Sunday, December 20, 2009

To hell with credit cards

In the last 14 months, my real estate business has been wiped out, leaving pennies in my biz account and credit card companies calling me several times a day.

During my business's hard times this last year, I was surviving and paying bills, but the credit card companies greatly reduced the limits on the cards while greatly increasing the interest rates -- at the very time that I needed capital to survive and weather the severe downturn, which was brought on by collusion between the card companies' banks and the federal government. When I professionally addressed each card company about the deleterious effects of their actions on my company's accounts, they each said they had no choice, even though I'd been a diligent card member with each company for anywhere from 5 to 12 years and made each tens of thousands in interest.

I moved out of my four-bedroom home and am now living in a home half the size with my daughter. Though I continue to help my franchisees with my real estate company, I have branched out into three other businesses that are still some time away from making me more money than just survival cash.

But I am determined to never use credit cards again as long as I live. I will do as my father did: buy with cash or not buy at all. I will not make a credit card company one more cent of interest as long as I live. I also will not buy a home or a car unless I can do so with cash because I do not wish to make one penny of interest money for the banks that screwed me, my business and many friends' businesses and lives. I see no way around having a bank account, unfortunately, and just stockpiling cash at home because one generally must have an account to pay bills, and it is too dangerous to keep cash at home, so I must, for the time being, allow my bank to make interest by investing my meager money in my bank account, but I will look for alternatives in the near future and have a few ideas.

I would hope that my fellow Americans would do the same and live simply by a debit card, drawing only upon cash already in an account, thereby strangling the credit-card companies and the lobbyists that suck the dicks of Congressmen.

It is a wonderful feeling to be free of the monsters. I also got rid of my health-insurance company 14 months ago and have saved $6,000 by doing so and staying fit. If Congress wishes to attempt to make me buy insurance, I will sue. I wish my fellow Americans would join me in a class action against such barbarism.

Cash or credit?

Cash, baby.

To hell with credit card companies, banks and health insurers. To hell with them all!!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Ennui and dread in modernist America

The Wall Street Journal ran a good column by Peggy Noonan today on the decadence of modern America. I wrote the following letter in response:

____________________
Peggy Noonan’s column on “The Adam Lambert Problem” was poignant and reminiscent of scores of similar conversations I’ve had with friends for the last 20 years concerning the trailer-trashing of America – in which the vapid, the unctuously ignorant, the Narcissist, the moral relativist are given “reality shows,” front stage at awards ceremonies and a chair in the Oval Office.

Within 50 years, we’ve gone from uptight Puritanism to filthy, angry decadence. In between, we passed up high-spirited, benevolent, enlightened fun and thoughtful circumspection that would be devoid of the faults at each end of the spectrum.
Instead of “you’re welcome" or “you bet,” we now hear “no problem,” with the implication that your presence *is* a problem that has allegedly be risen above.

Vampires are the new Cary Grants and Harrison Fords. Mature (sophisticated thoughts and emotions) movies are relegated to arts theaters and surely never gain titanic revenues. Teleprompters supplant eloquence. Music is about anger, gutter sexuality and ennui (where have you gone, Shirelles?). Happy is un-vogue and schmaltzy. Happy endings are “simplistic” and “trite” and not “Oscar-worthy.” Body mutilation and slovenly apparel adorn lackluster expression. Earning great wealth no longer signifies merit and success, but instead moral turpitude.

It would be facile to point a finger solely at what’s called “public education” and its dummying-down of kids. Something came first, and that *something* is progressivism and its concomitant: skepticism of human efficacy, happiness and self-responsibility. That skepticism largely began with Plato (believing this world and ourselves unreal), runs through religions, passed through Emmanuel Kant and infiltrated modern universities.

The antidote is a diminutive Russian émigré, who first stood upon the shores of America in her 20s during America’s Roaring Twenties. Her name was Ayn Rand, and her philosophy, Objectivism, honored personal achievement, efficacy, self-determination and happiness. We’ll not see the end of the Kanye Wests and the Adam Lamberts in modern America until Ms. Rand’s ideas permeate our culture – and TV executives then understand that filth is not the American (or human) way.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Tiger Woods enters ... The Twilight Zone

If we are to believe the women who have claimed affairs with Tiger Woods (or even some of the women), Mr. Woods has been making holes-in-one all across America -- and perhaps the world.

The number of women who have come forward now numbers 14 -- which equals the number of major tournaments Mr. Woods has won in his 13-year pro career. Nice symmetry, that.

I had planned for this blog entry to be another of ridicule and humor, but the Woods saga has now entered the realm of The Twilight Zone. This guy's a seriously disturbed human being, a serial bigamist, a promiscuous of historical proportion, a tragic Greek figure, a sick man

The sickness he has forced upon himself now makes him the object of abject pity and disgust. If he had allowed himself one dishonesty to his wife and family and the business world, it would've showed a mind not capable of keeping focus momentarily, especially if he reconciled himself with that lapse and corrected it. We could've easily forgiven and wished him best once he got right with all of the above and himself.

But to regularly bed other women for years of marriage represents something so monstrous and so ethereally disembodied that one can only recoil in incredulity. It shows such a Leviathan disconnect with one's values and those one values that you seriously have to speculate as to the sanity of the individual. In each instance, he had to willfully block from his mind his wife, his children, his business promises, his charity and all whom he cared about and feigned honesty with. And then he had to live with it by suppressing all to his subconscious, which eats away at self-esteem and pride like parasitic wasp eggs inside young, live caterpillars.

In retrospect, as I've said before, one can see in Mr. Woods' behavior over the years the elusiveness, the ethereal traits, the personal distance, the robotic responses, the smug demeanor, the unctuous moralizing, the supercilious walk down the 18th fairway, the temper tantrums and verbal lashings, for what they are: the tangible products of a sickness, perhaps some pathology. He is Raskolnikov, but not seemingly the full fatalist or futilist or, of course, murderer.

I remember many hundreds of times being riveted by the above traits and wondering what must be inside the man's head, and thinking to myself: "I don't think HE knows what's inside his head." One can, indeed, extrapolate from evidence, but had I mentioned that something disturbing lay inside, people would've thought ME insane. "He's just got a lot of responsibilities," I would've been told. And, in fact, that was often said by TV and print commentators who tried to sum up Woods' distant demeanor. Of course, Jack Nicklaus and Michael Jordan had equal pressure and maintained healthy psyches and genuinely jolly spirits.

I, myself, have been within two feet of Mr. Woods many times as he has stridently loped between the crowd ropes in an affected, defensive fog with a look of some inner terror, as if being chased by some unseen Cheat Death. His demeanor in such times has been rationalized as "concentration," but it so apparently more than that, some distant inner-world of dread and misery.

Tiger woods was raised specifically to play golf, from the age of two, by his father. He was paraded before the world on the Mike Douglas Show at the age of two, carrying a tiny golf bag over his shoulders. It used to be a sweet moment caught on film that people gushed over. It now looks macabre, surreal, oppressive, exasperating. He was controlled a good deal by an overbearing father, like many of us, but Mr. Woods did not make the time to get away from the public eye to get his shit together; he did not TAKE the time to get his shit together. He has been on the path of destiny, manifest destiny -- his father's path first, like Mozart's. Are we ever to know if such children would choose such a path if given the opportunity? No. Greatness is nothing if it is not one's chosen path.

Mr. Wood's evangelical podium has been the 18th Green. It is my fond hope that he takes plenty of time now to seek out psychological help away from the madding crowd and find in him who he is. If I see such a man emerge, I will shed tears of joy, and he may become my new Jack Nicklaus or Michael Jordan. Godspeed.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

News Flash -- A volcano gets a scolding

*News Flash* (YouTube video to appear shortly)

President Obama’s teleprompter expressed outrage today at the Philippine volcano Mayon for spewing vast amounts of ash into the atmosphere, calling the exhaust “a reckless disregard for our planet, an unconscionable act that will lead to catastrophic global warming, and an obvious attempt to embarrass me, the president’s teleprompter.” (We here at All the News that’s Fit to Give You Fits don’t give you quotes and end-quotes; we just change our voice or do double-double fingers (DDFs))

Noting the timing of Mayon’s exhaust, the president’s teleprompter then addressed the volcano directly: “Look. Let me be clear. You will not undermine our brave attempts in Copenhagen to suffocate businesses worldwide and to raise taxes on all citizens who bring prosperity to all through capitalism and make more than they should make.”

The head of the European Union’s climate control, Stavros Dimas (yes, that’s his real name), immediately announced sanctions against the volcano and called for $2 billion in fines against Mayon for, he said, “obviously pointing its middle finger at us in a cloud that rose 10,000 meters into the air above the volcano. Nobody points their middle finger at US! Have you not seen what we have done to Microsoft for doing what it wants with its own private property?!”

Upon release of the news of the threat by Stavros Dimas (yes, that’s his real name), Mayon, the volcano, and the surrounding territory shook terribly, knocking people and farm animals off their feet. Some volcanologists called the ground-shaking a mere chuckle, while others termed it a full belly-laugh.

Volcanologists then raised the “alert level” on the volcano overnight to two steps below major eruption, which is one step below “pretty god-awful eruption.” Volcanologists claim they are no relation to the Vulcan, Mr. Spock of Star Trek. The claim appears to be true, as you can see by their pointy heads, not ears, in the picture at left … or right … or wherever the hell it is. (picture)

But the volcanologists bear a remarkable resemblance to President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, George Clooney and consensus-ologists who call themselves scientists, as you can see in THIS picture (picture).

After release of the news of Mayon’s giant belching, hackers around the world noticed a uniform increase in secret emails among consensus-ologists who call themselves scientists. The subject title on the most popular email thread was “We’ll rape that son-of-a-bitch skeptical volcano, and she will like it.”

One noted consensus-ologist who calls himself a scientist in London later apologized for the subject line, saying, “We obviously should’ve used the gender-neutral “it” instead of “she.”

Mayon, the volcano, did not return comment, but the ground shook terribly.

(That’s your update with All the News That’s Fit to Give You Fits. As always, please remember that edible underwear made of dark chocolate is good for your heart.)

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Jingle bells, jingle bells, give me money now!

It's that time of year for the holly-jolly guilt brigade.

The slouching centurions of the greedy-needy haunt passages into grocery stores, department stores and malls. The shibboleth for a smile of worthiness and guilt-free passage is money. Lots of money renders special status and a you-are-most-worthy thanks from the Dickensian sergeants.

I usually have little sympathy for my fellow Americans and their Quasimodo hump of altruism, but even I feel for these poor souls who must keep eyes street-ward upon approaching the jingling centurions with their hawkeyes of reproach. It's a pathetic scene to watch every day. How many of these citizens have already given to St. Jude's or the cleft-palates or the skin-and-bones of Africa at the local Wal-Mart or Kroger, and then they come upon yet another conscience-spur jingle?

The poor citizens must be thinking: "I already GAVE at another store. I wish you knew that. Maybe I should tell you I already gave. No, that would be selfish. I must give again. OK, I'll give again. Damn, how many times do I have to give. I wish they would just go away. No, that's selfish. I shouldn't think such thoughts. ... Maybe I'll do my shopping after midnight or online." When grocery stores have two entrances, guess which path is least taken?

I'm thankful to myself and Ayn Rand for who I am and my selfishness and guilt-free mind. I give only to The Ayn Rand Institute. When we (me, the Institute and other Objectivists) win freedom again, I might just drop a couple of bucks in the St. Jude can or help an innovative school charity. Hell, I'll be so fricking happy with my newfound freedom, I might even spend a few bills for Obamao's euthanasia.

Monday, December 14, 2009

The bumming down of America

Obamao and his thugs (aka Congress and czars) now want to take your cellphones or cellphone texting away from you when you're behind the wheel. They want to force you to get insurance or pay for someone else's insurance. They want to make you pay for CO2 exhausted. They want a bigger peek inside your bank account. The demand that your children go to education camps and applaud the fearless leader, as you pay more in taxes to support the applause.

They want to ensure that you have fewer nice things to buy because they wish to strangle the people who make them: businesses. They announce what kind of lightbulbs they will let you buy. They wish to make you feel guilty for anything anti-green, including driving your car, running your mower, cutting down a tree, burning wood in your fireplace, keeping your thermostat too high, taking too many plane trips, not buying "green-sensitive" products. They will not let you buy food that they have not approved, even if you think it's better for you.

They will not let you take drugs that they don't approve of. They will not let you take your own life, if you wish. They will not let you pass on your hard-earned money to your loved ones if you earned too much. They demand that you "recycle" certain trash. They demand that you take batteries, oil and other products to far-off centers for "proper" disposal. They will not let you own your own mailbox or put a letter in a neighbor's mailbox (I got upbraided and mildly threatened recently for doing this by a mailman).

They will not let you own a gun unless they says it's OK. They will not let you kill lower animals unless they say it's OK. They will not let you buy fireworks or alcohol unless it is at an approved establishment. They will not let you do hard drugs.

Your children must wear a helmet when on a bicycle. You must wear a seatbelt in your car and "click it or ticket" (isn't that cute?). You cannot add on to your house or build your own house without a half-dozen government types telling you, "Hmm, well, OK, but be careful that you follow code and get a 'licensed' contractor." You cannot get licensed in virtually any practice without a government stamp of authenticity. You cannot have an open container of alcohol in your car, even if you haven't taken a sip.

You must have a concentration-camp number (called "Social Security") affixed to your birth, name and blood. You can't walk around naked if you feel like it (Eck, PENISES and VAGINAS!). You cannot have your children out during "school hours" unless you are a "legitimate" homeschooler. You cannot teach your children what you wish. You cannot cut down certain trees without permission. You cannot bury your pets or your relatives in the back yard for loving proximity. You must have your vehicle "registered" by the state. You must have your vehicle's exhaust checked by the state's minions. You must have a "driver's license" issued by the state. You must show this license at "checkpoints."

You must pay bribes (aka taxes) to the state or be sent to prison to be raped. You cannot withdraw or deposit more than $6,000 at a time or be flagged by the state. You must give your bribes to farmers, foreigners, drug addicts, people without houses, people without food, people with too many babies, people who are sick, people who are crippled, people who are old, people who are young, people without enough clothing, businesses who are too big to fail, businesses who are big at failure, people who own "clunkers."

You must pay tolls on roads long past being paid for. You must suffer through road construction taking four times the free-market time to repair or build. You must get insurance on your car even if you are a safe driver. You cannot start a business unless you have a license. You cannot have a business in your home unless you get a license. You cannot sell fruit at a fruit stand unless you get a license.

You must endure the politician's smile and handshake while he states profoundly that all of the above is for your own good. You cannot live an hour of your life without doing something that the politician tells you're not supposed to do or want to do. You must keep all or most of these rules in your head during every moment of your day to avoid fines, jail or prison. You now live under Big Brother. He is here. He is everywhere.

America is now for the bums.

And it is a bummer.

Life should be free, not risk-free. It should be ebullient, effervescent, self-determining, free of outside oversight, free to make mistakes, free to not make mistakes. Free of any thought whatsoever of improper influence or rules. Free of any sense of oppression or immoral punishment.

How I long for the land of the free. Our fellow ignorant citizens demand the politicians we now have. They are bumming down America. One of these days, we're gonna have to put a stop to it. And it may not be pretty, but we'll throw the bums out.

The living, the living dead -- and a poem

(poem below)
I allow some mystics (they refer to themselves as "Christians") to become friends on Facebook because they have been generally nice to me and have some values I share. But sometimes they forget themselves and ask me to join some mystic endeavor in a foggy-rotten universe of "discussion." This time it was "intelligent design."

And so it happened this a.m. on my fourth sip of coffee while reading emails. Had the defendant caught me just two sips earlier, he would've heard nothing more than muted swearing from a night-befuddled brain. Alas, his message found me on or after my third sip as my mind gains clock-speed. He was tried and convicted in a court of facts via a Facebook message that referred, in moments, to zombies and mystics and pristine sips of coffee and never-never-little-Johnny-are-you-to-do-that-again.

The mystic did, however, awaken the Fact Giant and stirred FG's previous ruminations upon the subject of the living dead among us reality mongers. And so goes the following:

In the beginning, swirling dead birthed life,
Tiny beings alight on edged knife.
All is to win, and this is all -- a world,
Fuming, venting, a DNA unfurled.
Then it comes! Whence, yet still, we do not know,
A wiggle tail and a spangled torso.
In dark shallows, a billioned great spawn,
A meteor, a raging sun, then gone.
And yet, not gone, a few, yes, they the strong,
Stay, remain, survive anew, fast and long.
We, their virile progeny, though unlike,
We, the human, from chimps and trilobite.
How far is father time is length in change,
For the world is stage we now rearrange.
Some is for good, even so, some for naught,
Rational life is fight for is and ought.
"No it is not!" say low creatures of mind,
"We are but insects to divine divine."
The trilobite laughs and the chimp chuckles,
"Who's this new fool who on death suckles?
"Did we not give life, for we had no choice?
"Did we not give you a mind to rejoice?
"Your greatest poet, we did not believe,
"When he proclaimed, 'What fools these mortals be.'
"We have but little choice now than to see,
"That many of you become us and we.
"Bit by bit, we marched forward in time, space,
"Yet you go backward, you, the human race.
"To rejoin your brethren in bloody toil.
"Rather, please listen, we must be your foil.
"Don't be us, and think not of things not so,
"Know what you are, and more, know what you know.
"It is what it is; it ain't what it ain't.
"You have brain, but we offer no complaint.
"You have senses, as we did and we do.
"But you have sensibility sinew.
"Please refrain from things not seen, felt or heard.
"You are alpha-omega, the mind-bird.
"If worship you must, then here's what to do:
"Get a mirror, yes, and see, it is you."

Sunday, December 13, 2009

The moral debacle of the penis called Tiger Woods

If you or I lie to a friend or acquaintance to hide something, it is, of course, immoral.

But what if you got a job as a, say, computer programmer at a business and didn't know the first thing about computer programming? What if you were able to somehow hide this fact for years while by, perhaps, having someone else do it or by some other shenanigan?

As so we have Tiger Woods. What he sold to the companies that used him for their advertisements was reputation, his moral bearing and confidence, as well as his expertise on the golf course. He had the last of these three things, but he has been living a lie for years now regarding the first two. He has sold himself in interviews, at charity events, on the golf course, in advertisements, and in person as a man of rectitude, morality, certitude, self-esteem, pride, honesty, independence.

But he is a fraud. And he has defrauded some of the biggest companies in the world: Accenture, Nike, Gillette and more. He was defrauding them when he was kissing other women and during every minute that he was sticking his penis in these other women and writing them text messages to cover up the fact that his penis had been in them.

I've watched this man's prickly (ahem) demeanor in hundreds of interviews (yes, I love golf) and been aghast at his chilly (a la Obamao) facade, his clammy metaphorical handshake with the camera, his icy look, his condescension. Until now, I thought he was just an asshole. But it turns out the whole package, the whole I'm-fucking-Tiger-and-you-cretins-are-NOT shit was just that: shit.

I've been trying to figure out whether this fraud has an obligation to set the record straight with those of us who've watched him for 13 years trounce the golf world and perform his sterile magician's trick up on afterward. My conclusion is that, yes, he does have an obligation since by taking up the microphone, you are implicitly selling yourself to those listening and watching. If what you were selling in wholly inaccurate, then you have an apology to make, a sincere apology to make. And we will decide whether that apology is sufficient to warrant our further interest.

The unfortunate companies that were defrauded by this man are now abandoning him faster than you can say fire hydrant. But they should do more. They should sue him. They won't because of "public reputation" and probably because of "black" pressure groups.

Too bad.

Oh, did you hear the one about why a golf ball is not like Tiger's Cadillac? With a golf ball, you hit a wood first.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Krill -- The new superman of Omega 3s

I've been taking Carlson's Norwegian cod liver oil for years and have had much better digestion and a general feeling of better alertness. Moreover, my minor joint pains that I had before taking the oil have completely disappeared. At 49 years old, I have zero join pain. I also have better flexibility than I did 10 years ago.

But I'm about to move on to something that is being touted as having 48 times the Omega 3s of fish oil: Krill oil. Krill are the tiny crustaceans that whales and other sea animals feed on in abundance. Krill feed on algae and phytoplankton, sources of immense nutrient compounds. Krill are the most abundant organism on Earth, by body mass amount: 510 million tons just in the north Pacific. I've been doing research on krill recently and will be buying krill-oil capsules today to incorporate them into my diet.

Like fish oil, krill oil is high in Omega 3s -- much higher. And more important, krill oil's ratio of Omega 3s to Omega 6s is much greater, meaning you get a more potent form of the "good" omega compared with the "bad" omega fatty acid. Moreover, krill oil is almost bereft of mercury and other poisons because krill are near the bottom of the food chain (unlike salmon and cod), as well as living in deep-cold-sea habitats with very little poisons.

Krill are terrific for your liver, your joints, PMS symptoms, inflammation reduction, free-radical extermination, digestion, and much more. If you want to find out more, check out established Internet sites. Here are a few to start with:

A good article on understanding krill.

This site contains studies of krill oil on mice and other animals.

Pop a couple of krill-oil pills a day, my friends, and enjoy your health.

Oh yeah, and don't forget to exercise! :)

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

The Good Queen's giant lollipop and computer

My lovely daughter, Livy, spent almost an hour on my lap this a.m. after she got up. We talked of most everything under the sun, kidding with each other, too, and thinking up fantasy things.

I told her I'd been reading my paper after I got up, and she said (with a smirk) that I was now not allowed to read my paper again for 100 years "when people are dead."

Well, of course, I protested much about these new restrictions and began to "cry." She quickly revised that forecast because The Good Queen (a frequent companion of hers these last couple of weeks) had decided that I, indeed, could read my newspaper anytime and write about what I read. And, to boot, The Good Queen had decided to reward me with a new white computer "with, um, lots of buttons and lots of games and sticky things on it so you can put your computer on a wall and miles and miles of cords to you can play on it anywhere."

I, of course, was happy with my new gift, and Livy and I "played" on the computer and explored it for a good while.

Livy then informed me that The Good Queen had bestowed upon Livy's friend Ethan a lollipop bigger than space along with a ladder to climb to the top of the lollipop and that it would take Ethan and Livy and the rest of us at least TWO DAYS to lick it all up.

The Good Queen then peremptorily revised the amount of time I was allowed to "play" on my computer to just "the day before people die in 100 years."

"Oh, I said," astounded by this new revelation. "What am to do on that last day, my love?"

Pause.

"Play!" she giggled.

Wow!! Book your spaceflight now!!

If you want to see how a private company can blow away a public operation (NASA, in this case) in technology, innovation and speed of idea to product, read on -- and prepare to be impressed, in the true meaning of the word!

Virgin Galactic plans tourist flights starting in 2011 with its revolutionary SpaceflightTwo. When you visit the site, check out the "Overview" link. After that, click on the "Safety" link and see how these geniuses have made a product that will go into space easily and virtually danger free. The ideas are so ingenious and so simple, it boggles the mind that NASA hasn't discovered them with tens of billions of dollars in government funding. Also, check out the videos. Remember to close your jaw after watching.

The original cost of the space flights will be $200,000 for a seat (up to six passengers at first). But by the end of the next decade, this price will no doubt fall into the tens of thousands and perhaps even the thousands.

This kind of explorational capitalist venture is indicative of what we Americans would've had in this country decades ago if the citizens had not wanted the politicians to pilfer and rob us of our fortunes, which could be used for extraordinary venture capitalism. My hat is off and I bow to Richard Branson and Dick Rutan for their remarkable courage and creativity and selfishness in the making of SpaceShipTwo!

Oh, I almost forgot. While you're at their wonderful site, be sure not to forget to click on "Booking." I'll be up there within the decade. Will you join me?

Thieves tunnel for $6 million in heist

Thieves in Sao Paulo, Brazil, tunneled 110 feet from a house to underneath an armored-car company's floors and stole nearly $6 million in cash yesterday.

Ha, that's chicken feed! Thieves in the U.S. Congress and White House stole $1 trillion this year without breaking a sweat -- and then they walked through their underground tunnels to their Mercedes Benz.

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Howard Roark in New Delhi

Rand's works are selling like Southern hotcakes in India. It ain't just America where her book sales are breaking records. Check out this very good article printed today in "Foreign Policy," a major publication.

Governor writes of Rand in Newsweek

The execrable S.C. Governor Mark Sanford wrote a mostly favorable piece on Ayn Rand in the Oct. 22 issue of Newsweek.

The irony of a very-Christian politician who has accepted bailout cash and agrees on many welfare programs writing on Rand is humorous, but, again, we have a leading indicator of just how popular Rand has become in virtually every circle of intellectuals and governments.

The first part of the article is quite sympathetic to Rand and pretty darn accurate. Sanford expresses the usual caveats about the alleged "coldness" of Rand's ideas and such, but, altogether, it's a great piece for Objectivists to brag over.

There's no crying in football!

One of the most hilarious scenes in all of film history is Tom Hanks' rant in "A League of Their Own" (1992), when he screams at one of his sensitive girl players: "There's no crying! ... There's no crying in baseball!!!"

Indeed. There's no crying in sports! It's a SPORT! It's supposed to be about doing your darnedest and having fun doing it. It's not supposed to be about winning. I know that's a cliche, but, like all cliches, it's true. Sports give you a chance to test your physical acumen. The opponents provide a foil for that test. Winning can be a metaphor for having done your best, having plumbed your ability and done well.

And so, yesterday, we had the spectacle of quarterback Tim Tebow of the Florida Gators weeping quite publicly for millions to see as his Gators lost to Alabama 32-13 in a romp. There's no crying in football!

The thing that makes the Tebow spectacle even more shameful is his very public demonstration of his Christianity -- his implicit demeanor that his football success is linked directly to his mysticism and to the hand of a god being upon him. As I said in another blog post recently, Tebow wears a New Testament passage under his eyes in each game. During the Alabama game, it was John: 16:33. "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Did Tebow "take heart"? Did Tebow "have peace"? Did Tebow really believe that shit he spattered beneath his eyes? Is Tebow a hypocrite? Is Tebow like all other Christians, believing they are anointed and cared for and looked after and most important in the universe? Do they *really* believe?

I'll tell you why Tebow was crying: He assumed destiny sat upon him. He was confused by an outcome that was supposed to be preordained. He narcissistically believed his will (allegedly buttressed by his god-prop) was all that was needed to win. He placed all importance on winning, not playing, in a bid to show the alleged manifest destiny of him they call Tebow.

It all crashed. Tebow will, no doubt, confess his "human weakness." Bank on it. He will disingenuously proclaim the hubris of all mankind -- not particularly himself (Christians love to popularly indict when they fuck up).

All of this is to say that when I see a sports player whimper, I shake my head in exasperation. But the unctuous Tebow instead incited in me revulsion, detestation, contempt. His life is a charade of do-gooderism, of altruistic self-promotion, of better-than-thou hubris. Talk of him is messianic.

But there are two bright spots in this dark shadow. (1) At the sports bar where I watched Alabama humble Florida's Tebow, my friend Aquinas and I heard one patron shout: "Yeah, cry like a baby, Tebow!" (2) A popular photo in newspapers this morning showed Tebow wiping away tears below his eyes, seemingly wiping off the John passage. The metaphor was delicious.

Yes, it's good to see that all Americans are not fooled all the time.

Saturday, December 05, 2009

What you say and HOW you say it

Kids are walking "bullshit" detectors. They can smell anxiety, dishonesty, cowardice, awkwardness, trepidation and weakness in adults (or other kids) from across the yard or room or street -- probably even the heavens! Their brains are ravenous and alert and mostly (or completely) pristine, giving their bullshit radar-detectors a polished sheen, so that when the bullshit flies around them, it sticks clearly to their mental screens. They often consciously know what's happening, but, if not, they tap into it subconsciously and act accordingly to the person they are around, whether adult or other child.

For their subconscious mind, the other person's words and actions represent themselves generally as "Is this person truly confident about his rectitude?" or "Are this person's actions and words as hard as the big rock in the back yard, as hard as the reality around me, as sure as the cause and effect in the world?"

"Confidence" is a tangible intangible. It's one of those "I know it when I see it" things in other people. Even the smooth shyster's subtle bluster reveals itself ever so slightly to a kid and to adults as sort of fake confidence via melodrama or shifty eyes or stentorian style or lack of ease in expression.

Being primal animals that are also rational, children are constantly searching for things that break, testing boundaries for weakness that can be exploited. It is a natural thing for them with the world around them, and it is used on the people in their lives. When weakness is found, it is exploited. It is survival -- survival of the fittest. It takes a confident, sure hand in a parent to guide the child in such situations, when necessary, to ensure the the exploitation is moral or that it shouldn't occur for objective reasons. This is one of the primary responsibilities of parents until the burgeoning rationality of the child learns to live in a society of people by objective standards, by objective principles that foster self-esteem and efficacy.

It is also necessary for parents to attempt to be objective all the time and correct any of their own irrationality immediately upon seeing it or upon getting a sense (feeling) that irrationality may be involved. It is, of course, necessary primarily for the adult to be happy, but the secondary benefit is being able to raise a happy, confident child that will be a beloved confidant for the years to come.

If you try to act confident but aren't, you're in trouble deep. The bullshit detector will sniff it out in an instant, and then the labyrinthine battle for power positioning will begin -- and the child will eventually win because you are out of control and will revert to further irrationalities to buttress the original irrationality in an attempt to regain control. I've seen this countless times with friends and acquaintances and their kids. It is horrifying to watch the vicious circle they get trapped in. It is upsetting to see the raw emotions aimed at a loved one with designs of hurting. It is depressing to see a child subconsciously understand that his parent hasn't a clue, and the child must attempt to tackle a big, complex, often-dangerous and cruel world all by himself. He often doesn't know this consciously, but he feels it, and the anxiety is palpable and visible to the rest of us.

As Objectivists know, the only way to be confident is to learn how to be rational all the time, to have a thorough understanding of how your mind works, to integrate a rigorous morality, to stay focused on values each hour of the day, and to universally implement all of the above in every minute of your life. Then, what you say and HOW you say it will tell your child, any child, any adult, that you are confident about reality, you mean business, you understand your business, you can explain your business, you are rigid but benevolent, you are strict but fair, and you are a moral hard rock of existence that cannot be broken, and therefore you are trustworthy and a person with whom your child can share thoughts, emotions and life without worry of retribution, senseless violence or putdowns, confusion, or any kind of injustice.

Any other method or path is woefully lacking -- and will lead to unhappiness in your life and your poor child's life, too. If you don't live by rational absolutes, many things will go absolutely wrong. If you achieve absolute certainty about what is right and live it, things will be just fine -- very fine indeed.

Friday, December 04, 2009

Rescinding Al Gore's Oscar

Check out this video from PJTV, in which one filmmaker demands that Gore's Oscar for "An Inconvenient Truth" be rescinded and the other filmmaker seeks a public investigation on "this travesty."

Good stuff! I gotta say I'm starting to get excited that some of the media and some notable people are finally speaking out against alleged global warming crap. It's taken WAY too long. Hopefully, it'll be in time to prevent Cap and Trade.

Wall Street Journal article on Rand and market

A "bleeding-heart" libertarian posted a not-so-nice article on Ayn Rand today in the Wall Street Journal. Here's my letter to the WSJ in response.

_______________________
If Ayn Rand were alive today, she would chuckle at the clichéd attempt by Heather Wllhelm (“Is Ayn Rand Bad for the Market?”) to characterize Ms. Rand as “angry” and “vulgar,” as well as Ms. Wilhelm’s attempt to build a strawman of alleged sympathizers (Libertarians and a reverend, for Pete’s sake) in order to have those same “sympathizers” give voice to Ms. Wilhelm’s own immoral altruism.

As Ms. Wilhelm must know, Ms. Rand loathed alleged free-market conservatives and allegedly liberty-oriented Libertarians precisely because they claimed to love free markets but were actually wolves in sheep’s clothing for redistributionist statism and “bleeding-heart” Libertarianism – both of which taking the focus off of individual happiness and hegemony and placing it on strangers’ happiness and welfare.

Ms. Rand’s appropriate ire toward conservatism was primarily for their mysticism (the God thing). Her ire toward Libertarians was a result of her correctly realizing that Libertarians espoused “liberty” without giving it proper justification before a candid (rational) world: i.e. You must first prove the nature of humans (rational); then must determine what rational animals must do to survive and prosper (explicitly discover and define rational morality and values for guidance); then you must determine what type of government best allows such self-determination (unabridged laissez-faire capitalism). Without these principles firmly set in place, a country cannot build and validate a perfect, full-proof (rational) constitution – and therein lies the major fault of the whimsical Libertarians and their erratic and childish “liberty” pronouncements.

As to the infamous “anger” accusations, wouldn’t any rational mind be angry at America’s 20th-century Marxist movement of “from each according to his ability to each according to his need”? I, and most Objectivists, love Ms. Rand’s anger. It’s the pusillanimity of “sympathizers” such as Mr. Wilhelm that we find humorous – and vulgar.

Thursday, December 03, 2009

There's a new messiah in town. Tebow! Tebow! Tebow!

For those of us who follow football, few have seen a sensation like Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow. He's' broken almost every record for a passer in the history of the top division of collegiate football. He's a leader of the first degree. He's a winner. He's won one Heisman Trophy and is a favorite to win another this year in his senior year. He's taken his team to victory in two national championships already and is favored to do so again in January.

And yet ...

"He's been extremely important for Christians, as a sort of role model of how you want to live your faith and not be embarrassed." So says Eddie Gilley, director of UF's Baptist Collegiate Ministries, echoing the thoughts of thousands (if not millions) of other Christians around the country (and world).

Tebow is the most visible Christian fanatic in college (or any) sports in recent memory. He wears the ominipresent "John 3:16" in white print on his black light-relector patch below his eyes in most games, often changing cited scripture for other games. More than 93 million people Googled "John 3:16" after the BCS championship last season when they saw Tebow wear the famous passage.

"He is so brave," says Gators fan JoAnn Tyer of Green Cove Springs, FL, who herself wears eye-black "Phil 4:13" to many games. "How many other people would stand up and let people know what they believe in?" Tyer says.

Tebow, like all fanatics such as Barry Bonds (who would laughably point to heaven after hitting home runs) and others who feel the alleged hand of a god on their play-by-play, is the quintessential Christian narcissistic megalomaniac who thinks it is all about him and that some ethereal being somehow not only gives a shit about him but has singled him out for greatness and to allegedly ensure that others are great, too. (coat-tail spiritualism)

"It's almost like selflessness is a cool thing (now) -- kids realizing to give back -- and if you can brighten someone's day, you do it," says Florida coach Urban Meyer of Tebow's influence on his brethren and college football and the world. Meyer joins millions of others who glow when discussing Tebow's strict off-season regimen: helping poor kids in the Philippines become mystical -- that is, find the alleged god.

This spiritual monster who plays quarterback is a throwback to Victorian times, when such lunacy and "spiritual" obsession was the norm. He makes a mockery of just plain hard work being the end all, being the *only* thing you can be thankful for, being the only thing others can congratulate you for and emulate you for, being the thing that makes us human, that makes us better than the lower animals.

Tim Tebow is another deluded representative of the Age of Mysticism that we still find ourselves steeped in. He and his irrational, trenchant peers of today and times past will be forgotten one day. But today, men like me who represent rationality and objective justice must hear of a great quarterback on the field being a man that directs people toward oblivion off the field -- and receives even higher praise for it.

Cash, thank you very much

A new study by the execrable FDIC shows that 12% of Georgians refuse to open a bank account, and another 20% barely use a bank account. For 31% of these people, the primary reason is the bank's fees.

I'll second that. I have some friendly acquaintances who are unfortunately riding the edge of zero in their accounts, and each one of them had to learn a new lesson when dealing with banks: a debit card can be overdrawn, resulting in the issuing bank charging up to $35 for each debit transaction that is "overdrawn."

The reason these folks got caught unaware was that they thought a debit card could not go past zero, so they figured that they would be declined at the grocery store if it edged over what they had in their accounts. Nope. The wily banks have found this territory to be a rich fountain of newfound cash.

One person I know in Texas got 5 separate overdrawn $35 charges within hours of each other on small purchases by his bank. He'd had a bill he'd forgotten he'd paid months earlier that finally hit his account, leaving him with a couple hundred dollars less than he thought he had, so he made small purchases for lunch and other things, and all of them ended up giving the bank a $35 tip.

Now, as my dear readers know, I am for accountability and realize that these people have a responsibility to read the fine print when they join a bank. But! But when rules flout common sense and are instituted to fleece customers, then the banks should pay big. In this case, newspapers should run daily pieces on this scam, and customers should refuse to do business with these banks or just go cash on everything. "Cash or credit?" ... "Cash, of course. I HATE banks!"

Most of us Americans are already disgusted by the financial institutions' being in cahoots with the government in the real estate fraud and the consequent theft of a trillion dollars from us citizens so the institutions wouldn't fail, as they should have. This is just one more blight by these bastards that makes me want to take the sons-a-bitches by the collars and ...

Oh, nevermind.

CEO pay in Obamerica

As some of my dear readers may have read lately in newspapers, top financial institutions that were awarded American taxpayer loot by the billions have had a difficult time finding and keeping CEOs since Oba-Mao's cabal of czars put limits on what the top officers at those institutions could make. And those institutions are showing abysmal stock results.

Of course, you read it here first months ago that that would happen. The loathesome Rank of America (called Bank of America in some circles) has now decided to pay back the $45 billion in loot to the Feds so it can set its own pay standards and finally attract top talent to make it profitable.

The recent news reveals much about the coercive pay-cap farce:

1) The job of top company officers is highly complex and deserving of equally high pay (see this article for an academic, but correct, take on the matter)

2) Government (and its fascist contributors) cannot objectively determine complexity and proper pay scales

3) Restricting objective pay standards precipitates "CEO flight" to companies with objective standards, thereby destroying the companies ruled by fascists

4) The Leftists will not learn from this mistake, just as they did not learn from history when implementing their fascist rules (Nazi Germany, The Great Depression, Soviet Union, all other fascist/socialists countries)

In fact, as we speak, the Lefties are no doubt preparing broadsides against Rank of America for paying back the loot so that it can pay "irresponsible sums of cash" to its new corporate chieftains.

And so it goes in Obamerica!

Jesus has jury duty

A woman in Birmingham, AL, changed her name to Jesus Christ. And then she got called to jury duty.

When her named was called at the court, other potential jurors laughed out loud. Christ was excused from jury duty soon thereafter for being "disruptive," because she insisted on asking questions instead of providing answers when questioned by the court and attorneys. The Socratic/Jesus method evidently doesn't go over well in Alabama.

My only concern for Christians in this matter is: What if this woman is indeed their Jesus come again? How are they to know? Where is their faith? Is this woman not Jesus in clever disguise, suffering new indignities -- and preparing for wrath anew upon the unbelieving?

Ah, such are the conundrums of the people of "faith."

"You can't kill fossils. Fossils are dead."

Livy's friend Gabriel challenged her to kill a dinosaur today. The following conversation ensued:

Livy: I can't kill a dinosaur. Dinosaurs are dead.

Gabriel: Well, OK, then kill a fossil.

Livy: You can't kill a fossil. Fossils are dead.

Gabriel: OK.

As a parent, I learn new things EVERY DAY! ;)

Journalists should've beaten hacked climate emails

The Wall Street Journal's eloquent Daniel Henninger had a terrific column in today's edition showing how post-modernism has crippled science. But Henninger didn't put any blame on journalists for not discovering this before the recently hacked emails exhibited fraud and intimidation. I wrote the following letter to the Journal on that subject.

_________________

Daniel Henninger’s column on “Climategate: Science Is Dying” was brilliant at revealing post-modernism’s ideological destruction of science.

But a point missing from Mr. Henninger’s columns is this: We already knew this was happening. Journalists, for years, could’ve extrapolated that this was happening by the sounds of silence from the so-called skeptics. Moreover, we’ve had revelations in some print, such as this:

In its July 16, 2007, edition, the Washington Times, reported that Michael T. Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), sent an ominous message to Marlo Lewis, a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Competitive Enterprise Institute, which read: "Take this warning from me, Marlo. It is my intention to destroy your career as a liar. If you produce one more editorial against climate change, I will launch a campaign against your professional integrity. I will call you a liar and charlatan to the Harvard community of which you and I are members. I will call you out as a man who has been bought by Corporate America. Go ahead, guy. Take me on."

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, held hearings on the matter. Following the hearings, the senator sent letters to agencies asking them to "reconsider their membership in ACORE. Www.capmag.com has reported extensively on this subject.

My question to objective journalists is this: Why haven’t they pursued this matter in an “All the President’s Men” fashion? There’s clearly been a cover-up, intimidation, distortion of facts, rejection of facts, etc., for years.

Modern journalists must not just point a finger at the fraudulent science and scientists; they must also point a finger at themselves in this woeful matter, and protect us, the public, in a manner that is not commensurate with cowardly scientists.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Media should have jumped on "consensus" earlier

The Wall Street Journal wrote the following fine editorial making fun of the "consensus" scientists trying to downplay the recent release of incriminating emails between pro-warming scientists around the world, suggesting a conspiracy to hide information and intimidate "skeptics" of the warming pathology. I wrote the following letter in response, blasting the WSJ a bit for not taking the lead before the emails were made public.

________________________

It was good to see the Journal’s glib rebuke of the global-warming “consensus” scientists’ meek attempts to downplay the recent publication of scandalous emails, and it’s been good to finally hear major periodicals finally give airplay to the fact that a “consensus” may have been rigged.

But this is all too little (and hopefully not too late). There has been entirely too little airing of the so-called “skeptics” and their hundreds of peer-reviewed articles over the last decade that have refuted alleged anthropocentric warming of the Earth. There have been few articles revealing the hoax in inconvenient, methodical detail, as has been done by the Australian scientist Ian Plimer and scores of other reputable scientists who’ve exposed the following:

Water vapor causes 95% of Earth’s warming, and the vapor is caused by the sun’s rays, and there is a direct correlation between solar cycles and Earth warming. CO2 itself is a trace gas in the Earth’s atmosphere, making up a very tiny 0.038% of the atmosphere (with slight seasonal variations), and the human-emission portion of that 0.038 is small. CO2 is virtually negligible as a warming gas. Contrary to the bucolics of Al Gore, one inconvenient fact that has been given airtime is that CO2 increases after Earth warms, not before, as he devoutly professed for years, as well as in his infamous video while speaking stentorian-style upon his embattled forklift. There are dozens of other natural causes of warming, including Earth wobble, galactic position of solar system, methane levels and much more.

It has been clear for some time that CO2, therefore, has been a red herring – a political red herring – and that scientists are not immune to politics and government incentivizing. This late revelation by some savvy hackers should be a lesson to the Fourth Estate to keep an objective eye, go boldly where no one has gone before and put an end to Leftist (or Rightist) schemes before they get a chance to embroil and bribe suspect scientists with similar ulterior motives.

Friday, November 27, 2009

If you care about your liberty, watch this!

How long is a good movie? About 2 hours?

OK, I'm asking all of you who care about your freedom and where this country is headed to watch the following video, which is 1 hour and 51 minutes. It will take your breath away, inform you, incite you and leave you shaking your head in disbelief. The pizza delivery segment and the IRS court case with Whitney Halley and the national ID card legislation will have you nauseated, angry and riveted. And they are just a few of the many enlightening moments in the video.

I will never file an IRS return again as long as I live. How's that for the video's effect?



Wow, those Google guys know their sheeite

Ever since I added Google AdWords to my blog, I've noticed ads popping up on the subjects I've discussed. Amazing, that!

I guess it's supposed to be that way, but I figured my little ensconced place in the blog universe might be overlooked. Nope. Not with Google. Immediately after I wrote about sinusitis, ads for sinusitis remedies started appearing. And there've been ads on other subjects I wrote about: Michael Jackson, health care and Jane Austen. (feel free, my dear readers, to click on those ads AT ANY TIME and MAKE ME MONEY)

Interesting thing is that the health care ads have been mostly for people against health care, so Google may have a way to gauge intent. There have been a few ads for pro-government health care, and that is a genuine fright to see on MY BLOG SITE!

My friend Daniel Wahl and I discussed this last point, and we both agreed that the money we make off of the good ads and the objective information we're providing obviate great concern over the inappropriate ads, but it makes the bad ads no less frightful.

Anyway, those guys at Google know their sheeite!

Another poo-poo-er of Wikipedia rears his head

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution printed another one of those elitist columns so pervasive today in which the elitist poo-poos Wikipedia. This time, however, it's not just the content of Wikipedia that so rankles the poo-poo-er; it's the fact that the people he meets allegedly are using the facts from Wikipedia to become dilettantes who brow-beat their interlocutors with dazzling bits of information -- and the information is itself suspect. The elitist says that people shouldn't just get the facts on Sherman's generalship during the Civil War; people should allegedly read good books on the Civil War to get a greater breadth of knowledge.

Well, what if you don't WANT more knowledge other than the basic facts: deaths, path of destruction, overview of battles, burning of Atlanta, etc.? And if you did want more, Wikipedia puts hyperlinks on words, so you can do more research, as well as find more authoritative names and sources.

I've found Wikipedia to be an astounding and mostly objective source for quick information. I've often spent hours going from one link to another to get a more profound understanding of a subject. The few times I've noticed bias, it was obvious -- and often it was noticed by someone else, who put a notation of a lack of reference on the bias or made a comment on it. The articles are reviewed by so many people that it is hard for erroneous information to last longer than a few days or weeks. In other words, it's a highly credible repository of information. There's always a caveat on anything you read that some of the information could be incorrect.

The main problem with the elitist, though, is his false generalization that people use Wikipedia as some sort of psychological battering ram. I haven't come across one person, that I know of, who's done such a thing, so I must wonder who this elitist rubs professorial elbows with.

In fact, most people I know who use Wikipedia have lots of fun facts that they love to share. They love the fact that they can access information on almost any subject within 10 seconds instead of having to labor over 12-volume encyclopedias and their indexes.

I've used Wikipedia probably a thousand times. I've given money to them during each financing campaign because of the value I get from them.

And now I love them even more because they get under the skin of elitists. Maybe I'll send them a bit more cash this month.

Who are the real Robber Barons?

Just wrote the following letter to the editor to the Wall Street Journal, after the Journal wrote a good editorial explaining how Big Pharma (the giant pharmaceuticals) will rue their decision to join Obama Dead Eyes in his bid to take over health care.

______________________-

Contrary to “progressive” propaganda for 150 years, the only Robber Barons in history have been governments. They are the coercive force, the monopoly and regulatory power, behind all confiscation of property, money and time of citizens. They are the Mafioso hooligans with an official police force behind all corrupt private endeavors by corporations to secure a captive audience (literally) and allegedly assured profits.

Without immoral government, no business could legally confiscate private property – and none would employ “lobbyists.” They are, figuratively, the Mephistopheles of big business and are an omnipresent temptation for immoral businessmen, including the railroad tycoons of 19th century America (with James J. Hill of the Great Northern Railway being one eminent exception).

Now Big Pharma, as the Journal points out, has joined the hooligans of Congress and the White House in a deal with the Robber Baron devil. Yes, Big Pharma will gets its comeuppance. But by then, innocent, healthy, responsible Americans will have suffered the indignity of another coercive collusion that amounts to grand larceny and an abridgement of individual liberty.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Would you smile at a thief's party?

Obama Dead Eyes held a Thanksgiving dinner last night at the Ovum Office. The usual suspects scurried in: Steven Spielberg, Deepak Chopra, Jennifer Hudson, Colin Powell, Nancy Pelosi, more ilk.

But what was most notable at the jackal's den was the names of some of the most conservative "leaders" of the GOP, including Louisiana phenom Gov. Bobby Jindal. He and his wife not only made an appearance, they smiled broadly and waved and danced -- in front of the man who is attempting to destroy America, in front of the man they allegedly despise, in front of the man who is committing one of the greatest grand larcenies in the history of great America.

There are Tea Party groups who are attempting to dislodge all 535 thieves in Congress from their free passes in the coming years and replace them with "regular people." One can't blame the Tea Partiers for their dreams when the world witnesses the incestuous shenanigans of so-called "leaders" such as Jindal and his GOP ilk.

How much more credibility would Jindal have had if he had turned down the Leftist invitation to make happy in front of the despot? How much can we trust our liberty in the hands of a governor-cum-president-in-waiting who dances and grins for the despot? Would you smile for a thief and murderer of liberty?

Me either. I'd beat him to a pulp and toss him in prison with the pedophiles.

Then I'd smile.


The power of Jane Austen

Of all the letters I've had published in newspapers over the years, the one that got printed earlier this week in the Wall Street Journal on Jane Austen exceeds them all. I've gotten several letters and a contact on Facebook from people who hunted me down and praised my letter -- and Jane.

That lovely Jane's eloquence and ability to connect with the best in us still moves us two hundred years after her death. Here's one note I got from a nice 30-something man who found me on Facebook after the letter was published:

"Just wanted to tell you how much my family enjoyed your letter. I am a huge Rand fan, and my sister is a huge Austen fan. Never before have we seen a link between the two! So thank you!"

Now, that's enough to simply make my day, and it did!

Monday, November 23, 2009

Old Gray Lady finally talks money

The New York Times has finally put one toe in reality with a front page (Business) article on the impending debt catastrophe by the U.S. government.

The time is good, considering the the U.S. Senate's beginning discussions on the destruction of the health-care market.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Hilarious SNL routine on Obama Dead Eyes

Y'all have GOT to see this hilarious skit on Oba-mao done by Saturday Night Live, which has, of late, been deliciously roasting the occupant of the Ovum Office.

Take a peek and get ready to belly laugh!

The greasy Malthusians and Mother Earth's oil

The eternally pragmatic and often wretched conservative columnist George Will finally nailed a good one.

You remember Thomas Malthus, right? He's the early 19th century guy who predicted that the Earth's population would soon outpace agricultural supply, and human beings would be forced to return to an agrarian/subsistence Medieval/primitive living. He proved embarrassingly wrong when the inventive mind of man and the concomitant industrial revolution allowed for excessive agricultural supply, far exceeding the pace of population -- and still doing so with 6.5 billion voracious human beings.

The Malthusians weren't limited to just agriculture, however. From early in the oil-production era, the Chicken Littles raised hue and cry about the alleged apocalypse of a vanquished Earth, siphoned of her rich oil reserves. Mr. Will gives a brief accounting of this lunacy, correctly connecting the hysteria not to rationality, but to big-government types seeking to aggrandize political machinery by fiat environmentalism and scare tactics.

Each generation since the 1859 oil discovery in Pennsylvania has had its prognosticators of doom, predicting a final depletion of oil and gas within a decade or so. Each time they've been grossly mistaken, and each time they do not learn from earlier doomsayers and the evident wonders of capitalism. They do not wish to learn, of course, because they seek to shackle corporations and liberty.

With recent technology, huge discoveries have been made in Northeast America, the Rockies, Canada, the Gulf of Mexico, near Australia and many other places, with current estimates on supply going out well over 100 years (and probably much longer in reality since the middle oceans and much of dry land haven't even been touched yet). Giant oil companies are now building $1 billion "capture" ships that make it possible to pump oil and gas directly onto the ship instead of having to lay expensive pipeline, thereby opening up vast expanses of ocean that until recently lay beyond the viable reach of man.

It is an exciting time for exploration -- if we can keep the Malthusians and their political keepers at bay in Copenhagen, Kyoto and beyond.

The dearly departed and his genius

After having vented my wrath upon the irrational (see previous post), it's time I moved to a more soothing and venerated subject: great men and their unfortunate recent passing.

Albert V. Crewe died recently. He was the physicist who invented the high-resolution electron microscope, allowing the world to get its first glimpse of the atom!! Mr. Crewe stunningly never won the Nobel prize for his work, for whatever political reasons, but he revolutionized entire scientific fields by giving scientists and engineers in computing and biology a powerful new tool to understand the architecture of everything from living tissue to metal alloys.

Mr. Crewe was not known for wearing baggy pants halfway down his butt crack. He was not known for car-jacking, home invasions or convenience-store robberies. He was not known for doing drugs. He was not known for seeking handouts on street corners. He was not known for demanding food, shelter or free health care.

He was known for a grand work ethic, total dedication to tasks, inventiveness, clinical reasoning, improved lens and detection technologies, designing enhanced electron sources, revolutionizing the world of the minute that had, till then, been the object of correct supposition going back 2 and half millennia.

His name should be known by all humans above all presidents. He is venerated by a small community of thankful scientists. He was a genius and got complete satisfaction in doing his work, never complaining about prizes not awarded.

I'll give him the greatest compliment I can give.

He was a man.

The nouveau "addicts" and volition

Into your lexicon of drug addicts, alcohol addicts, gambling addicts, sex addicts, lying addicts and TV addicts, please add "car phone addicts."

Yes, they simply CAN'T put down their cell phone in the car -- and they "admit" that they must be forced to do so.

So says Dede Haskins, the fricking chief executive of a software company in Washington! She cannot personally alter her behavior, so she and others have signed up for something called ZoomSafer, a free service that uses her phone's GPS sensors to determine whether she's at driving speeds, and then disables her cell phone until she stops the car -- whether she likes the invisible nanny's decision or not.

How are we to have a revolution, folks, when even the chief executives of our country's businesses seek a personal Big Brother to suppress their irrationality, along with the government Big Brother they vote for? If ostensively efficacious individuals do not have a clear understanding of their own volition, reasoning powers and efficacy, then we cannot expect their indignation at intrusive government.

If they can relegate their behavior to "uncontrollable addiction" or "ADD" or whatever, then their minds are pure mush, and their wills are stuck in the mush, and they are obedient automatons marching to the currently fascist tunes.

And they to all this with a straight face, or worse, the superciliousness of the converted.

Hackers uncover global-warming charade

Hackers recently broke into the email system of a British university and stole emails exchanged between climate scientists and allegedly found incriminating evidence suggesting that the scientists used "tricks" to doctor data in favor of alleged anthropomorphic warming.

I don't know yet whether the institution was a government one, thereby making the theft perfectly moral, since such fiat entities are buttressed by the confiscation of citizens' cash. If it is a private university, then the hacking is immoral and illegal, and the assailants should be jailed.

Either way, if this breech exposes the climatologists for what they are, scoundrels, then let's just say one bad turn deserves another -- an eye for an eye.

The happy conspiracy to take my money

Just when I've giddily enjoyed my iPhone for more than a year, Verizon has to come out with the Droid, which surpasses the iPhone on many levels and has me salivating at a time of budget-consciousness!

Damn these producers and inventors and wicked capitalists and their tantalizing gadgets designed to separate me from portions of my checking account! I hate them! Oh, how I hate them!

Reminds me of a time in 1995 when I was a journalist at a N.C. newspaper. I was getting off of work around 6 p.m. "What are you doing tonight, David," I was asked by a co-worker. "Going to stand in line," I said. "Stand in line? Where? For what?" he said. "For Windows 95. It goes on sale at midnight," I said with a smile, knowing what was to come from him and the co-workers around us. They mocked me and had some fun with me, and I did them in turn. I got my Windows 95 and stayed up to 4 a.m. installing it and exploring it. What glorious bliss!

The following weekend, the editorial page chief ran his usual "enlightenment" column. This time it was on the "foolish" who selfishly stand in line at midnight for new electronics purchases when there are more important things in the world to think about. He would not let me write a counterpoint column, so I emailed him that he was a benighted, soul-less creature and other choice things (I was younger then and, um, more candid).

Anyway, I long for the Droid. I'm grokking. I'm lustful. I must have one!

Damn you, capitalist conspirators! How can you keep doing this to me?!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Raise hand if Sarah Palin is "blessed"

Sarah Palin has a child who has Down syndrome. Sarah Palin can't put two coherent sentences together. Sarah Palin goofy-grins when discussing serious subjects. Sarah Palin has the gravity of an interstellar dust particle.

But, folks, she's "blessed." Her whole family is blessed. "We're blessed." Just read her novel, she says, and you get the truth and see that her family is "blessed." Yes, just ask her kid with Down syndrome about being blessed, and I'm sure you'll get a goofy grin (at least he has a good reason for it). He's been blessed with little or no introspection capability, little or no conscious control of complex action, little or no ability to plan for the future, little or no capacity for judgment -- in other words, little or none of what we know makes us human, sort of like liberals.

But, those around him are "blessed" to have him. Their god has particularly honored them with a retarded child to help them understand the importance of not being retarded.

The mystic mind is a fascinating and macabre thing of wonder. A vice presidential candidate for the most powerful nation the world has known thinks that her life is guided by ET, without the cute big eyes and the long fingers. The dude in the sky with a big cigar, a galactic easy chair and a big fucking wide screen TV for Monday Night Football is not just paying attention to her squealing, whining, soporificating and nasalising, but has anointed her, blessed her -- even above the football players pointing toward the easy chair in thanks for a nice pass. "No prob," the god says. "I wasn't too busy allowing a million rapes to occur during the game so that a million families could be blessed with knowing how good it feels to NOT be the ones raped."

The toxic mistress with a big do had better be glad that there is no proper heaven. Otherwise, Thomas Paine would let loose of a thunderbolt, and she would be a crispy cunt on the speaking-tour dais.

Then we'd all be blessed.

Beating or wounding sinusitis

I've gotten sinusitis at least two times a year since I was a kid, once in the fall and once in late winter or early spring, and sometimes an extra time or two a year. I've been experimenting with methods to prevent this for four years now and have found out a lot. Here it is.

First, the solutions to prevention: keep the humidity in the house between 50% and 55% year-round (though some specialists recommend 45%- to 50%, I've found that higher is better). Second, use a Neti pot (or something similar) to flush the sinuses when necessary (I'll elaborate on "necessary" in a moment). I've been using the Neti for four years now and, with that, have been able to reduce the number of sinusitis incidents, but it still bedeviled me until I installed enough humidifiers in my house to maintain proper humidity levels. (I use two Vicks humidifiers sold at Bed, Bath & Beyond. Each humidifier is at each end of the house.)

You can accurately measure relative humidity with a hygrometer that's accurate to within 5%. Here's the one I bought and am very satisfied with. By watching your hygrometer regularly, you can adjust your humidifiers' output accordingly for while your asleep by how much you expect your heater or A/C will turn on during the night and dry the air. I've gotten to where it's almost a fun challenge for me before bedtime. I tend to err on the side of too much humidity than too little.

The reason for this is that dry air irritates and inflames sinuses, thereby making them more susceptible to infection and less efficient in filtering pollutants: voila, sinusitis! Also, humid air stalls the proliferation of dust mites (they dig dry air), whose dung creates allergy symptoms, which creates mucus, which can lead to sinusitis. There are ways to check the level of dust mites in your house and to kill them. Here is a web site with the products for that. Pets and stuffed animals are havens for dust mites, as well as bed sheeting, beds and carpet. Here's a good web site for controlling dust mites.

If you get allergies regularly, it's important that you use the Neti pot at least once a day during allergy season, and several times a day if you're outside. Use it several times a day as soon as you feel allergy symptoms coming on. This will reduce your symptoms dramatically and perhaps forestall sinusitis. Also, when you get a cold or the flu, be sure to use the Neti to cleanse your sinuses several times a day to prevent or shorten a sinusitis infection. Be sure to use the Neti, too, after cleaning you home because of irritating chemical pollutants and the temporary increase in dust mite offal in the air.

I've found that staying vigilant in the above has helped me stay healthier and enjoy my life more. Good luck. Respond to this post if you have any questions.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Only "corporate responsibility" is profit-making

The Wall Street Journal published a series of articles on Nov. 19 on the alleged good of corporate "social responsibility" and concomitant "corporate responsibility." I wrote the following letter against such altruism to the WSJ today:

________________-

The Journal’s Nov. 19 stories on corporate “social responsibility” made me want to Google for companies engaging in such irresponsible “responsibility” and refuse to do business with them.

The one-and-only responsibility any company has is to make profits. It is to make and offer a quality product that consumers value so much that consumers wish to withdraw funds from their checking accounts to acquire that product. Such actions enrich the company, its employees, its shareholders and the lives of its happy consumers. *That* is “corporate responsibility.” Engaging in such corporate work and doing it honestly are the only ethical responsibilities any corporation has.

Any other activity (including unethical “social responsibility”) is an immoral diversion away from productivity, thereby reducing competitiveness, proper focus and quality – and it is an attempt to assuage guilt in our altruism-gone-rogue culture, in which giving good service and product is allegedly not the equal of the sordid “giving back.”

It is high time that the moralistic vipers of altruism and political correctness stand down – and for corporate leaders to stand up for the highest achievement in human life: hard work.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Jane Austen, how I worship thee

A culture critic in the Wall Street Journal wrote a piece on Saturday on his love of Jane Austen and how she is a guide for his morality. I wrote the following letter to the WSJ on my own love of Austen but on how novels represent one's own morality and do not stand as guides.

________________________

James Collins had me worried in his “What Would Jane Do” essay on Jane Austen’s moralizing. But it turns out Mr. Collins (not the one in Pride & Prejudice, of course) has sense and sensibility.

Mr. Collins’ visit down the tree-lined memory lane of Austen’s works was delightful for those of us who virtually worship Ms. Austen and her insight, perfumed elegance, sensitivity, morality and sensibilities. Her works are romantic and the best representations of high-mindedness, with characters speaking their inspired thoughts eloquently in honor of themselves and their interlocutors. Her novels are a sublime tapestry of expressed self-knowledge and dramas unfolding into further self-knowledge.

My only contention with Mr. Collins’ views is that a reader cannot use Ms. Austen (or any author) as a guide for morality. Novels are *representations* of morality. You either connect with them or you don’t, depending upon your own morality. I, for example, am an Objectivist (philosophy of Ayn Rand) and believe that humans can rationally run their own lives and give ultimate honor to others who do the same. In Austen’s novels, I find that honor between the best characters, and I see these characters correcting their false pride and prejudice or mistaken consumption of false mores, thereby achieving happiness. Ms. Austen’s morality, therefore, reflects my own. I do not learn from her. But I do worship her for representing the best in humans and savor her well-earned moments of moral encompassing.

Monday, November 09, 2009

Dawkins having fun at creationists' expense

Here's a fun, short video of Richard Dawkins giving one fact a "la la la" description of creationists. (follow my blog link to play the video)


Saturday, November 07, 2009

Fantastic "History of Universe" series for kids AND adults

With clever (even subtle) jabs at creationists, this series is informative, creative, entertaining and remarkable. It is a wonder to behold and, indeed, made easy in its explanation of the complex. I challenge you to watch the first one and NOT click on the second one and so on! It is addictive fun.


With friends like the U.S. Chamber chief ...

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce chief, Tom Donohue, touts himself as a capitalist and has, admittedly, said some bad things about Obama Dead Eyes, but a recent column in the Wall Street Journal showed his real colors. The WSJ printed a letter from me on the column on Nov. 2. Here it is:

_____________________

With all the mealy-mouthed CEOs and politicians at large today, it was refreshing to read the spirited language of U.S. Chamber chief Tom Donohue in Kimberley Strassel’s interview. But, oh, how I wish he were a true capitalist.

Having not followed all of the Chamber’s actions closely over the last two years, I was unaware that it had backed the so-called “stimulus,” the “bailout” funds, the auto “bailouts,” and the Cash for Clunkers debacle. Moreover, Mr. Donohue says the Chamber supports cap-and-trade legislation.

Consider me horrified. As a business owner and proponent of laissez-faire capitalism, I’m frankly stunned that an organization which purportedly represents the interests of 3 million businesses across America would favor massive redistributionist schemes aimed at stealing money from individual citizens and small businesses and handing the loot over to the biggest businesses and politicians!

And then Mr. Donohue has the temerity to say, “We want to encourage and promote … the free enterprise system with free capital markets and free trade and the ability to fail and fall right on your ass and get up and do it again!” (italics added)

Uhuh. Got any ocean-front property in Kansas, Mr. Donohue?

David Elmore

Roswell, GA

Sunday, November 01, 2009

The obsession with helping others

OK, you've got a busy, rational life: career, health, family, friends, hobbies, vacations, parties, chores, bills.

But there's a bum in the ghetto or a starving kid in Ethiopia or a tsunami-ravaged village in Indonesia or a hundred homeless in a nearby shelter or 26 million without health insurance or a million families under the "poverty line" or children with crippling diseases ... or ... or ... or.

Why should you care? No, honestly, why should you CARE?

You've got a life to live. You've got a full, rich, fruitful life to live. You've got things to do ALL THE TIME. There's hardly a second not filled with your pursuits. You've spent enormous amounts of time educating yourself, building your careers, finding your hobbies, cultivating friendships, nurturing your loved ones, maintaining your health, etc. Yet you are bombarded with begging, pleading, demands and protestations to "give back" -- and when these entreaties don't work, the people doing the pleading form groups that vote for people to coerce you into "giving back."

You may feel some sympathy for some of these people (especially children) who, through no honest fault of their own, live with dire circumstances, but why should you spend any portion (even one minute) of your life or penny of your wealth to help these strangers?

The answer, of course, is that you don't HAVE to. You could easily go through your life not spending one moment of time or one dime of money on such people and, instead, trying to fully enrich you life and the lives of those you care most about. To spend time and money on strangers is to NOT spend time and money on those you care most deeply for. It is (in almost all cases, which I'll explain in a moment) an affront to yourself and your intimate acquaintances to give to those you don't know and have no way of knowing the FULL circumstances of their situation. And even if you did know, you have no moral obligation to them.

The morality of "giving back" (altruism) has already been easily refuted by Ayn Rand. She called it the abysmal principle of sacrificing a greater value for a lesser value. It is the obsession with filling a personal void with an allegedly good deed. It is the hallmark of low self-esteem and selflessness. It is the obsession with OTHERS so that the irrational mind may avoid personal and rational reflection and get allegedly momentary relief from the angst and anxiety of its lack of rational integration. It is the statement: "I know I am not good, but maybe I can feel good about being "good" to others."

It is also the irrational person's moment of condescension and schadenfreude (feeling good about others' misery). The do-gooder's do-gooding allegedly allows him to feel superior to the ones he "helps." It is the statement: "I may not be good, but look how good I can be by helping that poor miserable wretch over there who is even worse off than me." It is an immersing in and obsession with the misery of others and getting a subconscious kick out of it (though this is never admitted, but you can see it on their unctuous faces).

The only time charity is morally proper is when one has fully taken care of one's own fruitful values and has a few moments or dollars to spend -- and when the one receiving the charity is living honorably and wishes to continue living honorably and is a moral reflection of your great self. In other words, when the person receiving the charity could use some help but doesn't beg for it and knows that the charity will merely expedite his lifelong goals that he is already attempting to achieve.

Even in such honorable circumstances, the charity giver has every moral right to say, "I don't think I wish to give you any money, but good luck with your life."

The current "giving back" culture of America exemplifies the wretched philosophical and psychological state to which most Americans have succumbed. Only Ayn Rand's philosophy of rational egoism can correct it. I'm seeing that philosophy's adherents grow almost exponentially -- and that, my friends, is very good news for us rational beings, and for those who may truly deserve our rational charity in the future when we are no longer robbed of our wealth.

Friday, October 30, 2009

It's almost time to "Go Galt"

For those who regularly read the Wall Street Journal, you know that the regular columnist Peggy Noonan is often incisive and always diplomatic. (She was a speech writer for Ronald Reagan.) But in today's column at the WSJ, Ms. Noonan actually called politicians stupid, and she referred to a businessman who said he's so fed up with government's confiscatory taxation that he's about ready to just quit, and he knows other businessmen who already have. I wrote the following letter to the editor at the WSJ on Ms. Noonan's column.

___________________

When the ever-polite and diplomatic Peggy Noonan calls the leaders of America stupid, we have crossed a threshold.

Ms. Noonan is right, of course – though she is, ironically, being polite again. These so-called leaders are, instead, willfully and consciously ignorant of what is right and, more important, what individual rights are.

They have high-education degrees but chose to buy into the power-lust “progressivism” and coercive altruism of Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and every other leader in American politics, to some degree, in the 20th and 21st century. They turned their noses up at Adam Smith, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Locke, Aristotle, Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand. They think, like all skeptics of human nature such as Thomas Hobbes, that citizens and their businesses must be strictly controlled, that those who earn lots of money on merit and education must be sacrificed to those who don’t, that a government made up of humans is somehow more moral than those it monitors and suppresses.

And the result is everything Ms. Noonan alluded to: confiscatory taxation, redistribution, oppressive regulation and purposely vague legislation that puts businesses and people at the mercy of corrupt lawyers and bureaucrats. It gets to a point, as Ms. Noonan said of her businessman, where we hard workers and owners of businesses and wealth seekers do, indeed, want to quit – or “Go Galt,” in reference to the hero in Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged,” in which the great thinkers and businessmen chose to “stop the motor of the world” because they tired of rapacious government.

If the citizens and leaders of this once-great country do not inform themselves soon on what is right, that day will come. And none too soon for this boy from Texas.

A remarkable creed that all journalists should live by

As my dear readers know, I commend the Wall Street Journal often for its high journalistic standards, its general objectivity and the best opinion pieces, bar none, in the world. It says something about the character of the best minds and the people with the most financial power in the world that the WSJ's subscription base is the only one in the world for the last two years to continually rise instead of drop.

The primary reason for this is the WSJ's remarkable mission statement. Here it is:

We speak for free markets and free people, the principles, if you will, marked in the watershed year of 1776 by Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence and Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations." So over the past century and into the next, the Journal stands for free trade and sound money; against confiscatory taxation and the ukases of kings and other collectivists; and for individual autonomy against dictators, bullies and even the tempers of momentary majorities.

How's that for an impressive creed in our modern-day slave society?! If even half of the major dailies in this country adopted this attitude, we'd see a sea change in U.S. politics. But, of course, that won't happen until millions of Americans become philosophically smarter, to learn to think philosophically, to spend some of their TV time each week on the fundamentals of philosophy.
Be that as it may, I'll just take a moment to salute the best newspaper (and its staff and progenitors) for the highest quality journalism the world has known. Salute!

Insider-trading rules run by outsiders from D.C.

In a remarkable piece of journalism, the Wall Street Journal ran a piece by an eloquent man named Donald Boudreaux earlier this week on how insider trading should not be illegal and should be dictated by company policy instead. Not being an Objectivist, the writer didn't get to fundamentals, but he made a terrific argument for why outlawing so-called insider trading hurts companies, shareholders and markets. The WSJ printed my letter to the editor (below) yesterday on the article:

___________________
Mr. Boudreaux is on the money in acknowledging that corporations own their own property and can construct their own insider-trading rules. Not only is it a practical solution to the political manhandling of corporations, it is also a moral solution because it honors and acknowledges a company's right to its property and to make decisions for itself and its shareholders.
David Elmore
Roswell, GA