265 thoughts on “Ask the Stupid Questions a guest post by Professor Ornery Dragon”

1. “Masks worked where I work” – My sister . . .who got the WuFlu at work in her office and everyone else at her place of work got some form of it.

   1. Sigh

   2. I know– I have siblings who can’t put actions and consequences together. You’d think being able to put the pieces together was a normal ability. Not so–

      1. Sis is a bit different. She is BiPolar and quite twitchy at times (her BP is the past swap one) and on a crapton of various meds (lithium again, for now).

         1. That would do it too. I notice my IQ drops immediately when I am on prednisone and immunosuppressants.

      2. It is. But that is the norm by which people are justly judged, not the typical.

   3. But think how much worse it would have been without the masks!
      *Sigh.*

      1. Co-worker mentioned that and I pointed out the reason she didn’t get a cold or three last year/winter was more her kids not going to school or daycare than anything else.
         She at least agreed that was a valid point. Most of the time her “mask” was a gaiter for hunting and fishing.

   4. “Why were cloth masks tried dozens of times in African hospitals, to try to avoid the supply chain issues, and every time found to be either useless or worse than useless? Didn’t you hear about how that meta-study added in n95 masks to the category of mask? Hah, what next, they include military gas masks? *ramble off into discussion of the pepper-gas smoke stuff curing boot camp crud*”

      1. Yeah . . . even a nice new sterile KN99 will only work for a short time if put on correctly, not touched, not being active in any way (minutes at the short end to an hour in a best case) then on it is a detriment. And places like my workplace specifically forbid KN99, N99, and N95 masks from being used. And then most of the disposable ones they provided were not really N95 (some not even N20) so they finally allowed homemade ones, or bought ones (but still not KN99, N99, N95, etc) so when forced to I went with Sonovia ones, as they at least, were not likely to try and kill me.
         And it’s not like we didn’t also lose an uncle to a bacterial pneumonia right after he flew from Phoenix to Escanaba (i.e. forced to diaper for a full day on flights or waiting in the concourse).

         1. :HUG:

            I’m sorry.

            I’ve been on the “bacterial pneumonia is real, and NASTY” thing for months.

         2. Yikes. I have a large rotation of cloth masks so that when I had to wear one “all day” when I did jury duty, it was three hours max per mask. I mean, you can smell the difference after a short while.

            1. I have twice ordered a 5 pack from Sonivia, and one was worn as a dust mask not long after getting the first batch, because there were none to be found in stores, and I didn’t feel like the full organic mask and the Sonovia is supposed to be about an N95.
               It still smells of Bamboo over a year later (i was routing a ‘boo countertop . . . nature’s fiberglass).

         3. Had pneumonia once in my life after a year and a half of undiagnosed sinus infection. Nope. Not gonna. (Had the perfect storm for mold exposure; Midwest at its most humid, and sharing a hotel room with a) not working HVAC, and b) one person who loved loooooooong hot showers.)

            I could see my book’s pages drying out on the plane. Add a face diaper to that mess, and the pneumonia would have started a hell of a lot sooner.

            Oregon has the mask in public edict passed down from Statsfuhrer Despicable Kate Brown, but compliance is dropping a bit from last week. Maybe 50% FreeBreathers at the big-family grocery store, and 30% at the fancier one with clothing and electronics. (Names not included. Suck it Karens.)

            $PUPPY has to see the vet tomorrow for first shot and deworming. I suspect we’ll need the diapers, at least handy. The state has been pretty nasty for them.

            1. Whitless the Wonder Stasi has had her brownshirt powers revoked by the Legislature, and Evers was cut off early by the Courrts in Wi so I am just dealing with ignoring our local EHS Ninny because Comapny policy is non-vax wear, vaxxed not, until the latest CDC edict and it became “If local conditions dictate vaxxed wearing a mask”
               They’v had some issues in other buildings with booting non-compliers but we are off in our own little corner and mostly ignored, and the manager shows up with his under his chin when he sneaks in for his chocolate fix (material handler keeps her candy well stocked)

               1. Kate has a supermajority of Donks in one of the houses, with the only way for the Rs to stop the more egregious legislation is to do the bug-out (like Texas, but somehow the MSM doesn’t consider them heros). She also has appointed a large enough number of judges so that going to the state courts is close to pointless, and the 9th Circus is now a crapshoot (better after GEOTUS Trump got some decent judges on the bench, but there’s still a lot of rot).

                  So, come 10/18, all the employees working under the executive branch (not legislative nor judicial–they’ll only go along with Kate so far) have to have the not-Vax or be fired. (Not sure if they’ll have the testing option, or if it was only health-care workers who lost that option.) I expect we’ll see fewer OSP officers on the highway. Their presence in Flyover County has normally been low, but spiked when marijuana was legalized. Too many freelance exporters in U-hauls taking product eastward.

                  OTOH, my sympathy for OSP officers dropped when they picked up the role of suppressing protests at the state capitol. Can’t have members of the public actually expecting to have a say in The People’s Business, you know. I also suspect the drug arrests dropped, too. Haven’t heard of any local exporter busts since covidiocy started. DMV went mostly on-line, with appointments and emergency support being the only face-to-face interaction. So, likely slower response. Welcome to California’s Northern Annex. The likely reaction at welfare offices make me glad I’m 40 road miles from a small city, and a lot further from the large ones. I can break out the popcorn rather than the 12 gauge.

                  1. Police, city, county, state, can’t even pull over people for non-compliance licensing. People can’t get tags. New plates are iffy. Our tags aren’t due until 2023 and 2024 (4 years with new vehicle, now). We’ll see if the state is still screwed up then. Hubby loves it. If you are driving less than 80 on I-5, you are impeding traffic … At best police are going after those weaving in/out of traffic, slamming on breaks when they misjudge (or someone speeds up a smidgen to keep from getting cut off) their right side pass. Better they slam on breaks than me, thank you very much. Oh, and stay off my tailgate.

                     1. Tag shortage? That’s new to me, but I have a Subie Forester due in October. The local DMV is/was open by appointment, but I’ll register by mail.

                        1. We always register by mail. What people have been getting is a piece of paper to tape in back window. Do not know why. Most are faded now. Still seeing them. I don’t know what is going on.

                  2. Have lots of friends in OR / WA. Seems to me that in the big city areas, many conservatives have Stockholm Syndrome. They seem to have accepted the unlimited power of Queen Kate to dictate masks, lockdowns, closures, and only question exactly how tight the restrictions ought to be for best results.

                     1. Not so much as accepting it. As not much we can do about it.

                        Hubby rarely wears his mask but then he’s not going anywhere daily it is required. Technically not true. But I dare OSHA to stick their necks around a lot of grumpy old people with clubs and hard golf balls available … “Oops that sure hooked”, “oh, um, FOUR”. 🙂

                        I don’t really care if I get Costco or Kroger’s Fred Meyer’s in trouble. But don’t want Petsmart, Veterinarian, or our local eateries to get nailed. Other than Petsmart, the others would be the ones landed hard on. Medical, well okay, that I understand.

                        Medical I suspect is applauding wearing masks. At least would keep sniffling and coughing behind a mask, somewhat. It isn’t like it wasn’t recommended before, for sick people, just people rarely did. Medical, where else would one expect to encounter sick people? Also, if you are sick, you shouldn’t be going to a dentist …

                     2. The last mask mandate, Grovers (electrical/plumbing supply place) asked for masking; they are big enough for TPTB to notice, and small enough to be made an example. Sportsman’s Warehouse was already under threat to have the gun counter closed “because of lack of distancing”, so they had a gatekeeper, as did the one local farm and ranch store that sells firearms.

                        Westside in December, a Costco official-wandering-Karen chided me for having my nose exposed. Since the only reason I was on that trip was to shop at Costco (and Trader Joe’s–neither are local to us in Flyover county), I barely put up with it–at least until I was out of sight. The next day I wore the shield, and once past the entrance, raised the shield to ram-air scoop levels. The gatekeeper that day gave me a thumbs up; he was also wearing a shield. No Sam’s Club in Oregon, at least the last time I looked.

                        FWIW, in Lockdown 1.0, OR-OSHA had roving teams doing compliance checks. They were not appreciated at the stores, though they managed to skip the stores in $TINY_TOWN. I don’t know if they would have gotten death threats (or the Three S treatment), but the place has a reputation. Still, any store big enough to get a lot of customers had gatekeepers for at least Lockdown 1.0. Once the gatekeepers were gone, compliance dropped a fair amount. A really big home improvement chain dropped to below 50%, and with Kate’s latest mask diktat, might have gone up to 55% compliance. Maybe. Lots of noncompliance at the local stores, and on a basic shopping trip, nobody said word one about masks.

                        And yeah, Kate now wants outdoor activities masked up, regardless of whether the person is using Dr. FDA’s Miracle not-Vaccine. I assume there will be the usual exemption if the person is wearing black and is holding a Molotov cocktail.

      2. Hey, it’s a legit reason if people start wondering why you’re keeping a full NBC set at home.

         “Well, the CDC recommends it. It’s Science! You wouldn’t want to be against Science, would you?

         1. Well I have two full MOPP sets, less concerned about CDC, more about that base 90 miles down wind that would be a first strike target for Xi or Ivan or L’il Kim.

            1. navy shipyard, not ¾ mile from where I am sitting and the AFB is but 85 miles as the crow flies north of here.

               1. Way back when, a friend from out of State asked me whether I was worried about a nuclear attack.

                  “Nope. I won’t even know it happened.”

                  Whole city of Tucson ringed with Titan II silos – and a major SAC base on the south side.

                  1. Ah, crap! I was thinking about moving to Benson or Sierra Vista.

                     1. Oh, the Titans are long gone. Davis-Monthan hasn’t been a SAC base for quite a few years, either.

                        Sierra Vista, friends tell me, is mostly under the boot heels of HOAs these days – but Benson is probably still nice (also close to the produce farms around Willcox, and not all that far from Tucson for the things you need from here).

                        I don’t think that DM will ever be reactivated as a SAC base, either. While they have the room, they’d have to bulldoze all too many of their infrastructure to get the long runways again, since they gave up the northern part where there is now a major traffic artery and much residential.

                        1. Davis-Monathan is still a target. Raytheon Missile Systems is very very much a target.

                           1. Anything that is military, command and control, or military production is, yes, a target. From Minot, SD right down to the National Guard armory in the small town that I grew up in.

                              Davis-Monthan, though, is no longer a primary first strike target. Hughes Aircraft / Raytheon never was (although an attacker would get a two-fer with an airburst over DM).

                              Which is good (for me and mine). Bugout bags are packed, and we’re on the road to the mountains in twenty minutes or less. Although I admit that it will be a tough road – we do not have a vehicle that won’t be trashed by the initial EMP.

                           2. if someone told you that wasn’t a first strike target, they were lying to you. it absolutely is, especially now.

                  2. flash fry

                  3. Most of the Titan II silos in Arkansas were in the hilly northern area, rural even by Arkansas standards. Except for Vilonia, far from any military bases.

                     Looks like the Titan IIs were based in Arizona, Arkansas, and Kansas. Just three states, and none of them would have been high on my list for ICBM launch sites. I detect the odor of pork…

                     I was astonished to find that there were only 50 to 60 “in service” Titan II missiles in any given year. Granted they were only one prong of the missile-submarine-aircraft strategy, but that doesn’t seem like a whole lot of missiles to hammer the Commies into a radioactive wasteland. [clickety] there were 18 Ohio-class subs, each with 24 missiles; that’s 432, plus whatever other nuclear-capable subs; I’m not going down that rabbit hole this morning. There were 744 BUFFs, though you’d have to dig to find out how many were in service any given year, plus all the other bombers and nuclear-capable fighters were were. Each G-series BUFF could carry nuclear missiles under the wings, along with their bomb payload. I tried to figure out how many nukes a B-52 could carry, but there were so many aircraft and weapon models, there doesn’t seem to be any answer beyond “a whole bunch.” And there were other nuclear missiles than the Titan II, of course…

                     1. When they first were being designed, Tucson could be described as just barely above rural – population 55K in 1950. Still only a bit more than 200K in the area in 1963.

                        Certainly politics involved, but one of the criteria was to have them relatively near to major airbases.

                        You didn’t need as many land-based missiles as others – a matter of their lower circular error probability (CEP), their at the time of activation much better survivability, and they had MIRVs fitted quite a while before SLBMs could be.

                        One consideration in not having too many of them – for all of the reasons above – is that they were the best suited for a first strike scenario, not a retaliatory one. Which is why the Soviet force structure was a worry – almost all land based weapons.

               2. We have an F15C (air to air version) training squadron about 25 miles away, but I assume it’s way down the priority list.

                  1. just means a few more minutes of knowing what’s going on (~_^) the AFB north of here is very little used but we also have the iron mines, and shipping points (on Superior and at Escanaba on Michigan) as well as some rare earths and gold just north of the AFB too.

                     1. There was some word that the Soviets had far fewer viable nuke/ICBMs than we were led to believe, and I suspect that China will have similar issues with quality control. IMHO, I expect mil sites with direct capability of resisting would be targeted in the first waves., along with major sites, NYFC, Washington DC and such.

                        I’m not sure if the ChiComs would bomb Portland or if they would cause more damage by leaving it alone.

      3. How can cloth or paper masks work when the holes in the cloth/paper are 4000 times the size of the virus? What was the “science” back in 2020 when Fauci said masks don’t work and are harmful (correctly IMO) and what facts caused that “science” to change so drastically that Fauci wanted to require them everywhere? Why did masks not work in the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, but work now?

         1. I actually had someone cite the Spanish Flu as the masks having been “known to work” then.

            …that’s when I found the papers I keep linking, about them not working at all, and possibly being harmful.

            1. *BOGGLE*

               I’d read up on the 1918 flu long before the Great COVIDiocy and it was pretty plain “the masks, they do NOTHING!” …except signal, and make bacterial things WORSE.

         2. That’s why I always tell the Mask Karens:

            Masks are a lie!

            The Medical Authorities have known that paper and cloth masks do not reduce the spread of viral disease for 100 years.

            When somebody is smoking, can you smell smoke through the mask? Smoke particles are hundreds of times bigger than virus particles.

            Paper and cloth masks are about as effective against viruses as trying to hold back fog with a barbed wire fence. Two masks is like trying to hold back fog with two barbed wire fences.

            1. A better response is “mosquito – chain-link fence

               1. The pat answer is “the virus may be tiny but the droplets it rides on are big (you stupid loser)”. (N.B. (you stupid loser) can be assumed to follow all pat answers from the usual suspects.)

                  Follow that one up with “So if the virus rides on droplets big enough to be stopped by masks, how can asymptomatic people who aren’t coughing and sneezing be spreading the virus? If the virus is aerosolized, why can’t it easily escape around the edges of the mask if not through?” [smile sweetly]

                  1. That’s why I say ‘virus particles’ — because the virus itself is billions of times smaller than smoke particles. I mean the motes that carry viruses through the air are far too small to be trapped in cheap paper or cloth masks. Mold spores and most bacteria pass right through those masks. Only a few get trapped, and those immediately proceed to start growing. In the mask. While you’re wearing it.

                  2. FWIW, Aesop (at reconteur report) has been using N95 masks in his ER duties since the Chinavirus started, and he’s not been out sick. OTOH, the protocol for using it entails changing the mask and gloves after every patient, and the mask fit has to be tested. He recommends sympomatic people use masks so that their sneezes and coughs don’t go downwind–and has cited studies showing that they work under those circumstances.

                     So, his take is that if you are hacking, the face diaper will help protect others. If you are halitosis-close to symptomatic people, a *properly worn* N95 mask and other PPE can protect you. He won’t take the not-Vax…

                     Me, I’m not symptomatic. No mask for me, outside the medical offices, pretty much the only places around here where it’s mandated enforced. Had to revert to my desperado bandana when the Chinese face diaper broke an ear loop at the doctor’s office and I didn’t have a spare. It’s the closest to theater I’ve gotten since junior high school.

            2. yes i can and it irritates the eff out of me when they decided to have One Last Bowl While They Wiat For The Uber.

         3. The reasoning I’ve seen with the most weight (so far as I can tell) is, “Yes, the virus is small enough to get through, but the virus is embedded in fluid, and the mask will catch that, so the mask will at least stop some of the virus.”

            1. The aerosolized particles including fluid are not much affected by masks, especially cloth or those blue disposable “medical” masks. New study from Canada again finds mask filtration efficiency against aerosols to be low:

               Canadian mannequin study finds mask filtration efficiencies of:

               Cloth: 10%
               Blue disposable: 12%
               Fitted KN95: 46%
               Fitted R95: 60%
               KN95 with 3mm gaps: 3%

               Even modest ventilation (2 air changes per hour) outperforms best mask.https://t.co/2GqCW50oyC

               — Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) August 22, 2021

               Includes link to article.
               Even fitted KN95 (from China) only 46%, with 3mm gaps drops to 3%. R95 respirator (good luck finding one!): 60% efficiency
               40+% of aerosols get through the best, most uncomfortable masks (if you can even find them). Over 50% get through even properly fitted N95, so it won’t help much, i.e. two breaths will put out as much as 1 did before ….

      4. I don’t remember CS curing boot camp crud, but it did eliminate the sinus symptoms for a while…

         1. *shrug* We were clean after that, I figured it was as much because everything had run through everybody already at about that time.

2. Chuckle Chuckle

   I took one Database class because while I could likely learn it on my own, I wanted there to be an instructor to answer any “stupid questions” and to be in a classroom where somebody else might ask the “stupid questions”.

   Oh, I was willing to ask the instructor for clarification of matters that I wasn’t sure of.

   1. This programmer (me). Going to the top programmer in the office:

      Me: “What am I doing wrong? Here is what I want to do. Here are the steps …”

      Half the time he doesn’t even have to say anything because listing the steps, notice “Oh … Well dang it! Thanks!”

      Another percentage, I really am missing a step I didn’t know about, or a rarely used function buried in the not-documented extensive custom library (VERY small percentage). (Pretty much the other 50% ->) It involves something I know dang well isn’t there, or broken, but for (a variety of) reasons, I can’t add, touch, or fix it; OR a case has to be made as to why it IS required after TPTB have declared that it isn’t required and will never ever be needed (him usually).

      Then there were the clients “This is Broken! Fix it!”. Me: “Let me look at it.” Me: “Um, I’m confused. How is it broken, again? Walk me through it.” (Note “HOW”, not “Why”.)

      It has been decades since I’ve been to any programming seminar on any topic. Before I ever went to the programming seminar I had already been working in said tool (most the time, there were 3 topics where that didn’t happen, for reasons that the tool was not available before attending). I went with pages of questions. Any question NOT answered during the lecture or work session, and were not found in handout materials, got asked or clarified. Shared the technique with other attendees too. The most fun answer was “undocumented bug in XYZ, here is the undocumented fix” (Entire reason I was there, I couldn’t get whatever to work, no matter what I did, or researched! Totally worth the entire week’s cost! Bonus, the rest of what I learned about the new tool.)

      —-
      One “stupid” question, to most of the rest of the United States: “What is Use Tax?” Ah, heck. Had a lot of fun with “What is Sales Tax?” … Most of our clients were in Washington, California, with a smattering few in Colorado, and three in Oregon … Company is based in Oregon. The latter was a joke, when sales tax problems came up (usually how to change it in the system when they realized no one there had done it … easy, just hadn’t been changed … the process to fix what had already been posted OTOH, not so easy …). The former … I really didn’t know … Oregonian … I do now.

      1. Rubber duck debugging

3. I did all the wuflu stuff in the beginning. I only wear the mask right now when I’m in doctor’s offices and forced to– as in every store now *sigh. Here’s my question:
   1. Why did I NOT get the WUFLU?
   2. Why did I NOT get any flu?
   3. Why are people more afraid that I’ll get the WUFLU than I am?

   4. Am I disease free because I take zinc and Vit D on a regular basis?
   5. Is it because I have to isolate anyway because of my immune system?
   6. Why should I be forced to take a vaccine that has not been tested on autoimmune sufferers when there is a risk I could get the worst side-effects?

   My doctors just say that it is advised especially if I am in the hospital for any reason. We never talk about my risk factors.

   1. exactly. As an auto-immune sufferer, I’m not touching it with a ten foot pole.

      1. In a medical visit, the specialist told me that with my history, I should avoid it. Gateway doctor wanted to know Who Gave Me That Advice?!. When I refused (citing retribution), he started to play the guessing game about which doctor. All of his guesses were wrong. I gather there might be one gateway doc in the clinic, but he’s going to be forced out.

         Unfortunately, it’s at the clinic associated with the only hospital in the area, and the “90% of the COVID patients in the hospital are unvaxxed” narrative runs strong. Can’t really fire the SOB, so I’m hoping he gets to see the horrors of the adverse effects. FWIW, I’ve seen articles where other doctors are reporting 50 to 75% of their hospital COVID patients had the not-Vax and questioned TPTB about thier 90% narrative. The response was “shut up peasant!”. Lots of unhappy doctors.

         We’re going to have the healthcare Vax requirement by Oct 18th with the so-called approval by the FDA. Kate cancelled the testing alternative, so my dental hygienist will quit, and word is the hospital will have a substantial portions of their workers walking. Promises to be far more interesting than fun.

         1. Yea that unvaxxed melarky is a lie that even my kidney supplier (Fresenius) is propagating. And other medical doctors– citing something or other that turns out to be a news article

   2. IF masks have any effect, it’s at the bottom of the “useful” tree. (And quite probably underground.) The principle means of keeping well is “Don’t get exposed to sick people,” so the best thing you can do is stay out of large gatherings of people you don’t know, or away from the folk you do know who have a noted history of not caring when their kids bring a stomach bug to a party.

      1. Yes– that’s been my strategy for almost 20 years now. 🙂

4. —even when I bring them up

5. If the current state of the country could be summed up in one scene it would be the Season 6 finale of The Simpsons. Weak, stupid, officials standing in front of a crowd of very pissed off citizens. Most of whom are stroking guns in anticipation.

6. The answer to all of your questions is essentially the same: “SHUT UP, PROLE!” or “Ha, ha, you make me laugh. Now off to Gulak, filthy krulak.”

   1. Around here, it’s “that’s fake news” or “you believe everything you read.”

      Asking the questions only works if the other party is willing to engage in honest dialog, as opposed to rhetorical dirty tricks to shut down your argument and make you look ridiculous.

      1. Not in a blue spot personally but yeah those are the standard responses, usually with a few helpings of -ist and -phobe too.

7. What’s a “case”? Is the determination consistent between different locations. Since it’s been determined both that too many pcr cycles were used and an erroneous test was used to detect infections, have cases and deaths been revised downward to compensate? Is any of the supposed data reliable enough to reach any reasonable conclusions on anything?

   1. “Cases are going up!”
      how many more than last year, this time?
      “umm . . . But they say they are BAD!”
      oh, like Gov Abbot? – Hey. you got the WuFlu . . . [4 days or so later:] You are now over it with just a bit of a headache and not much else – that kind of “worse”?

   2. Along with running lower cycles for not-Vaxxed testees vs unvaxxed. (Pretty sure that was a CDC ruling, carefully ignored by the MSM.) No, no bias here. Just ask Doctor Mengele-Fauci.

      1. I was under the impression that there was zero testing for vaxxed.

         1. It might have changed to that. IIRC, a while ago the CDC was recommending 40 cycles (papaya positive grade level) for unvacced people, and 20 to 28 for those who got the not-Vax.

            I just saw a bit that said the CDC counts fatalities among people who died within 14 days after the shot as “unvaccinated”. I followed the links to the CDC report* and confirmed it. SMH.

            (*) https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/pdfs/mm7034e5-H.pdf See the notes at the bottom of the cart on page 3.

      2. Found it.

         Breaking link to avoid breaking the page.

         stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/105217/cdc_105217_DS1 DOT pdf

         1. Quote under FOR STATE HEALTH DEPARTMENTS:
            If a possible vaccine breakthrough case is identi”ed:
            Request that the clinical or public health laboratory hold any residual respiratory specimens from the
            positive SARS-CoV-2 test.
            Report the available case data to NNDSS, per normal procedures.
            Review CDC’s screening questions to assess whether the case meets the COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough
            investigation criteria .
            If the reported case meets those criteria, CDC encourages state health departments to:
            Follow the steps for initiating a COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough case investigation .
            Record the case in the COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough REDCap database.
            Because CDC would like to characterize the SARS-CoV-2 lineages responsible for COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough
            cases, including variants:
            Report sequence results from a state public health laboratory, commercial reference laboratory, or academic
            laboratory by entering the PANGO lineage and GenBank or GISAID accession number into the COVID-19
            vaccine breakthrough REDCap database.
            If SARS-CoV-2 sequencing will not be performed locally and an acceptable clinical respiratory specimen is
            available, provide instructions for the testing laboratory to send the residual respiratory specimen to CDC
            .
            For cases with a known RT-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) value, submit only specimens with Ct value ≤28 to CDC
            for sequencing. (Sequencing is not feasible with higher Ct values.)
            If the Ct value is not known (e.g., positive by antigen test only or by a molecular test that does not provide a
            Ct value), the positive specimen may still be submitted to CDC for RT-PCR and possible sequencing.
            CDC will be transitioning to focus on identifying and investigating only vaccine breakthrough infections that result in
            hospitalization or death and will provide additional details on reporting.

8. “Just so we can prepare…what’s the next crisis you’re going to dream up?”

   What are you? Some kind of spoil sport? don’t you know that the most bestest fun of not letting a crisis go to waste* is springing the surprise on the unsuspecting public? Just look at Dr. Fauci on masks last year! Masks didn’t do any good, right up until the moment they were mandatory. Keeping the enemy (that would be you) off balance is one of the primary tasks of good war strategy- Just ask Sun Tsu!

   * As a nervous eater, most times my crises go to waist!

   1. *steals joke*

      That is perfect– I come from a long line of great worriers.

   2. alway remember, Fauci wanted AIDS sufferers to wear masks to prevent the spread

   3. Like the sign says…I’m an ORNERY spoil sport!

9. Oh, loved this rumination on “stupid questions.” I had a calculus professor once who sneered at every question, making the questioner feel like they were dumb for asking. I was currently taking calculus for pleasure, since I didn’t understand it the first time. I was already employed on the Star Wars program in Colorado Springs, so I had a great job. So I stuck my hand up often, and started out each question with: “The way you’re presenting the material is confusing. Can you clarify this?” He simply couldn’t embarrass me by sneering at me, and I forced him to answer my questions. I learned calculus, despite him.

   1. :cheers:

   2. Reminds me of “Farmer in the Sky” when the children are getting tour of the ship shortly after boosting from Earth. Question asked. Answer was “Pause … I guess we learn what the answer is to the square root of -1.”

      I was the professor’s nightmare when I got my second bachelors. I was an older student. I’d been through the process before. I was not leaving not understanding what was going on … been there, did that, scraped through, I was almost always one test grade from “understanding” where the final saved my grade. Not. Again.

      1. I loved having older/returning students in my classes. Always asked good questions, always participated in discussions. Always made for interesting days even if I ended up slack-jawed…like when the former Iraqi state TV broadcaster told the class that Saddam Hussein was a perfectly good leader…

         1. He’s more functional than our current rulers.

      2. I actually think the real professor’s nightmare is more like the three numb-skulls in my C++ class when I was in college. Most classes, the three of them sat together and took terns asking the same idiotic basic questions over and over. Often those questions were on things that were covered three or four classes ago. I don’t think we got much more than half way through the intended material that semester. I’m usually a “there is no such thing as a dumb question” kind of guy, but that class really stretched that belief all to heck and back.

      3. I think that’s the difference between good professors and bad ones.

         The good ones respond with “Uhh… that kind gets into general relativity. We’re probably not going to get to that in this class. But good question.”

         The bad ones get all deflated when one of their students gets ahead of them, and ‘spoils’ their big reveal.

         1. If nothing else, some of my “real examples” were “Do. Not. Do. That.” Or, this is how “Topic” could have made that go better. Couldn’t disagree. Even, “Yes. That can happen. Shrug.”

      4. I ran into trouble in calculus when life and integration collided, but managed to survive. The differential equations class was a nightmare*; told the TA I was hoping for mercy rather than justice. As it turns out, once I had practical examples to deal with, Diffie-Q wasn’t so horrible. I also suspect there was a 3 month marination period for me to get the concepts.

         Senior year, I took a math class just to prove to myself that I could understand it. Didn’t hurt that the instructor knew his audience was a bunch of engineers and so he’d use real examples.

         (*) The textbook was horrible; I’ve kept it, but it’s been walled when I’ve tried to look up sections.

         1. I took first term calculus twice. Once for the first degree, I squeaked by. Second time because after I took first term discreet math (required 1st term calculus), I realized, um, it has been 10 years since I squeaked by, better retake. Did a lot better. Not just age. Better instructor. Finished required calculus series before finishing last two discreet math classes. Actually LIKED math again by the time I finished the two extra upper division required classes after the 6 for calculus and discreet series. Don’t get me wrong. Not a math expert, not without getting back into the processes and practicing, whatever, regularly (I was not the one to act as son’s tutor when he was taking HS calculus).

      5. WPDE–ate my first response.

         Life and Integration collided big-time freshman year, and Calculus troubles carried over to Differential Equations. The saving grace was the next semester we had real-life examples of the most useful Diffie-Q. Looks like I had a 3 month marination time to really get math at that time. Got much better by senior year, and *most* of my MSEE math classes (12 years later) were straightforward. (OTOH, hearing problems made life more interesting in the grad lectures. Otosclerosis can be and was fixed, but not until after I got my MS. I dreaded lecturers with soft voices.)

         1. My mathematical logic instructor was a cerebral palsy afflictee, with a strong CP accent. He drug us through Goedels Theorem with such panache that by the end the audio portion of incomprehensibility was negligible.

            On the other hand multivariate calculus was Mr. (subcontinental) Dixit. Warp speed Hindi-flavored gabbling. He was considered brilliant but appeared to resent having to teach undergrads,I fell further behind each time he spoke, To this day I know there’s something called a Jacobian. And that’s all.

   3. Excellent!

   4. They wouldn’t let me test out of calculus, so I had to take the course. The teacher was brilliant.

      He used the Socratic method. The only declarative/imperative statements he made all semester were “Take out a sheet of paper for the daily quiz” and “I brought doughnuts this morning.” Everything else was a question to a student, then rephrasing it if no light dawned, and then referring the question to another student if the first still had no clue.

10. I like questions that force people to look at the human nature underlying these insane diktats. What benefit do you think the governor gets from imposing a mask mandate? What’s the percentage of “science” and “looking good by doing something” that’s behind the mask mandates? Do you think we should wear masks for the normal flu and for colds? Has anybody anywhere ever managed to eradicate a widespread virus? How much of the economy should we destroy to stop a flu-level virus? 10%? 50%? Do you know how to calculate the damage that masks do to human relations? How do you weigh the damage that masks do to healthy childhood emotional development against a .001 risk of the virus?

11. My most urgent question is, Where are we and why are we in this handbasket?”

    And I am completely serious.

    1. And how do we get out of it with minimal bloods shed,

    2. Earth.

       See first answer.

    3. Do you mean, “Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?”

       And what’s with that smell of brimstone?

       1. Stop talking about Down Below. They get tetchy when humans start realizing they exist….

12. Sigh, been asking most, if not all of those queries over and over and generally the answer, if one is given is just because or because I say so.

    Alas I’m quite convinced that this Age of Aquarius we’ve just entered is actually the age of Mass Hysteria. Ignore the facts, look for signs and portents, check the entrails if you want the weather report, ask bio-weapons lab technicians for vaccines and medical advice.

    Parenthetical aside; (Over the years I taught a lot of utility operations classes throughout Alaska including remote villages. I learned early one that the body language feedback from Eskimo students, say in Kotzebue, was quite different than that of students of European ancestry at U of A Fairbanks. When the U of A students nod while your lecturing it usually meant “yea, yea, I got that'”. The remote village Eskimo student’s nod more often meant; “Dang I’m no idea what he’s talking about but I’ll nod to assure I don’t make him feel bad.”) .

    Alack and alas, when talking to the ‘woke’ the spoken language, the words we say, and the words they hear have completely different meanings.

    None the less, alas and alack and ah sigh, I will keep asking, and hoping. If it saves the (filling in the blank) of one (fill in the blank), actually it is all worth it.

    1. When tutoring programming. I didn’t watch the head nods. Paid attention to eye contact and body language. More than once … Me: “Sigh. Okay. Let’s try this again. Only lets look at it … This. Way.” Or. “Okay. I know I’m losing you. Where?” No questions needed.

       Granted. Small groups or one on one. But still …

    2. Actually, we entered the Age of Aquarius in the late 19th century, per Steven Forrest among others, and it’s been one blood clusterf**k so far, this being just the latest iteration of insanity…Where’s my time machine?

       1. Maybe so, but according to other others, we just left the Age of Capricorn and now are in Aquarius.

          None the less, when I read the stars, the entrails or toss the bones, -or just read the news, it comes up the age of Mass Hysteria.

          1. “The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.”

             — H.P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”

             Doesn’t sound that far off. Are the stars coming right?

13. On the other hand, I’ve got a query:
    Anyone hear any off things other than the clotting issues with the J&J Viral Vector Vax (more a female and younger person issue it seems, but from what I’ve found. less than issues with The Pill)?
    As the Novavax seems to be on a slow roll to even an EUA (September maybe, now), J&J is the only other thing I’d consider.

    1. A friend of a friend just lost her leg (Amputated above the ankle and then re-amputated above the knee) due to blood clots. I’ve no intention of asking her about the vaccine but…

       1. Son is not taking the jab because of stories shared. Neighbors aren’t taking the jab because of stories. Both son and neighbors are between 20 and 40 years old.

          Antidotes of serious side affects in the 18 to 50 year old:

          * Heart attack, sometimes leading to death
          * Strokes, sometimes leading to death
          * Blood Clots, which may or may not lead to amputation of limb.
          * Blindness, not related to blood clot.

          These are just the ones son has shared with us. His work isn’t likely (short of an OSHA mandate of “or else”) to require the jab. They are too short of employees willing to work as it is.

          Neighbor has MS. She still isn’t taking the jab. She is likely to lose her job. They’ve been told “vaccinate before 8/28, or when FDA approved, whichever is first.” Pfizer approved yesterday. She is a teacher. She may end up homeschooling their 6 kids (his/hers) depending on vetoes from other parental units. Her husband won’t loose his job, his job is outside, skilled people in short supply.

          1. You might suggest she look at the approval the FDA shared to see if that is really legal. I’m not sure how it usually works, but… the paper itself says that it was extending the Emergency Use Authorization, but giving approval to give it a brand-name and market it.

             1. full approval also opens the recompense for issues from taking vaccines that then cause you problems. But I think it was more so they could try to sucker more folks to take it.

                1. Yep. One of the reasons I don’t think full approval is coming anytime soon is the current inability to hold anyone accountable.

                2. “they could try to sucker force more folks to take it.”

                   They imagine this gets them out of those pesky “informed consent” laws, and the Nuremburg Protocol,etc. when they put in laws and regulations that you be vaxxed or be unpersoned, unemployed, etc.

                   And all the people who “keep things going” can soothe their consciences with “but it was legal”.

                   1. “just following orders”

                   2. Cally: [recalls some of what the Federation did to her family]

                      Vila: “And it wasn’t even a crime!”

                      Cally: “You mean it wasn’t against the law.”

             2. Hi,

                Do you have a link to the actual paper from the FDA? A (very liberal) friend was going on today about how the Pfizer shot got full approval; when I replied that I had heard that it was just an extension of the EUA, he said no, he looked it up and it was full approval. Since he was showing me the CNN page, I want the primary source.

                Thanks

                1. I was hearing elsewhere today that what actually got approved is an entirely different SARS-2 vaccine, and the news media completely bungled the story.

                2. Looks like it’s approved but still under EUA for children 12 to 15 or as a booster shot. https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/comirnaty-and-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine

                   1. Thanks for the link. Ugh.

                3. This page, link to “approval letter.”

                   https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/comirnaty-and-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine

                   Long quote of what is authorized, vs the idea that this makes it not an Emergency Use Authorization:

                   On August 23, 2021, FDA approved the biologics license application (BLA) submitted by
                   BioNTech Manufacturing GmbH for COMIRNATY (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) for active
                   immunization to prevent COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 in individuals 16 years of age and
                   older.
                   On August 23, 2021, having concluded that revising this EUA is appropriate to protect the public
                   health or safety under section 564(g)(2) of the Act, FDA is reissuing the August 12, 2021 letter
                   of authorization in its entirety with revisions incorporated to clarify that the EUA will remain in
                   place for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for the previously-authorized indication and
                   uses, and to authorize use of COMIRNATY (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) under this EUA for
                   certain uses that are not included in the approved BLA. In addition, the Fact Sheet for
                   Healthcare Providers Administering Vaccine (Vaccination Providers) was revised to provide
                   updates on expiration dating of the authorized Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine and to
                   update language regarding warnings and precautions related to myocarditis and pericarditis. The
                   Fact Sheet for Recipients and Caregivers was updated as the Vaccine Information Fact Sheet for
                   Recipients and Caregivers, which comprises the Fact Sheet for the authorized Pfizer-BioNTech
                   COVID-19 Vaccine and information about the FDA-licensed vaccine, COMIRNATY (COVID19 Vaccine, mRNA)

                4. It looks like FDA has approved Comirnaty, brand name version of Pfizer vax, same product but different label. They also extended the EUA for the unbranded Pfizer vax rather than giving it approval, which is strange.

                   FDA also says that, “The products are legally distinct with certain differences that do not impact safety or effectiveness.” (footnote 8)

                   The interwebs say that means that Comirnaty is approved and Pfizer has liability same as for other adult vaccines. But most of Pfizer’s stock in vials is the EUA-authorized version, for which they do not have liability. It is expected that they will milk this for all its worth, claiming it is approved but not being liable under EUA rules.

             3. They did approve the license (BLA), which from what I read yesterday is tantmount to full approval, although reading the FDA release, they also said that the EUA was being extended, so …. both/and? Hedging bets?

                Which ever way it goes, FDA needs a new name that goes with those letters. And possibly a cleansing fire. Sun. Fire.

                😐

             4. If not legal yet, it will be, soon enough. Just like lobotomizing unruly mental patients was legal, or infecting American soldiers and prisoners with syphilis was legal, or “civil forfeiture” is legal, or the Indian Removal Act was legal, or Japanese and German internment camps were legal, or Jim Crow laws were legal, or anti-gun laws are legal, or the various Sedition Acts were legal, or the Patriot Act was legal, or Obamacare was legal, or the CIA dosing unsuspecting people with LSD was legal…

                “One law for them, another for you.”

                1. *slaps black pill out of TRX’s hand*

                   Oh, stop that nonsense.

                   If you actually think stuff is lost, go piss up a rope and get out of the way of people who are actually willing to do something besides pile up BS about how all is lost.

                   1. I don’t know where that came from, but whatever…

                2. Involuntary eugenic sterilization. Vaccinations were literally what the Supreme Court cited.

          2. By the by, the Novavax looks to be the best choice for those with autoimmune and other immune-issues. They need to get off the pot on that.

          3. FDA letter today says the Pfizer jab was NOT approved, they merely extended the EUA for a period…

             1. Figures.

             2. Yup, it’s an ‘Emergency Use Authorization’. The China virus is not an emergency for me, therefore getting experimental retrovirus shots is not appropriate.

       2. We haven’t even *breathed* mention of Lady Issues around the lady we know who got the shot and lost her pregnancy.

          It could do them a world of harm.

          ….doesn’t mean we don’t wonder, though.

          1. Quite.

          2. The stuff they are using in Britland which isn’t used over here is linked to at least 30 miscarriages, and those were figures I heard over a month ago; I’m sure they’re higher now. 😦 I’m also concerned about long-term fertility issues.

             This all makes me think of an SG1 storyline where some aliens show up and are all helpful with medical stuff, cures for cancer, the works, and then it turns out that the “gifts” make about 90% of humanity sterile.

             1. The US report that said there was no major association with miscarriages said that anything less than a *25%* loss rate was normal.

                1. Well, as late as 2000, the Irish medical establishment, which seems to hold to pretty much the same standards as the Brit, felt that a 30% post op wound infection rate for unplanned c-sections was perfectly normal and acceptable. I can guarantee that an American hospital would have had their L&D ward shut down by the doctors even before the health department could swoop in if they started posting rates like that.

                   1. At this point I think British National Health has assimilated all the smaller bits, even if they still have different names.

                      1. The Irish medical system is completely separate, since different country/flag/political system. But it works very much the same way.

                         When I had my appendix out in ’78 and developed a post-op abscess, we were told that 10 to 20 percent of *all* appendectomies got them. My mother pointed out that back when her father was a surgeon in the ’40s any American hospital would have shut down a surgical unit posting those figures. I’ve since discovered that Korean War MASH units only saw a 1% infection rate, and those initial wounds weren’t being made under supposedly sterile hospital conditions.
                         Of course in the ’80s, the Galway Regional ventilated the operating room by opening the window.

                         Which didn’t have screens.

                         And which looked out over a cow pasture.

                         1. The Korean war was a time when Penicillin was new. Resistance to antibiotics has been growing for a long time. MRSA has also joined the party.

                            Right now, apparently “SSIs occur in 2% to 4% of all patients undergoing inpatient surgical procedures.”

                            https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer/surgical-site-infections

                            So yes, I’d assume a 30% post op wound infection rate would be unacceptable.

                2. Do you have a link? This sounds like a different (newer?) one from what I read a few months ago.

                   1. Check table IIRC #4, for the norms of comparison.

                      1. Wait, it is the same one? I remember thinking the similarity in percentages between their incomplete dataset and the usual 15% estimate might have contributed to overlooking the methodology problem. — Ah, I see the 10-26% range now.

                         1. *nod*
                            Since “up to one in four” is a common unsupported estimate for miscarriages including failure to implant, based off of IVF attempts. a
                            Applying it to losses after a confirmed pregnancy (that is, implanted, body produced pregnancy hormones, hormones got high enough to prevent menstruation and to trigger a positive pregnancy test) is… oof. We’ll go with “oof.”

                            Might explain why some doctors think that testing that “only” has a 1-5% chance of causing a loss is acceptable, though.

                            1. I think my obgyns must’ve been running with 20%. I could look it up but actually obtained this by back-calculating from the numbers I do remember, which were ~4% and 1% for having two or three miscarriages in a row, because I remember checking that they were just approximately the square and cube, respectively, rather than reflecting some more detailed study on patterns. Which raises some question as to why I was thinking the most commonly reported number was 15%, I guess.

                            2. ….. wait, 15% is “one in six.”

                               That sounds really familiar as the go-to number of “how many women ever experience a pregnancy loss.”
                               (selected for ever-pregnant women)

                         2. Hi Foxfier and PK,

                            I’m sorry but table #4 on what link? Is it part of the permanent link list? I really want to try to follow your research because I trust you to find good sources.

                            1. Study on miscarriages associated with the vaccine from… July?

                               It was a preliminary release, I don’t have the link anymore, they SHOULD be releasing more soon.

                   2. It wasn’t listed in the text, it was when I was going over the tables because the numbers of expected losses mentioned in the paper seemed rather high. (I’m not a pregnancy geek on purpose, but between anxiety that’s cured by research, a family with a really high rate of losses, and six surviving children, I’ve got some ideas of what the normal loss numbers look like.)

          3. Oh no. O Lord, hear our prayers.

       3. What I’ve seen is the J&J is actually slightly less of a cause than the mrna ones but good numbers are so effing hard to get. I recall the silliness of them pulling the J&J when they were having far more issues with the Pfizer and Moderna and wondering what really was going on there (like the places that do the paperwork for EUAs being suddenly slow on the Novavax, because it too is a known method, not all that experimental and all testing shows even less chance of sides than the J&J)

          1. “J&J didn’t pay their lobbyists well enough or bribe the right senators” is my thought.

             1. That thought did occur to me

    2. I had no problems from the J&J (female, just below the age of concern for clotting risk increase among women.) Just had a nasty, sore lump on my arm for a week or so because the pharmacist who administered the shot doesn’t know how to give vaccinations to redheads. NOTE: I have lack-of-clotting problems, not the reverse, so if I DID start to clot like a normal person, well, that might mean that there was a problem. Maybe?

       1. I don’t have much history with any sides from normal vax shots, but I do have some side issues and they tend to the extreme odd ones, and the extreme ones for the mrna vaxxs alone are enough for me to say NOPE!, but J&J is one I was just holding off to see any unforeseen issues popping up (especially as they were not reinventing the wheel with it), and the Novavax seemed even more likely for my choice if I was to choose, but it is looking to take too long now (besides paperwork, they have a supply issue it seems, as well).
          We shall see. Closest J&J for me is down in Oconto. Everyone else around here has the mRNA, and I’m not willing to go that route.

          1. I’ve been told that with the Factor V Leiden mutation, the J&J is a big NOPE for me. And I don’t trust the other stuff, because I tend to react to stuff either text book (my mumps illness followed the description in Harrison’s perfectly) or I’m someplace out beyond left field. Since doctors never listen to women with left field issues to begin with, even female doctors, I have no intention of courting disasters.

             1. oi. are there any vax shots you can take?

                1. I’ve never had problems with regular vaccinations, but for this bug? Given that clotting is an issue with the bug itself, I believe my best course is making sure I’m taking adequate supplemental D, C, and zinc. (Which the feds want to make prescription only I’ve read, something in one of those fantastic “infrastructure” bills.) Given that the Diamond Princess and the Roosevelt would suggest that 80% of us are immune to begin with, and I have cats who just *love* to share their colds with me – I’ve seen anecdotal evidence that doctors are seeing their cat-owning patients underrepresented among the seriously ill with this – I’m far more concerned with side effects from the vaccine than with the bug itself.

                   1. For what it’s worth, my Sis who got very sick from it is a (crazy – okay, bipolar, anyhow) cat lady, but it was just very high fever and fatigue for most of her fun 14 days.
                      My concerns are just the mRNA ones, for the most part. There is no real good long-term study on those because that style of vax has not been available long enough to have any good long term studies, and yeah, there have been so many of the preliminary versions pulled for issues (The Astrazeneca version, iirc [which ever one Baylor was helping work up] was pulled twice before during its SARS-1/MERS pre-WuFlu run-up due to side effects and lack of effectiveness over time) that even with the FDA Full-go . . . Nope.

             2. Since doctors never listen to women with left field issues to begin with, even female doctors, I have no intention of courting disasters.

                In support of this:
                A friend’s spine went z-shaped, in the Navy.
                This is all recorded; it’s rare, but Scoliosis is known to happen in all age groups. The school screening is basically just because it can be easier to catch then.

                They have multiple x-rays before and after. She stayed in the Navy system because her husband also serves, and she even managed to finish out her last hitch, just barely.

                EVERY SINGLE TIME she had to go to a new (military) doctor, they ordered new X-rays. Because scoliosis only happens in children, she couldn’t possibly actually have it.

                One of the most obnoxious diagnosed her with a wheat allergy, to the tune of “don’t eat it or you will soon have deadly reactions,” so her house went on no wheat for several years. With her cooking, that was really hard, but they did it.

                Eventually, she finally got a doctor who grilled her on why every doctor did new X-rays….and when she explained they didn’t believe her medical records, he then went through to check what kind of malpractice these morons had been performing on her.

                …She didn’t have anything like a wheat intolerance, allergy, etc.

                Best guess, a-hole used it as a “this woman is attention seeking, give her something unpleasant, and maybe the fat @#$# will lose some weight.”

                (Shocker, back injuries make it harder to exercise. Once the new doctor stopped trying to make her spine issue disappear, and helped her with the pain, she lost a lot of weight.)

                1. I have an empty sella. This was found by the neurophthalmologist, so since nothing was pressing on the optic nerve, there being next to nothing to press on anything, it wasn’t their concern.

                   BUt I can’t get into a endocrinologist because “your labs are normal”, even though I have suddenly put on tons of belly fat, have lost a lot of my hair, especially eyebrows, deal with brain fog, always tired (all of the thyroid issue boxes), had major fertility issues for years, didn’t have a normal menopause, and grew fairly steadily in height until I was almost 31. (The last growth spurt was a few months before my birthday, I grew over a quarter of an inch and had to get new glasses due to a massive prescription change; my optomotrist considers me one of his “interesting” patients.) But hey, there’s nothing weird at all about any of that, even though the same doctor will tell me it’s weird!

                   1. Wow,LG, that’s classic hypothyroid symptoms. Have you found … oh, what’s it call… Stop the Thyroid MAdness had a website with -among other things – a list of recommended endocrinologists who’d actually listen to patients. Or so it was said. I sort of trusted it ’cause ours was on it. And he long ago told my husband, well your labs are normal, but other signs don’t look right, so, let’s see what happens if I treat you. Husband is stil alive and healthy because of that.

                      1. My aunt finally found a doctor like that, normal labs, but feels so much better now that she’s being treated.

                         It’s a good thing my grandmother was back before labs became god. She was erratically hypo, and had the same growth issues I did, only more so. She was about 5’2 when she graduated college, and then she grew another 5 inches. A bit of a shock for grandpa who was only about 5’8″ and had married this petite woman who was suddenly almost as tall as he was. 🙂

                         I’ve seen that website, but they didn’t have anyone near me last time I checked. I should look again, it’s been a few years. Thanks for the reminder!

                         1. you’re welcome. Hope you find someone good.

                   2. My doc says I have all the symptoms of a severe autoimmune problem, but I can’t get a referral to a rheumatologist because my labs are “within normal range.” And no local rheumatologist will see me even if I pay out of my own pocket. I’m seeing an endocrinologist (about something else) in a couple of months (nothing like speedy modern medicine) and hopefully I can get them to take a look.

                      1. “couple of months”

                         A referral was made to an Endocrinology, May 2021. The appointment was yesterday, Aug 23., the soonest available. Was also on a wait list, which didn’t get me an earlier appointment. Note, not on medicare (yet, that happens in Oct.).

                         Son’s GI track specialist appointment is in November, made last April! Referral by Urgent Care physician, but not marked “urgent”. GP ran a lot of tests to see if anything indicated that he should override that. Nothing did. Son reports symptoms still come and go. Just not to the point where it is life interfering for days. Also on a wait list for earlier appointment for cancellations. Nothing yet.

                         nothing like speedy modern medicine

                         –
                         No kidding. If this is better than the Canadian model, I’d hate to see what will happen on universal medical care.

                         1. When I was in Ireland, I needed to have a cyst removed from the back of my wrist. I finally got an appointment with the derm clinic – it took several months to get the appointment which was several months away at that point. When I had the appointment it was apparently just an appointment to make the real appointment, and that was going to be anywhere from six to twelve months.

                            I gave up, and had it dealt with after I got back to the States a few years later.

                            1. My mom would be dead. She has had two cancers removed. One this last summer, the other one two years ago. First one found when Pepper scratched her shin doing the small dog dance. Bleed, because mom was 85 and on Plavix. But then it didn’t heal. Biopsy and then removed. The one this summer was a small blister on her skull. Another biopsy, and removal. First time it took a few months to get it diagnosed, removal was followed quickly. This time because of history, the original appointment was 90 days out, but someone in the office caught it and upped the priority. Also complicated by her having urgent visits because of her spiral fracture she managed to do slipping down stairs & turning under her ankle. She seemed to think it took forever, but really only a couple of weeks. Urgent, but not critical. Months wouldn’t have worked.

                               Also, naturally, as soon as I complain somewhere, son’s appointment has been moved up a month. Happened today. Yay!!!

                2. Male, right? the kid has health issues, lots of them. FEmale doctors don’t want to think about anything that doesn’t fit their preconceived notions. Mostly. We’ve run into one or two that were good. But mainly it’s the male physicians who want to actually figure it out and SOLVE THE PROBLEM. Not all of them, either, we got definite ‘munchausen’ vibes towards us from a couple, but the vast majority of male doctors are solvers, and the vast majority of female doctors are “make it fit what little I know” or the female patient /mother is faking it somehow. Vets, too, have this pattern. It’s been striking over the last mumble-20+ years.

                   1. The guy who Lost His Temper and fixed stuff was male, she’d had mostly male but some females before that.

                      The Geek On A Mission sort is less common in female doctors, sadly.

                      We’ve been *crazy* lucky on the kids not having serious issues, so most of the stupid doctor tricks I’ve run into are “pregnant women are idiots” and some “oh my gosh she can’t be smart, she has more than three kids, if she’s smart then I sacrificed my life to be a doctor and it isn’t a demonstration of How Smart I Am” type women, both doctors and nurses. Only one doctor I was afraid was going to decide to “accidentally” do something stupid “for my own good.”

                      Did get a couple of Practical Grandma sorts, too, thank God.

                   2. Complicating factor with military doctors is that a notable portion of them would OPENLY STATE that they had stayed military because they didn’t have to worry about liability insurance in the military.

                      I am still over the moon about it now being possible to sue for malpractice on a service member *before* they are dead.

                      1. About bloody time! I yelled at a nurse LT who tried to convince me that I had to go onto Tricare Prime. No, I have doctors on the outside who I’ve dealt with for years, and I have other things to do than sit for hours in a clinic to get a doc who doesn’t listen to me and tells me it’s all in my (or my kid’s) head.

                         My elder was fired by her psychiatrist because she wasn’t following the doc’s recommendations. Obviously the only reason she hurt so much was that she didn’t move around much, exercise would be good for her, and I was mollycoddling her. After that we had the visit to rheumatology where my guy examined her, looked at me, and announced: “I’d have been far more surprised if she’d told me she *didn’t* hurt all the time.” Oh, and exercise alone wasn’t going to do anything except make it hurt more.

                         Funny how after they realized she had Ehler’s Danlos and started treating her fibro, her depression went away. We sent a very snarky message back to her original psych.

                         1. “snarky message”

                            What? The message wasn’t included with a complaint copy to the appropriate board with the list of her medical records from that psych and the ultimate diagnosis? Might not have anything come of it. But dang. Complaint filed.

       2. I had no problems with the J&J shot. Female, normal health, lots of allergies, mostly respiratory.

       3. >> “doesn’t know how to give vaccinations to redheads”

          What’s different about giving shots to redheads?

    3. *ears perk*

       Most women don’t know about The Pill causing clots, either. They’re really not very open about it, on the justification that it’s roughly the same risk as carrying a pregnancy to term and giving birth, so going through that risk constantly is no big deal.

       (…)

       I am interested in an off-tangent way because that would make it a non-mRNA vaccine for COVID that seems to be associated with hormone stuff, since the mRNA has been causing unexpected menstruation in women. (Not from reports in VAERS, no– from ob/gyns having ten times the usual number of women come in, scared, because they’ve never had something like this happen. The official answer? They blamed female hysteria. Really. is this the 1820s?)

       1. So ob/gyns are seeing an unusual number of women to immediately menstruate (out of cycle) on being given the mRNA vaccine? I’m assuming many of those were early pregnancies that miscarried due to menstruation? Interesting. Which means we could be seeing a year with reduced births from the first and second vaccinations interrupting those pregnancies. We should probably watch the birthrate closely for the next year or two. And the rate of women going into menopause.

          1. Thank God, the ladies that the guy in Omaha were seeing were not, ahem, “active.” (Implantation bleeding and even the rare ovulation bleeding can look like an early cycle, so *all* of them got asked.)

             Which is why they panicked and went to the OB when there was unexpected bleeding– there’s not a lot of stuff that causes a period two weeks after your prior, when you’d been having normal ones before that, and most of them are SCARY.

          2. There are several things that can cause an out-of-timing cycle, so this doesn’t surprise me. (I am at an age where any variation is normal and possibly expected.)

             I did, however, get a lovely abscess right around the time I got my shots. When I expressed to the dental assistant my thought that it was opportunistic, taking advantage of my immune system being deeply engaged with an “invader,” she nodded and said that’s absolutely what happens, and they’ve seen it with vaccines before.

       2. I was on the pill for years, not for birth control, but because I like not throwing up and passing out on a regular basis. Then I developed a branch retinal vein occlusion (think stroke but in the retina) which fortunately didn’t affect my vision, but did make the docs decide to try to find out what was going on. Turned out the pill plus Factor V Leiden is a bad combo, and I’m lucky I hadn’t had a proper stroke at any point, especially during my two pregnancies (though I had had a TIA a few months before the BRVO).

          1. Holy F.

             I’m glad you did get help, even while I’m over here snarling about the “throw pills at a system instead of doing basic trouble-shooting.”

             1. I just wish I could get them to do either for my thyroid… /sigh

       3. Hi,

          I have serious concerns about Lady Issues being covered up and/or under reported and wonder if you have a good reference for the OBGYNs reporting that women are having menstrual problems. Is it just triggering one mid cycle period or does it linger? I don’t know where to look for something that isn’t hopelessly spun and corrupted.

          1. I will see if I can hunt some things down – I know their a crapton of things that were on IG through multiple accounts about issues, including miscarriages (a lot), irregular or extreme cycles when there shouldn’t be anything, cycles starting after menopause (years later), etc., but for some reason some of those accounts were deleted. Or posts were deleted.

             Hmmm…

             1. Thanks. Please let me know what you find. The total lack of concern about long term reproductive health bothers me greatly.

          2. It was an interview on KFAB’s Voorhees show; since these gals hit the news cycle, I can’t find the podcast, if it was even included in the write-up:
             https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/08/09/1024190379/covid-vaccine-period-menstrual-cycle-research

             1. Thanks Foxfier,

                That’s the most complete write up I’ve seen anywhere, even with the obvious spin. And it still says that they have no clue and suspect that the changes are short. Are they really? So why the fast track?

                1. I’m actually hoping the fast-track and pressure is “just” the same reason that New York targeted Orthodox Jews for abuse– there are no vaccines available that were made without using humans deliberately killed and harvested for that purpose.

                   We already know from both the “antivaxxer” hysteria (where actual motives are ignored in favor of screeching) and from how adult stem cell therapies were classified as a drug, thus effectively killing individualized treatment, that some people are absolutely freaking insane about anything involving someone avoiding use of those harvested humans.

                   So if you scare everyone enough, you might be able to force those groups to do that which they hold as immoral– like groups that force cannibalism to break the subject.

                   Maybe we’ll be utterly insanely lucky and they just are trying to get off the tiger? And if almost everyone is vaccinated, when the kung flu mutates to a normal cold– as it is already doing– they don’t have the backlash of “you stole years of my life for THIS?” to deal with.

                   Multiple, overlapping plots is most likely, and there’s a lot of stupid, freaky BS you can do with medical….

                   1. Well, it isn’t like like the core leadership is a bunch of abusers by inclination, whose nature drives them to seek to break and warp everyone they have access to.

                      So it is all totally fine.

                      There is nothing inherently suspicious about Epstein being able to kill himself.

                2. Not related to first comment, but just saw a link to this blog where the quick-link included the blogger knowing a lady who is having cycle loss since the jab, mentioned while he’s collecting more data:

                   https://domesticfelicityblog.com/2021/08/27/a-messy-post-about-covid-19-and-what-the-pandemic-is-doing-to-us-as-a-society/

    4. Only heard about one clotting incident with it.

       1. seems it was almost all females having the issue as well, Males were so small as to be in the norms for other causes being the possibility and not actually the vax.

       2. J&J vaccine is a particularly bad idea for women age 18-50 (blood clots):

          Yesterday I said the J&J vaccine is Game Over for women 18-50, with 6 cases in 1.4 million vaccinated in that age group (~1/200k), here is why I say that….

          [thread]

          — Vinay Prasad, MD MPH 🎙️📷 (@VPrasadMDMPH) April 15, 2021

          Contrariwise, mRNA is especially bad for young men (myocarditis):

          I agree. This is from the 6/23 @CDCgov data and shows the importance of breaking apart by age. I wonder why they didn't update the cases for kids when youngest seem to be at the highest risk for cardiac AE. pic.twitter.com/VtzvMrnsfI

          — Tracy Høeg, MD, PhD (@TracyBethHoeg) July 22, 2021

    5. J&J, know of two cases of instant glaucoma (out of four people I know got J&J). Easily treatable but definitely a be-aware.

       Got Pfizer myself back in April. They have a track record with me via animal vaccines.

       1. Hmm. I’d like to be vaccinated against carnivorous megafauna, venomous snakes, poisonous arthropods, and corrupt politicians.

          1. Oh, that’s already been developed.

             You measure the dosages in “calibers” and “grains”.

          2. A vaccination against corrupt politicians would be awesome! We’d have to require that everybody in DC “get the jab”.

14. Don’t worry.
    The people who ask actually stupid questions are never shy about it.

    (One of the misadventures I’ve had, was as a cave tour guide. Getting paid to tell stories is always a sweet gig. But it quickly disproves the statement “there are no stupid questions”. I loved the actual stupid questions. They supplied me with great anecdotes, were easy to answer, and fielding them with style was a great way to earn tips. )

    1. Great (?) moments in teaching: I was filling in for a teacher and read the instructions for the assignment. Answered questions about assignment. A hand shoots up and That Kid blurts a question that had been answered twice. Entire class turns and in unison exclaims, “[Name], she just SAID that! Be quiet.” Sometimes, allowing free-form crowdsourcing works. [Name] paid attention after that. For the next few years, more or less.

    2. Young woman at the Mountie Musem told us she regularly recommended Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump as a place to visit. And she said she couldn’t count how many people replied, “Oh? Do you know when the Buffalo will be jumping?”

15. > Ask the Stupid Questions

    ……….

    Why did the chicken want to get to the other side?

    1. To see if the rooster would follow.

       1. No, to show the possum it could be done.

          1. Haven’t seen a possum on the side of the road in a while. Must be a shortage of mischievous chickens.

             1. Last possum I saw by the side of the road was a grandmaster at playing dead. Pretending to have his guts smooshed out. Pretending not to breath. No moving. Lying as flat as possible. Toward the end he must have managed to get down to 1/16 of an inch thick! Must have been a month before he disappeared.

                1. Remarkably patient and persistent. A true professional.

          2. The possum that partially took off my front fender a few weeks back obviously didn’t take any notes. I might have needed an alignment before I met him, I definitely did after.

          3. Vero Possumus.

       2. The chicken *could* be a rooster, in which case maybe because he saw a cute hen over there?

          1. Hmm, yes, could be. It doesn’t specify that the chicken didn’t crow to get her attention before putting his life at risk in traffic.

    2. Because the Fox (and friends) were on this side of the road. 😉

    3. Why do you want to know?

       Am I being detained?

       1. *sips whiskey*

          Ye’ve already said too much …. yer fecked now!

          *cackles*

    4. The chicken is perfectly free to have its own private motives for its actions.

    5. The SJW expected the rooster to lay eggs.

    6. Why did the chicken want to get to the other side?

       –
       To avoid somebody not wearing a mask.

       I wish that was a joke.

16. Oh, just cut to the chase:

    1. What the f***, Democrats? What the f***ing f***?

    But seriously:

    8. What is the stopping condition for restrictions and mask mandates? What are the objective criteria for “the pandemic is over”?

    9. What is the case fatality rate for the last two or three months? If it is significantly lower than the original postulated 0.5%, does that make any difference to your willingness to impose continuing restrictions? If not, why not?

    10. What is the usual rate of hospital bed occupancy during seasonal flu epidemics? Is that higher or lower than it is currently? Are there more or fewer hospital beds available right now in comparison to December 2019? If fewer, did Covid responses contribute to the decline?

    1. Also, if cases and deaths are rising why have they switched to a rolling seven day average instead of the daily count they were using this time last year?

    2. 11. If hospitals had more medical staff, would the bed availability count go up? … Or Is the beds unavailable because of lack of physical beds or the lack of medical staff because medical staff are quitting because they are being told “vaccinate to keep your job”?

    3. #8 is what I’d like to see Paul pound Fauci on the next time he’s in front of the Senate.

       1. Considering how upset his fauxiness got the last time Paul poked him, I’m after thinking he might just walk out.

          1. Cue the Brave Sir Robin memes.

17. No, to show the possum it could be done.

18. “I used to tell my students that the only truly stupid questions were those which asked about whatever I had just said.”

    Oh, I wouldn’t tell them that. If they’re asking questions about what you just said; then you need to listen carefully to what they’re asking. That may be the only feedback you get that your communication was bad.

    For instance. I was at a select board meeting last night where the chief of police presented an argument that the town needed to hire more officers. He gave all kinds of town by town comparisons, state and DOJ recommendations, plus facts and figures about current staffing for his department. The range of officers needed, depending on the figures, ranged from 1 to 16. I confronted him afterwards and rephrased his immediate request as being for 1 or 2 officers. His reply was that he really needed 5; but nowhere did he actually state that during his presentation. Dollars to doughnuts, the select board is probably also going to come away thinking he was asking for 1 immediately and a 2nd within 6 months, NOT 5 total.

    (FYI, we have 6 shifts a week were we have only 1 officer on duty…zero backup unless he requests assistance from a neighboring town which means 15 to 30 minute response time. Neighboring towns have similar staffing issues.)

    1. Apparently there’s a school of thought in government/military where you ask for more than you need because whatever you get will be less than what you asked for.

       1. Yes. Routinely. Then there’s the frantic effort to spend the money you didn’t expect to get because if you don’t, your budget will get cut.

          1. Works like that in academia too. Ask for at least 50% more than what you need/want. And *always* use every penny before next budgeting round.

       2. Military does (or did) that all the time. Smarter ones waiting for the end of year spending for want list, after the needs for the year had been met. Things that were highly recommended, usually professionally, but not necessarily on an equipment TOA.

    2. I gave the example of exam parameters. And, I did that when I told my students about stupid questions. I told them to ALWAYS ask for clarification, further explanation, etc.

19. My standard joke is: “There are no stupid questions, just stupid people.”

    1. Just remember, even stupid rocks are useful to hold things down during a hurricane.

20. I’m the guy sitting in the front row with my hand up.
    I’m always asking questions.
    I’ve only had a couple of professors make sarcastic comments. My reply to them went something like this. I’m paying for this class, I’m sitting in the front row and I really don’t understand. Please answer my question. Amazing what an adult perspective can do for you.

21. 15. Now that we know the communist Chinese cooked up this virus in a bioweapons lab with lousy containment protocols, then deliberately spread it to dozens of other countries, how much do they owe the rest of the world for the unknown but large number of deaths and trillions of dollars in economic losses they have caused?

    16. How many communist Chinese big shots should be tried for crimes against humanity?

22. Good advice all around, though I’ll admit to being bad about following both kinds. Classroom settings I feel like I’m slowing everyone else down and just went to the professor or someone else after class. For this subject? The standard answers from the person in question were mentioned above (lies, fake news, debunked, because science, -ist and -phobe). If it’s a spectator situation like ILOH frequently mentions that’s one thing but that’s an arena I have to leave to professionals like him. I’m a liability in those kind of spectator arguments and I know it. I guess all I can do is cheer for the more skilled.

    1. You can still ask, “But why do you believe that when the same ‘authorities’ said something completely different a few months ago, and are now pretending they didn’t?”
       ———————————
       A good Zombie Apocalypse novel is at least as believable as anything we’ve heard out of the ‘Publick Health Authoriteez’ over the last year and a half.

       1. The answer from these types is typically “They’re experts and you’re just an uneducated hick so STFU.”

          1. I beg your pardon. I’m an educated hick!

             1. Intellectual redneck works too.

                1. Abraham Lincoln would fit the label nicely since he basically grew up in the sticks and was largely self taught due to a love of reading.

          2. And that is when I’m inclined to chew people out for misunderstanding the fundamental definitions of expert and of professional.

             If someone makes everything they touch worse, are difficult to deal with, and provide no benefit that a layman can see, they are not an expert. Otherwise you could simply give someone a PhD, and make them an expert in being impossible to deal with, and ruining everything they touch. A real expert category, as you increase the number of people with that training and experience, can solve more of a specific sort of unsolved problem created by other economic activity. A fake expert category, as you increase the number, do nothing positive for the economy, so eventually the costs of supporting them would do measurable harm to the economy.

             Just about any economy can support a tiny number of fake experts. If you have an economy that is otherwise great, some of the surplus is probably going to supporting a larger number of fake experts.

             Anyway, the economic value of experts and of professional is properly judged by the laymen who are paying them.

             Case example, NCEES and maybe some other engineering professional organizations work with State Boards of licensure to limit who could be certified as a licensed Professional Engineer (PE). ABET is the organization which accredits professional engineering degree programs. So, in principle, the Feds could nationalize ABET, and NCEES, and give literally everyone in the United States an Engineering PhD, and a PE license. In practice this would be worse than worthless. You would still have work that would benefit from engineering expertise, but you would not increase the amount of engineering experience, would create a much more massive sorting problem, and matching problems to experience would be much worse for our theoretical laymen customers, even without the overconfident credentials-mean-expertise morons.

             Note: I have been formally trained in occupations, I’m good enough at tests that I often have an easy time at certifications, and I have been an overconfident credential-means-expertise moron. It took me experience, and a long time, to accurately understand the reality of how this stuff works.

    2. I like to ask them if they believe the experts are infallible. When they say no, because otherwise they’d be admitting that their position is a matter of religion, ask them how they know this isn’t one of the times the experts are wrong.

       There’s a reason Appeal to Authority is a logical fallacy.

       1. See my answer to Imaginos above for how the responses in these situations go. The experts don’t have the be infallible, just more knowledgeable than you the rando.

          1. At which point you tell them that you’ll reconsider the value of their opinion once they demonstrate an ability to think.

             1. If I could make that kind of riposte without coming off like a whiny pre-schooler I would…

          2. Yeah, but why can’t I, a crazy internet rando, be more expert in expertise than they are?

             I have a theory. So perhaps I have at least put more time into considering the question than they have?

             And if Bob the Fool is more expert than they are, can Bob the Fool not train and certify others as being credentialed in Bob’s mad theory? If Bob gives you a certificate to print out, who are they to say that your certificate does not make you more of an expert than they are?

             The real answer is probably that they are willing and able to be critical and discerning when it comes to credentialed experts, but are not willing to do when their alleged experts are saying stuff in line with their own personal political interests.

             1. Getting to both of yours here if you don’t mind. 🙂 No arguments from me about how the credentialed “expert” class has been anything but a bunch of clowns lately, but those of us here take the time to look into these things for ourselves. Obviously there’s no reaching the ones deep in the cult but the generally non-ideological who are just too busy with life to follow these things? That’s where my worries lie, especially with things like censoring opposing views can be a problem. Not that these masters of sophistry don’t have a pat answer for everything, of course… Sorry, a bit all over the place mentally tonight myself.

23. Questions?

    1) Why is the border still open?

    2) Who gives Catholic Charities the right to break the law when sheltering illegals?

    3) Who’s in charge of the list of names when we finally run out of bubblegum?

    1. Catholic Charities doing something unusual again?

       Or the more normal food/shelter/transportation/abortion services/ no questions asked thing?

       (Yes, that 4th one is on purpose. I am still pissed about that scam. They’re Biden Catholics, and drag a lot of well-meaning people in, and *lie to them.*)

       1. Catholic Charities was identified as the organization that brought in the batch of infected “unscheduled migrants” (can’t really call them illegal, since they hadn’t missed their court dates yet) that were discovered in La Joya, Texas. There have been plenty of other migrant groups since then, and other charities have been identified as being involved in some of those cases.

24. Problem is that it is extremely difficult to use logic to oppose a religion. Even moreso when that religion is backed by legions of men with guns and legal immunity who will not hesitate to execute you for wrong think. Then add on that the foundational myths are the only stories told.

    1. Are we talking about the Taliban in Afghanistan now?

       1. Nah. The taliban can really only oppress their subjects there. The taliban are liberators of Afghanistan from religious extremists who force the wearing of religious fetishes, maintain officially accredited death squads, forbid the worship of other religions, and export toxic propaganda across the world

25. Why is Harris the VP? Simple. She’s just as disposable as Biden. Just as corrupt and possibly smart enough to know now that she doesn’t want to be president (illegitimate or otherwise). Hoping I’m wrong with this idea but the scenario that recently came to me looks like both Biden and Harris will be going down the road before 2024. When Biden is removed, Harris (who is deathly afraid the current disaster will eventually devolve onto her and be blamed for much of it) will soon resign from office in disgrace after doing her part to further hose up the situation and then we’ll be ruled by an illegitimate president who was never elected, fraudulently or otherwise….That person who is designated by Harris as the next VP will be the one that Soros/Obama actually wants in the White House to finish the job….God help us if its Hillary.

    1. I started to say to myself, “Nah, they couldn’t possibly be THAT stupid…”

       But then I remembered who we’re talking about. Queen Hillary is a very real possibility with this lot. It’s like they’re out to prove there’s nothing so stupid they won’t do it.
       ———————————
       “And so, if she weighs as much as a duck, she’s a witch!”
       “Burn ‘er! Burn ‘er!”

       1. Well, there was some talk that Hillary wasn’t well (mentally or otherwise).

          Hey! Has anybody heard anything recent by or about Hillary?

          1. And that would make a difference, why?

             1. After the problems that they’ve had with Biden*, they might not want to use Hillary if she is mentally as bad (or worse) than Biden*

    2. God help us if it’s one of the squad…

    3. Here’s the thing, if they declare Biden incompetent (and we’ll assume that Dr. Jill goes along and doesn’t get Joe to sign a letter stating he’s competent) ,la is still the VP, just acting as President, so she can’t replace herself. If Biden *ahem* resigns, Harris is now President, which means there’s no VP, which means there’s no tiebreaker in the Senate to get her nominee for VP approved.

       Now, that is assuming that Romney or Murkowski don’t decide to end their political careers and cross the aisle. On the other hand, both Manchin and Sinema have been vocal about opposing the worst excesses of the Progressives. At that point the psychohistory equations start screaming and the crystal ball starts smoking (Marlboros, if anyone’s wondering).

       1. Sinema and Manchin wouldn’t have the same excuse to vote against Harris’s nominee.

          IIRC, Snow has already indicated that she’s not running for reelection. Murkowski and Romney are probably both aware that they’ve done so much already that there’s nothing they can do that will make their reelection chances with the right even less likely. For that matter, Murkowski already lost the Republican primary one year. She still won in following the general election.

       2. Romney might, he’s such an invertebrate.

          1. Jellyfish mock Romney for being spineless. 😀

       3. As long as it’s Reds, I’ll share.

    4. Hillary wouldn’t make it past 3 months before somebody removed her.

26. More years ago than I care to ponder, I got to ask a stupid question.

    I was attending a lecture by a physicist explaining his theory as to why quantum entanglement seems to transmit information faster than light. His claim was that the event that created the entangled pair also created an information wave moving ahead ahead in time and another moving backwards in time. Once you worked through the math, it actually made sense until I thought about a little deeper.

    One of his examples involved sending one of the particles on a space ship to a distance of several light years away. Ignore the problem of keeping the particles in an indeterminate state for such a long time — at relativistic velocities that relationship can get very interesting but it is really an engineering problem. During the question and answer period, I asked:

    Q: So, if the observer measures the state of one of the particles, the particle several light years away change its state simultaneously?

    A: Yes.

    Q: But is it not possible to find a frame of reference where the sequence of events is reversed?

    From the shocked expression on his face I guessed he had never considered that problem. I kind of felt bad about it. It really was an elegant explanation.

    I never heard any more about that theory but that could just be because I am just a dumb ‘lo engineer and might have just missed the publication.

    1. I have a love-hate relationship to those kinds of questions. Reminds me of a Geology survey study I did on streambed erosion and sediment size in the Sandsea Kill. Wrote it all up with a conclusion that we couldn’t find the expected inverse relationship between sediment size and distance from stream source. Instructor reviewed the paper, said methodology looked great, everything in it was consistent and in agreement with the data. Then he looked me in the eye, smiled, and asked, “Did you take into account this area was under a glacier 15,000 years ago?

       Oops.

       1. I am just a (hopefully) well-informed amateur when it comes to General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. I am also aware that, though GR and QM are the best tested theories in modern physics, they do not always agree. So I wasn’t trying to shoot down his proposal. I was actually hoping he had an explanation for how a simultaneous event seen in one frame of reference could also be simultaneous in another frame in relative motion.

          I was just surprised as he was.

    2. In fact that is a well known question, and the answer is that the change of state of the distant particle does not give the distant observer any information.

       1. Thus, it doesn’t matter which event occurs first or whether they are simultaneous.

       2. Yes, I get that but I think he was trying to explain *how* the universe co-ordinates the events since, in the absence of “hidden” information, it implies there is some kind of faster-than-light telegraph. It is almost enough to make me believe in the many-worlds hypothesis. 🙂

          1. My opinion is that there is indeed a faster than light telegraph but it’s encrypted so it looks like random noise to us.

27. I have to confess. I asked the CDC where they get their weekly mortality data and was basically told that mere mortals are not entitled to such information. The number is about 50,000 but has seasonal variations.

28. c4c

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