The War of Reprehensible Rhetoric

Some on the Right, or perhaps more accurately, not on the Left, think President Trump's flame wars on Twitter are a good thing. Others find the beneath the dignity of the Office of the President. A dignity the left has done their very best to destroy.  Should we be helping?

I understand the argument - from both sides, and I can't say I like either option.  On the one hand, tying our hands behind our backs in a knife fight is a losing proposition—If the goal is beating your opponent.  

If you're worried about keeping the respect of everyone else, it may be the only way to go.  I think (yeah it's just hunch, no actual data to work with) that the average American is disgusted when the left does it and shocked and disgusted when the President does it.  

Perhaps the correct approach is to use shame rather than insults.  Sure the left has no shame, and they won't care. But the point will be made to those not yet fallen to the moral relativism of the nihilistic left. It will show them what they're fighting against. It's certainly the harder path. Pithy one-line insults are much easier to construct than pithy one-line moral aphorisms.

The insults obviously get under the skin of the leftists. It's why their reaction is so vitriolic and hypocritical.  There is a visceral pleasure in subjecting them to a bit of their own.  I get it, and I've done it. The question is: how does this play with the average voter.  The average voter still thinks in terms of Republicans and Democrats  - when what we've got are Democrats and Progressives. Left of center vs. crazy. When I look, I can find maybe a dozen genuine Republicans (small government) in national politics.  The sides seem to boil down to Crazy Leftists vs. Anti-Leftists, not as most people think - Left vs. Right or Liberal vs. Conservative. 

So, is the goal to feel better because we slapped them silly when they deserve it (most of the time) or is it to increase the base of anti-leftists. 

I'd love to have a way to increase the actual number of conservatives, and I think the pendulum has begun to swing in that direction.  It would be useful if we still had some conservatives left when the pendulum gets that far. 

Music

I've been listening to a weird mix recently

Lots of Lindsey Sterling - Like This:

and this

and this

Which led me to this

And This

Corporate Suicide is on the Rise

Corporate suicide is on the rise.  When a corporation commits suicide, it's a long slow death.   It starts by supporting ideologies. Those ideologies come either from the University or the push to Globalization.  The current globalization efforts depend on the destruction of the sovereign nation. 

The left is lazy - they like to make threats, but they can't stick to anything.  Unlike the current right (minus Congress) who can and will stick to their guns and religion. We can also stick to boycotts or anti-boycotts.   When the left attacks a company for professing support for the Constitution, or the principles it enshrines, the right is now fighting back - and there are more of us in the fight.

Do you think the Superbowl Ads by Audi help them any?  Do you think that the leftists who subscribe to the lie of female inequality will rush out and buy an Audi instead of whatever car they were considering?  No.  It won't even enter their conscious thinking.  On the right, it will matter, there are many alternatives to Audi on the market, and shifting away when you feel insulted by a company is easy.

So, 84-Lumber put up their add with people who were supposed to represent what?  Immigrants? Illegal Aliens? The most common assumption was that: The appearance of the WALL and the immigrants was blocked by its existence was a clear statement - We Don't Want Your Wall. We Want Illegal Immigration and the default behavior.

Now, 84-Lumber is saying something different.   Do we believe them? Did they really not understand how that might come across? Yes Trump did say he wanted a big beautiful door in the wall - that door is US Immigrations. It is not an unlocked door in the middle of now where, unmaned, making the wall essentially useless.

I'm inclined to think 84-Lumber's Maggie Hardy Magerko is telling the truth - I just think she got a lot of bad advice.  Advice about sticking your corporate neck into the ghillotine that is now American Politics. Will this commerical cost 84-Lumber?  Yep, there are those who will take it as a slap in the face and her commends will either be unknown, or unheard. But you can bet the left will pick up on her comments of being pro-Trump and that will also cost her.  

You can thank the leftists for that.  They started the movement of scorched earth politics.   The right is now making them live up to the rules they applied only to everyone else.

What lessons should Corporate America - companies like Kelloggs who took a beating in the stock market for playing polticis?   Don't stick your corporate neck into politics - There is no upside, you will alienate a large section of your market while you cater to another part.  Better to keep silent - and that includes your donations.

I think I get it.

I've said any number of times when talking about the left, one of their major traits is projection.  They jump at any chance to call you a racist, homophobe, or... well, there's now a long litany of insults they use to dismiss you as unworthy of consideration. They dehumanize you, dismiss your arguments and then look for ways to destroy you. The most common form of that is to try and get you fired.

I've long known that the name calling was projection but it's not their only projection.  There is a new behavior in the left that we've all noticed since they lost the election in such a startling manner.   Fear.  You hear it a lot, how they fear the apocalypse that is Trump, that they'll be sent off to camps, arrested for speaking out.

In a recent article at PJ Media - they relate a FB post from Ned Resnikoff:

“While I had him in the apartment, I couldn’t stop thinking about whether he had voted for Trump, whether he knew my last name is Jewish, and how that knowledge might change the interaction we were having inside my own home"

“I have no real reason to believe he was a Trump supporter or an anti-Semite, but in my uncertainty I couldn’t shake the sense of potential danger"

 “I was rattled for some time after he left.”

Fear. Fear of what, I wondered.  I banished the story from my mind with a simple thought; Crazy leftists.  I've run across it a few more times since then.  Each time it amazed me and confounded me.  It seemed too easy to just dismiss it as depression or paranoia. Although I suspect both of those things are involved.

My opinion has been solidifying and I have to say, it doesn't make me very happy.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised. But, here it is: I believe he was afraid of being attacked or killed, because if the situations were reversed, that is what he would want to do. Projection. That "sense of potential danger" was his own internal feeling of rage and hate toward the suspected enemy.  And that is how the leftists view anyone who isn't one of them.  An enemy to be destroyed.   I know that sounds nuts.  It kind of feels nuts - how can that be? But deep down, I'm sure it's true.  I think the first hints of that came out of the Global warming insanity.  There was serious talk of arresting people who "denied" global warming. The Attornies General of 17 states were going after people and companies that denied climate change:

The inquisitors are threatening legal action and huge fines against anyone who declines to believe in an unproven scientific theory.  

That truly is insane and yet it happened. Bill Nye the science guy - a widely know public figure suggested criminal charges and jail time for dissenters.

Sounds unbelievable, and yet that's just how far around the bend these people are.  They are at heart totalitarians - a new Stalin for a new age. I no longer doubt that this battle will only ever be won when one side destroys the other.

Michael Walsh refers to them as the satanic left and I have seriously begun to think he's correct.  Need more convincing?  How about this little gem from Tim Kreider: I love America. It's Americans I hate.
Hate is very much in his heart, so much so he can't even see the irony of the title of his own article. What is America without Americans? He's just working himself up to start killing anyone who disagrees with him.  Interestingly he seems to think, without ever putting it into words that everyone who didn't vote for Trump must be on his side.  I think he's going to be horribly surprised to find out - that's just not the case. The last poll I saw indicated that 57% of Democrats wanted Trump to succeed, overall 73% want him to succeed.  One has to wonder why the rest seem to want him to fail.  Like another failed Presidency would be preferable to having the enemy succeed.

For years I was sure that you could reason with them. Using facts and logic, it would be possible to convince a leftist to change their mind.  I never succeeded and I've never met anyone else who had. Occasionally you hear about converts but those stories almost always involve some personal life change.  So, I've given up the hope of convincing them.  There is a large swath of unattached middle of the road people who don't care enough to vote, and on the off chance (slim to none) that this goes the way some leftists seem to want it to go, I suspect those folks will run for cover and wait until the dust clears - right up until you try to take something from them. 

Trump Derangement Syndrom

It's been kind of a laugh watching the totalitarian collectivists that make up the Left have a total meltdown since the election.  I'm less amused by their destructive tendencies.  This is what happens when you steep children in a self-absorbed entitled and pamapered lifestyle then you tell them that anyone who disagrees with their indoctrination is a Nazi - they have no clue what a Nazi actually is, but the like the sound of it - so they start calling everyone who doesn't agree with them Nazis.  There's also a lot of the Not My Presidient thing happening.   So I made this:





I'm starting to like Trump more, but his views on trade still worry me. I'm hoping he just using the tariff scare as a negotiating tool.  Still, cuting or even better eliminating Corporate taxes and cutting regulations would be a lot more effective.

Hollywood Award Shows

Never again. 

Never.

Never.

Never.


Again.

Well, it seems that the trend started at the Oscars so long ago will continue until no one watches as Hollywood pats themselves on the back for raking in the big bucks and paying themselves millions.  I don't begrudge them the money - they earned it after a fashion.  They create products, and we pay to consume them.  If the products were no good, we wouldn't pay, and they would be poor. Or, more likely, just gone.

But even today they occasionally remember that their job is Entertainment. Sadly they're not paid to remember it occasionally; I think the Ghostbusters remake proved that point. No one liked being lectured to when they were growing up. We didn't much like in school, and we sure as hell don't want to pay for it in the theater where there is always some moron who feels the need to use his cell phone during the movie. Ok, getting off topic... Entertainment should, shock of shocks, be entertaining.  If you're preaching at us, particularly if you're preaching something we don't believe in, we're not going to be entertained.

The only thing entertaining about their self-congratulatory awards shows is learning which movies won - it's a competition thing.  Even if we don't' follow a sport, we like to know who won. Get up, say thanks and go sit down.  If you have a funny anecdote about the filming, fine; feel free to share. But, I don't care nearly enough to sit through hours of self-righteous sermonizing about how I'm a bad person because I don't agree with the celebrity cause du jour. I don't mind jokes but it's rather one sided and dull as hell if they are all at the expense of one person.  

I didn't watch the Golden Globes for just that reason, but it's difficult to miss the aftermath, or the play by play if you're online.  For the next awards ceremony that going to tell me which was the best waste of two hours of my life, I'll be home reading a book.  I'm not going to be online. I'm going to do my damnedest to avoid it all togeather.  I'm already pissed enough at myself for waiting the time to write two posts and a dozen tweets about it.  That's four or five hours of my life that are just gone for no good reason.

Supressor Information

This data is subject to change as I either do my own testing or I find errors and or better sources of data. This was compiled to allow me to answer questions about reports that silencers may become more available under the Trump administration.

Suppressors (aka silencers) have NEVER been illegal at the federal level.  That is a state issue.  Currently they are legal in the following states: AL, AR, AK, AZ, CO, CT, FL, GA, ID, IN, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MI, MO, MS, MT, ND, NE, NV, NH, NM, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WV and WY.

They may be legal in CA and IA with a valid FFL (but don’t count on it)

For measurements I've done - I use dBA (the A-weighted values give more accurate readings for impulse sounds - based on my current understanding.  If you happen to have better information let me know)

Facts about Suppressors (AKA Silencers)
Tax stamp. $200
Threaded barrel $120-400
Suppressor $500-1500 avg of units surveyed $850
Sights (if you want to be able to aim) $50-250
Adds 5-12 inches to length - there are a few shorter and longer.
Add 11-16 oz to weight


Note that I haven't looked into wet suppressors as I have no personal interest in them - I may add that data later.


Keep in mind a typical polymer pistol weights in at 25oz unloaded, you will be adding significant weight at the far end of the barrel.

Reduces noise by about 32bBA on average. 22-35db depending on mfg and caliber.
Final noise level 110-135 dBA. That's more than twice and as much as three times louder than slamming a hard bound book on my coffee table. We perceive loudness as having doubled with every 10dB.  ( test case:  wood table, 670 page hard bound book loudest hit was 98db from 2 feet)

What's that mean - A suppressed 9mm is twice as loud as a lawnmower or gas powered blower.

An unsuppressed firearm can rupture eardrums - and is louder than a Jet on takeoff from 25meters. 

Small caliber - .22LR might only be 135dBA while most pistols used for self defense produce over 155dBA and Rifles around 165dBA. 

For a typical polymer pistol like the Glock you will spend $1,260 to add a suppressor to your existing gun.

For
My 1911 it's closer to $1,600 or $1,700 some of that is the sights, most of it is getting a match barrel cut, threaded, crowned and fitted to my slide.

Buying the gun too? Add $500 for a Glock or $1,400 for my 1911

Background check & processing currently Takes about 8-9 months to get the paperwork back.

If you think that your typical criminal is going to do that you need to change your medication.

The Straw Man Knocked down and set on fire

additional Info:

Suppressors may be used on multiple firearms - depends on caliber and barrel threading.   For example, a suppressor for a .45 ACP can be used on a .40 S&W or 9mm.  A suppressor for a .308/7.62 will work on a .223/5.56  They may be somewhat less effective - I'll try to get more data on this as it is an important economic issue to purchasers.

Hollywood

I wasn't going to do this - but for the love of God.  Twitter, and now all the media are flapping about Meryl Streep and her fabulous speech at the golden globes.

"It was typical: We're so enlightened, and you all are so stupid and vile.  I thought her opening was particularly funny. 
"Thank you, Hollywood Foreign Press. Just to pick up on what Hugh Laurie said: You and all of us in this room really belong to the most vilified segments in American society right now. Think about it: Hollywood, foreigners and the press."

Most vilified - Hollywood and foreigners and the press.  Vilified by whom?    Only recently has the non-leftist contingent vilified Hollywood - mostly for those condescending videos - they should be vilified, they were urging the electorate to abandon their duty to the voters. They were telling people that to be decent they need to vote the correct way.

And Foreigners - by which she means criminals - people here illegally I presume.  I don't remember anyone saying anything nasty about legal immigrants. Nobody really cares about legal immigrants, so it has to be the illegal aliens - not that she would ever call them that.

Ah, and the press who she extolled...

"We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call him on the carpet for every outrage. That’s why our founders enshrined the press and its freedoms in the Constitution."

Yes, we do need that - but we're not going to get it.  I mean...
Seriously?   I can't remember a single complaint out of Hollywood about the press failing to hold Obama to account.  Anyone?  Well maybe from Nick Searcy, Adam Baldwin, and James Woods. But the rest of them? Nary a peep.

And the Constitution - isn't  it that old outdated document that we're supposed to forget about or reinterpret or something? 

The total lack of self-awareness is mindboggling.

NYT Lies again

I could probably do a post a day about the lies told by the New York Times, but it's just too frustrating. I think it would a remarkable achievement if they managed to produce a single issue with no blatant lies or obvious misrepresentations. 

Reason Magazine did a nice takedown of an article by Susan Dynarski, a professor of education, public policy, and economics at the University of Michigan.

If this woman is actually a professor of Economics then the University of Michigan is more screwed up than I thought - and that would be difficult to accomplish.  No only does she purposely slant the results of the survey she used - but she failed to use the most recent survey.

I went and searched IGM's website for the survey to see what other information was available - sure enough, the first thing to pop up was a newer survey from 2012 that has a different result - even more in favor of vouchers. It also expresses a concern - a valid concern.  Although I think it's one that can be addressed. I also don't believe that most parents care enough about thier childs education to make the choice to go with vouchers.  I base this somewhat depressing opinion on the current lack of parent participation in public schools and they way they've allowed public schools to come completely off the rails.



Source: http://www.igmchicago.org/surveys/school-vouchers