Somewhere else. Or never again

Google sucks.  BIG TIME!  They have proven their allegiance to fascism and censorship. FUCK THEM! 

This blog gets virtually no readership. Obviously my fault, either due to my writing talent or lack of marketing. 

It matters not, I will not continue to post on a communist sponsored web site. 

If I can find another blogging location, I will. 

Otherwise I'm gone.

Fuck 'em.

ciao,

The Snark

The Iron Law of Bureaucracy

 The late, VERY great Jerry Pounelle deduced the Iron Law of Bureaucracy.  It is proposed thusly:

        Every organization, upon reaching a significant size will be comprised of two groups.  The first group will concentrate on achieving the goals the organization was chartered or organized to perform.  The second group will concentrate on increasing the size, scope and power of the organization itself.  The second group will always dominate the organization.

This is not limited to government bureaucracies; any organization will succumb to this eventuality. Trade unions and labor unions are especially affected, indeed that is the reason for most (if not all of them) anyway. Even the NRA is an example.  Power corrupts.  You know the rest of that.

In the executive branch there are regulatory agencies - the EPA, the FDA - and advisory agencies - the CDC, the NIH. President Trump signed an executive order in his first week of office requiring that any new regulations had to be accompanied by the removal of two prior regulations.  This was a major blow to the typical DC swamp condition. It indicated that he was actually SERIOUS about draining the swamp.

This wasn't a shot across the bow, this was a direct hit on the wheelhouse!  The Deep State, already operating within the politically weaponized FBI, DOJ, CIA, NSA and IRS, fell in regiment with the intelligence and enforcement agencies.  The war began in earnest. 

Conservatives can be differentiated from liberals in one basic comparison:  Conservatives typically support smaller governments and personal responsibility.  Liberals prefer large governments and social responsibility. (The conservative view tends to blur once elected to DC, however.)  The liberal wants to blame society or somebody - anybody - for their condition, then use the government to extract their desired result from someone else.  Conservatives usually just want to be left alone.  Liberals love power (granted, so do some conservatives) and will use any method to attain it.  Remember the corollary.

Now apply these two attributes to the Iron Law of Bureaucracy.  Obviously the first group will tend to be conservative - do the work, get it done, go home.  The second group will tend to be liberal - why waste this opportunity (or crisis) without growing the scope of the organization?

Advisory agencies can't use regulation to grow, they must use an opportunity to be noticed and become more valuable to the chief executive.  Covid provided an excellent opportunity to leverage an advisory agency to one of dominance and power. 

And here's where the Iron Law comes into play.  All the agencies have become dominated by liberals. It's like gravity but in reverse.  Conservatives slowly sink into the unnoticed echelons because they aren't fighting for a power position. Liberals rise to the top, grasping for ever more power.

Thus President Trump unwittingly played right into the hands of not just the DC swamp, but also the Chinese Communists' surrogate World Health Organization.  He had to use the resources available to him, but they were all enemies.  Not to do so would open him to even more screaming about not using "expert" advice.  That advice changed direction by 180 degrees several times, but never mind.  it was the President's fault.

That is the advantage of the communist government: no pesky elections to worry about, no nosy opposition party or news media to get in the way.  Like the dhimmicrats, communists consider lying, stealing and murder just another business policy.  

China successfully developed a virus that could be used as weapon.  It was deadly to the elderly, but the Chinese could care less.  It was debilitating to those over juvenile age, exactly the age soldiers are.  The very young were spared.  Perhaps this was just an accident, perhaps deliberate.  Like a feature rather than a bug. Either way the dhimmicrats used the opportunity to continue their assault on the President.  They have missed no opportunity to bludgeon President Trump, especially when creating controversy out of whole cloth.  The question now is whether he can get the evidence of the treasonous activity released before it is hidden by another corrupt, rotten administration.

The vote count continues.

ciao,

The Snark

Traitor Joe

    If your news sources are restricted to the lame stream media, social media or similar restricted exposure you are unlikely to be aware of the shenanigans of Hunter Biden, Gropey Joe's ner-do-well son. 

After being unceremoniously discharged from the Navy for drug usage (having been commissioned a lieutenant by way of his father's influence) Hunter proceeded to take up with his late brother's widow.  Not being satisfied with her, he knocked up a stripper while continuing his substance consumption.  His sordid history is too long for me to bother to detail here, so let's cut to the chase.

Without any experience in energy, the Ukraine or Ukrainian law, he became a board member of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company with a sordid history of corruption of it's own. So sordid that it became the focus of a corruption investigation by the national prosecutor.  But that jeopardized Hunter's $83K PER MONTH salary (that he received for doing nothing. Other than the being the son of a US vice president.)  Gropey Joe threatened to withhold a $1BILLION dollar loan guarantee unless the Ukrainian president fired the prosecutor. And according to the video tape from the Council of Foreign Relations: "Son of bitch, he did!" He did EXACTLY what President Trump was falsely impeached for doing! In the same country!

Then after to flying with his hair sniffing father to China on Air Force Two, Hunter put together a $1.5 BILLION investment deal with a Chinese bank.  What was Hunter's financial experience? Being Joe's son.  That might have been bad enough.  But Hunter dropped off three laptops for repair, and being stoned, forgot to retrieve them.  The hard drive from one revealed that he had been kicking back at least 10% to his dad.  The same dad who claimed to have NO KNOWLEDGE of his son's business dealing. 

Joe's campaign response to the allegations?  IMPOSSIBLE!  Tax returns show that nothing happened.  WTF?  Since when do criminals report illegal income on tax returns? Perhaps they forgot about Al Capone.  The Feds couldn't get him for illegal liquor, gambling, murder or running hookers. But tax evasion - gotcha!

Just like Hillary before him and all the other dhimmicrats since, everything that they have been blaming on President Trump is what they have been doing themselves.  It's called projection and it is a standard Alinksy technique.  He's RAAACIST! But the Ku Klux Klan is a dhimmicrat organization. He's a NAZI! But his daughter, son in law and grandchildren are Jewish. (Plus he's close personal friends with Israel's PM.)  He's HITLER! But he reduced government over reach and supported the 2nd Amendment. 

All things that the dhimmicrats themselves accused him of, they have been doing for decades. 

Now they have used a ginned up pandemic, designed and released by Ol Joe's buddies in China to steal the 2020 election. 

Joe Biden has been a corporate tool for 48 years.  That's how he's stayed in the Senate for as long as he has. MBNA, the credit card giant, has owned Joe for decades.  He's been their toady. How else? He certainly isn't smart enough to do anything on his own.

Now he's a tool for a different bank.  A Chinese bank. 

That makes him more than just a tool.

That makes him a traitor. Traitor Joe.

Ciao,

 

The Snark.

At Long Last, the Proof Is Revealed

 It's been three or so years since my last post.  Usually it takes a certain amount of at least rage or maybe fury to inspire me to renew this blog. Not to say that there hasn't been enough of that...but things have gotten in the way.  Stuff like...life (hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, emergency moves, etc,etc.) Nevertheless the essence of the last post has been vindicated.  Newly released declassified documents from the DNI reveals that (GASP) Shrillery did in fact initiate and buy the Trump/Russia collusion scheme! I'm shocked  - SHOCKED! that it has actually been declassified and released!  

Not shocked that it happened, that was grossly apparent from the start.  Now the question is - will there actually be any ramifications for the actors who committed it? Ramifications such as charges of treason. At least sedition.  Former FBI director Comey testified before a Senate subcommittee.  Amazing that all of a sudden his memory fails him.  Can't remember signing the FISA application. Nor whether it had been substantiated (it hadn't.)  Perhaps he has early onset Alzheimer's.  More likely he doesn't want to catch Arkancide.  At least with Alzheimer's he won't see it coming.  Then again, he likely wouldn't see a bullet to the back of his head, either. But it will be an "unsolved robbery." 

We anxiously await the results of the Durham investigation, likely not to be revealed until after the election. Which really SUCKS!  There are a plethora of individuals that I would LOVE to watch do the perp walk.  Comey, of course. And Strzok. And McCabe. And Weinstein. And Page. Certainly Clapper. And Brennan.  Obozo won't be arrested, nor Shrillery.  Though I would like to see them listed as "un-indicted co-conspirators".

We don't indict former presidents. That is one of the faults that took down the Roman Empire. The infighting and political insurrection distracted the country from the external enemies. But we can certainly tar their "legacy" ( as if Obozo hasn't done enough on his own, not to mention Bill and Shrillary.)   Bill's many trips on the "Lolita Express" down to "Pedophile Island" is yet to be fully revealed.  Epstein found his Arkancide result.  Now whether the jail can prevent the same from happening to Maxwell....well, only Shrillary knows.  So "legacy" has many unresolved implications. 

The conspiracy is quite evident.  A near coup upon the President of the United States.  It started prior to the election then continued until the sham impeachment.  It is more than unlikely that Pelousi, et al will be charged, deserving as they certainly are.  The rest of the rats and hopefully another basket full will be shown marching to the gaol, hands cuffed behind them, hiding their shame...OH! I forgot. They have no sense of shame.  They will be mystified that such could happen to them.  They were only saving the country.  From a man who wished to reduce the government.  To restore the liberties of citizens. Who wants to defend the Constitution. To defeat our enemies and enable our economy.  Obviously a tyrant. 

Another election is upon us.  President Donald J Trump is hospitalized with the Wuhan virus, declared to have a minor (so far) case.  Hopefully so. 

Groper Joe is campaigning from his basement.  The signs of senile dementia are all too apparent.  Having witnessed those effects, I wouldn't wish it even on a dhimicrat.  But it is an equal opportunity destroyer. 

Again, we must wait.

Later.

The Snark

The Never Ending Gobstopper

That's what Monica thought Bill was, anyway. You remember it - Willy Wonka's sucker that you could enjoy forever and it would never get any smaller?  But that was just the appetizer.  Hillary continues to provide the never ending treat.

There was never any "Russian hack" into the DNC server.  Any actually honest organization who thought for longer than a millisecond that "Russians" had really hacked into their computer system would have SCREAMED for the FBI to examine it.  The DNC?  Not a chance.  And now we know why!

The DNC embraced Obozo.  Unfortunately for them, it was like embracing a leper.  He took everything they had but had nothing to give in return.  His coattails didn't exist.  As a result the dummycrats have effectively lost control of most local, state and national legislative seats.  The donations have dried up. The bench of prospective candidates doesn't exist. There are none but the usual aged, decrepit shrill harpies slinging their old, tired harangues. That of course didn't stop the DNC from spending money, after all that's what they do.  But they ran out of other people's money.  Unlike the dummycrats in Congress, the DNC couldn't just pass another spending bill to pass on to other people's grand kids. They were as destitute in dollars as they were in intelligence or ideas.  They needed a white knight to save them.

What they got instead was Hillary.  Ever the consummate technical attorney, HRC had an actual contract signed turning the DNC over to her.  The silly concept of a primary race was just another inconvenient fact.  She covered the DNC's debts and then owned the party.  Poor Bernie....He didn't even get a weekend.

 All that evidence was right there on the DNC server. FBI?  WTF? Are you smoking something? NO, give it to some lame buyable IT firm.  Gin up some excuse that could be blamed on DJT.  ANYTHING! Just lie like hell.

Hillary displayed her technical knowledge in requiring a contract, but any experienced defense attorney would have told her - NEVER SIGN EVIDENCE!  Okay, probably not her signature on the document, but it was her money.  Under election law that is close enough.  It didn't matter that she and the rest of the party screwed poor ole socialist Bernie.  He didn't count and once her coronation was over no one would find out.  Then came November 8, 2016.  We just keep finding out reasons for why Hillary wanted to slit her wrists that night.  Or someone's throat.  The problem is that it turns out that there are too many throats.  Unlike her hero Che, she doesn't have access to a police force to round up her enemies...or friends....or other witnesses and remove them from the living.  Clintonitis is pretty selective, though she has a large selection now to apply it to.

With Hillary now an apparent has been (was ever?) who is toxic to the rest of the party but just won't GO THE FUCK AWAY, anyone with a secret and who remembers what a bitch she was to be around has decided that it's time to reveal those awful truths.  Whether it's Donna Brazile or the next in line to dish the dirt d'jour on HRC, we can only hope that she will eventually get the memo - just GO THE FUCK AWAY!

I just hope that she exhibits her "perseverance" that she has bragged about and wait just a little longer to read that memo.  Like Obozo's toxicity, she keeps reminding voters of all that she is.  The dummycrat party tries to avoid and evade her like she was a walker, but to no avail.  The eternal Hildabeast.

For those of us with some sense and a conscience, she remains the Never Ending Gobstopper.

I can hardly wait for the next shoe to drop.  It appears to be a closet full.

ciao,

the Snark

Where to start?

The rabbit holes keep opening up.  They're larger, deeper and everywhere.  It's getting scary to even go outside. I always carry heavy; now I'm considering carrying double.

Another member of the "peaceful" cult of pIslam decided to go for a quiet drive in NYC.  Except for the screams of "Allahu Akbar" and the screams of the people in the bicycle lane he was driving in, it would have been a normal afternoon.  After murdering eight people and crashing into a special transport bus he was shot (only wounded, dammit) while carrying a paintball gun.  He currently resides in a NYC hospital, gleefully describing his great afternoon.  Other than the getting shot thing, it was great, for him. 

DeBlaiso, Schumer, Cuomo and the rest of the lunatics in charge of that asylum applauded the great immigration system the dummycrats instituted and decried the possibility of a backlash.  They have never noticed that NO backlash occurs after one of Allah's vermin kill actual people. 

One meme I have noticed says "If 1 billion moslems wanted us dead, we'd be dead by now" (have you noticed that they are trying?)  Typical progressive stupidity.  For one thing, only around 700 million moslems (I spell it that way because they hate it) actually want us dead.  For another thing, those particular moslems can't get here to kill us, they can only send their money to do so (and they do.)  Far more the most important point is that we have the US Marine Corps. A particularly effective organization that was originally created specifically to address the moslem menace.  It works, too. 

Our vigilant police departments also do what they can, although too many are disrupted by liberal politicians who somehow think(?) that by coddling such semi-human debris that somehow the violent attacks will stop.  Besides, those polls have protection to prevent such from happening to them.  Which is why I carry.  I can't afford to pay someone else for protection.  When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.  A .40 S&W responds at 1050 fps.

One particular response that tends to just piss me off is the "moral equivalence" reply that so many light brained individuals offer up.  "One terrorist doesn't represent all moslems".  But "the Westboro Baptist Church is typical of all Christians"... or "all conservatives"....or all "white Christians".  First of all, no, not all terrorists are moslem.  Only about 99.8%.  The remaining are simple sociopaths, rather than cultist sociopaths. Second, specify the number of people murdered by members of the Westboro Baptist Church.  Yes, they are obnoxious.  Yes, they should be at least ignored, or my favorite, have a large contingent of bikers intervene in their protests.  Being a biker myself, I feel sure that such a group can provide sufficient deterrent to the WBC participants that things won't get out of hand.  But while a pain in the ass, the WBC aren't murdering thugs.  Furthermore, name the number of Christians that have established murder as their method of demonstrating dominance. 

Here's the catch - while many might name Paddock, McVeigh or even Manson as examples, the actual fact is that NONE of these are/were Christian in either their described faith or rationale of action.  "Allahu Akbar" is pretty much a dead give away.  What the three offered up as "Christian" examples actually represent is  - WHITE MALES.  So the typical hypocrisy/discrimination/bigotry of the progressives are displayed once again. 

I have a personal preference of how to dispose of the current jihadi awaiting trial.  Put a set of leg irons on him and set him on a NYC street corner.  Next to him place a 5 gallon bucket full of lard which also contains 20 pieces of 3 foot long #4 rebar.  Announce to New Yorkers that if he can make it two blocks that he will be granted a free ride back to the hell hole he came from.  The populace is free to "motivate" his progress with the rebar.

All I ask for is pay-for -view rights.  I have no inclination whatsoever to actually watch.  But I'll cash the checks.

Me, pissed?   Naaaah.

ciao

the Snark

How thin can he slice it?

The louder the wails, screams and caterwauling becomes; the more the lamestream media, the Dummycrats and the snowflakes denounce; the more outrageous the insults become, the more DJT is proven correct.

He did miss one thing early on, but corrected it shortly before the fan got slathered.  At first he said there was no collusion whatsoever with the Russians in trying to sway the election.  He corrected himself to say that there was collusion and that the HRC campaign did it.  Oh, the travesty of such a claim!  He is surely now completely deranged!  The HORROR!  The HORROR!

 Except....he was correct again.

Dirty tricks are not unusual in politics.  "Tricky" Dick Nixon had a crew of pranksters that did just that.  However Nixon's crew - as all of the Republican attempts have been - were rank amateurs compared to the Dummycrats.  From the local scene to the national, vote buying, voter fraud, ballot tampering have all been part and parcel of the Dummycrat modus operandi.

But the campaign, first the primary race but then the final race of the 2016 Dummycrat Party is absolutely the most blatant example of corruption, distraction and felonious obfuscation in the history of US politics.  The most glorious culmination of it all is that Robert Mueller, FBI Director during the Obozo reign, was chosen as the investigator of the "collusion".  The most delicious part of it is that he was up to his neck in so much of the shenanigans!

He was picked, not to discover where the bodies where buried, but because he KNEW where they were buried and knew where NOT to search.  But Hillary didn't win.  WHOOPS!
HRC had many reasons to be apoplectic the night of the election.  But while she thinks she's the smartest one in the world, she is only half right.  The smarter thing for her to do was to slink quietly away, back to Chappaqua, and STFU.  But NOOOO!  She and her comrades had to keep screaming about the election and how it was stolen - STOLEN - by DJT and those dirty RUSSIANS!  The noise and obfuscation was a desperate attempt to do something - ANYTHING - to keep DJT off balance and perhaps create enough diversion that the people would reject him.  Sorry, Hillary, it didn't work.

So now the cat is out of the bag, or at least the witness is allowed to talk.  He should be veeery careful.  Clintonitis is frequently fatal and he is very subject to being exposed.  Mueller, Comey, Holder and even Obozo himself however are exposed in another way.  Many (though not all) of their misdeeds are being brought to light.

Mueller now has a specific problem.  He was part of the dirty deeds.  He has been revealed as not being as pure as the driven snow.  He has to work around a very bright spotlight while keeping so many things hidden.  He has to at least make a pretense of fairness while shoveling as much crap out through the leak sources as he can.  His quandary is that what  he is supposed to looking for has turned out to be a unicorn. He has a pile of baloney and knows it.  But baloney is a large sausage with many ingredients, many of them unknown, or at least unidentified.  This baloney contains (among others) all the previously named conspirators. Granted, they didn't necessarily conspire together, though they could have.  Regardless, all of them conspired towards the same goal - President Hillary.  Mueller now has to slice this baloney to resemble prime rib.  The problem is that he is in this sausage and has to slice it thin without slicing himself.  Reveal the ingredients without revealing his own part in it.  He likely will try to protect his buddy Comey.  But regardless of whom he might try to pin it on - Paul Manafort, John Podesta - he can't predict what the newly revealed witness may present.  That has to have his sphincter cranked up tighter than Dick's hatband.  If he isn't careful he too, might contract Clintonitis. 

Stranger things have happened.

ciao.

Keep hunting.

the Snark

Report from Lost Wages

Greetings from the Mojave desert!

In that paean to ostentatiousness, greed and distaste - LAS VEGAS!  There have been changes in the few years since I last visited Vegas, unsurprisingly.   It is somewhat eerie making this trip, since I had driven through Orlando a few days after the Pulse Nightclub terrorist shooting.  The reactions are similar in LV as in Orlando.  Signage in Vegas is much more prominent than Orlando, especially the high resolution programmable variety.  #VEGAS STRONG is prevalent in all the signs, more so in the daytime than at night.  Can't let anything interfere with the whole purpose of the city.  Got to draw the people to the shows and gambling.  Sometimes the signs include skylines, some times a heart.  Local news is as scarce as the national reportage.  The LV Sheriff's department isn't saying much to anyone.

I drive past the Mandalay Bay and the festival site, still taped off and police attended at least once a day since I am staying close by.  The windows were replaced quickly but the investigation continues.

The iconic "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign is in it's own little park in the widened median in S. Las Vegas blvd.  Memorials in tribute to the victims, along with other items - teddy bears, etc., fill the park.  At one passing (at night, looking from a tour coach) it looked like an anarchists' symbol was displayed.  It wasn't there the next morning, so even LV couldn't stomach that insult to humanity.

Security is increased, one news report showed interviews with casino security people about adding magnetometers and sure enough, everyone was screened at the Elton John show.  Sir Elton and I have both picked up a few pounds since I had seen him perform, but he still provides a terrific show.

One of the noticeable changes is in the signs themselves.  Very high resolution video displays - like watching a 4K TV - except being 20, 30, 40 feet tall.  Elton has a video screen at least 80X30 in uhd.  Incredible.

S Las Vegas blvd has long ago supplanted Fremont St. as the center of attraction, Fremont not having near enough space to accommodate the likes of Bellagio, NYC, Venetian, Mirage, Wynn, Encore and the dozens of other opulent casino/hotel/theaters/restaurant/fashion stores, and The Strip is outside of Las Vegas' property taxing authority.  So rather than simply demolishing Fremont St, they have turned it into the "Fremont Street Experience."  Five blocks are now a covered pedestrian mall.  Covered with - what else - a programmable video screen. It arches over the length of the mall, complete with a two level multi-zip line, one set of four running the whole length of the mall, the riders flying in a superman position.

The FSE is complete with buskers, mendicants, casinos, bars, kiosks and the assortment of locals and tourists that only Vegas seems able to produce.  Performance(?) artists included Batman, Spidey, Deadpool, half of KISS, a guitar player who wore only a fuzzy jockstrap with suspenders, a variety of almost naked women (painted pasties and thongs) and one guy who simply held a sign stating "Need $$$ for penis enlargement. 'I'm a little short'". He didn't state whether he was short on funds or penile length; fortunately he didn't offer proof of either.  It was a bit distracting to watch a nearly naked female conversing with two cops while people streamed around them.  As well as watching one of the throng walk by smoking a joint.

Recreational pot is now legal in Nevada.  Signs of the conventional billboard type advertising dispensaries are frequent and curiously among the most sedate of all.  I doubt that that will last, those will go the way of the liquor advertising soon enough. Money, after all, is the fuel of Vegas, alcohol the lubricant.  Pot will soon move along side the booze.

Construction is booming; houses, casinos, hotels, restaurants, all of the usual Vegas attractions still multiplying.

Back in the day - pre-Luxor - gambling was the star, carrying the freight for everything.  Cheap hotel rooms, buffets, and other near freebies simply greased the way to bring in the suckers.  Then they discovered that by adding shows and other family attractions that the suckers would bring their families along as well.  Now the hotel rooms and meals anywhere near the strip are expensive and the prices off the strip have followed suit.  The list of performers is simply everyone in show business other than actors.  Even Mike Tyson is doing a stage act.  WTF?   There are a few bargains, but you have to look for them, or ask a knowledgeable local.  The advertising of the sex business has moved away from the thousands of cards thrust at every passing pedestrian.  The internet is cheaper and cleaner....okay, less litter to clean up.

But the biggest change is in the casinos themselves.  Just a few years ago the casinos rang with the sound of coins hitting the trays, bells and whistles going off, buckets of coins and chips being rattled around.  But no more.  Now bills are still acceptable in the slots, but the preference is for a gambling card backed up either with cash or credit card presented at the cashier's window.  The whole scene is more sedate, less frantic, less invigorating.  I don't gamble, other than flying, but enjoy watching the people - feeding the coins while a cigarette burned down to the knuckles, scrambling to pick up coins from the floor before they rolled under the machines,  eyes glazed by the whirling lights as they fed their entertainment habit.  It just isn't the same.  Oh, they still feed the machines, but they aren't nearly as interesting as they used to be.  This is progress for the house with greater security and less labor moving hundreds of pounds of money.  Just less fun to watch.

Las Vegas is a fun visit, plenty to do and see without gambling.  Only now it costs everyone rather than just the gamblers.  Everyone is a sheep for shearing.  And everyone gets fleeced.

ciao from the desert,

the Snark

Fixing things

Ron White famously said "You can't fix stupid".  And he is right.  As I have mentioned previously, ignorance is correctable, stupid is forever.  You can't fix psychosis, either. Sometimes - and only sometimes - psychosis can be sufficiently medicated to moderate it.  Or perhaps it can be isolated in a facility.  Unfortunately too often it is undetected until it manifests itself in tragic fashion.

Thus psychosis was revealed in Las Vegas.  I don't use the word "crazy", that is too flippant, too undefined.  Steve Martin is known as being a "wild and crazy guy" yet he hasn't yet shot into a crowd of festival goers. Paddock was psychotic. Period.  The latest revelation is that he hired a hooker for $6K per night to indulge in violent, kinky sex. And his fantasies included murder and mayhem.  But, hey, it was Las Vegas.  What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, right?  Not exactly.  The problem is that such behavior, might not seem so extreme for 6 grand a pop.  Some hookers specialize in "unique" behaviors.  B&D, S&M, water sports, dress fetishes are all part of some john's preferences, catered to by specialists.  But what is the difference between "kinky" and "murder"?  There is a fine line between "different" and "psychotic".  But the line is still there.

Immediately the dimocrats came unglued.  Hillary, trying to make herself relevant, chimed in that had he been using a suppressor then the people wouldn't have known they were being shot at.  Please.  As has been stated many times, "it is better to remain silent and thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."  As if anyone had any doubt about that crone.  Of course her similarly lobotomized parrot and former limping mate, Tim Kaine repeated this drivel before he took the time to read a few replies pointing out the simple facts of physics that belied such ignorance.  Even the senate's western simpleton admitted that there was nothing within the law that could have prevented this tragedy.   That doesn't mean that Feinstein won't run next year on a gun control platform. (Note - she is 84.  One of the many youthful dimocrat leaders.)  After all, promoting a failed concept over and over and expecting different results is what they do. 

As I have mentioned previously, the study of history as well as the awareness of failed theories is but one of the liberals' fatal refuges.  As the usual response, liberals are screaming for the confiscation of firearms.  "DO SOMETHING"!  Is their cry.  The same ones who have branded DJT the next Hitler wants to take away the people's power of resistance.  Perhaps they should research the "Prague Spring" or "Tianamen Square" for a comparison.  They haven't stopped to realize that if you take away the people's guns, only the government will have any....

Except the government won't have the only firearms.  Perhaps the only legal ones, but illegal ones work too.  Go to Chicago and find out.  Or Baltimore.  Or Mexico.

It is almost impossible for a normal citizen to legally possess a firearm in Mexico, especially a handgun.  In rural areas it is slightly easier to possess a .22 or shotgun.  Look up "Zeta murders" and "Sinaloa Cartel killings" to see how peaceful Mexico is today.  The books "The Power of The Dog" and "The Cartel" by Don Winslow provide an excellent review of the history of the Mexican/US drug condition.  Guns are very strictly controlled in Mexico, just like Chicago, DC and Baltimore.  So are drugs, just like in Chicago, DC and Baltimore.  HEY!  Here is a thought for the liberals - make guns, drugs and murder illegal. Problem solved!  Uh....what?  Oh.....never mind. 

Scott Adams (Dilbert) has a relevant position on such laws - since laws don't actually prevent crime, they simply discourage it so they don't work for the truly determined.  Sort of like taking away cars from those who don't drive drunk.  Do you have any idea how many repeat offenders of drunk driving there are?  How many of them drive without a license?

There is a reason for the Second Amendment.  It was for the people to have as close to the same power of resistance that a rogue government might have to impose tyranny.  The founders realize that even with all the restrictions they built into the Constitutions there might come a time when a charismatic leader might wrest control from the observing populace.  And then it would be necessary to repeat 1776.  Again, this is where a study of history is relevant.  Madison referred to a "well regulated militia".  Actually, he got that from George Washington.  At that time a "well regulated militia" described a condition where every capable male was expected to own at least one firearm (usually a rifle,) to also posses powder and ball (bullets) and to be able to operate all proficiently.  Thus they could respond to the call of the governor (NOT a federal government) to form a militia (the notion of a standing army at this time was abhorrent to them) in order to resist invasion or civil unrest.  There were, after all, some Tory sympathizers yet wishing for the British to return.  (See the War of 1812 for the rest of that story.) 

The Second Amendment protects ALL of the other amendments.  There has already been a call to eliminate the Second.  Well, while you're at it, why not the Fourth?  Or Fifth?  Oblama tried to eliminate most of the First.  Who needs the Constitution anyway?  Let's become a real Democracy rather than a republic.  You know, like Greece? Or like Venezuela used to be. Or any of the countless other failed democracies through history. 

The United States has produced the greatest source of freedom, support, opportunity, protection and equality for the greatest number of people around the world than any other country in history.  Before recommending that we screw that up, study some history.

The US Constitution isn't broken.  It doesn't need to be fixed.

ciao

the Snark

Introspection

September 25 was the anniversary of my younger brother's birth in 1953.  Tomorrow is the anniversary of his death in 1975.  I still miss him, of course.  This time of year and this time of my life my thoughts occasionally dwell upon him.  He was everything I wasn't for his age.  Tall, dark, too handsome for his own good.  Smooth with the girls - many of them - and able to buy liquor easier than I could AFTER I was legal.   (Back then beer was legal at 18, hard liquor at 21.)  He was probably the most spontaneous individual I ever met.  That is not always a good thing...

He was also one of the funniest people I have ever met.  He got that honestly; our father was also a very funny man, though I didn't realize just how funny he was until he was in hospice.  It is like a fish in water - he has little appreciation of it until it is removed.

Part of his spontaneity may have been due to his metal state.  None of us - including our father - knew our grandfather very well.  Apparently though our grandfather was prone to erratic behavior, including sudden fits of rage, addictive behavior, extreme mood swings and a very social individual, until he wasn't.

My brother fit that description, at least for a while.  He was certainly troubled.  He self medicated.  In the late '60s and early '70s that was a simple thing to do.  Alcohol, marijuana, MDA, LSD, later heroin.  He wasn't actually addicted to any single drug, it was more that he was addicted to searching for something that would provide relief.  No one could understand what he was needing relief from.  In those days recreational drugs wasn't an unusual activity.  So his participation didn't stand out.  Over years his personality became more erratic, more extreme.  He was straining -extremely hard - to be successful, to impress other people, especially our father, that he was able to be a man.  Unfortunately he tried too many shortcuts to achieve that, and besides, it is really, really hard to impress people when you are stoned a lot.  He became erratically violent, yet could be incredibly tender and gentle.  He loved animals and acquired a Doberman puppy, one of the most beautiful Dobes I've ever seen.  He was almost a canine equivalent - larger than life, smarter than a dog has any right to be, ferocious to strangers yet enjoyed babies crawling over top of him.  He was the perfect image of Borong the Warlock.  Look him up.  They are identical.

He wasn't easy to understand.  Long after his death, family issues revealed a familial trait for Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder.  Either or both could be identified by his behavior today.  Back then BP was known as manic-depressive and BDP hadn't been identified at all. They do have genetic tendencies. While both conditions can start at an early age, the manifestations are rarely caught unless the symptoms are extreme.  For a very active male at that time, no one had a clue.  Typically the symptoms rear up in the late teens to early twenties.  Hormones seem to trigger the onset, though there is little definitive knowledge.

Combine early hormone onset, a predilection for BP/BPD, easy access to mind altering drugs and a great desire to find mental peace or distraction and you have a catastrophe searching for a location.

Recent information reveals that he died, syringe in his arm, and was moved to his place of discovery -in a van behind a popular bar.  One I had frequented many, many times.  Not that night, thankfully.  It was only after his death that we discovered the tattoo of a bleeding rose on his shoulder.

It was his Sportster, a blue Ironhead, that ignited my desire for one.  He totaled his, crashing it into a stone wall.  Alcohol, at least, was involved.  He survived that one, after several weeks in hospital.  There are so many, many tales about him, some tragic, some hilarious.

Maybe I'll relate some.  Someday.

The brightest stars burn out soonest.

RIP MSV.

ciao,

the Snark