Diapers & Noble

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My girlfriend and I just had a Close Encounter of the Diapering Kind at the Barnes & Noble in Roanoke. We’ve been there two or three times during the “pandemic” and while they have a Diapers muss sein sign on the door, no one ever bothered us about ignoring it.

Until today.

My girlfriend was the one they accosted. I was in the History section, which for me is what catnip is to my crew of F. Domesticus back at the homestead. I always end up with something.

She was in the aisle adjacent, looking at something else when a Mobile Diaper Dispenser approached her, proffering the disgusting thing insistently. She refused, of course – it’s one of the reasons why she is my girlfriend; the woman has more balls than most men – and the old Bagged Hag skulked off.

I didn’t realize this interaction had happened because I wasn’t close enough to overhear it. But my girlfriend quickly told me the particulars and as we discussed this bizarre business – a total stranger coming up to you and demanding the performance of a strange religious ritual, like a Hare Krishna at the airport demanding you put on the proffered saffron robe and sandals – the Bagged Hag returned, Diaper extended.

I didn’t tell her we can’t. I told the old bitch – the language is appropriate – no.

We don’t wear the disgusting things.

After all, why would we? We’re both perfectly healthy and aren’t going to pretend we’re afraid of “the virus,” like she does. If the Bagged Hag really did fear “the virus,” she wouldn’t be at the store, Face Bag or no Face Bag. Doubt it? How many people would enter an Ebola ward with just a “mask” on?

Would you?

Of course not.

Not my girlfriend . . .

“The virus” isn’t even 1 percent Ebola – and most of the Bagged know it isn’t. They just want to pretend it is, for some sick reason.

Including this Bagged Hag – whose extra 50-plus pounds she was carrying around her waist constitute a far greater threat to her health than “the virus,” let alone a pair of healthy people who refuse to pretend they are sick.

She stomped off to find a manager.

We laughed and decided to check out – as another test of this demented pantomime. If our presence truly constituted some sort of threat to public health – as opposed to a threat to the delusion of people out of their minds with fear – then surely they would not risk dealing with my dirty money – cash, handled by my ungloved and unsanitized hands; my un-Bagged face mere inches away, radiating the dreaded ‘Rona.

Would they not make the sign of the cross or some such and back away from us?

The manager arrived – and said nothing. Instead, she checked us out.

But her eyes – all you could see – said a lot. They squinted with impotent rage but she nonetheless rang me up, perhaps because the prospect of losing a $70 sale – books are my crack – over-ran her pretended fear of “the virus.”

Then again, I had touched the books. Unclean! Perhaps they were spoilt goods, no longer permissible to put back on the shelves.

But then, people are constantly touching these books. With their hands.

Why no wiping down of the books handled by the might-be-sick? Probably because the sanitizer would ruin the cover and then the books would be unsaleable.

But why should books be exempt from “precautions”? These same pitiful – and arbitrary – weaponized hypochondriacs will not re-use the cups they used to serve coffee in; it’s all disposable paper cups now.

But apparently, “the virus” doesn’t linger on all those books being touched – egads! – by the same people who are constantly touching their disgusting Face Bags and thereby smearing the sickness they haven’t got on the things.

If you believe in Face Bags, why not gloves, too?

Why, for that matter, is it allowed to touch the books at all? Shouldn’t they be in Bags, too? Isn’t the risk unacceptable? If this truly were about “keeping people safe” – assuming the “sickness” was anything like as contagious and deadly as these weaponized hypochondriacs believe it to be – then there would be consistency.

Instead, there is authority – petty authority, enforced by pathetic little creatures who have tasted power over others for the first time in their pathetic little lives and like it.

Thus, seeing the reaction in their eyes when told no is priceless.

They expect socially pressured obedience and if not that, at least its mewling red-headed stepchild, pleading the exception – i.e., we accept that Face Bags are legitimate but we can’t safely wear them because . . .

No.

To Hell with that.

We don’t wear the goddamned things – and that’s the end of it.

Break the spell – even if the Baggers’ delusion is unshaken. Make it clear who is delusional – and who isn’t tolerating it anymore y pretending it isn’t.

I intend to return to Barnes & Noble when I need some more books – because I much prefer to buy from them than from Amazon and it’s a shame that any bricks and mortar store would assault a paying customer in this manner given how desperately they need paying customers.

But they’ll never Bag me – or her.

. . .

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112 COMMENTS

  1. Not to make ya jealous, but in S Utah, our schools are open, Walmart is mask optional and more and more people are ignoring the mask mandatory signs in small businesses. Costco still requires them. A couple months ago a woman entering Costco marched past the mask Nazi who was screaming at her to put a mask on. The lady customer told her to come try and put it on her. Made me so happy. Funny thing in Utah where a great many people are obeying conformists, the FLDS ladies NEVER wear a mask and not one person challenges them. The matrons are scary… and blazing the badass trail apparently.

    • This is excellent news, Shan – thank you! It has a multiplying effect as well. The more we hear about – and see – sanity returning, the faster sanity will return. It is why I am so adamant about refusing to cede an inch on this – particularly when told I must for the sake of “understanding” and “kindness.” No. Pretending that abnormality is “normal” and enabling mental illness by affirming it is both cowardly and cruel.

    • Utah sounds like a great place; except for the whole Mitt Romney thing. Seriously, don’t Utahns mind being the butt of jokes from the other 49 states?

      • Hi Teeter,

        Amen. Mitt Romney isn’t loathsome so much for being the opportunistic, greasy fraud he obviously as but rather that people don’t see it – and elect this greasy fraud to represent them.

  2. I would take it as a much more serious precaution if they had disposable gloves and hand sanitizer available. Watching people pump gas and grabbing the handle of the nozzle all day, opening doors to stores, standing an inch away from another in an elevator and all punching buttons, but fearless since their dish towels rubber-banded to their faces, browned face masks, and winter scarf over their mouth with their nose sticking out will save them and me.

    • Its so crazy that these maskers are willing to sit in restaurants with their mask off as long as they are eating! But then wear them to walk to their table! I don’t get how dumb these people are but I have read so many articles that schools don’t teach people to think anymore – no critical thinking. I have met so many new people in my groups now that protest and such – when things open I am not going to embrace my old friends that contributed to this craziness.

      • Hi Jen!

        This business of wearing the Holy Rag to enter the restaurant and then taking it off at the table is the very definition of a religious ritual. If it is necessary to wear the Rag to “stop the spread” within an enclosed space, among other people, then it is necessary to keep the Rag on at all times within the enclosed space. Eating in society is optional when Ebola is present where society is eating. These people are clowns performing a rite. It is both sad and despicable.

      • The self-righteous Karen who tried twice to shame me in the store yesterday was wearing, along with her husband, an N95 mask. So…it doesn’t theoretically “protect me”. I didn’t bother to point out the obvious, seemed like a waste of precious breath.

  3. Eric wrote: “I intend to return to Barnes & Noble when I need some more books”

    Hit me up when you go back. It’s tough to get away during business hours, but if you’re there around noontime, after hours, or the weekend, I’ll bare face with you. I’m 6-7 minutes from there so I don’t need much warning (assuming I’m not otherwise committed to something). 🙂

  4. Things are all over the place here in NC. The supermarket, which used to be a PITA, didn’t say a thing about me shopping undiapered yesterday, no PA announcements even. On the other hand, my phone service gets static-y every now and then and they come out and fix it. Even once last year. It’s normally the same guy who’s on the level but today it was a new guy who I swear did nothing like the other guy to check the outside lines and blamed my telephone all the while acting like an insane mask Karen because “he knows people who died of convid.” We had words about it and I told him I wasn’t sick and it was wrong for him to make unproven assertions. I even told him that people need to relearn how to treat others with humanity, not as simply potential vectors of disease. It’s like dealing with pod people.

        • It may require some quick thinking to gauge whether to ignore or confront. I agree we need to make them uncomfortable, and sometimes that means ignore and sometimes it means get loud.

          • Agreed. Discretion is key. The most galling thing about my interaction today was it was a grown man, younger than me but whatever, getting bitchy at me over a face diaper in my home in the context of a problem with a monthly phone service that I pay for. I would cancel service immediately if the only other provider in the area wasn’t a company I already swore never to do business with again for reasons occurring well before convid. It really feels like civilization is crumbling.

            • I was thinking about how we were once taught to respect elders, not swear in public, etc. IOW we were taught to be civilized. Civility and mutual respect is now quickly being disposed of, and likely never to return. How can a masker teach their child to be polite and respect elders, etc., when they are simultaneously teaching them to fear and avoid others?

  5. I am really getting scared this face diapering thing is not going to end EVER – this weekend a group of us did a flash mob thing in several stores — Bed bath Beyond, Best Buy, Petco, several grocery stores – we just handed out fliers on how masks are bad for your health and we were being kind to all. Well MANY people fled from us – they yelled for us to stay away from them! Some said they hoped we would catch the virus and die! And now I see this from Scott Atlas saying 70% of people will wear the diaper after the pandemic is declared over (if it ever is). I have so much invested in my house and I love living in the Southwest but I refuse to spend another summer being told to wear masks and not being able to go in any stores (its bad here in Nevada). I am looking maybe to rent a house in South Dakota for the summer and then its off to Florida I guess. This really scared me: https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/scott-atlas-american-psyche-is-damaged-from-public-health-fearmongering-2-22-21/

    • Amen, Jen –

      It’s pretty much the same here. Diapers on almost every face. These people are mentally wrecked. But such people are very dangerous for just that reason.

    • Had a maskhole approach me today in the store. I am usually left alone, although most often I am the only one unmasked. I heard a mewling voice behind me say, “Don’t you wear a mask?” I ignored it and continued my shopping.

      Later, I saw the same person (a customer, who was with her masked husband). In front of a large crowd of maskholes in the store, she looked around and said, loudly, “Why aren’t you wearing a mask?” I stared her straight in the eye for a few seconds, expressionless, letting her wither on the vine.

      No more confrontations.

      No matter where we go, we must live free or die.

  6. I noticed that people that wear bandanas for masks in Oregon are kind of feared by people and not messed with. Putting on a hoodie, bandana and sun glasses makes a person unrecognizable.

  7. The best history books are rarely in a chain bookstore.

    I wonder how long it will be before our descendants have real libraries again, and not just places with lots of fiction and bodice rippers and picture books?

  8. Today in our company meeting (virtual for safety of course), our HR guy showed a slide that ran in the local paper about how to correctly wear 2 masks. Yeah, I’ll get right on that.

    My thought is, if you are wearing 2 masks, then I don’t have to wear one.

  9. It seems to be getting worse

    Yesterday I went to two stores, the local Microcenter computer store and a Sam Ash music store (Cincinnati area). Both had the most intense Covid shuck and jive going on that I’ve seen to date. The Microcenter in particular was treating it like it was the virus in “The Stand” (that wiped out 99.9% of the population). They were busy, however. The Sam Ash on the other hand, was gutted. They had less than half the employees and inventory that they use to have, and there were very few customers. I don’t know how long they can last like this.
    My feelings on this are mixed. I know from talking to the local barbershop that you will get a visit from state thugs who will tell you exactly how and when you will be shut down by force if you do not comply. So on the one hand, I feel bad for these businesses, but on the other, I don’t want the experience, so I’m much less likely to go there. I wouldn’t have gone to Microcenter except that I was helping my brother with a computer problem (I’m the family Nerd Herd guy). Sam Ash was because it’s in the same area, and I wanted to get some finger picks.

    • Hi MrBear –

      I have a number of friends who are small business owners; I try to get them to see that if they truckle to this, it only leads to more (and worse) and that they have nothing left to lose when the government has already effectively destroyed their ability to earn a living.

    • It’s getting better here. Over the weekend, went to the local grocery store where it’s usually 95% masked. This weekend I swear there were almost as meany nonmaskers as there were maskers. It was wonderful.

  10. I’m not normally into history reads, but I moved to Texas in ’96, got married, and am now home schooling my kid, I figured I should learn Texas history. T. R. Fehrenbach’s “Lone Star” is a great read, originally published in 1969 and updated in 2000. Main reason I don’t like reading history is that I already now how it ends.

  11. “No!” is the perfect reply.
    But if you are compelled to say more, it should be “They don’t work.”
    Mask scolds are expecting you to cry about your “rights,” and they are eager to pounce with the declaration that you don’t have the right to harm others.
    Whatever you do, don’t give them the satisfaction. These filthy things do not help; in fact they are making it worse. If I were King of the World and wanted to make sure a virus spread as far and as fast as possible, my first decree would be that everybody must wear a mask because it will keep them safe.

  12. Eric,

    If you ever make it down to Saint Petersburg, we do have a HUGE bookstore you would love to peruse I’m sure. I haven’t been there in awhile, and they have a notice on their website saying they closed March 22. Hell, I don’t know if it is still open. Its in a part of town I don’t go to much, and would be infested with diaper wearers anyway, so…….http://www.haslams.com

    So, my second cousin came to visit his aunt (my grandmother) who lives with me yesterday. He is in town for her 100th birthday next weekend. Him and his wife are from the communist state of NY, and are big time Libtards. Of course they showed up fully masked. Poor fools must live in constant fear. I was waiting for them to demand that I mask up in my own house, but they were smart enough not to make the demand. My aunt and uncle who live here in Florida, bent to their unspoken demands and did mask up while sitting in the living room. However, while sitting outside on the patio, right next to each other on a couch, it was OK not to wear the mask. WTF? I wanted to say “Hey you guys are almost sitting on top of each other, don’t you think you should mask up for safety?” They were not concerned that my grandmother did not wear her mask since she has already defeated the Wu-Flu. I do not understand these people’s demented way of thinking and irrational fear.

  13. Another justification for my choice of my favorite word, “NO”. A word most appear to be unaware even exists. It’s so rarely used that one can produce some quite entertaining reaction by using it. There is one time it is still often used. In response to a request one be treated like a human being.

    • Amen, John –

      Part of the reason for the successful transmission of this sickness is deference to the sick – the mentally ill. This is understandable and even defensible in normal times. But we are living in profoundly abnormal times and the time has come to call out these sick people by refusing to pretend they aren’t. Their fear – their feelings – no longer matter to me.

  14. My local library, which I usually love, put out a ridiculous video about how they’re quarantining the books “for our safety.” They showed us three tables where returned books have to languish for three weeks. They’re date-labeled like cottage cheese in a restaurant walk-in. Once they reach their time, they can go back out to be checked out. Even more silly is we can’t return books after hours in the dropbox. Someone has to be present to immediately collect returned books and take them to the basement for their quarantine. Why the books are more disease-ridden if they spend the night in the dropbox I know not.
    I think the idea that people can get this thing off surfaces has been debunked anyway. I have not heard of anyone getting it off a surface like a door handle, restroom, item in a store or a library book. Yet another “expert” assumption or lie that was fed to us since this while fiasco began. Fauci the Goblin King probably has stock in Purell.
    I wash my hands, as people should, but not to excess and I never use hand sanitizer. I use a Clorox wipe on my work desk once a week or so, mainly because I eat lunch at my desk. I never use them at home, just soap and water and normal cleaning.

    • Disinfectants are little more effective than soap and water. Many are easier to apply, but offer little more protection. Even if they were, there is a definite downside to complete sterilization. Our immune systems require challenge to maintain effectiveness. They’re like a muscle. If you don’t use it, it will quit working, whether it please you or not.

      • I read that one theory on why so many kids seem to have food allergies and various other auto-immune disorders like asthma is that they grow up in a hyper sanitized and urban world. Everything they touch is super-cleaned and Lysol-ed, families have no pets, babies aren’t allowed to crawl in the yard or make mudpies. The healthiest kids are rural kids. They have livestock and pets, work and play outside, drink from the hose, etc.
        I also read that this overuse of hand sanitizer is creating ‘super germs,’ just like the overuse of prescription antibiotics. We may see the evolution of some nasty staph infections soon. There are already some harrowing stories, such as the guy who had everything amputated because of an infection from a dog licking him. Or the women who lost her leg after getting some funky infection in a minor cut from ziplining.
        I quit using the stuff long before reading that. I don’t like the smell and it really messes up my skin and nails.
        I do use the wipes on my desk, but mainly because they are an easy and convenient way to clean up the dust, coffee and tea dribbles and chocolate smears. I don’t care if they disinfect or not.
        I guess the only “bug” I’m really paranoid about is cross contamination from handling raw meat. I clean pretty thoroughly when that’s a possibility. That is not a pleasant ailment to deal with and it’s completely avoidable, unlike an airborne respiratory virus.

        • Hi Amy,

          I agree with you that the urban kiddos seem to be put in a bubble. The other thing that I have witnessed seems to pertain to what the mother eats when she was pregnant. Mothers that avoid milk, peanut butter, eggs, etc. have a tendency to have children with allergic reactions to such foods.

          Growing up as a kid from the country no one I went to school with had allergies. Yes, there may have been a rare one who was allergic to peanuts, but it was about 1 in 75. I am fortunate, my rugrats have no allergies, but I started feeding them eggs at three months and whole milk at nine months. Most doctors today would say that is much too early, but I took my advice from my mother and grandmothers and I reared my kids in a similar fashion. If mom said it was okay to give the kids peanut and jelly sandwiches or lasagna (chopped up in smaller bites) at ten months, that is what I did.

          • Hi RG,

            Growing up, I never heard of anyone with an allergy. Us kids played in the dirt and even ate the dirt – and yet, despite all the dirt and perhaps because of it, our generation is healthier by far than the current – which seems to have every other kid afflicted with some kind of serious allergy or developmental/learning problem.

            Here I am – middle aged and Undiapered – and not so much as a cough.

            • Hi Eric,

              The development/learning issues I am not 100% sure that this is not caused by the vaccines. I have several doubts regarding the chicken pox and HPV vaccines. I will not let either of my children take the HPV vaccine (what they do as they become an adult is up to them), but the chicken pox my son has 2x doses of and my daughter one. After reading the ingredients I would have nixed it completely, if I was smarter in my youth.

              I still love playing in the dirt. Hands full of wet potting soil and mulch are the best. 🙂

          • I agree and its not just food allergies – they keep their kids so clean that they don’t develop a strong immune system. Kids sit in front of computers all day – me – I ran around outside all day climbed trees, played in the dirt, played on dirty playground swings and such. I feel so sorry for kids these days and I am so glad I got to have a fun “normal” childhood. And I feel bad for my 23 year old niece that can’t date, go to concerts, hang out in a bar maybe

            • Hi Jen,

              That’s true, we were always outside. Growing up in my house they would put the kids to work if they found you wondering the halls….best to get outside early and often. 🙂

              The mental psychosis is what I am trying to avoid with my children. I try to keep them moving and to make life as normal as possible. The great thing with homeschooling is there life hasn’t changed so much, unlike children that attend public or private schools.

              I read that you are potentially looking at FL. Are you looking at particular area? I am heading to Amelia Island after tax season, but the Gulf Coast around Marco is where I would prefer to be. Estero near Cape Coral and Fort Myers is also pretty nice, but I am willing to give the East Coast a view. I have had six clients already hightail it down there from NOVA over the last two years.

              • Hey Raider Girl – Are you Raider girl for the football team? I live in Las Vegas and we got the Raiders now (in a huge nice stadium no one has been in yet!). I kind of dream that it would be cool if I could have like 5 kids come to my house and I home school them – like when I retire from my current job. I am 59 now so I am close! Not sure if its legal to do that but people say they can’t home school cause of work and I try and say – if several neighbors share the responsibility then some moms can work while others teach, etc. As far as Florida, we spent xmas in Sarasota, my husband grew up in Venice Florida – I really like that side of Florida. His parents live in Orlando and they want to move on the East Coast near New Smyrna Beach, Deland area to be near some other relative of theirs. I really love the areas you mentioned, I have visited them before. I guess I need to travel around first – maybe rent until I find the right place for me. I just want freedom. But I really love Las Vegas and the SouthWest – I hate humidity! plus I put a lot of money into my current house. We plan on going to South Dakota in July for the freedom festival but no way could I live there – too cold! Maybe one day I could have 2 houses..

                • Hi Jen,

                  Yes, Raider Girl, in honor of the football team, as well as, my love of all things Viking. 🙂 Still getting used to the Las Vegas name, to me they are still Oakland. I have to catch myself at times.

                  Sarasota and Venice are both nice areas. I have clients in Bradenton. It is very pretty. I like the West Coast of FL a little better than the East Coast. It is more laid back. I come from a family of boaters so we need to be somewhere close to water. I would love to get a home on the Peace or Mantee Rivers and dock the boat in the backyard and just head down to Key West or out to the Gulf when I feel like it. The East Coast is pretty as well, I loved Jacksonville, when I visited clients a few years ago, but it is pretty liberal and definitely a large city. It was home to one of the best Dillard’s that I have ever been to. The Macy’s in Naples wins hands down though. 😉

                  I am a working mother (around 60-70 hours a week this time of year). You can homeschool as a working parent, but it is easier when you are able to work for yourself. I can imagine it is probably improbable to work FT for an employer and try to educate children as well. Mine are older now, it was definitely tougher and much more stressful when they were younger and your teaching them basic math or how to read while trying to complete projects and other tasks. It definitely takes assistance, but the homeschool program is only expanding and there is so much more in means of classes, socialization, etc. that was not available several years ago. A few of our private schools around here actually allow homeschooling students to take classes. It is pretty neat and the parents that are involved in it are pretty cool. It is really a diverse group.

                  • Where do you live now Raider? I now you are a big eric fan – I have been reading your posts all year. Eventually all people who like freedom and liberty need to move to the same state – I am all for succession – let the xtreme left live in their own states and we will live in ours.

                    • I am in the Virginia countryside.

                      I agree with you I would love to live in a state with like minded people, but honestly, in this day and age I would happily settle for people who minded their own business even if they didn’t think like me. Free will seems to be frowned upon by the majority of society.

            • Some of my earliest memories are of sitting on Dad’s lap as he drove farm tractors. By the time I was 6, I was driving them myself. I adored him, and was always thrilled to get his permission to work in the field (well, the thrill did fade a little in my teen years!).
              Today he would be in prison for child endangerment.

              • Hi Roland,

                Both of our fathers would. 😉 We had a huge yellow backhoe and above each of the back wheels there was a flat service with a railing that connected to the top piece that covered one’s head. I used to stand on it while my Grandpa would steer the tractor to the barn or repair the fencing. I was probably 3 or 4 years of age.

                I have no fear of farm equipment. 🙂

    • Hi Amy,

      Pathetic. I was discussing this with my gf the other day and ended up defending the Nazis and Soviets – who at least didn’t worship weakness, as a depressing number of Americans now do.

      • Worshiping weakness is pretty accurate. It’s either a cause or a symptom of the victim mentality we see everywhere now. Everyone wants to tell the rest of us their sob story, whether we want to hear it or not, and we are expected to ACT upon it in some way. We have to have trigger warnings and new speech codes and stage a collective freakout if we see a piece of string tied like a noose.
        It seems like a badge of honor to advertise fragility, i.e their feelings were hurt, how traumatized they are, they’re damaged goods and now they CAN’T EVEN.
        Is it group think? A dodge to get out of work/school? Virtue signalling? I am mystified by all this. I would never discuss my personality flaws or personal traumas except with those closest to me.
        And even worse, the things that ruin their day are so piddling – the aforementioned noose/string, a salesclerk didn’t acknowledge your presence in the manner to which you’ve become accustomed, you saw an article you didn’t like on twitter, etc. These are the people I’d like to ship to North Korea for a summer vacation to gain a little perspective on misery.

        • “These are the people I’d like to ship to North Korea for a summer vacation to gain a little perspective on misery.”

          I would settle for shipping them halfway there.

    • Amy, it tickles me that up until a year ago a perennial favorite of consumer reporters was to expose how useless hand sanitizers are. Why, the experts say you have to scrub for 20 minutes for it to have any effect! Silly unscientific rubes! Only a sucker would buy this stuff!
      Where are they now?

      • I’m waiting to see the verbal and mental gymnastics from OSHA now that Old Joe has directed them to come up with some quasi-force of law guidelines re: diapers in the workplace. Current OSHA stuff is pretty clear on what diapers are and aren’t. I’m betting they’ll truckle to the politics.

      • Ha! Yes, I remember thinking that when this started and people were hoarding it and fighting over it. “I thought that stuff didn’t work anyway?!?”
        My workplace got some from a distillery, so everyone who uses it smell likes a shot glass. We were trying to pin down what, exactly, the aroma is. My vote is Calvert whiskey. It’s the first adult beverage I ever drank to excess and the very thought of it makes me ill to this day.
        Needless to say, I don’t use any of my company’s whiskey/sanitizer.

    • If they were serious, they could pass the returned books under strong UV light. Ozone works too but attacks organics. But in fact infection by invisible demons is the province of neurotics, not humans.

    • This virus seems to spread in exactly the same way as other respiratory viruses: on tiny aerosol droplets that go right through or around masks and hang in the air for a long time. Few people seem to understand this. I like to ask them, “Have you ever come down with a cold and had no idea where you got it?” That has always been the norm for me (although, weirdly, I haven’t had a sniffle in a couple of years). If a sick person had to spit in your face for you to get it, then masks would help, and stopping its spread would be easy.

  15. I wonder, if instead of people walking in groups into stores without masks, what would happen if groups of people walked into stores in full NBC suits and mentioned how the really unprotected face diaper posers needed to vacate the premisses. Do you think that would bring about some positive change? I’m surprised that hasn’t happened already.

  16. I remember years ago my mother noticing that some people in department stores in her experience were throwing their weight around (so to speak) when asked about policies, e.g., for returning items, or honoring sale prices, etc. It appeared that they would make up policy on the spot so as to be able to say no to the customer for the sheer sadistic joy of it. I think my mother called them “little Napoleons.”

    DOWN WITH PETTY TYRANTS!

  17. Additionally, Eric. If the potbellied worker actually believed you were carrying a deadly plague, she wouldn’t have RETURNED a second time to bother you. She’d be hiding in the bathroom, furiously washing her hands, or something like that.

  18. Attaway Eric and I’m DONE pleading the exemption bullshit too. I’m NOT going to wear one. Push back. Push back. Push back. This is a reply I wrote to a local news website:

    Good evening AZ Mirror,

    I am writing to let you know that I believe there is an incorrect use of language in the Feb. 16 article, “House committee OKs bill letting businesses ignore mask mandates,” by Jeremy Duda. While I appreciated Mr. Duda presenting both Republicans and Democratic representatives’ opinions on the bill, I believe that the sentence “Researchers at the CDC recently found that 59% of all COVID-19 cases are transmitted by asymptomatic carriers.” is not entirely accurate.

    After perusing the primary source material (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2774707?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=010721) referenced in the Washington Post article, and realizing that the entire study was based off of computer models with varying assumptions, I believe that instead of “Researchers at the CDC recently found that 59% of all…” the article should be amended to read “Researchers at the CDC estimated that 59%…” with an additional caveat to readers that this study did not itself use any living participants to obtain its results, but instead relied on data contained in other studies’ and to input variables into logarithmic functions in order to estimate certain probabilities.

    That’d be quite a mouthful, but that degree of nuance would be the much closer to the truth, in my opinion, which I hope is what the AZ Mirror’s ultimate aim is.

    Also missing in the article was the question of whether the rights of individuals and, by extension, their businesses are inherent and immutable, or whether they can be granted or dispensed with by other individuals calling themselves a government.

    Respectfully, 
    Michael

    • Yep, never mind the fact that in November, 2020, Nature magazine published the results of a study conducted in Wuhan that dispelled the “asymptomatic carrier” myth vis a vis convid.

    • It seems a number of studies have come out since Summer 2020 that have essentially indicated that asymptomatic transmission is or rare or nonexistent. Those studies seemed to be ignored and/or stifled by the establishment apparatus, as the implications thereof would be the undoing of all these shenanigans.

    • I can show detailed and footnoted studies to maskholes and it makes no difference to their BELIEF that we are in the middle of the Black Plague. Facts don’t matter. Reality does not matter. Clear facts and figures don’t matter. They BELIEVE, and anything that conflicts with their belief is blaspheme. They simply will not examine their belief, and will attack anyone who questions their religion. Pretty standard operating procedure for ‘believers’ of all stripes. Absolute certainty with no understanding or critical examination of the dogma.

  19. This one really hit home for me, Eric. B&N was once one of my favorite haunts, though I haven’t stepped inside one since February. A part of me desperately wants to go back. But what has kept me away is the vision that always plays in my head of some masked moron calling me out for not wearing “it” while I’m standing in line at the cafe’. I don’t trust myself enough to answer him politely without causing a scene, so I haven’t returned yet. But your experience underscores what everyone says about B&N, namely that it’s one of the worst places when it comes to diaper insanity.

    • “I don’t trust myself enough to answer him politely without causing a scene”

      I think that’s a Big part of the problem. People such as yourself NEED to step up, get loud, and vocal. A, “scene” is exactly what needs to happen, everywhere. And, especially from people who prefer not to create a scene. Civilization depends on it happening. Jmho.

        • My family and I (wife and 3 teenagers) recently braved the local B&N. All of us were maskless of course and not one person said a word to any of us, even after we split up and went to our separate sections.

          Everywhere I go, I am pretty much begging someone to say something, which they never do. Maybe they can see the seething rage in my unmasked face, and choose not to bother? By the way, my rage is only directed at the masked morons. I’m friendly and smiley when there are other nonmaskers in the area!

          I’ve been asked to leave (after I firmly said “no” to their masking request) at 2 stores out of probably 100.

  20. I approached someone and they basically did a backflip to get away from me. This exaggeration is an attempt on their part to convince those not part of their religion to join. Pretend to be scared or something to make the unclean feel bad or something. Teach them by pretending you’re scared of them. Sorta like a woman dramatically flinching, pretending she is scared of her partner, when he raises his hand to scratch his head or something.

    Afterwards, when there was no audience, we did our business and exchanged physical things, with no problem for some reason.

    Barnes removes books from political wrongthinkers so I don’t buy there. Got enough unread books to last me many years.

    • I’m also getting tired of maskers complaining about those of us who don’t mask as if we are “persecuting” them. I am not responsible for their psychosis, or the inevitable shame that comes from practicing it. Refusing to go along with it is not “persecuting” them. Meanwhile, we non-maskers are ACTUALLY being persecuted, as evidenced by the OP.

      • I’m still capable of reciprocating with a back-hand…..

        It is what used to be the norm when someone was hysterical. Quick smack across the face to bring the m back to reality. Though I am tempted to use a piece of 2×4.

  21. If the general population is that gullible when it comes to the face diaper, then what’s next? Maybe the government and media hyping up freedom loving people as being domestic terrorists. Oh wait, that’s already starting. I can see the government approved PSA message now; Those who refuse to obey, it is legal to slay. I never did understand how the population in 1930’s Germany were brainwashed into accepting the Jews as enemies of the state. Now I’m starting to understand it.

    • A great part of the Germans “acceptance” was caused by the fact they were disarmed. Which is most often the very first thing tyrants do once enthroned, which Hitler did. Not only does disarmament dissuade one from resisting, It also dissuades one from thinking they can. If one is armed, they can mark a red line which they will not allow to be crossed while they live. Unarmed, there is no attempt to make such mark, because one knows they will immediately cease to live if they refuse the crossing of it. One who is armed is a real threat to enforcers. One who is unarmed is far less threat.

      • Just to be fair, you can never be disarmed if you have a healthy mindset and at least average IQ. The morons focus on guns for the good reason that they are effective tools. But tyranny has been fought with wine bottles and gasoline, with fertilizer and fuel oil, with flour and blasting caps, with a million other things which can be easily found or made. Functional guns are also not hard to make- though modern primers and smokeless powders are harder.

        Of course, I prefer guns myself- especially scary looking sexy effective things which tend to inculcate respect and seriousness in any would be enemy.

        • You might not even need an actual gun. A “semi-accurate” (heh) nonfiring replica of an AR-15 seems to be sufficient to make this bunch wet themselves and run away screaming. Maybe not all of them, but definitely most of them.

          • Our chief cock sucker here in Canada has DECREED that ‘scary’ guns are now illegal. A whole slew of very normal everyday guns like the Ruger mini-30.

            And, lots of replicas, BB and Airsoft guns are now illegal because the ‘look like’ some of the ‘scary’ guns.

            No vote. No legislature. Just decree from the head asshole.

            The phrase “use ’em or lose ’em” comes to mind.

            • This is a major story. As soon as convid hit, Trudope pushed this. Very suspicious response to a so-called pandemic. I just looked into it more closely and it’s very bad news. The clock is ticking. Canada is following the lead of the UK and Aus. but with some very modern and despicable changes. They won’t be going door to door but it is de facto confiscation of a wide assortment of firearms. Onerous licensing and fees. Anyone can accuse anyone of anything and boom, your done. Your “thoughts” are ground for the “yellow flag” laws via the nebulous term “radicalization.” All the while enshrining the right of the gov’t and “the crown” to legally defend itself. Definitely beta testing for similar infringements on the right to bear arms being planned in the US.

        • A great example of a disarmed population fighting back is the uprising against the Germans in the Warsaw ghetto. Leon Uris gave us a very engaging account of this bit of history in his novel “Mila 18”.

      • It has nothing to do with being disarmed, the nazis actually let more people have guns. German people, at least.

        America has a ton of guns (which is great) and yet no one is doing anything while our country is being destroyed. Very few people have lines in the sand, and they are so individually focused as to be meaningless. Short of a complete confiscation, people will keep redrawing that line.

        • Correct. But on this forum you will find very little willingness to question the anti-German propaganda we were all force-fed in our public schools after WW2.

          “It is not just that the National Socialist firearms legislation was the opposite of what it has been claimed to have been by persons who want to tar modern gun-grabbers with the “Nazi” brush: the whole spirit of Hitler’s government was starkly different from its portrayal by America’s mass media. The facts, in brief, are these:
          “The National Socialist government of Germany, unlike the government in Washington today, did not fear its citizens. Adolf Hitler was the most popular leader Germany has ever had. Unlike American presidents, he did not have to wear body armor and have shields of bulletproof glass in front of him whenever he spoke in public. At public celebrations he rode standing in an open car as it moved slowly through cheering crowds. Communists made several attempts to assassinate him, and his government stamped down hard on communism, virtually wiping it out in Germany. Between upright, law-abiding German citizens and Adolf Hitler, however, there was a real love affair, with mutual trust and respect.
          “The spirit of National Socialism was one of manliness, and individual self-defense and self- reliance were central to the National Socialist view of the way a citizen should behave. The notion of banning firearms ownership was utterly alien to National Socialism. In the German universities, where National Socialism gained its earliest footholds and which later became its strongest bastions, dueling was an accepted practice. Although the liberal-Jewish governments in Germany after the First World War attempted to ban dueling, it persisted illegally until it was again legalized by the National Socialists. Fencing, target shooting, and other martial arts were immensely popular in Germany, and the National Socialists encouraged young Germans to become proficient in these activities, believing that they were important for the development of a man’s character.
          “Gun registration and licensing (for long guns as well as for handguns) were legislated by an anti-National Socialist government in Germany in 1928, five years before the National Socialists gained power. Hitler became Chancellor on January 30, 1933. Five years later his government got around to rewriting the gun law enacted a decade earlier by his predecessors, substantially ameliorating it in the process (for example, long guns were exempted from the requirement for a purchase permit; the legal age for gun ownership was lowered from 20 to 18 years; the period of validity of a permit to carry weapons was extended from one to three years; and provisions restricting the amount of ammunition or the number of firearms an individual could own were dropped). Hitler’s government may be criticized for leaving certain restrictions and licensing requirements in the law, but the National Socialists had no intention of preventing law-abiding Germans from keeping or bearing arms. Again, the firearms law enacted by Hitler’s government enhanced the rights of Germans to keep and bear arms; no new restrictions were added, and many pre-existing restrictions were relaxed or eliminated.
          “At the end of the Second World War, American GIs in the occupying force were astounded to discover how many German civilians owned private firearms. Tens of thousands of pistols looted from German homes by GIs were brought back to the United States after the war. In 1945 General Eisenhower ordered all privately owned firearms in the American occupation zone of Germany confiscated, and Germans were required to hand in their shotguns and rifles as well as any handguns which had not already been stolen. In the Soviet occupation zone German civilians were summarily shot if they were found in possession of even a single cartridge.”

          Excerpt from “The Myth of Gun Control under Hitler”, National Vanguard, Rosemary Pennington, Editor.

          • Sounds and smells like bullshit. For the real skinny talk to people whoactually lived in Hitler’s Germany. I happen to have had a relative who died a few years back that was in the Hitler Youth. He had some choice words to say about life in Der Führer’s aryan paradise. Likewise others who were there.

            The National Vanguard, like its predecessor the National Alliance, is an organization composed of liars, cowards, weaklings, and hypocrites.

            • They (national whichever) were either right or wrong. My own family had a view of germany at the time that is the opposite, despite being thourougly english.

              So try to make an argument yea or nay. Heaping shit on the jews favorite whipping boys is fucking pathetic now that we’re 80+ years along.

              Plus the part about gun control is pretty much non-debatable at this point.

  22. Half Price Books in Lexington is worse. Not only do they have a huge sign in caution colors (black and yellow), but they will accost you for not having the face bag (interesting new nickname for it) over both nose and mouth. I won’t go in again, which is a shame because I almost always left with books in hand before. Still looking for a non Amazon way to get used books without diapering.

    Re: reusable cups. That’s incredibly bad. Like anyone is ever going to get the plague, er, WuFlu from a reusable cup. That’s why I started brewing my own coffee and filling my truckers mug at home instead of stopping at the gas station for it. The cup keeps it warm for a couple of hours. All they’re doing is chasing away business.

    • Not only are they idiotically chasing away business, the people responsible for all of this are guilty of Restraint of Trade violations. They need to be prosecuted.

    • I use Abebooks.com, which sources from little bookstores all over the world. But I do very much enjoy a physical bookstore if possible.

      • The only really enjoyable bookstore for me was kroch’s and brentano’s on Wabash. I still use the last book I bought there, a handbook on gears. It is the only bookstore I actually miss. It was supposedly not good for the modern era with its multiple floors, occasional creaky floor boards in some departments, basement level, etc. It just had a feeling of a different time and it actually had good stock of stuff until a couple years before they went out of business.

    • Yeah I don’t order from Amazon if I can help it. I gave ThriftBooks a try recently, a “good used” hardcover edition arrived to me near mint, gonna use em again if they’ve got what I’m looking for next time.

      • My experience with thriftbooks has been very positive. Prices are very good and the stated condition of the books has been consistently accurate. Shipping is free on orders over $10, though it is pretty slow. I usually check abebooks also, as they occasionally have a better deal on a particular book.

        • Thanks, Mike – I will check it out.

          However, I still like to wander the aisles of a physical books store. This in itself is part of the enjoyment I get from books. There used to be a neat little used book store in my area, but it got Corona’d by the lockdowns and is no more.

          • I started going to The Salvation Army Thrift Stores years ago while looking for cheap materials to build things with and found they have a wall full of cheap used books. I’ve seen quite a few newer books at ours as well. I had the book, Where There’s No Doctor in my hand pre-Carona-insanity, not knowing its value at the time I set it down.
            I would recommend Goodwill Stores for books, except they are anything but full of goodwill, they’re the worst hospitality I’ve encountered so far. Full tilt, Mastika Monsters, there. I’ll never step foot in one again, nor will I donate to them as I have in the past, and suggest that to others.
            Sal’s has signs up, but I’ve never been hassled by them.

          • Hi Eric. Browsing in bookstores, new and used, has always been a favorite activity of mine. There’s something viscerally satisfying about the experience. I used to travel to London and Paris frequently, and much more of my free time was spent in the bookshops in Charing Cross and the used book stalls along the Seine than in visiting tourist sites. The bookstores in Fredericksburg also used to see a lot of me, especially Riverby’s, a wonderful used bookshop downtown.

            But it’s no longer fun going anywhere: it’s sickening to see all the sheep wearing face diapers as if it’s a natural thing to do. And I want to scream or throw up, or both, at the sight of evil parents leading their face diapered 3 and 4 year olds around.

            • I feel the same way – I get really depressed after coming home from any shopping trip having seen all these people in face diapers plus their very young kids too! And the ones that wear them in their cars and while in the park jogging make me sick. Just today my husband read an article to me from the UK saying they didn’t have any flu deaths this year because of masks – and this they will use to keep people masked all the time.

  23. It’s not about logic. The box of blue disposables clearly says on the box that it does not prevent the transmission of illness or protect the wearer from illness.

  24. Awesome, Eric.

    And books are my crack as well. I unfortunately have a lot of unsmoked books around, even though I smoke them all the time. And I LOVE a trip to the bookstore. Or used to. Haven’t been there since The Diapering, as they are few and distant as well.

    I absolutely agree about dispensing with the “medical exception” farce. I have a problem with lying, unlike ALL of the Gesundheitsfuhrers who feign obedience to The Science. You kick me out of the store or you don’t, but I’m not going to try and bullshit my way in.

    • I agree in principle, but everyone DOES have a medical exemption, so that is not a lie. In keeping with the spirit of the ADA, a healthy person should not do something that would diminish their health, e.g., breathing in chemicals/dyes, fibers, and CO2.

      • True, there is that, Anon. New face diapers are usually unpleasantly odiferous, indicating the off-gassing of whatever noxious vapors right into the users lungs.

      • Of course every single one of us has a medical exemption. We are mammals that require a free flow of air to maintain our health. We aren’t dolphins or other sea mammals, and so have no millions of years of evolution that allows us NOT to have a free flow of air.

  25. Barnes & Noble will forever be off my shopping list because of the shrieking hysteria (in the original sense, btw) I endured when I walked in during the first months of the insanity. The foul tag wearing creature screeched at me from across the store before rushing up with a little blue diaper, which I refused of course. She began ululating about hundreds of thousands of deaths and my lack of concern for my fellow human while pacing right next to me as I walked toward the exit (they didn’t have the map I needed). I pointed out that there would have been no one within 50 feet of me if she hadn’t swooped in, but that didn’t register. She wanted the police to arrest me, wanted me to be forever banned, and hoped I would die from the virus (seriously, she said all of this). I shook my head and left the store.

    Of interest, to me at least, is that there doesn’t seem to be any way to register a complaint. I looked, but found nothing. In one incident I went from spending literally thousands a year at that bookstore to nothing. I will never shop there again.

    • Jesus, man. I understand for people THAT fanatical, facts don’t matter, but it will always seem bizarre. If the disease were that dangerous, you wouldn’t be trusting in a little blue diaper to save your life. That would be stupid and insane. But maybe that sums them up.

        • Yup, where the Hell is their NBC suit, if it’s that deadly?

          I always knew we were surrounded by insaniacs, I just never imagined there were – That many – who were out of their friggin’ minds.

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