Lindsey Graham Got the Virus, But Not DESPITE Getting Vaccinated
That's not what "despite" means
Maybe this pandemic has broken everybody’s brains, but the fearmongering is just getting out of control. Everyone just needs to stop and take a deep breath and think this through.
I don’t know if there’s any malice aforethought in statements like these, but it’s still driving me up a wall:
Okay, let’s look at the word choice here: “despite being vaccinated.” No. No, no, no, no, no. Wrong.
Whether or not Lindsey Graham becomes seriously ill, and I sincerely hope he doesn’t, it’s not despite the vaccine. That’s like saying somebody survived a gunshot despite wearing a bulletproof vest. Wait, what? No. That’s the whole point of the vest! It still sucks when the bad thing happens to you, but you have a much better chance of living through it because you took preventative measures. Vest or vaccine, it’s the same idea.
This sort of “despite vaccination” framing is, intentionally or not, anti-vaxxer. “See? Why should I get vaccinated? That guy got vaccinated and he still got COVID-19!” Well, yeah, because it’s a virus. It’s out there. Unless you seal yourself inside a cleanroom for the rest of your life, you’re going to get it too. We can’t stop it, or any other virus, but we can mitigate its effects so it doesn’t kill us. Hell, we might not even notice it’s there. That’s what the vaccine does. That’s what the vaccine is.
The same goes for all this panicking about masks. “People are still getting the virus! Cases are way up! Everybody needs to wear masks again!” Yeah, cases are up. But how serious are those cases? Are vaccinated people dying? Are they being hospitalized? If not, then stop panicking.
The vaccine is working. It won’t prevent the virus from entering your body, and neither will most masks. But the vaccine helps you fight it.
If you’re vaccinated, chances are you’ve already gotten the virus by this point. And you’re reading this right now, which means the vaccine worked. Relax.
If you’re not vaccinated… Well, how the hell is it my problem? If you won’t listen to reason, you’re on your own. Maybe you’ll be okay. I sincerely hope so. But either way, you’re responsible for your own life. I’ve got my own problems without having to deal with your crap too, pal.
Whenever I feel like the news industry can’t get any worse, I have to remind myself that it’s always been this way. When Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole came out in 1951, it bombed and all the critics hated it because it was so witheringly cynical. But no other movie ever made has better captured the sort of diseased mind that gravitates toward the industry that brings us “the news.”
Back then, Rupert Murdoch was still at university and Ted Turner was in prep school. I don’t know if they ever saw that movie, but they sure have made a bundle from that simple, utterly poisonous idea.
Ace in the Hole is on Amazon Prime right now. Highly recommended. It might not be the best movie Douglas ever made, but it’s the most prescient. Just be aware of the motives of the press when they tell you stuff like, “That guy got COVID-19 despite getting vaccinated.” As far as they’re concerned, good news is no news.
It’s just exhausting, man. Why is everybody so stupid?
Speaking of stupid people and masks, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser imposed a mask mandate last week. Then, of course, she ran around town without a mask. Unfortunately for her, she was caught in the act by a reporter from the Washington Examiner.
And can you guess what happened next?
Oh my goodness gracious, can you believe it? Since when is a reporter allowed to, y’know, report on something without an engraved invitation?
This is how you know the story is damaging. If you can’t deny the hard evidence, go after the messenger. The New York Times did the same thing when the NY Post reported about the information on Hunter Biden’s laptop. The NYT did some investigative journalism of their own… on the Post reporters. Dug up dirt on them to discredit them. The NYT knew the story could hurt Joe Biden, and they wanted to get rid of Trump at all costs, so they stifled a legitimate news story about the Biden family’s corruption. Their job is to help Democrats attain and maintain power, and they take it very seriously.
Anyway, Muriel Bowser broke her own rules and there’s no getting around it. Power breeds arrogance, no matter how many social justice checkboxes you can fill. Bowser shouldn’t have to wear a mask at a wedding or anywhere else, which is why she shouldn’t command anyone else to wear one.
Last year Portland, Oregon was abandoned to Antifa and BLM and the rest of the rioters, in the name of “social justice,” and law-abiding Portlanders are fed up. Nancy Rommelmann talked to some of them.
When elected officials in these Democrat-run cities don’t enforce the laws, libs leave. All the high ideals in the world won’t help you when vandals are looting your store. Then those libs move to smaller cities and bring the same failed ideas with them, and the cycle starts all over again.
As for the rioters, Rommelmann quotes one who sums it up:
We can consider people entranced by chaos and think, “They’re young; they don’t yet have responsibilities and believe they are fighting for a better world.” This belief need not be sustained on building anything, only the collective effervescence that comes with tearing things down; as one activist who participated in the burning of the police union hall in Kenton told me, “I’m not going to lie: It’s fun.”
Destruction is fun, as long as you’re not the one who suffers for it.
Today seems like a good day to remind you that Andrew Cuomo is an evil ghoul and I hate him.
Are you kidding me?
Complete projection. A bunch of race-baiting racists blaming all their failures on racism, and praising the man who has done more than anyone else in 21st Century America to crank up racial tensions, up to and including this stupid trailer for this stupid documentary. As Stephen “Not the Trump Guy” Miller puts it: “Fire makes documentary about arsonist.”
And this nauseating hagiography presents Trump as some sort of opposite number to Obama. No, Trump is just more of the same. He’s Orange Obama. The same old demagogue with a different coat of paint. The only difference is that Trump is blunter about his commitment to dishonesty. Despite 70-odd years of practice, he’s just not as good at lying as Obama is.
I didn’t understand Obama-worship when he was president, and it’s even more baffling now. That malignant narcissist has enriched no one but himself. The only life he’s improved is his own. No matter what you believe or what you look like, Obama does not care about you and he never has. The kind of garbage you just watched does nothing but divide people and feed his ego. His two favorite things.
First Matt Damon claimed he routinely uses a bad word, the one that rhymes with “maggot” and is offensive to some gay people. Now he’s insisting he’s never said that bad, bad word. Which is just… come on, of course he has. He’s from Boston!
It’s just a fun word to say out loud, divorced from the 20th Century American meaning of the word. It starts with that voiceless fricative, then there’s that voiced stop in the middle of the word, and it closes out with a voiceless stop at the end. It gives your mouth a workout, just like…
Well, anyway. If Matt Damon feels the need to grovel for forgiveness once again, he’s on his own. The woke outrage mob will just pick his bones clean and go after that other knucklehead, whatsisname. The Batman guy. No, the other Batman guy. No, the other other Batman guy. No…
Correction to yesterday’s newsletter: Despite my assertion, Megan Rapinoe cannot console herself with the hope that she can still win a silver medal in women’s soccer. After losing to Canada — I repeat, LOSING TO CANADA — Team USA is only eligible to compete for a bronze medal.1 That’s the best Rapinoe and her team can do now. I regret the error, almost as much as I regret paying any attention at all to the Olympics.2
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Third place is almost as good, right? Just like Rapinoe is almost as good as a Victoria’s Secret Angel.
I don’t really care about Simone Biles either, but after she quit and then came back and won a bronze medal, I’m tired of being told how brave she is. I’m not the best at anything and I never will be, but even I know that being #1 is better than being #3. At least Biles actually medalled, unlike that #woke hammer-thrower and that dude who tried to beat a bunch of girls at weightlifting.
Well, technically I am doing this for my health, I guess. I wouldn’t be very healthy if I starved to death or died of direct exposure to the elements. My health is improved by having money to pay for food, shelter, medicine, etc. So okay, yeah, I guess I am doing this for my health. Ya got me. Congratulations. Are you satisfied now?
Stops and fricatives, voiced and voiceless. Have you been reading John McWhorter?