“It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
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"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper
Test
"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper
“It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine
Friday, May 15, 2020
And they keep on flaming
The Jackson
Sun lies.
But they are
not alone. So does the Tennessean, the Commercial Appeal, and every newspaper
that says things like this
“May 14
update on coronavirus in Jackson: Madison Co. cases remain at 164, 16,699 cases
statewide”
If you don’t
have the disease, then you aren’t a “case.” If you had the disease, say flu, you
say, “I had a case of flu.” That is past tense. When you say, “Madison Co. remain
at 164,...” that is present tense,
So,
actually, how many cases of Covid-19 that we currently have in Madison County is,
are you ready for this??
Fourteen.
That’s right, 14. Five are sick and we don’t know their condition. Six are
sick, but better. And the status of three is unknown. Oh yeah, two are deceased. That’s 16. How about the other 148? Oh, they
are recovered. How do I know? Because the
paper, if you read down and into the article:
Recovered: 148 cases (90%)
Not recovered: Five cases (3%)
Better: Six cases (4%)
Unknown: Three cases (2%)
Deceased: Two cases (1%)
I think it is
time to ask this. Why are all the media leads telling is HOW MANY we have had.
The question is, HOW MANY DO WE HAVE NOW?
It’s a fair
question. Because the answer tells us how we should act. Should we go out? Should we tell the government,
thanks, you’ve done your job, now it’s time for you to leave?
Fourteen
active and 148 recovered says, “Leave!”
But 164 says, “Stay!”
Why does the
press slant the news to make thinks look much worse than they are? I think you
know. I think I know. And I think they know.
https://www.jacksonsun.com/story/news/local/2020/05/14/may-14-update-coronavirus-jackson-madison-co-cases-remain-164/5193737002/
"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper
Saturday, May 2, 2020
How they fan they flames
I write you
concerning your reporting of Covid-19 cases.
From the article on 5/1:
“148 cases
in Madison County
There are
148 confirmed novel coronavirus cases in Madison County as of May 1 at 4 p.m.,
up three from this morning's report.”
Reading this
anyone would immediately believe that there are 148 people sick with the
disease.
Yet, when I
read further, I find:
“ Recovered: 94 cases (64%)
Not recovered: 26 cases (18%)
Better: 14 cases (9%)
Unknown: 14 cases (9%)
Deceased: 1”
The sub-headline
and following sentence are not correct. You had 95 cases (94 +1). You now have,
per the above, 45, of which 26 still ill, 14 are better and 14 are unknown.
An accurate
sub-headline would have read: “There are 54 confirmed novel coronavirus cases
in Madison County as of May 1 at 4 p.m., up three from this morning's report.”
The
sub-headline seems to follow the old newspaper rule, “If it bleeds it leads.”
That wasn’t good in the past. In today's world were people have largely gone to
Social Media for their news, often quoting newspapers without attribution or
analysis of what they quote, it is worse.
I appreciate
your efforts, especially during these difficult and uncertain times. But as a subscriber
I expect accuracy. Even more so when we are trying to emerge from an economy
killing shut down. We desperately do not need inaccurate information fanning
the flames.
I look forward
to reading further articles that accurately state the problem as it exists
today.
Thank you
"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper “It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine
Saturday, April 25, 2020
It's Saturday morning
It’s Saturday
morning and I’m bored...so I got to thinking.....
You don’t get immunity unless you catch a
disease, survive, and your body builds anti-bodies. Or, a vaccine, causes your
body to develop anti-bodies.
As more and
more people become immune the disease has a tendency to die out because there
are fewer and fewer “carriers” for it to infect and survive. As a result, people
without the anti-bodies are not exposed to the disease. The “herd” is immune
because some have died. Some have survived through treatment. Some just live
through it without treatment. Or there is wide spread use of an effective
vaccine. Thus “herd immunity.
The “herd”
is never 100% immune. The unprotected, either because, they haven’t had the
disease and developed anti-bodies or not received the vaccine or the vaccine
just doesn’t work for them, remains vulnerable. And then there is the question
of how long personal anti-bodies protect.
The “Anti-Vac”
folks have been tolerated because, more or less, their refusal to be inoculated
for various communicable diseases impact just them, or their children. Given
that Covid-19 is deadly for the elderly or people with underlying health
conditions and no vaccine is 100%, I foresee some interesting situations.
Remember Typhoid Mary was locked up and people who knowingly transmit AIDS are
tried.
I have been
watching Sweden because it is a modern country with excellent health facilities.
Sweden has not closed at all. We have. Their death rate per million/population is
217. Ours is 158. That’s a difference of 59 per million, or 18,880 people dying.
Sweden’s death
rate has been slowly climbing, just as ours has. Will their death rate peak and
then drop as all the old and weak die? Maybe. Will they reach “herd immunity?” Perhaps.
But will all the people who come into their country not carry the disease to infect
those who haven’t been previously infected because the people around them aren’t
carriers? I don’t know but I do know you can’t shut off travel between countries
in today’s world.
Will ours?
Who knows? Studies from NY, CA and now FL show that the disease was here last
December, or earlier, as around 10% of the “tested” population have the
antibodies. That’s interesting. It also means that the number of disease
carriers, leaving the small number of asymptotic aside, is reduced. (Also true
in Sweden.) That’s also why vaccines work. If I’m immune then I can’t catch the
disease from you.
With 20/20 hindsight it appears that we should have just banned
large social gatherings, pushed frequent hand washing, increased the use of disinfectants,
demanded people wear masks and just rode the wave.
Many old people have died. It’s what we do. (I’m 82.) But we
wouldn’t have came this close to destroying the country and who knows, maybe a
lot of old people would have survived just as they hope to now by avoiding large
social gatherings, frequent hand washing, increased use of disinfectants, wearing
masks and just riding the wave.
"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper
Thursday, April 23, 2020
Memories
Setting
around the house with time on my hand brings back memories....
Back in the
day, or in this case the fall of 1956, wannbe Aviation Technician Strikers went
to Airman Prep school in Norman, OK before going on to “A” school at NATTC, Millington.
(Memphis, TN.)
Outside of
basic electricity, hand tools, safety and surviving the Navy’s attempt at drowning us while learning how to get out of a parachute harness when landing in the
water; we also learned how to play snooker
and that sailors had zero chance with
the girls at the University of Oklahoma who were mostly looking for young men who
drove convertibles and whose daddies owned oil wells.
So, we
looked towards Oklahoma City.
There was a bus
to ride to downtown and there were taxis. But we needed a car. Lo and behold we found a 1936 Chevrolet that
had been hand painted, with a brush, a beautiful British racing green. The body
was in remarkably good shape, it started and ran well, but the brakes were so bad that stopping at a designated spot required a strong leg, depth perception
and good planning. It didn’t have a muffler, but did have a straight pipe. The owner wanted $50. He was graduating and doubted
that it could make it to Millington, so a buddy and I formed a partnership and
made an investment.
Liberty became
an adventure. We had friends who would find a dollar or so towards gas and oil
and discovered that part of the stopping sequence required down shifting was
part of the braking process. Doing so also let the car, with the straight pipe
muffler, emit a very satisfying loud rumble when downshifting or accelerating. It was so satisfying we developed
a need to do this frequently, even when not needed to help us stop or start, In fact, we
would drive around the city enjoying ourselves.
Oklahoma City,
unknown to us, had a noise ordinance. Two
weeks or so before graduation disaster struck. A local policeman pulled us
over, determined that the registration had expired, and the noise it made was unacceptable.
I don’t remember
all the details but we were not arrested per se, but summoned immediately to court.
The judge looked us over, mentioned that he was a veteran and didn’t want to
fine us and that if we would promise to register the car and
fix the muffler we could go in peace.
Yes sir, yes
sir, yes sir. Just let us out of here.
We had good
intentions. But we couldn’t
get off base during the hours when state offices were open and the price to
fix the muffler was beyond our modest financial resources.
Now an older
and wiser pair would have left the car parked outside the base and stayed on base the
weekend before following graduation day. We weren’t all that much older and we
were not wiser. Dumb and dumber? Yes.
You can
guess what happened. We were pulled over again, took back to the same court and
in front of the same judge. And the judge was unhappy. He mentioned a large
fine, which we couldn't pay, or we could spend some time in the local lock up. I
was scared spitless. I could see my Navy career evaporating as I was prosecuted for missing movement and other assorted charges. Both of us explained to the
judge about our forthcoming graduation and pledged to leave the state if he
would just let us go.
So, he did. He had us take the car to the city impound lot
where we left it. And took the first bus back to Norman where we didn’t leave
the base until we had our orders in our hands and a bus ticket to Memphis.
And I have
never been back in 63 years and counting.
"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper “
Friday, April 17, 2020
Are we being played??
Are we being
played or what??
I confess
that I don’t know. I also confess that I thought a quick shut down was a good
thing. But I don’t think this phased start up will work. And I think the people
who are pushing this are spouting statistics while we know that their first numbers
were off by the millions and that failure trend follows.
Figures don’t
lie but liars figure. Especially people who desperately want to be right
because that is their claim to fame and key to power.
So, I
started looking around.
Sweden,
which has been roundly condemned, has never closed. You would think that their
death rate would be at least equal to Italy, which is 376/per million/population,
but its not. Or maybe Spain, which is 417. But it’s not. Okay, maybe twice what
our rate is. But its not. Sweden’s death rate is 139 vs our 107.
Now I’m not down
playing that 32 difference. With our population of around 320 million that’s 10240
(32 x 320) which is not a number to be sneezed at. With reported current deaths
of 35500 the total would have been 45740 based on the Swedish model.
We have
approximately 800,000 hospital beds, 2834 hospitals with a least 10 each acute care
units and 1 ICU. And, per John Hopkins
on 4/1/20....“1 study estimated that US acute care hospitals own approximately
62,000 full-featured mechanical ventilators. Calculations suggest that about
28,883 of these ventilators (46.4%) can be used to ventilate pediatric and
neonatal patients. The study also reported an additional 98,000 ventilators
that are not full-featured but can still provide basic function in an emergency
during crisis standards of care......... One study reported the clinical
outcomes of 191 patients in Wuhan, China and found that 58 of 191 hospitalized
patients (31%) required mechanical ventilation.”
When you
consider that 99.999% of the people who
died, did so in a hospital then of the 35500, then about one/third, 11715,
needed a ventilator if you use the Wuhan numbers.
When you use
the Swedish numbers, 45740, the number becomes 15094.
Given that
all of the need didn’t happen at the same time, the number drops to a much
lower number. Much much much lower.
So, what
happened? Again, from John Hopkins: “The study also reported an additional 98,000
ventilators that are not full-featured but can still provide basic function in
an emergency during crisis standards of care. However, the need for ventilation
services during a severe pandemic could quickly overwhelm these day-to-day
operational capabilities.”
They panicked.
And now they are unwilling to admit that their numbers are wrong. And instead
of admitting that; we are knee deep in testing and phases. They are so wound up
in the numbers they can’t see the forest.
And the fact
is that in the forest there are, and will be, trees that the person tested
clean this morning will be positive some days in the future and the cycle
starts over.
https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/resources/COVID-19/COVID-19-fact-sheets/200214-VentilatorAvailability-factsheet.pdf
"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper “It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine
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