Give it up already, NY Times!
Posted On: Wednesday - August 28th 2024 10:48AM MST
In Topics: Media Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
Seriously?!
I do not willingly read the NY Times! Yet, I realized after clicking that link on yahoo, that that's where this re-panic-pushing story came from. Why'd I click at all then? Good question. Girls in bikinis.
This reminds me of something that I SWEAR I wrote a post on during that first (late) Spring of the Kung Flu PanicFest, which I couldn't find myself! (Perhaps, I just wrote about it in Unz Review comments.) I discussed the fact that the local university chicks in very skimpy outfits, some making Daisy Duke look like a shy Amish woman, were featured in what became a nationwide news photo. The point was: Look at them all milling around! No social distancing. Exposed faces, partial breast exposure, partial rear end exposure, partial EVERYTHING! This must stop!... but, look!
"So LOOK, people! You're gonna get sick doing that! (But look at the bod there, the one with the red shorts!)" Wait, what were they talking about? Around that time, Peak Stupidity compared Kung Flu vs. VD.
OK, Peak Stupidity readers, I don't want to make you click on panic-pushing yahoo stories, much less to the NY Times Therefore I present a zoomed up version to help you out:
No, that picture does NOT appear in the fuller NY Times-lifted yahoo story. It's Kung Flu porn... yeah, pretty much.
Comments (12)
Boeing doesn't make tires!
Posted On: Wednesday - August 28th 2024 10:21AM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Media Stupidity Science
There's a tragic story from yesterday about 2 Delta mechanics who got killed (and another seriously injured) when a 737 tire exploded at one of their big facilities at the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport. That headline above pissed me off. It's just the site of the Fredericksburg Free Lance Star*, filled with people who don't know squat about squat. Other headlines that came up don't mention Boeing other than that the airplane these tires go on was a B-737.
However, this has been a mindless narrative thing. I do realize Boeing's non-engineering-based culture of the last few decades, along with the D.I.E. programs, have brought their quality down. They don't freaking make tires though, and these tires weren't even on an airplane!
The tires are made by Michelin or Dunlop, or Bridgestone, etc., some of which may come from China, along with Quintao made brand Sentury.
The guys were doing some work on wheels (probably a specialty, as there are a LOT of them there), maybe replacing brake rotors, etc. Those tires are pressurized to around 200 psi. Weirdly, I was walking around an airplane a couple of days ago and thought of how much energy is contained in those things.
Anyway, hopefully some sharp engineers from the tire manufacturer - NOT BOEING - and from the shop will figure out how this happened. It was tragic, but one doesn't have to make the story into something it's not, another Boeing quality issue.
PS: Then some other article mentioned the pressurized tires as "1 million pound-feet of force". Freaking idiots. Let me do the math for fun then. Filled up, they are at 185 psi gage pressure (above atm), and the Nitrogen can be considered an ideal gas. The 737 main gear tires are 27 x 7.5R x 15. That's 27" O.D., 7.5" wide and with a 15" rim diameter.** Let me approximate this torus shape as having a volume of ~ 3,500 in3. I get only ~ 625,000 ft-lb in PV work to fill the thing up. (There's some expansion that may bring the volume up more.) The problem I have with the article is not the value, and it's not the units this time, but with their getting the term wrong. It's not a force. That doesn't make sense That's the potential energy of the nitrogen from compression. If it's hot, there's a bit more...
* The local newspaper websites are really bad about not saying where in the hell they are in the country. It could have been another Fredericksburg, so I had to go to the "Contact" page to find out this is the Virginia Fredericksburg.
** At least they're not weirdly mixed units as with car tires. They use inches for the I.D., mm for the width, and then % for the sidewall height (% of width, that is).
Comments (6)
Gold v Bitcoin: Peak Stupidity discussion
Posted On: Tuesday - August 27th 2024 8:17PM MST
In Topics: Global Financial Stupidity Preppers and Prepping Economics
Note first that, of course, one really can't take a picture of a bitcoin, so these ones looks like, well, gold coins..
After being disappointed by the 2 hour debate by 4 Big-Finance guys discussed earlier, I'd like to present some of the arguments of Gold v Bitcoin here. I hope this, and the comments that flow forth, are more elucidating, and it will only take you 10 minutes!
Firstly, my disclaimer is that I don't hold any Bitcoin or any crypto currency at all, but I can't say the same for gold and/or silver. The former is NOT, mind you, due to any solid, absolute opinion about crypto. I am not one of those early adopters of anything - hell, I just found out that Redbox is out of business, yet I never got around to getting a video out of one of them red boxes yet. That woulda' been cool...
I'm not a mathematician, and neither are those 4 finance guys, most readers here, I'd guess, and 99.something % of crypto holders (the latter just based on number of mathematicians in the population). Therefore, I can't claim to understand the Blockchain algorithm/technology that underlies all crypto. Is it hackable? I'm sure all businessmen involved and avid adherents would tell you "hell no", but do they know? The math guys may have their proofs that would prove nothing to me because admittedly, I couldn't understand it. Could there be something missing in the understanding of the brightest of them, to where some other bright math guy will, or has already cracked the blockchain? That'd be like finding some alchemy that worked, transforming used beer cans into gold.
Said mathematician, if he were wise as much as he's bright, would probably "let it ride" for a while - if really savvy, he'd convert his new"found" crypto slowly into assets that couldn't be "recovered" by courts or the Government, then, well, he'd be just bursting with pride, you know, so sometime he'd let it out and get on Tucker Carlson. Your "money" would evaporate.
So, let's just "let this ride" ourselves and go with the assumption that the Blockchain algorithm is as immutable as Newton's Laws of Motion. Let's talk about the similarities and differences of gold v bitcoin in their value as money. There are a handful or even a dozen properties that must be fulfilled to give something worth as REAL MONEY. I've read a book on that, but I don't want to write one now. We'll touch on some of them.
To be a store of value a currency must not be easily reproducible. The way the blockchain algorithm works, for every additional Bitcoin made, many calculations must be done by computer. (With modern computing power as fast as it is, this must be A LOT.) It takes more and more computations for each additional coin, meaning that one cannot just buy a bigger computer and make millions. The process of number-crunching to make more bitcoin is called "mining"*.
Though, no, it's not physical mining, there's a parallel between this property of not-easily-reproducible gold and bitcoin. It takes energy to physically mine gold, what with large earthmoving machines, drilling for placement of dynamite, pumps and transportation of chemicals, etc. Energy costs may go up or down a little, but you must expend a lot to get "the precious" (gold or bitcoin). What else could change the costs for each, something which would lower the value of the currency? For gold, a new, simpler chemical process maybe, but for bitcoin, well, what about quantum computing? It's even more likely for bitcoin that "mining" costs could take a jump down, because faster computing power is not something just developed for bitcoin. It's important for other uses.
I'll say here that, were little Greta to complain about this energy wastage, I couldn't really argue. It does seem silly to run computers to where they'll heat up Adam Smith's house in the north Georgia winter just to get some algorithm to spit out a virtual "coin". Real mining, notwithstanding the actual environmental damage involved (and gold requires a lot), seems less silly. Still, after all, we're pulling tiny bits of one element out of massive amounts of rock to allow us to store the value of our labor. If I think of it that way... but what else is there? (To please Greta, I'd at least locate my computer racks directly under my windmill.)
Let me digress just a bit to another property of money, its LACK of practical value. I was very surprised to hear Peter Schiff get this wrong, but he was just in the midst of trying to badmouth bitcoin I guess. "But gold has industrial uses!" he shouted over the din of the argument. Whaaat?? No, that's not a good thing. Silver, for example, has more industrial uses. Back when cameras used film, with silver as one component, it was worth something based on that alone. As industrial uses change, the demand goes up or down, changing the value of, say, silver, as a currency. Bitcoin has no other practical value - do you need a piece of blockchain to scrape the ice off your walkway? That's a point in its favor.
Back to the property of irreproducibility, what about a new source? With gold, I do wonder about the eventual mining of it from asteroids. Instapundit recently had a link to a story, but I haven't read it. Also, Peak Stupidity discussed this possibility 4 years ago in Gold found on an asteroid? Should I buy, sell, or hold? What about a new source of bitcoin blockchain, if one even puts it that way? All I could see is that hacking of the whole mathematical concept, as discussed at the beginning here. Otherwise, I don't see how.
One thing that's not much a factor with precious metals - there are gold, silver, and a few others that are all known and established - is the various and sundry other cryptocurrencies besides bitcoin. In general, what I write here is with the understanding it applies to all of them. However, if you do put lots of your savings into one of them, say, bitcoin, will others take over the market in currency, as VHS beat out Betamax? There are lots of them. Mr. Voorhees stated that competition in currencies is good, but does that apply to Joe Blow who doesn't have the time or inclination to watch this stuff day-in/day-out? Personally, I'm fiscally Conservative, so I'd feel more comfortable myself knowing there was one major crytpo-currency accepted all over, and the speculation phase in it was over. There' s no worry about this factor with gold.
Divisibility is another property of real money. I've heard something written about gold which I simply think is flat wrong. "Gold is no good because there's not enough of it. To back all the currency out there we'd need..." making this up because I don't know the money supply (Which money supply? There are a bunch of them!) " ... gold would have to be $95,000 an ounce. My responses to that are:
1) Zippedy doo da! My, oh, my, it's a wonderful day!
AND
2) So what? Who says we'd have to stick to troy ounce coins? In the made-up case above, gram coins would be worth $3,050 a piece. Well, that's a lot to be carrying around too! Why not make an alloy of 5% gold in other metal, so the coins could be bigger for a smaller value? That would require some trust though.
That's an interesting thought about divisibility with gold, but it sure IS divisible. What about bitcoin? I am really not sure about this. A coin is a coin, but can there be small fractions of coins in software, or does this have to be done within the purview of a bank of some sort? The crytpo banks have introduced some bad publicity for these currencies, as hacking of these banks cost people their savings, and many people may confuse that with the hacking of the crypto concept itself. OTOH, banks used to get robbed pretty regularly, especially when one thinks back to the days when there was real money in them!
Privacy in buying and selling was not so much a property of money, as described years ago in books, as we didn't have so many organizations prying into our business. It's surely important now, and in fact, much of the impetus for the gold AND bitcoin proponents. Bitcoin however, from what I've read, is NOT private in that the blockchain contains info. on every transaction that's. been made. OTOH, they all tell me, as Mr. Roubini got all worried about, that it's hard for an entity like Government to get involved. This has to do with the lack of banking required to use it. Gold, of course, has the same benefits, at least if it is used ACTUALLY as a currency, not as an investment measured in dollars, to be taxed if bought and sold within the CC and banking systems.
The real worry about all money is its suitability as a "store of value". One may work for years and see his savings get eaten alive by inflation. 20 ounces of gold is still 20 ounces of gold, 5, 10, 50, 100 years later.** It is easily recognizable, possibly with some inexpensive test methods required, depending...
For bitcoin, that's the big bugaboo. Is it a good store of value, if we can't really see it, or know we have it, without a computer and the internet? The 4 debaters didn't get into that, but with all but one being financial doomers and a couple seemingly prepper types, a discussion on a SHTF situation would have been helpful. With the caveat of a working internet or at least electrical power, bitcoin's use as a currency is better than gold for payments to far-away places. That was Mr. Voorhee's major point in favor of bitcoin. One can buy and sell away from Government and banking systems that make one subject to regulation and taxation. Gold is good for this too but only for local transactions. When the SHTF, well, that's all there'll be. We can talk about .22LR rounds and cans of Campbell soup another time. (Show me the man who can't use another milk carton of .22LR and doesn't like Campbell's Bean & Bacon?)
The anecdote from wiki I pasted in last post illustrates one more thing: Sorry, but with this REAL MONEY, you do have to watch your money - don't lose it! There was a news story about a guy whose bitcoin password got accidentally thrown in the trash, with the money behind it being worth millions in dollars. He went to the dump, and last I heard from a friend, BOUGHT the dump, to be on the safe side. Well, one could hide some gold really well, too well, and never find it again. Them's the breaks. Or, be on the "safe side". It's either keep real value or take one's chances with the old system, the solid chance that the value of one's money in the bank steadily declines from inflation*** and the less solid one that this bank will not be too big to fail, so bye, bye, bye... Oh, the FDIC right, that works if it's just a few banks.
And don't put that bitcoin PW OR your PMs in one of those "safety" deposit boxes. If that bank closes or the government gets a wild hair up its ass, again, buh bye!
I tell ya. My money don't get no respect... no respect at all in country that doesn't keep a sound currency.
* I personally HATE the use of physical terms by the computer types to represent things that should have their own computer lingo, as mentioned within this post.
** It takes a change in mindset to really get this. "Man, I could have bought these 20 oz at $325 20 years ago, but I paid $1,100 apiece! Now they are worth $2400 each. I could have made more money." Money, what exactly is the money of which you speak? Nope, that's not the point. One could rightly bemoan "I could have gotten 60 something oz 20 years ago and had 60 oz now, rather than 20!" Yes. Just don't look at precious metals as "an investment". Think of how many of those approaching-worthless pieces of green paper or bits on a bank computer they'll take for an ounce ... of MONEY.
*** BTW, in addition, even with the lousy 4% interest they're throwing us now, that gets taxed as income at your highest marginal rate, I found out that the penalties for early withdrawal are more severe than they used to be. For me, it was 6 months of interest, and for a new CD, they go back and take out principal to get it too! They didn't used to be like this.
Comments (8)
Gold v Bitcoin: ZeroHedge Debate
Posted On: Tuesday - August 27th 2024 9:26AM MST
In Topics: Pundits Global Financial Stupidity Preppers and Prepping Economics
The following debate among these 4 well-known "respected"* financial figures is 2 hours long. It's entertainment for some of us, but please read my general review below before spending that time for not very much real elucidation on the subject. As with a lot of things, especially in these days of Peak Stupidity, if you want it done right, you've got to do it yourself. That'll be next post.
ZeroHedge and 2 advertisers, one for gold and one for bitcoin, of course, sponsored this discussion/debate/argument among 2 gold investment proponents and 2 bitcoin investment proponents. The former are Turkish born Jewish "Iranian-American (wheww!) Nouriel Roubini and the more well-known-to-me Peter Schiff (also Jewish, but actually American). The latter are one Anthony Scaramucci and a guy named Erik Voorhees.
The links here are all to wiki pages. I'll say here that, in my discussion below, I will remain unbiased as I was before reading these biographies (with the appropriate grains of salt due to wiki) just now. I've read and watched Peter Schiff before, having known his opinions for 20 years. Mr. Roubini and Mr. Scaramucci are names I recall from my time of reading ZeroHedge over a decade ago, but the names were almost all I remembered. I'd never heard of Eric Voorhees until now.
Let me introduce these 4, plus the narrator, one by one. Then, I'll discuss their personalities and ideologies as evidenced in this debate along with their general financial opinions. I'll then cover what discussion of gold v bitcoin there was among these guys not necessarily in order.
The moderator is (obviously "subcontinental-American" - no, why would you think he's a guy from the Yucatan or Baja?, no actually "sub-S. African"**) Ran Neuner of Crypto Banter. Well, this financial figure who's done very well for himself has obviously got a stake in seeing crypto currencies remain around, but he stayed completely neutral in this debate.
I swear I recall Nouriel Roubini being discussed favorably on ZH years back. That may have just been his having been right on some calls. That's all it takes for finance people to like someone. I will not be discussing Noureil Roubini favorably. To introduce him anyway here, he's a big academician and political advisor from way back, having attended the "best" of schools, worked for President Clinton for year, and advised the IMF and the World Bank. He has something in common with the other gold proponent, in that he predicted the '08 crash and is also a "Dr. Doom". (Now, I see why the ZH folks liked him.) His proposed solutions to our financial problems are as Statist as can be. In '09, he said the US Gov't should sieze and nationalize all the banks. As it's been with any doomer, he's been wrong a whole lot... so far. "The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent" and all that. The best move is not to play. ZH'ers never got that last part.
Peter Schiff, another financial doomer with also a proponent of personal and national fiscal responsibility, is very unlike Mr. Roubini. Mr. Schiff's Dad Irwin was a hard-core Libertarian (having run for office) and a serious Feral Income tax resistor. He remained in jail for something like the last decade of his life. Out of spite - I remember this - they would not let him go home for his last dying days, something his son Peter remains angry about.
I've watched videos by Mr. Schiff, including the famous compilation showing his prescience in calling out the financial BS in the lead up to the popping of the early-00's housing bubble. As a good Libertarian, he sees precious metals as currency that the fed can't screw with, hence a good thing.
I'd only heard the name of Anthony Scaramucci before this debate and my perusal of his wiki page. He's another finance big-wig. I think you just have to make a few smart or lucky big trades and get reasonably rich, and they you're the bomb to all the folks wanting to make make money off of money, i.e., get rich quick. Mr. Scaramucci has got SOME history, with a very amusing part involving his 10-day stint working in a high position for President Trump. I just have to paste this in:
On January 23, he told New York magazine: "the thing I have learned about these people in Washington is they have no money. So what happens when they have no fucking money is they write about what seat they are in and what the title is. Fucking congressmen act like that. They are fucking jackasses.I'm not there, so I'm not sure about much of that besides that they are fucking jackasses. Anthony Scaramucci, however, if not a jackass, has been very stupid regarding his country. He's been for gun control, for gay marriage, and he opposed Trump's anti-invasion proposals back in '15, and then after the falling out, took things that were personal against Trump to a political level. Scaramucci supported Zhou Bai Dien even. It's been unfortunate finding this out after watching the video, as you'll see that I enjoyed watching him as the most civil of debaters. This goes to show that a few smart/lucky financial moves may make one rich but not necessarily a bit smarter.
Erik Voorhees, as I suspected after watching the video, is a true Libertarian's Libertarian. He was involved in the New Hampshire Free State project as a young man nearly 15 years ago. He was involved in the blockchain/cryptocurrency idea early on after being introduced to it by a friend from his college days in Tacoma, Washington. He was involved at a very good time, and "cashed out" of his stake in Satoshi Dice, a crypto-gambling company he'd founded after only a year or two with $11 million. By "cashed out", his money was still in crypto, as he does really believe in the idea.
Mr. Voorhees attitude on Big Governments and money is exactly the opposite of Mr. Roubini's. This has not much to do with the gold v bitcoin debate, as Eric Voorhees naturally likes the idea of both as forms of currency that governments can's screw with.
Now, let's go around again with these guys and the 2 hour, 9 minute debate. I'll start from the gold guys, from our right to left, the moderator Ran Neuner's left to right.
On the right, I'll say right now that Mr. Roubini is simply the worst, by far, of these guys in his appearance in this, what for him, is an argument. He's a loud mouth know-it-all. He knows enough to discuss the various qualities of money, of which he thinks bitcoin is lacking. However, gold, bitcoin, or whatever, Roubini is a Statist Regime sycophant through and through. Oh, as for bitcoin, he can send money home to Israel just as "Swift"ly as Mr. Voorhees can send money, yes, using the US Gov't system. "Oh, but you can't send money to Russia that way? Sure, but that's an evil regime that jails its opponents..." He's not only a NeoCon, but a true Globalist. He had no problem with a CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency***), so you know, we wouldn't have competing crypto currencies and all...
When it came to what other assets besides gold he does like, in the name of fighting inflation, Roubini came across very elitist. His bringing up of land as an investment is not wrong. I am doing this. However, the average Joe Blow (like me) can't just have his finance guy take care of all this, with 20 properties, on whole a good deal. They get you coming and going (mostly going) and while holding - real estate cuts and property taxes. With other financial "instruments', the system gets you coming and going too. So, if bitcoin can keep up out of the clutches of governments and their taxes, that (AND some precious metals) is something Joe Blow CAN get into.
Both of the gold guys, unfortunately for a proper debate, seemed to spend too much time talking over the other guys. Peter Schiff was pretty bad, but Roubini was even worse. After this I wish he'd remained a rug merchant as his Dad had wanted him to be - I will not willingly read anything from him or watch or listen to him in the future.
Next. Peter Schiff is a stubborn guy. Though I agree with him regarding precious metals as real money, and I'm not so sure about crypto myself, I don't think he gave the other guys a good listen. He's not that old, but as per the only one of Mr. Scaramucci's personal arguments, he does come across as the old man on The Simpsons (he means Abe Simpson). He didn't even want to try to understand any of the concepts about crypto.
Since watching, I came across this gem of an anecdote off of Mr. Schiff's wiki page:
On January 19, 2020, Schiff claimed that his Bitcoin wallet got 'corrupted' and that he had therefore lost all the bitcoin he ever owned, through no fault of his own. "My wallet got corrupted somehow and my password is no longer valid. So now not only is my Bitcoin intrinsically worthless; it has no market value either. I knew owning Bitcoin was a bad idea, I just never realized it was this bad." This claim turned out to be false as later explained by Erik Voorhees, as he confirmed that he had, indeed, helped Schiff to set up his Bitcoin wallet, and wrote that Schiff "forgot (the) pw, and never recorded (his recovery) phrase". "If I gave him an ounce of gold and he dropped it on the sidewalk would he similarly condemn the precious metal as a foolish monetary system?Ha! and Ahaaa! That explains a lot. Oftentimes when we think men are debating things on principle, there may be something small (or big) personal thing behind it.
To our left some more, and directly to moderator Neuner's right, Anthony Scaramucci came across very well here. He talked calmly and didn't do too much of the interrupting. (Just as a guess, I'd say he talked 15% of the time, Mr. Voorhees talked only 5% of it, with Roubini at 45% and Schiff at 35%) Mr. Scaramucci would have been a better moderator than the moderator. Though pleasant and fair, Ran Neuner should have drawn the line at times to stop the loud instances of 3 people talking at once, occasionally all 4.
At one point, it was Mr. Scaramucci rather than the moderator who calmly asked "What would change your mind?" to the gold side guys. Each of them would not even consider thinking about it, while Mr. Scaramucci gave a great example of what it would take for he to change his mind, something Erik Voorhees agreed with.
About the only thing keeping me even more favorable toward Anthony Scaramucci (and this was BEFORE I read anything about him) is that he seems also very establishment-oriented. My take was that he's not a guy that thinks it's all going down, as the other 3 are. Thankfully, he's not a NeoCon and/or Gov't sychophant like Roubini.
Finally, Erik Voorhees was the most calm and least talkative there. He tried to make his points very simply, and he did not object to one of the 2 more loud-mouthed gold guys interrupting almost immediately. Though his points were good ones, it's important to try to head off arguments at the pass. I think Mr. Voorhees would have been better of claiming his time - "give me a minute please, to finish" - and providing more detail. Mr. Voorhees got rich quick from crypto-currencies, so of course he's got a vested interest in supporting them. Not only is it about keeping these currencies alive but also about proving he's not just one lucky bastard but more a smart and prescient one.
He came across well, especially in the arguments with Mr. Roubini over government control of currencies. That's a big ideological argument. As for the topic supposedly at hand, I note that Mr. Voorhees told the gold guys directly that he'd be very glad if gold became a more important currency too.
Well, that all was a long treatise on these 4 financial guys, but what about gold v bitcoin? Unfortunately, in that over 2 hour period, not enough of the nitty-gritty of it was discussed. The properties of money, ease of use, store of value, etc. were mentioned, but they weren't discussed properly, not enough to convince anyone of anything.
The confusion that took most of the time was the difference between bitcoin's use as a currency and its life as a vehicle for financial gains and gaming. For the latter purposes, one side would argue that the whole crypto deal is just the latest tulip bulb scam while the other that, sure, it's been bid up and down like crazy but it's more like the first few guys seeing oil bubble up through the ground and wondering what it could be used for.****
Oh, but you're cherry-picking your time scale. No, you are. How many people are in it for the gambling (they didn't use that word) vs for their use of it as a currency?***** There are 300 million users of (or speculators in) bitcoin, it was stated. Will that go up to most of the world's population or dive down when the "fad" is over?
There WAS some discussion on bitcoin's use as a currency, making transfers of money to anywhere in the world quick and easy. That was Erik Voorhees' main point. Mr. Roubini didn't like that the crypto-currencies could not be taxed - one must do one's duty and pay tax to the good people of the Government, Mr. Roubini argued - while Mr. Voorhee's rightly saw this as a good thing. In the meantime, I think Anthony Scaramucci doesn't have so much Libertarian, free-market ideology in him, but just figures bitcoin is doing well and here to stay, so go with it...
Again, Peter Schiff can't see, to paraphrase, how this made-up currency means anything, and if you lose the password... well, I see he knows about that! He made fun of that it can be "mined" on a computer - what is THAT all about? - without seeing that there is a parallel to the energy required to (actually) mine gold and silver out of the ground. Roubini says CBDCs are better, cause, the Government.
It went like that. Given short shrift was more actual discussion of the details. Could anyone break the blockchain? How do you know no one could? Is storing bitcoin safe? With all the speculation, will it eventually become steady in value and become store of value? What about competing cryptocurrencies to bitcoin? Erik Voorhees had no problem with that. Roubini figures that's rebellious and anti-Government. Peter Schiff thinks it's all junk. Anthony Scaramucci figures if one can make money on it, it can't be bad.
What about gold? There really wasn't much discussion on it, as one thing I think all 4 guys agree on is that gold is money. Some (2 out of 4) of them agree for practical investment reasons and the other 2 (Mr. Schiff and Mr. Voorhees) for ideological anti-Government control reasons.
Let me wrap this up. You may be entertained, but don't waste your time thinking this video will help you much. At the end, Moderator Neuner boasted that this was the biggest and best gold v bitcoin debate. NO! Unfortunately for those of us with not all the time in the world to waste, there were 4 supposed finance experts taking 2 hours on this, yet they did a poor job.
With the exception of Erik Voorhees (and Mr. Scaramucci would make a better moderator), I wouldn't want any of these guys back for another. The way this went, with the off-topic arguments, I'd think we'd learn more about gold v bitcoin from a debate between a mathematician and a coin collector.
So, leave it for Peak Stupidity, with no financial experts at all on staff, to do a hopefully better job in at least laying out the important arguments about each, gold and/or bitcoin, as forms of money. Hopefully, that'll be later tonight.
* 2 or 3 still are - I'll explain...
** I should have recognized that accent before reading his wiki page just now. I've always like the S. African accent.
*** This one took me a while to figure out too. I'd though it was some kind of marijuana at first.
**** I'd rather use gold or silver for this analogy, but they've been around so long in history that the discovery of them may be hard to describe.
***** I have a friend who did pretty well gambling in it, for a while. I think he's still ahead. He has the extra money to do so. I don't know - will ask - how much he has used it to buy and sell, though.
Comments (8)
The Niagara (Falls) Indians
Posted On: Monday - August 26th 2024 6:41PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Environmental Stupidity Peak Stupidity Roadshow
I gotta say, it was worth the money for the view and the micro-thin blue rain ponchos. My shoes are still soaked, as I write!
In the comments under this post of the past spring, Adam Smith had given us some info on Niagara Falls. Besides the story of the pollution of various sorts, Mr. Smith presented some videos of some "polluted" neighborhoods. I'd mentioned that we'd never been there, but now we have. Of a goodly number of family trips, this one worked out pretty well, transport-wise, budget-wise, and with little, errr, "friction". We were all miffed about one particular thing though.
That'd be all the Indians. Wait, sure, they've got their deal with the gambling, errr, gaming, I'm sorry, now. It's a strange deal that's not really fair to guys like Donald Trump. However, Americans really don't know how to help these people who a century and a half after being savages or close to it, still don't fit in well.
We came to Niagara Falls for the beautiful spectacle and not at all for the gambling, as we are not the type to partake in it. With Adam Smith's advice about the area in mind, I did take a walk underneath the huge Seneca Casino roof* though to get somewhere.
That road went to a 7-11 on the very edge of the demographically-polluted part of town. As a total digression here, I found it impossible to get a couple of plastic** bags there for the half gallon of chocolate milk and nearly a gallon of water. Paper is not made for jostling around this stuff for a half mile or so. I found out later this was due to a New York State law from March of '20, predating Governor Hul Chi Minh***. I made it back before nightfall, intact in my person, the milk, and the water.
Niagara is yet another Indian name for that river. Yeah, though not in great numbers, Indians were all around America back in the day. Most of the rivers are named after them. People get the Indian State name concept wrong too. As Indian tribes claimed their rivers as their lands, the river took the name of the tribe. Many States took the names of these rivers, hence are only indirectly named after Indians.
So, dumb laws in States run by Commies, bad neighborhoods in downtowns, Indian casinos, none of that was unexpected. What was unexpected by us was the •Indians in Niagara Falls. I guessed at first that the time of our trip (we were there for 2 1/2 days) must have been some kind of big holiday in India, explaining a big tourist influx from the "subcontinent"****. I mean, half the people at the viewpoints, on the boats, on the crazy stairways off the cliff where you got soaked to the bone, wherever, were these Indians. They didn't look like no warriors... OK, like no casino operators, to me.
It wasn't until we walked back to the hotel the 1st day that we realized that the town's tourist business area itself leans •Indian. We got some Chinese food for the one meal out that day - go figure, but the girl did pile on the food - but we noticed the curry smell that came out of established businesses and even the "roach coaches". Here's a screenshot of google maps close to the parks by the falls:
When it was time for a lunch meal the 2nd day, well, there was that buffet restaurant we'd passed by going back and forth. We stepped in and ... it was an Indian restaurant - not the Niagaras or Senecas either - no buffalo in this place.
We couldn't tell from the outside. IIRC, it just was't clear. I guess it was expected - "Of course, we're an Indian buffet. I mean, this is Niagara Falls" "OK, and we're supposed to know that how again? I don't recall reading about a treaty."
Alrighty, we settled on some chain Moe's half-assed Mexican food. Since we were the only customers, I had time to ask the lady working there a question: "What's the deal with all the Indians around here?"
Of course she got offended. You HAVE to, don't you? "I'm married to an Indian guy." OK... but that didn't answer the question. I still don't have the answer.
Having your lands invaded and "enriched" like this makes a White man feel for the other Indians, those Niagara rather than Niagara Falls Indians. Within a century or two of the first arrival of the invaders the former were greatly outgunned and outnumbered. In our case, we still outgun the invaders, even if simply via the application of the law. Our fighting back, as we've been keeping up with over in the UK, results in our own "Chiefs" silencing and arresting us. Those other Indians way back weren't THAT stupid. Are they laughing at us at there in the casinos or do they sympathize?
PS: This should have been in the post. It's something I thought about since I started looking up "Indians Niagara Falls" to get info. We did not get to the Canadian side. (Someone forgot his or her passport.) The web shows all kinds of •Indian joints on the Canadian side too. Did some or most of these people come in from Canada, legally or not? It's a thing, immigrating to Canada first, because it's easier at the legal level, and then coming here. That's what the Nimarata (aka Nicky) Haley family did, and the same with the Commie Harris Klan. Canada's Population Replacement Programme is larger on a relative scale than even America's!
* Were I a few decades younger, I know I'd have climbed up, over, and down that roof. It was the perfect shape for that. Alas, it's not that I can't do it, but wives and cops both frown upon people my age... I could have said I was homeless, I guess... very tempting.
** Digression from the digression: A friend of mine lives near lots of students who don't have so much a reason to keep their trash orderly. Plastic bags were blowing around the neighborhood during high winds. He should know better, but exclaimed "they should ban them!" Me: "Or, like, they could ban littering..."
*** Though she has her hands in everything now. Just one of the important Acts touted in her "Environmental Protection Package: Prohibits Hotels from Using Small Wasteful Plastic Bottles for Shampoo and Other Personal Care Products. Whaaaa? You mean I'll have to start buying this stuff from, like, the store?!
**** I HATE that term, as illustrated here.
Comments (8)
Covid, mosquitoes, and Faucis, oh my!
Posted On: Monday - August 26th 2024 1:14PM MST
In Topics: Humor Healthcare Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
This story from ZeroHedge is pretty funny... not really "haha" funny, cause a guy got really sick and went to the hospital, but ... I'm sorry, hahahaaaas! You'll see. Here's the headline/link: Giga-Vaxxed Fauci Somehow Contracts Ultra-Rare West Nile Virus On Heels Of COVID-19 Infection.
Alright, Tyler Durden*, you tend to exaggerate sometimes. "Giga" means a billion. Kung Flu health guru Anthony Fauci had only been sextuply boosted, you know, plus the regular vax jabs, of course. (But, of course.) He has contracted the Kung Flu 3 times, proving that this virus can... well, we need to update wikipedia and change the definition of "vaccine", first of all.
Lately, though, ex Covid Tsar** Fauci has had a real run of bad luck. He contracted the West Nile Virus and was hospitalized for nearly a week. His is 1 out of 216 cases in the US so far this year. What are the odds that this virus would infect a guy with his virology background and expertise?!.
According to the report, Fauci has no idea how he got West Nile - a mosquito-borne illness that can cause fever, body aches, diarrhea and rash - and for which there is no vaccine or treatment.No freaking idea... could it be mosquitoes along with a half century of un-controlled immigration bringing in bedbugs, smaller bugs, and all sorts of nasty germs that had been wiped out by the advanced 1st World, when it was still such? Some people are in de Nile about this, trying to wash off more germs than they are taking on... and bringing in.
Would it matter if there were a vaccine? Could Fauci himself, after all, he's America's Doctor, have developed a West Nile treatment plan for himself and us all, with his great expertise as demonstrated 4 years back during that Great Pandemic? Regarding that late unpleasantness, Tyler Durden nicely and concisely summed up Mr. Fauci's "role" if I may, in it with his first phrase here:
Former NAIAD Director Anthony Fauci - who outsourced risky COVID gain-of-function research to a shoddy Chinese lab, and was then put in charge of handling a COVID pandemic that broke out down the street from said lab -BTW, I know he's heavily invested via time in his "America did it!" theory, but without anything but speculation, can Ron Unz not see Occam's Razor here? What happened was well publicized and follows common sense very well. The HANDLING of this disease and massive effort to take advantage of it by Totalitarians around the world is the real story.
Anyway, Peak Stupidity has a lot more concern about mosquitoes, bearing gifts from the cradle of civilization or not, than we do the Kung Flu virus. We'd have said the same by mid-March of '20. I HATE, HATE, HATE mosquitoes and really wonder why they'd been put on God's green earth. We at Peak Stupidity headquarters have even rescinded our Sanctuary Yard policy. Back 25 years ago, the local government had a spray program, with trucks coming around once or twice a month in the summer. The spray may have had some DDT in it. I don't care - it worked! Bring back the DC-3s!!
As expected, the ZH comments were a hoot. This one guy has an avatar that's the Monopoly™ guy with the top hat. I wonder if he (no, not the Monopoly guy) was commenting back when I used to read through all the ZH posts and comments back in '11...
itstippyAlso, from the same guy:
1 day ago. (Edited)
He took his mask off for three minutes to brush his teeth, and BAM! West Nile Virus, Zika, Covid, Monkey Pox, Bird Flu, Ebola, Emerald Ash Borer, Peanut Allergy, Erectile Dysfunction, The Heartbreak Of Psori...
He should ask his Doctor if Hydroxychloroquine is right for him.iSteve commenters may find these ones a little immature, but I see it as a good thing. OK, one more:
Immortal Mountain Wizard Assoc:In descending order, I fear most mosquitos, then Fauci (cause he's 83 and gets sick a lot), and then the oft-dreaded Covid-one-niner dead last.
1 day ago
I wish him a very speedy recovery. One should always feel their best before being strung up from a lamp post.
* The ZeroHedge posts that are not taken from other sources are attributed to one Tyler Durden (some say there are more than one), the character in one of Peak Stupidity's least favorite movies. See Movie Review - "Fight Club" still sucks.
** I had no idea we still had American Czars until Kamelion and her implausibly-denied Border Czar position, and now I learn that Fauci had been a Czar too. Do they still shoot
Comments (9)
Jim v Dwight @ The Office
Posted On: Saturday - August 24th 2024 7:32PM MST
In Topics: TV, aka Gov't Media
Regular Peak Stupidity readers have likely seen more than one humorous clip from the very early 21st century 9-year-running TV show The Office on this site. I've got lots of praise for this best of TV shows ever, IMO - that'll appear at the end. Those years, '05-'13, were already well into my now 25-year long hiatus from the idiot plate.
Actually, hiatus is the wrong word - I ain't going back. I didn't miss it after 3 months even. Why the praise then, and how'd I watch The Office? It's like this: This young lady was ripping and burning DVDs on the streets of Canton, China about 15 years ago. My companion decided to buy about 1 1/2" of these disks (no thick covers there, just the very thin plastic ones) for me, well, with my money, 10 bucks, as I recall. Most of it was garbage, but I watched this particular show when I got home on my computer.
The 1st disk was the 1st season of the British show starring Ricky Gervais. It was funny enough, but then the rest were the American version with Steve Carell as the office manager Michael Scott. Sorry, but I have a hard time believing even a Brit would find the British version funnier that the latter.* No, I'm sure the young lady back in the Middle Kingdom making a living stealing Hollywood IP had no clue of the difference between the shows. They were all those same White people, so what's your problem?
No problem. Anyway, rather than this being a fairly frivolous post here, comparing 2 of the main characters of the American show, I do have a bigger point to make, one that will carry over to a couple of other posts I've been wanting to write. Kind of as with a Ginger v Mary Ann comparison, but no, not really like that at all, this is about, were this real life, who of the 2 characters, Jim Halpert or Dwight Schrute, is a better person, the one we'd rather emulate, and who would we rather have really in charge... of more than just the Scranton Branch of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.
Jim Halpert is played by John Krasinsky, and Dwight Schrute is played by Rainn Wilson.
It's obvious, at least early on in the show, who the writers, directors, and such SEE as the better person. That'd be the more handsome, more easygoing, more quick-witted, capable salesman Jim Halpert. In contrast, Dwight Schrute is a kiss-ass to the boss Michael Scott (there's that running joke "Assistant Regional Manager, no, Assistant TO the Regional Manager), a non-cosmopolitan country boy, a weapon-crazy redneck and high-strung to boot. (He's also a good salesman though.). Though American politics outside Dunder Mifflin is not any part of The Office as opposed to in the old All in the Family, I can see a parallel with Dwight and old Archie Bunker. Each is a character that the show makers figured the viewer should dislike.
It doesn't always work that way. First, though, how could one, especially the woman viewers, not like Jim Halpert though? Yeah, he doesn't get ruffled. He does his job competently and snarkily or otherwise puts up with and often enjoys the antics of politically incorrect (though, of course, Jim isn't), time-wasting, goofy manager Michael Scott. Oh, and he plays clever tricks on socially Conservative but awkward annoying office mate Dwight and flirts with the nicest cute receptionist Pam Beasley. Jim goes along to get along, and is an overall nice guy.
Nobody admires a kiss ass as Dwight Schrute is, though only early on in the show, maybe through the 1st 3 or 4 seasons. However, whatever he does, as silly as it may be, he does his best. While Jim takes the whole office thing with a grain of salt, Dwight is gung ho about it all. The writers painted Dwight as a wanna-be authoritarian figure to be disliked, but I figure the actor told them he wanted to be less one-dimensional by some point. The character "grew" in later episodes, becoming better with the ladies, no longer in thrall to the whims of Michael Scott, and even funnier.
I like that Dwight is a self-reliant, prepper type, while I don't think Jim is ready for anything but the middle-class American life that he doesn't know might not last for long.
As usual, one has to suspend disbelief a bit for both these characters. Jim, for example, would likely get angry on occasion in real life and show it. Additionally, that niceness of his would probably have not gotten him the girl, Pam, in real life. As much as it would have been a mistake on her part, she'd have been gone. As for Dwight, nobody has the time to run a beet farm - mostly by himself, work his 8-5 sales job, and be a Sheriff's Deputy too. Maybe it's just that I don't have that much energy.
OK, Jim v Dwight, which is it?. It's not just a matter of taste as with liking Mary Ann better than Ginger (or vice versa). I see the difference in personalities as translating to people in real life. Because I'm still working up a post about Steve Sailer and the worth of his type of personality in the times to come, I think of the very last part of his interview with Tucker Carlson. Tucker noted that Steve is such a nice and reasonable guy. He's not a "hater", someone who rants and jumps up and down.
Regarding that last bit, Alex Jones comes to mind. How about this analogy? When it comes to pundits and existential political issues, as compared to office politics, can we say that Jim Halpert is to Dwight Schrute as Steve Sailer is to Alex Jones. Often you'd rather talk to, and rather be around, the civil, calm reasonable guy. He might not have strict principles, but he's generally right and, yeah, reasonable. Sometimes, however, things get to the point which require someone who DOES really hate the way things are going. He sticks to his principles, because getting away from them is what got us into the messes we're in. He knows how to handle real trouble. Yeah, he's angry, but when it's time to get loud and rowdy, he does, because it's necessary.
Well, that'll be that other post coming, with references to The Godfather. As for me, I admire the character Dwight more than I do Jim. I would rather BE Dwight Schrute than be Jim Halpert. Likely a big majority of The Office fans would disagree.
OK, have a great Sunday, Peakers. This was a weird post, but it IS leading to something I'll write about this coming week.
PS: I don't intend to write a review of The Office. "Watching TV" can have different meanings these days, with your streaming and such, but we sure don't encourage TV here at Peak Stupidity. However, I'll admit that The Office was great entertainment. The political incorrectness**, even when it was, in show reality, embarrassing to the characters, was great to see. It's just my kind of humor.
As the show went along, the writers eventually got off track - say season 6, about the time I quit watching (not even sure where I got seasons 5 and 6 from). For example, Ed Helm, the guy who played Andy Barnard, could sing well, one could tell. He must have pushed for that episode in which he was in a musical play. No, sorry, that's not The Office. Then, to keep the women viewers, besides the office romances, the show had to have complete wedding shows, I believe for all the main characters, after I'd quit watching.
PPS: There are plenty of video compilations of Jim funny scenes and Dwight funny scenes. I may paste them in tomorrow. However, I think if you aren't a fan of this show, you wouldn't get enough out of them, and if you are, you don't need that to know all I refer to here.
* That's not throwing any shade on Ricky Gervais there either. He's a funny guy. Check out the obscure '08 movie Ghost Town sometime.
** The show about Mexican accountant Oscar being "outed" as gay was a hilarious example of this. The kissing scene explains why the show is seen as cringeworthy on occasion. Yeah, I had a hard time watching that, but you just had to! "I don't celebrate Oscar's gayness - this is about his Mexicanity" or something like that is what Michael said at one point.
Comments (8)
Blacks against the invasion... cause, MY free stuff, not yours
Posted On: Friday - August 23rd 2024 10:58AM MST
In Topics: Elections '16 - '24 Immigration Stupidity Trump Hildabeast Race/Genetics Karmakarma Kameleon
Via Instapundit, I came upon this Daily Caller article reporting on Black! men's opinion from the barbershop. It Hurts Black People’: Chicago Barbershop Voters Unload On Democrats Over Immigration Policy. Oh sure, there are always a few good guys, occasionally women even, that DO understand the big picture and have told the rest so for years.
“All the immigrants came in and … the stuff they have for the Americans, they’re giving it to the immigrants that’s coming in,” one voter said while receiving a haircut. “Trump was trying to keep them out, so to speak, as much as he could. But Biden just like let the gate open.”That's one guy, but I guess there are a lot of black voters out there who are sporting large movie-goer antagonizing Afros then, because they surely are not spending any time at the barber shops. Pew Research's data on '16 "validated"* voters shows their support, or lack thereof, for Trump in '16.**
It's hard to read, but that's an 81% Hildabeast vote from black men, and 98% from the women. I guess votes from the latter for Trump came to such a small number, there are statistical problems, hence the asterisk of which I haven't found the other end.***. (That right column of numbers is percentage of the total electorate.)
So, no, I am not excited about the black vote because, hey, they get it on immigration! That's not the case. Generally, they don't. In '16, they voted for the one more likely to supply the free shit, which is always the ctrl-left There was also the big black church lady turnout, as directed by James Clyburne and the various fried chicken outlets.
The reason black people in Chicago may be a little more up in arms about the invasion recently is because it's become personal. That's the only time they care. There's never been any concern out of them for the general cultural changes for the worse and the Population Replacement Programme directed against the White people who built the place. No, see, these "newcomers" to Chicagoland are getting the free shit paid for by the working White man that is supposed to go to the black man only. Note the quote above about "the stuff".
Even when they do look at the slightly larger picture, well:
“It hurts black people more than anything,” another voter said. “Black men particularly like to work with their hands, they like to drive trucks. Those are jobs that an illegal can come in and underbid him with third world prices and put him out of work.”[My bolding.] It's not "what's in it for legacy (Steve Sailer idea) Americans", but what's in it for US, the black people. I know that some White men drive trucks too. Trucking wages have taken a big hit (think REAL money) since the time of the Snowman in Smokey and the Bandit. That's 60 years of an unrelenting push for cheap labor that has been decreasing pay and job prospects for American men.
“Blacks are struggling more than any other demographic,” the voter said. “We got the highest prison rate, highest high school dropout rate. Highest murder rate. What’s in it for us?”
Oh, and Jason Cohen, the Daily Caller writer here, talked to a few guys before he got the heck out of that part of town, but for the one guy,
Despite his belief about former President Donald Trump handling illegal immigration better, the voter told Jones he plans to vote for Harris because she’s a woman.Whaaaa? That doesn't even sound right. It's more likely because she's black, or so she says...
As for the women:
“I’m going for Trump. I feel like every time they don’t want somebody who is good for us to win, they throw somebody black in our face thinking that’s going to make us vote for the black person,” a black woman told Lemon [Don, a black TV talking head].Yeah, well, you will anyway. Talk to me after your vote's been validated.
* The Pew article does a good job explaining what they mean by "validated". They use the term "verified" and then switch to "validated" part way down.
** To me, support for Trump was a pretty good proxy for caring about the immigration invasion. His bringing up that issue bigly WAS, after all, what got him into the race. In '20, well, there should be one big-assed asterisk, so I won't use those numbers.
*** No, these aren't them - I just want to note that I did check through page 3 of the article.
Comments (24)
Gradations of Stupidity - 3 items
Posted On: Thursday - August 22nd 2024 8:47PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity US Feral Government Female Stupidity Dead/Ex- Presidents Kung Flu Stupidity
None of these is worth putting in a separate post, I guess.
Did any readers see T-Shirts like the above during the PanicFest? I'm very glad I didn't run into anyone that hard-core about it.
It's been 4 years since what Peak Stupidity (see the many posts here) the Summer re-Panic. I really thought the thing had run its course - not the virus, but the PanicFest - by May of '20, so the Summer resurgence was seen by us as Season 2* of the infotainment.
Well, from the time our local nurse was given T-shirts, you know, to support the team, 4 years back, to now, this particular bright red shirt hasn't gotten much use. It has all the important stuff, the 6 ft rule, the "clean the hell out of EVERYTHING" strongly worded advice, the hand washing, the coughing into your sleeve wisdom,, and generally says "stay safe". The hospital has its logo to show it cares, all 50,000 employees of the huge conglomerate.
My other T-shirts wear out, so I figured I'd start wearing this one around. I'm guessing people don't know what to think. So far, though I forget what I'm wearing anyway, I've had neither compliments on my facetiousness nor any to praise me for still practicing "the lessons we've all learned". Otherwise, when I've brought up the PanicFest in discussing 4 years ago in context at work, I start right off calling it nonsense. Out of 20 people perhaps, nobody has seen fit to disagree.
This has nothing to do with the Kung Flu. This anecdote is possibly not stupid at all, though it came unnervingly close. I was the only guy at the hotel swimming pool among 2 moms and about 5 kids. The kids, looking half-black or so, were well behaved. Something tells me they were military families. I was just out there to get in the water a few minutes and then get my Vitamin D in the sunshine. (The picture doesn't do the sunshine justice!)
I wasn't trying to listen, but I heard something about going upstairs and "what's your room number?" Nobody said anything back, so I looked and saw the one Mom was giving hand signal numbers to the other. OK, perhaps that's good practice. I could see a military Dad insisting on this.
However, I'm this Middle-Age to older guy, and we're talking one Big Bertha and the other (giving the number via her hands) needing to lose 25 lb. and a big tattoo to be at that point reasonably attractive. This White guy laying out might hear the room number and bust in to rape you, is that the deal? Please don't flatter yourselves, ladies.
This has nothing to do with the Kung Flu or fat Moms in hotel swimming pools, and it's from a time when stupidity levels were still very low. It's about the ex-1880s-President shown here, Chester A. Arthur. Mr. Smith linked to (on the Citizendium site) on the man during a discussion on natural-born citizen compliance under our Phyllis Schlafley memorial post. Vice President Arthur became President after President James Garfield was assassinated.
The natural born citizen issue in question aside here, I was struck by a couple of things in the biography that shows the stark difference between the Federal Gov't of the mid-1880s and our FERAL Gov't of 140 years later. Congress may have had plenty of other issues, but the President was concerned with the fairness of Civil Service, aka, gov't worker hiring. He is after all, simply the Administrator of the Executive Branch. There was no AA then, just party machine politics. All told, the site quotes one Alexander K. McClure:
[This publisher] recalled, "No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted, and no one ever retired ... more generally respected."You don't seem to run into that nowadays. Here's the thing part was really striking to me:
Acting independently of party dogma, Arthur also tried to lower tariff rates so that the government would not be embarrassed by annual surpluses of revenue.(Without the evil income taxes being allowed, tariffs were a big source of Gov't revenue.) Can you imagine this?! It's not just that nobody, but nobody, would be embarrassed to grab and spend that extra taxpayer money today. It's that word "surplus". It's so... weird... Oh, while I'm at it, one more excerpt:
The Arthur administration enacted the first general federal immigration law. In 1882, Arthur approved a measure excluding paupers, criminals, and lunatics.See? That part of the Act must have been overridden by Congress. Shouldn't we try to at the very least pass a new law prohibiting paupers, criminals, and lunatics from immigrating? Oh, yeah, that's right - that damn plaque!
* Then, there was our "March ['21] Mask Madness" series and then we asked that following July Seriously, there's gonna be a Season 3?!
Comments (2)
Ctrl-Left Projection, pun assuredly intended
Posted On: Thursday - August 22nd 2024 12:20PM MST
In Topics: Lefty MegaStupidity Media Stupidity ctrl-left Orwellian Stupidity Karmakarma Kameleon
I want to thank Peak Stupidity's always helpful commenter Adam Smith for posting this video on his youtube channel to help us embed it here. From Mark Jeftovic of The Daily Bell, via ZeroHedge, comes this video taken by bystanders of a strange, weird sight, playing for our bemusement outside the Democrat National Convention.
"Grotesque" is what one Arjun Singh* of The Epoch Times calls it, as ZeroHedge calls it an Orwellian "Two Minute Hate". (Commenter Alarmist notes that it's actually a Three Minute, Seven Seconds Hate, due, as per Mr. Smith, inflation, I suppose. Never you mind.) To be fair, at least we don't have to sit in chairs, watch the screen and rant and throw stuff as if it were a more serious version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Then again, Eric Blair, aka George Orwell, didn't envision an endless loop projected onto the side of a building.
The 3:07 Hate this week is against Ingsoc, errr, DNC enemies of the week Elon Musk, Matt Goetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene (our all time FAVORITE non-UniParty member of Congress), and some Fox News people. I have no idea who the woman doing that particular calisthenic is nor do I the 2 men in the B&W footage near the end are.
The video was made, as seen by the logo which flashes occasionally, by an entity called Vjay Bombs. By their language against the Billionaires, most of whom are leftist (including a number of richies who spoke at the convention), their bringing up pedophiles, their use of that term "weird" again, and other phrasing, the video is a projection in more ways than one.
I'd never put much stock in the psychological phenomenon of Projection before, but I ran into a a pure form of it in a TV clip last year. It's really a thing. How does it work? I didn't answer that last time.
I would be glad if part-time psychoanalyst and German literary expert Dieter Kief could chime in on this. I'll take a stab at it. The ctrl-left is far out there these days. They have a real hatred for anyone who defends traditional society. Because the people they hate are traditional and don't do very many really weird or socially very out of the ordinary things, the ctrl-left people have to search for lies about us. You don't get any good material for lies by reading the facts, so they must search within themselves. They can be a very weird crowd, both the high-level Billionaire types and the lower-level perpetual university student blue-haired tattooed types.
Therefore, they search for evil behavior found within themselves and/or their peers and project this - on the wall this time - as behavior of the sane rest of us. The ones who make this stuff up aren't so stupid as to believe we are like them. They are lying. To blatantly lie, slander, and libel like this does take a personality with some problems... psychopathy comes to mind.
Even that very last part about hatred is a lie. Peak Stupidity, for example - we don't secretly hate these people. We OPENLY hate them, because they are evil lying sacks of shit. Project that up on the wall next time DNC!
OK, I got work to do. I don't always have time for these 45 minute hate posts.
* He may be of the Epoch Times and may be the guy that took the video for us. I don't freakin' know - X, ex-Twitter, doesn't make any of that info. clear to me. They've got @ signs and #'s out the ass, though, if that helps you any.
Comments (9)
The Olympics, where a boy IS allowed to hit a girl
Posted On: Tuesday - August 20th 2024 8:34PM MST
In Topics: Genderbenders Bread and Circuses
I mean, if the International Olympic Ccommittee, the legacy of a 2 Millennial tradition handed down from ancient Greece, says so....
I'd almost forgotten this one. As with the other Circuses (often watched while eating unlimited breadsticks, soup, and salad), such as the RNC and DNC this summer, I was not willing or even capable of watching the '24 da-da-daaah!, Olympiad! (Actually, were I willing, I might have found a way, yeah, maybe at the Olive Garden.)
However, I imagine even our readers who also didn't watch it would have heard of the Genderbender nonsense that went on, especially this boxing story. I'm sure I missed a lot after this story, but all I got here is something I read saying Angela Carini abandons Olympic fight after 46 seconds against Imane Khelif.
The beauty here is that the whole article is a veritably Olympiad of Stupidity. I'll just go bit by bit:
[Caption below the quick video:] 'Testosterone is not the perfect test': IOC on boxer Khelif gender test controversyDid they even attempt the "pull down his shorts in the locker room and check for certain stuff" test? Maybe the guy did get THE OPERATION, but you'd see scars where the "trim" should be. Pretty obvious, but then, I'm not a biologist.
The Italian boxer Angela Carini broke down in tears after she abandoned her bout against the Algerian Imane Khelif after 46 seconds in a fight that sparked huge controversy at the Olympics.Women should not be doing boxing. I don't particularly like men's boxing, but I don't see how people appreciate women's. Is it just some Title IX thing?
[SNIP]
In highly charged scenes at the North Paris Arena, a first punch from Khelif dislodged Carini’s chinstrap and a second smashed against her chin and bloodied her shorts. After multiple punches Carini returned to her corner and raised her hand. She fell to her knees sobbing and refused to shake Khelif’s hand after the Algerian was declared the winner.
Carini said she had pulled out after being hit harder than she had ever been hit and feared her nose was broken. “I am heartbroken,” Carini said. “I went to the ring to honour my father.Seriously, by fighting in a ring? I think her father would have been more honored had she married well in a big fat
I was told a lot of times that I was a warrior but I preferred to stop for my health. I have never felt a punch like this.You were told wrong. You're not a warrior. Warriors don't stop fighting for their health and go into the corner weeping. Oh, and warriors are not women, practically by definition. Just sayin'...
The 25-year-old, from Naples, added: “I got into the ring to fight. I didn’t give up, but one punch hurt too much and so I said enough. I’m going out with my head held high.You did give up. Head held hi... OK, forget it.
“It’s not a defeat for me – for me if you go in the ring you have already won, regardless of everything else. I’m not here to judge.I guess because I've watched something like one hour in the last 25 years, I must have missed that they now have "Participation" platinum medals. No, the refs are there to judge. You lost. I see that Miss Carini meant "to judge" in reference to the masculinity of her opponent Mr. Khelif. Too scared to say anything? Some warrior there!
But these punches to the nose hurt, I said enough.”Saying enough is not giving in, see, or not... She's a bundle of contradictions, this Angela Carini.
Khelif stopped briefly to speak to the BBC: “I am here for gold,” the Algerian said. “I will fight anybody, I will fight them all.”Hey, if they're stupid enough to let you, sure, knock
Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, expressed her concern about what had happened. “Angela Carini rightly followed her instincts and prioritised her physical safety, but she and other female athletes should not have been exposed to this physical and psychological violence based on their sex,” she tweeted.Well, I mean, like, it's boxing. The idea IS to beat the hell out of people. But, I guess women are NOT as strong as men, is that what you're on record as saying, Mr. or Miss Alsalem? That sounds hateful and inciting. Better be careful... there's that British Police Commissioner. Can one extradite a UN special rapporteur, or do they have hypocritic immunity?
Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, weighed in [What weight class?], saying: “I think that athletes who have male genetic characteristics should not be admitted to women’s competitions …If you won't say the word "man" either, this stupidity will stand.
Before the fight The International Olympic Committee (IOC) came under fire for permitting Khelif and Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan to compete in the women’s category at these Games. Lin is due to face Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova in a featherweight bout in Paris on Friday.Turdibekova, seriously? Granted, Lin and Sitora could be girls names, who knows, but they were both found to have XY chromosomes. OTOH:
“As with previous Olympic boxing competitions, the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport,” it [the IOC] added.OIC. It's easy to forge chromosomes for each of our cells, but passports are impossible to forge - special invisible ink and stuff. Never been done.
The IOC also accused the IBA of changing its gender rules in the middle of the 2023 world championships. “The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision,...This aggression will not stand, man...
Comments (23)
Update on 6 Million Dollar Flower Pot Road
Posted On: Monday - August 19th 2024 8:31AM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Lefty MegaStupidity Student and other Snowflakes Economics ctrl-left
Sounds like a story from Old Shanghai, doesn't it?
(Thanks to Adam Smith for the meme.)
It may or may not have been a boring post to the average Peak Stupidity reader- no comments appear underneath - but I will still update our post Delivering the 6 million dollar flower pots of ~ 2 months back due to an interesting conversation with 2 guys that must be involved.
From Unz Reveiw comments, readers may know I ride a bicycle. It's not a sport for me, and I wouldn't even say it's a "recreational" thing. I've always liked to ride, and there are places easier to get to and park by on a bike, so I'll ride. I don't see myself as a fanatic, but I'll state for the record 2 things:
1) I'll break any damn laws on the books when it comes down to safety over the law.*
2) I try my best to get along with drivers, but yes, I did have a hockey-style air horn on my front fork for a few years. The propellant ran out eventually.
Anyway, 2 younger guys at the coffee shop recently admired my classic old bike as I tied it down to a tree. I had to tell them about buying it used long ago and "they made things to last."**, etc. It's like older guys talking about classic cars - beats trying to argue about the weather and whose fault that is ...
While with my friends, I heard these 2 guys chatting about that particular street being narrowed from 4 lanes to 2. I wonder (still, as I never found out) who the guys are, as they know some numbers about traffic flows. "ABC Street [the one in question] has 26,000 cars per day, and they're making it 2 lanes, while DEF Road has fewer, and they're widening that one to 4 [maybe they said 6]." Interesting.
An hour or so later, when leaving, I went to talk to these guys. I brought up, with no regard for possible tact required, the dumb $6 Million project they'd mentioned. "That's about 'delivering' State taxpayers' money here for what, paying Mexicans for 6 months?***". Surprisingly, the guys didn't get into the foreigner, OMG!, racial angle. Instead the one told me how very pleased I will be when this project is done.
"You'll be much safer riding. With only 2 lanes, the traffic will all slow down from 40 mph to 25, and there will be fewer cars. It'll be so nice for you!" Really? Will it be better on a jammed up street full of drivers frustrated due to having a tough time even getting on the road? What about the fact that I might be going somewhere, myself sometime, in a CAR, or maybe my wife, or other people?! This one is an important route for that direction, so traffic will have to divert to neighborhood streets with the stop signs nearly every block.
The guys were so happy for me, while I had absolutely no reason to be happy or to change my mind about what a total screw up this whole thing is. Who were they? I wondered if they work for that legislator that pushed this thing. I only remembered after getting home that they themselves had wondered about the narrowing of this road vs. the other one. The whole thing is really intriguing, and I hope I'll run into them again... if they don't get stuck in traffic and divert to another coffee shop...
* Hah, one of the dozen or so times I've gotten pulled over by Johnny Law on a bicycle involved the cop telling me about one law I'd broken. No. When I think back on that 1/2 mile I'd ridden till he blared out on his P/A, I'd broken 6 laws! What did I learn from this? What I learned was that these same 6 violations on that route are important for my safety, so, the main thing is, look for that cop car in that spot next time. That's all.
** Yep, American made, and I think I recall changing the "bottom bracket" once though. BTW, "bottom bracket" is one of the stupidest terms around. It's a bearing set for the crank, and it is in NO WAY a bracket of any sort. Pre-peak stupidity...
*** It's STILL not done.
Comments (21)
White Riot - UK reporter Wesley Winter cucks out
Posted On: Saturday - August 17th 2024 8:09PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Music World Political Stupidity People's Revolt
I've been trying to keep following the story of the UK riots (finally!*) against the evil Population Replacement Programme aimed against the British people. ZeroHedge has had a little bit. (I haven't visited the Gateway Pundit in a while, the clickbait and Hispanic pandering by Jim Hoft having turned me off after half a year.) The way media works these days, it's hard to tell if a story is being censored hard or it has just tailed off.
Two weeks back, in England Burning: Enough is Enough!, Peak Stupidity embedded a video of the riots as reported by one Wesley Winters. It was great to have a view into it all, but having any verbal reporting going on is not necessary. What he had to say regarding what we could all see around him was superfluous, and though Mr. Winters was generally unbiased, he still had somewhat of an agenda with his questioning of members of the crowd.
I was excited to see this next one, embedded below, from a week back in a town called Middlesbrough. Also in Yorkshire**, this town is across the island in the northeast direction from Southport, near the North Sea coast. Mr. Winter named this video This Is Not England: Enough Is Done. It shows young Brits in Middlesbrough trashing cars, some house windows, and generally raising hell in an immigrant, aka, Moslem neighborhood.
I really wish Wesley Winter had shut up with his commentary on this one. I'm not really a believer in much "controlled opposition", but I could see how that term could fit. To me, Mr. Winter completely cucks out here and, inadvertently or not, is on the wrong side, against the British people.
"Some kids are litrally smashin' windows. They're litrally young kids ..." Closed captioning was of some help here, as otherwise, these blokes' English is beyond me!
Look, I get the annoyance and criminality of random and misdirected violence. That was my beef with the fools that blew up the wonderful "American Stonehenge" Georgia Guidestones 2 summers ago. I guess they thought they were on the right track in fighting evil, but, nah, they weren't.
What we see in the video is an attempt to continue the country-wide protest started with the trigger of the stabbing of a dozen people, with 3 young children being killed by the offspring of yet more very-foreign immigrants. What are these young people aiming to accomplish? To me, the idea is to get the message across: Foreigners Out!. In Germany, they put that to the tune of a famous pop song, singing Auslander Raus.*** Maybe a lot of them just like smashing stuff, but there's a general justified feeling of anger behind it all.
Mr. Winter goes along commenting on how wrong this is, mentioning to his audience and to some of his short-term interviewees (everybody is moving) that the right way to handle this is to talk with their MP's (Members of Parliament). Is he that stupid? For half a century these MP's have been pushing the Population Replacement Programme, with no support from the average bloke like these guys in Middlebrough. Whether it's due to blackmail or straight evil, the ministers of "their" government are completely against them and have absolutely no interest in listening to their complaints.
What's the deal, "British" reporter Wesley Winter? Would you have gone along with a crowd of Moslem rioters telling them to stop throwing rocks, or how about if you'd been in America in the summer of '20 reporting on antifa Commies and black thugs? Why are White people not allowed to riot?
I'm starting to think that Wesley Winter made this video out of fear of getting in trouble with the Totalitarian British authorities, so as to cover his ass. "No, I'm not inciting. I was there to tell the White people to stop rioting, see?" Whatever the reason, I wish he'd get out there and film but shut his mouth the whole time. His words show that either he doesn't understand the big picture or he's on the side of the Regime.
I had hoped the momentum of these riots would build, as that is the only way, it seems, for these people to avoid J6 type treatment. I'm not as hopeful today, but who knows what's not being covered?
I'd heard of this Clash song before but never heard the song itself until a few days ago in a ZeroHedge post. I liked it at first listen!
White riot, I wanna riot.OK, that's enough of that. We'll have something more lighthearted, I hope, next week. Have a happy Sunday, Peakers. Thank you so much for reading and writing in!
White riot, a riot of my own.
White riot, I wanna riot.
White riot, a riot of my own
Black man gotta lot a problems,
but they don't mind throwing a brick.
White people go to school,
where they teach you how to be thick.
* I would say the same for America too. When will people get angry enough?
** ... aka, a big chunk of northern England, which long ago was one county.
*** I neither know nor care what the original inane pop song was, I get "auslander" because it's obvious, and I know "raus" from Hogan's Heroes.
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Not her Daddy's Communism
Posted On: Friday - August 16th 2024 12:09PM MST
In Topics: Commies Elections '16 - '24 Music Media Stupidity Inflation Karmakarma Kameleon
Donald Harris, Kamaleon Harris' part-Black! Dad is from Jamaica. As one of the elites, he was not your typical Reggae Rasta-man that we tend to think of when anyone mentions Jamaica, mon, or plays bass guitar and skips a beat each time around. In fact, I read that Dr. Harris was extremely irked when his daughter recently had fun with her background, cackling "of course" to the question of any pot smoking in her past, as after all... you know.
However, I'd bet money that Stanford Economics Professor Harris, by way of London ('60), Berkeley ('66), Urbana-Champaign ('67), Northwestern ('68), smoked his share of the gangja. Need proof? Here:
Who's the little one? Oh, that one has become an American Presidential candidate some way or another ... He also looks the very part of a 1960s university Communist. (That picture has to have been from '64 or '65.) Let's see, proof on the Communist thing, well, look, when we're talking Berzerkely and Madison, I mean, come on! As further evidence, I submit to the record bio. information from Wikipedia, your Honor, if I may ... [reaches to the other tab to ctrl-c]:
... known for applying post-Keynesian ideas to development economics.So you throw some numbers into the software, then tweek it to come up with your ideology. But, they all do that. If the results show that Communism is the best, then there you go. You don't need to go visit the USSR, Cuba, or China to verify. Save the U. money on travel expenses and TRUST THE MODELS! Oh, and:
[SNIP]
His 1978 book Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution critiques mainstream economic theories, using mathematical modeling to propose an alternative model for thinking about the effects of capital accumulation on income inequality, economic growth, instability, and other phenomena.
PublicationsThat was Peak Stupidity's random Bolding there.
Harris, Donald J. (1973). "Capital, Distribution, and the Aggregate Production Function". The American Economic Review. 63 (1): 100–113. JSTOR 1803129.
Harris, Donald J. (1972). "On Marx's Scheme of Reproduction and Accumulation". Journal of Political Economy. 80 (3): 505–522. doi:10.1086/259902. JSTOR 1830564.
Harris, Donald J. (1978). "Capitalist Exploitation and Black Labor: Some Conceptual Issues". The Review of Black Political Economy. 8 (2): 133–151. doi:10.1007/BF02689492.
Harris, Donald J. (1993). "Economic Growth and Equity: Complements or Opposites?". The Review of Black Political Economy. 21 (3): 65–72. doi:10.1007/bf02701705
So, leaving aside the question of the now-seen-to-be Totalitarian bastard from Minnesota for the time being, we have an American Presidential candidate who's father was a Communist. Is that OK? Yeah, I know America's Founders didn't foresee this sort of thing.* I don't think this would have flown as late as 2000 even, much less 1950.
However, we're talking the late '50s to the early '70s when Don Harris made the rounds of the hotbed (and other) universities doing schooling and teaching. Affirmative Action was around during the latter part, but he really must have had something on the ball, no matter his odious racial and Communist economic ideas. In other words, I want nothing to do with the man, but I don't think he's stupid.
His now grown-up daughter, however, is quite another story. She's picked up the Communism over the years, but never quite picked up the smarts to go with it... I mean NONE Of it.
I got to that article from Instapundit. Did you notice what publication that is? I sure didn't! This morning, I read this thing from yesterday, with Catherine Rampell describing how perfectly stupid Kamelion's anti-Inflation, anti-Price Gouging proposal is, before I looked to see what site I was on. I got pretty far in fact, until I saw the abject stupidity of writer Catherine Rampell herself to boot. Only then did I scroll to the top. Ahhhh, that explains everything.
(Instapundit) Glenn Reynolds had more of Harris the younger's economic stupidity pointed out too, something we'll have to visit with another post.
WWDHT? That is, What Would Dr. Harris Think, of his daughter now? It's great and all that she's all on-board with an ideology that's destructive to traditional societies. But, you've got to be smart about it! You have to read (at least the Cliff Notes for) Das Kapital and see how to explain how, never mind the disregard for human nature, Communism works for us all. You can't just blurt really, really stupid ideas that, well, yeah, are the gist of Communism, but are too obviously really freaking stupid. What in hell did your mother teach you all those years, little girl?
My man Jerry on the pedal steel guitar there wasn't a Communist, but I don't know about the other 3. They probably learned something since 1970. Karmakarma Kamelion hasn't learned squat. That's how AA works.
* The did foresee the foreign infiltrator angle and came up with the "natural-born citizen" stipulation. I guess nobody cares about that either.
Comments (12)
Phyllis Schlafly, American Conservative
Posted On: Thursday - August 15th 2024 8:02PM MST
In Topics: Feminism History Americans Morning Constitutional
Phyllis Schlafly, born Phyllis McAlpin Stewart, was born a century ago today. (Hat tip to E.H. Hail) She died at 92, but we'll post this in memoriam, because there was no Peak Stupidity yet in September of '16.
I don't know what kind of press the late Mrs. Shlafly will get in this day and age. It was bad enough a half century ago when she was a known Conservative and anti-Feminist.
Though she was a wife and mother - BIG TIME, with 6 children by her lawyer husband Fred in Alton, Illinois* - Phyllis Schlafly was a political figure from 22 years old on up. It doesn't read as if her family background would have influenced her to get into politics, but she did graduate from Radcliffe College with a degree in Government. (Ahhh, geeze... no, no, this ONE time it worked out well.)
(I guess there were still 2 to come at this point.)
Mrs. Schlafly didn't make it far in her attempts at a political office. In 1952 she won the GOP primary but lost in the election for US Congressman (I think it would have still been called?) from Illinois. She tried again in '60 but she was soundly defeated then too. It was 4 years later, when Barry Goldwater was running in the GOP primaries, that she did what COULD have been her most important accomplishment. That was her writing of the short book A Choice, not an Echo to support Mr. Goldwater against the east coast squish** establishment. It would have been had the Libertarian/Conservative Goldwater won that election. (As it was, the book was said to have helped AuH2O win the California primary.)
What Mrs. Schlafly IS remembered the most for is her fight against the Feminist Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the US Constitution. Now, Peak Stupidity has stated that, after the Bill of Rights 10, the Amendments have generally, on the average, sucked. The ERA was about to bring that average much further toward the sucky side. Believe it or not, this proposal for the ERA predated Phyllis Schlafly herself by 3 years. By the early 1970's though, the Feminazis (h/t, El Rushbo) were gung ho on this one:
Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.It sounds so simple and eminently fair, but human nature and the sexes are not. Mrs. Schlafly's objections were women-centric themselves, having to do with conscription to the military, alimony, and child custody*** There are the usual reasons that the whole idea is ludicrous, as all real Conservatives could see. However, in the age of the "Battle of the Sexes" with Billie Jean King and that crowd, the ERA seemed like a shoe-in, but thank you so much, legislators of... well, it was a bit complicated:
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification."
OK, nice job, you guys in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Utah, and Arizona. Thanks, SOME of you legislators in the Carolinas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Thanks for thinking twice, legislators of Kentucky, Tennessee, Nebraska, S. Dakota, and Idaho. You knew you screwed up the first go-around. You people in Virginia, Illinois, Nevada, and North Dakota, what was your freaking point, after the deadline?
Oh, back to the late great Phyllis Schlafly, there was more to her politically than a short book and her exhausting but victorious fight against yet another stupid Amendment. She was what's called a "Paleo-Conservative" now****. She was against all aspects of feminism, such as "marital rape", the "gender pay gap" scam, and pro-nuclear family. After the fall of Soviet Communism, she was against the US being in Bosnia, anti-UN, against activist judges, and most importantly, against the immigration invasion.
Peak Stupidity celebrates the life of the great American, Phyllis Schlafly.
PS: I mentioned the John Birch Society briefly in the previous post. Here's an interesting bit from wiki regarding the JBS and her 1964 book:
Schlafly had previously been a member of the John Birch Society, but quit, and later denied she had been a member because she feared her association with the organization would damage her book's reputation. By mutual agreement her books were not mentioned in the John Birch Society's magazine, and the distribution of her books by the society was handled so as to mask their involvement. The society was able to dispense 300,000 copies of A Choice Not an Echo in California prior to the June 2, 1964 GOP primary.That was a bit of a squish move there, but it sounds like the JBS did the practical thing.
* Across the Mississippi from St. Louis.
** The Bushes and Romney's of yesteryear. Hell, they had a Romney and a Bush too, come to think of it.
*** I wonder what she thought of the latter 2 aspects after no-fault divorce. Perhaps anti-Feminist does not always = pro-men.
**** Though she was a delegate for George H.W. Bush over Pat Buchanan, so WTH was that all about?
Comments (20)
Now where DID I put that H&K anyway?
Posted On: Thursday - August 15th 2024 3:05PM MST
In Topics: Liberty/Libertarianism Healthcare Stupidity Guns
This might seem like yet another curmudgeonry post based on one set of surveys taken for one visit to the pediatrician, but that's not the case this time. This is one of our less frequent Libertarian-oriented posts.
Do you all remember the beginning of this deal in which various government and other organizations became tools of the Anti-Amendment-II forces? I'd call it "mission creep", but that term implies other motivations (the desire for expansion and more power). The CDC cared about guns all of a sudden, cause "gun deaths". Do they have an anti-driving-and-texting program? (Who knows? Maybe they do.) Credit card companies got roped in, or caved in, to stopping transactions involving gun stores. Anti-Constitutional forces have tried all manner of backhanded methods to push through their agenda so as to avoid being obviously wrong in the spotlight.
Back in the 1990s, as I recall, I'd read about this practice in healthcare in which parents would be asked about guns in the home. What was the point of that? The more paranoid among me, errr, us, might wonder if that information stayed in files of that doctor's office only. Of course, I'd tell them to piss up a rope if ever asked, I reckoned, but I've been mostly in Conservative areas in which they wouldn't dare. (Not good for bidness! Not at all.) However, I didn't expect web portals on the internet. Nobody DOES!
When I got to the question above, I kind of blew off the part after "your home", realizing that the rest of the question refers to what, say, Phylis Schlafly, to pick a random Conservative lady, would have called "broken homes". Keep that in mind for a bit. So, there you are. There was my chance to tell them this was virtually none of their business.
(√) Decline to answer... hmmm, would that answer put me under suspicion for being one of those crackpot Libertarian Dads, the kind who make their children write papers based on John Birch Society articles? Yeah, I did, but putting this into a computer database rather than just leaving a paper form blank* bugged me.
I'd rather bug them instead. Thinking only of our own house here, I thought the answer (√) Unsure should really freak someone out back in "Data Collections". "Wait, what, you don't KNOW if you have a gun in your house?! Where'd you see it last?"
"Well, it could be under the mattress, but then we went to the range. So, we might have left it out there, or in the car, or...." That's not exactly the situation. It's more like, to be honest here, I have rounded up some guns recently that I didn't even remember buying.
So my answer to screw with the system was (√) Unsure (When will I get the tattoo? Why come I don't have ...?), but a straight answer would have been
* If it came down to "Sir, you missed this one question", I'd have either nicely told them they don't need to know that or gone the "What? Your lips are moving, but there's nothing coming out. Alright then... we gotta go." route.
Comments (8)
Peak Outsourcing
Posted On: Wednesday - August 14th 2024 6:14PM MST
In Topics: Elections '16 - '24 Humor Zhou Bai Dien Karmakarma Kameleon
Peak Stupidity Legal Dept. disclaimer: For the British Police Commission: Our display of this meme is not hateful incitement. Please be aware that Peak Stupidity does not come up with this stuff.* We just forward it along. Don't extradite us, bro!
Michael Scott explains:
* Occasionally, we've done some good ones.
Comments (8)
I pity the poor portal people.
Posted On: Wednesday - August 14th 2024 6:04AM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Artificial Stupidity Healthcare Stupidity
This post is related to our recent one titled It's portals all the way down! in that the image above is from the doctor's office survey. However, we present a different, more basic, form of stupidity today. (The reader may see this already from the image above.)
There were a LOT of questions - maybe it was 100 questions rather than only 50. First rule of Kid's Medical Portal Club: You don't give them any information that may be used against him! Granted, allergies, medications, and that, yes, you enter it correctly. This was a long survey that was obviously about his mental health. He's fine. So, I answered every question with "NEVER", of the 3 options. Otherwise, I wouldn't be surprised to be told we needed a follow-up visit. Hell no, we were just trying to get him on the
The problem was, look at the freaking English there! Did a Woke hire write the questions? I mean, that's better than having xi actually writing software, and it still allows for "
So, what I was ebonically saying here was "No, this kid don't never listen to no rules." and "He don't never show no feelings." That's not really the case mentally - he's fine, but "NEVER" is what the software wants. Scholastically, however, they weren't testing the kid, but he's got these portal people beat my a mile.
Comments (16)
Rotherham Riots: Scenes of the hotel "guests"
Posted On: Tuesday - August 13th 2024 6:29PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity World Political Stupidity People's Revolt
We've been phoning it in lately, for reasons...* Today, we'll comment on a few more images from the riots last week in Rotherham. I realize that this was just one of many incidents (and hopefully many more going forward). However, I watched an hour and a half of that riot and got lots of thoughts in my head.
So, this post and one more will be the end of that. We'll have more on the Totalitarian reaction of UK authorities and maybe some suggestions for the future.
Here are scenes OF, not at, the hotel - one of a multitude - that houses
(Some good rock throwing by the rioters got the fake stucco and some upper floor windows.)
These look like gangster hoods, but, see, they haven't assimilated yet. Pretty soon they'll be regular British yobs, committing violence only at soccer games... when there's a Moslem player fouled ...
I felt pretty good seeing that picture. Is it possible that, upon looking out at the mayhem and seeing the smoke below, they might have been having thoughts for the 1st time that not all British people will take this invasion lying down... and thinking of olde lost England? Not everyone is a pushover, young thugs. That is, if their very own government doesn't force them to be.
Yes, the White British people are raising hell down below and threatening you harm. Good. Suck it!
These 2 hotel guests look out with curiosity. Is there a way out? Would they get their asses kicked on the way out? Could they get their asses kicked out of the country even, worst case?
It's a kid and a brother, Dad, sister, I dunno, making alternate use of that Arafat style Italian restaurant tablecloth headgear, such as even the RHINOs don. I don't want to see a family hurt, but then, the PRP's plan to Islamify Great Britain has and will hurt many MILLIONS of British families.
Whose country is it? GTFO. Or, while you're up there still, use that Brit-government-supplied phone to text home with some of your new pictures. Let 'em know that maybe this is not the next best place after all.
Will the Moslem invitee-invaders wise up and realize who they may be dealing with in the future? I mean, they did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
PS: Just after I finished this post, my son showed me the Katrina and the Waves video for Walkng on Sunshine, AS IF... I might have somehow never heard that song before. Well, I remembered correctly that this was a British band. How #Sad, the whole thing, from 1985 to 2024!
* Haha, these days "phoning it in" has a new meaning. It could or should mean doing something with so little effort that you can do it on your ridiculous smart phone keyboard.
Comments (7)
Lyin' Press foregoes fairness
Posted On: Monday - August 12th 2024 6:15PM MST
In Topics: Trump Media Stupidity Taxes Karmakarma Kameleon
Instapundit posted the following by an X-er named Tim Murtaugh. Mr. Murtauge says:
I guess that non-partisan watchdog group wasn't available for comment this time.
Let's also note that, contrary to what his press spokesragdoll said, Bai Dien had the IRS cracking down with a new "Service Industry Reporting Program. I wonder if the IRS has got their 87,000 new employees on line yet.
As Peak Stupidity commented when Trump proposed this move a couple of months ago, taking action on this is really a function of Congress. That should be especially obvious in light of the Chevron v Natural Resources Defense Council ruling. I'd like to see it happen, one way or another, but I think the IRS won't remove its grubby hands from this income, or else, what's next, teenage boys who mow lawns?! For those not wanting to be under the jurisdiction of the IRS, there's cash.
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