Reading Isn’t Believing

March 4, 2021March 3, 2021Michael 2 Comments

And they say you can’t believe everything you read. (I say you even can’t believe everything you think but that’s a topic for a different post.) No, this is really about what you read, or don’t, or think you’ve read. Or maybe even for some people what you think you wanted to read. Rarely it might be what you read that you wanted to think.

Not only are 4 out every 5 calls I get enticements to either throw my money away on a non-existent extended warranty, or to have them syphon money out of my accounts if I do so much as to actually think to answer it with a phone that had once been near an ATM machine while I was making a withdrawal (I don’t really know about that but it seems like the scammers have to do less and less to get our money, and what could they do to me for presuming otherwise, sue me for libel?) (now where was I?) (oh yes, I remember), not only are there oodles more nuisance phone calls, nuisance emails – either spam or outright phishing schemes – have taken a dramatic upward arc on the occurrence scale. However…every now and then you come across a spammer who didn’t get the new spam scam users guide. These are the ones that have multiple fonts, bold, lots or asterisks and exclamation points, and refer to accounts at banks and retailers you’ve never used or refer to you as your email address.

2021-03-03

Yesterday I found a new one. Just in case you thought all the bold type, red bullet points, and mysterious name weren’t incentive enough to open the email, they included in the subject line, “This message is From a trusted sender.” I know that convinced me to open that missive right then and do whatever it said. Hey, that Nigerian prince might still have some of his millions left to give away.

2021-03-03 (1)

Clearly that was something not to believe even if I did read it in black and white.

Some signs nobody ever reads. Not far from me there is a stretch of road where for about 30 yards the posted speed limit is 5mph. I’m not sure my car can go that slow. It seems to me nothing between stop and 15mph even exists. Another instance of not believing what I read, although with not quite the same conviction. Oh I’ll slow down as slow as I can get, but 5? Ehhhhhh, probably not.

There is a sign I take with great seriousness and wish everybody who read it would believe it. No, it’s not the “Masks Required” sign but it would be nice if more people believed that too. No, this is this sign.

Gun-Sign-1024x503

The rate of confiscated guns per million passengers doubled in 2020, a year when the number of people flying decreased by 60%. So far, with 2 whole months in for 2021, the rate is close to 4 times that of 2020. That puts the TSA on pace to confiscate close to 15,000 guns at security checkpoints. If that doesn’t worry you enough, over 12,000 of those guns will be loaded. Eighty-three percent of the handguns pulled out of pockets, purses, and carry-on bags are loaded.

The most common reason people give for attempting to enter an airport secure area with a concealed and loaded weapon is that they forgot they had it. Yeah right. Put that in writing and I won’t believe it then either. According to the Pew Research Center, 67% of gunowners say they purchased their guns for protection. If all those people getting on the planes are representative of gunowners, when the time comes to protect life or property I suppose they will have to convince the assailant to “hang on there a second, I want to shoot you which is my right, I just have to remember where I put that darn gun.”

Gun-Sign-Crop-1-768x377 It would be nice if people who decide they don’t want to believe the part of the TSA sign that says firearms aren’t allowed through airport check points at least would believe the rest of the sign, the part in smaller print that says they can be fined up to $13,000 dollars for doing so. Then again, maybe that’s not a lot of money to them. In that case … I know this Nigerian prince who needs a little help.

You can believe me on this. I am a trusted sender.

Fearful Things

November 23, 2020November 22, 2020Michael 7 Comments

I saw an interesting article last week but when I tried to find it again I had no luck so I’m going to end up paraphrasing most of it from memory. Typically my memory can be likened to a well-worn sieve but one line I particularly remember. “We can still make a difference but I’m not seeing enough fear.” I don’t remember the speaker other than it was the medical director of one of the local hospitals. Unfortunately my local has like 30 some hospitals. Well now, I suppose that is more fortunately than un unless you are trying to remember which one of the 30 some hospitals had a medical director quoted in a recent newspaper article. About 30 some of the do so then there’s that too.

For our purposes I doesn’t matter who said it other than it was said by a respected medical authority (unlike the nut case hospital “executive” in the [name withheld to protect the professionalism of the health care team] health center in South Dakota) (See what happens when you let just anybody run a hospital, like a doctor wasn’t good enough.) Anyway, where was I? Oh yes – I’m not seeing enough fear.

That was in reference to mitigating the surge of confirmed new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths attributed to CoViD-19. We could make a difference. We could wear a mask even though some seemingly intelligent people chose to not. We can continue to wash out hands even though many have forgotten the 20 second rule. We could not go to the unofficial fortieth high school reunion even though somebody obvious figured out that if you call something unofficial like maybe a home coming dance the virus won’t know to go there. We could do all those things and that would be a good start but “we” the society aren’t and we aren’t because we aren’t fearing the virus. If we respected it and realized the power it has and the knowledge that we don’t (and unless you are a microbiologist I don’t mean the societal “we,” I mean each every one of we) we would be damn scared of this thing.

I look around and I see even more than the virus that we don’t fear. We don’t fear the nation is being torn apart because people like the virus people don’t realize the power of division and lack the knowledge to make accept outcomes. The American we has polarized more strongly than the hawks and the doves of the 1960s, more than the free states versus the slave states of the 1860s, and more than the federalists versus the centrists in the 1770s. Division and polarization are not the same as party loyalty. Party loyalists address ideals. Polarizers address egoism.

We can still make a difference but I’m not seeing enough fear.

People don’t get to choose facts. Folks who relish in saying “it is what it is” usually have no intention of admitting exactly what it is. Or don’t know. Masks stop the spread of airborne viruses. Voting machines don’t switch votes. Vaccines don’t cause autism. The travel sites Hotel, Hot Wire, Orbitz, Travelocity, and Trivago are owned by Expedia and the sun will always rise in the east. It is what it is. If we choose not to believe in something you may but you can’t argue it.

I’m certain I’ve written the FDR had it wrong. The only thing to fear is not fear itself for only a fool would not fear anything. Fear should be feared. And so should much, much else.

We can still make a difference but I’m not seeing enough fear.

FEARemogi

Not Seeing Is Believing

November 19, 2020November 18, 2020Michael 6 Comments

I’ve never actually seen a hurricane. I was on Puerto Rico twice within a week of a hurricane having gone through and saw its aftermath. I’ve been in South Florida just before a hurricane was predicted to hit and helped secure the property. I’ve seen flooding in Pennsylvania from hurricanes so severe when they hit the Gulf Coast the Ohio River spilled its banks 1,000 miles away. But I’ve never actually seen a hurricane. Doesn’t matter. I know what hurricanes can do to people and I’m not stupid enough to think just because I haven’t seen something first hand it won’t hurt me. I think I’ll be careful and listen to the experts about how to stay safe when a hurricane is coming.

I’ve never actually seen a person have a stroke. I’ve worked in health care my entire adult life and I’ve seen heart attacks, seizures, asthma attacks, people in hypoglycemia, bleeding, bruising, and shaking with fever. But I’ve never actually seen a person have a stroke. Doesn’t matter. I know what a stroke can do to a person and I’m not stupid enough to think just because I haven’t seen something first hand it won’t hurt me. I think I’ll be careful and listen to the experts about how to avoid a stroke.

I’ve never actually seen a car try to beat a train through a railroad crossing and lose. I’ve seen a car that lost. Fortunately I didn’t see the former occupants of the car. [Shudder] But I never actually saw a car lose its race with a train. Doesn’t matter. I know what trains can do to people and I’m not stupid enough to think just because I haven’t seen something first it won’t hurt me. I think I’ll be careful and listen to the experts and stop, look, and listen before proceeding through a railroad crossing.

I’ve never actually seen a plane crash. A plane once came down 15 miles from my home. I wasn’t there at the time. I didn’t see it, I didn’t hear it. I read about it in the papers. For days after I read about it in the papers. People I know worked the scene. For days after they worked the scene. But I’ve never actually saw the plane crash. Doesn’t matter. I know what falling from the sky can do to a person and I’m not stupid enough to think just because I can’t see something first hand it won’t affect me. I’ll be careful and take what precautions I can when I have to fly.

I’ve never actually seen the SARS-CoV-2 virus…