Waiting On The Talking Points

I told you this Jon Gabriel tweet attachment would prove to be as evergreen as his infamous 2014 tweet about all the racial healing going on.

And the past month or so has given the media several opportunities to apply it.

Most recent is the FedEx shooting in Indianapolis. The MSM is now awaiting the race and religion of the shooter to determine whether to memory-hole the incident or blame all gun owners as mass murderers.

You can pretty much guess the race of the perp/victims of the other recent shootings by how much you’ve heard about each of them. For example, note how little you’ve heard about the Colorado grocery shooting where the shooter turned out to be a Muslim, and therefore another victim of America’s systemic racism and Islamophobia.

Not sure how we’ll proceed if the FedEx shooter turns out to be just another crazy white cat.

But I’m guessing more gun control.

That’s the ticket: more gun control and defund the racist cops. What could go wrong?

A New Way To Think About the Voter’s Right Act

Yesterday’s WSJ had an article on the inherently hellish nature of homeowners’ associations (HOAs). Like so many things, the author notes that HOAs were born of good intentions but eventually move sideways and end up enforcing the reasonable along with the increasingly ridiculous rules with “equal gusto.”  

She notes that HOA rules start out reasonable but quickly proliferate into the sublimely foolish. The people who are inclined to establish such rules often have undiagnosed psychological problems with their mother/father and hold extremely strong views on everything. And they believe that everyone else should be required to share their views. All of which explains why the author says she will never again buy a property governed by a HOA.

I would rather just live in a van down by the river, where at least no one tells me what color I can paint my van, what type of tires I need to have, or what size holiday décor I am allowed to hang from the rearview mirror.

She notes that it doesn’t matter what type of HOA is established they all end up in one in circle of Dante’s Inferno or another. She ranks them from Co-op boards, assigned to the ninth circle, to single-family HOA boards which she places in the fourth circle, astutely noting that

Like any humans given power over others, HOA boards inevitably get drunk on the stuff, so HOA rules and fees proliferate like perfectly fertilized weeds.

It’s strange that people easily grasp this inherent human foible when dealing with a microcosm like a HOA but entirely lose the concept when pulling the lever for politicians who are given ten-thousand times that amount of power over them. Odder yet, homeowners would never let people who didn’t live in their co-op/condo/neighborhood vote in the election of their board members but seem quite okay with anybody and everybody voting, sometimes twice, in their national elections.

Schopenhauer Weighs In (H/T Dr. Stephen Hicks)

Yesterday’s discussions in the comment section regarding existentialism (or more specifically, Joey B’s understanding thereof) and Eastern philosophy made me think that we really need to expand our weekly nod to  Caturday, Pupp-day, Taco Tuesday, Hen-day and Throwback Thursday. What we could really use around here is a World’s Great Philosophers’ Day.

Please don’t blame me if most of the world’s greatest philosophers turn out to be old white guys, it’s just the way it’s been up till now.

I decided to begin with one of the more prickly German philosophers – although in fairness all of the German philosophers were rather prickly:

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860) has been dubbed the artist’s philosopher on account of the inspiration his aesthetics has provided to artists of all stripes.

I mostly chose him as the category’s first entry due to his take on “existentialism.”

He is also known as the philosopher of pessimism, as he articulated a worldview that challenges the value of existence.

You’re welcome to pursue his rather complicated philosophy of metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics, morality and psychology if you’d like; I selected him solely for his usefulness in my initial “great diversified philosophical point/counterpoint” analysis. To wit:

Point:

Counterpoint: (Schopenhauer)

(Compliments of the most excellent Dr. Stephen Hicks)

Let’s Deal With The Real Problem Here

Michael Gerson, George W. Bush’s speech writer, translated Dr. Sowell’s thought into the famous “soft bigotry of low expectations” line in his 2000 speech at the NAACP. Although it clearly identified a far more insidious type of bias it was dangerously threatening to the ever growing race hustling industry business model that depends on the exploitation of that liberal-built bias. 
 

And thus, step by step, we’ve descended into the world of liberal idiocracy exemplified, splendiferously, by the likes of the Squad and Rashida Tlaib in particular.

Despite all the other contenders it would be hard to identify a more “mind-mind-numbingly stupid bit of incitement from a sitting congresswoman.” So, no more policing or incarceration? Really? I suppose you want our guns as well? Sure why not, now that there are no more police that should put an end to crime.

Am I to assume you wish to disband the Capital police as well, you know the cops who protect your precious hides from “insurrectionists”? No? I thought not.

But as long as it’s “inherently and intentionally racist” it must be eliminated.

It’s just hard to believe how many people are out there who still buy the increasingly absurd hysteria of these lunatics.  But I guess they’re too invested to back out now.

People who refuse to accept unpleasant truths have no right to complain about politicians who lie to them. What other kind of candidates would such people elect? – Thomas Sowell

I have no doubt that Rashida, who handily won her first two elections to the House of Representatives, will likewise post a resounding win in her next contest. All she need do is keep slapping a little catsup on that Somabitch.

But sure, the real problem we have here is racist cops.

It Doesn’t Take An Einstein…

Yay Michigan –

We’re #1! Again.

Data from state health officials shows Michigan has surpassed 100,000 active COVID-19 cases in the last week, the highest number since mid-November. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranks the Wolverine State's COVID-19 infection rate as No. 1 in the country with 492.1 positive infections per 100,000 people. – ABC News

But don’t worry, the Governor isn’t planning to shut us down…any more than we already are.

Despite the startling stats, Whitmer… says she is not planning to roll back already loosened regulations for reopening the state, which now allows for 50% in-door dining at restaurants and public schools to reopen for in-class learning.

“To be very clear, these are not orders, mandates, or requirements. A year in, we all know what works and this has to be a team effort. We have to do this together.”

To be absolutely clear:they are not orders, mandates or requirements but Whitmer is strongly urging residents to avoid indoor dining for two weeks, for high schools to consider going back to virtual learning for two weeks and to hit the pause button on organized youth sports. She said she’s relying on the common sense of a citizenry now experienced in struggling with the deadly virus for over a year. In other words she trusts that enough of us have been indoctrinated. She’s now relying on the Karens and Kens to keep the rest of us in check.

"We're going to have some tough weeks ahead so I'm asking everyone, please take this seriously," the governor said Friday. "We can't let up now, not when we're so close." - CNN

Almost reached the goal line!

By way of explaining Michigan’s current surge the Governor offered up this gem:

Whitmer said that there are multiple reasons for the surge in cases. First, people have started to let their guard down as the vaccine has become more widely available. Second, previous orders have kept positivity rates low so the state is more vulnerable than others.

That was last Friday. Yesterday she announced she was extending the state’s office closure order, that was supposed to expire tomorrow, for another 6 months:

Following the tour of the Eastern Michigan University vaccine clinic in Ypsilanti, the governor was asked her plans to extend the order that requires people to work from home when possible. She said that the state would be extending the work-from-home orders because of the high case rate in Michigan but that this is a necessary step.

So let me get this straight: if we have lockdown orders in place to keep the number of cases down it makes us…more vulnerable? So in order to stop the current surge – caused by making ourselves more vulnerable - we’re going to continue the lockdown? My head’s spinning.

This might be a good time to remind Wretched Gretchen of the working definition of insanity.

No, Einstein never said that, but really, it hardly takes an Einstein to figure it out.

ETA: The White House doesn’t believe in this working definition of insanity either. 

Michigan currently has one of highest COVID-19 infection rates in the United States, and hospitalizations there are straining the health care system.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer went on the Sunday news program “Face the Nation” and urged the White House to alter its vaccination distribution plan to states – currently based on population – to help the state slow the number of infections.

But…Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said it would take two to six weeks to see any effect from the vaccines.

Walensky said the best way to address the situation in Michigan is to “close things down,” the way much of the United States did early in the pandemic one year ago.

Schadenfreude: Pillow Fight Edition

Word of the day: Schadenfreude

The Long Example: be patient, there’s a complete morality play embedded in here.

David Hogg Haz a Sad

WHERE IT BEGAN:

David Hogg decides to start a “progressive pillow party” presumably to stick it to the “conservative pillow guy” because he hates his politics and, of course, Donald Trump. Seems a sound business plan to me.

Don’t let the fact that you know nothing about business, pillows, the competition, manufacturing or distribution get in the way of your HOPE and VISION of crushing a Donald Trump supporter – who you hate. so you’ve got that going for you. You’ll just have to do a little extra-credit homework.

Good, you’ve got the scam-talk down pat. Now to master the basics by “talking” to a lot of people who know stuff. Maybe you can pick up some ability by osmosis, as you truly are starting with “humble origins.” After all, “ya gotta start somewhere!” If not, maybe they’ll just give you a bunch of money that you can either piss away or maybe buy a mansion with.

Naturally you’re going to need a little help whereas you don’t know anything and one cannot sleep on good intentions alone. What say we try to crowd source this sucker?

The cost of living is too high in California you say? I see you have been doing your Business 101 homework. Extra credit, Baby Hogg, if you can honestly answer why the cost of living is too high in California.

OK, next up: a fully trained, unionized manufacturer somewhere that isn’t California:

What? Nobody dm’d you with the name of a unionized pillow manufacturer with the capacity to make a million or so pillows for you in a month?  Maybe you need to chat up the idea a little more in the MSM. The Washington Post will do their part, and some radio coverage can’t hurt:

Oh, and be sure to get your activist advisory board lined up before you’ve actually located a manufacturer for your not-yet-designed product – because being woke ain’t no joke. You need serious SJWs on board.

WHERE IT IS TODAY:

Sadly the 20-year-old activist who sought out to prove that “progressives can make a better pillow, run a better business and help make the world a better place while doing it” discovered that good intentions weren’t adequate to eclipse that MyPillow guy. It seems it takes a lot of hard work to actually get a concept off the drawing board and into the bedrooms of customers. You remember customers David? They are the people who actually pay for your product not your political statement. If you wish to get paid for your social justice views stick with the activism, it will be far more likely to make you rich.

Indeed, it looks like the little tool has already figured out that his tastes and skill set run more to activism than honest work. He’s got his activism, school work and “family obligations” – in that order – to tend to so he’s ready to move on.

“A couple weeks ago, a very spontaneous interaction over Twitter between me and William LeGate led to us trying to start a progressive pillow company,” he said, though actually it was a couple of months ago. “The goal was and still is to create a great pillow that is sustainably produced in domestic unionized factories and have a percentage of those profits benefit progressive social causes. We were met with immediate and overwhelming support. But I soon realized that given my activism, schoolwork, and family commitments, I could not give 100% to being a full time co-founder at Good Pillow.”

See the whole thread here.

Some practitioners of schedenfreud went so far as to announce, also on Twitter, that “I too have relinquished my imaginary shares in my imaginary company that makes imaginary pillows.”

And that, my friend, comprises a textbook example of “schadenfreude.” Savor it.

**Concept lifted from Ed Driscoll@Instapundit because it is just too delicious to allow the sleeping dog to lie.

What say you crawl back under the porch and take a nappy with your Good Pillow until you learn to behave better?

Oh, and as promised, the moral of the story: socialism always sounds good but in reality fails to deliver.

April, You Duplicitous Little Minx

Ah, April! You duplicitous little minx you.

The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
a cloud come over the sunlit arch,
And wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March.

- Robert Frost, Two Tramps In Mud Time

Thus far spring has been glorious in the Midwest: unseasonably warm as in record-breaking-as-warm-as-summer in some places. Following a bit of rain the past week everything has literally sprung to life; the landscape transformed into an impressionist painting of soft mauves, pinks and green.

No doubt this early spring streak of warm weather will sprout more gloomy talk from the global warming crowd. The doomsday advocates will speak of forthcoming disasters and lobby for more Green New Deals and greater controls on everyone and everything, as they await their annual rite of spring, Earth Day.

I hope this bit of information doesn’t upset the celebration of their high holy day: it appears that what’s heating the planet, in addition to the sun, isn’t carbon emissions - at least not in the sense Climate Warriors think of them - after all. No sir what appears to be warming the oceans is something far more insidious - which it to say, something they can’t possibly controlled by taxes. It’s not fossil fuels, again, not in the sense they’re used to thinking about them, but rather underwater volcanos?

“The massive mid-ocean ridge system is a continuous range of underwater volcanoes that wraps around the globe like seams on a baseball, stretching nearly 65,000 kilometers (40,390 miles)…The ridge system forms the longest and largest mountain range on Earth, winding its way between the continents.”

What a conundrum.

“More than forty thousand miles of underwater volcanoes – who knows how many are active? – spewing out red-hot magma (as much as 2000 degrees F), and we can’t figure out what is heating our seas?”

I would like to be the first to predict that we will shortly hear squawking from the Climate Advocates not about global warming but rather the coming ice age. After all, the advocates don’t particularly care what’s going to do us in, as long as they’re in charge of it and can tax us for it.

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

– Robert Frost, Fire and Ice

 

Iceland Lava Flow at Krafla, 1984

The upside of switching from a warming front to a cold front: we can drill for oil and gas again. Of course it’s going to require much, much higher taxation now that we’ll have to do everything in our power to conserve it for the future of the children.