Anti-Maskers

I am a relatively smart guy but this lockdown has made me feel like a goddam genius at least in comparison to some of the people in the US who I feel have a bag of hammers where their brains should be.

The main fuel for this rant / sermon are masks. I do not like wearing mine. I think the ear stretching caused by one led to a bout of vertigo. But you know what? I fucking wear it and am somehow able to go on with my life unimpeded.

Others, well, they get all “angry white person” when turned away from Wal-Mart, or when told they can’t have a family birthday party so they can infect grandma and grandpa or even visit a brewery. Or they descend upon a city council meeting and claim that masks are evil. Making all of the politicians wish they could crawl away.

I am going to lay this out quickly for you anti-maskers. Masks protect the rest of humanity from YOU. Not wearing a mask is basically telling everyone that you would not mind potentially killing someone. And not just one person but every person that person later meets. You may not have Covid19. Bully for you. But you might if enough people don’t wear masks.

So, put it on and then shut your hole about it. It could be a lot worse. You could be wearing a ventilator. Be a grown up. Don’t Share Your Air.

The Firkin for June 2020

I have never been able to work a yo-yo but governors of states these days seem to be masters of it.

California Governor Gavin Newsom took away the bar opening rule practically minutes after giving it the OK. I will frame this by saying that I am totally down with the lockdown. We should totally be following the New Zealand model and we could be in stadiums watching sports by now. But we are in full yo-yo mode. Opening for Memorial Day, then reeling it back in after cases spike three weeks later.

I will also add that I am in no damn hurry to go back and sit in a bar or taproom but I do feel that I am being yanked around when I can go into a bottle shoppe for the first time in months and buy (after being temperature gunned) local beers. But the very next day, they had to shut.

If I, the customer felt yanked around, imagine the person who runs the store. They redesigned their store. Bought sanitizer. Stressed. Bought the damn temp guns to abide by the law. Now, they are shut again despite following all the rules. They spent time and money and it is now earning them nada.

Now, these places could just keep operating in the hope that enforcement is as up and down as the open and close orders, but why are we punishing the good actors, the ones who are serious about this process? Or I guess just go back into restaurant mode which is apparently A-OK because we all know forcing a food order makes the same space safer.

Here is what needs to happen. Pay people. Help people. We need masks on and social distancing but it can be done without destroying the entire economy or dicking small business owners. That means that the government has to not expect ANY taxes from all of the businesses that they are shutting down, then expecting to open after spending their own money, then shutting again.

We need clear rules and we need to hear sorry from the government for the screw ups. Otherwise, the dumb people are going to freak out. More on that in a day or two.