Doug's Darkworld

This is going to be a really random post. It’s my blog and I will if I want to. I posted a picture of dead Russian soldiers in the Facebook group, one of which was a woman, and it certainly inspired discussion. Thought I hope too, certainly thought on my part. Got me thinking about shield maidens, women soldiers. I certainly think that if women want to join a war, all good. It’s actually fairly unusual historically for that not to be the case, but medieval European Christianity invented the idea that women were slaves just by virtue of being women, and many of them are still right at it. Reminds me of the thought “Feminism is about changing the rules, not letting women play the game.” War is NOT the natural state of mankind. I guess the idea that women that want to participate in it should be on equal status as men is a good thing, but that’s just attacking the symptom. Still, voting Biden is simply attacking the symptom (Trump) of the underlying problem, I guess sometimes that’s the best option, and hope that it leads to avenues to deeper change. Remind me to blog about Joan of Arc. 

I’m saying that women should fight in wars just like men, but that doesn’t magically make wars OK. Wars should be a last resort of national defense, and offensive wars are never justifiable. The above image was indeed a war of national defense. Those are some of the Night Witches and their bombers. They were an all woman bomber group during World War Two, Russians, who had a frightening reputation bombing German troops during the war. Invading German troops I should add. The Night Witches bombed at night using obsolete wooden biplanes, so they’d cut their engines in the final bomb approach so as not to give warning, and there would just be a whispering sound as they glided over the target as their bombs exploded below. Night witches on their broomsticks.

So yeah, police in Vietnam seized 320,000 used condoms that had been washed, reshaped,  and were being sold as new condoms. Vietnam police seize more than 320,000 used condoms. OK then. My first thought, how in the hell did someone gather up hundreds of thousands of used condoms? Are there like public condom recycling bins to steal them from? Industrial scale sex worker establishments? The article doesn’t say, I leave it to the intrigued reader to dig further if they want. My second thought was: Well, this makes every job I’ve ever had look good in comparison. “Used condom cleaner” just isn’t an attractive career path. 

In Covid-19 news, the party that promised in 2016 they wouldn’t try to seat a SCOTUS justice just before an election has promised there will be an orderly transfer of power no matter the election result. US election: McConnell promises an ‘orderly’ transition of power. We’ll see. I’m not reassured. “Extremists are only useful to have around when they are right.” 

This one speaks for itself: Here’s how utterly dumb the mask-wearing debate has become. It was and is an example of historic stupidity. There were never any reasons to object to wearing a mask, no more that there were reasons to be upset that businesses required customers to wear shirts and shoes. And while there was some initial scientific questioning about how well masks worked, that was long ago resolved. Public masking is the number one defense against spreading Covid-19, and anyone who doesn’t get that yet is living in a fantasy world. A Trump fantasy world that has killed tens of thousands of Americans with no end in sight.

Well, there is an end in sight. Only about 10% of Americans have been infected with Covid-19. So within a year or two we’ll start to hit numbers high enough that transmission will slow down: Coronavirus: 90% of Americans have not been exposed to Covid-19, CDC director warns. It will mean a few million dead Americans, millions more with long term or permanent health problems, but at least millions weren’t subjected to the trivial inconvenience of wearing a mask in public.

Stay safe gentle reader. Comments, likes, shares appreciated. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #InsanusTempora

Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Image: public Domain image from World War Two.)