We here at Bloody Nib Manor are what some people would call "old fashioned." We don;t listen to rap or hip-hip or corrida music. We don't watch many new movies. We don't speak Spanish. And we know that marriage between a man and a woman is the definition of marriage. Anything other is is a goose disguised as a duck.
NFL football is not popular here. We think of NFL as the National Felons League as is evinced by Michael Vick and Pacman Jones. It is a thuggish sport dominated by thugs. The NBA is made up of players who spend much of their time posing, preening and trash talking. The last NBA player worth any regard was A.C. Green, who was ridiculed by the press for his Christian convictions.
Major League Baseball, on the other hand, is popular here at the manse. While we realize that not a few professional ball players are on paragons of moral behaviour, the game has not fallen to the level of employing dogfighters or rapists or gun toters. Barry Bonds and Jose Canseco may be a steroid pumped slugging machines, but most ball players behave themselves and do not act like idiots when they hit home runs. They hit, they run and then they go back to the dugout.
Baseball is that odd game where the physical size of the player means little. A little guy can hit and run as well as a big man. The perfect pitcher is a noodle with an arm. Sandy Kofax was the perfect pitcher. Watching him pitch was like watching a ballet. Perfect form. And in that way the game is the perfect American game. Genetics mean little in the Great Game. Talent, smarts and work make a ball player. Not size or bulk. The current standing in the America League show that even money doesn't matter. The Yankees, one of the highest paid teams in baseball, were humiliated last week by the Angels, and they are trailing badly behind the Red Sox, another lesser paid team. In the National League the Dodgers ( high paid team) are stumbling trying to find the call let alone cross the plate. Every game is a new game and work and skill make a winner. Just like the good old USA.
On a more prosaic level, consider the Zippo lighter: Zippo - Product Category listing. 75 years old, basic as basic as can be, low tech. No plastic. Just metal, flint and naphtha. The basic thing like what we hope America will be. And still chugging along.
Who could ask for more?
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
The World Continues to Deteriorate
There is a certain segment of the Western World that seems to suffer from Chamberlainism. Chamberlainism is the philosophy that if one appeases one's enemies one will not be attacked or destryed by one's enemies. In other words, throw your kids to the crocdiles and the crocodiles will not get hungry for your sorry carcass.
In the Netherlands we have a Dutch bishop sugesting that Dutchmen referred to ur Lord God as Allah because it might make the Orcs living in Holland happy: Let's call God Allah - Radio Netherlands Worldwide - Independent thinking, ind . If this suggestion had been made by a politician it would almost be excusable because politicians are a craven bunch who rarely stand for anything other than their maintainance of power and am easy job with a good income. But this man is a Roman Catholic bishop and seems to be calling for a downgrading of the Person of God by referring to Him as the name Mohammedans use to referto their god, who is not the One True God, but a false and fickle deity. Some people commit suicide and some people want their societies to commit suicide. When reading the article note that this man seems to have lived a life of theological confusion. The nest thing you know he'll be calling for the Dutch to follow the silliness of Wayne Dyer and his faux Taoist nonsense because the largest ethnic group in the world are the Chinese.
Meanwhile, from Canada, a group of Mennonites have fallen under the eye of the secularists in Quebec: WorldNetDaily: Christians would rather move than hear evolution The Quebec governement has demanded that evolution be taught in Mennonite schools. This is an example of Right-think as described in Orwell's 1984. Ask yourself this question: In your daily life, if you are not a scientist, does an adherence to the theory of Darwinian evolution mean anything? Does it affect your life? Will it make you a better person? Will it help you be a better farmer, machinist, stockbroker or citizen? The answer is, No. It might make you a worse person. If one thinks of a human being as nothing but an animal then one might tend to treat other humans as animals. But, for some reason government officials seem to think that the teaching of evolution will make a better person. The nonsense is never ending.
As an aside, the farmers and pigeon fanciers (Darwin used the development of various pigeon breeds as proof of evolution despite no pigeon ever developed into another species) knew a lot more about genetics than Darwin ever did. They knew that no cow could be bred into something that was not a cow. Their experience was based on real life, hands on work, not speculation. But Darwinian evolution is nothing but speculation. To be blunt, it's mental masturbation.
In the Netherlands we have a Dutch bishop sugesting that Dutchmen referred to ur Lord God as Allah because it might make the Orcs living in Holland happy: Let's call God Allah - Radio Netherlands Worldwide - Independent thinking, ind . If this suggestion had been made by a politician it would almost be excusable because politicians are a craven bunch who rarely stand for anything other than their maintainance of power and am easy job with a good income. But this man is a Roman Catholic bishop and seems to be calling for a downgrading of the Person of God by referring to Him as the name Mohammedans use to referto their god, who is not the One True God, but a false and fickle deity. Some people commit suicide and some people want their societies to commit suicide. When reading the article note that this man seems to have lived a life of theological confusion. The nest thing you know he'll be calling for the Dutch to follow the silliness of Wayne Dyer and his faux Taoist nonsense because the largest ethnic group in the world are the Chinese.
Meanwhile, from Canada, a group of Mennonites have fallen under the eye of the secularists in Quebec: WorldNetDaily: Christians would rather move than hear evolution The Quebec governement has demanded that evolution be taught in Mennonite schools. This is an example of Right-think as described in Orwell's 1984. Ask yourself this question: In your daily life, if you are not a scientist, does an adherence to the theory of Darwinian evolution mean anything? Does it affect your life? Will it make you a better person? Will it help you be a better farmer, machinist, stockbroker or citizen? The answer is, No. It might make you a worse person. If one thinks of a human being as nothing but an animal then one might tend to treat other humans as animals. But, for some reason government officials seem to think that the teaching of evolution will make a better person. The nonsense is never ending.
As an aside, the farmers and pigeon fanciers (Darwin used the development of various pigeon breeds as proof of evolution despite no pigeon ever developed into another species) knew a lot more about genetics than Darwin ever did. They knew that no cow could be bred into something that was not a cow. Their experience was based on real life, hands on work, not speculation. But Darwinian evolution is nothing but speculation. To be blunt, it's mental masturbation.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
It's For the Children!
This week the Solons who govern the State of California have decided to take action to prevent the drinking of alcoholic beverages by people under the age of twenty-one.
"What," you may well ask," have these paragons of wisdom and intelligence decided to do to prevent Justin and Tiffany from getting falling down drunk or driving their cars into the minivan carrying the members of the local baseball team?" Have they perhaps increased the penalty for merchants who sell demon rum to the high school cheer leading squad? Or perhaps have law enforcement descend on the local loud party at which Harold teen and his friends are dead drunk on the front lawn?
Nah. They've decided to try kill two birds with one stone. Discourage teen aged drinking while making money from teen aged drinkers. After a lot of "hard" study, they've decided to increase the tax on "alcopops." Alcopops are those bottled drinks with a fermented malted base ans a fruit flavor. In other words, beer that tastes like lemonade or some other fruit drink. Examples are such drinks as Mike's Hard Lemonade, Zima and Seagrams coolers. The tax on such beverages will be increased three dollars per gallon, or about one and a half dollars per six pack. The thinking is that young people don't like the taste of beer or hard liquor. They like the taste of soda pop. Thus if the price of hootch that tastes like pop goes up them crazy kid's will make a right turn to the nearest ice cream parlour instead of falling under the influence of John Barleycorn.
To be blunt, that's bullcorn.The tax increase punishes those adults who have the misfortune to like the taste of such silly drinks in the name of "the children" while it will do nothing to curb teen aged drinking, binge or otherwise. It's a show, it's a pose. It's a way to say, "We're doing something!" while in reality the legislature is doing nothing but finding another way to bring in the long green. The legislature might as well increase the tax on sweet wines and mixed drinks. It would be much more effective to punish those teenagers found drinking or drunk with jail time or community service or fines. But those actions don't bring money into Sacramento. They cost money.
Any kid who wants to get drunk will do so whether or not he or she can cough up the extra buck and a half for Zima. They'll soon develop a taste for Coors Light or Olde English 800. Meanwhile, their Mom, having to put up with such brats, will find that her nightly bottle of Zima is too much to cover with her Wal-Mart paycheck, and will find it more economical to buy a fifth of vodka and down a couple of screwdrivers while waiting for her little dears to come home from the local fiesta. And then Junior will find the Popov in the bread box and start his day with a screwdriver before heading to school.
On a somewhat similar topic, some idiot in the federal government has decided that it might be a good idea to increase the federal tax on cigarettes by one dollar per pack and on cigars by as much as ten dollars per cigar. The idea behind this is twofold. The first is to "discourage" smoking. The second is to use the tax money to pay for a federal health care scheme to treat children (children in this case means people up to the age of twenty-five. When your faithful correspondent was twenty-five he had been married five years, had served a four year apprenticeship, was a member of the Naval Reserve, was buying a house and had to pay for his health care out of pocket and didn't whine about it).
Other people a lot smarter than yours has looked at this phenomenon of increasing tobacco taxes to "discourage" smoking and have asked one question that has yet to be answered: If the government wants to discourage smoking why doesn't it just outlaw tobacco? Why not just have a tobacco prohibition? And the answer is: because if tobacco is made an illegal substance the government will receive no revenue from tobacco that it sold illegally. Let's face it, you local marijuana dealer, once caught in the act, is likely to suffer a lesser penalty than a cigarette smuggler. There's no money in pot for the Feds. There is money in Camels.
And it's all for the children. Damn brats!
"What," you may well ask," have these paragons of wisdom and intelligence decided to do to prevent Justin and Tiffany from getting falling down drunk or driving their cars into the minivan carrying the members of the local baseball team?" Have they perhaps increased the penalty for merchants who sell demon rum to the high school cheer leading squad? Or perhaps have law enforcement descend on the local loud party at which Harold teen and his friends are dead drunk on the front lawn?
Nah. They've decided to try kill two birds with one stone. Discourage teen aged drinking while making money from teen aged drinkers. After a lot of "hard" study, they've decided to increase the tax on "alcopops." Alcopops are those bottled drinks with a fermented malted base ans a fruit flavor. In other words, beer that tastes like lemonade or some other fruit drink. Examples are such drinks as Mike's Hard Lemonade, Zima and Seagrams coolers. The tax on such beverages will be increased three dollars per gallon, or about one and a half dollars per six pack. The thinking is that young people don't like the taste of beer or hard liquor. They like the taste of soda pop. Thus if the price of hootch that tastes like pop goes up them crazy kid's will make a right turn to the nearest ice cream parlour instead of falling under the influence of John Barleycorn.
To be blunt, that's bullcorn.The tax increase punishes those adults who have the misfortune to like the taste of such silly drinks in the name of "the children" while it will do nothing to curb teen aged drinking, binge or otherwise. It's a show, it's a pose. It's a way to say, "We're doing something!" while in reality the legislature is doing nothing but finding another way to bring in the long green. The legislature might as well increase the tax on sweet wines and mixed drinks. It would be much more effective to punish those teenagers found drinking or drunk with jail time or community service or fines. But those actions don't bring money into Sacramento. They cost money.
Any kid who wants to get drunk will do so whether or not he or she can cough up the extra buck and a half for Zima. They'll soon develop a taste for Coors Light or Olde English 800. Meanwhile, their Mom, having to put up with such brats, will find that her nightly bottle of Zima is too much to cover with her Wal-Mart paycheck, and will find it more economical to buy a fifth of vodka and down a couple of screwdrivers while waiting for her little dears to come home from the local fiesta. And then Junior will find the Popov in the bread box and start his day with a screwdriver before heading to school.
On a somewhat similar topic, some idiot in the federal government has decided that it might be a good idea to increase the federal tax on cigarettes by one dollar per pack and on cigars by as much as ten dollars per cigar. The idea behind this is twofold. The first is to "discourage" smoking. The second is to use the tax money to pay for a federal health care scheme to treat children (children in this case means people up to the age of twenty-five. When your faithful correspondent was twenty-five he had been married five years, had served a four year apprenticeship, was a member of the Naval Reserve, was buying a house and had to pay for his health care out of pocket and didn't whine about it).
Other people a lot smarter than yours has looked at this phenomenon of increasing tobacco taxes to "discourage" smoking and have asked one question that has yet to be answered: If the government wants to discourage smoking why doesn't it just outlaw tobacco? Why not just have a tobacco prohibition? And the answer is: because if tobacco is made an illegal substance the government will receive no revenue from tobacco that it sold illegally. Let's face it, you local marijuana dealer, once caught in the act, is likely to suffer a lesser penalty than a cigarette smuggler. There's no money in pot for the Feds. There is money in Camels.
And it's all for the children. Damn brats!
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