Planet America

[Meadmaker]

In North Carolina, a bill that would criminalize wearing a mask in public:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/north ... 057f&ei=16

I don't wear a mask myself anymore, but I don't mind people who do. It seems Republicans are going after those rotten mask wearers.

Or.....it gets confusing. The article says wearing a mask while committing a crime, but the quotes don't seem to indicate it. I haven't read the text, and people are trying to ammend it anyway, so the text probably changes over time.

This is all related to college protests. They're throwing in masks that block infection spreading with the full face masks sometimes worn by Antifa and such so that they can't be identified.

And, according to the article, it increases the penalty for blocking streets. Here in America we love to increase penalties in order to make a point, In other words, wreck someone's life so polititicians can signal their virtue. I was just thinking the other day that I wish people would get it through their heads that blocking someone's way is an act of violence, so I don't mind people being arrested when they do it, but on the scale of awfulness of various crimes, it's pretty darned low. We don't need stiffer penalties. The ones we have are just fine.

[Admin]

[quote=Meadmaker post_id=4186 time=1715831724 user_id=104This is all related to college protests.
[/quote]

Makes perfect sense.

Silence opposition. Works well in China.

[Meadmaker]

Is this sort of thing a primarily American thing, or does it happen all over?

Background: A guy who is really good at kicking footballs (the American sort) is also a conservative Catholic. While speaking at a commencement ceremony at a school for conservative Catholics, he said some things that were kind of like the things that might encourage people to do things that conservative Catholics might approve of, and to not do some other things that conservative Catholics wouldn't approve of. (Mostly, he is sure that God is very concerned about where you put your penis, and he criticized people who don't put it into God-approved orifices. He also said that women ought to think more about making and raising babies.)

Well, in today's America, what happens is that hundreds of thousands of people demand that you be fired, and then conservative politicians jump in to say that they will protect the sports dude's rights.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/harri ... 6ec0&ei=14


As an aside:

Poplular speech does not need protection. I used to read that on JREF/ISF periodically. As recent as 15 years ago, only liberals ever said that.

[stanky]

when masks were first being promoted in my area, and there seemed to be a shortage, it was suggested that a kerchief around the neck and over the mouth and nose was acceptable. where had i seen that fashion statement before? Movies and tv shows, depicting bank robbers in action.

couldn't wait to go down to my bank and try it out on my favorite teller.
my comedic sense borders on arrest-able.
i should have altered my gait. he wouldn't have recognized me.

it's bizzare to remember that everything is being recorded these days.
it was unthinkable a few decades back. freedom and what not.
but i think it was the cost of the technology that prevented wide spread surveillance.

just yesterday, i was at my new DG store and the casheir told me that i had caused their 'self checkout' machine to be closed. I hadn't broken it, btw. But there was a bit of a scene when the device rejected my crumpled bills, one after the other. hell of a line, too. (Dollar General purposely is short on staff and pays regular fines)
Wanting to help move the line along, I held my wad of ones above my head and hollered "Anyone got a crisp $5 bill? I'll give you $6 for it"
nothing.
"Seven!"
got a taker; made the exchange; guy behind me was rooting for me, like we were in Las Vegas together. When the machine spit back the change, it made the sound of a minor slot machine win. all good fun. i even tipped the machine! 2 dolla bill. She must have seen the video, i guess, because she wasn't there for the 'show'. But that's what wrecked it for the machine. Oddly, it wasn't my intention.


christ, i hope there's no parable in this.

[Meadmaker]

Here's another one that I dont know if it's just American, or if this is a global phenomenon.

My wife and I went out to dinner tonight, and faced a phenomenon that has happened to us several times in the last couple of years, but never used to happen.


There were lots of empty tables. We had to wait 20 minutes to sit at one.

The limiting factor on how many people cn be served at a restaurant in America is no longer the number of tables. It's the number of wait staff. Is that happening elsewhere in the world?

[arthwollipot]

I have always booked ahead. That seems most common.

[Meadmaker]

I have always booked ahead. That seems most common.

We have gotten used to doing that. On this particular occasion, that wasn't possible.


That solves the waiting time issue, but it still leaves the question of why there are half empty restaurants where you have to wait for a table. The superficial reason is obvious. There is not enough staff. But.....what happened to them? This never happened before Covid. In the immediate aftermatch of Covid, it seemed easy enough to explain. Lots of staff had quit and were kind of afraid to wait tables when there was an infectious disease going about that everyone was afraid of. However, it has been three years since the vaccine was released. Rates are way down. People have gone back to work.

But not to working restaurants. Staff shortages at restaurants are very definitely a thing.

Yeah.....the pay isn't much. But it has never been much. Wages for restaurant workers have gone way up as owners have to pay more to get staff, which explains why prices have gone way up as well. Presumably, most restaurants are making a profit when you sit down and eat, and pay the bill and tip the waitress. You would think that owners would want to do that as often as possible. What is it that people are doing today that they don't have to resort to being restaurant workers? What segment of the economy is taking up the slack? It isn't manufacturing. It isn't retail.

I have heard it said, "Kids these days just don't want to work!" (Noting that restaurant workers are often young.) Well.....yeah. Kids never want to work. I don't want to work, either. But I like to eat. So I work. I, personally, make enough money that I can eat at a restaurant, but I have to wait a long time to do it these days.

[President Bush]

Sounds like an argument for increased immigration.

[stanky]

it might be a form of client humiliation therapy.
doctors use it a lot, and even have an intermediary step.

if the restaurant scurries you along into a special, small waiting area, after the group wait, you should run.

[Admin]

The limiting factor on how many people cn be served at a restaurant in America is no longer the number of tables. It's the number of wait staff. Is that happening elsewhere in the world?

Not to that extent, although there are a few cases of restaurants not opening some days to cover the fact they're short of waiting staff.

We have $150,000 spare migrants to soak up, so it's not likely to be an issue here for a while yet.

The worldwide labour shortage in the service industry isn't new, though, so don't expect an improvement any time soon.