Pointless coronavirus testing

Someone I know had a coronavirus test in Texas 2 weeks ago today. She's been waiting for results because she's not allowed to return to work without being cleared by a doctor.

She was originally told it would be 3 or 4 days before the results were available.

After the 4 days passed she began calling to see if anyone knew anything. She was told the state would call with the results and that the hospital had nothing to do with it. "Be patient."

Finally, today, with great frustration, she called and refused to hang up until someone gave her either an answer or a better number to call.

Surprise, they connected her to the hospital lab who told her the test was negative. They said they have done hundreds of tests and are overwhelmed trying to call people with their results. This, in a county with only 19 official cases of coronavirus (as of yesterday, May 10).

If she'd had COVID-19, she'd either be over it or dead by now. This isn't how to "solve" anything. What was even the point of doing the test? It wasn't for health reasons, that's for sure.

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Socialistic policies only worsen economy

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for April 8, 2020)

I appreciate those who are making a heroic effort to keep the economy running; putting their health and lives on the line for our benefit. They are trying to make sure food and supplies are available when needed. This is important when everything is going well; it is absolutely essential in a crisis.

They are life-savers and deserve our thanks, respect, and support.

They provide a stark contrast to those who are working around the clock to shut down the economy and punish any who dare try to keep life and business running as normally as possible. Those who impose and enforce economy-crushing policies and orders, using the pandemic as an excuse, are making things worse. They may pretend it's about saving lives, but their actions could cost lives in the long run.

When political officials-- and government health officials are more political than medical-- talk about the risk of deaths from COVID-19, they sometimes say some of those deaths will be balanced by the lives saved due to fewer traffic accidents and work-related deaths with more people staying home. This is all they consider when they discuss the net death toll of this pandemic. It's an incomplete picture and hides a big cost.

They ignore the additional deaths an economic depression will cause. They sweep those deaths, which they will be completely responsible for causing, under the rug. These deaths could outnumber the deaths caused by the virus, itself. This is because the economic deaths will occur over several years rather than a few months. Perhaps over the course of a decade or more.

How many people died from the Great Depression? How many more died as a result of Franklin Roosevelt's misguided socialistic policies which stretched that depression years beyond its natural span? How many had their health ruined by the years of hardship? How many died of stress-related conditions due to economic disruption, business failures, and losing their life savings or home?

History doesn't repeat, but similar conditions often have similar effects. If government policies manage to destroy or damage the economy, and then keep it from recovering naturally as quickly as it otherwise would-- the way FDR's programs did-- people who would otherwise have prospered as the economy recovered are going to be dying from effects of a Coronavirus Depression.

Worse, if the foolish "stimulus" being presented by politicians as a solution finally triggers hyperinflation, the result will be beyond anything you can imagine. Buckle up. It may get bumpy.

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Take life back

I hope you know the cases of coronavirus are hugely underreported (since ~80% of cases are asymptomatic and aren't getting reported to anyone, anywhere) and the deaths from coronavirus are hugely overestimated. With that in mind, as of Friday, May 8, 2020, the "official" count for cases is 1,276,088 and the "official" number of deaths attributed to it is 76,650. (source- map screenshot above)

If I am doing the math right-- and please never assume I ever do any math right-- that comes to around a 6% death rate for the disease, even with the cases underreported and the deaths exaggerated.

Yes, extrapolated into the future, assuming the rate doesn't change, that's a lot of dead people.

But the rate will change. It will decrease over time. Even if you ignore the bad data going into the figures, making things look worse than they are, the situation is still going to get less deadly. That's just how these types of viruses work.

It's past time to take life back from politicians and their armed goons. There's never any rational excuse to allow government to control a life.

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What motivates a billionaire?

One random example of a billionaire
Photo credit

Is money the only possible motivation for a politician or politically active individual? Of course not. It can be the main motivation for those who aren't rich yet, but once someone is rich they still have to be motivated to use the political means against their fellow humans.

Otherwise, they wouldn't.

To pretend that a billionaire only has your best interests in mind since he doesn't need more money is to ignore all the other factors which could be motivating him. It is also ignoring the fact that being a billionaire doesn't automatically satisfy the hunger for money.

He might want even more money.
He might want power.
He may have delusions of godhood.
He might actually want to make people suffer.
He might be insane.
He might honestly believe his ideas are good, but be frustrated that people don't willingly comply, so he cheats and uses politics to force compliance with his idea that's so great he has to force people to go along.

To imagine that the only explanation is that he's a wonderful, caring person who only wants to ensure the flourishing of humanity is to ignore that he is using the political means instead of the economic means. That means, no matter what he is motivated by, or what good he believes he is doing, he's carrying out his plans in the most evil way possible. Even if you like what he's doing and support him.

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Coronaggravation

Thursday I had my first almost-explosion over this coronavirus shut-down nonsense. My patience is running low.

I'm getting tired of businesses not being allowed to open normally, and I'm also getting tired of "karens" who think it's their business to point accusatory fingers at those who have had enough of the ridiculous (and counterproductive) rules and have begun to ignore them. I said a few weeks ago that people had reached "peak panic" and were going to stop responding to fear-mongering.

No, a group of people sitting in the park is NOT the reason the pandemic shut-downs are still with us. They may be our only hope of getting past this in a reasonable amount of time. Sure, health care workers and cashiers (in those businesses allowed to be open) are heroic, but so are those ignoring the "social distancing rules" and risking interaction with legislation enforcement officers. Especially when those in the group appear to be old enough to be in the higher risk group. Thank you!

As I watch just about all my earliest predictions and observations come to be grudgingly admitted as likely truth by more and more "experts" (and others saying they knew this all along), the stupidity of the shut-downs gets more and more obvious.

No, I wasn't "downplaying the risk"; I was being more realistic about the situation than any of the well-paid "experts". Time is telling who was more right. Confirmation bias? Maybe. But the posts are here to read.

There is still no rational alternative but to open up everything normally and let the virus spread naturally so it can fizzle out on its own. As viruses do. No rational alternative AT ALL! The longer this is delayed, the more harm that is done.

Yet, politicians can't stand the thought of giving up their newfound power to control. They feel growing pressure to ease away from some of the restrictions they love, which are growing more unpopular every day, but they are going to drag their feet as much as they can. Can't back off of DOING THE WRONG THINGS too quickly, or...? "Something bad"...? I feel a growing hatred for those political vermin... and there was no love there before.

You can depend on politically-oriented people to always do the wrong thing, for too long, and to resist ending it in the face of evidence that they are wrong and making things worse. Their precious power is more important to them than just about anything else. Your life is just a speed-bump-- and not a very noticeable one in their eyes.

It would be one thing if this were a natural disaster and there were actual reasons businesses couldn't open or that people couldn't gather, but this is a natural event turned into a disaster by politics. Politics makes people stupid!

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The coronavirus trolley problem

The coronavirus and governmental responses to it are one messy trolley problem. Should you sacrifice some to save others? No, I don't think you should. It's a fake choice.

As always, I think it's better to choose to do nothing than to make a forced choice to do something which will violate someone's life, liberty, or property. In fact, I believe that's usually the only responsible choice-- to refuse to be forced into a choice which will kill (or otherwise violate) others.

So, if a thug is holding me and some others at gunpoint and tells me I must choose who he shoots or he'll shoot us all, I think it would be wrong of me to cooperate and play his "game" (unless I saw a way to stall and turn the tables on him).

I get that I'm in the minority on this. Most people believe you've got to act, even if by acting you're going to sacrifice someone no matter what. That's also apparently the thinking behind v*ting. I don't buy it.

If my choice is to sacrifice Individual A or sacrifice Individual B, I may refuse to make any choice and let physics, biology, or chemistry do its thing. I accept I don't know enough to make choices for other people.

I also think you can't know which way is better in many cases. You might believe that by sacrificing Individual A you'll save lots of people, but it turns out you killed Individual A for nothing and people died anyway. Maybe more than otherwise would have. Everyone would have been better off if you didn't allow arrogance to cause you to make a choice that was never yours to make. Politicians (and often, the politically-minded non-politicians) are full of that kind of arrogance.

So, yes, I am saying that while I believe it would have been OK for government employees (as long as they exist anyway) to have made recommendations and suggestions aimed at reducing the coronavirus cases, it was unequivocally wrong of them to make and enforce any policies regarding the pandemic. By pulling that lever, they made a choice they had no right to make. Choosing who lives and who dies in such a case is NOT an "adult decision"; nothing is more childish and self-centered than to fall into that pit.

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Not the response I was expecting

I had quite the disappointment the other day, even though I ought to know better.

A person whose blog I've enjoyed (occasionally) for a long time-- and who I had a positive opinion of-- had posted something on Twitter. I commented. I don't think it's the first time I've ever commented on one of their tweets, but I know I don't do it very often.

This time I posted what I meant to be a playful, good-natured response, and I got scolded, put down, and they tried to make me feel like an insignificant nobody. (I'm not going to refute the point, but who would do that to someone who had no ill-will?) I wasn't even doing what they accused me of doing, but had mistakenly thought they might be amused. Boy, was I wrong!

Not only that, but this person was saying what I did by commenting was stupid and then kept bragging in a couple of follow-up tweets about their social status and widely recognized huge vocabulary and writing skill. And then they misspelled something in one of their braggy Tweets. (Oops! Don't you hate when that happens?)

I understand that my comment was taken the wrong way. I guess I shouldn't have commented at all. Yet, it showed me what kind of person they are, and it wasn't what I was expecting. Maybe they were just in a bad mood, or maybe I really am that awful. It's why you probably shouldn't have heroes (and why I don't).

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Hide yer face from facial recognition

I have no financial interest in this, but I did give her permission to use the design:

Kinda cool, for any occasion, doncha think? Here's the link if you want to outfit the whole family: Time's Up neck gaiters

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Licenses don't impress me

Licenses are BS. Yes, all of them.

I don't care whether you have a license; I care that you can do whatever you claim you can do.

I have nothing against training, certifications, endorsements, etc. I might even be impressed if you can show me credible proof of such training.

But licensing is none of that.

Licensing doesn't mean you are capable; it means you have gained the approval-- the permission-- of some political gang. It means you have paid the gang for that approval and permission, and in exchange, the gang won't (might not) murder you for doing what the license allows you to do-- something you probably already have a natural human right to do.

For some pitiful people, a license means they believe the gang is a legitimate source of competence. Either by feeling proud of their license, or concerning themselves over the licensing of others. That's not how I see it at all. A license will never impress me-- competence will.

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'Papers, please' now our reality

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for April 1, 2020)

I'm not happy with the petty tyrants who have done away with any pretense of respecting the rights of Americans. They are using this pandemic as an excuse to twist the police state tighter around our necks. I'm angry about it.

I'm not generally an angry person, but violating the life, liberty, or property of my fellow humans will make me angry every time. I don't care how necessary they pretend it is. I will not comply when their orders conflict with liberty, nor will I tattle on anyone else.

I'm not saying they can't offer suggestions. People may be confused about what to do in the midst of a panic. Some will foolishly look to government for guidance rather than seeking credible sources. It's not their fault; it's what they've been trained to do.

However, when guidance becomes orders, the politicians become everything America stands against. This isn't North Korea. This isn't how America works. I'm far from alone in feeling this way.

When local businesses find it necessary to issue travel papers in an attempt to protect their employees from potential assault by roving gangs of government's hired guns the last straw has dropped.

How many of the current rights violations-- restrictions on travel and assembly, price controls, fascistic business closures-- are trial balloons to see what they can get away with if they scare people badly enough?

Well, the scheme didn't work. I'm not scared. I'm mad and I'm watching them.

I'm also watching as they destroy the economy with their "stimulus", and I'll know exactly who's to blame when the bill comes due.
 
The sad thing is, this tyranny is completely unnecessary.

I am not going to intentionally put my health, or the health of others, at risk. I plan to do what I have to do to stay safe and healthy. I'm not exposing myself or others unless it is unavoidable-- regardless of what I am ordered to do. If I need to ignore the orders of politicians, so be it. When the politicians become a greater danger than any microbe, who could still respect them? I can't.

When I was a kid, "Papers, please" was held up as evidence that foreign authoritarian regimes were evil. Now it's the American reality. I won't put up with it. Will you? Politicians have picked sides, and they chose to side with the virus and other deadly threats to society. They've shown themselves to be society's enemy. I propose we believe them.

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Expectations create your subjective reality

The mind can play tricks. Your expectations can alter the way you experience reality.

Years ago I experienced this effect and have never forgotten the lesson it taught me.

In the pet store where I worked, my boss had placed a solid air freshener in the hallway. We were always doing this to fight the smells that some customers find objectionable, even in a clean pet shop.

As I walked by the new air freshener I picked it up to smell it. The waxy material inside was a nice creamy off-white color. I lifted it to my nose and took a whiff and smelled the most delicious vanilla scent. Then I looked at the label. It said "unscented". No, it couldn't be. I smelled vanilla. I was positive.

I sniffed it again, but this time the vanilla scent wasn't there. There was no detectable scent at all. The vanilla had been all in my mind, just because the color had made me expect to smell vanilla-- or, that's my theory.

This experience has made me question how I experience reality. If I expect something, I often question whether my expectation is coloring what I experience-- I try to recognize my expectations and guard against them. I know it's probably not possible to completely rid myself of expectations and false experience, but I do believe I'm better at it than I was before I was punched in the face with that wake-up call.

So, when people expect government to be a credible source, I understand why they experience it as one. Even though the scent of credibility is all in their imagination. That's the only place where political "authority" resides.

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Firemaking: Yucca fire roll

A semi-primitive skill. You can use primitive materials rather than milled lumber, but I used what I had on hand.

I had a tough time editing this video because YT got rid of their video editing features. So there are some problems with it. Since YT doesn't allow me to monetize my videos anyway, I'm not going to worry too much about the amateurishness. I could have even screamed "Coronavirus!" over and over while I made the video and it wouldn't have gotten me demonetized.

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Trump-triggered

If you're criticizing or ridiculing Trump because you realize you don't need a president of any sort and you want the office abolished, I'm right there with you.

If, however, you're criticizing or ridiculing Trump just because you'd prefer the "Democrat" side to be "in charge" and imagine they would be better, I can't support you. In fact, I find your complaints tedious and when you lie about the situation to try to prop up "the other side" by making Trump look worse, you'll get nothing but an eye-roll from me.

I don't support Trump, but I would NOT prefer someone else (like Rapey Joe?) in that office... because I want the office abolished. If you're criticizing Trump from the same perspective, great. But if it's just to get some other political monster into that illegitimate office, you're on your own and I'm tired of hearing it. Stop letting Trump control your mind. Find another hobby, please!

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The moving goal

The graphic is my attempt to illustrate why government handouts don't fix anyone's economic condition. Not in the long run.

I've tried to explain it several times in words but decided to give an illustration the chance.

It would be nice if this were wrong, I suppose. But that's not the world we live in, even if people with fake economic credentials believe it is. Government can't create real wealth (or even real money) out of fantasy and wishful thinking. Believing it can only leads to more problems in the long run.

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What is a "slippery slope"?

If you listen to Scott Adams, the next time you hear him railing against "the slippery slope", saying it's "magical thinking" to believe in such a thing, and you want to understand (or explain to him) why he's wrong, this is for you.

Basically, it's a definition problem. He is defining the term differently than most people would, apparently in order to reach a particular conclusion in which government actions are excused.

He portrays the idea of "the slippery slope" as a magical belief in a law of physics that says once something starts going in one direction, it will continue to do so forever, unstoppable. He says nothing is unstoppable; it only continues until something stops it. Like inertia? But of course, inertia doesn't apply to human behavior, only to physical objects.

What does apply to behavior in a manner very much like inertia is that once you've been able to get away with acting in a certain way, you are more likely to do it again. And go a little further next time, always testing your boundaries. How much can you get away with?

Because the first legislator who proposed the first anti-gun legislation wasn't half-hanged, then drawn and quartered immediately after he proposed that abomination, as he should have been, others were emboldened to follow in his footsteps, until your natural human right to own and to carry any weapon you wish, openly or concealed, everywhere you go is now routinely violated.

He claims that those who point out that something is a slippery slope ignore that it can be stopped. That's not a true claim. No one actually believes something on a slippery slope can't be stopped or reversed. If it couldn't be stopped, why even point out that it's a slippery slope? The warning is an attempt to stop it. It's just that once it starts down that slippery slope you've got more ground to recover before you're back to square one. It's better to not take that first step into tyranny than to have to scale it back after it has been allowed to grow.

You can call it a slippery slope, "precedent", or a natural expression of human nature, but the result is the same. It's not magic, it is a universal feature of human nature.

To discount this very real effect is to deny reality in favor of some fantasy world where laws of human behavior don't apply. Where effect is totally unrelated to cause. It's loserthink.

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Thank you, Covid-19

The coronapocalypse couldn't have come at a more convenient time. At least in one personal respect.

I developed something somewhat medical, unsightly and gross but temporary, on my face. (See me trying to avoid "TMI"?) Yet, I have a perfect excuse in the coronapanic to wear a face mask in public to hide it. It's almost as though the Universe was looking out for me.

In other coronavirus news-- A household member was sent from work to the hospital to be tested for coronavirus this morning due to fever and coughing-- no return to work for at least 5 days, and that's if the test comes back negative. So I may be exposed. Yay. Of course, I may have already had it back in February.  Or not.

Also, if you are interested, here's a live map to track the officially logged cases: Covid19Map.us

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Secondary legislation

(I have the weirdest thoughts while doing mindless tasks I dislike, sometimes spawned by things I've heard or read recently. Many of them become blog posts-- such as this one.)

Primary legislation affects your rights-- your life, liberty, and property-- directly.

Secondary legislation affects other legislation and can either make that legislation worse or it can make it less harmful. Secondary legislation doesn't usually affect you directly; it affects how primary legislation affects you.

I'm always against primary legislation, even if it codifies natural law.

I support secondary legislation if, and only if. it defangs or abolishes primary legislation. I'd rather it be made unnecessary.

It's a sign of a broken, illegitimate "system" when you have to write secondary legislation to reverse the rights violations of primary legislation instead of just throwing out the bad primary legislation without fanfare and ritual. Legislators would call this a feature, but it's a bug. As are legislators. Worse than cockroaches, in fact.

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Government more deadly virus

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for March 25, 2020)

Do you know what I'd rather not think about? The coronavirus panic. Do you know what it seems no one, including me, is thinking about? Anything other than the coronapocalypse.

People think about the things which catch their attention. That's normal. The changes which have been forced on society over the past couple of weeks are huge. It's no wonder people can't stop thinking about this.

It's wise to take things seriously, but not to let them cause panic.

Here are some other things which might be important to learn from this:

- If you're sick, stay home!

- If you are waiting to see if government can save you, you're barking up the wrong flag pole. You have the most influence over your own life and health. Use it.

- Don't stay submerged in coronavirus hysteria. You can leave the cell phone in your pocket and take a walk. Let the sunlight and fresh air work their healthy magic.

- The time to stockpile supplies is before a crisis occurs. Otherwise you help cause shortages and increase the possibility of violence. Maybe less so here than in urban areas, but it's a danger everywhere.

- There's no such thing as "price gouging". Higher prices during greater demand make sure the stores don't run out. Government's unwise intervention, imposing socialist economic policies, guarantees empty shelves, whether it happens in America or Venezuela. I'd rather pay a higher price for something I need than to not be able to get it at any price because stores weren't allowed to charge higher prices during increased demand.

- When government bungles the response-- often by responding at all-- and then tries to cover up the bungling with heavy-handed police state tactics as is happening now, things get worse than they otherwise would.

This is also an opportunity for personal growth.

There are people in high-risk groups who probably shouldn't be going into public to shop. If you aren't in this group, why not ask them what they need, and go get it for them? Compete with your friends and see who can help the most people. Make it a sport.

No one knows what the coming weeks will bring. I believe the virus itself is less dangerous than the social effects of the panic and the anti-social power-grabs by various governments.

You will suffer in the coming months. It's not going to be the fault of any biological virus, but of an institutional one. Political government is the deadly virus most in need of extinction.

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Understanding statism

Libertarians understand statists (and their positions) better than statists understand libertarians (and better than statists understand statists). I believe that's always going to be the case.

If you pay any attention and have any familiarity with libertarians and statists and their interactions, you're going to see it, too.

Partly, it's because we may have once had statist leanings ourselves, and also because we are constantly exposed to and immersed in statist ideology (and superstition). We can't escape it. We have no "silo" to hide in. Not that most of us would want to hide since exposing and ridiculing statism is so much fun-- although little vacations into such a silo could be relaxing.

It's also because libertarians are simply better, more clear thinkers than statists. It sounds arrogant and rude to say so, but that doesn't alter the facts. That doesn't mean we are never wrong; just that we are wrong much less often, and in smaller ways, than statists.

Statists are just wrong piled on top of wrong; they are usually even wrong about where/how they might be wrong. They simply don't understand at all, even while imagining they do.

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Failing in a crisis-- and all the time

Government-supremacists are desperately trying to interpret government's actions during the pandemic in such a way to make them seem smart-- or at least honest. And they are failing. Hard.

As I have said before, political government is never a credible source. If your argument depends on government being a credible source you've set yourself up to fail before you began. You've hitched your wagon to a mirage and kicked off down a steep, winding trail full of big rocks, potholes, and ditches. Things can only get worse from there.

Don't take medical advice from government without checking credible sources first. Government is not your doctor, and any doctors working for government have rejected medicine for politics. You can't mix medicine and politics without contaminating the medicine to the point of uselessness at best, and lethality at worst.

Don't take government's claims of scientific accuracy without checking credible sources first. Government is not a scientist. Any scientists working for government gave up real science when they became political. For that matter, any scientist promoting a political agenda has betrayed the scientific method for politics and scientific thought for superstition. That's not science.

Government is not an economist, a charitable organization, your parent, your master, your superior, your servant, a protector of rights, or a promoter of liberty. Government is not a safety team and is not on your side.

Government is a gang of thieves that uses initiated force to make you treat it as though it is all the good and helpful things it claims to be.

Government will not save you from the pandemic. Not even under the best-case scenario where they were right about the risks, did the right things at the right time, and didn't do anything to make things worse.

This truth is something government-supremacists can't take when it doesn't align with "their side"-- which it never will. It doesn't matter whether they are the government-supremacists who support what was done or the government-supremacists who say government should have done something different. The truth is not with them. And they just keep digging themselves in deeper, to their discredit.

But it can be sort of fun to watch them flailing and failing-- if you can ignore the fact that they are harming you with everything they advocate.

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