This is a site to save info that I want to savor and to just dink around with.
"[a]ny man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains." (Well, maybe 35; certainly 70.) So do the math and you'll guess my politics."( I am over 70!)
(Click on any picture to enlarge and make clearer, TRY THAT ON THE PICTURE OF THE BACK OF MY HEAD TO SEE MY TATTOO!)
The Fracking Decade - Commentary: In 1998, a petroleum engineer named Nick Steinsberger pumped a slurry of sand, water, and chemicals under high pressure into a shale formation beneath a rural town just north of Fort Worth, Texas.
"Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stated (see Section 14.2.2.2 of the 2001 IPCC Report):
In climate research and modeling, we should recognize that we are dealing with a coupled non-linear chaotic system, and therefore that long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible."
Fear of Fritterware: In the unlikely event you end up with a W10 machine, search for ‘Make Windows 10 Great Again’ and then run it. It will take about 20 minutes on the first pass to delete the bloat, set up the spygate firewall settings, turn off cortana and a bunch of other things. Then you can go through and turn off all the stupidly configured scheduler updates.
IRS Announces 2019 Tax Rates, Standard Deduction Amounts And More: Tax Brackets and Tax Rates.�The big news is, of course, the tax brackets and tax rates�for 2019. There are still seven (7) tax rates. They are: 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and 37% (there is also a�zero rate). Here's how those break out by filing status:
In any age, the so-called progressives treat politics as their religion
The reason that "the so-called progressives treat politics as their religion" is because politics is their religion. They are millenarians, a world view defined as, "the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming major transformation of society, after which all things will be changed" (Wikipedia)
"Congratulations to the Federal Reserve. You've successfully created the most extreme, pre-collapse yield-seeking bubble in U.S. history! With lower return prospects than Aug 1929. While encouraging a debt bubble where half of all 'investment grade' debt is one step above junk."
John P. Hussman
"All the world marveled at this, and gave their allegiance to the Beast. And they worshiped the dragon for giving such power to him. as they also worshiped the Beast. 'Who is as great as the Beast?' they exclaimed. 'And who is able to resist him?' The Beast was allowed to commit great blasphemies against God. And he was given the authority to do as he willed, but only for forty-two months."
Revelation 13:3-5
"Daniel answered the king, 'Keep your gifts or give them to someone else, but I will tell you what this means.
Number, number, weight, division. And this is what it means: number, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and will bring it to an end; weight, you have been weighed on the scales of justice and are found to be wanting; division, your kingdom will be divided up and given to others.”
"The blessed John the Evangelist lived in Ephesus until extreme old age [age 94 c 100 AD). His disciples could barely carry him to church and he could not muster the voice to speak many words. During individual gatherings he usually said nothing but, 'Little children, love one another.' The disciples and brothers in attendance, annoyed because they always heard the same words, finally said, 'Teacher, why do you always say this?' He replied with a line worthy of John: 'Because it is the Lord's commandment, and if it alone is kept, it is sufficient.'"
Jerome, Commentary on Galatians, based on the commentaries of Origen of Alexandria
How you turn your Windows laptop into a Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot depends on which version of Windows you’re running. With Windows 10, it’s as simple as flipping a single switch that you can find at Settings > Network & Internet > Mobile Hotspot. In Windows 7 or 8, you’ll need to install a free tool named Virtual Router to get the job done. Macs, on the other hand are not able to share a single Wi-Fi adapter. Each adapter can either be connected to a Wi-Fi network or hosting its own network, but not both. To turn your Mac into a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot, you’ll need to purchase an inexpensive USB Wi-Fi adapter. After that, though, all the tool you need to share your Mac’s Wi-Fi connection are built right in.
One wonders if the unique American experiment in liberty is already too far gone to save. One must wonder if Lady Liberty is just a zombie, unaware she is dead as she wanders the landscape. Many of our elitist punditry class say that our current separation is due to a stark partisan divide – but in my observation, that separation is at a far more fundamental level and when understood, explains much of our current crisis.
The separation is due to the segregation of Americans into two groups – the first are people who define their political objectives by their principles, the second are people who define their principles by their political objectives.
The former group tends to be more consistent in policy over time and tends to demonstrate more logic and reason in their positions. They tend to value originalism in interpretation of the Constitution and oppose judicial activism. Their actions tend to be bounded by tradition and history as their reality is based on a factual perspective of what worked and what didn’t – that doesn’t mean that they won’t push boundaries, just that they take observed results into consideration before they do.
The latter group, those who define their principles based on their political objectives are historically the most dangerous to a system of liberty and they are always the most susceptible to the seductive siren call of collectivism (which includes socialism, Marxism, and communism) because this is the way collectivism works. Collectivism always begins with an objective, then a plan, then total subservience to the plan.
Here’s the problem – total subservience to a plan means total obedience to both the plan and to the managers of that plan – the government. That subservience also means the end of truth, the end of morality, the end of America’s Bill of Rights.
F.A. Hayek stated:
“Collectivism means the end of truth. To make a totalitarian system function efficiently, it is not enough that everybody should be forced to work for the ends selected by those in control; it is essential that the people should come to regard these ends as their own. This is brought about by propaganda and by complete control of all sources of information.”
And from the death of truth, follows the rest.
In such a regime, there can be no free press or freedom of speech because public criticism or even expressions of doubt must be suppressed because they tend to weaken support of the regime. People must forgo their values. They must be convinced to adopt whatever values are necessary for the success of the plan – and the easiest way to do that is to redefine the language so that people can be persuaded that they are really the same values as those they have always held, but were not properly understood or recognized (until now).
Total subservience also means an end to morality (and any religion that establishes a moral code) because nothing must stand in the way of the success of the plan, people must be prepared to break every moral rule they have ever known if this seems necessary to achieve the success of the plan. People must accept and adopt a willingness to do immoral things and when they do, the motivating principle is “the ends justify the means” (the denial of all morals) necessarily becomes the supreme rule, in service of which all other things must fall away. Hayek noted that:
“There is literally nothing which the consistent collectivist must not be prepared to do if it serves “the good of the whole,” because that is to him the only criterion of what ought to be done. Once you admit that the individual is merely a means to serve the ends of the higher entity called society or the nation, most of those features of totalitarianism which horrify us follow of necessity. From the collectivist standpoint intolerance and brutal suppression of dissent, deception and spying, the complete disregard of the life and happiness of the individual are essential and unavoidable. Acts which revolt all our feelings, such as the shooting of hostages or the killing of the old or sick, are treated as mere matters of expediency; the compulsory uprooting and transportation of hundreds of thousands becomes an instrument of policy approved by almost everybody except the victims.”
Reasonable people can compare Hayek’s words to our current history and decide for themselves if what I propose is valid. Hayek’s observations of how the UK and Europe fought totalitarianism and then voluntarily succumbed to collectivism in the aftermath of WWII is more relevant today than ever – therefore, we close with a Hayek quote:
“The worst sufferer in this respect is the word ‘liberty.’ It is a word used as freely in totalitarian states as elsewhere. Indeed, it could almost be said that wherever liberty as we know it has been destroyed, this has been done in the name of some new freedom promised to the people. Even among us we have planners who promise us a ‘collective freedom,’ which is as misleading as anything said by totalitarian politicians. “Collective freedom” is not the freedom of the members of society but the unlimited freedom of the planner to do with society that which he pleases.”
New cystic fibrosis drug Trikafta could make deadly disease manageable - The Washington Post: A new cystic fibrosis therapy dramatically improved patients’ lung function and showed clear signs of targeting the genetic root of the disease, instead of just alleviating symptoms — a breakthrough so long-sought that many doctors and patients are moved to tears when talking about it.
Marriage isn’t hard like a marathon, where you run and you train and you run some more. It’s not about solo endurance. It’s not about two people working tirelessly to accomplish a goal, it’s not about training for and accomplishing what I want.
Marriage can very much be about growth and change and getting through the difficulties. But it can also be about enduring the same difficulties year after year with zero change. It can be about love and happiness. But it can also be about tolerance and frustration.
Marriage is like being in a canoe with my spouse. I can paddle my little booty off (ok, lets not kid ourselves, my booty isn’t little) but if my spouse isn’t paddling just as hard in the exact same direction, all that I will accomplish is paddling us in circles. My spouse and I have to decide what we can and will do TOGETHER. Let that little nugget sink in.
I can’t go anywhere in marriage without him. I’m stuck in this blasted canoe. If I ask him to just rest, I’ll direct our boat, I will tire quickly and likely become resentful. If I try to convince him to paddle with me, then maybe he will, but maybe he won’t. Maybe he doesn’t want to go that fast, maybe his arms are tired, maybe he doesn’t know how to paddle.
When I entered this marriage I thought it was about two people coming together and running the marathon of life together. Each separate, but each equally dedicated, each pushing and us finishing together. But somehow I ended up in a canoe with someone that doesn’t canoe the way I do. Our goal may be the same, but our way of getting there is so incredibly different. I’m a fast paddler, I want to push and grow and move through life quickly. I am constantly looking around to see what I can do to make things better, should this ice-chest be right here? What if we moved it over there, would we move faster?? I’m a fixer, a doer, a grower, all at very fast paces. I’m constantly evaluating and reevaluating things to optimize. My partner is not so. He just wants to let the water carry us, he wants to paddle when it’s necessary, and conserve his energy. He is patient and slow moving, deliberate in his decisions, often taking much longer than I’m comfortable with.
My biggest surprise in marriage has been that just because I think something is right, essential, necessary, and the way things need to be, doesn’t mean that’s the way we paddle our canoe.
Crossing the Street, Riding a Bicycle, Kills More Americans than Rifles Do
Scott Olson/Getty
3:40
The left’s relentless push to ban commonly-owned semiautomatic rifles under the guise of safety overlooks the fact that Americans face numerous things that cause exponentially more death than rifles on a daily basis.
Consider Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics from 2017, the most recent year of complete data. The total number of firearm-related deaths was 39,773. Roughly two-thirds of that figure, 23,854, were firearm-related suicides, with the remaining 15,919 being a combination of the approximately 500 accidental gun deaths that occur annually coupled with just over 15,000 firearm-related homicides.
If we break down the firearm-related homicides via FBI crime statistics, we see that handguns were far and away the common firearm for murder. The FBI reported 7,032 murders with a handgun verses 403 murders with a rifle, and 264 with a shotgun, in cases where the firearm was identifiable.
If we take the 403 rifle murders a year and divide by 365 it comes out to 1.1, which means 1.1 Americans die in a rifle-related murder each day. We must not overlook the fact that the 403 murders with a rifle are murders with rifles of all kinds, i.e., bolt action, lever action, breech action, pump, and semiautomatic. If we narrowed the category to only include AR-15s, AK-47s, or similar semiautomatics, the number of Americans killed daily would be even lower than 1.1.
Now, with the aid of charts released by the CDC, as well as CDC special reports, studies by schools such as Johns Hopkins University, crime statistics from the FBI, and coverage from Breitbart News, consider 10 other causes of death that literally eclipse the number of daily deaths involving a rifle:
For those who argue that rifle deaths ought to be compared to deaths by other voluntary activities, rather than disease, consider the following six examples:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1169002807514603520 True Love ver1
“Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no; it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests, and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.”
“Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks . . .”
