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. 

Opportunity Knocks No More

Hillary and the Democrats love to hammer out the vague 'income inequality' thing to rile up idiots.

But here's the thing.

The average person - even poor ones - don't give a shit about other people's success or wealth.

What they care about is their own hopes in having an opportunity to achieve wealth.

And god dammit there is no nation in all of human history that has provided this better than the United States of America.

So what do progressives do? Knowing damn well people don't care they've begun to attack the idea opportunity exists. They've come up with all sorts of meaningless catch phrases that have no beginning or end like 'the system is rigged'. Say it enough times and you'll convince enough people to rally around your mythical cry.

But the middle class is shrinking, T.C.! If it is, they were never of any use to progressives anyway. However, if true, maybe it's because the middle-class (such outdated terms) has graduated into the upper-classes. There is no damn 1% out to get or hoard. That's just boogey-man bull shit.

Here in Quebec, they consider $130 000 salary to be rich. So that makes those earning such an income 'riche' and deserving of scorn to be taxed.

It's just another version of with hunt only with envy as its catalyst.

It's not just that. 'Equal' opportunity now is meant to insidiously include equality of results.

They want to manage outcomes.

It's not nutty. It's what illiberal minds do in an effort to control and create a state controlled society where experts rule over the 'deplorables'.

It's not that difficult to see. 

They went right after your greatest asset: Belief.

And they took it from you.

All to make you their slave; their bitch.

Fact Checking The Fact Checkers

I stopped reading Politifact and Factcheck a while ago. I detected they were applying laws loosely to where Democrats are the target but then strictly interpreting holding Republicans They also play with how they determine what is 'mostly false' and 'mostly true'.

They're as political organization as any. 

It was just a hunch but once I was looking for it, I was catching all sorts of questionable ratings. I never really jotted them down - though I regret it - choosing instead to just move along. It takes a lot of work to fact check fact checkers.

I'm glad others are on it though.

Here are some examples from Human Events.

To answer the question: No, progressives lie. They are the revisionists. Their whole shtick was never about statistics and science but a version or reinterpretation of them to fit their schemes and narratives which basically, when you get down to it, are fundamentally anti-human.

In other words, they give Democrats a longer leash and more wiggle room.

And even between Fact Check and Politifact they don't always arrive at the same conclusion. If something is a fact, two sides would arrive at the same conclusion, no?

Factcheck:

Trump said “murders are up” in New York City since ending stop-and-frisk policies, while Clinton said “crime, including murders” is down. Both are correct.

Politifact:

Not for year-to-date, not for longer term

Donald Trump

In New York City, "murders are up."

More here.

The United Nations Makes Remarkably Stupid Request

I can barely keep up anymore but I couldn't let this slide.

It seems the United Nations and its 'experts' (the UN doesn't have experts. They have self-appointed bozo-bureaucrats like we do here pretending to be experts) feel the United States should give blacks reparations.

This is ludicrous as it outrageous. Besides the fact I have no idea how they're going to determine who should get them (never mind the obscene scenario of a wealthy black person getting such a check (personally, I'd send it back because I would view it as pointless and insulting but that's me) at the expense of a poor white person or ancestors who had nothing to do with slavery).

It's a stupid idea and quite frankly anyone who pushes and pimps it possesses a middling mind that lacks a humanist vision and perspective.

And never mind the breathtaking arrogance of the UN.

This is an organization that has persistently demonized Israel (while basically shrugging off the murders of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. That said a lot about the UN as a legitimate body) and coddled some of the most heinous regimes and dictators in the world going as far as to place them on The Human Rights Council as well as the Security Council!

Not only that, and more importantly, it defies the facts of history. Slavery is but the story of humanity. It stretches back thousands of years. Are we to demand Rome and Athens pay reparations? What of European empires who engaged in the trade? What about the indentured Irish?

More explosive, what about the role of the Africans themselves in this shameless institution? After all, they sold humans to the Europeans and...Muslims.

Ah yes. Muslims. The new special status class in Western culture and the United Nations.

Islam's slavery record is one of the most astonishing of them all. Hundreds of millions killed and taken into captivity. Sometimes they didn't even bother to use middle-men and went straight into the homes of people and stole their children.

That's one massive reparation right there, no?

Still more, there has not been a more oppressed people in human history than Jews. They faced multiple massacres and a genocide for thousands of years.

What does the world owe them you piece of shits?

American slavery, relatively speaking, is but a tiny blip in world history.

No nation on the planet or in history has confronted its slave past almost to nauseating levels given birth to a pseudo-intellectual discourse (of which Coates - who is referenced as a journalist in the paper - is a member of and who is not a journalist. More like a word-farter) on the matter.

No nation has tried as hard to make amends by not only providing welfare but the opportunity to gain wealth like the United States. None. It's not perfect but American blacks need to stop this latest gray train because if they keep to it, it will set race relations back more than any white cop could ever do. It will piss off the vast majority of decent Americans (excluding progressives of course because they're miserable trouble makers) needlessly.

The United States should turn the grossly immoral UN around, kick it in the ass and tell it to go fuck itself for shamelessly publishing this garbage.

How Parasites Make Money

How does the parasite class operate?

Here's a good example how.

"The U.S. Justice Department is assessing how big a criminal fine it can extract from Volkswagen AG over emissions-cheating without putting the German carmaker out of business, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.

The government and Volkswagen are trying to reach a settlement by January, the people said, before a new U.S. administration comes into office and replaces the political appointees who have been overseeing the process."

Euro Trash In World Cup Final: Team Europe Gets Last Laugh

And now for Canadian stupidity.

An article by Dave Hilson in The Toronto Sun hasn't gotten enough attention for its 'Euro Trash' title in describing Team Europe.

That's a ridiculous thing to print. Not sure what was the point of doing that. Reminds me when Der Speigel at the 2006 World Cup and again during the 2016 Euro (I forget the publication this time) wrote some pathetically arrogant and insulting articles trying to demean Italians.

It's uncalled for.

Note: Notice I don't call for censorship lest we end up in a full blown parasitical progressive nanny state punishing people's opinions and now their thoughts as they do in Europe now.

Good on Don Cherry to bring it up. Not only that, he actually predicted they'd do well while every wrote them off. His logic was simple but true: Never dis people. Ever.

Never ever give your opponent something to hold on to. Never stomp on their logo. Never disrespect their flag. Never question their heart.

Ever.

“I said earlier today, when I saw the [Toronto] Sun, I will bet any money on Team Europe,” said Cherry, who held up the headline that read, “Euro Trash?”

Team Europe beat an outsanding Team Sweden squad 3-2 in overtime to reach the final against Team Canada.

And that's that.

It seems The Sun didn't publish the article online so I can't really delve more into it but someone did and I'll let them have the last word:

CLASSLESS
Re “Euro Trash?” (Dave Hilson, Sept. 17): Toronto is the host of this hockey tournament. What kind of ignorant, insulting headline is this? Invite guests into your house and treat them this way. What a classless thing to do.
Pat Stevens
Hamilton
(Team Europe is in the semi-finals against Sweden. So much for “Euro Trash”)

***

Quick word on Team Canada. They're at this point the equivalent of USA basketball in terms of dominance. I don't think I've quite seen the Canadian senior team dominate (the junior program hit its dominant stride in the 1990s and that continued for roughly 15 years) like we've seen over the last decade or so and definitely in the last few years like we've seen.

The great hockey nations  are barely touching them. It's almost reminiscent of how the Soviets ruled hockey back in the 1960's through the 1980s.

Kudos to Canada.

Quebec: The South North

I've observed the same thing in my business.

People from abroad come to Quebec but are not interested in staying. The like the place but there's too much politics preventing them from doing what they want. It's hard to describe and explain to a Quebecer this place is behind the curve and quite frankly I don't see it getting better. Not too long ago the Parti Quebecois went full unhinged and they're set to double down on this.

The part about where all things being equal they will choose the French-Canadian is accurate. They will claim this happens everywhere but that claim is weak. It's damn near impossible to pull that shit in the USA.

But believe this they must to justify their own discriminatory practices.

Case in point in the comments:

This is not an exodus of Quebecois but of people who are culturally foreign to Quebec. If French-speaking Quebecois were leaving en masse, this would be a big issue. Instead, those who are departing could be described as 'Westmount Rhodesians', privileged people who refuse to adapt to the majority culture or speak its language. The rest of Canada has a similar problem - one caused by 'Canadians of convenience', people who reject everything about the country except its prized passport and its medical and social welfare systems. In both cases, the whiners should just leave and not come back.

Way to go missing the entire point, pal.

What else is new? This is exactly why Quebec is as stagnant a region as they come.

It's not that they are unwilling to adapt you dipshit. It's that Quebec laws are onerous and not worth the headache. No one likes to be told where to send their kids or be forced to communicate with each other in not their native tongue. Once upon a time, nationalists assured us they were just looking for 'respect' and nothing more.

Now they've taken it up a notch and looking to enter the realm of speech and language control. It starts in the workplace (even where the majority aren't French. Of course this doesn't matter because 'French majority'. You may be 12 people but you must write to each other in French. Who in their right mind accepts this kind of insulting and interventionist bull shit? My retort is simple now. You want respect but I can't give it where it is not earned and nationalists in their constant railing against my language deserves none of it) and eventually in the homes. Watch.

It's coming. Insecure societies that focus on what other people are doing tend to stay stuck in mud.

It's not an opinion but a fact of history; of human nature.

People like this idiot don't understand our laws punitive and smart people see right through it and decide to leave. Instead of looking at what we're doing wrong he looks to blame the immigrant. These people are not looking to not assimilate. They're looking for a fair shake and demanding they take a French test to 'prove' it is pure fucking discrimination.

Heck, I'm tired of it and from here. How would this guy describe me?

Just stop bull shitting people and tell them flat out they need to be totally proficient in French or else.

Of course, Quebec can't do that lest they look like racist fools. So they try and pass a fast one only problem is people catch on. 

Calling people 'Westmount Rhodesians' (and this angers me) is essentially xenophobic and has its roots in the nationalist movement back in the 1960s when Quebec was waking up from its slumber while 'les autres' were moving past them on the social and economic scale. You have to be one insular son of a bitch to call people this. It's like Quebec refuses to learn from other people's perspectives regarding our shortcomings. The second we mention what they're doing is wrong and doom to fail they scream 'Quebec bashing'.

The only way they managed to reverse it was by applying laws that trampled on civil liberties. They can squawk all they want deflecting this fact, but it ain't fooling intelligent people this province desperately needs.

And mark my words. It will fail. It already has. Just look around the continent. We're not in the conversation. No one is looking at us; for good reason too.

Moreover, the second someone points something out that may not be beneficial, they scream 'leave if you don't like!' You know, like populists and nativists.

'Yeah were not so rich or so dynamic or offer more but at least we're French and I'll be damned some foreigner is gonna tell us what to do!'

The mentality displayed by the comment is something North America is working hard - and succeeding enormously - to eliminate.

The bottom line is by every metric and measure Quebec is a laggard. We're not a leader.

And this article points out one of the reasons why.

Only problem is Quebec just isn't listening.

How do you translate 'La, la, la' in joual?

Debate In One Quote

"Josh Jordan ‏@NumbersMuncher 10h10 hours ago Lester Holt negative questions to Trump:
Tax Returns
Birther issue
Iraq War
Hillary Presidential Looks
Negative questions to Clinton:
None"

Exactly. Seems to me the woman bull shitting about cyber security and who stored government emails on an unsecured private server deserved some grilling. It also seems to me Lester could have question the fact she voted for Iraq when she railed against the Bush tax cuts or as he pressed Trump about the birth certificate he could have reminded the audience of the fact it originated in the Democrat ranks. Or how about the 'pay to play' racket of the Clinton Foundation?

Lester Holt also was fact checking Trump while letting Hillary's crap slide.

Sigh. He's just another Democrat hack posing as a 'neutral' moderator. We saw this last year with Cindy Crowley.

Business And Bankruptcy

In the Presidential debate with Donald Trump Hillary attacked him for his bankruptcies alleging true successful businessmen don't declare bankruptcy.

Of course, this is not supported by facts and I didn't expect Lester Holt to fact check her like he seemed to for Donald so eagerly.

Shades of Crowley.

Not surprising seeing he works for NBC and his job was on the line. Good job Lester. You keep up the myth of the neutral moderator.

Hacks. 

Anyway.

Back when I was taking business courses in university, Robert Campeau was the entrepreneur du jour (whatever happened to that guy?). In my accounting class I had to analyze his deals and along the way I came across a statistic that the average businessman declared bankruptcy seven times in their lives before they became millionaires.

Which makes sense given taking risks means a high potential for failure.

Her attack is not backed by the reality.

Just more progressive rubbish. 

See 30 people who declared bankruptcy.

PQ Debate Doesn't Disappoint

Who needs the American deep south when we have our own knee-slappers here in Quebec?

I caught an interesting exchange between the hillbillies in the PQ discussing language.

And it wasn't surprising but still disturbing.

One Martine Ouellette railed with the usual false equivalence Quebec nationalist like to use. She wondered if Saskatchewan is allowed to be English only, why shouldn't Quebec be French only?

For this, the mob cheered.

But here's the thing. There's a much larger English-speaking fact in Quebec than Saskatchewan has French-speakers. Moreover, Saskatchewan is not doing it out of spite. However, Ontario does have bilingual signs on its highway system to which Quebec does not. So plus one to them. It really says a lot about the mindset of the PQ that they obsess and look at things this way.

And honestly, who gives a shit at this point? This false equivalence of 'But Toronto!' is tiresome.

I don't care about Toronto. It's weak play to justify our own prejudice against a linguistic community.  Two wrongs don't make a right and all that.

This is just plain and plump ignorant populism that continues to lurk in the PQ ranks.

The last thing you want to do is further insulate the province than it already is.

But wait. It gets better.

Some guy named Cloutier responded along the lines of 'we can't demand all signs be in French. There are laws to respect, it's too bad, but we have to respect it.'

Here, the crowd jeered. Hissssss!

Wow. Take a bow. Hand that yokel a shot of moonshine!

Lemme ask. How are we supposed to interpret this? 

So let me get this straight? You respect the law but not my language?

That's not how respect works.

Let's rephrase this to show how regressive these people can be. Just replace it with another language and transplant it to another region.

'I know. I wish we could have everything in English but there are laws in place. I know. It's unfortunate but Spanish is a language too!'

Imagine the uproar - and rightfully so - you would see. But you don't because for the most part such thinking is non-existent and if it is, it hold little water or power in North America. Only in Quebec does it have weight because the PQ represents 25% of the population.

This is not good. It's not good.

I keep hoping someone pulls these idiots by the ear and drags them around but I reckon it won't happen.

Which is why my daughter is not staying here. I don't want her exposed to this crap. Crap I tolerated and no longer wish to do so.

Don't like my language? Fuck you.

Do I offend you? Does the existence of my being threaten you?

But you sure as hell love my taxes don't you?

***

Oh. By the way.  A French-Canada is free to go anywhere on the continent and not be accosted for their language. No one will bother them if they put a sign up or anything that is free expression.

The favor is not returned here. The average Quebecer doesn't know their government actively engages in linguistic discrimination with bull shit language exams to get a mortgage broker or real estate license which doesn't exist anywhere. Nor do we have any campuses that forbid people from speaking their native tongue as we do here like at the Universite de Montreal where people are not allowed to speak English.

Never mind about the immoral insanity of suspending the only retinal eye specialist in the province because he couldn't pass a fucking lousy written test! Let's put politics above the health of Quebecers!

Bravo, you morons running this banana republic.

It's mad.

I wish I was joking but I'm not.

And nowhere does any jurisdiction have a language police harassing people for having the temerity to veer of the French language.

Vancouver has their own nitwits who complain about 'too much Chinese' but there are no language laws and hopefully it will stay that way.

Quebec nationalists bring absolutely nothing to the French language. They demean it through actions borne out of insecurity and misplaced pride.

That's why you're a laughing stock, Mme. Ouellette. 

***

Ever since the fall of the Catholic church and its influence in Quebec, the province has been in a constant state of chaos and manic insecurity where identity is concerned.

And it's manifesting itself in demagoguery particularly against 'les autres'.

Liberal Party Cabinet Minister Problems: t's No Longer 2015. What Happens Now?

What is it with the left and progressives and their obsession with claiming a different heritage than from what and who they actually are?

It's a bizarre development I'm sure I'm not alone in having detected.

For example, we had Elizabeth Warren claiming to be part Cherokee - with the charge she leveraged this into gaming affirmative action in her favor.

President Obama, for his part, admitted composites of people to define who he is in his book 'Dreams of My Commie Father.'

The story of Rachel Dolezal is perhaps as odd as they come. Dolezal, who is white, insists she is black.

And just for kicks, I add Jessica Alba seemed disappointed to find out she was of Spanish origin and not Native American. You can find it on youtube.

The list has now been expanded into transgenderism.

And...well.

I guess some do it because it's trendy pretending to be an 'exotic' origins and brownie bonus points if it comes with victim or special status or a protected class.

We seem to have created our own 'private bubbles' of existence where we can be anything we want to be leaving us vulnerable to various passing trends inevitably leaving people perpetually unfulfilled.

Which brings me to the story of Liberal cabinet minister Maryam Monsef. Monsef was heralded as the first Afghan born politician elected to office. However, it turns out she may be from Iran but she doesn't know. Worse, she seems to be throwing her mother under the bus blaming her for the confusion. The story is enough of a red flag because she was 11 when she immigrated. One would think she'd know if she came from Iran or not.

Here's the money quote:

"...When asked why security vetting for cabinet posts didn’t uncover this error, an official said “we learned of this information about Maryam Monsef’s place of birth when it was brought to us recently by the The Globe and Mail.”

Really? Makes you wonder if they're vetting refugees/migrants from the Middle-East properly. Suddenly, I'm not so confident.

This development is troubling as it is a showcase in amateurism where the Liberal party is concerned.

Yes, it is a big deal. Misrepresenting oneself or facts in a job interview or in a prospectus or any other area where you're expected to be truthful, is fraud.

The right thing to do is to just resign.

Boy, Trudeau's 2015 cabinet has been off to a right start. Just before this scandal came Hunter Tootoo for was embroiled in a relationship with a colleague only to move on to her mother.

Character we can believe in!

But things have gotten really stupid in Canada sooooo.

Critical Thinking...Not

So there I was, alone at the table. Just me and my slide whistle and the radio. Until I was interrupted by the Tommy Schnurmacher show on CJAD with a segment on critical thinking. I figured what the ham, why not? The guest was a professor at McGill named Dr. Damiel Levitin.

Boy oh boy it was quite the exercise in exactly the opposite of critical thinking. Basically, all he did was tell the audience to rely on "experts" in mainstream sources like Bell and The New York Times (because the media has been so awesome in the treatment of facts in recent times. From sensationalism to  plagiarists to liars, they've seen and done it all) and to fact check those with 'neutral' sites with investigative journalists like Politifact and Factcheck.

Of course, as any savvy navigator knows, these sites have also faced their own criticism. He claimed the fact checking at the NYT is incredible but when the host pointed out the NYT having to retract not one but two errors on Aleppo (after going smugly after Gary Johnson), he replied basically they do it for most articles and then when pressed again, he said they do it more in the print edition than online.

Hear that sound? That's the sound of a guy who just lost the plot. I wanted to change the channel at this point because it was insulting but I decided to listen on.

It didn't disappoint.

He took it a step further and this is where he commits a logical fallacy. He argued that if you're going to research, for example, meat don't go to 'meat associations' since they're *obviously*  bias.

I argue this is plain absurd. Just because, a scientist who works for an oil company or a research team gets a grant from a company in another industry doesn't  mean their work is compromised. To dismiss this outright is foolish. Besides, I doubt he believes government papers are non-bias so wouldn't this work both ways?

Moreover, it's a little like suggesting don't read Barron's or some other finance publication to learn or be informed on investments and the stock markets. 

However, he's right. You should research what's presented but I've come to learn the mainstream press is actually a laggard and often not accurate in some instances. You have to diligently back check the fact check. I have my own system in place; including trying to find an article or essay from outside North America to offer a perspective from different lenses.

But wait there was more.

He asserted 'there is no other side' in the climate change debate because all the serious scientists have come to a consensus that it's happening. The host, to his credit, smelling he's got a live one, asked 'since when is science done by consensus'? Bingo. He skated around it and then suggested of course people are entitled to take a counter-argument but those people aren't true scientists but people not related in the field of climate.

The science is settled. Eugenicists thought science was on their side too. Just sayin'.

Really? The biggest pimps for climate change are people like Bill Nye (engineer), Neil de Grasse Tyson (physicist), Al Gore (engineer/politician), Paul Ehrlich (biologist). And where they are actually in the field like Michael Mann, their theories (ie Hockey Stick) have been aggressively challenged if not thoroughly debunked. Another is James Hansen with his numerous frightening scenarios about climate.

Might I also add, his favorite NYT employs an economist (with a specialty in a sub-set of the dismal art) to talk about politics in Paul Krugman - who basically is just a shill for progressivism and the Democrat party. And then there's our old friend Thomas Friedman who seems to have amnesia. 

Never mind we have over 100 years of climate prognostications that never happened and never mind the '97% consensus' things has been outed as a fraud, and never mind the data and models have proven to be manipulated and erroneous, and never mind there are plenty of legitimate scientists and blogs and sites who have taken to set the record straight (a simple research into this will bring you into a world of sensible and rational thought) and never mind....bah, never mind.

Here too the host was skillful enough to get the guest to admit scientists have been on the wrong side of history too. Just because a majority agree with something doesn't mean their right.

But hey, there is not other legit counter-point according to this guy.

I went in hoping to sharpen my skills on how to spot a false equivalence or tu quoque better, instead I got some vague, unhelpful, and misguided pointers on how to research.

And he wrote a book on critical thinking? Maybe he has more to offer or perhaps it was a bad day but I was profoundly disappointed in his tips and approach.

You can listen to the interview here. 

I was better off playing with my slide whistle.

Oh. Might I suggest additional reading along with a piece of advice?

Learn to spot bull shit.