Fear porn. Contributing money to unpopular causes. A sunshiny day brings everybody out.

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The centers for disease control (CDC) have proven themselves the masters of fear porn, but our side does all right on its own. Here is a graph showing that in Britain the triple vaccinated are projected to have Vaccine induced Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (VAIDS) by next month.

Putting on my cynic's hat, I will observe that there is a difference between a syndrome and a disease. All this means is that your immune system doesn't have its normal ability to fight off bugs. You may be more susceptible to opportunistic diseases.

Going back to what we know about AIDS, my observation is that the gay community has learned to live quite comfortably with it over the past 20 years. If they take good care of their health, they are generally okay, compromised immune system or not.

The negative 100% cutoff on the graph is chosen quite arbitrarily.  As best I can tell, it means that the triple-vaxxed are twice as likely to catch Covid. Two catches with this definition. First of all, there are many other diseases out there besides Covid, and secondly, as reader Phil points out, being diagnosed with it is different than being hospitalized, intubated or dying from it.

While I would not wish to be in this position myself, I am certain that come the end of March, when all of you are still doing fine, you will conclude that this is a false alarm. Kind of like the false alarms we have been seeing about the war. Nonetheless, I would suggest that you use your unbiased search engine to look for "Official data suggests Triple Vaccinated" to decide for yourself how much substance there is in this call for panic.

Speaking of the war, my guy Edward Slavsquаt today links to an absolute cornucopia of conflicting information pouring out of Donbas. Use that same impartial search engine to see what he has to say.  I hear from one of you Ukrainian readers that Putin is taking advantage of the fear to welcome refugees into Russia, giving them a clot shot and 10,000 rubles, then telling them to go home. What a guy! To quote Lily Tomlin, I do my best to be cynical, but I just can't keep up.

I'd like to repeat another thing I like about this Edward. A month or so back he provided an extensive list and links to other dissident websites within Russia, many of them published by Western expatriates. While it is true that the official news services in Russia are controlled by the government, there obviously are other voices.

Justin Trudeau has weaponized the financial system. As a language purist I hate when nouns get verbed like this, but there simply isn't a better way to say it. Trudeau has made it very difficult to conduct your life if you fund people with opinions unfavorable to his government. Or express them yourself. There are words to define systems like that. Democracy is not at the head of that list.

Justin Trudeau forced GoFundMe to cravenly cave in.  First they said they would  give the $10 million to other charities, then agreed to refund it to the donors. They are still in business, though they will not get another contribution from me.

Christian charity GiveSendGo, with far less resource but more courage, stepped up to fill the gap. They were hit hard. "Hackers" obviously affiliated somehow with the establishment stole their donor lists and made them public.  Reporters from government radio and TV "interviewed" the donors to intimidate them. A couple of civil servants who had donated $100 or so anonymously got fired. A Canadian judge slapped GiveSendGo with an injunction.

The establishment is playing hardball. It is reminiscent of the fall of the Soviet Union. That was a relentless historical thrust resisted by attack dogs, walls, moats and machine guns. All of these measures were ultimately not adequate to suppress the human lust for freedom.

Recently new reader Charles Finney has been attempting to interest me in NFT's. Non-fungible tokens. I read up on them trying to decide what they'd be good for. It seems to me that getting money to causes that the government doesn't like, the Canadian truckers at the moment, would be an ideal application. Charles, I'm writing up what I can on the problem and elements of the solution. Look for it in your mailbox pretty shortly.  It might not make money, but it would put your name in marquee lights.

Today Eddie and Zoriana joined Oksana and me walking down to our new dacha. We met Olga and Vadim, who are going to be setting up a beekeeping operation there. As I wrote earlier, I am tickled to death that somebody will be making use of the land. It gives us an opportunity to get rid of the dead trees and the junk. They will plant flowers that the bees like.

Vadim told me he was going to make a bee house. I used my hands to outline a beehive. He said, not that! A bee house is a holistic medicine concept. You build a little house above the beehives where a person can lie down and listen to the buzzing as they take in the scent of honey, pollen and beeswax. It is said to be extremely relaxing. Oksana is much more into this new age stuff than me. I am sure she will find it exactly as advertised.

Meanwhile, Eddie is there with his friend, their son Nikita and three other boys from their neighborhood along with four-year-old Zoriana and their two-year-old son Platon.  The boys are busily sawing, raking, and hacking whatever they can with my machete. If they accomplish nothing else, it would be a great day in the sunshine after a long winter. But actually, they appear to be achieving some pretty worthwhile results as well.

That's the news from Lake WeBeGone, where the strong men are like bears emerging from hibernation, the good-looking women are soaking up some color in their faces, and the above average kids are doing everything imaginable to perfect their manual skills.

Graham