No More Kisses

The gods always require sacrifice, and evidently, just living in this shyte-show doesn’t qualify as one.

The gods are merciless. But the gods are able to continue to pleasure themselves by having their minions here on this experiment-gone-awry offer up quaint and dainty bullshit to build more wedges between the innocents, which the innocents willingly and happily swallow, like the most exquisite of chocolate mousse set before them.

Bye-bye handshakes: How coronavirus is changing global habits – via newindianexpress.com

PARIS: Say no to a handshake, refuse kisses on the cheeks and definitely avoid hugging. Instead, a direct gaze or maybe a gesture with the hands.

All around the world people are changing their daily habits at work, at home and in worship to reduce the risk of contracting the coronavirus and prevent it from spreading any further.

CHINA

In Beijing, the capital of the country where the outbreak began, red hoardings tell people not to shake hands but to join their own hands together in a sign of greeting.

FRANCE

Newspapers have been filled with advice over how to replace handshaking — a daily formality for the French at work and kissing on the cheek, a regular greeting habit in France even between people who have only just met.

BRAZIL

The Brazilian health ministry has recommended that citizens not share the metal straws traditionally used to consume the caffeine-rich South American drink mate, also known as chimarrao.

And a kiss — even if it is not on the mouth — is meanwhile totally advised against.

SPAIN

The outbreak could also hit one of Spain’s most cherished traditions — the kissing of sculptures of the Virgin Mary in the week leading up to Easter.

With just a month to go before the week starts, the ritual could be banned. “It is one of the measures that is on the table,” said national health official Fernando Simon.

And Jesus wept!

But consider:

Yet the worldwide focus on the coronavirus has highlighted the deep inequalities in how some maladies are covered and others are simply ignored. Just over 3,000 people have died after contracting the virus since the first reported case on December 1. Over the same time period, a condition like diarrhea typically kills around 550,000, according to the World Health Organization – something that could easily be remedied in virtually every case. Meanwhile, around nine million people die of hunger or hunger-related conditions every year, according to Mercy Corps – an average of one person every three seconds. Yet these shocking realities that rival the worst predictions of what the coronavirus could bring are ignored as mundane, business-as-usual non-stories by comparison.

Over 800 million people – one in nine – go to bed hungry every night, with 98 percent of those people living in the global south. Hunger is responsible for nearly half of all deaths of children under five. Starvation should be a key feminist issue, as sixty percent of the world’s hungry are female. If mothers are hungry, it affects their children through potential complications in childbirth, less nutritious milk and less attentive care. Hunger, especially in childhood, often leads to stunted development, both physical and mental, and increases the risk of chronic illness, meaning that it effectively steals children’s futures away from them.

Even new and devastating outbreaks of starvation are frequently ignored – if it is politically expedient to do so. The United Nations estimates that 7.4 million Yemenis need treatment for malnutrition and a further 18 million lack access to safe drinking water. This comes as a direct consequence of the Western-backed Saudi attack on the country. Yet because of the U.S. government’s position of supporting the Saudis, the humanitarian crisis has largely been ignored in the media.

Even in the United States malnutrition is a serious problem. 37 million Americans struggle with hunger, according to U.S. charity Feeding America, whose research shows that no state in the union has a food insecurity rate below seven percent. In other words, you wouldn’t have to go far to find the problem. Yet the press and the political class are largely uninterested firstly because the victims of those conditions are universally poor and secondly because they are the direct victims of a system that allocates resources, including the most basic, such as food and shelter, on the ability to pay, rather than on need. Thus, highlighting them would be an indictment of capitalism itself. – via mintpressnews.com

The gods of f**kery DON’T want you considering or contemplating such things, so, turn your face away,  scream out loud and clench the anus, embracing how you are shit on by the demons of the day who masquerade as knowing wizards but are nothing more than the tired and stinky butt-stain cast down upon us from ages and ages before.

And for enlightenment of the current virus shit-show, consider the following:

Patient deaths are deployed to sell the coronavirus story – by Jon Rapporport

“As long as enough people can be frightened, then all people can be ruled. That is how it works in a democratic system and mass fear becomes the ticket to destroy rights across the board.” ― James Bovard

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Tonight’s musical offering:

“Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” – Chicago – (Leonid & Friends cover)

Photo by Joey Nicotra on Unsplash