Vaccinations, Abortions, and Guns....Oh, My!

 Gentle Readers,

Tuesday, December 14th, is the 9th anniversary of the Sandy Hook Children's Massacre.  Just so you know.

I think we all know how I feel about the Supreme Court. That I believe they are the last bastion of sane governance in this country, and that I worry about the conservative tilt going on at the moment. It's also safe to say that I think Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney Barrett represent the very bottom of any barrel whether it contains pickles, wine, or jurists. Doesn't much matter. Both are fine examples of box o'rocks intelligence quotients.  But this week, there is a special place in intelligence hell for both of them.

On December 1st, 2021, during the hearings on the Mississippi abortion case, Justice Thomas questioned Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar:

JUSTICE THOMAS: General, would you specifically tell me -- specifically state what the right is? Is it specifically abortion? Is it liberty? Is it autonomy? Is it privacy? 

SOLICITOR GENERAL PRELOGAR: The right is grounded in the liberty component of the Fourteenth Amendment, Justice Thomas, but I think that it promotes interest in autonomy, bodily integrity, liberty, and equality. And I do think that it is specifically the right to abortion here, the right of a woman to be able to control, without the state forcing her to continue a pregnancy, whether to carry that baby to term.

 

JUSTICE THOMAS: I understand we're talking about abortion here, but what is confusing is that we -- if we were talking about the Second Amendment, I know exactly what we're talking about. If we're talking about the Fourth Amendment, I know what we're talking about because it's written. It's there. What specifically is the right here that we're talking about?

 

SOLICITOR GENERAL PRELOGAR: Well, Justice Thomas, I think that the Court in those other contexts with respect to those other amendments has had to articulate what the text means in the bounds of the constitutional guarantees, and it's done so through a variety of different tests that implement First Amendment rights, Second Amendment rights, Fourth Amendment rights. So I don't think that there is anything unprecedented or anomalous about the right that the Court articulated in Roe and Casey and the way that it implemented that right by defining the scope of the liberty interest by reference to viability and providing that that is the moment when the balance of interests tips and when the state can act to prohibit a woman from -- from getting an abortion based on its interests in protecting the fetal life at that point.

 

JUSTICE THOMAS: So the right specifically is abortion?

 

SOLICITOR GENERAL PRELOGAR: It's the right of a woman prior to viability to control whether to continue with the pregnancy, yes.

Really? She had to explain this to him? Solicitor General Prelogar says it in a single sentence: 

It's the right of a woman prior to viability to control whether to continue with the pregnancy, yes.  

This is not rocket science, folks. This is about a fundamental right of a FEMALE person to control one's own bodily function. Why is that so hard for him to understand?  Oh, wait, this only applies to women! Penis Possessors are exempt from thinking about others.

Meanwhile, Justice Bunny Barrett is busy waving her personal ignoramus flag when it comes to Israel and Jews. During oral arguments for Carson v. Makin, yet another State of Maine case, this one dealing with access to public money for students going to private religious schools where public school is not readily available, Justice Barrett frames her question:

JUSTICE BARRETT: Thank you. And my question is as follows. It kind of goes back to Justice Thomas's questions about rough equivalent of a public school. So all schools, in making choices about curriculum and the formation of children, have to come from some belief system. And in public schools, the public school -- the school boards, the districts are making that choice, those choice of classes to be taught and the kind of values that they want to inculcate in the students. Is there any kind -- I mean, how would you even know if a -- if a school taught all religions are bigoted and biased or, you know, Catholics are bigoted or, you know -- or we take a position on the Jewish-Palestinian conflict because of our position on, you know, Jews, right? How would they even know? Because it's my understanding that in choosing whether a non-sectarian school can be funded or not, you're not engaging in that kind of oversight about what the belief systems are of the school. So long as they're not sectarian, it's a thumbs-up?  

Now, I get that she's trying to put this in the perspective of what a school might say. But the language is, dontcha think, a bit bizarre? Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for sure, but Jewish-Palestinian? That she even says "our position on, you know, Jews," telegraphs a whole raft of other kinds of inferences. Do We, the People, even have a position on, you know, Jews?

If you read the hearing transcript, you will notice the ones arguing for inclusion are basing part of the argument on behalf of Orthodox Jewish schools, as if there are a great preponderance of those in Maine to begin with. This is just one comment of several:

JUSTICE ALITO: Well, unless you can say that you would treat a Unitarian school the same as a Christian school or an Orthodox Jewish school or a Catholic school, then I think you've got a problem of discrimination among religious groups --

The only Jewish day school in Maine is Levey in Portland. Their mission statement reads:

Levey Day School provides a nurturing community and a challenging, personalized curriculum infused with Jewish values and Hebrew language. Students of all backgrounds become lifelong learners committed to tikkun olam (improving our world).

About COVID, they write in the statement of Guiding Principles:

                                                         .אין כל דבר עומד בפני פיקוח נפש 

Nothing takes priority over safeguarding life. (Talmud, Yoma 82a)

                                                                      .תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם

Study of Torah is the most fundamental obligation. (Talmud, Kiddushin 39b)

These teachings illustrate the profound importance that the Jewish tradition places on learning and on health. Levey Day School has always prioritized both of these principles, and we remain fully committed to providing an outstanding education in a safe learning environment. We look forward to offering in-person teaching this fall, and we are also prepared for the likelihood that some or all students and teachers will need to engage remotely at times. Here are the general principles that guide our plans for doing so, with links to the specific policies that put these principles into action.  

You might think these two cases are unrelated in the broader sense, but they are not. Both are dealing with the freedom of bodily self-determination, but one is a private, personal freedom while the other is one that impacts the general population. If I were told these cases had to be decided on the single issue of personal decision making, I would have to opt for the government has no say in what I do with my own body. 

This does not make me an anti-vaxxer by any stretch of any imagination. Instead, it recognizes that a person has the right to make a decision for oneself. That said, the purveyors of public space have the right to say, "No, you cannot come in here because you are a danger to public welfare." That means the unvaccinated can be turned away and should be. They who choose not to vaccinate do not have the right to infect others. 

There is no moral equivalency in the cases. Choices must be made by the individual in full cognizance of the ramifications. And acceptance of rules that come with that choice must be obeyed for the sake of general good and welfare of the community.

Schools, theaters, shopping malls, airports, airplanes, houses of worship, and any other place where people gather have the right to say, NO VACCINE, NO ENTRY. There comes a point where the science of infection is well established and must be acknowledged/respected. If you are a potential carrier, you cannot be with others whom you endanger.

Being pregnant is not the same thing. A woman has the legal, constitutional, and moral right to choose what to do with her own body. She can choose to carry a pregnancy to term, or she can choose to end it. The state has no standing in that conversation. If a faith-based agency wishes to refuse entry to a woman who has had an abortion, that's between that agency and the woman. The government has no standing in that conversation, either. 

But wait, there's more!

Friday, SCOTUS allowed the Texas abortion law to remain in effect for the moment. In a complicated decision, the court refused to block the law, instead, sending it back to the lower courts. As explained on NPR:

The complicated ruling, issued Friday morning by a vote of 8-1, allows the challenge brought by Whole Woman's Health to proceed in a lower court. In that sense, it is a victory for the provider.

 

But by another vote of 5-4, the justices ruled that Texas judges and court clerks — who had been named as defendants — must be removed from the lawsuit.

 

As a result, any future injunctions in the case won't block the law, attorneys said, because the only defendants who remain are officials who handle medical and pharmaceutical licenses. Any court orders against them would only affect their licensing powers, said Marc Hearron, senior counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, a legal advocacy group whose attorneys are leading the litigation.

Slate viewed this as an attack on Constitutionally guaranteed rights: 

Gorsuch concluded, federal courts cannot “parlay” an injunction against an attorney general “into an injunction against any and all unnamed private persons who might seek to bring their own S.B. 8 suits.”

 

This part of Gorsuch’s ruling is a victory for providers—albeit an extremely limited one, for two reasons. First, it’s not clear that an injunction against licensing officials would stop bounty hunters from filing lawsuits under S.B. 8; it would only restrict the state’s ability to punish those clinics found liable under the law. Similarly, an injunction against licensing officials may not stop citizens from suing “abettors” who facilitate an abortion. Second, Texas and other states can easily work around Friday’s decision. Wary of that outcome, Chief Justice John Roberts—along with Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor—dissented from Gorsuch’s refusal to let providers sue state court clerks and the Texas attorney general. Roberts and Sotomayor wrote separate dissents, both focusing on Texas’ flagrant attempt to “nullify” rights protected by the federal Constitution.

Well, isn't that special. So special, in fact, Governor Gavin Newsom of California has decided to use that very model for a new law in his state...and it is brilliant:

The award for Best Use Of Ridiculous Legislation goes to Gov. Newsom. This is the perfect example of be-careful-of-what-you-wish-for kinda thinking. I have no idea if they can actually craft a law using the model, but it's just the kind of thinking We, the People, need to drive the ridiculousness of the anti-women party stance right out into the open. If they claim this violates the Second Amendment, well...goose...gander...shut up and sit down. 

The New York Times explained that thinking rather well:

As the Supreme Court has signaled that it might overturn Roe v. Wade, California political leaders have said they will work to make the state a refuge for women in parts of the country where abortion could be outlawed. Mr. Newsom’s response seemed to fulfill warnings that if the high court backed Texas’ legal strategy, liberal-leaning states might use the same tactic to limit rights dear to conservatives, such as gun rights.

 

The governor said that “if states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives, where Texas used it to put women in harm’s way.”

In the end, this whole episode is about the ridiculousness that has become SCOTUS. The court, once a place where laws and legislation was discussed free of political gamesmanship, has evolved into something partisan and devoid of the protections it's supposed to offer. The court as it stands now would not hear R. B. Ginsburg's case on unfair taxation that hinged on gender discrimination. The court is precariously edging toward becoming a puppet court...the kind we mocked and belittled in totalitarian countries like the Philippines and  Venezuela. 

If SCOTUS upholds more end-runs around the Constitution and settled law, what's the point of either? They are nothing more than shams and illusions to shed a rosy glow over morally and ethically bankrupt policies. 

The Wifely Person's Consideration o'the Week

And on that note.....I am giving serious consideration to taking the week off

 between that other holiday in December and New Year's Day. 

Truth is, I'll be hanging out with 50 pounds of pure snuggle 

and I'm not sure I'm gonna wanna rouse myself off the couch 

to do much besides let her out into the back yard. I'll let you know

Message on a Menu

So, my cousin Matt posted this picture on Facebook. Now, Cousin Matt is a level headed, no drama-kinda guy, and even he found this to be rather bizarre. I know we've all heard how wearing a mask is a kin of a gold star (and I kid you not, that bright star herself, Marjorie Taylor Greene really said this) from the Nazis:

Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear a gold star...

I don't know about you, but that makes all those gold stars I got at my last job seriously suspect. Anyway, I'm equally sure Solzhenitsyn is spinning from having his name taken in vain in this way. 

We managed to have an interesting back and forth about the meaning behind the message:

Me: I’m not sure I would want to eat there. What other health and safety rules do they feel are part of the lie?

 Matt: I don’t think it’s a bad place, but a lot of people around here are very dramatic and put upon by mask wearing. You see nazi comparisons, the don’t tread on me flag, still trump flags all over the place eight months after the election. Everything is another infringement on their rights and there’s a constantly simmering resentment that never goes away.

Me: I get that. Really. But when health regulations are minimized, I can't help wondering about how the kitchen is run. We had a spate of kitchens with violations during the pandemic here in MN. The other part is why even put that on your menu? What message are you telegraphing? Does that become a valid question?   

And here comes the part I really liked:

Matt: Sure. And the most foolish part of it is that a business is choosing to needlessly alienate at least half of the people who see the sign. But there is no logic or reason involved in these things. A lot of anti vaxxers around here too, those things go hand in hand.

Let me repeat the key sentence in that last graph: The business is choosing to needlessly alienate at least half the people who see the sign. 

I am certain there will be people who will defend the right of the restaurant to post that notice. I am sure there is an audience for that sort of thing. I am equally sure that people want to eat in a place with the risk to their health is minimal at best. But it raises a bigger question, one I've written about before and I am sure I will write about it again: appearances matter.

When a new business opens its doors, usually a great deal of thought has gone into the name of that business and the visual branding of said business. You want me to learn the name, know the name, associate the name with good stuff. That's pretty much a given. Inside said business, you want your employees to appear confident, qualified, and well-versed in their chosen field. This is true to everyone from the bottom rung up. It doesn't matter what the job is, it should be done well. This is pretty basic stuff, folks.

So why go out of your way to tell strangers who come into your establishment that you think the pandemic was overblown and masks were there to make you unhappy? Really? Ever hear of Typhoid Mary?

Mary Mallon in the hospital 1909

Mary Mallon was not a comic figure or an urban legend. She was an asymptomatic carrier who infected the families for whom she worked. Follow the link; read the Wiki article. It's short enough. Granted, this took place at the start of the 20th century. But there are lessons to be learned.

A young woman I happen to know confessed she was scared of getting vaccinated. Yes, her kids got all their childhood vaccines, but she was needle-shy and worried she might get sick. At the same time, she has asked her mother to come to her between rounds of cancer treatment. I explained to her, as I am sure her mother's medical team will explain to her, that she cannot be around her mother if she remains unvaccinated. "If you insist your kids get their shots, how can you tell them you are too scared to get yours?" We had a long talk about it, we talked about asymptomatic carriers, but she said "all that stuff on the news" from the anti-vaxxers scares her. They do say some pretty scary things. I don't know if I convinced her to look at the science, but she said she will get her vaccine because she wants to see her mother. Any reason is a good one as far as I'm concerned. I just hope she actually gets it. 

Look, I'm just as happy as the next person that restrictions are being eased, and we are returning to some kind of new normal. But I do not believe for one New York minute that this is over. As the virus mutates into new, more contagious forms, we will all be getting boosters and updated vaccines. People who are not vaccinated will continue to carry and be at risk. The reality that the vaccine will not always keep you from picking up corona virus, but will lessen the impact if you do, seems not to be registering with some people. You can still get sick, but not AS sick.  Just look at the path of the Delta Variant. 

In the United Kingdom, where the Delta variant makes up 91 percent of new cases, one study found that the most reported symptoms were headache, sore throat, and runny nose. (US publication Healthline).              

The appearance of that strain is increasing in the US and more people, when testing positive, will show up with Delta Covid. Muppet News Flash: it won't always be that variant; soon another one will come along and once again, there will be a scramble to adjust vaccines. Hopefully, the bottom line is that thems that get vaccinated have a first level protection from the worst symptoms of the disease variant. No guarantees, of course. 

HOWEVER, and gee, isn't there always one of those. 

We are not outta the woods yet. Which makes me continue to don a mask in the grocery store. I don't know who's vaccinated and who is not. There are parts of the world where no vaccine is available, and there are pandemic pockets everywhere. As much as I want to go to Israel in the fall, it's not a foregone conclusion that international travel will be the best idea in a few months. All one can do is wait-and-see.  But none of that is giant. There is a much bigger elephant in this room...and it has less to do with pandemic and more to do with science. 

Going back to the article about Mary Mallon. Never mind that she was a cook who admitted she didn't wash her hands very often. One line really jumped out at me:

For example, Milton J. Rosenau and Charles V. Chapin both argued that she just had to be taught to carefully treat her condition and ensure that she would not transmit the typhoid to others. Both considered isolation to be an unnecessary, overly strict punishment.

Nice thought, but completely wrong. Again, she was transmitting typhoid to almost everyone she came in contact with. AND, she had one of her friends providing test samples which, of course, came back negative, while she was continuing to infect others. Do you really think times have changed?

No, they have not. In those days, the doctors and the hospital administrators were the ones pooh-poohing cleanliness and other assorted procedures we think of as sensible. Nowadays, we have whole broadcast networks declaring their lame-ass opinions are smarter than science. Sure, they are. And the leviathan lives at the edge of the ocean. Just like the restaurant with the message on their menu. Their opinions were not based on the science of Pasteur and Lister, fathers of germ theory, guys who changed medicine for the better. The anti-vaxx opinion is based on convenience. 

Solzhenitsyn

Ergo, the real problem with the notice on the menu is the message it sends the patrons of the establishment. Instead of acknowledging we are coming out of a pandemic and they are doing their due diligence to ensure the safety of their patrons, they are calling the actions taken to stem the pandemic a lie, and citing Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to do it. Do they know he was a dissident who was jailed for exposing human rights abuses? Do they think requiring people to behave scientifically responsibly is a human rights abuse? 

Is the lie the part that attempts to save lives, or is the lie the part that encourages a false sense of complacency? 

I cannot help but wonder what Solzhenitsyn would think of his words being used in that fashion. And I cannot help but wonder what other science they discard in their quest for their version of the truth. 

And even if Matt thinks this is an okay place, I'm not so sure if I lived near there, I would eat in that establishment. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Yeah, the masks, for the most part, can come off.

That said, be smart about crowds and small spaces.

                                      And remember, little kids are not yet vaccinated.                                                            

I'm Not A Loser: Coup, Coup, Ca'joup

Over the course of time, several readers have objected to my using the word feckless in describing the theoretically most powerful man on the political planet.  I will address that concern now.

From the Merriam-Webster dictionary

Definition of FECKLESS

1

: WEAK, INEFFECTIVE

2

: WORTHLESS, IRRESPONSIBLE

Originally, feckless usually preceded the word Leader but more recently it precedes the word Loser for obvious reasons. And frankly, it is the right word to describe the current occupant of the White House. I was so hoping to retire the word in November, but alas, I find it remains part of my daily vocabulary. 

But I may be wrong about Feckless Loser. Feckless Loser has done something no other POTUS has done before him: he has enabled the start of a coup d'etat. In the event that you know the term but are unsure of its exact meaning:

coup d'etat

plural coups d'état or coups d'etat\ ˌkü-​(ˌ)dā-​ˈtä  , ˈkü-​(ˌ)dā-​ˌtä , -​də-​ \ also coup d'états or coup d'etats

Definition of coup d'état

: a sudden decisive exercise of force in politicsespecially : the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group

Now, this is the thing about a coup d'etat: it is never sudden and it is not always violent. A coup doesn't just  happen. A successful coup is carefully planned with exactitude and precision. The groundwork is often laid well in advance by those who are planning to overthrow a government. There are coups and attempted coups (like the ones of Arab Spring) that were sudden and ultimately failed because once they had control of the government, the overthrowers didn't know what to do or how to run a government. That's not what's happening here.

With Feckless Loser at the helm of this sinking GOP ship, he continues to refuse to concede an election that he lost both in popular and electoral votes. His idiocracy minions are dispatched to throw dust into the eyes of We, the People. The recent performance of Giuliani and that caricature, Mellissa Carone, is not nearly as mystifying as some would like to think. It's intention. It's designed to distract. 

Mellissa Carone reminds me of someone. It took me a while and a few video clips to figure out who, but I did. The look is familiar enough, even with the difference in hair color. The updo and the glasses help. But it was the tenor of the voice. This is a star witness? Really? No one in their right mind would parade this woman in front of a panel of lawmakers as a star witness UNLESS there was some other reason. A distraction? A red herring? An attempt to make We, the People, believe this is some kind of ruse, because no one, after listening to Mellissa Carone, would believe she was doing anything but bad acting. Her claims to be a cyber-security analyst are pretty flimsy. You can check her Facebook or Linked In profiles. Either way, she's nothing more than a distraction, a misdirection.

And what are you being directed away from? Lots of things: dog whistles, pointed silences, and subtle-and-not-so-subtle calls to arms. Or maybe it was that the White House wanted to deflect attention away from their decline to purchase more than 50 million doses of COVID vaccine from Pfizer? 

Shortly after Gabriel Sterling's passionate speech calling for Feckless Loser to stop undermining American democracy, The Great Orange tweeted

70,000,000 people are poised to believe this. That means roughly half of the voting population of this country entertains serious thought that this election is invalid. Of that portion of the voting population, perhaps a quarter of them or roughly 35,000,000 believe it enough to join a movement to overturn this election. 

Add to the number this trivial factoid: just 27 out of 248 Republican legislators have conceded that Joe Biden won the presidential election.

Do you seriously think Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller are sitting around doing nothing? 

Hardly. Feckless Loser and his much smarter, much more savvy cabal are lining up their minions for the showdown. This is not a joke, and it's not out on a limb. Every tweet, every rally, every speech is a call to arms.

I am really tired of writing about this stuff, but you, readers, urge me to continue to blow the whistle, sound the horn, and keep calling the emperor naked. I am preaching to the choir. On the other hand, if people keep saying, "this is real, this is a possibility," then perhaps we will be better prepared to fight back. 

I do not know if a coup d'etat will eventually take place. All the signs are there. People who have lived through them in other countries are screaming that this is a warning and we cannot ignore it. We must prepare ourselves for the possibility of civil unrest if not a full blown civil war. 

Make no mistake: the lack of measures to stem the pandemic are NOT unrelated to this. And to that end, we can only hope and pray for evolution in action: the demise of the galactically stupid who refuse to mask up and practice safe socializing.

Meanwhile. continue to follow the rules. Don't think it can't happen to you, and don't think it can't happen here. BOTH can.  You've been apprised.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Are fruit flies seeming to buzz before your eyes... then disappear?
 Are you turning on more lights than usual?

You may have cataracts.

To Boldly NOT Go.....

One of the perks of having a creative child is that every so often, he or she will use people he or she knows in that art. This was my week. The Senior Son put me on the bridge of the starship Beit Ya'akov, a veritable dream come true. Let me give you some background.

As a kid, he was big on imaginative role playing with his friends...only they weren't doing Dungeons and Dragons, they built a starship in our basement. NCC-1702, the Beit Ya'akov, was named for our shul, a/k/a the known center of the social universe. The role leaked upstairs one year in the form of a role playing game from a box followed by a formal birthday dinner with Romulan Ale (blue food coloring in Pepsi Clear...don't ask,) roasted Rock Klingon Hens with Wild Terran stuffing, and assorted other dishes served on snowy damask table linen, fine china, with sterling flatware and crystal goblets, and me in a cockamamie hat posing as Guinan running Ten-Forward. (Mothers would later tell me they hated me because now their guys wanted formal dinner birthday parties. It was such a totally fun night and I am forever glad that I did it.)

That starship stayed in the basement even after they left for college. During vacations, that was where the gang would congregate. I loved the sound of their laughter wafting up the stairs. One of the last times it was in use was while we were sitting shiva for Ziggy. One of the "crew" had driven the Senior Son home for the funeral, and would stay at his folks until Senior Son was ready to go back to Milwaukee. The other crew mates all showed up for the evening shiva minyanim. And afterwards, when the crowd would thin, they would eat the rest of whatever was on the kitchen counter (including an entire Byerly's giant fruit platter!) before they went downstairs to sit on the ship. When the time came to clean out the basement because I was selling the house, I looked at all those surviving boxes, some of which were labeled with departments, conn designations, and a lot of bad spelling in very childish handwriting. The inevitable demise of NCC-1702 broke my heart. For almost 20 years it had a DO NOT TOUCH kinda sign on it, and we respected that. This was their place. It was where they talked about stuff, where they transitioned from boys to teenagers to men. In so many ways, it was sacred space.

But the Beit Ya'akov would never really go away. These days, it's a modeling exercise for the Senior Son's work in animation. He shoots over slides and I love every one of them. The original guys are seeing them, too, and occasionally appear as crewmen. The original crew has remained close. I marvel at their adult selves and how the sound of their grown-up laughter echoes the sounds of the kids in the basement. They're all pushing 40 now, but they still laugh a lot. On the rare occasions they are all in town together, they have been known to gather in my new kitchen while I go hide upstairs where I can still hear their laughter wafting up the stairs. I take great comfort in that sound. 

This Thanksgiving, as everyone who isn't under a rock already knows, will be different. Families are not gathering, friends are not gathering, and the guys are not gathering. We are all making choices not just for ourselves, but for those around us. These are not easy decisions, and some are painful beyond reason. But more painful would be to know that, in the weeks following the holiday, you were the COVID spreader. No one wants that designation. 

As a parent, I have made decisions that even I did not like. There were times I desperately wanted to say YES, but knew the answer had to be NO. Ziggy and I would talk long into the night about some of those decisions, working hard to see if a YES was remotely possible. The boys will tell you, even today, my favorite expression about big stuff is "Do Your Homework." I am thrilled no end when in conversation it comes out that extensive homework was done in the process of making a major decision. Doesn't matter what it's for....I love that I had a hand in teaching them process. 

Process is what we are faced with as a nation. The pandemic has not slowed, in fact, it has ramped up. Hospitals and frontline workers are gearing up for a massive increase in infection and hospitalization in the weeks following Thanksgiving. If you have been following the science, you know there will be increased spread after this weekend. It's inevitable because people will make choices based on their emotions instead of the reality of contagion. The process has to be voluntary adoption of measures to stop the spread. No one can force someone to wear a mask or social distance, but those of us who do must continue to set the example. 

It's Monday night and I still have no idea what is going to happen on Thursday, and whatever does happen, it'll be fine. I am part of a small family pod because I nanny for the kiddos, so I am not totally alone. Am I joining Junior Son et al for turkey, I don't know; we haven't come to an official decision yet. But I know Shabbat Thanksgiving will be here like it should be. Getting together with this crew is not a grand occasion; it's normal. It would be more normal if Mr. and Mrs. Senior Son could come in more often, but right now, Mrs. Senior Son is, thank G-d, on the recovery side of COVID-19. When things flatten out, they'll be here again...and the kiddos will be jumping all over them as soon as possible. But the spread of COVID-19 must be contained before that's going to happen. 

In the big picture, I know how fortunate I am. No two ways about it. We are all setting the example for how to be safe. We can only hope others catch on before they come to understand it the hard way.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Encourage their dreams.

We got an artist and a mechanical engineer outta the deal.

No complaints here.   

Time For A Reality Check

The next wave of COVID-19 is upon us, and America faces a very different holiday season. We Jews have already faced our own pandemic holidays and we kinda know what they are like, what to expect, and how to shoulder through. The rest of the country has only had a taste of that kind of isolation and in limited quantities. Let me assure you, Passover with zoom seders was a challenge. Same thing for Rosh HaShanna and especially break-the-fast for Yom Kippur. Every Jewish holy day is centered pretty much around the concept something happened, we prevailed, let's eat. Any excuse to gather around an overcrowded dinner table is a good excuse. Or, rather, it was a good excuse. Not so much lately.

I would like to say something encouraging to all the gentile readers who are first encountering their less-than-full dinner tables, but there really isn't much to say except staying home and apart won't kill you. 

Gathering, on the other hand, might. 

Covid hot spots 11/16/2020

I am astounded by the pushback about sheltering at home and avoiding groups. A whole lotta imagination isn't required to understand the maps and charts showing the spread of a virus. Nor does it take all that much critical thinking to figure out that while lots of people survive the virus with little more than flu-like systems, other people are felled like spruce trees on a Christmas farm. Sure, they look real good standing up, but once they're down, they struggle to breathe until they die.

But then again, that might interfere with the annual tryptophan coma. 

Look at it this way: seatbelts are the law, so if you're caught without one on, you get a ticket. Refusing to buckle up a plane can get you bounced off. Babies and little kids are strapped into government evaluated car seats to protect them in crashes. Those same kids are taught at an early age to wear helmets on their bikes, and for the most part, they do that automatically. Wearing a helmet on a motorcycle is mandatory but lots of people choose not to wear one..and die if they fall off. Statistics support the research that these things save lives. If you choose to ignore common sense and are injured or die, then that is your choice for you. You can blame your parents or your peers for not insisting, but a sentient human knows that choices are just that: your choices. By extension, you own any consequences.

If you want to complain that wearing a mask is a violation of your Constitutional rights, why aren't you out there protesting seat belts, car seats, and helmets? Hey, those are the exact same things as masks...except for the part where not using them is not an existential threat to other people in the room. 

Choosing not to wear a mask and to socially separate is not the same kind of choice. In choosing not to wear a mask or maintain social distance, you are not choosing for yourself, you are, in fact, choosing for everyone around you. 

We are heading into what used to be annoyingly crowded airports, wondrously crowded malls, and family-crowded dinner tables. That's not going to happen this year...the crowded part. At least it's not going to happen if you have any sort of empathy chip in your brain. If you do, you realize crowds are not only not your friends, they can be the unwitting accomplices to acts of murder. 

I know most of my readers are sentient human beings and take this pandemic seriously. I know this because a lot of you write to me. And I appreciate the seriousness with which you describe your concerns and fears. They are not monsters in the closet or under the bed. They are very real and this wave of infection confirms the pandemic is real. Sure, lots of people get through it and get better. G-d willing, Mrs. Senior Son will be one of them. Our friend Mark wasn't; his family buried him last Wednesday. 

The ones who get better know this no joke and they will do what they must to protect other people from getting sick...and possibly sicker than they were. No one ever wants to believe that he or she is the one who spread the virus to someone who died. 

But if you happen to one of the ones who thinks, this won't happen to my family so we are going to gather en masse around the table for Thanksgiving, well, I hope you've all been sheltering at home away from others, getting a COVID test before Thursday, and have the good sense to social distance the place settings. Y'know why?  BECAUSE THIS ISN'T ABOUT YOU.

This is about NOT spreading COVID-19 around like good will, comfort, and joy. This is about NOT giving it to the checkout lady at the grocery store. 

Own your own behavior, accept the responsibility for a tiny little bit of tikkun olam, and be okay with not being the center of the known universe.

If you do that, you get to wear your mask proudly. You are officially part of the solution. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If all the usual suspects aren't coming for dinner, 
consider roasting a turkey breast instead. 
You can still have all the other stuff ,
and the leftover bone makes great soup.