What’s with the Covidians?

Some random unfinished thoughts:

They don't seem to know much and what they do know is wrong.

On a WeChat Canadian Expat group, a Covidian said that a Skeptic was spreading misinformation and as well got all their information from YouTube.  This is funny because YouTube has been deleting "misinformation."  So an ignorant thing for a Covidian to say.

Why do Covidians use this term "misinformation."?  Is it a way of identifying themselves as Covidian?  Do they think the term is more refined to use than "not true"?  Is it another slippery term they like to use like "hate crime" or "white nationalist" or "racist"?

Why do Covidians use ad hominem attacks in arguments even after it has been pointed out to them that they are doing so and that it isn't an effective way to debate?  Skeptics are being called racists, white nationalists, selfish, deniers, babies and Covidiots.

I heard a Canadian reporter say that she couldn't understand what the truckers convoy was protesting.  (This reporter, trying to appear impartial used the term "discredited" in her reportage.  The use of "discredited" is a left wing trope.  No impartial reporter would use it.). At least, she admitted her misunderstanding.

A Third Type of Person

My son Tony & I went to a local expat pub for a quiz night.  

I was hoping to participate in the competition.

However, the teams had to have a minimum four members.  Tony & I were only two.  I asked him if we could ask some people to make a team.  "Let's just watch!" he said.  Looking around at the groups of people around us, I didn't see any hope in finding two people.  There were big groups that seemed insular and small groups too that seem cold and stand-offish. I resigned myself to my son's suggestion.

I complained to some about this afterwards.  They wondered why I didn't make the effort to find people.  The problem I later thought was there were two types of people at the pub:  those who I didn't know and those who I did, and there was no one of the third type.

The question now for me to answer is who and what are these third kind of people, and do they or have they ever existed.

Canadian Covidian Jackass

I posted something in support of the Canadian truckers on a WeChat Canadian group.  I got flak from a Covidian in the group who labelled the truckers as a bunch of babies.  He said he had a beef against them because a 70 year old relative could not get into hospital because of the unvaccinated. 

I brought up the instances of the inhumanity of dying people being separated from their loved ones because of Covid protocols.  I mentioned the particularly egregious case of a husband pleading and not being allowed to be with his dying wife in England.  I also pointed out that the Covidian was over employing ad hominem in his diatribes.  He persisted, as Covidians are wont to do, I've noticed, and I declared victory in the debate.  He didn't like that.  My blood was boiling so I had to bow out anyway.

The debate continued in the group.  Others got involved.  One Covidian accused a sceptic of getting his information from YouTube.  A strange thing to say given that YouTube is censoring sceptics.

The Covidian Jackass was still arguing.  He said that China had done such a great job dealing with the pandemic by employing and enforcing the strictest rules in the world. (Not true on so many counts.  China has turned into a big airport.). People who don't see this, he said, were suffering from cognitive dissonance.

The debate came to an end.  The Covidian Jackass then asked if anyone was doing interesting for the CNY holiday.  In doing so, he exhibited cognitive dissonance of his own:  Foreigners are not allowed to leave the areas they are living in for the CNY holiday.

A Great Blog Entry from David Warren

David Warren, my favorite blogger, has written a entry that has brought tears to my eyes:

A moment of pride

He writes that the Canadian truckers convoy have provided "a rare moment of pride and patriotism." Observing the Covid Panic that has gripped Canada from afar, I have felt really ashamed to be Canadian. The truckers have given me some optimism.

Warren writes of the nurses fired by "jackasses in public health bureaucracies for refusing vaccinations offering the truckers their support.

Some other great quotes:

Lockdowns are for prisoners!

The leading figures in the lockdowns should be humiliated.

No more involuntary lockdowns, no more useless facial diapers; less political stench and garbage.

God did not create a world in which tyrants would be rewarded.

Read the entry, print it, pass it around and post it on your wall.

Convoy!

Good to see that some Canadians are fighting back against Canadian Governments' Covid nonsense.

I like to blame it all on Trudeau but I'm afraid that all three of Canada's major parties have taken part in the tyranny.

I pray that the truckers' actions will bring about some change.

Convoy!

An Ice Hole Trying to Cut in!

I've been told by many locals that they hate people who cut in line.  I've also seen many locals cut in line.  So does every local cut in line?  I don't think so.  It must be a brazen minority.

Yesterday, we (that be Jenny, Tony & I) were leaving the Livat aka Wuxi IKEA aka Hui Ju Mall.  There was a long lineup to get to the exit gate.

The line curved to our left at one point.  At this bend, cars coming from the right could "cut in."  But these cars were in a legitimate lane so really they were really merging, not cutting in.  

The long lineup was a result of cars coming from a far end of the parking lot.  As this lineup formed, some impatient drivers thinking the back of the line was a mistake would drive around the end of the line and thus along it.  I assume that instead of returning to the back that most of them would try to cut into line.  So I am being charitable to some of these queue-jumpers, up to a point.  But a couple of drivers were really brazen.  A few drove along the line and tried to cut into the line beyond the bend.  They were trying to cut into as far front of the lineup as possible.

I had just waited to the point where our car was pass the bend and on the straightaway to the exit when a big black SUV tried to cut in front of the car just ahead of me in line (a Porsche convertible, but that's another story).  My wife said something derogatory about the SUV driver as she witnessed this.  And I assume that the other drivers and passengers in line were cursing the driver as well.  The Porsche didn't let him cut in, and I was determined to not let him cut in either.  I blocked him and I am happy to report that four or five other drivers didn't let the SUV cut in as well.

What an ice hole!

In the Midst of a Three Week Holiday

 Not going anywhere because the authorities don’t want people traveling.

Doesn’t bother me so much since I’ve become a homebody any way.

The long holiday I have is one of the benefits of the new job I mentioned getting in an August entry,

I’m Posting Photos at My Photo Blog

Go to: wuxiandis.wordpress.com.

I am posting photos taken from the apartment I've rented near the school where I'm currently employed.  The apartment is on the 19th floor so the views are interesting.

Wuxi China Night Club Video

I went to a Night Club recently and took some video.

The club's going's on were a lot of fun to watch, but never again. I'm too old for that silliness.

https://youtu.be/_mWlXNSle-A

The Movies, TV Series, Documentaries and Other Video that AKIC watched in 2021

Here is a list of the Movies, TV Series, Documentaries and other video, rated on a five-star scale, that I watched in 2021

Yûkoku [Patriotism] (1966) *****

Afraid to Die (1960) *****

Counterpart (Season 1) *****

The Great Moment (1944) *****

Dirty Harry (1971) *****

Santa Fe Trail (1940) *****

Allegheny Uprising (1939) *****

ZeroZeroZero (Season 1) *****

I Care a Lot (2020) **** 

Elvis and Nixon (2016) *****

The Shop around the Corner (1940) *****

Made You Look:  A True Story about Fake Art (2020) *****

Jonestown:  Terror in the Jungle (2020) **** 

The Passion of the Christ (2004) ******

Thomas Crown Affair (1968) *****

A Serious Man (2009) **** 

Flash Gordon (1980) **** 

American Pimp (1999) **** 

The Baader Meinhoff Complex (2008) **** 

Army of the Dead (2021) *** 

Red River (1948) *****

Shane (1953) *****

Winchester '73 (1950) *****

Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940) *****

Che Part 1 (2008) **** 

Blue Skies (1946) *****

Fort Apache (1948) *****

Ladies in Retirement (1941) *****

Bosch (Season 7) **** 

Che Part 2 (2008) *****

Badlands of Dakota (1941) **** 

Sunrise A Song of Two Humans (1927) *****

Nosferatu (1922) **** 

Groundhog Day (1993) *****

Big Jim Mclain (1952) *****

Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942) *****

Kansas City Confidential (1952) *****

Zulu (1964) *****

Last of the Comanches (1953) **** 

The Bad Man (1941) *****

Bend of the River (1952) *****

Green Dolphin Street (1947) *****

Cripple Creek (1952) *****

Fargo (1952) **** 

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939) **** 

Scandal Sheet (1952) *****

Don't Bother to Knock (1952) *****

The Crimson Pirate (1952) **** 

Angel Face (1952) *****

Sudden Fear (1952) *****

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949) *****

BBC Arena:  The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima (1985) *****

The End of Quantum Reality (2020) *****

The Principle （2014） *****

An Enemy of the People (1978) **** 

Rick and Morty (Season  5) *****

The Green Knight (2021) *****

Cry Macho (2021) *****

Attack of the Hollywood Cliches (2021) *** 

Doctor Zhivago (1965) *****

Caliber 9 (1972) *****

The Squid Game (Season 1) **** 

Charles Manson (1972 Documentary) *****

Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion (1970) *****

Live like a Cop, Die like a Man (1975) *****

Rabid Killers (1974) **** 

Here are the lists from 2020, 2019 and 2018.

Books AKIC Read in 2021

Here are the books I read in 2021:

The Rage Against God by Peter Hitchens

Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters and Seymour: an Introduction by J.D. Salinger

New Poems by Francis Thompson

Learning the Virtues That Lead You to God by Romano Guardini

Prejudices, Second Series by H.L. Mencken

Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell

Selected Essays of Plutarch, Volume 1 translated by T.G. Tucker

Poems of the Great War published by the National Relief Fund

Boomers: The Men and Women Who Promised Freedom and Delivered Disaster by Helen Andrews

Selected Essays of Plutarch, Volume 2 translated by A.O. Prickard

Baltimore Catechism no. 4 by Thomas L. Kinkeard

Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor

Homer: The Iliad translated by Robert Fagles

The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton

A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

Homer: The Odyssey translated by T.E. Lawrence

Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuściński

Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul by Various, Edited by James Mudge

The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor

Required Poems for Reading and Memorizing Third and Fourth Grades

Democracy: The God that Failed by Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor

Havana Bay by Martin Cruz Smith

Poems 1817 by John Keats

Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Stories and Occaisional Prose by Flannery O'Connor

Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore

The True Believer by Eric Hoffer

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish

12 More Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson

Letters of Flannery O'Connor

Thirteen Stories by Eudora Welty

Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naple's Organized Crime System by Roberto Saviano

Keats: Poems Published in 1820

Civil to Strangers by Barbara Pym

How to Keep Your Cool by Seneca

In Search of the Trojan War by Michael Wood

The Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead by Charles Murray

Evelyn Waugh The Complete Short Stories

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

How to Be Free by Epictetus

Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Multiculturalism and the Politics of Guilt by Paul Edward Gottfried

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

Collected Poems by A.E. Housman

How to Die by Seneca

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis translated by Ronald Knox

Callista: a Tale of the Third Century by John Henry Newman

Wild Orchid by Sigrid Undset, translated by Arthur G. Chater

Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Checkpoint Charlie by Iain MacGregor

The Book of Five Rings by Musashi Miyamoto

The Trail to Seven Pines by Louis L'Amour

What is Contemplation by Thomas Merton

How to Win an Argument by Cicero

A Mencken Chrestomathy by H.L. Mencken

On a Chinese Screen by W.Somerset Maugham

John Donne Collected Poetry

The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima

Based on a True Story by Norm MacDonald

Infinite Baseball by Alva Noë

The Secret Agentby Joseph Conrad

The Psalms (King James Version)

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

The Godfather by Mario Puzo

The Eleventh Day by Anthony Summers

The World of Silence by Max Picard

Don Colacho's Aphorisms by Nicolás Gómez Dávila

A Year with Thomas Merton edited by Johnathan Montaldo

365 Tao: Daily Meditations by Ming Dao Deng

A Year with C.S. Lewis edited by Patricia S. Klein

Praying with Mother Angelica by Mother Angelica

The Practice of Mental Prayer by René De Maumigny, Elder Mullan

I have been keeping track of the books I've read since 2014. Here are the links to previous lists:

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Any comments on my reading? Send an email to andiskaulins@protonmail.com.