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Posts for: pafret
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Jan 26, 2019 21:01:47   #
son of witless wrote:
I can't wait. If it's for free, it's for me. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is my hero. She is so smart and so beautiful. Finally those rich Capitalist Pig-Dogs will get what is coming to them. I think she should get Nancy's job, after she becomes President, once Trump and Pence are impeached. I bet Alexandria got way mo stuff to give away than even Obama.


Hell, Nancy's too old and pruney Let's elect A O'C President and then we will have a gal who can boogie and shake her booty in the Oval Office. Wonder if the interns will be male or female.
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Jan 26, 2019 20:52:33   #
woodguru wrote:
According to the statement of what happened, the shooter loaded one bullet in the cylinder, spun it, and shot at the victim, it did not go off...she took the gun and pulled the trigger at him, again it did not go off...he took the gun and pulled the trigger at her and boom, it went off?

Holy crap, it gets re spun after each shot, this was insanity as if playing Russian Roulette the right way isn't crazy enough? Odds get crazy if you don't re spin the cylinder

These people were frigging crazy

https://dmlnews.com/video-female-cop-killed-fellow-officer-game-russian-roulette/
According to the statement of what happened, the s... (show quote)


More likely drunk or stoned.
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Jan 26, 2019 20:50:13   #
Larry the Legend wrote:
Does this make sense?

"I think that there’s a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right”.

Am I the only one who can make neither heads or tails of that statement? How can something be factually inaccurate but morally 'right'?

Am I missing something or is this a total oxymoron?


If this sentence is a comparative it makes sense. It is saying more people are concerned with grammar than morality. If it is talking about any given proposition it may or may not make sense. There is not enough context to say which is true.

Is this another of A O"C treasured proverbs?
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Jan 26, 2019 20:32:55   #
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"Let Them Eat Cake"
by Bob Moriarty

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way, in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

Those memorable words penned by Charles Dickens in 1859 begin the story of the times leading up to the French Revolution and ending in the Jacobin Reign of Terror. "The Tale of Two Cities" may be back for an encore. So might the Reign of Terror.
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The earths very first worldwide revolution began in Paris on November 17th 2018. The immediate cause was an increase in taxes on diesel and gasoline. The French government levied higher taxes on diesel of 7.6 cents per liter in 2018 with a planned increase of an additional 6.5 cents effective on January 1st 2019. Gasoline taxes rose by 3.9 cents in 2018 and were due to go up 2.9 cents more with the turn of the New Year.

Globalization has caused a mass migration all over the world from rural areas and small towns to the large cities. As the migration took place, the balance of political power shifted and the rural areas had less and less of an impact on the decision making process.

French law requires all vehicles be equipped with neon yellow vests for safety if the automobile is disabled or the driver needs to change a tire. Yellow vests or Gilets Jaunes are in every car in case of emergency. Any emergency will do, even a protest.

The protests began simply with a demand that the increases in fuel taxes be rescinded. From Paris other groups of the Gilets Jaunes sprang up spontaneously all over France in village squares and in the ubitiquous traffic circles controlling the flow of traffic rather than red lights found in most countries. People in the streets protesting actions of the government are the ultimate form of direct democracy.

There were no leaders. As times some labor unions and politicians have attempted to co-opt the movement without success. The Yellow Vests reject centralized power no matter where it comes from. All of the protests came directly from local residents angry at their lack of voice.

By and large it was peaceful from the beginning with pretty much the exception of the actions of the police. Most people in most cities simply walked around talking to other Yellow Vests. As time went by the list of demands grew to include the resignation of French President Emmanuel Macron as well as other changes in forms of taxation and benefit modifications.

Naturally the elite in government smiled as the requests for change grew out of control. They knew that as the demands expanded the chance of them being enacted declined. Under pressure Macron agreed to postpone or cancel the fuel tax increase and went along with some minor modifications to minimum wage and retirement benefits. But he soon tired of the sops to the masses and began to harden his position.

The Yellow Vest movement is simple. The people want more say in how the government affects their lives. Over the past week the stakes may have risen as the French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced support for a new law banning unapproved protests. The idea was not complicated. It's ok to riot but you need to fill out forms in triplicate and get government approval first. I have a suggestion for the Gilets Jaunes, Don't hold your breath.

The Yellow Vest masses seemed to have touched a nerve with angry people all over the world. There have been similar protests in Taiwan, Israel, Brussels, Canada, Spain and no doubt many other locations. It is a worldwide revolution and it will only grow.

As long as there have been groups gathered together for protection the elite have ruled. It didn't matter if it was the head of a clan, a Pope, a king or eventually presidents and prime ministers. The elite ruled and the peasants could stuff themselves with cake if they didn't like the lack of bread. But the elites have always been out of touch with what the people, the mob, the masses want.

When the peasants went hungry for long enough because of mismanagement of government, they manned the barricades and sharpened their pikes. In the end after every revolution all they managed to accomplish was change one group of elites with a different group of clueless elites. Look at the elections in the US and the UK. One party rules, then the other party rules, then it goes back again. Nothing ever changes.

Who do the Yellow Vests think will take over if they boot Macron? I can tell you right now it will be another brain dead idiot determined to line his own pockets until he gets the boot.

This process of rule by elites has led to the bizarre situation in the US where a tiny group of determined Neocons managed to subvert the entire political and military establishment of the country on behalf of a meaningless little sh*t for brains country in the Middle East. No more than thirty total, they still took total control of the establishment involving the nation in one meaningless and expensive war after another. It has gotten so stupid and out of control that the very first law considered by the US Congress and US Senate in 2019 was a bill to make boycotts of Israel illegal.

You may still boycott the Mormons and Buddhists. It's legal and OK to boycott the Pope or Donald Trump should you wish. And advocating boycotts of Hillary will still be allowed. You can boycott whoever and whatever you wish. Except for Israel. Twenty-six states have already incorporated rules requiring loyalty oaths to Israel. In Europe you may not question the Holocaust. If you even debate what happened, you may go to jail. Now that's power.

In an ominous move on the part of the French government just took action that might morph a peaceful protest against petty taxes into a violent reign of terror and a resurrection of the guillotine. And a lot of heads of the former elite swinging from long pikes.

As reported on the 13th of January, some units of the riot police have been issued fully automatic G36 rifles. If and when some fool policeman starts shooting at the protestors, a bloody war will have started. Eventually more and more of the police will realize they are shooting their own citizens. At that point they will start shooting politicians.

There is a simple and bloodless solution that the elite will hate and the Gilets Jaunes of all countries will love. But to understand it, you must also understand why these protests have expanded so quickly. Until the Internet came along twenty years or so ago, the elite ruled because they controlled the narrative. Americans believed that Kennedy was killed by a lone assassin, Vietnam was fought to save the Vietnamese from godless Communism, nineteen hijackers led by a guy with terminal kidney disease living in a cave in Afghanistan managed to win the most effective battle in history.

Then the Internet gave everyone a voice. Every damned fool given a new keyboard for Christmas by momma could go out on chatboards and say whatever idiotic things they wanted and remain anonymous so they didn't have to account for their stupidity to anyone. If they wished, they could and did watch porn from the confines of their government office if that is what they did for a living. Communication was instant and total.

A few people posting on the Internet actually made sense. The Internet is not a Mecca of accurate information. But some of the voices made sense and if you ignored the clutter and listened to the bells that peeled with the ring of truth eventually a false flag operation that would have passed with flying colors fifty years ago would be exposed in minutes today.

More and more of the middle class realized the actions of governments and central banks were destroying their financial security. There was nothing new to that; governments have always waged war first on their own people. Throughout history people have resented their standard of living being destroyed by the elite. But they couldn't do a damned thing about it. They might be angry but they had no voice.

Eventually they could take a marvelous weapon right at hand such as the Yellow Vests and make them a symbol of protest. But they still didn't have a solution that was both reasonable and possible until a genius named Etienne Chouard came up with a magic bullet. Monsieur Chouard teaches college in Marseilles France on the southern coast. For years he has advocated adoption of something he calls the Citizens Initiative Referendum or CIR. The CIR only asks that citizens be allowed to choose the rules and regulations by which they are governed and the best way to achieve such direct democracy is by way of the referendum.

The concept is brilliant. A certain number of signatories on a petition would allow for a referendum to be published and voted on. The Swiss did it in 2016 with the idea of a guaranteed basic income for all. It was suggested that all Swiss citizens be granted an automatic 2,500 SF monthly. Naturally the Swiss being the Swiss, they also understood that someone had to pay for that largess and it would be by themselves. Governments don't have any money; all they do is take it from one group and hand it to another. 77% of Swiss voting soundly rejected the idea.

A worldwide revolution has been started. It's pretty much led by the middle class who feel government policies are destroying them financially. If and when the police start shooting at protestors, protestors will start shooting back. It has all the potential for being the greatest war in history. The governments will eventually lose as the police and military change sides.

A well thought out CIR would solve the issue. It is both practical and workable. The elites will hate it because they will lose their franchise on power and money. The people will love it because it makes them responsible for their own decisions. They should be allowed direct democracy because they are the ones paying for it.

In the end the world will owe a giant debt for the ideas of Etienne Chouard. It may not be a perfect solution but it is a solution. The alternatives are far worse."
- http://www.321gold.com/

"A Tale of Two Cities" (1859) is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it is among the most famous works of fiction. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period. It follows the lives of several protagonists through these events. The most notable are Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. Darnay is a French once-aristocrat who falls victim to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous nature, and Carton is a dissipated British barrister who endeavors to redeem his ill-spent life out of his unrequited love for Darnay's wife, Lucie Manette."
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities

FREELY Download, in various formats, "A Tale of Two Cities" here:
- https://www.planetebook.com/a-tale-of-two-cities/
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Madame Defarge, where are you now that we need you?
- CP
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Jan 26, 2019 20:27:22   #
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"The Purpose Of Life Is Not Happiness: It’s Usefulness"
by Darius Foroux

"For the longest time, I believed that there’s only purpose of life: And that is to be happy. Right? Why else go through all the pain and hardship? It’s to achieve happiness in some way. And I’m not the only person who believed that. In fact, if you look around you, most people are pursuing happiness in their lives. That’s why we collectively buy stuff we don’t need, go to bed with people we don’t love, and try to work hard to get approval of people we don’t like.

Why do we do these things? To be honest, I don’t care what the exact reason is. I’m not a scientist. All I know is that it has something to do with history, culture, media, economy, psychology, politics, the information era, and you name it. The list is endless.
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We are who we are. Let’s just accept that. Most people love to analyze why people are not happy or don’t live fulfilling lives. I don’t necessarily care about the why. I care more about how we can change.

Just a few short years ago, I did everything to chase happiness:

• You buy something, and you think that makes you happy.
• You hook up with people, and think that makes you happy.
• You get a well-paying job you don’t like, and think that makes you happy.
• You go on holiday, and you think that makes you happy.
• But at the end of the day, you’re lying in your bed (alone or next to your spouse), and you think: “What’s next in this endless pursuit of happiness?”

Well, I can tell you what’s next: You, chasing something random that you believe makes you happy. It’s all a façade. A hoax. A story that’s been made up. Did Aristotle lie to us when he said: “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” I think we have to look at that quote from a different angle. Because when you read it, you think that happiness is the main goal. And that’s kind of what the quote says as well.

But here’s the thing: How do you achieve happiness? Happiness can’t be a goal in itself. Therefore, it’s not something that’s achievable. I believe that happiness is merely a byproduct of usefulness. When I talk about this concept with friends, family, and colleagues, I always find it difficult to put this into words. But I’ll give it a try here. Most things we do in life are just activities and experiences:

• You go on holiday.
• You go to work.
• You go shopping.
• You have drinks.
• You have dinner.
• You buy a car.

Those things should make you happy, right? But they are not useful. You’re not creating anything. You’re just consuming or doing something. And that’s great. Don’t get me wrong. I love to go on holiday, or go shopping sometimes. But to be honest, it’s not what gives meaning to life.

What really makes me happy is when I’m useful. When I create something that others can use. Or even when I create something I can use. For the longest time I found it difficult to explain the concept of usefulness and happiness. But when I recently ran into a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, the dots finally connected. Emerson says: “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” And I didn’t get that before I became more conscious of what I’m doing with my life. And that always sounds heavy and all. But it’s actually really simple.

It comes down to this: What are you DOING that’s making a difference? Did you do useful things in your lifetime? You don’t have to change the world or anything. Just make it a little bit better than before you were born. If you don’t know how, here are some ideas:

• Help your boss with something that’s not your responsibility.
• Take your mother to a spa.
• Create a collage with pictures (not a digital one) for your spouse.
• Write an article about the stuff you learned in life.
• Help the pregnant lady who also has a 2-year old with her stroller.
• Call your friend and ask if you can help with something.
• Build a standing desk.
• Start a business and hire an employee and treat them well.

That’s just some stuff I like to do. You can make up your own useful activities. You see? It’s not anything big. But when you do little useful things every day, it adds up to a life that is well lived. A life that mattered. The last thing I want is to be on my deathbed and realize there’s zero evidence that I ever existed.

Recently I read "Not Fade Away" by Laurence Shames and Peter Barton. It’s about Peter Barton, the founder of Liberty Media, who shares his thoughts about dying from cancer. It’s a very powerful book and it will definitely bring tears to your eyes. In the book, he writes about how he lived his life and how he found his calling. He also went to business school, and this is what he thought of his fellow MBA candidates: “Bottom line: they were extremely bright people who would never really do anything, would never add much to society, would leave no legacy behind. I found this terribly sad, in the way that wasted potential is always sad.” You can say that about all of us. And after he realized that in his thirties, he founded a company that turned him into a multi-millionaire.

Another person who always makes himself useful is Casey Neistat. I’ve been following him for a year and a half now, and every time I watch his YouTube show, he’s doing something. He also talks about how he always wants to do and create something. He even has a tattoo on his forearm that says “Do More.” Most people would say, “Why would you work more?” And then they turn on Netflix and watch back to back episodes of Daredevil.

A different mindset. Being useful is a mindset. And like with any mindset, it starts with a decision. One day I woke up and thought to myself: What am I doing for this world? The answer was nothing. And that same day I started writing. For you it can be painting, creating a product, helping elderly, or anything you feel like doing. Don’t take it too seriously. Don’t overthink it. Just DO something that’s useful. Anything."
- http://dariusforoux.com/happiness-usefulness/

"Just DO something that’s useful. Anything." Like a blog, perhaps...
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Jan 26, 2019 20:21:44   #
"In the Deep Mid-Winter"

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"In the Deep Mid-Winter"
by James Howard Kunstler

"Ill winds sweep across the fruited plain in the cruel heart of winter. America can resolve nothing. The state-of-the-union is a kind of hysterical nausea, and the nation hunkers into its crib of toxic diverse identities waiting for history to bitch-slap it back on its feet. History’s big sister, Reality, stands by, witnessing all. Spring… is… coming…

Things break up in spring. Nature unlocks what was frozen. The bodies emerge from the melting ice and ripen. The air is electric and thunderbolts frighten the gathering mobs in the public square, the Walmart parking lot, with rumors of war. The earth shakes and monuments fall. That’s how it’s shaping up for 2019.

Sometimes nations just lose their stuff. The complex collapse of American life proceeds as the public and its leaders fail to comprehend the forces in play. What the Federal Reserve actually accomplished with its ten years of extend-and-pretend policy was not an economic “recovery,” but a degenerative disease of the social contract. If you look more closely, you can sense what will be unleashed when the ground thaws.

There will be a reckoning in the financial markets. Something ominous is rumbling over in bonds. No more high-yield for you! Among the victims of a credit freeze in “junk” (high-risk) lending: the shale oil industry. Watch it start to roll over this spring as money becomes unavailable for the exorbitant operations that comprise fracking. The swift collapse of the shale oil industry will shock the country, but it is really just the downside of its improbably rapid and acrobatic rise since 2005 on the false premise that profits don’t matter in a business venture. Only the fall will be even sharper than the rise: a few measly years. And, of course, the bond market represents the supreme untruth of the age: that debts can be racked up forever and never paid back.

Mr. Trump will be left holding a bag so large that observers may mistake him for a Bizarro Santa Claus. But the baggage within will not consist of sugarplums. It is actually stuffed with bankruptcy filings and pink slips. A year from now, there may be no such thing as a hedge fund left on the planet Earth. Or a job opening, unless you’re really good at weeding or picking fruit. Mr. Trump will attempt a rescue, but so did Herbert Hoover, who had a good three years to try this-and-that while the Depression stole over the land like a deadly fungus. The difference, of course, is that Mr. Hoover was acknowledged as a most brilliant mind of his era, and yet Reality had her wicked way with him, anyway.

The Democratic Party should have been tossed into the rubber room two years ago, but it’s still out there shrieking in its straight-jacket of bad faith. Kamala, Liz, and Kirsten will mud-wrestle for dominance, but so far, the only cards they can show are the race-and-gender jokers in the deck. Meanwhile, the government shutdown standoff may not be the “winner” move that Nancy Pelosi thought it would be. Why do you suppose she thought that the voters would only blame the Golden Golem of Greatness? She could be gone as Speaker when we’re back in shirtsleeve weather.

Also in the background: the likely shocking reversal of the long, dreary, RussiaGate affair as about twenty-odd former officials of the FBI, Department of Justice, CIA, State Department, and other dark corners of the Deep State answer charges of sedition in federal court. Many of them are connected, one way or another, to Hillary Clinton, who may be targeted herself. Robert Mueller is also liable to be smacked with a malicious prosecution charge in the matter of General Michael Flynn when he withdraws his guilty plea in March. A significant moment will be when Dean Baquet is fired as editor of The New York Times, after years of running the “newspaper of record” as an exercise in nonstop PMS.

Financial crack-up and RussiaGate reversal will leave both major parties gasping in the mud as the tide goes out. And just in time for the Yellow Vest movement to cross the ocean and bring out the street mobs to slug it out on the National Mall in lovely weather. Finally, a protest you can believe in! By June, it will be clear that the old order is being swept away. The fight over the new order struggling to be born will be even harsher and deadlier. But we may not be as confused about what’s at stake."
- http://kunstler.com/
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Jan 26, 2019 20:19:29   #
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"The Unprofitably Incompetent"
Those who can’t do, demand.
by Robert Gore

"Profit propels civilization. When a producer can make an item or provide a service at a cost lower than a customer values that item or service, and the customer has the means and the freedom to buy, the difference between what’s paid over cost is profit. That profit is the producer’s incentive to produce, and in turn funds the producer’s consumption, savings, and investment, which creates other producers’ profits. Profit is the necessary prerequisite for consumption, savings, investment, and consequently, progress.

Many of us profit every day. We offer services and provide goods, supporting ourselves at a cost that is lower than what we’re paid. We’re profitably competent, engaging in honest production and peaceful, voluntary exchange. The only alternatives to profitable competence are living off of someone else’s profitable competency via inheritance or charity, or criminality - theft via fraud or violence.

Criminals cloak their thefts in all sorts of justifications, some of which, like socialism, become full-blown political doctrines. Ironically, a larcenous litany of demands and rationalizations are efflorescing at a time when whatever is left of the overall profit pool has been drained. It has been mortgaged multiple times, just as hordes of the unprofitably incompetent, who had no hand in producing it, clamor for their “fair share.” They’ll insist the profitably competent figure out how to pay for it, but the fair share of nothing is nothing, political promises to the contrary notwithstanding.

“Your means, my ends; I wish, you fulfill,” is the foundational fantasy of modern governance. The favored groups shelter in their safe spaces - government and its rackets, crony corporations, academia, the media, and Hollywood - living on the delusion that there will always be someone who will produce, without question or protest, for their benefit. Upon that foundation they’ve constructed a phantasmagorical edifice of illusory constructs and passages to nowhere.

As the foundational fantasy totters, the fantasies it supports become more fantastical. The profit pool exhausted, you would think everything possible would be done to succor the profitably competent who are supposed to replenish it. Instead, that illustrious group is demonized at every turn, and the demands on them become ever more absurd. They are guilty because they’re productive, and must expiate their guilt by producing for the unproductive, whose incompetence makes them morally superior.

The most “toxic” trait often associated with masculinity may be competence. It’s not exclusively masculine, but whether its possessors are male or female it has certainly become toxic, depriving them of any right to what they produce and any right to criticize those who steal it from them. Twits who can’t replace a light bulb demand free schooling and medical care, guaranteed jobs and incomes, trips to Mars, and who knows what else. Those who are to fund it all are to cheerfully regard doing so as a privilege.

The notion of reparations won’t die. Anyone with money (the only people who can pay) supposedly owe the descendants of various victim classes reparations for the supposed sins of their ancestors. To hold individuals guilty of crimes they couldn’t have committed is a moral obscenity. The demands for retribution are simply another naked money grab.

The rhetoric grows increasingly hateful. The slave class can be openly disparaged, denigrated, and deplored based on their race, gender, geographic location, religion, politics, the way they smile at a Native American, or any other characteristic the masters don’t like. But woe to the slaves who utter anything the tyrannical cult deems offensive or incorrect. Transgressors are put through social media hell, ostracized, ruined, and coming soon, incarcerated.

If you’ve found your safe space and you’re incapable of producing marketable value that exceeds its cost of production, you’re dependent on the profitably competent, but their very existence is a constant reproach, a reminder of your own inadequacy. So where gratitude would be appropriate, you instead hate, mock, and abuse your meal tickets. This isn’t PhD in psychology material - spoiled children have been abusing their parents for centuries. Interestingly - at least for psychology PhDs - the dependent get more abusive as they get more dependent.

Their safe spaces require little or nothing in the way of competency. They have become havens for personal predilections and peccadilloes that were once socially unacceptable, virtually free from any standards of comportment or dress, and citadels of venomous, self-serving ideologies.

One month into the partial shutdown of the largest safe space, it’s obvious that not only has the sky not fallen, but unsurprisingly, America is doing just fine without those 800,000 furloughed workers that even the government considers nonessential. Which elicits the question: What were they doing when they were on the job?

“Not much” is not necessarily the right answer. The 100,000 plus pages of the Federal Register and the tax code suggest that they’ve been spending a lot of time gumming up the works for and extracting money from the profitably competent many of them despise. The furlough may accomplish the first step of breaking America’s addiction to government: realizing that most of it is not only useless, but harmful. We’ll see if it leads to the next steps: getting rid of personnel, programs, agencies, and entire departments, and changing policy accordingly (we can dream). If things change in that direction, expect the denizens of what are no longer safe spaces to become increasingly vitriolic.

You can’t reach a point where dependents openly denigrate those who support them without the latter’s tacit or explicit consent. Parents who spoil their children and endure the brats’ abuse get what they deserve. Ayn Rand had it right. The people who make America go could bring it to a shuddering stop simply by stockpiling their resources and walking off their jobs for a month or two. An added turn of the screw would be withdrawing their funds from the banking system (see “The Yellow Vests Get it Right,” SLL).

It’s time to stop funding the abusers, time to stop excusing them with “they mean well, but…”, time to reject their claims to moral superiority, time to stop building safe space sanctuaries, time to stop apologizing for profitable competence, and time to recognize its moral value and reclaim the right to its profits. If it takes a strike to hurl the brats into the maw of their own incompetence and upend the tyrannical cult, so be it. The biggest crime hasn’t been that of the brats and the cult, it’s been the failure of those who haven’t defended what’s rightfully theirs."
- https://straightlinelogic.com/
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Jan 26, 2019 20:16:18   #
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"Television Is The Most Dangerous Addictive Drug In Society"
by WakingTimes

"People have become so totally obsessed with their own beliefs, opinions and biases that their behavior is going completely unexamined. Their reactions to the latest news item are automatic and predictable. The late iconoclast Terence McKenna pointed out that obsessive and unexamined behavior in pursuit of familiar stimulus (such as what we see with each moment of media outrage) is what drug addiction is about.

McKenna went a step further to say that television was the greatest drug ever introduced into society. What else could persuade people to spend an average of 5-7 hours a day sitting in front of the TV? All the while consuming, in hypnotic states of mind, the scientifically crafted messages of corporate and government propagandists?

Here, McKenna expounds on the idea that television is a drug that is having negative consequences on individuals and on society at large: "Unexamined behavior is what is alarming about drug addiction, that people behave like they are obsessed. Well on that scale, then, the most powerful drug of the late 20th century is television and propaganda. And the way in which we consume propaganda is amazing. I mean the most intelligent of us, the ones who hold ourselves most aloof, are probably junkies through and through when it comes to the media."

He goes on to talk about how being able to see violence on tv has changed the nature of warfare, and that if we are to watch violence, we need to see real footage of it, rather than theatrical violence so that we can understand that we have a responsibility in creating a world in which war and violence is so prevalent.

Here he explains how similar watching television is to consuming a drug: "In fact it is shaping our value systems in ways that are very hard for us to suspect or even detect. I mean television, for example, it's a drug. It has a series of measurable physiological parameters that are as intrinsically its signature as are the parameters of heroin or its signature. You sit someone down in front of a TV set and turn it on. Twenty minutes later come back, sample their blood pressure, their eye movement rate, blood is pooling in their rear end, their breathing takes on a certain quality, the stare reflex sets in. They are thoroughly zoned on a drug."

"What do you think? Is television and mass media making people crazy?"
- https://www.wakingtimes.com/
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Jan 26, 2019 15:42:49   #
"A Look to the Heavens"

Posted: 25 Jan 2019 02:27 PM PST
"What's happening in the Statue of Liberty nebula? Bright stars and interesting molecules are forming and being liberated. The complex nebula resides in the star forming region called RCW 57. This image showcases dense knots of dark interstellar dust, bright stars that have formed in the past few million years, fields of glowing hydrogen gas ionized by these stars, and great loops of gas expelled by dying stars.
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rmAWeUN9l9c/V-yI9Yf1ogI/AAAAAAABreg/qxi-Oy3C1IsDnICDwn6M1-Y-iUredBNhQCLcB/s1600/StatLibNeb_Mazlin_960.png
A detailed study of NGC 3576, also known as NGC 3582 and NGC 3584, uncovered at least 33 massive stars in the end stages of formation, and the clear presence of the complex carbon molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAHs are thought to be created in the cooling gas of star forming regions, and their development in the Sun's formation nebula five billion years ago may have been an important step in the development of life on Earth. The featured image was taken at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.”
- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
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Jan 26, 2019 15:05:52   #
badbobby wrote:
Canuck brought a very limp duck to a veterinary surgeon named bahmer. As he laid the pet on the table, the bahm pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird's chest. After a moment or two,bahm shook his head sadly and said, "I'm sorry, your duck, Cuddles, has passed away."

The distressed Canuck wailed, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am sure. Your duck is dead," replied bahm.

"How can you be so sure?" Canuck protested. "I mean you haven't done any testing on him or anything. He might just be in a coma or something."



bahmer sighed, turned around and left the room. He returned a few minutes later with an old dog. As the duck's owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the duck from top to bottom. He then looked up at bahm with sad eyes and shook his head.

bahmer patted the dog on the head and took it out of the room. A few minutes later he returned with a cat. The cat jumped on the table and also delicately sniffed the bird from head to foot. The cat sat back on its haunches, shook its head, meowed softly and strolled out of the room.

j




bahm looked at Canuck and said, "I'm sorry, but as I said, this is most definitely, 100% certifiably, a dead duck."

He turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill, which he handed to Canuck. The duck's owner, still in shock, took the bill. "$150!" he cried, "$150 just to tell me my duck is dead?!?"

bahm shrugged. "I'm sorry. If you had just taken my word for it, the bill would have been $20, but with the Lab Report and the Cat Scan, it's now $150."

knowjng Canuck
he prolly tried to pay with Canuckistikan Zlotys
Canuck brought a very limp duck to a veterinary su... (show quote)


Could have been worse, he might have paid with the Canuckistan Universal Unlimited Comprenhesive Health Insurance (CUUCHI) or Coochie for short. It pays 100% for any procedure, drug or medical treatment, of any kind, after an out of pocket deductible of 480,157,983,675 Zlotys. Annual median Canuckistan income is 53,000 Zloty. Coochie costs ten zlotys per week, covers all family members, pets and farm animals.
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Jan 26, 2019 14:07:11   #
Don G. Dinsdale wrote:
Try This One...

http://www.ba-bamail.com/content.aspx?emailid=23692


I Aced It They Gave Me A++! ha... Don D.😏


https://cdn.playbuzz.com/cdn/3cb4d428-7347-4853-b41a-463a90f2e61b/1fee0168-dbdd-4a3b-986b-b5a517d847c3.jpg

There was only one possible answer in the multiple guesses for the color question. I got that right with no problem even though I am color blind.
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Jan 26, 2019 13:13:41   #
son of witless wrote:
I am conflicted on this for a few surprising reasons. I have no love loss for Planned Parenthood, however if you read the reasons why they failed their pregnant employees, it comes down mostly to money. Managers have to manage. Some knucklehead in government can pass all of the laws he or she wants to, but it generally falls on some boss or manager to make it work.

I just think it is amusing that a liberal organization would find itself in this problem when nobody gives a flying crap when private businesses struggle with some do gooder law.

i agree that pregnant women should be given due consideration. However, if you read the article, complying with the regulations would cost so much money that centers would have to be shut down. Not that it bothers me, but it illustrates the point Liberals never seem to acknowledge. Do gooderism has a cost. Just maybe liberals can figure out how to help with the costs of their dreams.
I am conflicted on this for a few surprising reaso... (show quote)


Yep, the eternal question "Who is gonna pay the check?" Leftists have not gotten it through their skulls that Uncle Sam does not have an unlimited pot of gold, to draw on and eventually the bill must be paid.
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Jan 26, 2019 13:08:54   #
son of witless wrote:
I hope all of my left wing readers will not accuse me of posting a hit piece. I used the NY Times as my source.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/business/planned-parenthood-pregnant-employee-discrimination-women.html



This sort of discrimination was commonplace, in industry, in the sixties. I knew of several cases where recent mothers were discharged because their babies or young children needed the mother's care. I also saw two pregnant women who were sidelined and discouraged from remaining employees.

The only pregnant woman I ever saw treated decently was the star performer in the Software Engineering department. She was too valuable and perfectly capable of securing other and perhaps better employment. Her Manager moved a recliner chair into her office and provided her with her own water cooler for her exclusive use.
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Jan 26, 2019 11:43:26   #
error
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Jan 26, 2019 11:20:05   #
Peewee wrote:
Somehow I've missed that classic tune all my life. Odd, because I used to watch Benny Hinn all the time. But Zoomies just aim higher.

Forgive me but, it looks like, according to your typing, you and BB may be passing the bottle back and forth. Or it could be your "statue" spell checker is messed up again.

Its hard to argue that sex doesn't sell, because it does, especially when it resembles sexy Ann Margret.

I'd bet none of us has ever kissed her. But I did guard the 1974 Penthouse Playmate of the Year on her USO tour while she was at Incirlik, Turkey. All by my lonesome and all night. Not saying anything did or didn't happen. Just that I protected her body with my body.

Davy's Dinghy did remind me of a line I used on taller women in my youth. They would make a comment like your kinda of short for me. I would reply, well not if we are lying down, then we're the same height. It actually worked a couple of times.

Everybody knows sailors around the world spread stuff you can't wash off and that penicillin no longer cures.

Bahm may have multiple personalities, I don't know, he does flip sides a lot. I think he just sides with whoever is losing at the moment because he is a nice guy and tries to help the underdog.

Maybe Elvis is just a sentimental vote, my grandma adored him, and the only concert she ever went to was to see and hear Elvis. My aunt Phyllis took her and told everyone Grandma shocked her when she asked, Phyllis do you think the police would arrest me if I ran on stage and kissed Elvis?

Whether it was his looks, voice, or gyrations I don't know. But I ain't changing my vote no matter what. I think just seeing Elvis extended her life a good ten years. It was a highlight of her life.

If you knew her life story you would agree. Four sisters and three brothers all orphaned, no one would take them in, they slept in a sawmill sawdust pile in the winter, she never had a new dress until her forties, raised six children, had twenty-two grandchildren, never said a bad word about anyone, never lost her temper and was hands down the best cook that ever lived. Every dish and every meal was the best you ever tasted. I'm casting my vote for me and my grandma, that's two votes and Bahm's personalities make three and that equals five if you count like Jethro Bodine. Five still beats four according to Uncle Jed. We win again unless you have a better story.



Somehow I've missed that classic tune all my life.... (show quote)


Whatever floats your boat! Good for your Grandma, she knew what she wanted. I was a teenager in the fifties and there were so many better singer/entertainers at that time, that Elvis was basically never going to make the cut with my generation.

As far as the statue problem, I have always had a problem with typing; originally because of nerve problems and more recently antique disease. I scarcely made the five correct words per minute requirement to pass the typing course I took and it has gone downhill from age 17. If I type two consecutive correct words I am lucky.

I have changed keyboards multiple times and finally recognized that arthritis, tremors and bad vision make a bad typist. I frequently copy what I type to Word and use the spell checker on it but my ancient version of word has its own issues. If a word is correctly spelled it obviously does not mark it or detect it. Unless I use fourteen or greater font sizes and read very carefully, I sometimes miss a wrong usage of a correctly spelled word. Editing your own work is never easy because you know what you meant and your mind fills in the correct word leaving the wrong one alone.

The underline is also a problem in that it sometimes vanishes from my vision; it would be better for me if the incorrect word were highlighted in yellow.

It is what it is, some spelling errors will inevitably be there but mine are a lapse, not the norm.

P.S. I fell in lust with Ann Margret when she appeared in Bye Bye Birdie and it has never gone away. She looked great in those Grumpy old men films.
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