Opus 2016-95: Election 2016: Strange Bedfellows

I find myself in the strange position of agreeing with both Democrat candidates.  I guess it was bound to happen in the sense of a broken clock being right two times a day.  No, I am not the broken clock.

They both claim that the other is not qualified to be president.  They are both right.

Mark your calendars.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-94: Election 2016: Partisan Politics, Huzzah!

Can democracy survive democracy? 

Yes I know we are a republic, not a democracy, but the question is still real.  We hear so much about a contested convention and how terrible that would be, but I wonder.  Why?  It seems to me that a contested convention has the potential of being a living laboratory for demonstrating how a free people can work out their differences.  Sure there will be heads knocked and feelings hurt.  None of us will be totally satisfied, but that is what is supposed to happen.  The only place where you have total agreement is when a gun is held to people’s heads.

If we have repeated ballots that do not produce a winner then the different voices will begin to wheel and deal.  That can be a good thing if it isn’t just the elite power brokers strong arming another anemic moderate into the nomination. 

If there is not a clear winner and no working together then maybe it would be time to go back to a Scott Walker or to a totally fresh face.  As long as it is done openly and by the pre-approved rules, I will live with it.

Actually, since I don’t see going to Canada as an improvement, I will live with it either way.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-93: Tax Dollars at Work: Successful Failure

I have been wondering why certain students come to class every day and refuse to do any work.  They put no effort into passing.  Why? 

I did a little research.  Each of the students in question was failing two classes.  None are worried because our official district policy reads, “To be eligible to participate in promotion privileges..students must adhere to and maintain the following requirements:  No more than 2 F’s in the last reporting period.” 

They can fail two classes and still do all the fun stuff associated with the end of the year.  Is it an wonder that they have stopped working in two of their classes.

So what?  Someday these people will be the clerks behind the counter at the government agency that you need help from.  The way affirmative action is going and with the advent of Obamacare, one of them may be the doctor that tells you everything is fine.

Good luck.  I am old enough that all I will need to worry about is getting my bed pan changed.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-92: The New Dark Ages

Why does every new lamp I see say that you should not use more than a 60 watt bulb?  It gets frustrating because my old eyes need more light than 60 watts can give me.

For those too young to remember 100 watt bulbs used to be common.  It was bright enough to see by.  We could read.  We could work with small parts in confined spaces.  It worked.  What has changed?  Why is it suddenly necessary to get by with 40% less light?

Are they suddenly making lamps weaker?  Do the cheaper materials decompose if they get too hot?  I have a floor lamp that is probably as old as I am and it is still working just fine.  Do new ones fall apart because the metal melts at 100 watts?  Are they using cheaper wire that won’t bear the load?  Is it because they are made in China and the Communists like to keep people in the dark?

Is it a marketing ploy to sell more lightbulbs?  Instead of one you now need two and they still wear out and need to be replaced.  If all else is equal you make a killing just by putting a little label on all the lamps.  Remember the shampoo company that doubled their sales by adding the little word, “repeat” to the directions on how to wash your hair.

Is it an environmentalist ploy?  Is it another example of socialist thinking that if we use 60 watts instead of 100 we will save a lot of trees?  Don’t they realize that people still need to see and if you can’t see with one 60 you will go with two.  Of course they might pass legislation to put people in jail who work under two lamps instead of one.

Which makes me wonder if crony capitalism is again at work.  Is this another example of why you can’t trust the government.  Is it the nanny state, for our own good, trying to make sure that our homes don’t burn down because we used a 100 watt bulb?  Does the fact that it serves the purposes of other special interests who make donations to their campaigns have anything to do with it? 

Why?

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-91: Calendar Coincidences

Who arranges these things?    Is there a secret committee of practical jokers that pick out things like National Artichoke Day and Secretary Day? 

April 1 is April Fools’ Day.  There is a movement to change it to Bernie Sanders Supporters Day but I don’t expect it to get much traction.  It is too late for this year and next year will be beyond the attention span of his followers.  If he wins they will forget they voted for him and curse the darkness he brings.

Then we have April 15, tax day.  This is not the day that we pay our taxes.  This is the day in which we have to file the paperwork for the taxes that we have already paid.  This is the day that we try to get some of our money back.  It would seem to me that the government should pay us interest on the money they have coerced from us.  Good luck with that.

Than we have May 1 which in Progressive lands is called May day.  This is when the Communists have their parades of military might and nuclear missiles.  It used to be when children would dance around the May pole to celebrate spring.  In truly pagan times you might find a few virgins sacrificed. 

We are in the middle of all that now.  Surely you can find something to celebrate about.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-90: Tax Dollars at Work: Horatio Alger Is Back

It was presented as an inspirational story.  A young man was introduced as Captain _____.  He was presented as the youngest man to fly solo around the world and since that isn’t enough in our politically correct world, he was the first African-American to fly solo around the world.  The first was impressive.  The second is racist.

He did a good job in his presentation.  His parents came to the US from Jamaica but he portrayed a childhood lived in the hood.  He had no money but managed to get scholarships for a degree in aeronautical engineering and someone paid for his training as a pilot.  He decided he wanted to fly around the world, had no money and found a way to get people to sponsor him as he built an airplane and made the trip.  He is now traveling around the country working with school children in disadvantaged areas teaching them to dream and follow their dreams.  He claimed that he had kids building race cars from the ground up. 

Good stuff.  The problem is that we had wi-fi available at the meeting and the teacher in the row in front of me Googled the guy.

I did not read what he found.  I believe that everything the “Captain” told us was based on facts.  What was on the web-sight that he showed me was that little point of info that the speaking fee he charged ranged from $15,000 to 24,000.  That isn’t bad for a half hour presentation.  I would like to think that he came to speak to us for free but I am not naive.  At the beginning of his presentation he shared that he did a lot of deception and con work to get in to see his first benefactor.  I was under the impression when he was billed as “Captain” that he was in the Air Force.  Only slowly did I realize that was not true.  Add to that the fact that there was never any indication that he was being paid to speak.  I am not sure what was true and what was lies.

I’ll tell you what I do know.  We don’t have money for a librarian.  We don’t have money for new text books.  Our furniture is falling apart.  We have ceiling tiles falling in the hallways and floor tiles coming up.  In a world where we can’t supply the needs of the students our leaders somehow find money to pay a motivational speaker.

No we don’t need more money in education.  We need more common sense and honesty.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-89: War Is Coming

Human history is a constant litany of wars.  It has been a long time and I don’t have a clue to the source, but I heard someone say that in all the history of humanity there were only about 30 years in which a war was not being fought somewhere.

So prophesying about war is no great risk.  It will come.  The question is when.

There are two countries of concern for us in America:  China and Russia.  China is flexing muscles and rattling sabers.  The leaders of China are trying to make it a world power.  You have probably read about them building islands in the South China Sea.  There is oil under the waves and the bottom is shallow.  It is also the path of much of the world’s shipping.  Big dreams lay under big gambles.  Sooner or later China is going to come into confrontation with the United States and our allies.  They will also be pushing against those who consider themselves independent.  If we are strong and resolute with an up-to-date military it will probably just be brinkmanship.  A lot will depend on who the next president.  If we have a strong, resolute leader we may have some tension but the bullies will back down. 

Russia is in a similar situation except they have a bully with a name, Putin.  He has been looking around for years to see what small weak countries he could gobble up.  His latest “conquest” is part of Ukraine.  If Ronald Reagan had been president he would have sent all the military hardware he could find and Ukraine would have stopped the Russians cold.  Bullies talk big until someone stands up to them.  If we get another president like Obama we can expect the Russians to keep taking big bites out of Europe and laughing at us as they do it.  It can be avoided but only if we are strong and resolute.

There is another war I don’t think it can be avoided.  We may refuse to fight it and if that is the case we will see what happens when someone calls a war and nobody comes.  The other side will come and they will come with their explosive vests.  They will have sharp knives and swords to behead the enemy.  The enemy will be, and is, anyone who does not bow their knee to Islam. 

Why do I know we will have a war with Islam?  Because we have been at war with Islam ever since Mohammad led his armies against the city of Medina back in 627.  There have been cease fires and truces but the war has been fought for around 1,400 years.  What you are seeing in the headlines is simply the current battles.  We are at war, even if we are not fighting.

Why do I not say “radical Islam”?  The war is against anyone who is a sincere believer in Allah.  The world is to be brought into submission.  If it can be done peacefully, good.  If not, then violence is the answer.  If you don’t believe it then buy a Koran and read the entire thing.  Don’t just read the passages that sound like the book of Psalms.  Read the ones that insist on death to those who are not of the one true faith.

Can it be a war we win?  Yes, but only if we fight it.

homo unius libri