Here’s the trouble.
Most people can’t read… and so, can’t think.
Not quite literally, perhaps. But, meaningfully. They have been taught – very deliberately – to be sloppy and fluid with words. A given word has a vague, constantly shifting meaning – that meaning transmitted and accepted by a kind of semi-conscious collective osmosis. You “get the drift” – and the word is henceforth used accordingly. It is not necessary to formally announce the new meaning. It just sort of happens.
Examples include liberal and fascist.
A liberal was once a person who believed that people ought to be let alone; that government, if it has any role in human affairs, ought to have a very minimal and background role. That it was tyrannical to control other people, to interfere in their lives, to deprive them of their property, to compel them to fund things they abhorred. Thomas Jefferson was a liberal in this sense.
We all know what is meant by “liberal” today.
It is not Thomas Jefferson.
What about “fascist”? It is among the most inaccurately used words in the language.
Trump was derided as a fascist for criticizing open borders – and (key thing) open-ended federal entitlements. In other words, it is racist – the new meaning of “fascist” – to object to or even question “helping” (another much-abused word) random strangers from other countries who are helping themselves (with help from the government) to the contents of our wallets.
But “fascism” – properly defined – is simply the marriage of Big Business and Big Government. Which Trump may represent – but his recent opponent (the not-“racist”) represented far more virulently. What, for example, could be more textbook fascist than the partnering of the privately-owned/for profit health insurance cartels with the government? The former using the power of the state to compel people to do business with it?
Fascism is Big Business helping itself to the contents of our wallets, with the “help” of Big Government. The car industry and Wall Street bail-outs are further textbook examples of fascism – but that meaning (the proper meaning) isn’t used because it doesn’t serve the purposes of the ruling entente.
The new – political – meaning, on the other hand, does.
Question the economic sanity (let alone the morality) of not merely inviting the huddled masses of the world to come to the New World but of “helping” them with increasingly dwindling resources .. and you are a fascist.
That is, a racist.
You do not like certain people on account of their ethnicity – and actively seek to harm them. Even though you don’t and aren’t. You just want them out of your wallet.
Very effective at stifling discussion. A kind of linguistic photon torpedo aimed at people who aren’t racists – but who do object to having their pockets picked.
Incoherence reigns.
What is a “conservative”? Does anyone know? Is there a defining principle that can be used to identify one?
Beats me.
It seems a “conservative” can be pretty much anyone who says he is one – from a George W. Bush authoritarian (and much closer to actual fascism) to the “kindler, gentler” sort his father claimed to be. They want “less” government – but not really. Support “freedom”… to do as they think you ought to.
It is a very big tent, indeed.
When words have no meaning – or their meaning is fluid – thought becomes impossible. In its place, reaction. People are taught to be instinctive rather than reflective. To respond emotionally to certain triggers.
Thus, if you are on the political left, you will respond in a certain very predictable way when the word “choice” is uttered. Even though choice is entirely peripheral to the issue at hand. (For purposes of this discussion, I am not going to debate the moral rightness – or wrongness – of terminating a pregnancy. I merely point out that the issue is precisely that. Not “choice.”)
The government has co-opted terms such as “market” and “customer.” But markets – properly defined – are defined by free exchange, which means one is free to not exchange. When government is involved, that is never an option. Just as it is etymologically abusive to speak of people being “customers” of state organs such as the IRS and the DMV, which one must do “business” with.
Few people raise their hands – or even stop to think about this. It just sort of seeps into the general consciousness and becomes the unspoken basis for conversation. Which is exactly what is desired. To abort certain lines of thought before they even form into thoughts. To channel consciousness along certain lines only.
More than 2,400 years ago, in ancient Greece, Aristotle laid the foundation of Western civilization on the principle that a thing is what it is. A is A. It cannot be something else. A cannot also be B.
To topple Western civilization, it was necessary to render the mind of the West no longer able to make this distinction. To accept that A can also be B.
Or, C.
Or any of them.
It is why people – most of them – can no longer speak coherently about such things as slavery and theft. Because these words no longer have meaning. Or rather, they have fluid meanings. It is not – according to modern usage – theft to have your neighbor’s property taken for your purposes when his property is taken by others acting on your behalf under color of law. It is only theft when you actually do the taking yourself.
You are not allowed to own another human being. Meaning, to force him to work for your benefit, deprive him of his freedom to act, dictate to him how he will live, even to the extent of what he may and may not do with his own body.
But the government does all these things routinely. Legally.
It happens because A is no longer A.
Because people can’t read.
And so, can no longer think.
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How long will it take to receive a Private Pilot license?
The FAA requires student pilots have a minimum of 40 hours of flight time, of which 20 must be dual (flying with an instructor). However, these are MINIMUMS. No one I know completed their training in 40 hours. I took 66 hours. The national average is 60 to 70 hours. About half of your flight time will be with an instructor, and and the rest “solo.” For every flight hour, expect an additional 2-3 hours of reading, flight planning, and ground review with your instructor.
http://www.airaffair.com/Library/start-airplanes.html
1250 hours to be a barber/65.5 average hours to be a private pilot = 19 times longer timeframe on average to be a barber, versus being a private pilot.
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Hi Tor,
Was is los? 🙂
“What is a “conservative”? Does anyone know? Is there a defining principle that can be used to identify one?”
Well, Dittoheads sure did like Rush Limbaugh’s description of what that word means.
Word Depressed deleted from the end of my previous post.
It did it again! My original trailing comment behind the hyper-link was ‘disgusted sigh’ within brackets.
you cant just type brackets in wordpress. if you want left and right brackets you need to type these two four character codes.
& # 9 1 ; with no spaces for left bracket
& # 9 3 ; with no spaces for right bracket
Ach… sowas kann passieren.
Limbaugh, as the saying goes, farts through silk underwear – his compensation for being the greatest propagandist the Republican Party has ever had on its payroll.
I finally had to stop listening to that Guy,basically would say the same thing for a week ,cut off people trying to debate Him and was big into character assassination,plus that boasting about how successful He was ,finally got tiresome when I could never find any “trickle down ” despite my loyalty and hard work.
Finally had to throw in the towel and go with the centrists and libertarians ,at least they would hear you out and managed to get things done .
Eric I ,appreciate your patience.
Thanks, Kevin!
I like it here, too.
Much better company…
Brian, was ” Dittoheads sure did like Rush Limbaugh’s description of what that word means.” supposed to be a live link? I did find a fairly amusing match “http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/01/24/688427/-I-m-Reclaiming-Every-Word-in-the-Dictionary-from-Rush-Limbaugh”.
Hi Eight,
Hey, check it out… we have a new Clover!
Bravo – well said!
One of my favourite made up meanings was and is “Male Chavinist Pig”
Apparently if you are a follower of Napoleon, you are bad. Particularly if you happen to be a male. Even worse is being a pig. This epithet was thrown around by primarily wimminz libbers at men they didn’t like. And of course, no one *really* knew what it meant, except that everyone “knew”.
Destruction of the thinking process is essential for the commies/socialists/self-haters/self-mutilators/crybullies. If people were able to think for themselves instead of listening to the lying mass media pervs, they might wake up and smell the Fascism.
Very late reply, but rather interesting to find this article and this comment just as I encounter on another forum a nest of people who think “retarded” is an offensive word when used to refer to oneself. These same people have previously called me a prude for objecting to certain people’s, shall we say, sexually-charged avatars, and for “saying people can’t swear” (which I never did). Welcome to Topsy Turvy World, where “freedom of speech” means you can use profanity as a comma, openly discuss intimate matters and deviancy in public, and slather the airwaves (and frequently the real world as well) with sex, but while doing so you have to constantly check yourself to make sure you aren’t accidentally using a word that some victimologist somewhere decided was “offensive” to some protected class, which means that if you don’t treat it the way people used to treat profanities then you’re EBUL!!!!!!11111 and can expect to get white knighted to death by people who aren’t a part of the protected class in question but still feel a need to virtue signal.
A few remarks on Eric’s excellent article if I may:
One of the latest double think arguments being made now is that the TPP trade agreement is a “free market” construct. Nothing could be farther from the truth. And yet I hear the talking heads repeating this as if it were true. Free trade does not require a 6,000 page agreement.
As for the definition of “conservatism” if you want to blow a self professed conservative’s mind ask him what exactly has conservatism ever conserved. And to really drive the point home ask a conservative if he supports the “Civil Rights” (another diabolical double think term) Act of 1964. Watch him try to squirm his way out of that (out of the most dreadful fear of charges of “racism”) and you will realize that he is hardly a supporter of small government.
Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to all. Now be a good Patriot and go out there tomorrow and consume yourselves to death.
“Free trade does not require a 6,000 page agreement. ” Or even a 1 sentence agreement.
Free trade is free and does not depend on agreements. In fact I would go so far as to say that “Free Trade Agreement” is a contradiction in terms, unless by agreement you limit it to meaning the agreement between a buyer and a seller on price.
Free trade agreement. An object is there, a person who ostensibly owns it looks at you. You hold up an FRN, he takes it and you take the object.
I love how the loony leftists always preach how “there are more white, multi-generational born here people” on the dole -but as soon as some politician even has a brief thought about possibly reducing the scope of entitlements, those very same loons scream “RACISM!!!!!” and go on and on about how to do so is akin to veritable genocide against “minorities”.
Extra piece of pumpkin pie Eric, for this one!!!
Thanks, Dirk!
It’s just me here this year… well, me and the four-pawed friends. But they are damn fine company. I may cook us all something special.
How about “you cant handle the truth ” as it applies to most people these days ? Facts and logic are not going to get in the way of feelings and mind control ,guess what Folks ,its hard to think ,but easy to be greedy and harder still ,to be be fair .
“Fair”. The most double thunked word ever, says I.
“You can’t handle the truth!”
And how many ‘Muricans know that Guantanamo is in CUBA? It’s an illegal occupying force that Cuba has demanded that the Yanquis leave for YEARS.
You didn’t know that, did you?
lets get back to cars,i remeber when the pcv valve come on line 1963 and didn t pay any attention .then i was living in california when in 1974 the cat conv came on line and did notice.i bought two 74 mustang II both mach ones mine was a stick no power just brakes v6 german build engine ,my wifes was auto everything ,bought them because the gas lines were horrific in cla and we had two73 gm burners 9mpg .the mustangs got me a wopping 16mpg and my wifes got 15mpg .so i took mine to orange county speed and they did a distributor curve ans intake relief and muffler.it jump to a whopping 21mpg.both ran so hot that the cal.versions would constantly overheat .my mach 1 blew up at 12,100 m just out of warranty ,they fixed it at my insistence.my wifes lost every pump /steering water smog most all in warranty.then in the 80s i had those 4.1 cadillacs ,horror stories ,to many to go into ,but blew 2 up an lost transmission as well.point being this whole idea that the industry didn t fight hard enough allowed them to sell us parts that didn twork and made cars way to expensive and we are now going to see even worse as trump is naming the worst of the worst ,and don t give me this”””WELL LETS GIVE HIM A CHANCE,”””bull shit.never ever give a stone pro hustler an inch.he ll take you to the cleaners.
Next up! Let’s have a little chat about the words Christian and Muslim, and what they mean..
Islam is a political agenda/movement for world wide Islamic state (totalitarian control) along with being a satanic death cult. Women viewed as chattel, sub human. A step beyond communism, fascism. Complete opposite of Christianity obviously.
Laura Ann, “Complete opposite of Christianity obviously.”
Not being snarky here but I would argue that Islam and (alleged) Christianity have far more in common with each other than either have with Liberty.
I can’t speak for Islam, but you confuse the acts of flawed Christians with Christianity. Sadly, one of the defining premises is that we are such. Don’t judge the book by its converts.
I can assure you I could (still can) also recite all those things “a scout is”, say the creed, give the oath, and still be a snotty, rotten, little bastard when I was a kid. I have not grown out of all that yet, even while that is something for which I aim. I’m just not good at it. I likely will die a snotty, rotten, old bastard.
Arylioa, I am not sure what your point is so I am asking how do you define Christianity other than a belief that Jesus was killed as a sacrifice for the “sins” of man and that he later rose from the grave?
Again, not being snarky here just curious.
I didn’t mean to get into theology, I’m not really that well equipped. My original post, down a bit, was that “Christianity” takes a hit for a lot of stuff that is done by folks who really are not believers. And even believers don’t even come close to being perfect. But they /should/ know they aren’t. It’s kind of like assuming someone who wears a blue uniform is a peace keeper. Someone who buys the uniform at a second-hand store (compare a nominal Christian) isn’t even legitimate. On top of that, every one, even those who really try their best (compare a believing Christian) will occasionally extort a doughnut or a piece of pie from some merchant.
But what you propose, in a nutshell, is what a Christian believes with the proviso that Jesus was not /only/ a human but a personification of one of the personalities of a triune God. I know…. tough to get a handle on even for a believer. The funny thing is that the more one digs around in there, the more it makes sense. Things the Jews put down in writing hundreds of years earlier fit the exact picture of what happened later. And many of the eyewitnesses went on to horrible deaths, refusing to recant their words upholding what they saw. That’s hard!
But a “nominal Christian” (“because I am not a Jew”) doesn’t even grasp that concept. And, of course, no Christian who really does, believes he is “good”. So many of the things for which they are called hypocrites only fit when looking in from the outside. We all screw up. Humans do that. We know that, but we feel we are “right with God” because he made a path to that.
I think about this – numinous things – a lot. And I always end up with I have no clue. I marvel at people who express certitude about the existence of god, what this god wants us to do. I realize it must give them comfort to be so certain. I just don’t get it.
I mean, I am fairly certain I exist. Someone – something? – is typing this… it appears to be myself. Cogito ergo sum and all.
But this thing we call god?
No one seems able to do more than infer his (her?) existence, as far as what can be demonstrated in a cogito ergo sum kind of way.
Now, I marvel at all sorts of things – for instance, that a creature like an ant (with an ant-sized brain, if ants even have brains at all) is capable of extremely complex social organization that implies higher-order guiding intelligence. At the fact that life exists at all. Much more so self-aware life.
But Jesus? Allah? Huxtlopochtli?
Who the hell can say anything about them other than “I believe” and “it is written.”
Which is fine if it works for them.
But it doesn’t for me.
‘Who the hell can say anything about them other than “I believe” and “it is written.”’
And that’s the crux (pun intended) of the whole matter. And why it is truly impossible to say anything else. In my case, I am a highly skeptical engineer. But based on the evidence at hand I have to say there is something to it. Lots of others have found that to be true, especially when looking it over as a skeptic. C. S. Lewis comes readily to mind, but there are many others. But you can see in Lewis some “flexibility”. Space aliens? Travel of the Aslan person between planets/galaxies? Why not? Unless I can prove him right or wrong (I’m generally with him) who am I to quarrel with what he believes?
Again, we get down to personal choice, and nothing in libertarian philosophy precludes believing or not believing. See:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2011/03/laurence-m-vance/is-libertarianism-compatible-with-religion/
Where Lance expounds on Rothbard and the general subject.
(Unfortunately, nothing in statist philosophy precludes /pretending/ you believe. Hence we have the “Christian Atrocities” of a Hitler, or even of a Bush. Nor does it preclude the church itself, composed of imperfect humans, from encouraging or engaging in horrible things.)
eric, I hate to get started on one of these things. Type? What is that? Does it really exist or just a construct for we things? Do we exist in the sense we think or do we simply exist in another way? Are we merely thoughts of another entity. Well, I can go down this road to insanity or something close to absolute frustration.
I can tell you how people are absolutely sure of……anything. They have been brainwashed(another construct?)mostly beginning at birth or not far beyond. They have been convinced over their formative life to not question ‘The Word”.
How many Christians could explain to you how many Bibles or differing sorts have been written and by whom?
A couple decades ago I got interested in how one specific friend could become so convinced and involved that he was dominated by the version of the new testament he carried. I never queried him as to why that book and not the old and how he sorted shit from shinola but simply asked one question “How does one become a true Christian?”. I was being sincere and he was being sincere when he said ‘You must accept Jesus Christ as your savior”. I thanked him and could only wonder if such person really existed or if he was no more real than Paul Atriedes bred to be the Maud ‘daub, a mentat and ksisatz haderach to rule the entire universe.
I mean no offense to anyone but find the stories of Dune to be as believable as a christian bible though the first was written in 1965…….or was it? Maybe it was merely put in words and ways we could understand then and had always existed, infinite eons of time before the first mankind religion was even thought about by some entity, some entity we can’t ever know if it even ever existed.
Excuse me while I whip this out. Seriously, I think it’s time for some LSD and a case of Shiner Black. I got some hard thinking to do……sorta like Dewey Cox had some hard walking to do.
Walk hard
Hard
Down life’s
Rocky road
Walk bold
Hard
At my creed
My code
I’ve been sworn and slandered and ridiculed too
Had to struggle everyday my whole life through
Seen my share of the worse that this world can give
But I still got a dream and a burning rage to live
Walk hard
Hard
When they say
You’re all done
Walk bold
Hard
Though they say
You’re not the one
Even if you’ve been told time and time again
That you’re always gonna lose and you’re never gonna win
Gotta keep that vision in your mind’s eye
When you’re standing on top of a mountain high
You know when I was a boy
Folks used to say to me
“Slow down Dewey, don’t walk so hard”
And I used to tell them
Life’s a race, and I’m in it to win it
And I’ll walk as damn hard as I please
How do I walk boys?
{HARD}
When I meet my maker on my dying day
Gonna look him in the eye and by god I’ll say
I gave my word and my word was good
I took it in the face and walked as hard as I could
Walk Hard
Walk Hard
Walk Hard
Walk Hard
Eight I am mighty afraid that some Christians read into the Bible some things that really doesnt espouse in a big way.I dont really see the concrete evidence in there of a celestial paradise were we will instantly reunited with family and old friends ,my reading of the Bible tells me you can have Heaven or Hell ,right now ,here ,where you are.If there is a Devil ,He certainly has to be a busy being (are we confusing the Devil with Prometheus ?)
8, ” Do we exist in the sense we think or do we simply exist in another way?”
That is along the lines of my way of thinking as well.
I have had a few experiences that baffle the conventional way of understanding our existence. Nothing is as it seems…
Eric ,I am afraid that is where I am right now, like Gandhi, I have no problem with Jesus ,its just the actions of some self professed Christians that befuddled me ,some of these Folks go around with an expression of “frown -scorn ” on their faces and would gladly give you several lashes for saying shit or any little vulgar expression.I still am a Christian ,but I do not take it now the way I used to ,perhaps if Micheal or Gabreil had an office where you could go chat once in a while, rather then just being told ,that so and so is true ,without any real evidence ,save a feeling .
Stupid people, conditioned people, ignorant people, and so forth and so on seem so sure about so many things and most of them factually untrue. The facts don’t matter to them at all.
So much of human life becomes clearly nothing more than a series of confidence games. Rewards of an afterlife seem to be well, just another one. But that doesn’t mean this isn’t a simulation of some sort or that physical life is all there is. It just means the human constructs throughout time are faulty or self-serving for those creating them.
It’s not just religion, it’s just about everything. So many things that are untrue.
Perhaps, not quite on point. From the film “Breaker Morant,” (1980). The scene appears immediately before the small group of soldiers found guilty by military tribunal are taken to be executed before the firing squad:
Harry Morant: Live every day as if it were going to be your last; for one day you’re sure to be right.
Sentry: Do you want the padre?
Harry Morant: No, thank you. I’m a pagan.
Sentry: And you?
Peter Handcock: What’s a pagan?
Harry Morant: Well… it’s somebody who doesn’t believe there’s a divine being dispensing justice to mankind.
Peter Handcock: I’m a pagan, too.
Harry Morant: There is an epitaph I’d like: Matthew 10:36. Well, Peter… this is what comes of ’empire building.’
Major Thomas: Matthew 10:36?
Minister: “And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.”
Don’t think twice, it’s alright. Bob Dylan didn’t most likely when he stole the song from Paul Clayton and neither did a plethora of people who’ve done it since.
Lots of things I’d like a do-over on but it is what it is. I can see the end from here so I don’t sweat too much of anything now.
Aryliao, I do not mean to take this into a theological direction either and I mean no offense to anyone as well.
I am just fascinated by what people believe and why. I find Christianity interesting because, to me, it is ill defined other than one believing in the story of the resurrection. But this is not the forum for such a discussion so I will end it here and I do thank you for your response.
But to let you know my perspective to me the great central philosophical question is one of “authority”. Who has it and why?
There’s a great paragraph in Dune Messiah I read last night so I’ll quote it.
“Let us bandy not philosophical nonsense. Every question can be boiled down to the one: “Why is there anything?” Every religious, business and governmental question has the single derivative: “Who will exercise power?”
Alliances, combines, complexes, they all chase mirages unless they go for power. All else is nonsense, as most thinking beings come to realize.”
“Women viewed as chattel, sub human.”
And what’s not to like?
Close to impossible to define in the vernacular. Theology doesn’t enter into it. Most Americans claim to be Christians if asked, mainly thinking “I must be because I am not a Jew.” (A most-limited world view until we got involved in bombing the middle east and they found out about /A/rabs.) A large percentage of them never set foot in a church, nor have read more than 10 pages of the Bible. I suspect a large percentage of Muslims say they are Muslims because of similar tradition, but with “Christian nor a Jew” as the basis for the claim. Many of them have read their entire book. But, especially with 2nd generation and beyond here in America, they pay as much attention to it as the nominal Christians who have never cracked the binding of “their” book. In other words, for the vast majority, just about like Republican and Democrat, “My daddy was a……”, so on most stuff I think like him. But basically, I /do/ as I please. Most of the time that is just fine. It’s their life. But all groups (especially Republicans and Democrats) have radicals who can be downright unpleasant.
I find it amazing people who think of themselves as intelligent can’t see what’s happened in the last 50 years. Ronnie the chimp (the real chimp, along with that same bunch that ran Nixon’s dirty tricks all the way through the Shrub’s bullshit)tried to demonize S. Americans….but they’re all Catholic and it’s not an easy sell, esp. in the American NE to demonize Catholics so they changed direction. They constantly attacked more and more the people of the middle east and did just what they aspired to do, turn them against the US so we had reason to bomb and take over the middle east along with the largest oil reserves in the world….or thought to be until Russia found huge reserves. But we can’t fuck with Russia since they’re loaded up with nukes. Well, we can’t fuck with any country loaded with nukes and a delivery system so we declare those countries to be “allies”. It simply amazes me how deluded Americans can be by Reagan, Clinton, either one of the Bushes and now BO. Nobody can politically see beyond their noses….fucking amazing.
The US and their counterparts in Europe created the jihad against the west. Vast amounts of the middle east population wanted to emigrate to the west due to never-ending war in the mid east the west started. Not all those Muslims are against western way or they wouldn’t be here. Sure, there are the radicals…..the ones the US created after centuries of European war on the mid-east.
But go on back to your MSM and tv from Zionist Jews who hope to take over the US after we fuck up and get in a world war with China and Russia and most of the countries on the face of the earth. Take it to heart, believe it with all your might and we’ll all go down in flames. Go Vote. Pick out the best of the worst……as they will tell you all the bullshit they hope will get them elected.
I live the real truth…….no matter how old you are and how hard you work their paid predators continue to come after you. I’m by far not the oldest they go after. But the truth is, you can’t live long enough to escape their wrath. Predators always have their favorite hunting grounds. FBI files are forever. Fight Club forever!!!!
8, “The US and their counterparts in Europe created the jihad against the west. Vast amounts of the middle east population wanted to emigrate to the west due to never-ending war in the mid east the west started.”
This is most certainly true to the extent that the governments of the US and Europe created this mess but it is also misleading in that the peoples of either the West or the East want any of this.
I do not think it is the will of the majority of US/European/ME peoples to have these mindless wars and the resulting invasion of both Islam countries by Westerners and consequently the invasion of Western Civilization by Muslims.
The question therefore is, as always, the eternal one: Who benefits? Which begs the follow up question: Who are Western “leaders” obeying if not the will of their own people?
Something hidden is most assuredly afoot.
Hi Eight,
OT, I’m in Dallas right now visiting family. I’ll be heading back to NM on Sunday. Any chance you’re kind of on the route back? I’d love to stop by with a 12 pack of Shiner Black and meet in person.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Jeremy, my email isn’t very good right now. I have really slow dial up and nothing is made to handle that. I could drink a few and if eric reads this or you can contact him(I’ll try too)he can put us together, one or both. I’ll send him my cell # and you can call if you like…..if my email allows.
Hi Eight,
I just sent Eric my cell. Hopefully he will pass it on to you.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Guys – you should be hooked up… check e-mail!
Hey Eric,
Thanks for helping out. We spoke and are planning to meet tomorrow.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Excellent!
Jeremy, I was just re-reading these comments and came down to this one. I thoroughly enjoyed last Sunday and would gladly do it again. E, call or text if you get a hair.
Hu Eight,
Likewise! I greatly enjoyed meeting you both of you. I’ll take some photos of my compact brewery and send them to you soon. Next time I’m heading to Dallas, I’ll be sure to contact you.
Cheers,
Jeremy
eric, yes, thanks much.
Let’s just hope Gunnery Sergeant Hartman was mistaken.
https://youtu.be/vyFSdj1J5Vw
Comrade Peters tells us, “Fascism is Big Business helping itself to the contents of our wallets, with the “help” of Big Government.”
So I was reading an article over at fff.org by Laurence Vance about Occupational Licensing vs. Private Certification. For those of you not familiar with him – “Laurence M. Vance is a columnist and policy adviser for the Future of Freedom Foundation, an associated scholar of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and a columnist, blogger, and book reviewer at LewRockwell.com.”
I would call Vance a decent writer but not at the level of Comrade Peters. In my book, to qualify as a very good writer, I need to look up words. Vance pretty much stays withing my vocabulary. Comrade Peters, on the other hand, oftentimes makes me keep a tab open to look up words.
Back when I lived in Detroit I had a collection of about 300 dictionaries. Even when Comrade Peters was just a pup writing for the Motown papers, I’d find myself looking up words from his articles in multiple dictionaries. Even though I didn’t give a fuck about the subject (shitty looking cars built to Govco specs), I would be kept up to date on what was coming off the line and he would also keep my brain working.
Back to Vance’s prose. He uses the ASE as an example of a non-Govco “solution” to the “problems” of unfettered trade between individuals. He points out that Republicans are even bigger proponents of Occupational Licensing.
Vance says, “Proponents of occupational licensing would have us believe that without such government intervention in the economy, businesses would be full of untrained, incompetent, uneducated, unqualified, unscrupulous workers who would take advantage of consumers, rip them off, provide them with poor quality service, injure them, and possibly kill them.” – http://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/government-licensing-private-certification/
I read that paragraph again and I fully expected the next paragraph to say that is exactly what we have now.
The fact is that because of Govco intervention in the trade of individuals the businesses we trade with ARE full of untrained, incompetent, uneducated, unqualified, unscrupulous workers who do take advantage of consumers, rip them off, provide them with poor quality service, injure them, and sometimes kill them.
But thank Godvernment that those untrained, incompetent, uneducated, unqualified, unscrupulous workers meet the MINIMUM STANDARDS set by Govco. Because without the blessing of Govco, we would be taken advantage of, ripped off, receive shitty service, be injured, or even killed.
But Vance didn’t say anything like that, his next two paragraphs started out with, “Proponents of occupational licensing would have us believe that”.
Maybe I’ve been spoiled by Comrade Peters’s writings, but what the fuck? Eric doesn’t just allude to the fact that air bags kill people and giant A, B, and C pillars block the driver’s view of traffic, he comes right out an says it. Granted, Comrade Peters is not a pup anymore, but even when he was, even with the Motown version of Tass and Pravda, he would slip in a bit of reality. Now and old dog, Comrade Peters goes balls deep with reality, in spite of knowing he will probably hear the Motown Sound of being kicked in said balls.
Vance then goes on to tell us that, “Private certification — or licensing, endorsement, or accreditation — does work. Just consider the case of auto mechanics. I don’t know of any state where auto mechanics and related occupations are subject to occupational licensing. But having worked as an auto mechanic in my younger days, I do know about ASE certification.”
This is the absolute unadulterated bullshit that passes for people who are supposed to be proponents of liberty. He is writing for fff.org, The Future of Freedom Foundation. Their banner says, “Explore Freedom”!
Well I feel like a proctologist after exploring this article. A proctologist without any gloves.
In the beginning of the article Vance brings up “the licensing burden in the states — in terms of education, experience, and examinations — ranges from an estimated average of 113 days in Pennsylvania to meet the requirements of the average licensed occupation to 724 days in Hawaii.”
So he has at least heard of Hawaii.
And in Hawaii, “Apply for a license only after you receive your ASE Certificate. You are required to submit a copy of your ASE Certificate with your application.” – https://cca.hawaii.gov/pvl/files/2013/06/Require-App-for-Mechanic_10.16R.pdf
While Vance may not “know of any state where auto mechanics and related occupations are subject to occupational licensing.” Apparently at least one does exist. And Hawaii isn’t the only one.
Comrade Peters, I feel that I should correct you. Fascism is Non Government Organizations such as the ASE helping itself to the contents of our wallets, with the “help” of Big Government and the supposed defenders of liberty.
We are truly fucked comrades. Truly fucked.
The Future of Freedom is government mandated licensing of “privately certified” human livestock.
I think Rand used to call Fascism government control of private property and the means of production with the ILLUSION of private ownership.
Thanks, T!
Hope you/everyone here has a great Thanksgiving!
You writ this’n good eric. We’uns taxpayer be bout tapped out. Bein the guy on the givin end of this fiasco I keep looking for a good place to hide when govco comes after everything else including my freedom(one more time).
My wife used to work with a lot of Hispanic and young white women. They were lost if the job required reading simple directions on a product label. They thought my wife was a damned genius since she knew the ins and outs of cloth and fibers. Of course she knew it before she was out of high school and last night said she picked up exactly zero or less in college.
I was aware of it since I knew other women who majored in things where you had to take courses like home economics where the young women were always treated like children.
Back to reading though, even those that “would” read had no comprehension. Everybody went to school in the US so it speaks for itself. Now everything must speak for itself. Without a video 90% of the population could never learn anything new. It’s depressing. But have a good TG anyway. ha ha. Naw, the best to everyone today…..and every day. Live it like it’s your last. Once I got to the point I felt like I had become a professional casket bearer I realized even moreso I should live it like I wanted to live and to hell with anyone else’s opinions. Of course that put me in contradiction to govco and they slap me down every chance they get but I’m giving them the middle finger all the way through and am pretty good of showing both with my hands behind my back. Some just don’t understand why they keep showin my hands instead of my face on tv.
Regarding licensing, this essay is right on point: http://archive.lewrockwell.com/fischer/fischer14.html
“In Pennsylvania, before taking the licensing exam, an applicant must complete a barbering study and training period of 1250 hours (i.e., over seven months at 40 hours per week) including at least nine months under the tutelage of a licensed “barber-teacher” in a barber school or shop! To emphasize the absurdity of this, it is 15-20 times longer than it takes to be approved to pilot a small plane!”
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the link.
But I’ve got to wonder if these LRC writers bother to check facts. Seems like Mr. Fischer is just pulling numbers out of his ass.
A Sport pilot license requires 20 hours, a Private pilot requires 40 hours.
What Fisher says is “15-20 times longer” is actually 31.25-62.5 times longer.
Am I the only one who thinks facts are at least somewhat important? At this rate, it shouldn’t be long until Eric is telling us his Pontiac came stock with a 429 SJC and a Carter Thermo-Quad.
Unless it has changed recently, obtaining a private pilot certificate (the FAA doesn’t license pilots. Also, all pilots have to certify on each different air frame. That would be single engine, multi-engine propeller, single engine, multi-engine jet. Boeing vs Airbus, etc., etc., etc. Although commercial has its own requirements. FedEx will not hire any turbine pilots without 1500 hours of flight time period.) requires 35 hours of actual flight time per air frame and 5 hours of ground school. One can take the ground school at one time but the 35 hours of flight time is at your leisure i.e. it can be spread over a period of time. Most other certifications can’t be.
David Ward
[email protected]
Former fixed wing and rotor pilot both of which have lapsed due to health reasons.
Let me clarify. Just because you have a certification for a Piper Cub doesn’t mean you are authorized to fly a twin engine Bonanza, a quad prop plane or a single engine Cessna. Just because you are certified on a dual engine jet doesn’t mean you are authorized to fly a quad engine jet. A pilot has to be certified on each air frame type. I can be certified on a Piper Cub and not be authorized to fly a Cessna 172. They are different designs.
The requirements for certification for pilots are not cut and dried like a plumber or an electrician or even a barber. To certify for all private air frames could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and tens of thousands of hours.
To put a point on it, my flight training for rotor encompassed 6 months and I was only certified on one air frame, the UH1G.
Luckily my fixed certifications were on a Piper Comanche and a Beechcraft D50 (King Air) Twin Engine Bonanza. Both trikes. I hate tail draggers. LOL!
David Ward
[email protected]
Former fixed wing and rotor pilot both of which have lapsed due to health reasons.
Okay. Some comments on site improvements. Comment treads are better. Floating title bar bad. You might also be interested bad. I am seeing this on multiple browsers. Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. I have repeatedly asked for this new and improved crap (which isn’t new or improved) to be removed. Soooooo, I am hereby withdrawing my 20 dollar paid subscription to EPAutos.com.
Hi David,
I’m trying to sort this out; very sorry to hear it’s so bad you’ve decided to withdraw your subscription… I wish I knew whether others are having the same issue with the bar…
Well, I don’t like that “you may also be interested” window, but it ain’t a deal breaker. I just click on the X and close it.
Overall, the site is better. I’d like to have the former dashboard, but that may have been tied to the earlier siteware with WP. Nothing bad enough to make me cancel.
Keep writing, eric. That’s the main thing I’m hoping to provide a little support for with the small amount I’ve subscribed . I read much more often than I comment anyway.
Thanks, Ed!
As the saying goes: You can’t please everyone all the time. I try to strike a balance – hopefully, the right one.
The main thing – priority numero uno – is not selling out. You guys may see more ads on site, but they are ads – clearly so. Whatever I write may be a rant but it’s not an ad.
I won’t shill.
I’ll man whore (or drive a truck) first.
David,
Are you referring to the bar that appears when one scrolls down, but disappears when one scrolls up?
If yes, do you have a suggested improvement? (I personally would prefer a toggle-type button. If I wish to see the bar, press the button. Those that wish to have the bar constant on can leave the bar in the open position.)
If, no, could you better describe what displeases you with the new web design.
What is a “conservative”? Does anyone know? Is there a defining principle that can be used to identify one?
Beats me.
Practical definition of today’s “conservative:” yesterday’s liberal progressive who seeks to “conserve” the gains made by that ideology in the course of gradually dismantling and destroying western civilization. Most of today’s “conservatives” (cuckservatives” is a more apt term) fall into this category.
As for a single written work that comprehensively lays out the principles of conserativism, good luck finding it. It doesn’t exist and probably never will.
And this is important. Cognitive dissonance is a term often thrown around just as incorrectly. It is not the ability to hold such conflicting thoughts in your mind at the same time. It is the unease and anxiety and stress that comes from holding two contradictory points of view in one’s mind at the same time, and being required to regard both as truth. Thus the general unease, anxiety and drugging of the population across the board.
“Cognitive dissonance is a term often thrown around just as incorrectly.”
All these years I thought it was a tune by the Harmonica Virgins.
Tua, ain’t that a case of A is also B?
Ed you’re making my brain hurt.
All I know is that I love Big Brother, I fully support the ruling party, the policeman is my friend, and paying taxes to kill people I’ve never met in places I’ve never been is a very good thing.
The only thing that I lack in life is a GPS RFID tracking chip so I don’t have to remember passwords and carry my phone around all day. Valhalla is just a train ride away.
Tua, got you one ordered just like in Hunger Games……or would you rather have the type the Harkonnen used in Dune?
Eight,
Not familiar with either.
I just want my chip so I can gets me my welfare credits.
Tua, those chips will get you welfare…..and more as I’m sure you well know. If you never read Dune or any of the latter books I can’t recommend it(them) enough. Way late I just started on the second book to the prequel written 35 years after Dune by Herbert’s son. It’s almost a complete education of politics on its own. I’m sure you know of Hunger Games, another sci-fi totalitarian lesson. On that note, we just watched 24 Hours Later, a Brit zombie movie. Poor bastards can’t even come up with a gun in a movie and have to defend themselves close quarters…..too close quarters for me with cricket bats that amazingly never break or they’d be up shit creek, literally without a paddle.
What I needs is my Obamaphone, Bushphone, Clintonphone, Bush1phone, Reaganphone. It amazes me everybody tries to lay off cellphone welfare on Obama when Reagan started it and the most money spent on it was under the Shrub’s watch if you can believe. It’s all a matter of public record.
Hi Eight,
If things go reasonably well, I may be able to afford an El Camino… if not, it’ll be a van down by the river!
eric, good morn to you. I just got off the phone trying to finalize a deal on a 2000 Z71. It’s beat on the outside and inside both but the engine, tranny and 4WD seem to work fine. Gotta have an a/c compressor, filter/dryer, strainer. O-rings and a windshield but I can live with the tires(street)and shocks for a while. It’s probably gonna have to have the 4WD version of a pitman arm, can’t recall what it’s called. It will need shocks and tires when I get back to work. I hope to hell I’m getting back to work. Everybody was waiting for the election so maybe employment will be soon in coming. Right now we’re at $1800 on it and it comes with a new rear bumper and endgate of a different color if I want to replace them or get a flatbed for it(used). I don’t like flatbeds but a used one might be cost effective or I can just drive it with the dents. Anyway, it seems fairly sound with new CV joints at 201,000 miles.
More than 2,400 years ago, in ancient Greece, Aristotle laid the foundation of Western civilization on the principle that a thing is what it is. A is A. It cannot be something else. A cannot also be B.
Liberals (modern definition) love to “point out” that at the quantum level, A can indeed be B. The prime example given is the wave-particle duality of photons. Unfortunately what they don’t get is that our brains can’t understand that concept. Oh a few can, at the high end of the bell curve, who have been properly taught how to converse in mathematics, but the rest of us apes aren’t going to understand it no matter what.
But that is a false example, along with Schrodinger’s cat thought experiment. It’s a dumbed down cartoon for the masses in an attempt to help us understand the quantum world. It’s not that photons can be both a wave and a particle at the same time, it is that they are neither waves nor particles. They are photons, a unique subatomic particle, with unique properties. Armchair physicists (and many consumers of cannabis), who don’t have the requisite math background, can’t begin to grasp the concept, yet they trot out these “facts” when convenient.
I used to have fun trying to show these apes that they’re not intelligent enough to understand quantum physics. But thanks to carnival barkers like Neil Degrasse Tyson and Bill Nye, they’re a lost cause. Most of them are convinced they understand it all just because they watched a few videos on PBS and YouTube. And unfortunately I’m one of them, at least at the intellectual level. I do very well navigating a Newtonian world and with human designed objects. But when it comes to anything much beyond freshman physics and biology, forget it. I know enough to know that I know nothing, and that’s likely all I’ll ever know. But I did get 8 hours of sleep last night (in my own bed, not a Holiday Inn) despite having pulled a graveyard shift. So that’s something…
A can also be B.
A can not be A and non A.
“How many fingers am I holding up?”
“Four.”
“And if the Party says there are not four, but five, then how many?”
“Five”
“No. That’s no use. You’re lying. How many fingers please?”
“Four. What else could I say? Five or anything you like. Will you please stop it? Stop the pain. How can I help it? How can I help what I see in front of my eyes? Two and two makes four.”
“Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five, sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. Neither the past nor the present nor the future exists in its own right. Reality is in the human mind. Not in the mind of the individual, which makes mistakes and soon perishes; but in the mind of the Party which is collective and immortal. Again, no. How many fingers, Winston?”
“Four. Four, I suppose there are four. I tried to see five. I wish I could.”
“Which do you wish? To persuade me that you can see five, or or really to see them.”
“Really to see them.”
“Again. How many, Winston?”
“I don’t know.”
“Better.”
I wonder, was Orwell thinking about quantum physics when he wrote that?
Hey Eric_G! You make a great point about how regular people think they understand quantum physics when they say “things can be a wave and a particle at the same time!” Bah! So much “education” is based on the fact that explanations which are easy to understand are the only ones which most teachers can pass along. They learned the easy (but wrong!) explanation as children, or perhaps in college (maybe still as children!) and now they pass that story along as the truth. So… Bill Nye tells us that things can be particles and waves at the same time. Really? How is that? Particles makes sense, but waves? What is waving? They never say. The math tells us that the wave is a wave of probability, in other words, the math describes not the object, but the chances that it will be somewhere specific. In fact, it is even worse than that; the math actually tells us what the square root of the probability is. The square root of the probability is waving? Yeah.. and what the hell does that mean?! We could write an equation that shows the square root of the probability for my automobile being a certain distance from my house — but does that mean that my Toyota is waving? I don’t think so! And yet people think that Nye and Degrasse Tyson are geniuses; “he explained quantum physics to me!”
The sad fact is that most, MOST, education (especially history!) does not transmit actual knowledge. It merely conveys the illusion of understanding, not the quality of really understanding. Memes are in a constant battle and those that reproduce quickly, widely and easily are always in conflict with those that more closely model reality but reproduce only slowly and with great effort.
Thinking, or reason, logic, facts, and data are simply not something humans by and large naturally respond to. Humans respond to emotion and social game play.
They prefer a good comeback to facts and logical reasoning. They rationalize their own irrationality. When data and facts require a different conclusion they reject the facts and data.
In this condition thinking has no place. People simply react emotionally.
Looking at letters written in the near past and back a couple hundred years ago people were more literate, at least the ones who were literate. Consider before public schools a great many people had classic educations and they knew of a great many things including philosophy and history and they learned it at home. They were mostly “up” for technical things and learned quickly when they had opportunity. The current schools discourage thinking for oneself and punish acting in any type of individual capacity. More chemicals in the water and food and more sugar and stupid will be the norm.
1931 8th grade final diploma test for West Virginia:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/education/v/tests.pdf
My favorite question:
“Show how a good home life tends to decrease the need of government”
My 8th grade self probably could answer many of those questions, although I don’t know that I could write entire pages of answers on the long form open ended questions. By the time I was in school all standard tests (and many teacher’s tests) were all multi-guess and machine scored. Most of the possible answers could be narrowed down to one or two choices and usually one answer was right out. If you had even a cursory understanding of a subject you could usually bluff your way through. Finding the one correct answer was the most important goal, not understanding the material or learning how to communicate. Great for people who can memorize a bunch of facts. Terrible for dyslexics (me) and people who aren’t interested in making education into a competitive sport (also me).
Eric G, “Finding the one correct answer was the most important goal, not understanding the material or learning how to communicate. Great for people who can memorize a bunch of facts.”
Spot on. This is especially true when it comes to studying History. I have had many conversations with people who have degrees, including advanced degrees, in History that could not articulate what actually led up to and were the basis that caused historical events.
The “Civil War” is one of the most obvious. There never was such a thing in the US yet just about everyone uses that completely false term. This is from rote repetition in the skool system designed to deliberately muddle the facts about the rights of independence from Leviathan – any Leviathan.
Hey, 8. I just saw a killer movie filmed in your back yard, or maybe your front yard: “Hell or High Water”. I just emailed you a link to the reviews. a quote from the script:
Tanner Howard: This is Mr. Pibb. I asked for a Dr. Pepper.
Toby Howard: That’s all they had.
Tanner Howard: Only assholes drink Mr. Pibb.
Toby Howard: Drink up.
The only thing I know is this ,the first incarnation of Mr.Pibb was dang good ,the 2nd version has never been worth a dang in my opinion.( This from a Dr.Pepper Lover )
Education has been reduced to nothing but competition. A low class rank means no ivy league school, no scholarship, life in the narrowing middle. Scare kids into performing better in school. Make it a game so they can boast about their score on the test. Teach them to argue, complain and pout over every incorrect answer. Get the A+ get to the top, crush the competition. Learning optional. Well-rounded human? Lifelong interests? Well, maybe if you get into Harvard you’ll have time for that when you’re 50.
This is what happens when teaching is reduced to performance metrics.
Good at school institutionalized people.
Everything is made about social climbing and social manipulation. Competency, logic, knowledge, merit, and so forth don’t matter. Only social things. Competency, logic, merit, and so on goes away.
Thinking?
Isn’t that illegal.
Nope. Just “acting white”, which heinous deed the courts have held is, ipso facto, racist. Ask any leftist.