Category: News

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I think it’s only me…

I keep catching articles or snippets of news, and thinking that I’m losing what’s left of my mind.

What’s weird and making me think I’m losing my mind is that, apparently nobody else thinks anything is amiss. Meanwhile my head is exploding and all I can think to do is run screaming into the wilderness.

For example:

There was a shooting in Louisville KY at a bank. An NPR report says, it appears that the shooting started in a conference room. There’s a lot of the other usual “guns bad” rhetoric and there there’s the obligatory doctors comment. In other words, the report was really “Boilerplate”.

What caught my attention was that the reporter speaks of psychological issues and how perhaps red flag laws are necessary everywhere. Then the reporter introduces the Doctor to make comments as an Osteopathic physician.

That’s when my brain said, “WAIT Just A DANG MINUTE!!!”

What the hell?

My first thought based on the word Osteopathic was, “A bone specialist”. My second thought was, “Why is a bone specialist commenting on a clearly psychological issue?” My next thought was, “Clearly I’ve misremembered the definition, I should look it up.”

For context, here’s the way stuff like this is stored in my head.

For clarity, I’ll use a common word. We know that osteoporosis is degeneration of the bones often attributed to aging.

Osteo – Greek for bone.

Porosis –  a condition (as of a bone) characterized by porosity

So osteoporosis literally means porous bones.

The word Pathic – perceiving, suffering, or affected in a (specified) way.

(As an aside this one is odd because there was one dictionary that said this word was either a homosexual bottom, or a catamite. These are not the definitions I was taught and means that I must carefully evaluate context if I see this word in the “wild” so to speak.)

Therefore you would expect for an Osteopath to study bones and the conditions or diseases that affect them.

OR I suppose you could use the odd dictionary (American Heritage online, by the way) and you’d come up with someone who has sex with bones????

If that’s not weird enough… Hang on, because this is where things get really weird.

The American Osteopathic Association website says something a bit different when defining what a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine is. The definition isn’t simple, it’s actually kind of a word salad and takes a whole lot more linguistic processing power to process than it should. A word that is a Title should be very clear in my opinion.

Here is the answer to What is a DO?

Short answer, these guys probably started out as Chiropractors and / or Massage Therapists. Both of which, have their place but neither of which I want doing a psychological assessment on me.

In either case, if the Osteopathic Doctor actually studied and was licensed to treat diseases of bones, OR if they’re Chiropractors & Massage Therapists, they’re not qualified to speak on issues of psychology.

Personally, I like the clarity of Cardiologist, Psychologist, Ophthalmologist, Endocrinologist, etc. See the pattern? You’re looking at compound words. The Ologist says study of, and the word preceding it, says what’s being studied.

I’m sorry it took such a long way to get around to the point.

The problem is that when you have some knowledge of what words mean, or worse yet, that so many of our common words have roots in ancient languages and their root meanings, prefixes, and suffixes, are rattling around in your head, it’s maddening.

If you’re at all like me, you find your brain being rebooted all the time because you take the word apart and know what something is. Or at least what it’s supposed to be.

Except NOW the word may, or may not, mean what you thought it did regardless of the common root word, or even the long accepted definition.

Which is why I keep thinking I’m losing my mind.

I have a fairly decent vocabulary, so when I’m listening to, or reading something, I’m getting meaning transferred to me by the specific words being used, and apply a certain level of precision based on the definitions stored in my head.

When those words suddenly lead me off into the weeds, off the rails, or down the rabbit hole, because contextually they don’t appear to have the meaning stored in my brain I start to ask questions.

One of those questions is; “Did I just have a stroke?”

Then I realize that in the case of the NPR piece, they wanted the gravitas of a “medical professional” making comments.

The best they could come up with was a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine.

Either the reporter didn’t know what that meant or didn’t care, and assumed that the majority of the American public wouldn’t know or care that the “Doctor” speaking was completely outside their lane.

One of my very best friends is a real “Doctor”. He legitimately holds a Phd. while he is very intelligent, and can speak eloquently on 18th century English Literature, I wouldn’t want him performing heart surgery on me or anyone else.

However, my friend could as legitimately spoken about the shooter in Louisville as the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine on NPR.

With my friend, at least you wouldn’t have to process through a word salad that Kamala Harris couldn’t get through, to find out he’s not really qualified to speak on matters of Psychology.

The problem is that when words don’t have precise meaning then the point, or message those words were trying to convey is muddy at best.

I suppose what caused me to write this insane rabbit hole is that I frequently wonder why it is that I don’t understand what people are saying. I hear or read the words but the meaning is unclear.

Right now, on my desk is a form that says, “In addition to completing form XXX-YYY, please also supply the following documents if the following box is checked.”

Okay, none of the boxes are checked. So I shouldn’t have to supply those documents.

Except that’s not the case. It turns out they do want one of the documents, and according to the person I spoke with, they always want that particular document.

The organization could save themselves a lot of phone calls and unnecessary mail by simply being clear. Either always check the box next to that document, OR reword the instructions.

When I spoke with the representative after submitting the form, and the organization bouncing it back twice, they treated me like a moron because I’d followed their instructions precisely.

I first started noticing this lack of clarity many years ago. I thought it was the world that was the problem. It was little things at first and I was convinced I was right…

Now I question my rightness because the rest of the world seems to be getting along just fine with blurry meaning, poorly written instructions, and misleading reports about the news of the day.

If the rest of the world sees no problem, then the problem must be mine alone.

I wonder, should I see a psychologist, psychiatrist, or would an osteopathic doctor due just as well. I’ve been described by some as bone headed…

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Wow! That’s pretty interesting.

Tucker Carlson is out at Fox.

I never saw it coming. I have to wonder what’s going to happen to Fox’s ratings now. Sure Tucker Carlson wasn’t the only popular anchor on the network but he’s gotta be at least one of the top 5.

Honestly, I wonder if this is Fox caving into the woke mob who have been screaming for Carlson’s blood for a long time. This past year they’ve become more obnoxious and shrill. I’m sure Whoopi and the rest of the rancid cunts on The View will be having orgasms today.

[Please note, I do not know if the women on The View actually are, or have rancid cunts. That is simply my opinion of them based on their rather vile behavior.]

I didn’t watch Tucker that often, but when I did he generally made a lot of sense. I really appreciated his release of the Jan 6th films and wouldn’t be at all surprised if that had something to do with his departure.

I do firmly believe that the Democrats in Congress, and in power will do anything, threaten anyone, and abuse their authority to make sure that the farce of the Jan 6th insurrection continues on. I believe that they will also do whatever it takes to destroy their enemies or any threat, (real or imagined).

For the record, I say again. Jan 6th was not an insurrection. At worst it was some folks in a crowd getting out of control. The only people who died that day were civilians, both women. One shot by Capital Police, and the other appears to have been beaten to death by Capital Police.

No Capital Police officers were killed on Jan 6th. That is a verifiable fact.

Not that the truth or facts matter to our government today. Truth hasn’t mattered to our government for a very long time and there is little that can be done at this point to restore the faith of the people in their government.

LIke wise our faith in the news media has been tested and many of the media outlets have failed repeatedly. The sad part of the media failures is that at one point the media called out the corruption and lies of our leaders, by doing so the media provided the public at large, insight into issues that should be questioned.

Does The Watergate Scandal ring any bells?

I’m not so sure the media serves that vital purpose anymore. Tucker Carlson and Fox at least made a go of it. Now matter how outlandish a Fox report was, at least it gave us a moment of pause and reflection.

“Is that possible? Could our government really have done that? Isn’t there supposed to be oversight? Perhaps it’s time for me to write my worthless congressman and demand some fucking answers…”

Now listening to one outlet is much like listening to any of the others. They all sound the same. Worse, there is little dissent with a dominant narrative.

It wasn’t too long ago that all the media except Fox and one paper in New York, said Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation. After all, there was a letter signed by 50 intelligence people.

I reviewed alot of the laptop information that was available. I cannot verify that the data was from the exact laptop, but I can say the data I reviewed was very consistent. Even the pornographic sections appeared to be the same man. Given that there was so much information and it was so consistent I concluded that the laptop was most likely Hunter’s and was most likely not a fake.

Tucker Carlson said it might not be Russian disinformation and provided pretty credible reasons as to why that was. Now we know that Hunter Biden’s laptop was in fact not Russian disinformation but instead a narcissistic journal of drug fueled debauchery, apparent corruption, and repeated security risks committed by the son of the Vice President of the United States.

What we don’t know for sure is how much of this leads back to the now sitting President of the United States.

Another thing we don’t know is why, with this preponderance of verifiable evidence the President hasn’t been impeached. All the previous President had to do was send a “Mean Tweet,” or make an appropriate phone call asking about a foreign legal investigation(s) into an American Citizen, and he was impeached over it.

We also know that the former President was in fact impeached on far less substantial evidence.

Now with Carlson gone from Fox, AOC crowing about her victory over that mean hateful racist Tucker Carlson, and God only knows what machinations going on behind the scenes at Fox. I wonder if this was supposed to be a message sent not only to Tucker Carlson, and popular conservative voices, but to the American People in general.

There was a time when the very last thing I would have thought was that the United States Government might be trying to silence someone. I guess I’m more suspicious in my old age.

McCarthyism was long dead when I was old enough to understand what it was. But the memory of it lingered on. When I was sitting in my American History classes in High School it was generally accepted that censorship or persecution due to political belief or simple affiliation was wrong. Full damn stop!

We were supposed to defend anyone’s right to speak even if we disagreed with what they said. Back then, the teachers called it our duty. They said that if we demanded someone be silenced, then it wouldn’t be long before we were silenced ourselves.

And yet here we are. 40+ years later and our politicians fearlessly and thoughtlessly demand that reporters be silenced.

There was a time when a politician demanding someone be silenced would have in turn lost their next election, if not their political position immediately. Them losing would not be due to censorship or cancellation, but because by its very nature, demanding censorship is un-American.

Any politician that didn’t know that, clearly didn’t know enough to be in a position of political power.

I know Don Lemon apparently lost his job today too. That’s sad, but Don Lemon has been on the down slide for a while. He was effectively demoted to a morning time slot that was very unfavorable. Don, if he’d had any brains at all should have been looking for a new position. We all knew it was only a matter of time before he was out the door. So Don Lemon being dismissed from CNN today is not a valid comparison to Tucker Carlson leaving Fox.

Apparently, I’m not the only one thinking this. One need only look at Fox stock price today after the announcement.

This leads me to further believe that Tucker Carlson leaving Fox was not due to ratings, malfeasance, or anything other than politics.

I think that Fox caved to the whims of a “Woke” group of extremists and that Fox itself might not be any more reliable as a news source than any of the other outlets. It may never have been reliable but at least it was an alternative viewpoint.

I’m sorry to see that alternative viewpoint being eroded.

Carlson will end up just fine. I’m sure that he’s put away money for a rainy day, and that he’s got a couple of options. I’ll be curious to see where he lands and what he says about Fox when / if he decides to talk about it.



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TX Gov. Abbott busses 130 Migrants to VPs house on Christmas Eve… Democrats Mad

Twits

Another MSNBC report had someone clutching their pearls about the fact that Washington DC temperature was 18° – 22° F when the illegals were dropped off. Apparently, some of these illegals were dressed only in T-Shirts, shorts, and sandals, wrapped in blankets.

These people then almost immediately boarded another bus and were taken to a local church.

The Horror! The inhumanity!

It should be noted that the busses transporting these folks had heaters, and that they were at little risk of frostbite or death by exposure.

The same unfortunately cannot be said for the thousands of illegal immigrants sleeping on the streets of El Paso in 22° F weather.

In comparison, I’d bet these people Abbott bused to Washington DC feel pretty lucky. 

What’s not being said is that El Paso and almost all of the border towns and states no longer have the capacity to house the flood of illegals the Biden Administration policies have encouraged to come to the United States.

What is more cruel? An administration that allows this, or a Governor sending illegals to places that have the capacity to take care of them?

It should also be pointed out that it is far warmer south of the border. It’s even springtime in the Southern Hemisphere.

Just Sayin!

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Oh Boy! Some journalists are super pissed at Elon.

Apparently, Twitter suspended at least six journalists for Doxxing over the past day or two.

Twitter logo 2 1At first the journalists in question said they had no idea why their blue checked accounts had been suspended.

All I thought was, “Yeah, now you know what it feels like.”

It’s later come out that Twitter has updated its user policy forbidding real time Doxxing. This on the surface seems to be related to something Elon Mush hasn’t been happy about for a while. There is or was a site where you could track his private jet’s location in real time.

Elon Musk had at one time offered to buy the site and associated Twitter account from its creator but it’s unclear if they were able to reach an agreement on the price. At the time I thought that Musk’s offer was far too low. But that was just my opinion.

If Musk offered me cash for this site, I’d sell it to him for a reasonable offer. Hey I’m a capitalist! So sue me.

I think that the whole mess went to court but I’m not entirely sure, and don’t know the outcome.

Now the Musk owns Twitter, and has amended the user agreement. He is well within his right to control Doxxing of his information and that of other people.

This too is capitalism Comrade Journalists.

Ultimately I think the move is a good one. It has broader implications than just a handful of journalists being suspended.

For example, Twitter was instrumental in the disruption of Justice Kavenaugh’s meal at a Washington restaurant. Twitter was used during the BLM riots across the nation to coordinate wanton destruction and looting while avoiding the police. 

Musk is right, if a bit heavy handed. There is no reason to broadcast real time information about the location of anyone. Particularly, about people who may have controversial views or opinions, or public figures.

It’s one thing for an entertainer to tweet out information about a concert or event to their fans. It’s quite another to use Twitter to coordinate violence or a “Flash” protest of hundreds. We’ve seen the latter with speakers at various venues from college campuses to rented halls for speaking engagements.

Jordan Peterson, Dave Rubin, Dave Chappell, and Pamela Geller, have all been “mobbed” at speaking engagements, Pamela Geller had two armed gunmen roll up in Garland TX. They miscalculated. They were in TX and were “put down” like rabid dogs.

I just pulled these people off the top of my head. These people and others, were being paid for their appearance, or their appearance had been paid for by ticket sales to rent the venue. Their livelihoods were impacted by a mob using Twitter to coordinate a protest. The people who purchased tickets were placed in danger by the mob, and the venue lost money when the appearance or lecture was shut down. The loss was real and comes in the form of refunding ticket sales, damage done to the building or grounds, and salaries for security and staff.

Many of the Twitterati who showed up for the protests did so because they had nothing better to do that night. Most of them didn’t know about the speaking engagement or where it was being held. 

Having walked through a line of foul mouthed aggressive protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church with my Mother on the way to a performance of The Gay Men’s Chorus. I can tell you that it degraded our enjoyment of the evening. Neither I or my Mother gave two shits about the sexuality of the performers, we were there because this particular chorus was excellent that year. I didn’t appreciate one little bit that we had our evening out tarnished by a bunch of moronic assholes.

We won’t even discuss what one jackass called my Mother, or the tightness of her grip on my arm. You can call a man almost anything, but call his mother a slutty whore to her face in that man’s presence… In elder times that would get you beat to a pulp, shot, or run through.

Truthfully, had my Mom not been so terrified I’d have made that jackass eat his words and then eat the rest of his meals through a straw. He had the right to protest the performance, he didn’t have the right to speak like that to my mother. I’m old school that way.

This event occurred prior to Twitter and cellphones. The number of protestors was relatively small but they were vile nonetheless. 

The ubiquity of Twitter and cellphones has only amplified the reach of jackasses who believe that they have the right not only to free speech, but also the right to prevent someone from expressing an opinion counter to their own. I got news for them, that is not free speech. That is oppression. 

The irony is not lost on me. These people use numbers and mob rule in the guise of free speech to oppress anyone they disagree with. 

Free Speech is a tough thing. You’ve got to be capable of recognizing that people holding a different view have that right just as you do. You’ve got to be responsible with the right of free speech, and mature enough to draw a line between a protest and an out of control  mob.

I wonder if this is, at least in part, the philosophy that Musk is working from. Sure he’s trying to insure his safety and that of his family. I wonder how much of the overarching issue is Musk also committed to?

If he’s applying the new rules in an egalitarian way then I’m totally in.

If Twitter is suspending anyone and everyone who is providing real time information about public figures unilaterally then good. I’ll be interested to see how that works out. 

This has the potential to limit the incitement of violence and collateral damage or disruption to innocent bystanders just going about their business.

Do you or anyone you love want to be trapped in a restaurant by protesters just because Dave Chappell happens to want dinner at the same place?

You’d think that these journalists above all would understand the concept of free speech.

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Election Day!

Happy Election Day!

It’s a cold rainy day here on the mountain. On the plus side, at least I’m not having to walk through snow to the polling place and back. Yes, I’ve done that in past elections. It’s been raining enough here that if it was only a few degrees colder we’d have a foot or more of snow.

If it’s raining where you are, don’t let that stop you from casting your vote!

I don’t buy the hyperbole about voting for the soul of the nation. 

In fact I don’t care what your politics are, or your party preference. 

What I do care about is that you vote. Vote your conscience, vote for candidates that represent your beliefs, vote because it’s your civic duty.

If you can’t be bothered to do this one thing, then you have no voice and I’m not going to listen to you whining about the results after the election.

IVoted

Personally, I’m hoping to see Gavin Newsom tossed out, unfortunately here in California that won’t make much of a difference because there are a lot of bad ideas that have ossified into the dreaded, “We’ve always done it this way,” mindset in this state.

I would enjoy seeing Gavin standing there with his hair blown back in surprise. I know it’s kind of a cheap shot but I’d love to see his smug arrogance take a nice uppercut. For clarity’s sake, I’m not advocating physical violence to Gavin, I’m speaking metaphorically about his attitude and arrogance taking a hit.

There was a time when such disclaimers weren’t necessary, these days though, people seem to be searching for anything they can spin into something it’s not.

I pray that Newsom takes such a drubbing that any presidential aspirations he may have, get flushed down the toilet. The whole country knows what Newsom has done to California. I’m hoping that they remember it in 2024 and decide they don’t want the rest of the country to follow California’s lead. Let the wonder that is Kamala Harris be a warning to everyone.

I’ve been fascinated by the Democrat messaging over the past week or so. (Spending hours on end in a car means you listen to a lot of radio.) The message seems almost like they’re expecting to take a major hit. Some candidates sounded like they just expected to win without really putting in the work.

These candidates seem quite surprised that they’re being challenged strongly by their opponents. When asked why their opponent is doing so well in polls they’re unable to answer. To me that speaks to a profound disconnect between the incumbents and their constituents. In a nutshell, that’s the answer.  Many of them appear to be blindsided that their voters are interested in much more basic issues than special interest stuff. Most of us are really focused on basic necessities.

How can so many candidates have missed or ignored that?

The Republican Party appears to have capitalized on the concerns most Americans have. What remains to be seen is if they were lying to get into office or if the candidates really meant what they said on the campaign trail. 

Time and vote counts will tell.

There was a piece in Politico that says in part, “The 2020 presidential election was rife with allegations of voting machine hacks that were later debunked. Yet there are real risks that hackers could tunnel into voting equipment and other election infrastructure to try to undermine Tuesday’s vote.” 

That one was a head snapper. I thought there was no possibility that the election could be tampered with. Isn’t that what we were told after the 2020 election? So what’s changed?

More from Politico

Wireless modems enabling hacks of voting machines or vote tallies

At least seven states and Washington, D.C., use wireless modems to transmit unofficial election-night results to their central offices. These modems use telecommunications networks that are vulnerable to hackers, and malicious actors could exploit them to tamper with unofficial vote data, corrupt voting machines or compromise the computers used to tally official results.

Really? So are we to assume that since the 2020 election which was “perfect and secure”, that some states have taken steps to make the voting process more vulnerable? If these states haven’t made the process less secure, then can we assume that these states were as vulnerable in 2020 as they are today?

Does that mean that law suits filed by Trump which were dismissed as having no standing should be re-evaluated? 

I’m sorry, but I’m kind of a binary guy. Either something is a problem or it’s not, Politico seems to be playing both sides depending on which party wins. How about we just settle for reporting the actual facts, and let the chips fall where they may? That would seem to be a simpler way to deal with politics and life in general. 

President Biden’s speech may have muddied the voting waters as well. Listening to his speech I couldn’t help but think he was setting us all up for endless challenges about ballot counts and election integrity. As if we haven’t had quite enough of all of that over the past two years. What happens when the Democrats become “Election Deniers”? How does that play out?

If both parties become election deniers, does that mean both groups are domestic terrorists?

I’m looking for a change in this election.

I’d like to see someone tap the brakes on the excessive spending in Washington.

Instead of hiking the interest rates to curb inflation, how about we fix the supply chain issues? More products on the shelves and in the pipeline would also curb inflation.

I hope that our politicians pay more attention to the immediate issues that we’re all facing.

Go Vote, and have a good day!

 

The rain has picked up quite a bit. The normally dry creek bed behind the house is roaring, rocks the size of small cars are tumbling down the mountain. It’s causing the ground to shake almost as if there’s an earthquake.

When I think of all the water rushing down to the desert floor, I’m hoping that it makes it into the ground and replenishes the aquifers a bit.

Before all the streets and rain culverts, water ran down and soaked right in. On old aerial maps a perfect example of an alluvial plain was clearly visible. Today, with all the streets, parking lots, and pavement, localized flooding is becoming more common at the base of the mountain. Builders and City officials literally paved over the alluvial plain and now spend tons of taxpayer’s money combating the flooding. It would have been simpler to take the hint from nature and not allow building there in the first place.

For all our knowledge, humans miss the obvious more often than not.

I’ve often thought there should be wilderness buffer zones between communities. I picture areas that provide habitat for wildlife and access for runoff to soak into the ground. Zones as I envision them, would provide places for walking, hiking and communing with nature. I’m not talking about miles wide buffers, I’m talking about 1/4 of a mile or so green belts.

I guess the problem is that some people would see wilderness areas as places to dump their trash and do bad things.