Wrecking a nation’s economy in order to fight a nasty flu bug is madness, plain and simple.
Wednesday, April 17, AD 2024 9:14pm
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Wrecking a nation’s economy in order to fight a nasty flu bug is madness, plain and simple.
Count me as one of those. I received the phone call this morning (the office having been closed for two weeks already.)
It’s a “temporary furlough” but the temporal duration is unknown, and I am dubious whether those of us dealt this hand today will see our jobs intact when the greater reorganization begins post-crisis.
In the meantime, I will look at what unemployment benefits come from 18 years at the same company, plus the areas of opportunity that always arise in times of transition.
Lastly, I will take this novena to St. Cajetan, patron of the jobless and underemployed, that’s been sitting on my desk for a couple of months now (I had a feeling anyway) and go to adoration at a parish not far from my house, which displays The Blessed Sacrament through their great post-modern narthex windows daily.
As ORDINARYCATHOLIC commented on a previous post, it is time to stop saying “I can do it myself” and go ask Father for help.
-Mark Shea
(what can I say? this whole ordeal is driving him into some morbidly entertaining positions)
This year is going to get real interesting as things come to a head between those saying we need to get back to work, vs those saying we must save lives.
This whole ordeal has certainly demonstrated to me how much debates today are quickly crystallized into positions with which there is no discussion or compromise between them.
I’ll be 70 in November and have lived to see six of my children’s children. I am healthy as a horse. My wife and son have my health care proxy. They have been instructed to “Do Not Resuscitate.”
I refuse to be lectured on the VALUE OF ONE HUMAN LIFE by [expletive deleted] rats like Andrew Cuomo who supports late-term abortion and murdering survivors of abortion, nor jerks like Mark-who that get paid to provide propaganda for the ilk.
Don, there may be nuggets of truth in what you say about the covid-19 situation being overblown as a crisis. The British epidemiologist who predicted 500,000 deaths in the UK has cut that estimate down to 20,000 and agrees with the Oxford group that says there are a lot of asymptomatic, early cases that weren’t accounted for.
On the other hand, I look at the US and PA data and both the # of confirmed cases and # of deaths are rising more than linearly. The Δ(Δ…) approximating 2nd derivative or curvature is not decreasing but increasing..
I’m praying that you’re right and the data are just a blip.
Without a doubt Bob, we have a lack of data to make firm predictions. My only predictions have been that I couldn’t see the deaths in the US going higher than a rugged flu year of 50,000.00, and that I thought that death tolls in the US in the millions was not a credible estimate.
Going off of the latest numbers from worldometer. We’ve had just under 81,000 confirmed cases of Wuhan flu, and just under 1200 deaths.
What that works out to is for every person who has been confirmed as sick, 37 have lost their jobs. For every person who has died, 2500 have lost their jobs.
I figure that means your more likely to know somebody who’s lost his or her job than you are to know somebody who’s gotten sick, and way more likely to know somebody who’s lost his job than to know somebody who’s died from Wuhan flu. And going forward, you’re more likely to know more people who’ve been financially impacted by the flu than you are to know sick people.
Those numbers need to be in the mix too.
Ernst, my wife and I have been severely financially impacted by this. My IRA has tanked (down 40% at the worst). We may have enough to live on in our remaining time (2?…3??….??? years) if we cut down on our current expenses, but we’re willing to suffer that loss if it means some lives are saved. The loss isn’t a means by which the lives are saved but it seems to be a necessary correlate of measures taken to minimize fatalities.
If you think our politics is ugly now, wait until all of this is over and people start wanting to know who did this to them.
Because the bodies aren’t going to be there to say that a virus did this to them. And there’s too little trust in our political class or their media spokesparrots for the politicians to successfully claim that all this “sacrifice” saved countless lives.
Near as I can tell Bob, what these measures correlate to is the need of a certain type of politician to appear to be “doing something.” And the medical communities somewhat (but arguably so) justified desire to not be “overwhelmed.” I’m not sure anyone knows what that means, but the reality of it is different than bodies stacked like cordwood and the sick and dying filling up the hallways.
But that’s what everybody is imagining. Because they wouldn’t shut down the whole country like this if it wasn’t super deadly serious, would they?
I respect your altruism, but hypothetical lives saved is as lousy metric. It’s too much like Congress calling a cut in the rate of growth a spending cut.
Or me telling myself I need that $320 bicycle that’s on clearance for $112 because I’m saving over $200. I’m not. I’m spending $112. Money I don’t need to spend, because there’s nothing wrong with bike I have that a little tuning up won’t fix.
(But man, was that a sweet looking bike!)
don & ernst, you may be right. just looked at the red circle map again: 530k cases, 24k deaths, which is a little less than 5%. (Given maybe a large number of unreported, this number would be even smaller. suppose the number of reported cases in the US rises to 800k, 10 times more than current. That would correspond to 40k deaths…and that corresponds to car accident fatalities in 2018. I think what makes the most impact on me (and this may be selfish) is the high covid-19 mortality rate for elderly and those with medical conditions. I do believe the MSM is distorting the news and using the distortions as a political weapon.
After reading the comments of money being more important than peoples lives…even one life makes me EMBARRASSED to be a Catholic. See ya Pharisees , you guys are no different. I have better things to do than read the anti-christ’s reasonings here.
Actually Joe, you have fitted yourself perfectly into the role of the Pharisee in this parable:
Preening spiritual pride is always the deadliest of sins. By it Lucifer fell.
Well, bye.
Maybe you’ll find this and this more congenially alarmist.
Here’s some good news. Or, if you don’t want to believe in good news, more happy talk.
Typical hypocrisy of what you will post. You guys deserve to be put on a ventilator . Catholics who who will post the garbage of the healthy 70 yr old above. Good luck meeting christ.
Lol a fictional video. Religious always show ignorance of science. As alway no comment on shaw in previous post ignorance of the virus . And calling governor names. Like I said your a hypocrite. And you are the Pharisee whose interest is in money and power over the well being of others. Thanks for proving my point.lol
“You guys deserve to be put on a ventilator.”
Why what a truly Christian sentiment Joe. If I were you I would be preparing my arguments right now for your exit interview with Christ.
“Religious always show ignorance of science”
Untrue Joe, but I assume you are bone ignorant of the history of science. I further assume you are a dime store atheist calling down the wrath of God on us. If you are seeking troll status on this blog you will need to sharpen up your act. We do have our troll standards.
I am fine facing christ, we will have a Real good conversation on the unchristian behavior of his christians. You guys worshipping tRump, lol im not worried but your short sightedness at the opinion info you are throwing out here. Please. Hospitals in dire situations in large population centers, lines to get seen, morgue tents and refrigerated trailers to hold the dead. Yeah keep telling people it will be no worse than flu. Yeah I am comfortable facing god, you might take a closer look at yourself.
‘we will have a Real good conversation on the unchristian behavior of his christians.”
No Joe, the conversation will be all about you and your sins, not the specks you saw in the eyes of others.
Funny how troll word thrown around when you don’t like anothers opinion. Lol and to your other hypocritical assertion that I am an atheist because I dont swallow the kool ade , went to Catholic school for 12 years, 1 year of religious studies in college. So I love your push to devalue me and my opinion. The ventilator comment is my point , that you guys change your tunes when it directly effects you. Until you walk in anothers shoes you will never get. Thats why I didn’t say I hope you die on a ventilator which would not be very christian like.
“went to Catholic school for 12 years, 1 year of religious studies in college”
Nonresponsive as too your current beliefs Joe. Try again.
And it is funny that you assume exactly how we all meet christ, funny how you take a single sentence and attack me ,probably because you have no defense for the more valid points I have made. Catholics and christians loving the evil spewing lying snake in the white house. I LOVE my chances facing my god. If I was you, not so much, that was if I was in your shoes. The funny thing is conservatives use christianity as their armor to inflate there place as the conscience of our nation. You are now more like the emperor with no clothes. You kinda have to know what it is to be a true Christian. I pray you find your way, but I fear you are all already lost.
Your non reponsive to the valid points don…
” your Current beliefs” sad how you need to give titles for the validity of an individuals thoughts. Practicing Catholic, non practicing catholic, agnostic, atheist, evangelical, christian, Buddhist, etc. Does it matter that much to you? Does what I say mean less to you based on “your judgement”. Curious why you needed an answer to that? Lol
So Joe didn’t have “better things to do” after all.
“Ernst”So christ like. The true message always falls on deaf ears. I guess fox and friends is over. Lmao
Joe, one of the major hospitals in Queens has space in its morgue for like…. 3 bodies. Which is true of most hospitals as almost nobody dies in surgery any more. (Otherwise people are sent to hospice.)
This is pretty much true across all modern hospitals. So to get “morgue overflowing” you just need a half dozen deaths.
(I may not know science, but I do know math.)
“Curious why you needed an answer to that?”
Because you come across Joe as an angry former Catholic atheist. A typical Troll variant found on Catholic sites.
“And it is funny that you assume exactly how we all meet christ, funny how you take a single sentence and attack me ,probably because you have no defense for the more valid points I have made.”
I know about the particular judgment Joe because of what the Church teaches. I guess you must have slept through your 12 years of Catholic education.
Joe-
what, you never tried to troll folks who are actually prepared before?
Biggest risk we’re facing is being bored by the trolls.
Hi folks.
It’s been awhile since I stopped by.
I wanted to offer this clip for what it represents;
Faith [and humor] in the living room of an above average Joe.
Love you folks.
Stay healthy.
Phil.
https://youtu.be/k0ci5EYb9qA
Joe – another freaking Mark Shea wanna be seized by Trump Derangement Syndrome. Anyone who rents in his head that much space to the President whether for good or ill worships not the Lord God but his own hatred for a man over whom he has no power, no authority, no influence, nor ever will. He gets more good feeling from hatred than he ever will from submitting to the love Jesus has for Donald Trump (and the rest of us).
You know, I am not particularly inclined to completely agree with Donald about re-opening the economy when so little is know about the communicability and fatality of this virus. That said, when mortality rate from a down-turned economy exceeds mortality rate from the COVID-19 virus, will people like Joe finally be satisfied?
I despise sentimentality and the nonsense of niceness. Jesus was anything but sentimental, anything but nice.
PS, @Philip – great YouTube video – thanks!