PN:
Joe’s Pick o’ the Week
2015 In Review
We don’t know who this “Sargon of Akkad” is, or where he posts from (guess England), but this video is a priceless review of 2015. He has called it “This Year in Stupid (2015)”. The last bit is not too pertinent to North America, but worth the listen. The evidence is there for all to hear and see (thank you, Ms. E. Thrasher):
100 Years Ago
This list has been around the Internet for 20 years. It’s still amazing. And pertinent, ’cause now we can say it’s from 1 century ago –
Outrage
Who says the monarchy is a toothless relic of yesteryear, only a symbol. Before you get your dander up, I’m talking about King Obambi and his tribe.
Much of the detailed information in this article is several years old due to foot-dragging on the part of “officials” requested to submit documents regarding the expenses of the King and his entourage going on vacation in Hawaii. This information would NEVER be made public if there were not a “freedom of information act” legally binding the government to reveal information that is not sensitive / national security / secret.
THE OBAMBI VACATION IN HAWAII IN 2013 COST THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS.
THE TOTAL HAWAIIAN VACATION COSTS INCLUDING 2015 IS EXPECTED TO BE OVER $50 MILLION DOLLARS!!!
THESE COSTS ARE FOR THEIR ANNUAL HAWAIIAN VACATIONS ONLY. THIS DOESN’T INCLUDE THE GOLF GAMES, THE EAST COAST VACATIONS, AFRICAN VACATIONS OR THE WEEKENDERS.
For the 2014 Hawaii vacation, the cost of flights alone was outrageous –
In March 2014, Judicial Watch released flight expense records from the U.S. Department of the Air Force revealing that for this Hawaii vacation the Obamas incurred $7,781,361.30 in flight expenses alone (36.9 hours at $210,877 an hour). – Judicial Watch Organization
Irony o’ the Week
Look at the following picture and tell us that irony is dead. The bloke or sheila who wrote this has captured the fundaments of capitalism! Up to the point where he / she states “practically free / food is free”. There seems to be a great cognitive dissonance happening. Anyone who has ever tended a garden knows that it ain’t “free”. The gardener must have access to land, to a seed / root stock supply, to tools, to a water supply. Anyone who has gardened knows that it is labor intensive – if someone was paid $$$ to tend the garden in relation to the cost of buying equivalent produce, the labor cost of tending the garden would be a serious consideration. This note doesn’t even approach reality in terms of theft.
Joe and I would bet plenty that this person simply despises “capitalism” because…… list misinformation here……
Bnr55,of Reddit, titled this picture “Hippie Accidentally Invents Capitalism.”
Quote o’ the Week
Joe and I feel a sane society would arm it’s citizenry to the point of extreme public politeness. As boys (Joe and I that is), there were very few homes we visited that didn’t have some sort of firearm. Mostly there were shotguns and .22’s, with the almost ubiquitous hunting rifle of select calibre – .303, .30-30, and .308 were common in our neck of the woods. More about rifle / cartridge classification here. Recent events in the U.S. and abroad have once again brought the teary-eyed kumbaya crowd to their feet, screaming for “control”. Better chance to control the wind. The following quote from a Beatnik era writer and drug fiend –
“After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.” – William S. Burroughs
Prager Weekly
Joe and I are totally impressed with the work of Dennis Prager, the Prager University, and the many, many guest speakers who contribute to the awareness videos produced by this enterprise. In short impact-full presentations, an idea, concept, or topic is described, defined, and supported. Joe has dictated we will have a Prager video every rant about current, pertinent subjects every single rant this year. Last week was “Left vs Right” vol. 4. In a truly Droverian manner, this week will NOT be 3, or 1, but will be another pertinent topic – Feminism vs Truth. Listen and learn while Christina Hoff Sommers, resident scholar of the American Enterprise Institute, explains why women in the United States (also Canada) and Western Europe are the freest and most liberated in human history.
Christina Hoff Sommers states that woman’s emancipation is one of the glories of Western civilization and one of the great chapters in Western freedom.
Joe and I heartily agree. Political systems are very important, but the emancipation of one half of the globe’s human inhabitants, if accomplished, will transform global culture – it will be more healthy, happy, wealthy, wise, and (is it possible?) less dangerous for everyone, especially women and children.
Which is infinitely better for ALL humanity.
A lesson we learned from dear mother – if you haven’t anything nice to say, don’t say anything.
And another – you can catch more insects with sugar than with vinegar.
Bitching, demanding, threatening, harassing – these are tactics of a movement without moral certainty.
What we know is that a side-by-side comparison of life in a culture of emancipated women vs anything else will soon quell the negative noise and engage the 6 honest men of Rudyard Kipling’s ode to childhood curiosity –
I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.I let them rest from nine till five,
For I am busy then,
As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,
For they are hungry men.
But different folk have different views;
I know a person small
She keeps ten million serving-men,
Who get no rest at all!
She sends em abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes
One million Hows, Two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!
Rudyard Kipling – from the Just So stories, 1902
Joe further states that if you are truly a “feminist” the title (Six Honest Serving Men) doesn’t wad-up your panties.
The young person referenced in the poem just happens to be female….
We believe women in general are more adventurous than men in a host of endeavors. Hard for men to digest…..
Life in New York City
Mike Rowe takes us on an incredible hunt in the Big Apple. The hunters are mild-mannered Mr., Mrs., and Ms. Citizen. After dark, something happens. the mild-mannered become the blood sport hunters. The weapons are terriers. The prey? RATS!!!:
What a disgusting place to live!
Joe says it is ironic – the Munificent Mulatto insists the biggest threat to humanity is “climate change” and insists we humans can do something akin to controlling or managing something so complex and intricate and massive.
Yet a plague of rats is out of control in one of the wealthiest and largest cities in the world.
Joe says, un f**king believable.
POLITICS, POLITICIANS, WACKJOBBERY, HUMOROUS, STUPID
GUNS, GUNNERS, GUNNERY
Gun Violence
The argument historically heats and cools over the arming of “civilians”; you know, gun “rights”. This article by Daniel Greenfield of the “SultanKnish” website, is an interesting perspective – there is no gun problem, there is a Democrat problem. Some samples from the article –
[…..]
“The murder rate in Washington, D.C., home of the progressive boys and girls who can solve it all, is up 54%. The capital of the national bureaucracy has also been the country’s murder capital.
[…..]
Gun violence is at its worst in the cities that Obama won in 2012. Places like New Orleans, Memphis, Birmingham, St. Louis, Kansas City and Philly. The Democrats are blaming Republicans for the crimes of their own voters.
[…..]
Homicide rates like these show that something is broken, but it isn’t broken among Republican voters rushing to stock up on rifles every time Obama begins threatening their right to buy them; it’s broken among Obama’s base.
[…..]
A breakdown of the Chicago killing fields shows that 83% of those murdered in Chicago in one year had criminal records. In Philly, it’s 75%. In Milwaukee it’s 77% percent. In New Orleans, it’s 64%. In Baltimore, it’s 91%. Many were felons who had served time. And as many as 80% of the homicides were gang related.
Chicago’s problem isn’t guns; it’s gangs. Gun control efforts in Chicago or any other major city are doomed because gangs represent organized crime networks which stretch down to Mexico. And Democrats pander to those gangs because it helps them get elected. That’s why Federal gun prosecutions in Chicago dropped sharply under Obama. It’s why he has set free drug dealers and gang members to deal and kill while convening town halls on gun violence.
America’s murder rate isn’t the work of the suburban and rural homeowners who shop for guns at sporting goods stores and at gun shows, and whom the media profiles after every shooting, but by the gangs embedded in urban areas controlled by Democrats. The gangs who drive up America’s murder rate look nothing like the occasional mentally ill suburban white kid who goes off his medication and decides to shoot up a school. Lanza, like most serial killers, is a media aberration, not the norm.
[…..]
Our national murder rate is not some incomprehensible mystery that can only be attributed to the inanimate tools, the steel, brass and wood that do the work. It is largely the work of adult males from age 18 to 39 with criminal records killing other males of that same age and criminal past.
[…..]
There is a war going on in America between gangs of young men who bear an uncanny resemblance to their counterparts in Sierra Leone or El Salvador. They live like them, they fight for control of the streets like them and they kill like them.
America’s horrific murder rate is a result of the transformation of major American cities into Sierra Leone, Somalia, Rwanda and El Salvador. Gun violence largely consists of criminals killing criminals.
[…..]
America is, on a county by county basis, not a violent country, just as it, on a county by county basis, did not vote for Obama. It is being dragged down by broken cities full of broken families whose mayors would like to trash the Bill of Rights for the entire country in the vain hope that national gun control will save their cities, even though gun control is likely to be as much help to Chicago or New Orleans as the War on Drugs.
[…..]
America does not have a gun problem. Its problem is in the broken culture of cities administered by Democrats. We do not need to have a conversation about gun violence. We need to have a conversation about Chicago. We need to have a conversation about what the Democrats have done to our cities.”
The quotes above capture the gist of the argument, but please read the entire article for full impact.
In other articles posted in past rants, the analysis has been made that by removing the black and latino (and related gang affiliations) homicide numbers from the U.S.A. totals, these numbers are comparable to the safest places on earth.
Joe and I have considered this phenomenon, and believe that “poverty” is less of a catalyst than “environment”, and that intelligence is a major factor overall.
As Ayn Rand so famously stated, “You can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality”……
SUNDAY SERMON
This week “Rational Orc” discusses what happens when perception about a person you previously liked and respected has to change because your paths diverge – their ideas and convictions clash with your own. The “SJW’s” in our midst have a discordant song – the “Social Justice Warrior” is not adverse to bending truth, perverting the meaning of words and phrases, or using logical fallacy to subvert / derail the argument of someone with different views or intimidate them, ostracize them. Daniel Dennett suggested this type of schism was probable as long ago as 2007 – the video of him saying as much is re-played numerous times in this presentation. A segment of a Joe Rogan interview of Sam Harris is used to make the point, and others are quoted / featured to hammer home the argument.:
This is a meaningful discussion when the core values of your moral thought are at loggerheads with those of your friends or people you like and respect.
WEATHER (OR NOT)
Another week that started with snow and cold. Then warm enough to start melting the snow, only to become so cold as to “ice” the snow – it now has a hard crust and an icy underlay.
On the better side of the ledger, the sun actually shone for an hour today!
The days are getting longer.
But the view out the back door is still a little white for me.
Joe is holding his breath – only two more months and a few weeks until Spring…..
Joe (iced-up) Mekanic
p.s. Ramirez has the pulse – from Investor’s Business Daily –
