Absolutely unamerican
For some unfathomable but undoubtedly focus-grouped reason, the biggest brand-R talking point this week is that Grand Vizier Obama speaks casually at times.

This is utterly insane.

Worst example: Monica Crowley rants this morning that Obama made a comment about "scooping the poop". She then spends 5 minutes on the "majesty and exceptionality" of the Presidency, and how Obama is degrading the office.

You fucking monsters, you don't even remember what 1776 was about. The WHOLE FUCKING POINT of that revolution was to get rid of the "majesty and exceptionality" of the King.

Admittedly we've long ago lost that principle. Over the last 50 years we've reverted completely to an Imperial Presidency.

Still, if you were really trying to defend the Constitution, if you were really trying to shrink the government, you'd be happy to have a President occasionally "degrading" the imperial office by acting like a human being.
  ¶ 11:54 AM

  Just in time for Halloween
Wanna see something REEEEEAAAAALLLLYYYY creepy?

Eva Braun's home movies. Eight hours of real film, most in color. Eva and Dolfi strolling in the garden and dancing with the kiddies.

Perfectly defines the phrase "banality of evil". Gives an insight into the evolution from Wandervogel to Nazi... and by analogy the more recent evolution from Hippie to Genocidal Environmentalist.

These films also tell you all you need to know about human females.
  ¶ 12:58 PM

  "Biodiversity" agreement
The successor to "Global Warming" is starting to take shape, incrementally as always.

The Nagoya Protocol sets new 2020 targets to expand protected areas on land and at sea in the hopes of halting the loss of animals and plant species across the planet.

Japanese Environment Minister Ryu Matsumoto hailed the significance of the treaty.
Countries agreed to protect 17 percent of land and inland waters and 10 percent of coastal and marine areas within the next decade. Currently, only 13 percent of land and less than 1 percent of oceans are protected for conservation.

Guaranteed: All of the new "protected" land will be in English-speaking countries (US, UK, Aus) and all of it will be land with important resources like mining and ranching.

Guaranteed: All of the new "protected" water will be offshore from English-speaking countries (US, UK, Aus) and all of it will be known oil-producing territory.

Guaranteed: None of the new "protected" land or water will be in or near India or China.
  ¶ 8:06 AM

  Experts will be experts
The job of an "expert" or a "scientist" in modern times is simple.

(1) When asked about phenomena which are obviously and factually uncorrelated and random, declare in an authoritative voice that these phenomena are totally and permanently linked.

(2) When asked about phenomena which are obviously and factually correlated and connected, declare in an authoritative voice that these phenomena are completely random and uncorrelated.

We see Expertise #1 all the time with carbon dioxide and climate.

Expertise #2 normally runs in the realm of human characteristics such as race and intelligence, but we occasionally see an example in other fields.

The eruption happened less than 24 hours after a tsunami several hundred miles away hit Indonesian islands off Sumatra, triggered by a powerful earthquake unconnected to the volcano.

You'd think every once in a while a "scientist" would state a fact. That would at least keep the public guessing. In the current situation the public has ACCURATELY CONCLUDED from available evidence that all "scientists" are evil idiots.
  ¶ 5:33 AM

  A practical wind scale
In the very windy year of 2010, enduring idiotic TV weathercasters who are stuck in linearity and thus don't understand the difference between breezy, windy, and dangerous, Professor Polistra has been thinking about the need for a human-oriented scale for wind velocity.

There is a Beaufort Scale for sailors, strictly for sea characteristics. And there are several scales for hurricane and tornado strength, but nothing that deals with sub-lethal wind speeds on land.



The important thing about wind is not the speed but the force applied to people, buildings, plants and trees. Force varies with the square of the speed, so it goes up faster when the speed is higher. The 10-MPH increment from 5 to 15 doesn't matter much, while the 10-MPH increment from 45 to 55 matters greatly.

Professor Polistra has designed the Vel scale to capture this reality.

Vels are based on wind force in pounds per square foot, adjusted slightly so that 20 Vels matches 100 MPH for convenience.

Pounds per square foot = .00256 * [MPH squared].

Vels = .002 * [MPH squared].

The Vel, like the Bel, is linear with respect to real effects, especially in the lower end. From 0 to 1 is the range where nothing moves. From 1 to 2, leaves and twigs move. From 2 to 3, small branches move, and so on.

The graph on the blackboard runs all the way up to 100 to make the shape and math clear, but Prof P really intends only the lower part to be used, 0 to 9 Vels reaching 70 MPH. Beyond that you're in hurricane territory.

Another advantage of the Vel scale: again like Bels, it's a "universal language", same number for same wind regardless of English or Metric measure.

= = = = =

Later: Oops.... turns out Prof P has more or less re-invented the existing Beaufort Land Scale. The precise conversion is a new idea, though.
  ¶ 8:02 AM

  Well, which side are they on?
Most public-service spots about diseases or disasters include a riff like this:

[Our disease] doesn't discriminate! [Our disease] strikes anyone and everyone! Old and young, male and female, gay and straight and transgender and pre-op trigender, black and white and Latina/o and First Nations Peoples!

This is true enough for disasters like floods, but it's wrong and often dangerous for diseases. All diseases have preferences. Medical research has wasted a lot of money by refusing to discriminate, and public health agencies have killed people by refusing to discriminate.

Now think about the basic premise. If you're one of the Commie organizations that sponsor these spots, and if you really believe that diseases don't discriminate, then you believe that diseases are better than people. Mere humans (until re-educated) are sexist, racist, homophobic, Islamophobic, ageist, ableist, looksist. Diseases have none of those "diseases."

(Of course those organizations don't really believe their advertising; they know the true demographics of their own disease. But they feel obliged by our default leftist culture to repeat this non-discriminatory rubbish, in order to keep Al Sharpton and Gloria Allred off their backs.)
  ¶ 7:34 AM

  Aaaaand here we go againnnnn!
Delingpole spotted this trend early, and now it's really showing its ugly face.

As the criminal conspiracy of "Global Warming" starts to fade, it's quickly being replaced by "Biodiversity". Needless to say, the criminals will never pay or confess or apologize for impoverishing billions of people and starving millions of people to enrich their own obscenely bulging Swiss bank accounts.

Commies never apologize or serve time, because they control everything.

Japan seems to be an amenable location for world conquest plans. The serious UN part of the "Global Warming" crime started in Kyoto, though it had been developing in various places for 20 years. Now the serious UN part of the "Biodiversity" crime is starting in Nagoya, though it's been developing for 20 years.

Politicians gathering in Nagoya, Japan, for the United Nations' 10th Convention on Biological Diversity — a summit to set conservation goals for 2020 — face grim news: Scientists have reported that one-fifth of Earth's vertebrate species are at risk of extinction.

It's the "scientists" again, and it's "grim news" again.

But the outlook for biodiversity would have been even bleaker without conservation efforts, according to the researchers... "We've had some successes," said study coauthor Neil A. Cox of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Conservation International. "Without conservation in place, extinctions would be much worse than they currently are."

And it's the untestable experiment again. We think we improved the situation, but we have absolutely no idea what would have happened without our efforts.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature periodically surveys biodiversity worldwide and categorizes species on its so-called Red List based on their extinction risk. The new update compiled data for 25,780 vertebrate species: all mammals, birds, amphibians and cartilaginous fishes — such as sharks — and about 1,500 species each of reptiles and bony fish. According to the research in the journal Science, on average 52 species of mammals, birds and amphibians slide a step closer to extinction each year, moving into a more threatened category on the Red List.

And it's HUGE SCARY FALSE NUMBERS again. ACTUAL DATA shows that over the last 400 years, just TWO SPECIES OF MAMMALS AND BIRDS PER YEAR have gone extinct, not 52 per year. Insects undoubtedly die out much faster, but insects also develop new species much faster.

But Leadley, who coauthored another biodiversity paper in the same issue of Science, cautioned against placing too much emphasis on efforts to save celebrity species, one by one. [Actor Harrison Ford] is advocating Conservation International's goals to expand protected areas to 25% of the world's land surface and 15% of the oceans. "I care because I'm a father and I'm seeing the world around me degraded and misused and wasted for short-term profits," he said. "I think this is among the most important of the things I'm involved in. Time is short and nature is at a tipping point."

And it's DO IT FOR THE CHILDREN and it's TIPPING POINT and it's INTERNATIONAL PROBLEMS REQUIRING INTERNATIONAL DICTATORSHIP again. Trifecta of tyranny.

[Leadley] said broader efforts, including reducing climate change, deforestation and pollution, would be key in the future.

And here's the tie-in to the previous crime, so they can smoothly ramp down their evil work on the previous crime without admitting failure or error.

And needless to say, this connection is perfectly backwards as always. We do have increasing CO2 in the atmosphere. Increasing CO2 has no connection at all with warming or cooling, but it does make plants grow more enthusiastically, which in turn means denser and lusher "delicate fragile wetlands" and denser and lusher "delicate fragile rain forests". Thus higher CO2 makes it easier for rare plants and animals to survive and revive, not harder.

"We've missed the target on 2010, but if you invest in conservation, there's gain to be made," he said.

And here's the tie-in to the Wall Street Mafia. At this point the new-format Papal Indulgences haven't been publicly revealed yet, but I'm sure the Biodiversity Exchange is already well planned. Maurice Strong and George Soros don't leave infinite riches and genocide to chance.

= = = = =

This new crime is parallel to the old one in many ways, but it differs in two major ways that will likely make it harder to disprove and dislodge.

(1) "Global Warming" is based on a complete and total REVERSAL of facts, logic and mathematics, so any human with an intact brain can spot it as 100.00% toxic nonsense by looking at JUST ONE GRAPH. In contrast, "Biodiversity" has a small core of truth and proper morality. It's always been a good idea to prevent overfishing and overhunting of animals that humans actually use. The real successes of conservation have always involved old-fashioned self-control, while the Endangered Species approach has failed every time. This narrow core of truth will allow the criminals to confuse and conflate, thus making counter-argument harder.

(2) The essential theory of "Global Warming" is purely numerical and thus testable by numerical methods. And it has been repeatedly tested and utterly, exclusively, smashingly disproved every goddamn time ... which has finally been noticed by sane humans and even a few members of the Ruling Class. But the essential theory of "Biodiversity" is non-numerical, depending on a reverse reading of Darwin. Basic Darwin says that evolution occurs when a species dies out in one specific niche or location. Other species then move in and adapt. The Endangered Species theory directly fights Darwin by trying to keep a species alive in a location where Nature wants it to die. This prevents other species from taking over the niche, and thus forces Nature into an unnatural distortion. Note the Orwellian term "invasive species": the "invaders" are actually Nature doing its proper job!

The crime against Nature is thus verbally demonstrable, but it won't be nearly as easy to show on a graph.

= = = = =

Polistra is taking out her frustration on an allegedly endangered allegedly giant allegedly white allegedly spitting allegedly lily-scented Palouse Earthworm, which nicely symbolizes the multiform falsity and tyranny of "Biodiversity".



= = = = =

Later: Hmm... maybe there's hope, maybe the people are awake now, won't be so easily fooled this time. Dennis Miller catches the point instantly. This morning he noted the mention of the Biodiversity thing on Drudge. Said: "Am I the only one who thinks it's a good thing when species go extinct? Sort of a Darwinian spring-cleaning." Precisely. The whole point in 20 words.
  ¶ 6:00 PM

  Salute to propane 2


Propane saves the day again.

Power failed yesterday around 3 PM. Unlike the previous 6 failures this year, yesterday's failure happened in the middle of a fairly strong wind and rain storm, with some lightning.

Was it a tree falling on a line? No.

Was it rain shorting a transformer? No.

Was it lightning zapping a line? No.

It was a goddamn car hitting a power pole, just like the other outages.

= = = = =

Vaguely related: 2010 has been a notably windy year. Seems to be a 3-year cycle here; I remember that 2004 and 2007 were also steadily windy, while intervening years had only a few windy days. Tried to locate some semi-official data, but it's not there in any form I can find or use. Probably not there at all.

This fits into the 33 and 66 year solar patterns.

Three and eleven: all you need to be a pretty fair climatologist. Temp goes up for 33 years, down for 33, up 33, down 33. The top and bottom years, when there's not much 'pull' in either direction, are the worst for floods and droughts. At those stable points, the jet stream tends to hold still for long periods. In between, on the sloping parts of the curve, some parts of the earth are being 'pulled' up or down more than others by the effects of sunspot changes. More temperature gradient means the jet stream moves around more. It always makes storms, but during the 'years of change', the storms don't stick in one place as long.

= = = = =

And another vaguely related thought: Since the resultant force from wind varies with the square of the velocity, why don't we have a decibel-style scale for wind? After some fiddling, I think 10 times the pounds per square foot on a flat surface would do the job nicely. Such a scale would help ordinary folks to understand that the 10MPH increment from 30 to 40 matters a lot more than the 10 MPH increment from 5 to 15.
  ¶ 5:58 AM

  Missing the point entirely
All the Satanist-Leninist poison vendors are climaxing and creaming on the latest Wikileaks revelations. "Shocking", "torture", all that crap. Fortunately for my own health, I've disconnected from cable TV so I don't even have to hear what CNN and Fox are doing, but the printed media are bad enough.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Here is the only moral rule you need:

In a necessary and winnable war, everything is permitted. Torture, killing millions of civilians, depopulating entire countries, if that's what it takes to win.

In an unnecessary and unwinnable war, nothing is permitted. The war should not be fought at all. Soldiers should not be present, let alone shooting or torturing or bombing.

Iraq and Afghanistan are unnecessary and unwinnable wars, therefore all this blood-soaked media masturbation is completely irrelevant and immaterial. The only question we need to ask is "Should we be there?" and the only rational answer is NO.

Of course we're getting all this shit because it suits both of George Soros's cute little toy "parties". Soros Red Label has been assigned "ownership" of the Iraq war, so the Soros Blue Label commentators are ordered to get "angry" at the Red Label politicians when Wikileaks releases info about the Iraq war. Soros Blue Label has been assigned "ownership" of the Afghan war, so the Soros Red Label commentators are ordered to get "angry" at the Blue Label politicians when Wikileaks releases info about the Afghan war.
  ¶ 5:37 AM

  Perfect idiocy
Listening to some UN health bureaucrat interviewed on BBC. He's giving sensible advice about the need to deal with chronic disease before it happens. Prevent smoking, change diets, get more exercise.

Then he goes bonkers: "Well, increasing exercise means less use of automobiles, and that will also be good for The Planet [pbuh]. Climate change is really more important than worrying about human health directly, because if we don't stop the warming, there won't be any humans."

Wild-eyed lunatic. Genocidal madman. According to him, we shouldn't waste our research and resources on improving the lives of people. No, we must devote our energy and effort to "preventing" an attack by leprechauns riding unicorns.
  ¶ 4:48 AM

  Hot & Cold running science (reprint)
WUWT has an important discussion today about the abstract idiots who currently run the world: the idiots who like to use numbers but have never experienced the real world, the idiots who never matured to the point of grasping "up" and "down", the idiots who think everything must keep moving in the same linear direction. Polistra has discussed these idiots many times, and it feels like a good time to reprint the first such discussion, August 2005.

= = = = = start reprint:

Here's a little quiz. What do you think will happen to the car at the end of this repeating clip?




Do you think it will go up like this?



Or down like this?



If you chose Up (A), congratulations! You are either a six-week-old kitten or a Professional Climatologist!

If you chose Down (B), you are more likely a full-grown mammal with some experience of the way the world works.

Granted, the last hill is slightly taller than the previous ones. So a full-grown human with some knowledge of history might ask if we've been on a taller hill before, and if so, what happened then? Well, we have been on a taller hill before, around 1000 AD. And some interesting things did happen in that period. Northern countries became more friendly to human habitation. Mohammedans took over most of Europe. After several decades of dillying around, Christians picked a strong Pope, and Christianity finally fought back. (Sounds familiar, for some reason.) Christians were also starting universities, and the Renaissance was just popping up. Was Africa uninhabitable? Not 'ardly. There was a high civilization in Mali, of all places. How could that be? Well, for one thing, Karl Marx wasn't born yet, so Africans hadn't been hopelessly ruined by his evil philosophy.

-----

Here's a set of graphs scanned (atrociously) from a 1976 National Geographic, at a time when science was still science. That is, scientists were capable of reading graphs, asking questions, and waiting for the data before answering the questions.

At that time, the consensus was that we were heading for a cooling trend, because the last little piece of the graph was going down. But that consensus was not a Religious Axiom, and there was no Inquisition in academe.


Zoom

= = = = = end 8/2005 reprint.

Polistra shot at the same target from different angles here and here and here.
  ¶ 12:02 PM

  Purge?
The Watergate hearings enabled NPR to bring hard-left journalism to America. Then through the '80s, NPR people infiltrated the rest of the media, turning them into the Satanist-Leninist propaganda machines that now inject daily doses of raw poison into our eyes and ears.



Over the last decade or so, NPR has moved back toward the center ... or maybe it just stayed in the same 1974 leftist position while the commercial networks zoomed out past Pol Pot. In either case, NPR has become the least biased of the mainstream sources.

Now I'm wondering if there's an international purge or purification going on. Normally when entertainers or newsy-types get insubordinate or inconvenient, they're quietly dismissed and allowed to Spend More Time With Their Families. In recent months the networks have been chopping hard and fast and sharp for "offenses" that seem minor.

First CNN fired Octavia Nasr for writing something on Facebook about admiring an Arab terrorist. Then CNN fired Rick Sanchez for an interview where he made vague but accurate references to Jews. Then New Zealand TV fired Paul Henry for mocking the eminently mockable name of a Hindoo diplomat. (Paul Henry isn't well-known in this hemisphere, but he was one of the few truly funny people on TV, and I'd been hugely enjoying samples of his shows on Youtube before the firing.) Now NPR fires Juan Williams for sort of vaguely recognizing who our** enemy is.

The latter is by far the worst and most purge-like firing in the series, but the whole set stands out by comparison to the usual quiet departures.

= = = = =

** Footnote: By 'our' I mean that Arabs are the enemy of the American people; Arabs are emphatically not the enemy of the government in DC.
  ¶ 5:13 PM

  Westboro
The Westboro bunch is running its little drama here in Spokane this week.

Guaranteed: These people are agents provocateurs.

Think about it.

(1) A few dozen people with no obvious backing, none of them independently wealthy. Where do they get the money to travel all over the country?

(2) Their message begins with an exaggerated reading of real Christian doctrine, then takes off into bizarre and totally non-Christian behavior.

(3) What is the consistent and universal result of their protests? Vastly increased support for homosexuals and vastly increased hatred for all Christians.

(4) Local Satanist-Leninist poison vendors, especially CBS affiliate KREM, have known about the Westboro visit well in advance, and have spent the last two weeks running a constant Pavlovian conditioning process.
Hate = Vile = Christian. Hate = Vile = Christian.
Hate = Vile = Christian. Hate = Vile = Christian.
Hate = Vile = Christian. Hate = Vile = Christian.
Hate = Vile = Christian. Hate = Vile = Christian.
Hate = Vile = Christian. Hate = Vile = Christian.

Put it all together and it spells a well-coordinated AP operation.

I've seen APs before in the anti-nuke movement of the '70s and among the Chinese pro-democracy students in the '80s. This is unquestionably pure 200-proof AP.

Of course we'll never know, because nobody stands to gain from checking the facts. The Feds never expose their own tricks; our gay ruling class thimply adores what Westboro does for them; and real Christians don't want to walk into a predictable shitstorm by talking about it.
  ¶ 8:06 AM

  Bravo Ginny!
Today's news: Virginia Thomas asks Comrade Hill, Hero of Mao, for an apology. Comrade Hill, Hero of Mao, doesn't apologize but instead calls in KGB.

I'm pretty sure Virginia Thomas is wise enough to know that she wouldn't get an apology from a hard-line Commie. Commies never apologize or repent or recant for serving the Party. They only apologize when they have failed to meet their quota. For instance, our "news" media always run a soul-searching session (Self-Criticism or 检讨 session) when they have failed to call every non-Commie a racist 30,000 times in a day. When CNN or NBC describes Hegemonist-Roaders as racists only 29,999 times in a day, it's time for Glorious 检讨 Session.

However, I'm not sure Mrs Thomas expected Comrade Hill, Hero of Mao, to call in the secret police.

This will present KGB with an interesting problem. Their primary purpose is to protect black gangsters and Arab vermin terrorists from Americans. Conflict arises: on the one hand Clarence Thomas is black, which puts him on the Protected side of KGB's caste system. On the other hand, he's the exact opposite of a gangster and the exact opposite of a terrorist. In fact, he's the only real American currently holding a top office, which makes him Enemy of Glorious Proletariat by KGB standards. However, Virginia Thomas offers no such conflicts. She's just as anti-Communist as Clarence, but she's white, thus fully open to any and all measures necessary to protect Comrade Hill from being Offended by Imperialist-Running-Dog Voice Mail.
  ¶ 7:35 AM

  Did you have a Memory Prosthesis this morning?
[Note: this is a private joke, but 100% of my regular reader will understand it.]

Since July I've been taking pills for blood pressure. Seems to help, though I'm still not sure that the side effects are worth the benefits.

Obviously you're not supposed to miss a day, and you're especially not supposed to take two pills in a day. Until last week I managed to hold the pattern nicely. Last week the pattern had become so automatic that I wasn't sure if I had taken the pill, so took another one ... or maybe it wasn't another one. No actual problems arose that day, so I probably didn't take two after all. But the misfire convinced me that the process needed to become more conscious, less automatic.

Found a solution by using the famous Petty voice. Since the original purpose of the Petty voice was to provide internal feedback, I started using it while taking the pill, in order to leave a lasting "signal" in my throat and ears.

Sounds like this.

= = = = =

Much later note for personal record: The abovementioned side-effect disappeared after a couple of months. Considering the timing and the location, I think it was more likely part of the numbness induced by shingles. (It was the shingles that forced me to see the doctor in July, at which time the doc also prescribed the BP pills.)
  ¶ 6:38 AM

  A major agreed-on lie goes down in flames!
The biggest of all the agreed-on lies is that all humans are identical, and any apparent differences can be erased with education.

The first corollary of this lie is Diversity, the transparently false theory that we are all improved and broadened by contact with lots of different races. Everyone knows it's false, and recent careful sociological research has stated the falseness in an objective way. Truth: Mixing ethnicities leads to distrust, isolation and incompetence on all sides.

Today we have the first open admission of the facts from a member of the Ruling Class:

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has courted growing anti-immigrant opinion in Germany by claiming the country's attempts to create a multicultural society have "utterly failed".

Speaking to a meeting of young members of her Christian Democratic Union party, Merkel said the idea of people from different cultural backgrounds living happily "side by side" did not work.

She said the onus was on immigrants to do more to integrate into German society.

"This [multicultural] approach has failed, utterly failed."

Strictly speaking, she's wrong. Multiculti failed in its advertised purpose but succeeded magnificently in its real purpose.

Stalin's favorite recipe, translated into Western versions by Alinsky, Friedan, King, et al:

1. Define one group as Victim and another group as Oppressor.

2. Tenderize both groups first with years of propaganda enforcing these definitions.

3. Find a situation where the Victims will be guaranteed to fail, and mix them in with the Oppressors. Stir enthusiastically. Season with frequent reminders that everyone is equal, therefore the failure is caused by the evil Oppressors, not the inadequate Victims.

4. Seal the pan and cook with laws forbidding expression of the truth.

5. Stand back while the mixture rises, bubbles and explodes.

6. Rescue the Victims with perpetual governmental privileges. This will give you a private army, ready to riot on your command. It will also enrage the Oppressors, but because the Oppressors were chosen for their law-abiding tendencies they will not revolt en masse. Instead, their rage will give you an obvious reason to "protect" the Victims even more.

= = = = =

Stating the truth is a magnificent act of courage, but Merkel has really done more: she has officially disconnected a European government from the basic premise of Communism, for the first time since 1948.

Labels: Shared Lie

  ¶ 5:32 PM

  Mobius circle
Polistra has talked often about the Broken Circle; in fact that's the primary theme here. Sometimes, though, the circle is more twisted than broken.

I didn't really figure this out until I saw a nice counter-example. Back in 1961 a journalist asked George Romney if he was bothered by the fact that most people who bought Ramblers drove in the right lane. (Translation: "Your customers are useless codgers who don't deserve to buy cars.") Romney said "I don't care as long as there are lots of them."

That's a sane approach, a closed-circle approach. Know your customers and please your customers. Don't waste energy whoring after a different set of customers.

Modern media and advertisers aim all their news, entertainment and messages at 13-year-old retarded lesbians, even though most of their watchers are older heterosexuals of normal intelligence. No wonder they're losing money.

A different twist distorts politics. Both "parties" take their friends for granted, put total effort into pleasing the people who will NEVER be their friends. Repooflicans are especially bad. Repoofs get no money from lawyers and teachers, yet Repoofs have never done any of the good things (tort reform, school choice) that would offend lawyers and teachers. Blacks never vote for Repoofs, yet Repooflicans continue to advance the national-suicide agenda of Gang Leader Jesse Jackson. Obviously the lawyers and teachers and Black Panthers appreciate this idiotic weakness: why give money to both "parties" when you can get total obedience for half the cost?
  ¶ 6:59 AM

  Bittersweet
Polistra is happy to see Kevin Williamson at NRO finally picking up on the fallacy of zero interest rates. Polistra has been hammering this point for a long time, most directly here and here. Many other Americans and Brits have been hammering the point lately, in comboxes at various blogs, all without effect.

Williamson's column is the first time a New Yorker has stated the point, so maybe it will finally be heard by the People Who Count. (The PWC dismiss all opinions stated by Americans, but occasionally listen to opinions stated by New Yorkers.)

It's just plain and simple economics. Any time you control the price of an item you get shortages, hoarding and black market operations. Every economist should have understood instantly that price control of borrowed money has given us shortages, hoarding and black markets. Yet none of the people who call themselves "economists" have noticed this, or at least none have said it publicly.

Conclusion: the people who call themselves "economists" are not in fact economists. They are consiglieri for the Wall Street Mafia, reluctant to give up their profits from the black market operations.

Needless to say, Bugsy Geithner will never, never, never, never, never take any steps to aid America, even when the advice is coming from a New Yorker. Bugsy Geithner's mission is the same as Shotgun Paulson's mission: Crash America, and confiscate its wealth into the Swiss bank accounts of Bugsy and Shotgun and their boss Comrade Soros.
  ¶ 3:49 AM

  Extremely extreme?


Professor Polistra doesn't go along with the "grammarians" who insist that certain words can't be compared.

They don't want us to say less perfect or very unique or more unprecedented.

Nonsense. Every quality or characteristic can be found in greater or lesser degree.

Still, some comparisons don't work.

This year the keyword extreme is, ahem, nearly universal in political ads. In most cases it's part of the phrase too extreme, as in "Tell Senator Pufnstuf that his risky tax-cutting scheme is just too extreme for Ohioans."

Practically speaking, this may be a losing accusation in a year when voters are wildly exhausted with all non-extreme actions, a year when voters are just a couple millimeters short of outright violence.

But semantically speaking, too extreme implies that the opposite is preferable. Well then, what is the desirable opposite of too extreme? Is Senator Pufnstuf's opponent proud to be slightly extreme? Moderately extreme? Sorta halfway extreme? Minimally extreme? Only an eentsy-weentsy bit extreme? Or like Mama Bear**, just extreme enough?

= = = = =

** Yes, Prof Polistra knows that Goldilocks is the usual metaphor for the just right item. But in fact Goldilocks was an arrogant burglar with enough chutzpah to judge and grade the furniture and food she found in the Bear residence, while she broke the furniture and ate the food. Most of the items that she callously graded just right were Mrs Bear's property. (In today's world, Goldilocks would call herself The Blonde Jackass and would be a Youtube sensation!)
  ¶ 7:08 AM

  Green robber caught!
Spokane's bicycle-riding eco-Dillinger was finally caught, on his 8th robbery.

Hearing the back robbery call while on his way home, a Spokane Police Sergeant responded to the area. Following updates via police radio, the sergeant was able to locate the suspect riding his bicycle on Holyoke near Bruce. The sergeant pulled his patrol car in front of the suspect, who then struck the patrol car. When the suspect fell to the ground, a gun flew across the sidewalk.

Good driving and courageous work by the cop, bad evasive maneuver by eco-Dillinger.

This guy is going to have serious problems in prison. Pro criminals are highly conscious of vehicular status, and a bike is the absolute bottom of the status stack.
  ¶ 4:21 AM

  Why?
In the rescue of miners today, and in the heroic recovery from a monster earthquake several months ago, Chile shows up as a country of immense competence.

They can git 'er done.

This used to be a hallmark of North America, but we've lost it as shown painfully by Katrina and BP.

The crown of competence now passes to the South.

Why?

My hypothesis:

Chile had Pinochet. We didn't.

If we had been blessed with a Pinochet, our Soviet subversives would have been dead for 35 years now, and they wouldn't have been shredding our civilization and culture for 35 years. The Bush family, the Kennedy family, the Gore family, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Paul Ehrlich, John Holdren, Betty Friedan, Catharine MacKinnon, John and Teresa Kerry, George Soros, Hank Paulson.... all would have been dead or imprisoned before they could do significant damage. All the genocidal laws made by these enemies of humanity, all the obstacles to achievement, all the cultural wreckage, all the bitter lonely impoverished people, all the murderously false "science" and criminally fraudulent "economics" ... simply wouldn't have happened.

What an eternal blessing that would be!

But we didn't receive it. Chile did.

= = = = =

Polistra and Happystar salute Chile's technical and personal triumph today!


  ¶ 5:45 PM

  Art gets some out-of-this-world endorsements
Art Robinson, the only honest man running for Congress this year and the only real scientist who ever ran for office, has been publicly endorsed by two famous astronauts.

Scott Carpenter and Harrison Schmitt.
  ¶ 5:52 AM

  Almost gets it
Listening to interview with Charles Gasparino, whose new book finally reveals the connection between American Commies and Wall Street. This has been going on for at least 50 years, probably since 1948. Unfortunately Gasparino doesn't seem to understand the length and depth of the problem; he just thinks that the Wall Streeters (like all rich assholes) are liberals who like Obama.

Gasparino said: "Let's remember that Obama spent a year doing the health-care bill instead of doing anything about 10% unemployment. That's how ideological he is."

No, Charlie, it's even more proof of your own thesis that progressives and Wall Street are the same thing, but you're too ideological to realize that it helps your own point!

The Obama health-care system is NOT, REPEAT NOT, REPEAT NOT about Big Government Ramming Its Taxes Down Our Throats. The Obama health-care system is about Big Insurance Ramming Its Monopoly Down Our Throats While Government Straps Us Down And Takes A Video For Its S&M Viewing Pleasure.
  ¶ 10:46 AM

  Excellent read
Article in London Telegraph about black Republicans likely to win this year.

Unlike most Brits, author Toby Harnden understands America fully. The story is partly about the fact that these three black candidates are aligned with the Tea Party, but mostly about Tim Scott, almost certain to win in South Carolina.

Tim Scott described last week how he was born into poverty and a broken home, much like Barack Obama.

"My dad was gone by the time I was seven," the black candidate for the House of Representatives told a mixed group of students at Fort Dorchester High School in North Charleston. "I was flunking out of high school. I failed geography, civics, Spanish and English. When you fail Spanish and English, you are not bilingual, you are bi-ignorant."

But the conclusions that Scott, 45, drew were very different from those of Obama. When he was 15, a man who ran a Chick-fil-A fast-food restaurant taught him "that there was a way to think my way out of the worst conditions". Scott went on to became a small businessman and a proud "conservative Republican".

Huge point, and I hope Scott hits it often instead of following the usual idiotic line that all kids need a PhD from Harvard. The world of work is vastly more important and vastly more educational than any college, and a good boss can change your life more than a good teacher. Few if any students need the last two years of high school; nearly all should get into apprenticeship or technical training or plain old work by 16. College (for some) comes later, after you know why you need it.
  ¶ 6:20 PM

  Too small, not too big
The constant repetitive chant of the "conservative" parroting class is GOVERNMENT IS TOO BIG! GOVERNMENT IS TOO POWERFUL!

Nonsense. In many cases the problems that obstruct business and prevent job formation result from a government that's too small or too weak. (It's certainly big in many places where it shouldn't be, but that only accounts for half the problem!)

= = = = =

Example 1.

Navigation and transportation are among the most basic jobs of any government. The purpose of navigation is to enable commerce, not to provide esthetic pleasure to aging hippies. Some "judges" in Idaho have forgotten this, and the governor is too weak to reassert the proper role of government.

Specifically, several oil companies are trying to build a new refinery in Montana and bring more rigs to the oilfields of Alberta. They're hauling some huge equipment from the coast to the inland locations via a rather tangled and old-fashioned route. Starting at the port of Vancouver, barge up the navigable Columbia to Lewiston, then put the big stuff on trucks and take it along the highways to Montana and Alberta.

(Super-heavy loads are generally better on railroads, but apparently these loads are too wide for the tight tunnels and bridges on the RR.)

A handful of people along the highway have filed a lawsuit, presumably with assistance from enviro-terrorists. These few people have brought the entire process to a dead halt.

Here's where a BIG AND POWERFUL government would intervene. A strong governor would declare a judicial emergency and tell the judges to stand down or be shot. Or even better, shoot them immediately for stealing the livelihood of millions of future Americans and Canadians.

* * * * * * *

Update 11/1: Amazingly, the black-robed ecoterrorist was overturned by the Idaho supreme court, but the ecoterrorists are not done; more appeals and technicalities will continue to kill America.

= = = = =

Example 2.

Copyrights and patents are among the few jobs specifically assigned to the Feds by the Constitution. The founders knew the importance of intellectual property, and wanted to insure that good ideas had a fair chance to make money FOR THEIR CREATOR. The original law did a pretty good job in that regard. Since Walt Disney bought himself a new law in 1998, the system has served only Walt and a few other giants. I already discussed the problem of copyright trolls, but there's an opposite problem as well. The prevalence of digital pirates makes it nearly impossible for small operators to make a small amount of money on art. Only the giants can generate enough buzz to attract millions of people, which is the only way to overcome the piracy. I've experienced it myself (though I wasn't really trying to make a full income) and several of the serious full-time artists in this part of the graphics world have given up lately, exhausted from fighting thieves with no help.

Because the thieves are international this is specifically a Federal job, and the Feds have completely abandoned the field. The Disney law puts the burden of preventing theft purely on the author. Well, Disney can afford an army of lawyers and investigators to file claims and suits against every possible infringement. One-man operations can't.

= = = = =

Example 3.

Politicians and party-hack commentators are trying to convince us that manufacturing can't expand because taxes are too high. Provably false. In the decades when America was the world champion of production, our federal taxes were MUCH higher than now. The problem isn't tax, the problem is China. There's no point in trying to make something here when you know for certain that China can make it cheaper.

Again, control of trade is a basic and inherent power of the Feds, explicitly given by the Constitution and forbidden to states. Since 1990 the Feds have surrendered this power, leaving in place a few old tariffs that serve a few powerful interests, but never adding new tariffs to defend us against China's aggressive trade war. A strong Federal gov't would impose tariffs against all Chinese crap, then impose a blockade after treasonous multinational corporations found ways to get around the tariff.

= = = = =

Example 4.

SEC. Chris Cox. Goldman Sachs. Nuff said.

= = = = =

The common thread in all of these situations: "Smaller government" always shrinks in the exact ways that benefit Disney and Goldman and ArcherDanielsMidland. It never shrinks in any way that would benefit actual entrepreneurs or artists or banks or farmers.

Plutonomics in operation. Rich assholes and thieves end up with everything, honest labor gets zero reward.

(Oops, the Pluto in Plutonomics has nothing to do with Disney, but the pun works anyway.)

= = = = =

Therefore: We know what the "conservative" leaders are trying to accomplish for Goldman Sachs. (The "liberal" leaders, of course, are assigned by Goldman Sachs to reach the exact same goal from the opposite flank with different-sounding rhetoric.) By generating a movement that seeks nothing but smaller and weaker government, the "conservatives" are intentionally making life easier for the financiers, thieves, enviroterrorists and lawyers; and intentionally making life harder and poorer for small and medium businesses. The footsoldiers of the Tea Party don't understand this, which is a damn shame.
  ¶ 6:50 AM

  Backward bounty
News item:

A $2,500 reward is being offered for information about the death of a federally protected male gray wolf that was found Sept. 30 in the Umatilla National Forest in northeast Oregon.

The reward is being offered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The 2-year-old wolf was wearing a radio collar and was a member of the Wenaha pack.

It had been captured and fitted with the collar in August. Investigators for the service said that the cause of death has not been determined. Wolves are protected as endangered under both state statues and the federal Endangered Species Act. Killing an animal protected under the federal ESA is punishable by a fine of up to $100,000, one year in jail, or both. Killing a wolf also is a violation of Oregon state game law, with fines and penalties assessed by the court.

When I saw the headline my first semi-conscious thought was "Well, about time! They're offering a bounty for wolves again."

Nope, it's the opposite. They're offering a bounty for the person who killed the wolf, for the man who defended people and property from a well-known predator.

At one time in the dim distant past, the territory north of Mexico was occupied by a country known as America. In this barely remembered country, people were encouraged to own property and farmers were encouraged to grow crops and livestock. In this barely remembered legendary place, the government helped to protect livestock from predators, and helped to protect crops from bugs. In this ancient and mysterious land, the government built dams and levees and irrigation systems so farmers could turn barren land into a breadbasket for the world.

Since 1988 this territory has been occupied by a monstrous Pol Pot-style tyranny where the government arrests farmers for growing crops or raising livestock or killing bugs or shooting predators, where the government rips out dams and shuts down irrigation systems while simultaneously building dams and irrigation systems for enemy nations.

None of the dystopian authors of the past, from Swift to Butler to Orwell, imagined a country like this. None of them imagined a country where breathing is actually illegal.
  ¶ 2:22 PM

  Nobels loosening?
Wonder if the Nobel outfit is trying to break out of its hard-line Maoist mold?

This year's lit prize goes to Mario Vargas Llosa**, a solid anti-Communist who is still hated by Commies for going apostate. Some previous lit prizes have gone to non-political writers, but the political ones were always loyal Reds.

This year's Peace prize goes to Liu Xiaobo, an anti-Communist dissident in China. Previous peace prizes were always for pro-Commie dissidents in capitalist countries, or even currently powerful Commie rulers like Crazed Sex Poodle and Pasha Obama.

China's response verifies the hypothesis that the Nobel folks have escaped from their previous well-rewarded sycophancy:

"This is an obscenity against the peace prize," Ma Zhaoxu, a foreign ministry spokesman, said in a statement.

Reuters news agency reported that China summoned Norway's ambassador in Beijing on Friday to protest the award.

Indeed this is an obscenity against the long-standing Nobel tradition, which was an obscenity against civilization.


** The BBC pronounces his name "Meddy Oh Vagg Ass Woooo-yosa." BBC has great trouble with foreign sounds: they pronounced the former UN head Boutros Boutros-Ghali as "Buttress Buttress Aaarghrhghrghgrrgh-railey." Sounded like the newsreader and a bulldog were fighting over a tasty bone.
  ¶ 7:04 AM

  Connection
I haven't bothered to comment on the 10:10 "red button" cartoon, because I didn't have anything new to say.

This morning I noticed something that might not have been said yet.

Violent propaganda is not unusual or new, and it can serve a good purpose when it's aimed at the enemy, when it stirs a feeling of revenge against an attacker.

What makes this violent propaganda new and insane is that it stirs a feeling of revenge against our own friends and children.

The red button finally reveals to the broader public the suigenocidal impulses of the environmental movement.

It also reveals the consistent and widespread suicide-cult of all modern Leftists. The red button kills our own kids. Hmm. Which other leftist organizations ferociously support the "right" to kill our own children? Hmm.

And where did the environmental movement start in earnest?



Earth Day 1971, originated by murderer Ira Einhorn and pushed hard by murderer Ted Kennedy.

"The enemy is us" leads directly to the red button.
  ¶ 8:49 AM

  Not funny
Last night I was watching 'game show bloopers' on Youtube for a few laughs.

One episode of the Newlywed Game, about 1975 judging from the fashions, featured a question that wasn't especially funny to begin with, and is just plain tragic when seen from a modern perspective.

Bob Eubanks asked the couples:

"Name one object in your house that was made in a foreign country."

The (mildly) funny part occurred when one wife mentioned a painting in their living room that came from Africa. The husband revealed that he had bought the painting on a trip to Tijuana, so it was really Mexican. I guess the humor arose from the typical purpose of a trip to Tijuana.

Think: One foreign object in your house was a valid assumption in 1975. Foreign-ness was so unusual and salient that Eubanks could assume the couples would know which objects are foreign.

The question would have to be completely reversed today.

"Name one object in your house that was made in America."

Most young couples (if they're honest and knowledgeable) would be unable to name anything except food.

= = = = =

(This is the clip; the question starts at about 3:20.)
  ¶ 8:09 AM

  Beautiful illustration
The people know facts, the experts spread lies.

I've never seen a more perfect illustration than this short article in the Telegraph, followed by its comments.

In the article, four or five Experts uniformly wail and whine about the fall in housing prices. All of them want a return to the crazy situation that caused the crash:

And Paul Diggle, property economist at Capital Economics, said: “The hefty drop in the Halifax measure of house prices adds weight to the view that house price weakness is far from over. To our minds, weak housing market activity indicators mean that further falls in house prices are likely.”
“There is no doubt that this will reduce the amount of equity in people’s homes, making it even harder to remortgage.”

In the comments, two dozen People make a variety of points from several perspectives, and nearly all of them get it right. The best one so far:

This is the truth - only it doesn't make good headlines; it ought to be; housing market returning to sanity after years of greed took over people's senses.
If you bought in 2007-8 you may need your head examined.
Otherwise, relax, stay where you are. Nothing has changed.
For people of the future; smile, things just got a bit easier.
Things can't be allowed to get like they were (average mortgage 8 times the average salary) - how are people supposed to live?
High mortgages = the economy goes up sh1t creek very quickly - why? Because people are spending so much of their disposable income on a pointlessly high mortgage they can afford little else. When mortgage prices are lower, people spread their money around and the whole economy benefits. What's not to like? I hope house prices go even lower to correct this short term greed and insanity.

Especially good point about mortgages tying up money that would otherwise be saved or spent on more productive purposes.
  ¶ 5:54 AM

  2.5 Cheers for Blair!
Tony Blair, who has been somewhat confused at times, has come out with an important message for the abject collaborators in the English-speaking countries. (His message is not needed by France, Switzerland, Sweden and Italy, who have already figured it out and are now implementing it.)

Blair notes that Sheikh Osama fuels Jihad with a narrative that all Muslims have been oppressed and disrespected by the West for a long time.

The practitioners of extremism are small in number. The adherents of the narrative stretch far broader into parts of mainstream [Muslim] thinking.

[Osama's narrative says] that Islam is basically oppressed by the west; disrespected and treated unfairly; that the military action we took post-9/11 was against countries because they are Muslim; and that in the Middle East we ignore the injustice done to the Palestinians in our desire to support Israel, because the Palestinians are Muslims, and the Israelis Jews. It is a narrative that now has vast numbers of assembled websites, blogs and organisations.

The irony is that the many Muslims who believe passionately in co-existence and tolerance are not empowered but frequently disempowered by our refusal to confront the narrative. We think if we sympathise with the narrative – that essentially this extremism has arisen as a result, partly, of our actions – we meet it half way, we help the modernisers to be more persuasive. We don't. We indulge it and we weaken them.

We didn't have this problem in WW2. We treated all Japs and Krauts as enemies until proven otherwise, with the result that many Japs and Krauts came forward courageously to prove otherwise and to get out of the camps. If we had granted that Hitler and Tojo were "probably right but misguided in using a tiny bit too much violence", the Japs in California would have felt fully justified in continuing their internal sabotage, and the pro-American Japs would have felt no particular pressure to break away from their tribe.

Worse, a reaction springs up amongst our people that we are pandering to this narrative and they start to resent Muslims as a whole. This is because implicit in this indulgence is an acceptance of the argument that Islam and, for want of a better term, 'the west' are in conflict.

Here's where Tony loses the trail. Our people "react" to the pandering because it's pandering, dammit! We "react" because we know surrender and collaboration when we see it. Blair's explanation makes no sense. And our people resent "Muslims as a whole" because we see precisely zero evidence of the supposed differences among them. Why? Because our governments have given the normal Muslims no motivation to show their differences.

There certainly are differences. Most Persians, Indonesians and Turks are Muslims with a normal desire for peace, security and family, and no taste for Jihad.

Arabs are the source of this war, not Muslims. (As Polistra has been trying to point out for a long time, and as Sheikh Osama himself has told us.)

= = = = =

Aside from abject weakness of mind and spirit, there are two specific reasons for our failure to force the difference.

(1) On the theoretical level, we've been stupefied by egalitarianism and non-discrimination ( = non-thinking) since 1948. We cannot bring ourselves to distinguish people by race or ethnicity, even when the distinction is transparent, self-admitted by Sheikh Osama, and nearly perfect. Instead, we have to attribute all differences to ideology, so that we can pretend everyone would be the same if they had the chance. This focus on ideology leaves us in fuzzy territory because the theology of Arab vermin is not all that different from the theology of the more normal Muslims. We end up wandering in the maze of Sunni, Wahhabi and Shia, all of which are beside the point. It's Arab genes and Arab culture, not theology, and you can't change genes and culture by exposure to feminism, or by conducting Free And Fair Elections Supervised By Jimmy Carter. (For Christ's sake, it was Sayyid Qutb's exposure to "liberated" American girls that started modern Jihad! Why in hell do we think we can stop it by another dose of the same toxic shit, which has also been poisonous to Americans? Clap on / clap off doesn't work with long-lasting cultural forces.)

(2) On the crude practical level, British and American governments owe their soul to the Saudi store. The Bush family has tight connections to the Saudi royals and thence to the bin Laden clan. You can't fight a proper war under those conditions, and there is plenty of rational evidence that we haven't been fighting a war at all. We've only been helping the Saudis to get rid of nations and factions they dislike.
  ¶ 5:31 PM

  Divided government
Keeping up with the witchcraft inquisition against Geert Wilders in Holland:

"My family and I no longer feel safe in the Netherlands because Mr. Wilders is continually making hateful remarks about Islamic Dutch people," said one complaint read out by the judge. "It's getting scary. ... Soon the kids won't be able to say that they're Muslim or half-Moroccan," wrote the citizen, whose name was not released.

Classic aspect of witchcraft inquisitions: vague charges by anonymous chargers.

Wilders is charged with inciting discrimination and hatred and with insulting a people on religious grounds, punishable with up to a year in jail and a fine.

As usual "discrimination", also known as "thinking", is unconscionable to modern elites.

Wilders, who polls suggest is the Netherlands' most popular politician, denies any wrongdoing. He says that his opinions are protected by freedom of speech and endorsed by more than a million people who voted for him in national elections last June.

When the courts of the Occupation Government try to put the nation's most popular politician in jail for telling the absolute unvarnished truth about the Occupation Government, you know trouble is coming.

Many people feel the government has been too naive about problems caused by immigrants and too politically correct.

Unusually objective writing by AP. Allowing that the anti-dictatorial forces are "many people". The anti-tyrannical majority in the US are always described as "the tiny lunatic fringe of wacko wingnuts".

[Wilders's policy goals] include: "Close the borders, no more Islamic people into the Netherlands, many Muslims out of the Netherlands, denaturalize Islamic criminals."

Many of his ideas are being incorporated into the program of the new government set to take power as early as this week. Wilders has pledged to support the minority government in exchange for measures that would turn away more asylum seekers, halve the number of new immigrants from nonwestern countries, ban the public wearing of face-concealing Muslim garb and force immigrants to pay for their own mandatory citizenship classes.

Now that's a seriously divided government. Parliament is attempting to fight the occupiers, while the "court" system is already run by the occupiers.

The US government doesn't have those divisions. It's all Vichy from top to bottom, all Sharia all the time.

If there's any hope for us, the revolution will have to start with a few gutsy governors seceding, or making a credible threat to secede. It's not going to start in DC. Even if we could manage to elect 435 perfectly pro-American representatives and 100 perfectly pro-American senators and a perfectly pro-American president and vice-president all at once, they'd still be beaten down and scrunched into the dust by the permanent bureaucrats, congressional staff and media. State capitals don't have the same problem. In most states the bureaucrats are obnoxious but not treasonous, and the NYC media isn't paying enough attention to destroy a nascent movement toward sanity.
  ¶ 8:17 AM

  Not impressed.
The latest "revelations" about past UFOs are completely unimpressive, and most likely have a secondary agenda yet to be seen.

Speaking at Monday's press briefing, retired USAF Col. Charles Halt said that in December 1980, when he was deputy base commander at RAF Bentwaters, strange lights in the forest were investigated by three patrolmen.

Halt said they reported approaching a triangular craft, "approximately three meters on a side, dark metallic in appearance with strange markings. They were observing it for a period of time, and then it very quickly and silently vanished at high speed."

Two nights later, Halt investigated another sighting near the base when he was told by the base commander, "It's back."

Halt found indentations in the ground, broken branches, and low-level background radiation. He and his team also witnessed various lights moving silently in the sky, of one which was "shedding something like molten metal." Another shined a beam of light down towards them.

The obvious intention is to slot these observations into the usual paradigm in which Klaatu warns all of humanity about our Uniquely Horrible Nuclear Weapons, Which Violate The Sacred Laws Of The Intergalactic UN Security Council.

Nonsense from all sides.

First, who was really interested in American nuclear weapons at that time? Russia.

Second, who was busily subverting the American soul, developing guilt and fear about America's nuclear superiority at that time? Russia. And who was working especially hard since Reagan had been elected THE PREVIOUS GODDAMN MONTH? Russia.

Third, who had plenty of mysterious spacecraft besides America? Russia.

Fourth, why in the hell would aliens focus on nuclear weapons? Even if Klaatu is a pacifist guardian trying to keep Earth under control, nuclear weapons are nothing special. Earthlings had already demonstrated several other ways to kill huge numbers of people at once: fire, disease, chemicals. Nukes could probably do the job faster and with less trouble, but that doesn't justify the supposed Sacred Concern shown by Klaatu.

Fifth, why assume that the aliens saw any of our weapons as harmful? Maybe they saw nuclear power as a wonderful food source instead of a potential harm. Maybe the mushroom cloud struck them as a splendid work of art and they wanted to know how to build such a pretty sculpture. All assumptions are equally idiotic, since we have no way of knowing the first microsmidgen about the alien anatomy and physiology, let alone their thought processes if any.

Sixth, even if they could be harmed by nukes, an advanced civilization would already have ways to shield themselves from our puny little primitive weapons. Whoops! In fact that's not so futuristic after all! What was Reagan's real contribution? SDI, which should have made the all-knowing Klaatu less afraid of our weaponry for the first time since 1945. But SDI scared Russia shitless. They were winning the endless escalation game and didn't know if they could play Reagan's new game.
  ¶ 5:32 PM

  Bingo on the Peace Process
Why do the Israelis and Palestinians remain locked in permanent stalemate? Why do the Palestinian vermin never get really serious about killing Israelis en masse? Why do they stick with throwing rocks and occasional single bombings, never quite enough to rile Israel toward the total extermination that the Palestinians so richly deserve?

In an NPR report on Palestine this morning:

"For many ordinary Palestinians, the Israeli settlements are their only source of income."

Bingo!

Parasites never kill large numbers of the host species.
  ¶ 8:12 AM

  Revenge rockets (no, not V-2)
Two examples.

(1) In Boston yesterday, a propane tank exploded and rocketed itself into a nearby solar panel! Deee-licious.

(2) In Spokane on Saturday, a power transformer (carrying electricity generated by hydro dams) exploded, apparently creating a rocket-like exhaust that pushed its pole down on top of an SUV! Deeee-licious.

The second revenge goes beyond hydro-beats-SUV. For about a year, Spokane has suffered a weird epidemic of cars smashing into power poles, causing near-daily outages in various parts of town. I'm happy to see the poles starting to fight back.
  ¶ 6:33 AM

  Holland goes all the way with Sharia
While America is still mainly at the stage of soft totalitarianism, where we only ruin the reputations and lives of people who tell the truth, Holland has already jumped straight into the old-fashioned hard variety, with Gulags for truth-tellers.

Their official/Sharia courts have started a trial of Geert Wilders, a Member of Parliament whose party recently won enough votes to swing the coalition.

He risks up to a year in jail or a 7,600-euro fine for calling Islam "fascist" and likening the Koran to Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Wilders, 47, is charged with five counts of giving religious offence to Muslims and inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims and people of non-Western immigrant origin, particularly Moroccans, in comments made between October 2006 and March 2008 in Dutch newspapers and on Internet forums.

Among the exhibits is Wilders' 17-minute film, "Fitna", alleged to depict Islam as a force bent on destroying the West and whose screening in the Netherlands in 2008 prompted protests in much of the Muslim world.

He told the court that apart from his opening statement he would rely on his right to remain silent and would not answer any questions. "I have said everything I wanted to say and will not take back a single word," the politician said, adding he was being persecuted for "stating my opinion in the context of public debate".

"I can assure you, I will continue proclaiming it".

Hier steh ich, und kann nicht anders.

No doubt the "court" system of "our" Occupation Government in DC is carefully studying Holland's "court" system, learning valuable techniques for the time when they fully activate their own Islamic Religious Police against America. Maybe next month.
  ¶ 4:43 AM

  Dammit, they don't want utopia!
Over and over again in the Repooflican talking points, and even in blogs opposed to the Carbon Cult (who really ought to know better!) we see constant reference to the "Leftist goal of a Marxist utopia" and the "Leftist goal of wealth redistribution." This has always been a staple ingredient of brand-R rhetoric, but seems to be getting especially dense lately.

No, no, no! You're 50 years behind the times! (Intentionally, I suspect.)

Soviet Communism was technically defined as Marxism-Leninism, which meant they were using Lenin's revolutionary methods to get to Marx's heaven.

American Leftists before the 1960's were mainly Marxists. They actually did envision a Socialist society where everything was distributed equally. Some of them were Soviet revolutionaries (Marxist + Leninist) while others were non-revolutionary (only Marxist.)

Post-68 Leftists are pure Leninists. They no longer seek utopia, and they no longer seek to redistribute wealth. They want to redistribute GOOD AND EVIL. They openly want nothing but CHAOS, CONFUSION AND DESTRUCTION. They openly want all the wealth for themselves, and many of them are part of the Wall Street Mafia. Many of them work in investment banks, for Christ's sake.

Well, I guess that is redistributing wealth after all, but it's an UPWARD redist. From the middle class to the Swiss bank accounts of obscenely rich Jews, from the poor in America to the rich in China.

Two words should suffice to explain all of this: GOLDMAN. SACHS.
  ¶ 10:46 AM

  Nice little proof
We are soft totalitarians. We don't often imprison people for telling the truth, but we always fire them instantly for telling the truth, for stepping outside the rigid boundaries of our agreed-on lies. Nice to see a direct proof of this observation in the instant firing of Rick Sanchez for telling a whole bunch of truths at once.

He was the least obnoxious of CNN's anchors: he's a married heterosexual with some experience of real American life and some affection for America. These qualities often showed through. Now the Glorious Hundred Flowers Propaganda Factory #1 has been purified: all the main anchors are reliable screechy civilization-hating Leninist homosexuals. Perfect diversity achieved at last!

The ideal replacement would be Comrade Shep Smith of the Opposition Party Brand™ Propaganda Factory. Comrade Shep is a screechy civilization-hating Leninist homosexual, and he must be getting awfully tired of having his Leninist loyalty impugned by proletarians who stupidly believe the Opposition Party Brand™ Propaganda Factory actually represents heterodoxy. In fact Commissar R. Murdoch is just a more subtle (thus more dangerous) purveyor of the same agreed-on lies, using classic Marxist dialectic methods cleverly rebranded as "Fair And Balanced Debate™".
  ¶ 4:55 AM

  Squishy season
Every year in Spokane the end of summer is marked by the swarming of tiny white-winged flies.

Insects don't waste much time in adulthood; lots of bugs live several years as larvae and only a few days as adults.

These flies take it to an extreme. Adults are minimally equipped to get in the air and reproduce. They don't have as much brain power as other flies, nor do they have hard shells. Instead of flying purposefully, they drift with the wind like seeds, and die as soon as they bump into anything even at near-zero drifting speed. Result: for a couple of days, your face and clothes are covered with semi-liquid insects.

Despite their lack of navigation, they must have some kind of superior instinct or 'community intelligence', because picking the last warm day is much harder than picking the first warm day of spring. Termites and ants don't need to calculate their swarming day; they only need a simple neuron to detect when temperature rises past a certain threshold, plus an emitted pheromone to trigger the avalanche.

But how do these flies determine that today is not just warm, but the last warmth for their generation? They must be sensing something besides temperature.

At any rate, they serve as a reliable sign for us, even if our supercomputers can't match their calculations.



Polistra has put it into folk-wisdom format:

White flies swarming, no more warming.

= = = = =

[Artistic note: the swarm in the animation turned out nicely, but Polistra's head looks too wide and South-Park-ish for unknown reasons. Maybe she's allergic to the bugs.]

[Technical note: According to some sources, these bugs are smoky-winged ash aphids, Prociphilus americanus.]


  ¶ 8:57 PM

  Boehner says something real
Boehner is making the usual meaningless promises: more ethics, more transparency, no earmarks, more reaching across the aisle. None of that crap is specific or measurable, and even if we had "more ethics", it wouldn't help. A representative isn't supposed to be ethical. He's supposed to represent the "special interests" of his own district. The problem is that the reps are NOT representing the "special interests" of their own districts. Instead they are representing the Wall Street Mafia with perfect fidelity.

But Boehner made one specific and concrete promise that I haven't heard before from establishment politicians, one promise that would genuinely fix many problems if implemented. Namely, he wants to stop jamming everything into monstrous Omnibus Bills peppered with Poison Pills. The Omnibus is a nasty trick, an evil form of Mutually Assured Blackmail that strips the entire government of responsibility and accountability.

If he can truly change this habit, force the House to write separate bills for each item, citizens will finally be able to see whether our district is being represented. It will then be much harder to hide monstrous new programs in a haystack of apparent trivia, and much easier for a President to veto bad laws.

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And at the same time, Sheikh Osama makes an amazingly positive recommendation: Hey, Muslim countries, start taking care of your own people! Start acting like adult nations already! Stop whining, stop begging the infidels to pour relief money into your Swiss bank accounts!

Couple this with the Royal Society's shocking move away from superstition and toward science, AND the strong vote for protectionism in the House (against Boehner's leadership) and we have a truly unprecedented World Rationality Week!

Labels: Ethics

  ¶ 8:27 AM