Good links

The Backseat Philosopher has a good breakdown of some of the communication problems between the sides.

Varifrank describes trying to explain some things to British and European coworkers.

Smallest Minority with more on self-defense in Britain, and some changes people are trying to make.

Weekly Standard on the other losers tuesday night.

Another nice site

The Diplomad is the place, a blog by foreign service officers, and their comments on the attitudes of their superiors sound familiar.

Ever read any of the 'Retief' books by Keith Laumer? You should. This sounds like the Terran Diplomatic Corps in real life.

'Progressives'?

I've heard that word a lot over the last few years, mostly applied to themselves by people who- surprise, surprise/turn off Gomer voice/ think most people are too stupid/hate-filled/etc. to understand why they are right. Let's see, Soviet Union collapsed, check; People's Republic of China had to capitalize their economy in a lot of ways to keep from collapsing and still oppress everyone, check; Cuba is a basket case, has been for years, check; socialist governments all over are deeply in debt, have huge unemployment numbers and are going down the toilet, check; so why, when I read some 'progressive' plan for the world, does it read like excerpts or outtakes from the 'Communist Manifesto'? How is trying to do again a system that has failed everywhere 'progressive'?

'Course, I just learned there is a 'reality-based community' out there, which is /surprise, surprise/ mostly made up of 'progressives' who don't understand how the rest of the country can be so stupid as to not agree with them and is therefore not in touch with 'reality'.

Silly me. I thought reality had something to do with paying the bills, getting kids educated/REAL education, not indoctrination/, reading, shooting, making things, etc. Now I find that it means I have to agree with a bunch of people who think I'm a racist idiot if I don't.

Hey, folks? To quote somebody, "I do not think this word means what you think it does".

Update: I'm sure most of these people are progressive and reality-based as hell.
Link from Acidman

This about sums it up

Blog called 'Power and Control' links to a post on another site wondering why Kerry lost that sums it up nicely:
"...some swarthy towel-heads are trying to kill us, and that Dubya is packin' heat."

I do believe that about covers it.

And today..

Steve notes how CNN is proving how pro-Bush they are.

Yasser Arafat is either dead or on the brink. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Normally I don't wish death on people, in this terrorist's case I'll make an exception.

Ann Coulter, she of the razor tongue and the body that needs a week on cheeseburgers, unloads on Kerry and Co. in her usual fashion.

And vairous and sundry people are linking to more of the "Americans are stupid" and "People who vote for Bush are stupid and bigoted" stuff being put out by various people. One woman is quoted as saying that she tells friends in Europe "New York is an island off the coast of Europe". As Reynolds points out, when you hold everyone else in the country in such contempt, you can pretty much forget about winning their votes.

Update: Instapundit has a note from CNN stating that it was some employee at
Netscape did the photo names:
"A web image and text disparaging President and Mrs. Bush currently circulating on the internet was not created, disseminated or posted by CNN at any time, as is alleged. It was done by an employee of Netscape and posted on Netscape.com. CNN had no knowledge of it until it surfaced on other websites."
So they may not have fallen completely through the grid.

The Day After

Is still good. Moonbats whining and screaming, etc.

I repeat from my previous post; if you run around calling anyone who disagrees with you a bigot, homophobe, murderer, etc., you ain't gonna get through to them. Correction: you will get through to them what contempt you hold them in for not being 'smart' enough to agree with you, and that does not make converts or polite conversation.

I know people I like, who I won't get into some conversations with, because we just cannot connect on them; they cannot understand how I can think the way I do, and vice versa. I know people who think violence is always wrong, no matter what. If your wife/mother/daughter/girlfriend is attacked by a rapist, she should not use violence to protect herself, because that makes her morally as wrong as the rapist. I cannot believe a rational human being can actually believe such a thing, that self-defense is as morally wrong as rape, but they do.

I know people who believe that the only reason anyone would own any firearm is because they intend to commit murder, probably on a minority-group member. To me that is so idiotic I'm not sure how to respond, but they do believe it.

I know people who think that if we don't take the opinion of the U.N. and the rest of the world into account, we have no right to take any action that *might* affect another country. And if other countries won't let you act, doesn't matter why because we should go by what they think. Point out that country B won't let you act because they have a business deal with the country causing you a problem, doesn't matter; you can't act without their approval! I think that's idiocy (see France/Germany/Russia and their Oil For Food Scam deals with Saddam) because you are trusting your safety to places that don't care if you live or die. But they think that's the only 'intelligent' way to act internationally.

I could deal with the arguments, but their attitude that I'm just not intelligent enough, not caring enough, not evolved enough, just makes me shut down. They just don't really give a crap about facts if they interfere with their feelings; in some cases if the facts show their idea wrong, well, that just shouldn't be, and that should be enough to change everything.

With some- not all, some- what makes it worse is that the U.S. is always wrong; it's always our fault, we should do everything differently, we should change, we should...etc. And I'm tired of it. I could more easily change lead to gold than get one of those people to admit that we didn't cause it/whatever 'it' is in this case/, or we didn't make it ok for some bunch of thugs to murder people.

A lot of those folks are very bothered by the idea of 'conservative Christians', or 'conservative/Orthodox Jews' carrying their beliefs into the political arena, but have no problem with their own, because they're different, they're right; some will object that theirs are not 'religeous' viewpoints, just 'right' beliefs. Doesn't matter they hold to them with the fervor of an Inquisitor strapping someone into a rack, no, they are just rational people with the 'right' beliefs. And if you disagree, you're back into the hater/bigot category.

This has gotten a bit out of my original intention, but it still covers some of this crap.

I think Bush has made some bad mistakes, both in things done and things not done; but when someone blows up into the 'Bushitler, chimp, raving drunk', crap, they're not dealing with facts, they're shoving a lot of emotion, mostly hate related into my face, and I walk away. It's not that I can't argue with them, it's that it doesn't matter what I say; anything that disagrees with their emotions on this is bad and wrong, and that's all there is to it.

Connected with this, after Bush was confirmed winner in 2000, a woman playing at an open-mike night at a local place made some commentary about how it hurt that 'her vote didn't count'. She's a lawyer, and says something like that. How do you argue with that?

Post-election reactions

Scary ones. I can see being unhappy your guy lost, but some of the stuff linked to on Instapundit is scary as hell. TBogg (no, I'm not providing a link) had some of the following to say:
"Four more years of American soldiers being used as cannon fodder.
Four more years of scientific decisions being made by people who believe in a ghost in the clouds.
Four more years of racists and lunatics for judicial appointments."
and
"Four more years of fear and darkness and racism and hatred and stupidity and guns and bad country music."
ending with a quote from another guy:
"Good, Go Ahead, America, Choke on Your Own Vomit, You Deserve To Die".

That's just at one place. So according to these folks, if you voted for Bush you are stupid, superstitious, racist, full of hate and have a bunch of guns solely to terrify and kill anybody who disagrees with you.

I'm supposed to consider these people to be someone with 'just a little different viewpoint'? These people hate me. And from the sound of it, want me dead. If not dead, then at least controlled enough so as not to be a danger to their sensitive souls. Oops, excuse me, this one is an atheist so saying he has a soul proves how stupid I am.

Sorry, folks, I have no particular desire to extend a hand to people who want to break it off..

On the other side, Between Hope and Fear had a say about what the Democrat party needs to do. The first comment? "Go f*** yourself".

Yeah, nice, reasonable people.

Who's in the White House?

BUSH, BUSH, BUSHBUSH!

I know but I can't help it. For a while early this morning, before I checked results, I had the same sick feeling in my middle I had when Carter won in 1976. And then I checked, and for a moment, I was in a state of grace.

Oh, yeah. Popular vote and electoral votes both. And Kerry/Edwards don't have the cojones or integrity to concede. But they will.

And, according to the news, the Republican party picked up seats in the House and Senate both. Hot damn! That this includes Tom Daschle being kicked in the short & curlies just makes it even better.

Note: the Republican party does not own my vote. Problem is, most conservative/libertarian politicians are there, so that's often who I wind up voting for.

Damn, on news like this, I should buy a new gun. Something with a bayonet lug, I think...

(and ammo, lots of ammo)

Neat stuff!

Just watch a very cool setup. Neighbor had a portable storage building sitting in the driveway, and the man just arrived to pick it up. Flatbed truck, carrying a mobile lifting rig. Looks like I-beam structure, powered and on its own wheels. It can widen-narrow, all four wheeled legs lift and lower independantly. Lower them and drive it off the truck, adjust size and move it over the storage pod. Lower, hook up, then lift the pod. Back the truck under it, center it & set it down, the close the rig up to the sides of the bed, lift the legs up for clearance, lock it all down and drive away.

Someone did a find job designing this setup, and I hope they get rich with it.

Back from voting

No, I'm not going to blog this election. I actually have things to do other than read somebody's post and scream.

Not too bad. My polling place was busy, about 30-35 minute wait. Oklahoma has a number of state questions on the ballot as well, including the one that pisses me off, a big jump in tobacco taxes with the proceeds 'going to health care'.

Let's see; you want people to stop smoking, so you raise the taxes, and say you'll fund health care programs with the money. So if you succeed, and people stop smoking, there'll be no money for those programs, so you'll have to raise taxes somewhere else to make up for it. No thank you. I occasionally smoke a pipe, and dislike cigarettes, and I'm sick of this crap. If these weenies actually thought tobacco was so horrible, they'd be trying to ban it, not increasing taxes on it. But they're greedy, they want that money. Which means they either don't believe it's so horrible, or don't care as long as they get a payoff. Screw 'em.

There was a guy in line from the fire marshall's office, and he was armed. I mentioned once before all the various government functionaries who get to carry, here's another.

As to the election, we'll see.

Vote! Unless you don't know who to vote for,

in which case stay away from the polling place. Do not mark a ballot. By this time, if you don't know who or what to vote for, you shouldn't. But please, if you DO know, vote.

I will not say that crap about 'I don't care who you vote for', because I do. I obviously think Bush is better for us right now than Kerry can ever be. But if you really give a damn about this country, and have a real idea about how things should go, then vote.

Inventiveness

Sometimes, I'm amazed at the things people have discovered. Someone goes out to do one thing, finds something else and uses it. Sometimes the world changes because of it, other times it's just a better way to take care of the job at hand. Sometimes someone just finds an amazing way through a problem.

My son once was on a camping trip with a friend, and on the way back the fuel pump died. Twenty-five miles from home, secondary road. The friend had a gas can for the mower in the trunk, so my son a: disconnected the gas line at the pump and plugged it, b: pulled all the windshield washer lines and hooked them together, c: hooked them to the gas can and carburetor, d: held the gas can on the roof for a gravity-feed to the carb and drove home. Slowly, but drove home.

I would never in this world have thought of that. Not the only oddball way around a problem he's found. He's enrolled in auto mechanics classes, and eventually wants to do customizing work. Personally, I think he needs to get the engineering degree, I think he'd do well at it.

Odd discovery: the Kalahari Bushmen use a grub to poison their arrows. The grub is only found in certain kinds of places, about 2 or three feet underground. Roll the grub between fingers, then squeeze it's body juices onto the points; from what I've read, very lethal. Ok, someone had to a: find the grub, b: find out it was poison and could be used on arrowpoints. How the hell did someone come across it in the first place, and then how did they find out the damn thing was poisonous? But someone did.

I mentioned before the mix the Anglo-Saxons used to case-harden iron. Pigeon droppings, bone meal, leather scraps, various other things mixed into a paste. How did someone come to try any of these things, let alone work up the mix? And it works.

Our constitution says 'all men are created equal'. As history shows, that's created with equal chance to try; God knows in different ways, different people are far more capable than others.

Probably a damn good thing, too.

Self-defense, here and there

Instapundit linked to an article by Joyce Lee Malcolm contrasting the right of self-defense in the U.S. and Britain.
Short version, in Britain you can't.

Or you can, but you'll probably go to jail for it. Even if they attack you in your home, or with a weapon and you're unarmed, etc. Hurt your attacker, and you're screwed. Scare your attacker badly, you're screwed.

I repeat from Smallest Minority, "Stick a fork in Britain, they're done".

Scary stuff

Not the Halloween party, which was good. What's been happening in the press.

Just One Minute has a pretty good roundup of the nonsense on the Al QaQaa ammo dump story. And it all makes me pretty damn mad. I grew up with the idea that the nice man on the evening news, and the newspapers, gave you the facts so you knew what was going on. You could trust them on that. Yeah, the papers had editorials, and would generally come out for one candidate or the other in an election, but the basic facts you didn't need to worry about. Turns out, you do.

Starting long before the Rathergate story, and continuing with this, we've got a solid pattern of mainstream media knowingly putting out false, or doubtful at best, information with the express idea of affecting the election. The NYT has been getting whacked on the bias in their work for years now, so have many of the bigshot Evening News newsreaders, but this is so blatant that it's sickening. I don't expect reporters to be totally unbiased; they're human. I DO expect them, as professionals, to put their bias aside when they're covering a story and dig up the facts. And if the facts mean the story they were handed is crap, well hell, there's a story right there! Possibly a big one. But that's not the story some of these clowns wanted, so it doesn't count.

Look as this mess. Two major media outlets, the NYT and CBS, took a cooked-up story/that they could have known was cooked with a little research, assuming they wanted to find out/ and planned to put it out about 36 hours before the election, which you cannot but think was done deliberately so the Bush campaign couldn't have time to properly answer it. They broke it early because some bloggers caught wind of it and started talking. So they broke a badly flawed report early. As Powerline put it, "When the Times runs a false, half-baked story, it isn't their fault: they had to do it lest people get wind of the false, half-baked story from some other source first".

And CBS? Oh, God, what is their damn problem? They stick their nads firmly in a pencil sharpener and cranked firmly with the Texas Air National Guard story, made it worse, lied and stonewalled until beaten into submission. Still they're at it; the investigation will wait 'till after the election 'so they aren't seen as trying to influence it'. That didn't bother them one damn bit before, but they sure got sensitive all of a sudden. And then they jump into this;
a BS story pushed by a U.N. official pissed at Bush, and it doesn't really matter how truthful it is, doesn't it just fit so nicely? So they do it again, and get caught again, and act like it's not their fault.(burgler: What am I doing here? What are you doing here at 2 a.m.?)

As someone put it a couple of days ago, how long has some of this been going on? How many big stories in the past were crap like this, but there wasn't a really good way to check it and get the word out? How long, and in how many ways, has the 'profession' of journalism been screwing us, and telling us we should thank them for it?

This just about ruins the damn day.