Monday, May 3, 2021

 In a bit of a surprise, we had some foul weather move through the Deep South last night. Some bad thunderstorms kicked up some tornados all over Mississippi, causing damage in Yazoo City, Pontotoc County, and Calhoun City, just to name a few places.

 Tupelo got slapped pretty hard, too, and that’s especially worrisome as it’s a little over 30 miles from Enon Holler World Headquarters. Homes and businesses were damaged and much of the city was without power most of the morning. I haven’t seen it, but the damage was pretty fierce. Thankfully it wasn’t as hellacious as the 31-miles tornado that walloped the All-American City back in 2014. Interestingly, it followed much the same path; out there in East Tupelo around Veteran’s Boulevard and Elvis’ Birthplace. No damage was reported at the little shotgun house where the King was born, though.

 The system blew through Alabama and Georgia before blowing itself out at the South Carolina line. It kicked up a tornado and caused students in Atlanta to put those tornado drills to good use. That was all this afternoon, too, so it was a slow-moving storm. The only death reported occurred in Douglasville, Georgia, where a tree fell on some poor soul’s car.

 We didn’t see much beyond hard rain and threatening wind here in Enon Holler. Indeed, while Otis and I were taking our afternoon constitutional, I didn’t even see many fallen limbs that weren’t there already from previous bad weather events over the past two months. We’re supposed to get some more heavy rain starting tomorrow morning and it could blow up into something nasty. So be careful, neighbors.

 We’ve got some more info on the shooter at the Duck Creek Kitchen and Bar, part of a Green Bay-area casino, hotel, and conference center complex owned by the Oneida Nation. The shooter, 62-year-old Bruce Pofahl walked into the place yesterday, shooting and killing Ian Simpson, 32, and Jacob Bartel, 35. He went out in the parking lot then, shooting and wounding 28-year-old Daniel Mulligan, before being shot and killed by some Green Bay police officers.

 Pofahl had previously been fired by the casino and was considered a threat to the safety of his co-workers. Notably, he sent threatening texts and emails to a female supervisor, getting him fired from his job as food and beverage manager for the restaurant earlier this year. Pofahl was under a restraining order but was allowed to keep his gun because the judge on the case didn’t find “clear and convincing evidence” that he might use that firearm to cause physical harm or endanger public safety. Bet that judge feels silly now. For the record, the co-worker Pofahl was gunning for was not at work at the time of the shooting.

 And some final news about Our Dumbass Country. Even though over half of the country’s adults have taken one of the three vaccines available to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, the eggheads and double domes are saying the goal of “herd immunity” may not happen. Vaccination numbers are slipping, they say, and it seems a lot of people are seeing the coronavirus not as something to conquer and nearly eliminate, like smallpox or measles, but something that will become part of our lives, like the flu.

 The problem is, of course, too many people who think they know more about everything than they do see “herd immunity” as some sort of goal or endpoint when the scientists never use that way much less consider it thus. Herd immunity is indeed a laudable goal but they say COVID will likely stick around. The problem is that vaccine “skeptics” – and I use that word as loosely as possible – will use it as an excuse to not get the shot.

 See here’s where the problem arises. Viruses mutate. Indeed, the U.S. is currently dealing with a mutated form of COVID called B.1.1.7. First originating in Great Britain, it’s already found in every state of the union. Vaccines help keep viruses from mutating, but they do it anyway. This is why you should get a flu shot every year. However, that flu shot ensures that the population isn’t regulated decimated by the flu. And essentially, that’s what herd immunity means.

 The original goal was to get 60 to 70 percent of the population vaccinated. Considering all the above, though, they’ve had to ramp it up to 80. While doable, ain’t no one who believes that Bill Gates is trying to sneak a microchip into them is going to get that shot. Of course, this isn’t just a problem of American stupidity. India is getting the shit pummeled out of it, partly because of just shoddy work by the government and partly because only two percent of the more than 1.4 billion people that live there have gotten vaccinated.

 COVID isn’t going away, but the goal is to reduce its impact so that it is indeed more like the flu as well as learn enough that we can properly treat folks who do get it. However, because of the reluctance of folks who think the government is trying to track their every movement via a shot while they still carry iPhones everywhere, it’ll be decades before that happens.

So good job, everyone. Well done indeed. Wear a mask and get vaccinated, you test-tube baby.