Althouse: At the Smooth Aster Café...

September 21, 2020

At the Smooth Aster Café...

... you can write about whatever you want.

43 comments:

Lawrence Person said...: Enjoy this week's edition of BidenWatch.; 9/21/20, 8:15 PM
Mark said...: Biden: Trump can't pick! The people have a right to decide!

Observer: OK, Trump says he will pick from this group of people. Who are your picks so that the people can make their decision.

Biden: Shut up. I'm not telling.; 9/21/20, 8:17 PM
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...: Hooves and horns and vacant stare,
Their long tails waving in the air
They act as though they do not care
I see them every day.

I've looked at cows from both sides now
From left and right, and still somehow,
It's cows' confusion I recall;
I really don't like cows ... at all.

I have to mow the field today.
I've work to do, but there they stay.
They stand around, just munching hay.
Those cows are in my way.

I've looked at cows from all sides now,
Deep in thought with furrowed brow.
In Winter, Summer, Spring, and Fall
I really don't like cows ... at all.

Pies and puddles, methane gas;
I tell myself this too will pass.
They stand there calmly chewing grass.
I wish they'd go away.

I've watched those beasts for decades now,
In field and pasture, on my plow.
For hours milking in the stall,
I do not like those cows ... at all.; 9/21/20, 8:24 PM
Narr said...: Bravo! @HXG

Narr
Just what I needed; 9/21/20, 8:32 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: "quiet reversals" of 1619 Project, Covid stats, HCQ bans...

The New York Times Deceptively Edits False Claim At The Center Of 1619 Project
The 1619 Project's Nikole Hannah-Jones was vocal about making the argument that 1619 is America's "true founding." Now, she's quietly walking it back with no correction.

A look at the source code of the original description found through internet archives confirms that lead essayist Nikole Hannah-Jones and the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project removed the line “understanding 1619 as our true founding,” from the description of the project sometime after August 2019."

https://thefederalist.com/2020/09/21/nyt-deceptively-edits-false-claim-at-the-center-of-1619-project/

"Wow. I thought people were joking about Nikole Hannah-Jones deleting her entire tweet history. But apparently she really did. Not a good look. Has there been any explanation for why she and NYT aren’t being transparent about the 1619 Project?"
per @shadihamid

leftist media misinforming to dumb down
leftist pols then take advantage of the LIV; 9/21/20, 8:42 PM
bagoh20 said...: Was watching Bill Whittle's podcast the other night, and they mentioned Althouse, but I was surprised they didn't talk abut her smooth aster.; 9/21/20, 9:06 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Masks are the new bra.; 9/21/20, 9:11 PM
paminwi said...: Yes, as Jew, Ginsburg should already be buried.
Sincerely, how do we know she hasn’t been?
Her family and the libs would be happy to have an empty casket sitting In the SC.
Plus, have a good laugh as it was happening.
I don’t trust a damn one of these people at all any more.; 9/21/20, 9:25 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: more on those virtue-signalling racists at Princeton

Princeton “Racism” Investigation is Trump’s Opening to Dismantle Academia’s Anti-White Agenda

Princeton said the school was often, “by conscious intention,” racist. Now that it might face the slightest consequence from the federal government, though, the school says it complies with all federal non-discrimination laws.

Princeton’s sanctimony and hypocrisy exposes the vast sham of the left’s modern, critical race theory-informed version “racism.”

To the average American, and according to the Civil Rights Act, “racism” has a relatively clear meaning: Treating people differently on the basis of race.
In the modern, critical race theory version of racism, though, racism is mystical in nature. It is essentially a spiritual force that inhabits all institutions.

https://www.revolver.news/2020/09/trump-princeton-investigation-can-dismantle-anti-white-academia/; 9/21/20, 9:30 PM
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...: Thx, Narr.; 9/21/20, 9:54 PM
gilbar said...: Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

well done!
but don't Forget! cows are TASTY; 9/21/20, 9:54 PM
gilbar said...: a theme starts to emerge!
https://twitter.com/i/status/1306089949264056320; 9/21/20, 10:20 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: From another thread:

Blogger rightguy said...

"Win one for the Bader"

(It is funny how the dems are falling all over themselves to politicize a bigwig funeral-again. Funny, because its never worked before)

Which raises an interesting question. Biden was conspicuous at the Lewis funeral by his absence. Can he afford to skip this one? Won't he have to say something?; 9/21/20, 10:27 PM
FullMoon said...: Haha!

"Margot Cleveland
@ProfMJCleveland
·
59m
When @realDonaldTrump
names Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee for the Supreme Court, he should introduce her by saying "she is a devout Catholic, like my Democratic opponent, Joe Biden."; 9/21/20, 10:37 PM
stevew said...: Isn't the first presidential campaign debate sometime soon? I see it is Sept 29, a week from now. I don't usually watch these things but I'll be watching this one. Two or three days after Trump nominates someone for the SCOTUS vacancy (I refuse to call it the "Ginsberg replacement"). Will Slo' Joe have produced a list of nominees by then? Will Palsy Pelosi have kicked off another impeachment effort? Will Shifty Schiff poop himself? How far will the debate moderator(s) go to help and advance Slo' Joe's performance? Will Trump attack or be reserved out of deference to obviously enfeebled opponent?

So many questions.; 9/22/20, 4:44 AM
tim maguire said...: Stevew, same. I don’t usually watch as nothing substantive happens usually and I’m not good at guessing how other people will respond, so I’m better off reading the reactions the next day. But this time I’m curious to see how Biden does. I think he'll perform well enough, just like he did in the primary debates, but there is a non-zero chance that by the time we’re an hour in, he’ll curl up on the floor, suckIng his thumb or fake a heart attack and be carried off the stage while Jill Biden reassures the country that she is ready step in and run for him.; 9/22/20, 5:32 AM
Jaq said...: "I recently came across this study on cloth masks being ineffective in 'high-risk situations.' The study concluded that moisture retention, reuse, and poor filtration could increase wearers’ risk of infection. We are being asked to use cloth masks on campus and in other places; should we be doing something different?"

The study you cite involved healthcare workers who experienced repeated exposures to the virus due to very close, often physical, contact with infected patients — the very definition of “high-risk situations.” Not surprisingly, the study showed that cloth masks did not protect against infection as well as medical-grade masks.

Hmph...

Real-world “experiments” are also persuasive. In one early case, a man flew from Wuhan to Toronto with a dry cough and subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. He wore a mask during the flight, and no other passengers tested positive. In a more recent instance, two hair stylists employed in a newly reopened hair salon in Springfield, Missouri, worked on a combined 140 clients while sick with COVID-19. Everyone wore a mask per state order, and no clients tested positive.

https://medical.mit.edu/covid-19-updates/2020/07/do-cloth-masks-work

That’s kind of remarkable for “useless rags that only serve to demonstrate state power over people.”

Japan worked their way through the crisis without many shutdowns through a highly complied with mask regime with a death rate almost two orders of magnitude smaller than here in the US. If only there were a cheap effective way for the US to bring the virus under control.... Shutdowns are far too heavy handed and not worth the cost, I agree. If only there were a simple way. But masks are embarrassing to people, so they are out.; 9/22/20, 5:34 AM
Jaq said...: "symbolic mask of submission” - from Sarah Hoyt’s posts on Insty

Shutdowns were an extravagant waste, masks work, Hoyt’s opinion notwithstanding.; 9/22/20, 5:46 AM
walter said...: Alex Berenson
@AlexBerenson
·
7h
Attention citizens! Your Dept. Of Pandemia awards a Special Citation to the 276 teachers in Kenosha, Wisconsin who called in sick today. These Educational Heroes (TM) love their students too much to teach in person. True selflessness. Attention citizens!; 9/22/20, 6:24 AM
AllenS said...: Looks like there are at least 276 voters for Biden in Kenosha, WI.; 9/22/20, 6:47 AM
tim maguire said...: tim in vermont said...Shutdowns were an extravagant waste, masks work, Hoyt’s opinion notwithstanding.

Exactly, masks are such a simple thing, and their effectiveness is demonstrated throughout the world. That so many people have declared this the hill they're willing to die on (literally, in some cases) boggles the mind.; 9/22/20, 7:12 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Yim in Vermont... Wear yours all FLU season?; 9/22/20, 7:22 AM
Lewis said...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RJehnopgR0; 9/22/20, 7:40 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: “ Exactly, masks are such a simple thing, and their effectiveness is demonstrated throughout the world. That so many people have declared this the hill they're willing to die on (literally, in some cases) boggles the mind.”

Evidence wishful thinking.; 9/22/20, 7:54 AM
walter said...: Waukesha County Republican party denies distribution of signs that say "Vote no for Joe and the ho"
No joke!; 9/22/20, 8:06 AM
walter said...: We should compare health of Japan's elderly to ours.
That would be "embarrassing".; 9/22/20, 8:08 AM
Jaq said...: "Wear yours all FLU season?”

If you had ever looked at any of my links, you would have known that simple masks are not nearly as useful against the flu virus, as it passes through them almost like a chain link fence, just like the rhinovirus. It’s an amazing stroke of luck that it works on the coronavirus, probably due to the static charge of the virus particles, IDK.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0843-2/figures/1

But yeah, I will probably be wearing a mask on airplanes or any other mass transit the rest of my life, because I don’t like catching the flu, or a cold, and if they can reduce the odds, count me in.; 9/22/20, 8:14 AM
Jaq said...: "Looks like there are at least 276 voters for Biden in Kenosha, WI.”

I know nobody asked, but here is my opinion on teachers. Their retirement plans are so good that it becomes nearly impossible for them to change jobs, even long after they have burned out or just wish they could do something different. The old joke is true, “A teacher is somebody who used to like kids."; 9/22/20, 8:18 AM
Jaq said...: "Evidence wishful thinking.”

Says the man who refuses to look at the evidence.; 9/22/20, 8:43 AM
Lewis said...: You got a stomach, haven't you? A very small stomach, a stomach that can go 'aaqar' and 'ash'. 'Water' and acks as a friend, whether distal of 'fried bacon'. I know truth, I know history; 9/22/20, 8:49 AM
Jaq said...: Using masks effectively simulates herd immunity to the coronavirus. Herd immunity is not perfect, yet people here were willing to allow hundreds of thousands to die seeking it.

The real heavy hand of government has been the shutdowns, of course. They may have been justified by our ignorance coupled with the huge body counts in Italy and NYC at the beginning, but there is no justification for them now. BTW, Tokyo is a city on the scale of New York, with a heavy dependence of mass transportation.

What was different? Oh, it’s that the elderly in Japan are healthier than those in the United States? That explains the two orders of magnitude difference in deaths per million. This is why I am always mocking you guys with “math is hard.”

Maybe though you could work it out for me, how the difference in health between our elderly populations adds up to a difference of 617 deaths per million on one side, and 12 deaths per million on the other. Sometimes math can lead to non-intuitive results, so I’m all ears.; 9/22/20, 8:53 AM
walter said...: Retirement plan, protection from meaningful performance accountability. What's not to like?; 9/22/20, 9:01 AM
Michael McNeil said...: “Evidence wishful thinking.”

Says the man who refuses to look at the evidence.

Well, tim in vermont, what shall we call what you're doing: “Evidence of willful deception”?

You're deliberately ignoring the kind of mask usage that Sarah Hoyt is explicitly talking about: to wit, being required to put on a mask just to get through the restaurant door — whereupon everyone sits in close-packed (or even spread-out) tables for hours on end without masks.

So you're saying that — whether masks theoretically or actually work when (medically-effective masks) are used as designed — when in this application they serve as anything other than theater? Bullshit.

Such an application indeed is likely to take lives rather than save them — by encouraging people to think that they're safe in so doing.; 9/22/20, 9:11 AM
Jaq said...: "when in this application they serve as anything other than theater?”

So that’s your whole beef with masks, that local governments are loathe to put restaurants completely out of business so they allow restaurants to serve people willing to take the risk of eating indoors as a small reprieve?

I don’t think that restaurants should be forced to close, but I think that masks should be worn wherever practical to do so where people are in close contact, especially indoors. Ya got me on inconsistency there!

What you do is make an unsupported inference that because of this compromise made in the interests of not *completely* destroying a kind of small business that masks themselves are therefore nothing but theater. Simply "symbolic mask of submission.”

The fact is that masks work on a population level, even though they are not perfect, and even though their use is not perfect. Even when a part of the public is simply too stupid or unwilling to use them as designed.

whereupon everyone sits in close-packed (or even spread-out) tables for hours on end without masks.

You are kind of exaggerating there, but what I thought was really kind of sad about Hoyt’s comments today was the idea that they check the level of COVID wherever they are, and if it’s low, they don’t worry. This is how the plague spread through Europe, people sought out areas where there was no plague as a kind of escape, and brought it there.

If you are in a forest where fire conditions are dangerous, you hold all matches *until cold*. Even where the risks are low, it should be tamped down, because it’s going to come right back at us as soon as we let our guard down. Maybe there will never be an effective vaccine, maybe, since the immunity to it is only temporary, it will never go away, always laying in wait to take our older loved ones untimely to their graves, since it’s possible to catch it twice. https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200824/study-confirms-its-possible-to-catch-covid-twice At that point, I guess it will be up to each of us to decide what we are willing to do to protect the elderly and the otherwise vulnerable among us, but we aren’t there yet. If we would rather not wear a mask, well too bad so sad for Aunt Martha with her high blood pressure, or Uncle Chester with his extra fifty pounds. Better luck next life!

Nothing I say here means I support shutdowns, BTW.; 9/22/20, 10:37 AM
Jaq said...: "Such an application indeed is likely to take lives rather than save them — by encouraging people to think that they're safe in so doing.”

I kind of agree with you that it’s stupid to eat indoors in a crowded restaurant right now, but I am not going to advocate taking away your right to be stupid at the cost of somebody’s livelihood. People at a higher risk of death from COVID can simply order take out if they have to eat restaurant food. The old joke, “What do you want? Morons to live forever?” comes to mind.

But study after study of real-world mask mandates, and the examples of countries, and even among US states that mandated masks and didn’t, show that mask mandates save lives.

16 per million dead Japan, 600+ per million dead in the US and Sweden. Japan has a far higher population density than the US, BTW.; 9/22/20, 10:45 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: “16 per million dead Japan, 600+ per million dead in the US and Sweden. Japan has a far higher population density than the US, BTW.”

Where are you getting your statistics? Sundowner Joe Hiden?; 9/22/20, 12:57 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: The latest in the Soros coverup involving Fox News apparently involved the Tucker Carlson show last night. He apparently had a segment on Soros buying a lot of DAs and AGs, and his bought and paid for politicians refusing to charge AntiFA and BLM commie scum for their very visible manifest crimes. And that segment was later excised from a quasi official recording of his night’s broadcast. It is, of course, still visible, since many, including me, habitually record Carlson’s shows. This comes several days after former Speaker Newt Gingrich was shut down by Dem operative Marie Harf on Fox’s Outnumbered for mentioning the same scandal. Tucker Carlson, of course, has the highest rating cable news show in the country.

There is a saying that when there is smoke, look for the fire. Soros is never mentioned in a derogatory manner on any of the other news shows. But it is interesting to contemplate his power if mention of him and his political purchases can be suppressed in Fox News too, and esp on their biggest money making show.; 9/22/20, 1:13 PM
Anthony said...: Masks.

Don't.

Work.

Universal Masking in Hospitals in the Covid-19 Era

We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection.

But that was back in May before The Science magically changed.

Blah blah blah Japan Blah blah blah. Nothing controlled whatsoever. Stop pretending to know anything about epidemiology.; 9/22/20, 3:01 PM
Jaq said...: "We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection.”

This was written in May when people still knew very little, all of the referenced research is from February and March. So it wasn’t even up to date for May. in July the WHO came out against masking and walked it back the next day after the shitstorm from people doing the actual research hit them.

You guys are always grasping at straws. Which dishonest opinion writer fed you that link? Notice that the writer does mention how masks were widely used in East Asia, places where the death count, outside of ground zero China, has remained low. Does that even sort of suggest anything to you?

Also all of the references cited come from February and March. So it’s not even like it’s up to date for May.

"Where are you getting your statistics? Sundowner Joe Hiden?"

Speaking of grasping at straws, read it again slowly. Read all the words. Maybe that’s your problem, reading comprehension.; 9/22/20, 5:27 PM
Jaq said...: Guess what Anthony. Just as I suspected, and when I went through the cites I found, the author of your paper has walked it back.

We understand that some people are citing our Perspective article (published on April 1 at NEJM.org)1 as support for discrediting widespread masking. In truth, the intent of our article was to push for more masking, not less. It is apparent that many people with SARS-CoV-2 infection are asymptomatic or presymptomatic yet highly contagious and that these people account for a substantial fraction of all transmissions.2,3 Universal masking helps to prevent such people from spreading virus-laden secretions, whether they recognize that they are infected or not.4
We did state in the article that “wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection,” but as the rest of the paragraph makes clear, we intended this statement to apply to passing encounters in public spaces, not sustained interactions within closed environments. A growing body of research shows that the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission is strongly correlated with the duration and intensity of contact: the risk of transmission among household members can be as high as 40%, whereas the risk of transmission from less intense and less sustained encounters is below 5%.5-7 This finding is also borne out by recent research associating mask wearing with less transmission of SARS-CoV-2, particularly in closed settings. We therefore strongly support the calls of public health agencies for all people to wear masks when circumstances compel them to be within 6 ft of others for sustained periods.
Michael Klompas, M.D., M.P.H.
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2020836

Let me break out that last bit so as you don’t miss it.

We therefore strongly support the calls of public health agencies for all people to wear masks when circumstances compel them to be within 6 ft of others for sustained periods.; 9/22/20, 6:05 PM
Jaq said...: "But that was back in May before The Science magically changed.”

It’s a new fucking virus, patched together in a CRISPR machine, and escaped from the lab less than a year ago. In the West for 4 months at the time that was written. Far less when the cited studies were made. It’s amazing to me that, as was said above, this is a hill you want to kill your credibility on.; 9/22/20, 6:08 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: Correction

“16 per million dead Japan, 600+ per million dead in the US and Sweden. Japan has a far higher population density than the US, BTW.”

Where are you getting your statistics? Sundowner Joe Biden?; 9/22/20, 7:02 PM
Jaq said...: Read harder Bruce.; 9/22/20, 9:07 PM