Feb 04 2024

Sunday Miscellany – 2/4/2024

It’s been a killer couple of weeks.

My husband took a tumble down the front stairs on January 23 – put his foot on an icy spot, and his left leg folded under him. He tore his quad, necessitating a trip to the ER (which sent him home after x-rays), and – after a follow-up visit to the orthopedic guy – was sent to the ER again, this time to be admitted to the hospital.

They did an MRI, decided to do surgery, and, by Friday, he was groggy, but repaired. He stayed until Tuesday, when he was discharged to a skilled nursing facility for rehab.

The first couple of days were tough, both mentally and physically. Unfortunately, such places also have a lot of old people, who are NOT going to be leaving. It was hard for him, as he had never thought of himself as old. But, after some PT, and some work – on his part, and that of the nursing staff – he is beginning to be able to stand with support of a walker, move from bed to wheelchair, and then to bathroom, and maneuver himself to a seated position with his legs dangling.

Small progress, but important. He is improving at an accelerating pace.

Now, if he would just stop complaining about the food…

It’s meant that I am the only one at home. I have to tend to the dog’s needs, maintain the house, drive back and forth for visits with him, pay the bills, and prepare for the roof replacement this Tuesday. Good timing!

The up side of the work, is, first, we will have no more leaks when it rains. And, second, by replacing the metal roof with a shingle one, I will be able to get my radio equipment back in operation. I’m really looking forward to that.

The accident could have been worse. He is expected to make a full recovery. It does seem, though, that every time we start to have our life settle down, another crisis hits.

Feb 04 2024

A Unique Variety Of Solitude

     It’s not that long ago that I wrote:

     “The worst” is the noise. The perpetual din. The endless screaming, wailing, moaning, hectoring, begging, and cursing. The ceaseless demands from politicians. The carping from the unsatisfied. The orations of the world-savers. The unending gimme gimme gimme of those who want something they can’t get for themselves and will never realize that no amount of free stuff will make them happy. And of course, the “media” of all varieties, every one of which insists that we must all stay right-up-to-the-minute on What’s Happening Now. Yes, including the bloody Internet.

     The great need of our time is silence. We’re starved for it. The din is making us crazy. We’re unable to cope with its relentlessness. And the greatest of all ironies is that in nearly every case, we collaborate in our own deprivation.

     I felt it again, at maximum intensity, as I rose and prepared to confront the day.

***

     A couple of “of course” statements for you:
     If your world is not silent, you are under pressure to speak – to join the din.
     If you comply, you forfeit the possibility of interior silence.
     Prayer requires interior silence.

     You already knew all that, didn’t you? Some don’t. Some would be surprised by it. Some, in their surprise, would become indignant. Ironically, the most common indignant reaction is “Don’t you think I know that?” Feel free to chuckle.

     God will not join our conversations with others. He won’t even speak to us if we’re muttering to ourselves. He insists on our absolute, uncompromised attention. The Creator of all things considers His will important enough that it not be asked to compete with any other signal. The requirement for silence follows naturally. But silence is becoming an ever more elusive quality.

     If you’ve been having trouble praying, or have suspected that your prayers are mere rote exercises with no true significance, a deficit of silence might be the explanation.

***

     It was once the custom for a Catholic family to establish an oratory — a small room for prayer and spiritual meditation – somewhere in its home. By custom, one using the oratory was not to be disturbed for anything non-urgent. (“Urgent” in this application does not mean “you’re about to miss your favorite show.”) Oratories are less common today for various reasons, including the diminished size of family homes. Yet they were a significant practice, in that they recognized that one of the keys to achieving silence is solitude.

     When we’re with others, we tend to fill the air with sound. It might be conversation, or music, or the sort of sound generated by other activities. Whatever the case, it eliminates all possibility of silence. While it’s not always possible to achieve silence after the others have departed, solitude is a necessary precondition.

     If you want to talk to God, and to have some possibility that He will participate in the conversation, you should be alone. Perhaps that isn’t always the case. Perhaps you can attain that quality of silence if those around you will cooperate. The Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, which is supposed to be a silent observation, might be a valuable exception. Yet I’ve seen the world’s din intrude on that practice on several occasions, usually through a cell phone.

     If you want to pray, for best results – a phrase I cringe to have written – get yourself away from others.

***

     Why this subject today? I’m not sure. It seemed important. I’ve often protested the storm of noise around me. It’s been much easier to attain silence these past nine years: i.e., since I retired from wage labor. I pity those who, immersed in the din, have little opportunity to experience true solitude and true silence.

     But there is this as well: the din can be addictive. One soaked in it for a sufficient time can come to feel that he “needs” it, though the reason isn’t always comprehensible. Perhaps it reinforces his awareness that he’s not dead yet. Perhaps he fears to be alone with his thoughts. Or perhaps – shudder — he fears to be alone with God.

     These are even more pitiable than those for whom silence is impossible owing to their necessities and surroundings.

     There’s no Last Graf but this: If you’re feeling beleaguered and beset, silence might be what you need. Try it; it’s a lot cheaper than Xanax. (Also, it doesn’t require a prescription.) Find yourself a place where you can shut out the din. Don’t bring anything with you that could intrude on the silence. When you have succeeded in nullifying the clamor of the world, try this: Become internally silent. Don’t contemplate any of your needs or plans. Don’t allow anyone else’s voice in your head. Sit, or kneel, and allow all of it to drain away, just for a little while.

     Perhaps God will speak to you. If He does, you’ll know; trust me on that. And as the Psalmist exhorts us, “If today you hear His voice, harden not your heart.” For He is Love, and “he who dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”

     May God bless and keep you all.

Feb 04 2024

Property And Security

     First, I found this at Moonbattery:

     …and then I was reminded of this bit of insight, courtesy of WRSA:

     What if the Federal Government grossly violated the Constitution? Could states withdraw from the Union? Lincoln said no. The Union was “indissoluble” unless all the states agreed to dissolve it. As a practical matter, the Civil War settled that. The United States, plural, were really a single enormous state, as witness the new habit of speaking of “it” rather than “them.”
     So the people are bound to obey the government even when the rulers betray their oath to uphold the Constitution. The door to escape is barred. Lincoln in effect claimed that it is not our rights but the state that is “unalienable.” And he made it stick by force of arms. No transgression of the Constitution can impair the Union’s inherited legitimacy. Once established on specific and limited terms, the U.S. Government is forever, even if it refuses to abide by those terms.
     As [philosopher Hans Hermann] Hoppe argues, this is the flaw in thinking the state can be controlled by a constitution. Once granted, state power naturally becomes absolute. Obedience is a one-way street. Notionally, “We the People” create a government and specify the powers it is allowed to exercise over us; our rulers swear before God that they will respect the limits we impose on them; but when they trample down those limits, our duty to obey them remains.

     The original American Revolution was a war in defense of the colonists’ property rights. Keep that firmly in mind. Gouverneur Morris, one of the Framers of the Constitution, said quite baldly that “Men don’t unite for life or liberty. They unite for the protection of property.” And the State, whatever form it takes or guise it wears, must violate property rights in order to exist at all.

     So: If Archbishop Sheen is correct about the indispensability of property rights to freedom (I say he is), and Joseph Sobran is correct that once conceded authority, the State cannot be restrained no matter by what method (I agree with him, too), then the question of the hour becomes:

Are property rights more secure under a government,
Or in the absence of government:
i.e., in a state of anarchy?

     Just one of those thoughts.

Feb 03 2024

Simple Contexts, Simple Logic

     It doesn’t take long for the observant student of economics to realize that the whole field is about incentives, disincentives, and human decision-making within their grip. There’s the Law of Supply and Demand, the Law of Diminishing Marginal Value, and Coase’s Theorem. All else is about particular cases and exceptions that, largely, prove not to be exceptions at all.

     Those laws are so comprehensive that to make a name in economics as an original scholar takes some damned hard thought. Indeed, their universality led the late, great Ludwig von Mises to propose an uber-law, the axiom of human action:

     Praxeology rests on the fundamental axiom that individual human beings act, that is, on the primordial fact that individuals engage in conscious actions toward chosen goals. This concept of action contrasts to purely reflexive, or knee-jerk, behavior, which is not directed toward goals. The praxeological method spins out by verbal deduction the logical implications of that primordial fact. In short, praxeological economics is the structure of logical implications of the fact that individuals act. This structure is built on the fundamental axiom of action, and has a few subsidiary axioms, such as that individuals vary and that human beings regard leisure as a valuable good. Any skeptic about deducing from such a simple base an entire system of economics, I refer to Mises’s Human Action. Furthermore, since praxeology begins with a true axiom, A, all the propositions that can be deduced from this axiom must also be true. For if A implies B, and A is true, then B must also be true.

     That axiom has been making “professional” economists weep and swear for several decades. For the sphere of the “professional” economist is not economics per se, but what’s usually called political economy:

     Political economy is the study of production and trade and their relations with law, custom and government; and with the distribution of national income and wealth.

     The 800-pound gorilla in the room, which endlessly meddles with the incentives and disincentives that pertain to human decisions, is the State. What the State forces upon its subjects will naturally alter the context in which they pursue their desires. Inversely, what the State permits its favored ones to get away with will also alter that context – sometimes fatally.

     For example, we have a corporation, Walgreens, which has been so badly beset by legally protected shoplifting that it’s been closing outlets where such theft is rampant. Theft has been rampant in Roxbury, Massachusetts, a majority-black district of Boston. As of today, there are no Walgreens open in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and “Squad” member Ayanna Pressley is furious about it:

     Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley has condemned Walgreens for ‘racial and economic discrimination’ after closing a pharmacy in Boston.
     Pressley, a member of the ultra-progressive ‘Squad’, said the chain was ‘abandoning’ low-income communities with the most recent closing in Roxbury on Wednesday.
     Walgreens announced the closure of several stores nationwide due to what the company has described as ‘rampant theft’ in some areas.
     Pressley said this decision targets areas with significant minority populations, calling for the company to reconsider their decision instead.
     In a speech addressing the house, she said: ‘This closure is a part of a larger trend of abandoning low-income communities like the previous closures in Mattapan and Hyde Park, both in the Massachusetts 7th.

     Yet the economics of the Roxbury context is particularly straightforward: rampant shoplifting is not penalized in Roxbury. A store, the local presence of a commercial concern, cannot tolerate unlimited losses to shoplifters, no matter what their race or ethnicity. Corporate management will not permit it. For the sake of completeness, neither would a family-owned business.

     But Roxbury is majority-black. So Ayanna Pressley shouts “racism,” and gets a respectful hearing from the ignorant, the diehard “progressives,” and the black race-hustlers who are always on the lookout for a new cudgel to wield.

     The great tragedy here is not ignorance, for that can be remedied. Indeed, take any “progressive,” and subject him to a simple test case:

     “Imagine along with me for a moment. Let’s say you’re the owner of a general store in a particular district. Let’s say further that in that district, the cops refuse to arrest shoplifters and the courts refuse to try and convict them. As a result, the rate of shoplifting has gotten so high that your store loses money every day. The losses are about to drive you out of business. What would you do?”

     In a couple of short, simple sentences, you’ve eliminated the ignorance factor. You’ve reduced the situation to a personal one with clear incentives and disincentives. But what would that “progressive” reply to your hypothetical question?

     If he’s a relatively polite progressive – yes, there are some – he’d probably say “I don’t bother with hypothetical scenarios. We’ve got to deal with the real world case before us. After all, there are people hurting.” If he’s other than polite, he’d do what Ayanna Pressley did: he’d call you a racist, insensitive to the “special needs” of “minority communities.”

     Such deliberate dismissal of the facts is common on the Left. Leftists don’t accept the laws of economics – or any other observable patterns that militate against their preferences. Their minds are impervious to the power of incentives and disincentives. For example, a young acquaintance once admonished me that if my house were to start losing value because of an influx of black families to my neighborhood, with the crime and disorder that usually follows them, it would be my “moral duty” to remain in it. If you haven’t faced such abuse, you’re either very young or have led a remarkably sheltered life.

     But the laws of economics are as inviolable, long term, as the laws of physics. They will not change as long as human beings behave according to Von Mises’s axiom of action. And no amount of tutelage in such things will change “progressives’” minds…short of finding themselves on the receiving end, that is.

     Until the polities of Boston and Massachusetts once more prosecute all theft, including shoplifting, with the full enforcement power of the law, conditions will remain as they are: i.e., no Walgreens in Roxbury. The incentives and disincentives determine that inexorably. It simply won’t matter that the residents would greatly prefer it to be otherwise. Neither will the color of their skins.

     Have a nice day.

Feb 03 2024

Groundhog Day Backlash?

     Seventy-two years now, and I still fail to understand how things become a big deal in our public discourse.

     “What’s the old bat talking about now?” I hear you mumble. For the first time in many a moon, I find that I must disagree with a Liberty’s Torch Co-Conspirator. Apparently, our beloved Ragin’ Dave has a problem with that most inoffensive of our popular observances, Groundhog Day. And so I find that I must rise to its defense.

     Groundhog Day isn’t “made up.” It’s actually a combination of an old British farmers’ tradition with the Catholic holiday of Candlemas, on which we commemorate Mary’s presentation of the newborn Christ Child to the priests in the temple at Jerusalem:

     And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord;
     (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;)
     And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.
     And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
     And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him.
     And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;
     (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

     [Luke 2:22-35]

     Also, British farmers used ground-dwelling rodents as meteorologists long before we started doing so here. There’s even a bit of verse about it:

Badger peeps out on Candlemas Day,
and if he finds snow, he walks away.
But if the sun is shining down,
Badger returns to his hole in the ground.

     So let’s be fair, now. “Holiday” is the wrong designation for this observance. Scrooge didn’t give Bob Cratchit a day off for Groundhog Day. No one gives presents or sends cards for Groundhog Day. No one does any marketing for Groundhog Day. People don’t rush out to buy groundhogs for their toddlers to play with (and a good thing, too). Public service messages don’t even exhort you to “be nice to your local groundhog.” I mean, yes, there’s a movie, but its relationship to the annual occasion is slight. So I wouldn’t call Groundhog Day a particularly intrusive “holiday.”

     Remember, a few years back, when the Giant Greeting Card companies tried to promote Grandmothers’ and Grandfathers’ Days? It was vital to stand foursquare against that, but Groundhog Day? I think we can tolerate this one. Though I must admit that I’m not looking forward to the lowering of flags and the national day of mourning we’ll be told to observe when Punxsutawney Phil goes to his reward.

Feb 02 2024

Phooey on your modern made up holidays

Open photo

I like ground hog! I’d even try groundhog if I could, but they’re a bit further East than I am.

Feb 02 2024

It’s amazing what happens when you enforce the law

Texas shows how it’s done

.It shouldn’t be a shock that when you enforce the laws and shut down the border, illegal criminals stop coming through. And we all know this, even the National Socialist Democrat Worker’s Party, who is now being stymied in their goal of flooding the country through mass illegal entry. Of course, we now have anywhere from thirty to fifty million illegal aliens in this country, many of whom are military aged males from countries other than Mexico. Can’t wait to see what happens when THEY decide to act.

So now the criminals are being diverted through New Mexico, Arizona and California. But that means they have to go through multiple cartel territories. They can’t just use one cartel. So the cartel up against the Texas border loses money, we will probably see cartel in-fighting, and the states with Democrat governors get exactly what they voted for. Well, not Arizona. If anyone thinks that Katie Hobbs was legitimately elected, I have some oceanfront property right next door to Phoenix that I can sell you. It’s cheap. Cash up front, no returns.

The Democrat party talking heads have been avoiding this news story like the plague, as it shows that the Biden administration has been deliberately flooding this country with criminals, rapists, drug mules, child sex traffickers and other assorted scumbags. Oh, I don’t give a shit about the “Oh, most of those people just want a better life!” Yeah, I bet they do, and they want me to pay for it. How many immigrant families are on government aid? My question is, why are ANY of them on government aid? When my great grandparents got here, if they were going on government aid they were DENIED ENTRY. The government back then knew that people cannot come to this country and start sucking off the resources that the native population has paid into, as that would remove those resources from the people WHO ACTUALLY PAID FOR THEM.

You come here and want Uncle Sugar to take care of you? Fuck you, get out. Oh, you squirted out a crotch goblin and now you want your bennies? Fuck you, get out. You come here and break the law? Fuck you, get out, unless your crime caused harm or death to and American citizen in which case you should be publicly hung, and then your corpse buried in an un-marked grave. Broadcast the executions to Univision. Let them try to show how horrible a nation we are. Sure, fine, call me horrible if you want to. “OH MY GOD DAVE, HOW COULD YOU BE SO MEAN?”

Ask the mother of the five year old girl murdered by a drunk driving illegal alien if I’m being mean.

If we actually punished these criminals, more American citizens would be alive.

And more again.

And again.

Tell me, how many American lives have to be lost before we as a people tell the virtue-signaling pro-criminal crowd to fuck off? How much further must our lives sink before we start expelling not only the illegal aliens, but those who enable them?

Call me cruel and heartless if you wish, but if I had my way, nobody would have to look into the eyes of a grieving mother and tell them that the person who murdered their babies wasn’t even supposed to be in this country.

That doesn’t even get into the human trafficking being done by the cartels, to include CHILD SEX SLAVERY. Yes, if you’re for open borders, you’re for child sex slavery, and I’ll scream it to the heavens every chance I get. Every single open borders advocate is advocating for underage girls, teenage girls, to be raped, repeatedly, multiple times a day, either beaten into submission or drugged into submission, over and over and over again. And in my book, that makes you evil.

Bravo, Texas, for showing how it’s done. Shame on everyone else who allowed this crap to continue. There is a clear line between good and evil here. It’s not a murky grey area. This isn’t a hard choice, unless you’re trying to aid and abet the cartels, enable child sex slavery, overwhelm our social systems, and destroy the country as we know it. And to those who are actually trying to do that, I hope your death is violent, painful and drawn out.

Feb 02 2024

Admirable Sentiment Du Jour

     The great leftist pronoun obsession is rooted in the idea that everyone has the right to vomit their feelings and preferences all about the place, but that others shouldn’t be allowed to offend them if they find them irritating. I don’t want to be a complete jerk, but I’m growing fonder of offending people as this attitude picks up steam. – Stephen Kruiser

     Wild applause from your racist, sexist, ableist, lookist, homophobic, Islamophobic, grammar Nazi of a Curmudgeon Emeritus: Bravo! Get yours today!

Feb 02 2024

What Has Been Said And Heard Cannot Be Unheard

     Apparently, media company iHeart Media, previously known as Clear Channel, has been erecting some “controversial billboards.” There have been a couple of stories about this already, particularly concerning billboards that proclaim that “voter fraud is a felony” – which it is. I’m a bit baffled that merely proclaiming what’s written into the black-letter law should be controversial, but our Gentle Readers know I’m an out-of-touch old dinosaur. However, the billboard I recently glimpsed is not one of those:

     Controversial? That’s a prescription that’s been well verified, supported by a great deal of research. He who finishes high school, gets and keeps a job, gets married – before producing any kids, thank you very much – and stays married will, in the absence of addiction problems, escape poverty. That is: he and his spouse will become self-supporting, no longer dependent on government largesse. Charles Murray wrote about it four decades ago in Losing Ground, which is hardly a treatise reserved to the attention of professional scholars.

     So the prescription itself can’t reasonably be called controversial. But that black woman’s face next to it…could that be the focus of the controversy?

     That’s where I’m placing my bet.

     Blacks in these United States receive government handouts disproportionately to their numbers. The disproportion is closely tied to the rate of black illegitimacy, which hovers around 70% and has done so for several decades. Black children from female-headed single-parent homes are also closely tied to other social pathologies, such as drug use, crime rates, and incarceration rates. Male black offspring of such homes have a probability of spending time in prison that approaches 100%.

     Some say it’s “culture.” Others focus on the incentives. Our Gentle Readers know my opinion. But that billboard…

     No one actually likes to be criticized. No one actually wants to be told that his choices are the reason for his condition in life. And no one actually wants to have a face representative of his “people” staring at him from a plainly critical billboard. So I suppose the controversy stands explained.

     But the message it purveys is correct: factually accurate. And American blacks are the demographic that could most benefit from it.

     Note that I said could rather than would. But possibility does not dictate eventuality. There’s that old saw about “none so blind as those that will not see,” and all the rest of it. Decade after decade of indoctrination into the cult of victimism and consequent entitlement have done their work well.

     Worse, as I must have written a hundred times by now, success breeds emulators. Those emulators need not be of the same skin color as those they seek to emulate.

     Perhaps that’s a side issue. My principal reason for setting my fingers to the keys is that billboard. Controversial? I suppose it depends on your tastes in breakfast cereal. But it remains accurate – and the people who most need to accept its wisdom, American blacks, are staunchly resistant to its message.

     The bronze-sheathed doors of the Directorate gave with a crash that no one heard. People pressed and trampled toward them to get to shelter, out from under the metal rain. They pushed by hundreds into the high halls of marble, some cowering down to hide in the first refuge they saw, others pushing on to find a way through the building and out the back, others staying to wreck what they could until the soldiers came. When they came, marching in their neat black coats up the steps among dead and dying men and women, they found on the high, grey, polished wall of the great foyer a word written at the height of a man’s eyes, in broad smears of blood: DOWN
     They shot the dead man who lay nearest the word, and later on when the Directorate was restored to order the word was washed off the wall with water, soap, and rags, but it remained; it had been spoken; it had meaning.

     [Ursula LeGuin, The Dispossessed]

Feb 01 2024

If you’ve ever wondered

“Hey, maybe the reason these politicians vote this way is because they’re all a bunch of corrupt perverts who are being blackmailed.”

The answer is yes.

No matter how corrupt and disgusting you think D.C. is, it’s far far worse than that.

Titus Warren: Yeah. It’s like an in-house thing. If you know, you know, and if you don’t you don’t. But nine out of ten times everybody in there knows. But they actually, that is a fact. They actually do have these parties.
James O’Keefe: Does that happen a lot? Like people do something sexual and they’re blackmailed? Have you seen that?
Titus Warren: So it happens every now and then.
James O’Keefe: But they get blackmailed.
Titus Warren: Exactly.
James O’Keefe: Holy shit…
Titus Warren: Because it’s like they have a leverage of like, if you have something like that, it’s called leverage. And so what they do, they use it against you to get something else. Majority of members that come late are always 9/10 times hungover from the night before.
James O’Keefe: From the sex party?
Titus Warren: (Nods head) Yes. So on the voting. You already have a piece of paper that tells you how to vote, known as a suggestion. It’s not a suggestion.

Feb 01 2024

Under the knife

So, yesterday I went to the eye doc and had a cataract removed. I’ll be undergoing the same procedure on my other eye in two weeks.

Reading and typing aren’t the easiest things to do right now, but at least I can see clearly out of my right eye again. I have a follow-up appointment this afternoon, and hopefully when the doc checks my peepers he’ll give me a clean bill of health. As it is, my eyes have been the bane of my existence ever since I was a little kid. Horrible eyesight. Always wearing glasses. It almost kept me out of the Army, and DID keep me out of the Marines. But it is what it is. I couldn’t change anything about it back then, so I shouldn’t bitch too hard. The side-benefit of having this surgery now is that they replaced my old, defective lens with a new corrective lens, so I won’t have to wear glasses or contacts any more. Just reading glasses, which I already required when I was wearing glasses anyway.

I’m currently wearing a clear plastic shield over my right eye, making me look like a retarded pirate. Hopefully that can come off after my appointment today.

What a fascinating modern age we live in.

Feb 01 2024

Much Driving Ahead So I Must Be Quick

     Yes, it’s another of those days, so have a quickie:

     New polling data show Biden’s support in our state plummeting. With an approval rating of just 41% and a disapproval rating of 57%, Biden finds himself 16 points underwater. This decline is particularly worrying for the President, given that he won New Mexico by a comfortable 10-point margin during the 2020 election.

     One of the significant concerns for Biden is the erosion of his support among Hispanics. While a 2022 poll indicated a 53% approval rating among the Hispanic community, that number has dropped dramatically to a mere 36% today. This marks a significant 17-point dip in less than two years. Keep in mind, Hispanics make up more of the population in New Mexico than in any other state. We are a minority-majority state. If they’re abandoning Biden here, they’re likely doing so in other states too.

     The top issues of concern in New Mexico revolve around the economy, crime, illegal immigration, and the cost of living. Unfortunately for Biden, these are precisely the areas where he is failing to resonate with voters.

     It occurred to me a little while ago that despite significant defections from Democrat alignment among several important demographics, the national polling organizations continue to show the presidential race as neck-and-neck. That made me wonder. The national polling orgs are nearly all Democrat-aligned themselves. Who do they think benefits from such polling, and why?

     The explanation that occurred to me was that such polls might be intended to encourage Biden / Democrat supporters to “keep the faith” and stay staunch. If the race were polled accurately and without bias, and showed a developing Trump landslide, it would dishearten many on the Left, making such a landslide more likely…possibly more dramatic, too. That could prove the deathblow for the Democrat Party as it stands today.

     Thoughts?

Jan 31 2024

Music For An Unexpected Reverie

     For no clear reason, just a little while ago I found myself remembering a friend from my high school years. I didn’t have many friends back then – prodigies seldom do – so I held on tight to those I managed to acquire. But this particular friend proved to be a mistake. He proved it by going to Chicago, getting involved with a gang, and getting killed in a gunfight.

     Yes, he was black.

     No one’s judgment is unerring. When you’re young, lonely, and desperate for some companionship, you’re altogether too likely to lower your standards. This is always unwise. And as I’ve learned many times over the years, intelligence is not the same as wisdom.

     Anyway, have some Tom Petty.

     And be true to yourself. That’s a job no one else can do.

Jan 31 2024

Some Monitory Words From Stephen Kruiser

     He’s very targeted this morning, and commendably so:

     Election fraud is one of those quintessential hot button 21st century issues where no nuance or real discussion is allowed. You either believe that all Republican hopes of victory going forward are doomed or, according to the doomsayers, you’re in denial. I would love to blame the internet and social media for this, but I believe that people have always been this ridiculous, they just didn’t have as many ways to let us know before.

     Throwing one’s hands in the air and repeating “It’s all rigged!” 24/7 is the path of least resistance for anyone lacking ambitions beyond being a keyboard warrior. Why work a phone bank, knock on doors, or do anything that might affect change when there’s online raging to be done in various comment sections over a bowl of Froot Loops every morning, right?

     In addition to ignoring reality (perennial swing state Florida flipping to solid red between 2018-2022, for example), the “Why vote? It’s all fixed!” crowd is doing the Left’s work for them. The glaring mail-in ballot anomalies in a few very large, traditionally blue cities have the effect of keeping Republicans all over the country at home on election day. Winner, winner, plant-based chicken dinner for the Dems.

     You have to be “in it to win it” – and for us of the hoi polloi, being “in it” equates to volunteer action and voting. Do not throw up your hands and scream that “it’s all rigged.” Sufficient energy and effort on our part can render any degree of cheating pointless: either insufficient or too obvious to be ignored.

     Don’t board the “Froot Loop Sloop.”

Jan 31 2024

Too Much Clarity

     In his treatise The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, the great Ludwig von Mises makes reference to “the cousins:” i.e., the relatives and assorted hangers-on of the families of the great industrialists:

     Even in these lucky families, the qualities required for the successful conduct of big business are not inherited by all sons and grandsons. As a rule only one, or at best two, of each generation are endowed with them. Then it is essential for the survival of the family’s wealth and business that the conduct of affairs be entrusted to this one or to these two and that the other members be relegated to the position of mere recipients of a quota of the proceeds. The methods chosen for such arrangements vary from country to country, according to the special provisions of the national and local laws. Their effect, however, is always the same. They divide the family into two categories-those who direct the conduct of affairs and those who do not.
     The second category consists as a rule of people closely related to those of the first category whom we propose to call the bosses. They are brothers, cousins, nephews of the bosses, more often their sisters, widowed sisters-in-law, female cousins, nieces and so on. We propose to call the members of this second category the cousins.

     Von Mises notes that the cousins often engage themselves in envy-powered activities that oppose and vilify the productive labors of the bosses:

     Many cousins believe that they have been wronged by the arrangements regulating their financial relation to the bosses and the family’s firm. Whether these arrangements were made by the will of their father or grandfather, or by an agreement which they themselves have signed, they think that they are receiving too little and the bosses too much. Unfamiliar with the nature of business and the market, they are-with Marx-convinced that capital automatically “begets profits.” They do not see any reason why those members of the family who are in charge of the conduct of affairs should earn more than they. Too dull to appraise correctly the meaning of balance sheets and profit and loss accounts, they suspect in every act of the bosses a sinister attempt to cheat them and to deprive them of their birthright. They quarrel with them continually.
     […]
     The cousins are enthusiastic in supporting strikes, even strikes in the factories from which their own revenues originate. It is a well-known fact that most of the “progressive” magazines and many “progressive” newspapers entirely depend on the subsidies lavishly granted by them. These cousins endow progressive universities and colleges and institutes for “social research” and sponsor all sorts of communist party activities. As “parlor socialists” and “penthouse Bolsheviks,” they play an important role in the “proletarian army” fighting against the “dismal system of capitalism.”

     Consider Hank Rearden and his no-account brother Philip. Consider Anders Forslund and his playboy offspring Jay. While those are fictional examples, among the real-world descendants of the great producers of times past are many who have turned viciously against their beneficent forebears and their industries.

     Of course, one need not be related to a notable figure to envy him. Quite a number of persons are violently envious of Elon Musk. Few of them have launched an industry…or a satellite. While this should require no explanation, as usual C. S. Lewis has provided one:

     The feeling I mean is of course that which prompts a man to say I’m as good as you.
     The first and most obvious advantage is that you thus induce him to enthrone at the centre of his life a good, solid, resounding lie. I don’t mean merely that his statement is false in fact, that he is no more equal to everyone he meets in kindness, honesty, and good sense than in height or waist measurement. I mean that he does not believe it himself. No man who says I’m as good as you believes it. He would not say it if he did. The St. Bernard never says it to the toy dog, nor the scholar to the dunce, nor the employable to the bum, nor the pretty woman to the plain. The claim to equality, outside the strictly political field, is made only by those who feel themselves to be in some way inferior. What it expresses is precisely the itching, smarting, writhing awareness of an inferiority which the patient refuses to accept.
     And therefore resents. Yes, and therefore resents every kind of superiority in others; denigrates it; wishes its annihilation. Presently he suspects every mere difference of being a claim to superiority. No one must be different from himself in voice, clothes, manners, recreations, choice of food: “Here is someone who speaks English rather more clearly and euphoniously than I — it must be a vile, upstage, lah-di-dah affectation. Here’s a fellow who says he doesn’t like hot dogs — thinks himself too good for them, no doubt. Here’s a man who hasn’t turned on the jukebox — he’s one of those goddamn highbrows and is doing it to show off. If they were honest-to-God all-right Joes they’d be like me. They’ve no business to be different. It’s undemocratic.”

     [From Screwtape Proposes A Toast]

     There’s a reason envy is considered a capital sin.

Jan 31 2024

Stating It Clearly

     It’s impossible to misconstrue what this man, death-and-aging-phobe multimillionaire Brian Johnson, is saying:

     The estimable Paul Joseph Watson makes it even plainer:

     “An absolute blank slate.” A posthuman nihilistic atomizing recipe for utter misery, that’s what that is. Rootless soulless vapid anti-natalist oblivion at its heart. This is pure Red Terror Maoism. The belief that historical foundations are worthless and are to be totally obliterated, sacrificed at the altar of an internationalist movement of deracinated, enraged youth brigades. Literally the kind of year zero philosophy embraced by the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot. Bloodletting French Revolutionary style of anarcho-tyranny dressed up as utopian futurism. If you actually agree with his vision and try to pursue it in your own life instead of centering your existence around family, tradition, kinship, and God, I can absolutely guarantee that no matter what age you live to, every single moment of it will be afflicted by anxiousness, agony, and pain.

     They no longer hide their intentions, Gentle Reader. They no longer try to camouflage them. They’re flapping them in our faces. Can you really say with confidence that they don’t mean every word?

     Pray. For the love of God, pray!

Jan 30 2024

It’s not ignorance, it’s malice

The lying liars who talk about climate change know that they’re spouting bullshit.

More than 90 percent of NOAA’s temperature monitoring stations have a heat bias, according to Anthony Watts, a meteorologist, senior fellow for environment and climate at The Heartland Institute, author of climate website Watts Up With That, and director of a study that examined NOAA’s climate stations.“

And with that large of a number, over 90 percent, the methods that NOAA employs to try to reduce this don’t work because the bias is so overwhelming,” Mr. Watts told The Epoch Times.

“The few stations that are left that are not biased because they are, for example, outside of town in a field and are an agricultural research station that’s been around for 100 years … their data gets completely swamped by the much larger set of biased data. There’s no way you can adjust that out.”

The article starts with the claim from the Useless Nations about how if the planet temperature goes up by 1.5 degrees C, then we’re all going to die.

Uh, no. There are three periods in human history when the temps went up by more than 2 degrees C. The Minoan Warm Period, the Roman Warm Period, and the Medieval Warm Period. I would point out that all three of those periods corresponded with increased human growth and technology, not less. Also, no massive planet shattering cataclysms either.

Now add in data that is blatantly biased. The whole Global Warming Climate Cooling Change cult falls apart like a junkie who hasn’t gotten a fix in 24 hours.

When asked why NOAA isn’t only using thermometers where there’s no possibility for an urban heat island effect, Mr. Spencer said: “I think their goal is not to get the most accurate long-term temperature record but to use as much thermometer data as they can get their hands on. This is good to build a congressionally-funded program and keep people employed.”

It all comes down to money and power. Al Gore doesn’t give a shit about the climate, he just wants to keep the suckers paying him for “carbon credits”, which is a scam that would get regular people tossed in jail for running. Al Gore’s air-conditioned Tennessee mansion uses more electricity in one month than I use in a year. Al Gore flies around in private jets, dumping more carbon into the air in ONE TRIP than I produce in years of motorcycle riding. It’s all bullshit. It’s all about money and power, nothing else.

And so they lie to you. But they’re the ones with the power right now whispering in politicians ears, and more importantly sliding dollars into those politicians pockets, probably while they give them a quick rub and tug for their favors. They’ll destroy the US energy sector if they can. They’ve already done a good job damaging it, to the point where we might not be able to refill the Strategic Oil Reserve because they’ve pumped it so low, so often that the caves the oil is stored in might not be able to be used again. Blocking the drilling of wells, shutting down pipelines (which puts money into Warren Buffet’s pocket, since the oil that would be pushed through the pipeline now is transported by rail, which Warren Buffet profits from), shutting down Natural Gas and LPG production and transportation, the Left and their helpers in this country want you living in unlit, unheated caves while they fly to Davos to congratulate themselves on what a bang-up job they did.

Buy more ammo.

Jan 30 2024

It’s Been Tried Before

     Several times, really…and it hasn’t worked, ever:

     Days after closing a deal with Albania to hold part of the migrant flood there while awaiting asylum processing, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is trying to limit the number of arrivals in the first place, by a new partnership with Africa.

     She unveiled a long-awaited plan to ‘boost economic ties, create an energy hub for Europe and curb immigration’.

     More than two dozen African leaders attended the one-day summit, where Meloni outlined a series of initiatives with an initial pledge of 5.5 billion euros ($5.95 billion).

     Meloni called the summit a success, that ‘produced many areas of potential cooperation, particularly with regards to energy’.

     The superpowers have all tried to accelerate African economic development. Corruption and inter-tribal hatreds have killed every previous attempt. Why does this obviously bright and well-intentioned woman believe that she and Italy can succeed where others have failed? Has she already bought into the “government can do anything” mindset?

     Illegal immigration can be held down to a trickle by energetic and unforgiving enforcement of a nation’s borders. Nothing else has ever succeeded to any degree. The approach with the slightest prospect of success is to throw money at it…but I’m not telling the Gentle Readers of Liberty’s Torch anything they don’t already know. We’ve seen both approaches tried in the United States, and the one that worked is the one the Biden Regime has done its utmost to thwart. There’s a lot of information in that.

Jan 29 2024

She can’t be a traitor. She was never an American

Ilhan “Bro-Fo” Omar, the representative of Somalia, says it out loud.

During a recent speech, of which clips are now going viral, Omar left nothing to the imagination. She proclaimed to the crowd that Somalis control the U.S. government and that it exists to “safeguard the interests of Somalia.” She also stated that she is Somalian first and Muslim second. There was no mention of any allegiance to the United States despite her serving in its Congress.

I’m glad I got to visit Minneapolis before it turned into Little Mogadishu, a perfect example of how diversity and vibrancy can turn the nicest cities and towns into shitholes. I have friends who have fled from the state of Minnesota because the liberals in the Twin Cities have made it unsafe to raise a family there by importing thousands of low-IQ pedophile prophet worshipping freeloaders from the third world, people who do not have any concept of Christian morals and ethics, and who have essentially taken over. No, not taken over. I can’t even say that they conquered the Twin Cities, because the Leftists there just gave it away. And so now you have this parasite, this invasive snake, this incestuous brother loving scorpion, proudly announcing who she represents and it’s NOT the USA. Because the people who voted for her don’t think of themselves as Americans.

This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who has been paying attention. Omar needs to be deported back to the third world shithole she came from, since she’s trying to turn my country into another third world shithole, and she identifies with a third world shithole more than she identifies with any kind of real civilization.

Buy more ammo.

Jan 29 2024

Stating It Clearly Edition

     The Biden Regime is now openly blackmailing the nation:

     As Republican governors circle the wagon around Texas, President Biden on Saturday doubled down on a reluctant agreement to secure the southern US border – but only if Congress passes a bipartisan bill that would also allocate funds for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and would still allow as many as 150,000 illegal crossings per month.

     “If that bill were the law today I’d shut down the border right now and fix it quickly and bring a bipartisan bill that would be good for America and help fix our broken immigration system and allow speedy access for those who deserve to be here,” Biden said, according to Fox News’ Chad Pergram.

     In more innocent times, this was once called “logrolling.” But regard well the some of the features of the proposed new bill:

  • Legally establish 5,000 illegal aliens entering the country per day as the new norm, requiring the crisis hit that number before the president could invoke Title 42-esque authority, effectively forcing Americans to, at minimum, accept 1.8 million illegal aliens a year.
  • Provide amnesty to a “documented Dreamer” class, taking care of 250,000 people whose parents replaced American workers under the deeply flawed H-1B guest worker program.
  • Keep mass parole programs in place — provided illegal immigrants enter through American airports, not at the border.
  • Give quicker work permits to illegal aliens likely committing asylum fraud by ending the 180-day wait period.
  • Expand the already vast network of free benefits like legal services for illegal aliens — adding to the services American taxpayers already fund to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars per year.
  • Funnel billions of dollars to the corrupt NGOs that profit off the border crisis by transporting, lodging, and helping illegal aliens enter the country every day.

     Does that sound to you like a closed border, Gentle Reader? But softly now: there is a bit more to consider. That “bipartisan bill” also funnels large amounts of money to Ukraine. And as regards funds previously sent to Ukraine:

  • The war in Ukraine has nothing to do with any legitimate American interest;
  • Large amounts of the money cannot be tracked;
  • The Biden family has received large amounts of money from Ukrainian sources.

     This is undisguised extortion by the supposed President of the United States. It’s openly treasonous. And it’s being committed publicly and without embarrassment by a regime that’s simultaneously striving to imprison its chief political opponent on ludicrous charges.

     That is clarity, Gentle Reader. Ironically, it came from a mush-mouthed dementia sufferer who cheated his way into power. Generally, villains only speak frankly about what they’re doing when they think they can no longer be stopped. Draw your own conclusions.

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