I would NEVER share my DNA with Ancestry.com or 23 And Me, but I have a number of friends who have. Virtually all of them (who mostly have ancestry from northern, eastern and Southern Europe) have DNA from Northern Africa.

I thought long and hard before I did it but concluded that the government is going to get my DNA anyway if it wants to, and I’ve been proven correct, there are cases of govt getting your DNA from medical pathology samples, a cup you put in the trash, and so on. I know, they needed a warrant, but that’s pretty meaningless because they get warrants for innocent people that aren’t even the suspect, such as your relatives. And for that matter, they can guess your DNA from those of your relatives who do submit it to those registries.

So I figured if the govt could get my DNA any time it wants, but I would not benefit from the data, I might as well go ahead and get access to all the data myself. Besides it finally proved that the guy that showed up when I was 30 claiming to be my long lost brother was indeed my brother. Kidding, we all knew he was because he so obviously looked like our family, but it was cool getting confirmation.

But I totally understand people who choose not to, I could easily have gone the other way myself.

True.  NYC is the WORST, but Urbanites everywhere tend to be arrogant, think they are special, better and entitled.

I fully understand where they’re coming from. My roots are half in a city and half small town. I spent my teen and early adult years in a city, nine years at a university, considered becoming a professor like my father was, married and raised children in the city. There is a part of me that identifies with urban culture more strongly than rural and no doubt is responsible for my social liberalism. But I spent my very early years in a tiny farming community in Iowa, and many visits to my farmer relatives in the mountains of VA and my coal mining and steel mill working relatives in western PA. That was an early imprint of real world producers. People born in the city who don’t have that history have no clue, and no empathy. But the best of them are the small business owners. In the city they are the ones who work as hard as a farmer, putting in 14 hour days, and risking all they own for their dream of not being a cog in a wheel in a big company. Being employed in a big company, or the government, or the university, those are the urban types who settle for the idea that Mommy and Daddy (company and government) will always be there to support you, and if they never struggled as a “little man” they have zero clue, and then they fall for intelligentsia propaganda, and there you have it: Leftist Economics - the philosophy that they, the intellectual elite, know better than the working man how to run everything. It’s the most arrogant, narcissistic idea ever conceived by man, because it’s a version of slavery but not honestly so; it’s disguised as altruism; it is Satan wearing the mask of an angel, dispensing promises never fulfilled, and responsible for more needless suffering and death than any other human invention.

Well, this is interesting.

https://www.thecollegefix.com/epidemiologist-coronavirus-could-be-exterminated-if-lockdowns-were-lifted/


Asked about Anthony Fauci, the White House medical expert who for weeks has been predicting significant numbers of COVID-19 deaths in America as well as major ongoing disruptions to daily life possibly for years, Wittkowski replied: “Well, I’m not paid by the government, so I’m entitled to actually do science.”

“[W]hat people are trying to do is flatten the curve. I don’t really know why. But, what happens is if you flatten the curve, you also prolong, to widen it, and it takes more time. And I don’t see a good reason for a respiratory disease to stay in the population longer than necessary,” he said.

“With all respiratory diseases, the only thing that stops the disease is herd immunity. About 80% of the people need to have had contact with the virus, and the majority of them won’t even have recognized that they were infected, or they had very, very mild symptoms, especially if they are children. So, it’s very important to keep the schools open and kids mingling to spread the virus to get herd immunity as fast as possible, and then the elderly people, who should be separated, and the nursing homes should be closed during that time, can come back and meet their children and grandchildren after about 4 weeks when the virus has been exterminated,”

THIS^^^^^.    I have been struggling all along with the “flatten the curve” theory because it widens the curve, and while the benefit is fewer cases simultaneously, if we are going to shut down the economy for the whole of the curve, the damage to the economy increases logarithmically with time.

It is bothering me a great deal that no one in the briefings is talking about this. Fauci and Birx are cheerfully praising how social distancing is flattening the curve, with not a word about failed businesses and lost jobs. Pence is bragging about the “control tower” military style logistics moving resources around and Trump only talks about the stimulus money to help us “get over the hump” but is not giving details about failing businesses and lost jobs, and the media of course wouldn’t report it anyway.

I have seen NO “modeling” predicting lives lost due to economic collapse over time, none. Someone please point me to one if I missed it.  Trump, Pence, Fauci, Birx and all the rest could at least act like they are thinking about the other side of the equation beyond “let’s throw money at it”. Money the government doesn’t have by the way.

But it’s not like I think Trump shouldn’t have gone along with this circus; if he hadn’t he would have been tarred and feathered. I’m supposed to trust that he IS thinking about the economy and somehow will put a stop to this nonsense before it’s too late, if it isn’t already.

I was wondering how this thread ran off the rails when all I wanted was to objectively discuss the facts of the Chinese paper that Tucker is talking about, and I have found it.  Here is Steingar's first response, and thank you for the factual part of it:

I hope I can be forgiven for not listening to Tucker Carlson, who has no expertise in Genetics, Virology, Biology, Epidemiology or anything else that I can discern.  Wuhan is the capital of Hubei Province.  Yes, there is a very good University there, I'm pretty certain my top graduate student came from there.  There is a medical school there, and I have no doubt that there are faculty who study viruses.  There have been scientists studying viruses at every institution I've ever worked on, I even did some virology for a spell and taught a virology course.

People claiming that is is some sort of bioweapon are spouting patent nonsense.  We've been getting outbreaks from folks eating bush meat for years. SARS, MERS, Ebola, Swine Flu, Bird Flu all come to mind.  This latest has more teeth I'll give you, but it is still an emerging disease.  We haven't the wisdom to design a virus this effective, and the Chinese are way behind us in this sort of science.

In the meantime idiots spout conspiracies because that's what they do.

But in the bolded part you go attacking "people" and "idiots" (presumably us) for thinking it's a bioweapon conspiracy.  But if you had listened to the video, Tucker shows that the paper specifically does not indicate the virus, whether engineered or natural, was ever intended as a bioweapon, however, the liberal media and the NIH have falsely spread rumors that conservatives are using that paper to prove such a conspiracy theory.  If you want the slice, it's 4:00 to 4:35.

Therefore I think I've found why you are reflexively assuming all of us buy into this bioweapon conspiracy theory - you listen to mainstream media and you are believing lies they tell. Also the NIH is feeding this rumor.

You troglodytes wouldn't know a virus if it bit you in the ass.  You only believe whatever trash the conservative media feed you.

It's your liberal biased media telling you that us "troglodytes" believe trash the conservative media feeds us. Mainstream conservative media is not telling us that. Maybe some sites are, but I haven't come across them.

The problem with the engineered virus conspiracy idiocy is that engineered viruses leave footprints to clever geneticists.  I'm a pretty dull geneticist by comparison, and I can see them.  Either you design viral proteins de novo, which were aren't smart enough to do, or recombine genes from different viruses, which we can easily see.

The Coronavirus looks like a bat virus, though it could have easily had a different reservoir on tis way to humans.  It is a very effective human virus, not a big surprise it made the jump.  But you guys keep believing Conservative commentators who know absolutely nothing, and ignore the one guy in the room who might actually own something.  More important to believe what matches your preconceptions, than actually learn something new.  That wouldn't jive at all with your conservative programming.

That is not what Tucker Carlson is saying. He does say that he believes that it's possible the virus could have been engineered, as opposed to you and the NIH saying it's impossible, but he doesn't know one way or the other, and even if it was, the Chinese paper makes clear that the release was accidental - Carlson does NOT believe in any conspiracy theory.

And so instead of listening to the video and digesting the statement that it's the liberal media spreading the rumor that all conservatives are conspiracy theory troglodytes, you attack us all here as if that were true, when all I want to do is take the Chinese paper at face value and analyze what it says. You did provide that also and for that I thank you.

What the perfesser doesn't understand is biological warfare.  Bio warfare doesn't necessarily use "manufactured viruses" to achieve the desired results.   Mother Nature provides some real nifty little creatures, that when cultivated then dispersed in a clandestine manner can wreck havoc and bring an enemy to their knees.

And here is Lucifer feeding right into your fantasy that you got from liberal media, and hence the insult fest this thread turned into. Although I suspect Lucifer isn't saying the Chinese did release it deliberately, just that it is possible. I don't want to speak for him but I would have to agree it's possible, although my personal opinion is to give the Chinese scientists the benefit of the doubt.

Assuming for the sake of argument that the Chinese scientists who wrote the paper have a human heart, and truly are trying to do what's best for humanity - I know, they are all lonely onlies who can't get women because of the one child policy killing all girl babies and are psychologically traumatized by living in a totalitarian nightmare so probably exist in a delusional version of reality - but lets assume for the sake of discussion they are telling the truth in this paper. The horseshoe bat info is fascinating, and makes me not want to bash China so much for eating bats, because it looks like that's not how it got let loose.  Besides, wouldn't cooking them sufficiently kill any pathogens?  And does anybody have a good recipe for a bat dish?

Why can't we discuss fun stuff like that instead of mutual insults?  Okay it's pilotspin so nevermind... carry on!   

It might be closer to 3%, but that is still vastly different than the Ebola fatality rate

It’s going to end up much lower than that, possibly:

The woefully inadequate data we have so far, the meta-research specialist argues, indicates that the extreme measures taken by many countries are likely way out of line and may result in ultimately unnecessary and catastrophic consequences. Due to extremely limited testing, we are likely missing “the vast majority of infections” from COVID-19, he states, thus making reported fatality rates from the World Health Organization “meaningless.”

“Patients who have been tested for SARS-CoV-2 are disproportionately those with severe symptoms and bad outcomes,” Ioannidis explains. With very limited testing in many health systems, he suggests, that “selection bias” may only get worse going forward.


Ioannidis then zooms in on the “one situation” where “an entire, closed population was tested”: the Diamond Princess cruise ship’s quarantined passengers. While the fatality rate was 1.0%, he points out, the population was largely elderly, the most at-risk demographic. Projected out onto the age structure of the U.S. population, he calculates, the death rate is more like 0.125%, with a range of 0.025% to 0.625% based on the sample size

https://www.dailywire.com/news/stanford-professor-data-indicates-were-overreacting-to-coronavirus?itm_source=parsely-api

This guy was at the White House meeting and was subjected to jokes by Jimmy Kimmel and denigrated by Don Lemon.

Today the Left, Media, Education, Social Media, Entertainment LGBT cabal is not about acceptance, nor tolerance.  It is NOT about live and let live.  It is about capitulation and submission. If you don't promote, glorify, over indulge, celebrate LGBT in all of its EXTREME forms you are labeled a Racist, Sexist, Homophobe. 

Well said and spot on!

You must raise your children to be "Gender Fluid" and that Trans, Gay, Lesbian etc is NORMAL, and PREFERRED.  It is sick and twisted, and I won't participate.

This is just more tyranny from the Left.  The basic Biology has been clear for Eons.  Male, Female and Sex exist to procreate the Species.  All other permutations are abnormal, and potentially destructive to the Species.  I am not saying that they do not exist, nor am I saying they should be treated poorly and harshly.  However, it shouldn't be promoted as normal and/or preferred.

I partially disagree.  Transgender yes, that is abnormal and extremely rare in its genuine form.  At its most basic, there are biological reasons, such as chromosome abnormalities (example Klinefelter syndrome), there are infants born with ambiguous genitalia, all of which result in the need to choose which "gender" the child should be raised as, and there is such a thing as botched circumcision (the whole peepee falls off) which tragically used to result in parents being advised to cut the baby's balls off too and raise him as a girl. So there are real and physical causes for some transgender feelings in some people.

Beyond this, in normal XX females and XY males born with correct DNA and correct genitalia, there are hormone abnormalities leading the person to "feel" more like the opposite gender. To be male, not only must you have XY chromosomes and external junk, you must have gallons of testosterone and you must have that beginning long before birth while you're still in the womb. Too much estrogen you end up feeling too female. This was confirmed with the DES disaster.

Your garden variety transgender, who knows? They really exist but we need a lot more research to figure out the cause. I seriously doubt there is enough data supporting whether or not these people had the correct hormone balance while in the womb. These people have rather unstable self identities and whether that's a chicken or egg thing isn't really known. All of these cases case pain and dysfunction and hence are abnormal and should imo be treated as disorders to be studied, to help these people.

Then at the highest level (most removed from presumed biochemical cause) are people who seem to be using gender identity confusion as a way to get attention, or to avoid certain problems, or to identify with a disadvantaged minority, and these, I believe are growing in number due to all the publicity given the whole LBGTQetc. movement. It's a terrible result, because it is causing a backlash against ALL transgenders. For example, on the ballot here in Texas is Proposition 6 which if it passes, will ban gender transition treatment in children.  It's a horrific government overreach into deeply personal decisions made by parents and doctors in the best interest of their children. In the real cases I describe above, parents and doctors need to be free to do this. However, if tons of fake TG little kids are popping up because they're being taught about TG in kindergarden, then maybe we do need to ban this because it's going to apply to a lot of kids that otherwise would never thought of themselves as gender dysphoric, and it will ruin their lives.

The whole goddamn business needed to stay under the political radar, and be treated like a medical disorder with intelligence, scientific research, compassion and understanding. But the left has made it political football and the right is reacting in kind and it is all very sickening.

But gays and lesbians are totally different. They are not abnormal whatsoever physically or chemically or in their gender identity. They are such a different category that the whole LBGT tag is bullshit. They only banded together because both were ostracized by society, and because there is some superficial resemblance. Gay males can act "swishy" and effeminate but that's an affectation, not gender dysphoria. Same with "butch" lesbians. These people are secure in their gender identity, and know that they are attracted to their own gender.

Homosexual behavior is normal for many animal species, and it has always been present in humans for as long as history has been recorded. Sex is not just for procreation. It's also used to bond individuals together, most especially in marriage, whether or not a child results. In the animal kingdom, it is used to show dominance, it is used to diffuse tension in conflicts, and to bond male allies that need to fight together to protect their group.  Of course, after they "do" each other and fight off invaders, they then fight each other for the right to mate with the females, so most of time you don't find dedicated life long homosexual unions in the animal kingdom, but they have been known to occur.  However there is plenty of occasional same sex boinking.  We just don't know about it because it was carefully edited out of all the nature documentaries we saw as kids.

So anyway I disagree with the gay and lesbian part of your statement that all other permutations are destructive to the species. But I certainly agree they shouldn't be promoted as preferred.  That's ludicrous. They should just be accepted as a normal variation, not better and not worse. It's not going to ruin mankind, they will always be only about 10% of the population.

an OP can lock a thread?

Depends on what they are having for lunch.