PhineasC

Primetime Olympics cuts to the local news, and immediately it's straight talk of deadly delta. *click* TV off.

Speaking of being 350 lbs and smoking weed all day, if I was that I would have this album on repeat right now with the noise canceling headphones:

Unplanned time is good. We have done overseas trips both ways and we usually say we prefer the unplanned, freeform trips more. I am definitely the type of traveler that prefers to just wander into the local town and city, sit at a cafe, and just take it in. My wife is usually more about hitting the usual sites to fill up the photo albums, but more and more she has become more like me and just wants to take in the local vibe. One of my favorite European memories was being in Frankfurt on business and just going out at like 2 in the afternoon and wandering until like 3 AM. I can't tell you exactly where I went and what I did (because I just wandered and did whatever was in front of me) but I had fun. LOL Ate good food and met cool people.

You'll be guaranteed to see something cool no matter what. That's a spot where the earth is literally cracking and splitting open. No way it will be boring. Everyone I know who has been there has said great things. Hard to see a misfire here for you.

Do they have Rasputin's penis (supposedly)? I know someone over there has it. May be a pickled donkey schlong.

You have been hyping us all up, you better post some pics. I wanna see lava.

Horseshoe theory. A lot of these fringe ideas that exist on the two polar ends of the spectrum tend to look very similar, event if the two camps get there for different reasons. The Made in America movement and related efforts is another example that draws in closed-borders nationalists and people like Bernie Sanders alike.

I love weird museums like that (maybe not that exact one -- LOL) but when I travel with my wife she will never go with me. I spend hours in museums, reading every single bit of signage and then also sometimes pausing to check Wikipedia for more details. She takes some pictures and breezes right through. It's caused some fights.

Every single anti-vaxxer I know is really into personal freedom and has a distrust of the government. This includes a senior NIH scientist I have known since grade school as a close friend. She refuses to get vaxxed for various reasons, none of them related to Trump. The more the "authorities" tighten the noose on her the more she is resisting. Some people are just wired that way. I'm not going to deny it's becoming a statement of sorts for many of the unvaccinated at this point. The rhetoric out there right now is extremely hostile towards the unvaccinated (and those with natural immunity), so it's no surprise these freedom-loving folks who distrust centralized big government are digging in their heels. I will also add that many of the unvaccinated are minorities and young people, not exactly Trump's base. Something like 1/3 of people apprehended at the border have refused the vaccine, for example. The media has many of you convinced that the vaccine refusers are all old, fat Trump rednecks. That's a bunch of them, but not all by far.

It certainly seems like someone out there really wants to start a vaxxed vs unvaxxed fight, doesn't it? Dovetails nicely with the politics and some of the social justice stuff too, unfortunately. Media clicks are definitely part of it. With Trump out of the picture, the major outlets need something to lead with now. The "fight" against the new bogeyman of the unvaxxed is it, it seems.

I sure don't. They are bringing back masks because of tourists?

Go back and check the post history. You seem pretty concerned about my posting habits, after all.

Vaccination rates there must be very high. You can't blame this on the unvaccinated.

Because if they don't a politician may decide to shut down society again, I guess? We need to vaccinate everyone, even the toddlers, forever or else the politicians we elected will destroy our lives! Just get the vax, please!

That's fine. I say the same thing about people who are 350 lbs, smoke weed all day, are always drunk, and are diabetic by age 27.

I think it's kind of ridiculous to demand that everyone get a medical procedure done even if they don't want to just because the politicians you voted for want to destroy the economy and society over a virus. You guys are blaming the wrong people. Instead of bothering the unvaccinated, go bother your governor.

I never asserted the "vaccines are failing." I know that's a point of intense fear for a lot of you... I have simply been saying that the casedemic stuff is not going to end even if we vaccinate a bunch more people. There is always going to be a steady stream of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from just the vaccinated to keep it going. We need to just get off the treadmill and stop testing.

Classic move to fact-check something I didn't even assert. LOL The media is so great.

Yes, it should be a personal/private medical decision. Not sure why so many are struggling with this.

They don't require explanation, IMO. It makes sense that unvaccinated people with no prior immunity would still be getting sick, just like has happened since the start of all of this. It's kind of weird how the media, government, and now some regular people are trying to paint this moment in time as somehow newly dangerous compared to this time last year. I have to assume there is an agenda here.

OK, but you are vaxxed right? Why are you worried about some Free-Dumb unvaxxed morons in the ICU? Do you lose sleep over all of the obese smokers in the hospital on oxygen or all of the gangsters in there with bullet wounds?

Trying to scare the unvaccinated with death and case counts is pointless though. We have been out working, traveling, and partying all along. The risk is not somehow higher now than it was in July 2020…

In other countries such as the UK and Israel, the majority of cases and deaths are the vaccinated. The US numbers seem a little screwy in that context.

If you are fully supportive making everyone on earth get this vax with no exceptions and think lockdowns and masks worked, I could see how you would view this all as non-political. It’s definitely become political for those who didn’t support lockdowns and the vax campaign (which is becoming more heavy-handed by the day).

Like I said, it’s all political for you. Red vs blue.