We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Good news of today: No more mask rule in my gym. To celebrate, I did 2 reps of my supposed one-rep max deads. That's what no mask, a dose of enthusiasm, and some iced Dunkin can do for ya.
Many people have been asking me what "testing positive" for COVID means. See today's news on the NY Yankees.
It seems clear that the more people you do nasal swabs on, the more positive results will occur. This virus will become endemic so many, and hopefully most, people will be exposed to it. Like the common cold, or the seasonal flu. Few will get significantly sick from it or even be aware of it.
The point is, a positive test does not mean that you are sick, and, if vaccinated, doesn't mean much of anything other than that somehow you were exposed. Furthermore, there are many (but still really unknown) numbers of false positives.
I think it makes sense to test people who are ill, but not random healthy people unless it is just an academic exercise.
Now you can hardly expect the new New York Times to appreciate the irony of accusing Republicans of being “polarizing” after years of liberals setting women against men, blacks against whites, non-binary people against “cisgender” people; after years of practicing the kind of divisive politics that in other places at other times have caused societies to decline into civil strife. Yet you would think that a seasoned New York Times political reporter, not to mention his editors, would, as part of a journalistic obligation to record the dynamics of modern American politics, add a brief paragraph about how it was in fact the Democrats—in their drive to regain power in the last election—who programmatically turned everything Donald Trump and his allies said and did into polarizing instances of dehumanizing prejudice.
Many people love the freedom of gig jobs. Not just Uber drivers working when they have free time, but also writers, catering staff, bartenders, dog-walkers, retired people wanting to be useful, and a hundred other things.
Government doesn't get it. Lots of people, maybe not most, prefer to work on their own, on their own time. Less security, more freedom. That's an American tradition.
Consider Bellevue, Washington, home to Cherry Crest Elementary School. The school website indicates that students “will have explicit conversations about race, equity, and access” and “will identify culture and begin to recognize and identify white culture through storytelling, sharing, and conversation.” The school promises to hold monthly assemblies that focus on culture, identity, and race, and has created a group called SOAR (Students Organized Against Racism) for fourth- and fifth-graders. These children, who range from ages nine to 11, are tasked with “implementing learning and stratimplementation of school-wide learning and strategies for being anti-racist.” Left unclear is whether these students have been made aware that modern antiracism requires discrimination on the basis of race.
Or take Lexington, Massachusetts, where, in October 2019, fourth-graders were taught to “articulate what gender identity is and why it’s important to use nonbinary language in describing people we don’t know yet.” According to photos shared on Twitter by the district’s Director of Equity and Student Supports, students learned about “gender identity,” “gender expression,” “sexual orientation,” and “sex assigned at birth” by examining sticky notes on a “Gender Snowperson” who was drawn in magic marker on a large sheet of paper. The students were also taught that their pronouns had been “assigned at birth.”
Good news of today: No more mask rule in my gym. To celebrate, I did 2 reps of my supposed one-rep max deads. That's what no mask, a dose of enthusiasm, and some iced Dunkin can do for ya.
Which Napoleon? 
Image stolen from Ace 
Reintroduction ("forced introduction"?)