Anna Farley

Free Christmas

Today, our esteemed lord Fauci told us that it’s too soon to tell if we will be able to gather in groups for Christmas.

My first thought was, “People are still not gathering in groups?!”

Who is this guy? And who is listening to him?

This time last year, they were talking about herd immunity – as it was defined in 2020 which has of course changed since then to suit the current agenda – stating that between recovered infections and vaccinations that by the end of 2021 we should be able to go back to normal in terms of celebrating the holidays together.

Well, it’s hard to reach herd immunity when you want people to shelter in place to avoid being exposed, and the vaccines that were supposed to save us are turning out to be far worse than ineffective.

I’ll be having a free Christmas, doing whatever I want and seeing whomever I want, and I assure you not for a moment will I give two seconds of thought to what that fraud Fauci thinks about it.

Also, let’s lay a little reality out there for anyone who has been swayed by the “news” that the COVID pandemic has killed more Americans than the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918-1919. Yes, it has killed more people. But the US population is also over THREE times larger than it was in 1918. The Spanish Flu killed 675,000. We recently passed this for COVID. But in 1918, the US population was 103 million. Today, it is 330 million.

You cannot compare numbers this way. It is misleading. It takes factual statements and builds a deceptive construct around them. Why? To make you afraid. (Side note: how many people died of heart disease in 1918 versus 2021? Just saying.)

I’ve been asked if I feel “lucky” that my bout with COVID wasn’t more severe. I am of course grateful for everyday of my life where my health is good. But my experience with COVID was mild and in keeping with the vast, vast majority of cases, especially for those who are not elderly. So, while I am grateful, I feel like I fell into the statistical average of cases. That isn’t exactly luck.

Another question to be asked regarding the “high” number of COVID deaths in 2021 with our modern medicine compared to the Spanish Flu and compared to death rates around the world is this: how much more obese is America? How much more diabetic are we? How much more stressed out in general are we? These are true, serious underlying conditions. And why are we this way? That’s the question. Then, instead of encouraging us to eat right, take vitamins, get fresh air, exercise, socialize and live a healthy, normal life, they try to lock us up, stress us out and deteriorate our mental health. They fire health care workers and then tell us the hospitals cannot treat the sick.

I know of some people who have not left quarantine out of sheer terror of this virus in 19 months. Then I walk into the grocery store, without a mask, and see the smiling faces of my fellow unmasked Texans and realize that life goes on, and should go on, and will go on as long as we persist in making sure it does.

The social media outlets are banning discussion around natural antibodies acquired through previous infection, which if nothing else reassures me that my antibodies are far more effective than the vaccine and that I can now live my life without fear (not that I was afraid anyway).

And the next time anyone says a word to me about what Fauci says my response is going to be, “Fauci who?”

My Experience with COVID-19

Some would say with all my travel in the last twelve months that I would inevitably catch COVID – and many would smugly believe I had it coming.

That all may be true, maybe I did have it coming. And I did catch COVID. But I caught it locally.

But locally or in an airport or while traveling the world, I would not care – I do not regret just living my life.

Like 99% of people under the age of 60, I got what may have been considered a mild or moderate case of COVID. I did not seek medical help, I was not hospitalized. I will say that having COVID is sort of waking up everyday to the option of “what is behind door number 2, please?” Some days I felt well, then felt worse. Some days I had severe sinus pain, sometimes I had a backache. Two days I felt well enough to do a light workout in my gym, and on day 11 I felt probably the worst I’d felt the entire illness and spent the entire day on my couch.

But COVID is certainly not the sickest I have ever been. I have had pneumonia before, several extremely severe sinus infections, bronchitis and as a child I was hospitalized with asthma. I have also had the flu twice immediately following flu shots – both of those flus were worse than this.

However, COVID has been maddening in it’s own way. On about day 4, I experienced what could only be called a sizzling feeling in my upper nasal passage. I swear I could actually hear it. And after that, my sense of taste and smell were lost to me. Maybe permanently. So far I have not recovered them. I have forgotten what it is like to smell anything.

I spread COVID to my sister – to no one’s surprise – and during our illness we bonded over the shared misery of our lost taste and smell. A morning check in text, “can you taste today?” And then sharing how now for us eating is more about feeling our food and experiencing texture and temperature than it is about taste.

I have read that it could be weeks or longer before we regain our senses so I am resigning myself to the remainder of the year eating with the frustrating inability to be satisfied. I am reminded of the damned crew on the Black Pearl in Pirates of the Caribbean. They have a hunger they cannot satisfy, “food turned to ash in our mouths.” Yup. I can relate.

I inadvertently shared my COVID cooties with a few other people, including a vaccinated person, and we all had pretty much identical experiences with our illness. As I am a full time remote employee (since before the pandemic) I didn’t miss any work, I didn’t even tell my boss about my illness. I worked, I functioned and during the process I even sold my house (more on that later).

Does this change my mind about the vaccine? Not at all. In fact, despite the fact that the hashtag has been banned on social media, I am happy to know I now have natural immunity to this going forward. The vaccine likely wouldn’t have prevented my catching COVID and my experience wasn’t much different than that of the vaccinated individual.

And now, back to living my life without fear.

Death isn’t empty like you say it is. Emptiness is life without freedom… Emptiness is living chained by fear, fear of loss, fear of death. I say we break those chains.
Pierce Brown

I’m an American & I Am Free!

Yesterday, Joe Stalin – oops, my bad – Joe Biden effectively declared a large percentage of Americans as the enemy when he targeted the unvaccinated as the cause of all of our problems.

Any American who stands in support of what he said yesterday needs to check themselves.

This same man, exactly a year ago during his election campaign, said Americans should be suspicious about a vaccine. And that he would never mandate a vaccine.

This same man who bungled the situation in Afghanistan so badly that some are calling for his impeachment, who left Americans to die, is lecturing us about public health.

He scolds unvaccinated Americans that the rest of the country is sick of us. That we are the problem. Then he threatens to revoke our rights, our jobs, all of our American freedoms, if we do not comply with his mandate. Then he sets it up and says if there is economic fallout from this that it’s all our fault as well.

Blame a segment of society. Target them. Rally hate and anger toward them. Make them the cause of all the bad things going on. And then find ways to identify and segregate them before punishing them. History repeats itself.

And the vaccinated should be mad, too. They move the goal posts. First it’s two shots. Soon it’ll be three. Then it will be those anti viral Pfizer pills twice a day. First you could remove your muzzles…uh, sorry, your masks. Now you cannot. Lord Fauci says it’s “not smart” even for vaccinated folks to go to football games. You did everything they asked you to do and they still take more from you. Wake up!

If he or anyone thought this would break the will of the holdouts I think they are wrong. I woke up today more resolved. I wouldn’t bend my convictions even for the people I love. I’m certainly not going to do it for the ancient puppet of a tyrannical Marxist regime. What the hell is even going on here?

I woke up today resolved to be the American I am. To be free. I have family members becoming American citizens today. Please, for the love of God, let’s work to restore this country to be the beacon of freedom it once was to this world.

Americans once threw off the chains of tyranny over far, far less than this. Stand up. Whatever your personal opinions on this, stand up in the name of American freedom.

Today I Deadlifted 330lbs

I wasn’t going to workout today.

I was feeling a bit sluggish due to PMS. I’ve had cramps for several days and I’ve been extremely bloated. The last thing I wanted to do was workout.

But then I thought I’d really rather deadlift today before my period starts. Besides that, it’s my scheduled day to do it and I am consistent.

The workout started okay and by the end I was feeling pretty confident. When I started deadlifting I immediately decided that today was the day. I was going to try again and refused to fail.

My last deadlift PR was November 14, 2020 when I hit 325lbs the first time. Since then I’ve been trying to do this. One setback after another has ensued and here we are, 294 days later and finally I did it!

I’m probably more proud of this because it took so long. And three weeks ago today I was laid out sick on the couch.

There’s something about the comeback!

“The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory. Thats the essence of it.”
Vince Lombardi

Fresh Starts

Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it yet.”
Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery

It is fitting to start a new project and a new era with a quote by my most favorite and beloved childhood fictional heroine, Anne Shirley.

Anne was probably the reason I became a writer. She is certainly the reason I became a poet. While fictional, she was and has always been as real to me as any friend. When I find myself at a loss, I can always find inspiration in the pages of those old books.

I started writing poetry and short stories around the age of ten or eleven, signing my name at the bottom Anna Farley. And with a new beginning, I found myself back to wanting to write, if nothing ever else, under that old moniker.

And with a return to my maiden name as an author, I undertook the task of rebranding my books and building a new website. A new look, a new purpose, to suit the new me with my old name.

It is weird because I think about my dad when I hear the name Farley and while I think his feelings would be mixed, he would smile to think about his little Annie Farley, with her little poetry books, her purpose in writing and he would be glad.

Today is indeed the first day of the rest of my life. And while this rebranding may be a very small thing, I feel rejuvenated and re-inspired to be all the best that I can be and fling myself headfirst into writing with passion. With purpose.

The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.”
Albert Camus

The Comeback

I was sick for 16 days.

I experienced chest congestion, a relentless throbbing headache that lasted a whole week without relief, and fatigue so intense I thought only death could save me from it.

Carrying a laundry basket to my bedroom wiped me out. My heart rate would jump to 125bpm making myself tea.

One evening I felt so incredibly sick and exhausted and anxious that I cried by myself on my couch.

My last workout before my illness I was really feeling it. I felt strong. I felt like progress was being made.

In 16 days I was sucked of strength and so much progress. My first workout back I was using mostly just resistance on my Bowflex, and at one third my usual weight, or less.

I was sad, realizing that in such a short time a virus could rip through me and steal my gains. Steal my confidence.

But I pushed through, frustrated that this low weight felt challenging, that by the end of my workout I could feel it. A work out that was so far below even where I would normally warm up.

After that first workout I then also mowed my lawn.

I was committed to my nutrition, my health and my rebuild.

The next day, the workout was light again. But progressively I improved. I pushed. I added weight. I worked through my mental frustration.

It is hard enough to maintain progress or make incremental gains over time. It’s worse to have a huge setback in such short time and have to start recovering. But that is where I felt like I got a reset on my discpline and consistency.

It is in the comeback I found confidence in my humility, and discpline in my frustration.

And despite all of this, from my tearful hour on the couch when I felt so awful to the hours in my gym reclaiming my progress, not once did I ever feel like anyone else should be blamed, penalized or restricted from living their lives in freedom over my illness.

The Weird Public Health Hypocrisy

If you’re reading this, you\’re likely to some day die of heart disease. Statistically, this is the most common cause of death in adults in the United States.

Heart disease puts a burden on the entire society. It creates a burden on the healthcare system. It raises costs for medical care for everyone – even the fit and healthy. It leaves behind parentless children, widowed spouses, and broken hearts.

But no one requires you to demonstrate evidence that you exercised today or took your statin, got an annual EKG, or that you eat a healthy diet in order to engage in society.

Even if your lifestyle sets a bad example for your children, who then follow you in developing heart disease, no one makes you show paperwork before eating at a restaurant or going to the movies.

No one scoffs at you, or calls you a menace to society, if you say things like, “I just don’t \’t like to exercise.”

Even though, arguably, cardiovascular disease is an epidemic in this country. It will kill more people this year than any other cause of death.

So, think about this the next time you\’re preaching vaccine necessity as a means for public health. You better be fit, have perfect nutrition and evidence of a clean medical record before you ask me to produce evidence that I\’ve been vaccinated.

The Line

Whatever we face in life, whether in our personal relationships or professional situations or negotiating purchases or pursuing a new passion, we all need to know our bottom line.

I got bullied once into sacrificing my bottom line. A leader I respected bullied me into accepting a promotion I didn\’t want in lieu of not getting the one I wanted. I resisted, but several attempts were made, dangling carrots in front of me, and finally succeeded by playing on my fear of missing out. I gave in, accepted the job and within a week was full of regret. I hated it, and I was angry with myself for not standing firm.

Now, me and many others are facing even more pressure, persistent bullying, threats even, to cross a line we have drawn for ourselves.

But this time, I’m standing my ground.

This is America. One of the last hopes of personal liberty on the face of the earth. One place where even the smallest individual voice is allowed to speak up without fear. It is the safe haven that people across the world have looked toward to escape tyranny. And as far as I know, this is STILL America.

If I can be told that perhaps I cannot go into a gym or a restaurant without my “papers” – as many across the nation are now facing – I will question what America this is. But there is no threat that can be made to make me abandon my conviction.

In a conversation tonight I was told “all the hardship you’re going through will not be as bad as the regret you’ll have if you give up on what you believe.” Amen.

And many do regret. But of course those stories don’t make the news. But many have regret. Many are bitter. I will not be one.

I embrace the support of those who freely have made different choices than me who are vocal about my right to make my own choices as well. We are united… maybe not in our choices, but in how we cherish our freedom to choose.

They will dangle carrots. They will incentivize. They will coerce. They may even threaten. I may lose things, privileges, friends. But I will not let myself down; I will not budge from my bottom line.

Fear-mongering is NOT Leadership

This week, I spoke to a health care provider who wriggled me into engaging them about the COVID-19 vaccine.

She told me a story about a healthy young woman who came into her clinic this week, and she has five children. The provider asked this healthy woman, “Have you been vaccinated?” The woman replied that she had not. The provider then told me that she said to the woman, “Well, who is going to take care of your children when you die of COVID?”

When. She used the word when.

She said the woman got a fearful look on her face and agreed to get vaccinated.

The provider when went on about the irresponsibility of people who choose not to be vaccinated.

Let’s get some clarity.

According to a Google search that I did just this minute, their statistics from the New York Times show that there have been a total number of 37.7 million COVID cases in America.

There are 328.2 million people in America as of 2019.

Please someone do the math for me on this, because my calculator is showing that this is a very small percentage of Americans who have even tested positive with a case of COVID. That is all cases.

Less than 12% of Americans have tested positive for COVID. Many, many of those people had mild symptoms.

The same source states that of those 37.7 million cases, there have been 628k deaths. That is less than 2% of cases ending in death. Not 2% of Americans dying. Only 0.19% of Americans have died of COVID.

So to state, with the authority of a medical professional, to a patient that their children will be uncared for when she dies of COVID is disgusting fear-mongering.

If you are concerned about getting COVID, then who am I to argue? If you want to get vaccinated, I applaud your freedom of choice. But if you live in absolute fear of illness or death because people provide statistics outside of context to manipulate you into emotional reactions and instill you with fear, then I feel sad for you.

Resorting to managing people through fear is the lowest and most desperate way to persuade. Worthwhile ideas don\’t require fear to gain traction.

I am absolutely disgusted by the leadership we are seeing from the very top leaders in this country (and the world) down to single health care providers working one on one with patients to scare them into making decisions. It is grotesque. Whatever your opinion on COVID, politics, or this vaccine, you should be disgusted by these tactics as well.

But most people will not be. I read an article on CNN recently advising people to scare or shame their unvaccinated friends and family into getting vaccinated. It’s like they got this out of some kind of historical playbook….

Hysteria is a Form of Extremism

It is quite common in mainstream media to see skeptics like me being labeled an extremist. I saw one article today state hat those who use the chat app Telegram are “right-wing extremists.” Well, I use both Telegram and Signal almost exclusively except for work-related texting and yet I flinch at even being referred to as a Republican.

I am a libertarian.

I don’t mask (unless at the airport or on an airplane and even then I drink so much water as an excuse to pull the mask down), and I won’t be vaccinated. So I am labeled an extremist.

But I ask this question: if this was about public health, why wouldn’t a positive antibody test be just as good as a vaccine card? Why is it so freaking imperative to get “a needle in every arm\” when natural immunity is arguably far better than vaccination?

If this was about public health, why would skepticism not just be met with healthy debate instead of censorship?

This week, Rand Paul was suspended by YouTube for a comment he made about masks. An identical comment that Fauci himself made a year ago. And Rand Paul is also a medical professional. Why is he being silenced?

I ask another question: if we are so concerned about public health, do we really want to put the responsibility for that into the hands of career politicians, who are often found out to be sex offenders, pedophiles, embezzlers, and in numerous other ways absolutely tainted with scandal and abuse of power?

If I was truly afraid of this virus, I would not put my faith in the government to protect me. I don’t believe a single thing they do is well-intentioned.

That opinion is based on years of witnessing THEIR actions, not my opinions. Andrew Cuomo has resigned from his position of authority for numerous allegations of sexual misconduct, which is an abuse of his power, and yet for the past year and some people were trusting this guy to make decisions about their health!

And yet my skepticism is called extreme. I open my eyes and objectively see the behaviors of these people, not judging them just by their own words but by their actions, and I deem them to be rotten. So why would I then accept any force or mandate by them to manage my health. They cannot even manage their own behavior.

I am called an extremist in my view (even though a large percentage of Americans and people around the world agree with me). But I think the hysterical folks are extreme. Those who would sacrifice their liberty on the hypocritical alters of these abusers of power, in exchange for “safety” – not much of which has proven to actually be effective anyway. Vaccinated people are still getting and spreading COVID. Studies have shown again and again that masks are not very effective in preventing the spread of COVID. And even still, for the incredible majority of people, COVID presents with cold or flu-like symptoms.

And yet people hand over their liberties.

And we can all be sure of one thing: even if COVID is eradicated, once given up, we will never get our rights back.

People are seeking out protection and safety at any cost to “save lives” but what are we saving them for if we have given up our freedom?