NoiseInsideMyHead

JCPenneys in GF spared...for now. https://www.yahoo.com/news/j-c-penney-store-closings-222814028.html

Are two dumpster fires better than one? I kinda like consuming my daily rage posts in one place.

They must have declined the cross-training for reassignment as ironworkers and welders. That shuttered construction site is a sad, daily reminder, especially given the short duration of the construction season in ND.

I'm seeing parallels between the 'one death is too many' arguments lodged in both COVID and excessive force/police custody deaths. It must be nice for so many to live in complete denial of reality. It's an imperfect world, and in a free society we must all weigh our choices, risks, and behaviors accordingly. Broad and sweeping generalizations are ignorant, harmful, and divisive.

Flattening the curve, straightening out hills. Someday the economy might get ‘em but the virus never will.

Except, many of the top universities in the country have golf courses. It actually puts UND in some rarefied air. Losing that urban green space would have been a tragedy. And for what? More strip malls and apartments? You should probably qualify your opinion with whether you are local, and whether you golf.

The hilarious thing about "partisanship" is that people don't even ask anymore, or even require some evidence of your disposition. You question aspects of the COVID response and people will just ASSUME (to a degree beyond certainty) that you are a right-wing MAGAmaniac. It blows my mind that so many people have lost all sense of reason and the capacity for critical thought.

Serious question for people wearing masks based on "science." When do the masks come off? Has any authority articulated an objective metric, milestone, or standard? Or are they just playing it by ear? Gut feeling? Wholly subjective observation? And if so, is that really science? I do not know but I suspect that for chemical exposures, there are published, objective criteria (e.g., parts per million, and the like). After industrial accidents, air quality measurements are taken, restrictions are removed and eventually the all clear is sounded. Are those authorities making it up on the fly? Or are they adhering to science? And what about when one doctor says it's okay to take off the mask, and another doctor doesn't? Is one of them being more scientific than the other? Have you even stopped to ask yourself any of these questions? Shouldn't the mask proponents and advocates be up front and honest with the public? Or is science another one of those things that only comes into play when it's convenient?

Is there any doubt that reporting "deaths" with zero context (other than age and domicile) is profoundly stupid, and can only serve one nefarious purpose?

And how many were already on hospice, or well on their way? Or declined a step-up in care altogether?

Did the article distinguish between charters and commercial flights? Because there could be lots of financial reasons to take advantage of cancellation policies that might have little or nothing to do with the likelihood of games being played?

I prefer Oreos.

I'm not anti-vax. I was fully immunized as a child and young adult, and my children were all fully immunized. I do not receive a yearly flu shot, by choice, but recognize that many people do. It has not been a problem for me, as I am only very rarely sidelined by seasonal illness. I remain UNDECIDED as to receiving any new vaccines for coronavirus, leaning toward NO if it will be yearly.

One thing to bear in mind about cherry picking data related to "young" COVID victims: Even when they are reported to have "no underlying medical conditions," the word everyone seems to be leaving out is "KNOWN." It is often reported that healthy people under 40-ish (ESPECIALLY MEN) do not regularly seek medical care, either routine checkups, preventative care, or even when they are sick. Who here hasn't 'toughed' it through a bout of something, relying on rest and OTC meds? And we all know the horrific stories of shockingly young athletes - IN THEIR PRIME - who literally die from latent cardiac irregularities. Was it the sport or the exercise that killed them? No. So, when someone succumbs to "a virus" who falls within an age group with a disproportionately low mortality rate, it is very possible that they had an underlying medical condition that made them particularly susceptible. I would dare say, it is darn near a fact certain that there was something medically significant going on, or they wouldn't have died from an opportunistic infection that their fellow 'healthy' peers overcame - often with few or zero symptoms. The fact that a condition in an isolated individual may have been undiagnosed does not warrant the reckless implication that the virus is of any greater threat to the population at large. That is the essence of cherry-picking, and it is morally, ethically, and scientifically unjustified.

I think it's high time the Department of Health publish daily statistics on ALL deaths. #FactsNotFear

Which misinformation is that? That we're human, that we're mortal, that we have fully functioning immune systems that have served us well for centuries, that this is not the first and (probably) not the last virus we'll encounter, that people will die, that until this virus had a name and a press agent 99.9% of the US population would have simply gone about living completely unaware, that lay people have no business trying to digest the type and quantity of information they're being force fed on a daily basis, that indefinite lockdown orders are unconstitutional, that civil defense propaganda from the Cold War was never intended to save lives but rather placate the masses, that one-size-fits-all approaches to public health are ludicrous, that haircuts can be achieved with minimal risk. Please, point me to the "misinformation."

You'd best get back to living, then, because maybe it's coming for you, too. Seriously, what's your angle? Do you have some morbid fascination with worrying about death, or other things that are completely beyond your control? Are you allowing this COVID hysteria to absolutely run your life? Numbers, numbers, numbers...what do the numbers even mean? They're numbers! How much time did you spend contemplating global mortality rates prior to March, 2020? If I told you that COVID 19 was absolutely going to kill 100% of Americans by year's end, at what point would you stop lamenting it and go out and LIVE? We're all on the same team, and all playing by the same rules. Yet we have this endless back and forth between people who are willing to move on and people who aren't. Maybe the doom-and-gloomers should just keep it to themselves. That racket you hear outside your bunker is the rest of us, living our lives.

Site work on northside Taco John's is finally underway. (Sign still says Fall 2019.)

42nd St has always been open for take-out, still not open for dine-in.

Thank you for correcting me. When I heard "Cal system" I mistakenly assumed it was the U of C (i.e., Berkeley) and not Cal State. No P5s in the Cal State system, to my knowledge.

Except when you consider that the NCAA has stated there will be no sports unless students (presumably, all) are on campus, and the Cal system (including a P5 school) has already said it’s online only this fall. Gee is definitely unafraid to poke the beast, and I’m not sure I’ve yet seen a statement so brazen.

He's basically untouchable. Widely respected, has FU money, and not afraid (obviously) to be provocative.

We should have adopted The Price is Right model...all projections have to be close without going over. #ShowcaseShowdown

It was inevitable that there would be a pandemic in the jet age and in the globalized economy. Modern medicine has advanced so far in the past 100+ years, and I submit we would have weathered it societally and economically just fine. It's just unfortunate that it happened in the information age, as well. Too many people given too much information and far too great a platform to spout nonsense and create vulnerabilities for people-pleasing or image-conscious policymakers.