When you value your life at the price of a grilled cheese sandwich

[Scooter]

Florida anti-mask group rewarded maskless diners with free grilled cheese

Anti-mask advocates were handing out free food to people who rejected science-based safety measures in Florida on Saturday, the same day the state set a new record with 15,300 new reported cases of COVID-19.

The giveaway happened during an anti-mask protest at 33 & Melt, a grilled cheese restaurant in Windermere, Fla., Reuters reports. Activists paid for people’s food after they agreed not to cover their faces, and the restaurant owner refused to enforce Orange County’s mandatory mask rule under her roof, Newsweek reports.

The incident played out in a state where conspiracy theories and anti-science rhetoric have frequently clashed with medical advice around the coronavirus, including doctor recommendations that people wear masks to stop its spread.

Agents with the Florida Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives showed up at the grilled cheese restaurant on Saturday afternoon to speak to owner Carrie Hudson about the protest in a noisy moment that was caught on video.

The video shows dozens of maskless people shouting at the agents while they speak to Hudson behind the counter of the restaurant. The agents and restaurant staff appear to be the only ones wearing masks.

Protest leaders stirred up several chants to defend the restaurant owner and denounce the mask rules, which are based on the best public health advice on the virus.

“Stand down, stand down, stand down!” they shouted at the agents.

The agents ultimately let Hudson off with a warning and walked out of the store with protesters following along behind them.

“This is America!” protester Chris Nelson shouted at the officers. “It’s not communist China!”

Florida is currently the hottest spot for the coronavirus in the United States, which leads the world in overall cases (3.3 million) and deaths (135,000), according to New York Times data. The state broke a record with 15,300 new cases of the virus on Saturday, then took a slight dip to about 12,600 new cases on Sunday. That’s the second-highest reported case count in the state since the outbreak began.

Nevertheless, the state has pressed forward with efforts to restart its economy by leaving mask rules up to individual counties and allowing many businesses to remain open.

Walt Disney World, for example, reopened its doors on the same record-setting day as the no-mask protest. The park, which is about 19 kilometres away from 33 & Melt, opened up on Saturday with enhanced security measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

Nelson, an anti-mask protester, claimed in an interview that he was simply trying to support a local business.

“This is a single woman who is running this grilled cheese business, this is her dream and all she is doing is standing up for the rights of people to make their own decisions,” he told WFTV. “And you know what? You want to call me selfish for not wearing a mask? I want to say to you, all the people calling me selfish, you are the one who is trying to force me, a medical procedure, so you can feel more safe.”

It’s unclear what Nelson meant by “medical procedure,” as masks are simply hooked around the ears with an elastic.

Health officials around the world, including in the U.S. and Canada, have said that masks prevent people from spreading the coronavirus through respiratory droplets expelled when they speak or breathe. Wearing a mask is meant to protect others from the wearer, who may be infected and not know it.

“This is a virus that is very well-contained,” anti-mask advocate Tara Hill told Reuters on the same day the state hit a new record for cases. “Everyone is responsible for their own health-care decisions,” she added. “We want our choices respected as well.”

Several doctors issued grave warnings about the direction of the pandemic in Florida on Monday.

“We really need to work on this together,” said Dr. Lilian Abbo, chief for infection prevention at Jackson Health System.

“Miami is now the epicentre of the epidemic,” she told the Associated Press. “What we were seeing in Wuhan (China) six months ago, no, we are there.”

Dr. Aileen Marty, an epidemiologist at Florida International University, said the public is not taking the virus seriously enough.

“They have not adhered to guidelines,” she said Monday during an online press conference with the mayor of Miami-Dade County. “They have been in those closed spaces without taking the appropriate precautions, and that’s the main reason we are where we are.”

[RayThom]

Life is unfair.

If only the "non-maskers" could painfully die with COVID before infecting others.

[Joe Guy]

I'd give my left lung for a grilled cheese sandwich.

[BoSoxGal]

I feel homicidal on a daily basis these days.

[dales]

Why, BSG.

Prayer for Serenity

God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
taking, as Jesus did,
this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it;
trusting that You will make all things right
if I surrender to Your will;
so that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

Reinhold Niebuhr

[Joe Guy]

Happiness is a warm gun...

[Scooter]

I like my version better:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to hide the bodies of the ones who thought they could fuck with me.

[BoSoxGal]

I don’t believe in God.

I’d really like to disembowel Tucker Carlson. He’s such a flaming piece of shit and I guarantee he is scheming to take on Trump’s racist populist mantle in 2024, whether Trump gets another term or not.

Also he keeps saying there is no evidence masks prevent covid19 transmission. Motherfucker.

[Econoline]

“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change; I am changing the things I cannot accept.”
— Angela Davis

[Joe Guy]

I’d really like to disembowel Tucker Carlson.....

I wouldn't do that but I would like to scalp him. He's a lying sack of shit. I heard last night that he's also the highest rated Trumpass-kisser on Fox. I would have guessed Hannity.

[Gob]

I like my version better:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to hide the bodies of the ones who thought they could fuck with me.

Mine's similar;

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the strength to beat the shit out of those who cause these things

[MajGenl.Meade]

I’d really like to disembowel Tucker Carlson.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/0 ... ans-348334

Tucker Carlson’s audience is booming — and so is chatter that the popular Fox News host will parlay his TV perch into a run for president in 2024.

Republican strategists, conservative commentators, and former Trump campaign and administration officials are buzzing about Carlson as the next-generation leader of Donald Trump’s movement — with many believing he would be an immediate frontrunner in a Republican primary.

“He’s a talented communicator with a massive platform. I think if he runs he’d be formidable,” said Luke Thompson, a Republican strategist who worked for Jeb Bush’s super PAC in 2016.

[Big RR]

And you know what? You want to call me selfish for not wearing a mask? I want to say to you, all the people calling me selfish, you are the one who is trying to force me, a medical procedure, so you can feel more safe.

spoken like a true anti-vaccine idiot; I'm all for personal freedom (I didn't wear a seat belt for a couple of years when my state passed a seat belt (and I always wore one before; eventually I went back to wearing one), but I draw the line when it affects others--and in this public health crisis that is exactly who is being affected. I believe I should have a right to harm or kill myself if that's what I want, but not to inflict harm on others (especially when the harm is mitigated by something as simple as wearing a face covering). It's not like they are trying to force "medical procedures" on anyone.

[MajGenl.Meade]

One of my non-masker friends on FB (a person I know in RL back in the USA) claims that he has "personal convictions" about not wearing a mask although he refuses to describe these convictions.

He does, however, seem to rest some of his specious self-excusing on the fact that the masks are not mandatory and his right to choose exceeds any duty to care.

This confuses me because I know that if masks are mandated, he'll be among the other Trumpanzees chanting for freedom and refusing to wear one anyway.

He of course does not accept my argument that "personal conviction" is insufficient explanation, partly because it is exactly the phrase used by people who do all manner of evil (as he and I both count 'evil'). He gets hung up on the difference in consequences, rather than the concordance of self-justification. Cheating a widow out of her savings is far more nasty than not wearing a mask because it's wrong . . . that's why he doesn't wear one, see?

[Big RR]

Not really; but then I don't understand anti-vaccine people either. There are a lot of things that are mandated for the public good, from hooking up to the sewer system to hauling our trash to the curb for collection, which people comply with and don't have any complaint. Wearing a mask in public is far less of an imposition than either of those, but failure to do so can cause as much harm as failing to practice proper sanitation, so it is clearly as morally wrong as cheating a widow out of her savings --maybe even more so because the harm is much more far-reaching, and what is required is far less intrusive.

I just don't understand people who are perfectly willing to accept all the benefits that our society provides, but won't accept any responsibility to protect members of that society.

[ex-khobar Andy]

The point about rights is that you don't have to exercise them. The benefit of living among others - mutual protection, common access to pasturage, roadways, water, sewerage and so on - all involve giving up some rights and we believe that it's worth it.

[datsunaholic]

Not really; but then I don't understand anti-vaccine people either. There are a lot of things that are mandated for the public good, from hooking up to the sewer system to hauling our trash to the curb for collection, which people comply with and don't have any complaint.

Oh, there are plenty of folks out in the rural areas (most are quite far on the Conservative side) who don't maintain their septic systems (or don't have one at all, and let their raw sewage run straight into a creek), have unpermitted wells, and burn their trash out back including tires, oil filters, furniture. Don't even have to be all that rural. Prior owner of my house never had trash pickup in the 5 years he owned it. Burned everything out back, and what didn't burn he buried under the barn gravel. I've dug up a bunch of it.

They build outbuildings with no permits, run electrical wires right on the ground, and consider any code enforcement to be an infringement of their right to do what they want with their property. Some get caught, fined, even jailed, but many, many more get away with it.

On the other hand, most people are used to having to do those things. Having a sewer hookup that didn't require regular maintenance, having your trash picked up by someone rather than taking it to the dump yourself are seen by most as a convenience worth the extra cost. Wearing a face covering is uncomfortable. Up until 5 months ago, was a good way to get yourself escorted OUT of a business (pretty sure walking into a bank wearing a bandana might have caused a bit of a panic). Of course, the main reason is that wearing a mask does little to protect the wearer (the benefit is slowing down the droplets exhaled by the wearer), and most people are selfish.

[Big RR]

Selfish? I doubt it; I'd bet many don't observe seat belt laws, and these protect only them (I've already given my opinion on the government mandating behavior to protect only the person complying). I (and I think there are many who agree with me) am more than happy to comply with inconveniences to protect others, but believe my own wellbeing is my business and not that of the government.

I do admit people flaunt the law, but for the most part most accept it pretty quietly. I don't see demonstrations by people assserting their rights to put up non-complying buildings or to burn their trash, but I do see a fairly vocal minority bitching about masks.

[Long Run]

I understand and am supportive of the protests to let people get back to work so they can support themselves and their families. But the inanity of the anti-mask protest is another thing altogether, and is actually counter to the legitimate protest of letting people get back to work.

You can point out that the government (CDC, Fauci, et al.) had an early hand in creating mass confusion about masks, but that is old news. A person has to try pretty hard to come up with a rationale for why, when they are around other people, they shouldn't wear masks, or keep a physical distance or not wash hands often, etc. Seems like a protest to have something to protest.

[Joe Guy]