Spread The Word

An excellent analysis of the militia over at My Daily Kona.

Long, but well done!

Though I doubt that anyone reading here isn't already reading there...

Dimzi

An interesting fact that frequent commenter (and meatspace friend) Technomad pointed out to me in the distant mists of time:

Nazi was derogatory slang for NSDAP.

It played on a Bavarian pet name for Ignaz, which translates from German as "Cleetus" does in modern American.

Now that we're being confronted with an advanced case of fascism under several names, including Democratic Socialism; I propose a new name for them

Dimzi.  Dim because they are dim and because it's a homophone for Dem from democratic and Democrat.  Zi because it riffs off of the Nazi they so resemble.

Like the NSDAP, they will dislike the slang term.

I Think I Know Why

63% of adults under 40 do not know that six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust.

The Florida Board of Education is meeting at The Holocaust Museum in St Pete to discuss what to do about that.

I think I know why kids don't know.

Because if you teach about The Holocaust, you have to teach them about The Nazis.

If you teach about the Nazis, you have to tell them where the name comes from.

Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or National Socialist German Workers' Party.

Then you'd have to explain to the kids how National Socialism is somehow different from Democratic Socialism.  (Hint: They're not)

If you did teach these things, they'd see that the Antifa is just a different flavor of socialist agitation, communist opposition to the fascist national socialism.

They'd see that today's Antifa isn't opposing fascism, but taking the role of the Italian Black Shirt or the Nazi Brownshirt.

But we dare not teach the kids about the evils of socialism.  Otherwise they might also notice that trade unions have their wings dipped in the same red blood.

Hey, isn't Mrs Teacher in a union?

CLICK!

I feel like James Burke.

A Joke

Remember how we used to make macaroni art when we were kids?

I have an idea for something humorous, and I wonder if it could get me an invite to The White House.

Depends on Don's sense of humor.

Glue some rice to a piece of card stock in the shape of an 'N'.

Rice-N, get it?  Prolly best to frame it.

Then get a copy of "State of Euphoria".

Someone needs to break the damn mood.

I wonder if he'd think it was funny.

I'd love the headline to be, "Florida Man offers President Trump Rice-N and Anthrax, receives invitation to White House."

Wish me luck.

PS: There is absolutely nothing nefarious implied in this post.  The only possible way this could harm the president is if he's got a food allergy to rice or listens to the CD at ear-drum shattering volume.

Diversity

I'm starting to notice that conservatives and Republicans are gaining in diversity of thought as Democrats shove ever further left.

Yes, it does mean that Republicans are skewing more to the left as people shift, but the defectors are moving right to meet them.

I've noticed that I can still have a civil discussion with a staunch, red-winged, conservative, Christian abortion prohibitionist about abortion.  I don't change their mind, but they don't walk away wishing me dead.

It's because we feel that the proper course is to convince rather than force.  That we fail to convince each other isn't casus belli to begin to force the other to confirm.

Personally, I've walked away with fresh perspective.  It's where my statement that people who've a religious objection to abortions shouldn't have their tax money spend on funding them.  And because money is fungible, that means that no government funding of abortions would be allowed under the 1st Amendment and 14th Amendment.

Private funding would be available for the same reasons.  You cannot force your religion and its position on abortion on someone else with government.

You're free to convince them outside of government, and you should keep trying.

IMPORTANT NOTE: That was an example, not an invitation to voice your opinion on abortion or try to convince me to your side.  Comments along those lines for this post will be deleted with as much Ruth as the SCOTUS currently has.

But the fact that we can actually talk among ourselves about many of these divisive issues shows more diversity than the supposed party of diversity.

They only care about the superficial differences and visible diversity.

All must conform.

That's why their judges are in lock-step.  Conformity.

That's why our judges often piss us off.  Diversity.

It's why we're more comfortable with freedom.  We're independent, not dependent.

It's why when I was asked, "do you have any black friends?" I replied, "No.  I only have friends."

She'd Do

Amy Barrett would do as a proper replacement for Scalia even though she'd be replacing Bader Ginsberg.

It doesn't hurt a bit that she's relatively young.

She'd be on the bench a good long time and she's with us on the gun issue.

Smoke

I am surprised that the "Dunkin Donuts" logo isn't burning off the wall at Rogers Place in Edmonton like the Ark of the Covenant burned off the Nazi markings in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

It's Canada, and that means Tim Horton's!

You'd Think There'd Have Been An Orientation

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, says that she will use impeachment to block President Trump's Supreme Court nominee.

I am constantly astonished at the lack of civics knowledge in our elected officials, since it's those self-same civics which gets them elected.

But I will citizensplain it to Nance.

The president nominates candidates for the Supreme Court.

The Senate votes to accept or reject that candidate.

At no time does it go to The House.

But, let's say that Nancy wishes to impeach the President for doing something which he's required to do by The Constitution.

The candidate is not invalidated by impeachment.  The Senate may choose to reject the nominee, but there's nothing which demands they do if the President who nominated them is impeached.

This is all covered in a very basic civics class.

Again, Democrats, nothing you use to snag or keep power will be off limits in the future.

You're treading dangerous ground here.

I'll give you another scenario.

A Democrat, like Obama, gets elected when Republicans control both houses of Congress.  They decide to impeach and convict for shallow and partisan reasons.

It's all perfectly legal.  The Constitution was written by people who believed in a bit of honor and integrity.  When you chuck the integrity, and weaponize the civics, you don't get your way, you get chaos.

Chaos doesn't lead to any desirable outcomes and often bites those trying to direct it hardest.

OK

 Hey, Dems, all of your "great" ideas to grab power are ALWAYS used by the Republicans against you later.

You're screaming about adding to the numbers of justices on The Supreme Court.

You do realize that Trump has an excellent chance of being reelected, right?

You should be careful, you might convince him and Cocaine Mitch that expanding the court is a good idea.

Imagine if they added the entire list that Trump bandied about the other day.

The people are going to object if this goes on too long, and they will seek different representation.

It's happened before, and it's happened to Democrats.

Glee Becomes Despair

I've been comparing and contrasting the responses to the death of a Supreme Court Justice.

I remember the glee which the Left responded to Antonin Scalia's death and the unbounded joy they expressed that a conservative justice would be replaced by President Obama.

I remember all their demands, that the Senate stop stalling and install Garland.

I remember them all taking the position that waiting until after the election was wrong.  Including Ruth Bader Ginsberg herself.

I remember their despair when it was realized that the Republicans, not the Democrats controlled the Senate and they could sit on their hands over the appointment for as long as they'd like.

A lesson they'd hard learned from watching their Democrat colleagues.

Even more fun, for me, is the petard that is launching the Democrat's despair is their own.

Thank you Harry Reid!

Poof

This is not the post that I opened the composer for.

The idea that I had for the post evaporated the moment I had the blank surface exposed.

I'll try again later.

Another /5 Anniversary

Today marks ten years on Blogger!

We blame Weer'd!  Weer'd who doesn't even really blog anymore while his wife tolerates his shameless flirting with Erin.  We listen to ACP, we know.  (GRIN)

He convinced me to come out into the wider world of blogging and grew my audience from friends and family to at least six more people.

Three of them even kept reading!

There've been ups and downs, of course, conflicts and reconciliations...

But I'm still having fun and trying to put at least three posts a day to practice this newspaper of my life thing.

Three Oh

Today I have been out of the Army for 30 years.

Wow.  Where does the time go?

That's a long time to be gimping along on a improperly healed leg.

Yet, I'd probably do it again.

ARRRRRRRR!

T'day be "Talk like a Pyrate Day" in the "civilized" world.

Don' say we dinnae warn ye!

Don' be no lubber.

That's Counts As A Burn

Cocaine Mitch looks to have a spine over SCOTUS vote.

Chuck (boo hiss) Schumer says we should wait until after the election because, "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice."

 Mitch McConnell retorted, "By contrast, Americans reelected our majority in 2016 and expanded it in 2018 because we pledged to work with President Trump and support his agenda, particularly his outstanding appointments to the federal judiciary. Once again, we will keep our promise."

That's as damn near as saying, "The American people do have a voice and they've spoken."

I know I have.

RBG Passed Away

 What else do I have to say?

 

Happy Birthday!

No longer the junior service, today the USAF is 73 years old.

Ain't they adorable?

Admit it, Airdales, it's kinda nice to look patronizingly at the Space Forces, isn't it?

Fixing It

 One if the great things about Lego is the ability to fix it if they get it wrong.

Kit 75283 Armored Assault Tank depicts an AAT from The Clone Wars TV series.

The gun is way too long.

The gun from kit 75080 is better proportioned.

To the parts bin!

I have the parts to make a very similar gun to 75080 which will install into the 75283 nicely.

Et Voila!

This checks against the images from the show much better as well.

One change I made from the initial build was to put the wing guns in upside down from the instructions.  The long barrel is on top in the show.

What Would He Know?

Mike Ditka has some choice words for the pamperati.

It's significant because Mr Ditka's career starts before the era of vast paychecks for players and coaches.

Again?

All cop shows must address police brutality!

The Lovely Harvey loves police procedurals.  It's her second favorite genre after horror.

I hate to break it to Mr Braugher but... 

There's been an episode in EVERY cop show since... at least CHiPs that's included something about police brutality.

And racism.

And domestic violence.

And drug use.

And sexism.

And homophobia.

The topics have been covered more thoroughly than, "a black hatted stranger comes to town," was in westerns.

It's Odd Because It's An Itch Already Scratched

I dunno why I want that retro version of the Mossberg 590.

I don't shotty.

I own my Remington 870 Express because a 12 or 20 gauge pump shotgun is on my list of guns every gun owner should own.

It's got almost all of the features of the Mossberg and is already paid for.  It's better than the 590 because it's got them spiffy Sage sights on it.  I could even put the wood back on if I've a mind to.

Something to keep in mind is it doesn't appear that one should own a Remington and a Mossberg shotgun.  Just as you shouldn't mix Glocks and 1911s or AKs and ARs.

I don't need to go retro, because I have vintage! The Winchester Model 12 Heavy Duck is verra nice.

It even breaks down into an easily transportable size, plus I have a leather case for it.

 It also sits in the safe, unfired.

The wants, of course, are not bound by logic.

Even In Program Mode

 My Canon M50 is such grown-up camera compared to the old SX-20.

Even in program mode there are lots and lots of settings to play with whereas the Powershot had just a couple.

Things like being able to tell the camera where you'd like it to focus.

Things you only notice when you've got it set contrary to your desires and are cussing it for grabbing a object off to one side of the subject.  Operator error.

I should look up some YouTube photography tutorials and learn what all these settings do.

ETS Date

Today is the day United States Army Air Force exited the Army.

Thus ceasing to be in the military.

I know, I know, they talk like they're a branch... but when I ETS'd, I became a civilian.

Technically, I think they retired from the Army, it would explain all the golf courses.

I Sent Him To Die

JT has a Netflix account.

I had him take one for the team and watch "Cuties" so we don't have to.

His first impression is that it was a horrible film without considering the subject matter, and it's poorly dubbed in English over French.

The subject matter...

The entire endeavor is creepy.

It could be used by a pedo to get their rocks off, but is likely too mild for them.

The competition the girls are participating in exists outside the making of the film, that's the real nasty bit of the deal.

That these children do this, willingly or not, is abusive.

The situations depicted might have been orchestrated by the filmmaker for effect!!!!!

If the goal of the filmmaker was to shine a light on the darkness which is the pageants which sexualize children, the equivalent film to stop animal abuse is 2-hours of torturing puppies the filmmaker purchased for the film.

He does not recommend, but also says that it's not outright porn.

Slow Picture

 

The back yard with the new lights on.

I took the pic that same night, but got lazy about taking the card out of the camera and uploading the pic.

Thinking Must Be Painful

I've noticed that when I get a tad political on Facebook some of my friends get very upset.

I think the main problem is I'm pointing out that many of the things they do have consequences outside their temporary enjoyment.

Consequences they don't like.

Consequences they don't want to think are because they're doing what they're doing.

They always twist it into being my fault for pointing them to the dissonance.

But It Does Matter

I have never enjoyed football.

I find it tedious, repetitive and boring.

I solved my problem of not enjoying football by not watching it.

I ignored football as much as humanly possible in a nation where football is akin to religion.

I can't ignore the NFL any more.

Why?

Because they've decided to hate me.

Their hate of my country and my race has led me to double check if, in ignorance, I was supporting them.

For the most part I wasn't, but one place where I worry is my patronage of the local craft breweries.

Many of them were bragging about the return of the NFL to the TV and they would have the game on.

Just as they've always done.

But even as recently as last year, the NFL wasn't an active agent in hate.

That is no longer true.

What does a person of good conscience do in this situation?

Do I reward the breweries who brag they've got the games on?  Even though the channel carrying the game, the league sanctioning the game, the teams and the players have all advocated hatred of white people, arson, rioting, destruction and crime.

Do I stop going to breweries who've aligned themselves with this hate group or do I ignore it while their hate creeps up around my neck?

The support might be tangential, but tangential support is the easiest to withdraw.

Where Have I Been

 On a whim I grabbed a gun magazine off the rack at the grocery store.

It has a Mossberg 590 Retrograde model in it.

I kinda want one.

MSRP is quite affordable as well.

Update:

MSRP for the 590 model is affordable.  The 590A1 with the peep sights and thicker wall barrel is not.

Snopes Would Agree

It has been brought to my attention that I am a worthless piece of shit, devoid of value and without redeeming qualities.

When I agreed with this assessment of my character, who am I to disagree as a worthless piece of shit, devoid of value and without redeeming qualities, I got a private message which underscored that not only was I a worthless piece of shit, devoid of value and without redeeming qualities, but I was also unable to comprehend their simple, deleted, missive alluding to my objective value.

I am sad.

But worthless pieces of shit, devoid of value and without redeeming qualities do not deserve sympathy or compassion.

Be sure to kick me in the teeth for having the temerity to have bothered you with my existence.

But Is There One...

Citizen scientists locate a lot of brown dwarfs, including some which are quite cold.

But is there one about halfway between here and Barnard's Star?

If there is, beware of the UN passing a treaty in New York real soon now...

There Are People Whom Are More Wealthy Than I Am?

 No way!

I get a YouTube ad telling me that the richest people are 100 times more wealthy than the average person.

They blame Republicans and claim that Republicans want them to get richer.

The '80's called and want their talking points back.

The Democrat party is the party of vast, unaccountable wealth now.

Name a Republican billionaire.  Go on.

Name a large business that's backing Trump.

Hard to find, isn't it?

Now how much money is backing liberal causes?

George Soros isn't a conservative or a Republican and he's not donating to those causes.

Silicon Valley isn't pandering for a conservative renaissance and backing Republican candidates.

The "mainstream" media is not covering for the gaffes of Republicans.

Sports and entertainment are not making efforts to appeal to me and condemning people who aren't like me for excluding people like me from films, television and sportsball.

That's most of the richest people in the US right there.  The people that the Biden Campaign ad claims the Republicans are going to make richer if I don't vote for Joe.

Here's the thing, Joe, their wealth is included in that average wealth calculation.  The rising tide does lift all boats.  It's part and parcel of the invisible hand of the marketplace.

Heads Up Mr Grosskreutz

When Mr Rittenhouse is exonerated for shooting you, expect charges of assault with a deadly weapon to be leveled against you.

Expect to be convicted, because most of the discovery for your guilt will have been established by the defense in the Rittenhouse case.

Expect me to laugh my ass off!

Nothing To Say About Yesterday

 Going silent on 9-11 seems a better way to seethe than to post a picture or a video.

I don't feel like we got our righteous vengeance.

Until we do, I will not commemorate the day.  Not until it's over.

I do, however, think we're starting to punish those who funded it by killing the price of oil via fracking.

It's making them very compliant with other national interest items.

That's a good thing!

Pasco County Florida Department Of (Not-Really) Pre-Crime

 Tampa Bay Pravda published an article on Pasco's Intelligence Led Policing.

One thing I noticed was

In the past two years alone, two of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies have scrapped similar programs following public outcries and reports documenting serious flaws.

They don't name whom the two agencies are.  But most of the largest agencies are also in the places where there' no Republican option, and hasn't been for decades and have gigantic crime problems. 

Pasco County Sheriff's Department was, understandably, miffed at this article and they published a response to Facebook.

We are aware of a recent report by a media outlet in the Tampa Bay area that attempts to paint our Intelligence-Led Policing philosophy in a negative light.

While the media outlet was provided over 30 pages of factual information to disprove their theory of so-called “harassment”, it was extremely disappointing to see this fact-based information take a backseat to supposed “reliable sources”, who have lengthy criminal histories, or who are former members of the Pasco Sheriff’s Office that were held accountable for their actions.


For example, the “reliable sources” named in this report who were held accountable for their actions by the Pasco Sheriff’s Office engaged in conduct such as:

* One “reliable source” quoted by the article, leading up to their resignation from the agency, was under investigation for engaging in sexual relations with a confidential informant

* One “reliable source” quoted by the article had numerous, documented accounts of insubordination and failing to follow proper policies and procedures of the Pasco Sheriff’s Office

* One “reliable source” quoted by the article abandoned an extra duty detail without permission and went to a female subordinate’s personal residence while she was off duty without invitation

Sadly, one of these supposed “reliable sources” admitted in the article that he did not follow proper policies and procedures by not documenting prolific offender checks, though we are unable to verify this information. This failure to follow policy and procedure is exactly why the “reliable source” is no longer with the Pasco Sheriff’s Office, along with several other policy violations.

It is dismaying to see the media demand accountability in law enforcement, something the Pasco Sheriff’s Office wholly supports and endorses as evidenced by our use of Body Worn Cameras as a small example, only to then use those who were held accountable as “reliable sources” with no consideration of their past actions or what led them to be held accountable. 


Let us be abundantly clear, the Intelligence-Led Policing philosophy works and has worked around the Tampa Bay area, as the same philosophy is used by numerous law enforcement agencies. It works because it reduced residential burglaries in Pasco County by 74.4% since it was implemented in 2011 and it works because property crimes are down 35.6% in that same time period. In fact, ILP was started in England in the 1990s and is hardly a new phenomenon or approach to law enforcement.

Contrary to the report, ILP is not a futuristic, predictive model where people are arrested for crimes they have not yet committed. Instead, the system is based SOLELY on an individual’s criminal history. Multiple studies have shown that 6% of the population commit 60% of the crime and that is what this model focuses on.

Let us, again, be profusely clear that this model is based SOLELY on an individual’s criminal history. It is nameless, faceless, ageless, genderless and removes ALL identifying factors of an individual, EXCEPT for their criminal history. This philosophy removes any chance of bias in law enforcement, which is something that should be celebrated.


For example, an individual who was arrested 15 times in the last three years is more likely to commit an additional crime, as evidenced by a documented propensity for committing crime, than someone who has never been arrested. As such, the Pasco Sheriff’s Office visits and provides resources to the person who was arrested 15 times to attempt to break the cycle of recidivism and better protect our community from crime.


This is not a judgment on an individual with a criminal history but, instead, a fact that cannot be ignored as we attempt to positively impact the criminal environment in Pasco County and keep our community safe.

That is what the ILP philosophy is, not a futuristic, crime predictive tool that arrests an individual for crimes not yet committed, despite the media report’s best assertion that the theory was taken straight out of fictional Hollywood movies like “Minority Report.”

Additionally, this media outlet appears to labor under the notion that both our ILP Analysts and STAR deputies exist exclusively to coordinate aspects of the Top 5 lists and Prolific Offender lists. In reality, these aspects are but a small subset of each parties’ job functions. As was provided to this outlet numerous times, ILP analysts work on nearly every case the Pasco Sheriff’s Office investigates, with the underlying, yet ever-present, goal of bettering the lives of the citizens of Pasco County through the reduction of crime. This includes cases such as the recovery of missing individuals and drug arrests leading to 435,000 lethal doses of fentanyl being removed from Pasco’s streets. Furthermore, STAR deputies are integral components of the search and successful safe recovery of missing Pasco children, both in and out of our county, among other daily activities wholly unrelated to making contact with prolific offenders.

We continue to be open and transparent with our community and those that we serve, which is why we want to ensure you, our citizens, had this information. 


It is sad that there are media outlets attempting to drive division between a community and law enforcement by relying on previous employees who were held accountable for their actions as well as individuals with lengthy criminal histories and ignoring the more than 30 pages of well-researched facts that the Pasco Sheriff’s Office provided. 


It is also sad that this same media outlet refuses to report on the good work of our Behavioral Health Intervention Team and the fact that our men and women recently took 435,000 lethal doses of fentanyl off of Pasco’s streets. This is selection bias at its worst and the reason we connect with our community directly on social media.

We stand with our community and we are deeply grateful that you continue to stand with us.

As we told the media outlet, we will not apologize for continuing to keep our community safe.

Thank you for your continued support.

 

 As a person who's been on the receiving end of some of Pasco's enforcement, I don't feel particularly persecuted.

You'd think that it would be more onerous because we have had to call them in to help with The Boy's elopement issues a few times since the charges were dropped.

Their interactions with and responses to The Boy thanks to the development and employment of their Behavioral Health Intervention Team have been excellent, and have gone from conventional screaming threats at a non-compliant subject to actually assessing that some people just cannot understand because of mental health issue not because they're being defiant.

Perhaps it's because I'm not one of the small percentage of the population that commits the most crime and the algorithm (Wouldn't Al Gore Rhythm Section be a great name for an easy listening band?) is good enough to see that?

Because the calls I've made since my arrest are the same as the call that led to my arrest.  I've gotten better at explaining the situation and they've gotten better at understanding the situation.

PS: Tampa Bay Pravda is the same periodical whom are pleased as punch that the Parkland Massacre Enabling Laws are being expanded in Hillsborough County.

Good News From The 11th Circuit

 Felons really do have to complete their entire sentence before their voting rights are restored in Florida. 

They also underlined the idea that states have the constitutionally guaranteed right to determine their own processes for deciding who gets to vote.

Good.

 The article has a quote mentioning that Amendment 4 was passed by 65% of the vote.

I'd like to point out that the wording on the ballot was deceptive AND the legislature passed several bills concerning being deceptive in the wording on future ballot amendments.

Isn't Shit Like This How We Got To Parkland?

 Hillsborough County to expand program that keeps juvenile offenders out of jail.

Rattling Their Bottles Of Adderal

 Apparently Antifa is counting on their site's obscurity being a proxy for security.

Guess what didn't work!

Cultural Appropriation

I am making Cuban Pernil Asado!

Appropriate to the political situation I'm using Goya's Mojo Criollo.

I started this way too late, it needs hours to marinade and about an hour and a half for the Instant Pot to do its magic.

So what I'm really making is Lechon Manana.

Dune Official Trailer

It looks well cast.  Wikipedia claims they're doing it as two movies because the source material is so dense.



Eyes crossed that it's done right!

What Did Greenies Use For Light Before Candles?

I am reading about how Californians are expected to shut down the oven and crank the AC to 78° at 3pm thanks to an electricity shortage statewide.

A shortage that's entirely the creation of idiotic greenie bullshit laws brought to you, not by science, but by government decree.

A topic that's gotten to the back burner lately has been the Aztlan shit and their demanding that California be given back to Mexico.

Irony washed over me when I realized that if we did hand Cali back to Mexico, the place would actually get better for many citizens because Mexico only pays lip service to all that environmental bullshit.

They'd just build power plants.

In a couple of cases, they wouldn't even have to build them, just fire them back up.

Diablo Canyon isn't dismantled, for example.

I Blame Looney Tunes

I have a problem with classical music.

I rarely find the the performance of the song I want, even if I can manage to figure out which song I'm looking for.

Romeo and Juliet: Act I, Scene XIII, Dance of the Knights long eluded me.  I knew the song, but not the title, composer or artist.

Turns out it's Sergei Prokofiev and the performance I like best is Valery Gergiev conducting The London Symphony Orchestra.



But recently I've been trying to find the performance of Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 that I remember.  It's primarily piano, but has some orchestral backing.



Let's not even delve into how many versions of Toccata & Fugue in D minor (BWV 565) there are.  The one I wanted was the one from the end of Rollerball.  That is a fucking hard version to lay hands on.  I did eventually find it.

(This version is very close)



As kids, my generation was exposed to so much of this music, and many of us came to enjoy it, and it's really all because it was in public domain for Warner Brothers and Hanna Barbara to use in their animated shorts.

Unlike the cartoons themselves.