The Super Bowl is tomorrow, Sunday, the Christian sabbath. Someday, the Super Bowl will be considered a secular American holiday. People will pass each other on the street, and wish them a "Happy Super Bowl." Then, for a few days after the game, people will ask one another, "Did you have a good Super Bowl?"
Like it's Christmas.
Yes, gathering friends and family to stare at a box. It's easy to ratchet up my cynicism this year. I have to work during the game. I will be on the clock, on my feet, schlepping calzones. I should be getting time-and-a-half.
Even if I weren't working, I would find reasons for bitterness. The thing that most sticks in my craw is the behavior of Marshawn Lynch during media week. He faced the media wearing a baseball cap and mirrored sunglasses. Every time a reporter asked him a question, he repeated the same line, "I'm just here so I don't get fined."
To me, it seems like disrespect to the people who buy his jersey, or just admire his style of play. Sit still like a grown-up and answer a few questions, and drop the arrogance.
While his behavior during media circus is understandable, it makes a casual fan like me aware of how packaged and manufactured the whole spectacle is. The Commissioner fielding questions about which franchise is operating the best corporate welfare hostage scheme and will pick up stakes.
The former wide receiver Aaron Hernandez starting his murder trial.
The push for merchandising reigns over all. The major sponsors put their ads on Youtube way ahead of time, to get the conversation started. The fawning sweepstakes for who has the best advertisement seems to display a stunning lack of self-awareness. Advertisements work on carnal impulses like envy, greed and lust, or are weepy and maudlin. Katy Perry's tits are a major proposition bet, an appetizer for the degenerate gambler, her body slung across the proceedings like the slut calendar at some car part wholesaler.
Last year, Fox carried the game, and Obama was interviewed by O'Reilly beforehand. O'Reilly was extremely flatfooted, and Obama won something like 27-14. This year I wouldn't be surprised if the Commander In Chief again finds a way to ingratiate himself into a billion households.
Maybe my employer is doing me a favor. Patriots Over Seahawks 40-13. Tom Brady joins "The Club." The one with Montana and Bradshaw.
Have A Happy Super Bowl!
Saturday, January 31, 2015
Friday, January 30, 2015
Tyler Perry's Medea Goes To Washington
The Senate Armed Services Committee held a meeting yesterday on U.S. national security strategy. Soon after the meeting was gavelled into order, the speakers seated at the witness table were swarmed by Code Pink. Among those invited to speak to the committee were former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright, and George Schultz.
They wanted to have a go at the ninety-one year old Kissinger. Some individuals brought handcuffs with them, with one person dangling their handcuffs over Kissinger's shoulder. "Arrest Henry Kissinger for war crimes!" the protesters chanted.
"Get out of here, you low-life scum," said Senator John McCain.
Brilliant quip, but I would have gone a little further than that. After the phrase "low-life," I would have added the word "treasonous."
Breitbart has done excellent research in uncovering Code Pink's connections to Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood had a chance at governing Egypt, blew it, and are now considered an outlaw group by the Egyptian President, Al-Sisi.
The Muslim Brotherhood has a seat at the table. They met with high-level American officials two days ago at the U.S. State Department, then declared open jihad. The next day, they launched a major jihadi operation in the Sinai Peninsula which killed twenty-six people.
Code Pink certainly has a seat at the table. In 2013, founder Medea Benjamin heckled President Obama during one of his speeches. She engaged the President for several minutes, after which Obama said, "The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to." Barack Obama may well be the first U.S. President who invites hecklers personally.
Code Pink is an apparatus of the Democratic Party. Sure, they protest drones and show up to John Kerry testimonials with fake blood on their hands, but that is just to buff their sheen of credibility. Why else would ostensibly anti-war protesters show up at an ALEC meeting at a Dallas Eddie Dean’s BBQ bearing "Democracy not Corporatocracy" signs?
The most ardent goal of this administration is somehow talking Iran out of building atomic weapons. Obama has said, "all options are on the table," to prevent this, which really means he has ruled out military force. He believes relaxing santions on the mullahs will convince them of our good intentions. Code Pink has allocated resources to assist the President's effort, such as sending protesters to harass attendees at last year's AIPAC Conference.
By sending Code Pink to yesterday's Senate hearing, the Obama Administration accomplishes two things. First, this is a brush-back pitch to the newly Republican-controlled Senate. The message? Expect trouble if you bring Iran sanctions to a vote. Second, the testimony of those seated at the witness table got stepped all over by the media's focus on Code Pink's antics.
George Schultz spoke extensively about Iran, underscoring that he feels "very uneasy about the way our negotiations with Iran are going on." How many new organizations are going to report that when Code Pink shows up and throws a party?
Apologies and much respect to Unsavory Agents for the rendering idea.
They wanted to have a go at the ninety-one year old Kissinger. Some individuals brought handcuffs with them, with one person dangling their handcuffs over Kissinger's shoulder. "Arrest Henry Kissinger for war crimes!" the protesters chanted.
"Get out of here, you low-life scum," said Senator John McCain.
Brilliant quip, but I would have gone a little further than that. After the phrase "low-life," I would have added the word "treasonous."
Breitbart has done excellent research in uncovering Code Pink's connections to Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood had a chance at governing Egypt, blew it, and are now considered an outlaw group by the Egyptian President, Al-Sisi.
The Muslim Brotherhood has a seat at the table. They met with high-level American officials two days ago at the U.S. State Department, then declared open jihad. The next day, they launched a major jihadi operation in the Sinai Peninsula which killed twenty-six people.
Code Pink certainly has a seat at the table. In 2013, founder Medea Benjamin heckled President Obama during one of his speeches. She engaged the President for several minutes, after which Obama said, "The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to." Barack Obama may well be the first U.S. President who invites hecklers personally.
Code Pink is an apparatus of the Democratic Party. Sure, they protest drones and show up to John Kerry testimonials with fake blood on their hands, but that is just to buff their sheen of credibility. Why else would ostensibly anti-war protesters show up at an ALEC meeting at a Dallas Eddie Dean’s BBQ bearing "Democracy not Corporatocracy" signs?
The most ardent goal of this administration is somehow talking Iran out of building atomic weapons. Obama has said, "all options are on the table," to prevent this, which really means he has ruled out military force. He believes relaxing santions on the mullahs will convince them of our good intentions. Code Pink has allocated resources to assist the President's effort, such as sending protesters to harass attendees at last year's AIPAC Conference.
By sending Code Pink to yesterday's Senate hearing, the Obama Administration accomplishes two things. First, this is a brush-back pitch to the newly Republican-controlled Senate. The message? Expect trouble if you bring Iran sanctions to a vote. Second, the testimony of those seated at the witness table got stepped all over by the media's focus on Code Pink's antics.
George Schultz spoke extensively about Iran, underscoring that he feels "very uneasy about the way our negotiations with Iran are going on." How many new organizations are going to report that when Code Pink shows up and throws a party?
Apologies and much respect to Unsavory Agents for the rendering idea.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Cayce Jones Unbound
The dog strains against his harness,
Pulling along the hand that follows him,
Guiding with restraint behind him, unseen,
Along paths sanctified by our manifest spirit.
Together we walk the worn road,
His nose twitching with each new scent,
Borne on the morning breeze,
For him the adventure blooms anew.
This walk, our communion, builds our bond,
His trust in benevolent order grows,
My loneliness in the world tempers,
As the sun casts his shadow on the pavement.
Down the hill we go, into the valley,
We tramp a shady glen by the highway,
The smell of death lingers on the ground,
He rolls onto the decay and they are one.
His cognition is primitive, carnal,
Yet his horizons are not long,
Were they, he might whittle away
With his teeth the nylon fabric that binds him.
That day he would break free, and bound off,
Down the iceplant embankment, into new territory,
Consummate the abolition of his captivity,
Corporeal thirst for blood finally quenched.
He will always come back to me,
He knows our plot is safe and sane,
That I will keep his food bowl full.
His water bowl runs over as he drinks.
His home will be here for the rest of his life.
Pulling along the hand that follows him,
Guiding with restraint behind him, unseen,
Along paths sanctified by our manifest spirit.
Together we walk the worn road,
His nose twitching with each new scent,
Borne on the morning breeze,
For him the adventure blooms anew.
This walk, our communion, builds our bond,
His trust in benevolent order grows,
My loneliness in the world tempers,
As the sun casts his shadow on the pavement.
Down the hill we go, into the valley,
We tramp a shady glen by the highway,
The smell of death lingers on the ground,
He rolls onto the decay and they are one.
His cognition is primitive, carnal,
Yet his horizons are not long,
Were they, he might whittle away
With his teeth the nylon fabric that binds him.
That day he would break free, and bound off,
Down the iceplant embankment, into new territory,
Consummate the abolition of his captivity,
Corporeal thirst for blood finally quenched.
He will always come back to me,
He knows our plot is safe and sane,
That I will keep his food bowl full.
His water bowl runs over as he drinks.
His home will be here for the rest of his life.
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
The Criminalization of Male Sexuality
I'm glad that I'm too old and decrepit to court today's young woman. Some of the behavior of my youth would no doubt be considered criminal by today's evolving "standards." The story from the United Kingdom is that men must prove a woman said yes. We are edging closer to a world in which, in Ezra Klein's wishful words, "men need to feel a cold spike of fear when they begin a sexual encounter."
A modern liberal like Ezra Klein hates "yes means yes" laws because they erode due process for the accused. Presumption of innocence is a cornerstone of our legal system, yet people like Klein support tossing it aside.
The Director of Public Prosecutions in the U.K. is a joyless scold named Alison Saunders. Her contention is that rape victims should no longer be "blamed" by society if they are too drunk to consent to sex. What, exactly, is "too drunk to consent to sex?" What is the exact blood alcohol level in which consent may no longer be freely given, and how can this be proved?
Feminists have been arguing for years that women possess agency, that they can make decisions regarding abortion and family planning and dropping ordnance on a target. Yet we remove all aspects of agency from a woman who has sexual contact if she decides later that it was unwanted.
Saunders said that, "consent to sexual activity is not a grey area." Yes it is. That is why they always parrot high numbers of purported rapes in comparison to reported rapes, because consent was given in a gray area. The article contends that there are around 85,000 rapes each year in the U.K., but last year only 15,670 were reported to police. Because there is a gray area.
There are many troubling aspects of the new rape guidelines. Prosecutors must examine whether "the complainant may be financially or otherwise dependent on their alleged rapist." In other words, the fact that he works and she doesn't is going to be used as evidence against him.
Another facet prosecutors are being instructed to examine, is whether the alleged rapist "held a position of power over the potential victim - as a teacher, an employer, a doctor..." Women have always been attracted to high-status men. Women always try to marry up to someone of higher status. Well now, just being a high-status male is going to be one more strike against a man in the dock, accused of rape.
There will be added bearing given to whether a woman is capable of giving consent because of "mental health problems." What kind of mental health problems? If a woman is bipolar and having a manic phase, she could consent to sex, and then in her depression phase, regret it and report it. How could a man possibly certify whether this woman is mentally ill?
Near the end of this article, there is a quote from Sarah Green, director of End Violence Against Women Coalition, in which she says, that "men in positions of power target and abuse vulnerable victims." All this conversation is about male perpetrators and female victims, but women abuse power, too, and target the vulnerable.
Like here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Maybe women sometimes do abuse their authority?
A modern liberal like Ezra Klein hates "yes means yes" laws because they erode due process for the accused. Presumption of innocence is a cornerstone of our legal system, yet people like Klein support tossing it aside.
The Director of Public Prosecutions in the U.K. is a joyless scold named Alison Saunders. Her contention is that rape victims should no longer be "blamed" by society if they are too drunk to consent to sex. What, exactly, is "too drunk to consent to sex?" What is the exact blood alcohol level in which consent may no longer be freely given, and how can this be proved?
Feminists have been arguing for years that women possess agency, that they can make decisions regarding abortion and family planning and dropping ordnance on a target. Yet we remove all aspects of agency from a woman who has sexual contact if she decides later that it was unwanted.
Saunders said that, "consent to sexual activity is not a grey area." Yes it is. That is why they always parrot high numbers of purported rapes in comparison to reported rapes, because consent was given in a gray area. The article contends that there are around 85,000 rapes each year in the U.K., but last year only 15,670 were reported to police. Because there is a gray area.
There are many troubling aspects of the new rape guidelines. Prosecutors must examine whether "the complainant may be financially or otherwise dependent on their alleged rapist." In other words, the fact that he works and she doesn't is going to be used as evidence against him.
Another facet prosecutors are being instructed to examine, is whether the alleged rapist "held a position of power over the potential victim - as a teacher, an employer, a doctor..." Women have always been attracted to high-status men. Women always try to marry up to someone of higher status. Well now, just being a high-status male is going to be one more strike against a man in the dock, accused of rape.
There will be added bearing given to whether a woman is capable of giving consent because of "mental health problems." What kind of mental health problems? If a woman is bipolar and having a manic phase, she could consent to sex, and then in her depression phase, regret it and report it. How could a man possibly certify whether this woman is mentally ill?
Near the end of this article, there is a quote from Sarah Green, director of End Violence Against Women Coalition, in which she says, that "men in positions of power target and abuse vulnerable victims." All this conversation is about male perpetrators and female victims, but women abuse power, too, and target the vulnerable.
Like here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Maybe women sometimes do abuse their authority?
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Genius At Work
I'm not sure who is dumber, Jenny McCarthy or the people who listen to her. The producers of Dumb And Dumber To should have cast McCarthy opposite Jim Carrey as stupid parents. McCarthy could be the helicopter mom and Carrey could be the brain-damaged roughhousing dad. There's your conflict right there. The plot could be how the two come together to help their junior dumb-ass learn to fit in at the exclusive day-care center. It practically writes itself.
A major news story lately is the so-called Disneyland Measles Outbreak. This is very misleading, as it implies that people who go to Disneyland are somehow exposing themselves to the measles. Full disclosure: I am a shareholder in The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS $94.14 Dn 0.79(0.83%)). I am hoping that they go to par and earn me a three-bagger.
I am not oblivious to the irony that McCarthy spent a year on The View, an ABC production. ABC is wholly-owned by The Walt Disney Company. I knew that when I became a shareholder. I bought in because Disney bought back Pixar.
McCarthy's Wikipedia page lists her as an "actress, comedian, activist." Actress, maybe. Comedian, no. Comedians stand alone on a stage with a microphone in front of a live audience, and are funny. Jenny McCarthy is not funny. You know who is funny? Her cousin Melissa McCarthy is funny. Anna Faris is very funny. Blonde girl crossing her eyes and making faces is not funny.
She is an activist. Her son, Evan, was diagnosed with autism when he was three. It is now generally believed that this was a mis-diagnosis, and that her son suffers from Landau–Kleffner Syndrome. Nonetheless, McCarthy began an anti-vaccine crusade, assisted to no small degree by radical environmentalist wackos like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
McCarthy's celebrity has amplified her anti-vaccine messages, such as:
"If you ask a parent of an autistic child if they want the measles or the autism, we will stand in line for the fucking measles."
"Moms and pregnant women are coming up to me on the street going, ‘I don’t know what to do’… And I don’t know what to tell them, because I am surely not going to tell anyone to vaccinate. But if I had another child, there’s no way in hell."
McCarthy made the mistake of confusing correlation with causation. The paper by Dr. Andrew Wakefield helped to convince her that the MMR vaccine causes autism. Never mind that the Lancet has retracted the paper. Her crusading and general lack of warmth helped end her gravy train at The View
Liberal progressives claim to believe in science, but they make this mistake all the time. Like when they attribute the warming of the earth, which is emerging from the Little Ice Age, to human activity.
Perhaps the only silver lining in this story is that those parents who claim exemptions from vaccines are clustered in liberal progressive enclaves. I wouldn't wish the measles on anyone's child. I wouldn't wish autism on anyone's child. I just pray that the people who claim to understand science will wake up to their superstition.
Update: The neighbor just came over to inform me that they are having a contractor come over to give an estimate on their new fence. The reason? The utility company installed smart meters that are causing them neurological problems. Come to think of it, I have been getting these headaches lately. At first I assumed my other neighbor's newly installed PV array was interacting with the fillings in my teeth, but you never know...
A major news story lately is the so-called Disneyland Measles Outbreak. This is very misleading, as it implies that people who go to Disneyland are somehow exposing themselves to the measles. Full disclosure: I am a shareholder in The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS $94.14 Dn 0.79(0.83%)). I am hoping that they go to par and earn me a three-bagger.
I am not oblivious to the irony that McCarthy spent a year on The View, an ABC production. ABC is wholly-owned by The Walt Disney Company. I knew that when I became a shareholder. I bought in because Disney bought back Pixar.
McCarthy's Wikipedia page lists her as an "actress, comedian, activist." Actress, maybe. Comedian, no. Comedians stand alone on a stage with a microphone in front of a live audience, and are funny. Jenny McCarthy is not funny. You know who is funny? Her cousin Melissa McCarthy is funny. Anna Faris is very funny. Blonde girl crossing her eyes and making faces is not funny.
She is an activist. Her son, Evan, was diagnosed with autism when he was three. It is now generally believed that this was a mis-diagnosis, and that her son suffers from Landau–Kleffner Syndrome. Nonetheless, McCarthy began an anti-vaccine crusade, assisted to no small degree by radical environmentalist wackos like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
McCarthy's celebrity has amplified her anti-vaccine messages, such as:
"If you ask a parent of an autistic child if they want the measles or the autism, we will stand in line for the fucking measles."
"Moms and pregnant women are coming up to me on the street going, ‘I don’t know what to do’… And I don’t know what to tell them, because I am surely not going to tell anyone to vaccinate. But if I had another child, there’s no way in hell."
McCarthy made the mistake of confusing correlation with causation. The paper by Dr. Andrew Wakefield helped to convince her that the MMR vaccine causes autism. Never mind that the Lancet has retracted the paper. Her crusading and general lack of warmth helped end her gravy train at The View
Liberal progressives claim to believe in science, but they make this mistake all the time. Like when they attribute the warming of the earth, which is emerging from the Little Ice Age, to human activity.
Perhaps the only silver lining in this story is that those parents who claim exemptions from vaccines are clustered in liberal progressive enclaves. I wouldn't wish the measles on anyone's child. I wouldn't wish autism on anyone's child. I just pray that the people who claim to understand science will wake up to their superstition.
Update: The neighbor just came over to inform me that they are having a contractor come over to give an estimate on their new fence. The reason? The utility company installed smart meters that are causing them neurological problems. Come to think of it, I have been getting these headaches lately. At first I assumed my other neighbor's newly installed PV array was interacting with the fillings in my teeth, but you never know...
Monday, January 26, 2015
California Voters Taken For A Ride
In November, 2008, California voters approved Proposition 1A, the so-called "Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act." 1A was supposed to be a $9.95 billion bond measure, that would pay for an "800-mile High-Speed Train Network."
Voters were promised "Travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in about 2½ hours for about $50 a person." Environmentally sensitive Californians were promised "Electric-powered High-Speed Trains [that] will remove... greenhouse gases equal to the pollution of nearly 1 million cars."
All this, "without raising taxes."
I wonder how they will manage that, given that the most conservative current cost estimates for the project are sixty-eight billion dollars. Did they go back to the voters and ask for the rest of the money? No. But the federal government did step in with $3.2 billion in grants.
The federal government also, through the Surface Transportation Board, ruled that "construction did not have to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act." I admire the way the Obama administration always finds the money and environmental waivers for their boondoggles, whether it's Solyndra, wind farm subsidies, or the solar plant at Ivanpah that incinerates birds and costs three times more per kilowatt than nuclear, coal or natural gas.
That still leaves more than a fifty-five billion dollar shortfall. So the state is going to take money from the carbon dioxide permitting scheme known as AB32 and divert it to the train project. Neither the Governor nor the legislature thought it necessary to ask the taxpayer's permission.
Construction has begun, on a puny 29-mile segment from Fresno to Madera. At 220 miles per hour, it will take less than eight minutes for a farmer to get from the Madera turnip fields to the market in Fresno. That's fresh turnip! Unfortunately, of the 526 parcels in the right-of-way, only 101 of them had been acquired.
There will always be true believers in high-speed rail. I might even be one of them, if there were a line between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. It's mostly unused federal land between the two cities, so rights of way would be much easier to acquire.
Wikipedia is apparently a true believer in high-speed rail. Their page titled California High Speed Rail reads like a sales brochure. One item that leapt from the page was #7 - Alternatives To High-Speed Rail. The California High Speed Rail Authority commissioned a study that estimated how much it would cost to build equivalent capacity using other forms of transportation. It estimated that new freeway lane-miles, airport gates and runways offering equivalent capacity would cost $158 billion. This estimate was prepared by Parsons Brinckerhoff, who are a major contractor to the Rail Authority. Cynical observers might note the conflict of interest and bias, and wonder why an impartial analyst wasn't chosen for the estimate.
When a liberal progressive tries to sell you something that sounds too good to be true, it's just another lie.
Voters were promised "Travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in about 2½ hours for about $50 a person." Environmentally sensitive Californians were promised "Electric-powered High-Speed Trains [that] will remove... greenhouse gases equal to the pollution of nearly 1 million cars."
All this, "without raising taxes."
I wonder how they will manage that, given that the most conservative current cost estimates for the project are sixty-eight billion dollars. Did they go back to the voters and ask for the rest of the money? No. But the federal government did step in with $3.2 billion in grants.
The federal government also, through the Surface Transportation Board, ruled that "construction did not have to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act." I admire the way the Obama administration always finds the money and environmental waivers for their boondoggles, whether it's Solyndra, wind farm subsidies, or the solar plant at Ivanpah that incinerates birds and costs three times more per kilowatt than nuclear, coal or natural gas.
That still leaves more than a fifty-five billion dollar shortfall. So the state is going to take money from the carbon dioxide permitting scheme known as AB32 and divert it to the train project. Neither the Governor nor the legislature thought it necessary to ask the taxpayer's permission.
Construction has begun, on a puny 29-mile segment from Fresno to Madera. At 220 miles per hour, it will take less than eight minutes for a farmer to get from the Madera turnip fields to the market in Fresno. That's fresh turnip! Unfortunately, of the 526 parcels in the right-of-way, only 101 of them had been acquired.
There will always be true believers in high-speed rail. I might even be one of them, if there were a line between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. It's mostly unused federal land between the two cities, so rights of way would be much easier to acquire.
Wikipedia is apparently a true believer in high-speed rail. Their page titled California High Speed Rail reads like a sales brochure. One item that leapt from the page was #7 - Alternatives To High-Speed Rail. The California High Speed Rail Authority commissioned a study that estimated how much it would cost to build equivalent capacity using other forms of transportation. It estimated that new freeway lane-miles, airport gates and runways offering equivalent capacity would cost $158 billion. This estimate was prepared by Parsons Brinckerhoff, who are a major contractor to the Rail Authority. Cynical observers might note the conflict of interest and bias, and wonder why an impartial analyst wasn't chosen for the estimate.
When a liberal progressive tries to sell you something that sounds too good to be true, it's just another lie.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Soros' Useful Idiots
Ever since the summer riots in Ferguson, Missouri, activists have been casting about for new, creative approaches to civil disobedience. As always, it is done purely for the eye of the lens. The news media is ever eager to amplify their message. I saw a new technique on display last November 26, when student protesters shut down Interstate 5.
It's always "student protesters," isn't it? The media would tell us if they were career insurrectionists, right?
The previous night, November 25, protesters shut down Interstate 580 and the Harbor Freeway. Perhaps the most audacious highway shutdown occurred in Boston when the idiots handcuffed themselves to cement-filled barrels in the lanes of I-93. The Boston chaos was masterminded by a group that claims nationwide status, Black Lives Matter.
I wonder how many of these "student protesters" are aware of how they are being used and manipulated. It was reported that George Soros' group, the Open Society Foundation, spent $33 million to whip up anger and resentment in Ferguson. Nine out of ten of those arrested in Ferguson were outsiders, probably bussed in.
George Soros is a billionaire, most famous for pocketing a cool billion from shorting the British pound. If you want to talk about shadowy conspiracies and the deep state, look no farther than Soros. He is also very involved in media control and suppression, via Media Matters. Soros is in this to make a buck.
The freeway anarchists shut down the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge as part of their commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Some news outlets claimed that they were anti-Israel activists. This I did not believe, but there it was in the chopper video feed, the Palestinian flag strewn across lanes.
Minority groups react strongly when they see whites perpetrating "cultural appropriation." Twitter had a shit-storm last week when a blonde teenage girl styled her hair in box braids. I know people who get upset when whites quote portions of King's "I Have A Dream," speech.
These freeway anarchists are just as guilty of appropriating Martin Luther King, Jr. for their own purposes. I don't imagine any one in the group @SiliconShutdown is aware of how Dr. King actually thought of the state of Israel. A Stanford education apparently isn't all that it once was.
Dr. King:
"Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality."
Dr. King:
"...You declare, my friend; that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely ‘anti-Zionist’ … And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God’s green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews… Anti-Semitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently anti-Semitic, and ever will be so."
Ima put #Stanford68 on blast.
It's always "student protesters," isn't it? The media would tell us if they were career insurrectionists, right?
The previous night, November 25, protesters shut down Interstate 580 and the Harbor Freeway. Perhaps the most audacious highway shutdown occurred in Boston when the idiots handcuffed themselves to cement-filled barrels in the lanes of I-93. The Boston chaos was masterminded by a group that claims nationwide status, Black Lives Matter.
I wonder how many of these "student protesters" are aware of how they are being used and manipulated. It was reported that George Soros' group, the Open Society Foundation, spent $33 million to whip up anger and resentment in Ferguson. Nine out of ten of those arrested in Ferguson were outsiders, probably bussed in.
George Soros is a billionaire, most famous for pocketing a cool billion from shorting the British pound. If you want to talk about shadowy conspiracies and the deep state, look no farther than Soros. He is also very involved in media control and suppression, via Media Matters. Soros is in this to make a buck.
The freeway anarchists shut down the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge as part of their commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Some news outlets claimed that they were anti-Israel activists. This I did not believe, but there it was in the chopper video feed, the Palestinian flag strewn across lanes.
Minority groups react strongly when they see whites perpetrating "cultural appropriation." Twitter had a shit-storm last week when a blonde teenage girl styled her hair in box braids. I know people who get upset when whites quote portions of King's "I Have A Dream," speech.
These freeway anarchists are just as guilty of appropriating Martin Luther King, Jr. for their own purposes. I don't imagine any one in the group @SiliconShutdown is aware of how Dr. King actually thought of the state of Israel. A Stanford education apparently isn't all that it once was.
Dr. King:
"Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality."
Dr. King:
"...You declare, my friend; that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely ‘anti-Zionist’ … And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God’s green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews… Anti-Semitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently anti-Semitic, and ever will be so."
Ima put #Stanford68 on blast.
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Winnie Sleeps
I can't imagine a twentieth-century person I admire more than Winston Churchill. I was dismayed when I learned that a bust of Churchill was sent packing when President Obama moved into the White House. This topic has been discussed and disabused so much by now that it has achieved mythical status. Suffice to say that it is yet another example of the lack of competence for anything other than campaigning by this administration.
Churchill died fifty years ago today, at the age of ninety. His career began with a cornet's (second lieutenant) commission to 4th Queen's Own Hussars calvary regiment.
In 1899, Churchill wrote The River War, an account of the Mahdist War in the Sudan. One passage of note apparently is now considered incitement and uttering it may subject the speaker to arrest. Churchill wrote, "No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith."
Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911. He was a major political and military engineer of the Gallipoli landings in the Dardanelles in 1915. When that campaign ended in disaster, he was forced to accept a demotion. He later served in France as the commander of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, and "personally made 36 forays into no man's land."
In 1940, after Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned, England's King George VI asked Churchill to be his successor. It was Churchill's finest hour. His speech before Parliament, on the eve of the Battle of Britain, contains one of the most powerful and rousing passages of recent history.
"We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
I never tire of Churchill anecdotes. He smoked Cuban cigars his entire life. His appetite for alcohol is the stuff of legend. Former White House butler Alonzo Fields wrote in his memoir that Churchill requested "a tumbler of sherry in my room before breakfast, a couple of glasses of scotch and soda before lunch and French Champagne and 90-year-old brandy before I go to sleep at night."
Perhaps my favorite Churchill story takes place during the last weeks of the Second World War. I encountered this while reading Rick Atkinson's "The Guns at Last Light." Churchill was standing amid a demolished Rhine bridge during Operation Varsity. American officers were concerned for his safety, and demanded he return. Churchill "put both arms around one of the twisted girders of the bridge and looked over his shoulder, with pouting mouth and angry eyes."
Churchill died fifty years ago today, at the age of ninety. His career began with a cornet's (second lieutenant) commission to 4th Queen's Own Hussars calvary regiment.
In 1899, Churchill wrote The River War, an account of the Mahdist War in the Sudan. One passage of note apparently is now considered incitement and uttering it may subject the speaker to arrest. Churchill wrote, "No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith."
Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911. He was a major political and military engineer of the Gallipoli landings in the Dardanelles in 1915. When that campaign ended in disaster, he was forced to accept a demotion. He later served in France as the commander of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, and "personally made 36 forays into no man's land."
In 1940, after Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned, England's King George VI asked Churchill to be his successor. It was Churchill's finest hour. His speech before Parliament, on the eve of the Battle of Britain, contains one of the most powerful and rousing passages of recent history.
"We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
I never tire of Churchill anecdotes. He smoked Cuban cigars his entire life. His appetite for alcohol is the stuff of legend. Former White House butler Alonzo Fields wrote in his memoir that Churchill requested "a tumbler of sherry in my room before breakfast, a couple of glasses of scotch and soda before lunch and French Champagne and 90-year-old brandy before I go to sleep at night."
Perhaps my favorite Churchill story takes place during the last weeks of the Second World War. I encountered this while reading Rick Atkinson's "The Guns at Last Light." Churchill was standing amid a demolished Rhine bridge during Operation Varsity. American officers were concerned for his safety, and demanded he return. Churchill "put both arms around one of the twisted girders of the bridge and looked over his shoulder, with pouting mouth and angry eyes."
Friday, January 23, 2015
Meet The New Brownshirts
A tweet from @feministing caught my eye this morning. Feministing is a website run by Jessica Valenti, and is very influential. The tweet this morning read, Friday Feminist Fuck Yeah: Radical Brownies: These kids are going to be so cool. Over at Fusion, Jorge Rivas h..." The tweet includes a link to an article by Jorge Rivas at fusion.net, titled "Meet the ‘Radical Brownies’ – girl scouts for the modern age."
"There’s one troop of young girls in Oakland that discusses matters of racial inequality and wear brown berets in an homage to radical civil rights groups," the article says. The girls are part of a group called "Radical Brownies."
I can see a potential trademark infringement issue right off the bat. The article does explain that "The Radical Brownies are not affiliated with the Girl Scouts of the USA." Fair enough, but they probably still can't use the word "Brownies" in their name.
A real Girl Scout can earn meritorious service awards, grade-level awards, and participation patches and pins, among other things. There is also an Insignia Showing You Belong. Everybody needs a place where they belong.
The founder of the "Radical Brownies," is named Anayvette Martinez, and unsurprisingly is a community organizer. "All the members [of Radical Brownies] are girls of color or mixed-race," Martinez says. They earn badges for being an "LGBT Ally," or a "Radical Beauty." After attending a civil rights march in Oakland, they earned a "Black Lives Matter" badge. They attended a civil rights march in Oakland. Did Martinez use these children as human shields?
These girls are as young as eight. What could they possibly understand about being LGBT? There is a word which describes the way children receive behavioral conditioning in order to meet the needs of an adult. It's called grooming. There is a group photo in the article, and it shows several of the girls displaying a raised clenched fist.
Martinez says she hopes to expand the organization to include multiple chapters, and that these chapters will be open to everybody. However, "the program will always remain focused on young girls of color." Welcome to the Progressive Stack, young ladies! I doubt a high percentage of these girls have fathers in the home.
The perpetual victims of the Progressive Stack are always looking for the person with absolute moral authority. A man mustn't query a rape victim as to why she willingly consumed alcohol and reduced her agency, because that is "blaming the victim." Similarly, a cisgender white woman must not question the moral authority of a woman of color, who in turn must defer to a lesbian woman of color, and so on.
Martinez may have just found the ultimate in intersectionality. Children are discriminated against because they are little, right? They can't buy alcohol or go on the big kids' rides at Disneyland. If Martinez can produce a disabled, transitioning mixed-race ten-year-old, she could become the voice for a new generation!
"There’s one troop of young girls in Oakland that discusses matters of racial inequality and wear brown berets in an homage to radical civil rights groups," the article says. The girls are part of a group called "Radical Brownies."
I can see a potential trademark infringement issue right off the bat. The article does explain that "The Radical Brownies are not affiliated with the Girl Scouts of the USA." Fair enough, but they probably still can't use the word "Brownies" in their name.
A real Girl Scout can earn meritorious service awards, grade-level awards, and participation patches and pins, among other things. There is also an Insignia Showing You Belong. Everybody needs a place where they belong.
The founder of the "Radical Brownies," is named Anayvette Martinez, and unsurprisingly is a community organizer. "All the members [of Radical Brownies] are girls of color or mixed-race," Martinez says. They earn badges for being an "LGBT Ally," or a "Radical Beauty." After attending a civil rights march in Oakland, they earned a "Black Lives Matter" badge. They attended a civil rights march in Oakland. Did Martinez use these children as human shields?
These girls are as young as eight. What could they possibly understand about being LGBT? There is a word which describes the way children receive behavioral conditioning in order to meet the needs of an adult. It's called grooming. There is a group photo in the article, and it shows several of the girls displaying a raised clenched fist.
Martinez says she hopes to expand the organization to include multiple chapters, and that these chapters will be open to everybody. However, "the program will always remain focused on young girls of color." Welcome to the Progressive Stack, young ladies! I doubt a high percentage of these girls have fathers in the home.
The perpetual victims of the Progressive Stack are always looking for the person with absolute moral authority. A man mustn't query a rape victim as to why she willingly consumed alcohol and reduced her agency, because that is "blaming the victim." Similarly, a cisgender white woman must not question the moral authority of a woman of color, who in turn must defer to a lesbian woman of color, and so on.
Martinez may have just found the ultimate in intersectionality. Children are discriminated against because they are little, right? They can't buy alcohol or go on the big kids' rides at Disneyland. If Martinez can produce a disabled, transitioning mixed-race ten-year-old, she could become the voice for a new generation!
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Deconstructing The SOTU
Going over the transcript of the 2015 Presidential State of The Union address.
"Six years ago, nearly 180,000 American troops served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, fewer than 15,000 remain." Iraq was a strategic prize and was largely pacified. By withdrawing every last soldier, he created a vacuum that allowed ISIS to emerge, and prevented a regional check on Iran.
"In two weeks, I will send this Congress a budget filled with ideas that are practical, not partisan." I predict a re-run of the contested votes on some of his previous budgets. When he has actually submitted a budget on time, they have failed 99-0, 97-0, 414-0 and 413-2.
"Rebekah and Ben Erler of Minneapolis were newlyweds." Rebekah wrote the President a letter. "America, Rebekah and Ben's story is our story. They represent the millions who have worked hard, and scrimped, and sacrificed, and retooled." Actually, they represent the Democratic Party. Rebekah is a Democratic operative and former staffer to Senator Patty Murray.
"Our younger students have earned the highest math and reading scores on record." Fourth graders. What about our high schoolers? How are they doing?
"Today, we have a ... new consumer watchdog to protect us from predatory lending." Predatory lending. All those people who signed zero-down mortgage documents on homes they couldn't afford based on their income, were preyed upon. Right.
"Middle class economics works." Is that how this will be packaged going forward? Most jobs created during this recovery have been part-time jobs, because a business has to offer a health insurance policy to new hires working more than thirty hours a week. That is codified in the ACA. To say nothing of the fact that median incomes are down more than $2,000 under Obama.
"My plan will make quality childcare more available, and more affordable." Because what we need is to get our women out of the house and into those low-paying part-time jobs. To free them.
"Forty-three million workers have no paid sick leave." Perhaps if the government would stop imposing health insurance requirements on small business, these companies would decide on their own to offer paid leave.
"This Congress still needs to pass a law that makes sure a woman is paid the same as a man for doing the same work." They did, in 1963. It's called the Equal Pay Act of 1963.
"...to everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage...if you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it" Most of the workers being paid minimum wage are youths in high income families. People raising families on low-wage, unskilled jobs are supported by dozens of redistribution plans, like EITC and WIC.
"21st century businesses, including small businesses, need to sell more American products overseas." Unless these products are petroleum or petroleum distillates that flow through the Keystone pipeline.
"Let's close the loopholes that lead to inequality by allowing the top one percent to avoid paying taxes on their accumulated wealth." Is the President advocating a wealth tax? Does he understand the difference between income and wealth?
"We're also supporting a moderate opposition in Syria that can help us in this effort, and assisting people everywhere who stand up to the bankrupt ideology of violent extremism." Why is he reluctant to call it Islamic supremacy? Is he still tying to get them to like us?
"In Cuba, we are ending a policy that was long past its expiration date. When what you're doing doesn't work for fifty years, it's time to try something new." Tell that to Raul Castro. When oil prices collapsed, their current patrons Venezuela and Iran reduced the cash keeping his dictatorship afloat. Within a very short time the regime would have collapsed. Instead, Obama negotiated with himself because the poll numbers supported it.
"Our diplomacy is at work with respect to Iran, where, for the first time in a decade, we've halted the progress of its nuclear program and reduced its stockpile of nuclear material." Reduced its stockpile? Is he certain of this? Surely Obama is aware of taqiyya, or religious dissimulation?
"But new sanctions passed by this Congress, at this moment in time, will all but guarantee that diplomacy fails." He keeps using that word. I'm not sure it means what he thinks it means. Diplomacy means using every tool in the toolbox short of military force. Sanctions are a tool of diplomacy.
"2014 was the planet's warmest year on record." Er, no. There has been a pause lasting 18 years now. RSS satellite monthly global mean surface temperature anomaly dataset shows no global warming since October 1996. The NOAA data that the President is relying on is based on ground-based measuring stations only measure the air temperature where they are based, and estimate the temperature from as far as 500 miles away.
"A better politics is one where we appeal to each other's basic decency instead of our basest fears." With the exception of hitting the panic button about climate change, rape on campus, unequal pay, and racial, class and income disparities!
"Six years ago, nearly 180,000 American troops served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, fewer than 15,000 remain." Iraq was a strategic prize and was largely pacified. By withdrawing every last soldier, he created a vacuum that allowed ISIS to emerge, and prevented a regional check on Iran.
"In two weeks, I will send this Congress a budget filled with ideas that are practical, not partisan." I predict a re-run of the contested votes on some of his previous budgets. When he has actually submitted a budget on time, they have failed 99-0, 97-0, 414-0 and 413-2.
"Rebekah and Ben Erler of Minneapolis were newlyweds." Rebekah wrote the President a letter. "America, Rebekah and Ben's story is our story. They represent the millions who have worked hard, and scrimped, and sacrificed, and retooled." Actually, they represent the Democratic Party. Rebekah is a Democratic operative and former staffer to Senator Patty Murray.
"Our younger students have earned the highest math and reading scores on record." Fourth graders. What about our high schoolers? How are they doing?
"Today, we have a ... new consumer watchdog to protect us from predatory lending." Predatory lending. All those people who signed zero-down mortgage documents on homes they couldn't afford based on their income, were preyed upon. Right.
"Middle class economics works." Is that how this will be packaged going forward? Most jobs created during this recovery have been part-time jobs, because a business has to offer a health insurance policy to new hires working more than thirty hours a week. That is codified in the ACA. To say nothing of the fact that median incomes are down more than $2,000 under Obama.
"My plan will make quality childcare more available, and more affordable." Because what we need is to get our women out of the house and into those low-paying part-time jobs. To free them.
"Forty-three million workers have no paid sick leave." Perhaps if the government would stop imposing health insurance requirements on small business, these companies would decide on their own to offer paid leave.
"This Congress still needs to pass a law that makes sure a woman is paid the same as a man for doing the same work." They did, in 1963. It's called the Equal Pay Act of 1963.
"...to everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage...if you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it" Most of the workers being paid minimum wage are youths in high income families. People raising families on low-wage, unskilled jobs are supported by dozens of redistribution plans, like EITC and WIC.
"21st century businesses, including small businesses, need to sell more American products overseas." Unless these products are petroleum or petroleum distillates that flow through the Keystone pipeline.
"Let's close the loopholes that lead to inequality by allowing the top one percent to avoid paying taxes on their accumulated wealth." Is the President advocating a wealth tax? Does he understand the difference between income and wealth?
"We're also supporting a moderate opposition in Syria that can help us in this effort, and assisting people everywhere who stand up to the bankrupt ideology of violent extremism." Why is he reluctant to call it Islamic supremacy? Is he still tying to get them to like us?
"In Cuba, we are ending a policy that was long past its expiration date. When what you're doing doesn't work for fifty years, it's time to try something new." Tell that to Raul Castro. When oil prices collapsed, their current patrons Venezuela and Iran reduced the cash keeping his dictatorship afloat. Within a very short time the regime would have collapsed. Instead, Obama negotiated with himself because the poll numbers supported it.
"Our diplomacy is at work with respect to Iran, where, for the first time in a decade, we've halted the progress of its nuclear program and reduced its stockpile of nuclear material." Reduced its stockpile? Is he certain of this? Surely Obama is aware of taqiyya, or religious dissimulation?
"But new sanctions passed by this Congress, at this moment in time, will all but guarantee that diplomacy fails." He keeps using that word. I'm not sure it means what he thinks it means. Diplomacy means using every tool in the toolbox short of military force. Sanctions are a tool of diplomacy.
"2014 was the planet's warmest year on record." Er, no. There has been a pause lasting 18 years now. RSS satellite monthly global mean surface temperature anomaly dataset shows no global warming since October 1996. The NOAA data that the President is relying on is based on ground-based measuring stations only measure the air temperature where they are based, and estimate the temperature from as far as 500 miles away.
"A better politics is one where we appeal to each other's basic decency instead of our basest fears." With the exception of hitting the panic button about climate change, rape on campus, unequal pay, and racial, class and income disparities!
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Twenty Weeks
The U.S. House of Representatives will vote on measure H.R. 36 tomorrow. It's called the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The bill would make it illegal to perform an abortion on a fetus that is at least 20 weeks gestation. This is the hill for social conservatives to fight on.
The exceptions include needing to "save the life of a pregnant woman whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, illness, or injury, excluding psychological or emotional conditions; or (2) where the pregnancy is the result of rape, or the result of incest against a minor, if the rape has been reported at any time prior to the abortion to an appropriate law enforcement agency, or if the incest has been reported at any time prior to the abortion to an appropriate law enforcement agency or to a government agency legally authorized to act on reports of child abuse or neglect."
This is the hill for social conservatives to fight and die on. There are plenty of 20-24 week old fetuses in NICU. Twenty weeks is a viable fetus, a living human being.
Obama will veto this bill if and when it reaches his desk. And why not? He voted against the Born Alive Infants Protection Act when he was an Illinois State Senator. He spoke against the bill on the floor of the Senate. Barack Obama would require that a mewling infant that survived an abortion be denied any efforts at resuscitation.
Late term abortion polls pretty badly, too. According to Gallup, twenty-seven percent of Americans support second-trimester abortions. Only 14 percent support third-trimester abortion. The percentage of people supporting late-term abortion has been falling for years.
GOP Representative Renee Ellmers, NC-2, has been flip-flopping on the issue. Yesterday, she withdrew her name as a co-sponsor of the bill. She said, The first vote we take, or the second vote, or the fifth vote, shouldn’t be on an issue where we know that millennials – social issues just aren’t as important [to them]." I wouldn't be so sure about that, Renee. Millennials grew up in an age of sonograms. They can tell with their own eyes that there is a little human being in there.
Another of her objections to the bill is the requirement that a rape victim has to file a police report. The article reports that "according to statistics from the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, more than two-thirds of sexual assaults go unreported." Well, if the woman wants to claim she was impregnated by rape, she should be reporting it to the police, so rapists aren't out there walking around with the rest of us.
My favorite part of this bill is the exemption for the health of the mother, "excluding psychological or emotional conditions." If you think having an abortion will prevent your emotional problems, then go to the pharmacy and get your pill. If you don't do that, make sure you get to the abortion mill before you are six months pregnant.
This is the hill.
The exceptions include needing to "save the life of a pregnant woman whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, illness, or injury, excluding psychological or emotional conditions; or (2) where the pregnancy is the result of rape, or the result of incest against a minor, if the rape has been reported at any time prior to the abortion to an appropriate law enforcement agency, or if the incest has been reported at any time prior to the abortion to an appropriate law enforcement agency or to a government agency legally authorized to act on reports of child abuse or neglect."
This is the hill for social conservatives to fight and die on. There are plenty of 20-24 week old fetuses in NICU. Twenty weeks is a viable fetus, a living human being.
Obama will veto this bill if and when it reaches his desk. And why not? He voted against the Born Alive Infants Protection Act when he was an Illinois State Senator. He spoke against the bill on the floor of the Senate. Barack Obama would require that a mewling infant that survived an abortion be denied any efforts at resuscitation.
Late term abortion polls pretty badly, too. According to Gallup, twenty-seven percent of Americans support second-trimester abortions. Only 14 percent support third-trimester abortion. The percentage of people supporting late-term abortion has been falling for years.
GOP Representative Renee Ellmers, NC-2, has been flip-flopping on the issue. Yesterday, she withdrew her name as a co-sponsor of the bill. She said, The first vote we take, or the second vote, or the fifth vote, shouldn’t be on an issue where we know that millennials – social issues just aren’t as important [to them]." I wouldn't be so sure about that, Renee. Millennials grew up in an age of sonograms. They can tell with their own eyes that there is a little human being in there.
Another of her objections to the bill is the requirement that a rape victim has to file a police report. The article reports that "according to statistics from the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, more than two-thirds of sexual assaults go unreported." Well, if the woman wants to claim she was impregnated by rape, she should be reporting it to the police, so rapists aren't out there walking around with the rest of us.
My favorite part of this bill is the exemption for the health of the mother, "excluding psychological or emotional conditions." If you think having an abortion will prevent your emotional problems, then go to the pharmacy and get your pill. If you don't do that, make sure you get to the abortion mill before you are six months pregnant.
This is the hill.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Live Blogging The SOTU
Behold, President Obama's oratorical splendor.
I understand from the twitter feed that Emma Sulkowicz will be in attendance. Doesn't look like she will be lugging her mattress. Senator Gillibrand will be interviewing her prior to the big address.
The White House Council on Women and Girls reported last year that "no one is more at risk of being raped or sexually assaulted than women at our nation's colleges and universities." That might be news at the Justice Department, who has estimated that the rate of sexual assaults at college campuses is 6.1 per 1000. This is lower than the rate in the general population, which is 7.1 per 1000.
Facts mustn't interfere with womyn's issues.
I wonder what the over/under number is for the number of times Obama uses the word "I" or "me." If it is less than sixty, I will take the over. What's the over/under for the number of times he uses the word "fair." I will set the early line at ten. My final drinking game is how many times will Obama say the phrase, "middle class?"
Obama's pandering to the middle class is particularly rich. The Democratic coalition is the upper and lower quintiles. All of the economic gains during this recovery have gone to these constituents. If a new job was created in the last five years, chances are it was a part-time job.
It begins. Who is seated next to the First Lady?
The President says that the economy is growing the fastest since 1999. What would the number be if the BEA hadn't changed how GDP is calculated? Either way, we are second banana now, behind China.
Maxine Waters looked like she was going to explode with excitement when Obama name-dropped "a single pipeline." Oh no he didn't!
I like how NBC has on-screen graphics ready for each sound bite. I guess they missed one: Median incomes down by nearly two thousand dollars under Obama.
He referenced "the streets of Paris," in allusion to the Charlie Hebdo massacre, and several lawmakers waved pencils. That is hilariously pathetic! Almost as good as a hashtag!
"The bankrupt ideology of violent extremism." You mean Islamism right? Are you still trying to get them to like us?
Talking about Cuba. "When what you're doin' for fifty years doesn't work, it's time to try something new." That is what you should have told Raul Castro, not every American president since JFK.
"Reduced its (Iran's) stockpile." Prove it. I don't believe you.
Still on climate change? Oy Vey. "2014 was the planet's warmest year on record." What he is trying to say is that unless we give the state total control over all our economic endeavors, we will see heat waves, droughts, and storms. Tell you what, Mr. President. I will commit to the same emissions standards as China did. By 2030, I will begin to reduce my carbon footprint.
Is he nearly done? I thought our values prohibited torture. Ok, he wants to shut it down. "We cherish our civil liberties." Does that include being in violation of the law for not purchasing health insurance?
I understand from the twitter feed that Emma Sulkowicz will be in attendance. Doesn't look like she will be lugging her mattress. Senator Gillibrand will be interviewing her prior to the big address.
The White House Council on Women and Girls reported last year that "no one is more at risk of being raped or sexually assaulted than women at our nation's colleges and universities." That might be news at the Justice Department, who has estimated that the rate of sexual assaults at college campuses is 6.1 per 1000. This is lower than the rate in the general population, which is 7.1 per 1000.
Facts mustn't interfere with womyn's issues.
I wonder what the over/under number is for the number of times Obama uses the word "I" or "me." If it is less than sixty, I will take the over. What's the over/under for the number of times he uses the word "fair." I will set the early line at ten. My final drinking game is how many times will Obama say the phrase, "middle class?"
Obama's pandering to the middle class is particularly rich. The Democratic coalition is the upper and lower quintiles. All of the economic gains during this recovery have gone to these constituents. If a new job was created in the last five years, chances are it was a part-time job.
It begins. Who is seated next to the First Lady?
The President says that the economy is growing the fastest since 1999. What would the number be if the BEA hadn't changed how GDP is calculated? Either way, we are second banana now, behind China.
Maxine Waters looked like she was going to explode with excitement when Obama name-dropped "a single pipeline." Oh no he didn't!
I like how NBC has on-screen graphics ready for each sound bite. I guess they missed one: Median incomes down by nearly two thousand dollars under Obama.
He referenced "the streets of Paris," in allusion to the Charlie Hebdo massacre, and several lawmakers waved pencils. That is hilariously pathetic! Almost as good as a hashtag!
"The bankrupt ideology of violent extremism." You mean Islamism right? Are you still trying to get them to like us?
Talking about Cuba. "When what you're doin' for fifty years doesn't work, it's time to try something new." That is what you should have told Raul Castro, not every American president since JFK.
"Reduced its (Iran's) stockpile." Prove it. I don't believe you.
Still on climate change? Oy Vey. "2014 was the planet's warmest year on record." What he is trying to say is that unless we give the state total control over all our economic endeavors, we will see heat waves, droughts, and storms. Tell you what, Mr. President. I will commit to the same emissions standards as China did. By 2030, I will begin to reduce my carbon footprint.
Is he nearly done? I thought our values prohibited torture. Ok, he wants to shut it down. "We cherish our civil liberties." Does that include being in violation of the law for not purchasing health insurance?
Monday, January 19, 2015
State of Union
President Obama will deliver the State of the Union address tomorrow. It will be the first time he addresses a joint session of Congress in Republican hands. With two years left in his administration, it appears America will be denied the transformative figure they were promised. As usual, Obama will settle for small ball.
What the country needs most right now is a complete overhaul of the tax code. It is an accepted part of the social contract to redistribute wealth. The tax code should be progressive, but it shouldn't be engineered to dole out favors to politically important constituents. The goal should be to maximize revenues while allowing the economy to grow as fast as possible.
It is reported that Obama wants to raise the tax on capital gains. This tax is equivalent to eating our seed corn. Capital gains that are taxed are not available for further investment, and that drags growth. Obama knows that raising the rate will not necessarily increase revenues. Presidents Clinton and Bush both lowered the capital gains tax rate, and revenues rose.
Obama justifies this in the name of fairness.
The President also wants to "close the trust fund loophole," whatever that is. It sounds like an increase in the death tax. This is also known as double taxation. All earnings are taxed before they enter the estate, unless they are tax deferred, in which they are taxed upon death, regardless of the size of the estate.
Obama wants to offer free community college to everyone who wants it. Sounds like a great idea. However, public school per-student spending is already astronomical, and a staggering proportion of high school graduates will need remedial instruction just to get where they should have been when they graduated.
Another item on the President's wish list is paid leave. Federal employees already accrue paid leave that they can apply toward sick days or for the care of a family member or for the birth of a child. I guess he is going to ask Congress to pass a law mandating private businesses to do the same?
Will Democrats ever grasp the fundamental law of economics? When you make something more expensive. less of it will be demanded. The market for labor is no different from the market for petroleum distillates, cable tv, or ground beef. If ground beef suddenly cost fifty dollars a pound, nobody would buy it. If a small business is compelled to accrue paid leave for existing employees, the business will have to find a way to pay for it. Very often that is done by replacing labor inputs with capital inputs.
Lastly, I expect the President will lie to America and say that negotiations with Iran are about to produce a breakthrough. Keep kicking that can, Mr. President.
What the country needs most right now is a complete overhaul of the tax code. It is an accepted part of the social contract to redistribute wealth. The tax code should be progressive, but it shouldn't be engineered to dole out favors to politically important constituents. The goal should be to maximize revenues while allowing the economy to grow as fast as possible.
It is reported that Obama wants to raise the tax on capital gains. This tax is equivalent to eating our seed corn. Capital gains that are taxed are not available for further investment, and that drags growth. Obama knows that raising the rate will not necessarily increase revenues. Presidents Clinton and Bush both lowered the capital gains tax rate, and revenues rose.
Obama justifies this in the name of fairness.
The President also wants to "close the trust fund loophole," whatever that is. It sounds like an increase in the death tax. This is also known as double taxation. All earnings are taxed before they enter the estate, unless they are tax deferred, in which they are taxed upon death, regardless of the size of the estate.
Obama wants to offer free community college to everyone who wants it. Sounds like a great idea. However, public school per-student spending is already astronomical, and a staggering proportion of high school graduates will need remedial instruction just to get where they should have been when they graduated.
Another item on the President's wish list is paid leave. Federal employees already accrue paid leave that they can apply toward sick days or for the care of a family member or for the birth of a child. I guess he is going to ask Congress to pass a law mandating private businesses to do the same?
Will Democrats ever grasp the fundamental law of economics? When you make something more expensive. less of it will be demanded. The market for labor is no different from the market for petroleum distillates, cable tv, or ground beef. If ground beef suddenly cost fifty dollars a pound, nobody would buy it. If a small business is compelled to accrue paid leave for existing employees, the business will have to find a way to pay for it. Very often that is done by replacing labor inputs with capital inputs.
Lastly, I expect the President will lie to America and say that negotiations with Iran are about to produce a breakthrough. Keep kicking that can, Mr. President.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Scratch A Liberal...
Scratch a liberal or progressive, and underneath you will always find a fascist totalitarian. But only every single time.
Capitalism has lifted billions of people out of poverty. If it weren't for capitalism, the original colony at Plymouth would have perished. The first governor of Plymouth colony, William Bradford, found this out first hand. At first, the colony was organized along the lines of a commune, and the colony starved.
It was thought that that "the taking away of propertie, and bringing in communitie into a comone wealth, would make them happy and florishing; as if they were wiser then God."
"For this comunitie (so farr as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much imployment that would have been to their benefite and comforte. For the yong-men that were most able and fitte for labour and servise did repine that they should spend their time and streingth to worke for other mens wives and children, with out any recompence. The strong, or man of parts, had no more in devission of victails and cloaths, then he that was weake and not able to doe a quarter the other could; this was thought injuestice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalised in labours, and victails, cloaths, etc., with the meaner and yonger sorte, thought it some indignite and disrespect unto them. And for mens wives to be commanded to doe servise for other men, as dresing their meate, washing their cloaths, etc., they deemd it a kind of slaverie, neither could many husbands well brooke it."
In other words, people strongly resented laboring for people who didn't pull their weight. The true incentive to work is that which rewards a man or woman for their efforts, and allows them to keep their surplus.
McIntosh would probably fall back to the standard defense of communism, which is "we have never had the right people in charge."
People like him, in other words.
Capitalism has lifted billions of people out of poverty. If it weren't for capitalism, the original colony at Plymouth would have perished. The first governor of Plymouth colony, William Bradford, found this out first hand. At first, the colony was organized along the lines of a commune, and the colony starved.
It was thought that that "the taking away of propertie, and bringing in communitie into a comone wealth, would make them happy and florishing; as if they were wiser then God."
"For this comunitie (so farr as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much imployment that would have been to their benefite and comforte. For the yong-men that were most able and fitte for labour and servise did repine that they should spend their time and streingth to worke for other mens wives and children, with out any recompence. The strong, or man of parts, had no more in devission of victails and cloaths, then he that was weake and not able to doe a quarter the other could; this was thought injuestice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalised in labours, and victails, cloaths, etc., with the meaner and yonger sorte, thought it some indignite and disrespect unto them. And for mens wives to be commanded to doe servise for other men, as dresing their meate, washing their cloaths, etc., they deemd it a kind of slaverie, neither could many husbands well brooke it."
In other words, people strongly resented laboring for people who didn't pull their weight. The true incentive to work is that which rewards a man or woman for their efforts, and allows them to keep their surplus.
McIntosh would probably fall back to the standard defense of communism, which is "we have never had the right people in charge."
People like him, in other words.
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Out Of Many, One
The great thing about #Gamergate is that it is, metaphorically speaking, a target-rich environment. Sometimes I think to myself that #Gamergate is the best thing that ever happened to me, because it educates me about radical ideologies like feminism and motivates me to think critically.
The social justice warriors of the anti-#Gamergate Overwatch keep telling everybody who will listen that #Gamergate is all about harassment of women in gaming. The reality is that there is plenty of mischief on both sides of the debate, as was evidenced yesterday when Shanley Kane (Twitter handle @shanley) posted Milo's telephone number, and invited her flying monkeys to annoy him.
I wasn't aware of her before this incident, so I looked at her Twitter timeline, and it seems her latest crusade is directed at Linus Torvalds, because of some remarks he made at a Linux conference in New Zealand. He was asked about diversity in the Linux world, where, according to Business Insider flying monkey Julie Bort, "women and minorities are appallingly scarce."
Torvalds responded, "I don't care about you. I care about the technology and the kernel. All that [diversity] stuff is just details and not really important."
Bravo. Torvalds has created this beautiful thing, the Linux kernel, and it is open source, meaning that anyone who has merit can contribute to making it better. The kernel doesn't care if the coder is Indian, or Trans, or whatever. The only people who do care about that are diversity bean-counters, and they contribute nothing of value to the kernel.
I wanted to learn who this @Shanley is, and why she wants to "depose Linus." One of her tweets yesterday, to @valleywag, said "...I'm not a "Diversity activist" i'm a fucking FOUNDER AND CEO of a better media company than YOURS." She does have a "media company," called Model View Culture, but she will have to work harder to dispel the notion that she is a "diversity activist." Because it's right there in the masthead: "Model View Culture Technology, culture and diversity media." Their very mode of production seems to be agitation for diversity.
Curious, I clicked on the link to a story by Kẏra, entitled "How to Uphold White Supremacy by Focusing on Diversity and Inclusion." Ordinary feminism isn't good enough for Kẏra, because "cisgender white women will dominate women’s groups that aren’t run by...trans women and women of color."
Her main thesis is that the "current reframing of affirmative action as an initiative to promote diversity" is a "toxic effect of liberalism." Liberalism, she asserts, is a set of "ideas [which] value a certain perception of equality at the expense of those who suffer due to social inequality." "Liberals," she contends, "are able to demand that protesters remain totally peaceful, pacifist, and nonviolent." That sounds to me like she condones violence as justified means to her ends.
Her final paragraph contends that "assimilation doesn't equal liberation," that in fact, "assimilation equals death. When we talk about diversity and inclusion, we necessarily position marginalized groups as naturally needing to assimilate into dominant ones, rather than to undermine said structures of domination."
The unofficial motto of the United States is E Pluribus Unum, which means "out of many, one." The original reference was to the citizens of many colonies or states forming a single union. The current meaning is understood as suggesting that out of many peoples, races, religions, languages, and ancestries has emerged a single people and nation. Just as the efforts of many have culminated in a robust kernel, like Linux, so the contributions of all citizens are necessary to make this a more perfect union.
The social justice warriors of the anti-#Gamergate Overwatch keep telling everybody who will listen that #Gamergate is all about harassment of women in gaming. The reality is that there is plenty of mischief on both sides of the debate, as was evidenced yesterday when Shanley Kane (Twitter handle @shanley) posted Milo's telephone number, and invited her flying monkeys to annoy him.
I wasn't aware of her before this incident, so I looked at her Twitter timeline, and it seems her latest crusade is directed at Linus Torvalds, because of some remarks he made at a Linux conference in New Zealand. He was asked about diversity in the Linux world, where, according to Business Insider flying monkey Julie Bort, "women and minorities are appallingly scarce."
Torvalds responded, "I don't care about you. I care about the technology and the kernel. All that [diversity] stuff is just details and not really important."
Bravo. Torvalds has created this beautiful thing, the Linux kernel, and it is open source, meaning that anyone who has merit can contribute to making it better. The kernel doesn't care if the coder is Indian, or Trans, or whatever. The only people who do care about that are diversity bean-counters, and they contribute nothing of value to the kernel.
I wanted to learn who this @Shanley is, and why she wants to "depose Linus." One of her tweets yesterday, to @valleywag, said "...I'm not a "Diversity activist" i'm a fucking FOUNDER AND CEO of a better media company than YOURS." She does have a "media company," called Model View Culture, but she will have to work harder to dispel the notion that she is a "diversity activist." Because it's right there in the masthead: "Model View Culture Technology, culture and diversity media." Their very mode of production seems to be agitation for diversity.
Curious, I clicked on the link to a story by Kẏra, entitled "How to Uphold White Supremacy by Focusing on Diversity and Inclusion." Ordinary feminism isn't good enough for Kẏra, because "cisgender white women will dominate women’s groups that aren’t run by...trans women and women of color."
Her main thesis is that the "current reframing of affirmative action as an initiative to promote diversity" is a "toxic effect of liberalism." Liberalism, she asserts, is a set of "ideas [which] value a certain perception of equality at the expense of those who suffer due to social inequality." "Liberals," she contends, "are able to demand that protesters remain totally peaceful, pacifist, and nonviolent." That sounds to me like she condones violence as justified means to her ends.
Her final paragraph contends that "assimilation doesn't equal liberation," that in fact, "assimilation equals death. When we talk about diversity and inclusion, we necessarily position marginalized groups as naturally needing to assimilate into dominant ones, rather than to undermine said structures of domination."
The unofficial motto of the United States is E Pluribus Unum, which means "out of many, one." The original reference was to the citizens of many colonies or states forming a single union. The current meaning is understood as suggesting that out of many peoples, races, religions, languages, and ancestries has emerged a single people and nation. Just as the efforts of many have culminated in a robust kernel, like Linux, so the contributions of all citizens are necessary to make this a more perfect union.
Friday, January 16, 2015
Riches For Cuba's Apparatchiks, None For The Peasants
One of the local news stations has a lawyer as a frequent guest. His name is Jeff Isaac, and his trademark is "The Lawyer In Blue Jeans." Isaac's firm, The Lawyer In Blue Jeans Group, seems to have a specialty in tax and estate planning, living trusts, and probate. I think that's just fantastic. Everybody with any real property should have a living trust.
Lately, Isaac has been on the morning news talking about how excited he is, that President Obama has relaxed trade restrictions on Cuba. The station ran a story on December 17, and said "...after all these decades, these people have taken enough for something they, the Cubans, were not part of. It was all about politics and all about government." Someone who has "visited the island nation more than 30 times" like Isaac rightfully has fallen in love with the Cuban people and their culture.
But President Obama has done the Cuban people no favors. Once again, the President negotiated with himself, and offered concessions to the tyrannical Castro regime, and got nothing in return. There were fifty-three political prisoners released, four days ago, but virtually all of them are under conditional release.
Cuba has been and remains a state sponsor of terrorism. The Center For Security Policy reports that "Cuban military officers are acting as liaison between Venezuelan military and the narco-guerrillas of the Colombian FARC." In addition, "Cuba directly and through Venezuela continues to provide intelligence to Hamas and Hezbollah."
I will never understand the soft spot in their heart so many liberals have for communists. I don't necessarily think Isaac feels that way. But there are people who wear Che Guevara shirts, and are likely unaware that he personally murdered dozens of men and boys, had homosexuals jailed, and loved executions so much that he had a window in his office overlooking the yard where the firing squads did their grisly work." Perhaps the most chilling quote of his is this: "If the nuclear missiles had remained (in Cuba) we would have fired them against the heart of the U.S. including New York City!”
If Jeff Isaac had signed a petition in favor of Proposition 8, motivated activists would be besieging this television station with demands he be taken off the air, and launching campaigns targeting the station's advertisers. Thankfully, I am not a motivated activist. Just a libertarian with a bug up my ass.
Opening Cuban markets to the United States will not free the Cuban peasant from poverty. It will only enrich the cadre and the apparatchiks. Cuba was already trading with every other country on earth, and nothing trickled down. I think points of view like Isaac's are patronizing, like, aren't the old cars they drive charming, and who wouldn't like to smoke Cuban cigars.
Maybe Isaac believes opening up Cuba for trade will present new markets for his services. Like I said, everybody who owns property should have a living trust. Too bad there is no such thing as private property in Cuba, huh, Jeff?
Lately, Isaac has been on the morning news talking about how excited he is, that President Obama has relaxed trade restrictions on Cuba. The station ran a story on December 17, and said "...after all these decades, these people have taken enough for something they, the Cubans, were not part of. It was all about politics and all about government." Someone who has "visited the island nation more than 30 times" like Isaac rightfully has fallen in love with the Cuban people and their culture.
But President Obama has done the Cuban people no favors. Once again, the President negotiated with himself, and offered concessions to the tyrannical Castro regime, and got nothing in return. There were fifty-three political prisoners released, four days ago, but virtually all of them are under conditional release.
Cuba has been and remains a state sponsor of terrorism. The Center For Security Policy reports that "Cuban military officers are acting as liaison between Venezuelan military and the narco-guerrillas of the Colombian FARC." In addition, "Cuba directly and through Venezuela continues to provide intelligence to Hamas and Hezbollah."
I will never understand the soft spot in their heart so many liberals have for communists. I don't necessarily think Isaac feels that way. But there are people who wear Che Guevara shirts, and are likely unaware that he personally murdered dozens of men and boys, had homosexuals jailed, and loved executions so much that he had a window in his office overlooking the yard where the firing squads did their grisly work." Perhaps the most chilling quote of his is this: "If the nuclear missiles had remained (in Cuba) we would have fired them against the heart of the U.S. including New York City!”
If Jeff Isaac had signed a petition in favor of Proposition 8, motivated activists would be besieging this television station with demands he be taken off the air, and launching campaigns targeting the station's advertisers. Thankfully, I am not a motivated activist. Just a libertarian with a bug up my ass.
Opening Cuban markets to the United States will not free the Cuban peasant from poverty. It will only enrich the cadre and the apparatchiks. Cuba was already trading with every other country on earth, and nothing trickled down. I think points of view like Isaac's are patronizing, like, aren't the old cars they drive charming, and who wouldn't like to smoke Cuban cigars.
Maybe Isaac believes opening up Cuba for trade will present new markets for his services. Like I said, everybody who owns property should have a living trust. Too bad there is no such thing as private property in Cuba, huh, Jeff?
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Interstellar Gets The High Hat
The best movie I have seen in many years got the high hat from the Oscar nominating members. The snub is proof that the six thousand nominating members of the Academy are an incestuous group. This is the same cadre who didn't award Best Picture to Star Wars, so no surprise.
One possible reason for not nominating Interstellar for Best Picture may be political. The nominating members are not representative of the people who buy tickets. They are Obama drones, social justice warriors like homosexual, immigration and feminist activists, and radical environmentalists. It was probably the radical environmentalists who conspired to shut this movie out of the Best Picture nominations.
A major plot line involves a character called Dr. Mann, who is referred to reverentially in the first and second acts of the movie. When we finally do meet Dr. Mann, he is revealed to be a selfish villain who admits, "I falsified the data!"
The real Dr. Mann is also a fraudster who cherry-picked climate data to produce the now widely-discredited Global Warming Hockey Stick. I would imagine that at least ninety percent of the voting members of the Academy are aware of Michael Mann, donate to Greenpeace and The Sierra Club and 350.org, and they didn't appreciate the not-so-subtle reference.
The voting members of the Academy are certainly inbred. I used to wonder why Last Of The Mohicans didn't even get nominated for Best Picture. I think the Academy was offended by the portrayal of Native Americans as fierce and warlike. The current narrative is that they were Noble Savages who lived as one with the planet, and then suddenly the White Man decided to commit genocide on their gentle souls. The fact that they conducted open warfare against each other and were wiped out by incidental smallpox exposure is very rarely mentioned.
This year I predict that Selma will win Best Picture. I will watch it someday. I consider myself a champion of civil rights, and I claim part ownership of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s I Have A Dream speech. It was given on my first birthday.
But the movie that I will watch again and again for the rest of my life, is Interstellar. The movie is 169 minutes, but Director Christopher Nolan makes time stand still for the viewer. And the evocative, final scene, with Brand (Anne Hathaway) alone on a hospitable planet, setting up house, waiting for Cooper, is a resonant payoff.
One possible reason for not nominating Interstellar for Best Picture may be political. The nominating members are not representative of the people who buy tickets. They are Obama drones, social justice warriors like homosexual, immigration and feminist activists, and radical environmentalists. It was probably the radical environmentalists who conspired to shut this movie out of the Best Picture nominations.
A major plot line involves a character called Dr. Mann, who is referred to reverentially in the first and second acts of the movie. When we finally do meet Dr. Mann, he is revealed to be a selfish villain who admits, "I falsified the data!"
The real Dr. Mann is also a fraudster who cherry-picked climate data to produce the now widely-discredited Global Warming Hockey Stick. I would imagine that at least ninety percent of the voting members of the Academy are aware of Michael Mann, donate to Greenpeace and The Sierra Club and 350.org, and they didn't appreciate the not-so-subtle reference.
The voting members of the Academy are certainly inbred. I used to wonder why Last Of The Mohicans didn't even get nominated for Best Picture. I think the Academy was offended by the portrayal of Native Americans as fierce and warlike. The current narrative is that they were Noble Savages who lived as one with the planet, and then suddenly the White Man decided to commit genocide on their gentle souls. The fact that they conducted open warfare against each other and were wiped out by incidental smallpox exposure is very rarely mentioned.
This year I predict that Selma will win Best Picture. I will watch it someday. I consider myself a champion of civil rights, and I claim part ownership of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s I Have A Dream speech. It was given on my first birthday.
But the movie that I will watch again and again for the rest of my life, is Interstellar. The movie is 169 minutes, but Director Christopher Nolan makes time stand still for the viewer. And the evocative, final scene, with Brand (Anne Hathaway) alone on a hospitable planet, setting up house, waiting for Cooper, is a resonant payoff.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Feminist Frequency Retools
The latest video from Feminist Frequency is a real head-scratcher. It is entitled "Video Games In Which The Areas Of The Female Body That Should Be Concealed And Are Instead Revealed Whilst Dancing, Such As Legs, Or Arms, Or Upper Arms, And Are Thus Objectifying."
Anita Sarkeesian is sporting a new look too. I will let the viewer decide what they think.
I kind of like it.
She automatically goes from a "3" to a "6." In other words, wouldn't have to be that drunk to bang.
Jonathan McIntosh has undergone a makeover as well. It's quite startling.
In this video, he is speaking fluent Arabic, and the rough translation is, "It is halal (forbidden) to insult the Femocracy."
It's an interesting new direction for Feminist Frequency. I'm excited to see where they're going with this.
Anita Sarkeesian is sporting a new look too. I will let the viewer decide what they think.
I kind of like it.
She automatically goes from a "3" to a "6." In other words, wouldn't have to be that drunk to bang.
Jonathan McIntosh has undergone a makeover as well. It's quite startling.
In this video, he is speaking fluent Arabic, and the rough translation is, "It is halal (forbidden) to insult the Femocracy."
It's an interesting new direction for Feminist Frequency. I'm excited to see where they're going with this.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
McIntosh Submits
The root word for Islam is “al-Silm,” which means “submission” or “surrender.”
Jonathan McIntosh of @femfreq and @radicalbytes is an ardent supporter of censorship. McIntosh initiated a block on my twitter account, so I cannot view his twitter feed. Funny, that. I follow about seventy people and I've made about seventy tweets in my entire life. I can understand that my tweets might be toxic to him, because I follow Mike and Milo, and gamergate autoblocker might have done the dirty work for him. No matter. Blocking me is his right.
McIntosh hasn't been able to block the entire world though, which enabled me to see his latest tweet. He used the hashtag #JeNeSuisPasCharlie and said "because I don't use my free speech to mock and deride the most marginalized and vulnerable in society like Charlie Hebdo."
Not speaking is also his right. So is talking out his ass. There are 1.5 billion muslims on this planet, about a quarter of Earth's population. That is hardly a marginal enumeration.
The butchers of Stephane Charbonnier were anything but vulnerable. They were emboldened by the submission of the West to pernicious speech codes. They were armed with Kalashnikovs.
Nearly four million people marched in Paris to honor the victims of this latest Islamist massacre. Among them was King Abdullah II of Jordan, a direct descendant of Mohammed.
McIntosh submits, and finds himself on the wrong side of the most natural human right, that of free speech. There is a word to describe a quisling specific to the Koranic faith.
Dhimmi. Dhimmitude is minority status granted to populations that surrender to Muslim domination. Dhimmitude is a protected class, conditioned on the payment of tax, jizyah.
Dhimmi award to McIntosh.
Jonathan McIntosh of @femfreq and @radicalbytes is an ardent supporter of censorship. McIntosh initiated a block on my twitter account, so I cannot view his twitter feed. Funny, that. I follow about seventy people and I've made about seventy tweets in my entire life. I can understand that my tweets might be toxic to him, because I follow Mike and Milo, and gamergate autoblocker might have done the dirty work for him. No matter. Blocking me is his right.
McIntosh hasn't been able to block the entire world though, which enabled me to see his latest tweet. He used the hashtag #JeNeSuisPasCharlie and said "because I don't use my free speech to mock and deride the most marginalized and vulnerable in society like Charlie Hebdo."
Not speaking is also his right. So is talking out his ass. There are 1.5 billion muslims on this planet, about a quarter of Earth's population. That is hardly a marginal enumeration.
The butchers of Stephane Charbonnier were anything but vulnerable. They were emboldened by the submission of the West to pernicious speech codes. They were armed with Kalashnikovs.
Nearly four million people marched in Paris to honor the victims of this latest Islamist massacre. Among them was King Abdullah II of Jordan, a direct descendant of Mohammed.
McIntosh submits, and finds himself on the wrong side of the most natural human right, that of free speech. There is a word to describe a quisling specific to the Koranic faith.
Dhimmi. Dhimmitude is minority status granted to populations that surrender to Muslim domination. Dhimmitude is a protected class, conditioned on the payment of tax, jizyah.
Dhimmi award to McIntosh.
CENTCOM Hacked As Obama Touts Cyber Security
The U.S. Department of Defense Central Command's Twitter feed and YouTube page were briefly infiltrated by hackers claiming to be associated with the Islamic State just as President Barack Obama was speaking about cyber security.
I don't know what is more amazing, that CENTCOM has a YouTube page, or that it was hacked. Do I sense that there will somehow be a #gamergate connection made to this?
Apparently no classified information was released by the hackers, who claim to be from ISIS. Only the contact information of retired admirals and generals. In other words, senior military officials were doxxed. Hey another #gamergate tactic!
I guess it just seems silly that the military has social media accounts. There must be hundreds of people in the Pentagon being paid to counterattack malicious hashtags. I sleep soundly in my bed at night only because rough men stand ready to do social media on my behalf.
I have a theory about this hack. A political operative posing as a State Department spokesperson, say Jen Psaki or Marie Harf, were spear phished. Maybe Marie got an email saying that the Undersecretary For Protocol for the Deputy General's Office of Human Rights in Latvia wanted to friend her.
"Oooh, look Jen, Doroteja Bronislava wants to friend me!" Marie said.
"Oooh, I love her shoes." Jen said.
Two clicks later, the hackers had all they needed to command the DOD's Youtube page and Twitter feed. It could have happened that way.
I don't know what is more amazing, that CENTCOM has a YouTube page, or that it was hacked. Do I sense that there will somehow be a #gamergate connection made to this?
Apparently no classified information was released by the hackers, who claim to be from ISIS. Only the contact information of retired admirals and generals. In other words, senior military officials were doxxed. Hey another #gamergate tactic!
I guess it just seems silly that the military has social media accounts. There must be hundreds of people in the Pentagon being paid to counterattack malicious hashtags. I sleep soundly in my bed at night only because rough men stand ready to do social media on my behalf.
I have a theory about this hack. A political operative posing as a State Department spokesperson, say Jen Psaki or Marie Harf, were spear phished. Maybe Marie got an email saying that the Undersecretary For Protocol for the Deputy General's Office of Human Rights in Latvia wanted to friend her.
"Oooh, look Jen, Doroteja Bronislava wants to friend me!" Marie said.
"Oooh, I love her shoes." Jen said.
Two clicks later, the hackers had all they needed to command the DOD's Youtube page and Twitter feed. It could have happened that way.
Free Zbigniew Brzezinski
The other day I made a post in which I called Zbigniew Brzezinski an appeasement monkey because of remarks he made counseling people not to be "provocative" of sensitive Muslims' feelings. I regret making this assessment, because it became clear to me that he was being held by Muslim terrorists.
I feel that it was wrong for me to imply he was a quisling, and providing comfort to our adversaries. It appears that a new video of Brzezinski has surfaced, and his life may be in danger. It looks as though Jihadi John wants to butcher him like a Christmas goose.
His gray suit has been replaced by an orange jumpsuit. In the background is the Syrian desert. His eyes are full of fear. However, his hair is perfect.
If we do not meet ISIS' demands, I worry that Jihadi John is going to lop off Zbigniew's head, and then kick it around in the dirt, and laugh at us and our puny republic of free persons and nuclear-tipped submarine-launched cruise missiles.
Keep Zbigniew in your prayers. Believe in your heart that our good intentions will mollify and placify those misunderstood 'folks' that would otherwise send ten-year-old girls to the market strapped with explosives.
And Mika, if for some awful reason you do lose your daddy, remember this: I will be your daddy.
#BringbackZbigniew
I feel that it was wrong for me to imply he was a quisling, and providing comfort to our adversaries. It appears that a new video of Brzezinski has surfaced, and his life may be in danger. It looks as though Jihadi John wants to butcher him like a Christmas goose.
His gray suit has been replaced by an orange jumpsuit. In the background is the Syrian desert. His eyes are full of fear. However, his hair is perfect.
If we do not meet ISIS' demands, I worry that Jihadi John is going to lop off Zbigniew's head, and then kick it around in the dirt, and laugh at us and our puny republic of free persons and nuclear-tipped submarine-launched cruise missiles.
Keep Zbigniew in your prayers. Believe in your heart that our good intentions will mollify and placify those misunderstood 'folks' that would otherwise send ten-year-old girls to the market strapped with explosives.
And Mika, if for some awful reason you do lose your daddy, remember this: I will be your daddy.
#BringbackZbigniew
Monday, January 12, 2015
Live Blogging The Game
Rats, the game is on ESPN. I don't get ESPN. I have cable, but it's the most stripped-down package available. I get the major networks ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, plus PBS. Also about twelve different Spanish-language stations. And QVC. I do get the deuce. The deuce is broadcasting a split-screen called Megacast Film Room. The ESPN feed is in the upper left screen, and the lower right part of the screen is a studio running replays and commentary. No play-by-play. Better than nothing.
Ohio State is winning? 14-7. Wow. Oops, indecision on the run-pass option, turnover Ohio State. Duck ball. Long drive gets stuffed on fourth-and-goal. Buckeye ball.
I have a hat just like this one. My dad, class of '49. bequeathed it to the only son who truly loved the Buckeyes.
Early second quarter. I missed both Buckeye touchdowns because I wanted to go to Costco after work. I got a sous vide machine for Christmas and I want to see how it works with baby-back ribs. They won't be ready until after the game. Right now nursing a whiskey. Another Buckeye turnover. Duck ball. Cardale Jones is loose and his cannon arm has the Ducks on their heels. If Buckeye players stop leaving the ball on the ground they may win this thing.
Buckeyes sack Mr. Heisman and force a punt. Mariotta is going to feel that one tomorrow. Buckeye ball. Jones steps up and throws a wrong-footed pass down to the five. Punch it in Bucks!!! Jones on the sneak, a little short. I wish I had some chips or nuts. Jones for six. That's Big Ten football!
I like the format of having these coaches discuss the game instead of a hysterical play-by-play guy and the color guy. The ESPN website says its Chris Spielman and Tom Luginbill with Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, new Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi and new Nebraska coach Mike Riley. I also see Derek Mason, head coach of Vanderbilt. Oregon is in the role of playing catch-up instead of front-running.
Second half. Another Buckeye turnover. Are you fucking kidding me? Oregon on their way back. 21-17. Three turnovers. Ohio State deserves to lose. 21-20. Buckeyes hanging on by their fingernails.
Next drive, Ohio State gets the wind in their sails. I remember that my dog is named Jones. Jooooooooonnes! as I touch the garment that is his body. He doesn't mind, and Buckeyes roll for a score. 28-20.
Next thing I know, the sauteed onions are ready, and it's 35-20. Under ten minutes left in the game. Buckeye nation will sleep well tonight. That hit on Mariotta seemed gratuitous, and I hope he's ok.
Ohio State is winning? 14-7. Wow. Oops, indecision on the run-pass option, turnover Ohio State. Duck ball. Long drive gets stuffed on fourth-and-goal. Buckeye ball.
I have a hat just like this one. My dad, class of '49. bequeathed it to the only son who truly loved the Buckeyes.
Early second quarter. I missed both Buckeye touchdowns because I wanted to go to Costco after work. I got a sous vide machine for Christmas and I want to see how it works with baby-back ribs. They won't be ready until after the game. Right now nursing a whiskey. Another Buckeye turnover. Duck ball. Cardale Jones is loose and his cannon arm has the Ducks on their heels. If Buckeye players stop leaving the ball on the ground they may win this thing.
Buckeyes sack Mr. Heisman and force a punt. Mariotta is going to feel that one tomorrow. Buckeye ball. Jones steps up and throws a wrong-footed pass down to the five. Punch it in Bucks!!! Jones on the sneak, a little short. I wish I had some chips or nuts. Jones for six. That's Big Ten football!
I like the format of having these coaches discuss the game instead of a hysterical play-by-play guy and the color guy. The ESPN website says its Chris Spielman and Tom Luginbill with Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, new Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi and new Nebraska coach Mike Riley. I also see Derek Mason, head coach of Vanderbilt. Oregon is in the role of playing catch-up instead of front-running.
Second half. Another Buckeye turnover. Are you fucking kidding me? Oregon on their way back. 21-17. Three turnovers. Ohio State deserves to lose. 21-20. Buckeyes hanging on by their fingernails.
Next drive, Ohio State gets the wind in their sails. I remember that my dog is named Jones. Jooooooooonnes! as I touch the garment that is his body. He doesn't mind, and Buckeyes roll for a score. 28-20.
Next thing I know, the sauteed onions are ready, and it's 35-20. Under ten minutes left in the game. Buckeye nation will sleep well tonight. That hit on Mariotta seemed gratuitous, and I hope he's ok.
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Appeasement Monkey
Zbigniew Brzezinski made an appearance on Morning Joe Friday morning. The only reason anyone seeks his opinion is because his empty-headed daughter Mika is co-host. While Joe Scarborough rants about something, her contribution is to tilt her head and make faces. When Zbigniew is introduced to the viewers, Mika says, "hi daddy!"
Zbigniew is no empty head. He's smart for a liberal. As Ronald Reagan said, “It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.”
Zbigniew Brzezinski was Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor. Under Carter's watch, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and helped mid-wife the Taliban. Under Carter's watch, Iranian theocratic radicals took American citizens hostage for 444 days. If Jimmy Carter had been given a second term, Iran would have acquired atomic weapons long ago.
It was unsurprising that Zbigniew revealed himself to be less than a free-speech absolutist, and more of an Islamist sympathizer in Friday's interview.
He said, "we have to preserve our rights, that is to say freedom of expression and the freedom to express our views but at the same time we must avoid being provocative."
Also, that "one of the most important things...is to avoid becoming the number one enemy of the fanatics."
Ronald Reagan had another opinion about what was important. "We win, they lose."
It was a bit shocking for to hear these comments, even from an appeasement monkey like Zbigniew Brzezinski. When I clicked a few links, the real story became clear. He's being held hostage by ISIS. Never mind.
Zbigniew is no empty head. He's smart for a liberal. As Ronald Reagan said, “It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.”
Zbigniew Brzezinski was Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor. Under Carter's watch, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and helped mid-wife the Taliban. Under Carter's watch, Iranian theocratic radicals took American citizens hostage for 444 days. If Jimmy Carter had been given a second term, Iran would have acquired atomic weapons long ago.
It was unsurprising that Zbigniew revealed himself to be less than a free-speech absolutist, and more of an Islamist sympathizer in Friday's interview.
He said, "we have to preserve our rights, that is to say freedom of expression and the freedom to express our views but at the same time we must avoid being provocative."
Also, that "one of the most important things...is to avoid becoming the number one enemy of the fanatics."
Ronald Reagan had another opinion about what was important. "We win, they lose."
It was a bit shocking for to hear these comments, even from an appeasement monkey like Zbigniew Brzezinski. When I clicked a few links, the real story became clear. He's being held hostage by ISIS. Never mind.
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Anita Sarkeesian, Shakedown Artist
Gangster-style intimidation tactics are famously associated with the Mafia. "Nice little business you got here," the goon says. "Be a shame if anything bad were to happen to it." The message is clear. Pay me for protection, and I will ensure the hooligans leave you alone. The gangster gets paid not to cause mayhem.
Al Sharpton is the heavyweight champion shakedown artist. Recently, emails between Sony Pictures Chairwoman Amy Pascal and Scott Rudin were surfaced by hackers. "Should I ask him if he liked DJANGO?" she wrote, demonstrating, at worst, trifling racial insensitivity. Nonetheless, this is taken as de facto evidence of racism at Sony Pictures, and casus belli for the "civil rights activist" Sharpton.
The world waited breathlessly for word on whether Sharpton would call for her Pascal's resignation. "The jury is still out on where we go with Amy. We're not going to be satisfied until we see something concrete done." That "something concrete" appears to be letting Sharpton have a say over how Sony makes movies.
Sharpton again gets paid not to cry racism.
Racketeering as a business model is also seems to be part of Anita Sarkeesian's curriculum vitae. Before becoming a feminist, Sarkeesian "ran fraudulent tele-seminars about 'determining business success using handwriting' for...three years for a company that was repeatedly accused of fraud."
Which begs the question, why is Intel Corporation partnering with Feminist Frequency? Intel has announced a $300 million "workplace diversity" initiative for their company. This will effectively institutionalize discrimination against white, Indian and Asian men in favor of current protected classes, such as blacks and women. Somebody got the message to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich: disparate impact is de facto evidence of discrimination. Would be a shame if anything happened to your publicly traded corporation.
Which esteemed corporation will be the next target of these predatory tactics?
Up until today, I didn't think I had a reason to consider AMD over Intel for my next PC. I do now.
Al Sharpton is the heavyweight champion shakedown artist. Recently, emails between Sony Pictures Chairwoman Amy Pascal and Scott Rudin were surfaced by hackers. "Should I ask him if he liked DJANGO?" she wrote, demonstrating, at worst, trifling racial insensitivity. Nonetheless, this is taken as de facto evidence of racism at Sony Pictures, and casus belli for the "civil rights activist" Sharpton.
The world waited breathlessly for word on whether Sharpton would call for her Pascal's resignation. "The jury is still out on where we go with Amy. We're not going to be satisfied until we see something concrete done." That "something concrete" appears to be letting Sharpton have a say over how Sony makes movies.
Sharpton again gets paid not to cry racism.
Racketeering as a business model is also seems to be part of Anita Sarkeesian's curriculum vitae. Before becoming a feminist, Sarkeesian "ran fraudulent tele-seminars about 'determining business success using handwriting' for...three years for a company that was repeatedly accused of fraud."
Which begs the question, why is Intel Corporation partnering with Feminist Frequency? Intel has announced a $300 million "workplace diversity" initiative for their company. This will effectively institutionalize discrimination against white, Indian and Asian men in favor of current protected classes, such as blacks and women. Somebody got the message to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich: disparate impact is de facto evidence of discrimination. Would be a shame if anything happened to your publicly traded corporation.
Which esteemed corporation will be the next target of these predatory tactics?
Up until today, I didn't think I had a reason to consider AMD over Intel for my next PC. I do now.
Friday, January 09, 2015
Tropes Vs Women - Ms Male Character
Feminist Frequency published the video Ms. Male Character - Tropes vs Women in Video Games in November of 2013. Since then it has been viewed more than 1.1 million times. Nice to notice that while still not allowing comments, this video does allow viewers to "like" or "dislike" the content. Founder Anita Sarkeesian is again presenting her lumbersexual look, this time with a pink-and-blue checkered flannel shirt. Perhaps this shirt was deliberately chosen with her perceived place on the "gender continuum" in mind.
The reason I am deconstructing FemFreq's videos, such as here, and here, and Sarkeesian herself, such as here and here is not just because of #Gamergate. #Gamergate will evolve and grow and become something else, but what I call the SJW Overwatch will still be with us. They will be with us for as long as future Overwatch shock troops keep receiving marxist indoctrination in our universities. They will graduate and take their speech codes and "only yes means yes" revocation of due process for males with them into the wider culture.
I will say that this particular FemFreq video is worth watching just for the eighties advertisements and the New Wave influences on fashion that are on display. For that reason alone, I will click the "like" button on this video. You are welcome, Anita!
Sarkeesian starts her video off with her usual disclaimer, "it's entirely possible to be critical of some aspects of a piece of media, while still finding other parts valuable or enjoyable." It might be possible, Anita, but it's not likely, because once someone like you has pointed out that what they enjoy is problematic, the entirety of the experience is devalued. And I seriously doubt you yourself derive any "enjoyment" whatsoever out of the media you are "criticizing." If you are attuned to gender disparagement, that's all you will notice.
Ms. Male Character spends a fair amount of time discussing Ms. Pac-Man. Up until viewing this video, I would not have found it possible to take offense at Ms. Pac-Man, but Sarkeesian does, calling her design just "Pac-Man with a bow." Sarkeesian says there was "an 11th-hour move designed to avoid potential backlash, for the third cutscene in which a child was born out of wedlock." That this statement is missing a modifier doesn't make it any less ludicrous. Adding the cutscene depicting Junior arriving "out of wedlock" was a move designed to "avoid potential backlash?"
Sarkeesian tells us that the reason these "feminizing gendered signifiers" are used is to convey to the consumer that this character is female, as they are part of our "culture's visual vocabulary." Sarkeesian asserts that these signifiers are "arbitrary and abstract. There's nothing about a bow...that's intrinsically feminine." She may be right. If she put a bow in her hair for these videos, I probably would still not discern any intrinsically feminine qualities about her.
The reason that employing these feminizing signifiers is problematic, according to Anita, is that they "reinforce strict binary forms of gender expression. The gender binary is an entirely artificial and socially constructed division of male and female into two distinctly separate...classes of human being." Nonsense. Progressives like Anita love to talk about how they believe in science and reason over faith and superstition, but too often they display the same credulity of social sciences that they mock in those leading spiritual lives.
Recent research in biology is pretty clear that there is a gender binary. Little boys like to play with trucks and it's not because they are indoctrinated by pernicious cultural forces. Research shows that chemical and hormonal exposure in utero influences play preferences and even sexual orientation.
The reason I am deconstructing FemFreq's videos, such as here, and here, and Sarkeesian herself, such as here and here is not just because of #Gamergate. #Gamergate will evolve and grow and become something else, but what I call the SJW Overwatch will still be with us. They will be with us for as long as future Overwatch shock troops keep receiving marxist indoctrination in our universities. They will graduate and take their speech codes and "only yes means yes" revocation of due process for males with them into the wider culture.
I will say that this particular FemFreq video is worth watching just for the eighties advertisements and the New Wave influences on fashion that are on display. For that reason alone, I will click the "like" button on this video. You are welcome, Anita!
Sarkeesian starts her video off with her usual disclaimer, "it's entirely possible to be critical of some aspects of a piece of media, while still finding other parts valuable or enjoyable." It might be possible, Anita, but it's not likely, because once someone like you has pointed out that what they enjoy is problematic, the entirety of the experience is devalued. And I seriously doubt you yourself derive any "enjoyment" whatsoever out of the media you are "criticizing." If you are attuned to gender disparagement, that's all you will notice.
Ms. Male Character spends a fair amount of time discussing Ms. Pac-Man. Up until viewing this video, I would not have found it possible to take offense at Ms. Pac-Man, but Sarkeesian does, calling her design just "Pac-Man with a bow." Sarkeesian says there was "an 11th-hour move designed to avoid potential backlash, for the third cutscene in which a child was born out of wedlock." That this statement is missing a modifier doesn't make it any less ludicrous. Adding the cutscene depicting Junior arriving "out of wedlock" was a move designed to "avoid potential backlash?"
Sarkeesian tells us that the reason these "feminizing gendered signifiers" are used is to convey to the consumer that this character is female, as they are part of our "culture's visual vocabulary." Sarkeesian asserts that these signifiers are "arbitrary and abstract. There's nothing about a bow...that's intrinsically feminine." She may be right. If she put a bow in her hair for these videos, I probably would still not discern any intrinsically feminine qualities about her.
The reason that employing these feminizing signifiers is problematic, according to Anita, is that they "reinforce strict binary forms of gender expression. The gender binary is an entirely artificial and socially constructed division of male and female into two distinctly separate...classes of human being." Nonsense. Progressives like Anita love to talk about how they believe in science and reason over faith and superstition, but too often they display the same credulity of social sciences that they mock in those leading spiritual lives.
Recent research in biology is pretty clear that there is a gender binary. Little boys like to play with trucks and it's not because they are indoctrinated by pernicious cultural forces. Research shows that chemical and hormonal exposure in utero influences play preferences and even sexual orientation.
Thursday, January 08, 2015
Smiley-Faced Killers
This week it will have been six years since my mother, Sarah, passed on. She got breast cancer and fought it for years. My family members and I put out on a little boat from Santa Barbara harbor and scattered her ashes at sea.
She belonged to an Episcopal church led by and attended by open homosexuals, back when this was still problematic. The question that went begging was who was ministering to whom? This is an example not of her tolerance of all people, but her love and acceptance of them. The pastor of the Episcopal church where she was eulogized, described her passing as a "little sheep going back to its flock."
We are still trying to understand why cancer attacks people, and how to fight it. I am hopeful that someday soon, there will be treatments for cancer that will render radiation and chemotherapy as relics, barbaric and of a piece with bloodletting and applying leeches.
This is why research is so important. Research that costs big money.
My older sister also got breast cancer about twenty years ago, and she has been in remission ever since. To support her, I would drive each Spring to Fashion Valley Mall and walk with her in the "Race For The Cure," sponsored by the Komen Foundation. I have a half-a-dozen t-shirts that I wear with honor, that I earned at the walks.
So when Planned Parenthood decided to destroy the Komen Foundation, I took it personally. Why would an organization dedicated to "women's rights" set out to destroy a charity that wants to keep women alive? Because Komen Foundation decided they would no longer fund Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood doesn't provide mammograms. They don’t offer breast biopsies or breast ultrasounds either. All they do is referrals for women seeking cancer prevention and treatment.
Planned Parenthood's mode of production is the liquidation of human life in its most vulnerable state of development. I often wonder how Cecile Richards sleeps at night, if she is visited by phantasms.
Maybe she drinks. Sonderkommandos were given rations of alcohol to deaden them to their task of shoving bodies into the ovens.
Today Komen is a shadow of its former self. Contributions are down, because they pissed off the abortion fanatics, then gave in to their pressure and renewed the funding to Planned Parenthood. Pro-life advocates still call for supporters to boycott Komen.
My mother went back to her flock in her time, but it was still too soon for me. What moments we may have shared together, we will never know.
She belonged to an Episcopal church led by and attended by open homosexuals, back when this was still problematic. The question that went begging was who was ministering to whom? This is an example not of her tolerance of all people, but her love and acceptance of them. The pastor of the Episcopal church where she was eulogized, described her passing as a "little sheep going back to its flock."
We are still trying to understand why cancer attacks people, and how to fight it. I am hopeful that someday soon, there will be treatments for cancer that will render radiation and chemotherapy as relics, barbaric and of a piece with bloodletting and applying leeches.
This is why research is so important. Research that costs big money.
My older sister also got breast cancer about twenty years ago, and she has been in remission ever since. To support her, I would drive each Spring to Fashion Valley Mall and walk with her in the "Race For The Cure," sponsored by the Komen Foundation. I have a half-a-dozen t-shirts that I wear with honor, that I earned at the walks.
So when Planned Parenthood decided to destroy the Komen Foundation, I took it personally. Why would an organization dedicated to "women's rights" set out to destroy a charity that wants to keep women alive? Because Komen Foundation decided they would no longer fund Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood doesn't provide mammograms. They don’t offer breast biopsies or breast ultrasounds either. All they do is referrals for women seeking cancer prevention and treatment.
Planned Parenthood's mode of production is the liquidation of human life in its most vulnerable state of development. I often wonder how Cecile Richards sleeps at night, if she is visited by phantasms.
Maybe she drinks. Sonderkommandos were given rations of alcohol to deaden them to their task of shoving bodies into the ovens.
Today Komen is a shadow of its former self. Contributions are down, because they pissed off the abortion fanatics, then gave in to their pressure and renewed the funding to Planned Parenthood. Pro-life advocates still call for supporters to boycott Komen.
My mother went back to her flock in her time, but it was still too soon for me. What moments we may have shared together, we will never know.
Wednesday, January 07, 2015
Je Suis Charlie
I thought it would be different this time. This wasn't Major Hassan standing on top of a desk, blasting American soldiers. This wasn't hijackers flying airplanes into buildings, symbols of American economic, military and political power. Those and other attacks have been twisted by Islamist apologists into acts that are somehow justified by our so-called imperialism.
This was an attack by the sword of Islam, on the pen, and on those who wield ideas.
But willful ignorance is nonetheless on display by the fellow travelers of those slaughtered today. Miriam Krule at Slate Magazine said that "while both the motive and the identity of the perpetrators are still unknown..." They were shouting "Allahu Akbar" and "We have avenged the Prophet." The identity of the butchers may have yet to be confirmed, but anyone with even the slightest discernment can identify the motive. All I needed to determine motive, is to learn who was murdered.
The cartoonists and editor of Charlie Hebdo were murdered today. Charlie Hebdo has published inflammatory cartoons featuring the Pope, and Jews, but that's not what set off the bloodthirsty rage of the muhajid. It was a series of cartoons featuring the pedophile savage Mohammed, who has commanded his followers to spread his word by the sword.
Some people get it. Egypt is the largest Arab country, and their President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, made a New Year's speech calling for a religious revolution. He said, "the Islamic world is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost. And it is being lost by our own hands."
Even Secretary of State John Kerry gets it. He said today's atrocity was part of "a larger confrontation, not between civilizations, but between civilization itself and those who are opposed to a civilized world."
This was an attack by the sword of Islam, on the pen, and on those who wield ideas.
But willful ignorance is nonetheless on display by the fellow travelers of those slaughtered today. Miriam Krule at Slate Magazine said that "while both the motive and the identity of the perpetrators are still unknown..." They were shouting "Allahu Akbar" and "We have avenged the Prophet." The identity of the butchers may have yet to be confirmed, but anyone with even the slightest discernment can identify the motive. All I needed to determine motive, is to learn who was murdered.
The cartoonists and editor of Charlie Hebdo were murdered today. Charlie Hebdo has published inflammatory cartoons featuring the Pope, and Jews, but that's not what set off the bloodthirsty rage of the muhajid. It was a series of cartoons featuring the pedophile savage Mohammed, who has commanded his followers to spread his word by the sword.
Some people get it. Egypt is the largest Arab country, and their President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, made a New Year's speech calling for a religious revolution. He said, "the Islamic world is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost. And it is being lost by our own hands."
Even Secretary of State John Kerry gets it. He said today's atrocity was part of "a larger confrontation, not between civilizations, but between civilization itself and those who are opposed to a civilized world."
Tuesday, January 06, 2015
Sucky Number Slevin
The wife and I were searching for a movie to watch on Netflix the other night, and she liked the trailer for Lucky Number Slevin. The trailer is cute, with lots of wisecracking, Josh Hartnett taking punches with aplomb and accidentally exposing himself to Lucy Liu, and a couple of kidnappers that engage in witty repartee.
Slevin: I'm not the guy you're looking for. I don't live here.
Sloe: Well you look like the guy who lives here.
Slevin: You don't know what the guy who lives here looks like.
Henchman: What he means to say is you look like you live here.
Henchman glances at Sloe for reinforcement.
Sloe: Yeah that's what I mean to say.
Funny, funny stuff, and Sloe, played by Mykelti Williamson, has a speech affectation involving his lower mandible, just like when he played Bubba in Forrest Gump! The trailer has a jazzy saxophone riff and lots of Bruce Willis, and what I think is, edgy and off-beat like Pulp Fiction
I will never know if this movie is better or worse than the 51% rating from Rotten Tomatoes. We couldn't get past the first five minutes. In the first scene, a man is walking to his car in a parking garage. He approaches a dirty car with grimy windows, when bang, for no reason, he is assassinated in a hail of bullets. Who is this character, and why was he bumped off, we aren't told. The viewer is just startled by this sudden act of violence.
In the next scene, Bruce Willis attempts some exposition by talking about the "Kansas City Shuffle," to a young man in an airport waiting room. Then he snaps his neck. Who was this this doe-eyed young man, and why did he have to get bumped off by Bruce Willis? Then I started wondering about who is Bruce Willis's hairpiece wrangler. Does driving around with a portfolio of rugs pay well? Will the rug wrangler be mentioned in the credits?
After Bruce Willis and his squirrel, excuse me, Mr. Goodkat and his squirrel, kill this guy, there is a montage of random people walking out of random buildings and being greeted with volleys of small-arms fire. The bodies are really starting to pile up. There has been no attempt by the director, Paul McGuigan, to explain who these corpses are or why they needed to become corpses.
That's a little thing called context, Mr. McGuigan.
Best of luck with your directing career, Mr. McGuigan. Er, after looking at your IMDB biography, maybe I should leave out the directing part. You made Wicker Park? Didn't see it. You made Push? Seems like that was the last time anyone saw Dakota Fanning.
Hard to imagine a movie where more talent was wasted. Ben Kingsley, Stanley Tucci, Morgan Freeman, Danny Aiello, even Robert Forster! I would rather have a dental procedure than watch this movie, that's how bad it was. I would rather watch a porno sitting next to my sister. I'd tell you not to quit your day job, but you probably suck at that too.
Slevin: I'm not the guy you're looking for. I don't live here.
Sloe: Well you look like the guy who lives here.
Slevin: You don't know what the guy who lives here looks like.
Henchman: What he means to say is you look like you live here.
Henchman glances at Sloe for reinforcement.
Sloe: Yeah that's what I mean to say.
Funny, funny stuff, and Sloe, played by Mykelti Williamson, has a speech affectation involving his lower mandible, just like when he played Bubba in Forrest Gump! The trailer has a jazzy saxophone riff and lots of Bruce Willis, and what I think is, edgy and off-beat like Pulp Fiction
I will never know if this movie is better or worse than the 51% rating from Rotten Tomatoes. We couldn't get past the first five minutes. In the first scene, a man is walking to his car in a parking garage. He approaches a dirty car with grimy windows, when bang, for no reason, he is assassinated in a hail of bullets. Who is this character, and why was he bumped off, we aren't told. The viewer is just startled by this sudden act of violence.
In the next scene, Bruce Willis attempts some exposition by talking about the "Kansas City Shuffle," to a young man in an airport waiting room. Then he snaps his neck. Who was this this doe-eyed young man, and why did he have to get bumped off by Bruce Willis? Then I started wondering about who is Bruce Willis's hairpiece wrangler. Does driving around with a portfolio of rugs pay well? Will the rug wrangler be mentioned in the credits?
After Bruce Willis and his squirrel, excuse me, Mr. Goodkat and his squirrel, kill this guy, there is a montage of random people walking out of random buildings and being greeted with volleys of small-arms fire. The bodies are really starting to pile up. There has been no attempt by the director, Paul McGuigan, to explain who these corpses are or why they needed to become corpses.
That's a little thing called context, Mr. McGuigan.
Best of luck with your directing career, Mr. McGuigan. Er, after looking at your IMDB biography, maybe I should leave out the directing part. You made Wicker Park? Didn't see it. You made Push? Seems like that was the last time anyone saw Dakota Fanning.
Hard to imagine a movie where more talent was wasted. Ben Kingsley, Stanley Tucci, Morgan Freeman, Danny Aiello, even Robert Forster! I would rather have a dental procedure than watch this movie, that's how bad it was. I would rather watch a porno sitting next to my sister. I'd tell you not to quit your day job, but you probably suck at that too.
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