Thursday, April 30, 2009
Soooooeeeeeey bono?
Okay, now we see clearly that the Mexican flu thing was an artificial panic created by the media. Microbiologists who are actually studying the virus say that it should be less deadly than the usual flu. So far the death toll in Mexico is strictly in proportion to normal mortality stats, given the likely number of cases. No Americans have died; the only death within the US was a Mexican visitor.
The real victim in the US is our pork industry, which exports heavily to countries like China and Japan. They have already closed their borders to American pork.
So the only real question is: Who started the panic and why? Who paid the media and the government to create a panic? Was it the beef industry? Pharmaceuticals? It probably wasn't the gov't itself, since CDC tried without success to stop the name "swine flu". We'll never get the answer from the media, since they are the center of the game.
= = = = =
Update 5/1: CNN notes that the vast majority of the deaths in Mexico were from other infections. The flu virus may not have been present, or was at most a contributing factor. In other words, this virus is nothing special. ¶ 6:51 PM
The real victim in the US is our pork industry, which exports heavily to countries like China and Japan. They have already closed their borders to American pork.
So the only real question is: Who started the panic and why? Who paid the media and the government to create a panic? Was it the beef industry? Pharmaceuticals? It probably wasn't the gov't itself, since CDC tried without success to stop the name "swine flu". We'll never get the answer from the media, since they are the center of the game.
= = = = =
Update 5/1: CNN notes that the vast majority of the deaths in Mexico were from other infections. The flu virus may not have been present, or was at most a contributing factor. In other words, this virus is nothing special. ¶ 6:51 PM
Now that's more like it 2
Obama throws his weight into the Chrysler bankruptcy deal, and for the first time he throws solidly against the Wall Street criminals.
Finally showing some independence from the Mafia.
Good!
As I've pointed out before, bankruptcy doesn't necessarily destroy an auto maker. It all depends on how the reorganization works and who takes control. If smart "car men" take over, the odds are good. If bean counters are in charge, the odds are bad. ¶ 10:17 AM
Finally showing some independence from the Mafia.
Good!
As I've pointed out before, bankruptcy doesn't necessarily destroy an auto maker. It all depends on how the reorganization works and who takes control. If smart "car men" take over, the odds are good. If bean counters are in charge, the odds are bad. ¶ 10:17 AM
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
100 frustrating days
Listening to Obama's "100-day anniversary" speech, Polistra is frustrated. Obama's rhetoric is exactly what she has always wanted to hear from a leader. In fact, much of the material in his speeches could have been quoted from Polistra's own scribblings. You can't ask for better than that.
And some of Obama's actual policies are moving in the right direction.
Talking with Cuba, Persia and North Korea makes far more sense than isolating them. When a person or a country is already isolated, you won't get anywhere by increasing the isolation; the cure is to provide dignity and respect.
The push for high-speed railroads, computerized medical records, universal health care, and various infrastructure projects, is absolutely good. Jobs now and a better country later. This is pure FDR, but unfortunately it's a small part of overall spending. The original FDR put nearly all of his effort into permanent improvements (dams, buildings, electrification) and a very small amount into direct "stimulus". Production, not consumption.
The frustrating part: on the most critical points of economics, Obama's actions are opposed to his rhetoric. He says exactly the right things about moving away from bets and debts, moving toward making and saving. Yet he has done nothing to punish or even discourage the speculators and bettors, and he's still pouring money into criminal banks without requiring them to do anything in exchange. In short, he's still obeying the Wall Street Mafia.
= = = = =
One grand exception to this frustrating almost-there-ness: On global warming, every single word Obama says is absolutely, totally, completely, 100% false and destructive. He is a rabid adherent of the genocidal Carbon Cult.
Unfortunately we didn't have a choice here, because Manchurian Candidate McCain was even more wildly rabid, even more insanely determined to destroy the country, eliminate the human species, and purge our Planetary Sins with a grand orgy of suffocation. ¶ 8:44 AM
Listening to Obama's "100-day anniversary" speech, Polistra is frustrated. Obama's rhetoric is exactly what she has always wanted to hear from a leader. In fact, much of the material in his speeches could have been quoted from Polistra's own scribblings. You can't ask for better than that.
And some of Obama's actual policies are moving in the right direction.
Talking with Cuba, Persia and North Korea makes far more sense than isolating them. When a person or a country is already isolated, you won't get anywhere by increasing the isolation; the cure is to provide dignity and respect.
The push for high-speed railroads, computerized medical records, universal health care, and various infrastructure projects, is absolutely good. Jobs now and a better country later. This is pure FDR, but unfortunately it's a small part of overall spending. The original FDR put nearly all of his effort into permanent improvements (dams, buildings, electrification) and a very small amount into direct "stimulus". Production, not consumption.
The frustrating part: on the most critical points of economics, Obama's actions are opposed to his rhetoric. He says exactly the right things about moving away from bets and debts, moving toward making and saving. Yet he has done nothing to punish or even discourage the speculators and bettors, and he's still pouring money into criminal banks without requiring them to do anything in exchange. In short, he's still obeying the Wall Street Mafia.
= = = = =
One grand exception to this frustrating almost-there-ness: On global warming, every single word Obama says is absolutely, totally, completely, 100% false and destructive. He is a rabid adherent of the genocidal Carbon Cult.
Unfortunately we didn't have a choice here, because Manchurian Candidate McCain was even more wildly rabid, even more insanely determined to destroy the country, eliminate the human species, and purge our Planetary Sins with a grand orgy of suffocation. ¶ 8:44 AM
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Doesn't wash
The strange 'buzzing' of New York by the substitute Air Force One may have been a really, really dumb mistake, but I don't buy it.
In the first place, as everyone has noted, you don't need real planes to "update your photos". Anyone familiar with graphics could create this picture digitally in a few minutes, if you wanted this picture.
And that's the first question:
Why in the hell would the gov't want this picture? How in the hell would a 9/11-style picture be part of your media publicity packet? What would the caption be? "Lookie here! We're still vulnerable! You can get away with another 9/11 easily!"
The second question:
If it was just a photo-op, why was the fighter jet apparently trying to intercept the airliner? From what I've seen, the fighter looked fairly serious. I can't imagine the Air Force risking its aircraft and pilots on a just-for-fun gag shot.
This was either a real practice run (war game) or a real incident. Perhaps a pilot gone insane, rather than a real terrorist? ¶ 8:33 PM
In the first place, as everyone has noted, you don't need real planes to "update your photos". Anyone familiar with graphics could create this picture digitally in a few minutes, if you wanted this picture.
And that's the first question:
Why in the hell would the gov't want this picture? How in the hell would a 9/11-style picture be part of your media publicity packet? What would the caption be? "Lookie here! We're still vulnerable! You can get away with another 9/11 easily!"
The second question:
If it was just a photo-op, why was the fighter jet apparently trying to intercept the airliner? From what I've seen, the fighter looked fairly serious. I can't imagine the Air Force risking its aircraft and pilots on a just-for-fun gag shot.
This was either a real practice run (war game) or a real incident. Perhaps a pilot gone insane, rather than a real terrorist? ¶ 8:33 PM
Mexican flu puzzle
The CDC is trying hard to rename the swine flu, saying that the hog and corn industries are suffering from the bad advertising. Silly, but they may be right in a deeper sense. It seems that the cases in the US are not coming from people who have actually been around pigs and chickens, but rather from Mexican resort areas.
Another salient fact: Washington state has about 100,000 Mexican migrants working the apple crops, covering a large part of the state. These migrants are constantly traveling back and forth to Mexico, and they would presumably come from agricultural areas where they would work with livestock. Despite this, the state public health agencies have been watching carefully and have found no cases of flu at all.
So the basic assumption (spread from pigs) may be incorrect.
= = = = =
Later: the CDC's attempt to rename the virus isn't working. They want the media to call it the 2009 H1N1, which sounds like an expensive sports car. But the media, normally enslaved to the priestly verbiage of official "scientists", have decided to stick with plain old Swine Flu. It's nice to see this small rebellion against official "science", especially when the "science" is owned by Democrats.
Update 4/29: Gov Gregoire says there are now about 40 possible or suspicious cases in Wash, but still no confirmed infections.
¶ 1:44 PM
Another salient fact: Washington state has about 100,000 Mexican migrants working the apple crops, covering a large part of the state. These migrants are constantly traveling back and forth to Mexico, and they would presumably come from agricultural areas where they would work with livestock. Despite this, the state public health agencies have been watching carefully and have found no cases of flu at all.
So the basic assumption (spread from pigs) may be incorrect.
= = = = =
Later: the CDC's attempt to rename the virus isn't working. They want the media to call it the 2009 H1N1, which sounds like an expensive sports car. But the media, normally enslaved to the priestly verbiage of official "scientists", have decided to stick with plain old Swine Flu. It's nice to see this small rebellion against official "science", especially when the "science" is owned by Democrats.
Update 4/29: Gov Gregoire says there are now about 40 possible or suspicious cases in Wash, but still no confirmed infections.
¶ 1:44 PM
Monday, April 27, 2009
Banks?
Just a definitional thought...
I've written often about the basic difference between a bank and a casino. Last night I was pointlessly raising my blood pressure, imagining how I would question one of those Wall Street Mafia dons if I were somehow in a position to ask questions. "Sir, you claim to be running a bank. No, you're not. Let me explain something to you. A bank is a business that attracts depositors by paying them interest to hold their money, and then uses the deposits to make loans at a higher interest rate. We have quite a few actual banks in this country........"
... At that point I realized something.
No, we don't have any banks in this country.
Even the "real banks" get deposits without paying any interest, and make loans without charging any interest.
When inflation is 8%, the traditional interest rate should be about 12%, to make it worth your while to tie up your money for a few years.
Our "real banks" pay at most 2% interest, which is really NEGATIVE 6% after accounting for inflation. So they're not really paying depositors to rent their money; they are only taking advantage of price controls and securitization. They know that customers have no other safe choices. The Federal Reserve has basically eliminated genuine banks, channeling nearly all money into the Wall Street Casino, by placing price controls on interest for the last few decades. ¶ 4:47 PM
I've written often about the basic difference between a bank and a casino. Last night I was pointlessly raising my blood pressure, imagining how I would question one of those Wall Street Mafia dons if I were somehow in a position to ask questions. "Sir, you claim to be running a bank. No, you're not. Let me explain something to you. A bank is a business that attracts depositors by paying them interest to hold their money, and then uses the deposits to make loans at a higher interest rate. We have quite a few actual banks in this country........"
... At that point I realized something.
No, we don't have any banks in this country.
Even the "real banks" get deposits without paying any interest, and make loans without charging any interest.
When inflation is 8%, the traditional interest rate should be about 12%, to make it worth your while to tie up your money for a few years.
Our "real banks" pay at most 2% interest, which is really NEGATIVE 6% after accounting for inflation. So they're not really paying depositors to rent their money; they are only taking advantage of price controls and securitization. They know that customers have no other safe choices. The Federal Reserve has basically eliminated genuine banks, channeling nearly all money into the Wall Street Casino, by placing price controls on interest for the last few decades. ¶ 4:47 PM
The last outsource
Speaking of VOA, here's a new feature on the shutdown of Cannondale, the LAST mass producer of bicycles in the US. (Schwinn, Huffy, etc, have been Chinese for a long time.) A Canadian company (Dorel) bought Cannondale last year and now they are taking production to Taiwan. Obviously Dorel only wanted the brand name.
One question is unasked and unanswered. The Cannondale factory was profitable, which is why Dorel wanted to own the brand. So why hasn't an American capitalist bought the factory and its employees to restart under a new brand name? In other similar cases, a consortium of employees and local businesses restarted factories that were closed by criminal capitalists.
The new company obviously couldn't use Cannondale designs and patents, but I'll bet it could find equally good designs. Then the building, equipment and employees could resume making money. ¶ 9:08 AM
One question is unasked and unanswered. The Cannondale factory was profitable, which is why Dorel wanted to own the brand. So why hasn't an American capitalist bought the factory and its employees to restart under a new brand name? In other similar cases, a consortium of employees and local businesses restarted factories that were closed by criminal capitalists.
The new company obviously couldn't use Cannondale designs and patents, but I'll bet it could find equally good designs. Then the building, equipment and employees could resume making money. ¶ 9:08 AM
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Taking back vacant territory
From 1960 to 1990 I enjoyed listening to shortwave broadcasts, especially the Voice of America. VOA was openly described as American propaganda, but in fact it was more even-handed, truthful and complete than our internal TV and radio. Our internal media are pro-war when the war belongs to a Democrat, anti-war when the war belongs to a Republican. VOA tried to tell the good and bad parts of the war and the country, no matter which party owned which parts.
[Sidenote: We're about to witness another mass-media turnaround when Obama finds it "necessary" to invade Pakistan, To Prevent Weapons Of Mass Destruction From Falling Into The Wrong Hands And To Encourage A Young Democracy In The BroaderMiddleEast. This mirrored deja vu will be fun to watch.]
When I moved to Spokane in 1991 I found that shortwave listening was impractical, partly because of interference from a nearby power line, partly because the best stations simply didn't reach this part of the country. I especially missed VOA, but luckily the web came to life about then, filling the gap with access to unbiased news and non-trivial information.
Now many of the major SW stations have abandoned transmitting; some have switched to web podcasting or Youtube, some have simply closed down. The Voice of America has an especially good Youtube presence, with the same flavor as its original SW material. Still even-handed, still covering stories that the celebrity-dazzled mass media can't even see.
In our mad dash toward the allegedly modern, we've jumped out of perfectly good technology into a pile of fast-moving crap. In the process we've left the good tech relatively unused. Landline telephones and shortwave radio have definite limits, but within the limits they work faster and have better fidelity than cell phones and satellite transmission.
Shortwave also has one non-obvious advantage: it's off the grid and costless. You can communicate worldwide without depending on an ISP or a cell carrier. When those systems are down, overloaded or censored, SW still gets through.
Maybe it's time for smart pioneers to reclaim the abandoned territory, in the same way that 'urban homesteaders' are reclaiming old suburbs and small towns abandoned in the mad rush toward infinitely distant suburbs and infinitely large McMansions.
= = = = =
Update 1/20/11: Article at WUWT describes new research by Navy scientists looking into the behavior of the ionosphere in more detail. WUWT was probably thinking about the climate connection (sunspots affecting magnetic properties of ionosphere, modulating clouds) but the actual research is mainly about the radio-reflecting properties. I wonder if this indicates a new interest in reclaiming shortwave for naval communications?
From 1960 to 1990 I enjoyed listening to shortwave broadcasts, especially the Voice of America. VOA was openly described as American propaganda, but in fact it was more even-handed, truthful and complete than our internal TV and radio. Our internal media are pro-war when the war belongs to a Democrat, anti-war when the war belongs to a Republican. VOA tried to tell the good and bad parts of the war and the country, no matter which party owned which parts.
[Sidenote: We're about to witness another mass-media turnaround when Obama finds it "necessary" to invade Pakistan, To Prevent Weapons Of Mass Destruction From Falling Into The Wrong Hands And To Encourage A Young Democracy In The BroaderMiddleEast. This mirrored deja vu will be fun to watch.]
When I moved to Spokane in 1991 I found that shortwave listening was impractical, partly because of interference from a nearby power line, partly because the best stations simply didn't reach this part of the country. I especially missed VOA, but luckily the web came to life about then, filling the gap with access to unbiased news and non-trivial information.
Now many of the major SW stations have abandoned transmitting; some have switched to web podcasting or Youtube, some have simply closed down. The Voice of America has an especially good Youtube presence, with the same flavor as its original SW material. Still even-handed, still covering stories that the celebrity-dazzled mass media can't even see.
In our mad dash toward the allegedly modern, we've jumped out of perfectly good technology into a pile of fast-moving crap. In the process we've left the good tech relatively unused. Landline telephones and shortwave radio have definite limits, but within the limits they work faster and have better fidelity than cell phones and satellite transmission.
Shortwave also has one non-obvious advantage: it's off the grid and costless. You can communicate worldwide without depending on an ISP or a cell carrier. When those systems are down, overloaded or censored, SW still gets through.
Maybe it's time for smart pioneers to reclaim the abandoned territory, in the same way that 'urban homesteaders' are reclaiming old suburbs and small towns abandoned in the mad rush toward infinitely distant suburbs and infinitely large McMansions.
= = = = =
Update 1/20/11: Article at WUWT describes new research by Navy scientists looking into the behavior of the ionosphere in more detail. WUWT was probably thinking about the climate connection (sunspots affecting magnetic properties of ionosphere, modulating clouds) but the actual research is mainly about the radio-reflecting properties. I wonder if this indicates a new interest in reclaiming shortwave for naval communications?
Labels: infill
¶ 6:30 PM
Mexican flu
Listening to news conf by Napolitano re the latest Swine Flu fake panic.
She said: "Every person coming from a zone of infection will be monitored...."
Needless to say, none of the "journalists" asked the relevant question:
Does that mean you can check everyone coming across the border from Mexico if you want to? If so, why haven't we been doing that for the last 20 years? If it doesn't mean that, then you aren't really monitoring anyone or anything, are you?
More broadly: in a sane country with a sane government, this epidemic would have been the last straw. It would have convinced us once and for all that "open borders" and "free trade" are deadly policies.
Update ... one of the "journalists" did ask "Why aren't we checking [air passengers] from Mexico?" ... which gets a little closer to the point. But there's still no reason to check airline passengers if you aren't closing the legal checkpoints in places like San Diego and El Paso, and if you aren't closing the illegal crossing points everywhere else.
¶ 9:53 AM
She said: "Every person coming from a zone of infection will be monitored...."
Needless to say, none of the "journalists" asked the relevant question:
Does that mean you can check everyone coming across the border from Mexico if you want to? If so, why haven't we been doing that for the last 20 years? If it doesn't mean that, then you aren't really monitoring anyone or anything, are you?
More broadly: in a sane country with a sane government, this epidemic would have been the last straw. It would have convinced us once and for all that "open borders" and "free trade" are deadly policies.
Update ... one of the "journalists" did ask "Why aren't we checking [air passengers] from Mexico?" ... which gets a little closer to the point. But there's still no reason to check airline passengers if you aren't closing the legal checkpoints in places like San Diego and El Paso, and if you aren't closing the illegal crossing points everywhere else.
¶ 9:53 AM
Friday, April 24, 2009
Now that's more like it.
Polistra has been dreaming about electric cars lately. Now Chrysler is getting ready to announce a truly appealing electric, which is made in America.
It's a bit uncanny how Polistra's thoughts were anticipating the reality. The Peapod has the same snazzy cuteness as the Bantam, translated to a modern idiom. And it has the same specifications as the electric cars of a century ago, for about 1/4 the inflation-adjusted price. It's intended and designed for pure in-town usage, just as the originals were.
By contrast, GM's approach to electrics takes two different wrong paths. The 'Volt' tries to be an all-purpose car and fails, and the new Segway monstrosity tries to be ... tries to be .... tries to be a totally goofy and useless toy and succeeds magnificently.
Comparing the Peapod's internals with the original Detroit Electric. Are the new engineers learning from the original? Certainly the same overall proportions, though Polistra still prefers the original's "rolling parlor" atmosphere. ¶ 2:26 PM
It's a bit uncanny how Polistra's thoughts were anticipating the reality. The Peapod has the same snazzy cuteness as the Bantam, translated to a modern idiom. And it has the same specifications as the electric cars of a century ago, for about 1/4 the inflation-adjusted price. It's intended and designed for pure in-town usage, just as the originals were.
By contrast, GM's approach to electrics takes two different wrong paths. The 'Volt' tries to be an all-purpose car and fails, and the new Segway monstrosity tries to be ... tries to be .... tries to be a totally goofy and useless toy and succeeds magnificently.
Comparing the Peapod's internals with the original Detroit Electric. Are the new engineers learning from the original? Certainly the same overall proportions, though Polistra still prefers the original's "rolling parlor" atmosphere. ¶ 2:26 PM
Dammit, man, you had your chance. Now shut up.
Cheney is objecting to the release of various documents on interrogation methods. He is also saying that the "rest of the story" will show that the interrogation worked. He is asking the Obama admin to give out the "rest of the story". Sorry, Dickie boy, you were in a position to tell the whole story for the last eight years. You chose not to tell the story, so you are not entitled to ask the new admin for any favors.
This has been THE BASIC PROBLEM with the Bush/Rove/Cheney approach from the very start. In fact it goes back to Bush Senior. They are always trying to play billiards with complicated five-corner bankshots, and it never works.
If the harsh interrogation gave us good information, the Bush admin had plenty of chances to tell the people exactly what happened. I was inclined to believe that it worked, but I can't go beyond "inclined" without more details.
When you refuse to give information, when you treat the American people like children or foreigners, you really shouldn't be surprised when the people stop believing anything you say.
When you start a war that may well be justified, and then you toss around all sorts of half-baked nonsensical "reasons" for the war, and then you fight the war in a halfhearted way that looks like you don't really want to win, you shouldn't be surprised that the people don't care if you win. You don't care, so why should we care? ¶ 1:20 PM
This has been THE BASIC PROBLEM with the Bush/Rove/Cheney approach from the very start. In fact it goes back to Bush Senior. They are always trying to play billiards with complicated five-corner bankshots, and it never works.
If the harsh interrogation gave us good information, the Bush admin had plenty of chances to tell the people exactly what happened. I was inclined to believe that it worked, but I can't go beyond "inclined" without more details.
When you refuse to give information, when you treat the American people like children or foreigners, you really shouldn't be surprised when the people stop believing anything you say.
When you start a war that may well be justified, and then you toss around all sorts of half-baked nonsensical "reasons" for the war, and then you fight the war in a halfhearted way that looks like you don't really want to win, you shouldn't be surprised that the people don't care if you win. You don't care, so why should we care? ¶ 1:20 PM
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Will this be a trend?
A nice story here about a Spokane-area tailor shop. Normally the shop specializes in adjusting bridal outfits, but fancy weddings have disappeared. Instead, she's getting more orders to repair ordinary clothes, and staying even busier than before.
If this turns into a trend, Americans may take up the weird radical idea of buying good solid clothing and making it last. And if that happens, the manufacture of clothes may come back from China.
We can hope, anyway.....
Polistra remembers her grandmother saying "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." Good advice then, good advice now. ¶ 9:15 PM
If this turns into a trend, Americans may take up the weird radical idea of buying good solid clothing and making it last. And if that happens, the manufacture of clothes may come back from China.
We can hope, anyway.....
Polistra remembers her grandmother saying "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." Good advice then, good advice now. ¶ 9:15 PM
Screech, screech, screech
There's something truly bizarre, weird and insane about the elites who insist loudly and screechily that "We do not torture", while happily going along with vastly worse violence.
Some of these approved forms of violence are good for the country, some are not; the point is that the elites don't complain about any of them while reserving a unique abhorrence for "torture", which seems to have a remarkably flexible definition.
I can't begin to understand, no, I can't begin to begin to begin to begin to begin to attempt to understand this attitude.
It's Martian to me.
The elites have no problem at all with allowing daily rapes and beatings in American jails, which house serious criminals, pot-smokers, the falsely accused, and poor folks who can't afford bail while waiting for trial.
They have no problem with abortion, including the recently acquitted Dr. Tiller's partial birth abortions.
They have no problem with gangs operating freely in every city, but they do have a problem with police attempting to control the gangs.
= = = = =
In attempting to understand this strange perversion, I can only hypothesize. It runs in the same track as the current Catholic disapproval of capital punishment, namely a total misunderstanding of the PURPOSE of morality combined with a suicidal ignorance of basic human nature and genetics.
The purpose of having moral rules, and laws and armies to assist the rules, is to maintain civilization, to carve out a place on earth where people can accomplish something higher than raw survival. Higher accomplishments require protection from brutality. Protection from brutality requires an accurate understanding of brutal people, and a firm hand in stopping brutal people. If you want calmness and peace, you must be willing to destroy those who destroy peace.
This was common sense, universally understood 100 years ago. And it's still understood in non-elite parts of America.
How did common sense disappear? Maybe I'm starting to understand as I think about it...... Look at the conjunction of two modern ideas: egalitarianism and individualism. If you believe all humans are identical, you can't bring yourself to say firmly "This one is bad. This one has spent his life destroying and harming others. We must destroy him for the sake of the rest." And if you can only think of the individual in isolation, you can't bring yourself to say "We must harm some individuals so that the vast majority of our citizens can live in peace." Only the individual counts, and every individual has the same value. (Which ends up being zero after the bad ones proceed to kill all the good ones without hindrance.)
Sidenote: Whenever you hear that peculiar screechy sound, the grinding of unlubricated mental gears, the Tourettish involuntary explosion of cuss words, you're hearing cognitive dissonance. Part of the screecher's mind still contains common sense, and it's crashing against the internally and externally contradictory elite ideology. ¶ 7:45 AM
Some of these approved forms of violence are good for the country, some are not; the point is that the elites don't complain about any of them while reserving a unique abhorrence for "torture", which seems to have a remarkably flexible definition.
I can't begin to understand, no, I can't begin to begin to begin to begin to begin to attempt to understand this attitude.
It's Martian to me.
The elites have no problem at all with allowing daily rapes and beatings in American jails, which house serious criminals, pot-smokers, the falsely accused, and poor folks who can't afford bail while waiting for trial.
They have no problem with abortion, including the recently acquitted Dr. Tiller's partial birth abortions.
They have no problem with gangs operating freely in every city, but they do have a problem with police attempting to control the gangs.
= = = = =
In attempting to understand this strange perversion, I can only hypothesize. It runs in the same track as the current Catholic disapproval of capital punishment, namely a total misunderstanding of the PURPOSE of morality combined with a suicidal ignorance of basic human nature and genetics.
The purpose of having moral rules, and laws and armies to assist the rules, is to maintain civilization, to carve out a place on earth where people can accomplish something higher than raw survival. Higher accomplishments require protection from brutality. Protection from brutality requires an accurate understanding of brutal people, and a firm hand in stopping brutal people. If you want calmness and peace, you must be willing to destroy those who destroy peace.
This was common sense, universally understood 100 years ago. And it's still understood in non-elite parts of America.
How did common sense disappear? Maybe I'm starting to understand as I think about it...... Look at the conjunction of two modern ideas: egalitarianism and individualism. If you believe all humans are identical, you can't bring yourself to say firmly "This one is bad. This one has spent his life destroying and harming others. We must destroy him for the sake of the rest." And if you can only think of the individual in isolation, you can't bring yourself to say "We must harm some individuals so that the vast majority of our citizens can live in peace." Only the individual counts, and every individual has the same value. (Which ends up being zero after the bad ones proceed to kill all the good ones without hindrance.)
Sidenote: Whenever you hear that peculiar screechy sound, the grinding of unlubricated mental gears, the Tourettish involuntary explosion of cuss words, you're hearing cognitive dissonance. Part of the screecher's mind still contains common sense, and it's crashing against the internally and externally contradictory elite ideology. ¶ 7:45 AM
Monday, April 20, 2009
Buzz buzz buzz again
Commercial beehives in this part of the country have recovered from the "Colony Collapse Disorder" that killed about half of them last year.
The "Disorder" spawned lots of speculation. Now the agronomists and entomologists have commonsensically decided that there wasn't a "Disorder" at all. There are various problems affecting domesticated bees in various places. Some have parasitic mites, some have pathogens, others were mishandled. None of the problems are new or unique, they just happened to peak together in the last few years.
The problem in this corner of the country was a sporidian microbe that infected the bee's intestinal tract. This year the bees appear to have gained an immunity, or perhaps the more susceptible types died off leaving the stronger ones. Darwin.
The "Disorder" spawned lots of speculation. Now the agronomists and entomologists have commonsensically decided that there wasn't a "Disorder" at all. There are various problems affecting domesticated bees in various places. Some have parasitic mites, some have pathogens, others were mishandled. None of the problems are new or unique, they just happened to peak together in the last few years.
The problem in this corner of the country was a sporidian microbe that infected the bee's intestinal tract. This year the bees appear to have gained an immunity, or perhaps the more susceptible types died off leaving the stronger ones. Darwin.
Labels: bee
¶ 8:49 PM
Sunday, April 19, 2009
One newspaper worth saving
Nearly all newspapers abundantly deserve their present dying condition.
One exception: My old hometown paper, the Enid News & Eagle. (There are undoubtedly several other exceptions among smaller papers, but none among the major and well-known rags.)
Last week a News&Eagle reporter ACTUALLY REPORTED a story instead of accepting the standard Communist or Wall Street nonsense. That is to say, she called some actual people who knew something about the subject, listened to what they said, comprehended what they said, and put the result together into a readable article.
Actual reporting is remarkable enough nowadays, but to write and print a newspaper article that tells the plain truth about the Global Warming hoax is nearly unique.
Here's the article.
I was especially heartened to find Gary England among the quoted authorities, showing a firm understanding of science and logic. Polistra has saluted England before ... he's a genuine hero among weathermen, spending his life educating citizens and governments about tornado safety. Hundreds of lives have been saved because Gary England showed cities and broadcasters how to give quick warnings and correct information. So I probably shouldn't have been surprised to find him on the side of truth; he's an Okie, after all, and Okies don't fool quite as easily as Yankees. ¶ 11:50 AM
One exception: My old hometown paper, the Enid News & Eagle. (There are undoubtedly several other exceptions among smaller papers, but none among the major and well-known rags.)
Last week a News&Eagle reporter ACTUALLY REPORTED a story instead of accepting the standard Communist or Wall Street nonsense. That is to say, she called some actual people who knew something about the subject, listened to what they said, comprehended what they said, and put the result together into a readable article.
Actual reporting is remarkable enough nowadays, but to write and print a newspaper article that tells the plain truth about the Global Warming hoax is nearly unique.
Here's the article.
I was especially heartened to find Gary England among the quoted authorities, showing a firm understanding of science and logic. Polistra has saluted England before ... he's a genuine hero among weathermen, spending his life educating citizens and governments about tornado safety. Hundreds of lives have been saved because Gary England showed cities and broadcasters how to give quick warnings and correct information. So I probably shouldn't have been surprised to find him on the side of truth; he's an Okie, after all, and Okies don't fool quite as easily as Yankees. ¶ 11:50 AM
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Inka
Martha Mears has some serious competition.
Listen.
Listen.
Watch.
Watch.
= = = = =
Sidenote: Before the web and especially Youtube came along, there was almost no chance to hear and 'discover' music and movies outside the very narrow temporospatial slot of this week's Top Hits. If you lived in a big city and had lots of spare money, you could occasionally find rare items in a used record store. If you listened to shortwave radio, you could hear obscure foreign music. But those were sporadic opportunities. If you happened to catch the end of one song by Inka Zemánková on Radio Prague, that was all. No more. No way to hear the song again, no way to find others, unless you could afford to travel the world in person.
Printed matter has never suffered the same limitation. Before the web era, if you got interested in late '30s Czech culture, any small-town library would let you check out and read books by Kafka and Čapek. Same for almost any time and place where literature flourished.
Odd, isn't it? Text has been printed for 300 years, globally distributed and catalogued from the very start. (In fact libraries existed long before printing.) Moving images and music have been reproduced for 100 years, but not globally available in library style until just three years ago. ¶ 8:59 PM
Listen.
Listen.
Watch.
Watch.
= = = = =
Sidenote: Before the web and especially Youtube came along, there was almost no chance to hear and 'discover' music and movies outside the very narrow temporospatial slot of this week's Top Hits. If you lived in a big city and had lots of spare money, you could occasionally find rare items in a used record store. If you listened to shortwave radio, you could hear obscure foreign music. But those were sporadic opportunities. If you happened to catch the end of one song by Inka Zemánková on Radio Prague, that was all. No more. No way to hear the song again, no way to find others, unless you could afford to travel the world in person.
Printed matter has never suffered the same limitation. Before the web era, if you got interested in late '30s Czech culture, any small-town library would let you check out and read books by Kafka and Čapek. Same for almost any time and place where literature flourished.
Odd, isn't it? Text has been printed for 300 years, globally distributed and catalogued from the very start. (In fact libraries existed long before printing.) Moving images and music have been reproduced for 100 years, but not globally available in library style until just three years ago. ¶ 8:59 PM
All aboard!
Polistra loves trains. And if Obama is fully serious about his new high-speed rail plan, Polistra loves Obama.
This is the first sign of 'real change', and it looks like a big one! ¶ 3:58 PM
Polistra loves trains. And if Obama is fully serious about his new high-speed rail plan, Polistra loves Obama.
This is the first sign of 'real change', and it looks like a big one! ¶ 3:58 PM
Triumph of the Would
One of the most destructive aspects of today's world is 'virtual news', the replacement of plain facts by speculation. Watch CNN or Fox or CNBC, and you may pick up a genuine fact once every few hours. The lonely little fact is completely overwhelmed by a toxic soup of absolute lies about global warming and economics; computer models predicting disaster based on total falsehood and bad math; free-floating bull sessions posing as "debates"; and medical studies that tell you nothing.
Rush has often -- and accurately -- slashed the cable channels for replacing is with could, and even Saturday Night Live has run a pointed parody.
So you'd think Rush and his colleagues might use some actual facts when stirring the public to action?
Nope. Yesterday's tea parties were complaining about something that could happen. Income tax rates are presently at their lowest point in living memory. Yet the participants were shouting about high taxes.
"Petitioning for redress" supposedly means you're complaining about a genuine grievance, and you're asking the gov't to take steps that it has been refusing to take.
In this case the tea parties are complaining about the nonexistent problem of high taxes, and asking Congress to cut taxes. Well, Congress has been cutting taxes for the last decade, and Congress is always deliriously happy to cut taxes. Nothing is easier.
= = = = =
`Take some more tax,' the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
`I've had nothing yet,' Alice replied in an offended tone, `so I can't take more.'
`You mean you can't take LESS,' said the Hatter: `it's very easy to take MORE than nothing.'
`Nobody asked YOUR opinion,' said Alice.
`Then you shouldn't talk,' said the Hatter.
This piece of rudeness was more than Alice could bear: she got up in great disgust, and walked off.
`At any rate I'll never go THERE again!' said Alice as she picked her way through the wood. `It's the stupidest tax-party I ever was at in all my life!'
= = = = =
Seriously: If you really want to protest against tyranny and propose a solution to tyranny, you should be protesting the tyranny of litigation and proposing "loser pays" plus "no punitive damages". That would be a one-stop no-cost solution to a hundred problems at once. Medical costs, obstacles to innovation and small business, restrictions on free speech. These problems have NO connection to taxes. All of them would be tremendously eased if lawsuits became the last-resort option instead of the easiest way to make big money. ¶ 9:39 AM
Rush has often -- and accurately -- slashed the cable channels for replacing is with could, and even Saturday Night Live has run a pointed parody.
So you'd think Rush and his colleagues might use some actual facts when stirring the public to action?
Nope. Yesterday's tea parties were complaining about something that could happen. Income tax rates are presently at their lowest point in living memory. Yet the participants were shouting about high taxes.
"Petitioning for redress" supposedly means you're complaining about a genuine grievance, and you're asking the gov't to take steps that it has been refusing to take.
In this case the tea parties are complaining about the nonexistent problem of high taxes, and asking Congress to cut taxes. Well, Congress has been cutting taxes for the last decade, and Congress is always deliriously happy to cut taxes. Nothing is easier.
= = = = =
`Take some more tax,' the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
`I've had nothing yet,' Alice replied in an offended tone, `so I can't take more.'
`You mean you can't take LESS,' said the Hatter: `it's very easy to take MORE than nothing.'
`Nobody asked YOUR opinion,' said Alice.
`Then you shouldn't talk,' said the Hatter.
This piece of rudeness was more than Alice could bear: she got up in great disgust, and walked off.
`At any rate I'll never go THERE again!' said Alice as she picked her way through the wood. `It's the stupidest tax-party I ever was at in all my life!'
= = = = =
Seriously: If you really want to protest against tyranny and propose a solution to tyranny, you should be protesting the tyranny of litigation and proposing "loser pays" plus "no punitive damages". That would be a one-stop no-cost solution to a hundred problems at once. Medical costs, obstacles to innovation and small business, restrictions on free speech. These problems have NO connection to taxes. All of them would be tremendously eased if lawsuits became the last-resort option instead of the easiest way to make big money. ¶ 9:39 AM
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
3.0 cheers for Microsoft!
We techy types love to bitch about Microsoft, and most of the bitching is justified .... but today M$ did something to cheer loudly about:
Not bad! 30,000 free vouchers so laid-off workers can improve their computer skills. A good example of the "closed-circle" thinking that Polistra has been trying to push. Helping the residents of your own town and state.
Henry Ford and Lew Wentz would be proud.
More info here and here. ¶ 6:35 PM
Microsoft has partnered with the state’s Employment Security Department and the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County to distribute a total of 30,625 training vouchers statewide during the next 90 days. Courses range from basic technology literacy to intermediate-level technology skills. “Elevate America” also provides students with career resources to find internships and permanent jobs.
Not bad! 30,000 free vouchers so laid-off workers can improve their computer skills. A good example of the "closed-circle" thinking that Polistra has been trying to push. Helping the residents of your own town and state.
Henry Ford and Lew Wentz would be proud.
More info here and here. ¶ 6:35 PM
Monday, April 13, 2009
"Root cause"
Listening to State Dept briefing on Somalia ... the spokesman repeats over and over that the proper cure for the piracy problem is to give Somalia a better government. Several military officials and other commentators have been saying the same thing.
Absolute nonsense.
First, the silly Wilson/Bush idea that "democracies don't make war" has been disproved over and over. (Most decisively by Alexander Hamilton!) Any government will make war if it feels the need for money, territory, or power, and it senses a weak spot in its adversary.
Second, the true correlation is exactly backwards. Somalia will not have a chance of gaining a responsible government until the current warlords lose their source of money. As long as they are bringing in the goods and the guns, they will be the dominant power. (See Manweller's Rule.)
Third, we shouldn't care about another country's form of government. We should only care about guarding our own people and property. If stopping piracy happens to leave Somalia with no choice but to adopt a more ordinary government, that's a nice bonus, but it can't be the goal. ¶ 3:12 PM
Absolute nonsense.
First, the silly Wilson/Bush idea that "democracies don't make war" has been disproved over and over. (Most decisively by Alexander Hamilton!) Any government will make war if it feels the need for money, territory, or power, and it senses a weak spot in its adversary.
Second, the true correlation is exactly backwards. Somalia will not have a chance of gaining a responsible government until the current warlords lose their source of money. As long as they are bringing in the goods and the guns, they will be the dominant power. (See Manweller's Rule.)
Third, we shouldn't care about another country's form of government. We should only care about guarding our own people and property. If stopping piracy happens to leave Somalia with no choice but to adopt a more ordinary government, that's a nice bonus, but it can't be the goal. ¶ 3:12 PM
