Saturday Randomness

I was reading Fred on Everything (he is interesting - an ex-cop with a jaundiced view of some of them, an expatriate living in Mexico, who contradicts many of the stereotypes about Mexicans, etc.), and he posted on a hot topic - police presence in Black neighborhoods.  His take is - refreshing.

Another column of his that is worth reading is his analysis of how America is already in the dumps - BEFORE Trump.  We've already been taken over by special interests, and no longer live in a democracy (or republic).

If, like me, you want to return to a time of more freedom, pre-Federal-government-runs-everything, we might want to start planning how to take the Feds down - NOT with warfare, but with resistance, tactical refusal to give them our money, and state-by-state resistance.  I'm NOT talking revolution - that's a dead idea.  Instead, let's work incrementally, to chip away at Leftist strongholds.

Some starting points:

• Stop sending them money.  Find work that can be done under-the-table.  No taxes, no Social Security.  That last part would be difficult, but COULD be made up by the local authorities, who could collect at that level what is needed by people with no other resources.  The fact is, most people have other resources (and, when they don't have to pay Federal taxes, they have more).  Stick your extra money under the mattress - you don't want to leave it in banks, where it is vulnerable to being confiscated.


• Refuse to give ONE penny to any college for worthless degrees.  Tell your kids - "I'll pay for you to get a trade".  That's likely to be the best thing you'll ever do for that kid - it's a way of earning a living that is less likely to be outsourced.


• Maine is one of the states that reduced its welfare rolls by insisting on able-bodied people actually looking for work, enrolling in job programs, or working at part-time unpaid activities.  Surprise, surprise, as Gomer Pyle would say - almost all said, "Not worth it", and dropped off the rolls.  Other states could do this.


• Return the Federal lands to the people.  In several states, this could be a new Settlement Rush.  If there are FEMA-type trailers stored in the state, let them be re-purposed (NO complaints about their condition - the receivers fix them up themselves, and Caveat Emptor).


• Take back the schools - clear out much of the administration, turn them over to local organizations, who are responsible for finding the funding.  Except in the poorest sections of town, schools should be fully funded by the LOCAL neighborhood.  Yes, I'm talking breaking up the big city schools.  With the administration gone, costs should drop, while STILL allowing the teachers to get paid reasonably.  Replace the assistant principals with recently retired military - the AP's are mostly used for muscle to control the students, so let's get in people who know how to keep people in line.  Actually TEACH reading - anyone who cannot read at grade level should spend 1/2 their day in disciplined phonics-based reading programs - reading content-rich practical text, or NON-dystopian literature.  Anyone who cannot do math at grade level should be spending the class time on old-fashioned programs, like Saxon Math.  What little time remains should be spend on civics education that actually teaches about the Constitution and other foundational documents and principles, and practical science.

This is a link to a VERY pessimistic column.  I'm not so sure they are right - while the young seem to embrace the Socialist Revolution, at this point, it's theoretical, and their "enlightened" attitudes don't cost them.  Once the impact of the price exacted comes home, I doubt they will continue their "yeah, let's spread money around" thinking.

One MAJOR reason that the country has changed is that there are a whole lot of women who are supported by government, whether directly, with welfare or government employment, or indirectly, in nonprofits and niches like Human Resources, which are required to be so bloated because of governmental regulations.  Take away the regs, and many women in these staff positions will find themselves on the street.  At that point, they MAY come to their senses.  Either way, citizens will no longer be funding their hectoring.

I'm thinking divide & conquer:

• Use legal means to reduce government.  Fewer regulations, liberation of federal lands (with encouragement to settle on them, we might reduce the numbers in the cities), reduction of administrative bloat in government.


• Write GOOD curriculum for all ages, to explain what good government looks like, and what limitations on the federal government already exist.  Offer it, free, to schools, along with e-books telling stories that reinforce those ideas.

Lastly, here is a link to someone who, like me, supported Cruz.  Now, she has to decide which candidate will do the LEAST damage to the USA.

I've been getting rosy economic stories from Liberal/Progressive friends.  Apparently, thinking that Obama's disastrous economic policies have created a hollowed-out economy is blatant racism.

Mea culpa.

Of course, there is this, and this.  BTW, that last stat?  Straight from the Labor Dept.



 

Apparently, no matter how you massage numbers, the damned things just keep adding up to the same conclusion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday Randomness

I'm watching To Catch a Smuggler - it's absolutely fascinating.  There are many connections to chemistry, that I can bring back into the classroom.

I'm going to use the series next year to introduce How to Apply the Scientific Method.

Later in the evening:  I watched the Jazz Concert at the White House - quite enjoyable, nice way to spend the evening.

The weather is VERY wet.  Fortunately, we needed the rain.  There is some flash floods in the area.

The weather screwed up the DISH.  So, we've been watching standard network television.  We got a small receiver some time ago, that is about the size and shape of an iPad.  We pick up quite a few channels in HD.

Ignoring the REAL History

I've noticed this for some time.  Leftists impose a distorted view of Western history, that - er - "whitewashes" the evil that non-White people did to the White people they conquered.

Leftists will insist that Andalusian Spain was a Heaven on Earth - filled with Islamic scholarship, equality between all religions, and a Paradise for women.

Don't believe it.  The Muslims imposed their rule by force, and did NOT treat the Christians kindly.  Read the full Front Page Magazine story, and pass it on.

PRO-Western Civ

Isn't it funny that such a statement makes me stand out?  I'll make it more pointed:

I am devoutly, unashamedly in favor of teaching ALL students who are on track to be high school graduates, the Foundations of Civilization, from the perspective of Western History.

This DOESN'T mean that students shouldn't learn about other cultures, just that we shouldn't glamorize them at the expense of their own culture:

• Learn about Japan, including its history of rule by military, its current political and economic structure, and, by the way, Japan's complete exclusion of other races/ethnic groups from full participation in that culture.  They are quite racist, as well.


• China - its colonization of other countries, including the country of Tibet.  Its shaky economic structure, its refusal to allow Free Speech, Freedom of Religion, and its use of political prisoners as slave labor.


• France - its interlocking elitist governance, its abandonment of elderly people to die, its colonizing past (which, when they left Vietnam, did nothing to restore the country and led the condemnation against America for stepping into the breach), and it willingness to cooperate with vile dictators, while villifying Israel.

I could go on and on.  We need leaders whose first impulse is not to apologize for our country, our culture, and our history.  We need students to learn about the GOOD our country, and the whole of Western peoples have done.  We need proud defenders of democracy, freedom, and Western culture.

Read more here.

LOST Again

UPDATE:  Almost forgot to credit Bastion of Liberty, who first alerted me to this.

The Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST, for short) never did get ratified, despite SERIOUS efforts by the various Progressive/Liberal/Leftist/Socialist/Etc. groups.  What is LOST?  (Admittedly, the source at the link REALLY doesn't like the treaty, but it is a fair summary of it, and its potential consequences).

The Law of the Sea Treaty calls for technology transfers and wealth transfers from developed to undeveloped nations.  It also requires parties to the treaty to adopt regulations and laws to control pollution of the marine environment.  Such provisions were among the reasons President Ronald Reagan rejected the treaty in 1982.  As Edwin Meese, U.S. Attorney General under President Reagan, explained, "...it was out of step with the concepts of economic liberty and free enterprise that Ronald Reagan was to inspire throughout the world."

In additional to the economic provisions, the treaty also establishes specific jurisdictional limits on the ocean area that countries may claim, including a 12-mile territorial sea limit and a 200-mile exclusive economic zone limit.

Well, the LOST-pushers - um, LOST.  But, like any good vampire, the backers don't give up - they rise from their coffins, and again attack!

This time, they're using the high-minded Protection of the Environment angle.  (Link is to the UN resolution).

an international legally binding instrument under theUnited Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea1 on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction.

The parts about resource-sharing (i.e., those that DIDN'T spend a dime obtaining those resources still have a claim to the $$$$$), technology-sharing (oh, how WELL other countries share with us; unfortunately, much of our "sharing" is involuntary).

But, will it pass?

Not to worry, as the British used to say!  The Obama administration won't let pesky things like Separation of Powers stop them from implementing their Very Good Ideas (VGIs).  For example:

The Administration has already anted up domestically on some of the big-ticket possibilities under discussion, with, among other things, its huge expansion by executive order in September 2014 of the Remote Pacific Islands National Marine Monument in the central Pacific Ocean into a half-million-square-mile oceans preserve.

U.S. environmental groups are lobbying now for additional marine monument areas off the coast of New England, site of some of the U.S.’s most important Atlantic fisheries.

Such preserves—known as marine protected areas or MPAs, in Law of the Sea jargon—are a major focus of attention for the U.S.-based Pew Charitable Trusts, which has been lobbying governments around the world for years to create them.

In other words - you silly states and commonwealths, you think you control the areas given to you?  Na-nah.  Big Daddy Fed is in charge of it ALL.

Practical Considerations, Not Hate

It's a practical issue. When I was working as a bartender, if a man had tried to enter the female bathroom, I was on firm grounds to eject him, and had the ability to call the police to remove him, with the practical side-effect of NOT having to have evidence that he had caused trouble. His male genitalia was evidence enough that he was in the wrong.
Without that power, you have to wait until AFTER he has caused harm. There was a book written about the West Side Rapist and one of the most interesting points is that the guy had been picked by the police several times, for "Peeping Tom" behavior - looking in windows at women.
Harmless, right?
Wrong.
James Neff explains this activity as "pre-rape behavior" - the scouting around due to the perp's preferring to ascertain whether the intended victim is sufficiently isolated.
THAT'S what the law is meant to deter.

NOT a female-appearing person entering the ladies room, doing his business, and leaving.  Not a female?  If you can pass successfully, who cares?

Not someone who has gone "the Full Monty", and no longer has male parts.

But, the physically-male person that hangs around, looks for victims, and takes advantage of the isolation.

And, without a firm line drawn between men - those with "outies", and women - those with innies, those opposing the law will unwittingly facilitate rape.

Elitist Snobbery - And What It Means for America

America, we are told by Progressives, is FILLED with those icky people who are not comfortable with those that differ from them ethnically, culturally, or religiously.

Progressives, on the other hand, PRIDE themselves on their carefree ability to associate with - well, just about ANYONE (because they are so cosmopolitan and worldly).

This is shown by their patting themselves on the back for having a passport, and using it, preferably in out-of-the-way places.  They sneer at those who travel by group; it shows their discomfort with cultures and places that are not familiar.

There is one ethnic group, and culture, that the Elites are afraid of, suspicious of, and nearly totally ignorant of - the White American.

Oh, the Elites will tell you exactly what the White American believes, thinks, does, and IS.  They KNOW.  Without any attempt to actually spend any time with "Those People".

Such ignorance, combined with disdain, is what Elites accuse "Those People" of (Yes, I do know that I am ending my sentences with a preposition.  That's what we Ohioans do.  Get over it.).

Muffin top on White Americans?  Evidence of their inability to control their appetites.

Muffin top on an Elite?  A relaxed attitude towards media-imposed conventions.

Drug use in White Americans?  Evidence of their laziness, criminal tendencies, and poor self-control.

Drug use in Black Americans?  Evidence of the oppression of them by White Americans.

Drug use in Elites?  Oh, come on!  EVERYBODY does it - totally unimportant.

Removing White American children from public schools, due to concerns about academic quality and poor cultural influences?  Evidence of Racism, a whole lot of -Phobias, and anti-intellectualism.

Removing Elite children from public schools, due to concerns about academic quality and poor cultural influences?  Just protecting their own - Totally justified (after all, the Clintons and Obamas did it).

White American not making the grade in school?  They're just stupid - probably a result of all that inbreeding.

Black American not making the grade in school?  Oppression by White Americans.

Elite not making the grade in school?  Child is (pick one or more): Learning Disabled, Autistic, Brilliant, but not understood by those mediocre teachers, Learns by a Different Modality (and, the teacher BETTER completely accommodate that difference - or ELSE).

Whatever the problem, Elites are excused from responsibility - unlike White Americans.