Month: June 2024

By on

The Supreme Court determined that it was legal to ban people from sleeping on city streets. This will somehow cause the homeless problem to go away, at least if they are sleeping. I am not sure what happens to them when they are awake. This just moves them along during the night time hours. It reminds me of something the city of Coronado used to do with its homeless. They gave the homeless a bus ticket to San Diego. Problem solved. Until of course a few radio personalities found out about it. They, then, gave the homeless bus tickets to Coronado.

This law is a marketing ploy to give the illusion of action. The public sees the cops taking away the sleeping homeless and think something is being done. But where are they going? What’s to stop them from sleeping outside the city limits and coming back the next day? What happens to repeat offenders? Do they go to jail for illegal sleeping? Then the homeless will have both a home and plenty of food all on the tax payer dime.

This is a waste of time for everyone involved. More work for the cops and the courts. More hassles for the homeless. The public will only have temporary relief from the homeless on their streets. Drug addiction and mental illness will still drive people out into the streets because these are difficult problems that require a bit more thinking, more energy, more money and more time. The public is being tricked into believing something is happening when nothing at all is really changing. But it is a very good trick.

By on

In a serendipitous bit of news, given the growing worry about humans not having enough children, good lord we can’t even have wars any more without a bunch of sniveling parents getting upset about their only child being sent to the front, along comes Elon Musk announcing the birth of his twelfth child. Does Elon Musk have to do everything? I mean the man is running Tesla and X (the company formally known as Instagram) and now he has taking on the burden of repopulating the earth. Is there anything that man can’t do?

By on

Edward Luttwak suggests that declining birth rates have made countries less willing to go to war. Worldwide, families are so small that parents are unwilling to sacrifice their only child to war. Which is a startling mercenary observation to make in the continuing conservative chorus about the need for more children. If you have extra children, you won’t have to worry about losing an only child, you will always have a spare.

It isn’t because they love children and bringing more children into the world is a good thing for both parents and children. No, it is parents need to have spare children so that they won’t make a scene when their children start dying in battle. Nothing is so annoying for generals than for a bunch of parents balking at the thought of little Billy dying at the front.

Luttwak glories in Israel women who bear more than the replacement value of children. Well, yes but then is their willingness to sacrifice their children due to less then all of the than Israel is fighting for their existence. On October 7, Hamas was killing men, women and children inside of Israel. This isn’t a war of choice for them, not like, for example the Russians in the Ukraine or Macron wanting NATO troops in the Ukraine. Parents, I think rightfully, will balk at wars for no good reason.

And, isn’t that a good thing. Luttwak looks back to the past when people had more children than they could fed, and thinks isn’t it a pity that parents don’t do this any more. It is preventing armies from taking the battlefield because parents actually care if their child lives. How wonderful for both the parents and the child. If Luttwak is correct, and let’s hope he is, there will be a trickle down effect of less war in the world. Good.

By on

Dress shirt with short shorts, loafers with white socks, this is a fashion faux pas of epic proportions. I know there have been rumblings about Paul Mescal’s sexuality in the past but this should confirm it. Only a straight man would go out in this get up and think it was Ok.

Please no feedback about this slam of straight men. Some of my best friends are straight men. I honestly like straight men but, come on, you have to admit it, no self respecting gay guy would go out looking like this. Sorry, straight men I will stand by this.

By on

I have to remind myself that Conservatives believe that children actually listen to teachers and parents and that teachers and parents have some influence on what children will actually think and believe. Now I don’t mean to totally discount parents and teachers. They do have some influence to the extent that what the authority figure is saying makes sense to the child but once the adult has left the tracks, many children are apt to begin seeing life in their own way and not at all like the parents wanted. This is why I have some different ideas about the world than my Catholic parents and my Catholic school teachers despite their active indoctrination of me to become a Roman Catholic.

I think this is why so many Conservatives are afraid of sex education and Critical Race Theory. They assume that the mere mention of these things in class will influence the thinking of their children. This is why they go after the public school system with particular vigor, they think that indoctrination is possible and they want to be the ones indoctrinating and not those crazy Liberals. I wish I could assure them that children only care about their education to the extent of what is going to get them a good grade for the class. Otherwise their minds are elsewhere.

So I was amused to read Chaya Raichik and Charlie Kirk’s intention of outbreeding the Left. They think they will rid the world of pre-marital sex, gays, transexuals, abortion, birth control and, most importantly, Marxists which is loosely defined as anyone to the left of Marjorie Taylor Greene if only children heard the right things. That this didn’t work in the past should be evidence enough but somehow Raichik and Kirk believe the there were these halcyon days were people actually behaved well and listened to their elders.

Good luck with that. My parents had five children. All having, at least, 12 years of Catholic education and, much to my parent’s chagrin, they got no practicing Catholics out of the deal. Think about that. They paid extra money to the Catholic Church to indoctrinate their children so that when we reached maturity, their children would be Catholic. Well, they struck out. They had 5 children and got no Catholics after all that effort. And, to top it off, we are all to the left of Marjorie Taylor Greene.

And my parents never gave up. When we returned for the summer during college, my father insisted that we attend Mass. Despite the fact that our attendance while away was iffy at best and more accurately described as seldom to never. Arguing with him was pointless. He’d rather us sit dumbly in church, not listening to the priest, day dreaming about sex and parties or anything other than the Roman Catholic Church and Jesus than us doing something constructive like watching TV. He though that some day while we were sitting in church that a bolt of lightening would strike us and we would realize the error of our ways. It never happened to me nor did it happen my brothers and sisters.

Indoctrination doesn’t work. Even if you think it is working, even if the child is nodding their heads and passing their religion classes with A’s, you really don’t know what is going on in the mind of the child. So, using my family history as an example, instead of 5 Christian Conservatives, the Catholic schools turned out 5 people with slightly different ideas, so Raichik and Kirk can breed away but they shouldn’t be surprised if their children decide to go to the Free Palestine Rally after going to a polymorphīs orgy.

By on

People are scratching their heads wondering why more Blacks, one of the most, if not the most dependable Democratic voters, are saying they are going to vote for Trump. It is so frustrating to see the bewilderment, shrugged shoulders and the inability to explain what is going on here.

What is more disturbing is that people in the Democratic Party don’t seem to believe that there is anything wrong. The experts just remark how none of this makes sense for Blacks to voting against their own self interest and that Biden will retain the Black vote in November. Well, maybe, but it would be nice to see a more energetic effort to determine if this is true and, if it is true, what they are going to do about it.

Polls may be wrong. They also may be right and this is the canary in the coal mine. The question is Is anyone listening?

By on

xr:d:DAFp145TUz8:2,j:4184241902542669556,t:23072715

I saw the above advertisement in the Cheap Undies site the keeps sending me emails totally against my will — just so you know that I would never solicit this kind of material on my own. It just comes to me. Twice a day. Against my will. Really. Believe me.

Any way, I have asked before and I will ask again. Is grabbing one’s junk a good pose for selling men’s underwear? I think I know why in this case. The company wanted to show the see through capacity of the underwear without showing the male appendage. But it just drew my eyes to the appendage and I am straining my eyes to see if I can determine if those are fingers or the male appendage.

I am seeing this grabbing the junk pose with increasing frequency and every time I see it I think the same thing. This is crossing a line. I don’t know what line it is crossing but it just feels like a little too much even for a liberal gay guy like myself.

Is this crossing a line? Or am I showing my age? Any thoughts?

By on

I was more sympathetic to Palestinian arguments regarding Israel before October 7. They got a raw deal in 1948. Jewish, Muslim and Christians all lived in the same area. To carve out a country which was wholly one religion would be impossible. Divvying up this land was going to leave some Muslims in the new Jewish state. This should have put a pause on the creation of Israel and, by pause I mean, come up with a better solution than the one proposed.

That did not happen. Some people will argue that it was a fair settlement. Others will say it was unfair. It doesn’t really matter because the result has been 76 years of war with intermittent periods of an uneasy peace. The Palestinians have been on the losing side of all of these wars. Despite these humiliating losses and the attendant carnage these wars cause, the Palestinians cling to a violent strategy that has brought them absolutely nothing but misery.

On October 7, Hamas launched an attack on Israel. A questionable move given that Israel has the best and most successful military in the region. Hamas had a day of victorious celebrations and then the hammer went down.

Why Hamas attacked is unclear. They wanted hostages to exchange for Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails. They managed to get some but they also angered the Israelis into a counter attack which, to my mind, was the real reason for the attack. To make the Israelis look bad. If I am correct, Hamas has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

Here in lies the problem for me and why I have lost sympathy for the Palestinian position. When an army is getting the shit kicked out of them and there is no hope of winning, the losing side usually surrenders to the stronger power. Most losing armies do this because they want to protect their civilian population from further bloodshed. Hamas is apparently happy to sacrifice their civilian population to a losing cause. So the bloodshed continues.

But this is collective punishment. The children in Palestine have nothing to do with Hamas. Why should they be paying the price for Hamas. Hamas has chosen to hide in Gaza among children. It is a terrible situation. But no more terrible than the October 7 attack. They attacked a rock concert. They raped women. Children died in their incursion into Israel. Hamas has no trouble hurting civilian populations when they are the aggressor. It may not have been their intention to do this but it did happen. How can they complain about the Israelis doing the same?

Well, then the Israeli counter attack is disproportionately excessive to the Hamas attack. Again, yes, it is. But why shouldn’t it be if a country wants to protect itself against future aggression/ Why wouldn’t the Israelis put their focus on destroying Hamas and making sure that Hamas is unable to attack Israel again? Hamas is more interested in attacking Israel again than protecting its own civilian population. Hamas wants Israel to stop the war, a war Hamas is losing, without actually surrendering their troops. What winning army would accept that?

I do not know how to right the wrongs of the 1948 settlement but the present Hamas strategy has done little to help the Palestinian people. Israel keeps winning, and as is the wont of winners in war, taking more and more Palestinian land. I think it is time for Hamas and all the leaders in Palestine to take a realistic look at what they can get. Ask for the moon, by all means, but settle for what you can get. Tomorrow is another day and you can continue to work, hopefully peacefully, to get a better deal.

Blaming the Israelis for the present spat of violence is disingenuous. Hamas knew what they were doing, knew how the Israelis would respond and attacked any way. They did this all without worrying about the horrors their actions would unleash on the people in Gaza. They can end the war today simply by surrendering like any other losing army.


By on

More polls are coming out on the 2024 presidential election and pundits everywhere are trying to explain what they mean. This might be a useful exercise if the polls weren’t so damn depressing. But they are depressing. No matter what polls come out, it points to a close election with Biden behind in all the states that need to be won for a Biden victory. It doesn’t really matter why at this point. What matters is can Biden change this in time to win the election. I see no evidence of this.

Nate Silver was looking at the polls and had some interesting thoughts about what to do. The Democrats seem committed to a strategy that insures a close election particularly in regards to the Electoral College. Silver sees the most likely scenario for a Biden win is Biden with 270 Electoral Votes(the minimum number needed to win) and Trump with 268. This result has numerous potential for election stealing complaints with all of the contingent problems those complaints would bring. The better question is there an option?

Obviously, a different candidate might help. But isn’t this a roll of the dice when Biden, at least, has a chance of winning? It is. This, however, misses the point. As Silver noted the Democrats are already rolling the dice with Biden. He isn’t a sure thing and numerous things could get worse with a Biden candidacy and very little can get better. If the Democrats are going to roll the dice, why not roll it on a different candidate that could shake things up for Trump because Biden, at least as of this date, isn’t.