and mysteriously catching a flammable dose of peaceful protest.  However, an AR-15 might just do the trick.  Pro tip: sit on the roof.


“We” also, according to these signs, “Believe No Human Is Illegal”.  Yet many of the things they do may be.  Such as… and I’ll just leave this out there… crossing borders without permission, when such permission is required to cross a border.

Some also claim “We Believe Water Is Life”.  And, well, wine is mostly water; vita vinum, after all, so … okay, fine.  I’ll give you that one.


But among the superficial slogans that appears is “Science Is Real”.  …this, coming from the portion of our political spectrum that will gladly inform you, whether you ask or not, that there are 57 genders.  I had a brief internet conversation with someone citing this infantile list of sneers and asked what, specifically, was meant by this particular scold.  Two things, I was told.  First, “global warming is happening”, and second, “covid is real and not a hoax”.

I replied, well, first, the scientific method is real, as well, and when the global warmers back up their computer-generated hypothesis with even one predicted result which actually happens as predicted − in the real world and not on a computer that has been gamed to giving desired results − then we’ll talk.   But not before.  And second, of course Shanghai Shivers is real; it’s the hysteria that’s the hoax.

The conversation was ended at that point because I referred to Hong Kong Fluey in a “racist” manner and he wasn’t going to indulge me further.  So be it.  I’d have ended up giving him essentially the same lecture I’ve written out dozens of times already.

 

SARS-Cov2, the bug that causes the Hubei Heaves, is an actual virus.  It is from one of the families of virus that cause − in humans − the upper respiratory malady called a cold.  All types of cold have the potential to migrate into the lungs and cause an infection there.  A lung infection is called pneumonia, and it is the manner in which colds and influenza kill most people.  Some types of cold are more dangerous than others, and migrate into the lungs far easier.  This virus appears to be one of them, but being a more serious variety of cold does not stop it from being a cold.  When the pneumonia is caused by a virus it is very serious indeed.  I say all this because this is the science, and science is real.

 

If nothing is known about a specific cold virus, then it is scientifically reasonable to make assumptions about it based on other cold viruses until such time as more information is learned about the new cold virus.  In January of 2020 almost nothing was known about the cold virus which causes Shanghai Shivers.  It is reasonable, then, to assume that it will behave similarly to other cold viruses of its family.  Other viruses in this family − indeed all such upper respiratory infections − cause particular hardship on the old, the young, and those whose immune systems are depleted by other illnesses.  …which is why you don’t put infected people into nursing homes full of those almost certain to be significantly more impacted than the general public.  And when governors, and their “public health” directors, force infected patients into nursing homes with uninfected residents, the scientifically expected result is disaster.  Science is, after all, real.  And disaster is what occurred.

What is also real is that the public policy actions of a handful of democrat governors, on the advice of their “public health” “experts”, was a significant inspiration in the deaths of tens of thousands, roughly half of our national deaths.  What is also real is that none of those public officials are being investigated for criminally negligent homicide − they knew better than to put sick people in with high-risk healthy people, and they did it anyway.  And what is further real is that these democrat politicians are being lauded by the press because while they were busy killing America’s old people by the tens of thousands, they were making snide comments about Donnie Combover.  Tens of thousands of people died as a direct result of democrat policies, but the public criticism of the Orange Man made it all worthwhile.

 

Because political science is also real.

 

Being all about the science, “public health” “experts” are fully aware that sunshine is murder on viruses.  It is especially the ultraviolet portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that kills viruses.  So did “public health” “experts” advise that people spend as much time outside as they can, partaking of public parks, outdoor public swimming pools, daytime sporting events, the beach, and the like?  Were indoor tanning salons declared an “essential business”?  Were they forced to stay open and even extend their hours?  No, people were anti-scientifically told, “Stay Home, Save Lives”.  Because political science is more real, and far more important, than real science.


Not only does sunshine kill viruses through UV radiation, but it creates a biochemical reaction in a person’s skin that creates a hormone − a secosteroid − called vitamin D.  Vitamin D prevents viruses from being able to replicate, especially when combined with the mineral zinc, and is an essential component of a person’s immune system.  Because this is the science, and because science is so real, politicians and their “public health” “experts” have recommended that everyone spend as much time in the sun as possible, even to the point of risking sunburn.  Didn’t they?  No.  Because the reality of modern science depends on whose politics benefit from it.

 

Chlorine is an even greater killer of viruses than ultraviolet light is, which is why “public health” “experts” have advised everyone to go spend the day at any of a million hyper-chlorinated public swimming pools.  Especially the outdoor public pools.  …except they haven’t.  Because they continue to be all about the political science.

 

Despite not being as fatal to viruses as ultraviolet light and chlorine, salt water is exceptionally harmful to viruses.  Which is why governors of coastal states, at the advice of their “public health” “experts” so keen on science, have ordered all salt water beaches to remain open and accessible to the public − particularly during the day, in order to get the double benefit of UV light, and the triple benefit of biosynthesis of vitamin D − throughout this ordeal.  …except they haven’t.  Real science once again became secondary to political power.

 

Alcohol doesn’t do an awful lot to viruses.  It kills bacteria like nobody’s business, but doesn’t even make a virus dizzy.  That is the science.  Hand sanitizer is nothing but jellied alcohol.  Yet, politicians, on the advice of their scientifically adept “public health” “experts” have mandated hand sanitizer to be used before entering a wide assortment of public buildings − like schools and hospitals.  More “real science”.  So, since alcohol is so effective in their new-fangled notion of science, wither bars and the internal application of alcohol?  It seems the denial of science only works when it can serve the purpose of increasing government power.

 

…which brings us to masks.  A full century of science has told us that wearing face masks for “public health” prophylaxis is either pointless or counter-productive.  The purpose of face masks is to prevent a surgeon’s saliva or booger flakes from falling out of his face and into the open wounds of the anesthetized patient on his operating table.  Saliva and boogers carry viruses and bacteria, and if they were to enter the open wounds of a patient, it would bypass that patient’s normal immune system barriers.  Coupled with the trauma of having an open wound, the additional pathogens may prove fatal.

 

Yet that science was completely rewritten in March of 2020.  Not because the science itself had changed.  The science was, and remains, identical: it is pointless at best and counter-productive at worst for the general public to wear masks for “public health”.  What changed was the political science.  “Public health” “experts” are now advising − and politicians [particularly democrat politicians] are demanding − that masks be worn in public.

 

The wording of the recommendation is critical.  A recent statement I came across declared “If worn properly, a face mask can reduce the likelihood of infection between 50 and 85 percent.”  All some people will see is, “masks reduce infection by 50-85%.”  But the key words are “if worn properly.”

 

And the science tells us that outside of a surgical or other highly controlled medical setting, masks are not worn properly.  Ever.

Usually, the improper wear doesn’t amount to much, hence the wearing being pointless.  They don’t often do any particular harm, but they also don’t do any good.

 

In order to wear a mask properly, several necessary and mandatory steps must be taken:

1] Scrub your hands with soap in the manner described on all the new hand-washing bulletins posted above the sinks in public restrooms.  Twenty seconds, minimum, under the nails, and halfway to the elbows.

2] You must get a mask without touching anything except the mask.  If you touch anything − the box the mask comes in, the counter the box is sitting on, your hair as you loop it over your ears − your hands and the mask they are touching are now unsanitary and must be disposed of.  Return to step 1.

3] Once the mask is in place over your mouth and nose, it must never be touched.  By anything.  You pull it down to expose your nose, or to lollygag around your throat as you drive your car past all the pretentious “We Believe Science Is Real” signs, the mask is now unsanitary; go to step 1.  If you rub your nose with your wrist because your nose itches … go to step 1.  ANYthing … go to step 1.

 

Failure to rigidly follow these three steps will mean, in all likelihood, that your mask will not accomplish what you fervently believe it will accomplish.  To wit: keeping you safe from others’ germs and others safe from yours.  But it will also, in all likelihood, not do any harm.  What will do harm is when any of the first three steps are violated and the mask gets saturated.  And it will become saturated.   Exhale on a mirror if you need to know why.

 

4] When saturated, the mask must be discarded and replaced starting from step 1.  Saturation means the fibers of the mask will collect viruses and bacteria from the environment.  A saturated mask becomes a fabric petri dish worn on your face.  This does cause harm… to the one wearing it.

But of course this is all science and not political science, and the ones exhorting others that “Science is Real” want everyone to ignore science and just put on a mask that science doesn’t justify.  “Get over it”.  Do you want to know how to get over a disease?

 

By getting over it.  Catch it, become ill with it, develop antibodies to it and survive it.  There is no other way.  When enough individuals do this, it’s called Herd Immunity.  Enough people have to be immune to it that when it comes around again − and it will come around again − there won’t be enough people who can get sick that it will devastate an entire community, let alone the world.  Those who claim to be “public health” “experts” seem to believe that if we simply hide in our basements long enough, like Creepy Joe has been doing, the virus causing Hubei Heaves will simply give up looking for us and leave.  That’s not how disease works.  But they wouldn’t know, since it involves understanding real science and not political science.

 

You don't acquire herd immunity without the herd getting sick in the first place.

 

What we're doing by trying to hide from it is prolonging its presence, and making otherwise healthy people unhealthy by depleting their immune systems through arbitrary − and scientifically unsound − "public health" policy. People are not simply going to keep catching the scary new disease, but because they have a weakened immune system they're going to catch every other disease as well.

 

This disease is here, and it's here forever. The sooner we understand that and get on with life the sooner it's going to be irrelevant.  And if you wouldn’t stack the ill in nursing homes to infect those with already weak immune systems, relatively few would die from it.