Uncanny valley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The "Uncanny Valley" is a theory that when a simulacrum of human behavior gets "close", but "not quite there", it evokes a revulsion response. Thus if say the CGI in a movie gets "almost" to making you believe that you are watching a human, it might be better off being a little LESS realistic!
My theory is that this is the problem with Hildebeast -- sometimes she seems almost human, but then the revulsion hits!
It's a worthy wiki article -- there are lots of cases that they can come in, robots are just one. Men trying to come off and women coming off as men, or gay "marriage" for that matter can cause our brains to flow into this valley -- even if the person is totally dedicated to being the most left wing trans / gay / whatever "open mind". That "open mind" still runs on human mushware, and that mushware had either a REALLY sophisticated designer (God), or a REALLY long development cycle (billions of years of evolution). Making "decisions" with the top-most functions of the brain about what the "old iron" ought to do isn't going to cut it.
Close STILL only counts in Horseshoes and Hand-grenades -- and in this case, missing by a little is actually WORSE.
'via Blog this'
Wednesday, June 01, 2016
Revive The Media, Straight White Male Republicans!
Why the president needs to be white, male and Republican: Glenn Reynolds:
Actually it isn't just the media -- NRO, the whole "NeverTrump movement, major hunks of the Republican establishment and all entertainment and academia as well. The only people that will admit to supporting Trump are pretty much the "bitter clingers" which BO successfully marginalized enough that they are killing themselves in droves. All the "smart people" just hope enough of "clingers" die before November to insure Trump isn't elected!
The whole linked article is worth the read, though the thesis is simple. With BO in office, there was essentially no real media opposition. As Reynolds points out, BO did pretty much everything that people are "concerned" that Trump might do, it is just that when BO did it, it was "their president" for the chattering classes.
In writing this, I realized that both of them used to have SCATHING columns about how much time W spent at the ranch, how stupid he was, how much it cost to run Air Force One, which foreign leader might have dissed W -- and just general malaise about how HORRIBLE W was as president! Hell, homelessness may even come back as an issue!
I had forgotten Maureen's name! Elect Trump and I know she will be back and LOADED with righteous indignation!
The whole idea of the old "it's patriotic to oppose the president"!!!! that was so much in evidence during the W years has somehow completely died -- just think how good all those folks will feel to step back into the vital role that they have so often let us know that they fill!
They ought to vote for Trump -- I'm betting their sales of newsprint and books go way up!
'via Blog this'
Actually it isn't just the media -- NRO, the whole "NeverTrump movement, major hunks of the Republican establishment and all entertainment and academia as well. The only people that will admit to supporting Trump are pretty much the "bitter clingers" which BO successfully marginalized enough that they are killing themselves in droves. All the "smart people" just hope enough of "clingers" die before November to insure Trump isn't elected!
The whole linked article is worth the read, though the thesis is simple. With BO in office, there was essentially no real media opposition. As Reynolds points out, BO did pretty much everything that people are "concerned" that Trump might do, it is just that when BO did it, it was "their president" for the chattering classes.
I’d like to think that pointing this kind of thing out would address the problem, but my faith in our political classes is pretty low right now. So, given the realities, I have a suggestion for limiting the imperial presidency that will probably work: Only elect straight, white male Republicans.Get a straight white male Republican back in the White House and I'm convinced that any potential presidential overreach becomes BIG news again. The debt and deficit no doubt will be issues once more, real cost of living going up with no COLA increase in FICA will be scandalous -- "pushing grandma over a cliff in her wheelchair". Military deaths will suddenly be more important than gorilla deaths, and columnists like Maureen Dowd of the NY Times and EJ Dionne of the WaPO will suddenly rise from the dead.
In writing this, I realized that both of them used to have SCATHING columns about how much time W spent at the ranch, how stupid he was, how much it cost to run Air Force One, which foreign leader might have dissed W -- and just general malaise about how HORRIBLE W was as president! Hell, homelessness may even come back as an issue!
I had forgotten Maureen's name! Elect Trump and I know she will be back and LOADED with righteous indignation!
The whole idea of the old "it's patriotic to oppose the president"!!!! that was so much in evidence during the W years has somehow completely died -- just think how good all those folks will feel to step back into the vital role that they have so often let us know that they fill!
They ought to vote for Trump -- I'm betting their sales of newsprint and books go way up!
'via Blog this'
The Rigged System
Socialism for the Uninformed - Thomas Sowell:
When Senator Sanders cries, "The system is rigged!" no one asks, "Just what specifically does that mean?" or "What facts do you have to back that up?"
In 2015, the 400 richest people in the world had net losses of $19 billion. If they had rigged the system, surely they could have rigged it better than that.I check everyone -- even Sowell, yes, Bloomberg agrees --- in one of the much less reported pieces of news, the 400 richest lost $19B.
The rest of the Sowell article is worth reading -- socialism is failing miserably in Venezuela and Brazil, as it always does. Letting someone else pay for everything seems to sound good to a certain set of people, and with proper control of the media narrative, it always will.
I'm reminded of one of my favorite analogies -- In gambling, "The House" always wins! You need to keep track of who "The House" is. In this country it's easy -- "The House" is "The Party". They are the ones that control what you hear and tell you what you are to believe.
They avoided telling you that the rich folks lost $19B last year, but they REGULARLY tell you how things are "rigged". They indeed are -- they are rigged by and for The Party! Recall how much focus we had in 2012 on Mitten's wealth. To the extent that anyone knows the combined wealth of the Clinton's and their "Foundation" it at least rivals and likely exceeds Mittens -- the "Foundation" BRINGS IN over $200 Million a YEAR! Mittens was supposed to be worth $300M.
The point is "the narrative", not the facts. TP insures that the masses ALWAYS have "The Story" as orchestrated by TP.
'via Blog this'
'via Blog this'
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Everest, Vegans Can Do Anything -- And More!
Woman trying to prove ‘vegans can do anything’ among four dead on Mount Everest - The Washington Post:
One is reminded of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story ... "To infinity -- and beyond!".
"Proving" that vegans can do "anything" -- even without the "more" is certainly not a scientific quest. Since one of them died and neither made it, did they prove that vegans CAN'T do "anything"? We really didn't need the climb to prove that they can't do "anything" -- they can't eat a hamburger for goodness sake!
First man attempts to kill God -- then man attempts to find "meaning". Climbing Everest seems meaningful to some -- is dying on it meaningful? Is a death that happens in a "quest" more meaningful than some other sort of death in a world with no fixed values? As we have discussed before, these days every man believes that he is his own god.
One is reminded of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story ... "To infinity -- and beyond!".
It seems that people have this warped idea of vegans being malnourished and weak,” Strydom said in an interview on Monash’s blog. “By climbing the seven summits we want to prove that vegans can do anything and more.There are over 200 frozen corpses up on Everest and over 250 people have died attempting to climb it. Over 4000 people have made it to the summit and back.
"Proving" that vegans can do "anything" -- even without the "more" is certainly not a scientific quest. Since one of them died and neither made it, did they prove that vegans CAN'T do "anything"? We really didn't need the climb to prove that they can't do "anything" -- they can't eat a hamburger for goodness sake!
First man attempts to kill God -- then man attempts to find "meaning". Climbing Everest seems meaningful to some -- is dying on it meaningful? Is a death that happens in a "quest" more meaningful than some other sort of death in a world with no fixed values? As we have discussed before, these days every man believes that he is his own god.
“A lot of people say, ‘Maybe it’s not your turn, maybe it’s not your fate, maybe the mountain is telling you not to climb it,’” he said. “But I still have a passion for it. When I realized that, I decided I have to go back.”We live in an enlightened scientific age when "prayer" needs to be hidden away as a "private matter". Christians seem "primitive" -- "bitter clingers", for still having faith in a religion practiced by billions over two thousand years.
Getting messages from a mountain however -- there is no problem with THAT!
Certainly it is sad to see people die on Everest -- for nothing. Four thousand people have climbed it, you are not "proving" anything other than the weather cooperated, your system didn't fail under low oxygen conditions, no killing slides or avalanches, etc.
Should we "stop them"? No, in a world where people led meaningful lives, far far less would grasp at such a straw to try to bootstrap their meaningless existence toward some meaning for risking their life to scale a peak.
We don't live in that world -- in a meaningless world, dying on Everest is no more or less meaningful than dying of heroin overdose in some backwater town, or from gang-banger gunfire in Chicago.
"At this point, what does it matter?". It could be that Hildebeast provided the most appropriate motto for the post-America BOistan wasteland.
27 Degrees, Strawberries, Farming
27 Degrees | Firefly Berries:
The official Rochester low was 31, the Twin Cities record low is 31 for that day, set in 1980. The linked blog is the "real world". Here in the real world, we have such a thing as urban heat islands -- the Rochester temps tend to be about 5 degrees higher than the surrounding area, the Twin Cities are often 10 degrees higher. That is even more true for cold, because the coldest nights are the calm clear nights when the heat radiates to space -- and in the urban settings, all the concrete thermal mass and heat escaping from buildings is unmixed with flowing air.
No "records" were set that day, but for a strawberry farmer it was a bad day -- as covered with some good honest, not overly emotional writing in the linked. The kind of local facts on the ground that we need to ignore.
Our climatologists assure us that they can predict climate to tenths of a degree a century in the future, and we poor unscientific fools are maligned by our betters, the current occupant of the White House being a common one, on a regular basis if we don't pay more attention to those certain tenths of degrees than we do to 27 degrees on a given day that some hick farmer thinks they see.
YES, I'm very aware that "weather is not climate", but on the other hand, there certainly IS a "relationship" -- lots of daily observations from lots of localities all over the world over decades and centuries IS "climate".
For a farmer whose crops freeze, "it's getting warmer" is a milder version of telling the parent who has just lost a child to cancer that "we have made tremendous progress in successfully treating childhood cancer". To the common man, there is an unfortunate tendency for personal experience to have some effect even with the solid studies completed by experts assuring us of "the big picture". The common man is just, well, "common". It is one of those very old problems that are a real burden to the elites.
The modern sophisticated world tells us constantly how we SHOULD think and feel. We should be happy to he point of giddiness over gay "marriage" and transgenders. We should be completely oblivious to 8 dead and 57 wounded over Memorial Weekend in Chicago. We should be guilty, ashamed and afraid of Climate Change / carbon and the number of guns owned by Americans. Cell tissue in a mother's womb is just cells, tiny fish or insects somewhere in the environment are critical elements of biodiversity that must be protected. Trump is a clear and present danger to the world, Hillary is an honest, truthful, wonderful human being. We DO know how we ought think, but for those of us with limited intelligence, we just get confused.
Young women having multiple babies by multiple fathers that they lose track of is cause for compassion, but common people not getting their minds right is simply not excusable. The elites are very angry with those that fail to follow the simple instructions they provide on how the world REALLY is, and failure to ignore any foolish local / personal / short term "observations" that the commoners imagine they are experiencing, is just more proof that they are beneath contempt.
BO has worked hard to educate the riffraff, perhaps Hildebeast will need to take stronger measures.
'via Blog this'
The official Rochester low was 31, the Twin Cities record low is 31 for that day, set in 1980. The linked blog is the "real world". Here in the real world, we have such a thing as urban heat islands -- the Rochester temps tend to be about 5 degrees higher than the surrounding area, the Twin Cities are often 10 degrees higher. That is even more true for cold, because the coldest nights are the calm clear nights when the heat radiates to space -- and in the urban settings, all the concrete thermal mass and heat escaping from buildings is unmixed with flowing air.
No "records" were set that day, but for a strawberry farmer it was a bad day -- as covered with some good honest, not overly emotional writing in the linked. The kind of local facts on the ground that we need to ignore.
Our climatologists assure us that they can predict climate to tenths of a degree a century in the future, and we poor unscientific fools are maligned by our betters, the current occupant of the White House being a common one, on a regular basis if we don't pay more attention to those certain tenths of degrees than we do to 27 degrees on a given day that some hick farmer thinks they see.
YES, I'm very aware that "weather is not climate", but on the other hand, there certainly IS a "relationship" -- lots of daily observations from lots of localities all over the world over decades and centuries IS "climate".
For a farmer whose crops freeze, "it's getting warmer" is a milder version of telling the parent who has just lost a child to cancer that "we have made tremendous progress in successfully treating childhood cancer". To the common man, there is an unfortunate tendency for personal experience to have some effect even with the solid studies completed by experts assuring us of "the big picture". The common man is just, well, "common". It is one of those very old problems that are a real burden to the elites.
The modern sophisticated world tells us constantly how we SHOULD think and feel. We should be happy to he point of giddiness over gay "marriage" and transgenders. We should be completely oblivious to 8 dead and 57 wounded over Memorial Weekend in Chicago. We should be guilty, ashamed and afraid of Climate Change / carbon and the number of guns owned by Americans. Cell tissue in a mother's womb is just cells, tiny fish or insects somewhere in the environment are critical elements of biodiversity that must be protected. Trump is a clear and present danger to the world, Hillary is an honest, truthful, wonderful human being. We DO know how we ought think, but for those of us with limited intelligence, we just get confused.
Young women having multiple babies by multiple fathers that they lose track of is cause for compassion, but common people not getting their minds right is simply not excusable. The elites are very angry with those that fail to follow the simple instructions they provide on how the world REALLY is, and failure to ignore any foolish local / personal / short term "observations" that the commoners imagine they are experiencing, is just more proof that they are beneath contempt.
BO has worked hard to educate the riffraff, perhaps Hildebeast will need to take stronger measures.
'via Blog this'
Monday, May 30, 2016
Big Problem With 'White Privilege' Gorilla
Black Outrage Over Gorilla Shot To Protect 'White Privilege':
Proof positive that the Internet isn't much of a source for "truth". Yes, there were some blacks that saw "White Priviledge" in the killing of the gorilla -- I think there are a couple problems with that line of "reasoning", but one of the big ones is that apparently the child was black.
'via Blog this'
Proof positive that the Internet isn't much of a source for "truth". Yes, there were some blacks that saw "White Priviledge" in the killing of the gorilla -- I think there are a couple problems with that line of "reasoning", but one of the big ones is that apparently the child was black.
'via Blog this'
Appetite All The Way Down
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/435987/hillary-clinton-campaign-lies
If there are no transcendent principles -- love of God, love of country, understanding and respect for some culture or civilization (like the much maligned Western civilization), then as Burke said, men become "as the flies of summer".
What drives the flies of summer? Appetite -- and thus the Clinton's are explained, as is much of existence here in the post-America, BOistan.
If there are no transcendent principles -- love of God, love of country, understanding and respect for some culture or civilization (like the much maligned Western civilization), then as Burke said, men become "as the flies of summer".
What drives the flies of summer? Appetite -- and thus the Clinton's are explained, as is much of existence here in the post-America, BOistan.
The amazing thing about Hillary and Bill Clinton is that they are united by no central idea, no governing philosophy that doesn’t — upon close inspection — boil down to the idea that they should be in charge.
Friday, May 27, 2016
Hildebeast, Lerner, Corruption
Hillary Embodies Washington’s Decadence - WSJ:
Peggy scores a good one here on the rise of Trump. Things like the buried IRS scandal tell us something of how far the culture of corruption in DC has sunk.
So DC became a certified cesspool, so why would anyone expect Hildebeast to NOT get away with lying?
Should Trump shock all and win, both parties, the entire Deep / Administrative State, and 90% of the media will be out for his skin the day after the election. There are WAY too many bodies buried WAY too shallowly around our hypercorrupt government -- it is going to take a BIG bomb!
'via Blog this'
Peggy scores a good one here on the rise of Trump. Things like the buried IRS scandal tell us something of how far the culture of corruption in DC has sunk.
A high official in the IRS named Lois Lerner targets those she finds politically hateful. IRS officials are in the White House a lot, which oddly enough finds the same people hateful. News of the IRS targeting is about to break because an inspector general is on the case, so Ms. Lerner plants a question at a conference, answers with a rehearsed lie, tries to pin the scandal on workers in a cubicle farm in Cincinnati, lies some more, gets called into Congress, takes the Fifth—and then retires with full pension and benefits, bonuses intact. Taxpayers will be footing the bill for years for the woman who in some cases targeted them, and blew up the reputation of the IRS.Nixon WANTED to use the IRS to go after his "enemies" -- even then, the IRS employees where all Democrats, so they squealed. Today, they don't squeal ... they do the job, then a coverup, then take the 5th and retire with full benefits and BO's eternal gratitude.
Which brings us to the State Department Office of Inspector General’s report involving Hillary Clinton’s emails. It reveals one big thing: Almost everything she has said publicly about her private server was a lie. She lied brazenly, coolly, as one who is practiced in lying would, as one who always gets away with it could.When Nixon was impeached, the BIG issue was "lying to the American people". During Iran Contra, the task was to catch Reagan in a lie and do another impeachment. Then came Slick Willie -- suddenly, lies by the president were OK. While D's brought back the "Special Prosecutor" for the Plame affair during W's administration and constantly talked of "Bush lied, ...", after Slick Willie, the idea of "truth in the presidency" was a bit wistful at best. BO made lying and lips moving the same thing -- nobody expects truth from the presidency or all of DC for that matter.
So DC became a certified cesspool, so why would anyone expect Hildebeast to NOT get away with lying?
It is widely assumed that Mrs. Clinton will pay no price for misbehavior because the Democratic president’s Justice Department is not going to proceed with charges against the likely Democratic presidential nominee.
This is what everyone thinks, and not only because they watch “Scandal.” Because they watch the news.
That is the civic decadence they want to see blown up. And there’s this orange-colored bomb . . .
Should Trump shock all and win, both parties, the entire Deep / Administrative State, and 90% of the media will be out for his skin the day after the election. There are WAY too many bodies buried WAY too shallowly around our hypercorrupt government -- it is going to take a BIG bomb!
'via Blog this'
Thursday, May 26, 2016
BO Says World Leaders Concerned By Trump
BO today indicated that now that the US has established itself as a completely unreliable ally, 100% of the world leaders prefer a weak president that has either already accepted millions of foreign money in advance of taking office, or one that has negotiated massive deposits for himself in off-shore accounts for services rendered, as in his case.
BO said today,
Hey, there is an Internet and all sorts of communications out there. People around the world are aware that Trump has gotten the Republican nomination, and they are worried!
They are used to dealing with me, a person who sometimes attempts to identify as a man, but is generally known as a pussy. They know my "red lines" are no more concern than a kindergarten girl drawing in red crayon. I've established the US as a known doormat, useful for strong leaders in Iran, Russia and China to increase their stature at it's expense. Between you and me, I have made some good deals that have made me a VERY rich man!
The Clintons are complete pikers with their piddly 100's of millions -- Gates and Buffet need to look over their shoulders! Everyone knows how smart I am -- strong men paying to have their way with me is nothing new, and I KNOW how to get the cash!
They all expected Hillary in a cakewalk, and have pre-paid 100's of millions in advance influence money to continue to have their way when she takes over. Sure, she's a witch, but she is a witch that can be bought, which is all world leadership really cares about.
Trump? Who knows? He is a businessman, so everyone assumes he will deal, but it's unexpected. The big players like to pay their money and KNOW they get their value and the bitter clingers get the shaft. So do I, as does Hillary and Slick. If I liked girls more, I'd hang with the Big Dog more.
We have spent a lot of money to open the borders, screw the white folks in the red states and give the idiot white Christians the boot in the ass they deserve. I've ALWAYS hated those people! Hell, I wanted to filter out my damned white mom's blood -- honky bitch left me with my whitebread grandparents for gods sake! ME! THE ONE! My old man, now there was a MAN -- solid Luo tribal blood, anti-colonial warrior! We could have hung out, drank together, done some blow and weed. Damn that white bitch mother!
But I digress. Anyway, this Trump thing is an ISSUE! I left this country a sad paper tiger with no claws and a gut wound. The only way this nation is to deal with ANYONE in the future is on it's knees! Where the cracker colonialists were always intended to be! I did my job, I deserve every billion I got out of it!
Anyway, world leaders love me -- if they didn't, they wouldn't be depositing so much money in my accounts. This Trump thing has GOT to be stopped! It might screw up the order of things. "Make American Great Again"! Shit. There IS NO fucking America! I killed it -- the only "greatness" it has left is massive debt and a broken economy -- oh, and my money. Guess what, that is all in gold -- US dollars are soon to be worth what the Constitution I shredded is worth.
So let's get Trump over with -- it's got me and my paying homies concerned!
Dark and Stormy Carrier Landing
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3559/how-to-land-a-fighter-on-an-aircraft-carrier-on-a-stormy-night?xid=srfeb&sr_source=lift_facebook
A little change of pace. A good article full of details about the incredible capability of the only nation on earth able to carry out night all-weather carrier ops.
Even if we don't lose this preeminate position as we lost our spacefaring capability, there will be a time in the not too distant future when the computers do the landing, and then shortly a time when the only thing flying are drones. My guess is that in the next war, the carrier goes the way of the battleship, but part of life is appreciating the miracles of today.
To consistently put jet aircraft on the deck of a carrier at night and in stormy weather is a feat that ranks at the very top of individual and group operational skill. Greatness is not a right -- it is EARNED. We were once a nation that went to the Moon ... even in our decline, we still have men who can work together to accomplish incredible feats as "part of the job".
Even if we don't lose this preeminate position as we lost our spacefaring capability, there will be a time in the not too distant future when the computers do the landing, and then shortly a time when the only thing flying are drones. My guess is that in the next war, the carrier goes the way of the battleship, but part of life is appreciating the miracles of today.
To consistently put jet aircraft on the deck of a carrier at night and in stormy weather is a feat that ranks at the very top of individual and group operational skill. Greatness is not a right -- it is EARNED. We were once a nation that went to the Moon ... even in our decline, we still have men who can work together to accomplish incredible feats as "part of the job".
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
It's "Fauxahontas"!
Elizabeth Warren blasts Trump; he calls her 'Pocahontas' - CNNPolitics.com:
It is disappointing to see Trump calling Fauxahontas Pocahontas. He does need to get that right.
Our politics are certainly "tribal". We have a Luo Tribesman in the White House, and here we have a faux red woman criticizing the faux orange candidate. Maybe it is all about skin color and tribe once a couple thousand years of Western civilization is down the drain.
I do like the fine example of "intellectual rhetoric" displayed by the faux red woman.
'via Blog this'
It is disappointing to see Trump calling Fauxahontas Pocahontas. He does need to get that right.
Our politics are certainly "tribal". We have a Luo Tribesman in the White House, and here we have a faux red woman criticizing the faux orange candidate. Maybe it is all about skin color and tribe once a couple thousand years of Western civilization is down the drain.
I do like the fine example of "intellectual rhetoric" displayed by the faux red woman.
See, Trump would say "kissing the asses" and that is FAR worse than the Fauxahontas "fannies"!
"Now that he has sewn up the Republican nomination, Donald Trump has dropped all pretense. He is kissing the fannies of the poor, misunderstood Wall Street bankers."
'via Blog this'
Iraq vs Iran, Democrats Have Consequences
The deep meaning of Ben Rhodes | Power Line:
During most of the '00s we got to listen to endless discussion about "Bush lied", his (or Cheney's) supposedly deep and dark motives for the "lies" -- money for Halliburton, they planned to kill W's daddy, neoconservative delusions, etc, etc. Everything was "false pretenses", and of course Saddam was a great guy that we would be much better off to still have torturing and killing dissidents.
In the late '70s, Jimmuh Carter lost Iran in plain site. Since he was a D, that was "inevitable" to the extent the MSM cared to cover it at all. The left likes to make the establishment of Israel as the source of "Islamic extremism", but the loss of Iran is a far more proximate genesis. Democrats never screw up, so it can't be that.
If and when an Iranian sourced nuke explodes somewhere in the world, we can rest assured that it will NOT be the fault of BO! Either there will be a close proximity R to take the blame, or some R in the past (possibly W), or the blame will go back to the creation of Israel -- or maybe just "religion". Only positive causality ever accrues to Ds ... which tends to make one wonder if they ever really "cause" anything after enough years have passed! I mean, FDR isn't responsible for problems with FICA is he?
Here is a nice concise summary of how BO misled us on Iran. When that bomb blows up, we will know that Jimmuh's 2nd and 3rd terms really did have some results beyond just the destruction of the Constitution, the US economy and the conversion of a once great nation into BOistan.
'via Blog this'
During most of the '00s we got to listen to endless discussion about "Bush lied", his (or Cheney's) supposedly deep and dark motives for the "lies" -- money for Halliburton, they planned to kill W's daddy, neoconservative delusions, etc, etc. Everything was "false pretenses", and of course Saddam was a great guy that we would be much better off to still have torturing and killing dissidents.
In the late '70s, Jimmuh Carter lost Iran in plain site. Since he was a D, that was "inevitable" to the extent the MSM cared to cover it at all. The left likes to make the establishment of Israel as the source of "Islamic extremism", but the loss of Iran is a far more proximate genesis. Democrats never screw up, so it can't be that.
If and when an Iranian sourced nuke explodes somewhere in the world, we can rest assured that it will NOT be the fault of BO! Either there will be a close proximity R to take the blame, or some R in the past (possibly W), or the blame will go back to the creation of Israel -- or maybe just "religion". Only positive causality ever accrues to Ds ... which tends to make one wonder if they ever really "cause" anything after enough years have passed! I mean, FDR isn't responsible for problems with FICA is he?
Here is a nice concise summary of how BO misled us on Iran. When that bomb blows up, we will know that Jimmuh's 2nd and 3rd terms really did have some results beyond just the destruction of the Constitution, the US economy and the conversion of a once great nation into BOistan.
The strategic goal of the President, Doran says, was to end the conflict with Iran in order to extricate the US from the Middle East and make Iran part of the “security architecture of the region.” To do this, he misrepresented not only what was in the deal itself, but everything around it.
Doran identified five components of the deception:
Conjuring moderates within the Iranian government. This created a false moral equivalence between those opposed to deal in the US and Iranian hardliners, as well as a false sense of security about the concessions the US has made.
Falsifying the chronology of negotiations, which started prior to Rouhani’s assuming office.
Erasing US concessions.
Hiding the regional cost, in particular with respect to Syria. Rhodes, Doran argues, tried to prevent people from connecting Obama’s Syria policy to his Iran policy (as Doran correctly identified over a year ago).
Blaming the US’s Sunni Muslim allies as well as Prime Minister Netanyahu.BO is a D ... "misleading" is simply "convincing the foolish to follow him" from the MSM point of view. Nobody cares -- when it goes "blindingly boom" it won't be his fault.
Finally, Doran points out that even today, we still don’t know the full terms of the deal.
'via Blog this'
Constitutional Convention of the States (Placeholder)
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/05/america_the_founders_dream_and_the_nightmare_of_decline.html
Mostly just linking this so I have it for reference -- not bad, but not top grade in my book.
What he is talking about is a Constitutional Convention of the states -- where 2/3 of the states would have already signed up for the agenda. I don't know much about it, apparently "The Liberty Amendments" is a book that covers this potential.
More reading!
Mostly just linking this so I have it for reference -- not bad, but not top grade in my book.
I was struck by the fact that the men who gathered in Philadelphia in 1776 and 1787, while knowledgeable about history, understood human nature. That there are two driving forces in mankind: 1) survival and 2) the insatiable need for some to dominate and control others.If I was to distill human drives to two items, I'd pick love and power. Under love, there are all sorts of things -- happiness, comfort, sex, family, security. Under "power" is money, possessions, political power, fame, etc.
The easiest course to assume this power was to promise, in return for the support of the people to overturn the existing order, that the state through a new ruling class would provide cradle-to-grave economic security. Thus, a Faustian bargain encompassing the desire by the majority for ease of survival and others for the need to rule would be entered into. In the case of Russia, Italy and Germany, this bargain resulted in the ascension to power of megalomaniacs who destroyed their nations and brought about the near destruction of a continent.The age old tradeoff of the sheep -- give up your freedom to be fed and cared for, BUT do your masters REALLY care?
America is living out the scenario the Founders feared, as they knew whatever framework they created would be viable only as long as the citizenry remained vigilant, informed and a just and moral people. Anticipating that at some point in history what is happening today would occur, these men provided a mechanism within the Constitution to peacefully change course and return power to the people if the American people choose to do so.
What he is talking about is a Constitutional Convention of the states -- where 2/3 of the states would have already signed up for the agenda. I don't know much about it, apparently "The Liberty Amendments" is a book that covers this potential.
More reading!
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Prager #NeverTrump, NR, Sin
#NeverTrump Wrong: Beat Hillary Clinton | National Review:
The fact that NR published this column is the MOST important point here. True conservatives believe in diversity of thought, and the center of the #NeverTrump movement being willing to publish a strong dissenting voice is far more than what we commonly see from the left. Actions speak louder than words.
My BIGGEST concern with #NeverTrump is just that -- I see the tendencies of anger and ostracization of disagreeing voices from both Trump and #NeverTrump. I'm less concerned about the Trump people -- they never said they supported him "because he was a Republican", or even "because they are conservatives", but rather only because he was Trump. The #NeverTrumpers however like to hold up their conservative principles at bit like Scribes and Pharisees -- allowing diversity of thought is supposed one of those principles, and it is GREAT to see this action from NR.
I deeply respect Dennis Prager, and I agree with his decision to vote for Trump as the best chance of defeating Hillary. I do not agree with the core of his logic as to why, for religious reasons.
Prager is Jewish, so the issue of Grace and forgiveness is less clear than it is for a Christian. Man has free will -- apparently he always did, since he chose evil in the garden. Free will means that we sometimes overtly choose to sin and sometimes sin when we believe that we made "the right situational choice".
Certainly we make choices based on context, but at least Christians need not declare mass murder to be "situationally moral" to bomb Hiroshima. Would you purposely allow one person to die to save 10? How about a million to save a billion? These are questions beyond human moral reasoning, thus killing is declared to be sin. (We aren't going into capitol punishment, self defense, police/military today ...) Sometimes we trust God to forgive us if we choose poorly.
Overt on purpose sin is always an issue -- but unfortunately it is way too common for all, but typically along the lines of "I yelled at the SOB in line again", "I took the Lord's name in vain again" .... etc, rather than "I killed 200K people with an A-bomb".
I think the quality of some of the names on the #NeverTrump list has spooked Dennis a bit. All those names put their pants on one leg at a time, and my guess is that when NR came up with the whole deal, they ASSUMED that they would prevent the nomination of Trump. They guessed wrong and now their character prevents their change of mind -- my guess is that many of them will do what is right in the voting booth and vote for Trump.
Voting for Trump should NOT be compared with bombing Hiroshima or even becoming a Nazi mistress in order to save Jewish lives. (I'm surprised that Dennis followed that road) It is more akin to attending a funeral that might be good for you in business and one for some old lady from your church that you "feel you should attend". I say let the old lady rest in peace without guilt.
Besides, voting for the fascist with opposition is at least as good as Prager's 9 reasons ;-) Nothing like a little hubris on a nice day that I'm struggling to get a Chinese camera configured!
'via Blog this
The fact that NR published this column is the MOST important point here. True conservatives believe in diversity of thought, and the center of the #NeverTrump movement being willing to publish a strong dissenting voice is far more than what we commonly see from the left. Actions speak louder than words.
My BIGGEST concern with #NeverTrump is just that -- I see the tendencies of anger and ostracization of disagreeing voices from both Trump and #NeverTrump. I'm less concerned about the Trump people -- they never said they supported him "because he was a Republican", or even "because they are conservatives", but rather only because he was Trump. The #NeverTrumpers however like to hold up their conservative principles at bit like Scribes and Pharisees -- allowing diversity of thought is supposed one of those principles, and it is GREAT to see this action from NR.
I deeply respect Dennis Prager, and I agree with his decision to vote for Trump as the best chance of defeating Hillary. I do not agree with the core of his logic as to why, for religious reasons.
... Because circumstances almost always determine what is moral — even for religious people such as myself who believe in moral absolutes. That’s why dropping atom bombs on Japan was moral. The circumstances — ending a war that would take millions of more lives — made moral what under other circumstances would be immoral.We don't have the power to declare "circumstances almost always determine what is moral". God has that power -- and in the Old Testament, he declares genocide moral in some cases and not others, and since he is sovereign, that is his declaration to make. From this point in history, we can understand that genocide has the result of removing a portion of the gene pool, knowledge the founders of abortion clearly had as they intended to remove "undesirables", knowledge we have forgotten as we abort millions, have smaller families, and focus on things like gay "marriage". God doesn't extend the power of situational morality to us -- however, we die when we don't propagate our race / culture.
Prager is Jewish, so the issue of Grace and forgiveness is less clear than it is for a Christian. Man has free will -- apparently he always did, since he chose evil in the garden. Free will means that we sometimes overtly choose to sin and sometimes sin when we believe that we made "the right situational choice".
Certainly we make choices based on context, but at least Christians need not declare mass murder to be "situationally moral" to bomb Hiroshima. Would you purposely allow one person to die to save 10? How about a million to save a billion? These are questions beyond human moral reasoning, thus killing is declared to be sin. (We aren't going into capitol punishment, self defense, police/military today ...) Sometimes we trust God to forgive us if we choose poorly.
Overt on purpose sin is always an issue -- but unfortunately it is way too common for all, but typically along the lines of "I yelled at the SOB in line again", "I took the Lord's name in vain again" .... etc, rather than "I killed 200K people with an A-bomb".
I think the quality of some of the names on the #NeverTrump list has spooked Dennis a bit. All those names put their pants on one leg at a time, and my guess is that when NR came up with the whole deal, they ASSUMED that they would prevent the nomination of Trump. They guessed wrong and now their character prevents their change of mind -- my guess is that many of them will do what is right in the voting booth and vote for Trump.
Voting for Trump should NOT be compared with bombing Hiroshima or even becoming a Nazi mistress in order to save Jewish lives. (I'm surprised that Dennis followed that road) It is more akin to attending a funeral that might be good for you in business and one for some old lady from your church that you "feel you should attend". I say let the old lady rest in peace without guilt.
Besides, voting for the fascist with opposition is at least as good as Prager's 9 reasons ;-) Nothing like a little hubris on a nice day that I'm struggling to get a Chinese camera configured!
'via Blog this
Living "As If", Socrates, Plato, Sinatra, Shirley
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/435638/transgender-identity-biology-gender-social-construct-anatomy-binary
The article is on transgender and the basic conclusion is that there are tremendous conflicts about what the whole political transgender movement is, or even wants to be. That isn't what this post is about, the following paragraph struck me:
Animals are driven by instinct to perform instinctual behaviors. Man is blessed and cursed with consciousness, reason and will, which allows us to CHOOSE what emotions, impulses, stimulus, etc we will seek and how we will react to what happens in our lives. For animals, doing and being are always one.
The base of this question is one of the oldest of religion and philosophy, What is man? What does it mean to be human? The old joke that Socrates said "To be is to do", Plato said, "To do is to be", but Sinatra is the greatest philosopher, "To, be, do be, do!"
Grace or commitment? Are you saved by Grace, or are you saved by "giving your life to God"?
I'm not attempting to answer these questions today -- nor at the moment am I even searching my blog and linking to some of my and others opinions on them. What I AM doing is pointing out that simply stating that "Surely the very concept of identity is what one is, not what one pretends or wishes to be" is no reason to call someone Shirley! (and YES, I understand that "fixed gender" is the conservative position and variable gender is the liberal position ... this is about thought, not gender other than a jumping off point).
"We are what we are" vs "You can be whatever you want to be"! To a large extent, that is the greatest personal question and drives pretty much all political thought. Any person of thought knows that there are elements of both in all our lives. As a Christian, we are what God created us to be (male or female being part of that), and if we submit to his will, we will perfectly fit with and DO what is his will is for our lives, and therefore be temporally and eternally divinely fulfilled.
To be "liberal" means that there is no created order and personal choices about "being and doing" are completely open to individual and state interpretations defined by power. Might is right, because there is no higher authority. There is no fixed reality, and "we" are only temporary physical creatures, nothing else.
To be "conservative" means that the universe is ordered and intelligible. Man and everything else is here for a transcendent reason. The problem of life and culture is accepting (through revelation), or searching for that reason and then conforming our "lower selves" (the animal part) to that purpose. Each person is eternally "more than this world", and we live by transcendent values above the physical and animal world.
"Being fruitful and multiplying" is a core purpose in religion, as well as in a naturalistic / deistic evolutionary view. I find it is no accident that abortion, gay issues and transgender are at the forefront of the "culture wars". Although our current overlords try to prevent even the most cursory of thought beyond the mere nominalist, the "there, there", the spiritual, keeps showing through.
Without the perspective of the eternal, even laughter becomes difficult. Without light there is no dark, and without the serious and ultimate, there is no true humor.
The very least the liberals could do is to stop calling us Shirley!
The article is on transgender and the basic conclusion is that there are tremendous conflicts about what the whole political transgender movement is, or even wants to be. That isn't what this post is about, the following paragraph struck me:
Maybe, however, this transgender person means that he wishes to live as if he were a woman, rather than to be a woman. Nonetheless, living as if one is a woman is not the same as being a woman, which is what gender identity is taken to mean. Living “as if” one is a woman appears to conflict with the idea that one’s gender is determined by one’s deepest self-perception. Surely the very concept of identity is what one is, not what one pretends or wishes to be.The core of religions, cultures, gangs, cults, groups, marriages, etc is simply "living as if" much of the time at least. If we take that paragraph as gospel, we are doomed to forever be completely disconnected "identities", fated to be alone.
Animals are driven by instinct to perform instinctual behaviors. Man is blessed and cursed with consciousness, reason and will, which allows us to CHOOSE what emotions, impulses, stimulus, etc we will seek and how we will react to what happens in our lives. For animals, doing and being are always one.
The base of this question is one of the oldest of religion and philosophy, What is man? What does it mean to be human? The old joke that Socrates said "To be is to do", Plato said, "To do is to be", but Sinatra is the greatest philosopher, "To, be, do be, do!"
Grace or commitment? Are you saved by Grace, or are you saved by "giving your life to God"?
I'm not attempting to answer these questions today -- nor at the moment am I even searching my blog and linking to some of my and others opinions on them. What I AM doing is pointing out that simply stating that "Surely the very concept of identity is what one is, not what one pretends or wishes to be" is no reason to call someone Shirley! (and YES, I understand that "fixed gender" is the conservative position and variable gender is the liberal position ... this is about thought, not gender other than a jumping off point).
"We are what we are" vs "You can be whatever you want to be"! To a large extent, that is the greatest personal question and drives pretty much all political thought. Any person of thought knows that there are elements of both in all our lives. As a Christian, we are what God created us to be (male or female being part of that), and if we submit to his will, we will perfectly fit with and DO what is his will is for our lives, and therefore be temporally and eternally divinely fulfilled.
To be "liberal" means that there is no created order and personal choices about "being and doing" are completely open to individual and state interpretations defined by power. Might is right, because there is no higher authority. There is no fixed reality, and "we" are only temporary physical creatures, nothing else.
To be "conservative" means that the universe is ordered and intelligible. Man and everything else is here for a transcendent reason. The problem of life and culture is accepting (through revelation), or searching for that reason and then conforming our "lower selves" (the animal part) to that purpose. Each person is eternally "more than this world", and we live by transcendent values above the physical and animal world.
"Being fruitful and multiplying" is a core purpose in religion, as well as in a naturalistic / deistic evolutionary view. I find it is no accident that abortion, gay issues and transgender are at the forefront of the "culture wars". Although our current overlords try to prevent even the most cursory of thought beyond the mere nominalist, the "there, there", the spiritual, keeps showing through.
Without the perspective of the eternal, even laughter becomes difficult. Without light there is no dark, and without the serious and ultimate, there is no true humor.
The very least the liberals could do is to stop calling us Shirley!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)