I try to show people videos of what it's like inside of a Covid ICU as much as possible because, you are right, the public really needs to see more of it. Much much more. Working in the ICU during this pandemic has put the fear of G-d in me re Covid (and I haven't been working in a "Covid ICU"). IMO, it is criminal what is happening to our healthcare system because of the anti-vaxxers in our country. I cannot adequately express my anger. Those of you who don't understand the reason for these mandates really need to hear the words of the people being affected. This is how your family gets to say goodbye to you. You get to die of suffocation with an ICU nurse and a respiratory therapist by your side. Enjoy your "freedom": And let's not forget that it's not just mortality that matters. Covid causes tremendous disability: This was at the beginning of the pandemic. You can watch how these travel nurses were affected: https://www.wsj.com/video/series/in-depth-features/covid-chasers-the-nurses-fighting-coronavirus-from-hot-spot-to-hot-spot/E05FF3C1-0873-4AF9-ADA1-9F1CECE24065

Bwahahahaha. We don't even care when people blow away kids in schools.

That's a crap ton of dead people, no matter how you slice it. And if you think otherwise, you have simply become inured to these horrific deaths because you haven't been the one watching them slowly suffocate and putting them into bodybags over and over again.

And yes, I do talk to vaccine hesitant patients every day. I treat them with kindness and compassion, and I do my level best to educate them about the vaccines. But, I believe in informed consent, and I do not pressure people to get a vaccine. However, I was and am a strong proponent of SB 277 in California and I also support our current mandates. You have every right to opt out of a vaccine. No one has any right to inject anything into your body without your consent. But, your choices have consequences. That's just part of taking personal responsibility and of being an adult. Some days, I have difficulty adulting too, but we all have to deal with it at some point.

Dr. Lee is an "ICU physician" (normally referred to as an intensivist, BTW), yet the letter does not reference her hospital affiliation. From the information detailed in the letter, she appears to work here (for now, at least): https://www.whhs.com/Find-Your-Physician/L/Patricia-Wenshin-Lee-M-D-.aspx The law firm which represents her, however, seems to be very involved with advising people with respect to vaccine exemptions, which I find odd. As an attorney myself, this is not a typical practice area for a law firm, so it seems to be an ideologically-driven law firm. https://www.sirillp.com/vaccine-exemptions/ As the letter also acknowledges, this physician seems to have personally treated a statistically improbable number of serious "vaccine reactions". Not only that, she seems to have deduced that all of these incredibly serious conditions were "caused" by the vaccine. That's an incredibly bold statement for a physician to make without anything more than her own anecdotal experience (hint: that's not how causation is typically proven by respectable scientists). She also goes on to say that her colleagues have had "similar experiences" with these "vaccine injuries" and then rallies against vaccine mandates. Color me skeptical. Approximately 6.5 billion (that's *billion*) doses have been administered globally. If there were these many serious vaccine injuries happening, we would have heard about it by now. You may think that the CDC and FDA are shills for "Big Pharma," but what's the excuse for the French, the Dutch, the Canadians, and all the other countries that didn't invest in Covid vaccine R&D and have nationalized healthcare systems that would have to pay for these supposedly rampant vaccine injuries? Seriously, please go peddle your anti-vax conspiracies somewhere else.

It is $99 for the small and $199 for the large.

I went for the small so I wouldn't feel so badly about the price.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1195310640/author-clock-a-novel-way-to-tell-time I know several people were interested in this clock.

Wine. Always wine.

This is a really good point. We did all presumably read SWB's Bible and, as I mentioned in my last post, one of my favorite fora back in the day was Ovusoft, which was the forum for the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility. It was a very active forum at its height.

I didn't read the thread, but I know why I don't have the same kind of talks on FB that I do here. I don't feel like I connect with people on FB because the format is not conducive to talking in the same way that forums like this are. FB Groups are a place to go for a quick fly-by kind of question, but not a place where long-term relationships in groups are easily developed, for me at least. Every online friend I have ever made in a group has been from a forum, where people could develop longer-term relationships. In the old days, I was on Ovusoft (Taking Charge of Your Fertility) and Mothering, when I was pregnant with Sacha and then when he was little. Then, I was in a pregnancy group on Babycenter or The Bump, I can't remember which, when I was pregnant with Ronen. Then, I found this place when we started homeschooling (Sacha was 4 and Ronen was just born). I've made many online friends from all of those places. I have local friends from Facebook groups, but long-distance, online friends from FB Groups? Not really. FB Groups, IMO just don't lend themselves to developing relationships in the same way. One of the biggest problems is that people dirty delete threads, which is exasperating after you have put so time and emotional labor into a thread. So, I don't bother writing too much anymore that I don't mind going poof, so I just don't invest in building relationships in FB Groups. But, because FB Groups have become so big, forums like this have fallen away in popularity, which is a shame IMO because they are SO much better for having those deep convos like the old ones you sometimes find when you dig around in here. Anyway, that's one of my explanations for why the boards are slow (other than the fact that they're seasonal and perk up when people are all chattering abut which curriculum to pick each year). A lot of the people on the chat board are long-term boardies and have developed those relationships, so we stick around to chat with each other about other stuff that not homeschool-related. We may argue about this or that, but we generally respect each other as people and as educators. It's a very diverse board, so you are going to get a lot of interesting perspectives from people who are spread out geographically, who are culturally very different, who were raised in very different ways, etc. I like it. I learn a lot from the people here. You all bring a very different POV to me and broaden/challenge my urban, So Cal, fairly liberal, Gen X, Jewish worldview. So, thank you all for that. ❤️

We have the same issue here. I always tell my DS to go ask on the message board, but he has never gotten anything useful, or so he says. I also tell him to re-read the transcript, but again, a big ask for an ADHD kid. He does seem to forget concepts that were from weeks prior because the class does move quickly and it's just hard to retain information when it's going quickly and you have so few practice problems. I've always been torn about what to do there, but honestly, the AoPS Online class actually gave more work than the in-person classes because there were no writing problems and no Alcumus required in our in-person classes, which is why we switched. Plus, the in-person classes had exams that stressed him out. He's not a fast worker. So, I don't think you are better off in the Academy classes. JMHO. So, now he emails questions to a very kind boardie and she's been graciously helping him. I am just no longer able to keep up with his math level. My knowledge of math was simply too superficial to handle AoPS math at this level.

Oh gosh, we must be terrible people. We have totally been naked on our boat. You can see anyone coming from MILES away. Seriously, the ocean is huge. There is no one out there. I don't know much about the Great Lakes, but my impression is that they are pretty darn big too.

Wow! So beautiful and peaceful! So much space!!

We have tons of windows. This is my building. But, we have an exterior-facing unit; not one of the ones looking out onto the pool. https://www.purlatcivita.com/photogallery The building wasn't built when Google last did its street view, but my apartment looks out onto a quiet traffic circle, so it really doesn't feel like people are looking into our windows from across the street, especially since we are on the top (5th) floor. https://www.google.com/maps/place/7901+Civita+Blvd,+San+Diego,+CA+92108/@32.7762079,-117.150528,3a,75y,131.56h,77.4t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1saVpPP2LuAhHDHIkTbETXZA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m7!3m6!1s0x80d955789673c2d9:0xb9fa058004953583!8m2!3d32.7770102!4d-117.1493639!14m1!1BCgIgARICCAI I don't know. Especially, during the day, it really doesn't feel like you can see inside. I suppose you could at night, if the whole place was lit up like a Christmas tree, but we usually have dimmers on, and generally clothes by then too. 😄

The feds have jurisdiction over hate crimes on the basis of race and other covered personal characteristics.

I don't know how else to explain it other than something is happening to large swaths of our country neurologically. Too many people are falling prey to conspiracy theories and other manipulations that just defy logic. It's like you point out, it's almost like what you see in some elderly folks who begin to lack critical thinking and discernment, and fall for schemes meant to trick people in cognitive decline. And, if you have ever been around those in this state, they can be extremely hostile. It's very sad.

I've mentioned before my theory that Covid has done some serious neurological damage in the US. Like some kinda form of neuro syphilis, but Covid-related. We have so many people in the US that have had Covid and so many of these Covid + people have subsequently lost their minds. Like, it makes no sense to me how disconnected from reality our country has become. People want to blame FB/social media, but as others have said, there's social media in other parts of the world, but why has the US gone so completely off the rails? I think it has something to do with the amount of Covid allowed to run rampant here. I really have no other explanation for what is transpiring here. It can't all be Trump and Facebook, can it?

Many of you may already be aware of the many resources available through Gilder Lehrman, but I wanted to make sure that people know that they also offer self-paced courses that could be used to supplement American history studies: https://www.gilderlehrman.org/programs-and-events/self-paced-courses You can create an account, either through your local library or local school, to get reduced pricing.

Pretty sure we are attacking both because, as is typical of you, your sources are usually unreliable and that's borne out by the concocted, fearmongering content they serve to their echo chambers.

School boards have been tasked with enforcing county/state mask mandates and implementing sex education and equity improvement programs. This *is* their job. Poor performance on literacy and math tests in public schools is not a new phenomenon; this level of insanity at school board meetings is. And, IMO it's pretty racist to suggest that CRT is somehow the problem here.

Btw, Bryan Williams' complete deadpan humor of the situation had me nearly spitting my wine out my nose when I watched it:

I'll show you what they look like. The guy in the yellow was from ours in San Diego Unified. The United States has lost its ever loving mind.

It's San Diego. You could walk naked along the boardwalk at the beach and most people wouldn't care. My boys are 12 and 8 and we are all still a bunch of nudists. I keep waiting for that to change, but hasn't happened yet. We live on the top floor of our apartment. Sure, there's another apartment building across the block, but I doubt they are spending their time staring into our apartment. And if they are, we really don't care!

They also pay a living wage, provide health insurance, paid time off, a retirement plan, a store discount, and they promote from within. Employees actually like working at TJs and it shows.