Dear Readers,
There are times when the mailbag is full, there are times when the mail doesn’t even run, and there are times when you walk out to the mailbox, drop in an envelope and raise the flag, hoping the message you are sending will make it to the intended recipient in time for the information written therein to remain accurate and relevant.  This letter is a flag up, guaranteed up-to-date, informational thought piece, chocked full of references (just click on each bold area for links from multiple national media and government sources) so you dear readers can “do their own research” and realize for themselves that we truly are living in a clown world. 
 
As some of you may be experiencing firsthand, we are living in a time where there is more division amongst the citizens of the world than we've ever experienced.  I’m not just referring to division between continents, countries, states, towns, political party, gender, race, or creed.  I’m talking about division all the way down to the family level.  Brother against sister, mother against daughter, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria.
 

Since everything else in the world is being blamed on it, I’ll add this division to the “cause Covid” pile.  Like I’ve said since day one of 684 days to slow the spread, the division created by the “experts”, be they self-appointed, elected or coronated, is 1,000 times worse than the sickness itself.  In KY alone, (at of the time of this column) 1,127,997 individuals have recovered from Covid (1),  however many families will never recover from the rifts being eroded deeper and deeper as each day passes by the “experts”.   
 
It is human nature to look for leadership when faced with uncertainty, conflict or impending doom.  Oftentimes the impulse is to latch onto something with blind faith and without question just to hope for the best.  The problem is, when you are drowning, you expect to be thrown a life preserver—not an anchor.  Once you realize you aren’t in imminent danger, its time to reevaluate the situation and either let go of the anchor or swim to shore.  I would like for everyone to evaluate what we’ve been told over the last 684 days and decide for yourself to sink or swim.
 
I well remember the early news reports on the mysterious sickness originating from China, we were told we had nothing to worry about. (2)

When questions arose as to where it came from, bat soup was to blame. (3)

Around this time, most of us began to notice Dr. Anthony Fauci as being the Covid expert, he told us not to worry, you don’t need masks (4). (another link here 5)

Shortly after us “not worrying”, it was “15 days to slow the spread."  I’m sure everyone remembers this, just take a quick break, stay home, watch Netflix and hope you don’t get the chills, this will be over soon—trust the Science™.  From 'not to worry' to '15 days to slow the spread' to 'mandatory masks,' away we flew, faster than the stockpiles of toilet paper (6).  (another link 7)

This was a difficult time for most, only the “essentials” were allowed.  If you were “essential”, you could work, if an activity was “essential”, you could participate, if your business was “essential”, it could be open.  Essentially, the determination of such was deemed by politicians, most of which had essentially never contributed anything essential in their lives and never asked me what was more essential, a casino, liquor store, abortion clinic, or church.
 
It seemed as though there was no end in sight but thanks to “Operation Warp speed” there was light at the end of the tunnel.  Yessir, President Biden told us and the Director of the CDC said it, “if you get vaccinated, you won’t get Covid”(8). 
 
Finally, a return to normalcy, we were told, ‘get the shot, ditch the mask (9).'

Things began to open up, hands were being shaken again, families reunited; it was 2019 all over again!  At least for about a week.  Breakthrough cases began to be reported, here come the masks again (10). 

Some started questioning the shots, “do we need a 2nd shot, a ‘booster? (11)"

The answers were confusing to say the least, if you had brand X, no 2nd shot needed, brand Y, line up get another.  Don’t mix and match, wait at least 3 months, let the compromised and older folks go first and oh by the way; you can still get and spread this thing after the shot (12).

Seemingly we were back to square one, we were told these vaccines would get us back to normal and that was short lived.  One and done?  Nope, two and done?  Nope.  In order for normalcy to reign, boosters and vaccinated children was the answer (13). (another link here 14)

Vaccinating children sparked a new level of confusion and added to the already level 10 uncertainty.  Parents were torn between risking healthy children with nearly zero risk of death from Covid (15).

 By vaccinating them with not only a new vaccine but with a new vaccine technology only administered to humans for a few months.  Other countries, including the UK, advised against doing so (16).
 
The dividing lines kept getting darker and deeper as time went on.  Both sides passionately argued their cases.  Countries such as Austria, Germany, Italy and Israel began to mandate vaccinations and implement “passports” so citizens could enjoy such luxuries as working, shopping in grocery stores, traveling on public transportation and even receiving organ donations.  President Biden had promised this would never happen here in the good ole USA (17).

Given that Joe is a politician and we all know that politicians are allowed to change their minds, Joe changed his mind.  The president announced sweeping measures to curb the spread in what he called “the pandemic of the unvaccinated (18)”. 

With these mandates announced, the battle lines became even clearer now, pitting Americans against one another, against politicians, against employers, against businesses, against anyone or anything that wanted or didn’t want to see your papers—depending on which side of the line you fell on.  Weeping and gnashing of teeth ensued from either side.  Even the bat soup origin was questioned.  Some went as far as to blame Mr. Covid himself, Anthony Fauci of creating this monster in a lab (19).
 
With each passing day the world continues to burn, hotter and more intense with every word that proceeded out of mouths of elected officials, unelected officials, news anchors, Twitter experts, podcast hosts, veterinarians, doctors, lawyers, Supreme Court Justices, aunts, friends and ex-friends, basically anything with the ability to speak.  Everyone had an opinion.  Believe it or not, even triple vaccinated, boosted celebrities who were currently sick with Covid.  These words were like hammer blows to the wedge inserted between families, friends, co-workers, church members, football fans, you name it—all being driven further and further apart.  The solution?  Boosters of course. 
 
Typically, in my experience if something doesn’t work for me, I try something different.  A common-sense approach has got me this far and saved me tons of time and frustration.  Apparently, Omicron not only causes a loss of taste and smell, is resistant to the vaccine but also removes common sense.  One only has to look at Israel to prove my point.  Israelis are currently lining up for their 4th shot yet they experienced more Covid-19 cases last month, January 2022, than the entire year of 2021 (20).

The CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, said recently, “We know that the two doses of a vaccine offer very limited protection, if any. The three doses with a booster, they offer reasonable protection against hospitalization and deaths. Against deaths, I think very good, and less protection against infection (21).” 

You might be asking yourself, ‘why did you go through all this trouble, we all know you’re an anti-vax Covid denier’.  Let me take a moment and answer yourself.  In the last 3 weeks in my world, I have 1) lost a close friend to Covid.  He had some underlying issues but the part that his own wife told me bothered her the most was her asking the doctor to try something off label that has been reported by some to be effective only to be told, “I will not give him that and risk losing my medical license”.  He died the next day.  2) I have family that are all fully vaccinated that forbid my immediate family to visit even though 3 out of 5 of us are still in our 90 day window of prior infection, one of us is vaccinated but not boosted and the 4th has never been infected (to our knowledge), a very active 13 year old boy which we are not willing to risk heart issues with a shot that neither stops infection or transmission (22). 3)My fully vaccinated and boosted mother currently has Covid.  Even though Joe said she couldn’t get it (23). 4)My daughter had Covid 3 weeks ago, was not vaccinated yet never got very sick and according to contract tracing…. got it from a vaccinated individual. 

These are just a few reasons I took the time to do my own research.  I will ask my readers, if nothing else, to think about at least this one thing:  The same people that told you, “Not to worry, don’t wear a mask, wear two masks, you’re not essential, if you get the shot you can’t catch Covid, don’t eat bats, we’re not going to mandate vaccines, it’s a pandemic of the unvaccinated and a million other things” are the same people that told you the vaccines are safe, effective, there are no long term side effects, and if you give up this freedom for a while, we’ll give you that another freedom back in a little bit. 

Dear Mongoose,
I took time to check out the national news today and watched people cheering as workers removed another statue of Gen Robert E. Lee and it was announced that a more appropriate replacement would be developed.  I can’t help but remember a college reading assignment portraying the perfect utopia.  Needless to say it’s characters hadn’t: individuality, imagination, intimacy nor character.  They were a sad and pathetic example of humanity.  We The People…a strong statement sent to a tyrant. How do you suggest proud Americans stand up against wiping the slate clean the “educated” few want?

Dear Woke,
"Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered."  —George Orwell 1984

It wouldn’t surprise me if I went to the library tomorrow to check out that book only to find it had been moved from the Fiction section to Current Events. 

The argument I hear all the time is ‘we don’t build statues for losers or enemies’, why should we have one for Confederate soldiers’?

Without getting too deep into a North vs South argument, what most people fail to realize is although the South tried to secede; they ultimately  surrendered.  Meaning Robert E Lee and everyone else from the south all the way to New York were just Americans again (even though when Lee died he was not an American citizen but was granted citizenship by Congress in 1975).   Confederate soldiers are still considered veterans and above all, are Americans whether you agree with their politics or not.  

The purpose of studying history is so that we don’t make the same mistakes again. History doesn’t always repeat itself but it always rhymes. A house divided against itself will not stand.  Left vs right, rich vs poor, black vs white, straight vs LGBTQRSV, vaccinated vs unvaccinated, if the division continues on this trajectory, this nation will not stand. Ole George O. knew what he was talking about when he wrote about a future “utopia” in which truth, facts, science and history were decided by the ruling class and descent was not allowed.  The only problem was he was about 20 years off on the title.  

As far as fixing it goes, it’s kind of like having a $500 car that needs a new set of tires, transmission, and the engine rebuilt.  Even after fixing all those things you still have a $500 car.  You’d be better off junking it and buying a new one. It’s gonna cost you though. 
--MG

Mongoose,
My mom is past retirement age, has been vaccinated for COVID and still wears a mask everywhere. My wife, daughter, and I have been vaccinated but we don't wear masks. Of course, we were told that after the vaccinations, masks would no longer be needed...anyway, she refuses to come to our home unless we're wearing masks (in my own house) and we can't visit her house if unmasked. My daughter wants to see her mammaw and I'd love to see my mom, but she says this is just temporary and she doesn't want to chance anything until the virus is over. Do we give in to the masking or give up on sanity?

Dear Misses Masked Mammaw ,
This scenario you’ve described has, and is played out many times a day throughout the world, driving Great Pyramid-size wedges between families that 2 years ago were closer than green fuzz on 6 week-old bread. 

The most precious and finite resource a living human being has is time.  It’s the one thing you can’t store, loan, or add to. Each time the clock ticks is one less tick you get in this life. I’m not sure how old mammaw is but did you know that a 90 year old woman has a 1 in 8 chance of making it to 91? Meaning, Covid or not, there is roughly a 13% chance she will live another year. Time is definitely not on her side.  Again, time that you or her cannot bank, or bank on. 

I hate to sound callous, but we’re on day 546 of "15 days to slow the spread."  You cannot give someone something you don’t have. Read that again, you cannot give someone something you don’t have. Tell her you’ll get tested, remind her of the stats given earlier, let your daughter tell her how much she misses her, wear masks if you have to, do whatever it takes to keep yourself from being in the position of standing over a graveside regretting you wasted 546 days or 471,744,00 ticks you will never get back by trusting the science. 

Remember, it's the science that said "people are eating contaminated bats, but don’t worry, it can’t be transmitted between humans, no need to wear masks, wait, it  can be transmitted between humans but not deadly, wear a mask, wear 2 masks, shut it down cause everybody is dying,  get vaccinated and you won’t get sick and don’t have to wear a mask, get vaccinated so you don’t spread it, wear a mask if you’re vaccinated, you can still spread it if you’re vaccinated, you can still die if you’re vaccinated, take a booster that we think will work and by the way all of this is the unvaccinated idiots’ faults so we will mandate everyone get vaccinated because the unvaccinated are putting the vaccinated at risk."
​--MG

Mongoose,
In your replies, pretty much all the time you talk about personal freedoms. But what do you think about this new subdivision coming in to Chalybeate? Isn't the developer's freedom to build them infringing on everybody else in that community that doesn't want it built?

Dear My Freedom is Bigger than Your Freedom,
If individuals aren’t able to own property, or to be paid for property, be it physical or intellectual, that is anarchy—not freedom.  

That’s where property owners at least have the freedom to do with their property what they will, within the confines of the law.  If you or anyone else would like to limit what property owners can and can’t do, the only thing you can do is push for zoning laws that limit —in the future,  situations such as what you are describing--or buy the land yourself.
--MG

Dear Mongoose,
I want to take a moment to thank you for standing for freedom by exercising your 1st Amendment right to free speech.  Many Americans within are society are being sold a bill of goods that will lead to what the great commentator Paul Harvey spoke of in his discussion titled "From Freedom to Chains." I suggest every American search for and watch his comments on YouTube from 1965.  Perhaps then they may understand what politicians are trying to sell them for their vote.

Dear The Rest of The Story:
I appreciate the appreciation!  Although most of what Mongoose writes it tongue in cheek, over the top,  meant to be taken lightly sarcastic nonsense, the moral of each response, is to in some small way, convince the reader to think for themselves and to exercise one’s individual freedoms we enjoy (for now).  I am glad at least one reader gets it. 

If there’s something you’d like Mongoose to answer, don’t hesitate to ask...Ask Mongoose. 

Instead of explaining the video to which you're referring, I'll just drop it here. And for good measure, I'll drop another Paul Harvey video below that. Both have never been more relevant.
Thanks again,
-MG

Mongoose,
I recently loaned my sister $300 to get her car fixed. At least that's what she said. It's been nearly 6 months and she hasn't fixed her car and instead, just drives her boyfriend's car. With it getting close to Christmas, I could really use that money, but do I just forget it at this point?

Dear Family Bank & Rust,
I once loaned someone (who will not be named) $2 in 3rd grade, still waiting on it.  He said he needed it for the field trip to Mammoth Cave that day and I watched that sucker buy 3 souvenirs from the gift shop.   I don’t know your sister but it sounds like her and the $2 bandit are a lot alike. I wouldn’t count on getting your money back and I sure as heck wouldn’t buy her a Christmas present this year.  You could get her a card though, “Merry Christmas!  I didn’t get you anything because you owe me $300.  Love, Your Favorite Family Banker." 
​-MG

Mr. Mongoose,
I have a compromised immune system and I have been wearing a mask pretty much everywhere except my own house during the pandemic. I attend a local church but only about half the congregation wear masks. Because of this I don't feel safe there. How can people pretend to even respect my wishes and my health if they won't wear a mask?

​Dear Safe Space,
This may come as a shock to some but I will attempt to answer this question without interjecting humor, sarcasm or belittlement because this has become a serious situation that I’ve personally experienced.   Not as much the effects of this virus but the division that’s been created by people’s reaction to it. 

A short answer is this: Respect goes both ways. You're asking for respect by them wearing a mask against their wishes, when you are not giving them the same respect by giving them room to act on their own wishes.

But here's the long answer, (and probably the one that won't be disliked as much--maybe)
I am a married man, I love my wife, we agree on most things but not everything.  I have an obligation to her and trust her with my life.  I made her a promise that I would be with her through thick and thin, even if we didn’t agree on everything.  There are things I’m sure we both do that the other wishes we didn’t, we’ve learned to get past those things, had we not learned we would most likely not be married.  The biggest reason I am able to get past our disagreements is because I know she would never purposely put me in a situation to harm me or try to harm me in any way herself.  These differences are just that, differences.  We both have the choice to dwell on these differences or learn to live with them and look at all the common ground we have. 

I can already hear someone say that “she doesn’t put your life in danger like someone not wearing a mask does”, and if you’ll give me a second I’ll get around to that. 

In any relationship, be it a marriage or perhaps being a member of a church, there are boundaries.  There are things we all deem acceptable or unacceptable, some are tolerable some are deal breakers.

Let’s say I was married to someone who started abusing drugs and would not stop or even try, I would not be able to overlook this, she’d be gone.   Now let’s say I was married to someone who started smoking, I for one can’t stand it, its not healthy but I want to think I’d be able to tolerate it rather than getting divorced.  Both examples I’ve given could be life threatening to her or me.  If I were faced with these situations I would first have to take into consideration a few other things.  I made a promise, not just to her but God Himself, for better or worse.   Secondly, does the good outweigh the bad?  Finally, will we be better off without each other?  

I assume you see where I’m going with this.  I can’t even get my wife of many years to agree with me 100% of the time and she’s just one person, but we do agree on the important things.  You will never get an entire church congregation to agree on everything all the time but if you are a member at said church you must agree on the important stuff.  Remember the 3 things, did you make a promise, does the good outweigh the bad, will you be better off without church and will the church be better off without you?

There is no right or wrong answer, every individual has to do what they feel is right for themselves.  I can say this with 100% certainty, if you skip church because a few aren’t wearing masks and go to Wal-Mart on Sunday morning instead you probably need to go a lot higher up the ladder than Mongoose for answers. 

Dang, almost made it without being snarky…
​-MG