Promising New Coronavirus Vaccine

[Alan Klein]

I've never understood this kind of (non) logic. You might as well say that a smoker cannot advise others not to smoke, or that an alcoholic cannot give temperance lectures.

It's hollow.  People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.  It's hypocritical and takes gall to constantly criticize other countries, over and over again,  while your own country is doing the same thing, maybe worse. You're an American.  Don't you find it offensive when foreigners constantly criticize the USA?  Show a little pride, man.

[Robert Roaldi]

It's hollow.  People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.  It's hypocritical and takes gall to constantly criticize other countries, over and over again,  while your own country is doing the same thing, maybe worse. You're an American.  Don't you find it offensive when foreigners constantly criticize the USA?  Show a little pride, man.

Oh please. If you want to ridicule some lame-ass Canadian politician, go ahead, no one is stopping you. No is stopping others either. This is utterly beside the point.

[TechTalk]

This is utterly beside the point.

Good point.

But, that's the purpose—to send people in pursuit of trivial distractions.

[PeterAit]

It's hollow.  People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.  It's hypocritical and takes gall to constantly criticize other countries, over and over again,  while your own country is doing the same thing, maybe worse. You're an American.  Don't you find it offensive when foreigners constantly criticize the USA?  Show a little pride, man.

Not if the criticisms are legitimate. And why should I be proud of simply being born here? No accomplishment on my part, just luck--good luck I believe but still luck. And too much of the "pride" I see is empty pseudo-patriotic flag waving and chest puffing by white power jerks, MAGA boneheads, and others who have contributed little if anything to our country.

[Alan Klein]

Not if the criticisms are legitimate. And why should I be proud of simply being born here? No accomplishment on my part, just luck--good luck I believe but still luck. And too much of the "pride" I see is empty pseudo-patriotic flag waving and chest puffing by white power jerks, MAGA boneheads, and others who have contributed little if anything to our country.

Show a little pride in your country.   Certainly, there are things we do that are good that you can defend. No country is perfect and America has done a lot of good over the centuries.  Why listen to those people who always dump on your nation?

[Robert Roaldi]

Sad report from Idaho, https://idahocapitalsun.com/2021/09/08/dispatches-from-idahos-front-lines-a-hospital-bed-opens-because-someone-died/.

[JoeKitchen]

It's great to see our president going for broke! 

Biden to announce vaccine mandate for companies with more than 100 employees

I am sure this will only have positive consequences. 

Call me crazy, but I just can not image forcing vaccination on those whom have not yet been vaccinated due to a variety of personal reasons will certainly not cause their resolve to be strengthened.  It will certainly not cause them to continue to not be vaccinated, leading to them eventually being fired only to collect unemployment.  Certainly businesses that rely on unvaccinated individuals will not decrease their workforces to be under the threshold (like happened with ObamaCare).  And if any of this does happen, certainly it will not happen en masse either, not leading to even more supply chain issues causing inflation to spike even further. 

[TechTalk]

Did you intentionally leave out the alternative to vaccination or did you just skim the article and miss it?

"President Joe Biden is announcing Thursday that all employers with more than 100 workers will be forced to require coronavirus vaccinations or test employees weekly.

[JoeKitchen]

Did you intentionally leave out the alternative to vaccination or did you just skim the article and miss it?

"President Joe Biden is announcing Thursday that all employers with more than 100 workers will be forced to require coronavirus vaccinations or test employees weekly.

I left it out because it is of no consequence.  Think about this from the perspective of a business owner, for once. 

Paying and making arrangements for weekly testing will suck up money and time and personal, not to mention it is a purely arbitrary expense that provides no real benefits to the business.  Businesses do whatever is necessary to avoid this type of expense, which Biden has generously provided them with two options to do so. 

Although some businesses may consider it at first, those whom approve of these measures will just ignore testing and move onto requiring vaccinations for all to save on those resources.  With the exception of those very rare individuals who are so amazing at their jobs, they are irreplaceable to the point where you just need to deal with the eccentricities, testing will not be option and those whom refuse vaccination will be fired. 

Those businesses whom do not approve of this, and are relatively small and rely on demographics that tend not to be vaccinated, will not have the personal resources to spare to perform the testing and will just rather decrease their workforces.  Contrary to popular belief on the left, this scenario will effect minorities the most.  Inner city minorities are still low on the percentage of those whom are vaccinated, leading businesses who rely on them to be put between a rock and hard place.  Either require vaccination and loose many of your workers due to them quitting, or just fire a few people to get below 100.  Sure, you can pick your poison here, but in the end, businesses in this position will eventually end up below 100 anyway, nullifying the mandate. 

Although I do not know the exact wording of the mandate and if it either applies on a per business basis or a per business owner basis (such as if you personally own multiple businesses with the number of combined employees in over the threshold, like ObamaCare), but, if the former, even with large businesses, I would not be surprised if we see businesses break down into multiple 99 person subsidiaries.  Even in the short term, this would be less expensive then testing weekly.  A business I know very well from what I do is construction, and most contractors are die hard MAGA people.  I guarantee you this will be the route many constructions firms take.  They will be forced to, since even vaccinated tradesmen will quit over this. 

That is the short and long of it.  The third option of testing weekly is nothing but a fantasy. 

Similar thing happened in Philly a few weeks ago with the new dining rules.  Restaurants could either check to make sure all patrons are vaccinated or require masks for everyone.  Nearly all restaurants choose the latter because they did not want to pay for someone to be a C-19 Vaccine Card bouncer. 

[TechTalk]

I left it out because it is of no consequence.  Think about this from the perspective of a business owner, for once. 

Considering mandatory vaccination or testing from a business owner's point of view, I'd be in favor of it under the current conditions. The most valuable asset that I have are my employees—so, their health, lives, and safety are of consequence.

[JoeKitchen]

Considering mandatory vaccination or testing from a business owner's point of view, I'd be in favor of it under the current conditions. The most valuable asset that I have are my employees—so, their health, lives, and safety are of consequence.

Yes, you are in favor of vaccination or testing, which for most, if not you, will quickly devolve into vaccinations only. 

Due to previous posts, I assume you are an attorney.  Although I am aware that attorneys do not make as much personally as people think, it is still a business that generates a nice margin for resources on personal.  Not to mention, if in fact you do own a law firm, you are hiring a more sophisticated person then normal whom will be likely to get the vaccine then those at a lower income margin whom are generally not as sophisticated.  So perhaps you can absorb the costs of weekly testing, if all of your employees are not already vaccinated, which I would be willy to bet the vast majority are, but that does not mean all other business are in the same position as yours (and you should not just assume they are).  Most though are not going to want to put up with this, especially in lower marginal businesses that employ many part time employees in various locations like retail and hospitality. 

Lets look at a privately owned restaurant chain that, if they want down the testing route, would need to hire and pay for the transportation of someone to visit all their locations to ensure weekly testing is being completed.  He would need to do this multiple times a week too, since many employees are part time and will not all be present on the same day.  Considering many restaurants are strapped for cash right now, this will quickly become a burden and mandatory vaccines will, at first at least, be the easier option.  However, restaurants rely on lower income minorities for many of the back of house positions, like dish washers.  Not only that, dish washers are a not so easy position to fill, especially for weekends, since many native born Americans feel it is a position below them.  And trust me, those whom fill these position know this.  No way in hell would an unvaccinated dishwasher will chose to get vaccinated to keep his job; he will just quit, look for another job and find it by the end of the week. 

This is how it is going to play out in many instances.  The second and third order consequences will be less people employed leading to further supply chain issues and an increase in inflation. 

[JoeKitchen]

To be honest though, I think this is a net positive for conservatism and federalism, and a net negative for progressivism in the long run. 

Societal ideas begin and, at first, seem promising only for them to grow and grow until, after a century, die from their own crushing weight.  This is exactly where the idea of large centrally control federal government progressivism is right now.  It is starting to die from its bloated weight and we are organically moving back towards federalism. 

Beliefs become dogma once challenged, and this mandate is one hell of a challenge.  If you look at the news, this mandate (overnight) has, like I predicted, only strengthened the resolve of those even mildly against it.  Biden is about to get mired down in the courts over this, but the real question is, if he prevails, how will he enforce it? 

He does not have the resources at the federal level to actually enforce this, just like Trump did not have the resources to deal with illegal aliens effectively, without state cooperation.  So Biden needs to rely on state health inspectors to enforce this.  But, just like so many blue states passed sanctuary immigration policies, refusing to allow their resources to help ICE, so many red states will just do the same here.  In all of the red states, this will be a mandate without any teeth and become a joke. 

This will just produce another organic separation of states away from the federal government, a trend, by the way, started by blue states with their sanctuary laws.  If presidents continue to do things like this, eventually enough people on the right and the left will just say, "I may agree with the current guy, but the next I probably wont and would rather not give him the power to interfere with my state even if that power benefits me now." 

If you disagree, just look at all of the sanctuary measures already in place against helping with federal enforcement.  We have sanctuary immigration policies, sanctuary gun enforcement policies, sanctuary marijuana (and other lite drug) policies, and now, soon to be, sanctuary health enforcement policies.  We are slowly moving back towards federalism, and the tighter the federal government's grip on centralized power (regardless of party), the more sand falls through their fingers. 

[TechTalk]

Due to previous posts, I assume you are an attorney.

Why? Because, I have some basic english language skills? (which aren't great, but adequate).

Not that it matters in this discussion (or is anyone's business but my own), but, all of my income from full-time work has been derived from photography for the entirety of my adult working career. There were a few summers spent bailing hay for some extra money, but I was a teenager then.

What is it with people feeling this urge to jump to conclusions about others to somehow justify their own positions? One of my first (perhaps the very first) series of interactions I had with Alan involved him repeatedly insisting that I "must be a Kurd" as part of some sort of point he was trying to make.

C'mon people. Think for yourselves and stop with this projecting, stereotyping, and assuming about others to somehow prop up whatever point you're trying to make.

[JoeKitchen]

Why? Because, I have some basic english language skills? (which aren't great, but adequate).

Not that it matters in this discussion (or is anyone's business but my own), but, all of my income from full-time work has been derived from photography for the entirety of my adult working career. There were a few summers spent bailing hay for some extra money, but I was a teenager then.

What is it with people feeling this urge to jump to conclusions about others to somehow justify their own positions? One of my first (perhaps the very first) series of interactions I had with Alan involved him repeatedly insisting that I "must be a Kurd" as part of some sort of point he was trying to make.

C'mon people. Think for yourselves and stop with this projecting, stereotyping, and assuming about others to somehow prop up whatever point you're trying to make.

You have provided us with some fairly thorough legal reviews and opinions of your own, especially when it comes to supreme court cases.  This is just not something most non-lawyers research in their spare time, that is way I made that assumption. 

As someone who was originally going to become a chef, I have a much more expansive knowledge on cooking than most.  If you talked with me about cooking and started throwing around words like mirepoix or julienne (pronouncing them correctly) or, when using your chef knife, kept the fingers on your opposing hand curled, I would make the assumption you had training in a professional kitchen and not just someone who is interested in cooking. 

You should not take it as an offense. 

[TechTalk]

You have provided us with fairly thorough legal reviews and opinions of your own, especially when it comes to supreme court cases.  This is just not something most non-lawyers research in their spare time, so I made that assumption.

We all have our passions. One of mine, since I was old enough to read, has been history. History, by its nature, incorporates a wide range of topics within it, including law; politics; psychology; culture; economics; and more. Maybe that's one of the reasons that I was drawn to it at a young age and continue to be.

For someone with a wide range of interests and an inclination for source documents (like historians), the web and Google make it so fast and easy compared to going to libraries—which I still enjoy. In any event, history involves a lot of searching for and reading of various documents—so, there you go. Not an attorney, just a nerdy kid at heart.

[TechTalk]

As someone who was originally going to become a chef, I have a much more expansive knowledge on cooking than most.

It's one of the things that I like about you. I was fortunate to be raised by two parents that were both excellent home cooks. So, I have a love of good food as well. I don't mean fancy, just well prepared from good ingredients.

[Alan Klein]

Why? Because, I have some basic english language skills? (which aren't great, but adequate).

Not that it matters in this discussion (or is anyone's business but my own), but, all of my income from full-time work has been derived from photography for the entirety of my adult working career. There were a few summers spent bailing hay for some extra money, but I was a teenager then.

What is it with people feeling this urge to jump to conclusions about others to somehow justify their own positions? One of my first (perhaps the very first) series of interactions I had with Alan involved him repeatedly insisting that I "must be a Kurd" as part of some sort of point he was trying to make.

C'mon people. Think for yourselves and stop with this projecting, stereotyping, and assuming about others to somehow prop up whatever point you're trying to make.

You mean you really aren't a Kurd? 

[Alan Klein]

You have provided us with some fairly thorough legal reviews and opinions of your own, especially when it comes to supreme court cases.  This is just not something most non-lawyers research in their spare time, that is way I made that assumption. 

As someone who was originally going to become a chef, I have a much more expansive knowledge on cooking than most.  If you talked with me about cooking and started throwing around words like mirepoix or julienne (pronouncing them correctly) or, when using your chef knife, kept the fingers on your opposing hand curled, I would make the assumption you had training in a professional kitchen and not just someone who is interested in cooking. 

You should not take it as an offense. 

Why?

[Peter McLennan]

.  If you talked with me about cooking and started throwing around words like mirepoix or julienne (pronouncing them correctly) or, when using your chef knife, kept the fingers on your opposing hand curled, I would make the assumption you had training in a professional kitchen and not just someone who is interested in cooking

And that’s precisely the problem with assumptions.  They’re frequently incorrect.

I understand, can pronounce and regularly employ all of the techniques you mention, but I have zero “training in a professional kitchen”.  Nor do I particularly enjoy cooking as a hobby.  I do enjoy food, though.

Facts, not assumptions, are what count.  It’s unfortunate that so many assume that their assumptions are facts.

[JoeKitchen]

Why?

When holding an object still (say in order to cut it), it is very natural for you to extend out your fingers nearly all the way so they are almost horizontal.  This is just what most people do without thinking about it.  However, this presents a problem when you are using a knife since if you slip, the blade of the knife will fall on the top of your fingers and you'll cut yourself.  However, if your fingers are curled and you slip, the side of the knife will just bounce off your fingers instead since they are now in a vertical position.  Of course, you also need to position your thump behind your fingers, since you can not curl that into a vertical position. 

Next time you watch a cooking show, pay attention when the chef cuts something with a french knife.  They will always do this when cutting up and down. 

This is one of the first things you are trained to do in a kitchen.  And if you are not trained to do so, or if you do not pick it up right away, since you are using a knife all day everyday, you will eventually cut yourself so many times you'll just start to naturally do it. 

Most normal people, even avid home cooks, just are not using a knife nearly as much to get into the rote habit of curling their fingers.  If you do, its a tale tell sign that you probably worked in a restaurant as a cook for a little while.  And, if like me, you are in the habit of doing this, when you see some else not doing so, it causes you to cringe.