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Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Anger Can Shorten Your Life

By Sam Huntington

According to a recently published University of Michigan study, which took place over a period of 17-years, people who are perpetually stressed and angry experience shortened lifespans.  Anger is a normal reaction to external stimuli, and everyone experiences it.  It is not unhealthy to have anger; it is unhealthy to hold it in, and inappropriate to lash out at others because of it.  Anger is an emotion, aggression is a behavior.

We all experience some ire from time to time, but psychologists tell us that deep-seated anger comes from rejection at an early age, which is an obstacle to normal childhood development.  There are many facets to rejection, and it may not even matter why a child has been excluded, only that those rejecting children are more often than not the same people who are responsible for nurturing and security in formative years. Rejection leads to maladjustment, bitterness, and anxiety.  The greatest challenge to youngsters is in learning how to deal with changes that take them outside of their comfort zone; this is particularly true when they face unwanted changes.  

Stress comes to us early in life, always involving a wide range of challenges.  Some of these involve factors beyond our power to change: physical characteristics, mental capacity, sexual orientation, developmental timelines, the order of birth, and/or race and ethnicity.  How does an unlovely child change its physical appearance or the color of their skin?  Nor are children able to deal effectively with in-home abusive relationships, separation or divorce of parents, or homes where alcohol and drug abuse are common. How children deal with these kinds of problems follows them into adulthood; they are factors that impact their relationships with others —even, eventually, their own children.  An insecure child grows into an anxious adult. A child with low self-esteem carries this problem with them throughout their life without significant intervention. Without intercession, the situation feeds on itself: low self-esteem leads to a greater sense of rejection. Bitter, anxious, resentful adults generally do not handle their anger very well.

No matter the cause of one's annoyances, people exhibit anger in fairly consistent ways.  They react to unpleasantness with more of the same. Resentment increases whenever circumstances are perceived as unwarranted.  Psychologists refer to these as emotional triggers.  It might be something as simple as being cut off in traffic, a personal insult, or —dare I suggest it— the election of a president. It was quite disturbing to witness adults crying uncontrollably for no other reason than the fact that their candidate didn't win the election.  The result of this was an outrageous level of post-election aggression: it continues even today.

Individual character matters, of course:  people who are narcissistic, competitive, who exhibit demands of entitlement, those who have a low tolerance for life's frustrations, and the psychotics have the greatest incidents of angry aggression.  The nature of external stimuli matters, too, politics being one of many.  It is not simply a matter of the exterior factors, but also how they are perceived. A self-absorbed person may imagine that he alone knows best; other points of view simply do not matter.  How dare anyone vote for a different candidate! When people already live in a state of perpetual anger, they are more likely than others to respond to these external influences with a disturbing degree of explosiveness.  In the minds of such people, their aggressive behaviors are warranted, even though society eschews acting out irrational behavior. Such persons become even more isolated, over time their bitterness becomes more acute.  

Ultimately, the expression of unnatural anger or aggressiveness leads to unhealthful conditions, both physically and mentally.  The real problem, as it seems to me —particularly as it relates to political anger— is in not being able to let go of hostility.  In our present toxic political environment people not only become angry because the "other candidate" won an election, they quite unnaturally remain angry.  It is this perpetual anger that makes it easy to blame others for perceived injustices.  Another term for this is denial.  Perpetual anger makes it easier to lash out in various, often infantile ways, such as name-calling and liberal use of profanity, which is meant to shock others into silence.  We see a lot of this in our country today, and nowhere more frequently than in matters of politics presented in the blogosphere and within the mainstream media where never-ending panels of self-styled political consultants resort to derisive commentary and ad hominem attacks.

Our society is dysfunctional and growing more so by the day.  If the purpose of the family is to nurture and create new generations of emotionally stable human beings, then they have become seriously defective.  Our population of mentally unbalanced citizens is increasing in leaps and bounds.  Our society today is far too angry for its own good.  This isn't the fault of our government, even though most of us deplore government policies.

What is surprising, however, is how various social institutions go out of their way to fuel irrational anger.  Foremost among these are the political parties and the agenda-driven media, each of whom benefits in numerous ways from instilling our anger and then maintaining it.  Our reaction is almost Pavlovian: they snap their fingers, we react irrationally.  The American people are being manipulated in a manner, not unlike chessmen on a complex game board.  Why do we trust any of these institutions to deal with us honestly? They want us to accept opinion as fact and lies and spin as unmitigated truth.  Our anger, resentment, and frustration guarantee only this: a fractured society.  As Maxwell Smart might say, it's the old divide and conquers ploy.  To those who seek to manipulate us, our anger is the gift that keeps on giving.

Will Americans ever wake up to this scam?  If we ever did open our eyes, what should we do about it?  Democracies demand civic-minded citizens.  If we want to live and raise our families in a healthy society, then we incur an obligation to participate in it as educated, thoughtful, citizens.  We must learn to choose our leaders and representatives carefully.  We can do this by consulting multiple sources to help us in distinguishing truth from fiction.  We can do a more thorough job vetting political candidates before we vote for them.  We have to hope for the best; we have to be prepared for the worst ... and when we have reached the point of doing all that we can do, then we need to let it go.

There are far more important things in the world than a political agenda.  Finally, we need to realize that no matter what we do as individuals, there will always be irrational people who want us to react to their anger and frustration ... and unless these people fall within our inner-circle, we've got to let them go, as well.

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Kook Left Klan Attacks Again!

Silverfiddle Rant!
The Kook Left Klan (say it real fast) is after Tom Brokaw...

Appearing as a panelist on the Sunday morning show (see video via Twitter below), Brokaw said when he “pushes” Americans on the subject of immigration, “They say, ‘Well, I don’t know whether I want brown grand-babies.’ That’s also a part of it, the intermarriage that’s going on and the cultures that are conflicting with each other. I also happen to believe that the Hispanics should work harder at assimilation. … You know, they ought not to be just codified in their communities but make sure that all their kids are learning to speak English and that they feel comfortable in the communities. And that’s going to take outreach on both sides, frankly.” (Deadline)

I also take issue with his comments, but for different reasons...

Did Brokaw smear us? US citizens (presumably white) are worried about "brown grandbabies?"  Really? In my experience, the culturally insensitive usually just carelessly slap the "Mexican" label on all those people to south of us. "Brown people"  is a favored term of the Taco Bell University left.  All Hispanics are not "brown," people south of the border do not call themselves "brown," and Hispanics are not homogeneous--they hail from varied and diverse cultures.   

Brokaw is Wrong:  Hispanic Assimilate -- to the point of no longer being "Hispanic:" Back in 2014, progressives began handwringing over Hispanic's increasingly checking the 'White' box on census forms. Hispanics and Asians lead the way in intermarriage, blending into the larger melting pot culture of our nation.  All over America, you can find people with Hispanic last names who don't speak Spanish, fly no foreign flags, and who retain no cultural vestiges from whatever nation their ancestors came from.

Boomerang!

Finally, I love it when a snotty prig tweets out an unintentional self-condemnation. Check this Kook Left Klansman's attack on Brokaw, after he apologized for insulting a "proud culture:"

“Also we aren’t all Hispanics,” another person said. “‘That proud culture’? It’s not just one culture, you definitely need some history classes because you’re talking about many people from many places/countries and diverse backgrounds.” (NY Post)

I wholeheartedly agree. Let me add, mutatis mutandis...

"We aren't all white people. It's not just one white culture.  You unhinged haters screaming about "white people" definitely need some history classes because you’re talking about many people from many places/countries and diverse backgrounds."

Hell, I don't have one drop of English blood in me, so while you're at it, stop calling me an Anglo.

Monday, January 28, 2019

"Foreign Influence Racket"

Silverfiddle Rant!



"The capital is awash in foreign cash – the world hub of lobbying and influence peddling, where former senior U.S. officials, or those between jobs, stand to profit from their prestige and connections. Since 1938, anyone representing a foreign government has been required to register under FARA. But the law was often ignored until 2016 when questions about Russian influence came to dominate the presidential campaign."

Here's what I think:

Former members of the following categories should be banned by US federal law from any foreign lobbying or from representing foreign governments soliciting anything from the US government:

- Department and agency heads, deputies and anyone with an agency-wide policy-making role
- US Presidents, immediate family members and White House staff
- Cabinet members
- Congresspersons and senators
- US military flag officers

Basically, if someone has served in a high position of trust in our government, it should be illegal for them to act as an agent for a foreign government or act as an agent that solicits anything from a foreign government or provides aid, goods or services to a foreign government. If you have served this nation in the inner sanctums of government, you should not be able to peddle your insider knowledge to foreign entities. Period.

If foreigners want to petition our government, let them come with their funny accents and do it themselves.

Office of Foreign Petitions

The Federal government should stand up a government clearing house for foreign entities lobbying the US government.  All lobbying not registering and going through that bureau is illegal. Federal workers in that bureau would be charged with facilitating and documenting meetings between the foreigners and the US government office they wish to solicit.

What say you?

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

Rest in peace, Michael Legrand (February 24, 1932-January 26, 2019):


Michel Legrand was a five-time Grammy winner; he also won three Oscars. He remained active until his death. Concerts were scheduled for this spring.  More about him HERE.

Saturday, January 26, 2019

Recommended Reading: Deals For Furloughed Federal Employees

[Note: this post was queued up before President Trump caved yesterday and opened the government without funds for The Wall]

See Shutdown specials: DC-area deals for furloughed government workers at WTOP.

Brief excerpt (Yes, brief. The list is extensive):
The Harlem Globetrotters are offering two free tickets to the 2019 Fan Powered North American tour for furloughed workers. Just show a valid government ID at the box office.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema at Stonebridge in Prince William County is offering free movies to federal employees throughout January.

Anytime Fitness locations in Poolesville, Maryland, and Kensington, Maryland, are offering 14 days free for furloughed workers, which includes access to fitness classes and private fitness consultation.

The Audubon Naturalist Society has free memberships available for furloughed workers. But, if you’re already a member and a furloughed employee, there are free extensions on membership renewals. Also, free “Yoga in the Woods” and guided sanctuary tours. Get the full details here.

Government workers that need to sweat it out can try an indoor cycling class at the CYCLED studio in Silver Spring or try the Cycling, Barre or Yoga Sculpt class at the Takoma Park location. Furloughed feds should use the code “SweatItOut@CYCLED!” to sign up and flash a government ID at the check-in desk.

Burns Heating & Air says it will help furloughed workers stay warm in the freezing weather with furnace repair. The company, which serves Loudoun and Fairfax counties in Virginia, is offering a payment plan allowing furloughed workers to pay their bills whenever the government reopens. Call 540-208-5660, or text and call 703-884-7130, and have a pay stub and government ID ready.

Michael and Son is doing something similar, offering furloughed employees six months of no payments on plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling repairs carried out while they go without a paycheck....
Much, much more HERE.

Your thoughts?

Thursday, January 24, 2019

Child Abuse

[Note from AOW: please scroll down.  Another active thread below]

From Infidel Bloggers Alliance's post Great Moments In The History of Leftism: 10-Year-Old Boy 'Drag Kid' Photographed With Naked Adult Drag Queen:


On Monday, 10-year-old Canadian boy Nemis Quinn Mélançon-Golden was featured in a troubling Huck Magazine piece highlighting the life of a so-called "child drag queen." Young Nemis, whose drag name is "Queen Lactacia," was shot by photographer Jonathan Frederick Turton for the spread. 

In one of the shots that did not make the magazine, Nemis, in full drag makeup and a black dress, is posing for a photo with the Season 7 winner of "RuPaul's Drag Race," Violet Chachki. In the shocking photo, Violet is wearing nothing but a pair of heels and a small piece of fabric covering his genitals, as seen in the screenshot below ...
Blog master Pastorius stated:
You can see the image by clicking here. I ain't posting it.
[NOTE: INSTAGRAM HAS NOW REMOVED THE PHOTO]

In what world is this kind of thing not child abuse?

Additional reading: about Huck Magazine.

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

The Sacred and the Profane


Silverfiddle Rant!

Leftwingers are good at agitprop, framing the issue, and leveraging sacred symbols for propaganda victories, but praise Allah, they also end up profaning those same symbols, draining them of their power to browbeat.




Progressives Profane Sacred Symbols

Hoopla-powered Democrats presented sanctimony-draped women and demanded we stop mansplaining and listen to their timeless wisdom. Our obedient attention was rewarded with vulgar outbursts about nasty women, blowing up the White House, and impeaching the mother******.

We are shushed and told to heed the sacred children who endured a school shooting, only to have the reverent silence shattered by foul-mouthed hellions spewing profanity at us.

Last Weekend: The Perfect Sturm und Drang

Privileged Catholic bros in MAGA hats mocked a sacred Native American Vietnam veteran who responded by continuing to peacefully chant and drum, and the Social Media Pogroms raged, with pusillanimous conservative outlets and the kids' own Catholic diocese joining in on the digital beatdown, resulting in death threats to a young man and the closing of his school for safety reasons. 

Oh! How the high dudgeon and scolding sanctimony poured forth from the unctuous Infotainment Media Complex! And it fomented an orgy of flamboyant self-righteousness that put the Bacchae to shame.

Now, the hangover...

Subsequent video revealed the MAGA bros had taken over an hour of abuse from a crowd of African American religious kooks who think they are the lost tribe of Israel. The Catholic boys responded with school chants.

The sacred Noble Savage is a member of the Stolen Valor Tribe: He never served in Vietnam. The Peaceful Native American also lied about being surrounded by the boys. Video shows he walked into them pounding his drum in their faces.

There is a mile-high stack of lies from progressive people of color claiming they saw the whole thing. All lies, revealed only when the rest of the video came out.

The left has taught us a few lessons:

Lesson 1 - Don't believe everything you see from the left and their enablers in the Infotainment Media Complex:

The left provokes such incidents all the time, tells bald-faced lies, and uses their premeditated kabuki to further their agenda.

How many hoaxes, false flag hate crimes and ginned up racial incidents have been perpetrated upon this nation? And yes, those are attacks against us all and our social cohesion, perpetrated by angry wanna-be victims outraged that there are not enough actual attacks against Muslims and people of color.  Jewish people are the targets of the the greatest percentage of hate crimes.  How unfair!

In the Judge Kavanaugh hearings, Democrats slanderers got caught red-handed.

This weekend, progressive activists got busted. Hard. So hard even The Atlantic and CNN came out in defense of the schoolboys and joined the avalanche of apologies and retractions.

Lesson 2 - No person is more sacred than another based solely upon the category she occupies

Being a veteran, woman of color, poor, undocumented, or any other category confers no special moral authority on a person. I hope recent events have busted this overused tool of the left.

This is why at least half of us despise the press and the left. They cannot be trusted to give us the straight story.

So, self-righteous people of the left, including those of you with politburo-assigned special status: Get off your high horse. You're no better than the rest of us, and we're tired of your smug sanctimony and scolding lectures.

Monday, January 21, 2019

The Naked Emperors

Silverfiddle Rant

I stumbled across the fascinating resignation letter written by Army veteran and longtime NBC contributor William Arkin. He's no Trump fan, but he is disgusted with the media's 24/7 Trump bashing. He also excoriates the press for a dangerous lack of independent analysis and criticism of our shambolic, destructive and wasteful foreign policy:

"The longtime contributor said he was alarmed by how the media instinctually responded to Trump’s desire to end U.S. involvement in foreign wars by arguing against it without much thought, leading it “to be in favor of policies that just spell more conflict and more war.” (Mediaite)

Those two criticisms--of the press and of the foreign policy establishment--hit home for me because I have been making a similar case for years.

The Infotainment Media Complex Stinks

Our press is a disgraceful rabble of tabloid tattlers, preening prima donnas, partisan cheerleaders, crouching propagandists, hidden agendaists, pseudo-intellectuals, and dime store "experts." They all need to stop taking sides, stop rubbing elbows at cocktail parties with the elite DC grandees, and start grilling them. Daily. We need a press that Questions Everything. 

A people's press would submit our rulers (and the edicts they excrete) to withering examination. And btw, how is it that all those congresspeople abused their staffers, paid them taxpayer money to shut up, and we never heard about it until it somehow slipped past the protective press phalanx that protects their fellow DC elites?

Our Foreign Policy: A Continuous Loop of Insanity

Our foreign policy establishment is a moldy, cob-webbed shelf of crumbling yellow books stuffed full of arrant nonsense and discredited shibboleths.  Arrogance and purblind ignorance make a dangerous combination, and our nation and the world have been paying the price for decades while the press cheerleads and abets.

Here is Arkin's thoughtful but scathing critique of our foreign policy "experts:"

To me there is also a larger problem: though they produce nothing that resembles actual safety and security, the national security leaders and generals we have are allowed to do their thing unmolested.

Despite being at “war,” no great wartime leaders or visionaries are emerging. There is not a soul in Washington who can say that they have won or stopped any conflict

And though there might be the beloved perfumed princes in the form of the Petraeus’ and Wes Clarks’, or the so-called warrior monks like Mattis and McMaster, we’ve had more than a generation of national security leaders who sadly and fraudulently have done little of consequence. And yet we (and others) embrace them, even the highly partisan formers who masquerade as “analysts”. We do so ignoring the empirical truth of what they have wrought: There is not one county in the Middle East that is safer today than it was 18 years ago. Indeed the world becomes ever more polarized and dangerous.

I agree. What say you?

Saturday, January 19, 2019

Man-Hating Gillette?

(Please scroll down.  There are active threads below)

The title of this blog post refers to the recent ad released by Gillette, the commercial condemning "toxic masculinity," whatever the definition of that is.

And the commercial is racist, too. The video is a bit long, but please watch (Warning: some strong language):



Can our species no longer discern the differences of flirtation, true sexual harassment, and actual sexual assault?

Now, about the Gillette commercial...Surprise: Genius behind man-hating Gillette ad is a radical feminist.

For the record, the Gillette commercial is the fold:

Friday, January 18, 2019

Emergency!

Silverfiddle Rant!
I oppose President Trump declaring a national emergency in order to build the sections of fence Homeland Security has planned, but... here is fodder for those who disagree, and it comes from the Trump-deranged accosters at CNN!




"But the United States is no stranger to national emergencies.
In fact, the US has been in a perpetual state of declared national emergency for four decades, and the country is currently under 31 concurrent states of emergency about a spectrum of international issues around the globe..."

Here is CNN's list of "active declared emergencies:"

1. Blocking Iranian Government Property (Nov. 14, 1979)
2. Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (Nov. 14, 1994)
3. Prohibiting Transactions with Terrorists Who Threaten to Disrupt the Middle East Peace Process (January 23, 1995)
4. Prohibiting Certain Transactions with Respect to the Development of Iranian Petroleum Resources (March 15, 1995)
5. Blocking Assets and Prohibiting Transactions with Significant Narcotics Traffickers (October 21, 1995)
6. Regulations of the Anchorage and Movement of Vessels with Respect to Cuba (March 1, 1996)
7. Blocking Sudanese Government Property and Prohibiting Transactions with Sudan (November 3, 1997)
8. Blocking Property of Persons Who Threaten International Stabilization Efforts in the Western Balkans (June 26, 2001)
9. Continuation of Export Control Regulations (August 17, 2001)
10. Declaration of National Emergency by Reason of Certain Terrorist Attacks (September 14, 2001)
11. Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions with Persons who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism (September 23, 2001)
12. Blocking Property of Persons Undermining Democratic Processes or Institutions in Zimbabwe (March 6, 2003)
13. Protecting the Development Fund for Iraq and Certain Other Property in Which Iraq has an Interest (May 22, 2003)
14. Blocking Property of Certain Persons and Prohibiting the Export of Certain Goods to Syria (May 11, 2004)
15. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Undermining Democratic Processes or Institutions in Belarus (June 16, 2006)
16. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (October 27, 2006)
17. Blocking Property of Persons Undermining the Sovereignty of Lebanon or Its Democratic Processes and Institutions (August 1, 2007)
18. Continuing Certain Restrictions with Respect to North Korea and North Korean Nationals (June 26, 2008)
19. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Conflict in Somalia (April 12, 2010)
20. Blocking Property and Prohibiting Certain Transactions Related to Libya (February 25, 2011)
21. Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations (July 25, 2011)
22. Blocking Property of Persons Threatening the Peace, Security, or Stability of Yemen (May 16, 2012)
23. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine (March 6, 2014)
24. Blocking Property of Certain Persons With Respect to South Sudan (April 3, 2014)
25. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Conflict in the Central African Republic (May 12, 2014)
26. Blocking Property and Suspending Entry of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Venezuela (March 9, 2015)
27. Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities (April 1, 2015)
28. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Burundi (November 23, 2015)
29. Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or Corruption (December 20, 2017)
30. Imposing Certain Sanctions in the Event of Foreign Interference in a United States Election (September 12, 2018)
31. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Nicaragua (November 27, 2018)

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Maoist Mobs and a Railroad fit for a King

Silverfiddle Rant!
I'm trying to get to the bottom of the Steve King-induced hysteria, and it's not easy.  Don't we have any journolists who can pull facts together and present them objectively?

Go Yahoogle "Steve King racist statements" and you will be fed a plethora of articles containing characterizations of what he said, and quote snippets shorn of the contextual conversation surrounding it.

The latest comes from the New York Times claiming he lamented the demonization of the terms "white nationalist" and "white supremacist."  The New York Times is withholding the complete context from us.  Here's is King's explanation:
In a 56 minute interview, we discussed the changing use of language in political discourse. We discussed the worn out label “racist” and my observation that other slanderous labels have been increasingly assigned to Conservatives by the Left, who injected into our current political dialog such terms as Nazi, Fascist, ‘White Nationalist, White Supremacist,— Western Civilization, how did THAT language become offensive?

Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?’…just to watch Western Civilization become a derogatory term in political discourse today. Clearly, I was only referencing Western Civilization classes. No one ever sat in a class listening to the merits of white nationalism and white supremacy.
Who's right? Rep King or the New York Times Journolist?  The Times needs to release the complete recording of the interview and let us judge for ourselves.

Here are more items in the "Steve King is a Racist" rolodex:

This retweet got him branded an anti-Semite. So I guess anyone quoting Marx, Mao or Gorbachev is a communist...  Go figure...

This Gert Wilders retweet marks king as a dangerous white nationalist...
In 2017, King tweeted that he agreed with far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders that "our civilization" cannot be restored "with somebody else's babies."
Yes, The United States has a civilization, and it is ours.  It is distinct from other nations.  It is a beautiful mosaic that was built by and is now enjoyed by people of all races, religions and national origins. We were a melting pot once, where "somebody else" from "somewhere else" became "one of us," including my mom, her sister and her parents.  If we don't breed, our culture will die, and other will move in with their own culture and remake the social landscape.  It is not bigoted or hateful to oppose that.

Will the dirty old Muslim men bringing in child brides allow them to assimilate? Are the 20% of the population that do not speak English at home interested in assimilation?

But I digress...

Rep King is guilty of speaking candidly and using politically-incorrect language. People calling him a racist have not made their case.  Most frighteningly, whole herds of educated sheeple are condemning him based upon propaganda and smears. No one has actually formulated a logical argument for the case that Rep. King is a racist.

This is a deliberate tightening of the language, a narrowing of acceptable speech. The left can cheer "old white people" dying off, but no can criticize unregulated immigration or call a shithole a shithole. See how the game is played? The left holds all the weapons and enjoys a free fire zone, while screaming bloody murder any time someone to their right picks up a pea-shooter.

Please read this infamous interview Rep King had with an Austrian news site that once had a Nazi in its management 70 years ago. Here are a few shocking, reprehensible quotes:
Freedom of speech, religion and press, property rights, Judeo-Christian values, all these things that are so important.
hmmm.... a neo-nazi anti-Semite lauding our "Judeo-Christian" values... Don't hear that too often nowadays.
Look, I can envision generations from now, centuries from now, where everyone eventually starts to look the same, if we get enough intermarriage which is the most effective form of assimilation. […] I don't see Caucasians to be genetically dominant. Blue eyes and blond hair are recessive. So I envision more and more assimilation, and that's positive, and one day, we will all look substantially the same.
When asked if he were a civic nationalist or an ethnic nationalist...
I guess “civic” may be able to describe what I am, yes. I'm not an ethnic nationalist. because I look at all these people and I just see the diversity of skin colors.
The article disappoints in its lack of inflammatory racist diatribes, especially since it was a white nationalist neo-nazi bigoted anti-Semite being interviewed by a European nazi website.  You'd think he really would have let his freak flag fly...

So, can someone make a rational, cogent argument that Rep Steve King is a bigot?  Please don't cite how Republicans have repudiated him. That's not an argument, and anyway, Republicans are running scared trying to hold up their crapped-full adult diapers.

"The sleep of reason produces monsters"
-- Francisco Goya

More Reading: A brief guide to Rep. Steve King's 'long history of racist statements'

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

The Future Of The Democratic Party?

Legal Insurrection's Beto tries to outdo Elizabeth Warren by livestreaming his dentist appointment, calls out attention to this bit of one-upsmanship:


Legal Insurrection comments as follows:
If Joe Biden livestreams his colonoscopy, I’m quitting the internet.
Heh.

Monday, January 14, 2019

Congressional Funding


A sampler from Grabien News (dated January 9, 2019):
Things Democrats Have Funded that Cost More than the Border Wall: Lawmakers have put less thought into other, more expensive projects over the years

After President Trump requested $5.7 billion to fund the border wall he campaigned on in 2016, Democrats have dug in, refusing to appropriate the funds that the administration says are needed to better manage the flow of immigration across the southern border.

Democrats are not traditionally known for their fiscal rectitude but are particularly parsimonious over what ultimately amounts to a very small percentage of the federal budget. (In 2018, the feds spent $4.173 trillion overall, meaning the border wall would amount to just 1/10th of 1 percent of current annual federal spending.)

Indeed, these lawmakers have happily funded various projects over the years that cost far more than the border wall — and many of which had very questionable value. Below are some examples of wasteful federal spending projects that individually cost more than the proposed border wall (data courtesy of Citizens Against Government Waste):

“Rural Utility Service.” This program costs taxpayers $8.2 billion/year and has no actual purpose after its original intent — bringing electricity to rural communities — was long ago achieved. It’s now being used to bring broadband access to small communities (usually with populations of less than 20,000). However there’s no indication the “beneficiaries” of this expensive government agency actually appreciate the program, and the majority of its projects are not completed on time or within budget.

Sugar Subsidies. America, as Democrats frequently intone, faces a health crisis. What they don’t tell us is that it’s largely of their own making, as Congress subsidizes the production of unhealthy foods like sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. Eliminating sugar subsidies alone would save $6 billion, enough to fund the border wall; it would also have the added benefit of helping curb the nation’s obesity epidemic.

Community Development Grants. These grants were created in the 70s to revitalize failing American cities. The program has almost always been plagued with dysfunction, with grants going to wealthy communities and other recipients failing to produce “accountability and results.” Citizens Against Government Waste reports that even President Obama called for reining in the program. It’s elimination would save $15 billion over 5 years.

The United Nations. As the United Nation’s largest contributor, the U.S. in 2016 donated $10 billion to the U.N. As CAGW notes, reducing these contributions just 25 percent would create a savings of $12.5 billion over 10 years. Of the money Congress appropriates for the United Nations, $5 million taxpayer dollars are itemized for abortions in foreign countries.

Unused Real Estate. Congress appropriates money to maintain federal real estate that’s not actually being used. Per CAGW, an October 31, 2017, CRS report found that, “In FY2016, federal agencies owned 3,120 buildings that were vacant (unutilized), and another 7,859 that were partially empty (underutilized).” Current laws require the government to undergo a series of steps before considering a sale of these buildings. Were selling this unused property prioritized, the 5-year savings are estimated at $15 billion. Simply maintaining the unused buildings annually costs $1.7 billion.

Despite many of of the above projects having arguably negative value, Congress continues to fund them. Eliminating any one of the above would create more than enough savings to fund the White House’s border wall appropriation request.

Of course, other smaller federal spending projects are even more wasteful. Examples abound, but here are a few that are at least amusing:

— The feds spend $613,634 to boost “intimacy and trust” of transgender women and their male partners (The Washington Free Beason)

— The feds spent $5 million paying hipsters to stop smoking and then blog about it (as well as use cool anti-smoking swag — like beer koozies). (Readers Digest)

— Northwestern University has received more than $3 million in National Institutes of Health to watch hamster fights. “Some of those experiments involved injecting hamsters with steroids, then putting another hamster in the cage to see if the drugged rodents were more aggressive when protecting their territory. This program has since been halted following protests from animal rights activists,” Readers Digest reports.

— The feds spend $1,009,762 training “social justice” math teachers (The Washington Free Beacon)

— “The government spent at least $518,000 in federal grants to study how cocaine affects the sexual behavior of Japanese quails,” Readers Digest reports.

— The Federal Register is legally required to be printed daily and distributed to Congressional offices despite most never being read and all of the information being available online. Stopping this unnecessary printing would save $1 million a year.
Go HERE to enable embedded links underlined in the above.

Click directly on the graphic to enlarge it:

[source]

We are witnessing the rapid decline of our republic. And what was once an incremental decline is now a rapid decline.

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Snowed In!

(For politics, please scroll down)

Here at the AOW house today:

Our SW front yard


E front porch and wheelchair ramp

And it's still snowing!

The pantry is full, and I'll be cooking a roasted chicken this afternoon.

My days of shoveling snow are over, so once the snow stops, I'll be seeking someone to dig us out.

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Presidential Impeachment

Johnson, Nixon, Clinton, and …

by Sam Huntington

Article Two of the United States Constitution establishes the executive branch of the federal government. It consists of four sections, the last one addresses the subject of impeachment.  There may not be a better example of checks and balances than this article.  In Section 4: Impeachment, the Constitution reads, “The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

Any official impeached by the House of Representatives and convicted by the Senate is immediately removed from office.  The Senate may also bar this individual from holding any future federal office.  No other punishments may be inflicted pursuant to impeachment proceedings.

The words “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” come to us from English common law; in US law, they refer to criminal actions, as well as any serious misuse or abuse of office, ranging from tax evasion to obstruction of justice.  

The ultimate authority for determining whether an offense constitutes grounds for impeachment rests with the US Congress.  The House of Representatives serves the same function as a grand jury, rendering an indictment, while the Senate, with the Chief Justice of the United States, serves as judge and jury.  

One note of possible interest, in the drafting of Section 4, the word “maladministration” was specifically rejected by the founding fathers because the word is too vague and susceptible to political abuse —which brings us to an examination of presidents who were, or might have been, or could be, impeached.

Monday, January 7, 2019

Mask Dropped...

...Or something.

[photo credit]
Rick Wilson, an alleged Republican political strategist, is a nasty piece of work — and a particularly nasty NeverTrumper.

Get a load of this from Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever, the book that Wilson recently wrote:
…Wilson attacks Reince Priebus, Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz and Mike Pence, and he says Newt Gingrich “started twerking [for Trump] faster than a five-buck stripper.” Such sexualized put-downs abound in Wilson’s book. White House adviser Stephen Miller “needs to spend a week getting laid.” Wilson finds Trump campaign adviser Carter Page “reeking of late-stage virginity.” And the white-nationalist altGOP-right movement is a bunch of “pudgy white boys from lower-middle-class suburbs who couldn’t find a woman’s clitoris with a GPS and a magnifying glass.”…
And recently: GOP Strategist Insults ‘Rube, Ten-Tooth’ Trump Voters Who Support A Border Wall.

Charming, huh?

We live in the Age of Civility. **heavy sarcasm**

Saturday, January 5, 2019

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

Glamour meets Beethoven!


[about Khatia Buniatishvili, about the above piece]

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Recommended Reading: Changing Taboos

See Old favorites, outdated attitudes: Can entertainment expire? at the Associated Press on December 28, 2018.

The first three paragraphs:
NEW YORK (AP) — The 1940 movie “The Philadelphia Story” opens with a case of domestic assault played for laughs — Cary Grant shoving Katharine Hepburn to the ground by her face while a jaunty musical score plays.

Eight decades later, the movie is clearly two things: uneasy fare for a post-#metoo culture — and an enduring American classic. And it’s far from the only example of such things.

They exist throughout society’s pop-culture canon, from movies to TV to music and beyond: pieces of work that have withstood time’s passage but that contain actions, words and depictions about race, gender and sexual orientation that we now find questionable at best....
Read the rest HERE. Do read the rest before commenting.
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