You'll Learn to Love It

RIP Alfie Evans.

Bullied, mistreated, and finally starved to death by the British "Healthcare System"

The Big Roulette Wheel in the Sky

This is what NASA has figured out in the past four years about Earth vs. Asteroids:

...Green dots represent near-Earth objects...

Consider how our Little Blue Ball has managed to dodge this ceaseless barrage of cosmic buckshot day in and day out since the dinosaurs got whacked. What are the odds?

The Euthanasia Explainer, In Brief

Are you still on the fence about euthanasia? Here's all you need to know in order to make up your (own) mind: 

1. Follow the Money: who benefits tangibly by killing people who are very sick? Think about it now...come on, you can do this...people who pay for their medical care, mainly insurance companies! That's right - the original "1%." 
2. Everything you think you know about "euthanasia" you learned from the media and other interested institutions -- institutions that are - once again - sustained by $$$, motivated by decidedly Leftist ideologies, and don't give a rat's @ss about you, regardless of what they say.
3. In what universe is the taking of an innocent life not a grievous crime?

There, it's all clear now. It's so refreshing to think for yourself, isn't it?

Florida Obituaries Show No Parkland School Shooting Deaths

Read about it here, kiddies. We must have said elsewhere on this blog: Life really is like a B movie.

"Gun Control" in Perspective

As you know, you, as a citizen of the United States of America, have a Constitutionally provided right to keep and bear arms, for purposes of self defense and combatting forces of tyranny, foreign and domestic. This right shall not be infringed upon. It is understood by normal adults that a "right" is also a responsibility. You may therefore see owning a firearm as responsibility; and I'll wager that if you think about it soberly, you will.

Consider this:

Thirty-nine percent of American households report owning at least one gun. To put that in context, that’s more than the number of households that own a cat, while just slightly below the number of households that own a dog (35 and 44 percent, respectively, says the ASPCA). That is just about double the number of households that includes two married parents with children, according the Census Bureau figures from 2011 and 2012.¹

As of 2017, there are 126.22 million "households" in the USA. Thirty-nine percent of that is 49.23 million households, each with at least one firearm.

In one sense, that makes the citizens of the United States members of what is arguably the largest private army in the world.

Now consider this: There are two kinds of people who want to make sure you don't own guns - Globalists and your enemies.

Globalists probably believe something along the lines of this: "As long as there are weapons, there will be war. A truly Global society cannot be at war, therefore all weapons must go, except for those allowed to certain elites specially designated as 'peacekeepers' by authorities".

Your enemies, on the other hand, just know it would be easier to conquer you if you don't have any weapons.

Ideologies notwithstanding, distilling these two groups down to their views on your ownership of weapons puts them squarely in the same camp. Thus on the issue of your right to keep and bear arms, Globalists are as much your enemies as your enemies are.

Consider the recurring, organized efforts to push "gun control legislation" in these terms. Who is arguing most volubly to infringe upon your Constitutional right, your responsibility, to keep and bear arms? Identify them, and you have identified your enemies.

Now the question is, will you let them defeat you?

¹ [Including this citation does not indicate any endorsement of its source. It's just a neat summation of verifiable statistics.]

[Update 3/5/2018] Here's your proof: Iranian Supreme Leader Demands Americans Disarm. Uncanny, isn't it?

Florida Mass Shooting and Bureaucratic Incompetence -- What Are The Odds?

Refer to the graphic below.

Looking at events in black and white,  it gets down to a binary choice: Act or Do Not Act.  Authorities chose "Do Not Act" 45 times before the Florida mass-murderer struck.

The odds of any series of 45 binary events having the same result by chance is astronomically small. Impossible.

Long-short: the result cannot be the outcome of chance.  In other words, it is by some ultimate design.

Granted this view is a simplified condensation of reality. So I invite the statistically-minded to parse the logic, consider the conditions, do the math and publish your findings.

Credits:
Flow chart: (http:// freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3633115/posts )

Calculations: Wolfram ( http://www.wolframalpha.com )

Again We Ask, "Is there a school shooter the FBI hasn't interviewed prior to the attack?"

We first posed the question after (yet another) recent school shooting.

Today, we read this:

In September, a YouTube user named Nikolas Cruz left a comment on a video stating: "I'm going to be a professional school shooter." The video's creator alerted both the FBI and YouTube.

It is queer, isn't it?  That the FBI has had contact with numerous mass murderers before they carried out their heinous attacks?

Curious, isn't it, that the victims of the all-too-frequent school-shooting events, being minors, cannot have any information disclosed publicly about them, so that we must take only the "official" account of events?

Just trying to connect the dots, kids.

[Update 2/16/2017] The FBI has claimed that it failed to follow up on not one but two tips about the child-mass-murderer's "disturbing" behavior -- ie his declaration of his intent to be a "school shooter". On its face, this is an admission of complete incompetence and utter mission failure. Coming as it does while the FBI is embroiled in a host of the most egregious of scandals involving its questionable behavior during the 2016 election and subsequent presidential transition, at a time when its handling of the Las Vegas and other recent mass murders has left ordinary Americans scratching their heads, is it any wonder the internet is abuzz with the sound of people rethinking the stories surrounding the agency's involvement in things like the Cliven Bundy debacle, the Waco massacre, Ruby Ridge, the Oklahoma bombing and even the 9-11 attacks?

In this context, why wouldn't the claim by the FBI of a procedural failure by some functionary somewhere, resulting in the mass murder of 17 at a high school in Florida, awaken the inner sceptic, for that is the version of things that makes it look best under the circumstances? Maybe, perhaps, that version could be likely in some other context, or if this mass-murderer were the only would-be mass murderer that the FBI was aware of before he was an actual mass-murderer. But the FBI has its own "disturbing behavior" to account for, and until it has done so satisfactorily, it has forfeited claim on the benefit of any doubts it creates about itself. In this context, the FBI is looking at best like a serial incompetent, and at worst, like something more horrendous and difficult to imagine: an enabler, perhaps an instigator, of serial bad actors.

Along with its very public admission of this most unforgivable episode of incompetence, the FBI has made a public show of falling on its sword, with copious apologies getting due rotation in the compliant media. But here's a question: What's more damning to the FBI, that it "failed to pass the tips to the Miami field office" or that it did not fail to do so? That this were a case of mere bureaucratic incompetence, or one of willful neglect (or worse - surreptitious incitement; Do your homework - there are examples in the public record)? Another question: What do bureaucrats do more effectively than cover for one another, obfuscate the truth and hold press conferences to propagate their obfuscations?

Since it is a fact that the version of a story that makes a recidivist-bad-actor look best is the one least likely to be true, we can't be faulted for supposing for a moment the possibility that the FBI's claim is a cover story. What would that leave us with? Why, more questions, of course: Was this mass-murder a consequence of bureaucratic incompetence or of willful negligence? Or did the FBI contact the "disturbed" young man prior to his attack? What was the exact nature of such prior contact, and the prior contact with other mass murderers referenced in the previous post?

Ask yourself, "what are the odds?"

[Update 2/20/2018] Are you following the story, kids? Did you see the student admit, when asked by the CNN newsbabe on national television why he thought the noises he heard were gunshots, that "we were told the police would be shooting blanks to scare us"?!

Did you know that Parkland, FL is in Broward County, which went 66% for HRC in 2016 but, more significantly, was dead center in the middle of the desparate effort by Democrats to overturn the 2000 presidential election, making it something of an epicenter for leftist efforts to subvert US laws?

We illustrate:

Source.

Does this whole thing stink badly enough yet to demand to see autopsies?

[Update 2/23/2018] Armed Deputy present on site at time of attack "takes up position" and STANDS DOWN!? Intentionally!? That means he LET THE ATTACK HAPPEN. Can someone say "WTF"?!

But it's OK, because he resigned. End of story? Don't you believe it. Who told him to stand down? What kind of police offer does that?

[Update 2/24/2018]

A Broward County Deputy, that's what kind. Because...

• "standing down" in the face of young criminal adults is the policy in Broward, agreed upon between the County School Board and the Sheriff, for the purpose of maximizing the School Board's federal grant money. And this policy, it will come as no surprise, was praised by President Obama.
• According to the NY Post, not one but four armed deputies hid at the high school during the mass-murder.

If this is true, then the authorities are guilty not merely of negligence, kids. They're guilty of abetting. One would think that any parent worthy of the title would be steamrolling City Hall by now.

• Teachers told to expect a "Code Red Drill" that day.

So which was it? A drill, a mass murder, or both? Surely truth is stranger than fiction. So unreasonable, so unbelievable are the facts that continue to emerge about this event that it makes believing the moon landing was faked seem reasonable.

• It is now revealed that the Broward County Sheriff, pictured above with Hillary Clinton, is an enthusiastic enabler of the radical Islamist infiltration front organization known as "CAIR". So much so, in fact, that he has made one of its leaders a Broward County deputy. "Deputy Hamas" goes to mosques teaching the faithful how to -- are you ready for this? -- how to use guns.

Things are as strange as ever, but now they're starting to make sense. The Muslim Brotherhood, having been evicted from the White House, has gone "grassroots." That would make the shooting in Parkland, Fl seem as though it were a domestic act of terror enabled, if not aided and abetted, by some combination of FBI, Broward County Sheriff, Broward County School Board, CNN, et al.

Who knows how high up the chain of command the guilt flows?

[Update 4/7/2018]

Finally, something about this fiasco makes sense.

• Florida Obituaries show no Parkland school shooting deaths.

"These people are sick."

Asteroid Trivia

Just about everything I know about asteroids I've learned in the past year and can be contained in a couple of blog posts.  Asteroid trivia, if you will.

One thing I learned is that asteroids with predictable orbits, according to NASA, don't pose any potential threat to earth "in the next hundred years."

Whew. But here's another fun fact: there are countless asteroids which are not visible, and therefore have no predictable orbits until they can be seen. These pop up at random, having been catapulted into our orbit from places like the Oort Cloud, and if they pass by close enough to earth, they can pose a threat. A bit like Russian Roulette, but on a cosmic scale.

There was one such fly-by in December, 2017; I believe it was discovered within the week previous to its close encounter with home. Here's a late-December snap of the "asteroid widget" from  NASA.  It's the bus-sized rock from the 28th.

I check Asteroid Watch when I get bored, probably 4-6 times per month on average. Today I noticed another (relatively) close encounter queued up as shown in the widget below.

Lo and behold, the January 17th entry, indicated with the jet-airliner icon, is there now and it's coming our way. To be sure, 335,000 miles, merely a whisker in space travel, is still a long way off in human-scale terms, but that's not the point. The point is that jet-, bus-, and sky-scraper-sized space rocks can come hurtling down our cosmic street from out of nowhere on very short notice, and not even NASA can detect them until they're good and ready to be detected. Often -- twice in the last 3 weeks, if that's often -- they don't RSVP until a few days before they show up for the party.

Carry on!

[Edit 1/18/2018] See the latest widget at right? A car-sized asteroid will pass between the earth and the moon on Jan 19th. Note that in the previous widget (above), which covered the period from 1/16 to 1/22, there was no such asteroid. This puppy is brandy-new, and came out of nowhere to be identified, what, 2 days before its debut in our area?

e=mc^2

In the end, it's still just a theory.

Milankovitch Cycles: Climate Change Explained

Google it, kids.

Pwn3d by Twitter, Not

The Big Algorithm at Twitter recently flagged a tweet for "violating our rules for hateful conduct."  It went on to impose a 12-hour "countdown" after which my social media privileges would be restored. Well, almost.  Actually, the clock wouldn't begin to run until after I'd satisfactorily met certain conditions. Specifically, The Algorithm demanded that I 1) divulge my telephone number and 2) delete the offending tweet.  Simply comply with these demands and my "privileges" would be restored, after that 12 hour wait.

Much about this doesn't seem right. I don't recall being forbidden to say "Eminem is a corporate whore" as a condition of opening the account in the first place, so this late change in terms and conditions seems to me to be the sort of thing that contract law was developed to contest: smarmy, unpredictable, and coercive behavior by one of the parties.  And this being imposed by a machine which not only demands strict, non-negotiable compliance but then insults the injury by applying kindergarten-level behavior modification techniques?

Forcing ourselves to leave that aside, this bit about requiring my telephone number is a non-sequitur, a naked grab at my personal data. In fact, it is so lacking in any logical connection to the charge of "failing to not be hateful," one is not to be faulted for wondering if the entire episode is just a pretext for snooping.

If it were true that Social Media (and Twitter in particular) were engaging in creative or even coercive strategies to convince users to give up what is known as "PID" ("personally identifiable data", and you can tell it's "a thing" because it has a 3-letter acronym), it would support one of my occasional pet-theories, namely that Twitter is, and perhaps was and always has been, nothing more than a fancy data-gathering apparatus.

And a very effective one.  Long before The Donald ran for POTUS, "Twitter" was a household word, frequently mentioned, even cited, by all the traditional media. To the casual user (those who are in the crosshairs of the pro user), it's cool and it's fun and its accessible on your phone so you can instantly see your published thoughts appear in fancy type and full color on the little screen. It has become part of the mainstream social habit - witness to which we call to your attention the comments by the founder of Facebook comparing "likes" to "dopamine hits."

Despite consistently losing large sums of money, maybe even for longer than Amazon did, Twitter persists. Something has kept it afloat long enough for it to become a fixture, a social media staple. As such, Twitter can apparently dictate certain behaviors of its users and punish them for non-compliance. In doing so, it shows us something of what its sponsors are really after.  Today, they will find a reason to demand a telephone number.  What will they demand from us tomorrow, a photograph?  And the next day, will it be a DNA sample?

Whitewashed Tombs

This is the day on which the Church, and much of the civilized world, stops to contemplate and celebrate the historical fact of the virgin birth, in fulfillment of ancient Jewish prophecy, of the One man who is God and would later rise from the dead.  In between, He would also save mankind from its doom of eternal separation from its Creator.

And on this day without peer in all of eternity, this day on which there is no end of expression of wonder, awe and gratitude by all kindred, tribe and tongue the world over, what does Fr. Madigan subject his parish to at the noon Mass?  An excerpt from John McCain's book.

That's right. It is the Gospel of John (McCain), the notoriously duplicitous, partisan political operator, that the pilgrim Church is "nourished" with on this most Holy of days.  And because Modernists are nothing if not predictable, Fr. Madigan continued with a lecture on "commercialism" at Christmas (nothing about politicization, though), wrapping up with some boilerplate screed about how Jesus came to build a "better world", a world more inclusive of "people of all colors, faiths and sexual orientations."  No, he really did this. There was even a guy in the pews with a turban on his head.  And to top it off, this occurred at St. Thomas More Parish, which would certainly have the Saint spinning in his grave if he weren't in Glory.

I suppose a saint's body could be spinning in its grave even if his soul is in Glory. I tried to imagine if he could cringe or wince at what he saw taking place on earth, in a house dedicated to his name. I thought of praying, "St. Thomas More, when is enough, enough?" And then I imagined him looking back at me, in a silent reminder that he was the King's friend, but he was God's friend first, and for that the King had him beheaded.

Christmas

Imagine learning that the young lady you are about to marry - toward whom you have been steadfastly chaste - is pregnant.  You're an older man who must face that, apparently, youthful intemperance has destroyed your dreams.  Youthful intemperance expressed as betrayal. Being practical, and not the least bit of a vindictive nature, you decide to move on without fanfare.

Imagine you are that young lady.  You did not ask to have an angel sent to you with the notification that you are well regarded in Heaven and will, if you agree, carry and be mother to a baby whose Father is God himself, whose means of conception will not be physical - you are to remain a virgin - but spiritual. Being devout, but not entirely unmindful of the seeming unreality of the situation, you muster your will and reason - and faith - to acknowledge and agree.  "Let God's will be done."

But the angelic presence departs, and there you are alone with your thoughts. "What will my husband-to-be think of me?"

"Mary, it's OK.  I'm very sorry, but in light of this, and despite the fact that it breaks my heart, I must call off our plans to be wedded.  I do not wish to cause you any shame or embarrassment; no one will have to know."

Fr. Malachi Martin and The Deep State

Listen to the interview, taped in 1993, of famed Catholic insider and best-selling author Fr. Malachi Martin recorded by Bernard Janzen.

At a little past the 1:00:00 mark, the conversation turns to the (then recent) breakup of the Soviet Union.  Fr. Martin reminds listeners of how mysteriously efficient the breakup was, and the question of what became of the enormous KGB apparatus (with operatives numbering in the millions, Stalin's 10 "supercities", its military infrastructure); how curious it was that there was never any pursuit of justice against the murderous communist regime.

In this regard, Fr. Martin questions why no meaningful disclosure of such information was ever forthcoming from the media, and asks who decides what information the media does and does not disseminate; why questions pertinent to these events were never asked.  This "why" introduces the concept of something quite radical in the public lexicon of the time: "The New World Order," recently announced by then-president George H. W. Bush.

In this new millennium, in a world of NSA leaks and the Internet, we take the idea of the New World Order quite for granted.  In 1993, however, Martin's detailed expose of the program and structure of the NWO qualifies as revelation.  He discusses the economic mechanisms that force a coordinated transnational government into being, its necessarily anti-Christian nature and the types of people who participate in it, people who determine the fate of nations by their activities and plans -- "it has slipped into the control of kingpins", he states. An oligarch is a bit like a kingpin, isn't it?

At this point in the discussion things get very interesting, especially in retrospect.  Fr. Martin mentions the mysterious deaths of Dag Hammerskjold and Patrice Lamumba in the Congo, and connects their deaths to illegal trade in uranium in Katanga.  "We are being kept from knowing the details," he says, "but one day we'll know it all... we don't know the cause, but you can be darn sure that somebody is making money off of it. Somewhere!"

"Who tells [the media] not to talk about it?!" Fr. Martin asks.  "Whoever runs the money," he reminds us, "runs the entire show."  

Let us consider these observations in light of recent events in our own history, 24 years after the interview.  We have been forced to acknowledge that we live under something we call "The Deep State," and are faced with evidence  this entity is embedded in our Intelligence community. We likewise acknowledge that our mass media institutions have a clear agenda and cannot be trusted to report anything of consequence accurately or impartially. We are faced with evidence that both of these institutions are demonstrably anti-American and anti-Christian in essence.

Can we trace the growth of our Deep State to the "breakup" of the Soviet Union and the mysterious disappearance of its formidable intelligence apparatus?  Let us note as an aside the nearly perfect coincidence of that program of events with the advent of the "Information Superhighway," launched commercially upon civilization during the Clinton administration.  Imagine, a medium of instant global communication coming into existence - never before in history - just in time to initiate a "New World Order," and the ubiquitous surveillance state such a global government would require. What luck!

In previous interviews, Fr. Martin traces the influence of decidedly non-Catholic ideas, introduced by overt infiltration, on the Catholic church, its administration and teaching functions, and how these ideas are disseminated through the Church into the culture at large.  It cannot be ignored that the major players in the Deep State drama unfolding before us today are our society's elites. Many were educated in Catholic universities.  It is of note that the initials "CIA" are said by some to stand for "Catholics in Action."

It is not entirely unlikely, then, that it would take an expert on the Church such as Fr. Martin to also be an expert on the Deep State and the New World Order. Quite the opposite, in fact, if the premises hold up.  In fact, Fr. Martin's accounts of the way the Church establishment is able to nullify the authority of a Pope reads like a playbook of the way the current POTUS is being hindered by the secular establishment in Washington DC and everything connected with it.  A playbook on the overthrow of a government.

The very ingredients that Fr. Martin cited as being essential to the implementation of a New World Order have been on everyone's minds since Edward Snowden leaked documents he stole from the NSA:  A ubiquitous surveillance state, the re-emergence of an intelligence apparatus to support a universal government, an agenda driven media designed to enable it, the dissemination of bad theology in the Church producing bad Catholics in places of power and, just for color, an international money-making conspiracy involving the illegal trade of uranium, completely covered up by the mass media. Collusion, indeed.

Keep digging, kids!

Score One for The Mediocracy

After being summarily and historically spanked by Donald Trump and his supporters in 2016, The Mediocracy has proven its resiliency and its absolute will to dominate every one of us.

It has dominated the 2017 Alabama Senate seat election by promoting credulous, staged and spurious accusations of "sexual misconduct" against Republican candidate Roy Moore the issue in the race so effectively that he was kept from winning, thereby paving the way for a virtual political extra to be the puppet-installee of the Democrat Party there.

Just for perspective, let us recall that, back in 1992, The Mediocracy buried numerous, credible and persistent accusations of sexual misconduct and even rape against then-governor Bill Clinton so that he could be elected president of the United States.

In a way, the contestants in the Alabama Senate race were figureheads - certainly the Democrat is. Demonstrating the intellect of an unripened grape, his most noteworthy position was his opinion that human life begins at birth and his intention to govern accordingly.

Roy Moore, on the other hand, has made a career of taking principled, sometimes unpopular (read: pro-life, pro-Constitution) positions, and until last night has enjoyed the support of the people of Alabama for decades, rising from a DA to Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, to a highly favored candidate for Senate.  But opposition within his own party, especially a belated and half-hearted endorsement by President Trump, hamstrung Moore's campaign, rendering him something of a political orphan. In a mediocracy, to be so marginalized is to be wounded and left for dead. 

The Mediocracy deserves much the credit for Moore's loss. Its organs and outlets and mouthpieces and video screens were overflowing with non-stop echoes of "sexual misconduct", "#metoo" and other all-purpose innuendo floating on an ocean of boiling hypocrisy which it would not acknowledge. The Mediocracy obfuscated the one thing voters should care about: fitness for office, instead waging an epic offense of lies, half-truths, and even doctored images - nothing new under the sun, alas. This is how The Mediocracy wins, when it wins.

The Mediocracy has manipulated people effectively enough, bludgeoned them, really, with its childish and incessant spectacles and lies, that the people of Alabama -- perhaps we should be cautious here and say, "the ballots in Alabama," because one can't be too sure who actually cast those ballots or how correctly they were counted -- have chosen as a Senator just who the Mediocracy endorsed.

Now that Moore's been defeated, The Mediocracy will retire the whole tired, disgusting "sexual harassment" meme, right?

Wrong.  They've just perfected a weapon.  Guess who they're gunning for, now?

File under "Know Your Enemy."

Robert Mueller and the Conspiracy Theorists

At least one "conspiracy theorist" had his attention captured by Robert Mueller as far back as 2013.  What's fascinating is that the author of the blog cited at the link uses the term "Cryptocracy" to name what we now call the "Deep State."

File under, "Smoke:Fire?"

FBI "Had Interviewed" New Mexico School Shooter

How many notorious mass shooters over the last 3 years or so hasn't the FBI "interviewed" prior to their killing sprees?

Are they recruiting?

Edit 12/12/17: (Here's a case we didn't include because we just learned of it today,  nearly a week after first publishing this post).

Again, we ask, Is Christmas (really) Too Commercial?

And again, we hope to unambiguously imply, "No."  Is it a sin to shower the ones I love with goodies? Is it a sin to think of others, for a change?   Please.

State of the Deep State

It's marvelous,  isn't it, to witness, to experience, the overturning of the social order that began in earnest right about the time that Edward Snowden leaked a bunch of documents that he stole from his employer and fled the country? While neither attributing nor denying causality, it does seem like the Closets of Power were thrown open with that event and that the Skeletons of Abuse have been parading around ever since.

When the Snowden story broke, we opined thus: whatever happens from this time forward, the undeniable, inevitable and irreversible reality of the Surveillance State will have been announced and understood. "Cleared" was the term we used, as in a check being "cleared": transaction recorded and settled.  Perhaps we should thank those in power for finally being frank with us, albeit in spite of themselves.

Today we offer a similar take on the thing that was announced to us, some time during the 2016 US presidential campaign, as "The Deep State."  We are not concerned with defining it at this point.  We only wish to offer the opinion that, having allowed itself to be named, it is declaring its sense of invincibility.  By this act of sheer projection of power, the Deep State seems to be confident that it can get away with anything, and therefore no longer seeks to deny its own existence, cloaked by "conspiracy theories."  

It seems to be declaring, as one of its radical front groups was famous for, that it's here, it's queer, and it's not going anywhere.

Trouble in Crypto Paradise

Who says that cryptocurrencies are immune to arbitrary manipulation by powerful entities?  Not us.

Recently the biggest Bitcoin exchange blasted an email notifying interested parties of an impending "fork" in the Bitcoin chain, and of its intention to "not support it."

The reason Coinbase gave for this refusal to support the fork was "questions about its future value", and of course this is wrapped in the warm blanket of the company's altruistic "concern for customer funds."

We're skeptical of the motivation, because by now even preteens are savvy enough to know that any currency, and especially vapor-currencies like Bitcoin, would not, could, not exist without "support" -- that is, widespread adoption.  And that is something that is born of "support."

Perhaps, from a technological standpoint, not supporting the fork is wise.  Perhaps not.  We don't pretend to have an authoritative technological opinion.  But after a lifetime of reading press releases, the stated rationale for the decision seems like bunk, on the face of it.

Perhaps Coinbase's policy of preemptively denying support to any cryptocurrency is a proactive effort to suffocate it. If that is the case, we would have to conclude that there is still nothing new under the sun.

https://blog.coinbase.com/what-is-a-bitcoin-fork-cba07fe73ef1

Three Dots

A Quick and Timely Study in Architectural Symbols and Their Meanings

Best of Times, Worst of Times?

Half right, at least, as one might surmise by overhearing, as I did, two young ladies discussing, in tones that might be suitable for first dates or stuffed animals, what it's like to have the symptoms of various sexually transmitted diseases and to sleep with married men.

Honk if you think you've heard it all.

mechanical romance

imagine...

...no ephemisms
it's easy if you try
where words like "choice" don't mean "murder"
a world that's free of lies...

Truth Marked Down

Here's a quick rundown of how the media grabs control of an issue and spins it around to its advantage:

1. Deny the issue.  When that fails...
2. Acknowledge the issue and blame your enemies.
3. Repeat step 2 as long as it takes for polling to show that enough people believe it.

It seems fitting that a discussion of "Fake News" should be published on April Fool's Day.  But I digress.  By way of example, remember when the term "Fake News" started showing up?  It was sometime during the 2016 Presidential campaign, and it was coined to describe how the Establishment media were just plain lying, fabricating stories, and lapping up staged episodes designed to promote Hillary Clinton and to slander Donald Trump.

Remember? There were outright lies about the candidates, outright lies about events surrounding the candidates, and outright lies about the outright lies about the candidates.  The so-called "Alternative Media" -- everyone who is not on the payroll of CNN, A/NBC, CBS, ESPN, et al -- in its homespun way called this practice what it was: Fake News.

Despite being caught spreading numerous such lies, The Media Perps continued to deny it all until it eventuated that their Champion would not be ruling after all, thus forcing them into crisis mode.  As an example of how poorly desperation plays, the NYT began splashing bus stops with ads like this: 

"Truth" For Sale, Cheap

This pitiful display plus an entire month's NYT ad budget worth of similarly smarmy schlock was followed by a number of "news stories" by the Times designed to convince readers that everyone else was spreading "fake news", but goodness no, not the NYT! or those who dutifully echoed NYT content. 

Once again, a principle your mother taught you applies here as it does to nearly every analysis involving the antics of the Left: when the NYT points its metaphorical finger at someone, it has three metaphorical fingers pointing back at itself.

Memo to Wikileaks on Obamacare

Someone please tell +WikiLeaks to spill the Obamacare documents so that the American people can learn how many of its "enrollees" are fictitious.   It might also be enlightening to then cross-check it against the voter roles.

Trump: Obama bad (or sick) Guy!

It begins, as reported by The Sun (UK).

In any contest between Donald Trump and B. Hussein Obama, Donald Trump wins decisively, and B. Hussein Obama is publicly humiliated, perhaps prosecuted under the law, and in general squashed like the menacing insect we all know he is.

This is going to be rich.

Is The US Dept. of State Running a Charity?

Dreamyard

Yesterday's Conspiracy Theories... Part 1

...are today's headlines.

Russia's jets provocatively buzzing US destroyers.  The media provocatively buzzing the Trump administration.

Theory #1: This is entirely Russia's doing.  You can perhaps figure out what its motives might be.

Theory #1 implies that the Western media is Russia's handmaiden.  It's obviously somebody's, and that somebody obviously despises the United States, so is it such a stretch to conclude that it belongs to the very Sworn Enemies of the USA and the Masters of Disinformation, the communists?  Hint: No.

We've said for years that the jihad is the tool of communism, too, as is 1/3 or more of congress, it has become painfully clear. And the Church. And the Education Establishment, and their acolytes. Read Horowitz.  Read Malachi Martin.  It's a thing.  

Anything that destabilizes the West serves the stated goals of communists, goals that have never been repealed.

Dare to imagine it.  You read it here first.

Democracy Demolished by the NYT

NYT had this bit of BS today:

As the forces of reaction outpace movements predicated on the ideal of progress, and as traditional norms of political competition are tossed aside, it’s clear that the internet and social media have succeeded in doing what many feared and some hoped they would. They have disrupted and destroyed institutional constraints on what can be said, when and where it can be said and who can say it.

Even though in one sense President Trump’s victory in 2016 fulfilled conventional expectations — because it prevented a third straight Democratic term in the White House — it also revealed that the ...

blah, blah, blah.

This has nothing to do with Donald Trump. In fact, it has more to do with Bill Clinton, during whose presidency the World Wide Web first became a commercial reality.  But that's just a detail.

Marshall McLuhan predicted that an information-ocracy would demolish democracy, national sovereignty, effective borders, back in 1961 or something.  Google it.  Search this site -- we've had lots to say about it.

And quit believing the Mediocracy.

Is Christmas Too "Commercial"?

Is Christmas too "commercial?" The parking lots were full today. Today, and in prior days, busy people took time out from their busy schedules, and, using money they usually work pretty hard for (or will in the future), they thought of people besides themselves.

They studied things and shopped and dealt with crowds and fatigue and spent more than they know they should have, seeking just the right gifts; frivolous with time and money.

And frivolous with Good Will, if there can be such a thing. But I think there can be no such thing as frivolity with Good Will toward Men, which is, after all, the Christmas Spirit.

So, if the retail trade gets carried away, and even if it misses the beauty completely, The Invisible Hand is at work; people motivated by thoughts of Good Will toward others are spending dear wages, granting gainful, maybe even rewarding employment, providing for the needs and comforts of life, and the means for a better future, experiencing joy, some even a riot of joy, in the simple act of giving. The giver will not lose his reward.

And so spreading Good Will becomes the Project this industrious people sets itself to in this season, and they carry it off with excellence and gusto, as usual.

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests." Luke 2:14

And yes, His favor has rested on us, has it not? May it always be so. And may we always set ourselves to the spreading of Good Will.

Perhaps the real driver of our prosperity isn't our wits as much as it is our embracing of the Spirit of Good Will to Men.

* reposted from 2002.

Anticipation...

Headaches

What Does Progress Look Like?

It depends on whom you ask.

How THEY See America

No, NYC Doesn't Belong to Leftists

Not entirely, at least.

Hillary for Prison 2016!

The Mediocracy

The article under headlines trumpeting the publication of confidential files stolen from a law firm that specializes in offshore corporations began with this:

Offshore corporations have one main purpose - to create anonymity.

Well, if that doesn't piss off the 99%, what will?  After all, if they can't have anonymity -- not that any of them ever wanted anything except to send selfies and video clips of themselves doing all manner of nothing all over the globe all day long -- if they can't have anonymity, what makes the clients of this law firm so special as to think they're entitled to it?

Anonymity: the only unforgivable sin under the reign of The Mediocracy.

What You Weren't Taught about Capitalism, Socialism or Private Enterprise

The soundest and most concise analysis of the subject you'll ever read, courtesy of Yves Dupont.

Democracy is the political expression of Liberalism, whilst Capitalism is its economic expression...

In the political area, Liberalism gave birth to Democracy... This, I discussed in my little book "The Popes and Democracy". In the economic field, we had Capitalism. Capitalism is based on profit alone, not on the needs of man. True, no company or corporation can be expected to work at a loss and, for that reason, the profit motive is quite legitimate, nay, it is the necessary incentive which Socialism destroys wherever it rises to power, thus bringing about complete economic chaos. But, whilst being an indispensable condition, the profit motive must not override other considerations and, although quite justified to increase the production of consumers' goods, it cannot condone speculation on non-existing money created solely by book entries. And this, I am afraid is the essence of Capitalism, as distinct from Private enterprise. To be sure, when you destroy Private Enterprise you destroy also private Capitalism but, contrary to the simplistic solution of the Socialists, it is possible to control Capitalism without destroying Private Enterprise. This will be achieved when the Banks are denied the right to issue non-existing money.

Best of Times/Worst of Times

Go ahead and argue that this 14-weeks-since-conception baby-in-his-mummy's-tummy isn't actually clapping to music. But try to deny that he's a living human being and you might as well have yourself committed. 

Juxtapose that bit of undeniable reality with this: The Kansas Supreme Court has today struck down Senate Bill 95, the "Kansas unborn child protection from dismemberment abortion act". The ban on the dismemberment ban was immediately hailed as a "victory for women's reproductive rights." 

That baby, happily clapping his way through the first week of his second trimester, is now eligible to be dismembered in his mother's womb by a medical professional and have his corpse delivered in pieces which could then hit the baby-parts market and help said professional improve his state in life, perhaps even buy a Lamborghini.

He's Losing It

This is the face of a madman in the making.  Being a partner to a baby-body-parts-brokerage business will do that to you.

Planned Parenthood and Barack Obama

When the truth about Planned Parenthood has finally been accepted, as it inevitably will be; when it is understood that this diabolical organization financed its contributions to Barack Obama's presidential campaigns by not only performing abortions but by trafficking in the organs of the aborted babies, Barack Obama will be seen for what he truly is: the evil twin of Adolph Hitler.

What a Fool Believes

President Obama insists that:

This deal is our best means of assuring that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon. And from the start, that has been my number one priority - our number one priority.

Is there any reason to doubt him?

Is there any reason not to?

Here's how Jackie Mason recently put it:

"First Obama said we can inspect them any time, any place, whenever we please. Now it turns out ‘whenever we please’ except when they don’t allow it.  If they don’t want it it’s up to them..."

He concludes:

"Do you know that in the restaurants of New York, they have an inspection system. You can surprise any restaurant without notice that you can walk in and inspect them… So we are protected in this city from a bad tuna fish.  We’re not protected from a bomb but we’re protected from a bad quality of a tuna fish," 

Does recent history instruct us on whether we can trust President Obama when he assures us "Iran will not have a bomb?"  The New York Times reports today "ISIS Transforming Into Functioning State That Uses Terror as Tool"

But President Obama dismissed ISIS as a "jayvee squad", recall?  You can find it here and here, among other places.  Does a "jayvee squad" become a "functioning state" in a year and a half?  Or, to use Obama's analogy, does a "jayvee squad" become Kobe Bryant in 18 months?

How about when he promised  "...if you like your plan, you can keep your plan?" (there are 37 citations here, and the declaration is still made in black-and-white on the website).  And yet, according to Politifact,

The health care plan was largely designed so that some health care plans would go away. If not this year, then at some point down the road. 

And let's not forget that the "architect of Obamacare" has brazenly stated repeatedly that he was counting on "the stupidity of the American people" to enable his deceptions in the way the law was presented to go unnoticed.

If there's one thing we all know we can count on -- if history has taught us anything at all -- it's this: Obama delivers the opposite of what he promises. He's a professional liar.  And he's counting on "the stupidity of the American people" to get away with it.

Iran will have their nuclear weapons, sooner rather than later. You can take that to the bank,

Worth a Thousand Words

The art of PAWEL KUCZYNSKI.

End Game

Have we posted this before? It's worth posting again:  Israel is being put in a position where it will be forced to defend itself or perhaps preemptively address the threat by Iran to "wipe Israel off the map."

The Obama administration has effectively withdrawn America's tacit protection of Israel, which has been the single most effective peace-keeping influence in the Middle East.  The promise of US protection of Israel has caused the bullies to stand down.  But now that has been removed, and not only that, Obama has put its arm around the Iranian regime with its mission to destroy Israel and even handed it the keys to the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction.  There can be no doubt about Iran's ultimate intentions in this matter -- it has stated them repeatedly: "we will wipe Israel off the map."

So it is entirely predictable that, barring some completely unforeseen reversal of policy, Israel will be forced to respond to that threat accordingly.  And with the US turning its back on her, she will stand alone.  Russia has already expressed its satisfaction with Obama's "deal" with Iran -- Putin is clearly no friend of Israel and that leaves her all alone.  

Is it possible that the Iranian regime may someday pose a credible, catastrophic threat to Israel?  It already does: sworn to destroy her, it now has nuclear weapons within its reach and the enthusiastic support of the superpowers. The Iranian regime also knows that Obama's Window of Permissiveness will very likely close on January 20, 2017, a reality that can only heighten the potential danger of the situation.

How much more talk of "wiping off the map" should Israel countenance before taking preemptive self-defensive action now that Iran is a nuclear power?  Iran needn't actually launch an attack -- merely posturing convincingly that it might would put Israel in the terrible position of having to assume Iran intends to carry out its threats.

Should Israel act with appropriate and decisive self defense to a credible threat, how can a world such as the one we currently live in -- in which barbarism is on daily global parade courtesy of the bloodthirsty, sworn enemies of Israel, in which Antisemitism is publicly proclaimed in Western nations, in which the American president openly and publicly disrespects Israel's prime minister, in which both nuclear superpowers turn their backs on this tiny nation -- be expected to react?

Which scenario is more likely in that event -- that the superpowers suddenly see the light of Israel's actual predicament, reversing themselves to declare support for her?  Or that they chastise Israel as the offender of the delusional "peace" that's been negotiated, that they blame the victim, and seek to punish her, first with UN resolutions, then with sanctions?  How can such a fiasco not escalate? Will they perhaps point their guns at Jerusalem?

Maybe we should pray for its peace.

El Chapo (D Mex)

The notoriously escaped-convict billionaire Mexican drug lord "El Chapo" has famously tweeted his disdain for Donald Trump.

Given how many other tweets-of-disdain have been aimed at the Donald since he began talking about the problem of illegal aliens in the US, we can safely conclude that El Chapo will be voting with the Democrats or, perhaps, GOP Republicans in the next election.

Perhaps he might even be considered for a cabinet position or, given his eloquence, the role of Press Secretary.

Of Popes and Markets and Media

Following is a copy of our letter to the NY Times in response to their piece In Fiery Speeches, Francis Excoriates Global Capitalism.

George Soros is not the first billionaire to call for "fettering" the marketplace that delivered to him his billions, nor is Francis is the first Pope to have his utterances on "social justice" cast by the media as Leftist orthodoxy.

You are hopefully keenly aware that you have completely failed to grasp -- and therefore to accurately convey -- the teaching of the Church on economics and the role of the free market in bringing about justice. To wit:

A truly competitive market is an effective instrument for attaining important objectives of justice: moderating the excessive profits of individual businesses, responding to consumers' demands, bringing about a more efficient use and conservation of resources, rewarding entrepreneurship and innovation, making information available so that it is really possible to compare and purchase products in an atmosphere of healthy competition. -- COMPENDIUM OF THE SOCIAL DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH

How or why can an otherwise seemingly intellegent and presumably responsible professional fail obtain and convey the perspective that any such reader could obtain in under 60 seconds if willing to?

If you haven't come to understand - and to convey -- the lesson repeatedly taught by history, that those on the Left are the most pragmatic, "unfettered" and "irresponsible" participants in the marketplace, you will not fail to if willing to.

It's Not About "Racism"

Is it?  Isn't it's about overtaking local police forces with that  "National Police Force" mentioned by B. Hussein Obama during his 2008 campaign:

"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." 

Now why do they want one of those so badly?

iWatch.

Looks like a cool product. Imagine saying "remind me to send package when I get here" and the machine decoding speech, noting location, creating a reminder and then reminding -- harnessing technology for practical human..."benefit" is too big a word -- let's say "convenience".

Remember how cool browsing the web was when it first became commonplace? I even remember my first email account. Attaching and sending files - so convenient!

But then we slowly realized that the web's memory is perfect. That you can never, ever really dispose of an email address or for that matter, an email. It dawned on us that every move we've ever made online is recorded. Then came the social networking movement, and the Web's memory got more personal and intimate by orders of magnitude.

We learned (as we had suspected all along) that our "information" is being packaged and traded for profit for many reasons. The most visible of these is to persuade us with our own words and actions: "you looked at this once before, you know you like it, click here to buy it now!" But often it used to shame us: "You said this. You're a homophobe; you're fired." With "new media" our every online move is submitted to the worldwide court of public opinion to render judgment. Information that had been harnessed first for persuasion was soon thereafter used for coercion.

So far, all this is being fueled by information that is largely external -- words and pictures. What sorts of possibilities are there for persuasion and coercion enabled by the collection of your every heartbeat; your body temperature at the moment of that heartbeat; your weight, your sleeping habits (and schedule and location)? Add to these every "biometric" that you can imagine.

What will dawn on us after we've been having our collective "iWatch experiences" for a few years? We have seen our personal information harnessed by others who purchase it in order to persuade us to take a certain action. We've seen it used to coerce others into taking a certain action.  What happens when it starts being used to force people to do things?

The possibilities for good are amazing. The possibilities for abuse should put the fear of God in you.

GDP Fail, redux

The plane is nosediving, but 
the cockpit door is locked.

0.2% GDP growth, again? But wait: if you can't believe their unemployment numbers, can you believe their GDP numbers?

Poor Madame Chair looks like she's standing in front of an approaching freight train.  Is it inflation or deflation she sees bearing down on her?

What to think? No rate hikes until Obama says so.  He's not going piss off his Park Avenue buds, not yet. He doesn't want a stock market crash, either, because then the white people might riot. Ha ha, just kidding.

[update: yeah, we posted this before the announcement.]

File Under "Tin Foil Hat" part 2

As long as we're posting such observations, we thought we'd let you know that 11 military copters are scheduled to cruise above the Hudson River from the GW Bridge to the Statue of Liberty and back again in the next week or two.  Just because.

File Under "Tin Foil Hat"

For the first time ever, last week, I heard "Ladies and gentlemen, this is a test of the emergency broadcast system" coming from the PA system in a NYC subway station.  Twice, in fact.

Yahoo!: Do NOT View This Blog

The most influential blog ever has achieved yet another milestone:  it has apparently been banned by some thought police.  The page in that screenshot below is what you'll see when you click the link below it.

The link.

We are honored to have joined the Company of the Banned.

Nothing New Under the Sun, Part....?

The movie "Network" is proof of this.  Watch.it.now. If you want to understand the world you now live in, that is.

Beware of Peace

Have you heard the chatter about "peace" lately?  I have.  Hillary Clinton is out and about touting a formula for "21st century peace" that is basically a highly intellectual sounding suicide note.  Lots of appeasement and psychology.  

At Mass the other day some itinerant priest from Down Under was on about how we should work for world peace in order to overcome the "military power that runs the word" [paraphrase].  It's a meme, you see.  Some priest from a far away shore and Hillary Clinton  both espousing the same new-aged hooey.  Get ready, because "peace" as they see it is about to be shoved down our collective throats.

The sponsors of this delusion -- "peace at any cost" -- aren't asking you to think about it. They aren't asking you to agree with it. They aren't asking you to engage in a debate in the marketplace of ideas; they aren't seeking to persuade you. They don't care what you think or believe.  What they are doing is what they always do: subverting your reason with images and slogans.  In this way they will desensitize you and bulldoze your natural resistance to an illogical campaign. They don't need your agreement. They only need your attention, and they have that.  

They will fill your field of attention with slogans and images about peace and about how anyone who dares disagree with their idea of peace is the enemy.  They will polarize and divide because this has proven to be the most effective means of concentrating power, and in the age of instant, global messaging, it's more effective than it has ever been.

And when that happens, when their little "peace" message becomes the daily drumbeat in world filled with shocking daily headlines of violence, disaster, turmoil, idealistic mobs will begin to demand "peace at any cost" the same way they demanded dead police officers and messianic presidents. They will demand a Man of Peace to fix the world up the way Barack Hussein Obama promised to.

And when that happens, someone will answer the call.  Someone very unique.  And hell will have come to earth.

So buckle up, sports fans. This is a little early-warning.

A Chihuahua Casts Its Vote

We're posting this because we notice it's increasingly hard to find on the WWW, and we want to keep it available.

Falling Rubles and Cheap Oil

It is far more likely that Russia has engineered the decline of its ruble in order position itself as the low-cost producer and thereby destabilize the global economy and especially force the high-cost producers (in America) out of business.

It is absurd to think that a country that is among the richest in natural resources would be brought to the point of "economic freefall" by whatever insignificant measures the Obama administration has taken in the name of "economic sanctions" (albeit not without a small measure of fanfare).

Russia is among the most dominant players in oil markets and at times the single most dominant player.  It can exert tremendous influence over the market.

It is also not unusual for countries to devalue their currencies for their own gain, and should it surprise anyone that Russia would do so aggressively, vindictively, almost as an act of war, without regard for the welfare of its common citizens?

We thought readers might appreciate a perspective that didn't originate in a disinformation brainstorming session.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised!

If you must watch...but don't try to leave a comment on any "news" website, because all the comment sections have been disabled.  If you burn down a business, you get coverage.  If you wish to express your disagreement with people who burn down businesses, tough luck.

Lying to The Races

Is Barack Hussein Obama fomenting a race war in the United States for political gain, or is it simply because he hates white people?

Can't be long, now.

Today the paper had big, big headlines that read:

Son Beheads Mother In Street

If you read the story you learned that, after beheading his mother in the street, the son then kicked her head about twenty feet away.  Finally he jumped in front of a train and something approaching justice was done.

Later I read that the CEO of one of the, if not the, most highly valued and visible corporate enterprises on the planet decided to brag about how proud he is to be a homosexual. Not that it's supposed to matter or anything.  Almost instantly the cheers rolled in by headline and sexual perversion had reached the highest rung on the ladder of cool.  

And of course the President broke some more laws today and vowed to break even more. And then there were surely myriad other unthinkable, unspeakable acts paraded before the eyes of the world since the evening editions went out yesterday afternoon.

At this rate, I'd be very surprised if the human race made it to the next election.