Next Step: Prohibiting Masks?

We’re in the second week of the Xi Unicorn Omicron variant crisis, and so far, things look pretty good. By pandemic standards. A low bar to clear.

Is it okay to joke about coronavirus? There must be someone out there who is making a career of being offended by covid jokes. There has to be a “coronavirus community.”

So far, covid hasn’t turned out to be like AIDS. You can joke about cancer, diabetes, blindness, amputations, and all venereal diseases other than AIDS, but AIDS jokes are like people who won’t wear masks; they do not fly. AIDS sufferers are treated like heroes, and they even have a strange monument in the form of a quilt, but if you get herpes, people just make fun of you. We live in a world where humor related to a behavior-driven venereal disease is treated like blasphemy, but actual blasphemy is a staple of celebrated comedians.

“MY GRAMMY DIED FROM COVID! SHAME ON YOU!” Hmm. My mother, uncle, and aunt died from cancer, my sister and dad survived cancer, and I still make cancer jokes. Other people’s cancer jokes don’t offend me at all. I knew a guy who was dying of cancer, and he made cancer jokes during the process.

I haven’t noticed much sanctimony related to covid humor. I hope my perception is correct, but even if it’s not, I plan to keep my sense of humor while respecting your right to choose not to have one.

“Respect” is not really the correct word.

Let’s see. Omicron is spreading quickly, and scientists expect it to overtake Delta. So far, only mild cases have been recorded. That sounds like good news. We have been cautioned not to assume Omicron is milder than Delta, but within two or three weeks, the truth will be obvious. Here’s hoping we don’t see death spikes.

I saw that about 100 kids in South Africa had been hospitalized. That sounded bad. In the US, covid barely affects kids, and hospitalizations are very rare. Today I read that the South African children have mild cases. Why are they being hospitalized? Beats me. Quarantine? An abundance of caution? Anyway, the mild-symptom theory is still holding up, but it looks like Omicron doesn’t spare children the way Delta does. It appears lots of kids will catch it and become symptomatic, but we shouldn’t expect severe cases in children.

Hope that’s right. Imagine what life will be like if we start seeing waves of children with tubes down their throats.

It has become obvious that vaccines have no or nearly no effect on Omicron. Omicron is causing high-percentage transmissions among groups with high vaccination rates. That can’t happen when vaccines work. Maybe science can produce an Omicron vaccine, but until it does, don’t expect your old shot to do anything except, perhaps, make your symptoms less severe. Given the facts we have heard so far, with Omicron, such help may not even be needed.

Idiotic travel bans are still increasing. Zambia is now in the crosshairs. Countries that have thousands of cases per day are afraid to admit citizens of countries that have one or two dozen per day. Rhodah and I were hoping to go to France and the Netherlands, but France just slapped a quarantine mandate on Zambians, and I believe the Netherlands is currently banning them.

Day before yesterday, I mentioned the then-little-discussed possibility that Omicron might turn out to be nature’s vaccine, infecting huge numbers of people with a mild illness that would prevent them from having serious cases of a dangerous variant. Now another interesting thought has occurred to me: if Omicron turns out to be a godsend that prevents millions of deaths, will countries start imposing Bizarro travel bans? Will they start asking people from Omicron areas to fly in and spread the helpful variant? Will masks be outlawed?

It might be a great idea. Many people hate vaccines, human beings may never comply in numbers that make sense, and vaccines work poorly against Delta and show no sign of preventing Omicron infections. On the other hand, anti-vaxxers can’t prevent themselves from getting Omicron, which may act as a vaccine against severe covid. Vax-worshipers might start to see Omicron as an ally that can accomplish what their hysterical, irrational, fact-ignoring authoritarianism can’t do: it could sweep through countries and give just about everyone helpful antibodies.

If Omicron can do what St. Anthony of Fauci can’t, why not encourage the spread? It would save a large number of lives while restoring peace. Without a scary variant to be afraid of, the mask and vaccine Gestapo would no longer have any reason to torment people, so the anti-fascist movement (the real one, not Antifa) would have less motivation to protest.

It looks like a moot question, because Omicron doesn’t look like it will pay any attention to our plans. It appears to be poised to spread regardless of what man chooses to do, so my best guess is that by mid-January, we will know whether Omicron is a friend or enemy. By then, it should have spread so well we should have all the data we need.

Whatever happens, we know one thing for sure. Chris Cuomo won’t be reporting on it. I am taking the high road with regard to Corleone jokes.

I would say I was shocked that someone with Cuomo’s intellectual and ethical deficits was ever hired, but that would be ridiculous. This is the press we’re talking about. If government vans ever go around kidnapping brilliant people to crack Chinese codes and improve hypersonic technology, you will never see one stop in front of CNN, the big three, or Fox.

I was surprised to see CNN’s harsh report on Cuomo. After covering for him, they changed course and let him have it. They didn’t mince words. A conservative couldn’t have done better.

It makes sense, though. Why did CNN hire him in the first place? Because they thought he was the next Edward R. Murrow? Of course not. They knew he was inept even by journalist standards. Like Don Lemon, he was hired for what he was, not what he could do. He was the son of a governor and the brother of a governor. He was a nepotism hire. Either his brother and dad pressured employers to advance his career, or companies hired him to curry favor with his family and reward the Cuomos for being politically correct.

People who work with nepotism hires build up resentment, even if they support their hiring in a sort of realpolitik way. It had to burn a lot of CNN staffers, seeing Cuomo prove over and over again that he was incompetent while raking in millions they would never have the chance to earn. Once Andrew was gone, they must have realized they no longer had to maintain the farce. Some of them must have seen Chris’s fall as a welcome opportunity to toss an embarrassing son of privilege.

Now CNN can gain social credit while disposing of an embarrassing mishire and, in all likelihood, promoting someone who will be better for their ratings.

Cuomo’s Twitter account still boasts that he’s a CNN anchor and promotes the show he used to host back when he was employed. Wonder how long he’ll take to change it.

Speaking of social credit, it looks like AOC can’t get enough. She made a bizarre, mysterious remark to the effect that the flash looting epidemic didn’t seem to exist. Her claim was so crazy, the Walgreen’s corporation used its Twitter account to debunk it. That’s really something.

Ordinarily, corporations want to seem as hyperwokeded as possible. For some reason, they labor under the delusion that catering to far-left extremists will please the public. Half of America voted for Donald Trump, so I question the logic. Anyway, somebody at Walgreen’s must be getting tired of seeing minority-area stores close due to unprofitability caused by looters.

I always talk about the Jewish legends of Sodom and Gomorrah, which say the cities were known for shoplifting mobs. Here is a passage from Legends of the Jews, a book which contains the material I refer to:

The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and the three other cities of the plain were sinful and godless. In their country there was an extensive vale, where they foregathered annually with their wives and their children and all belonging to them, to celebrate a feast lasting several days and consisting of the most revolting orgies. If a stranger merchant passed through their territory, he was besieged by them all, big and little alike, and robbed of whatever he possessed. Each one appropriated a bagatelle, until the traveller was stripped bare. If the victim ventured to remonstrate with one or another, he would show him that he had taken a mere trifle, not worth talking about. And the end was that they hounded him from the city.

This stuff comes from ancient Jewish writings which are known to contain gossip and untruths, but even histories which are largely corrupt usually contain a lot of accurate information. Think about it: even the most dishonest CNN story is probably 90% true. A lot of the Koran is probably true. I think the passage above is true. The parallels to our time are too strong to be coincidental.

The same book says the Sodomites eventually passed a law saying all visitors were to be gang-raped. There are American and Canadian cities where such treatment doesn’t seem impossible. They already have parades featuring completely nude men, and sex acts take place in the streets. The jump to raping strangers isn’t that big, and as a group, sexual deviants have a massive victim complex. Historically, such complexes have been used to justify horrific cruelty. It looks like a guy in Wisconsin just used one to justify killing 6 people with his car.

The book says the angels God sent to examine the city were inclined to recommend sparing it until the rape gang mustered. It also mentions gang looting as one of the sins that provoked the flood.

My personal take on AOC is that she is severely demonized. Her election was improbable, given her background, and it’s hard to find a natural explanation for the speed of her rise to power. Apart from that, she has those crazy eyes. She even looks demonized.

Things look bad for the world, but I’m not worried about myself. I keep getting indications I will be fine. Example: my wife just had a dream. She was walking north on a road, and she was with a lady who prays for people and prophesies. A group of black-and-white spotted cattle came walking down the road from the north. They were large, fat, healthy cattle. One of them broke from the herd, ran ahead of it, hugged the lady my wife was with, and then hugged my wife. It was thrilled to see them.

In the Bible, a pharaoh had a dream about fat cattle, and they represented years of prosperity. The coloring of the cattle in my wife’s dream suggests they were dairy cattle, not beef cattle. I never thought about it until today, but there aren’t any major beef cattle breeds that generally have black and white spots. You can only kill a beef cow once, but dairy cattle are reliable long-term providers. They would seem to represent sources of help that provide continuously. A cow gives milk every day.

The pharaoh also dreamed of skinny cows that represented years of famine. My wife didn’t see any of those.

Maybe the cattle represent the years of the tribulation, during which certain believers will be in heaven celebrating the marriage of Jesus.

I look forward to having my curiosity about the Omicron variant settled. I hope travel restrictions loosen soon, but humanity is not known for its collective common sense.