Hi everyone and welcome to another edition of Laura's Links. This edition comes with a full viral load. A load of links that is, not the actual Murderous Barbarian Chinese Communist Wuhan Coronavirus. But for real and not for joking, if the Chinese communists could figure out how to send actual, lethal viruses through our computers or phones, you know they would.
Basically, I'm still pissed. I find myself alternating between raging anger, utter exhaustion, moderate optimism and complete coronapocalyptic despair five or six times an hour – even after I've had my second cup of coffee in the morning. I'm also sick of talking about whether this virus was cooked up in a pot of bat soup or in a communist laboratory: it makes no difference now, why does it matter? Both are evil and disgusting, and so are all the mainstream media members who keep trying to shove bat soup down our throats in the form of Chinese Communist Party propaganda.
I'm tired of panicking. I'm sick of spending so much of my mental and bodily energy on keeping my house a bubble to protect the most vulnerable member of my family. I'm angry about how much the Chinese communists have made me worry about my children, my parents, my husband and my siblings, my extended family and friends being murdered by communists. I'm sick of the Chinese lies and of my own federal government's incompetence. I want my regular life back, and I want China to pay a very heavy price. And when I say a heavy price, I mean The End – the complete implosion of the communist regime and its assorted ruthless, totalitarian state friends (hi Iran, hello Russia). And that means the West stops propping up their economy.
We need to stay angry. We need to not forget. We need to remember the cover-ups and how this could have been prevented. And we need to turf out the politically motivated, identitarian psychopaths who made things worse, and who wished for us to die rather than for us to be "racist". The evil Chinese regime must never be forgiven, and we must be exceptionally vigilant about who most wants us to forget.
Even in isolation, the Great Mark Steyn, PBUH (Pocket squares Be Upon Him) and NCBUH (No Coronavirus Be Upon Him, ameeeeeen ameeeeeen) stayed very busy and prolific as usual. He introduced a new totally groovy audio version of The Mark Steyn Show, which you can listen to here, and here, and wrote his Song of the Week about a ditty with an exceptionally timely refrain.
Mark, I hope your Macedonian Content Farm is doing okay without all the seasonal labourers! We will get through this if you just click your ruby slippers and sing "Imagine" to me over the Interwebzzzzz. CALL MEEEEEE!
*waves*
Stay safe everyone. Keep your social distance, etc. Blah blah blah, and of course, remember to wash your hands like a pro. Now let's begin!
~
North America:
Trump, Biden and the China virus.
Speaking of Biden... Believe all women, etc.
VDH: Trump's strategic foresight is being put to the test.
Straight talk from the Trump administration.
"All of the sudden, the post-national state is good." Good. Rest in hell.
A micro-sized silver lining in all this crap? Well, for one, Drag Queen story hour is dead. Identity politics has also kind of dropped off the media radar and trans surgeries have gone lower down the surgery totem pole as well.
America in a new upside down world.
Canadian "leadership": "Caught overreaching, the Prime Minister did what he always does when he is caught overreaching: he turned his shaky judgment into everyone else's moral lesson."
What the hell is actually happening in NY? Good Lord.
Can we trust the North American media? Apparently not.
~
Murderous Barbarian Chinese Communist Wuhan Coronavirus:
Every death from the Wuhan flu is a victim of China. Exactly.
Britain seizes private lab equipment to check NHS staff.
Covid-19 begins to show a four- to eight- week eruption pattern.
How reliable are numbers coming out of communist China?
Germany! Seriously? Are you kidding me?
Russia is still lying.
The horrendous, revolting Chinese wet markets are STILL. SELLING. BATS.
Shhhhhhh. Don't say "The China virus".
Will the coronavirus weaken China on the world stage? I sure hope so. (Editor's note: Don't we all).
Did the situation in Spain quickly deteriorate into a disaster because of ideology?
Why are people still buying crappy, awful Made in China stuff??? Why does anyone trust these murderous thugs?
Whoops! Recalculation necessary?
He survived combat in World War II to be murdered by the Chinese communists.
Will the West wake up to China's duplicity? Of course I hope so, but so many in the West are on China's side!
~
Israel and Jews:
Former terrorist: the occupaaaayshun is an industry of murder and lies.
Let's take a moment to remember Mireille Knoll on the second anniversary of her murder (not "death").
~
Human Grace:
Israeli nurse in an isolation ward describes a farewell to a dying man.
American CEO gives up his salary to pay front line workers.
Pandemic ventilator designer makes blueprints open source.
James Dyson designed a ventilator in ten days and is making 15,000 of them.
American company finds a way to split a ventilator between four patients.
Don't be mean to Ben or his Grandma will judge you. (This is truly a riot, must read.)
Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear wrestling letterman's jackets.
When a young girl finished her cancer treatment in an age of a pandemic.
~
Personal Moments of Grace:
Amongst all the downers, feelings of hope and happiness still emerge like small bits of living green foliage cracking through cement sidewalks in their determined plant style.
My best email of the week came from a dear friend with the subject "last chemotherapy booked for May". Need I say more? Does it get any better than that?
There have also been a variety of messages and check-ins throughout the past few weeks from various friends, family and acquaintances. But I must share with you that the first person who actually asked me if I needed anything, and if I needed anything dropped off to me at my house was an Egyptian Canadian Facebook friend that I've never even met in person. She knows that we live not far from each other because we tried to organize a coffee date a few months ago but it didn't pan out. So even though most of my adult life has been spent in Toronto, and I know thousands of people here, she was the first person to ask and offer. I feel extremely blessed not just because we are well-equipped and well-stocked, but also because such a kind soul has crossed my path so relatively late on in life. So shout out to you Mona, and to our very own Troubadour-in-Chief of the Mark Steyn Club, Tal Bachman, for introducing us. Here's to kindness. And here's to the goodness and grace that can most certainly be felt right through a computer screen in moments like this.
Stay safe and well everyone!
If you need something to look forward to, the third annual Mark Steyn Cruise will be setting sail down the Mediterranean in October with Conrad Black, Michele Bachmann, Douglas Murray and Mark Steyn himself. Book yourself a stateroom here. For year-round revelry, take out a membership in the Mark Steyn Club. Beyond commenting privileges on Laura's Links and the many other features here at SteynOnline, club membership also opens up an entire archive of Steyn content, from Tales for our Time to Sunday Poems to special projects like the audio serialization of Climate Change: The Facts.
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31 Member Comments
I want to get serious here. It's time we all acknowledge and thank those who are holding our society together in these dire times. I am talking, of course, about our celebrities. Yes, those who so bravely manage somehow to send us videos telling us that "we are all in this together" or "we'll get through this" and so on. Who amongst us would think of staying safe, if not advised to do so by a celebrity?
Even though confined to their mansions with probably the barest skeleton crew of household staff, these people still find the time and energy to get their faces in front of a camera and record these messages that mean so very much to us. What would we have done without, for example, those celebrities singing "Imagine" to us? I can't even.... well, the word escapes me.
So here's to our celebrities! Where would we be without them?
Hear, Hear, Steven. God bless 'em, evry one! Oh, the humility . . .
Laura, I wanted to let everyone know that our town of Las Cruces, NM is making masks to ship around the country for free. They aren't for health care workers but do have a filter (supplies donated by our local hardware and fabric stores) for anyone who wants extra protection for when out doing the grocery shopping. I offered to volunteer if I could work at the house. They adjusted their operation to permit that today. If anyone wants one they just need to go to the operation mask up dot org website (put it together w/o spaces) Free, too, while supplies last. Nothing fancy but works! We were encouraged to post on any site we wished.
Laura, I understand the desire to be angry with the Chinese Communist Party over this disaster. But remember one thing, they unleashed the virus, but we made it into a catastrophe all on our own. This CCP virus may end up killing tens of thousands of older and frail Americans, but we're the ones that made that cause for throwing millions out of work and paralyzing our economy. The CCP may be abusing their own citizens in response to the Wuhan outbreak, but they didn't force our government to strip its citizens of basic rights. The CCP didn't tell our citizens to cower behind masks, social distance and look at each other with suspicion when they pass in the street. We did all that. We took a mild to moderate health problem and turned it into a cluster. The current state of affairs says much more about us than it does about the CCP.
Apart from the actual deaths, we're to blame for everything bad that has happened in the past month and all the fall out that will follow in unemployed persons and shuttered businesses. When it come to our government, I mostly blame them for listening to the "experts." All this modeling is just Climate Change for Pandemics. Everybody has their own model, they all give a different answer, but they all predict disaster, and they're all wrong. If there is any good that comes out of this it is that it gives us a glimpse of what would happen if we made policy based on the recommendations of the IPCC and others.
Matthew, I agree with you and I have a great many concerns with, and anger about our pathetic excuses for "leaders" right now. We need to take a good hard look at China and an equally hard look in the mirror.
Well, I really have to hand it to you this time, Laura. Talk about goodness and grace felt right through a computer screen! From Las Cruces, New Mexico to Laura at her Steynonline Toronto desk bouncing right back to me in Las Cruces, unaware of the heroics of this young local high school wrestler taking down a thug child kidnapper in a local convenience shop the other day.
We sure need more good endings to this kind of terrible deed. Canaan was quoted in one of the reports as having gotten the kidnapper on his back and as he started squeezing his head a little the guy kind of gave up. Squeezing his head a little? Never thought of that but sounds painful coming from a young high schooler who's 6'3" and a mere 280 lbs. and who just took up wrestling two years ago.
His dad was quoted as saying: He's always been big and strong since he was in diapers — just a very solid kid. Parents say the funniest things about their super kids! I'll always remember this link and I may just now have to attend one of Canaan's wrestling matches next fall to cheer him on.
Excuse me, is this the line for bashing ChiComs? It is? Great, I'll wait my turn... Oh-ho-ho-ho...dum-dum...everybody was Kung Flu fighting...dum-de-dum...a funky Chinaman from funky Wuhan town...oh, it's me?
Hereabouts (Boston), they're trying to organize an Everybody Clap moment on Friday evening for doctors, nurses, and first-responders in the front lines against Yangtze River Fever. Laudable as these heros are, the reaction reminds me of the candlelight vigils after 9/11. One was fine; more was verging on a pyromaniacal fetish. How about after we give standing Os to the deserved, we catch our breath and give big, wet Bronx cheers to the ChiCom buttholes who deliberately put us (the ROW) in this indescribable nightmare? It would sound a lot like the Japanese comedian Mark eulogized today, the guy with the fart routine (picture the campfire scene in Blazing Saddles if you haven't heard Mark's latest). It would accomplish about as much as applauding the medics (they'd rather have masks and testing kits, preferably not made in China), but both might make us feel better. PBBBBBB!!!!!! See?
Laura,never mind the Chinese. If the Barbarian Democratic party could get the virus through the phone they'd be going down their list of Deplorables and eliminating us, one by one.
Yes Janet, they certainly would.
Thanks for all your efforts, Laura - a lot to mull over, and I am with you in terms of seething rage re China's criminal actions.
The Douglas Murray link looks interesting (John Anderson is a great interviewer) though he will probably be very polite about it all! Every death from the Chinese Flu is a victim of the CCP, as you say - including China's own citizens: It's all in a day's work for those in the business of piling up corpses. I feel nothing but *rage* at what the ChiComs are getting away with.
I hope you and your family stay safe; it must be a very worrying time for you, as it is for all those with vulnerable loved ones. You're lucky to have great (new) friends, like Mona!
PS. The ventilator force multiplier is already on stand-by here, as Australia gets ready to receive a wave of Canuck cruisers!
Hey Kate, you stay well and safe also. I just saw a Daily Mail article about a (diverse) family wedding that was exempt from social distancing rule in Australia. Political correctness is still trumping saving lives in so many places throughout the world, including Canada.
Still selling bats in their Wet Market!? And all the western media ever talk about is whichever Trump remark they've decided to misconstrue today.
Laura,
Did not think I could be more pissed off after watching the attempted political assassination of Bret Kavanaugh, but now, watching the elite Western press cover-up and cover for the Chinese Communist leadership ... Wow. No words.
Tom, I know it's repulsive.
Imagine?
Imagine there's no bread
It's easy if you try
No tacos or hot sauce,
Nothing cold or fried,
Imagine all the people
living in the gulags!
Imagine there's no money
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to eat or drink for you
And no bacon too
Imagine all the people living short life spans
ooooh
You may say that I'm a commie
But I'm not the only one
And someday you will join us
'Cause power's in the barrel of a gun
Imagine no possessions
Because all your stuff was taken
Lots of greed and hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
sharing your children's food,
yeah, yeah
You may say I'm a commie
But I'm not the only one
Did you say you don't like that?
Then its off to our gulag now, son
> I'm also sick of talking about whether this virus was cooked up
> in a pot of bat soup or in a communist laboratory:
> it makes no difference now, why does it matter?
It matters because hanging this around the necks of the Chinese Communists is easier to do if it was intentional instead of accidental. We need to ensure that the Chinese pay for this. The best way to do so is to tie it to intention and not negligence.
As Mark pointed out, the lies and the coverup were intentional. No matter what the cause, the lies, coverup and spread of disaster and death were intentional.
"in a pot of bat soup or in a communist laboratory"
I say we get a confirmation from Gomez and Morticia; they would know, no?
As Mark noted in his last post on China and its Made in China virus, the mortality rate of patients with the Wan Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest who need to go on a ventilator is close to all of them to make the six most terrifying words one might hear are "We have a ventilator for you." I'll just hold my breath, thanks.
Lenin boasted of selling the capitalists the rope they would be hanged with. Is China selling us the respirators (for their virus) that we'd be put on? "Only Nixon could go to China". Whether it was that, nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan or hoping to Europeanize ME migrants.... it hasn't worked out well.
That's an apt comparison, Robert. The sold us the medicines, and now the crappy faulty COVID tests as well.
"I'm tired of panicking."
I'm with you and as a trader, saw this coming and cashed out one day before the tsunami hit. In the meantime, I'm finding some good opportunities with companies that are specifically reacting and adapting to our new way of life.
I've undergone an interesting and profitable education the last several weeks. So long as my hairdresser and manicurist don't go out of business (!), I'm feeling optimistic I not only can survive this crisis but prosper.
One has always believed that American business's greatest strength is its ability to react to change and I'm cautiously optimistic that this is, in fact, happening right this minute.
Great post! Food for thought.
EThompson, thanks for your perspective and for your optimism. I saw my hairdresser JUST before the lockdown, so at least I am homeschooling, working from home, and preparing for Passover while blonde.
Thank goodness; I'm a blonde as well. :)
Major flaw in the Marshall Plan? Not adding a "Germany isn't allowed to talk about anything for the next hundred years" codicil.
Also? Dyson products are great. So good for him. Yes they cost money. LIFE costs money. I went through four or five horrible cheap humidifiers and vacuum cleaners that broke after a year, then bought Dysons and am pretty sure they will last the rest of my life.
Kathy;
It takes skill to make a compelling point by linking it with a vacuum cleaner. Buy a Miele vacuum when your Dyson breaks down in 10 years. If well maintained; a Miele can last over 20 years but they might be the most expensive. All the Best.
Mark, as always I've enjoyed Laura's links but I'm afraid I must ask you for an intercession. Would you please ask Laura to take off the kid gloves and tell us how she really feels?
I as much as anyone appreciate and even admire the feminine reticence to give offense, the deft use of ambivalence and deflection to cloak strong language that could hurt someone's feelings. But I get the sense that Laura has some heartfelt opinion on the matter of the Corona virus and I for one would like to know what it is.
Thanks in advance!
Yes I agree, Laura don't be so reserved!
And a thought in response to the Hanson article, excellent as always. I have been in the middle of reading the Prince by Macciavelli, which I have found extremely interesting and full of common sense. A point he brings out that I think relates to Hanson's recommendation for strategic thinking is this : "we often see that when princes devote themselves to pleasure, rather than to arms, they lose their dominions. A Prince therefore ought never to allow his attention to be diverted from warlike pursuits, and should occupy himself with them even more in peace than in war. This he can do in two ways, by practice or by study.....A wise Prince therefore, should pursue such methods as these, never resting idle in time of peace, but strenuously seeking to turn them to account, so that he may derive strength from them in the hour of danger, and find himself ready should Fortune turn against him, to resist her blows."
Can't argue with that...the Scout's motto was "always be prepared"....and we have not been prepared, and worse we have deluded ourselves that we are not at war.
John, John, John. I'll have to dial it up a little next time I guess?!?!
Elizabeth B. message received. I'll try to be more forthright and clear about my feelings next round :)