Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Sacred?
We're seeing a misuse, more precisely an inverse use, of the word sacred.
The hole left by the Twin Towers is called sacred by defenders of America who are trying to stop the Cordoba Arab Victory Monument. I understand their impulse, but it's backward and counterproductive.
What happened on 9/11 was a desecration of our Christian soil by filthy Arabs acting on behalf of a vicious Stone Age anti-god.
It is only sacred to the idolatrous Arab vermin, who now own the site.
Calling this spot sacred implies that we are on the same side as the Arabs. The term is thus fully appropriate when used by Grand Vizier Obama and Pasha Bloomberg, who are on the same side as the Arabs. But the term shouldn't be used by Americans. When we call the site sacred we only show ourselves to be weak and sad and pathetic, incapable of responding to the desecration.
If an American government had existed in 2001, it would have responded by desecrating Mecca and Medina with 100-megaton bombs, then filling the radioactive craters with 100 megatons of bacon and whiskey.
Mutually Assured Desecration.
This is a war between religions, not just an opportunity to whimper and snivel and display teddy bears.
Or rather it would have been a war between religions if Sultan Bush hadn't unconditionally surrendered to his Arab vermin masters. ¶ 11:14 AM
The hole left by the Twin Towers is called sacred by defenders of America who are trying to stop the Cordoba Arab Victory Monument. I understand their impulse, but it's backward and counterproductive.
What happened on 9/11 was a desecration of our Christian soil by filthy Arabs acting on behalf of a vicious Stone Age anti-god.
It is only sacred to the idolatrous Arab vermin, who now own the site.
Calling this spot sacred implies that we are on the same side as the Arabs. The term is thus fully appropriate when used by Grand Vizier Obama and Pasha Bloomberg, who are on the same side as the Arabs. But the term shouldn't be used by Americans. When we call the site sacred we only show ourselves to be weak and sad and pathetic, incapable of responding to the desecration.
If an American government had existed in 2001, it would have responded by desecrating Mecca and Medina with 100-megaton bombs, then filling the radioactive craters with 100 megatons of bacon and whiskey.
Mutually Assured Desecration.
This is a war between religions, not just an opportunity to whimper and snivel and display teddy bears.
Or rather it would have been a war between religions if Sultan Bush hadn't unconditionally surrendered to his Arab vermin masters. ¶ 11:14 AM
Is this an inside joke?
Thoroughly puzzled by the new ad for Discover Card. The basic theme isn't new: Americans are tired of reaching Hindus with fake American names when they call for service, and Americans are tired of seeing call center jobs go to Hindus.
Discover claims that its call centers are actually in America, which is a valid selling point. But the 'optics' are completely puzzling.
After you hear the Hindu male who claims his name is Peggy, you've formed an accurate image of the slender dark-skinned guy with a mustache, sitting in a vast boiler room with hundreds of cubicles.
The reveal is entirely different: Your Favorite Professor. Looks vaguely Jewish, curly hair, small beard, comfortably plump, amused smile, wearing a cardigan, sitting in a professorial office.
Huh? I understand why they can't show the Hindu reality in visual terms. ACLU would rip them to shreds. But why use good old Prof Weinberg?
= = = = =
A few minutes later: Oh, now I get it. I was over-analyzing. They used the surprising image because it works. The ad stuck in my brain more specifically than other ads, and it stuck with a pleasant association to the brand. What more could an advertiser want? ¶ 8:28 AM
Discover claims that its call centers are actually in America, which is a valid selling point. But the 'optics' are completely puzzling.
After you hear the Hindu male who claims his name is Peggy, you've formed an accurate image of the slender dark-skinned guy with a mustache, sitting in a vast boiler room with hundreds of cubicles.
The reveal is entirely different: Your Favorite Professor. Looks vaguely Jewish, curly hair, small beard, comfortably plump, amused smile, wearing a cardigan, sitting in a professorial office.
Huh? I understand why they can't show the Hindu reality in visual terms. ACLU would rip them to shreds. But why use good old Prof Weinberg?
= = = = =
A few minutes later: Oh, now I get it. I was over-analyzing. They used the surprising image because it works. The ad stuck in my brain more specifically than other ads, and it stuck with a pleasant association to the brand. What more could an advertiser want? ¶ 8:28 AM
Monday, August 30, 2010
Egg quality
Some are asking whether eggs have gone too far down the road of low cost and mass production.
It's a good question.
First, we certainly pay less for eggs now than in previous decades. See this picture of a 1950 store. The best eggs (toward the right) are 49 cents a dozen, which inflates to $4.32 in today's cash. Safeway's eggs today cost less than half that.
Second, even aside from the lack of FDA inspection, the quality has definitely dropped. I started cooking for myself in 1970. Since I was a hippie-dippie vegetarian at the time, I fried a lot of eggs. Through the '80s I didn't cook much; I was busy and had plenty of money, so I mostly ate in restaurants. Around 2000, belatedly realizing the benefits of a good breakfast, I started cooking eggs again and immediately noticed a difference from the previous eggs. [Comparison is always easier across a gap than through a continuous period.] The 1970's eggs had consistently hard shells; I could always break them cleanly. The post-2000 eggs are much more fragile and inconsistent; it's way too easy to leave bits of shell in the pan.
Would I pay twice as much for better eggs? Yes. ¶ 6:19 PM
It's a good question.
First, we certainly pay less for eggs now than in previous decades. See this picture of a 1950 store. The best eggs (toward the right) are 49 cents a dozen, which inflates to $4.32 in today's cash. Safeway's eggs today cost less than half that.
Second, even aside from the lack of FDA inspection, the quality has definitely dropped. I started cooking for myself in 1970. Since I was a hippie-dippie vegetarian at the time, I fried a lot of eggs. Through the '80s I didn't cook much; I was busy and had plenty of money, so I mostly ate in restaurants. Around 2000, belatedly realizing the benefits of a good breakfast, I started cooking eggs again and immediately noticed a difference from the previous eggs. [Comparison is always easier across a gap than through a continuous period.] The 1970's eggs had consistently hard shells; I could always break them cleanly. The post-2000 eggs are much more fragile and inconsistent; it's way too easy to leave bits of shell in the pan.
Would I pay twice as much for better eggs? Yes. ¶ 6:19 PM
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Eco-bandit
This guy is in the same business as Algore and Maurice Strong, but he does it more directly and a lot less profitably.
You'd think a bike-riding bandit couldn't stay ahead of the cops, but this guy has managed 8 bank robberies over the last few months, all on his bike.
If they do finally pin him down and convict him, he's going to catch hell in prison. Criminals have a strong sense of vehicular status. A robber who drives a Kia instead of a Caddy will be humiliated; a three-speed bicyclist will quickly acquire a roomy rectum. ¶ 6:35 PM
Police are looking for a man who robbed a bank in Coeur d'Alene Friday evening. It happened at 6:00 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Bank branch on East Appleway.
Witnesses said a man entered the bank and threw cloth re-usable grocery bags at the tellers. The suspect demanded they hurry up and fill them. The man waved around a large caliber handgun. He then left the bank with an some cash. He was last seen riding a gray three-speed bicycle south on Government Way from Appleway.
You'd think a bike-riding bandit couldn't stay ahead of the cops, but this guy has managed 8 bank robberies over the last few months, all on his bike.
If they do finally pin him down and convict him, he's going to catch hell in prison. Criminals have a strong sense of vehicular status. A robber who drives a Kia instead of a Caddy will be humiliated; a three-speed bicyclist will quickly acquire a roomy rectum. ¶ 6:35 PM
Sun is in charge as always!
Professor Polistra was impressed by the (nearly) continuous 200-year record of temperature and storminess at Armagh, Ireland. If we really want to look at climate scientifically, we should be dealing with just a handful of reliable records like this, instead of trying to cover the earth with a grid of "adjusted" (falsified) data.
The WUWT folks were focused mainly on temperature, but Prof P has been thinking more about overall conditions correlated to sunspots.
The upper chart is the "storminess" record from the Armagh data, spanning 1796 to 2002. The lower chart comes from an online chart of sunspots, with the horizontal axis of years aligned exactly the same.
After the gap (in the 1830's) it's a good match. You don't need to mix in any other factors, neither CO2 nor the El Niño-style oscillations.
The sun does it all.
The Svensmark theory tells us that more sunspots should mean somewhat less cloudiness on average, which means the surface gets a little warmer. Here we see more 'storminess', which includes wind and rain, at the times when the sunspots would make the surface warmer. The 'rain half' of storminess seems a little counterintuitive, but storminess depends more on upper-level wind currents and temperature gradients, not so much on the amount of available moisture.
= = = = =
Update: News today about the Farmers Almanac prediction for this winter. They see mild winter for the East, somewhat milder and drier than average here in inland NW, and blizzards in Midwest. They use sunspots and lunar phases for their predictions, which means they're right most of the time.
Most interesting part of the article was a response from one of the Official Crimatologists at NOAA:
This is one of those deliciously Orwellian glimpses into the murderously diseased cranial appendages (I can't say minds) of our infinitely evil Communist Masters.
(1) "In science you have to have an open mind."
and then immediately,
(2) "Someday someone could find some scintilla of evidence..."
Some scintilla? Comrade Eddie m'boy, you fucking snobbish dickhead, look at the chart above, which is just packed with scintillae of real evidence. Of course you wouldn't be able to read it anyway, since it consists of actual data derived from actual observations, which is Kryptonite to your monstrous Godzilla-like compound eyes. ¶ 5:54 PM
The WUWT folks were focused mainly on temperature, but Prof P has been thinking more about overall conditions correlated to sunspots.
The upper chart is the "storminess" record from the Armagh data, spanning 1796 to 2002. The lower chart comes from an online chart of sunspots, with the horizontal axis of years aligned exactly the same.
After the gap (in the 1830's) it's a good match. You don't need to mix in any other factors, neither CO2 nor the El Niño-style oscillations.
The sun does it all.
The Svensmark theory tells us that more sunspots should mean somewhat less cloudiness on average, which means the surface gets a little warmer. Here we see more 'storminess', which includes wind and rain, at the times when the sunspots would make the surface warmer. The 'rain half' of storminess seems a little counterintuitive, but storminess depends more on upper-level wind currents and temperature gradients, not so much on the amount of available moisture.
= = = = =
Update: News today about the Farmers Almanac prediction for this winter. They see mild winter for the East, somewhat milder and drier than average here in inland NW, and blizzards in Midwest. They use sunspots and lunar phases for their predictions, which means they're right most of the time.
Most interesting part of the article was a response from one of the Official Crimatologists at NOAA:
Ed O'Lenic from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center said the scientific community doesn't accept tides, planetary alignment and sunspots as effective predictors of temperature or precipitation, but he stopped short of calling the almanac's meteorological methods a bunch of hooey.
"In science you have to have an open mind. Someday, someone could conceivably find some scintilla of evidence that it's useful," O'Lenic, chief of the operations branch, said of the almanac's methodology. "For the time being, we have to stick with what produces results for us."
This is one of those deliciously Orwellian glimpses into the murderously diseased cranial appendages (I can't say minds) of our infinitely evil Communist Masters.
(1) "In science you have to have an open mind."
and then immediately,
(2) "Someday someone could find some scintilla of evidence..."
Some scintilla? Comrade Eddie m'boy, you fucking snobbish dickhead, look at the chart above, which is just packed with scintillae of real evidence. Of course you wouldn't be able to read it anyway, since it consists of actual data derived from actual observations, which is Kryptonite to your monstrous Godzilla-like compound eyes. ¶ 5:54 PM
Friday, August 27, 2010
Taking the First
The "discussion" of the Cordoba Victory Monument And Terrorist Training Center in NYC has degenerated into one standard line: "The Muslims have the right to place the mosque there, but is it right?"
It's a tiresome line and a tiresome play on words, but it points to a basic understanding by most Americans.
By analogy: When a defendant in court or a witness in a Congressional hearing Takes The Fifth, we understand that he is actually guilty, and we also understand that he is getting a privilege we wouldn't get in ordinary life. Though court decisions have tried to reinforce the delusion that not guilty means the same thing as innocent, tried to state ever more starkly and rigidly that you are not allowed to draw any conclusions from common sense, juries persist in applying common sense. Thank God.
In this case we understand that the Mohammedans do not have the right to place a Victory Monument And Terrorist Training Center on the site of their victory, or any other place for that matter. We understand that previous legitimate governments of America (i.e. govts prior to the Bush-Obama Dynasty) did not allow enemies to build military bases and propaganda stations on our land in time of war. And we understand that the Mohammedan enemy is getting a privilege that no Christian ever gets.
In this case Pasha Bloomberg and Grand Vizier Obama are Taking The First: misusing the Constitution as a tool to destroy common sense and destroy America.
We are still unwilling to state the plain and obvious truth: Just as trial judges who overturn valid jury decisions are illegitimate, just as appellate judges who overturn valid public referenda are illegitimate, a "government" that insists on giving the enemy more privileges than it gives to Americans is traitorous, treasonous and illegitimate. ¶ 9:04 AM
It's a tiresome line and a tiresome play on words, but it points to a basic understanding by most Americans.
By analogy: When a defendant in court or a witness in a Congressional hearing Takes The Fifth, we understand that he is actually guilty, and we also understand that he is getting a privilege we wouldn't get in ordinary life. Though court decisions have tried to reinforce the delusion that not guilty means the same thing as innocent, tried to state ever more starkly and rigidly that you are not allowed to draw any conclusions from common sense, juries persist in applying common sense. Thank God.
In this case we understand that the Mohammedans do not have the right to place a Victory Monument And Terrorist Training Center on the site of their victory, or any other place for that matter. We understand that previous legitimate governments of America (i.e. govts prior to the Bush-Obama Dynasty) did not allow enemies to build military bases and propaganda stations on our land in time of war. And we understand that the Mohammedan enemy is getting a privilege that no Christian ever gets.
In this case Pasha Bloomberg and Grand Vizier Obama are Taking The First: misusing the Constitution as a tool to destroy common sense and destroy America.
We are still unwilling to state the plain and obvious truth: Just as trial judges who overturn valid jury decisions are illegitimate, just as appellate judges who overturn valid public referenda are illegitimate, a "government" that insists on giving the enemy more privileges than it gives to Americans is traitorous, treasonous and illegitimate. ¶ 9:04 AM
A middle-size step
News item, via the China-sucking boys at NRO who obviously don't like it:
Good. Better would be unilateral 20% tariffs on all Chinese shit, but we're not going to see that. Best would be a blockade, but we're not even going to imagine that. ¶ 5:00 AM
The Obama administration, vowing to crack down on countries such as China that it says help subsidize exports of cheap goods to the U.S., introduced 14 measures to toughen enforcement of trade laws.
Proposals offered yesterday include changes to make it harder for individual companies to be excused from country-wide duties, adjustments in methods of anti-dumping calculations and alterations to how labor rates are calculated when determining if products are being sold at artificially low prices.
“Generally, this is targeted at China, and China will see it as such,” said David Spooner, a former Bush administration official who is now a trade lawyer with Squire Sanders in Washington and represented Chinese companies in a tariffs disputes. “The aim is to raise the price of goods from China.”
Good. Better would be unilateral 20% tariffs on all Chinese shit, but we're not going to see that. Best would be a blockade, but we're not even going to imagine that. ¶ 5:00 AM
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Media as jihadis
Dan Gainor has reached the same conclusion that Polistra came to a couple weeks ago. The media in DC and NY are active and conscious participants in Jihad.
¶ 10:09 AM
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Realignment
Can't quite pin it down, but there's a distinct change in two of the main brand-R talkers lately.
Rush is sounding notably more populist: almost pro-union, focusing more on religion and nationality, less on taxes and spending.
At the same time, Jerry Doyle is moving away from populism toward pure Mitch McConnell Repooflican talking points. "Taxation is theft!" and "Yeah, Bush may have spent a few unnecessary pennies, but Obama is spending $4,356,987,113,581.23 every minute!!!!!!" and all that trivial partisan crap.
Wonder if the change has something to do with female influence? Rush was married recently, and Doyle lost his long-time girlfriend at about the same time.
Hypothesis: Female influence = less attention to raw numbers and more attention to the actual welfare of Americans? ¶ 6:21 AM
Rush is sounding notably more populist: almost pro-union, focusing more on religion and nationality, less on taxes and spending.
At the same time, Jerry Doyle is moving away from populism toward pure Mitch McConnell Repooflican talking points. "Taxation is theft!" and "Yeah, Bush may have spent a few unnecessary pennies, but Obama is spending $4,356,987,113,581.23 every minute!!!!!!" and all that trivial partisan crap.
Wonder if the change has something to do with female influence? Rush was married recently, and Doyle lost his long-time girlfriend at about the same time.
Hypothesis: Female influence = less attention to raw numbers and more attention to the actual welfare of Americans? ¶ 6:21 AM
He said, she said
Predictable coverage of the stem-cell decision by Royce Lamberth, who has been the SOLE LEGITIMATE Federal appellate judge for many years. (How has he continued to hold office, I wonder? He rules for the Constitution and against the Party fairly often in important cases. Why hasn't he already been crazified or honey-trapped by the Party?)
The "news" media are telling us about all the researchers who will lose funding because Judge Lamberth has now enforced the existing law. They don't tell us what those researchers have accomplished, because they haven't accomplished shit. They also don't tell us about the accomplishments of adult stem-cells, because that line of research has yielded many actual cures without needing to kill babies.
And the "news" media are formulating the decision in a predictable way: "Lamberth says that Federal law requires the funding to stop."
No, he doesn't say it, the law says it.
Congress could change the law to satisfy the Cult of Death, but that's not going to be easy, thank God. Congress hates to change any law, preferring to let the judges handle that job; and many of the Dems who would like to kill babies are held back by their majority-Catholic constituents. ¶ 5:06 AM
The "news" media are telling us about all the researchers who will lose funding because Judge Lamberth has now enforced the existing law. They don't tell us what those researchers have accomplished, because they haven't accomplished shit. They also don't tell us about the accomplishments of adult stem-cells, because that line of research has yielded many actual cures without needing to kill babies.
And the "news" media are formulating the decision in a predictable way: "Lamberth says that Federal law requires the funding to stop."
No, he doesn't say it, the law says it.
Congress could change the law to satisfy the Cult of Death, but that's not going to be easy, thank God. Congress hates to change any law, preferring to let the judges handle that job; and many of the Dems who would like to kill babies are held back by their majority-Catholic constituents. ¶ 5:06 AM
Monday, August 23, 2010
Egg panic
Another day, another panic.
The national media have given out an ever-increasing set of 'plant codes' that indicate the bad eggs. I looked at the last package of eggs I bought. It has the Lucerne brand, which is supposedly among the brands from the bad Iowa plant. The number on the end of the box isn't among the set of bad codes, but it doesn't resemble the pattern that the media gave. Supposedly the plant codes have a pattern like P1939, but the only number on the end of this package is 205D. Is this a different kind of code? Is the bad code hiding elsewhere? Nothing in the news stories answers this question.
I got the answer the next time I went to Safeway. The store has lots of big signs telling customers that the Wash state Safeway stores get their eggs from in-state sources, not from the bad Iowa plant.
Okay, so no problem here. I trust Safeway because I've seen them yank food from the shelves in previous recalls of other products. When it's bad they pull it; when it's good they sell it.
But why don't we get this info from the local media? Supposedly the whole point of having newspapers and TV stations is that the media have the time, expertise and authority to find out what's happening.
None of the local media bothered to do this; they'd rather spread a panic about food that is not sold here. Their actual job is to spread lies and panic, not to inform the citizen.
= = = = =
CORRECTION!
As of noon 8/23, KREM-TV has finally done the right thing, talking to local grocers and picking up local information.
Bravo KREM! ¶ 8:11 AM
The national media have given out an ever-increasing set of 'plant codes' that indicate the bad eggs. I looked at the last package of eggs I bought. It has the Lucerne brand, which is supposedly among the brands from the bad Iowa plant. The number on the end of the box isn't among the set of bad codes, but it doesn't resemble the pattern that the media gave. Supposedly the plant codes have a pattern like P1939, but the only number on the end of this package is 205D. Is this a different kind of code? Is the bad code hiding elsewhere? Nothing in the news stories answers this question.
I got the answer the next time I went to Safeway. The store has lots of big signs telling customers that the Wash state Safeway stores get their eggs from in-state sources, not from the bad Iowa plant.
Okay, so no problem here. I trust Safeway because I've seen them yank food from the shelves in previous recalls of other products. When it's bad they pull it; when it's good they sell it.
But why don't we get this info from the local media? Supposedly the whole point of having newspapers and TV stations is that the media have the time, expertise and authority to find out what's happening.
None of the local media bothered to do this; they'd rather spread a panic about food that is not sold here. Their actual job is to spread lies and panic, not to inform the citizen.
= = = = =
CORRECTION!
As of noon 8/23, KREM-TV has finally done the right thing, talking to local grocers and picking up local information.
According to the Spokane Regional Health District, they have treated 7 confirmed cases of salmonella illnesses related to eggs since January 1. SRHD officials say that number is about average, or perhaps one or two more than normal. It is unknown whether the illnesses were caused by eggs eaten in restaurants or at home.
KREM 2 News spoke with several grocery stores, and most managers confirmed either none of the contaminated eggs were sold in their stores, or they do not carry the eggs that have been recalled.
Bravo KREM! ¶ 8:11 AM
Sunday, August 22, 2010
The scam
I'm finally convinced that there's nothing Neo about Neocons. They were New York leftists before they 'converted', and they're still doing leftist work. Fake conversion. They're still Commies, and they're now taking revenge for what Reagan did to Russia.
Reagan steered Russia to spend itself into oblivion and to use up its armed forces in Afghanistan. Now these New York Neo-Coms (beginning with Comrade Bush Senior) have steered America to spend itself into oblivion and to use up its armed forces in Afghanistan.
How do they do it? Exceptionalism is the keystone of the scam, as Orlov sees clearly.
Here's how a homeowner would implement Exceptionalism. He would put a sign in his front yard:
And why is the homeowner not at home? Because he's busy building houses and plumbing systems in some foreign country, to help the burglars and bums in some other country become Exceptional by observing his Exceptionality at first hand.
There's nothing Neo or new about Exceptionalism. In earlier times it used to be called "Abject Surrender". ¶ 10:44 AM
Reagan steered Russia to spend itself into oblivion and to use up its armed forces in Afghanistan. Now these New York Neo-Coms (beginning with Comrade Bush Senior) have steered America to spend itself into oblivion and to use up its armed forces in Afghanistan.
How do they do it? Exceptionalism is the keystone of the scam, as Orlov sees clearly.
Here's how a homeowner would implement Exceptionalism. He would put a sign in his front yard:
And why is the homeowner not at home? Because he's busy building houses and plumbing systems in some foreign country, to help the burglars and bums in some other country become Exceptional by observing his Exceptionality at first hand.
There's nothing Neo or new about Exceptionalism. In earlier times it used to be called "Abject Surrender". ¶ 10:44 AM
Gaians discover fire!!!!!
The self-stupefied civilization-destroying Luddites may be backing off on their bloodthirsty desire to turn the clock back beyond Neanderthal times. Maybe they'll be satisfied with the Bronze Age?
¶ 10:08 AM
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Untuning from cable
Since switching from cable TV back to antenna, I've noticed an interesting change of attitude. Shouldn't have been a surprise, since Polistra has been preaching the idea repeatedly ... but in human thought it's always the Delta that matters, the change from one mode to another, and I hadn't experienced the change in this direction before.
Here's the diff:
When you have about 50 choices available, each choice has low value, low 'sticking power'. You always assume that something better must be just around the next corner on the clicker, so you keep clicking. Most of the time, nothing better is available, but you don't really stop to notice this fact. Hope overcomes experience and you just keep clicking, seeking Nirvana.
When you have about 5 choices available, each choice has more weight. You can hold 5 options in memory, so you know what's around the corner. Most of the time, nothing better is available, so you shut off the TV. But if the current channel is fairly good, you'll stick with it and allow a bit more room for appreciation; your attention is focused here instead of trying to be everywhere. ¶ 2:23 PM
Since switching from cable TV back to antenna, I've noticed an interesting change of attitude. Shouldn't have been a surprise, since Polistra has been preaching the idea repeatedly ... but in human thought it's always the Delta that matters, the change from one mode to another, and I hadn't experienced the change in this direction before.
Here's the diff:
When you have about 50 choices available, each choice has low value, low 'sticking power'. You always assume that something better must be just around the next corner on the clicker, so you keep clicking. Most of the time, nothing better is available, but you don't really stop to notice this fact. Hope overcomes experience and you just keep clicking, seeking Nirvana.
When you have about 5 choices available, each choice has more weight. You can hold 5 options in memory, so you know what's around the corner. Most of the time, nothing better is available, so you shut off the TV. But if the current channel is fairly good, you'll stick with it and allow a bit more room for appreciation; your attention is focused here instead of trying to be everywhere. ¶ 2:23 PM
Mother-in-law, new car, cliff * 3
I have triply mixed feelings about the rape accusations against Julian Assange of WikiLeaks.
(1) Such accusations are usually false, and in ordinary circumstances I'd automatically distrust the prosecutor more than the accused. But in this case, even if the accusations are false the target is so wonderfully deserving. An arrogant Commie asshole who presumes to decide which secrets shall be leaked, while carefully concealing his own methods from press scrutiny.
(2) It's good to see a dirty trick played against this dirty trickster, but why in the world can't we simply charge him with espionage and pursue him on that basis? He has unquestionably committed espionage, and that would be a much more straightforward accusation.
(3) The Afghan war is such a stupid and suicidal mission for the US that I'm happy to see it halted in any way possible; but Assange's espionage unfortunately won't weaken the DC government's resolve. If anything it will strengthen their desire to continue consuming our resources and soldiers, just to prove a point. ¶ 8:35 AM
(1) Such accusations are usually false, and in ordinary circumstances I'd automatically distrust the prosecutor more than the accused. But in this case, even if the accusations are false the target is so wonderfully deserving. An arrogant Commie asshole who presumes to decide which secrets shall be leaked, while carefully concealing his own methods from press scrutiny.
(2) It's good to see a dirty trick played against this dirty trickster, but why in the world can't we simply charge him with espionage and pursue him on that basis? He has unquestionably committed espionage, and that would be a much more straightforward accusation.
(3) The Afghan war is such a stupid and suicidal mission for the US that I'm happy to see it halted in any way possible; but Assange's espionage unfortunately won't weaken the DC government's resolve. If anything it will strengthen their desire to continue consuming our resources and soldiers, just to prove a point. ¶ 8:35 AM
Friday, August 20, 2010
North neglect
After certain kinds of brain damage a patient may exhibit left neglect or right neglect. He can still see things on that side of the body, can still move that side, but only when he consciously focuses. Most of the time he won't notice things on that side and won't deal with events there.
The city and media of Spokane have a similar problem with the north half of town, which is large, well-established and broadly lower middle class. Addresses in this area seem to be unknown. The media generally skips stories here, or mislabels the location, sometimes describing it as West, sometimes as Downtown, sometimes as East.
Heard a prime example last week on a local "about your money" investment show. The host was describing the subjective nature of value, using Spokane real estate as a metaphor. He was saying that a house on the South Hill would sell for 25% more than a precisely identical house in the Valley, because the South Hill has prestige. His sidekick asked "What about the North side?" and the host said "Well, we don't need to mention that, do we?" in a condescending tone that would be instantly readable by outsiders to mean "The North side is the black part of town." But it isn't! In fact there's only one small concentration of blacks in Spokane, and it's within the South Hill. There are poor and rich areas, low-crime and high-crime areas scattered everywhere. (Spokane is uniquely scattered and homogenized, as Polistra described here.)
Yet for this investment show host, along with the rest of the ruling class, the North side is just intolerably unimaginable. Terra Incognita. Here be dragons.
Another example: The city website had been listing a construction project on the west end of Wellesley, scheduled to start Aug 16. Since Monday the media have been "reporting" that this section of Wellesley is now closed, so you need to take the detours listed on the signs.
Trouble is, the west end of Wellesley has not been closed. Nothing is happening there; no roadblocks, no equipment, no detours. The city hasn't even put up the usual pre-project announcement signs warning us that the street is about to be closed for repairs. And the bus line hasn't issued a Rider Alert, which they generally do when a detour is scheduled.
I was puzzled, so I emailed one of the TV stations yesterday. It appears that they actually read the email (though they didn't bother to reply to a non-existent resident of a non-existent area) and they also must have checked with the city, triggering a brief wake-up from its Northwest Neglect.
Today the morning traffic reports are no longer "reporting" that this part of Wellesley is closed, and the city's website now says that the project will start Aug 30. ¶ 5:33 PM
The city and media of Spokane have a similar problem with the north half of town, which is large, well-established and broadly lower middle class. Addresses in this area seem to be unknown. The media generally skips stories here, or mislabels the location, sometimes describing it as West, sometimes as Downtown, sometimes as East.
Heard a prime example last week on a local "about your money" investment show. The host was describing the subjective nature of value, using Spokane real estate as a metaphor. He was saying that a house on the South Hill would sell for 25% more than a precisely identical house in the Valley, because the South Hill has prestige. His sidekick asked "What about the North side?" and the host said "Well, we don't need to mention that, do we?" in a condescending tone that would be instantly readable by outsiders to mean "The North side is the black part of town." But it isn't! In fact there's only one small concentration of blacks in Spokane, and it's within the South Hill. There are poor and rich areas, low-crime and high-crime areas scattered everywhere. (Spokane is uniquely scattered and homogenized, as Polistra described here.)
Yet for this investment show host, along with the rest of the ruling class, the North side is just intolerably unimaginable. Terra Incognita. Here be dragons.
Another example: The city website had been listing a construction project on the west end of Wellesley, scheduled to start Aug 16. Since Monday the media have been "reporting" that this section of Wellesley is now closed, so you need to take the detours listed on the signs.
Trouble is, the west end of Wellesley has not been closed. Nothing is happening there; no roadblocks, no equipment, no detours. The city hasn't even put up the usual pre-project announcement signs warning us that the street is about to be closed for repairs. And the bus line hasn't issued a Rider Alert, which they generally do when a detour is scheduled.
I was puzzled, so I emailed one of the TV stations yesterday. It appears that they actually read the email (though they didn't bother to reply to a non-existent resident of a non-existent area) and they also must have checked with the city, triggering a brief wake-up from its Northwest Neglect.
Today the morning traffic reports are no longer "reporting" that this part of Wellesley is closed, and the city's website now says that the project will start Aug 30. ¶ 5:33 PM
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Nice touch
The owner of OtrCat.com sent an unusual 'brochure' to his regular customers today.
Excellent advice, mixing commerce with public service in a way that was common in radio before TV knocked it out. Though not really personal, it shows a concern for the well-being of his customers that you rarely hear from businesses today. ¶ 5:36 PM
Many of our listeners have mentioned the benefits of exercise while listening to old time radio shows. It's never too late to make healthy lifestyle changes and everyone can benefit from moving their body. While listening to old time radio shows while exercising, you will be done before you know it.
If you are new to exercise, try walking around your living room 3 times a week while listing to a 5-minute radio show like Five Minute Mysteries or Ellery Queen Minute Mysteries. After a couple of weeks, move on to 15-minute radio shows like the 5-part Yours Truly Johnny Dollar series. When you are feeling stronger, try walking for longer lengths of time to 30-minute radio shows like Dragnet or your favorite radio drama.
Honor your body and know where your physical limits are. Modify workouts to fit your needs. Remember any activity is better than none, even if that just includes tapping your toes to old time radio shows!
Happy Listening and Happy Health!
Jon
Excellent advice, mixing commerce with public service in a way that was common in radio before TV knocked it out. Though not really personal, it shows a concern for the well-being of his customers that you rarely hear from businesses today. ¶ 5:36 PM
No, that's not stimulus
Some interesting discussion at NRO today on FDR vs Obama, and the effects of Keynes and stimulus.
For some reason this clarified a point that Polistra has almost made before, but didn't quite hit square.
Here's another try:
What FDR did was not Keynesian stimulus. He didn't simply pour money into the economy and hope it bubbled up elsewhere. What FDR did was permanent rebuilding.
He started with an America where both agriculture and industry were running into problems, an America where too many good people were jobless.
One problem was an out-of-control investment system that served its own purposes at the expense of industry and farmers. FDR changed laws to clamp down on Wall Street, forcing it to serve the real economy better.
Another problem was an infrastructure that prevented agriculture and industry from expanding. We needed better roads and wider distribution of electricity to make automobiles, farm shipments, and labor-saving gadgets more practical. FDR set about improving the road system and electric system. Those expenditures are what we now call 'stimulus', but they bear exactly zero relationship to the modern use of stimulus.
And of course the rebuilding was designed to create the maximum number of family-supporting jobs.
What we're doing now is the opposite. Instead of regulating the banks, we're stimulating them to do more evil. And instead of rebuilding necessary parts of our infrastructure to encourage industry, we're just funding Federal and State government programs, stimulating them to continue spending wildly for no particular gain. (We are, however, building new infrastructure in enemy countries like Iraq and Pakistan, so they can fight against us more effectively in the future.)
We're not removing roadblocks and we're not building roads.
Polistra has already given the recipe for an FDR-style transformation of modern America. ¶ 1:48 PM
For some reason this clarified a point that Polistra has almost made before, but didn't quite hit square.
Here's another try:
What FDR did was not Keynesian stimulus. He didn't simply pour money into the economy and hope it bubbled up elsewhere. What FDR did was permanent rebuilding.
He started with an America where both agriculture and industry were running into problems, an America where too many good people were jobless.
One problem was an out-of-control investment system that served its own purposes at the expense of industry and farmers. FDR changed laws to clamp down on Wall Street, forcing it to serve the real economy better.
Another problem was an infrastructure that prevented agriculture and industry from expanding. We needed better roads and wider distribution of electricity to make automobiles, farm shipments, and labor-saving gadgets more practical. FDR set about improving the road system and electric system. Those expenditures are what we now call 'stimulus', but they bear exactly zero relationship to the modern use of stimulus.
And of course the rebuilding was designed to create the maximum number of family-supporting jobs.
What we're doing now is the opposite. Instead of regulating the banks, we're stimulating them to do more evil. And instead of rebuilding necessary parts of our infrastructure to encourage industry, we're just funding Federal and State government programs, stimulating them to continue spending wildly for no particular gain. (We are, however, building new infrastructure in enemy countries like Iraq and Pakistan, so they can fight against us more effectively in the future.)
We're not removing roadblocks and we're not building roads.
Polistra has already given the recipe for an FDR-style transformation of modern America. ¶ 1:48 PM
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
No, we're not the fucking fools. You are.
News item:
Incorrectly????? First of all, AP is supposedly a secular news agency, not a branch of God's mind. If you're privileged with direct information from the Godhead, you might know whether one man is a Christian or a Mohammedan. Since you are only reporters who claim to disdain all religions, you have ABSOLUTELY NO BASIS to look into a man's heart and soul.
Confused???? There's quite a bit of circumstantial evidence that Pasha Obama is Mohammedan, and not much evidence that he's Christian. As Polistra noted during the election, Obama's biological father was in "my Muslim faith", which gives Barack a birthright membership; and Barack was raised in "my Muslim faith" for several years in Indonesia. Later he spent 20 years in Rev Wright's "church". Rev Wright was a Black Muslim before he called himself a Christian, and his preaching by all accounts was much closer to Malcolm X than to Christ. Pasha Obama seems far more comfortable in the culture and language of "my Muslim faith" than in the culture and language of Christianity.
Most convincing to me: When an important man starts out as a Mohammedan and then converts to an infidel faith, whether it's Christian or Buddhist or Atheist, the imams of the world issue fatwas against this apostate. If Pasha Obama truly converted, where are the fatwas?
= = = = =
Turning off the snark for a moment: The media standard of "correctness" shows how far we've gone down the road of Who-ism, the Cult of Personality. In their cranial cavities, Pasha Obama is a Christian because he says he's a Christian. That makes it an absolute fact of Nature, as simple and unarguable as gravity. Why exactly? Because any statement made by a Party Member of Royal Blood is a Fact of Nature. The King said it, I believe it, that settles it.
Statements made by non-Royals are the exact opposite. If Clarence Thomas was heard saying "Two plus two equals four", AP would handle it as follows: "Clarence Thomas, who somehow has the notion that he's somehow allegedly a Supreme Court justice, though we know better, has said the most bizarre and weird thing you could imagine. He said (are you ready for this?) he said that Two Plus Two somehow equals Four. Oh, ha ha ha ha hahahahahaha, can you believe the insanity? Everyone knows that Two Plus Two equals Four, not 'Four' as the idiot Clarence Thomas stupidly allegedly claimed. Hey idiot Clarence! Hey Uncle Tom Uncle Clarence Boy! Hey Boyyyyy! You're supposed to be a Christian, Boyyyyy. Haven't you ever heard of the commandment against Bearing False Witness, Boyyyyy? Well then, why are you trying to convince us of a falsehood like Two Plus Two Equals Four? Huh? Huh? Can't answer the question, can you, Uncle Boy? Gotcha! Gotcha! Gotcha!!!!!!!!" ¶ 7:24 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans increasingly are convinced — incorrectly — that President Barack Obama is a Muslim, and a growing number are thoroughly confused about his religion.
A poll finds that nearly one in five people, or 18 percent, think Obama is Muslim, up from the 11 percent who said so in March 2009. The proportion who correctly say he is a Christian is just 34 percent.
The largest share of people, 43 percent, said they don't know his religion. That's an increase from 34 percent in early 2009.
The survey was conducted by the Pew Research Center and its affiliated Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Interviews took place before the controversy erupted over whether Muslims should be permitted to construct a mosque near the World Trade Center site.
Incorrectly????? First of all, AP is supposedly a secular news agency, not a branch of God's mind. If you're privileged with direct information from the Godhead, you might know whether one man is a Christian or a Mohammedan. Since you are only reporters who claim to disdain all religions, you have ABSOLUTELY NO BASIS to look into a man's heart and soul.
Confused???? There's quite a bit of circumstantial evidence that Pasha Obama is Mohammedan, and not much evidence that he's Christian. As Polistra noted during the election, Obama's biological father was in "my Muslim faith", which gives Barack a birthright membership; and Barack was raised in "my Muslim faith" for several years in Indonesia. Later he spent 20 years in Rev Wright's "church". Rev Wright was a Black Muslim before he called himself a Christian, and his preaching by all accounts was much closer to Malcolm X than to Christ. Pasha Obama seems far more comfortable in the culture and language of "my Muslim faith" than in the culture and language of Christianity.
Most convincing to me: When an important man starts out as a Mohammedan and then converts to an infidel faith, whether it's Christian or Buddhist or Atheist, the imams of the world issue fatwas against this apostate. If Pasha Obama truly converted, where are the fatwas?
= = = = =
Turning off the snark for a moment: The media standard of "correctness" shows how far we've gone down the road of Who-ism, the Cult of Personality. In their cranial cavities, Pasha Obama is a Christian because he says he's a Christian. That makes it an absolute fact of Nature, as simple and unarguable as gravity. Why exactly? Because any statement made by a Party Member of Royal Blood is a Fact of Nature. The King said it, I believe it, that settles it.
Statements made by non-Royals are the exact opposite. If Clarence Thomas was heard saying "Two plus two equals four", AP would handle it as follows: "Clarence Thomas, who somehow has the notion that he's somehow allegedly a Supreme Court justice, though we know better, has said the most bizarre and weird thing you could imagine. He said (are you ready for this?) he said that Two Plus Two somehow equals Four. Oh, ha ha ha ha hahahahahaha, can you believe the insanity? Everyone knows that Two Plus Two equals Four, not 'Four' as the idiot Clarence Thomas stupidly allegedly claimed. Hey idiot Clarence! Hey Uncle Tom Uncle Clarence Boy! Hey Boyyyyy! You're supposed to be a Christian, Boyyyyy. Haven't you ever heard of the commandment against Bearing False Witness, Boyyyyy? Well then, why are you trying to convince us of a falsehood like Two Plus Two Equals Four? Huh? Huh? Can't answer the question, can you, Uncle Boy? Gotcha! Gotcha! Gotcha!!!!!!!!" ¶ 7:24 PM
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Appointed better than elected?
Not exactly a trend, but still an interesting combination.
Supposedly, a politician elected with a good margin has 'capital', has the 'tailwind of public support' behind him, enabling him to take actions that offend the bureaucrats and elites.
Also supposedly, a politician who fell into office more or less by accident should lack 'capital', and should be timorous and cautious, letting the bureaucrats and elites run him.
Well, who are the courageous politicians this year?
Jan Brewer of Arizona, state Attorney General who fell into the governor's office when Comrade Napolitano was chosen as head of the federal Heimatssicherheitsdienst. Brewer immediately started to fight the Feds on immigration and hasn't weakened yet.
And now Gov Patterson of New York, who fell into office when Spitzer was honeytrapped. Patterson was clearly meant to be a weak pawn, yet he's now speaking courageously against the Cordoba Victory Arch.
Brewer and Patterson are both speaking for a huge percentage of the public, which means they are operating with the traditional 'tailwind'; they are behaving as the strong elected official supposedly should do.
But the elected officials in both cases are standing against the people, running with the treasonous bureaucrats and elites, behaving as the weak accidental politician supposedly should do. ¶ 3:25 PM
Supposedly, a politician elected with a good margin has 'capital', has the 'tailwind of public support' behind him, enabling him to take actions that offend the bureaucrats and elites.
Also supposedly, a politician who fell into office more or less by accident should lack 'capital', and should be timorous and cautious, letting the bureaucrats and elites run him.
Well, who are the courageous politicians this year?
Jan Brewer of Arizona, state Attorney General who fell into the governor's office when Comrade Napolitano was chosen as head of the federal Heimatssicherheitsdienst. Brewer immediately started to fight the Feds on immigration and hasn't weakened yet.
And now Gov Patterson of New York, who fell into office when Spitzer was honeytrapped. Patterson was clearly meant to be a weak pawn, yet he's now speaking courageously against the Cordoba Victory Arch.
Brewer and Patterson are both speaking for a huge percentage of the public, which means they are operating with the traditional 'tailwind'; they are behaving as the strong elected official supposedly should do.
But the elected officials in both cases are standing against the people, running with the treasonous bureaucrats and elites, behaving as the weak accidental politician supposedly should do. ¶ 3:25 PM
We need more post hoc
In the textbooks, post hoc ergo propter hoc is listed as a fallacy.
To be sure, there are situations where you can falsely conclude causation from afterness. If you say a bad word (event A) and your mother dies several days later (event B), you might conclude that cussing kills relatives. Superstitious fallacy, because the afterness happened only once and because there is no plausible connection between event A and event B.
But most of the time, afterness is a good source of theories. If you observe that B follows A with some consistency, and if there's an apparent or plausible connection between A and B, you've got a pretty good hypothesis meriting further study.
We are currently plagued with murderous theories and ideologies that are transparently false because they specifically violate afterness.
Global warming is the most dramatic example. Long-term records of temperature and CO2 have been around for several decades, and they always show a weak correlation between the two phenomena, with CO2 rising AFTER temperature in all the periods where you can see any correlation at all. There is NO BASIS in the actual data for a hypothesis that CO2 controls temperature. The facts cannot suggest such a theory. Yet the "scientists" have erected a vast structure of falsified data and falsified computer models to "prove" the nonsensical relationship. And the politicians, businessmen, educators, communicators and preachers have followed blindly along, never stopping to examine the data, never questioning the Professors With Advanced Degrees.
This week we see a violation of post hoc in the utterances of Pasha Hussein Obama and Grand Mufti al-Bloomberg. Both of these leaders tell us that we can defeat the jihadis by tolerance. We can win this war by "being better than them."
Wild violation of all the facts of history. Every single time, without exception, niceness and tolerance lead to defeat, not victory.
NOT ONCE IN ALL OF HISTORY HAS A WAR BEEN WON BY DEMONSTRATING TOLERANCE. WARS ARE WON BY INTOLERANCE, HATRED AND MURDER.
EVENT A = KILL ENEMY.
EVENT B = ENEMY SURRENDERS.
EVENT A = ALLOW ENEMY TO BUILD MONUMENT TO HIS VICTORY.
EVENT B = ENEMY WINS.
(Or more precisely, enemy has already won.)
WARS ARE WON BY DESTROYING THE ENEMY, NOT BY KISSING HIS FILTHY ARAB ASS. ¶ 4:03 AM
To be sure, there are situations where you can falsely conclude causation from afterness. If you say a bad word (event A) and your mother dies several days later (event B), you might conclude that cussing kills relatives. Superstitious fallacy, because the afterness happened only once and because there is no plausible connection between event A and event B.
But most of the time, afterness is a good source of theories. If you observe that B follows A with some consistency, and if there's an apparent or plausible connection between A and B, you've got a pretty good hypothesis meriting further study.
We are currently plagued with murderous theories and ideologies that are transparently false because they specifically violate afterness.
Global warming is the most dramatic example. Long-term records of temperature and CO2 have been around for several decades, and they always show a weak correlation between the two phenomena, with CO2 rising AFTER temperature in all the periods where you can see any correlation at all. There is NO BASIS in the actual data for a hypothesis that CO2 controls temperature. The facts cannot suggest such a theory. Yet the "scientists" have erected a vast structure of falsified data and falsified computer models to "prove" the nonsensical relationship. And the politicians, businessmen, educators, communicators and preachers have followed blindly along, never stopping to examine the data, never questioning the Professors With Advanced Degrees.
This week we see a violation of post hoc in the utterances of Pasha Hussein Obama and Grand Mufti al-Bloomberg. Both of these leaders tell us that we can defeat the jihadis by tolerance. We can win this war by "being better than them."
Wild violation of all the facts of history. Every single time, without exception, niceness and tolerance lead to defeat, not victory.
NOT ONCE IN ALL OF HISTORY HAS A WAR BEEN WON BY DEMONSTRATING TOLERANCE. WARS ARE WON BY INTOLERANCE, HATRED AND MURDER.
EVENT A = KILL ENEMY.
EVENT B = ENEMY SURRENDERS.
EVENT A = ALLOW ENEMY TO BUILD MONUMENT TO HIS VICTORY.
EVENT B = ENEMY WINS.
(Or more precisely, enemy has already won.)
WARS ARE WON BY DESTROYING THE ENEMY, NOT BY KISSING HIS FILTHY ARAB ASS. ¶ 4:03 AM
Monday, August 16, 2010
Good news for toadlets
Frogs and toads are good critters. They eat bugs and do no harm to humans. Thus it's genuinely worrisome that their numbers have declined in many areas. Lots of overblown enviropanic, lots of clichés about canaries in coal mines, but still it's a real concern. No uniform cause has appeared; some areas seem to be infected by fungus or parasites, others are mysterious.
So it's good to see toads increasing and flourishing in some places.
Here's a news story with cute pictures about a Million-Toadlet March north of Seattle, as tadpoles morph into baby toads and hit the shores en masse.
Happystar likes toadlets. ¶ 7:12 PM
So it's good to see toads increasing and flourishing in some places.
Here's a news story with cute pictures about a Million-Toadlet March north of Seattle, as tadpoles morph into baby toads and hit the shores en masse.
"There had to be millions, several millions of them." Park Manager Mike Zimmerman said he has never seen anything like it. Western Toad migrations are annual events but rarely do they occur in such a visible place with so many of them. There are still thousands visible as they move into the woods and marshes. Visitors to the park were amazed as they carefully walked along the shore.
Anderson Lake is most famous for its poisonous algae bloom that make it unsafe for human contact. Two dogs died after drinking water from the lake back in 2006. The algae is back this summer but it doesn't seem to bother the toads.
Happystar likes toadlets. ¶ 7:12 PM
More good news from Britain
Definite and excellent:
As part of Cameron's stern 40% cut in national spending, their Environmental Ministry is selling off 'nature preserves' and cutting enforcement of their version of Endangered Species laws.
A bit less definite but truly big news if it firms up:
The gov't is quietly putting off plans to impose cap-n-trade, and also putting off plans to shut down coal power plants. They're apparently unwilling to make this a firm announced policy, but generally a 'put off' by governments leads to a complete cancellation. ¶ 4:31 PM
Definite and excellent:
As part of Cameron's stern 40% cut in national spending, their Environmental Ministry is selling off 'nature preserves' and cutting enforcement of their version of Endangered Species laws.
A bit less definite but truly big news if it firms up:
The gov't is quietly putting off plans to impose cap-n-trade, and also putting off plans to shut down coal power plants. They're apparently unwilling to make this a firm announced policy, but generally a 'put off' by governments leads to a complete cancellation. ¶ 4:31 PM
Friday, August 13, 2010
It's Green, so quit bitching.
Russia is suffering at the moment from peat bog fires, which are much harder to fight than forest fires.
Our dear Gaia-worshipping Greenies are blaming past environmental crimes for the peat fires. Back in Stalin's day, peat was tried as a large-scale source of "biofuel" for electric generators, and the bogs were never re-flooded after they were dug up.
(Semi-relevantly, reminds me of this.)
Well, those Russians shouldn't be complaining. Burning peat is a carbon-neutral form of fire, and in fact burning peat bogs has been proposed as a deliberate method of carbon sequestration.
So what's the problem? All those Russians who are choking and dying from the smoke are Holy Sacrifices to The Planet Goddess Gaia, and they should die gratefully. ¶ 7:09 PM
Our dear Gaia-worshipping Greenies are blaming past environmental crimes for the peat fires. Back in Stalin's day, peat was tried as a large-scale source of "biofuel" for electric generators, and the bogs were never re-flooded after they were dug up.
(Semi-relevantly, reminds me of this.)
Well, those Russians shouldn't be complaining. Burning peat is a carbon-neutral form of fire, and in fact burning peat bogs has been proposed as a deliberate method of carbon sequestration.
So what's the problem? All those Russians who are choking and dying from the smoke are Holy Sacrifices to The Planet Goddess Gaia, and they should die gratefully. ¶ 7:09 PM
Simplify, simplify, simplify
Basic rule of logic: if an assumption leads to contradictions, don't keep trying to add little exceptions and quibbles to dig out of the contradictions. Just remove the assumption.
Okay, so we have some definite contradictions.
(1) We have the DC government helping to save lives after a monsoon in Pakistan, which is an enemy nation. Pakistan has been funding and sheltering Sheikh Osama for a long time. That makes Pakistan an enemy of the American nation. And yet the Army commanded from DC has been building dams and schools in Pakistan, and now the Marines rescue people from a flood. Simultaneously, the government in DC is tearing down dams and irrigation systems in the remote nation of America, causing new droughts and floods.
(2) The government in DC approves of the Saudi project to build a triumphal Cordoba mosque on the site of the Twin Towers. The sole purpose of this mosque is to shout "We have conquered you, infidels! Bow down and submit, kaffirs!" A Mohammedan leader named Imam Hussein Obama strongly approves of the victory monument:
= = =
Now both of these phenomena are contradictory and mind-boggling if you assume that the government in DC is on the side of America. They become simple and ordinary (and lots of other phenomena also become obvious and normal) if you assume that the government in DC is on the side of Sheikh Osama.
Note especially the nice normal everydayness of "the annual White House iftar, the sunset meal breaking the day’s fast." The media don't need to define the verminous Arab word iftar, nor do they bother to specify that the fast has something to do with the primitive idolatrous Mohammedan "holiday" called Ramadan. When you have an official established religion, with the head of state also serving as the chief Imam, these things are just default and natural, no explanations are needed. Like Queen Elizabeth taking part in a communion ceremony. You wouldn't need to define communion, nor would you have to specify that it's an Anglican style of communion, you'd just expect the readers to know.
See how easy it is when you make the proper assumption?
= = = = =
More on iftar: You can learn a lot about culture by noticing which words are default or unmarked and which are unusual. All the media are treating iftar as a default commonality that needs no explanation or emphasis. I've never heard the word before, and I assume the vast majority of Americans haven't either. Since the media seem to be comfortably familiar with this term, we can conclude that the media are far more familiar with Mohammedan culture than with Christian culture. We already know from decades of experience that our media are violently and murderously anti-Christian; we know that they share the attitudes of Mohammedans on this subject. Up till now I've assumed the media and government were simply allied with Allah because their Party formed that alliance in 1968. Now I'm wondering if this assumption also needs to be simplified.
Are the media loyal jihadis? ¶ 6:04 PM
Okay, so we have some definite contradictions.
(1) We have the DC government helping to save lives after a monsoon in Pakistan, which is an enemy nation. Pakistan has been funding and sheltering Sheikh Osama for a long time. That makes Pakistan an enemy of the American nation. And yet the Army commanded from DC has been building dams and schools in Pakistan, and now the Marines rescue people from a flood. Simultaneously, the government in DC is tearing down dams and irrigation systems in the remote nation of America, causing new droughts and floods.
(2) The government in DC approves of the Saudi project to build a triumphal Cordoba mosque on the site of the Twin Towers. The sole purpose of this mosque is to shout "We have conquered you, infidels! Bow down and submit, kaffirs!" A Mohammedan leader named Imam Hussein Obama strongly approves of the victory monument:
“I understand the emotions that this issue engenders. Ground zero is, indeed, hallowed ground,” in remarks prepared for the annual White House iftar, the sunset meal breaking the day’s fast.
But he continued: “This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are.”
= = =
Now both of these phenomena are contradictory and mind-boggling if you assume that the government in DC is on the side of America. They become simple and ordinary (and lots of other phenomena also become obvious and normal) if you assume that the government in DC is on the side of Sheikh Osama.
Note especially the nice normal everydayness of "the annual White House iftar, the sunset meal breaking the day’s fast." The media don't need to define the verminous Arab word iftar, nor do they bother to specify that the fast has something to do with the primitive idolatrous Mohammedan "holiday" called Ramadan. When you have an official established religion, with the head of state also serving as the chief Imam, these things are just default and natural, no explanations are needed. Like Queen Elizabeth taking part in a communion ceremony. You wouldn't need to define communion, nor would you have to specify that it's an Anglican style of communion, you'd just expect the readers to know.
See how easy it is when you make the proper assumption?
= = = = =
More on iftar: You can learn a lot about culture by noticing which words are default or unmarked and which are unusual. All the media are treating iftar as a default commonality that needs no explanation or emphasis. I've never heard the word before, and I assume the vast majority of Americans haven't either. Since the media seem to be comfortably familiar with this term, we can conclude that the media are far more familiar with Mohammedan culture than with Christian culture. We already know from decades of experience that our media are violently and murderously anti-Christian; we know that they share the attitudes of Mohammedans on this subject. Up till now I've assumed the media and government were simply allied with Allah because their Party formed that alliance in 1968. Now I'm wondering if this assumption also needs to be simplified.
Are the media loyal jihadis? ¶ 6:04 PM
Nice idea, now let's extend it.
Spokane's county election board has just set up a Ballot Tracker page.
You can check to see if your mailed-in ballot has been checked and counted yet.
Taking this to the next level would help to restore confidence in elections. If you could see where your choice added into the final total, you'd have a sense that your vote actually mattered.
Of course this would be merely symbolic. Elections are now decided solely by federal district judges. At least you'd know how seriously the black-robed homosexual Communist had violated the public will, and you'd know that the black-robed homosexual Communist had specifically invalidated your own vote. ¶ 9:07 AM
You can check to see if your mailed-in ballot has been checked and counted yet.
Taking this to the next level would help to restore confidence in elections. If you could see where your choice added into the final total, you'd have a sense that your vote actually mattered.
Of course this would be merely symbolic. Elections are now decided solely by federal district judges. At least you'd know how seriously the black-robed homosexual Communist had violated the public will, and you'd know that the black-robed homosexual Communist had specifically invalidated your own vote. ¶ 9:07 AM
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Watch the story disappear
The "news" "media" have been focusing tightly on the "white man" who has killed several black people. This is "news", while the eight white men who were killed by Omar Thornton simply for being white ... well, they aren't white, they're "racists".
Now that the identity of this killer is known, we can be 100% sure the story will go straight into the Memory Hole.
His name is Elias Abuelazam.
Whoopsie!
The "media" are already "identifying" him without giving his name or ethnicity. They're just saying he was returning to Israel, thus allowing us to assume he's Jewish.
By the end of the day, the story will be entirely gone. Never happened. Arabs are our Valued Friends And Allies, and no Arab has ever killed an American. ¶ 11:01 AM
Now that the identity of this killer is known, we can be 100% sure the story will go straight into the Memory Hole.
His name is Elias Abuelazam.
Whoopsie!
The "media" are already "identifying" him without giving his name or ethnicity. They're just saying he was returning to Israel, thus allowing us to assume he's Jewish.
By the end of the day, the story will be entirely gone. Never happened. Arabs are our Valued Friends And Allies, and no Arab has ever killed an American. ¶ 11:01 AM
If only ...
Delingpole writes at length about the Chinese view of the Carbon Cult.
This isn't new, and doesn't really need all the detail. Anyone who's been following the treaties (Rio, Kyoto, Copenhagen) knows that the prime purpose of the treaties is to destroy commerce and industry in the West while granting China and India a free hand to generate pollution.
Or in even simpler terms: Maurice Strong defected to Peking. Really all you need to know.
Toward the end Delingpole makes one of those odd British misreadings of America:
Bad bet. It would be wonderful, but it ain't gonna happen.
Delingpole seems to believe that the Republican organization is an opposition party. In fact the Republicans in DC support the Carbon Cult even more enthusiastically than the Dems. Cap-n-trade is McCain's legislation, not Obama's legislation. It's true that the heroic James Inhofe, the ONLY member of Congress who opposes the Carbon Cult on basic principles, is a Republican, but the rest of the chickenshit party refuses to support him. The Wall Street Mafia wants cap-n-trade, so the Repooflicans want cap-n-trade. ¶ 7:00 AM
This isn't new, and doesn't really need all the detail. Anyone who's been following the treaties (Rio, Kyoto, Copenhagen) knows that the prime purpose of the treaties is to destroy commerce and industry in the West while granting China and India a free hand to generate pollution.
Or in even simpler terms: Maurice Strong defected to Peking. Really all you need to know.
Toward the end Delingpole makes one of those odd British misreadings of America:
This truth hasn’t hit home yet: not in the EU; not in the Cleggeron Coalition; not in Obama’s USA. Here’s my bet. The first to see sense on this will be whichever Republican administration takes over from Obama’s one-term presidency in 2012. From that point on – by which time we’ll have had two more exceptionally cold winters to concentrate our minds – British and European environmental policy will look increasingly foolish and irrelevant.
Bad bet. It would be wonderful, but it ain't gonna happen.
Delingpole seems to believe that the Republican organization is an opposition party. In fact the Republicans in DC support the Carbon Cult even more enthusiastically than the Dems. Cap-n-trade is McCain's legislation, not Obama's legislation. It's true that the heroic James Inhofe, the ONLY member of Congress who opposes the Carbon Cult on basic principles, is a Republican, but the rest of the chickenshit party refuses to support him. The Wall Street Mafia wants cap-n-trade, so the Repooflicans want cap-n-trade. ¶ 7:00 AM
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
First step
After two years of continuing Sultan Bush's grand giveaway, two years of ripping out American industry and donating it all to China, the Obama admin has made a baby step in the right direction, or at least has foiled a Repooflican attempt to take one more step in the wrong direction.
Raw materials: that's the key. We should have zero tariffs on all raw materials and confiscatory tariffs on all manufactured goods. Ideally 100% tariff on manufactured stuff from semi-slave countries like China. ¶ 2:03 PM
The Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, which comes up periodically, usually passes with almost no opposition. But it appeared headed for defeat after Republican leaders came out against it, saying that tariff relief for specific industries violated the GOP's self-imposed moratorium on special interest earmarks.
Democrats put Republicans on the spot by bringing the measure up under a procedure where a two-thirds majority was needed for passage. Unified GOP opposition would have defeated it.
After it appeared that enough Republicans were breaking ranks to pass the bill, dozens more changed their votes. The final tally was 378-43. The last time the bill came up, in 2006 when Republicans controlled the House, the vote in favor of passage was 412-2.
The bill, which now goes to the Senate, temporarily reduces or suspends tariffs on 639 items, mostly components that American manufacturers use in their production process.
Raw materials: that's the key. We should have zero tariffs on all raw materials and confiscatory tariffs on all manufactured goods. Ideally 100% tariff on manufactured stuff from semi-slave countries like China. ¶ 2:03 PM
Crazed Sex Poodle droops
Poor little soft little withered little Algorekins.
Well, what he says is exactly right, but not in the way he means it.
"Not working as the founders intended", exactly right. The founders did not intend the Feds to destroy our industry and mines because of mythical "pollution". The founders did not intend the Feds to deprive farmers of property because of mythical "endangered animals." The founders did not intend the Feds to tear down irrigation dams because of mythical "endangered animals." And the founders couldn't begin to imagine a Federal agency that makes breathing illegal.
If we could describe the current situation to the founders, they would demand to know why we're not repelling this enemy army called the "Federal government", because its actions are precisely the actions of an enemy army in wartime.
"Coordinated campaign of funding" by fossil fuel interests, exactly right. Fossil fuel interests, especially BP, have been heavily funding Gore's side of the argument for many years. Before 2000 they also provided some funding to the factual ("skeptical") side, but no longer.
I truly can't understand this persistent delusion by Commies. American "media" present Gore's side of the argument 99.99999999999999% of the time, without even mentioning that another side exists. American education and churches present Gore's side 100.00000000000% of the time, often more loudly and wildly than Gore himself. Among "respectable" media, the Wall Street Journal is the SINGLE SOLITARY EXCEPTION to this absolute unanimity.
When everyone knows that you have absolute control, it's way beyond bizarre to claim that the other side has absolute control. When your mentor Brezhnev was bothered by a wave of dissidents using mimeographs to spread opposing information, he didn't whine that the samizdat had total control; he just tried to shut them down. Brezhnev understood that the people hated him because he was a tyrant and a gangster. He didn't share your infantile delusion that the people would really love tyranny if only you could somehow grab more than 100.0000000% of all available communication channels to persuade them. How in the fuck could you even have more channels on your side? Mass lobotomy? Mass electroshock? ¶ 6:23 AM
Speaking about the likelihood of climate bill being passed by Congress in 2010, Al Gore told a conference call of supporters tonight that, “this battle has not been successful and is pretty much over for this year.” Gore bitterly denounced the Senate and federal government stating several times, “The U.S. Senate has failed us” and “The federal government has failed us.”
Gored urged his listeners to take the “realistic view that they had failed badly.”
Gore said “the government was not working “as our founders intended it to” and laid more blame at the feet of fossil fuel interests who conducted a “cynical coordinated campaign” with “unprecedented funding” and “who have spent hundreds of millions of dollars just on lobbying.”
Well, what he says is exactly right, but not in the way he means it.
"Not working as the founders intended", exactly right. The founders did not intend the Feds to destroy our industry and mines because of mythical "pollution". The founders did not intend the Feds to deprive farmers of property because of mythical "endangered animals." The founders did not intend the Feds to tear down irrigation dams because of mythical "endangered animals." And the founders couldn't begin to imagine a Federal agency that makes breathing illegal.
If we could describe the current situation to the founders, they would demand to know why we're not repelling this enemy army called the "Federal government", because its actions are precisely the actions of an enemy army in wartime.
"Coordinated campaign of funding" by fossil fuel interests, exactly right. Fossil fuel interests, especially BP, have been heavily funding Gore's side of the argument for many years. Before 2000 they also provided some funding to the factual ("skeptical") side, but no longer.
Asked why the alarmists were ineffective in addressing Climategate, Gore bitterly blamed a “biased right-wing media… bolstered by professional deniers.” Gore claimed the Wall Street Journal published 30 editorial and news articles about Climategate and “not a single one presented [his] side of the science.”
I truly can't understand this persistent delusion by Commies. American "media" present Gore's side of the argument 99.99999999999999% of the time, without even mentioning that another side exists. American education and churches present Gore's side 100.00000000000% of the time, often more loudly and wildly than Gore himself. Among "respectable" media, the Wall Street Journal is the SINGLE SOLITARY EXCEPTION to this absolute unanimity.
When everyone knows that you have absolute control, it's way beyond bizarre to claim that the other side has absolute control. When your mentor Brezhnev was bothered by a wave of dissidents using mimeographs to spread opposing information, he didn't whine that the samizdat had total control; he just tried to shut them down. Brezhnev understood that the people hated him because he was a tyrant and a gangster. He didn't share your infantile delusion that the people would really love tyranny if only you could somehow grab more than 100.0000000% of all available communication channels to persuade them. How in the fuck could you even have more channels on your side? Mass lobotomy? Mass electroshock? ¶ 6:23 AM
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Dawkins muffs the official line
Richard Dawkins, intellectual leader of the anti-civilization forces, must be getting old and forgetful.
Now now, Comrade Dickie m'boy, you've forgotten your Correct Doctrine. "Islam the Religion of Peace" is the military wing of your side. Thus you must tolerate its little peccadillos, put aside your little atheist fussiness for the time being, in order to fully and diligently insure Glorious Peoples Victory.
(Of course you Atheist infidels will be killed along with the Christian infidels when Allah conquers Europe completely, but you don't need to think about that.) ¶ 5:40 AM
The 69-year-old author and Oxford academic said he is filled with “visceral revulsion” when he sees women wearing the traditional Islamic covering.
Professor Dawkins referred to the burka as a “full bin-liner thing” in an interview with the Radio Times in which he discussed his forthcoming documentary on the dangers of faith schools.
He has sparked fury among Muslim groups, who have accused him of being “ignorant” and “Islamophobic”.
Now now, Comrade Dickie m'boy, you've forgotten your Correct Doctrine. "Islam the Religion of Peace" is the military wing of your side. Thus you must tolerate its little peccadillos, put aside your little atheist fussiness for the time being, in order to fully and diligently insure Glorious Peoples Victory.
(Of course you Atheist infidels will be killed along with the Christian infidels when Allah conquers Europe completely, but you don't need to think about that.) ¶ 5:40 AM
Monday, August 09, 2010
Dog the Welfare Reformer?
Every day the new Brit government makes a new and positive move toward regaining their culture and sanity, while the Vichy regime in DC continues to surrender new territory to the enemy.
Today's move by Britain:
Well, it's not quite Dog, and I'm pretty sure the female finance experts won't look anything like Beth, but the bounty method will guarantee some serious performance! ¶ 4:17 PM
Today's move by Britain:
Finance experts will identify welfare cheats by trawling through their records, household bills and credit card applications. The agencies will get a “bounty” payment for each fraudster they identify under government plans to cut the £5.2billion annual fraud bill. By having access to the Government’s database of incapacity and housing benefit claimants, the companies believe they can shave at least £1billion from the welfare bill, earning as much as £50million.
Well, it's not quite Dog, and I'm pretty sure the female finance experts won't look anything like Beth, but the bounty method will guarantee some serious performance! ¶ 4:17 PM
Sunday, August 08, 2010
A hero, not a Christian
News item:
Ah, I see. She was a fashionable left-wing "Humanist", not one of those filthy stupid Holy Rollers; therefore she was a hero, not a wacko.
She couldn't bring herself to do charity medical work at home. Healing poor Englishmen was nowhere near as sexy as healing the enemy.
She's no hero, she's just a thrill-seeking traitor. ¶ 6:15 AM
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killings. A spokesman said they were killed because they were 'spying for the Americans' and 'preaching Christianity'.
However, in a statement, Dr Woo's family said: "Her motivation was purely humanitarian. She was a Humanist and had no religious or political agenda. She undertook this trek as a medical doctor, accompanying medical supplies and to provide treatment to people who lived in an extremely remote region who had little to no healthcare available. Her commitment was to make whatever difference she could. She was a true hero. Whilst scared, she never let that prevent her from doing things she had to do."
The statement continued: "Karen, you were an inspiration to everyone you met. You combined brains and beauty, intelligence, drive and kookiness in equal measure. You led an intensely packed and rich life: dancer, model, stunt plane walker, doctor and aid worker. Whatever you set your mind on, you did so with passion. You were the embodiment of seizing the moment. You went through life always believing the best of everyone despite everything you've seen.
Ah, I see. She was a fashionable left-wing "Humanist", not one of those filthy stupid Holy Rollers; therefore she was a hero, not a wacko.
She couldn't bring herself to do charity medical work at home. Healing poor Englishmen was nowhere near as sexy as healing the enemy.
She's no hero, she's just a thrill-seeking traitor. ¶ 6:15 AM
Saturday, August 07, 2010
Mitch Miller RIP
Polistra and Happystar are remembering Mitch Miller, the band-leader who died this week at 99.
Miller played an important part in my life, though somewhat indirectly. His 1955 "Yellow Rose of Texas" was the first tune I learned, and still the default selection in my mental juke-box. [The other standard selections, when not overridden by some immediately heard tune: Haydn's Austrian anthem, Bach's Anna Magdalena tune, Jingle Bells, and the Lillibullero March as heard on BBC news, complete with the "Bip Bip Bip Bip Bip ... Beeeep" at the end.]
Then on my 10th birthday, parents gave me a Mitch Miller "Introduction to the Classics" record. I was disappointed because I'd really wanted a crystal radio kit, but the Classics record was a lifetime gift, opening my ears to a whole area of music that I hadn't noticed before. I stuck with Bach and Schütz forever after, even during hippie times when rock-n-roll was culturally mandatory.
Later I realized that the Miller arrangements of the classics were terrible. And according to the obit, Miller himself knew his product was both profitable and awful:
You rarely get such plain candor from public figures. Far more often we hear either transparently false aw-shucks modesty, or transparently heartfelt Randian superiority. ¶ 6:33 PM
Polistra and Happystar are remembering Mitch Miller, the band-leader who died this week at 99.
Miller played an important part in my life, though somewhat indirectly. His 1955 "Yellow Rose of Texas" was the first tune I learned, and still the default selection in my mental juke-box. [The other standard selections, when not overridden by some immediately heard tune: Haydn's Austrian anthem, Bach's Anna Magdalena tune, Jingle Bells, and the Lillibullero March as heard on BBC news, complete with the "Bip Bip Bip Bip Bip ... Beeeep" at the end.]
Then on my 10th birthday, parents gave me a Mitch Miller "Introduction to the Classics" record. I was disappointed because I'd really wanted a crystal radio kit, but the Classics record was a lifetime gift, opening my ears to a whole area of music that I hadn't noticed before. I stuck with Bach and Schütz forever after, even during hippie times when rock-n-roll was culturally mandatory.
Later I realized that the Miller arrangements of the classics were terrible. And according to the obit, Miller himself knew his product was both profitable and awful:
"I wouldn't buy that stuff for myself," he said in 1951. "There's no real artistic satisfaction in this job. I satisfy my musical ego elsewhere."
You rarely get such plain candor from public figures. Far more often we hear either transparently false aw-shucks modesty, or transparently heartfelt Randian superiority. ¶ 6:33 PM
Senseless killing?
News item:
Not senseless at all. Perfectly rational, normal and expectable. Mohammedans exist to kill infidels, in the same way that termites exist to eat wood.
A Mohammedan going through life without killing any infidels would be senseless.
Since we missed the moment for the correct and complete solution, the best remaining solution for termites and Mohammedans is to remove them from areas where humans live. We don't need to eliminate all of them; if they want to infest distant parts of the world, that's fine. Just prevent them from nesting in civilized neighborhoods. And reciprocally, stop sending our humans (soldiers, missionaries, etc) into areas that are normally infested by Mohammedans. Zero contact. ¶ 7:53 AM
Taliban fighters ambushed and killed a 10-member medical team, including six Americans, as they were returning from a trip to a remote northern area to provide eye care to rural villagers, their aid organization and local officials said Saturday. ... The Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the deaths, claiming those killed were spies and preachers of Christianity. ... The International Assistance Mission, which has been working in Afghanistan since 1966, describes itself as a charitable nonprofit Christian organization. One of its major projects is a chain of eye hospitals and clinics. In a statement posted on its website, the group condemned "this senseless killing of people who have done nothing but serve the poor."
Not senseless at all. Perfectly rational, normal and expectable. Mohammedans exist to kill infidels, in the same way that termites exist to eat wood.
A Mohammedan going through life without killing any infidels would be senseless.
Since we missed the moment for the correct and complete solution, the best remaining solution for termites and Mohammedans is to remove them from areas where humans live. We don't need to eliminate all of them; if they want to infest distant parts of the world, that's fine. Just prevent them from nesting in civilized neighborhoods. And reciprocally, stop sending our humans (soldiers, missionaries, etc) into areas that are normally infested by Mohammedans. Zero contact. ¶ 7:53 AM
Friday, August 06, 2010
Future seen from the past
Ran into this strange scene in a site with old Toronto-area pictures.
Horses were still quite common in dairy service until 1950, but there's a jarring dissonance here.
Horse-drawn streamliners???!!!!
Nonsense from an aerodynamic viewpoint, because a dairy horse never goes faster than walking speed. (Streamlining makes no real difference below 30 MPH.)
Yet it was apparently worth the expense in terms of esthetics and advertising, because streamlining was the latest thing in 1940.
These cute buglike buggies look peculiarly modern, and wouldn't be out of place on a modern street. ¶ 2:54 PM
Horses were still quite common in dairy service until 1950, but there's a jarring dissonance here.
Horse-drawn streamliners???!!!!
Nonsense from an aerodynamic viewpoint, because a dairy horse never goes faster than walking speed. (Streamlining makes no real difference below 30 MPH.)
Yet it was apparently worth the expense in terms of esthetics and advertising, because streamlining was the latest thing in 1940.
These cute buglike buggies look peculiarly modern, and wouldn't be out of place on a modern street. ¶ 2:54 PM
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Salute to propane
Or more precisely a salute to preparedness.
For some reason the electricity has failed three times in the last couple of weeks. We've had some wind, some lightning and a lot of heat, but the failures weren't directly caused by any of those. Apparently transformers were weakened by lightning and failed secondarily.
During the outages, my little propane stove has served faithfully. I bought it after the 4-day blackout of the 1996 icestorm, and it has come in mighty handy down here, Bub.
One of the blackouts must have started with a surge, because it also blew out the Comcast cable box. I've been doing without TV for a week, and found it didn't make all that much difference. Would have been a real loss 5 years ago. At that time TV still had a few programs I enjoyed. By now most of my entertainment is found on the Web, and sanity is improved by zeroing out my exposure to the Propaganda Factories.
(The BP fraud was the last straw. All the Propaganda Factories from CNN to Fox carried the same vicious toxic lies, the same manufactured panic, about the extent and effects of "damage" from the "poisonous oil". CNN and Fox pushed the lie for different reasons: CNN wants to destroy America, Fox wants to destroy Obama. The goal doesn't matter, it's all crime.)
So I've cancelled the cable and switched to antenna for local news. Should save about $50 a month, plus an incalculable increase in sanity.
And this simplification led in turn to examining other bills; realized I've been paying twice as much as needed for phone service. Reducing to basic local phone will save another $20 a month. The real shocker came when I multiplied out this wasted $20/mo over the last 18 years: I could have lived for six months on the total! ¶ 6:50 PM
Or more precisely a salute to preparedness.
For some reason the electricity has failed three times in the last couple of weeks. We've had some wind, some lightning and a lot of heat, but the failures weren't directly caused by any of those. Apparently transformers were weakened by lightning and failed secondarily.
During the outages, my little propane stove has served faithfully. I bought it after the 4-day blackout of the 1996 icestorm, and it has come in mighty handy down here, Bub.
One of the blackouts must have started with a surge, because it also blew out the Comcast cable box. I've been doing without TV for a week, and found it didn't make all that much difference. Would have been a real loss 5 years ago. At that time TV still had a few programs I enjoyed. By now most of my entertainment is found on the Web, and sanity is improved by zeroing out my exposure to the Propaganda Factories.
(The BP fraud was the last straw. All the Propaganda Factories from CNN to Fox carried the same vicious toxic lies, the same manufactured panic, about the extent and effects of "damage" from the "poisonous oil". CNN and Fox pushed the lie for different reasons: CNN wants to destroy America, Fox wants to destroy Obama. The goal doesn't matter, it's all crime.)
So I've cancelled the cable and switched to antenna for local news. Should save about $50 a month, plus an incalculable increase in sanity.
And this simplification led in turn to examining other bills; realized I've been paying twice as much as needed for phone service. Reducing to basic local phone will save another $20 a month. The real shocker came when I multiplied out this wasted $20/mo over the last 18 years: I could have lived for six months on the total! ¶ 6:50 PM
Even Commies can't stand her
Polistra has been following the case of a racial instigator named Dolezal. Twice in recent months, Dolezal "found" (i.e. planted) nooses and graffiti around her house. Now the Commie group that employed her has fired her. Naturally enough, she's now accusing the Commie "human rights" group of racism and discrimination.
It's nice to see that even an outright Communist organization has finally grown weary of these Chatty Cathy dolls who squawk "RACIST!" every time you pull the string. ¶ 6:18 AM
It's nice to see that even an outright Communist organization has finally grown weary of these Chatty Cathy dolls who squawk "RACIST!" every time you pull the string. ¶ 6:18 AM
Maybe Goodspaceguy is right
I've been mocking the 'sci-fi philosophy', the common story line where the aliens get tired of humans making war, so the aliens invade and give us a choice: Stop fighting or we'll eliminate you from the universe.
Now some declassified British info leads me to wonder. Sometime in 1944, RAF pilots encountered very convincing UFOs while flying over Europe; the aircraft were so unearthly that Churchill made a special trip to America to discuss them with FDR.
Churchill was the precise opposite of a flighty academic theorist. He was the most hard-nosed pragmatist who ever ruled a country. He also had access to the best available intel about Kraut and Nip technology, so he could eliminate those possibilities.
If Churchill was impressed by these craft, I'd say they were genuine. ¶ 5:27 AM
I've been mocking the 'sci-fi philosophy', the common story line where the aliens get tired of humans making war, so the aliens invade and give us a choice: Stop fighting or we'll eliminate you from the universe.
Now some declassified British info leads me to wonder. Sometime in 1944, RAF pilots encountered very convincing UFOs while flying over Europe; the aircraft were so unearthly that Churchill made a special trip to America to discuss them with FDR.
Churchill was the precise opposite of a flighty academic theorist. He was the most hard-nosed pragmatist who ever ruled a country. He also had access to the best available intel about Kraut and Nip technology, so he could eliminate those possibilities.
If Churchill was impressed by these craft, I'd say they were genuine. ¶ 5:27 AM
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Example
This morning, while writing the note about Stockman, I saw a highly satisfying local example of balancing accounts.
A repo truck paused in front of my house at 6:30 AM to finish rigging the hook on his catch. The catch was a brand-new Mercedes cabriolet, probably worth $60K. Presumably the repo man had done a quick-n-dirty grab on location, then stopped here to secure the load before pulling onto the boulevard.
Some asshole showoff woke up this morning to find his flashy but unpaid ride had disappeared!
Balancing accounts can be lovely. ¶ 12:56 PM
A repo truck paused in front of my house at 6:30 AM to finish rigging the hook on his catch. The catch was a brand-new Mercedes cabriolet, probably worth $60K. Presumably the repo man had done a quick-n-dirty grab on location, then stopped here to secure the load before pulling onto the boulevard.
Some asshole showoff woke up this morning to find his flashy but unpaid ride had disappeared!
Balancing accounts can be lovely. ¶ 12:56 PM
Too late, Stockman
Reagan-era adviser David Stockman writes a complete and concise summary of how we got into our current mess.
Sounds like a Populist, with one important and thought-provoking exception. Stockman sees a basic principle of balancing all accounts as the traditional Republican agenda, and sees the loss of this old agenda as the deep source of the failure. I'm not convinced that balance was ever an explicit Republican point, but it would be a good basis for a fresh approach!
Fine, Dave, but where were you while all this was happening? Why didn't you speak out and use your influential name to slow it down? ¶ 7:03 AM
Sounds like a Populist, with one important and thought-provoking exception. Stockman sees a basic principle of balancing all accounts as the traditional Republican agenda, and sees the loss of this old agenda as the deep source of the failure. I'm not convinced that balance was ever an explicit Republican point, but it would be a good basis for a fresh approach!
It is therefore unseemly for the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, to insist that the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers be spared even a three-percentage-point rate increase.
More fundamentally, Mr. McConnell’s stand puts the lie to the Republican pretense that its new monetarist and supply-side doctrines are rooted in its traditional financial philosophy. Republicans used to believe that prosperity depended upon the regular balancing of accounts — in government, in international trade, on the ledgers of central banks and in the financial affairs of private households and businesses, too. But the new catechism, as practiced by Republican policymakers for decades now, has amounted to little more than money printing and deficit finance — vulgar Keynesianism robed in the ideological vestments of the prosperous classes.
Fine, Dave, but where were you while all this was happening? Why didn't you speak out and use your influential name to slow it down? ¶ 7:03 AM
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Sleeping through no grease
News item:
When you actually know what to expect, when you know a bit of history and a bit of science, the media-generated panics can't disturb you.
Equipped with memory and history, Polistra and Happystar were able to sleep through the panic. Now they're able to sleep through the (much quieter!) "news" that just maybe the panic wasn't worth panicking about.
How many thousands of times do we have to endure this whipsawing? Overpopulation, global cooling, endangered species, acid rain, ozone holes, swine flu, global warming, Y2K, oil spills, bird flu, swine flu again, financial meltdown, oil spills again, probably global cooling again.
Always an apocalypse, always a lie. When each old apocalypse quietly disappears behind the new one, we find that lots of new money has moved into George Soros's bank accounts and lots of new power has accrued to governments. ¶ 7:50 AM
News item:
The oil in the Gulf of Mexico is disappearing much more quickly than expected. Nature is taking its course, aided by a naval-size flotilla of skimming boats and some powerful chemical dispersants.
The sea's warm surface and oil-munching bacteria have dissipated the slick to such an extent that a planeload of journalists had to fly for an hour before their pilot could find a patch of oil. His relief, according to one reporter on board, was comparable to the anxious captain of a tourist boat spotting a distant pod of dolphins.
It turns out that the playful sea mammals, like other creatures, suffered much less damage than was forecast. A grand total of three dead dolphins covered in oil have been recovered by wildlife rescue teams. The spill has so far killed less than one per cent of the number of birds claimed by the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska in 1989.
When you actually know what to expect, when you know a bit of history and a bit of science, the media-generated panics can't disturb you.
Equipped with memory and history, Polistra and Happystar were able to sleep through the panic. Now they're able to sleep through the (much quieter!) "news" that just maybe the panic wasn't worth panicking about.
How many thousands of times do we have to endure this whipsawing? Overpopulation, global cooling, endangered species, acid rain, ozone holes, swine flu, global warming, Y2K, oil spills, bird flu, swine flu again, financial meltdown, oil spills again, probably global cooling again.
Always an apocalypse, always a lie. When each old apocalypse quietly disappears behind the new one, we find that lots of new money has moved into George Soros's bank accounts and lots of new power has accrued to governments. ¶ 7:50 AM
