A great time to contemplate great times past and future

For anyone feeling solitary out there and like the world is collapsing, you’re not alone – not by tens of millions – and the world isn’t collapsing, not by a long shot. We can be incredibly grateful that this depression will almost certainly be nothing like the one of nearly a century ago. Take advantage of the time to reconnect, reflect, and be grateful for our mega-system that keeps our world turning. Read on…

31 Replies to “A great time to contemplate great times past and future”

  1. My wife and I are literally in jail here and as far as I am concerned Canada is screwed. Forget the damn virus, it has shown us just how cowardly we all are. People are dying is the bleet. Jesus, people die by the tens of millions every year, it is what we eventually do. Those who are afraid of dying are afraid of living and are willing to give their freedom away.

    1. Heh, I’m actually sitting in Toronto airport, fully N95 masked up from my Obama election supply’s,

      Pretty quite here for a change, flight from Calgary this morning probably only had 25 passengers or so……..niiiice!

    2. Wow, you really are a compassionate soul, aren’t you. Your bizarre anger is getting tiresome.

  2. A Many of us, like me, are still working.
    B I put in a couple dimmer switches this am. The job list always seems endless.
    C I have a basement gym I use 5 times a week because working out in large public gyms blows goats in outerspace. Talk about your virus-laden, bacteria-loaded stink pits full of mirror watching jerkoffs. (The small gyms are good though.)
    D My dinners have been way better as my de-employed girlfriend has lots of time to do up some special meals.
    E The lessons learned from this may increase the divide between left and right. Bring it on.
    F Boo fucking hoo to bored losers who have no imagination, can’t read books and probably should be culled.

  3. 1. Clean up the house.
    2. Clean up the yard.
    3. Try out some new recipes.
    4. Work on the golf swing.

    It’s all good.

    1. That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing. That and go for rips on the motorcycle.

  4. A company I follow and love, which I shall not name, had shed half its value even though it will benefit from virus downturn.
    Its dividend by share value is nearly 12%. IOW, if you buy it now, that dividend rate locks in no matter what the stock does after.
    Assuming of course a quality company that continues to make profits and pay dividends.
    This “wonderful” and well managed company shares most of its amazing free cash flow with its owners.
    Then set up dividend reinvestment where you buy enough shares that dividend buys at least one per month.
    Company lets you buy extra stock at a slight discount without brokerage fees. Let it fall even more, I’ll want even more.
    When everybody is fearful, you should be greedy, but most people see it the other way around.
    When the tide goes out all the boats go down, not just the “bad” ones. OTOH, in a strong wind, even turkeys will fly.
    This is when the money gets made, when there’s supposed blood on the streets and everybody’s running for cover.
    Smart investors buy near the bottom and sell near the top, instead of the futile guessing games of timing the market.

  5. Most people appreciate more what they have, when there was a time they did not have it. European peasants in the nineteenth century who emigrated to America fully appreciate the freedom and opportunity, what they did not have in the old country, and immediately became full fledged Americans. Eastern Europeans, freed by the breakup of the Soviet Union, had lived under Communist rule, and are the most anti-Communist people on Earth. That is where the new Renaissance of Europe will begin. Real war refugees from Cuba, China and Vietnam love America. Recent immigrants from those Communist countries were permitted to leave for a reason. I won’t trust any of them.
    But since the end of the Second World War, we in America and Canada have been spoiled. We have been on and almost continuous upward trend in the economy, with minor setbacks that did not affect the overall trend. We have enjoyed domestic tranquility and freedom. Especially since the discontinuation of the military draft, wars had been something that only affected you if you want to. For three generations we have lived in the best period of history for the common man. And we expect it to be the norm hereafter.
    The problem is, the last two generations think that freedom can withstand any amount of abuse. They get so bored with everything going so well, that they have to invent crisis. They want to “go green” without any thought that the hydrocarbon generated electricity is the lifeblood of this prosperity. They think they can force people to be “woke” without affecting the whole fabric of freedom. Corporate bosses think they can move factories offshore to avail themselves of cheap labor without affecting the underlying American economy.
    Perhaps what is happening now is a good wakeup call. In many ways. President Trump was thinking mostly of energy and industry when he said America First, but this crisis demonstrates that we should be self reliant in all ways if possible. We are forced to experience life under a dictatorship. So many Constitutional Amendments have been violated in the name of prudence. (I think due caution is good, but we survived the swine flu epidemic without locking up society, and a lot of what is happening now is over reaction. We should learn from South Korea and Taiwan the right approach.) When this is over, and it will be, it may be a much more virulent strain of flu, but it is a flu, and no flu lasts through the hot summer months, many of us will acknowledge what we gave up temporarily to fight it, and insure it is only temporary. Hopefully the overwhelming majority of us with rediscover how precious and fragile the tree of liberty is, and will nourish and treasure it without resorting to Thomas Jefferson’s severe remedy.

  6. I’m having a hard time being sympathetic (as some of you obviously are) with people who say they’re bored because they have to stay home and can’t shop or go to public events. Seriously? They can’t find something of interest to do? No hobbies? No projects around the house that need doing? No books to read? (And if they don’t actually own books — perish the thought — there’s always online….)

    I’m glad to see that many people, though, haven’t lost their sense of humor in all this. There are a lot of really funny memes and comments circulating throughout the internet. I wanted to call attention to a couple of them, but can’t get them to copy here. So I’ll quote a few that don’t have accompanying picture, or that can easily be described, ones I think will resonate with SDA readers:

    “Last month no oil pipelines, gas pipelines, farmers, trucks or trains allowed. This month they are the only thing keeping you alive.”

    “Half of us are going to come off this quarantine as amazing cooks. The other half will emerge with a drinking problem. There’s no in between.”

    I love this one: “If we have to resort to cannibalism, take the vegans first. They’re the closest thing to grass-fed.”

    Picture an old woman sitting in a rocker, knitting. The caption: “Quarantined with hubby for two weeks, Gertrude is knitting him something special.” She’s putting the finishing touches on a hefty noose.

    For anybody into astrology (which is presumably nobody here, but it may get a chuckle anyway): All the zodiac signs are listed, with the heading, “Your horoscope for the week.” Under all 12 signs it says: “You’ll be spending time in your home.”

    1. “If we have to resort to cannibalism, take the vegans first”

      Oh no, too few stored calories.

  7. Terry, you noted that “that’s become all we have for entertainment”. Not true. There are Coronavirus songs, like “I wanna wash my hands”. And this viral song done superbly to the music of Queen’s Operatic masterpiece – Coronavirus Rhapsody. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr_tEdQvFcc

    It’s also a public safety message.

  8. I agree with Terry, better days are ahead.

    Public Service Post: If you can’t find Lysol disinfectant spray at your local supermarket/Canadian Tire, check for alternatives on this EPA list of (351) DISINFECTANTS FOR USE AGAINST SARS-CoV-2. It is searchable by product name, active incredients and company name:

    https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-registration/list-n-disinfectants-use-against-sars-cov-2

    You may not have considered Clorox Pet Solutions for example. Clorox Spruce-Ups only takes 15 seconds to work!!

    Search for the word GREEN and it turns up nothing.

  9. Work from home as I typically do anyway. The weekly trip to office thankfully avoided.
    Social distancing? Menacing what? Not talking to assholes I don’t feel like talking anyway? Oh the horror.
    Free time spent as always: reading books and playing video games.
    Probably the only change is that my kid learns more at home than he was ever learning in school (and still has more free time).
    Since we stocked up on necessities moths ago (and that means building up on the supply we already had anyway) we just go shopping very rarely.
    The dog is exhausted after all the long walks.

    1. “The dog is exhausted after all the long walks.”

      One of the best straight lines I’ve heard in weeks since this whole thing started.
      Good one, Colonialista.

  10. A memorial should be built for Bezos and Gates and all the other God Men who keep the world running even during these times. Everyone’s Zooming and streaming and the internet still marches on.

    1. UnMe I totally agree with you for a change.
      We should also acknowledge that DARPA invented the Internet as a redundant method for communication in case the normal channels were down (in case of nuclear war for example).

    2. For Bezos this is a dream come true.

      Not only will the lockdowns destroy most of what remained of his competition, but those who have watched their jobs disappear overnight are desperate for jobs in Amazon warehouses at slave wages.

      The longer this goes on, the richer he gets and the worse Trump looks.

      Capitalism is not a suicide pact.

  11. There will be no depression. Once this blows over, there will be incredible economic growth because all of the outsourcing destination will have been wiped out of the filth that inhabits them. 4 billion people will go under, and the rest will have to get off of their collective ass and work.

    1. Linda – He can still write. He sounds good, a bit like Leonard Cohen here.

    2. Dylan likes writing long verse.

      Anybody remember ‘Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts’?

  12. Conspiracy theory of the day. Social scientists claim COVID-19 promotes the spread of conspiracy theories.

  13. Now that I’m retired from practicing, I can devote more time to tinkering with computers and amateur radio. I’ve got some new toys for the latter, so I’ve been spending a few hours fiddling with them.

    I’m also an editor for a certain publication, so I spent some time correcting bad grammar and poor punctuation.

  14. Yes, after a little over a week of what could be many weeks of chaos – months maybe – we should all be happy and know ‘everything’s going to be all right’. Well, everything might not be all right in a very short period of time. Let’s bookmark this post and check back, say in another 6 weeks. No one can predict the future.

  15. Create a folder: ‘COVID-19’ and save articles and web pages you run across into there. Just right click on a page you are on and select ‘print’ then print into a PDF file and save with a title like ‘yyyy-mm-dd-subject’. They will appear in chronologic order in the folder. Should be interesting reading six months from now.

  16. Sunday morning gathering tomorrow We drink beer and cuss out Trudeau and likely Quebec I can hardly wait Actually it is a lot of fun great bunch of guys

  17. Spring Cabinated List:
    Painting rooms in my house.
    Getting my guitar chops honed, and learning new tunes to boot.
    Cooking stuff.
    Loving my sweet wife.
    Spring cleaning, inside and outside.
    Walking in the wilds.
    Waxing poetic betimes
    Remembering and imperfectly practicing gratitude and humility.
    Peace.
    Dude.

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