Anyone from Georgia can confirm this?

https://twitter.com/solusnan1/status/1253606490973384705

I'm re-reading Mark Bowden's Guests of the Ayatollah and came across this passage describing revolutionary Iran in 1979:

"Revolution gives ordinary people the false belief that they can remake not just themselves, their country, and the whole wide world but human nature itself. That such grand designs always fail, that human nature is immutable, that everyone’s idea of perfection is different—these truths are all for a time forgotten.

Bowden goes on to observe:

"Those in the grip of righteousness saw the opportunity—no, the need—to weed the impure from their new and glorious garden. It started as always with the officials of the overthrown regime, authors of the criminal past, who were given show trials and marched out in the streets or to rooftops to be shot or hanged. With the taste of blood, the executioners then turned on those who had merely collaborated with the old order or its foreign sponsors or allies. Next, as former revolutionary brothers vied for permanent power, the killing turned inward."

So it turns out he's kind of a pussy—

CORONAVIRUS 04/25/2020 11:05 pm ET
Updated 9 hours ago

Trump Suddenly Loses Interest
In Briefings After Disastrous
Disinfectant Comments

“Not worth the time & effort,” Trump tweets amid reports that aides have been trying to convince him to lay off rambling, disjointed talks.

And just when things were getting interesting....

Lapse in judgement my ass. A more appropriate apology would be to resign your post.

It sparked a flood of complaints, leading to investigations by Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation and even Jefferson County District Attorney’s office.

Ames offered a “heartfelt apology” for what she dismissed as a “lapse in judgment.”

https://nypost.com/2020/04/26/texas-mayor-broke-her-own-stay-at-home-order-to-go-to-nail-salon/

Three blind mice, see how they - hold up now, it appears their fibroblasts have been chemically transmogrified into rod photoreceptor-like cells.

Look for a paper published in Nature magazine called "Pharmacologic fibroblast reprogramming into photoreceptors restores vision".

If I could post a link, I would, because a chemical solution to overcoming macular degeneration would be awesome.

“Quarantine” comes from the Italian word for 40 days, and I suspect one reason for choosing that interval is that it’s about the longest most people can stand staying cooped up. Regardless of what you think should happen, or what public health people want to happen, the lockdowns are going to come to an end because people won’t go along. And it won’t be camo-clad protesters on capitol steps so much as ordinary people just deciding to go out. Smart public health people will adjust their plans accordingly. Stupid public health people will call the public stupid and try to insult the populace into compliance.

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/368447/

I think the reason might be Biblical... in the Bible they are always doing stuff for forty days. Also, wasn't forty days the number of days women were considered impure after childbirth or soemthing? In anycase, forty comes up a lot.

Ancient peoples did not have words to count beyond a few items. Beyond a small number, they would refer to "many." The explanation for the prevalence of forty in the Bible that I've heard is that the ancient Hebrew word for "many" became translated to the Greek word for "forty." So, when Hebrew was translated, the "many years" in the desert became "forty years." Not sure how true that is.

Coney should be running this shop.

So then because of you guys I was trying to recall all the scriptural references to such intervals... But for some reason the fragments came to mind in Eric Idle's voice.

http://www.skepticaldoctor.com/2010/01/15/classic-dalrymple-the-wilder-shores-of-marx-excerpt-1991/

Something I enjoyed as events develop in NK.

Found the book on Kindle unlimited (Amazon Japan) a lot of British stuff there not available in the US. Well worth the membership.

IRA - Regardless of what you think should happen, or what public health people want to happen, the lockdowns are going to come to an end because people won’t go along.

More and more people are going to find out that the "experts" don't have as much expertise as we thought they did, and this mass quarantine doesn't make much sense. It's starting to become apparent that:

- Tens of millions in the US have been infected with covid-19 in spite of being locked down.
- The mortality rate isn't very high.
- They're counting thousands of deaths as caused by covid-19 when the victims weren't tested for covid-19, and in some cases tested negative (NYC added 3,700 such deaths from previous weeks to their death toll two weeks ago, and of course the media reported a spike in deaths)
- That hospitals weren't overwhelmed, there was no shortage of beds or ventilators. Many hospitals have shut down and laid off staff, including doctors and nurses; others are bleeding cash and desperately need covid-19 patients.
- That some official covid-19 policies actually bring death to the most vulnerable people instead of protecting them.
- There is no serious threat of death for the vast majority of people infected.
- Up to half of the people infected don't even get sick from it, including some elderly.
- The vast majority of those who who do get sick only have mild symptoms, like a cold.
- The "experts" government officials are supposedly relying on are inconsistent, not just with each other but even with themselves, and often just wrong.

As with the TSA and airport security, it's starting to look more and more like it's less about safety and more about politics and control.

Instead of spending nearly $3-Trillion on a mass quarantine - shutting down business, massive unemployment, travel bans, bans on gatherings, universal house arrest, silly improvised face coverings, isolating healthy people, suppression of civil and human rights, all backed up with threat of fines, arrest and violence - all another form of safety theater which probably isn't working much better now than it did in the dark ages - maybe they should have spent half that amount, say $1.5-Trillion, quarantining people known to be infected, and developing individual care plans to protect the people who are seriously at risk for dying - kind of like the current modern, evidence based standards of practice used to protect high risk, immunocompromised people from the many common diseases that can kill them - and let everyone else to whom the disease is not a serious threat go about their normal lives.

But here's a bright spot: According to the CDC, the total number of deaths from all causes during the first 16 weeks of 2020, including tens of thousands of deaths from covid-19, is about 40,000 (4.3%) less than the average of the first 16 weeks of the last three years.

Do you have a link to the info in the last paragraph? I'm on the CDC website and can't find it... want to have a link before I discuss this in the comments of people's FB posts.

The number 40 in the Bible represents a period of trial or testing.

During the great flood it rained for 40 days. Jonah warned Nineveh for 40 days. Moses lived in Egypt for 40 years, then in the desert for 40 years, then lead the Israelis in the wilderness for 40 years. Moses was on Mount Sinai for 40 days receiving the Law. Jesus was tempted by the devil for 40 days. I think - after giving birth, if the baby was a boy a woman was unclean for seven days, and then couldn't touch anything sacred for another 33 days; so 40 days. But I think those time periods were double if the baby was a girl - so 14 and 66. I don't know what it would be if the parents decided not to assign a gender until the child was three or four and capable of making that decision for itself.

There are lots of things that are 40 in the Bible.

NicoleK: Do you have a link to the info in the last paragraph?

Thanks for verifying before taking it to Facebook.

I got it from the Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report:

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm

Scroll down until you see Pneumonia and Influenza (P&I) Mortality Surveillance.

Click the link below the graph that says View Chart Data

Open it as an Excel spreadsheet. Then you can use it as a spreadsheet any way you want.

The CDC website has tons of interesting information, but it's not easy to find specific things you're looking for. I've spent a lot of time just browsing around to see what's there, and it still sometimes takes me hours to find what I want.

The covid-19 death count being reported in the US is probably exaggerated.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, said at a press briefing, “I think in this country, we are taking a very liberal approach to mortality, and I think the reporting here has been pretty straightforward over the last five to six weeks. … If someone dies with COVID-19, we are counting that.”

Notice she says “with” covid-19, not "from", "of" or "because of".

Birx says, “There are other countries, that if you have a pre-existing condition, and let’s say the virus called you to go to the ICU and then have a heart or kidney problem, some countries are recording that as a kidney issue, or a heart issue, and not a COVID-19 death… we’re still recording it” as a covid-19 death.

In the US, someone who tests positive for covid-19 and dies would be counted in the official death toll. Counting a death in the official count doesn’t require a positive test result if the patient is presumed to have the virus because of symptoms (similar to influenza-like illness) and medical history (nothing known that rules out covid-19). Two weeks ago New York City added 3,700 such cases who had died over the previous few weeks to their official death toll.

Hospitals have had to stop providing non-essential medical services, which bring in a lot of money, and have laid off staff, includes thousands of doctors and nurses. They desperately need covid-19 patients that the federal government pays the bill for. So there's a lot of incentive to diagnose as many cases as they can; and maybe even an incentive not to test and take the chance of getting a negative result.

Thanks Ken

Additionally, there's a kind of hazardous duty pay available to those who care for Covidians. Which is a word I just made up and may not use in the future.

They're a religious order, aren't they? The Branch Covidians.

Three tiers of observance—

• The Branch Covidians
Everyday practitioners… You probably know a few, and have had them in your home socially.

• The Trunk Covidians
Businesslike functionaries, they handle the money and administrative chores. They don't draw much attention to themselves, though if they're sitting next to you on an airplane or something, you might see them reading one of the encyclicals. They have great haircuts, and rarely touch alcohol.

• The Root Covidians
This is the core power structure of the faith… They meet semi-annually in third-world capitals, disguising their appearance in all respect. Theirs is a realm of nuance & shadow, where alliances are formed and commands are issued with a subtlety invisible to the rest of civilization. They're said to favor small, playful dog breeds such as corgis and pugs.

“The Branch Covidians
Everyday practitioners… You probably know a few, and have had them in your home socially.”

I saw this, and immediately thought of Waco......

Conan in full stupid-sneer mode:

Ancient peoples did not have words to count beyond a few items.
----------------
Which is why the Babylonians left us precise astronomical calculations in both base-6 and base-10 numerical systems.

Which is why the Jewish Bible refers to ten- and hundred-thousand census counts, tax levies, etc.

We could continue with Egyptian numerical and hieroglyphic systems, but... none of these facts penetrate the Ginormous Blind Spot of a libertarian sneering at religion.

Hey I also read Ayn Rand.

Then I looked around.

Speaking of "full stupid-sneer mode."

...none of these facts penetrate the Ginormous Blind Spot of a libertarian sneering at religion. ~ Ben David at April 27, 2020 10:23 AM

Lighten up, Francis. I sneered at no religion. Nor have I in the past.

Hey I also read Ayn Rand. ~ Ben David at April 27, 2020 10:23 AM

Good for you. I tried to read Atlas Shrugged, but found it a bit too dense and preachy for my taste. I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about. I got a little more than halfway through before I finally gave up.

I did think she had some good ideas, though. I think most religions have some good ideas, too.

Ben David: Which is why the Jewish Bible refers to ten- and hundred-thousand census counts, tax levies, etc.

The dimensions for the ark were pretty simple. Not being an architect or a carpenter, the specs for the tabernacle and the temple make my head spin.