Sunday Rant – 0915

PN:

Time Is Fleeting

I officially left for the south western states on November 15, 2014.  Of course, Joe quickly points out that I haven’t left the yard.  Party pooper.  We’ve been so busy with this that and the other winter has flown by without too too much trauma.  I figure this has been a 20 cases of beer winter to date.  Only 20 days to make it official – Old Man Winter is on his death bed.

 

Diversity – Salad Bowl vs Assimilation

Joe says there isn’t anything wrong with diversity….. he likes pizza AND Chinese food (if it’s made in North America).  He also has a thing for noses, especially girl noses – an indication of character. a feature to admire.  Eyes come in many colors and combinations – even pink – people are tall and small and fat and thin – all perfectly OK because that’s diversity, right?  Dance is OK, too.  Go ahead and shimmy, shake, glide, tap, or jump up and down with a spear in your hand – as long as Joe isn’t coerced to dance he says happy dance card to you.  Music?  Fine, but don’t make him listen to what he doesn’t want to hear.  How about moral equivalence?  Joe says STOP RIGHT THERE!

I thought we were talking about diversity, which (in Joe’s simple mind) means “difference” and “variety”, not right and wrong.  Moral equivalence is an intellectual gymnastic, a sieve for carrying water.  How about this then – cultural diversity?  Joe insists that there is only one culture – with many eddies and backwaters – but one culture nonetheless.  The foundation of that culture is where the right and wrong are defined.  Joe (and I) firmly believe that there are “right” cultural foundations.  Those cultural anomalies, those pockets of perversity that do not have this foundational truth are wrong.  Judge them as you will, from mildly irritating to profane and evil.  It all starts with the smallest minority, the only minority, the individual.
Bill Whittle explains why moral equivalence and multiculturalism are like an immovable object meeting an irresistible force.  Diversity, like cultural backwaters, cannot coexist if the non trivial definitions of diversity are in conflict.  The foundation beliefs must be the same, otherwise, chaos.  Watch and listen as Mr. Whittle explains:

 

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Vietnam Veracity
The Vietnam War was not lost by the U.S. armed forces, nor the South Vietnamese people.  The conflict was over and won, conceded by the North Vietnamese, only to be lost by a Democratic congress reneging on the promise made by the U.S. government to the South Vietnamese at the Paris Peace Accords.  It is profane to allow politicians to micro-manage the military.  Bruce Herschensohn explains:

The embarrassment named Obambi is the focus of this episode of Intellectual Froglegs.  Watch American Embarrassment:

The current occupant of the White House couldn’t be more off base were it the official plan.  Totally tone deaf.  The caption for the following GIF is “Obama At War“.  How appropriate –

 

POLITICS, POLITICIANS, WACKJOBBERY, HUMOROUS, STUPID

Gamer’s toilet –

 

 

THE CULTURE (THERE IS ONLY ONE)

The story of private Wojtek (the bear) is an anomaly – could this happen in today’s world, with today’s military?  Joe and I think the men and women would act in a similar fashion, but the present structure of the military and nature of politics would make it very unlikely.  Watch the story of Wojtek the soldier bear:

Education has changed over the years.  I’m not sure for the better……

Old advertisements when you see them are really from another era – even when you were alive to see them in the first instance!

 

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, SMART STUFF

The Internet As Cash Cow
Joe has predicted this event for years as an inevitability.  The “government” can’t possibly leave the fucking Internet / Digital Synchronized Network alone.  Sooner (not later) they will “wet their beak” and mess it up for all future generations.  Joe’s prediction is here.  In the United States, “Net Neutrality” has been signed into law.  Like the Obambicare act before it, the document is unknown outside a number of bureaucrats who actually authored the document.  Can’t let a little thing like the “most transparent administration in history” stand in the way of progress.  Oh how the political mouths have been salivating – another entity that was doing simply fabulous without interference from government which will alter beyond recognition something special.  A critique from Matt Walsh of the very idea of net neutrality, titled “Dear Foolish and Gullible Americans, Net Neutrality Is Not Your Friend“.   Joe’s new prediction?  Canada won’t be far behind.  Come, come, all ye bureaucrats and regulators!  Milk the wild horse and bleed innovation dry…….

Buyer Beware

 

PHILOSOPHY, PHILOSOPHERS, SMART THINKING

 

GUNS, GUNNERS, GUNNERY

Joe and I have never been impressed with “silencers” because they don’t seem to silence much at all – and they make the barrel longer / more cumbersome.  Silencer Juice makes a big difference!  And a nice citrus smell, too.  When used with a sub-sonic ammunition, all you hear is the firing pin!  The claim is that the silencer (suppressor) lasts longer, too.  Incredible!:

 

 

THE RELIGION OF PEACE (ON US ALL)

ISIS (Allah’s Meat Robots – (Meatbot))

Modern Western citizens, especially those of a progressive mind-set, have difficulty understanding the intellectual framework of “modern” Islam in juxtaposition with movements like ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hamas, et al.  Daniel Greenfield has written a superb article titled “European Colonialism Is the Only Thing That Modernized Islam“.  The article states with historical accuracy that ISIS is NOT a “regressive” movement echoing the 7th century, rather it resembles the Islam of more recent ages, such as the 19th and 20th centuries.  You can read the article (and comments) here.
A few powerful quotes from the article –
……..”Journalists trying to make sense of ISIS demanding Jizya payments and taking slaves ought to remember that these aren’t medieval behaviors in the Middle East. Not unless medieval means the 19th century. And that’s spotting them a whole century. Saudi Arabia only abolished slavery in 1962 under pressure from the United States. Its labor market and that of fellow Petrojihadi kingdoms like Kuwait and Qatar are based on arrangements that look a lot like temporary slavery… for those foreigners who survive.”
……”ISIS isn’t just seventh century Islam. It’s also much more recent than that. It’s Islam before the French and the English came. It’s what the Muslim world was like before it was forced to have presidents and constitutions, before it was forced to at least pay lip service to the alien notion of equal rights for all.”
…….”The problem isn’t that ISIS is ‘medieval’. The problem is that Islam is.”
…….”Islam is the 90 lb. weakling that wants to be the school bully. It can’t punch you in the face, so it stabs you in the back and then blames someone else. When you punch it back, it plays the victim.”
Well worth the reading.  Joe gives it an A+.  I liked this observation from the comments for it’s keen insight –
RoW – “Ironically, one of the main precepts of leftist ideology since the decline of orthodox Marxism, has been the rule that outsiders should accept whatever self-definition a group gives itself, no matter how much it flies in the face of common sense, documented history, or genetic studies. Isis defines itself as Islamic and additionally its ideology and actions are consistent with Islamic texts and historic practice. To call it un-Islamic is either idiocy or hypocrisy.”
Another great article about ISIS from Graeme Wood titled “What ISIS Really Wants”, from The Atlantic – here.  Some quotes –
…..”The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.”
……”According to Haykel, the ranks of the Islamic State are deeply infused with religious vigor. Koranic quotations are ubiquitous. “Even the foot soldiers spout this stuff constantly,” Haykel said. “They mug for their cameras and repeat their basic doctrines in formulaic fashion, and they do it all the time.” He regards the claim that the Islamic State has distorted the texts of Islam as preposterous, sustainable only through willful ignorance. “People want to absolve Islam,” he said. “It’s this ‘Islam is a religion of peace’ mantra. As if there is such a thing as ‘Islam’! It’s what Muslims do, and how they interpret their texts.” Those texts are shared by all Sunni Muslims, not just the Islamic State. “And these guys have just as much legitimacy as anyone else.””
This is a very long and thorough article which lays a foundation for understanding what is powering the ISIS movement.  The net distillation of action for the West is quite simple: kill them or perish.  These meatbots have been programmed to destroy anything unlike themselves, or die trying.
Joe observes that they can’t even get their 7th century lust right.  If they were to do it a la Allah’s “A” Team (Mo&Co), they would ditch the Toyotas, Kalashnakovs, IED’s, and modern weaponry and use what the BIG MAN did way back when.  Oh for Mr. Peabody and his Way Back Machine.  We could send them all back to the times of (even more) ignorance, brutality, and evil:  They have and are earning it…….

 

SUNDAY SERMON

Today Bill Whittle takes to the pulpit to make the argument for “conservatism” (classical “liberalism”) by explaining clearly and concisely why the choice for freedom, personal property, and virtue is an almost universal set of values:

 

WEATHER (OR NOT)

A mild week.  Some sun.  Some frost.  Some wind.  No precipitation.  Starting to think spring thoughts.  Starting to dream of Springy thingys.  Happiness is a warm sunny…………..

 

Joe (Defiant) Mekanic
p.s.  Ramirez is defiant to the core –

More Michael Ramirez political cartoons at Investors Daily.