It so happens we were watching the massive battle between the army of the dead and the living in season eight of Game of Thrones when our phones started beeping. Everyone in the state is ordered to stay home. We are allowed out to walk our pets, buy groceries, gasoline, liquor (they debated that one but thought better of it), but otherwise, stay home.
Category: Uncategorized
Music Maestro?
https://www.usdebtclock.org/ Check this out.
The national debt just jumped higher than ever before. Music maestro! Gold medal.
During the Obama era the national debt was a daily topic of concern at the Heritage Foundation — the leading “conservative” think tank. Many AM radio mouthpieces hammered home the risk to our economy and our individual households, especially to “our grandchildren,” who will apparently be responsible for paying it all back. And in Congress, especially among those House and Senate members self-described as members of the “freedom caucus,” the national debt was tops.
Well, as it turns out, debt is our business, our only business. The debt plantation just got bigger. No surprise. I haven’t figured out a proper theme song, but am soliciting suggestions as we merrily wander into new (debt) territory. No worries, mates. It’s an I.O.U.
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All Work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
Continue reading “All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy”
Foreshadowing, thanks to Dr. Spielberg
The crazy things I do … I never saw the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, at least while it was in theaters, during the time when there was no home video. I have never sat through it since either, as when I attempted to watch it I found it too frantic and intense. But I recalled one scene, and so last night rented the movie, and sat through it, endured it until I reached this scene. I recorded on my iPad. I did not watch the rest of it.
Draw your own conclusions.
“Paul” McCartney is a pig
I mentioned in a comment in Fauxlex’s post how if this were the 1960s, people might be gathering in the streets in protest. I am not sure I believe that. Even as we do not have “protests” anywhere these days unless organized by professional agitators and staged for news cameras, I don’t know if it was different then. But I could be wrong. It could be that people were less submissive back then.
Killing Yellowstone’s Charismatic Megafauna
Yellowstone National Park and its surrounding landscape is one of the most inhospitable locations in the Lower 48. Life for large mammals is particularly challenging given the frigid temperatures, deep snow and long winters. Summer is short and can be equally dangerous for the living due to wildfires, drought, and millions of tourists all trying to get that perfect “refrigerator shot” of a bison, grizzly, elk or some other wild critter wishing only to be left alone.
Since moving to Bozeman, Montana in 1986, I have had the privilege of working with some dedicated individuals and grassroots groups, all trying to protect nature (God’s country) in this amazing ecosystem. This running battle with the State of Montana, various federal agencies (National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service-USDA, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service-USDA (APHIS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and a host of elite local and national NGOs that suck on an average day/year knows no end, and seems to have no bounds. And it seems to be getting worse, not better.
Continue reading “Killing Yellowstone’s Charismatic Megafauna”What of this “Trust” Fund?
Note to readers: Someone in comments below mentioned the widely misunderstood Social Security Trust Fund. I am somewhat a wonk, and have written about such matters. (I realize that issues of aging have limited appeal, which is why I asked the younger Fauxlex aboard, to write about issues with broader appeal.) Rather than rewrite the piece on the Trust Fund, I am simply re-dating it. If all goes according to plan, it should appear below with the original comment thread intact. From 6/26/2018:
The above image is making the rounds on Facebook. Later in this post I will talk about the so-called “Social Security Trust Fund” and how it never was and never will be. For now I want to thank my friend Kevin for putting up his post directly below called A Crashing Success, as it offers an easy and early escape from this post about (cue violin screech) … taxes!!!
Go now, quickly, or prepare to be flooded with the conceptual abstractions that are used to justify the theft of our hard-earned money. The words “hard-earned” are important, as there are other forms of wealth that are easily owned by people who by pure chance slid down the right birth canals – trust funds, stocks and bonds, inherited wealth and Cayman bank accounts. The essential feature of taxation is that hard-earned money is heavily taxed, while the birth-canal funds are only lightly touched, if at all, by the IRS.
So journey with me now beneath the fold, or make your escape. The particular tax I am going to write about has a name you might know, one that sounds like a disease or the claw of a wild beast. It is called … “FICA.” From that word springs the myth of something called a “Trust Fund.”
Nanoviricides: Con, Cure or Killer?
Capital is flowing in a big way toward biotech companies working on factory-made, nano-viricides (“Trojan horses”) cell-mimicking technology. Oh my. Talk is of “human trials” soon.
Camille has another well-researched vid on the subject. Many thanks to her incredible research and questions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azlHT4bBN0I
Continue reading “Nanoviricides: Con, Cure or Killer?”Are Fasci Still a Symbol of Fascism?
Like the mysterious origins of the Egyptian pyramid scattered around in strategic locations, fasci, the symbol of people united under a single, authoritarian state and its man-made laws. Fasci can be found in places most Americans might find odd if they were aware of the meaning of these ancient symbols.
To be a “citizen” of such a state is not what it’s cracked up to be. Home of the free, and land of the brave, are little more than meaningless words in such a system, regardless of how many times they are repeated in song and literature. I hope to give a glimpse or two into the false world we live in, and possibly a way we all might learn of a way to abolish slavery once and for all.
Continue reading “Are Fasci Still a Symbol of Fascism?”Baseball’s sign stealing scandal: Bang the can slowly
I had an interesting conversation with a buddy a couple of days ago as we hiked a Colorado trail. He’s a baseball fan, and so am I, him Cubs, me Reds, and we both agreed that the teams we support were not good enough last year to be part of the sign-stealing scandal. I cannot rule that out, however.
First, a couple of baseline thoughts:
- Baseball has a very clean image, and to the casual viewer it would appear that games are very hard to fix. Instant replay tends to get every umpire call right. But games are actually easy to fix. Baseball hitters are some of the best athletes in the world, able to hit fastballs traveling nearly 100 mph. Pitchers are only good to the extent that they are able to fool hitters by concealing their pitches. They cannot just overpower them. However, if a batter knows what pitch is coming, the odds are high that he will send that pitch to the cheap seats. That’s really all it takes to fix a game – tipped pitches.
- We are told that last year that the baseballs used in Major League games were “juiced.” Home runs were up for nearly every team. The aerodynamics behind a juiced baseball were said to be compressed seams that allowed it to go further and faster than in years prior.
Continue reading “Baseball’s sign stealing scandal: Bang the can slowly”
Piece of Mindful 