South PacificBoard

I stand with disabled people

im back after a year of inactivity

Peoples republic of indochina wrote:

im back after a year of inactivity

Welcome back!

Peoples republic of indochina wrote:

im back after a year of inactivity

Welcome Back!

On the news, every cable channel this morning: "Colin Powell dies at 84 from Covid complications; he was fully vaccinated."

Hmmm. Both left and right news media ran this. Understandable. The left sees this as a way to negate any benefits of vaccination in order to mandate masks and stop the rabble from gathering. The right sees this as a way to support those who are against vaccine mandates.

So I wondered. He was 84. Aside from age, did he have any other "existing conditions?" So I investigated. He sure did.

Here's the truth which I, as someone who has spent a lifetime as a healthcare employee and advocate, gathered. Colin Powell died from complications of myeloma.

He had this cancer, which attacks plasma cells, those very white cells which form antibodies. A vaccine would most likely not have been as effective on someone with this affliction. Also, his immune system would have been compromised, leaving him vulnerable to a host of infections.

Now I wonder if facebook will ban me for another 24 hours for "covid misinformation." Is this merely my opinion? No, it's fact.

Forgive me, my fellow South Pacificans, for being somewhat perturbed about this. I have small grandchildren in school who are forced to wear masks all freaking day long, yet they have little chance of catching or spreading covid. Free the people.

That being said, rest in peace, General Powell. Had you run for president, you surely would have had my vote. Whether as a Democrat or as a Republican. With you, it made no difference. You were a true patriot.

Noxious Air wrote:

~snip~

I don't know about the American system, but I do know it's an issue with the British one that if a person has Covid when they die, that's what their death is attributed to - no matter what other reasons there might have been. It's easy to see when this approach started, because immediately afterwards there was a huge increase in "Covid deaths". So, yes, there is a problem with that.
I can also empathise with your grandchildren - I know very well what it's like to sit through an entire day with a mask on. Let me tell you, trying to do an exam while wearing a mask is hell.

I fail to see why pointing out that the old man with cancer was more likely to succumb to Covid than other people would get you banned for misinformation. If anything, it's a reason for why school kids need to keep wearing masks. Teachers tend to be fairly elderly, and have numerous health issues to go along with that. What's more, teaching involves a lot of staying in one room and not exercising much - a sedentary job that leads to many teachers having health issues derived from that. So, they'll be at greater risk of dying should they catch Covid, even if they're vaccinated.
The point of masks is to prevent the wearer from spreading Covid to other people, not to prevent the wearer catching Covid - I think trying to prevent pupils from passing Covid to their teacher is quite an important concern. That the kids themselves are healthy and without health conditions doesn't mean they can't spread Covid, and kids are quite capable of catching Covid from people outwith school as well as within.
If you want a specific case of someone catching Covid from school: me. I'd left school by that point, but my mother, a teacher, caught it from one of her pupils; I got it from her. Your grandchildren are probably significantly smaller than I am, but just because that makes them less likely to catch and spread Covid doesn't mean it's not something that could very well happen, and is therefore worth trying to prevent. Furthermore, my case shows how Covid transferred within school can spread to people outside of school. That couple of weeks with Covid were not fun, nor was the fact that had I caught it just half a week later, it would have severely complicated me going to uni.

Having the vaccine doesn't mean you can't catch Covid. It's not 100% effective. And just because your grandchildren are highly unlikely to die from Covid doesn't mean they couldn't spread it to someone who's more likely to.

Hadn't heard of Colin Powell before, sounds like a cool guy. His death's definitely a loss for America.

Johanneslanden wrote:

snip

Eh, I’m personally… not seeing this as a net loss, as an American myself. He helped foment the Iraq War with the pointless theories that they had WMDs… we all know how that turned out. Not to mention helping to orchestrate the US’s other imperialist ventures in the late 80’s/90’s (Panama comes to mind). Sad as it is for his family, I won’t miss war criminals.

Powell's doctrine was, "If you break it, you bought it." That is, there needs to be an exit strategy. He greatly regretted his speech to the UN regarding going into Iraq.

If masks were so incredibly important, why is it that the very politicians who decree the harshest rules are the ones who break them? Including the U.S. president who was video taped traipsing thru a D.C. restaurant without the required mask.

If you catch Covid, it is unlikely that you will know specifically where you got it. I believe in herd immunity, natural immunity, and vaccine immunity. I am not wearing a mask.

If "Noxious Air" CTE's, you'll know I'm gone. But maybe not from Covid. Life is a risk. Live it.

To lighten the mood:

A certain hard-working young hooker
Was such an enchanting good-looker
There were fights 'mongst the fuzz
Over whose turn it was
To pinch her, and frisk her, and book her.

Johanneslanden wrote:

~snip

If you get the flu vaccine it doesn't mean you cannot catch it... The whole idea of a vaccine is to prepare your body for what might come. It's not a cure, they never called it a cure, that's why they call it a vaccine. Honestly in my opinion it's no different from any other vaccine and or immunization, I mean when you go to school you have to submit an immunization record, when you join the military and or deploy you get a krap ton of vaccinations I do not know why it's so hard for people all of the sudden to get their butts vaccinated, literally if you've ever been to basic yes they give you a shot in the butt lmao.

Lingang wrote:

Eh, I’m personally… not seeing this as a net loss, as an American myself. He helped foment the Iraq War with the pointless theories that they had WMDs… we all know how that turned out. Not to mention helping to orchestrate the US’s other imperialist ventures in the late 80’s/90’s (Panama comes to mind). Sad as it is for his family, I won’t miss war criminals.

Like I said, I have no prior knowledge of him. The consensus in the news right now appears to be that he was a good man, but I guess you'll generally find that dead people are easier to praise than living ones.

Johanneslanden wrote:

Like I said, I have no prior knowledge of him. The consensus in the news right now appears to be that he was a good man, but I guess you'll generally find that dead people are easier to praise than living ones.

Yeah it’s a factor of:
1. Everyone, news included, is just being polite. “Respect the dead” and all.
2. Well yeah of course the news media would love a guy like him, they were the ones baying for Iraqi blood during the invasion lmao

Holly United wrote:

If you get the flu vaccine it doesn't mean you cannot catch it... The whole idea of a vaccine is to prepare your body for what might come. It's not a cure, they never called it a cure, that's why they call it a vaccine. Honestly in my opinion it's no different from any other vaccine and or immunization, I mean when you go to school you have to submit an immunization record, when you join the military and or deploy you get a krap ton of vaccinations I do not know why it's so hard for people all of the sudden to get their butts vaccinated, literally if you've ever been to basic yes they give you a shot in the butt lmao.

I think they (conservatives or antimaskers/antivaxxers or whoever) are having a hard time for a plethora of reasons, but the ones I can see so far are:
1. Trump originally sowed the seeds of doubt about the pandemic, period, and it just snowballed from there.
2. Extreme individualism and skepticism of the “liberal elite media” or what have you. Plays in with the polarization today. Nobody today is gonna trust anything that comes from sources from the “other side.” And of course they just don’t want to or don’t care about “public good.” It’s un-American to require people to wear masks indoors and frankly it’s tyranny and oppression, because Americans have never been forced to sacrifice things so their neighbors could be safe, right? Because Nazi Germany is when mask mandates.
3. Victimhood complex. Many believe that they, their culture, or way of life is under attack from some liberal globalist marxist elite conspiracy, and the pandemic plays right into this. They might think the vaccine or vaccine passports, masks, etc, is akin to some sort of “mark of the beast” targeting conservatives or anyone who won’t get the vaccine.
4. Ignorance.
5. Maybe they just are squeamish and hate needles?

I don’t know. That’s from what I can see based on experience, because otherwise I am perplexed too.

We should give it a rest; we could debate this forever. The hypocrisy is what is astounding. Chicago is willing to let a third of its police force go among a surge of crime, but relented when it came to mandating the vaccine for teachers. (Maybe because it would look bad politically if the teachers went on strike, but cops sign a contract forbidding them to strike?) And--get this!--Congressional aides aren't required to be vaccinated. "Good for thee, but not for me." Americans are growing weary of this.

I saw Johan changed his flag to his spooky holiday variant, so I decided to make a new regional banner for Halloween. I made a bunch, so let me know if you'd all prefer something else. Maybe I could cycle through multiple ones...

Panther wrote:

I saw Johan changed his flag to his spooky holiday variant.

It looks like the negative thingy with a bunch of bats.

Republic of Sernia wrote:

It looks like the negative thingy with a bunch of bats.

I think you may be right. Loathsome bats - those ugly, hairy, unspeakable bugs of the night!

https://i.imgur.com/4PjWeBl.gif

https://i.imgur.com/iU8wZxs.gif

Panther wrote:

I think you may be right. Loathsome bats - those ugly, hairy, unspeakable bugs of the night!

https://i.imgur.com/4PjWeBl.gif

https://i.imgur.com/iU8wZxs.gif

But they eat bugs that give us malaria, etc. If anything we need more. Or a race of Bat-men focused on filling their ecological role.

Dorig

The baby bat
Screamed out in fright,
"Turn on the dark,
I'm afraid of the light."

Dorig wrote:

Or a race of Bat-men focused on filling their ecological role.

Yes, I like where your head is at. A vast race of bat-men that emerge from their primitive caves in the night and take to the skies to do battle with the flying insects that irritate us normal humans so. Separate casts would likely develop, between us and the bat-men, and their associations with night would likely cause us to grow to fear and shun them more and more. Inevitably, we would go to war with the bat-men, I am sure of it, and we would attempt to wipe them out. We humans will always kill what we cannot understand. But likely, there will be some surviving bat-men, scattered here and there. At night, they would crawl out of whatever underground cave they weathered the storm of war in, to again do battle with the creatures who do harm to us who inhabit the world of day. These remaining specimens would become bogeymen, of sorts, haunting the dreams of small children and the small minds of petty thugs, alike. Legends would grow up around them, whispers of The Bat-Man who lives down in his Bat-Cave, to fight crime and stand up for Justice and Parents. He is the night. He is the vengeance that stalks it. He is Batman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrmUk2YUm14

Noxious Air wrote:

The baby bat
Screamed out in fright,
"Turn on the dark,
I'm afraid of the light."

Reminds me of "Stellaluna," that children's book about a baby bat:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellaluna

I loved that book dearly growing up, and especially the Stellaluna stuffed animal that could come with it. I think she really helped change the perception of bats with that book, as I almost never hear anyone speak fearfully about bats anymore, especially following that plague that injured their populations so much and which raised their importance in the public consciousness.

Noxious Air wrote:

If you find for your verse there's no call,
And you can't afford paper at all,
For the poet true-born,
However forlorn,
There's always the lavatory wall.

Wow, I didnt know you were that old!
These were the earliest posts I could find, is there earlier ones?

Noxious Air wrote:

The baby bat
Screamed out in fright,
"Turn on the dark,
I'm afraid of the light."

the stork; herons of every variety; the hoopoe, and the bat.

-Leviticus 11:19

Verse context: these are some of the unclean animals leviticus prohibits

“While pounding on the piano keys may produce noise, removing them doesn’t exactly further the creation of music.” - The Tao of Pooh