Families of five immunocompromised kids in Alberta fought the lifting of mask mandates by the government, and, long story short, Justice Grant Dunlop said the cabinet can’t do that, as reported by CBC: The order was unreasonable because it was based on an interpretation of the Public Health Act as
Continue readingAuthor: Marie Snyder
A Puff of Absurdity: Covid is a Stealthy Enemy; Our Body its Battlefield — Shore up Your Defences, and Fight to Keep it at Bay!
Dr. Uppity (@MeddygLou), an NHS GP in Wales, wrote an excellent thread, beautifully written, explaining how Covid works with some battlefield imagery to help. I have nothing to add: Since Covid hit the UK I’ve been reading compulsively, like how you can’t help looking as you drive past a car crash.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Covid and Kids
I feel like I’m “cheating” just copying threads instead of writing, but so much work on social media needs to be acknowledged and saved in a more searchable manner. Here’s a thread from @MeetJess. She’s the go-to for long threads chronicling sudden deaths of teens and young adults – picked
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Price One Pays: Liquidation of the Uncompetitive
I’m saving this excellent thread by Dr. Satoshi Akima FRACP. It’s tongue-in-cheek, but of course some are sharing bits of it as proof that we need to let ‘er rip! missing the point that this is what it looks like to bring some inane views to fruition. The unmistakable tip
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Gonsalves’ The Death Eaters
Gregg Gonsalves’ article in The Nation explains how Camilo José Vergara’s The Pandemic Diary clarified for him, and now us, that there are two pandemics: one lived by the professional class who order groceries online, and another lived by people who can’t afford to miss work and aren’t able to work from home.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Campaigning on Covid
As you might know, if you’re a frequent reader here, I’m running for an elected position: school board trustee. It’s a little position, so there’s no budget or staff. There’s also no speeches or debates, just lawn signs and fliers. Campaigning is like an expensive two-month long job interview that
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Breath of Fools
Another thread to save – this time from author Alisa Lynn Valdés. Warning: Lots of swears in this one! The mechanism of SARS2? Endothelial damage. In plain English? Covid-19 fucks up the lining of your blood vessels. All 60,000 miles of it. Blood vessels lack nerves. You feel okay as
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The New Wave
Barry Hunt, an engineer in Ontario, explains the difference with this next wave of Covid. Full disclosure, he works at Prescientx in the manufacturing and distribution of respirators, CO2 monitors, etc. to pay the bills. That doesn’t change the truth of what he writes: I know this wave, Wave 8,
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: 77 Things to Hate About Covid
Caroline Dew, an ICU Critical Care nurse in Australia, wrote this thread that I want to save. My only criticism is that it’s written in the past tense. You can see from these graphs of hospitalizations that the pandemic hasn’t ended. Canada has a bigger population, but it’s currently in a
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Being a Bad Person
I forgot to post this from last month – my monthly posting at 3 Quarks Daily: A student asked, “How many bad actions does a good person have to do before becoming a bad person?” The notion of good and bad people raises the image of final judgment at the pearly
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Pandemic vs Endemic
Why Covid is now being called endemic instead of pandemic, and why that’s even worse: TL/DR: Endemic means we’ve plateaued instead of having sudden waves of cases over and over. BUT we’re plateauing at a very high rate. It means that it might not go up much, but it also
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Personal Troubles and Public Issues
“People do not usually define the troubles they endure in terms of historical change and institutional contradiction.” Developing a sociological imagination is necessary so that, “By such means the personal uneasiness of individuals is focused upon explicit troubles and the indifference of publics is transformed into involvement with public issues….To
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Campaign Video
I was asked for an “at the door” video of myself. Here it is! (Read more…)My son laughed at my earnestness! I’m being totally authentic, but I may appear a bit pleading. I really do think it’s important to pay attention to what school boards do even if you don’t
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Teachable Moments: Should Schools Teach About Covid?
I’ve been talking with parents who are trying desperately to keep their kids safe in the classroom. It sounds like most staff and students are unmasked despite higher Covid numbers in the hospital and higher fatality rates than last year at this time. It doesn’t have to be like this.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: What To Do If Our Classrooms Aren’t Safe
I’m getting these types of questions over and over: What should I do if other students and the teachers won’t wear masks? What do I do if my child gets Covid? It’s the hardest question to answer because there isn’t a clear solution when people in charge are ignoring or
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On not Grasping for the Good
I’m taking a university course on Asian Wisdom, which I’m really enjoying. My prof told a story about Buddha that concludes that we should only tell others of a better way to live if we’re asked for advice; otherwise, we should never impose our morals on others because our moral purpose
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Strategic Plan: What about Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic??
This isn’t a response to a question directed at me, but some people are questioning trustee campaigns like mine that speak to equity and student well being without mentioning how to improve academics, and there are many concerned voices on Facebook addressing the board’s new Strategic Plan. Here’s a sampling:
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Vaccine Mandates
Vaccine mandates were just ruled as legal and enforceable by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice after a challenge to Seneca College’s mandates by two students. I was asked my opinion on them as a potential trustee. Here’s my answer. Vaccination mandates are under the jurisdiction of provincial public health
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: How Much Harm is Immoral?
If you know something you’re about to do could potentially harm people, and the only reason you’re doing it is for your own convenience, then wouldn’t we largely agree that this behaviour is immoral? Like being about to drive home drunk because it will be really annoying to have to come
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Trustee Campaigning: An Expensive, Two-Month Long Job Interview
A friend asked me, You don’t put your own money into doing this, do you, and deliver all the fliers to each door yourself?? Short answer: Yup! Running for trustee is like a very expensive and time consuming, two-month long job interview! For trustees, there is no budget for campaigning. The
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