Will Corona virus be around forever?

 

TV people are talking about Corona virus will be with us forever.  Historically this is not true.  The Black Death killed something between a quarter and a half the population of Europe back in the 1340’s.  It came back at least once, maybe twice, and killed a lot more.  The Black Death makes Corona virus look like a bad cold.  Over the years, the Black Death lost its power to kill.  It hasn’t been around in centuries.  Partly this come from the survivors passing on what ever it was that made them survivors to their children, and partly the Black Death mutated in the direction of being less lethal.  After all, if the virus kills its host before it has time to infect other people, it is going to die out with its unfortunate hosts. 

   At any rate, a lethal disease that nearly depopulated Europe 6-7 hundred years ago is not a problem today. 

New Strain of Corona virus

 Omichron I think they call it.  The only way we can identify it is by decoding its genetic material in the lab.  It has a lot (25-30?) mutations in the working part of the virus.  Which makes all the medics suspect (but they lack real evidence) it can do all sorts of bad things.  There are a lot of people, newsies, health bureaucrats, big pharma, and others, who are profiting from the Corona virus pandemic.  These people are overjoyed to find and excuse to keep the pandemic going, and keeping the money flowing their way. 

As far as I can tell from listening to the TV, there is no documented clinical difference between the Omichron variant and the parent virus.  Patients get sick, in the same way as the old style virus.  I have not heard any clinical evidence that the Omichron strain is better or worse than  the "standard" strain.  Other than getting that booster shot this week, I will just watch the circus on TV.  Beat the Press had Fauci on this morning.  Fauci claims the booster shot improves your antibody levels by a yuge amount.  No numbers on how yuge is yuge, no description of the experiments that yielded this encouraging info.  This is the talk of a medical bureaucrat rather than a working MD who treats live patients. 

Seven Inches of snow in Franconia Notch

 This all fell last night.  Although we had snow flurries all day yesterday there was no buildup until later.  It was cold, 24F at my place early this morning.  That gave us nice slight and fluffy powder snow, the best kind for skiing.  No wind, so the snow stays on the Cannon trails rather than blowing into the woods.

Went to the Grocery Store today (Black Friday)

 Shaw's in Littleton.  Looks like Shaws  beat up on their supply chain and got a lot of stock in for Thanksgiving.  They were offering it on sale today.  Big 20 pound turkey went for $46 before Thanksgiving.  It was marked down to $13 day after thanksgiving.  Some things were still expensive.  Nice Ribeye beefsteak $15 a pound.  Lot of strange brandnames on stuff, brandnames I had never heard of before.

I heard a reason for the growth of skinless, boneless, tasteless chicken parts.  Apparently the skin and bones are chopped up really fine and used to make chicken nuggets.  Remind me to stick to recognizable parts of chickens, like thigh, and breast. 

Jefferson’s words have taken on a broader meaning over the years.

 

“All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness--- 

When Jefferson wrote this he was thinking of contemporary England, which supported a heredity nobility.  Birth into a noble British family, duke, earl, marquis, knight, granted all sorts of privileges denied to commoners. 

   In 1776, in America, Jefferson was saying that there would be no American nobility; every American would have the same rights at law, the same advantages in seeking government jobs and military commissions as everyone else. 

   Move forward in time to 1865, with the Civil War won by the Union, the Emancipation Proclamation made to stick by the Civil War victory, and “All Men are created equal” was expanded to include blacks.      

   Move forward in time again to 1920, when woman’s suffrage was legalized by Constitutional amendment, and “All Men” is restored to it’s meaning of “all mankind both men AND women”, which it bore in Jefferson’s time. 

   Writing about this in 2021 it is clear to me that the meaning of “All Men are created equal” is much broader today, then when Jefferson wrote it.  This broadening is all to the good. 

Having Thanksgiving a few days early

 Daughter and Youngest Son decided to have Thanksgiving dinner with Mother.  But they came an visited me in Mittersill Sunday thru Wednesday.  We (the children actually) threw a before Thanksgiving family dinner up at the chalet.  We had John and Maggie, Carol and Zach, and all the kids.  Youngest Son wanted to do Tandoori chicken, which came out tasty, although a bit spicy.  Despite outside temperatures near freezing, and snow flurries the big Weber grill was pulled out from the garage and fired up on the deck.  The freed up the 24 inch kitchen stove for side dishes, basmati rice, cucumber salad, hot groovy bread. 

  A good time was had by all.

It's all Paid for. Yeah Right.

 Biden's $2 TRILLION dollar (or is it $4 TRILLION?) Freebie and climate spending bill (super porkulus bill) squeaked past the house.  Democrats are saying "It won't hurt, it is all paid for".  Yeah right.  The bill authorizes the federal government to spend $2-$4 trillion dollars, which means handing out cash, or writing checks, or doing electronic funds transfers.  Right now, before the super Porkulus, federal taxes cover about 60% of federal expenses and federal borrowing covers the other 40%.  Adding $2-$4 TRILLION in federal spending will require either a solid federal tax hike (unlikely) or a lot more borrowing.   The Feds borrow money by printing and selling Treasury bonds,  T-bills, which are nearly the same as money.  Samuelson, author of the standard economics text when I was in college, called T-bills "near money".   There is a 5 day a week, 8 hours a day bond market.  Anyone can sell their T-bills for cash and get paid in two or three business days.  For the feds to borrow more, is the same as printing more dollar bills.  Inflationary that is.  So the Biden people's claim that "It's all paid for" is false, us taxpayers will have to cough up the money sooner or later.