2014-05-31

Non-Sequitur

Wes Anderson makes me want to make a movie.

That is all.

Awesome People


Data Collection Is For Communists

Not for school buses.

Not for children.

And sure as hell ain't for 'democracy.'

And so it is with central planning. From Le Quebecois Libre:

"This data is of the utmost importance so that we the people might better plan the utilization of our brawn and brains, and put these qualities to work producing goods and services for our fellow citizens. Of course, individually, we cannot be counted upon to act in our own best interests, nor to spontaneously coordinate our actions to the benefit of others in society, for we are, as individuals, sorely lacking in basic common sense. It is to save us from ourselves, and more specifically from our ignorance and folly, that governments are instituted among us."

Scoff if you must but this is precisely how my lefty friends think. When pushed to their logical end, they always admit their belief (more like retarded fetish) in big government is predicated on the fact that people are too stupid to make the right choice and take the right decisions.

As defined by them naturally.

Common sense? Come and see my municipality in Rosemere. One month observing their behavior towards citizens and you'll see there is none. There's only force.

"Some ideologues oppose the government’s involvement in the job market, arguing that no amount of data collection would ever suffice for the top-down organization of such complex and dynamic interactions. They claim that central plans cannot be but blunt instruments, bruising and smashing individual hopes and dreams, and distorting the incentives and price signals that would otherwise allow individual workers and employers to make the best use of their resources given the constraints of reality. They believe that without allowing free play to the forces of the market, the data that central planners need never even emerges and therefore cannot be collected. Some go so far as to call for the dismantling of the programs on which the government spends those billions, given the impossibility of resolving its inherent blindness."

Personally, the less they (whoever) know the better. The more they know, the more the tyranny.

As it stands, the government has a lot of information on us. By a lot I mean they pretty much own us. So excuse me if I don't shed a tear if a long form census is cancelled, or Stats Can has to make do with less or any other agency. Our lives will not change. Canada won't fall apart without the CBC over rating our culture. We'll manage. We'll do so because I like to think us a little more dynamic than all this. I trust that free minds will produce prosperity. It generally always has. It's only when anemic minds and wussy pansies using bull shit and useless code words for control like "equality" and "fairness" and "trigger warnings" and multiple other left-wing jargon does it get all messed up.

People left to their own devices tend to thrive.

I know assumed the position. "Thank you, may I have another and if I have nothing to hide, I have nothing to worry about."

2014-05-30

Question

Not that I think it's much of a story either way,  is Donald Sterling right or wrong to sue the NBA?

Personally, if I were an owner, I wouldn't vote him out. He may be a racist but I wouldn't get sucked in to all this holier than thou, pearl clutching bull shit and hypocrisy I'm reading and seeing.

More importantly, what did Lebron tweet about this, ESPN?




Heroes!

"There was no clothes, no toys, nothing to indicate that there was children present in the home. If there had been then we'd have done something different,” Darby said.
 

"Everyone's sleeping. There's a loud bang and a bright light," Phonesavanh said. "The cops threw that grenade in the door without looking first, and it landed right in the playpen and exploded on his pillow right in his face."

They arrested Wanis Thometheva, 30, during the raid."


Hey, it was an accident, but you know, war on drugs!

Deplorable.




The Problem The U.S. Economy In One Chart

The trend seems to have started in the late 1970s. In any event, this is a real disturbing trend in a nation whose entrepreneurship was the backbone of its once free economy.


2014-05-29

How Conservatives Should View Government

Article in First Things titled The Good of Government by Roger Scruton. 

I'm tired tonight and have taken to pasting large parts of the article without further comment. I think the part about modern welfare stripping people of their accountability to their fellow citizens is spot on and is a theme I hammer away at under the term 'enabling.' Liberal policies are destructive on this front and will continue to be so until people who vote for it wise up. North American liberals are repeating the same mistakes as their European counterparts. Only they don't see or admit it because they've convinced themselves they're rational and 'live in reality.' In their minds perhaps, but to the rest of us it's hideous social engineering.

Anyway. I think he's off on some parts. For example, no clue what ""the fundamental human need for government" means. 

"...In other words, in our tradition, government and freedom have a single source, which is the human disposition to hold each other to account for what we do. No free society can come into being without the exercise of this disposition, and the freedom that Americans rightly cherish in their heritage is simply the other side of the American habit of recognizing their accountability toward others. Americans, faced with a local emergency, combine with their neighbors to address it, while Europeans sit around helplessly until the servants of the state arrive. That is the kind of thing we have in mind when we describe this country as the “land of the free.” We don’t mean a land without government; we mean a land with this kind of government—the kind that springs up spon­taneously between individuals who feel accountable to each other...."

...When conservatives grumble against government it is against government that seems to them to be imposed from outside, like the government of an occupying power. That was the kind of government that grew in Europe under communism, and which is growing again under the European Union—softer, gentler, perhaps, but also unaccountable. And it is easy to think that a similarly alien form of government is growing in America, as a result of the liberal policy of regimenting the American people according to moral beliefs that are to a certain measure alien, leading them to denounce government tout court. But this would be a mistake, not just about the fundamental human need for government, but also about the American situation as compared with Europe. And because it is a mistake that so many conservatives make, it is time to warn against it..."

"...The business of conservatives is to criticize the ones who are misusing government, and who seek to extend its remit beyond the limits that the rest of us spontaneously recognize. Conservatism should be a defense of government against its abuse by liberals."

"...This cause has been damaged by the failure of many conservatives to understand the true meaning of the welfare state. During the twentieth century it became clear that many matters not previously considered by the political process had arrived on the public agenda. Politicians began to recognize that if government is to enjoy the consent of those who gain no comparative advantage from their social membership, it must offer some kind of quid pro quo. This became apparent in the two world wars, when people from all classes of society were required to fight and if necessary to die. Why should they do this, if membership in the society for which they risked their lives had brought them no evident advantages? The fundamental principle was therefore widely accepted that the state has a responsibility for the welfare of its more needy citizens. This principle is merely the full-scale version of the belief adhered to by all small societies, that people should be cared for by the community when they are unable to care for themselves.

The emergence of the welfare state was therefore a more or less inevitable result of popular democracy under the impact of total war. If the welfare state has become controversial in recent times it is not because it is a departure from some natural idea of government. It is rather because it has expanded in a way that undermines its own legitimacy. As we know from both the American and the European examples, welfare policies may lead to the creation of a socially dysfunctional underclass. Sustained without work or responsibilities from generation to generation, people lose the habit of accounting to others, turn their backs on freedom, and become locked in social pathologies that undermine the cohesion of society."

That result is the opposite of the one intended, and came about in part because of the liberal mind-set, which believes that only the wealthy are accountable, since only they are truly free. The poor, the indigent, and the vulnerable are, on the liberal view, inherently blameless, and nothing bad that arises from their conduct can really be laid at their door. They are not responsible for their lives, since they have not been “empowered” to be responsible. Responsibility for their condition lies with the state. The only question is what more the state should do for them, in order to remedy the defects of which state benevolence is in part the cause.  

But that way of seeing things expresses a false conception of government. The responsibilities exercised by government are rooted in the accountability of citizens. When government creates an unaccountable class it exceeds its remit, by undermining the relation on which its own legitimacy depends.

The liberal mind-set has therefore led to a conception of government that conservatives view with deep suspicion. In the liberal worldview—and you see this magisterially embodied in the philosophy of John Rawls—the state exists in order to allocate the social product. The rich are not really rich, because they don’t own that stuff. All goods, in liberal eyes, are unowned until distributed. And the state distributes the goods according to a principle of fairness that takes no account of the moral legacy of our free agreements or of the moral effects of a state-subsidized underclass.

(For the record, I fall into this category. Liberal orthodoxy has become too extreme for my taste)

On the liberal view, therefore, government is the art of seizing and then redistributing the good things to which all citizens have a claim. (This may seem hard on the rich, but in fact it is psychologically convenient for them, since it removes the obligation to account for their wealth.) On this view government is not the expression of a preexisting social order shaped by our free agreements and our natural disposition to hold our neighbor to account. It is the creator and manager of a social order framed according to its ruling doctrine of fairness and imposed on the people by a series of top-down decrees. Wherever this liberal conception prevails, government increases its power, while losing its inner authority. It becomes the “market-state” of Philip Bobbitt, which offers a deal to its citizens in return for their taxes, and demands no loyalty or obedience beyond a respect for the agreed terms of the deal.

"But such a state no longer embodies the ethos of a nation, and no longer commands any loyalty beyond the loyalty sought by the average chain store. As in the social democracies of Europe, public displays of patriotism, of shared allegiance and pride in the country and its history, dwindle to a few desultory spasms, and the political class as a whole begins to be looked upon with sarcasm and contempt. Government ceases to be ours and becomes theirs—the property of the anonymous bureaucracy on which we all nevertheless depend for our creature comforts...."

"...In other words, ordinary Americans have a conception of government that is not only natural, but at variance with the liberal idea of the state as a redistributive machine. In attacking the liberal idea, conservatives should make clear that they are reaffirming a real and natural alternative. They are defending government as an expression in symbolic and authoritative forms of our deep accountability to each other" 

"This does not mean that conservatives are wedded to some libertarian conception of the minimal state. The growth of modern societies has created social needs that the old patterns of free association are no longer able to satisfy. But the correct response is not to forbid the state from intruding into the areas of welfare, health care, education, and the rest, but to limit its contribution to the point where citizens’ initiatives can once again take the lead. Conservatives want a society guided by public spirit. But public spirit grows only among people who are free to act on it, and to take pleasure in the result.  

Yet, this is the libertarian position. Honestly, I don't see much of a difference here between what he's advocating for conservatives and libertarians. In the end, it's classical liberalism.

The problem with this article is he's taking to task one strand of conservatives (Tea Party, Limbaugh etc.) but ignores the others (Soccons and RINO's for example) who actually have little or no problem with big government. He further conflates 'voluntary association' with 'government.' Not the same. One is free, the other is coerced action.






2014-05-28

Why I Will Or Can Never Use Public Transit

Every other day the topic of the day is the need to improve public transit in order to get people to use it more.

The push to convince people to get out of their cars and into the tight, impersonal confines of public transit is a gentle but persistent one.

It may be this constant harassing  has convinced and converted some, others have always been accustomed to using it (depending where they live) and obviously swear by it - which means they can't understand stubborn troglodytes like me don't use it.

And never will.

For many reasons. Not that I need to explain myself to anyone but here goes.

1) I live in the suburbs. It's not practical for me.
2) I live an extremely active life because of the businesses I engage in. So efficient use of time is crucial. Time is money. I need to be in my Jeep going back and forth purchasing items for my daycare among other things. Can't carry big toy houses on a bus so easily know what I mean?
3) Not interested in carrying grocery bags on a bus.
4) I'm extremely uncomfortable in crowded spaces.
5) In any event, we don't have a very accessible bus and Metro route. It's very limited. What can take me 15 minutes to do in my car would take one hour using the BMW (Bus, metro, walk). I just can't spare that kind of time. Especially with a kid in many activities.
6) Not interested in dealing with semi-rude public transit workers. Had horrible experiences as a kid I'd rather forget.
7) It simply doesn't cater to my needs; my life.
8) It's unionized. Have them wear gloves and treat citizens like customers and maybe I'd consider it. Maybe not.
 9) My car has AIR-CONDITIONING and Sirius satellite radio which I enjoy.

I don't know where all this is going. I can see a day come when we'll be subjected to laws limiting the use of cars. Something like enforcing a "three-day" a week system. At which point the economy would (naturally) suffer. The economy is in our cars in many cases.

But that won't matter to the tree-hugging prog. What will matter is the use of coercion to fit their visions.

Until then, leave me alone.

I got things to do.

Like pay bills and taxes so that they can take and design policy against my interests.







Phrases I Hate

Be on the look-out for a new vapid term: Share-in economy.

This will be a popular term among liberal and progressive political parties and ideological hipsters.


2014-05-27

Debating Air



Try and follow the logic.

The scary part?

Policy is linked closer to putzes like this guy. Statistics be damned. His perception of violent crime in Europe is woefully hilarious and depressing at the same time. Europe has higher violent crime rates than the USA. So does Canada on assault and rape. For its part, the majority of gun violence in the USA is gang related.

Danm. Under that leopard coat was an Eagles jersey.

RuPaul's Natural Common Sense

Sometimes voices of reason come from unlikely sources. To some, RuPaul may be a "tranny" or freak but his/her (I'm so confused. Doesn't take much) values and comments on victimhood are spot on.

All these people who ban words, censor ideas, shout down opinions - each and every one of them have bigger problems and it's staring right back at them in the mirror. They're tyrants and offer little to the true progress of man except to blanket us with a Dark Age.




Landscape Scars Of World War I

Fall Of The West Reason 49967700099900: You Go Girl

And the UK is leading the charge to our downward spiral.

When historians hundreds of years down the road examine where it all went wrong they will point out, among other things,  political correctness gone amok.

"But TV presenter Mariella Frostrup backed the corporation’s stance, telling the Mail on Sunday: ‘I can imagine why it would be controversial. The athlete may not have been offended but the BBC has to think of the sensibilities of everybody watching.’

A BBC spokesman said: ‘Mark didn’t mean to cause offence. But the word “girl” was taken out just in case it did.’

Maybe we should stop funding public broadcasters...just in case.

These people are fucking insane. This is how tyranny is formed. It won't be long before speech and thought will be tightly controlled.

Shoot, some argue we're already on that trajectory.


A Taste Of Their Own Medicine

Love this. Props to the public journalist with the whistle. How does it feel proggie to be shouted down? Not fun, eh dearie? Mind you, I don't think she or her pony-tailed partnered got the point of the exercise.


Swiss Sliding Slope

Ah, the slippery slope.

Swiss to allow assisted suicide of elderly people not terminally ill.

Slipping and sliding all the way to the Netherlands.

It is why I laugh (in horror) whenever I hear Quebec politicians who advocate for assisted suicide (i.e. murder) say there will be 'strict measures' in place so as not to kill assist dying people.

We all damn well know where it will end up once that bag is opened up.

Get your 'I want to live' passport ready folks. We're heading for darker times.

'Voluntary' will one day become 'compulsory.'

This is the natural evolution of man; to coerce. There will be abuse.

That's why I oppose it.

BMI Is Bull Shit But Not To New York

Imagine getting one of these letters from your school?

Does this kid look fat to you?

By this measure, we're all "fat".

We're taking this obsession with weight a little too far when the Department of Education begins to send letters of this kind.

Thankfully, so far anyway, none of this totalitarian ignorance exhibited by 'progressive' New York happens at my kid's (or any school I'm aware of here) school.

Fat-shaming,” experts called the practice on Thursday, criticizing both the fallibility of BMI calculations and the mental-health effects of kids being graded on their size.
Modal Trigger
Gwendolyn, 9, a third-grader at PS 29, at her house in Staten Island.

“My friend who was next to me, she opened hers, too, and she was overweight too, and we were both saying, ‘Did the Fitnessgrams get mixed up?’” said Gwendolyn, who plays softball and loves to ride her scooter.

“I just don’t think that it’s fair to be called overweight when you’re not really overweight!”
BMI, while supported by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was designed decades ago by the insurance industry as a way of assessing the health of groups of people, not individuals, said Chevese Turner of the Binge Eating Disorder Association.

“Dieting, especially for kids, is the gateway drug for eating disorders, and so is the public shaming that can come with this,” she said of the Fitnessgrams.

“My organization and others believe that BMI report cards have no place coming from schools and can be more harmful than helpful.”

A DOE spokeswoman defended the Fitnessgrams Thursday as “just one indicator … which helps students develop personal goals for lifelong health.”
But for Gwendolyn, the Fitnessgrams are just dumb.

“I know that I’m not overweight, so why should I believe the New York Department of Education?” she said.

You shouldn't believe a damn word they say. In fact, ignore the fuckers.

This kind of interference in private lives is getting too routine...and frightening. I hope parents make a stink.

2014-05-26

The Toronto Maple Leafs Past Hockey Discrimination

Doesn't surprise me one bit if the Toronto Maple Leafs (under Conn Smythe) practiced discrimination against Italian-Canadians. It would fit right into Canada's sketchy past on race issues. The Leafs weren't alone. The Boston Red Sox (a town not immune to racism) were one of the last teams in baseball to have blacks play for them. People (including my father) said the same thing about the Montreal Canadiens not giving Italians a chance. They 're still upset at the organization trading Tony Esposito. The Habs, in fact, still discriminate.

But T.C.! It's not discrimination when it comes to matter of respect and protection of culture!

Fucking idiots.

I digress.

Some of it is definitely hurt feelings and perhaps even paranoia. However, we'd be fools to not think there was more at work.

The United States was always more progressive in integrating its immigrants. Sports is usually (a coincidental if not leading indicator) reflective of a nation's cultural make-up.

Italians were well-represented on American professional and amateur teams for decades before they began to appear on Canadian teams. Now, some of it is a function of population (among other things) of course, but I personally was suspicious.

Obviously, times have changed. They have too and if we don't change along with it we will be left behind deservedly forever forgotten.






From California To Canada; No Place Is Immuned From Random Acts Of Murder.

Is it me or was this incident where a man stabbed five people in a North York building under reported?

I could be wrong.

Anyway.

No one was killed.

Canada is no stranger, of course, to gruesome murders; indeed we have had our fair share of serial killers. The most recent examples were the killing by decapitation of Tim McLean on a Greyhound Bus.

And the disturbing and bizarre story of Luka Magnotta who killed and dismembered his victim Lin Jun. 

With the California killing spree by the hand of a narcissistic and creepy nutcase Elliot Rodgers hogging the news even up here, just thought I might remind us Canadians we have our own skeletons.

Worse, we let some of our murderers out. Like Karla Homolka (thanks to a plea deal) and Denis Lortie (a paranoid schizophrenic who had his charges reduced to second degree murder due to a legal error) who now works in construction despite having killed THREE people during his rampage.

The Story Of The AMC Pacer

Neat documentary on the AMC Pacer via Skeptical Eye:



Always enjoy reading and watching the history of automobile manufacturers and companies. Such a rich tapestry of characters, ideas and culture often reflecting and mirroring the mindset and pulse of people and consumers. Between the great car nations of Germany, England, Italy, France, Sweden, Japan and of course the good 'ole USA there are no shortage of great stories.

The USA in particular produced Hot Rods and Muscle Cars as well as the great cruising motorcycles that reflected its rebellious spirit often created as odes to freedom.

Italy, for its part, were obsessed with elegant and daring design focused on one thing Italians craved: Speed.

/wipes tear.




NCCM And Hamas: The Conservatives Believe There's A Link; NCCM Thinks Otherwise And Sues

So, the National Council of Canadian Muslims wants to take Harper and the government to court for believing and publicly stating it has ties to Hamas.

Does it?

Look for yourself.

Suspicious.

However, the Muslim bashing I'm seeing on comments threads is unfortunate.

Guns'N Maps America

Keep &$%^#@** Right!!!

This is a rant. So 'trigger warning' for you sensitive hams. Foul language follows.

Although not sure how this doesn't veer too much off from most of my posts.

Bah.

I've been jogging and cycling seriously for, what, 27 years?

Never mind about team sports.

So I know what I'm fucking talking about. And when I go off on being upset about people not understanding the basic etiquette on the road it's got weight.

It's absolutely ridiculous how many people don't grasp the basic concept and politesse of 'keeping right' on a bike path. These past couple of days I musta counted at least 15 people hogging the path without a care or clue. At one point, one lady stopped in the middle of the path to attend to her baby in a carriage! Inconsiderate action on her part considering there's a bleeping sidewalk to which she could have easily shifted over to.

Instead she forces the rest of us runners or cyclists off the path onto the street and into harm's way.

At least she kept right.

At one point I had to make a 'switch sides' signal to a fellow runner who was on the wrong side.

All this suggests to me 'johnny come lately' don't understand there are common rules of the road.

It's good people take to activities like running but it shows they have no background in sports or athletics when they pull crap like that.

I have no patience for it because it can lead to injuries and accidents.

And no, I don't advocate for a fucking law. People have to figure this shit out for themselves as FREE individuals. Leave the tyranny garbage to leftists.

While I'm on the subject of know-nothings, it's getting a little tiresome to have to listen to pearl clutching buffoons interfere into sports. I don't expect these folks to understand 'unwritten codes' and internal policing that exists in sports but whenever they open their nanny mouths they only show they never picked up a hockey stick or tackled someone in their lives.

It's annoying to watch our sports and the competitive nature of athletics slowly whither away because of the hype around certain injuries (eg concussions). As usual, rules and laws come into place without much proper contextualization and in the end the sports suffers.

I wish there was a way to tell these people to fuck off and go take their helicopter bull shit elsewhere.

For the children my ass.

Fin rant.

Business Plan

Was looking for content for my e-Talian blog when I stumbled on the worldofbusinessculture.com website and some tips for doing business in Italia. One tip in particular caught my attention because I agree with it:

"In-depth, long-term planning is not really expected or respected. Such planning is pointless in a rapidly changing, volatile business and personal environment. Long-term plans, if they exist at all, tend to be in grand-outline terms only."

I agree.

The long-term business plan is useless.



2014-05-25

Efficient France

There so efficient, they're wasteful.



SNCF train

(pic from Francois Guillot - AFP/Getty)

The Guardian (link above):

"The train due on platform one will not be arriving for the foreseeable future – because it is too big.
France's national railway operator SNCF has ordered 2,000 new trains that are too large for many of the stations they are due to serve.

The train operator has admitted failing to verify measurements it was given by the rail operator before ordering its new rolling stock.

The costly mistake has sparked an urgent €50m operation to modify 1,300 platforms on the regional network. SNCF has admitted that one in six regional train stations is affected. In the worst cases it has discovered two trains can no longer pass each other on adjacent lines."

That's Quebec territory right there.

Anyway. The idea is good. Just don't let bureaucrats organize it or anywhere near the money.

Fall Of The West Reason 5969797

Labor board determines Hooters can't force employees to be polite to patrons.

Perfect. Just. Fucking. Perfect.

"A New York National Labor Relations Board judge ruled that a Hooters franchise cannot force its employees to act in a respectful manner toward customers, nor could managers punish employees for insubordination."

The next clueless asshole with no skin in the game who tells me there's too much 'deregulation' is gonna get it from me.

Tyrants Roam Free Inside Obama Administration

Science "czar" John Holdren on forced marriage and abortion:

From The Zombie in the link:
 

"Forced abortions. Mass sterilization. A "Planetary Regime" with the power of life and death over American citizens.

The tyrannical fantasies of a madman? Or merely the opinions of the person now in control of science policy in the United States? Or both?

These ideas (among many other equally horrifying recommendations) were put forth by John Holdren, whom Barack Obama has recently appointed Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Co-Chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology -- informally known as the United States' Science Czar. In a book Holdren co-authored in 1977, the man now firmly in control of science policy in this country wrote that:

• Women could be forced to abort their pregnancies, whether they wanted to or not;
• The population at large could be sterilized by infertility drugs intentionally put into the nation's drinking water or in food;
• Single mothers and teen mothers should have their babies seized from them against their will and given away to other couples to raise;
• People who "contribute to social deterioration" (i.e. undesirables) "can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility" -- in other words, be compelled to have abortions or be sterilized.
• A transnational "Planetary Regime" should assume control of the global economy and also dictate the most intimate details of Americans' lives -- using an armed international police force.

Impossible, you say? That must be an exaggeration or a hoax. No one in their right mind would say such things.

Well, I hate to break the news to you, but it is no hoax, no exaggeration. John Holdren really did say those things, and this report contains the proof. Below you will find photographs, scans, and transcriptions of pages in the book Ecoscience, co-authored in 1977 by John Holdren and his close colleagues Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich. The scans and photos are provided to supply conclusive evidence that the words attributed to Holdren are unaltered and accurately transcribed."


And Obama just nominated him!

Or is Obama so clueless he needs the newspapers to inform of this nutcase?

"Although free and easy association of the sexes might be tolerated in such a society, responsible parenthood ought to be encouraged and illegitimate childbearing could be strongly discouraged. One way to carry out this disapproval might be to insist that all illegitimate babies be put up for adoption—especially those born to minors, who generally are not capable of caring properly for a child alone. If a single mother really wished to keep her baby, she might be obliged to go through adoption proceedings and demonstrate her ability to support and care for it. Adoption proceedings probably should remain more difficult for single people than for married couples, in recognition of the relative difficulty of raising children alone. It would even he possible to require pregnant single women to marry or have abortions, perhaps as an alternative to placement for adoption, depending on the society."

Fucking psycho. 

If this doesn't send a shiver down the spines of people, I don't what will. This is the logical end of "we can't trust people to do the right thing." You take them over and strip them of their sovereignty. This is all academics and progressives know: FORCE. This is their ultimate solution to everything. COERCION.


And you're complicit if you accept it.

What should be obvious to anyone by now watching with an ounce of critical thought this administration is its virulent progressive bent.

They say the right is anti-science.

Are you mad to think this?

Lies on science (and economics) have always and will always have friends in the left. Think 'Population Bomb' and other stupid doomsday scenarios that never came true and that the FREE-MARKET was able to avert.


2014-05-24

Progressives: Useful Idiots



They believe.

Chilling what he has to say about academics. Judging by what we see on North American campuses, I'd say we're fucked on that front.

Time to create a new university system? That is, if we can break the hold the government has on education.

Right now the state has a formula it doesn't want pikers messing with.

Personally, I've always had a hard time with stuff like 'fair share' and 'balanced markets' and other vapid terms. It was always code for 'bend over' to me.

Unfortunately, we've left the shmucks run the asylums now.

You. Yeah you reading this.

Don't be a fucking shmuck.






2014-05-23

Interview With Fiat's Marchionne

Interesting interview sponsored by Brookings with Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne. The conversation touched on branding, FIAT, the auto bail outs (which he feels was necessary), entitlements and the UAW and electric cars (a technology he remains skeptical of) among other issues.

Worth the time. If you're wondering why Marchionne's English is so good, he was born in Italy and moved to Toronto when he was 14.


Blast From 1981 Sports Illustrated

Love finding old articles.

This one from 1981 in Sports Illustrated on Wayne Gretzky.

"He's only 20, and he's torn the league apart two years in a row," says Red Berenson, coach of the St. Louis Blues. "It's scary to think what he might do before he's done."

Scary to Berenson, who must coach against Gretzky, but fun for the rest of us because we know, as good as he is now, that we haven't seen his best. There came a time with Orr, who's generally acknowledged to be the greatest hockey player of all time, when we knew "that's it, he can't show us any more, no one can." The remaining question was, how long could he continue to play at such an extraordinary level? But with Gretzky, we still don't know what his best will be. We can't yet know just how many points this phenomenal performer will amass in a single season once he matures physically and his team matures around him. The Oilers are a young club. They have no other star. 

"The mystery about Gretzky is the things he has been able to do with the players he has had around him," says Bill Torrey, general manager of the New York Islanders. "Everything that happens when he's on the ice revolves around him. Either he's got the puck or the other team does."

Of course, we all know, he did go on to eviscerate the NHL record books and become the most dominant player who ever played the game. The consistency of his statistics is what's remarkable.


Get Out

How do you say 'you ungrateful, lazy motherfucking putz' in Spanish?

"While it's possible to have some sympathy for his general situation because of the very high unemployment rate, the fact that he sued his parents lowers the sympathy level quite a bit. The parents don't appear to be wealthy (not that it would necessarily matter) - the report says that his mother works in a restaurant and his father works for a trash-collection firm. Also, the parents alleged that their son had become abusive, although whether this was because the money dried up or was due to pre-existing jerkhood was not clear. Either way, the judge denied his claim (mostly) and ordered him to move out within 30 days."

He'd make a perfect union exec.

Enable people (like the state does with welfare) and people will get addicted to it. And when they're addicted to something...well, you should know the rest.

2014-05-22

McDonald's Serves (Excuse The Pun) A Practical Purpose In The Economy

As McDonald's continues to be targeted by protestors likely organized by unions like the SEIU, I feel compelled to defend McDonald's.

Never mind about the concept of minimum wage (Switzerland doesn't have one. Just saying) is illogical and impractical that fucks young people out of entry level jobs needed to gain experience. Never mind about the concepts of wages and pricing.

If you're 28 and have been working at McDonald's for five years at minimum wage. That's on you buddy. McDonald's cost structure is built on a moving wage at the low levels. It's meant to introduce young people into the world of employment.

The beauty of McDonald's, and this was known when I was growing up, is it has an outstanding job training program for workers. It provides a base of knowledge widely recognized by the labour force. If you had McDonald's on your resume, that was gold. Just like having worked at the Royal Bank of Canada has a certain prestige among banks.

That's the whole point. It's a stepping stone. McDonald's provides a chance for its workers to move up the ladder and even become franchise owners. There are very little great corporations out there that have this model refined like they do. If you're smart and ambitious you know how to leverage this advantage.

I know someone who is considered mentally challenged who began working at McDonald's over 20 years ago.

He now owns one.

Imagine that.

But you hardly hear about those stories anymore. Back in the day, McDonald's had fast, efficient, cordial service second to none. I've detected a slight erosion. And seeing these self-entitled idiots protest, I'm not surprised because I'm gonna guess they're low-quality workers.

It's hard to make ends meet on $7 an hour? Look in the mirror. McDonald's or any other company for that matter is not there to subsidize your life.

As for the health aspect of the food, yes, it's not healthy but it's not horrible either. The cold hard fact and truth is we've never been healthier. I tend to ignore the doom and gloom about questionable health stories (and climate) because the big picture has never been better.

If the West falls, it'll be more because of the climate of anti-intellectual intolerance and hyper-sensitive paternalism that's blanketing policy across the continent and less about Big Mac's.




Fall Of The West Reason 4559696969

Fencing team can't bring gear on North Dakota State University campus because foils are weapons.

People this stupid running our schools can't possibly exist can they? What I love is when you start to question them with logic the responses are usually idiotic.

Baseball bats are sometimes used as weapons - more than fencing sabres anyway - but they don't 'look' like weapons. The mob loves using baseball bats as weapons. Can the baseball team bring bats to school?

In fact, the 'look' is what scares these buffoons. 

In any event, they play hockey in ND. Hockey skates come with razor sharp blades. Hockey is a far more dangerous sport to boot.

Just saying.

Idiots.


2014-05-21

The Anti-Intellectual Left

The left will take us straight to a Dark Age - if we're not already there, m'kay?

And when a prog broadcaster like the CBC takes left-wing students on college and university campuses to task for their uber-hypocritical, ignorant and arrogant censoring of speakers they don't like, you know you're licking the crumpled envelope a little too much.

It's not a perfect piece, Neil MacDonald can't help but take his GOP licks and other subtle shots at citizens who simply don't agree with cultish left-wing orthodoxy (raises hand), but at least someone in their camp is calling bull shit.

Silencing people is the first step to full blown fascism. Simple. As. That.

I personally lost complete respect for my University for their weak, meek, lame-ass inability to quell the Palestinian Student Association (and other radical student bodies about as useful as dried up grass seed) whenever an Israeli or pro-Israel speaker dares comes speak at Concordia.




Heroes!

Vancouver police officer pleads - surprise - not guilty to assault charge.

I love this line:

"It appears to show Bhabha punching Kharazi in the face."

Uh, no. It clearly shows he actually punched a citizen in the face.

Even if he "escalated" the incident, it seemed mild enough to not warrant an assault.


No Guns Allowed

Progressive/liberal get what they deserve when they pull naive stunts like this. They're just begging to find trouble.

Think how stupidly political you have to be to put up and announce to the fucking public a 'no guns allowed' sign in your shop window.

Think.

Chooch.
Two workers were assaulted after those at a new barbecue restaurant in Durham, North Carolina was held up at gunpoint this week.
“We take this very seriously. We want to make sure our guests and our staff are taken care of,” the owner of The Pit told a local NBC affiliate.
The assault and robbery was committed by three hooded gunmen just after 9 p.m.

While the owner does want his customers and patrons taken care of, visible in the front window of the restaurant is a custom-made sign that reads “No guns allowed.”
- See more at: http://rare.us/story/restaurant-employees-held-up-at-gun-point-had-custom-made-no-guns-allowed-sign/#sthash.ZHTH8V5T.dpuf



Communism Works! Who Knew?

I get asked from time to time why I engage in ideological wars with the left.

Why?

Because of stuff like this:

"Democratic Florida Rep. Joe Garcia — fresh off being caught eating his own earwax on camera — was caught red-handed (or is it yellow-fingered?) in another gaffe this week, claiming that low crime rates in border cities with lots of federal immigration workers is proof that “Communism works.”
Garcia made the comment during a Google hangout he convened last week to talk about comprehensive immigration reform with supporters. The Democrat attempted to point out how, for all their talk about limited government, many Republicans are fine spending loads of government money on border security.

“Let me give you an example, the kind of money we’ve poured in,” he said. “So the most dangerous — sorry, the safest city in America is El Paso, Texas. It happens to be across the border from the most dangerous city in the Americas, which is Juarez. Right?”

“And two of the safest cities in America, two of them are on the border with Mexico,” Garcia continued. “And of course, the reason is we’ve proved that Communism works. If you give everybody a good government job, there’s no crime.”

You can't ever stay silent whenever someone tries to pimp out moronic motherfucking bull shit about how communism "works." Silence and indifference is what's permitting Universities to become intolerant and radicalized cess pools of left-wing douchebaggery; it's what's allowing for an aggressive form or progressivism activism attempting to govern our dietary vices. Remember when Michelle had the balls to chastise a gold medal athlete who liked eating McDonald's? These people are insufferable, self-righteous boobs and baabs. No one is safe from their paternalist arrogance.

No, commie pinko alchemy doesn't work, Garcia, and it never will.

I suppose it can work if your end game is to smash to smithereens the human spirit. But other than that, it's pure Godless evil. 

NYC Will Pay For Progressivism; We All Do Eventually

WSJ:


"Mr. de Blasio is the first New York mayor in two decades to hail from the left, which makes him the face of a new progressivism in America," author Fred Siegel and financial analyst Nicole Gelinas wrote.

But while the new mayor calls the $73.9 billion budget "historic" and "transcendent," it shows the city is willing to spend beyond its means to keep labor unions happy for the first time since it nearly went bankrupt in the 1970s, Siegel and Gelinas write. For example, the new teachers' contract includes $4.3 billion in pay raises that are retroactive to 2009, according to the commentary.

De Blasio used his budget announcement to push his "progressive" agenda with a budget that adds money to enforce mandated sick leave, public housing, and education. But the most controversial portion includes the pay raises for the teachers, and also pay hikes for city employees, at an added cost of $9 billion over four years.

Under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the United Federation of Teachers saw their pay go up 48 percent his first eight years. But after the Lehman Brothers collapse of 2008, Bloomberg made clear teachers could not receive 4 percent raises in 2009 and 2010."


It's what progs do. Run economies to the ground. It's what they do best. Rape the productive to give to the slouches.


Puppycide Documentary

Claims every 98 minutes police kill a dog.

I follow these stories through Reason magazine.

It's really ugly since in most cases, the dog is just curious or friendly. Yet, cops feel sufficiently threatened to kill them. In one case, the cops arrested a man for asking why they killed his dog on his property.

Luckily, the public is beginning to push back.




Settled Science!

The day I started hearing global alarmists and politicians (like the uber-calculating President Obama) utter  'it's settled science' was the day I began to raise an eyebrow or three.

Saying that kind of shit is silly, no?

I think 31 487 scientists agree!

Consensus On!


2014-05-20

Now That's A Commencement Speech

Hearing For The First Time




Early Spring In Charts

From Popular Science:

"As the planet warms, the temperatures that trigger spring arrive earlier. But not everything’s adjusting on the same schedule. Flowers open before their insect pollinators come out, and birds return from migration too late to find their usual bug meals. Detailed study of ecological mismatch requires equally meticulous observations of historical timing—and a Boston University lab has found a trove in the journals Henry David Thoreau kept in Massachusetts in the mid-1800s. “They’re probably the oldest detailed records of flower and bird-migration times in the United States,” says Richard Primack, a conservation biologist who runs the BU lab. The diaries, together with more recent data, reveal an ecological system in flux."

Fine by me. I get to work on my grass earlier. I'm selfish that way. Then again, I don't think of starving kids in Africa whenever I throw out food. 

Quotes Of The Day

No wonder the President Sir Blame's A Lot has mused about subsidizing newspapers. It's his only source of information apparently!

Fifth hand comment so dunno where it's from:

VA scandal: DIDN'T KNOW
Benghazi security: DIDN'T KNOW
Fast and Furious: DIDN'T KNOW
Lose your doctor: DIDN'T KNOW
Bin Laden hit: MASTERMIND


Obama has (possibly wittingly) positioned himself as the anti-establishment guy whereby all scandals are systemic and outside his power and that the GOP stand in the way of him cleaning it up - Obamacare notwithstanding. It's pure coy genius. He will never be at fault. He will be the first President depicted as the 'he meant well but faced too much entrenched corruption and racism to get things done."

Me? I invoke Occam's Razor. I really do think he's without ideas or clues about much and where he sells ideas it's just repackaged, tired left-wing stuff.

Same thing here:

"San Francisco is the only city where people will angrily defend the right of creepy old men to walk back and forth past the grade school naked, defend the right of a homeless person to take a shit in front of you while you eat lunch at a sidewalk cafe and defend the right of men to fuck in bushes in semi-plain view of passing traffic... but don't you DARE give a child a toy with his Happy Meal because that's "unhealthy."

NPR's Shock

Oh look. NPR discovers something libertarians and classical liberals have known all along. The state is inherently violent and the poor absorb most of that violence.


2014-05-19

Economic Fundamentals: Are You A Productivists Or A Creativists?

Keynes is fine as long as it's not a means to an end. At least, that's how I always viewed it. As for Krugman, I've often complained about the predictability of progressives and their solutions to the economy. They never look at how entrepreneurs can help, for example, foster prosperity. For them, it's all top-bottom and directed. I won't get into it here but the bottom line they have no ideas - creativity.

From Forbes:

"...Now, the reason why we can’t have nice things in economic debates is that neither side is 100% right. You see, and once you grok this you grok all of our economic policy debates, the productivists are right in the short run, and the creativists are right in the long run.
I believe that’s the true meaning of Keynes’s so oft-cited and so widely misunderstood “in the short run…” phrase. I believe that Keynes was a true creativist, even though most of his disciples don’t get what he did.

In the short term, the productivists are absolutely right: if there’s some shock to the economy, and people don’t have enough money anymore, they buy less stuff, which means businesses have less money, which means they lay people off (because wages are sticky), which means people have even less money (because they or their wife just got laid off), and so on in a vicious cycle. And if you add more money to the system, whether via deficit spending, or central bank printing, or speculative bubbles, or whatever, then people will have more money and buy more stuff and the economy will kickstart again. This is why Milton Friedman was dead-set against austerity, and in favor of monetary stimulus, and why he said “We’re all Keynesians”. This was Keynes’ great gift to our understanding of the way the economy works: in the short run, it’s a productivist system.

But only in the short run. In the long run, it is absolutely clear that what creates economic prosperity is human creativity. Economic models, which have almost no predictive ability as it is, are even more utterly useless here: it’s very easy to model a productivist economy, and probably impossible to model a creativist one, so guess what academic economists who want to publish papers with lots of equations do? If you look at the history of the Industrial Revolution, it is absolutely clear that what drove the Industrial Revolution was good old fashioned innovation: the pin factory; the steam engine; the mechanical loom; and so on. You can’t model that on a spreadsheet, but it’s the fundamental truth.

And talking of disciples of Keynes who don’t “get it”, we must talk about Paul Krugman. The productivist/creativist difference hit me full force when I watched this interview of Paul Krugman by Business Insider editor Joe Weisenthal. Weisenthal notes that for the past twenty years we seem to have been unable to make the economy hit full employment without blowing up, and asks Krugman what we can do about it. Krugman notes, correctly, that this is a huge question at the moment and that nobody knows the answer with full certainty, but he offers up what he plainly admits are just musing suggestions of policy ideas to address the problem. And here’s the striking thing: all of them are productivist ideas. All of them are about finding some way to give people more money so they can buy more stuff. None of them are about encouraging economic creativity. In economics jargon, all of them are “demand-side” and none of them are “supply-side.” This is simply astonishing. It’s one thing for Krugman to be a social-democrat and a progressive who believes in an important role for the government in the economy. But the fact that, when idly musing about things which might be holding back the economy, he doesn’t even think at all about, say, how some regulations might be hamstringing some sectors of the economy, to my mind, shows that he is at the deep level, a productivist. He just doesn’t even muse or suggest “Well, maaaaybe we could think about ways to have a more innovative economy, to boost innovation”, even to suggest a big-government answer (more government spending on science! and schools!). If you ask Paul Krugman in an less-guarded setting to muse about how to make the economy more prosperous over the long run, the creativist story just doesn’t. enter. his. mind.

And this is the key thing: Paul Krugman is not a “bad economist.” This is at the deep-down, Weltanschauung level. Paul Krugman is a great economist. But he also doesn’t get it."

Bond, James Bond, Eh.

Meet the real life James Bond.

William Stephenson.

He's Canadian.

Well, Canuckistani.

Winnipeg sure has produced its fair share of internationally famous Canadians. From Monty Hall to Winnie the Pooh to Douglas Rain (voice of Hal 9000).

Nova Scotia Human Rights (Tyranny) Commission Calls Bar Racist For Calling Police On Patron Who Broke The Law

The Humans Rights Commission has come up with some creative mental gymnastics.

If our unelected, crappy masters are gonna call people for merely applying the law the state coerces people to follow, then I'm gonna reserve the right to call them tyrants because that's all they are in this instance.

"For refusing to serve a man carrying what it deemed to be improper I.D. — and then calling the police when he refused to leave — a Halifax bar is now awaiting punishment for what the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission deemed to be a discriminatory act of “imposing the police” on a customer “because of his colour.”

The bar, the Halifax Alehouse, maintains that it had no racial malice in kicking out Sierra Leone immigrant Dino Gilpin; they were simply fulfilling the strict requirements of Nova Scotia’s Alcohol and Gaming Division.

“Our motto is ‘if in doubt, keep them out,’” Alehouse general manager Peter Martell said in a letter filed before the commission. “We are heavily scrutinized by the [Alcohol and Gaming Division] and follow their guidelines.”

The last sentence is key. I'll let you sit on that. I think that's the heart of the matter. Whether they were being racist wasn't established.

As Maya Angelou has said: … ‘people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,’” wrote commission board chair Walter Thompson.
“Mr. Gilpin wept as he told his story. He will never forget how the Alehouse made him feel.”

Nice. And they have this kind of power? No, he doesn't quote a legal scholar. No, this clown quotes fucking Angelou.

Hurt feelings is now a crime.

Go stuff a banana in your ear and bust an eardrum with that crap Thompson.

2014-05-16

Joke Of The Night

Fall Of The West Reason 59667779555966

'Hump Day' at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota cancelled.

Because it's racially insensitive to Middle-Easterners.

That's a university folks.

A bag of rocks has more IQ than that place.

Trading Up

Ugh.

Enough with the childish antics already.

And yes, for the record, I do think when Christians are massacred mum's the word. Muslims get kidnapped and they go coo-coo.

I say let's trade. These chicks in the pic for the kidnapped girls. What you say?


2014-05-15

Mom, What's A Narcissist?


“I made some bad decisions in my journey to save the Regal Theater,” a gaunt-looking Evans, dressed in a red jumpsuit with her ankles chained, told the judge.

“I made a mistake. I was wrong. But is that enough to take my life away and keep me away from my child and family?” Evans asked, alluding to a 15-year-old son she still has at home.

Shoulda thoughta that before you robbed the coin, now right?

Made some bad decisions? You call stealing as police chief $900 000 a 'bad decision'?  

According to my Big Book Of Facts, Morality and Recipes, that's a crime.

I wonder. How would Evans respond or react to some shlep who robbed another shnook if they used the same line?

Yeah, we all know. It's not an excuse.

“To this day and very minute, she has never acknowledged the extent of the carnage she has caused,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Bass said in a blistering argument for a lengthier term.

“She’s not a person of complete, good character,” he continued. “She’s been a financial and personal scourge on the city of Chicago.”


From Irwindale California To Communist Vietnam - No Difference

David Tran, the CEO of Huy Fong, says he escaped from Vietnam almost 35 years ago to be free of the communist government there and its many intrusions.

"Today, I feel almost the same. Even now, we live in [the] USA, and my feeling, the government, not a big difference," Tran says.

Irwindale's city attorney, Fred Galante, says the city loves having the cult condiment factory but must pay attention to the health of residents.

"It's difficult to tell a resident that suffers from asthma or their child that suffers from asthma, 'Sorry, we do not want to be considered business-unfriendly; just keep your child indoors,' " Galante says.

Much has been made of California losing business to Texas.

Given how outrageously paternalistic and heavy handed California is with rules and regulations, it's no surprise. 

***

Parents (scientists) at my daycare asked if they could build special garden pods on part my lot. It's an environmentally-friendly and interesting idea so I allowed it. It's a great activity for the kids.

The other day the city was snooping around the place. I'm unsure what they were doing but I caught city inspector sitting in their car.

I expect a letter of some kind.

It's what they do.

Lay waste and despair to a free economy.

I can but do my part in writing about it and linking to stories and articles that cover over reaching government interference in our affairs.

It happens. A LOT.

Fall Of The West Reason 49556 9696777



I admit I couldn't go past the five minute mark it was that stupid.

Hands Up Or We'll Shoot! Put The Kiwi Down NOW!

Why does the Department of Agriculture want guns?

Is it me, or are American government agencies acquiring more and more guns?

For what?

Less guns in the hands of the people and more in the government.

Yes. This will end well.


Whither Banana?

Remember When?

Now let's play a game. It's called 'Remember When.'

Remember When  Michele with a sadz hashtagging Hoko Baram asking them to return 'our girls?'

/shivers.

Remember When her hubby's administration threatening to slap Nigeria (a Christian led government) with sanctions for - get this - fighting Boko Haram?

Capiche piu niente.

This is what happens when you interfere. The government of an alien nation was taking care of its own business. Yet, the administration felt it necessary to threaten it because it didn't like what it was doing. Just like Syria.

 

2014-05-14

Your CD's Are Dying

I have a lot of compact discs and albums. I mean, like, well over 1000. It's funny. Even when I was spending money on CDs back in the day I always had this nagging feeling of 'am I wasting my cash'? Will they be worthless in the long-term?

Of course, there's no real way to answer this since it's hard to derive and quantify the value of something you enjoy literally hundreds and hundreds of time. If you like a particular musician or band you probably have listened to their cd countless times over the years. All for $15. Not a bad deal when you look at it that way.

Anyway.

The Library of Congress is trying to figure out how CD's age.

"All of the modern formats weren't really made to last a long period of time," said Fenella France, chief of preservation research and testing at the Library of Congress. "They were really more developed for mass production."

France and her colleagues are trying to figure out how CDs age so that we can better understand how to save them. This is a tricky business, in large part because manufacturers have changed their processes over the years but won't say how. And so: we know a CD's basic composition—there's a plastic polycarbonate layer, a metal reflective layer with all the data in it, and then the coating on top—but it's impossible to tell just from looking at a disc how it will age."

Millennials Need A Time-Out

Unique Words

30 untranslatable words.

I am so using some of these moving forward.

Other than that, I find it hard to believe out of thousands of languages on planet earth the majority of the list is German and Japanese with a couple of Italian sprinkled for good measure.

Freaky French Fear 'Climate Chao'

Via The Weekly Standard:

"Well, I’m very happy to be with John. There is no week without a phone call or a visit between John and myself, and we have on the agenda many items, many issues – Iran, because negotiations are resuming today; the question of Syria, and we shall meet next Thursday in London together; Ukraine as well; and very important issues, issue of climate change, climate chaos. And we have – as I said, we have 500 days to avoid climate chaos. And I know that President Obama and John Kerry himself are committed on this subject and I’m sure that with them, with a lot of other friends, we shall be able to reach success on this very important matter."

And then they hugged to comfort each other.

Hey, speaking of fear-mongering, profiteering enviro-jerk offs, remember when Gore stopped being a whore for ethanol?

Cracking Down On Cupcakes For The Children

Fucking mobsters run Illinois:

"An Illinois Senate committee on Tuesday gave approval to legislation prompted by the shutdown of an Illinois girl's home-baked cupcake operation.

The Belleville News-Democrat reported that the Senate Public Health Committee voted 6-0 to approve home-baking regulations requiring sellers to go through sanitation training, pay fees, label ingredients, and let consumers know the product was made in a home kitchen.

The measure applies to those making less than $1,000 per month."

Right.

And the Koch brothers are the "problem".

This is serious shit.  Think of the negative consequences to an economy.

Government and bureaucrats are good to destroy business. Simple as that.

2014-05-13

White Liberal Media

Who's obsessed with race?

You can't make this stuff up:


The Unbearable Whiteness of Liberal Media

Quote Of The Day

“We have to break people away from the choice habit that everyone has,” said Marcus Merz, the chief executive of PreferredOne, an insurer in Golden Valley, Minn., that is owned by two health systems and a physician group. “We’re all trying to break away from this fixation on open access and broad networks.”

Nice.

Need I really say more about where this administration stands on individual choice?

That's New Soviet Man material right there.

Libertarians and conservatives were right all along. 


More Waste In Washington

What's $1.5 million spent (IE wasted) on this bicycle trains considering they've spent (IE wasted) half a billion on health exchanges?

But.

It's for the children.

Vote Or Else

Voteman will get you!


Chicago Plays With Murder Statistics

No matter how you dice it, Chicago's murder rate hasn't improved despite what the Mayor says.

The way the police Chief went about reclassifying or redefining murder reminded me of the scene in The Simpsons when Chief Wiggum barged into Fat Tony's club and yelled 'we got you for murder, Fat Tony!' in which he responded coyly and coolly 'what's a moider'?

What's astonishingly maddening is the great lengths they tried to fudge the numbers. People are being killed while the perpetrators roam free all for vanity? Disgusting. Mayor Emmanuel should be ashamed.

In their numbers racket they not only dishonored and disrespected the dead and their families who deserve truth and justice but their city, badges, uniforms and above all themselves.

For shame.

Dracula's Castle For Sale

2014-05-12

Media Crickets For Cherry

Don Cherry has been singling out Quebec players for their play during the NHL playoffs. He even made the logical case that Hockey Canada needs to abandon its policy of selecting along regional lines. Quotas are problematic way to do things since it means it doesn't take the best available players. Cherry argued 'if all the best players are from Quebec than you take them'.

But you won't hear that in the media. They love to Cherry pick his comments.

Just saying.

Stattistics Like You've Never Seen Them

New Brunswick Man Breaks Law For Fixing Pot Holes Government Won't Fix

Upstage the bureaucracy, eh? If we allow one private citizen to fix potholes next thing you know there will be tens up tens of them fixing stuff we can't or won't fix! We have pensions to protect! We have our cronies to keep happy!

Well, we'll show you! We're gonna bust up what you did!

Plus one to Mike Defazio.

Kevin Rice can go you know what.

Defazio took matters into his own hands and fixed the potholes himself last Saturday. Locals, he said, were grateful.
"I’ve had numerous people saying, ‘What you did was a good thing.’ I've never had anybody saying it was a bad thing," he said.
On Wednesday, however, the city’s deputy commissioner of transportation and environment services, Kevin Rice, called Defazio to tell him he’d broken the law and could face a fine.
"I thought that I wasn’t really doing anything wrong, but he sure straightened me out on that matter," said Defazio.
- See more at: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/canadian-man-faces-fines-patching-potholes#sthash.FAOM4iLp.dpuf

Fabricated A Myth Of Obama



In Italian there's a word we use for people who buy into all this obvious cynical displays of carefully choreographed images of the President: Fesso.

The more I see those photos, the more I ask 'people can't really be buying into this crap can they'?

Oh, yes they do.

It's all part of wanting to be deceived.

Chile: Land Of Charm


Political Correctness Would Kill Blazing Saddles

"They can't make that movie today because everybody's so politically correct. You know, the NAACP would stop a great movie that would do such a great service to black people because of the N-word," says Brooks. "You've got to really examine these things and see what's right and what's wrong. Politically correct is absolutely wrong. Because it inhibits the freedom of thought. I'm so lucky that they weren't so strong then and that the people that let things happen on the screen weren't so powerful then. I was very lucky."

The process of "cleaning" up artistic pieces of creativity has already begun. Call it The Purge.

People don't realize.

We're in a Dark Age.
Pothole vigilante” Mike Defazio of New Brunswick, Canada, may have to pay fines to the city for patching up the potholes that his city couldn’t be bothered to fix.
Defazio, who owns Defazio Autobody in Saint John, said he was sick of the damage that the potholes caused his car. One day one even popped his tire.
"Some of them were eight or 10 inches wide and two feet long and almost a foot deep," he told CBC News.
"I just got fed up because they had been here for quite some time and nobody looked like they were doing anything."
Defazio took matters into his own hands and fixed the potholes himself last Saturday. Locals, he said, were grateful.
"I’ve had numerous people saying, ‘What you did was a good thing.’ I've never had anybody saying it was a bad thing," he said.
On Wednesday, however, the city’s deputy commissioner of transportation and environment services, Kevin Rice, called Defazio to tell him he’d broken the law and could face a fine.
"I thought that I wasn’t really doing anything wrong, but he sure straightened me out on that matter," said Defazio.
Since private citizens are not allowed to do road work, Defazio’s pothole fixes were illegal, Rice said. He also claimed that people had complained about possible damage from the gravel.
"He said people were saying that a rock could be kicked up, or, you know, it could chip your windshield, it could scratch your paint, or whatever," said Defazio. "I said, 'Has it happened?' He says, 'Well, I don’t know if it’s happened, but it could happen.'"
Rice told Defazio that he would have to cover the cost of a city crew coming to remove the gravel.
Defazio asked if he could do it himself.
"He said, 'Fine. If you look after it, we'll come out tomorrow morning and we'll do an inspection and if it's up to our standards, then fine. If not, we're still gonna bring a crew in and you're gonna be charged,'" Defazio said.
Defazio paid a local contractor $450 to remove the gravel, pitching in to help with one of his employees.
Proof that no good deed goes unpunished.
- See more at: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/canadian-man-faces-fines-patching-potholes#sthash.FAOM4iLp.dpuf

Shocked Face Files: Iran Confiscates Private Property

I hadn't noticed I haven't posted for a couple of days.

Meh.

Nothing came into this empty head anyway.

So I'll leave you with a a link to an article on how Iran's supreme leader (whashisname?) amasses his wealth. Hint: Good old fashioned "I just take it what I want".

Oh, look. This is my shocked faced.

2014-05-09

Liberal Party Of Quebec

Why in the fucking world would they pick up on that stupid Charter? Why?

And why would they appeal a judge's ruling in favor of Wal-Mart and other companies challenging the heavy-handed language laws? Why?

Meet the new boss.

Same as the old boss.

All the same fucking bull shit.


Friday Night Music

Trio. Guitarist Gert Krawinkle died earlier this year in February.


That'll Learn 'Em

NFL Draft: Ha Ha

2014-05-08

Product Review Trolling

Why Net Neutrality Matters

People are fond of babbling about history repeating itself. But when it does before their eyes they do nothing about it.

National Journal talks about the death of net neutrality and looks back on the Guided Age and rise of monopolies where corporate and state interests ran against the people.

Agassi Wrong

So, so wrong.

Nadal is not better than Federer, let alone best all time.

Maybe he's top five but in my lifetime, he's not the best I've seen.

And what's with his dissing of Sampras? Both Federer and Sampras have a greater body of work.




Monumental Quote Of The Day

Dear me, Dear Lord. Fran Barlow. Take a bow. You deserve it for this:

"It's now 69 years since the Nazi regime collapsed. Let's recall the blood lust of unfettered capitalism & the courage of those who fought it."

Heard a lot of different interpretations about Nazi's but this one is clearly one of the most defunct takes I've come across.

Unfettered capitalism.

/long pause for laughter. Regains composure.

Right. 

It's ridiculous and rooted in ignorance it can't be reasoned with.

I love how she petulantly holds her ground with intellectual fallacies and gems like the following in attempting to claim Nazi Socialism wasn't about socialism:

"You do realise that the DPRK stands for "Democratic People's Republic of Korea"? That doesn't make it democratic. "

Funny. When you read Hitler, Goebbels and even Mussolini, they made it pretty clear they considered themselves socialists.

Bah.

Oh. By the way.

She's a teacher.

Keep pushing for the sky not being blue, honey.




Liberals Being Liberals

The Liberal party of Canada brands itself as center and center-left claiming it's the 'natural stance of Canadians'.

Myself excluded of course. 

To me, the center tag is wrong. It's a center-left party. Possibly more left than center even.

Justin Trudeau announced today that anyone who is not pro-choice is 'not welcomed in the party.'

I never had much confidence that Trudeau is capable of abstract thought so this decision doesn't surprise me. Conformity is always a key feature of left-wing ideology. That being said, it's not uncommon to see this sort of stuff in any party in Canada including the Conservatives. Toeing the party line is very much a part of Canadian politics.

Nonetheless, it's unfortunate a party said to be so open and tolerant (we're pluralists!) and yaps on about defending and espousing 'Canadian values' (whatever the fuck that means) can be so closed minded.

I like to believe I'm a thinking man and personally, I don't see why the Liberals need to isolate Canadians on one issue. Personally, there are valid arguments on the pro-life side.

Apparently, it's 'settled' in the minds of the left. I find it, moreover, incredibly telling that you hear 'you're not welcome' as a matter of policy more from the left than you do on the right. For all their hating in Harper (and there's much to be displeased about) he's never come out (as far as I know) and said "you're not welcomed if you hold x view".  Justin is just acting like your run of the mill totalitarian progressive while using all the right jargon of being "open" and "democratic".

A dogmatic approach to politics and the issues that face us is a defunct one. Any free-thinking individual should be concerned by the latest proclamation from the Liberals.

The Liberal party of Canada, in essence, just shut people like me right out of voting for them. Trudeau - in all his progressive drama queening - gave me the middle finger.

Right back at you.