Month: October 2022

Guest Contributor – NostraDumbass – 12OCT2022 – How We Got Here

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The pendulum “snapped” when the supreme court ruled it was okay to discriminate on race or sex as long as the only ones being discriminated against were caucasian males. They called it “Affirmative Action”. Jimmy Carter showed me how it works when I was enlisted in the army, where women and minorities were promoted at the first eligibility window and caucasian males were made to wait until the end of eligibility window. Not based on performance, simply based on sex or race.

We now have sexual preference and a whole host of people with mental issues clamoring for the same “Affirmative Action”.

The pendulum increased it’s freefall speed when ambulance chasers were allowed to advertise their prowess on television and radio. “Dan Newlin got me $650,00 dollars! Thank you, Dan”.

So now everything is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Right or wrong doesn’t matter, as long as the ones that get rich off this are the shysters.

What is slowing the pendulum freefall down a bit is that the “victims” are so numerous that they fight over the pecking order of who should be compensated rewarded first. Like children, they would rather no one get anything if they don’t get theirs first.

Crime is a Problem.  Who Knew!?

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I was reading an article that Salena Zito wrote on the out-of-control crime in Philadelphia.  And I came across this information,

“A new Morning Consult-Politico poll released late last week shows over three-quarters of voters said violent crime is a major problem in the United States, with only 17% of respondents calling crime a minor problem and only 2% saying it was not a problem at all.”

Well, who’da thunk it?  I can remember just a few weeks ago the polls showed that crime was a much lower priority than inflation but magically now it’s grown.  And yet the people living in the cities where crime has become a daily ordeal will still vote overwhelmingly for Democrats and especially progressives who release criminals almost as soon as they’re caught.  In fact Philadelphia recently re-elected the Soros-backed district attorney that has turned their criminal justice system into a revolving door.

Maybe the pollsters are starting to let the cat out of the bag.  Or maybe things just keep getting worse and even the progressives living in these cities are starting to panic.  Well, I’m beyond caring whether the urban dwellers will come to their senses.  But I am interested to see if reality will have any effect on the Mid-Terms.  Nevada, Georgia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania all have tight senate and state house races.  They also have big cities that are filled with rampant crime.  It stands to reason that if these races go to Democrats, even in conditions like we have today then there is no point at which the Republicans will be able to win them back.

And that’s an important thing to know.  Cause and effect are the names we give to what we use to analyze the world around us.  When someone pulls the trigger on a gun and someone falls bleeding to the ground with a hole in his chest, we see a cause-and-effect relationship.

If we see the country falling apart, we expect to see Americans vote against the people responsible for this failure.  If we don’t see that response then we have to assume that either the people like what’s happening or voting is, for whatever reason, no longer a measure of the people’s will.

And whereas there is a difference between these two distinct reasons, the result is still the same.  And it is that result that interests me.  As I’ve stated incessantly, I’m looking for clarity.  I’m looking for the answer to the question, “Can we vote our way out of this?”

And everything I see about this election seems to confirm that this is the perfect test case.  There are just so many things going wrong at once that there’s no conceivable way to paint this situation as a coin toss.  There can’t be a starker contrast between what the two sides stand for and what results each side produce.

From the same article I read,

“As one mother in Center City pointed out, President Joe Biden was in Philadelphia one month ago and never once mentioned the violence ripping her city apart. “Which is funny,” she said, “because he said he was giving a speech on the battle for the soul of the nation. Has he looked around at the soul of this city?”

Not once in Biden’s 3,000-word speech did he say the word “crime” or “homicide” or “gangs.” He did, however, identify what he said “was happening in our country today that is not normal” — MAGA Republicans, who he said “represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic” and are “a threat to this country.”  Biden added that Republicans “do not believe in the rule of law.””

Joe Biden accusing Republicans of disbelief in the rule of law is so Orwellian that it almost makes me laugh.  That is until I remember that even if Joe Biden didn’t legitimately win the 2020 election, he still must have gotten close to 50% of the electorate voting for him anyway.  That means that almost half of Americans are either too stupid or too corrupt to reject a malevolent, cretinous liar like Joe Biden.  That is no laughing matter.

So, another data point.  Americans know that crime is out of control.  Will this influence the elections?  Stay tuned in less than four weeks for the answer.

How Far Out There is Out There?

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Have you ever wondered how far away is the farthest visible galaxy?  Or what is the heaviest balck hole so far observed>  How about what is the fastest orbital speed of an object revolving around another stellar object?

Being a life-long nerd I enjoy nothing better than to see the latest high-end astrophotography and reading the highest exponential distances, masses and speeds tacked onto these images.

Well Astronomy Magazine has an article called “The most extreme celestial objects in the universe.” that answers some of those questions with lots of beautiful and intriguing astro-photos and other visuals.

Well, sometimes we have to step back from politics and smell the roses or gawk at the latest eye-candy taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).  After all this is Orion’s Cold Fire.

 

 

 

The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938) – An OCF Classic Movie Review

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I think the chief interest in this movie is that it comes across as a light-hearted crime drama.  In a real sense I think it could be considered a comedy.

(Spoiler Alert – Skip down to last paragraph to avoid spoilers and read recommendation)

Edward G. Robinson is the eponymous Clitterhouse, a surgeon with a keen and inquiring scientific mind.  When we first meet him in the opening scene, he is in a darkened bedroom rifling through a wall safe.  Just then a burglar enters through the second story window.  Clitterhouse trains a strong flashlight on the burglar and convinces him that he’s being covered by a gun.  He gets the burglar to stand facing the wall with his hands up.  Just then a second burglar who’s on the ladder looks in.  It’s Bogart playing Rocks Valentine (some name, huh).  He sees the situation and heads back down the ladder to escape.

Clitterhouse leaves the burglar in the bedroom and reenters a society party that’s going on downstairs.  A coloratura soprano is singing an aria.  Clitterhouse accepts a brandy from a butler, calls one of his associates about a patient he is treating and then calls the police and an ambulance just as a woman screams from upstairs and someone in the house shoots the burglar as he attempts to exit the house.  Clitterhouse treats the wounded burglar but he is recognized by his voice.  But Police Inspector Lane played by Donald Crisp laughingly allows Clitterhouse to be on his way to a surgical appointment without even inspecting Clitterhouse’s medical bag filled with the pilfered jewels.

Thus, the scene is set.  Clitterhouse is engaged in research on the physiological aspects of crime.  For this experiment he has committed four burglaries.  Now to expand his research he is reaching out to a jewelry fence, Jo Keller (played by Claire Trevor) and a gang of burglars headed by Rocks that includes such familiar character actors as Ward Bond, Vladimir Sokoloff and Burt Hanlon.  Clitterhouse identifies the victims and meticulously plans the heist.  The gang and Keller provide the manpower and the connections to perform the thefts and sell the loot.

In the final crime, a theft of furs from a warehouse, Rocks tries to double-cross Clitterhouse by locking him in the refrigerated vault.  But one of Keller’s men saves him.  At this point Clitterhouse has completed his research.  He has taken blood samples, blood pressure and other diagnostic tests on the gang members and now he wants to end his association with the underworld.  But Rocks figures out Clitterhouse’s true identity and tells the doctor that he will be forced to continue his criminal activities indefinitely.

Clitterhouse seems outwardly to agree to Rocks’ ultimatum but actually he doctors Rocks’ drink with a deadly dose of a drug.  Rocks falls asleep and then Clitterhouse and Keller dump the body in the river.  Eventually the police discover Clitterhouse’s guilt in Rocks’ murder and he goes on trial for murder.  His lawyer uses an insanity defense.  The prosecution gets Clitterhouse to testify against himself by stating that his scientific study is completely accurate and therefore the work of a sane man.  But the jury finds him insane based on the idea that only a madman would knowingly admit his sanity when he knows it would cause his own death.

Despite the fact that Clitterhouse murders Rocks in cold blood I see this movie as a comedy.  Throughout the story the atmosphere of the whole thing is light-hearted and I find it impossible to take any of it seriously.  There are a number of silly moments when the various gang members come off more as clowns than criminals.  The only menacing character is Bogart’s Rocks.  And as we see he is no match for Robinson’s genteel madman.  So, what can I make of a whimsical film noir?  Well, not too much.  It’s not a great movie but it is amusing in its own way.  I’ll recommend it to fans of the 1930s.  If we need a serious movie with Bogart and Robinson we’ll have to wait for their rematch in Key Largo