In North Carolina, Protestors Blocking Traffic Now Have The Same Legal Status As Deer

From Anonymous Conservative.

This is a shift in the zeitgeist I couldn’t have predicted just a few years ago. There’s been a definite “us vs. them” shift in our collective consciousness. I don’t think either side views the other as fully human.

When I watch videos of protestors being hit by cars they were blocking, I don’t feel a sense of horror or anything. I don’t know if I should. I imagine events of late have desensitized me to it.

But I also want to ask them “Didn’t your mothers teach you not to play in traffic?” Then I realize, one of the hallmarks of rabbits is low investment parenting. So, obviously not.

Leftists also can’t seem to connect concepts properly in their minds. None of their protests seem to have anything to do with what they’re protesting about. “I’m pissed off! Let’s burn down our neighborhood!” It makes no sense to me, except through the r/K theory Anonymous Conservative has so brilliantly applied to politics. (r/K has been around for a long time, but AC is the one who took it and ran with it.)

What the hell does stopping traffic have to do with not approving of Donald Trump? I can’t connect it in my mind, but it makes sense to them somehow I guess. And it’s not that I go looking for those videos, but they show up everywhere. I don’t look at pictures of abortions at all. I don’t believe I need to; my mind is already made up that this is a horrific event.

I suppose it makes sense to desensitize yourself to horrific things. If we have an economic collapse or civil war or some other kind of meltdown, we’ll all be surrounded by horrific scenes every day, and we may have to make some very hard choices. And it will probably pay to not become overwhelmed by it all. Think about it; you’re trying to survive, and starving people are begging you for food. If you share, you might not survive. Your family definitely won’t. You have to say no, and be prepared to defend them and your supplies. Can you make those hard choices? I don’t even know if I could.

Android Central: The 5 Worst Things About The Galaxy S8

I have a love/hate relationship with Android. I like to skip around between the various phone platforms so I can maintain knowledge of them. But, Windows Phone is effectively dead, since nobody makes or maintains apps for it and Microsoft just can’t commit to a consumer strategy, and Apple isn’t impressing me lately. All they seem to care about anymore are iMessages and cameras. And jacking up the price point.

My last phone was the Note 5. At one point, I swore it would be my last Android phone. I found it to be buggy and unreliable, but it never blew up, so it had that going for it. The battery life was terrible. My first phone had to be replaced by warranty because the battery would be dead in 3 hours even if I shut everything down and didn’t touch the phone. My replacement didn’t do much better.

Two factors have me locked into Android, and specifically Samsung. Those are:

  1. Lastpass integration
  2. Samsung Pay

We all have so many damned logins and passwords it is impossible to keep track of them all. Everything requires an account. Everything. I have Lastpass pro, which costs $12 a year. On every other device, every time I have to log into an application or website, I have to bring up Lastpass, check my username, copy my password, switch back to the app or website, and paste the password in. On Android (when it works), I just authenticate to Lastpass with my fingerprint and it fills the details in for me. This simplifies life.

I didn’t care much about the mobile payment apps before. Most features the tech companies roll out seem to only matter to people who live in San Francisco or New York. Not so much northern Virginia. I used ApplePay once at Wegman’s when they were running a beta test. Then I found out Samsung pay used a technology called MST, which induces a magnetic field into the credit card reader and works with almost all of them (except gas pumps). So I started using my phone to pay for everything, which is a hell of a lot easier than pulling my wallet out, getting my check card out of its sleeve, swiping, and trying to fit it back into the sleeve. And for now, paying with my phone still blows people’s minds, which is kind of cool.

When it came time to decide what to do about the frustrating and unreliable Note 5, I had a few things to consider. Get an iPhone 6s+ or 7? Wait for the S8? Or get the S7 Edge?

About a month prior to the S8’s release, Samsung started selling the S7 Edge for $200 off to eliminate inventory. I decided to just buy it from them, and did. The S7 Edge had been out for a year and had a proven track record. People I know love them. So I got one.

And when I read things like this, I’m glad I did. I haven’t really heard anything good about the S8. Sure, it’s all pretty and stuff, but like most technology, it’s going backwards. They make a nice design and add a few new features (most of which are pointless), but other than a slightly newer processor, there’s nothing earth-shattering.

The video describes Bixby as a 2012 era Google Now. I’ve never had much use for Google Now. I guess it’s good if you live in San Francisco, take public transportation, care about sports, and can afford to eat at expensive, reservation requiring restaurants.

It supposedly has some feature (powered by Pinterest!) where you can use the camera to get it to show you images similar to what you’re looking at. But it doesn’t look that useful. This is another case of technology going backwards. Back in 2014, I had a Nokia 920. It came with an augmented reality app that was very useful. I don’t remember what it was called, but you could take the phone out, power it up, and scan around. Through the camera, it would give you information about your surroundings, and what was behind them with clickable links that opened in the appropriate app. I haven’t come across anything like it since. I’ve had Google Goggles on my last two phones, and it’s nowhere near as useful as that app on the Nokia 920 was three years ago.

The fingerprint scanner on the back of the phone looks like a serious pain in the ass. I’m fine with scanning my thumb on the front of the phone. It’s convenient, and I don’t have to turn the phone over to do it.

Another backwards feature: say you invite me over. You text me your address. 3 years ago, on the Nokia 920, I could click the address, it would ask me which app to open it in, and I could select Waze. Now, it automatically opens in Google Maps. So I have to manually copy the address, open Waze, and paste it in there so I can navigate over (Google Maps sucks for navigation, and it doesn’t show you where the cops are.)

I’d love to see technology start moving forward again. I’d love to see some truly revolutionary stuff. New ways of rendering the Human/Computer Interface. Augmented reality. But it seems like all we’re getting right now are dual cameras and messaging platforms. And mindless games.

Speaking of which, does anybody remember ICQ from the late 90’s? We had all these IM platforms like AIM, Yahoo, etc., and ICQ tied them all together into a single application. We don’t have that now. iMessages is about the closest thing I’m aware of, but it only works on a complete Apple platform. I’d love to be able to text from my computer and pick the conversation up on my phone, whether I’m using SMS, Signal, Telegram, or whatever.

Has Microsoft Learned Nothing From Windows RT?

Remember the launch of the Microsoft Surface in 2012? They can in two versions: the Surface RT and the Surface Pro. The Surface Pro ran a full version of Windows 8.

The Surface RT ran a version of Windows 8 that was designed for an ARM processor, and could only run apps from the Windows Store.

The Surface 2 was the last RT version. The Surface 3 ran a full version of Windows. Why? The RT wasn’t selling well, because of its tie-in to the Windows Store.

There has never been a point in time when the Windows Store didn’t suck. There are a few good apps on there like Wunderlist and Evernote, but for the most part, nobody supports Windows apps. Facebook recently pulled their app (I didn’t know it had lasted that long, but recently saw somebody complaining about it on Facebook).

Now, Microsoft is back with Windows S. It sounds great on the surface. It’s stripped down and agile. Sounds cool, right? What could go wrong?

From Microsoft’s own site:

Microsoft-verified security

Your applications are delivered via the Windows Store ensuring Microsoft-verified security and integrity. Microsoft Edge is your default browser since it’s more secure than Chrome or Firefox.1Windows Defender and all ongoing security features of Windows 10 are included.

Yep, it will once again, only run apps from the Windows Store. The same Windows Store that Microsoft just can’t encourage ANYBODY to develop for, or maintain apps they dip their feet in the water with.

Not that you need a lot of apps. Early in the days of app stores, most of us were constantly downloading and trying out new ones. For the most part, we’ve figured out what works for us, and since all they’re doing anymore are messaging apps, there’s no point in looking for new ones, unless you like mindless games.

I don’t mind Edge. I have a cheap, Windows 10 tablet that I got to play with. I only use Edge on it. Since they came out with extensions for Edge, I have the functionality I need (Lastpass, Pocket, etc). Internet Explorer 11 sucked balls. It still sucks balls. I have to use it at work, although I finally got Firefox installed on my work computer, so I only use IE for work related sites. Edge isn’t bad. I still use Chrome on my Mac because Safari sucks and Brave isn’t close to prime time yet.

I’ve seen a few headlines that if you buy one of those new Surface laptops, you can get a free upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. You probably should. The Windows Store is about useless.

Are You So Stupid That You Need An App To Keep You From Screwing With Your Phone While Driving?

Samsung is going to release a new app for idiots who can’t just pull the damn car over to check a text. Or wait until they’re stopped.

Samsung Netherlands has created a new app called In-Traffic Reply which is going to help drivers keep their attention on the road and not on their phones. Using your phone while you’re behind the wheel can be very dangerous. You might think that it’ll only take a few seconds to check that message or read what your friend just tweeted, but those few seconds can quickly prove to be fatal if you take your eyes off the road.

PanelWizard conducted a survey which found that one-third of the road users in the Netherlands have used their smartphone behind the wheel. In most situations, they felt social pressure to answer calls and reply to messages immediately. Samsung wants to bring down this statistic.

And it’s fine that this exists, and people want to download it and use it. I’m sure that’ll make us all safer. I don’t know what to make of people who lack both the common sense and discipline not to use their phones when driving. And I don’t want to live in a world where an app like this is mandatory.

I’m not saying I never use mine, but I have a few rules. First, since my truck doesn’t have a fancy BlueTooth system, I got a Go Groove BlueGate CTR. This thing is great. It’s a BlueTooth receiver with a microphone. It plugs into my aux port. I have the receiver mounted on my dashboard near my steering wheel. If I get a call, I just press the button and I can talk to the caller. I ignore most calls though unless it’s my wife or somebody from work. Otherwise, that’s why God gave me Google Voice. My Go Groove also has buttons for forward and back, so I can skip commercials on a podcast or skip to the next song. I never listen to the radio. Only content on my phone.

Second, I keep my phone on a windshield mount. It’s right there in my field of vision. I use Waze most of the time when I’m driving. I can see what’s ahead of me, and send reports for cops and hazards.

Third, other than minor interaction with Waze, I do not touch my freaking phone at highway speeds. I have never gotten a text or Facebook comment that was worth my life. Even if I got a notification that @realdonaldtrump followed me on Twitter, I’d wait until I’m stopped to make sure it’s not a joke.

OK, if traffic is below about 20 MPH, maybe I’ll clear notifications, but I don’t read anything unless I’m at a complete stop. And with my phone in the windshield mount, I know when the light turns green or when traffic is moving. Here in Northern Virginia, traffic gets so bad, I’ve read books in my Kindle app while sitting on the highway, not moving.

If you get a notification that you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO READ RIGHT THE HELL NOW!, you won’t hit a SINGLE traffic light. It’s the best condition to be in. As soon as you check it, they’re all going to turn red, and you’ll hit every last one.

This goes back to something I said all the time several years ago when I read blog posts about families going to extremes, like burying their phones in the yard during dinner so nobody used them. Do you own your phone, or does your phone own you? Who is the boss? In my case, if I don’t want my phone bothering me, I’ll shut it off or put it in Do Not Disturb.

I’ve never understood why other people have so much trouble with that.

United’s Customer Service

I’ve been hearing about the United incident over the last couple of days. The details I got came in slowly, until I finally had enough of a picture to come to a conclusion.

I’ll leave the actual analysis to Davis Aurini. He did a great job.

There’s the “way the world ought to be”, and the world we actually live in. We’ll never get to the way the world ought to be, and most of us have different definitions of what it should be. My ideal world involves no commercials, and violent beatings for people who drive too slow, and are screwing with their phones when the light turns green. I doubt I’d ever get that approved on a ballot, and even if we did vote on it, some court would overturn it.

Another focus of my ideal world is, the hospitality industry would have to charge the same price to everybody. Sure, they can factor in the market. But they won’t be selling one plane ticket to somebody for $1000, and the person sitting next to them gets to buy a ticket for $100.

(A great meme I saw yesterday goes “United: we put the hospital in hospitality!”)

For the most part, we do not have the rights we think we do. Apparently, if a cop pulls you over for speeding, you are legally and constitutionally correct by refusing to provide your license and registration under the 5th amendment, because the information you provide can and will be used against you in a court of law. But go ahead and give it a try. Let me know in the comments how well it worked for you.

In real life, the cop will probably yank you out of your car and charge you with some form of obstruction. You’ll be dragged to jail. Sure, if you can afford a lawyer, and all the money and time, you’ll probably win the lawsuit. But do you really have the money for that? Better to just hand the documents over, be polite and cooperative, and hope the officer lets you off with a warning for being so nice. (It actually has worked for me a couple of times. One cop was so surprised I didn’t try to bullshit him that he got a blank stare for a few seconds).

Besides, do you honestly believe you can come up with an excuse the cop hasn’t heard? Everybody lies to him. Everybody has to take a leak. The cop knows you just passed a rest stop. Everybody yells at him “You work for me, asshole! Aren’t there pedophiles and Wall Street Bankers you should be going after? I’m just trying to get to work!” They hear that from everybody; what makes you think YOU can actually pull it off?

Same thing at the airport. The TSA screeners don’t give a shit that I’m a veteran. There’s no sense in bringing it up. I just do what I have to do to get through screening and not do anything to make myself memorable to them. They don’t want to hear about radiation from the naked body scanners. They always examine my laptop like it’s an alien artifact even though they encounter thousands of them a day; they probably don’t know what radiation is.

So with the United thing, we ended up with a very bad confluence of several factors that boiled over. Everybody was right and everybody was wrong, and nobody won. Maybe United won, at least in this round. But the hit to their PR will last forever. “Fly United and get your ass beat!” I’m sure people will be saying that for a while. But all airlines suck. Name one that doesn’t.

Also, don’t count on the r selected animals around you to do anything to help you. They’ll be glad to take out their phones and record the whole thing, then post it on Twitter. But they don’t give any more of a crap about you than United does.

United overbooked, as they always do. Except this time, they ran out of no-shows. Then they had to transport some mechanics to the next airport at the last minute, so they had to kick people off the plane. Of the four, three took the vouchers. Hell, Louisville isn’t that far from Chicago. For $800, I’d rent a luxury car and drive it. This Doctor Dao said he had to be at his next destination. But why would United care? Everybody has to be at their next destination. He won the anti-lottery; get off my plane. (There are reports that Dr. Dao is into some serious deviancy, but I don’t see how any of it is relevant to his ass beating by United and the cops they called in).

If it happens to you, the best thing you can do is roll with it. Take what they’re offering. Milk them for all you can get: money, hotel, rental car, whatever. Don’t fly on a tight deadline. Better yet, don’t fly. The airlines hate you and want to ruin your personal life. I only fly for work, when they’re paying for it and have no choice but to live with schedule delays. And I always fly first thing in the morning the day before, to allow for delays. Or to get checked into my hotel early and relax, or go out and get the lay of the land.

Looking at it again, I think the only winners in this United scuffle were the people that weren’t involved. And our prize is memes. Here are a couple I came across:

Friendly Fire?

There appears to be a war between two factions I support.

This morning, President Trump posted a tweet critical of the House Freedom Caucus:

Breitbart posted an article about it this afternoon, quoting my Congressman, Dave Brat, a member of the caucus.

“I don’t know who has his ear,” said Brat, who is a member of the House Freedom Caucus and was part of the HFC team negotiating with the White House and the House Republican leadership to amend the Ryancare bill.

“I don’t think he is hearing that we are trying to serve him a victory–right?–Right now, this bill is at 17 percent in the polls, and that’s not a winner.”

The RyanCare bill sucked. Not as bad as the Unafforable Care Act (Obamessiah Care), but not much better. Would you rather pay $10,000 in taxes, or $9500? It still sucks.

I had Rob Andrews as a Congressman when I lived in the People’s Republic of New Jersey. Dave Brat is refreshing. This is my first real disappointment with President Trump. I don’t expect the man to be perfect, obviously. I hope he’s playing a long game, but I’m with Dave Brat and the House Freedom Caucus on this one.

One last comment: do liberals have no memory? When President Trump repealed The Obamessiah’s EPA regulations, they act like we’re all going to die. Were we all choking on our atmosphere 8 years ago? No, but it was a little easier to start a small business, cars were cheaper, and we could buy mid-sized and small trucks, and diesel Volkswagens. Most of those are gone.

Was everybody freaking stupid before the Department of Education came into being during the Carter administration? Oh, NOBODY ever had an EDUCATION before that?

Liberals have no historical memory.

Thanks To Matt Forney for Promoting Me

Matt Forney has offered to promote friend and allies on his YouTube Channel and other social media outlets. I took advantage of his offer, and he promoted some of my work:

I first came across Matt from his book “Three Years of Hate“, a collection of a blog he published anonymously called “In Mala Fide”. He wrote it when he was fresh out of college, and the writing is very well done.

I’ve been following him ever since, and have supported his work when I can, either through buying his book or through donating money.

Matt has since branched out into independent journalism. He covered the primaries last year, and both the Republicuck and Demonrat conventions. He is currently operating out of Hungary, covering European issues, including the upcoming election in France featuring Marine La Pen, the “French female Donald Trump”, a true nationalist leader who may be able to halt and reverse the cultural decay of what was once a great empire.

(Seriously, the French used to be fierce warriors. Charles the Hammer, anyone? It’s only been since about WWII that they turned into the pussies we make fun of them for being today; the “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” as a general of ours once said).

Follow Matt. I highly recommend him. I’ve been following him for a good 5 years. He’s an ally to the conservatives, right libertarians, and alt-right.

Why Do We Act So Surprised At Human Failure?

This is a repost from my old blog on Blogger. I have another post I’m thinking about writing, and wanted to reference it. But I figured I might as well redirect the traffic here. I’ll provide comments at the end. This was originally written on 15 December, 2008:

—————————————–

A couple of years ago, I showed up at church on Wednesday night ready to teach the final class in my series on Judges. I worked hard to prepare for that class. It was on Judges 20 and 21, the aftermath of the slaughter of the tribe of Benjamin. I thought it was going to be very interesting, and I got, well, angry when I found out that we would instead be assembling in the auditorium (in the churches of Christ, we’re forbidden to call it the sanctuary; we are the sanctuaries) for some kind of “family meeting.” I am almost ashamed to say that I normally don’t think too highly of those things. I don’t like it when we break our normal routine for these gatherings. I don’t like it when missionaries visit and we cancel classes so they can talk. I said I’m almost ashamed because I really don’t surprise myself much anymore.

That night, when I found out that the class I worked hard to prepare for was replaced, my thoughts immediately went to the cynical. I had thoughts like “Oh, great, somebody stubbed her toe and we have to get together and pray for her”. The 4 elders we had at the time (we added 2 more a few weeks after this account occurred) gathered at the podium. I don’t recall the exact words used, but apparently somebody in the congregation did something really bad. I tried to imagine who it was. For a second I worried it might have been me although that was groundless. It’s just human nature. It turned out that the youth minister that we had at the time did something very bad; so bad that we may never again have a youth minister. I’ll leave out the details here on my blog. When the thing he did was mentioned, very straightforwardly, some people gasped in horror. Some started crying. Some started shrieking. Some had to run outside to cry, others just numbly walked up and down the aisles holding their head saying something to the effect of “Oh, no, oh no, this can’t be happening!” The funny thing is, although I was shocked, I was not surprised. I don’t remember being surprised at all. If anything, considering what was done, I was almost glad I didn’t find myself in similar circumstances to fall in the exact same way.

I don’t understand why we always act so surprised when people do bad things. The governor of Illinois thing has me wondering this. A corrupt politician from a state known for it’s corrupt machine politics gets caught being corrupt. Where is the news in this? Why does everybody act so surprised? What’s the point? He screwed up and acted corrupt too far in the open, so he’ll get impeached and his power to replace the Senator who didn’t do a darn thing as Senator but run for President to the highest bidder will go away for this time, and he’ll be replaced by another corrupt Illinois machine politician, and life will go on until another one steps out of line and discusses corrupt things on a tapped line. The corruption won’t go away, but the corrupt politician who screwed up will for now.

This is why the “messianic theory” of politics has me so scared. It seems to me that when you ask people who voted for either McCain or Obama why they did so, the most common answer is some variation of “I hope he’ll deliver me from…” It doesn’t matter what. “I hope he’ll save me from health care.” “I hope he’ll save me from taxes.” “I hope he’ll save me from Global Warming.” “I hope he’ll save me from McCain.” “I hope he’ll save me from Palin.” “I hope he’ll save me from Obama.” “I hope he’ll save me from liberals.” “I hope he’ll save me from fundamentalist Christians.” The list goes on and one. Of course, most of the promises made by these candidates and most of the reasons people voted for them have NOTHING to do with the job description of the President of the United States found in the Constitution of such United States. It’s just that people are afraid and somehow believe one of these men might be the Messiah and save them from whatever they fear, no matter what else the man might screw up in his attempt to, if he actually kept that particular promise, which is not something that politicians are known for anyway. Then, when President Obama doesn’t keep his promises, or screws something up, people will act surprised! “How could he have done this? Oprah told us that he might be THE ONE!”

Knowing the capacity for human failure, I have to ask: why do you act so surprised when people fail horribly, and why do you look to other humans to somehow deliver you from whatever has you scared this election or the next? I’m asking this question in the “you” context because I’m honestly not surprised in the majority of cases, and I honestly don’t believe politicians can deliver me, nor do I trust them to. I’m happier if they just leave me alone and I vote for the one who will just leave me alone. At least, I do now. I once subscribed to the “Messianic” theory of politics, although I didn’t realize it at the time.

Additional commentary:

I no longer go to a Church of Christ. I have nothing against them. I just moved on. I currently attened what is described as a non-denominational church, where our pastor has a Pentacostal background. I’d never been in a charismatic leaning church before, although that is not emphasized.

The “youth pastor” thing I was referring to is far enough in the past to explain. I kept it vague for a reason, but like I said, it’s in the past and I’m divorced from the wife I’ll be referencing.

That church brought on a youth pastor shortly before I joined it in 2002. He was approximately my age. Him and his wife had two daughters who were both born within months of my two sons. His wife had to work. I was able to structure things so that my ex-wife was able to quit working and become a full-time stay at home mom when my first born was about 7 months old and she was pregnant with my second. My ex did not love or respect me one bit, so let’s just say even with her NOT working, things were not good. I had needs that were not being met, and had somebody come along to meet those needs, I would have easily fallen for her.

The night I was referring to, it came out that the youth pastor had a two-year affair with one of the teen girls. She was 17 at the time. You do the math as to when it started. What did NOT come out in church (which we found out through the family involved) is that he’d gotten her pregnant, gave her money and sent her to get an abortion. Yeah, very youth-pastorly.

He was convicted, served five years in county jail. His wife forgave him, and last I heard they were still married and he is working as a youth pastor. Far away, praise the Lord. That church apparently knows about his past. They get what they get, I guess.

But it goes back to the question: why do we act so surprised when people fail? I could have failed in a similar way had the temptation presented itself, although I’d like to think I wouldn’t have been stupid enough to end up alone with a 15 year old with daddy issues. But even a woman my own age at the time would have caused enough trouble.

I deal with this kind of temptation in a couple of ways. One is accountability. I have a few really good friends I firmly trust to throw the bullshit flag on me. And I have permission to throw it on them. A good friend will not let you get away with bullshitting yourself.

Another is to not let it happen in the first place. If you’re married and committed to being faithful to your wife, NEVER let yourself be alone with another woman. Women, never let yourself be alone with another man. Even when I travel, I make sure to go out in groups if there are women present.

I also deal with temptation by operating under the assumption that I will get caught.

Sessions Dropping the Hammer on “Sanctuary Cities”

It’s about damn time.

This never made much sense to me. I get how the Demonrats want to import millions of new voters so they can stay in power FOREVER. But I don’t get how ordinary people can think this is a good idea.

The “Sanctuary City” is even more mystifying to me. “We believe not only in illegal aliens, but we believe in it SOOOOOOOOOOO much, that we’ll catch and release illegal alien CRIMINALS back into the population so they can’t be deported.”

On what level does this make any sense?

Verified by ExactMetrics