Quarantine entry #80 - May 9

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. So, what about the police?

Here is the crux of the matter. Many people claim that the modern police force is outdated and flawed and corrupt and so forth, so it needs to be defunded and/or changed. Pause.

What is the issue with that? (Not a problem, an issue). ‘Tis that the police is a representation of a country as a political state, aka entity. Any country, political-wise, consists of a government and a society, among other things, but we are focusing on those two, for when a country’s government and society do not get along, bad things happen. Cough.

…Yes, the U.S.’ current troubles have partially occurred because of COVID-19, (real life sucks, see the disclaimer), but COVID-19 only exacerbated them, made them worse, but did not create them outright. Yes, on a personal level, many lives got changed because of COVID-19, but it can be noticed that many countries, and governments, in the Old World do not appear to be as bad as the U.S., or even Canada.

Canada, it should be noted, has its’ own problems with POCs and WASPs and the rest, but somehow the issue there of defunding or changing the police system does not appear to be surfacing in the news very often, unlike the U.S., where it is for real. This makes suspect that whatever is going on in Canada right now is just an imitation of the American issue, and a rather superficial one instead. And, since we’re back talking about the United States of America, let’s get back to that political entity, which has to deal with at least two other issues that became influenced by its’ ‘civil unrest’: COVID-19. And the matter of voting.

COVID-19 is obvious: no one can, or even willing, to guess, as to how many people got sick by the coronavirus during the protest process, as the self-isolation was dismantled and discarded by the protesters and the police. How many of them got sick, will recover, will die? Somehow, no one is talking about that, let alone raising an issue – and it is sad, for should you really defund the police if its’ officers will catch the COVID-19 virus for real and start to die-off or at least be hospitalized? One of a pandemic’s consequences is a population crash, and if American population crashes, then abruptly the issues of police just may not be as important anymore.

This brings us to the matter of voting. Right now, the RF is having its’ own political issues – Putin and his cabinet are being accused of messing with the RF’s, and especially Moscow’s, quarantine, so that people could vote and annul the Constitution, or Putin’s previous reigns, or whatever. The issue of how people will be able to vote and not get sick is one of the central ones.

Well, back in the U.S., the Americans have a ‘voting by mail’ option, and it is controversial, because of course it is. Many people have many issues with this…and then the public protests began, which brings us back to the probable resurgence of COVID-19 in the States and the potential population crash that can follow that resurgence.

Right now, the Donald is standing to lose the elections because of public protests at last, but after over a week of them, those protests are starting to transform into a call for governmental reform, or rather – its’ police aspect, (though as the toppled Confederation-related statues show, not only that, maybe). Fair enough, but, again, if the COVID-19 pandemic reboots and people once again begin to get sick for real, (and on all of the social strata, too), then the entire hullaballoo might vanish, as people would no longer be able to sustain the pressure through the sheer lack of healthy populace…and the changed priorities too. Pause.

Now, ironically, today, I wanted to revisit rabbits, (insert an appropriate populace joke here, see the ‘Zootopia’ movie for reference), but after this today’s rant of mine, even I find it crude. Ergo, for now, this is it. I will see you all soon instead!

Quarantine entry #59 - May 19

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. In particular, the COVID-19 lockdown got prolonged for another month – until June 2020, so here is a big middle finger to all of those who made this decision; I do not know as to how Doug Ford was involved in it, directly or otherwise, but I’m sure that he was, so there!

…Aye, on the other hand, J.C. from the team Snowbirds has it worse – she died. She took the risks and she died. What risks, you may ask? Well, from 1974 until now – that’s 46 years, almost half a century – the Snowbirds’ jets crashed every few years, so the odds were in odds of another crash now or sometime soon, and so it happened, last weekend, (aka May 17, 2020), and so Ms. J.C. died, and her partner broke both of his legs while escaping the crash. Canada! Canada! …And the woman’s from Halifax, Nova Scotia, aka the province where a certain mass shooting has occurred earlier this year already. Seriously, can we go back to the Asian giant hornets now?..

That said, because my personal state of affairs is derived from my family issues, (and I am not, admittedly, ready to share them on this blog online), here, instead, a piece of original fiction from yours truly. Enjoy!

Once upon a time, there was a mother rabbit, and she had two little bunnies...

The mother rabbit in question was not happy. The dog in the backyard was scary enough, (especially for a little rabbit), but the presence of cats was something else. True, the older feline preferred just to sit on the kennel roof, while her kitten played with the dog, but a mother rabbit is a worry-wart and couldn’t help herself, safety of an enclosure or not.

“Shouldn’t something be done about them?” She asked her neighbour, (a domestic pig, incidentally).

“Feel free,” the swine replied, as she went through a hole in the fence. “Personally, I am off to talk to my wild cousins - good luck!”

“Aren’t you worried about the humans-?”

“Silly rabbit - our story has no humans, at least not so far!” Commented the pig and left, leaving the rabbit family behind.

The rabbits just looked at each other, but before they could reach any conclusion, in popped their wild cousin, the hare.

“Yo! You!” He called out to the cats and the dog. “Where’s the lynx from our plot line?”

The mother cat just jabbed one of her paws in the direction of the hole through the fourth wall, (from the previous chapter).

“Is she coming back any time soon?” The hare pressed on.

The mother cat gave him a flat look.

“Oh good,” said the hare, “Since I was worried.” To further emphasize his relief, he turned around and jumping into the rabbits’ enclosure. “Hey there, cousins,” he told them brightly. “Want to hang around?”

The bunnies looked at their mom. “Fine,” their mother relented. “But let’s not get carried away, or our swine neighbour will come back or something!”

“Done,” agreed the hare, and the foursome went to the local vegetable garden, (which was located not far from the pigsty, actually), but that was another story.

…Well, this is it for now. Did you enjoy this piece? All comments and criticisms are welcome! See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #20 - April 10

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. The weather is back to snowing – it is almost the middle of April, and it has snowed all morning. In the middle of April, and now my computer is acting up. I really hate the place where my life took me right now, and there is no way out, thanks to the entire lockdown situation.

…Oh yes, the COVID-19 situation in Italy and Spain is worse than what it is here, no question about it; what I am worried about is as to how effective the entire lockdown situation will be in the long run. Real life sucks, you know, and all of those people who are taking advantage of the lockdown/quarantine situation are only making it worse.

…Oh, sure, there are plenty of people who are trying to make it better as well… it is actually a mixed bag, something that many people have forgotten: most people are both good and bad, it’s only a question of what, and who, will come on top. Yes, there are people who appear to be purely one or the other – human history was often made by them – but they are in a numerical minority, period. What next?

Hard to say. So far, it looks as if we are in the lockdown for the rest of April, period. Since right now, it is only the middle of the month in question, snowstorms or not, (albeit yesterday’s storm was more of a freezing rain one, cough), the next few weeks are going to get worse, not better, at least initially. (Drone footage is showing a mass grave being dug in New York. I am fairly sure that the mafia is not behind this one. Ouch).

Where does it leave us, then? Still stuck in the lockdown/quarantine, for there is no escape from it. In part, it was influenced by the popular stereotypes in the movies, books, TV series that deal with this sort of thing. Reality is proving to be somewhat different from the abovementioned, but it is the best thing we got, so far. The U.S. elections-2016 proved that mass media and its’ persuasion have limits, but they are still great forces, and its’ limits are quite far away. Therefore, again, we are stuck. Did I mention that I hate my life lately?..

Anything else? Well, to cheer up my followers, here is another piece of original fiction from yours truly about a hare, (not a rabbit, cough):

In winter, a hare’s coat is both warm in texture and white in colour. Therefore, it saves the hare both from frost and from hunters. Winter snow is as white as a hare’s coat. Try to find it! In addition, while you do that, the hare will flee and be gone.

Left to its’ own devices, a hare will chew branches, nibble the bark, however bitter it will be. It is waiting for the warm summer. For the summer is a time of plenty, especially for food. You are free to choose. If you want, - choose the clover, if you want - choose the fresh grass, any flower...

...That all said, the canny hare should leave human gardens alone, no matter how tempting the local carrots and cabbages may be!

End

This is it for now – see you all soon!

Quarantine entry #18 - April 8

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and so, to distract myself, I went back to DW, to its’ final season for a change. This time, I re-watched the ‘Teddy Roosevelt vs Lawrence of Arabia’ episode, and again, I was hit as to how unbalanced the entire DW became by S3.

As I said before, since S2 onwards, DW became either prejudiced or partisan in favor of the U.S., but in S2, the show did downplay this fact. In S3, it did not... and it was bad at it. In the U.S. vs. North Korea episode, the U.S. team won by half a percent. Half a percent! This sort of fudging could have satisfied neither the U.S. partisans nor the fair play team. However, in ‘Teddy Roosevelt vs. Lawrence of Arabia’ the fudging was different, as I have written before.

To recap: in the first round, the U.S. team won fairly: the British’ Vickers machine gun jammed where the U.S. Gatling gun did not. That is fair. Third round – the British Jambiya got the edge of the U.S. Bowie. Fair again. Second round – the U.S. Krag tied with the British Lee-Enfield. This is where things got murky, because the DW team justified in using the Krag over anything else by mentioning the U.S. Cuban adventure – aka an attempt by the U.S. to capture Cuba. It failed, among other things, by the Krag’s flaws, so using the Krag on the DW was the sticky point.

The most disappointing thing for me, however, was this episode’s staged fight – Roosevelt’s tactics in taking down Lawrence were very much the same as Washington’s taking down Napoleon in the S3 premiere episode. This is not too surprising – apparently, for its’ S3, DW wanted to show the American supremacy over the British and the French – but rather disappointing. In the first two seasons DW was really good, for all of its’ flaws; in S3 – not so much. Maybe that is one of the reasons as to why it went down, aka got cancelled. I still enjoyed observing the WWI tactics displayed in this episode, though. Anything else?

Yes, in fact: today I want to return to my original fiction, so here is a short drabble of a story, to give you something different:

A fox was hunting during winter - for hares, mice, rabbits, etc. Once upon a time, it came across a hare, and promptly began to chase the latter. The hare fled past a stump without paying attention... and a really big great horned owl was sitting there. It saw the hare and took off, slamming the mammal into the snow, pinning it down. Only... this was not the Mesozoic, The age of reptiles and birds, for the fox, which had generated its’ own burst of speed, had half-leapt and half-slammed into the owl, knocking it off the hare.

A great horned owl is just as formidable as its’ relatives, the eagle and the snowy owl are, but the red fox got a really good grip this time...

When the noise ended, the hare looked out of its’ snowy pit and the first thing it saw was the red fox, busy plucking and eating the big bird. It shot the hare a look over a bloody muzzle, and the hare fled, leaving the fox in the field by itself with the prize. It may be the Cainozoic now, aka the age of mammals, but the mammals were not quite equal to each other either.

End

…Did you like it? Comments and criticisms are welcome! But for now this it, see you all soon instead!