Saturday, December 1, 2018

Obligatory, 12.1.18

No posts for yesterday, and today was a workday.  Just got back in from Austin, and although I didn't fly, my arms are tired anyway.

Might as well mention that last month set a new record for pageviews.  It broke the old record by a little over a hundred, so it didn't smash it.

What was the number?  Just under 20k for the month.  How many of those pageviews are legit, I couldn't say.  But I would guess that the vast majority of them weren't.

I would thank the "bots", but they wouldn't know the difference anyway.  As for the real live humans who come here, thanks for coming by.  Despite appearances, the blog hasn't died yet.  It will die when I do, unless I change my mind.  That has been known to happen.  After a moment pause, that changing the mind business should be clarified.  There is no intention to come back from the grave and post from the nether regions.  Some people might think I do that anyway.


Thursday, November 29, 2018

Nobel Laureate says Global Warming is Pseudoscience


He is too kind.  In my opinion, Man-made Global Warming (AGW) a big lie.

But a lot of people believe it.  Okay, so what do you do about that?  Well, one thing I heard is that for a lie to succeed, it requires somebody who is willing to believe the lie.

In other words, if you are open to the truth, a lie cannot succeed.

I dare anyone to watch this video, and not be convinced that he trying to tell the truth.  But I challenge what he says as being too generous.  It isn't even pseudoscience.  I say that AGW is a fraud.  But if you are inclined to be open in your thinking, maybe you would consider watching this video, and let your belief be challenged---either way!

For maybe he can convince you to be more forgiving of these people who believe this fraud ( my word for it).  To him, they are just mistaken.  I am more inclined to believe that these are just evil people who are fooling a lot of gullible people.  I don't know if I can forgive the gullible, either.  They are too lazy to think for themselves.  The fraudsters are doing it for money and power.  They are relying upon the weaknesses of others in order to get their ill-gotten gains.

Gullibility is a variant of the one of the seven deadly sins, which is sloth.  Sloth is the unwillingness to do what is necessary.  It is necessary to think about this, and to do it honestly, and with a great respect for truth.  For a liar can only succeed if somebody is willing to believe the lies.

Update:

Why not be more forgiving to the gullible who fall for this stuff?  Because I see that in myself.  I fell for AGW myself, and plus a few other things that the libs peddle to the unsuspecting sheep.

If you get burned for something, you are more likely to remember it.





Caddyshack Gopher Dance

The gopher is fake.  But it's not so bad.  They couldn't find a real gopher, so they had to make a mechanical one to do this dance.




Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Dick Morris: What the GOP Did Wrong in 2018


A better question is what did they do right?





Trump bashes GM decision

Not sure what the plan is for GM.  Is it to drive them into bankruptcy?  If so, what does that accomplish?

I hate the bailouts as much as anyone.  The problem is that they don't solve the underlying problems, and the problems return.

GM was destined to get into trouble again.  I may even have predicted it on this blog.  After doing a search on it, there are many articles here that are critical of what Obama did with respect to General Motors.  Can't say that it was I who predicted it, but somebody did.





Fake news busted

Looks like they are still suckers for this hacked emails phoney baloney story.  These guys want to try to manufacture a crime out of thin air.

The easiest way to establish that the emails were hacked would have been for the DNC to allow access to the FBI.  They refused.  Now, in order to keep this phoney baloney story credible, they have to make up new stories like this one.

It isn't going anywhere.  Also in the news is that the Democrats in the House aren't going to go after Trump so hard after all.  There's a good reason for them not to.  If they keep this alive, they are going to regret it.





Tuesday, November 27, 2018

A pattern emerges: The use of hearsay as evidence

Heck, if you watch Judge Judy, you might hear her disallow "evidence" as hearsay.  Too bad that our own government, which you would suppose would have greater credibility than a TV court, would actually allow hearsay to be used as evidence.

Mueller is using hearsay in his "investigation".  But the investigation itself has hearsay as its basis.  The basis of the investigation is the DNC hacked emails.  But the hacked email claim is just a claim based upon hearsay.  If you cannot see the actual servers, which the DNC denied access, then how can you claim this as evidence?  But they did.  Now we have Mueller investigating a phantom based upon a fabrication.

None of this would hold up in Judge Judy's court.  But I guess the US court system will say otherwise.


Mark Wauk: Is The Deep State Feeling The Heat?


Other posts by Wauk linked on this blog:




This one is about the possible declassification of documents that might link the UK to the Deep State coup attempt against POTUS Trump.  There is a story about how UK intelligence is trying to suppress the release of these documents.




Polls schmolls

Gallup has Trump's approval rating way down, but Rasmussen has it over 50 percent.  Who's right and who's wrong?

You can get a poll to say whatever you want.  Rasmussen polls this all the time, but does Gallup?  Does Gallup poll likely voters like Rasmussen?  Indeed, how can these kind of polls have this big of a variance?  Somebody has to be full of crap.


Chevy Volt will be discontinued

Yep, you can call me an enthusiast for electrical cars even though I don't own one.

Chevrolet is discontinuing six different cars that they make, and the Volt is one of them.

It's too bad, and I'm not so sure that the Chevrolet is all that bad.  The Cruze is being discontinued too, even though it is highly rated.

If GM goes bankrupt, that could be a problem.

Anyway, the Volt uses the same kind of hybrid system that a locomotive uses.  Diesel powered locomotives spin up a generator that runs an electric motor.  This works well for locomotives, but apparently not for cars.  Unless Chevrolet did something wrong with its design.  I am a bit doubtful that they did.

A Stirling powered hybrid would be more efficient than an internal combustion engine, and might be able to run on any kind of fuel.  Ford experimented with Stirlings back in the seventies.  My recollection is that the Stirling took too long to warm up.  This wouldn't matter if it was paired with an electric engine.  The two types of engines could complement each other, just as a gasoline engine does.

Anyway, we may be taking a step backward with this news.  It is too bad.  It is probably a bad sign for electrical cars in general, and American made cars in particular.  Watch out Tesla.


Monday, November 26, 2018

Thomas Paine: American Crisis


Whether you admit it to yourself or not, all of Western Civilization is in crisis.

Perhaps a bit of history to remind those who may want some inspiration to carry on.  There are those who may want to give up.  Did Thomas Paine have this in mind?  It looks like he did.

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.

Thomas Paine: American Crisis https://t.co/8t1kOrM5BV


Shutdown or cave in?

The Democrats are going to try to save Mueller through the budget process.  Trump is saying that he wants to shut down the government if he doesn't get a wall.  So what is likely to happen?

If the Democrats dig in, and if Trump digs in, there won't be a budget.  More than likely, there will be a continuing resolution that freezes spending at current levels.

Nobody gets anything.  However, if there is a shutdown, somebody is going to give in.  Usually, it is the GOP.  I think that is what the Democrats are counting on.

Hey, you can be happy, or you can fight.  Most people will take the easy way out, and quit.  I can give an example, but it probably isn't worth mentioning, so I won't.

If Trump is good as his word, and shuts down the government, there's going to be a lot of unhappy people out there.  But what we might find out is that the world won't come to an end, and the lies about that may finally be put to rest.  If Mueller can finally be shit canned, then all the better.  At least, one can hope so.


Sunday, November 25, 2018

Truth and poverty, it is the hard way

Two things about this blog over the years that bear repeating.  Even though in the beginning, the idea was to make money, I decided to forego that even if the possibility existed to make money with this blog.  Why?  Money corrupts.  Money makes you subject to the whims of your benefactors.  In other words, if somebody gives you money, they can influence what you have to say.  If you displease them, they can remove your financial support.  This has a chilling effect on the truth.

The other is truth itself.

No claim on ultimate truth here.  Truth is hard to find because deception is the rule, not the exception.  The world is always trying to fool you, and yes, it more often than not succeeds.  So, perhaps the truth is not the word I should be using, it should be the quest for truth.  For it may not be found.  It is hidden under a mountain of lies.

All of this is hard to do.  Even if you succeed, nobody will care.  So why do it?

Why indeed.  But the truth is better than a lie.  Good things are hard.  At least I'd like to think so.

Maybe I will do it out of plain old stubborness.

Yesterday I saw a story about Jerry Van Dyke.  It was claimed that he raped his daughter, and then pimped her out to other movie stars.  After everything that I just wrote about truth, a story like this may be a vicious lie, or it may be a sad truth.  Which is it?

This much is true:  His daughter committed suicide.  She also was a porn actress.  Since this happened to her, the accusation against her father takes on the possibility of being true.  Why would she do this to herself unless something drove her to it?  She was also said to be a substance abuser.  Others may say that it was this that pushed her over the edge.

Was there a way out for her?  She may not have seen a way out.  Maybe suicide is the easy way out for someone who does not believe in the hereafter.  One moment of pain, and all of that horrible stuff ends.  But what if that is not true?  An eternity in hell that is far worse?  To deal with the pain in your life might be harder, but the result could be a lot better.  Death will come eventually no matter what you do to prevent it.  Better to be alive than dead.  Even if you hurt, you are alive.  If you don't kill yourself, maybe you won't go to hell.  If you believe there is no hell, then at least you lived as best you could while you lived.  That would be better.