THIS & THAT XIX

 

          T-shirt on a large woman in my big-box store: UNLESS I AM SITTING ON YOUR FACE, MY WEIGHT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.

 

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          The CDC records and reports flu cases week by week, and has done so for years.  Here are the numbers of flu cases in the US for the last five flu seasons:

2016-17:  29,000.000 

2017-18:  45,000,000

2018-19:  36,000,000

2019-20:  38,000,000

2020-21:            2038

 

(Source: USA Today, 5-10-21, reporting on flu cases from 9-27-20 to 4-24-21)

 

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          As totalitarianism advances around the globe, and dissenters are increasingly segregated from society, and police state rule grows more powerful in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, New Zealand and other nations, those of us who are horrified by what is happening are horrified in part by the realization that most people just don’t seem to care.

 

          Natan Sharansky, the famous soviet refusenik, later a member of the Israeli Knesset, offered an explanation in his 2004 book, “The Case for Democracy.”  As a man who has seen evil both in the USSR and in the West, Sharansky wrote that evil can be difficult to confront no matter where it appears.  In the Soviet world, of course, the people had been disarmed, they could not easily communicate with one another, and all the power belonged to the state.  The people there had no difficulty identifying evil, but they were powerless to confront it.  When he was finally allowed to emigrate to the West, however, he learned to his surprise that the danger was just as great, but more insidious.  In the West, evil comes disguised as kindness, safety, fairness, community relations, compassion, or even public health.  Here, the danger is that Westerners don’t recognize evil.  And then it’s too late.

 

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          The best estimate is that about 388,000 African slaves were brought to America between 1525 and 1866.  Were any of them owned by Republicans?

 

          The number of slaves owned by Republicans is probably not zero, but it’s not much more than that.  Ulysses S. Grant, who became a Republican president, reportedly was given a slave in 1859, and promptly “fired” him.  Does that count?  Though I have spent about two minutes researching this question, I have been unable to find the name of another Republican who ever owned a slave.  The GOP was founded in 1854 by abolitionists and its purpose was to prevent the spread of slavery into newly forming States.  Then they nominated Lincoln for president in 1859 and, well, I think you know the rest of the story.

 

          All of which suggests a solution for one of the problems that always arise in any discussion of reparations for the descendants of slaves: who should pay them?  The obvious answer:  registered Democrats.

 

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          As the march toward a biomedical security state proceeds apace, occasional cracks appear in the enforcement regime.  They provide some hope.

 

          In Philadelphia, there is a change in the mask regime.  During the previous masking order, walking into a store without a mask would bring an immediate intervention from a clerk or security guard.  If the initial request was ignored, more attention and pestering would ensue.  In my big-box store, customers who refused to put on a mask would not be allowed to purchase anything.  After being followed around the store, cashiers would refuse to wait on them.

 

          Then, on June 10, the masks came off.  Well, not really.  Probably 80% of customers still wore them, but the city rescinded its indoor mask order, so there was no longer any enforcement.

 

          About two months later, on August 12, a new masking order was promulgated, again requiring mask-wearing indoors.

 

          In the seven weeks since, however, an important difference has emerged.  I now routinely walk unmasked into restaurants, supermarkets, and the like, and I am never accosted.  In government buildings like the public library, you will be told to slap the diaper on, but nowhere else.  The prior mask order was ruthlessly enforced, and this one is not.  For those who understand that masking is an obedience ritual and is otherwise pointless, the difference matters.

 

          “The law” is always two different things: 1) what it says in the statute books, and 2) the way it goes down on the street.  Mask laws are one example.  In Philadelphia, shootings are another.  It is against “the law” (as written), to shoot people, but a large majority of shootings are simply overlooked.  Only about 20% of shooters are ever arrested, and many of those who get nabbed never serve time in prison.

 

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          For our own health and safety, and that of our friends, relatives and society at large, Sandy and I have spent some time discussing the guest protocols we will need to enforce during the upcoming holidays.  Though these are subject to change, we will ask all visitors to our home between Thursday, November 25, 2021 and Friday, January 1, 2022 to produce evidence of the following:

 

          1) A negative PCR COVID test performed within 72 hours of your visit, along with a subsequent negative rapid antigen test confirming the PCR result.

 

          2) A paper or cardboard vaccination certificate and, depending on your eligibility on the date of your visit, an updated certificate of a booster vaccination.

 

          3) A BMI of between 18.5 and 24.9.  (For your convenience, if you do not have a notarized BMI Declaration from your doctor, we will have a scale, tape measure, calipers, and calculator at the door when you arrive.)

 

          4) A full report (with no redactions), of a polyp-free colonoscopy performed by a board-certified surgeon or gastroenterologist on October 1, 2021 or thereafter.  (Unfortunately, we are no longer able to perform this service in our foyer.)   NOTE: an 8 x 10 glossy photograph of your colon, even in full color, will not be sufficient unless accompanied by the hard-copy report.

 

          5) Copies of the previous five years of your Form 1040s, along with all attachments, and documentation of any audits (resolved or unresolved), performed by the IRS.

 

          6) A certified copy of your criminal record from the Philadelphia Police Department, the Pennsylvania State Police, or any other police district in a city, state or other locality where you have resided at any time in the previous twenty years.

 

          7) A DNA report from “23 and Me” or any similar commercial firm attesting to your racial and ethnic heritage.

 

          8) Your attendance record (K – 6), at St. Bridget’s Catholic Elementary School, signed and attested to by a church official of Monsignor rank or higher.

 

          During your visit, you will be required to wear two masks and a plastic face-shield at all times, even while eating, drinking, brushing your teeth, or performing fellatio.  Violators will be instantly ejected from the premises by means of a trebuchet we have constructed on the front lawn.

 

          Wassail!

 

Copyright2021MichaelKubacki