https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/realestate/coronavirus-alone-time-parents.html

"Finding ‘Alone Time’ Away From Their Children" — With a little subterfuge, parents find ways to work or just stay sane in a car parked on the street, in a thrown-together basement office or downstairs next to the water heater.

Nice! I've been in lockdown with an elderly parent and three domestic animals and have yet to use subterfuge to "stay sane" by avoiding any of them. On the contrary, they've been lively companions rather than things to be avoided.

Protests in Huntington Beach.

I took a drive up the PCH in Malibu late Friday afternoon. Signs warned motorists not to park at the edge of the beach. At Sunset (the corner, not the dusk) I saw a couple of cops parked in an SUV with flashing lights to warn off motorists who'd want to stop and look at the ocean, as people have been doing at that spot for tens of thousands of years.

After a few moments, they left the SUV to stride a few manly paces towards the waterline to watch the golden rays of the late afternoon over the Santa Monica Bay, and to catch a few deep, macho breaths of that intoxicating Pacific brine… Taking naked animal pleasure from the natural beauty which they were ready to deny to others by violent force.

"Those guys are filth," I thought… "And they ought to be fired."




It's true that those clamoring for freedom this weekend are asking for something less than the safest possible outcome. And their behavior will increase the danger of Wuhan infection for others, including the elderly, the immunocompromised, and some tiny number of otherwise perfectly healthy young people… Unwittingly put at risk, all of them.

Here's the thing: That's how civilization works! Who knows what kind of risks and tragedies we've suffered because of the distant choices of others? There have been car and airplane parts that failed because a designer or a fabricator lost concentration in some momentary, trivial way after a night of drinking, and medications prescribed and mixed incorrectly because some guy was distracted by an impending fight with his wife.


There's been a disgusting pattern on Twitter and elsewhere of people smirkingly saying 'SCIENCE says we have to maintain the lockdown!' Such people tend to [A.] be terrified of their own shadows and [B.] have enough money in the bank that they can ride this out for a few months... At least until the grocery runs out of meat and veggies.

Two weeks ago I got sincerely pissed off at columnist Megan McArdle when I pointed out that the goal of our response to Wuhan should be human flourishing, not perfect safety. And she replied "It is very hard to flourish if you don't survive."

I'll never forget how quickly she resorted to trite, shallow sarcasm. Nor could I forget that she's in a position at the Washington Post which allows her to make an extremely rewarding and prestigious living from the safe isolation of her home, behind a laptop, while cashing steady paychecks from the wealthiest man on the planet. Yeah, sure… McArdle thinks we need to extend the lockdown… How 'bout that.

The next week her aged father, hundreds of miles away, fell ill from the virus, was hospitalized, and was then released to her care despite still being infected and shedding the virus. She and her sister have dropped everything else in their lives to move into his home and care for him while struggling mightily to protect themselves, in middle age, through cumbersome PPE garments, masks, gloves and protocols.

I sincerely wish her the best.




This is a year to review your list of unpleasant truths, and here's a big one: Liberty, especially the American kind, often means throwing your elbows around a little bit. Sometimes you'll give black eyes, and worse, to people for whom you meant no harm, who you didn't even know were standing beside you.

But we're all reliant on each other whether we like it or not, and have been since the day we were born.

So I want to be surrounded by people who know how to get their needs met, people ready to push & kick at boundaries while doing so.

And I want *not* to be surrounded by authoritarian ninnies who'll forbid the taking of risks, and by the sniveling weenies who'll do as they're told no matter what.

Liberty has real costs… Including, occasionally, 'innocent' lives.

Does that surprise anyone?

Treats from the computer internet's "Twitter" distraction service:

Puppy #1

Puppy #2

The ninnies Crid is talking about have brought this posting to my mind of late:

I wrote, "Insisting on absolute safety is for people who don't have the balls to live in the real world."

It appeared on sci.space or sci.space.shuttle in 1989 or 1990 during
one of the cyclical "why did NASA blow up the shuttle" threads or on
rec.military during a "how dare those pilots crash the taxpayers'
airplanes" thread, also a cyclical thread. I had gotten to a point of
complete exasperation when I wrote this.

https://yarchive.net/air/perfect_safety.html

This part is stark, and jarring. Emphasis mine.

I'm not talking about abstract theories here, I'm talking about test pilots that I've known for decades. Believe me, I _know_ exactly what the consequences of a mistake on my part could mean. The reminders are all around me: Edwards AFB--killed in the XB-49, Lilly Ave--first NASA pilot killed at what's now Dryden, Love Rd--I _saw_ Mike's burning F-4 auger into the lakebed, with him in it. But once I've done my best, like everybody else on the team, it's time to go fly the airplane.

The little Karens of the world don't have that experience.

And those cops? they won't fired. They'll probably get an attaboy, a pat on the back, and maybe a promotion or two. They'll retire in their early 50s, and draw a 6 figure retirement.

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

Additionally:

Undergraduates.

Prescience.

No, I didn't either. A free people are not easily contained. This is why I have some hope for Hong Kong, but none for mainland China.

Who had California in the pool for biggest civil disobedience events? Because...not me.

https://twitter.com/karol/status/1256377265828638720

IF it weren't for double standards they wouldn't have standards at all:

https://twitter.com/_Vs_The_World/status/1256498974380490752

This T timeline has many charming things, like this. Also

I miss going to the gym every month.

Tweets about the nuances of stubbornness and intuition from Henderson.

"You need only one key to unlock the handcuffs of must."

The Europeans can get away with it because they're all a bunch of tiny nations bunched together, so reaching a farm in Europe if you live in a major city doesn't take a whole freaking day or two.

Britons and Europeans are being urged to eat more steak, chips and cheese because of a food surplus caused by the closure of restaurants and bars.

https://mobile.twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1256607252875788288

I bet cotton swab that long would feel amazing for scratching an itchy nose during hay fever season:

https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1254943961476739072

Good Star Trek fanart:

https://twitter.com/BitsHammer/status/1253949882768883713

Gender Studies will be the last bastion of academia to fall. Not because of the quality of what is taught in it, but because it is the nursery where the deans and the alumni use as way for their children to get a degree with minimum effort.

https://twitter.com/_HelenDale/status/1256670826172203009

Too often nowadays comes the fear I'm too old for this.

Too often nowadays comes the fear I'm too ol…

No, wait! Could still make this work out for everyone.

Found this elsewhere, on life's little ironies of students carrying phones in schools, then and now:

Gary:
"As far as wifi in schools, when my daughter was in high
school I don't remember cell phones yet but having a pager
on school property would get you expelled for the year.
(Back then, pagers were thought to only be used by
drug dealers.) Odd times."

Julie Bove:
"The kids here are requested to have a smart phone by high school. If not, then at least a phone that takes pics. They keep the signal weak so the phones can't be used to contact or be contacted but they can take pics of lessons so they have no excuse that they didn't know what to do."

"1,000-year-old English mill resumes flour production to meet demand during coronavirus pandemic"

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/29/uk/english-mill-flour-resumes-production-scli-gbr-intl/index.html

Now this what I call a good remake:

https://twitter.com/plebcomics/status/1256680557225877507