A TIMING ISSUE

What kept me up till two o'clock was pangs twinges twitches itches and aches in my legs. And I got up at shortly after five. So I was probably a right pillock during the day. As well as being high as a kite on caffeine. Yes, I am looking forward to the peripheral angioplasties on the lower extremeties. Which will happen after my next cardiology appointment (which is in early September), scheduling another scan of the limbs in question (last one was around four years ago; things have changed), then the actual procedure itself. Which given the simplicity of the thing is not an emergency or urgent, and consequently won't be high on the front burners until it actually happens.

My half sleep was marked by rubicund visuals while dreaming. That probably had very little connection to the legs, but was caused by measles. I'm not infected, but I've been reading about the disease, specifically the virus. So I'll blame curiosity and Texas for that.

I've been fascinated by viruses recently. Many of them are visually entrancing. They'd make good trademarks or, for that matter, tattoos for the people who go for that.
More meaningful than 'Mom', or anything religious.
Sort of a sick butterfly.
Or anchor.


Please, someone do it.

Imagine this lovely image glowing on your arm, or one of your glutei. In living colour.

Morbillisviruses are a class of illnesses that infect humans, dogs, cats, cows, seals, and cetaceans. If Cojo or Fluffy is sick, have him or her tested for canine distemper.
Fortunately there are vaccines, and there is treatment.
Well for the human variant at least.

Probably should mention that dogs, in this context, includes coyotes, foxes, wolves, plus bears, ferrets, raccoons, and pandas, as well as primates and several other animals.

Sofar no Texans have been diagnosed with distemper. Yet. To the best of my knowledge.
Rabies yes, distemper no. I think that's good news.



The twinges twitches itches and aches are caused by circulatory issues. Probably magnified a bit by amlodipine besylate which I take around teatime, which seems to cause upper back pain beginning around two and half hours afterwards and continuing for a few hours.
Imagine what the bus ride home from Marin to San Francisco is like.
When I was still taking it upon waking I hurt by ten.



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TOO MUCH TIME, TOO LITTLE

Because I spent so much time with superpaint yesterday, I failed to do my laundry and did not go to the bank. So that's what I'll have to do today. See, the restaurant where I head for lunch on Wednesdays closes at three, and they prefer not to have too many people come in close to that time. Which, having been in the restaurant business myself, I can understand. So instead of doing laundry in a timely manner before lunch, I continued drawing an illustration of a virus till after one o'clock. I'm a bit obsessive that way.

Lunch, pipe smoke, errands, shopping, tea at a favourite bakery.

Crystal pears (水晶梨 'seui jing lei') for the Indonesian woman downstairs, and some big Toishan filled buns (台山大包 'toi saan taai baau') for my landlady. Neither of them get out to Chinatown much, I fear. Plus two types of odd Asian potato chips for my apartment mate, as well as a toisaan bao for her. She, too, doesn't get down to Chinatown nearly enough.

By the way, all three of them are ethnically Chinese.
And presumably they are seriously into food.
And I'm a Brabander. So naturally I am.

The above is not yesterday morning's virus. I drew it after returning home to relax. Along with some birds, and two landscapes. Did I mention obsession? Viruses are elegant, sometimes, and their pictures could very well be company logos or cigar band illustrations.
"Smoke Rotavirus Nicaragua Perfectos! People love Rotavirus!"
Or Chikungunya Hondurans, maduro panatellas.


You know, there are good reasons why I am not in Marketing. And I really loved S. Frog's advertising campaign for Conquistador Instant Coffee, name changed to Conquistador Instant Leprosy. As featured on Monty Python's Flying Circus.


"Conquistador Coffee brings a new meaning to the word vomit!"


A free dead dog with every jar. Conquistador: the tingling fresh coffee which brings you exciting new cholera, mange, dropsy, the clap, boils and athlete's foot.

Brilliant. Could really make coffee drinkers stop and think.
And they'll finally know the name Conquistador.


Perhaps you don't want Rotavirus.
At least not in your mouth.


You know, I would be keen to try Conquistador.
It sounds exciting and hip.



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THE WALLOP

A few years ago my doctor recommended another vaccine. Which, being generally speaking, quite trusting of my medical professionals, I readily agreed to. One must be selective of the advice one takes, especially regarding health. The people who were telling me to dose with manuka honey, apple cider vinegar, and extra ginger and turmeric, and to also avoid gluten, were too dingbattish to take seriously. The person who told me to speak firmely to my doctor and get off the trailer park medicine, as well as do chair yoga, ditto. And the fellows who were convinced that the Covid jab was poisonous AND had nano-chips that were spying on me for the government were of course entirely off their rocker, and I'm extremely surprised that two of them are still alive.

[Manuka honey etc.: turns out it was circulatory issues and ischemia, necessitating a coronary stent. For which honey and cider won't do diddly. Avoiding gluten does squat. Trailer park medicine: That's clopidogrel (plavix) apparently. Which had been prescribed to keep the stent from clogging up. Quitting it would have killed me. Quite irrespective of the benefits to my imaginary chakras and aura from doing chair yoga. Covid jab nano-chips: Do NOT take any advice from adherents of Republican conspiracy medical theories. And wear your damned mask.]

So anyhow, that recommended extra vaccine was the RSV jab. Per Wikipedia: "having chronic heart or lung disease is also a risk factor". Additionally, weakened immune systems, doddering old age, and being around infectious hippie-dippies who self-medicate with crap like honey and vinegar, with or without ginger and turmeric, also come into play.

And I'm glad I got it.

Those people who advocate magic vinegar and honey, gluten avoidance, chair yoga, and similar feel-good nostrums should kindly shut up. And please swallow bucket loads of panchagavya, because it's potent juju and mighty spiritual. Thank you.


By the way: chiropractic and naturopathy are codswallop.
I'm priggishly pleased that I ignore all of that.
And I'm still alive, too.



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INFLAMMATORIES

In revisiting my childhood, one of the things that stands out is disease. No, not brainworms, which can turn a grown man, an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, for instance, into a gibbering paranoid loony, but perfectly pedestrian deadly diseases that before widespread vaccination affected most children. Measles, chicken pox, and mumps. Had measles twice. Currently nowhere near Texas, a state I'm avoiding like the plague because it's filled with trouble-making chowderheads. But just in case, I've asked my regular care physician to include an antibody check in my yearly series of bloodtests.

Avoiding Texas is everybody's first line of defense.
Sadly, Texas often comes to you.
Life is not that easy.

We're lucky that smallpox has been eradicated. Otherwise Texas would be ground zero.
JFK Jr. is spiritually a Texan, as any review of his qualifications will tell you.
He is the absolute paradigm of chowderheads.

Vaccine misinformation, public-health conspiracy theories, chemtrail conspiracy craziness, AIDS denialism, and the berserk assertion that vaccines cause autism. Besides being a "rehabilitated" long-time drug user, environmental nutball, and nutritional apocalyptic.
With a pet worm.


"Worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died."


The best that can be said about him is that he is gustatorily inquisitive and adventurous.
On the other hand, he seems to have a thing against caffeine.
Which on a personal level offends me.
Pity the worm died.

In any case, his nonsense about autism, AIDS, chemtrails, as well as his support for Donald Trump, are all utterly detestable and condemnable. He is therefore an exemplary Texan.

The word 'mumps' originally meant grimacing, and whining, barking, or mumbling like a beggar or San Francisco street person due to painful swelling of salivary glands on both sides of the mouth, as well as testicular pain which often occurs.
In the case of most people it only lasts for a few weeks.
Not several years. Over two decades.

There's a vaccine against mumps. Have your children vaccinated.
Or they'll end up being spiritual Texans.
You wouldn't want that.



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THE UNHAPPY MOLLUSCS

It's fascinating in how it manifests itself, but aesthetically quite boring. Unless frightful skin rashes excite you intellectually, which, if you were on the spectrum is definitely possible.
I am, but it ain't pretty. Perhaps as a nougat or caramel candy.

Sadly, there are no appealing visuals of the virus itself that I can reference and riff off of. It's dull and ugly to me, despite resembling a microscopic bonbon in its last moments of singularity and wholeness.

It's one of over one hundred and thirty known orthoherpesviradae, nine of which can infect humans. Some others affect other mammals, birds, reptiles, and, surprisingly, molluscs.
Sick molluscs? I was not aware. Sorry. Get better, little blob, get well soon.


CHICKENPOX

Varicella zoster virus (human herpesvirus 3, VZV), is one of nine herpes viruses that are species-specific to humans, causing chickenpox and shingles. It multiplies in the tonsils, then causes lesions on the skin which look quite frightening, lasting a few days before rupturing and disappearing. Then it goes dormant in the nervous system including the cranial nerve ganglia, trigeminal and dorsal root ganglia, and autonomic ganglia.
Several years later VZV can reactivate and cause shingles.

Shingles can be quite horribly unpleasant and debilitating, especially if it persists for several weeks (or months). So getting the shingles vaccine is well worth it, except if you are an antivax idiot, in which case by all means don't.


The concept of a mollusc infected with a herpes virus sits in my head.
It saddens me. Poor helpless little blob, running a fever.
Don't worry, little fella, it will be over soon.

Of course you'll have to stay home from school for a few weeks. You're probably still infectious even though there are no more symptoms and you feel full of beans.



Reye's syndrome (associated with chickenpox but also influenze and other viral infections) may occur afterwards, causing brain dysfunction, repetitive vomiting, drowsiness, confusion, seizures, sometimes severe behavioural issues, diarrhœa, and possible liver damage.
It can result in death or coma. Salicylate (aspirin) heightens risk. It is rare.

Note that that got me looking up mannitol used medicinally. Which is fascinating early morning reading. Side effects may include heart failure and kidney problems.
It pulls fluid from the brain and eyes.



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THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS

Something overheardon the bus today made me consider diseases, mortality, and the short distance between springy youthfulness and verlepte krakelige old age. "He was so young, only forty six. They found him in his yurt one day. Such a loss! A brilliant architect!" He had been a non-member of several congregations. Maybe when the non-brilliant snuff it, it doesn't matter how old they are. And likely it's not such a loss.
Leastways, not considered as such.

So of course I shan't mention my own age.

Years ago someone surnamed Patel blithely told me that it was just impossible for Indians to get Aids. That was something only white people got, Indians were much better.
Clean people, protected by the gods and their caste.

A person from the Deep South once informed me in all seriousness that good Christians absolutely would not catch diseases that they couldn't pronounce.

The huge number of deaths and hospitalizations in the southern states during the pandemic are probably because of all those confederate heathens, eh?

In the first years of Covid Indian politicians and holy men went on record as recommending panchagavya to cure the disease. A miraculous remedy, blessed, and part of the priceless spiritual heritage of the subcontinent.

Panchagavya is made by combining milk, dung, urine, curds, and ghee, and letting the mixture ferment a bit. It can then be used to treat several ailments, including cancer, liver toxicity, bodily impurities, and brittle hair. Additionally it strengthens immunity, realigns the psyche. May cause leptospirosis, and counter-act all accusations of sane behaviour.

[Leptospirosis is a blood infection that leads to headaches, muscle pains, fever jaundice, possible kidney failure, and, not infrequently, severe pulmonary haemorrhage.]

Panchagavya has been used as therapy against AIDS. Of which there are about four million cases in India, possibly quite a bit more. The jury on it's effectiveness is still out, however, as numerous religious nuts hold positions of power at the state and local level there.

It is precisely as effective against Covid as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, and considerably cheaper. Southerners and Christians, take note.



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CONTAGIUM VIVUM FLUIDUM

Martinus Willem Beijerinck (1851 – 1931) is credited with the co-discovery of viruses in 1898, which he called by the lovely Latin appellation which entitles this post. Our current president would, naturally, probably fire him from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences because he doesn't want to hear about that. Good thing they're in a different country (maybe our 52nd state ?) so he cannot, at this time, actually do that. Our current president is largely responsible for the fact that the United States had higher rates of Covid 19 infections and deaths than most other countries, because he and his henchcrowd believed the the virus was only hitting blue states and disproportionately killing Black Americans so it could be weaponized. Which many (most) Republicans gleefully accepted.
Jared Kushner is widely credited for that theory.

I'm not quite sure who came up with the batshit idea that hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin cured Covid, or that in addiction to gargling with bleach one should stick a lightbulb up one's nether region and enlighten the bowels as a preventative measure, but I'm fairly certain it was someone in Texas. It doesn't matter.

We currently have a Republican anti-science dingbat as Secretary of Health and Human Services, so when there's another deadly pandemic, we'll probably be told to swill apple cider vinegar and brake fluid prophylactically, and Paula White will ask you to send money for prayers surely that will help.

See, none of this would be possible without the brilliant scientific insights of an eccentric Dutch viroligist, who was probably a Democrat to boot.

Just remember that.

If your Tesla Cybertruck goes up in flames, it's all because of him. As well as the liberals who want to overrun the country with communist Kenyan marxists from Mexico and steal your job at the pedophile bank conglomerate, damn them all.

You heard it here first.



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KIND WORDS ABOUT OTHER PLACES

LIke everybody, this blogger has immense respect for the State of Florida. Which still exists. Despite the efforts of its governor, officials, and general populace, to wipe it deservedly off the map. Not to disparage their efforts, but literacy is still above forty percent, the number of people infected with venereal disease below forty percent. Rates of inbreeding are unknown, but presumed to still be lower than Louisiana. Neck and neck with Alabama.
Despite that, however, congenital idiocy is fairly common.
As is demonstrated by the many news articles.
About the exploits of Florida man.

It's as if they're all aliens trying to remember that they have to act human.

That said, things are going to get a whole lot worse there. They've decided to create a giant mosquito breeding ground right in the middle of the swamp, called Alligator Alcatraz. There are any number of illnesses spread by mosquitoes, but the one most likely to make a humongous impact is probably Dengue.

So I'd advise people likely to be accidentally incarcerated there or the politicians visiting for a publicity photo-shoot, for the benefit of their trailer trash voting base, to apply massive doses of insect repellent, in hopes that enough of it will wash off during rainstorms to kill every bug within a ten-mile radius.

Let us assume that the armed goons guarding the place are far too stupid to notice a mass outbreak, even if a few of them fall sick and die. They'll just assume that it's the food, which is likely to go bad within hours in that climate, and some of the staff are from Arkansas and can't spell salmonella, escherichia coli, or campylobacter. Or soap.

Things are slightly better in many other places in the red states. Still scandalous inbreeding and casually spread diseases, but not quite so hot, wet, and flat, and consequently far less likely to wash away because of climate change and a rise of sea-levels.

There are still some libraries without bookbans there.
Also, reputedly, people who can spell.



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FUN NEW DISEASES EVERYDAY

The World Health Organization has recently warned about the rise of chikungunya, which is the third time this month that it has come up in either my newsfeed or my conversations. My conversations are different than yours. Chikungunya is a virus that causes fevers and joint or muscular pains similar to arthritis, as well as a minor rash. It is mosquito borne in the tropic and subtropic regions. Such as most of Africa, all of South East Asia, California up to the middle of the state including Bakersfield, Fresno, and the Sacramento delta area, and the American illiteracy and syphilis belt (East Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida). It is not common. But now commoner. And likely to become more so.
Seldom fatal, mostly just a pain in the ... muscles and joints.

[My conversations recently have been filled with diseases, haemorragic fevers, illegal cigarettes, pipe tobacco, briar pipe maintenance and restoration, gas lines, raptors and carrion eaters, food, hot sauce, fine cheeses, and the monsoon.]


Naturally I shall not mention chikungunya to my apartment mate. She's on the spectrum big time, has a lively imagination, and the mosquito net has been hung around her bed for pretty much a lifetime now. It keeps out the mosquitoes, who love her. They hate me because I'm Caucasian, a smoker, and filled with peppery goodness from all the chilies.
I probably taste and smell awful.

There are two spare mosquito nets in the closet. Just in case.

I seem to recall being bothered by mosquitoes twice in the last year. They must have been desperate. They did not survive long.

The severe phase of chikungunya lasts more or less a week, and usually does not discomfit the entire body, though symptoms do vary. Most prevalent are fevers and severe aches. Light sensitivity, nausea, and fatigue are common. Milder symptons may be present for one or two months afterwards. Less than one percent of the cases are fatal. Symptomatic treatment is recommended. No specific medicine cures it.


There are a number of similar diseases, and the virus can be transmitted by several different types of mosquitoes.



First and second pipe of the day were both Peterson's; the first filled with Fribourg & Treyer and smoked while outside dodging traffic and defecating dogs and their owners, the other one was enjoyed packed full of Gold Navy Cut Capstan Ready Rubbed after snarfing down a Toisaan taai bau (臺山大包) with Sriracha and a cup of coffee. Because of work on the gas lines, coffee water and the bun had to be heated in the microwave.
Try to imagine what ablutions were like this morning.



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KEEP YOUR FAITH HEALER ON SPEED DIAL

It isn't just bird flu and different strains of Covid. Now there's also a brand spanking new virus poised to become human-tolerant: HKU5. From Wikipedia: Pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5 (Bat-CoV HKU5) is an enveloped, positive-sense single-stranded RNA (+)ssRNA mammalian Group 4 Betacoronavirus discovered in Japanese Pipistrellus in Hong Kong.

Also:
The exact means of transmission to humans is not yet well known. However, it has been demonstrated that betaCoV's including HKU5 have the propensity to recombine and cause interspecies transmission.

The phrase that keeps cropping up in newsreports is "one small mutation away".

You're probably overjoyed that RFK Jr is in charge of our health now.

From The National Library Of Medicine, National Center For Biotechnology Information: Merbecoviruses comprise four viral species with remarkable genetic diversity: MERS-related coronavirus, Tylonycteris bat coronavirus HKU4, Pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5, and Hedgehog coronavirus 1. However, the potential human spillover risk of animal merbecoviruses remains to be investigated. Here, we reported the discovery of HKU5-CoV lineage 2 (HKU5-CoV-2) in bats that efficiently utilize human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as a functional receptor and exhibits a broad host tropism. [END CITE]

That's all a bit complicated, but what it basically means is that as long as you regularly take large amounts of vitamin A and Cod Liver Oil, plus probably apple cider vinegar, you have nothing to fear and don't need to wear a mask if you live in Texas.

The Japanese house bat (pipistrellus abramus), Japanese pipistrelle) is a cute little chiropter found all over East Asia that eats bugs and flying insects. A very useful little beast. Fits in the palm of your hand.

Again, Texans who take vitamin A and cod liver oil (an essential ingredient in Texan cuisine) have nothing to fear, especially if they only associate with Christians. So send all of your fragile immunocompromised family members and the children to Texas.

But just in case, stock up on toilet paper, colloidal silver, methanol, chlorine dioxide, chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, antihistamines, nasal spray, and ivermectin.


If you're not a Texan or Christian, don't bother, it won't help.
You probably won't need all that toilet paper either.
Remember, vaccination means nano-chips.
And masks diminish oxygen.



Booga booga.



By the way: An extract of toilet paper with a tablespoon of bleach and a cup of nasal spray has been shown to be extremely effective. That's a fact. Add sugar to taste.



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REPUBLICAN EXPERTISE

At one point the other day the opinionated right wing hosebags in the back room were all single mindedly in agreement: the covid pandemic had been a Chinese / Democrat / Libtard conspiracy. And it had failed. Americans had seen through it, and voted the senile fool who had done it out of office. And there was much rejoicing.

All of which proved that the tarriffs were totally justified.

It often amazes me how expert they are in a wealth of fields. Medicine, economics, racial relations, constitutional law, and history. Plus, of course, baseball and football.

Mentally they're all wearing MAGA hats.

A few days ago I could hear the retired member of the legal profession whine-ranting for over three hours. He's reverting to his spoiled brat phase. But with worse habits and smells. Much worse. I can understand now why his wife sends him over nearly every day.
She married him (second wife), so she's also questionable.
But evenso. The poor bitch needs a break.
Sometime I'll suggest poison.
Instead of valium.

Booze also works. Unfortunately he likes Scotch whisky and fine cognac. So the next few months will be a drag. Not only for him, but for all of them. They'll probably eventually get used to Bourbon and never go back.

I am looking forward, very much, to the bird flu epidemic.

Which, though they haven't mentioned it yet, is probably also a democrat / libtard / Chinese plot. Ably assisted by Canadians and Penguins. And Biden's fault too. Damned foreigners!
In summation: surgical masks are commie, vaccines are bullpuckey.
Thank Jeebus for Alabama, Florida, and Texas.
No surrender! Football. Trump!
No wire hangers!
Ever.



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MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY

Sometimes I am remarkably innocent, downright unknowing and ignorant. At the beginning of this week I had not even heard of respiratory syncytial virus. Yesterday my doctor mentioned that getting a vaccine against it would probably be a good idea. Mild side effects might include achiness and slight fever. And, as I am all about not dying any earlier than is absolutely necessary, I went for it.

It took about twelve hours for side effects. By late evening yesterday I felt like crap. Soreness at the site, all-body ache, mild irritability, and feverishness. All of which continue to a lesser extent this morning, and at this rate I should be oojah cum spiff again by teatime.

So I look up the respiratory syncytial virus. Key quote from Wikipedia: "While RSV very rarely causes severe disease in healthy adults, it can cause morbidity and mortality in the elderly and in those with underlying immune compromise or cardiopulmonary disease. Older adults have a similar presentation to younger adults but tend to have greater symptom severity with increased risk of lower respiratory tract involvement. In particular, the elderly are more likely to experience pneumonia, respiratory distress, and death." End quote.

So I'm glad I got the vaccine yesterday. But I feel horrible.

RSV is most common during the winter months.

From immediate personal experience, I can state that side effects of the vaccine seriously interfere with enjoyment of one's usual coffee and pipe smoking of a morning. Not as much as "morbidity and mortality" might -- one imagines that both of those, as well as "pneumonia, respiratory distress, and death", could put a crimp on enjoying a nice cup of coffee and a contemplative hour with a pipe, at least for a while (although I can see myself wheeling my hospital bed out of a side door and down the alleyway to indulge in a puff, so I shall have to remember to put a few good briars and a tin of Fribourg & Treyer in my overnight bag if I ever come down with RSV so bad that I need hospitalization or a morgue stay -- but this is darn inconvenient. My usual Wednesday routine of chachanteng for lunch followed by grocery shopping will have to wait till tomorrow.

This cup of coffee does NOT taste as good as previous cups of coffee. It is kind of blah.
I haven't assayed a pipe yet, although last night's smoke after dark was indeed enjoyable. The Virginia leaf reduced to a fine white ash, so there was also that neurotic pleasure.


Well, at least I shall probably not be reposing on a gurney in Trenton Alley trying to stay invisible to passing doctors and nursing staff. Severely decomposing because of that increased likelihood of morbidity and mortality, with a pipe still in my mouth.
That would definitely be a downer.



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REPUBLICANS ARE A GREATER BURDEN

A recent report indicates that deaths among Republicans from Covid were over forty percent greater than among non-Republicans. Which also means that hospitalizations and longterm Covid rates were higher. Given that most Republican voters can financially barely keep their heads above the mud, and more Republicans live in states with shitty insurance, that tells you that the Republican strain on healthcare facilities and the Republican take from the public coffers was also considerably larger.

Meanwhile, Covid is trending up again.

What this means is that we really need to make ten or twenty dollar burials a thing. Currently the average cost of sticking a body under is well over ten thousand dollars. That's way too much for something that will decompose, and within 2 hours after death becomes worthless. Long term storage post-funeral is NOT an issue, no one will ever use that body again.

Just think of what you could do with that extra ten thousand dollars.

This blogger feels, strongly, that limiting the cost of funerals -- at least providing the option of shoving your rightwing idiot uncle straight into a compost heap -- will improve the standard of living of everybody in this country, as well as free up funds which can be used for worthwile causes instead. We can put an end to illiteracy (a pressing problem in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas), provide free lunches for all schoolchildren, cut down on juvenile alcoholism (see aforementioned states), AND reduce teen pregnancy (probably those same states, plus Colorado).

Admittedly that would shrink the audience for certain television shows and stations.
That, I believe, is a price we should be willing to pay.

Free shovels for everyone.
Win-win.



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CRUSTY OLD ...

You know I'm sick when I tell you that I have not smoked a pipe more than once since last Sunday, and I didn't even finish the bowl, which I had loaded only half full. It was a smallish pipe too. My smoking has mostly been hiking out to the landing of the airwell of the building with a short half ciggy from the stash of Camels screwed into my holder, a few puffs, then stubbing it out in the empty tobacco tin I keep there on the fourth step.
Two or three times a day.

Suffice to say not the best tobacco-related experience ever.
"So now is a good time to quit", I hear you say.
You sound brightly optimistic.
Oh shut up.

The good thing about Covid is that it does not work the same way as the common cold or influenza. So be of good cheer when you get it yourself. It will last more than a week, and people will passionately wish to avoid you, almost like the bubonic plague or a venereal disease. You'll want to avoid them too, because they transmitted it. People.
Folks in general, not specific persons.

A significant number of COVID-19 patients reported experiencing vertigo. Vertigo and dizziness have been listed among the clinical manifestations of COVID-19.

I am perhaps not normally among the most balanced of people.
So it's a damned good thing I don't ride a bicycle.
Residential streets would not be safe.
Screaming pedestrians.

Years ago my aparment mate described the menses as a porcupine with maracas. Vertigo, obviously, is a grumpy cat hogging the space around your ankles at inconvenient moments, like when you're in the kitchen, or in the bathroom trying to pee, or teetering at the edge of steep narrow stairs having an apathetic puff of a Turkish and Domestic blend of entubed dead leaves.

You'll see your life flashing before your eyes.
It wasn't that exciting.



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THE NUMBERS GAME

As it is, there's a serious risk that the world will lose all or most of its anti-vaxxers. Which is a disastrous prospect! No one knows why, but they're a priceless resource, of no known usefulness or purpose, and lamentably no one will miss them.
They're dying faster than the rest of us.

Of the Covid deaths in the developed world at present, approximately forty percent are occuring among the unvaccinated. They had access to vaccines, but bravely refused to be jabbed, relying instead on home remedies, miracle bee honey, holy water, apple cider vinegar mixed with cayenne and turmeric, and aquarium cleanser.

To put that into perspective, less than four percent of the population accounts for forty percent of the Covid 19 fatalities. And probably all of the miracle bee honey.

Fortunately/unfortunately, mathematics is beyond many people.

It's probably not taught in schools in the fly-overs.

Far too difficult, and unChristian too.

Covid deaths in America have remained at or above three hundred plus people every day for the last six months. Which means that well over one hundred antivaxx dunderheads have kicked the bucket every day. Eventually they will all be gone, or down to only a few hundred specimens and a narrowed gene-pool. We'll have to create nature reserves where they can roam free and reproduce.

It's not that long ago that vast herds of them thundered across the plains.



ADDENDUM 1: NUMBERS

Friday June 10. 85,468,816 confirmed cases in the US. 1,011,164 deaths.

Friday June 17. 86,216,418 confirmed cases in the US. 1,013,358 deaths.

Friday June 24. 86,909,716 confirmed cases in the US. 1,015,789 deaths.

Friday July 1. 87,821,971 confirmed cases in the US. 1,017,817 deaths.

Friday July 8. 88,547,882 confirmed cases in the US. 1,020,816 deaths.

Friday July 15. 89,453,076 confirmed cases in the US. 1,023,736 deaths.

Friday July 22. 90,367,064 confirmed cases in the US. 1,026,883 deaths.

Friday July 29. 91,300,271 confirmed cases in the US. 1,029,903 deaths.

Friday August 5. 92,090,455 confirmed cases in the US. 1,033,516 deaths.

Friday August 12. 92,838,677 confirmed cases in the US. 1,036,990 deaths.

Friday August 19. 93,625,517 confirmed cases in the US. 1,041,115 deaths.

Friday August 26. 94,171,060 confirmed cases in the US. 1,043,783 deaths.

Friday September 2. 94,730,121 confirmed cases in the US. 1,047,497 deaths.

Friday September 9. 95,224,801 confirmed cases in the US. 1,050,286 deaths.

Friday September 16. 95,645,794 confirmed cases in the US. 1,053,389 deaths.

Friday September 23. 96,056,075 confirmed cases in the US. 1,056,372 deaths.

Friday September 30. 96,385,048 confirmed cases in the US. 1,059,579 deaths.

Friday October 7. 96,686,904 confirmed cases in the US. 1,062,513 deaths.

Friday October 14. 96,940,217 confirmed cases in the US. 1,065,076 deaths.

Friday October 21. 97,185,559 confirmed cases in the US. 1,067,673 deaths.

Friday October 28. 97,423,583 confirmed cases in the US. 1,070,138 deaths.

Friday November 4. 97,729,653 confirmed cases in the US. 1,072,561 deaths.

Friday November 11. 97,990,681 confirmed cases in the US. 1,074,524 deaths.

Friday November 18. 98,301,472 confirmed cases in the US. 1,077,020 deaths.

Friday November 25. 98,562,304 confirmed cases in the US. 1,079,196 deaths.

Friday December 2. 98,962,019 confirmed cases in the US. 1,081,412 deaths.


ADDENDUM 2: MATHEMATCS

Actually, it would take centuries for Covid attrition to rid us of the pesky brutes, even assuming that the bastards didn't breed. Very sad.


ADDENDUM 3: AFTER THOUGHT

We all know people like that.
I also know one of them.
Shan't miss him.


ADDENDUM 4: OH NO!

Microchips!
Five G!



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DISEASE CARRYING IGNORAMUSES

Sometimes there are damned good reasons to discriminate and villify. And, as just one small example, it would be a mighty good idea to keep conservatives from Alberta (Canada) at pitchfork length. Given a refusal to get vaccinated.

"I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a situation in my lifetime where a person was fired from their job, or not allowed to watch their kids play hockey, or are not allowed to go visit a loved one in long-term care or hospital, or not allowed to go get on a plane to either go across the country to see family or even travel across the border."

"They have been the most discriminated against group that I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime"

------Danielle Smith, premier of Alberta

[SOURCE: Danielle Smith calls unvaxxed people the ‘most discriminated against group’ she’s ever seen -- Toronto Star.]


Boohoo. If they don't get vaccinated, screw their jobs, screw hockey, screw their crossing the border. And screw Danielle Smith and the horse she rode in on. Damned clapped out nag.

Cite: "On Tuesday, Smith announced that she’d be getting rid of Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, who helped lead the province through the worst months of the pandemic by advising Kenney and his cabinet." End cite.

Here in California we've had some experience with vaccine-deniers. A number of disease clusters years ago, both in Marin and in Southern California, plus retirement homes that were festering pits of infection, and high schools where sensible people feared to send their kids because of very real risks. There are people who still refuse to take any precautions on public transit, and do not keep a safe distance away from the vulnerable.
As well as far too many tourists from the rest of the country.
Unmasked, and blithely spreading disease.

Nationwide, in the US there have been four thousand deaths from Covid 19 since the end of September. Two hundred thousand since the beginning of the year. Altogether well over a million in the two years seven months since the initial lockdown.

Now, admittedly the rest of the country consists mostly of cavemen, and Canada is filled with funny talking savages, so no big loss there, but for the good of all of us we need to close the state border and keep those morons out. People spreading disease are the unmasked and unvaccinated. And I do not see an issue with banning them.



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KNOCK YOURSELVES OUT

Since getting medical insurance a few years ago, I have gotten several vaccines, including the old geezer pneumonia vaccine, shingles shot, hep shot, lockjaw shots, and obviously the double dose of Covid vax and boosters. I had of course read up on there. Natural immunity is fine and good, but a side effect of not getting shots seems to be a deadly disease that may kill you. Or cause severely debilitating long-term ill effects.
And please note that I caught measles twice.
Natural immunity doesn't always work.
Being dead is permanent.

What I find truly extraordinary is that most people doing their own independent "research" seem to come up with all the wrong answers. This isn't just stupidity coming into play, a very large part of it is ignorance and delusion. These people are wilfully dumb, and not soundly connected with reality. Same goes for the folks who are vested in alternative medicine.

One could indeed argue that they are all in the culturally backwards parts of the world, places like Texas and Mississippi for instance, but that would be ignoring the huge number of chiropractors and their patients in California, or the diet-quacks on youtube.

There is a cult of dumbassity in modern society that knows no bounds, because all normal scepticism, logic, or even basic biology and chemistry, don't count for these people. They've dropped religion and a belief in a deity, but the same psychological dynamics made them adhere to newer superstitions.

The all meat diet, yoni eggs, and obsessing about alkalinity in what you ingest, or rubbing essential oils on your chakras, are all sacramental variations on horse puckey.

Many people need to grow up.
Or be slapped a lot.



On the other hand, I am overjoyed that so many of them are massively taking ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine; America needs intestinal parasite-free corpses. Texas and Mississippi must be made safe for the space aliens circling the earth with the pickled Elvis head.

Go for it, girls.



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DUMB WHITE PEOPLE ON SF BUSES

It would be perfectly natural to guess that there is a strong element of racism in San Francisco as regards masking on public transit. In a city with so many children, most of them non-white, it is criminally irresponsible to ride the bus without a mask. And undoubtedly the casual racism of the Democratic Party machinery here is desirous of a level playing field; Asian American children and Hispanic children deserve the same chance to die of Covid as their white and black compatriots. Admittedly we cannot do anything about their parents who have trained the kiddie-winkies to mask up, unlike the stupid white and black parents. But if, as they must, they're on the bus, now at least there are four or five selfish white office workers to infect them on every trip.

And as far as the immunocompromised and very elderly are concerned, they are just a drain on resources and no one really cares.

There are enough maskless white office workers on the bus to ensure that sheer tonnes of the under five crowd die.

Jolly good thing too. Can't have those minority populations reproducing. That's why decades ago we enacted immigration restrictions and racialist real estate covenants, as well as separate schools and hospitals.

We wanted them to die childless in cramped quarters, untended and ignored.
And now, thanks to Covid and the maskless white middle classes, we can finally have that back again. At least the childless part. Because as far as the San Francisco politicans are concerned, people who spend money on their offspring are bad for property values, lower the tone, don't contribute to election coffers, and are just not our type dearie. In any case, why don't they live in their own neighborhoods instead of all over the city? We want to appeal to the all-American financial chieftains of big companies to whom we owe our political souls.
Little ethnic children are quite singularly useless in that regard.
It's GOOD that they can catch Covid on MUNI.



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DON'T BREATHE IN MY DIRECTION!

Observation: a fresh cadaver without a mask on, on public transit, is probably less selfish, apathetic, ignorant, and infectious, than he would be if still alive. And perhaps marginally more intelligent. This is something MUNI passengers should keep in mind.

And really, other than his mother, nobody would miss him. Even the place where he works. There are thousands more white male yuppie socially irresponsible psychopaths where he came from; marketing and sales departments all over the downtown are filled with the type. They're not an endangered species.

If MUNI doesn't want mayhem on its lines, it might be wise to reinstate the mask mandate.

An overcrowded bus, with all the passengers cheek by jowl, is the PERFECT environment for spreading a virus. And it is almost guaranteed that at least one passenger, very possibly many more, were infected and spreading. They were probably white, millenial, overly impressed with their own fine selves, and paid too much for selling useless shit.

The people who are now also infected, because of him or them, are a lovely cross-section of our society which has little choice but to ride the busses with careless dickheads like that; the very old, the young, the pregnant, and people with a variety of health issues which include for at least a few of them weakened immune systems.

Actually, they have NO choice. Taxis and Ubers are expensive.

We should probably start killing office workers.

Especially white male yuppies.




By the way: MUNI wants to hear from you! Contact them using the embedded link, or visit them in person at the SFMTA Customer Service Center, 11 South Van Ness Avenue. All the Van Ness Avenue buses, as well as many of the Market Street and Mission Street lines, will get you there. It's fast, it's convenient, it's infectious!

Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. Except holidays.

F Market, 7 Haight/Noriega, 9 San Bruno, 9R San Bruno, 14 Mission, 49 Van Ness.

Snail mail: 11 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA 94103.



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TUCKER CARLSON PANTING OVER PUTIN'S RAW SEXUALITY

Demonstrating that rightwing morons cream in their panties at every breath a brutal despot makes, Fox News bloatfart Tucker Carlson in a number of opinions he voiced recently showed that Putin is the Jock Du Jour for the American fascist resurgence. Several times he practically melted on air. Or, to put it differently, the more I hear of Republican reactions to the Ukraine war, the more I pray that the Republican Party and its rank and file rot in hell.

This past weekend I had to ask one of the rightwing yutzes inanely blathering in the backroom if he could actually spell 'Putin'. He was unable to answer. He's a Trump voter, of course.

On a slightly different subject, nearly three thousand people die every day from Covid 19 in the United States, mostly unvaccinated Republicans and rightwing vaccine sceptics. Which is well over sixty one thousand every month. That's a price I'm willing to pay. It's acceptable.

The vaccine refusers are walking targets for infection: that also is acceptable.
Many of them will die despite administering essential oils: acceptable.


What is NOT acceptable is the risks to the under-five demographic caused by so many people including parents walking around without masks in public.
Or the immunocompromised.



Rightwing lubriciousness over Putin's staggering Christian machismo, plus the continued pandemic which American society is more and more ready to ignore are only slightly related. But there is a connection. It is not coincidental that pervasive scientific stupidity, fascist ideas, and Christianity thrive in the following places: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Collectively 'The Shithole States'.
Fox News Country.




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