Cats, bats, and spoiled brats
Posted On: Thursday - March 26th 2020 8:13PM MST
In Topics: Political Correctness China Race/Genetics Kung Flu Stupidity
This post is about different kinds of people and their different animals. Is it only the Western World in which animals are treated almost as nice as, and sometimes nicer than, people? Is that only because we have been relatively much more well off? From my experience, the animals we love as pets, specifically your cats and dogs, aren't treated nearly as well in China. Now, that is changing as the Chinese people do get more well off, but I don't know if they'll ever have the love of animals that Americans have.
I chalk this partly up to more space. Where I've been in China, the cat had to be chained to the stove most of the time. Had he gotten outside, that would have been the end of him, at least for this home. I'm not saying he'd been eaten as the next meal. It's more like he'd be run over within a day or less due to the extreme congestion everywhere, or lost and hopefully adopted by another family, and tied down there. It was something I didn't even want to see, his being tied down like that.
We sure have different cultures on animals. There are Americans with all kinds of exotic ones too: llamas, emus (not so cuddly, those emus), and even tigers and other big cats. You won't see the latter, as per the owners' lawyers they are usually behind very tall solid fencing! Think of some of these exotic animals in China, and you know some kind of erection potion, or lucky health food is the normal fate of such beasts.
This brings me to the jokes about the fact that you won't see many cats near the Chinese take-out places, etc ... The average Chinese family simply eats their non-exotic meat as more a supplement to the veggies and rice than as a full solid 5-10 oz hunk, the way we like it. Things are improving, and most are able to get their decent share of protein now, thankfully. Pork is the favorite, as we've mentioned in a post titled The People's Pig*. It is in the southeast of the country, Canton, in the Guangdong province, where the eating of somewhat more exotic creatures is practiced.
This brings us to Wuhan**, with the "wet markets", those crowded markets where live animals of all kinds are slaughtered on demand. I could imagine it being a germ heaven. Bats have been brought up as a possible animal for this Kung Flu to have transferred to humans from. That's one likely scenario, but I'm no expert. These nasty viruses we come upon every few years seem to come from China, and they sure don't come from the cats and dogs that we are so close to here. Oh, and we don't eat them.
This brings me to the spoiled brats. There are plenty here, of course (see the Students and other Snowflakes topic key). I'm thinking, though, of the 1-child policy in China that has resulted in a huge number of only-children in that country, going up to 40 year-olds now. They aren't all spoiled of course, but the number of ridiculously un-grateful, or at least un-gracious, guests and residents in the US (subject for another post too) is probably a result of some spoilage. We have plenty of our own SJWs here, but now we have to listen to American-residing Chinese people bitch about our naming of the Kung Flu.
We covered this bitching already in our post Beware the Kung Flu!, but to add just a little bit here, this is not a blame game. Whether it's the "Chinese flu", "China flu", or our favorite, the "Kung Flu", it's just a simple way of naming the disease after where it came from. Nobody is blaming the Chinese people for getting sick, for crying out loud. Many bring up the good point that the very high level of globalization has let this virus come barging in like mad***, versus how it would have spread 15 years back. Yes, people bring up the eating of bats too, so I suppose that is putting some blame on the bat-eaters, but that's not your average Chinaman. That'd be cats ... no, just kidding ... it's chicken, really ... named after General Tso.
There are the Ron Unz variety everything-is-an-evil-conspiracy types, but I just don't think they have much of a case on this one. The American Deep-State made and spread the virus, the Zionist Jews made it, the Chinese made it - all those have the big flaw of "yeah, but they're getting sick too". Are these entities not of the caliber of your father's Deep State, Zionist Jews, or Chinese CCP?
Let's all just not sweat the naming, and concentrate on the 24/7 infotainment panic fest, shall we ... errr, wait...
The subject of this virus causing worse relations between our 2 big nations is a subject for an upcoming post.
* One of our favorite titles - see also A porcine crisis in China on the recent rationing of this favorite of meats in China.
** No, it's not all the way in the southeast, more east-central.
*** I was trying to estimate how many Chinese travelers come and go during the very important Spring Festival (or Chinese New Years) time. It's hard to check right now, but there were something like 40-50 flights daily on US-based and foreign air carriers direct between the US and China. Some people go through Japan or elsewhere. Excluding those, with say 75% Chinese people on the planes during this period, and an average 300 seats on each, that's 10-12 thousand round-trips daily. Over a spread out 2 weeks, that's 140-170 thousand people coming and going. How many came from Wuhan?
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A kinder, gentler piece of junk mail
Posted On: Thursday - March 26th 2020 4:08PM MST
In Topics: TV, aka Gov't Media Salesmen Curmudgeonry Big-Biz Stupidity
(This is pretty much an update of our post TV for thee, but not for me, even for free., the update being that it's the same old stupid shit outta these people.)
No, really, I mean, don't do this again!
The image above is a scan of the nice piece of mail I got a few days back. No, it wasn't my birthday*, and it's too late for Christmas cards, even from those people you surprise with a card last minute (just to screw with 'em) and have to hurry something out the door after New Years. Of course, in this day and age it's gonna be junk mail.
Within the Curmudgeonry topic key, there are a few posts that mention junk mail, as the reader would figure. Our most on-topic rant in that regard would be Junk mail under Idiocracy. Yes, the generators of junk mail are getting smarter and smarter. There are nondescript envelopes that you figure you'd better open, cause you just don't know (replacement debit card?). There are are pieces of mail that look like there are checks inside. You know it's bogus, but just in case ... Drats! There are letters from the insurance company or bank that you figure are important, but nope, it's a sales pitch. (These latter are truly my least favorite and have warranted some words with them in the past.)
Now, we have a nice greeting card that I know is not really a personal greeting card, even with the pretty blue envelope. They went through so much trouble picking it out, so ... I kid you not, it was ANOTHER ad from the internet company that I am a customer of. Crimeny! I got another more obvious advertising letter 2 days after this one. How much of my bill do they spend on this crap? Is that why they just went up 5 bucks?
What I really think is that some corporate big-shots just reckon that NO ONE SHOULD BE WITHOUT A SOURCE OF TV! No one should get away with that kind of thing. It's egregious and un-American.
Thank you for that small fraction of a BTU from the energy in your pretty blue envelope, internet people. We have a warm feeling inside already, but please, quit trying to get me on TV. It's a lost cause.
* oops, that narrows it down a bit for you doxxers. Keep at it, fellers!
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Arts & Crafts
Posted On: Thursday - March 26th 2020 12:44PM MST
In Topics: Educational Stupidity
This post is related to the Kung Flu only with regard to the fact that school is still out. This is really an Educational Stupidity post - check there for a lot more. As Peak Stupidity discussed 2 weeks back in School's Out For Ever!, one of the silver linings I see out of this whole mandatory economic shutdown comes from these long-term school closings. Parents are going to realize after a while a) they can teach their children something at home, b) It only takes 1/2 the time to do at least the same teaching, as c) what the hell have they been doing all day over there?!
See, we've got this take home work. Some of it is online, but, luckily, there's no working-time measured, or major crap to turn in, by/for the school. For our elementary school boy, though we've been to the dog-and-pony show of the conferences, I am really getting a handle on how much time is blown over there. Don't get me wrong - recess ought to be longer, but even doubling it would only add 20 minutes.
As I look over what the work is, I can see, for example, that the project for finding a State's bird, flower, gemstone, motto, and dog (yes, there are official State dogs - that's about all the Feds will let 'em do anymore!), involves mostly what I'd call Arts & Crafts. Well, at best "Arts & Crafts", but pretty much involving coloring with crayons, cutting with scissors, and gluing pieces of paper on other pieces. Yes, this boy loves all of that. Maybe it brings him back fond sub-concious memories of pre-school. I just gotta ask, though, is it worth if for that 60-odd percent of house property taxes, and a large chunk on the vehicles, paid by me and my neighbors who don't all have children, really best spent in this manner?
I do get that kids have short attention spans, and just maybe the coloring and cutting and gluing keeps their attention such that they may better remember the State insect, currently the Roley-poley, of Missouri. It's a real waste of the 7 hours in government school though. I asked the boy how much time he "spends on this crap", "about half the day long?" "Nah, about 1/4" he said. We've been through fractions last week, and it's paying off!
His waking up 1 1/2 to 2 hours later, bringing his sleep time up past 11 hours, and 1 hour recess are part of a schedule he can really get behind. Me too!
PS: No, the Roley-Poley may not be the State Insect of Missouri, but it damn well oughta be.
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Michelle Malkin on the begging from the ADL
Posted On: Wednesday - March 25th 2020 11:58AM MST
In Topics: Lefty MegaStupidity Pundits ctrl-left
After our post on the Anti-Defamation League's begging for bailout money yesterday, It takes a lot of damned gall..., I saw that our 2nd favorite pundit, Mrs. Michelle Malkin has done a better job, with Chutzpah—ADL Wants A Federal Bailout. I may opine quite rightly on various topics, but I don't always spend the time to get all the details. I know what the deal is.
Still, Mrs. Malkin's article kicks Peak Stupidity's post's ass though, with a lot more Defamation of the ADL than we were able to come up with. Here's the intro on the yeo-idiots work that the ADL need a cash infusion for:
When I think of "essential" workers in America, the smear merchants of the Anti-Defamation League are at the bottom of the barrel. For decades, they've demonized conservatives and Christians as agents of "hate" and treated our very existence as incitements to violence. The ADL's manufactured outrage machine has broadened its target list to anyone remotely critical of Israel for any reason, President Donald Trump, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, "America First" college students, innocuous hand gestures, cartoon frogs and anyone who dares to think or write that "It's OK to be white."Here's more on how the hateful ADL screws over patriotic Americans with their style of Defamation, a style called "anti-hate":
Yes, the ADL prides itself on "monitor(ing) and report(ing) on the rhetoric of anti-immigration activists and their supporters... (who) have long promoted the notion of immigrants as bringing disease, crime and environmental problems into the United States." Instead of refuting the facts, they just point, sputter and smear. In 2009, during the swine flu outbreak traced to Mexico, I wrote on my blog that "the spread of contagious diseases from around the world into the U.S." was the "result of uncontrolled immigration." ADL swooped in with a raging condemnation of me and others who "demonize Mexicans and immigrants, blaming them for the spread of the virus."Umm, yes, they may have spread that virus. You don't have to be an ADL swine to understand this stuff. The nasty rhetoric out of the ADL, if it has any effect at all, is to silence those who may have called for a quicker implementation of measures to control the spread of this Kung Flu from China. Mum's the word, though ... gotta be PC, respiratory distress or no respiratory distress ...
Now, about the money, here's where Mrs. Malkin has some details I should have looked up yesterday:
According to its most recent financial statements, ADL and the ADL Foundation raked in nearly $80 million in operating revenues in 2018, with net assets worth more than $92 million. Fear-mongering is big businessWhat the hell kind of assets of a non-profit "charity" organization add up to $93 million?! I mean, you need some offices, telephones, maybe the occasional old-timey fax machine. Things must have REALLY gone up! (What have I been telling y'all?)
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It's ain't just the Kung Flu, it's the cheap China-made light bulbs too!
Posted On: Wednesday - March 25th 2020 8:27AM MST
In Topics: Cheap China-made Crap Cars
OK, there's lots of stupidity we have here ready to go on this Kung Flu, but it's time to take a break from that. I'm sick of hearing about it, you're sick of hearing about, but likely and hopefully, none of us are non-vitrually sick.
If this post bores you, well, we can always talk about the Kung Flu, I'm warning you. This one is about car parts, such as:
... the idiot on his phone just rammed me.*
I was reading some back-and-forth-commenting on the iSteve threads of unz.com. There are a lot of smart and practical people who write in. As the topic diverged to Cheap China-made crap, a commenter put it this way: He doesn't mind getting the cheap tail-light/brake-light/running-light bulbs for his car shipped from China at a buck or two a pop versus versus paying $5.99 at the local auto parts store.
It's gonna take a few weeks, coming from China. (Note those delivery estimates on eBay - anything like 2 weeks or longer likely means it's coming from China.) That's fine, if you are organized. You get ahead on the light bulbs, air and oil filters, and such. It is so nice to not even have to take the 20 minutes to go to the parts store when you want to get something done. Sometimes, the whole point of it is to buy what you may need ahead of time, as Peak Stupidity related in the humorous post DIY Tire Repair with Cheap China-made Crap.
I know what the reader is thinking here. Yes, you are right. Quality-wise, there's probably no difference, as that $5.99 bulb at Auto Zone was made in China too. They just mark it way up. This commenter figured, with the junky bulbs, he'd be replacing them often, but he'd get quick at it. If you CAN find some quality stuff, however, is your time not worth anything, to where it would make sense to get it? This is not the year 2000, though, when you still had a choice for lots of consumer items. Even the Chinese-made stuff was better then anyway, as I recall (especially regarding clothing).
No, we're stuck now, until a major retrenching goes on, and we bring industry back. This worry about the face masks and pharmaceuticals that come from China (oops, there's that Kung Flu talk again, sorry) may provide an impetus for such a retrenchment. There's a big assumption in that, though, about our "American" Globalist elites actually giving a shit.
The huge wastage of time that American DIYers and small business must go through with the choice of ONLY Cheap China-made crap probably costs us more in lost time than this whole virus infotainment panic-fest has. Is it actually brilliant plan by some CCP cadres? If so, that's more egregious to me, because, as Confucius wisely say, not all light bulbs are easy to get at.
* No, no, not really. I just couldn't come up with anything better.
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Et tu, Tyler?
Posted On: Tuesday - March 24th 2020 6:14PM MST
In Topics: Websites Student and other Snowflakes Curmudgeonry Liberty/Libertarianism Kung Flu Stupidity
The Zerohedge website is pretty big in the punditry/blog world. Having started at least a decade ago at the time of the financial bailouts and other shenanigans of 2008, it has slowly morphed into a site of all things politics, with still an international emphasis. It's one of the 4 sites on the Peak Stupidity blogroll, something we truly haven't paid much attention to.
Well, the handle "Mr. Tyler Durden" is used to represent the ZH writers, when the posts are not written by other site's bloggers or advertisements posing as posts (more often than before), comes from the movie Fight Club. The image is of Brad Pitt, who played one of the two major characters of the movie. He's a real bad-ass in the movie, and ZH Tyler Durden seemed to write as if the site was also really bad-ass. "Gold, Bitchez!" and "Too bad about the cuss words* - this is Fight Club" used to be the attitude in the comments. You also figured these were young guys writing, just from the attitude.
Well, I guess Tyler Durden has grown older and become a worthless pussy, because this is the article I read** yesterday: "If I Get Corona, I Get Corona": Deniers & Disbelievers Choose To Party Until The End. This one is no outside pundit. It's Tyler Durden of Fight Club writing this wimpy crap:
Mr. Durden, not the NY Times:
"Ravaging" them? Seriously?
As cities across the nation began going into lockdown last week and millions of Americans started self-isolating, we brought your attention to the lascivious scenes of beer-guzzling thong-clad coeds and self-styled 'invincible' frat bros swarming the remainder of open beaches throughout Florida, Texas and the south — who partied right up to the moment some beach towns began closing down on their 'extended' Spring Break as universities went to online-only classes.
....
And yet while numbers out of Italy and now the United States increasingly show that while statistically-speaking the elderly and infirm remain at higher risk getting extremely ill leading to hospitalization or even death, there are plenty of instances of the virus ravaging the young and under 50 demographic as well.
We've got the Curmudgeonry tag attached to this post, but in a Bizzaro-World, opposite manner of the way it's usually used here. I gotta say, what's up with these Fight Club old farts? Were I at the age of these people partying (ooh, "thong-clad", now we didn't used to have so much of that, but I digress...) at the beach, hanging out together, etc, during this huge infotainment panic-fest, I'd do exactly the same. They're gonna be fine. This Kung Flu is of less a threat to them than getting MeTooed by some regretful (formerly) thong-clad girl from the bar. It's less of a threat than stopping for gas anywhere near Miami on the way back from the Keys.
Why in the living hell should these young people have to put their lives on hold for who knows how long, so that the old folks will be just a tad more safer from this virus, when many will catch something else one day anyway, unfortunately. It's not even a sure thing that this Police State confinement is even going to help much. It's more important for the susceptible people to do their own due diligence and be as careful as possible right now. The virus will spread around anyway, and not many of these young people will see a lick of difference.
Speaking of the Police State, I respect these young people, too, for flouting the law when they do. That's what you want. This is not the USSR or Red-, even modern-day-, China, yet. The stuff that even intelligent pundits are calling for now, or at least discussing, is previously unheard-of Orwellian stuff. It's making me more sick than I think the Kung Flu would.
Now, I gotta read (well, I don't really "gotta") this formerly bad-ass ZeroHedge Tyler Durden character going on about how there are unfortunately still crowds at Home Depot, Lowes, and Hobby Lobby (people trying to do something USEFUL with their time). Then he tells me: "If this is hard to believe, just go take a drive to your local strip mall in most any major suburb or urban area, especially in the central and mid-west United States — you're likely to still find a lot of activity." Oh, no, a lot of activity!
Is this WTDWS? (What Tyler Durden Would Say - old ZH meme.) Well, it help if the movie didn't suck so bad as to be un-understandable, even the 2nd time (see Movie Review - "Fight Club" still sucks.) Maybe I got the whole thing wrong. Was Tyler Durden actually a wimp, who was afraid to beat the hell out of himself, so he had his alter-ego do fake punches like in Pro Wrastling? That's what ZH Tyler Durden would do, from what I read yesterday. Go shelter in place, Tyler. you worthless pussy!
* It should have been an early warning to me that that all cuss words in the comments are asterisked out now - **** those people!
** Well, "read" is probably not the best way to put it. With all the jumping around and ad insertion on that site, you've got to hold down the scroll bar, hope you don't lose your place (which you do) and try your best to catch most of the post. It's getting where it'd be best to quickly ctrl-c the text and put it into freaking notepad, I kid you not!
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It takes a lot of damned gall ...
Posted On: Tuesday - March 24th 2020 6:10AM MST
In Topics: Lefty MegaStupidity Economics ctrl-left
... for a Non-Profit organization whose sole job is telling people whom not to criticize to ask for "relief" in these times of the Kung Flu. People have been forced out of work, at least in the service sector of the economy. That sector is really close to the whole economy now, so that's lots of people who, because most of them live paycheck-to-paycheck , are in bad shape.
I believe in no bailouts, due both to the moral hazard it introduces (ex: why should I live frugally without student loans?) and this increase in the level of power of the governments of all sorts. Speaking of governments of all sorts, these State bans on all of this, the restaurants/bars and now the groupings of people, should have been defied by all patriotic Americans that aren't worried about getting the virus. That was the old America, I guess. People will let the State take all power away, now - very much like after 9/11.
Wherever the huge amounts of borrowed cash will go, there are a million other individuals and organizations that could use the money better than the ADL would. That is the Anti-Defamation League, formed a century ago to defend a Jewish criminal defendant, but since then seemingly specializing in nothing but telling people whom you can't criticize. You're a Non-Profit, people! Do you get that? You don't have to come out ahead. Just take that money that the idiots donate to you, and spend all of it in whatever stupid manner you like. Now you want taxpayer money? Whatever happened to the appellation NGO - Non-Governmental Organization? You and your ilk pull out that term all the time to try to show you are "unbiased" and just out for the common good. Run along now, and ACT like an NGO!
The ADL is one of a few of these "non-profits" that do hook up with the Feral Government as paid advisors to help determine who is
Yeah, this self-induced panic-fest is indeed a "time of crisis". The ADL wants a sleeper-car ticket on the gravy train coming down the tracks. They tweet out that they are ready to respond and serve my community by telling me when to Shut the Hell Up. No! No soup for you, ADL!
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Be Strong, Wuhan!
Posted On: Monday - March 23rd 2020 8:45AM MST
In Topics: Music Humor Political Correctness China Kung Flu Stupidity
Maybe this latest Paul Kersey post, Is NYC Coronavirus Ground Zero Because Massive "Be Strong Wuhan" Feb 9th Chinese New Year's Parade Helped Spread The Chinese Virus?, isn't supposed to be funny, but I got a very-near LOL out of it. The Humor topic key applies.
I'm gonna include the whole excerpt that writer Paul Kersey did from a site called 1010wins radio:
Signs of support for the Chinese city at the center of a global virus outbreak marked floats at the Lunar New Year parade in Manhattan’s Chinatown.Hahaaa ... see what I mean? You can't make this up, as they say. This is from February 9th ...Yes, let's all fight this virus together, so rally around, Chinamen, keep it close and tight to show our great strength. Everyone, shout it out loud. No, I can't hear you! LOUD! Wuhan, stay strong!! You go, Wuhanians. [hawks a big loogie onto the sidewalk, between two Wuhan supporters, with great accuracy] We're with you. We feel your pain! [well, pretty much. It's just a tingle in the throat so far ...]
Brightly colored puppets made their way through the New York City streets Sunday in front of crowds of onlookers.
A banner on one float read “Support Wuhan! Let’s fight the virus together!”
Another urged, “Wuhan stay strong.”
The coronavirus outbreak that started in China in December has killed more than 800 people and infected more than 37,000 people around the world.
No cases have been identified in New York City. [ Yeah, not yet!! ]
I'm sorry. If you are a NY City reader, then maybe this is not quite so funny, but for the rest of us, well, I only WISH I could have made this up myself. Peak Stupidity apologizes profusely here for our lack of enough creativity to match the stupidity of reality. Man, I hate to lose face like this.
Again Be Strong, Wuhan! Get off that ventilator, out of the hospital and out on the street! Come on, everyone, SHOUT IT, SHOUT IT, SHOUT IT OUT LOUD!
(Yes, that last repetition of the sarcasm was written entirely to segue into this KIZZ number, from their 1976 album Destroyer. Oh, and coincidentally, this band was from New York City.)
BE STRONG, KIZZ FANS!
Paul Stanley – lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitar
Gene Simmons – lead and backing vocals, bass
Ace Frehley – lead guitar, backing and lead vocals
Peter Criss – drums, backing and lead vocals
PS: Oh, man, this brings back a tragic story about that album Destroyer. I had to leave some vinyl behind when making a big move years ago (seriously, nothing more would fit in the rent-a-car). I wanted to sell it to a used record store, along with 3 others that wouldn't fit in the milk crate. The guy wanted to give me 25 cents apiece. That was a travesty even in that era, so I left the 4 albums on the grassy median of the busy street for anyone to pick up. The tragic part is that the Leo Sayer's Greatest Hits album got to go on the move with me and not KISS - Destroyer!
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Is COVID-19 the Socialists' 9/11?
Posted On: Monday - March 23rd 2020 8:17AM MST
In Topics: US Police State Trump Global Financial Stupidity Economics US Feral Government Socialism/Communism
I can remember the near-aftermath of 9/11, with President George W. Bush telling Americans how we'll get them back and a barrage of new legislation that came to his desk very quickly for signatures. It was kind of funny that most of the ridiculously-named Patriot Act had already been worked out beforehand. People were ready to change everything. "Quit with your Libertarian muh Constitution crap", they said, "This is serious. These people want to kill us because they hate us for our freedoms... " "... so, I mean, whatever it takes, full body searches, locking up airports like prisons, yeah, we can do this at the big sportsball games too, wherever we want - it's for America! Freedom!" (See 18 years later - they must LOVE us for our lack of freedoms! for a much more comprehensive rant on this.)
As we've written before, this site will not get into the big questions about 9/11. We're not going to go all Ron Unz paranoid and put the blame on the Kung Flu on the American Deep State either. This comparison is about the way things were and are being handled at the high levels of government(s) after the fact, or in this case during the infotainment panic-fest.
9/11 was a great handy excuse to ramp up the US Police State. Completely unconstitutional legislation was quickly written, passed, and signed, because Americans didn't give enough of a damn to stop it (well, maybe the one guy - Ron Paul). I believe this Kung Flu has already been a great excuse to ramp up the Socialism to the next level. I notice the UBI bit get pulled out for use, and the talk about money being spent on whomever like it's candy and this Spring and Summer will be one long Halloween.
I never have thought of President Trump as a man of principle, like a Goldwater, Paul, or Reagan (before he was shot), so it's not like he will lift a finger or say a word against this Socialist push. After all, spending an EXTRA $1,000,000,000,000 of taxpayers' and grandchildren of taxpayers' money, though at least a 100% increase in the national DEFICIT for the year, is only a measly 5% increase in the national DEBT over what it would have been with just your run-of-the-mill standard $1,000,000,000,000 DEFICIT. Total debt will go to $25,000,000,000,000 instead of only $24,000,000,000,000. What's the diff, right? (Inflation, what Inflation?)
The excuse for this is simple. We had to shut down a big chunk of this service economy of ours for your own good, so... what next? Oh, you can't pay your bills? Who knew?
State Governors have used emergency powers (of some sort) to shutter any kinds of businesses they wanted to, the talk is about who gets more of the taxpayers’, or taxpayers’ grandchildren’s, money to compensate them for being ordered to stay home. Listen to this shit. The term Lockdown, originally a procedure for the Maximum-Security prison, is used willy-nilly about everything now. There are Shelter-in-Place ORDERS. (Fuck your orders - this ain't the USSR yet!) The US is indeed becoming more of a Police State, and the people seem ready to bend over and take it up the ass.
This is pretty shameful. I’m ashamed at least, to hear perfectly intelligent people who’ve been watching the infotainment panic-fest for 3 weeks straight, start going on about who should be locked down, who should get money “given” to them, and who should be required to wear this and do that. They all will look back on this later and think “why did we fall for that?”. The fact is, nobody planned it like this, but governments will take full advantage to turn this country into more of a Socialist nightmare.
Now, get the hell outside for a while, people, and go talk to your neighbors from whatever distance doesn’t scare the crap out of you. Everyone was out this weekend. We gave a thank you present to a neighbor for Christmas gifts that she had anonymously left, and we hadn’t figured out until now who it was. The big box of chocolates we had bought for her 3 months back and gave her was about to expire, but she was cool with that.
PS: I'm sure there are some older readers that may very well have something to worry about from this Kung Flu. The point is to take care of oneself. I have a family member we would like to take a road trip to visit during this down time, but will not due to our fear of infecting her.
I can understand all kinds of precautions from someone particularly susceptible. Get groceries sent to the door (and spray them off on the porch), decline visits from anyone, whatever you've gotta do. This stopping of most of the economy, however, is uncalled for.
A really big blessing we Americans have (for now) is lots of more room. (More on this will come in a post soon.) It's probably a good idea for everyone to get out in some sunshine.
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Lyle Lovett and his Large Band - If I had a Boat
Posted On: Friday - March 20th 2020 7:52PM MST
In Topics: Music
I'm sick of people freaking out about this Kung Flu, sick of people turning Socialist, sick of trying to find a Dow Jones chart that has the y-axis starting at 0, just sick of a lot of stuff right now. This will make it better.
Here's Texan Lyle Lovett and his "Large Band". Yes, there are quite a few on the stage.
If I had a Boat is from Mr. Lovett's 2nd album, Pontiac from 1987. I'd only first heard of this guy in the late 1990s.
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Paul Craig Roberts is dead to me
Posted On: Friday - March 20th 2020 7:25PM MST
In Topics: Pundits Liberty/Libertarianism Socialism/Communism
It's a damn shame. Though I didn't keep up with his every bit of writing over the years, Paul Craig Roberts has always been a true friend of liberty. I don't know what his political background is and don't really care at this point. I may have read him first on Lew Rockwell, probably seen his stuff occasionally referred to on the Constitutionalist sites, and for a few years he was one of the very few Libertarians featured on unz.com (Ron Paul's column is featured, and there are perhaps a couple more half-assed Libertarians).
I mean, PC Roberts wrote about every excess of the US Government you could think of over the years. He was right in pretty much every case, even a few of which I'd considered even hard-core for me. Over the last couple of decades, the Neocons and their warmaking around the world have been the subjects of Mr. Roberts' columns. That's fair enough. Though the columns often seemed purely anti-American, they were not anti-Americans (plural).
Well, a year or more ago, on the unz site, Mr. Roberts took umbrage (as many seem to do) at his commenters' (including THIS GUY's) corrections of his sudden falling fall the whole Global Climate DisruptionTM political scam. It seemed that he had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. What happened in the comments section is that Mr. Roberts wrote in berating some of the commenters. In the meantime, somebody (no, NOT THIS GUY) spoofed the columnist in a comment that threatened violence on some of them. No, I didn't think a guy like this would go that far, and he hadn't. Still, Paul Craig Roberts asked Mr. Unz to terminate the comments section for his columns (unless he was able to turn it off himself).
Before I go any further, let me add, that yes, I know, this is pundit vs. pundit stuff that 99% of Americans don't know or care about ... until someone gets on TV... and even then, only a few.
I was happy to see that unz.com had commenting back for Paul Craig Roberts a couple of months ago. Then, I came upon this column by the author, another on the Kung Flu, and was frankly shocked.
For most Americans nationalization is a dirty word, but it has many benefits. For example, a national health care system reduces costs tremendously by taking profits out of the system. Additionally, nationalized pharmaceutical companies could be made more focused on research and cures than on profit avenues. Everyone knows how Big Pharma influences medical schools and medical practice in line with Big Pharma’s approach. A more open-minded approach to medicine would be beneficial.No, not overnight, but maybe over a couple of weeks or at most a year or so while I wasn't paying attention (due to commenting not allowed). What can you say about fools like this? Too much TV infotainment that his brain could no longer fight, senility, or maybe even the pundit version of The Cocktail Party theory of Political Stupidity.
Socialist is another American dirty word, one that is being used against Bernie Sanders. I have not turned into a socialist overnight. I am simply thinking out loud. How can the economy recover when the population and corporations are smothered by debt? Debt forgiveness is the only way out of this debt suffocation. Can debts be forgiven without nationalization?
It's just a damn shame when a stalwart principled gentleman like Paul Craig Roberts turns into a cranky-old retarded Socialist. He's dead to me.
Comments (4)
The Music Never Stopped
Posted On: Thursday - March 19th 2020 6:53PM MST
In Topics: Music The Dead
Thanks go to commenter and fellow Dead Head Ganderson for pointing out this great Music Never Stopped off of Dick's Picks XVIII, live music recorded partly at a Madison, Wisconsin show on Feb, 3rd of 1978 at the Dane County Coliseum and then 2 nights later in Cedar Falls, Iowa at the Uni-Dome, U. of N. Iowa. Keep in mind, that was not Cedar Rapids, the city, but the small town of Cedar Falls, on up the river, just northwest of Waterloo. It's not a big town now, and I doubt it was any metropolis in 1978, just a small college town. The Dead would play anywhere people wanted to listen.
Can you imagine following this band around the country? Of course, it'd been easier in the summer, what with the serious lack of heating in those VW microbuses. Even in 1978, not to mention '68 or '58, America was enough of an economic powerhouse to afford having say, a tenth of a percent of the 225 million population, going around, selling beads and paraphernalia, so to speak, for money for show tickets and grass, while most of the country had real, good jobs. That'd be near 1/4 million, too many to fill up any of the venues, and that's why you needed a miracle. Perhaps only a few dozen thousands were die-hard. For them, the music never stopped.
If you want to really get into the Live Grateful Dead recordings, you can't go wrong by just starting off with Dick's Picks I and going from there, though we all have our favorites. These albums were produced by a man named Dick Latvala, until he died and David Lemieux took over. They got up to #36 by 2005, the end of that series. Then, I just learned, there are Dave's Picks, named after Mr. Lemieux, which are still rolling out (up to #33).
From an archive site, it's apparent that this track was recorded at the Madison, WI show. The Music Never Stopped was written by Bob Weir along with John Perry Barlow. That's Donna Godchaux on vocals as a duet with Bob. She had been a back-up vocalist "session" musician* until she met Keith Godchaux. When he joined the band to play keyboards, Donna came along shortly after, so it was sort of a package deal.
There's mosquitoes on the river.
Fish are rising up like birds
Its been hot for seven weeks now,
too hot to even speak now.
Did you hear what I just heard?
Say it might have been a fiddle,
or it could have been the wind,
but there seems to be a beat now.
I can feel it my feet now.
Listen here it comes again!
There's a band out on the highway.
They're high steppin into town.
Its a rainbow full of sound.
It's fireworks, calliopes and clowns.
Everybody dancin c'mon children, c'mon children, come on clap your hands.
Sun went down in honey,
and the moon came up in wine.
You know stars were spinnin dizzy, Lord
The band kept us too busy.
We forgot about the time.
They're a band beyond description,
like Jehovah's favorite choir.
People joining hand in hand
while the music played the band,
Lord, they're setting us on fire.
Crazy rooster crowin midnight.
Balls of lightin roll along.
Old men sing about their dreams.
Women laugh and children scream,
and the band keeps playin on.
Keep on dancin thru the daylight.
Greet the mornin air with song.
No one's noticed, but the bands all packed and gone.
Was it ever there at all?
But they keep on dancin', c'mon children, c'mon children, come on clap your hands.
Well the cool breeze came on Tuesday,
and the corns a bumper crop.
And the fields are full of dancin full of singin and romancin'
The music never stopped.
* She sang on Elvis Presley's Suspicious Minds, even!
Comments (3)
The Kung Flu - SHTF or Infotainment Panic-Fest?
Posted On: Thursday - March 19th 2020 3:34PM MST
In Topics: China Economics Kung Flu Stupidity
Though I'm still not under the influence of the idiot-plate, I hear tell that this Panic-Fest week has been extended another month or two. Shark-fest week* was long enough - the suspense was killing me (turned out the winner was Saltwater Croc, by a snout).
Yes, I know. This one is deadly. We need to flatten the curve. The virus stays alive for days on metal surfaces. A bunch of people have it. A few have died. Italy! Don't leave the house. Wash your hands. OK, I need to wash my hands more anyway, so I'm down with that last one. Listen, I've been around. I remember quite a few of these viruses coming over from Asia over the last couple of decades. People died then too, mixed in with plenty of other people that were fairly old and/or susceptible to disease a lot more than your healthy < 60 y/o's down to babies**. I'm of the pretty solid opinion right now that this Kung Flu is truly an Infotainment Panic-Fest.
The difference between 2020 and 2000 or even 2010 is the pervasiveness of the infotainment reaching us [not exactly US, Kemosabe - Ed] day and night, right to our person, in the form of the smart phone screen. I've avoided paying attention to a lot of this, but for my wife's serious constant worrying. I'm trying to play along, as she is not wrong on her facts, but on her perspective.
We know a few things from the perfect experiment of the spread of this virus on a few of the cruise ships. If you've been on a cruise ship, you know that everyone had a chance to get the virus. There was a 7% fatality rate, of infected people over 70.
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They tested the entire 3711 passengers and crew. 634 were positive for the virus (17%), of whom 328 had no symptoms (9% of the total, or 52% of those who tested positive).
Of those with symptoms, the fatality rate was 1.9%.
Of all those infected the fatality rate was 0.91%.
Of the entire ship, the fatality rate was 0.3%.
Of those infected and over age 70, the fatality rate was 7%.
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That was not going to be the healthiest, youngest, and fittest crowd. We know that it's people over 70 y/o and those with other conditions that are the only ones that ought to be worried about this. Those are people who should very seriously protect themselves or have family members protect them. Nursing homes especially, with many susceptible people in close quarters, should take drastic steps.
Conversely, though I like the ramifications of the closing of the schools, is that really necessary due to the Kung Flu? The virus will get around anyhow. The kids will be alright. Perhaps anybody very susceptible to serious illness from this virus ought to stay away from the kids for quite a while. That is unfortunate, but that's not as bad as shutting down the economy. More on this, but let me get to Italy.
The one region in Italy, with a bad situation due to the massive influx of the virus from its source in China (not really mentioned enough - see James Fulford today with Italian Virologist: Italy THOUGHT Of Isolating People Coming From China, But "It Became Seen As Racist"—Killing Thousands.) There are too many people with the same respiratory problems for the amount of equipment available. However, I gotta say this: There have been ~ 3,500 deaths from the Kung Flu in Italy over a few weeks. The country has a population of around 60 million, with a death rate of just above 1.0 % (with their demographics that WILL go up - they do not average living to 100.) That's 600,000 people dying a year, or over 1,600 daily. Most of those are old people dying of things that are the things that inevitably kill. It's not fun. We do all we can. Let's keep some perspective, though. It's 10-20 % of the number that will die in the hospital, or, you would hope, at home, from "old age" during this time. This is in a part of Italy that got the worst of it due to immigration practices and Globalization.
(My sincerest apologies for the y-axis not starting at 0! I will look for a better graph tomorrow.)
What's happened due to this Infotainment Panic-Fest is that the economy has really crashed due to forced curtailment of travel (for international travel, being a very reasonable step), these forced mandatory closures of eating/drinking establishments, and the disarrangement of parents' schedules due to the closure of the
Any serious Peak Stupidity reader will know by now (see Global Financial Stupidity) that it's not like we think this ponzi-scheme of an economy was going to keep going anyway. This was as good a time as any to see what it's made of, but I think it's just a taste so far. Face it, a real economy has got to create wealth. Should the travel, entertainment, and hospitality (restaurants/bars/etc) "industries" shutting down mean we are out of business? It shouldn't. You just can't keep running an economy based on people selling each other gourmet hamburgers and craft beer.
In answer to the question posed by this post's title: BOTH. The Kung Flu Infotainment Panic-Fest has triggered a financial crisis, bound to happen someday anyway, that may lead to a SHTF situation, if the media and governments keep pressing their luck and don't leave the people the hell alone for a while to get things done.
PS: For further reading, one may look no further than my two favorite literary pundits. Michelle Malkin rails against the airline bailouts (they really ought to have saved more money than they have after almost a decades of great times) - see Crisis Socialism—No Bailouts for Open Borders Globalists!. As usual, I also agree completely with Ann Coulter, or she agrees with me - see Ann Coulter On China And Coronavirus: Cheap TVs, Expensive Flu. Also, one Heather MacDonald, also a well-known pundit, wrote an article in the New Criterion, Compared to What?, that I will not link to, per Peak Stupidity policy, but one that VDare discussed and excerpted from in Heather Mac Donald Questions the Media’s Coronavirus Narrative. That's 3 women writing that stuff! It's not what you would expect out of your normal woman, so kudos to these three!
OK, I just gotta show you the end of Ann Coulter's column:
Italy has been ravaged by the Wuhan virus, but the average age of the dead is 81.What? Too much common sense?
According to the dire estimates of the Imperial College of London—whose assessment we are following—excepting those with underlying medical conditions, the new coronavirus is far less deadly than the seasonal flu to anyone under 60 years old. It’s no worse than the 2017-18 flu season for those in their 60s.
But it's five to 10 times more deadly than the regular flu for those in their 70s and 80s, respectively.
We ought to surround old folks homes with the National Guard and call it a day. It would probably save more lives and wouldn’t destroy the economy.
But there’s no time to think about saving lives. The important thing is to stamp out the idea that a virus that originated in China has anything to do China.
* See here also, on that shark-fest business.
** In fact, according to a pretty worried Italian doctor in one video, even the neo-natal cases (very young babies) did not get any ill effects from the Kung Flu.
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[UPDATED 03/20:] Major correction on cruise ship information. I regret not having checked it out more thoroughly. Inserted correction within ****** above, per commenter Bill H.
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[UPDATED 03/28:] Minor correction on Heather McDonald's article. It was not the NY Times, but the New Criterion in which her article was published. Link inserted. Thanks, commenter Christopher.
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TV Debate pits Moslem Swede vs. Moslem Swede
Posted On: Wednesday - March 18th 2020 7:36PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity
Just so the reader doesn't think Peak Stupidity is picking on poor downtrodden Sweden here, the immigration stupidity material in this post could just as well be about America. We find the stupidity, and we write about it, and this one is about Sweden. We've picked on Germany before, as Merkel's refugee stupidity has been an even larger deal, but it is in a country with 8 x as many people.
We've discussed assimilation or lack thereof into the Western world by modern-day foreigners before. It's one thing to make an effort to invite people who will have a hard time fitting in, and quite another to go as far as importing people from both sides (in near equal numbers, mind you) of a recent decade-long war involving millions dead and poison gas attacks. Peak Stupidity reported on that in Importing a Civil War, in Sweden this past summer. Yeah, in Stockholm, a city of 900,000, they've imported 16 1/2 thousand Iraqis and 11 1/2 thousand Iranians, or maybe the other way around, I dunno.
No, but, you know it's nice Liberal Socialist Sweden, and we will all get along nicely and sing Kumbaya by the
Alright, that was the previous post, but this is kind of a fun one. In a debate, IN SWEDEN, on SWEDISH TV, about the recent welcome ban on the wearing of veils in schools, the two participants were MOSLEMS. Now, that's getting both sides of the picture, you know, from the 2 Swedes and all.
Russia Today* reports 'Don't like to see little girls in veils? Move out of Sweden': Muslim teacher & Muslim politician clash on live TV. Why don't you BOTH move the hell out of Sweden?! The story is just hilarious on the face of it. Of course any Swede who took the wrong side of this debate might have his career ruined, so I understand why they let the Moslems verbally duke it out.
The heated exchange between Naouel Aissaoui, a school teacher in the Swedish municipality of Skurup, and local politician Loubna Stensaker Goransson was over a ban on veils in public schools, which Goransson and other council officials enacted in December. The decision angered many educators, and Aissaoui is among those leading the pushback.Notice the names. The lady on the side against the veils has at least a Swedish name, though I do wonder if she is a descendant of the Vikings. The other lady is hard-core Moslem, obviously.
"Move away if it annoys you," Aissaoui said during a TV debate after her opponent said she disliked seeing little girls wearing the veil. "This is my country, too." [My bolded text was in italics in the article.]
Now, one could see this whole thing optimistically. Miss Goransson, or probably Mrs. (can't seem to find out), has obviously assimilated enough to care about keeping Sweden Western to some degree, but not in the matter of religion. Assimilation doesn't usually entail a religious conversion, of course, but Islam is a whole 'nother game too.
Let's compare this to the assimilation of immigrants into America that DID happen with the first huge set of waves (mid 1880s to 1921). You had your Italians, your Irish, and your Eastern Europeans. The first 2 groups were Catholic, and the latter, if not Jewish, also likely Catholic. That was already a big change for the hugely Protestant country of the English, German, and Scandinavian settlers. It did take a while for people to accept them, especially because arrived in large initially-not-very-assimilable groups.
You skip to the 1980-1990's, and just for an example, think of a debate between Rudy Giuliani (of Italian ancestry) and Ed Koch (Jewish), an imaginary debate, mind you, as they were around politically in different decades. Almost nobody by this time thought of Mr. Giuliani as some Wop first, and Mr. Koch as just some Jew. They were both Americans, albeit with probably still a little tribal favoritism. OK, at least for New Yorkers, they were both New Yorkers. It took a long while and an immigration pause of over 40 years to get this point.
Sticking to America for a bit, we now have just as big a population of foreigners (people born elsewhere) as right at the peak last time in the 1920s. Hey, it's been 55 years now. Where's my moratorium.
For poor Sweden, these Moslem foreigners are so foreign to the old-timey Liberal Swedish way of life, that there's just no way it's gonna work. Sure, for Miss or Mrs. Goransson, maybe her grandchildren will be the Rudy Giuliani's, but how many have assimilated like her? There are lots more living in their own Moslem zones. Are those like the Italian neighborhoods of Vinny Corleone? Will all the Islam just merge into Swedish culture? How?
"This is my country, too" we hear from the unassimilable, veil-wearing 2-man pup tent on the right. No, this is not at all your country! Your country is well south of there.
Now, here comes some stupidity from the Russia Today writer:
[The SD's Sweden Democrats Party] suggestion to people not happy with the policy is remarkably similar to that of Aissaoui.Right on! But NO, his words are absolutely NOT "remarkable similar". Mr. Nystrom is Swedish and lives in Sweden. Miss Aissaoui is a hard-core Moslem living in Sweden. Get the difference, anonymous RT writer? I think Mr. Nystrom's people get to decide this shit. Perhaps the next Swedish TV debate could feature some Swedish people debating ... just a wild idea.
"If you find it so important to wear a headscarf, you go to Saudi Arabia or Iran. The police are happy to lend a hand if you forget that headscarf," said Lars Nystrom, a Skurup council member for the SDs.
* Yes, it IS Bizzaro-World. Why do you ask? We get more truth from the Russian press than the American, as opposed to just 40 years back when the Russians would get their truth from the New York Times. OK, no, not the NY Times, but the Des Moines Register, Baltimore Sun, you name it.
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Beware the Kung Flu!
Posted On: Wednesday - March 18th 2020 10:50AM MST
In Topics: Political Correctness Trump Kung Flu Stupidity
"Deathly afraid" of THIS moment, Dr. Gu? Let's talk about deathly afraid when your lungs are filled with yellow phlegm, asshole!
It's often the case that what I was just about to write is something I see written about before I get started on one of my favorite web sites. This is such a case, as James Fulford on VDare just posted The Chinese Virus came from China and Chinese People and it is OK to say so today or yesterday.
Yeah, go read that one, but, needless to say, I will chime in anyway. This post will be more about President Trump, I guess. That tweet above, with the oh-so-offended replier apparently disagreeing, is from our President. Now, Peak Stupidity has bad-mouthed the guy numerous times (pick and choose here) for not sticking to what Candidate Trump promised, not knowing HOW to stick to those promises, and getting distracted and just mouthing off instead slowly and strategically getting the job done (like a Reagan would have).
However, on that mouthing off part, I do appreciate it on occasion. This is one such time. It could just be that the guy doesn't think much before he types, but in this case, I think it's that President Trump is again rubbing his lack of Political Correctness in our supposed elites' noses, just to get a rise out of them. Actually, it helps get a rise out of the decent Americans in a good way too, which would be great if he'd rally people to some serious purpose.
Yes, as Mr. Fulford says, this particular virus DID come from China. He discusses, and I myself have memories of, a number of others coming from that part of the world over the last couple of decades. It may have been Thailand one time, China another, but it's usually Asia.
Why are they mostly from Asia? We all know that people over there have more exotic tastes, eating animals that we wouldn't even have as pets here. Some we would. I guess these animals are closer in some biological sense to humans, as we never seem to get anything viral from our best friends here, the cats and dogs. Also, the fact that there is just no damn extra room in most livable parts of Asia so people have to live quite a bit more like bats has got to be a contributing factor, allowing for a quick initial spread of these new strains.
Maybe "the Bat Soup Flu", "the Bat Shit Flu", and that sort of thing are a little over the top and not so accurate, as we really don't know for sure how this virus got started on humans. But "China Flu"? There never has been a problem before with the naming of a new strain of something or other after its known source. This naming shouldn't even be offensive to anyone. Just be glad you're not sick and laid up in the damn hospital. It's having one's lungs filling with fluid that's offensive!
Here at Peak Stupidity, the naming is a work in progress. I'm not happy with my "Wuhan Willies" effort. From another tweet by some offended so-and-so, I have come upon the appellation "the Kung Flu". No, that's a bit meaningless, but it's clever nonetheless. Kung Flu it is, for now, and a big THANKS to President Trump for not cowering in the face of the PC crowd. With the alternative in office, the PC would make this big infotainment panic-fest that much more unbearable.
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Peak Constitutional Amendment - XIV
Posted On: Tuesday - March 17th 2020 10:32AM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity History Liberty/Libertarianism Legal Stupidity Morning Constitutional
(Continued from Amendment XI, Amendment XII, and Amendment XIII.)
I'll say right from the get-go that this Amendment was for the most part, simple vindictiveness of the post-"War Between the States" northern States against the South, but, in general a big fat fuck-up of an Amendment.
The ratification process for Amendment 14 was completed with its signing by representatives from South Carolina near the end of 1868. "South Carolina?!", you ask. Good question there - no Southern State besides Tennessee ratified this Amendment on the 1st go-around. The "Reconstruction" process was ramped up to take control of all of the governments of the States that were recalcitrant in signing, along with for other reasons. Though the Southern States had been forced back into the Union by the 4 year-long, near 3/4 million casualty war, they would have no representation in Congress until signing of Amendment XIV. So, this Amendment was basically railroaded through by Washington during a military-backed occupation of the South.
Lets look at each section:
Section 1:The point of this section was to specify that former slaves were now citizens of the US. I've got no problem with that. There are a number of other points in this section which are very important and have had big repercussions on American law.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The big thing that this section does is to "incorporate" the US Constitution above the laws of the States. Almost all of the State Constitutions, at least by this point, have the same protections (at least written, though not practiced) for citizens from government as the US Constitution has. Before Amendment XIV, the US Constitution was seen as a limitation on the US Government. State Constitutions specified the rest. The writers of this section were trying to avoid the Southern States' changing of their laws, including their Constitutions themselves, to keep an un-equal system of justice in place for the white man vs. the black man. The effects, however, were a lot more wide-ranging than that.
One might think there should be no qualms by a Constitutionalist against the incorporation of all the ideas therein to State law. However, it still takes away from the power of the States. I guess that was the goal.
Next, all those with any knowledge of the existential immigration-invasion issue facing America should have heard Amendment XIV mentioned in relation to the "birthright citizenship" "clause". Yeah "clause" is quoted too, because there is really no clause per se. It was a big screw up, based on the writers trying to be very general in the language, normally a good thing.
The Amendment was written about the former slaves, not some day-old baby born in a San Francisco hospital by a Chinese lady with no business being in America in the first place. The writers could not have imagined how Section 1 of Amendment XIV could be abused. However, "subject to the jurisdiction of" means something. Is a day-old baby subject to the jurisdiction of ANYBODY? Was that 17 y/o whose parents were not citizens ever "naturalized"? What does "naturalized" mean? I will defer any more argument on this one to the great lawyer/pundit Ann Coulter, who wrote "The True History Of Millstone Babies". Please read that article, as I can't understand it completely enough to explain here at this point.
Section 2:This one is truly getting into the business of the States. There were plenty of other limitations on voting other than race back in the day. Ownership of property, age, and there's that sexist "male" thing (still in there after Amend 14, please note) and anything else the State wanted to specify were fair game. That's how the various States allocated their power to their own citizens. Many of us now understand the point in limiting the vote to those who will likely make the best decisions for the long time good. The way it's going now, with 1/2 the voters being net beneficiaries of US Government handouts, is not working at all.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Section 2 there put the kibosh on the States' ability to enable only select voters, and it was a huge power grab by the Feds. Nice going, Yankee cucks! Lastly, note that part about men that had participated in a rebellion. That was pure vindictiveness.
Section 3:More vindictiveness is on display in Section 3. Amendment XIV made sure nobody even involved on the Southern side of the war could be in any State or Federal office, IF he had been in an office before and had sworn to uphold the Constitution. I imagine the purported purpose was "we can't have any dishonorable liars who swore an oath and rebelled anyway". Did they forget that President Lincoln had treated the US Constitution like toilet paper? Anyone who worked in any capacity for that President should have been disallowed to hold office too.
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
The real question is did these Southern men violate their oath to begin with? Nowhere in the US Constitution does it say a State cannot leave.
Section 4:What a fucking joke! Yes, we ran up this big big debt fighting a war that destroyed the South and killed or maimed near a million young men to KEEP YOU PEOPLE HERE, but you are not to question THAT debt. We're not gonna bail you people out for the destruction we caused either. Amendment XIV, Section 4 was the anti-Marshall Plan! This is more vindictiveness on display by Washington, FS.
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5:and then some! Yeah, they've "appropriately" legislated all manner of ills based on this most egregious of Constitutional Amendments Peak Stupidity has blogged about so far. Amendment XIV, in supposedly trying to set one simple thing right, designating freed slaves as US Citizens, was truly one big piece of shit, written out of vindictiveness, and subsequently abused to no end. Two thumbs down!
The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
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Jared Taylor on Xenophobia
Posted On: Monday - March 16th 2020 6:34PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Race/Genetics Kung Flu Stupidity
Peak Stupidity has come to realize our error in our very 2nd post, the assumption of which was that the term "xenophobia" refers to an unnatural fear of the Noble Gases (those fortunate elements with 8 electrons in their outer shells). Apparently that's not the case, and we regret any error or embarrassment so-caused (plus that thing where we told you that Tolstoy's War and Peace was originally titled War - What is it Good For?)
With this Wuhan Flu going around, Americans have been bombarded with tweets (see here and here) warning us about stigmatizing people or being xenophobic.
Mr. Jared Taylor, of the American Renaissance organization and website, an advocacy group for white people, presents "Xenophobia Can Save Your Life". No matter what slurs people will come up with for a group that cares about white people, it seems to me that Mr. Jared Taylor would be hard to criticize. He is such a soft-spoken guy, and speaks with lots of reason and almost no emotion.
It's 10 minutes long. We hope you like it.
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On the Census again
Posted On: Monday - March 16th 2020 6:01PM MST
In Topics: Liberty/Libertarianism US Feral Government Morning Constitutional
Peak Stupidity mentioned the coming of the 2020 enumeration of the people of the United States in a recent post. Yeah, we have no problem with this on the face of it, per Article I, Section 2 of the US Constitution, though the following tells me to go online and do it. My first reaction: Fuck that! The Feral Gov't is well aware of that attitude, as per:
Per the Constitution:
The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct."in such Manner" could include on-line, and I am a firm believer that "bearing arms" includes AR-15s and "speech" includes Peak Stupidity posts, so it's reasonable, I suppose. I'm just the first to think that logging in and doing this will be a pain in the ass.
The Census Bureau is kind enough to back this up with a paper form in the mail (another Constitutionally-approved idea*) , so I'll do it that way. I am tempted to just wait until a guy comes to the house again, as it's nice to give a government guy a piece of one's mind. They kind of have to stand there and take it - I like that.
I'll tell you what, though. This new financial jiggering with not only the FED funds rate, but also the suspension of interest payments has come at a bad time for me. I did up the tax numbers on the back-o-the-envelope, and though I'd thought I might have a little coming back, I will still owe a couple of thousand! I am not happy right now. If this financial moral hazard with the student loan payments and crap keeps up, my attitude may change for the worse. That couple of thousand may take the rest of the year to make it to Washington, FS. You discourage responsibility, you assholes, and the responsible become discouraged!
Even though this census is the most benign thing out of the Washington, Federal Shithole one has to deal with nowadays, I may cause some trouble there too, as these people are really pissing me off now.
* Go to same link - Article 1, Section 8, Clause 7.
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School's out For Ever!
Posted On: Saturday - March 14th 2020 7:13PM MST
In Topics: Music Educational Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
This post will be a wrap-up (for a while) of our Big-Ed series, with a dash of Wuhan-Willies angle thrown in. We're up in limbo as to the status of the schools for Monday in the Peak Stupidity locale. There's lots of States, as I'm sure you all have read, where the schools will be closed for quite some time. I get the idea of the worries about this virus spreading quickly, but, thankfully, the children seem to be left unharmed by this bug. Of course, every parent will likely get it eventually, then spread it further and so on.
With these unheard-of long term school closures, meaning that make-up days won't cut it, there's talk of on-line learning to make it up. But, can't we do that already? In fact, there are a number of on-line sources of reading practice, math, language, etc., that we have already been using. Some of it is way too PC and current-era for my taste (I haven't had the horror of sitting in the classroom to get the full effect), but is
Logistics are a problem. Parents will have a time trying to figure out how to handle this and still go to work, if it's still there, but then the Moms I've seen have got their shit together social wise. There's always a flyer for something from the PTO* for a get together here or there. I think they'll figure a way to pool the kids at one place or another, sort of like, ... OMG! ... a school! But, but, it'd be without the taxpayer money, or, the school board's rules, or the curriculum, or the new required Global Warming science units, as approved by Greta herself.
One really cool result of this Wuhan-Willies infotainment panic-fest may be what happens after the kids are at home for a month or more in a large number of school districts all around the country. The parents may get hip the to idea that these schools have served as not much more than social gathering places, welfare distribution facilities and expensive playgrounds. I think they would realize there's a better way. Peak Stupidity is in awe of homeschooling and those who homeschool, as it is akin to poking the Beast in the eye with a big stick (Part 1, Part 2. and Part 3).
If this goes on a few months with the schools closing until summertime, will they really ask the kids to come back and make it up in the summer (the teachers will be a bit sour on that too)?
"School's out for summer. School's out for EVER!"
The song was title song from Alice Cooper's 5th album from back in 1972.
The Alice Cooper band:
Alice Cooper – vocals
Glen Buxton – lead guitar
Michael Bruce – rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Dennis Dunaway – bass guitar, backing vocals
Neal Smith – drums, backing vocals
aaand, per commenter Robert, we can see what happens when the PrinciPal gets a little too uppity:
* No, not the Power Take-Off, but the Parent - Teacher Organization, formerly the PTA.
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Big-Ed Stupidity - Science Edition
Posted On: Friday - March 13th 2020 7:39PM MST
In Topics: Science Educational Stupidity
I'll give the elementary school some credit today. This time, the science for the 8 y/o's was not more of the political scientific agenda, endlessly drilling into the kids heads that the Earth will be getting hotter, no doubt. No doubt, I mean summer's coming. They push this to the point of pushing parents a lot closer to homeschooling. As much as the kids hear about this Global Climate DisruptionTM, I can see how a few may turn into Grettas.
I should be happy to see the little lab reports showing the results of friction tests and the learning about the center of mass. If you're gonna teach it, you really ought to teach it accurately, though. I'll take one at a time.
The writing assignment, whatever I could read out of my kid's handwriting (he may become a Doctor!), was on the center of gravity. OK, you don't have to use the correct term, center-of-mass, as the colloquial is probably CoG. Then, I see that he wrote that the center of gravity is in the middle of a body. (They didn't write "body", but I want to be precise, dammit.) "In the middle" just kind of sucks. "Center" would have a better connotation, but the lesson is ignoring non-homogeneous bodies. That's my problem with it. You start with the general case.
Now, the teacher lady probably can't spend time to explain how one portion may be made of this, and the other of that. However, it's just wrong then. As a starter, just looking at geometry, I explained to my kid - "Look at that shovel - it's wider on the end. Where do you think it would balance?" We went over that, and I think he got it, without my talking about varying material density yet. I used a pillow for that. "Imagine this side was filled with rocks, and the other with the foam." "Oh yeah, then it would balance over here", he said. He got it immediately, yea!
Next, he showed me his friction papers. "Wait, but you rolled cars on sandpaper and then on construction paper [down a slope]? That's not friction you're measuring. That's rolling resistance." It's hard for most adults to understand rolling resistance. It's a weird bird, honestly. Friction is involved in rolling motion, but it doesn't determine what the kids were supposedly determining. Still, why should he start off understanding this wrong?
Though I'd have had to take out an engineering book even I'd probably have to look at for 10 minutes to explain the half of it, that wasn't my goal. "Here's what would have been a way to test the friction and make your experiment right. She should have had blocks of wood that you would slide over sandpaper and then construction paper." I don't think the boy really got that, but he understood there was a problem with testing friction with free-rolling wheels.
I also knew that this wasn't the teacher's lesson plan anyway. (No way do some of these ladies understand the half of this stuff.) It comes from a canned lesson. We both agreed that it wasn't that the teacher was doing it wrong, but whoever made up these, likely expensive "units". These assholes who make up this stuff may be the Ed School PhD's, and I'm sure even after getting help from physics guys, they'd still find a way to screw it up.
For the former error, I'm not really sure what you could change "in the middle" to, to be more accurate but still keep it understandable by these kids. How about show a few examples of non-homogeneous bodies (you definitely don't use either of those words), and some shapes like T's* to show where the "middle of the stuff" would be? Too much? Perhaps ...
On the latter error, just use sliding blocks, dammit!
Again, it's good they're doing this stuff versus all kind of other nonsense in their "science" time. I also wouldn't expect a teacher that even had an inkling of what I'm writing about here to push back on those that make these units. It's be a losing battle in all kinds of ways for her. But, I'm not about to give another, OK, one thin dime to any Ed School or to the PTO for more "science units" either, after seeing this sloppiness.
* Don't EVEN use an "L", as that bit about the center-of-mass being nowhere on the body is a bit freaky to anyone at first.
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