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Afghanistan!
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rombsix
Posts: 7666
Joined: Jan. 11 2006
From: Beirut, Lebanon
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 Afghanistan!
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Y'all - what on earth is happening? It seems there are some pretty seismic shifts taking place of late. I don't know about y'all, but I am in a pretty doom and gloom state, and very worried about the state of global affairs. I am sensing a lot of tension that might be a harbinger for a serious storm. China invading and taking over Taiwan? A huge economic crash with stagflation like in the 1970's? Am I just overly anxious, or are y'all feeling this way too? I don't understand these things very well and I'm not a content expert, but I am picking up on some concerning vibes in the world right now: all of the above, plus COVID, climate change worsening, etc. Your thoughts?
My country went down the drain, by the way... it's over.
I went to buy a smoothie the other day in Nashville, and they said they couldn't make me one because of supply shortages. They're unable to purchase cups to pour drinks into!
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Ramzi
http://www.youtube.com/rombsix
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Date Aug. 18 2021 14:02:32
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ernandez R
Posts: 633
Joined: Mar. 25 2019
From: Alaska USA
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RE: Afghanistan! (in reply to rombsix)
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The outlook for society? You mean humanity?
I'm thinking we are all like Rob mentioned on his thread, Sisyphus rolling our stone up hill but rather then Homers Greek tale more like Camus and the Absurd: we must hunker down bearing life's load but instead of pushing stones are we not like dung beetles rolling our little balls of **** up hill head down and tail first, oblivious to a world we take ass first , that or just get it over with and suicide.
Humanity was never meant to last, top tier predators never survive, are the first to go as conditions change, it's true, the cockroaches and the sharks will out last us all, perhaps the scarab too.
I think we need fist look inside ourselves, this is where every challenge, each answer can be found. I call it this a ruby red slipper of life, you know, when Glenda the good witch asks Dorothy Gale, yes I even know her last name, what have you learned time in Oz, or was it the Scarecrow?
"Well... I think that it ... That it wasn't enough just to want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em. And it's that if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any farther than my own back yard because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with."
Not exactly Camus or Homer but it will do cause let's face it we are neither. We are a humble humanity lost searching for what can only be found looking in a mirror once we make a moment to put down our little ball of ****e and ask:
What is any afghan looking for, the student this Taliban, the goat heard or the mulla, their mother, her daughter?
Isn't it peace? To go ones way unfettered by the course of nations across oceans or a history past tall white ranges and wide stretches of sand?
Peace, and yet we kill and war for it. Yes we, you and I, your nation and mine, your faith slaughters theirs and theirs enslaves those, even my lack of one is trapped in it's own empty theosophy and as such I have no prayer, only this:
There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.
HR
_____________________________
I prefer my flamenco guitar spicy,
doesn't have to be fast,
should have some meat on the bones,
can be raw or well done,
as long as it doesn't sound like it's turning green on an elevator floor.
www.instagram.com/threeriversguitars
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Date Aug. 19 2021 7:50:55
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Mark2
Posts: 1775
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
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RE: Afghanistan! (in reply to ernandez R)
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Talking with the wife this morning. She was trying to figure out what the truth was regarding the US pullout. Biden says this, another source says that.......I told her the truth is when we lay down at night, we are both sleeping next to the one who we love. That's it. Everything else is uncertain.
quote:
ORIGINAL: ernandez R
The outlook for society? You mean humanity?
I'm thinking we are all like Rob mentioned on his thread, Sisyphus rolling our stone up hill but rather then Homers Greek tale more like Camus and the Absurd: we must hunker down bearing life's load but instead of pushing stones are we not like dung beetles rolling our little balls of **** up hill head down and tail first, oblivious to a world we take ass first , that or just get it over with and suicide.
Humanity was never meant to last, top tier predators never survive, are the first to go as conditions change, it's true, the cockroaches and the sharks will out last us all, perhaps the scarab too.
I think we need fist look inside ourselves, this is where every challenge, each answer can be found. I call it this a ruby red slipper of life, you know, when Glenda the good witch asks Dorothy Gale, yes I even know her last name, what have you learned time in Oz, or was it the Scarecrow?
"Well... I think that it ... That it wasn't enough just to want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em. And it's that if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any farther than my own back yard because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with."
Not exactly Camus or Homer but it will do cause let's face it we are neither. We are a humble humanity lost searching for what can only be found looking in a mirror once we make a moment to put down our little ball of ****e and ask:
What is any afghan looking for, the student this Taliban, the goat heard or the mulla, their mother, her daughter?
Isn't it peace? To go ones way unfettered by the course of nations across oceans or a history past tall white ranges and wide stretches of sand?
My wife and I hada ocnversation this morning. She has been having a tough time during covid. She just lost her uncle the other day.
Peace, and yet we kill and war for it. Yes we, you and I, your nation and mine, your faith slaughters theirs and theirs enslaves those, even my lack of one is trapped in it's own empty theosophy and as such I have no prayer, only this:
There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.
HR
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Date Aug. 19 2021 16:58:59
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Kaloguitarist
Posts: 126
Joined: May 12 2020
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RE: Afghanistan! (in reply to rombsix)
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quote:
So you believed them before? This is no surprise to me whatsoever for some reason. It might go back to when I was a kid and I realized how a News “story” was just that…. A story. In 10 or 20 years some people will write about it or make a movie and we will have a better picture of the “truth”, which is just different perspectives anyway.
Well, not really believed in it, but, with this covid stuff BS..I was looking for some sort of guidance...Everyone at worked got vaccinated, and I finally gave in, but damn, I am not doing no Booster vac...I didn't really buy into the fear, but, i was afraid to push my luck..
quote:
he world is what WE make of it, so don’t waste time blaming others, just do the things that inspire yourself and others that are important to you. I turned off the news long ago, and relaxed to a nice documentary on serial killers.
I like this advise the BEST 
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Date Aug. 20 2021 21:15:14
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BarkellWH
Posts: 3416
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
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RE: Afghanistan! (in reply to Ricardo)
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quote:
So you believed them before? This is no surprise to me whatsoever for some reason. It might go back to when I was a kid and I realized how a News “story” was just that…. A story. In 10 or 20 years some people will write about it or make a movie and we will have a better picture of the “truth”, which is just different perspectives anyway.
Journalists, whether cable, broadcast, or print, are like a bunch of lemmings. In the old days, in the 1930s and in the 40s during World War II, the majority of journalists who had gone to the university majored in history, political science, or perhaps English. In other words, they got an education. Today, most of those reporting the news major in "journalism" and learn about copyright law and, if they apply themselves, can write a decent paragraph. Although judging from much of the writing in newspapers, it is questionable whether many can even put together a decent paragraph. How many times have I seen the term "penultimate" used to mean the "last" or "ultimate end" in a series of actions?
One mark of the lemming-like behavior of today's journalists is that they latch onto a phrase and repeat it endlessly in their reporting. One such phrase is that Afghanistan is "the graveyard of empires." That phrase has been used to describe Afghanistan at least since the turn of the 20th century. It refers to the British and their retreat from Kabul in 1842 which resulted in only one survivor reaching Jalalabad, a British army surgeon named William Brydon, and goes all the way back to Alexander and his march through Afghanistan and the Khyber Pass to what is today Pakistan and the Indus River. And of course the Soviets and their ten-year adventure. Referring to Afghanistan as "the graveyard of empires" makes today's journalists sound sage indeed, although they probably had never heard the phrase in journalism school.
Another phrase beloved by today's journalists is "speaking truth to power." That phrase is so overused it should be retired and forbidden to be uttered or written. Whenever someone objects to a government policy, or some other organizational stance and states his objection, he is described as "speaking truth to power." Those who applaud the phrase seem to think that "speaking truth to power" requires a great deal of courage. It does not. It simply means that the individual in question disagrees with the prevailing policy.
One of the aphorisms in Friedrich Nietzsche's great work, "Die Froeliche Wissenschaft" ("The Joyful Wisdom" or "Science") reminds me of the lemmings in journalism today.
"Look, look, he runs away from men. They follow him, however, because he runs before them. They are a gregarious lot."
Most journalists would fit right in with Nietzsche's laughable gregarious lot.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."
--Rudyard Kipling
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Date Aug. 20 2021 22:32:27
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BarkellWH
Posts: 3416
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
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RE: Afghanistan! (in reply to Ricardo)
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quote:
In other words, when they insisted the vaccine was effective, it was BS. To be fair the booster was warned about as a possibility early on.
The news reports took their cue from the infectious disease specialists who correctly claimed that the vaccines, particularly the Pfizer and Moderna versions, were 95 percent effective. Those who have been fully vaccinated and have tested positive for Covid experience it mildly if at all. The evidence supports the effectiveness of the vaccines, as something like 99 percent of the hospitalizations and deaths from the Delta variant are the unvaccinated.
Now the CDC is advising a third booster vaccine eight months after being fully vaccinated. That does not indicate the vaccine is not effective. No one knew how long the effectiveness of the vaccine would last when they were approved. They are getting a better handle on it now. Again, just because a booster is required doesn't indicate the vaccine is not effective. It is effective, but we may need to have boosters at certain intervals to maintain the effectiveness.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."
--Rudyard Kipling
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Date Aug. 21 2021 17:29:47
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Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3323
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
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RE: Afghanistan! (in reply to Ricardo)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Ricardo
News admission of new data showing the vaccines are not as effective (wearing off fast) is frustrating to all parties. In other words, when they insisted the vaccine was effective, it was BS. To be fair the booster was warned about as a possibility early on.
I don't know who you are talking about insisting the vacccines were effective.
I read most of the scientific or science based info on the vaccines that came my way. Having spent a long career in science and engineering my takeaway was that
1. Over the time period of the trials, the mRNA vaccines were very effective at preventing disease: 94% +/- a few percent.
2. It was unknown how long such immunity would last. In people who recovered from COVid-19, antibody levels were seen to diminish after a number of months.
Note that the preseence of antibodies is not the only indication of immunity. Besides antibodies in the blood stream there are memory cells which promptly promote the production of antibodies when the virus is detected, and other memory cells which promptly destroy infected human cells to limit the replication of the virus.
Since the vaccine tests which enabled the emergency use authorization a new strain of the virus has appeared which is far more contagious, and likely makes you sicker than the strain the vaccines were tested against. In the USA the new strain has seriously sickened younger people more often than the original did.
Furthermore, as time passes more has been learned about how long immunity lasts: perhaps not as long against the new strain as against the original one. The new strain has out-competed the original one. It is now so much more prevalent that it is difficult to compare it to the original strain in current cases.
It is nearly impossible for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for COV-SARS-2 to mistake influenza for COVID-19. The PCR test detects segments of the coronavirus genome that absolutely do not occur in any strain of influenza.
Distinct from the PCR test, the antigen test detects certain proteins that are part of the novel coronavirus. Its false negative rate is higher than the PCR test, but its false positive rate is about the same, very near zero. In other words, this test is more likely to miss a case of COVID-19, but in practice simply will not mistake flu for COVID-19.
I do not insist that nobody misrepresented the scientific results. A lifetime of reading news accounts of things I was personally involved with taught me that respected news sources like the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and even the Scientific American sometimes misunderstood or distorted the facts.
However I am not aware that any of the sources I named have bungled news of the novel coronavirus or the vaccines.
RNJ
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Date Aug. 21 2021 18:10:36
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Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3323
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
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RE: Afghanistan! (in reply to mrstwinkle)
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More than 80% of people in the hospital for COVID-19 in the Austin area are unvaccinated. About 60% of people in the area are vaccinated. The 40% unvaccinated are contributing 80% of hospitalizations.
When the vaccine trials were conducted, the average unvaccinated person infected three other unvaccinated people. The mRNA vaccines were 95% effective in preventing disease, whether asympromatic, presymptomatic or symptomatic. The vaccines were clearly very effective in preventing transmission.
The incidence of disease declined to a low level in July, vaccinated people were unlikely to be infected if exposed. It was fairly safe for vaccinated people to go without masks outdoors, or in sparsely populated areas indoors.
With the new delta strain of the virus, the rate of transmission has gone up from three to around seven. The new strain is clearly more than twice as contagious as the old one. Furthermore there have been more "breakthrough" infections among vaccinated people. Even people without symptoms who are infected by the new strain may carry a heavy viral load in the nose and throat, making them efficient spreaders of the disease.
The delta strain of the virus has made the vaccines less effective as preventers of transmission, so the science based medical advice has changed. There are many more cases of the virus than there were a month ago, the virus is more contagious and the vaccines are less effective.
Limiting social interaction and wearing masks are once again scientifically advisable.
In Texas the political BS is the governor acting contrary to scientific advice based on empirical evidence.
RNJ
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Date Aug. 23 2021 0:37:06
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BarkellWH
Posts: 3416
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
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RE: Afghanistan! (in reply to mrstwinkle)
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The biggest load of BS is coming from those ignorant individuals who think that mandating a mask in order to prevent the transmission of Covid 19 is "taking their freedom away." These yahoos have no idea what freedom is, or more specifically, what lack of freedom is. I have to laugh when I see these guys talking about wearing a mask being equivalent to lack of "freedom."
I know something about what lack of freedom is because I experienced and saw its effect first-hand. My first assignment in the US Foreign Service was to our Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria during 1974-76. It was at the height of the Cold War, and Bulgaria was a hard-line Communist country that slavishly followed Soviet policy so closely that it was known as the 16th Soviet republic.
Bulgarian citizens could not travel abroad, even to other Eastern European Soviet satellite countries. Only the top-level Bulgarian members of the "Nomenklatura" could obtain passports, and then only if they were granted permission. Bulgarian citizens could not move from one region of Bulgaria to another without permission and had to have an "internal passport" to do so. The entire cultural life in Bulgaria was predicated on the old "Socialist Realism" mandated by the authorities in lockstep with the Soviet Union.
Bulgarian citizens could not interact or form friendships with members of the Western diplomatic corps. We could not exhibit friendship with Bulgarian citizens because to do so put them in jeopardy with their own government. We found this out when my wife exchanged friendly greetings with a Bulgarian woman who took care of our apartment building. The woman soon was transferred out to another building. That was a lesson we took to heart when dealing with Bulgarians. Even members of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry had to obtain permission to attend dinners to which we and other US Embassy members invited them.
There were no "stolen" elections in Bulgaria because there were no legitimate elections to steal. No dissent was tolerated, absolutely none. The Bulgarian Committee for State Security (the secret police) kept tabs on both Bulgarian citizens and foreigners, particularly those of us representing Western countries in the Diplomatic Corps. And in 1978 there was the infamous "Markov Affair," in which Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident journalist who had defected to the UK, was assassinated on a London street by a member of the Bulgarian secret police using a ricin-tipped umbrella to puncture him in the thigh.
So all I can say to those ignorant yahoos who cannot distinguish between wearing a mask as a public health measure and repressive lack of freedom is you need to get out more and experience the real world, and stop whining and mewling over something you know nothing about.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."
--Rudyard Kipling
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Date Aug. 23 2021 2:40:48
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Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3323
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
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RE: Afghanistan! (in reply to estebanana)
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Here in Texas we have the worst of both worlds. A law passed in the 1970s allows the governor to declare an emergency, which confers powers upon him to "protect the public."
Our heroic governor duly declared an emergency near the beginning of the pandemic, and has extended it several times, so that it is now in effect. A couple of months ago he employed these emergency powers to prohibit requiring masks, vaccinations, or even asking someone their vaccination status. This was presumably to protect the "rights" of those who complained of infringement upon their "freedom."
The governor is up for reelection next year, and is doing what he can to strengthen his position against primary opponents to the right of him.
With the surge of infections due to the delta variant of the virus and the low rate of vaccination statewide, many school boards initiated mandatory masking on school campuses. They were immediately sued by our Attorney General, who may have the distinction to be the only state Attorney General currently indicted for felonies.
Two restaurants in town posted a requiremen that to dine indoors customers must be vaccinated or show a negative test within 72 hours. The state liquor board threatened to revoke their licenses.
Courts have issued temporary injunctions against the Attorney General's efforts. The hugely popular Willie Nelson Picnic has required vaccination or a negative test to attend. The cases are making their way to the state Supreme Court, which has upheld the governor's voter suppression efforts, also empowered by his emergency declaration.
So we have totalitarian tactics to protect the "freedom" of those who choose to endanger us by refusing to be vaccinated or to wear a mask. This is how the governor employs his emergency powers to "protect" the public.
RNJ
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Date Aug. 23 2021 7:58:42
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