On my wish list

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A couple of days ago Annette posted about a shooting mat that is going on my wish list. I used to have one I really liked which was similar. But someone, who shall remain nameless, left it at on the shooting berm at Boomershoot one fall and it ended up spending the winter there. I cleaned it up as best I could but the fabric was damaged by all the exposure to sun, water, ice, insects, rodents, and growing grass. I looked and looked for another like it but couldn’t find one. I think the company went out of business. I finally bought another and I just don’t like it nearly as well.

Annette spends a LOT more time on the ground shooting a rifle than I ever have and as well as her calling out the features that I had looked for in a shooting mat I trust her judgment. She isn’t the only real shooter that recommends this mat.

Annette further informs us that if you use the discount code 30CalGal you will receive 15% off.

Maybe some of those people who want to give me a Christmas gift could pool their money and I would have a new shooting mat for next spring.

Musical interlude

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Crank it up.

Continue reading →

Quote of the day—Sean O’Reilly

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The Collaborative Firearms Education Initiative involves two steps. First, a push to get the CDC funding to actively catalog and study gun related violence much as it does motor vehicle fatalities and a push to increase the educational requirements for firearm purchases with the NRA being the main organization for implementation and provision of this education.

We need reliable, unbiased information and understanding of it. Without a complete understanding of the problem we are left only with speculation and theories.

Secondly, instead of looking to limit accessibility to firearms in efforts against the NRA and other political groups, increasing the level of education necessary to purchase firearms in conjunction with the NRA.

To drive a vehicle on streets, hunt on public land , or carry a concealed weapon, every individual is required to attend formal and regulated training and be licenced.

Sean O’Reilly
October 12, 2016
A third way on gun control allows both sides to win
[Most of the vehement opposition to gun ownership comes in the aftermath of a mass shooting atrocity. Nearly all of those have a strong mental illness component. The major source of gun deaths are due to gangs and the illegal drug trade. While I can see some policy changes making a significant difference there I can’t see how requiring training could help. And training and licensing for hunting and concealed weapons is already the norm for nearly all states.

And if he thinks these restrictions are acceptable for the specific enumerated right of gun ownership I don’t think he envisioned the slippery slope of applying similar restrictions on religion, speech, freedom of association, and abortion.

I suspect O’Reilly doesn’t really understand the current situation and hasn’t thought through what he does know.—Joe]

Epic Rant – Why Trump Won

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Pretty much sums it up. Point your leftie friends to it.

Meanwhile, the left doubles down.

Quote of the day—Theotis Robinson

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There is no electoral path to the presidency left for The Donald. He knows there isn’t. So now he is trying to de-legitimize the election by claiming that it has been rigged by a shadowy global conspiracy to prevent him becoming president of the United States. Trump is the one who has prevented himself becoming president by his foul mouth, repeated lies and incoherent policy statements.

Theotis Robinson
October 23, 2016
Trump has only himself to blame for likely loss
[Certainty is for ignoramuses. Or as Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man wrote:

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

H/T to David Hardy.—Joe]

Mugme street news

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Late yesterday afternoon Barb had business in downtown Seattle. I didn’t find out about the “protest” until 5:00 PM on the Internet. This was almost exactly the same time Barb found out about it… as she was walking to her bus stop on Second Ave between Pine and Stewart just a half block from this on Pine:

She skirted the protest as best she could and she got on her bus which was about an hour and fifteen minutes before the shooting started.

The McDonalds you see in the background of the video is on 3rd Avenue – which Barb named Mugme Street. I used to work in a building on that block. I’m sure glad neither Barb nor I have to go there on a regular basis any more.

The “protestors” blocked streets:

From the Boston Globe in regards to Seattle on election night:

SeattleProtestorsBlockTraffic

Later the fire department was needed to clean up after the “protestors”:

On election night daughter Jaime was scanning the reddit forums looking for material to satisfy her schadenfreude appetite and found Hitler reference gems like, “I don’t know whether I should just register myself now or wait for the Gestapo to force me to.” and “I’m thinking it is better to kill myself and die with dignity than to be executed in the camps.” And who do we find practicing for Kristallnacht? Yeah, you guessed it. It was the Nationalist Socialists back in 1938 and it was the Socialists on November 9, 2016.

I know it’s irrational to expect people to be rational, but these people are messing up the streets and causing problems for people who probably voted about 80% or 90% for Clinton (the entire county went over 75% for Clinton, Seattle would have been even harder left).

What is it they are trying to accomplish? The answer, I believe, is that it is in their nature to get physical when they don’t get their way through legal processes and they just can’t help themselves. Socialists are nothing but thugs with a thin veneer of respectability and when that veneer gets scratched, they get physical.

Sobriety check

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I figure this is the appropriate time to bring it up (yes; I’ve been waiting for months now), what with some of the exuberance out there in response to DT’s election win.

Shall we start a betting pool regarding the exact date on which he blows up and shows anger and hate for conservatives who’re trying to hold him to it?

McCain and Schwarzenegger both did it, as have others. They run on a patriotic message because they know they need our votes, but they resent having to “lower” themselves to such a level, and that resentment will out itself. If I were a betting man I’d say sometime before the end of January. Maybe even before inauguration, but I figure he can control himself until after.

I would of course love to be proven wrong on this (feel free to jump on my case in four years, please), but it is nonetheless a good idea to have some guarded optimism, or hopeful skepticism, at this stage and save the heady exuberance for after the end of his first term when it turns out he actually didn’t ass-rape us after all.

Drain the entire swamp

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Former Illinois congressman with ‘Downton Abbey’ office is indicted:

Schock was charged in a 24-count indictment with wire fraud, mail fraud, theft of government funds, making false statements and filing false documents. The 52-page document spells out a broad array of misdeeds spanning 2008 to 2015.

The indictment alleges that the former congressman from Peoria, Ill., reimbursed himself for 150,000 miles he never drove, bought a new 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe for his exclusive use with campaign committee funds, and reimbursed himself with congressional funds for camera equipment purchased for himself and his personal photographer. It alleges that Schock used government and campaign money to take a private plane with a group to Chicago for a Bears football game, and remodeled his Illinois apartment and Capitol Hill office — paying those who did the thousands of dollars worth of work at least in part from government and campaign funds.

Schock also, according to the indictment, accused a former staffer of inappropriately accessing a friend’s social media account and falsely claimed the FBI and Capitol Police were investigating — prompting the former staffer’s father to hire a lawyer.

All told, Schock caused the government and his campaign committees to lose more than $100,000, authorities said.

Note that Schnock is a republican. Fine with me. Drain the entire swamp.

Go for it

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Eric Levitz in New York magazine writes Why the Decimated Democrats May Turn Left:

Without the immense power (and glamour) that comes with the White House, Democrats no longer have any distraction from their fundamental weakness at all other levels of government.

Since President Obama took office, more than 900 Democratic state legislators have been ousted. In January 2009, the party occupied 29 governor’s mansions. Today, it lays claim to 15. The GOP — the party that was supposed to be headed for a great crack-up — holds 33.

In 24 states, Republicans control the Executive branch and both legislative houses. Of course, they now enjoy the same trifecta in Washington, D.C.

But Democrats have lost more than power. They’ve also lost their faith in demographic destiny.

…

The upcoming DNC leadership election is expected to be cast as a struggle for control of the party’s future. For now, the party’s Sanders-Warren wing appears best positioned to win that civil war.

Sure thing Eric. Socialism is the future. Go for it.

Quote of the day—Sebastian

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Most of us don’t want power to rule others: we want to be left alone. But in order to be left alone, you have to seek enough power to make them leave you alone. That, I think, is our great Catch 22.

Sebastian
November 7, 2016
Busybodying May Be The Most Powerful Force in the Universe
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

PC creates Trump supporters

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Interesting Reason article by Robby Soave “Trump Won Because Leftist Political Correctness Inspired a Terrifying Backlash”

I have tried to call attention to this issue for years. I have warned that political correctness actually is a problem on college campuses, where the far-left has gained institutional power and used it to punish people for saying or thinking the wrong thing. And ever since Donald Trump became a serious threat to win the GOP presidential primaries, I have warned that a lot of people, both on campus and off it, were furious about political-correctness-run-amok—so furious that they would give power to any man who stood in opposition to it.

I have watched this play out on campus after campus. I have watched dissident student groups invite Milo Yiannopoulos to speak—not because they particularly agree with his views, but because he denounces censorship and undermines political correctness. I have watched students cheer his theatrics, his insulting behavior, and his narcissism solely because the enforcers of campus goodthink are outraged by it. It’s not about his ideas, or policies. It’s not even about him. It’s about vengeance for social oppression.

The whole article, and some of the comments, are well worth a read. It’s not long. Speaking as a victim of PC weaponized speech codes, I agree. I wasn’t a trump supporter in May.

I am now.

He has a time machine

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On August 5th, 2015 Scott Adams, the Dilbert cartoonist, wrote How Trump Becomes President. That’s right, 15 months before yesterday’s election.

Less than a week before the election he said:

I predict Trump wins in a landslide.

This was even when almost all polls were telling us Hillary was going to win. The polls continued this claim to the morning of the election. The polls, built and conducted by hundreds, if not thousands, of extremely experienced political observers, mathematicians, and pollsters got it wrong. They couldn’t see the future a few hours ahead of time as well as some guy who makes his living drawing cartoons about engineers and pointy haired bosses did 15 months prior to the event.

Trump, who had never held a political office or been in the military had to defeat, what was it, 16 republican candidates for the nomination? Then he had to defeat whoever the democrats threw at him in the general election. That first point, alone, is unheard of in this country.

For Scott Adams to successfully make this prediction one has to believe he has either, hereto unknown to mankind, god-like political insight or that he has a time machine he isn’t telling us about.

Occam’s razor says he has a time machine.

Intellectual Yet Idiot

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From ZeroHedge comes this Nassim Taleb quote.

“The IYI pathologizes others for doing things he doesn’t understand without ever realizing it is his understanding that may be limited. He thinks people should act according to their best interests and he knows their interests, particularly if they are “red necks” or English non-crisp-vowel class who voted for Brexit. When Plebeians do something that makes sense to them, but not to him, the IYI uses the term “uneducated”. What we generally call participation in the political process, he calls by two distinct designations: “democracy” when it fits the IYI, and “populism” when the plebeians dare voting in a way that contradicts his preferences. While rich people believe in one tax dollar one vote, more humanistic ones in one man one vote, Monsanto in one lobbyist one vote, the IYI believes in one Ivy League degree one-vote, with some equivalence for foreign elite schools, and PhDs as these are needed in the club.”

Yep. Pretty much.  Those on the left celebrate diversity, as long as it means different flavors of leftism. They celebrate tolerance, as long as it’s the right tolerating the left. They celebrate inclusion, as long as it means including the left. They can gloat and say “I won!”, but the right is asked to “play nice” when they win. The left calls for free speech, as long as it is left-wing speech. The left calls for “safe spaces” for themselves, but also demand access to anyplace someone on the right wishes to be left alone in peace. The left calls their opponents bigoted, deplorable, hate-filled, narrow-minded, etc., but that’s just projection; they are blinded by their own bigotry, hate, and narrow-minded view of things.

But frankly, I don’t expect there to be a lot of self-reflection by those on the left; I expect tantrums, tears, and terrorism. They think “the public” is wrong; they will miss the warning the deplorable masses are sending them that it’s the elites that are going the wrong way.

Quote of the day—Scott Adams

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On election day, should Trump win as I predict, I ask for Trump supporters to stay cool when the predictable riots erupt. And keep in mind that if you vote for Trump, you own it. If you aren’t helping him get it right after he wins, you haven’t done enough. Trump is a group-participation president by design. He is directly asking for voters’ help in “draining the swamp.” In the short run, the best way to help Trump is by avoiding trouble on election day and by reassuring Clinton voters that you have always been on their side as Americans. Then act that way.

The fight ends Tuesday. After that, let’s try to be useful. No matter what happens.

Scott Adams
November 6, 2016
I Don’t Want a Government Job
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

The one up-side to a Trump win

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I had not thought of this.

I would have thought that they’d have learned from other actors who’d promised to leave us if so-and-so won in previous elections, and then never made good on it. Credibility is apparently not highly regarded among entertainers.

A mass exodus of entertainers would not break my heart. I estimate that the number who actually leave the U.S. and change citizenship over this will be approximately zero, however. Instead of “Let My People Go!” I’m thinking “Leave me alone already. Go, and quit yer damned yappin'”.

To think of the number of hours of my life (to say nothing of the dollars) that have been wasted watching stupid movies, stupid TV, and listening to stupid music…

I wonder if I could find a court somewhere, to take my case of liability for loss-of-productivity against the entertainment industry. Such would be stupid of course, but less so than some of the blather that comes out of the mouths of entertainers.

Trump is certainly no prize, and may turn out to be a disaster. That’ll be hung on our shoulders as American patriots I suppose, though were not the ones who supported the New York Progressive.

Overheard near my desk

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Brett: I voted for the Disney party.

Joe: A lot of people did whether they realized it or not.

Brett: Stop that! [Wheeze, wheeze.] I won’t be able to breath.

Election day

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Weird, weird election cycle. The stories are worthy of a Matthew Bracken or Dan Brown novel. I’ve got pages of links about voting “irregularities,” and a lot of them include electronic voting machines changing the presidential vote on a “straight R party ticket” to Clinton. None of them involve an irregularity going the other way. Not one. Hmmm.

Lots of shenanigans. Honest voting is only possible if both major parties actually want it enough to do what is necessary for it. Neither side apparently does, though for different reasons. Policy preferences make no difference if there are not honest elections to hold the elected accountable. A nation with no border and no common culture or ideas will never have honest elections, because at least one side will always try to take power by corrupting the election process at some point when power is within the margin of fraud. Here’s a few links to peruse (not all of them, just the fraction I decided to grab from time to time): Continue reading →

#ClimaxForClinton

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In the light of the news that Hillary Clinton went to “Orgy Island” on the “Lolita Express” at least six times I find this tweet from Jenny Block very telling about those who support Clinton for president:

Female orgasm’s the most powerful force in the world. Don’t forget to Climax for Clinton today! Let me know you did with #ClimaxForClinton !

I don’t have a problem with consenting adults doing pretty much whatever they want in their bedrooms, or on an island, but the reports are that many of the participants on the island were not adults and some of the adults were not consenting.

But almost as disturbing is that Ms. Block somehow thinks orgasms are applicable to a presidential election.

The Anonymous Conservative will claim this is a validation of r/K theory.

Quote of the day—Michael Krieger

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I want to take a quick moment to discuss his most meaningful insight, which is the idea that “political systems scale poorly.” This is hugely important, because as the current status quo system collapses, many of us in the Western world will be presented with an incredible opportunity to do things completely different.

Michael Krieger
November 6, 2016
Here’s What Happened When a Hillary Supporting MIT Professor Decided to Analyze Her Emails…
[Communism works well enough for a family unit and maybe even a small tribe. Democracy works for somewhat larger groups. Republics work for even larger groups. Republics with strong minority rights work for still larger groups.  But it should be obvious by now that we haven’t recently field tested a particularly good political system for large populations with diverse cultures and large geographical areas. Krieger suggests something that showed considerable promise in earlier tests and should be reevaluated.

If it’s not obvious to you then a civil war may be in our future and you will be enlightened.—Joe]

Jews in the attic example

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Via email Bob Reynolds points out:

Here’s one for the “Jews in the attic” category: http://komonews.com/news/local/king-county-using-grocery-store-data-to-target-pet-owners

From the article:

“This is not King County going and grabbing this data, you know, big brother watching what you buy at the grocery store,” said Satterfield.

Instead, the county said they pay the company who pays stores such as Safeway and QFC for access to customer data contained in every one of those reward card swipes.

Satterfield seems to think that paying someone to do it for you means you are “not doing it”.

From my Jews in the Attic Test web page we have an example which predicts the result Bob points out:

Elimination or severe restriction of anonymous financial transactions.  The purchase of food and other supplies for your “Jews in the attic” would show up in the records as being excessive compared to what your needs were.