Get it right

It amazes me how frequently I still see people wearing a mask with their nose hanging out. The masks are not fun and not perfect protection but they help slow the spread somewhat, and work with other preventive measures to provide layers of protection.

And we’ve been doing this a while.

I almost understand more the people who refuse masks altogether. These who leave their nose hanging out are not making a statement or resisting the rules. Just being a jackass.

The Cost of “Freedom”?

Someday, Americans who refused to follow simple preventative steps to slow the spread of COVID and reduce the death toll will be forced to look at the price of their actions.

Currently, the US is seeing over 2,000 people die from COVID each day. The cartoon below does around 2,000 stick figures. Each of those represents an American person who died from COVID yesterday. The vast majority of these deaths would have been prevented with simple and readily available protective measures (vaccines, boosters, and masks).

The share of Americans who have been killed by the coronavirus is at least 63% higher than in any of the other large, wealthy nations. Estimates show that 45% of Americans aged 65 and older have not received a booster shot.

Neil Young or Joe Rogan

Neil Young told Spotify to either remove Joe Rogan and his vaccine misinformation or to remove Neil Young’s music. Spotify said they’ll remove Neil Young’s music at his request.

So now millions of users are left with no Neil Young but lots of Joe Rogan.

And that seems so fitting for the world in the past couple of years. Sigh.

How’s that NFL boycott working out for folks?

Back in June 2020, when the NFL took a stand against racism and systematic oppression, a bunch of people loudly claimed they’d never watch NFL games again.

Hoo, boy, did they miss out!

That might have been the greatest weekend of football games ever. Four playoff games that came to the final seconds or overtime. All nail-biters.

Don’t worry, folks, the NFL is just fine.

Buncha Jackasses

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch refused to wear a mask in court to protect another Justice he sits next to. Unvaccinated tennis star Novak Djokovic thinks the rules shouldn’t apply to him, and when he says he tested positive for COVID he was out about in town, in violation of local laws on quarantine. Unvaccinated Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers thinks he knows better than epidemiologists and medical professionals about when he has to wear a mask or not, so misled folks about being “immunized” and wouldn’t wear a mask at press conferences, in violation of rules established by his union.

Buncha jackasses.

And these are just a few examples of the toxic individualism and disregard for their role in protecting others in society that helps drag out this pandemic.

Jackasses.

Book of Boba Fett

I hate to say it, but The Book of Boba Fett is not good. They grossly overestimated how much I want to see of Tusken Raider culture, and grossly underestimated how much crime world stuff the crime lord show should have. This show needs to be a lot more Sopranos, less Dances With Wolves. The attempt to make the ruthless, mercenary bounty hunter into a nice guy seems… wrong. And this latest episode featured the lamest speeder chase ever.

As a lifelong Star Wars fan, I admit I’ll continue to watch the rest to see where it goes. But this is me going on the Internet within minutes, registering my disgust throughout the world.