Explain?
Printable View
I ain't your son, and I will accept your surrender, evidenced by your anger and frustration, and gladly move on. After reading your response I concluded that there will always be people who will look at a set of facts and conclude the exact opposite of what they would imply to a sensible, logical person. And that's even before they start distorting the facts, shading them, mischaracterizing them, and simply making them up. I'd like to continue thinking that your work on strength training outweighs what I read in your response about the federal government, but I probably should have told you that I could have written that for you long before you started, even before I asked you the questions. I've dealt professionally with many people who think as you do, and the convenience of their arguments is regardless of how outrageous they are, they can simply select facts to fit the argument. Libertarians do that to a fare-thee-well, and "sovereigns" take it to the stratosphere. Neither kind persuades very many people, however, since facts are pesky, stubborn things.
It's a stupid-storm! Back to the real world: Denver orders closure of USPS facility that handles mail for all of Colorado, Wyoming | FOX31 Denver
I think Denver will learn that they lack the authority to close a federal mail service center.
Here in Ohio the gyms opened up today. I was there at 6, doing my first set of squats in over two months. I lost about 30% off my squat and 20% off my deadlift, but man, it felt so good. It's like all the stress melted off. All the anger I harbored toward the Kool-Aid bros like darrow and bruno turned into smug satisfaction.
The best part was that almost no one wore masks. One guy walked in with one on, looked around and saw that no one else was wearing one, and immediately took it off. The owner had one on, but by the time I left he had it pulled down over his chin since it was obvious no one cared.
Mask use has also tailed off in grocery stores, anecdotally. I saw about 90% compliance the past few weeks, but it's dropped to something like 50% the past few days.
Don't get complacent though. Mock foolishness wherever you see it. The emperor doesn't have any clothes on, but people still think he does.
The problem I'm pointing out is that local officials, like in my county, are trying to pass a law where businesses face a fine if they don't mandate customers to wear a mask. I see the people on this forum advocating for a "free market" approach much more than a mandate. I've seen Rip say something to this effect at least 5 times on this thread, if not more. If he wants everyone to wear a mask in his gym, let that be up to him and not some public policy maker. Likewise, if he doesn't care that you wear a mask in his gym, and you feel scared, you have the option not to train there. It really is that simple. To force someone to wear a mask because of hamster studies though... Come on...
I don't have a problem with the media and health officials suggesting wearing a mask as long as they're honest about where they're basing the evidence. "Hey guys, some hamster study in Hong Kong suggests we should wear a mask," sounds a lot less convincing and scary than, "Hey guys, this is incredibly serious. You all need to be wearing a mask despite us initially not telling you to wear a mask."
At least the former is honest, if not a little absurd sounding. The latter, despite probably being rooted in good intentions, feels underhanded and sneaky. If you couple that with a general distrust of the government to handle situations like this and the media to report on it accurately, it really shouldn't surprise you. You never gain back what is taken from you. We'll be forced to wear masks on airplanes for the next 50 years if you let the government have their way. We won't even know why we're doing it anymore. Does anyone even remember the justification for 3 oz. of toothpaste on airplanes?
The fact that no one challenged me when I was not wearing and did not don a mask and then took my payment without comment indicates accommodation. So both parties got what they wanted. I bought their product and they got my money. An added benefit for me was not acquiescing to sheep-like behavior.
Do you have any other finger wagging to offer?
BTW: My response wasn't to you, Rip. It was to the person who ridiculously compared COVID to the flu. I hadn't planned to respond to you at all. But I was interested in the specific prescription you had for the future, which you neglected to say. I'm sure it is some form of "do nothing," which might actually make sense since the administration's fact-free ignoring of the experts has made things essentially irretrievable.