Tuesday, June 30, 2015

On the Minstrel, Tariq Nasheed, Getting All Butt-Hurt Over a Black Conservative's Contrary Opinion but Not Saying a Fucking Word When a Seven Year-old Gets Her Brains Blown Out by a Trio of Gang-Bangers in Memphis or When an Infant Gets Her Head Lopped Off by Some Degenerate Black Chick in Cincinnati

As long as assholes like this dominate the discussion, nothing will change.......It won't.

On the Fact that Justices Ginsberg and Souter Voted the Same a Higher Percentage of the Time than Did Justices Scalia and Thomas

I gather that this type of lock-stop is AOK (my source for this being Ms. Ginsberg herself in a recent C-Span interview).

On the Fact that a Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, Amherst, Rice, or Vanderbilt Education Only Cost About $800 a Year (for Tuition) in the 1950s

And the fact that this perfectly coincides with the time that the feds started subsidizing higher-education is what exactly? Yet another Festivus miracle?.................................................................................................And, no, it isn't just education. Housing and healthcare are the other two areas in which the government started meddling in the '60s and damned if they didn't start to skyrocket in price as well. It's more than simply a trend, folks.

On the Fact that We All Have a Unique Genetic Endowment

Thank God, 'cause if we were all Mussorgsky, Chopin, Gide, Moliere, Cassatt, Matisse, Popper, Da Vinci, and Wittgenstein, then none of us would be.

Theodore Dalrymple on Resentment

"Resentment has certain sour satisfactions. Among these is the satisfaction of being morally superior to the world while remaining objectively-speaking in a grossly subordinate, inferior, or undesirable position."......Boy, does that ever sound like some folks, huh?

Monday, June 29, 2015

On Donald Trump's Despicable Anti Mexican Immigrant Comments

This is the same vile shit that fellows like Millard Fillmore were spouting against Irish and German immigrants in the 19th Century. It was wrong then and it's wrong now. Screw Trump...................................................................................................P.S. And he isn't even right on the facts. As the Wall Street Journal's Jason Riley, Texas Tech's Ben Powell, and George Mason's Bryan Caplan have all stated, a) ILLEGAL immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than native-born citizens and b) the states with the highest growth rate in terms of Mexican immigrants are actually the states with the FEWEST entitlements. Not that facts are important to a guy like Trump but still.

Note to the Progressives On this Whole "Livable Wage" Foolishness

So, everybody who works full-time should be able to live off their earnings? Hm, so what about a family with 20 kids in which the mother isn't employed? Should the employer of THAT individual be forced to pay HIM a "livable wage"? And what would that do your other cherried principle of equal pay for equal work? I mean, you'd have to pay everybody else this very same wage, right? Yes, no, maybe?......Yeah, you really haven't thought this shit through, have you?

On the "Legacy of Slavery" Being Blamed for the High Out of Wedlock Birth-Rate in the Black Community

Well, it evidently must leap-frog some generations (the out of wedlock birth-rate in the black community being under 20% as recently as 1940). Ditto, the black incarceration rate, the black school dropout rate, etc........................................................................................................P.S. According to economist, Walter Williams, 85% of the black kids in Harlem in 1925 lived in two parent families and the crime-rate was a fraction of what it is today - THIS, despite the fact that there was far more poverty and far more discrimination coming from white folks....Hard to explain this one away, try though they will.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

On the Fact that There Are Actually Some Demagogues Out There Who Want to Ban Sales of "Gone with the Wind" Now

This country has gone completely insane. It is official now.............And call me old-fashioned but I find Nicki Minaj and Flva Flav a hell of a lot more embarrassing to the black race than Butterfly McQueen and Hattie McDaniel ever were.

Question for John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Joe Lieberman, etc.

So, if the "surge" was so damned successful, then why did it all come apart as soon as we took our finger out of the dike (tantamount to a cured patient leaving the hospital and dropping dead before he reaches his auto)? I  mean, to me, "works" means that we fixed the thing structurally and that it wasn't any longer the fact that our occupation and check-points were the critical component....You obviously disagree, I guess.

On the New Definition of "Conversation"

"A hectoring monologue by a bunch of partisan, mediocre, and self-indulgent soliloquists whose only goal it seems is to bludgeon dissent and demonize nonconformists."  

Saturday, June 27, 2015

On Teddy Roosevelt's Admiration for Oliver Cromwell

Not at all surprising from a fellow who spoke of "the menace of peace", sought for his entire Presidency more political power, ruled as an imperialist, and whose writings consistently portrayed fighting as something glorious.

Abolitionist, Thomas Shepard Goodwin, on Why White Southerners Are Inferior

"African playmates, African attendants, African recreationists, African voices, African minds - these retard the progress of southerners, the direct influence of so large a population of half barbarous Africans interspersed among them."......Now that shit is racist.

On the Lincoln Douglas Debates

These debates are considered by many to be amongst the very best in U.S. history, and in a certain way they are. But they also unfortunately show just how unenlightened and bigoted that Lincoln was at this juncture; the fact that he was against blacks entering the territories, against citizenship for blacks, against any form of integration AND that he was in favor of colonization and the Illinois black codes. Look, I get it. Everyone was basically a bigot back then (including a large chunk of the abolition movement). But for folks to try and argue that Lincoln was any sort of great emancipator or an advocate of black people is absurd, and these debates prove it.............................................................................................P.S. An excellent sampling of Lincoln's statements during these debates can be heard in this excellent lecture by Donald Livingston - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5wdfV-UaLI&list=PLkHxA43ZPRYKuvXJxla5V8EMhw5tj0dCT

On the Consensus View (Both North AND South) of White People on Slavery and the Black Race from 1789 to 1860

I think that Jefferson probably summarized it best (and everybody from Lincoln to John Adams agreed with him) when he said that, "Nothing is clearer in the book of nature that these people should be free but equally nothing is clearer than that these people can never be incorporated in socially and politically equal terms in America."............So basically people felt that slavery was wrong but didn't know what to do about it in that they didn't want to be around black folks. An intractable problem for certain (and, yes, this is where the colonization madness got going).

On the Fact that They've Sent Over a Thousand Agents and Cops to Look for that Second Prison Escapee (the First One Already Having Been Plugged)

I'd have just sent Dog the Bounty Hunter.

Friday, June 26, 2015

On the Fact that (According to Emory University Professor, Donald Livingston) at the End of the Civil War About Half of the White Male Population of Military Age Was Either Dead or Mutilated (and, No, this Doesn't Even Get Into the Loss of Wealth)

Can you even begin to fathom what that would look like today? And I guess that that's what bugs me about this thing; the fact that it's so ridiculously far removed that we've completely lost perspective on it, the human cost especially.

On the Fact that Lincoln Killed More Southerners During the Civil War (AKA, the War for Southern Independence) than Hitler and Tojo Killed Americans All Throughout WW2

This was such a senseless bloodbath that even the Europeans were shocked by it (and, yes, that is saying a lot).

Teddy Roosevelt's First Experiences Firing a Weapon?

Yeah, it was killing animals, hundreds of 'em (keeping the pelts as if they were prizes). That's how they all seem to start, huh?

On Why Slavery Was an American Stain and Not Just a Confederacy One - Late Edition

  h) Lincoln's 1861 inaugural speech was 100% accommodating to slavery ( the fact that he pledged to support the Corwin Amendment, enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, and even adhere to resolutions of the Crittenden Amendment which would have made all nullifications of the Fugitive Slave Act itself null and void).

On the Fact that the 1890s Income Tax (Which Was Eventually Struck Down by the Supreme Court) Only Affected 1% of Earners (with 80% of the Revenue Coming from Just Four States)

How quaint and yet it did open the door for statists, imperialists, etc..............Sources; John F. Witte's "The Politics and Development of the Federal Income Tax" and Jim Powell's "Bully Boy".

On Going from the Costa Rican Dark Roast that I Purchased Up in Keene to the Folger's Classic Roast that I Just Picked Up at Stop and Shop

It's like going from Eva Marie Saint and Susan Hayward to Totie Fields and Phyllis Diller. Trust me.

On the Fact that (According to Author, Warren Farrell) Never-Married Women with No Children Make 117% of What Never-Married Men with No Children Make

There ought to be a law!!

On Why Slavery Was an American Stain and Not Just a Confederacy One

a) It was northern ships that brought the slaves over. b) Every one of the 13 original colonies possessed slaves and, while the northern states eventually did get rid of the institution, it largely pertained to the offspring and in order to recoup their investment many northern slave owners simply auctioned their slaves to the South. c) The vast percentage of northern white citizens were either ambivalent to slavery or supporters of it. d) Many northern states eventually instituted black codes and so even if the southern slaves were set free they would have been barred from Illinois, Indiana, etc.. e) No northern politician ever put forth a meaningful proposal for compensated emancipation on manumission. f) At the conclusion of Reconstruction a great many of the recently freed slaves pleaded with the Union soldiers to take them up north with them and they were all summarily rejected. And g) the North profited immensely from slavery in that both the cotton and a lot of the moolah headed that way (Wall Street in a large sense was created by slavery). 

Thursday, June 25, 2015

On the Fact that Mookie and Ray Ray Can Get Their Brains Blown Out in Broad Daylight in Front of a Hundred Witnesses and Nobody Will Say a Damn Thing to the Cops

Now, to me, this is a much bigger issue than the Confederate flag and at the very least it needs to be a part of the "conversation".......And, please, instead of getting reflexively butt-hurt over this viewpoint, think about it a little first.

On the Recent Block-Party Shootings in Detroit and Philadelphia

And the perpetrator according to numerous witnesses? George Bush holding a Confederate flag.  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/us/one-dead-and-16-injured-after-block-party-shootings-in-detroit-and-philadelphia.html?_r=0

On the Removal of the Confederate Flag

So, does this (the banishing of an inanimate object) now mean that young black men are going to stop killing each other over foolishness (half-eaten Hershey bars, Air-Jordan Sneaks, a perceived dis, etc.), that the out of wedlock childbirth rate will start heading in the other direction, that inner-city black parents will start showing up more at PTA meetings, that black people will start cooperating with the Police when assassinations happen right under their collective noses (nixing this whole "snitches get stitches" foolishness), that young black kids will stop making fun of other young black kids simply because they do well at school, that the death of blacks by other blacks will start to be seen as just as morally repugnant as the death of blacks by whites (which is actually quite rare), that these phony inner-city preachers will stop pimping young black women, etc.?...And, yes, it's a rhetorical question.

On the Fact that Oregon's 1859 Constitution Prohibited Blacks from Coming into the State, Securing Property, Making Contracts, or Filing a Lawsuit

So, the message from a lot of these abolitionists was this essentially; "free your slaves with zero compensation and don't for one split second think of sending them up here."......................................................................................P.S. And since these prohibitions were baked into the Constitution, the legislature was impotent to get rid of them for years....Yeah, I know, more northern enlightenment.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

To those Who Would Wish to Come Here and Make Cryptic, and Not so Cryptic, Comments that I'm a Racist, Simply Because I Challenge (a la, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, John McWhorter, etc.) the Leftist Orthodoxy on Race Relations, Racial Politics, etc.

You are not welcome here. Sorry, but no.

On the Increasingly Popular Conspiracy Theory that Michelle Obama Was Born a Fellow and Is Now a Tranny

This one is so far out there that even World Net Daily has given it a shitload of Pinocchios.

On the Fact that Illinois Had a Nasty Tradition, Dating All the Way Back to its Territorial Days, of Restrictive and Exclusionary Laws Directed at Black People, the Magnum Opus of Which Was the 1853 Black Law that Essentially Barred Them from Residing in the State

It was referred to by historian, Eugene H. Berwanger (in his "The Frontier Against Slavery") as "the most severe anti-Negro measure passed in a free state." And Abe Lincoln never once opposed it (probably too busy plotting his racist and cockamamie colonization plan)....Some great emancipator, huh?

On the Fact that in 1834 Prudence Crandall Was Arrested, Jailed, Tried, and Finally Convicted of Violating the "Black Law" in Connecticut

Her crime? Try, educating a black child. Oh, yeah, the North was a great model of equality.........................................................................................P.S. And, while, yes, the conviction was ultimately overturned by a higher court, it was strictly because of a technicality and not even remotely based upon principle AND the harassment of Ms. Crandall continued for years (racist schmucks constantly pelting the schoolhouse with mud, stones, and eggs and they even tried to set it on fire)....Attaway my forefathers, attaway.

On Always Blaming Discrimination for Economic Woes

Yeah, it's not a persuasive argument in that there a plethora of examples all across the globe in which minorities (many of whom have faced a great amount of discrimination) have done exceedingly well; the Chinese in Malaysia, the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Armenians in Turkey, the Chinese and Japanese in America, the Jews throughout Europe, the Germans in Russia, etc., etc., etc.. I mean, I know that we have so equated economic power with political power that we simply never question these things but, again, we mustn't be surface-thinkers here......................................................................................................P.S. And allow me to also point out here that a) African and Caribbean immigrants both do extremely well in this country and b) African-Americans themselves were making exceptional progress all throughout the late 19th and early 20th Centuries and it wasn't until we stated fucking with them (and Frederick Douglass warned about this) that they started to lose ground again.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

On Being One of the Thin Red Threads Between Radical Redneck (a Racially Insensitive Buffoon) and Octopus (a Hard-Core Racial Demagogue)

Yeah, I can survive in that space. You might even say that I embrace it.

On "If You Don't Agree with Me You're a Racist"

It would comical (granted, in a puerile manner) if it wasn't so rank, dangerous and despicable. I mean, you've got these demagogues like Shaw and Octopus who are just so incredibly limited when it comes to understanding even basic research going around crying, foul, when they don't even know what they're talking about; this whole notion of one isolated (and admittedly revolting) example (in research we call it an anecdote) proving that the entire country is racist (ignoring the fact that the white support for the victims of this horrific crime has been nearly universal - ESPECIALLY IN SOUTH CAROLINA). Look, I get it. People are consistently looking for phenomena that underscores their paradigm (hell, it might even be part of out DNA; a survival mechanism) and for the most part it's benign. But, come on, when it gets to this level of depravity the saner elements of society have to call these idiots out. They just have to.

On Northern Abolitionists

A large percentage of them were either insane, genocidal (toward white southerners), or majorly racist themselves. Here are just a few of their kernels of wisdom......"I affirm that it is better, far better, that every man, woman, and child in every rebel state should perish in one widespread, bloody, and indiscriminate slaughter, better that the land should be a Sahara; be as when God destroyed the Canaanites, or overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, than that this rebellion should be successful." Reverend W.J. Sloane......."...that the South be laid, and made a desert, in order to save this Union from destruction........we must slay every traitor, burn every Rebel mansion.......unless we do this, we cannot conquer them." Congressman Thaddeus Stevens.......And then of course there was Hinton Helper (transplanted from the South) who wrote an entire volume dedicated solely to the strategy of colonization in that heaven forbid that these freed black people stay in America.

On Bait and Switch

I will not be subject to it. Ever.

Monday, June 22, 2015

On the Trial of the Century that Never Was

The federal government wanted desperately to try Jefferson Davis for treason and to hang him high. But it never happened (this, despite the fact that numerous prosecutors examined the evidence, case-law, etc. - looking for something, anything), and the reason that it never happened was because it would have necessitated that secession itself be put on trial and they knew that this would have been a huge loser for them............................................................................................Of course, they had to save face and in order to do that they came up with this pathetic double jeopardy argument which stated that couldn't try Davis for treason because they had already nailed him on the lesser charge of insurrection (the penalty for this simply being that he could no longer run for office - immaterial in that the Republicans had already installed their puppets in the south)..................................................................................................Look, I'm not saying that Davis was any sort of hero here (it was an era bereft of heroes, frankly). But the fact of the matter is that secession was never considered controversial until Lincoln came along (Abe Lincoln himself once having said that it was legal) and the fact that this trial never took place says volumes, now doesn't it?

On the Concept of Extrapolating from One Heinous and Racist Action the Conclusion that America Continues to Be a Racist Country

It's ludicrous and makes about as much sense as concluding from that recent home invasion that black folks are inherently violent. We live in a country of over 300 million people and to try and conclude anything based solely upon an anecdote is about as foolhardy as it gets and you'd think that supposedly educated people would know better.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

On the Fact that Standard Oil's Market-Share Was Well on its Way Downward (Competition from the Likes of Burmah Oil, Union Oil, Pure Oil, Associated Oil and Gas, Gulf, Texaco, Royal Dutch Shell, etc.) Before the Roosevelt Anti-Trust Laws Even Went into Effect

This is vexing only to the statists, in that the rest of us who've actually looked at history know that monopolies are exceedingly rare (with new rivals constantly emerging) and that predatory pricing has never even ONCE taken place. As for why Standard Oil did so well for so long, that isn't exactly a mystery, either; the fact that Rockefeller was an efficient, low-cost competitor who consistently invested in cost-cutting technologies......................................................................................................Now, this isn't to say that there weren't Snidely Whiplash robber-barons back then. There were. But they weren't guys like Rockefeller who put forth goods and services that people wanted and needed, brought down the cost of living for everyone, and created tens of thousands of jobs, but rather guys like Edward Collins and the railroad bozos who bilked not just their customers but the taxpayers as well.

On those Who Profited from Slavery

Let's put it this way, folks. Those rich northern bankers and industrialists probably got a wee bit more out of it than the poor white trash from the Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains did. Just ask the Mayor of New York in 1861.

On Northern Emancipation

Well, it certainly didn't free all the slaves in that a great many northern slave owners (in a ploy to protect their investment) simply sent their slaves south to be sold/auctioned off. You see, it wasn't the slaves themselves in many instances who got emancipated (the last slave in Rhode Island, for instance, died off 1859) but their children and in an effort to recoup their original investment they simply sold their slaves..................................................................................................Of course, what is probably the most diabolical element of all here is the fact that a great many of these same northern states immediately instituted "black codes" which would have made it next to impossible for blacks (on the contingency that southern slaves were ever emancipated) to reside there (and even in northern states that allowed blacks to live there, they had no rights) and so where in the hell were the freed slaves supposed to go (we know for a fact that Lincoln and a lot of the abolitionists wanted them to go back to Africa)?...Oh, yeah, the north was super enlightened.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

On Climate Change

Yes, the climate will change (as it has for the past six BILLION years). As long as there's a sun, a moon, oceans, cosmic rays, clouds, volcanoes (under and above the water), plates in the earth, planetary perturbations, bacteria, etc., the climate will vary, and there will even be times when it's chaotic. But what people have to realize is that there is just as much of a chance that the temperatures will DECREASE in that solar cycle 24 is moving into a quieter phase in terms of sunspots (I refer you to Russia's Pulkovo Observatory, Danish solar scientist Henrik Svensmark, Russian solar physicist Habibullo Abdussamatov, meteorologist Joe Bastardi, geologist Don Easterbrook, electrical engineer and former Australian climate modeler David Evans, German geologist Sebastian Luning, engineer and former NASA consultant John Casey - yes, all of whom have been smeared by the lunatics at Desmog Blog). And like I've stated many times before, cooling is a much more dangerous scenario in that if we come anywhere near to where we were during the Maunder Minimum, things could get quite dicey indeed. You just might want to stock up on supplies and get some means to protect them.

On the Book, "Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery" by Anne Farrow, Joel Lang, and Jennifer Frank

I dare anybody to read this book (and/or listen to its authors) and continue to say that the North was the more enlightened and more innocent region of the country during the slavery era. I double-dog dare ya'.......And, no, BB, it wasn't penned by southerners (who you could call, "neoconfederates") but by a trio of my fellow nutmeggers.

On Crony Capitalism and Corporate Welfare

Well, we're all against that (unless of course you're name is Dick Cheney, Al Gore, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, etc.). The only issue here is how to end it. From my perspective, the only fool-proof way is to significantly reduce the size of government in that it really doesn't matter who's in charge, corruption is bound to happen. I mean, do you seriously think that corporate America hasn't done swimmingly under Obama; the stimulus (which was a veritable grab-bag for big companies), the bank and car bailouts, the health-care plan, the "green" energy agenda (is that a flashlight in your pocket, GE, or are you just happy to see me?), the tobacco legislation (which was practically penned by Philip Morris), the skating of Google, H&R Block, etc., etc?.......'Cause if you do, then you really haven't been paying attention.

On the Number of Stories that Bill O'Reilly Has Done on the Unintended Consequences of the Drug War

I don't watch him every night but I'd be willing to wager (and, no, this time I'm not going to devour my hat if I'm wrong) that it's somewhere in the neighborhood of zero. Or less.

Friday, June 19, 2015

On the Hard Left's Answer to Income Inequality

I'm still not entirely sure what it is. I mean, if it's taking money from the wealthy and redistributing it to the poor, that (at least theoretically) wouldn't alter it one iota in that a) the income statistics are almost always displayed on a pre-tax basis and b) transfer payments likewise are rarely included. Now, if these folks are willing to concede that that there is a deadweight cost to taxes and that they cause folks to want to earn less (why work more if the state is simply going to confiscate most of it?), yeah, maybe they'd be on to something here (though, yes, less earnings equals less revenue and a cat chasing its tail scenario).

On the Fact that the Top 1% (Comprised Largely of Doctors, Dentists, Lawyers, Architects, Engineers, Entrepreneurs, Administrators, etc.) Makes 18.9% of the Total Adjusted Gross Income but Pays 37.4% of the Total Income Taxes

I'm looking at these statistics and and I gotta tell you, I'm just not sensing that these rich folks are screwing the rest of us (especially considering the fact that they probably had to go to college for 6 to 8 years, accrued some massive debt, and spent another decade plus building up a practice). I mean, how much of the total income tax burden SHOULD they be paying? 50%? 80%? Every cent of it? Please, enlighten me here.

On the Fact that Teddy Roosevelt Issued More than Six Times as Many Executive Orders as Lincoln, Johnson, Grant , Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland, Harrison, and McKinley COMBINED (Source - "Executive Orders and National Emergencies" by William Olson and Alan Woll)

Scary, and what's even scarier is the fact that he was proud of it; "I did greatly broaden the use of executive power", the man once boasted (failing at every turn to even consider the costs/dangers of political power).............Of course if it had only ended there.... 


On Obama's "We Don't Have All the Facts Yet But"

It's like a damned loop-tape.

On the Fact that Teddy Roosevelt (in His 1902 State of the Union Speech) Actually Declared that One of the Main Duties of the United States Was to Carry Out a "Proper Policing of the World"

You want to know where it all started, folks? How 'bout right here, with this asshole?............Oh, and if you think that I'm being too harsh here, try the fact that since Roosevelt the U.S. has literally gotten involved in dozens of wars that have had almost nothing to do with our national security and that the consequences have been devastating; hundreds of thousands of casualties, trillions of dollars down the drain, etc.. If anything, I'm being too magnanimous.

On the Daytime TV Menu


Not enough judge/"People's Court" knockoff shows.

On the Fact that the French-Speaking Belgian Chicks Seem to Come Across as Way More Smokin' than the Flemish-Speaking Ones


Is it just me?

Thursday, June 18, 2015

On the Presumption that a Group of "Experts" Can Step in and Make Things Better, Free from Political Influence

It is of course bullshit in that the government process acts outside of profit and loss, thereby losing the all-important feedback mechanism without which there can never be rational economic calculation, only guessing (and as we all know by now they usually guess wrong)....That, and they're also idiots.

On Australian Sceen Beauty, Lauren Orrell - Part 2

Might I have a bit more cardamom, please?

On Lindsay "Guns a Blazin'" Graham Saying that We Need to Defeat ISIS AND Assad

Well, that certainly opens things up for Hakim the Bedouin, those two dudes (Sean Connery and Michael Caine) from "The Man Who Would Be King", Mad Max, etc..

On the Claim of a Shrinking Middle-Class

http://www.aei.org/publication/the-myth-of-middle-class-stagnation/print/ - As this article clearly shows, it depends on your definition of the term. Yes, median income (when adjusted for inflation) was essentially stagnant during the Bush years. But if you don't look at that and look instead at the three middle quintiles and compare their performance to that of the top earners (defined in a number of ways), you will see that the income inequality between the rich and the middle class actually went DOWN during the Bush years (with the Gini Coffecient basically staying constant)......................................................................................................And this doesn't even take into consideration the fact that there is significant movement between the various income groups; the fact that the bottom quintile is composed predominantly of young people and retirees while the highest quintile has workers mostly in their 40s and 50s. I mean, yes, I understand that "the rich are getting richer" is a meme that has gotten some significant traction over the decades but when you look at the data of the top 1% in 1996 and see that the actual human beings (and not just the static category) who comprised that category saw their income FALL by 26% (http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/Documents/incomemobilitystudy03-08revise.pdf - Table 6), you eventually have to let go of it, I think....................................................................................................P.S And as far as the stagnating median income goes (and, again, few people stay at the same level year after year), that I believe can best be explained by the huge influx of low-skilled workers coming in from Latin-America - pushing the median downward (not that that's necessarily an awful thing, mind you, in that this frees up various people like young mothers to enter or reenter the work force) and NOT by some sinister corporate conspiracy.

On the Fact that Even Some Ordinary Schools in Harlem Performed Just as Well on City-Wide Tests in the 1940s as the Mostly White Working Class Schools on the East Side of Manhattan

What an absolute indictment that is on our present-day educational system...And the left's solution to it is what? Doubling down on the poorly run, anachronistic public school/teacher union dominated model? Seemingly, huh (competition and fresh ideas being a better solution, in my opinion)?............Source - Thomas Sowell's collection of papers from 1986; "Education: Assumptions Versus History".

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

On Jesse Jackson Claiming that the Elimination of Quotas by the University of California System in 1996 Would Promote a "Radical Resegregation of Our Schools and Reduction in Opportunity" and Even Represented (Hopefully You're Sitting for this) a Form of "Ethnic Cleansing"

Yeah, he was wrong. Yes, enrollment did drop slightly in the first few years but by year four it had recovered completely and even exceeded where it was initially. Granted, the distribution changed in that more black kids were enrolling at Santa Barbara, Riverside, Irvine, and Santa Cruz and less at Los Angeles and Berkeley but, being that the graduation figures at the latter two were what they were, this can only be a good thing. Piss on Jesse Jackson.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

On Micheal Savage's Theory that ISIS Is Allied Not Just with the United States but Israel as Well

This is why they pay him the big bucks, folks.

The Only Thing to Fear is Fear Itself?

Sorry, Franklin, but I have to dissent on this. Much more frightening in my opinion is an imperial Presidency which needlessly plunges the country into war, imprisons tens of thousands of its own citizens based solely on their ethnicity, attempts to pack the Supreme Court (nine justices wasn't enough, I guess) with little more than rubber stamps, utilizes the FBI and IRS as weapons of revenge, attempts to institute a top tax rate of 100% and orchestrate the entire economy from Washington as if it was his own private petri-dish, etc.. And, while, yes, Jefferson, Madison, and the rest of the Founding Fathers were flawed as well, the fact that they had had the foresight to warn us about tyrants like you leads me to think that there were at least SOME positive qualities floating around back then - some, as opposed to none.

Monday, June 15, 2015

On Rachel Maddow and Republicans

A Republican could find the cure for AIDS and take in every stray puppy from Puerto Toro to the Bay of Fundy and Ms. Maddow would still find fault with the person.

On Sean Hannity and Democrats

A Democrat could find the cure for AIDS and take in every stray puppy from Puerto Toro to the Bay of Fundy and Mr. Hannity would still find fault with the person.

On the Concept of Having the Hots for a Dude Who Dismembers People

And I thought that those chicks who found Jack Nicholson irresistible were bonkers.

My All-Time Favorite Bette Davis On-Screen Moment?

 
Wow, there are just so many to choose from (scenes from "Jezebel", "Dark Victory", "Now, Voyager", "All About Eve", "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane", etc.). But if I had to pick just one it would probably be that virulent, invective-laced tirade that she directed at Leslie Howard in "Of Human Bondage". Not only was this scene as raw and emotional as it gets (without being gonzo/over the top, that is), the fact that it took place in her first starring role (and garnering her first Oscar nomination) made it even more amazing, I think. Youza.

On More Entitlements Being the Solution to Income Inequality

Statistically it wouldn't show up in that transfer payments are rarely included in the tabulations. The only fool-proof way to reduce the statistical inequality would be to coax more than .5 workers per family into the work-force, get these people to stay in school, get them to refrain from procreating in their teen years, etc........That, and they need to be patient/cognizant of the fact that the data has consistently shown that the most common demographic in the top quintile, top 10%, top 1%, etc. is adults, ages 45 to 54 - that there isn't a magic bullet to the top, in other words.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

On Lindsay Graham (Again, Who I Like on a Personal Level) Saying that if We Don't Destroy ISIS In Iraq and Syria They'll Be Coming Over Here to Attack Us Next

And this will materialize how exactly? An armada of ships? A squadron of Black Hawk helicopters? An intercontinental ballistic missile? I mean, yeah, a couple of these schmucks could sneak into the country and detonate themselves. But they can do that now! Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to sit back and a) let the Iranians take the incoming fire for a while and b) focus more on port, airline, and border security? No, it's not as sexy as blowing stuff to smithereens but keeping OUR powder dry just might be good for a change.

On the Comparing of Scott Walker to Hitler

And we still have 17 more months of such niceties. Wake me when it's over.

On the Fact that a Lot of the Early Honchos at the NAACP Were White (Moorfield Story, William English Walling, Oswald Garrison Villard, Frances Blascoer, William F. White, etc.)

I'm not sure what to make of that (or of the fact that a few of them were classical liberals).

On the Concept of Profligate Deficit Government Spending Leading to Overall Societal Prosperity - Quick Addendum

And, no, I'm not proclaiming here that INTELLIGENT government spending can't be beneficial to the economy; INTELLIGENT infrastructure spending (in which you don't overpay and in which the projects are necessary), INTELLIGENT education spending (i.e., that which goes to the families for school choice and not to the teacher's unions, bureaucrats, etc.), etc., in that it is THIS type of spending which can make the country more competitive (i.e., a place where businesses might want to come). I just wanted to be clear on this and underscore that my beef is with the general Keynesian construct of priming the pump, the claim that this type of spending has a multiplier effect (it obviously doesn't and the private sector during WW2 is proof of that), etc..  


Stop "Helping" Already

According Thomas Sowell's "Affirmative Action Around the World" (a masterpiece according to Yale University's Donald Kagan and I agree), the average net worth of the black businesses who benefited from set-asides in the 1980s was actually HIGHER than the average net worth of the average white family - proving YET AGAIN that it is generally the more affluent black families that benefits from preferential policies and not the poor ones. Hello!!!!

Saturday, June 13, 2015

On the Fact that Banking, Mortgages, and Housing Were the Three Most Regulated Sectors of the American Economy and Yet this is Exactly Where the Problems Erupted Leading Up to the Financial Collapse

A total coinkydink, I gather.

On the Fact that the University of California Continues to Use Different Admissions Criteria for Hispanic and Asian-American Applicants

This is hurtful times two. a) It hurts the Asian students who are denied an opportunity and b) it hurts the Hispanic students in that it often puts them in an environment where they have difficulty competing and ultimately drop out (kids who, had they gone to Cal State Fullerton or Northridge instead, would have probably done quite well). My feeling is that if the government really wanted to help they would try and institute reforms at the K-12 level (school choice, taking on the teacher's unions, a stronger emphasis on trade schools and apprenticeships, etc.) and get the hell out of higher education as much as possible..................................................................................................P.S. It should also be pointed out that the government getting out of higher education would probably reduce the cost of it, too (the tuition cost at Harvard in the 1950s was $800 a year); the fact that they wouldn't be subsidizing it, etc..

On the Concept of Profligate Deficit Government Spending Leading to Overall Societal Prosperity

Yeah, I'm gonna go with, borderline insanity and no empirical evidence (a reference to Hoover, FDR, the Soviet Union, Japan, Bush Junior, Obama, etc.), on this one, folks.

The High Cost of Experimentation

While most colleges have generally been reticent to disclose the success rate of their affirmative action students, occasionally some data does get released. I cite specifically here a 1988 study which was published in "The Pubic Interest" and which stated that 70% of the affirmative action students at Cal Berkeley in the 1970s and '80s ended up either failing or dropping out. Yes, 70%! Of course, the saddest thing of all is that a) a lion share of these same students if they had just gone down the road to San Jose State probably would have not just graduated but graduated with honors and b) the politicians and activists whose policy this was and who have destroyed so many lives will more than likely never be held to account for it. Central planning devils these people are.

Friday, June 12, 2015

On Why I Heaved a Brick Through Paul Krugman's Window Tonight

Well, to stimulate the economy of course (actually I busted two windows 'cause I knew that he would say that one just wasn't enough).

On the Fact that Listening to the Beatles Was Sufficient to Get an Individual Jailed in the Early Days of Castro's Cuba (this, Per the 1984 Documentary, "Improper Conduct")


I guess that that's what you get when you seamlessly blend paranoia, fascism, and plain old lousy taste.

On the Fellow in California Who Got a Set-Aside Because He Was 1/64th Cherokee

While I've come across quite a few crazy affirmative action cases in my research, this one takes the cake for certain (word about town is that this guy makes Elizabeth Warren look like Chief Osceola....with a sunburn).............Source - Robert Zelnick's book, "Backfire".

On O'Reilly Using the Word, Blunted, in His Pot Piece Tonight

Yeah, he was quite oblivious to it.......and I laughed and I laughed.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

On John Kerry Claiming that He Docked His $7,000,000 Yacht (Manufactured in New Zealand with Zero Outrage from the Left) in Rhode Island Not to Avoid Paying Taxes (Sales and Excise) but for Chartering and Maintenance Reasons


I don't believe him for a New York minute. Do you?....................................................................................................P.S. And, while, yes, he did ultimately agree to pay the sales tax, a) he only did so when the publicity amped up and b) it still isn't absolutely clear that he HAS paid the taxes (the Boston Herald claims that the tax collector in Nantucket still doesn't have a record of payment). That, and I really love the way that he phrased it; that he would pay the taxes "whether owed or not", and that he was seemingly doing it out of magnanimity. Fuck him.

On Radical Redneck Saying that Black Folks Aren't "Buoyant" and So Why Would They Even Bother Trying to Swim?


Well, being that three African American swimmers made the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team (one of them, Cullen Jones, earning a gold medal) and a Jamaican woman (Alia Atkinson) won a gold medal at the 2014 world championships, simply stated, he's full of shit.......................................................................................P.S. And, yes, this guy IS a racist.

Dusty Rhodes (the American Dream) 1945 - 2015

Rest in pasta? Pancakes? Peanut Butter? Pepperoni? Pizza? Pepperoni Pizza? Pumpkin pie with ice cream? Pork chops? Peach cobbler/pie?

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

On the Fact that We Now Know that it Was D.A. Mosby Herself Who Had Ordered the Cops to Crackdown on that Very Street-Corner Where the Freddie Gray Fiasco Transpired

Granted, she didn't order the cops to give "rough rides" to suspects (assuming that that's what happened), but the fact that she is a potential witness here is a huge complication, and one that leads me to think that this chick needs to recuse herself and fast.................................................................................................Oh, and I also want to see the autopsy report. I mean, if it can be shown this guy had ingested his drug stash while fleeing from the police, he absolutely could have started seizing and that could have contributed to his injuries as well.

On the Fact that Fox News Continues to Give the Wall Street Journal an Open and Unfettered Forum to Spew its Neoconservative Bullshit

I think that I've been quite fair to Fox News (some might assert too fair); the fact that I've praised them for hiring Ed Henry, John Roberts, Maria Bartiromo, Howie Kurtz, and others, claimed that they were fairer and more reasonable than MSNBC, etc.. But I'm sorry, the fact that they week and week allow people like Brett Stephens and Dan Henninger to essentially spout neocon talking-points with nary a tiny slice of resistance is a bridge that this way too far for me and, yes, my viewership will sharply be reduced. Thank the Lord for Youtube.

On the Fact that a Connecticut Rapist (His Victim Was a 12 Year-Old) Was Recently Given Only a 3 Sentence With the Possibility of Early Release After 9 Months

Not to get all Bill O'Reilly on you but if that doesn't make you sick then you really need some self-reflection (http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2015/06/10/news/local/886984.txt)............................................................................................P.S. AND the dude only has to be on the sexual predator list for 10 years. UN-fucking-real.

On the Fact that the Soviet GDP in the 1970s and '80s Was Occasionally Bigger than that of the U.S.A.'s

Lots of weapons, lots of boondoggles/bridges to nowhere, not enough bread, milk, meat, etc........Central planning at its finest, in other words.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

On Anti-Gay Sentiments (and Worse) in the Black Community

It was one thing when blacks voted overwhelmingly against gay-rights in states like California and North Carolina but when you now have people like CNN's Don Lemon saying that "being gay is about the worst thing that you can be in black culture", black activist and writer Kenyon Farrow referring to the "anti-gay violence that plagues the black community", and leftist gay advocate Dan Savage concluding that "I am done pretending that the handful of racist gay white men out there are a bigger problem for African-Americans, gay and straight, than the huge number of homophobic African-Americans are for gay Americans, whatever the color", that definitely takes it up a notch. Of course, if you want to witness all of the glorious details, I strongly suggest that you check out the black on gay violence chapter in Colin Flaherty's disturbing volume, "White Girl Bleed a Lot". He documents it exhaustively and even references Youtube videos.

On the TSA's 95% Failure Rate During a Recent Audit and How the Secretary of Homeland Security Shamelessly Tried to Downplay it - Quick Addendum

According to a recent study from Cornell (http://reason.com/blog/2010/11/22/tsa-kills), the TSA is indirectly responsible for over 500 deaths per year; the fact that a lot of people simply don't want to put up with the idiocy and intrusiveness of a lot of those TSA techniques and opt instead to drive, increasing road fatalities (driving being a much more dangerous mode of transportation). I mean, it would be one thing if these strategies (one of which is patting down grandmothers) were effective in preventing terrorism but being that that doesn't seem to be the case, yeah, it looks a hell of lot more like the law of unintended consequences than anything else.


On Global Warming Wingnut, Gavin Schmidt, Refusing to Debate Roy Spencer on John Stossel's Show (Only Consenting to Appear Separately)

Well, considering how he got his ass handed to him by Richard Lindzen and Michael Crichton on that PBS Intelligence Squared debate, you can't really blame the guy now can you?

Monday, June 8, 2015

On the Fact that Both of Billy Bob Thornton's Oscar Nominations (for "Sling Blade" and "A Simple Plan") Came as a Result of Him Playing Mentally Deficient Fellows



Coincidental? I think not!

On the TSA's 95% Failure Rate During a Recent Audit and How the Secretary of Homeland Security Shamelessly Tried to Downplay it

This is a perfect example of why we should never, ever, allow the federal government to monopolize something (the fact that they will fuck it up, circle the damned wagons, etc.).

On the Fact that Only One Quarter of One Percent of the Minority-Owned Businesses in the U.S. Were Even Certified (Circa 2002) as Entitled to Preferences Under the Small Business Administration and Even Among that Minuscule Fraction of Minority Firms 2% Had Received 40% of the Money

This is how preferential policies have almost universally played out. Only those minorities that are already doing nicely (i.e., those from Pacific Palisades, the North Shore of Boston, Palm Beach County, the suburbs of New York City, etc.) reap the benefits while the truly needy essentially get bubkas. Yeah, we really need to reassess this one, folks.......................................................................................................Sources - George La Noue's essay, "Discrimination in Public Contracting" from "Beyond the Color Line" (edited by Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom) and Thomas Sowell's "Affirmative Action Around the World".

Sunday, June 7, 2015

On Why Donald Won't Run

Yeah, I'm maybe gonna go with, 'cause he's an egomaniac (not to mention, bullshit artist, publicity monger, etc.) and would never consent to share a stage with 10 other people. Sound about right?

On BB Saying that MBAs Are Arrogant but Mediocre

So, kind of like New York Times editorial writers, war-mongering politicians, ivory tower intellectuals (especially the ones who seem to hate free-speech), cable-news talking-heads, government sponsored scientists, central planners/bureaucratic douche-bags, community organizers who become President - people like that?

On the 1962 Cuban Terror Plan to Blow Up Numerous Buildings in Manhattan (Macy's, Gimbels, Bloomingdale's, and Grand Central Station Amongst the Targets)

It has been claimed by some (http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/18870) that the Castro regime was prepared to use over 500 kilos of TNT (five time the amount that al Qaeda used in their 2004 Madrid attack), and that the death tally would have exceeded that of 9/11. Holy crap, huh? Thankfully the FBI was able to foil the plot and can you really blame JFK at this juncture for trying to kill that SOB? I can't.

On a) the Claim by Diehard Alarmists that the World is Still Warming and b) People Who Think that it's AOK to Torture the Data

It's embarrassing and the fact that even Phil Jones ("no statistically significant warming since 1995"), Hans von Storch ("so far no one has been able to provide a compelling answer as to why climate change seems to be taking a break), and Kenneth Trenberth ("the fact that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't.") have all essentially admitted that the warming has stopped makes it even more so.

Saturday, June 6, 2015

On the Fact that (According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census; 1970, 1992, 1993), the Black Labor Force Participation and Marriage Rates Were Actually Higher than Those of White Citizens in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries (Only One to Two Generations After Slavery)

This should be eye-opening and mind-altering to folks but it undoubtedly won't be and if you listen closely you can almost hear the rationalizations forming already. It's kind of too bad in that we were led to believe by a lot of these same people that they wanted a conversation.......ON THIS VERY TOPIC. Oh well.

On the Fact that Professors at Hillsdale College (in Conjunction with Their New Course on the Federalist Papers) Are Asserting that Alexander Hamilton Was One of the Chief Architects of the Constitution

It is total bullshit. As WestConn historian and author, Kevin Gutzman, has repeatedly pointed out in his scathing indictment of the course (citing numerous errors and trashing their conclusions), this Hamilton fellow a) left the Philadelphia convention early on and remained away for a month, b) wasn't even afforded a vote on the final product, and c) had made it abundantly clear that he didn't like the document and even said that it wasn't appreciably better than the Articles of Confederation. I mean, I know that Colleges like Hillsdale have a proclivity to glorify past historical figures and all (I'm also picking up a neoconservative vibe of late) but you have to be at least a little careful with the basics, for Christ.  

Friday, June 5, 2015

On the Fact that Bush (Junior) Almost Sounded Disappointed (in His Memoir, "Decision Points") When He Learned that the National Intelligence Agencies Had Concluded that Iran WASN'T Building a Nuclear Weapon

Trouble in Axisland?

On the Fact that Admiral Fallon Stated that, "We Are Not Going to Do Iran on My Watch", Only to Be Cashiered Shortly After

If that isn't proof positive that the neocons ruled during the Bush years nothing is (with the only reason that we didn't attack Iran in 2007 being the NIE, which categorically stated that Iran WASN'T working on an atomic weapon and hadn't been since 2003).

Thursday, June 4, 2015

On the Much Lauded Military Exploits of Che Guevara and the Castro Brothers

Nothing but more propaganda. As historian, Hugh Thomas, has pointed out, the deposing of Batista was largely made possible by an agreement called the Miami Pact in which anti-Batista Cuban politicians and wealthy exiles bought off the military commanders in Batista's army. I mean, if you want to call that heroism, knock yourself out, but a war in which you only lose 20 guys (a modest week in Baltimore of late) over several years isn't exactly the stuff of legends. Sorry............."In all essentials, Castro's battle for Cuba was a PUBLIC RELATIONS (my emphasis) campaign fought in New York and Washington." Thomas in his own words.

On the Concept of Gun Prohibition

Let's see, considering how smashingly well that the prohibition on alcohol went, and how well that the prohibition on drugs is currently working out, yes, it sounds like a boffo plan to me.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

On the Fact that the Castros and Guevara Executed Nearly 1,200 "War Criminals" at the End of a War that Only Had 184 Casualties ON BOTH SIDES!!

These folks weren't war criminals. They were predominantly the officer core of the Cuban army, and the only reason that they were being murdered was because of Castro's 24/7 fear of a military coup (kind of like Joe Stalin and his purge). That's it and the rest is propaganda.

Lose that T-Shirt, for Christ

According to the Black Book of Communism, Che Guevara (in his role as Castro's chief executioner) ordered the murder of more than 14,000 people in the first year of the revolution alone (this would be the equivalent of Bush or Obama executing 700,000 Americans). Throw in the fact that he was also apparently a racist, a rapist, a homophobe, an animal torturer, and heaven only knows what else and it really is quite disturbing that there are still a bunch of useful idiots out there who worship this bloodthirsty bastard. Fuck him.

On the Fact that Che Guevara and the Castro Brothers Initially Tried to Portray Themselves as Pro-Democracy and Anti-Communist Freedom-Fighters (this, While They Were All Staying Up to 4 AM Every Night Beating Their Meat to Marx, Engels, Lenin, Etc.)

Ah, the old political bait-and-switch tactic. It never gets stale, now does it? 

On the Forced-Labor Camps that Castro First Set Up in Camaguey in 1965

Yeah, they were loaded to the gills with "undesirables"; tramps, drug-addicts, prostitutes, hippies (i.e., those that listened to the Beatles, the Stones, etc.), Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals (and, please, keep in mind here that these Commie madmen pretty much suspected that ALL artists, intellectuals, and writers were gay), etc., and it was always considered a critical part of the "purge". Nice fellas', huh?............................................................................................P.S. For a more in depth evaluation of these atrocities, I strongly suggest that the reader check out the documentary, "Improper Conduct". It'll fill a lot of it (a man-sized dose and not for the squeamish) in for you.

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

On Joe Biden's Claim that a Two Gauge Shotgun Is Easier to Operate and Safer for a Women to Use than an AR 15

He is wrong on this one. a) The average shotgun would all but knock a small woman over and probably damage her shoulder. b) The fact that it only has two rounds before you have to reload (a process that takes between five and ten seconds) would clearly put the women at a disadvantage (especially so if there are multiple assailants). And c) there is a much greater chance of collateral damage with a shotgun due to the wide dispersing of pellets.......Look, I'm not trumpeting anything here. I'm not a gun-rights advocate OR a gun-control advocate (please, call me an empiricist, if anything). I would just like for there to be a modicum of intellectual honesty and common sense to be used in the debate, that's all.

Monday, June 1, 2015

On Ann Coulter Going on Hannity Tonight and Claiming that They Had a Hard Time Finding Somebody to Debate the Other Side of the Illegal Immigration Issue (and so They Opted Instead for Their Usual Fodder)

Might I possibly suggest Ben Powell from Texas Tech, Bryan Caplan from George Mason, Jason Reilly from the Wall Street Journal, Michael Huemer from the University of Colorado, Giovanni Peri (and my personal favorite on this issue) from Cal Davis, Richard Ebeling from the Citadel and the Future of Freedom Foundation. I am quite positive that any of these individuals would be more than happy to debate Ms. Coulter, even on Hannity's dopey program.

The "Gone with the Wind" of the West?

From my perspective, yes; a phenomenal cast, superb cinematography, an epic and riveting story line, flawless direction from William Wyler, etc.. And the fact that (as with "Gone with the Wind") you can watch it over and over and never get sick of it (how could anybody get sick of watching Jean Simmons?)- that's what probably clinches it for me, folks. Please, do yourself  a favor and check this film out.