Stories from the Week
Trump says he will ‘look at’ pardoning Tiger King’s Joe Exotic
Curt Landry Says Any Coronavirus Vaccine ‘Is From the Pit of Hell’
Episode 519: Hair of the Dog
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Stories from the Week
Trump says he will ‘look at’ pardoning Tiger King’s Joe Exotic
Curt Landry Says Any Coronavirus Vaccine ‘Is From the Pit of Hell’
Great episode, Guys.
I’m still going to work every day, helping move the mail. It’s almost certain my coworkers and I will be infected. (Truck drivers in and out all day, small office making six feet of distance impossible. And we’re still putting out a common coffee pot, for Christ’s sake, and have an ice cooler drivers stick their hands into.)
I’m not here out of heroism, that’s for sure. My shitty company (Salmon Companies, owned by 10 Roads, nation’s #3 mail carrier) doesn’t have paid sick days, and will not offer paid leave unless forced to by law.
It’s either a monstrously amoral decision (calculating that saving money this quarter is more important than employees dying), or just disastrously, hopelessly stupid.
So, when I become infected, and have to stay home, I will not be paid, but will still technically be employed and thus unable to apply for UI. Perhaps I’ll just quit. Fuck this stupid company.
And millions of people are in the same position. While some companies have stepped up admirably, most corporations will never give up anything to help an employee (even when it’s clearly in the company’s long-term interest) unless forced to. We need New Deal-level legislation. What we’ve had so far is barely a start.
Anyway, thanks for making me laugh.
Hi guys, I wanted to have a bit of a rant about the “relaxing of rules” around blood donations from gay people, because it’s super not awesome.
This is NOT a progressive step! They have not “changed their mind”. They have “relaxed” the rule in the sense that you cannot have had gay sex in the last 3 months, instead of 12 months. This rule is based purely on the idea that having gay sex is as equally dangerous as having gotten a tattoo or used intravenous drugs. In fact, they have also relaxed the deferral period for tattoos and piercings to 3 months.
As it stands, a man could have unprotected sex with multiple women of unknown history an hour before donating, the screening questions don’t ask about heterosexual sexual activity. While a man who had protected sex with a trusted male partner 11 weeks ago cannot donate.
This is not progress.
The story about blood donations still isn’t as great as you think. They require gay donors to have been celibate for 3 months (as opposed to the 1 year celibacy rule they’ve had since 2015) before being allowed to donate. I don’t know how they verify that, but it’s not something they require of straight couples (nor of lesbian couples) and it’s nonsensical anyways, since they test all the blood that’s donated before using it anyways. Madness.
I made a comment exactly like this a week ago, but it was never approved.
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April 13, 2020 at 7:42 pm
Hi guys, I wanted to have a bit of a rant about the “relaxing of rules” around blood donations from gay people, because it’s super not awesome.
This is NOT a progressive step! They have not “changed their mind”. They have “relaxed” the rule in the sense that you cannot have had gay sex in the last 3 months, instead of 12 months. This rule is based purely on the idea that having gay sex is as equally dangerous as having gotten a tattoo or used intravenous drugs. In fact, they have also relaxed the deferral period for tattoos and piercings to 3 months.
As it stands, a man could have unprotected sex with multiple women of unknown history an hour before donating, the screening questions don’t ask about heterosexual sexual activity. While a man who had protected sex with a trusted male partner 11 weeks ago cannot donate.
This is not progress.