The Chinese Coronavirus (COVID-19) hit American shores — officially, anyway, there is significant evidence that it arrived earlier — in late January 2020. The American public was then told that a two-week shutdown of the economy would “flatten the curve,” relieving the pressure on hospital intensive care units and saving lives in the long run. The average American, including conservatives,…
Tag: death
COVID-19: The Way the Music Died?
“Why,” Candice Holdsworth asks at British web site spiked, “aren’t more artists standing up to lockdown?” “The lockdown has completely decimated the live-performance industry,” she writes. “And yet we hear very little from leading people in theatre, music and the arts criticising the lockdown and what it is doing to their industry.”
Diet Pills and Persistent Error in Health and Science
Earlier this year, I was doing a deep dive into virology. Coincidentally, this was before Covid, in effort to solve my own health-related problems and mysteries. I had the same experience I’ve had when I went deeper into any field. A realization that nobody in the field knows what the hell is going on.
What’s It All For?
Whenever there’s a lot of hysteria around dangers to “public health” (a phrase invented to control people), you see escalating calls for more and more dehumanizing mandates. You have to stop at some point and ask, why are people destroying all the things that make life good? What do they hope to achieve?
Life-Years Lost: The Quantity and The Quality
A few weeks ago, the NYT reported that “The Coronavirus Has Claimed 2.5 Million Years of Potential Life.” If you read the original study, you’ll discover one crucial caveat: The authors’s calculations assume that COVID victims would have had the standard life expectancy for Americans of their age. They freely admit that this is unrealistic and inflates their estimate.
Sobering Thoughts & Stoic Habits (25m) – Episode 045
Episode 045 looks at several Stoic topics: the first from Epictetus who wrote, “Keep death and exile before your eyes each day, along with everything that seems terrible—by doing so, you’ll never have a base thought nor will you have excessive desire.”; and the rest from lists shared by gdm41 and austinthebean to r/Stoicism introduced as, “Hi guys, maybe you are already aware of DailyStoic.com, they send out a daily newsletter with Stoic topics. Last week they sent a good summary of Stoic virtues/habits to avoid”.
Brenden’s Journey, MasterTalk, Knowledge, & Personal Development (1h10m) – Episode 429
Episode 429 welcomes Brenden Kumarasamy to the podcast to chat with Skyler on the following topics: his YouTube channel “MasterTalk”; living in Montreal, Canada; Stoicism and sphere of control; older kids still living at home; parenting and kids leaving the nest; knowledge and truth; religion and the afterlife; his favorite anime “Death Note”; collecting stories and trying to live a mistake free life; his top 3 podcasts: “Akimbo” by Seth Godin, “The School of Greatness” by Lewis Howes, and “Impact Theory” by Tom Bilyeu; Warrent Buffet’s focus framework; the value of attending personal development conferences; his book recommendation: Thirst by Scott Harrison; and more
Thankful, 2020 Edition
This year, the words of President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation ring especially true: “I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to [God] for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged …” It’s been a rough year, hasn’t it?
Mask Mandates: COVID-19 and the Law of the Instrument
“One day after the state reported a record 92 COVID-19-related deaths,” the Wisconsin State Journal‘s Mitchell Schmidt reports, “Gov. Tony Evers announced Wednesday he plans to extend the state’s emergency declaration and accompanying mask mandate through mid-January. … The current mask mandate was issued in July and extended by Evers in September.” The first two mask mandates didn’t achieve the desired result! Something must be done! Hey, I’ve got an idea! How about another mask mandate?
King or Tyrant & The Jurisdiction of Fate (16m) – Episode 042
Episode 042 looks at two Stoic topics: the first from Seneca who wrote, ““Our soul is sometimes a king, and sometimes a tyrant. A king, by attending to what is honorable, protects the good health of the body in its care, and gives it no base or sordid command. But an uncontrolled, desire-fueled, over-indulged soul is turned from a king into that most feared and detested thing—a tyrant.”; and the second from r/Stoicism, a post by answersamir, who started off with, “Its true that fate has jurisdiction over your birth and death. It can also be argued that fate confines you within some realm of possibilities throughout your life.”