Five Humble Thoughts

 1.  Over the past six months....if you view the Ukraine's drone-strikes on Russia....with severe damage to the oil refinery operations and fuel production....there's likely some breaking point in 6 to 12 months....where gas sales will only occur in limited quantities.  Third-world status will have been achieved.

2.  WNBA.  I'll go and predict....they rig the draft where none of the transwomen are drafted....a lawsuit occurs....somewhere around late 2027, the NBA tells the WNBA that the case will result in a $100 million win for the transwomen, and that the NBA will not cover the losses.  At this point....the NBA walks away and refuses to be a 'partner'.  WNBA....season of 2028....ends.

3.  If you'd paused and conversed with 100 folks in 1975....trying to engage on the topics of socialism and capitalism....fewer than 10-percent would have engaged.  Today?  I hate to suggest it....but probably 80-percent or more....would engage....most giving an edge to socialism but never giving any details/facts.

4. My belief....male Gen-Z individuals....opting out of the job market, and casually living 'free' in the parent's house....will wake up around age 50....to realize their future (reliance upon dad/mom living) is hopeless.  

5.  If it takes a state longer than 24 hours to do a vote count.....you probably have state math 'scores' in the low IQ range.  

Trying to Do Andy Griffith in 2026

This weekend, I pondered upon someone coming up today and trying to remake Mayberry and do an Andy Griffith episode in today's atmosphere.  I doubt if they'd get past twelve episodes.

Andy today?  He'd be a failed student at Liberty University, who quit and spent six months trying to make it in Nashville.  On the final night before leaving Nashville, before returning to Mayberry....he got drunk and banged out three tunes in sixty minutes to some guy for $500....enough to pay his ticket home.  Andy remembers nothing of the night but all three tunes went over the next year to make $20 million for the country guy now made into a star. Andy returns to Mayberry mostly as a failure but just in time as the old police chief dies in some trailer on the south-side of Mayberry while 'hugging' some trailer-trash gal.  Andy agrees to the chief's job but admits he knows little to nothing about the job.

Barney?  He's be some Gulf War-vet who has PTSD and goes nuts about every three weeks from some drug that he's taking.  What no one knows is that he got there in Iraq a month after the war ended, and ended up as the custodian to one of Saddam's palaces, and was mostly there to water the plants, arrange for clean-up crews, and ensure Army guys hanging out there don't break anything.  He's convinced Andy to let him tote several military assault weapons in the police-car but no ammo.
Aunt Bee?  She's a cigarette-smoking ex-bartender from Tulsa who tinkers with motorcycles, makes apple pies from scratch, and has some mysterious past from San Francisco (claiming to have known at some point Charles Manson).

Otis?  He's been on sixteen different alcohol rehab adventures.  He's under study now by a Swiss PhD guy with radical ways of treating this.  Otis's wife is a die-hard far-left liberal who mostly drives Otis to drink.

Floyd?  He has a secret history of dressing up as women.  He's secretly written a dozen romance books and flies into the Bahamas once a year for two weeks while he writes another successful book.

Gomer?  He's mostly a gas-sniffer and comes in and out of brilliance about four hours a week.

Goober?  He's PhD character who flipped out and gave up a life in computer design to just repair cars.

Ernest T. Bass?  He's mostly a crazy nut, who can't be put away in a home.

And Helen Crump?  She's a fireball teacher who does crazy stuff and never seems to get arrested or fired.

The show would be watched intently for two or three episodes and then folks would say that it just isn't the same as the old show.

My High-School Math Experience

 Leaving the 5th grade and entering the 6th....there was some bump-up in terms of 'hard-stuff'.  We had a older lady (early 60s) as a math teacher....who had the method....home-work assigned at the end of class, with the hour spent the next day....everyone sent to the board to draw the problem (from the home-work).  Out of 24-odd people....maybe four understood the problem (or got help the previous night). 

We suffered for 50-odd minutes....with only about one-third  of the folks getting the problem right. Key issue....even if they draw the problem and right solution....they could not explain how they arrived at the end.

The teacher?  Mostly marginal competent at the math-crap.  Around mid-way in the year....she has health issues, and is replaced by someone even more dimwitted than her.

Sixth-grade achievements?  Zero (for me)..

Seventh-grade math....new instructor....same method.....same problem with the teacher really not capable of getting a problem across.

Eighth-grade math.....new instructor....same method.....same problem.  

Ninth-grade math....new instructor.....same method....same problem.

If you asked me....of 24 folks....four understood the formula crap...with another four getting older brothers/sisters giving them some marginal help.  The rest? Still at 5th grade level (this was early 1970s....rural Alabama).

10th grade.....I change schools, and the new math instructor hands the book out and says....USE the book and examples.

Over the course of three weeks....I progressed from 5th grade level to 10th grade level...simply reviewing the book examples, and methods.

By this work-at-your-own-pace....around  early January.....I had completed the entire course (tested out).

If you asked me about the four years of wasted math instruction?  I'd say the instructors weren't that capable of math (in the first place). Having a degree in math?  I seriously doubt it....they probably had some teaching degree 'deal'.  

This being the 'norm'?  I kinda wonder about that.

Under Islam, Is There A Precise List Of Haram Problems?

 NO.

Explaining haram?  Well...generally, anything that gives you pleasure and can be identifed....is on a list of things called haram (meaning you should avoid).

Example....if you had a bicycle and rode it to chill-out/relax....it would be on a haram list.  If you rode it strictly to reach work....it would not be haram.

So there cannot be a single precise, exhaustive, or universally agreed-upon list of everything that is haram.

There being things on one haram list....by one group...involving technology or medical stuff....being 'bad', but if you were a different group member....it'd be on the good list?  Yeah.

Magic-BS or fortune-telling?  Usually on the bad list.  Same story for gambling or bribery.

Sexual matters?  Well....it depends on the leadership interpretation....some might suggest being happy after sex....being a bad-thing....while another group would suggest being happy in any form....being a good thing.

All of this leading to confusion?  At some point....when folks ask enough questions....things get to a point of making little sense.

Engaging in a discussion with a Muslim guy on haram, and trying to make sense?  It's not likely to make sense.  Even the Muslim guy will admit it.  

In the end....to make public perception positive....it's always wise (if a member of this group) to say you are always unhappy....no matter what you are doing, and just fake it.

Math Story

 Over the weekend...I noted this university story.

Some University of California-Berkeley calculus professor got to talking over issues.  They noted that 'some' students are “five to eight years behind in mathematics.” 

They arrive fresh out of high school....no one halting them with 'stupid' SAT & ACT requirements.  Then reality settles in....'some' of them (never say a percentage...but I would assume between 10-percent and one-third....unable to handle more than 5th/6th grade math.

This begs the questions routine from me:

1.  The last five years of high school....what were they doing?

2.  Were there actual math teachers in the final five years of high school....if so....are themselves lacking?

3.  What does this say of California education in general?

4.  Are these the first folks to have their jobs replaced by AI?

If you can't handle fractions/converting....by age fifteen....aren't you limited on job potential for the remainder of your life?

What College Is and Is Not

When you make some determination to go off and attend university somewhere, there ought to be logical process or thinking involved.....but because of the juvenile behavior thinking in the mix....you lose some perception and common sense along the way.

College is not a social club for misfits or loser-attitude teenagers.

College is supposed to make you think....to perceive....to ask questions....to determine facts and balance out an end-result.

College is not a union.

College is usually a place where you end up meeting folks from different walks of life, some with religious convictions....some with far-left-wing convictions....some with communist ideology drilled in.....some with dreams of becoming a forest-ranger....and some with dreams of becoming President of the United States some day.

College is not a clique of borderline misfits, and if you think you've bumped into some....you are in a loser university.

College is where smart professors teach you the art of logic and thinking.

College is not a mob-club that allows students to run the system.

College isn't a place where free-space is restrained.

College is not a semi-professional sport association.

College is generally the only place where you can practice geometric equations, lab experiments, debate skills....screw-up....and learn from your mistakes without any harm.

College is not a place where attendance means success in life.

College is a place where you could bump into a Chinese gal, a British-eventually-to-become-a-Lord, an alcoholic Scot, a flirtatious Swedish gal, an Einstein-like Japanese guy, an migrant from Libya, and a mentally insane German....all in one single day.

College is not a safe playground where you play silly games all day.

College is supposed to be a dividing line about maturity, acceptance of logic, a taste of debate, and an open door to knowledge.

College isn't a thug or riot-training environment.

At the end of this period of attendance....you should have learned something and discovered a wide expanse of knowledge.  You ought to be able to listen to arguments and find points to agree or disagree.  If this isn't your situation?  Fine, get an occupation and move on in life.

The Typical Idiot Who Falls for the Anti-Capitalist or Pro-Socialist Slant

I've sat and watched a number of videos over the past month where young men and ladies (presumably from university protest action) were asked to detail and explain their pro-socialism view on the world and how capitalism is destroying civilization.  Generally, you notice three things about their talk and view:

(1) They have virtually no understanding of business or commerce.  If you asked them how the tennis shoes on their feet came to exist....a blank stare would likely occur.  Why almost no tennis shoes are manufactured in the US today....wouldn't be something that they could explain, or why virtually no TVs are manufactured in the US.  It's like they attended two or three years of college without taking a single class in business.

(2) They've never traveled beyond the border of the US.  They reference France or Germany an awful lot....but oddly, they simply haven't been to either.  They reference Cuba a good bit.....but haven't been there.  They reference the Soviet Union or Russia a good bit.....but haven't been there.

(3) They seem to be absolutely on the idea that a company could exist where the employees run everything and there are no bosses or corporate umbrella.  Beyond some local flower shop or two-man barber-shop.....they typically can't identify a single business that exists like they describe.  They keep on identifying some company in France that runs this way, or how all businesses run in Finland.

In essence, it's a naive 'club'.  They've paid some dues to get in the front door....hype up the agenda with other members....and keep talking about the perfect world that exists in Finland, Cuba, or some fantasy utopia.

I often get the idea that they also enjoy a 402-situation (pro-marijuana).

You'd generally say that this group of individuals lack skepticism, common sense, and a pondering nature.  Whatever lecture they got lured into....they tend to believe in the fantasy world described and never question anything.  The odd thing here is that thirty to forty years ago....you would have in various college lectures and the impact of independent thinking, analysis, and skeptic nature would have drilled into you.  For some reason, these skills....which you generally need in life to survive....aren't lectured upon.

What happens in the end?  Somewhere down the line....someone is going make some impact upon these naive minds and bring them to some Socrates-like moment where they have to reflect and ponder upon the situation.  It won't be a pleasant experience.