I still mask up in crowded outdoor environments, e.g., street fairs and such. I’ve dodged the plague for four years and change, and I don’t wanna blow it now. I just had lunch today with a friend who lives in the same area, and who’s good on vaccinations, but still got hit just last summer in L.A., when it was making the rounds there. It ain’t over, it’s just within our tolerance. 🤔😉😊
Maher is as much my Friday night ritual as The Banter Roundtable Podcast is for my Sunday mornings. And like you, I agree with much of Maher's worldview: religion, culture wars, the threat of the GOP. where the Left can do better -- but my god does he get his knickers in a twist over COVID and trans rights -- not to mention he's a flaming old school Playboy Grotto dwelling misogynist. He constantly refers to trans women as "cutting their dicks off" while defending Chappelle's unfunny stand up routines (and for the record, Family Guy and South Park successfully send up the trans community same as they do everyone else). With COVID, he was pissed off lockdowns took down his two main sources of revenue -- standup touring and his show (his format tanks without a studio audience). So his whole issue was a personal grievance. You nailed it above -- we (society) did our best based on the facts at hand. No different than how doctors performed their crafts in the 1900's and before -- terrifying, absurd, primitive, and yet, society somehow made it to live another day.
Exactly. “At the time” are underrated important words.
You tell me the best route to the store is just to go 1 mile directly down Main Street. But then it turns out the is an accident/road work/ whatever happening on Main and (surprise, surprise) it would have been faster to go the alternate three mile indirect route.
So why would you tell me to go down Main? Because AT THE TIME you hadn’t learned the road was closed and based on the info available AT THE TIME Main was the better option.
I'm absolutely stunned how quickly $5 gas and $3 ketchup has erased society's collective memory about how bad life was during Trump due to his botched COVID response, earlier elimination of the Pandemic Response Council, and 4-year "three heart attack a day" scandal delivery system. Biden should be praised as one of the most monumental leaders in US history. But he can't address everything and appease everyone in 4 years. He needs four more without Congress obstruction, and the dems need an additional 8 after that. We're in an endless cycle of GOP breaks it, DEMS tasked to fix it -- but not quickly enough, so GOP regains power and breaks it again. Rinse, lather, repeat.
Very much so. The basic Republican approach for at least over four decades has been “Government doesn’t work.” Then they break things and leave Dems to fix the mess. (2008 financial meltdown is just one of many examples.). Then complain Dems haven’t made everything perfect, and sell their moron base (and too many moron “undecideds”) on the idea they should be brought back in to power to continue the cycle.
I totally agree with *both* your first two paragraphs. Maher can be insightful AND infuriating, sometimes simultaneously. It was difficult tolerating him during the height of the plague. I know of several people that gave up on him. 🤔😉😊
I gave up on Bill Maher Iong ago. He has the intellectual integrity of a stoat, and the charisma of a flatworm. His "liberalism" is thus a disservice to all true children of the Enlightenment, as being transparently but an obvious self-pleasure devoid of animating principle.
Four years on and we still can't agree about the masks. I remember referencing actual studies during the pandemic concerning this, and it seems silly now. Ask yourself whether wearing a mask seems like it would work. Makes sense, right? Just trust your instincts. It works as well as it can and use will vary by situation and individual. Forget the number of microns diameter and techy stuff. N95 ones are better than cloth, stuff like that.
I agree with Maher about the covid commission, if it could somehow be less politicized, which might be impossible. We'll get some schmuck who starts blaming covid on white rhinos and starts advocating for their extinction, or something like that. Properly done however and it could provide an official response that looks closely at what we did do right and wrong. Going back to the whole "masking debacle", a report that confirms this simple protective measure would be nice to see.
Masks outside can be useful against particulates and pollen for those of us susceptible.
I still mask up in crowded outdoor environments, e.g., street fairs and such. I’ve dodged the plague for four years and change, and I don’t wanna blow it now. I just had lunch today with a friend who lives in the same area, and who’s good on vaccinations, but still got hit just last summer in L.A., when it was making the rounds there. It ain’t over, it’s just within our tolerance. 🤔😉😊
Yes. As was noted, whether it helps to wear a mask outside or not depends on each person’s individual circumstances.
Maher is as much my Friday night ritual as The Banter Roundtable Podcast is for my Sunday mornings. And like you, I agree with much of Maher's worldview: religion, culture wars, the threat of the GOP. where the Left can do better -- but my god does he get his knickers in a twist over COVID and trans rights -- not to mention he's a flaming old school Playboy Grotto dwelling misogynist. He constantly refers to trans women as "cutting their dicks off" while defending Chappelle's unfunny stand up routines (and for the record, Family Guy and South Park successfully send up the trans community same as they do everyone else). With COVID, he was pissed off lockdowns took down his two main sources of revenue -- standup touring and his show (his format tanks without a studio audience). So his whole issue was a personal grievance. You nailed it above -- we (society) did our best based on the facts at hand. No different than how doctors performed their crafts in the 1900's and before -- terrifying, absurd, primitive, and yet, society somehow made it to live another day.
Exactly. “At the time” are underrated important words.
You tell me the best route to the store is just to go 1 mile directly down Main Street. But then it turns out the is an accident/road work/ whatever happening on Main and (surprise, surprise) it would have been faster to go the alternate three mile indirect route.
So why would you tell me to go down Main? Because AT THE TIME you hadn’t learned the road was closed and based on the info available AT THE TIME Main was the better option.
I'm absolutely stunned how quickly $5 gas and $3 ketchup has erased society's collective memory about how bad life was during Trump due to his botched COVID response, earlier elimination of the Pandemic Response Council, and 4-year "three heart attack a day" scandal delivery system. Biden should be praised as one of the most monumental leaders in US history. But he can't address everything and appease everyone in 4 years. He needs four more without Congress obstruction, and the dems need an additional 8 after that. We're in an endless cycle of GOP breaks it, DEMS tasked to fix it -- but not quickly enough, so GOP regains power and breaks it again. Rinse, lather, repeat.
Very much so. The basic Republican approach for at least over four decades has been “Government doesn’t work.” Then they break things and leave Dems to fix the mess. (2008 financial meltdown is just one of many examples.). Then complain Dems haven’t made everything perfect, and sell their moron base (and too many moron “undecideds”) on the idea they should be brought back in to power to continue the cycle.
I totally agree with *both* your first two paragraphs. Maher can be insightful AND infuriating, sometimes simultaneously. It was difficult tolerating him during the height of the plague. I know of several people that gave up on him. 🤔😉😊
I gave up on Bill Maher Iong ago. He has the intellectual integrity of a stoat, and the charisma of a flatworm. His "liberalism" is thus a disservice to all true children of the Enlightenment, as being transparently but an obvious self-pleasure devoid of animating principle.
Four years on and we still can't agree about the masks. I remember referencing actual studies during the pandemic concerning this, and it seems silly now. Ask yourself whether wearing a mask seems like it would work. Makes sense, right? Just trust your instincts. It works as well as it can and use will vary by situation and individual. Forget the number of microns diameter and techy stuff. N95 ones are better than cloth, stuff like that.
I agree with Maher about the covid commission, if it could somehow be less politicized, which might be impossible. We'll get some schmuck who starts blaming covid on white rhinos and starts advocating for their extinction, or something like that. Properly done however and it could provide an official response that looks closely at what we did do right and wrong. Going back to the whole "masking debacle", a report that confirms this simple protective measure would be nice to see.