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ShazzieB

ShazzieB's Journal
ShazzieB's Journal
August 27, 2021

Oh, I agree with that!

Sean Spicer and Sarah Sanders were both put in impossible situations, and their discomfort was palpable.

Kayleigh was the exception. An obvious sociopath with no conscience whatsoever, she was in her element, defending someone just like her!

I hated her more than I hated the other two put together, for just that reason. They were despicable, but also pitiable in a way. Kayleigh, otoh, was a snake. A totally cold-blooded, extremely dangerous and venomous snake, and the only pity she inspired in me was for those who come into contact with her.

August 27, 2021

Some "views" do not deserve respect.

That's just the god's honest truth. Where the hell did this b.s. come from that all "views" are equally valid? That's a rhetorical question, but come the fuck on.

I can in theory "respect" another person's right to have a differing view, but what that view is based on MATTERS. If there is a sound factual basis for it, I will respect it, inasmuch as I respect sound facts. If it's just a personal opinion, based on someone's personal biases or some knee-jerk emotional reaction that is unsupported by facts, I am under absolutely no obligation to accord it a full measure of respect.

And when lives are at stake, as with covid, facts are the gold standard. I completely reject the idea that a view that is contrary to scientifically established facts is deserving of respect.

I can be respectful of a fellow human being and their right to held whatever view they like without respecting any views that are non fact‐-based and contrary to science. If someone with such non fact-based views is insulted or threatened by my reaction to those views, I would suggest that they step back and ask themselves why they are so defensive.

All of that is admittedly easy for me to say, since I don't have any maskholes or antivaxxers among my nearest and dearest, and my heart aches for those who do. But when I hear of a person being extremely angry about their "views" not being "respected," I can't help but wonder where all that defensiveness is coming from and question whether they are really as confident in those "views" as they claim.

August 26, 2021

Has the osprey family friends the coop (so to speak)?

Just wondering, since there haven't been any pics in a few days, if they might have taken off for South America by now.

If so, I'll miss them, but it's great knowing that all these pics are here to enjoy any time we want.

August 25, 2021

I was afraid to watch this at first.

Spoiler alert: This post is for anyone else who might wondering whether to watch. Don't read this if you haven't watched yet and don't Iike "spoilers."

I was afraid to watch, because I couldn't tell what it was going to show or if it would exceed my personal tolerance for certain kinds of images. We all have our own individual triggers and our own individual thresholds of what we can handle, and I know mine are lower than some. So sue me. It's how I'm wired.

I can tolerate a lot of things a lot better if I know what's coming, but when I see a phrase like "gut-wrenching," my panic reflexes kick in, rather like a phobia reaction. In this case, I read all the comments with my pulse racing, all sorts of terrifying images flying through my head. (The imagination has a "mind" of its own.)

Finally, my curiosity got the better of me. I looked at the image of a tight closeup of a woman's face and decided to start watching, ready to stop the video at any moment if necessary. Here is what I saw...

***SPOILERS START HERE***

To my relief, the only visuals, besides the woman talking at the beginning, are words on a black background, interspersed with completely black screens. Besides the woman talking, all you here is the beeping of an alarm. The video carries a powerful message, and the beeping of the alarm is hard to listen to, but easy to silence. (I had to turn off the sound myself, because it was freaking my cat out. 😄 But there are NO graphic images of any kind, and I had no trouble watching it. The video carries a powerful message, but the viewer is not confronted with any horrifying images.

As I said before, we all have our own individual triggers and thresholds. Some of us approach certain kinds of "scary" material with a lot of trepidation, because we know how such things affect us. If anyone reading this is trying to decide whether or not this video is "safe" for them to watch, I hope this information will be helpful.

August 21, 2021

I think full FDA approval is going to make a real difference.

From what I've read, a lot of employers, including health care providers, have been reluctant to mandate vaccination prior to full FDA approval. Once that excuse no longer exists, we'll soon find out who means business. At that point, I predict that we will see more and more vaccine mandates for employment, use of public facilities, etclb.

Of course, there will be some holdouts who have been using FDA approval as an excuse to avoid enacting mandates that they really don't want to have to enforce, but we'll find out who those are as well. And as vaccination becomes a requirement for more and more things, the antivaxx diehards will find that they've painted themselves into a corner that will get progressively smaller as time goes on When they find a constantly growing number of doors closed to them, only a dwindling number of the most fanatical will continue to hold out.

At least that is what I devoutly hope will happen. Time, as they say, will tell.

August 21, 2021

I suspect you would be right about that.

After all, we now know that TFG's administration deliberately screwed up the visa approval process (or whatever you call it) for Afghans who knew they were going to need to get out when the Americans left. They had all kinds of time to plan for this, but it looks like their only goals for the transition were:

1. Get out of Afghanistan.
2. Let as few of those brown Muslim Afghans as possible into the US.

Anyone who thinks the previous administration would have willingly given asylum to a single one of the afghans who helped us over there is as delusional as the Mango Maniac himself.

August 17, 2021

Ask Amy: My grandson told me he wasn't putting poison in his blood for our peace of mind

You know that dealing with irrational antivax relatives is a common problem when it starts showing up in advice columns! I saw this letter in Ask Amy recently and thought a lot of you would be able to relate.

Ask Amy runs in a lot of different newspapers. The source for this post is here: https://www.masslive.com/opinion/2021/08/ask-amy-my-grandson-told-me-he-wasnt-putting-poison-in-his-blood-for-our-peace-of-mind.html

This letter and reply are only part of the column, so i assume posting both in here will not be an egregious copyright violation.

Ask Amy: My grandson told me he wasn’t putting poison in his blood for our peace of mind

Posted Aug 09, 2021
By Amy Dickinson

Dear Amy: My 27-year-old grandson, who is getting married, called me up screaming at the top of his lungs saying I was a Republican and Nazi, that I am dead to him and to “F-off” — all because his grandfather (my husband) asked our daughter (his mother) if they got vaccinated.

This was a concern because we are flying across the country and I am supposed to officiate his wedding. Plus, his grandpa is very concerned for them. He told me he wasn’t putting poison in his blood for our peace of mind.

What the Hell am I supposed to do?

I tried calming him down to explain, but his rage was beyond any reasoning.

As of now we will still be going, but not attending the wedding.

My daughter acts like this is normal behavior and he’ll come around.

I don’t know if I will.

– Grandma H

Dear Grandma: Who talks like this? Who talks like this to his own grandmother?

If I were you, I wouldn’t wait for him to “come around.” Everything else aside, his rage does not make him a safe person to be around. Rebook your trip to a more pleasant destination.

================

I don't have anything to add, except to say I agree with Amy, and I sympathize greatly with this Grandma and anyone else who is dealing with these issues in their own famili3s

August 14, 2021

NO.

Getting "ruthless" is NOT an appropriate solution to this problem. Denying care to non-vaxxers would be a gross (in every sense of the word) violation of ethical principles doctors and nurses have sworn to uphold.

The minute it becomes acceptable to deny needed medical care to someone for a reason like refusing vaccination, where is the line going to be drawn? If you start denying care for one reason, you open the door to denying it for other reasons, and who gets to decide which reasons are acceptable and which ones aren't?

Believe me, that is a Pandora's box that none of us should ever even consider opening. The ramifications are horrifying. Anyone who thinks this is a good idea needs to read up on medical ethics. Here's a nice, succinct summary to help you get started: https://clipboardhealth.com/how-the-4-principles-of-health-care-ethics-improve-patient-care

P.S. Because of this country's refusal to adopt the principle that access to health care is a basic human right, many Americans are denied access to health care (or have to settle for substandard care) for financial reasons all the time. That is unacceptable and just plain wrong, and it needs to change. It's also a separate issue from deliberately denying care because of someone's lifestyle choices.

August 13, 2021

If only the Republican Party would just DIE already! 😡

As a political party, I mean. (Unlike Republican politicians, I have no desire to actually kill off human beings.)

I keep reading that the GOP is "shattered," "crumbling," "dead," etc., etc. But it's obviously still very much here, throwing wrenches in bills Democrats are trying to pass in Congress, working feverishly in state legislatures to enact voter suppression laws, sitting in red state governors' mansions issuing edicts against things like mask mandates that might actually help stop the spread of covid, and on and on. It's become nothing but a force for authoritarianism, death, and evil, a real life troll blocking the bridges to progress that Democrats are trying to erect, and I am sick of it, especially when I remmad an article like this one.

The problem isn't that the GOP is dead. The problem is that it's taking way too damned long to die, and it's trying to take our democracy with it!

August 9, 2021

I agree.

I'm plenty disgusted with the antimasking, antivaxxing covidiots, and I understand where these sentiments are coming from, but I can't get behind them, for the reasons you've articulated.

In addition, I think these types of comments display a massive lack of understanding of how medical ethics work.

Maybe I'm a bit idealistic, but I always thought being a health care professional meant caring for those who need care, period, not just picking and choosing who to care for, based on some sort of "deservability" criteria. The minute someone is denied care because the reason they are in need of it is deemed to negate their "deserving" it, we will all be in very deep trouble. That is not a world I want to live in.

Profile Information

Name: Sharon
Gender: Female
Hometown: Chicago area, IL
Home country: USA
Member since: Tue Mar 26, 2013, 03:18 AM
Number of posts: 19,338
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