PN:
Joe’s Comment – Reality has a way of deflating argument.
Word o’ the Month
Petrichor: (noun) – a distinctive scent, usually described as earthy, pleasant, or sweet, produced by rainfall on very dry ground.
Joe yearns for the fragrant and subtle aroma unique to post-rainfall moments, accompanied by a rainbow (not the gay kind) if the storybook version be an option.
The last month’s olfactory symphony in Vernon, alas, is void of petrichor. The rain in Spain falls mainly in our city with short periods of respite, and has for weeks. There is no faint but distinct hint of petrichor: the pervading smell is mud, rotting vegetation, and a hint of the neighbor’s overflowing dry well. The Spanish can have it, plain or with sprinkles!
Joe and I think there is an investment opportunity at hand. Bottle and sell “desert air” for folks fed up with the constant “Chinese water torture” drip drip dripping, punctuated by steady downpours and the occasional deluge. Relentless never ending quantities of liquid hydrogen hydroxide falling from a faceless silver grey sky. And in the black-dark of night, too.
Trench foot comes to mind. Now there is an odor unique!
A sniff of hot, dry, cactus flowered air, dangerously low in humidity, would be a welcome opiate any time now.
Compromise & Fidelity
Joe insists that compromise is NOT acceptable under situations outside of music or food or a few other categories of emotional touchy-feely personal preferences: i.e. what color should we paint the fence? Do you like these pants? What flowers should be planted in the garden?
What then is the criteria for NOT-ness?
Very simple. Morality. Right (vs wrong). Rights (Natural rights especially) of the individual. Freedom and Liberty (intellectual, physical, spiritual, emotional) of the individual.
Interpersonal relationships have occasion for compromise. An example: Joe wants beer for supper, I want pizza, Rourke wants chicken. We will go with all three most often instead of a dinner “compromise” that suits no one. Joe says he will fix the car and I agree. Joe will NOT compromise on the detail and quality of the repair. If I (try to) intercede (i.e. compromise on detail and quality), Joe will walk away from the job. Period. No compromise. He will mutter something like “fix it yourself, *#@*(^%&!
Joe isn’t diplomatic, well rounded, pleasant, or friendly when it comes to “go along to get along”.
In the arena of politics, compromise is a thorny issue.
Kevin Williamson, writing for the National Review, has written an op-ed titled “Is the GOP finally ready to “de-fund the Left”?”
A quote from the article –
“There is a case for bipartisanship, but it is not the one you usually hear. Bipartisanship is desirable not because the best course is likely to be found at the midpoint between two extremes: The man who drinks to excess every day is a drunk, and so is the man who does so every other day. There is no compromise between fidelity and infidelity. When presented with a good idea and a bad one, there is no point in being a little bit stupid for the sake of compromise.”
The entire article can be read here.
The Cost of Greening
Joe thinks giant wind generators and massive solar arrays are ludicrous. In the words of Joe, “that shit don’t scale”.
They are unsightly, cripplingly costly, unreliable, noisy (in the case of windmills), and deadly dangerous to local bird and bat populations.
Ontario, Kanada, the plaything of Kathleen Wynn, a cruel lesbian moonbat who happens to be the Premier, officially don’t give two shits.
The precise very precious creatures the greenies strive to defend are being slaughtered in wholesale quantities. Raptor under glass for supper? How about chocolate coated blue spotted brown freckled Tits, the rarest of rare Kanadian birds? Talk about batty in the belfry.
For what is the carnage? What noble goal is this murder perpetrated to attain? For the highest hydro costs in the kuntry? Read here.
Run Silent
Joe and I were Carly Fiorina supporters.
When Trump culled her from the herd, we were leaning Ted Cruz.
Just goes to show you…. Joe and I were wrong, wrong, wrong.
One of Trump’s campaign promises was to e-lim-in-ate ISIS (or ISIL as Jug Ears was fond of praising). Unlike Jug Ears, Trump & Co. aren’t broadcasting the 5 W’s and H.
Jug Ears was concerned for the vermin; he thought they were misdirected acolytes of Allah, the all Wise and Powerful, brothers fighting for the glory of the coming Caliphate.
Trump, once inaugurated, made a proclamation. A proclamation not broadcast around the world for all to hear. Not an advance “notice to vacate” because something really nasty might ruin your dream of global domination. A quote from a Financial Post op-ed written by Kori Shake nails it:
“we are going to convey my top generals and give them a simple instruction. They will have 30 days to submit to the Oval Office a plan for soundly and quickly defeating ISIS.” While strictly speaking that deadline has passed without apparent formal approval, the Departments of State and Defense have indeed been prioritizing defeating the Islamic State. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made his first big international event the gathering of the coalition fighting the Islamic State, reinforcing the president’s twin messages that it is the administration’s top national-security priority, and that “the United States will increase our pressure on ISIS and al Qaeda and will work to establish interim zones of stability, through ceasefires, to allow refugees to return home.”
Joe and I are ecstatic.
Especially the pronouncement by Rex Tillerson to create zones of stability allowing refugees to return home. Sanity, finally. Haircut Boy, are you listening?
We can hear music, sweet sweet music:
The music Joe hears is the MOAB detonating in Afghanistan, crippling a tunnel network which aids and abets the assholes.
The music Joe hears is 59 Tomahawk missiles impacting on the Shayrat airbase in Syria.
Both events, delivered by tools of destruction, conveyed a message rationally and purposefully structured to give notice to those who act with impunity: our words are the harbinger of action.
Shades of Teddy Roosevelt (speak softly and carry a big stick).
Or, as Joe would say it, “my word is my bond, DFWM!”
Media Moments
Joe and I used to fly.
We flew for fun, for profit (commercial license), and often for business reasons.
There was a joy and pride and satisfaction we felt flying ourselves.
We also flew via commercial airlines.
That used to be a pleasant experience. No longer possible.
Instead, anxiety and humiliation at the hands of “security staff” accompany a semi-strip, wanding, no humor pat down as foreplay for every commercial flight.
The changes perpetrated on commercial air travel by terrorists / bad actors / assorted criminals have made the old adage “if you have time to spare, travel by air” insufficient to convey the gist of the experience. It is a cauldron of tensions and pressures Joe and I choose to avoid whenever possible.
This week United Airlines cost themselves an incalculable amount of damage by mishandling an incident variously reported as an over-booking / staff transport / manifest adjustment kerfuffle. A passenger who refused to be “bumped” off the flight was forcefully removed in what can only be described as a dark Kafkaesque comedic tragedy. Another layer of civilized behaviour ruptured.
There is a silver lining. Joe and I have assembled a few of the many comments presented by the brave souls around the world who refuse to be silenced (so far), those who take “freedom of speech” seriously, those who know a farce when they see one.
POLITICS, POLITICIANS, WACKJOBBERY, HUMOROUS, STUPID
THE RELIGION OF PEACE (ALL OVER US)
What is it that ISIS wants?
What is it that ISIS means?
Sam Harris tells all:
SUNDAY SERMON
Joe is a fan of Sam Harris.
I am too, with a caveat: I appreciate his views on religion, but his left-leaning foundations are not mine.
Seems time has helped Mr. Harris move his own goal posts a little more to the right. Here is a commentary compiled by “Independent Man”, with excerpts from Sam Harris. Sam really does say the Left is irredeemable!
Just confirms for us that Mr. Harris has a mind:
WEATHER (OR NOT)
This week in Vernon has (finally we hope) seen a cessation of the monsoon.
Saturday there were a few sprinkles here and there.
Today, Sunday, no rain!
The mud bog that used to be the shop driveway is starting to dry.
We wear a pair of cheap Chinese work boots when working in the yard. For the last two months these cheap Chinese boots have been soaking our feet (not as waterproof as advertised), and staining them black (have they “invented” color-fast dye in China yet?)
Does that make Joe and I honorary members of the Blackfoot tribe?
I think not.
More like members of the Cheap Chinese Consumer Consumables Club.
Joe (blackfoot) Mekanic
p.s. Ramirez has another good week –
