chasfh

But what good is the extra longer life and healthy years if you're just going to endure them in a peaceful socialist hellhole?

Well, there are 332 million people in the United States and 73.5% of them are either white/non-Hispanic or African American, so, you do the math.

Wasn't ballmich a big fan of WND? I wonder how that guy is doing these days.

To me the biggest red flag about the whole thing is the neighborhood association people dodging questions from the media about the details of their plan. Strikes me as being on the same side of the line as Colonel Jessup blasting Lt Caffey for sleeping under the blanket of the very freedom that Jessup provides, and then questioning the manner in which he provides it.

Didn’t Rice also vote to impeach Trump? At least he’s still planning to face his district’s voters next year, so let’s see how this all plays in the sticks. Or is this the first volley of his retirement announcement?

I don’t know where this comes from, but of course I respect you. I thought we were breaking balls and having fun. But, OK, note taken. At no point did I say I don’t believe your anecdotes. In a big city with a lot of people densely packed in, individual violent incidents can occur even in safe neighborhoods where violent crime has dropped. But even if it’s the safest neighborhood in the city, if police still wanted to beef up their patrols there, I have no beef with that, because that’s the city’s prerogative. We pay them with our tax dollars and they are accountable to all of us. I simply don’t believe an unvetted private armed force should be hired by individuals who are unaccountable to the taxpayers and who make themselves unavailable to explain the details. I think that’s dangerous. YMMV.

The Bucktown neighborhood the association wants the unvetted and unaccountable group to come and patrol is literally one block north of that intersection. And how dare you capitalize buddha's name, you fascist. Well, good thing you don't live in Chicago,then!

but my buddy owns a bar, and i have anecdotes

From the article: Between the lines: Bucktown and neighboring Logan Square actually saw a decrease in violent crime. But that hasn't stopped the Bucktown neighborhood association from bringing in armed private security. https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/2021/12/20/chicago-violent-crime-gun-violence-statistics-2021

I'm old enough to remember being asked "and have you seen what's going on in lincoln park and lakeview?"

But my buddy has a bar ...

My memory of Jeff Larish is sitting in the first few rows of the south side ballpark when he lost the bat on a swing and it ended up the hands of the guy next to me. That’ll never happen again.

Maybe it all started on the coast, but it also definitely ended there by our getting swept in Seattle.

From the Department of God Help Us All:

Good luck getting two-thirds vote in each House, since if they even removed all such aiders and comforters, they might well fall short of the quorum they would need for that vote.

I’m OK with it. Get the first swing out of the way.

I don’t think anyone seriously expected Haase to long-term it at catcher. Platoon DH/occasional LF seems like his role, and his stretch upside would be the consistent short side of the platoon with Baddoo.

It took Haase four tries to make enough plate appearances to break out of his rookie status, so your fears may not be unfounded.

Police said two suspects are 18-20 years old, African American, 5’11”-6′, with brown eyes and black short hair. The other suspects are three African American men in their 20s and a woman. Well, I guess if I see anyone who fits this description in my neighborhood, cops will want me to call them about it. 😏

Remember the people claiming all this as “Alarmist Non-sense”? Where are they today?

I'll wear a mask when I'm required. I never did or will argue about that. But whenever I'm allowed to, I unmask. I feel safe enough to do it. You'll like this: I have already been to two plays and one bar here in Chicago that require you to show proof of vaccination to enter, AND to stay masked inside at all times. Personally, I think that's overkill. After all, if everyone in the place is vaxxed, who are we protecting with masks? But hey, them's the times we're in. So in that specific situation, I comply because I have to, and cheat for air when I can.

Well, if you’re not mad enough at me yet, this will certainly send you over the edge: my 5’1”, 103-lbs. 60-year-old wife takes a walk through that very neighborhood every single day alone, all by herself, and I don’t lift a finger to try to stop her! 😅

Yeah, well, I didn't get triple-vaccinated just so I can continue to be masked at all times and never go to restaurants. Shit, I could have stayed unvaccinated for that. I'm inclined to disagree that "how worried should I be" depends 100% on my habits, because that would suggest that if I am fully vaxxed and unmasked, I should still be just as worried as someone who is completely unvaccinated and unmasked, because only my habits would determine whether I am in real danger. I gotta believe that being vaccinated makes a positive difference when I am unmasked out in the world, which is sometimes. That's why I wish we could have the data on people who get COVID, knowing what level of vaxxed they are, which brand of vax they got, and whether they were hospitalized or have died. It would give me some sense of scale as to whether I should be really worried because the vax doesn't matter after all, or whether I can be reasonably confident that I'll be OK. Here's a simple example of what I mean, and let's make up some numbers for it. Suppose one million people get Omicron, and that 500,000 are unvaccinated, and 500,000 are fully vaccinated. Let's pretend Omicron gives you zero protection from getting COVID in the first place. If 50,000 (10%) unvaxxed Omicron carriers get hospitalized and 5,000 (1%) of them die, and 50,000 (10%) vaxxed carriers are hospitalized and 5,000 (1%) die, then I'm going to be plenty worried, because that means I have as much chance of dying from Omicron as literally anyone, regardless of my vax status. On the other hand, if 50,000 (10%) unvaxxed Omicron carriers get hospitalized and 5,000 (1%) of them die, but only 5,000 (1%) vaxxed carriers are hospitalized and just 50 (0.01%) of them die, then I'm going to be basically not worried at all, because instead of having a 1 in 100 chance of dying from Omicron if I get it, I'd have a 1 in 10,000 chance instead which, to my way of thinking, is too low to even think about. That means my vax status makes a huge difference. If we had this kind of information at our disposal, we who are triple-vaxxed could determine a level of risk that right for each one of us, and I think strictly due to our diligence, we've earned that right. Again, I recognize that always being masked everywhere all the time gives me the maximum protection. But also again, that ain't what I vaxxed up for.

I hear factoids like this and I always wonder what's below the hood. I would really like to find some website, some data source, that would tell us how many cases there are, how many hospitalizations, how many deaths, broken out by age and gender, whether they were vaccinated, which brand they vaccinated with, and whether they've received one, two or three shots. Also, whether the person contracting can be is classified as immunocompromised. For example, I want to know what percent of otherwise-healthy people age 40-59 who have gotten three Pzifer shots contracted it and were hospitalized and died, versus those the same age and condition who got one J&J shot. That kind of thing. Otherwise, when I hear things like two-thirds of people getting COVID during such and such a period were fully vaccinated, I simply don't know how seriously to take it, or how worried I should be as a triple-vaxxed healthy guy. I hope that's not by design.