A local real estate agent cold-called me today, as they do, to offer me a free valuation of my flat. Did she know of a place I could escape to if I were to sell, I asked? Some island haven perhaps, free of despotic Covid diktats. Anyway, I asked her to call back next year…

This is from the Australian Government’s “COVID-19 vaccination decision guide for people [men get preggers too, don’t you know] who are pregnant, breastfeeding or planning pregnancy,” dated 19 August 2021. Of the key points, this is central: “Real-world evidence has shown that Comirnaty [Pfizer] is safe for those who are pregnant and breastfeeding.” The “real-world…

Just read this pro-vaccine article about booster shots on the BBC’s website. Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at University College London, is extensively quoted. Quandaries abound. Are booster shots necessary, how well do they work, when should they be given, to whom, should the booster vaccine be different from the original, does the order matter…

Under the Gladys Berejiklian’s lauded dispensations, “Only fully vaccinated people and those with medical exemptions will have access to the freedoms allowed under the Reopening NSW roadmap.” For example, the Monday after the 70% target is reached, retail will be opened. Drool in envy Melbournians. If only Dan was so enlightened. If you doubt that tune…

I was pulled up by the police this morning for not wearing a mask. Walking down a lane at the back of the apartment building in which I live, I spotted a police car. The policemen looked directly at me. Unmasked, I looked back thinking I might be operating within the NSW law. I quite…

“The reality is that we can’t live in lockdown forever. We have to live with Covid and that means getting vaccinated as quickly as possible.” Reportedly, said Josh Frydenberg, taking aim on Monday at Australians who refuse to get the jab. Of course, name most every politician and their media cheerleaders from the left or…

What does New York Mayor Bill De Blasio have in common with most right-of-centre commentators on, say, Rupert Murdoch’s Sky News Australia. To be fair, most everything is probably not the correct answer. However, what they do have in common is an appetite to relegate our inalienable or God-given rights to the category of privileges…

Don’t watch Gladys’s interminable daily Covid updates. Just clinging on to sanity as it is. But Bolt said again last evening that she was the best of the premiers. He showed a clip of her revealing to the hermit people of NSW that tens of people die of heart disease each day. Death is “horrible”…

Went to my usual café this morning to buy a coffee. While waiting on a stool outside, sans mask, not even knowing whether that’s allowed or not, I asked the owner whether he’d yet had the jab. Just making conversation. He said he’s had the first one. AstraZeneca? I asked.  Yes, he said. How was…

It’s the exception that proves the rule is one of the more profound of expressions. Often misinterpreted. Replace ‘proves’ with its synonym ‘tests’, and its meaning becomes clear.  It means, as Catallaxy readers would know, that if the rule breaks down in exceptional circumstances, then it isn’t a rule at all. It has a Popperian…