When politics trumps science

Much like the difference between the ideals of the founders of the United Nations and the actuality, we now see the reality of the WHO (World Health Organization) and how they failed the world over politics.

China asked WHO to “Cover Up” coronavirus on Jan 21. (maybe true, maybe not…but I;d bet it is true)

So for nearly a MONTH the world failed to plan for, or take measures against, the outbreak of Covid 19. How many folks died because of the delay, especially in Europe?

(Now, I think we and most of western Europe overreacted, but we did so too late. Really, China should have told us back in early December, but….)

Remember the US pays approximately 40% of the WHO costs. Why are we paying for this sort of failure? 

Sad, but true

It has been my plan for many years.

The best answer to ANY question when asked by Law Enforcement of any kind, or anyone connected to them, (or, sadly, to ANY government official, be they a dogcatcher, a Code Enforcement person, a tax official, a boiler inspector, or a clerk at the tax office:

“Attorney”…That is the best (and for me, the only) answer.

Don’t believe me? Read this for inspiration. He’s correct, and not just because our philosophies happen to parallel in this. There is seldom an upside to talking to Federal, state, or local officials,….Especially, but not limited to, Law Enforcement types.

It isn’t just Flynn and Jewell…It’s also Weaver and Koresh and lots of others. It is the attitude of those with that type of power and training. Once you get caught up in their gears, you are screwed.

Don’t let it be you.

Be polite,
Be decent.

Be firm….:”Lawyer“.

Aye, and there’s the rub….:

The Freeholder said… (in a comment to a post down below)
Actually, masks do work to help reduce infection rates. Why do you think the medical types wear them?

However, there are two prerequisites for this to work. First, everyone has to wear them. Second, they must be worn correctly to be effective. (emphasis mine)



And there’s the rub. Not everyone wears them–I don’t, because I have a beard and given that, I’m just wasting the mask. Others don’t for their own reasons. Of those that do, around 3/4, in my experience, wear them incorrectly. I’ve seen every violation of mask protocol imaginable during my trips outside the wire.


My opinion is that, unless we all wear them and wear them correctly, we may actually be making things worse via a false sense of security. For now, I’m just going with avoiding people where possible and washing my hands. It’s worked so far.




Yes, masks work to prevent the wearer from passing his or her spittle on to the rest of the herd. If THEY are wearing a mask, and they cough, it prevents their virus laden droplets from spewing into the air from me ingest when I breathe. As far as a single layer mask preventing them from ingesting any virus particles? Pretty much useless. and about half of the masks are just that: a single layer of cloth that won’t even filter fine dust very well…. As for spittle droplets, the masks are somewhat effective PROVIDING THEY ARE WORN CORRECTLY…. Less than 30% of the people I encounter are eve coming close to wearing their (somewhat effective) masks correctly.

Paper masks:
Worn under the nose. Useless.
improperly fitted at the nose. Pretty much useless. IF there is a gap that one can stick one’s finger into at any point around the periphery of the mask, then one might as well not wear the mask.
2 strap masks, but only one strap, the other hanging loosely….see above.
Paper surgical masks….don’t do much to help the wearer. Especially those where any observer can see the side of the wearer’s mouth…useless for protecting the wearer.

Cloth masks:
Single layer cloth masks…again, help keep some droplets from entering the user’s mouth or nose. If worn correctly. Most have the same fitment issues as the above referenced paper masks.
Same-same for wearing them when they are not covering one’s nose.  Or tight enough not to leak.

In addition to the above: Let’s face it, if I (or you) haven’t gotten exposed to Covid-19 yet, then I (or you) will be exposed at some point when we open up the country. We have all been to the store, or other places, in the past 6 weeks, most of us not wearing a mask. And the virus has been here since at least early December. Currently, there is no vaccine, so the only way to get immunity is to roll the dice and get the damned disease, and either get over it (43%), be asymptomatic (probably about 50%) , or get sick enough to require hospitalization (6%). It could be that you are part of the < 1% that die from it.
But exposed to it you will be in the next few months. For sure by the end of the year. All the “Social Distancing” or “Lockdown” does is to spread the infection times over a few moths rather than a few weeks…the whole idea was to prevent a sudden influx of cases (because the virulence was MASSIVELY overstated) to prevent the overwhelming of the health care system (which, never happened, even in such places like the greater New York area, which accounted for 40% of ALL the cases in the US.

So yes, wearing a mask can help. If worn correctly. Few do….. by my small number of observations, less that 1/3 wear them correctly. Most ineffectively enough as to be useless. It has become a fashion, nothing more. And even wearing a mask does not keep one from being exposed. In the end, you WILL be exposed. Most  of us will not even know it, some will be mildly sick and a few will get VERY sick.
The whole mask wearing/social distancing/hide-in-our-homes will not prevent us from the effects of the disease if we re going to resume our normal lives at any point.

Besides, the TOP. MEN.  at the CDC told us masks don’t work. Either they don’t know what they are talking about or they were lying. Which is it? Either way, why should we trust anything they say? They said we would need tens of thousands of hospital beds and ventilators. That turned out not to even be close, either. Such “experts”.

This whole thing is bullshit. You know it, I know it and it is only the Media that is telling you (and that you believe) otherwise that is making you hide in your home and behind a mask. 

Just for fun….

Since the new fashion (and, often, requirement) is to have some sort of covering over one’s face (or at least appear to, anyway), if I could find a cloth mask printed with a representation of the one Hannibal Lecter had, I’d pay good money for it.

Of course, then, I’d have to do stupid things like wear it while buying Fava beans and all that shit, 

So how many DOJ and FBI

agents and investigators and prosecutors (and their flunkies) are gonna go to jail over this?

How many are gonna get kicked off the Federal Government payroll?

How many gonna lose their retirement and that wonderful set of  Federal Government benefits?

Seems that as things got looked into, the Federal Government (Department of “Justice”) is gonna drop their case against Michael Flynn.

Anyone involved in this should be kicked off of the Government payroll, banned from serving in any Government job, and, if possible, prosecuted and imprisoned.  If they are attorneys, they should be disbarred and prevented from ever doing any legal work, ever.

But I will bet a cookie that they will all skate. 

Hey, your store, your rules:

But I will remember the stupidity and choose to shop elsewhere from now on…

So I went to Menards home improvement store Wednesday for a can of spray paint and a 4 foot piece of one inch black pipe.

The spray paint is for the cylinder so it won’t rust when I put it back on the backhoe (now that the cylinder is fixed) and the pipe is for a lever so I can get the mounting ears for the cylinder bent back into position with a torch and some leverage.

Now,  I have gone to Menards during our time when only (ahem) “essential” businesses were open more or less weekly (I refuse to hide from this disease that is not much more contagious, virulent, nor deadly than many other “Pandemics” in my lifetime) and, until now, have never had any issues. I have walked it, bought my items, stayed 6 feet from other customers, and left. Unmasked. I sanitized my hands once in the car, and that was that.

Until as I say, Wednesday, when I attempted to enter the store only to be politely, but firmly told by the nice young (and new) security guard (who was a new addition to the store…they never had security before) that I had to wear a mask or I could not enter the store. He politely informed me that if I did not have a mask, I could buy one for $1 at the desk right there….

Now, I don’t get it. For 6 weeks, Menards has allowed people in the store, even for non-“essential” items during the “stay at home order suggestion….and never required a mask. Now that the order is lifted, they require a mask on their customers. Why now? WTF? Why not all those other 6 weeks? If it is for safety, either of their customers or their staff, then why did they not require masks for the previous 6 weeks? Or is it something else?

We won’t even discuss the so-called masks nor the failure in fitting or wearing….as long as one had something covering the lower half of their face, it was ok. Forget that fully half of the masks would not have protected either the wearer nor others around them. They were wearing a mask, so it was ok.

This is getting to be bullshit, The Social Conditioning is starting to worry me. Not only because my fellow citizens are going along (what happened to common sense and the American Spirit?) but because they are simply not bothering to think about the effectiveness of what they are being led told to do. 

Thousands of New Cases!!!!!!!

Of course we are seeing a rise in CASES.

We are testing a greater number of people.

Are we seeing a rise in deaths? No. At least not so far. Nor a rise in hospitalizations either.

Which means that there were a lot of people running around with Covid-19 weeks ago, and we simply did not know it. Now we do, BECAUSE WE ARE TESTING FOR IT IN GREATER NUMBERS. 


Of course, for Liberals and Journalists, this concept is apparently very difficult to grasp.

Cleaning and disinfecting NYC’s subways

Oddly, the City of New York is only now disinfecting their subway cars.

For the first time, the city has shut down the subway and is cleaning and disinfecting their cars. All at onece.
One wonders why now? Why not a few weeks ago, when people were dying like flies and the bodies were stacked like cordwood outside of the hospitals when the infection rate was climbing and the city was first shut down?

WTF? I don’t get the timing at all. Why not earlier?  Something doesn’t make sense here.

But that is true of many of the actions by city, state and federal officials in the “Crisis”.
I smell something and it doesn’t smell very nice.

And the C182 is done

Today, I’m gonna orbit the airport for an hour and do some break-in on the refurbished cylinders.

Hopefully, no engine issues, but that’s why I am gonna orbit the airfield…..

If all is good, then I will resume flying it for IFR training and then, as the country opens up, imma gonna start visiting people again.

Meat Packing Plants

So apparently there are a great number of cases in the populations of Meat Packing plants….seems that the workers are getting sick and transmitting the Covid-19 among themselves.

But, a question: Is the transmission happening in the pants, while the folks are working?

It has been my experience that these plants often employ a large number of foreign (and often, but not always, illegal) workers. Often, to save money to send home these folks live very closely, like 4 or more people in a 2 bedroom apartment or trailer…often twice that density.

Yes, improving conditions at the plant is a good idea.  But I would question if the plant is the vector for the disease transmission rather than the living and social conditions amongst the workers.

And since the CDC folks (based on their response to things and conditions at the beginning of this “crisis”) apparently can’t do their job, don’t seem to have much cognitive abilities, can’t connect cause and effect, and apparently cannot think, but merely react and follow orders,  I cannot help but wonder if anyone has investigated the mode of transmission or are they merely Doing Something so they can appear to have Done Something.