Unsung heroes vs. "we've got this"

As I contemplete the tragedy that is (was?) the COVID epidemic, I am reminded of, several years ago, some unsung heroes when Ebola came to visit in Liberia, especially inasmuch as the Firestone plantation (where much of the world's natural rubber is grown) is concerned.

Now the heroes of which I write today didn't take heroic measures to combat Ebola.  They didn't come up with new therapies to combat it, didn't derive spectacular models to figure out what was going to happen mathematically, and they didn't invent new medicines.  What they did was far more profound and powerful.

Who were they?  They were the staffs of the chief hospitals that Ed Garcia, then the chief manager of the Firestone Plantation, contacted when he realized that workers were coming down with arguably one of the scariest infectious diseases out there.

What did they do?  Simple; they told Firestone/Bridgestone that they had no clue whatsoever what to do, forcing them to set up their own hospital--isolated from the healthy--and to use the best equipment they had--hazmat suits--to reduce the biohazard.  They still lost a number of people to that horrible disease, but the epidemic was stopped.

Contrast that with the U.S. model with COVID, where hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes more or less said "we've got this"--and in doing so, destroyed any pretense of a quarantine, exposing millions to the disease who were extremely vulnerable to it.  

If we had instead followed the Firestone example, we would have set up separate clinics where sufferers would have gone until they were very sure that they were no longer infectious. They would have replaced face masks with real hazmat gear, would have implemented laminar (clean room) flow to reduce viral load in the air, and would have had intensive opportunity for figuring out which antiviral therapies (yes, ivermectin and the like) were most effective.

So if you're in a case where you've been asked to do something you're not quite sure you can do, don't be afraid to say "that's beyond my ability right now."  Liberian medical authorities did exactly that, and their country is largely Ebola-free as a result.  Hail to these heroes!

This leaves some questions

An 87 year old doctor has run over a protester at the abortion clinic where he works (or owns).  This leads to a number of questions for me, including:

• Why is an 87 year old still practicing?  I commented earlier on how abortion cannot pay the bills, and a doctor still practicing at age 87 seems to be consistent with that.
• Or is this particular individual just so happy to be committing prenatal infanticide, he doesn't want to give it up?  It's better for him than world travel, spoiling the great-grandchildren, and the like?
• Or have the ladies figured out that a man who destroys what makes women, women, for a living isn't their cup of tea?  Warren Hern once bemoaned that fact.
• And if I were a client, and realized my doctor was 87, I don't believe I'd trust him to remove a hangnail, let alone perform any surgery.  Vision, hand strength, and reflexes matter in that business.
• Why on earth is the accused's name being withheld?  This isn't a sexual assault case.
• Finally, I wonder whether this was intentional, or just....an 87 year old driver who shouldn't be behind the wheel anymore, let alone performing medical procedures.

Now granted, my grandmothers lived until ages 96 and 101.   One grandfather until almost 89.  I know about people who are capable long past age 65, but still...

Public service announcement; the low bar squat.

Various media outlets have covered the tragic death of "fitness influencer" Justin Vicky, who apparently died of a broken neck after failing to come up in a high bar squat.  Unfortunately, the articles state that the squat is somehow uniquely dangerous, and reality is that it does not have to be.

You see, there are two main kinds of back squat; most novice lifters gravitate towards putting the bar on top of the trapezius/shoulders in a "high bar squat", and that's what Mr. Vicky did.  However, an awful lot of elite powerlifters favor what is called the "low bar squat", where the bar is actually placed on the back of the scapulae, just beneath a ridge of bone called the "spine".  In this article about championship powerlifting, notice that every.single.lifter is using the low bar squat.

There's a reason for that; if the bar is placed on the scapulae, instead of on top of the shoulders, there can be no major stress on the neck because the bar never goes on the neck in the first place.  That's what killed Mr. Vicky, who was clearly using a high bar technique.  Another thing that contributed to Mr. Vicky's death is that he had neither a cage nor adequate spotters to protect him.  Either one would have saved his life.

Side note; according to Mark Rippetoe, author of Starting Strength, the lift that is most likely to be injurious or lethal is actually the bench press, for the obvious reason that the bar can actually fall onto one's chest or neck.  Again, it won't kill you to use a bit of a "cage" that will catch the bar before your chest or neck is crushed, or to have good spotters to help you out of trouble.

Pure artistic genius?

I just visited an online exhibit for Hunter Biden's artwork, and somehow I am reminded of the Andy Griffith "Otis the Artist" episode.  As I look at Biden's artwork, it is an attempt at modern art, and appears technically at least semi-competent (on a par with what I've seen in university student art galleries), but as far as I can tell, it completely lacks meaning.

And as such, it's no surprise to find that at least one of the buyers of his art has landed a plum position due to the approval of Hunter's dad.  It's time for Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate this. Or, rather, long past time.

More great moments with electric vehicles

Another cargo ship has apparently been set on fire by an electric car in its hold.   Don't you want one in your garage?  

Yeah, me either.  I am guessing that what's at hand here is salt air and fully charged Lithium-ion batteries causing a short, discharging an immense amount of energy in a short amount of time.  Given that I live in an area where salt is put on the roads to remove snow and ice, I'm not terribly fond of the idea of putting such a vehicle in the same building where my loved ones live and sleep.

If you'd told me as a young pup--having just learned that half a cup of gasoline is equivalent to a stick of dynamite in explosive power--that I'd be choosing to have two fuel bombs in my garage to avoid having rechargeable batteries there--I'd have thought you were nuts.  But here we are.

Um, maybe....

Fox has an article today suggesting--OK, original source is a tabloid, so keep that in mind--that the recent split of Sofia Vergara and soon-to-be ex-husband Joe Manganiello has to do with his desire for children, a desire not shared by Ms. Vergara.  OK, fair enough, but what strikes me is that if it's a super important thing to have children....maybe marrying a woman who was already 43 wasn't the brightest idea?

In moments of similar genius, another couple features a woman who "froze her eggs" to allow pregnancy in her mid forties--as her 58 year old husband (with whom she does not live) does not want children.  Again, if it's that important to have children, maybe....get married a bit earlier to someone who won't be 80 by the time the kid graduates from college?

It seems that all too often today, we're willing to forget little basics like "biology".  We need to learn that salaries and relationships are negotiable, but fertility and life expectancy are not.

More silliness

The Biden administration wants to effectively mandate heat pump water heaters.  The trouble with this is twofold.  First, the power added efficiency of the power plants that fuel them is about 35%, so they're really not much more efficient than natural gas.  Second, heat pumps don't work well below 20F.  Might not be an issue in Florida, but north of the Mason-Dixon, that's a problem, especially since the desireability of a hot shower goes up exponentially as the mercury drops.  

Tell me why you should go to jail

Thankfully, they've apologized, but it's still telling that a BBC reporter actually asked a question about what the Moroccan women's football team does with regards to any homosexual players they might have.  You would figure that an international reporter familiar with Moroccan law would know better than to ask such a question basically amounting to "tell me why you should go to jail", but apparently that level of thinking escapes today's journalists, who apparently have not even attained the education of a college dropout (Ernie Pyle) or teaching certificate holder (my great uncle, Kenneth Dixon).

Invest in laxatives?

A new study has correlated dementia onset with the frequency of bowel movements.  Now granted, there's a lot between "frequency of bowel movements" and clearly actionable therapies and lifestyle changes, but it is yet another hint that a bit of fiber will do you good.

On the trans movement and beauty pageants

I must confess that at a certain level, I am somewhat ambivalent about the current trend of transsexual beauty pageant winners.  Yes, I giggle when Miss Universe Netherlands is compared to the winner of the Kentucky Derby, and somehow I remember the scary part of Carlo Collodi's masterpiece in such cases, but all in all, who wins beauty pageants really doesn't make a whole lot of difference to me.  More or less, Def Leppard's song Photograph, and Van Halen's song I'll Wait, come to mind at the prospect of watching dozens of women strut across the stage in various forms of attire, singing Veggie Tales' song Puppies for the talent competition.  I think I've got a book to read....

But that noted, a quick comparison to athletics comes to mind.   I've got four objections to men in women's athletics, including innate male advantages that go beyond just testosterone, the likelihood that "Megan's List" members would find themselves in the dressing rooms, injuries due to competition, and finally the reality that spectators are paying to watch women compete, and won't show up if a large portion of the competitors aren't....feminine.

All in all, though, male features don't help much in a beauty pageant, injuries are rare, and non-participants really can't get into the dressing rooms, so we're really down to "will people watch?".  And although some "trans" contestants do pretty well imitating femininity, Marvin Gaye's song comes to mind.  There really ain't nothing like the real thing, and if one wanted to kill off pageants altogether, it's hard to come up with a more effective method than filling the stage with imitations of femininity.  It'll be interesting to see what happens with Miss Universe TV ratings as spots are filled by people who are not women.  

My guess is that it would make New Coke, the Bug Light fiasco, and Target's Pride fiasco look positively mild in comparison.  

Verdict: true

The newspaper of record reports that the Hollywood strike has entered its third month, enabling America to realize that there's really not much worthwhile coming out of there.  On my part, I must confess that I really didn't even know that the writers were on strike.  

Hopefully the writers are using their time off to brush up on "plot" and "character development", and thus reduce Hollyweird's dependence on special effects and gratuitous immodesty/nudity.  But I am probably dreaming, and I'll just have to do what I've been doing for years; watch old movies after consulting IMDB.

Yup

The Manhattan Institute has released a report noting exactly what I've been saying for about a decade; the economic and environmental impacts of electric cars are overstated to even negative.  There are a lot of great ways of protecting the environment, starting with encouraging two parent families (where only one works) and getting people to purchase newer, more efficient vehicles.  Cutting transit wouldn't hurt, either, as its average passenger miles per gallon resembles little so much as every rider in a Suburban.  

But electric cars?  Nice gimmick and spectacular acceleration due to a flat torque curve, but not practical anywhere with long gaps between charging stations, for long drives, or for use in winter north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Plus, no chance of the fun and joy of a manual transmission with an electric.  Blah.

Trying to figure this one out

Judge Karin Immergut in Oregon--a Trump appointee believe it or not--has upheld Oregon's ban on large capacity magazines because, she says, "they are not commonly used on self-defense."

This comes as news to me, because a lot of the most popular self-defense pistols, like many Glocks, not to mention AR platform rifles which sell in the millions, have 15 to 30 round magazines.  So to argue that the millions of carry permit holders and people with AR platform rifles don't have these..."for self-defense".....just boggles the mind.

Hope for the political process?

A political event for Democratic Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. degenerated into "screaming and polemic farting.".  Yes, sounds disgusting, and it is, but it strikes me that this could be a big step up for politics in our country, a partial return to the dignity that our governmental processes used to have.  And in that light, I believe I've got video of the meeting itself:

What is masculinity, and what is femininity?

In my earlier post regarding the trans debate and the likelihood that doctors might make tragically wrong decisions, I received the following comment from Hearthie:

I like your thoughts in general, but I blame it on a list of factors:

1.  It is historically true that some percentage of girls freaks out completely and wants to refuse to become women during puberty.  Old fiction is rife with this as a trope.  These girls usually grow up to be strong-minded women with families - not lesbians.  They just didn't want the changes (and the responsibilities) that womanhood brings.  So, that's normal.

2.  But since we've redefined womanhood as about as deep and lipstick and heels, now we think you can put it on or off like a shirt.  It's a performance, not a reality.

3.  Which rot got solidly set in when we decided that "male" was the way to be in society.  When feminism said "we don't want to be strong women with brains, we want to be men in heels, so uh....we think women could really just be men in heels.

Now--just as it was with the original post--it's certainly more complicated than that, but it strikes me that this is almost certainly part of the issue.  If you're not stereotypically male or female--heels and lipstick for women, bulging muscles and chugging beer for men--then you're probably far more likely to confuse "I'm a person who doesn't fit in with the dominant stereotypes" with "I was born with the wrong body parts".  Many are noting these days that autistic people are far more likely to show up in the ranks of "trans" people, and it's not hard to notice that autistic people are...people who do not fit the dominant stereotypes.

Read Hearthie's full comment for more.  If there is something to this, we can affirm, again, that today's mental health establishment can do a lot better than it is currently doing for gender dysphoria. As the Hippocratic oath begins, 

First, do no harm.

Almost the right move?

A Florida sheriff, faced with a spate of deaths because parents didn't get their children out of the water during stormy "double red flag"  (beach closed to swimming) conditions, is assessing $500 fines on bereaved parents who have lost their children to drowning.

OK, I get the motivation, but it strikes me that the bereaved parents have (I hope) already lost something too precious to them for words, so the extra $500 fine seems like a bit of "piling on".  That noted, I would be entirely in favor of fining non-bereaved parents when they fail to get their children out of the water, or adults who fail to vacate.  Lifeguards do, after all, occasionally get injured or killed rescuing foolish swimmers, and EMTs note that it's traumatic to pull a needlessly dead body out of the water.  (an EMT friend of mine went on disability because of PTSD this way)

And I don't know exactly what's going on--perhaps it has something to do with hyperbolic responses to COVID--but it troubles me that many people seem to have no grasp of likely consequences today.  The notion "rescue workers aren't putting these signs up for their health" seems to escape too many people today.