Kosh's Shadow 6/4/2020 7:03:19 PM

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Another one to discuss while I am at work

Former MI6 head claims COVID was made in a Chinese lab and accidentally released

"I do think that this started as an accident," Sir Richard told the Telegraph, citing a peer-reviewed paper by Professor Angus Dalgleish of St George's Hospital at the University of London, and the Norwegian virologist Birger Sorensen.

According to Sir Richard, the pair claimed to have identified "inserted sections placed on the SARS-CoV-2 Spike surface," which allow the virus to bind to human cells, in contrast to alternate theories that the virus originated in animals, likely bats and pangolins, and mutated naturally to make the jump to human hosts. 

doppelganglander 6/5/2020 6:01:45 AM

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Good morning. For the worried woke, it's not enough to just be friends with black people. You need a guide, and Bon Appétit - yes, the cooking magazine - is here to help. I can't even today, and it's only 9 o'clock.

How to Check in with Your Black Friends

Occasional Reader 6/5/2020 7:07:59 AM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 2:

Wow.  So, firs off, I'm supposed to racially categorize my friends?  I need a separate folder labeled "Black Friends", so to speak?  (And that would be a separate, but equal folder, presumably.) 

Occasional Reader 6/5/2020 7:10:23 AM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 1:

I'd have dismissed that theory as nuts two months ago.  Now, it seems the most likely explanation, IMHO.

buzzsawmonkey 6/5/2020 7:55:44 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 4:

I'm all agog to hear a recount of the conversation you alluded to last night, with which you ended the Pub thread.

JCM 6/5/2020 7:57:07 AM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 2:

Does a range date with my buddy count?

*he's black.......

lucius septimius 6/5/2020 7:58:01 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 3:

"I have binders of Black people!"

Occasional Reader 6/5/2020 8:02:50 AM

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Some good news, for a change:

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2020/06/05/biggest-job-gain-in-history-unemployment-drops-as-lockdowns-lift-n497480

Occasional Reader 6/5/2020 8:09:33 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 5:

I’m headed out for a medical check up, I’ll get back to you on that later.

doppelganglander 6/5/2020 9:02:40 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 4:

That was my initial theory and the evidence seems to be trending in that direction. 

doppelganglander 6/5/2020 9:04:44 AM

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Reply to JCM in 6:

I'm not sure. Maybe you should randomly Venmo some money to him, just to be safe. It's just doing your part for reparations, right?

JCM 6/5/2020 9:11:40 AM

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May sees biggest jobs increase ever of 2.5 million as economy starts to recover from coronavirus

Corona, shut down, no riots... the economy still functions.....

lucius septimius 6/5/2020 9:15:52 AM

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Occasional Reader 6/5/2020 12:15:48 PM

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In #5 buzzsawmonkey said: I'm all agog

Fitting since we seem to be in the War of Gog and Agog.

Basically, this is my lifelong but reflexively-Democrat friend, who now lives in the suburbs of Boulder, CO.  (More on that in a moment.) 

So we spoke last night, just to catch up.  He asked me how things were going; I talked about the riots, what I'd seen and heard, and what a disturbing week it had been.  After some back and forth, he offered that hopefully, police reforms will solve this, by removing the spark for the problem (or words to that effect).  

I opened that the George Floyd video had been a pretext, not a "spark"; that there were organizations behind this that had been simply waiting for the "right"moment.  He asked what sort of organizations; I said, the hard left, including but not limited to Antifa. 

He was silent for a moment, then said something like, "well, I'd be just as worried about the participation of, like, right-wing white supremacists wearing camo pants."

I replied: So let me get this straight. 

You believe that in dozens of mostly deep-blue cities across the country - Minneapolis, Boston, NYC, DC, Baltimore, St. Louis, Portland, San Francisco, etc. ... thousands upon thousands of white supremacists have been blending in with BLM-organized marches, then going on looting rampages, then slipping back out; that this has been going on for a week now; and yet... not a single one of them has been caught, or even really documented?

Looong silence.

And then he changed the subject.

The Left, even the putatively "moderate" Left, are now in their entirety, functionally mentally-ill.

Ah... about that "suburbs of Boulder" bit; he lived in Boulder itself for about two decades, then relocated to the suburbs a few years ago; he explicitly cited the insane policies being dictated by the far-left Boulder city government, particularly regarding the ongoing encouragement for street people to live there.  So, yes, he moved out for conservative reasons... but, classically, appears to have brought his left-wing idiocy with him, and likely will be voting for the same sort of thugs and fools to run things where he is now. 

Occasional Reader 6/5/2020 12:19:16 PM

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In #14 Occasional Reader said: I opened opined

lucius septimius 6/5/2020 12:21:49 PM

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In #14 Occasional Reader said: he changed the subject.

Of course he did. 

buzzsawmonkey 6/5/2020 12:33:09 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 14:

Thanks.  Fascinating, and sad. 

I've got some of the same insanity, alas, in my own family; my brother, who with his wife (at least two Hillary stickers still on her car) just moved into the District from Virginia, tend towards the same mindset.  I may have mentioned here/at C2 that when one of the black administrators at our former high school held a BLM meeting at the high school, from which whites were explicitly excluded, he initially saw nothing wrong with that, but then on reflection slowly conceded that it miiiiiiiiight have been good to admit whites so that they could have a "teachable moment."  My pointing out that even back when we were kids, and the town was quite conservative and not favorable to the MLK marches then taking place in Chicago, the idea that one would specifically exclude people from a public meeting in a public building on the basis of race would NEVER have been countenanced fell on deaf ears.

And, of course, I know several people---otherwise lovely people---who, if you merely say the word "Trump," will erupt into an incoherent ten-minute diatribe of hatred.  There is nothing whatever one can say to these people that even begins to enable a rational dialog---and if you attempt to proffer the mildest of facts in opposition it only gets worse.

Occasional Reader 6/5/2020 12:52:00 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 17:

While I haven't the luxury of the red-staters at Instapundit, who look at all this and say, "let 'em burn, they voted for this"; I do understand their point of view. 

Occasional Reader 6/5/2020 12:53:46 PM

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In #17 buzzsawmonkey said: just moved into the District from Virginia,

Out of curiosity, and if you don't mind saying (or on the Frontier, or via e-mail); to what part of town?

buzzsawmonkey 6/5/2020 12:56:06 PM

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In #19 Occasional Reader said: Out of curiosity, and if you don't mind saying (or on the Frontier, or via e-mail); to what part of town?

I forget the name of the area; something like "Friendship Circle," or something of the sort---which, IIRC, experienced some of the gentle attentions of the pantyfascist looters the other night, though not real close to them.  I believe it is in the northwest quadrant.

buzzsawmonkey 6/5/2020 1:01:53 PM

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BTW, despite the absolute rock-solid opposition of the Significant Other, I am beginning to think that it is time to graduate from edged weapons to those capable of delivering projectiles, albeit without mentioning such a move in any way to the little lady.  

I have, however, absolutely no knowledge either of what would be the best options, where I would go to conveniently obtain them, where I might become proficient in their use, or how I would navigate the thickets of New York law in this regard.  That's a conversation, however, best taken up in the Frontier after Saturday night.

Occasional Reader 6/5/2020 1:02:43 PM

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In #20 buzzsawmonkey said: something like "Friendship Circle,"

Friendship Hieights?

buzzsawmonkey 6/5/2020 1:04:55 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 22:

Sounds about right.

Occasional Reader 6/5/2020 1:07:11 PM

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In #21 buzzsawmonkey said: graduate from edged weapons to those capable of delivering projectiles

Erm, yeah.  Unless you are extremely proficient with edged weapons, IMHO, they are not what you what to rely on to defend your life.  (The only advantage they have for you is that you can legally carry one - with limitations - in NYC.  I understand that getting a concealed-carry permit is theoretically possible there, but I have no idea how practically possible it is. )

Occasional Reader 6/5/2020 1:07:45 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 23:

In that case, we may be neighbors, or very close to it. 

buzzsawmonkey 6/5/2020 1:27:52 PM

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In #24 Occasional Reader said: Unless you are extremely proficient with edged weapons, IMHO, they are not what you what to rely on to defend your life. 

Well, I had a fun time about a year and a half, two years ago, when some asshole bicyclist was riding without lights through an intersection against the light and on the wrong side of the street.  I yelled at him, "Nice lights, asshole!" at which point he pulled over and started to approach me with the clear intention of smearing this insolent pedestrian across the sidewalk.  I pulled out my knife and flicked it into business mode, and it was gratifying as hell to see him visibly shrink back when I took a step towards him and said, "You were saying something?"

He jumped on his pushbike and pedaled away.

Occasional Reader 6/5/2020 2:15:03 PM

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So I awoke from a quick nap earlier this afternoon and bleary-eyedly read a text from my ex, in which the phrases that immediately jumped out at me were '[Little OR]", "If DC schools will be back in session", and "BLM march on Washington planned for August 28".

My immediate reaction was, "oh CRAP, she wants to pull our son out of school that day to attend this goddam march, and I'm going to have to say "absolutely no way", and this is going to be a source of conflict. 

Then I rubbed my eyes and read the message again, and saw that in fact, she was saying that if schools were in session on that date, "I want [Little OR] away from this," and therefore he should stay home that day.

To which, of course, I heartily agreed.

So, that's good.

Occasional Reader 6/5/2020 2:47:38 PM

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JCM 6/5/2020 2:52:14 PM

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The online course my kids have a wasteland of errors.

I just went through a chemistry section with one of the kids.

33% of the pages had basic errors on elements.

The practice quiz marked 20% of correct answers wrong.

The test the same thing. Only this time plain answers from the text are marked wrong.

It's clear nobody who is versed in the subjects developed the online matter.

buzzsawmonkey 6/5/2020 3:02:58 PM

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Reply to JCM in 29:

The Party of Science!