Scalia and the MSM — a mismatch [UPDATED] | Power Line:
TP (The Party-D) needs lots of demons to keep its masses fired up. It is easy to see that they operate this way because the idea of Republicans using "fear" (as in "Homophobia", "Islamophobia", etc) is a daily staple of the MSM news feed and TP party Talking Points.
The linked article covers tarring SCOTUS Justice Scalia as a racist because he discussed "mismatch" -- the situation where you bring an unqualified student into an Ivy League school through affirmative action and they don't do well. The left DEMANDS that the world operate as they want, so to point out that when students don't have the preparation needed to compete and are shoved into an environment due to a preferential treatment, they often fail.
The core of TP doctrine is established by the average 2-year old -- "The world MUST conform to MY view ... NOW"!!! Full stop, end of story ... "Make it so".
So when little things like reality get in the way, the problem must be IGNORED ... and anyone that points out the nakedness of the Emperor needs to be labeled with a nasty name, in this case RACIST!
Once you are established as a Racist, the next step is to catch you in a "Hate Crime" ... and the definition of that is ALSO conveniently whatever TP deems it to be ... as we see in the recent case of the lawyer being asked if he was a "refugee" at a Vikings game.
TP understands this pattern VERY well, it is THEIR PATTERN ... it has been used before, once specifically from "the right", "McCarthyism" is the horror of a case where for a short time it was almost somewhat effective using the definition of "Communism" and then attempting to criminalize Communists.
TP didn't like their favorite technique being used against them very well, and the term "McCarthyism" is still trotted out when someone asks them a question. Meanwhile, for TP it is "Standard Operating Procedure" (SOP) ... Racist!, Sexist!, Homophobe!, Islamophobe! ....
We live in a world where things are precisely what TP says they are ... no more and no less!
'via Blog this'
Friday, December 11, 2015
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Choose Your Destructor!
Glenn Reynolds: Liberals have chosen The Donald as their 'Destructor':
For those unfamiliar with the reference ...
It's kind of funny for an old OO programmer ... a Destructor is a method that is automatically called when an object is destroyed ...
In this case, the "Object being destroyed" is what is left of the US ...
The closing is rather good ... it really all is. Recommended!
Oh, and this!
'via Blog this'
For those unfamiliar with the reference ...
It's kind of funny for an old OO programmer ... a Destructor is a method that is automatically called when an object is destroyed ...
In this case, the "Object being destroyed" is what is left of the US ...
And there’s a lesson for our ruling class there: Calling Trump a fascist is a bit much (fascism, as Tom Wolfe once reported, is forever descending upon the United States, but somehow it always lands on Europe), but movements like fascism and communism get their start because the mechanisms of liberal democracy seem weak and ineffectual and dishonest. If you don’t want Trump — or, perhaps, some post-Trump figure who really is a fascist — to dominate things, you need to stop being weak and ineffectual and dishonest.Having BO stop being "weak and ineffectual and dishonest" might get Reynolds on the Secret Service list as threatening the president! BO is only going to "give up" being weak, ineffectual and dishonest when he reaches room temperature!
The closing is rather good ... it really all is. Recommended!
Hearing that Yale professor Erika Christakis won't be teaching at Yale because of the abuse she received over a respectful but non-PC email, former DNC chair Howard Dean tweeted: “Free speech is good. Respecting others is better.” To his credit, CNN’s Jake Tapper responded: “Of course only one of them is enshrined in the Constitution.”
But Twitter humorist IowaHawk had the last word: ”With the exception of POTUS, the Atty General, both leading presidential candidates, the media, and universities, Americans love free speech.”
If you wish to hold fascism, or even just Trumpism, at bay, then we need elites who are trustworthy, who can be counted on to protect the country, and who respect the Constitution even when it gets in the way of doing something they want to do. By failing to live up to these standards, they have chosen their "Destructor." Let’s hope that they haven’t chosen ours, as well.
Oh, and this!
'via Blog this'
Opening The Overton Window
Donald Trump & The Overton Window --Resetting America's Political Debate | National Review Online:
Another thing I had never heard of, the Overton Window:
I remain convinced that Trump is the WRONG fighter, but he IS a fighter -- and he HAS changed the terms of the battle. Without "outlandish positions" being declared on the right, there is no hope at all that some of those positions can slowly seep into the consciousness of the public and people running for office and eventually have a chance.
It's definitely time for our national "window" to be a LOT less open on the left and a lot MORE open on the right!
'via Blog this'
Another thing I had never heard of, the Overton Window:
... the “Overton Window.” Developed by the late Joseph Overton, a former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the “window” refers to the range of acceptable political discourse on any given topic. As the Mackinac Center explains, “the ‘window’ of politically acceptable options is primarily defined not by what politicians prefer, but rather by what they believe they can support and still win re-election.” The key to shifting policy lies not so much in changing politicians but in changing the terms of the debate. In other words, “The window shifts to include different policy options not when ideas change among politicians, but when ideas change in the society that elects them.”The column is a good one, it points out how well the left, with control of the media, the arts, the university and the government bureaucracies federal and state has been able to RAPIDLY move the window in areas like abortion, restricting Christianity, gay "marriage", nationalized healthcare and transgender. Eg.
The Overton Window moved even faster on transgender rights. Ten years ago the notion that a man with emotional problems and breast implants could be named “Woman of the Year” was unthinkable. Now, in some quarters it’s just as unthinkable to refer to Bruce Jenner — Bruce Jenner! — as a man.Right now, they are pushing the window on gun confiscation, but along comes Trump and gives it a mighty shove in the direction of restricting immigration of Muslims.
While many of Trump’s actual proposals are misguided, nonsensical, or untenable, by smashing the window, he’s begun the process of freeing the American people from the artificial and destructive constraints of Left-defined discourse.Well said! What has counted as "debate" in this country since at least the '60s and to some degree ever since Woodrow Wilson has been a discussion of "just how far left are we going on THIS issue". The very THOUGHT of say, reducing the size of government, or (gasp!) unravelling parts of the "Great Society" directly responsible for the yearly 5-6K violent deaths of young black men have been "radical, reactionary, unthinkable". I mean, why would you reconsider programs just because they result in 50-60K untimely violent deaths over each decade??
the Left’s very success at defining the terms of discourse meant that the price of civility and unity was all too often an acceptance of liberal norms and manners. It meant swallowing liberal pieties and confining your discourse to Left-approved terms. In other words, it often meant surrender.Surrender is FAR too high a price for "civility". While I am now, and I'm sure very few others were aware of the Overton Window concept, it shows one benefit of Trump. We MUST get out of having the left completely declare the shape of the battlefield and ever more consistently the terms of conservative surrender if there is to be ANY hope of recovering America, and indeed of "Making it great again".
I remain convinced that Trump is the WRONG fighter, but he IS a fighter -- and he HAS changed the terms of the battle. Without "outlandish positions" being declared on the right, there is no hope at all that some of those positions can slowly seep into the consciousness of the public and people running for office and eventually have a chance.
It's definitely time for our national "window" to be a LOT less open on the left and a lot MORE open on the right!
'via Blog this'
Wednesday, December 09, 2015
XB-70
The Aviationist » Impressive video of an XB-70 Valkyrie Mach 3 bomber’s emergency landing:
Worthy read and an impressive video in linked article. The only remaining copy of this VERY impressive aircraft sits in The National Museum of the Air Force at Wright Patterson, Dayton OH.
I've been there and plan to go again. It is VERY impressive ... the XB-70 is off display right now, back on in June of '16 when they open a new building.
'via Blog this'
Worthy read and an impressive video in linked article. The only remaining copy of this VERY impressive aircraft sits in The National Museum of the Air Force at Wright Patterson, Dayton OH.
I've been there and plan to go again. It is VERY impressive ... the XB-70 is off display right now, back on in June of '16 when they open a new building.
'via Blog this'
In Praise of Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss' Political Philosophy: Reviled But Redeemed | RealClearPolitics:
I used one of my favorite Strauss quotes today ... "If all values are relative, then cannibalism is a matter of taste", so I did some looking on which of his many books and articles I really need to read. I haven't picked yet -- surprisingly my reading list remains very long, but this column is an EXCELLENT synopsis of why he is so important and so reviled in the modern left wing only academy.
He is mentioned a good deal in "Closing of the American Mind" and many other conservative works. Modern "liberalism" demands the ending of dialogue and fealty to power -- as in, they will demonize you, slur your good name, etc, but they generally will not engage in intellectual and reasonable debate with a man of Strauss stature because they deny that "truth" even exists.
A quote from the article, but it is short and WELL worth just reading.
As readers of this blog know, and is evident from the article, BY POWER! In this case academic power "97% of Political Scientists say Strauss is "wrong, dangerous, anti-intellectual, etc" and DEMAND that nobody read or teach his material!
The base "liberal" argument -- shut up!
'via Blog this'
I used one of my favorite Strauss quotes today ... "If all values are relative, then cannibalism is a matter of taste", so I did some looking on which of his many books and articles I really need to read. I haven't picked yet -- surprisingly my reading list remains very long, but this column is an EXCELLENT synopsis of why he is so important and so reviled in the modern left wing only academy.
He is mentioned a good deal in "Closing of the American Mind" and many other conservative works. Modern "liberalism" demands the ending of dialogue and fealty to power -- as in, they will demonize you, slur your good name, etc, but they generally will not engage in intellectual and reasonable debate with a man of Strauss stature because they deny that "truth" even exists.
A quote from the article, but it is short and WELL worth just reading.
In article after article and book after book, he argued that contemporary scholars were enthralled to “historicism” and “positivism.” Historicism holds that ideas and principles are nothing more than an expression of their time and cannot transcend the historical era in which they arose. Positivism decrees that the natural sciences offer the only legitimate form of knowledge and adds that since the natural sciences cannot distinguish between good and evil, all value judgments are subjective. (Postmodernism radicalized this sensibility by denying that science itself yielded objective knowledge.)
In much of the academy, historicism and positivism came to be taken as self-evident truths. That both imply moral relativism, which means that there is no rational basis for judgments about right and wrong, was seen by many of Strauss’s colleagues in the university world as an important contribution to progress.
Left-liberals regarded the supposed discovery of moral relativism as a blessing because they believed it bolstered pluralism and toleration. If there is no truth about the moral life, then custom and tradition lack authority, individuals are freer than ever to make their own choices, and society can dedicate itself to letting a thousand flowers bloom.Indeed, and in a completely relative world with no objective truth, how does one identify "progress", or a blooming "flower" from a blooming "weed"?
As readers of this blog know, and is evident from the article, BY POWER! In this case academic power "97% of Political Scientists say Strauss is "wrong, dangerous, anti-intellectual, etc" and DEMAND that nobody read or teach his material!
The base "liberal" argument -- shut up!
'via Blog this'
Sticks, Stones, and The State, Vikings Edition
My run-in with hate speech at a Minnesota Vikings game - StarTribune.com:
While I'm going to treat the tale in the linked article as completely true, I would much prefer that before the Red Star prints such a thing they would have at least found the security guard mentioned for corroboration. As you will see, the "story" is just a BIT too pat for someone that has any shred of independent thought. That said, let's take it as gospel.
The charge is that "some angry guy" demanded to know if the "attorney and director of the Advocates for Human Rights Refugee and Immigrant Program" was a refugee, at a Vikings game. Nothing physical, just a question, but this attorney and director "felt threatened", got security involved, got an apology that he felt was not sincere enough, demanded the interlocutor be ejected and the Vikings failed to comply.
Asking if the attorney was a "refugee" is supposed to be clear and reprehensible "hate speech". Not "rude", not "bad manners" ...
I was raised with "Sticks and stones will break your bones but words will never hurt you", and "If you can't stand up for yourself, nobody else is going to". We don't live in that civilization today, but what IS the "civilization" we have wrought?
I remember the time in my adult life when I came the closest to being intimidated. An old candidate for Congress from our district, Mary Reider had 20-30 union folks marching in a circle in front of the entrance to the Kahler chanting and blocking people like me heading in to see Newt Gingrich speak. The more intelligent people were going around to another exit. Something in my nature compelled me to stride into the group -- which, probably since I'm slightly above average size (though clearly not intelligence) completely stopped and let me pass with a just few shouted nasty words.
Did they have a right to block the entrance? Were the words that they hurled at me "hate speech"? -- we know the answer. "Hate speech" and "proper intimidation" are declared by "The Party" (D).
I'm reminded of Churchill, "Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without effect". Walking through demonstrators is tame by comparison, but I'm sure the feeling is related.
So how does tattling to the teacher or the security guard make one feel? I suppose it depends on the results that your tattling provides, but I can't imagine it makes one EVER feel "secure or good", because AT BEST you are in hopes that the watchful eye of the State in some form or another is ALWAYS going to be there to protect you.
It is a huge difference in worldview. Like the liberal woman's rape defense -- pee or soil yourself in hopes that the attacker will be turned off and leave you alone, vs the conservative woman's defense -- pull out your .45 and let the attacker pee or soil himself while he hopes you let him live.
But the "liberal" mind never stops at just making THEIR choice, they want to make YOUR choice as well! Gun control is just one example.
So we live in a society where males are feminized and individual responsibility is transferred to the State, while anyone that "gets involved" is very likely to be sued by lawyers just like the one complaining. He wants people to stand up and get involved, yet he apparently feels no personal backbone to simply say "none of your damned business"! <insert favorite emphasis here ... a*hole, d*head, would all be "appropriate">
The problem with the "liberal" world view is that the only way it can come close to being any sort of reality is "1984" -- EVERY action of EVERYONE is completely scripted and "Big Brother" ALWAYS has the video of EVERY incident so that those that fail to comply COMPLETELY with liberal dogma will be punished, and those who do comply will be rewarded. The State tells you exactly what to do, and you WILL do it!
The column shows where "Hate Speech" starts to become thought control. One person decided to ask a question that the column author decided went beyond "rude or inappropriate", but he felt ZERO responsibility to personally stand up for his rights. HOWEVER, he believes that people otherwise conditioned by thousands of cues in their daily environment to "let the proper authorities handle it" ought to somehow "step in" when the "confrontation" had never even risen to the level of "words were exchanged".
The attorney failed to cross-examine -- but it is "society's fault".
The very people intent on producing a society of absolute sheep are now incensed when the sheep behave as sheep -- and they apparently actually believe (or at least claim to) that is possible to achieve their "utopia" without levels of State control and surveillance that so far have only been imagined in fictional books.
A people who can't stand on their own feet will eventually kneel before people that can.
America, Land of the Politically Correct and home of the kneelers.
'via Blog this'
While I'm going to treat the tale in the linked article as completely true, I would much prefer that before the Red Star prints such a thing they would have at least found the security guard mentioned for corroboration. As you will see, the "story" is just a BIT too pat for someone that has any shred of independent thought. That said, let's take it as gospel.
The charge is that "some angry guy" demanded to know if the "attorney and director of the Advocates for Human Rights Refugee and Immigrant Program" was a refugee, at a Vikings game. Nothing physical, just a question, but this attorney and director "felt threatened", got security involved, got an apology that he felt was not sincere enough, demanded the interlocutor be ejected and the Vikings failed to comply.
Asking if the attorney was a "refugee" is supposed to be clear and reprehensible "hate speech". Not "rude", not "bad manners" ...
I was raised with "Sticks and stones will break your bones but words will never hurt you", and "If you can't stand up for yourself, nobody else is going to". We don't live in that civilization today, but what IS the "civilization" we have wrought?
I remember the time in my adult life when I came the closest to being intimidated. An old candidate for Congress from our district, Mary Reider had 20-30 union folks marching in a circle in front of the entrance to the Kahler chanting and blocking people like me heading in to see Newt Gingrich speak. The more intelligent people were going around to another exit. Something in my nature compelled me to stride into the group -- which, probably since I'm slightly above average size (though clearly not intelligence) completely stopped and let me pass with a just few shouted nasty words.
Did they have a right to block the entrance? Were the words that they hurled at me "hate speech"? -- we know the answer. "Hate speech" and "proper intimidation" are declared by "The Party" (D).
I'm reminded of Churchill, "Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without effect". Walking through demonstrators is tame by comparison, but I'm sure the feeling is related.
So how does tattling to the teacher or the security guard make one feel? I suppose it depends on the results that your tattling provides, but I can't imagine it makes one EVER feel "secure or good", because AT BEST you are in hopes that the watchful eye of the State in some form or another is ALWAYS going to be there to protect you.
It is a huge difference in worldview. Like the liberal woman's rape defense -- pee or soil yourself in hopes that the attacker will be turned off and leave you alone, vs the conservative woman's defense -- pull out your .45 and let the attacker pee or soil himself while he hopes you let him live.
But the "liberal" mind never stops at just making THEIR choice, they want to make YOUR choice as well! Gun control is just one example.
But what scared me the most was the silence surrounding me. As I looked around, I didn’t know who was an ally or an enemy. In those hushed whispers, I felt like I was alone, unsafe and surrounded. It was the type of silence that emboldens a man to play inquisitor.I hate to tell him, but the real world is ALWAYS that way, at least until you make your play.
So we live in a society where males are feminized and individual responsibility is transferred to the State, while anyone that "gets involved" is very likely to be sued by lawyers just like the one complaining. He wants people to stand up and get involved, yet he apparently feels no personal backbone to simply say "none of your damned business"! <insert favorite emphasis here ... a*hole, d*head, would all be "appropriate">
The problem with the "liberal" world view is that the only way it can come close to being any sort of reality is "1984" -- EVERY action of EVERYONE is completely scripted and "Big Brother" ALWAYS has the video of EVERY incident so that those that fail to comply COMPLETELY with liberal dogma will be punished, and those who do comply will be rewarded. The State tells you exactly what to do, and you WILL do it!
The column shows where "Hate Speech" starts to become thought control. One person decided to ask a question that the column author decided went beyond "rude or inappropriate", but he felt ZERO responsibility to personally stand up for his rights. HOWEVER, he believes that people otherwise conditioned by thousands of cues in their daily environment to "let the proper authorities handle it" ought to somehow "step in" when the "confrontation" had never even risen to the level of "words were exchanged".
The attorney failed to cross-examine -- but it is "society's fault".
The very people intent on producing a society of absolute sheep are now incensed when the sheep behave as sheep -- and they apparently actually believe (or at least claim to) that is possible to achieve their "utopia" without levels of State control and surveillance that so far have only been imagined in fictional books.
A people who can't stand on their own feet will eventually kneel before people that can.
America, Land of the Politically Correct and home of the kneelers.
'via Blog this'
Iran Gives US the Missile Finger
US conducting 'serious review' of latest Iran missile test | Fox News:
When a nation is a has-been joke like the BO destroyed US, insult is a daily occurrence.
What are we going to do about it? Oh, "Seriously review it" ... seriously?
We are rapidly approaching the ending of the country that half of us voted for!
'via Blog this'
When a nation is a has-been joke like the BO destroyed US, insult is a daily occurrence.
What are we going to do about it? Oh, "Seriously review it" ... seriously?
We are rapidly approaching the ending of the country that half of us voted for!
'via Blog this'
Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Watch List Consistency
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/12/07/two-new-york-times-editorials-terror-watch-lists-run-amok-now-lets-ban-gun-purchases-by-people-who-are-on-them/
When there is no consistency there can be no truth or reason. Looking at the position of the NY Times on the use of the Watch List"in the past, and the Watch List now the "Watch List" now, we see that what matters in a NY Times position is "which party is in office".
How does a nation descend into chaos? When truth, meaning, reason, law and consistency are thrown away. The old standard used to be God, the new standard is man ... which is no standard at all. Even relativity needs SOMETHING to be "relative to"! (the speed of light in physics for example)
When there is no standard, might is right -- POWER becomes the standard!
When there is no consistency there can be no truth or reason. Looking at the position of the NY Times on the use of the Watch List"in the past, and the Watch List now the "Watch List" now, we see that what matters in a NY Times position is "which party is in office".
How does a nation descend into chaos? When truth, meaning, reason, law and consistency are thrown away. The old standard used to be God, the new standard is man ... which is no standard at all. Even relativity needs SOMETHING to be "relative to"! (the speed of light in physics for example)
When there is no standard, might is right -- POWER becomes the standard!
Trump, Obama With Balls (The Meaning of "No Rules")
Testosterone is the hormone of human action, power, swagger, bluster, attack and dominance.
As readers of this blog should well know by now, when law, reason and revelation are abandoned, there is no god or rule but power, and might becomes right. The largest armies, the most votes, the most bombastic violent dictator, the government most willing to silence, imprison and finally kill it's opposition. Such becomes "the good".
In the past two days we have a crystal clear example that would be completely obvious to a people versed in "self governing". The fact that the discussion we see happening, IS happening, makes it clear we are not a self governing people. Again, if you read this blog, that is no surprise to you and you have known it for a long time.
To state the obvious:
Exhibit A: Sunday Night, The President goes on national TV and says; "That is insane. If you’re too dangerous to board a plane, you’re too dangerous, by definition, to buy a gun."
The "No Fly" list is a semi-secret list with no Due Process to get on it. To take away an enumerated Constitutional Right without Due Process as been declared unconstitutional over and over as I covered in detail here.
Exhibit B: Last night, Trump calls for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering our country until our officials can figure out what is going on". The media and many that should know better go berserk saying this is "clearly unconstitutional"? Really? We have restricted immigration over our history on the basis of damned near anything you can think of -- country of origin, mental health, criminal record, skills, age, disease, etc, etc.
The Constitution (the one we no longer follow) was for AMERICANS, not the whole world!! We may have been imperialist, however we were not THAT imperialist. (note, I disagree with Trump's position, but it is NOT obviously unconstitutional like BO's)
When the rule of law is removed (and even knowledge of the law), removal of consistency is absolutely required (consistency relative to ??), which in turn makes reasoning and peaceful negotiation impossible, since THERE ARE NO RULES! This being illustrated extremely well by this movie clip:
Obama believes in the power of manipulating the masses through the media and buying votes -- he scolds, pontificates and whines, he is bored and disappointed that he has to school the stupid recalcitrant masses yet again, but he gives off no sense of personal power.
Trump does.
I have always assumed that our destruction would just continue the long slow slide to being a single party socialist dystopia like the old USSR, China, Cuba, Venezuela, etc with a media yammering about "what a paradise it is" while most waited in line for toilet paper and traded recipes for rat. Those of us who foolishly spoke out remembering what once was, either died slowly in Gulags or rapidly by the "Stazi", while the youth, brainwashed in the horrors of "nasty old America" prior to the forces of of our new "woke enlightenment" approved demise.
But Trump shows us another face of lawlessness -- the kind our founders dealt with in the King, and the kind that arose in Germany. The CORE of conservatism is the recognition that man is NOT the "measure of all things", and that ALL human nature is both flawed and fixed -- it can be directed, cajoled, influenced, dominated, manipulated, etc, but it remains.
Humans like "royalty, wealth, athletes, movie stars, big televangelists, demagogues, etc" ... we don't all react the same to each one, but on the mass scale, we DO have an innate "urge to be led", urge to look up to SOMEBODY -- like testosterone, it isn't really bad or good, it just **IS**. It is BOTH a strength and a weakness like all our humanness.
So, once you throw out the rules, and people no longer even know what the rules once were, they start "seeking" -- "safety in numbers" is the Democrat way -- buy all the votes, dumb down the masses, promise them what they want, rig the "elections" with open borders, no id voting, etc, and EVENTUALLY all the power is yours! (and power is ALL without law)
Another way is the Trump way -- to hell with "Political Parties", to hell with anything but POWER! Sure, make use the hulk of a minority party out of any real power for 20 years (W was a RINO) as a vehicle, but make it clear, THERE ARE NO LONGER ANY RULES AND I AM PROOF!
Side Note ... The "nice" thing about lawless chaos is that there are MANY ways it can go -- the bad thing is that like all disordered systems, the VAST bulk of those ways are BAD -- yet another way than the Trump or BO, a better way would be a "return to revelation, law, reason and consistency", but that is REALLY unlikely right now!]
Once the mass of the people no longer care or even know about laws, reason, consistency, truth, morality, etc, as has happened here, things go "fully chaotic", or if you prefer "insane", but in any case "Beyond Reason" (Nietzsche), what piece of vacuous fallacious rhetoric conjured for the purposes of today will win out with the ever flowing emotional tide of the shallow and fickle masses? Nobody knows -- the center has been removed. THERE IS NO LAW! LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE!
"Give us Bread and Circuses!", "Give us Barabbas!", "Sig Heil!", "Hope and Change!" ... "Make America Great Again ??"
At a fundamental level, they are all the same. A republic with the rule of law was pretty nice in retrospect -- certainly "flawed", but then once you accept human nature (as our founders did), what you are seeking is a "bad system that is better than all the other systems", to paraphrase Churchill.
As readers of this blog should well know by now, when law, reason and revelation are abandoned, there is no god or rule but power, and might becomes right. The largest armies, the most votes, the most bombastic violent dictator, the government most willing to silence, imprison and finally kill it's opposition. Such becomes "the good".
In the past two days we have a crystal clear example that would be completely obvious to a people versed in "self governing". The fact that the discussion we see happening, IS happening, makes it clear we are not a self governing people. Again, if you read this blog, that is no surprise to you and you have known it for a long time.
To state the obvious:
Exhibit A: Sunday Night, The President goes on national TV and says; "That is insane. If you’re too dangerous to board a plane, you’re too dangerous, by definition, to buy a gun."
The "No Fly" list is a semi-secret list with no Due Process to get on it. To take away an enumerated Constitutional Right without Due Process as been declared unconstitutional over and over as I covered in detail here.
Exhibit B: Last night, Trump calls for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering our country until our officials can figure out what is going on". The media and many that should know better go berserk saying this is "clearly unconstitutional"? Really? We have restricted immigration over our history on the basis of damned near anything you can think of -- country of origin, mental health, criminal record, skills, age, disease, etc, etc.
The Constitution (the one we no longer follow) was for AMERICANS, not the whole world!! We may have been imperialist, however we were not THAT imperialist. (note, I disagree with Trump's position, but it is NOT obviously unconstitutional like BO's)
When the rule of law is removed (and even knowledge of the law), removal of consistency is absolutely required (consistency relative to ??), which in turn makes reasoning and peaceful negotiation impossible, since THERE ARE NO RULES! This being illustrated extremely well by this movie clip:
Trump does.
I have always assumed that our destruction would just continue the long slow slide to being a single party socialist dystopia like the old USSR, China, Cuba, Venezuela, etc with a media yammering about "what a paradise it is" while most waited in line for toilet paper and traded recipes for rat. Those of us who foolishly spoke out remembering what once was, either died slowly in Gulags or rapidly by the "Stazi", while the youth, brainwashed in the horrors of "nasty old America" prior to the forces of of our new "woke enlightenment" approved demise.
But Trump shows us another face of lawlessness -- the kind our founders dealt with in the King, and the kind that arose in Germany. The CORE of conservatism is the recognition that man is NOT the "measure of all things", and that ALL human nature is both flawed and fixed -- it can be directed, cajoled, influenced, dominated, manipulated, etc, but it remains.
Humans like "royalty, wealth, athletes, movie stars, big televangelists, demagogues, etc" ... we don't all react the same to each one, but on the mass scale, we DO have an innate "urge to be led", urge to look up to SOMEBODY -- like testosterone, it isn't really bad or good, it just **IS**. It is BOTH a strength and a weakness like all our humanness.
So, once you throw out the rules, and people no longer even know what the rules once were, they start "seeking" -- "safety in numbers" is the Democrat way -- buy all the votes, dumb down the masses, promise them what they want, rig the "elections" with open borders, no id voting, etc, and EVENTUALLY all the power is yours! (and power is ALL without law)
Another way is the Trump way -- to hell with "Political Parties", to hell with anything but POWER! Sure, make use the hulk of a minority party out of any real power for 20 years (W was a RINO) as a vehicle, but make it clear, THERE ARE NO LONGER ANY RULES AND I AM PROOF!
Side Note ... The "nice" thing about lawless chaos is that there are MANY ways it can go -- the bad thing is that like all disordered systems, the VAST bulk of those ways are BAD -- yet another way than the Trump or BO, a better way would be a "return to revelation, law, reason and consistency", but that is REALLY unlikely right now!]
Once the mass of the people no longer care or even know about laws, reason, consistency, truth, morality, etc, as has happened here, things go "fully chaotic", or if you prefer "insane", but in any case "Beyond Reason" (Nietzsche), what piece of vacuous fallacious rhetoric conjured for the purposes of today will win out with the ever flowing emotional tide of the shallow and fickle masses? Nobody knows -- the center has been removed. THERE IS NO LAW! LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE!
"Give us Bread and Circuses!", "Give us Barabbas!", "Sig Heil!", "Hope and Change!" ... "Make America Great Again ??"
At a fundamental level, they are all the same. A republic with the rule of law was pretty nice in retrospect -- certainly "flawed", but then once you accept human nature (as our founders did), what you are seeking is a "bad system that is better than all the other systems", to paraphrase Churchill.
Monday, December 07, 2015
Funding The Climate Church
Unearthing America's Deep Network of Climate Change Deniers - Bloomberg Business:
Here we have a lot of attention being paid to how scientists that look at climate and weather as an area of legitimate scientific research are funded. ( not accepting that climate is "settled" is labeled as being a "denier" by the Climate Church).
We already know how the high priests of the Climate Church are funded -- through the State, like the Church of England, Church of Norway, etc. ... we don't need to study that, we know how linkage of Church and State works. There used to be a country in N America that had stamped out having a State Church until the Climate Church came along, but I forget it's name. "Obamination" I think.
State Churches tend to have Inquisitions to hunt down and prosecute Heretics that refuse to submit to the authority of the State Church -- which is one in the same as the State, and enjoys the power and the funding of the State.
The State Religion and the State work together to hunt down and remove any opposition -- the purpose of the "research" cited in the linked column is just that. Pointing out that that there are still guys actng like Copernicus out there trying to claim that the Earth goes around the Sun -- rounding them up and maybe burning them at the stake is the sort of thing that State Churches are quite good at.
Money that comes from the State is holy ... money that comes from the private sector is SINFUL! Thus saith the State and it's Church!
'via Blog this'
Here we have a lot of attention being paid to how scientists that look at climate and weather as an area of legitimate scientific research are funded. ( not accepting that climate is "settled" is labeled as being a "denier" by the Climate Church).
We already know how the high priests of the Climate Church are funded -- through the State, like the Church of England, Church of Norway, etc. ... we don't need to study that, we know how linkage of Church and State works. There used to be a country in N America that had stamped out having a State Church until the Climate Church came along, but I forget it's name. "Obamination" I think.
State Churches tend to have Inquisitions to hunt down and prosecute Heretics that refuse to submit to the authority of the State Church -- which is one in the same as the State, and enjoys the power and the funding of the State.
The State Religion and the State work together to hunt down and remove any opposition -- the purpose of the "research" cited in the linked column is just that. Pointing out that that there are still guys actng like Copernicus out there trying to claim that the Earth goes around the Sun -- rounding them up and maybe burning them at the stake is the sort of thing that State Churches are quite good at.
Money that comes from the State is holy ... money that comes from the private sector is SINFUL! Thus saith the State and it's Church!
'via Blog this'
Due Process of Insanity, Convertibles
Obama: It's 'Insane' That People On A No-Fly List Can Legally Buy A Gun In The U.S.:
Therefore, **HE** has got to be INSANE to utter those words!!!!!
There is ABSOLUTELY NO DUE PROCESS AT ALL to get on the "No Fly List" ... I had a friend on it that grew up in Austin MN, went to the UofM and worked at IBM for nearly 30 years. At the time he was on the list he didn't even own a gun. He didn't even know he was on it until they started delaying him at every flight!
The Huffington Post covered how easy / random / etc it is to get on the list. It's a bureaucratic CYA list, there is NO PROCESS ... "due" or otherwise.
Are we REALLY so Constitutionally illiterate as a people that we don't realize that "Due Process" as specified in the 5th and 14th has been stretched to include "rights" to busing, affirmative action, equal access for the handicapped, gay rights including "marriage", voting with no ID and through the vaunted "penumbra" (legal term for "made up"), abortion.
We have the President of the US asserting that an enumerated right, the 2nd Amendment, SHOULD be denied to people on a list that has no due process relative to one being added to it! Btw, not only no process to get ON it, but no process to GET OFF IT either!
Steve Hayes of the Weekly Standard is on the list, as are 72 DHS employees !!
We actually might be able fire anyone from DHS that is on the list, however, I suspect that THAT might well run afoul of some "due process right" relative to equal treatment as a Federal Employee.
How can a sitting president POSSIBLY make such a claim for restricting an actual Constitutional right?? If he is THAT incompetent, then he certainly can't fulfill the oath of his job. If he does understand what he just said, he must be IMPEACHED -- because he completely broke his oath of office on TV!
But we live in an insane world, and we as a people are clearly no longer capable of even having an IDEA of what America at least USED to be!
Naturally, in the real world, the San Bernardino shooters were not on the No Fly List.
So why is this being proffered as a solution after San Bernardino? Simple, because we no longer live a world that is real or sane.
I am reminded of a friend (a different one) who tends to buy cars without a lot of rational justification. Showing up with an expensive sports coupe, and being accused of "purchasing on a whim", he got a bit flustered and exclaimed; "But I've always wanted a convertible"!
To which the reply was, "But that's not a convertable".
It was however a "car", so we are talking rationality FAR greater than that used by BO on TV last night!
'via Blog this'
"That is insane. If you’re too dangerous to board a plane, you’re too dangerous, by definition, to buy a gun."So this is being said by the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, a man SWORN to uphold the Constitution of the United States. He even claims to be a "constitutional scholar"!!
Therefore, **HE** has got to be INSANE to utter those words!!!!!
There is ABSOLUTELY NO DUE PROCESS AT ALL to get on the "No Fly List" ... I had a friend on it that grew up in Austin MN, went to the UofM and worked at IBM for nearly 30 years. At the time he was on the list he didn't even own a gun. He didn't even know he was on it until they started delaying him at every flight!
The Huffington Post covered how easy / random / etc it is to get on the list. It's a bureaucratic CYA list, there is NO PROCESS ... "due" or otherwise.
Are we REALLY so Constitutionally illiterate as a people that we don't realize that "Due Process" as specified in the 5th and 14th has been stretched to include "rights" to busing, affirmative action, equal access for the handicapped, gay rights including "marriage", voting with no ID and through the vaunted "penumbra" (legal term for "made up"), abortion.
We have the President of the US asserting that an enumerated right, the 2nd Amendment, SHOULD be denied to people on a list that has no due process relative to one being added to it! Btw, not only no process to get ON it, but no process to GET OFF IT either!
Steve Hayes of the Weekly Standard is on the list, as are 72 DHS employees !!
We actually might be able fire anyone from DHS that is on the list, however, I suspect that THAT might well run afoul of some "due process right" relative to equal treatment as a Federal Employee.
How can a sitting president POSSIBLY make such a claim for restricting an actual Constitutional right?? If he is THAT incompetent, then he certainly can't fulfill the oath of his job. If he does understand what he just said, he must be IMPEACHED -- because he completely broke his oath of office on TV!
But we live in an insane world, and we as a people are clearly no longer capable of even having an IDEA of what America at least USED to be!
Naturally, in the real world, the San Bernardino shooters were not on the No Fly List.
So why is this being proffered as a solution after San Bernardino? Simple, because we no longer live a world that is real or sane.
I am reminded of a friend (a different one) who tends to buy cars without a lot of rational justification. Showing up with an expensive sports coupe, and being accused of "purchasing on a whim", he got a bit flustered and exclaimed; "But I've always wanted a convertible"!
To which the reply was, "But that's not a convertable".
It was however a "car", so we are talking rationality FAR greater than that used by BO on TV last night!
'via Blog this'
Marco Rubio Drinks Water
Marco Rubio's 'water thing' - POLITICO:
It's a useless read, seriously, it's ALL about him drinking WATER while speaking!
Just to give one example of how important this rather longish column on DRINKING WATER is!
If this is what it takes to come up with some "dirt" on Rubio, the guy is TOO clean!
'via Blog this'
It's a useless read, seriously, it's ALL about him drinking WATER while speaking!
Just to give one example of how important this rather longish column on DRINKING WATER is!
“Huckabee didn’t need water,” said an event organizer, who spoke on the condition that his name be withheld and the event not be made identifiable. “It was the first time that glassware entered into one of these events.”This is a story? When the current occupant of the WH needs a teleprompter to get through a press conference?
If this is what it takes to come up with some "dirt" on Rubio, the guy is TOO clean!
'via Blog this'
Sunday, December 06, 2015
Vegans Mentally Impaired?
The Scary Mental Health Risks of Going Meatless | Women's Health:
My tongue is a bit in my cheek, but seriously it seems that there is a correlation -- and like all correlations, it may well not be that meat CAUSES the issues. It could be that folks that go vegan are more prone to the issues.
In any case, even the major "truth" that vegans are so ANXIOUS to tell you, that veganism is DEFINITELY a healthier diet, may only be true if you don't need your head for anything beyond a hat-rack
They maybe SO ANXIOUS to tell you BECAUSE they are vegan and their brain is impaired ... which is pretty much poetic irony.
HUMOR ... Question: How do you tell if someone is a vegan?
ANS: "They F**ing TELL YOU!!!"
'via Blog this'
My tongue is a bit in my cheek, but seriously it seems that there is a correlation -- and like all correlations, it may well not be that meat CAUSES the issues. It could be that folks that go vegan are more prone to the issues.
"Even the pros find the stats confounding in a chicken-or-egg way. "We don't know if a vegetarian diet causes depression and anxiety, or if people who are predisposed to those mental conditions gravitate toward vegetarianism," says Emily Deans, M.D., a Boston psychiatrist who studies the link between food and mood."On the other hand ...
Without meat, we'd never have matured beyond the mental capacity of herbivores like gorillasThey didn't call them HUNTER gatherers for nothing. The evolution people have lots of theories about how it was maybe to coordinate hunting in groups that was one of the major reasons for the growth of the human brain, language, etc. ...
In any case, even the major "truth" that vegans are so ANXIOUS to tell you, that veganism is DEFINITELY a healthier diet, may only be true if you don't need your head for anything beyond a hat-rack
They maybe SO ANXIOUS to tell you BECAUSE they are vegan and their brain is impaired ... which is pretty much poetic irony.
HUMOR ... Question: How do you tell if someone is a vegan?
ANS: "They F**ing TELL YOU!!!"
'via Blog this'
Hail Mary, Hail Christmas At Luther
Being on the positive side of a game ending like Thursday night in Detroit puts a smile on your face that tends to stay for awhile.
My smile got a big boost last night as we were privileged and blessed to be gifted with amazing seats to participate in "Christmas At Luther: Saviour of the Nations Come!". It was an experience like nothing I ever really imagined, and one which I know will stay with me the rest of my days.
Raised in a Baptist church in the day when elaborate musical programs were considered "worldly", and were done by Catholics (considered to be the "Whore of Babylon" in fundamentalist theology of the sixties at least), and Lutherans -- considered to be another of the apostate churches by that particular Baptist sect, my exposure to such worship was non-existent.
Add to this the fact that my musical talent would generously class as "minimal", and my background in any sort of classical music or understanding is woefully barren, and we have the proverbial beggar approaching the banquet. Oh, while we are at it, such a feast of spirit is properly preceded by a feast of a Norwegian buffet -- lefse, lutefisk, meatballs, brussels sprouts (which a like) and heavenly rutabaga mashed potatoes. It was definitely the best lutefisk which I have ever given a game try -- for some reason my Swedish blood apparently just can't quite get by the quiver though! We Swedes crushed the Norwegians potatoes and dumped lye on their fish, and the resourceful Norse consider them delicacies!
I'm not equipped to make intelligent comment on the program. Rapt amazement, awe and joy are the operative terms that come to me. SIX HUNDRED FIFTY young vocalists with symphony orchestra, handbell choir, heavenly organ in an incredible setting and really for the first time in my life I considered that angelic choirs and instruments praising God really could be something to look forward to in Heaven ... although I'm not giving up on shore lunch with Jesus.
I'm not sure two hours have ever passed faster! I was somewhat surprised, but very gratified to see that this was DEFINITELY an unabashed and unapologetic CHRISTIAN CHRISTMAS celebration, . It included some of the manadary modern nods to "diversity", but they were not a distraction. I did reflect a bit on "why"? The crowd and the student body were certainly conspicuously caucasian with only sprinkling of others, but we were after all in Decorah IA, deep in the midwest.
In some ways the evening was coming "full circle". It was interaction with Luther graduates at IBM that provided the example that eventually led me to the Lutheran Church. I felt as if I was privileged to glimpse a special bit of that rich spiritual heritage that eventually drew me to the Lutheran Church. (a bit on that if interested)
What a miraculous complex creation we are gifted with. A little Norwegian-American school named after "Luther", a somewhat brooding German's German. Germany, where much later a madman idolized the Valkyries and a vision of "Aryan" that looked positively Norse, yet he himself looked nothing like the ideal. Enjoying the celebration of a Jewish child born in the mideast over 2,000 years ago with many aspects of the actual holiday translated by a Roman Church from pagan winter solstice rituals -- a Roman Church that the German Luther stood up to in The Reformation, 500 years ago in 2017.
Somehow though, when the candles are lit and the strains of the "First Noel" are coursing through the night and our gathered spirits, it is all simple.
Thanks to the wonder of the internet, here it is https://vimeo.com/248192944.
My smile got a big boost last night as we were privileged and blessed to be gifted with amazing seats to participate in "Christmas At Luther: Saviour of the Nations Come!". It was an experience like nothing I ever really imagined, and one which I know will stay with me the rest of my days.
Raised in a Baptist church in the day when elaborate musical programs were considered "worldly", and were done by Catholics (considered to be the "Whore of Babylon" in fundamentalist theology of the sixties at least), and Lutherans -- considered to be another of the apostate churches by that particular Baptist sect, my exposure to such worship was non-existent.
Add to this the fact that my musical talent would generously class as "minimal", and my background in any sort of classical music or understanding is woefully barren, and we have the proverbial beggar approaching the banquet. Oh, while we are at it, such a feast of spirit is properly preceded by a feast of a Norwegian buffet -- lefse, lutefisk, meatballs, brussels sprouts (which a like) and heavenly rutabaga mashed potatoes. It was definitely the best lutefisk which I have ever given a game try -- for some reason my Swedish blood apparently just can't quite get by the quiver though! We Swedes crushed the Norwegians potatoes and dumped lye on their fish, and the resourceful Norse consider them delicacies!
I'm not equipped to make intelligent comment on the program. Rapt amazement, awe and joy are the operative terms that come to me. SIX HUNDRED FIFTY young vocalists with symphony orchestra, handbell choir, heavenly organ in an incredible setting and really for the first time in my life I considered that angelic choirs and instruments praising God really could be something to look forward to in Heaven ... although I'm not giving up on shore lunch with Jesus.
I'm not sure two hours have ever passed faster! I was somewhat surprised, but very gratified to see that this was DEFINITELY an unabashed and unapologetic CHRISTIAN CHRISTMAS celebration, . It included some of the manadary modern nods to "diversity", but they were not a distraction. I did reflect a bit on "why"? The crowd and the student body were certainly conspicuously caucasian with only sprinkling of others, but we were after all in Decorah IA, deep in the midwest.
In some ways the evening was coming "full circle". It was interaction with Luther graduates at IBM that provided the example that eventually led me to the Lutheran Church. I felt as if I was privileged to glimpse a special bit of that rich spiritual heritage that eventually drew me to the Lutheran Church. (a bit on that if interested)
What a miraculous complex creation we are gifted with. A little Norwegian-American school named after "Luther", a somewhat brooding German's German. Germany, where much later a madman idolized the Valkyries and a vision of "Aryan" that looked positively Norse, yet he himself looked nothing like the ideal. Enjoying the celebration of a Jewish child born in the mideast over 2,000 years ago with many aspects of the actual holiday translated by a Roman Church from pagan winter solstice rituals -- a Roman Church that the German Luther stood up to in The Reformation, 500 years ago in 2017.
Somehow though, when the candles are lit and the strains of the "First Noel" are coursing through the night and our gathered spirits, it is all simple.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.Merry Christmas ... er wait, "Happy Advent" ... I'm a Lutheran now!
Thanks to the wonder of the internet, here it is https://vimeo.com/248192944.
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