War and Pestilence

Ever since February 2th, I've had Ebola on my mind. When I left the beautiful Bell House after Dr Chandran's lecture on Ebola, I felt more optimistic than I did when I entered. There were scientists cracking the code, so to speak, that the Ebola virus uses to enter a cell and reproduce, and there were medical professionals administering treatments.

Today, I didn't feel so optimistic... listening to the BBC World Service today before heading off to work, I heard a sobering news item about the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (coverage starts around the 8:20 mark). While the treatments are more effective than previous ones, and survival rates are improving, the conflict in the DRC is thwarting efforts by Medecins Sans Frontieres, which had to shut down two treatment centers.

MSF International President Dr. Joanne Liu encapsulated the infuriating dualism of the current Ebola outbreak in the DRC:


"We have a striking contradiction. On the one hand, we have a rapid and large outbreak response with new medical tools such as vaccines and treatments that show promising outcomes when people come early. On the other hand, people with Ebola are dying in their communities, and do not trust the Ebola response enough to come forward."


Conflict drives people into the wilderness, where they come into contact with Ebola vectors, and it creates a climate of mistrust which causes people to avoid treatment. I had asked Dr Chandran about the relationship of Ebola to conflict, and his answer was much like Dr Liu's. The virologists and epidemiologists, supported by the medical personnel working in the field, are doing heroic work, but they are hampered by those individuals who would rather fight their fellow humans, rather than the virus.

Did We Ever Need a Bloomberg Candidacy?

As Tengrain noted, Mike Bloomberg is out of contention for the 2020 Democratic primary. Heaven forfend that he tries to push the Republican Party away from the brink! Much like Howard Schultz' flirtation with a presidential run, Bloomberg's test-run seems largely motivated by a desire to keep the kids away from the Siren Song of Socialism by giving them some mealy-mouthed mushy middle maunderings. Sure, Trump's bigotry is very vulgar, but at least he won't sit idle and watch some young whippersnappers raise the marginal tax rates by a few percentage points.

Bloomberg's popularity lies strictly with Beltway insiders and media 'both-sides' fetishists. Even here in New York, where he reigned as mayor, Bloomberg would probably lose in a primary against Fatberg.

That Fattest of Tuesdays

Today is Mardi Gras, but I don't feel all that festive. I'm waiting for the shoe to drop, that one phone call which will inform me that a friend of mine has died, all the while, taking calls from people who are in disbelief about the whole thing. To compound things, I'm fighting laryngitis, so I want to limit all conversations. To feel better, I cooked a big chicken yellow curry and have been drinking hot toddys all day. I let my trivia team compatriots know that I was in no shape to be interacting with anyone in public... don't want to emulate Typhoid Mary.

Anyway, Mardi Gras just hasn't been festive, but I think listening to some Cajun music by Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys will do something to lighten the mood.





When laissez le bon temps rouler doesn't work, a little Mardi Gras music can make the mal temps more bearable.

With Apologies to Paul Frees

This has been a big month for Sebastian Gorka, the weirdo right-wing Anglo-Hungarian 'foreign policy expert' who was even too much of a grifter for the Trump Maladministration. Gorka is a weird blend of pseudointellectual (he insists on calling himself 'Dr Gorka', even though his doctorate is questionable) and wannabe tough guy (I suspect he is overcompensating for his effete eurotrash accent). He claims to be an expert on Islamic extremist terror, but he doesn't speak or read Arabic. The crowning Gorka Glory is that he is, if not exactly a Nazi, not exactly not a Nazi. He is the sort of grifter who really only fails upwards in the milieu of a failed political party.

I didn't realize who Gorka reminded me of until last weekend, when he claimed that Democrats were coming after your ground-beef products:





Cartoon villain with a vague mitteleuropäische accent? SEBASTIAN GORKA IS THE BURGOMEISTER MEISTERBURGER!!! While he would be really successful playing the heavy in children's holiday cartoon specials, Gorka will no longer appear as a Fox contributor. Asked for comment, Gorka merely said:





I really shouldn't lump Sebastian Gorka in with the talented, comedy genius that is Paul Frees, a personal favorite of mine...

Bearer of Bad News

This has been a terrible weekend... yesterday, I received news that my friend and co-worker Barry, who has been battling bile-duct cancer for the past year, is on his last legs. His kidneys and liver have stopped functioning, and it's only a matter of days. He is receiving palliative care, and is facing the end in his typical fashion, with bravery. The real shock to me is that I honestly thought that Barry would beat this thing... if anybody could do it, it was him. He is a big, strong guy, brimming with with vitality. He is also educated, he has been a volunteer emergency medical technician for years, so he was familiar with the jargon and read up on the particular cancer he was facing.

I have spent much of the day contacting mutual friends in order to convey the bad news. The general reaction is shock- the very notion that we are losing such a vital, almost elemental, individual is particularly upsetting to people. Barry was a role model and a protector... just knowing that he had your back was reassuring. He was unafraid to confront management when he saw something he didn't like (we have one manager who can be a bit of a bully to her subordinates, and he was not one to abide by that). I always enjoyed working with him because we have similar values, similar attitudes. We would spend shift change waxing poetic about Wo Hop or swapping recipes or discussing science and technology or relating funny animal stories (he has two dogs he dotes on and has a knack for interacting wild animals). When his day job brought him to my neighborhood, we'd stop at the local fish and chips place and hang out for a while.

So now, I will continue texting our mutual friends (I have laryngitis and sound like Marge Simpson) and receiving the same, shocked response: "If anybody could beat this thing, I thought it would be Barry."

A Two Hour Two Minutes Hate

Having a bit of a masochistic streak, I have been following coverage of this year's CPAC, a right-wing Loonapalooza which culminated in a two hour long speech by the Dotard. It was a two-hour long Two Minutes Hate, complete with anger towards Robert Mueller, fearmongering about immigration and 'creeping socialism' in the guise of environmentalism, and continued lies about inauguration crowd size. Who says that people want new material? While Libertarian Fonzie raved about the speech, more mainstream authors panned it. Quick, what's the difference between Stephen King and Nick Gillespie? One writes horror fiction, while the other is Stephen King.

The coverage of CPAC that I have been reading tends toward the unsympathetic, by which I mean the observers reported the proceedings as they occurred. If the conference seemed like a freakshow, it's because it was. Perhaps the Freak of the Week was a newly returned Michelle Malkin, who is channeling her inner Alex Jones by fantasizing that a civil war is imminent. The really messed up thing about this is that I don't see anybody in the party she supports talking the base away from the ledge. Mercifully, the base tends to be dim and lazy, so I can't see their civil war going much beyond some shitposting on Twitter.

Cheesed Off

I just found out about a new 'viral' stunt- people are throwing pre-sliced cheez-food product at others' faces, hoping that it will stick, and recording video of the occurrence. This new stunt is called 'cheesing'.

I'm slightly offended by this trend... it's potentially a waste of food (though some of the cheese-ees are reported to have eaten the slice that was thrown at them), and it often involves babies or toddlers who probably get frightened by having something thrown onto their faces. The real offense, though, is that the individually-wrapped process cheez-food slices are being described as cheese. By heritage, I am a quarter-Italian, a quarter-French, and a quarter-Swiss... I take my cheese seriously. Hell, even the quarter-Irish part of me balks at calling this stuff cheese... there are some fine Irish cheeses out there. If you want to 'cheese' someone, use an actual cheese, just don't use a Pecorino Romano- that stuff is hard and can hold an edge sufficient to draw blood.

Also, haven't we heard enough about individually wrapped Kraft singles to last a lifetime?