PN:
Joe’s Comment: The power of religion shall not be underestimated!
Hard Butter
Joe and I keep butter on a plate in the cupboard.
Some folks keep it in the fridge.
Here in Vernon BC our butter gets very soft in the summertime.
It gets quite stiff in the wintertime.
It dawned on us that we don’t like soft butter.
We also don’t like hard butter.
For a few weeks in the Autumn and a few weeks in the Spring, butter at our house has the perfect consistency for Joe and me.
The conclusion Joe has reached is that the outside wall in the kitchen, which faces west, is not insulated sufficiently. The cupboard mounted on this wall is colder in winter and warmer in summer than the rest of the house.
Short of tearing the wall down and re-insulating, Joe suggested putting a shelf beside the furnace thermostat (on the wall in the hallway beside the kitchen) and set the temperature to that which provides us with our idea of the best butter for our needs. This would work, for we have central air conditioning for summer and forced air heating in winter. A walk to the hallway from the kitchen and back is a small inconvenience for perfect butter says he.
I told Joe he was an idiot.
That didn’t solve anything, so I did a Google search for “refrigerator with butter warmer” and got 186,000 links in 0.56 seconds.
Seems like we weren’t the only souls on planet earth who like butter just right.
We can buy a new fridge with a butter warmer.
We can buy a counter top butter conditioner that heats or cools as required:
We can buy a “Butter Express” machine which cuts patties of 1/4 tablespoon size:
Joe says that while we agonize over the viscosity of butter the world is on fire.
I say that is true but what is your point?
Joe says right! Let’s put that shelf up next to the thermostat…..
Words o’ the Week
Midden – noun – a dung hill or refuse heap.
Misandry – noun – hatred of males. The opposite of misogyny – noun – hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women, or prejudice against women. (Note: even with these dictionary definitions, it is complicated when describing women)
Slumgullion – noun – the refuse from processing whale carcasses (Note: this word has four wildly divergent meanings in the dictionary. I chose the meaning closest to the tenor of the article – read the next sentence)
Joe and I noticed these words while reading two opinion pieces by “Fred On Everything“. They are part of his personal observations on the decline of American culture in the following opeds:
“Kids: Then and Now”
“An Impolitic Slumgullion: Diverser Is Worser and Now What?”
Some of the observations Fred has about his childhood years growing up in Virginia, his comments about diversity, multiculturalism, moral equivalence, integration, and race in modern America, are thought provoking.
One theme is that the post WWII North America was essentially Balkanized – economically, culturally, racially, ideologically. Advances in technology improved road systems and modes of travel, modern communications reduced cost while bringing worldwide access to the hoi polloi, the increasing power of Federal government (in the USA) with attendant “big city” mores incorporated into federal law debased the virtuous populous, Leftist identity politics promoted the endless granularity of special interest groups – these and more have increased the stress on people, especially children, to the point where nihilism is an attractive choice or inevitable, your choice.
Quotes from “Kids” –
“In my rural Virginia school, there was no racial tension. We were all white: teachers, students, parents.
The black kids went to their own school, Ralph Bunche. We had virtually no contact with each other. There was no hostility, just no contact. The academic gap didn’t exist in the absence of contact. Integration would prove cruel when it came. and the black kids sank to the bottom. The causes can be argued, but the fact cannot.
There was no black crime to speak of or, as far as I knew any black crime. Certainly blacks did not shoot each other, or anybody. Neither did we. The reasons I suspect were similar.
Divorce was extremely rare, so we all had parents. Whether it is better that unhappy couples stay together or that they divorce can be argued, but they then did stay together. It made a large difference in outcomes if one accepts the statistics. The welfare programs of the Great Society had not yet destroyed the black family, which I speculate accounted in part for low crime…….
…… I think feminism plays a large part in the collapse of society in general and specifically in pushing boys over the edge. In my school years boys were allowed to be boys. Neither sex was denigrated. Doing so would have occurred to nobody. Then came a prejudice against boys, powerful today.
All of this affected society in its entirety, but especially white boys. They are constantly told that being white is shameful, that any masculine interest is pathological, that they are rapists in waiting. They are subjected to torturous boredom and inactivity, and drugged when they respond poorly. They go to schools that do not like them and that stack the deck against them. Many are fatherless. All have access to psychoactive drugs.
Add it up.”
Quotes from “An Impolitic Slumgullion” –
“Gazing out over the chaos of America today, the racial and ethnic antagonism, the hostility over sex and faith and politics–I have never seen anything like it. The country is imploding. The main culprit is diversity–in the broad sense, not just the juxtaposition of races, but the mixing of ideas and philosophies with no dominant culture to maintain order. Current policies promoting this mess are insane.
We hate each other.,,,,
…..Until roughly the Sixties, America was homogeneous enough, overwhelmingly white, European, Anglophone, and Christian. This provided sufficient commonalty that people all regarded themselves as Americans. At the same time, there were many geographically separated subcultures which had little in common and didn’t like each other, or wouldn’t have if they had come into contact. Massachusetts, Montana, Alabama, West Virginia, and New York were different civilizations…..
…..Then everything changed. Diversity began, not at first of people so much as of ideas. Reasons were several. Communications improved. Interstates appeared. The federal government gained in power and reach. The Supreme Court began making sweeping decisions on manners, morals and faith–that is, on culture and values–which it had not done before. Now Washington–New York, really–could enforce these decisions…..
…..The less well diversity worked, the more furiously its advocates sought to impose it. Feminists arose, hostile to men and powerful enough to impose themselves on society. They pushed women into the infantry, where they did not fit and did not belong: more ill-advised diversity. Homosexuality went from being quietly tolerated to being taught to children in grade school. though their parents abominated it…..
…..It did not, of course, work. And so the papers carry endless stories of Islamophobia, dislike of Jews, attacks on Christianity, of misandry, looting of malls, burning of cities, White Nationalism, Black Lives Matter, calls for The Wall, novel policies regarding bathrooms, anger over Spanish on federal forms, affirmative action, perennial academic gaps, the demands of the various sexual curiosities, the Knockout Game, special privilege for this and that group, and a seething anger and despair over a country that many remember but no longer exists.”
Joe and I think that Fred has valid observations, and his living history tells one person’s point of view extremely well. He is well spoken. Is he accurate?
The less confrontational approach to analyzing Fred’s belief requires a retreat to statistics. What is “the norm”? In the Bell Curve (normal) distribution of realities, the norm is the center of the distribution (67% is “normal”), and the rest of the realities are below and above this “norm”. If this is true, then Fred’s experience and observations exist on this distribution. But where, exactly?
Is Fred (history and belief) part of the “normal” distribution, or is he one or more standard deviations away from normal? Joe and I suspect normal for his cohort / cadre. We haven’t lived his life – our Canada has been more or less mono-culture.
A question arises….. does the “norm” drive culture, or does culture drive “norm”? Or, is the query moot?
The more Joe and I ponder these ponderables, the more we want our mommy.
Best Interview So Far
Joe and I are disciples adherents pupils seekers of truth.
We aspire to be speakers of truth, at ever higher orders with every utterance.
Joe says he wishes he saw some Dr. Peterson before voting time last year….
We already speak truth, adopting the JP motto “if you can’t tell the truth, at least don’t lie!”
There are higher truths.
We believe that speaking higher truths saves time and words.
It is true that the following interview with Dr. Jordan Peterson is the most revealing of his analysis of Western culture and his personal philosophy Joe and I have seen so far.
The interviewer’s tape-over comments are argued intensely in the comments section which are half the value of watching. Here is “Truth in the Time of Chaos”:
Don’t forget to read the comments below the video. Joe and I are (finally!) getting a grip on some of our anger. We have near infinite reserves…. of anger.
Pat Condell
Joe and I find Pat Condell to be a well spoken advocate for human rights in the UK, Europe, and the world. He, along with many other YoubeTube contributors have a history of being suspended, deleted, and demonetized. This video addresses the irony and disconnectedness of the “social media” giants:
Evil in Parkland Florida
Joe and I wonder what passes for mature thought in the minds of people who have politicized the tragedy at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
This level of evil has nothing to do with firearms and everything to do with broken systems that do not and cannot respond in real time to a concerted effort from a diseased mind…. or ideology.
The dog and pony show starring young people from the affected community may have some effect in managing the grief wrought on the families of the dead and on the survivors, but to seriously consult children for a solution to the problem is an abandonment of responsibility.
Joe and I think about Israel.
Under fire from seriously fucked up Muslim tribes since the founding of their state, they manage to have schools that provide security for students and teachers. How dey doo dat?
A brief history here.
A quote from the article –
“When terrorists attacked a school in Maalot in 1974, Israel did not declare every school a gun-free zone. It passed a law mandating armed security in schools, provided weapons training to teachers and today runs frequent active shooter drills. There have been only two school shootings since then, and both have ended with teachers killing the terrorists.
It is an approach that the Americans should take to end the constant slaughter of innocents.”
In 2015 responding to the “knife intifada” the Israeli government relaxed the gun laws, encouraging citizens to arm themselves in anticipation of terrorism.
A far cry (so far) from life here in North America.
For Joe and I the solution of security will be multifaceted and must include changes to school curricula which has become leftist indoctrination instead of education re: history and cultural relevance.
Accordingly, we will post some memes to establish a frame of reference in which to promote solutions. A hint: banning firearms is not feasible or desirable….
Dr. Jordan Peterson remarks on the genre:
Joe’s Garage
Hibernation
I have been sluggish for most of the Winter.
The long nights, cloudy days, and snow add up to a blah attitude.
Joe has been researching and studying and ordering parts to fix any number of vehicles in our yard. When idle, he too has been slightly out of tune.
How out of tune?
While listening to lectures, we have discovered that we can do number puzzles (Sudoku, Free Cell) and still concentrate on the speaker. Not so with reading other articles or researching worded documents. This is the score on our Free Cell game –
The score is well passed the 1000 / 100% shown on the screen print-out. It is closer to 1100 now.
That represents a large number of flat-bum sessions, listening to lectures while keeping the puzzle brain employed.
Everything we would do on vacation without having to leave home!
Ron Berry Creations
Joe isn’t fond of the handlebar mustache dude who goes around drooling on and humping the fenders of other people’s creations.
However, Ron Berry is a master with steel.
A short video of his “animated” or cartoon cars:
POLITICS, POLITICIANS, WACKJOBBERY, HUMOROUS, STUPID
SUNDAY SERMON
This week is the next lecture in the Dr. Jordan Peterson lecture series on the stories of the Bible. This is Biblical Series III: God and the Hierarchy of Authority:
WEATHER (OR NOT)
This week in Vernon was lion not lamb ushering the calendar into March.
Joe says more like a lion cub.
Yes, we had more snow.
Yes, we had double digits below zero C.
The roads were a bloody mess several days in a row, especially Saturday.
In our neighborhood it rained on Friday night then snowed as the temperature dropped. Lots of slipping and sliding up and down the valley.
We still have about 2 feet of snow in the backyard.
It will not support our weight (Fat Albert class), but will only collapse when on one foot. Damn near broke an ankle walking around.
Next up is the Spring flood season.
For the last three Springs we have suffered septic tank back-ups into the basement because of ground water flooding our dry well and septic tank.
Same with the neighbors above, below, and on either side of us.
Joe and I are hoping for some steady winds and above zero temperatures.
While we’re wish listing, add no more precipitation to that list.
Snow will go directly to gaseous water without the liquid phase (sublimation) in the right conditions. Mild warming and wind will dry us out faster than no wind and near zero temps.
Time to get the hoses and pumps ready for action!
Joe (webfoot) Mekanic
p.s. Ramirez will not sink –
