Harassment by text
Posted On: Saturday - March 26th 2022 11:04AM MST
In Topics: Curmudgeonry Artificial Stupidity Big-Biz Stupidity Customer Care
I've lived the life of a smart phone owner and usually carrier for a couple of years now. I don't take advantage of the "apps" as much as a large majority of others, but I do appreciate a few features. We smart phone carriers can send to-the-minute pictures and video. Yes, I can show friends and family around the country what topping I've got on my pizza. Wasn't that the main purpose for this?
There are people who like to do the texting with actual text, as in words, too. I remember this starting up in about the mid-'00s, before the smart phones came into being. Besides the fact that the carrier company was making bank by having people send 50 bytes at a time instead of thousands of times that many just for a quick low-quality voice conversation, my policy was and still is "one reply only". If you write back or ask me a follow up question, can't we just talk for 1 minute? The phones still do that, you know.
Well, that's friends and family (remember the "friends and family" plan?), and you don't piss them all off by not humoring them a bit. However, Big Biz is big on the texting action now too. I goes along with all the other Curmudgeonry that Peak Stupidity occasionally
Via some pre-programmed texting, a computer will send out these text messages to tell you to use your smart phone to enter some more stuff, tell us how you like our Customer Care, when the internet guy is coming, do you want to keep the appointment, then, he's coming tomorrow between 9 and 11, do you still want to keep the appointment? Like that. I don't see a reason to text back. If you're gonna be late, call me. I may still be there.
OK, I exaggerated, as there has to be a few boots-on-the-ground (usually White) guys to do actual hardware work. That guy called me earlier in the morning and came within the minute of when he'd told me. He got his own work done, but there was a real problem determining if we could get to the underground line. We talked about his job, inflation, and real money for a bit, in total agreement, and he left.
Well, after guys in 3 vans and a pick-up truck were all there for 3 hours trying to figure it out (they got it!), I got a message: "There is a delay in your installation. Our associates will be at your home to fix ..." If it were just a little bit easier, a reply of "No shit, they've been here 3 hours" would have gone out, but it'd probably have not reached any human eyes. (Does a smart phone make a text if there's no human to receive it?)
After looking through the messages later, I did see that the first one told me I could text "STOP" back to them to cut these off. OK, I should have, but see, I don't like texting! I hate that they make me do it.
That's a very small problem, I guess, but to backtrack to get to the funnier part, when the text came about "he's coming tomorrow, do you still want him to?" I did text back "Quit texting the living crap out of me! Just send him over. I'll be there!" I got sent a nice message back confirming the appointment. "You got it!" I thought, just for a second, but, nobody actually "got it" in the sense of "understanding". That wasn't a human - it's probably just the default if you don't reply in the negative. Should it still feel good to show one's anger by text message if no human gets it? That's a philosophical question beyond the scope of this blog.
* Boy, those 2 topic keys seem to overlap a whole bunch ... wonder why ...
Comments (9)
Brown Jackson, Clarence Thomas, Jackson Brown, and the SCROTUS joke
Posted On: Friday - March 25th 2022 5:10AM MST
In Topics: Music US Feral Government Race/Genetics Legal Stupidity Morning Constitutional
As usual, Peak Stupidity does not pretend to keep up with current events, but just to monitor the general stupidity level. For example, though I know this Jackson Brown Broad is the nominee for the Supreme Court Justice to replace retiring lefty and 1994 Bill Clinton pick Stephen Breyer. I know there's the usual political battle going on about the confirmation, with the GOP, per their M.O., putting on the kid gloves, I don't care to follow the details, and I know she'll sail through.
Now, we hate to jump to conclusions here, so we'll put our conclusion at the bottom with no link, errr so we can only say with 90% certainty that someone who looks like this is going to be "voting"* left-wing.
This Brown Jackson character was a law clerk for the man she is to replace. One might reckon this will be a wash, politics-wise. I don't know about that. Did you SEE the picture? She will likely be as left-wing as anyone we've seen (it always goes in that direction), but additionally she'll have no regard for the Constitution when it comes to anything really important, like Blackety-blackety-black.
This is a big deal because the SCROTUS members are in there for as long as they want to be, or till the very edge of death, as with that Ginsburg chick. That is due to the fact that our country has pretty much forgotten that almost any politician can be recalled or impeached. Don't kid yourself, most of the black-robed crowd are politicians foremost. That's a powerful position to be in, getting together and striking down laws stone cold or ruling that the latest encroachment on Liberty is perfectly within the bounds of the Constitution, when any major dude on the street could tell you otherwise, my friend.
An example of one of the questions of Constitutionality the confirmation battle will include is Affirmative Action. My concern it thus: Why is anyone discussing whether Affirmative Action is Constitutional? You’d have to be a moron or a liar to say it is.
As much as I don’t think much of any of the SCROTUS judges other than Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito, all of them can read well enough to see that there’s nothing in the Constitution or any of its Amendments, even the worst of them, to allow AA. The Feral Gov’t should have no say in the matter to begin with per Amendment X, which is one sentence long! So, we’ve had, and we’ve got, a bunch of robed liars.
Therefore, we know it’s all political. Mr. Steve Sailer, always big into University credentials, test scores, and such, has written a number of posts on whether this Brown Jackson Board is the best qualified. He's by far not the only one worried about "qualifications". OK, first, no. When you confine your pick to a black woman, no you obviously won't get the best qualified, for obvious reasons. However, do those LSAT scores, grades, and experience have any thing to do with being "qualified" for SCROTUS member anyway?
Think about it. Why would we need the best and brightest? It’s a worthless endeavor to worry about it, unless you think US Constitution 2.0, the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s (as per Christopher Caldwell), will be thrown out before some of these people die. Being the smartest justice in the room doesn't make on the best justice or even a good one. That is, not if it's about politics rather than Constitutionality. Being the "most qualified" and on the left would make one the worst possible SCROTUS members for the American people and the Constitution.
Then, way over on not just the other hand, but way over on the sane side of the country, we have this guy, nominated by George H. W. Bush in 1991, and confirmed after 99 days of trouble.
We got really, really lucky with this guy. The latest news is that he is still in the hospital from an infection. I remember when first hearing about his illness that he would be back SCROTUSing in a couple of days. It's been a few days longer now. Peak Stupidity wishes Mr. Thomas a speedy recovery and a long career still.
I mentioned that 99 day confirmation process back 30 1/2 years ago. That was an attempted derailment of Judge Thomas' confirmation by the ctrl-left, as they had an inkling that this guy was going to use the US Constitution in his job, alas! Anita Hill, a former Attorney-Advisor and then Assistant to judge Thomas was used in this attempted derailment, but our post title does not refer to any pubic hair in Coke jokes.**
Instead, the title of this post refers to the Supreme Court being a joke in that its purpose no longer seems to be that specified by the Founders, reading the Constitution and seeing if laws comply with it.
Finally, there is one more guy mentioned in the title. Peak Stupidity maintains that we would much rather have Jackson Brown than Brown Jackson, for any position like that available right now on the SCROTUS. (Otherwise, it's Rock, Paper, Scissors for your Supreme Court Justice.)
Jackson Brown, the 1970s Los Angeles scene music artist, is just 3 months older than Clarence Thomas, and is more qualified than Brown Jackson by my definition. What'd he say again about SCROTUS decisions or was it about drugs) in the back of the tour bus rollin' down I-95 out of Portland, Maine? "It takes a clear mind to make it." Indeed.
Here's what Jackson Brown, not Brown Jackson, had to say about things half a century ago:
I have wandered through this world,
and as each moment has unfurled,
I've been waiting
to awaken from this dream.
People go just where they will.
I never notice them until
I got this feeling
that's it's later than it seems.
Doctor, my eyes, tell me what is wrong.
Was I unwise to leave them open for so long?
Doctor, My Eyes is from Jackson Brown's self-titled debut album of1972.
* "Voting" is in quotes, because that term kind of misses the point of the Supreme Court. They should be simply looking at the Constitution, highlighting the appropriate passages, such as Amendment X (probably the go-to passage 90% of the time), and explaining how a law is not Constitutional, and occasionally how it IS. If you disagree, you hash it out amongst yourselves and get it right!
** That was a part of the sexual harassment allegations brought on by the women who was supposedly harassed but went ahead and followed Clarence Thomas to a 2nd job afterwards.
Comments (8)
Inflation: Take .22
Posted On: Thursday - March 24th 2022 6:35AM MST
In Topics: Inflation Guns
OK, it's not been quite 22, as Peak Stupidity arguable has15 different products/services in our more specific posts with the Inflation topic key* at this point. (Many of the posts have more general discussion of price inflation.) No, what I mean here is dot-22, as in .22LR rifle cartridges.
.22 "long rifle" rounds are ubiquitous. Being not very powerful, and with a 40 grain or so bullet, they are not the best for hunting or self-defense. However for fun (plinking) and general practice, they have been the cheapest thing around, almost a non-issue in the cost of shooting.
I bought a .22 rifle for $90 from K-Mart roughly 30 years ago. At that time one could get one of those milk carton style containers with 500 rounds, and sometimes a bonus 50 rounds with it, for $10 to $12. That's around 2¢ apiece. That 90 bucks for the gun was significant for me (a function not just of the year, but of my age and employment status). 2¢ a round? That was not a factor. I remember shooting out in the desert in the West, and WHAT to shoot at was more pressing a problem than how much I could shoot.
Going back only 10 years, maybe even slightly more recently, you were gonna pay about $20 to $25 for the same 500 or 550 round milk cartons. (Others companies package them in those "bricks", conveniently 10 small boxes of 50 - very organized.) OK 4¢ or 5¢ each, not a problem. I could more easily pay that anyway due to my life at the time.
During the political years, either after election time or during another hoplophobic push by the ctrl-left, the prices on all ammo would shoot up at the gun shows. I'd try to wait that out. I don't think the latest increases are temporary though. The 800 round box I just got worked out to 15¢ per cartridge. When I think about it, it's still amazingly cheap for what you're getting, thanks to industrial automation. Still, they cost 7 times as much as 30 years ago!
However, let's work out the numbers again, with the help of the Money Chimp**. 2¢ in 1992 up to 15¢ in 2022, right at 30 years later. With compounding that's 7% average annual inflation. That's a decent amount higher than the 4-5% Peak Stupidity has come up with for many products and services. but it's in the ballpark. I'd do other ammo, such as .223, but I can't remember for sure what I paid 10 years back. (I'm usually very good with that.)
PS: From 1992 to 2012 I get 3.5%. From 10 years back to now, I get 14%! I'll check back in in a couple of months about this. I'm hoping a small portion of the increase is the political fallout effect.
* Speaking of which, I did just now add
** I don't know why I like the name of that site so much. It's easy to use, anyway.
Comments (11)
The Hildabeast gets the Kung Flu
Posted On: Wednesday - March 23rd 2022 5:12PM MST
In Topics: Humor AntiChrist Hildabeast Dead/Ex- Presidents Kung Flu Stupidity
Peak Stupidity has been back and forth on whether the Hildabeast is, in fact, the AntiChrist, either the AntiChrist or one of the 4 Horsepersons of the Apocalypse. We're leaning toward a negative answer to this important question, especially after learning that the Hildabeast has contracted the Kung Flu. What kind of AntiChrist worth his salt wouldn't be immune to minor stuff like this? One would think none would, especially if said AntiChrist wannabe had been inoculated with the latest and greatest experimental material out of the bowels of Big Pharma and the Globalist Deep State ... wait.
Anyway, that's what they're saying.
Hillary Clinton has tested positive for COVID-19, she tweeted Tuesday evening, adding that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, has tested negative.It may seem odd that her long-term spouse, the love of her life, has not contracted the Kung Flu, but rumors abound that these two lovebirds have been growing apart for a while now... since about this time:
You know, I wouldn't mind a female AntiChrist, if she'd just stay home baking cookies or something...
Comments (20)
MMA Fighter/Pundit Bryce Mitchell with patriotic common sense
Posted On: Tuesday - March 22nd 2022 5:28PM MST
In Topics: Pundits Americans US Feral Government World Political Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
I'd never heard of this guy until a few days ago when a commenter embedded the 1st of these 2 clips on The Unz Review. You don't need to be a TV talking head to know what's going on in the world. In fact, with the exception of Tucker Carlson*, it seems to hurt. This Bryce Mitchell, a big shot apparently in MMA fighting, has an Arkansas hick accent, but I have no problem with that.
I follow almost no sports anymore, and Mixed Martial Arts has never been one of them. I can understand the views of some of they youtube commenters that are in the same vein as the "shut up and sing" thing that I agree with with respect to the actors and musicians. However, since I'm not a fan of MMA and the UFC anyway, I could just enjoy the opinions of this guy. He talks about the Ukraine/Russia conflict in the same way as Peak Stupidity, as an AMERICAN patriot. Next, he gets on the Federal Reserve.
This is great stuff. Note even the bit about real money the end! (~ 3:20 in)
As I perused the selection of video results from my search on youtube, I came across the great face mask rant by Mr. Mitchell. This should have been in one of the Kung Flu Stupidity posts, dang it!
How many real Americans like this do we have left?
* Who had Mr. Mitchell on his show, after the time of the first clip shown here.
Comments (10)
Tooting our own horn #1734 - Communication Breakdown
Posted On: Tuesday - March 22nd 2022 1:45PM MST
In Topics: Music Race/Genetics Kung Flu Stupidity
No, OK, we don't do it THAT much. I was about to write "#2" since, the last such incident was in out post just this past Friday, Ann Coulter/Peak Stupidity Synergy, but I'm sure there've been a few other instances.
Why do we toot our own horn this time? It's due to a portion of the Kung Flu stupidity that I gotta say I have not seen described much anywhere but here on Peak Stupidity. That is the communication breakdown brought on by this stupid face masking business. Yes, it's going away (for now?), but again, the point here is to toot our own horn, so ...
"The runway's yours, young lady."
"Really, you want to sleep with me after the show?!" "Oh, SWEEP with me."
This is not just some minor side issue (that adds to the indignity of it, the likely health issues, and above all, the Totalitarianism of requiring them). It's a problem in my workplace. I haven't seen any training materials with the "communication is IMPORTANT" bit on there lately - hmmmm - but that's always been a big mantra. These masks do matter when it comes to communication. Peak Stupidity has interspersed our many, many anti-face-mask posts with anecdotes relating this problem. See Lost Comms - - Lost Comms - Immigrant Version - - and the first of the 3 anecdotes in Face Masking anecdotes for the week, the latter from late this January.
The post that the picture of the (probably, right?) cutie above came from, is just one that Moar fashion accessory anecdotes notes this problem, with these newer black nonwoven ones even worse than the rest:
The thing about these ones is that, even though they don't fit tightly at all on the user, they are EVEN WORSE for communication through. I wrote "through", but then, they seem to have a big gap on the top side where sound should come out well. (They are almost semi-circular at the top, leaving a gap to the portions of the face there.) I'd thought the thick cloth ones were the worse, especially on black ladies, but the sound must bounce around a bit before coming out, and these are terrible.Now, just yesterday, from VDare writer A.W.Morgan I got a little bit of back-up on this issue.* It's not that I don't KNOW it's a problem, but who else has been saying anything?
Maybe communication is not as important at work as we have been told, and it's all about fashion, except that these are ugly too.
Mr. Morgan's article is about black dysfunction, not about the face masks, but they are involved in the story he reports on. This title was nice as Mr. Morgan noted that what are described by the Lyin' Press as "fights breaking out" should be more realistically described as "pitched battles"! However, due to the location of this pitched battle, I would have titled it "Showdown at the Golden Corral". I mean, when are you going to get another chance? Scratch that, the way things are headed...
It's a short article about one of VDare's frequent topics -Another “Pitched Battle” At Golden Corral In Florida—And More Not Reporting Race. The inner blockquote is an excerpt from a Daily Caller article, with my bolding.
Amusingly, the Caller found a witness to say the cause wasn’t out-of-control blacks who fight at the drop of a hat because one felt “dissed.” Rather, he said, it was the Flu Manchu and face masks:After a quick translation of the ebonics using bingbonics, I have to agree with the speaker. It's even worse for the English-challenged among us, which pretty obviously includes this Alexis Rios. Mr. Morgan adds:Police are investigating a massive brawl that broke out inside a Bensalem, Pennsylvania, buffet Friday evening.
Customer Alexis Rios said the fight was started by a steak-related misunderstanding, according to WPVI-TV. The customer in front of Rios was reportedly upset because his well-done steak was taking longer to prepare than Rios’ rare steak.
People had a hard time understanding each other due to COVID-19 face masks, which escalated tensions, Rios told WPVI-TV. “With COVID right now, masks and everything, nobody can hear nobody sometimes.”
Chairs flew because face masks made speech unintelligible? How about taking the mask down momentarily so you can understand each other, instead bashing one another over the skull with chairs because of a “misunderstanding.”Well, yeah, that's what we do most of the time at the workplace too. I really don't think Miss Rios and the rest of these chairfighters at the Golden Corral that day were worried about the Kung Flu. However, some people are so used to these stupid things, or too lazy, that they won't take them off to make themselves clear.
It can become a total Communication Breakdown. It's driving me insane ... take if from here, Jimmy Page!
Do I really have to introduce the band here? Fine, OK:
Robert Plant - Vocals
Jimmy Page - Guitar
John Paul Jones - Bass Guitar
John Bonham - Drums
The song is 53 years old, from a time of better musicianship and lower stupidity levels.
* That just may be because I don't read the whole internet every morning with my breakfast. Really, I do just hang out in a small niche of the internet. (See also Part 2.)
Comments (7)
Steve Sailer on the X-men, with Peak Stupidity's take
Posted On: Monday - March 21st 2022 8:48PM MST
In Topics: Genderbenders Feminism Female Stupidity
Steve Sailer has been all over this tranny topic from many aspects of this recent flavor of stupidity. I haven't disagreed with him in any significant way, and I also appreciate his very nice coinage of the term "ex-men". (Nice job, Steve!) Well, you can just read about these weirdos* on his blog, every week or two - comes in spurts.
However, we do have this underutilized Genderbender topic key here on Peak Stupidity, so it's time to drop it down in the box. and say a little bit about this fairly new flavor of stupidity. I haven't run into any of this stupidity in my personal and business life with 2 exceptions many years ago. It's not like this ACTUALLY should be some big important movement for more special rights for the disadvantaged in our society, because, again, it's just a very few weirdos. I don't watch or read about any of this stupidity that Mr. Sailer does in the course of his "noticing" occupation. As usual, the Globohomo crowd wants to place these people front & center in order to simply rub the stupidity of it in our faces, as in "yeah, it's stupid, and yes, we're forcing you to accept it. What are you gonna' do about it?"**
Because Steve Sailer has a great interest in sports, he has been keeping up with the story of one of the number of ex-men who has infiltrated women's sports. A guy named Will Lia Thomas has been swimming as a "woman competitor" in women's events, as Mr. Sailer discusses in The Complicated Needs of Ex-Men, with a follow up report of the most ridiculous defense of the whole idea by one Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post, in Will "Lia" Thomas's Reductio ad Absurdum (That's not a grammatically screwed up question. "Will" is
I tended to disagree not with the logic of Mr. Sailer's argument against this stupidity (first of those 2 posts), but against his attitude. No doubt the members of the poor girl's/women's swim team, in this case, are getting a raw deal. Nature can't be fooled. These ex-men are simply stronger and/or more fit than the women. It's just not "fair", right?
Well, here's the thing. You can go in there defending these women, take a lot of flak from the Establishment that pushes these ex-men (and don't forget ex-women, Reg***), all to defend the, well, not the right, really, but the ability of these girls to enjoy normal sports completion. (That is, if they actually do, which is questionable.) However, in general, these woman are often a part of the same woke Establishment that's screwing them over right now. They'd be the first to throw Mr. Sailer under the bus, had they the strength of, I dunno... an ex-man.
The Title IX sports regulations that have been screwing over guys that want to play college sports by equalizing the amount of money & effort spent among men vs women, for 50 years this coming June. Women have different priorities than men and more power to 'em. Competitive sports are not nearly as high on a list of women's priorities as they are on men's. So, yes, the men have been getting screwed.
Now, this is not personal by any means. i would feel sorry for any young lady on a personal basis who has just had her sport ruined by this stupidity. Not to pick at him, but just go argue my point, the smart and generally good commenter Physicist Dave wrote here about this very "grinding our faces into the ground" with this, as stated above. He mentioned being honest and avoiding hypocrisy. OK, that's fine as it stands. If someone asks me if Mr. Thomas the swimmer belongs in these events or is a woman to begin with, I'll tell him what I think.
However, "support", as per Steve Sailer's post, is a different story. There will be no gratitude for the White Man having his usual honesty and integrity if he fights the good fight and wins on this one. Do you think the women who push the grrlll power, with its real consequences, including that Title IX travesty, will somehow see the light? A female could get knocked out by an ex-men in an MMA bout and still not see the light when she comes to. Right in the middle of this, I think they don't see the big picture of right and wrong. It's just unfair to THEM right now, that's all.
Alongside the hilarity of this stupidity there is the exposure of the stupidity of the feminist narrative that goes along with it. We don't need to say a word. Hollywood, cartoons, and the TV have told Americans for years that women are just as tough as men and can kick men's asses readily. I mean, they wouldn't lie to us about that, would they? Someone at some point will notice that "hey, even if these ex-men are somehow still men in lots of ways due to not-agonna-open-up-a-new-can-of-worms-here, why should it matter? Grrrll Power! What's the problem here? Let them work that one out.
None of the people involved in this cultural conflict are in any way, shape, or form, in "support" of White Men, the people in this world who are most likely to stand on principle. Remember in the 1980s when America's enemy Iran was in a major war with another Moslem country, Iraq? What the heck were we doing getting involved there in the Persian Gulf? Let 'em fight it out.
That's what I say for this story of the ex-men taking the lead in "women's sports" (quotes needed at this point). I'll tell you it's sad and stupid if you ask me, but that's as far as I'll worry about it.
In that same thread (the first of the 2 posts), frequent Peak Stupidity commenter The Alarmist embedded a very appropriate video for this post. South Park can be pretty crude and occasionally really stupid, but this one is basically a video explanation of what I've been trying to say here:
I don't want to go all Steve Sailer 24/6 here on the blog. I have 3 more post ideas just from today alone and many others backed up. I just wanted to write about this tranny stuff, with the conclusion being, this is not my mound of stupidity to die on.
* Hey, the world is gonna have a share of weirdos, and that's OK. As long as we and the weirdos themselves all understand that they're weirdos, it's really not a big problem.
** This is as said well by commenters under a recent post of ours, and that great quote from Theodore Dalrymple.
*** Old Life of Brian Monty Python scene
Comments (5)
Ann Coulter/Peak Stupidity Synergy
Posted On: Friday - March 18th 2022 6:45PM MST
In Topics: Pundits Media Stupidity
Or simple Chinese Humanities student style plagiarism?
Though she's no longer a big media darling, having told a whole bunch of truth about a whole lot of things over the last 10 years, Ann Coulter is still famous. She probably cannot afford to let it be known that she may be reading Peak Stupidity. psssst, Ann, if you are reading this, blink "peak stupidity" in Morse Code next time I see you on youtube. (Or you can leave a comment under the handle "Dan Coulter". Nobody will know, but our Enigma machine we got off ebay will catch it right away.)
Why do we think Ann Coulter may be reading this particular blog? Well, take a look at her latest column, Dem Nightmare—What If The War Ends Before November?. In that article, Miss Coulter has discussion on the benefits to the Bai Dien Administration of new cries for war, against, who is it this month, oh yeah, Russia. Yes, war helps out incumbents in elections. We don't have that part, but check out this:
The media are thrilled with the possibility of nuclear war with Russia. Catastrophes are terrific for ratings, and flood-the-zone coverage of a war between two faraway countries that has almost zero effect on the lives of most Americans allows journalists to act like deep-think, geopolitical strategists (after having quickly looked up “Ukraine” on Wikipedia).Ann Coulter's column is dated March 16th, '22. If you remember our March 5th post Is the Russia/Ukraine War another piece of Infotainment?, Peak Stupidity had this to say:
They dragged out the COVID panic porn for two straight years. By now, the only people still interested in pandemic updates are hysterical liberal women in Manhattan claiming to have “long-haul COVID.”
The national pastime has segued seamlessly from watching TV anchors cry on TV about the coronavirus to watching TV anchors cry on TV about the fate of Ukrainian children.
I lean toward this being, yes, another piece of Infotainment.*** It's a big enough story to be in the news, but it seems to have taken up all media's time. Perhaps just the timing was right, and like the Kung Flu PanicFest started just over 2 years back, it's again about not letting a "crisis" go to waste. Is this a crisis for America? NO. Neither was the Kung Flu virus.In our February 28th post, Peak Stupidity on the Ukraine we called the constant coverage of the Russia/Ukraine war a "distraction". In our case we see it as having been a distraction from that building resistance to the PanicFest, exemplified by those great Canadian truckers, and didn't get into all the Biden connections.
Hmmm, that's kind of fishy. You're not gonna tell me Ann Coulter and Peak Stupidity thought up this same idea independently?* Well, OK, I'm sure that's the case, along with the same from a lot of other people. Yeah, but I'd sure like to think Ann Coulter reads this site. Go over your Morse Code, Ann. I'll be looking out for it.
* See the first paragraph of Of course the Russians love their children, you dumb bass player! for another example.
Comments (25)
Happy St. Patrick's Day
Posted On: Thursday - March 17th 2022 8:17PM MST
In Topics: Music Holiday from Stupidity
We alluded to the holiday today in the previous post. I don't care when the parade is, Saint Patrick's Day is today. We won't be having any green beer or even the good stuff (Guinness, a meal in itself). However, let's end the day on a good note. For bagpipe music, you probably would expect Brave Scotland or some AC/DC, but they aren't Irish, dang it. (Nor is the song "Bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomen", one of my favorites, about Ireland.)
You can't go wrong with The Royal Irish Regiment Pipers, I guess:
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It's baaaacck! The Kung Flu in China.
Posted On: Thursday - March 17th 2022 7:35PM MST
In Topics: China Kung Flu Stupidity
I've used this as the title before, at least once, so let's just do it here: Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!
The newest 1960s vintage chants being heard from teensy-weensy little viral voices this week in China go : Vaxxed, and treated, we'll never be defeated!
It's like the common freakin' cold now, man. Is your country really going to defeat it? All the big China-Lockdown-Enviers have told us over the last two years that China DEFEATED the virus! It was supposed to be like St. Patrick and those snakes. Get 'em out, and don't let any more in. Yeah, but viruses are not snakes, see? And now, you come to me, asking for favors, such as tank cars full of disinfectant, this, on the day of my
Even this lowly Peak Stupidity Assistant Chief Blogger [Assistant TO the Chief Blogger - Ed.], a non-virologist, could have told President-for-Life Winnie-the-Jinping that China would not defeat the Kung Flu. Did the Dear Leader over there really think that would happen? Plenty of Americans over here with that same Totalitarian bent flat-out expressed their envy of China for having been able to quickly implement measures and make every Chinaman do exactly WTF the EXPERTS wanted them to do.
Never mind food water, and utilities, you lock people down where they stand, you get out those HazMat suits and spray like the wind, you stick people with whatever they tell ya', and bada-bing, bada-boom, no virus, capiche? That was the deal. Lots of people with no knowledge of the place thought, yeah, well, it's tough, but you gotta be tough. Quit complaining and put on your face diaper, you spoiled people. People in China are
Peak Stupidity says that is wrong, no matter if you DID defeat the virus. However, they haven't. I'm not gloating about a few more people getting sick over there, but I am gloating about their Totalitarian and Orwellian policies backfiring. For example, about all that Health Score app crap? I could see some hacker causing a whole bunch of red on the screens of Chinamen, wreaking havoc like this. Maybe it was a bug or a virus, no puns intended ... at first.
It's hard to get accurate news out of China.. You don't hear much about it, and then you see videos like those Mr. Adam Smith linked to in the comments about that post written when I thought I was out. (That was yesterday.) Mr. E.H. Hail also wrote more about this, getting me going posting this one.
A few days back I'd read this PJ Media* article about LOCKDOWNs in Shanghai. The writer Stephen Green** comes at this with the worry about supply chain problems, but we could use a LOT less Chinese trade, and he also is pro-vaccine for the oldest of China's aging population. I don't care about all that. A quick blurb:
Communist China is dealing with another severe COVID-19 outbreak despite the country’s “zero tolerance” policy towards the virus.In Jilin Province and the cities of Shenzhen and Dongguan have been shut down to stop the spread, Russia Today discussed the new hysteria and measures being taken up in Manchuria and in the highly industrial southeastern province Guangdong. I checked in with Yahoo News even and I see that China orders 51 million into lockdown as COVID surges. That's only 3 1/2 % of China's population, but it's not cool for those 51 million.
I guess nobody told the virus.
Already in 2022, the Communist country has suffered more COVID cases than in all of 2021.
On Sunday, China ordered all of Shenzhen’s 17.5 million residents into a seven-day lockdown, with three rounds of testing. All public transport is halted and all businesses, except essential services, will be closed until March 20.Just a 7 day LOCKDOWN, probably won't run out of food and miss too much work, that's all, one week ... this time. See what I've been warning about for America? Just like a TSA code orange day, they can pull this out anytime. Here's the funny part from that story, with the stupidity in bold:
China, the last major country to relentlessly pursue a Covid-zero policy, reported 1,437 cases across dozens of cities on Monday. That’s a fourfold jump in a week.Yes, Covid~zero, tastes just like regular Covid~Classic, but without all the calories. The Chinese don't want to live with this virus, but the virus wants to live with the Chinese. What to do now? Will they do the same as they did 2 years ago, bring out the big guns? Make 'em an offer they no canna' refuse? I thank Adam Smith for the multiple videos he sent, along with the links from both he and Mr. Hail. I'll include this one, with the big green disinfectant cannon from 2 years back in Wuhan.
Although record case numbers are testing the resilience of China’s no-tolerance approach, there is no sign the country is willing to pivot to "living with the virus."
As Peak Stupidity has noted, China is a can-do country. However, I gotta say, "can-do" can sometimes conflict with "oughta-do".
This "zero-tolerance" policy for the suspected Kung Flu germs can get worse even than other zero tolerance policies of various sorts have been in America. They are killing dogs on the mainland and trying to kill all the hamsters down in Hong Kong, just on suspicion of infection. Finally from the 2nd article, I do like the attitude of this Hong Konger - wonder how much you hear the same in Big China:
Jessica said she was not worried about the government threats. “I don’t care about that, the police. Fuck them. They arrest people anyway for doing nothing,” she said.Yup. Same here. I feel your pain, Jessica.
Yeah, China sure defeated this thing... and I got a date tonight with a Pangolin.
* An organization of which Instapundit Glenn Reynolds was a part of founding.
** He's one of the most prolific bloggers on Instapundit.
Comments (6)
Advice from an Anonymous Attorney
Posted On: Thursday - March 17th 2022 6:23AM MST
In Topics: Websites Race/Genetics Anarcho-tyranny Legal Stupidity
VDare, THE go-to site on all things immigration invasion, has Mr. Brimelow in charge, who is fairly well-known in political circles** many some-what known writers, and a number of guys who are anonymous on the site. I don't blame them one bit. Most of those are Washington or US Gov't insiders or former insiders from whom we can get the real detailed story. That would include Washington Watcher II, Federale (OK, got the Willie/Merle song in my head again), new writer Former Agent, and Anonymous Attorney.
From the last listed of these guys, I just read last week the post No Jail For Black Dunkin’ Worker Who Punched Elderly White Man To Death. The title sounds like just another day in the life of the Anarcho-tyrannical modern US of A. However, in this post, we can get some good advice that you'd have to pay $300/hr for, or whatever the rate is now, from an in-person attorney. OK, that's assuming he'd be courageous enough to say ANY of this, which rules out 99% of them. (Wait between these 99% cowards and then those 99% of lawyers that give the others a bad name, what would that Venn Diagram look like?)
He gives a modern extension of John Derbyshire's The Talk****. It's been appended for the Anarcho-Tyranny to have really set in, in all the Institutions, such as the "Just Us" system. AA's reporting about the Dunkin' Donuts murder gives just one example that I assume got him started on this, so with no further introduction, here are his Tips for whites:
Don't use racial slurs. Don't even use words that could be deemed racial slurs.At the end, Mr. Attorney notes: John Derbyshire’s version of The Talk still holds.*****
Be aware that even if you don’t use a slur, a false accusation of a slur is a possible tactic against you. It will be as unquestioned and powerful as the real thing.
Be aware that actual use of a slur against you, as a white person, counts for nothing.
Don't engage with black people you don't know. At least, any more than you absolutely have to. And then, proceed with extreme caution. They are more emboldened to harm you than they have ever been, at any time in the history of this country.
In the unfortunate case where you must defend yourself—physically or otherwise—just realize that when the dust settles, you will be Hitler and the black person will be Martin Luther King, Jr.
You will have no friends. The police may sound sympathetic at first, but they ultimately won't be. The press, the prosecutors, the judges, your employer—they will all stand against you. Your own lawyer may cave under the social pressure.
It's sick that it's come to this. It is what it is, right now. Anyway take heed, as you don't normally get this kind of good advice for free. There is no free lunch, they say. If you don't follow this free advice, a free lunch may end up the last thing you're worried about. Contribute to VDare, I say. They are a good bunch. Thank you, Anonymous Attorney!
* Hell, I don't know who that guy is - I just did an image search for attorneys. It was that or wait for an ambulance to go by, and snap a picture of the guy in the next car - hard to keep up, though, in my lime green bug.
** He used to be a reporter on financial matters.
*** There was an original Washington Watcher who wrote a lot but hasn't been published on VDare since Sept of '18.
**** To be correct it's, The Talk: Non-black Verson. Ron Unz kindly keeps it on his front page, and there are even some recent comments under it.
***** This is a different link, one that AA gives for the '12 Taki Mag article, but his link goes to page 2. The link here goes to the first page. Here's page 2.
Comments (8)
In Memoriam of the 2 Year Kung Flu PanicFest
Posted On: Wednesday - March 16th 2022 1:22PM MST
In Topics: Poetic Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
Peak Stupidity included this image in our June 1, '20 post I miss my Kung Flu TV. In that post we really thought the PanicFest was over (due to the new Infotainment of the BLM/antifa Commie rioting). Ha! Can we pick 'em, or what? Yeah, "what"!
Beware the Ides of March! This date is highly arguable, but I pick the middle of March of 2020 as the beginning of the Kung Flu PanicFest for a reason. Mr. E.H. Hail, he of the Hail to You blog that has covered this PanicFest so well, will differ. He has lots of evidence on this too. Other would too.
Peak Stupidity chose this middle of March '20 date because that is the date when the PanicFest affected our family, as school kids were sent home. See our post from 2 years ago day before yesterday - School's Out For Ever!* I didn't take that as a bad thing, really a silver-lining as a big promotion of homeschooling, in fact, but it meant that these Panickers were intent on changing our lives based on this hysteria.
Other Totalitarian measures were starting to be put in place in my locale, though they never got as bad as what I've read from elsewhere. Yet Anthony Fauci is an honorable man. The LOCKDOWNs of businesses coming were the worst, ravaging the local service economy, which is most of what's left of ANY economy. I don't thing they were in full effect yet by this date 2 years ago. (None of the 6 posts Peak Stupidity posts on the Kung Flu had that capital LOCKDOWN in it yet.) The masking was half-assed, enforcement-wise, but taken seriously by most. Yet, Anthony Fauci is an honorable man. There was all that hand wringing and hand waving over hand washing starting too, as contagion from surfaces was BIG.
Yes, it had already gotten stupid by 2 years ago. However, it became real right then, on the Ides of March, as the local school board either freaked out like every other branch of government or covered their asses like the rest, with the same resulting effect. The kids went home, and we learned a whole lot more, including what a PanicFest is like. It was at this time that our "leaders" cried havoc and let slip the dogs of Panic. Yet Anthony Fauci is an honorable man.
2 days and 2 Kung Flu posts later, Peak Stupidity picked** our favorite term for this Covid-19 thing in Beware the Kung Flu!.*** A day after that, on March 19th we posted The Kung Flu - SHTF or Infotainment Panic-Fest?. We answered our question at the bottom of the post with "BOTH", but not due to fear of the newly termed Kung Flu. We put it this was due to our worries about the damage to the economy:
The Kung Flu Infotainment Panic-Fest has triggered a financial crisis, bound to happen someday anyway, that may lead to a SHTF situation, if the media and governments keep pressing their luck and don't leave the people the hell along for a while to get things done.Then, to fit in with the theme here, there was the March 24th post Et tu, Tyler?. That was a reference to ZeroHedge, supposedly the Fight Club,with articles by "Tyler Durden". Peak Stupidity noted therein that Tyler Durden was in fact a pussy.
On this latest Ides of March, the situation is being reversed. The kids have had their first couple of days without face masks and plexiglas germie shields on the desks. Oh, the same teacher who was breaking balls of the kids about putting those masks on all the way so as to not get people sick, has opted not to wear one.
This change was brought about by the PTO (aka, PTA, also mentioned in that 2-year-ago post School's Out for Ever!) For a minute, I felt bad about not having been a part of this, but I recall what it was like at the only PTO meeting I ever attended - a real estrogen fest. As with the other masking on a monthly cycle, there is a tide in the affairs of these women. At some point, mask-o-pause puts an end to those.
The women of the PTO wouldn't have listened to me 6 months or a year ago anyway. I did my part by not taking part of any of the stupidity at the school and showing my disdain for the whole thing for the last 2 whole years of our lives. The fault, dear readers, is not in ourselves, but in our stupid people, for whom we are underlings ... for now...
Precedents in Totalitarianism have been set, though. The evil that stupid men do lives after them. More of this could come back - I'm hearing of some combination of Delta and Omicron - the Demi-Chron? This post, however, we call a Memoriam. I come to bury Kung Flu Stupidity, not to praise it.
* Yes, of course it has the Alice Cooper song embedded.
** That is, I picked it from terms we'd seen on-line. I didn't make it up.
*** Though we've since regretted not going with "Flu Manchu", one I learned of less than a year ago, maybe 1/2 a year ago, from VDare writer Allan Wall.
Comments (30)
Rockford Files: Bug v Land Yacht
Posted On: Wednesday - March 16th 2022 8:59AM MST
In Topics: TV, aka Gov't Media Humor Cars
Please bear with me, readers, as more stupidity is forthcoming. This is not a pro-TV site, by any means, no, not one bit, but I like these old re-runs. It's kind of an escape from Stupidity. It's not just the cars ... but, that part is fun.
In the last episode of Season 1, called Roundabout, I finally noticed an AMC Gremlin for sure (I may have missed some before). I have not seen a Pacer, but that makes sense, as I looked it up, and the first model year was 1975, and I've been watching shows from Spring of that year. (They probably make the shows earlier though.) I saw a Ford Pinto, but it may have been a Mercury Bobcat (same damn thing).
In the show, at one point these two bad guys grabbed the girl there in Vegas and drove off with her in their land yacht, a red new model Lincoln Town Car, so Jim went to the girl's car to chase them. But, well, he looked at that lime green VW Beetle, fumbled with the keys in his hand for a second, and just walked back inside. Haha! I guess that was intentionally funny, but it was very subtle.
What was even funnier for me watching this 47 years later is another scene with the same two cars. This time, it wasn't a chase, as Jim was tailing the Town Car with the two bad guys and the girl in it with that lime green bug (he might not have wanted to rent a car, as his customer was really tight about the expenses). But, but, they were the only two cars going down this small road, and the guys in the Town Car didn't notice him. I think the viewer at the time was to think that, well, they might notice that car behind them, but, shoot there are LOTS of lime green bugs, so, whaddya, whaddya [h/t, iSteve], gonna worry about every car behind you? I don't think even in 1975 there were just Billions and Billions of lime green VW Beetles! Were there?
Anyway, in the comments of the last Jim Rockford post I wrote that there were two very direct obvious jokes right together in an earlier episode of the show, and I couldn't remember the first joke. I scanned through yesterday, found the gas station scene ("Fill it up - ethyl." "My name's not Ethel.") and backed up to find the other one.
This was great. The girl that Jim had just questioned at her apartment - people always just opened the freaking door*** - called up her colleagues in the insurance scamming industry right away. She was using a fake Polish sounding name, and the upright insurance guy Jim had talked to said it was definitely pronounced a certain way, while the lady herself insisted it was pronounced differently. She's on the phone with one of the guys and is complaining she needs OUT, now! I will play it right now, so verbatim:
"I want out. I am sick and tired of this name, I, I can't even spell it, nobody can pronounce it, and I'm fed up with Polish jokes! Now, when do I get the new ID?"See, if they still made TV like this, I might pay 10, 20 bucks for cable. Where do you round up all the cool cars from though?
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[UPDATED 03/17:] Adam Smith in the comments gave me the make/model/year of that land yacht - a 1975 Lincoln Town Car Sedan. Thanks, Adam, and sorry for my laziness. I even went to IMDB to get some info on one of the other episodes before, so no excuse of ignorance.
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*
** You see many, many Beetles in the show, along with quite a few VW vans, which is quite realistic. Again, they didn't need to arrange all of that scenery. That WAS America in 1975.
*** That last episode had a running gag of Jim putting his foot in the door, when they'd try to close it on him. The first time, when Jim's foot was hurting there, the lady goes "if you're gonna do that, you need to do it right". LOL!
Comments (7)
Inflation with pick-up trucks
Posted On: Tuesday - March 15th 2022 12:47PM MST
In Topics: Websites Cars Economics Americans Inflation
The preposition in our post's title here may may our readers wonder. Isn't it "Inflation of pick-up trucks", as in a discussion of the recent increasing size of Americans' pick-up trucks? Or, is it "Inflation in pick-up trucks", as in inflation in the prices them. We will rant on the former and mention the latter, but the idea of this post is to discuss the effect of recently increasing* inflation on those drivers with these big-ass pick-up trucks.
This may be one of those posts that will piss off a number of readers to the point of never coming back here for our elucidation of stupidity. People don't like some random rightwing ranter dissing their choice of vehicle. I! GET! THAT! However, I will note here that I have friends who drive big-ass pick-up trucks. The one I speak of is not much the object of this post, since he can well afford to have bought his brand new one with cash**, one of the big GMCs, for what I recall was $50,000. He can well afford to feed it too. So, keep in mind the caveats I'll insert as to who I'm either worried about or, should I say, of whom I'm really wondering about his mind-set.
There've always been some big pickups around, used on the farm, ranch or by those in trades which require hauling a lot of stuff. I don't know when it because the thing to just have a pick-up truck as one's personal vehicle even without any particular good use for it, but I'd say it was the middle 1980s. That's when I'd see those new model small Nissans and Toyotas driven by office workers and such. So as not to be just a complete polemicist here, I did look up some US sales numbers. The following graph jives with my memory.
"WTH?!", the reader might readily exclaim, "that was only a small rise".Yes, but the category "light truck" includes vans and SUVs along with pick-up trucks My memory, which usually serves me well, is that that middle 1980s bubble was for those small pick-ups (gas was till high, but on the way down), while the rise from the early 1990s was of the SUVs, starting with those Isuzu Troopers, Jeep Cherokees, and Chevy Suburbans.
Since gasoline has been relatively cheap and also stable in price since the big ramp up from 1999 through 2008, the REALLY BIG TRUCKS seem to have risen up from novelty vehicles to standard issue. People have the big ones that tower over sedans and even more so over sports cars, quite dangerous for the latter especially, in a collision. Some of them look like they'd need a ladder to get into! Some even have those duallies on the rear too. (Is that really for spreading the load, as on a bigger, working truck, or is it for looks?)
Hey look, if you're out there hauling hay bales, or carrying cinder blocks and bricks, pulling a horse trailer, sure, knock yourself out. Otherwise I do wonder whether the sales of these things is for show-off value. Are Americans all so well-off still? You could have fooled me... well, until I see a quarter of the parking lot filled with these things hanging into the nearby spaces.**** Maybe, I'm wrong, but I'm not. (h/t Hotel California-era Eagles)
What about the gas to feed these new big trucks? When searching for information on the gas mileage of these behemoths, I came across a cool site called Fuelly that has gas mileage distribution graphs for loads of vehicles. This is more than just a web site, as it's another of what I'll dub here UPC (User Provided Content) organizations. One can sign up*** and enter one's mileage readings and fuel amounts after gassing up. It's a cool idea, I gotta say. The users, since maybe they can't use calculators, or simply like to have an app for everything they do in their lives, get out information and nice recording, storage, and graphical output of how their vehicles are doing. The website gets traffic by providing a service of accumulation and crunching that information from those users who've joined to give long-term, multiple vehicle averages of mileage for each those many different vehicles for everyone to view. What's nice is that, rather than relying on opinion (as with reviewer content) or lots of erroneous data, since each "member" has in interest in getting a good fuel mileage number, he'll be careful to put in accurate info.
Well, that was a hell of a digression (but a cool idea!), so I'll note that, though there are many more gas-saving features (cylinders that get put in stand-by mode, etc.) realistic mileage estimates are in the high teens at best, though YMMV (HA!!) At $5/gallon gas, that starts to get expensive. Let me not start with that hundred dollar fill-up talk, simply because that's not of much use, when there's no ONE tank size. One may indeed encounter a $100 fill-up now, with a 25 gallon gas tank that is just below 1/4 on the gauge, and over that in California.
It'd be more useful to make a few calculations on the costs for big-ass truck drivers who have regular 5 day/week jobs that live out in exurbs. Lots of people live that way - it may be closer to the norm than any other life style. Let's take a 15 mile trip each way to work with 4 other 20 mile round trips during the week. At 18 mpg, being generous, and still $4.50/g, that's 230 miles, 12.8 gallons, and $57.5 bucks weekly. Since a working month has a couple of more commutes, we're talking about $250 in gas money monthly. Maybe the wife doesn't need that big truck to show off with, so she drives a different show-off vehicle that gets 25 mpg, maybe doesn't go as far to work, and with trips to shuttle the kids around just adds on another 50 bucks. Then, there's the occasional 500 mile round-trip outing to get to the beach, the mountains, or the extended family's place. That'll be a $300 to $400 monthly gasoline bill.
Back to the truck itself. I did a cursory search for the price of these things, and I'd say the range of $35 to $55 thousand is what drivers are paying for these things new, without extreme option packages. They are not your 2000 Ford Rangers, which, though I haven't owned one, are one of my favorite models, looks- and functionality-wise. I'll have to to price inflation of the trucks elsewhere, as I have done no shopping in my life for ANY new vehicle save one***** and never have bought one.
Americans are stretching payment schedules out fo 7 years now! That should bring the payments down, right? Well even at the lower end, at $40,000, and an interest rate of 2%, one they may be offering, thanks to that most generous Federal Reserve Bank,
A family with one of these behemoth or any gas guzzler for that matter, using it as a regular driver, will pay a thousand bucks monthly for use, but that doesn't include the big insurance, property taxes, and oh, the other car! (Hopefully the other has somehow been paid off, and I am not even counting maintenance for the new vehicle - you gotta do oil changes and such, at the least.) You ain't getting away without $1,200 monthly for transportation, for 7 long years. How do most Americans think they can continue to live like this? That's pretty much the only point of this post.
PS: BTW, I should have done the gas cost calculation using the average American vehicle yearly mileage of 12,000 miles that I've seen in various places. My estimate doing rectal extraction and this quick calculation of my own turned out to be using 11,960 miles. Man, I'm good.
* Peak Stupidity has been well aware of the general level of price inflation in the American economy for years, increasing annually at a 4-5% PSIPI (Peak Stupidity Inflation Post Index), compounded. There are quite a few posts now with our Inflation topic key, most written well before the "I did that!" era.
** It's more a matter of cash flow/financial strategy, so I don't know for sure if he did buy it cash.
*** Honestly, as much as I appreciate the idea and of the participation, signing up for things in general is just something I'm not inclined to do, much less the giving out of information to strangers. (They probably don't need VIN's or really anything, so likely there's no real privacy worry. and it'd be nice to help.) I also can do my own calculations without needing a web site to do it for me.
**** I will note that back after the time of the gas "crises", there were all kinds of efforts to punish people for driving bigger vehicles, such as the making of smaller parking spaces.
***** I came close, but it was the property tax I'd be paying that sealed the deal, well lack thereof.
Comments (31)
Would you rather be nuked or globally warmed?
Posted On: Saturday - March 12th 2022 10:32PM MST
In Topics: Music The Dead Humor Global Climate Stupidity World Political Stupidity
Yes, this one comes straight from Steve Sailer, who snarkily asked last week "Wouldn't Nuclear Winter Stymie Global Warming?" in reply to some tweeting idiot.
Really that Carl Sagan "Nuclear Winter" thing was seen to be the results of some worthless mathematical modeling as bad as the
Here are your options:
Hey, I'd love to someday do some scuba diving on a reef and maybe swim with the dolphins, but I mean, we've got bigger fish to fry ... . OK, let's just take a poll. I've been polled before, so now Peak Stupidity will get in on the other end of that action.
Would you say you Agree, Somewhat Agree, Have No Preference, Somewhat Disagree, or Strongly Disagree, with the following statement?
I’d rather wake up tomorrow to searing heat, a blast wave, a poisonous radiation dose, and long term cancer-causing nuclear fall-out rather than the Climate! Crisis!.
Pick from the following. Multiple answers are allowed:Remember that old "Doomsday Clock" that was just a few minutes or seconds from midnight a number of times during the Cold War? Well, that site says 100 seconds right now. I really think that thing should have been recalibrated long ago. Aren't these guys atomic scientists? They should be able to read that atomic clock then, and set this thing back to 11:30 or 11:45 - it takes time for those ballistic missiles to make it across the old DEW line.
[ ] Seas will rise! Tornadoes will wash up on the beaches! Insects will devour our iPhones!
[ ] I love Greta so much, but I just wish she would just smile more, like Marsha Brady.
[ ] I drive a Prius with a nucular-hardened electronic control panel, permanently tuned to NPR.
[ ] It’s the Kung Flu I’m worried about. Omega is coming. We need more floor stickers, NOW!!
[ ] We’ve got 2 tons of beans in #10 cans. We need more desiccant. It’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity!
[ ] What was the middle one, again? I can’t get good internet down here in the bunker.
We've had 3 decades, since the end of the Cold War, during which the Doomsday Clock was put away and left to run out its batteries. Now with the Deep State having aggressively pissed off Russia for that whole time and with things getting a little heated, people have pulled it back out. Only thing is, nobody knows how to work on it anymore. The H-1B visa atomic lab scientists are Chinese or •Indian and don't know how to turn a screwdriver.
In comparison, I notice that there's no Doomsday Clock for the Climate! Crisis!. It's hard to figure an accurate timetable when you don't have a working mathematical model!
OK, well, to bring back Cold War memories, let's feature this old Dead song about The Day After, called (Walk me out in the) Morning Dew. This one was not an original, having been written by Canadian Folk singer/songwriter Bonnie Dobson back in 1962 - 3 years before the Dead was the Dead. That's the case with lots of Grateful Dead songs, but don't they always play it better?
This one is from their concert in the Winterland Ballroom (San Francisco) on October 18th of 1974, but if Mr. Ganderson can recommend his favorite, I'll switch them out.
Do they got any
Thanks for reading and commenting, everyone! Peak Stupidity will resume on a lighter note early next bidness week. How can you get any heavier, man?
Comments (36)
Kung Flu Stupidity anecdote Quad-pack
Posted On: Saturday - March 12th 2022 7:43AM MST
In Topics: Kung Flu Stupidity
A week ago Peak Stupidity asked the question "Is the Russia/Ukraine War another piece of Infotainment?" in the affirmative. Mr. E.H. Hail, of the Hail to You blog agrees - if you haven't already, check out his latest post - In search of a “Ukraine-War-Panic”–“Corona-Panic” Venn diagram*. It's not nearly the same issue and likely a somewhat more serious issue for the world, but for Americans it has become the next piece of Infotainment.
It's kind of nice how they segued from the Kung Flu PanicFest to the next one so smoothly. What's nice for me is that, simply put, I don't care that much what Vladimir Putin and the Russians do in the Ukraine**, and, at the same time, people are lightening the heck up about all the Covid nonsense here. That latter is the case at the government and Big Biz levels too, in addition to the (formerly?) normal people.
However, that doesn't mean the stupidity doesn't stick around for a while (on doorknobs, exercise machines, our hands, you name it). After that introduction let me get to the anecdotes. What was nice is that this was all in one morning. Want to start a blog about stupidity, readers? Get outside for a few hours.
I will have to get my first Covid-19 test of any kind. I have not been worried about the Kung Flu for myself*** and had no reason to do this before. It's required for something I've got to do at the doctor's. It was pleasant to talk to the nice cute white pharmacist girl, who must be new to that store. I knew I could have an actual conversation, and she gave me all the info. I had one more question though: "Oh, how much does it cost?" "It's free." "Really, how's that?" "It's covered." Well, OK, "Covered by who? Oh, OK, the taxpayers. Cool." No use getting into a rant, but I've heard of this "free" testing before. Incentives, anyone? More tests = more "cases".
Next, to the haircut place. After going through the usual stressful rigamarole about "Are you in the computer?" "No, I'm here for a haircut." "We've got to put something in the computer.", and my thinking "I know what you can put into that computer.", we got going, and I finally noticed that nobody told me to put a face mask on. This is pretty new. The girls in there still all wore them.
That leads into the check-out girl at the grocery store, a little bit later. She was new too, and also fairly cute, hence the reason I ended up in that line - just a habit. She had no face mask on. That was DEFINITELY a brand new thing. This store has been overboard with the Panicking since early on. I even wore a face mask in there some of the time for a couple of months back in early summer of '20, as I thought they WOULD kick me out for sure otherwise. Then, I didn't, anymore and they gave up trying to hand me one at the entrance.
I asked this young lady about it. "Oh, they finally don't require these face masks anymore? That's got to be nice." "No, they aren't required." She was obviously new, as I find it hard to believe that every single employee for the last 2 years had been wearing one on his own. "Well, it seemed everyone had to have one till now." "No, you don't have to have one on, but anyone can wear one if they want." You don't say! "Well, yeah, sure you can wear whatever you want." What the heck ...?****
It'd be a hell of a thing for businesses to start banning these masks right now. It'd be kind of fun to do so for one's own business, but it'd sure look stupid for this particular grocery store. Discussion about the banning of mask wearing was in the comments here under our recent post Covid Conversations. As a serious Libertarian, I think private businesses have every right to ban them (especially banks), but I don't agree with laws banning face masks. Though it's unfortunately been the left, in particular, doing this before the PanicFest, to me wearing face masks can be a small impediment to the continued implementation of the Orwellian Police State - see The masks of the Antifa - a question of anonymity.
Let me go back about 5 minutes from this 3rd anecdote to the store itself. Mask wearing was down. I'd say it went from 85-90% last week to under 50%. As I've noted in posts such as Menstruation Nation, this seems to go in cycles. The moon is a waxing gibbous right now. Give it a few days.
I hope these face diaper cycles will end soon. Are we approaching mask-o-pause?
PS: Yes, the site is loading very slowly today. Please accept my apologies. I have no idea why.
* From his title, one can see that Mr. Hail is interested in analyzing the people who have been sucked in (or not) by this latest 24/7 mediafest.
** Though I can see the next Cold War coming, brought on almost solely by the American Deep State. Do we have the money this time? (Quick answer - NFW!)
*** I've been exposed to everybody and every thing for 2 years. I don't take ANY of those extra hand-wringing hand-washing precautions that my wife sucked me into for a while near the beginning anymore. If this thing will still infect me, let me tell you, it's not much more contagious than ingrown toenails. (Or, I got infected, and it didn't do squat - more likely, I'd say.)
**** A [sic] tag should be next to that "their" for 3rd-person singular, but I was trying not to interrupt.
Comments (14)
US Border Patrol Deploying To Poland For “Operation Ukraine Support”
Posted On: Friday - March 11th 2022 10:21AM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity US Feral Government
Peak Stupidity has not before copied our post title directly off the title of another article or post. However, the stupidity here speaks for itself in the title, just as well as I could write one.
In this case, the article with that title is on VDare, as written by a recent addition to the great VDare writing staff a guy going by the pseudonym Former Agent. Well, that's clear enough! They have some very experienced people writing at VDare, many with lots of inside information. Obviously, "Former Agent" would.
Here is his take on the evil/stupidity by the US Feral Gov't. The basic news is from this short Human Events article*. From the article:
“The Office of Field Operations is seeking volunteers to assist with the possible evacuation of U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and their immediate family members from Ukraine,” the memo reads.Now I apologize here for mentioning this article before with an erroneous idea of it. I had confused this operation with what Mr. Agent writes about later on in his post. I'd written that the BP was in the Ukraine there to teach border patrolling. (No, that was in Iraq.)
“Eligible employees who volunteer for this situation may be selected to serve a temporary duty assignment in Poland to facilitate travelers for entry into the U.S., to include providing guidance and problems resolution to other government agencies,” it continues.
Evacuation of Americans does seem to be a legitimate use of the US Government. However, is it the best use of manpower to have the Border Patrol do it? Hell it's EASY to get into the US. That's the problem. Regarding this international duty, Former Agent writes:
It will get them off of diaper duty, they will get a good deal of per diem money, and they are not likely to wind up as front line troops. Now, what they will be doing there is another matter, and if their help will do any good at all is debatable. Our Agents were deployed in Iraq ostensibly to show them how to secure their border. Since our own border gets breached daily by thousands of people, we probably should be taking lessons from foreign countries on how to secure a border, not the other way around. I guess the hubris of thinking we know better is still strong."Hubris"? Nah, they know better. There's more, and I like this part:
My colleague asked the Ukrainian what happens if you do in fact try to catch the illegal alien, but the alien simply outruns you. We frequently encountered fit Mexican teenagers, and our often out-of-shape Agents were not going to run them down in brush (areas where you can drive up on them are another matter). The Border Guard looked surprised and responded, "You shoot."You do, but in a serious country.
(That's new fence between the rest of the Ukraine and Crimea**. I'm sure there's more to it than just the fence. It's not that hard to have a real border.)
We've got hundreds of thousands coming across some months now, and not just Latin Americans - there are Africans too. It's nothing new. President Trump had just arranged a 4-year slow down. The picture above is from a '14 DC Clothesline article entitled ISIS Says, “The US-Mexican Border Is Now Open”, And Are Planning On Crossing Into The United States Through The US-Mexican Border.
نرحب بالجميع!!*** The replacement of Americans is going swimmingly. The elites of the Feral Gov't and Deep State are just rubbing it in our faces
* Boy, that publication has been around for a while. BTW, VDare is great with linking, but I had to strip out a long-assed code that was on the end of the URL of the link to Human Events on VDare. This retired agent may not be so web-savvy to have noticed that.
** I'm not taking a side in the war there. NOT! MY! BUSINESS!
*** That's "welcome, all!" in Arabic, per the Duck. I could just go read a sign at the Unitarian Church to get the spelling right.
Comments (7)
Inflation indexed to the Rockford/Davenport basket of goods
Posted On: Wednesday - March 9th 2022 7:57PM MST
In Topics: TV, aka Gov't Media Inflation
(Not quite the scene I watched, but good enough to bring back memories.)
If you've read either this or this Peak Stupidity post, or both, you will know we are on a Jim Rockford (The Rockford Files) kick, which brings us back nearly half a century. There is also one portion of the recent post President's Day and other PS tidbits in which we mention this show in the context of inflation.
In that discussion of the show I brought up a scene involving hot dogs. It was 2 gourmet hot dogs, mind you, bought inside a fancy financial center office building, and we noted that Jim was stuck with the bill of gasp, $6.36! That gave us a long-term compounded inflation rate of 2.6%, but the problem was that it's hard for me to get an apples-to-apples comparison to those gourmet hot dogs.
The show had a running gag of Jim Rockford not only not getting paid, but getting stuck with the tabs too. In the 4th-to-last episode of Season 1, where I stand now in my viewing (OK, I lay back on the couch, actually), there's a scene with Jim's lawyer Beth Davenport. (The actress is Gretchen Corbett - pretty and 1970's-ish). In this case, the tables were turned for a bit, as she got stuck with the bill while Jim ended up eating BOTH hot dogs. Then, she complained and Jim paid her most of it.
I got a good view of the hot dogs*, so I can do an estimate here. Two regular hot dogs and 2 coffees, bought at an outside stand, were a dollar forty. First of all, who the hell has coffee with hot dogs? I'll let that slide for now because I'm trying to do accounting here, not social commentary. The shows I'm watching are from Spring 1975. I would guess those 2 dogs and 2 coffees at some place with no atmosphere but our generic atmosphere would be (2 x $3.50) + (2 x $2.00) = $11 nowadays. I'm not sure on the coffee. I'm no a coffee drinker, especially not with freakin' hot dogs!!
Here come's Money Chimp. He says 4.5% inflation with compounding. Does that not go along with the numbers Peak Stupidity has come up with in many of our other posts on Inflation?
As we all can see, that is changing for the much worse now. We should all be stocking up. What's the shelf life on hot dogs and coffee? How about Beth Davenports? Without her, it wouldn't be the same anyway.
* Jim seems to eat hot dogs or tacos mostly, so I don't get as hungry watching The Rockford Files, as I do watching The Sopranos with that great Italian cooking - at least Tony thinks so, and who am I to argue?
Comments (32)
Covid Conversations
Posted On: Tuesday - March 8th 2022 8:33PM MST
In Topics: Music Southern rock Kung Flu Stupidity
(Covidiot wearer removed per Peak Stupidity legal team advise.)
Now that the newest Infotainment*, the 24/7 Ukraine/Russia war, is in full swing, the Kung Fu PanicFest seems to have lost momentum. Yes, as Yogi Fauci would probably retort, "it's not over till it's over."** Theres's still a whole lot of stupidity out there.
I was waiting for the elevator in a hotel to go downstairs for breakfast. This guy comes up to the elevator wearing one of those thick black cloth masks. I suppose I started this because, when the guy said "good morning" back to me, it was almost unintelligible. It's ridiculous. Since I knew who the guy worked for (there were a lot of them staying), I asked "Are they still making y'all wear those face diapers?"
"Isn't it still illegal in the State of REDACTED to not wear them?" the guy said, muffledly. Man, that just set me off. "It shouldn't be illegal in ANY State to not cover your face with one of those!" I told him how I only wore one in the certain places I absolutely have to for my job without getting fired and that the whole thing was stupid.
A young (nicely mask-less, but unfortunately not bra-less) woman got on at the next stop, and at the ground floor (pretty fast elevator) the guy gets off while saying "Then you've never had COVID!" Well, not that I know of, I haven't, but I've never been tested and I haven't been sick in a long time, but then I've been around all kinds of people for the last 2 years wearing the face mask only those times when required. I looked at the girl, saying "I would have gotten it by now. I'm not worried." "I had it", she told me and "It was like the flu" in answer to my "How was it?"
It occurred to me after the guy went around the corner, and I noted to the girl "then why is he so worried?" I mean, even if it had been terrible for him, wouldn't he be pretty immune? Is he going to wear it the rest of his natural-born life? She didn't know either. It was nice to converse with a normal person.
There was the guy and one of his colleagues eating his breakfast, without masks, of course, but 3 ft. apart. We'd been in the elevator 3 ft. apart. (Hey, what can I do? They pulled up all the stickers!)
The guy didn't like my non-compliant attitude very much. Oh, did I mention that the outfit this group at the hotel works for is part of the US Government?
Ever since this conversation with a Covidiot, and I thought about this post, I've had this great Atlanta Rhythm Section song on and off in my head. It's from their 1973 studio album Back up against the Wall, but I really, really like their live Are you Ready? album***, so here's Conversation from that album.
Conversation,
getting so hard to make.
I try to communicate,
but I can't get through.
And I don't really know how it happened.
I have tried, but I don't understand
how we ever let it get so out of hand.
I've got the Southern Rock topic key here, as they were a Southern Rock band. This is not so much rock music as a ballad, but it's still got that certain sound.
* I'm not saying it's not serious, but for Americans, it's still infotainment.
** I think it's over in terms of most of the population's mindset. However, the precedents of Totalitarianism have been set, and won't they be easier to implement again next PAN-DAMN-DEMIC?
*** Peak Stupidity has featured at least 2 others, those being Sky High from this post about inflation and Playin' that Georgia Rhythm.
Comments (18)
Image selection difficulties
Posted On: Monday - March 7th 2022 12:42PM MST
In Topics: Websites Media Stupidity Orwellian Stupidity
I'm sure it's just Peak Stupidity's lack of search foo causing this.
A couple of years into this blog, I and a commenter realized around the same time that having images at the top of posts was a good idea. I'd noticed that VDare, one of my favorite websites, did this most of the time. I guess the idea is to visually get the idea of what one is writing about in the reader's head early, or some psychological process that I don't feel like thinking about ...
Because I hate google, I use it only for searches of - you guessed it - "Peak Stupidity" and variants thereof, in order to help stay up top. I know there are plenty of other good search engines out there, but I use duckduckgo for most, but have found out that bing is better for images.
I guess the way it works is that the search software looks for page with the words one has entered and shows the images from these pages. (On bing, once I click on a specific picture, I'll see a link, though sometimes it strangely doesn't have that same picture on the resulting page.) I am pretty amazed sometimes though. "Digital clock in hotel room" or something gets me what I want. The most specific of image searches results in an Alamy stock photo quite a bit, unfortunately, as I don't want that logo across the one I use for a post.
Anyhow, as I looked for images on the Canadian trucker protest, it hit home how this bing image search screens them "for me" based on politics. I'll try all kinds of combinations of what I do want, such as "Ottawa crackdown", but they'll get me nothing that I want most times. I understand that the wrong word means the software may not find much, but is it more that bing doesn't want to use a page with that terminology to get me an image? Even when I DO try to use the "correct" terms, the ones I think it would rather "see", I'll get biased imagery (not in the photography sense involving exposure*).
I mean, why the Rebel flag, of which I'd read there was but 1, if any? Was it that lots of internet users pulled up that page, or it wanted to show me the side of the story I'm supposed to support? It's not like the appropriate images aren't out there on-line. I've seen the on the pages I read, but I've got to make an effort to save them at the time.
They are not making this as easy for me as it should be. I suppose it's still easier than it would have been in 1975, hitching a ride to the protest, lugging my SLR with the 500 mm telephoto lens around, and taking the images myself to bring home to get developed hopefully only a couple of weeks later to put on my site. Wait, what's a site?
* Does anyone even know, or need to know, that term anymore?
Comments (19)