A Los Angeles-to-Washington, D.C. helicopter trip started at PBI on a Sunday in November. Here are the Righteous preparing for a return flight to Boston after their optional vacation trip to South Florida.
When I arrived at LAX, I discovered that they’ve set up a Fall of Saigon-style area for everyone who wants to get out via taxi or Uber/Lyft. At 9:30 pm on a Sunday, the traffic was so heavy that it took my Uber about 25 minutes to go what Uber said would be a 5-minute 1-mile journey.
I was welcomed to the Redondo Beach Hotel in the distinct California style:
Even more upsetting, in a back corner of the hotel parking lot:
If you thought that people who were constantly surrounded by poisonous chemicals wouldn’t have time for coronapanic, you’d be mistaken. At the helicopter safety course, which includes an hour of simulated failures, each of which can easily turn into a real emergency:
The attendees, mostly beginner flight instructors, are typically men in their 20s and 30s (one pilot identifying as a “woman” was in our class of 30). Apparently they are at greater risk of being felled by COVID-19 (after failing to stand 6′ apart) than they are of being killed in a helicopter crash.
California taxpayers spent money on a Facebook ad encouraging me to get a COVID test:
At the Rite Aid, a reminder to keep injecting the 5-year-olds and also, some gluten-free rainbow wine.
They lock up stuff that wouldn’t be considered precious in most of the U.S.:
With no hurricanes, California’s beach towns have a lot more funky old stuff than do Florida beach towns, in which only the hardened and concrete survive:
Some more snapshots in our Redondo Beach neighborhood:
Conclusion: Los Angeles in the winter is awesome for people who don’t have to work (see Table 4 for how welfare spending power in CA compares to median-wage work). The mid-day weather is mild and sunny, which is of no value to those who are stuck in offices. It is dark and cold by the time the slaves are paroled from their plantations.
Let’s go to Reagan National Airport now. Here are some folks preparing for an optional vacation trip to Florida (PBI) over an extended Thanksgiving weekend. Counting airport transportation and TSA screening, it will take them half a day in crowded indoor public environments to get there. If they’d wanted to ensure a COVID-free experience, yet were unwilling to give up their vacation trip, they could have driven in one full day (14 hours door-to-door says The Google).
This is my favorite image. Eight people sitting in a row, all of them wearing various kinds of masks that have been proven ineffective against an aerosol virus.
Some apparently young/healthy people masked in the terminal:
A detail from the 8-in-a-row photo above:
Always a conundrum… our brothers, sisters, and binary-resisters who choose to wear masks, but refuse to shave their beards. COVID-19 is a deadly threat, but not so deadly that anyone should pick up the Razor of Righteousness. Walking onto the crammed-to-capacity Airbus A320:
I didn’t get a video, unfortunately, but the two guys at the breakfast table next to me (they seemed to be traveling together and only one was wearing a mask prior to food arrival) insisted that the waitress remove the offensive items that she had delivered to their table: “We don’t use straws.”
Related:
- “You May Be Early, but You’re Not Wrong: A Covid Reading List” (Nov 15): “Over the last few months, there’s been an avalanche of studies telling us that Covid poses a major threat to our health, our lives, and our sanity. The biggest risk now comes in the weeks and months after we recover. … There’s no permanent immunity from this virus. Each time we catch it, this virus attacks our hearts and minds. It weakens us. It tries to kill us. It imprints on us, so a future variant has a better shot next time.” (About half of Americans think as this author does, yet they won’t stay home. They’re voluntarily in crowded airports, airliners, theme parks, resort hotels, etc. SARS-CoV-2 has not changed substantially. The vaccines have a mediocre and temporary effect. Why are those who supported lockdowns in 2020 behaving differently than they did in 2020?)
“Dr” Phil:
They’ve broken you, my friend, they’ve broken you. Post #450 about masks. Don’t let them have that power over you. You said Floridians don’t care about covid/masks/etc. I guess you aren’t yet a true Floridian. But you are a snowflake, finding offense everywhere you go.
I very lightly skimmed this post — I just don’t care about people’s masking preference. Why is it so offensive to you? You are only setting yourself up for a Herman Cain award.
Mike: I hope that you’re growing out your beard for maximum effectiveness when you wear a mask (as in a previous comment you promised to do). You don’t care about others’ masking? That means you are denying Science. See https://twitter.com/nycHealthy/status/1601276303143051266?s=20&t=xKbUliK-BeCXyXjubPPx0Q for example (released TODAY). The “the official account of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene” tells New Yorkers to wear a mask at all times when indoors and also outdoors if it is “crowded” (i.e., anywhere outdoors in NYC). Science cares about others’ masking. Why don’t you?
Mike is a dumb dumb!
Mike: philg has provided an invaluable service tracking and pointing out the COVID-19 mismanagement and propaganda. It needs to be documented somewhere.
People have the memory of a goldfish and just believe the daily NYT narrative. I bet you were masked last year, but now that the narrative has changed and we have different official threats you probably stopped wearing masks.
(In that light, the people in the pictures are at least consistent.)
Mike – “(b)ut you are a snowflake, finding offense everywhere you go!” Have you looked in the mirror lately? Triggered much? I recommend
“…read the prescription. It ran: “1 lb. beefsteak, with 1 pt. bitter beer every 6 hours. 1 ten-mile walk every morning. 1 bed at 11 sharp every night. And don’t stuff up your head with things you don’t understand.” I followed the directions, with the happy result—speaking for myself—that my life was preserved, and is still going on.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7244179-read-the-prescription-it-ran-1-lb-beefsteak-with-1
The incessant and inescapable fear mongering takes its toll on both mental health and on the physical well-being (chronically elevated corticosteroids have many deleterious effects on health, one of which is immunosuppression).
These useless ugly labels and rampant safetyism are turning Americans into a naton of chronically ill neurotics.
Averros: I am constantly being reminded by customer service folks on the phone or in person to “stay safe.” These are people to whom I have not disclosed my intention to do anything that would have been considered risky prior to 2020. It could be after calling Verizon and arranging an upgrade to iPhone 14. It could be checking out of a hotel. Other than becoming more anxious, I am not sure what to do with these admonishments.
So in March 2020 my house keeper stopped coming to work -1 day a week, about three hours for $75 in cash. She is in her late 20s, illiterate with very rudimentary spoken English, earns her living cleaning apartments and offices. Her whole family emigrated to the US over a period of about 15 years & she has probably been here for about a dozen or so years. Her mother came first on a tourist visa, overstayed, claimed political asylum. After a multi-year back and forth with INS she was given a US passport and then brought over the rest of her family who were living in India — they are not ethnically Indian. Everyone works off the books cleaning or taking care of children except it seems a son, who seems to be a bookkeeper or something like that for some small company. A few months after she stopped coming to work I called her and asked her when she would return and she said she was too scared to ride public transport. To no avail I tried to explain to her that at her age she was at minimal risk. So I started housekeeping myself and realized that I could complete it in about half the time it took her. So today I received an email from her that she is going to get another vaccine on June 4 — she probably meant Jan. 4 — and was ready to return to work thereafter. Presumably the government money they were receiving is running out since otherwise I don’t know how they would have supported themselves for the last 2.5 years & why she would pick now to return.