When I think about people shaming and condemning Sydney Sweeney because she has a relatively-normal body…man, I just can’t. I want to toss them into a black hole. But they’d make the black hole too big.
Yes, cheap shot. But they deserve it.
Day: October 15, 2022, 5:12 PM
The Way
I wondered aloud back in January how we might support those too fearful to return to normal without empowering them to police everyone else's lives; people flipped out at me for asking but it still seems like it might be a question worth reckoning with https://t.co/TRsUECkAMD
— Kat Rosenfield (@katrosenfield) October 14, 2022
The Covidians are gradually losing the battle now. I remember when Kat tweeted this and she was relentlessly attacked — but to me it sounds like the right way to do things.
Pepperidge Farm
Another study: Despite a 4x increase in the number of cases, referrals to Long Covid clinic fell by 79% in the vaccine era—if you do the math, it means a ~96% reduction on a per case basis.
Strength of study: real life cohort.
Weakness: single data point.https://t.co/gwP5SgRxaE pic.twitter.com/FZBu15kzdc— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) October 13, 2022
Hey, also remember when the Zero Covid people and Covidians were claiming vaccination did nothing against Long Covid? I do! That was also everywhere. Turns out that the actual numbers are close to what I said would be the case, which is that vaccination pretty much eliminates Long Covid risk.
I’m right so often it hurts. But I still love it.
Remembering Absurdity
(Also, ugh, remember those terrible articles, with claims like "no immunity from Omicron", "people will be routinely getting infected twice a month", "imprinting proven", etc. etc.
IT WAS ALREADY EASY TO TELL IT WAS CLEARLY WRONG WHEN PUBLISHED, but its predictions also failed.)
— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) October 13, 2022
Yeah, I remember those. A lot of the Covidians were claiming we’d get infected dozens of times a year and that our entire society would collapse due to widespread disability from Long Covid. This was common on Twitter and elsewhere. It was farcically absurd, of course, but the Covid Zero people and Covidians took it completely seriously and expected the rest of us to as well.
It will be interesting after the pandemic recedes a little more to examine the psychology of such beliefs and how they develop. What was going on there was different from hypochondriasis as it was an attempt to shame others and to elicit fear in them to cause those others to behave as the Covidians believed was correct. In this their behavior bears more resemblance to religion than anything else. The Covidians see themselves as a besieged but morally-correct outgroup holding the line against the sinners of larger society who want somewhat normal lives.
Sound like anyone else you know (evangelicals)?
Full Mad
imagine if a year ago biden said he would decimate russia’s army with a rounding error of the defense budget and decapitate china’s microchips industry with a single piece of export control regulation
— Seva (@SevaUT) October 14, 2022
Senile old man goes full Mad Max somehow. What the hell is going on.
React
another classic in the genre of "do not under any circumstances install explosive reactive armor on this vehicle" https://t.co/iXAJsZN7TN
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) October 14, 2022
Haha. Hmm. I don’t think the person who installed that armor really understands how it works.
Dark B
the books about this are going to be fascinating if we don’t get blown up:
biden: i will defend taiwan
WH: he didn’t mean that
biden: i will defend taiwan
WH: we swear he didn’t mean that
biden: *shoots the chinese semiconductor industry in the head*
— Starfish In Charge Of WB Tax Evasion Dept. (@IRHotTakes) October 15, 2022
Yeah, not sure what is going on with Biden but he’s making some tough decisions. Some of which might not be wise, but damn if they aren’t gutsy at least.
IS
So I got this note on my car, see second picture for my daily parking situation.
If I were the OP, I’d get another grille for her truck and replace it in the middle of the night. That grille would say “Impertinent Sausage.”
Legal Lag
Am I legally allowed to leave earth?
Who cares? If you have the power to do it, “legal” ain’t even in your vocabulary.
Foxglove
The first stanza of the 10,000 Maniac’s song “Stockton Gala Days” might be the most poetic six opening lines of any rock song ever written:
That summer fields grew high
With foxglove stalks and ivy
Wild apple blossoms everywhere
Emerald green like none I have seen
Apart from dreams that escape me
There was no girl as warm as you
That whole song feels like a fever dream — which it should, as it’s about childhood memories and nostalgia therefrom. Natalie Merchant et al. were certainly channeling Yeats very well when they wrote those lines. Great writing.
Fewer Covers
The first ten on today’s playlist:
