PN:
Bibliomania
bib-lee-oh-MEY-nee-uh, -MEYN-yuh
Noun – 1, Excessive fondness for acquiring and possessing books.
Joe recently bought ANOTHER pallet load of Ford vehicle manuals from friend Jim, with a couple of handfuls of Chiltons and various tossed in. Joe is a bibliomaniac.
He says it was to supplement his existing collection (of over 500 manuals) – 
The above are pictures of the manuals in the attached garage. Doesn’t include the shop collection.
I told Joe he is obsessive about saving old books from the paper recycler, old machinery from the squisher, and old boats from fibreglass hell.
Further, I told him he should broaden his reading to include AT LEAST one more of the three types of reading.
Not healthy. And a GIANT mess for the kids to clean up when he dies……
Joe told me to go away and leave him alone. He said the following cartoon was drawn to illustrate my reading material –
He said it more forcefully and with blushingly crass expletive-laden language, but I got the point.
Me too I love books.
Right now I’m sequestered in my bedroom with three bookshelves full and boxes of unfiled stacked around the room. More in the living room. More in the shop. Doesn’t include the ebooks, of course –
What to do?
We love EVERYTHING about books. A quote from Flaubert on the subject pretty well sums up Joe and I when it comes to the physical reality of books –
The bonus Joe and I receive is we learn a thing or two while indulging our unhealthy cognitive AND sensual lust for OWNING hard copy. Yummy! –
What to do?
Joe and I agree – start reading more, and more fasterest! And read out loud so’s how you say it matches the pronunciation of the “small person” in your head who talks a lot and runs the show.
Of the three types of reading (vicarious (enjoyment – i.e. fiction), technical (data, specifications), learning (education, how to)), Joe spends most of his reading time with T, and L. No time for Harry Potter, science fiction, true romance, or any of the billions of ways to read yourself to an emotional crescendo. I split my time between reading to learn, and watching lectures on YouTube, as you may notice in any of these Sunday Rants. The latest presentations we have watched on YouTube re: string theory, quarks, what the REAL meaning of e=mc2, lead us to believe the selection of items to know about is much stranger than fiction –
Honour Your Sages
A wonderful interview with 91 year old Freeman Dyson focusing on “Global Warming” but mostly about life and wisdom. This man has more savvy than most, no matter what age. Some quotes from the video:
“CO2 is so beneficial…it would be crazy to try to reduce it”.
“Probably it does us Good, the Earth will get greener as a result”.
“The general public has a lot more common sense (than the media or politicians)”.
“I’m retired, I don’t have to fear losing my job”.
“Man-made climate change is, on the whole, Good”.
“They (Climate Models) are no good for prediction”.
The quote I like the most concerns the common sense of the general public. Joe agrees, H.L. Mencken notwithstanding. Joe also says if we make it to 91 years and have half the sentience of Mr. Dyson, we will be blessed. A video worth watching:
H.L. Mencken Comes to Alberta
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard“. That good old boy Mencken certainly had an insight driven by his observation of the general citizenry, the common people. He would have liked the Mensa joke I often quote “Half the population has below average intelligence”. Hell, he probably coined it! His viewpoint isn’t bitter scepticism; it is incredibly acute analysis of the human entity: populace north americanus.
Our Alberta brothers and sisters are about to get it “good and hard”. The latest news is Brian Topp has been chosen by your new “fearless leader”. Brian Topp has a long history of despising Alberta’s energy sector, and a head full of misinformation about how the day-to-day world operates. Nice call Rachel. If I were to put my “Unicorn” headset on to divine the future for Alberta, perhaps the NDP’ers will bring peace and prosperity to the Injuns by shutting down the oil sand projects and returning the land to the indigenous folks to eke a meagre living killing buffalo and chewing moose hide for moccasins. Perhaps they will bring “crony capitalists” to their knees while installing their own brand of abusers. Hey, this is fun! Let’s have more Unicorn dreams! What about ……..
Joe says are you f**king crazy? Moonbattery in, moonbatshit out will be the result. That won’t change with a party swap, only rational analysis of problems BEFORE “solving” them….
After watching the video, take a view of the comments under it (do that by clicking on the “YouTube” logo on the bottom right corner of the video).
These are NOT the Albertans Joe and I know and love. They sound like young shits hired by the hour to flood comments sections, or incredibly ignorant persons. Or both, and more.
What has happened to the Alberta demographic?
Kudos to Ezra for leaving the comments section open. It is very telling:
Let’s not stop. The reflection / discussion / analysis of this event has not made much of a blip on the Canadian radar. Why is that? Let’s have another video from Ezra that gives his view of “Ten interesting things about the NDP win in Alberta”: Once more, the amount of data from other sources is sparse. Not even Canada’s sage of sages, Rex Murphy, sheds much light or analysis on the subject.
The comments section is fraught with ad hominum hysteria, grandiose blather, and very little substance. It’s like the perpetually loosing team FINALLY won a game, but isn’t graceful or humble rubbing other noses in the fact:
It is appropriate (so says Joe) to close this Alberta lament with more H.L. Mencken. Never ceases to soothe –
“All government, of course, is against liberty”.
“We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine”.
Meanwhile, it has been EXTREMELY quiet.
Alberta friends and family haven’t said much at all to Joe, me, or anybody else I’m on a mailing list with (dangle, dangle damn participle).
Ronny D. broke the silence yesterday (Thurs.) with the following sagacious titbit –
Ronaldo, you are wise much beyond your years…..
Death Roll
B.B. King passed this week. Joe and I weren’t big fans, but fans we are. We’re too white, no soul. His U2 release (When Love Comes to Town) was more to our taste; we’ve heard it a thousand times and will again. Here he takes it by his self and shows what a showman / guitarist he was:
Another, this time with Garry Moore, singing “The Thrill Is Gone”. Excellent guitarists they are, and showmen too. Fantastic performance. R.I.P. both of you:
One more from the “Grade 10 Dropout”. A recording that is legendary in the long or short version. B.B. King and Lucille:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y8QxOjuYHg
Rock on B.B. In a bluesy sort of way…..
POLITICS, POLITICIANS, WACKJOBBERY, HUMOROUS, STUPID
The caption on this graphic is “Liberal Think Tank”. Mirth. Guffaw and mirth.
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, SMART STUFF
Dr. Timothy Ball from 2012 talking about the challenges of obtaining scientific data, scientific understanding of “climate change”. From a presentation delivered in Victoria B.C.:
He maintains there is no “open debate”, that the argument has been biased for political objectives such as a “global governance” project, and explores the immense complexity involved, the challenges of measurement, even the confusion of what and how to measure. One smart Canadian. Well worth the view.
A few observations and comments from Joe Mekanic on the presentation, and the subject –
- The vitriol, ad hominum attacks, emotional wailing of the commenters is disturbing – the subject has polarity not determined by science
- Joe checked out some of the facts Dr. Ball quotes:
- Record temperature change at Spearfish SD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spearfish,_South_Dakota
- Polar bear hair hollow: http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/polarbear.html – but the warming feature described by Dr. Ball has been debunked according to this source: http://io9.com/5959012/the-biggest-myth-about-polar-bear-fur-and-the-weirdest-truth Note: the Internet searches for scientific data on polar bears is incredibly difficult – most articles have a “political” bent, convoluted with pollution scares, “global warming” scares, declining population scares…… very scary!
- Make-up of the atmospheric “greenhouse gases” by percentile – incredible! Searching brings up thousands of links, but very few show water as a greenhouse gas! The political agenda has been implemented
- The book “Cloak of Green” by Elaine Dewar is available: http://www.amazon.ca/Cloak-Green-Environmental-Government-Business/dp/1550284509
- The “Club of Rome” is as he states: http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/clubofrome.htm the Club of Rome website says it differently: http://www.clubofrome.org/
- Maurice Strong, described by Ronald Baily (freelance journalist): http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_tavistock04b.htm another view from Maurice Strong’s own website: http://www.mauricestrong.net/ Note: two widely variant views of M. Strong. Joe verified good old Maurice Strong indeed was involved in the “Oil for Food” scandal, and not in a positive way
- Earth’s rotation slowing? – Yes. Magnetic field weakening? – Yes, a reversal of the earth’s magnetic field is overdue. The magnetic field protects the earth’s surface from harmful radiation.
- Falsification (changing temperature records by government bureaucracies)? – Yes. http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/11/20/possible-conspiracy-misreport-temperatures-found-media-mum
- Dr. Tim Ball has a website: http://drtimball.com/ The documentary he mentions ” The Global Warming War” produced by Luke Dillard, has a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayN9TQP1PeM It cannot be watched from Dr. Ball’s website.
Dr. Ball is one of many REAL scientists without a financial stake in telling the story. He is interviewed with many like-minded scientists in the documentary “The Great Global Warming Swindle”, viewable on YouTube:
PHILOSOPHY, PHILOSOPHERS, SMART THINKING
THE RELIGION OF PEACE (ON ALL OF US)
If this video was set to music, you could waltz around Texas:
Speaking of Texas, and Canada, and North America, watch this one:
Thank “double-speak” the religion of peace is so peaceful. Otherwise there is no telling what else ISIS would have done to these dogs in Karachi. Allahu akbar! Betcha they had to wash their hands afterwards before they could pray. Mind you, if they were preying on innocent dhimmi women, they wouldn’t bother to wash………..
One last bit from the everlasting “religion” of total absurdity, an ISIS policewoman. The mind boggles. The tongue ties. The head shakes. Madness…….
SUNDAY SERMON
Continued from last rant, Dr. Timothy Ball separates the wheat from the chaff with his presentation “The Climate, Science Based on Evidence”, parts 4 – 6. Part 7 is Q & A
WEATHER (OR NOT)
This week was a cool, mostly sunny, sometimes windy week. Today, Sunday, it rained. The grass is green. The leaves are out in full. The grass has been mowed (mostly) once. T shirt most of the time. Life is good.
Joe (Peaceful) Mekanic
p.s. Ramirez is on a roll at Investor’s Business Daily –
