Thursday, October 27, 2016

"Nobody wants to take your guns?" That may be more true than you think

Apparently, there is a majority of Americans (including those who do not personally own firearms) who do NOT want to take your guns!

According to a recent  [link ==> Gallup poll <== link], there is a minority (36%) of Americans who ...
 " ,,, favor a ban on assault rifles, down from 44% four years ago."


assault1

This is just one poll, from one source, but Gallup is perhaps the most trusted polling agency in the world.  That reputation may be due to their reputation for defining polls without subtle bias.

Some polls are like the notorious Kellermann poll, which 'determined' that:

* Myth #6 "A homeowner is 43 times as likely to be killed or kill a family member as an intruder"
... and the "polling technique" used by Kellermann was biased by the pollster, who was determined to 'prove' his original bias by statistically unfounded methods.  It has since been 'debunked'.

Apparently, enough people have learned to ignore Kellermann's false statistics to the point where they are looking at the realities of "Self Defense" as a viable option.


Feeling the Pulse of the Nation ... NOT!

Yesterday I noted that the fire of politicians' resentment was curiously missing from this year's Electoral Experience.   Nobody has said: "If Trump Wins, I'm Leaving The Country", or "If Hillary Wins, I'm Leaving The Country".

Forgive my smug assertion.   Apparently I wasn't paying attention.

There are about the same proportion of politicians (and celebrities who consider themselves gurus of politics ... aka Barba Streisand) who have dredged up the entire sore-loser mantra as if they had invented it!

By the way, doesn't anyone remember when Barbra chided the professional politicians because they weren't running the world the way she thought they should?  (In 2001, the Dems weren't hitting Bush hard enough;  in 2011, Republicans were on "the wrong side of history".)

Don't get me wrong, I love Barbra's music.  But she should only open her mouth to sing ... without an orchestra, she's alternatively a political embarrassment, or an idiot.   Sometimes, both.

Well, Barbra frequently embarrasses, but she never disappoints.    Except that, she continues to make those wild claims but has she left the country yet?  NOOOoooooooo!

(Okay, so she DOES disappoint ... but she's still consistent!)

For those who have made this "promise",
... *(many of whom I have never heard of; none of whom I would miss)* .......     here are a few tips.

My personal advice?   GO!   I would cheerfully donate five dollars to your travel fund!  *

If you're so shallow that you can't endure a president you don't like, we don't need you.   I don't like either candidate.  It's not the first time America has had an unpopular president.

We have endured Nixon, Carter, Clinton Senior, Obama, FDR.  We're still here,
We don't have to like it.  We can endure either Clinton Junior or Trump.


* uh ... that's five dollars CANADIAN, not American.
At the current exchange rate of 0.7470, that is only $3.59 American
Get use to it.


Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Gauging Candidate Popularity

Does anyone remember how many Democrats (Alec Baldwin ... where are you now?) declared back in 2000 that "If George Bush Wins The Presidency, I will leave the country"?

(Here's a 'short list' from Salon: September 20, 2000)

Well, I took an informal poll by using Norton Safe Search software based on the search argument:
"IF BUSH WINS I WILL LEAVE".

 2,680,000 results :  That's not a link, that's just how many hits I got.

As a comparison of the 2000 and 2016 elections, I ran searches on HILLARY and TRUMP

"IF HILLARY WINS I WILL LEAVE"  garnered 12,600,000 hits

"IF TRUMP WINS I WILL LEAVE" garnered 18,400,000 hits

I'm not about to offer any kind of statistical analysis between the popularity of 'Dubya' and the current candidates, because the world has changes so much and the blogosphere has gone hog wild.

This neither proves that Hillary is a more acceptable presidential candidate, or that Democrats are more emotional.  You could argue either way, and I couldn't refute you.

But suffice it to say the the George W. Bush candidacy excited a lot of people.

Today there are two candidates in the same statistical realm, and the most comfortable with the current democratic candidate among us are 12 to 18 LESS people over-reacting about HILLARY as a president. than about TRUMP as a president.

OR IS THAT A VALID EVALUATION?

Could it just be that Democrats are more emotional, more prone to over-react or make extreme statements?

I think that it might be possible to make a case for that premise.  You do recall that George Walker Bush's competitor in 2000 was Al Gore?  (also know as "Al Sore-Loser")

Well, to provide a balanced 'research project" I also ran a search for:

"IF GORE WINS I WILL LEAVE"
....    and I didn't get a single hit.

Maybe nobody thought Al "I Invented The Internet" Gore was much of a challenge?


In Defense of Campfires

Never Yet Melted blogged about an article about campfires. Which article   explain(ed) that campfires are “a dangerous, polluting, wasteful relic of the past,” way too hazardous and unsafe for ordinary Americans to safely enjoy.
He's dismissive of the citified wussy wimp nincompoops who hike or bike or ski or climb in the Out-of-Doors wearing expensive synthetic getups in the same kinds of colors as lifesavers.

I'm with him.   It's just not a camp-out without you got a camp fire!

For the Geek Clan, it's a Family Tradition.

For over 30 years, the Geek Clan would gather at least annually for a Family Camp-out.  Usually scheduled for Fourth of July, or some warm summer month (hopefully with a 3-day weekend), between 30 and 50 Geek Clan members would gather at Motett Meadows .. off Beaver Creek (a branch of the Grande Ronde River in Eastern Oregon) and subject ourselves to the collective version of the Hunting Camp.  Only, without the hunting.

On Day 1, the Senior Geek Men would meet at the Meadows and go off in the woods to find a dead tree.  There was always a dead tree, usually a blow-down.  They would hook a chain on the tree and drag it back to the camp.  Uncle Shorty would fire up his chain saw and buck the log after cutting off the limbs for 'kindling'. (Most of the Geek Men were loggers, at one time in their history ... starting off in the 1930s when they would use cross-cut saws to cut down giant Doug Fir and haul them to sawmills in the are.)

Someone would carefully clear a 10-foot fire-circle  ... we used the same place most years ... and start a fire with the limbs.  The Senior Geek Women would be watering down their whiskey bottles in the meantime. (see below)

Uncle Shorty was the guy who took a long branch to poke the fire for the next two nights, nudging the wood around because "... it looks like it's gonna be a cold night ..." but mostly because he liked playing with fire.  Which explains why he was married twice.

After dinner (cooked on propane stoves placed on jerry-built tables at first; in later years, we showed up with trailer houses instead of tents) the guys would find themselves places around the fire, sitting on the bucked pieces of tree.   And then someone would produce a bottle of whiskey and pass it around the fire.

My father, whom I called "POP"  (my mother was "MOM" to me .. it's a Geek Thing, you wouldn't understand) kept a galvanized metal wash tub of about 3' diameter,and they would fill it with ice and a case or two of beer.  They drank horrible bear, the cheapest they could find, but they treated it with respect.   They waited for as much as 20 minute after they iced the beer before the started drinking it.
Pop had an old patchwork quilt which was older than I was, and they wrapped the ice and beer in the quilt to hold in the coolth.   One of my jobs was to put the quilt in the tub, then the beer, then the ice.

I always felt proud that I was assigned such a high post.  Until I turned 21, and we turned the job over to a more junior cousin *(a boy)*.

One year, my cousin *(a girl cousin)* married a nice guy named Rowndy.  He wanted to fit in, so the first year of their marriage he brought a fifth of Black Velvet whiskey to the campfire.   He had a couple of snorts, and one of the Seniors asked him if he planned to drink the whole damn thing by himself?    He allowed that it was not neighborly of him, so he passed the bottle around the campfire.   I and my cousins were all 'of age' by then, so it was no longer just five or six Old Men (both my parents came from large families) but also the Second Generation.   Which is why we needed a big campfire; surely you can understand the validity of their "Plenty Of Room For Everybody" logic.

Rowndy got the bottle back with just enough for one sip.  Not a SWALLOW, mind you ... just a 'taste'.

In later years, Rowndy brought two bottles; one for him, one for the campfire.  It's nice to see how effectively the older generation trains the younger.

Yes, we had one or two of the younger generation get a little drunk, but there was very little intoxication most years.  And those young men were sufficiently shamed the next day by the Olders who sat around the morning campfire tsking about the younger generation who "just can't hold their liquor".

Another year, the First Generation Women got together and poured all of the Booze out of Uncle Orville's Vodka bottle and replaced it with creek water.   Uncle Orville and Uncle Shorty liked Vodka mixed with Squirt .. resulting in a clear drink, which was poured over ice in a plastic glass.

When the Men came back from dragging in the Campfire Tree, they poured their first drink while waiting for the log to catch from the kindling.   Uncle Orville took a sip, watched the budding blaze, and sighed:  "Mmmmm   Heap Good Drink."

Uncle Shorty took another sip, and opined: "Yep.  Heap Good Drink.  But it could use a little more firewater" upon which he poured some more 'vodka' from the bottle into his glass.  And refilled Uncle Orville's glass, too.


"Y'know?  I think I can use just a little more firewater.  That damn Squirt .. must have put too much into my drink."

Meanwhile, in the background Mom and The Aunts were giggling like crazy.  "What you laughing about?" asked Uncle Orville?

"Who us?  Oh, nothing.  It's woman stuff, you wouldn't understand."

It took those two brothers about a half hour to finally figure it out.  Mom and Auntie Grace finally broke up laughing so hard, and couldn't help rubbing their nose in it.

At which time the two Geek brothers dumped their glasses into the fire ... and there was so little alcohol in the glasses that it damn near put out the fire!

Yep, there's nothing like a Camp Fire.

Especially if you suspect that just maybe there isn't enough Fire in the Firewater.

(PS:  yes, the Aunts did save the Firewater.  They got a little tipsy on it before they gave it back , though.)


Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Rifle KaBOOM!

I'm betting we see a multimillion dollar suit about this!






The Three Things I Detest

I'm normally an easy-going kind of guy, but when Election Season comes about I turn into a raving lunatic!

The three things I hate about America are, in order:

  1. Politics
  2. Politicians
  3. Elections
Here's why:

POLITICS:

The thing about Politics is that it's not about keeping a nation (state/county/city) endowed with leaders who will best serve the electorate.   It's about finding a way to cajole honest folks into supporting some other guy in who doesn't have the same priorities as I do, but they don't look at the things which are important to me; they look at the things that will get some totally incompetent Willy Loman elected because he has a fresh-blocked hat and a shine on his shoes.

POLITICIANS:

A good politician isn't one who will look out for your best interests; he's the guy that can get elected.
Never mind if he is morally suspect or dumb as a box of rocks, he's got charisma and doesn't pick his nose in public (or at least, not when the cameras are on him).

A "Good Politician" is a snake-oil salesman who keeps his mistress hidden, and his wife accepts his peccadilloes because she might end up The First Lady of Ward 7.   If he is on the graft, he doesn't go out and buy a fancy car the day after he gets "The Envelope" (stuffed full of case, courtesy of his sponsors).  This allows him to vote for the causes of his 'contributors' with a free conscience.

Any man who runs for election to public office must have an ulterior motive.  It may be personal vanity, or the wish to be liked; it may be the power of the position; it may be because he just can't make it in private industry (but he looks and talks "real good!").

Or it might be because he has done so well in his career, this is the next step up on the ladder of success.

The worst of the candidates are those who have a "Vision".  You want to steer clear of these evangelists, because their vision is probably not yours.

ELECTIONS:

This is the very worst part.  Politicians pander to private parties.  You might want to write that down.
No matter what they say (it's all a lie), their sole goal is to get elected to high public office.  The day of "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" is over.  Dead as Chivalry.   Serious as a Heart Attack. Pick your poison, as sure as hell, sooner or later your elected official will turn out to be a Felon.

Now we are involved in a Presidential Election which has selected (as the primary candidates on each side) The Creep and The Crook.

This is the best America has to offer?

 We are obliged to choose between two candidates, neither of which an honest, self-respecting person would invite to dinner in their home?

The American political process was designed to allow our citizens to choose between The Best of The Best; but in a few days we will have to choose between The Least Horrible of the Awful.

Frankly, I'm relying on Scott Adams for political guidance.

The Crook Versus the Monster | Scott Adams' Blog:

The biggest illusion this election is that we think the people on the other side can’t see the warts on their own candidate. But I think they do. Clinton supporters know she is crooked, but I think they assume it is a normal degree of crookedness for an American politician. Americans assume that even the “good” politicians are trading favors and breaking every rule that is inconvenient to them. I’ve never heard a Clinton supporter defend Clinton as being pure and honest. Her supporters like her despite her crookedness.

 Likewise, Trump supporters know what they are getting. They know he’s offensive. They know he’s under-informed on policies. They know he pays as little in taxes as possible. They know he uses bankruptcy laws when needed. They know he ignores facts that are inconvenient to his message. They just don’t care. They want to push the monster into Washington D.C., close the door, and let him break everything that needs to be broken. Demolition is usually the first step of building something new. And Trump also knows how to build things when he isn’t in monster mode.
This isn't "The Answer", but at least it's one viewpoint which has attempted to provide a quick summary of our National Quandry.

And Scott Adams is not among the things I detest.
Perhaps it's because I'm a Dilbert at heart.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Napolitano: What if you needed permission?


Published on Oct 20, 2016
(Judge And NSA “The Big Deception” and "Constitutional Chaos" )


(Pretty Radical stuff!)

Note this sequence includes more than one video, and the transition is not obvious.






Gun Ownership v Firearm Deaths

So America has the most guns, but less crimes?

Telegraph: U.S. Top Country for Gun Ownership, Not Even in Top 10 for Firearm Deaths - Breitbart:
On October 22 The Telegraph published a map showing the U.S. leads the world in private firearm ownership but does not even crack the Top 10 when it comes to firearm-related deaths.
The interesting fact, which is not mentioned in the Telegraph article, is that of the Top 10 nations in firearms ownership ... only ONE of those nations (Uruguay) is listed in the Top 10 in firearm-related deaths.

Which once again seems to vindicate Dr. John Lott's assertion that "More Guns = Less Crime".

As Rachel Weisz said in THE MUMMY:
"Take THAT, Bainbridge scholars!"

Oh ... and on a final note:

Many of the "Top 10 in Firearms Deaths" nations permit few, if any, civilians to possess firearms.