Test Positive for COVID-19

[moonshadow]

With respect Ray, when one stands on the extreme right... isn't everything else... to the left (left leaning)?

So yes, from the perspective of a hard righter... snopes would indeed be "left leaning".

[Coder]

The BBC is not perfect but it’s streets ahead of the rubbish that purports to be news in the USA. On all my visits to the US, I have been surprised by the poor - and polarised - media. It’s a level below the U.K. How many news outlets do you have that are accused of bias by both sides of the political spectrum? That’s the position that the BBC holds. It does suggest some neutrality if you piss off both sides

It’s not necessarily bias that concerns me (although it does). It’s just the biz. I just get the impression that most news organizations hire whomever to write whatever to fill the lines of text on a page. News isn’t the place for truth, unfortunately. Oh they may get some stuff right - but I feel that’s more by accident than intent. I dunno, this is steering this topic way off the rails.

Fortunately I have a solution. I spend most of my reading time reading science fiction novels as those are all speculative and it’s just the imagination that has to contend with what’s presented to it.

[moonshadow]

A man walks up to another man and says he has covid 19.

The other man asked "are you sure?".

I'm positive!

[rode_kater]

You may be confident that our bodies can handle it, but 2.7m have tried and failed so far - and the number is rising fast.

You misunderstand me. I'm not referring to the virus, I'm referring to the new technologies used to make the vaccines. We didn't invent them, we copied them from nature. If there were the possibility that they could cause us all to get cancer in the future, we'd know.

[Ray]

Rode, I don’t understand your comment. Do we know that the vaccine will cause cancer? Can you explain?

Thanks

Ray

[Coder]

The technology behind the vaccine should not cause cancer. In fact, it is both used as a (research) anti-cancer vaccination tool, and is replicating what we’ve done with previous vaccines. The only difference is that the set of instructions put into the cell are synthetic, and not from a live (then dead) virus.

[moonshadow]

MOH at age 74 is due hers next week, but at this rate I fear we will all be overtaken by these new variants which look like they'll deny us freedom for the foreseeable. We may not travel more than 20-odd Km and that restriction has been extended indefinitely. So much for our planned post-Easter trip to Kerry (300+Km),or anywhere else, for that matter.

Twice in the last two days the Cops stopped me just off the slip road from J. 9 on the M7 in Naas. Question: 'Where do you live?, answer: a few miles away and I work just yards from here'. Just doing their job, I suppose, but it smacks of a police state.

The first lock-down here was imposed on March 15th last year while we were away in Kerry. Return home from far-flung regions was of course permitted, but since then we have only had a Summer 'Staycation' window last year and who would have conceived that we'd still be locked down a year later?

I'm glad it doesn't seem that extreme here. They couldn't lock us down for that long... they barely scratched up a few days...

Americans don't take well to being grounded... rightfully so. Travel is a big part of our culture. It's one of the few things most of us agree on.... we love to travel.

I gave them a few months last year to get it right, but due to various factors the situation snowballed anyway. I'm tired of work being sluggish.... and I never thought I'd say this but...


... I'm happy to see rush hour traffic again.

[Ray]

Moon, I’m not sure it’s true that Americans love to travel. Precious few ever leave the country, to their demerit.

Do you visit other states?

[Kirbstone]

True. The US of A is so vast and with such varied climates that relatively few of its inhabitants feel the need to travel outside its borders and consequently a surprising percentage of Americans don't bother getting a passport.

Try selling that concept to the Irish, who inhabit a cold-temperate damp 300 mile long bit of real-estate nearer the North Pole than the equator. The urge to find the Sun and get one's knees brown is strong enough to sell passports to the lot of us, or very nearly. Covid restrictions have made a lot of us very itchy!

Tom

[crfriend]

Moon, I’m not sure it’s true that Americans love to travel. Precious few ever leave the country, to their demerit.

Indeed, Ray, you are correct. Kirbstone has pointed up one reason for that.

I've been out of the USA precisely once, and that was a trip to the Canadian Maritimes in the mid 1980s before the real nastiness started up regarding borders. I enjoyed it immensely and hope to get out at least once or twice before my "use by date" arrives.

Sadly, physical limitations prevent me from flying, so unless I have lots of time on my hands, Europe or farther-flung parts of the world are simply inaccessible due to time constraints.

Do you visit other states?

States, in some places, are small, so there is much interstate travel. For instance, I used to get to Rhode Island once a month at least until the Massachusetts Governor declared Rhode Island "unclean" and mandated quarantine periods for anyone brash enough to cross the border, effectively closing it. Life has not improved.

Personally, I have been in more states than I've not, and I hit all four "corners" of the coterminous states in one two-week rail trip with my late ex-. I think there's only four or five of the 48 I've not stepped foot in or rolled though. (Flying over does not count in my book -- and a long time ago I could still fly.)

[Coder]

I’m returning on a cross-country outing (not pleasure), MI to TX and back, driving. The concern for COVID... is not great in many of the states I’ve travelled through. While I’ve been masked and sanitized wherever I went, about 50% of the businesses I’ve stopped at (or ran away from!) did not mask or wear gloves, and of the places I did stop at only about 20-50% of patrons mask or distance. The worst seemed to be large families... not knocking large families mind you.

Some of it could be down to low covid case counts - and my own reticence in spreading it in these communities (ie, travel from one hot zone (MI) to another (TX), but little covid in between).

And as a precaution when I get back I’ll be quarantining and getting tested once every 7 days, least I could do. I also got tested before I left as a precaution.

After this trip I really think flying is safer (for multi-day journeys) when it comes to covid, there just isn’t a way to avoid a lot of potential covid exposures. Between people who seem not to care, to things you may not know (ie, meals cooked by sick people) to bathroom stops.

[Faldaguy]

by Ray » Sat Apr 10, 2021 1:58 pm

Moon, I’m not sure it’s true that Americans love to travel. Precious few ever leave the country, to their demerit.

Not only do Americans have a shockingly low percentage of passports for the population; they have an extremely insular worldview from their media and public education. Compound this with being "wage & health" slaves to employment so there is less opportunity for elective travel.

For many on this forum a month or six weeks of annual vacation and holidays is taken for granted, and likely their countries have a fairly broad safety network, albeit paid with higher tax rates -- but they have the time and security to travel, or take a "gap" year even. Most Americans are lucky if they get two weeks of paid vacation; often less, or none unless they've been on the job for many years.

Addrd to this insult, is most have to retain their employment with their firm to keep their health insurance -- and you sure as H don't want to be uninsured, in the US of A. There is no universal transfer or continuation for one's health insurance. A few, may have access to a few months of being able to pay their health insurance premium privately when out of work, often that is at least $1500.00 a month or more and still subject to deductibles and co-pays. So in pragmatic terms few US Yanks have a realistic opportunity to travel abroad. A few States away is even a stretch but does, as noted, often offer a wide range of geographical features, maybe a dash of cultural change, but nothing truly enlightening about the way the rest of the world lives and works.

More to the topic of this thread -- what would OPEN BORDERS mean/do for World peace, economy, and Covid? Tell me why any man or country has the right to deny any other person total freedom of movement? I'm not suggesting these folks do not have to abide by the laws of the land they visit, but what Godly right exists to cordon off Mother Earth?

[moonshadow]

Moon, I’m not sure it’s true that Americans love to travel. Precious few ever leave the country, to their demerit.

Many Americans do travel outside of the U.S. Most probably don't, but I'd say a sizable minority do.

Understand that the meaty part of Europe can fit neatly within the continental U.S. then there is Alaska and Hawaii, and also the Territories.

Our nation was originally set up to be a federation of sovereign states (nations) bound together in common, but over the centuries it has morphed into a federal nation with states that function more like political subdivisions rather than sovereign states. But even in these modern times, California and Texas individually have a larger economy than most nations around the world.

The USA has a lot of blemishes in its history, but we've got a lot to be proud of too. There's nothing wrong with that.

But Carl is correct, there is a lot of different climate and topography here, and it is quite vast.

Do you visit other states?

Yes. Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, and West Virginia frequently. I've been to Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Ohio, Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama, and Indiana, and I'm ashamed to say I've not even seen a third of what this massive nation has to offer.

I was assigned my service van in January of 2018, I've been its only driver, it currently has over 140,000 miles on it.

Then there is my personal ride (Jax), purchased October 2018 with 71,000 on the odometer and currently has about 107,000 miles, which is a lot considering its only driven generally on the weekends.

I know lots of people of vacation across the country, and quite a few that vacation across the world. Many take cruises, some take planes, many visit our neighbors Canada and Mexico.

Americans are a lot of things, but hermits we are not. It's 2021, many of us know what lies beyond the border of Pleasantville.

Quite a few of us have even blasted into orbit.

Why would you think otherwise?

Not only do Americans have a shockingly low percentage of passports for the population; they have an extremely insular worldview from their media and public education. Compound this with being "wage & health" slaves to employment so there is less opportunity for elective travel.

Alright, haven't we got enough threads about how much America sucks? I make one comment about how it's nice not to be on house arrest like they are in Europe, and everyone lines up to take a shot at the U.S. of A.

This place is far from perfect, but for 328,200,000 people, it's home, and we're doing the best we can. America is what it is. We don't have have Cadillac Healthcare that virtually everyone else does, yes, we don't get a fraction of the paid time off everyone else does, yes we have some odd laws, and yes we have a lot of bigots and zealots, yes we probably put too much stock in our imaginary friend, but these things are not likely to change, and we're still allowed to smile and laugh from time to time, and I don't think we should be made to feel guilty because of what we are.

As for my abrupt change in heart with this country, I've basically given up on any real meaningful change. Like I said, it is what it is. Our leaders couldn't care less, they live in their own world, but most of us common folk do look out for one another in our own way.

I haven't watched or read a news article since early March, I didn't even know about that Atlanta issue until very recently. I have no intention to vote or involve myself in this circus ever again, I'm simply going to try to focus on the good, do my best to ignore the bad, and attempt to live out my life in relative peace.

As for those who live abroad and kick dirt in our face... you don't live here so why do you worry about it? Most of us Americans don't kick dirt at y'alls countries, as you say, we're very self absorbed in our own...

[moonshadow]

And this is one of the reasons why I'm happy to call this land home,

mom_bday.jpg

Frankly, it was nice. And before I get socially shamed for this, let me say, this is the first time we've all gotten together (my mother, my sister, and her boyfriend) since 2019. We've played by the rules, but Monday is Mom's birthday and we wanted to have a nice meal at a Japanese Steak House. It was one of those places where they prepare the food on a griddle in front of you, complete with all sorts of neat tricks and whatnot.

My sister and her boyfriend has already had covid last December, and since then both have been fully vaccinated, Mom has received both of her shots, and I've got one of mine, due for the second later this month. I also work in so many places across the region anyway, it would be difficult to trace where I might have contracted covid. Frankly I've been surrounded by hundreds if not thousands of people every single day since this thing started just because of my job, all the while, avoiding my family and friends to play by the rules...

Enough is enough, we've paid our dues, done what they asked, tonight- it was our night. Tomorrow isn't promised to anybody. While I fret over contracting covid, each day I run a greater risk of being hit head on on the highway, struck by lightning, being shot, or actually just contracting one of those diseases everyone has forgotten about, like cancer, or the flu, or some other disease (remember those?)

We had a good time... a GREAT TIME, and damn it... it was nice to just feel like a human being again, not a caged animal.

Oh and yes, I was wearing bibbs... because it was Mom's birthday, it wasn't about me. (I wore a skirt on my birthday when mom came over... and she accepted it.. fair is fair.)

[Faldaguy]

Faldaguy wrote: ↑Sat Apr 10, 2021 10:52 pm
Not only do Americans have a shockingly low percentage of passports for the population; they have an extremely insular worldview from their media and public education. Compound this with being "wage & health" slaves to employment so there is less opportunity for elective travel.

by moonshadow » Sat Apr 10, 2021 11:15 pm

Alright, haven't we got enough threads about how much America sucks? I make one comment about how it's nice not to be on house arrest like they are in Europe, and everyone lines up to take a shot at the U.S. of A.

Moon, you seem to be feeling awfully sensitive for a guy who has currently chosen to ignore the politics of his land in favor of leading a decent life!

My comments were not a 'dig' about how America sucks -- they were if anything feeling sorry for the people who have to keep their nose to the grindstone for survive, and have so little time of their own to see and explore more of the world. That is not a dig -- believe, me I wanted to dig at it, or most countries -- it is easily done.

I have lived more of my year in the US than in the several other countries that I've been lucky enough to visit and live in. I still vote in the US and principally use a US Passport. I think your reaction actually bears witness to my comment about the insular nature of the stereotypical American response to the rest of the world -- and often to their own parts (other States). It was not my intent to demean or minimize but help others understand some of the limitations and reasons why Americans oft not see the world with as much tolerance or insight as others do.

I suspect most of us will be, happy to have less 'imprisonment' from Covid-19 restrictions. Family and friends are where we can learn and more effectively share our insights -- I am delighted your voice will ring in their ears!