Month: July 2021

Data, combined with perspective, is cold water on the peddlers of fear

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COVID coverage has proven that journalism is dead in Oklahoma. Panicky news stories are spewing forth like radioactive bile, the creation of wannabe lackeys and stenographers to fascists, and are scaring the everloving crap out of people who don’t know any better. It’s the work of thugs, dregs, blue-collar dirtbags eager for a pat on the head from the Political Class. So, as antidote to filth produced by these wretches, here is real data from our own health department that, in a sane and moral world, would receive coverage. Notice that deaths are completely uncoupled from cases. Case counts are meaningless without corresponding increases and deaths/hospitalizations. Now look at the recovery rate in dark blue. Identical to the case rate. Okies are catching COVID at an increasing rate, but recovering at the exact same rate, and developing long-term natural immunity in the process. Peruse the Oklahoma COVID-19 Weekly Report here.

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Heartening to see, but do they fully understand what they are standing against? Much as I hate to say it, many of these people either fully supported the policies and politicians all the way up to lockdown. We need a movement that doesn’t form until after the crisis is at our doorstep. We need a movement based on principle. Through the use a philosophical framework, we would better recognize the early steps taken toward totalitarianism.

Digression: here is a paradox that I’ve been obsessing over for 18 months now. Let’s say, in a semi-free society, a philosophical freedom group does exist, and does operate effectively by stopping totalitarianism before it takes hold. They do this for decades, and by now, no one is alive who has much memory of totalitarianism itself. These newer generations of people look at the freedom fighters with scorn and ridicule, believing their task to be pointless. “It will never happen here!” they say, when in reality a genocidal totalitarianism may have been snuffed out before it could grow to its full potential.

This is the same scenario that Nassim Taleb used in one of his earlier books, but applied to jetliner cockpit security. If 747 cockpits had been totally secured from outside entry by a group of well-organized, effective activists, the 9/11 attacks would have never happened. The activists would have in effect prevented the deaths of 3,000 innocents, but no one would recognize it as such. They would instead be on the receiving end of ridicule for forcing a seemingly useless policy onto the airline industry.

Busta Rhymes on masks

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A better angle of the Wu Tang Clan legend speaking out against masks. WARNING: LANGUAGE

Visualizing herd immunity

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Justin Hart has been doing God’s work throughout COVID panic. Here is his latest contribution: an inarguable visualization that shows that the vaccines were not the cause of the rapid, massive decline in COVID cases over the course of late Winter/early Spring. What could it have been? Probably the fact that the virus was running out of places to go; tens of millions of Americans had already been exposed.

Inflation because of “temporary things”?

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Jerome Powell does not fit the profile of a Fed chairman at all. He is lightyears away from a Ben Bernanke or Alan Greenspan. His demeanor is more middle school math teacher than that of chairman of arguably the most powerful organization in the world. It’s interesting to listen to him speak, almost as if even he is baffled by what he’s saying. His nondescript demeanor may be the very reason he was chosen as chairman, given the fact that any microscopic change in the behavior of the chairman can trigger wild swings in the market.

Men’s street finals

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The French competitor pulled off a hardflip frontside boardslide at 2:02, something I didn’t think was physically possible, much less a trick to throw down at the Olympics. He later landed a 360 flip 50-50. Those two tricks should have secured the gold.