Coronavirus

 The Beer:  Rahr Texas Red

The Bicycle:  TBD

The VRWC:  Covid 19 is real and dangerous...if you get infected.  Currently, 2.6% of the world's population has been infected.  In the United States, that number is a little over 10%.  These are *reported* cases.  There are certainly cases that go unreported; maybe many of them.  But the mortality seems to be fairly constant at 2%.  Even with the advent of variants and with increasing numbers of vaccinated, this number has been largely unchanged over time.  This leads me to the conclusion that the vaccines are not effective.  If they don't stop the infection and the mortality has not fallen off, what is the value of the vaccines?  Government continues to push the narrative that Covid 19 is a death sentence.  It's not.  The numbers do not support it.  Age overwhelmingly appears to be the determining factor as it is with so many diseases.  It is time to end the panic, protect the vulnerable and et the world go about its business.

Climate Change (Again)

 The Beer:  Yuengling has finally made its appearance in North Texas

The Bicycle:  I can't seem to let them go, so maybe I should be riding.

The VRWC:  We are told on an almost hourly basis that climate change is real and it must be stopped.  The catastrophes are piling up and we are all going to die.  I find it interesting in the extreme that this is the same strategy used to convince everyone that Covid 19 was a death sentence (it's not).  The fervor is quasi-religious.  Children have been taught from a very young age that this is truth; humanity is doomed because of its reliance on carbon-based fuels.  Fires, droughts, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes....earthquakes?....are all caused by humans and their relentless driving of gasoline-powered SUVs.

But what if it's not true?  What if climate change is caused by the forces of nature as the little blue planet we inhabit wobbles on its axis as it circles the local star all while being thrown around a galaxy hurtling through the universe?  But the consequences are predicted to me more dire with each passing day.  We have already passed a "tipping point"; a point of no return.  We *must* put a stop to our irresponsible use of "fossil fuels" before this small band of humans is erased from existence.  

Here is the problem with all this hysteria.  It's probably wrong.  Completely.  The premise is likely false, but so many are invested in this doomsday scenario that they can't back out now.  So much so that they actually *believe* that 0.04% of the atmosphere drives climate to a catastrophic end.  Evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, those who serve up this ridiculous swill double-down on their claims.  Fifty years of failed predictions, fifty years of models that don't work, fifty years of equating those who question this orthodoxy with those who claim the holocaust never happened fifty years of "the debate is over.  The science is settled".  All completely unscientific.  An embarrassment to the word "science".  Fed to world that believes because in school they slept through science class because, "I'll never need this s4it in my real life".  Without an ignorant population, this stuff never sees the light of day.