Continuing COVID Confusion

Discussion of the lab leak hypothesis on the origin of the pandemic is finally allowed. Is that because it adds fuel to fire a war with China (even though the US provided funding and support for gain of function research in Wuhan)? However, interestingly use of ivermectin as an effective treatment is still out of bounds and unacceptable. No, TPTB are suggesting an third dose of vaccine instead. Speaking of vaccines, I must admit it was nice to gather with old friends last week. We were camping outside, and I think everyone was vaccinated. About thirty folks gathered at the Florida Faux Festival, and our usual cadre of ten or so camped together. Made lots of music, and I feel like I'm getting my musical feet back. We also got in an eight mile canoe trip on the Suwannee, and went to four different and unique springs along the river. It was my first real dip back into normalcy since the pandemic began in earnest March of '20, and it was as refreshing as diving in the springs.

Look, people, words mean things, and, Humpty Dumpty notwithstanding, they mainly mean what they are understood to mean by the people who create and employ them. Wittgenstein also notwithstanding, we mostly don't have trouble agreeing about most of the things that fall into most of the categories we choose to assign to the phenomena we observe.

Every once in a while, not often but once in a while, the people whose job it is to skirt ever so carefully around a clear statement or position throw up their hands and take a position (of sorts) anyway.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/06/vetoes-unsc-resolution-protection...

Is This the Moment to Build a Movement?

I think it is time...past time...to unite the fight to end poverty in the world's wealthiest country, address the systemic racism reflected in our immoral prison system and police shootings, stop environmental degradation, and fund these cultural transitions (and restore a sense of humanity) by ending war. These four issues - poverty, racism, ecological destruction, and endless war – are intrinsically bound together. The Poor People's Campaign began forty days of action last Monday. Each week represents a different theme, and there are concurrent actions in thirty capitols.

This story, the video, Finding Freedom Amid Ruins: The Free Runners of Gaza fills me with such sadness... too much to contain alone in my room in front of my screen. It all seems so sci-fi-dystopia but it's real. Haunting.