This came up today about Elizabeth Warren.
As a kid (one might assume around age 17)....1966....she came up and won some type of Betty Crocker Homemaker of Tomorrow scholarship.
I read through the piece....this was done at the local high school....not at the national level.
Basically, you took a 50-min test....loaded with 150 questions. Do the math, that means every 20 seconds or so....she had to come to a conclusion.
The subjects of the test? Family relationships, religious stuff and moral values, kid development, health, safety, money management, leisure time, home care and beautification, your local community and further education.
How she won the contest? My humble guess is that there were only five or six girls in the group who attempted this, and maybe out of the 150 questions.....she got sixty of these correct. The mere suggestion that she even got a hundred questions answered in the 50 minutes? No, I just can't believe that's possible.
Would that Betty Crocker business hype you to vote for her? That's the oddball thing.....southerners like that kind of stuff, but you notice.....this was not for a cooking or baking project, it was just for a test of knowledge.
Tuesday, 8 January 2019
Delusional People
The first time in my life that I had some introduction to delusional people....I was around 13 years old. My dad had a vehicle with serious transmission issues, and had decided that he'd take it to his mechanic (local guy, someone that done several mechanical projects for my dad). So we left the vehicle for four days, and returned on a Saturday...hoping to pick it up. You have to remember, this is rural Alabama, in the early 1970s.
In four days time, the guy had done absolutely nothing with the car. So this big 'chat' occurs, and I'm standing there eyeballing this guy with my dad. The guy is mid-30s and I'd met him on at least two other occasions.
He couldn't get to the car issue because of all the UFO's flying over his house. Yes, a 8-minute conversation is carried on.....mostly with my dad responding 'uh huh'. It wasn't a positive 'uh huh' or a negative 'uh huh'. It was just to acknowledge that the guy could carry onto the next part of the story.
For me, I was quiet entertained and astonished at the level of UFO traffic over his remote farm (it was about four miles from our farm), and kept wondering why I didn't didn't see these UFOs if they were in such abundance.
At some point, my dad responded that we'd take the truck, and maybe return in a couple of weeks. Then he told me to take the car and he'd return in the transmission-issue truck. I responded that I was only 13 and I'd have to travel on the county road, and the cops might stop me. He assured me....this just wasn't a problem.
I settled back into the LTD. If you've never sat in a LTD.....it's made for four folks to sit side-by-side in the front seat, and a seven-foot tall guy could easily lay out in the seat. It was my first real 'on-the-road' experience. Luckily, this was mostly a chirt or dirt road, and I didn't cruise more than 40 mph. If you've never done a dirt road at 40 mph in a LTD...let me assure you....there's a fair-sized dust trail that is achieved.
Upon my dad's arrival back at the house, and after his phone call to find another mechanic, I engaged in the UFO conversation. He used the word 'delusional' but with his southern drawl.....it came out something like 'de-lucy-nel' (sounding almost French). I took the 15-pound dictionary that we had in the house later, and spent at least 15 minutes paging through out it to arrive at a meaning. The word 'paranoid' really didn't make any sense to me (that's what they wanted you to grasp). But then it came to imaginary and I began to understand the whole thing.
Throughout my Air Force years, I came across three or four people....who were figured out to be delusional. Some got onto drugs of some type, and that helped them to think various things. Some just fell apart at some point, maybe through some breakdown, and went to this delusional sequence.
Over the weekend, I was watching some German cop movie, and in the midst of this.....they had the script arranged so that two delusional people met and both were engaging in each others fantasy world. Yeah, it was a great script, I have to admit. But I sat and thought over the story as a kid....over the UFO mechanic.
In some way, I would have stood there for a good hour listening to the guy and been impressed by his description. Luckily, my dad saw through this fairly quickly.
In four days time, the guy had done absolutely nothing with the car. So this big 'chat' occurs, and I'm standing there eyeballing this guy with my dad. The guy is mid-30s and I'd met him on at least two other occasions.
He couldn't get to the car issue because of all the UFO's flying over his house. Yes, a 8-minute conversation is carried on.....mostly with my dad responding 'uh huh'. It wasn't a positive 'uh huh' or a negative 'uh huh'. It was just to acknowledge that the guy could carry onto the next part of the story.
For me, I was quiet entertained and astonished at the level of UFO traffic over his remote farm (it was about four miles from our farm), and kept wondering why I didn't didn't see these UFOs if they were in such abundance.
At some point, my dad responded that we'd take the truck, and maybe return in a couple of weeks. Then he told me to take the car and he'd return in the transmission-issue truck. I responded that I was only 13 and I'd have to travel on the county road, and the cops might stop me. He assured me....this just wasn't a problem.
I settled back into the LTD. If you've never sat in a LTD.....it's made for four folks to sit side-by-side in the front seat, and a seven-foot tall guy could easily lay out in the seat. It was my first real 'on-the-road' experience. Luckily, this was mostly a chirt or dirt road, and I didn't cruise more than 40 mph. If you've never done a dirt road at 40 mph in a LTD...let me assure you....there's a fair-sized dust trail that is achieved.
Upon my dad's arrival back at the house, and after his phone call to find another mechanic, I engaged in the UFO conversation. He used the word 'delusional' but with his southern drawl.....it came out something like 'de-lucy-nel' (sounding almost French). I took the 15-pound dictionary that we had in the house later, and spent at least 15 minutes paging through out it to arrive at a meaning. The word 'paranoid' really didn't make any sense to me (that's what they wanted you to grasp). But then it came to imaginary and I began to understand the whole thing.
Throughout my Air Force years, I came across three or four people....who were figured out to be delusional. Some got onto drugs of some type, and that helped them to think various things. Some just fell apart at some point, maybe through some breakdown, and went to this delusional sequence.
Over the weekend, I was watching some German cop movie, and in the midst of this.....they had the script arranged so that two delusional people met and both were engaging in each others fantasy world. Yeah, it was a great script, I have to admit. But I sat and thought over the story as a kid....over the UFO mechanic.
In some way, I would have stood there for a good hour listening to the guy and been impressed by his description. Luckily, my dad saw through this fairly quickly.
Debate: Being 'Morally Right' Better Than Being 'Factually Correct'
This 'concept' (amusing enough) is a discussion that Ocasio-Cortez has dragged out of some university memory that she had, and used for a basis of our path ahead in the political sphere.
So, I'll ask some questions.
1. Can you make any argument or discussion without facts? Someone living in a fantasy world....wanting to argue that unicorns are faster than horses, could start a discussion. Could it go anywhere? If 'Bigfoot' were born in America, would he be able to run for President? If 'Casper, the friendly ghost' were fat and chubby....would it be right to bully him along to lose weight? Could the Coyote beat the Road Runner, in a fair fight? All of these are discussions, without facts. Arguments or discussions without facts....simply don't work.
2 Does being morally right win in every single argument? It depends greatly on whose morales you intend to use. There are often a hundred degrees of morales, and each one will go down a path that some people simply aren't devoted to or willing to attach themselves.
3. Do the two terms (morales versus facts) connect together? You can make a case that it helps to have facts....to arrive at a decision, but you can also make the case that morales will drive the decision process. It's like arriving to a raft after a ship sinking and it can only hold twelve people, while you have twenty people there in the water. Eight of those people won't be able to do much other than float on the water and hang onto the side of the raft. Facts generate the dilemma and the resolution. Morally, you might be willing to overburden the raft with the twenty people, and help sink the raft in a quick fashion, so that fairness has been shared, and everyone now will have a zero chance of survival. Morally, it's a positive thing that all have the same equal chance now of dying.
4. Do you really want some Senator, Congressman, or President....yanking on your morales chain? Most people can remember how the prohibition era went in 1920, and how that morales effort by the government led to an absolute failure.
5. Finally, is O-C suggesting that facts might be downplayed, and their value marginalized? This might worry some people because our lives are built, assembled, and layered with facts. Our jobs only exist because companies have a record of predicting success with factual sales, and factual profits. Our medical situations are mostly resolved because a doctor works with facts and prescribes the more predictable treatment for a positive outcome. Could we even exist as a society, with less facts? I have my doubts.
The problem I see here is that you have some 29-year old adults....with a university degree, who is trying hard to impress upon you that those years in college achieved something. Sadly, the more she talks....the less convinced you are about her university background.
So, I'll ask some questions.
1. Can you make any argument or discussion without facts? Someone living in a fantasy world....wanting to argue that unicorns are faster than horses, could start a discussion. Could it go anywhere? If 'Bigfoot' were born in America, would he be able to run for President? If 'Casper, the friendly ghost' were fat and chubby....would it be right to bully him along to lose weight? Could the Coyote beat the Road Runner, in a fair fight? All of these are discussions, without facts. Arguments or discussions without facts....simply don't work.
2 Does being morally right win in every single argument? It depends greatly on whose morales you intend to use. There are often a hundred degrees of morales, and each one will go down a path that some people simply aren't devoted to or willing to attach themselves.
3. Do the two terms (morales versus facts) connect together? You can make a case that it helps to have facts....to arrive at a decision, but you can also make the case that morales will drive the decision process. It's like arriving to a raft after a ship sinking and it can only hold twelve people, while you have twenty people there in the water. Eight of those people won't be able to do much other than float on the water and hang onto the side of the raft. Facts generate the dilemma and the resolution. Morally, you might be willing to overburden the raft with the twenty people, and help sink the raft in a quick fashion, so that fairness has been shared, and everyone now will have a zero chance of survival. Morally, it's a positive thing that all have the same equal chance now of dying.
4. Do you really want some Senator, Congressman, or President....yanking on your morales chain? Most people can remember how the prohibition era went in 1920, and how that morales effort by the government led to an absolute failure.
5. Finally, is O-C suggesting that facts might be downplayed, and their value marginalized? This might worry some people because our lives are built, assembled, and layered with facts. Our jobs only exist because companies have a record of predicting success with factual sales, and factual profits. Our medical situations are mostly resolved because a doctor works with facts and prescribes the more predictable treatment for a positive outcome. Could we even exist as a society, with less facts? I have my doubts.
The problem I see here is that you have some 29-year old adults....with a university degree, who is trying hard to impress upon you that those years in college achieved something. Sadly, the more she talks....the less convinced you are about her university background.
Monday, 7 January 2019
Why Americans Love Gutter-Talk and Mob-Mentality
Well....here's the thing, if you had a group of working class Americans from beyond urbanized areas....the vast majority (over 90-percent) would tell you some curious perspectives.
First, they'd let you know that when you step into a interstate diner where 'truckers' hang out, they expect gutter-talk. When they step into a Texas honky-tonk, they expect gutter-talk. When they go to a Klan meeting, they expect gutter-talk. When they land on some French beach with a bunch of Army characters being shot at by Nazis, they expect gutter-talk.
But those are environments where gutter-talk can survive and flourish. When you walk into a stock-holders meeting, you don't expect gutter-talk. When you walk into a Wal-Mart....dealing with some return issue, you don't expect gutter-talk. When you attend some parent-teachers meeting, you don't expect gutter-talk.
So when some House member or Senator gets all hyped up and used **@#$##@#%, you kinda stand there and wonder why the member had to resort to gutter-talk. And once you start the trend, would we have to get used to 'Moth(*&@#er' in every third sentence? Would it just turn into being normal?
In some ways, it's like a Southpark episode now, with fifth-grade kids cursing, and no teacher willing to correct the behavior, and then just grinning at the camera.
Second, mob-mentality might flow well at a WWE-wrestling event, or some Baptist revival episode in Alabama ('mobs for Jesus' event).....but folks tend to shy away from mob-mentality. Again, it's like fifth-grade kids trying to pretend they are upset, and pretending mob-mentality achieves something (it usually doesn't).
But here's the real bottom line of all this gutter-talk and mob-mentality business.....after you look long and hard at it, it's fake.
Yes....fake gutter-talk, and fake mob-mentality. It's scripted in various ways.
They want to make you think that they are really gutter-talk and trash-talk individuals, but to be honest, until the last year....they've probably only uttered Mo@#$#$#@# or F#$^ about an average of three times a year (usually when the transmission blew, or they walked into the basement to find four inches of water standing there).
Fake mob-mentality? Ask the mob-crowd what they've ever achieved via their mob-pretending. There will be this long pause, and other than rolling some toilet paper around various lawns, that's their big achievement in life as a mob.
So it's a joke? Yeah. At some point by summer of 2019, the public will be giving out awards for fake gutter-talk and everyone will be laughing over how the joke got picked up by the journalists.
First, they'd let you know that when you step into a interstate diner where 'truckers' hang out, they expect gutter-talk. When they step into a Texas honky-tonk, they expect gutter-talk. When they go to a Klan meeting, they expect gutter-talk. When they land on some French beach with a bunch of Army characters being shot at by Nazis, they expect gutter-talk.
But those are environments where gutter-talk can survive and flourish. When you walk into a stock-holders meeting, you don't expect gutter-talk. When you walk into a Wal-Mart....dealing with some return issue, you don't expect gutter-talk. When you attend some parent-teachers meeting, you don't expect gutter-talk.
So when some House member or Senator gets all hyped up and used **@#$##@#%, you kinda stand there and wonder why the member had to resort to gutter-talk. And once you start the trend, would we have to get used to 'Moth(*&@#er' in every third sentence? Would it just turn into being normal?
In some ways, it's like a Southpark episode now, with fifth-grade kids cursing, and no teacher willing to correct the behavior, and then just grinning at the camera.
Second, mob-mentality might flow well at a WWE-wrestling event, or some Baptist revival episode in Alabama ('mobs for Jesus' event).....but folks tend to shy away from mob-mentality. Again, it's like fifth-grade kids trying to pretend they are upset, and pretending mob-mentality achieves something (it usually doesn't).
But here's the real bottom line of all this gutter-talk and mob-mentality business.....after you look long and hard at it, it's fake.
Yes....fake gutter-talk, and fake mob-mentality. It's scripted in various ways.
They want to make you think that they are really gutter-talk and trash-talk individuals, but to be honest, until the last year....they've probably only uttered Mo@#$#$#@# or F#$^ about an average of three times a year (usually when the transmission blew, or they walked into the basement to find four inches of water standing there).
Fake mob-mentality? Ask the mob-crowd what they've ever achieved via their mob-pretending. There will be this long pause, and other than rolling some toilet paper around various lawns, that's their big achievement in life as a mob.
So it's a joke? Yeah. At some point by summer of 2019, the public will be giving out awards for fake gutter-talk and everyone will be laughing over how the joke got picked up by the journalists.
Saturday, 5 January 2019
If You Did Bonanza Today
Every Sunday night as a kid, from the mid-1960s to 1973, I watched Bonanza. It's safe to say that I kinda liked the show. It had a simple format, four central characters (well, with Hop-Sing occasionally), and three or four guests to each episode. On some occasions, bad guys either got shot or sent off to some state prison. What generally sold the show were the father (Ben) and his three sons (Adam, Hoss and 'Little' Joe).
If you tried to make a version of Bonanza today? I think you would run into problems.
First, Hop-Sing would be viewed as negative because you were racially profiling the character.
Second, gun-play of any type....would be frowned upon. Most would ask why Adam needs to carry a pistol, and why shooting is necessary.
Third, at least one of the three kids has to be a daughter.
Fourth, Ben would have to be told by one of the kids on a weekly basis.....that he's out of touch with reality.
Fifth, the three Cartwright 'kids' would all have some social warrior justice theme going on. Most viewers would dislike the kids and think there's too much disrespect going on.
In simple terms, the show would fail in the first year.
If you tried to make a version of Bonanza today? I think you would run into problems.
First, Hop-Sing would be viewed as negative because you were racially profiling the character.
Second, gun-play of any type....would be frowned upon. Most would ask why Adam needs to carry a pistol, and why shooting is necessary.
Third, at least one of the three kids has to be a daughter.
Fourth, Ben would have to be told by one of the kids on a weekly basis.....that he's out of touch with reality.
Fifth, the three Cartwright 'kids' would all have some social warrior justice theme going on. Most viewers would dislike the kids and think there's too much disrespect going on.
In simple terms, the show would fail in the first year.
Tax Return Story
Someone drafted up a House bill yesterday and introduced it....which had the intent of forcing all Presidents to provide ten years of tax returns.
I will make three observations:
1. There's pretty much zero chance that the Senate will pick up this and pass it. So it's mostly for marginalized journalists to 'chatter' about, and get all silly.
2. If it did pass, I think it might scare at least twenty-five people thinking about running in 2020, 2024, and 2028. It would open up questions about 'gifts', home loans, business loans, etc.
3. Who exactly gets these ten years of tax returns is NOT clear. The House Speaker? Imagine a yearly return from Trump of 500 to 700 pages of a return....TIMES TEN. Even with a staff of professional accountants (25 professionals), I would suggest it'd take at least six months to review and make any criticisms.
So I'm going out on the branch and making my own suggestion....this is actually a good idea, and we need not limit it to the President. Every member of the cabinet should also provide the ten years of returns. Every single member of the House and Senate should provide ten years of returns. Every ambassador should provide ten years of returns. And all of these returns, with the address and personal info redacted (blocked out) should be put in a PDF format, open to the public, and you yourself should be able to analyze in your own way.
Yes, lets make this ultra transparent. Lets make everyone sweat a bit and get about 300 people out of politics because of their corrupted nature.
I will make three observations:
1. There's pretty much zero chance that the Senate will pick up this and pass it. So it's mostly for marginalized journalists to 'chatter' about, and get all silly.
2. If it did pass, I think it might scare at least twenty-five people thinking about running in 2020, 2024, and 2028. It would open up questions about 'gifts', home loans, business loans, etc.
3. Who exactly gets these ten years of tax returns is NOT clear. The House Speaker? Imagine a yearly return from Trump of 500 to 700 pages of a return....TIMES TEN. Even with a staff of professional accountants (25 professionals), I would suggest it'd take at least six months to review and make any criticisms.
So I'm going out on the branch and making my own suggestion....this is actually a good idea, and we need not limit it to the President. Every member of the cabinet should also provide the ten years of returns. Every single member of the House and Senate should provide ten years of returns. Every ambassador should provide ten years of returns. And all of these returns, with the address and personal info redacted (blocked out) should be put in a PDF format, open to the public, and you yourself should be able to analyze in your own way.
Yes, lets make this ultra transparent. Lets make everyone sweat a bit and get about 300 people out of politics because of their corrupted nature.
Friday, 4 January 2019
A Story
I worked with a guy around eight years ago, who had a close relative who was your basic neighborhood drug/dope dealer. We got into this discussion one day. The relative was in her mid-20s, barely finished high school, and simply walked into some situation where she could flip drugs. He figured that on sales, after paying off the cost involved....there was $3,000 a week of income ($12k a month).
So I asked the obvious question....how did she really come to hide the income? Well....it was all cash. Her rent was paid in cash. Her food and beverages in cash. Her used car, in cash. She'd walk in two or three times a year to some bank deposit box and just toss in the range of $15k.
We went on with this discussion and eventually reached this impact point. There are thousands of people like her, and all are part of some underground business empire, with cash in a funny position. You really need to laundry the money and make it legit, but you don't want to draw attention. So you stick with the tested method of just hiding cash.
I asked....how would you event retire from the 'profession'. His take was that she'd eventually tire out, and maybe just quit one day in her forties, and walk away, if she wasn't arrested and sent off to state prison.
But you'd be sitting there with hundreds of thousands in bundles, and trying to put together a legit life, when the system just wasn't built to handle that.
This is one of the dozen odd problems with our society, in that we've created a mass landscape with financial affairs that don't fit the mold of our system today.
So I asked the obvious question....how did she really come to hide the income? Well....it was all cash. Her rent was paid in cash. Her food and beverages in cash. Her used car, in cash. She'd walk in two or three times a year to some bank deposit box and just toss in the range of $15k.
We went on with this discussion and eventually reached this impact point. There are thousands of people like her, and all are part of some underground business empire, with cash in a funny position. You really need to laundry the money and make it legit, but you don't want to draw attention. So you stick with the tested method of just hiding cash.
I asked....how would you event retire from the 'profession'. His take was that she'd eventually tire out, and maybe just quit one day in her forties, and walk away, if she wasn't arrested and sent off to state prison.
But you'd be sitting there with hundreds of thousands in bundles, and trying to put together a legit life, when the system just wasn't built to handle that.
This is one of the dozen odd problems with our society, in that we've created a mass landscape with financial affairs that don't fit the mold of our system today.
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