I suppose I will lay off the Texas bashing. I decided it was over after the Big Freeze. One last editorial on the Failed State of Texas.

Texas ain’t what it used to be

A local story that pretty well covers the known facts on the popular “alternative” treatment for COVID-19.

Austin pharmacist gets 300 prescriptions a day for Ivermectin

We are still doing the pandemic grocery pickup thing. Sometimes you get things substituted. Sometimes you end up with stuff a little unexpected. Just tried a slice of this cheese. Wife bought it with a coupon. Packaged like lots of other cheeses we have bought. I didn’t notice the skull image, or the markings placing it on the high end of the heat scale. Now that I’m thinking it I have heard of Carolina Reaper Peppers. Hottest pepper in the world (since 2012)? You don’t say. Grown by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum? I don’t see any legitimate peacetime use for this sort of cheese.

Why is Nicki Minaj tweeting about vaccines and some guy’s swollen testicles?

As the 20 year war in Afghanistan ends, I can’t help but think of President Eisenhower’s famous quote from his final speech as president. The entire speech is worth a read (or watch). A more recent article from The Guardian explains what should be obvious.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”
― Dwight D. Eisenhower

Where did the $5tn spent on Afghanistan and Iraq go? Here’s where

One of my favorite bits of writing on 9/11 happened in the immediate aftermath. While everyone was still in shock, Hunter Thompson told us very clearly what was going on. Re-reading it today it is even more amazing given the utter confusion from all quarters in the days and even the weeks after the event. Somewhat strangely it was from Thompson’s late career sports writing gig with ESPN.

Fear & Loathing in America

There is so much published on COVID-19 that it gets overwhelming. A good one from NPR that is both real-world and technical.

I Got A ‘Mild’ Breakthrough Case. Here’s What I Wish I’d Known

A reprint of Christopher Hitchens article on the 1973 Chilean coup and the murder of President Salvador Allende. From the London Review of Books.

11 September 1973

The people who brought you all the post-2020 election chaos are at it again. This time they are looking to take over local precinct election offices nationwide. The stated goal is to stop elections from being “stolen”, but the actual goal seems to be to interfere with otherwise fair democratic elections. The quote below gives away their goals and strategy: If you cant win fair and square, cheat. If you can’t win by cheating, break stuff. From Pro Publica:

The meetings’ host, far-right blogger Jim Condit Jr. of Cincinnati, kicked off a July call by describing the precinct strategy as the last alternative to violence. “It’s the only idea,” Condit said, “unless you want to pick up guns like the Founding Fathers did in 1776 and start to try to take back our country by the Second Amendment, which none of us want to do.”

Heeding Steve Bannon’s Call, Election Deniers Organize to Seize Control of the GOP — and Reshape America’s Elections