The Meat and Potatoes of VDare.com
Posted On: Thursday - March 8th 2018 10:08AM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Websites Pundits Race/Genetics ctrl-left
(Forgive the lack of resolution in the photo.
This was well before the iPhone 3, if you can believe that!)
Being #2* on the Peak Stupdity blog blog-roll should mean a lot to someone ... anyone? This writer has been a VDare reader since the early 2000's, and it must have been just after they started up. VDare says in the masthead**, aka "title bar" (careful, that's "title"), that they are "The premier outlet for patriotic immigration reform", and I believe they are. In the review to the right, I wrote that two of the site's writers named James, Mr. Fulford and Mr. Kirkpatrick are the "meat and potatoes" of VDare. By that I mean that these two don't necessarily specialize in certain areas of immigration, but just cover a lot, write a significant chunk of the articles/blogs on there, and, well, I agree with them about 99%, steadily. As it is without meat and potatoes, without these 2 you may read the website, and feel un-agitated again 3 hours later.
To look for a graphic to put up top of this article, I came upon the "About" page. Lo and behold, it had these two "meat and potatoes of the site" writers as the only 2 below Mr. Peter Brimelow and his wife Lydia, who runs the business end of the operation. It says "WE THE (VDARE.com) PEOPLE", and just those 4 are on the page.
I just wanted to link to one of each of these guy's latest articles, as per usual, they are good reading about serious topics or areas of stupidity.
James Kirkpatrick wrote GOP Must Confront America’s Emerging Totalitarian Left–Or Die on Monday. He describes just how radically hard-left the Democrat Party and what Peak Stupidity calls the cntrl-left have become. Although this article is about more than just the immigration topic, that is lots of what Mr. Kirkpatrick covers here:
Even pro forma adherence to concepts of citizenship and legality are becoming passé with startling speed. Chicago is essentially granting illegal aliens the right to vote by accepting an identification card created for illegals as valid for voter registration. [New Chicago ID card created for undocumented immigrants will be accepted for voter registration, by Scott Bertram, Illinois News Network, February 23, 2018] It was recently revealed a Mexican illegal stole an American’s identity and stole hundreds of thousands in government benefits. [Mexican man assumes American’s identity for 37 years, steals $361,000 in government benefits, by Kristina Davis, San Diego Union-Tribune, March 3, 2018] This is especially noteworthy because California U.S. Senate Democratic grassroots favorite Kevin de Leon has commented favorably on foreigners using identity theft to stay in the country. [California State Senate Leader: ‘Half My Family’ Here Illegally, by Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, Breitbart, February 5, 2017]BTW, there are links all within the block quote here and the rest of the article on VDare. They are all about hyperlinks there to support their ideas with additional reading material. I have left out all of the VDare links only based on time. Please read the whole article anyway, along with ...
Recent testimony in a lawsuit over voter fraud alleges over 100,000 noncitizens are registered to vote in Pennsylvania, with similar problems in Virginia and New Jersey [Lawsuit: 100,000 noncitizens registered to vote in Pennsylvania, by Stephen Dinan, Washington Times, February 26, 2018]. Almost without notice, the narrative on voter fraud has moved from “voter fraud doesn’t happen” to “voter fraud is actually good.”
... James Fulford wrote The Democrats Are Real Party Of School Violence—Because It’s Committed By Minorities on Tuesday. This discusses the idea, most-likely first foreseen years (as far as pundits go)years back that the equal-discipline-across-races policies that schools were implementing were going to be real trouble. In this case, it sounds like they were a major contributing factor in the deaths of those 17 Floridian high-school kids.
Because this article is more of a bunch of excerpts of articles explaining how this anti-school-to-prison pipeline deal has been pushed-for, started and been running, along with Mr. Fulfords additional facts and information, I can't excerpt it well myself. Here is just the intro, then:
So we’ve now learned that Broward County’s determination to avoid the “School To Prison Pipeline” led to its failure to arrest school shooter Nikolas Cruz before he did his school shooting. Similarly, Trayvon Martin was suspended from school rather than arrested for possession of stolen jewelry, which why he was in George Zimmerman’s neighborhood to make his potentially lethal but unsuccessful attack on Zimmerman. As Steve Sailer might say: can we Notice a Pattern?
Basically, the Left’s position on crime and violence in schools is: “leave those kids alone” —because crime and violence in schools are committed disproportionately by blacks.
To give Mr. Fulford even more credit here, he writes near the bottom of the article, with links to his earlier writings "I wrote an article ten years ago called Civil Rights Law Doesn`t Care If You Die—because failing to “racially profile” can get people killed.
Of course, our only friend in the world within Big Pundit has arrived on the scene too, with her latest column, Racial Quotas In School Discipline Kill Kids, published on Wednesday (so good stuff every day there!).
It could easily have been written by anyone who's read VDare.com and especially Mr. Steve Sailer, over the years. Sailer really gets into the whole parents/school admissions/grades/connections thing - it's just one of his many "things". One should be forgiven for thinking Miss Coulter got her ideas directly off of VDare. So what if she did, anyway, she's our mole inside the Big Pundit apparatus.
Miss Coulter's article is her second on this "school-to-prison" pipeline, which, here on the Peak Stupidity blog, could be easily called the "prison-to-prison" pipeline the way even the elementary schools are run these days. See The modern grade school as medium-security correctional facility. Hey, you don't even have to leave this page - Save the Planet!
* #1, Zerohedge, is still good reading, and number 1 in "commenter style" too! However, I cannot even use the site on this computer, or I should say with the browser that works for almost everything else. That's a shame, so ZH is not my most-read site, as I only view it from mobile devices. Get your act together, Tyler Durden, or Tyler Durden's geeks!
** Meanwhile, the Peak Stupidity banner, but not title bar, has 1 calculus equation and 1 calculus inequality, so there's that... they represent the condition of a continuous function being at a peak (could be a local maximum, or global, that's not defined by the math above, but I say, yeah, pretty sure global!) BTW, I've got to put something in the real Title Bar. Somehow, I'd thought there was something there.
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Tucker Carlson debates San Franciscan illegal-invasion defender
Posted On: Tuesday - March 6th 2018 7:52PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Humor California Pundits
Mr. Tucker Carlson hasn't graced the pages of the Peak Stupidity blog in well-nigh a half-year now. Man, time flies ... yet stupidity just keeps on plodding along. Here we have a guy who is doing his best to defend the State of California against Tucker's contention that this place, "as world famous as Eden" (his words, but Peak Stupidity called it Paradise) 50 years back has turned into a shithole (our words, not Tucker's). Mr. Ethan Bearman is not one of the idiots featured in our early Tucker Carlson clips, really. He just tries his best BS to defend everything about what is destroying the former paradise.
Both Mr. Bearman and Mr. Carlson (a tad bit) exaggerate in their words, but from 3:55 on, Mr. Carlson asks Mr. Bearman if he will admit that massive immigration has had EVEN ONE bad effect on the state. Mr. Bearman turns this around like he is an interviewee in front of some Human Resources dingbat (more on them in a coming post) with a line like "My only fault is that I make people resent me for my intelligence and great people skills ... " Bearman tells him ... no, I won't spoil it. Bearman just jumps the shark at the end there. Hahahaaa! Tucker Carlson's expressions and mutterings are just priceless!
Please, if your time is so precious, then just go to 03:55. You will not regret it. Good bullshitters are hard to find, I guess.
I came upon this from a blog post on VDare by Miss Brenda Walker, who is one of their many excellent writers. She specializes in the human factors aspect of massive immigration's destruction of America, most especially of California, where she has lived for a long time.
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BIG DATA can kiss my ass
Posted On: Tuesday - March 6th 2018 6:38PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Curmudgeonry Economics Big-Biz Stupidity iEspionage
I've got a real beef with these discount cards. It's interesting that this is one marketing idea that does NOT scale up well in the whole industry, in this case each market in retail, Grocery stores, drug stores, what have you. See, when one chain, like Safeway, first decided many years back to offer discounts to customers that held onto these cards, it worked out great for them. After a while, a quarter of the stuff in the store had a deal, or at least, that's what you're supposed to think, for which you needed this card. You're gonna feel like coming back to Safeway for those good deals those other non card-carrying special customers would not be able to get. You were special. If you went to Ralphs, well, you hadn't done the paperwork yet, so you're gonna get screwed.
On the store's side, besides having slightly more loyal customers, one had all this data in the system to sell to the highest bidder. There was the general data about "people who buy this also buy this other stuff a lot", but also the specific data on who exactly was buying what, so go ahead and mail them some coupons - I'm sure they'll appreciate it. This is getting to my point which will come pretty soon, I think ...
However, this doesn't scale well, as now these damn cards are necessary in about all of the chain grocery, home improvement, and drug stores (probably more that I can't think of now). Am I supposed to fill up my wallet with 25 plastic cards? No, no, they have key-chain-sized ones now. Yeah, but my keychain is big enough already, the hell with that. OK, so you can just put in your phone number, and use that each time. Yes, I'm getting to my point. You're not getting squat on me, as far as information, bitches! Do you think I gave you my real phone number? How many damn customers live at 123 Elm St. anyway? (Oh, they can hook it all together with your credit card info, you say? Nah, I pay cash a lot, in general).
Now the reader's question may be? Can't you remember the fake phone number you used? Well, that does usually work, but this particular time a few days back at the drugstore, I knew that my wife had a card. I didn't know what info she put in, except the fact that it was fake too. That's why they tell you that you have to have a good memory to be a good liar, right, Hillary? Anyway, she wasn't there (I mean my wife, but not the Hildabeast either, of course).
For the last 10 years, I've been either typing the fake phone number I do remember or, more often, just asking if I can use the store's card, or even the customer's next in line (he may even come out ahead on points, whew-hoo!). Usually, store people are cool about this, but this lady was hard-core "No, we can't do that." When I run into this quandry, I just ask for an application, make everyone wait in line if I have to, fill out some more bull, get the card, use it, and throw it all out before I leave the store. It's a very satisfying way of letting people know I'm not putting up with the bullshit! Try it sometime.
This lady wanted a real email besides the phone number. She seemed very taken aback by my telling her that I wasn't going to give the drug store chain my information. Her
.... was I wrong? No. These big retail-chain companies want to fuck with me, and I'm just not up for it. If all of you big BIG DATA people are gonna make me need to swipe or type something just to get the same deal as the next guy, I'll make sure I'm not giving you data that is worth selling. Do you think they would have put up with this at the corner drug store in Mayberry, North Carolina?
The great thing about having a blog, is that the writing of this very post has given me an idea for my next visit to this drug store. I'm gonna need another card, you know, so I think I'll submit a real email address - someone from the school board. I really hope it's someone who it is into coupon clipping.
* POS - no really, it stands for Point Of Sale, not what you think I wanted to write.
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Guns, thought vs. emotion, and the latest Lyin' Press Traged-tainment
Posted On: Monday - March 5th 2018 8:48PM MST
In Topics: Media Stupidity Liberty/Libertarianism ctrl-left Female Stupidity Guns
Let's get regulated, y'all!
(Not as pretty and peaceful as Lilydale,
but you don't come to the range for peace and quiet, more for peace of mind.)
There are thousands of great pro-gun/2nd-Amendment supporting sites on the web, just too many to pick the best to link to. This writer used to follow 5 or so of them, I don't have a recommendation at this point. I believe I got the gist of the history of and the arguments back and forth by now, in this long struggle to hold back the attempted destruction of this one portion of the Founder's Bill of Rights that is meant to prevent the destruction of all the others. Don't get me wrong, readers - this is just as existential an issue as that of the immigration invasion. The difference is, though we have not been abiding by the Constitutional letter-of-the-law, Americans have pushed back enough to have made gains in gun rights over the last 25 years or so. That's very obviously not the case on the Immigration Stupidity issue.
To conclude that intro, the Peak Stupidity blog is not a go-to site for 2nd Amendment rights, but we support it wholeheartedly. The Florida school murders of last week were fixed in the news as tragic infotainment for so long, that I will put in a few things here in support of bearing arms in America, to show support. So far, there was just the one "Don't Back Down post.
These following "bullet points" can't cover all the logical reasons that can be explained to some people (more on the "some people" at the end), but that's what the rest of the internet is for. ;-}
o The 2nd Amendment was not about deer and duck hunting, not about self-defense, and not about going to the range plinking. Many on the right will not even admit that - they are too cowardly to let people know what they think of the out-of-control US Feral Government.
o "Well-regulated" was not written in the sense of "controlled" by the government - what would be the point? The Founders used the word "regulated" to mean "in practice" or "on their game".
o It doesn't matter what that intital clause says, anyway, just the based on English grammar. Per the excellent way a S. Carolinian commenter on the unz threads put it "Salt and pepper being necessary for good tasting scrambled eggs, the right to bear arms shall not be infringed", and one can make other like statements. That intial clause does not change the meaning of the main sentence; it is nothing but an explanation for the existence of it.
o People not only could buy machines guns throught the mail before 1968, but it was a widespread practice for school kids to bring guns to school for shooting practice, keep guns in the pickup on the rack behind the driver, and other things that would require "lockdown" in the current sick day-and-age. There were not many school shootings. What was different then? It sure wasn't stricter infringements of our rights.
o "The 2nd Amendment was written in the day of muskets and doesn't apply to semi-auto rifles and handguns." Yeah, and what of the 1st Amendment? Does it or doesn't it apply to photocopies, faxes, text messages, emails, and anything on the internet? Should tweets be subject to the 1st Amendment - really, who cares on that one?!
o Speaking of the guns themselves, what make something an "assault" weapon? During the Clinton-signed 10 year-long ban on "assault rifles", the definition was based on cosmetic stuff that makes the rifle look scary. Yes, one can make fun of these idiots for their stupidity on gun knowledge, but it is really quite serious here, as this means any arbitrary feature can be made illegal. One day they can cover everything that makes a decent gun.
o This call for common-sense by the emotional useful idiots has often suckered decent, but not-too-bright, people into supporting new regulations. That's a problem, as even the slightest steps of registration WILL be used against us. Know your history, and you will understand that registration is a step too far, toward the Police State.
o Instant background checks are one such method in this escalation towards confiscation. "Oh, no, not to worry, the data is DELETED." Bullshit, as nothing in the computer/database world is just gone. It will only be clear to all that the names have been stored, when the use of this to enforce gun bans becomes widespread.
Now, here's the problem with all of these points. They are all good LOGICAL reasons for protection of gun ownership. The people you may want to reach possibly DO NOT WANT LOGIC. They "think" on emotion. The week-long barrage of Lyin' Press coverage has got them in such a state, that the viewers have their feeling-hormones up to Level 11. I've said it before, it's not that we're a bunch of heartless bastards. Were I one of the parents, siblings, or close friends, I'm not sure what I would to right now.
We just can't solve problems via emotion - life is not group therapy or an episode of Okra Winfrey. Some cool-headed big-picture thinking means realizing that even though our country has gotten itself so culturally screwed-up (Fred Reed column) to where this happens often, it's not going to help us to run head-long to Police State mode for the solution. The commenter on unz.com, that I and some other good folks have been trying to set straight with information such as the points above, is a case in point. He's worried about his daughters in public school right now, and getting very emotional and striking out, as the psychologists would say. We gotta do something! Common-sense control!
See, first of all, control is all he knows, this commenter, that is, and many people who
We can't have the emotional "thinkers" voting, in the long run. The commenter I've been trying to set straight has a man's name, but the thinking is so women-like, that I just don't know anymore.
One last thing on the Florida murders is that it just seemed that the Lyin' Press was set-up to pounce on this one. I don't believe the whole thing was set-up, but I could definitely believe that this thing was let to happen. The glee of the ctnrl-left is not concealable this time. I think so little of these people, that yes, I believe they wanted it to happen badly, 17 kids dead or not. The high-powered elite in real power in the world just can't abide by one still-exceptional nation whose citizens have a way of fighting back against being turned into typical peons of the 3rd world.
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Smashing perfectly good guitars
Posted On: Saturday - March 3rd 2018 8:55PM MST
In Topics: Music Curmudgeonry
We've got another generation gap going I guess, this time around seen just as another part of Peak Stupidity by this generation, well, blog writer, at least. We are all things stupid at the Peak Stupidity blog, so I guess you could expect us to see it this way. I wrote something kind of critical of the young people in yesterday's post about coffee shops.
The very first blog post here was partially about the huge slide in the quality of good music from the previous generation, or two or five, as compared to the music out of these millennials. They may be lacking in extra cash, but they sure aren't lacking decent cheap recording and mixing equipment - I haven't seen a one without a "phone" that has more power than all the computers existing in 1965 added together. How did the music get to this state of suck?
I don't know, but one could imagine a conversation between father and son about the difference in musical taste back in the 1970's:
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"Hey, what is that racket? Turn that rock-and-roll crap down, son!"
"That's Zeppelin IV, Dad. The song's Rock and Roll. It needs to be LOUD, Dad! Listen to John Bonham on those drums."
"You call that drumming? Sure, he's good but he's too loud. Now, Karen Carpenter, there's a drummer. What in tarnation (that's how squares talked back then) is that squealing and singing in the middle?"
"That's Jimmy Page's electric guitar. He's even got two necks on it!"
"Well, he's good, but the instrumental parts should be played by trumpets, trombones and clarinets, son."
"Uhhh, things are different now. Don't be a square - try some of these newfangled cigarettes and listen to my Cheap Trick Live at Budokan."
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It wouldn't be long until they'd both be groovin' to the Doobie Brothers and then maybe some Cheap Trick. The instruments were changing, the music was mostly getting louder too, but nobody could deny it was music. Now, what could you say to a kid that listens to these ululating orangutangs and soy-boys (that's the modern lingo) that think they're musicians. The boomer Dads and Moms are willing to pay $150 for tickets to see 65 year-old Fleetwood Mac members (no Christy McVie, so it's NOT really Fleetwood Mac) to get away from the modern shit.
Now, the shows the millenials do got to are all about what more pieces of clothing the artist may be missing, but there's no excitement like a Dead or Zeppelin concert of years back. How could you be excited about such unadulterated garbage going by the term "music"? About the only thing I'll give 'em, though it's probably just due to the tougher economy these young people are living in, is that at least you don't have the musicians smashing perfectly good guitars at the end of the show. That never set well with me. If it was that bad, why in hell did you buy it - yeah, you, Pete Townsend!
Cheap Trick opines on the closing of the last generation gap, with regard to music at least, in front of a few Ten's of Thousands of screaming Japanese chicks:
"But when I woke up, Mom and Dad
were rolling on the couch,
rolling numbers, rock and rollin',
got my KISS records out.
Your Mommy's all right.
Your Daddy's all right.
They just seem a little weird.
Surrender,
Surrender,
but don't give yourself away..."
Cheap Trick formed in 1974 from these guys in Rockford, Illinois:
Robin Zander - lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Rick Nielsen – lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Tom Petersson – bass, backing vocals
Bun E. Carlos - Drums
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Thoughts from the coffee shop ...
Posted On: Friday - March 2nd 2018 10:18PM MST
In Topics: Student and other Snowflakes Curmudgeonry Economics Muh Generation
The Peak Stupidity blog staff was on a field trip to a coffee shop this afternoon when some thoughts for this post occurred. This writer is not a coffee drinker, so perhaps I am missing something as I write this. However, this is more about the ubiquitous coffee shops than the drink itself though.
It's been a long time since Americans were satisfied with coffee from a can at home, instant or made by the Joe DiMaggio-advertised "Mr. Coffee" machines and the like. Over the last 30 years or so, with Starbucks, Seattle's Best, and loads of independent shops, drinking coffee and hanging out has become a thing for "the masses" that was only for the Europeans and the Communists, (but I repeat myself) back in the past.
It's not for me. I am not knocking the concept by any means, as I know friends that get lots of real work done at these places and others who just go as a break in the working day. It's not for me, as that kind of hanging out is not my favorite, and because I don't drink the stuff, and a cup of hot chocolate with a slice of cake sets me back almost 10 big ones. That brings me to the coffee itself, just for a bit. There are the expresso's, the cappuccino's, the latte's, grande and petite (I assume). It seems pretty pretentious, just saying "grande", instead of the old American standard "super-size me", doesn't it, along with the Italian stuff? It was, but I think it's been so long that it's not pretentious anymore, just part of the vocabulary.
"Give me 2 Grande Latte's a 4 croissants, and supersize both of 'em." "OK, drive up to the 2nd window please." Would there be any point to drive-thru windows at coffee shops? Do they have them? What would the Socialists and Commies that are heatedly discussing the plight of the masses do, in this case? You're gonna need more and stronger stuff inside the vehicle for them to pound their fists on to make the important points about keeping the revolution going.
Yeah, anyway these drinks are kind of pricey now, even accounting for inflation, vs. that 50 cent "cup a Joe", whatever the hell that ever meant, of the past. Being sophisticated has been the big thing here in America for about that time period, 3 decades, that the coffee shops sprouted like a fine Co-loom-bee-an bean tree. That is a reversal from the old American trait of being humble discussed here more than a year back.
The thoughts that occurred today were not about the types of coffee, but the types of people that hang out at coffee shops daily along with restaurants in the evening and possibly the bars the same night. This is about young people and economics, now. Peak Stupidity has tried to give the big picture over many posts (though it's been a while) with the Global Financial Stupidity topic key. Things really don't look good in the medium-to-long terms. The young people have been affected for quite a while already, in terms of a real lack of decent blue- and white-collar jobs due to reasons beyond the scope of this one post.
There is a huge contingent of young adults that work in the service/hospitality "industry" - OK, for the point here just meaning waiters/waitresses, bartenders, and these baristas, a term I'd never known until 5 years back. None of these jobs, besides those of some of the bartenders make very much money. Service jobs don't very often, as the jobs don't "create wealth". I am not at all saying the jobs don't involve hard work, BTW, but the jobs are not productive in a general economic sense. I'm also not implying that these people have much choice. There aren't factories all over the place with blue collar and white collar jobs everywhere ready to hire these young people, as if it were 1975 still.
What I see lots of times in the areas with the coffee shops, restaurants and bars, is that lots of the customers are the young people who work at these same service jobs. You make some, but not decent, money during your shift, then go out before or after and blow a significant chunk on it on two lattes during the day. You get at least one meal out and possibly go out for drinks at the bar you work at. Where is the extra for anything more than cheap rent, the utilities and maybe a car lease? How does one get ahead like this?
What can make it worse maybe more than 1/2 of the time, is that this barista over here has a degree in Anthropology or Art Appreciation or even Biology. Hey, it's great you and her may have lots to talk about. The problem is that, due to the University bubble covered in many posts on Peak Stupidity already, these poor bastards/bastardesses(?) had been suckered into getting that near-mortgage-sized loan to have a nice time for 4 years. Lately, there is no long-term benefit at all from the spending of that money. Four years later, working at the same coffee shop or restaurant, this poor millennial will now have a big loan payment, along with rent, utilities, and maybe no car now. Do you wonder where the Bernie voters come from? Before long it'll be lots of taxpayers feeling the Bern, when that school loan money can't get paid. You can't bet blood from a stone, see, and you can't get $800 per month either, out of a Berned-out Barista all wired up on Cafe Lattes.
This is not a recipe for long-term survival, both for the individuals and society. Oh, a few might get by and have a kid or two, but for most family formation looks well-nigh impossible. No matter what the females might say, and oftentimes believe in the outer part of their brains, the instinct inside says they want a man who can provide.
Not unless it's just Expresso Love:
From Dire Strait's 1980 album Making Movies, from which Solid Rock was also featured.
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[UPDATED 05/11/19:] Haha, just reading over this per link, and it sounds just a tad hypocritical to me now. That is, not in the financial sense, as is the real point of this post, but I do go now 6-8 times a month now to have a hot chocolate (apparently "vente" means large, who TF knew?) with friends who frequent the one place. As soon as money could get tighter for various reasons, the habit stops. There is Nestle that comes in packets - much better than Swiss Miss, I'm telling you.
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Comments (4)
Something there is that doesn't like a wall ... Part 3
Posted On: Wednesday - February 28th 2018 3:57PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Music Poetic Stupidity
It's a line from the Robert Frost poem foreshadowed here and introducing a new topic key, Poetic Stupidity (heh!).
Here's the poem from the famous New England poet, Mr. Robert Frost (1874-1963):
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.'
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? [1] Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say ‘Elves’ to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, [2]and I’d rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.'[3]
[1] - See, he's just one of those outside agitators. Don't get me wrong now, there's good agitation and bad agitation. Buddy, if you are not sure why the wall should be built, you don't need to help. Let your neighbor do it.
[2] - Peak Stupidity does not specialize in English lit-tre-choor, but I'm pretty sure, that by "elves", Mr. Frost meant "Globalists". He hints at it by "not elves exactly".
[3] - There's young Mr. Frost, not succesful as a farmer (per wiki), but still apparently wiser than his older neighbor. Did those New Englanders start the ctrl-left crap earlier than I thought? This poem was written just over 100 years ago, as Mr. Frost tried to farm (I'm sure it wasn't easy in New England) in Derry, New Hampshire, just across the line from Massachusetts, his teen and young adult home. I'm starting to wonder if the folks in New Hampshire started the term "Masshole" right about that time....
Good fences DO make good neigbors. Why didn't you nicely ask your neighbor why that is so, Mr. Frost? Too stuck up, because you attended Haaved, is it? Man, you think the SJW's are a new thing, but these types come up in every generation. It's just more of a problem nowadays because people are not allowed to kick their asses as much. (read about Anarcho-tyranny)
Who would have the sheer audacity to "fisk" the writings of Robert Frost?! (The reader may ask.) Two thumbs say Peak Stupidity does. Sure, the guy can write a mean poem - I can't argue with that. However the cntrl-left idiocy and know-it-all-ness comes out when you dig a bit. I wonder if Mr. Frost, who died in 1963, just before the Hart-Cellar/U-boat-commander Kennedy bill to replace the American people was passed by Congress, understood anything about walls by that time.
Another thing - those stone walls are just beautiful. I don't think the treehugger crowd would knock them (over), even. If it's too much damn work, rent a track-hoe. This isn't 1914, and we ain't in Derry, New Hampshire. BUILD! THE! WALL!
The picture up top and the Robert Frost remind me of another poet of sorts, Mr. Joe Walsh, and his 1973 classic rock song called "Meadows":
I'm out here in the meadow
part of an old stone wall.
Stand here because he said so
waitin' around to fall.
Hey, I don't know what to think of these lyrics either, but, you can't expect much meaning out of an album entitled The Smoker you Drink, the Player you Get, can you now?
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Something there is that doesn't love a wall ... Part 2
Posted On: Wednesday - February 28th 2018 2:56PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Trump
Continuing with the topic of border walls, from here, in this post I include more on border protection from the essay on "walls" by Westley Parker. Walls is in quotes, just because the word should be applied more generally for other southern border to any barrier that WORKS. Yes, Mr. Trump uses "wall" because he is not a details guy in any way - he's no engineer, technician, mechanic, or computer type who must get the details right. It sounded good, and, not to disparage him, but he sure knows sound bites and tweets, doesn't he?
The picture of the top is of a simple two-fence border barrier separating Kuwait from Saudi Arabia (probably paid by your tax money .... don't worry, this would be CHUMP CHANGE in the grand scheme of things.) The picture is taken from the Saudi side, but who would know, or care, for that matter? How simple is this? It's just two runs of barb-wired-topped chain link fence, maybe 8' or 10' high - hard to tell from the picture. Easy to climb em both, you say? ("You build a 20' fence, I'll find a guy who stole a 21' ladder from Home Depot." Who was that, Juan McAmnesty? I don't know.) Sure it is easy to climb, but there'd be no point if a jeep or hummer would be down a road in the middle to come arrest you as soon as you climbed the first one. How long will people trek 500 miles in the hot desert knowing all but a few devious/lucky ones will be sent right back?
People - and I don't mean you erudite readers, I mean the public - THIS! IS! NOT! ROCKET! SURGERY! The Peak Stupidity blog laid out just back-o-the-envelope estimates on this. Yeah, we may be 100% high on our estimate, or giving a number 25% of a real Feral-Gov't well-padded number. It doesn't matter much; again, it's CHUMP CHANGE.
America could do much better than the barrier shown above, but please go to the the Westley Parker essay, to look at more pics, as it has lots of them - note the series at the bottom. It's much easier to understand the idea of preventing illegal entry by looking at the pictures than reading or viewing the bloviation of the Lyin' Press.
The essay is not a complete survey of all the border barriers around the world and their effect, but Mr. Parker does show a number of good bar graphs of results. One example he gives is of a just > 100 mile fence between Hungary and Serbia/Croatia. This was the Hungarians doing, and the reader may have read about the bang-up job that the formerly Commie East Bloc countries have been doing to prevent the Euro-Union caused invasion of people from all over the 3rd world from affecting their lands. Either these people's leaders just have more sense (very likely) than the West's, or the leaders have guts enough to drop the PC and stand up for their people. Back to the essay now, Peak Stupidity has left out a pic of the simple fence that was constructed at about $1 million/mile just due to it being big pixel-wise. It was simple-looking, and something tells me the cost was after a big mark-up. Here are the results of this most simple, though surely guarded fence, though:
"Walls don't work! You're wasting our money!" OK, then, just a simple high fence or two with a road in the middle, 10's of thousands of $50 cameras and a station every mile with a coupla armed BP guys with a vehicle will do the trick. Too much money? Nah, with conservative back-o-the-envelope calculations, Peak Stupidity estimated the recurring costs as ~ 2 hours to 1/2 a day of each year's Feral Gov't spending! Again, CHUMP CHANGE.
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PC and how best to kill aliens - Signs with Mel Gibson
Posted On: Tuesday - February 27th 2018 7:05PM MST
In Topics: Humor Political Correctness Movies Guns
This short, humorous Steve Sailer post titled "The Establishment is Getting a Tad Xenophobic", involved aliens, then Mel Gibson movies in the comments. Guns have been a general topic of late in in the news, of course. Therefore, to make use of some comments made on unz, I figure it's high time for another "movie review". Yeah, it's in quotes because I don't do real movie reviews. Again, I don't care who's the director. I don't care about the lighting unless you can't see anything. Who are the actors? I don't (much) care. Are the actresses hot? They'd better be. I don't care how much money the movie made or lost. How did this director frame that scene and how did he follow the story line? I don't know, and I don't care. Peak Stupidity claims to be neither the next Siskel nor the next Ebert.
Okeedokey then, let's calm down here. This is just something I've thought about a few times since watching M. Night Shamalam(?)'s movie Signs from back in 2002. I almost returned it to the video store not finished, as I have done a few times in the past, back in the days when they were VHS tapes: "Oh, sorry, what happened? Did the tape get jammed? Is it washed-out?" "Nope, it just sucks." "OK, then, do you want your money or another one?" I guess I was a member in good standing, as I remember having some kind of yellow membership card.
I didn't return this particular movie, as I did want to find out what happened to all these tall skinny aliens that had come to Earth for no good. Mel Gibson was a widower living with his kids and some other dude in a farmhouse, as he was a farmer. This is important to the whole one point of this post, to be made in a minute, but here is Mr. Gibson's movie farmhouse and the family:
At some point, the aliens that had come to Earth, ended up committing a home invasion, in cop-speak, on Mr. Gibson's place.
Here's my whole point that I've been keeping inside since I almost returned the movie, but didn't just to find out what it would take to really hurt these nasty aliens: Mel Gibson lived on a farm. He had to fight these bastards with a baseball bat, per the long-ago advice of his injured and dying wife - her last words, in fact, were "swing away". What American farmer, for crying out loud, does not own, at the very least, a shotgun? You show me one. Show me the guy. This PC hoplophobic crap just ruined any last believability in this movie*.
It's the same as in any home invasion. Use a shotgun, not a baseball bat, for better effect (advice null and void in New York and New Jersey). Peak Stupidity asks no remittance from Mr. M. Night Shamalam on this one. We are nothing if not generous in our advice here, even to rich bastards like this Shamalam. Who in hell writes his name like that anyway? I can think of only F. Scott Fitzgerald and J. Edgar Hoover offhand. Just use your first or middle name, like a normal human being, or pay your $300 at the courthouse and change it. Crimeny!
Since this is SOME kind of movie review here, let me explain the mystical/religious part. See, long before, the wife's dying words were mystically from the future, somehow with the knowledge of what Mel Gibson would face later with the aliens. She said "swing away", and it sounded like just dying-word gibberish, but the viewer (who hasn't had the movie spoiled already) realizes the mystical aspect when Gibson remembers her words as he makes good connections with the skulls of some of these alien sickos with his Louisville Slugger.
Shamalam could have saved the movie by NOT being PC and afraid to admit the value of firearms. The wife's dying words should have (had Peak Stupidity screenwritten this piece-o-shit) more like: "Lock and load .... owwww... center of mass .... ohhhhh .... center of mass!"
*Yeah, true, it's not like aliens that came to Earth in spaceships, would not have an idea that this planet's surface area is 3/4 water, when water was POISON TO THEM, right? [Go where the water isn't! /Kinnison] Oh, did I spoil it for you? It's just as well - the movie sucked.
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Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, ...
Posted On: Tuesday - February 27th 2018 5:48PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Websites Pundits Globalists Media Stupidity
... yeah, I'll tell you, Robert Frost, what doesn't love a wall - Globalism.
There is a nice picture-filled article by a man named Westley Parker on VDare here and here on American Renaissance called "Border Walls Work…All Over The World". Mr. Steve Sailer put up a quick post also to point out this article, but it has lots of great thoughtful comments, with one MAJOR, notable exception, the host of the whole website! (More on this further down) This original post on the "walls" is a nice non-comprehensive survey of different types of national border walls/fences/barriers from various countries, many of which Americans would not know of or care about the reasons for the barriers to entry. The structure of these different border barriers vary widely too, and some nice bar graphs display results of the implementation of said barriers (at least for the ones shown - results are damn good).
Please read the article and check at the pictures and other graphics. I'll call it an essay from here on, the way it's laid out. We've heard the talk now for 2 1/2 years running now about a "wall" of some sort between the US and Mexico, and it's good to see how it's been working out elsewhere. Peak Stupidity will neither repeat the essay nor quote anything this time, as our few pictures here may be worth a lot of words. However, we have various comments that come to mind on "The Wall" for America.
First, I'd like to note that, after the first 20 or so, 20-30, maybe more, comments on the AmRen post linked-to above, are just 2 guys arguing back and forth. That can happen at weird hours sometimes, but I'm commenting on it here to bring up a point. The argument is between an open-borders libertard (Reason magazine type) named "BigFish92672" and a Conservative named "Greg Thomas". The argument somewhat follows the Libertarian/Conservative divide featured here but with a big dose of stupidity on Mr. BigFish's (L-tard)part and a small piece of stupidity-of-omission by Mr. Thomas (Conservative). The fiscal conservative in the L-tard comes out, and we have no argument with that. However, the argument that this American border barrier is significant in terms of cost is just completely bogus. Yet, the Conservative never even brings up that argument, just that it's necessary anyway (yeah, no argument from us there either).
The problem is that with all the hoopla and infotainment in the Lyin Press, especially the TV division, even decent AmRen readers are suckered in by this stuff. The money is NOT a factor, as Peak Stupidity has covered here in terms of cost-to-build and here in terms of maintenance. Even to round up from those posts, which were pretty conservative, estimate-wise, building this wall will take 1/2 a day of the Feral Government spending-year and maintenance of it half of that per year. It is an insignificant amount of the Feral budget, but taking away all the transfer payments that are a big part of the government, it is still a very minor amount of "discretionary" spending. Guarding the borders of your nation should not be considered discretionary, but let's just go with government-speak for understanding.
These numbers match within 1/4 order-of-magnitude some of the cost numbers from the essay in question regarding border barriers around the world. Any kind of cost-benefit analysis would be a futile, silly gesture. It would need to account for not only calculable things like many billions in un-due welfare benefits, tremendous emergency-room costs, school costs, infrastructure costs for a bigger population, but the incalculable stuff like, I dunno, ruination of neighborhoods, ruination of the environment, loss of peace and quiet, loss of decent job prospects, loss of safety and security, ruined futures for families, loss of community, and the loss of the nation itself. It all adds up, right?
Next, let me go to the thoughtful and non-thoughtful comments under the Steve Sailer post linked-to above. The unz.com site, one of the few here on the Peak Stupidity blogroll to the right, is one hell of a well-functioning website and features some great writers, along with some wackos. (See our review) However, Mr. Ron Unz, the big-time computer guy and rich conservative benefactor, chimes in only rarely, but in the comments there - comment #5. I've seen it before on there and mostly held my
Mr. Unz has repeated his statement that only 5% of immigrants are illegal aliens. Firstly, how do you know that when they have, by defintion come in through non-legal channels and are not counted. True, this is not all across the border, as we have discussed here. However, there are very many Mexican/Guatamalen/Salvadorian people, in most states in this nation, and almost of them got here via that southern open-border. The 5% illegal alien numbers, even if it were just for border invaders, as Mr. Unz's comment included "the wall is just boob bait for Bubbas", is way off.
Many of the people who end up here illegally via other pathways are those who overstay visas - basically forever. They are probably not mostly Hispanic, but so what? How will you pick out an illegal Chinaman in Chinatown? These people may have originally came here legally, but on a non-immigrant visa (tourist mostly, or temp-work visas). They are still illegals, and Mr. Ron Unz's determination number of 5% was not just rectal extraction, but poorly-done rectal extraction at that!
This post was not meant to denigrate Mr. Unz, but to illustrate the situation with some examples and points. His comment, though, got plenty of good thoughtful replies and here's one: Even it the efficiency of the wall is not all that Americans hope, it has the great benefit of showing the world, and more importantly, the internal Globalist elite, that we are a nation that wants to remain a nation and control who lives here.
It'd be a great start, with follow-up steps of work-place enforcement, deportation upon an arrest for even a parking ticket, and then a 90% reduction in legal immigration. Here's a point from this writer as another argument against "the wall won't matter, let's not bother". If any real steps to stop illegal immigration get put into place, the flow will find the path of least resistance. Many who may have come in through an airport before may have to come in via the southern route due to more resistance on the former route. The wall or barrier needs to be up then.
Hey, readers, I believe I bit off way more than I can chew in one post, as I need at least one more post on this. I never even got to Robert Frost here, so they'll be a follow-up post or two momentarily*.
"momentarily" on the Peak Stupidity blog uses our own Peak Stupidity definition which is "adverb - usually, sometime this week".
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Alex Jones Indie Folk Song
Posted On: Monday - February 26th 2018 5:37PM MST
In Topics: Music Humor Pundits
Peak Stupidity almost prides itself now in being un-timely, but for a viral video? [C'mon, man! - Ed.]. Yeah, I wanted to write a post on border walls but just can't seem to get in the mood for a serious post, so this was on the back-burner for quite a while, gettting sautéed. (Hey, software is so cool now, putting that gay accent mark on sauteed for me - thanks, spell-check, we are not worthy!).
Alex Jones, of InfoWars is in pretty good standing with the Peak Stupidity blog. I always appreciate a man who stands up on principle*, and Mr. Jones is a stand-up guy for sure. Yeah, he's a bit over the top, and I don't agree with all his opinions. His respect for Liberty and the US Constitution certainly makes up for all that though.
About the only thing that stops me from watching more video of the guy, is that his voice is just about gone. I always feel that he could use just to swallow a glass of water and then go on, but he never does. Unfortunately, he is not particularly much of a writer, so he must be watched to be understood - it's just hard to put up with that voice after a while. That's too bad, but not a recommendation to avoid the guy and InfoWars by any means.
We would hope Mr. Jones would have a sense of humor, and his viewers too, as the "Indie Folk Song" on youtube below is hiarious, no matter whether you hate him or love him. I don't even know whether the producer of the video meant this in detest for the man or not. A viewer named Crab Legs, most likely not his real name, wonders about youtube doctoring of the numbers:
"it's kind of creepy that youtube went out of their way to delete views and likes for a parody video, makes you wonder if what he was saying was kind of true."
The post on border walls, hell, any kind of walls, is coming tomorrow.
*Unless, of course, his principles are highly stupid, such as those of the Commies ( posts on Socialism/Communism here.) At some point Stupidity + Power = Evil.
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We don't back down
Posted On: Saturday - February 24th 2018 7:12PM MST
In Topics: Liberty/Libertarianism
It's been a light blogging week here at Peak Stupidity. Next week may not be a whole lot better due to work pending. Today, however, the excuse is not really so sound - I have spent close to 1 1/2 hours, as a guess, on-line debating some ignorant Hoplophobe, i.e. gun-control nut, on unz.com both under this Pat Buchanan column and this Ron Paul column.
The worst of it, is that the guy, well, more likely a lady, is an immigrant from England, and has badmouthed England for being "not his country anymore." Yet, in the South, where the guy lives now, he writes like a typical cntrl-left resident of Massachusetts. The problem is that this commenter has been voting. Does this not remind the reader of a certain type of people, cough, cough, Californicators, cough, who have already screwed over the politics of Colorado and Washington State, and are working on Idaho? (Why is the commenter more likely a lady, even with the name "Jonathan Mason, you may well ask. I am just basing this judgement on the totally emotional response to that Florida school shooting vs. a man's normal logical response. This major difference been discussed here on the Peak Stupidity blog with regard to that S. Texas church shooting last fall.)
I would like to see the NRA not back down an inch on this. President Trump is another story, as he never has had solid principles, even with his heart in the right place. (i.e. he doesn't even hate Americans, whoo-hoo!) Back to the NRA, stickers and 5,000,000 members notwithstanding, they are not as solid and hard-core supporters of the 2nd Amendment as the smaller GOA, the Gun Owners of America, led by one Erich Pratt, and formerly by the awesome Larry Pratt.
Two last words here (OK, points). First, the true reasons the country has decayed to a point at which this type of thing happens every other month were described way better than the Peak Stupidity blog ever could by Mr. Fred Reed on unz.com, a man who has been justifiably bad mouthed by this very blog earlier for his unthinking support of all things involving his new-found Mexicanity here.
Secondly, please see the this link (same as above) on the Texas church shooting, if you think Peak Stupidity is just a home for heartless bastards.
Don't back down to the forces that want to exploit the tragedies, and sometimes very likely even encourage them, to take away the one freedom that COULD help maintain or restore the rest. Good night readers.
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Cowardly Cop of the American Police State
Posted On: Friday - February 23rd 2018 11:55AM MST
In Topics: TV, aka Gov't Media US Police State Anarcho-tyranny Educational Stupidity
As stated before multiple times here (see TV, aks, Gov't Media) on the Peak Stupidity Blog, we don't do infotainment. It would be hard not to know about the school shooting in Parkland (Ft. Peirce, basically), Florida, without being a modern-day Ted Kaczynski. However, after a day or two of Lyin' Press fulminating and speculation - "there's a guy named Cruz who was a white nationalist" "Oh, and is this the same Nicholas here, with his name just spelled differently?" - I can get the gist of the story.
After that point, the pictures and video, stories from this witness, sorrow of the family members, all of it, become just infotainment**. It's no longer about putting out a story. There must be a few weeks or close to a month of
1) The agenda can be pushed onto the public for hours daily, and as written, extending on for weeks, if not months.
2) Whatever brings in the viewers will, as they see it support the advertisers, bringing in the big bucks.
What I hadn't heard about until this morning, from a friend, was the story on the school cop, aka "resource officer" who displayed cowardice that was absolutely NOT part of his job description, else his $80,000/year job wouldn't be necessary. (Granted, that may not stop the schools anyway, as living large off of taxpayers' money makes one kinda spendthrift.) Here is a down-under-Lyin'Press link on story that just came up from a search under "cowardly cop Florida shooting": Armed deputy who didn’t stop Florida school shooting thinks he ‘did a good job’, but it is short and unexpectedly just to the point.
School resource officer Scot Peterson, who has resigned in disgrace from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, was “distraught” about the shooting that killed 17 people — but believed he did his duty, according to the president of the Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputies Association.I can believe "distraught", as there's no going back from big mistakes sometimes, and that's a bad, bad feeling. I'm guessing the lack of action by this guy on the SOLE RARE EVENT that might justify his job was due to years of uneventful time at the school. I'd think, though, that I'd have had at least some bit of a Walter Mitty type mindset, just daydreaming of how I'd handle something like this and BE a hero, not a coward.
We always hear from the men in blue, or their union spokesman, that "we all want to go home at night to our families". Hey, I get it, but there's a job to do. It does get dangerous for some cops, I understand. You signed up to guard a school, a job that would have been seen as ludicrous in 1975, but as requested by parents and the school board nowadays. There was your chance to do your job. OK, parents, what do you think? Do you still want to blow our tax money on resource officers?
Now, also, do you anti-libertarian police sack-hangers out there still think that the cops are all our heroes? This was what this guy was THERE FOR, and yes, I KNOW I'M REPEATING MYSELF AND WRITING IN ALL CAPS! Between this type of event, the general anti-constitutional attitude of a majority of the police I've run into, along with the plain anarcho-tyranny as seen back in Charlottesville, Virginia***, I believe we patriotic normal Americans are on our own. "To Protect and Serve"? Nah, don't count on protection and don't count on service, other than of warrants.
* I'd like to link to this superb column by Mr. Fred Reed that tries to explain how America has changed to end up with school shooting as bi-monthly occurrences. Please read the whole thing.
** This is in no way to diminish the sorrow of the parents, brothers and sisters, and friends of those killed, and of the ones seriously hurt. I just got it after hearing details for a minute or two. Peak Stupidity has discussed the way men vs. women deal with this sorrow in a post about that south Texas church shooting last fall.
*** This could be a separate post, but I just wanted to guide the reader to the latest news on the continuing legal portion of the Anarcho-tyranny of that Charlottesville ruckus. Jason Kessler, heavily involved in it, reported more about it on VDare today.
**** What, why all the asterisks? Peak Stupidity is trying something a little different, some footnotes to avoid the run-on sentences. Which is more annoying? Let us know!
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Music for the depressed
Posted On: Wednesday - February 21st 2018 9:23PM MST
In Topics: Music
Quite a long time ago there were two friends I had that had problems with depression. One grew out of it, so far as I know, and the other didn't. I believe they became closer friends themselves due to this common problem. It's kind of weird how things really have not changed a lot from yesterday, yet the view from inside is just so much worse. It's not that I've ever felt this much, but just enough to know how it could be.
This 3rd song posted here by the 10,000 Maniacs band (after "Lilydale" and "Hey, Jack Kerouac"), is one that is about depression. Now, you don't need to be depressed to understand it, but it probably sure helps! The lyrics are such good writing by Natalie Merchant, and it has a cool beat and pretty good melody too. This is from the In my Tribe album, same as "Hey, Jack Kerouac", called "Like the Weather""
BTW, I first wanted to embed a different youtube video, also of this studio version, but it seemed way speeded up, as an antidote to depression, perhaps? The wierd thing is, it's only 7 seconds shorter, out of almost 4 minutes, but it was very obviously too fast and high pitched. It seems a 3% increase in speed, hence pitch also, is very easy to detect. Our ears, or brains, are amazing.
I've got to present the names of the 10,000 Maniacs now, as I've neglected that twice now:
Rob Buck - Guitars
John Lombardo - Guitars
Steve Gustafson - Bass
Dennis Drew - Keyboards
Jerry Augustniak - Drums
Next, the name of the epic Smashing Pumpkins album Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness just would suggests a state of depression, though Billy Corgan, per Wikipedia just said the album is based on "the human condition of mortal sorrow". I dunno, just look at the cover to see - great artwork!
This is just one hell of an album. It was not really a "concept album", but the THREE RECORD vinyl album had the 6 sides named: "Dawn", "Tea Time", "Dusk", "Twilight", "Midnight", and "Starlight". The CD two sides were "Dusk to Dawn" and "Twilight to Starlight". The tempo and sound vary every other song, in general, from ballad to fast distortion rock and back.
This is just posted along with "Like the Weather" due to that evocative cover art, and here is my favorite song of the album, the 9-minute long "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans" (Don't worry if you hear nothing at first - the long intro ramps up for 2 solid minutes.) You probably should lay down and have the lights off for this one.
The Smashing Pumpkins:
Billy Corgan – lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, piano, mellotron, autoharp
Jimmy Chamberlin – drums, vocals on "Farewell and Goodnight"
James Iha – lead and rhythm guitar; vocals
D'arcy Wretzky – bass guitar, vocals on "Beautiful" and "Farewell and Goodnight"
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Our feelings about storage units
Posted On: Wednesday - February 21st 2018 8:23PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Economics
As related to, and promised in, last week's post on "Taking out the Proverbial Trash" I will now write our Peak Stupidity blog opinion and advice on storage units. How much less political would you like us to get here? We can crank up the politics again any time, with just a 1-minute perusal of the stupidity discussed on the web.
In fact, there is not any real stupidity involved here at all, so the reader should not take any of this as indicating there is. On a Peak Stupidity site, you would think one could still take a break from it one day out of the year or so.
When discussing the lightening of the mental burden, and sometimes physical, by just getting rid of stuff, whether browser tabs or old washing-machine motors, thoughts come to the idea of where to store all the stuff that "I just have to keep." People have a lotta, lotta stuff here in America, as "there is a lot of ruin in a nation" (continued here and here).
I have been lucky myself to have never needed a self-storage unit, just due to circumstances of my moving around, so this is not even a self-stupidity post. Granted, I did leave a lot of stuff for most of a decade all piled up, but it was in a place I didn't have to pay for. So as not to give the wrong first impression, no, I have nothing against storage-unit businesses or anyone involved. We have much respect for small business at Peak Stupidity, and the business idea of self-storage, as seen in the image at the top, was a very good one in fact. It's much harder to come up with great ideas in the
That behind us, the point here is that, just as with the stuff I left for a long time in my free storage, most of us will realize that the stuff is not truly necessary for life after a few years. We can't even remember what's in there by some point. The business idea is great for those who really do need a temporary place to put some things, for lots of reasons. The thing to be wary of, is the mindset that one can get in after some months or years of paying $75, or maybe $250 monthly. Whatever is in there has to be disposed of eventually in some way, sooner or later. The important thing is to take care of it sooner. Even that little 5 ft x 8 ft x 6 ft high unit that you have that old motorcycle in, for $75 monthly, will end up costing as much as the bike in, what, from 1 year to maybe 5 years.
The mindset is, and the way you get burned monetarily, is that it is always easier to stick with the status quo and pay that $75 (only going up long-term) when the bill comes. It is lots more effort to a) move the stuff, b) sell the stuff, and often even just c) get rid of the stuff. (I guess you could just stop paying, and (c) will happen pretty soon.) I've seen boats, planes, and (originally) expensive cars that need work that have been sitting a decade in spots that cost money too. That's an even stronger version of the same dilemma. Lots of work may be needed ... or, yeah, you can just pay the monthly bill again and think about it next month. I would say "that's how they got you!", but it's just a business that can be a good deal for some.
Sometimes you've got to nip these deals in the bud. Think back on whether you already paid more in storage than the item or stuff was worth, or will have soon. You've got to bite the bullet and do something. It's another burden lifted.
That's just some advice for this evening, neither stupid nor political (those usually go hand-in-hand though).
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Great gender-neutrality debunking video and other tidbit
Posted On: Tuesday - February 20th 2018 12:37PM MST
In Topics: Genderbenders Humor Political Correctness Feminism Pundits
The Norwegian TV-pundit/comedian, Mr. Harald Eia, featured in the 38 minute video below does a humorous, yet still serious, job debunking some of the worst notions of the feminists, that somehow male and female babies have different reproductive parts, but are somehow exactly the same otherwise. It's worth watching the whole thing, even though you must put up with subtitles, as the voices are Norwegian - except for the parts in which the host, Mr. Eia interviews English speakers. I've found out since watching that this is from a series of 7 videos named "Hjernevask", which means "brainwash" in Norwegian. This one can be seen alone though, without missing anything, in my opinion, but I may look up the rest.
This is the type of "60 Minutes" style interviewing, except much brighter and funnier, in which the interviewer goes back and forth from one interviewee with an opinion to another with the opposite, and then back again for a confrontation or two. The confrontations are interesting but almost hard-to-watch as these full-of-it gender-neutral "researchers" get caught with no science behind them. Yet, Mr. Eia always comes across nicely, and is great to watch. I wish he spoke English all the time - well, he can, it seems, but of course the show was made for Norwegian TV.
This next tidbit is something that's been bugging me for a while, yet maybe it's too small a deal for it's own post. It's from the schools, I'm guessing, as the kid comes home telling me a bit about "One person did this ...", in the case when a name is not known, but the sex is. It's very weird really, and he doesn't get it from home, of course. An example is probably needed "One person from the other class was hogging the monkey bars ..." See, he saw the kid, and I'd have said "one boy" or "one girl", as seems normal. No, it may not matter in this case what sex the "person" in question was, but it's just part of normal English, is it not?
"I talked to a woman today at the park about the free days at the zoo ..." Yeah, a man at the park could have told me the same thing, but it seems like the sex of individuals just is commonly given. "The woman told me that you need to talk to someone near the front ... ". OK, she didn't know the sex of that person, cause it could be anyone. If she did, she'd say though, unthinkingly. "Last time, we went over to a man near the entrance and..."
Sometimes it may matter, even when the speaker doesn't know it does: "Yeah, she told me that it may be the clutch making that noise." "Uh, whatever." "Yeah, he told me that it may be the clutch making that noise." "Oh, I need to go talk to that guy." How 'bout: "She said that Pampers really are better than those other diapers." "OK, glad you told me before I stocked up on that other crap." "He told me that Pampers really are better than those other diapers." "Uh, whatever."
Anyway this new gender-neutral, 3rd person, known-sex terminology is just plain weird. I'd chalked it up to feminism, but I had 2nd thoughts a while back. This may be more of a PC thing about not hurting the feelings of the actual gender-benders themselves. Maybe she looks like a girl but says she ain't one? We are not even supposed to notice what sex the other kids are now, I guess, oh except on Valentine's Day. So, there's that, at least ...
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[UPDATED 7/19/18:] Original video has been removed - no idea when. I think this one is the same (has same length, but PS apologies if it doesn't fit this post exactly anymore.
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Educational whack-a-mole, per Steve Sailer and that Virginia Dare post
Posted On: Saturday - February 17th 2018 11:27AM MST
In Topics: Race/Genetics Educational Stupidity
(All well and good and PC, but not in my kid's class.)
... referenced yesterday. I had indicated there would be a 2nd post. What I want to write here is mostly about stuff that iSteve, aka Steve Sailer has written about, nay, taught me about, over the last few years about many aspects of educational stupidity regarding parents/schools Just as an aside, the Peak Stupidity blog is specifically referring to primary and high school (whatever the terms are now) vs. "higher" education with the topic key Educational Stupidity, as the Universities have their own specific flavor of stupidity covered well here with a separate topic key.
Sailer has written so much about parent's struggle with or in the schools to get their children ahead, and the politics of it, that this knowledge is all spread out over perhaps 100's of posts. One however, came to mind as the "whack-a-mole" phrase came into my head from this iSteve post.
I pointed out a long time ago that public schools go through a regular cycle in which science-denialist Social Justice Warriors decide that “tracking” students into different classes or schools by academic aptitude is racist because of the inevitable racial gaps, so they abolish the programs, only to have the teachers who actually care about educating students revive them under new euphemisms, such as “Advanced Placement.”This is really the gist of the short post, as the remainder is an example with some stats, as iSteve likes his stats!
It then take a number of years for the SJW administrators to figure out they’ve been hoodwinked, at which they set out on the warpath once again to burn down effective institutions.
Fortunately, since the realist teachers tend to be a lot smarter than the SJWs, the anti-educators are usually behind at playing their game of whack-a-mole.
This is where the last portion of the "Virginia Dare"-written VDare post discussed yesterday comes in. Here is the last part in the article about the Oriental kid trying to do forbidden, offensive science:
Indeed, rather than this episode forcing an objective examination about racial differences in intelligence, it’s being used as an excuse to impose more “diversity” in gifted programs. Of course, the only way to do that is by lowering standards, which removes the whole point of the gifted programs. Indeed, it’s because of the objective existence of racial differences in intelligence that we know any gifted program is going to have disproportionately large members of some groups (such as Asians) and disproportionately smaller members of others.This is what Sailer's been writing about for years. The left-wing pro-diversity well-off/big-city parents push their kids hard to get into the gifted programs, and even the best $20,000 kindergartens! True, part of the reason is of course for a good education, but also for connections. The education is good because the kids are smart to begin with, but they are kept out of the classrooms with the distruptive diverse kids. Yes, it's hypocritical for these parents to still push the diversity on the rest who don't have the means, connections, and sometimes intelligence, to get into their kids into the same good educational lives. What's worse is that the kids of these parents end up getting brainwashed coming and going - from their parents, the schools themselves, no matter how little diversity actually occurs in their little realm, and then at the prestigious University. It's gotta be pretty hard to shake that shit - usually the light comes on about retirement age, best case!
Virginia Dare may not have read iSteve as much on this whack-a-mole concept, but that's what it'll come down to again. The parents that have the means to get their kids into good educational environments will have to figure out another loop hole.
Then come the wooden hammers again ... and so on ... and so on...
One would think teachers, of all people, would know that. But just as the last place you’ll discover the truth today is in a newspaper, the last place you’ll find real science today is in an American school. At least the public ones.Yes, homeschooling for the WIN WIN WIN!
Oh, the teachers all have degrees from colleges of education, so yes, Virginia (Dare), there is no intelligent life down here. (Haha, combined two expressions there, #WINNING!)
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Eeegads! Our President likes hot women!
Posted On: Friday - February 16th 2018 10:03PM MST
In Topics: Websites Humor Trump Female Stupidity
(Yes, apparently after stripping it all off for a nationwide audience, Miss McDougal is worried her Mother might find out she dated a rich man.)
This is supposed to be worrying us, the citizens of the US - our president dated some very hot women in the past. It's not like we don't have 32 flavors of Stupidity to think about every day, with the Peak Stupidity blog at your service in this regard. Part of the reason this writer voted for the man is that he was already known as a rich out-and-out playboy. That took out a couple of ways the Deep State could have this guy on a leash. Pardon me for my lack of concern for whom this President was slonging for the last 50 years. I am not concerned, but deeply jealous.
When you have this kind of story out, the best place to read about it is the ZeroHedge comment section. I have praised the commenters there before (also here), while duly noting that the site is frustrating as hell software/ad-wise. (I had to use a different device to read the comments.)
I guess Zerohedge gave a break to their readers on this story, as for their article today, were you to click that link ( Wait! I forgot to ask if. you are at work?! ) the story has a nice spread of Miss McDougal herself. Normally, ZH uses a small pic of a hot chick on the main page, and the users, as noted in the comments (haha) are dissapointed with no blown up picture on the story page. The big ZH click-bait thing, very overused, IMO, is to have a small picture of the same hot Brazilian girl soccer fan wearing a green shirt with a big yellow
OK, Zerohedge has over 400 comments on the Trump/playboy-bunny story as of publish deadline here at Peak Stupidity, so I can't put even all the great ones. I implore the reader to peruse them at his leisure.
But, here's some:
Ms. Erable --> hedgeless_horseman Fri, 02/16/2018 - 10:21 Dunno about the rug, but those tits are definitely bolted on.
Kayman --> Ms. Erable Fri, 02/16/2018 - 10:44 She wouldn't take money, but was happy to take a condo?
She was afraid what her mother would think of her with Trump, after stripping butt naked and having a camera shoved into all her cavities for all the public to see.
Jeez.
Got The Wrong No --> Kayman Fri, 02/16/2018 - 10:57 Kayman, let's face it, he wasn't fucking her for her brains.
NA X-15 --> Triple A Fri, 02/16/2018 - 12:34 Would you trade POTUS Trump for Demonic POTUS Hillary Clinton and her sexual aide-de-camp, Huma Abedin, who's sole function these days is to fist Crooked Hillary's dusty womb on a nightly basis?? I didn't think so...
Dr. Dooms-a-lot Fri, 02/16/2018 - 19:07 I wouldn't mind a ZH swimsuit feature to break up the doom porn every now and then.
Sam Spayed Fri, 02/16/2018 - 21:15 Everybody already knows that Trump was a pig in the past. What are the leftists trying to prove? For crying out loud, you leftists put an actual rapist in the WH for two terms and he was still raping and pillaging WHILE President!!!
Meat Hammer --> Akzed Fri, 02/16/2018 - 10:15 As the Left tries to emasculate the American man, we see a story about a President who is a true alpha male and bangs a multitude of smoking hot bitches! Even libtard hipster cuckboys secretly wish they were Trump!
Scotch-n-Soda Fri, 02/16/2018 - 09:56 SO I am a little confused here. The guy is banging HOT models, porn stars, etc.... Is there a point to all this? WOuld it be better if he banged a fat unattractive intern, or Lena Dunham or something?
Cluster_Frak Fri, 02/16/2018 - 09:56 I had a major crush on her when I was in college. Good for Trump. For shagging her, he gets my vote.
3-fingered_chemist Fri, 02/16/2018 - 09:58 Billionaire's life style. Nothing to see here.
The Left doesn't have a leg to stand on anyway since they have embraced Bill Clinton doing the same thing for decades.
As long as Trump isn't doing any of this funny business WHILE ACTING AS PRESIDENT. It's a non-story. The reason Bill got in hot water is because is compromised his position (no pun intended) as the CIC.
Dilluminati Fri, 02/16/2018 - 10:00 "Playmate Karen McDougal shows off her amazing body"
“She couldn’t look at herself in the mirror anymore,” Crawford said. “And she was concerned about what her mother thought of her.”
Moms.. Google your daughters name and then look at the pictures
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_McDougal
Has fake tits.. fake tits = fake news
MLRA B-11 Fri, 02/16/2018 - 10:02 So yeah, Trump was a billionaire playboy. He certainly has excellent taste in women and he makes watching the news concerning the President much more enjoyable. After years of a limp wristed metrosexual and a wookie, his is a refreshing change of scenery for sure. Politics is theater, and the more attractive its actors, the more enjoyable it is.
Oreilly Fri, 02/16/2018 - 10:08 The dirt-digging is designed to sell subscriptions and to damage Trump's name. Ok, it'll certainly sell soap but I doubt it'll have much impact on Trump's name. I never voted for Trump because he was a Boy Scout, I voted for him because there was more chance he'd slow down the slide into Gomorrah than anyone else and still be electable. I knew ahead of time that he had "New York City values", and while I don't agree with it and don't support it, I elected him to enact policy. If he does that, he's done the job I hired him to do. If he doesn't, from my perspective that's when his name becomes damaged.
Now, can somebody find out who Schumer is schtucking just to even out the coverage?
sniffybigtoe Fri, 02/16/2018 - 10:15 Trumps was banging porn stars and Playboy models while in his 60's?
This totally makes me wish I voted for brain damaged old woman who has trouble staying conscious.
rphb Fri, 02/16/2018 - 10:30 Even if this story is true I doubt it will in any way affect his political career.
Looking at her picture I think any man can understand why he would sleep with her, and there is no talk of rape or anything other unconcentual, therefore no crime have been committed.
As for the morality involved on cheating with his wife, I can only say this: He's Trump, nobody expect anything else from that man.
In other words, this is a non-story.
You said you weren't at work, right?
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Science Fair project gone awry
Posted On: Friday - February 16th 2018 11:47AM MST
In Topics: Political Correctness Race/Genetics Science
I mean, you can't just go around making hypotheses and sifting through data to try to support or negate these hypotheses, and making conclusions, and suggesting further theorizing, observation, or experimentation, I don't care what your science teacher said. Science must be raciss, then, so cut it out!
Forgive us for this is, albeit more-rare-lately "Hey, read this!" type post. However, the VDare article, The IQ Gap And The Science Fair Project–Diversity Makes Even Smart People Stupid, makes a few great points that may not be found on just any even UNBIASED account of some science fair stupidity from out in Sacramento, Californ-eye-eh. (OK, well, California, yeah, but it's still part of the US, far as the Peak Stupidity blog has heard - we're not always completely up-to-date, so go check.)
From the "Sacramento Bee" article (gotta love that original name for a newspaper, I'll give em that):
The project that started the controversy was titled “Race and IQ.” It raised the hypothesis: “If the average IQs of blacks, Southeast Asians, and Hispanics are lower than the average IQs of non-Hispanic whites and Northeast Asians, then the racial disproportionality in (HISP) is justified.”That wasn't even the conclusion, just the hypothesis, but I'm pretty sure the "Bee" didn't want to hear the conclusion. The problem the cntrl-left is running into on this latest bout of primary-school truth-telling, a big, big no-no, is that the young scientist-in-
You can almost sense the frustration in the article from the reporters because they can’t call the student a Nazi or a white supremacist. He’s Asian, the group which statistically has the most realistic view of the racial IQ gap. [VDare has links to all kinds of data not shown here.]
Human biodiversity shows different groups, on average, have different capabilities. This is simply a fact, based on the best research we have. As we are a modern society, not some primitive tribe, we look at scientific evidence to determine truth, we don’t just work backwards from our feelings and demand the world conform to our wishes.OK, this is a lot of the article, but here comes a great point:
Disagree? Show me evidence that proves me wrong. If the evidence does show there is no racial intelligence gap, then people who believe in HBD are wrong and they should change their minds. That’s how the human species progresses.
But for some reason, we don’t do that when it comes to racial differences in intelligence. We simply make claims about absolute equality based on no evidence. And when someone denies these claims, we determine “outrage” is sufficient reason to silence that person. No less lofty a personage than “Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent” Jorge Aguilar [Email him] has made an emotional video denouncing the episode, and, subtly, promoting open borders policies.
One also has to ask why sparking “outrage” is sufficient reason for a scientific hypothesis to be opposed. After all, many people were “outraged” by a scientific theory which they thought denied the truth of Scripture. Many people were “outraged” by the connotation they were descended from apes and monkeys and not simply created by God in the Garden of Eden. Many people blame the introduction of theory of evolution for driving God out of the classroom and so opening the door to the immorality and vulgarity which plagues classrooms today.Yes, back in the day, not quite a century back, when the teaching of evolution was being pushed into the primary schools, there were big political battles about it. Whatever you think about it, there was no worry from the progressives of just regular science-trusting folks on about the fact that this curriculum being forced upon the schools was hurtful to their religious culture, making them feel bad, whatever. As the last sentence in the quote of VDare says, it's perfectly OK to offend Christians and/or white people, in the name of science. Rightly so on that, but this offensiveness has gone WAY beyond science. Additionally, it is hypocritical for these "race denialists" to be stopping science due to worries about hurt feelings.
Yet the feelings of such people are routinely mocked in the media, going all the way back to the 1960 film Inherit The Wind, if not before. Apparently, the feelings of some people are more important than others.
The end of the VDare article has another good point, about the schools, but I may leave that for another short post on this same story.
BTW, this particular article shows the author just being "Virginia Dare" - that's the web-site meme, as noted in the Peak Stupidity website review. I guess this stuff is worrisome to whatever good writer was responsible - READ THE WHOLE THING.
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Taking out the proverbial trash
Posted On: Thursday - February 15th 2018 12:44PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Artificial Stupidity
... No, I don't know what proverb, but it's just proverbial.
This is the 3rd of three thoughts from a previous post associated with the Artificial Stupidity, aka, "Computer Tech Stupidity". Yeah posts are proliferating here.
As I had the "tech" (OK, that's a bullshit term), electronic problems a few days back, as mentioned in the link above, I ended up at the same time cleaning up a bit in the electronic sense. Let me get back to the real world. It's a problem for this writer to throw things out. I mean things that MAY have some use later, and "may" is the important thing. Let me explain.
It is kind of a compulsion to keep things around, but there are 2 sides to this. My thoughts in keeping this set of bolts or piece of steel, or extra scrap wood is that I just may be sorry if I junk it. I really would be kicking myself, proverbially (of course!) if I happen to need something like that later on and I'd thrown it out. No, it's not usually the money, but the time, and sometimes just the quality of the old stuff. I've got to go to the hardware store, or worse yet, the big box store, find the stuff, etc. and way more than an hour is wasted over just going to the garage or attic to where I remember storing it - yeah, another key word "remember"! I'll get back to that.
Quality can be another factor too. I have a Craftsmen socket set from > 25 years ago, and I have every one of the sockets. That's not bragging, but probably just luck. A roommate wanted to borrow it way back, to work on his car. "Sure, but put every one back." Yeah, I found one socket out by the road the next day, and I don't know why he got so upset when I told him, in effect "No sockets for you!" You know it, right, the next time you are doing a job, that'll be the one you need too, the one by the road. The thing is, the replacement you get today will be cheap China-made crap. I'll just keep all of my good ones, knock on
Yes, it does no good to keep all the old "crap" if you are not an organized person. As I've told the boy, oh, and the wife, "if you don't know where it is, you may as well not own it."
Where does Artificial Stupidity come in to this post? (Thanks for being patient.) The number of windows, and tabs within windows proliferates over time with this writer. It starts with many tabs, and when the titles become unreadable to the number of 'em, more windows come on-line. No, I don't shut down the computer much, why do you ask? ;-} I look through them sometimes, maybe close 1 or 2, but they all seem important. In the past most have been reminders of stuff to do, or order on-line, or just read later. Most now are stuff to write about. I lost all the tabs on one of them finally, and just after that on the other device as I went through the sorcerer's apprentice routine earlier this week.
It's vexing for 15 minutes or so, as I try to recover, get upset at not bookmarking stuff (that's where organization comes in, just like keeping the sockets together), etc. However, 1 hour later, I think "man, what's the big deal. It couldn't all have been very important, since I can't remember 3/4 of the tabs. Most of it would have never resulted in anything getting done ... in. this lifetime." It's just like cleaning out a part of the garage or cleaning off a corner of the desk, which is all I can usually manage. It has to happen though, as my desk, garage, and attic have become UNSUSTAINABLE. Taking out the trash is like clearing the head. It can be good once in a while.
(BTW, now this post has got me thinking of another one about storage units. It'll be forthcoming.)
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