Life Lesson #413

Take in these pictures from a recent visit to a favorite Chinese restaurant:


"APPETLIZERS"



"112. BUTTY LEMON CHICKEN WINGS"

Confuscious say:

Engrrrish bad?
Chinese gooooooood

Parasite City!

Some Humarock Residents Discuss Seceding From Scituate In Bonfire Dispute

Story here.

Beach bonfires on the 4th of July are apparently tradition in chowder country.  The City of Scituate instituted a ban on these bonfires after a bonfire got out of control and burned 4 homes.  This didn't sit well with the folks in Humarock-especially the heavy handed means employed by the local popo. 

Langlolies described his experience with law enforcement on the 3rd as overkill. He claims he was playing patriotic music when town officials marched onto his private property and unplugged his stereo. Langlolies says an officer then crushed the plug to keep him from starting the music again.

“They told my wife, ‘we’re going to come back to clean this mess up. We’re going to charge you $300 an hour and we’re going to take our time doing it,’” Langlolies recounted.

“What’s occurring down here is a slow deterioration of our constitutional rights,” said another Humarock resident speaking at the meeting.

Gasp! You don’t say!

Actually it is the planned destruction and final end of your rights. You exist to serve the state. That’s the way that Leviathan looks at people. That’s not a flaw, it’s a feature.

Humarock residents claim the problems didn’t start with the bonfire ban.

“The sidewalks haven’t been fixed. There’s potholes in the roads. They’re not even trimming the bushes back from the sidewalk so you have to walk out into the street,” said Hayden. “They’re just not giving us any services. We’re like a donor community for Scituate.”

What do you mean…"like"?  

Well of course it didn't start with the bonfire ban.  Tyranny never just starts out as tyranny, does it?  It always starts out small things.  Stamp acts.  Promises of more security in exchange for a little of your liberty.  And as you point out, the signs have been there for some time.  While some in your town have called for leaving Scituate (by the way, someone has to help me figure out how to pronounce this, or else it will be Xochitl Hinojosa all over again!), the bad people keep right on pushing, don't they?  Imagine that, ineffective resistance is ineffective. 


Jack Sparrow: If I might lend a machete to your intellectual thicket

You ARE a donor community for (insert parasitic city, host city, Overlord and Master city here.) 

Just like a new species gets assimilated into the Borg collective, just like the proletariat is to Communism, just like all of you are to Obamacare, just like we are no longer "these" United States but "The" United States, so are taxpayers to the government.  Remember, You didn't build this city.  Someone else built that.  Now it's time for you to "give back to the community".  Or else. 

You're just another brick in the wall.

Maybe some music will help:



Truth: I have liked Another Brick In The Wall by Pink Floyd since I was 10.  And as all 10 year olds do, I totally dug the lyrics, "We don't need no education.  We don't need no thought control.  Hey!  Teacher!  Leave them kids alone!"  Word.  But I watched the video for the first time just a few minutes ago.  I got your bonfire right HERE Scituate! 

Perhaps another song about Parasite City will help drive the point home. 

Take me down to Parasite City
Where the sidewalk’s broke
And police are shitty
Oh won’t you please take me home

I’d rewrite the verses, but they probably don’t require much work.



Here's hoping that the residents of Humarock can use this teachable moment in liberty to gain some experience and gain some ground. 

Joe Paterno; Unperson

This is what too big to fail looks like:

Former location of Paterno's statue outside of Beaver Stadium at Penn State. 

You didn't build that - Eric Holder

You see how this works? 

Nick Saban’s thoughts on Penn State

I'm wading deeper into the college football world to continue exploring this too big to fail theme, the Sandusky mess, and how it's being handled. This is not about whether you love or hate Alabama as much as it is about Nick Saban himself.
Story here.

''Maybe they ought to tax all the tickets that they sell on athletics and give the proceeds to some child abuse organization. Or something like that, rather than worrying about some punishment that is really going to have no positive effect on anything.''

So how would punishing ticketholders have a positive effect? Did they do something wrong to deserve having to pay extra for the sins of others? Why…this sounds like a typical Big Government solution. The guilty live to repeat the failure again and the "little people" have to suffer the consequences.

If I was a fan of Penn State and such a tax was imposed, I would steadfastly refuse to pay a penny. I haven't molested anyone, I didn't cover it up. I refuse to bear the sins, the consequences, or the guilt that belongs to others. Isn't that how we got here in the first place is by the transference of accountability, authority, consequences and such? Further, if I were living in a glass home, heading up my own too-big-to-fail college football program, with a statue of me outside the stadium where my team plays, my name on bumper stickers all across the state, and people calling me the most powerful man in sports, I might have the good sense to shut the hell up!

The Alabama coach didn't go into details of how a tax would be implemented. He stressed his comments had to do more with philosophy than a real recommendation.

''I probably shouldn't have said that. I'm just a regular old coach,'' Saban said.

No shit, Sherlock! Saban immediately walks this one back trying to get the genie back into the lamp.  It is as I have said; nobody wants to start throwing stones. Especially not Saban who heads up his own too big to fail enterprise. 

I'm just a regular old coach like you who makes $6M per year with a statue outside the stadium.

Why…what would happen if they started throwing stones at Tuscaloosa or turning over rocks? Alabama only narrowly avoided the death penalty in 2002 and were on probation again when they won the BCS championship in 2009. I'm just saying-nobody thought that this could happen at Penn State of all places.

I hear that it's kind of a dictatorship when Saban took charge at Alabama. Access for a lot of the long-time hangers on was denied. The old guard was cleaned out and Saban instead installed people who were loyal to him and 100% enthusiastic from top to bottom. He demanded total control. He got what he wanted and the results followed. And since the results followed, that's all folks care about. Just like the fountain lady, people are zoned in on the fantasy of what they see on the screen and ignorant of the reality around them.

Uncle Sam walking his iPhone

Saban, who has led the Crimson Tide to two national titles in the past three seasons, also said any perception that football coaches wield too much power doesn't apply at Alabama. Saban, however, has been described as the most powerful man in sports.

He also said he has faith that Alabama tries ''to promote the moral obligation that we all have to protect other folks.''

''I can't speak for everybody, but I can speak for the University of Alabama,'' he said. ''I think if we had any kind of issue it would not be my decision as to what we did. It would be a bigger decision than me, and I would want it to be that way. I have total faith, trust and confidence in (university system Chancellor Robert) Witt, that we would make the decisions with the utmost honesty and integrity and sort of moral ethics as we possibly could.

''Everybody has a responsibility and obligation to represent their institution that way, and I believe in that.''

I have total ultimate, supreme, maximum faith, trust, and confidence in the Chancellor. Now that's funny right there because it's normally, it's the Athletic Director or President of the University that makes this kind of statement about a coach-not the other way around. But I guess you know who's really in charge at Alabama. Just for the record, I didn't hear him walking that back.

Saban is described as the most powerful man in sports, a statue of himself outside the stadium for fans to worship his likeness, yet he demurs here and is just another humble employee when we start talking about the university leadership and the possibility of anything like the Sandusky mess happening at Alabama. Oh no, I didn't build that! Somebody else built that! Somebody else paid the coach money to get the recruit to come here…

I'm sure Paterno had total faith, trust and confidence in Graham Spanier also. So could one then interpret this to mean that Saban would not have the courage to act on his own to stop a similar Sandusky scandal at Alabama? The most powerful statue in sports wouldn't go it alone to stand up for what's right, but instead would wait for the rest of the collective to join him. Somebody else built that.

Indeed.

More PSU

Just trying to wrap up a few random thoughts on the Sandusky mess and move on. 

Prior to the Sandusky case, if anyone says, "Joe Paterno IS Penn State", who would disagree? 
After the Sandusky case, many take the position, "Joe Paterno told his boss." 

Seriously? 
Would anyone expect Joe Paterno to be just another mid-level manager in the Penn State system?  Is this sufficient?  I would not be satisfied as a man to have simply told my boss what was happening.  We're not talking about an employee stealing office supplies-why does "the boss" enter into the picture? 

Telling the boss is what McQueary did.  The buck was passed because no one had the courage to face up to the truth like a man and put an end to it. 

Some takeaways:

• When you witness the intolerable and your conscience as a man demands action, you must face an awful truth; Your life as you knew it is over. You can either implant that secret evil into your own life and carry the guilt of sin committed by others, or you can drag it into the light.  Perhaps at a terrible cost to your temporal circumstances, but preserving your integrity in the process.
• You might not get any help at all from the powerful in seeking justice.  Not only that, the powerful may shoot the messenger (i.e. you) to protect the secret and thus, their own power and position.  Again; your life as you knew it is over. 
• The powerful often pass the buck.  Or they try to seek the consensus of the collective before taking action.  When that happens, you can expect them to be politically expedient, but not morally sound.  Again; your life as you knew it is over because you will be asked to keep the secret.
• You might first seek out the powerful, but it would be wise/shrewd/cunning to concurrently seek out the powerless.  Think Gunwalker.  Though Mike and David raised this issue to Charles Grassley and Darrell Issa, they also pressed the issue tirelessly with their readers to spread the word, to swarm those in authority with questions, demands for accountability, and justice. 
• All men are fallible.  Even icons.  Especially icons. 

You Didn't Build That!

Story

“If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.

“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen,” he said. “The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.”

So we all laugh, snicker, and/or rant.  This principle of collective awesomeness is just BS and it grates against us as Americans.  What is the practical reality though? 

This is how the collective looks at the world.  And it's how they do things in practice in a number of areas.  The hiring, development, promotion, and retention of employees for one. 

You didn't get that promotion on your own.  Somebody gave you some help.  The principle is that you cannot develop and grow all on your own.  If you could do that, why then you'd self-develop and self-promote and what the hell would you need with the patronage of managers and executives?  What need would you have for them? 

Time for some lyrics modification:

I said MANAGEMENT!
Huah!
Yeah
What are they good for?
RRRRRRabsolutely nothin' say it again!



Trust me, management sees it the same way.  From where they sit, if someone could get promoted without first kissing the ring , uh, winning their patronage, uh..."building relationships", then all those development programs and pipelines are as useless as they are. 

Why do you think the pipelines and development programs exist after all?  It isn't to identify and "develop" those "high potential" employees.  It is to justify the decisions that those managers and executives have already made about who will be promoted and who will be merely employed.  It is to serve as a screen against those whom we do not want to develop and promote. 

To put it in terms that a Communist could understand, it's about party membership.  It goes like this, the promotion jobs are pretty much all posted.  But in the job posting, "preference" is given to those who are first "developed".  Anyone can apply for this job, for this promotion, but "preference" will be given to those who have been anointed into the development pipeline.  Meaning that without development, you as an applicant or an interview candidate are there simply to round out the candidate pool and make it look like it was fair.  You're there to help them write that sentence in the hiring announcement that says what a deep and well qualified group of applicants there were and how hard it was for the managers to make a decision.  I honestly wonder if they laugh when they write this crap. 

And who gets into the development pipeline?  Only those who are specifically chosen.  The team leader roles that are necessary as developmental steps for growth are seldom if ever posted.  Instead, these are reserved exclusively for the anointed development candidates.  When the jobs are posted, a long list of qualifications is attached that is well suited to the covered workers who might aspire to that paygrade.  (Put another way, if those developmental candidates had to actually apply for the job they're being given, they wouldn't even screen in.)  However, they are very careful to note as a disclaimer that "selection for a development program is no promise of future promotion".  If you were to kill someone on the job, steal a bunch of money, have an affair with a few of the secretaries, get in trouble for harassment-things that could embarrass the company, bring lawsuits, or bad publicity, now THAT will hold you back.  But it still might not get you actually fired, so long as you're in the party.  Performance apart from patronage is irrelevant.  In the Communist world, it's all about party membership. 

But it's not just about your puny insignificant position as a nobody who did nothing on your own.  It's about "Somebody".  Just like Julia, that composite person or Obama, the composite President, there's always that composite, faceless "Somebody" made it all possible for you.  And that's the whole point of that culture.  To make sure that each person who is advanced, promoted, or accomplishes anything is not doing this on their own, but that their success depends almost entirely on "somebody" else.  That they just happened to be in the right place, surrounded by great people, and anybody could do it, you know the standard BS that they roll out.  Do I need to go on? 

This line of thinking also implies that you're not entitled to the full credit and reward of doing what you did, but you "owe" a portion of that to someone else.  You need to "give back to the community."  (As if it took a village for you to be you.) 

The principle is that supervisors owe the managers above them for their position.  Managers owe the executives above them for their positions.  Your role as a manager exists to shield the layer of management above you.  Just like the celebrity bodyguard, you exist to shield the manager above you from the reality of the situation, the technical details that could get him jailed, and the puny employees who have "ideas" about how to change things in subtle ways which would favor them and destroy the system that so richly rewards you as a manager.  Your role as a manager also includes being part of the team in circling the wagons around other managers in the party collective when an attack comes against a particular manager and to do so right up until the moment when that particular manager is jettisoned as an "unperson". 

It works this way in business.  But it works this way in so many enterprises. 

All that to arrive at Jerry Sandusky:

If you’ve been successful as a pedophile, you didn’t get there on your own.  You didn’t get there on your own.  I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart.  There are a lot of smart pedophiles out there.  It must be because I worked harder than everybody else.  Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking pedophiles out there.



If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help.  There was a great teacher somewhere in your life (i.e. someone had to teach you how to be a pedophile).  Somebody helped to create the system that allowed you to thrive.  Somebody helped to cover your secrets for all those years.  Your wife.  Your coach.  Your University staff.  The local press.  Somebody had to look the other way.  Somebody had to make sure that Joe Paterno made it to 409 wins in spite of you.  Somebody invested in the showers, and the locker rooms, and the stadiums.  If you’ve got a charity foundation, you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen.  The Internet didn’t get invented on its own.  Government research created the Internet so that you could troll for little boys, Jerry. 

Something in a real American just revolts against the un-American principle that Obama voiced last week.  In practice though, this is how it works in America now.  This is how far down the abyss of Communism that we've gone. 

The Dark Knight Rises

Time to break out the Fear and Smear flag again. 

So...the shooter has all this tactical equipment, armor, helmet, etc. and begins to shoot up the cinema.  Yet surrenders to the police when so ordered. 

If mass killing is the goal, why stop shooting when the police show up?  Uh...hello, you're in body armor with a rifle.  What do they have? 

If mass killing is the goal, then why volunteer to the police that you've booby trapped your apartment with explosives?  Wouldn't that ruin the surprise?  Wouldn't that wipe out the whole reason for laying such traps? 

I'm not rooting for more bloodshed and I truly hate it for those that were injured and killed.  It just seems that the commitment was lacking on the part of the shooter.  It all sounds so false flag.  If you're going to be a homicidal mass murdering psychopath, why stop at the first sign of resistance?  What kind of commitment is that? 

I wonder why a parent would take a 6 year old to see this.  Or a 3 month old.  Can't just leave the darlings at home alone, huh?   

I have to note as well that the guy killed a dozen people.  Seems like he connected on a whole lot of shots for it being a darkened theater and him having a gas mask on.  (Not to mention the gas that would have obscured his visibility even though it would not cloud his eyes or make him cough.)  But since the audience is within a narrow kill zone all nice and orderly, it's hard to imagine how a shooter could miss. 
_________

I remember one time in high school, our student body was called to the auditorium for an assembly.  Not planned or scheduled.  We got in there and our assistant principal starts talking.  Something completely forgettable-I assure you.  At some point, I noted colored smoke blowing around outside.  It was on the edge of my 15 year brain, but not really registering.

And then the distinctive thump of the blades from a Huey helicopter.  Or two. 

And then the guardsmen in BDUs rushing the aisles "securing" the auditorium.  

Afterword, I remember hearing about this from a different perspective.  We had an exchange student from Central America and she had witnessed or experienced something like this before.  The poor girl probably had nightmares after seeing this kind of display right here in America. 

Of course, the head guardsman made some speech at the microphone.  Equally forgettable.  I'm sure it had something to do with their training to "rescue" us from a bunch of terrorists or freedom or something.  Anything to justify this and say mission accomplished.  Thanks for letting us scare the crap out of you to keep you safe.  Jerks probably dislodged friggin asbestos from the ceilings when they came busting in like that. 

I remember that the soldiers ringed the auditorium facing inward towards us, not outward.  Being in the ROTC at the time, we all thought that this was pretty badass and not recognizing the significance of what we'd just seen, nor the insult to liberty that it represented.  After all, those people in uniform stand up for our freedom.  Lee Greenwood says it's a Big F***ing Deal!  Did I mention that the national guard was next door to the high school?  A short trip, they get to check the block for training, and get back "home" before anyone could raise a protest. 

I was in a particularly foul mood for that entire year.  Being under the thumb of a bully of a company commander can create a spirit of resistance and friction and frustration.  Being on the aisle, I remember thinking about sticking my leg out and tripping one of these SOBs with their M-16s.  I really did think about it.  I thought about resisting.  I wonder if anyone would have joined me in resisting?  If only we had watched the opening scene from Red Dawn the night before...




I wonder if the other soldiers would have charged in to address me as a terrorist.  I mean, these are weekend warriors.  I wonder how they would have explained the injury to the CO had I tripped one of them?  I wonder what the school would have done to me?  Hi Mom, I tripped a soldier from the national guard unit next door that was invading our campus with live ammo for a training exercise.  He broke his nose and is wrist.  The school wants to expel me. 

I wonder if he would have squeezed the trigger as he fell?  I guess it's good that it's the thought that counts because I honestly don't remember if they had mags in or not, or safeties on.
________________________________

Predictably, the barn door will be closed, I mean the noose will be tightened, I mean security will be enhanced.

And since you as Amerikans have been so gracious and tolerant of being groped by the TSA for the privilege of being allowed to board a commercial airline, you won't have any problem with having a similar goon squad with a combined IQ approximately 1/3 of your ticket price groping you and scanning you to allow you the privilege of spending your dollars watching the latest film from our comrades in Hollywood.  Right?  You WILL keep going to the movies, right comrades? 

Some will advocate for carrying firearms everywhere.  Constitutional carry-even when the signs say not to and when they carry the force of law in your state (which will undoubtedly vary in 876,961 ways across these 57 states-or is it 58?  God love ya, what am I saying?).  Indeed, bravo, long live Constitutional Carry.  I'm personally in favor of Constitutional Carry.  But the reality of carrying a gun on your person is that a number of different events may arise which lead to consequences of varying goodness or badness. 

You could preserve your own life and that of folks around you like this guy and wind up a hero. 



Samuel Williams, 71. 

You might get shot and killed even though you're armed. 

You could screw up and shoot a bystander in the process of trying to address the shooter. 

You could wind up like this White Latino.

Why even drawing or displaying your gun can get you a whole lot of unwanted attention as well. 

Figure out what you can live with.  Figure out what you'll die for.  Figure out what you'll kill for.  Let each man make the decision himself in the quiet of his own conscience.  But be ready for the consequences, face them as best as you can, and be a free man. 

If I had a son...

In light of this article, this graphic:

 

"WE’RE BEING GOVERNED BY GHOSTS FROM CHICAGO’S COMMUNIST PARTY GLORY YEARS."

What a coincidence that in the miniseries Amerika, Colonel Denisov administers much of the occupation of America from his headquarters in Chicago.  Probably made him feel right at home! 

Obamacare in the Year 2017

Obamacare in the Year 2017

From Shenandoah. 

I love looks into the future.  Just have to be careful not to stare too long into the Palantir though.

I think AlSol will have a few words about this. Or maybe just two, wreckers and limiters .

In the world of communism, engineers were often tabbed with one of two labels. They were wreckers or limiters.

"Wreckers"

Diversions, wrecking, sabotage.   An example:

Doctors, like engineers are highly trained and can be very specialized. What looks like disaster is sometimes necessary for success.  It does no disservice to substitute the term "doctor" for "engineer" in the context of what AlSol has to say. 

Comissar: Doctor, you are wrecking the patient by cutting him open!!!
Doctor: I am making an incision to remove a swollen appendix so that it won't kill the patient.  Shut your word-hole, dumbass. 

Talk to me, AlSol!

And what accomplished villains these old engineers were! What diabolical ways to sabotage they found! . . .One such pernicious piece of advice (from Nikolai Karlovich von Meck) was to increase the size of freight trains and not worry about the heavier than average loads. The GPU exposed von Meck and he was shot. His objective had been to wear out rails and roadbeds, freight cars and locomotives so as to leave the Republic without railroads in case of foreign military intervention! When not long afterwards, the new People's Commisar of Railroads, Comrade Kaganovich ordered that the average loads should be increased, and even doubled, and tripled them (and for this discovery received the order of Lenin along with others of our leaders)-the malicious engineers who protested them became known as limiters.

These limiters were pursued for several years. In all branches of the economy, they brandished their formulas and calculations and refused to understand that bridges and lathes could respond to the enthusiasm of the personnel.

The only thing at times that delayed the arrest of the old engineers was the absence of a new batch to take their place.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Gulag Archipelago, The History of Our Sewage Disposal System

So those that might have agreed with increasing the loads before would have been called wreckers and face the gulag.  Those who make such suggestions now are given medals.  Those who oppose tripling those loads are now limiters who face the gulag. 

More AlSol:

In politics your head won't help you, nor will your education.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Gulag Archipelago, The Law Matures

Indeed.  Logic is useless against Leviathan.  Facts are irrelevant.  Education is irrelevant.  Truth is irrelevant.  It is only your party loyalty that matters.  Nothing else.  With your loyalty to the party, all sins are forgiven.  Without your loyalty to the party, ALL your deeds are evil. 

I have observed many times at work that what is gospel today will be heresy tomorrow.  It's just a matter of when the cycle will come around. 

Wally gets it as well:

Dlibert 11/4/2007

"It's better to have the right person ask the wrong question than the wrong person ask the right question."  Word.

More about engineers from AlSol:

How could engineers accept the dictatorship of the workers, the dictatorship of their subordinates in industry, so little skilled or trained and comprehending neither the physical nor the economic laws of production, but now occupying top positions, from which they supervised the engineers?
...

Is it not true that professional politicians are boils on the neck of society that prevent it from turning its head and moving its arms?  (OUCH!)

...

Engineers were paid immeasurably low salaries in proportion to their contribution to production.  But while their superiors demanded success in production from them, and discipline, they were deprived of the authority to impose this discipline.  Any worker could not only refuse to carry out the instructions of an engineer, but could insult and even strike him and go unpunished-and as a representative of the ruling class, the worker was always right in such a case. 

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Gulag Archipelago, The Law Matures

Again, I can tell you from experience that the only class of people who apparently can do no wrong are those in the collective of union labor or those in the collective of management.  I've seen it many times. 
___________________
An update:

Remember my manager nightmare, G from the Onward State post?  After being fired, I sat and wondered exactly what he might do.  A couple of months later, I hear and confirm that he somehow landed the exact same position he had in our company with a competitor company. 

The management collective protects its own-even across company lines.  Unbelievably, they hired him to do the same job from which he was fired for cause. 

This means that he will learn nothing from his experience and that it will surely happen again.  Only this time, he'll probably be more "careful" and "discreet" so that he won't get caught.  It'll be "Man, I'd better be careful next time!", not, "I'm going to commit to change so that there will never be a 'next time'".

I wonder if Sandusky was more "discreet" after his first brush with the law?  Or was he emboldened by the "success" he had in dealing with the law?  The results seem to speak for themselves, don't they?
________________

With respect to the Obamacare in 2017 post, I can only say, Welcome to Amerika, 83915!



Use the link above to watch the scene with prisoner 83915 leading the pledge of allegiance starting at 33:30, or better yet, watch the entire miniseries. 

Seriously. 

I exhort you to watch the miniseries Amerika on the Youtubes.  You can find a DVD out there, but it was re-recorded from VHS, has no subtitles and no chapters.  Having no subtitles I can live with, but having no chapters is ludicrous.  Save your money and watch the youtube version-the quality is about the same, plus you can stop and start wherever you like.  I watched the whole thing recently and even took a few notes.  But you need to see it for yourself. 

Onward State, Michael Mann

As an astute reader at the Cliffs commented the other day, Michael Mann is another one tied to Penn State. 

And then this pops up on Instapundit today:

A CULTURE OF COVERUPS? Rand Simberg: After the Sandusky coverup, can we trust Penn State’s internal ClimateGate “exoneration” of Michael Mann? “We saw what the university administration was willing to do to cover up heinous crimes, and even let them continue, rather than expose them. Should we suppose, in light of what we now know, they would do any less to hide academic and scientific misconduct, with so much at stake?”


UPDATE: Reader Aaron Chmielewski writes: “It should be noted, Mann was a major revenue source for the university.”

The Other Scandal in Unhappy Valley

Of Mann, Simberg writes,

Mann could be said to be the Jerry Sandusky of climate science, except that instead of molesting children, he has molested and tortured data in the service of politicized science that could have dire economic consequences for the nation and planet.

Well, he could be called the Sandusky.  Except that he's not alone is he?  There's a whole host of them from all over the world.  Aren't there? 

Makes me feel good to have painted Sandusky and the Hide the Decline crowd with the same brush the other day.

Coverup is not a coincidence. 
Coverup is the culture. 

III Percent Patriots: Consider: Drone Swarms

H/T to WRSA. 


III Percent Patriots: Consider: Drone Swarms

Why....it might look something like Order 66.



right down to the last youngling. 

Onward State!

For the victims of Jerry Sandusky, I grieve for you in this awful time and for that which you have suffered. I am glad that justice is being done. I wish it could have come sooner.

For those of you who are Penn State grads, fans, or friends of the Nittany Lions, this is an awful time. 

It's about to get much worse. 

The foundational ideals of the University all appear to be dissolved begging whether the University itself will survive at all. Jerry Sandusky was long thought to be a great coach and a great guy-helping "at risk" kids with his foundation. I remember during one of their football games in the late 1990's, they profiled him and even used one of my favorite songs, Have A Little Faith In Me by John Hiatt as the background-feel-good music. 
Then The Story broke.

Surely Joe Paterno couldn't be implicated. If you can't trust Joe Pa, who can you trust!?

So folks rioted in support of JoePa. Sandusky had already been dropped like a hot potato or an irradiated fuel rod.

Then Paterno agreed to step down at the end of the season. Finally.

Too little, too late for the Board of Trustees.

So a week after winning his 409^th game as head coach to break Eddie Robinson's career record at Grambling, Paterno was fired. (In hindsight, does anyone else find it odd that he was fired only after hitting his "dinger" to pass Robinson? Given that the administration of Penn State acted to cover this up for so very long, does anyone else find it odd that they were successful up until Paterno could register his 409^th career win as a coach?)

Support calmed and stepped back from Paterno, but was still vocal in support of Penn State. 

Then it came out that Mike McQueary told Paterno who told his boss who did…nothing.

Support for Paterno and Penn State waned further.

Then it came out that there were other allegations dating back as far as 1998 that were known to Paterno and others who did . . . nothing.

Support faded even more.

Joe Paterno died and the muted accolades and sympathy poured in. But surely there were many who held back from voicing full support. Like Paul Harvey, they wanted, The Rest of The Story.

Then the Sandusky trial.

Sandusky was utterly hopeless and was judged guilty on 45 counts.

Support? What support?

Then the Freeh report which revealed e-mail that Penn State had documenting discussions among the University leadership of how to quietly handle the Sandusky problem and keep everyone quiet if not happy, in Happy Valley. In short, the leadership of Penn State all agreed to do a whole lot of things that did not include the following: 

1. Pursue the truth
2. Prosecute the guilty
3. Protect the victims and any who raised the alarm

Instead the priorities were something along these lines:

1. Protect the secret (and those powerful enough to hold that secret)
2. Prevent prosecution of the guilty
3. Punish the victims and any who raised the alarm

Watch enough Penn State football and you'll eventually hear them chant, "WE ARE PENN STATE!"

I encourage you to think bigger; We (America) are Penn State. Penn State is US (America). Choose an institution and tell me where the model above hasn't been played out.

• Finance and banking: LieBOR, TARP, Robosigning, Foreclosuregate, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FDIC, bailouts, (insert your bank here).
• Fast and Furious.
• Obama's birth certificate (or lack thereof)
• The war on drugs.
• Climate Change ("Hide the Decline", anyone?)
• Obamacare
• Gun control
• Government spending
• Pensions
• The stock market

And there are surely others.

With your indulgence, I'll share one micro example from my personal past.

____________________________

Once upon a time, I worked at a plant. At this plant, I was hired by a manager. We'll call him G. It was my dream location, but he was a nightmare manager. A joke will sum up G in short order. Facing a rotator cuff surgery on his shoulder, a friend in the department told me, "Yeah, he tore up his shoulder patting himself on the back." Nothing better epitomizes G. 

G was something of a ladies' man which was odd since he was married. But then maybe they had one of those relationships. (Sorry, I wouldn't know, I'm not Italian.) It was easy to figure out what G would do. Just think of how any situation could be best turned to benefit him and that would be the course of action. 

During our shutdowns, he was known to oft take a vacation. (Yeah, during a shutdown, he'd be on a beach while we were out there busting our rumps.) 

He had long been known to have a problem leading/supervising/managing women. Maybe that has to do with that whole Rico Suave thing he had going on. A shirt opened one button too far and a gold chain. There had been many complaints against him on a variety of subjects. And all had come to naught. The man held his position, continued to be tolerated and even promoted. Women in my company even have a little group, "The Survivors" they call themselves. They really should open membership up because there were plenty of us men who got screwed over by this guy too. 

At the first opportunity I had to leave, I left. Praise God! As one coworker said, "Well, at least you'll get the H out from under G." Trudat. 

G was real slow to want to let me go too. Wanted this list of things that I would assure would happen before I left. His list of "blessed assurances" I called it.
So I began turning over a huge list of stuff to other people. Some of them picked it up. Some didn't. Not everything I left behind was continued, but that wasn't my problem. At one point, G even stopped by my office to lament that due to the hiring freeze (which just went into effect after I accepted the offer for the new job) he wouldn't even be able to post my job to backfill it. (I managed to keep a straight face until he walked away-at which point I must have laughed like a loon! Cry me a bucketful, G!) 

I left in the middle of another shutdown. And G went to the beach. Again. Only this time, there was a project that was not in good hands and wound up delaying the return of the plant to production-a cardinal sin. The plant manager calls G to find out what's going on and so G, sitting on a beach in Cabo probably has the pucker factor 10 moment of his career. More capable people rush in to recover and get the plant back to production, but the damage is done. Oh, the project was technically in my system and I have no doubt that G would have hung it around my neck. 

About the same time, he was dealing with yet another complaint from a woman in his group. This one from a lady who was a dud of an employee. Based on my past experience with her in another part of the company, I told him not to hire her. They hired her anyway and put me into the fantastic position of having to mute the truth about her being a dud to my coworkers and to mute the truth about the dud-ness of G to her. Oh, and I couldn't exactly tell everybody that I'd recommended not hiring her to the boss because then I undermine my leadership too. Thanks, G. (At one point, he confessed that everything I told them about her was coming true and that he didn't listen to me. He promised me that next time, they WOULD listen to me.) Anyway, her complaint had legs in the corporate office. It was a hostile place to work. I wish she'd have asked me first. I would have told her that unless someone was making sexual remarks to her then shut the fuck up, suck it up, get with the program and get productive for once in her career. She had the ability. Just not the desire.
So the corporate concerns bunch was on his heels at about the same time that the project delayed the plant from finishing the shutdown. They eventually worked something out there with the long and short being that she got fired or resigned in lieu of termination. Or maybe it was "FMLA" or "disability"-who knows? One way or another, G had once again drawn notice from corporate, negatively impacted performance, and had apparently escaped by throwing a body under the bus. 

Then came the spring. One of his co-ops (another female) was a mouthy girl with an attitude that threatened to cause trouble in numerous areas of the plant. To the point that some of the union folks in our maintenance group refused to work with her. G was in a pinch. Management had heard enough and told him to get rid of this co-op and recommend not hiring her again. Suddenly, he had to come up with the paperwork to support such a decision. What else to do but to ask people to help him manufacture it? He told Ms. Co-op of his decision and did so in some terms that were probably pretty crappy. She left his office in tears and drama, I'm sure. 

But still, she had to go to the co-op show. The managers usually went with their co-ops to the company's co-op festival held two or three times a year to show them off and compare them to other co-ops. At this little gathering, for some reason, the co-op and G were together in the hotel bar drinking. The conversation must have turned sexual and gotten pretty rowdy. This co-op who had walked out of his office in tears was now drinking with him and carrying on? This manager who had given her a negative evaluation was drinking with her and carrying on? WTF? The conversation was such that even other people there excused themselves and went to their rooms. There were plenty of witnesses.

Another complaint got filed. From multiple sources too. G was toast. They finally decided to fire him. This was essentially decided at the executive level which means that the plant management was effectively shielded not only from the doing what they should have done all along, but the blame for having done nothing for all those years. 

So what's the moral of the story? The root of all this? 

G was a perv. A selfish little troll of a toad of a man. Intelligent? Yup. Plenty of smarts and a lot of skills to offer. But it was all about him. 

And management was fine with that. 

They never fixed it. They never disciplined him. In fact, given that his behavior seemed so obvious and an inside joke to almost everyone, I can't imagine how management could not have known. Which means that they endorsed his behavior with their silence. And anyone who complained against him would have to practically catch him with his pants down for him to draw any discipline. Management was bought into him because he was one of them. Though they didn't behave like he did, they shirked from actually standing up against him. (The Bible says to first remove the mote from your own eye so that then you'll be able to see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. The fair question then is this; When leaders do not remove specks, what log is in their own eye? When they won't stand up for justice, what injustice are they into?)

They protected the secret (and those powerful enough to hold that secret), prevented discipline of the guilty, and thereby punished the victims and any who raised the alarm. Right up until the moment when they could no longer do that. 
________________________________

In the world of College football, Penn State and Joseph Vincent Paterno were institutions that were just considered to be too big to fail. This saga is a black swan for Penn State. The unthinkable and inconceivable have shot straight past "conceivable", "likely", or "possible" into real. This is what happens too big to fail, fails. In terms of the impact to Penn State, the Sandusky case reminds me of Three Mile Island-another Pennsylvania disaster. 

And just like a nuclear meltdown creates highly radioactive waste that takes centuries to decay to safe levels, the Sandusky scandal has created a radioactive environment that will cause people to flee for their lives and their reputations. 

Just like Three Mile Island, everything was fine. Right up until the minute that it wasn't. And when it went bad, it went over the edge without a chance of recovery. Just like a nuclear reaction, it would have taken precious little to actually stop the reaction from taking place. 

The very foundations of what Penn State tells themselves, their students, and others that they are have been obliterated and scattered to the winds. And the fallout will rain down on Happy Valley for decades. 

Things to watch for in the future of Penn State: 

• Though Penn State claims an endowment on the order of $1B per year, it's fair to wonder just how solid that is and how long it will last. Especially when the lawsuits start coming in against Penn State for enabling the serial child molester to continue his dirty work for the sake of protecting Joe Paterno and their own legacy.
• As for Tim Curley and Graham Spanier, would it be too much to start a pool on which one will commit seppuku first? Will either one live long enough to go to trial? Say…wasn't this guy from Pennsylvania also?

• If Paterno was still breathing, he'd be headed for a date with some handcuffs and a booking at the police station. Now there's an image for you.
• Will the Joe Paterno statues and memorials be revoked and torn down? Nike has already removed Paterno's name from their child care center in Oregon. Can't imagine why. And as Nike goes, so much of the rest of corporate sportsAmerica is likely to go. All that Paterno lived and worked for will likely be destroyed and scoured from the scene with Paterno ultimately becoming an "unperson" for his failure to act on what he knew.
• One sports lawyer thinks that Penn State football will be suspended for some period of time. Perhaps a self-imposed "death penalty" like SMU received. Given the value of Penn State's program, you can only wonder at how much damage (not merely financial either) that this would do to the university and the community.

What if just one university stepped forward and declared that they would no longer play Penn State in football? What if others did likewise? What if nobody would play Penn State in any sport? What if a university made such a move and then later discovered a similar scandal at their own school? Two black swans!? 

Don't look for any University to suddenly back away from Penn State on moral grounds though. Because in their own way, each big college is already too big to fail. They depend on football. They sweep stuff under the rug all the time. Doing the right thing is secondary to winning at any number of schools that you'd care to name. And though the NCAA did once upon a time hand down a death penalty to poor Southern Methodist University, they've never used it since and have made it abundantly clear that they won't do so. As a result, Universities know that they can do whatever they want to win, get the championship, and just pay whatever penalties come up later if they get caught. It seems like a perennial occurrence that the championship team in college football is investigated for something or another during their championship season or immediately thereafter. 

But who's to say that this will stay confined to Happy Valley and not spread to the rest of college sports? Remember my example of the nightmare manager, G. He was protected by other managers because he was one of them. Among other University presidents, Graham Spanier must be "one of them"-how could be anything but? 

Time for a shout out from AlSol!

In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousandfold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations. It is for this reason, and not because of the "weakness of indoctrinational work," that they are growing up "indifferent." Young people are acquiring the conviction that foul deeds are never punished on earth, that they always bring prosperity.

The failure to do good and prosecute evil is at the very root of the Sandusky case, of my nightmare manager G, and the demise and destruction of America. 

To a rank outsider, it looks like the ideal of Penn State University, the cornerstones, and possibly the entire structure of the university itself is collapsing. No act of contrition on their part will pass without skepticism, sarcasm, or a smirk. What can they do to redeem their reputation at this point? What would be enough? If you want just a taste of how collapse might look for an America that is "too big to fail", watch Penn State

We Are Penn State!

Gunwalker on Lou Dobbs

Story here.



Out.

Damn. 

Standing. 

In closing, Lou Dobbs even tells them to "stay dangerous." 

Ballerina Girl to gangs: Get away from that kid!

...says the Ballerina girl in this story. 


Uh....stay away from that kid yourself, Rahm.

 A heartwarming story. Government asking gangs to take the children out of the crossfire.

Not, “We’re going to hunt you down and throw all of you in prison.”

Not, “We’re going to turn the SAM missiles towards your 'hood now that the NATO convention is gone.”

Not, “You people have GUNS!!!!!!!! And that’s illegal in Chicago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  How dare you!!!!!!!!”

But, “You people can kill each other, just don’t put children in the way.”

Umm……forgive me Ballerina Girl, but does anybody want to take odds that children are doing the shooting?  It's not like gang members have a great life expectancy or a special service award for 30 years of service.  (except for maybe those members of the government gang . . .)

Gangs rely on snagging people when they’re young.  Enticing them with something they want.  Then entrapping them.  Then threatening bad consequences if they try to leave the relationship.  Kind of like Jerry Sandusky.  Or Islam.  Or the Democratic Party.  Or the Communists.  (sorry for the redundancy-my bad) 

I don’t suppose Ballerina Girl has heard of The Lord’s Army and this Joseph Kony dude.  Seems like they do an awful lot of kidnapping of children and then turn them into soldiers for their “cause”.  What a guy!  I absolutely do not condone Kony, but it wouldn't surprise me though if he were more honest about his intentions than any of those listed above. 

Anyway, the point is that there’s probably a good number of “children” who are acting as “gangbangers” and doing the shooting.  After all, don't the courts tend to take a more lenient approach to minors where punishment is concerned?  Thus, if you need gunmen why would you not use children?  (Again, not endorsing here, just trying to break down the model by which the enterprise operates.) 

But the real message here from the ballerina girl to the gangsters is that the government hates competition.


After all, if you gangsters kill children in the crossfire, then we the government can’t indoctrinate them to become composite-Americans like “Julia” who will spend their life ever asking Uncle Sugar for more programs and help for their worthless lives.  If you gangsters kill children, then we can’t later use them as our gunmen to kill people we want killed.  If you gangsters kill children, then we can't put them in The Matrix to feed our furnaces.

 

Do it for . . .(wait for it) . . .the children.



You are here!

 The government hates competition.  Especially for children.

Did I miss anything?

Researching the Opposition

New civility: Creepy Democrats now stalking Republicans

While most serious campaigns on both sides use campaign trackers — staffers whose job is to record on video every public appearance and statement by an opponent — House Democrats are taking it to another level. They’re now recording video of the homes of GOP congressmen and candidates and posting the raw footage on the Internet for all to see.

Story here.

And I’m sure this is only being used for political purposes.

Because as we all know, the left is so . . . . civil.

So is anybody watching them, or is this another episode of "They Live, We Sleep"?

Onward to the final victory - The Cliffs of InsaniTV

Onward to the final victory 

As reported here on Friday, Kim Jong Un has a new tune on his MP3 player. 

I was able to come up with a translation and some captions. 

Enjoy!

Kim Jong Un Theme Song!

Story here



I think the name of it is "Onward to the final mass grave and all Kim can eat buffet."  But I probably messed up the translation.  I'll see what I can do to decipher it. 

Dear HusseinO.  I have glorious new song!  You figure out umbrella yet?

Obamacare Snark Art

I wanted to come up with something that explains succinctly the coming doom of America under Obamacare.  I've probably not gone far enough, but here's my attempt:

• You will buy insurance. 
• If you don't buy insurance, then you'll be penalized taxed.  
• If you don't pay the penalty tax, you'll be jailed.
• If you refuse to go to the gulag, then the state will escalate as much as necessary to achieve the desired end which is your complete and utter ruination in every conceivable facet of your life.  (Presumably, you will then be insured.) 
• Your dear leader, Obama will laugh all the way. 

Comments and thoughts welcome.  Feel free to use as you please. I'll work on making this "Avery-label" ready later.

Did I miss anything? 

Oh yeah, the EPIC comment and rant from Dedicated Dad which are still as current and spot-on today as when they were uttered.   

Dedicated_Dad said...

Though I find much in the life, philosophy and words of Malcolm X with which I disagree, there is one phrase of which I am perhaps more fond than he:

By Any Means Necessary.

This great Republic is filled with men who - like me - will not submit to tyranny.

Though I have maintained medical insurance throughout my adult life - at great expense, especially during periods of unemployment - This I vow:

if this disgusting travesty is signed into law I will immediately and permanently drop my coverage.

Further, I will take any and all possible steps to avoid paying any taxes or penalties associated with this ridiculous abuse of power.

Let me be plain: I hereby announce my intention to do everything within my power to willfully violate the so-called "coverage mandate" - for no other reason than the fact that I am a free man and will not be subjugated by this or any other regime.

Let this statement serve as my declaration and confession of guilt - if I am without coverage it is due to a deliberate and willful act on my part.

Further, let this serve as a warning that I will resist any and all attempts to use physical force to compel my compliance (or punish my non-compliance) by any and all means which are or may come to my disposal.

By Any Means Necessary.

Let me be clear: I have always maintained health insurance and will continue to do so - but an out-of-control government's demand that I do is probably the only thing which could PREVENT me from doing so.

I am a citizen, not a subject.

I will not submit.

I will resist.

By Any Means Necessary.

November 8, 2009 7:29 PM