A Quickie: Social Determinants of Health + the #COVID19 Pandemic = Huge Drop in US Life Expectancy

Posted on by bobcabkings

Calico Jack – Differential death rates – Guess what, GOP policy and race.

The Psy of Life

If you need any more proof of how fucking incompetent the Ol’ Pussy Grabber was or is, look no further than a new report published in the BMJ (I’m assuming the British Medical Journal) examining the effects of the 2020 #COVID19 pandemic on life expectancy in the US and peer high income countries. So, here’s the upshot, according to reporting in NBCNews: From 2018 to 2020, life expectancy in the US fell by 1.9 YEARS as opposed to 2.5 MONTHS in other affluent countries.

Life expectancy in the US fell by 1.9 YEARS as opposed to 2.5 MONTHS in other affluent countries!

Yes, you read that right, the 500,000+ deaths in the US from #COVID19 caused the AVERAGE life expectancy to fall by almost two years while other countries, which include Great Britain, France, Italy, and Spain who all had their own problems with the pandemic, only fell by…

View original post 908 more words

Mostly Macro Photography

Posted on by bobcabkings

Tara Caribou has been taking photos.

Raw Earth Ink

Hi friends, I hope you’re enjoying summer so far. I’ve been spending a lot of time outside, as is typical for me anyway… in particular I’ve been fascinated with the minute details of the flora around my home. I hope you enjoy a few pics.

dwarf dogwood

pushki (aka cow parsnip)

lupine

grass going to seed

geranium

more lupine

I love dandelion

tara caribou | ©2021 all photos by me

View original post

The Distortions to Our Expectations Social Media Causes Detrimentimental to Our Democracy

Posted on by bobcabkings

Calico Jack – Delayed gratification?

The Psy of Life

Meme: Opiate of the Masses

If you’re like me, you spend a significant amount of your day, week, month, life on social media. It’s entertaining, distracting, and, oddly, satisfying giving you a sense of accomplishment when you’ve really done nothing at all… or have you?

One of the things that social media does is expose you to other people’s ideas, opinions, and interests, and science says that other people’s ideas, opinions, and insterests shape our ideas, opinions, and interests. Remember the thing your mom used to harangue you with, “If everybody jumped off a cliff, would you?” And George Carlin’s retort, “Yeah, because I’d be a fool not to.” And, the saying, “A 1,000 Chinese people can’t be wrong”? They are all getting at the same thing: if a majority of people in your awareness are doing something or believing something, then it must be right. Just as we…

View original post 1,862 more words

The Moon Brings Hope

Posted on by bobcabkings

Tara Caribou – longing and hope

Raw Earth Ink

My heart aches.
I long for that spark,
that touch of understanding.
My face is a grimace;
My hands lift.
My fingertips tremble.
I look to the east:
hope rises with the moon
and sets with the waking sun.
Morning rests upon my face, but
all I crave is the night
and the promise that it brings.
My heart aches.
My soul quivers.
I watch the stars for you.

tara caribou | ©2021

View original post

Of Smoke and Gold: The Lightbringer Returns

Posted on by bobcabkings

Janmalique a gathering of four

Strange Goings On In The Shed

Jelena Pajovic at Unsplash

“The Fallen have not entered into Darkness but into Life, not many understand this.” I wrote those words eons ago, or it seems like eons ago. What, or who was I referring to? An angel clothed in smoke and gold. An awesome presence who remains hidden in mystery, sought by many over the ages but remains frustratingly elusive.

“Why does he occupy your thoughts now” my beloved Lady of Transformations asks.

I reply, “another door opens and he stands at its threshold, waiting for, for a question that may take an eon to answer.”

She looks at me shrewdly and then glances over to His Nibs. They sense a story waiting to to be given voice to. I’ve travelled far in search of answers to questions that refuse to be asked. What is it that the Soul is afraid to find out? Does the Lightbringer bring…

View original post 950 more words

Whaz Up?!? Monday 20 June 2021

Posted on by bobcabkings

Calico Jack – some suggestions

The Psy of Life

Howdy y’all!

Happy Father’s Day!

We’ll celebrate with a dad joke that I read on Twitter (sung to the tune of That’s Amore!) Here’s Dean Martin from Youtube in case you’ve forgotten the tune or you just haven’t had enough video on blogs to ignore lately since we all know no one watches them because buffering.

When an eel bites your thigh in the middle of the night, that’s a moray!

That’s a good one. Feel free to put your own dad jokes in the comments to commenterate the occassion! Ha ha! See what I did there, commenterate instead of commemorate? Pretty funny, hunh? Sometimes I just crack myself up.

Happy Juneteenth, y’all!

That’s right, Ol’ Handsome Joe Biden and the Democratic Congress — that’s the name of my new punk band — has gone and made Juneteenth federal holiday. Forty-nine of the fifty states and Washington DC already have…

View original post 363 more words

Our Increase In Violent Crime is Trump’s Fault

Posted on by bobcabkings

Calico Jack – Guns and permission to use them

The Psy of Life

A Quickie: The Image of Officer Derek Chauvin on George Floyd’s Neck Haunts Me

We’ve been very busy IRL here at Ye Olde Blogge, but things are starting to get back to what passes for normal before it all blows up again in August when I go back to my teaching job. Anywho. This is another post that feels like catch up with the old news and not responding to current news.

Anywho, this post addresses the “mysterious” uptick in violence that the US experienced in 2020 during the pandemic lockdown. Spoiler, it isn’t because of BLM, defund the police, or the George Floyd protests no matter what the GQP would want to gaslight us into believing.

Really, it is due to two things: (1) permission and (2) an increase in the availability of guns. So, let’s explore how both of these phenomenon combine to produce this increase in violence.

View original post 1,302 more words