winsor

Billy's use of a sidearm is no more an indictment of firearms than the fellow in Idaho is an example of why civilians should not own Ka Bars or why ownership of SUVs should be proscribed because of the woman who drove off a cliff with her wife and six children. When someone uses skydiving as a way to commit suicide, there are those that consider this 'proof' that skydivers have a death wish. Arguments to the contrary fall on deaf ears. I have lived amongst people who cannot be trusted with pointy objects or blunt instruments, and with those who are entirely safe with metric tons of hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen fluoride or WMDs in general. It's the people that form the basis of the threat. 'Gun violence' is a case in point of the Pareto principle in action. There is a distinct correlation between severely fucked up people and 'gun violence.' People who are given to using firearms or Ka Bars or SUVs as instruments of violence are unfit to populate a free society. BSBD, Winsor

Rather than vilifying inanimate objects, why don't we consider who is actually responsible? Going over the authors of the most recent atrocities, they are, without exception, Seriously Fucked Up People. I know the 'solution' put forth is to constrain everyone to the limitations of the lowest common denominator, but I take exception to the dictatorship of the mediocre. Perhaps I have been spoiled by living and working with people who can be trusted with lethal service on a mass scale, and so do not aspire to a nerf world. YMMV

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is all about NewSpeak, and 'gender politics' is likewise mind-boggling. Making a neutral comment about basic a biology should not be cause for people to take leave of their senses. Lighten up, Francis! Orwell was, indeed, an optimist.

Pogo Possum

I dunno, any spam that begins with "dear patriot" gets summarily deleted.

Cheap propeller - lowest bidder and all that.

How long can you tread water?

For all the bitching on this forum about the bias of Fox/Murdoch, none of the the links I've followed hold a candle to NPR for raw prejudice. Not saying that's a bad thing, mind you; NPR is careful only to speak The Truth (tm), so pretending to be Fair and Balanced (tm) is entirely unnecessary. BSBD, Winsor

Yeah, I was kinda wondering about that.

Oddly enough, the descendants of said goat herders to a large extent regard the untranslated writings as having merit on a par with the Greek myths. Admittedly Haredim take it verbatim, but I'm not sure how they deal with mitzvot mandating genocide or slavery. The significance of mitzvot, as I understand it, is that 'the law' was thus not whatever the King du jour felt it should be ('we answer to a higher authority' and all that). As Clarence Darrow noted, "in the beginning God created man. Man, being a gentleman, returned the favor." The Bronze Age writings rather reflect that reality. As an aside, I'd love to know how our neighbors to the West built the pyramids. Regardless of the budget, I'd no-bid that contract. BSBD, Winsor

She reminds me of the applicant for the radio announcer job: They di-di-di-didn't hire me 'cause I'm j-j-j-Jewish.

I understand religion and sexual orientation that differs from my own in an abstract sense. In practice I just don't get it. You're having two way conversations with an invisible friend - you're joking, right? You want to have sex with WHAT? Come on, you're pulling my leg. Anyhow, so long as either group leaves children out of it, and doesn't expect my approval, financial support or participation, I'm okay with it. Legislation based on either set of delusions or affinities is problematic. Legalizing polygamous marriage to barnyard animals due to a religious mandate brings up all sorts of problems with the tax code for instance, though it makes as much sense as most anything religious. Credo quia absurdum and all that. One should be polite around religious people, given their historic propensity to inflict violence upon those whose faith differs or is absent. I prefer to be spared the particulars of such individuals as the guy who married his dog; I prefer to assume that was a goof and leave it at that. BSBD, Winsor

? I have never inflicted violence upon anyone based on race (or much of anything else), nor have I considered race as a hiring criterion. I have, however, been the target of racially motivated violence, and have lost out on jobs because I didn't meet criteria for any of the company's hiring quotas. Racism's racism, and it's not okay. BSBD, Winsor

I came across this article: https://mises.org/wire/power-woke-how-leftist-ideology-undermining-our-society-and-economy which addresses the various positive and negative, historical and current definitions of 'woke.' It also goes into the ESG commitments by major corporations, and their financial motivations. Right, wrong or indifferent, I found the points made by the author to be worthy of consideration. BSBD, Winsor

Mama Cass Elliot had a massive heart attack while eating a ham sandwich, she did not choke on the ham sandwich. I recently read a blurb about some activist who touted loving one's body, regardless of its shape or condition or whatever. She apparently succumbed to a premature death linked directly to being morbidly obese. Karen Carpenter succumbing to Anorexia Nervosa does not appear to be a real improvement. I've know rather a few young women whose health was compromised by the urge to achieve their preferred BMI. Professional models and sumo wrestlers are stuck with these body models as a job requirement, but that doesn't make either end of the spectrum a model of healthiness. The standard that 'the dose makes the poison' applies to a lot of things, and those taking a hard stance one way or another are often equally wide of the mark. Having had a life expectancy conveniently measured in minutes on more than one occasion, I prefer to load the dice in favor of stretching out my time on the green side of the sod as opposed to having the most impressive self-esteem. YMMV. BSBD, Winsor

Anyone who duplicates statements from proponents of 'diversity, equity and inclusion,' but switches black for white and vice versa, would be labeled the most abhorrent from of racist out of hand. The most racist diatribes I've ever endured have been directed against perceived racism. My point is not that racism is okay; I call foul when cherry picking is involved. BSBD, Winsor

If I can't take it with me, I'm not going.

Gee, and here I thought the reference was to the explosion of the population based on the assumption that natural resources, to include fossil fuels, were inexhaustible, compounded by going into debt at a level beyond that which can be repaid, and generally following policies that have spelled doom for a civilization every time they have been tried. Thank goodness it was simply a matter of mortality on an individual basis. What a relief.

I don't believe much of anything, and I'm certainly not a supporter of any of the usual suspects. Having said that, Antifa burnt more things to the ground than I'd prefer. If Portland survived their attentions good for them. SARS-COV-2 is rather a definitive bioengineered pathogen, its release most certainly the result of blunder rather than intent. The response to the pandemic was also an exercise in incompetence (any time something actually turns out to be due to conspiracy I'm quite impressed). I've lived in both Chicago and Florida, and both have areas that are either genteel to the point of idyllic or violent, dystopian hell holes, depending on who's doing the finger pointing. The only difference between one side of the aisle and the other the population to whom they pander. Both groups are equally FUBAR. BSBD, Winsor

Many buzzwords harken to definitions which can only be seen as favorable, but often wind up meaning something else altogether - to the point of approaching the complete opposite. Like it or not, 'woke' has become a billion dollar business, where corporations purchase indulgences in the form of 'diversity, equity and inclusion' training and 'community organizers' shake them down as a security racket. The whole system is beneath contempt.

Many synonyms for "naive to the point of mentally challenged" are demeaning insults, so 'woke' is in good company.

I doubt if you'll get consensus on that point, regardless of its relative veracity. CO2 is a factor, but even a superficial understanding of radiation heat transfer reveals it to be but one of many. Unfortunately, its significance is more as a measure of overpopulation than as a driving force for climate. In the long run we're fucked either way. It was fun while it lasted. BSBD, Winsor

A disease of denial by any measure.

Also, the $400,000 price tag for a Sidewinder pays for a lot of dumb projectiles.

'Twas ever thus.