As I said before, by the time I got to Berlin everybody who wanted to get over the Wall had already done so or died in the attempt. The Wall had become somewhat of a tourist attraction by then, and there was a viewing platform on our side looking over to the Commie side. The Commies had erected a large propaganda sign on their side that said something about the Wall being a direct result of "the Dulles-Acheson-Adenauer agreement". John Foster Dulles was our Secretary of State, Dean Acheson was our Secretary of Something or Other, and Conrad Adenauer was the Chancellor of West Germany at the time. I thought the sign was just Commie bullshit, but one of my buddies, who claimed to be knowledgeable about such things, said that there was some truth to it. He said that so many refugees had been coming over that the West Berliners were having a hard time dealing with them, so our governments agreed to let the Commies build the wall as long as they promised not tell anybody about their agreement. Well, the lying Commies went back on their word and put up the sign, but nobody on our side believed it, so no harm was done. How's that for anecdotal evidence?
Another stop on the tour was a place where some escapees had climbed over the Wall with the assistance of a couple of our guys who happened to be passing by at the time. The Commies shot at everybody involved, but I don't think they hit anybody, just made some pock marks in the masonry wall of an apartment building across the street, which had still not been patched years later. After that, our guys were ordered to not render physical assistance to anybody climbing the wall. The question became moot shortly thereafter because the Wall was topped with barbed wire and a "death strip" was established on the Commie side with another fence set back from the Wall and the intervening space filled with landmines.
Although we were not supposed to help civilians over the Wall, we were not ordered to prevent them either. If I had been ordered to fire on unarmed civilians crossing the Wall, I'm pretty sure that I would have recognized it as an illegal order, refused to comply, and reported the incident to my commanding officer. There might have been circumstances that persuaded me to do otherwise, but I can't imagine what they might be.
I sent my sister an email asking her what she remembered about that "chicks up front thing". I also plan to see what I can find on Wiki when I get a chance.
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Halloween morning thoughts
If chicks up front was never part of a written record I have to assume it was never, if ever, much of a thing. Both pro and anti war forces during Vietnam wrote plenty so I have to think that it never was, like the idea that returning soldiers were routinely spat upon.
Even though I have come out against breaking news I have to admit that I am addicted to it, especially since it is so close to the election, which may be precisely the wrong time because most of the news at this time is politicians flapping their jaws, and polls which tend to zigzag a bit, but there it is, I am addicted.
I will stand by my Occam's Razor interpretation for the unexploded bombs until more information comes out. The idea that the mad unbomber had a soft heart doesn't seem reasonable. If Old Dog has some other explanation let him say it.
It seems to me that feral cats are a better solution to the rat problem than minks. Of course the more cats catch rats the fewer rats that are around for cats to eat and the fewer cats. Likewise the fewer rats around the more food is available for the remaining rats and their population grows. Rats, like terrorism, we will always have among us.
Sorry guys I had an overnight guest so I didn't get to finish my morning post. One thing has occurred to me though this evening. Back in the days when Beagles was in Germany protecting us from the Russkies if an unarmed mob of Russkies looking to cross the wall to get good jobs in the west and his sarge asked him to fire on them would he have? How about Old Dog when he was guarding Camp Swampy? Myself I never got further than ROTC, but if some drunk sarge had given me live ammunition and wanted me to mow down a crowd wanting to tear down the goal posts in the unlikely event of an Illinois victory I like to think that I would not have fired.
Even though I have come out against breaking news I have to admit that I am addicted to it, especially since it is so close to the election, which may be precisely the wrong time because most of the news at this time is politicians flapping their jaws, and polls which tend to zigzag a bit, but there it is, I am addicted.
I will stand by my Occam's Razor interpretation for the unexploded bombs until more information comes out. The idea that the mad unbomber had a soft heart doesn't seem reasonable. If Old Dog has some other explanation let him say it.
It seems to me that feral cats are a better solution to the rat problem than minks. Of course the more cats catch rats the fewer rats that are around for cats to eat and the fewer cats. Likewise the fewer rats around the more food is available for the remaining rats and their population grows. Rats, like terrorism, we will always have among us.
Sorry guys I had an overnight guest so I didn't get to finish my morning post. One thing has occurred to me though this evening. Back in the days when Beagles was in Germany protecting us from the Russkies if an unarmed mob of Russkies looking to cross the wall to get good jobs in the west and his sarge asked him to fire on them would he have? How about Old Dog when he was guarding Camp Swampy? Myself I never got further than ROTC, but if some drunk sarge had given me live ammunition and wanted me to mow down a crowd wanting to tear down the goal posts in the unlikely event of an Illinois victory I like to think that I would not have fired.
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Reading the Riot Act
Okay, it's coming back to me now from the riot control training that I got in the army. While the military does not normally do police type work, they can during times of war or civil disturbance. There has to be some kind of imminent threat that the local police can't handle, and then the president or a state governor has to issue a declaration of martial law. Civil liberties can be temporarily suspended while the declaration is in effect. For example, curfews can be imposed and large gatherings of people can be prohibited. The governor can call out the National Guard or the president can call out the regular army to restore law and order. The president can also "nationalize" the National Guard, which means they are temporarily removed from the governor's control and put under the command of the president.
When any military force confronts a group of hostile but unarmed civilians, they are supposed to employ what's called "the theory of minimum force". First the hostiles have to be informed of the declaration, usually somebody reads it to them over a bullhorn. This is the origin of the expression "reading the riot act". The hostiles are then warned to disperse or force will be used against them. Non lethal methods like tear gas or water cannons should be tried before deadly force is employed. If that doesn't work, warning shots are fired into the ground in front of the advancing horde. If that doesn't work, shots are directed at the legs of the rioters. If that doesn't work, the soldiers shoot to kill. There are other tactics that might be employed along the way, but that pretty well sums it up. We used to do something called the "step jab", which involved advancing in a tight line or wedge formation while making short jabs with our bayonets, the intention being to push back or split up a crowd. That only works if the rioters are hemmed in by buildings or other barriers on either side and can only go forward or backward. If you try it in open spaces, they will just go around the formation. I don't think our military even carries bayonets anymore, so I doubt that the practice is still in use.
I had not heard of minks being trained to hunt, but I know that ferrets were used in the past to flush animals out of their dens or holes. Hence the expression "to ferret someone or something out". Ferreting was prohibited in most U.S. jurisdictions for some time, but I understand there have been efforts to re-legalize it in Michigan. I seem to remember that it's now okay to keep ferrets as pets, but I don't know if they ever legalized hunting with them. I believe that falconry has been legalized, but I'm not sure about ferreting.
I'll argue about Social Security and Chicks Up Front another time. Step jabbing is a fatiguing activity, and I got tired just writing about it.
When any military force confronts a group of hostile but unarmed civilians, they are supposed to employ what's called "the theory of minimum force". First the hostiles have to be informed of the declaration, usually somebody reads it to them over a bullhorn. This is the origin of the expression "reading the riot act". The hostiles are then warned to disperse or force will be used against them. Non lethal methods like tear gas or water cannons should be tried before deadly force is employed. If that doesn't work, warning shots are fired into the ground in front of the advancing horde. If that doesn't work, shots are directed at the legs of the rioters. If that doesn't work, the soldiers shoot to kill. There are other tactics that might be employed along the way, but that pretty well sums it up. We used to do something called the "step jab", which involved advancing in a tight line or wedge formation while making short jabs with our bayonets, the intention being to push back or split up a crowd. That only works if the rioters are hemmed in by buildings or other barriers on either side and can only go forward or backward. If you try it in open spaces, they will just go around the formation. I don't think our military even carries bayonets anymore, so I doubt that the practice is still in use.
I had not heard of minks being trained to hunt, but I know that ferrets were used in the past to flush animals out of their dens or holes. Hence the expression "to ferret someone or something out". Ferreting was prohibited in most U.S. jurisdictions for some time, but I understand there have been efforts to re-legalize it in Michigan. I seem to remember that it's now okay to keep ferrets as pets, but I don't know if they ever legalized hunting with them. I believe that falconry has been legalized, but I'm not sure about ferreting.
I'll argue about Social Security and Chicks Up Front another time. Step jabbing is a fatiguing activity, and I got tired just writing about it.
Make mine mink
There is something vaguely familiar about that "chicks in front" line but I can't put my finger on it, like it was something said in passing and only heard in certain circles. As much as we rely on Google and other sources for information there are things that slip between the cracks, items that may remain forever hidden or forgotten. If an idea or event was never part of a written or other record it will never find itself in the vast databases we use every day, at least until Google starts reading our minds.
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Is it some kind of advantage to know instantly what is going on right this minute? When the news comes in in dribs and drabs and no story is ever complete?
No, and it seems like a disadvantage to me. We've become addicted to the news, at least some of us, and that's the way it is these days. And since we are more adept at generating information than analyzing it we become befuddled and we shouldn't forget that much of the information we ingest is nothing more than noise, in my opinion.
I remain leery of the nutball bomber story for a couple of reasons, not all of them strong. The use of PVC pipe, for instance. I suppose it will work to some extent but pipe bombs have traditionally been fabricated using steel or iron pipe; maybe he was trying to save money on postage. The thing that baffles me the most is that none, not one, actually worked. If you are as committed to the idea of blowing shit up as this guy seems to have been don't you do a little testing, just to see if those plans from the internet actually work? I can't put myself into the mind of that guy but it seems to me the failure was intentional, for reasons yet to be determined. Well, he got everybody's attention, that's for sure.
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I know Mr. Beagles appreciates wildlife and I found a story he might enjoy. There's a guy in Utah that has learned to train minks for hunting and has even created a new sport called minkenry. He's been doing it for quite a few years now with a good degree of success, even selling some his minks for the purpose of catching muskrats and brown rats, among other critters, even fish if you can believe the videos. The most interesting thing for me is how he uses their natural behavior to train them; they respond well to vocal and audible commands. It's weird as hell to see his two year-old daughter playing with a goddam mink. No links this time; I'll let Mr. Beagles follow up on his own but I think he'll enjoy learning about it. This could be an out of the box solution to urban rat control especially if you have a couple of dogs to help speed things along.
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Is it some kind of advantage to know instantly what is going on right this minute? When the news comes in in dribs and drabs and no story is ever complete?
No, and it seems like a disadvantage to me. We've become addicted to the news, at least some of us, and that's the way it is these days. And since we are more adept at generating information than analyzing it we become befuddled and we shouldn't forget that much of the information we ingest is nothing more than noise, in my opinion.
I remain leery of the nutball bomber story for a couple of reasons, not all of them strong. The use of PVC pipe, for instance. I suppose it will work to some extent but pipe bombs have traditionally been fabricated using steel or iron pipe; maybe he was trying to save money on postage. The thing that baffles me the most is that none, not one, actually worked. If you are as committed to the idea of blowing shit up as this guy seems to have been don't you do a little testing, just to see if those plans from the internet actually work? I can't put myself into the mind of that guy but it seems to me the failure was intentional, for reasons yet to be determined. Well, he got everybody's attention, that's for sure.
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I know Mr. Beagles appreciates wildlife and I found a story he might enjoy. There's a guy in Utah that has learned to train minks for hunting and has even created a new sport called minkenry. He's been doing it for quite a few years now with a good degree of success, even selling some his minks for the purpose of catching muskrats and brown rats, among other critters, even fish if you can believe the videos. The most interesting thing for me is how he uses their natural behavior to train them; they respond well to vocal and audible commands. It's weird as hell to see his two year-old daughter playing with a goddam mink. No links this time; I'll let Mr. Beagles follow up on his own but I think he'll enjoy learning about it. This could be an out of the box solution to urban rat control especially if you have a couple of dogs to help speed things along.
putting our shoulders to the wheel
I think the military has long been barred from performing police or police-like functions. I think that was written into the constitution because we didn't like those damn redcoats. Seems to me there will be ways to turn aside the Caravan without shooting women and children.
And I can't credit that hippy Chicks up front thing either. Not the sort of thing I would have forgotten and I hear the internet has a memory like an elephant. Just did a more specific internet search for 'hippies chicks up front,' and got three pages of nada as far as this odious practice that Beagles believes was common. Again Occam's razor, would people do such a thing? Weren't those chicks like the girlfriends and wives and sisters of the protesters? Since Beagles's sister is only a fb message away I am surprised that he didn't bother to ask her before asserting this unlikely chant.
Practically speaking the reps aren't after our (us old people) social security and medicare benefits. Not because they feel any sympathy for us but because they know we vote, and there is no way they could get away with that. Social Security, founded by FDR is wildly popular, as is Medicare, founded by LBJ. This encourages people to like government because government is doing nice things for people, this infuriates the reps who hate government, well the not republican part. They don't want the people to ever think the government is good for them, so they would love to take these programs away.
And the clever way they try to take them away is to claim that they are running out of money, so that future generations will not have them and the only way to save them is cut the benefits that they provide, which will make people like them less so maybe they won't feel so bad when the republicans cut them more, until eventually they are gone and old people, well old people who aren't rich, are poor and sick the way God meant them to be.
Actually I was in favor of Social Security reform a few years ago. I was worried about the federal budget. Now that people are living longer it seemed like we could raise the retirement age by a few years and that would do wonders for the solvency of social security. Even though social security is sort of separate from the US budget, it would be a way to cut into the deficit, it would be putting our shoulders to the wheel.
But the whole idea of putting your shoulder to the wheel is that it is joining many other shoulders. But then it devolved that one of those shoulders, the braided, metal bedecked, defense budget would not be at the wheel, it would actually be increasing and therefore be pushing against the wheel. And the silk embossed shoulder of the fabulously rich would also be on the wrong side of the wheel.
Well fuck those guys, if they aren't giving up anything, au contraire are cutting themselves even bigger slices of the pie, why should I give up anything.
And I can't credit that hippy Chicks up front thing either. Not the sort of thing I would have forgotten and I hear the internet has a memory like an elephant. Just did a more specific internet search for 'hippies chicks up front,' and got three pages of nada as far as this odious practice that Beagles believes was common. Again Occam's razor, would people do such a thing? Weren't those chicks like the girlfriends and wives and sisters of the protesters? Since Beagles's sister is only a fb message away I am surprised that he didn't bother to ask her before asserting this unlikely chant.
Practically speaking the reps aren't after our (us old people) social security and medicare benefits. Not because they feel any sympathy for us but because they know we vote, and there is no way they could get away with that. Social Security, founded by FDR is wildly popular, as is Medicare, founded by LBJ. This encourages people to like government because government is doing nice things for people, this infuriates the reps who hate government, well the not republican part. They don't want the people to ever think the government is good for them, so they would love to take these programs away.
And the clever way they try to take them away is to claim that they are running out of money, so that future generations will not have them and the only way to save them is cut the benefits that they provide, which will make people like them less so maybe they won't feel so bad when the republicans cut them more, until eventually they are gone and old people, well old people who aren't rich, are poor and sick the way God meant them to be.
Actually I was in favor of Social Security reform a few years ago. I was worried about the federal budget. Now that people are living longer it seemed like we could raise the retirement age by a few years and that would do wonders for the solvency of social security. Even though social security is sort of separate from the US budget, it would be a way to cut into the deficit, it would be putting our shoulders to the wheel.
But the whole idea of putting your shoulder to the wheel is that it is joining many other shoulders. But then it devolved that one of those shoulders, the braided, metal bedecked, defense budget would not be at the wheel, it would actually be increasing and therefore be pushing against the wheel. And the silk embossed shoulder of the fabulously rich would also be on the wrong side of the wheel.
Well fuck those guys, if they aren't giving up anything, au contraire are cutting themselves even bigger slices of the pie, why should I give up anything.
Monday, October 29, 2018
Chicks Up Front!
This just in:
"Military personnel are legally prohibited from engaging in immigration enforcement. The troops will include military police, combat engineers and others helping on the border.
The troops are expected to perform a wide variety of functions such as transporting supplies for the Border Patrol, but not engage directly with migrants seeking to cross the border, officials said."
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBP2T4Z?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
This is news to me, and it's not good news either. The Caravan people will easily outnumber the Border Patrol agents. So are the soldiers supposed to just step aside and let them pass?
This story comes from my sister, but I don't remember if she told it to me directly or if my parents told me about it later. My sister and one of her female friends from school were marching in the protest at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago when the crowd started chanting "Chicks up front!" One of the leaders, recognizable by the red arm band he was wearing, told them that means the men are supposed to step aside and let the ladies move to the front of the procession. My sister asked him what the purpose of this tactic was, and the leader told her that they were trying to provoke the police to violence, and it would gain the protesters more public sympathy if anyone that might be killed or injured was a female. I seem to remember previously reading about the "Chicks up front" tactic, so I was not as surprised to hear about it as my sister was. I am surprised, however, that Uncle Ken has no memory of it, but I suppose a certain amount of memory loss is normal at our age.
I have heard about the alleged plans that the GOP has to raid Social Security and Medicare to replace the revenue that was lost due to the recent tax cuts, but I don't think that's possible. It is my understanding that Social Security and Medicare are "off budget" agencies. They are supposed to be funded by payroll taxes that are earmarked for that specific purpose. When I was working for a living, the deductions for Social Security and Medicare were indeed listed separately from the income tax withholding on my paycheck stubs. It is also my understanding that most of the money in these two funds is invested in government bonds, so it's already been loaned out. As for the funds running out of money, people have been crying about that for as long as I can remember. Of course, crying people are not always reliable sources, but I used to hear the same story from the Social Security Administration itself. For several years before I started drawing it, they used to send me an annual statement of the credits in my account. The introduction to this statement told how many years before the fund would run out of money if Congress didn't do something about it. I don't remember how many years, and I suppose it changed from year to year, but I seem to remember that it was within my projected life time.
"Military personnel are legally prohibited from engaging in immigration enforcement. The troops will include military police, combat engineers and others helping on the border.
The troops are expected to perform a wide variety of functions such as transporting supplies for the Border Patrol, but not engage directly with migrants seeking to cross the border, officials said."
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBP2T4Z?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
This is news to me, and it's not good news either. The Caravan people will easily outnumber the Border Patrol agents. So are the soldiers supposed to just step aside and let them pass?
This story comes from my sister, but I don't remember if she told it to me directly or if my parents told me about it later. My sister and one of her female friends from school were marching in the protest at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago when the crowd started chanting "Chicks up front!" One of the leaders, recognizable by the red arm band he was wearing, told them that means the men are supposed to step aside and let the ladies move to the front of the procession. My sister asked him what the purpose of this tactic was, and the leader told her that they were trying to provoke the police to violence, and it would gain the protesters more public sympathy if anyone that might be killed or injured was a female. I seem to remember previously reading about the "Chicks up front" tactic, so I was not as surprised to hear about it as my sister was. I am surprised, however, that Uncle Ken has no memory of it, but I suppose a certain amount of memory loss is normal at our age.
I have heard about the alleged plans that the GOP has to raid Social Security and Medicare to replace the revenue that was lost due to the recent tax cuts, but I don't think that's possible. It is my understanding that Social Security and Medicare are "off budget" agencies. They are supposed to be funded by payroll taxes that are earmarked for that specific purpose. When I was working for a living, the deductions for Social Security and Medicare were indeed listed separately from the income tax withholding on my paycheck stubs. It is also my understanding that most of the money in these two funds is invested in government bonds, so it's already been loaned out. As for the funds running out of money, people have been crying about that for as long as I can remember. Of course, crying people are not always reliable sources, but I used to hear the same story from the Social Security Administration itself. For several years before I started drawing it, they used to send me an annual statement of the credits in my account. The introduction to this statement told how many years before the fund would run out of money if Congress didn't do something about it. I don't remember how many years, and I suppose it changed from year to year, but I seem to remember that it was within my projected life time.
setting things straight
I think the word nationalism has fallen into disrepute by its association with white nationalism. Trump's reluctance to come out against white nationalist types has led some (me among them) to feel that he doesn't mind having their support at all. I don't see internationalism as wanting to control more people. I think it means getting along with other nations.
It was a pretty simple quiz, I think the startling fact is that so many people failed to get them all correct. A carton of cigs in Chicago would cost about a hundred and fifty bucks. Most of the cost of cigs and booze is taxes. I take it Beagles is in favor of legalizing marijuana because that would allow the gov to tax it. Fair enough, one of the selling points of legalization is the tax money it would bring into the state coffers.
I think Old Dog would do well to wait for more information to come out about those pipe bombs. Occam's razor would favor the explanation that the guy was a lousy bomb maker.
I would assume that when Old Dog speaks of the online media doing a good job of bringing us news he is referring to certain sources and not the whole spectrum of online media. Back in the days before breaking news, we would get our information when the paper hit our doorstop or when the six o'clock news came on. Is it some kind of advantage to know instantly what is going on right this minute? When the news comes in in dribs and drabs and no story is ever complete? Is it necessary to know about the pipe bomber at 3 PM rather than when the six o'clock news came on with a more complete story?
I read the wiki story on the Caravan, and it did not leave me quaking in my boots. This caravan seems to be bigger than most, but a major reason for that is Trump trumping about it. I do find it unnerving to hear that Beagles is afraid that our soldiers will not shoot women and children. As a former hippie and a consumer of a lot of news and books I am unfamiliar with this "chicks up front " thing. This is the first I've heard of it, and a short google search brings up nothing.
Social security and medicare are not rapidly running out of money. What Mitch and Paul want to do is take away their money in order to plug the hole in the budget they left when slashed the taxes on the rich, who paid a lot of money on their behalf to get them elected.
It was a pretty simple quiz, I think the startling fact is that so many people failed to get them all correct. A carton of cigs in Chicago would cost about a hundred and fifty bucks. Most of the cost of cigs and booze is taxes. I take it Beagles is in favor of legalizing marijuana because that would allow the gov to tax it. Fair enough, one of the selling points of legalization is the tax money it would bring into the state coffers.
I think Old Dog would do well to wait for more information to come out about those pipe bombs. Occam's razor would favor the explanation that the guy was a lousy bomb maker.
I would assume that when Old Dog speaks of the online media doing a good job of bringing us news he is referring to certain sources and not the whole spectrum of online media. Back in the days before breaking news, we would get our information when the paper hit our doorstop or when the six o'clock news came on. Is it some kind of advantage to know instantly what is going on right this minute? When the news comes in in dribs and drabs and no story is ever complete? Is it necessary to know about the pipe bomber at 3 PM rather than when the six o'clock news came on with a more complete story?
I read the wiki story on the Caravan, and it did not leave me quaking in my boots. This caravan seems to be bigger than most, but a major reason for that is Trump trumping about it. I do find it unnerving to hear that Beagles is afraid that our soldiers will not shoot women and children. As a former hippie and a consumer of a lot of news and books I am unfamiliar with this "chicks up front " thing. This is the first I've heard of it, and a short google search brings up nothing.
Social security and medicare are not rapidly running out of money. What Mitch and Paul want to do is take away their money in order to plug the hole in the budget they left when slashed the taxes on the rich, who paid a lot of money on their behalf to get them elected.
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Nationalism
When did nationalism become a bad thing? It never ceases to amaze me how the English language seems to constantly re-invent itself. Okay, the NAZIs were national socialists, but I always thought it was the "socialist" part that was the bad thing. I mean, what's the alternative to nationalism, internationalism? The only difference between a nationalist and an internationalist is the internationalist wants to control more people.
That pipe bomber and all those mass shooters are crazy people. If you think about it, the news has always focused on crazy people. If there seems to be more of them around these days, it just might be that there are more news sources and they're all competing for our attention. Like Uncle Ken once said, "Nobody wants to see a movie about Talks With Beagles making ice cream and sleeping in his deer blind."
I took the quiz that Old Dog recommended and I aced it. Yay me! The trick is that you have to remember that you're not judging whether or not the statements are true, you're judging whether they are factual type statements or opinion type statements.
I've been having trouble making my cigarettes lately, I think it has something to do with the humidity in my garage. I usually have the wood furnace going by this time of year, but I'm short of firewood, so I'm saving it for the really cold weather to come. I bought a carton of Salems the other day just to give myself a break from the frustration, and it cost me $77. It's been a long time since I bought ready made cigarettes, and I know they are more expensive, which is why I make my own, but I didn't expect the price to be that high. It is my understanding that state and federal taxes account for more than half the price of cigarettes, and that those taxes took a big jump during the Obama administration. I hadn't made up my mind about voting for the legalization of pot, but now I have. Since the liberals voted to tax the shit out of my cigarettes, I'm voting to tax the shit out of their pot. So there!
That pipe bomber and all those mass shooters are crazy people. If you think about it, the news has always focused on crazy people. If there seems to be more of them around these days, it just might be that there are more news sources and they're all competing for our attention. Like Uncle Ken once said, "Nobody wants to see a movie about Talks With Beagles making ice cream and sleeping in his deer blind."
I took the quiz that Old Dog recommended and I aced it. Yay me! The trick is that you have to remember that you're not judging whether or not the statements are true, you're judging whether they are factual type statements or opinion type statements.
I've been having trouble making my cigarettes lately, I think it has something to do with the humidity in my garage. I usually have the wood furnace going by this time of year, but I'm short of firewood, so I'm saving it for the really cold weather to come. I bought a carton of Salems the other day just to give myself a break from the frustration, and it cost me $77. It's been a long time since I bought ready made cigarettes, and I know they are more expensive, which is why I make my own, but I didn't expect the price to be that high. It is my understanding that state and federal taxes account for more than half the price of cigarettes, and that those taxes took a big jump during the Obama administration. I hadn't made up my mind about voting for the legalization of pot, but now I have. Since the liberals voted to tax the shit out of my cigarettes, I'm voting to tax the shit out of their pot. So there!
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Pontification
Jesus. H. Christ. Just as I finish gathering my thoughts about all of last week's issues here comes another goofball, a Nazi no less, shooting up a synagogue killing a whole bunch of folks. There's something in the air, probably emanating from the piehole of our president who proudly brays that he is a "Nationalist." The alleged shooter claims that he hates Trump but he shares Trump's sentiments about how to deal with your enemies, be they real or perceived. I think there's a long list of people that Trump would like to shoot if he thought he could get away with it.
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That bomb guy is a curious case and I wonder if he's some kind of patsy; things seem a little too cut and dried and there are things that don't make any sense to me at all. Fourteen bombs and none of them explode? The authorities are being coy in not describing the kind of explosive material that was used, only saying that it "had the potential of detonating in transit, or if shaken or exposed to a heat source." That's a description of a box of kitchen matches. The feds don't think the devices were operational and there are no charges of terrorism or attempted murder; something ain't right.
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I think a certain amount of attention to the lamestream news is a responsibility of a Beaglestonian pontificator.
Good choice of words there, Uncle Ken, and you may pontificate to your heart's content as Mr. Beagles and I try to discuss things in a reasonable manner. Zing!
What constitutes lamestream news these days, anyhow? I'm thinking it's probably newspapers and TV, both broadcast and cable. Sadly, few of those news sources have the budgets or resources to aggressively pursue investigative journalism; online media seems to be doing a better job and some can even be called trustworthy. They certainly move more quickly; the choice stories appear in the papers and on TV a few days later.
Sometimes I think the general public can be pretty dumb in not being able to distinguish between fact and opinion when they consume the news. The Pew Research Group has a dandy little online quiz that will test your ability to do so, and I recommend taking it. We're not always as smart as we think we are.
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I like a little white space at the end of the page.
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That bomb guy is a curious case and I wonder if he's some kind of patsy; things seem a little too cut and dried and there are things that don't make any sense to me at all. Fourteen bombs and none of them explode? The authorities are being coy in not describing the kind of explosive material that was used, only saying that it "had the potential of detonating in transit, or if shaken or exposed to a heat source." That's a description of a box of kitchen matches. The feds don't think the devices were operational and there are no charges of terrorism or attempted murder; something ain't right.
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I think a certain amount of attention to the lamestream news is a responsibility of a Beaglestonian pontificator.
Good choice of words there, Uncle Ken, and you may pontificate to your heart's content as Mr. Beagles and I try to discuss things in a reasonable manner. Zing!
What constitutes lamestream news these days, anyhow? I'm thinking it's probably newspapers and TV, both broadcast and cable. Sadly, few of those news sources have the budgets or resources to aggressively pursue investigative journalism; online media seems to be doing a better job and some can even be called trustworthy. They certainly move more quickly; the choice stories appear in the papers and on TV a few days later.
Sometimes I think the general public can be pretty dumb in not being able to distinguish between fact and opinion when they consume the news. The Pew Research Group has a dandy little online quiz that will test your ability to do so, and I recommend taking it. We're not always as smart as we think we are.
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I like a little white space at the end of the page.
Friday, October 26, 2018
Those Other Caravans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_American_migrant_caravans
The Central American migrant caravans,[1] also known as the Viacrucis del Migrante ("Migrant's Way of the Cross"),[2][3] are migrant caravans that set off during Holy Week in the spring of 2017 and 2018 of people from the Northern Triangle of Central America organized by Pueblo Sin Fronteras (People Without Borders).[4][5][6][7][8] There were also some smaller unrelated caravans in previous years, and a larger unofficial caravan in the autumn of 2018.
If you read the whole article, you will find that this latest "unofficial" caravan is quite different from the previous ones, as none of them made a serious attempt force their way in or out of Mexico. Of course our government could stop them if they make a serious attempt to do so. My concern is that there will be some kind of wishy-washy attempt with our soldiers reluctant to fire on all those women and children, which is probably why the Caravanners brought them along. Remember how the Hippy rioters used to put their "chicks up front"? Verily I say unto you: If these guys get away with this, more will follow.
Last I heard, Social Security and Medicare were rapidly running out of money. If McConnel and Ryan want to "slice into" them, they'd better hurry or there will be nothing left to slice into.
The Central American migrant caravans,[1] also known as the Viacrucis del Migrante ("Migrant's Way of the Cross"),[2][3] are migrant caravans that set off during Holy Week in the spring of 2017 and 2018 of people from the Northern Triangle of Central America organized by Pueblo Sin Fronteras (People Without Borders).[4][5][6][7][8] There were also some smaller unrelated caravans in previous years, and a larger unofficial caravan in the autumn of 2018.
If you read the whole article, you will find that this latest "unofficial" caravan is quite different from the previous ones, as none of them made a serious attempt force their way in or out of Mexico. Of course our government could stop them if they make a serious attempt to do so. My concern is that there will be some kind of wishy-washy attempt with our soldiers reluctant to fire on all those women and children, which is probably why the Caravanners brought them along. Remember how the Hippy rioters used to put their "chicks up front"? Verily I say unto you: If these guys get away with this, more will follow.
Last I heard, Social Security and Medicare were rapidly running out of money. If McConnel and Ryan want to "slice into" them, they'd better hurry or there will be nothing left to slice into.
Canadian Cannibis Clipper tramples the minds of Americans across the border
Let me state, because the distinction has apparently escaped Beagles, that the border between Mexico and Guatemala is nothing like the border between Mexico and the US. If this caravan is like the, many similar ones before it, will slow to a trickle by the time it reaches the Rio Grande where most of the remaining caravaners will be turned away. That would have certainly been the case had Trump not held it up like a shiny bauble to mesmerize Beagles and his ilk so they would not notice how McConnell and Ryan are planning to slice into their social security and medicare to pay for those huge tax cuts for the rich.
What a bunch of dunces. Oh excuse me, in the wake of 10 bombs sent to dem stalwarts, we are supposed to tone down our rhetoric, well except for Trump and his closest lackeys, they are the vanguard of the counterrevolution and as such, are allowed to say whatever they please.
Apparently Beagles does not feel that the US armed forces, including the 800 more recently ordered down there, will be able to stand up to a footsore, weary, unarmed, group of mostly women and children (I've looked at the photos and read the articles and I'll stand by that), and breeze through on their way to trample Beagles, which seems like an odd goal to cross the US from south to north to accomplish, but I expect that on a clear day with the Canadian Cannabis Clipper whipping in from the north that Beagles can see sombreros cresting the horizon to the tune of a mariachi band, and if he takes in a deep breath no doubt he will be able to spot the MS 13 and those middle eastern guys huddled in the center of the huddled mass.
I went to the wiki and I was surprised to learn that the population of Cheboygan county is less than one percent Hispanic,so I can see where Beagles might have a problem identifying them. I guess he could identify them by seeing if they are attacking his neighbors by, I don't know, maybe bussing the table so hard that they upset the ketchup bottle. Ohhh, looks like blood, good thing I brought Old Betsy along for breakfast.
I guess it would be ok to legalize pot in southern Michigan, but I think the northern portions are already getting more than they can handle from those clippers.
Interesting that Beagles should bring up the Alamo because one of the main reasons the Texans wanted to secede was that Mexico had outlawed slavery and the Texans wanted to keep theirs.
What a bunch of dunces. Oh excuse me, in the wake of 10 bombs sent to dem stalwarts, we are supposed to tone down our rhetoric, well except for Trump and his closest lackeys, they are the vanguard of the counterrevolution and as such, are allowed to say whatever they please.
Apparently Beagles does not feel that the US armed forces, including the 800 more recently ordered down there, will be able to stand up to a footsore, weary, unarmed, group of mostly women and children (I've looked at the photos and read the articles and I'll stand by that), and breeze through on their way to trample Beagles, which seems like an odd goal to cross the US from south to north to accomplish, but I expect that on a clear day with the Canadian Cannabis Clipper whipping in from the north that Beagles can see sombreros cresting the horizon to the tune of a mariachi band, and if he takes in a deep breath no doubt he will be able to spot the MS 13 and those middle eastern guys huddled in the center of the huddled mass.
I went to the wiki and I was surprised to learn that the population of Cheboygan county is less than one percent Hispanic,so I can see where Beagles might have a problem identifying them. I guess he could identify them by seeing if they are attacking his neighbors by, I don't know, maybe bussing the table so hard that they upset the ketchup bottle. Ohhh, looks like blood, good thing I brought Old Betsy along for breakfast.
I guess it would be ok to legalize pot in southern Michigan, but I think the northern portions are already getting more than they can handle from those clippers.
Interesting that Beagles should bring up the Alamo because one of the main reasons the Texans wanted to secede was that Mexico had outlawed slavery and the Texans wanted to keep theirs.
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Pot Shots
"I don't know where Beagles comes up with the outlandish idea that a bunch of unarmed folks are going to mob a line of well-armed US border patrol or troops, or that in that unlikely situation the armed guys will just shrug and let them through, but he appears not to be joking when he apparently relishes the thought of a lawless (taking the law into their own hands) armed mob taking Old Betsy off the shelf and taking potshots at people who look like well, Latinos of some stripe. His use of the word we implies that he would like to take part. And somehow he seems to believe that Americans of Latin heritage will be taking part also, although he is not sure of which side they will be on." - Uncle Ken
I came up with this outlandish idea after hearing that this same mob did exactly that when they crossed the border from Guatemala into Mexico last week. I don't relish the thought of trying to defend myself against 7,000 hungry Hispanics with my deer rifle, but I will do it if I have to. What's the alternative, lay down on the ground and let them trample me? Better to go down fighting like Davy Crocket at the Alamo. I don't know why I said "we", wishful thinking I guess. In the event that they make it as far as Beaglesonia, there probably won't be anybody left by then to help me. I certainly wouldn't waste precious ammunition shooting at anybody who looks like a Latino, only the ones who are actually attacking me or my neighbors. I've never seen anybody around here who looks like a Latino anyway, but I don't get around much anymore, so there may be a few that I don't know about.
I had not heard about those other caravans until Old Dog mentioned them the other day. Then I read an article on my news feed which claimed that some of the photos being currently shown are actually old ones that were taken of other caravans in previous years. I tend to believe that because I once saw a film clip on the TV news that was supposed to be showing an anti-American riot in Iraq, and one of the rioters was carrying a sign that said "Save The Whales". When I went to school, a caravan was a string of camels trudging across the desert, but I understand that the Brits call a camper trailer a caravan. If it was up to me, I would call these guys a mob or a horde, but maybe we'd better stick with "Caravan" now that we all know what it means.
Michigan voters will be voting on a ballot proposal to legalize the recreational use of pot in the coming election. I have been advocating this for as long as I can remember, but now I have second thoughts about it. I mean, it is a liberal agenda item, and the liberals have been trying to get me to lose weight and quit smoking cigarettes for a long time. So why should I support them now? Well, for one thing, it will still be illegal to transport the stuff across state lines, so local growing facilities will need to be developed. Hopefully this will keep most of the money spent on pot in Michigan instead of sending it off to Mexico. My mind could still change but, as of now, I plan to vote for the proposal.
Bombs away
This has been one of the craziest weeks, news-wise, in recent memory. Typically, one story gets most of the press but this week we've had the Khashoggi murder, the Caravan, and now the bombs being sent to folks who oppose Trump. What's an editor to do? I won't say that there are echoes of Wag the Dog but the Mueller investigation has dropped out of the spotlight.
The bomb story is baffling; their shoddy and inept construction seem intentional, like they are designed not to blow up or cause any real damage. There have been no explosions thus far and I wonder if the "bombs" are an elaborate prank designed to cause nothing more than confusion and misdirection. On the other hand, they could also be part of a bigger plan to tie up valuable (and limited) resources while the real bombs are being deployed.
In an article about the bomb forensics the AP included this interesting bit of information:
The U.S. Postal Service operates a sophisticated imaging system that photographs the outside of each piece of mail processed across the country and can be used to determine the specific location of where it was sent.
This boggles the mind. The Post Office photographs every piece of mail that passes through their system? I wonder what they do with all that information, maybe they're comparing handwriting samples, you know, just in case.
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Some folks have been wondering why Trump has been so soft on the Saudis regarding the killing of the reporter, and The Intercept had an interesting take on it in one of their recent podcasts. As politics make strange bedfellows, the Saudis and the Israelis are hell-bent on going to war with Iran and the US is their third partner. The enemy of my enemy is my friend; until he's not. And it's strange how after thousands of years the West is still fighting the Persian Empire, or what's left of it.
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Although I doubt that any second-hand smoke is wafting south from the Great White North it's funny that Uncle Ken mentions Canada and their recent cannabis legalization. The South Koreans have warned the tens of thousands Korean students in Canada that they will be arrested, once they return to Korea, if they have smoked the wacky weed. Even if they're not in Korea they must adhere to Korean law. That's a pretty hard line, one I did not anticipate. It's like if you took a trip to Vegas and got arrested for gambling when you returned home.
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I'm not going to say that we are doomed and the world has gone to hell but we are now shitting plastic. In deference to Uncle Ken's dislike for links I will only suggest a search for "plastic in poop" for those inclined to read more on the subject. What a world we live in.
The bomb story is baffling; their shoddy and inept construction seem intentional, like they are designed not to blow up or cause any real damage. There have been no explosions thus far and I wonder if the "bombs" are an elaborate prank designed to cause nothing more than confusion and misdirection. On the other hand, they could also be part of a bigger plan to tie up valuable (and limited) resources while the real bombs are being deployed.
In an article about the bomb forensics the AP included this interesting bit of information:
The U.S. Postal Service operates a sophisticated imaging system that photographs the outside of each piece of mail processed across the country and can be used to determine the specific location of where it was sent.
This boggles the mind. The Post Office photographs every piece of mail that passes through their system? I wonder what they do with all that information, maybe they're comparing handwriting samples, you know, just in case.
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Some folks have been wondering why Trump has been so soft on the Saudis regarding the killing of the reporter, and The Intercept had an interesting take on it in one of their recent podcasts. As politics make strange bedfellows, the Saudis and the Israelis are hell-bent on going to war with Iran and the US is their third partner. The enemy of my enemy is my friend; until he's not. And it's strange how after thousands of years the West is still fighting the Persian Empire, or what's left of it.
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Although I doubt that any second-hand smoke is wafting south from the Great White North it's funny that Uncle Ken mentions Canada and their recent cannabis legalization. The South Koreans have warned the tens of thousands Korean students in Canada that they will be arrested, once they return to Korea, if they have smoked the wacky weed. Even if they're not in Korea they must adhere to Korean law. That's a pretty hard line, one I did not anticipate. It's like if you took a trip to Vegas and got arrested for gambling when you returned home.
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I'm not going to say that we are doomed and the world has gone to hell but we are now shitting plastic. In deference to Uncle Ken's dislike for links I will only suggest a search for "plastic in poop" for those inclined to read more on the subject. What a world we live in.
the wind from Canada
I read a column by John Kass who shamefully occupies the inside of the Trib's front page where late great Royko once wrote, a great shame not so much because he is a right winger as because the man couldn't write his way out of a paper bag. Anyway as a right winger he was offended by it being called a caravan because that sounded too dignified, he wanted to call it, I don't remember what, something more demeaning.
But Caravan with a big C will work I guess. As Old Dog has said, similar caravans take place regularly and generally sputter out at the border where most are not accepted for asylum. The only thing different about this one is that it is happening right before a big election and Trump has decided to capitalize on it, which, of course, has made it bigger than the usual caravan.
Brexit has become a mess. One would probably have to read the Economist or listen to BBC to get all the details, but I think basically the Britts are trying to pull out while maintaining the benefits while the EU is saying fuck you on that. Another problem is the border between northern Ireland, which is part of Britain, and the rest of Ireland which is its own country. The islanders like having an open border, but Ireland proper is staying in the EU so with Northern out there will have to be a hard border. It seems surprising to me that such a big issue was decided by a single vote which passed by a small margin and might not have passed if it was held a week later or a week before or if the weather was different.that day.
I don't know where Beagles comes up with the outlandish idea that a bunch of unarmed folks are going to mob a line of well-armed US border patrol or troops, or that in that unlikely situation the armed guys will just shrug and let them through, but he appears not to be joking when he apparently relishes the thought of a lawless (taking the law into their own hands) armed mob taking Old Betsy off the shelf and taking potshots at people who look like well, Latinos of some stripe. His use of the word we implies that he would like to take part. And somehow he seems to believe that Americans of Latin heritage will be taking part also, although he is not sure of which side they will be on.
Well Canada has legalized pot and I hear that they are smoking up a storm and one has to guess that a southerly breeze is taking that smoke right dab into Beaglesonia.
But Caravan with a big C will work I guess. As Old Dog has said, similar caravans take place regularly and generally sputter out at the border where most are not accepted for asylum. The only thing different about this one is that it is happening right before a big election and Trump has decided to capitalize on it, which, of course, has made it bigger than the usual caravan.
Brexit has become a mess. One would probably have to read the Economist or listen to BBC to get all the details, but I think basically the Britts are trying to pull out while maintaining the benefits while the EU is saying fuck you on that. Another problem is the border between northern Ireland, which is part of Britain, and the rest of Ireland which is its own country. The islanders like having an open border, but Ireland proper is staying in the EU so with Northern out there will have to be a hard border. It seems surprising to me that such a big issue was decided by a single vote which passed by a small margin and might not have passed if it was held a week later or a week before or if the weather was different.that day.
I don't know where Beagles comes up with the outlandish idea that a bunch of unarmed folks are going to mob a line of well-armed US border patrol or troops, or that in that unlikely situation the armed guys will just shrug and let them through, but he appears not to be joking when he apparently relishes the thought of a lawless (taking the law into their own hands) armed mob taking Old Betsy off the shelf and taking potshots at people who look like well, Latinos of some stripe. His use of the word we implies that he would like to take part. And somehow he seems to believe that Americans of Latin heritage will be taking part also, although he is not sure of which side they will be on.
Well Canada has legalized pot and I hear that they are smoking up a storm and one has to guess that a southerly breeze is taking that smoke right dab into Beaglesonia.
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Convoy or Caravan?
Last I heard, our local media was calling it a convoy but, in deference to my esteemed colleagues, I will henceforth call it a caravan. I think, however, that we should capitalize it so that we know which Caravan we are talking about. I might have heard something about the Caravan before, but it was when they surged across the border into Mexico that I started paying attention to the saga. I believe that I was the first one to bring the subject up at the Institute, after waiting a few days for my colleagues to mention it, so I don't think I should be accused of not giving the story the attention that it deserves.
Whether or not blood will be shed over this Caravan depends on what they do when they get here, and what, if anything, our government does about it. If they disperse and sneak across the border at multiple points, many of them will likely get away with it but, if they try to break through in a big mob like they did in Mexico, I expect they will meet forcible resistance. If our government is unable or unwilling to stop them, then our citizens will have to take the law into their own hands. We are certainly not going to allow a rampaging mob to over run our country. I don't know what part our existing Hispanic community might play in this. Specifically, will the legals side with us or with their illegal brethren? Either way, like I said, it's not going to be pretty.
"The reason the immigrants/refugees in Europe kept pushing instead of being processed orderly in the first country they reached was because the first country you were processed in became the place they stayed and most of them wanted to end up in France rather than Greece." - Uncle Ken
It is my understanding that most of the EU member states have an agreement that allows people to cross their borders without a passport or anything like that so, once an immigrant is accepted into any one of those countries, he has easy access to all the rest of them. This was one of the main reasons for the Brexit vote a few years ago. Last I heard, there were a substantial number of Brits who wanted to reconsider but, so far, their prime minister has no plans to schedule a do-over vote.Whether or not blood will be shed over this Caravan depends on what they do when they get here, and what, if anything, our government does about it. If they disperse and sneak across the border at multiple points, many of them will likely get away with it but, if they try to break through in a big mob like they did in Mexico, I expect they will meet forcible resistance. If our government is unable or unwilling to stop them, then our citizens will have to take the law into their own hands. We are certainly not going to allow a rampaging mob to over run our country. I don't know what part our existing Hispanic community might play in this. Specifically, will the legals side with us or with their illegal brethren? Either way, like I said, it's not going to be pretty.
the caravan
I think a certain amount of attention to the lamestream news is a responsibility of a Beaglestonian pontificator. I mean if you don't know anything you don't have anything to say. If you are unaware of this caravan then you really need to increase your lamestream media intake lest you become a conversation dropout. (Do either of the dawgs remember that ad about being a conversation dropout? I thought it was Time Magazine, but five minutes on the internet doesn't show me anything.)
A cursory view of the migrants and a few interviews indicated to me that there were more women and children than men, but maybe I should have looked closer. CNN had a guy embedded in the group, but I haven't heard from him lately. Surely somebody has more info on these guys, but I'm not hearing it. I imagine the composition is changing as it heads north.
The reason the immigrants/refugees in Europe kept pushing instead of being processed orderly in the first country they reached was because the first country you were processed in became the place they stayed and most of them wanted to end up in France rather than Greece. Whatever happened to those guys anyway? Surely they are still coming? Why don't we hear about them anymore?
And again we could hear more about these guys. Apparently it was some kind of spontaneous thing in Honduras,.somebody said I've had it, I'm going to the US to apply for asylum and the next person said me to, and so on and so on. There was probably some charismatic leader, religious I would expect. From what I've heard people have been helping them out along the way. The people along the way aren't rich, so you wonder how much they could help, but then these guys don't seem to need much help, just a little something to eat and a place to lie down and sleep.
Inasmuch as this is a motley group and not a big time dictator I don't think Beagles needs to worry about Doanld falling in love with them. And this anti Mexican thing has been a core part, I daresay the major component of his appeal so I don't see him changing that.
I'm just going to assume that Beagles's fantasy about Americans shooting at each other because they speak different languages is some kind of attempt at humor.
Did another search for conversation dropout and it appears to be a campaign by the Chicago Daily News circa 1967. Just a local thing I guess, why it doesn't appear in a cursory Google searh. I don't know why it didn't go viral. Well I guess things didn't go viral back then.
Here's a household hint for the Dawgs. If you don't want that unsightly stretch of blank space to follow your post delete everything up to your last word before you post. Like this.
A cursory view of the migrants and a few interviews indicated to me that there were more women and children than men, but maybe I should have looked closer. CNN had a guy embedded in the group, but I haven't heard from him lately. Surely somebody has more info on these guys, but I'm not hearing it. I imagine the composition is changing as it heads north.
The reason the immigrants/refugees in Europe kept pushing instead of being processed orderly in the first country they reached was because the first country you were processed in became the place they stayed and most of them wanted to end up in France rather than Greece. Whatever happened to those guys anyway? Surely they are still coming? Why don't we hear about them anymore?
And again we could hear more about these guys. Apparently it was some kind of spontaneous thing in Honduras,.somebody said I've had it, I'm going to the US to apply for asylum and the next person said me to, and so on and so on. There was probably some charismatic leader, religious I would expect. From what I've heard people have been helping them out along the way. The people along the way aren't rich, so you wonder how much they could help, but then these guys don't seem to need much help, just a little something to eat and a place to lie down and sleep.
Inasmuch as this is a motley group and not a big time dictator I don't think Beagles needs to worry about Doanld falling in love with them. And this anti Mexican thing has been a core part, I daresay the major component of his appeal so I don't see him changing that.
I'm just going to assume that Beagles's fantasy about Americans shooting at each other because they speak different languages is some kind of attempt at humor.
Did another search for conversation dropout and it appears to be a campaign by the Chicago Daily News circa 1967. Just a local thing I guess, why it doesn't appear in a cursory Google searh. I don't know why it didn't go viral. Well I guess things didn't go viral back then.
Here's a household hint for the Dawgs. If you don't want that unsightly stretch of blank space to follow your post delete everything up to your last word before you post. Like this.
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Not an Invasion?
Okay, what do you call it when thousands of people, massed together, force their way across a national border? It has happened in Europe, I saw it on TV, so it must be true. Big swarms of people pushing down the fence and overwhelming the border guards by shear force of numbers. It's not like the Europeans were trying to keep them out either, they were just trying to get them to cross in an orderly fashion so that they could be processed in. This current group has already done something like that when they crossed from Guatemala into Mexico a few days ago. The Mexicans were letting them in one at a time on this bridge, but that wasn't fast enough to suit them, so they bypassed the bridge and swarmed across the river in a big mob. The news media has been reporting that the group is planning to do the same thing when the reach the U.S. border. The only good news is that it will take them a month to get here at their present rate of travel. I just found that out today, and it made me feel a little better. A month should be plenty of time to organize a military defense, if they actually do it. With a loose cannon like Trump at the helm, though, it's just as likely that he will suddenly "fall in love" with them like he did with that Kim character from North Korea. Be that as it may, I don't expect them to get as far as Beaglesonia. There are lots of armed citizens between there and here, and it will be full winter by then anyway. Then again, there are lots of Hispanics, both legal and illegal, already in the country, and I suppose they have guns too. I say again, it's not going to be pretty.
I posted that link because I thought it summarized the situation pretty well, and I didn't know how much my esteemed colleagues already knew about it. One thing that I noticed is how politicians of both parties seem to be more concerned about what effect this will have on the coming election than they are about saving the country from being trampled by this thundering herd. I saw that again on the TV news this evening. They said something like, "It will take them a month to get here, and the election will be over by then anyway."
Old Dog raises a good question, Who is feeding these people? I know that somebody is because I saw that on TV too. This is only speculation on my part, but it may be something like what happened with Coxey's Army. People fed them along the way in an effort to keep them moving because, if they crashed in their town, they might become a long term burden on the locals. If you don't know about Coxey's Army, Wiki has an article on it.
As for the women and children, the Huns and the Mongols traveled with women and children too, some of them brought from home and some of them picked up along the way. All that means is that they have no intention of returning to their homeland after they're done looting and pillaging ours.
I posted that link because I thought it summarized the situation pretty well, and I didn't know how much my esteemed colleagues already knew about it. One thing that I noticed is how politicians of both parties seem to be more concerned about what effect this will have on the coming election than they are about saving the country from being trampled by this thundering herd. I saw that again on the TV news this evening. They said something like, "It will take them a month to get here, and the election will be over by then anyway."
Old Dog raises a good question, Who is feeding these people? I know that somebody is because I saw that on TV too. This is only speculation on my part, but it may be something like what happened with Coxey's Army. People fed them along the way in an effort to keep them moving because, if they crashed in their town, they might become a long term burden on the locals. If you don't know about Coxey's Army, Wiki has an article on it.
As for the women and children, the Huns and the Mongols traveled with women and children too, some of them brought from home and some of them picked up along the way. All that means is that they have no intention of returning to their homeland after they're done looting and pillaging ours.
More questions than answers
This link thing is getting out of hand.
Oh, I don't think so and not everyone follows the lamestream media to the same extent as Uncle Ken. I think it's a stretch for Mr. Beagles to call the caravan an invasion but it's a bigger stretch for Uncle Ken to claim that it's mostly women and children. Did he not see any of the more than ninety images in the link? Perhaps my eyes are failing me but it looked like the crowd is predominantly able-bodied men. These caravans are nothing new and have been going on for some time, usually on an annual basis occurring in the springtime around Holy Week. It's too early for me to come to any conclusions about the caravans except to say that they represent a humanitarian crisis that is unprecedented in North America. Would the situation be improved if the refugees said they were only passing through the US on their way to Canada? A poor decision, considering the time of the year.
The media has been weak in providing details on how the whole caravan thing works or how it is financed. It looks like most of those folks have little more than the clothes on their backs yet they expect they can walk for more than a month to the US border for sanctuary; how can this even be possible without provision for food, water, and sanitary facilities? There are hidden forces at play and I don't know what they are.
Oh, I don't think so and not everyone follows the lamestream media to the same extent as Uncle Ken. I think it's a stretch for Mr. Beagles to call the caravan an invasion but it's a bigger stretch for Uncle Ken to claim that it's mostly women and children. Did he not see any of the more than ninety images in the link? Perhaps my eyes are failing me but it looked like the crowd is predominantly able-bodied men. These caravans are nothing new and have been going on for some time, usually on an annual basis occurring in the springtime around Holy Week. It's too early for me to come to any conclusions about the caravans except to say that they represent a humanitarian crisis that is unprecedented in North America. Would the situation be improved if the refugees said they were only passing through the US on their way to Canada? A poor decision, considering the time of the year.
The media has been weak in providing details on how the whole caravan thing works or how it is financed. It looks like most of those folks have little more than the clothes on their backs yet they expect they can walk for more than a month to the US border for sanctuary; how can this even be possible without provision for food, water, and sanitary facilities? There are hidden forces at play and I don't know what they are.
the invasion of the widows and orphans
This link thing is getting out of hand. There is nothing in Beagles's link that hasn't been in the lamestream media for days, so why add an article that adds nothing new?
Way up there on the tippy top of Michigan and armed with several trusty firearms far from the Texas border Beagles seems alarmed like an old lady over several thousand mostly women and children.
Perhaps he's alarmed by the prez claiming they are mostly criminals and there are mideast men (terrorists) in the crowd. There is a classic Ring Lardner exchange were a boy asks his dad a question and "'Shut up,' he replied." Reminds me of Trump's reply as to how he knows there are criminals and mideasterners in the crowd, "'Don't be a baby,' he replied." Or how about the story that people are rioting in California over sanctuary cities, or my personal fave how the number of jobs dependent on the Saudi arms deal has risen from 40,000 to a million, going up about 100k in each retelling, like in some sitcom.
They have yet to cross Mexico and a hurricane will be crossing their path. So far they have been pretty cohesive, but the closer they get the more people they gather and who knows how cohesive they will remain. I expect they will be rather easily turned away, but I expect Beagles will be tossing and turning at the idea that he may step into his favorite Cheboygan restaurant and see (gasp) some Honduran (gasp) bussing the tables.
I wanted to add something to my drill baby drill analysis. Some folks would respond to it, by saying that even if we get no price break out of despoiling our soils we get the money paid for that oil. But that would be true only if the oil companies and the richie riches who owned them paid taxes, and there is ample evidence that that doesn't happen. Trump brags about not paying taxes, Kushner sniffs that he didn't do anything actually illegal, We have a couple dueling billionaires running for gov in Illinois and their tax forms show that they pay pittances in taxes. The dem pays slightly more, but I quibble.
Remember the big scare about how the IRS was a mighty ogre, and it's investigative arm had to be slashed? The idea was that Joe Sixpack was getting fucked and he was being saved by knocking down the IRS, but the real effect was that it was even easier for the richies to pay no taxes, That's what Beagles, quaking in the far north should be sweating, not the guy wiping down the counter that once held his bacon and eggs.
Way up there on the tippy top of Michigan and armed with several trusty firearms far from the Texas border Beagles seems alarmed like an old lady over several thousand mostly women and children.
Perhaps he's alarmed by the prez claiming they are mostly criminals and there are mideast men (terrorists) in the crowd. There is a classic Ring Lardner exchange were a boy asks his dad a question and "'Shut up,' he replied." Reminds me of Trump's reply as to how he knows there are criminals and mideasterners in the crowd, "'Don't be a baby,' he replied." Or how about the story that people are rioting in California over sanctuary cities, or my personal fave how the number of jobs dependent on the Saudi arms deal has risen from 40,000 to a million, going up about 100k in each retelling, like in some sitcom.
They have yet to cross Mexico and a hurricane will be crossing their path. So far they have been pretty cohesive, but the closer they get the more people they gather and who knows how cohesive they will remain. I expect they will be rather easily turned away, but I expect Beagles will be tossing and turning at the idea that he may step into his favorite Cheboygan restaurant and see (gasp) some Honduran (gasp) bussing the tables.
I wanted to add something to my drill baby drill analysis. Some folks would respond to it, by saying that even if we get no price break out of despoiling our soils we get the money paid for that oil. But that would be true only if the oil companies and the richie riches who owned them paid taxes, and there is ample evidence that that doesn't happen. Trump brags about not paying taxes, Kushner sniffs that he didn't do anything actually illegal, We have a couple dueling billionaires running for gov in Illinois and their tax forms show that they pay pittances in taxes. The dem pays slightly more, but I quibble.
Remember the big scare about how the IRS was a mighty ogre, and it's investigative arm had to be slashed? The idea was that Joe Sixpack was getting fucked and he was being saved by knocking down the IRS, but the real effect was that it was even easier for the richies to pay no taxes, That's what Beagles, quaking in the far north should be sweating, not the guy wiping down the counter that once held his bacon and eggs.
Monday, October 22, 2018
And Still They Come
They're calling it a "convoy" but, in the latest film footage, most of them appear to be walking. Today's news estimated there are five to seven thousand of them, which is about double what there was going into the weekend. This is not immigration, folks, it's an invasion. Trump vows to stop them at the border, with military action if necessary. I hope he means it and knows how to do it. The guy has no military experience, but he has people who do, and I hope he listens to them. I don't know how long it will take them to reach the border, but I hope Trump doesn't think he can wait till they get there and then call out the troops. He should be moving those troops into position right now, and they should start digging in and stringing concertina wire as soon as they arrive. This is not going to be pretty.
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBOL4sI?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBOL4sI?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
the enemy of my enemy
In determining what nations are good guys and what nations are bad guys I believe the rubric Beagles uses is what nations are doing to help out US. In that case there are no good guys in the mideast. Well there's Israel, Israel is our buddy, well they ought to be with all the stuff we give them, but it goes beyond that, there are a lot more Jews in the US than Arabs, and they are more like us than the Arabs, and they do have a better functioning democracy. I think Beagles is incorrect in thinking that they have not been in the news lately, I have been reading plenty, but I have to admit that in these days of the orange colossus strutting about all other news is squeezed to the depths of the media.
When the Houthis came storming out of the hills of Yemen to start that piece of trouble the media hastened to explain who they were. I remember one tv guy asking a guy on the ground what are their politics, and the guy on the ground answered, "Well their slogan is 'Death to America and Israel.'", and then he continued, "But then that's the slogan of everybody in this part of the word."
But they don't like each other all that much either and there are different players with different aims and the enemy of my enemy is my friend forms a lot of the alliances, but the corollary of the enemy of my enemy, is that he is only my friend until my other enemy becomes less threatening and then he becomes my enemy. The alliances keep shifting.
The American mindset to find the good guys and back them does not apply here. What we do is choose some guys (Iraq) and back them with all kinds of dough and arms, and they'll do what we want as long as we are giving them money and have a gun at their back, but once we are no longer there we discover to our horror that they no longer love us.
The thing that those Drill Baby Drill exhorters (backed by big oil money) conveniently don't mention is that the oil they drill does not belong to the US, they sell it to the highest bidder. If China is willing to pay more they get it all and the Texaco on the corner gets none. If the Saudis take their oil off the market, the worldwide price of oil rises and it will cost us much more even if there is an oil well on US soil right down the block.
When the Houthis came storming out of the hills of Yemen to start that piece of trouble the media hastened to explain who they were. I remember one tv guy asking a guy on the ground what are their politics, and the guy on the ground answered, "Well their slogan is 'Death to America and Israel.'", and then he continued, "But then that's the slogan of everybody in this part of the word."
But they don't like each other all that much either and there are different players with different aims and the enemy of my enemy is my friend forms a lot of the alliances, but the corollary of the enemy of my enemy, is that he is only my friend until my other enemy becomes less threatening and then he becomes my enemy. The alliances keep shifting.
The American mindset to find the good guys and back them does not apply here. What we do is choose some guys (Iraq) and back them with all kinds of dough and arms, and they'll do what we want as long as we are giving them money and have a gun at their back, but once we are no longer there we discover to our horror that they no longer love us.
The thing that those Drill Baby Drill exhorters (backed by big oil money) conveniently don't mention is that the oil they drill does not belong to the US, they sell it to the highest bidder. If China is willing to pay more they get it all and the Texaco on the corner gets none. If the Saudis take their oil off the market, the worldwide price of oil rises and it will cost us much more even if there is an oil well on US soil right down the block.
Sunday, October 21, 2018
Another Version
I didn't know that about the sweet and sour oil, but I have heard another explanation from a local guy who is a retired systems analyst: Most of our domestic oil is produced in the West, while most of its customers are in the East. The most economical way to transport oil is by pipeline, and the second most economical way is by ship. There are no east-west pipelines crossing the Rocky Mountains, and modern oil tankers are too big to fit through the Panama Canal, meaning they would have to make the long and perilous journey around Cape Horn to deliver western oil to the East Coast. It's easier to sell our western oil to Japan and then use the money to buy replacement oil from the Mideast. Like most stories, there is probably some truth to this one, but that doesn't explain why they want to build a pipeline from Canada to Texas when an east-west pipeline is what's really needed.
I didn't know that about the swine either, but I don't think our local deli carries $40 ham sandwiches, so that high end pork must be going somewhere else in the country. Maybe the oil barons are buying it with the money they save by not having to ship all that western oil to the East. You think?
I have heard about the apparent migration of various species from south to north over the years, not to be confused with the annual migrations both ways that take place in the spring and fall. There's probably some truth to that one too because we never used to have possums this far north, but now we do. On the other hand, we have seen whitetail deer extend their range from north to south and coyotes extend their range from west to east in our lifetimes. Go figure!
I didn't know that about the swine either, but I don't think our local deli carries $40 ham sandwiches, so that high end pork must be going somewhere else in the country. Maybe the oil barons are buying it with the money they save by not having to ship all that western oil to the East. You think?
I have heard about the apparent migration of various species from south to north over the years, not to be confused with the annual migrations both ways that take place in the spring and fall. There's probably some truth to that one too because we never used to have possums this far north, but now we do. On the other hand, we have seen whitetail deer extend their range from north to south and coyotes extend their range from west to east in our lifetimes. Go figure!
Sweet and sour
The fact that the US is both an importer and exporter of oil struck me as counter intuitive so a little digging was in order. In simplest terms, oil comes in two flavors, sweet and sour. Sweet oil is low in sulfur and is easier to refine into gasoline and diesel fuel; this is the kind of oil that Texas and Oklahoma are known for and demands a higher price than the sour oil which has higher levels of sulfur. Oil from the Middle East is predominantly sour and although cheaper than the sweet oil requires more expensive and elaborate refining facilities. You can get gasoline and diesel fuel out of it but I think its greatest utility is in producing plastics and other petrochemical compounds. It's not the shell game I thought it was.
This led me to another thing that the US both exports and imports: swine. Why should we import pigs when we can produce so many that we can export them? Like oil, not all pigs are created equal. The really good pork products are coming from Europe where it is less likely that the pigs are genetically modified or are exposed to hormones and antibiotics, common practices in the US. The price differentials are astounding; 3 ounces of sliced Spanish Jamón Ibérico is $40 according to a site I found online. We're talking a fifty dollar ham sandwich, folks; a little out of my price range. But it must be spectacular as there is no shortage of customers. I wonder what the bacon tastes like; it would be very sad if I couldn't tell the difference between it and Oscar Mayer.
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More news on the bug front...thanks to global warming, some insects are moving north. A new fly, formerly found only in the southern states, has been discovered in Indiana. Next stop, Michigan?
This led me to another thing that the US both exports and imports: swine. Why should we import pigs when we can produce so many that we can export them? Like oil, not all pigs are created equal. The really good pork products are coming from Europe where it is less likely that the pigs are genetically modified or are exposed to hormones and antibiotics, common practices in the US. The price differentials are astounding; 3 ounces of sliced Spanish Jamón Ibérico is $40 according to a site I found online. We're talking a fifty dollar ham sandwich, folks; a little out of my price range. But it must be spectacular as there is no shortage of customers. I wonder what the bacon tastes like; it would be very sad if I couldn't tell the difference between it and Oscar Mayer.
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More news on the bug front...thanks to global warming, some insects are moving north. A new fly, formerly found only in the southern states, has been discovered in Indiana. Next stop, Michigan?
Friday, October 19, 2018
A Little Help For Our Friends
I don't think there are any good guys in the Middle East except maybe Israel, and we hardly ever hear about Israel anymore. The U.S. originally got involved there to help Israel because there are lots of Jews in the U.S. This angered the Muslims who retaliated by cutting off our oil back in he 70s. The oil was ultimately restored, but those guys are still mad at us and seem to have forgotten all about Israel. I don't know why we need their stinking oil anyway, since half of the oil produced in the U.S. gets exported. This is not so different from the way we got involved in Vietnam. We originally went in there to help out our French allies, the French bailed, and we were left holding the bag. I'm not sure how Saudi Arabia became our ally, but I think it had something to do with their oil which, as I said, we don't need. I agree that the U.S. shouldn't be involved in every rinky dink conflict in every rinky dink country all over the world, but I don't think we should wait until we are attacked to look out for our own best interests. There must be happy medium somewhere, but I don't know where it is, or if anybody is even looking for it.
I didn't say that I believed in the Trinity, I was just trying to explain the logic behind it. I seem to remember this discussion started out with Uncle Ken asking me a question about the Bible, but now I don't remember what that question was. No matter, just because I know a little more about the Bible than the average guy doesn't mean I believe every word that's in it. As I have said in the past, the Bible is a collection of history, mythology, poetry, and creative story telling. Whether or not you believe in it, it's an important part of our literary and cultural heritage.
Although those syndicated columnists all have a home paper that they work for, they appear in lots of papers all over the country. Our local paper prints a decent balance of liberal and conservative columnists on different days of the week. They only have one opinion page, so there wouldn't be room to print all of them at once.
I didn't say that I believed in the Trinity, I was just trying to explain the logic behind it. I seem to remember this discussion started out with Uncle Ken asking me a question about the Bible, but now I don't remember what that question was. No matter, just because I know a little more about the Bible than the average guy doesn't mean I believe every word that's in it. As I have said in the past, the Bible is a collection of history, mythology, poetry, and creative story telling. Whether or not you believe in it, it's an important part of our literary and cultural heritage.
Although those syndicated columnists all have a home paper that they work for, they appear in lots of papers all over the country. Our local paper prints a decent balance of liberal and conservative columnists on different days of the week. They only have one opinion page, so there wouldn't be room to print all of them at once.
Can't tell the good guys from the bad guys
It figures. As soon as I mention a drastic decline in the insect population I read about an infestation of a new invasive species making a mess of things in the eastern US. This time the culprit is the spotted laternfly, a species native to China, India, and Vietnam. Hmmm...aren't two of those countries run by the Commie Red Menace? Maybe that's the secret plan of the Chinese to gain world domination; screw spending all that dough on military hardware. They'll simply slip a few nasty bugs in a shipping container on its way to Walmart and let Mother Nature do the rest, a modern take on the old Chinese practice of "death by a thousand cuts."
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The "forever war" article I linked to didn't seem to be overtly biased to me but that's just the way I read it. Different things popped out to me than what Mr. Beagles took from the article. The AI implications aside, what struck me was this passage:
With a military budget larger than that of China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, France, Britain and Japan combined, and some 800 bases around the world, the US has an abundance of firepower and an unparalleled ability to deploy that firepower anywhere on the planet.
So, what's the plan? We have all this stuff so we might as well use it? I'm all for national defense, the key word being defense. The US was in and out of WW2 in less than five years and here we are now, still dicking around in the Middle East after more than seventeen years with not much to show for it. We do not know how to win the conflicts we are engaged in and are bogged down in local religious and clan/tribal rivalries. American foreign policy seems to be "keep stepping in shit." Maybe, as Mr. Beagles says, we should be going after the bad guys but do we even know who the bad guys are or what they want? They seem to be a lot of local nobodies who become leaders whenever there is a vacancy. And we shouldn't forget that a lot of those bad guys got started when the US supported the Mujahideen when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. The idea of "unintended consequences" comes to mind.
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I don't know if the Khashoggi business will tear things open regarding Saudi Arabia, but I hope so. The Saudis are bad actors but the US made a deal with devil long ago and now we're stuck. I don't know exactly what the US interest in Yemen is and at this point I'm afraid to ask. And as long as the US keeps supporting autocratic and hostile regimes like Saudi Arabia I don't think we can call ourselves the "good guys" any more. Is it all about the money, we buy their oil and they buy our weapons and that's all there is to it? Sometimes I wonder.
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The "forever war" article I linked to didn't seem to be overtly biased to me but that's just the way I read it. Different things popped out to me than what Mr. Beagles took from the article. The AI implications aside, what struck me was this passage:
With a military budget larger than that of China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, France, Britain and Japan combined, and some 800 bases around the world, the US has an abundance of firepower and an unparalleled ability to deploy that firepower anywhere on the planet.
So, what's the plan? We have all this stuff so we might as well use it? I'm all for national defense, the key word being defense. The US was in and out of WW2 in less than five years and here we are now, still dicking around in the Middle East after more than seventeen years with not much to show for it. We do not know how to win the conflicts we are engaged in and are bogged down in local religious and clan/tribal rivalries. American foreign policy seems to be "keep stepping in shit." Maybe, as Mr. Beagles says, we should be going after the bad guys but do we even know who the bad guys are or what they want? They seem to be a lot of local nobodies who become leaders whenever there is a vacancy. And we shouldn't forget that a lot of those bad guys got started when the US supported the Mujahideen when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. The idea of "unintended consequences" comes to mind.
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I don't know if the Khashoggi business will tear things open regarding Saudi Arabia, but I hope so. The Saudis are bad actors but the US made a deal with devil long ago and now we're stuck. I don't know exactly what the US interest in Yemen is and at this point I'm afraid to ask. And as long as the US keeps supporting autocratic and hostile regimes like Saudi Arabia I don't think we can call ourselves the "good guys" any more. Is it all about the money, we buy their oil and they buy our weapons and that's all there is to it? Sometimes I wonder.
the red and the blue
Right, a tautology would be an honest man does not tell lies, and a false tautology would be just because a man tells a lot of lies that doesn't mean he isn't honest. Just common sense really, but a nice word and it kind of marks the spot where you are getting into circular logic. That Theissan article appeared in the Trib yesterday even though he is a NYT columnist.. WTF? Well that's the way it works these days. In the good old days you could look forward to seeing say George Will every Wednesday. Anymore you get whoever the paper picks out of the grab bag, and since they never pick the same guy very often they are all strangers, so it's not like hearing the opinion of somebody you know.
George Will is well-known at the moment because he has urged voters to vote for democrats to rid the nation of the current pestilence. I never liked the guy because he was quite conservative, but I always read him because he had something to say, he wasn't just reading from the talking points. Anymore columnists seem to divide into two camps each one parroting the party line.
The thing is way back when I was reading the fat tabloid Sun-Times on the bus to Gage Park both parties were made up of liberals and conservatives. It seemed a little odd to me at the time, shouldn't all the conservatives be in one and all the liberals in the other, shouldn't political parties have ideologies like in Europe? It seemed more logical. Be careful what you wish for.
I'm going to back to LBJ and the voting rights act. He said at the time that he knew he was losing the south for democrats, and so it came to pass. Those southern dems were loathsome racists, so there was no great loss. Well except for votes, which now all went to the republicans. This was quickly noted by sly Tricky Dick with his southern strategy, which abandoned the liberal reps in the northeast, ceding that region to the dems, and in the present day we have only a few blue dogs among the dems. On the moderate side we thought we had Collins and Murkowski, but now it appears there is only Murkowski.
I would have thought that Beagles, understanding tautology, would have turned his back on the Three in One, but those trinitarians are hard nuts to crack, as the Arians learned much to their regret on the battlefield fifteen hundred years ago.
George Will is well-known at the moment because he has urged voters to vote for democrats to rid the nation of the current pestilence. I never liked the guy because he was quite conservative, but I always read him because he had something to say, he wasn't just reading from the talking points. Anymore columnists seem to divide into two camps each one parroting the party line.
The thing is way back when I was reading the fat tabloid Sun-Times on the bus to Gage Park both parties were made up of liberals and conservatives. It seemed a little odd to me at the time, shouldn't all the conservatives be in one and all the liberals in the other, shouldn't political parties have ideologies like in Europe? It seemed more logical. Be careful what you wish for.
I'm going to back to LBJ and the voting rights act. He said at the time that he knew he was losing the south for democrats, and so it came to pass. Those southern dems were loathsome racists, so there was no great loss. Well except for votes, which now all went to the republicans. This was quickly noted by sly Tricky Dick with his southern strategy, which abandoned the liberal reps in the northeast, ceding that region to the dems, and in the present day we have only a few blue dogs among the dems. On the moderate side we thought we had Collins and Murkowski, but now it appears there is only Murkowski.
I would have thought that Beagles, understanding tautology, would have turned his back on the Three in One, but those trinitarians are hard nuts to crack, as the Arians learned much to their regret on the battlefield fifteen hundred years ago.
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Tautology?
I had to look that one up, and I'm still not sure that I know what it means. One definition that I found is "a statement that is necessarily true" and another definition is "a redundant statement". It occurred to me that the statement "a rose is a rose" might satisfy both definitions, but I still might be missing something.
Anyway even if he did say he was the Son of God He never claimed to be God, and obviously that was impossible since how can the son and the father be the same man. It doesn't make any sense." Of course it doesn't make any sense, which is why they had to try to make it make sense. While the Trinity is not mentioned in the Bible, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all mentioned. It seems clear that the three entities are connected in some way, but it's not so clear exactly how they are connected. The Trinity represents an attempt to reconcile the three divine beings with the concept of monotheism. The Hindus did something like that with Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, but I don't know if the Christians got the idea from them or thought it up by themselves.
I have read a little about how the books of the New Testament were selected. I understand there were other books that were considered for inclusion and rejected. Whole books have since been written about the selection process itself, but I have never read any of them.
I read an article about the Khashoggi case after signing off last night. It is my understanding that the alleged audio recording has not yet been shared with anybody, so it's very existence is doubted is some quarters. Nevertheless, other evidence has been piling up and the investigation is ongoing. Like I said, I'm sure they will get to the bottom if it sooner or later.
"No matter how irritating a mosquito is I don't believe you ever give up and become her slave."
Indeed you do not! You slap the shit out of her and, if there's more of them than you can handle with your bare hands, you break out the Raid.
Anyway even if he did say he was the Son of God He never claimed to be God, and obviously that was impossible since how can the son and the father be the same man. It doesn't make any sense." Of course it doesn't make any sense, which is why they had to try to make it make sense. While the Trinity is not mentioned in the Bible, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all mentioned. It seems clear that the three entities are connected in some way, but it's not so clear exactly how they are connected. The Trinity represents an attempt to reconcile the three divine beings with the concept of monotheism. The Hindus did something like that with Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, but I don't know if the Christians got the idea from them or thought it up by themselves.
I have read a little about how the books of the New Testament were selected. I understand there were other books that were considered for inclusion and rejected. Whole books have since been written about the selection process itself, but I have never read any of them.
I read an article about the Khashoggi case after signing off last night. It is my understanding that the alleged audio recording has not yet been shared with anybody, so it's very existence is doubted is some quarters. Nevertheless, other evidence has been piling up and the investigation is ongoing. Like I said, I'm sure they will get to the bottom if it sooner or later.
"No matter how irritating a mosquito is I don't believe you ever give up and become her slave."
Indeed you do not! You slap the shit out of her and, if there's more of them than you can handle with your bare hands, you break out the Raid.
but what about tautologies?
Of course the term trinity is not mentioned in the bible, the whole concept did not exist until that council around 400 AD. In the Old Testament there was never anybody but Jehovah and so there was no confusion about Who was Boss. Jesus doesn't show up until the New Testament. and I may be on shaky ground but I don't believe Jesus ever said he was the son of God. Okay a little internet research reveals that he never actually said so in so many words. I'm beginning to dislike that phrase it's open to pretty open interpretation. My opponent never said he was going to tax you to death and sell your wives and daughters to ISIS in so many words. Anyway even if he did say he was the Son of God He never claimed to be God, and obviously that was impossible since how can the son and the father be the same man. It doesn't make any sense.
I wonder if Beagles has ever studied the early history of the church, like when they decided what gets into the New Testament and what doesn't ?
Khashoggi went to the embassy to get some paperwork for his impending wedding. He felt pretty safe because who murders somebody in their embassy in another country? He was wearing one of those Apple watches (remember them?) and his betrothed outside was able to record the grisly proceedings.
I didn't read the forever war article, but I wonder if the author gives credit to Orwell for bringing up the subject in 1984. And of course the current war on terrorism is a forever war because how could we ever run out of people we call terrorists?
Beagles sez Yeah, war sucks but, as long as there are bad guys in the world, we've got to do it. The alternative is unconditional surrender, which seems to endorse forever war since we will certainly never run out of bad guys. I wonder about the term unconditional surrender though. I don't believe the idea that the USA would ever surrender to the Taliban or ISIS or whomever was ever in the cards. No matter how irritating a mosquito is I don't believe you ever give up and become her slave.
I wonder if Beagles has ever studied the early history of the church, like when they decided what gets into the New Testament and what doesn't ?
Khashoggi went to the embassy to get some paperwork for his impending wedding. He felt pretty safe because who murders somebody in their embassy in another country? He was wearing one of those Apple watches (remember them?) and his betrothed outside was able to record the grisly proceedings.
I didn't read the forever war article, but I wonder if the author gives credit to Orwell for bringing up the subject in 1984. And of course the current war on terrorism is a forever war because how could we ever run out of people we call terrorists?
Beagles sez Yeah, war sucks but, as long as there are bad guys in the world, we've got to do it. The alternative is unconditional surrender, which seems to endorse forever war since we will certainly never run out of bad guys. I wonder about the term unconditional surrender though. I don't believe the idea that the USA would ever surrender to the Taliban or ISIS or whomever was ever in the cards. No matter how irritating a mosquito is I don't believe you ever give up and become her slave.
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Plenty of Bugs in Beaglesonia
I don't know about the rest of the world, but we've still got plenty of bugs in Beaglesonia. Of course it's not the same every year. Insects, like other wildlife, experience cyclical fluctuations in population. One year there might an unusual amount of mosquitoes, another year it might be houseflies or deerflies. This summer there seemed to be a profusion of monarch butterflies around the house, and I understand they have been getting scarce in other parts of the country. One year, I believe it was 1989, three different species of caterpillars surged at once and practically defoliated the forests in neighboring Emmet County. They all turned into moths in mid summer, and the trees were back to normal by fall.
I haven't been following the Khashoggi case very closely. I understand that this guy was seen entering the Saudi embassy and not seen coming out, so they figure that he was murdered in there. Investigations are being conducted as we speak, so I'm sure somebody will get to the bottom of it eventually. What I don't know is why he went into that embassy in the first place. I'll have to check my news feed later and brush up on the details before I can discuss it intelligently.
That "forever war" story sounds kind of biased to me. It has an anti war, anti military, anti rich people, and anti U.S. flavor to it that is reminiscent of the old Ban the Bomb movement back in the 60s. I'll say the same thing I said back in the day: Yeah, war sucks but, as long as there are bad guys in the world, we've got to do it. The alternative is unconditional surrender, which would put us at the mercy of the bad guys, and that would suck even more.
As Old Dog said, there are lots of references to the Holy Spirit in the Bible. We always called it "Holy Spirit" at Elsdon, but I understand that some denominations still use the old fashioned term "Holy Ghost". I don't believe, however, that the term "Holy Trinity" is used in the Bible, so that might be the one that was invented back in the three digit years.
I think the reason that the Bible doesn't make a point of identifying God as male is that His gender was never questioned at the time. Everybody knew that God was male, and that was that.
I haven't been following the Khashoggi case very closely. I understand that this guy was seen entering the Saudi embassy and not seen coming out, so they figure that he was murdered in there. Investigations are being conducted as we speak, so I'm sure somebody will get to the bottom of it eventually. What I don't know is why he went into that embassy in the first place. I'll have to check my news feed later and brush up on the details before I can discuss it intelligently.
That "forever war" story sounds kind of biased to me. It has an anti war, anti military, anti rich people, and anti U.S. flavor to it that is reminiscent of the old Ban the Bomb movement back in the 60s. I'll say the same thing I said back in the day: Yeah, war sucks but, as long as there are bad guys in the world, we've got to do it. The alternative is unconditional surrender, which would put us at the mercy of the bad guys, and that would suck even more.
As Old Dog said, there are lots of references to the Holy Spirit in the Bible. We always called it "Holy Spirit" at Elsdon, but I understand that some denominations still use the old fashioned term "Holy Ghost". I don't believe, however, that the term "Holy Trinity" is used in the Bible, so that might be the one that was invented back in the three digit years.
I think the reason that the Bible doesn't make a point of identifying God as male is that His gender was never questioned at the time. Everybody knew that God was male, and that was that.
Bugs in the system
The holy ghost is nowhere in the bible because he wasn't invented until like the fourth century AD...
Technically correct; the Bible doesn't use the word "ghost" but references to the Spirit or Holy Spirit abound, and I'll leave it at that.
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I had another interesting computer experience today and I hope it isn't part of a trend. For reasons unknown, the password for my e-mail account no longer worked. It was one of the passwords that my browser (Firefox) remembered and I never had problems before; it was working fine less than eight hours earlier. Maybe it's just one of those "things" like Mr. Beagles has encountered with Google but it's a pain in the ass. I lucked out this time with a productive live-chat session with one of the minions from AT&T and was able to reset the password with no further issues but now I have another password to forget and a new one to remember although I do write the passwords down. My collection of passwords is growing, more than twenty now, but most are for accounts I haven't used in years. Better safe than sorry.
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There was a recent article about the decline of the insect population in certain parts of the world and I wonder if Mr. Beagles has noticed anything similar in the realm of Beaglesonia. Does it seem like there are fewer bugs than when he first moved into the area?
The implications of a decline in the insect population are profound; insects are near the bottom of the food chain and everything further up will be affected, starting with birds and small mammals. We could be in for a rough ride, with Mother Nature having the last laugh.
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I was happy to see that The Death of Stalin was well received by Uncle Ken; for a while I was beginning to doubt my taste in films. Its historical accuracy surprised me, at least according to a 1953 dispatch from a New York Times correspondent who was in Moscow at the time. It's a good read and fleshes out the context a bit.
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AI is a subject that hasn't gained much traction in this forum despite my efforts but that's okay. We don't always like discussing the same things and I'm fine with that although for me, politics and religion are getting a little old. Having said that, how do you guys feel about a forever war?
Technically correct; the Bible doesn't use the word "ghost" but references to the Spirit or Holy Spirit abound, and I'll leave it at that.
-----
I had another interesting computer experience today and I hope it isn't part of a trend. For reasons unknown, the password for my e-mail account no longer worked. It was one of the passwords that my browser (Firefox) remembered and I never had problems before; it was working fine less than eight hours earlier. Maybe it's just one of those "things" like Mr. Beagles has encountered with Google but it's a pain in the ass. I lucked out this time with a productive live-chat session with one of the minions from AT&T and was able to reset the password with no further issues but now I have another password to forget and a new one to remember although I do write the passwords down. My collection of passwords is growing, more than twenty now, but most are for accounts I haven't used in years. Better safe than sorry.
-----
There was a recent article about the decline of the insect population in certain parts of the world and I wonder if Mr. Beagles has noticed anything similar in the realm of Beaglesonia. Does it seem like there are fewer bugs than when he first moved into the area?
The implications of a decline in the insect population are profound; insects are near the bottom of the food chain and everything further up will be affected, starting with birds and small mammals. We could be in for a rough ride, with Mother Nature having the last laugh.
-----
I was happy to see that The Death of Stalin was well received by Uncle Ken; for a while I was beginning to doubt my taste in films. Its historical accuracy surprised me, at least according to a 1953 dispatch from a New York Times correspondent who was in Moscow at the time. It's a good read and fleshes out the context a bit.
-----
AI is a subject that hasn't gained much traction in this forum despite my efforts but that's okay. We don't always like discussing the same things and I'm fine with that although for me, politics and religion are getting a little old. Having said that, how do you guys feel about a forever war?
shooting widows and orphans on State Street in broad daylight
It seems to me that if the bible doesn't say something in so many words, it doesn't say it. The male pronoun doesn't cut anything for me. If we, in these enlightened times can call a girl a third baseman, how can we insist that folks wandering around in the desert got their pronouns perfectly correct?
The holy ghost is nowhere in the bible because he wasn't invented until like the fourth century AD in one of those councils they held to hammer out how to get their story straight and decide who to persecute as heretics. The old Jesus as a breath mint or a candy mint was raging and three was a lucky number so they tossed in the holy ghost and got the trinity.
On to politics. There was a minor blip last week about Jared Kushner paying no taxes and his defenders claimed he did nothing illegal, he was just obeying the law. Well who wrote the laws whereby the rich skate on taxes? Republicans who got into office by the donations of rich guys who wanted them to write bills so they could skate on taxes. Just wanted to say that.
This Khashoggi case is a variant of Trump's claim that he could shoot a man in broad daylight on Fifth Avenune and skate (kind of like that expression, skate). Here we have a pal of his who had an enemy killed and cut into pieces, practically in plain sight and who will likely skate, There is some cock and bull story about an accident during interrogation (an accident during interrogation like if one of those nasty dems who brutalized saintly Kavanaugh sneezed and the dagger in their suit coat pocket flew across the room and into the pure heart of the poor blameless victim, but that story has so far refused to grow legs. A few noble reps in the senate, notably that squishy squealing Lindsey, have expressed their disdain at the bloody hands, but expect that to quickly fade in the face of Trumpian winds.
And now the reps are discovering to their great shock that slashing taxes on the rich did not shrink the deficit, indeed it is soaring like a hawk. Actually it always soars like a hawk under the reps (tea party hah, what a bunch of toothless ranting idiots), but this is more than they usually blow it up. One solution would be to make the richie riches pay their share, but Ninja Mutant McConnell now wisely counsels let's take it from the entitlements, from the widows and orphans, after all there are so many of them and rep policies are making more every passing day.
The holy ghost is nowhere in the bible because he wasn't invented until like the fourth century AD in one of those councils they held to hammer out how to get their story straight and decide who to persecute as heretics. The old Jesus as a breath mint or a candy mint was raging and three was a lucky number so they tossed in the holy ghost and got the trinity.
On to politics. There was a minor blip last week about Jared Kushner paying no taxes and his defenders claimed he did nothing illegal, he was just obeying the law. Well who wrote the laws whereby the rich skate on taxes? Republicans who got into office by the donations of rich guys who wanted them to write bills so they could skate on taxes. Just wanted to say that.
This Khashoggi case is a variant of Trump's claim that he could shoot a man in broad daylight on Fifth Avenune and skate (kind of like that expression, skate). Here we have a pal of his who had an enemy killed and cut into pieces, practically in plain sight and who will likely skate, There is some cock and bull story about an accident during interrogation (an accident during interrogation like if one of those nasty dems who brutalized saintly Kavanaugh sneezed and the dagger in their suit coat pocket flew across the room and into the pure heart of the poor blameless victim, but that story has so far refused to grow legs. A few noble reps in the senate, notably that squishy squealing Lindsey, have expressed their disdain at the bloody hands, but expect that to quickly fade in the face of Trumpian winds.
And now the reps are discovering to their great shock that slashing taxes on the rich did not shrink the deficit, indeed it is soaring like a hawk. Actually it always soars like a hawk under the reps (tea party hah, what a bunch of toothless ranting idiots), but this is more than they usually blow it up. One solution would be to make the richie riches pay their share, but Ninja Mutant McConnell now wisely counsels let's take it from the entitlements, from the widows and orphans, after all there are so many of them and rep policies are making more every passing day.
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