Returning to work brings a number of advantages. It usually involves hearing stories that always seem to surprise me. In the era of COVID, I get to hear stories that end up shocking us in the end. For today, those stories center on sick people that have been denied care because hospitals are full of Covidiots.

We know it’s happening, but these stories become more real when we hear them from someone we know. Of course, I realize I’m preaching to the choir here and preaching to the choir doesn’t exactly bring a lot of converts. Maybe it’s just a few tortured souls complaining together in the wilderness.

Since I’m not a lawyer or a doctor I know only a few things. First, I know that doctors have a duty to help everyone that comes their way. Secondly, the numbers of Covidiots being hospitalized has caused traditional patients to somehow get the shaft.

I’m not smart enough to figure out how we work around this problem. I know I would mandate the vaccine and masks, but we all know that this will never happen across the board. Obviously, some public entities are requiring it in some circumstances. My wife will not be allowed back on site at JSC unless she can prove she has been vaccinated. Unfortunately, private businesses and most other job sites are not doing the same.

So, we rely on the humanity of others. We rely on people to feel shame for their behavior or empathy for others that may need those hospital beds. Shame and empathy seem to be in short supply. Any kind of collective responsibility is seen as socialism and evil. So, about 40 percent of the population refuse to see how their inaction has impacted the rest of us.

The question before us is how we can ultimately deal with this problem. Certainly, some have offered suggestions that will make things better in a marginal way, but the problem is so widespread that these minor suggestions serve as a ripple in the sea.

So, that brings us to the two key questions of the day. First, in terms of hospitalization, is there any legal way to force those that actively chose not to safeguard themselves or the community to wait? Secondly, and more importantly, how do we get people to understand that they are responsible for not only themselves but to those around them as well? I’m open to suggestions.

Lunch breaks are short these days, but considering all of the COVIDs going around it seems like a good time for an update. As most of the regular readers know, I teach in one of the school districts that decided not to mandate masks. This is in spite of the fact that all of our schools are in Harris County.

I get it. You have the governor saying one thing and the county judge saying something different. As many of the social media memes say, you have all of the medical doctors and PhDs saying this and yet my buddy Earle (who made a D in Biology) is telling me something else. Who do I believe?

El Jefe and Juanita were all over the governor yesterday, so I’ll just say that this is what the English teachers call irony. I think it’s situational irony, but I’ve slept since we reviewed irony with my sophomores. I just know that it isn’t Alanis Morrissette irony.

At least our district has had the presence of mind to post signs in English and Spanish recommending the masks. Of course, some of our campus leaders are wearing masks and some aren’t. A majority of the students are wearing masks. So, maybe not all is lost.

Our campus is a unique place. We teach kids trades where they can become certified before they graduate. That includes vet tech and child guidance. We have three and four year old children roaming the halls and the occasional dog as well. While that makes for an interesting environment on most days, it is especially worrisome these days with COVID. Even if every student of the school were vaccinated, those preschoolers certainly aren’t.

I manage a group of about 20 students every year. A couple of them are home because someone in their family tested positive. Then I have a few more that might be home schooling because our district doesn’t offer a virtual option. Statisticians will tell you about the dangers of extrapolating from such a small sample, but our minds can’t help going there.

So, while the rest of the world struggles how to handle the news of our beloved governor getting the COVID, those of us here are bracing for the worst. The kids are packed in like sardines and we all know how that will turn out. If you pray to a supreme being we’d love a shout out. If you don’t then whatever positive thoughts you can muster are well appreciated.

Breaking News —-

Just in: @GovAbbott tested positive today for COVID-19, his office announces. He’s fully vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/Sbu6z0w0in

— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) August 17, 2021

And that’s what happens when your Freedumb loving friends breathe on you.

And here’s Greg last night in the smack dab middle of no masks at all.

Wanna see the most disgusting and pathetic thing you’ll see all day and just get it over with?

Former President George W. Bush said late Monday that he and former first lady Laura Bush had “been watching the tragic events unfolding in Afghanistan with deep sadness.”

Holy crap. Holy damn crap.

He also says that our troops in Afghanistan “kept America safe from further terror attacks.” No, no, no Cowboy, you can’t stand on the 911 stack of rubble for eternity. You  made this mess and now you want to criticize somebody for trying to clean it up?

And suddenly Bush has all this love for refugees?

The United States government has the legal authority to cut the red tape for refugees during urgent humanitarian crises. And we have the responsibility and the resources to secure safe passage for them now, without bureaucratic delay.

Oh, but not those from South and Central America?

Bush, you are a piece of work and I don’t freeking care how much candy you give Michele Obama, you are still a war criminal and I still want to impeach you.

There, I feel a little better.

I read somewhere last week that at some point after the election, Lindsey Graham called President Joe Biden to try to make up and be friends again.  Joe ignored him.

Lindsey tried again by sending a message that he only attacked Hunter Biden during the election to appease the Trump voters in his district. It is brutally obvious that Lindsey does not have any children because, not surprisingly, that didn’t work either. The first rule of living in a civilized world is that you do not ever attack someone’s children to hurt the parent. If you do, they will kill you and then they will eat you.

Lindsey seems to be at his wit’s end to want Joe’s love and attention.

For years I wondered what dirt John McCain had on Lindsey.  And then, I suspected that Trump had worse dirt.

But, I think maybe the Pulitzer prize winning guys at the New York Times have a better explanation.

Yet what emerges from interviews with more than 60 people close to him, and with the senator himself, is a narrative less of transformation than of gyration — of an infinitely adaptable operator seeking validation in the proximity to power. It is that yearning for relevance, rooted in what he and others described as a childhood of privation and loss, that makes Mr. Graham’s story more than just a case study of political survival in the age of Trump.

He just wants you to look at him. He wants to be relevant. You know, I can understand and forgive somebody doing something because they are scared. But for ego? Nah.

It’s a long article, but it’s good.

Florida, The State of Emergency, has another emergency – a nasty hurricane. Maybe not real nasty because it’s a hurricane named Fred. I mean, how nasty can Fred be?

I think maybe God hates Florida. Or, this could fall under the ‘karma is a bitch’ theology.

The Florida attorney general has set up a hotline to report price gouging. So, I was thinking wouldn’t it be cool if people would call the gouging hotline and report, “Hey, my insulin is now $300 a week.” Hell, regular everyday price gouging on things you need to stay alive would give those suckers something to do beside spreading a disease that eats your lungs.

But Governor DeSantis made sure to protect his friends.

Florida’s price gouging law only applies to items and services essential to preparing for or recovering from a storm within the areas of a state of emergency.

So I don’t guess insulin counts.  Thanks, Ron.