Tag: human

Weapons of Mass Destruction

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Shinichi Tetsutani's tricycle
Shinichi Tetsutani’s tricycle. Shinichi was 3 years 11 months old when fatally injured by the US bombing of Hiroshima.

The term “Weapons of Mass Destruction” goes back at least as far as 1937, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. Around that time, fire bombing runs in Hamburg and Tokyo killed tens of thousands of civilians in a single night.

But American Ingenuity took it further. With the bombing of Hiroshima, we annihilated 66,000 people instantly. Another 75,000 would die from radiation injury by the end of the year. Three days later, at Nagasaki, we killed 40,000 more people instantly, and again, many others died more slowly.

Perhaps it was all about saving American lives, as (Democratic) President Harry Truman always claimed. Or perhaps, as Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Third Fleet, claimed in 1946, the first atomic bomb was “an unnecessary experiment…[the scientists] had this toy and they wanted to try it out, so they dropped it.”

Stay Home for the Holidays

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After big Thanksgiving dinners, plan small Christmas funerals or better yet choose an alternative plan, like:

  • focus on freedoms that are strong enough to withstand masks,
  • listen to pandemic experts when deciding how to react to a pandemic, and
  • avoid having dinner inside with people who live in different houses.

And seriously, if this is about your "freedom" then you need to learn what that word means. You are free to act until you are hurting others. Covidiots are clearly hurting others.

It’s possible that all of your relatives have really strong constitutions. But consider that Herman Cain beat the odds (30%) after he was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer, that spread to his liver. He beat cancer, but Covid-19 killed him in 40 days. Maybe your Grandma’s stronger than that, but … probably not.

Science is real. The virus is real. It’s ten times more deadly than the flu, and we’re only starting to learn about "blood thickening" and other bizarre side effects, at least some of which appear to be long-lasting.

Please, Stay Home for the Holidays

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US election status in four sentences

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Scanning the news this morning, I came across this BBC article that opened with four, single-sentence paragraphs that really lay it all out there:

"He won because the Election was Rigged," the Republican president wrote on Twitter, repeating unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.

About an hour later he said he was not conceding the 3 November vote.

He has launched a slew of lawsuits in key states, but has not provided any evidence to back his claims of fraud.

All the lawsuits have so far been unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, all available evidence points to this election being virtually free of fraud. As an example, the Republican Secretary of State in Georgia says that he’s investigating a total of three suspected incidents of fraud … out of five million votes cast!

See also: US election: Trump says Biden won but again refuses to concede

Voting for Drugs

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For those struggling with the uncertainty of last night’s election, last night’s election might provide your answer.

Among the more certain outcomes are that Montana, New Jersey, Arizona and South Dakota voters legalized recreational marijuana. In fact, one in three US Americans now lives in a state where recreational marijuana is legal.

Oregon and Washington, D. C. pushed further last night, opening the way to psychedelic mushrooms. Oregon also decriminalized small amounts of heroin and cocaine

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Hometown Trump gunner

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This is not the kind of picture that I want to see attached to national news about my adopted home town, but … here we are. Thirty-something, Jonathan Moreno, needed to make my day.

Apparently, Moreno was "provoked" in that one of the counter-protesters (gone from the scene before these photos were taken) had splashed water on the guy, and … clearly that’s justification for extrajudicial killing, and clearly this is just another Responsible Gun Owner demonstrating responsible use.

For what it’s worth, I’m trained to use a gun, though I would never keep one in my home, or carry one while out and about our bedroom community of not quite 13,000 people, where wine tasting dominates a significant number of businesses.

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More active cases than ever in the US

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Just a quick reminder that even if you’re "bored" with Covid, dealing with reality means accepting that there are more active cases of Covid-19 in the United States today than on any other day ever. And again, that’s active cases … discounting all of the people who have recovered or died, there are more active infections today than ever before … just like almost every day since we allowed this thing to run uncontrolled throughout the country.

If you think that what we’ve done is working … that we’re "rounding the corner" … you’re just plain wrong.

And if you’re now thinking "herd immunity", we still have a ways to go before 3% of the population has been infected, and most estimates for herd immunity require that we get well into the 40% to 80% range — so it has to get 10 to 20 times as bad, and we’ve already killed the equivalent of 75 September 11th attacks.

And you know what else, even if we never got a vaccine, masks alone might be enough to beat this thing. Or maybe not, but while masks alone might not end up being the single silver-bullet, they absolutely help … without starving you of oxygen or whatever other ridiculous ideas people are bandying about these days.

Anti-mask isn’t freedom, it’s free-dumb. Anti-maskers are 75 times worse (so far) than those 19 terrorists were. It’s truly one of the most selfish and sadistic movements ever.

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Choose red, you live….

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Liquorice rolls Bulk sale at a confectioner’s. (Photo by: Andia/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

It’s a known phenomenon, but perhaps not widely known, or at least not widely enough to help a Massachusetts construction worker whose switch from red to black Twizzlers killed him.

Discussions with his family revealed he had been eating one to two “large” bags of black licorice every day for about three weeks before his heart stopped.

It’s not just Twizzlers. Licorice flavored jelly beans, and other candies, and even some Belgian beers and chewing tobaccos contain glycyrrhizic acid.

In your gut you have hundreds kinds of bacteria, as well as viruses and fungi, collectively called your microbiome. And among the bacteria are some that turn glycyrrhizic acid into glycyrrhetinic acid. In the kidneys, glycyrrhetinic acid derivatives suppress conversion of cortisol to cortisone, which regulates ion, salt, and water balances. At the end of this chain reaction, you have critically low potassium levels leading to erratic behavior by the heart and lots of other problems.

If you’re wondering why the FDA would allow even small amounts of such a chemical, remember that all rice contains arsenic, and almost all fish and shellfish contain mercury.

A spokesman for the Hershey Company, which makes Twizzlers, wrote “all of our products are safe to eat and formulated in full compliance with FDA regulations,” but also that all foods, including candy, “should be enjoyed in moderation.”

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Humans keep destroying nature

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For the second decade in a row, humanity "failed to meet a single target to stem the destruction of wildlife and life-sustaining ecosystems in the last decade", according to the United Nations.

“Earth’s living systems as a whole are being compromised. And the more humanity exploits nature in unsustainable ways and undermines its contributions to people, the more we undermine our own wellbeing, security and prosperity,” she said.

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