Fri. Dec. 25, 2020 – Christmas Day

By on December 25th, 2020 in culture, personal, WuFlu

Cold.  Low 40s to start.  Clear and sunny in the forecast, so it should warm up later.  No snow this year.

Whether you celebrate this day as the Feast of Our Savior’s Birth, or as a secular version with Santa Claus and all the mythology that has built up around that, or as a pagan whose symbology and practice got subsumed into Christian beliefs, or if you’ve just finished celebrating Hanukkah, I greet you and hope you share the blessings of the season.

We’ll be busy giving gifts, preparing our shared meal, and renewing familial bonds (albeit by facetime).  I hope this season is a bit of a respite from the concerns of the rest of this dumpster fire of a year.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

——————————————————–

Spent yesterday messing around.  Sold something on ebay that I had to go get out of storage, then pack better for shipping, then run to the UPS store-  which was closed early for the holiday.  So was the storefront shipping store.  I spent about 2 hours messing around and still didn’t get the danged thing shipped.  It’ll go out Monday.

After that it was a scramble to finish wrapping presents, deciding which ones went to which child, and which get shifted to spring birthdays.  Got it all done, and the opening of the gifts commenced!

Oh to be nine years old again.  What a special day for her.    She’s been VIBRATING with anticipation and her waiting paid off.   SO MUCH squealing.

The 11yo has been playing it cool, practicing her ‘teen’ vibe.  Last night was clear she missed it, so today she’ll hopefully get the joy of the season.

Speaking of which, I know that for some of you out there there is no joy in the season.  If that’s the case, please talk to someone, get out into the woods, or go for a drive somewhere or do whatever helps you get through.  But GET THROUGH.  Be here for whatever comes next.  Who knows, could be aliens after all and how cool would that be to finally know for sure?

Whatever comes, we’ll deal with it.  There are still people in Rome and have been since before our system of dates started those 2020 years ago.   Stacks of needful things will help…

 

Wishing you all the joy and blessings of the season, Merry Christmas!

nick

65 Comments and discussion on "Fri. Dec. 25, 2020 – Christmas Day"

  1. Pecancorner says:

    Merry Christmas, Nick and everyone at Daynotes: all posters and those who so graciously host and maintain the site. It is one of the places that reminds us how wonderful the internet can be.

    I found a couple of links last night that seem perfect for this place:
    There’s a great video of Apollo 8’s Christmas message to the world, at this article:
    https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2018/12/21/50-years-ago-apollo-8-astronauts-saved-1968-genesis-reading/2301420002/

    And interesting for those HAMs out there about how to talk to the ISS (it is from June, so ya’ll may already know all this but I thought it was cool!) What prepper wouldn’t want to try to contact the space station in event of TEOTWAWKI ?
    https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/satellites/a32767523/ham-operator-nasa-spacex-crew-dragon/

  2. dcp says:

    This still makes me laugh.

    The 1982 special Christmas sketch by Yes, Minister.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vShJa6GobFQ

  3. Greg Norton says:

    This still makes me laugh.

    The 1982 special Christmas sketch by Yes, Minister.

    Blackadder’s Christmas Carol … 1988 — Robbie Coltrane as “Hagrid” 10 years before the first “Harry Potter” book.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfYx_013UuY

    Okay, he’s the “Spirit of Christmas” according to the credits.

  4. John Wilder says:

    Merry Christmas!!!!

  5. ITGuy1998 says:

    Merry Christmas to all! I’m awaiting the wife and 16 yo to rise to open presents.

    Out in the world, bad people never rest: https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2020/12/25/downtown-nashville-explosion-christmas/4044635001/

  6. Nick Flandrey says:

    wow, that must have been a pretty big bomb.

  7. Nick Flandrey says:

    Merry Christmas everyone!

    Presents are all open, breakfast has been eaten.

    American Girl stuff has a lock on a certain 9yo’s heart. An Ipod Touch has the same on the 11yr, who also got a bike.

    I got some small tools and a couple of component testers for my bench.

    A good time was had by all.

    n

  8. Nick Flandrey says:

    ‘Looks like a bomb went off’: Blast that rocked downtown Nashville on Christmas morning WAS intentional say cops as FBI are called in after ‘vehicle’ detonates outside bars sending three to hospital

    The blast happened on 2nd Avenue between Church St and Commerce St at around 6.40am on Friday
    Three people were taken to the hospital with non-serious injuries and there is significant damage
    A cop who was nearby was knocked over by it and has lost his hearing
    Police had been called to a suspicious vehicle in the street in the morning and had called a bomb squad
    While the bomb squad was on their way to the vehicle, the explosion happened
    It was felt for blocks, with people reporting feeling the ground shake and windows shattering
    The FBI and the ATF are on the scene to assist with the investigation; the type of explosive is not yet known
    Police have not yet identified a suspect and they are combing the area for any other explosives
    The area is full of bars and restaurants which are all open for indoor dining and would have attracted hundreds of people in the evening

  9. DadCooks says:

    Merry Christmas to all.

  10. Nick Flandrey says:

    And while we woke to 32F temps, we didn’t get any snow in Houston.

    Can’t say the same for the rest of the upper midwest and East Coast…

    2020 strikes again: Tens of thousands wake up to NO power on Christmas Day as vicious storm barrels into the East Coast with 65MPH winds, bringing snow and torrential rain having already killed three in the Midwest

    More than 400,000 household across US woke up to no power on Christmas morning, with New York alone accounting for a quarter of the outages
    East Coast was being drenched with rain and lashed with powerful winds gusting to up to 75mph in Boston
    Most of tri-state area is expected to see rain totals of 1-3 inches, triggering coast flood warnings in Long Island and Connecticut
    Temperatures are set to drop below freezing in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia overnight, raising concerns about icy conditions
    Midwest is bundling up against frigid temperatures in the single digits following deadly snow storms earlier in the week

    –weather never sleeps

    n

  11. Geoff Powell says:

    We had our family Christmas get-together for present-opening via Zoom today. This despite almost everyone having fruity kit, so FaceTime was available. But we couldn’t get it to work. Zoom, though… Just Worked. This is an example of Dr Jerry’s comment, “With Apple, everything is either easy, or impossible”. In this case, getting 3 FaceTime clients to have mutual visibility.

    Then we broke for separate Christmas dinners – 7 people, 3 separate lunches. There may be another Zoom get-together later.

    Apropos Christmas: However you celebrate it, I hope all goes well, both now and in the future. We’ll draw a veil over the last 10+ months…

    We in the South-East of the UK are in what amounts to Lockdown 2.5, with the advent of the new CV-19 variant. And before you comment about the advisability of isolation and semi-mandatory mask-wearing, and the impact on freedom, remember that I’m in the cohort that is, universally, considered to be at higher risk. So I have little sympathy for the impact on your freedoms, since it would be difficult for me to enjoy those freedoms if I’m in ICU or, worse, dead.

    G.

  12. Nick Flandrey says:

    Yes! Minister was one of the best shows of the time.

    Blackadder in any incarnation was very good, and in some, rolling on the floor funny. (Could have gone all year without seeing Baldrick in a leather jockstrap though. At least we never see his ‘thingy’ shaped exactly like a turnip!)

    If only my day was my own, I could go for a prince george Blackadder marathon, or edwardian Blackadder. Or Firefly. Or Chef!…

    n

  13. Geoff Powell says:

    @Nick:

    SWMBO is in the habit of gifting American Girl merch to her minded children. It routinely goes down well. But, of course, it’s seriously expensive here because of inport duty and taxes, so normally she waits until our neighbour visits his family in Seattle, and sends a “buy me” list via him. Of course, CV-19 has put the kybosh on that, not to mention that on his last trip he broke his leg (and it turned out, his pelvis) in a fall.

    His travel insurance paid the immediate costs, and the NHS picked up the ongoing care, after his return home, although there was some dialogue about it, as I recall.

    G.

  14. Nick Flandrey says:

    At noon, we’re scheduled for facetime with one set of grandparents, and then later there is a family zoom meeting for 2 hours that my wife’s family can join and visit at will.

    @geoff, when followed, the lockdowns do what they were meant to do, which is limit the number of people desperately sick all at the same time. I support them. They don’t work when not followed, and I think that here anyway people are just not willing to play along anymore.

    n

  15. Nick Flandrey says:

    @geoff, I was just wondering this morning if AG was a thing in Jolly Old… and how it was received.

    They have a whole ecosystem with movies and books, matching kid’s wear, the dolls and accessories… and none of it is cheap.

    (I find a fair number of the books and DVDs at the Goodwill, and some of the accessories. Once you get a feel for the size and style, they’re easier to spot.)

    SO MUCH squealing with joy….

    n

  16. ech says:

    Christmas here will be low key. The daughters are in WA state, the rest of our families are scattered all across the US. And being in high-risk groups, we are going to continue to hunker down until we are vaccinated over the next couple of months.

    I did make stollen last night from my grandmother’s recipe, two big loafs. And watched “A Christmas Story” for the umpteenth time. It was my dad’s favorite holiday film. The narrator and author of the story (Jean Shepherd) grew up a few blocks from my dad in Hammond, IN. It’s a suburb of Chicago, right on the state line at Lake Michigan. I was born there while my dad finished podiatry school. Many of the places in the film are renamed versions of places there – Higbee’s is Goldblatt’s department store, the “Chinese turkey” place was Cam Lam – now closed. There are so many amazing touches in that film – the scene where Ralphie opens the BB gun and shakes the BBs in the cardboard tube they came in is so right. There is nothing quite like that sound. (I had a Daisy 200 shot BB gun as a kid.)

    No presents for the two of us. We don’t need any more stuff – in fact, I’m selling off much of my game collection via eBay and other misc. stuff as we have more than we can store right now.

    Later today , I’ll be doing a rib roast with Yorkshire pudding, peas, and salad. We have fruitcake, stollen, chocolates, and egg nog for dessert.

  17. CowboySlim says:

    American Girl stuff has a lock on a certain 9yo’s heart.

    Yuuup, same with my granddaughter when she was around that age. Then, after Christmas, we had to take her to the AG store up in Los Angeles for another item.

  18. ~jim says:

    So I have little sympathy for the impact on your freedoms, since it would be difficult for me to enjoy those freedoms if I’m in ICU or, worse, dead.

    So your health is my responsibility? I have NO sympathy for the ramifications of that mindset.

  19. Nick Flandrey says:

    @ech,

    I was born in St Margarets Hospital in Hammond. My mom went to high school with Shepard. We’ve driven past the house… my mom’s mom lived in Hammond until she died.

    I spent a lot of time in or near Hammond in the late 70s thru the late 80s. Used to be you couldn’t go anywhere without getting stopped by a train.

    Remember the JC Penneys? Or the Army Navy Surplus?

    Harolds Club?

    n

  20. Nick Flandrey says:

    “My Summer Story”

    My Summer Story (originally released in theaters as It Runs in the Family) is a 1994 comedy film directed by Bob Clark that serves as a sequel to his 1983 film A Christmas Story.

    –nearly as good as A Christmas Story, same nostalgia, has Ralphie looking for a fighting top to battle a bully, and involves the World’s Fair.

    Very sweet but not quite A Christmas Story.

    n

  21. Greg Norton says:

    Blackadder in any incarnation was very good, and in some, rolling on the floor funny. (Could have gone all year without seeing Baldrick in a leather jockstrap though. At least we never see his ‘thingy’ shaped exactly like a turnip!)

    After “Yesterday” made decent money, stories started circulating about a new “Blackadder” series getting commissioned, but I guess that didn’t go anywhere.

    Richard Curtis wrote both “Blackadder” and “Yesterday” among other work. Hollywood stopped trusting him with money after “About Time” bombed, but Curtis redeemed himself writing for other directors.

  22. Nick Flandrey says:

    This article points out two things, the extraordinary LACK of reading comprehension in society, vis the twitter flock mistaking the announcement for being what the CDC JUDGED to be the top story, when they were reporting on page views from their website; and the complete irrelevance of the CDC to covid in the public eye. Seems that very few people went to the CDC for info on covid compared to other sources.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9087561/CDC-claims-COVID-NOT-viewed-online-story-2020.html

    COVID-19 was not the ‘most viewed’ story on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Center for Global Health website for 2020 – with a story about malaria and one about HIV in Africa getting more attention than the most read coronavirus story.

    The list of top 5 viewed stories from the CDC did include three related to COVID-19, with the most read being about the agency’s global response to the coronavirus pandemic.

    But the most viewed story was actually one in recognition of World Mosquito Day 2020 on August 20, highlighting the ‘troubling spread’ of the Anopheles stephens mosquito.

    n

  23. Greg Norton says:

    –nearly as good as A Christmas Story, same nostalgia, has Ralphie looking for a fighting top to battle a bully, and involves the World’s Fair.

    Very sweet but not quite A Christmas Story.

    Bob Clark also made “Porky’s”.

    Clark had a reboot of “Porky’s” in the works when he was killed by a drunk driving illegal in CA.

    The man’s career choices were interesting.

  24. Nick Flandrey says:

    Couldn’t do Porky’s today or anytime in the last 5 years. Probably not for another 5 – 10 years depending on how many of the woke generation get into power.

    IDK if the flow of chinese money into hollywood has slowed, stopped, or will soon, but their influence has been shown by many people. It still gets filtered thru the wokester lens.

    n

  25. Greg Norton says:

    Couldn’t do Porky’s today or anytime in the last 5 years. Probably not for another 5 – 10 years depending on how many of the woke generation get into power.

    IDK if the flow of chinese money into hollywood has slowed, stopped, or will soon, but their influence has been shown by many people. It still gets filtered thru the wokester lens.

    The Taiwanese flag disappeared from Maverick’s jacket in the “Top Gun” sequel trailer. Chinese money is still important.

    Bob Clark died in 2007. IIRC, Howard Stern was behind the “Porky’s” reboot at the time, but, these days, Howard Stern is disavowing the antics which made him rich/famous with an eye on the potential openings in the 11:30 PM talk show gigs which may happen before next fall.

  26. MrAtoz says:

    Merry Christmas to all!

  27. Alan says:

    Happy Holidays to All Here – near and far.
    We’re done here, Festivus was the 23rd.

    And coal to a certain few in Florida:
    https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politics/os-ne-fred-piccolo-twitter-account-20201224-yw63wxtmljci5a4hptfrtnmf3q-story.html

  28. drwilliams says:

    It’s not Christmas till Hans Gruber falls from Nakatomi Plaza.

    http://ace.mu.nu/archives/391790.php#391790

  29. Geoff Powell says:

    @~jim:

    So your health is my responsibility?

    No, I don’t believe it is. But the impact of your choices on my health could be significant, perhaps making my access to healthcare more difficult when ICUs are overloaded, or I can’t get a bed in hospital.

    And before you complain, freedom to do anything is a good thing, provided it doesn’t cause problems for others. It’s that proviso that’s the kicker. Of course, in our 2 specific cases, we’ll have within epsilon of zero chance of affecting each other, since there’s the Atlantic between us. But I still have to think on it, and if you were in my shoes, I think you would, too.

    And, before you ask – 72 years old, type 2 diabetic, cancer sufferer (in remission, I hope and believe)

    G.

  30. Geoff Powell says:

    @nick:

    I was just wondering this morning if AG was a thing in Jolly Old…

    I can’t speak to the rest of UK, but SWMBO likes their stuff, as do the recipients of her largesse – remember, minded kids. It’s good quality, but because of that, it’s expensive over here. Even more so because of Import Duty and VAT. Which is why personal import is preferred.

    G.

  31. ech says:

    I was born in St Margarets Hospital in Hammond.

    As was I. My grandfather was a GP and practiced there for years. He died two years before I was born and was a favorite of the nuns there. He always dressed in the latest men’s styles and flirted outrageously with them – which they loved.

    When I was born, my parents got the birth certificate paperwork – and my name was already filled in on them. The nuns and my grandmother had decided that as the first male grandchild, I would be named for my grandfather. My parents had intended to name me for him, but my mom always resented their not even asking.

  32. lynn says:

    Out in the world, bad people never rest:
    https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2020/12/25/downtown-nashville-explosion-christmas/4044635001/

    Welcome to the Intifada. “An intifada (Arabic: انتفاضة‎ intifāḍah) is a rebellion or uprising, or a resistance movement. It is a key concept in contemporary Arabic usage referring to a legitimate uprising against oppression.” Aesop calls this “Spicy Times”.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intifada

    The Intifada will spread and spread. After all, Rule 308.

  33. lynn says:

    Freefall: Santa Has Covid
    http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3600/santa2020.png

    That is a big list.

  34. lynn says:

    Isn’t Nashville one of the major internet hubs ? “Major AT&T Outage In Nashville After RV Bombing”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/powerful-explosion-rocks-downtown-nashville

  35. Nick Flandrey says:

    It’s not Christmas till Hans Gruber falls from Nakatomi Plaza.

    –wife and kids are watching that now…

    I just got done doing 3+ hours of blowing leaves, mulching the pile, and then cutting the grass in the back yard. Should be done with leaves for a while now. All the wind brought the last hold outs down.

    I thought of two comments regarding the discussion Geoff and ~Jim didn’t get into.

    One, almost everyone on the “I don’t want to stay home” side says “Isolate the vulnerable and let the rest of us live our lives.” Please show how that would work. The most vulnerable have been under house arrest for the last 9 months. They are being held almost incommunicado. It really doesn’t get any more isolated than that in the real world, and STILL they are dying in the 10s of thousands. Mainly because their care givers are not isolated and are exposed to all those OTHER people who are not isolated because they don’t want to stay home. Isolating the vulnerable has been tried, is being tried, and doesn’t work to protect them.

    Two, no one’s rights are absolute. Even in our enlightened republic, under some of the most powerful protections ever afforded the ‘common man’, we accept limits on our absolute rights so that we may live together in civilization, and reap the benefits of same*- to wit- antibiotics, safety and security, contract enforcement, fruit and veg out of season, electricity, among others, and the reasonable assurance that we will be able to ‘peaceably enjoy’ same…

    I can’t peaceably enjoy anything if I’m dead from someone else’s actions.

    I had a third thought too, that this is probably one of the only places on the internet where we could actually HAVE a real conversation about the issue.

    nick

    *”That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” and whenever one person’s rights come into conflict with another person’s rights, it is the ROLE of government to preserve as much of the rights for as many of the people as possible.

  36. ~jim says:

    So your health is my responsibility?

    No, I don’t believe it is.

    I’m glad we agree because forcing me to wear a mask on the chance you might catch cooties sets a dangerous precedent.

    5
    1
  37. lynn says:

    Bob Clark died in 2007. IIRC, Howard Stern was behind the “Porky’s” reboot at the time, but, these days, Howard Stern is disavowing the antics which made him rich/famous with an eye on the potential openings in the 11:30 PM talk show gigs which may happen before next fall.

    There is a HUGE opening coming in the Monday – Friday 10 am est to 1 pm est (11 am cst to 2 pm cst) time slot on the radio. 28 million listeners at least once per week.

    From the things Rush said last Wednesday, I am not sure that he is coming back in January 2021. His cancer has come back.

  38. lynn says:

    Dilbert: Wally Does Three Jobs
    https://dilbert.com/strip/2020-12-24

    And there is the reason I will not have remote employees anymore.

  39. Harold Combs says:

    In any epidemic the primary goal has been to protect the most at risk. That has not happened in this pandemic. Now we have a vaccine, giving it to the 17% of population with highest risk would cut the death rates by over 90% says science. But we seem to be focused on preventing infection of the majority of the population with 99.99% survival rates rather than protecting those with higher risks. This screams that the political response is theater not protection of the population. With a highly contagious virus we must expect that everyone will be exposed at some point, there’s really no hiding, and plan for that.
    My wife and I have several co-morbidities but we don’t hide, just go about our business. I expect she will get the jab shortly as she is in dialysis.

  40. MrAtoz says:

    This screams that the political response is theater not protection of the population.

    Throw in “What’s China doing?” Maskless parties in Wuhan. Where’s their vaccine plan? Billions of commies laughing at us, waiting for plugs to roll over. It seems like the goobermint doesn’t care at all.

  41. Nick Flandrey says:

    @lynn, managing other peoples’ expectations is ninety nine percent of the job.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/video-nashville-mayor-laughs-smiles-talking-explosion/

    Too freaking weird. The guy is altered on something.

    n

  42. lynn says:

    @lynn, managing other peoples’ expectations is ninety nine percent of the job.

    Oh, I have stories and stories. I have been taken every which way that people can take you. We had a one man English office in Manchester for a few years, sales and customer support. Then a customer reported to us that he stopped by the office and found the guy in the pub down the street, blasted. Turns out that he was getting blasted every day. We dropped that office.

    Then I had a secretary running an arts supply business over the internet using my business phone and address. I answered the phone one day and somebody tried to give me an order. I just thought it was weird and hung up. It happened again in week or so. I asked her what was going on and she confessed.

    I’ve got way more stories.

  43. lynn says:

    In any epidemic the primary goal has been to protect the most at risk. That has not happened in this pandemic. Now we have a vaccine, giving it to the 17% of population with highest risk would cut the death rates by over 90% says science.

    We will be swimming in vaccine come March unless Biden decides to ship it all to Africa.

  44. lynn says:

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/video-nashville-mayor-laughs-smiles-talking-explosion/

    Too freaking weird. The guy is altered on something.

    n

    That is incredibly strange. Is the guy trying to portray this as a false flag event ?

  45. Greg Norton says:

    Isn’t Nashville one of the major internet hubs ? “Major AT&T Outage In Nashville After RV Bombing”

    The Internet is designed to survive a nuclear war. If something happened to the AT&T node, he effects will be localized to Nashville, but, IIRC, Fedex is there so shipping logistics could be impacted.

    Still, there should be two other nodes in town, Verizon and whoever inherited MCI’s.

    The Verizon, AT&T and MCI nodes in Tampa were fairly distant from each other, in buildings with multiply redundant power and constructed to survive a Cat 5 hurricane.

    1
    1
  46. Greg Norton says:

    There is a HUGE opening coming in the Monday – Friday 10 am est to 1 pm est (11 am cst to 2 pm cst) time slot on the radio. 28 million listeners at least once per week.

    From the things Rush said last Wednesday, I am not sure that he is coming back in January 2021. His cancer has come back.

    You mean 12 PM EST to 3 PM EST. Though, in a lot of EST/EDT markets, Limbaugh starts an hour late at 1 PM EST.

    Tampa had the delay.

    Ad revenue hasn’t been there for most of the last decade to support development of potential replacements for Limbaugh on a nationwide scale. Hannity was the last to come up organically via syndication, and Beck was force of will from Clear Channel starting 20 years ago.

  47. Nick Flandrey says:

    “The Internet is designed to survive a nuclear war. ”

    –ummm. Darpanet and TCP/IP were designed to survive a nuke. The commercial internet as we know it? I’m not convinced.

    Something like 90+% goes thru two choke points (or did) MAEWEST and MAEEAST (sp?)

    Google lost most of Europe for a good chunk of time in the last week.

    Granted that it’s been a while since I had the conversation, but I was talking with someone on ATT’s permanent disaster staff, and they said Sprint and MCI were renting rack space from ATT. Colo space.

    You could probably do more with mis configuration than physical attack, but cables only come ashore in limited places.

    Take out the big ring around the US in two places and I bet it’d be down for a while.

    n

  48. Greg Norton says:

    We braved Austin hipsters to see “Wonder Woman 1984” this afternoon.

    I’m sure I didn’t follow proper procedure exiting the theater, but, at nearly three hours, the flick was almost more than my bladder could stand. I got a few “tsk tsk” looks on my way out.

    The film works really well, and it doesn’t try to be a circus or make a statement.

  49. mediumwave says:

    “The Internet is designed to survive a nuclear war. ”

    –ummm. Darpanet and TCP/IP were designed to survive a nuke. The commercial internet as we know it? I’m not convinced.

    @Nick: You beat me to it. 😐

  50. ~jim says:

    The problem of subordinating individual rights for “the good of society” is that eventually you’ll run out of other people’s good will.

  51. Nick Flandrey says:

    People in general forget or never knew that with the rights came responsibilities. When civics and history were replaced with “social studies” the peoples’ understanding was educated out of them.

    One of the responsibilities is participating in the process- being a part of civic society. Part of that is following and supporting the rule of law. In this case, a lot of dubiously legal stuff has been ordered, but the flip side is that government has been given VERY broad powers during emergencies. We should have transitioned out of ’emergency’ mode some time ago but the tendency over time has been to declare early and often, and USE those shiny emergency powers.

    n

  52. Harold Combs says:

    The problem of subordinating individual rights for “the good of society” is that eventually you’ll run out of other people’s good will.

    Eventually you run out of rights to subordinate.
    If the good of the whole is the overriding goal, then it’s easy to justify eliminating every individual right.

  53. lynn says:

    Isn’t Nashville one of the major internet hubs ? “Major AT&T Outage In Nashville After RV Bombing”

    The Internet is designed to survive a nuclear war. If something happened to the AT&T node, he effects will be localized to Nashville, but, IIRC, Fedex is there so shipping logistics could be impacted.

    Still, there should be two other nodes in town, Verizon and whoever inherited MCI’s.

    The Verizon, AT&T and MCI nodes in Tampa were fairly distant from each other, in buildings with multiply redundant power and constructed to survive a Cat 5 hurricane.

    It brings to mind the old saying, “the first of many”.

    The first thing one does in a war is disrupt the communications.

  54. Greg Norton says:

    –ummm. Darpanet and TCP/IP were designed to survive a nuke. The commercial internet as we know it? I’m not convinced.

    Streaming Baby Yoda wouldn’t be possible.

  55. MrAtoz says:

    If the good of the whole is the overriding goal, then it’s easy to justify eliminating every individual right.

    Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn — ‘Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free.’

  56. SteveF says:

    Nick: You beat me to it.

    Everyone’s beaten me to the snarky or insightful points I was going to make.

    re masking and isolation and shutdown: Following one approach, we have the old and the unhealthy isolating themselves and wearing masks if they have to go out. Following the other approach, we have the old and the unhealthy and everyone else isolating themselves and wearing masks if they have to go out. Sell your “my health is your responsibility” spiel elsewhere. I’m not buying into it.

    re emergency powers: “Government has been given broad powers during an emergency”. Given by whom? Given the broad proof of incompetence, ineptitude, capriciousness, hypocrisy, and downright tyranny in the exercise of these broad emergency powers, what you’re seeing is the withdrawal of support for the governments. It was a stupid notion from the start, that Constitutional and other limits on government power can be waived simply by a governor or a county executive declaring an emergency on his own authority, giving himself unbridled authority. In a nation with governments divided into parts, each jealous of its own power, we would not see this. In the modern United States, the courts are primarily political rather than judicial and judges are reluctant to check executive overreach.

    re rights versus duties, beware slippery slopes and rationalization. It’s the easiest thing in the world to demand that others have to do what you want “as the price of living in civilization” or “because that’s what grownups do”. You should also beware any statement smelling anything like those because, in the modern US and western Europe and Australia, that’s how SJWs and other commie scum talk.

  57. Alan says:

    And there is the reason I will not have remote employees anymore.

    But you’d never have hired Wally…
    …or would you?

    We had a one man English office in Manchester for a few years, sales and customer support. Then a customer reported to us that he stopped by the office and found the guy in the pub down the street, blasted.

    I always disliked interviewing and hiring. Poaching good people from other teams was always my first choice.

  58. Nick Flandrey says:

    ” Poaching good people from other teams was always my first choice. ”

    –when I was touring we called that “steal this guy”. It was official company policy to identify people we could use. In an industry of freelances and project based employment it was win win for everyone.

    “as the price of living in civilization”

    –not the price, the requirement FOR civilization. To live in cities, together, in the modern world (not tribal cultures), we have voluntarily given authority to mediate between us to “government”. “[T]o secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men” – it’s kinda the foundation of our whole system. That the men are not worthy is not the fault of the system, and there were mechanisms built in to accommodate the fact that men are not worthy.

    –duty is not something you impose on others, it is something you impose on yourself.

    besides which, we (society) impose all kinds of rules and laws on each other. LEGALLY you can’t make noise before or after certain hours in most places. You can’t murder your spouse for cheating. You can’t beat your dog or children. You can’t break a contract without consequences. You can’t steal from your neighbor. Government mediates between your ‘right’ to do as you please and take my stuff, and my ‘right’ not to have my stuff taken.

    — who gave them the authority? We did. We didn’t mean to, and we didn’t know about it before hand, because we’ve abdicated our duty to participate in the process. We’ve delegated our duty to ‘watchdogs’ or elected officials. Even in the group here (which is FAR more engaged than most), how many have been to a city planning session? How many to a school board meeting? How many to a City Council meeting? How many have ever served on a city or township or county board? Anyone read the agenda for the upcoming legislative session in your home town? Who can name their city council person? With the dissolution of the fraternal organizations, and the de-emphasis of ‘church’ in the community, what’s the likelihood of ever crossing paths with your ‘elected officials’ in a social setting?

    We abdicated and delegated and assumed that either what they did was mostly what we’d want them to do, or that it wouldn’t really matter to us, all the while KNOWING that they were politicians, and politicians are lying, venal, greedy, ignorant, sociopaths. Sheila Jackson Lee FFS.

    Then they did what members of EVERY organization do. The Iron Law takes hold and the org becomes dominated by people who want to dominate the org. Good, normal people are driven out. The org becomes a class unto itself with only its own goals as goals. In this case they vote themselves more power like they vote themselves more pay.

    We are supposed to vote them out when they do stuff we don’t like. Since they do it behind a shield of secrecy/obfuscation, and indifference, they get away with it. But even that doesn’t explain how some people continue to be elected. I’m beginning to suspect that the massive fraud has been going on locally for far longer than anyone believes. AND that the other side of the same coin condones it. Having a body full of easily bribed or extorted semi-literate boobs is a lot easier on those who would exert control than a body full of conscientious normal people.

    since voting doesn’t seem to work, we’re either going to live with it, or start shooting them.

    History says– live with it. [right up until that changes]

    n

  59. Nick Flandrey says:

    “that’s how SJWs and other commie scum talk”

    — that’s their M.O. co-opt the existing structures. Change the meanings of things over time. Break down what is noble into baseness. Take over orgs from within.

    n

  60. lynn says:

    And there is the reason I will not have remote employees anymore.

    But you’d never have hired Wally…
    …or would you?

    I hired a guy like Wally as a salesman back in 2005 or so. Drank lots of coffee, would disappear on mysterious sales trips a lot. In the twelve months he worked for me, he made one sale of around $20,000. I now fire early before I inherit the unemployment mess trailing these people around the place (90 days in Texas).

    My latest sales guy has been with me for two years. He made his first sale within a week. He made his $1,000,000 annual quota at eleven months. This year he has not made his quota (yet) but he is darn close. He is always selling and looking out for his (our) customers.

  61. lynn says:

    _The Unkindest Tide (October Daye)_ by Seanan Lynn McGuire
    https://www.amazon.com/Unkindest-Tide-October-Daye/dp/0756412544/?tag=ttgnet-20

    Book number 13 of a 14 book fantasy series. I read the well printed and well bound MMPB. I will purchase all future books in the series as they reach MMPB. This series has successfully gotten past the ten+ book point and is continuing well.

    Hundreds of years ago, the Roane race was murdered for their skins by the people who became the Selkies. The Roane, the children of the Firstborn Luidaeg, aka The Sea Witch, swam in the sea with grace and were able to tell the future. The Sea Witch is not the semi-tough creature seen in the Ariel movie, the Sea Witch is the most powerful of the firstborn. However, she is not the meanest of the Firstborn.

    It is time. The Sea Witch is going to have October convert the Selkies into the Roane to resurrect the race. But the way is difficult and fraught with danger. And the Selkies do not want to permanently be creatures of the sea.

    My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
    Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (570 reviews)

    Please note that while the author and I share the same middle and last names, we are not related that I know of.

  62. Nick Flandrey says:

    @lynn, I thought you said you were, oh so long ago…

    I liked most of the October Daye stories, but she’s gone even more SJW QUILTBAG lately. I feel like I missed a book in between this one and the last, and maybe I did. I’m not sure I’ll keep reading the series. Less of Teh Ghay, and more of King of Cats would be a good start.

    n

  63. lynn says:

    @lynn, I thought you said you were, oh so long ago…

    I may have but I meant only in the joking sense that we are all related. I try to put that disclaimer on all of my reviews of her works.

    There was a non-binary character in the story and in the attached novella. I see it so often now I don’t even really notice it anymore. However, I don’t really understand the non-binary thing anyway so I have decided to ignore it for now.

  64. ayjblog says:

    well forget to ay before

    Merry Xmas to all of you!

    The core thing that must be safe is not nodes, is DNS

    cheers!

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