PN:
Joe’s Comment – Chris Madden captures the spirit of late January in me. Irony aside, the realization of another two or even three months of crappy weather brings out the impulsive me. And buying stuff I don’t need in the deepest darkest depths of Winter is an annual shame.
This year I’ve been making a conscious effort (like I do every year) to curtail the need to financially bleed.
So far I’ve bought lots of stuff I already have.
My excuse is the auction, especially Dodds Auction, a Vernon BC business, which went on line (Internet) early last year – COVID inspired.
And Amazon, which is a sin to use, but I’m a sinner from the safety of my computer. “Free” shipping for Prime Members!
Needless to say, anytime you can go shopping or bidding from home, wearing your skivvies you will!
Only warm weather can save me…..
H.L. Mencken
Joe and I are bemused.
We have found an author who appeals to us at the same level as our previously most exalted writing hero – Joseph Heller, who wrote “Catch-22”.
We have read Catch-22 more than a dozen times.
It appeals to our Libertarian foundational beliefs, and our cynicism about those “good intentions” so often invoked by governments and powerfully placed tyrants for “the common good”.
We believe there is no common good, for there is no “common”: there are only individuals.
Mobs who share a belief and band together to gain power become tyrants.
Although we do not know H.L. Mencken’s political leaning, his words and writing appeal to our Libertarian sensibilities.
His vocabulary is very broad.
Every single page we have read (so far) we have come away with a list of words to look up, for fear of missing either his humor or cynicism or wrath or point.
An example –
Usufruct – noun (Roman and civil law) – the right of enjoying all the advantages derivable from the use of something that belongs to another, as far as is compatible with the substance of the thing not being destroyed or injured.
Our progress is slow; reading hundred year old American prose involves thinking and a good dictionary at hand.
A few more H.L. Mencken quotes to round out our current curiosity –
COVID Data
Dr. Lee Merritt has had 30 years of medical experience as an orthopedic and spinal surgeon.
This doctor, this woman, speaks the straight goods.
She is suspicious that there is some hidden agenda behind the so-called “COVID pandemic” driven by the WHO or the CDC or some government bureaucrats, foreign and/or domestic.
Joe and I respond to data.
We do not respond to shitty background music, or ad hominem illogic, or emotional tirades.
Or, as Dr. Merritt cautions, we do not respond just because someone is wearing a white coat, for that doesn’t mean they are right.
Hat tip to Daniel J. for sending the link to this video titled “Unmasking the Truth With Dr. Lee Merritt”, on Tammy Cuthbert Garcia‘s Ub2b channel, Naturally Inspired Podcast Episode 49:
It is clear to Joe and me that following a regimen of careful diet choices, vitamin D3, vitamin C, and a few trace element supplements keeps our immune system tip-top, our inflammation low, and our winter blues at a distance.
As Eric of the South Main Garage Ub2b channel has posted on his shop wall, “You don’t have to be a rocket doctor”.
Mucho gusto amigos!
Another recent Dr. Merritt speech, at the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness (DDP) 38th Annual Meeting, held on August 16, 2020, in Las Vegas can be found here.
The entire video is below, on BitChute, because who knows how long Ub2b will allow it to exist on their platform.
Joe loved the take-away of “differential knowledge”:
Joe’s Garage
Electric Ford Ranger
In 1998, Ford produced an all-electric Ranger for development and research.
It was called the Ranger EV.
The program was terminated in 2003.
The Ford Motor Company is about to release an F150 variant of electric truck.
Research and development took a while.
Joe says it is still taking a while – because the biggest drawback of mobile electric vehicles is energy storage.
The first person across the finish line with a revolutionary battery that is cheap, safe, with a power to weight ratio better than gasoline or diesel, and is made from common materials will be rewarded profusely:
Autism Spectrum Disorders
Dr. Rob Cywes is tying childhood afflictions and disease to poor diet BEFORE BIRTH!
And after birth, too.
An interesting presentation.
If it is true, most kids would have reason to sue their mother for abuse and neglect.
Joe says it is only fair.
Compensation for the ever present threat of abortion:
Dr. Paul Mason
A down-under doctor who promotes a low carb high fat diet.
His patients have ALL benefited.
He insists that carbohydrate abuse – in the form of sugars and seed/vegetable oils – exacerbates insulin resistance.
More preaching for the choir.
Joe and I are convinced:
Long Term Low Carb Diet
These enterprising (and extremely narcissistic?) people have done Joe and I a service.
Their self absorption has revealed interesting data about long term Keto and sub-Keto dieting via body scanning.
The new normal:
Speed of Light
An interesting graphic that shows the speed of light relative to the bodies in the Solar System:
POLITICS, POLITICIANS, WACKJOBBERY, HUMOROUS, STUPID
SUNDAY SERMON
Since Joe and I started to read H.L. Mencken, we were flummoxed with his pronouncement that a man cannot be both moral and honorable.
We had never contemplated either concept from this perspective.
This caused us to embark on a research project to understand what he means.
While searching, we found a recent conversation between Bill Whittle and Zo Rachel on the topic of “Lust vs Chastity: How Ancient Ideas Shape Modern Life in 2021”.
We found the topic dances around the profane vs sacred argument, which we feel is a sub-set of the moral vs honorable dichotomy.
Perhaps H.L. Mencken was speaking tongue in cheek.
We don’t see it that way. He said “the difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act even when it has worked and he has not been caught.”
He also stated “In human history a moral victory is always a disaster, for it debauches and degrades both the victor and the vanquished.”
He is remembered by historians as a bigot and an agnostic, which might lend clarity to his objection to “morality” as a tenet of organized religion.
This discussion between Mr. Whittle and Mr. Rachel is then research and background toward comprehending the incredibly entertaining work of H.L. Mencken:
WEATHER (OR NOT)
This week in Vernon BC was a continuation of the mild winter we have, so far, experienced.
Mind you, it is still too cold to grow carrots, let alone bananas.
Nighttime slightly below zero Celsius.
Daytime slightly higher, enough to slowly (so slowly!) melt snow.
Wonderful for this time of year in this place on the globe.
We daren’t think of Tahiti or Australia, or even the Marshall Island chain.
A few centimeters (about an inch) of snow early in the week, mostly gone by Sunday.
Joe is restless.
We ventured to the compost bin behind the shop in a tee shirt today.
Not too frosty…..
The harridan we know as February (aka shrew or vixen or strumpet or virago) will make her slatternly entrance in a few minutes.
January this year has been but a cool kiss on Joe’s forehead.
He is thankful.
But he has taken to wearing a parka in the house, and bitches a fit if there aren’t two pairs of gloves in the pocket.
February has him as jumpy as a rooky gunfighter.
Joe (Enduring) Mekanic
p.s. Ramirez soldiers on –
