The most important post-electing analysis you will read.

Everyone should read this:

http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/11/16/you-are-still-crying-wolf/

A little fucking perspective.

24 Types of Authoriatarian

Pot, Mexicans and Ass Sex.

Oh, yeah.

Why Don't We Have Politicians Like Grover Cleveland Anymore?

Grover Cleveland

This is what I want to hear from the president.  From a statement made by Grover Cleveland when he vetoed a bailout for Texas farmers suffering from a drought.  The fact that no president from either party would consider making such a statement on principle anymore illustrates just what went wrong with the USA.

To the House of Representatives:
I return without my approval House bill number 10203, entitled “An Act to enable the Commissioner of Agriculture to make a special distribution of seeds in drought-stricken counties of Texas, and making an appropriation therefor.”It is represented that a long-continued and extensive drought has existed in certain portions of the State of Texas, resulting in a failure of crops and consequent distress and destitution.
Though there has been some difference in statements concerning the extent of the people’s needs in the localities thus affected, there seems to be no doubt that there has existed a condition calling for relief; and I am willing to believe that, notwithstanding the aid already furnished, a donation of seed grain to the farmers located in this region, to enable them to put in new crops, would serve to avert a continuance or return of an unfortunate blight.
And yet I feel obliged to withhold my approval of the plan as proposed by this bill, to indulge a benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriation of public funds for that purpose.
I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadfastly resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that, though the people support the government, the government should not support the people.
The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood.
It is within my personal knowledge that individual aid has, to some extent, already been extended to the sufferers mentioned in this bill. The failure of the proposed appropriation of $10,000 additional, to meet their remaining wants, will not necessarily result in continued distress if the emergency is fully made known to the people of the country.
It is here suggested that the Commissioner of Agriculture is annually directed to expend a large sum of money for the purchase, propagation, and distribution of seeds and other things of this description, two-thirds of which are, upon the request of senators, representatives, and delegates in Congress, supplied to them for distribution among their constituents.
The appropriation of the current year for this purpose is $100,000, and it will probably be no less in the appropriation for the ensuing year. I understand that a large quantity of grain is furnished for such distribution, and it is supposed that this free apportionment among their neighbors is a privilege which may be waived by our senators and representatives.
If sufficient of them should request the Commissioner of Agriculture to send their shares of the grain thus allowed them, to the suffering farmers of Texas, they might be enabled to sow their crops; the constituents, for whom in theory this grain is intended, could well bear the temporary deprivation, and the donors would experience the satisfaction attending deeds of charity.

Now, I'm not one of these people who make the Constitution an almost sacred thing.  I'm much more interested in liberty in general than adherence to any particular law.  But there is a lot to like in the constitution.  Trouble is that now our fine representatives and executive seem more concerned with what they can get away with and how they can interpret away the limitations that were placed on the government by the constitution. The courts still technically have a role in making sure laws are constitutional, but they have dropped the ball in a number of very important areas as well.  I'd like to see all branches of government take their oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution seriously.  Not because the constitution is sacred or perfect, but because it is a hell of a lot better than a completely unfettered government with unlimited power.  And if you ignore the essential limits on what the federal government has the power to do that are in there, you are practically there.  It's just a matter of time.

Gun Control: Get Fucked, You Fascist Pricks

Guess who said this:

And why do I regard the British rule as a curse?…[B]y the policy of disarmament, it has degraded us spiritually. Lack­ing inward strength, we have been reduced, by all but universal dis­armament, to a state bordering on cowardly helplessness.

See after the break.

Anti-gun Morons.

OK, so here is a great example of how fucking stupid and ignorant the gun control crowd is.

The gun on top is a military issue gun.  It fires a larger, faster round than gun #2 (even if it weren't a paintball gun).  But #2 is black and scary looking.  So there must not be any legitimate use for it.

Both guns do the same thing.  But #1 can kill you from farther away.  The difference is purely aesthetic.

As for the question posed, why not ask the millions of people who own and use guns like #2 and who never commit any crimes with them.  You'll get plenty of valid answers.

Motherfuckers

Yes, I've been calling people motherfuckers a lot lately.  If you take it personally, you are probably a motherfucker.  I may or may not love you anyway.

Guns and Dope. Why can't we all get along?

A political party I can get behind.

The Guns and Dope Party.

All you Tsarist motherfuckers can go suck it.  Not sure about their plan for west coast secession, though, given the dominant political culture out there these days.  Good luck to them, though.

The least important election of my life (a message to my partisan friends)

All of you motherfuckers had better think about this.  This is not "the most important election of our lives".  It may well be the least important.  No matter who is elected, nothing will change significantly.  The Republican candidate could easily be the Democratic nominee with a few aesthetic changes to his positions.  And the incumbent has done nothing to distinguish himself from the awful policies of the previous administration that all you motherfuckers kept bitching about.  I am just shocked and saddened that so many people I usually think of as reasonable, intelligent people have fallen for all of the bullshit this time around.

So, new rule.  No one talks to me about the election in real life.  If you come to my house and start spouting some election related crap, I will ask you to leave.  If you persist, I will take you out back and shoot you.  So if anyone actually reads this, you have been warned.

And if you are considering voting for Obama or Romney, you should go fuck yourself, asshole.

No Kidding Pussy Riot

Odd find, by way of Wikipedia (though the link seems to have disappeared from there).  An interesting action by members of Pussy Riot.  We need more protests like this over here.  NSFW

http://plucer.livejournal.com/55710.html

Related question, why are Russian women so attractive and Russian men so ass ugly?  Vodka probably has something to do with it.

The scale of things

So this is pretty cool.  http://www.phrenopolis.com/perspective/solarsystem/

It's a diagram of the solar  system with the size of all of the planets and the sun to scale, as well as the distances between them.  It is very rare that you see this drawn to scale (for obvious reasons if you look at it: the page is half a mile long!).  I think that the distances between the planets relative to their sizes will be surprising to a lot of people.

The Police:

Correlation vs. Causation

Well, this is pretty awesome:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/correlation-or-causation-12012011-gfx.html

The Iron Laws

1. You get more of what you reward and less of what you punish.
2. Money and power will always find each other.
3. If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.
4. The less you know about something, the easier it looks.
5. You aren’t free unless you are free to be wrong.
6. Me today, you tomorrow.
7. Foreseeable consequences are not unintended.

I might restate #7 a bit, but these are pretty good. Thanks to RC Dean.

Isn't it nice when someone else has already written, quite eloquently, what you were thinking?

Well, maybe sometimes it is frustrating, but I stumbled upon this today and it states things very nicely:

From the fact that people are very different it follows that, if we treat them equally, the result must be Inequality in their actual position,, and that the only way to place them in an equal position would be to treat them differently. Equality before the law and material equality are therefore not only different but are in conflict with each other; and we can achieve either the one or the other, but not both at the same time. The equality before the law which freedom requires leads to material inequality. Our argument will be that, though where the state must use coercion for other reasons, it should treat all people alike, the desire of making people more alike in their condition cannot be accepted in a free society as a justification for further and discriminatory coercion.

We do not object to equality as such. It merely happens to be the case that a demand for equality is the professed motive of most of those who desire to impose upon society a preconceived pattern of distribution. Our objection is against all attempts to impress upon society a deliberately chosen pattern of distribu­tion, whether it be an order of equality or of inequality.

--F. A. Hayek

I am the .00000033%

And so are you.  1 in 300 million.  Now what?

I'm trying to keep an open mind about this occupy wall street thing, but most of what I am seeing is overly entitled young people who don't think that they should have to endure the consequences of their own choices and a lot of the same naive (if I'm generous) and tired anti-capitalist and anti-globalization garbage. A lot of the occupiers seem to get part of the problem, that there is far too cozy a relationship between government and big business.  But even the less crazy protesters seem to think that more government power to regulate, control wages, etc. will somehow help this situation.  More government means more favors to hand out to big business.

Some amusing related links:

www.latf99p.com - Pithy comments on "99%ers" images.

Adendum:  Not sure if this is performance art, sincere activism (OK, I'm pretty sure it's not that), or what, but I like it.  Goes well with my "Fuck Peace" protest sign.  Do I know her?

Dude.

The Guy With His Dick in the Exhaust Pipe

In case you are wondering about the title picture, it is just plain funny.  I mean, just look at it.  Funny.

Welcome to your Doom

Some shit from Sega Genesis.  Golden Axe or something like that?