My Thoughts
It is late and my thoughts are all over the map, just as they have been all day today: too much information, I suppose. First, this morning I ran across this from the Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus (50-135 AD). Interesting tidbit, Epictetus was born a slave in present day Pamukkale, Turkey, lived in Rome until they kicked him out, then lived in Nicopolis Greece for the rest of his life. Anyway, he is known to have said, “If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.” Hard to argue with that, especially these days, although it is becoming increasingly difficult to laugh at all the lies and smears and blasphemous expletives that are used as weapons to destroy good and honest people.
Then later, over lunch, I heard a podcaster say, “Conservatives believe liberals are people with bad ideas. Liberals believe conservatives are bad people with ideas.” That really struck a nerve simply for the truth of it. I, for one, know a lot of liberal people, have if I bothered to count possibly more liberal friends than conservative, none of whom I think of as bad people. Their ideas on the other hand too often border on lunacy, unadulterated ideological lunacy. That they cannot conceive themselves ignorant or mad is obvious, but I love them anyway, just not their ideas. On the flip side of the coin, all one has to do is find liberals who hate the president and they are numerous, ubiquitous if you must know the truth. They hate him because they think him a bad person, not for any policies or actions that he has done. They call him names, they despise him for his personality, for past sins which he may or may not be guilty, conveniently ignoring the fact that no one is perfect, everyone is a sinner, just look at their fair-haired idol, Billy Bob Clinton.
Then late this afternoon I came across some numbers that piqued my interest, numbers that were compiled and are publicly available from that august, bureaucratic mess commonly known as the Centers for Disease Control, which cannot control their own mouths let alone viral diseases. But the numbers are revealing.
For the year / Deaths per 1,000 / total deaths all causes / life expectancy at birth in US:
2017 8.580 2,813,503 78.84 years
2018: 8.685 2,839,205 78.81 years
2019: 8.782 2,855,000 78.87 years
2020: 2,711,648 est. 2020 *
* based on 2,033,736 deaths from all causes thru 09/24.
Please note that the overall number of deaths from all causes is currently on pace to be LESS than the prior three years of 2017, 2018 and 2019, despite the manic pandemic. Note also that those most susceptible to dying from COVID-19 are those over 80 which is statistically the same as the current life expectancy within the U.S. population. The current probability of dying from COVID-19 of those over the age of 80 is statistically no more nor less than for any other morbidity, including simply dying in their sleep. My parents died by accident before they were 60 years of age, I had a son die at birth.
People die regardless of age. This may sound cruel and harsh but let us try and get a grip on this. Everybody dies, no one is immune to death. The reality is those who are of advanced age (I will let you decide what advanced means,) especially those over the age of 80 are closer to death than those who are younger. That should be obvious, but unfortunately, there are too many who choose to ignore facts concerning mortality.
If you are between the ages of 20 and 40 your risk of dying from COVID-19 is the same as your chance of dying from playing football.
If you’re between the ages of 15 and 24 you’re more likely to be fatally afflicted by falling down the stairs than by COVID-19.
Kids under 15 have more chance of getting hit by lightning than of dying from COVID-19.
Healthy women under 40…your odds of dying from COVID-19…are about the same as dying from a plane crash.
“If you’re under the age of 65 the chance of dying of COVID-19…is the same risk you face driving on your commute to work.” This is how John Ioannidis, M.D., Professor of Medicine of Health Research and Policy and of Biomedical Data Science at Stanford University School of Medicine, presents the insignificant risk posed by the “deadly and novel” virus.
The 6-month manic COVID-19 campaign – driven by Big Pharma’s panic for profit, aided and abetted by un-American censorship from Big Tech’s Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and a drumbeating mainstream media – has reached the point where if people were told to get into boxcars to be taken to ‘Virus Protection Camps’, many would rush to get in line.
The turbulence and upheaval engineered by government bureaucrats and blue state potentates will require brisk countermeasures if freedom is to be sustained.
As early as May, this year, retired neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D., issued a warning about wearing face masks: not only do masks fail to protect the healthy from getting sick, but they also create serious health risks to the wearer – airlines, are you listening? The bottom line, Dr. Blaylock says, is that if you are not sick you should not wear a face mask. He added, “[No credible scientific study has] established a conclusive relationship between mask use and protection against influenza infection [read: COVID-19].”
You might be thinking, why have we not each and every winter, worn masks as protection from the flu? Linda Johnston, M.D., spells out that “The coronavirus is about 100 nanometers in diameter. Cloth mask ‘holes’ are 1,000 times larger than a virus. An analogy is used that a mask is like a mosquito getting through a chain-link fence. It’s actually much worse, it’s a mosquito getting through a chain-link fence with holes 14 yards in diameter.”
Regarding the question what might be going on in America, Steven F. Hotze, M.D., has this to say: “The purpose of masks is to break your will, destroy your individuality, and make you submissive to tyrannical government bureaucrats [Fauci] and Leftists [blue state governors and mayors]. First you lose your identity and then you lose your freedom.”
The medical mantra to make masks matter beyond their measure, mindlessly multiplied by the mass media, has mandated a state of muted maskism, or rather masked mutism, where assertions are unquestioned and misgivings remain unanswered.[1]
Then, to top my day, I watched the sage of New York, Governor-Dictator Andrew Cuomo issue a stern warning to the Orthodox Jewish communities who have so blatantly dared to ignore Cuomo’s diktats that if they do not comply immediately and with full effect, he will shut their synagogues down! Now, reread what Steven F. Hotze, M.D. said above.
It sure feels as though we have reached that moment when we are being told to get into boxcars to be taken to ‘Virus Protection Camps’, does it not?
Wake up America.
Just my thoughts for a Monday, for what it is worth.
[1] David Lane, Your Calculated Risk of Dying from COVID-19, American Family Association, September 15, 2020.