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Let me see if I have this right.
The people wearing jackets with FBI and ATF on them, the ones who supplemented the admirable Boston and Massachusetts officers, are part of top-heavy federal government? The brainy public officials, current or retired, who went on television, glowing with expertise and assurance, are a drain on our tax dollars? The men and women driving off into the Boston night, to the sounds of applause and cheers from the crowds lining the roads, are the ones who are going to come and take guns away from the so-called good guys? The 50 states could all put up web sites like the FBI's, with its photos of the two suspects? Just asking.
Ed Martin
4/20/2013 10:48:05 am
Amen George, or the secular equivalent. 4/21/2013 03:43:54 am
GV - I love the work of Douglas Adams, the since-departed creator of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," because every paradox of human life is explained to some degree in his narrative. In this case, we are introduced to the glowing prerecorded face of Slartibartfarst, warning us that our continued approach to a seemingly lifeless planet is about to be halted by a pair of nuclear-tipped missiles. It turned out that both the missiles and Slartibartfarst were real enough, but only representations of their true meaning.
George Vecsey
4/21/2013 01:12:38 pm
Charlie, thanks. I wouldn't argue with you about the "afterglow of a dylng society." But in this case, my only point was that an organized society, with some expertise, did manage to stop two dangerous hope-to-die lunatics who were throwing bombs and shooting at them. (As opposed to latter-day vigilantes taking out their weapons.) Of course you are right to honor the individuals who moved toward danger and saved lives. GV
Brian Savin
4/22/2013 01:54:00 am
On Easter Sunday Bob Schieffer quoted my favorite historian when I was growing up. It was a quote still haunting me last Monday: 6/26/2013 12:33:19 am
Interesting post and thanks for sharing. Some things in here I have not thought about before. Thanks for making such a cool post. 6/27/2013 01:38:38 am
Your post is really good providing good information.. I liked it and enjoyed reading it.Keep sharing such important posts.
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QUOTES
Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online. The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal…. After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness. The progress stems mostly from three factors: First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot. Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.) Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year. “Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.” That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.” That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data. One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines. Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks. Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths. The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions. Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately Republican and white. Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.) *** From the great Maureen Dowd: As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop. But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels." --- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing. *** "Putting out the paper," we called it. Much more than nostalgia. ---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html Categories
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