April 11, 2019

Yesteryear
One year ago today: April 11, 2018, prescient comment on Facebook.
Five years ago today: April 11, 2014, awaiting a clever programmer.
Nine years ago today: April 11, 2010, the TV was on.
Random years ago today: April 11, 2016, WASAPI explained.

           Another so-so Tennessee day, but we made the most of it. A super long walk with the pets at the lake and a visit to the recycling center. It is entirely possible to have a good time without spending a lot of money, but big advertising would love to have that theme blotted from the American mind. Shown here is a clip called “Can’t Take Him Anywhere”. There were a few interesting news items of interest to this blog. One is the arrest of the WikiLeaks guy in England, however, the interest has nothing to do with the current story of the arrest. What’s really happening is this trial could be the test case that upsets the American media apple cart.

           You see, journalism in America has progressively pushed the envelope of what is protected free speech. I’m on the side that says the only thing protected is the right to say the truth using big media as the agent. Thus, a rag like the New York Times with its total liberal bent would not be protected at all. They would face severe penalties every time they took sides on an issue. Their only mandate is to report the facts with as little tarnish as possible.

           Over the decades the press especially, has done what they can to widen the definition of what is protected. Thus, we now have a situation where a person who published the truth if being charged with doing so. In that quirky law inherited from Britain, it is not always a valid defense to prove what you said is the truth. Hence, the trial could be a landmark. What is not in doubt, however, is that the arrest of an Australian under asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy on charges that originated in America shows that the English can be as complete a bunch of assholes as they were 150 years ago.

Picture of the day.
Messerschmitt Kabinenroller.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Before we move right on to something more important, here is a photo of playing softball with the critters in the back yard. Why the coverage? Because I started it by trying to hit the ball. I could say I’m out of practice, which is true. The fact is, I missed the thing 17 times out of 20. Then outside comes the Robynette who hits it every time. What does this mean? To a sports buff, it reveals what a talentless schmuck I turned out to be. To somebody with a lick of sense, it reveals that early in life I tried just about as much as necessary to know that I had no natural aptitude for wasting my life trying to hit flying objects with a stick. Like most sports buffs, I learned in five second I was never going to be a serious contenter, but unlike most sports buffs, I moved on to better things.

           Then along comes the lady and hits it 20 out of 20. No matter how that makes me feel, it should make the buffs feel even worse. Afterword, the dogs chewed the handle off the softball bat.

           BuzzFeed, a news website, has some morons on staff they apparently don’t know about. Golly, I’d be glad to point out one of them. Katie Notopoulos is a moron, or if she isn’t a moron, she writes moronic articles. Today she is all about how Facebook is “trafficking” your data without your “consent”. Really, Katie. Seems to me every last person who created a Facebook account and uploaded their data actively participated in that consent. The bulk of them were also probably so stupid they figured Facebook would make them famous or increase their odds of getting laid. My ruling on stupidity remains the same as the day I turned 18. These people are not suffering; they are getting exactly what they bargained for.
           Now don’t get me wrong. I am not siding with Facebook. I’ve been against them from the word go. But the fact is it was only a matter of time before some such outfit took full advantage of the naïve stupidity of the average American. Facebook is one symptom of a nation-wide disease.

           [Author’s note: to future historians, and I’m making the broad assumption some of them may be on a par with today’s experts, please read the following carefully. This blog is not the only thing that I write. I have mailing lists, a newsletter, e-mails, and countless single replies, comments, and uploads. So when I say I issued warnings about Facebook in January of 2005, that does not mean you can go back to that specific time and find anything on this blog.
           Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but historical research does not work that way. And in a further closely-guarded secret, not every version of this blog makes it to the posting stage. This is not so much censorship as the fine print issued by Google when they bought blogspot. They claim everything posted belongs to Google. So I have a complete unposted version, some 10,000 files averaging two pages each.]

           Kudos to Proctor & Gamble for pulling their adds off Google and Facebook. This does not mean they will abandon the Internet, only that they will not be using those platforms. Hopefully, this is a trend. No link, but the story is in the Bloomberg tech section.
           Here’s a picture of Puerto Vallarta earlier this week. My buddy Mitch is out there with his lady friend. I seriously cannot recall if I’ve ever been there.

ADDENDUM
           The libtards of America, still living in denial that they have lost their bid to trash the country, are now on about Trump’s apparent contradictary statements onWikiLeaks. To clear up any confusion, what Trump said in 2016 and now parallels my own situation. When he said he likes WikiLeaks, he meant that he likes a situation that uncovers the shady dealings of Washington insiders. He did not mean he had some intimate understanding of the issues and insider workings of the operation.
           And that’s what he meant by his recent comment. Be prepared for more of these crybaby liberals. Trump may have been frustrated by their grip on the system, but he’s prying it loose. That’s why I’m hoping his canning the head of the DHS is the beginning of a trend to remove career bureaucrats by simply revolving the leadership. I suggest he is only starting with DHS because their term limits were defined. Other government departments are silent on the issue. So I see it as a stepping stone toward trimming the fat, but in a manner that now has a precedent. Nobody who has traveled by domestic airline in 15 years will be sad to see the firing of anybody connected with the situation at airports today.

           And working the suspicion that somebody on Trump’s staff is a regular reader of this blog, I have a suggestion for the next department to go after. OSHA. They were okay for correcting gross safety violations, but they’ve gotten out of hand and become politically partisan. A typical example of their interference was some hat company in Florida. That shop made the tactical error of printing up ball caps with, shall we say, the wrong slogans. OSHA swooped in determined they did not have enough toilets for all their female employees. OSHA deliberately made compliance so expensive that they were certain the company would fold.
           Instead, the company fired 30 women.

Last Laugh