Fifty Big Ones

We have arrived at a breathtaking point in both our lives and that of the Earth’s; we have reached the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day.

From a compilation of internet sources – the very same ones that give us solid, unwavering environmental data – Earth Day is an annual event created in 1970 to celebrate the planet’s environment and raise awareness about pollution.

I have long been a vocal critic of the phoniness of the awareness raisers, and apologize for nothing except my lenience.

Not to beat a dead horse, since its 1970 inception, Earth Day has undergone numerous iterations to suit data that was inputted, exported, and finally analyzed.  One year the planet was on the verge of freezing, then boiling the next.

Government officials stood in line to pander for votes from the already aware, making outlandish promises and spending valuable tax dollars to ensure re-election.  All the while, those voters began to blindly attack non-believers by attempting to level legislation to incarcerate and re-educated anyone not toeing the line.

One president turned hot water off in government restrooms to prevent burning foreign fossil fuels, thereby protecting the atmosphere from carbon emissions.  Other presidents demanded cars and trucks be made of lightweight metals, plastics, and be powered by rubber bands, to further save oil and the environment, at the expense of human lives.

Today’s news is much less damning with a reprieve from overtaxing average citizens to buy some ecological con called “carbon credits.”  We’re further spared the nonsense spouted by the self-anointed actors and fake scientists among us, who daily claim to hold the knowledge and subsequent answers to reverse our planetary slide into oblivion.

Rather, we are now being treated to more humane nagging and pestering about something called corona virus/COVID-19.  Listening to television’s fake news readers hysterically cry about this illness-producing virus is a reprieve over the madness about our quickly perishing environmental civilization.

Yes, congresspeople have seemed to lose their collective minds, frantically citing specific dates for the end of the Earth if no action is taken, and taken immediately.

What action?  Tax increases, of course.  More manufacturing of solar panels, no drilling or mining for fossil fuels, no fracking, no outdoor grills, no fireplaces, and the manufacture of automobiles made of Papier Mâchét.

Suddenly with the advent of the international COVID-19 pandemic, none of these great thinkers can fathom a plan to save us.  Are all the really good ideas taken?

Absolutely not.  Earth Day is a way of pontificating to the common folk that they are not as enlightened as the environmental and social elites.  Bill Nye, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cher, Halle Berry, Ben Affleck, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Ruffalo, Jessica Alba, Stella McCarthy, Olivia Wilde, John Legend, and Charlize Theron, are just a few of the many has-beens trying maintain a grip on the rope of fame by showing who can suffer more in these end-times.

Their private jets and filtered toilet water remains a full step lower than using Perrier to flush their commodes. All the while they sternly lecture us peons over how we waste and need to cease immediately.

One demented politician created some nonsensical idea called Green New Deal, á la President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1933 New Deal economics program.  Yeah, that demented politician couldn’t even come up with a unique title for spending an estimated $93,000,000,000,000.  If not implemented, she predicts the Earth will disappear in twelve years.  I say let’s roll the dice on this one.

In any case, the COVID-19 crisis has shed new light on the past Earth Day brain trust ideas.  Let’s examine them.

• Ridding society of plastic shopping bags in lieu of reusable bags
• Outlawing disposable paper and plastic cups
• Force the public onto mass transit i.e.: buses, subways, light rail, shared rides, carpools
• Legalize marijuana smoking
• Banning Styrofoam plates and restaurant goods

The ability of the public to promptly and efficiently dispose of used shopping bags, drinking cups, and Styrofoam products may well have created a vehicle by which COVID-19 became and/or remains a threat to civilization.

Making people abandon their personal vehicles for close-quartered means of mass transit further endangers our future.  Poor planning, I would say.

Based on this abbreviated list, the prohibition and interdiction of common, everyday items for the perceived good of a 4,500,000,000 year-old planet straddles the border of narcissistic and obscene.

So let’s take this opportunity to end this Earth Day nonsense once and for all before these geniuses kill us in the name of the environment.

Different Kind of Sick

Today is a good day to begin with something we haven’t touched upon in a while: trivia.

As of this writing, the planet Earth is under siege from a microscopic critter called caronavirus, more specifically, COVID-19.

Worldwide, the number of people affected by this virus hovers just over 500,000.  That’s a lot.

But if you think that’s what this story is about, you’re wrong.  Don’t get ahead of me, please.

We’ve been told by “experts” that COVID-19 is little more than the common cold, not very dangerous, extremely dangerous, can’t be treated, was  product of the White House, first discovered in Wuhan China, not from China, and is likely to kill 150,000,000 Americans.

As a result, President Donald Trump begged Americans not to panic; he further gathered renown scientists and doctors to manage this pandemic because he, himself is not a doctor or scientist.

The only good news to come out of all this is Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., the presumptive Democratic candidate for president in the 2020 election, has been given a reprieve from scrutiny for at least a few weeks.

Wrong Corona; please do not avoid this one

Suddenly, everyone is panicking, largely the result of a carpet-bombing style of reporting by the media.  You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting someone on television wearing a disdainful scowl carping about how President Trump dropped the ball with this crisis.

Somehow, it’s President Trump’s fault the states of California, Washington, and New York, don’t have enough ventilators, machines that enable COVID-19 sufferers to breathe while infected with this lung-affecting virus.

It is also his fault that COVID-19 test kits aren’t available or plentiful enough. It seems as though plenty of athletes, singers, actors and actresses, and politicians, have access to these kits even though they aren’t suffering from any of the symptoms.

For the record, symptoms include fever, a dry cough, aches, and difficulty breathing. These are clues to being infected by this pandemic.  Unfortunately, many of the aforementioned B-listers are only concerned about themselves, thereby depriving genuinely sick people of the test in lieu of their own overly-inflated egos.

Spreading this potential killer virus is done through a means of aerosol-like transmission, which can be coughing, sneezing, any type of exhalation, and is acquired by transferring these droplets onto your face.  Nostrils, eyes, and mouth, should not be touched before a thorough cleansing.

Cleansing, according to experts, can be done by vigorously washing with soap and water or 70% rubbing alcohol.

Food stuffs and door knobs, cell phones, and elevator buttons should be sterilized as potential incubation stations for COVID-19.

Another way to slow the spread, it was suggested, is to avoid close contact with others, be it in stores, schools, mass transit, or even in parks.

To demonstrate their situational awareness and management prowess, local politicians and law enforcement are now sidling their way to the television cameras and microphones.

In an effort to lighten the overcrowding in schools, most schools have been dismissed for the duration of the school year.  Businesses are being told to close, and buses and subways are being halted.  People are being told to keep their distance by at least six-feet from other people.  Or, just stay home.

In fact, Pinellas County, Florida, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, has just ordered the accelerated release of prisoners to prevent the close quarter spread of COVID-19 among jail inmates.

Hundreds have been released over the last few days, in the name of keeping people safe.  Now that’s pretty noble.

But Florida authorities just announced a fool-proof effort to keep people off the streets and beaches to maintain that aforementioned “social distancing.”

They proudly threatened to imprison anyone not self-quarantining.  You read that right.

The people who are walking the street or beach can be jailed because they are more of a threat to society than those released overcrowded prisoners.

Now who is sick?

Stop It!

In case you haven’t heard, there’s something called COVID-19 going around.

Not being a scientist or doctor, I can best describe this as a virus.  That’s because all the scientists and doctors on television and radio describe it as a virus.

The corona flu virus is supposed to have originated in China toward the end of 2019.  Since us Earthlings love to describe the world as interconnected – nearly instant news, commerce, travel, and communications – everything travels very, very quickly.

While sometimes good, sometimes not so much, we all take advantage of these expeditious methods of living, to hopefully better our lives.

Predictions of deadly storms such as tornadoes and hurricanes have proven beneficial throughout the past several decades, thereby saving countless lives and property.  The same holds true for tsunamis and massive wildfires and other normally deadly events that are now able inform people of perils well in advance.

So news is a bit disconcerting because we have so much, so soon, and that is often too much to mentally digest for most people.

All this information is valuable, though, if deciphered and used judiciously.  Unfortunately, throughout my many travels on my personal road of life, I have too often run across fellow travelers that possess the IQ of a folding lawn chair.

You know the kind: aluminum tubing, with those flimsy nylon straps.  Those are akin to many neighbors and associates whose vote cancels yours out.  They aren’t terribly bright and, you keep them around not for valuable information, but for amusement and entertainment.

They are the same ones that have been demanding President Donald J. Trump create a cure for COVID-19.  Of course, they don’t realize President Trump is no more of a doctor or scientist than I am.

Federal and local departments of health and contagious diseases employ people who are employed to find and create a cure for such situations, rather than The White House.  FYI.

But those folding lawn chair-types desperately want to “do something” they feel the hapless government employees are unable to do.

To feel in charge of their own lives, they are buying up copious amounts of bottled water and toilet paper.

Not known to be a cure for COVID-19

It seems as though folks are scarfing up hand sanitizer, hand sanitizer, and hand sanitizer, too.

Also in big demand are food stuffs, toilet paper, and hand sanitizer.

While the media experts have been offering advice to the public about how to avoid contracting COVID-19, you’ll notice the emphasis is placed on hand washing and keeping a six-foot distance between people.

If you go back and re-read paragraph two, you’ll note that I’m not a doctor or scientist; in fact, I’m not much of anything.  Still, I’m pretty sure bottled water IS NOT a cure for COVID-19.

And just as sure as I am about the aforementioned water, I’ll wager toilet paper IS NOT going to protect you from anything except soiled underwear – COVID-19, included.

So please take time off from work and school to stay home, rest, and gather your senses, to avoid looking like an idiot while surviving this detour in life.