Wilder, Wealthy, and Wise

Dinner? Who Would You Choose?

“Shiver me timbers Philip. At this rate I’ll never get to my Kraft dinner.” – South Park

I defeated my school’s chess champion in two moves. Guess football and wrestling came in handy.

I apologize for the Lame Repost, but by the time I got to sit down to write, without even the start of a first draft, it was 11pm, and the morning comes early. So, please enjoy this Lame Repost from back in 2021.

Last week Remus, the late proprietor of the Woodpile Report came up in the comments. Mike in Canada (one of Canadians that the triumphant armies of the right, good, and true will spare when we kick off Operation Leafblower: The Cleansing Of The North, which is scheduled right after we finish Operation American Commie And Collaborationist CEO Helicopter Drop) made this comment:

“If you could have dinner with anyone, whom would it be? Remus. I would have given a great deal to have met him and had a conversation. I miss him very much. . . Tuesday mornings just aren’t the same now.”

That hit a nerve with me, for several reasons. The first time any of my posts received any notice of any kind was on his site. I’ll admit, I asked him to read it via email. And he did read it, and posted it on one of his weekly musings. Then, we emailed each other back and forth several times.

I still have his website bookmarked. I can’t really bring myself to delete it, because I read it weekly for years even before I was featured on it.

I miss him very much, too.

Remus was very special to many readers and writers, primarily because it was obvious: he was a reluctant warrior. Like many of the posters here, and many of the blogs I frequent, he wanted no part of this. He wanted peace, but circumstances kept dragging him back in.

In my case, I wanted to post funny stories and make fun of the events of the day while mixing in whatever wisdom I could scrape from the ages. Oh, and add in some bikinis. Why?

Because they’re bikinis.

Duh.

I watched a two-part series about the bikini. It was very revealing.

But Mike’s question remained: who would I want to have dinner with. Remus is a wonderful answer, but I excluded him and other commenters/fellow bloggers from my list. Also, I excluded dead family members, and religious figures and, of course, Deity.

Why? Well, I’m the one writing this post. My youngest experience (this really happened) with Jesus was when I was coloring a picture of him in Sunday School. I colored him purple. The nice Sunday School teacher said, “Johnny, Jesus wasn’t purple.”

My rejoinder? “Well, he’s God, so if he wants to be purple, he can be purple.”

The Sunday School teacher sighed. So, yeah, I haven’t changed. Besides, I’m sure Jesus could drink me under the table if He chose to, purple or not, so it’s not fair including Him on the list.

That being said, I have several categories. The first is, who, in history, would I like to have dinner with?

George S. Patton, Jr.

Since the age of five, I’ve been fascinated with Patton. How fascinated? So much so that my high school history teacher ordered a documentary film on him for our US History class, just for me. When the lights went down and the projector started and his baby picture showed up even before the title showed – I yelled, “Patton!”

Yup, this was the picture.

My history teacher smiled.

Sure, Patton wasn’t fighting the best the Germans could throw at him. Sure, he had intelligence information from Enigma knowing what the Germans would do (sometimes before they knew) but he was hip-deep in the intrigue and politics that created the postwar world.

He didn’t know all the dirt but he knew a lot of it. Plus, the man knew a good cigar and a bad commie from a thousand miles away. Dewey couldn’t defeat Truman in 1948, but I bet George S. Patton could have rolled over him like a Sherman tank.

Imagine the world with Stalin staring down Patton at the start of the Cold War. Commies in the State Department? They’d be hanging from lamp poles, and Patton would have led the columns of tanks entering Red Square when Stalin had used his one and only atomic bomb.

Stalin’s grave? It’s a communist plot.

This wouldn’t be any silly single-course dinner. This would be a full-on dinner that would last for hours and end with cigars and brandy on a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean on a cool autumn night.

Besides, who would pick better food or cigars for a dinner than Patton?

Who would I skip?

Einstein. He looks like he smells like cheese, and not in a good way. Also he seems like he’d be sort of like that guy who mumbled to himself in the back of the class and rocked back and forth.

Honorable Mention:

Isaac Newton. Isaac Newton did more in any three years of his life than 99.999% of humanity will ever do in a full lifetime. Me? I want to understand what he learned about things other than physics, which are largely lost to history. Downside? I’d need to record it all because I’d want to hear it again and again. Other downside? How can you compete with that hair?

Okay, both Brian May and Isaac Newton have doctorates. Only one of them had groupies.

Who would I like to get into a (no weapons) fight with?

Alexander the Great. I’m pretty sure that 18 year old me could dust the floor with 18-year-old Alexander the Great. Check that. I’m certain I could take him. But if I lost?

“Yeah, I remember the time that Alexander the Great just barely beat me.”

For me, it’s a no-lose situation. For him? My first thought was it would be pretty embarrassing. But, after thinking about it, if Alexander lost a fight to someone who came from 2400 years in the future just to kick his butt? Also a cool story.

Seriously, Alexander would be toast, though.

Who would I skip?

18-year-old Chuck Norris. I don’t have a death wish.

Honorable Mention:

18-year-old Genghis Khan. I hear he was tough, but it might be worth it. While a challenge, since 8% of the men living in the former Mongol Empire are his descendent I’d get to say, “Who is your daddy now?” to millions of dudes. Me? I’ll turn Genghis Khan into Genghis Khannot.

Genghis was tough as a child. I remember when he took his first steppe.

Discarded:

Karl Marx. It would be like hitting a fat, slow and stupid bug, and give me zero satisfaction. And it wouldn’t stop communism, even if I gave him a swirlie and an atomic wedgie. Someone would come along and write the “something for nothing” manifesto.

Have a (few) beer(s) with:

Ben Franklin.

I think Ben knew all the dirt on all the founding fathers. If not, I think he would have an excellent collection of ye olde fart jokes. Failing all of that? Rumor has it he was quite funny when toasted. Plus, he was rich enough to buy really good wine.

Who would I skip?

Any Kennedy. Never drink with a Kennedy. Any Kennedy. And never, ever, drive with a Kennedy.

But if Teddy was driving, he would have drowned.

Honorable Mention:

Andrew Jackson. Skinny as a rattlesnake and twice as mean. He’d probably take you to strange bars that weren’t on the map because they were in someone’s basement or on their back 40 that you’d have to shoot your way out of. Since Andrew Jackson was invulnerable to weapons like Wolverine®, just stand behind him.

Who would I like to be on a long airline flight with?

This one was hard. When I used to be on long flights, I pulled out my book as a shield to not talk to the person next to me. Who would I want to be stuck next to for four to six hours as I jetted across the country. There’s only one answer:

Elvis.

Okay, just kidding, since he would probably eat my in-flight meal. He’d want my hunk-a hunk-a airplane nuts. The tough part of this answer is that you’re going to be trapped with this person for hours. So, if they’re a jerk? Yeah. Hours of that. So, I think I’d choose Mark Twain. Worst case is that he’d tell you stories. Best case?

He’d tell you stories. Some of them might even be true. And it would be fun to fight alongside Twain after some Stewardess told him he couldn’t light up an epic stogie in flight.

Who would I like to choose but I’m afraid he’s a jerk and I’d end up hating a legend?

Steve Martin. I love Steve Martin’s work, and think he has a lot of genius and wisdom behind it. That being said, being famous for, oh, nearly fifty years just might have jaded him to people. Maybe. And I’d hate to think that a national treasure like Steve was a, well, jerk. Plus I bet Twain could take out a stewardess with a single punch.

Honorable Mention:

Quentin Tarantino. I know he’s a jerk, but I think I’d love to argue with him for six straight hours when he couldn’t escape. That sounds sort of fun. And if he was a real idiot? I bet I could make him smell my unwashed clothes from the trip.

Who under no circumstances would I want to be on an airline flight with?

Gilbert Gottfried or William Shatner. Gottfried for obvious reasons, and Shatner because every time he’s on a flight something is on the wing trying to rip the engines out.

Don’t worry – William Shatner would never run a criminal enterprise.

All of that being said? I think Mike is right. I think Remus would have been a wonderful dinner companion.

Who are your choices, and (for more fun) what categories did I miss? One category I drew a blank on was “who would I like to work for” and then I thought of Jesus again.

He would know when I was goofing off.

Dangit. He already does.

The Podcast Of The Century!

Streams will show up here at 9EDT, that’s in around 30 minutes! (and we typically pregame for five minutes, so it really starts up at 8:55PM)

Mrs The Mrs – YouTube

Funniest News On the ‘Net.

In this episode:

War and Stuff
Jackass of the Week
Conversation Street
ThinkRealFast

Volcanoes, The Global Warming Scam, And Energy

“Remember when you could just throw a girl into a volcano?” – The Cabin in the Woods

Did you know that you can put molten lava in your mouth? I mean, only once, but still.

I know we there is a lot of fretting about the current political situation, which may well lead to a dictatorship in the United States (at least temporarily) and that bothers some people, I guess, but thrills others. As Elon Musk noted, “’When did Rage Against The Machine’ become ‘Rage For The Machine’?”

Outside of the impending dictatorship, which, I know, is like saying, “But aside from not knowing where you were, how did the debate go, Mr. Biden?” I think an even bigger problem faced by humanity is that of energy.

Since the Industrial Revolution, humanity has become more and more dependent upon vast amounts of stored sunlight in the form of fossil fuels. Even if you’re an abiotic oil enjoyer, the problem is resource replenishment time, which is certainly at least in the thousands of years timeframe except in certain cases that would be dependent on very specific conditions. If it’s all dead plants and stuff, that puts recharge rates in the millions of years timeframe.

This is important because, no matter how you slice it, energy is freedom.

And another scientist came up with a unified theory of seatbelts. He said, “It just clicked.”

The attack on freedom through energy has been ongoing for decades. I think, deep down, those of the GloboLeftElite who love control (which is all of them) aren’t happy when people have freedom. Since I’ve observed an inverse relationship between the amount of freedom in the world and the price of energy, the powers that be love Global Warming®.

No, they aren’t really excited about Global Warming™, they’re excited about the amount of control that it allows them to wield over people. How Dare You Herself admits (see below) that her goal is to destroy all of capitalism. Now, if that’s her goal, why is she funded by capitalist George Soros? It’s odd that Global Warming gets so much of the attention of huge power users like Microsoft® and that those that tout the solution create more sweet, sweet carbon dioxide than Poland.

If Greta Thunberg could rearrange all the letters in her name, that would be great. (Meme as found.)

The concern about Global Warming® isn’t because the GloboLeftistElite love humanity, in fact it’s quite the opposite: they despise humanity and want to watch it suffer.

That being said, even an old, crusty skeptic like myself noted that it was pretty warm in 2023, so I wondered why that would be. Of course, the answer was right in front of my face the whole time, but it took a reminder in the form of a story emailed by Ricky to me to jar the old grey matter enough to recall.

In January of 2022, the volcano Tonga erupted. Now, if you’re going to have a volcano, a good name for it is in order, one that implies that when it erupts it destroyed an entire ancient alien civilization. Mount St. Helens does not fit the bill – it’s “meh” tier at best. Mount Pinatubo is better. But better yet? Tonga, which is more formally known as Hunga Tonga-Hunga, meets that criteria since you could yell “Hunga Tonga-Hunga” at anyone in an elevator and they’d know you were one serious dude. Try it, you’ll see what I mean.

When Godzilla® isn’t destroying cities, I hear he has a business flipping houses.

Regardless, in August of 2022, NASA opined that Tonga’s eruption had launched enough water high into the stratosphere to increase the volume of water there by 10%. Water is, of course, the most potent greenhouse gas by volume. This excludes my deodorant, which is specifically designed to keep me covered in baby oil and smelling like hydrocarbons and also eliminate pesky ozone in the upper atmosphere. It’s a three-in-one product.

Hunga Tonga-Hunga shot the largest amount of water vapor added to the stratosphere that men who record such things have ever recorded. To double the impact, when a volcano normally blows, in addition to water vapor, it often blasts particulates into the atmosphere that block and reflect part of the Sun’s light back into space, leading to a wee bit of net cooling.

I was shocked to find out that six out of seven dwarves aren’t Happy®.

But not Hunga Tonga-Hunga. It was, in fact, perfectly situated to maximize water output and minimize particulate output. And it was just shallow enough to zap out all that water, but not so deep so that the water would be absorbed by the deep water above it. Thus? A warm year.

And, unless Dr. Evil caused this via volcano an unsanctioned experiment in Evil Science®, mankind was 100% off the hook for this, as mankind has likewise done very little during our lifetimes to make the climate warmer. Yes, all the agriculture has an impact, but people gotta eat.

But this is still very, very different than the alarmists indicate. There will be more hurricanes. Oops, did we say more? We meant there will be fewer hurricanes. And it might cause things to get cooler.

In short, Global Warming™ is whatever will make you scared and turn you to full autocratic communism.

The problem with Global Warming® is that it’s distracting us from the real problem: we need energy.

Yes, I’m in favor of Clean™ energy, but it has to make thermodynamic sense – we have to get more energy out of the system than we spend making the energy, which is not the case with most renewables (ethanol, biodiesel, I’m looking at you). Global Warming© is a distraction, and is moving capital needed to create an energy secure future into corrupt projects that loot tax dollars to give to political cronies that are net energy sinks.

I guess it’s a Nguyen-Nguyen situation.

But, hey, I said energy is freedom, and if they don’t want energy, they don’t want us to have freedom.

At least they’re making George Soros happy.

Are We In The Middle Of A Planned Revolution? Yes.

“Day 93 under the dome. With necessities growing dangerously low, who knows what spark will set off this powder keg?” – The Simpsons Movie

I saw two men in matching outfits so I asked them if they were gay. Turns out that doesn’t make the NYPD happy.

A phenomenon that has sweep the world in the early 21^st century has been the “Color Revolution”. This is characterized by a “grassroots” movement whose aim was theoretically to create a liberal Western democracy on the European model. An example would be most Western European countries, with the exception of the Islamic Caliphate of France.

What methods were used in these “peaceful” revolutions?

Leadership by Non-Governmental Organizations Civil Disobedience
Civil Disorder/Disobedience/Protests
Total Lack of Chill
Use of the Internet to Organize
Heavy “Student” Participation

When I read that list, I see a single conclusion: the CIA did it, sometimes with the help of George Soros.

Probably one of the first places that this method was used was the Soviet Union. All of the “spontaneous” protests at the beginning were likely anything but spontaneous. The wonderful part of this type of operation is that if it works, great, an enemy is off the board. If it doesn’t? Everyone involved can put on their “so sorry that happened to you, buddy” face while preparing for the next one.

To be fair, I don’t think that most of the people that were trying to get the Soviet Union to collapse thought it was going to work as well and as completely and as quickly as it did. One minute, the Soviets were all “Viktor Drago” and the next they were all “Trotsky after meeting an icepick”.

What do you call a man with an ice pick in his head? Anything you want – he clearly doesn’t control the security apparatus of the USSR.

But there is more at play here. Ricky emailed me an article from 2014 that talked in depth about Color Revolutions and their mechanics by Andrew Korybko which inspired this post. You can find that article here.

The Color Revolution Model: An Exposé of the Core Mechanics

When we look at a Color Revolution, it’s like looking at an iceberg: you only see the bit above the water but miss entirely the part that’s going to cause James Cameron to make a billion dollars and inflict those stupid Avatar™ movies on us. No, Color Revolutions are years in the making and start with:

Ideology: In the Color Revolutions to date, all of them have been based on the attempt to create a Western-liberal style of government, hence my suggestion that this was the CIA attempting to export “freedom” to a group of people who have consistently and convincingly desired to not be free. Sure, some Egyptians want to live in a Western-style democracy, but most of them don’t. Hell, most of the Muslims that have moved to Western Europe don’t want, at all, a Western-style democracy.

They want Sharia law, they want a government based in Islam, and they want all the wealth that the Western-style liberal democracies seem to create. They want to live in Cairo on the Thames, not the actual, crappy Cairo on the Nile. Why did Egypt’s Color Revolution fail? Why did Libya’s? Why did Syria’s?

They didn’t want that Western liberal democracy ideology, they just wanted the stuff.

Telling a good joke about the French Revolution is all about the execution.

Cash: As NASA astronaut Gus Grissom said in the movie The Right Stuff, “No bucks, no Buck Rodgers®.” In a Color Revolution you could say, “No simoleons, no Napoleons”. That’s as close as I can get unless I retcon Stalin’s first name to Moolah.

But money has to come from somewhere, and most of the people that make up these Color Revolutions are poor college students who live on ramen and despair.

Where did BLM get money? According to the Claremont Institute (LINK), Microsoft® pledged $244,400,000 to Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organization pushing radical GloboLeftElite disruption.

Microsoft© is funding a Color Revolution

Against . . . you.

That’s a pickup line that could work for Boeing, too.

People: There is always an inner circle of leaders of the Color Revolution, probably hand-picked by the funders. The are willing and passionate about the Color Revolution, primarily because they see themselves as the ones who will get power after the event. Because someone has to drink the Kool-Aid®, there are also followers. Those are broken into two groups – the troops and the members of general public that are sympathetic to the revolutionaries.

Propaganda: First, the message is crafted. It is prepared in advance for the moment it will be communicated, and the People mobilized. The propaganda may already be in place, sitting on websites prepared by and for the movement. It may have been trained into the foot soldiers of the Color Revolution. Regardless, the message gets out, and the goal is to get sympathy and support as the revolt proceeds. In the United States, mainstream media is fully onboard with the GloboLeftistElite plans – would anyone be surprised to find out that ABC® gave Kamala the debate questions? And answers?

I do think the debate about Mobius strips is a bit one-sided.

Spark: Once all of the above are in place and ready to go, all that’s needed is a spark. George Floyd, for instance was a spark. It wasn’t George Floyd, it was that there was a video of a dying junkie that met the needs of the Color Revolution, which was already prepared and ready to go, complete with Ideology, Cash, People and Propaganda, complete with a complicit media to fan the fiery but non-violent flames.

Once these all came together, Floyd’s death was chosen and someone, somewhere, said, “Perfect. Go.” It doesn’t matter that Floyd was going to die due to the incredible amounts of drugs in his system. All that mattered was what the video showed of his on-camera death.

Korybko suggested, back in 2014, that examples of these Sparks included (all of these are direct quotes):

A rigged election
The jailing of an opposition leader
The signing of (or failure to sign) a controversial piece of legislation
A government crackdown against the opposition or the imposition of martial law
Declaring or being involved in an unpopular war

Of the three Sparks that Korybko suggested, the top almost certainly happened in 2020, and the second and fourth are being implemented in some fashion against Trump and/or his supporters. The list is, obviously, not exhaustive, and the event need never have happened in reality, as long as people can be convinced it happened.

After the event, the protests start. And grow. And spread. In retrospect, it’s easy to see that the Floyd Protests were an attempted Color Revolution in the United States that was called off after the mechanisms to secure the 2020 election for Biden were in place, and, perhaps a warning of sorts to Biden that he’d best do what he was told if he could remember.

I was listening to a podcast tonight and Eric Weinstein noted that he had been assured that Biden does not have access to “the football” and that the United States is currently being run by a committee of the powerful. The same committee, no doubt, that has put Kamala at the brink of power. Note that Biden only dropped out after the (first) failed assassination of Trump.

Occupy Wall Street challenged the money powers of New York (not sure who was funding them, China?). This was not to be allowed, so, to counter it, Trayvon Martin was used as a Spark, moving on to the “Gentle Giant” Michael Brown, and finally to George Floyd.

The fact that the clear self-defense shooting of Trayvon Martin was used to get the hippies and AntiFa® out of New York and have them start protesting for black people instead of against bankers. I guess the bankers got scared, and hippies and AntiFa® have a short attention span, or their leaders just like money. They had to have something to do, and since it’s always easy to stir up a racial fight, that’s what the bankers picked, because a class fight might have endangered actual bankers.

One stolen joke is a coincidence, two is a pattern. Thirty is an Amy Schumer standup routine.

These movements aren’t popular, and aren’t spontaneous, though they’re staged to appear so. They aren’t even permanent – most countries that have had a Color Revolution revert to their old styles of government with just a little bit of time and often a lot of chaos. Egypt went from its military government to a very brief “democracy” and then right back to a military government because that’s what Egyptians seem to want.

This may sound as crazy as predicting the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, but the government of the United States is nearing collapse, and the Color Revolution technique, or something like it, is being employed against you and funded by people like Microsoft® to guide the fall into, they hope, a situation where bankers can frolic freely.

That’s the rub – the importation of the endless hordes of illegals, the economic devastation of inflation and the contrived energy and housing crises and continual cultural provocations are cracks, big ones, setting the stage for a major change. And, again, each and every one of them is intentional, and it’s gone far enough that I still believe we’re entering the danger window in 2025, with the early to middle 2030s the most likely time when the final Spark hits.

Beyond the Spark?

It’s up to us.

Time: It’s The Only Thing You Have

“I didn’t invent the time machine to win at gambling. I invented a time machine to travel through time.” – Back to the Future 2

I have two dogs, Rolex® and Timex™. They are watchdogs.

Preface: I got home very late, so, here’s a Lame Repost. See you with a great new post on Monday.

Time.

Of things that have long fascinated me, time is at the top of the list. Even when I was a little kid, time fascinated me.

The idea that time, of all of the physical parameters of the world there was the one that we couldn’t control. Humanity has mastered the power of the atom, at least partially. We haven’t tamed fusion, but we can create it, and have several fewer islands in the Pacific because of it.

Humanity has dammed the largest of rivers, giving us power. We have used technology to shrink the world. The first recorded circumnavigation of the world took 1082 days. Magellan didn’t quite make the whole trip, but he still gets the credit on a technicality.

Now? The International Space Station does an orbit in 90 minutes or so at 17,150 miles per hour, which is nearly as fast as Haitians are entering Texas.

Humanity has conquered the riddle of steel – we’ve made steel buildings that reach upwards into the sky to please Crom. We have conquered climate – people live at the South Pole in perfect comfort, as well as managing to live in Houston without melting into puddles of sweat.

Batman® couldn’t solve the riddle of steel, but he could name the worst riddle: being riddled with bullets.

We can see at night. We can talk, nearly instantly, with people a continent away.

My phone buzzes every time there is motion outside my front door – it’s like having a superpower of sensing where and when there is activity at a distance. Another superpower is being able to access obscure facts anywhere on the planet that can reach a cell signal.

But time remains fixed. It flows only one way. And it is the most subjective of our senses. Even Pugsley notices it: “This summer was so short!”

He’s in high school. That’s when the transition from the endless summers of childhood begin to transform into the fleeting, never-ending carousel of years that is adulthood.

Best thing about being in Antifa® is that you never have to take off work to protest.

I’ve long felt that I understood why this was. Let me give it a shot.

For a newborn, the second day it’s outside and breathing is 50% of its entire life. For a six-year-old, half of their life is three years – much more. It’s not a big percentage, but it’s much smaller than 50%. For a sixteen-year-old, half their life is eight years.

If you’re forty – half your life is twenty years. 1/8 versus 1/20? It’s amazingly different. We don’t perceive life as a line. We’re living inside of it – we compare our lives to the only thing we have . . . our lives. Each day you live is smaller than the last.

But that’s not everything.

As we age, novelty decreases. When we’re young, experiences and knowledge are coming at us so quickly that we are presented with novel (new and unique) information daily. New words. New thoughts. New ideas. That’s why babies keep falling for that stupid “got your nose” thing. They don’t realize that I can reattach it.

Three clowns were eating a cannibal. One clown says, “I think we started this joke wrong.”

Over time, though, novelty decreases, as does the percentage of your life that each day represents. Ever drive a new route somewhere? When I do it, I have to focus my attention. It seems like it takes longer because I’m having to deal with novelty.

I’ve had my “new” laptop nearly seven years. I had my old laptop for longer than that, yet my “new” laptop still seems like it’s temporary.

There are only so many routes I can drive to work, so much novelty that I can find in a daily drive. Even a commute of an hour begins to fade into a brief moment in time if it’s the same commute, day after day.

Work is similar. Over time, we gain experience. Experience shows us how to fix problems (and sometimes how not to fix them). But that experience of taking a solution and modifying it to fix the next problem isn’t as hard as fixing the first problem.

The fact that each day is a smaller portion of my life, combined with the fact that as I get older, the possibility that I see something new dims. I’ve solved a bunch of problems in my life. Finding a new one is . . . difficult.

Life goes faster, day by day for me. Every endless summer day of youth is in my rearview mirror.

And yet . . .

Each day is still 24 hours. I can still use each day and live it with all of the gusto of a 10-year-old fishing for trout after building a tree fort, playing with his dog, and building a model of a Phantom F-4 to dogfight with the MiG 21-PF already hanging from the ceiling.

They did not see that coming.

Even though those 24 hours seem shorter now than at any time in my life, they are relentless in their exact sameness. I get to choose how I spend those moments in my life. I get to choose what I want to produce, and how hard I work to make it happen.

Humanity may never have the ability to crack time – it appears that even today, outside of sands falling from an hourglass, we can only describe time as a fundamental entity, something we measure against.

Does the flow of time vary? Certainly. But only if we’re moving at large fractions of the speed of light or are caught in a huge gravity well, but let’s leave your mother out of this.

Gravity is just a social construct invented by an English Christian to keep you down.

I have come to the conclusion that I will likely never understand what, exactly, time is, outside of this:

Time is all we have – it is what makes up life. We measure our lives in it, because no man can buy an extra hour of life. We have the hours we have. The only difference is what we do with that time.

I mentioned in a previous post that (during the week) I often get by on scant hours of sleep. That’s because I have more things that I want to do in my life than I can fit in a day that’s less than 20 or 22 hours some days.

I choose to try to do more, to try to make use of this time, because each moment is a gift.

Maybe I can settle for that definition of time: a gift. Each moment is a gift.

Don’t beg for more, or live in fear of losing them. Just make each moment count.

Perhaps that’s the secret and precious nature of time. It is the one thing we should never waste, and never wish away.

The Best Podcast In The History Of Western Civilization.

Streams will show up at 9EDT (click the link below), that’s in just under 30 minutes! (and we typically pregame for five minutes, so it really starts up at 8:55PM)

Mrs The Mrs – YouTube

Funniest News On the ‘Net.

In this episode:

Politics and Stuff
No Jackass of the Week
Conversation Street
Two Minutes of Guns in One Minute
ThinkRealFast

The Debate

“Mr. Rooney, Ferris is home and he’s very ill. I debated even leaving him.” – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Who won the presidential debate last night? People who didn’t watch.

As my father said when the cows got into the marijuana, “Son, the steaks are high.”

That’s how I’d describe the Trump/Kamala debate. Apparently, they’ve never met, so her charge that Trump put a wet finger in her ear and said “Wet Willie Brown” is certainly false. One of the rules is that Kamala has a two-drink minimum.

I decided I’d just blog about the debate instead. Since I’m going to get into the hot tub later with a cigar and maybe a scotch, today’s post will be, unfortunately, written while sober.

Notes: I like the muted microphone idea. It stops the debate for being a shouting match, though I wish they would give the candidates an array of condiments they could throw at each other. Regardless, here is my (partially made up) transcript.

But she’d be happy to force you to take it.

My biggest hope? That Trump says, “Be quiet or I’ll spank you, you disrespectful little turnip.”

Showtime!

Kamala walks to Don. I think she would have peed on him to show dominance, but she couldn’t lift her leg up, or Hindu tradition prevents it.

First question:

Are people better off than four years ago?

Kamala: “I understand the problem and I have no idea what to do about it. I’m going to say absolutely nothing, but then attack Trump.”

Trump: “No sales tax, other countries will pay for the wall, took billions and billions from Chi-nah. We’ve had a terrible economy, worse than ever seen since ever. We’ve had people stream into this country from mental institutions, and even Baltimore.”

Kamala: “Worst epidemic, worst unemployment and personally burned the Constitution after farting on the Statue of Liberty.”

Trump: “Cut taxes, make the greatest economy, ever, and then Kamala ate a baby. Alive. At Central Park. I was there.”

Kamala: “I’ve memorized a thing about the economy. Here it is.”

Trump: “She has no plan. It’s four sentences – run spot run.” I wish I had made that up, but that was Trump’s line, it’s hilarious.

You want to add tariffs, and that might cost more money. Why do you hate America?

Trump: “They kept my tariffs, because I made the best tariffs, and now people can’t afford bacon.”

Kamala: “There was a trade deficit, and Trump sold chips to China, and the United States should win the race against China.” It really didn’t say anything in the answer, but it was well said, much better than her normal word salad.

Trump: “Taiwan sold chips to Chi-nah. Immigration is bad. She’s a Marxist.” (Actually, one of Trump’s passionate answers, and pretty articulate and less hand-wavy than usual.

President Trump you were against abortion and then for abortion and why do you hate women?

Trump: “Six Supreme Court justices got Roe v. Wade out of the states, and now states can make a decision and people can make a vote. Ohio and Kansas were okay with killing kids.”

Kamala: “Trump is a liar. He’s the devil. Women have to leave a state to kill a baby, and can’t even do it at their home state. I might sign a bill making baby killing legal everywhere.”

Trump: “Kamala’s a liar. And stupid. And incompetent at government.”

Kamala: “Any woman should be able to kill any baby whenever. Perhaps up until college.” Kamala is making it personal, and looking at Trump as an accuser. Trump doesn’t fall for this.

Trump: “She’s a liar. Everybody knows it.”

The microphones are not always turned off during the answers of the other candidate.

It’s hard to make a good abortion joke, but leave it to the Left.

Why did you let just a few illegal people in?

Kamala: “I want to stop drugs from coming in.” She starting to slur her words. “Trump didn’t approve the bill and that’s because he hates you and you should go to his stupid rally.”

Trump: “There’s no reason to go to her rallies. People don’t leave my rallies. People want to take their country back. What they have done with allowing millions and millions into our country, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets.” This has happened, but ABC News disagreed.

Kamala: (first giggle) “Talk about extreme! The very worst republicans love me.” Kamala is actually effectively getting under Trump’s skin at this point.

Trump: “I fired them.”

Perhaps he’s upset because that was Fang-Fang’s dinner?

How can you send all of these illegals back?

Trump: “They allowed terrorists, drug dealers, criminals and Venezuelans in. Their crime is down. But they’re destroying the fabric of our country.” (no humor added on this comment)

Kamala: (next giggle, more slurring) “This is rich! Trump is a criminal and awful, and I have answers, I promise.”

Trump: “It’s a political prosecution.” Really good answer here.

Kamala: “Trump would kill your children if he were back in the White House.”

Kamala, you flip flop, so please explain why you have such a good reason to flip flop?

Kamala: “After I was against oil, I was for oil. I want everyone to have houses, because that won’t increase inflation, but we’ll need to need to import labor to make them. And this friend I had in high school who is totally not made up was sexually assaulted. I want to help people not be mean like Trump.”

Trump: “I am so very rich. Fracking? She’s been against fracking and the police (even Sting) and – I’m talking now – does that sound familiar? – and wants to turn do transgender surgery on illegal aliens.”

Transgender surgery for even alien-aliens, would be my bet. But ALF as a woman?

Mr. President, why did you start an insurrection and why do you regret it?

Trump: “Peacefully and patriotically. You left that out. When are the illegals going to be prosecuted? When are the people who burned down Minneapolis going to be prosecuted?”

Mr. President, why don’t you say you regret this?

Trump: “I didn’t do anything to regret.”

Kamala: “I was at the Capitol. The President wanted to desecrate the nation’s Capitol because he hates you and Donald Trump hates Jews.” Trump does not take the bait to stare back at her, which people would take as threatening.

Trump: “Why is she now doing anything on the border? Biden can close the border, he’s not.”

Mr. President, why won’t you say you lost the election we stole fair and square?

Trump: “The illegals are trying to vote.” Kamala does not look remotely happy and ABC pulls away from the split screen.

Why does Donald Trump want to stop illegals from voting?

Kamala: “Donald Trump should accept the fact that we stole the election fair and square.”

Trump: “Victor Orban – why is the world blowing up? The most respected and most feared president was Trump. Kamala didn’t get a single vote. She failed.”

Israel and Palestine aren’t getting along, tell us a made-up way that you’d solve it?

Kamala: “War is bad. We shouldn’t have one. I really like Israel, though.”

Trump: “It never would have started. Russia wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine. Kamala hates Israel. But, Kamala also hates Arabs. And probably hates kittens.”

Kamala: “I love Israel. Trump is weak and loves dictators.”

Trump: “Putin endorses Kamala.”

Commercial Break – A commercial for feminine products. Who knew women were filled with blue liquid?

Mr. President, you could solve Ukraine in 24 hours?

Trump: “We’ve spent $250 billion in Ukraine because Biden won’t ask Europe. I can call Putin and Zelinsky and settle it. I’ll do a deal. It would be a great deal. We could have World War III.”

Kamala: “You’re running against me. Putin wants to take over all of the Starbucks™ in Europe. No cappuccino for anyone. And Poland. You want to give up Poland.”

Trump: “Quiet, please. Putin would be sitting in Moscow, and don’t forget he has nuclear weapons. Kamala was sent to negotiate peace, and three days later? War. She’s worse than Biden. She is a horrible negotiator.”

Kamala: “I’m going to say a lot of things about Trump, to avoid talking about how I failed negotiating in Ukraine.”

Trump: “I got Europeans to pay for NATO.”

Kamala was a lot more prepared than she was the first time around.

Do you regret what happened in Afghanistan?

Kamala: “We got out of Afghanistan. Trump’s deal in Afghanistan was the worst. Trump invited terrorists to Camp David, America’s most holy place.”

Trump: “My agreement was good, the Afghanistan withdrawal was horrible.”

President Trump, why are you a racist?

Trump: “I’m not.”

Kamala: “He is.”

Trump: “She’s horrible.”

Kamala: “He’s horrible.”

Trump: “She’s horrible.”

(Hosts utterly losing control)

President Trump, how are you going to fix healthcare?

Trump: “I saved Obamacare, but it wasn’t great, but I’m trying to find a better one.””

Oh, wonderful Kamala, how can you say something about healthcare that conforms to the answer you memorized?

Kamala: “I’m not going to take your guns. And I know people who have been sick and we want Obamacare to get even better. And healthcare is a right.”

Trump: “Kamala wants everyone on government insurance.”

What would you do to stop climate change?

Kamala: “Climate change is horrible and I have invested $1 trillion in clean energy with my donors and opened factories around the world.”

Trump: “Kamala loves Chi-nha. They’ve destroyed business and manufacturing, and Biden got paid off by China and Ukraine? They are crooks.”

Commercial Break – Debate sponsored by Crazy Z’s Unpainted Ukraine, for the best in discount barely used weapons.

Closing Statements:

Kamala: “We’re not going back to low prices. I’ve never had a real job. We need me as a president.”

Trump: “Here are the wonderful things she’s going to do, but she hasn’t done it. Why hasn’t she done it? I can rebuild America. I can make it better, faster. I’ll call it the six-million-dollar country.”

Overall, Trump was Trump, and this was probably his best debate of all of them during three elections. Kamala, however, didn’t look like the blithering idiot that she is, since it looks like they got her off the sauce long enough to do debate prep.

If you liked Trump, you still like Trump. If you liked Kamala, you’re probably not a regular reader, but you probably still like Kamala and are relieved that she didn’t Biden-out with disjointed word salads. I think Team Kamala will be happy enough with this performance that they’ll trot her out for a few very carefully scripted interviews.

There will not be another debate.

How will the normies take it? Not a clear victory either way, and the undecided mainly don’t watch these things, so it’ll be decided by what news they hear between the “top hits of the 80s, and more” and what they’re paying for gasoline.

Or, by the people who count the votes in big cities in swing states.

Stay tuned, and I suggest spending election night at a mountaintop restaurant, where the steaks will be high.

Civil War 2.0 Weather Report: Teflon Don And The Kamala Con

“You know, I’ve always like that word, gargantuan. I so rarely have an opportunity to use it in a sentence.” – Kill Bill, Vol. 2

I worry that the judge in Trump’s case will be too judgmental. I can tell just by looking at him.

Those who have an opposing ideology are considered evil.
People actively avoid being near those of opposing ideology. Might move from communities or states just because of ideology.
Common violence. Organized violence is occurring monthly.
Common violence that is generally deemed by governmental authorities as justified based on ideology.
Opposing sides develop governing/war structures. Just in case.
Open War.

Volume VI, Issue 4

All memes except for the clock and graphs are “as found”. I’ve kept the Clock O’Doom at the same place – though it will notch up quickly if there are any signs of the TradRight stiffening up.

This is a moving situation, and things are changing quickly. The advice remains. Avoid crowds. Get out of cities. Now. A year too soon is better than one day too late.

In this issue: Front Matter – Crime and Punishment – Violence and Censorship Update – Biden’s Misery Index – Updated Civil War 2.0 Index – The Polls And The Vote – Links

Front Matter

Welcome to the latest issue of the Civil War II Weather Report. These posts are different than the other posts at Wilder Wealthy and Wise and consist of smaller segments covering multiple topics around the single focus of Civil War 2.0, on the first or second Monday of every month. I’ve created a page (LINK) for links to all of the past issues. Also, subscribe because you’ll join nearly 850 other people and get every single Wilder post delivered to your inbox, M-W-F at or before 7:30AM Eastern, free of charge.

https://wilderwealthywise.com/civil-war-weather-report-previous-posts/

Crime and Punishment

September 18, a date that won’t live in infamy.

September 18 was the date that Donald Trump was scheduled to be sentenced for his convictions related to his paperwork issues (without an underlying crime, no less) in New York. For the life of me, I have no idea why anyone, no matter what their politics, would ever have their company incorporated in New York.

But as I wanted to verify the sentencing date, I looked it up and found that the sentencing date had been pushed back to November 26, 2024. The Teflon Don does it again. This is, probably, the best thing that could have happened to him in September, and certainly the best decision Judge Juan “Not A Real American” Merchan could have made, both for himself and for Trump.

The next thing you know, black people will want their own drinking fountains.

First, why is this good for the judge? Well, imagine having the pressure of the potential backlash of jailing the frontrunner in the election over a paperwork “violation” with no actual crime and no actual victim. But, from his perspective, he has to live around all of the Antifa nuts that infest New York City like the unexplained cuts and bruises all over my body on the night that I discovered tequila.

No, I imagine he went to bed sweating.

Now, the sentencing will be held on November 26, 2024.

Maybe.

If Trump “loses” the election, well, Trump instantly becomes an irrelevant footnote in history. Trump won’t be worth punishing except as a humiliation ritual against those that might emulate Trump in the future. So, he’s probably safe from jail (where he’d be Epsteined) at least until the appeal would overturn the insane conviction. But judges can think of other sentences that are humiliating, so I’d expect no jail time, but something that would be calibrated for just that: humiliation.

If Trump wins the election, the prospect of jailing the president-elect of the United States becomes such a high-stakes game that I think Juan will blink and sentence him to probation for a month. Jailing the president-elect is a de facto declaration of Civil War 2.0. That would make a very, very long winter for New York City without electricity and gas and would result in the place looking worse than it did in Escape From New York.

I’m pretty sure HoJoFromJerz has only a tenuous grasp on that whole “separation of powers” thing.

I think, really, the only threat that Trump poses to the agenda of the GloboLeftElite is if he gets the opportunity to appoint two or three justices to the Supreme Court replacing Thomas, Alito, and maybe Sotomayor or Jackson. Sotomayor won’t retire, but it looks like she’s pretty fond of chalupas, so, let’s call it a 10% chance that she expires. And, although Ketanji Brown Jackson is very young at only 54, everything she’s ever said aloud makes me doubt that she is capable of understanding the warning labels on consumer products, so, there’s that.

If the GloboLeftElite really wants a United States military, they’ll have to go for Trump, in which case maybe he gets three appointments. Otherwise, if they’re content to just run the place into the ground, who better than Kamala?

Violence and Censorship Update

Some groups just don’t want the truth to get out:

Because it’s uncomfortable, I guess:

Must be very far south in Ukraine:

And Google® really wants you to forget some things:

And when you look for Trump, you get Kamala:

And the very GloboLeftElite Governor Polis wants you to ignore this:

And a news organization won’t release news:

But everybody is in on it:

Even the newspapers (TK is short for “To Come” – a placeholder for a name, like Walz):

And the DNC treats bathrooms likes sports:

And Gavin lets the mask slip, a little:

And, this is your future on Woke:

Biden/Harris Misery Index

I’m sure vice president Zoolander can save us:

Let’s take a look to see how we’ve done this month . . . .

Yup, up again. It’s like there’s a pattern here . . .

Updated Civil War II Index

The Civil War II graphs are an attempt to measure four factors that might make Civil War II more likely, in real time. They are broken up into Violence, Political Instability, Economic Outlook, and Illegal Alien Crossings. As each of these is difficult to measure, I’ve created for three of the four metrics some leading indicators that combine to become the index. On illegal aliens, I’m just using government figures.

Violence:

Violence is up, and this should be higher given that Venezuelan gangs are turning parts of US cities into no-go zones.

Political Instability:

Up is more unstable, and it is steady, and will probably hold that way until November.

Economic:

The economy is in full juice mode for the election.

Illegal Aliens:

August is showing as down, again, since (my take) the .gov folks are just making up numbers now.

The Polls And The Vote

We’re in the last few days before the election – in two months, it will be done.

The numbers generally look well for Trump. He’s trending well in the states he needs, and, well, he’s Trump. This week will provide us with the ABC® debate, and if Kamala can remember the answers to the questions that she no doubt has been given, she won’t look nearly as bad as she does when she’s trying to remember anything more complicated than the combination to her phone.

She’s tried to run a campaign based on “nothing” – a Seinfeld campaign, if you will. She now has policy positions up on her website, and those are mainly of the “I’ll be nice to you and make everything wonderful and Trump is a big meanie.”

That doesn’t matter to the voters on the GloboLeft: Kamala could be in favor of forcing nuns to crush kittens at gunpoint to feed to orphans, and GloboLeft voters would be in favor of her. Her major accomplishment in life to date? Passing the bar in California on the second attempt. That’s it.

But the major polls show a different story. Why?

The polls simply have to show Kamala close enough in a few swing states so that the massive cheating that’s already planned for urban areas can be conducted to give her the results she needs. That’s it. That’s the goal. Unless the people who did it last time are stopped, that will be the result this time, as well. The follow up to this will be the Democrats making their (admitted) 11 million illegals (which is probably a low number by a factor of two) legal, and will cement the People’s Republic of America.

It’s very likely that “voting harder” won’t matter. Sure, I’ll go vote, and suggest that you do, too. But don’t be surprised when the same humiliating illegalities result in a stolen election. That will certainly bring us much, much closer to Civil War 2.0.

But what would I know, I’m just a right-wing extremist.

LINKS

As usual, links this month are courtesy of Ricky. Thanks so much, Ricky!!

TURNING POINT
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1831486742052159886
https://x.com/DefiyantlyFree/status/1823963955024605650
https://x.com/EYakoby/status/1817731127672779239
https://trump2024.film/

BAD GUYS
https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1829621234629529714
https://x.com/MrStevenSteele/status/1828970643133800908
https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1830401573219926448
https://x.com/America_2100/status/1826385727388614867
https://x.com/ImMeme0/status/1830943524524536151
https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Violent_Crime_by_State_SITE.jpg?itok=Xf8kjQev

GOOD GUYS AND GALS
https://thefederalist.com/2024/09/04/cdc-fbi-working-to-hide-data-showing-shootings-stopped-by-good-guys-with-guns/
https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1831193585326182443

ONE GUY
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13819107/Georgia-school-shooter-Colt-Gray-received-AR-15-mass-shooting-Christmas-present-father.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13821987/georgia-school-shooter-colt-gray-gun-father-hunting-apalachee-high.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13823345/Former-landlord-reveals-father-Georgia-school-shooter-kicked-door-retrieve-guns.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/father-georgia-high-school-shooting-suspect-arrested/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/case-colin-gray-father-georgia-school-shooting-suspect-tests-limits-pa-rcna169906

BODY COUNT
https://x.com/eyeslasho/status/1826367330596655495
https://reports.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/2022-total-group-sat-suite-of-assessments-annual-report.pdf
https://x.com/Twitermytweet/status/1817781490744242379
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/08/the-urban-family-exodus-is-a-warning-for-progressives/679350/
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/more-1-9-americans-live-poverty
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db507.pdf
https://dnyuz.com/2024/07/25/kids-a-growing-number-of-americans-say-no-thanks/
https://www.guttmacher.org/2024/03/despite-bans-number-abortions-united-states-increased-2023
https://apnews.com/article/abortion-survey-pills-roe-election-2024-7179dda48eae0a764be89c2e0aafd80a
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/22/how-the-origins-of-americas-immigrants-have-changed-since-1850/
https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2024-08-19_15-21-37.jpg?itok=xzOry1uG
https://archive.is/VGSGa
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ar-AA1ooDQw
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/selling-america-the-army-s-fight-to-find-recruits-in-an-angry-divided-nation/ar-AA1pHFd8
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/368528/us-military-army-navy-recruit-numbers
https://news.usni.org/2024/08/22/navy-could-sideline-17-support-ships-due-to-manpower-issues

VOTE COUNT
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1184621/presidential-election-voter-turnout-rate-state/
https://nypost.com/2024/08/04/opinion/team-biden-is-shocked-shocked-at-massive-migrant-fraud-but-still-wants-to-wave-them-in/
https://aflegal.org/america-first-legal-sends-all-50-states-a-plan-for-how-to-use-existing-federal-law-to-prevent-foreign-nationals-from-illegally-voting-in-american-elections/
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/progressive-dems-michigan-tell-undercover-journo-they-were-ballot-harvested-out-office
https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1823154080748872069
https://www.uncoverdc.com/2024/08/09/tenacious-citizens-force-election-integrity-investigation-in-georgia
https://dnyuz.com/2024/08/19/how-a-far-right-takeover-of-georgias-election-board-could-swing-the-election/
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/27/pennsylvania-election-results-mail-ballots/
https://thefederalist.com/2024/08/14/alabama-secretary-of-state-finds-3000-potential-noncitizens-registered-to-vote/
https://thefederalist.com/2024/08/14/states-file-federal-lawsuit-seeking-to-shut-down-bidenbucks/
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2024/08/14/vote_integritys_nitty-gritty_the_battle_lines_of_24s_epic_struggle_1051309.html
https://dailycaller.com/2024/08/14/gop-get-out-the-vote-scott-presler-trump-campaign/

THE FUTURE OF WAR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7L1aZzLz1Q
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/07/europe/ukraine-thermite-dragon-drones-intl-hnk-ml/index.html
https://x.com/David_Hambling/status/1823384768324796498
https://x.com/ivandexx/status/1832109578173215041

CIVIL WAR
https://starkrealities.substack.com/p/the-civil-war-didnt-settle-the-question
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ar-AA1oNBsN
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-secret-ap3-militia-american-patriots-three-percent
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/elon-musk-predicting-civil-war-europe-nearly-year-rcna165469
https://www.newsweek.com/putin-ally-dmitry-medvedev-predicts-us-collapse-imminent-civil-war-1950276
https://usawatchdog.com/a-period-of-great-uncertainty-martin-armstrong/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13739915/fbi-donald-trump-assassination.html
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/ar-AA1pDxw5

Distractions, Pascal, And Postman

“This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.” – Fight Club

I then started a summer camp for people who wanted to be plastic surgeons. Arts and Grafts was very popular.

Distractions.

Blaise Pascal wrote about them in his book Pensées, which is French and means “reflections” and is pronounced “Hamwich” because the French never properly figured out that sounds in words should be connected in some fashion to the letters used.

Pascal was a mathematician, a physicist, and invented the laptop computer, which was initially a plank of wood. In reality, he did some of the foundational work that showed that atmospheric pressure varied with altitude, even has a unit named after him.

Pascal was also a philosopher, and thought a whole bunch about Christianity. This was back before the “let’s get a cappuccino and listen to Pastor Dave talk about why God wants lesbian ministers” type of church, and instead when there were debates on how salvation occurred and if free will was a thing.

Thankfully it didn’t take them too long to clean the kettle out, though they did ask me where I got six gallons.

Pascal wrote: “Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries. Yet, it is, itself, the greatest of our miseries.”

And, although he’s dead, Pascal was entirely correct. We see it all around us right now.

Distraction is seductive. I remember we were on a family vacation and stopped at a Denny’s® to get breakfast. There was a line, and about 30 people (mainly families) were waiting.

As I looked, every eye was focused on a phone – 30 people sitting next to each other, yet distracted by whatever it was that they were looking at. They had escaped reality, and also escaped talking to each other, almost as if they were addicted to the distractions coming to them over their iPhones®.

In reality, many of them probably are technically addicted to those phones. Much of the internet, even back then, was built on the premise of stimulating dopamine to create engagement with the phone, and not with the world surrounding us.

Such a wonderful society we have to take pills to deal with it. Meme as found.

Were those people worried about their bills, their jobs, or their immortal soul? Nah. They were distracted by flappy bird games or Faceborg™ or InstaChat©. They were allowing the moments of their lives to drain away into that sea of distraction rather than confront reality.

They did have bills. Their jobs sucked. Their immortal soul was in peril. But that’s difficult to think about, so it’s much easier to look at pretty colors and cat videos for ten seconds before flipping to the next infotainment bite. The distraction was total.

Is it any wonder that coping skills have been drastically impacted in the generation raised on the distraction of phones? Kids can’t cope because they’re never forced to confront themselves until the stakes are high. This creates a group of victims.

I hate victims. A lot. They’re whiney and they suck every bit of energy out of the room, like psychic vampires. Oh, wait, I just described The View. Huh.

If you ever feel uninformed, remember that some people get their news from The View.

Absolutely, there are people who are in situations that are far beyond their control. And, absolutely there are people who don’t deserve what fate has given them. However, when I look at people who have self-control, who have looked fate in the eye and said, “Yeah, so what? I’m still standing here, chump,” I feel admiration.

Neil Postman was a professor and writer, but then he died. Perhaps his best-known work is Amusing Ourselves to Death, written in 1985. The Mrs. introduced me to it not long after we met, and I knew she was a keeper. In it, Postman talks about the impact of amusement. Amusement is close enough to distraction for our purposes and both Postman and Pascal are dead, so they can’t put up too much of a fight.

Again, Postman wrote about this in 1985, well before the every distraction, every place, all at once monster of the smartphone appeared. In it, Postman identified television as a drug. If so, it’s a gateway drug like aspirin, and the Internet is heroin.

Part of distraction is that it discourages the formation of complete thoughts. I think at least partially that’s part of the inspiration for this place, since I want to create and bring forth ideas that people might not think about, or might have forgotten in all frenzy of flashing lights, free porn, and distractions of Instabook© and Facegram™.

If idiots could fly, TikTok® would be an airport.

It’s a world where, “Excuse me, I’m talking” becomes a replacement for actual thought and people thinking deeply about issues like old Pascal becomes rarer and rarer. A side effect is that the information we get becomes information we can’t take action on. Want to complain to your congressman? How would you even contact them? How would you get their attention? Hell, getting the attention of an HOA is nearly impossible in some subdivisions.

Instead, you’ll complain to your neighbor.

Worse, though, is the impact that’s happening to our youth. The lesson that bad crap is going to happen to them so they need to learn deal with it simply isn’t taught because they just distract themselves away from the Truth they don’t want to consider. It’s not their fault – their brain is optimized to live in villages, and we distract them with the hardest hitting drug in history: the smartphone.

Failure is an option. And failure is a teacher, but when the teacher is fired and replaced with social media? The lesson is muted or ignored.

I bought a book called “How to Hug”, but it turned out to be volume seven of an encyclopedia.

How did Pascal manage to deal with being a religious philosopher, a mathematician, and a physicist?

I guess Pascal was good at avoiding distraction and dealing with pressure.

This Podcast Will Save May Save Your Life. Or Not. Results Vary. Listen Anyway.

One that turned out very funny:

Streams will show up at 9EDT (click the link below), that’s in just under 30 minutes! (and we typically pregame for five minutes, so it really starts up at 8:55PM)

Mrs The Mrs – YouTube

Funniest News On the ‘Net.

In this episode:

Politics and Stuff
Jackass of the Week
Conversation Street
Two Minutes of Guns in One Minute
ThinkRealFast