Hoboken NJ Transit Crash

As a NJ native and 25-year NY state resident, I am intimately familiar with the metro New York City public transportation system.  Want to know my snap analysis?

Unless the driver had a medical episode (heart-attack, stroke, etc.), I'm betting he train driver was asleep.

Yup.  Gross negligence.  These trains don't really have a great safety record.  A year or two ago, a Metro North train driver blew through the speed limits and sent the train off the track into the ravine.  There are many more examples.

The system is prone to this because of unionism.  Let me say something a little incendiary (incendiary mostly because it's true) - the people that operate our trains are NOT dedicated public servants committed to our safety.  Mostly, they are people just doing a job and trying to do it well, just like you and me.  Unionism, however, through mal-incentives morphs some of those people into "clock-punchers," i.e. people not looking to do a job the best they can, but people looking to do the minimum for the pay and benefits that are guaranteed so long as a minimum hurdle is cleared.  Corners are always cut because unionism removes accountability for cutting corners.

Obviously, there will be an investigation and we'll see, but I'm laying down my marker now.  Gross negligence on the part of a unionized driver mailing it in.  I've taken hundreds of trips into Hoboken Terminal, there is rock-solid protocol about slowing down well in advance of getting to the terminal.  The driver was incapacitated or asleep.

Musk Will Fall to Earth

Just remember, the more Elon Musk talks about Mars and other planets, the more you can be sure that things at his businesses here on Earth are not going well.

I've stated it to many folks, but not written it here publicly, that Musk will one day be known as one of the great business charlatans of our age rather than the genius that his meticulously crafted image would have us believe.

Will Hillarybots Feel the Mittenfreude?

We'll keep our eyes open for signs of poll movement post-debate, but something interesting might happen.  Mitt Romney wiped the floor with Obama in toto over their debates, and yet it didn't matter.

If Trump's awful performance doesn't help Hillary, I can't wait for all the lefty kvetching over how come the idiot American electorate can't see the clear superiority of HRC as demonstrated by the debate. 

They'll feel that same frustration us righties felt when Mitt smoked the Lightworker (BTW, Romney has since been proven right on about everything and Obama right on about nothing) to no avail.

The Planet Somehow Has Feelings, And Your Kids Hurt Them

Here we go again...humanity hating lefties are turning up the climate change volume yet again.  When they really want to get loud, they don't rail on fossil fuels or plastic cups or cow farts...they rail on you.  

For it's you they hate.  They want less of you.

Want to Slow Climate Change? Stop Having Babies

Here's the latest from the humanity-hating Gaia-worshippers, written under the guise or "moral philosophy."  Just the title is enough to make you stop reading, although that is not the Johns Hopkins dude's fault, that's some copywriter at Bloomberg.  Still, posing the question that way will immediately get people to say "Then NO, I don't want to slow climate change."

That's the flaw in lefty thinking, that derives from insularity.  They assume, because they cocoon themselves intellectually, that everybody wants to slow climate change.  That's their starting point because they probably don't meet alot, if any, people who don't want to slow climate change, or at least don't profess so.  Thus they will be shocked when the vast majority of people, who are told severe sacrifices are in order, simply say "no," because it is not a priority.

I say have children.  In fact have alot of children if you can support them and care for them.  Have that third child.

Predictable

About as predictable as the sun rising...

Black Lives Matter?  Yeah, well to most people, first and foremost Their Own Lives Matter

So Dumb

So, check out that picture. 

Guess what fella...I can say with 99.99% certainty that you will not be next if do NOT do any of the following:
- Attack a police officer
- Approach a police officer while holding a gun
- Run from a police officer
- Resist arrest

However, I can offer you no assurances if you live in a community with above average gang activity and/or above average trafficking in illegal drugs.

Would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

More Charlotte

Seriously....THINK!!

Black Cop Shoots Gun-Weilding Black Man w/ long criminal record...in a town with a Black Police Chief...there's a black President...

...so let's go out and beat bloody some white people!!!

This is not smart BLACK people.  You need us to care.  This makes us not care.

Charlotte: Black Cop, Black Police Chief, (Black President and AG)...But Somehow Whites Are Devils

Here is what I'm talking about...black victim, black cop, black police chief...and we're devils???

The truth is this, there is ALOT of goodwill between blacks and whites.  But the goodwill comes in all shapes and sizes, most of it is genuine goodwill, that of understanding and fellowship.  Some of it is unearned, the product of guilt, brow-beating and haranguing. Blame us for things that are not our fault and call us racists when we are not and that'll be the first kind of goodwill to go.  Keep at and the real stuff will go too.  Point is, this kind of stuff diminishes goodwill.

Any open society is a two way street.  A white guy didn't radio-control Officer Brentley Vinson to shoot Keith Scott in some racist real-life video game.  This was law enforcement vs. lawlessness.  At some point you have to be for one or the other.

Ugh. More "Gun Nut" Meme

Ugh, this meme will not go away...lefties are insistent that it's all just a very small group of gun nuts that keep buying millions of guns.

As I've already written, this is wrong.  But let's at least try to tackle this argument somewhat on its own terms.  OK, so eight or more guns among 3% of the population means there are some serious gun owners out there.  Eight or more is a "super-owner." 

Hmmm, that describes...well, me.  OK, so I'm a "super-owner."   Scary, but I'll own it.  But the crucial difference between this "super-owner" and a lefty's idea of a "super-owner" is that I am new to the market, as opposed to part of that static, neanderthal, unfortunate block of people who somehow, somewhere were told that guns are OK.  Before aged 40, the number of guns I owned was zero.  I went from nothing to "super-owner" in a flash.  There are tens thousands of people like me, who went from zero to many in no time at all.  So whatever point the lefties are trying to make, one point that they are wrong about is that it is not a static population buying ever-increasing numbers of guns.  The population of gun owners is growing rapidly from what was once largely a static group.

And if you're a lefty, THAT perhaps should be the worrying part, not that there are "gun nuts" out there, but that their ranks are growing by leaps and bounds every day. 

And who are these freshly minted "gun nuts"?  Again, describing the only one for which I have unimpeachable data...me.  They are educated, affluent, family-oriented, and often leaders in their community.  They have re-thought alot of the premises under which they grew up and generally have a deep understanding of the 2nd Amendment, its ongoing jurisprudence and of crime and gun-related statistics.  They know that they are NOT contributing to our problems.

Twitter Is Pathetic

One more nail in Twitter's coffin.  The f**kers can't die off soon enough IMO.

Did they not understand that "the best news editor in America is actually a law professor from Tennessee."

UPDATE:  It's 9/23, and TWTR was down big in pre-market as analysts were crapping all over it as it becomes more apparent that it is a crappy advertising vehicle.  But then it all reversed as rumors hit that it's going to be sold.  Best thing, the only hope is to get this platform out of the hands of the arrogant lefty elitist censors that run it.  Hopefully, TWTR as we know it is over.

Charlotte

So, here I sit in Cackalacky (one of the millions of former Yankees) not too far from the riotous goings-on in Charlotte.  The major element of the 'he said-she said' or, more accurately, the 'cops say, locals say' is this:  Keith Scott had a gun, whereas others say he had a book.

A book.

Wait, a book...?  I thought reading books was 'acting white'?  Never mind.  I love books.  I applaud taking them wherever you go and reading when you have some down time.  Unfortunately reading as a pastime is not on an upward march.  It's depressing, but I rarely see a book in the hand of any of the rich white people that I interact with every day.  Maybe Keith Scott was that rare anomaly, both for society at large and for blacks specifically, an avid reader.

People are allowed their doubts though until facts can be established, and it looks like a journalist as well as the CMPD are confirming visual evidence that it was not a book, but a gun.  Now, don't get me wrong, I like both books AND guns (Kipling said you can never have too many books or too much ammo, which implies something about guns), but there is a chasm of a difference between brandishing one versus the other.  One will probably get you shot.  And if you don't know that, then you probably should have used much more of the other.

On another literary note...this is a long standing fraud, this notion of the choir boy in the wrong place at the wrong time.  That great American observer of things, Tom Wolfe, wrote about this fraud in Bonfire of the Vanities way back when.  Nothing turns a punk kid into an honor student faster than wrongful death.  When an outcry goes up, justified or not, suddenly they're all honor students.  Never does a bad guy meet with an avoidable death.

Oh, one last thing...black victim, black, officer, black police chief.  What will it take for blacks to realize that maybe something else is going on here??

UPDATE:  Scott does not seem like the overly bookish type.  Seems like the classic Wolfeian Honor Student to me.

Philly Cops Jump in the Basket

Man, these Philly cops...deplorable I tell ya'.

More Terrorism = More Trump Voters

Big fat 'I told you so' here...

Every idiotic, PC-driven phrase out of a leftist mouth creates a few more Trump voters. To wit...

Small Man-Made Disasters in NY, NJ and MN

In re coordinated bombs in NY and NJ, media are reporting a person of interest's name as Billy Jones, rabid Tea Partier and angry, white male Trump supporter.  Beyond that, we don't know much but it is safe to say that his motivations are racism, sexism, homophobia and the motherfucker probably hates ObamaCare too. 

Trolled you!  You actually thought the above was what was happening, didn't you?  Well, after the last 15 years, especially the last eight, that's what sensible Americans have come to expect from our media.  It's hardly a caricature anymore.

Actually, this is likely what will be reported...police are seeking a person of interest, Samir Ahmed Mohommed, an immigrant from (insert Muslim country here), but it is unclear if the bombing has any connection to terrorism.  Attorney General Loretta Lynch says we don't know, and frankly, we may never know Mohommed's intention in setting off the bombs.

And as it pertains to "apparent stabbings" in a mall in Minnesota, President Obama said this is not an existential threat to America, so if you were stabbed, a loved-one was stabbed or are just fearful of going to the mall now, you shouldn't worry...more people die bird-watching than due to this sort of thing.

Wells Fargo Scandal Is Stupid

The media is having a field day with the Wells Fargo cross-selling scandal and politicians are pouncing as well.  What Wells Fargo did is by no stretch good, but this a silly scandal. 

How do I know?  Because I was a victim.  Yes, I had an account opened up without my permission and it incurred fees for the privilege.  Poor little me, right?  Shouldn't the government step in to help me? 

No.  Wanna know how to deal with this?  You walk your ass into a Wells Fargo branch and you say, "This account was opened up without my authorization, I'd like it closed and any fees reversed."  Boom.  That's it.  It's done and it won't affect your life a moment longer.

We live in a hyper-competitive world where companies are clamoring to win and keep your business.  Use that to your own advantage and use it to protect yourself.

Hillary's Health

Honestly, if devoted husband Bill didn't rush to her side, it can't be all that bad...

Colin Kaepernick Completes Our Journey to Farce

In the era of America's first black President, a bi-racial multi-million dollar athlete, raised by his adoptive white parents, decries the injustice done to blacks...mostly highlighted by a few individual blacks that were killed at the hands of law enforcement while committing crimes or resisting law enforcement because of previous criminal activity.

This is more than Farce.  It may be the perfecting of Farce that our greatest creative minds could scarcely have imagined.

The Future Is Actually Easy to Predict

I was going to do a completely different post (I will do it later) but in the course of doing research for it, I came across an excerpt from a Bret Stephens column from 2011.  Remember, this was written in 2011.

"Greece was never going to be bailed out and will, sooner or later, default. The banks holding Greek debt will, sooner or later, be recapitalized. The recapitalization will be borne by German taxpayers, and it will bring them—sooner rather than later—to the outer limit of their forbearance. The Chinese will not ride to the rescue: They know not to throw good money after bad.

And then Italy will go Greek. Europe's crisis will lap on U.S. shores, and America's economic woes will lap on Europe's—a two-way tsunami.

...

What comes next is the explosion of the European project. Given what European leaders have made of that project over the past 30-odd years, it's not an altogether bad thing. But it will come at a massive cost. The riots of Athens will become those of Milan, Madrid and Marseilles. Parties of the fringe will gain greater sway. Border checkpoints will return. Currencies will be resurrected, then devalued. Countries will choose decay over reform. It's a long, likely parade of horribles."

Germans at the end of their rope, border fences, fraying of the EU, fringe parties winning elections.  Again, this is from 2011.  Not a bad crystal ball Mr. Stephens.

Here was the original post.

Putin Driver Killed

Wow.  Watch the car crash that killed Putin's driver.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but there is NO WAY that this was a coincidence.  This was a hit designed to give Putin pause, to say "we can get close to you", to perhaps chasten him. 

I think Putin has over-reached in alot of ways in recent years and someone, somewhere thought now was the time to send a message.

Wow and (I gotta just admit it, may God forgive me) Good.

Shit, Is Mugabe Still Around...

Hey, maybe these Zimbabwean peasants have read Time on the Cross...

OK, maybe not, maybe they just want their kids to survive and have a life not wracked by scarcity.

Media: How Many Guns Do Gun Nuts Need?

Once again the media is convincing itself - and trying to convince you - that gun nuts are driving up sales by purchasing guns number 36, 37, and 38 to add to their personal collection arsenal.  The truth is that millions of Americans are buying guns number 1, 2 or 3.

The surge in sales we are seeing, evidenced by S&W's reported numbers, can only be driven by new entrants to the market, i.e. first-time buyers and new owners.  Over the last few years millions of new gun owners have entered the market.  Quite simply, people have gone from "I don't want/need a gun in the house" to "I would like to have a gun in the house."  In droves.  And many of those folks have second homes.  If you want a gun for your main home, the same probably holds true for your lake house or mountain cabin.  Sure, you could transport one gun back and forth, but why not avoid the hassle for, what, $700?  Voila, from 0 guns to 2 guns (or more) in a heartbeat.

The other day I was reading Jim Geraghty's piece about the America that Obama will leave behind.  It's good, but it fails to mention this aspect.  Obama will leave behind a vastly more (broadly and deeply) armed American citizenry.  And not by happenstance, he was not a passive watcher or forces outside his control.  Obama fed and fueled consumer demand for firearms by aggressively re-animating a fading gun-control agenda on the political left to the point where it is a key plank of the party platform that no candidate of the left can ignore.