Today marks one year since we awoke to the absolutely astonishingly good news that Hillary Clinton had lost the election. Thanks again President Trump.
There has been a lot to cheer about during this last year.
Consumer confidence is at heights not seen since 2000.
US stock markets are at all time highs.
The Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Justice Scalia has been filled by another reliable conservative, Neal Gorsuch.
ISIS is in the process of being thoroughly destroyed.
We appear to be well on our way to defanging North Korea, one way or another.
There may be some tax reform on the way.
Liberal men, particularly those in, or connected to, Hollywood, have been exposed as the miscreants I have always assumed they were.
Liberal women, particularly those in or connected to Hollywood, have been exposed as the self-righteous dilettantes I have always assumed they were.
They never tired, male or female, of lecturing us about the evils of republican men while allowing a culture of actual sexual assault to flourish as they remained silent lest their careers be adversely affected by speaking out. The primary by-product of that silence was to expose other young women and men to the predators.
There are other by-products coming from the exposure of the Hollywood cesspool.
Some mythical liberal narratives seem to have disappeared.
Republican war on women. Anyone?
Campus rape culture. Anyone?
Donald Trump has a potty mouth and said some boorish things. Anyone?
Regarding Hollywood and its inhabitants I have an observation. How can anyone writing, producing or acting in the rot that Hollywood has been producing for years be assumed to have anything remotely resembling ordinary morals. Actors and actresses (why has that word disappeared) happily engage in on screen nudity and sex apparently thinking it very avant-garde to disrobe and perform sex acts for the public. It isn't. It is the simple substitution of exhibitionism for talent.
I realize there are a few high profile actors and actresses who do not engage in such on screen self-abasement but they are few.
Democrats won some elections for a change yesterday. They are celebrating. Allow them their moment of pleasure. They have endured a lot of pain in the last year.
Their paroxysm of glee will be short lived. Retaining the governorship of Virginia is no great accomplishment. It is what should have happened given that the republican candidate was an establishment rhino of long standing running in the Trump era.
They won the governorship of New Jersey proving, with finality, that Chris Christie's political career is, happily, over.
Be of good cheer my friends. All is well.
Wednesday, November 08, 2017
Tuesday, November 07, 2017
This and That #7
Harvey Weinstein et al...
It has apparently come as a surprise to those who aspire to be viewed as the most sophisticated among us, that wealthy, powerful men have been known to prey on the women who depend on their wealth and or power for their own livelihoods.
They can be forgiven for never having heard of Bill Clinton or Ted Kennedy I suppose, two wallflowers who never made a headline.
Kennedy should have been prosecuted. Clinton should have been prosecuted. Hopefully Weinstein will be prosecuted.
I do not begrudge Weinstein's victims their outrage. I do begrudge them their phony naivete while repairing to the fainting couch.
It takes a great deal of courage to bite the hand that feeds you. Very few of us are courageous, human nature being what it is, as the otherwise self aggrandizing denizens of Hollywood have clearly demonstrated.
&&&
Massacres and Gun Control.
Another massacre, another appeal for "sensible steps" to ameliorate the problem of gun violence.
I have a "sensible step" to suggest. Let's create a government data base of everyone convicted of a felony and insist that the name of any putative gun buyer be run through that system before being permitted to possess one.
Oh, wait. We have one of those already. So how did the latest shooter get his weapons? Was it through the so-called gun show loop hole ? No it wasn't.
The real problem stems from one word in the sentence above beginning with "Let's". That word is government.
The latest shooter was a convicted felon who bought his weapons from a licensed fire arms dealer who received the all clear from the government. There is that word again.
The arm of the government that convicted the shooter of multiple felonies failed to post those convictions in the government data base.
I have another "sensible step" to suggest. Do not ever assume that the government will get anything right. Look after yourself and those you love. As the saying goes, when seconds count the police are only minutes away.
Last week another Muslim lunatic killed a bunch of people in New York City. He had been interviewed by the ICE in 2015. He was not interviewed because he had jaywalked. He was interviewed because of association with people who had overstayed their visas, a common terrorist profile. No action.
Remember the Boston Marathon bombers.?
"The brothers were Muslim; Tamerlan's aunt stated that he had recently become a devout Muslim.[174][175] Tamerlan became more devout and religious after 2009,[185][186] and a YouTube channel in his name linked to Salafist[185] and Islamist[181][187][188] videos. The FBI was informed by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in 2011 that he was a "follower of radical Islam."[187] In response, the FBI interviewed Tamerlan and his family and searched databases, but they did not find any evidence of "terrorism activity, domestic or foreign."" No action.
Remember the San Bernardino killers??
"They said he had contacts with five people whom the F.B.I. had investigated for possible terrorist activities — including one associated with the Shabab, the Islamist militant movement in Somalia, and another associated with the Nusra Front, the wing of Al Qaeda in Syria. In all five cases, the investigations were closed and no charges were filed."
Are you seeing a pattern here? Sclerotic bureaucracy is the problem, not the solution.
Do not allow yourself to be brow beaten into agreement with the apparently endless legion of our fellow citizens who, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, believe that government should be the repository of all power.
It has apparently come as a surprise to those who aspire to be viewed as the most sophisticated among us, that wealthy, powerful men have been known to prey on the women who depend on their wealth and or power for their own livelihoods.
They can be forgiven for never having heard of Bill Clinton or Ted Kennedy I suppose, two wallflowers who never made a headline.
Kennedy should have been prosecuted. Clinton should have been prosecuted. Hopefully Weinstein will be prosecuted.
I do not begrudge Weinstein's victims their outrage. I do begrudge them their phony naivete while repairing to the fainting couch.
It takes a great deal of courage to bite the hand that feeds you. Very few of us are courageous, human nature being what it is, as the otherwise self aggrandizing denizens of Hollywood have clearly demonstrated.
&&&
Massacres and Gun Control.
Another massacre, another appeal for "sensible steps" to ameliorate the problem of gun violence.
I have a "sensible step" to suggest. Let's create a government data base of everyone convicted of a felony and insist that the name of any putative gun buyer be run through that system before being permitted to possess one.
Oh, wait. We have one of those already. So how did the latest shooter get his weapons? Was it through the so-called gun show loop hole ? No it wasn't.
The real problem stems from one word in the sentence above beginning with "Let's". That word is government.
The latest shooter was a convicted felon who bought his weapons from a licensed fire arms dealer who received the all clear from the government. There is that word again.
The arm of the government that convicted the shooter of multiple felonies failed to post those convictions in the government data base.
I have another "sensible step" to suggest. Do not ever assume that the government will get anything right. Look after yourself and those you love. As the saying goes, when seconds count the police are only minutes away.
Last week another Muslim lunatic killed a bunch of people in New York City. He had been interviewed by the ICE in 2015. He was not interviewed because he had jaywalked. He was interviewed because of association with people who had overstayed their visas, a common terrorist profile. No action.
Remember the Boston Marathon bombers.?
"The brothers were Muslim; Tamerlan's aunt stated that he had recently become a devout Muslim.[174][175] Tamerlan became more devout and religious after 2009,[185][186] and a YouTube channel in his name linked to Salafist[185] and Islamist[181][187][188] videos. The FBI was informed by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in 2011 that he was a "follower of radical Islam."[187] In response, the FBI interviewed Tamerlan and his family and searched databases, but they did not find any evidence of "terrorism activity, domestic or foreign."" No action.
Remember the San Bernardino killers??
"They said he had contacts with five people whom the F.B.I. had investigated for possible terrorist activities — including one associated with the Shabab, the Islamist militant movement in Somalia, and another associated with the Nusra Front, the wing of Al Qaeda in Syria. In all five cases, the investigations were closed and no charges were filed."
Are you seeing a pattern here? Sclerotic bureaucracy is the problem, not the solution.
Do not allow yourself to be brow beaten into agreement with the apparently endless legion of our fellow citizens who, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, believe that government should be the repository of all power.
Transgender Tragedy
I was minding my own business when suddenly confronted with some astonishing "facts".
Men could "become" women and vice versa.
Humans of the same gender could "marry".
Those men who became women and vice versa are now referred to as transgendered.
Here are some facts.
Men cannot become women and women cannot become men.
Men can pretend to be women and women can pretend to be men.
They cannot ever "become" the gender they aspire to in the same way that I cannot "become" Donald Trump. I could dye my hair and put on a hundred pounds and look a lot like Donald Trump but I can never, ever, be Donald Trump. Seems pretty simple to me, but then, as I wrote recently, to me, The David is just a giant statue. Perhaps I am nothing more sophisticated than a contrarian. I am not! (sorry, could not resist)
There are, unfortunately, some real world consequences to being forced to enable the gender fantasies of some unfortunate souls.
This is a tragedy. A boy is being allowed to "compete" with the girls. This is not competition. It is as thoroughly unfair as the legendary doping of female athletes during the Soviet era. Turn athletic women into testosterone fueled athletic women and your team will win a lot of medals.
I stopped paying attention to the Olympics years ago and was surprised to find that the Russians have continued the practice.
So, getting back to our tragedy, authentic girls are being forced to compete against a naturally doped boy.
No doubt you are aware that in most sports the sexes are segregated because boys are, generally, bigger, stronger and faster than women.
Now the unfortunate authentic women are forced to lose so that this arguably deranged and at the very least, incredibly selfish, or clever, boy can force us all to indulge his idiotic fantasy.
Will the athletic scholarship committees at the schools these young women apply to take into account their victimization? One can only hope so, but that hope is a dim one.
The "girl" had this to say after winning a state championship race,
“It feels really good. I’m really happy to win both titles,” Yearwood of Cromwell High School told the Day after winning at the May 30 meet. “I kind of expected it. I’ve always gotten first, so I expected it to some extent. … I’m really proud of it.”
"I've always gotten first...", yes, of course, those with an unfair advantage usually do.
The girl who won last year had this to say,
“It’s frustrating,” Hall of Stonington High School told the Courant. “But that’s just the way it is now.”
Unfortunately she appears to be resigned to being relegated to second place by a man.
Sound familiar?
Men could "become" women and vice versa.
Humans of the same gender could "marry".
Those men who became women and vice versa are now referred to as transgendered.
Here are some facts.
Men cannot become women and women cannot become men.
Men can pretend to be women and women can pretend to be men.
They cannot ever "become" the gender they aspire to in the same way that I cannot "become" Donald Trump. I could dye my hair and put on a hundred pounds and look a lot like Donald Trump but I can never, ever, be Donald Trump. Seems pretty simple to me, but then, as I wrote recently, to me, The David is just a giant statue. Perhaps I am nothing more sophisticated than a contrarian. I am not! (sorry, could not resist)
There are, unfortunately, some real world consequences to being forced to enable the gender fantasies of some unfortunate souls.
This is a tragedy. A boy is being allowed to "compete" with the girls. This is not competition. It is as thoroughly unfair as the legendary doping of female athletes during the Soviet era. Turn athletic women into testosterone fueled athletic women and your team will win a lot of medals.
I stopped paying attention to the Olympics years ago and was surprised to find that the Russians have continued the practice.
So, getting back to our tragedy, authentic girls are being forced to compete against a naturally doped boy.
No doubt you are aware that in most sports the sexes are segregated because boys are, generally, bigger, stronger and faster than women.
Now the unfortunate authentic women are forced to lose so that this arguably deranged and at the very least, incredibly selfish, or clever, boy can force us all to indulge his idiotic fantasy.
Will the athletic scholarship committees at the schools these young women apply to take into account their victimization? One can only hope so, but that hope is a dim one.
The "girl" had this to say after winning a state championship race,
“It feels really good. I’m really happy to win both titles,” Yearwood of Cromwell High School told the Day after winning at the May 30 meet. “I kind of expected it. I’ve always gotten first, so I expected it to some extent. … I’m really proud of it.”
"I've always gotten first...", yes, of course, those with an unfair advantage usually do.
The girl who won last year had this to say,
“It’s frustrating,” Hall of Stonington High School told the Courant. “But that’s just the way it is now.”
Unfortunately she appears to be resigned to being relegated to second place by a man.
Sound familiar?
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