I haven’t written here recently (sorry, Mitch!), mostly because I did a fair amount of traveling in August. I attended my high school reunion in the wilds of Wisconsin, then a week later headed east to a family wedding in the Hocking Hills region of Ohio (highly recommended, by the way).
In the course of my travels, I spent time in six different states — Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Given that the howling over the dread Delta Variant has been in full effect for much of the summer, I was particularly interested in what I would see in my travels. Were people paying attention to the renewed demands for masking and social distancing? Were the entreaties of the Powers That Be having any effect?
Not a chance.
My high school reunion had over 100 attendees, a good result for a class with 144 surviving members. Classmates returned to my Wisconsin home town from California, Washington state, Colorado, Maryland, and New York, among other places. One classmate arrived masked, but took his mask off about 15 minutes into the festivities. The venue was a local brewery with a beer hall and the entire event was indoors. My masked classmate was the only person I saw wearing a mask all weekend, outside of some of the staff at the hotel. Social distancing? Not much of that, either — as you would expect at a high school reunion, it was hugs galore.
The following week was the family wedding; we took a convoluted path so we could pick up our college-age daughter, who attends school in Missouri. We stopped in Waterloo, Iowa, for lunch — not a mask in sight. We got gas in Hannibal, Missouri — no masks at all. Our overnight hotel was in downstate Illinois — again, no masks or social distancing in sight, and a full buffet breakfast available. We stopped for lunch in Indiana — again, no masks anywhere. We gassed up again on the Indiana/Ohio border, in a town that looked like nothing had changed since 1978. No masks. We reached our destination — no masks at the hotel. We had an out-of-town guest reception — saw every face in the place.
The wedding the following day was wonderful — joyous, raucous, with an open bar and food trucks from Columbus for the meal. There were probably 250 people in attendance; not a soul was wearing a mask. It was an outdoor event, but if social distancing was a factor, no one seemed to realize it. Nothing changed on the return trip. No mask? No problem!
Over this past weekend, we attended the Great Minnesota Grease Together. Everyone had to mask up on the shuttle buses, but once we were at the fair, mask wearing was about 1%, even in the queues for a Sweet Martha bucket before leaving the fairgrounds.
We are reminded daily the Delta Variant is still in full swing, an implacable foe, with future variants lined up like planes in a holding pattern at O’Hare; Mu is coming next, and all the other letters of the Greek alphabet are getting ready to ravage the countryside, so many that we’re likely to run out of letters eventually. Presumably another naming convention waits in the wings — perhaps future variants can be named after Kentucky Derby winners (the “Seattle Slew Variant” perhaps), assuming we can independently verify that neither the horses nor their jockeys ever used Ivermectin. As anyone with a television or a smart phone knows, the hectoring and self-congratulatory moral tutelage continue unabated, all of it fact-checked, verified, or otherwise given the J.D. Power award and a MacArthur Foundation genius grant.
But you know what? Even after a summer of harangues and a phalanx of Tik-Tok Cassandras, people are doing as they please, at least here in flyover land.
Yes, yes, everything I’m presenting here is anecdotal, but current behaviors are easy to observe and if a skeptic made a similar sojourn, the skeptic would see the same things. There will remain a cohort of those who follow every word and every directive from Drs. Fauci, Osterholm and their colleagues. Most readers of this feature likely see social media posts featuring our bien pensant betters dutifully wearing their masks and keeping a yardstick or two between them as they struggle to take a selfie. And that’s fine — let your freak flags fly!
In the end, though, it’s highly likely the Safety Dance is over, unless our betters are willing to force compliance. What’s been happening in Australia has given me pause, but mandates and lockdowns will be difficult to enforce. And our betters know it.
The Delta variant flopped, so now they’re on to the Mu…guess it’s time for more horse paste lies.
dammit bpct, you beat me to a horse whatever joke.
Twat wrote: “The Delta variant flopped, so now they’re on to the Mu.”
But we don’t live in that reality. We live in one where people simultaneously deny that there’s a serious disease circulating and ingest veterinary medications in an attempt to prevent said disease.
Who’s this “we” that doesn’t live in your reality?
If you want to take horse medicine, you should’ve paid enough attention in 6th grade math class to figure out the correct dosage.
Not only has the data to support potential use of Ivermectin been exceptionally weak from small studies, but now 2 of the studies most cited have been shown to be fraudulent, one from Egypt and now this one from Argentina
“The study’s withdrawal from a preprint platform deals a blow to the anti-parasite drug’s chances as a COVID treatment, researchers say.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02081-w
Ivermectin is a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved antiparasitic drug that is used to treat several neglected tropical diseases, including onchocerciasis, helminthiases, and scabies. The E’s are lying about it being horse medicine.
Ivermectin is not – yet – approved for certain off-label uses, such as treatment of Covid, but anectodal evidence of its effectiveness is mounting.
The problem with Ivermectin is not that it doesn’t work, the problem is that it’s too cheap. That’s why the FDA won’t study it – there’s no profit in it. How’s the Big Guy going to get his 10% of 7 billion doses at $20 per shot?
This horse medicine was recognized with a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2015 – but for humans. It was noted for its anti parasitic effectiveness but also as a potential anti-viral treatment.
I imagine the anti-parasitical aspect is what offends the E’s, out of professional courtesy, you know.
A link to the Nobel: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2015/press-release/
I’m not sure I understand these constant references to “you people” and “your horse dewormer”. Have I missed some SItD posts that talked about self-medicating with veterinary ivermectin? Some comments?
I mean from where does this pose as the oh-so urbane, edumacated dandy looking down on all the millions and millions of rubes taking horse dewormer come?
Damn, Emery, you get dumber every time you post.
The lethal injection has failed to kill off enough low IQ slobs.
Time for a booster kiddies!
Let me see if I understand this.
Millions of people are refusing to take a vaccine approved by the FDA to prevent Covid.
Meanwhile, people are self-treating and/or demanding doctors prescribe a drug that has never been approved in any capacity for treating or preventing Covid.
I suppose we should have expected it, when we saw people self-treating Covid by inhaling lysol after a real estate developer suggested it might be a good idea.
I guess the people taking Ivermectin are taking “herd” immunity literally.
Israel has the highest % of vaxxed people. 70% of those wheezing away on vents are double juiced.
It appears, the juice increased the virulence. #sad
If you have a doctor that allows you, the patient, to demand a specific drug (of any type, including all of those advertised on TV every freaking day), the doctor needs to resign you as a patient. And you need to think why you are paying for the doctor’s expertise, if you already know better.
https://twitter.com/dawntj90/status/1435348355488653318?s=12
Notice the CDC quietly changing the definition of terms in the middle of the game. https://twitter.com/alpha_mind7/status/1435017672635285505?s=21
The CDC and FDA can be added to the institutions leftist rats have destroyed.
As usual, the troll writes about the subject it prefers and not the subject of the post, but in doing so almost addresses the actual issue — people are tuning out the mandarins and doing as they see fit. And that will never do.
You get this straight, Emery, you pathetic loser.
There are 100s of medical professionals, both doctors, nurses, researchers, physiologists, entomologists, virologists, pharmaceutical reps, including 2 former VPs of Pfizer and many PhDs are refusing to take the jabs. PhDs are largely lefties, so splain that Emery. Since the FDA and Pfizer have such an incestuous relationship, it figures that only Pfizer’s jabs received FDA approval, but that’s obviously lost on and/or ignored by you.
JD is correct. Both HCQ and ivermectin, are less than $1.00 per dose. The jabs are about $100 per. Follow the freaking money!
It was canceled last year, but “Wheels and Wings” in Osceola is going on this weekend, as usual. It was canceled last year, although the numbers of quarantined are similar.
The people have wisdom. The elite do not have wisdom.
The MC/car show is on Saturday, at the airport, 9 AM til 2 PM.
The finest thing any of us can do, for the moment at least, is to make ostentatious displays of ignoring every edict, mandate, order and suggestion the rats put out.
Live your life like you own it.
Science beats snark every time.
Here is some data:
https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/therapies/antiviral-therapy/ivermectin/
Mr. D – sorry we all got distracted from the point of your post. Glad to hear America is giving Covid rules the Irish Democracy treatment.
Sounds as if you had some wonderful trips. Personally, the farthest I’ve been this Summer is just south of Rochester to visit aging relatives. Not nearly as exciting as yours.
Did you try any regional cuisine? Does Ohio HAVE regional cuisine?
Something tangential and funny …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cKkOZevNaQ
Oh! Do Ohio weddings still do platters of cookies?
Ditto from me, Mr D. Yours was an interesting travelogue through the key locations of the Midwest. And it reduced my anxiety somewhat about the reaction to if not the efficacy of the coming actions against us, the New Jews.
JP is always good. Thanks, Troy.
The local Holiday gas station had a mandatory mask wearing sign in the door. I walked in without one. Two other customers were not wearing any. The cashier had one around her chin until I stepped up. She haphazardly slipped it in place and rang up my purchase. No one in the store seemed to notice or care about a mask.
I’m still amused with the mothers out and about with very young children all in masks. Also, watched the local school bus let out four children, three wearing face shields, one masked.
Regional cuisine I can think of from Ohio would be Cincinnati style chili (spaghetti with a sort of chili sauce), ethnic sausages from the Cleveland area, and of course the many delights of the Circleville Pumpkin Festival. Third week in October, I believe, for that last bit.
(I was born in Circleville and lived there until I was 5)
You can probably get some Appalachian style foods as you go east from Circleville and Columbus. Glad you had a good trip, Mark.
bike:
About eight years ago, I attended my nephew’s wedding in Bowling Green, Ohio. My brother moved to the thriving metropolis of Troy in 1974 for a career with the railroad. I am a huge fan of M.A.S.H. and remembered an episode where Klinger met a wounded soldier from his home town of Toledo. They talked about Packo’s Hungarian hot dogs, which I learned was a real place. On our way home, we drove through Toledo, had a few for lunch and brought 2 packs home.
Did you try any regional cuisine? Does Ohio HAVE regional cuisine?
Not this time, JD, although BB does provide some examples. Cincinnati chili is very much a love/hate thing; there’s a Skyline Chili location in just about every town you pass through on I-70.
Oh! Do Ohio weddings still do platters of cookies?
Not the wedding I attended, but I hear that’s still a thing, Troy. The bride and groom decided against wedding cake (and cookies) and instead had a variety of pies available. The slice of key lime I had was excellent.
The local Holiday gas station had a mandatory mask wearing sign in the door. I walked in without one. Two other customers were not wearing any. The cashier had one around her chin until I stepped up. She haphazardly slipped it in place and rang up my purchase. No one in the store seemed to notice or care about a mask.
I’ve seen the same thing at my local Holiday.
As an anecdotal counterpoint to Mitch’s travel experiences: I live 1 mile away from the Cub Foods in Crystal. Each time I have gone there in the last 2 months, on average, 1/3 of the customers in the store are masked. For black people, it’s over half. The few times I have gone to Cub in Maple Grove in that time, it has been maybe 1 in 10. I imagine that there is a direct correlation of distance from cities to mask usage. I can’t imagine that the Whole Foods on Henn/Wash downtown is anything less than 75% masked at any time.
And hey maskdiots: Why are you not wearing goggles? The eyes are an intake vector as well.
Oops, Mr D’s travels. Not Mitch’s travels.
Biden:
“This is not about freedom or personal choice. It’s about protecting yourself and those around you. The people you work with. The people you care about. The people you love. My job as president is to protect all Americans.”
Like he protected those 13 dead soldiers in Afghanistan, I suppose.
This miserable, senile SOB needs to resign.
I’d suggest it’s far more cruel to knowingly feed Trumpalos misinformation that will definitely cause some of them to die than to try to shame them into getting vaccinated with ridicule.
Says the troll who was wrong about the Brexit vote, wrong about Hillary beating Trump in 2016, and wrong about Trump colluding with Russia.
People who take health advice from internet trolls deserve whatever end they meet.
Misinformation that will cause people to die? Do you mean like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris saying they wouldn’t take a Trump vaccine back in 2020, Emery?
Oh, not what you wanted to remember? Well, what about Fauci’s silence when Cuomo and others were sending COVID patients into nursing homes, and what about Fauci’s silence with the Biden plan of sending COVID positive illegal immigrants north? Oh, that wasn’t what you wanted to remember, either? OK, what about Fauci’s lie about the evidence connecting WIV to the outbreak, or his other lies about funding gain of function research there?
Funny, you seem to have a rather selective appetite for “truth”, Emery.