While simultaneously wanting to disarm Americans,he arms the Taliban. Biden''s gun policy is absolutely incoherent. And, now, he is banning the import of Russian ammunition.
That will do nothing to dissuade the Russians, and has enraged American gun enthusiasts.
Biden should be laser-focused on the borer, the Covid pandeic, and the American economy. Those three items are much more important than restircintg the right of Americans to buy Russian ammo.
I'm out in the shop, cleaning brass. The tumbler is rattling in the background, and I thought I'd pull up the weather page to see what's happening. Locally, we're under a misting rain, with winds out of the NW at 10, gusting to 20. Not a big deal.
That's the radar image, and we're fine. This is still a huge storm, and lots of people are hurting, but we are counting our blessings. Grandson Quinton is an E-4 in the Guard, and he was activated on Saturday. He's somewhere in that mess we haven't heard from him since last night. His unit hunkered down in a school-house and they will be doing relief work, helping evacuees and distributing food and water until the local authorities can stand up their own efforts. From all reports, they have no cell service, but I'm sure that his leadership is taking care of him.
It looks like Ida missed us, and after last year's two direct hits, I"m okay with that. While most of southeast Louisiana is in the dark this morning, awaiting daylight to start assessing the damage, we here in central Louisiana are okay.
Belle keeps a box of tissue on a table on the patio, and that is normally the first thing to leave during a storm. When I awoke this morning and went outside, the tissue was still there on the table. We never lost power and the breeze is out of the north.
While we're okay, a great number of our neighbors in southeast Louisiana are not. We will start learning the scope of the disaster after the sun comes up, but this was a big, slow-moving storm that kept hurricane status for over 12 hours after it came ashore. We will learn more as the day progresses.
PawPaw's acre is okay, and I thnk God for that. But when I talk with Him today, I'll ask Him to today, I'll ask Hi to look out for the people in southeast Louisiana and Mississippi.
The club shot this morning, and we finished up about 2:00. Then I ran to the grocers to pick up some groceries for the next couple of days. Hurricane Ida comes in tomorrow afternoon, and we're okay.
All indications are that we are going to be on the west side of the storm, and that is the best place to be. Of course, they all wobble just before landfall, so we still have to be aware, but I think my little acre is in pretty good shape. We may be incognito for a day or so, but in no peril.
I'll be checking the track and the warning cone until it hits, but I really don't expect any surprises.
Other folks have mentioned that Hurricane Katrina blew through on August 29, 2005, almost exactly 16 years ago. A little recap: After the eye of the storm passed to the northeast, (the weak side), New Orleans suffered a breach of the levee system, effectively drowning ta major portion of the city. The flood pumps didn't work, the Democrat mayor of the city failed to mobilize the city's buses, and many people were left stranded on roofs, many people drowned. The city devolved into chaos and anarchy.
New Orleans in September 2005 was probably the last time that militias took control of neighborhoods to prevent looting. New Orleans required major assistance from the Federal govt, the state govt, other local police departments. After the debacle had settled down, the mayor went to prison for corruption. His name was Ray Nagin,
Major portions of New Orleans sit below sea level. The main tourist area, the French Quarter sits below the level of the Mississippi River that flows past it. New Orleans is a disaster waiting on the proper set of conditions.
The current mayor, Latoya (the destroyer) Cantrell makes Ray Nagin lok like a choir boy. She, however, has no excuse, because the history of the city is one where the problems during Katrina were well documented. I hope that the pumps work, and that she knows where the keys to all the buses are. Over the next 24 hours, lots of mayors and parish officials will start issuing evacuation orders, and Latoya should understand that this time,the city will be on the east (the strong side) of the storm, if not in the eye of it.
Things may get real interesting in Ne Orleans over the next 72 hours.
Waking this morning, drinking coffee, our eyes are focused on two storms, one in the Afghan capitol and one soon to enter the Gulf. While the storm in Afghanistan is metaphorical, the one in the Gulf is physical.
We all know by now that yesterday was the deadliest day for American forces in a decade. I mourn the loss, but probably the greatest revelation from yesterdays new is that US officials have given a list of Americans and Afghan allies to the Taliban. I am astounded. This seems like treason. The idea makes me numb with shock.
Turning to the tropical system, it looks like Tropical Storm Ida will run into the western edge of Cuba, then enter the Gulf later today. There will be wobbles, but it looks like Ida will hit the Louisiana coast sometime late Sunday as a Cat 2 or 3 hurricane. Right now, the wobbles seem to be trending to the east, but it is way to early to know for certain. I've seen these things wobble significantly in the last hours before landfall.
According to KFLY Meteorologist Trevor Sonnier:
National Hurricane Center now calling for a 115 mph major hurricane to make landfall across southeastern or south-central Louisiana by Sunday night or Monday morning, depending on how far west Ida gets. A southeast Louisiana landfall would happen quicker, while a Vermilion Bay landfall would be delayed about 6-8 hours. Subtle differences of 30-40 miles will make a difference for Acadiana at this point. Eastern-most model solutions would put Acadiana in a better spot versus the further west Vermilion Bay solutions, which would put Acadiana more in the crosshairs. Unfortunately, these minor differences are settled by slight angle changes in track or wobbles, which cannot be determined until the storm is very close to landfall.
It's time to check the oil in the generator. I think I have sufficient fuel. All the gas cans are full, and I have several full bottles of butane.
The National Hurricane Center is tracking what they now call Tropical Disturbance Nine. I believe that the next name on the list is Ida.
It will be a few more days before we know much about this storm, but it bears watching. This one has my acre firmly in the cone. We'll see.
Ever heard of Havana Syndrome? Me neither, till this morning. It appears to be a mysterious illness that strikes diplomats. Evidently, VP Harris had a trip delayed because of some such concerns.
Not hoping it happens of course, but I’m gaming out a scenario where Harris has to step down before Biden for this mystery illness, Biden and Dems appoint a cogent and plausible Veep, giving Biden the room to step down at a later date and avoid the National Nightmare that a Harris Presidency would be.
Things might be getting interesting.
We all know that we shouldn't use a hardware store screwdriver on our firearms. We need hollow-ground, parallel-tipped screwdrivers for gun work. They fit the slot perfectly and minimize the risk of buggering up the screw slot.
I own a couple of sets of Brownell's screwdriver sets and I think that the Mag Tip is the bees knees. But, several years ago I ordered a "Colt Set" from Brownell's. These are specifically made for the Colt single action revolvers and the clones. Playing the cowboy shooting games, this is the set that stays in the gun bag for quick screw tightening. (Brownells #354-000-001WB)
Of course, I broke on. And, it was the middle size, the one I used the most. But, I'd been watching Mark Novak's channel, Anvil on You Tube, and he grinds screwdriver tips. How hard can it be? This morning, while doing checks on the revolvers for this weekend's shoot, I decided to find out.
Take your time, go slow. It ain't hard at all.
That worked just fine. The tip fits the slots and feels solid. Now, the screwdriver is back in service and should last until it gets buggered up again. Don't be afraid to grind a screwdriver tip, guys. If it is already broken, what do you have to lose?
It's that time of year, and there is this weather event, some call it Disturbance 1, other call it Invest 99L that is forming over Honduras. It's early yet, but some of the spaghetti charts have it coming to Louisiana.
We will keep an eye on this one.
It seems that the Obama/Biden/DNC corruption of the FBI is complete. Several sources are reporting that the FBI has declined to do anything about the evidence that Rep Ilhan Omar married her own brother to commit immigration fraud.
It seems that the statute of limitations has run on this mater. The FBI finally sat on the case long enough that now they can legally do noting about it. Of course, if the FBI had spent less time looking for Russia!, Rusia!, Russia!, or trying to paint patriotic Americans as "white supremacists" they may have found time to prosecute actual crime.
Now, the FBI is simply the enforcement arm of the Democratic party. That's a shame. I used to have a lot of respect for the FBI.
If like me, you have been watching the disaster unfolding in Kabul, you are amazed at the incompetence and lack of devotion to duty that is currently on display in the hierarchy of the American military. Under Joe Biden's watch, with the willing assistance of Lloyd Austin and Mike Milley, the greatest military in the world is reduced to a laughing-stock, mocked by our enemies.
The disgraced American general, David Petraeus calls it a Dunkirk moment, but even that is a pale comparison. At Dunkirk, the British military managed to extricate 338,226 troops in the 10 days between May 26 - June 4, 1940. And, they did it all with 1930s technology.
Nor is it a Saigon moment. As Mark Steyn so eloquently writes:
It is not just that General Milley and the Joint Buffoons of Staff cannot plan; they cannot execute. Compare the 2,500 Americans evacuated from Kabul over this last week to the 7,000 Americans and allies choppered out of Saigon in just nineteen hours. Can Milley do anything in nineteen hours other than call his tailor and order up his next row of ribbonry?
That is a good question. Our beribboned generals did not lose Bagram, they gave it away and now are reduced to just one runway while our enemy controls access to the airport and allows flights to leave. The Taliban can shut down that one runway whenever they are ready, they are just not ready yet. They are having too much fun raping, looting, and murdering.
I am trying to recall a time in which the US military was so thoroughly humiliated, and it may be the Greasy Grass Fight.
I was talking with a buddy this weekend, a current working mechanic who specializes in helicopters. We were talking about the aircraft that Biden left in Afghanistan. "I'm not worried about that equipment." he said. "Without good maintenance, they won't last long.. Maybe two or three missions, if they can figure out how to fly them/"
Okay, that makes sense. Aircraft are high-maintenance systems.
But, how about the wheeled vehicles? All those hundreds of land vehicles we left behind? I asked a very experienced auto mechanic what the best low-cost option for destroying a vehicle?
"Sand," says he. "A cup of sand, either behind the air filter, or in the oil sump, or in the transmission. Either one, or all three, but in an hour, that vehicle will be worthless."
It was just a couple of weekend conversations about equipment left in Afghanistan.
Victor Davis Hanson pens a powerful piece at Fox News.
A teaser:
As for Biden, his team in defeat threatens the victorious Taliban with possible ostracism from global diplomacy as the price of their illiberality. We are to assume that in between executing women, the Taliban will fear losing the chance to visit the U.N. in New York.
I don't think that the Taliban is worried about their global reputation. They have worked too long on it.
In a sane world, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the secretary of defense would resign. We have heard for too long their careerist boasts about assigning climate change as their chief challenge. For too long they have virtue-signaled their critical race theory credentials to Congress. For too long they have bragged about rooting out alleged white supremacists from their ranks. For too long they have sparred with journalists while fighting Twitter wars and issuing cartoonish commercials attesting to their woke credentials.
In other words, they sermonized on anything and everything — except their plans to prevent a humiliating military defeat of U.S. forces and their allies.
Concur. In a sane world, they would be facing Article 134 charges for casting discredit on the US Armed Forced. Loss of pay and pension, reduction to the lowest enlisted rank, and a Dishonorable Discharge should be enough punishment.
I still have a firm faith in the enlisted grades, and the junior and field grade officers of our Armed Forces. I have no faith in the leadership beyond that. They have squandered my respect.
From the Washington Examiner:
I understand that the commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division has told the commander of the British special forces at the Kabul airport to cease operations beyond the airport perimeter.
Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue has told his British Army counterpart, a high-ranking field-grade officer of the British army's 22nd Special Air Service Regiment, that British operations were embarrassing the United States military in the absence of similar U.S. military operations. I understand that the British officer firmly rejected the request.
Kudos to the Brits! Our Major General Christopher Donahue deserved to be rebuffed in the strongest possible terms. In fact,the simple observation that "Dickhead" Donahue has a Wiki page tells us all we need to know about the size of his ego. A West Point graduate with all the correct merit badges and awards for valor,, at some point he lost the idea that his true mission is to protect the innocent.
If this report is true, (and I have no reason to suspect it is not), Major General "Dickhead" Donahue should be immediately relived and on the first plane out of the Theater of Operation. "Talents no longer needed in the Theater of Operations" should be underlined and highlighted on his retirement OER.
If true, (and I have no reason to believe otherwise) "Dickhead" Donahue has just damaged the reputation and history of one of the greatest American divisions in modern history.
It seems that an aviator flying over Rapides Parish was forced to make an unplanned stop before getting to wherever he was heading. From the Rapides SO Faceboook page.
At approximately 4:02 pm, Sheriffs dispatch received a report of a private, single engine aircraft declaring an emergency and landing in a field off of LA 121.
Deputies responded to the area and located the aircraft in the 5600 block of LA 121. No injuries were reported.
No injuries, that's good, and the aircraft appears to be intact and on it's landing gar. That's good. And, the field looks big enough that when the "aw-shit: is all over, they might be able to fly it out of there.
All's well that ends well.
The church is holding a rodeo tonight. The rainy summer has thus far set our schedule back by several month, but it appears that the the we are going to be able to hold a rodeo in the arena tonight. I'm not sure of the schedule, but the crews will start meeting about 5:30 and the grand entrance will commence at 7:00.
PawPaw will be there, supporting the effort. My paltry contribution is to the Chuck Wagon Crew where I will be manning a flat-top griddle, feeding the hungry horde. We will spread God's word, ministering to the multitude, and enjoying an evening of barrels, team roping and rough stock.
If you happen to be in the neighborhood, drop by the Cowboy Church at 6906 Highway 28 East in Pineville. The admission is free, and a burger, fires and a Coke cost a meager $6.00. You can't buy a meal and McDonald's for that, and you get to watch pretty girls on horses besides
What was SecDef Lloyd Austin thinking when he approved the retreat from Bagram AFB?
Every soldier knows that the first thing you fight for, and the last thing you abandon is your airfield. Bagram is about 44 miles from the US Embassy in Kabul. Even if HKAI could be open for traffic, having a secure Air Force base just minutes away could provide secure staging areas, depth of defense, and supply points that would be invaluable today.
Lloyd Austin and Mark Milley should answer tough questions about the decision-making that led to this debacle, immediately before they sign their retirement papers. Even after their long and distinguished military careers, this should put an end to it.
It seems that our President is taking flak from all of our allies over the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.
It’s not a formal declaration of contempt, but clearly the reaction to Joe Biden’s Afghanistan rout and especially his speech goes well beyond MP Tom Tugendhat. Nor did Biden provide the only target of Parliament’s ire. Boris Johnson had to endure a day of harsh criticism for his lack of preparation for, and influence over, the humiliating end of the joint mission in Afghanistan.
Rightfully so, and they aren't the only ones. Most Americans despise him right now.
In the photo below, a Taliban fighter shows of his shiny new M16, courtesy of Joe Biden.
Joe Biden doesn't think that the American people should have fully automatic weapons, but he is happy to hand them out nilly-willy to America's enemies.
We are continuing to watch Grace as she plows across the southern Caribbean. She poses no immediate threat to the continental US, but as we're watching the tropics this time of year, it is hard to ignore her.
There is an article over at Sniper Country that tries to explain the current ammo situation. We're in a perfect storm right now of market inflation, a surge in demand, Covid related supply disruptions. Of course, the hoarder and scalpers don't help tings.
My shooting club uses a lot of shotshell primers. About 25K per year at our current level of shooting. We keep primers on-hand to sell to members, and it's been more difficult to find primers over the past 18 months. The prices have climbed considerably. Before Covid, I was able to get primers in the door of my club house of 3.5 cents each. Now, I'm paying 6 cents apiece to get them through the door.
Y'all hae a great Wednesday.
As disgusted as I am with the Biden administration right now, life goes on, and we are still fighting this Covid thing. Let's take a look at the local numbers. When we checked on Sunday, we were at 59 hospitalized
Here are the numbers for yesterday, 08/16
Up a few at 63, but I have learned over the past year that the numbers seem to jump on Monday. Let's see about today.
Back down to 59, and that is good news.
If you are wondering how the Taliban made such huge tactical advances over the past few days, it seems that there is only one answer. Corruption.
“The level of corruption within the Afghanistan military and the government, that’s how the Taliban won a lot of this, is they would pay the commanders off to surrender a city before,” she explained. “So those who genuinely do want to fight—and there are a lot of men that wanted to genuinely fight—were kept in the dark and ANA [Afghan National Army] commanders were basically paid off in advance to surrender the city and they were left with no choice but ‘you have no choice but to basically run.'”
And, everyone is asking, Where is Joe Biden?
Maybe the Taliban paid him off too. This is an unmitigated foreign-policy disaster the likes of when we haven't seen since the downfall of Saigon, or maybe the Iran hostage crisis. And this is Joe Biden's. It's all his.
Would you like a hand-held rail gun? It's now available for pre-order. Instapundit linked to it this morning, and I had to jump down the rabbit hole. The linked article is here.
The GR-1 Anvil Gauss rifle is made by Arcflash Labs, LLC, the co-founder of which, David Wirth and Jason Murray, are "Aerospace Engineers, former US Air Force officers, and experts in pulsed power supply development with 20 years of combined experience," according to its website. The company says the weapon is “capable of accelerating any ferromagnetic projectile (under 1/2″ in diameter) to 200+ fps [feet per second]” and can produce up to 100 Joules of force, or 75 foot-pounds, similar to the muzzle energy of some .22 rifles, making it the “most powerful coilgun ever sold to the public, and also (very likely) the most powerful handheld coilgun ever built.”
I don't think I'm in the market, but some might be. This is the way progress is made, one little step at a time.
Watching the tropics this morning, we turn our eyes to Tropical Storm Fred, who appears to be moving toward the Florida panhandle.
Tropical Depression Grace, on the other hand, seems to be on track to hit Mexico. The raack is still five days out, so anything can happen, but here is the best guess today.
Belle assigned a mission to PawPaw this morning, so after coffee I'll be on task. I'll catch up with y'all later.
Our local hospital is reporting another drop in Covid hospitalizations for the third day in a row. I'm cautiously optimistic that this is a trend.
Cautious optimism, but it is a weekend. We'll see what the numbers do this coming week.
The UK Defense Journal is reporting that American B52 bombers are heading to Afghanistan to bomb a large base in that country to keep attack aircraft our of the hands of the Taliban.
“It is highly possible that they bomb the second largest air base of Afghanistan National Air Force now in hands of Taliban. They don’t want A-29B & AC-208B attack aircraft remain in hands of Taliban.”
The Taliban have made huge gains over the past several days, mainly because the Afghan Army units are evaporating. They see the handwriting on the wall and don't want to engage. I've seen reports of Taliban fighters near Kabul, and all indications are that the city will fall quickly. The pace of operations seems to have caught the Biden administration off guard and they are hard-pressed to keep up with the pace of the implosion.
On this Sunday morning, I will pray for our troops on the ground, assisting with the evacuations that are clearly in progress.
UPDATE** Just two hours after the post above, we learn that things are going even less well, and at a higher tempo than previously reported. Things are getting bad.
Great club shoot this morning. We were just practicing, but we had three (3) new shooters, so we spent a lot of time with safety, and teaching them how to shoot a single action revolver.
After the shoot, I took Belle to lunch, and we had a nice lunch at a little Cajun cafe near the house. Quite pleasant.
Checking on the Covid numbers at the local hospital, we find:
This may be a long hurricane season.
I got busy yesterday and forgot to put up the Covid numbers from our local hospital. Yesterday was a bad day for a lot of folks, the Covid numbers jumped from 50 on Wednesday to 70 on Thursday.
Today, the count is better at 64. Not great, but better.
That's a little better. I'll be spending the rest of the day prepping for a club meeting tomorrow. Y'all have a good weekend, and I'll catch up with you later.
The news from Afghanistan is all bad today.
The US government has asked the Taliban to spare our embassy in Kabul.
The US is sending 3,000 troops to help evacuate the embassy.
I spent several hours today talking with a recently retired US Army colonel abut this bullshit.
We are watching the tropics this morning. That disturbance down in the ocean has ginned up into a tropical storm, named Fred. It is still early to assess its track but while many models are predicting it will leave us alone, one outlier puts it right across my acre.
Still, most models predict it will be a bigger problem for Florida than for Louisiana. Below, is NOAA's warning cones
So, we will be keeping a weather eye on this thing, and checking our own prep plan.
Turning our eye to the daily Covid numbers, we find that our local hospital is up one since yesterday.
That's sobering news, but it appears that the local numbers have ben hovering around the 60 count since the weekend. Hopefully that means we've entered a plateau.
Lest take a look at the numbers from our local hospital, shall we?
That's marginally better than it was yesterday. It's still too early to celebrate, but I am cautiously optimistic
The National Hurricane Center is watching something they're calling Potential Tropical Cyclone Six. They are giving it a high chance of ginning up to something bigger.
Why are some very good people hesitant to get the vaccine? It's simple. They are hesitant because they watch the news, and the news lies to us. And, lies to us for political reasons. A compelling article at The Liberty Daily breaks it down for us.
The lies that the media has told us since 2016 while covering compelling stories that turn out to either be completely false, or don't pass a basic smell test. From Brexit, to Trump, to Russia, Russia, Russia, the media has been completely wrong. From Jussie Smollette to the riots in 2019, they've been wrong. They have been pushing a political agenda rather than simply reporting the news.
Anthony Fauci (bless his heart) made it political during his attempts to either save PPE for health care professionals or during his attempts to fudge the numbers on herd immunity. Noble lies, to be sure, done with the best intentions. But lies nonetheless. Fauci will lie to you. It doesn't help that he helped fund the very lab that the virus escaped from, then tried to cover for the lab, while spitting nonsense about a market down the street fro his lab.
The media have been lying to us for years. They collude with Big Tech to suppress information that doesn't fit a political narrative. For example, they suppressed the Wuhan lab leak theory for months until the weight of common sense overwhelmed their ability to perpetuate the lie abut the wet market.
They told us that that vaccine would save us, to help us return to something like a normal life. Now, the same people who told us that are telling us that the variants of the Wu-Flu are a "new game" and that we must mask, social distance, and wash our hands, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Did they lie to us before, or are they lying to us now? Can those same people be trusted at all? The Boy Who Cried Wolf is more than just a cautionary tale.
For the record, I am fully vaccinated. After doing my research, consulting with my physician, and considering options I decided to get the jab. Yet, I understand fully why many people are hesitant. The medical profession has no one to blame but themselves.
It seems this virus is still having its way with us, despite the best efforts of government to restrict freedom. Let's look at the numbers today.
One of the head magillas from RRMC was on a local talk radio show this mining, and said that beds were not a problem, but staffing is the biggest issue facing then today.
Monday is laundry day at PawPaw's house, and after I do one more load, I have to make a grocery list and take care of some shopping. I'm trying to decide what to cook for church tonight, so I can make the proper list.
After mowing the yard, I'm cooling off, clicking on some links, and I see that Rapides Regional Medical Center has been updating their Covid numbers this weekend. Kudos to them.
First, the numbers from Saturday.
That is down a few from Friday, but then I see today's numbers.
The rodeo is over. No participants injured, all the animals are fine.
I worked the chuck wagon crew, cooking. The crowd ate a lot of hamburgers, fries, and nachos. Hot dogs didn't sell. But, our chuck wagon crew makes a great hamburger. Another guy and I were in the cook shack, and a crew of ladies were in the concession stand, pushing food out the window.
Before I left for the arena last night, Belle and I put a pound of red beans and a pound of sausage in the crock pot, turned it on LOW, and let it bump. We'll eat red beans and rice later today
We're under a dry spell, finally, during August. I'm going to finish this cup of coffee, fire up the lawn mower and cut my ditches. They need it.
Y'all have a blessed Sunday.
It's economic theory, but there are costs associated with everything. What we choose or what we don't have costs associated with it. Economists assume that government tries to makes rational decisions under conditions of uncertainty.
Ryan Bourne makes the argument that current mask mandates impose unacceptable costs today that they did not impose last year.
As soon as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that vaccinated individuals wear masks indoors in areas of “substantial or high” COVID-19 transmission, you knew the re-introduction of mask mandates in liberal cities was inevitable.
It is worth the read, and the argument is complicated, as most economic theory is. But basically, now that the vaccines are widely available at very low cost, then those to remain un-vaccinated have made a rational decision and that the costs associated with that should not be borne by the general pubic at large.
You may not like economics, but economics reveals human behavior in many ways that other sciences don't.
Rapides Regional Medical Center has updated their covid stats, and this is what we learn today.
The count today is up by seven, and the vast majority of those are un-vaccinated souls. I don't know if they will continue to update over the weekend, but this is where we stand on Friday.
PawPaw is going to take it easy this afternoon. I am going to help the church conduct a rodeo this weekend, with a show tonight and two shows tomorrow. I'll be the guy running the burger griddle. Y'all have a great weekend, and I'll catch up after the rodeo.
Someone must be misinformed.
The photo below, of some non-gendered carbon-based life form seems to be holding an AK variant out of a car window while traveling down the streets of San Francisco. Yeah, the one in California.
But this cannot possibly have happened, because those things are illegal in California, right? What am I missing here?
I'm filling out entry forms for Fastest Gun Alive, the World's Championship of Cowboy Fast Draw. Zach, and Belle and I decided that we want to go. We've made airline and hotel reservations, so I thought it might be a good idea to tell CFDA that we're coming.
Zach and Belle both have "free rides" to FGA. Zach is the resident champion from the 2020 Southern Territorials, and Belle is the resident champion from the 2021 Louisiana State. Resident Champions get their entry fees waived by the association. Pore ol' PawPaw ain't won nothing, so he had to pay the full entry fee.
Fastest Gun Alive is held the first weekend of each October in Fallon, NV. It's outside of Reno, and it's been three decades since I've been to Reno. Belle and Zach have never been. It should be a good vacation.
No, really, mop and broom housekeeping this morning. With a wife who works, and refuses to retire, the housework falls on me. I'm not complaining, just saying that is how things work.
Between chores, I do internet surfing, and find that the numbers from Rapies Regional are the same as yesterday.
Still no word our of our other large hospital, but this provides a baseline. Good on RRMC!
After that, I go over to The Dead Pelican, a Louisiana news aggregation site, and learn that the demand in Louisiana for the Covid vaccine has quadrupled.
People in Louisiana - one of the least vaccinated states in the US - are suddenly clamoring for shots as the Delta variant rages there.
That is good news, I reckon. I see both sides of the argument, and of course, Belle is a Registered Nurse and a big proponent of the vaccine.. That aside, I recommend that everyone consult with their physician and make the decision that is best for you.
The dryer just buzzed at me, so it's time to gt back to the distaff chores.
I've been sleeping with a CPAP mask sine ~ 2005 and occasionally, there is an issue. Once suchcropped up last night when my mask broke. So, I went to my Doc, looking fora mask and came home with a ResMed AirFit N20 Nasal Mask, #63502.
Not that anybody cares, but I use this blog for this sort of thing, so I can remember what I got, and when I got it.
Rapides Regional has posted their Covid numbers for today.
It appears that in the past 24 hours, two lucky souls are out of the hospital. That's good news, and the overall number has gone down. That isn't a trend, but it is good news.
There is no doubt that the US in general and Louisiana in particular is in the midst of a Covid surge.
On Monday, our Governor imposed a statewide mask mandate that takes effect today. During the press conference, he trotted out some medical directors who talked about the challenges they face trying to treat patients in the midst of this surge. One Doc said that her hospital was so overwhelmed with Covid patients that they are unable to adequately care for all the patients under their care.
Another Doc said that his hospital had seen a 300% increase in Covid over the past few weeks. Which caused me to wonder? What does that mean? If he had one Covid patient last week, and he has three Covid patients this week, that is a 300% increase, but it doesn't mean he is in a disaster. It means that we need more context beyond a percentage.
There is no argument that Covid is a real thing. There is also no argument that this pandemic has been heavily politicized. Last year, the opposition used it to attack President Trump and used it to modify voting procedures to affect the election. They are now in charge, and have continued to use it to advance their domestic agenda. It's all Covid all the time with these people.
As in all things political, there will be a backlash. There always is. The sad part is that many of us look on the Covid pandemic not so much as a medical issue, but as a political issue. I blame the medical community for making it a political issue. Because they have not pushed back when the politicians used the issue to further political goals. Which means that generally I now no longer trust the medical community. That's a shame, but they did it to themselves.
One bright spot may be a local hospital, who is now publishing raw numbers daily. They are telling us how many Covid patients they have each day. This is important, because transparency will reestablish trust.
Hooray for Rapides Regional. Now, if the other large hospitals get on board, we can assess the problem for ourselves.
It seems that there is another variant of the Wu-Flu coming. First identified in Peru, it is spreading across South America. The Lambda variant, and it appears to be resistant to the Covid vaccine.
The Lambda variant of the coronavirus, first identified in Peru and now spreading in South America, is highly infectious and more resistant to vaccines than the original version of the virus the emerged from Wuhan, China
Oh, joy!
That's the message that our petty tyrant, John Bel Edwards is pushing with his new mask mandate. It seems that the Delta variant of Covid-19 is going to kill us all, and the only thing John Bell can think of is to try and force us to wear Covid-coozies.
He did bring in a bunch of medical professionals to tell us how absolutely game-changing the Delta variant is. They also told us that they were swamped, short-staffed, and exhausted they are. Yeah, that's what happens in a pandemic, and I salute the people in the wards and working the floors. But, I don't feel sorry for hospital administrators. We are now 18 months into this thing, and they should be planning a way out of oit. An organization cannot work at crisis level long-term.
I have argued before that the biggest problem with the medical community today is the depth of involvement with the government. If I were a hospital administrator, that would be one of my first priorities. But, they made their choice, let them live with it.
Still, Louisiana is again under a mask mandate.
After 18 months of a global pandemic, there is a huge data set available to people so that they can make informed decisions. That is a good thing. If we are implored to :follow the science" then we have the opportunity to do exactly that. There is a new MIT study out that examines the science behind the problem of vaccine hesitance and finds that the skeptics are both informed and rational.
But a study done at MIT showed that a substantial portion of public-health skepticism was highly informed, scientifically literate, and sophisticated in the use of data. Skeptics used the same data sets as those with the orthodox views on public health.
You can read the MIT article here.
We can use data to draw conclusions. The government publishes data that we use. Two things can be rue at the same time. For example:
Data shows that Covid kills people. That is true. The same data also shows that it kills a tiny percentage of people who it infects. Less than one-tenth of one percent. That is also true.
Pubic health authorities tell us that the vaccine is safe and effective. That may be true. But, there have been no long-term studies on the possible effects of the vaccine in ten or twenty years. That is also true. We will know in twenty years, but anyone who tells you differently is simply spit-balling. We don't know that yet.
It does't help to characterize anti-vaccers or anti-maskers as rubes or illogical, or misinformed..
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky Says We Just Need Two Weeks to Stop the Delta Variant.
Two weeks, huh? Where have we heard this before? I seem to recall in my deep memory that we were supposed to slow the spread of the Covid plague in fourteen days. Does anyone else remember that? How did that work out, I can't recall?
Oh, yeah! We're over 500 days into that disaster, and still trembling from the after-shocks. A crushed economy, staggering loss of personal freedom, setting education back a decade, increased mental illness, a wrecked election, the list goes on and on. That "Fourteen days to slow the spread" was in unbridled disaster for most Americans. Anyone who thinks that we should repeat that disaster is demented, evil, and out of touch withreality.
Imagine where we might be if they hadn't lied to us for the past 18 months.
