Category: Plagues and Poxes

Joe Jackson Was Right

Health, Plagues and Poxes

If this report is true and the science valid, then it’s indeed a major breakthrough:

A common food bug picked up in childhood may be fueling a colon cancer epidemic in young people, according to a bombshell study.
Colorectal (bowel) cancer, long considered a disease of old age, is increasingly striking people in their 20s, 30s and 40s in the US and UK in a phenomenon that has baffled doctors.

According to the latest data, early-onset colon cancer diagnoses in the US are expected to rise by 90 percent in people 20 to 34 years old between 2010 and 2030.  In teens, rates have surged 500 percent since the early 2000s.  

Now, researchers at the University of California San Diego believe they’ve found a potential culprit: E. coli colibactin, a foodborne bacteria that infects around 75,000-90,000 Americans each year and at least 1,500 Britons.

So where does this evil little bugger likely come from?

The most common source of E. Coli is undercooked ground beef, where bacteria can spread during processing. But leafy greens like romaine and spinach are another major culprit, often contaminated in the field through tainted water or contact with livestock.

Raw milk and other unpasteurized dairy products also pose a risk, along with raw produce like apples, cucumbers, and especially sprouts — which provide the perfect warm, moist environment for bacteria to thrive.

E. Coli can also sneak in through contaminated water, which may be used to irrigate crops or clean equipment, and poor kitchen hygiene can help it spread to other foods like poultry.

Wash and clean yer foods, folks.

And if that isn’t enough to frighten you, there’s always chicken.

Cue Joe Jackson’s cheerful little ditty.

Areas Of Expertise

Disaster, Plagues and Poxes

It’s a common flaw in society to think that because someone is a success in one specific area that that success can be applied with equal weight in other areas.  The classic example is that of Albert Einstein:  brilliant mathematician, but political idiot.

How much credence, then, are we to give to this asshole?

Bill Gates forecasts another global pandemic ‘likely’ within next 25 years in ominous health warning.

Even worse, he conflates two unrelated scenarios:

War or another global pandemic, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates is cautioning that, if the world manages to avoid the former, the latter is a very real possibility within the next 25 years.

“A lot of unrest” in today’s age could spark a major war.

“If we avoid a big war … then, yes, there will be another pandemic, most likely in the next 25 years,” he continued.

And if we do have a big war, does that mean there won’t be a pandemic, you moron?

I should like to remind everyone that back in the early 1980s, Gates completely missed the oncoming tidal wave of personal computing, and in fact pooh-poohed the entire concept, saying that he saw that there’d be fewer than half a dozen PCs in existence, and that all humanity’s computing needs could be addressed by mainframe computers — to be fair, quite a common thought among Big Iron believers of the time.

So if he could be that spectacularly wrong in his own field, why should we believe anything he says about pandemics?

As they say, to ask the question is to answer it.

“Ring”-worm

Plagues and Poxes

Just reading about this made a part of my anatomy itch (and no, it wasn’t my trigger-finger):

A new, highly contagious sexually transmitted infection that has been spreading throughout Europe and elsewhere has now arrived on U.S. soil.

A case report published Wednesday in JAMA Dermatology revealed that a man in his 30s from New York City contracted a nasty skin infection after weeks of travel. During his time away from home, he engaged in sexual intercourse with multiple men during trips to England, Greece, and California.

When he got back, he developed a rash on his genitals, buttocks, and limbs.

Genetic testing on skin lesions identified the culprit as a fungal infection known as Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII (TMVII), a sexually-transmitted form of ringworm. According to the CDC, TMVII VII is a difficult-to-treat fungus that causes skin disease in animals and humans and is acquired through sexual contact.

The emphasized words say it all, really.  I’m thinking “Greek goats” as the origin, but it could equally be Welsh sheep.  As for California, it could be anything Kardashian.

I report, you decide.

Point Of Principle

Bureaucracy, Government Thugs, Plagues and Poxes, Resistance, Rights

I see that the medical scaremongers and charlatans are now mumbling (soon to be shouting, no doubt) about how the latest ‘n greatest Covid variant is going to kill us all unless we do all that shit that didn’t work the last time.

I might as well get it off my chest now:

  • I will not wear a face mask, because they’ve been proven ineffective and hamper my breathing
  • I will not patronize any business (or government office) that mandates the use thereof
  • I will likewise not curtail my social or commercial activities under terms of any government-mandated lockdown
  • I will not get yet another vaccination of some unproven (and apparently also ineffective) drug against this new Covid, nor any other Covid strain for that matter
  • any attempt to coerce me into doing any of the above will meet with a hostile, perhaps (depending on the circumstances) even violent response from me.

Others may join me in this, or not — it is a matter of complete indifference to me, as this is a purely personal position.

Corollary: 

We know what you’re trying to do, and it’s not going to work.

Ending Stupidity

Bureaucracy, Gummint, Plagues and Poxes

…and about time, too:

It appears the Biden Administration has ceded to increasing calls for an onerous COVID vaccine mandate to end for international air travelers, along with federal workers and contractors.

Stuff doesn’t seem to have worked, caused possibly thousands of unnecessary deaths all by itself, and was the basis for so much governmental overreach and, in some cases, outright thuggery.

Good riddance, and don’t bother doing it again, no matter how scary the poxes and plagues look.  We’re not going to be panicked, or bullied, next time.