Author: Mark Tokarski

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

Fun with Ruth and Judy

 

Note to readers: WordPress has been spamming lately, something they have never done before. So I put a block sender on them sending it right to the junk box. In so doing I unknowingly sent all comments that were in moderation to junk as well. Consequently, some comments that needed to be released (first time commenters) were not. Everything is released now as far as I can see.

Commenter Charlie Townsend brought us one of those inexplicable anomalies in facial resemblances, that of Judge Judy Scheindlin and Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg. The two side by side look like this:

Judy Ruth

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Grifters

This scam is apparently very common, but maybe new to some readers here. It first happened to us a couple of years ago. We did not fall for it.

We had a recorder, a musical instrument, laying around and put it on Craigslist, asking $200. We immediately received an enthusiastic response, someone looking for just that instrument. Please hold it, we were told, and take the ad down. Consider it sold. Rather than $200, we will be paid $250.

The next day a FedEx* package was on our doorstep, and inside a check for $1,500. Red flags were everywhere. It was written on the account of a New York City company that turned out to be real. I contacted them by email, and they said something like “Yeah, they’ve been using our account for this scam. Do not cash it. It will bounce.”

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Just for giggles …

A recent MMG paper on Ted Bundy intimated that Ted was still alive somewhere, and further, that they had stumbled on a photo of the guy. Here are the two photos used, the one on the left known to be the real Ted Bundy. They do not speak with certainty. I can, however.

 

Says MMG, “…doesn’t that picture give you a strange feeling? It does me. Could that be what Ted looks like now? I see a match on the eyes and nose. The eyes look blue. He is about the right age (72). For the rest it is hard to tell.”

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The New Green Deal and the coming Dark Ages

A while back I offered up what I called “One Last Climate Post“, and indeed I stand by that. My reasoning was that the debate that I was reviewing was very old and that all the players were well known. The “science” was new to me, and I was treading in deep water, not knowing enough about it to be writing about it.

Since that time I have been immersed in the science, and now feel much more comfortable with it. It is accessible to all of us, and not hard to comprehend. All we need do is look around us. For every scary claim by climate scaremongers and doomsayers, there is ample evidence that the planet is doing well. Polar bears are many and healthy, storms, fires, droughts are lessening in number and intensity. Carbon is increasing in the atmosphere, and the positive effects are now coming to fruition with a greener planet. Gradual warming, as has been going on for 400 years now, is a positive thing. Where the Roman Warm Period gave rise to an empire and an explosion in technology, the Little Ice Age brought with it the Dark Ages and Black Death. Our current warm period is yielding more food, more and healthier people and amazing technology.

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The psychology behind thought stopping

CTI have long been intrigued by the power of the term “conspiracy theory,” but not because it contains any useful information. It does not. It is a blunt weapon used to beat people into quiet submission even as they hold views of the world around them at variance with their peers and colleagues. It is a powerful thought control device. Its true content is this:

“STFU.”

I think most who come to this website know or are vaguely remember that the origin of the term is in a 1967 CIA memo circulated to all of its bureaus called “Concerning Criticism of the Warren Report.” That’s rich, as in that document we will find unspoken knowledge within the Deep State that the JFK assassination was a public hoax, making the memo itself a “ riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.”

In the wake of the memo, newspaper outlets began using the term, and its use has spread. I find it ghastly, as those who mimic the words imagine themselves smarter than those they hurl them at. They do not know how to think. I once devised a response for use against people hurling the epithet, roughly as follows:

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A second emancipation

This story caught my eye as I stood in line at the coffee shop this morning. We had just attended a ceremony for 800 graduates of York High School, Elmhurst, Illinois, among them our grandson. College tuition costs have (unreasonably) skyrocketed these past decades, and new graduates are, if fortunate enough to find employment, chained to their desks for most of their careers. Their student loans are permanent, cannot be discharged in any circumstances except perhaps death. I think the system is deliberate and abusive, a form of tyranny.

Read on for an affirmation of humanity.

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Men are not pigs, we find

I was reading a MMG piece this morning on Ted Bundy. In it he said,

“You know what other story this contradicts? The story we are told about 1 in 4 girls being raped on campuses. That has been the number for decades. They were selling that story when I was in school in 1981 and still are. The contradiction is that despite the horrible odds against them, college girls didn’t seem to be getting the message.”

I was curious about that 1 in 4 number, wondering if anyone anywhere had ever done any actual research. We live in an era when accusations suffice and can ruin a man’s life. I found an article, Legal Process and the Phony Rape Crisis on Campus,  by Bettina Arndt in Quadrant Online, an Australian publication. Here is the money quote:

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I won’t mess around with Jim (Croce)

Long ago there was a singer, Jim Croce, who (supposedly) wrote and (actually) performed some catchy tunes – this was in an era when melody was important, and jacking up the background noise in recordings was not yet being done. Here is one that is fairly typical of his output, Time in a Bottle:

 

That type of music actually played and sold as “rock and roll” even as it is a classic ballad. He was not a terribly good singer, that is, lacked vocal range.

I never thought much about Croce. Here is what is interesting: In reading about his death on September 20, 1973, it appears to have been real! The only spook markers are 9/20 (=11) and the aircraft being a Beech 18 (=9=3*3). I have not seen 9/20 used in that fashion before, but have not looked for it either. He and four others were taking off from Natchitoches Regional Airport in Louisiana when their plane hit a tree. All were killed. I could look into the matter further, but in 2019 I am not going to mess around with Jim.

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The black advantage

This is a risky post in that I open myself up for accusations of racism, so let me start by saying that I do not care what your skin color is. I can find many reasons to dislike you, but that won’t be one of them.

I have had many friends and acquaintances over time who called themselves liberals and/or Democrats. I was one myself for a brief period. They were given this man, Barack Obama, who by two separate lines is descended from Edward I, King of England (d. 1307) and William I the Lion, King of Scotland (d. 1214).  The former lineage includes James Madison, the latter, as I recall, John McCain.

That is pretty standard for our presidents, all but one (Van Buren) descended from British royalty. This is just an aside, but indicates to me that the American Revolution was a farce. The Brits (at least the aristocracy) have among them some cagey and smart people. When they sense a rebellion in the works, they don’t always use direct confrontation to put it down. Instead they retreat into the tapestry of time and are the shadow behind the leaders of the new government. I saw this done by Americans in Venezuela with Hugo Chavez. Josh did some nice work on Mahatma Gandhi, same strategy apparent. The MM group found Americans playing the same game with Fidel Castro. I sense a similar stink around Nelson Mandela.

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One last climate post

“There are not enough morally brave men in stock. We are out of moral-courage material.” (Mark Twain, United States of Lyncherdom)

I just got done listening to Mark Steyn speaking before the Heartland Institute. He’s a smart, charming and entertaining speaker. Also, he is a courageous man. Michael Mann has sued him for saying that the Hockey Stick is science fraud. It is a SLAP suit more than real, trying to get Steyn to stfu, but Mann has grabbed a wolf by the ears. This is a free speech case, and not about science. Typical of the climate hoax crowd, Mann wants to be immune from criticism. Steyn has counter-sued using anti-SLAP laws.

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