...also got $$ for the laundromat, because the washing machine motor has not arrived. Argh etc.
* * *
As an aside, it's kind of funny how spoiled I've become. Forty years ago--and forty years before that--when you ordered something, the people you bought it from always advised it would take "four to six weeks" for your order to get to you. Let's face it: it would take your order no less than a week to get to them, where it would sit in a pile of similar orders in a room of people whose job it was to open the envelopes and make sense of the orders within, and to process payments etcetera. The payment would have to clear. Forty years ago they'd probably enter the information into a computer, which would transmit the information to the distribution center, where people would take orders and then go pick the merchandise from boxes on shelves--having to find the right item number, because computers were still big boxes that required AC. (Oh, maybe the pick list had row and shelf numbers on it--maybe.)
The stuff then had to be packed for shipping, so the container with your merchandise in it would be put on a conveyor belt to the shipping department. There, people would take containers off the conveyor and pack them in boxes with appropriate packing materials, seal them up and stick a label on them...after which they'd wait for the Post Office to pick them up.
Post Office had machines to rapid-sort envelopes by the thousand, but not boxes. At each stage, someone had to read the address label and send it the right way. From local to region to hub to region to local again.
Six to eight weeks later, the Post Office tried to deliver the box to you. Or they left a notice saying you could come get it at the Post Office.
These days? You place an order on-line and go get dinner. The order slams through half a dozen computers the instant you hit "OK". You're billed at the same time the order is sent to the warehouse for picking. People with handheld computers are directed right to the box containing the merchandise you want. It gets sent to shipping, and UPS or FedEx pick it up that evening--and from then on, until it's delivered, your order is in near-constant motion. Laser scanners and computers direct the package in its motions through regional and hub package sorting centers. People working the night shift unload one truck and load another, rapid-fire, with the sorting done automatically by computer, and only a bare handful of people required to handle packages the computers can't sort.
By the time you get up the next morning, your package is halfway to you.
Automation has done most of the heavy lifting, there, but not all of it. I can remember how agonizing the wait was, the few times I ever mail ordered something.
An early episode of Simpsons made a joke about that, when Bart ordered a spy camera. "Where my spy camera? Where's my spy camera? Here's your stupid spy camera," the lady mail carrier yelled at Bart. That joke wouldn't make any sense today, would it?
This past week I ordered a chair--a chair!--and it was on my porch in a bit more than 24 hours. How is that not a miracle of technology?
* * *
The Wuhan Flu vaccine is causing miscarriages. There are currently a disproportionately high number of miscarriages being reported by pregnant women who got the shot.
One of the comments there makes the most sense to me: the shot is about getting people to comply. Have you noticed that the one thing that keeps coming up is "vaccine passport", over and over and over again?
And it keeps recurring despite massive general opposition to it. In Italy they had a huge protest over the imposition of them. It keeps happening, where the government says, "We're going to do this, for everyone's safety!" only the people get mad about it and they have to back down.
Think about how much control a government has over you if they get their serial number on you. Most of the time you're not going to notice the leash; but if they say, "People who do not do 'x' will lose their passports" then you must do "X" or else you'll be persona non grata.
People who don't get vaccinated.
People who don't get the booster shot.
People who don't get the implant for easy scanning.
People who don't get enough exercise.
People who use too much energy.
People who don't support the right causes.
People who say bad things about the government.
People who own guns.
People who eat meat.
People who don't vote.
--you see? Once they have established that you must have their "vaccine passport" in order to do anything, they can expand that power to control every single last thing you do. It won't be just your vaccination status.
I think that's why the goal for the US was 70% vaccinated by the beginning of July. The idea is to have as many people as possible in a position to shrug and say, "Well, I'm already vaccinated, so I might as well...." And it's why they're panicking over the fact that it is the young and the government-dependent who are the most resistant to getting the shot. That's their core constituency, the "easy win" for them.
This is why I say that once the government has their serial number on you, you're a slave. That is why I won't accept it.
* * *
#DefundFBI. I saw a story to the effect that one of the people involved in the "kidnap plot" was an FBI informant who has since been arrested for possession of a weapon the FBI gave him. This keeps him from being able to testify about what the FBI did to set up the kidnap attempt.
But it becomes increasingly obvious that this operation was nothing but pure entrapment. The civilians who are charged in this matter do not appear to have been the instigators of the plot, but merely targets selected by the FBI to be entrapped.
It's one thing for Bubba and JoeJimBob to plot to commit some kind of crime, and for Agent Smith and Agent Jones (both undercover) to aid and abet while gathering evidence. It is quite another for Agents Smith and Jones to make an effort to befriend Bubba and JoeJimBob first, and then convince them to commit that crime, and to supply the needed materiel for it.
If JoeJimBob and Bubba are discussing ways to kidnap the governor, and Smith and Jones join in--even if Smith says, "I know a guy who works on the security detail" and Jones says, "I can get you in and out of the building"--then it's a legit operation.
But if JoeJimBob and Bubba are on a message board talking about how much they hate the governor, and then Smith and Jones say, "Let's meet IRL and talk!" and then say, "We have this plan to kidnap the governor," and get Bubba and JoeJimBob to go along with it--that's entrapment.
At least, it used to be.
* * *
"The Justice Department may be delaying release of the bulk of the more than 14,000 hours of video surveillance from inside the Capitol on January 6 in an attempt to preserve Biden's "domestic terrorism" storyline of that day's events." "MAY"?
Two things.
First off, I understand why a news story would say "may" rather than "is", but when one is expressing an opinion--as I am here--then I think the word is better replaced with the phrase, "is, and for damned certain".
Second, regardless of what kind of post it is, I would not say "Biden's" but "Biden administration's". (If I were writing a news article, and trying to be nice. Opinion, "Biden regime" or even "Biden junta".) Biden has the cognizance of a container of year-old cottage cheese; he's not making any assertions that are not given to him by the mysterious "they" he keeps referring to.
And as an aside, it infuriates me when I think about the abuse that his handlers must be visiting upon that poor, old, confused man. I can just imagine him muffing something, and as soon as he's out of the public eye a handler lays into him, yelling at him about what he did wrong, and "Don't you ever say that again, you fucking idiot!"
Actually it doesn't even need to be that much. Just the drugs and the scheduling and the constant rehearsal for the next time he's up in front of the cameras--that alone would qualify as "elder abuse", I think.
Why they don't get a lookalike and front him--and quietly dispose of the real thing--is beyond me. But if Biden suddenly gets a lot better--well, that'd be a giveaway, wouldn't it?
Anyway, the thing is, the narrative the democrat-media complex has been trying to push on us over the Reichstag Insurrection has fallen flat. It's my feeling that the only people who believe it are the ones who actually voted for Biden in the last election. And if the people who were inside the Capitol building who got arrested for it have the book thrown at them--after similar left-wing protests were allowed to walk free, completely unmolested--it's not going to sit well with the majority of the country.
The DMC is acting like we can't remember the pussy-hat brigade and their invasion of the Capitol during the Kavanaugh hearings. Either that is also an "insurrection", or else what happened on Jan 6 was not.
They say that most of the trials for those people won't be until 2022 or 2023. In the meantime, they're in jail, without bail, without regular access to counsel, without time outdoors or even outside their 7x10 cells--in awful conditions. And in the case of the first trial, he got eight more months in jail for the crime of "obstructing an official proceeding" So they're de facto getting what, 1-2-3 years in jail for...trespassing?
What they are in fact is political prisoners. They've been sent to the Gulag. For being inside the Capitol uninvited, and taking selfies. Because the Gangster Party needs enemies.
And the video evidence, if released, will make plain the fact that this so-called "insurrection" was anything but.
* * *
So, I used to read this webcomic called "Real Life Comics". The guy who drew them based all the characters on people he knew, and frequently mixed events from his life into the stories, hence the name.
Then he stopped drawing it, and a while after that I stopped checking for updates.
Anyway, last night I--being bored--looked at some of the stagnant links and was (at least at first) pleased to find that the story had resumed, though there was a new character in place of the main one and it looked like his wife was in a lesbian relationship or something. I wasn't really sure at first; but as I clicked back to read the prior few strips so I could understand why the new main character was having an operation, I twigged to what was really going on.
It wasn't a new main character. It was the same person, only "he" was now a "she", because in real life the creator of the strip himself had decided "he" was a "she". And the operation in question? "Orchidectomy"--having his testicles removed.
Me: *sigh*
This is the second time I've been following a webcomic (however haphazardly) and the creator had some major epiphany. The first time was "Ghastly's Webcomic", and what happened there was that Ghastly decided he was bisexual, which (naturally) ruined his marriage and so forth because he started hanging out in gay bars. And men--even bisexual men--do not hang out in gay bars just to have a few drinks and socialize with like-minded fellows before going home to be with his wife.
I stopped reading. In both cases.
The thing is, "Ghastly" had a ton of homosexual jokes in it, long before his decision; there were just more of them after. His accompanying blog reported that his gay friends were surprised when he came out, but his heterosexual friends were not; and I wasn't either, given the subject matter in his comic. Gay jokes don't bother me, which is one reason I keep reading "Oglaf" even though his presentation of human sexuality is a bit...overdone...in many cases.
In the case of "Real Life", though, his wife seems to be supportive (though the first couple of strips after he came out to her were about her being put into the psych ward due to an extreme "panic attack") and he's free to do whatever he wants. I just have to wonder whether he's actually going to go all the way and have the complete conversion job done, or if he's going to stop with just taking hormones and having his balls cut off. After all, what can he do for his wife after all the dangly bits are gone? Would she be happy letting her fingers do the walking? For the rest of her life?
I tracked back in the extant strips to find out where all this stuff began, and it turned out to be a three-week dream sequence where he talked to his (obviously female) id, and then woke up with a new attitude. I didn't bother reading the dream sequence, either.
Look: I don't care what the guy does to himself. I really don't; it's his problem. If he thinks that the solution is to have his body chemically and surgically mutilated to better fit his internal image of himself, I'm the last person who'd stand in his way, regardless of my personal opinions on the matter.
But I refuse to read about it.
* * *
I know there are people out there who'd resort to telling me, "You don't want to read about it because you're afraid you'll start to see him as a human being!" But that's not the issue. I already see him as a human being. What else do those people think I'm seeing him as? A horse? A dog? I have more empathy in my right hand than most leftists have in their entire bodies. (At least, judging by what they say should happen to right-wingers.) That's why I object to all this "transsexual" stuff.
I don't think it helps people to have their bodies carved up, no matter how well-meaning the doctors and surgeons are. The simple fact of the 40% suicide rate among the fully transitioned is enough to demonstrate why. They get to the "other side", discover they are still not happy...but there's no going back and there's nothing else to be done.
I think a good yardstick for surgery is to ask if you'd do it to someone against his will for his own good. Okay, I had a broken finger that required surgery to fix. If I hadn't had the surgery, my finger would have healed wrong and I wouldn't have good range of motion or anything. It was to my benefit to have the surgery, so even if I'd been a total lunatic and hadn't wanted it, someone doing it to me against my will would have been coming from the right place ethically.
But cutting off someone's testicles or breasts against their will? Not cosmetic surgery, to correct this or that issue, but complete removal of healthy tissue? That's pure mutilation. The fact that the patient is asking for it does not make it okay.
* * *
And anyone who brings up the spaying and neutering of pets, you can just leave the room; adults are talking. Animals are not people.
* * *
Anyway, today is Saturday, and it's hot outside. At some point my wife and I need to hit the laundromat, so when I hit the store I made sure to get a couple of fives to feed into the quarter machine. (As mentioned previously.)
I saw a video on YootsTubs by this guy who bought a Suzuki Carry 4x4. Mid-80s, it was mostly restored as a "covid project", only they stalled on getting it to run right. Guy paid $7k for it, but it's had a complete restoration (of the body, anyway) so it looks pristine.
Turned out that the thing had a few vacuum leaks and the throttle cable was too tight, which is why it would either idle at 3K RPM, or not at all. Having fixed that it idles smoothly.
I don't know that I'd pay $7k for one, but damn do I want one.
The vehicle had some other fuckery with it, such as the fact that its water pump leaks like a seive and they left pure water in the radiator, which cracked it, and some other miscellany.
The really neat thing was seeing how little it flexed. There were a couple shots where he was driving it over little hills, and this or that tire would be left in the air. The Carry has insanely high approach and departure angles, and because the drivetrain is mostly tucked between the frame rails (but for live axles at both ends) it's got a lot of ground clearance, particularly in the middle of the thing.
Still--when I think about what a side-by-side ATV buggy costs, this wouldn't be a bad investment. I'd prefer one that could be licensed to run on the road, but having that, it means you have a cab to keep the weather off you. And while you wouldn't want to take one on the freeway (I think they have a top speed of maybe 60 MPH) it'd sure be fun to drive around town.
Oh well.
* * *
Speaking of 4x4s, though, the Jeep's right front has started making squeaking sounds when I'm turning. It hasn't been that long since Og replaced the u-joint for me. What the hell?
* * *
My wife is taking a nap, and I have no idea why I am not.