Episode 517: WYOAIDS Assistance

3 comments on Episode 517: WYOAIDS Assistance

  1. Steven Doyle says:

    Hey, Cecil – I had a similar SCA experience. I’m a heavy fighter (since 1981). It’s very important to have water available at fighting events, and when people volunteer to be waterbearers, they usually use squeeze bottles so we can squirt live-giving water right in the ol’ helmet.

    But back in the ’80s, it was common for us to drink from a jug carried around with a plastic hose coming out of it. Yes, multiple fighters sucking that same hose, as if we’d never heard of the germ theory of disease.

    I thought we’d finally stopped doing that long ago, but was astonished to see that system being used just a few years ago, on an occasion when I was close to heat exhaustion and so thirsty I took that disgusting thing in my mouth.

    But I’m pretty sure the pandemic is the nail in the coffin of that idiotic practice. I’m pretty sure the SCA gave me mono in the ’80s. (Well, it might’ve been the cloven fruit. And the kissing contests. Damn, the ’80s were fun for me.)

    Oh — finally got back to being a patron. I’m drowning in debt, but it’s reached the point where a dollar a week doesn’t even matter. At least I can feel like I’m helping, a little. If I have to stop again, it’ll be because things went south.

  2. Oakland Melificent says:

    Thanks for keeping Cog Dis going guys. You are one of things that helps me through the long, long hours I spend each day working my second full time unpaid job as worlds worst teacher homeschooling my eight-year-old ADHD daughter who believes she’s “half-California grey wolf, half dog, half horse, and half red tailed hawk,” and obviously 100% terrible at math. And scotch. (The other thing that keeps me going).

    Just wanted to “humble brag” I guess, or share that, here in the SF Bay Area counties (Oakland, CA), where our “liberal lefty snowflake” local gov leaders invoked mandatory shelter in place back on March 9 (followed by our amazing governor/ future president Gavin Newson around March 14ish), we’ve been keeping together by staying apart through physical distancing and now our state is seeing a significant drop in new cases. Many of our local grocery stores have been working hard to ensure the safety of our community, including their employees who are part of the community. Most have been limiting the number of people allowed in at one time, have required shoppers to use provided gloves and/or hand sanitizer before entering, required shoppers to stand more than 6 feet apart to check out, then unpack, help scan if possible, and repack their own bags, leave their money or credit card on the counter and back away so the checker can insert/scan the card, then the checker backs away so you can sign, and then leave. We’ve been planning and prepping and physical distancing to some degree since March 1.

    (I feel like all of this is so obvious and I’m baffled at other states that haven’t implemented even the tiniest guidelines or provided limited guidance to their residents, so maybe that makes it easy for me to sit back and comment, so, not that baffled considering lack of federal leadership – if those you look to aren’t sounding the alarm then why should you?).

    The number of new reported (positive test results) cases seems to be doubling almost daily – and that’s just the cases reported and tested. All the effort and sacrifice made in CA will all be for nothing if other states fail to protect their own people. Even if we get to zero new cases here and stay that way for 30 days, there is nothing to prevent infected people from coming here and starting it all up again. We as a country need to accept that this is not going away anytime soon but could be resolved much quicker IF EVERYONE IN EVERY STATE stays home (except, obviously, for essential “travel”) and follows physical distancing guidelines despite what individual local government does – or fails to do.

    This an issue where we absolutely have to rely on fellow human beings to do the right thing, stay at home, speak out on social media to friends and family in other states arguing the case they do the same, help your community with food/ministry donations if you’re in a position to do so, reach out to neighbors to see if they need anything, reach out of you need help, but just stay at home.

  3. David P says:

    Hello.
    I agree with your assessment that Ben Shapiro calling it the Chinese virus is racist, and unnecessary. However your arguments downplaying the risk of wet markets of wild animals came across as uninformed. I urge you to read some more about this and see if you come to the same conclusions. Yes, domestic animals are also the source of disease, however, humans have been closely associated with these animals for thousands of years, which minimises the risk. We have not been living with bats or civet cats, or the multitude of other animals that are found in wildlife markets. Another way that it is an unfair comparison is that typically with domestic livestock systems in countries in the west we rarely mix different types of livestock, and if we do we are very aware of the potential for spread of disease. I have a research project on the advantages of mixed livestock systems, and although I am not the veterinarian on the project, we discuss the potential mixed systems in the context of disease risk. In some countries where certain diseases exist, we wouldn’t for example mix chickens and cows in the same field. Another unequal comparison is the management practices of keeping livestock in different countries. I currently live in Sweden and there are extremely strict rules about animal hygiene that if you don’t keep, you could well be imprisoned. I have also worked with cattle systems in Asia, particularly Vietnam, and the level of hygiene is sometimes appalling. Not all livestock keeping is the same. The livestock markets that are found in many Asian countries can be particularly bad, and adding wild animals to the mix cranks it up to another level. The east and south-east Asian wildlife markets deserve criticism. p.s. Ben Shapiro is an appalling human being

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