As one of your critics yesterday, I love the suggestions. I hadn't heard about WV's "bribes", and despite the state disbursing funds to residents, it's a savvy move that will open WV up sooner and probably save the state some cash down the road.
On the "Biden give Trump credit" front. that street goes both ways. In a normal America, the two would have already gotten together to encourage their respective supporters to get the shot, but there still seems to be more money to be raised and grifts to advance to do what is obvious to everyone else. That said, there's nothing stopping Biden from taking that first step with an acknowledgement toward The Former Guy.
I'd pay a lot of money to see Biden and Trump both encouraging vaccinations, together, on the same stage, unmasked. (That's not going to ever happen, is it?)
As for the mixed messages on the herd immunity point, the key paragraph from that article is this one:
"What Fauci doesn't explicitly state, but others do, is that with about a quarter of Americans saying they might not want to be immunized, herd immunity is simply not an attainable goal."
That's a lot different than suggesting that there's some more fundamental scientific reason other than anti-vaxxers for not being able to achieve collective immunity. I think that we (as a society) will make a good effort to get those folks aboard, but our collective patience is limited, and for folks two or three months out who refuse to play ball, you're going to see the rest of Americans become pretty Darwinist towards the holdouts. This will be reflected in a callousness towards anti-vaxxers catching COVID, support for businesses and other private institutions discriminating against those unvaxed by choice, and likely limitations on in-person educational participation and travel. Anti-vax folks will learn pretty quickly that their choices are not without consequences.
Today i opened my news feeds and read a story about a guy wearing a white nationalist t-shirt boarding a plane and refusing to wear a mask. When he was confronted he started shouting this is America and you can't make me.
Which is where the mask mandates become significant. Frankly i don't give two hoots if you chose not to wear a mask. However, if a business, retail store or commercial airlines have a policy of wearing one, then follow what they are asking or stay the frick away. Seriously, your right is to shop or fly on another carrier. Way too many of the "Karen" incidents have been from people looking for attention. This asshat caused a couple of hundred other people to be delayed because the plane turned around and threw him off.
As far as your "critics," yesterday might have been the Rackets best day ever from a participation standpoint. The old Resurgent website was awesome because the quality of the rebuttals to columns was often brilliant and worth following. Aside from the one troll who kept getting booted, i enjoyed the back and forth give and take. Sadly, when they ended the comments section, the quality of the posts by the authors dropped off markedly.
I could follow left wing sites if all i wanted was reinforcement of my belief system. I don't want or need that at my stage of life. I want to be challenged, stimulated and forced to think beyond the same old leftist drivel. So while it may seem like you were being attacked, i simply see it as being challenged. Taking a position only means you are forced to defend/explain that position. For my nickel, that's a good thing.
Absolutely, Bill. I commented on Twitter that Montana's bill prohibiting businesses from requiring employees get vaccines is "not conservative." In the same vein, businesses should have the right to exclude service to people who are unmasked if they so choose. And people who want to wear masks should be able to decide not to patronize businesses that don't require masks (dealing with personal levels of risk).
What the government is allowed to do, versus what private businesses and individuals are allowed to do is two different things. I don't think government mask mandates are effective. I don't think they change behavior or results. I don't think they encourage people to get vaccinated, at this stage of the game.
I do think businesses requiring masks or vaccines is perfectly fine, effective, and behavior driving. I think government's role is to encourage vaccination, whatever way they can. It's a very high bar for government to require vaccinations, though I'd say they should, for public safety workers, health workers, and other government employees. But then again, so can private companies.
The goal is for everyone to get vaccinated, not for political points to be scored. Unfortunately, I think we're in a "do loop" on the latter.
As one of your critics yesterday, I love the suggestions. I hadn't heard about WV's "bribes", and despite the state disbursing funds to residents, it's a savvy move that will open WV up sooner and probably save the state some cash down the road.
On the "Biden give Trump credit" front. that street goes both ways. In a normal America, the two would have already gotten together to encourage their respective supporters to get the shot, but there still seems to be more money to be raised and grifts to advance to do what is obvious to everyone else. That said, there's nothing stopping Biden from taking that first step with an acknowledgement toward The Former Guy.
I'd pay a lot of money to see Biden and Trump both encouraging vaccinations, together, on the same stage, unmasked. (That's not going to ever happen, is it?)
As for the mixed messages on the herd immunity point, the key paragraph from that article is this one:
"What Fauci doesn't explicitly state, but others do, is that with about a quarter of Americans saying they might not want to be immunized, herd immunity is simply not an attainable goal."
That's a lot different than suggesting that there's some more fundamental scientific reason other than anti-vaxxers for not being able to achieve collective immunity. I think that we (as a society) will make a good effort to get those folks aboard, but our collective patience is limited, and for folks two or three months out who refuse to play ball, you're going to see the rest of Americans become pretty Darwinist towards the holdouts. This will be reflected in a callousness towards anti-vaxxers catching COVID, support for businesses and other private institutions discriminating against those unvaxed by choice, and likely limitations on in-person educational participation and travel. Anti-vax folks will learn pretty quickly that their choices are not without consequences.
Today i opened my news feeds and read a story about a guy wearing a white nationalist t-shirt boarding a plane and refusing to wear a mask. When he was confronted he started shouting this is America and you can't make me.
Which is where the mask mandates become significant. Frankly i don't give two hoots if you chose not to wear a mask. However, if a business, retail store or commercial airlines have a policy of wearing one, then follow what they are asking or stay the frick away. Seriously, your right is to shop or fly on another carrier. Way too many of the "Karen" incidents have been from people looking for attention. This asshat caused a couple of hundred other people to be delayed because the plane turned around and threw him off.
As far as your "critics," yesterday might have been the Rackets best day ever from a participation standpoint. The old Resurgent website was awesome because the quality of the rebuttals to columns was often brilliant and worth following. Aside from the one troll who kept getting booted, i enjoyed the back and forth give and take. Sadly, when they ended the comments section, the quality of the posts by the authors dropped off markedly.
I could follow left wing sites if all i wanted was reinforcement of my belief system. I don't want or need that at my stage of life. I want to be challenged, stimulated and forced to think beyond the same old leftist drivel. So while it may seem like you were being attacked, i simply see it as being challenged. Taking a position only means you are forced to defend/explain that position. For my nickel, that's a good thing.
Absolutely, Bill. I commented on Twitter that Montana's bill prohibiting businesses from requiring employees get vaccines is "not conservative." In the same vein, businesses should have the right to exclude service to people who are unmasked if they so choose. And people who want to wear masks should be able to decide not to patronize businesses that don't require masks (dealing with personal levels of risk).
What the government is allowed to do, versus what private businesses and individuals are allowed to do is two different things. I don't think government mask mandates are effective. I don't think they change behavior or results. I don't think they encourage people to get vaccinated, at this stage of the game.
I do think businesses requiring masks or vaccines is perfectly fine, effective, and behavior driving. I think government's role is to encourage vaccination, whatever way they can. It's a very high bar for government to require vaccinations, though I'd say they should, for public safety workers, health workers, and other government employees. But then again, so can private companies.
The goal is for everyone to get vaccinated, not for political points to be scored. Unfortunately, I think we're in a "do loop" on the latter.