"Don't hurt people and don't take their stuff" - Matt Kibbe

12/2/15

The Whopper of the Day

By Grant Davies

Recently I read an article on the Cato at Liberty blog. It was titled "Paris Whopper of the Day: The Sahara Is Expanding." 

The author, Patrick J Michaels, points out a huge lie that was told by some African leaders to the President of France at the conference in Paris.

It's not shocking that they lied. The idea that climate change alarmists will start to quote the lie until it becomes true in the minds of a gullible public is what's shocking.

You can read the short article at the link if you choose. But the real point for me was an idea for a feature on this blog called The Whopper of the Day. Maybe we should do a reader participation feature once in a while based on submissions from you folks when you see whoppers being told without the teller even blinking an eye.

John Kass of the Chicago Tribune writes regularly about the MOUTZA of the month. It's based on the suggestions of readers who nominate deserving people or ideas they find in the news. I'll let you read up on what a Moutza is if you feel inclined. But suffice it to say, it's not an honor.

It might be fun to expose some Whopper lies or even to discuss whether something actually is a lie. So decide if you want to submit them when you see them and I'll act as the final arbiter of the biggest whoppers.

We might even give an award to the best submission. Perhaps a hearty handclasp or a mention of your name so the huge audience of this blog can admire you.

Maybe we will use this image to honor those who submit the best examples of Whoppers.


I'd be lying if I told you this will become the next big thing on the net and go viral. In fact, that would be a Whopper.

11/28/15

Settled Science?

By Grant Davies

Can science be emotional? You bet it can. Can a dry scientific presentation hold our interest long enough to for us to be gut punched by the uncomfortable notion that we don't always know what we think we know?

As a type 2 diabetic and a person who believes in always questioning forgone conclusions, this one really hit home.

For those inclined to watch I suggest watching all the way to the end. It's worth it.

          

11/25/15

Being Thankful For Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams

Editor's note:
A guest post from our good friend Seth at the OUR DINNER TABLE blog. We have much to be thankful for but here are a few people Seth is thankful for. I wholeheartedly agree.

By Seth

From Thomas Sowell’s latest Random Thoughts column:

Some Americans will never appreciate America, until after they have helped destroy it, and have then begun to suffer the consequences.

Racism is not dead. But it is on life-support, kept alive mainly by the people who use it for an excuse or to keep minority communities fearful or resentful enough to turn out as a voting bloc on election day.

From Walter Williams column, Education Disaster:

Many of these poorly performing youngsters gain college admission. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education reports, “Every year in the United States, nearly 60 percent of first-year college students discover that, despite being fully eligible to attend college, they are not ready for postsecondary studies.” That means colleges spend billions of dollars on remedial education. Many of the students who enroll in those classes never graduate from college. The fact that many students are not college-ready takes on even greater significance when we consider that many college courses have been dumbed down.

If their books and weekly columns are not a part of your reading list, they should be.

Entry-level college econ classes should be taught from Thomas Sowell’s book, Basic Economics.  It’s much cheaper than the Econ 101 course I took in college and worth more.

I’ve learned more economics from these two gentlemen than I did from my college econ professors and a lot about the world, too.

11/9/15

Trump Sucks....Us In

By Grant Davies

When I first began to write this short lead-in to the video below the word "gullible" was the first one that came to mind for a possible title. I even typed a few possibilities into that space.

I thought about the people who are having a political flirtation with Donald Trump and I thought about how gullible they are. That word is terribly insulting to them and unlikely to get them to change their minds. It also implies that I'm not gullible myself. Of course gullibility is always an unflattering trait found in other people, never ourselves.

So gullibility is out, kinda. The point is, all of us have the potential to be gullible if we are hearing what we want to hear or if someone is telling us something we already think and convincing us they are agreeing with us, instead of us agreeing with them.

Perhaps the word manipulation is a better choice. Yeah, that's it! We are being manipulated. It certainly is no revelation that politicians and the media are trying to manipulate us. Both do, and all the time. So what's the point of the video below? Just this: we are being manipulated by a guy who is exceedingly good at it. And he does so without giving any hint that he is clever enough to do so without us realizing it.

Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) sees it though. And he's going to explain it in this presentation. I learned a few things and I'll bet you will too. Could "The Donald" actually be nominated? I shudder at the notion.

 

One more thing. I haven't written anything for quite a long time. I haven't lost my passion for the freedom philosophy but my passion for sharing it by writing for blogs may have waned. I guess I still have something to say even if I have been confining it to my public Face Book page. Perhaps I'll begin to share it more formally again. If Trump and Obama are qualified to run the country maybe I'm qualified to write this stuff.

5/26/15

Debt Deniers

By Grant Davies

I'm coining a new term, "Debt Denier." It describes people who are certain that the climate is changing because people live on earth and that it will cause problems at some point in the distant future based on some computer models.

They are the same people who don't think that the national debt is a problem even though every computer program that can calculate (and even a pencil and paper) show that the country is headed for financial calamity if nothing is done about spending.

If you think man made climate change is a problem but man made fiscal insanity is not, you might be a Debt Denier.

3/28/15

Moral Starvation

These poor people are starving. But it's not for lack of food. Moral starvation is worse when you aren't even aware you're hungry. The following is an article from "Somewhat Reasonable."

Millennials’ Dangerous Growing Addiction to Government
by Justin Haskins March 27, 2015

When a friend and recent college graduate informed me he was receiving food stamps, I was floored. He is a healthy, educated, intelligent individual, but, like many of the millennials I know, entitled. Completely and utterly entitled.

“Is something wrong?” I asked my friend. “Are you going through a tough time or something? I know you’re working and everything seems to be going well with your job.”

“It’s nothing like that,” he assured me. “My job is with AmeriCorps though, and they just don’t pay enough. That’s why I’m eligible for food stamps. I figure, they aren’t paying me what I should get paid so it seems fair I should be eligible for government assistance.”

Somewhere in Fairfax County, Virginia, George Washington is rolling over in his grave.

READ THE REST..

Please visit the Somewhat Reasonable blog of the Heartland Institute for more thought provoking articles.

1/29/15

Rand Paul Interview

Interesting questions and answers for the potential presidential candidate.


1/26/15

Girding the Grid


By Grant Davies

They are predicting a big snowstorm today (1-26-15). And what happened in the supermarkets in NYC and the eastern part of the US also was predictable. A run on the stores for basic items is a common occurrence when it looks like things we need might become unavailable.



Speaking of predictable and unavailable, think about what would happen in a blackout of any length of over a few days and ask yourself why no one is predicting what will happen and planning for it. It's nearly a sure thing to happen to the power grid the way our government and power companies are handling security and infrastructure design. The result will make this snowstorm and the resulting shortages look like flurries.

Without the juice, we are back in the 18th century. No lights, heat, or refrigeration. Limited water, no cell phone service, no police to call since you can't reach them when you need them. No credit cards because there are no readers operating. No internet because you can't reach it. You get the idea.

Nothing happens without the grid. Without it no one has any funds to buy what they need since all of their wealth is nothing but zeros and ones on computer drives in the "cloud."  A cloud that doesn't exist without the juice.

This incident is a wake up call for a complacent and arrogant country. The grid can go down for technical reasons as it becomes increasingly overloaded. It's happened before.  It can also be brought down intentionally by terrorists using malicious software. Even disgruntled employees in the industry can cause major havoc. It's frightfully vulnerable to an ever increasing list of groups and countries who wish our society ill.

People who don't think it's a big problem should read America the Vulnerable, by Joel Brenner. Then they will have an informed opinion. I'm sure there are other books as well. But you don't hear much about this.

It doesn't seem important in light of the other big potential problems we face, like global warming. So I understand why it's not on the radar screen for the citizenry. Priorities don't cha 'ya know.

1/7/15

Throw This Guy in Prison

By Grant Davies

The Institute for Justice is the real american civil liberties organisation. Going to bat for our rights and advocating common sense laws is what they do everyday. If this man was shown on the nightly news being carted off to prison, people would be outraged. Instead, they just yawn and let this stuff go.

It seems like such a small thing until you realize the ramifications.



PS  This is a blog. It's designed for comments from readers. Don't be timid about commenting below.