tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post3144108138366355862..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Predictions, and Having Others Answer Some QuestionsAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-35470975024696935022022-01-16T18:06:13.521-05:002022-01-16T18:06:13.521-05:00I will admit to wholly missing the great fall and ...I will admit to wholly missing the great fall and winter waves of 2021 to now. I expected a much smaller wave, given the numbers of vaccinated and the numbers of prior infected. I did not believe there were enough remaining vulnerable people to cause the wave we are in now.<br /><br />I missed the waning vaccination level of protection, and wholly missed the number of reinfections that proved to be possible. This, in spite of having several co-workers who had had COVID twice. So, I am hoping the OMICRON will prove to be the last big wave, but not predicting it will.<br /><br />Speaking to PenGun, your complaints about the US medical system must surely stem from, to say this gently, a lack of personal experience. Funny how US hospitals near the border are always full of Canadian patients. One has to explain that away, if one is to claim that one system is so surely superior to the other. I must also note that Canada failed to produce even one novel vaccine in this great pandemic. What a shameful failure of the pharma companies and the great universities.<br /><br />Tom Bridgelandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13098048586042365606noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-83324174334483870952022-01-15T16:04:21.832-05:002022-01-15T16:04:21.832-05:00Let me reciprocate by ratcheting down some and sug...Let me reciprocate by ratcheting down some and suggesting how you might reduce the heat so that people see the light you are offering. You might make a serious attempt at answering people's objections, even if you ultimately decide they are not valid. As an example pertinent to the covid discussion, I several times, here and at Chicago Boyz, that your ragging on American decisions and bragging on Canadian ones - not entirely without merit, as Canada continues to run below 40% of American fatalities - overlooked the geography and variability of the covid rates. Ontario and Quebec, which are much more in the same climates, population density, and culture as their counterparts across the border, were somewhat better but not enormously better than American results. I just checked. Quebec is actually not as good as Vermont and Maine, more like New Hampshire and New York minus NYC metro. Ontario is a bit better, but not that different from the upper Minnesota and upper New York it borders. Toronto's numbers suck, but ar better than Detroit's which is something. The Maritimes are <i>even better</i> than Maine, down to actually Scandinavian levels of infection, and the three northern provinces are likewise very good, even a bit better than Alaska - though AK has enormous shipping traffic through Anchorage and...well, you see. It gets granular. It gets complicated. The other provinces do better than their American counterparts across the border, but how much of that is is complete emptiness to the north compared to the North Central American states having contact with more populated areas to the south. So it's a <i>discussion.</i> And even when you make valid points, you don't get it all.<br /><br />I did the research and pointed these things out to you several times, without the least acknowledgement of the cold hard facts I brought forward. And then you are shocked and insulted...why? I decided not to bother.<br /><br />I fully get your point that American focus on freedoms might actually - paradoxically - be a limitation on actions in an emergency, and thus not free in some deeper sense (and even there, I am making the foundational argument for you that you never made yourself). But when you go the next step and say "China did great at this," making the utilitarian argument that we <i>think</i> they had less death, despite the known dishonesty and unreliability of their reporting, I put up with it a few times before finally cutting it off. They locked their own people in particular places with no access to food, medical care, or other necessities. And now they are doing it again. I consider that unconscionable, as would the majority of not only "muh freedom" Americans, but Canadians and the rest of the Anglosphere, Western Europe except for committed Marxists, and even a lot of abused colonials in other places. You can make an argument against the centuries of Western tradition - many have - but it's on you to explain why this sort of mistreatment of your own citizens is a good idea. You would have the utilitarian argument of "fewer dead people" in your favor for openers. But it's on you.<br /><br />I will post this, and alert a few people whose opinions I respect about tone. If they say to delete it, I will.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-50235518822492573062022-01-15T13:45:40.406-05:002022-01-15T13:45:40.406-05:00 I am alone. No one, well no one I have found, has... I am alone. No one, well no one I have found, has any group I might be part of, as nearly everyone is seriously confused about current events, and even more so when it comes to reality.<br /><br />So I wander the net picking on idiots for their own good, and generally trying to do light without heat, and failing a lot. ;)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-76704861389678248092022-01-14T22:22:11.254-05:002022-01-14T22:22:11.254-05:00I will let this one stay. Your memory is convenie...I will let this one stay. Your memory is convenient. You said some accurate things, and always did, about several topics. You just don't have any ability to discuss things with people. <br /><br />And the part about people being insulting to you is rather humorous.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-54753149163967922182022-01-14T19:23:11.649-05:002022-01-14T19:23:11.649-05:00I harassed you and your community when this began....I harassed you and your community when this began. You were obviously idiots, and I did my level best to impress you with how serious it was.<br /><br />That just got me insults, and not particularly original ones as that's not really what you lot do, originality.<br /><br />So it will be a million dead form this thing in America, and its really your country's fault. Your rather pitiful medical system, and your precious freedoms are to blame.<br /><br />Delete away, I'm talking to you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com