Truths and inspirations for 25 May 2026
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[For the link round-up, click here.]
Evidently my assessment of this song was correct.
I'll be surprised if I get even that.
Keep resisting. Stand up for the innocent.
We need both, and it's a plain fact that vaccines revolutionized human survival in the face of disease. But prevention, especially healthy eating, is seriously neglected in the US -- and note that it's mostly the same kind of people who are anti-vaccine who are also belligerently assertive about eating the flesh of filthy animals and processed junk full of fat and/or refined sugar.
Yes, it is actually possible to be this stupid.
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posted by Infidel753 at 12:34 AM
16 Comments:
I do have a problem with mobile phones. I have a smartphone but no reception where I live. I live 13 miles from the centre of Manchester! This is a pain in the ass in itself.
I have a good friend with cerebral palsy and he considers his disability less disabling than the World makes it. He slurs his speech and people think him drunk, lip-service only (going by the letter, not the spirit, of the law) disabled access to places... That sort of thing.
I am not saying these are equivalent in anyway equivalent but there is a similarity. I can live without my smartphone working where I live but what is really annoying is that everyone assumes I have a working phone.
I got a funny look from a dentist's receptionist when I tried to explain that no, they couldn't contact me on my mobile. She looked at me like I was weird. OK, I was paying by phone but... That was in another town which is in the C21st. I was "rescued" by her fellow receptionist who knew where I lived and the reception blackhole it is.
Good collection this morning!
I also take issue with friends who keep sending me links to crap on Meta/Facebook when they know I no longer have an account. "But you should rejoin!" "And you should get a life!"
Love these! Can’t decide on my favorite, but I am partial to the pro Israel ones. I am so over the NYT, I won’t even play their free games anymore. That’s a huge deal for me!
Thanks for the Sting thing. I’ve been hoping you’d discuss songs more. Unless I missed it. Here for it.
NickM: That's weird not having reception in a major metro area. Maybe a different service provider would have better coverage? I guess you've looked into that.
Rade: Good riddance. Personally I've never had an account on Meta/Facebook. Never saw any point in it.
Paula: I believe that the nonsense will pass eventually. The Israel-haters are so flagrantly hypocritical and strident, in the long run I think they'll turn off normal people. Their position is already absurd to pretty much anyone who has in-depth knowledge.
I suspect the NYT may have blown what remains of its credibility with that last eruption of insane propaganda. We'll have to wait and see, but things like that have a way of blowing up in the perpetrators' faces.
Tim: I did a series of music posts in 2024. In case you're interested, here is the last one -- it contains links to the others.
What a terrific string of memes!
The Mussolini one is so true. I see a lot of Tiktoks from people who got the hell out of Cuba and they think the Trump haters are off their rockers. We have no idea what it's like to live under those regimes.
Ricko: Thanks!
Bijoux: I don't deny that Trump is a terrible president and an authoritarian asshole, but all this throwing the word "fascist" around just makes the activist types sound un-serious. If the current government were fascist, all the people calling it fascist would be under arrest right now.
Imagine if Trump had machine-gunned thirty-six thousand protesters to death during the No Kings rallies. That's what the Iranian regime is like. There's a vast difference.
Prevention/treatment is my favorite and right on about American healthcare.
Briefly, my husband had a stent put into a partially blocked artery. He was prescribed statins, etc.etc.etc. We went vegetarian the next day, started daily walks, and started working out. A year later, at a check-up, his DR said the statins were really doing great because he had such healthy test results. He told the DR that he never took them and explained his lifestyle changes. All the DR said was, “most people won’t do that.”
So, just push pills, not preventative measures! But Kaiser Permanente made billions in profit last year so someone’s happy.
Great job! Eating and living healthy will pay dividends far beyond what reparative medications would do without them, as your doctor's response shows. It is true, though -- most people won't do that. Habits get entrenched, and the low-carb diet scam has given millions of people a disastrously warped sense of what healthy eating is.
Infidel,
I have looked into it. I'm also a Quaker warden. We hire the building to all sorts with all varieties of phone and service providers and none of them work here. I live in a house with a connecting door to the meeting house (or Ent Moot as I call it - if you know Quakers and Tolkien you'll know why I use that epithet) and I have a big sign saying, "In case of emergency ask the warden - we have no mobile coverage". A lot of the congregation are elderly. We had a bad fall, broken hip, and they still tried to call 999 on their mobiles for some time before they came through to use the landline.
I have TV entirely via the internet. It's a listed building so I can't have a sat dish (and yes, I could be jailed for that!) and whilst I could have, in principle, a Yagi dipole but it would have to look like Chain Home from 1940. My home village is essentially where Marconi went to die. I have searched in vain for his grave but I did find a spot where James Maxwell was slightly unwell.
Many goods ones, particularly the various ones on anti-Semitism. I also like the one about teaching our children the names of plants and animals instead of celebrities and brand names.
A lot of money would cure a good part of my depression. That's pretty true. Constantly having to worry if the bills are getting paid would lessen the stress. And I know a lot of people who feel the same way. Good ones this week.
NickM: It seems very odd to have a coverage gap like that in a major urban area. I wonder what the reason for it is. At least you have a landline. They're becoming something of a rarity these days.
Darrell: Thanks. I will continue to call attention to anti-Semitism and denounce it no matter whose toes get trodden on. Unfortunately it's difficult for serious knowledge to compete when advertising and the media are constantly blaring brand names and celebrities at everyone, including children.
Mary: I know the feeling. I'm not poor now, but I have been in the past, and I know the stress is horrific when it passes a certain point.
Mary, Infidel,
It is oft quoted that money can't buy happiness. This is untrue. Money alone can't. Money well used can go a very long way to enabling (note enabling - note of itself producing) happiness. Of course the greatest happiness money can enjoin is the freedom of the fear of poverty. And that can be a terrible fear which can be all consuming. I have been totally potless and it is not a good place. I once slept in an abandoned attic in Leeds. Why? PPARC (Particle Physics Astronomy Research Council) had buggered up my quarterly grant. I knew I had a couple of thou coming through but just neot yet... It was not pleasant but I knew it was temporary. For those for whom it isn't a glitch but permanent then it must be hell. I formulated a feory that being poor is incredibly expensive. You simply can't do the "big shop" if you don't have a car or a freezer. You can't plan long term, you are always overdrawn...
I am not saying "I feel the pain" of the destitute but I think I know something of it. And I know that not in a crushing way but because I knew it was a temporary shituation and I did wonder about the poor souls for whom this isn't temporary.
That's also true -- the more money you have, the easier it is to save money, in certain ways. When I see something I regularly buy being sold at a discount, I can afford to buy a lot of it to take advantage. When I was really poor I couldn't do that.
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