My Easter Feeling

It is Easter and the churches are empty. 

 In this time of pandemic, it is simply too dangerous to gather together to seek the Lord's blessing or to gather together (in groups greater than 10 at least) for pretty much any other reason.  So the churches, while empty, are making do with live stream broadcasts of their services.  Here is a question for my theologically inclined peeps.  Does the priest's (for example) blessing at the conclusion of the service still "count" if it is broadcast digitally?  

I ponder about such things when I have time on my hands.

The churches may be empty but we have a full house here.  Fortunately, it is a big house.  And nobody owns a handgun.  We will get through this.     

It is Easter and one of one the logical fallacies of classical logic informs a substantial portion of our public discourse.  I am referring of course to the Argument from Ignorance or "argumentum ad ignorantiam" as us pedantic showoffs would say.  My mother's formulation of the argument was " You don't know (whatever fact-free notion in the favor of which she was advocating at that moment) that it's not true."

Or here's an example.  We don't know for certain that the moon is not made of swiss cheese.  Therefore it is made of swiss cheese.

Or here is one from current events. "We don't know that chloroquinine won't work with people who have the Covid-19 virus.  Therefore we should try it."

An annoying manifestation of this application is an apparent run on tonic water in the neighborhood by amateur pharmacists who are self-medicating with Canada Dry.  A  MEDICAL DOCTOR of my acquaintance put it best:

"I could have saved those folks a lot of trouble.  The quinine in tonic water is not the same as in the medication.  However, they are both alike in that neither has been proven to be effective against Covid-19." 

Or as my NURSE PRACTITIONER brother Bob said, "They don't know if chloroquine is going to be effective against the virus.  They do know that it screws up the heart's electrical system in some folks.  So you have to be careful who you give it to."

The run on tonic water is merely an annoyance which will force me to dilute my Brokers with club soda.  Or to drink it straight if my nerves are especially frazzled at the cocktail hour.  But giving medication for an off label purpose without adequate testing because you don't know that it won't work is irresponsible. Or at least used to be.  

But we don't trust expertise in this country and haven't in sometime.  Those eggheads tend to make things complicated.  And some of us just know that we're not getting the straight story.  Therefore they-the media, government, every authority figure other than Donald Trump (for God's sake) are lying to us.

I can forgive Mother.  Any widow raising 4 boys on her own is entitled to use any weapon at her disposal.  TASS, I mean FOX, Pat Robertson,  and other cable network blowhards, along with the President of the United States, not so much.  


It is Easter.  And paranoia abounds.  

The following must be a thing on Facebook as I have seen it various iterations of this post on-naturally-Facebook:

" It sure seems strange to me that the economy of the greatest country on Earth has ground to a halt over a virus.  Does it seem strange to anybody else?"

I was tempted to respond thusly:

" Not to me. It's not that complicated.  Our economy is largely a service economy.  We don't so much make stuff anymore as provide goods and services.  As you may recall, the mayors and governors across the land, shut down the schools, imposed social distancing and sheltering in varying degrees, and ordered non-essential businesses to close.  All of these measures were indicated to slow the progression of the virus.  The state and local authorities were forced to take the lead, and for the most part admirably so, due to the complete lack of leadership from the Moron in Chief.  Anyhoo, due to the fact that people are staying at home for the most part and not spending as much money as usual what we are seeing is what is known by the economists as a variant of the "Paradox of Thrift" that states that when consumers save money on a large scale, a service economy suffers because they aren't spending money.  Which has a ripple effect.  But you are way too stupid to accept this as a plausible explanation for the present crisis preferring instead to place blame on the takeover of the Federal Reserve by the Jews or some such nonsense."

But that would be a waste of typing.  So I didn't do it.

Or you can believe, as an acquaintance I ran into on my walk yesterday does, that the "soft crash of the economy (whatever that is)" is not due to the pandemic.  According to her there is no pandemic.  Which would certainly come as a surprise to the medical professionals in my life and family. No. It is the takeover by " the New World Order."  She whispered this info to me in case the lady pushing a stroller next to us was wearing a wire I suppose.

I was tempted to respond thusly:

"Well, it's hard to reconcile a "takeover" by a world wide monolith in the face of the upsurge of nationalism here in the West.  But you are...."

Well you know.  

It occurs to me that conspiracy theorists surely have never heard of Sir William of Ockham who devised what came to be know as "Ockham's Razor" which states that when one is confronted with two conflicting propositions, the simpler explanation is preferred.  Ockham's Razor has served me well in the practice of law and in dealing with teenaged boys.   

And in picking out sense from nonsense.  

It is Easter.  Got help us.  It is Easter.

Love may have come down at Christmas but hope resides in Easter.

Be careful. Stay well.  

Hope resides in Easter.  The simpler explanation is preferred.  

We will get through this.