Climate Change Cultists Are Nasty Anti-Humanist

Climate change cultists are nasty people.

Neither rational nor humanist.

It's amazing how many articles I read where people daring to challenge climate change orthodoxy (in all its magnificent manipulations and bull shit) are often told to die. The less violent will simply charge you're in the back pocket of big business or some other gibberish.

And the worst offenders aren't on blogs.

Nope.

They lurk in the comments section of mainstream places like The Washington Post and New York Times.

Don't you dare ever challenge them.

Sorta like Tesla cultists.

It's impossible to reason with them.

Mostly because, as noted, we're in a Dark Age.

See, a Dark Age isn't a period where everything turns literally black. It manifests itself in, well, stuff like discussions where one side merely looks to silence another; to censor and even imprison.

Interesting because they're always telling us how humanist they are. Which they aren't. They're just little fascists pretending 'science is settled'.

That's their shtick. Believe in something, call it settled and squash all opposition. Never does it enter their fucking, middling, pompous minds they could be wrong. Never does it occur to this arrogant little anti-humanist Luddites their whole prevailing models and calculations could be off. Nor can they accept that when manipulation and falsification takes place and endless streams of failed apocalyptic predictions (you know, like when Al Gore said England would drown by 2000 or thereabouts), it's only normal skeptics will point to credibility.

As we ought to.

But you can't do this with such aggressive, unthinking minds.

Folly of man indeed.

This whole thing, in the latest saga of Witches versus the people, about Democrat AG's going after Exxon is nothing but that - a witch hunt; an exercise in pant shitting stupidity; a shakedown.

It's not unreasonable to figure like how government shakes down Big Tabacky they have a live one with with oil companies. Why does it smell like Al Gore is sniffing around this?

In a nutshell, they're chasing ghosts in hope of an 'a-ha' moment. Only, they're less on a path to finding criminals and crooks and more on eventually imprisoning scientists who don't share the prevailing climate change view.

Crazy? Tell that to the scientists in Italy who are doing time for failing to predict earthquakes.

THAT'S what you idiots who blindingly support this crap are setting yourselves up for.

Anyway. I got this from Reason's comments:

"There are three different allegations to date that I know of:
Allegation 1: Exxon knew in the 70's and 80's that CO2 was dangerous and tried to cover it up from their shareholders. Reality according to the documents - Exxon knew in the 70's and 80's that CO2 was a greenhouse gas and were concerned it might be dangerous. They funded development of some early primitive GCM's that showed it might be a problem, it might not. There is no evidence they tried to manipulate the GCM's to make CO2 benign and plenty of evidence that they did not. As the IPCC became ever more politicized they withdrew gradually from funding research. Their warnings to shareholders were based on IPCC summaries.
So that allegation collapsed
Allegation 2: Exxon knew recently that they would probably be unable to pump all the oil reserved they had, due to the Paris Accord. Thus valuing these stranded assets above 0 was misleading to shareholders about the value of the company.
Exxon's response: We can't predict what politicians will do, but governments closing off oil fields has been happening ever since the oil industry started, and we warn investors that we operate at a risk of governments shutting down components of our business.
That allegation has collapsed


• Allegation 3: The recent collapse of oil prices has had companies writing down the value of their oil reserves. Exxon has not joined the pack. Ergo Exxon is misleading investors into thinking they are worth more than they actually are.
  Exxon's response: We conservatively value our oil reserves ($65 per barrell IIRC). These valuations are consistent with the expected price of oil a few years out (true last I checked). Ergo we didn't write them down because we didn't write them up when oil prices were high.
  I expect that Schneiderman is desperately searching for something, anything(!) to pin on Exxon in an effort to claim they misled shareholders.
  Because his original plan - to unearth documents that Al Gore's crowd could use to leverage a version of the Tobacco settlement that would provide Al Gore's empire of anti-fossil fuel activist orgs a steady source of income is in tatters. At this point he is tryign to save himself, because he's pretty much in Nifong territory and he knows it."

Now if you don't mind, I have to go cash my Exxon check before I do left-wing nut cases a favor and die.

***

Long story short.

Climate change cultists present 'global warming because man. Act now or die. Because consensus.'

Sound minds say, 'Oh. Okay. Let me look into this because sounds important.'

Sound increasingly informed mind starts to see troubling and contradictory information begins to ask questions about methodology, interpretation of data etc.

Climate change cultists have a chance to respond in healthy exchange of ideas since they presented the argument. They do for a while.

Sound mind gives way to skeptical query as responses not standing up to scrutiny.

Climate change go on attack demanding censorship and imprisonment because how dare they be challenged.

And this is where we fucking are. A politicized mess where too much money and reputations are staked in climate change.

It's not about earth and it's not about you. Al Gore couldn't care less about either. Understand?

Ask and be skeptical. 

CUI BONO?

 

Meet The Most Vile Man In America: Hint Not Donald Trump

Jonathan Gruber:


"Look, once again, there's no sense of oh it just has to be fixed. The law is working as designed; however, it could work better, and I think probably the most important thing experts would agree on is that we need a larger mandate penalty. We have individuals who are essentially free riding on the system. They're essentially waiting until they get sick and then getting health insurance. The whole idea of this plan which was pioneered in Massachusetts was that the individual mandate penalty would bring those people into the system and have them participate. The penalty right now is probably too low and that's something ideally we would fix."

I remember when Rush Limbaugh asserted all this was by design and the brain dead hyenas on the left mobilized to engage in the usual character assassination. But he has been proven right every single step of the way. The end game always was single payer and therefore socialized medicine at the end of the line. Always.

But notice how utterly despicable the way they go about achieving it.

While you point out all the flaws, errors, faulty premises, concerns etc., they scoff it off and demonize and dismiss your arguments, but then once it does turn into law and operates as people who criticized it thought it was, they turn around and say, 'yeh. Like, duh!'

One of the last nations on earth where health care services of the highest order exists, is on a path to....Canadian style universal care.

And you're trying to tell me we're not in a dark age when we accept mediocrity in order to achieve 'equality'?

Lotsa People Been Born

How many people have ever lived?

Belated Sports Post: Ali And Howe

Bare with me. This is an old post about the passing of Muhammad Ali and Gordie Howe I never got around to. So, forgive me if it sounds a little dated but it still deserves some time.

I never did quite discuss Ali's passing the way I wanted to. It was a subject that deserved a little bit of thought but it came at a time where I couldn't spare the time while Louisville, Kentucky; Floral, Saskatchewan and Detroit, Michigan mourned their sporting legends.

Best I could offer is an interview I heard with his long-time biographer who had been around Ali more than anyone. 

Anyway.



I can't possibly add more to what's been said about Ali already.
Nonetheless, allow me to offer a couple brief thoughts.

Ali is more complex than Howe because his persona extended beyond boxing laced with political overtones whereas Howe was your typical understated Canadian hockey player.

Ali obviously means many things to different people but let me stick to boxing as my comments aren't going to offer anything original on the socio-political front. I heard New York Times writer Dave Anderson on the radio the other day and expertly (and soberly) wading through Ali's life and times he agreed that Ali was perhaps 'over loved' possibly because he was an incredible self-promoter.

This larger than life image possibly obscured his actual boxing legacy. Though I'm no expert, based on what I've read by experts over the years, he isn't always considered the best ever. The overall *consensus* has him in the top 5 for sure.



Where there's much debate about Ali's placing among the greatest,  there isn't much doubt Howe is in the conversation as the greatest ever. He, along with Gretzky and Orr, each have their legion of supporters. You can easily make the claim he was the greatest hockey player more than Ali as the greatest boxer. And judging by those arms, he would have done okay in the ring looks like. Lord me.

Whatever.

There's no debating they helped change their respective sports forever.





***

Quick word about the Copa America that took place for the first time on U.S. soil. And not surprisingly, it went off without any violence. American sports culture is amazing that way.

It simply isn't the case in Europe with soccer.

I know this may and possibly will ruffle feathers with the inevitable 'it's a small percentage of people causing the trouble' (which is not exactly true. European violence is persistent and large enough to cause significant property damage, injuries and sometimes deaths along with the occasional postponement of matches), the fact is you don't even get that in North America as a whole.

The violence we see in South America and Europe is simply absent here.

Pseudo-Intellectual Professors Are Gonna Pseudo

And now another installment of Derpy Professors say the darndest things!'

"Forget Halloween costumes and yoga, there’s a new symbol of cultural appropriation—the canoe.
According to Misao Dean, Professor of English at the University of Victoria, the canoe can be a symbol of colonialism, imperialism and genocide due to history. She also accused the canoers of cultural appropriation because they are primarily white men and have a privileged place in society."

Ah.

Yeah, but what's her opinion on kayaks?

***

Canoe from wiki:

"The word canoe comes from the Carib kenu (dugout), via the Spanish canoa.^[4]
Constructed between 8200 and 7600 BC, and found in the Netherlands, the Pesse canoe may be the oldest known canoe. Excavations in Denmark reveal the use of dugouts and paddles during the Ertebølle period, (ca 5300 BC – 3950 BC).<sup>[5]"

Fricken Dutch! Ruining a perfectly sound narrative!

I swear, if I ever catch these over paid, pseudo-intellectual professor-social-warriors eating Italian food...</sup>

***

Recently some celebrity named Vanessa Hudgeons was mauled by idiots for having braids.

One commenter said, 'She wasn't offended, by an African-American, by it'.

While we can applaud her good sense and grace, I don't give a shit she's not offended since braids and dreadlocks are not African or black in origin. So, in a sense, we can actually argue by the facts of history, it was culturally appropriated from elsewhere! And another thing, since I'm on it and need to knock sense into this misplaced nonsense, there's nothing original in rap music. So who gives a shit about white musicians who rap? I'll be sure to heckle some random black SJW about the Marsalis brothers and their classical music training  and the next time I see Wynton playing the trumpet:

"The earliest trumpets date back to 1500 BC and earlier. The bronze and silver trumpets from Tutankhamun's grave in Egypt, bronze lurs from Scandinavia, and metal trumpets from China date back to this period.^[2] Trumpets from the Oxus civilization (3rd millennium BC) of Central Asia have decorated swellings in the middle, yet are made out of one sheet of metal, which is considered a technical wonder.^[3]"

Whatever.

As I've mentioned before, anyone who uses the term is profoundly ignorant and anti-humanist.

Now if you don't mind, I may want to go listen to some FUCKING JAZZ.

Scandinavia's Success Is Not A Secret

Progressives love to leverage Scandinavia (and Europe at large) to guilt ride and extort North Americans into accepting more welfare is the civilized thing to do.

Not in my view it is.



It's actually barbaric to offer welfare to those who don't need it. It's called enabling. And this is how we enslave humans and bludgeon their spirit. It's anti-humanist.

But this is not the point of my post.

Often we hear about how if socialism is so bad, how come Scandinavia (and no, Finland is not part of Scandinavia! But Iceland is) is successful?

Simple really.

And for the sake of argument let's use Sweden.

The Industrial Revolution, propelled by the legacy of the Age of Reason (where true genius actually kept idiots at bay) and classical liberalism, came late to Sweden. But once smart Swedes figured out the blueprint, it soon became a wild success story. By the early 20th century, its economy was on the move (as was their impressive sports record. Sweden may not  have won a World Cup but it does have in its record a finals appearance. Its soccer legacy is substantial and nothing to sneer at) as confirmed by traditional metrics used to assess an economy.

Scandinavia as a whole succeeded because it embraced classical liberal concepts of free markets and free minds.

Once times were good, it was time to rape and pillage the coffers. This is where socialists and progressives enter. They used the money to expand the welfare state and entrenched themselves (the idiots overtook the smart people by now) in all aspects of Scandinavian life.

However, Scandinavians seem to have a mean pragmatic streak in them (they recognize where the gravy train originates) because each time they begin to run out of money, they seem to know how to revert back to the methods that enrich them. This has been the key to them staying afloat.

And so the cycle goes. 

Free markets and minds lead to wealth and prosperity. This can't be denied or refuted.

Closed markets and minds reverse this. This can't be denied or refuted as well.

No. There is no in between.

There is only one degree of freedom. 

Dark Clouds Forming And A Call To Classical Entrepreneurship

Troubling trends for the Canadian economy.

As we all know, the Liberals predictably tabled a spending budget - drink! - soon after they seized power. At the time, I wasn't the only one who noticed it was all spend with little provisions on how to pay it back. In addition, if you're going to increase government spending, it's important the economy grows at a healthy pace - which isn't the case at the moment. Government revenues have also dropped off.

With the sluggish U.S. economy basically in recession - drink! - it's bound to have a negative impact on the Canadian economy.

Dark clouds are forming.

***

Word on entrepreneurship. Finance Minister Bill Morneau recently said Canadians would have to get used to having on average three careers in their lifetimes making it crucial they garner different skills in order to make changes. Read, not jobs but careers.

That put a lot of strain on future generations for sure.

Increasingly gone is the notion of an employee making a lifetime commitment to a company.  The new economy and ever changing, confused and unsettled mindset among millennials has all but assured its end as its currently formulated.

I'm sure something will happen to reset the trajectory - it always does - that few if any of us can foresee - unless you're a sci-fi writer. They always seem to know the future.

But in the meantime, I repeat my assertion we should be teaching finance, bookkeeping and business early in school ( I see way too much economic and financial illiteracy and it now has reached disturbing levels for me) so that students naturally endowed with an entrepreneurial spirit receive the proper skills to start a business.

One way to encourage more entrepreneurs is to remove the anti-business rhetoric from our discourse, lessen the tax and regulatory burden and not place obstacles in front of innovative companies that upset the market.

Many of the great and dynamic ideas of our times come from the United States. It doesn't have to.

My personal view is we should ditch the 'top down' idea government 'spurns innovation' and leave in the hands of those best suited for it: Free individuals.

***

There's an ideological, I submit, component to this. 

Millennials for their part, need to read more and knock it off with their flirtation with Marxist and Communist bull shit. If they want to work and contribute, they will have to embrace capitalism and get acquainted with its basic tenets free of all the left-wing gibberish.

There's no time to entertain bull shit anymore. Leave that to trust fund and career politicians and academics. They have nothing to lose and have enough connections to ensure they're well taken care of.

Not so much for the average person.

Smarten up I say. Think for yourself. Save your money. Invest it wisely. Don't rely on anyone or the government.  Don't wait for the government to give you the signal. You carve your own path. Don't make them believe your future and success is in someone's hands. This is not true and unhelpful. So ignore the Obamas and Warrens and other fearists of this world and their dated progressive nonsense who scream '1% of the population is stealing from you or preventing you from moving forward'. There is no bloody Koch - or any - conspiracy. Such talk is for natural born losers.

Only you prevent yourself from progressing. YOU.

It's all doable. A little self-belief and drive and away you go. I believe in you. Trust me. These words will help you more than any current progressive will. Remember, to a progressive, you're a means to a collectivist end.

Classical entrepreneurship demands you act in self-interest. Only once you and your lot are secured can you contribute to strengthening your community at large.

Just get it done.

No excuses.

Thought (s) Of The Day

Censorship of any kind should anger and insult you. Profoundly and personally.

***

Every time minimum wage goes up - as mandated - someone is frozen out of entering the labor market.

Congratulations.

***

Every time Hillary smiles an orphan dies. 

Deep Thoughts With Obama

Upon being asked by Jimmy Kimmel about why people distrust Hillary, Obama offered a garden snake variety type of response along the lines of, 'well, when you're around 30 years it's bound to happen people are gonna dig up stuff about you'.

Huh. Is that a fact?

It's an interesting comment and I admit it's got some level of truth to it. Stick around long enough and well, stories.

But here's the thing. The stories around Hillary are largely of her own doing and choices and it's a reflection of a healthy and engaged citizenry or journalism it be investigated and exposed. She doesn't get to do things any citizen would have been locked up for and then be shielded by such an excuse put forth by Obama.

I don't see how, for example, the fact she used her Foundation to enrich herself while SofS or setting up an unsecured private server, or insult people calling them 'deplorables' can qualify under Obama's claim.

People do work in one place for the same amount of time and manage to, you know, not engage in questionable activities. It's astonishing how much of a long leash we give politicians.

His position, while makes sense on the surface, doesn't pass the sniff test with Hillary.

She's thoroughly corrupted and in it for the cold, hard cash and power.

A classic public servant she ain't.

Early Week Music

A couple of versions of Petty's The Waiting:

I've Come To Freeland's Emotional Rescue

You may have heard the story of Canada's seven year trade deal negotiation (CETA) with the EU started under Harper's Conservatives (which wasn't terribly, interestingly, popular among Canadians either) and continued by the Liberals.

It didn't go too well. And International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland made sure to let us all know where she stood: 

"Canada worked really hard, and me personally, I worked very hard," she said in French, expressing Canada's disappointment — as well as her own — at this turn of events.

"It's become evident for me, for Canada, that the European Union isn't capable now to have an international treaty even with a country that has very European values like Canada. And even with a country so nice, with a lot of patience like Canada."
....
We have decided to return home. I am very sad. It is emotional for me," she told reporters. "The only good thing I can say is that tomorrow morning I will be at home with my three kids."

Good grief. See it here.

Geez, Chrystia get it together.  Kleenex tissues are .59 cents at Shoppers. 

But what did you expect from someone who made a lot of money writing a book covering all the left-wing talking points of our times. Plutocrats? Check! Income inequality? Check! Fair wages and rigged systems? Check! But she does it from the lofty position of the classes said to be destroying the rest of us. It read a little like, well, her outburst. It didn't feel all that much thinking went into it.

It goes without saying, me being a psycho extremist, if I'd write a book telling tales opposite to this narrative you'd hear the lone monkey in the crowd coughing. It's just not in. None of the cool kids are doing it!

Never mind she's your run of the mill progressive who hated such trade deals until she came to like them. But it won prizes (as if those are worth anything these days) - PRIZES, ANDY! - so she must be saying something good, T.C. unlike you!

Look, it's simple. Take a touchy emotional and vapid subject like 'Income inequality' or 'climate change' or 'peace' and write a book and watch the prize panelists shower you with gifts. She had all that access and this is what she came up with?

Cynical even for me, I know, but it's all more about principals than principles.

Anyway.

You're representing an entire nation for crying out loud. Okay. Wrong choice of phrase.

And heeeeere's Justin Zoolander and The Shiny Pony Riders!

I don't profess to know the details of CETA having read it on and off for years and couldn't get too worked up about it. I've grown to realize trade deals don't benefit me all that much. It's just another trade deal that apparently if not signed signals the end of business and trade as we know it. Or some crap like that.

Trade deals are soooo over rated and passe.

In any event, I'm not going to bash Canada because quite frankly Wallonia is a socialist mistake enclave. And judging from what I've read out of Europe, they ain't too happy about it either.

Which probably means the Walloons - ack! - did something right.

I mean, to piss off so many elites has to be a good thing, no?

And nothing is better salty tears than elitist salty tears.

Whatever. I never saw what everyone seems to see in Freeland. She came off as wooden and awkward and without much of an original or deep thought whenever she appeared on The McLaughlin Group. Her defense in Parliament only cemented my view of her not being much of a speaker. I really hope she's better in private.

Her bio says she's a Rhodes Scholar - but so is Rachel Maddow, you know? Being a RS doesn't give a license to be a free and critical thinker  - and a former managing editor of the Financial Times - which baffles me because I never got a glimpse of all the knowledge whenever she had a chance to show it.

Now she's Canada's International Trade Minister. Come to think of it, it makes sense why Trudeau would have selected her.

Who cries when she puts in an honest day's work but to with no results.
 
Welcome to the real world, pal. 

***

Freeland is the sort of tart (with all the appropriate degrees) that just follows the intellectual trends believing them to be healthy and rational discourse. She's scripted in her head leaving her little room to wiggle around when confronted with substantial debate.

Much like her boss I guess.

Barbara Kay of The National Post got to the heart of it.  Kay was able to put into perfect words how a progressive mindset operates.

Excerpts. Warning: Trigger warning for the intelligent:

"Maher went on to blast multiculturalism: “this idea that somehow we do share values that all religions are alike is bullshit, and we need to call it bullshit.” That galvanized Freeland who “now more than ever” called for respect for “diversity,” because — here’s where she lost the thread — “we in Canada are not going to say Muslims are worse than Christians, or are worse than Jews, or worse than atheists.” Maher shot back, “Not as people, the ideas are worse.”

Maher and his other guests were keen to talk about those ideas, but Freeland just couldn’t bring herself to go there. You could almost see alarm bells ringing in her brain: “Offensive to Muslims! Abort! Abort!” It was as though an automatic pilot had overridden her manual controls. Unable to engage, she remained doggedly on script: “it is incredibly dangerous, and very wrong, to … say there is something wrong with being a Muslim,” which nobody on the panel had said; in fact, both King and Domenech spoke sympathetically of Muslim victims of jihadism.

Finally — and it was kind of funny/sad to see her incredulity — the penny dropped, and she asked, “Are you guys saying the Muslim faith is by definition worse than other people’s?” Maher answered, “Yes, the ideas.” A troubled Freeland, one could see, felt way out of her Canadian comfort zone. She flailed, accusing Maher of “demonizing” Islam. Maher retorted: “I’m not demonizing, I’m just reporting. You are making it a demonization.”

And so it went. Soothing multiculti platitudes that would have had CBC’s Peter Mansbridge gravely nodding agreement weren’t doing the trick with Maher. He just kept lobbing disturbing statistical grenades at Freeland, such as Pew polls that put support for honour killings, even in moderately Islamic Indonesia, at 18 per cent. Lamely, Freeland bunted with the Bible’s “an eye for an eye.” “Well, we don’t listen to the Bible,” Maher crisply returned.

Clearly Maher (as well as King and Domenech) and Freeland were talking past each other. The American panelists, intellectually marinated in First Amendment rights, understood that while it is wrong to defame any faith group collectively (like, say, “Muslim men hate women”), it is impossible under U.S. law to demonize an idea ( “Sharia law is misogynistic”). But Western progressives, splendidly represented by Freeland, no longer grasp the distinction. They have internalized the pernicious, anti-democratic, dangerous notion of “Islamophobia” — the very concept was invented and promoted by stealth-jihad strategists — which interprets as defamation criticism of Islam itself."

This is the key sentence. It's why when someone, say, suggest police or education reform, they're told they 'hate' cops or teacher - and the children. Always the children.

Canada has no impulse or cherished laws protecting free speech. It doesn't exist and don't think or take for granted this country would defend your right to free speech or expression.

America is the last nation on earth to fight that battle.

And they're hanging on.

For now.

***

Missing The Point On Uber And Lyft

Innovation sometimes disrupts particularly unhealthy market set ups like monopolies.

Uber and Lyft are a product of an innovative entrepreneurial spirit. It shouldn't have to be threatened by officials to survive. If it were to fail, especially by design, its impact and the consequences would be catastrophic to future entrepreneurial minds and ideas.

Taxis are an antiquated service protected by the government by limiting competition.

Uber came in and exploded this game board and consumers can but benefit from this.

Taxi drivers who invested several hundred thousand dollars in order to be honored with a permit bestowed by the state should really be directing their anger at the government for fostering such an environment; unless the Taxi cartel had a hand in creating this monstrosity. Then they no one else to blame but their own stupidity.

Offering a service at competitive prices is what should determine whether Uber and Lyft survive. Not unholy political machinations using coercive power to protect one group against another.

Before you question Uber's tactics, remember. It could happen to you should you have a great idea. Because a great idea always threatens entrenched interests.

***

But we've always had an uneasy relationship with entrepreneurs and business as a whole. The progressive cries of a 'rigged system' and 'pay your fair share' and 'equal playing fields' stretch back to Roman times. Which hastened the fall of Rome which at one point operated pretty much like Western nations during its classical liberal apex.

Once the money rolls in, it's time to redistribute and when you start down that path, everyone feels entitles to someone's splits.

The other day I was watching 'Wayward Pines'. The sci-fi drama story of a town given to dictatorial governance in order to protect the human species threatened by 'Abbies'. It's a fun show.

During one episode a character was explaining what their vision was for the town and why he selected teachers, doctors, police officers and farmers. These noble professionals and civil servants were depicted in nothing but a positive light and key cornerstones of civilization.

Of course, great civilizations throughout history have existed and operated without such a criteria.

It was a curious passage and one I can't help notice structured into television and film culture.

But notice the absence of entrepreneurs. Notice the omission of the one class who provide the willingness to risk to innovate that spurn growth and jobs.

Alas, to keep in line with the progressive dogma (sometimes I wonder if it's even done wittingly. I think we're just conditioned to assume this is how it is) that it's all driven by greed looking to rape and enslave people.

It's a shallow if not ignorant view but a powerful one.

The more intelligent progressives understand it but they're the ones who insist on regulations to ensure a 'fairer playing for all'.

Of course, the idea of an enlightened society driven and governed by yeoman and civil servant dedication is a romantic one as it is wrong headed and just assumes they can't be corrupted or inept.

One man's utopia is another man's dystopia.

If we can't accept and indeed protect the idea of needing innovative ideas be propelled into action, then we're asking for trouble and have no business wondering 'wha happened'? There should be no interference nor should be beg for permission to enter voluntary exchanges for goods and services provided except to ask 'how can we facilitate or protect' your experience? And a little humility into understanding who pays their salaries and pensions can be helpful to the process.

Too often I hear of bureaucrats talk as if they're the beginning of time and essence.

No, they are not. Bureaucrats have no business determining who and what gets to live. That's called a dictatorship by other means. Besides, they don't know a quarter of what they purport to know.

In Wayward Pines, everyone is assigned a 'duty'. So if you're told to make toys, you make toys even if you don't want to.

Sound familiar?

Feudalistic and communistic, no?

The way the planners of the town are behaving - though understandable - we see how a police state must eventually collapse since it runs contrary to the human spirit. You can't keep people down and clueless for too long.

Our hunger for knowledge and freedom is just too great and eventually hits political masters like a tsunami.

The trick, I guess, is less on how to control our actions but rather how to harness and treat with care this cherished and beautiful aspect of human nature.

No one likes to be told what to do and when forced to do so, well, I suppose just sealed is the fate of the community to which we're a part of: Doom. 

Misleading Titles

Naturopath doctor.

A naturopath is not a doctor. 

They do not go through the vigorous training and education of a doctor.

They may have mastered the language of a doctor and may believe they're medical experts, but they aren't.

Hypocrisy Reigns In Presidential Race

Let me see. Since critical thinking is all the rage among people these days.

So.

Trump says something in private 10 years ago (which is pretty much standard garbage in any locker room from high school all the way to the pros - and more on this in a second) and it's a massive issue brought to over blown proportions and is fair game for scrutiny.

BUT.

Hillary's private emails - on an unsecured private server that broke the law - are not fair grounds for debate and discussion?

Methinks there's much hypocrisy in the system.

In fact, as wikileaks is showing (and the media is ignoring as they slowly close ranks with Hillary), Hillary's contempt for people is actually more impressive and shockingly breathtaking in its arrogance. No one is spared from Catholics to Latinos to Southerners.

At best, an apologist can say 'it's true' but that would make them the very sort of person progressives claims to hate, no?

It's all projection isn't it?

As for Michelle kicking in her thoughts about Trump. Perhaps a hashtag is in need here. In any event, I'm sure she asked her daughters to leave the room each time Bill entered the room, right?

I mentioned sports locker rooms. Everyone knows much vulgarity happens in locker rooms. I've been part of those myself and quite frankly to this day my friends and I continue to make crude jokes. It's a fallacy of the progressive left (now into thought control) to believe what's said will turn into action.

To hear ESPN or sports media people say things like 'I've never heard it' (in locker rooms) is so incredibly disingenuous, it's full of shit it's astonishing. Just like they never saw any steroids in MLB (it took investigative journalists and bloggers to break the scandal), they're acting like a bunch of lying cunts here.

Like political 'journalists' and talking heads, they're just worried about their access and getting invited to the right cocktail parties I reckon.

Anyway, Hillary. She's bad news.

Thursday Night Music

They're Doing Great Things With MRI Technology

You people.

Yeh. You. The ones who are calling Hillary Clinton 'inspiring' and 'competent' and 'caring'.

You need to get your heads checked.

It baffles the mind.

Movie Trailer And Music Video

Hillary, Trump, Trudeau...slim pickings for real.

Gary Johnson is the only sane choice. Really.

Presidential Debate: Hillary Is Pure Evil

Just a couple of quick takes:

1) The moderators were ridiculously bias again. From Crowley to Holt and now Anderson and the other chick, it's embarrassing and unprofessional. Trump calling them out on it was fair. Remember kids, the liberal media is a myth and part of a 'vast right-wing conspiracy'. And the calls to subdue applause for Trump but not Hillary was pretty blatant as well.

2) They overplayed what he said 11 years ago and it left him an opening to call out Bill Clinton who actually was/is a sexual predator. But again...the 'vast right-wing conspiracy' made him do it.

3) Overall, Trump did better than expected and was particularly effective in hammering her emails and foreign policy.

4) Hillary made a strange assertion when she claimed Russia isn't interested in fighting ISIS because they want to keep Assad in power. Isn't Assad fighting against ISIS? The rebels, of course, being a diverse group in fine Arabesque fashion with a few with connections to ISIS to various degrees.

The moderators were busy trying to find ways to derail Trump to notice I guess.

5) She lies. But not in a politically savvy or coy sense that's come to be accepted but in a disturbingly cavalier manner. For example, Trump said she was Secretary of State when Obama issued his 'red line' ultimatum to Syria. She brazenly replied she was gone by the time Obama made the warning. What makes this stunning is that it's easily verifiable. That she was SofS can't be disputed. Yet, there she is lying to the American population.

And she leads in the polls. Crazy.

6) Clearly, the Clintons have no soul. One is serial sexual assaulter and the other a criminal and a liar. But people pay big bucks to get these two to speak at their events and galas.

7) The saddest most astonishing thing? This vile and repugnant bag of skin is going to be President. An incorrigibly corrupted and inept woman to the core who holds the American population at large in such contempt it makes you wonder if Americans who vote for her have any self-esteem, is going to lead the world's most powerful country.

Oh, check this quality fact checking out from the broadcasting company caught in a few media faux pas in the past:

NBC News Verified account ‏@NBCNews

FACT CHECK: Trump says Clinton "acid washed" her email server. She did not. More #debate fact checks: http://nbcnews.to/2c6w8lx 

***

Updated with a video!



***

Another update. 

PolitiFact ✔ @PolitiFact

Half True for Trump claim that Clinton deleted 33,000 emails after getting a subpoena http://bit.ly/2dEmmIa 

6:00 PM - 10 Oct 2016

How in the bleeping world is that a half true? Did she or didn't she?

Never mind. We all know the answer to that. 

Daily Derp: Obama Fixing Messes Badly

Shallow critics of libertarian thought like to point to Somalia as some sort of example of what a libertarian society would look like. Somalia is chaos and has nothing to do with libertarian principles. Then again, these same one-dimensional statist minds deliberately confuse individualism with 'isolation' or misanthropy.

If there is any example closest to the classical liberal model it's Hong Kon.

***



Once again, the Trudeau liberals will put Canada on a bad financial path. The carbon price tax will cost Canadians about $2400 a year.

And for what exactly?

Oh and watch him eloquently explain the tax.

Impressive stuff right there.

***

It's quite remarkable to listen to people still talk about Obama as if he's 'fixing a mess' and that he's the second coming of FDR having pulled the U.S. economy out of a deep recession.

The Obama economy is anything but a success story. Among other things, the U.S. is currently in a recession.

And the country's deficit and (potentially catastrophic) unfunded liabilities remain a major concern. 

What about the stock markets? QE has kept the game going for a little while keeping interest rates low makes the markets accustomed, if not addicted, to the Fed's involvement through various schemes like bail outs and printing.

The markets are less driven by growth and more by stuff like cutting back on spending or jobs.

What about unemployment? They're right back where they were under Bush when he left office but the labor participation rate has gone up.

*** 

Speaking of Obama 'fixing a mess' we turn our attention to foreign policy.

I'm still unclear as to what exactly he fixed. Never mind Iraq for a second.

No one asked him to wage war against Libya without congressional support plunging that country into civil war or topple Egypt where the Muslim Brotherhood reigns, or attempt to bomb Syria or sign a meaningless deal with Iran the country is already ignoring.

Making a mess of things isn't just through invasions. You can wreak havoc through stuff like bombing and killing Americans with drones without due process. 

If Bush's 'unilateralism' and invasion of Iraq are to forever be a negative mark on his Presidency, I don't see how Obama's own mess and ignoring of Congress is any better.

Back to Iraq. He pulled the troops out despite being warned of its possible ramifications. It has since then been posited this decision and move gave rise to ISIS. But even if we're charitable and not pin this entirely on Obama, he was made aware of ISIS's slow expansion and growing power to which he did little or nothing to counter.

It can be asserted Obama's foreign policy is worst than Bush given he was supposed to be a 'big picture, chess playing' operator.

But hey, he did get Bin Laden, right? 

To think this guy got a Nobel peace prize!

From AP:

"He is the erstwhile anti-war candidate, now engaged in more theaters of war than his predecessor. He is the commander-in-chief who pulled more than a hundred thousand U.S. troops out of harm's way in Iraq, but also began a slow trickle back in. He recoiled against full-scale, conventional war, while embracing the brave new world of drone attacks. He has championed diplomacy on climate change, nuclear proliferation and has torn down walls to Cuba and Myanmar, but failed repeatedly to broker a lasting pause to more than six years of slaughter in Syria.

If there was consensus Obama had not yet earned his Nobel Peace Prize when he received it in 2009, there's little such agreement on whether he deserves it today.

"I don't think he would have been in the speculation of the Nobel committee now, in 2016, even if he had not already won," said Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, and a close watcher of the Nobel committee. Harpviken said he views Obama's foreign policy as more conventional and limited than he expected, particularly regarding his use of multilateral cooperation and institutions.

When it comes to finding new instruments for peace, he said, "Obama has been stuck in the old paradigm."

***

Ten most corrupt politicians in U.S. history. Guess who leads the list? Hint: It starts with a Democrat.

Just like they head the list of most incarcerated politicians by a ratio of 2:1.

But if you look closely, it's because of Republican obstructionism.

***

In the 'Americans have lost their minds' or 'U.S. colleges run by a bunch of Title IX psychos' file, a University of Tennessee student is accused of harassment for spelling the instructor's name wrong.

Another one of those 'messes' Obama tried to fix? I mean, he did ask schools to enforce Title IX.

***

Russians aren't fans of Obama.

Not that I care what they think of Obama. 

Obama may be an unimaginative, average speaking, vapid progressive but dammit! He's OUR unimaginative you know the rest.

***

Oh look. More example of Obama fixing a mess.

UK Parliament select sub committee eviscerates intervention in Libya.

Obama is no Ray Donovan that's for sure.

 ***

Obama must be a really bad sweeper.

*** 

"A team of top scientists is telling world leaders to stop congratulating themselves on the Paris agreement to fight climate change because if more isn't done, global temperatures will likely hit dangerous warming levels in about 35 years."

They're never going to shut the fuck about it are they?

This bunch give it 35 years.

And based on this bull shit, we're gonna come up with still more pant shitting bull shit laws, taxes and regulations.

'What? Our grant is up in five years? Make sure your targets go beyond that!'

***

Face palm.

Among the additional projects to get funding is a scheme aimed at ‘preventing radicalisation leading to violent extremism through music’.

 

 The proposal says: ‘At a time when the EU is facing many challenges, this pilot project aims to bring together young talented musicians from all 28 EU member states to bring visibility to Europe’s core values and assets, building bridges among people through classical music.

‘The pilot project will aim to reach out to the younger generation in Europe, especially those most at risk of radicalisation by bringing together through concerts and mentoring schemes young classical musicians and young people of diverse backgrounds.’

Double-triple face palm.

"Ukip MEP Paul Nuttall last night said: ‘These people obviously live in cloud cuckoo land. The Islamist hotbed of Molenbeek is just down the road from the parliament – why don’t they take their workshops there and see what difference it makes?

‘We need proper solutions so let’s get tough on the real causes of radicalisation. This patronising nonsense from the EU will only make things worse.’

No shit.

And UKIP are the 'crazy' ones, huh.

***

There is no more a wicked cretin than the pampered Western left-winger singing the praises of Cuba as it wallows in abject poverty and degeneration.

Who Will Pay When The Bill Comes In?

Always remember.

Today's deficits end up being tomorrow's taxes.

Wait. What? You actually thought...oh..Lol, lol, lol!

You're cute.

No. The government doesn't *pay* anything silly goose.

You pay for it!

Not their projected growths or the returns on their infrastructure *investment* or the "rich".

You.

No one else.

Phrases I Hate: Something, Something Matters

Is there a more tiresome and vapid cretin than those who react hysterically whenever someone says, 'All Lives Matter'?

And it's extremely unfortunate each time someone is bullied into apologizing for saying it. Stand up and own it and don't back down.

Are they seriously making an issue of this? What would happen, say, if an individual or group decided to grow an 'ALM'? Would BLM go to war with them?

They're fighting over phrases.

A sad sordid state of sloppy affairs this is.

Nothing and everything matters.

Trudeau Liberals Betraying Canada

Liberals do what they do best. That is, they excel at putting every other issue before the interest of the country and its people.

Nothing screams this better than their bull shit carbon price tax scheme - as he so eloquently explains here -  that will 11 cents at the pump.

Of course, seeing they lied to our faces about it being a tax (just like their left-wing sisters did in the United States with Obamacare. Remember, it wasn't a 'tax' and it was going to be 'deficit neutral' and it wasn't going to increase premiums? They knew damn well it was going to be and do all of those things. The idea and narrative before the interest of the individual is their shtick), they're also not being straightforward in admitting part of this scheme (aside from benefiting the government and its cronies) is to ween people off cars.

But what happens to those people who simply can't do this? Well, they get screwed. In the end, the only people who will be stuck with the bill will be the middle class.

They always do.

Couple this with their ill-advised increased spending spree, the Liberals are doing their part to erode our wealth and growth prospects.

All this adds up to is a spend and tax raping of Canada.

Merkel Needs To Step Down Immediately

This is so incredible it's beyond incredible.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses the CDU's recent losses in Berlin. In it, she issues basically a mea culpa and admits, well, to borrow the great words of Otter from Animal House, 'you fucked up! You trusted us!'

Her immigration policies have proven to be an outright disaster - as predicted. 

This is serious because she put Germany in a very difficult position. Not only that, she had threatened other European nations demanding they take in more refugees or migrants - at this point, who fricken knows who was let in.

So far, we've seen rapes and other crimes increase. In addition, they refuse to work while demanding welfare. While the West opened its doors, they complain of mistreatment and racism.

And what have been the responses to citizens who warned their leaders this was not a good idea and that they were not prepared?

The usual. You know, the progressive left making charges of intolerance and racism. Socialist politicians, those loathsome cretins, in place like Sweden tell women who face rape to 'tone it down a little' or in other places they put up stupid posters showing Muslims what is and what is not appropriate. The naivete and outright disrespect to their citizens, doesn't end there. You have all sorts of infantile projects including ideas to help Muslims integrate through music.

It just doesn't make any sense.

Just like Merkel offers a cautionary tale, Canadians are best to keep this in mind. Particularly with who is currently in power.

Justin: Canada's Self-Righteous Dictator

Shades of the NEP.

How long did it take before Justin went full dictator? I mean, didn't he get elected on the promise of ushering in a 'new' Canada (whatever that meant)? Didn't liberals rail against this very sort of thing when Harper was in power?

Funny. I don't seem to recall Harper making such demands on the province. Of course, Trudeau is a progressive and this is how they role. After all, climate change is one of those new nouveau-age quackery trends that permits them to go full bull shit throttle...for the environment....and the children.

"Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has given provinces until 2018 to adopt a carbon pricing scheme, or the federal government will step in and impose a price.

A tough-talking Trudeau told MPs in the House of Commons that provinces can craft a cap-and-trade system or put a direct price on carbon pollution — but it must meet the federal benchmark or "floor price."

Awful. I truly hope the provinces hit back. I don't expect Ontario and Quebec to do much but I do hold out hope for the West to take a stand.

The Trudeau Liberals will put this country on a bad economic path and I will proceed accordingly where my money and investments are concerned.

I have little or no confidence in the Liberals.

Not that I'm surprised by any of this.

The liberal-progressive way can be summarized succinctly as:

'Do as we command or we take away the perks you own as a sovereign individual.'

They will subvert rights to whatever shadow they chase.

Keep Triggering

My nephew experienced his first encountered with a triggered person. He was retelling a story he heard in a lecture in class and the person took extreme offense attacking as if it were his words.

This reminds me of my own story I witnessed in a history class in university back in the 1990s. The professor uttered a quote from Edmund Burke (I can't recall which one but it was in reference to Africa) in which a student did not accept. Letting his emotions get the better of him, he railed against the professor about what Africans have to go through. The professor attempted a small defense explaining those were not his words but that of Burke's but the student was too far gone in his own anger.

It was, in a sense, a trigger before it was cool now that I look back on it based on what I observe on campuses today.

It further cemented my view that the vast majority of students in university had no business being there; let alone this idiot armed with a history degree.

Where once upon a time these people were a precious minority hardly given attention - perhaps in the form of a little pity - today they represent still a small portion of the school population but are much more vocal (and arrogant) in their stupidity.

I cautioned, to get back to my nephew, he stay away from her. That can be nothing but trouble. If someone is incapable of an intellectual discussion without resorting to hysterics, they're flakes and chances are it wouldn't be limited to just topics that trigger them.

As we see (as pushed by Obama with Title IX) in the United States, a man can have consensual sex and find himself in a whole lot of hurt and trouble.

Stay away is my advice. Don't look at them; look away. Some may stalk you demanding you 'explain' why you dare have an independent thought but keep walking lest they turn violent - which they're fully capable of.

It's ironic that such people have a hatred for a society rooted in liberty are given so much space and a platform to spew their invective perspective on Western civilization. The 'social construct' they want to build and impose are the very structures that prevent them from speaking their minds.

That is, one side is free and the other totalitarian (and whatever other forms of it from communism to socialism to welfare-democracy and so on. All ideologies rooted in the collective and the use of force to instill a world view). 

While the bacteria we call Social Justice Warriors may not be going away soon (one would think their irrational plight should peter out. Dark ages do eventually lift), one thing we can do is find the positive.

I thought about it a little and came away with the theory it's good all these SJW's are out there. It makes for picking a mate much easier. Whereas perhaps a whack job wouldn't display it overtly in the past, these days they've bubbled up to the surface.

In the case of my nephew, it was merely a friend (who claims her father is a racist. I'm sure it's true) but even then, not worth the hassle.

So my advice is when you've witnessed a person being triggered or been accuse of doing the triggering, don't bother arguing. They're not in it for the rational discourse. Just be glad they exposed themselves and you were given a heads up.

Keep triggering I say.

It helps the decent among us.

Adam Smith Refresher

A little refresher on Adam Smith never hurts. 



Quick word on Thomas Jefferson.

His staggering personal library puts into perspective the shallow contemporary notion of the Founding Fathers being 'slaves' (excuse the pun) to their times. The logic then permits people to claim the Constitution was invalid because of it.

Nothing is further from the truth. There were far more learned than we care to admit. They understood human nature and how it fit into the rapacious realm of politics. They grasped the basic universal themes and tenets of world history better than their critics today I reckon.

When you read what Madison and Jefferson were discussing you'd be hard pressed to find contemporary examples of such vigorous and brilliant discourse or readings.

Instead, we're treated to a jell-o mush of mediocrity of politicians masking as thinkers sometimes spewing progressive nonsense that have little or nothing to do with the foundation of the United States. Alas, as noted above, things change.

But what happens when interpretations and assumptions are wrong?

Daily Derp: DD's All-Time Hit By Pitch Leader

Why, Paul Krugman! He just passed Ernie 'Coach' Pantuso for that honor.

Paul Krugman. The conscience of an illiberal:

"I suppose a free market purist might question why we need government policies to help deal with this new reality. But we are, after all, talking about the fate of children, who are to some extent a common responsibility. Furthermore, child care economics is in some ways like health economics: for a variety of reasons, mostly coming down to the fact that we’re dealing with people, not things, we can’t trust unregulated markets to deliver a decent outcome."

Paul supposes. 

Sigh.

Obamacare is a frightful disaster passed on a bed of lies and deceit. It's no surprise it's not accomplishing what it claimed to do and you can expect the same from 'child care economics' whatever that means.

Oh, if he means subsidized daycare. Just study Quebec's case. Inside 20 years it became unfeasible. I can just imagine what a gargantuan mess in the hands of the U.S. government, which can't even run SS properly, it would quickly become. Particularly if introduced by Democrats.

No. No they're not a common responsibility. They're the responsibility of the family and only the family. Anything beyond that is government force imposing itself on the family.

The rest of that is just more typical Krooogmanian scare-mongering under the guise of 'rational thought'. Yeh, yeh. We get it. Before the arrival of the mega-welfare state we were all morally destitute.

It's all eugenics in the end. 

This thing that liberals are offering 'big ideas' is nonsense. All they propose are failed progressive retreads with more government passing off as 'for the greater good'.

Progressives are draining the life and blood of our existence.

***

This is the sort of social distortion and destruction they offer:

"The Archaeologies of Modern Conflict course now comes with a trigger warning that cautions students about the potentially traumatizing nature of history."

***

If you go to Liveleaks, or read reports not covered in the press or youtube, you find all sorts of crimes committed by progressives sometimes in live time.

The disturbing development is they claim they have a right to destroy and steal property because they believe they hold the moral high ground.

You also, after some digging, a lot of these faux-protestors are either really just plain dumb or paid by progressive groups to go provoke people at rallies.

Just some examples:







***

Police abuse is not real:

"Police officers across the country misuse confidential law enforcement databases to get information on romantic partners, business associates, neighbors, journalists and others for reasons that have nothing to do with daily police work, an Associated Press investigation has found.
Criminal-history and driver databases give officers critical information about people they encounter on the job. But the AP's review shows how those systems also can be exploited by officers who, motivated by romantic quarrels, personal conflicts or voyeuristic curiosity, sidestep policies and sometimes the law by snooping. In the most egregious cases, officers have used information to stalk or harass, or have tampered with or sold records they obtained."

***

Is Tesla playing people?

Daily Derp: The Return

Let's begin with some Renaissance porn to whet the tongue:

"In the Renaissance, art is private and Marcantonio's prints made art public. Marcantonio is not the inventor of the graphic print, but he's the first to work with an artist of such celebrity to create a unique persona for artists in a medium that was basically new."

***

Miami Hispanics dig Trump.

***

Nothing to see here.

"The inflow of asylum seekers in Sweden, a country with one of the most liberal laws towards refugees, is putting an increasing strain on the country's police. There are now reportedly 55 areas in the country, where the law is not fully upheld. 

Dubbed “no-go zones” in some media reports, there are now 55 areas in Swedish cities, where the police have significant problems in tackling crime. They are divided into three categories depending on how significant the risk to officers working there is."

Look at it. This is my surprised face.

Self-loathing progressive Westeners probably secretly cheer this on.

I mean, we deserve it, right?

***

Democrats expect Rpublicans to fix Obamacare fiasco entirely of their own doing.

You can't make this shit up.

"Mommy and daddy, I know you warned me about moving out before getting a stable job give me my rent money or else I'm gonna tell everyone you don't love me and racist!"
 
***

SJW gone awry:

"These tactics, while perhaps appropriate and effective in influencing legislators or officials in the executive branch, have no place in the judicial process. This is basic civics, and one would think students and others affiliated with a prestigious Ivy League institution would know this. Moreover, having read a few of the emails, it is abundantly clear that the writers, while passionate, were woefully ignorant about the issues before the Court. Hopefully, they will read this decision and be educated."

***

My God Seattle is run by moronic neo-command economy socialist luddites.

"The Seattle City Council last Monday passed a sweeping "secure scheduling" ordinance by a unanimous vote, making it only the second city in the nation to take a direct role in regulating how businesses set employee schedules."

It's too stupid to comprehend. I mean, really stupid.

Next up. Outlawing cutting back hours.

From comments:

"...Very rarely do you ever actually get to the death which followed the 1,000 cuts. This is because you only get 500 cuts. So everything still works. In fact, for the lucky few who are able to retain jobs, everything works great. Which creates more incentive to do more regulatory tweaking.
The fact that these processes exacerbate, and not reduce, net wealth is not relevant. That's because for most people anecdotes always trump statistical analysis. No one is looking at the big picture. Just their own wallet and their immediate circle's wallets.

So this regulation will live on. And it will prove to the masses that it's possible to have it exist and not destroy the economy. The net negative effect on wealth will never be a factor in the social consciousness. And the failure to impact aggregate poverty will continue to be seen as a problem of redistribution and not of mismanagement of the economic circumstances that people operate under.
And thus, the Leviathan continues to expand."

"...Seattle passes law that gives more sick time. Employees take more sick time. Employers forced to cover shifts making employee schedules very dynamic. Seattle then passes law that makes it expensive for schedules to shift. Employers then start heavily restricting schedule shifting. So no more picking up Timmy from school a little early cause of something unforeseen cause because Bob can't cover your schedule. So next Seattle will pass some new law to fix the problem with the second law that was to fix the problem with the first law. It is like watching a Road Runner cartoon. You think at some point Willie will stop ordering from ACME and take his money to the local diner for a good Turkey dinner but you know they won't."

We're watching how a city falls in 'real time' as one other commenter noted.

***

"Manville police cleared Harvey but district officials suspended him and said he'd have to undergo a five-hour evaluation before being allowed back in school because the teacher said she didn't recall giving him the assignment."

She didn't remember my ass. And what kind of low life is this useless teacher to allow a student to undergo a bull shit evaluation?

Good for the mother.

Fuck them and fuck them hard.

Know? I'm at the point libertarians and conservatives should just branch off the public school system and go off on their own.
It's getting out of hand when schools start to call cops and protective services - and in this case ordering a psych evaluation - over fucken school projects they disagree with.

Evil motherfuckers.

***

University of Michigan deserves all the scorn directed at them.

And people are already having fun with it.

Not sure what mandatory pronouns have to do with 'inclusiveness' and 'respect'.

Idiots run colleges it looks like.

***

Reason magazine was very busy bring to the attention of readers the slow drip and march of anti-humanist progressivism.

"As a judge tasked with upholding the Constitution, it seems ill-advised to openly call for the elimination of rights protected by the Constitution while acting in his official capacity. It's hard not to wonder how Walker would react if people started calling for the elimination of the Sixth Amendment—you know, the one ensuring people's right to a trial by jury."

Science Government Style

The DEA moves to ban kratom:

But dedicated kratom users might want to stock up. As soon as Friday, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says it will classify kratom as a Schedule I substance, putting it in a class of drugs — along with heroin, peyote and marijuana — that, per U.S. government policy, have “no currently acceptable medical use.” The Schedule I designation will make kratom illegal to possess or sell and more heavily restricted than cocaine or oxycodone.

Kratom and its chemical compounds, said DEA Special Agent Jodie Underwood, “pose an imminent hazard to the public safety.

The DEA’s announcement has created consternation among scientists who study its effects and their potential medical benefits. This week, more than 50 members of the U.S. House of Representatives — including 28 Democrats and 23 Republicans — sent a letter to the DEA arguing its “hasty decision” to schedule kratom “will put a halt on federally funded research and innovation surrounding the treatment of individuals suffering from opioid and other addictions — a significant public-health threat.”

Washington Reps. Adam Smith and Denny Heck signed the letter.

“In the end, this is a disservice to science,” said Christopher McCurdy, chairman of Biomolecular Sciences at the University of Mississippi, which has been on the forefront of research into kratom as a non-opium-based painkiller and an herbal alternative to methadone or suboxone. For decades, the University of Mississippi also had the only contract with the DEA to grow marijuana for medical research.

Yeah. Something tells me this is more to do with the DEA ensuring its existence and less to do with public safety. 

And how did it come the DEA has this kind of power anyway? I wouldn't trust a single word that comes out of their mouths.

Science is only science when the government says it is.

Need more?

Okay.

Science:

"Last Wednesday, the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST) released a report finding that reviews of several commonly used forensic methods—such as analysis of hair, bitemarks, and shoe-prints—"have revealed a dismaying frequency of instances of use of forensic evidence that do not pass an objective test of scientific validity."

Government:

"We remain confident that, when used properly, forensic science evidence helps juries identify the guilty and clear the innocent, and the department believes that the current legal standards regarding the admissibility of forensic evidence are based on sound science and sound legal reasoning," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. "While we appreciate their contribution to the field of scientific inquiry, the department will not be adopting the recommendations related to the admissibility of forensic science evidence."

Any questions?

Remember, the government claims to be all rational sciency where climate system change is concerned.

When politicians talk about science always ask: Cui bono?

Always.

Quebec Bilingualism Needs More

I keep hearing the argument that Quebecers - particularly French-Canadians are more bilingual. Quebec tends to inflate its successes in areas we know it to not be up to par with the rest of the continent.

This is not supported by the facts.

"In Quebec, the English mother tongue minority is the one that shows the highest bilingualism rate, with 66.1% of anglophones reporting they were bilingual in 2001, compared to 50.4% of allophones and 36.6% of francophones. However, all three groups were gaining ground. In New Brunswick, the bilingualism rate is 71.5% for francophones, 15% for anglophones, and 17.5% for allophones. In Ontario, it is 89.4% for francophones, 8.2% for anglophones, and 6.8% for allophones. In all other provinces, francophones show the highest bilingualism rates: 91.6% in Manitoba, 90.1% in Prince Edward Island, 89.6% in Alberta, 89.3% in Yukon, 89.0% in British Columbia, 87.8% in Saskatchewan, 86.3% in Nunavut, 86.2% in the Northwest Territories, and 85.8% in Newfoundland."

These figures mirror my experience. It's extremely rare to meet a non-French-Canadian who can't communicate in French. It's more common to meet a Francophone who can't speak English but I suspect this will change moving forward. It would have changed and progressed by now if not for the political nationalists who are needlessly slowing things down through various counter-productive and sometimes punitive language laws.

As a whole, Quebec is the most bilingual province followed by New Brunswick - two provinces with the largest French-speaking populations - thanks to the English-speaking community.

I refuse to use the terms 'phone' as they further perpetuate 'difference' through ethnicity and language.

It's nonsensical labeling.

This, however, is not because we're more open or progressive. If the figures were higher among French-Canadians, then perhaps there would be some justification for this assertion but even then I submit it wouldn't be the case.

The bottom line is English is a far more important language than French. It's a simple fact. So the incentive for someone in Alberta to learn French is limited outside of for romantic reasons. Conversely, a Quebecer needs to learn English lest they be isolated more than they already are.

It's a question of practicality. 

If anything, the bilingual rates are low for Quebec given this scenario.

Leadership And Intellecualism You Can Rely On

Behold the state of progressivism.

First, an article from Slate. Oh heavens me!

"...But Johnson isn’t quite so middle-of-the-road. Johnson’s radical free-market economic proposals would dismantle the social safety net and hobble a country still recovering from a devastating recession—a classic Witches Council move. His response to the climate crisis, which boils down to “¯\_(ツ)_/¯, the sun is gonna swallow us up someday anyway,” demonstrates a capacity for nihilism few mortals could muster. Johnson is as deep into the Other Realm as any Quizmaster could hope to be."

Ooookay, then.

Whatever. I have to go check on my pulled pork in the smoker.

Onto the President. The greatest orator since, like, Cicero:

“When I hear anybody say that America is somehow weaker now than it used to be, blah blah, it’s nonsense. This is the greatest military on earth. Nobody even comes close. Our personnel are better, better trained and more focused and exhibit excellence every day,” Obama said. “We need to take great pride, but we also need to cherish it, not be careless with it. "

Like in Libya, Egypt and Syira, right?

Drone killings of Americans without due process?

Blah, blah, blah, nonsense. 

***

Speaking of fake scandals and blah, blahs. Obama used a pseudonym to communicate with Hillary on her unsecured private server.

Awesome.

Just peachy.

From NRO Online:

 

"...I will end with what I said eight months ago: To summarize, we have a situation in which (a) Obama knowingly communicated with Clinton over a non-government, non-secure e-mail system; (b) Obama and Clinton almost certainly discussed matters that are automatically deemed classified under the president’s own guidelines; and (c) at least one high-ranking government official (Petraeus) has been prosecuted because he failed to maintain the security of highly sensitive intelligence that included policy-related conversations with Obama. From these facts and circumstances, we must deduce that it is possible, if not highly likely, that President Obama himself has been grossly negligent in handling classified information."

Quote Of The Day

New York Times readers (I use the term loosely) reacting to Johnson and libertarians:

"Roscoe Farmington, MI 1 hour ago
Nowadays they call this magical thinking. If our government is a passive wimp and we let greed and power run rampant somehow this will create the perfect society. The reality is that markets will bubble and blow up. The rich and powerful will take control of every institution and use it for their own personal gain. Guns everywhere will lead to random nuts shooting innocent people. Wars will increase and defense costs will blow up to drive profit for the military industrial complex. Race relations will become worse with many driven into poverty causing domestic violence leading to more police and more prisons that will have to be paid for. And by the way all these costs will increase the debt. The old and the weak will suffer and die because health care will only be for the few. I could go on but the Reality is the Republican Party has already created this libertarian state....it's happening now. And it happened because we elected them and their goal has been to make government weak, stupid and ineffective. This guy is not change but just more of the same. Vote for Hillary!"

Sherry Tampa 1 hour ago
No. The Libertarian Party under the Johnson - Weld ticket is not at all compatible with the Democratic Party under the Clinton - Kaine ticket. The Libertarian Party is just an iteration of the modern GOP, with the same structure of social policies designed to distract from economic policies designed to enrich the 1% on the backs of the 99 %, and generally destroy the entire government, even the parts that work well, and especially the necessary parts that are included in all modern democracies, civil, moral societies and that a majority of the citizens rely upon, like public education, federal highways, programs to support the very young and the very old, the most vulnerable. The only difference is that the social policies are an attempt to distract the left, now that the right is sufficiently distracted. I mean, The Koch Brothers are admittedly, proudly Libertarian - if that isn't a clue to the goals of the Libertarian Party, I don't know what is. Here's another clue regarding the viability of a Libertarian administration - the man at the top of the Libertarian Party ticket wasn't even familiar with the name of a city that is older than the Bible, let alone any familiarity with the modern day implications of it's current situation.
Voting Libertarian doesn't require deep breathing, ir causes suffocation.

The New York Times finest ladies and gentleman.

The irrational state of being. Pas beau, eh?

Who are these people?

One more:

Thom Quine Vancouver, Canada 4 hours ago
Libertarianism is the ideology of hatred of the poor. There is no society and therefore no social problems, there are only Mad Max individuals fighting it out. If you are low-income that is your own fault, if you can't afford medical insurance you should just die and let the rest of us keep our taxes. Government is bad, and everything they do is wrong by definition.
The problem with this ideology is that the most livable countries in the world have high taxes, lots of government regulation, low poverty, low crime, a strong social safety net, and a general understanding that being a good citizen means you make a contribution to the general health of the society, and you are not just in it for your own personal enrichment.
Don't fall for libertarian lies!

Jesus me.