Author: Mark Tokarski

Just a man who likes to read, argue, and occasionally be surprised.

61 years and counting …

Manhattan Contrarian, a site I like and follow, has unfortunately entered the world of the JFK assassination. The two posts have thus far spawned almost two hundred comments, and here we go again.

I might not post this, as I do not have anything original to offer. Here’s a comment I left at Fakeologist, a post about a Miles Mathis post on the latest release of documents:

I was glad to see MM walk back from his original idea that there was some kind of underground ruling council and that JFK left the scene to participate. That, to me, detracted from one of the best written and most important papers I have ever read, one that changed my life.

I would add one more fake presidential death to his litany of Garfield, McKinley, Lincoln and JFK: FDR. Speaking of using death of the office holder as a means of installing an otherwise unelectable person in office, Harry S. Truman qualifies. He got in on FDR’s death after wee hours shenanigans at the convention to get him installed as VP, and then the 1948 election had to be stolen to keep him in office.

Continue reading “61 years and counting …” →

All the world’s a stage, Horatio

We got a comment here, linked, which I decided to follow. It led me to Chris Hohn and a post titled True Humans Will Separate from NPC’s, which turns out to be homage to musicians, some real, some fake. They are all given far too much rah rah, as a fan boy might do.

Hohn decided to belittle the work of Dallas Goldbug, a worthy undertaking, but the real purpose of Goldbug blew right by him, to discredit the idea that famous people who die often reappear in another form. As I noted to him in a comment I left, “… it is interesting that you latch on the nonsense of Morrison/Limbaugh, as Goldbug intended, and by doing so discredit real and honest work on Hicks/Jones, as Goldbug intended.

My comment, which I repeat below the fold, is “awaiting moderation”, probably meaning it will never see the light of day. This often happens when worlds collide, as when I introduce Hohn to a world of fakery in musicians when all he wanted to do was idealize a few of them.

Continue reading “All the world’s a stage, Horatio” →

Some words, just words

I recently returned from Kenya with 464 photos on my camera, and as I said to friends and family, “one or two of them are actually quite good.” Of course, the essence of a good photo is to be there, and to snap the one above I had to be in a Land Cruiser, and the lion, while aware of us, needed to be indifferent. As noted by our driver, were I to get out of the vehicle, she would eat me. If this shot were taken from a helicopter above, you would see perhaps five Land Cruisers surrounding the beast. The lion’s attitude reminds me of what is the proper way to view American politics: Studied indifference.

I write a lot, and as with photography, now and then I write something I want to remember, even if no one else cares. Thus the paragraph beneath the fold here, a comment originally addressed to our friend Petra, and modified to include part of her wise response and to remove her personally from it, with respect.

Continue reading “Some words, just words” →

Is it a shifting tide, or signal from on high?

We all take note here of the Trump executive orders since his inauguration, and while I am not optimistic about Trump, welcome them nonetheless. He has removed us from the Paris Accords once again, and this time has gone after the endangerment finding, that goofy piece of agitation propaganda that set the stage for a host of administrative rulings shutting down fossil fuel activities that benefit all of us. In brief, that ruling says that CO2 is a pollutant. Such a grievous outcropping was the result of years of stage-setting by the people behind the climate change hoax. It was set in stone when a sitting president told an outrageous lie as follows: Ninety-seven percent of scientists agree: Climate change is real, man-made and dangerous.

Obama tweeted that.

Presidents lie all the time – it’s right there on the job application: “Are you prepared to use all of the status and prestige of high office to tell egregious lies? If the answer is “Yes,” you have just a shot. If the answer is “YES!!!”, and you are young and handsome and well-spoken and able to control a forum, we’ll make you president. We’ll even dummy up a fake education and change your place of birth to make it happen. The job requires at its very soul a complete lack of character. Only exceptional criminals need apply.

Continue reading “Is it a shifting tide, or signal from on high?” →

The poor, misunderstood carbohydrate, Part II, and finale

I am not going to belabor this subject, as I’ve had a couple of other insights that play along with it. I do want to stress the following:

  • Nutrition has not changed since the nineteenth century, when it was understood that a diet rich in animal fats led to better health than enjoyed by most people coming out of that dreary and unhealthy time.
  • The formula has not changed: balance. Animal fats should be at the center of a healthy diet, though carbohydrates have a part to play.
  • In modern times, ease of production of carbohydrates in the form of sugars delivered by bread and pasta, starchy vegetables, high-fructose corn syrup (now labeled simply “corn sugar”) have led to super-abundance of carbs, simple and complex, in the modern diet.
  • “Complex” carbs like pasta and bread take a day longer for the body to process, but in the end, the body does not know the difference between complex carbs and simple sugars.
  • Hand-in-hand with this are epidemics of diabetes and obesity, often morbid obesity.
  • Just as medical doctors are not trained in healthy nutrition, nutritionists are not either. If they had the ability to walk backward through time, they would discover that they are in large part responsible for our epidemics.

Continue reading “The poor, misunderstood carbohydrate, Part II, and finale” →

The poor, misunderstood carbohydrate, Part I

I’ve been in a bit of a fugue lately between jet lag, ten times zones and west to east, tripled with intestinal troubles coming out of Kenya and (which in my mind led to) a nasty head cold. Through all of this, and being upside down on the clock, I decided it was time to write. The result was several hours at the keyboard leading to a very long piece, knowing all along it was too long to be publishable. It was suggested I break it down into shorter pieces, which is where I am at this morning. I am fully recovered now, sleeping on the clock (up at 4:30 AM, but that is just my age) and head, sinuses and lower regions all operating as proscribed. 

The United States and other places (Mexico for one) are in crisis brought about by bad eating habits that lead to obesity and diabetes. I’ve long known a cure for both but run into obstacles getting the information out. These are created in large part by two factors that interfere with simple nutritional eating: Television (and media in general), and professional nutritionists. 

Continue reading “The poor, misunderstood carbohydrate, Part I” →

Mr. Overwrought

I’ve had quite a time since our return from Kenya. For one, I’ve suffered from what I am calling “Hakuna Matata’s” revenge, thinking that Hakuma was just a character in the movie Lion King, rather than a Swahili phrase meaning “no worries.” (I never saw the movie.) Enough about that. In addition, maybe part of the whole, I came down with respiratory troubles, aka head cold. Couple all of that with east-west jet lag (we traveled out ten times zones and back in two weeks), and I’ve been overwrought. The result is that I write long posts like the one (formerly) down below (now removed) about dieting, which occur at 2 and 3AM, and for which I devote considerable brain muscle, all for naught as no one reads them.

I have decided that a paragraph I inserted as an afterthought will be enough on the subject, and so unlike me, ’nuff said.

 

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Intolerance is all about!

I came upon a post about Petra Liverani and the moon landings at Fakeologist. Petra and I have gone round and round on the subject until I decided just to let it be. I cannot change her mind. I won’t try. In the meantime, Petra came out with a post called 12 logical fallacies unmasked in the use of the terms “conspiracy theory” and “conspiracy theorist“. I like the post. Petra started out by naming 12 logical fallacies.

  1. The authorities decide which events are conspiracies – the Appeal to Authority fallacy
  2. Only the majority expert voice counts, the minority expert voice is to be derided and ignored – the Appeal to Common Belief fallacy
  3. Professionals do not make claims of conspiracy nor do they theorise – the Strawman fallacy
  4. Refuters use the more specific and appropriate term, “psychological operation” or psyop – the Definist fallacy
  5. Selecting the obviously invalid argument – the Cherry-picking fallacy
  6. OMG! You’re one of those tinfoil-hatted people! – Argument from Intimidation fallacy
  7. Your reasoning is based on bias, mine is rational – The Bias Blind Spot
  8. Is the fact of conspiracy the main concern? – no, it’s the Big Lie fallacy technique used for millennia to control our minds
  9. The sophisticated Big Lie – the addition of the False Dilemma fallacy
  10. If those in power had done it they would have … – Hypothesis contrary to fact
  11. That’s insane, that cannot be true – Argument from incredulity
  12. When the rule is that they must “tell” us the truth underneath the propaganda how is the rejection of the narrative in the realm of “theory”? – The Loaded Question fallacy

Continue reading “Intolerance is all about!” →

Is Taylor Swift for real? (I kid! Of course she’s not!)

I draw attention to a post by Francis O’Neill, a man I have only recently come across, called “Is Taylor Swift in on it?” I think that is a fair question, even as it seems painfully obvious to me that she is ‘in on it.’ All she has to do is sit back and take it all in … the fame, the accolades, the money. Like the Beatles and Monkees*, to go generational on you, her job is to merely say nothing in public that would betray that 1) She does not write her own music, and 2) She does not perform her own music. If she were on a tell-all kick, she might also add that she has never seen Travis Kelce naked, nor he her/him/it, and that she knows as much about Covid and vaccines as she does about musical structure.

Continue reading “Is Taylor Swift for real? (I kid! Of course she’s not!)” →