one iteration

We’ve come a long way, and we have much fun in front of us! 

My encounter with a RNA virus was a quiet one. A tickle in my throat was its only signal. It was Thursday night and I was at home, feeling weird. The next day my throat was a little sore. “Damn those cells,” I said, “they must be having parties up in there while I’m sleeping.”

I had Chipotle for lunch with Lizzie, a friend from out of town. Then I said hello to Shilpa as she was passing through, and needed a spot of help with her trusty Powerbook. That evening my throat was sore and acidic, a unholy mixture of Influenza and Chipotle. But I wouldn’t know how unholy until the next day.

The next day came, I felt worse.  Paged Leah and we arranged that I’d pick her up (since I had the car).  So I did.  Armed with Subway sandwiches and movies we returned.  Not long after that, I began my descent into RNA hell.

A couple hours later I had a fever of almost 104 degrees.  I didn’t emerge from that thicket until four days later and two vacation days poorer.  Not once in those days did my body temp ever go below 100 degrees (maybe 99.9).

The influenza virus is not to be trifled with, mere humans.  Run and vaccinate yourselves!  While you can!

Got this forward from a friend. It’s interesting to note the themes in it and how they resonate with our frustration with America now. It also seems a throwback to what we view as our sentimental past. Perhaps this is a bad thing, that these kinds of ideas seem outdated, but they are far from being so.

No Free lunch
There was a Chemistry professor in a large college that had some Exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Prof noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back And stretching as if his back hurt.
The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country’s government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, ‘Do you know how to catch wild pigs?’

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke.’You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.
Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP),welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. while we continually lose our freedoms - just a little at a time.

One should always remember ‘There is no such thing as a free Lunch!’ Also, “You can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.

Also, if you see that all of this wonderful government ‘help’ is a problem confronting the future of America, you might want to send this on to your friends. If you think the subsidized “free” ride is essential to your way of life then you will probably delete this email, but God help you when the gate slams shut!