Posted On: Monday - February 21st 2022 6:57PM MST
In Topics: Student and other Snowflakes Political Correctness Liberty/Libertarianism Race/Genetics Inflation Dead/Ex- Presidents Holiday from Stupidity
The first I heard of today's day off from school (only yesterday) was due to a "teacher work day". I guess it's pretty bad that I forgot, but there used to be 2 holidays, one for The Founder of our country, General George Washington, and another for the tyrant Abraham Lincoln for forcing the country together at the expense of opt-out Federalism. Since then it's been "You can secede anytime you want, but you can never leave..."
I remembered the two from my day, but now this Doctor Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior thing is observed with more fanfare than George Washington's birthday. Clown Country, indeed! At least in the elementary school, they do call it President's Day. Then, I saw my wife showing me Donald Trump observing this in the same manner as Father's Day. No, dummy, this is not some type of "All Presidents Day" - it was just plural due to being about both Abe and George.
I had though about, if anyone else, I would go for a Calvin Coolidge Day. That's what a traditional Liberty-loving America ought to celebrated - a President about nothing. Well, as it turns out, without my having even mentioned Silent Cal, my 4th grade boy told me that he was born on the 4th of July*, so that doesn't help.
To add more insult to the in-your-face Marty King bull, we just saw on the wall of another school a flyer about some contest involving drawing Harriet Tubman for the 20 dollar bill. Just over a year back, Peak Stupidity spent a good deal of time wondering what the plan will be once these odious pieces of fiat currency finally come out. (President Trump put the kibosh on them temporarily.) The 3 posts are Tubmania and a cashless economy - More on the Tubwoman Twenty and - Final Tubman-thumping post. Now I'm thinking the first thing I will do is get about 10,000 bucks worth of tens, unless they become woke themselves before then.
she drinks a lager drink, she drinks a cider drink ...
She is not to be confused with another historical figure, one Aunt Jemimah.
I explained to my boy that hey, I don't really have anything against the woman, per se, but if you're going to get to the level of someone of that status in history, there would be 10's or 100's of thousands of White Men or women who would deserve the spot first.
Coincidentally, just the other day, some other kid from the Cub Scouts informed me that Miss Tubman used the observation that moss grows on the north side of the trees to help in her underground railroad operation. Holy cow, these kids are getting "wokened" even more than I though! "Uh, yeah, every Boy Scout knows that", I told him. "That's not any big thing. I don't really care much about Harriet Tubman. There's been slavery all over the world, and it's still going on..." "In Africa!", the kid chimed in. Ha, he's not too far gone. I hadn't even noticed that some younger Mom was sitting with us. Not a peep came out, luckily, because I wasn't in the mood to hear it.
In I ain't raisin' no snowflake, Peak Stupidity related some fun monkey-wrenching my son and I were doing at the U involving post-it notes. I haven't been in that building in a few months, but I see now that our notes may have caused some consternation from the fragile snowflake set. Or, they just cleaned up. The blank post-it notes and the markers are gone. One note of my son's managed to escape the purge, something about "stop the stupidity". (No, I did not dictate this note. It was some great independent thinking!) Hmmm, I may have to stop by the drug store stationary aisle next time ...
Finally, we revisit The Rockford Files for a minute. That first half of season 1 I've been watching was 48 years ago! That means there's been not a small amount of devaluation of the US dollar, hence price inflation, in that near half century. This big-shot finance guy (the actor was very familiar-looking, BTW) who Jim Rockford was feeling out for info on the evil financial company that was screwing him over stuck Jim with a bill for their 2 gourmet hot dogs. (Rockford seemed to have this happen very often, haha.) I mean, these were foot-longs with the trimmings on a nice platter, at a food place inside the office building, so pretty fancy. Wel, Jim looked at the bill and was shocked: "6 dollars and 36 cents!" he complained.
What would 2 gourmet hot dogs with the fixing and sides** in a nice cafe inside a spiffy office building cost now? I'd say at least $20 before the tax - Rockford's bill was including the California sales tax.. That's a guess though, as I don't live in that world and am trying to eat a bit healthier than Jim Rockford, with his frequent visits to the taco stands. Time to go to the Money Chimp. This table tells me the combined State and local tax would be 6.0%. Of course, we're guessing anyway, but lets just use $22.
The Chimp says 2.6% is the compounded inflation rate. Let's see. That long period includes a half decade of wicked high inflation (well for non-Wiemar America, that is), then a tailing off period, then the period in which I maintain it really was very low - the mid-90's through mid-'00s, and then a slowly increasing rate up through this Zhou Bai Dien "I did that --> era, as in, now. Interesting.
From what I read from people who never have explained why it should be so, the FED has targeted 2% as the ideal inflation rate. Ideal for whom, is the question. In my humble opinion, It's not the ideal rate for a responsible guy who puts away many multiples of $6.36 in the expectation of it being able to buy the same amount of hot dogs or anything else a half century later. He would find it buys less than 1/3 the hot dogs. The rest of the money has been stolen. Well, we're at closer to 10% inflation right now, so even the American who doesn't care about the little financial stupidity details might start to care. If he does, he may want to read Dr.*** Ron Paul's latest column, The Federal Reserve: Enemy of American Workers.
We hope to get more focused tomorrow. First on the docket is a Peak Stupidity's take on the end of the Canadian Trucker protest.
* That was in 1972, 96 years after the Declaration of Independence.
** I don't feel like searching for the scene right now, but these were at least foot in diameter platters full of food.
*** Yeah, unlike Marty King there, this guy IS an actual doctor.
Comments:
Moderator
Wednesday - February 23rd 2022 9:28PM MST
PS: Mr. Smith, she does look quite a bit closer to a Founding Father in that one, with the long-barreled revolver. Lots better, at least.
Moderator
Wednesday - February 23rd 2022 9:26PM MST
PS: "Regarding an opt-out clause in the Federal Constitution: Could you show me the exact wording of that clause?" Nope, it's nowhere in there, Mr. Blanc, but there's nothing saying one can't separate either. Lincoln made his own ruling on that.
I had written "opt-out Federalism" as a general concept. In the Bill Cosby sense, "we brought you into this world - we can take you back out." I guess not anymore, so easily...
I had written "opt-out Federalism" as a general concept. In the Bill Cosby sense, "we brought you into this world - we can take you back out." I guess not anymore, so easily...
MBlanc46
Wednesday - February 23rd 2022 2:36PM MST
PS Good old Coolidge. One of my favorites. My mother was born during the Coolidge administration, which I always considered a favorable sign. I can’t recall getting a day off school for either Washington’s or Lincoln’s birth anniversary (and that in northeast Illinois, where Lincoln worship was a second religion). Perhaps we alternated, as Ganderson has it. Regarding an opt-out clause in the Federal Constitution: Could you show me the exact wording of that clause?
Adam Smith
Tuesday - February 22nd 2022 6:43PM MST
PS: Greetings,
I like this Tubman $20...
https://snarkypenguin.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/tubman.jpg
☮
I like this Tubman $20...
https://snarkypenguin.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/tubman.jpg
☮
Dieter Kief
Tuesday - February 22nd 2022 10:32AM MST
PS: Alarmist - Discussion about Putin last sunday on the Achgut-podcast indubio - mildly rightwing-liberal political German online mag. Nobody even thought about the possibility that Putin might just go and take what he wants to.There are about hundred tanks or so and ca. fifty helicopters and a handful of jets ready for war in Germany. And - no more railroad cars in service, with which you could move those tanks at a place far away from where they are stationed. A few dozen German tanks are under construction, to make them fit pregnant (!) soldiers.
The Blazing Saddles joke was also made by Gilbert Shelton in the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers episode about a police visit to their "ranch". It there goes like this: Two fat cops arrive at the FFFB's commune to have a close inspection and sure enough one of the FFFBs steps in their way and holds up a peace -sign, Adam! - Which is an "Acid"-trip in the funniest colours and then he says: "You come one step closer and I'll take this nice little pill and blow this whole scene up into p-super-p-sycho!" - Heheh - that could stand as No. 7 on Dr. Freud's eternal list of ways to win out over your enemies and - yourself (how delusional this victory might ever be...).
Btw.: What will Dr. Putin do with Ukraine? - Sell it to China? - P. J. O'Rourke one made this point: Countries aren't of much use these days.
Oh - a very good joke by German columnist and satirist Harald Martenstein who just called it quits after thirty years (!) at the once liberal Berlin Daily Tages-Spiegel, after they had first published, but a few days later retracted one of his columns. His joke is about the woke frenzy to rename streets, University campuses etc.. He looked into Amerigo Vespucci and found a million reasons, seen from the woke perspective, to rename the US. Ok, Martenstein said: Like in sports, the US should sell the right to name their state.Things could go quite smoothly this way, Martenstein continued: Sell the rights to the Chinese. They could quite easily afford them and then: Name the US - Huawei!He goes on: The money the US government makes this way could be used to solve the climate problem. - Perfect plan - isn't it?
The Blazing Saddles joke was also made by Gilbert Shelton in the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers episode about a police visit to their "ranch". It there goes like this: Two fat cops arrive at the FFFB's commune to have a close inspection and sure enough one of the FFFBs steps in their way and holds up a peace -sign, Adam! - Which is an "Acid"-trip in the funniest colours and then he says: "You come one step closer and I'll take this nice little pill and blow this whole scene up into p-super-p-sycho!" - Heheh - that could stand as No. 7 on Dr. Freud's eternal list of ways to win out over your enemies and - yourself (how delusional this victory might ever be...).
Btw.: What will Dr. Putin do with Ukraine? - Sell it to China? - P. J. O'Rourke one made this point: Countries aren't of much use these days.
Oh - a very good joke by German columnist and satirist Harald Martenstein who just called it quits after thirty years (!) at the once liberal Berlin Daily Tages-Spiegel, after they had first published, but a few days later retracted one of his columns. His joke is about the woke frenzy to rename streets, University campuses etc.. He looked into Amerigo Vespucci and found a million reasons, seen from the woke perspective, to rename the US. Ok, Martenstein said: Like in sports, the US should sell the right to name their state.Things could go quite smoothly this way, Martenstein continued: Sell the rights to the Chinese. They could quite easily afford them and then: Name the US - Huawei!He goes on: The money the US government makes this way could be used to solve the climate problem. - Perfect plan - isn't it?
The Alarmist
Tuesday - February 22nd 2022 8:54AM MST
PS
Well, Dieter, I guess that’s what they call a Freudian slip. Ukraine is the source of many of Western Europe’s problems.
Speaking of Freud, according to him, what comes between fear and sex?
A: Fünf
Mr. Scholz saying that NS2 cannot go foward reminds me of the scene in Blazing Saddles, where the black sheriff, played by Clevon Little, realises he is in trouble, so he points his own gun at his own head and tells the town, “Anybody moves, and the n****r gets it.” The comparison ends there, because Scholz goes ahead and pulls the trigger.
Mr. Biden isn’t even that bright. It would be interesting if the Russkies actually took Kiev to seen if the Ukronazis would actually destroy the evidence of Biden corruption in Ukraine, or if Mr. Putin would then hold it in secret over him for some time to come.
Well, Dieter, I guess that’s what they call a Freudian slip. Ukraine is the source of many of Western Europe’s problems.
Speaking of Freud, according to him, what comes between fear and sex?
A: Fünf
Mr. Scholz saying that NS2 cannot go foward reminds me of the scene in Blazing Saddles, where the black sheriff, played by Clevon Little, realises he is in trouble, so he points his own gun at his own head and tells the town, “Anybody moves, and the n****r gets it.” The comparison ends there, because Scholz goes ahead and pulls the trigger.
Mr. Biden isn’t even that bright. It would be interesting if the Russkies actually took Kiev to seen if the Ukronazis would actually destroy the evidence of Biden corruption in Ukraine, or if Mr. Putin would then hold it in secret over him for some time to come.
Dieter Kief
Tuesday - February 22nd 2022 5:19AM MST
PS
OT - The German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said at the Security Conference in Munich, she had been in Luhansk, near the contctLINE of east-Cocainia" - in German: ...near the Kontakt-Linie der Ost-Koakaine" (what she menat to say was: East-Ukraine....Ost-Ukraine...). You can't make this stuff up. Far out, German women/mother foreign minister your honour!
OT - The German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said at the Security Conference in Munich, she had been in Luhansk, near the contctLINE of east-Cocainia" - in German: ...near the Kontakt-Linie der Ost-Koakaine" (what she menat to say was: East-Ukraine....Ost-Ukraine...). You can't make this stuff up. Far out, German women/mother foreign minister your honour!
Ganderson
Monday - February 21st 2022 10:41PM MST
PS
When I was a nipper, Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays alternated- we got one off one year, the other the next.
I don’t mind getting rid of Jax on the 20- the guy hated paper money. But there have to be people more worthy. Quannah Parker, anyone?
And, my favorite quote about Silent Cal, courtesy of HL Mencken:
“In what manner he would have performed himself if the holy angels had shoved the Depression forward a couple of years - this we can only guess, and one man's hazard is as good as another's. My own is that he would have responded to bad times precisely as he responded to good ones - that is, by pulling down the blinds, stretching his legs upon his desk, and snoozing away the lazy afternoons.... He slept more than any other President, whether by day or by night. Nero fiddled, but Coolidge only snored.... Counting out Harding as a cipher only, Dr. Coolidge was preceded by one World Saver and followed by two more. What enlightened American, having to choose between any of them and another Coolidge, would hesitate for an instant? There were no thrills while he reigned, but neither were there any headaches. He had no ideas, and he was not a nuisance.”
He was not a nuisance. I want that on my tombstone.
When I was a nipper, Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays alternated- we got one off one year, the other the next.
I don’t mind getting rid of Jax on the 20- the guy hated paper money. But there have to be people more worthy. Quannah Parker, anyone?
And, my favorite quote about Silent Cal, courtesy of HL Mencken:
“In what manner he would have performed himself if the holy angels had shoved the Depression forward a couple of years - this we can only guess, and one man's hazard is as good as another's. My own is that he would have responded to bad times precisely as he responded to good ones - that is, by pulling down the blinds, stretching his legs upon his desk, and snoozing away the lazy afternoons.... He slept more than any other President, whether by day or by night. Nero fiddled, but Coolidge only snored.... Counting out Harding as a cipher only, Dr. Coolidge was preceded by one World Saver and followed by two more. What enlightened American, having to choose between any of them and another Coolidge, would hesitate for an instant? There were no thrills while he reigned, but neither were there any headaches. He had no ideas, and he was not a nuisance.”
He was not a nuisance. I want that on my tombstone.
The Alarmist
Monday - February 21st 2022 7:32PM MST
PS
So, which denominations get Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and George Washington Carver? Does George Floyd get the $1 note as the new George who could not tell a lie and set the example for many American chillun to follow and tell stories that are, of course, not lies?
So, which denominations get Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and George Washington Carver? Does George Floyd get the $1 note as the new George who could not tell a lie and set the example for many American chillun to follow and tell stories that are, of course, not lies?