Month: February 2020

Recommended On-Line Article – “Abolish CIA & FISA” by Angelo Codevilla

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Claremont Institute’s on-line magazine American Mind has had several good articles in the last few months.  I am always interested in Angelo Codevilla’s thoughts.  In this article he argues that the dangers we face from the unfettered power that the spymasters wield is already destroying the integrity of our government.  For generations the FBI and CIA have used their power to topple foreign governments and in two cases have aimed at overthrowing a United States president, once successfully and once unsuccessfully.

This mirrors my thoughts in the recent post I wrote.  It really needs to be the Supreme Court that strikes down the FISA Courts and the President must remove the most dangerous individuals in these agencies and replace them with law abiding civil servants.  And, as I stressed before, the worst offenders need to be prosecuted and punished severely.

Who will Call the Shots for the Democrats?

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I know I said that I’m assuming that President Trump’s re-election is a foregone conclusion and the results of the Democrat primary are of no consequence, but the hilarity of their demolition derby is just too wonderful to ignore.  I must opine.

The outcome of the first two state elections for the Democrat Presidential Primary have been disastrous for Joe Biden.  He was fourth in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire.  Now granted those states are practically bereft of minority voters who are Joe’s major constituency but to not even come in the top three is highly troubling to the bag men who are supplying Joe’s campaign with the millions of dollars needed to keep the No Malarkey! Reality Bus Tour plodding along on the highways and byways of this great land.  It’s probably a good bet that they are already in contact with the Buttigieg and Klobuchar campaigns figuring out how to siphon off funds from Joe and funnel them to the current flavors of the month.

There are already voices in the media calling for Joe to suspend his campaign.  They fear that if he remains in the race, he’ll prevent the moderate candidate from knocking off Bernie.  You see, the less crazy but more corrupt Dems are afraid that the more crazy but less corrupt Bernie Bros will get their candidate nominated.  And those less crazies know that Bernie is unelectable.  So even though they must be careful to hide their actions and intentions, they will do anything they can to stop Bernie from accruing the number of delegates needed to win the nomination outright.  As long as that is prevented, they can always rig the convention to get their preferred candidate nominated.

But so far, Joe says he’s committed to going forward.  His hope is that Nevada and South Carolina will give him the wins he needs to re-establish himself as the front runner.  And I really do hope he does stay in.  If he manages to siphon off just enough votes to allow Bernie to edge out Butt Pete this contest can go on and on.  And once Bloomberg enters the fray things will get even more confused.  Bloomberg will pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the race and tempt the establishment with dreams of their own Trump who can rule by fiat and pay for his programs himself.  How wonderfully unsettled it all seems to be.

But which way will it all go?  I think Bernie will once again fail to secure an outright delegate win.  I think they’ll give the nomination to Petey Boy.  And I think they’ll make Klobuchar or Kamala Harris his running mate.  How exciting is that?

Okay, so I made all this up just now.  But tomorrow all these sandcastles could be washed away.  Suppose Biden gets a crushing win in South Carolina.  Suddenly he’s riding high again.  Or suppose Klobuchar beats Buttigieg in both Nevada and South Carolina.  Now we must flip the order on the ticket with Amy on top.  Or suppose Bernie takes Nevada and Joe comes in second.  All these possibilities scramble the logic of who will end up as Dem nominee.

And all of this is driving the Democrat voters and leaders into fits.  They’re scared of not knowing who the nominee will be and they’re scared that all the choices are bad.  The fear and uncertainty are just great.  What a wonderful time to be a conservative.

So not that it should matter who they pick, because they’re still going to lose.  But knowing that they’re in agony just makes it so much better.

New Hampshire Primary

photog Current Events

So Bernie and Butt Pete are neck and neck and Klobuchar is a respectable third.  Warren looks finished but claims she’ll fight on.  Hah!

Joe is in fifth with 8%.  You’d think he would be finished but his (currently) high polling numbers with African Americans will force him to hang on until South Carolina votes soon.  But if he doesn’t win there he’s done.  If Warren drops out that will benefit Bernie.  But Joe dropping out benefits Klobuchar in her competition with Butt Pete.  She would be the more dangerous candidate in the General Election but we’ll have to see if she can outlast Butt Pete.

My gosh these people are pathetic.

FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS Super Telephoto Zoom Lens compared to various A mount and FE lenses

photog Photography, Photography Reviews

I rented the Sony 200 – 600 mm zoom for an upcoming bald eagle photographic trip.  I put it next to some of my other lenses for a size comparison.  Darn thing weighs almost 5 pounds so it’ll have to be a monopod for me because the trip will be pretty long.  Look how small the FE 35mm f\2.8 looks.  I’m interested in this lens but I’m hoping it’s sharp enough to warrant the $2,000 price tag.

Reclaiming the Family – Part 5 – Reinvent the Matchmaker – First Thoughts

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Two things are true about this particular item.  The first thing is I’m sure this is one of the most important aspects of trying to bring back family life.  The second thing I’m sure of is that I know almost nothing about how this would work.  I know almost nothing about women or dating or anything else having to do with human mating rituals.  I met Camera Girl by complete accident when we were both seventeen-year-old kids each separately skipping out on our separate schools and meeting at one of the most anonymous places in a city as large as New York.  It was at least a billion to one shot so no one should ever take relationship advice from me.

But I do know that kids these days and especially kids from whom their parents hope someday to receive grandchildren need a better way to find mates.  Sure, there are places like match.com and the like but this doesn’t seem to be getting the job done.  What is needed is some kind of sponsorship of social activities where the participants are vouched for by their families.  In other words, you want to keep the freaks out but still have a place for young people to meet.  Now this used to be taken care of by high schools and other teen age membership institutions.  But because college is the place where normalcy goes to die and because women now postpone marriage and childbearing until their mid-thirties, we’re in the place we’re in.  So, to my mind a new arrangement has to be formulated.  And the only ones who have the talent, the inclination and the opportunity are the mothers.  This brings to mind the scenes in Fiddler on the Roof where Tevye’s wife is trying to arrange a marriage for her oldest daughter through the village matchmaker and picks a terrible husband that luckily is sidetracked by a subterfuge by Tevye.  And of course, living in these liberated times no one is going to allow his parents to pick a wife for him and vice versa but setting up opportunities for young people to meet likely partners makes perfect sense.  I will have to consult with my daughters to see if this is an at all reasonable idea.  They both have children who one day (and in some cases soon) will be marriageable.  I am interested to know if they’ve thought of helping along the process by some discrete manipulations.

But one thing that would increase the chances for more women to find husbands is for them to look outside of the college pool.  A young woman right out of high school could do much worse than finding a young man in one of the trades, an electrician or a welder and setting up a home instead of wasting four or more of her most valuable years sitting around a college quadrangle watching the soy boys playing frisbee.

I really have to do more practical research on this and this is just an introductory post.  I am especially interested in getting the mother’s point of view on the practicality of trying to influence the courtship decisions of today’s youth.  But I’m convinced that this topic is of extreme importance in trying to somehow revive the traditional family from inside the modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah that we find ourselves trapped in.  Stay tuned for more on this.

Brad Paisley – A Country Music Review

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Paisley’s been around since 1998 and has had a long string of hits.  He is a favorite of concert goers.  I like his comical songs best.  Among the best are:

  • I’m Gonna Miss Her
  • Alcohol
  • Ticks
  • I’m Still a Guy
  • Online
  • Crushin’ It
  • Celebrity

And as a husband I think of “I’m Gonna Miss Her” as a masculine anthem.

 

But Brad has other types of songs.  He can write a love song or a serious or a sad song and some of them are pretty good like:

  • This Is Country Music
  • A Man Don’t Have to Die
  • Toothbrush
  • Waitin’ On a Woman

All in all he’ got a lot of good music.  Of late I think he’s had a falling off.  But his earlier hits are solid and I still enjoy them, especially the comical ones.

And, of course, he gets extra points for his relationship with Bill Shatner.