Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- The "experts" were wrong about the Bee-Apocalypse too! (HT Newmark's Door)
- Hundreds of thousands of deaths averted because of COVID vaccines. Proper credit will never be given.
- Nearly half of Americans changed sports viewing habits because of social justice politics.
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
If we get "vaccine passports'" - how long before dating website require "STD passports?" Seriously what's to stop them at that point?... Never been a fan of the phrase "Have your cake and eat it too." Isn't the whole point of cake to eat it?... Worst acid trip ever!... I'm a glutton for punishment - I would love to watch a Jeopardy! showdown between CNN's Jim Acosta and Wolf Blitzer. I'd put the combined over/under for correct answers for the entire show at 5... The Hogwarts school motto is Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus - "Never tickle a sleeping dragon"... Brit Hume's full name is Alexander Britton Hume. How come he just doesn't go by Al Hume?... Disposable masks are trash and that trash is harming wildlife worldwide. I made the observation months ago that out on hikes on remote trails you see discarded masks that nobody is touching or picking up. It's a real problem...
Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.
"The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly." - Abraham Lincoln
"You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire." - Seneca
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel Boorstin
"Be nice to people, eat well, get some exercise, and spend less than you make. Those four reduce about 90% of life's problems." - The Motley Fool
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward." - Vernon Law
"When we confront something painful, we are left with a choice between an ugly and painful truth or a beautiful delusion. Many of us opt for the latter and it slows our progress." - Shane Parrish
"Facing the press is more difficult than bathing a leper." - Mother Teresa
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Matt Taibbi vs Joe Scarborough in a Russiagate debate? Yes please!
- Understand that the remake of Don't Mess with the Zohan already has its new lead actor
- When Feynman Met Dirac. Seems appropriate as today is the anniversary of the Pocono Conference.
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Much more excited about UMass making the Frozen Four than I'm upset about the US Men's national team failing to make the Olympics. Actually couldn't care less about the soccer team. Stop trying to make soccer happen... I'm an awful person for STILL laughing at this... Since the pandemic I've become uber skeptical of experts of all-stripes. When reading anything that has the words "assessment," "analysis," "projection," "prediction," and "forecast" I now automatically mentally replace those words with the word "guess." It really does help change how you feel about the author's conclusions and allows you to think more clearly... A reminder - It's still time to build... The Towel of Babel would be a good name for a day spa... Still say Americans should replace handshakes with finger guns. A way to both social distance and also piss off social justice warriors. PEW PEW PEW...
2. The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World by David Deutsch
3. The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley (Highy recommended)
4. Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl
5. Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and Things That Last by Wright Thompson
Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.
"I'm only responsible for what I say, not for what you understand."- John Wayne
"That's a crooked tree. We'll send him to Washington." - Bob Ross
"Principle X - neither the minority nor the majority should be able to impose their preferences on other." - Nassim Taleb
"A man who dares to waste an hour of time has not discovered the value of his life." - Charles Darwin
"Serenity now!" - Frank Costanza
"Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world." - Voltaire
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- If Social Security were a private retirement fund, we'd sue. (HT Newmark's Door)
- The NFL's playbook for the Deshaun Watson situation
- What was your woke breaking point? (HT Newmark's Door)
- Greatly amused by this list - The top 150 intellectuals. Joe Rogan is ranked #1 while Donald Trump is #27 - one spot ahead of Elon Musk. Silly list.
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Enjoying the new Marvel series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier but one small thing keeps bothering me. It's a super hero series so you're supposed to suspend disbelief going in but all of the action seems to happen outside the US and I keep asking myself, "Why are we interfering in this foreign country?" I mean we even had "agents" outside a Swiss bank that was being robbed. Pretty sure the Swiss didn't authorize us to be on their sovereign soil... This made me laugh. We live in the crazy years... Prior to the US invasion of Iraq - UNICEF had estimated that between the UN sanctions that created shortages and the outright brutality and cruelty of Saddam Hussein - roughly 5,000 Iraqi babies (children under 5-years of age) died or were killed every month. That's 60,000 plus children every year that were saved by our actions... You may seriously need to update your iPhone right away... Heh heh - now even Lindsey Graham is making the Baghdad Bob on the Southern border comparisons. I just might have been first in this trend...
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Matt Taibbi: Alternatives to censorship. Let me also clarify that Twitter and Facebook are not utilities. You can lead a healthy and productive life without them
- VDH: The nature of Chinese Contempt for Us. The Chinese Communists have no friends - only subservients and enemies.
- The unexpected history and miraculous success of vaccines.
- Child suicide is becoming an "International Epidemic" due to lockdowns. Where is the outrage?
The Celtics basically traded Daniel Theis, Jeff Teague, Javonte Green and two 2nd round draft picks for Evan Fournier and Mo Wagner. Here's how I see these transactions.
First let's address the elephant in the room - Celtics fans were getting pretty sick of Theis being a league wide punching bag. The lack of calls he'd get and the ticky-tack shit he'd get whistled for is legendary. And Celtics fans couldn't expect Theis to be the guy to dish out a hard foul when necessary. He'd halfheartedly try something and look apologetic the whole time. You need a guy like Aron Baynes who could hack an opposing player then stand there looking them in the eye and saying "What?" As in "what are you going to do about it?" Daniel Theis was never that player. Boston loses a bit on pick and roll offense giving Theis' minutes to Robert Williams but that's more than made up defensively. Mo Wagner should also be able to provide some toughness and additional fouls off the bench.
Jeff Teague was a major disappointment. And he's already been waived by Orando! Celtics fans rejoice that Teague's minutes will now be going the the much more deserving Payton Pritchard. That's an upgrade just by doing that.
Finally the big upgrade is Evan Fournier being added to the mix. Boston badly needed another wing who could create his own offense. He is a HUGE upgrade over Semi Ojeleye. The team is greatly improved by these moves.
Did they get Aaron Gordon? Were they able to get the Raptors to trade Kyle Lowry? No - but they also didn't have to give up Marcus Smart either. Will they be able to add another piece via the buyout market? Maybe. But I like the moves they've made.
And all it cost was two 2nd round picks.
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Congratulations to the UMass men's hockey team for making the NCAA Frozen Four. This should be a bigger deal in New England sports but unfortunately it will go largely unnoticed... There should be a word for people who not only wear a mask in a car when driving alone but wear a double-mask. Wait there is such a word - idiot!... Rampant Narcissism would be a good name for a band who took the stage all holding selfie-sticks and who just sang over the top Karaoke... If you think about it - every tax is a "sin" tax... In my opinion - hiring a sky writer to make a giant penis would be the most epic way to handle a gender reveal...
Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.
"The endless modern laments about how texting and emails are shortening the attention span go back to Plato, who deplored writing as a destroyer of memorizing." - Matt Ridley
"You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe!" - William Shakespeare
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana
"What's in the box? WHAT'S IN THE BOX!?!" - Brad Pitt
"Silence is a lesson learned through life's many sufferings." - Seneca
"How quickly you unlearn what you think you know often determines how far you go. A lot of adults think they know the answer so when the world tells them they're wrong, they dismiss it. And that is the moment they stop getting better." - Shane Parrish
More stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- How to beat the woke: Never apologize, rally friends and punch back twice as hard.
- VDH: Follow the 'Science' they said.
- Dan Wetzel on the Deshaun Watson lawsuit.
- American Exodus (HT Execupundit)
- Heh Heh
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Morgan Housel: Five Investing Powers
- Glenn Greenwald: Congress Escalates Pressure on Tech Giants to Censure More, Threatening the First Amendment. Long but interesting read.
- The Agreements We Make With Ourselves
- Jessica Walters passes aged 80. She'll always be Malory Archer to me.
“So many times I have a speech ready, but no dice. Always a bridesmaid, never a mother. Now I win, I have no speech.” — Michael Curtiz, accepting his Oscar for Best Director (Casablanca)
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
- Interesting Twitter bias test. My Twitter handle was graded as 33% Left, 41% Centrist, and 26% Right. Honestly a bit surprised as I consider myself more Right of Center.
- Steven Pressfield: Lawrence of Arabia's Private Moment
- Cool - I was a bartender in Antarctica
- The Maraschino Mogul. Couple years old but story was new to me.
Everyone knows that Social Security is basically a Ponzi scheme that was designed for an era when the average lifespan was just 65-years old. It was meant as a safety net not a retirement plan. Anyway here's what I suggest.
We nominate a social media Czar or Star Chamber and if it is brought to their attention that you've said or done anything in the past or in current day on social media worthy of you being "cancelled" then you lose your rights to any Social Security funds. Solvency problem instantly solved.
It would really suck for a 15-year old who makes a single mistake - say a dumb Tweet or Tic Toc video - and suddenly finds themselves in the position of now having to pay into a system that they can never benefit from. Future generations would learn never to get on social media in the first place.
Everybody wins!
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Interesting to note that one of the main reasons that Tim Berners-Lee helped develop the "world wide web" (the Internet) was to share particle physics data amongst computers. Now it's cat videos and porn. Progress!... Who knew? Holy Cross College was the 1952 NCAA National Champions in baseball. That surprised me and I'm a lifelong Worcester resident... This was a real movie. Seriously - it has a 5.8 rating on IMDB. It made a total box office of $101,729 worldwide (with $100,000 of that coming from the US). Is it weird I want to see this?... Saw a sign recently outside a church that read "Where the sheep come to be fed by their Sheppard." I don't have the words to describe how offensive and unappealing I would find this if I were one of the parishioners... Recent data showed China having unfavorable to favorable polling at more than 2-1 in most developed countries in the world - except for Israel where is is almost the exact opposite. Wonder why the Israelis have such high regard for China?...
Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.
"The welfare of the people has always been the alibi of tyrants." - Albert Camus
"The means of learning are abundant - it is the desire to learn that is scarce." - Naval Ravikant
"Though they may start out with entrepreneurial zeal, once firms or bureaucracies grow large, they become risk-adverse to the point of Luddism." - Matt Ridley
"I have observed that not the man who hopes when others despair, but the man who despairs when others hope, is admired by a large class of persons as a sage." - John Stuart Mill
"Character is a powerful defense in a world that would love to be able to seduce you, buy you, tempt you, and change you." - Seneca
"Outside every fat man there was an even fatter man trying to close in." - Kingsley Amis
"Do no harm, and take no shit." - Elizabeth Lesser
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Matt Taibbi on Biden Administration nominee Timothy Wu and the First Amendment. Interesting viewpoint.
- How to Forgive. A great parable to know.
- The Most Important Scarce Resource is Legitimacy. Although the article is Ethereum-centric the concept of "legitimacy" is one that will be central to public discourse for years because of applications in politics, media, education, etc.
- Money can buy happiness after all. Only people who have always had money doubt this. (HT Newmark's Door)
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Going to guess that its going to be really tough for any State Governor to cancel any "bike week" in their state this year. Just a guess... So how long before the PC police come for the phrase "brown bag lunch?" Instead it'll be "renewable sustenance container of color" before long... Wokeness and Irony would be a good name for a Smiths cover band... HaHaHaHaHa. Maybe someone needs a very public alibi to be out Washington DC at the moment. Or maybe she's in Florida to try to save Critical Race Theory in the public curriculum?... Ballpoint Penis would be a good name for a Devo cover band (or an ED implant pump device)... From Saturday the 20th and from Monday the 22nd. Just amusing to me - nothing more...
Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.
"When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love..." - Marcus Aurelius
"Our span of life is brief, but is long enough for us to live well and honestly." - Cicero
"Genius can only breathe freely in an atmosphere of freedom." - John Stuart Mill
"If you worked as hard at doing difficult things as you did avoiding them, you'd become unstoppable." - Shane Parrish
"We cannot escape fear. We can only transform it into a companion that accompanies us on all our exciting adventures." - Susan Jeffers
"Humans are basically habit machines. I think learning to break habits is actually a very important meta-skill and can serve you in life almost better than anything else." - Naval Ravikant
More stuff I found interesting or amusing.
- Can happiness be learned? I think so.
- Matt Ridley on China and India and innovation. Freedom is the not-so secret sauce.
- It's All Just Displacement. Interesting read. "The vast majority of the country is not woke, including the vast majority of women and people of color. How could it possibly be healthy for the entire media industry to be captured by any single niche political movement, let alone one that nobody likes?" Interesting question.
- Well done explanation of NFT's - and why they're good!
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Leon Black (who gave Jeffrey Epstein $150 million) has stepped down from Apollo Global Management. Getting ahead of the game let me just say that I don't think Leon Black killed himself.
- Well turnaround is fair play.
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Serious question - can the autopen be used for all Presidential signings or do some things require both an original signature and witnesses? It is truly sad that its come to this... Really think Danny Ainge should purposefully leak that he inquired with the 76ers about the availability of Joel Embid at the trade deadline just to mess with Philly fans... He's got a good point... Route 15 in Vermont is officially The Grand Army of the Republic Highway. I believe local history classes teach that's the route Abraham Lincoln used to lead his Union Army to Gettysburg... Checking the Internet to see if Dr. Larry Nasser was killed in prison. - Disappointed with the result of the search...
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
During his speech at the 1964 Democratic National Convention - LBJ never once mentioned Vietnam. Guessing the MSM of the day never pressed him on it either. The more things change the more they stay the same... Rudolph Diesel is a man who doesn't get enough credit for his contributions to the modern world... Funny how this works out but L. Ron Hubbard was able to create a cult while Charlie Sheen failed in his attempt. From the outside you'd think that "Tiger Blood" and "Winning!" would be more attractive than space aliens but go figure... Did McDonald's skip the Shamrock shake this year? Never saw any ads for it... Heh heh - "Oral Roberts has more wins over Ohio State than Jim Harbaugh." - Ross Tucker...
Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.
"Government cannot make us equal; it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law." - Clarence Thomas
"We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are." - Anais Nin
"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none." - William Shakespeare
"Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better." - Albert Camus
"A home without books is a body without soul." - Marcus Tullius Cicero
"When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." - Humpty Dumpty
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Matt Taibbi: A brief list of official Russia claims that proved to be bogus.
Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.
"If lockdowns stopped COVID we wouldn't need to keep having them." - Dr. David Samadi
"Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so." - Robert Heinlein
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin
"Death had to take [Teddy] Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight." - Thomas R. Marshall
"Milk was a bad choice!" - Will Ferrell
"Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn." - Lewis Grizzard
This article does a good job to peg the bulk of CO2 emissions coming from Asia but it's recommended path of action is Pollyanna-ish and foolish. Lots of talk about massive solar projects but two words missing throughout - Nuclear Power.
Our "moral example" means squat to China. We should not tank our economy in the hopes China will "see the light."
When looking at the graph above remember both China and India signed the Paris Accords in 2015. Don't trust China - China is asshole!
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Tesla has competition in the electric truck marketplace
- Officials like Fauci have undermined trust in government institutions.
- Steven Pressfield: Show 'em where the bullets strike.
- Resilience (HT Meanderthal)
- VDH: Who is Our Military's Enemy? I wish the US Military reacted with at least half the outrage at the NYT publishing fabrications that US troops were being killed due to "Russian bounties" as the military reacted to Tucker Carlson.
I used to think that phrase from JFK's Inaugural Address was the height of patriotism but as I've gotten older no longer agree. What part of liberty does doing things for the government entail? What part of capitalism?
If you think about it the "Ask Not" quote easily could be a slogan for the Chinese Communist Party. Almost fits like a glove.
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Cool - The Physics of Karate (HT Newmark's Door)
- Matt Taibbi on Daniel Ellsburg with some good Gulf of Tonkin background.
- Interesting - Industry composition of US stocks
- Declassified documents may explain why nuclear sub USS Thresher sank
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Think one of the major reasons the interest in the Grammys was so low (TV ratings half of what they were last year) is because nobody has seen any live music for over 12-months now. It is the concerts and seeing performances in person that drives interest in albums and artists. That was completely missing this year... Night Soil would be a hilarious name for a cover band that was intentionally bad. Very few would get the joke... No doubt in my mind whatsoever that the virus originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology... Correct me if I'm wrong but we still don't know the name of the Disney Executive who fired Gina Carano yet do we? Cowardice... UAW says Ford will move new production line out of Ohio and to Mexico instead. This will be interesting to watch. If Ford reverses course then it will be claimed as a victory for the Biden Administration. If the move to Mexico happens - the media will somehow try to blame Trump...
Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.
"Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong." - Calvin Coolidge
"Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government." -James Madison
"I've realized that somebody who's tired and needs a rest, and goes on working all the same is a fool." - Carl Jung
"Where there is Hunger, Law is not regarded; and where Law is not regarded, there will be hunger." - Benjamin Franklin
"The heaviest chains are the ones you put around yourself." - Shane Parrish
"Pride is pregnant with all possible sin." - Augustine of Hippo
"I want to be in the arena. I want to be brave with my life. And when we make the choice to dare greatly, we can sign up to get our asses kicked. We can choose courage or we can choose comfort, but we can't have both. Not at the same time." - Brene Brown
The signings addressed needs at tight end, receiver, defensive line, and pass rush. Belichick loves competition for roster spots and now he has it to the point where there may not be many spots left for new draft picks.
The remaining needs are at center where I would really like to see them bring back David Andrews who is a free agent and a key piece to the offensive line. Kicker where Nick Folk is likely to return (IMHO). And QB where I don't think anyone believes Cam Newton is any sort of long term (or short term) solution.
I don't see the Pats being able to move up significantly in the draft to grab one of the top 4 QB prospects (though could be wrong). I could see them staying put at the 15th pick and taking Alabama QB Mac Jones to be Newton's protege for a season. Failing that trading a 4th round pick to the Jaguars for Gardner Minshew and his mustache.
Just to be clear - the moves that Belichick made had nothing to do with Tom Brady winning the Super Bowl and everything to do with just trying to field a more competitive roster. Mission accomplished on that front. Optimistic that we're looking at least an 11-5 season coming up and a return to the playoffs. Really optimistic view - the Patriots may have just put together the best defense in the NFL.
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- What has Covid-19 taught us about remote work?
- How simple ideas lead to scientific discoveries
- Vaping innovation and its enemies.
- Inflammation and insulin resistance. Can high dose aspirin in Type II diabetics significantly drop blood glucose after just 2-weeks? Looks like the answer is "YES" (article from 14-years ago but has not been refuted)
- The year without the flu. Cynics could say that there was "no flu" because all flu cases were counted as Covid-19 cases.
- Washington Post correction points to larger issue with agenda-driven anonymous sources. Still say one way to help correct this is to require social media to label any stories with anonymous sources as "Potentially Fake News" - no matter the media outlet that originates them.
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- One of the timeless philosophical questions - can pregnant women go swimming?
- Domestic Disorder and International Credibility
- With Ratings Down, the Networks Hunt for a Trump Replacement
Miscellaneous thought and observations.
Can't help but wonder from time to time how things in this country would be different if a Gary Johnson won the Presidential Election in 2016 or a Tulsi Gabbard in 2020... Cancelled Media would be a good name for a place for "cancelled" members of the media (say a Bari Weiss) could ply their trade and people could go to show support for the "cancelled." Kind of have that already in Substack but I like the name Cancelled Media better... Who knew? A number of people die every year in the US from getting tangled in their bedclothes - a fairly significant number at that... Irish drinking toast - It is better to spend money like there is no tomorrow than to spend tonight like there's no money... Joe Biden's been in office for 54 days now and "the walls are closing in" from today's "bombshell" (hey the media said that every day for four years during Trump so turnaround's fair play)...
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Agree - this is genius! (HT Bits and Pieces)
- Google facing $5 billion lawsuit over still tracking users in incognito mode.
- This is true!
Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.
"Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual." - Calvin Coolidge
"One day you will wake up and there won't be any more time to do the things you always wanted. Do it now." - Paul Coelho
"The only way to solve a problem is to act on it." - Naval Ravikant
"It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong." - Thomas Sowell
"The biggest thing about trillions of dollars in stimulus is that it sets a precedent for future recessions that policy makers will have to match or else they'll look like they don't want to help (vs can't help)." - Morgan Housel
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not a truth." - Marcus Aurelius
More stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Interesting - during the pandemic year of 2020 fewer cars on the road led to higher vehicular deaths in the US. (HT Steve Layman)
- Seven Tips from Ernest Hemingway on Writing Fiction
- Modern Cancel Culture (Via Gina Carano's Twiiter feed)
- Culling 1,500 books from your stash
- A 10-count in honor of the late, great Marvelous Marvin Hagler
- Heh Heh
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- A potential tunnel linking Northern Ireland and Scotland.
- The Daily Routines of Geniuses
- How I learned to stop worrying and love the debt.
- Still one of my favorite music mash-ups - Call Me A Hole
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Today should have been the annual Saint Patrick's Day Parade in Worcester. This is one of the 5 largest St Patty's parades in the country but because of Covid we can't have nice things... Reminder - we knew exactly who President Obama picked in his NCAA pool but we never learned where he was the night our Embassy in Benghazi was attacked... Cancel culture may have started with lawn darts. First they came for Jarts and I said nothing... The Quest for Good Explanations would be a good name for a blog... Happy 88th birthday to Michael Caine. Remember if you say "my cocaine" you are also saying Michael Caine's name in his own voice...
Marvelous Marvin Hagler has passed away at 66-years of age.
Here is a nice appreciation of Hagler from a couple months ago. I agree 100% that he was the greatest middleweight in boxing history.
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Matt Taibbi: The Sovietization of the American Press. "The transformation from phony 'objectivity' to open one party orthodoxy hasn't been an improvement."
- Wait is this an atheist recruiting poster because it makes it sound pretty cool.
- Naval Ravikant on Happiness. Not only worth a half-hour of your time - also worth revisiting occasionally.
Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.
"The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own." - Albert Ellis
"I went to my doctor and told him 'My penis is burning." He said 'That means someone is talking about it.'" - Gary Shandling
"Whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together." - Jonathan Swift
"A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today." - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
"Why doesn't everybody leave everybody else the hell alone?" - Jimmy Durante
"A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week." - General George Patton
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- To beat woke tyrants, the rest of us must treat them as the monsters they are. Agree 100%.
- Elusive Harmony: Levon Helm, The Band, and the Birth of Americana. Interesting read on some of the backstory and history of The Band. (HT Newmark's Door)
- Science is not an instrument of patriarchal oppression. Personally I hope the term "postmodern metabaloney" catches on.
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
You know what would blow people's minds? Chris Evans as the new James Bond. Seriously - Captain America as the new Bond would have people talking more than any other choice as Daniel Craig's replacement... Interesting - as a crop cannabis has an enormous carbon footprint. Amusing to think opposition to Green New Deals may soon silently be coming from potheads and Bitcoin miners who rely on coal generated electricity.... Think it is pretty safe to assume that anyone you see wearing double-masks voted Democrat... The real anti-feminist issue about Pepe Le Pew was that Warner Brothers basically made the poor cat he was harassing nameless. Think about it - you knew Pepe's name right?... After speaking with a number of friends who are going through rough divorces I'm surprised that there isn't some sort of Strangers on a Train type "support groups"...
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Ever wonder if they make vegan condoms for people who want to be extra careful about never consuming animal protein? Yeah - me neither... I do wonder how many people see the title of the Oliver Sacks book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and think the book is about the Biden Administration... Years ago I saw a bumper sticker that said "Cristo Me Salvo" (Christ Saved Me) but problem was my brain read it as "Cristo Me Starvo" which of course my brain translated as "Christ I'm hungry." So of course now I say that whenever I want something to eat... HBO (or someone) really should do a mini-series on the exploits of "Mad" Jack Churchill... If you saw a video of Joe Biden asking, "Would you eat the moon if it were made of ribs?" would you assume it was a Deep-Fake video or would you assume it was real? That's where we are in this country right now... May be silly but this was one of my favorite Red Sox memories of all-time...
More stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- The NBA has a 3-point infestation problem.
- Cool - The greatest pool player in history just wanted to hustle.
- Germany seeks to tax income of US soldiers based there. The solution to this is easy - either move those soldiers to friendlier locations or bring them home. Then we can watch as the Germans complain about us moving away.
- Enjoy! $100 million yacht owned by Capri Sun billionaire crashes into Caribbean Yacht Club. Reminder "schadenfreude" is a German word. On a related note. (HT Newmark's Door)
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Steven Pressfield: Pike decides to die
- The Appalachian Trail in less than 5 minutes.
- Heh Heh
- We are definitely getting closer to electric aircraft. You can get more info on Joby Aviation here.
- Free Knowledge and Innovation. Big believer that access to libraries have many benefits that are hard to measure (even in the age of the Internet).
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Is it still OK to say "Chinese water torture?" I mean it was called that in the first place because that's how the Chinese would TORTURE people. Guessing now that phrase would be politically incorrect... This is great... Really love Bari Weiss' comparison of Woke Culture to Scientology. Just can't wait for the comparable Going Clear book or documentary. In this metaphor is Bari Weiss now the equivalent of Leah Remini?... After seeing the way the media has treated Joe Biden with kid gloves - why would a Republican President ever hold another White House press briefing ever again? Seriously... Honestly don't feel bad about the "cancelling" of Pepe Le Pew. Even as a kid he creeped me out. Do miss the idea that anyone in the cartoon world with a French accent is a smelly pervert though...
On this day in 1876 Alexander Graham Bell made the first phone call to his assistant Thomas Watson.
Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.
"Wherever the ways of man are gentle, there is commerce, and wherever there is commerce, the ways of men are gentle." - Montesquieu
"We need more cowbell." - Christopher Walken
"Random violence makes the news precisely because it is so rare; routine acts of kindness does not make the news precisely because it is so commonplace." - Matt Ridley
"Operation Warp Speed specifically was an excellent idea and has worked out great - Novavax vaccine wouldn't exist without it." - Patrick Collison
"That's the reason they're called lessons, they lessen from day to day." - Lewis Carroll
"Energy and persistence conquer all things." - Benjamin Franklin
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Interesting interview of Patrick Collison, co-founder and CEO of Stripe. I find Collison a fascinating character.
- Morgan Housel: Investing - the Greatest Show on Earth
- The Miseducation of America's Elites. Woke Culture IS the new Scientology. What a great analogy from Bari Weiss. Khan Academy looks like a better and better option for parents.
- SpaceX moves to beam Starlink Internet into trucks, boats and aircraft. I predicted this months ago. Just the 18-wheelers and yachts could eat up the million licenses Starlink has from the FCC.
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
When Harvey Weistein was finally arrested they said everyone in Hollywood knew. When Jeffrey Epstein was arrested it was said him being a pedophile was an open secret that was never reported. What are they going to say when Joe Biden's dementia is finally too obvious for any to deny - how many tales are going to come out from Washington reporters of stories that should have been made public long, long ago?... Speaking of Jeffrey Epstein... Status Malfunction would be a good name for a band... I've seen a number of restaurants advertising (Tom) Brady Burgers - a cheese burger with 7 (onion) rings... Apropos of nothing - one of my favorite movie cameos was Kurt Vonnegut in Back to School...
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Heh Heh - Funny because it's true
- VDH - Hitting Woke Herd Immunity?
- In wake of outages, Tesla plugs secret battery into Texas grid.
- Morgan Housel - The Fed Isn't Printing as Much Money as You Think
Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.
"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty." - Maya Angelou
"Political correctness is tyranny with manners."- Charlton Heston
"Never confuse education with intelligence, you can have a PhD and still be an idiot." - Richard Feynman
"I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do." - Robert Heinlein
"How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interests him in the fortunes of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it." - Adam Smith
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Dolly Parton is the best. Someone who truly lives by what Warren Buffett calls an Inner Scorecard... Nullius in verba (take nobody's word for it) is the motto of the Royal Society which was once the gold standard for science. Today it seems some in science would have you believe the words of "experts" blindly like sheep... At least Oprah earned her money. The other two are nothing more than parasites... Insect Social Life would be a good name for a band... May be satire but it's pretty spot on for how I feel...
Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.
"Doctors won't make you healthy. Nutritionists won't make you slim. Teachers won't make you smart. Gurus won't make you calm. Mentors won't make you rich. Trainers won't make you fit. Ultimately, you have to take responsibility. Save yourself." - Naval Ravikant
"This is the only life you've got, so it's time to move beyond your conditioning. It's time to move beyond your fear or whatever else is holding you back from living fully because that's the way nature meant you to be." - Wim Hoff
"Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true." - Naval Ravikant
"The big question about how people behave is whether they've got an Inner Scorecard or an Outer Scorecard. It helps if you can be satisfied with an Inner Scorecard." - Warren Buffett
"You can never make the same mistake twice because the second time you make it, it's not a mistake. it's a choice." - Steven Denn
"There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live." - Dalai Lama
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Yesterday was National Cereal Day but I didn't celebrate because I couldn't find any of my favorite cereal... Grizzly Slippers would be a good name for a band... How vulnerable Democrats will feel about Trump campaigning in their states the next couple of years... The Democrats slogan going forward should be "The Democratic Party: Embrace the Suck." Have the bumper stickers been made up yet?... Who knew? Bon Scott wasn't even the original lead singer for AC/DC. It was a guy named Dave Edwards who Scott replaced after about a year... Supposedly Douglas MacArthur didn't spend a single night in Korea during the entire duration of the war. Can that possibly be true?... Happy 68th birthday to Hall of Famer Jim Ed Rice...
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Heh Heh - we're talking about practice!
- This made me chuckle. (HT Meanderthal)
- It's too bad Amanda Nunes isn't better known outside of the UFC. Next to Serena Williams - Nunes is the most impressive female athlete of my lifetime. Oh and she won again last night.
- "Notes" of an Elder. Excellent life advice and some important question worth examining.
Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.
"When everything is going terribly, and I have no reason to be confident, I just decide to be." - Kurt Vonnegut
"I'm convinced that today the majority of Americans want what those first Americans wanted: A better life for themselves and their children; a minimum of government authority." - Ronald Reagan
"Opulence - I has it." - Hunter Biden
"We must love them both, those whose opinion we share and those whose opinions we reject." - Thomas Aquinas
"Can someone explain to me the technical difference between anarchists and the mentally ill? Is it a branding thing?" - Scott Adams
"Invest the best hours of your day on the biggest opportunity, not the biggest problem." - Shane Parrish
"More the knowledge lesser the ego, lesser the knowledge more the ego." - Albert Einstein
Stuff I found interesting or amusing.
- Interesting look at Tesla stock.
- Speaking of stocks and the stock market.
- Baseball Bugs turns 75. (HT Daddy Pundit)
- As the Insurrection Narrative Crumbles, Democrats Cling to It More Desperately Than Ever. (HT Execupundit)
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Theory I've heard a few times now - Governor Charlie Baker is waiting to fully open up Massachusetts until after Saint Patrick's Day because he doesn't want to risk drunken idiot super spreader events. My theory is Charlie Baker is waiting to open up the State because he doesn't own testicles... Andrew Cuomo's Covid-19 policies of putting infected people in nursing homes may have killed 5-times or more people than the number who died in the Twin Towers on September 11th. How is this not a bigger scandal?... For all the angst on the Left about orange man bad Donald Trump - you never hear anyone pining for Hillary Clinton do you? No "Hillary would have done this" or "Hillary would have done that." Isn't that weird? Or very telling?... Phrase of the day, "Drinking with Godot" - drinking while waiting for friends who may or may not arrive... Do you remember back in July when Andrew Cuomo said, "We now have people coming to New York, fleeing other states because it's the 'safe' state." Do you remember that? I do...
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- VDH: Trumpism - without Trump?
- Woke Excesses Cause Minority Voters to Flee the Democratic Party. Socialism and "defund the police" aren't selling points to anyone.
- Matt Taibbi on N.V. Gogol - a Russian writer I had honestly never heard of before. Going to have to read The Nose and maybe Dead Souls.
- America's elites are waging war on workers and small businesses. The lockdowns from the Wuhan virus have made this perfectly clear to anyone paying attention.
- Sit and Spin. An actual toy from my childhood. Then people wonder why my generation took drugs.
Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.
"Ours may become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of enemies, but by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching our children. In an age of artificial intelligence, they are creating artificial stupidity." - Thomas Sowell
"Man is a wolf to man." - Plautus
"It's odd and cringe-worthy, like watching a rap battle break out between Romneys." - Matt Taibbi
"I will grant pardon before I am asked for it, and will meet the wishes of honorable men half-way." - Seneca
"Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose." - Eckhart Tolle
"That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see it stays there." - George Orwell
"God only knows what it's [social media] doing to our children's brains." - Sean Parker (Facebooks first President)
More stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- 10 short life lessons from Steven Pressfield. As an aside I would support legislation to rename "Social Media" as "Jerkoff Distractions."
- Arnold Schwartzenegger voices Darth Vader
- Evidence that not just free trade but also low regulation is the key to growth
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
Just a reminder but there is no greater waste of time than reading "mock drafts" whether they be NFL, NBA or any pro league. Complete waste of time... Good question... The White Obama would be a cool name for a show about a former President who goes on to coach a basketball team made up of prep school white kids... The Red Sox won the 2018 World Series with an outfield of Andrew Benintendi, Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr. With Bradley signing as a free agent with Milwaukee all three are now gone from Boston. They make it hard to root for this team... Was fascinated by this video about home made electric ice skates...
Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.
"The right solution is expensive. The wrong one costs a fortune." - Shane Parrish
"Our span of life is brief, but is long enough for us to live well and honestly." - Cicero
"There is nothing sinister in so arranging one's affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich and poor, and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands." - Justice Learned Hand
"Mass movements can rise and spread without a belief in a God, but never without the belief in a devil." - Eric Hoffer
"Choose not to be harmed - and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed and you haven't been." - Marcus Aurelius
"In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the time - none, zero." - Charlie Munger
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- If you thought profiling by police was disturbing then just wait till it's done as the result of AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning). "Somehow, AI produced by white guys often seems to work best on white guys." Interesting long read but worth the time.
- Would Could Cause a US China War?
- The Rise of Avatarism. The future will be weird. Very weird. "I am not a cat."
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovitch on Texas lifting the mask mandate; "Getting rid of masks seems ignorant to me. It's like we have to have instant gratification. We have to act like the pandemic is over. We already went through this once. We have to do it again?"
If that's how you really feel coach Pop then I have a few suggestions for you for dealing with the Governor's decision:
1. You could step away from coaching if you think it is unsafe. You've made millions and have the resources to self-isolate for as long as you feel "unsafe." I mean you've been able to work this whole time - why begrudge the others in Texas that same opportunity?
2. You could ask the owners of the Spurs to forgo the revenue that fans in the stands would bring in order for your personal peace of mind. How do you think that request would go over?
3. You could pretend that the fans are not there to see an NBA game but actually in attendance of an indoors Black Lives Matter protest. That would make the crowds "safe" from the virus according to the "science" we've witness these past 12-months or so.
4. You could fuck off. For you to do otherwise would seem ignorant to me.
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Matt Taibbi: Are the days of the "K-shaped" con finally over?
- Cuttlefish have passed a cognitive test devised for human children
- Heh Heh - Penguin Random House have announces revised Dr Seuss book Oh, The People You'll Cancel
- I think Thales College will be successful. Also think their model of slimmed down degree offerings (what no Women's Studies!) and cost-effectiveness will give rise to many other such institutions.
Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.
"Most people do not listen with the intent to understand, they listen with the intent to reply." - Stephen Covey
"Talent sets the floor, character sets the ceiling." - Bill Belichick
"On one level, wisdom is nothing more than the ability to take your own advice. It's actually very easy to give people good advice. It's very hard to follow the advice you know is good." - Sam Harris
"If you drink, don't drive. Don't even putt." - Dean Martin
"Process saves us from the poverty our intentions." - Elizabeth King
"Education should not be intended to make people comfortable; it is meant to make them think." - Hanna Holborn Gray
"Science is a way to teach how something gets to be known, what is not known, to what extent things are known (for nothing is known absolutely), how to handle doubt and uncertainty, what the rules of evidence are, how to think about things so that judgments can be made, how to distinguish truth from fraud, and from show." - Richard Feynman
Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.
I still like the idea of a straight-up trade of DB Stephon Gilmore from the Patriots for QB Jimmy Garappolo from the 49ers. I think that works for both teams. My fallback would be to trade a 4th round pick to Jacksonville for QB Gardner Minshew... There is no such thing as "White" math. Anyone who would argue that "2+2 does not equal 4" has no place in education and whatever university gave that person a degree needs to have their credentials revoked... Mitt Romney should run for President in 2024 - as a Centrist Democrat. An idea so crazy it just might work! Romney seems half-way into the Democratic Party already so why not? He'd be the only Centrist Democrat running. This would be fascinating to watch - admit it - you'd watch it too... If Aleksei Navalny doesn't qualify as a "prisoner of conscience" or a "political prisoner" then those terms have no meaning. Amnesty International is a joke. If you give money to Amnesty International, the ACLU, or Greenpeace you are actually making things worse and should be ashamed of yourself...
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Matt Taibbi: In Defense of Substack. "In the last four years especially, a rift has formed in the news business, an argument primarily about method and approach." I've come to trust Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and Glenn Greenwald much more than the New York Times. That trust (and distrust) has been well-earned.
- I had never heard of NFT's (niffties?) before last week. They could be the next big thing and another reason cryptocurrency is here to stay.
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Cool story of the double life of a "marvelous Chinese conjurer"
- China will host the 2022 Winter Olympics while accused of genocide. Should the world boycott? YES
- VDH - Losing an American Genius. VDH was a friend of Rush's so you know the appreciation was heartfelt.