Quote of the day—Reza Aslan @rezaaslan

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You are “the depraved evil” we need to eradicate.

Reza Aslan @rezaaslan
Tweeted on August 4, 2019
[This was in response to this tweet:

We need to come together, America.

Finger-pointing, name-calling & screaming with your keyboards is easy, yet…

It solves not a single problem, saves not a single life.

Working as one to understand depraved evil & to eradicate hate is everyone’s duty. Unity.

Let’s do this.

Kellyanne Conway @KellyannePolls
August 4, 2019

What’s even more telling about the way this person thinks is this response when someone points out Aslan is “calling for the murder of @KellyannePolls”:

I understand why a gun freak would read this as threatening violence. It’s how you all think.

How can someone not conclude that someone calling for the eradication of another person or group of people is not a threat of violence? Ever read a speech given by a genocidal tyrant? That is exactly the type of language they use.

The answer is that to the political left even physical violence committed by them is considered “free speech” while insults against the political left are considered “violent rhetoric”.

Adults need to stand up and put these type of people in their place. Don’t buy his books, don’t take his classes, and use him as an example of present day people advocating for geocide.—Joe]

Mount Rainier Skyline Trail Loop

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Barb and I have visited Mount Rainier several times. There have been others but here are the ones I have blogged about:

Over the weekend we went again. This time Barb reserved a campsite (reservation required and they are booked six months in advance) so we would be closer to the Skyline Trail Loop and could get an early start and find parking. We still had to park about a half mile away from the trail head.

20190803_184229 

She has been wanting to go on this hike for years but it never seemed to work out. We took the upper loop and probably were within 2 miles of Camp Muir.

The weather was stunning. The air was clear, the temperature was pleasant, and there was no wind. The views were stunning.

20190803_134103

Continue reading →

Quote of the day—Paul Quinn‏ @PQuinn2007

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Yet another lifelong member of the micro penis club chimes in. With yet another totally lame & stupid comment.

Paul Quinn‏ @PQuinn2007
Tweeted on July 18, 2019
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!

H/T to The Original SPQR in 3D‏ @SPQRzilla.

The best response as of the time of creating this post was from s a hinchcliffe‏ @SAHinchcliffe. She said:

Yet another misogynist exposes his Pro-Rape, Pro-Domestic Violence support

SexistPig

I have nothing to add to that.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Thomas Sowell

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The grand fallacy of the political left is that decisions are better made by third parties who pay no price for being wrong. Much of the 20th century has been taken up proving how tragically mistaken that theory is, all around the world. But those who want to be the third-party decision-makers remain undaunted.

Thomas Sowell
March 6, 1999
THOMAS SOWELL: Back again – random thoughts
[This is true in economics, personal ethics, self-defense choices, and all but a few special cases mostly covered by the enumerated powers given to the U.S. government in the constitution.

At this point I’m convinced it’s only a fallacy or mistaken belief on the part of the useful and professional idiots. Those who are smart enough to rise and retain political power have to know the truth.

Evidence for making the case for the 21st century will be little different from the 20th is Venezuela.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Coalition to Stop Gun Violence

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Disgusting anti-government violent rhetoric from Cherokee Guns in North Carolina. Threats against members of Congress, particularly minority members are and it is driven by the president’s racial rhetoric This is dangerous!!!

Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
July 2019
Gun shop billboard mocks “the Squad,” calling four congresswomen “idiots
[This is the “Disgusting anti-government violent rhetoric”:

CherokeeGuns

There is nothing “anti-government”,“violent”, or a threat in this.

It’s to be expected. Anti-gun people lie all the time. It’s part of their culture.—Joe]

Power hunger

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I find present day politics fascinating and scary. For example:

Bloomberg @business tweeted:

An emerging trend in this debate: Kamala Harris very clearly only wants to debate Joe Biden. Every time she’s been challenged by a lower-polling candidate, she takes it back to Biden

In response Ellen Pompeo @EllenPompeo tweeted:

Because she’s overconfident and believes he is her only competition

This was one of the responses:

Let me be very clear this was racist

The consensus appears to agree with the racist declaration despite the fact it is extremely clear there is no racism.

This is political correctness run amok.

I used to wonder how it was possible things could get so messed up in the USSR and Nazi Germany that they could execute people for speaking what most people knew to be the truth. Now I see the virulent roots of this growing in our country.

When those who insist they should have the power to control other people get most of what they want they don’t stop. They find more things and people they must control. In many people it appears hunger for power is never sated. Read The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (Volume One). Even when such people have the power to murder others on any imagined slight, and no matter how many they murder, the hunger cannot be satisfied.

Insist they obey the constitution. Vote them out, put adults in charge, and have a backup plan.

See also a previous post on this same topic.

Quote of the day—Kalev Leetaru

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the sad reality of the encryption debate is that after 30 years it is finally over: dead at the hands of Facebook. If the company’s new on-device content moderation succeeds it will usher in the end of consumer end-to-end encryption and create a framework for governments to outsource their mass surveillance directly to social media companies, completely bypassing encryption.

In the end, encryption’s days are numbered and the world has Facebook to thank.

Kalev Leetaru
July 26, 2019
The Encryption Debate Is Over – Dead At The Hands Of Facebook
[Via email from Chet who referred me to Slashdot, which linked to Bruce Schneier, who linked to the article quoted above.

The article says WhatsApp will be, or perhaps already has been, compromised by Facebook. Moving to Signal is probably warranted but that is no guarantee of security. Furthermore, I think blaming Facebook for this is a little unfair.

Back when I was working for Pacific Northwest National Labs I suggested the government could add code to whatever O/S a particular set of terrorists were fond of using and then “upgrade” their phone to send duplicate copies of messages, phone calls, and even record conversations when the phone was believed to be “asleep”. To the best of my knowledge the suggestion went nowhere. But that doesn’t mean I was just very late to the game and there was no need to tell me it had already been done.

Similar things can be done to your Windows and/or Apple devices. You upgrade your computers and other communications devices all the time to guard against security vulnerabilities. But how do you know you aren’t also installing a custom version of the O/S dictated to Apple, Google, and/or Microsoft, by government spies?

If you want communication security you will need to make sure your O/S is secure as well as the applications and the channels it transmits over. It’s not an easy thing to ensure.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Sebastian

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Overarching, and across the world, is the fight over globalism. I’ve said in the end globalism will win, because it’s being driven by technological change at its root. The struggle isn’t whether we have transnational systems where the nation state plays a less important role: that will happen. The struggle is whether globalism will be a democratic movement that is controlled by the people for the people’s benefit, or whether it will be a aristocratic movement that benefits the transnational aristocrats. It’s been set up as the latter, and the people are, across the globe, calling foul.

The struggle over the RKBA is downstream of that fight, but what we’re seeing I think fits in the overall struggle. It’s a theme repeated throughout history that aristocrats do not like their subjects being armed. So it was practically inevitable that when the people started asserting themselves against this cultivated global order, the counter-reaction was the aristocracy returning to their traditional fears and anxieties about armed peasants. That anxiety is acting itself out among the pool of Democratic candidates.

Sebastian
July 31, 2019
What Money Can Buy
[He has a valid point.

The counter point is that 100 million people with 300+ million guns and billions of rounds of ammo can make themselves heard and respected…if they have the will to do so.—Joe]

Reaping the benefits of socialist governance

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Seattle has admitted socialists on the city council and a terrible homeless problem which they insist on making worse. They are now reaping the benefits. The most recent is businesses leaving town:

Many Seattle businesses have petitioned the city regarding threats to both employee and customer safety. Now, one of the Puget Sound region’s most notable fast food chains — Dick’s Drive -In — is voicing those same concerns.

“The public safety situation that we’re in right now in Seattle is unacceptable,” Dick’s Drive-In President Jasmine Donovan told KTTH’s Saul Spady.

They already drove all the gun stores out of town. And, if they could, they would prohibit concealed carry. It is easy to conclude they are deliberately trying to destroy the city by making it impossible to defend yourself and inviting criminals to a specially prepared feeding ground..

We live in interesting times

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Via Kevin.

I find this very interesting:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House Democrats’ powerful campaign arm, has just abruptly purged half a dozen staffers. Why? Because they are white.

It appears that no one had anything against these particular staffers … except for the color of their skin. Although roughly half the committee’s full-time staff (13 of 27) were nonwhite, this was not enough for some Democratic members of Congress. They complained DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos of Illinois had brought in too many white staffers when she won the position. And they put enough pressure on her that she sacrificed her loyal staffers to the god of diversity.

Slate says they resigned instead of being fired. So does The Hill. But they could have been given “an offer they couldn’t refuse” so it would give the DCCC a way to avoid legal action.

The Blaze has an interesting take on it.

That we have a major political party purging people from jobs because of the color of their skin forebodes some very interesting times ahead. That the people being discriminated against are the majority population is even more interesting. It would seem, long term, that will not end well for the minority engaged in racist discrimination.

Quote of the day—Milo Yiannopoulos @m

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I would support a modest income tax rise to issue every citizen with a gun when they reach the age of 21.

Milo Yiannopoulos @m
Via Gab on July 30, 2019
[As amusing as I find this, I would like to think it is just as unconstitutional as government provided food, housing, and healthcare.—Joe]

I don’t think so

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I have listened to, read about, and commented on Fascitelli for almost 10 years*. I know enough about him that I think he’s probably a nice guy. I don’t think he is stupid either. He has changed his stance toward gun control and gotten a lot smarter about things (read the links below* and see how his attitude has changed over the years). But this indicates he has some other problem:

They’ve been working on Philadelphia-based Lodestar for a couple of years now. The duo recruited Ginger Chandler, a former Remington executive, to design the product, which, Fascitelli says, will be a gun accompanied by an RFID tag (some argue for fingerprint technology). Smart guns reached a turning point this summer, when New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy reformed that state’s law to allow more research and development of smart guns.

Lodestar, which raised $250,000, is now looking for an additional $3 million to finish its prototype. Its three-person payroll is about $10,000 a month while the team waits for the shift in the political landscape to catch funders’ interest. They estimate potential sales at $1 billion, or about 40% of the 7-million-unit handgun market.

I’ve pointed out the probably unsurmountable problems with his proposed product and company before. But this is another layer of frosting on that cake.

Can he possibly believe their product has a realistic chance at 40% of the handgun market? I don’t think so. Perhaps the author of the article twisted his words, I could believe that. I’ve been misquoted enough that I can give him the benefit of the doubt here. Otherwise one has to conclude he is lying and/or delusional. In the past there have been a number of hints this was true but in recent years he seems to have gotten that pretty much under control.

* Here is a partial list of my posts quoting or referring to him:

They can’t grasp reality

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These people have a tough time with reality:

State Estimators Struggle To Define Assault Weapon

“Whether I had a 5 round, 10 round, 15, whatever, I mean it would still be capable of holding, in theory, more than 10 that would then put it in the parameters of this ban,” explained Cunningham.

But that’s not how Gail Schwartz Ban Assault Weapons Now chairwoman sees it.  She wasn’t at the meeting but last month in an interview month said the ban is an attempt to prevent weapons she says are designed for mass murder.

“What we’re trying to do is prevent the sale of military grade assault weapons such as the AR-15 and the AK-47 being sold in the state of Florida,” said Schwartz.

Putting aside the fact that no firearms matching the new AR-15s and “AK-47s” being sold in Florida have ever been issued to (probably) any military on the planet there is enough remaining nonsense to make a convincing case these people should be told they don’t know what they are talking about and then ignored.

We’ve been telling them since before the 1994 “assault weapon” ban that you can’t define “assault weapon” in an unambiguous way. They can’t grasp that reality. This is true even when unbiased experts tell them they are talking nonsense.

They are simply reality impaired. The grownups need to take charge here.

Facts are irrelevant

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Regarding the Gibson bakery next to the Oberlin SJW college stuff from a over a month. The bakery stopped a couple of shoplifters and prosecuted them. They ultimately plead guilty. The college encouraged, and some professors participated in, protests of the racism of the bakery owners. This libel and slander resulted in great economic and reputational harm to the bakery and owners. They sued and won millions of dollars from the college. See also here.

I found this in my overloaded queue of things to blog about:

Here’s Oberlin’s litigation position, from its court filings: “Gibson bakery’s archaic chase-and-detain policy regarding suspected shoplifters was the catalyst for the protests. The guilt or innocence of the students is irrelevant to both the root cause of the protests and this litigation.” Get that? Whether the students accused of shoplifting had actually been shoplifting or not was irrelevant to whether it was fair to accuse the store of racism etc for detaining the students as shoplifters. The fault lay with the bakery owners for daring to actually stop and prosecute shoplifters!

Wow! The college lawyers actual said that. Not only is chasing and detaining shoplifters “archaic” but the guilt of the students is irrelevant. An ordinary person who would claim this in my presence would get a laugh and an immediate dismissal from me as having crap for brains. But a lawyer, supposedly trained to respect the law, claiming this is mind boggling.

What color is the sky in their universe? What sort of twisted world view thinks they can get away with this? These are the crazy years prophesized of by Heinlein. Either this is the end of times for rational thought or it is the wake up call for the adults to take charge.

Short history of Milton Friedman

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Milton Friedman is one of the big names in economics and one of the few that makes sense to me. Here is a short history of his life.

Quote of the day—MJ @morganisawizard

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if who the president is actually scares you then clearly that office has way too much power

MJ @morganisawizard
Tweeted on July 24, 2019
[You would think this is obvious in hindsight and clearly applies equal to any of the half dozen or so political parties I can think of who conceivably could hold the office. But somehow there is a substantial number of people do not think it applies when one of their tribe is in power.

For some reason that scares me as much as the amount of power the president holds. How can people be so blind?—Joe]

The left is preparing for Civil War II

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Via email from Chet.

‘If others have rifles, we’ll have rifles’: why US leftist groups are taking up arms

Armed antifascists groups say they want to protect events from malicious and potentially armed groups – an increasingly common phenomenon

The van lumbered down one of Seattle’s many steep hills. A half dozen people packed inside but despite the heat, most wore long pants and boots, and several sported black hoodies. The atmosphere was subdued, except for the occasional joke. It wasn’t so much tension as seriousness – there was work to be done.

The people in the van are members of the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club (PSJBGC). Their stated aim is to fight white supremacy and build community defense in America’s Pacific north-west, and their presence has become a fixture of protests in the Seattle and Tacoma areas, where the group is often invited to provide security against rightwing aggression.

We live in interesting times with multiple sides believing they have the moral high ground in a conflict of visions. When have we heard this before? Maybe in the 1860s?

I thought government regulation was for consumer protection

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This is an obscure but publicly available bit of information from the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services who recently announced:

Final health insurance rate decisions lower 2020 premiums by $44 million

The Oregon Division of Financial Regulation issued final rate decisions for small businesses and individuals who buy their own health insurance.

“Our collaborative rate review process has been key to building a stable health insurance market that enabled us to limit the individual market rate increase to an average of 1.5 percent,” said Insurance Commissioner Andrew Stolfi. “The Oregon Reinsurance Program has also continued to show its value, keeping individual rates 6 percent lower than they would be without the program. We are grateful to the legislature for passing and our stakeholders for supporting the six year extension of this important program.”

They could have kept the average rate increase even lower had they not insisted that one company increase their rates:

image

Notice the last row? Regence requested a rate increase of 3.9% with a rate of $445. Oregon decided that wasn’t enough and set the rate they must actually charge customers at $452 which is a 5.5% increase.

So why is the state of Oregon, by force of law, increasing prices to consumers more than that requested by the company providing the service?

One could postulate this is to protect other companies which are unable, or unwilling, to compete at the same price point, $445, as Regence. But BridgeSpan, Kaiser, and PacificSource are all allowed to price their product at or below $445.

I thought government regulation was supposed to be for consumer protection. This looks to me as if it is random exercise of power.

Quote of the day—Idlbeokay_bob‏ @idlbeokay

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Bigger the gun, the smaller the pee pee

Idlbeokay_bob‏ @idlbeokay
Tweeted on July 9, 2019
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!

They have childish insults. We have SCOTUS decisions.—Joe]

Early research for the T-1000

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Skynet smiles:

For the first time, scientists have created a permanently magnetic liquid. These liquid droplets can morph into various shapes and be externally manipulated to move around, according to a new study.

…

In an even more bizarre application, imagine a mini liquid person — a smaller-scale version of the liquid T-1000 from the second “Terminator” movie — Russell said. Now imagine that parts of this mini liquid man are magnetized and parts aren’t. An external magnetic field could then force the little person to move its limbs like a marionette.