On Top Of The Issues That Matter

Still fumbling around today with the cost of the President’s student loan forgiveness.

The NeoHippie contingent really, truly believe that the spending is there to because of American Imperialism, and the dangerous MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX that Eisenhower warned about.

I graduated college in 2002. I think my per-semester cost, even at its highest point, was something like $3000/semester.

I worked through college, and took out loans to allow my parents to shove more money into their retirement accounts.

My wife went to school via the Virginia Community College system. We did take out a loan for something like two semesters, as I was making basically no money. We repaid that quickly after she was working, and I once again started earning more than a pittance.

But, back to the story. ALL of the almost twenty years of military operations in Afghanistan cost about twice what Biden is doing with a pen stroke.

But, see, like, we’ve got this convicted pedophile who’s gonna learn the world that everything bad that’s happened since 1945 is because of something the US did.

Whatever.

There’s nobody who has an answer.

There was a projected budget surplus in 2001. How much more are governments spending today than they were in 2001?

It’s not the WAR MACHINE.

It’s your college professors. It’s all the blessed infrastructure that’s been built.

Interest rates have been held artificially-low since about 1993.

Tax revenues don’t even sniff spending levels.

But have you seen the price of real estate, and equities?

Because It’s What I Do

I’m listening to a Soho Forum debate. One of the participants is one of the many I’ve kind of turned off.

It’s a good talk. I wonder if I was slightly biased against one side because of my distaste for one of the debaters.

I should just move my focus away from other things that bother me.

I’m really bad about doing that.

Suspicions Confirmed

Um

Well, if they endorse him, and he accepts it, I’ll definitely be voting for someone else.

Um

Just nothing worthwhile there. First potential prom date decided to go with someone else (RFK Jr.), so see if you can get the most well-known kid on campus ask.

Trying to figure out how “The Party of Principle” zOMGANTIWAR!!1!RON PAUL people could ever be okay with the guy who was behind the Abraham Accords, and killed Solemani.

There’s just nothing there. Nothing.

So turn it off. David Bergland’s quiz was awesome. Campaigning for Harry Browne in college was important. How many of them have read How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World?

Jersey Dave Smith points to the 9/12/2001 essay by Browne as one of his starts into Libertarianism. It’s what prompted me to divert my attention around 2002. The US was absolutely right to respond to 9/11. And to the USS Cole, which so many people seem to forget.

Just nothing worth supporting. No intellectual arguments at this point, even.

Oh well.

A Rebuttable Presumption

From Keith Olbermann’s esteemed alma mater.

Even for agencies where the Civil Rights Acts apply, a bias against any students who attended any of the pro-Hamas universities wouldn’t be, I think, illegal.

Columbia

UT Austin

UNC

WUSL

and on and on…

If you wear your association on your sleeve, I’d just assume never do business with you. I would urge people I know not to hire you.

I’m missing where youthful stupidity is covered.

You reap what you sow. If that means you get none of my money, oh well.

Free Saturday

Reflexively I was going to type “Good Morning,” which is my usual multiple-location check-in for work.

But I’m really settling in after I made my changes early in the week.

Though I’d been leaning that way for a while, this BAR Pod ep. pushed me over the edge.

Whatever’s happening, there’s sources who won’ t ever admit they were wring about anything.

The totes-didn’t-used-to-do-evil company did the right thing, and fired the pro-Hamas employees.

So. What have I cut this weeks?

I could do a catalog, but what’s the point? Nobody’s ever going to reconsider their priors.

Not, a free month isn’t going to change my mind.

Show that you’ve got something worth me spending my money on, and I’ll buy it if I like it.

I apologize, but my brain’s more scattered than normal today.

Busy week ahead.

Part of that will be continuing to ignore the neoHips.

End of the week

Some things came to a resolution with the iran-Israel exchange this past week.

What’s coming out of academia in support of Hamas and Hezbollah is absolutely disgusting.

But it’s not unsurprising in the least.

Listening to Reason’s Just Asking Questions, they interviewed Elice Le Bon, someone with whom I was unfamiliar following her video on TwiX.

She made many points that align with what I’ve suspected about the NeoHippies who have taken over whatever Libertarian movement there is.

I guess she’d had a “debate” with Jersey Dave Smith, who is really just reciting the stuff that comes out of Scott Horton’s mouth.

I went to high school with someone who was actually born in Tehran as a military brat. I knew people who were on the ground during the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

One of my teachers was married to a Persian. He insisted that he be called “Persian,” not Iranian probably because of what the cabal running the country had done worldwide.

(Aside: she was a last-minute replacement Spanish teacher at Osterholz during the last year…..very much a Peggy Hill situation, not so much because she was from Texas, though that might be a part of it, but because she was teaching Spanish kind of as a second option. If memory serves, she was primarily a Home Economics. teacher….and certainly showed how to make tacos a lot better than the ones I was accustomed to.)

I worked for the shouldering remains of EDS. I remember seeing names of people listed in On Wings Of Eagles.

Iran isn’t the terrorist mess that it is because of the US, no matter how hard the Libertarian Institute Institiute insist it’s true.

This does flow from the radicals of the 60s, and what they’ve put up on campus.

Ms. Le Bon mentions Edward S. Herman in her video.

I remember hearing him say on Andrew Heaton’s podcast that the US was behind what happened in Rwanda in 1993.

What the actual fuck?

No, there’s people who believed that. and they’re the Foreign Policy ExpertsTM advising the modern Libertarian movement.

It’s disgusting.

That the Shah was a tyrant is without question.

That doesn’t make what the mullahs have done, and continue to do, okay.

Hamas and Hezbollah have been terrorizing Israel for decades. Certainly there’s a lot to criticize about the Israeli government. I would really criticize some of the COVID measures it took.

Some of their other medical stuff I really take issue with. Obviously, I do pay a lot of attention to what’s going on with things like stem cell research as a potential treatment for MS. I can’t find it right at this moment, but I seem to remember them cancelling a large-scale study using embryonic stem cells for remyelination, because it gave a bunch of the subjects some pretty bad cancers.

Magically, the focus shifted to doing the same thing cultured cells from you, not from a zygote with different DNA.

But, far too often in my experience, you’ll get the normal progression from Chomsky to Herman to Zinn.

If I’m feeling garrulous that day, i might continue the conversation for a bit. Usually it’s not tough to get to the USS Liberty, then fine research from Davide Irving.

It was really awful what we did in Dresden, an dit was all to support American Imperialism.

So, what else?

Basically no feedback on all the urgent work with which I was saddled upon my return from the Gulf Coast.

Despite a water moccasin that’s taken up residence in the ditch behind, seems like my mother’s house is doing well. She, on the other hand, less so. I was starting to piece together my July trip down to see her, but I’m worried that that’ll have to happen earlier.

Not really thrilled with the prospect of flying with a layover in Charlotte or Atlanta, but it might be too much of a pain to get to/from New Orleans this time.

So Much Saturday

I haven’t slept well. There’s myriad reasons for that, but….

I was looking over my list of things for the past week.

Crossing off the only thing on the list I hadn’t done. I finished up major task I had to do for work. Last weekend’s Saturday rant was with my refusal to do anything over the weekend.

I had Thursday and Friday off, though I did have something scheduled for Thursday night, but I wasn’t going to work at all, otherwise.

Did I stick to that?

Uh, no, of course not.

Discussions with people are on tap, but I’m going to listen to the MeSsy podcast.

Drawing The Line

Something like this:

Kind of everything I’ve been talking about work-wise for years coming to the surface. Yes, I understand what to do. Yes, I’m willing to show people what they’re supposed to be doing, but it’s really difficult to be assigned a monumental chunk of work just because I’m the one who understands it.

I’ve made a lot of progress. But I’m probably not going to finish it on someone else’s ad hoc schedule.

Your lack of planning does not constitute my emergency. But, more than that, it’s something I’d tipped them off to before.

I really don’t doubt that someone else could do it more quickly than I. I don’t see well. I get distracted. My typing certainly isn’t what it once was. (Though I am enjoying this gaming keyboard I bought…..I was tired of crappy reception and/or dying batteries ending up with me locking a system because my PIN didn’t come across….) But I did make a stand; I’m not working this weekend.

I’ve gone way above and beyond. My docs are not happy with the amount of stress I’m taking on.

I should really not be thinking about it, and just relax.

So do I have other stuff? Yep. Podcasts. The MeSsy pod.

Normal World, and the Dave landau special I bought on Amazon.

The Coddling of the American Mind

Finish up the docs on the AMIA Bombing.

But I did get some sleep, finally.

Resurrection Way

The Baptist Church across from my final high school used to put up a sign on their lawn the week before Easter.

Naturally, with a high school several letters from the sign would suspiciously get knocked over giving the sign a completely different meaning.

There’s things young guys do that could cause a lot of anxiety for someone who’s very sensitive.

Sorry.

We do grow up. Deal With It. We don’t stay that way forever.

You take in information as it comes, and you make adjustments.

People age. Desires change. Nothing is going to be exactly the same way again.

That really doesn’t fit well with politicians, however. Especially not with the ones hellbent on resurrecting something from the past.

The former and current administration keep trying to do things to resurrect something they found.

Whatever.

Just stop trying to rebuild the rust belt where you have to buy everything from the company store at union prices, or make America great again.

But, I know, liberal values are all based on racism and privilege.

What do you do? What do you like? I want to avoid participating in any of it.

Did stumble across something interesting the other day related to what I wrote about in the You’re Wrong entry.

CNN on the NAR thing.

So your agent and Suzanne are going to have to figure out what their fees are going to be, and you can walk away if you think Suzanne is being unreasonable.

Oh well.

Move along.

Fun night last night at DC Comedy Loft for my wife’s birthday.

Again, that sort of access is what I was excited about coming up here. The difference in my QoL is immeasurable.

Shit’s really expensive, though, and a lot of that is attributable to the stupid suff politicians have don, and continue to do.

Started in on Agua Donkeys on BlazeTV. While I get through the other original thing they were pitching, I’m not going to do the same for this.

I’m not going to make a pronouncement about where or not it’s funny. That’s irrelevant. It’s not something I’m enjoying watching, so I’m not spending any more time on it.