WaPoo: "What's wrong with Alabama?"

Originally post 12.10.17,
Updated 12.31.17:

I guess I must be out of step with the rest of the country.  But that is okay, because this popular culture shift is not one that I approve of, nor ever could.

If I had to do it over again, I would do the same thing, but harder.  I didn't write too much about Judge Moore because the whole thing was nuts.

Maybe that was the intention.  A lot of crazy talk can be a diversion from what should be the central issue of the campaign.  Which is this:  Will the people of what used to be called "Christendom" actually try to even defend even for a little while their heritage?

Being Jewish is no excuse.  It was Jews who brought us the Ten Commandments.  If they abandoned it, it doesn't mean that Christians should too.  The same goes for traditional marriage.

Judge Moore defended these at the expense of his job.  Something for which he should be commended, not criticized.  Too bad that Ann Coulter types feel that they must be ashamed for being unabashed Christians.  So-called "gays" have their gay pride.  So, why can't Christians be proud to be Christian?  Alabamans should not have let themselves be talked into being ashamed, if that is what happened.  They have nothing to be ashamed about, unless it was being fooled into being ashamed.


The original post follows:

Wrong question.  It should ask: "why wasn't this done sooner?"

Go Judge Moore.  Beat the commies..

Better still, you have to go after the corporatists fascists.  They are the ones who want this popular culture to degrade the way it has, and even make it worse still.

Cutting the tax rate on corporations is a mistake.  Doesn't matter if it improves the economy.  It only feeds the leftist propaganda machine with ammo for their class warfare.  Yet, the lefties love corporations.  All the big corporations seem to have lefties as CEOs.  Why is empowering them good for conservatism?  It isn't.

MC4 follies

Originally posted 12.30.17:

Updated,

12.31.17:

Well, I have put together the rest of those connectors that I figure I can salvage. I need some more, so I ordered them.  They should arrive in about a week.  I wanted to get some sooner than that, but they want a ridiculous amount of money for them, so I will wait.

My luck is that this crazy Texas weather will get warm by then.  And stay warm.  As of now though, it has gotten cold.  Below freezing frickin' cold, Mr. Bigglesworth.

Also, I may be able to scare down a deep cycle battery for a reasonable price.  This too, however, will have to wait.

In the meantime, in between time, ain't we got fun.  cold?

Hey Algore, when will the polar bears get down here?  They are going to eat me, or I will eat them.  It is a matter of who get the drop first.

The original post follows:

Well, here I am again.  It is about to get a bit colder, and I am still wanting to figure out something to help with the warming up of the place.

The idea is to NOT spend a beaucoup bunch of money that I really cannot afford.  Just got a bill for that MRI in October.  Why they decide to wait almost three months is something I cannot figure.  I guess they like to annoy people like me who get annoyed a bit too easily.

Not being content with being annoyed with the doctor's bills, I decide to try these mc4 thingies again.

Anyway, there some mc4 connectors that I have left over from earlier attempts to make electrical connections with them.  These look like they should be a snap, but for some strange reason, I am not getting them to work properly.  I have bought maybe twenty of these boogers, and maybe, ( maybe!) two of them work right.  So, with these leftovers from previous attempts to work with them, I am going to attempt to learn how to ( once and for all ) to master the ( skill?) of putting them together properly.  ( fancy that )

Just before I wrote this, I must have spent the better part of the morning studying these dern things.  I think ( think? ) that I have these figured out.  But I thought I had 'em figured out already.  Not such luck.  I noticed that my thingies that I put together previously weren't fitting properly.  I think.

Let me see if I can remember this for future reference.  Because after all this aggravation, I would prefer not to forget it again.  ( fat chance)  The female end has the SMALLER of the metal piece thingies that fit inside it.  The male end has the LARGER of the metal piece thingies that fit inside it.  The female metal piece thingie must insert into the plastic holder thingie that holds it all together, as does the male metal piece thingie that fits into its own plastic holder thingie.  The female metal piece thingie must stick in its plastic thingie far enough ( which is hard to tell because you cannot see in there at all ) so that the male metal piece thingie will slide over it.  The male plastic holder thingie will slide into the female plastic holder thingie, and when that happens, the juice can flow.  That's provided that all the pieces are put together correctly, and the wires are connected properly, and the battery is connected properly, etc. etc. etc.  I thought some of these pieces were interchangeable, now I am not so sure.  There's some plastic cap thingies that fit over the end of the plastic holder thingies that hold the metal piece thingies that all connect together.  Seems that they may be of different sizes, but to tell you for certain, I am not sure right now.  Doesn't matter, they come preassembled.  You have to disassemble before you reassemble so that you can make it all work.  But you must not get them mixed up, or something may not fit right.  If it doesn't fit, you don't get shit get out of them.  Please do not disassemble one plastic holder thingie at a time.  Just in case you forget which is which, don't even think about doing that.

Hopefully this is all clear.  I wouldn't want to get annoyed trying to make sense out of these directions.  These mc4 connectors don't seem to have directions.  If they did, they would be in Chinese, which I cannot read.  Even when they write in English, they get it wrong.  But don't get me started on that.

Lindsey Graham confirms FISA warrant on Trump campaign obtained by fraud

Well, maybe not exactly what he said, but implied.

At least, that is how I am reading it.

Nothing really new here, except that Graham is not Trump friendly.  The most significant thing here may be that the Dems allies in GOP are backing away.

If this keeps up, the Dems will be out on the limb all by themselves.  Yet, they are still talking impeachment.  If they are not careful, this is going to look really bad for them.

Note that I don't care if it looks bad for them.  They've been looking pretty bad to me for a very long time.

Don Surber: Media won't admit its problem

Don Surber: Media won't admit its problem: In reporting that most Americans no longer trust the media, Indira Lakshmanan of the Poynter Institute showed why people should not trust th..


comment:

The article is about fake news.  It has been fake for a very long time.  Ben Bradlee was quoted as saying that he didn't care about facts, he cared only about causes.  This implies lying.

It is a crutch that the so-called right likes to lean on to explain away failure when they complain about media bias.  The difference about Trump is that he does something about it.

So, whatever you do, Mr. President, don't stop tweeting.

Triangulation – Special Political Lunch Alert!

Triangulation – Special Political Lunch Alert!


comment:

Dick Morris explains what is meant by the term triangulation.  What I get from it is that it is much easier to change how a party is viewed by the public, than it is to change how the public thinks about a political party traditionally.

Thus, Bill Clinton is seen as more conservative than what he really is, if viewed by the public as it usually views Democrats.  George W Bush is seen as more liberal than what he really is, if viewed by the public as it usually views Republicans.

Is this a distinction without a difference?  Well, what Morris did with Clinton seemed to work, so maybe it really does work.

One theme throughout this blog, but neglected as of late, is this idea of solving problems as opposed to fighting over them.  The thought occurred to me that Morris and I may be talking about the same doggone thing.

What a concept!

For example, as Clinton took away welfare from the Republicans, maybe Republicans can take away the environment from the Democrats.  How?  By a well thought out problem-solving way of eliminating carbon dioxide emissions without sacrificing anything in terms of environmental quality, nor of sacrificing economic efficiency.

Perhaps the idea of sacrificing these things are false choices.  Just a thought.

Is this an impossible goal?  Maybe, but if you cannot solve that problem, you cannot advance your agenda.

Obligatory, 12.28.17

Updated 12.29.17

I'm going to have to go into a store and actually talk to someone about these batteries.

If this one they have on the web page is what I think it might be, it may be the way to go.

But it isn't cheap.  Before I leap, I better look carefully.

Pain in the butt, I tell you.



original post follows:

Battery shopping.  If I am to use the hidey hole, it is going to need a better battery setup.

I found a 150 AH deep discharge battery that might do the trick, but it isn't cheap.

But whatever is?

Still don't want to spend a lot of money on this.  This little battery I am using now is like training wheels in order to learn what to expect.  What to expect with a battery like this is NOT MUCH.

Anybody who touts batteries is listening to the greenie weenies a bit too much.  Batteries suck.  You only use them when you need to.

Water and heat

As I wrote earlier, I want to get the most out of my propane bill.  With this cold weather recently, I am using a lot more of the stuff.

So, I am re-doing the experiments I did last year with the distillation of water.  I figured I might as well get something accomplished with the heat besides just heating up the joint.

As a result, I think I reclaimed a certain amount of water, but how much is hard to say.  This is not exactly a precise experiment.

The deal worked like this:  I took recently used water for dishwashing, and put it into the tea kettle converted to distillation.  This is a device that I made last winter.

The results were a really small amount of water, but the steam went into the trailer.  The steam was adding to the humidity of the trailer, so I used the dehumidifier to take out the water.  As a result, I have collected maybe a quart of water.  I may have evaporated more than that.

There is a significant amount of waste water that now goes into the septic tank.  The difference is that before I did this, ALL of it did.  Now, I can keep maybe half of it.  This was my goal all along.

The cost was a bit of extra electricity for the dehumidifier.  But that helps to warm up the place too.  Is this being efficient?

Let us hope so.  But even if it is not, it is a kinda interesting experiment.

The odd thing about gases

Perhaps you have heard about temperature inversions.  Those are temperature differences in gases in the atmosphere.  These have been blamed for smog problems, as the smog is kept low to the ground due to the difference in temperature between the ground level and a few thousand feet up in elevation.

Believe it or not, there appears to be a temperature inversion in this trailer.  At the level one sits at, the temperature is actually cold enough for a fog to come out when I breathe, but at standing level, this does not exist.  That means that the heat has risen to the top of the trailer, and cold air exists at the floor level.  The difference in temperature is significant.

Now, that is amazing to me that such a small volume as this trailer could support such a phenomenon.  Could this be a property of the gas phase of matter?  For example, are there temperature inversions in metals?  Why, yes.  I noted in an earlier post that the grill on the stove can get red hot near the flame, but a few inches away, it is cool enough to touch.  That would be a temperature inversion.  These are to be expected then.

But what makes temperature inversions different for gases?   A hypothesis is that even though there are these inversions, they are far less significant than for solids and liquids.  The capacity for movement of gases as opposed to liquids and solids could explain it.  Solids cannot move around, the molecules are locked into place.  Liquid molecules can move more, but gases move the most in relation to each other.  This allows for temperatures to made more even than for the other two phases of matter.

Why this discussion?  I love to go after the AGW crowd.  This is another argument against AGW.  Why?  The "heat trapping " of gases is unlikely due to the nature of gases.  That is because of the movement of gas molecules are much freer than for solids and liquids.  Heat trapping occurs much more for those phases of matter than for gases.  Gases do not trap heat very well at all.

But what about the temperature inversions in this trailer?  These can be solved with better air circulation.  The reason I have this phenomenon is that the air isn't being circulated enough.

Try circulating matter in a solid.  Cannot be done.  Liquids can be stirred.  Solids cannot.

When the sun hits the earth, the gas molecules in the air help convey heat from the ground into the air.  Think of air as a conveyor belt for heat.  Conveyor belts do not trap matter, they move it around.  Hotter gases will move around more, and mix with the colder gases in the upper atmosphere.  The thing that makes for inversions are a lack of air movement.  Let the wind blow!

Gases do not trap heat, but gravity can.   It is density of matter that traps heat.  The more matter in an enclosed space, the harder it is for the heat to move.  Solids are more dense than gases, so the heat doesn't move as much.  Hence, heat inversions are far more localized in a solid than for a gas or for a liquid.

The conditions of a runaway greenhouse effect exist on Venus, but cannot be replicated on Earth.  The atmosphere isn't dense enough on Earth, nor could it ever be.  The burning of fossil fuels can not change the Earth's atmosphere that much.  The gravity of Venus combined with its dense atmosphere explain its greenhouse effect.  There is no greenhouse effect on Mars even though its atmosphere is nearly all carbon dioxide.  There isn't enough atmosphere there.  The Earth can support a greenhouse effect, but this could never be replicated as it is on Venus, unless we figure out a way to import a lot more atmosphere than we have here now.  We have to change what is already here.

Let's say you burn as much carbon as is possible.   Do the math.  The Earth's atmosphere is 1/5th oxygen.  If you replace that oxygen with carbon dioxide, you increase its density by a factor of one third.  That is because the molecular weight is 32 for oxygen, and 44 for carbon dioxide.  If you replaced all the oxygen with carbon dioxide, that would increase the density by only one fifteenth, because it would be one third of one fifth of the atmosphere.  In comparison, Venus' atmosphere is 100 times more dense than Earth's.  You will never get there like that.  Besides, by the time you replace just one third of the oxygen, the air becomes unbreathable.  Humans could only change the atmosphere by a factor of one forty fifth, or approximately two percent before it would become impossible to make it more dense.

Not enough difference to make a difference.  On Mars, the amount of gas in the atmosphere changes by more than that without a measurable difference in average temperature of the planet.  No climate change on Mars due to changes in carbon dioxide, as it is ninety five percent of the atmosphere.  It is just cold as hell, as someone once said.  Nobody lives on Mars, so you cannot blame humans for any changes in carbon dioxide there.  At least not yet.    Bwah, hah, hah!

AGW is bunk.

The reports of the death of this blog...

...have been greatly exaggerated...

Nevertheless, I find it somewhat tedious to write about things right now.

But, I press onward.  Maybe not upward.  More like sideways and downward, especially lately.

So, what to write about?  I got some videos for xmas presents.  Watched a couple of them today, and have one left to watch.

One of these I won't comment upon.  The other???  Well...  It seems like a propaganda video that the lefties have sent out.  Considering who gave it to me, I am somewhat surprised.  Well, once again, maybe all of this is on me.  Just about everything in this culture looks like a pinko plot to me now, so call me paranoid.  Hmm.  If you really did call me paranoid, I wouldn't care.   Just don't try to put me in a straightjacket, please.  Even I haven't gotten that far out there in the weeds yet.  But, I don't think it is me out in the weeds, ya'll.

That's all for the videos.

Let's go to my experiments.  I measured the water from the Coleman on the experiment the other day.  I seemed to have lost a bit of water.  Only 450 ounces came out, but I believed I had put in more than that.  Three and a half gallons of water.  No wonder it didn't last all that long.  Anyway, I am not including the bottles of dyed water.  I haven't inventoried those, but if I had it all in, it would have been about 22 liters more.  That water did not get all that hot, as it was not actually totally immersed in the water that was being heated.

Somewhat disappointing.  What did I learn?  It seems that the heat was being absorbed into the water, as opposed to being trapped in the ceiling when heating only air.  I am of the opinion that this may be a more efficient way to heat, but the findings are ready to be declared yet.  If using hot water for heating is better than heating air and circulating it, that may mean something.

I have been using a lot of propane, though.  Now I am looking for ways to economize on that.

My electrical problem is a mystery.  It doesn't seem consistent.  If I avoid doing certain things, the problem doesn't appear to be as bad.  Those things that seem to be a no-no include space heaters and electric blankets.  Just what exactly causes this electrical system to complain about those is the big mystery.

For instance, I used the dehumidifier today.  It definitely uses more electricity than the electric blanket, but no problema with the electrical system.  Strange indeed.  Anyway, I used the dehumidifier because of the very high humidity lately is making this place very damp.  I got a bunch of water out of it in the bargain.

At the moment, I got a bright idea to use the stove to evaporate waste water and the dehumidifier can reclaim it.  The propane can be used for a dual purpose, you see.  I get water and heat out of it.

You see?  That wasn't so painful.  Maybe I ought to stop writing about politics.

Turn out the lights, the party is over...

Update, 12.25.17:

Yep.  By the time I got up, it was 48 in my hidey hole.  It was so cold in the trailer, that my pee was steaming.  Never had that happen before!

Last night, the low was about 28 degree F.  So, my hidey hole was doing some good, anywho.

The sleeping bag is a winner.  I can keep reasonably warm to 48, or perhaps a little below.

If it gets much colder this winter, I am going to have to do something.

Fixing that electrical problem is a problem unless I hire an electrician.  But that costs money.

Well, this is a fine fix I got myself into.  Wtf.


The original post follows:


Back at it again.  Cannot sleep, so I guess I will write.

Call this an experiment born by necessity.  It seems I have an electrical problem.  Since I am not an electrician, I don't know what the issue is.  I can guess, but the guess could be wrong.  For whatever reason, when I try turning on the lights, they dim and even go out.

And so I tried to warm up the place with my heated up water.  That is the experiment.  (Running out of ideas, ya'll. )  It didn't occur to me that the battery is being charged too, and so that worked until about 10 pm.  The water had gotten cold already, so it wasn't adding much heat to the joint.  The little pump was barely working cuz no juice.

So, here I am trying to stay warm.  It is not too bad.  The computer, by the way, is powered by solar.  This is what I have left to me in electrical power at the moment.  That doesn't work worth a flip, either, but for the moment, I have some juice there.

I am in a sleeping bag.  It is just under 60 degrees F, and it is near freezing outside.  Feels cold, though.  Anyway, the sleeping bag is warm enough.  It will stay warm until it gets about 45 or so.  By that time, it may be time to get up.

I bought an electric blanket earlier this week.  But it says don't use it with an inverter.  Psst.  I'm going to try it anyway.  It is a pure sine wave inverter, so it should be okay.  But, the battery cannot handle it for long.  I may not try it tonight.

Well, it is all very interesting.  I can keep warm by running the stove, if I want to go there.  However, I won't be doing that tonight.

One thing is certain.  I gotta fix that electrical problem.  This ain't worth a flip.  By the way Merry Xmas.

Wouldn't want to "offend" anybody by using the full word for you know what.  It might bother those people who were embarrassed by Judge Moore.

Tank has run dry

Mark Twain once discussed his tank method of writing.  Once the creative juices run dry, he set it aside and did other things.  After a period of time, the tank fills up again, and he can write.

I am wondering if my tank is dry.  Blogging has been light and it is getting worse.  Once upon a time, I was putting up nearly 20 posts a day.  Now, I go days at a time without a post at all.  The tank is dry, it seems.

Or is there another explanation?

One other possibility is that my efforts are not appreciated, it seems.  After all those posts, it just doesn't seem to make a dent in the audience numbers.  Nobody seems to be paying attention, so why bother?  The effort has not paid off.

It could be both of those in combination.  A real one-two punch.

Well, as far as this post is concerned, I could mention the news.  It is not worth mentioning, though.  Some real news could have been a Moore victory and the defeat of the corporate tax cut.  Now, that would have been something.  What we got instead is more of the same junk that we always get.

People complain about things being on the wrong track, yet they keep doing the things that make things go the way they go.  Why not try something different?  Nope, it has to be the same old thing.

As far as the situation being on the wrong track, one thing does appear to be better than before.  That is, if you think that the terms of the unity is a positive thing.  The GOP seems happy and united for a change.  They get their corporate tax cut, and now they are really happy.  Who knows why.  Corporations may get favored treatment from GOP types, but the corporations tend to not reciprocate.  The big corporations are decidedly lefty affairs.  The GOP gets the bad press, and the lefties and their corporate pals laugh all the way to the bank.  Why the GOP thinks this is a good thing for them is hard for me to understand.  Maybe I am dumb, who knows?

I have tended to think too highly of others, though.  As someone once said, there's a sucker born every minute.  Another one said, that nobody went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.  A tendency of mine to think too highly of people leads me to these undesired outcomes, where I spend my time and effort trying to make a point with people who stubbornly refuse to get it.

Not much I can do about that.  Just for me to realize that people are just nuts and/or stupid.  It ain't me, but I never really believed that anyway.

Yeah, the tank runs dry, and insulting people who you want to convince is just not good human relations.  Well, to let you in on a secret, I never was really very good at that either.

Nope, won't be kissing anybody's butt here.  Frankly a lot of you people could use a real ass kicking.  But it won't be me giving it to you.  You'll get it alright.  From the same people that you foolishly trust.

If you call me dumb for saying that, maybe you ought to reconsider.  But you people will never learn.

An offer you can't refuse

Remember that line from the movie The Godfather?  Actually the movie is only stating an unpleasant truth that people don't want to face.  The truth is that force has the better of an argument.  Nothing more different than Aesop's fable of the wolf and the lamb.  Who wins the argument between the wolf and the lamb?  Psst!  It ain't the lamb.

Another scene I'd like to mention here regarding that movie is this:  When Kate asked Michael Corleone if he had Karlo killed, Michael denied it.  Of course, the audience has just seen that Michael confronted Karlo about Sonny's death, and Karlo admitted having something to do with it.  So, Michael definitely had Karlo killed, and of course, the audience all saw Clemenza strangle Karlo just prior to the scene with Michael and Kate.  So, we all know that Michael is lying about it, but Kate believes the lie.  Why?  Because in order to be lied to, you have to be willing to suspend disbelief.   The liar cannot lie without a willing accomplice, which is his audience.

The point here is that any outrage over lying politicians is just as false as the liars themselves.  We let them do it, or they would never be able to do it and get away with it.

Force has the better of an argument.  If you don't like it, you just may get an offer you can't refuse.  That is the 800 pound gorilla in the room.  If you cannot have the courage to confront a liar, then you decide to let yourself be lied to.  If you don't, the liar will just bare his fangs at you, and you could be in a lot of trouble.  Most people, I would gather, do not have that kind of courage.

People get what they deserve after all.

Obligatory, 12.21.17

More discussion of the off-grid project here.

Even though I haven't been posting much about it lately, I have been thinking about it.  As mentioned, I assembled the trailer.  There have been a lot of posts in the off-grid series about using a trailer like this for living in,  It seems a bit crazy, to be sure.

But most of the elements of executing this plan now exist.  The trailer itself exists.  The land exists.  The incinerating toilet exists, and may be available.

A plan exists too, but is always changing.  The question has always been what is the plan?

What do I put out there?  It has always been a minimal kind of building project.  The idea is not to build the Taj Mahal, but something functional and above all---- cheap.

The latest iteration of a plan is this:  just build a carport.  Park the trailer there when I want to stay on the land.  Then go into the city to work, when desired.  Seems that I have been here before with this plan.  Of course.  But the plan is now refined and more savvy due to experience.

Experience has taught me to build something that can last.  Okay.  It doesn't have to be expensive.

So, what is next?

Where to put the incinerating toilet?  I thought of putting it in the trailer, but now I don't like that idea.  I can always use the toilet as a dump station.  I can keep the waste on board for a short time, and then dump it into the toilet for disposal.  This saves money.  Instead of paying somebody for the privilege of dumping waste, the toilet will do the job.  Eventually, the thing will pay for itself in savings.

In other words, the toilet will be on the property.  The property will also be used to reclaim water.  I can build some solar distillers that can clean up the gray water.  Maybe I can get the regulators to approve my plan as a substitute for a septic system.

The land can be my lab for this experiment.  I can grow things after getting things established out there.  Eventually, I may be able to stay there on a full time basis.

We will have to see on that one.

Charades - by Robert Ringer

Charades - by Robert Ringer: Watching the lies coming out of Washington — “tax reform,” “Russian collusion,” “sexual harassment,” to name but a few — reminds me of one of my favorite movies, Charade.  …


$$$ Quotes:

• "people love to be deluded"
• "lying is a way of life for politicians"
• "it’s wise to be vigilant about monitoring your perception of reality as a protection against buying into the charades that surround you."

Comment:

Here, here.  Did you know that Moore got a lot less votes than Trump?  The people who voted for Trump did not vote for Moore.  Did they buy into the charades against Moore, but not Trump?  What was the real difference between Trump and Moore?  There must have been one.  Yet, Bannon campaigned for Moore, so go figure.  Alabamans must have been listening to somebody.

Ann Coulter called Moore a Holy Roller Christian.  Why?  For defending the Ten Commandments and traditional marriage?  Again, why do people listen to these charades?  Ten Commandments and traditional marriage are pretty fundamental to Christianity, not "holy roller".  Maybe Ringer has it right.  They love to be deluded.

What can be done?

Yeah, after spending the better part of the day getting caught up on the "news", I am pissed off again.

My buttons have been pushed, just like I said.  Now, I am sucked in again.  Ain't modern life grand?

But chill out, I say.  You have to distance yourself from this somehow.

Maybe my idea to go out west is really the best idea after all.  This is how you can disconnect from the money power that drives all the garbage that you see today.

If people would get back to the land, things may have a chance to settle down.  But don't count on it.  The world doesn't work that way.

There's always somebody out there ready to piss on your cornflakes.

Data is back, so am I

After a several day shutdown, the blog is back in business.

I am suspicious of Verizon.  The service is good, but the claim that I use this much data is very suspicious to me.  I got back my data just a few hours ago, and the thing says I have already used over 300 MB.  I don't believe that.  I haven't watched a single video, and haven't even visited all that many websites.

So, unless I fork over more money, I am likely to run out of data again.  That is why I am suspicious.

After such a long hiatus, I used the time to consider a few things.  Call me paranoid, if you wish, but I am going to write it up anyway.  Politics is designed to suck you in.  The political class has us wrapped around their little fingers.  They know how to push everybody's buttons, so then you get excited about stuff, and that's how they get you sucked in.

Once I disengaged, I felt a lot differently.  Like everything was normal.  Nothing had changed, except my participation in this system.  Once I dropped out, I felt better.

I don't know if dropping out is the answer, though.  You have to pay attention to this stuff.  But on the other hand, everybody is being manipulated.  So, if you participate, you are manipulated.  At least, this is what I think.

Anyway, Merry Christmas.  [ Bah!, Humbug!  Way too much commercialism.  I blame the corporations.]

Obligatory, 12.14.17

Updated, 12.20.17


The trailer has been assembled, except for the wiring.  I am waiting on that for
a couple reasons.

In the meantime, my data should be high speed again soon, and I will resume posting.
The phone company is slow to update the thing to show that I have paid for the
new data.  I suspect that they are doing this deliberately in order to get me to
make a new purchase.



Updated, 12.15.17:

Almost done with assembling the trailer.  I should emphasize that this whole
idea is pretty tentative.  I haven't decided to do anything with it at all.

With it assembled, I would have to do something with it.  Maybe sell it.

the original post follows:

Nearly out of data.  This will have to be short.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the 5x8 trailer has some renewed interest for me.
Yesterday, I partially assembled the trailer. As of yet, it isn't a commitment.  If
I decide to build it out, then that would be a commitment.

What I'd like to do is to use it for traveling.  If I can obtain the incinerating
toilet, I could make the trailer into a rolling bathroom.  I could pull it with the
van, and build out the van as a sleeper and a small galley for cooking meals.

Thus, I may be all set up for living on the road, so to speak.

An idea is to put the car into a storage location in El Paso.  When I wanted to
work, I would go into town, get a parking spot for the trailer.  Then drive over,
and get the car.  Work as much as I wish, then put the car back into storage.  Drive
back to the trailer, hitch her up, and go home.

I could practice the idea in this place before leaving for parts west.

Who'd a thunk?

That Alabama would prefer a pinko over a guy who would have defended traditional America.

I never figured a Marxist Jihadi like Obama would get elected either.  Only goes to show you how far this country has sunk.

It may take a war to save this country, but there aren't enough patriots to fight it.  Besides, the GOP will wave the surrender flag before it even got started.

Obligatory, 12.12.17

The computer has been on a charger today, but it didn't take a charge.  Thus, the post will be short.

Today, I unpacked the boxes that held the 5x8 foot trailer that I have had for almost three years.  It almost makes me laugh that I thought I could execute my idea to build a shack out there, and then proceed to build something on top of this trailer.  It has taken me this long to get back to the idea.

It is still only an idea.  The idea is to convert the van to a living space, and the trailer as a rolling bathroom.  That way, I can bring my home with me wherever I am.  It could be on the land or in the city.

The downside to this is the very crowded living quarters.  The upside is that I don't have to worry as much about it being stolen.  That's because it would always be with me.

The whole idea is to minimize the need for stuff.  This idea would certainly be in that direction.  Question is, is it enough?

Stop subsidizing failure

It seems to be the biggest problem in our system of government.  You would think our own government has a death wish.

Not only would the cultural climate improve, so would the national finances.

Yet the liberals say that they are worried about deficits.  No, not hardly.

Passive solar a disappointment

Originally posted on 11.22.17,

Updated on:

12.11.17:

The answer to the question about how much heat is:  not that much.  It is like I thought, unfortunately.  This technique will need a highly insulated glass covered exposure to the sun, which will keep heat losses to a minimum.   If you want passive solar, you will have to work hard for it.  The next question is: is it worth it?

It may be better to just use a water heater, and run a water line to the Coleman and back.  The water heater needs to be outside, of course.  It would be a dedicated water heater used for climate control only.

12.10.17:

The weather has cooperated, and time was available to run another test today.  The bottles do get warm, but how much heat is stored into them?

Tossing and turning the bottles distributes the water throughout the bottle, I have noticed.  But I forgot to do that before I put them into the Coleman.  While in the Coleman, they should cause the inside of it to get warmer.  How long will it stay warm, and how warm?  That is what I am measuring now.

I have a feeling that this is just going to be too limited to be very useful.  There will have to be a lot of water because it won't get all that hot.  The results of this test may confirm that.

12.2.17:

17:30

Today's weather was not cooperative enough for a test of the colored water.  Too overcast.  The water gets somewhat warm, even on a day like this.  However, it is not worth it to me to lug the stuff back to the trailer and put it in the Coleman.  Therefore, the results from this experiment will have to wait for a better day.

Oh, and make that 22 liters, or 48.4 pounds of colored water.  Makes a difference.  At 30 deg F of useful temperature difference, that would yield 1452 BTU, or 1.5 megajoules.  Not quite 1/2 a kwh.

10:30

Bought some dye, and now there are about 3 gallons of dark colored water.  Later today, I will collect them, and put them into the Coleman.  At that point, I will monitor the temperature in the Coleman in order to see how much it heats up.

I am using the camper shell that I used earlier.

With good insulation, I won't need all that much heat.  According to the following, maybe as little as 50 watts per 10 degrees of warmth.

The dimensions given above have been achieved.  Now I need a cold day to see how it all could work, or not work.

11.28.17 @

16:00 :

The colored bottles have been out there most of the day.  I have checked them several times, and they do appear to be very warm on the outside of the bottle.  Don't know for sure if the water is warm on the inside, though.  I'd say the outside is well over 100 degrees F.  If the inside is that hot, that would be good.  If it was hotter than what I think, better yet.

I was thinking of putting these in a container I make myself.  They are currently in a camper shell that is sitting on the ground.  I can lift the door and put them in and take them out.  Thus, they are protected from the cooler wind.

The container should do the same trick, but maybe better.  It could be better because the container will be smaller.  The heat loss from the bottles should be trapped inside the container and make the inside plenty hot.  Lets hope so, anyway.

That's a project for another day.  I can play around with this for a couple days until the dye on order arrives, so I can make a lot of colored water.  The camper shell can accommodate plenty of bottles.


7:30

The Coleman is now fixed.  I have an idea to explore this week.  It will involve the use of dyes for heating the water that is in used soda bottles.  The black colored water presumably will heat better than the clear water.   These heated bottles will go into the Coleman, plus some additional water from the water heater.

Lets say that the heated bottles get up to 100 degrees Farenheit.  Lets also say that each bottle holds 2 liters ( about 2 quarts or about 2 pounds ).  Lets also say that the useful range for heating a room is between the water temperature in the bottle minus 70 degrees F.  In this example, that would be 30 degrees F.  Each bottle is capable of providing 60 BTU of heat.  If there are 10 bottles, that would be 600 BTU of heat.  That would be about one sixth of a kilowatt hour.

A gallon of heated water from the water heater will provide water of about 130 deg F.  Each gallon will weigh about 8 lbs, with a useful heating range of 60 deg F.  That's 480 BTU per gallon.  Three gallons yields 1440 BTU.  Combined with the bottles in the previous paragraph, will yield 2040 BTU, or about 2040/3600, or roughly 2/3rds of a kwh.

Good for heating up the little hidey hole ten degrees for three hours.  Need more water!  At least double that, and even that is only ten degrees for six hours.

Lots of work for a smallish result.  But lets see what the colored water bottles do.

11.24.17 @ 11:00

Back from Turkey Day stuffing, but not a turkey of the feathered persuasion.

Anyway, I got an idea to put bottled water into the car.  I put a thermometer in the car yesterday, before taking off for the holiday.  It was over 40 degrees farenheit warmer in the car than outside.  I think I could utilize that passive solar heat in order to make warmer water.

Hot water from the water heater can go into Coleman, and these bottles could add more
heat to the mix.

Maybe this will help.

In the meantime, the pump to the device is not working, so I have that going for me.  Will
have to check it out.

Time is getting away from me.  It is nearly noon on Black Friday, and I haven't stirred from the trailer yet.

Dern it.


The original post follows:

Part of the problem is the location of the trailer with respect to a building,
and some trees.  During this time of the year, the sun is in the southern part
of the sky.  That is where the trees are.  Plus the trailer is located on the
western side of the building. 

This is good in summer, but also bad in summer.  Good in the morning, bad in the
afternoon.  But, it is mostly bad all around during the winter.  There's not enough
sun to do much.

Perhaps with no obstructions, enough sun can be brought to bear to make it worthwhile,
but in this place, not a chance.

I've been experimenting with the propane water heater on the trailer.  It worked
a little bit the other night, but not what I had hoped for.  The water seems to run
out fast when you are using it from the tap.

Maybe three or four gallons, and then it starts to get cooler.

Not good.

An idea to set up a dedicated propane water heater for this thing has popped into
my head.  But wait.  Could there be another way?

Seems like last year, I used the onboard pump system on the trailer in order to
store the water in the fresh water tank.  That didn't work too good for the passive
solar, but maybe it might work for the propane water heater.

If I can make that thing continually heat the water, it could stay hot all night.

I'll have to wait for implementation of that idea.

Turkey day has arrived, and I will be gone visiting.

People of the Lie - by Robert Ringer

People of the Lie - by Robert Ringer: I’ve written about The Big Lie many times over the years, and it’s more in evidence today than ever before in our nation’s capital.  Shock and disgust over sexual harassment in government, Hollywood, and the corporate world is a Big Lie.  Tax reform is a Big lie.  Social Security is a Big Lie.  Global warming …



comment:

You could write a book on the subject!

Perhaps somebody should.  Wait!  This blog?  Nahh!  Nobody would believe that.  What makes YOU an expert is what I would hear.

Read the article, if you like the idea of truth as an organizing principle.  Wish I could convince enough people to side with me on that.

AGW theory? No. AGW is absurd.

Just another reason to doubt man made global warming ( AGW), here.

The idea for this post came from experiments with the off-grid project.  It seems that hot gases cannot heat up water very well.  Here is how I found this out:  I got the idea to put my water bottles next to the stove.  The stove gets hot, but for some reason, the bottles do not get very warm.  This is true even though the bottles are close to the flame.  Not in the flame, but close to the flame.

This got me to thinking about how inefficient hot gasses are in transmitting heat from itself to something else.  You can mentally confirm this from your own experiences.  Recall how long it takes to heat up some water for your coffee, or perhaps some hot cereal for breakfast.  The heat from that fire sure takes a long time to cause that water to boil.  This is true even though the flame is very hot indeed, and boiling water is only 212 degrees farenheit.  If gasses weren't so inefficient at heating things up, it would take a lot less propane to boil that water, don't you think?  It would save a lot of money on heating bills.

But these people want you to believe that increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air will cause the climate to get hotter.  If a flame cannot do it very well, with a flame in the thousands of degrees, then how will a few parts per million in the atmosphere do it?

This is like a feather that breaks the camel's back.  They want you to think the feather weighs more than the camel can take.  Maybe the feather is really an elephant.  What nonsense.

Obligatory, 12.9.17

Very lite blogging.  Not much reason for it, really.  However, I am getting low on data again.  I notice more and more how much the web is putting in videos that use a lot of data.  It is hard to do much web surfing any more without these contrivances limiting it through the imposition of so much useless data in the form of advertisements.

Not to mention that the news these days is nuts.  The things people focus on is not particularly interesting to me.

Really, you people.  Is all this reporting on sexual harassment all that interesting?  Not to me.

Judge Moore must really be important for these people when they devote so much to trying to defeat him.  Are they really trying to bring down the temple just to stop this guy?  It almost seems so.  But the way they do it is a farce.  It reminds me of some literature that was taught in one of my classes in college--- The Rape of the Lock.

Well, there was something pretty interesting elsewhere that I was reading, but was interrupted by an ad.

The thing is that the media and the Democrat party may be getting, shall we say, exposed.  Not that the truth actually matters.  However, if the truth does matter, it won't help that the Democrats are getting exposed for being even bigger sleaze bags than what I thought.

If people would stop taking the media so seriously, maybe that would force them to shape up.  But I wouldn't bet the ranch on it.

Sexual harrassment stuff is nuts

There should be a problem with the very idea of forcing somebody from office, or winning an election based upon nothing but an accusation.

If it is a country of laws, and if a law was violated, put that accused person on trial.  If the person is acquitted, then "where's the beef"?  No harm, no foul.

The sexual harassment brouhaha is a left wing distraction.  The so-called conservatives do no service to themselves, nor credit to themselves when they succumb to it.

Frankly, when Franken resigns, I could care less.  It has no bearing on anything except himself and those who treat what he does as important.  It really isn't important, for if it were, and if he is guilty, then why was he ever elected?

Bullshit.

Road rage incident

In the news.  The reason this caught my attention is that it is on a stretch of road that I have driven before.  A lot of it between Marble Falls and Cedar Park is prime road rage territory.  The story is that somebody was driving real slow through there.  The problem with that is that it is very hard to pass a car in that area sometimes.  So, if somebody is driving real slow, it will tend to frustrate people behind them, and that can lead to road rage.

It is a long drive that way, so I don't use it anyway.  Just another reason not to use it.

Neither the rain, snow, or sleet will stop...

my off-grid experiments.  Indeed, the bad weather we are having here is giving me the opportunity to check out some techniques for living off-grid.

For example, I have noted in the past that the dehumidifier heats up the place.  Now, it is a useful thing to know if you want water and some heat.  The temp is below 40 degrees farenheit, so that is cool enough to want to warm it up a bit.  The humidity is rather high, so I can open up a door a little, and let that humidity and fresh air in the room, while the dehumidifier warms up the place and makes a little water.

It uses a bit more electricity than what I would like, but I am compensated with warmth and water.   Is it worth it?  Well, the warmth makes it more comfortable, but do I need water when it is raining?  Not really, but if the rain stops, it will still be cool and humid.  Besides, you can always use water.

All of this may seem crazy, since I don't really need to do this for heat or water, but the idea is to train myself to do this kind of thing, for it may come in handy some day.

On the down side, you cannot make passive solar heat, nor more photovoltaic electricity.  What do you want---everything????

If it were windy, I could still make electricity that way.  But I don't have that here, and it wouldn't make sense here anyway.  That will have to wait until I get out there, if that ever happens.

What is stopping me?  Well, I may be getting a bit of a McClellan attitude here.  Too much perfectionism perhaps.

The move out there is a big step.  No rush just yet.

People are now calling for Mueller to be fired

It has taken more than six months, but these people are now echoing what I said the minute Mueller was hired.  Fire his ass!

But this Mueller business is getting more serious now.  It seems that they want to keep this up even if there is no Russian collusion.  Well, there wasn't any collusion in the first place and they knew it.  Obama had his nose up Trump's ass even before the election.  If they couldn't find anything then, then there wasn't anything to find.

Mueller will keep looking and looking.  But the problem here is that his hiring was illegal in the first place.  Any delay only prolongs the inertia of having to stop something that has gotten a lot of momentum going.

Once again, if they can't find something, they will make it up.  Or it will become a process crime.

At the very least, to fire Mueller now gives them an issue in the campaign.  Well, I toldja!

Trump isn't destroying the GOP

In my opinion, they are doing that to themselves.

It is rather obvious that they don't like the man, but they cannot relegate their opposition to honest discussion.  If they simply disliked the man and said so, I could respect them.  Instead, they make up stuff, and this is what discredits them.

If the opponents to Trump in the GOP succeed in removing him from office, it should by rights be the end of the GOP.  That is because there is a faction that cannot accept that they have lost control of the party to a man they disapprove of.  Instead of learning why they lost control, and fixing the problem that caused such a result, they do something even worse in doing something monstrously dishonest, and I daresay dishonorable.

This has been a real eye opener for me.  So many people who were supposed to be on the right side of issues have really dropped the ball here.  It should then not be any mystery why the country is drifting so far in the wrong direction.  If this is what we can expect from the "stalwarts" in the party, then the party has no "stalwarts".  Nobody that the country can depend upon.  America can only depend on Democrats to destroy what she has always been.  Where is the opposition to this? Not from this debauched and discredited party that has preceded the arrival of Trump.

Better find some people that can be trusted and respected.  The old guard has dishonored themselves and should just go away.

If Trump is so bad, it should be easy to find someone better.  Instead, they act worse than Trump ever thought about acting.

Obligatory, 12.4.17

There may be a need to upgrade my info sources.  So, I am looking around for new sources.  The old ones seem to let me down.

This impeachment idea based upon a tweet has caused me to reconsider linking to Denninger's site anymore.

It is not that I find Trump infallible.  Nope.  It is that I notice that there are too many out there that only want the sensationalism.  Denninger's site may be interested only in hyping the news so as to get pageviews.  Not interested in that stuff.  I don't do it, and neither should any source that I link to.

In short, anybody who acts like the media acts is going to find a way to get on my fecal roster sooner or later.

The latest frenzy of the Trump Tweet

This one is so convoluted that it is actually hard for me to follow.  Anyway, for an "investigation" that has a fraud at the heart of it, people are sure getting into a huff on something Trump tweeted.  It was about the firing of Flynn.

Supposedly, the tweet "admits" something that wasn't even illegal, if Dershowitz is correct.  Not only that, the entire investigation is a ( pardon the phrase ) a trumped-up affair.

So fanatical are they that they have lost all proportion.  Wasn't this supposed to be about Russian collusion in the election?  But the conversation that Flynn was said to be lying about was after the election.  So, whatever the case may be on the prevarication, it was about an immaterial point of fact, and now there is the possibility that what he "lied" about wasn't even illegal to begin with.

It would really be bizarre in the extreme for this one to go the impeachment route over a tweet over a crime that didn't happen over a lie that wasn't even material to the crime that didn't happen.  But Trump admits knowing about it before hand.  Obstruction of Justice!!!

Bullshit.

GOP tax bill passes

Yay, team!

Yeah, but whose team?  The corporatist's team, that's who.  Yes, and it is who runs the country now.  Of all the legislation that Trump couldn't get through Congress, it was this one that apparently will.

Let there be no mistake.  A reduction in taxes would be a good thing.  But the thing that should have happened is a repeal of the income tax altogether.  A tax on corporations could be kept on, just to show 'em who is boss.

But everyone knows who the real boss is now.  It is the corporations.  The Democrats are not against the corporations.  They love them.  This is all an Oscar winning performance to beat all Oscar winning performances of all time.  Corporate CEOs tend to be lefties, so what's in this for conservatives?  Typically, the left can act vitally concerned for the little guy, when in fact, they cannot lose.  Their buddies get taken care of no matter what happens.  The GOP can wear the black hats, and be sure to suffer at the polls on election day for being "for the rich".  The lefties can laugh all the way to the bank.

Meanwhile, the average Joe gets screwed again.

How does MAD theory work when everybody has nukes?

There are those who say America should learn to live with Norks having nukes.  But that would all but guarantee then that proliferation will get far, far worse.  If that treaty isn't going to be enforced, and there is a non-proliferation treaty that could be enforced, then where do you go next to deal with this threat?

What comes after MAD?

It was expected that Mutual Assured Destruction would deter any attack.  But that was in a world with few nuclear states.  If there is now to be any number of these nuclearized states, then what guarantees that a North Korea type failed state wouldn't attack if some third party agrees to rebuild their nation after it is attacked?  In this way, North Korea could attack and be attacked, and gain from it.  The damage to the USA would be far worse than North Korea.  Would you trade two American cities for two North Korean cities?  That exchange does not favor the USA.  It would incentivize the Russians or Chinese to offer assistance to North Korea if North Korea would nuke the USA cities and grievously damage it.  But what happens to the USA's interests?

It is not such a simple question as whether or not North Korea can keep its nukes.  The USA has already been attacked with asymmetrical tactics on 9-11-2001.  Such could happen again if there is a nation or nations willing to sacrifice millions of lives for the chance of destroying the credibility of the USA.  Iran has already made such a threat with respect to Israel.

So MAD cannot really work if an aggressor feels that has nothing to lose, and everything to gain by trying it.

UK Prime Minister looks a lot like a GOPe clone

The whole point seems to be in ditching the Brexit vote, seems to me.

Why bother having an election in the first place?  Just like with Judge Roy Moore, you play to win.  It seems that so-called conservatives, whether here, or elsewhere, are more interested in losing.

That said, a vote for a favorable tax rate on corporations is definitely not conservative.  That is how John McCain can favor it.  Fakes are everywhere.  The fakery is killing western civilization, no question in my mind.

Don't play by the left's rules

All of the calls for resignations from the left towards the left's politicians should not impress anybody at all.

The left is just being the left, after all.

They will gladly sacrifice one of theirs for one of yours, provided that the one they get is of higher value than the one they sacrificed.

Roy Moore is extremely valuable.  Just because a bunch of leftist pervs may be forced to resign does not mean that Moore should go, too.

It's playing by the left's rules, I say.  No moral equivalence is here.  The left is always guilty because the left is not interested in playing by the rules.  They are more interested in forcing you to play by their rules, while they are free to violate them.

This is not to approve bad behavior.  No sirree bob.  But the left doesn't give a crap about good behavior, anyway.  They don't care about women, they just use them for political power.  Same goes for all the groups that they supposedly champion.  Don't fall for their bravo sierra.

If they want to eat their own, let them!  It doesn't make them moral.  They only do it because they have to in order to remain viable.

WaPo: How to persuade people that climate change is real

 Originally posted on 11.29.17, updated on

11.30.17:

Just read something that shows a principle in action.  Hopefully, it may cause a lite to go on in someone's intellect.  What is the principle?  Let the quote provide the answer:

The terminology is not meant to engage argument, as political discussion should, but rather to end it, by putting its objects beyond the pale of discussion. --- Is Tolerance A Virtue, American Greatness

The left doesn't want discussion.  They want you to "shut up".


The original post follows:

This one got me to click on it because I want to see if this article can convince me that AGW is real.

Let us look at the "persuasion":

1. The messenger matters.  Uh-huh.  So, I am to be convinced by WHO says it, as opposed to what is being said.  So, if an authority says that X is not X, and Y is not Y, and 2 plus 2 equals 5, then by golly, I am convinced.
2. People respond to appeals based on their values.  Question:  What the hell does values have to do with whether or not climate change is real?  Are we talking values or climate change?
3. Educating people about the science can make a difference.  Comment:  Except that is not what they are doing.  What is being advocated instead is an appeal to authority, as mentioned in number 1 above (an especially useful tactic to use on conservatives, it is claimed.)  Once again:  what the hell does tactics have to do with whether or not climate change is real?
4. Emphasizing risk may spur people to action.  Yes, of course.  What is wanted is action.  But again, what does this have to do with it being real or not?  Nobody seems to be interested in the truth of the matter.  Is climate change real or not?????  No, we cannot discuss that.  Action is what is required!  Something must be done.  Boy, that really convinces me.
5. Affirming the power of the people.  Once again, this has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

All of these suggestions lend nothing to the actual argument.  Instead, the attempt seems to be directed towards diversion from the topic rather than in actually discussing it.  The discussion then veers off into irrelevant topics.

What is the truth?  Truth doesn't matter.  But they sure want to win the argument all right.  This ought to be rephrased into how to win an argument by not having the argument.  Just talking about the weather may make more sense than this type of argument.

All the smart people are for this type of argument, it is claimed.  But if they really fall for this, how smart can they be?

There seems to be people who get it.  Read the comments.

If this persuades me of anything, it is that the people advocating for AGW are anti-science, not pro-science.  For if they were for science, they would be talking science, not everything else but science.

Roy Moore or bust

That's my opinion, and it will take a nuclear blast to change it.

The only way I can explain it is by using the General Grant example.  Lincoln wanted Grant even though he was a reported drunk.  The reason Lincoln gave was that Grant would fight ( and win ).  As for the winning part, there were generals in that war that would fight, but Grant knew how to win, too.

There were those at the time who thought that Grant should have been removed.  Imagine that.  All those generals Lincoln turned to were losing the war.  Here you find Grant, and these people think it was more important to have a guy with impeccable morals, as opposed to a guy who would fight and win.  What is the objective but to win?  Why bother fighting the war at all if you are not out to win?  Does it make sense to get rid of someone who can win?  Only if the point of it all is NOT to win, in my opinion.

And so it goes with Moore.  Moore can win, and he will fight the culture war.  Our country needs him like Lincoln needed Grant.  Even if the allegations are true, I say keep him anyway.  Only when he violates a law, gets indicted for it, and subsequently convicted, do you remove him from office.

Frankly, all the sexual harassment stuff is bravo sierra as far as I am concerned.  If women put themselves in harm's way, then this goes with the territory.  Don't go home to mommy boohooing about some guy getting fresh with you, little girl.  You play with the big dogs, you get big fleas.  Grow the f**k up.

Nobody likes it when somebody pisses in their cornflakes

Did that title make you laugh?  Kinda obvious isn't it?  What I mean is, when somebody tells you that you're wrong, it tends to be like somebody pissing in your cornflakes.  Do you like somebody doing something like that?  Well, of course not.  But, on the other hand, who does anything like that literally?  What I am saying is that nobody likes it when you tell them that they are wrong.  Just trying to make it lighthearted as possible, so it won't go down like somebody really did piss on your cornflakes.

We live in a very complicated world.  Lots of people believe a lot of different things.  Not everybody can agree on what to believe.  It is hard to herd cats, and it isn't much easier to herd people.   That is assuming that you would even want to herd people.  I'm not so sure that getting people to behave like beasts that can herded, like cows, is such a good thing.

Personally, it is hard for me to understand what the objection is to Roy Moore amongst those who are religious.  Are you or are you not for the Ten Commandments?  Are you or are you not for traditional marriage?

I can understand if the objection is that Roy Moore is not a serious man.  But if the guy was willing to lose his job twice over these issues, it looks like he is at least more serious than average.  How then am I wrong to believe this?  If Moore was not serious, he would do a Pres. George H. W. Bush and do the equivalent of saying "never mind", like the SNL skits.  Bush 41, as he sometimes called, made a big deal out of not raising taxes, then betrayed that promise by raising taxes.  To me, that is not serious.  On the other hand, like Judge Moore, the willingness to risk being fired from a job because you hold to your position is exactly the kind of thing that looks serious to me.  How can he not be serious?  Roy Moore looks a lot different than the example of the Bushes.

I would need an explanation for that.  But saying that could be like pissing in somebody's cornflakes.  But you pissed first.  Know what I mean, Vern?

For those who think this is cryptic, you are right.  But try not to focus on that.  Focus on what I just said.

I know that I "piss on cornflakes" a lot on this blog.  Maybe that is why it isn't popular.  But even I can admit when I am wrong.

Show me where I am wrong.  Almost nobody even bothers to try.

Accusing the accusers

Hugh McInnish , American Thinker





comment:



A good job of debunking the claims.  Besides, this was an obvious transparent attempt to bring down Judge Roy Moore.  Glad to see someone on the job defending the man.



Washington DC is still a swamp, and most likely to remain a swamp no matter who wins.  But if Moore wins, at least there's someone there who will make at least an attempt to fight the bastards.



We need generals who will fight, like Gen. Grant in the Civil War.  What we have is a bunch of McClellans who will not fight, and when they do, it is a half assed effort.

Did Congress exempt itself from sexual harrassment laws it made for everybody else?

Denninger claims that they did.  But of course, the said law is not titled that way.  No, sir.  It is titled the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995.  ( I didn't read that last link.  Reading through laws is a pain in the backside, so I don't.)

So, let's get this straight.  The same organization that tolerates Al Franken and others, will attempt to exclude Judge Roy Moore from office ( if he wins ) on the basis of his alleged personal behavior.  Said allegations will not have to be proven in open court with witnesses under oath.  Nope.

This law was passed without dissent in either branch of Congress in the same year that the Contract with America was enacted.  One of those elements of that so-called contract was to hold Congress itself accountable to all laws it passed.  In other words, why was this new law necessary?  Psst!  In order to exempt Congress critters from the law to which they just said that they would hold themselves responsible.

All of this doesn't not sound like the country I thought we were living in.  And those congress critters are not living up to what they say.  Yet, they claim to want to maintain integrity by excluding Moore.  Like everything else, you cannot take these people at face value.  Not even those you thought you knew and trusted.

Trump’s Historic Triangulation – Lunch Alert!

Trump’s Historic Triangulation – Lunch Alert!





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Listening to this, the question arises as to the basic competency of Trump. Is he a genius, or not?



Certainly, Trump's critics will say no.  Yet, his critics did not prevail against him.  As with all things, we shall see.



It should be remembered that Reagan was underestimated as well.  An "amiable dunce", was Speaker Tip O'Neill's assessment.  It turned out to be quite wrong.

After 30 years, alarmists still predicting global warming apocalypse

Free Republic


It isn't about saving the Earth, or fighting so-called climate change.  If it were, the solutions are readily available, and have been since the beginning of this meaningless hysteria.

Sometimes, I wish that something could be found that could shut this down for good.  It would be like a silver bullet, or a wooden stake.  Yeah, a wooden stake.  These creatures are like vampires, that suck the blood of their victims until they make somebody into one of them.

They are even afraid of a crucifix.  Would garlic work too?

AGW Theory sucks!

Has corruption overtaken the USA?

Reading the Market Ticker may convince you of this.

Actually, you may get quite alarmed in reading some of this stuff.

Now, when you read that, and then you may begin to understand their reaction against Judge Roy Moore.  In the same vein, there is the same type of reaction to Trump.  Roy Moore and Trump want to bring back the rule of law.  That is, if they are sincere about it.

I have been saying that you cannot take people at face value.  To do so may be a big mistake.   Yet, people do trust these sources, such as the Washington Post, and their influence is real.

Johnny Rivers --- Mountain of Love

Oldie, but goodie.  Man, how things have changed.  Before I started listening to Grand Funk, I liked Johnny Rivers.  Lol.   Yeah, and the Four Seasons back in the Sixties once seemed pretty good.  What changed?  From that time to this time, even more change than that.

As for this song, the music doesn't go with the lyrics.  It doesn't sound like a sad song, but the lyrics are sad.  If the music went with the lyrics, it would never sell.  Does that mean that sad stuff doesn't sell, unless it is maudlin?  The song might sell if the mood was maudlin, these days.  Who knows?

Time to be a grouch

Man, am I getting sick and tired of all the commercialism.  If you click on a link to read something, you also get a sorry video that takes up a lot of precious bandwidth.

Here I am, trying to stay on a budget, and they keep doing this stuff.

Several years ago, five gig was plenty.  Now, ten gig isn't enough.  Most of that is junk.

Bitch, bitch, bitch.

Don't be a wanker

I got a good laugh out of that expression when it was being used in a conversation recently.  But what makes a thing funny is the degree of truth in it.

So, it raises a serious question.  What does all of this really accomplish?  I am referring to everything that I am doing right now, including this here blog.

Well, let's look over the "accomplishments".  Almost a half-million pageviews, over 11k posts, not nearly all that many comments ( over 300 including a great deal written by me ), over a period of more than seven years.

That's the blog.  In comparison to other blogs, not that hot.  But better than nothing.

I've gotten 3 1/2 years paid off of my property out west.  I have practiced the hell out of my severe conservation techniques for preparations for living in the desert.  I am sure I can subsist off of five gallons of water per day.  Not so sure about the electricity, maybe under 3 kwh per day.  Not real sure about my power generation system that I will use.  Don't have a shelter up.  Don't have a septic system, which is required by state law and the terms of sale.

The big hangup now is money.

I could put the costs of the thing on credit, it is the paying off of the debt that is the trouble.  But as of now, I still have good credit.  That counts for something.

I have a trailer, but I don't know if I want to use it out there.

In short, I could be positioned to make the leap any time I want.  It is a matter of being ready.  I am wondering if I could ever really be ready.  My health is a concern.  A big concern.  Not to mention security.  There are bad dudes in the area.   So, there's that.

It would be a big leap of faith to go soon.  So, if I don't go, does it mean that I am not accomplishing anything of substance, or like what the title says?

Is it just jerking off, then?  What do I really want out of this is key.  Would I be satisfied with moral victories, or is that is being a wanker?

It isn't bothering me, in case anybody is wondering.  Perhaps "success" is in the eye of the beholder.

Well, if you can't take a joke....

Don Surber: Charlie Rose shows how not to apologize

Don Surber: Charlie Rose shows how not to apologize: In recent days, America has learned there is a whole legion of lecherous lefties out there - the Joe Biden Brigade.


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If the left wins the Alabama Senate seat that Judge Roy Moore is seeking, would it be a Pyrrhic Victory?

What's gonna be left when they get through with this war that they started?

Jerks.

Global Warming Fake

Updated:

8:40

Nothing really new here.  Just one more confirmation of what I wrote before.  That one was about the Gas Laws.

Putting the phrase "gas laws" in my editor turned up 18 posts.  I supposed I have beaten this subject to death.  If you put it in the search box at the left sidebar, you can turn up even more posts.

Maybe the subject is like Dracula.  Only a wooden stake to the heart of this beast will kill it.

6:30


More and more I can see evidence of the falsity of the AGW hypothesis.  The other day, I was at the stove, and metal got red hot.

This gave me pause.  What was making the metal hot?  A gas.  What happened to the gas?  It moved into the room, making it hotter.  But what happened to the metal?  In order to answer that, I decided to try something.  I wanted to see how close I could get to the hot spot of the metal before I felt the heat from it.  The point being that the heat in the metal stays close to its origin.  However, the heat from the gas moves throughout the room.  Open the door, then the heat goes out.

Now, take that thought, and apply it to the rhetoric about AGW.  Carbon dioxide, which is a gas, is supposed to be trapping heat, thus making the temperatures go up.

But no gas can trap heat.  In order to trap something, it must be held in place, not spread around.  Gases release heat, they do not trap heat.  It is therefore impossible for carbon dioxide to trap heat. Unless....

What about the planet Venus?  What explains the hellish temperatures on that planet?  The answer is that gravity traps heat.  That and the amount of gas makes it more dense, like a metal is dense.  It is the same with a liquid.  A liquid is more dense than a gas.  Therefore, liquids will be more likely to trap heat.  The surface of Venus has a pressure that is equivalent to being under several thousand feet of water.  The molecules of gas are pressed together closer, like a liquid or a metal.  It is this quality that makes heat trapping a possibility.

The Venusian atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide.  But so is Mars.  Mars does not have enough atmosphere to trap heat, so I have heard.  It is only one percent that of Earth, and one hundredth of a percent of the pressure of Venus.   Well, then, there you are.  It is the amount of gas in the atmosphere that traps the heat, not its composition.  If the atmosphere of Venus was exactly like the Earth in type of gases, it would still be a very hot place, provided that there was 100 times more of it, as is the case with the atmosphere of Venus.

Humans cannot begin to change the atmosphere to make it like Venus.  We would all die long before that happened.  Besides, there isn't enough oxygen to make carbon dioxide that would be enough to make a difference, even if we could.

AGW is a fraud.

David Brooks' sermon on Idolatry and Heresy

There's some links on this stuff, since it was on PBS.  But there are some problems with it, may be related to this computer or to the website itself.  I don't know which, so I won't link.

The problem here is presumption of guilt, when the evidence isn't sworn and in open court.  Therefore, it is meaningless in the legal sense.  It is 100% political.

Another problem is bringing in the religion-speak, with words like heresy and idolatry.

It strikes me as rather odd that a guy on a leftist outfit tries to give sermons about religion.  The leftists have historically been anti-religion.

Thirdly, as usual, the left gets it backward.  The ones practicing idolatry are the leftists.  They are the one politicizing this thing.  It is rather unfortunate that the so-called right has chimed in as usual, with a mea culpa over a matter that does not involve themselves.  Now, who is politicizing this thing????

The Ten Commandments is heresy?  You don't say.  Coulda fooled me.  Does that mean the left agrees with Judge Moore, then?  Don't bet on it.

Amusing

Tax cuts for the rich really are tax cuts for the rich.

Now that's rich.

If John "McStain" blows this one up, fine with me.  But the thing I oppose has always been the cut on corporate taxes ( whether they actually pay them or not).

What is reality? ( or what is truth )

Plato's Cave and Our Current Reality



Earick Ward, American Thinker



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He postulates that it may be more force than reason.  Whatever the case may be, if you should win a battle on its merits and the potential for victory is there, you should go for victory.

I think of this every time an issue like the alleged behavior of Judge Roy Moore comes up.  Supposedly, the conservative thing to do is to roll up into a little ball and roll into the nearest hole so you can crawl into it.

When it is an issue like the Ten Commandments ( and Judge Moore), one that you could win, and should win, then by golly go for the win.  If that is "force", then we need to have "conservatives" who are willing to be more forceful.  This schtick of theirs is nothing that I would call conservative.  Since when is conservatism defined in this way?

It means nothing if you are not willing to put something into it.  So-called conservatives are just playing around if they aren't willing to pledge their "life, liberty, and their sacred honor".  For that is what it took to make this nation, and that is what it is going to take to keep it.

So-called conservatives are not willing, it seems, to do any of that.  "Let's not get our hands dirty", seems to be the thinking.

The Bushes Brought Hillary Back To Life – Lunch Alert!

The Bushes Brought Hillary Back To Life – Lunch Alert!


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Yes, and Hillary is still alive with this garbage over Judge Roy Moore. She pretends to be "accountable", or tries to link "accountability" with the Democrats and herself.  This is like Al Capone trying to be the Untouchables.  The Clintons are also like the Houdinis of politics.  Here is another Houdini act being attempted.  She wants to stay in the mix.

Compare this lunch alert with what I wrote about the Bushes before. It isn't just the Bushes.  The entire GOP is infected with this weak mindedness from this tribe.  If Reagan had not have chosen Bush, this stuff would not be happening.

Just exactly what does it mean to be a conservative?  If you cannot preserve the Constitution and insist that the rule of law be followed, the what does it mean?  It is only a word without meaning.  There can be no more conservative thing to do than to defend the constitution as written.

Judge Roy Moore is being accused of something that almost any man can be accused of doing.  With that alone, they are attempting to destroy his candidacy.  Sorry, but there are courts of law.  If someone has a beef, take it to court.  If Moore is convicted, then and only then do you remove your political support.  Otherwise, the left can destroy you at will.  You will never be able to stop the left like that.

The left didn't care that Bill Clinton was caught red handed in a lie.  What credibility do they have?

What credibility does the so called conservatives have when they allow this?

O.J. Simpson Murder Case

That's old news, huh?  Not really.  It could well have been an early warning of what is happening right before our eyes right now.

It struck me just now, that while reading the book Outrage, by Vincent Bugliosi, that there were no eyewitnesses to the murder.  Nor anybody who at least heard a commotion during the murder as it was happening.  You see, how does a murderer kill two people with nobody hearing a single thing nor seeing a single thing?  It wasn't mentioned in the book, that I can recall.

We seem to have plenty of witnesses to "groping", but to a murder there was NOBODY?????

Consider the type of murder it was.  It was quite physical.  Wouldn't there have been a lot of NOISE???????  There wasn't any guns involved.   Just a man with a knife managed to kill two people, one of them a man.  PUHLEEZE.  The very fact that a man was able to kill two people in the second largest city in the nation without WITNESSES seems rather odd to me.  Nobody was willing to come forward at the trial?

Why do you suppose that there are a large number of "witnesses" to "groping" when there is no witness to a brutal murder of two people?

People are afraid to come forward, don't you think?  But they are not afraid to come forward in the case of the "gropings".  I think they both have something in common.  The murder witnesses that didn't come forward were lying by omission.  Those that do come forward now about groping are lying by commission.

I don't believe the women.  They did something to provoke the men, most likely.  Then they run  to the authorities with their complaints, which the authorities are all too willing to believe.  The usual suspects capitulate because they just cannot do anything.

My ass.  Nobody does anything because they are too damn weak to do anything.

Too much power in the office of the Presidency

That may be an argument in favor of the Ten Commandments, and a reason to support the candidacy of Roy Moore.

There is just way too much public attention vested in the politics of the chief executive of this country.  Historically speaking, the one Civil War that this country had was largely started over the election of Abraham Lincoln to the White House.

If there is too much power in one man, it could degenerate into a cult of personality, not unlike what happened in the time of Rome, and in modern times as well.

To offset that, a belief in a Supreme Being could be an anti-dote.

Now, let's look at the objections to the Ten Commandments.  Aside from the first two commandments, the much of the rest isn't even likely to raise an argument.  Most, if not all people will agree that people should not steal, commit murder, cheat on your spouse, nor bear false witness against your neighbor.  Nor should anybody covet other people's possessions, or anything else that your neighbor has.

The one against graven images is one that is of interest here.  It otherwise known as idolatry, and you may get a significant amount of support that this is a bad thing.  That is what a cult of personality is, after all.

So, what is the big problem with the Ten Commandments?  One may argue that this is what modern day society is based upon, anyway.  The one objectionable part would be about a Supreme Being.

Okay, but if you don't serve a Supreme Being, do not you not end up serving a man-made one?  Isn't that what could happen if a megalomaniac gets in charge of this country, or any country for that matter?

Trump may or may not be such a person.  But if he were, Moore would not necessarily be one of his alleged unthinking followers, provided that he is sincere about the Ten Commandments.

The people most susceptible to the kind of thinking that may bring upon this nation a dictatorship are the very people who claim to be against it.  Could it be that they are not against dictators, just the "wrong" kind of dictator--- a dictator that they do not agree with.  But in the end, all dictators become oppressive to just about everybody else.

Of course, you don't have to have the Ten Commandments to achieve a measure of protection against a cult of personality.  Our Constitution does a fair job of that.  But our Constitution may not be enough.  If people do not honor it, it could also fall by the wayside.  Isn't that what so-called conservatives were saying about Barak Hussein Obama?  Isn't that what Trump's critics are saying about him now? 

Anything built by man can be overcome.  That is a paraphrasing of General George Patton from the movie Patton..  He was criticizing the West Wall that the Nazis built against an invasion from the west during the second world war.  If walls can be overcome, so can Constitutions.  If there are those who wish to overcome that organizing document, they have already come a long way toward that goal.  Meanwhile, they have used the Constitution as an argument in order to overcome the much older document known as the Ten Commandments.

Nobody can be too sure about the works of human beings.  It may well be fallible as we all are.