One can spend a week watching through the Sunday political talk shows, the regular news via CNN/Fox/MSNBC, and read through newspapers....to reach what I'd call an era of skepticism, distrust and disbelief.
In simple terms, the general public in the United States has reached a level where they just don't believe news that is dished out to them.
Polls are constructed and don't reflect reality.
Journalists behave like cheerleaders or a fifth-grade class of kids.
Dramatics seem to be the most anticipated part of a 30-minute newscast.
Half of the nightly news people are acting like Richard Burton, Joan Crawford, Robert Redford, or Rock Hudson. A few are in the Will Ferrell category, and could be talking seriously to you about marshmallow diets one minute and Republicans having a higher fart-rate than Democrats the next minute.
Survey and polls are done on an hour by hour basis...to project something....often of no value. The fact that gospel singers prefer Fords over Buicks.....probably doesn't matter. The fact that dogs can't tell the difference between 2-star treats and 4-star treats....probably doesn't matter. The fact that bigger boobed waitresses get better tips than guys.....well, it shouldn't matter.
We are in the age where skepticism is dawning upon people daily, and they seem to question virtually everyone....even their spouse, their local minister, or the local bartender who used to be a 'beacon of light' during chaotic life events.
Where will this lead? Unknown. But it's a segment of the future that is cloudy and full of strange curves. We might go to another reality in 2024, and hype up a former NCAA football coach....to be President. Don't be that shocked.
Tuesday, 24 March 2020
What Happens When You Are Smarter Than the Intellectual
This is one of those thought-provoking essays that I tend to write three or four times a year. So, the question is....what happens when you are sitting there and come to realize that the professor or intellectual in front of you (who used to always have knowledge, wisdom, debate skills, and reasoning ability)....he or she, just isn't much smarter than you.
Thirty years ago, I would have suggested that this would be something of a rare nature to notice....today, I might notice it five times a day. As you span out and view people with university degrees, those awarded professorships, and the intellectual crowd....it's often questionable if they can match up to you, the mere mortal....with your personal wit and normal debate skills.
What really happened over the past thirty years? I will offer three observations:
1. Colleges downgraded the stamina requirements for a degree. Oh, it might still be the same hard situation to be an engineer or doctor, but in most other degree programs.....debate and reasoning have been more or less downgraded....often to the level of a seventh-grade high school class.
2. 'Expert' status used to be a big deal....but between the news media and fake journalism....we'd handed out 'expert' status to literally tens of thousands of Americans, and the bulk really don't deserve the status. There are individuals who had one single remarkable period in the early 1970s for maybe three years of 'expert' status, and we wake up to find this guy being recycled and thrust back into the limelight fifty years later, and noted for 'expert' status. Then three minutes into this Q and A session....we just laughing at the poor judgement of the network, and 75-year old guy dragged in for purely entertainment reasons.
3. Some type of brainwash affect has occurred, where people think four years in some college has given them some gift, and they immediately feel the power of intellectualism makes them 'smarter' than normal people. Never once do they question this behavior.
Are we in for a rough ride? I think so. If you try to use facts with these people.....they get all confused and then resort to illogical arguments, with no real basis for a conclusion.
Thirty years ago, I would have suggested that this would be something of a rare nature to notice....today, I might notice it five times a day. As you span out and view people with university degrees, those awarded professorships, and the intellectual crowd....it's often questionable if they can match up to you, the mere mortal....with your personal wit and normal debate skills.
What really happened over the past thirty years? I will offer three observations:
1. Colleges downgraded the stamina requirements for a degree. Oh, it might still be the same hard situation to be an engineer or doctor, but in most other degree programs.....debate and reasoning have been more or less downgraded....often to the level of a seventh-grade high school class.
2. 'Expert' status used to be a big deal....but between the news media and fake journalism....we'd handed out 'expert' status to literally tens of thousands of Americans, and the bulk really don't deserve the status. There are individuals who had one single remarkable period in the early 1970s for maybe three years of 'expert' status, and we wake up to find this guy being recycled and thrust back into the limelight fifty years later, and noted for 'expert' status. Then three minutes into this Q and A session....we just laughing at the poor judgement of the network, and 75-year old guy dragged in for purely entertainment reasons.
3. Some type of brainwash affect has occurred, where people think four years in some college has given them some gift, and they immediately feel the power of intellectualism makes them 'smarter' than normal people. Never once do they question this behavior.
Are we in for a rough ride? I think so. If you try to use facts with these people.....they get all confused and then resort to illogical arguments, with no real basis for a conclusion.
Just An Odd Story
Years ago (around the early 1990s), I was in the Air Force, and a fair amount of my time each week was consumed with exercise or fitness routines. I won't say I was that positive with the time dedicated to this, it's just that you were kinda forced into the routine of fitness and weight management.
What's curious about this is that you'd arrive at a gym....sometimes at 6 AM, and you'd kinda notice about every ninety days or so....some dramatic injury or accident....requiring a medic or ambulance team.
The first ever that I witnessed....was some old retired guy on the jogging track at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.....around noon one day, with the heat near 115 degrees, and he collapsed. Ambulance folks came out, and carried the guy off....heat exhaustion. He was lucky.
Around six months pass after that, and in the weight-room.....we had some going to lifts with weights, and couldn't handle the weights, with the bar crashing down on his upper chest. Ambulance crew had to come and pick him up. He was lucky.
I was looking at some story this morning, and they brought up this curious number.....114 people dead, from free weights and weight machines.....from 1990 to 2007.
No one says if they were mostly men or 50-50 with women involved. Just taking a humble guess that it's mostly all men.
What's curious about this is that you'd arrive at a gym....sometimes at 6 AM, and you'd kinda notice about every ninety days or so....some dramatic injury or accident....requiring a medic or ambulance team.
The first ever that I witnessed....was some old retired guy on the jogging track at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.....around noon one day, with the heat near 115 degrees, and he collapsed. Ambulance folks came out, and carried the guy off....heat exhaustion. He was lucky.
Around six months pass after that, and in the weight-room.....we had some going to lifts with weights, and couldn't handle the weights, with the bar crashing down on his upper chest. Ambulance crew had to come and pick him up. He was lucky.
I was looking at some story this morning, and they brought up this curious number.....114 people dead, from free weights and weight machines.....from 1990 to 2007.
No one says if they were mostly men or 50-50 with women involved. Just taking a humble guess that it's mostly all men.
Sunday, 22 March 2020
Ten Things You Can Do on 'Lock-Down'
If you were on some 14-day wait-and-see virus watch, or just sent home for two to four weeks? This is my list of things to do:
1. Do that self-help re-sod job for your lawn. Figure with basic landscaping and everything involved....a good two weeks of work for everything.
2. Pick up White Fang, Call of the Wild and The Little Lady of the Big House. All books by Jack London. Note on 'Big House'.....it's a bit naughty and a bit depressing in the end.
3. Re-watch all the episodes of Seinfeld. All 180 of them.
4. Buy a Van Gogh paint-by-the numbers kit, with the 36 colors.
5. Watch CNN around the clock.
6. Write a 600-page novel on a trailer-suburb, lost love, freaky nutcase women, and what would happen if everyone had to stay in their little 'world' for a month.
7. Buy a broken lawnmower and rebuild it from scratch, using YouTube videos.
8. Watch the weather channel around the clock.
9. Order up a case of PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon beer) daily from the local grocery, and just hang out on the patio with some R E M tunes, and some blue grass classics.
10. Just put a chair by the mailbox, and count cars all day.
I'm pretty sure at the end, you will be ready to return to work.
1. Do that self-help re-sod job for your lawn. Figure with basic landscaping and everything involved....a good two weeks of work for everything.
2. Pick up White Fang, Call of the Wild and The Little Lady of the Big House. All books by Jack London. Note on 'Big House'.....it's a bit naughty and a bit depressing in the end.
3. Re-watch all the episodes of Seinfeld. All 180 of them.
4. Buy a Van Gogh paint-by-the numbers kit, with the 36 colors.
5. Watch CNN around the clock.
6. Write a 600-page novel on a trailer-suburb, lost love, freaky nutcase women, and what would happen if everyone had to stay in their little 'world' for a month.
7. Buy a broken lawnmower and rebuild it from scratch, using YouTube videos.
8. Watch the weather channel around the clock.
9. Order up a case of PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon beer) daily from the local grocery, and just hang out on the patio with some R E M tunes, and some blue grass classics.
10. Just put a chair by the mailbox, and count cars all day.
I'm pretty sure at the end, you will be ready to return to work.
On Lori Vallow Daybell
For about six weeks, I've been watching this case in Idaho play out, with these 'lost' kids and the whacked-up mother (Lori Vallow Daybell).
So I've come to this conclusion.
What you have is an extreme case of paranoid schizophrenia, and nothing Daybell says is fact or fiction. She's living in her own world and unable to fit into reality.
The kids? Probably dead.
What'll happen? The judge (in my mind) will come to grasp this, and require a mental exam (figure 60 days of this). It'll come back and the doctor will sign the papers to say she's a full-up 100-percent case of schizophrenia, and the court is just wasting its time.
Off she'll go, for a locked-up compound, for the rest of her life.
This guy who married her? He wanted to believe her....badly. Maybe he knows some pieces to the story, but I wouldn't put him into the schizophrenia group.
Her life? I think she puts herself into the position of being a Jesus-like figure, and that's her little world.
So we are all wasting our time on this story, and simply drawn to the crazy-factor.
So I've come to this conclusion.
What you have is an extreme case of paranoid schizophrenia, and nothing Daybell says is fact or fiction. She's living in her own world and unable to fit into reality.
The kids? Probably dead.
What'll happen? The judge (in my mind) will come to grasp this, and require a mental exam (figure 60 days of this). It'll come back and the doctor will sign the papers to say she's a full-up 100-percent case of schizophrenia, and the court is just wasting its time.
Off she'll go, for a locked-up compound, for the rest of her life.
This guy who married her? He wanted to believe her....badly. Maybe he knows some pieces to the story, but I wouldn't put him into the schizophrenia group.
Her life? I think she puts herself into the position of being a Jesus-like figure, and that's her little world.
So we are all wasting our time on this story, and simply drawn to the crazy-factor.
The Vaccine or the 'Game-Changer' Drug?
A vaccine for the Coronavirus? At best, it might come along in early 2021....virtually everyone agrees on that.
The 'game-changer' drug deal?
Here's how this works. A mixture (probably two to three current drugs on the market for other things) is applied to a sick guy, and the pneumonia-like symptoms are cut down. There's no way to say 30-percent, 50-percent or even 70-percent. But you'd get the virus, see the doctor for a test, and once confirmed....get a likely ten-day dose of the game-changer drugs.
You would then go through a lesser situation, and the death rate would likely be cut in half or more.
How long away for this? If the game-changer drugs exist already....you could be talking about an end to the threat by May-to-June.
An acceptable end to the mess? Some people will say 'NO'. There will still be deaths. Here's the thing....there would be deaths with regular flu, meth-use, or diabetes anyway.
The positive? Within ten days after the announcement is made over the game-changer drug situation....you could re-open airports and get back to normal business. Yeah, you'd still get the stupid virus and be out of work for probably five days (like the flu would have done you)....but things would go back to a normal situation.
The journalists hyped up that the virus threat lessened drastically? That's the comical part of the suggestion. You'd still have 2,000 journalists across the nation hyped up (anti-Trump, pro-Coronavirus, etc). The odds that the Europeans would fall in line and accept the game-changer drug? I think they would drag their feet for about six weeks and then discover that the US has emerged out of the mess, and a massive discontent would exist with regular people over stupid leadership.
So yeah, the game-changer drug thing....is a big deal. You just haven't reached the impact yet. Oh, and the cost factor of the game-changer drug? Unknown, and that's another curious part of the story. It might be as low as $20 per day for the drug-combo, or it might be $75 per day for the combo. Or it might even be free via some Trump-deal.
The 'game-changer' drug deal?
Here's how this works. A mixture (probably two to three current drugs on the market for other things) is applied to a sick guy, and the pneumonia-like symptoms are cut down. There's no way to say 30-percent, 50-percent or even 70-percent. But you'd get the virus, see the doctor for a test, and once confirmed....get a likely ten-day dose of the game-changer drugs.
You would then go through a lesser situation, and the death rate would likely be cut in half or more.
How long away for this? If the game-changer drugs exist already....you could be talking about an end to the threat by May-to-June.
An acceptable end to the mess? Some people will say 'NO'. There will still be deaths. Here's the thing....there would be deaths with regular flu, meth-use, or diabetes anyway.
The positive? Within ten days after the announcement is made over the game-changer drug situation....you could re-open airports and get back to normal business. Yeah, you'd still get the stupid virus and be out of work for probably five days (like the flu would have done you)....but things would go back to a normal situation.
The journalists hyped up that the virus threat lessened drastically? That's the comical part of the suggestion. You'd still have 2,000 journalists across the nation hyped up (anti-Trump, pro-Coronavirus, etc). The odds that the Europeans would fall in line and accept the game-changer drug? I think they would drag their feet for about six weeks and then discover that the US has emerged out of the mess, and a massive discontent would exist with regular people over stupid leadership.
So yeah, the game-changer drug thing....is a big deal. You just haven't reached the impact yet. Oh, and the cost factor of the game-changer drug? Unknown, and that's another curious part of the story. It might be as low as $20 per day for the drug-combo, or it might be $75 per day for the combo. Or it might even be free via some Trump-deal.
Saturday, 21 March 2020
Sometimes I Offer Advice
I noticed in the news that some naive 'cult' individual suggested that there is "tremendous confusion" in America today.
I've sat for three hours this morning thinking about that suggestion.
It's kinda bothered me. I'd like to offer three observations:
1. Outside of the beltway, beyond the metropolitan landscape, in roughly 90-percent of the rest of the nation....there's zero confusion. Things happen, you evaluate your situation, determine your path, and proceed on.
If it were that crazy, you might consult your minister, your local farm product sales-guy, your cousin Larry who does sheet-rock, or your local Bolivian-palm-reader gal who wears a rather lusty open blouse. They'd offer some optimistic view of the situation, and you'd just reset your compass.
2. If things were of some extreme variety of "tremendous confusion", the last people on Earth that you'd consult and feel 'good' from....would be Hollywood personalities, some local meth user, or your crazy aunt who is three steps away from being put into a state nut-house.
3. If you seem to be living every day in terror or confusion, it's been that way for more than a year or two....maybe even going on for ten years or more, then you got a personal issue, that no religion, mental specialist, or TV cult figure can 'heal'. In this case, you might want to dump the TV, cable options, Twitter, and all social media.....retire to some remote Tennessee Valley (Appleton would be my suggestion), and just read Jack London books, listen to Sinatra tunes, and work on Briggs and Stratton lawn mowers.
It's kinda bothered me. I'd like to offer three observations:
1. Outside of the beltway, beyond the metropolitan landscape, in roughly 90-percent of the rest of the nation....there's zero confusion. Things happen, you evaluate your situation, determine your path, and proceed on.
If it were that crazy, you might consult your minister, your local farm product sales-guy, your cousin Larry who does sheet-rock, or your local Bolivian-palm-reader gal who wears a rather lusty open blouse. They'd offer some optimistic view of the situation, and you'd just reset your compass.
2. If things were of some extreme variety of "tremendous confusion", the last people on Earth that you'd consult and feel 'good' from....would be Hollywood personalities, some local meth user, or your crazy aunt who is three steps away from being put into a state nut-house.
3. If you seem to be living every day in terror or confusion, it's been that way for more than a year or two....maybe even going on for ten years or more, then you got a personal issue, that no religion, mental specialist, or TV cult figure can 'heal'. In this case, you might want to dump the TV, cable options, Twitter, and all social media.....retire to some remote Tennessee Valley (Appleton would be my suggestion), and just read Jack London books, listen to Sinatra tunes, and work on Briggs and Stratton lawn mowers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)