Cowards Die a Thousand Times

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To all the people out there who realize the lock-down must end (and end sooner rather than later) but are worried that so many more people will die (I highly doubt that), I wrote this:

I don't know if this will help, but you are overlooking a few things: 1) a VAST majority of people under 60 (and a majority of those 60-70) are not dying from this. Most of the people who died from this are residents of nursing home that were ordered (by the governor) to take in live corona patients.
2) The virus only infects someone if it is looking for a new host. People who have gone through it and come out the other end unscathed are not appropriate hosts. (Neither are those who died, BTW) That then means there are fewer and fewer people who can still get the virus. Most people who have the infection have such mild symptoms that they don't even know they had it. Immunity for these people comes the natural way -- through the immune system doing its job -- developing antibodies, destroying or weakening pathogens. The more pathogens there are antibodies for, the less likely one is to get an infection.
3) The "lock-down" would only make sense if more people were dying from the infection than from the "lock-down". If you take into account all the extra people dying of hunger (maybe not in the US, but in the world) more are dying from the effects of the "lock-down" and the economic issues it's causing. We don't know even if the "lock-down" ended today and immediately if the food supply chain will survive (it's already quite damaged). For the most part, I doubt people would rather die of starvation.

There's more, but I hope I've made my point. This is not even counting the damage this has done to faith in the government, damage to our civil rights and liberty, and the fact that anyone can voluntarily buckle down at home (most of the people ok with this still have jobs whether they are going out for them or doing them on line -- they are still getting a paycheck) etc.

So don't worry. It's only the people who don't trust the judgment of the American people, who are lying about the death "toll", who are trying to see how far they can push us (I think we've, for the most part, reached that point) by taking away their G-d given liberties and constitution supported rights. Don't fall for it. Too many people are falling for fear. We can't go through life afraid of our shadows. You can't totally escape death. It'll find you.

Keep in mind what Shakespeare says in Julius Caesar: “A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once. It seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”(copied and pasted from Wikipedia).

Benjamin Franklin is Whirling Dervishly in his Grave

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Once upon a time, back in the days of the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, the grand old man of the Continental Congress, a self-made man in business, science and even philosophy said, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Apparently, most people in the US either don't know this statement. I don't know exactly what the wise Mr. Franklin had in mind when he said this (assuming he was the one who originally said it), but I'm looking at it now and I'm connecting it, in my mine, to the Corona Virus. I find it amazing how quickly and completely the American people decided they could give up everything, all our civil rights, all our freedom, because people were dying (unnecessarily) of a virus.

I'm sorry to break this to you all, but people die every day. People die from auto accidents and no one has yet suggested that we all leave our cars home, stop bus and train lines and walk everywhere. People die from the flu and people go about their usual day to day routines. Strangely enough, people die of diabetes, but no on suggests that sugar be pulled from grocery stores.

But with the corona virus, instead of checking out the statistics, instead of finding out what's really happening, most people are very content and more than ready to give up their rights (and other people's). They won't listen to people who have interpreted the data differently from the "chicken littles" of the world.

So far during this crisis (government created crisis, I might add), I've read (and heard) several pieces (articles and videos) from medical experts and doctors to data experts and (medical) reporters, all of them questioning the deadliness of the corona virus. Italy, for example, with their high percentage of fatalities, is the second "oldest" (as in the second highest population of "aged" citizens, second to Japan) and they smoke a lot. This is one reason Italy has a high fatality rate. Another reason is they had a direct connection to Wuhan.

I also read/heard (in more than one place) that the death statistics are being skewed in two major ways -- 1) They are only counting people who were tested with corona virus. With the supposed shortage of testing kits, only people who are hospitalized and in "bad shape" are being tested (a friend of mine and her sons most likely had the virus -- and pneumonia -- but the doctor wouldn't test them because they weren't sure if they were exposed to anyone with the corona virus). 2) Doctors were told to put "cause of death" for people who died with the corona virus even if they probably died from something else (like cancer, heart attack, stroke, etc.).

In any case, even this year, there are a lot more people dying of the flu.

Any time I say I think people are over reacting, I get attacked verbally. I'm irresponsible, I'm self-centered (mind you, I'm in two "vulnerable" categories -- my age and I'm diabetic). I live by myself (now that my Mom passed away and my Dad just died from the corona virus -- this is another story), I've never been married so I have no husband, no kids, not even a roommate. I'm also a keto vegan -- most of my diet is organic "above-ground" vegetables and nuts. So I have to do my own shopping. Other people won't know what they can and can't substitute so that I can eat it and not waste from the little bit of money I have for food right now.

I'm not concerned with the virus, quite honestly. I"m most concerned about people's attitudes, how people are reacting to my statements that I think people are overreacting, that people are not getting the real statistics, they're getting the skewed statistics. But instead of saying something like agree to disagree or maybe it helps to stay home anyway or whatever doesn't make it feel like they think I don't care about people they just say nasty things about me.

I'm not the only person who thinks there is over reaction here. I truly believe that this has to do with the whole Vaccine industry, so to speak. We are raising a generation of young people who think getting "sick" (with an infectious "disease") it going to kill them. The pharmaceutical industry has people so convinced that vaccines are the saviors of the world (trust me, they're not) and that people die from measles, mumps and even chicken pox (I had all of these) that they are worried about any little infectious disease. Don't they understand that a majority of their parents, grandparents, etc. survived these infectious diseases for a long time, particularly since sanitation? Probably not since not even doctors in this generation know these things.

I have to thank Dennis Prager. Though he doesn't know me (and I've never met him, even on line, though I would love to) he has helped make going from a life-long Democrat and Liberal to a "card-carrying" conservative Republican in the last 2-3 years bearable (I lost a lot of my friends, particularly on-line friends, though I have a whole new group of friends).

One of the things Dennis Prager just said is that freedom is something we have to want and we have to earn. Most people would prefer to be taken care of. I can understand that. I a relatively intelligent person but I can't figure out how to earn a living. Even being very computer literate, I can't seem to make a living with my writing, 

My jewelry

My Graphic Designs

My clothing designs, 

I am currently watching an episode of "Cold Case". This episode is about a woman who was killed the night of the "War of the Worlds" broadcast on the radio. Orson Welles was reading the HG Wells book over the radio and dramatizing it. But people believed it was the end of the world. 
It's funny (ironic) that this episode should come up while I'm writing this blog entry. This is what I feel is going on right now.

Right now, a large percentage of the people have been convinced, whether by friends or by news reports etc., that we are in the midst of a pandemic that is on the level of the black plague (a disease that killed an estimated 75-200 million people in Europe during the 14th Century). So far, this "plague" is quite a bit short of this figure.

During the "War of the Worlds" broadcast, people created the fear in their heads. They believed that there really were martians coming to New Jersey to conquer and destroy the earth. Many people today believe that staying in their homes hiding from the world is essential to their survival. But not only is it not good for you, particularly for the quantity of time we have been allowing the government to rule our lives (about 2 months so far), but it isn't even neutral, it is bad. It is bad because NOT being exposed to bacteria and viruses doesn't allow our immune system to strengthen from exposure. Not strengthening our immune system makes us weaker. Not getting out in the sun makes us weaker because it leads to Vitamin D deficiency (nota bene: I read an article that stated it appears that what is separating the people who are living from the people who are dying is those who are dying are more likely to have a vitamin D deficiency.

It's ironic that so many of the "safety protocols", those being mandated by the government or those being encouraged by TV commercials are actually making things worse. I hate to keep mentioning Dennis Prager (OK, no I don't) but his recent "fireside chats" have been saying the same things about this "crisis" and lockdown situation pretty much what I've been saying from the beginning. This is a link to the most recent Fireside Chat. What Mr. Prager has been saying is what I'm hearing in the not-so-mainstream media.
I hope people start to realize what is really happening and keep it from happening ever again, 

No! On Chomsky

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A friend of mine said he was listening to Noam Chomsky and I told him I thought Mr. Chomsky was a creep. He didn't know why and I was curious, so I ended up listening to part of a video.

I listened to the video for a total of perhaps 10 seconds and he already offended me. He started by saying things were always bad but in the past, like after WWII, people thought things would get better. The difference as he sees it is that today people don't think things will get better (gee, I wonder why? Perhaps because of creeps like him telling us we have never been in worse shape??? but I digress) and then he said that things are MORE unequal than ever! Is he kidding? Clearly not, but things here are more equal than ever before. In some ways, a bit too “equal”, if you ask me. There is the impression among people in this generation that equality means equality of money, or of happiness or of G-d knows what.

But what equality means, as in constitution equality as in all “men” are created equal, means equality of opportunity – it's that, even though there cannot possibly be total equality (some people are born smart, some people are born rich, some people are born into poverty in a totalitarian country, some people are born into democratic US).

Even so, they can study hard, or learn to tell jokes, or dance on their toes, or hit a baseball. And in that, we all have an equal opportunity (to a large degree), certainly more than when my grandparents came here and there weren't a lot of professions open to Jews – that's why Jews became Doctors or Lawyers and other professionals or shopkeepers because they could have their own businesses – even though medical and law schools had quotas for how many Jews they would take.

Part of the problem is that there are so many people like the (undeservedly) respected Mr. Chomsky who speak “pearls of wisdom” made of manure. They perpetuate the soft racism of lowered expectations. Most of them feel a guilt over the treatment of blacks in the US (artificial guilt taught to them from nursery school) centuries before they were even born. Not only that, but a large percentage of these people didn't even have ancestors who were in the US before the Civil War. How in heaven's name do they share in the guilt slave owners should have felt?

And this is all my reaction to, what, two entire sentences? Can you imagine how I could react to the entire hour +?

So I listened to one more sentence. This guy is deluded. He started talking about the whole “rich vs. poor” thing. I had just recently watched a Prager University video (most of them are 5 to 6 minutes long, not an hour) that points out that the top 1% of earners in this country earn $500,000 or more. That is a very nice income, to be sure, but hardly filthy rich (and that's before taxes). And the top 1% earn 17% of the income and pay 37% of the taxes. Mind you, this is yearly earnings. (People on the lower end of the earning scale, BTW, people who make under $45,000 mostly pay little or no taxes.)

Most really rich people (like, oh, say, Mark Cuban) are self-made millionaires/billionaires. Cuban talks about ketchup and mustard sandwiches (my BFF talks about stone soup). I am personally poor but thanks to my parents and siblings, I live a pretty middle class life.

And I used to be a bit of a socialist, but I'm now convinced that the fairest, most equitable system is capitalism – hard work helps people get ahead and one can get ahead by working for someone else's business or your own. Hard work and a good product (physical product or service) helps one get ahead, no matter their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc.

All this doesn't even count the lies Mr. Chomsky tells about Israel. Here is one quote: “Hamas is regularly described as 'Iranian-backed Hamas which is dedicated to the destruction of Israel' [I wish they were always or even regularly described that way since that is the best description one could come up with to describe Hamas]. One will be hard put to find something like 'democratically elected Hamas, which has long been calling for a two-state settlement [two state? What “two states”? Hamas and Fatah????] in accord with the international consensus' – blocked for over 30 years by the US and Israel. All true [what is his definition of “true”? I guess it means “in your dreams!] but not a useful contribution to the Party Line, hence dispensable – Noam Chomsky, Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians

(The reason you “never” hear that is it's just not true. If you call an “election” where voters are threatened if they don't vote for Hamas “democratic” you need to read a dictionary. An election can only be truly democratic if it is a secret ballot and if it occurs at regular intervals.)

So can I be exempted from having to listen to this jerk? It's no wonder so many people don't understand him – he lies.

We're living in an "All or Nothing" World

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I agree with a lot of what "Democrats" say, but I totally disagree with their impression of Obama. Personally, I can't think of one good thing he did (including ACA -- it might be better if anyone actually understood the law and what their rights were under it). The man pushed Israel under the bus so many times. And Carter (still a darling of the left to some degree)???? What in heck did he do that was so wonderful? He also threw Israel under the bus. When handed a list of the people who were to be officer/trustees, etc of the Holocaust Museum, he looked at the list and said "too many Jews". Even after his presidency he has been buddying up to the Arabs and that's not even mentioning his "lovely" "prosemitic" book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid.

I never said Trump was the greatest president who ever lived (I still think Truman was the best president and with the way things are going these days, with presidents getting worse, I doubt that is going to change any time soon. I didn't vote for Trump, but so far I don't see tons of Nazis coming out of the woodwork (as I have in the past). Trump says the stupidest things but I don't think people should be excoriated over things they say (particularly on social media -- I wonder what stupid things the man who beat a bunny would have to say on Twitter). The one thing about Obama is he knew how to shovel the manure. He knew how to say one thing at an ADL (B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League) dinner and another when he went to the Middle East to talk with Arab leaders. The man polarized Jews and African Americans.

I'm really getting annoyed (ok, understatement) that people are so "black and white" (that's colors not racial) these days. Everything anybody says is either all good or all bad. I didn't notice it so much until I read Bernard Goldberg's book Bias. It made me realize that I was falling into that also. It's hard to explain, but I notice it constantly these days. I notice it when Roseanne does something stupid (which she apologized for) and suddenly she's out of a job and a pariah. To me, it makes no sense -- we ALL say stupid things. And we all have always knows that Roseanne says and does stupid things, so why is everyone so shocked? BTW, I had no idea until VERY recently that there was ANY racial connotation to calling someone any primate. I called my niece (decidedly very light skinned) a monkey because I was in awe of the way she could swing from one bar of a "monkey bars" to another with ease (and aplomb) and I couldn't do more than hold onto two bars, one with each hand.

The constitution gives us a lot of rights but nowhere does it give us the right to not be offended. To be honest, I'm offended every time someone uses the term "Good Samaritan" (and if you don't understand why, read the NT story that the term comes from -- it's VERY offensive to Jews). But I don't assume that everyone who uses the term in an Antisemite. Why do people automatically assume that someone says something it means what is the most obnoxious or unflattering meaning of the word? And even if that IS what the person means, does that mean (s)he should be shunned for life.

I'm suddenly reminded of a story Phyllis Chesler tells -- she is a relatively famous feminist author who just so happens to be Jewish (as are a lot of the feminist leaders of the 70s -- Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan and Bella Abzug leap to mind, but I digress) -- I first heard of Phyllis Chesler when my Mom was in college (in the 70s) and she was the darling of liberals until... She was speaking to a group of academic feminists and they cheered her talk. Then, during the Q&A, they asked her how she felt about Israel and she committed the crime of stating her pro-Israel stance. She was booed off the stage by the same people who had just cheered her.

Why is it that these days if one disagrees with ONE thing a person says or espouses they dismiss everything else the person says? Why do we always take the worst that people we don't like say and the best that people we do like say?

This is not the Soviet Union -- we don't have to "toe the party line" not matter what. I agree with some things "democrats" say and I agree with some things "republicans" say. I'm an independent thinker -- I can take one from column A and one from column B -- it's all about what I think is right.