More of a rant than I meant

Just wear the mask. I am sick of hearing it.

You want me to wear a mask, fine. Convince me that's it's the right thing to do. Do not order me to do it. We have representatives who represent us who are supposed to decide what people should and should not do. We are not supposed to be commanded from on high by any one person *cough* Governor Whitmer, *cough* Governor Cuomo *cough* several other governors who think they're God's gift. That's not how a Republic works.

And stop the shaming too, please. Because I want everyone at risk dead. I want everyone over 80 dead. I want every teacher dead and everyone on the front lines dead. There now: have you got the venom out of your system? Because if you really believe I want all that, we have a problem with one another which runs far deeper than whether either one of us ought to mask up.

My trouble with the whole mask thing is the same trouble I have with almost anything else COVID related anymore. It's been more than five months and it's patently obvious the virus isn't the terrible threat our Fearless Leaders want us to believe. It's time to ratchet down that rhetoric. One big way in which we can do that is to let the legislators do what they, not governors or courts, are supposed to do: legislate.

If you don't want that to happen because - gasp - they might not do what you think is best for the body politic, then I say with all due respect you're part of the problem. I will say, again with all due respect, you're petty little dictators yourselves. I hope you are not, because such an attitude is risking all of us getting a dictator. Pray tell, what will you then say when that dictator commands you to do something you don't like? Will he even let you speak?

At one time we may have had to tolerate it. But it's time to stop leading by executive order. The threat, such as it is, does not require it.

Midnight rant

Well, there he goes again. Marty's going to talk all serious and stuff. He's gonna rant.

You know what the trouble is in this old world? When something goes bad or something bad happens, we don't really know what to do, who to believe, or what the actual truth is about what's going on.

So what do we do about BIG SPECTACULAR PROBLEM? We watch news and news shows for information. But here's the rub: I'm not going to believe shrill Chris Cuomo and you're not going to believe shrill Tucker Carlson. That said, I'm not sure any of us should believe shrill anybody. Maybe we should all take a pill and calm down when talking about serious matters. Shrill doesn't help. I'm inclined to say it usually hurts, as it seeds rancor and not harmony. Rancor stymies truth and understanding.

But more than that. We all have our sources we trust and those we don't trust. But can we know who or what to trust?

The recent corona troubles I think highlight this problem. I say reporting is wrong, you say it's not, but where can we find data which reasonably demonstrates who's right? Masks bad, masks good, the virus lives on stainless steel forever but then not so much, social distance good unless you're protesting, blah blah. It all seems to change rather suddenly. And I can't help anyway noticing a certain obvious hypocrisy involved.

Tests are reliable except when they're not. Cases are added and subtracted all the time, and why? On what grounds? Florida testing appears tragi-comically skewed (it was done either through attempting to influence action a certain way or is a result of spectacular ineptitude, and I personally lean towards an attempt to influence policy yet in a particularly stupid manner; how's that for combining points?) and there are issues within Texas about how accurate their counts are. And those are only two states offering, ah, uh, I'll say conflicting information just to be kind. What's a fella to think?

We're told it's a national crisis, yet nearly half of all fatalities have been in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Shouldn't that raise a flag? Please notice I have not yet gotten to questions of political action or incompetence yet. It may be simply that the population there is so dense that transmission is too readily accommodated. Yet political actions must play a part, musn't they? And that after months and months of being told (shrilly) that it's all going to end badly for us IF WE DON'T ACT IMMEDIATELY IF NOT SOONER. That won't entice the political wizards into doing something, just anything, will it? Particularly as they tend to be some of the ones feeding whatever the crisis of the day is.

I believe in a certain thing called common sense (yes, it exists). It is very, very rare that anything requires the immediate and unquestioning extreme actions which corona has caused. Common sense dictates that things almost never are or ever will be as bad as leaders (governmental or societal) insist they will be IF WE DON'T ACT NOW. Please. That exact attitude destroys any real chance common sense might have. Sudden, knee jerk reactions tend not to end well for anybody involved. And I think that's a clue to the real problem here: we want all bad things ended right now kapow. Life don't work that way. It never has and it never will.

Demanding that action, any action, be taken immediately generally only makes the problem worse. We almost never have to make decisions post haste. When we do make such hasty choices, things tend to go south pretty quickly.

The answer? Try as best we can to get good information to act on and then act on it. If we can. I personally would leave a lot more problems to individuals acting cooperatively to figure out as best they can on their own without government getting in the way, because government (and the media) tend only to make things worse. The corona scare I will argue illustrates this point ideally. Shrill sells papers and wins elections. That's all.

This means if you have a health problem go to health care professionals in the private sector because they're the ones truly interested in your health. Their livelihoods depend, directly and immediately, on making you healthy. Personal relationships develop where they care, person to person, about you. There is no personal relationship between you and Dr. Fauci. Government bureaucrats ultimately only care about what influence they can have and how they can keep their cushy job. A job almost certainly without censor if they make a mistake. Even though your life can be ruined when they're wrong.

That's it, I quit. See what you get when Marty wakes up suddenly at 1 AM?

Korean cheerleaders

For the second straight Saturday, I find myself watching live baseball from the Korean professional league. I love hearing again descriptions such as "It's bad when you see the center fielder's number" as the player vainly chased what became a home run over dead center. It's fun just to watch and listen.

The cheerleaders take a little getting used to though. Yes, Korean baseball has cheerleaders; I understand Japanese pro ball has them too. While that's okay so far as it goes, it can be a bit weird. It can even be a bit annoying.

First, there's whistle blowing. All. The. Time. Apparently the cheer leader uses it to call attention to the cheerleading antics. Okay, whatever. Yet it happens too much, methinks. You hear a stupid whistle constantly during telecasts. Stop it already. Just, stop.

Then, there are no fans in the stadiums. The Koreans are playing in empty ballparks due to the corona panic. The obvious question then is, who are they encouraging to cheer?

Still, it's good baseball. It's live and a great diversion. And if you want to get a real taste of Korean baseball but only have a minute, call me and I'll blow a whistle your ear.