Okay, so I suspect you’ve heard that Matthew McConaughey is considering a run for Texas Governor. He hasn’t said which party but he’s starting to answer some questions about it.

He’s said that he’s “measuring” a run. I don’t know if he’s got a ruler, a tape measure, or spoons, but he obviously giving it some thought. I say that because he did an interview. When asked if he’s going to run, he responded —

To the hosts, he replied, “Well, thank you, man. I’m measuring it. Look, it’s going to be in some capacity. … I just — I’m more of a folksy and philosopher poet statesman than I am a, per se, definitive politician.”

He continued, “So I go, well, that’s a reason not to, but then I go, no, that’s exactly why you should, because politics needs redefinition, but I’m measuring, you know, what is my category? What’s my embassy?”

I don’t think per se means what he thinks it means. And as far as I know, the position of philosopher poet statesman isn’t up for election, and if it is, Willie Nelson is the frontrunner.

Good Lord, he’s Donald Trump with a better haircut.

UPDATE: Anna The Geek here again. It all went very smoothly last night and the site is back up with the same features as before. So comment and post away!

Hi everyone,

This is Anna The Geek here. I need to perform some major maintenance on Juanita Jean website starting at 10pm today. The site can be wonky tonight and tomorrow. If you comment during that time, it might be lost. I will post again when the site is back up and stable.

It’s not going well, y’all.  I listened to the talking heads last night on the television and they say the debt ceiling deal is catastrophic and a major threat to democracy. It looks like Biden’s bill is DOA because, come to find out, Democrats are not a whole lot better at compromise than Republicans are.  An absolutely new variant of Covid has been found in a nursing home in Nebraska or some damn place and we are back to killing 2,000 people a day with Covid.  Migrants are being beaten with a whip by LEOs on horseback on the border.  We’re having 16 foot waves on a lake near Chicago and that just don’t seem right.  Biden is giving away nuclear weapons and, damn, that don’t seem right either.

This morning, I was so depressed that I considered moving to Cuba and running for Secretary of Agriculture. Somebody’s gotta bring in the agave crop and I think I am just the woman to it done.

So, I went looking somewhere – anywhere – for good news.  This appears to be a lot harder than you’d suspect.  But, I finally found it and it was worth the hunt.

People with a higher consumption of dairy fat have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those with low intakes, according to new research studying some of the world’s biggest consumers of dairy products.

A hunk of cheese and a bottle of wine because my heart needs it today.

One other thing, how come all this news and a white girl getting killed by her boyfriend takes precedence over everything?  Did Nancy Grace win the culture wars?

Yesterday, some readers were very passionate about vaccine mandates in the wake of the news that Pfizer has had some successful tests of children between the ages of five and eleven. We obviously aren’t there yet, but hopefully we will have a vaccine for all school aged children before the end of the year. This of course begged the question: why aren’t all elementary schools and daycare centers mandating that every adult in the building take the vaccine? Forcing everyone else around them to be fully vaccinated just seems to make the most sense.

That conversation morphed into a conversation as to why we aren’t mandating every abled body adult get the vaccine. The FDA has give full approval to at least one vaccine. We have plenty of it to go around and the vaccine has been free for quite some time.

The Democratic party should be working from a position of strength, but they can’t seem to get out of their own way. Heavy majorities want vaccine mandates. They want a higher minimum wage. They want stiffer environmental protections. They want voting rights protected and expanded. We know all of this. Yet, little seems to happen because some within the party are worried about the fallout.

See, we know a loud minority will protest any of these things. We know this because we’ve seen it before. When President Obama was negotiating the Affordable Care Act, he took very popular planks like a public option off the table. There was no way the Republicans could support it. Except, they didn’t support any of it. They’ve been spending the past ten years trying to get rid of all of it. So, why are we worried about what planks Republicans find objectionable? They find everything objectionable.

Conservatives are up in arms about mandates. It’s antithetical to freedom they say. Except it’s the exact same thing we’ve been doing with other vaccines for decades. In order to attend public school you have to have certain vaccinations or documentation from a doctor of why you cannot comply. There’s none of this “I don’t know what’s in it” or “it’s a way for them to track you.” Sure, there are those that have always believed that, but they had to suffer the consequences of their decision.

The end result this time around is that one of the wealthiest countries in the world has one of the lowest vaccine rates in the developed world. Sure, developing countries lag behind, but they also have institutional barriers to consider. A country without those barriers can’t seem to get to 70 percent in full vaccinations. Sadly, giving people the freedom to choose means too many make the wrong choice.

Whether you mandate it or not, the Tucker Carlson’s and Sean Hannity’s of the world will spew their garbage comparing a government to fascism when doing something we’ve done dozens of times before. You can tiptoe around it or you can simply shove it down their throat. If people are going to complain let’s give them something to complain about. In the meantime, maybe then we can properly protect our children and anyone else that is vulnerable instead of hoping only the idiots weed themselves out of the population.

The battle over science and science fiction wages on, but today is one of those rare days when science appears to be winning. Various news outlets are reporting that Pfizer has completed successful tests on children between the ages of five and 11. Obviously, that doesn’t mean that the vaccine is right around the corner for our younger kids, but it could be approved before the end of the year.

This comes as more and more children are testing positive for the virus. It’s getting closer and closer to home. My daughter is luckily a part of the vaccinated population, but other children are not. We get a call every day from the school where I work about another person on campus testing positive (they won’t differentiate between students and staff). Those are usually proceeded by an email from our daughter’s school about the number of people testing positive there. These occur daily.

Our daughter plays volleyball and we have instituted a car pool with several other parents and kids to make life easier on all of us. One of the parents tested positive. Her daughter initially tested negative but being quarantined in the same house with someone that is positive can’t be good. She has a younger sister that cannot be vaccinated yet. These are the real considerations at work here. These are the real results from a world where not everyone wants to mask up or give themselves the jab. Based on our dealings with them, I certainly believe both parents and the older children are vaccinated, but that hardly protects younger children.

Meanwhile, the effects on activities that we took for granted when we were younger cannot be overstated. This week is homecoming. The game and their parade are on for now, but the homecoming dance has been cancelled for weeks. Maybe something will be done later in the year. Maybe it won’t. As adults these considerations seem trivial. Who cares about a dance? That’s easy for us to say when we all had those activities when we were younger. It’s hard to get past the anger of knowing this could have been avoided had everyone just acted responsibly. At any rate, maybe Pfizer is taking one significant step in the right direction.

You know how Q-Anon is always telling you to “do your research”?

If you’re like me, you are pretty damn pissed off at people who won’t get a vaccine or wear a mask.  They are the only thing keeping us indoors right now, where we are suffering from glittering catastrophic ennui. 

Since the Q-Anon people are always telling us to “do your research,” I did.  What I have discovered is that a sure fire way to get Covid and die from it is to be a radio talk show host or a politician who preaches against getting the vaccine. It seems like every day there is a new one, especially in Florida. It’s kinda like justice and karma got married and had a baby.

The host of Real Science Radio, Bob Enyart, age 62 broadcasting from Denver, warned all his listeners not to take the vaccine.  He filed lawsuits against the mandate and repeatedly called the vaccine a plot.

Datona Beach’s own Marc Bernier, 65, passed away at the end of August after using his radio show to call Dr. Fauci “power tripping lying freak.”

Dick Farrel, another host from Florida, died after railing against the vaccine.  His family, however, says he changed his mind after he got Covid. Yeah, too late.

Also, in the same article, Phil Valentine, talk show host in Tennessee, loudly opposed vaccines until he, too, contracted the virus.

Business Insider list seven more talk show hosts who have bitten the dust.

Although not a talk show host, the latest one was pretty damn classic.  They formed a whole political group in Florida to raise money for candidates who oppose vaccines.  Because they are a political group, they have to file reports with the Federal Elections Commission reporting who donated to them and how they spent the money.  They couldn’t do that this month because their treasurer died … of covid.  Get your damn shot.

I’m sure there’s a hundred more.

I just got my third shot two weeks ago and am feeling fine. I encourage you to get yours, too.  These men had to die with the souls of everyone they willingly infected on their heads.  When the role is called up yonder …

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