Left El Dorado KS at a bit after 8 after searching for a charge cable for my new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 that dropped into a black hole.After wasting time today at every stop trying to find a new cable, discovered 2nite that "std" micro-usb will work on one side of the attach port! Main cable is for charge AND sync ... charge only works with the old micro, COOL!
65 degrees to start, mostly 70-75, brutal crosswind until evening ... 25-30MPH again!
Took 400, then 54 most of the way. Liberal KS was funny ... giant landfill and HUGE beef processing plant on way in. Dalhart had the bigges feedlots I've ever seen on the SW side, MILES of them! Had to be 100K+ head. Tucumcari was interesting ... very large "bluff / mesa" with interesting shape next to town, old "Route 66" mainstreet. You can imagine it really hopping during summers in the 50's and 60's.
Lots of very green winter wheat, but like ZERO other crop work done. Hispanic kid chatted about the Wing and complained about their "hard winter" at Liberal -- little snow even, days it didn't thaw, TOUGH winter by their standards, he was like "20" ... "never imagined he would see anything like that, just thought it would keep getting warmer, that is what they said in school!" Ah yes, reality and learning that the "experts" often AREN'T!
The set of roads out of Tucumari was interesting ... 209,268,267,330, then 70 for the last 50 mi or so. Lots of open range, a few curves, no ditches, a few antelope, VERY little traffic. More farming than I expected to see in New Mexico. Good day, lots more variation, small towns. HOPEFULLY be out of the wind tomorrow!
Plus, my cell will be charged, so I might go for some pics finally!
Monday, March 31, 2014
Frozen Moose Finds El Dorado (KS)
Marla took a shot of me as I took off at 8aAM Sunday. The Wing read 38, and even with the vents drawing engine heat and the grips on high, I ought to have had long underwear and the liner in my jacket ... good for future reference. I need at least 45 or maybe calm, there was a 20-30MPH headwind the whole day ... noisy, and enough to keep a bit busy on the bars at bridges or when semis were around, but otherwise no problem.
Anyway, I was uncomfortably cold by Austin, toughed it out to Albert Lea and stopped into the truck stop and REALLY enjoyed having a very generous and nicely finished ham steak with eggs and hash-browns. They had a wood fired rotisserie doing chickens, I basked next to that for a bit.
When I got out, it had warmed to 44 and that made all the difference. I saw 3 loud Harley's, heading S on 35 as I was getting on the bike. Not a lot of bikes to be seen until Ankeny IA or so, but by Des Moines and certainly Kansas City there were quite a few. I got about 150 mi each tank, and other than breakfast, those were my stops until 8PM when I pulled in here
I did take a couple curvy road interludes ... I went west on 80 a bit at Des Moines, then turned off and picked an "avoid highways" mode with a town on I35 ... so it gave me some curves and then I just picked up the old route ... did the same just N of Kansas City to avoid downtown ... it put me on a pretty cool road with lots of big houses, a flowage, and a good number of crotch rockets. So after a bit of a rocky start with the Wing guidance maiden the last couple years, we can get along after all!
Other than the wind, it was quite nice once I hit Des Moines. The last of the snow in ditches was N of there, but VERY little greening even down into KS. I still love the Flint Hills area. In 2012 early August it was under a long term drought, and looked terrible, but now other than being probably a month later than "normal", the little ponds are full, and quite a few cattle were around. I saw one LARGE grassfire ... at least a mile or so fire line, but it was going away from the road, and while there were a couple of trucks out there, they didn't seem very concerned ... multiple signs that "this is a prairie fire area, don't drive into smoke".
35 SW of Kansas City is a 75mph toll road that everyone is running 85 on. Went by a couple of groups of 2-up Harleys running 75ish and looking like they didn't enjoy running that fast -- shorty windshields, loud pipes, but I think they might have been struggling a bit 2-up with the headwind, besides the wind factor ... even on the Wing there was some evidence of a "breeze".
I'm smitten with the Indian, but on days like today, it would be A LOT tougher! Yea, yea, I know those V-twin riders are just tougher than the old Moose, but lots of smooth power and superb wind handling is going to be awfully hard to part with! Kinda like my giving up my blanky from childhood. Like all Wing riders, we know we need to give it up , SOON!
I'm smitten with the Indian, but on days like today, it would be A LOT tougher! Yea, yea, I know those V-twin riders are just tougher than the old Moose, but lots of smooth power and superb wind handling is going to be awfully hard to part with! Kinda like my giving up my blanky from childhood. Like all Wing riders, we know we need to give it up , SOON!
There are well attended sessions on leaving your blanky behind every year at WingDing!
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Rummy Abuses Apes and Trainers
http://www.ijreview.com/2014/03/123940-thinking-rumsfeld-says-trained-ape-better-afghanistan-obama/
Ridiculous. An untrained ape, child, or a broken 8-ball, would do "better" if you define "better" to be "not counter to US interests".
But we know that BO desires America to be humbled, and at that he is better than any world leader since Ho Chi Min! (Ok, maybe Carter was the actual champ ... but it doesn't seem fair ... I think Jimmie was actually TRYING to do good for America, and can best be remembered as "the Barney Fife president".
The Breathless Human
The Rise of Secular Religion - The American Interest:
It only requires the most minimal of study and thought to realize that the non-spiritual human is exactly as rare as the non-breathing human. No matter how hard one may work to differentiate themselves from "the breathing class" (say Indian meditation, holding of breath for very long times like free divers, etc), that more the actual focus is on breathing, modified though it may be.
So with the spiritual. Those that are absolutely most certain that they have completely "abandoned religion" and "have no faith" are often the greatest "Puritan zealots", even if their "purity" is pure evil as in the case of the Gang, the Prison Culture, the Nazis or the BO cabinet.
So we have "political correctness", gay rights, animal rights, veganism, coops, local foods, environmentalism ... the list is endless. As the linked article puts it:
One of the extreme advantages of religions that are thousands of years old is that when you are raised in one and embrace it, you know what you are doing. The analogy of the cute little boy that takes his toy apart becoming less cute when he dissects his puppy is apt. "Science" and "left wing paganism" has dissected Western Culture and Christianity with an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) and decided "that was easy". The kiddies may think that yoga, gardening and expanded gender identities" are a good replacement for what they believe they blew up, but the fascination with monsters, vampires, demons, body piercings and tattoos might not be entirely metaphorical.
Perhaps there is more to this breathing thing than they thought?
Oh, and that is in the current, supposedly nominalist, scientific, "modern" world. Many of our current youth might well compare tattoos and body piercings with even an African tribesman of the year "800" and not detect any irony.
It is the season of Lent as I write this. God came down and took human form to die on a cross to save humanity from ETERNAL spiritual "non-breathing" (spiritual death) 2000 years ago. Of course each generation would DEARLY love to make that "eternal" word part a MYTH, in the sense that "myths" may be in "detail and particulars" not "data factual", but are far MORE "human factual" than "data reality".
The Mona Lisa is a better "likeness" for humans than a terapixel photo of the subject. On this failure of understanding falls much of the sadness of our declining culture and community.
While "Avengers" was an eminently forgettable film, the scene where Loki declares to Hulk that "I am a God" might give a tiny insight into how the underlying spiritual reality of the universe ultimately deals with humans that are certain of their deity ... or that try to hide what they are really thinking behind the idea that "there is no god" (translation in reality, they have decided that THEY are god!).
'via Blog this'
It only requires the most minimal of study and thought to realize that the non-spiritual human is exactly as rare as the non-breathing human. No matter how hard one may work to differentiate themselves from "the breathing class" (say Indian meditation, holding of breath for very long times like free divers, etc), that more the actual focus is on breathing, modified though it may be.
So with the spiritual. Those that are absolutely most certain that they have completely "abandoned religion" and "have no faith" are often the greatest "Puritan zealots", even if their "purity" is pure evil as in the case of the Gang, the Prison Culture, the Nazis or the BO cabinet.
So we have "political correctness", gay rights, animal rights, veganism, coops, local foods, environmentalism ... the list is endless. As the linked article puts it:
We live in a spiritual age, in other words, when we believe ourselves surrounded by social beings of occult and mystic power. When we live with titanic cultural forces contending across the sky, and our moral sense of ourselves— of whether or not we are good people, of whether or not we are saved— takes its cues primarily from our relation to those forces. We live in a spiritual age when the political has been transformed into the soteriological. When how we vote is how our souls are saved."soteriological" - providing salvation.
One of the extreme advantages of religions that are thousands of years old is that when you are raised in one and embrace it, you know what you are doing. The analogy of the cute little boy that takes his toy apart becoming less cute when he dissects his puppy is apt. "Science" and "left wing paganism" has dissected Western Culture and Christianity with an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) and decided "that was easy". The kiddies may think that yoga, gardening and expanded gender identities" are a good replacement for what they believe they blew up, but the fascination with monsters, vampires, demons, body piercings and tattoos might not be entirely metaphorical.
Perhaps there is more to this breathing thing than they thought?
How durable is post-Protestant culture? Missing from Bottum’s portraits of the “poster children” is any mention of the children they are—or aren’t—raising. Fertility rates among members of the secularized Mainline churches are so low (just as they are among “progressive” Jews) that one is tempted to regard post-Protestantism as a one-generation wonder. While the children of the Mainline occupy themselves with yoga, organic gardening and expanded gender identities (Facebook now offers more than fifty categories to choose from), popular culture becomes moribund. The 20th century’s variations of the social gospel seem genteel next to what populates America’s metaphysical realm today. Americans spend more time with supernatural monsters than ever did the Christians of the Middle Ages, from vampires to zombies to demons of every hue. In 2012, the horror genre supplied one out of eight American feature films; a decade ago it was roughly one out of twenty-five. Strip away divine immortality from American spirituality, and it embraces the undead variety.
Oh, and that is in the current, supposedly nominalist, scientific, "modern" world. Many of our current youth might well compare tattoos and body piercings with even an African tribesman of the year "800" and not detect any irony.
It is the season of Lent as I write this. God came down and took human form to die on a cross to save humanity from ETERNAL spiritual "non-breathing" (spiritual death) 2000 years ago. Of course each generation would DEARLY love to make that "eternal" word part a MYTH, in the sense that "myths" may be in "detail and particulars" not "data factual", but are far MORE "human factual" than "data reality".
The Mona Lisa is a better "likeness" for humans than a terapixel photo of the subject. On this failure of understanding falls much of the sadness of our declining culture and community.
While "Avengers" was an eminently forgettable film, the scene where Loki declares to Hulk that "I am a God" might give a tiny insight into how the underlying spiritual reality of the universe ultimately deals with humans that are certain of their deity ... or that try to hide what they are really thinking behind the idea that "there is no god" (translation in reality, they have decided that THEY are god!).
'via Blog this'
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
I Don't Always Talk In Front of Whiskey Bottles ...
Bruce Bradley on Chuck Grassley: A ‘farmer’ with no law degree - POLITICO.com:
... But when I do, I TELL THE TRUTH!
Saying what they really think is a very very bad idea for Democrats. Iowa, do you want this guy, who seems to be running against Chuck Grassley (who isn't running)" or do you want a Lt. Colonel, Iraq vet that knows how to farm and cut hogs.
Is insulting farmers in IA in front of a bunch of whiskey bottles a good political move? Maybe even some of the dead vote will balk at this loser!
'via Blog this'
... But when I do, I TELL THE TRUTH!
Saying what they really think is a very very bad idea for Democrats. Iowa, do you want this guy, who seems to be running against Chuck Grassley (who isn't running)" or do you want a Lt. Colonel, Iraq vet that knows how to farm and cut hogs.
Is insulting farmers in IA in front of a bunch of whiskey bottles a good political move? Maybe even some of the dead vote will balk at this loser!
'via Blog this'
Best Senate Ad EVER! Iowa People, PLEASE HELP!!
Squeal - YouTube:
OK IA people, THIS is the candidate for Senate! Might make it down there to vote for her RE-election, but right now you gotta help me out!
The ad is very well done and RIGHT to the point! She has the SUPER view on "cutting pork" -- those pork politicians need to A LOT more squealing!
NOT having Stuart Smalley and and whiny Amy for Senators! One more super benefit to get the hell out of MN!
Oh, I can imagine that media is going to HATE her ... attractive, smart, mother, military and farm background. I would be completely un-surprised to find that she is a Christian as well.
Of course they hate ALL Republican women, and BLACKS (even more) ... but intelligence, accomplishment, and ESPECIALLY BEAUTY in any remotely conservative woman makes their blood run completely cold!
When they say "freedom", they DO NOT mean the freedom to disagree with them ... especially if you are group that they have consigned to their thought plantation!
'via Blog this'
OK IA people, THIS is the candidate for Senate! Might make it down there to vote for her RE-election, but right now you gotta help me out!
The ad is very well done and RIGHT to the point! She has the SUPER view on "cutting pork" -- those pork politicians need to A LOT more squealing!
NOT having Stuart Smalley and and whiny Amy for Senators! One more super benefit to get the hell out of MN!
Oh, I can imagine that media is going to HATE her ... attractive, smart, mother, military and farm background. I would be completely un-surprised to find that she is a Christian as well.
Of course they hate ALL Republican women, and BLACKS (even more) ... but intelligence, accomplishment, and ESPECIALLY BEAUTY in any remotely conservative woman makes their blood run completely cold!
When they say "freedom", they DO NOT mean the freedom to disagree with them ... especially if you are group that they have consigned to their thought plantation!
'via Blog this'
Monday, March 24, 2014
Outrunning Glaciers on Acid
Remember The Acid Rain 'Scare'? Global Warming Hysteria Is Pouring Down - Forbes:
Back in the late '70s when I was in college, we needed to go fast on I-94 to get to Madison for other reasons, but we all thought that it would be funny to tell any officer that pulled us over that we were "outrunning the glaciers". Those were the days of Global COOLING ... which I know as now gotten the left all riled up to be reminded of, so they have went to work trying to rewrite that part of history.
No, it WASN'T "the same" then, since not EVERYTHING had been fully politicized yet! One of the outcomes of that was that "research" tended to end up in a lot of different places, and maybe more importantly started from a lot of different premises. Today, you can set out to "continue to prove" GW, or you can get no money, get no degree, lose your professorship, etc. Tough choice if you are an academic that wants an advanced degree and needs to eat.
In the "old days", we all watched, read, or listened to the same message on NBC, CBS, ABC, NPR, NYT, WaPO, etc and if you were a complete low brow reactionary, you MAY have gotten some wild right wing thinking from the EDITORIAL page of the WSJ, although their news pages were (and still are) just as left as the rest of the media. Oh yes, there was Buckley and National Review -- which I had never heard of until I got bummed out because Jimmuh assured me that the era of fun in America was OVER!
"Many" scientists thought the data showed we were cooling. It was NOT a "religious issue"! The idea of using "science" as a political cudgel to pound down the apostates had not been even remotely associated with "science" in those days (we still had religion for for the fixed outlook). "Acid Rain", "Coming Ice Age", "Ozone Hole", "DDT", "we are going to turn Japanese", "Detente --- the obvious reasonableness of surrender to the USSR", "the world is OUT of petroleum" .... those were the "smart topics" of the day.
The list of topics aren't an accident, They were ALL considered to be "common sense", and if had Fox news in those days, you could likely have done a poll showing that people "didn't know the answers to the issues of the day" ... as in, "all the forests will die from acid rain" (probably before the glaciers ran over them, but they were not clear on that), all us country kids will be dead of skin cancer long before now, and the penguins would ALL be gone due to the "ozone hole".
DDT, well, it turned out to kill 50 million plus 3rd worlders by NOT being around, but we are back to using it now with no problem to birds (if a couple beers are OK, a keg isn't necessarily better), we not only didn't turn Japanese, they started their eternal government managed recession in '90 and are still in it.
We didn't ever try the surrender to the USSR route -- but given BO, maybe there is still time. Oh, and world oil reserves were at "400ish Billion Barrels BB) in '80 and they are N of 1.6 TB today with a lot of countries using less ... + a lot of the Baaken isn't even online! The US could push Venezuala and the Saudis for the the top of the list! We talk about that as about as much as GW folks talk about GW during a record cold March.
Don't get the impression that EVERYONE was just stupid back then, and we have obviously gotten smarter. SOME predictions DID happen! Reagan DID consign the USSR to the ash heap of history for example (until BO resuscitated it like a long dead Chicago voter).
So the linked article brings back memories:
Historically, mankind inherently understood the relation between age and "wisdom", because it was ASSUMED, and UNDERSTOOD by at least the educated that to a very significant extent "education + experience = wisdom". Put that was before the cult of "progressivism", which assumes that the data/information/knowledge that they pick up today is INHERENTLY superior to the past (mostly because they have no clue about what happened in the past)
So, most no longer learn from the past ... even just a few short years in the past. It matters not that every time a set of policies has been applied in history, they have failed. If the "smart guys" think that printing bags of money + taxing it away from the economic winners so that the economic losers get "another chance" (typically to lose bigger amounts faster), it doesn't really matter how many times it doesn't work until you end up in Greece or Japan and you are just STUCK --- no capital to go forward, no successful folks left, and a bunch of unsuccessful ones that have even lost the will to fail after pissing away multiples of borrowed / subsidized fortunes.
I have to admit that as much as I'm looking forward to warmer temperatures, a nice big continental glacier forming would be VERY cool. Sure, the "30-40 tops" years I have remaining would only allow for a few100 feet of snow and ice AT BEST, puny by the 5000+ full monty behemoth, but the warmist tap dances would be a thing of beauty ... and there is always tracks for the Ranger!
Oh, never mind ... they will claim it is "due to human caused climate change" ... or it will just go down the memory hole like Krugman/Enron, "out of oil", "ozone", etc.
It is the age of OZ, and even when Toto pulls the curtain, the lefty witches will conjure SOME way to hide the humbug!
'via Blog this'
Back in the late '70s when I was in college, we needed to go fast on I-94 to get to Madison for other reasons, but we all thought that it would be funny to tell any officer that pulled us over that we were "outrunning the glaciers". Those were the days of Global COOLING ... which I know as now gotten the left all riled up to be reminded of, so they have went to work trying to rewrite that part of history.
No, it WASN'T "the same" then, since not EVERYTHING had been fully politicized yet! One of the outcomes of that was that "research" tended to end up in a lot of different places, and maybe more importantly started from a lot of different premises. Today, you can set out to "continue to prove" GW, or you can get no money, get no degree, lose your professorship, etc. Tough choice if you are an academic that wants an advanced degree and needs to eat.
In the "old days", we all watched, read, or listened to the same message on NBC, CBS, ABC, NPR, NYT, WaPO, etc and if you were a complete low brow reactionary, you MAY have gotten some wild right wing thinking from the EDITORIAL page of the WSJ, although their news pages were (and still are) just as left as the rest of the media. Oh yes, there was Buckley and National Review -- which I had never heard of until I got bummed out because Jimmuh assured me that the era of fun in America was OVER!
"Many" scientists thought the data showed we were cooling. It was NOT a "religious issue"! The idea of using "science" as a political cudgel to pound down the apostates had not been even remotely associated with "science" in those days (we still had religion for for the fixed outlook). "Acid Rain", "Coming Ice Age", "Ozone Hole", "DDT", "we are going to turn Japanese", "Detente --- the obvious reasonableness of surrender to the USSR", "the world is OUT of petroleum" .... those were the "smart topics" of the day.
The list of topics aren't an accident, They were ALL considered to be "common sense", and if had Fox news in those days, you could likely have done a poll showing that people "didn't know the answers to the issues of the day" ... as in, "all the forests will die from acid rain" (probably before the glaciers ran over them, but they were not clear on that), all us country kids will be dead of skin cancer long before now, and the penguins would ALL be gone due to the "ozone hole".
DDT, well, it turned out to kill 50 million plus 3rd worlders by NOT being around, but we are back to using it now with no problem to birds (if a couple beers are OK, a keg isn't necessarily better), we not only didn't turn Japanese, they started their eternal government managed recession in '90 and are still in it.
We didn't ever try the surrender to the USSR route -- but given BO, maybe there is still time. Oh, and world oil reserves were at "400ish Billion Barrels BB) in '80 and they are N of 1.6 TB today with a lot of countries using less ... + a lot of the Baaken isn't even online! The US could push Venezuala and the Saudis for the the top of the list! We talk about that as about as much as GW folks talk about GW during a record cold March.
Don't get the impression that EVERYONE was just stupid back then, and we have obviously gotten smarter. SOME predictions DID happen! Reagan DID consign the USSR to the ash heap of history for example (until BO resuscitated it like a long dead Chicago voter).
So the linked article brings back memories:
And lobby they did. Between 1994 and 1996 the Enron Foundation contributed nearly $1 million to the Nature Conservancy, and together with the Pew Center and the Heinz Foundation they engaged in an energetic and successful global warming fear campaign which included attacks on scientific dissenters. Incidentally, the Heinz Foundation, headed by Teresa Heinz Kerry, generously provided a $250,000 award to Al Gore’s star congressional hearing witness, NASA’s James Hansen, who subsequently went on public record supporting her new husband John Kerry’s failed presidential bid.A bunch of people hardly remember Enron ... going from the most admired business in America in the late '90s with a myriad of connections to both parties, to an early example of "W's fault ... he met with Ken Lay" (the CEO of Enron). As WSJs "Best of the Web" likes to point out, Paul Krugman was an Enron advisor and proponent and proud of it in the late '90s. Ah, how easy the memory hole works for one side of the political spectrum.
Historically, mankind inherently understood the relation between age and "wisdom", because it was ASSUMED, and UNDERSTOOD by at least the educated that to a very significant extent "education + experience = wisdom". Put that was before the cult of "progressivism", which assumes that the data/information/knowledge that they pick up today is INHERENTLY superior to the past (mostly because they have no clue about what happened in the past)
So, most no longer learn from the past ... even just a few short years in the past. It matters not that every time a set of policies has been applied in history, they have failed. If the "smart guys" think that printing bags of money + taxing it away from the economic winners so that the economic losers get "another chance" (typically to lose bigger amounts faster), it doesn't really matter how many times it doesn't work until you end up in Greece or Japan and you are just STUCK --- no capital to go forward, no successful folks left, and a bunch of unsuccessful ones that have even lost the will to fail after pissing away multiples of borrowed / subsidized fortunes.
I have to admit that as much as I'm looking forward to warmer temperatures, a nice big continental glacier forming would be VERY cool. Sure, the "30-40 tops" years I have remaining would only allow for a few100 feet of snow and ice AT BEST, puny by the 5000+ full monty behemoth, but the warmist tap dances would be a thing of beauty ... and there is always tracks for the Ranger!
Oh, never mind ... they will claim it is "due to human caused climate change" ... or it will just go down the memory hole like Krugman/Enron, "out of oil", "ozone", etc.
It is the age of OZ, and even when Toto pulls the curtain, the lefty witches will conjure SOME way to hide the humbug!
'via Blog this'
Sunday, March 23, 2014
The House Wins, Toyota Edition
The left likes to say "follow the money" ... which they often do relative to the RIGHT side of the street.
I prefer "The House Wins" ... as in Vegas, and now government sponsored lotteries. Back when I was a kid, Sargent Joe Friday and Bill Gannon regularly hunted down mob connected guys "running the numbers". It is a decent measure of advancing corruption that today "the numbers" (lotto) are run by the state.
Gambling may be "vice", but at least you choose if you want to be fleeced. Not so with the US legal / government system where "the house" is a combination of lawyers and government -- which is actually the same thing. 43% of our congress lists their OCCUPATION as "lawyer" we don't need to think very long to know that the number that have law degrees or have practiced law in the past would raise it higher ... and guess what? The entire SCOTUS of the US are lawyers! (news at 11) BO is a lawyer as is his wife, and so were Billy and Hilly. (BTW, the NEXT profession listed, with 100 is .... Teacher! No wonder our kids self esteem is so high and their scores are so low!)
While Packers and Vikings fans may find reasons to be at each others throats, the PLAYERS have a LOT more in common with each other than they do with either "their" or the "oppositions" fans. Football is game and the NFL is a business and the fans are the customers -- BUT, the NFL doesn't get to pass laws requiring you to pay money into the business or players salaries.
Same with Republicans and Democrats in the US government and lawyers. You may THINK that "your group", "your lawsuit", 'your justice", "your fairness", etc are going to get the upper hand, but rest assured "the house" ALWAYS comes out on top! Oh sure, they have a lot of good fights and froths, but they all know where their bread is buttered. Many of them go in nearly penniless, make a mere $150K a year, and come out either as or soon to be multi-millionaires. It is money that someone COULD easily follow if they wanted -- but the MSM, conservative media, or certainly not EITHER political party or lobbying groups. It is all one big happy game on the inside -- ALL those people are to some degree or another part of "the house". The lawyers are the "owners and superstar players" ... and we go down from there. (in more ways than one)
So we have the vaunted $1.2 billion "settlement". Who pays for this? Consumers of course, just like "corporate taxes". This is a cost of doing business and that is passed on to consumers. If they don't buy the higher priced cars, eventually the company goes out of business. Who gets the money? Lawyers.
I would guess that very few (if any?) of us actually believe that "the car started accelerating, the brakes didn't work, and there was nothing I could do to stop it! The ignition freeze? Gear shift locked in D?? put it in N and try to blow the engine for goodness sake, who cares! (it is rev limited now anyway ... it will just be noisy) How bad are your brakes? If you REALLY believe that this can happen, go out in your drive, firmly press the brake as hard as you can with the car in gear, then floor the accelerator and see what happens. Or if you want don't want to do that, read this.
Of for a lot better fun, and to find the REAL problem -- not SO much that the government agencies are fools, but that the people that put them in power (ultimately US) are fools ... so what do we expect? READ THIS! Like everything else from PJ, it is both wise and funny, which I truly love.
So, the cause of "Sudden Acceleration" is panic, hitting the wrong or both pedals. Panic is caused by being human -- as is electing all foxes (lawyers) to guard the hen house (us).
For those of us that like to watch the spectacle of corruption and incompetence in our current national dance of death. (hey, may as well enjoy it, what else is there to do?) We are going to have a great contrast point coming up.
GM has known about an ACTUAL engineering problem for A DECADE ... during which time they were bailed out by our illustrious foxes. Naturally, this has gotten FAR less interest even though it is responsible for MORE accidents and deaths.
If you are driving down the road, calmly minding your own business and suddenly your steering wheel is LOCKED in whatever position it is in and your engine goes off, you may be surprised! Yes, you still have brakes ... but not power assisted, and you MIGHT have the presence of mind to try to tun the key back on, which hopefully will give you non-power steering in what is now likely to be an emergency situation --- remember, this is perfectly capable of happening at 60 or 70 in the middle of a curve, passing, etc. Oh, and your nice air bags? They are OFF!
Now it looks like Toyota tried to play their situation "old school" ... using engineering data, government studies, common sense, all that old crap ... and while they did avoid having anyone go to the pokey, it was expensive.
THIS TIME, GM (Government Motors) has a different approach. They named Mary Barra CEO. BO invited her to the SOTU, and she has been a regular contributor to his Lowness! Well, piss down my back and tell me it's rainin!
I'm betting that things to A LOT better for GM than they did for Toyota. What do you think?
I prefer "The House Wins" ... as in Vegas, and now government sponsored lotteries. Back when I was a kid, Sargent Joe Friday and Bill Gannon regularly hunted down mob connected guys "running the numbers". It is a decent measure of advancing corruption that today "the numbers" (lotto) are run by the state.
Gambling may be "vice", but at least you choose if you want to be fleeced. Not so with the US legal / government system where "the house" is a combination of lawyers and government -- which is actually the same thing. 43% of our congress lists their OCCUPATION as "lawyer" we don't need to think very long to know that the number that have law degrees or have practiced law in the past would raise it higher ... and guess what? The entire SCOTUS of the US are lawyers! (news at 11) BO is a lawyer as is his wife, and so were Billy and Hilly. (BTW, the NEXT profession listed, with 100 is .... Teacher! No wonder our kids self esteem is so high and their scores are so low!)
While Packers and Vikings fans may find reasons to be at each others throats, the PLAYERS have a LOT more in common with each other than they do with either "their" or the "oppositions" fans. Football is game and the NFL is a business and the fans are the customers -- BUT, the NFL doesn't get to pass laws requiring you to pay money into the business or players salaries.
Same with Republicans and Democrats in the US government and lawyers. You may THINK that "your group", "your lawsuit", 'your justice", "your fairness", etc are going to get the upper hand, but rest assured "the house" ALWAYS comes out on top! Oh sure, they have a lot of good fights and froths, but they all know where their bread is buttered. Many of them go in nearly penniless, make a mere $150K a year, and come out either as or soon to be multi-millionaires. It is money that someone COULD easily follow if they wanted -- but the MSM, conservative media, or certainly not EITHER political party or lobbying groups. It is all one big happy game on the inside -- ALL those people are to some degree or another part of "the house". The lawyers are the "owners and superstar players" ... and we go down from there. (in more ways than one)
So we have the vaunted $1.2 billion "settlement". Who pays for this? Consumers of course, just like "corporate taxes". This is a cost of doing business and that is passed on to consumers. If they don't buy the higher priced cars, eventually the company goes out of business. Who gets the money? Lawyers.
I would guess that very few (if any?) of us actually believe that "the car started accelerating, the brakes didn't work, and there was nothing I could do to stop it! The ignition freeze? Gear shift locked in D?? put it in N and try to blow the engine for goodness sake, who cares! (it is rev limited now anyway ... it will just be noisy) How bad are your brakes? If you REALLY believe that this can happen, go out in your drive, firmly press the brake as hard as you can with the car in gear, then floor the accelerator and see what happens. Or if you want don't want to do that, read this.
Of for a lot better fun, and to find the REAL problem -- not SO much that the government agencies are fools, but that the people that put them in power (ultimately US) are fools ... so what do we expect? READ THIS! Like everything else from PJ, it is both wise and funny, which I truly love.
So, the cause of "Sudden Acceleration" is panic, hitting the wrong or both pedals. Panic is caused by being human -- as is electing all foxes (lawyers) to guard the hen house (us).
For those of us that like to watch the spectacle of corruption and incompetence in our current national dance of death. (hey, may as well enjoy it, what else is there to do?) We are going to have a great contrast point coming up.
GM has known about an ACTUAL engineering problem for A DECADE ... during which time they were bailed out by our illustrious foxes. Naturally, this has gotten FAR less interest even though it is responsible for MORE accidents and deaths.
If you are driving down the road, calmly minding your own business and suddenly your steering wheel is LOCKED in whatever position it is in and your engine goes off, you may be surprised! Yes, you still have brakes ... but not power assisted, and you MIGHT have the presence of mind to try to tun the key back on, which hopefully will give you non-power steering in what is now likely to be an emergency situation --- remember, this is perfectly capable of happening at 60 or 70 in the middle of a curve, passing, etc. Oh, and your nice air bags? They are OFF!
Now it looks like Toyota tried to play their situation "old school" ... using engineering data, government studies, common sense, all that old crap ... and while they did avoid having anyone go to the pokey, it was expensive.
THIS TIME, GM (Government Motors) has a different approach. They named Mary Barra CEO. BO invited her to the SOTU, and she has been a regular contributor to his Lowness! Well, piss down my back and tell me it's rainin!
I'm betting that things to A LOT better for GM than they did for Toyota. What do you think?
Koch is Biggest Oil Sands Player
Washington Post Falls For Left-Wing Fraud, Embarrasses Itself | Power Line:
Only, of course they are not, that is just what the WaPO and a bunch of other lefty mouthpieces reported. They are barely a player at all as is easily and fully shown by this column.
** But that is not what I want to write about!!
I've been reading a bit too much "left" lately. "The Fox effect" and "Dog whistle politics" are books I'm slogging through for example. What more deeply thinking people need to understand is that for those on the left, Koch = EVIL, and articles like the one dissected here are taken as FACT!
Thy become enmeshed a world view where Fox News, racism, evil big business, big money, Citizens United and a vastly longer list of things are part of a woven tapestry where "what EVERYONE knows"! Or at least "all right (correct) thinking reasonably intelligent people" ... and lord knows (a generic, imaginary lord) that NOBODY would want to be associated with "those people" (shhh, almost all of them are WHITE, but we are not racists here ... THEY are racists, you can even be white and be "one of us" as long as you say exactly the right stuff!).
So the NYT, Public Radio, NBC, Slate, etc, really have no other choice than to HATE all things Koch and attack them by ALL means, both legal or not. The MUST be stopped! Their brand of "speech" is not acceptable!
Meanwhile, they are completely blind to the actual top donors, both in groups or as individuals. "ActBlue, AFSME, IBEW, American Federation of Teachers, American Assn for Justice ..." are nearly unknown relative to "BIG MONEY in politics". Individually, compare how often you hear "Katzenberg, Goldman, Simons, Eychaner and Linbeck" of which Linbeck, the little guy gave $1.25M in just 2012. Meanwhile, OpenSecrets, certainly no "conservative organization" ranks them ALL TIME at #59 with 18M TOTAL from 89-2014.
But Koch is the name that has been branded by the media as evil -- pretty much as well as "Coke" (pronounced the same) is branded as a really good soft drink.
It is relatively hard work to look at a couple points of view and at least understand that it all isn't NEARLY as "cut and dried" as we would all love to have it.
In the universe proffered by "US education, the MSM, US entertainment, etc" the physical universe is daily observed by "experts", thought about, analyzed with "complete lack of bias" (other than "facts and logic"), and then lovingly fed to us all in completely easy to digest hunks that all link up wonderfully into a grand, correct, satisfying, objective, reasonable, popular, morally pleasing, somewhat comforting -- but still needing each of us to fight the clear "bad guys" view of what is happening.
Then there are evil sorts like myself and the Koch brothers that say that universe is false -- and indeed that the universe that I inhabit is FALSE AS WELL, with the exception that I will claim there IS an understandable transcendent framework for what we all see with meaning and direction from a loving God.
But that is by FAITH ... , but so is the alternate view that it is all random and meaningless with the exception of the wonderful "meaning" described above as "the standard world view". With that view, your "hope" is that you were right!
I say you get to pick, but BO, WaPO, NPR, etc say, no you don't! -- unless you want to be an idiot.
Eventually though, if not already, your speech or other activity is labeled as "hate" or something else "not of the will of today's truth", so you run afoul of the IRS, NSA, EPA, or some other alphabet agency and become not just "wrong", but CRIMINAL.
So maybe it is safer to just think that the Koch's ARE the biggest oil sands player?
'via Blog this'
Only, of course they are not, that is just what the WaPO and a bunch of other lefty mouthpieces reported. They are barely a player at all as is easily and fully shown by this column.
** But that is not what I want to write about!!
I've been reading a bit too much "left" lately. "The Fox effect" and "Dog whistle politics" are books I'm slogging through for example. What more deeply thinking people need to understand is that for those on the left, Koch = EVIL, and articles like the one dissected here are taken as FACT!
Thy become enmeshed a world view where Fox News, racism, evil big business, big money, Citizens United and a vastly longer list of things are part of a woven tapestry where "what EVERYONE knows"! Or at least "all right (correct) thinking reasonably intelligent people" ... and lord knows (a generic, imaginary lord) that NOBODY would want to be associated with "those people" (shhh, almost all of them are WHITE, but we are not racists here ... THEY are racists, you can even be white and be "one of us" as long as you say exactly the right stuff!).
So the NYT, Public Radio, NBC, Slate, etc, really have no other choice than to HATE all things Koch and attack them by ALL means, both legal or not. The MUST be stopped! Their brand of "speech" is not acceptable!
Meanwhile, they are completely blind to the actual top donors, both in groups or as individuals. "ActBlue, AFSME, IBEW, American Federation of Teachers, American Assn for Justice ..." are nearly unknown relative to "BIG MONEY in politics". Individually, compare how often you hear "Katzenberg, Goldman, Simons, Eychaner and Linbeck" of which Linbeck, the little guy gave $1.25M in just 2012. Meanwhile, OpenSecrets, certainly no "conservative organization" ranks them ALL TIME at #59 with 18M TOTAL from 89-2014.
But Koch is the name that has been branded by the media as evil -- pretty much as well as "Coke" (pronounced the same) is branded as a really good soft drink.
It is relatively hard work to look at a couple points of view and at least understand that it all isn't NEARLY as "cut and dried" as we would all love to have it.
In the universe proffered by "US education, the MSM, US entertainment, etc" the physical universe is daily observed by "experts", thought about, analyzed with "complete lack of bias" (other than "facts and logic"), and then lovingly fed to us all in completely easy to digest hunks that all link up wonderfully into a grand, correct, satisfying, objective, reasonable, popular, morally pleasing, somewhat comforting -- but still needing each of us to fight the clear "bad guys" view of what is happening.
Then there are evil sorts like myself and the Koch brothers that say that universe is false -- and indeed that the universe that I inhabit is FALSE AS WELL, with the exception that I will claim there IS an understandable transcendent framework for what we all see with meaning and direction from a loving God.
But that is by FAITH ... , but so is the alternate view that it is all random and meaningless with the exception of the wonderful "meaning" described above as "the standard world view". With that view, your "hope" is that you were right!
I say you get to pick, but BO, WaPO, NPR, etc say, no you don't! -- unless you want to be an idiot.
Eventually though, if not already, your speech or other activity is labeled as "hate" or something else "not of the will of today's truth", so you run afoul of the IRS, NSA, EPA, or some other alphabet agency and become not just "wrong", but CRIMINAL.
So maybe it is safer to just think that the Koch's ARE the biggest oil sands player?
'via Blog this'
Friday, March 21, 2014
Understanding Conservatives Via Facebook
What Facebook can tell us about conservatives:
First the learned published theory:
When you have high demand and low supply people are anxious to access the low supply information and share it by lots of means ... Facebook, word of mouth, etc.
Liberal media perspective on the web, cable, radio, etc is a saturated commodity. Liberals have NO need to post anything from "marginal sites", because NBC, CNN, NPR, NYT, HuffPo (which USED to be considered "left wing"), etc are FULL of any story with a liberal slant that they could possibly desire! True, false, slanted, insane, etc ... ALL are completely available and easy to find.
Everyone always gets exactly the view they want AND MORE on the liberal view blasted at them 24x7 from EVERYWHERE! Even supposed "conservative media" STILL present the liberal view and generally just respond to it (like this blog). When a liberal outlet deigns to mention a conservative view, it is often castigated as being part of the "echo chamber" for even having mentioned the "false" view.
If you add "conservative" and "moderate" together, 75% if US people identify as one or the other, where only 21% identify as liberal. (see Gallup data)
The book "Left Turn" is a very good attempt by a couple of university professors, based on PEER REVIEWED RESEARCH (the magic wand!) to figure out:
1) Where the American people are relative to bias (like "40")
2) Where a bunch of media and institutions are
3) Where our politicians are
Here are a couple of charts from that book
Basically, Joe Lieberman was about a 75, most Americans cluster around 40, standard MSM is around 70, and Fox is like 50.
So there is my "supply and demand theory" ... or the other guy and Hillary could be right and there is a highly organized right wing conspiracy that is taking these things and in an organized way posting them on FB!
You make the call.
'via Blog this'
First the learned published theory:
Here's my theory. Conservatives are a remarkably well-organized and tight-knit group. It's why every book from a conservative author shoots to the top of the best-seller list. It's why Fox News Channel's primetime programming regularly doubles that of its cable competition. It's why Rush Limbaugh has no talk radio equal among liberals. It's not terribly surprising then that organizational closeness extends to the digital space where conservative use Facebook to share stories/links from a handful of conservative websites.Here is my theory. Supply and Demand.
When you have high demand and low supply people are anxious to access the low supply information and share it by lots of means ... Facebook, word of mouth, etc.
Liberal media perspective on the web, cable, radio, etc is a saturated commodity. Liberals have NO need to post anything from "marginal sites", because NBC, CNN, NPR, NYT, HuffPo (which USED to be considered "left wing"), etc are FULL of any story with a liberal slant that they could possibly desire! True, false, slanted, insane, etc ... ALL are completely available and easy to find.
Everyone always gets exactly the view they want AND MORE on the liberal view blasted at them 24x7 from EVERYWHERE! Even supposed "conservative media" STILL present the liberal view and generally just respond to it (like this blog). When a liberal outlet deigns to mention a conservative view, it is often castigated as being part of the "echo chamber" for even having mentioned the "false" view.
If you add "conservative" and "moderate" together, 75% if US people identify as one or the other, where only 21% identify as liberal. (see Gallup data)
The book "Left Turn" is a very good attempt by a couple of university professors, based on PEER REVIEWED RESEARCH (the magic wand!) to figure out:
1) Where the American people are relative to bias (like "40")
2) Where a bunch of media and institutions are
3) Where our politicians are
Here are a couple of charts from that book
Basically, Joe Lieberman was about a 75, most Americans cluster around 40, standard MSM is around 70, and Fox is like 50.
So there is my "supply and demand theory" ... or the other guy and Hillary could be right and there is a highly organized right wing conspiracy that is taking these things and in an organized way posting them on FB!
You make the call.
'via Blog this'
Thursday, March 20, 2014
WaPo Questions BO Sophistry
President Obama’s foreign policy is based on fantasy - The Washington Post:
We all have a little sophist and/or narcissist in us -- the idea that the rest of the universe is just a reflection of us, that "everyone else is like us". Mostly it is pretty innocuous, it just gets costly when we are foolish enough to elect a leader deep in the immaterialist fog.
It is actually why "liberals" have so much trouble with evil, Hitler, Jeffry Dahmer or someone being a "conservative". They fervently believe that since THEY are absolutely "good inside", and there is no god, devil, or "dark side" in the universe, it HAS to be a case of "poor education, being exposed to religion, mental illness, or SOMETHING other than an actual diverse universe where everyone ISN'T "just like them"!!!!!
OMG, that CAN'T be true!!!!
Except as WaPo seems to be noticing, it IS! We really DO have to "pay attention to that man behind the curtain". No matter how fervently you believe that all matter exists only in your head, there may be a Samuel Johnson that shows up and refutes your view thusly.
'via Blog this'
We all have a little sophist and/or narcissist in us -- the idea that the rest of the universe is just a reflection of us, that "everyone else is like us". Mostly it is pretty innocuous, it just gets costly when we are foolish enough to elect a leader deep in the immaterialist fog.
It is actually why "liberals" have so much trouble with evil, Hitler, Jeffry Dahmer or someone being a "conservative". They fervently believe that since THEY are absolutely "good inside", and there is no god, devil, or "dark side" in the universe, it HAS to be a case of "poor education, being exposed to religion, mental illness, or SOMETHING other than an actual diverse universe where everyone ISN'T "just like them"!!!!!
OMG, that CAN'T be true!!!!
Except as WaPo seems to be noticing, it IS! We really DO have to "pay attention to that man behind the curtain". No matter how fervently you believe that all matter exists only in your head, there may be a Samuel Johnson that shows up and refutes your view thusly.
'via Blog this'
Monday, March 17, 2014
Gay St Paddies Day
Erin Gay Bragh? | Power Line:
It isn't enough to be treated like everyone else if you are gay. You must be treated SPECIALLY! Rather odd, when the supposed claim is the desire to be "treated like everyone else". Only, it isn't -- the desire is to have your lifestyle constantly validated and CELEBRATED! If you actually believed in your lifestyle, you would not care.
So everyone else follows the rules for the parade -- business attire, no green funny outfits, two flags, one Irish, one US, and the only political statement allowed is "England get out of Ireland". There are no groups identifying their heterosexual preferences for boobs, blondes, butts or brunettes either.
Turns out the parade isn't about sex! Wow, what a concept! It is about Irish heritage and a SAINT! You don't get to eat, drink or smoke during the parade either, but the fact you don't is not a statement on the morality of any of the above.
If I go to someone's home that I know doesn't drink alcohol, I don't take wine, beer or whiskey even though I like all of the above. I don't have to always have my political or religious views expressed. I have them, they are mine. I not only don't need them validated, I'm absolutely fine if you want to question me on them or even denigrate them -- I will be very happy to defend them!
But we don't HAVE to have that discussion! I don't need to wear my NRA T-shirt into your left leaning wine tasting, nor bring my whisky bottle to your milk and cookies Southern Baptist softball game!
We are at a very strange place. EVERYTHING is REQUIRED to be politicized! It is not enough for SOME behavior to just be tolerated, it MUST be "celebrated"!!!
We don't demand that the drunk drink up everywhere -- why, it is DISCRIMINATORY for them to not be able to drink and drive! We don't need to have heterosexuals flaunting their preferences -- at work, in school, in the St Paddies day parade, etc.
Smokers? Good Lord! Do you suppose that anyone WANTS to be addicted to tobacco? or alcohol for that matter? Pedophilia? Gambling? Do you think that somebody decides "hey, this looks like a pretty good lifestyle, I think I'll have sex with kids"!
No, there are all sorts of inclinations, proclivities, weaknesses, mental tics, poor upbringing, bad choices etc that have to be controlled, kept private, avoided, regulated, criminalized, treated, etc. If Slick Willie was a captain of industry rather than a lefty politician, he would likely be a destitute ex-con in sex addiction recovery ... assuming that he could beat the Juanita Broadrick rape charge, or if not he would be someone's "girlfriend" having romantic tin tray meals.
Oh, on Slick, if you are on the left, compare the treatment of Anita Hill / Clarence Thomas with the treatment of Broadrick. Put W's face on Slick and THEN see what you think of the charges as presented in that bastion of right wing vitriol, Slate.
I really really hate the "we are going to boycott this and that" deal -- I find it to lack respect for TRUE pluralism and in my book "the American Way". Yes, Guinness really pisses me off by dropping out of the parade cuz the gays had a hissy fit, but the "I'm never going to drink Guinness again" feels like Carter shooting the US farmers in the back when the USSR invaded Afghanistan in the late '70s ... only it is ME taking the bullet by missing that very occasional pint of black tar.
Frankly, we have become a very limp wristed namby pamby nation in general -- China, Russia, some Arabs, etc are likely going to have to really spank our ass seriously before some manning up occurs. 9-11 just didn't really get the point across, and we are certainly asking for it now.
'via Blog this'
It isn't enough to be treated like everyone else if you are gay. You must be treated SPECIALLY! Rather odd, when the supposed claim is the desire to be "treated like everyone else". Only, it isn't -- the desire is to have your lifestyle constantly validated and CELEBRATED! If you actually believed in your lifestyle, you would not care.
So everyone else follows the rules for the parade -- business attire, no green funny outfits, two flags, one Irish, one US, and the only political statement allowed is "England get out of Ireland". There are no groups identifying their heterosexual preferences for boobs, blondes, butts or brunettes either.
Turns out the parade isn't about sex! Wow, what a concept! It is about Irish heritage and a SAINT! You don't get to eat, drink or smoke during the parade either, but the fact you don't is not a statement on the morality of any of the above.
If I go to someone's home that I know doesn't drink alcohol, I don't take wine, beer or whiskey even though I like all of the above. I don't have to always have my political or religious views expressed. I have them, they are mine. I not only don't need them validated, I'm absolutely fine if you want to question me on them or even denigrate them -- I will be very happy to defend them!
But we don't HAVE to have that discussion! I don't need to wear my NRA T-shirt into your left leaning wine tasting, nor bring my whisky bottle to your milk and cookies Southern Baptist softball game!
We are at a very strange place. EVERYTHING is REQUIRED to be politicized! It is not enough for SOME behavior to just be tolerated, it MUST be "celebrated"!!!
We don't demand that the drunk drink up everywhere -- why, it is DISCRIMINATORY for them to not be able to drink and drive! We don't need to have heterosexuals flaunting their preferences -- at work, in school, in the St Paddies day parade, etc.
Smokers? Good Lord! Do you suppose that anyone WANTS to be addicted to tobacco? or alcohol for that matter? Pedophilia? Gambling? Do you think that somebody decides "hey, this looks like a pretty good lifestyle, I think I'll have sex with kids"!
No, there are all sorts of inclinations, proclivities, weaknesses, mental tics, poor upbringing, bad choices etc that have to be controlled, kept private, avoided, regulated, criminalized, treated, etc. If Slick Willie was a captain of industry rather than a lefty politician, he would likely be a destitute ex-con in sex addiction recovery ... assuming that he could beat the Juanita Broadrick rape charge, or if not he would be someone's "girlfriend" having romantic tin tray meals.
Oh, on Slick, if you are on the left, compare the treatment of Anita Hill / Clarence Thomas with the treatment of Broadrick. Put W's face on Slick and THEN see what you think of the charges as presented in that bastion of right wing vitriol, Slate.
I really really hate the "we are going to boycott this and that" deal -- I find it to lack respect for TRUE pluralism and in my book "the American Way". Yes, Guinness really pisses me off by dropping out of the parade cuz the gays had a hissy fit, but the "I'm never going to drink Guinness again" feels like Carter shooting the US farmers in the back when the USSR invaded Afghanistan in the late '70s ... only it is ME taking the bullet by missing that very occasional pint of black tar.
Frankly, we have become a very limp wristed namby pamby nation in general -- China, Russia, some Arabs, etc are likely going to have to really spank our ass seriously before some manning up occurs. 9-11 just didn't really get the point across, and we are certainly asking for it now.
'via Blog this'
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Fox Effect Book
Sometimes it is good to realize how we got BO for President. Skip ahead if you need to ... it is AMAZING how "well informed" these voters were on Palin -- or at least the Tina Fey parody of Palin. Our MSM does to a great job of getting it's political message out there -- even when it is a parody. Remember, this is 2008 for those reading this in the future.
I've been trying to SLOG through "The Fox Effect" by David Brock, founder of "Media Matters", who says in their "About Us" section:
"Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media."
Got that? Media Matters IS a 501c3 CHARITY! The IRS worked hard (and unsurprisingly) Media Matters agrees that Tea Party organizations should NOT have tax exempt status because they are PARTISAN! Good thing that MM is doing a public service by monitoring for CONSERVATIVE bias! Can't be having any of that, and to be searching for ONLY "conservative bias" is clearly "non-partisan", so it is great that Media Matters is a 501c3! Got that? This is how things work in a single party state!
Why, Fox listeners are ill informed!! They don't KNOW that Climate Change is settled science. They don't know that BOcare is going to SAVE us money! They don't know that "anyone that likes their healthcare can keep it!" They don't know that W was completely responsible for the 2009 budget! (not even liberals are smart enough to know that the House is responsible to set the budget) .... See, "facts" are not up for discussion, and only the left has "facts"!
I may not be able to get through this book ... essentially it's whole point is "Fox is biased"!!!! HORROR!!!
Did you know that Fox brought up quotes out of BO's "Dreams From My Father" book??? This of course is NOT "journalism" ... like sending teams of folks to scour anything they they can to try to dig up something on W from his days in the National Guard. Hey, he might not have been the worlds best FIGHTER PILOT! Clearly complete disqualification for being president!
.... how DARE you mention that BO discussed the idea of "filtering his Mom's white blood out of his body"? IN HIS OWN BOOK! Unlike W maybe not being the greatest National Guard pilot (and not even bragging that he was), which is TERRIBLE! If we could get some "fake but true" documents to "prove" that he wasn't (even though he never said he was), would that be a crime?
Roger Ailes worked for Nixon ... uh, but Chris Matthews worked for Edmund Muskie, ran as a Democrat in Pennsylvania for congress and lost, was chief of staff for Tip O'Neil and was a speechwriter for Carter ... but he is a "good guy", no "bias" or even problem there!
Tim Russert was chief of staff to Daniel Moynihan and counsel to Mario Cuomo ... so he had experience!
Actually, it IS OK ... to me at least. I EXPECT that ALL people are going to have bias! Unlike the voters in the linked video, it would be VERY nice if they also had some clue about reality beyond the biased view, but I also know that I'm in a distinct minority on that theory.
Public Radio and TV are probably where I have the most difficulty. Every time I hear them say "we have PROOF that we are in the middle or the road because we get complaints BOTH that we are too liberal and too conservative"!!
Well DUH! Every self selecting set ... a church, a gun club, NRA, Sierra Club, etc, etc is going to have a "bell shaped curve population" ... half on one side and half on the other with most clustered around the middle!!!
Why? They select themselves! In general (excluding odd Mooses) the people listening to NPR feel that it is a "reliable and proper source for news" ... half of them will find it a bit on the liberal side, and half of them will find it a bit on the conservative side ... but those closest to the middle (the majority) will pretty much find it to be Goldilocks ("just right").
Most people feel the same way about the hoppiness of the beer they drink, the hotness of their food, etc. etc. It is one of the most basic parts of statistics to understand this! It doesn't get any more basic than "the bell shaped curve"
We are ALL biased, and that is GOOD! We are NOT all biased in the same way ... thus we have something to talk about!
So why don't "liberals" think the same way? Because they KNOW that they are right! Not only that, they KNOW that conservatives are either stupid, evil or both! Thus, Fox needs to be stamped out ... along with anyone else that would ask questions of BO voters and make them look bad!
"Liberals" have the unconstrained view of mankind and believe that "key intelligent experts" need to get everyone's mind right. The "masses" are just not smart enough to understand the nuance and brilliance of the elite "liberal" view of the world, so it is only as a public service that they want to make sure that the horribly wrong thoughts of people not smart enough to see things their way are stamped out as quickly as possible!
'via Blog this'
Why, Fox listeners are ill informed!! They don't KNOW that Climate Change is settled science. They don't know that BOcare is going to SAVE us money! They don't know that "anyone that likes their healthcare can keep it!" They don't know that W was completely responsible for the 2009 budget! (not even liberals are smart enough to know that the House is responsible to set the budget) .... See, "facts" are not up for discussion, and only the left has "facts"!
I may not be able to get through this book ... essentially it's whole point is "Fox is biased"!!!! HORROR!!!
Did you know that Fox brought up quotes out of BO's "Dreams From My Father" book??? This of course is NOT "journalism" ... like sending teams of folks to scour anything they they can to try to dig up something on W from his days in the National Guard. Hey, he might not have been the worlds best FIGHTER PILOT! Clearly complete disqualification for being president!
.... how DARE you mention that BO discussed the idea of "filtering his Mom's white blood out of his body"? IN HIS OWN BOOK! Unlike W maybe not being the greatest National Guard pilot (and not even bragging that he was), which is TERRIBLE! If we could get some "fake but true" documents to "prove" that he wasn't (even though he never said he was), would that be a crime?
Roger Ailes worked for Nixon ... uh, but Chris Matthews worked for Edmund Muskie, ran as a Democrat in Pennsylvania for congress and lost, was chief of staff for Tip O'Neil and was a speechwriter for Carter ... but he is a "good guy", no "bias" or even problem there!
Tim Russert was chief of staff to Daniel Moynihan and counsel to Mario Cuomo ... so he had experience!
Actually, it IS OK ... to me at least. I EXPECT that ALL people are going to have bias! Unlike the voters in the linked video, it would be VERY nice if they also had some clue about reality beyond the biased view, but I also know that I'm in a distinct minority on that theory.
Public Radio and TV are probably where I have the most difficulty. Every time I hear them say "we have PROOF that we are in the middle or the road because we get complaints BOTH that we are too liberal and too conservative"!!
Well DUH! Every self selecting set ... a church, a gun club, NRA, Sierra Club, etc, etc is going to have a "bell shaped curve population" ... half on one side and half on the other with most clustered around the middle!!!
Why? They select themselves! In general (excluding odd Mooses) the people listening to NPR feel that it is a "reliable and proper source for news" ... half of them will find it a bit on the liberal side, and half of them will find it a bit on the conservative side ... but those closest to the middle (the majority) will pretty much find it to be Goldilocks ("just right").
Most people feel the same way about the hoppiness of the beer they drink, the hotness of their food, etc. etc. It is one of the most basic parts of statistics to understand this! It doesn't get any more basic than "the bell shaped curve"
We are ALL biased, and that is GOOD! We are NOT all biased in the same way ... thus we have something to talk about!
So why don't "liberals" think the same way? Because they KNOW that they are right! Not only that, they KNOW that conservatives are either stupid, evil or both! Thus, Fox needs to be stamped out ... along with anyone else that would ask questions of BO voters and make them look bad!
"Liberals" have the unconstrained view of mankind and believe that "key intelligent experts" need to get everyone's mind right. The "masses" are just not smart enough to understand the nuance and brilliance of the elite "liberal" view of the world, so it is only as a public service that they want to make sure that the horribly wrong thoughts of people not smart enough to see things their way are stamped out as quickly as possible!
'via Blog this'
Friday, March 14, 2014
Ted Cruz Speaks Truth to Dirty Harry
Oh, Snap: Ted Cruz Fearlessly Calls Out Harry Reid For ‘Villifying’ Private Citizens on Senate Floor:
Somebody needs to get Reid back on his meds and off to professional help so he can maybe get a slight re-connect with this particular universe.
In the meantime, this is WELL worth the short time to watch.
'via Blog this'
Somebody needs to get Reid back on his meds and off to professional help so he can maybe get a slight re-connect with this particular universe.
In the meantime, this is WELL worth the short time to watch.
'via Blog this'
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Merging Self-Righteousness with Empirical Delusion
‘Free to Be’ Boys and Girls: 40 Years After the Failed Gender Revolution | TIME.com:
The title is a good description of the "liberal" thought process, which unsurprisingly OFTEN (always?) results in "idealistic social fantasies that are blueprints for repression".
Do we really need more "cautionary stories"? Take the idea of either "intention", or "great reverence for millions of years of randomness" out of creation, replace it with "self-righteousness and empirical delusions", and is there EVER a result other than disaster for at least thousands if not millions of people, up to and including mass slaughter?
America's "war on poverty" is certainly an example of how an idealistic social fantasy turned into a blueprint for repression. The black male was replaced by the government as head of household. So he and his sons vacated said home for the streets, drugs, swagger and violence. Thus, in huge numbers they end up incarcerated or dead.
We may be created in God's image, but it is less than a cartoon image. We are NOT "little gods".
'via Blog this'
The writer Andrew Sullivan is right when hedescribesthe sex difference as “so obvious no one really doubted it until very recently, when the blank-slate left emerged, That delusion was jumpstarted in 1974 with the advent of “Free To Be… You and Me.” Today, an army of gender scholars and activists is marching in support of the genderless ideal. But these warriors forget that ignoring differences between boys and girls can be just as damaging as creating differences where none exist. “Free to Be” is a cautionary example of how an idealistic social fantasy can turn into a blueprint for repression
The title is a good description of the "liberal" thought process, which unsurprisingly OFTEN (always?) results in "idealistic social fantasies that are blueprints for repression".
Do we really need more "cautionary stories"? Take the idea of either "intention", or "great reverence for millions of years of randomness" out of creation, replace it with "self-righteousness and empirical delusions", and is there EVER a result other than disaster for at least thousands if not millions of people, up to and including mass slaughter?
America's "war on poverty" is certainly an example of how an idealistic social fantasy turned into a blueprint for repression. The black male was replaced by the government as head of household. So he and his sons vacated said home for the streets, drugs, swagger and violence. Thus, in huge numbers they end up incarcerated or dead.
We may be created in God's image, but it is less than a cartoon image. We are NOT "little gods".
'via Blog this'
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
A World Without National Socialism
I watched the excellent movie "Downfall" about the last days with Hitler in the bunker at the end of WWII. It is told based on interviews with his young female secretary who was 22 at the time she was picked to work for Hitler, as well as information from others in the inner circle that survived.
A lot of you have seen a clip from it since it is the base for hundreds of parodies about "Hitler is told", my favorite being Hitler being told that they couldn't get him a Harley to ride to Sturgis. My wife is kind of like his secretary in the hallway saying "that's OK, we'll find some REAL BIKERS!"
The biggest thing that struck me was Magda Goebbels, the wife of Joseph Goebbels killing all six of their young children because "she didn't want them to live in a world without National Socialism".
What a shame, they could have just moved to Russia, or even Great Britain a few years later, or just have waited around for the "last days of BO", so at least their grandkids would have been "happy".
"Socialism, Communism, Fascism, etc" are all "worship of the state". For people that think, they MUST be atheistic, even though in their early stages their adherents will try to soft pedal the "Godless" aspect a bit. Hitler had very strong faith that you put a bullet through your brain and what you get is "peace" ... well perhaps, I've been reading Dante's Inferno lately ... there are ALWAYS alternatives!
When you worship man (and you WILL worship, your brain is built that way) ... collectively or in the individual ... yourself, Hitler, BO, it really makes no difference, it is simply idolatry, and humans are GREAT at idolatry.
The second thing that hit me was the young SS rounding up old men that failed to muster for defense of Berlin and shooting or hanging them as cowards. A set of them is confronted by a Waffen officer, and the SS officer says "who is going to stop me? them? you?" as he is gunning them down.
Ah, how much less boldness such officers would have if the population had .460 S&W mags and .223 ARs. One only needs to see a few of your buddies blown away to get a LOT slower at searching out the old coots that have "failed" to follow "Mien Fuhrer" or "The One!" as required. Standing out in open in the street shooting a few of your fellow citizens is cause for a lot less arrogance when it regularly results in your troop dying ignominiously in a hail of bullets.
Make no mistake, gun control is about CONTROL, a free person NEVER gives up their arms!
I wonder how many Americans under 30 can even tell you that "Nazi" stood for "National Socialist"? "Those that fail History are doomed to repeat it".
Ah yes, the dream of living in a world without ANY form of Statism ... Communism, Socialism, Fascism, etc. Once our founders dreamed of such, but in the words of Franklin when asked what kind of government the Congress had wrought, he replied; "A Republic if you can keep it".
Alas, we could not.
A lot of you have seen a clip from it since it is the base for hundreds of parodies about "Hitler is told", my favorite being Hitler being told that they couldn't get him a Harley to ride to Sturgis. My wife is kind of like his secretary in the hallway saying "that's OK, we'll find some REAL BIKERS!"
The biggest thing that struck me was Magda Goebbels, the wife of Joseph Goebbels killing all six of their young children because "she didn't want them to live in a world without National Socialism".
What a shame, they could have just moved to Russia, or even Great Britain a few years later, or just have waited around for the "last days of BO", so at least their grandkids would have been "happy".
"Socialism, Communism, Fascism, etc" are all "worship of the state". For people that think, they MUST be atheistic, even though in their early stages their adherents will try to soft pedal the "Godless" aspect a bit. Hitler had very strong faith that you put a bullet through your brain and what you get is "peace" ... well perhaps, I've been reading Dante's Inferno lately ... there are ALWAYS alternatives!
When you worship man (and you WILL worship, your brain is built that way) ... collectively or in the individual ... yourself, Hitler, BO, it really makes no difference, it is simply idolatry, and humans are GREAT at idolatry.
The second thing that hit me was the young SS rounding up old men that failed to muster for defense of Berlin and shooting or hanging them as cowards. A set of them is confronted by a Waffen officer, and the SS officer says "who is going to stop me? them? you?" as he is gunning them down.
Ah, how much less boldness such officers would have if the population had .460 S&W mags and .223 ARs. One only needs to see a few of your buddies blown away to get a LOT slower at searching out the old coots that have "failed" to follow "Mien Fuhrer" or "The One!" as required. Standing out in open in the street shooting a few of your fellow citizens is cause for a lot less arrogance when it regularly results in your troop dying ignominiously in a hail of bullets.
Make no mistake, gun control is about CONTROL, a free person NEVER gives up their arms!
I wonder how many Americans under 30 can even tell you that "Nazi" stood for "National Socialist"? "Those that fail History are doomed to repeat it".
Ah yes, the dream of living in a world without ANY form of Statism ... Communism, Socialism, Fascism, etc. Once our founders dreamed of such, but in the words of Franklin when asked what kind of government the Congress had wrought, he replied; "A Republic if you can keep it".
Alas, we could not.
Libertarian Fails to Sink Republican
In Florida, Republicans win first election showdown of the year - CNN.com:
I happened to catch NPR yesterday talking about how "this race COULD show that BOcare is OK" and then extolling the virtues of the "strong Libertarian candidate". The Democrats ran a candidate that narrowly lost the race for Governor in 2010 and poured money into the race in a district that BO won in 2012.
Often their "change" is another far lefty like Mark Dayton, and the fact that the Libertarian killed the Republican candidate naturally gets no coverage in the media -- be a shame to have some of those folks return to earth!
So in this case, the strong Libertarian failed to hand the election to the Democrats, but I'll bet that some of the lefty donors were throwing a bit of money that way. NPR was sure as heck doing all they could to point out how strong a candidate that Libertarian was!
Given this outcome though, FL 13 is like MH370, gone without a trace! Had the outcome been the other way, it would be headline news today "BOcare Wins!"
'via Blog this'
I happened to catch NPR yesterday talking about how "this race COULD show that BOcare is OK" and then extolling the virtues of the "strong Libertarian candidate". The Democrats ran a candidate that narrowly lost the race for Governor in 2010 and poured money into the race in a district that BO won in 2012.
Jolly won 48.5% of the vote, and Sink got just under 47%. Libertarian candidate Lucas Overby was a distant third, with just under 5% of the ballots cast.48.5 + 5 = 53.5 vs 47%, it would have been a LANDSLIDE! Everyone knows that Libertarians take votes away from Republicans, the MSM just fails to talk about it. Oh sure, they can always find the INSANE Libertarian that says "we pull votes equally", and for those that are from this planet, their choice is pretty simple: There is the candidate on the statist left, the Democrat, then there is the middle candidate, the Republican, who I freely admit is usually WAY too far to the left, and then there is the Libertarian on the right ... edging over toward that anarchistic right hand. The Libertarian makes the claim that the R and the D are tweedle D and tweedle Dum, so it MAKES NO DIFFERENCE, and they MUST pull the L lever to "create REAL " ... and because the other lifeforms on their planet are doing it.
Often their "change" is another far lefty like Mark Dayton, and the fact that the Libertarian killed the Republican candidate naturally gets no coverage in the media -- be a shame to have some of those folks return to earth!
So in this case, the strong Libertarian failed to hand the election to the Democrats, but I'll bet that some of the lefty donors were throwing a bit of money that way. NPR was sure as heck doing all they could to point out how strong a candidate that Libertarian was!
Given this outcome though, FL 13 is like MH370, gone without a trace! Had the outcome been the other way, it would be headline news today "BOcare Wins!"
'via Blog this'
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Driving to Hawaii
Watch Cory Booker Claim He ‘Drove To Hawaii’ As A Teenager During Climate Talkathon:
Perhaps when the ice age gets a little deeper, Democrats actually can drive to Hawaii. Certainly, the claim that a Democratic Senator drove there on his first road trip is about as factual as the whole spectacle of the Democrats in general.
They DO control the Senate, and have already been very willing to use various dodges to evade the filibuster, so could go ahead and pass cap and trade if they wanted to. (which they failed to do even when they DID have 60 votes AND the house in '09-'10). But if they DID go on record as passing it, they wouldn't be about to get it through the House.
But what does that matter? If they had the strength of their convictions they would WANT to be on record as having passed it ... as the House as been on record more than once passing legislation to repeal or delay BOcare. Those actions received universal denigration in the media, but naturally when BO ILLEGALLY modifies and delays pieces willy nilly that is JUST FINE!
Never mind, the all-nighter was just a fund raising stunt, but the nice part of being a Democrat is that pretty much nobody that matters even cares to point out the obvious if it could be taken as "not reflecting well on Democrats".
'via Blog this'
Perhaps when the ice age gets a little deeper, Democrats actually can drive to Hawaii. Certainly, the claim that a Democratic Senator drove there on his first road trip is about as factual as the whole spectacle of the Democrats in general.
They DO control the Senate, and have already been very willing to use various dodges to evade the filibuster, so could go ahead and pass cap and trade if they wanted to. (which they failed to do even when they DID have 60 votes AND the house in '09-'10). But if they DID go on record as passing it, they wouldn't be about to get it through the House.
But what does that matter? If they had the strength of their convictions they would WANT to be on record as having passed it ... as the House as been on record more than once passing legislation to repeal or delay BOcare. Those actions received universal denigration in the media, but naturally when BO ILLEGALLY modifies and delays pieces willy nilly that is JUST FINE!
Never mind, the all-nighter was just a fund raising stunt, but the nice part of being a Democrat is that pretty much nobody that matters even cares to point out the obvious if it could be taken as "not reflecting well on Democrats".
'via Blog this'
Koch's $4.4 BILLION Political Purchase
Kim Strassel: The Really Big Money? Not the Kochs - WSJ.com:
I love this little shot of BO's top contributors -- drawn from the records because you have to say where you work when you contribute:
You might like need to zoom in a bit, but I'll give you the highlights:
#1, University of California, with SIX universities on the list.
4 either "US Government" or specific agencies.
Microsoft, Google, and IBM in that order.
The only reason that the left hates Citizen's United so much is that it gives conservatives a CHANCE to even up the spending a TINY bit ... but they STILL have to counteract NPR, NYT, NBC, CBS, CNN. MSNBC, etc. Do you REALLY think that the IRS even cares for an instant how much money comes from where on the left? Good gravy, the people working at the government gave $1.7 M JUST TO BO!!! On the record ... and how hard do you think any limits are being enforced on that side?
We now KNOW that the IRS does specific political targeting against conservative groups (how many times must Lois Learner take the 5th before you believe that if you don't by now?). So we KNOW that the IRS targets conservative groups, AND we know that they are going to completely walk on it! Frankly, not enough people care enough to make it even a MINOR issue!
Would you bet that they are going to "go after" left leaning groups that funnel too much money into the coffers of candidates that are on their side?? It is for this reason that we ought not have ANY restrictions on campaign money and abolish the IRS meddling with a FLAT TAX.
Powerline has reported on the MANY New York Times slurs on the Koch Brothers.
Amazingly, it has gotten so over the top that NURSES in NYC are demonstrating AGAINST the Koch's giving $100 MILLION to a hospital!!
There are people that STILL claim to not understand "how could Germany have killed 6 million Jews"?
The hatred of the Jews didn't happen overnight. The blood of the French Revolution wasn't some "spur of the moment" random happening. When the Communists took over in Russia, the "wealthy" had to be suitably demonized before people were willing to see them killed. (and having them afraid was helpful too)
I wonder how many people on the left mispronounce the name Koch to be like Ed "Kaatch", the former Jewish mayor of NYC??? Apparently the "Coke" brothers are not Jewish, but the level of demonization of them makes one wonder if there isn't a desire for confusion. Democrats go in for "southern strategy", "racial codewords", etc on FAR less of a connection!
The left is going for "closure" here. They want Fox shut down, they want the Kochs to SHUT UP, and they want conservatives everywhere to get the message that they need to lie low an MAYBE nothing bad will happen to them (for now).
Mostly, we are all standing around while any semblance of political thought diversity is rooted out and destroyed before our very eyes. Communism and Socialism ( including National Socialism) can only win when the opposition is silenced -- and they are willing to do anything to make that happen!
'via Blog this'
Mr. Reid was quite agitated on the Senate floor about "unlimited money," by which he must have been referring to the $4.4 billion that unions had spent on politics from 2005 to 2011 alone,Oh, I mean UNIONS, never mind, the Koch's were #59 on the list on the Open Secrets list they are 45th, with a LOT of unions above them.
I love this little shot of BO's top contributors -- drawn from the records because you have to say where you work when you contribute:
You might like need to zoom in a bit, but I'll give you the highlights:
#1, University of California, with SIX universities on the list.
4 either "US Government" or specific agencies.
Microsoft, Google, and IBM in that order.
The only reason that the left hates Citizen's United so much is that it gives conservatives a CHANCE to even up the spending a TINY bit ... but they STILL have to counteract NPR, NYT, NBC, CBS, CNN. MSNBC, etc. Do you REALLY think that the IRS even cares for an instant how much money comes from where on the left? Good gravy, the people working at the government gave $1.7 M JUST TO BO!!! On the record ... and how hard do you think any limits are being enforced on that side?
We now KNOW that the IRS does specific political targeting against conservative groups (how many times must Lois Learner take the 5th before you believe that if you don't by now?). So we KNOW that the IRS targets conservative groups, AND we know that they are going to completely walk on it! Frankly, not enough people care enough to make it even a MINOR issue!
Would you bet that they are going to "go after" left leaning groups that funnel too much money into the coffers of candidates that are on their side?? It is for this reason that we ought not have ANY restrictions on campaign money and abolish the IRS meddling with a FLAT TAX.
Powerline has reported on the MANY New York Times slurs on the Koch Brothers.
Amazingly, it has gotten so over the top that NURSES in NYC are demonstrating AGAINST the Koch's giving $100 MILLION to a hospital!!
There are people that STILL claim to not understand "how could Germany have killed 6 million Jews"?
The hatred of the Jews didn't happen overnight. The blood of the French Revolution wasn't some "spur of the moment" random happening. When the Communists took over in Russia, the "wealthy" had to be suitably demonized before people were willing to see them killed. (and having them afraid was helpful too)
I wonder how many people on the left mispronounce the name Koch to be like Ed "Kaatch", the former Jewish mayor of NYC??? Apparently the "Coke" brothers are not Jewish, but the level of demonization of them makes one wonder if there isn't a desire for confusion. Democrats go in for "southern strategy", "racial codewords", etc on FAR less of a connection!
The left is going for "closure" here. They want Fox shut down, they want the Kochs to SHUT UP, and they want conservatives everywhere to get the message that they need to lie low an MAYBE nothing bad will happen to them (for now).
Mostly, we are all standing around while any semblance of political thought diversity is rooted out and destroyed before our very eyes. Communism and Socialism ( including National Socialism) can only win when the opposition is silenced -- and they are willing to do anything to make that happen!
'via Blog this'
Monday, March 10, 2014
Liberty, Equality, Efficiency
Liberty, Equality, Efficiency - NYTimes.com:
Paul prattles on about how if you are one of the "40 million children living in poverty", equality of opportunity is a "cruel joke". What he doesn't say is that this is after 50 years of "war on poverty" which has primarily given us a vast number of single parent homes, drug addiction and urban violence. So far the "liberal" policies that were supposed to improve lives for the poor have made things worse -- but never mind, the ONLY "reasonable thing to do" is to double down on those policies!
Ah, "efficient" -- somehow those experts are ALWAYS certain that they can be "efficient". Tyranny IS a highly efficient form of government, but one needs to check if the "trains" are on time running to the amusement park or to the crematorium!
'via Blog this'
So does reducing inequality through redistribution hurt economic growth? Not according to two landmark studies by economists at the International Monetary Fund, which is hardly a leftist organization.So "left" is statist control by small groups of experts, and "right" is distributed liberty of control by everyone. It is obvious that a small international organization of "experts" that controls money on a world wide bases is NOT "leftist"? Well, if it isn't, then what WOULD a "leftist organization" be? Also recall that the IMF thinks that global wealth confiscation from the savings of the middle class is "the only way out" of the current GLOBAL economic crisis that includes Europe ... who Paul thinks we STILL need to emulate.
Paul prattles on about how if you are one of the "40 million children living in poverty", equality of opportunity is a "cruel joke". What he doesn't say is that this is after 50 years of "war on poverty" which has primarily given us a vast number of single parent homes, drug addiction and urban violence. So far the "liberal" policies that were supposed to improve lives for the poor have made things worse -- but never mind, the ONLY "reasonable thing to do" is to double down on those policies!
Ah, "efficient" -- somehow those experts are ALWAYS certain that they can be "efficient". Tyranny IS a highly efficient form of government, but one needs to check if the "trains" are on time running to the amusement park or to the crematorium!
'via Blog this'
Sunday, March 09, 2014
Rspect for BO
Obama Misspells 'Respect' While Honoring Aretha Franklin, CNN Covers for Him | National Review Online:
I'm quite certain we are due to see a firestorm of late night comedians and people howling in the street in derision of an idiot that can't spell R E S P E C T ... even when it is set to music. I mean, we heard it of Dan Quayle misspelling P O T A T O in a spelling bee when it was written as P O T A T O E on his queue card. Right?
BO has now had "57 states so far", "10K dead in Kansas tornado", and "Hawaii is in Asia" among a good many others. "Some Village in Texas is Missing an Idiot" was popular when W was President, "Some Village in Kenya is Missing and Idiot" would be a hoot now, right?
But this won't happen, nor should it. It shouldn't have happened to Quayle, Bush or Palin either. But it did, and it will keep happening to conservatives.
Why? Because humans are prejudice. They always have been and they always will be. Christians who believe that they ought to love others as themselves with all their hearts are still prejudiced, because their hearts are human.
But "liberals" believe they are different. They have no higher power over them at all. In fact, their group DEMANDS that they CONSTANTLY deride conservative thought -- not only as "stupid", but as "evil" as well. If they don't, they will lose their "liberal card" -- and depending on where they work, (say government, teaching, more "enlightened" companies), that may well mean the loss of upward mobility in their position, or even their job. There is no "separation of church and state" to a liberal -- the state IS their church!
So they protect their own and attack those heretics that "bitterly cling" to things like The Constitution, The Bible, the Protestant Work Ethic, respect for parents and elders -- basically anything other than the latest "advanced new thought" that showed up last week.
Anything else is just stupid!
'via Blog this'
I'm quite certain we are due to see a firestorm of late night comedians and people howling in the street in derision of an idiot that can't spell R E S P E C T ... even when it is set to music. I mean, we heard it of Dan Quayle misspelling P O T A T O in a spelling bee when it was written as P O T A T O E on his queue card. Right?
BO has now had "57 states so far", "10K dead in Kansas tornado", and "Hawaii is in Asia" among a good many others. "Some Village in Texas is Missing an Idiot" was popular when W was President, "Some Village in Kenya is Missing and Idiot" would be a hoot now, right?
But this won't happen, nor should it. It shouldn't have happened to Quayle, Bush or Palin either. But it did, and it will keep happening to conservatives.
Why? Because humans are prejudice. They always have been and they always will be. Christians who believe that they ought to love others as themselves with all their hearts are still prejudiced, because their hearts are human.
But "liberals" believe they are different. They have no higher power over them at all. In fact, their group DEMANDS that they CONSTANTLY deride conservative thought -- not only as "stupid", but as "evil" as well. If they don't, they will lose their "liberal card" -- and depending on where they work, (say government, teaching, more "enlightened" companies), that may well mean the loss of upward mobility in their position, or even their job. There is no "separation of church and state" to a liberal -- the state IS their church!
So they protect their own and attack those heretics that "bitterly cling" to things like The Constitution, The Bible, the Protestant Work Ethic, respect for parents and elders -- basically anything other than the latest "advanced new thought" that showed up last week.
Anything else is just stupid!
'via Blog this'
Friday, March 07, 2014
Shooting in Zamboni Driving, Molson Swilling Paradise
CTV Toronto | News Video - Latest Toronto News Headlines, Breaking News and Live Reports:
How could it happen? I thought they had laws against things like this up there!
'via Blog this'
How could it happen? I thought they had laws against things like this up there!
'via Blog this'
Is This the "Flexibility" ?
Daniel Henninger: Putin Carterizes Obama, Totally - WSJ.com:
The US MSM remains completely incurious of course, I doubt a Republican could even have been re-elected after obviously indicating intent to fraudulently mislead the American people to be re-elected and to then allow a rival nation "more flexibility". Let alone having the comment "forgotten". ("misunderestimated?)
'via Blog this'
We may quibble over the timeline. Some might say it began when Mr. Obama whispered to then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev he'd have "more flexibility" after the 2012 election; others that it set in when the U.S. president took Mr. Putin's offer to let Bashar Assad escape the bombing of his airfields for using WMD against his own people.As BO bumbles Carteresquely around Putin, I for one have wondered whatever happened to that off-mike comment.
The US MSM remains completely incurious of course, I doubt a Republican could even have been re-elected after obviously indicating intent to fraudulently mislead the American people to be re-elected and to then allow a rival nation "more flexibility". Let alone having the comment "forgotten". ("misunderestimated?)
'via Blog this'
Thursday, March 06, 2014
Crimea River (Ann)
Crimea River - Ann Coulter - Page 1:
The title just makes me jealous. When she is right, she is right -- one may as well just relax and let what happens happen when there is Democrat behind the foreign policy wheel.
I did notice that the JFK, Bobby, Marilyn "three way" will not be adding to the Kennedy legacy for at least a while.
Man, I'm jealous about her title! As Ann almost always is, a "guilty pleasure" entertaining read.
'via Blog this'
The title just makes me jealous. When she is right, she is right -- one may as well just relax and let what happens happen when there is Democrat behind the foreign policy wheel.
I did notice that the JFK, Bobby, Marilyn "three way" will not be adding to the Kennedy legacy for at least a while.
Man, I'm jealous about her title! As Ann almost always is, a "guilty pleasure" entertaining read.
'via Blog this'
I'll Take the Camera Vehicle!
The Factory’s “Camera RZR” » UTVUNDERGROUND:
The video at the end is pretty cool ... amazing what it takes to shoot some of these promo kinds of material.
The degree of constant innovation and advancement in the outdoor power-sport industry is incredible.
'via Blog this'
The video at the end is pretty cool ... amazing what it takes to shoot some of these promo kinds of material.
The degree of constant innovation and advancement in the outdoor power-sport industry is incredible.
'via Blog this'
Ghostbusters Caused Reagan
Baby boomer humor’s big lie: “Ghostbusters” and “Caddyshack” really liberated Reagan and Wall Street - Salon.com:
I'm not going to quote you a lot out of this, you need to read it. Thomas Frank is very well respected in liberal circles, and this is not on Salon's humor page.
Certainly a conservative or libertarian is going to read this and be very tempted to just laugh completely out loud. Go ahead and do this, but then realize for a moment that this guy is SERIOUS! He is pretty pissed that someone is willing and ABLE to make movies that he sees as espousing "the common man" standing up and most of all SNEERING at his BETTERS! Frank strongly believes he is one of those betters! He sees himself as "Dean Wermer", "The EPA Guy", Ted Knight (Mary Tyler Moore) as the judge in Caddyshack.
OK, so I pretty much agree with him on that ... short laugh break here.
BUT. Consider Orwell's pigs; "some are more equal than others". Frank is absolutely certain that HE is "more equal".
Frank utterly forgets the hundreds (thousands?) of movies, rock songs, books, TV shows, plays, etc, etc that provide a myriad of extremely negative portrayals of business, wall street, the rich that earned their money, etc. He also forgets that this small bevy of movies was very clearly HUMOR, and it is HIGHLY unlikely that they had any sort of effect even REMOTELY strong enough to counteract the 12-20 years of hard left wing education forced indoctrination, the MSM, the entire media culture, and the effects of constant left wing economic disincentives ... why not just stay on your parents healthcare until 26 and maybe live off the government dime for a while like the "kids" (formerly adults) in Europe?
No, Frank's lefty thought utopia is very safe until it crashes into the evil abutment of reality -- which even BO can't decree to cease and desist. But why is he so pissed?
Because Frank's universe must be PURE! His world doesn't allow for someone "flipping him the bird" ... especially if that someone might be armed! Frank wants them on the ground, cuffed, and thrown into the Gulag where he can INSURE that they "get their mind right". Fealty is INSUFFICIENT! It has to be GENUINE you swine!!
Naturally the idea of Frank walking over and accosting any red blooded American over flipping him the bird in reality an extremely funny thought. One doesn't need a weapon to have guys like Frank wetting themselves in the real world, but there is the rub.
Frank has no intent or predilection to a "fair fight". He HATES real merit, he hates real strength, he obviously even hates real humor. His anger at those things forces him to show his true colors -- just a bit, and just to his friends at Salon, but due to the internet, perhaps a glimpse can get out??
There is NO DOUBT that his goal ... and the unstated goal of MANY on the left is CONTROL at a level that would stamp out the kind of "subversion" of the Ramis movies evening HINTING at targets like "government". Subversion would still be very much encouraged in that world -- against business, family, church, wealth, etc, but NEVER against government.
So Mr Frank, even when you walk by me in my cell, you are right! There ARE those of us willing to flip you the bird (even though only an extreme paranoid thinks it has anything to do with Harold Ramis movies)! Even WORSE, it is just fine that we live in a country that is free enough so that others can flip me off (although I may walk over and have a nice chat with them). That is their RIGHT, and I CELEBRATE IT!
'via Blog this'
I'm not going to quote you a lot out of this, you need to read it. Thomas Frank is very well respected in liberal circles, and this is not on Salon's humor page.
Certainly a conservative or libertarian is going to read this and be very tempted to just laugh completely out loud. Go ahead and do this, but then realize for a moment that this guy is SERIOUS! He is pretty pissed that someone is willing and ABLE to make movies that he sees as espousing "the common man" standing up and most of all SNEERING at his BETTERS! Frank strongly believes he is one of those betters! He sees himself as "Dean Wermer", "The EPA Guy", Ted Knight (Mary Tyler Moore) as the judge in Caddyshack.
OK, so I pretty much agree with him on that ... short laugh break here.
BUT. Consider Orwell's pigs; "some are more equal than others". Frank is absolutely certain that HE is "more equal".
Frank utterly forgets the hundreds (thousands?) of movies, rock songs, books, TV shows, plays, etc, etc that provide a myriad of extremely negative portrayals of business, wall street, the rich that earned their money, etc. He also forgets that this small bevy of movies was very clearly HUMOR, and it is HIGHLY unlikely that they had any sort of effect even REMOTELY strong enough to counteract the 12-20 years of hard left wing education forced indoctrination, the MSM, the entire media culture, and the effects of constant left wing economic disincentives ... why not just stay on your parents healthcare until 26 and maybe live off the government dime for a while like the "kids" (formerly adults) in Europe?
No, Frank's lefty thought utopia is very safe until it crashes into the evil abutment of reality -- which even BO can't decree to cease and desist. But why is he so pissed?
Because Frank's universe must be PURE! His world doesn't allow for someone "flipping him the bird" ... especially if that someone might be armed! Frank wants them on the ground, cuffed, and thrown into the Gulag where he can INSURE that they "get their mind right". Fealty is INSUFFICIENT! It has to be GENUINE you swine!!
Naturally the idea of Frank walking over and accosting any red blooded American over flipping him the bird in reality an extremely funny thought. One doesn't need a weapon to have guys like Frank wetting themselves in the real world, but there is the rub.
Frank has no intent or predilection to a "fair fight". He HATES real merit, he hates real strength, he obviously even hates real humor. His anger at those things forces him to show his true colors -- just a bit, and just to his friends at Salon, but due to the internet, perhaps a glimpse can get out??
There is NO DOUBT that his goal ... and the unstated goal of MANY on the left is CONTROL at a level that would stamp out the kind of "subversion" of the Ramis movies evening HINTING at targets like "government". Subversion would still be very much encouraged in that world -- against business, family, church, wealth, etc, but NEVER against government.
So Mr Frank, even when you walk by me in my cell, you are right! There ARE those of us willing to flip you the bird (even though only an extreme paranoid thinks it has anything to do with Harold Ramis movies)! Even WORSE, it is just fine that we live in a country that is free enough so that others can flip me off (although I may walk over and have a nice chat with them). That is their RIGHT, and I CELEBRATE IT!
'via Blog this'
Ocean Rise Threatens Lady Liberty
Sea-level rise threatens to drown Statue of Liberty | Science Recorder:
Plus, it is from the "Institute of Physics" ... noted climatologists that they are!
It showed up under "science" under my Google News, so it is popular enough to make that cut.
'via Blog this'
Sea-level rise threatens UNESCO World Heritage sites, including such internationally famous sites as the Statue of Liberty in New York City,according to a report from the Institute of Physics. The Statue of Liberty is just one of many sites that could be compromised if current global warming trends are maintained over the next two millennia. MILLENNIA! Got that? This is a "science news" item for TWO THOUSAND years from now!
Plus, it is from the "Institute of Physics" ... noted climatologists that they are!
It showed up under "science" under my Google News, so it is popular enough to make that cut.
'via Blog this'
Wednesday, March 05, 2014
Endless War
Paul Ryan wages war on the War on Poverty - CNN.com:
The Democrats have been at war with poverty for 50 years, and by every measure, it seems that poverty is winning. Right now there are 44M people (men women and children) living in poverty and we are spending $800B a year on them, or about $18K each. If one assumes that MOST of these are "families" of some sort ... mother with one or more kids in most cases, if we just mailed them a check they would have $36K for a family of two and up from there.
Of course the $800B has to support a vast "poverty infrastructure". Lots of departments, programs, bureaucrats, secretaries and undersecretaries of this and that. All good solid Democrat voters though, as are at least 90% of the 44M that they can get to go out to vote (or count as having voted by some means). Why would a Democrat NOT want to keep $800B flowing into their constituency? It's close to 1/4 of the budget for goodness sakes ... and the % of people in poverty in '09 was basically the same as the day that LBJ declared war!
Ah yes, $800B in graft that has not moved the ball in 50 years!
The old anti-W sticker back when Democrats cared about "war" was "Endless War". How many Trillions down the "War on Poverty" rat hole in that 50 years? No doubt more than enough to have moved the US GDP a NUMBER of TRILLIONS up had they not been squandered keeping a set of Democrats on the poverty plantation!
'via Blog this'
The Democrats have been at war with poverty for 50 years, and by every measure, it seems that poverty is winning. Right now there are 44M people (men women and children) living in poverty and we are spending $800B a year on them, or about $18K each. If one assumes that MOST of these are "families" of some sort ... mother with one or more kids in most cases, if we just mailed them a check they would have $36K for a family of two and up from there.
Of course the $800B has to support a vast "poverty infrastructure". Lots of departments, programs, bureaucrats, secretaries and undersecretaries of this and that. All good solid Democrat voters though, as are at least 90% of the 44M that they can get to go out to vote (or count as having voted by some means). Why would a Democrat NOT want to keep $800B flowing into their constituency? It's close to 1/4 of the budget for goodness sakes ... and the % of people in poverty in '09 was basically the same as the day that LBJ declared war!
Ah yes, $800B in graft that has not moved the ball in 50 years!
The old anti-W sticker back when Democrats cared about "war" was "Endless War". How many Trillions down the "War on Poverty" rat hole in that 50 years? No doubt more than enough to have moved the US GDP a NUMBER of TRILLIONS up had they not been squandered keeping a set of Democrats on the poverty plantation!
'via Blog this'
Tuesday, March 04, 2014
The 58th? State
Putin's Cynical Choice | RealClearPolitics:
Back when BO claimed he had been in 57 states with one more to go (not including Alaska and Hawaii, which his staff didn't let him go to), the few of us aware of his statement pretty much assumed it was just a gaffe. You know, the kind of thing that would have been on every comedy show for 8 years if W had made it.
I think we were wrong. Apparently in the alternate universe of the left, Iraq became a US state after W's "war of aggression" ... because it is completely legitimate to compare the removal of Saddam Hussein with the US action in Iraq, Not only that, but Afghanistan, Panama and Grenada.
When I went through the Panama Canal a couple years back, I failed to see any US flags flying. They normally stand out, red white and blue being somewhat bright and contrasting colors, but I must have missed them since apparently we acquired Panama as a state.
I guess the acquisition of all those new states by the US pretty much makes it unreasonable for us to question Putin.
One really can't legitimately criticize a person unless one travels a few parsecs in their universe!
via Blog this'
Back when BO claimed he had been in 57 states with one more to go (not including Alaska and Hawaii, which his staff didn't let him go to), the few of us aware of his statement pretty much assumed it was just a gaffe. You know, the kind of thing that would have been on every comedy show for 8 years if W had made it.
I think we were wrong. Apparently in the alternate universe of the left, Iraq became a US state after W's "war of aggression" ... because it is completely legitimate to compare the removal of Saddam Hussein with the US action in Iraq, Not only that, but Afghanistan, Panama and Grenada.
When I went through the Panama Canal a couple years back, I failed to see any US flags flying. They normally stand out, red white and blue being somewhat bright and contrasting colors, but I must have missed them since apparently we acquired Panama as a state.
I guess the acquisition of all those new states by the US pretty much makes it unreasonable for us to question Putin.
One really can't legitimately criticize a person unless one travels a few parsecs in their universe!
via Blog this'
Monday, March 03, 2014
End of Days Preview
Scale of suffering at Syrian refugee camp is revealed by photo of huge queue for food | World news | theguardian.com:
There has not been a lot of coverage of this picture in the US, but some pictures are worth many thousands of words.
Can you even imagine what our news would look like now if W had done a proud "reset" on Russian relations after Slick, Gore, Lieberman, Kerry or Edwards had mentioned that "Russia was a likely adversary" and been smugly derided by W. Remember, Putin "bailed out" BO and Kerry on the "red line" in Syria!
The surrealism just marches on and on ... and then at some point you find yourself in a queue like one pictured and your realize that while BO, socialism, "settled science", "you can keep your healthcare", "it is good that less people have to work", etc etc were all lies, but lies that have a very real effect on the lives of real people!
'via Blog this'
There has not been a lot of coverage of this picture in the US, but some pictures are worth many thousands of words.
Can you even imagine what our news would look like now if W had done a proud "reset" on Russian relations after Slick, Gore, Lieberman, Kerry or Edwards had mentioned that "Russia was a likely adversary" and been smugly derided by W. Remember, Putin "bailed out" BO and Kerry on the "red line" in Syria!
The surrealism just marches on and on ... and then at some point you find yourself in a queue like one pictured and your realize that while BO, socialism, "settled science", "you can keep your healthcare", "it is good that less people have to work", etc etc were all lies, but lies that have a very real effect on the lives of real people!
'via Blog this'
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