Murder Thoughts

With several murders making the news, I thought I would wade into this.

● A 58 year old attorney/father shot two partners at the firm that just fired him. I'm not surprised. Firing a 58 year old is a career death sentence -- the man would likely lose everything. Law firms are sweat shops too. Most likely, this guy worked 60 hour weeks for years at that firm before he was fired. Breaking bonds of loyalty is always dangerous. Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't condone what he did, but I understand it and I'm surprised more don't do it.

● That said, I don't understand what drives "people" like the two shits in New York to kill two women and two children. They even tied the women up before they slit their throats. Why kill someone who is helpless? Why kill them at all? This I don't understand. Ditto on the sicko "father" who got custody of his daughter apparently despite evidence of him being a nut, and he killed his daughter this weekend the first chance he got. Or how about the four kids (this is the second set of four in a month) who dropped a heavy object off an overpass and killed a father who was just driving along. What in the world makes someone think this is something a human should do? Or how about the asshole who made a fake SWAT call because he was angry over a videogame and got a father killed? What is wrong with these people? They should all be buried alive.

● Speaking of the SWATing, how did the cops end up killing the victim? I've seen the video. The guy comes out onto his porch. There is no gun, no weapon, no evidence of wrongdoing. How is the next instinct of the cops: "kill him!" I do not understand. Seems like murder to me.

● Disney is changing their policy to require an employee to go into each room each day. This is apparently a policy meant to stop another Vegas-style sniper from collecting guns or bombs or whatnot. I think it's a smart, if sad, change.

● Now the good news. The papers are full of the stuff above and they sensationalize the crap out of it. They want this to seem common. But the statistics tell a different story. A recent study found there aren't more mass killings now than in the past. Department of Justice statistics say that violent crime is at a decades low, with some things like murder at a level not seen since the 1950's. Name the last black guy killed by a cop, and then do the math: how many black guys have been killed by cops this compared to the millions arrested last year? Is it really an epidemic? Hardly.

Merry Christmas and (a belated) Happy Hanukkah!

Peace be with you and your family.

Luke 2:8-14 “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

And even though Hanukkah (Chanukkah, Chanukah, or Hannukah), the Jewish Festival of Lights began December 12 and ended December 19. I hope everyone had a wonderful celebration The Story of Chanukah (Hanukkah)

Have a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season!

More Observations

I hope you're all getting ready for Christmas? Better hurry, my friends. Anyways, here are more observations from recent events.

● There was an interesting twisting of reality which may soon change the way lawyers/big business work. On ESPN, some of the talking heads were discussing the allegations against the owner of the Panthers. For those who have not heard, Jerry Richardson, the owner of the Carolina Panthers, harassed three women and made some racist comment to a black employee. All three issues were settled. For some reason, the Panthers decided to dig this up again. The NFL learned about this and decided to take over the Panther's investigation. Richardson immediately announced that he was selling the team. The facts behind this remain hidden.

So anyways, quarterback Cam Newton was asked about this and he said he disagreed with Richardson selling because these are just allegations... "things people said happened." He even pointed out how allegations against him almost took him out of college football and they proved to be false. Very reasonable perspective.

Yet, the ESPN host said, "But these are beyond allegations because they've been settled." And the other three knuckleheads nodded their heads. Here's the thing, as any lawyer can tell you, there are dozens of reasons you settle something even when you are not guilty. Examples included: ending the publicity, the claim is smaller than the cost of fighting it, you know you're innocent but you worry that the jury won't believe you, the claim is a distraction and you have bigger things you are working on, etc. So what you do is settle the claim with no admission of guilt and it goes away.

But these ESPN types just made it clear that they won't let a settlement make a claim go away, and they see a settlement as an admission of guilt. Interesting. If this is how settlements of claims of harassment will be seen, then there is now far less benefit to settling. I will be curious to see how lawyers respond. Perhaps the future of settlements will require an admission by the accuser that they were wrong? Perhaps many more will fight.

● Hillary's approval is down to 36% versus 61% with a negative view. Trump's approval is at 41%. So he's actually more popular than Hillary. Interesting.

● So the tax bill will pass. I find this fascinating. This one could really disrupt a handful of liberal states. What do I mean?

I mentioned this a long time ago... but the federal income tax deduction has actually been a gift for liberal states. What it does is it allows those states to raise their own income/property taxes because the people paying them can deduct them from their federal taxes at a rate between 20% and 30%. In effect, this means that the federal government (you and I) was paying to subsidize the overtaxing practices in places like New York and California (13+%). Now these people will either pay the extra 10% or their states will need to back off. That's something a 2% tax revenue drop in California. It also means that California and New York and other high tax states will now be around 2% less competitive at attracting and keeping businesses.

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. Already there are some billionaires who are whining that New York better lower its rates or they will leave.

Thoughts?

Some Observations

Have you noticed that every week they run headlines claiming that Trump's approval has dropped to the lowest level ever? Or how about how they've run this headline dozens of times: "Trump is now the most unpopular President ever!" Since that can only happen once by definition, I wonder how they can make the claim over and over? I'm calling bullship on the whole polling bit.

Have you noticed that the only sexual predator that all the little chickies agree is a genuine monster is Roy Moore? Ironically, the claims against Moore aren't even proven, as they are against many others, nor do they seem to involve much in the way of forced sexual conduct. This tells us that the #Iwontbesilentunlesstheresajobinitforme "movement" remains politicized.

Have you noticed the massive number of female teachers sleeping with students and how this epidemic goes unmentioned by feminists?

Have you noticed that any attempt by people like Matt Damon to bring some sanity to the #metoo witch hunt is being met with intense anger? Matt's crime was to suggest that not all harassment is the same and that we should not be punishing people who simply did something in a young victim-wannabe's dream the same as we should be punishing serial rapists. This suggestion of shades of misconduct angered the girls, who apparently think that anything any woman thinks was harassment deserves the same punishment. That should just about be the end of this silliness.

Have you noticed that the coverage of this year's LA fire has grown exponentially now that it's attacking celebrities' homes? Odd, isn't it, that a tragedy matters more when it happens to someone famous.

Have you noticed a commercial for a cologne called Sauvage (or is it Sausage?) starring Johhny Depp. Is it just me, or are you also pretty sure that Depp smells like week old rum, weeks of cigarettes and probably mule urine? Sausage is in stores now... if you dare.

Finally, I need to tell you all about our trip to Disney, which was both fantastic and interesting. I also need to tell you about this argument I had with a black former-friend of my wife. Fascinating stuff. I'll talk about both soon.

Putting a Finger On What Is Wrong

Today I'm spontaneously starting a new series. In this series, I'm going to point out "thinking" that is simply wrong and which is ruining the world by twisting the way people see it. Let us begin with an attack on Taylor Swift.

To be clear, I am no Swift fan. Her work is obnoxious, amoral and full of messages that should themselves make this series. But tonight, I'm going to point out something that just happened to her which really highlights a problem with modern society. What happened was this...

Swift gave a concert to her fans in New York in which she celebrated her 28th birthday. For most people, birthdays are a happy occasion where we reflect briefly on the prior year and we consider the future. Add to this that concerts are generally meant to be uplifting for fans, who often feel part of the star's life. Hence, Swift thanked her fans and posted on Instagram that she "couldn’t have asked for a better year."

Internet trolls immediately descended:

"I mean, yeah there were Nazi's (sic) and white supremacy marches, and families are being town (sic) apart, and there were mass shootings and people are losing health care, but none of that affects me, so 2017 was great!"

Forget the fact that several of these items were BS; whether true or not, this troll has lapped this up and believes it. What matters here is not if any of this is true, but the idea that somehow because this idiot thinks these bad things happened, this idiot has the right to just Swift as immoral for telling people she had a good year. This is heinously wrong on several levels:

(1) The idea that someone has the right to judge whether someone else is insufficiently angry/outraged.
(2) The idea that the geopolitical must (or even should) outweigh the personal.
(3) The herd mindset that everyone must think and feel the same.

Seriously trolls, you have no right to judge another person's personal priorities, and that fact that you and your sickly fellow travelers do shows us what is wrong with you. Live your own damn lives. Stop trying to live through others. And stop trying to control others. Stop trying to spread your diseased mental states to other people. You suck. Go f* yourselves... the human race does not need you or want you.

Indeed, the very idea that geopolitical events should control your happiness and should trump personal events is mentally deranged. That makes you ISIS, Hitler and every other sick bastard who tried to evade their own failures by casting blame on geopolitical events that truly did not affect them. And the fact the things you point to as ruining you are BS makes it even worse. You are a rebel without a clue looking for an outrage to let you unleash your hate... you are nothing more.

Finally, your herd instinct is the very thing that drives the human race off the cliff time and again. People left to their own opinions and beliefs built this world, herd creatures like you periodically try to destroy it. Turd. I wish you a long, lonely life of intense unhappiness.

That's how I see it. You?

Cognitive Dissonance

I am often amazed at liberals. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.

Liberals are awash in racist impulses. They see the world defined by race and they clearly view minorities as inferior. No? Then what else are we to make of (1) their films using the Magic Negro trope over and over or the White Man's Burden trope? Apparently, black and brown people can't learn unless some honkey teaches them, (2) Them making minorities into cute little castrated mascots who dance in the streets for their entertainment, (3) The "intellectual" idea behind desegregation, which is basically that black kids can't learn unless they are surrounded by whites, or (4) the way they are unwilling to speak truth to minorities for fear the little dears can't handle the truth. And yet, they call everyone else a racist.

They see women the same way. While they pay lip service to women being "strong," their policy statements tell us they see women as infinitely delicate little creatures that need to be protected from criticism, sexual situations, and the hardships of the real world. They even worry about the language itself oppressing these delicate flowers. And yet, the accuse everyone else of sexism.

How about the harsh way they suppress speech they don't like in the name of free speech? The way everything must be defined by and counted by race to create a color blind society? The way they bully bullies? How their principles apply according to whom they like and whom they don't. And so on.

But now we see a whoooooole 'nother level to this.

Now we have seen an army of liberal/progressive sexual predators who've spent the past decade whaling about protecting women from people they arbitrarily label as predators because they disagree with them ideologically. Think about this. As every one of these bastards screamed and pointed fingers at innocent conservatives, they were hiding rapes, druggings, threats, unwanted touching, unwanted kissing, and God knows what else.

What's more, all these strong liberal women and the good liberal friends of these bastards knew all about it and said nothing even as they too smeared conservatives with false allegations of the very things their own friends and allies were doing. This is beyond perverse. It is beyond despicable.

The more I think about it, the more shocked I become honestly. This isn't like someone holding other people to a slightly higher standard than they manage to achieve themselves. This isn't even standard hypocrisy. This is a gaggle of predators hiding their own crimes while falsely accusing the world of their own conduct. This is villainy. Even worse, it's a conspiracy of silence where the predators, the victims and the friends and partners of the predators all stayed silent so they could smear people they disagree with. This is evil.

Thoughts?

Ha ha ha ha ha wrong.

So screamed the headline at Yahoo: Doug Jones's victory in Alabama is an ominous sign for Republicans. Uh, no.

Democrat Doug Jones shocked this state, and the country, by defeating Republican Roy Moore in Alabama’s Senate special election Tuesday, a victory that sounds a loud warning to the White House and the Republican Party.

Jones’s victory is a shot in the arm for Democrats, who are hoping that anger at Trump and congressional Republicans will fuel a “wave” election in 2018, flipping the U.S. House of Representatives, and perhaps even the Senate, blue.

Nope. So much nope. Not shocking. No warning. Says nothing about other races.

Moore’s defeat means that Trump has now suffered three consecutive losses. He first backed Moore’s opponent, Luther Strange, in the Republican primary only to see him lose to Moore. Then, last month, voters in Virginia turned out in historic numbers to deliver a massive rebuke to Trump in the elections for governor and state legislature.

So Trump's first loss was within a Republican primary? How does that help Democrats? As for Virginia, it's a reliably blue state. Trump should lose there. Yet, it came down to the wire and the legislature wasn't decided for weeks after the election because it was that close. That's hardly "a massive rebuke." To the contrary, it should be freaking Democrats out.

As for this Roy Moore thing having meaning, that's obviously wrong. Moore is an historically detestable candidate. Moore is a fringer even among the fringe. He is a rotten grandstander and self-promoter who abused the state supreme court, flowed with hate, apparently liked to diddle teenage girls, and whose wife was oddly uncomfortable with Jews. He is exactly the type of man the GOP needs to be driving out of their ranks. And unless the GOP starts running guys like this in other states, then this election has no lesson attached except that even Alabama will vote against a frothy fringer when they become too embarrassing. Trying to read this as some sort of ominous sign for the GOP is a joke. It is idiocy in action. It is to misunderstand what has happened so fundamentally as to make the proponent grossly negligent in their analysis. Said differently, it makes them a Yahoo employee.

The only real takeaway from Moore is that some chunk of the GOP remains blind to reality and prefers to see themselves as martyrs rather than Americans. That's it.

Get Paid To Get Arrested in NYC!

I was reading the NY Post this morning as I always do, right before I got on the train to be met with an alert that a bomb had gone off in Times Square right near my next stop. Yeah, just another typical Monday morning in NYC.

but, as if we don't have enough trouble in NYC, this is the newest stupidity to come our way.




{{Warning: What you are about to read is not a parody from The Onion.}}

City Offers Gift Cards To Criminal Suspect Who Complete Survey!

Yeah, if you get arrested and have to appear in front of a judge, they want to know how your experience has been. If the perp fills out a questionaire, they'll get a $15 Dunkin' Donuts gift card! I mean, you cannot make this crap up!

Here's just a few of the questions to answer and all they have to do is check the box "Disagree", "Neutral", "Agree", and "N/A".
[There's a link in the article with a .pdf of the questionaire]

Please tell me if agree, disagree or are neutral on the following statements about the building.

27) Signs outside the building helped me know what to expect today.

28) The security procedures for entering the building were clear.

29) I was treated respectfully by the security officers as I entered the building.

30) Court staff seemed happy to answer any questions I had.

31) The bathrooms were clean.

32) I found my way around the courthouse easily.

33) I knew where to get water if I was thirsty.

34) The building was clean and well maintained.

35) Signs inside the building were confusing.

36) The temperature inside the building was comfortable.

37) I knew who to ask if I needed assistance finding my way around the building.

38) What would have made the process of navigating the courthouse easier for you today

Well, hey, it's only costing $800K and who wouldn't want the criminal court system to be more user-friendly. I especially like the idea that judges, clerks, etc are going to have to take courtesy training because being arrested and having to appear before a judge should be a positive, friendly experience.

Anyway, there is just one of many issues to discuss...like the Alabama special election today.

Whoops...

Heap 'um bad weekend for our friends on the left.

So Friday, CNN ran with a story which said that Wikileaks had offered Team Trump access to certain information on September 4th, ten days before Wikileaks went public with it. If true, CNN would see this as proof that Wikileaks and Trump were working together and therefore Trump and Russia were working together. Here are the problems:

1. It wasn't offered to Trump and there is no evidence Trump people accepted it... it was an unsolicited email.
2. The email didn't come from a person CNN could actually identify as being connected to Wikileaks.
3. There is no proof that Wikileaks is actually connected to Russia. US intelligence only thinks this when they want to blame the Russians for something. Otherwise, they treat them as separate people.

So basically, some unknown dude sent an email to Trump Jr., with no evidence Trump Jr. responded... and CNN saw this as the smoking gun of some deal between Trump and Russia. Many other media outlets then ran with this because they want to believe that Trump is guilty of something or other.

Then the big problem came out. CNN misread the date. Instead of being September 4th, the email was sent September 14th, after Wikileaks released the information. Hence, CNN's take is impossible, and CNN should have known it. People are now shocked at how bad the media has been in reporting on this. Of course, this is the same media that repeatedly reported anti-Trump propaganda as truth when it wasn't. They are also confusing rumor and even wishful thinking with truth. Basically, our media has shown themselves to be paid liars for the left. What a disgrace.

I Will Not Be Silent... As Often

This harassment thing is the gift that keeps on giving. This time, some Hollywood chickies have put together a video because nothing changes the world like a video. This group includes Jennifer Lawrence, Nicole Kidman, Emma Stone, Gal Gadot, Margot Robbie, Jessica Chastain, Mary J. Blige and beatch Jake Gyllenhaal. In this video these women bravely tell us "I will not be silent."

Uh... ok.

Of course, if we're being honest, what they are really saying is "I will not be silent another 30 years as I let known predators rape other women."

But hey, that's still cool.

Um... wait. If we're being completely honest, then I think we also need to mention that they all seemed to claim that many men had harassed them and yet they only identified Harvey Weinstein. So really what they are saying is: "I will not be silent another 30 years as I let known predators rape other women unless you're talking about men other than Harvey Weinstein, in which event I shall indeed remain silent."

Ya know, this might not be so brave after all.

Snippets

From the news...

● Megahn Markle (rhymes with Sparkle) revealed that she struggled with insecurities because she was told that she was too husky and too bf ugly to be a model/actress. I am so, so sad. Yep, I'm sad because this is horse crap. This is the new inoculation for women who got famous for their looks. It's like the flu shot. Apparently, we are supposed to feel bad for all they suffered and now we don't judge them too harshly for their lives of privilege (for those playing along at home: too fat/ugly cures privileged Barbie... bullied cures asshole... sexual abuse cures major f*uck up).

Here is my response to Miss Marple and all the other models who make this claim:

(1) Bullshit.
(2) Everyone is told this growing up... often by people like you. This doesn't make you special.
(3) You picked a business that judges you on looks and weight, so you were asking for it. They don't say these things to garbage men or lawyers. This is self-inflicted.
(4) If you want people to stop judging women by looks, then stop trying to get jobs based on your looks and stop making your pretend lack of looks into something that defines you. I kid you not, airhead, in the 1970s, there were ugly actresses and they were amazing! I'd trade a thousand of you for one of them these days.

● Why do I keep seeing stories about Rodrigo Alves? He's a freak who is trying to make himself look like Ken/Barbie through massive amounts of surgery. Seriously, stop writing these articles. Let him die in obscurity.

● You know what is so telling about teaser headlines? They almost always link to an "article" in which the only bit of interesting information is the one word withheld from the headline. "Doing this can make your d**k fall right off!" If people writing these "articles" were any good, the article itself would be interest beyond the missing word, but they never are.

● Russia has been barred from the 2017 Olympics. Sounds like it's going to be 1984 all over again... let's go to McDonald's! Seriously though, this is an overdue punishment for Russia, but it doesn't go very far in terms of cleaning up sports. From the little I've seen, dozens of sports are awash in performance enhancing drugs and cheating (biking, swimming) and abuse (women's soccer). Add in the politicization of the NFL and NBA (and the crime wave that is the rosters of both sports), the nuclear bomb the feds dropped in college basketball (say hello to my little indictment), and the insanity that is the NCAA's football coaching hop ("I had to destroy the program to save it so I could get another job!"), and this isn't a great time for sports.

● John Conyers is going to resign. Not because he's a serial molester mind you -- Democrats don't resign for misconduct -- but because he's old (88 years young!) and he wants to pass his seat to his son just in case he gets forced out. What a way to go out... nepotism. They sure don't make "icons" like they used to.

Thoughts?

News Nuggets

Here are my thoughts on a couple of news nuggets from the weekend:

● Trump has endorsed Roy Moore. I'm not a fan of that because Moore is the kind of cliche that kills conservatism. On the other hand, I do find it interesting that Trump is playing out of the Democratic playbook: support your side even if they are worse than Hitler. It's an interesting change for conservatives. Not sure if I like it. What do you think?

● Sheryl Sandberg, of Facebook fame, has raised an obvious point that the media has to date ignored. She's worried that the me-too list (also known as the sexual harassment scandal) will ultimately hurt women because men won't want to hire women as they will be seen as too much trouble. Well duh. Actions have consequences. And when millions of women whine about being "sexually assaulted" and think they should be able to bring this up YEARS later to destroy men's careers... often after following them from job to job... and when their "sexual assault" complaint is "He asked me out" or "I could just tell he was having impure thoughts about me" or "I consented at the time, but I changed my mind later," and there is a presumption of guilt, then what rational person would want to take on that kind of trouble?

I have personally witnessed the extreme vetting that law firms go to before hiring blacks for this very reason and I have zero doubt that this issue will do the same for women. The natural response of employers will be to avoid women who display slutty traits, who whine/complain, and who seem litigious. I can also see "The Pence Rule" kicking in with employers making sure never to meet with women without witnesses. The result won't be an end to female advancement, but it will be slowed and will come only with higher security.

● I'm kind of chuckling about college football. The obsession with figuring out which team is the best is an irony wrapped in idiocy. For one thing, you will never truly know who is best because it's just not possible. Given the ambiguity of picking who gets a chance to play, the interference of weather conditions or other uneven factors, and the ability of any team to win randomly on any given day, it is simply impossible to know who is the best. Nevertheless, the people needing to know have imposed a system that they claimed would solve this issue and make all the games even more important.

But of course, the opposite is true. The sad truth is that the media has done exactly what you would expect: they've redefined college football through the prism of the playoff system. In the process, they've changed the bowl games from prizes for great seasons into consolation prizes for those forgotten by the playoffs. And now it's been pointed out that many of the conference championships are meaningless as well, with winners like Ohio State this year and Penn State last year not making the playoffs either. Then there's Central Florida who went undefeated and weren't even considered for the playoffs, making all their games meaningless and showing that most teams will always be seen as ineligible for the playoffs no matter what they do.

To solve these problems, the idiots who caused it are now suggesting expanding the playoffs to eight games, which solves none of these problems. Oh well.