In Defense Of Cultural Imperialism

A few years back, I got to know a Navajo woman. We had a couple of talks where she told me how proud she was of her Navajo ancestry. She was, err, opinionated and held very strong feelings about certain groups of people. Wanna know who she hated the most? The Apaches.

Right now, I'm making my way through Empire of the Summer Moon, a book about the Comanche and their eventual contact, conflict and war with America. It's a terrific read. I was inspired to get into the topic by this post from Sarah Hoyt over at Instapundit about a book discussing the Zulus. Here's what intrigue me.

(After a deep dive into African history), what became very clear to me is that whenever civilized (in this case defined as post-tribal) humans collide with tribal humans, tribal humans lose. (The tribal people) use the techniques that work in between tribes, imagining that their adversaries are also a tribe:

They start off with unimaginable massacres and horrible evil in the belief that this will cause the adversaries to back off... (T)he more atrocities they commit the more they aggravate the anger of the civilized people.

The civilized hold back, afraid of committing atrocities, and the tribal humans commit more atrocities, and act like victors, while doing truly horrific things.

And then at some point the post-tribal people lose it.

What comes after is usually horrific and causes college social studies majors to cry centuries later.

This dance has been performed over and over and over again, since Rome at least. Since we had a polity that transcended tribes. The end is always the same.

That's a good match for what I'd read from Julius Caesar and Geronimo. Caesar wouldn't slaughter and enslave a community until they really ticked him off. Geronimo never understood the concept of the nation and saw every Mexican village he attacked as its own tribe. He kept raiding and killing until the US cavalry finally stomped him into the dust.

Getting back to the Comanche, they were typical of the Plains Indians. Warlike and savage, when they conquered another tribe, they tortured the men to death, gang-raped the women and adopted the children. No doubt the Apache treated the Navajo in the same way, hence my friend's hatred.

The Comanche were originally third-rate, cowering losers until they got horses dialed in and learned to fight from horseback. While other Indian tribes rode horses, they typically fought dismounted. The Comanche had a tremendous tactical advantage because they could shoot arrows while riding.

Over a 150-year period, the Comanche went from losers to empire. By the time they ran into the Americans, they controlled a lot of territory and had no peers among the other tribes. Prior to their contact with the US, they had repeatedly mauled the Spanish and Mexican armies.

Cultural Imperialism Can Be A Good Thing

Once contact had been made, the Comanche were toast. A civilized society cannot have savages like the Comanche on their borders. Just like Caesar with the Germans, the US and Mexico with the Apache and plenty of other examples from history, it wasn't reasonable to expect a population who wanted to spend their time planting and building to have to cope with endless raids from tribal people who were perfectly happy to massacre and loot. At some point, the cost to rebuild and fortify settlements becomes too high, the exhaustion with the savagery too much so the legions or cavalry are called out and all rules go out the window.

In our times, you can see the same thing happening in Europe as the Muslim population increases.

“Anybody who thinks that Islamization is a matter of just one issue cannot count. Mass immigration has enormous consequences for all facets of our society. It is a disaster in economic terms, it affects the quality of our education, increases insecurity on the streets, leads to an exodus from our cities, extrudes Jews and gays and rinses women’s emancipation through the toilet."

Dittos for Los Angeles.

June 20, 2021 - A typical Sunday afternoon on the Venice Beach Boardwalk. Violent mentally unstable people are left to wander about, and one of them attacks an elderly performer for the second time in as many weeks. She was cuffed briefly and then released to wander and repeat. pic.twitter.com/vCBNmIosSV

— Venice Beach Boardwalk (@BoardwalkVenice) June 21, 2021

When incompatible cultures collide, someone is going to imperialize.

Artichoke Flower

I got sucked in to a project today and only broke free now, so today's post will be a photo I took yesterday of wife kitteh's artichoke plant. I used the 105 mm howitzer macro lens for this one. I liked the way it came out, but felt it could use some adjustments. I brought it into Photoshop and played with the color curves for all of 30 seconds and called it good enough. Enjoy!

Before.

After.

Inflation Crouch

Wife kitteh shocked me this weekend. Talking about how inflation is kicking up and how government debt is out of control, she told me that she's changed her mind and now thinks she'd like us to pay off the house. I shocked her by saying that I've changed my mind and I don't. Pondering it further this morning, I think she's right.

We're going to remodel our place and turn it into a bistro for our friends. We'll have a serious kitchen and a single great room where we could fit 30 or more guests. It's not a business venture, just a place to indulge our hobby of hosting parties.

To prepare for it, we refinanced the place. I think our interest rate is slightly north of 0. Rates these days are crazy low, like getting money for free. The new interest rate is what changed my mind. Our future income at risk from a debt-induced crash is what changed hers.

It's Not About Investments

I've spent some time researching various crashes throughout history, looking for a theme in profitable investments. If there is one, I can't find it. The problem is that society becomes unstable. Markets and exchanges cease to function in an orderly manner. While you can own stock and property and wait out the mayhem, it's getting through the mayhem that is the real problem. Thus, the best course of action is one that helps you ride out the storm.

Defensive Crouch

Given our age, our opportunities for employment are rapidly vanishing. After I retire for good, it will be very hard for me to come back. Wife kitteh could go back to her job, but that won't last much longer. 

How do you prepare for a possible crash when your income is fixed and likely to be withered by inflation?

The goal would be to reduce your expenses to as small a number as you can. Here are just a couple of thoughts along those lines.

1. Pay off your mortgage.
2. Pay off all loans.
3. Learn how to fix your cars.
4. Learn how to make repairs on your house.
5. Learn how to cook.
6. Learn how to grow and preserve your own produce.

If all you had to pay for were utilities and the least expensive foods like beans, rice, you ought to be able to live on almost nothing.

Advice For The Kids

Since our kids aren't in positions to pay off their mortgages or buy houses with cash, my advice to them would be steps 2-5 above. I wouldn't expect a young man to learn how to can anything. The others are not only doable, but done for most of them. They're in good shape.

So that's about it. If I could summarize the concept in a single sentence it would be to live like a pre-1960s farmer. Yes, I know most of them had mortgages, but I think the imagery conjured up succinctly describes the safest way of life for a period of financial upheaval.

Plus, that rugged, competent look is a real turn-on for the ladies. In fact, wife kitteh recently told me that she thinks pickup trucks are sexy. Sort of like this. :-)

Printing Softness

While watching Bad TV*, wife kitteh and I had been seeing ads for an NBC show, Making It. It looked pretty funny. It was about a reality show where contestants crafted various knickknacks while the hosts made bad puns. On Thursday, it came on right after Jeopardy!, so I watched some of it.

It was the worst thing I'd seen in years. Simply horrible. It was like drowning in treacle. Everything was kind and soft and love and compassion and positive and utterly orthodox in its progressivism. I think I made it 15 minutes before I was overcome with nausea. Still, it seemed like an excellent window into the thoughts of the Elites as represented by network TV. Below are some stills from the thing and here's the link to the episode.

Maria was one of the contestants. Note the primary colors adorning her, like she's some kind of child's nursery toy. She'd been a cheerleader and complained that not enough people respected cheerleaders as athletes. After she mentioned that, the hosts went off on a gentle, but woke rant about equity or equality or golf or something.

The set. It looked like a craft studio from an asylum for violent lunatics.

Here, Maria is using wrapping paper, cardboard, a glue gun and probably scissors with a rounded tip to make something from a first grade art class.

She was making an Affirmation Box. It had a mirror so you could see how beautiful you were and a little voice recorder that said you were wonderful when you opened it. I felt like I was watching a class from a school for disturbed children.

As I recoiled in horror, wife kitteh told me that it was just Summer TV and was simply there to fill programming hours. Sadly, it's not. The thing is in its third season.

If you want to know the thoughts of the cast, dig this. Here's a snippet.

Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman ... mess with the format to add even more positivity to a show brimming with joy and wonder. 

"We ultimately want to be the first competition show that never eliminates anyone," jokes Offerman. 

"We always try to take the typical, stressful idea of an 'unscripted show' and turn it on its head," says Poehler. "By watching (contestants) do things, you figure out who they are. You feel more connected to them. You feel less alone. All that good, gooey stuff."

"(We) are going through a brutal upheaval," Offerman adds. "Should we pay attention to science or conspiracy theories? And these are gripping, painful, raw, open debates in our country. We definitely don’t want to turn on the TV and continue that cycle, but instead (we want to) be comforted by people treating each other well." 

That last bit clued me in to what was happening on a much larger scale. The show is a prime example of an effort to make the world softer and softer and softer. It's the same as the safe spaces on campuses, the censoring of speakers, the silencing of social media accounts and the endless fight against "hate."

In the country with the highest standard of living on the planet, the show is a sample of society striving to be more inclusive, affirming and gentle. Nothing can ever be gentle enough.

But life isn't gentle, is it? Reality isn't affirming. If you're morbidly obese, you don't need an Affirmation Box that soothes you, you need to put down the chips and get off the couch. It's all a lie.

Why All The Affirmation?

This is getting too long, so I'll wrap it up with this observation.

By printing money, we've temporarily detached earning from having. There's no need to improve yourself if we can just vote for more goodies. There's no need to assess your weaknesses and address them if we all have rights to free housing, health care, education and more.

Every edge in the world is too sharp. They can all be smoothed to roundness by wishing and printing. Making It is a terrific sampling of this kind of thinking.

Similar Thoughts From The 'Post

Life's Pricing Structure Is Broken

What kind of car would you buy if you could print money? Me, I'd buy a Lotus. You might buy a Ferrari. Why don't you do it now? I don't have a Lotus because it would take me a year to earn it. The Lotus would represent a year of my life. If I could print money in the Catican, the Lotus would represent ... nothing.

With the pricing structure broken, we're stumbling to the inevitable conclusion that we can have not just a Lotus or a Ferrari, but a Lotus and a Ferrari and lots, lots more. We've become spoiled children who have gotten used to mommy and daddy buying them everything they want.

In a world of spoiled children, anyone who asks, "How are we going to pay for that?" is just mean.

When The Cat's Away And Not Coming Back

The general problem really hit me today when I read about Modern Monetary Theory, MMT. MMT holds that any government that can print its own money and whose debt is denominated in that same currency, need not worry about debt. Print all you want until inflation hits. Inflation, not debt, is the critical measure of whether or not you can keep printing.

This is obvious nonsense. If you have mountains of debt, inflation, which leads to higher interest rates, immediately starts a chain reaction of printing and inflation that quickly spirals out of control and wipes out the economy. MMT can't possibly work. See also: Republic, Weimar.

But nonsense is OK, right? Sense is patriarchal or racist or mathematical, which itself is patriarchal and racist.

None of this has been pondered. We have no idea where the end points are or if there are endpoints at all. It doesn't matter whether things make logical sense or if plans work. All that matters is how we feel about ourselves. We haven't quite figured out where that leads, either.

Why We're Not Defending Civilization

 As long as we can just print money and hand it out, there is no real cost to property crimes. That's why we make half-hearted attempts to stop a thief. That's why shoplifters don't do time. That's why shoplifting isn't even reported.

There's no significant, direct cost to any of it.

When you see the bewilderment in the people at the San Francisco Walgreens in that video, you're watching their brains struggle with the knowledge that what's happening is the breakdown of society fighting with the numbing culture of compassion, compassion that's been bought with colored pieces of paper.

* - Bad TV is Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! Wheel of Fortune is the better of the two.

Tomato Inflation

I downloaded my latest set of images from the TomatoCam and made a short video from it yesterday. I like the results, even if the image quality is marginal. Check it out.

I think I'm done with this experiment. I learned quite a bit from it, but I'm not sure where I'll take it next.

Inflation

I read an excellent summary of where we are with inflation and how to invest in the upcoming environment. I found it on Zero Hedge which tends to be a bit hysteria-prone, so take it with a grain of salt. The author makes the case for gold, but in the process, he lays out a very reasonable scenario for what's coming as the government won't stop spending and the Fed is stuck with funding the borrowing binge or fighting inflation.

Fiscal conservatives have been throwing around the term "hyperinflation," but we're not there yet. As far as I can tell, inflation is around 7% for non-investment items and considerably higher for stocks and real estate. I would bet we have about a year to go before we get to the 10% or more mark. I could be wrong on that.

Anyway, here's the link and here's a snippet:

It is in this context that a deeper examination of the relationship between assets and the accelerated rate of issuance of state currencies is pertinent. That the rate of monetary expansion has accelerated is no secret; but so far, the probable effects on the purchasing power of the dollar, and also for other currencies aligned with it, have been ignored by investors. Central bankers have been coy on the subject, and by fiddling with the price inflation averages statisticians have buried the evidence. The suppression of the evidence on prices has been an important factor in what is effectively a concerted campaign of disinformation about inflation.

While these conditions have built up for decades, so far, non-fixed interest asset values have still afforded protection for investors’ capital. For the middle classes, the values of their homes, often geared through mortgage borrowing, have risen substantially. The values of their portfolios and pension plans have also benefited hugely. For them, these conditions have been extremely beneficial, which is why central banks have latched onto the wealth effect and are now directing new money into stock markets at unprecedented rates through quantitative easing.

The current state of play for both financial and non-financial assets has led not only to rising asset values but is now fundamental to the economic confidence upon which central bank policies entirely depend. But the problem with confidence as a policy is that it assumes that the crowd must be permanently bullish and that reality must never intervene. Policies backed on little more than perpetual hope must fail.

The School Boards Hate Hate

If you haven't seen some of the school board meeting videos, where parents and kids try to get through to the educrats that they don't want to group people by race, they're quite illuminating. Here's a snippet from a recent one.

It hit me yesterday that what is happening across the country, including where I work*, is a dialog like this.

Parent: Please stop teaching our children to group people by race.

Educrat: We're fighting racism!

Parent: But what you're doing is racist.

Educrat: You're full of hate and racism!

Parent: Do you know my name?

Educrat: I don't need to know you to know you're racist! I am fighting hate!

Parent: But I don't care about race at all. I treat everyone equally.

Educrat: THAT'S RACIST! 

The parents are trying to let the educrats know they're not racist and their kids shouldn't be taught to see race as a big deal. The educrats, convinced that racism is everywhere, are telling the parents, who they wouldn't recognize if they passed them on the street, that we must all fight racism.

Since the educrats aren't racist and their allies can't be racist, then the parents must be the racists. But the parents are objecting to the curricula because it's racist. 

Everyone is on the same side, but the educrats are too dense to see it.

* - I don't work in the education industry, but dialog with our HR groups is very similar to this.

Gated Communities And Logistics

Yesterday, grandpa stepped in it again.

BIDEN: "Those who say the blood of Patriots, you know, and all the stuff about how we’re gonna have to move against the government.”

"If you think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons."pic.twitter.com/WVHUffpphP

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 23, 2021

The usual suspects on both sides charged into the fray. "Oh, we can't beat the government with rifles, can we? Well, what about Afghanistan?" "Give me a break. You right-wing racists are all talk!"

Having watched the blues defund the police and only now see that increased crime and death is the result, one wonders if they'll need to see a real insurrection before they stop getting in everyone's faces and telling them what to do, think, say and read. As I've blogged many times, they don't know how anything works. They fed paranoia with mail-in ballots and now they're suggesting they could use the military to maintain order. It's nuts.

All of that is an aside from the real point. Afghanistan isn't a good example because the place was a wreck before we started. Instead, take the case of Laguna Niguel. It's not a wreck.

This is how it starts.

The real change in the country won't come after months of conflict and the deployment of jets. It will come in a week or so after the deployment of bullets against trucks and power lines. Many of the people supporting grandpa and sneering at the rednecks live in communities that are among the finest in the world. A little bit of violence or failure to resupply the grocery stores will make a big difference in property values, no?

This is how it ends.

Folks in gated communities with their electric cars and quinoa from Whole Foods might want to start thinking about the value of social stability. It could be their best bet is to encourage a little more laissez-faire and a little less Critical Race Theory.

When 30% of the population think the election was stolen, when school board meetings end in arrests and the president starts idly mentioning nuking his own cities, those could be clues that it's time to dial things back a bit.

Was Junipero Serra Right?

... is not the question being asked. In fact, there isn't any question being asked at all. Instead, there is only the deafening roar of "RACIST! RACIST! RACIST! RACIST!" coming from the San Diego School District. 

Our local high school used to be called Junipero Serra High. Now it's Argle Bargle High or something like that. They changed the name while they were hiding under their beds from the Wuhan Flu because "RACIST! RACIST! RACIST! RACIST!"

Serra The Dude

Here's his bio. Here's a decent snippet.

Born on Spain’s island of Mallorca, Serra entered the Franciscan Order taking the name of Saint Francis’ childlike companion, Brother Juniper. Until he was 35, he spent most of his time in the classroom—first as a student of theology and then as a professor. He also became famous for his preaching. Suddenly he gave it all up and followed the yearning that had begun years before when he heard about the missionary work of Saint Francis Solano in South America. Junipero’s desire was to convert native peoples in the New World.

Arriving by ship at Vera Cruz, Mexico, he and a companion walked the 250 miles to Mexico City. On the way Junipero’s left leg became infected by an insect bite and would remain a cross—sometimes life-threatening—for the rest of his life. For 18 years, he worked in central Mexico and in the Baja Peninsula. He became president of the missions there.

This is Mallorca.

So the Junisaurus, as he was known to his friends, left beautiful Mallorca, went across the Atlantic on a tiny, wooden, sailing ship, then walked thousands of miles amongst a sometimes hostile, paleolithic people so he could convert them to Christianity.

Why?

It sure seems to me like the Junisaurus took the biblical injunction to spread the Gospel to all people in all lands seriously. He took it so seriously that he gave his life doing it. You might say that he died to the world to save the souls of the Indians.

There's not a whole lot of racism in that. You might accuse him of cultural imperialism, but that would require some amount of inspection. Is it cultural imperialism if Junipero Serra's worldview was correct?

If the Junisaurus was right, then all those Indians were risking either damnation or enough time in Purgatory to see the Pittsburgh Pirates win another World Series. If he was right, then his actions were selfless and charitable in the extreme. How many of us have walked even a hundred miles to save someone else, much less the life journey Serra took?

While the answer to the evangelism question is certainly ambiguous - atheists and theists have been arguing forever - it isn't something you can dismiss simply by screaming, "RACIST! RACIST! RACIST! RACIST!" Well, you can't dismiss it if you have any intellectual curiosity, that is.

Imbeciles

And that gets to the heart of the matter. Instead of renaming the school, the San Diego School District would have served the students much better had they spent time in their civics classes laying out the history and concepts of their namesake. They didn't.

That's no surprise. Nazis never do, whether they're old school Jew-haters or new school CRT aficionados.

Bonus Imbecility

It dawned on me that Serra's actions prove conclusively that he wasn't a racist. Had he seen the Indians as subhumans, he would never have left Mallorca to save their souls any more than you'd give up your life to evangelize the dogs at the local animal shelter.

It takes a special kind of imbecile to conclude that Serra was racist.

Government By Walter

One of the guys on our street, we'll call him Walter, is a hopelessly neurotic busybody. His life's mission is to make sure everything in the neighborhood is just so and to alert the proper authorities when they aren't.

Walter called the city when his next door neighbors had too many cars on their driveway. This being California, a state run by Walters, there is actually a law regarding cars on driveways. None of the cars were on the street, mind you, they were all politely parked on the driveway. He called the city anyway and the people were forced to clean out one bay in their garage and park a car in there.

When our boys were young and just learning to drive stick shifts, one drove down the street, missed second gear and revved the engine by mistake. Walter complained. Walter also complained when they would drive home with their stereos too loud. Not at 2 AM, but coming home from school at 4 PM.

Walter has complained about all of us at various times. We have a tendency to keep our garage door open. The garage is a heat sink / source, depending on the weather, and by keeping the door open, we reduce its influence on our house. One day, Walter came over to me while I was working in the garage and asked if I had a home office in there and was that the reason I kept the door open all the time. Walter didn't like the look of it. I really wanted to get my Confederate flag beer koozie, put a cold one in it, pop the top, take a swig and let him know that the last time people like him tried to get people like me under control, it took 4 years and 300,000 lives. I didn't. Instead, like everyone else on the block, I was nice to him. But I didn't close my garage door.

Walter is also a nice guy at heart. He helps our elderly next door neighbor with his trash and yard. For all our Catholicism, we don't do that. Walter does.

So that's Walter. He's in everybody's face, all the time, but you have to think that his heart is in the right place. He's doing it because he thinks he knows what's right.

When I hear conservatives talk about the Deep State, I have to laugh. I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is no plan.

There is not a plan in sight. Of plans, there are none. Plans? Do they have any? No. No plan. No plan at all.

It's not that the government, the news media and the academics are part of a vast, left-wing conspiracy, it's that they're animated by the same spirit as Walter. They know how things should be and it drives them batty to see deviations. You can see that in the differences between building codes in Arkansas and building codes in California. One state loves freedom. The other state is run by Walters.

Just like our Walter, the Walters in our institutions know, they just know that they're doing the right thing. Masks were useless, but the Walters knew we redneck morons should wear them. Plexiglass shields at work and school were pointless, but the Walters felt better seeing them. Catholic schools were open during the pandemic, which must have made the Walters purse their lips in vexation. All schools should be closed. Imagine what all those children might do if they were free! Horrible.

So that's another part of KT's Theory of Everything. There's no plan, there's no conspiracy, there are only Walters. Lots and lots and lots of Walters.

"Dr. Fauci said you shouldn't be doing that."

It's Not A Crisis

The world is going to pieces. Debt is going to wreck economies across the globe. Society is falling apart.  The destruction of the traditional family is causing a massive, moral breakdown. So many crises are coming!

But are they crises? Isn't it just a reversion to the mean? I've blathered for years on this blog about debt and families. I've talked about how one masks the costs of our actions and the other causes us to make poor life decisions. However, both are self-limiting, particularly when taken together. When our currency ends up devalued through inflation, all of those alternative families who depend on government largesse will have to face reality.

As painful as that will be, it won't be a crisis, it will be a cause to resume sane behaviors. Don't spend more than you earn. Get and stay married. Gain marketable skills. Find meaning in life*.

My advice to myself, which may be applicable to you, is to relax and do those things now. I try to teach our kids to do those things now. In fact, today, I'll be making chicken stock and playing around with some unpublished video from Maui, trying to learn how to make the colors really pop.

If my knee wasn't arguing with me, I'd finish my MGB. Tomorrow, that.

Anywho, I was clicking around the Interweb Tubes, reading how this or that was a crisis when it dawned on me that none of it was. I figured I'd share it with you. Hope you have a fun and productive day.

Yesterday's ribs after 6 hours in the smoker. They were outstanding.

* - "Find meaning in life" is my dog whistle for "become Catholic." ;-)

Happy Tyrant's Day!

Whenever the calendar dictates that the family must bow before me and give me offerings and gifts to appease my great wrath, I am permitted to cook whatever I please and they must eat it. Today, Father's Day, is nothing more than a manufactured Hallmark holiday, but it allows me to pass judgment on the brood and show favor to those who make sufficient obeisance and scorn those who do not.

All in all, it's a lot of fun. I hope yours will be, too.

Today, I'm making St. Louis ribs. I'm using the rub from Deep South Dish and following the instructions given by that total egomaniac, Myron Mixon. I'll give you one bit of advice I just learned. 

The ribs will take about 6 hours in the smoker.

When you find a rub you really, really like, make a ton of it ahead of time and store it in some Tupperware. You don't want to be making it the day of the feast. You'll find yourself pressed for time and making a rub takes a bit longer than you might think.

For me, there's nothing better than Mary's Deep South rub. Sadly, while I had some of it made in advance, I only had a small oyster jar of it, which was not enough for today's meal. Consequently, some of the ribs have the Deep South rub and the rest have a hybrid of Deep South, catfish blackening rub and an unlabeled one that smells kind of Caribbean.

In spite the improv nature of the rub, I'm looking forward to seeing how it tastes.

Have a great day, all.

Juneteenth

Today, I'm going to expand a bit on a tweet I posted yesterday that explains why Juneteenth drives me up the wall.

This Juneteenth holiday, the suburb and gated community crowd will sniff their scented, lace handkerchiefs and congratulate themselves on being down with the movement and standing up for the oppressed.

Meanwhile, in the real world, in New York City, in the middle of the day ...

Male suspect opens fire in New York City, children nearly killed after getting caught in the crossfire. pic.twitter.com/7dKkrvEOWt

— Katie Daviscourt🇺🇸 (@KatieDaviscourt) June 18, 2021

When I posted my origin story on my blogiversary this year, I shared the damage I had done to my children through divorce and my ex-wife's descent into violent madness. That damage was real, but their experiences pale in comparison to what's going on in the video above.

I've watched it several times now. The tiny girl, who can't be over 3, is scurrying around in terror. The loud bangs from the gun have driven all reason out of her mind. The older girl, with courage and purpose that must certainly have come from experience, pulls the tiny one under her and shields her with her body. The boy, who has been hit by at least one bullet, can't do any more than desperately crawl away from his attacker.

None of these three will show up in our base crime statistics because none of them died. The girls weren't hit so they don't even count as shooting victims. This makes clear that the jump in murders is the tip of the iceberg. Below the waterline are massive increases in psychological trauma, whether that's from robbery, assault or simply being exposed to it.

When I see things like this and then hear about Juneteenth celebrations, I want to run around in circles, screaming incoherently. I want to grab the nearest racial justice warrior, show them that video, shake them and yell questions. Aren't those girls black? Do you have any idea what that experience has done to them? Does the world revolve around you to the point where you "doing better" has some kind of impact? What is wrong with you?

And that's my problem with Juneteenth. It's not about those terrorized kids and the scarred and callous people they may well become. Juneteenth is all about us.

Secession At The School Board

When secession comes, it will be born of exhaustion and resignation, not politics. It might be manifested politically, but its roots will be exasperation with continued incompetence by state and Federal leaders. Today's example is how the news media is reacting to school board meetings wherein parents fight Modern Nazi Race Theory indoctrination. Here's a particularly good example.

Watch this parent absolutely obliterate Critical Race Theory at an Illinois school board meeting:

“How do I have two medical degrees if I’m sitting here oppressed?” pic.twitter.com/gmCRJaphXt

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) June 17, 2021

A senior reporter at NBC, a foot soldier for secular leftist orthodoxy, believes that the fight against Modern Nazi Race Theory is being waged improperly and with undue zeal.

“It’s hard for me as a reporter because I don’t want to put FOILs in a bad light, Freedom of Information Laws are wonderful things,” the writer preluded. “But it is in fact a tactic of national and just hyper and fast-growing local organizations to use onerous public records requests …Asking for all these record requests of ‘how much money did you spend on anything involving race,’ and then that is used to sort of frame again the school board as paying for CRT. Which, again, is just not the case.”

Emphasis mine. That phrase clued me in to what's happening. The goose-stepping is being pushed at a national level by government, academia, the media and such. Resistance is happening at the local level and is only semi-organized. It's intellectual and emotional secession. That's how secessions start. They're emotional first and practical second. My prior blog post about the Atlanta suburb of Buckhead trying secede is similar in that the residents of Buckhead reached an emotional breaking point after which reconciliation could be very difficult.

Salesman tip: Prospects make a "buy" decision emotionally, not intellectually.

These secession meetings, née citizen revolts, are another data point along that same set of secession curves.

Juneteenth

I hate the thing. I hate it. The vehemence of my gut reaction surprised me until I dug deeper into the source. This is simply more self-esteem pornography. It's a pack of wealthy people congratulating themselves on having struck a blow for the oppressed while in reality, it's really only another case of moral masturbation. Even the name of it is condescending. Juneteenth? What, are we illiterate children now? A year hence, kids from alternative families will be in as much pain as they are right now. From that blog post:

This is nothing more than the Romanovs having a drunken party followed by an orgy where innocent lives are the menu, whether that's black kids growing up without fathers or middle-class white girls binding their chests. The SJWs are going along with it because they get to feel the same orgasms of self-esteem as the powerful.

Juneteenth isn't a celebration of freedom, it's a celebration of ourselves.

Modular Pride Flag Update

If this image doesn't illustrate why we need a modular Pride flag, nothing does.

Note that this was displayed at a Federal health care center, posted by a military officer. H/T: Brian Hervela.

It's Time For A Modular Pride Flag

I was attending a meeting at work a while back when someone walked into the room carrying a pride flag coffee cup. All at once, I wondered why he felt the need to let us all know what kind of sex acts he likes. I mean, it's not like I carry a coffee cup with a flag showing how I'm into threesomes with marsupials.

Hmm. I think I said too much there. Oh well.

As the number of genders and social justice causes multiply like bacteria on a cloth mask, demands have grown to change the pride flag to be more, well, inclusive. The flag below is a current candidate.

As I understand it, the rainbow symbolizes God's wrath against Sodom and Gomorrah and the triangles and angly, pointy bits symbolize the place where you are supposed to insert your credit card to make a donation. Each color is chosen to represent an interest group who is so oppressed that Proctor and Gamble have had to devote millions of dollars of marketing funds to let you know they join with other multinational megacorporations to protect you from whoever it is who looked at you funny a couple of weeks ago.

Simple mathematical reasoning tells us that this flag is not sustainable. After all there are 14 23 37 66 73 genders now. God only knows how many oppressed subpopulations there are. Logically, each should have it's own color on the flag, otherwise the flag won't be inclusive enough. There's no way we can fit them all in, so the flag is doomed to be discriminatory as it is now. I think I've got a solution for this.

Let's go with personalized, modular pride flags! Check out the conceptual design below.

I couldn't remember how to make copies of the first oval in Photoshop, so all of these were done individually, hence their uneven nature. That's actually symbolic itself, when you think about it.

We'll go ahead and use the modern pride flag as a starting point. As the internecine catfights rage and this group or that is scratched and bitten until they leave the hair-pulling scrum, we'll have to change the base coloring scheme. One assumes that some kind of equilibrium will be reached and the flag, if not all the wavers, will become stable. Until then, this is a decent starting point.

The key is the spots along the bottom, not to be confused with the venereal diseases that might cause the same sort of thing, if you know what I mean. Those are places to put your badges. And yes, you will need some stinking badges.

Each badge will represent your most recent sexual or political act. They will be arranged chronologically, from left to further left. As the days go by, you will have to modify the flag to show what you've been doing. Those spots will be made of Velcro, if you can spare some from your furry costume. That way, you can add and subtract badges as you like.

For example, Father James Martin's flag this week would have the standard colors with badges across the bottom representing: 

• viewing child porn, 
• bogarting joints with Richard Rohr as they penned an article for the Jesuit magazine, America, showing how Jesus, in the Gospel of Mark, encouraged the wearing of vinyl catsuits and the use of ball gags, 
• upskirt photography, 
• performing Drag Queen Story Hour at the local library, 
• using a rutabaga as a sex toy and 
• licking electrical outlets while yanking it.

Is this over the top? Nah. If you feel the need to use your coffee cup to let everyone know you like to roger other men and if every degenerate, sadomasochistic fetishist feels the need for pride flag representation coloring, we might as well go all the way.

If you know what I mean.

Why We're Not Defending Civilization

First, just in case you wondered about the assertion in the title, dig these two tidbits from SanFran.

Wanna know why? This is why.

As long as we can just print money and hand it out, there is no real cost to property crimes. That's why we make half-hearted attempts to stop a thief. That's why shoplifters don't do time. That's why shoplifting isn't even reported.

There's no significant, direct cost to any of it.

When you see the bewilderment in the people at the San Francisco Walgreens in that video, you're watching their brains struggle with the knowledge that what's happening is the breakdown of society fighting with the numbing culture of compassion, compassion that's been bought with colored pieces of paper.

The 17 Walgreens that have closed in Frisco, the 323,000 square foot cavity in Chicago's Magnificent Mile where Macy's used to be and the burned out stores in Minneapolis are real. The colored pieces of paper aren't.

We'll start defending civilization again eventually.

KT's Theory Of Everything, Federal Reserve Edition

I don't recall how I found it, but someone recently turned me on to Janet Yellen's social justice blathering. It hits all of the usual notes about inequality, racism, global warming climate change and blah blah blah. It's so orthodox that no more than a single example is necessary. If you find yourself unable to sleep, click on this embedded tweet and scroll through her feed. It's Snore City, man.

To understand the American economy & make thoughtful policy, we must talk about the devastating impact of systemic racism.

The Tulsa Massacre is among our most visceral reminders.

We can build a more equal, just economy—but only if we acknowledge history & work to unwind it. https://t.co/DtBlh0enwN

— Secretary Janet Yellen (@SecYellen) June 1, 2021

Pull her string and she talks! She comes with ten pre-programmed messages, kiddies!

This is just another data point that proves social justice talk is simply a diversion. Yellen knows the exact demographic makeup of the bottom 30%. She's the current Secretary of the Treasury and served four years as the chair of the Federal Reserve, two organizations simply awash in data. She knows this is all rubbish and yet she keeps hammering at it. Why? 

Again, the only conclusion I can reach is that she doesn't want to discuss traditional, nuclear families.

Income inequality has nothing to do with racism and Yellen knows it.

If You Think This Is Bad, Wait A Year

Yes, it's the RNC, so take it with a grain of salt, but still, dig how slow he thinks.

WATCH: Joe Biden confuses Syria with Libya THREE TIMES. pic.twitter.com/8iewTindfr

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 13, 2021

I watched my parents' minds grow dimmer and dimmer as they aged. If President Biden is like this now, imagine what he'll be like in a year. These summits aren't like his "press conferences" where he gets softball questions that are pre-approved and where he can be rested and medicated to be in what passes for top form for an hour or two and then go back to bed. These are grueling back-to-back days where he has to meet with some sharp operators.

Brutal.

Bonus Trump Take: Dude needs to retire, too. He turns 75 today. He wasn't disciplined when he was younger and his bottomless need for attention and adoration made him toxic. Add to that oncoming mental aging and that should be that. Please, President Trump, just go away.

The Feds Vs. The Fed

As I understand it, the Federal Reserve is printing about $120B per month and using it to buy government debt. That comes out to $100 per week for every man, woman and child in the US. At the same time, there's no real increase in goods and services to buy. More money chasing the same number of things leads, eventually, to inflation. The Grumpy Economist has more.

The Fed seems to think that "anchoring" expectations comes from soothing speeches about how anchored expectations are. At worst they may say they have "the tools" to contain inflation should it break out, but they seldom say just what those tools are. I believe that expectations come from expected actions, not speeches, and better from robust institutional rules and commitments that force necessary but unpleasant actions when needed. At least, people must believe that the Fed is willing to repeat 1980 if it comes to that.  And raising interest rates will be much harder now, with a) 100% debt / GDP not 25%, so higher interest rates immediately hurt the budget b) huge reserves so the Fed will be seen to pay a windfall to big banks not to lend out money c) the too-big-to-fail banks will all lose a bundle if interest rates rise d) the current emphasis on inequality, as a recession will hurt the most vulnerable the most. 

2) In today's economy, in the end, inflation comes when people do not believe the government will repay debt. Beyond interest rates, the Fed changes the composition of government debt -- reserves vs. treasurys -- but not the amount of debt. Whether we hold treasurys via the world's largest money market fund (that's what the Fed is) or directly really does not matter. 

In simpler terms, the Fed is promoting inflation to cover for the incompetence of our political leaders. They can't balance the budget, so the Fed prints money to buy their debt. The Fed's mission, however, is not to bail out Trump or Biden, it's to maintain a sound currency. It's all well and good to backstop the Ivy League geniuses running the government when there's no inflation, but when it starts kicking up, there's bound to be some conflict.

If inflation hits 7%, does the Fed raise rates? How about 10%? When does it stop printing money to buy debt? In another Grumpy Economist blog post, we learn the Fed is... 

"...dedicated to understanding and finding solutions to the numerous forms of inequality that communities of color experience and working with communities in our District to address deep-seated inequities," 

Again, that's fine as long as there's no inflation, but when it comes, there must be a point at which all the fairyland feelgood stops and the Fed has got to rescue the dollar at the expense of the super-duper compassionate types. 

Really, inflation is all about overspending by the government. At least that's how it looks to me. Absent that, the Fed would be free to manage the value of the dollar.

Bonus Take: I've seen new talk about a wealth tax. My guess is that some of the Ivy Leaguers are starting to figure out that they'll need a new source of coin in the future when the Fed stops giving them an allowance.

A waterfall on the road to Hana. It has nothing to do with the post, but I like it.

I've Looked At Carps From Both Sides Now

Is that an obscure reference or what? If you remember Judy Collins' "Both Sides Now," you'll get it. Otherwise, well, what can I say? This is just a blog post with a video of carp.

The carp seem happy, at least. We saw these as we entered the water at Ahihi-Kinau. I love how the bottom of the ocean seemed to wriggle with fish. As we got out, I was at just the right depth to get the side shot.

No, it's not Cecil B. DeMille, but Cecil B. DeMille isn't Cecil B. DeMille any more, either, so there.

It's HD, so it might be worth the full screen treatment. It's also only about 30 seconds long, so it will be over before you know it. Enjoy!

That's A Moray!

Does the band have the sheet music I gave them? Yes, I know, it's the tune of "That's Amore." Don't worry about it. You'll see. Take it away, Deano! 

When he bites on your thumb, takes a chunk of your bum,

That's a moray

When you reach in his cave, he's all bravo and brave

He's a moray

And it's not how it feels, and you know you have eels,

That's a moray....

Scuzza me, but you see, let them be, or you'll see

Lotsa morays!

We saw this monster cruising from one rocky hiding spot to another off Ahihi-Kinau, a tiny, rocky beach way down south on Maui. Ahihi-Kinau is difficult to reach and the entrance to the water is a tiny dab of sand in an otherwise lava coastline. The dab is maybe 5' wide. Because it's so rocky, the water is usually very clear and the corals have lots of places to grow. It's lovely.

I've seen morays before, but never one swimming in the open. This guy was 6' long, easy. So beautiful!

I left the video large, so it might be worth seeing it in full screen mode. Enjoy!

It's Always Darkest Before You Find The Light Switch

I had another link set up to make this point, but there are so many of them that one can be spendthrift with the content and pick them at random. I mean the stories that show the racialists are getting worse, not better. Here's a letter of resignation from a teacher at some tony prep school somewhere in Blueistan. The whole thing would be worth a read if you couldn't have written it yourself, given the basic setting and a few drinks. Here's a snippet that will make my point.

In my classroom, I see up close how this orthodoxy (Modern Nazi Race Theory) hinders students’ ability to read, write, and think. I teach students who recoil from a poem because it was written by a man. I teach students who approach texts in search of the oppressor. I teach students who see inequities in texts that have nothing to do with power. Students have internalized the message that this is the way we read and think about the world, and as a result, they fixate on power and group identity. This fixation has stunted their ability to observe and engage with the full fabric of human experience in our literature...

Since (the time I complained about it), the stifling conformity has only intensified. Last fall, two administrators informed faculty that certain viewpoints simply would not be tolerated during our new “race explicit” conversations with our new “anti-racist” work. They said that no one would be allowed to question the orthodoxy regarding “systemic racism.” The message was clear, and the faculty went silent in response. 

The reality is that fear pervades the faculty. On at least two separate occasions in 2017 and 2018, our Head of School, standing at the front of Hajjar Auditorium, told the entire faculty that he would fire us all if he could so that he could replace us all with people of color. This year, administrators continue to assert  D-E’s policy that we are hiring “for diversity.” D-E has become a workplace that is hostile toward educators based solely on their immutable traits.

During a recent faculty meeting, teachers were segregated by skin color. Teachers who had light skin were placed into a “white caucus” group and asked to “remember” that we are “White” and “to take responsibility for [our] power and privilege.” D-E’s racial segregation of educators, aimed at leading us to rethink of ourselves as oppressors, was regressive and demeaning to us as individuals with our own moral compass and human agency.

This is really simple. They're not tackling the real problem, which is the breakdown of the family. Instead, they're goose-stepping around the campus, looking for Jews whites. They find some, punish or reeducate them, promote and hire more Germans colored folk and then sit back and are horrified to see that nothing has improved.

Since nothing improved with difficult conversations and awareness-raising, clearly the solution is to double their efforts and segregate teachers, fire anyone who disagrees and forbid differing opinions. Since that won't help, things will get worse from there.

I wonder if this was how the Final Solution was born. Getting the Jews out of society was supposed to bring on a glorious, new future for the Germans. When segregating and then enslaving them didn't work, I suppose that extermination was the next logical step.

In any case, this is all perfectly predictable. We're trying solutions that can't possibly work and trying them even harder when they fail.

"You can pay me a little bit now or you can pay me a lot later."

Maui Sea Turtle

I likes my new GoPro 9, I surely do. Check out this guy who decided to cruise through the snorkelers at Ulua Beach.

Odds and Ends: Wife kitteh's new mask and snorkel, bought at my favorite San Diego dive shop before we left, worked perfectly. She'd had problems in the past with leaks and discomfort on the mask as well as her snorkels jamming up on her when they went underwater and their stoppers stopped up permanently. These were on the expensive side, but totally worth the price.

The GoPro 9 is a dream to use. Its battery life and storage are such that you can simply begin recording when you go in the water and stop when you come out. There's no need to husband resources and fuss with the on/off buttons. The video quality speaks for itself. I actually shot in twice the resolution you see above and cut it down for YouTube upload speed.

Hawaiian Pigeons

We're hanging out on Maui for a week,, just relaxing and snorkeling. If you've never been there, I highly recommend it. It's my favorite of all the Hawaiian islands.

On Maui, their pigeons are chickens. That is, the dominant bird running around under foot, looking for crumbs, is the chicken. We went to a pub for dinner and this chap greeted us when we sat down.

The light was from the wrong side, so you're not seeing his handsome face and feathers.

I'm really looking forward to using the Go Pro 9 when snorkeling on this trip.  I hope to have some good videos to share soon.

KT's Maui Tips

1. Get a condo in Kihei. Kihei is a bit blue collar, but it's inexpensive and perfectly located. Plenty of great beaches and snorkeling spots and the drive into the jungles on the wet side is easy. We've tried some of the resorts and they're overrated.
2. Buy food at the grocery store and make breakfast and dinner yourself. The restaurants here are mediocre at best. You can save a ton of money and do just as well if not better at home.
3. Snorkel in the morning. By afternoon, the wind has kicked up and the ocean is rough and murky.
4. You can't go wrong at Ulua Beach. Easy access and a great reef. It's the perfect place for beginners.
5. Pay for your gear. That is, don't buy cheap masks and fins. If you have to buy when you get here, be prepared to pay a premium. Get fitted and try lots of masks. A bad mask will ruin your day at the beach. Also, use the defogger stuff. Yes, I know it's probably just watered-down dish detergent, but a foggy mask will detract from your enjoyment of the water.
6. In the afternoon, when it's too rough for the water, drive over to the wet side and take the road to Hana down to where you find a hiking trail or two and walk in the jungle. I won't do Hana itself any more because the road is getting washed away and it's starting to spook me.
7. On the wet side, you can also find beaches where the turtles come to bask in the sun. That's way cool.
8. I'll leave the swimming with the turtles for a post later this week. There's a beach up Lahaina way where they're plentiful in the water. I don't remember it right now and it's time to make my breakfast Spam.
9. And yes, eat some Spam. When in Hawaii, do as the Hawaiians do!

Aloha!

Don't Study, Play The Lottery

Well, you have to admit, this, from Bloomberg, is the logical conclusion to a chain of events that begins with dumping the SATs.

After yet another spring in which millions of American kids endured the anxiety of discovering whether their chosen colleges had accepted them, pundits are yet again lamenting the absurdity and social ills of the process. Why should a cabal of admissions officers hold so much sway over high-school students’ self-esteem and access to the elite?

Allow me to offer a radical solution: Fire the functionaries and use random selection instead.

In addition to being a raving maniac, the author, Cathy O'Neil has these qualifications.

Cathy O’Neil is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She is a mathematician who has worked as a professor, hedge-fund analyst and data scientist.

Her essay has scare quotes in all the right places.

The progressive foundation New America has even made the idea — specifically, adopting lottery admissions at highly selective universities — part of its plan to achieve greater diversity in higher education. There could be a weak notion of who is “qualified” — say, a high school degree and a minimum grade point average. Beyond that, selection would be publicly and provably random. Never mind optional standardized tests. If you show interest, your name goes in a big hat.

"Qualified?" Ha! "Qualified" just means you've benefited from privileges. No more "qualifications" to find the  "strongest" candidates. Just a lottery.

Bloomberg Opinion. Not some mimeographed campus radical newsletter, Bloomberg.

Hard work is for chumps.

White Supremacists With Guns

The news is not that Yale invited a Nazi* to speak, it's that, like Sherlock Holmes and the dog that didn't bark, the news media didn't think it worth reporting.

Quotes from the talk:

• This is the cost of talking to white people at all. The cost of your own life, as they suck you dry. There are no good apples out there. White people make my blood boil.
• I had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any white person that got in my way, burying their body, and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step. Like I did the world a ... favor.
• White people are out of their minds and they have been for a long time.

This is so ordinary now that none of our Elites blink an eye.

Gun Control

We need more and more gun control. At least that's what I hear. With gun control must come enforcement of gun laws, no? Dig this from Minneapolis where a man was recently shot and killed by police after having violated existing gun laws and shot at officers. His gun offenses should have made him a pariah. Instead, he became a martyr with the obligatory unrest. The emphasis below is mine.

• The Star Tribune wants badly to present Winston Boogie Smith in the obligatory sainted form to which we have become accustomed. The Star Tribune lets on, however: “Court records show the warrant was issued after Smith failed to appear for sentencing May 19 in Ramsey County District Court. He had been charged with two felonies in November 2019 when officers found him at a White Bear Lake apartment with a loaded handgun in his car. As a felon, he was prohibited from owning a gun. At that time, he had a Hennepin County warrant for violating the terms of his probation for an aggravated robbery conviction for a 2017 incident involving his ex-girlfriend.”
• And this: “Officers arrested Smith at the apartment and found a 9mm handgun with a round in the chamber under the driver’s seat of his Camaro, the complaint said. Smith also faced a felony charge of fleeing police that was scheduled for trial in September.”

And so on and so forth.

Simple Conclusion

It's not about racism and it's not about gun control. 

Whatever.

* - If you are unfamiliar with my claim that racial justice is just modern-day Nazism, replace "white" with "Jew" in the quotes above and it becomes clear.

Q: If Daiso Has 10 Customers And 4 Customers Go Away, How Many Customers Will Daiso Have Left?

A: Not enough to pay the taxes on the Japanese government debt.

Dig this.

Japan’s wage growth has slowed to levels last seen in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis as companies have taken a hit from the coronavirus pandemic...

Tepid wage growth is seen as a drag on consumption, which makes up the bulk of the economy. This time, economists are keeping an eye on the role that “forced savings,” or money that households have been forced to save due to pandemic-caused restrictions, will play.

Now check out this.

Japanese companies cut spending on plants and equipment for the fourth consecutive quarter in January-March, as the economy struggles to shake off the drag from the coronavirus pandemic.

A slow recovery of firms' propensity to spend is likely to worry policymakers hoping strong domestic demand can help make the country's economic recovery more sustainable.

The answer, according to modern geniuses, is this.

Credited with coining the term "Womenomics,” (Kathy) Matsui published a series of reports over 20 years detailing the economic benefits of empowering women, as Japan’s labor force ages and shrinks. While former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe espoused her ideas, the country fell well short of a goal of having women in 30% of management positions by 2020, the year he stepped down. Japan ranked 120th in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap index for 2021.

Emphasoidal parts mine.

So, to review, consumption makes up the bulk of the economy, domestic demand makes economic recovery sustainable, the Japanese governmental debt is the highest on the planet and Japan's population is declining because Japanese women aren't having babies. They all know this. They all write about it. They all talk about it. This is not a secret anywhere in Japan.

And yet, they talk about the economic benefits of empowering women. I'm all for women doing as they please, but without babies, there won't be any economic benefits to anyone. This is deliberate, cultural blindness. How much longer can they hold out against reality?

Just look at all the empowerment!

Related Bonus Content

In a fit of self-indulgence, I scanned through the 'Post, looking at my most recent blatherings about Japan. This one hit home.

Like guns for deer, porn is a threat for which we have no evolutionary response developed yet. The male brain is simply overwhelmed by it. It's a drug which is free and available everywhere. Women, not being men, don't have the slightest clue how lethal the stuff is. The figure quoted in the interviews (with Japanese women who can't find a man) over and over was that 60% of all eligible-age men in Japan are herbivores.

60%? That's more like belt-fed machine guns and deer.

This is one more data point supporting KT's Theory of Everything. We conceal reality in order to keep JP II at bay. If we named porn as a significant source of the problem, we'd have to give up porn.

BOOM.
"I'll just leave this little pamphlet here. You may read it at your leisure ..."

Unrelated Bonus Content

A man who thinks he is Napoleon, err, a bald eagle, err, possessed by the spirit of Tutankhamen, err, a woman, yes, that's it, he thinks he's a woman, is concerned about the mental health of America.

I give up.

“I will continue that focus and support policy initiatives to improve Americans’ physical and mental health.” pic.twitter.com/2oiGCKQ3GF

— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) June 5, 2021

No Competition

 ... breeds complacency and corruption.

In pondering my Theory of Everything, which posits that our cultural war is between the Secular Left and John Paul II's Theology of the Body, I continue to marvel at the ease with which we've discarded objective data and logic. Whether that's the SATs or the M2 money supply, we dispense with indispensable sources of information.

I guess that makes them dispensable. Whatever.

In 1942 or 1943, Heinz Guderian, one of Germany's ablest tank generals, was put in charge of tank production. The people running it before, convinced that victory was already won, wasted precious resources in experimentation instead of mass production. The war was not already won and Germany desperately needed every one of those tanks they didn't get.

There's a mental sloth that comes with assured victory. If you don't think you have a peer competitor, then practical considerations can be given less weight as you experiment with odd theories. You can see that in Europe where they've imported Muslims who like to have lots of babies while the Europeans, not seeing the mathematics of their future, are not having babies.

Dittos for the US. We ignore M2 money supply data because we don't really need it. We're convinced the war against scarcity is already won, victory assured by our printing presses. It sure looks won, doesn't it? 

If you've been in first place for decades, it's natural to become complacent and decadent. Not to worry, complacency and decadence have their own rewards. That's why I don't take politics all that seriously any more. It's Ivy League glee club catfighting, for the most part. Meanwhile, the debt goes up, inner city violence gets worse and our universities are reducing their ability to screen applicants. None of those problems are amenable to a political solution.

The stimmy checks will never stop, man.