Fulness of Times

A couple things from a conversation I had today with someone's whose wife is a nurse practitioner who works with the COVID patients in a local hospital. First there are certainly some people who get very ill from COVID-19 and for some the added complication of this virus is enough to overwhelm their compromised immune and/or respiratory system, which is usually from pre-existing/underlying health conditions. Second, the director told this guy's wife that for every new positive COVID test there are estimated to be at least 10 new asymptomatic cases. Guess what that means...if there are 800 new tested cases, then there are probably 8,000 new asymptomatic (or even low symptom) cases. So, if the death rate is 0.26% for the confirmed cases, the actual death rate is much, much less. Probably by at least a factor of 10. So...maybe a death rate of 0.026%. For the vast majority of people COVID-19 is not a serious illness. The guy I talked to mentioned that he had been really sick for a ...

Do you like bullying? Maybe if you are one. I personally don't know anyone who likes people who act like bullies, or who are bullies. I guess I should be a little more clear. What I don't like is the actual bullying. The person may have some good qualities, but it's the bullying that I don't like. Should we encourage others to submit to the demands of a bully? No. I don't believe we should encourage anyone to submit to the demands of a bully. If the bullying happens in a school, the student is encouraged to report it. How do we deal with bullies outside of school? How do we deal with adult bullies? So, let's get some common ground. A bully is a person who seeks to harm or intimidate others, particularly those the bully sees as vulnerable and susceptible to the bully. The act of bullying is to seek to harm, intimidate or coerce someone who is perceived as vulnerable. The website stopbullying.gov ( https://www.stopbullying.gov/bullying/what-is-bullying ) states th...

After watching videos of protests and reading about various protests from over the last several weeks, I have come to a conclusion that some will complain about. Before I get to my conclusion, allow me to make some observations. Protests that are a Constitutional right are for the people to peaceably assemble to voice their grievances to the Government. Peaceably assembled implies that those assembled to voice their grievances (protest) are doing so lawfully. That is, the protesters have followed any and all local, state, and/or federal laws that are applicable to the peaceful assembly. In other words, they have a lawful protest. By complying with laws protesters can not only safely and lawfully exercise their right to voice their grievances, but they also protect the Constitutional rights of all others, i.e. those who are choosing NOT to participate in the peaceful assembly. Any protester who infringes on Constitutional rights of others is not peaceably assembled. Protesters nea...

As I was writing my last post I wrote the following: The acceptance of allowing anyone in any public position of influence, control, authority, or power to infringe, limit, regulate, mandate, order, legislate, adjudicate, control, usurp, or restrict any Constitutional right or liberty is like allowing the fox to guard the chickens.  As I wrote it I came up with more about the chickens and foxes, which I originally included between the last few paragraphs. I removed the paragraphs about the foxes and chickens for that post but thought I'd make a new post with them. Here is how the end of the previous post was originally written: The acceptance of allowing anyone in any public position of influence, control, authority, or power to infringe, limit, regulate, mandate, order, legislate, adjudicate, control, usurp, or restrict any Constitutional right or liberty is like allowing the fox to guard the chickens.  For most people who seek for influence, control, authority, or power over...

Do you remember the 2002 movie Minority Report? Tom Cruise starred in it as a police officer in a special unit called PreCrime. PreCrime's task is to arrest would-be murderers before they commit the crime. They identify these future would-be murderers based on visions of the future that some mutated humans called PreCogs receive. If you haven't seen it, it's worth viewing. But it's almost eerie some of the similarities that can be drawn to today's environment. While today's pandemic environment is not arresting would-be future murderers, we are all, in one way or another, being affected by what I will call our nation's PreVirus units. PreVirus units are comprised of public health officials, disease experts, media outlets that promote public control and restrictions on liberties and rights, politicians who take advantage of opportunities, reasoning, and justification to increase their control, influence, authority, and power over the people, any person or oth...

I just read an article about George Washington owning slaves. Yes he did. As did many others of that time.  Was it right? No. And I'm not going to try to justify it based on the culture, attitudes, expectations, etc. of that time. Nor will I condemn the person (in this case George Washington) and say he was a bad man just because his knowledge, understanding, values, etc. were different. But, we need to be careful about judging people who lived 200, 100, or even 50 years ago using our present day understanding, knowledge, ethics, and values. Think about this. In 200 years, how will you be judged based on who knows what ethics, values, standards, etc. society will have at that time? The morals and values of society are fickle, often influenced by those who want control and power over the people. For some reason too many people feel justified in condemning others because of past imperfections, misdeeds, trespasses, etc. Even if that person has changed their life and turned it around ...