Original art by Mark Valentine
Cognitive dissonance is the internal, emotional conflict we feel when we believe conflicting things…
It’s a part of everyday life. We hate violence, but we love tough guys. We believe in Science but embrace Religion. We hate to be fat, yet we love ice cream. All of that was normal and personal, but now it’s expanded to a societal level that has us on a collective edge.
Watch the news.
A CDC spokesman says, “No need for fear. Ebola is very hard to catch.” Then the pictures show health care workers in HAZMAT suits. If it’s so hard to get infected, why the protective gear? In fact, over 200 health care workers have contracted the disease. Somewhere in your brain, Cognitive Dissonance rachets up a notch.
They say, “It can only be transmitted by being in contact with an Ebola patient that is symptomatic.” Then the story comes out about the latest victim who got Ebola by riding in a car that had carried an Ebola casualty. He did not ride with the dead person and the car had been disinfected before he rode in it. Cognitive Dissonance rachets up another notch.
According to the C.D.C., “the virus can survive for a few hours on dry surfaces like doorknobs and countertops and can survive for several days in puddles or other collections of body fluid.” That would encompass every restaurant table, every public restroom and every form of public transportation. We struggle to make “No need to fear” fit into the new facts.
Next, they announce increased screening at U.S. airports.
Would the new screening have stopped the cases that we know came into the country so far? No.
Somewher in our brain, there is a little story about 80,000 undocumented aliens who swarmed across our southern border this summer, but we’re still safe. There’s no Ebola in Central America.
However that is Ground Zero for the new untreatable tuberculosis.
If Ebola does make it to Central America, many say there would be a large new surge of undocumented people. We have very smart people protecting us. Our government would not expose our children by putting these undocumented aliens in public schools, would they? Cognitive Dissonance clicks up two more notches.
Of course, they will protect us.
Bin Laden is dead. ISIS is just a JV team. Then we see the growing brutality and hear about the vast resources Islamists have recently developed. The government narratives don’t match up with the reality.
This was the year Al Gore told us the ice caps would be completely melted but they have actually increased. Still our president spent much his time at the UN talking about climate change. When all the past predictions have failed, can we have faith in future predictions? Some say yes. Some say no.
Now listen carefully to the public discourse.
The more emotional they are about their arguments, the more loudly they blame it on Fox News or the Obama Administration, you will see how much more they are revealing the discomfort they feel with the growing Cognitive Dissonance in themselves and our society.
A thought provoking piece, led off with another artistic offering.
Well done Mark.
ebola: another scare tactic. How to solve it: just don’t let anyone in the
country from Liberia or western Africa. Problem sovlved.
isis: another scare tactic. How to solve. Send 10,000 special forces
into northern Syria with the turks and eliminate them. Whatever it
takes…use it.
elections: call them off. what a joke. they mean nothing because the
clowns will get nothing done.
poor shoe repair: roll into larrytown with wislun and get your vintage
(another name for worn out and scuffed up beyond repair) shoes
repaired in that nice building. Or go see bobjonesand save $40 on gas
and 2 hours. If that’s excitement in your life to drive to repair shoes..
you are in need of a new hobby.
Every problem has an easy answer…why do we take so long!!!!!!
Because old people want to sit around and drink coffee and discuss it
over.
I OWN YOU, you sad, little man.
This is Mark’s story on what very well could be a global epidemic. It’s a great piece with great original art work.
You trash it up with a 146 word comment, 58 of which are dedicated to ME and the same, worn out drivel from my story you claim to hate. This has to be your 17th comment, most hung up in moderation because it either can’t be read or is a repeat of the same comment you wrote 5 minutes earlier.
Glad to know I’m so far wedged in your brain I’m virtually all you can think of. I don’t know where you find the time for world domination, global tycooning and hanging out with a bunch of dried up geezers and mob wannabe’s at the Ash Can.
You singing with Al; now there’s a duet no one wants to miss. He’s a good guy, but when it’s his sequined jacket next to his ba$turd step son, Ho Lotta Nothin, I’ll go to a class joint and poke a fork in my eye just to forget the humor in you saying you hang out there!
Get off the KCC lawn and leave this and other stories to people worthy of commenting with things people actually want to read.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
H. L. Mencken
Don’t let anyone in from Liberia or western Africa? send in 10,000 special forces with the Turks to rid us of Isis? are you really that naïve or just stupid?
Oh wow, mike t. His plan wont work? Color me shocked and amazed. Oh, and in the he’s never WRONG department, IRS is still a story he said would die OVER a year ago. But he takes you down 5 non sequitor rabbit trails to make you think he never said that…. Nice Job, you’ve been hitting the comments on the head, mt !
thank you. I believe I’m getting better. this from someone who thinks of a clever riposte several hours after the fact. 🙂
That makes you normal. I do that as soon as I hit SEND on each and every story! Keep it up, it only gets better.
don’t be surprised little man. Harley is always right.
these were easy solutions but Harley knows.
catch up with me little mikey…learn something….
do you think we don’t have troops ready to
go to Syria/Iraq border not on call right now.
YOU’RE WRONG…THEY’RE MOBILIZING
TROOPS THRU GERMANY AS WE SPEAK….
HARLEY KNOWS!!!!!!
now…today you and wislun the shoe dog get together
at chuckie cheese and count the words in my comments.
headed to lifetime to work out while you guys eat
ding dongs and Snapple!
Wow harley Don’t let them in the country and you claim to be a liberal. Or you just follow the sheep crowd cause its the popular thing ya know kinda like buying a Fiat. Your hypocrisy knows no end.
+1
that wasn’t my idea….its the idea of the conservative right
wing. Most experts (not wislun the voodoo dr) say this won’t
be an epidemic and its all about the media.
But all you right wing nuts on here yell…build a wall near
mexico…close off the border….the isis terrorists are coming
in….stop the illegals…and guys like wislun and chuck use
the language that we allow no one that’s not white and
European into America.
Wait old boys….take your Metamucil…change your
depends…. because if this gets worse (which many experts
sayit won’t) then we’ll see who’s calling for closing the
borders.
HARLEY HITS A TRIPLE….SHOWS WISLUN DIXIE AND LEFTY THE
LOON THAT HARLEY IS AHEAD OF THE NEWS…AND 100% RIGHT..
today: 3 LIBERAL reps called for closing the border to ebola states!!!!!
its gnna happen unless the story goes away….Harley 1/shoe dog 0/
and lefty the in debt consumer -4)….yu wait losers..Harley is right
here. will it happen…hope it won’t but talk is spreading.
troops to Syria/Iraq: turks want no part of war because it helps the
kurds…what does u.s. do? sit around..Saudis can’t fight…no irqui
army…..Syria doesn’t want avbunch of sand….its up to americans
to stop this rampage by isis…..expect the sound of war to start
screaming…or else welose the entire region….!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
20,000 troops coming…heavy artillery…special forces….
its coming…Harley knows.
elections: a joke. no matter who wins the senate…nothing changes.
we’re facing biggest health crisis in human history and we have
no surgeon general because repubs won’t approve nominated one
because he says guns are a problem…..looking good in d.c.!!!!!!!!
and nothing will get done til 2016 when dems take over pres/house/
senate…and clean up the mess the repubs have tgiven us..
SO SHOE DOG…GET READY TO GET YOUR ASS KICKED AGAIN.
WHILE YOU’RE GETTING THOSE HUSH PUPPIES SHINED UP
AND BRUSHED….HARLEY MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE A FREAKING
FOOL …!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! mY ARTICLE IS COMING…. YOU WILL
BE MENTIONED OFFTEN …BECAUSE YOU ARE AN IDIOT….
YOU ARE NOW THE KCC CLOWN. CHUCK HAS GRADUATED…
NOW ITS WISLUN THE WILD SAD WRONG CLOWN OF KCC!
get ready!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the cavalry has arrived with the real
story!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great piece and great to see you back. Not sure which I like most, the story content or the art work. Either way, its a win. NICELY done… and welcome back.
The CDC went out of their way to say Ebola wasnt a problem, the old “We got this” routine, said our time would have been better spent worrying about the flu. Then the director comes out yesterday with this quote “In the 30 years I’ve been working public health, the only thing like this has been AIDS, and we have to work now so that this is not the world’s next AIDS,”
WTF? Im finally coming to the realization that our government, with the help of the media, just throws two completely opposing messages out, that way us Rubes can pick whichever one makes us feel better. We might as well have Harley up in the Oval Office, wiping boogers under the desk and telling the same dry jokes over and over ad nauseam.
Mark, its like eggs GOOD, eggs BAD when it comes to the FDA! Its NOT airborne, it IS airborne, you have to have contact with body fluids, you DONT have to have contact with body fluids. Problem is, CDC is just another bohemouth, political albatross that can’t get out of its own way. And the scariest part, I dont know that they KNOW.
really better hope it isn’t an airborne contagion.
your chances of dying from ebola are less than you
have of sniffing that black shoe polish the cobbler’s used
on your old worn out shoes.
also…do they do blacksmithing? That’s a dying
art too. Can’t find one in my area.
AIDS was going to kill us all, too.
Can’t live my life worrying about the next big thing that isn’t.
As Ray Davies so eloquently put it..”Paranoia will destroy ya..”
Or as Steve Goodman sang, It Ain’t Too Hard To Get Along With Somebody Else’s Troubles.
Thanks a lot, Raley! Now THAT’S in my head the rest of the day! haha
better than the “yummy, yummy, yummy, I got love in my tummy” crap swirling around in mine!!
you’re welcome.
Some CDC official went on record Monday saying “22,000 people a year die from the flu. If 22,000 peole a year died from ebola, we’d have riots in the streets.”
Excuse me Mr. CDC official-how many folks a year SURVIVE the flu, vs. how many people a year survive ebola?
Nice article Valentine.
The Liberally populated and peopled Federal Government’s penchant for rolling the dice with American safety in pursuit of Statist power, took a deadly turn over the last 6 months. While the Federal Government sued states to restrict their ability to enforce Federal Law, the tsunami of immigrants recently introduced into America sickened thousands of children and killed 5. Paralysis, flu, fever and unspecified virus still in play, have children close to death as I write.
This isn’t just the usual bureaucratic insouciance resulting in unpleasant snafus, it is Treason and Murder. The distribution of these illegals is a state secret that is impossible or difficult to determine, but the genesis of the spread, was here in KC and Chicago. I wondered, as more and more kids got sick, if Nancy Pelosi’s treacly lament that she couldn’t just “take them all in herself” would reveal a new South of the Border accoutrement in her house hold. No word on that to this point, but it sure sounded swell when she said it.
While kids still suffer and more and more are infected with lung virus’ of unknown etiology, Obama went to Gwneth Paltrow’s house, raised some cash and smiled as Gwyneth told him, “You’re so handsome, I can’t even speak.” That makes sense to me. Appearance is not only more important than substance, it is the fulfillment of aspiration in Hollywood circles where, I am sure, nary a case of Ebola will ever be seen.
This recent introduction of ETO lung disease and Ebola into the US, so scientifically and physically recondite, deadly and horrific, underscores the politicization of our Federal Government by Liberals who promote their agenda at the expense of the Americans they are sworn to protect. Again, this is not just dereliction of duty, it is Treason and Murder. Underestimate the rancor and malevolence of the Federal Government towards the middle class at your own peril. While there is no “Wheels Up” plan for containment that is logical on any level, there is “Wheels Up” on all flights from West Africa with an as yet undetermined outcome for those in harm’s way. At least we won’t be called racist and that trumps everything in the New Amerika. That cozy unthinking myopia might work with Liberal legislation and rule of law by executive fiat, but if the Feds underestimate the ability of this disease to mutate and transmit, then agony will light the way.
Lets hope politics for once will come in second to an error on the side of caution.
so you just copy and paste your crap filled diatribes? great. You are really crazy, and your reputation is spreading afar.
I mean, not just a little loony but pants-on-head insane.
Those kids are dead. Thousands are sick and some are close to death.
Your identification with a narrative that kills and sickens American kids, is typical of folks who would sacrifice those middle class children for an agenda, so bereft of any moral, ethical and common sense priority, that is now, so common in the affectation of Federal Law and the enforcement of Federal Law as to, again, sicken any American with common sense.
Your insults are muffled. Get Gwyeth off of your face.
One more thing. As I understand it, the names of the dead kids (Not the kids who didn’t die.) will be available over the next week or so in the public domain.
Why don’t you post that sh*t on FaceBook for the parents to enjoy.
Get Cancer in your fu*kin eyes.
Kumbaya!!!!
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/9/us-commander-warns-ebola-threat-mexican-border/
If Ebola were airborne, there’d be a bunch of people on the airplane with that Nigerian guy coming down with Ebola by now, since the air on a passenger jet is recirculated through the cabin. That’s not been observed, so it’s a safe bet Ebola *isn’t* airborne. It takes close bodily contact to get it, or contact by a sneeze (mucus particles), sweat, or other bodily excretions or secretions, which is why all the protective gear is required in hospitals and ambulances. The reason it spreads like wildfire in Africa is high heat and humidity – lots of sweat – and no aseptic procedure in the primitive medical facilities there, as well as burial customs which require contact with the body.
As for quarantine measures, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to cease transport of people out of those countries in West Africa where the epidemic is raging, just to be sure.
nice post stream….it makessome sense.
you seem to know something more than the shoe dog dr. wislun.
Shoedog wislun doesn’t know anything about ebola but for a
good laugh read his articles.
and of coursesomeone with some brains agrees with me:
As for quarantine measures, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to cease transport of people out of those countries in West Africa where the epidemic is raging, just to be sure