Why the Pro-Maskers Are SO Ready to Exact Retribution on the "Q-M2" Types

It's a long argument, and requires some patience. It also leans on my understanding of the PMMs (Pro-Mandatory Maskers), and how they reason.

BTW, Q-M2 people are those who Question Mandatory Masks.

First, some assumptions:

• Some of the PMMs work in high-risk fields - Medical/Nursing, Heavy Public Contact, Teaching (those germy little buggers are EVERYWHERE), etc. They wouldn't be human if they weren't concerned, and anxious to reduce their vulnerability.
• Some of the PMMs are in positions where failure to be Pro-Mandatory could cause them to lose their job or risk lawsuits. Really can't argue with looking after your own self.
• Some of the PMMs are anxious to put distance between themselves and famous non-maskers - Trump, for example. They fear that reliance on the actual science involved might put them in jeopardy of being lumped in with Bad Orange Man.
• Some are Karens - those people who yearn to be able to lay down rules for others, particularly when they can claim the high ground. In this case, THEY CARE ABOUT PEOPLE - you are a HEARTLESS KILLER!
• Some are just Drama Queens - not something new, there have always been whose primary way of dealing with the world is to over-dramatize their part in it.
• And, some are just going along with the crowd. Because going along is the easiest thing to do.

Now, the whole issue - to mask or not - is not that simple. It can be divided into:

• Masking around sick people - most, if not all, people would agree with that.
• Masking in crowded situations - most would say "OK" to that.
• Masking outside - there are those who do, but most people can't wait to exit a store or building, as eager to take off the mask as a woman is to shed that push-up bra upon closing the door to her house.And, despite the meme stating that government mandates bras, wearing them is optional (although, if the females do, Thank You!).
• And, MANDATORY masking, a government-imposed requirement, with penalties that may include fines, arrest, and even imprisonment.

That last is what is causing MOST of the problem with me.

Most people will wear masks when necessary. Cases like that celebrity who held a big mask-less party, then toddled off to visit his elderly relative - well, those are rare. Most of us, when it involves close contact with actual sick or immuno-compromised people, will sigh, pull on the covering, and comply with their demands.

Even though it's been recently proven that those without symptoms are generally NOT contagious.

But, others are scared. So...easier to go along - in the short term, for limited times.

What some have a problem with is keeping the mask on for extended periods of time. Yeah, yeah, I know it's the norm in operating rooms.

But, when the doctors and nurses leave, the first thing they do is to take off the mask.

What happens when you can NEVER take off the mask, all day, every day. Even on breaks. Even at lunch. Even when the mask makes it very hard for the hearing impaired to understand you. It's worse in many large offices, where the fad for Open Offices has made distancing yourself just not possible. Worse, Shared Co-Spaces are common in many businesses in the New Economy.

What happens when the police tell you to put on a mask? Even hand you a mask.

And, you still refuse?

Will they wrestle you into the back of the police car?

Will they do it if you're Black? If there is a crowd that is yelling "Police Brutality"?

Or, will all of this just affect the White part of the population?

What about the crazy homeless? Will they be arrested?

Or, just the sane ones?

What if citizens take this into their own hands, and attack the mask-less? Will they face jail time? Or, will their actions be excused, because the mask-less person was CLEARLY trying to kill them?

The ZMan has some important things to say about the prevalence of contagion for most of us. I'd suggest you read it, soon.

Me? I'm busy; I have to complete Medicare Annual Re-certification this week, followed by other work-related stuff, working on Science Lessons with my husband, and - perhaps most important - set up my new laptop, scheduled to be delivered on this Thursday.

So, too busy to spend much more time on this topic for a while. Or, to bother with most Social Media.

Did Texans get out-foxed by anti-gunners?

 

I can't believe this development never even crossed my mind. Guess I'm just not as devious as I thought I was.

Easy for me to say...

Let's see if I can take my own advice as events unfold, shall we?

A short video (really, honest!) about Liberty's long game + Bonus apology to FDR (gag!).

Quickies: The Knowability Of The Law

     If you don’t know the law, you don’t know whether you’re in compliance with it. That’s very bad – and it’s the state of affairs in America today, by virtue of the extraordinary luxuriance of both statutory and regulatory law. But there’s worse.

     If you can’t know the law – i.e., if the law is kept secret, or if it’s unknowable, perhaps because its enforcement is variable or its “interpretation” is inherently subjective – the authorities can take you down at their pleasure, and for any reason or none.

     That having been said, here’s Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai on that oh-so-beneficent policy the FCC enacted entirely without Congressional authority, “net neutrality:”

     “Companies can come in and ask ‘mother may I? May I do this kind of business practice?’ Even then the agency said, ‘well, if we give you advice you can’t necessarily rely on it and I can bet you if you don’t come to the agency and ask for advice it’s going to be used against you in the future in enforcement proceedings.’ So the question is where do we go from here?...That’s regulatory uncertainly defined. I can’t put it any better than that.”

     I added the emphasis.

     Note also that the IRS has functioned in the exact same fashion for more than a century. Indeed, not one of the innumerable “alphabet agencies” will guarantee you that if you consult it about a proposed practice and subsequently follow its “advice,” you will thereby have protected yourself against future penalty.

     Surprise, Gentle Reader! You probably thought you woke up in a free society.

Rebel with a cause: #FreeSpeech and the flying of the #ConfederateFlag

It started with a cartoon on Wednesday, then a little bit of a video rant on Thursday. Since it's Friday, I'm sharing both here. Like I said in one of those places (or was it on Facebook?), I never cared to wear this particular flag before. Now that it's come down to a Free Speech & Free Expression issue? I just can't help myself.

Do you agree or disagree with my premise that the flag, "isn't about slavery; it's a sign of rebellion against 'Authori-TAH'?"

What my forefathers said...

I don’t ask this of myself often enough, “What am I doing to show that I deserve to live in a country so many have sacrificed so much for?”

How about you?

Because I lack the grace to accept with serenity...

...all the downright dangerous shenanigans

going on in the world, I create.

"Deliver us from Evil, one Beasturd at a time. Amen."

I must thank Mr. Porretto for the opportunity to share my work with you, his trusting readers (fingers crossed that a few of you will thank him, too). I passionately favor Jeffersonian Liberty; passionately oppose Hypocrites of all colors, flavors, and shapes, regardless their field of expertise or station in life. If, through my work, I can show them-and-their-kind the Fool and/or dangerous, I will have succeeded. I know I'm not the best creative I can be, so I honestly ask for your help in getting closer to that goal. Tell me if my characters aren't likeable/believable or are just plain MEH; ditto for their quandaries or solutions to their problems. Additionally, let me know if I use too many: obvious anagrams, commas, far out foreign words, or am just too wordy, generally. (I probably won't ever give up: hyphenated-words-and-phrases, ellipses...or parentheticals. You can try.)

I write fiction for several reasons, not the least of which is to shut-the-voices-up :-). (Of course that only encourages the ones previously in the wings to step to center stage, so off we go again.) Many ideas come out of pure frustration noted above, which is primarily "political" - and fiction therefore serves as a way to vent, constructively.

I'm pretty quick to assess news and other information, so unfortunately can come across as purely "opinionated." But believe me, in the face of compelling feedback in the case of my creative work, or new facts about some real-world issue? I'll readily accept my mere-humanity (maybe get a little embarrassed) and change my method or my mind, depending.

You'll find my work quite different from the other Liberty-Literature out there. My theory is that I choose  "magical realism" or "paranormal elements" because I'm a bit too timid for the times, and therefore for my own good! By weaving in such otherworldly- or fantastic- abilities, my good-guys and gals can often avoid the whole getting down & dirty & bloody & gutsy. They avoid (as do I, as their "cinematographer") all the throat-cutting, all the exploding skulls, and all those beyond messy crime-scene cleanups and explanations. (Just so you know, I'm not opposed to such doings. For instance I take pride in being in the first wave of Rob Olive/"Essential Liberty" fandom; find my Amazon review here.)

The following is my first offering at the Torch. It was written in April and first posted on my writing blog.

"Three if by fire"

Part 1 of 5 - "Don't change horses..."

Yoshi Pratt bolted out of the nightmare and straight up in bed. The 26-year-old D.C. native’s hand flew to his heart. He pressed mightily, as if the wildly beating thing would break free at the next beat…or the next.

It didn’t. He threw off the now cold clammy sheet and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He couldn’t stay up. Still too many hours before the alarm would screech.

From the bathroom, by shear contrast in the dark, the mussed up bed’s expanse of pale colored cotton-innards glowed. He grabbed the top sheet; it was far from dry. He flipped on the overhead fan. His dream, like the fan on low, was still going around and around his mind lazily. Though Yoshi didn’t think much about politics normally, the pulse-pounding final scenes had been nothing but.

When it came to Washington machinations and his so-called civic-duties, he’d describe himself as frozen in time. 26-going-on-18.

After college he’d tried living at the ground zero of American politics. Had dreams of working at its newspaper, The Post. That dream died, however, with multiple rejections; quickly followed by a bailing roommate, then a near-zero bank balance. He preferred renting a stranger’s basement than bunk for “free” with parent-babysitters in his boyhood room. Now he lived just over the river and through a wooded part of Virginia.

Though he’d finally been hired by a suburban newspaper, the 18-year-old in him was still angry at The Post’s rebuff. To “punish” their stupidity he purposefully donned a political cone-of-silence. Lifted it for one thing only: the Presidential Elections. He went back under the cone after the inaugural parade. This time the election “cycle” seemed to last years.

“To torture us longer,” Yoshi’d joked.