Sunday, March 26, 2023
Saturday, March 25, 2023
Irrational humans
The evidence shows that the vaccine reduces your overall chances of dying by a considerable amount. Nevertheless, I daily see attacks on the vaccine as if it were some sort of plague. People have a right to make poor choices, but the amount of misinformation is vast, which affects people's ability to make decisions.
If COVID had a smallpox death rate then I don't think there would be any argument. Everybody would be lining up for the vaccine, regardless of any potential side effects. However, a death rate of 1% (or less) is still pretty significant if you or a loved one is the one who dies.
This has caused me to reflect on why humans are so irrational. I am seeing what I think is a common factor in how people make decisions. This ties into politics. I have long noticed people are much more intense about the things that they are opposed to. I am calling this the "boogeyman factor." The thinking is that those people over there are going to do something that we don't like so we are going to fight them no matter what. People naturally focus more on adverse outcomes because fear is the most powerful motivator. On the other hand, if you are a happy person who has few worries, which is almost no one, then you might not have much need for politics.
In our current era, we have become very tribal, with no middle ground or nuance. Ask anyone, regardless of party, about politics and they will name at least one evil person that needs to be defeated. It is human nature to need an enemy that we can fight, and in recent years we will vilify just about anyone.
When it comes to the vaccine there are quite a few "boogeymen", whether that be Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, "big pharma", or the government. There are a great many people who are thoroughly convinced that evil forces are trying to hurt us, by one means or another, so they are unwilling even to consider the vaccine because it comes from an evil source.
Once people make up their minds, confirmation bias becomes very strong. They will look only at evidence that supports their position while ignoring evidence to the contrary.
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Best wishes,
John Coffey
Friday, March 24, 2023
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Sunday, March 19, 2023
Adverse Reactions from vaccines
Two days ago, MP Andrew Bridgen gave a passionate speech in the British Parliament about the harm caused by COVID-19 vaccines and made statistical claims that a person was more likely to be harmed by the vaccines than the disease they are trying to prevent. This speech was followed by a rebuttal from another Member of Parliament.
The speech was replayed on Dr. John Campbell's Youtube channel. The comment section from his video was at least a hundred to one in support of the anti-vaccine position. I tried to add my own comments, but they were apparently deleted, twice.
There is a big misunderstanding about what is meant by Adverse Events and the systems in place to report them. If you get a vaccine and then die in an auto accident, that doesn't mean that one event caused the other. People are claiming that thousands of people have been killed by the COVID vaccine because they assume that all adverse events were induced by vaccination. However, if you give the vaccine to hundreds of millions of people, some of them were going to have adverse events regardless of whether they were vaccinated or not. This is especially true of the elderly and people living in nursing homes.
I have looked at several peer-reviewed scientific studies on the safety of mRNA vaccines. The vaccines are not completely risk-free, but the rate of adverse events attributable to the vaccine is very low. The rate of myocarditis is about 1 in 50,000. Roughly 90% of these cases were mild and easily treatable. According to one study, you were about a thousand times more likely to get myocarditis from the COVID-19 disease than you were from the vaccine.
A study claimed that the rate of excess deaths from the COVID-19 vaccine is about 1 in a million. Such a low number might be considered random noise. This is roughly the same chance of you being hit by lightning this year. In your lifetime, you have a 1 in 93 chance of dying in an automobile accident.
The data actually shows that you are significantly less likely to die if you are vaccinated. This is the bottom line when it comes to vaccine safety.
Friday, March 17, 2023
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Sunday, March 12, 2023
11106 Southmost Blvd - Google Maps
Saturday, March 11, 2023
Going Forward
I have reached an age where I might only have 20 years left. Possibly much less if I develop a major health problem. If I try to live healthy, then I might live another 30 years or even longer. Regardless, everybody comes to a point in their life where the road ahead looks shorter than the road behind. Eventually, that road is short enough that no matter how distant, the end is still in view. This has a way of focussing the mind that wasn't there before.
This causes me to be pretty contemplative about what it all means. I define my own life in terms of the things that I find valuable, and I'm not worried about any of the choices that I have made.
However, I look at humanity and I feel that in many ways we are worse off. We face many crises. In the worst-case scenario, we could get into another World War, with the possible use of nuclear weapons. Or disease could rear its ugly head again and the next pandemic could be far worse.
However, I think that the more likely danger is financial. Our government is so far in debt that we are rapidly going bankrupt, and this is a disaster from which we may never recover. Other countries have serious financial problems as well. Meanwhile, the cost of everything like housing, medicine, and education are becoming too much for people to afford.
I am very concerned about how divided we are. We can't agree on basic facts. It used to be that this country had certain founding principles that everyone agreed on, such as free speech. However, there is no longer any common ground. It used to be that no matter how much people disagreed, there still was respect for each other as fellow citizens. Now your opinion can cost you your job, your safety, and maybe even your life.
Objective truth no longer exists. People don't even try. We are in a post-truth age where people believe whatever sounds good, and then claim that their belief is scientific. Either the human race has become much more delusional, or it was never very rational to begin with.
I consider it my birthright to live in a free country. Unfortunately, the world now is very different from the one I was born in. We have long abandoned any notion of constitutional government with limits on its power. Where this will lead us I don't know, but probably not someplace good.
Conservatives MUST Support Trans Youth If....
John Coffey
28 seconds ago
What a load of crap. When was a child I had no clue about anything.
I don't support people's delusion that they are something that they are not. If I were to surgically alter myself to look like a dog, that would not make me a dog, no matter how much I wanted to be a dog.
This is all about forcing people to accept BS as a way of politically dividing the country. You can't force me to lie about your gender.
Friday, March 10, 2023
Thursday, March 9, 2023
Tucker Carlson: Here is the truth
Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Tuesday, March 7, 2023
COVID Numbers are down
Monday, March 6, 2023
School board: Resign or be Arrested
>
> https://youtube.com/shorts/qPEVM6A2xEw?feature=share
You know the saying, "Trust, but verify?"
The video gives the impression that child pornography is given to children.
It is helpful to have context. The book in question is
https://www.amazon.com/642-Tiny-Things-Write-About/dp/1452142173
Mayor Craig Shubert made the statement during Monday night's board of education meeting after multiple parents complained about the content of some writing prompts contained in a book called "642 Things to Write About" provided to high school students who are taking a college credit course called Writing in the Liberal Arts II.
The book contains prompts such as, "write a sermon for a beloved preacher who has been caught in a sex scandal," "describe your favorite part of a man's body using only verbs," "choose how you will die," and "write an X-rated Disney scenario," according to Cleveland.com.
Other prompts asked students to "write a sex scene you wouldn't show your mom" and then "rewrite the sex scene from above into one that you'd let your mom read." It also asked students to drink a beer and "write about the taste" and to list what television shows would be on their DVR list if they were serial killers.
The book also contained less provocative prompts such as describing the worst Thanksgiving dish or writing about the perfect day as an astronaut.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/essentially-child-pornography-ohio-mayor-asks-school-board-resign-over-n1279277
Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh Tuesday released her decision, along with a blistering rebuke of the mayor in a six-page report detailing her office's investigation into the false claim and the scores of threats against school board members that followed.
https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/2021/11/16/prosecutor-hudson-mayor-craig-shubert-school-board-no-charges-642-things-to-write-about-book/6401620001/
The school's principal, Brian Wilch, said at the board meeting that the school learned about the prompts last Friday.
"We did not exercise due diligence when we reviewed this resource and as a result, we overlooked several writing prompts among the 642 that are not appropriate for our high school audience," he said at the meeting.
"We feel terrible. At no time were any of these inappropriate prompts selected or discussed but still they were there and they were viewable and you can't unsee them. So for this oversight, we did issue an apology today to our students' parents."
The principal said the school is in the process of collecting the book from students.
Best wishes,
John Coffey
http://www.entertainmentjourney.com
Saturday, March 4, 2023
Faraday Cage Physics EXPLAINED using 1843 Ice Pail Experiment and History
Friday, March 3, 2023
Thursday, March 2, 2023
Prelude to War
World War I may have been the most pointless war ever. A combination of an arms race between nations, conflicts in the Balkans, and military alliances created a situation where war was inevitable. Then the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand set off a conflict between Austria and Serbia. Other nations felt compelled to join because of their alliances. The war ended after 4 years and around 17 million military deaths.
Disease and war go hand in hand. Roughly two-thirds of the 620,000 military deaths from the American Civil War were due to disease. The Spanish Flu that killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide was spread by soldiers traveling between the World War I battlefields and their home countries. The devastation from the disease was so great that it is partially responsible for ending the war.
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Scott Adams
I would love for Scott Adams to be able to redeem himself, but I don't think he is helping himself. He comes off as fringe.
People are only watching because Scott Adams is a great satirist who made a great comic strip. However, he overestimates his importance and his ability to hold an audience. He sees himself as a spokesman over controversial issues, but his meandering rants are at least partially sleep-inducing. I think that he will find himself rapidly becoming less relevant. The more people talk about race, the more we build walls between people. I agree with Morgan Freeman who said that we should stop talking about it.
Some Blacks have said worse things about Whites. I think that the best thing Scott Adams could do is to claim that he was engaging in Satire and that people didn't get the joke.
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
Monday, February 27, 2023
Re: "Dilbert" Comic Strip BANNED Because of What Creator Scott Adams Said
It isn't helpful to further sow division.
The "I love White People" shirt the YouTuber is selling is a big disappointment because it is something the KKK would say. It is definitely coming across as racist.
I would rather say that I love all people, or all lives matter.
Sunday, February 26, 2023
Human Trafficking vs Human Smuggling
"If a smuggler brings an illegal immigrant over at a non-designated point of entry, they are liable to pay a fine, be imprisoned for up to 10 years, or both. However, this is for a single smuggled immigrant. The punishment can multiply. In addition, the following consequences can occur:
If a person is seriously injured or put into jeopardizing situations, the prison sentence rises to up to 20 years
If the smuggling results in death, the imprisonment can increase the number of years to life in prison."
https://www.lawfirm1.com/removal-proceedings/immigrant-smuggling/
https://www.ice.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report/2017/CSReport-13-1.pdf
Friday, February 24, 2023
Vaccines prevent the spread of COVID-19
A sore spot for me is the claim made by every single conservative talk show host that the vaccines do not stop the spread of COVID-19 and that we were lied to when the government said that they would. This claim is based on testimony by Janine Small to the European Union who said that they did not have time in their initial testing to determine if the vaccines stop the spread of the disease. However, those studies have since been done. I have found studies showing that the vaccines reduce the spread of COVID-19. It also makes sense that if you reduce infection then you also reduce spread. This logic is almost irrefutable, so it would be perfectly proper for the government to make this claim.