Caravans and Blow Guns

 A recent exchange with someone on another blog left me with another data point to support my unoriginal assertion that those who are anti vax / anti mandate / anti everything that isn't a cheeto faced shit gibbon are getting their news from sources that don't just manipulate facts, but ignore them altogether.  I've decided to take a stroll through one of these outlets and blow some shit up, so you don't have to.  

In this instance, I was encouraged to read a story on Conservative-daily's website.  This particular bit of news was how a leaked Department of Defense document stated that hospitalizations doubled after the vaccine was introduced.  Scary, except for it being bullshit.  First, DOD doesn't track that shit, because they're the DOD and not the CDC or NIH.  Second, the supposedly leaked doc was nowhere to be found on the site to validate the story.  My theory is said document only exists in the minds of those who publish the site.  What I discovered to be a recurring theme was the use of this self-admitted inexperienced and non-expert attorney as an expert mouthpiece to give various claims more weight.  This dude is all over the sight and I can't figure out why.  

The lead story today is a standard dog whistle topic - the alleged migrant caravan heading for the US border.  Apparently, there's a leader of that caravan and he's 'declared war' on something.  For the record, this is the same caravan on which the dumb right's been sounding alarm bells about since cheeto face took office.  Either that caravan doesn't exist of it's the slowest fucking thing ever.  And in case one caravan doesn't sufficiently scare you, there's a story about a caravan of migrants from Africa now.  Two fucking caravans heading our way.  Yeah, sure there are.

Another awesome story covers how the left is casting aspersions and calling into question the outcome of the election audit in Arizona, performed by the brilliant folks of Cyberninjas.  Not they're fucking not, because the audit found that not only did Biden win there, but by a larger margin than previously reported.  

Of course, there's a story about how Mark Milley committed treason by having the same conversations with the Chinese that every damned one of his predecessors had.  

Finally, there are a few stories near and dear to my heart, relating to guns.  First is how Dems are trying to push Biden's ATF nominee through, despite objections from Republicans.  Only problem with said story is the president withdrew that gun grabber from consideration several weeks ago.  

The best story on there is the one about the Biden administration banning imports of Russian ammunition and how horrible it is.  First, it's not a complete ban, rather a halt on granting new licenses to import.  Existing licenses will be left alone, preventing an interruption in supply.  Second, the REAL conservative position on the subject would be to absolutely make it more difficult to buy ammo from our enemy, likely through higher tariffs, and engage with domestic suppliers to find out why they can't be competitive.  

I may have signed up to comment on that story...completely by accident, of course. 

Oh wait, this thing is like herpes...it keeps on giving.  The absolute best story on there is about how the FDA is going to force vaccinations and use blow darts to carry them out.  Until I hit that story, there was a part of me that wanted to give the ignorant some benefit of the doubt.  But damn, you have to be a bit of a moron to buy that one.  Blow darts!!!

A Story For All Times

 While I tend to gravitate toward Top Gun as a timeless story that helps me to understand and address any situation, there's another tale I find particularly useful, from a relationship perspective.  I've decided to share it here.

There was once a man who discovered a tiny baby alligator in his back yard.  Being an animal lover, he was afraid the poor thing would perish, being separated from its mother, so he took it in and raised it as a pet.  This man loved his Ricky unconditionally and lavished it with attention.  He gave Ricky massages and only fed him the best alligator chow.  In order for Ricky to feel like it was in its natural habitat, he had an enclosed lagoon built in his back yard, with a hot tub for when the gator was stressed.  He was positive his love and these gestures got through to the now full grown alligator, suppressing the beast's natural predatory instinct.

One day, he was teaching Ricky how to play fetch, when Ricky decided to fetch him and mauled him to death.  The man awoke at the pearly gates, face to face with Saint Peter.    

"I don't understand how this happened!  I loved Ricky with all my heart and did everything I could to demonstrate my affection."

Saint Peter responded, "What do you expect?  He was an alligator and mauling food is what alligators do, you dumb shit!"

The moral of the story is that regardless of how sincere and earnest your actions, you can't change the nature of another and can lose your head over it.  Literally.   

PSA - Getting The Last Word On Tinder

 Since beginning to use the app (off and on), I've found myself in two situations where the interaction ended in a less than amicable manner.  In both cases, I had reached my limit of 'what I'm willing to tolerate for some boom boom' and metaphorically dropped anchor in terms of further entertaining the behavior being exhibited by the other party.  And in both cases, the other party fired off a 'fuck you' note and unmatched with me.  However, I admit to having no real insight into the content of their messages, since unmatching deletes the entire conversation and I never saw them.  Thus, they weren't actually able to get in the last word or parting shot.  

Therefore, the takeaway should be that if you feel the need to fire a last shot and get in the last word on Tinder, wait a few hours to ensure the other party has time to read your fuck you.  Of course, that deprives you the pleasure of unmatching and making that person go away.  Your revised takeaway is you can't have it all.

Under the heading of pleasant surprises, earlier today, I'd been trading notes with a woman who went into full bitch mode and I called her out on it.  There were notifications of additional messages from her, but for the reasons above, I didn't bother looking for them for a bit.  The pleasant surprise was that the message she sent included an apology for being bitchy.  

Vaccine Mandates - Not Tyranny

Hey you!  Yeah, you...turn off Tucker for a moment and listen up.  I bet you're singing along with that whiny little hypocritical shithead that vaccine mandates are tyranny and interfere with your freedoms.   I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you lack access to actual data, only receive Fox and OAN, and that you're not willfully ignorant.

The bottom line is that vaccine mandates aren't tyranny, no matter what you hear from the right wing media.  Worth mentioning is Fox, OAN, and all the other toxic bullshit factories have vaccination mandates for their employees.  If your friend Tucker really believed what he was saying about mandates being tyranny, you'd think he'd be raging against his employer.  But he isn't.  I wonder why that is?  

I realize that should have been the killer punch, but let's dig into some additional food for thought.

I like data, so let's move on to the numbers.  They're big ones, but I've done my best to simplify them so you'll understand.  

There have been six hundred eighty thousand total deaths in the US due to Covid.  Of the one hundred sixty plus million who've been fully vaccinated, there have been one thousand four hundred deaths.  That number represents less than one percent of those who've been vaccinated.  LESS THAN ONE PERCENT!!!  Oh, there were over two thousand deaths from Covid, just yesterday; you can guess how many were vaccinated.  

The vaccine is effective and has saved thousands of lives; it's also FDA approved, so cross that objection off your list.

I know what you're thinking - it's still tyranny to force people to get vaccinated.  You're standing up to be dumb enough to avoid getting jabbed, get the virus, and die in your mobile home.  Trust me, if the virus only impacted the willfully ignorant, I'd be fighting alongside you, defending your right to demonstrate natural selection at work.  If only it worked that way.  

The vaccine is effective against the current variants, but viruses mutate as they're spread around, until they morph into a variant the vaccine can't defend against.  This is why you need a flu shot every year; to protect from the latest mutations.  Ultimately, the spread by the unvaccinated will allow Covid to mutate into one of those variants that the current vaccine can't fight and we'll be back to square one.  Those who remain ignorant and unvaccinated are lengthening the pandemic and making it more difficult to fight.

Even with the current variants, stupid mother fuckers like you are winding up in ICU's hand over fist and are taking beds that are needed for those whose conditions weren't preventable with a fucking shot.  There have been dozens of accounts where someone having a major cardiac issue or something equally critical have either wound up dying for lack of a bed or had to be transported several hundred miles away from home, because that's where the closest empty bed was located.

You and those like you have blood on your hands from the deaths you cause every damned day you remain unvaccinated.  These deaths are your fault, Fudd.

Do employers really have the right to mandate vaccinations?  Damn skippy they do, for two main reasons.  First, they pay your fucking health insurance and the costs go through the roof when they have a bunch of dumb fucks get sick from Covid, not to mention lost productivity because your dumb ass isn't working.  More importantly, they have a legal obligation to provide their employees with a safe working environment.  A bunch of spreaders running around is the opposite of safe.  The Federal government is the largest employer in the US and are subject to the same shit as other employers.  So is your corner coffee shop, hotel, and every other business you infect by walking into every day.  

In summary, neither you nor I have the personal freedom to kill those around us by spreading a deadly virus.  Not much different than walking around with an open jar of anthrax.

Finally, the above also applies to mask mandates.  Those of you who decry such measures in schools because you know what's best for your kids are killing them too.  

User Interfaces - WTF??

Another in my Old Man Ranting Series

There seems to be an unwritten rule amongst those who create user interfaces for software, apps, and other consumer devices.  That is once users have become accustomed to finding everything they need, we must change the fucking interface.  Until tonight, my ire was mostly kept in check, but I hit two major 'gotta change' landmines within the past 48 hours and I'm pissed.  Strangely, the same culprit laid both mines.  

Yesterday, I decided I wanted to use the Amazon music app for the errand run I was about to embark on.  When my phone hooked up to my Bluetooth stereo, the screen changed to what I came to discover was car mode.  And fuck, this thing made no sense.  I couldn't find the specific music I wanted to listen to.  Was Amazon thinking 'Let's cause people to crash their cars by making them have to figure out a whole new UI that was created to prevent people from crashing their cars.'  I'll spare you my tirade about parties deciding for you what you should see.  Fortunately, I could disable it and did at my first stop.

Then tonight, when I kicked on my Fire TV for entertainment before jumping on my treadmill, I was greeted by a 'we've updated your experience' screen, followed by a two minute video explaining how they'd fucked everything up...I mean moved everything to where I can't find it...oh, fuck it, you know what I mean.  Getting out of the video was challenging; it really wanted you to see the masterpiece.  Profanity echoed from the walls of my gym!  Fortunately, I was able to get to the content I wanted quickly.

In all fairness, I shouldn't be surprised at Amazon fucking shit up.  The hardware they make, or more accurately the hardware they have made to put their name on, is almost universally shit.  The aforementioned Fire TV was the second in that location and 4th or 5th replacement overall.  Don't get me started on the new Kindle.  The first generation was a simple device; reliable, durable, easy to use, and had real buttons.  This latest version is a handheld advertisement that's anything but intuitive and utilizes a touch screen that no longer contains information such as progress through the book you're reading or how much battery you have left.  And the processor makes it...the...slowest...hand...held...device...you've...ever...seen.  My decade old Kindle was much faster, had greater functionality, and didn't barrage me with ads.  Unfortunately, the battery took the big dirt nap, leaving me no choice but to replace it.

Back to the UI topic.  The biggest offender of them all, with respect to moving shit around unnecessarily, is Microsoft.  My job requires me to use Office; Outlook, Powerpoint, Excel are daily staples.  The upgrade associated with Windows 10 was an abomination, with features and functions moved all over the place, and some actually being removed.  The learning curve was insane and I'm still not as adept with it as I'd been with the previous versions.  Were I to hold Bill Gates at knifepoint and force him to tell me why he committed such blasphemy, I'm sure he'd whimper something about it being more intuitive.  Considering that current users, who'd already gotten used to the UI, outnumber new users who might find the new UI easier to learn, by about one trillion to one, I think most would agree that fucking up the existing UI to be fucking moronic.  

To those who have any input in designing this sort of stuff, let me offer some words of advice.  If you implement a facelift to your UI that requires users watch a two fucking minute video guide, you've failed and are undeserving of your job or life.  If your new UI requires any sort of acclimation curve versus the old one, you're a failure.  Users of consumer devices don't want to have to figure out your shit more than once.  After the initial learning curve, which had better be brief, they want to pick up their device and use it NOW.  People don't like new and unimproved. 

Fucking Filters

This subject isn't anything new, but I don't recall seeing a proper rant on the topic.  Therefore, I'm picking up the mantel and including it in my Old Man Ranting Series

Technology has delivered to us digital camera technology that yields photos with amazing clarity and resolution.  Today, even cell phone cameras yield superior quality, compared to high end digital cameras of even a few years ago.  With all of this amazing capability, it would follow that dating profile pictures would be crystal clear, but sadly, this isn't the case.  Someone created some filter app (maybe there's more than one; how would I know?) that allows the user to soft focus pictures to felony level, making it almost impossible to distinguish someone's features.  And a considerable number of women are utilizing this filter to laughable results.  Perhaps men are as well, but I don't look at their dating profiles.  Seriously, I've seen so many of these that I almost scheduled a doctor's visit to be checked for cataracts.  The worst are the ones who dial in eye liner enhancements to max level, making them appear ready for the next best horror film and causing small children to cry.

I'm sure most of my readers share my position that these filters have no place on dating sites.   Unless you plan on meeting someone after consuming half a bottle of Don Julio, you want their photos to provide an accurate representation of who you're about to meet.  Perhaps the only exception to posting such photos would be if someone had their portrait done by Annie Leibovitz and she incorporated some sort of filter.  But the most gifted portrait photographer on the planet doesn't use soft focus, so there goes that excuse.  Look, none of us become more attractive from our late forties onward; it's a fact of life.  And try as you might, those filters don't fix ugly, so if you're using them, save yourself the guaranteed ghosting after (or during) your first date.   

Some will never give up their squint inducing fog filters.  I recently saw a profile on the Big T where not only were filters used in the manner I've described, but the woman was positively combative about using them.  Apparently, potential matches challenged her on the subject and she was asserting her right to post pictures that didn't look like her.

While on the subject of filters, if you're past forty years old, leave the fucking snap chat filters alone.  Unless it was a Halloween costume, bunny ears, cat whiskers, etc. don't paint you as playful or fun.  It just screams immature.  Worse yet, the majority of those you love the bunny ears typically run the picture through the Don Julio blur filter first, completely obscuring any facial detail.  A forty something woman that does that screams she's trying to hide ugly.   

Embrace who you are and be proud of it, people.

My Own First Scammer

 If you've read my blog, you know that I'm no stranger to scammers, having dealt with the African ones who stole all of my father's savings.  However, today is the first time I've encountered a scammer on a dating site.  In all fairness, it's surprising it took this long.  I'd sent a note to a woman who seemed interesting; she was neither 27 nor out of my league.  In fact, she wasn't as attractive as most of the women I've dated.  Her response was that she's out of sorts due to a migraine and $65 short to buy the meds.  "Feel like death is so bad."

It's funny, because the tactic is the total opposite from what would work on me, if anything really would motivate me to send some unknown chick money.  Even if I were completely clueless about scams, I still wouldn't have sent her money due to her behavior being a complete turnoff.  

Regular readers know I can't just ignore a scammer and not fuck with them.  I just sent her a note, stringing her along, the intent being to see how much energy I can suck out of her.  Perhaps the next will be an offer to share some of my (non-existent) migraine meds if she comes over, ready for a gang bang, once they kick in.