The Last Blog Post - "Don't Be Safe"

This is a tough one to write, for emotional, physical, and coordination reasons....
A few months ago, I started having problems driving, walking, and accomplishing basic tasks.  After a quick trip to the ER,I was diagnosed with some nasty brain tumors.
So this is it, folks.....
Starting this website has been one of the best decisions I've ever made.  I't's gotten me politically involved, and has earned me friends and readers all over the world.
Im' gonna try really hard not go get too maudlin or sentimental here....

For the last 20 years or so, I've been responsible for running my company's morning Production Meeting.  I never figured out why I was the one to do it.   Perhaps it's because I'm the guy who hates meetings the most, and I was always able to keep the thing moving along at a decent pace.

Several years ago, some of our owners went to a trade show that featured some presenters from Disney.
The Disney people said that their #1 priority was to "Be Safe".
Well, that's bullshit.
Their #1 priority is to bring happiness to families everywhere" (you can look it up -- it's in their mission statement).
You don't dress a teenager up like Tinkerbell and zipline her from Cindederella's Castle to the top of The Matterhorn every night if your #1 priority is to be safe.
That's what you do if you want to be awesome.
Anyway,because of the report on the Disney speakers,  I got into a rut of saying "Be Safe" at the end of every meeting  It was our Amen,our dismissal, and our Benediction.  .  If I could take a "Do Over" on anything I've done at work in the last few years, it would be to come up with another closing line to use at the end of that meeting.

People once told my father that if he ever started growing and irrigating rice on his farm, it would poison the land.  Because of his decision to go ahead with a new rice  crop instead of cotton and sobybeans, I got to see The Colisseum in Rome.  I got to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.
Because Darrell Cooper Sr decided to have some "Entrepreneurial Seizures", I've had the glorious privilege of seeing the sun come up twice on the same day while flying over the Great Wall Of China.
So what should I have said for the last 20 years?
How about "Be Wise?"  "Be Cautious"?
I dunno.
But I'm now working with a very short clock, so to speak.  If I fit into the statistical norms, I've got anywhere from 15 to 18 months to be around.   I know that the first time I sat down with my daughter at a Blackjack table and saw her split 10's against a dealer Ace, that she would do just fine.  She was going to be ok.  She was going to terrify me, but she wasn't going to be held back by anything or anybody.
She will never (in TS Eliot
's phrase)  measure out her life with coffee spoons.  She's going to live it up to 11 every chance she gets.
So please don't ever, ever waste another minute of your wonderful life with "being safe"Take risks.
 Destroy your perrectly laid-out shop and put in a Specialty Department. (Hello Ray!!) Get involved in politics and put Mary Kelleher to work disrupting the most corrupt institution in Fort Worth  .Raise Hell.  Find some activists to associate with, and bang some pots and pans together in the street.  WIN the Fort Worth Gay Pride parade  and then wake up the nest morning to staff your booth at a gun rights show.  I promise you that if you ever get brain tumors everyone of of those beautiful people you meet will come see you in the hospital.
And yes, I'm very much aware that I'm one of the few people I know who has had to use a helicopter pilot as a designated driver.
That's part of the package.  (Yeah, there probably is some middle ground between getting drunk enough to see dead people and "Being safe".)
I'm writing this post with a head full of creepy-crawlies, and sorry for the lack of spelling, grammar, and coherence.
But folk, please don't ever, ever, ever waste your time in being too safe.
You know that idea you have of a better way to fix broken windshields?  Do it.  Start that business.  That book you've always wanted to write?  Those earrings you want to start designing to sell online?
Do it now.  Yeah, people might laugh.  Who cares?  There will always be people willing to wait in line to laugh at your ambitions.  Let them be the ones to be safe.
Whether you know it or not, you too, are working with a short clock.
If you can to one thing right now for me or for yourself, don't be safe.
It's been real.
Don't be safe.

Barack is going to Ohio to Increase Our Manufacturing Capacity!!!

You may not have read about it because he wasn't accompanied with his usual wave of unemployment, disaster, debt and racial discord, but Barack recently visited Ohio.

Here's an article that the good folks at Industry Week recently sent me.

President Obama will be in Cleveland, Ohio, today to talk about his plan to strengthen U.S. manufacturing by investing in new technology

.O, God, God almightty help us all...  Most of Barack's "investments" have been in green energy, America's Community Colleges, Solyndra, anti-global warmingscams, infrastructure, canisters of Leprechaun farts, sustainables, and other failed schemes.  

We've got the smallest percentage of our workforce employed than we have in a long, long time, and we're in big trouble. Hillary and Jeb Bush are warming up offstage.  This is sooo...scary.  

H CRAP!!! 

He's got his shirt sleeves rolled up.  that means he's ready to work.  And we all know what happens when he does that...

Manufacturers are adding jobs at the fastest rate in decades with nearly 900,000 new positions created in the last five years. Factory production is up by a third since the recession and factories across the U.S. are experiencing growth not seen since the 90s.

This fool has never even managed a Taco Bell Night Shift....

The new White House and Commerce Department plan looks to take advantage of the latest surge with a series of initiatives including:

Competitions

The Department of Defense is launching a competition for leading manufacturers, universities, and non-profits....

Hey, how would you describe Barack's donor base?  Let's start with universities and non-profits....

 to form a new manufacturing hub focused on revolutionary fibers and textiles technologies. The $75 million federal investment will be matched by more than $75 million of private sector resources.  These private sector resources" are often called "campaign contributions" in the real world.  

Also, there will be $320 million competition to strengthen small manufacturers. Non-profits in 12 states will compete for $158 million in Federal funds matched by $158 million or more in private investment over five years to provide technology and engineering expertise to small manufacturers through the latest round of competitions to strengthen the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)’s network of centers in these states.

Supply Chain Innovation

A new White House and Commerce Department Report describes a dense network of small manufacturers that make up the backbone of America’s supply chains, contributing more than 40% of all manufacturing employment. However, even as their share of U.S. manufacturing employment grows, small firms continue to face stiff challenges in innovation. As the new report finds:

Small manufacturers are playing an increasingly important role in U.S. supply chains and the manufacturing sector overall. Today, small manufacturers employ 42% - or nearly half of all U.S. manufacturing workers - up ten percentage points from their share in the 1980s. 

Dense networks of these small manufacturers are vital to the process of taking a product from concept to market, and the exchange of manufacturing know-how across suppliers is essential for the diffusion of the new product ideas and innovative processes that give U.S. manufacturing its cutting edge.

However, because of the barriers they face, small manufacturers often lag behind their larger peers in adopting critical new technologies. 

Ok, class, raise your hands if you've heard this before....

"Most of our job growth comes from small businesses."  

Heard it before?  

Of course you have.  It's one of those obvious factoids that government gnomes and their media friends love to repeat.  

It's like saying "Most of the growth in forests comes from trees that aren't grown yet."  But they say it like it's brilliant.  Wisdom.  Waaaaay smart. 

For example, a recent survey found that fewer than 60% of small manufacturers were experimenting in any way with 3-D printing, a potentially transformative technology that is especially beneficial for small companies due to its flexibility. In contrast, over 75% of large firms were using the technology.

The White House Supply Chain Innovation Initiative will focus on public-private partnerships and new federal efforts to strengthen U.S. manufacturing overall by closing this gap.

The event will be live streamed at www.whitehouse.gov/live.

God helps us all.  

Barack has come up with another public-private partnership.  

Any time you hear public-private partnership, cover up your wallet, lock your purse in the trunk, and bury the family silver in your back yard.  

The risks are going to be public, and any profits will be privatized.  

I'm sorry for repeating that cliche, but as long as "public-private partnership"is polling well with idiots,Democrats, I've got to repeat it..

Ok, here's my point....

American manufacturing will regain it's place at #1 in the world when we do the following:

1. Reassure investors, manufacturers, and other risk-takers that our government isn't going to confiscate and redistribute any profits.  

2.  Eliminate the risk of hiring someone.  If I hire someone to unload shipping containers, all I want is to have my containers unloaded.  I don't want to take on a dependent.  I don't want to be sued if he's black or brown, and I decide to stop purchasing his labor.  I don't want Nancy Pelosi to dictate what I have to pay him to unload my containers.

4.  And finally, it doesn't matter if I'm getting raw material from Canada, Mexico, Cuba, South Africa, or Kenya, it should all come into the country at the same tariff rate.  We have tens of thousands of government Munchkins earning great salaries slapping tariffs and quota restrictions on imported stuff.  All of those people should be propped against a wall and shot.  

5.  We gotta end our public school system, then bulldoze every public school, plow salt into the ground so nothing can every grow there again, and try something different.  

6.  Imagine interviewing high school graduates day after day after day, who can't read a tape measure, fill out an application, or answer a simple question.  

Shit, folks, it ain't working any more. It was good while it lasted.  End it.  Let's do something different.    

You might not respect the man, but you've got to respect the office

Any time I hear someone say "You might not respect the president, but you have to respect the office," I'm tempted to respond with "You might not respect Prince Charles, but you have to respect the office."
"You might not respect Fidel, but you've got to respect the office of Cuban Dicatator for life."
"You might not have liked Pope Pius XXII, or any other pope, but you gotta respect the office."
"You might not respect Reverend Jimmy Swaggart, pastor of the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but you have to respect the office."
No, I don't.
And you don't have to either.  (While I was looking for a picture to illustrate my point, I came across this little gem....

Wow.
President is just a job.
It's a job that has great fringe benefits and staggering opportunities for graft.
IMHO, we'll all be better off when we stop thinking of elected politicians as "leaders" and think of them as referees, rent-a-cops, and infrastructure maintenance contractors.
Seriously....  "Respect for the office" has led more soldiers to an early death then any other flawed belief system.  It's a holdover cliche from the "divine right of kings" era.
The President Of The USA is someone who put together a coalition of rent-seekers, grievance-mongers, parasites, theocrats and military spending enthusiasts for the purpose of winning a beauty contest called an "election".
All that having been said, you might not respect me, my opinions, or blogging in general, but I'm a blogger and this is my blog.
And you've got to respect the office....

You really aren't that big of a deal

1. The Sun is 864,400 miles (1,391,000 kilometers) across. This is about109 times the diameter of Earth. The Sun weighs about 333,000 times as much as Earth. It is so large that about 1,300,000 planet Earths can fit inside of it.  
2. 
   
   
3. The innermost layer of the sun is the core. With a temperature of 15 million kelvins (27 million degrees Fahrenheit)
4. The outermost layer of the sun is the corona. Only visible during eclipses, it is a low density cloud of plasma with higher transparency than the inner layers. The white corona is a million times less bright than the inner layers of the sun, but is many times larger. The corona is hotter than some of the inner layers. Its average temperature is 1 million K (2 million degrees F) but in some places it can reach 3 million K (5 million degrees F). 
5. 
   Temperatures steadily decrease as we move farther away from the core, but after the photosphere they begin to rise again. There are several theories that explain this, but none have been proven.
   
   
   In the corona, above sunspots and areas of complex magnetic field patterns, are solar flares. These sparks of energy sometimes reach the size of the Earth and can last for up to several hours. Their temperature has been recorded at 11 million K (20 million degrees F). The extreme heat produces x rays that create light when they hit the gases of the corona.
6. 
   
   
7. The sun is the source of virtually all heat for our planet.  The earth is insignificant in comparison.  
8. If you want to feel even more insignificant, this guy ran a program to prove that every human alive would fit into one 900-meter ball.  
9. 
   
   
10. And yet if our politicians are to be believed, our failure to give them more control over the energy economy is boiling the planet.  
11. Seriously, people....  It's time to get over yourselves.  It's the sun, and the occasional lack of it.  You aren't that big of a deal.  Go here for more fun details.  
12. 
    
    

The real scandal of Hillary Clinton's email account

When She Whose Name Is Not Spoken (The Hildebeast, Hillary Clinton) was Secretary of State, she was supposed to only use a government email account, and nothing but a government email account.  You know, hackers, spies, terrorists, and the like could possibly hack into her Hildebeast@aol.com emails without anyone being the wiser.
 
Instead, Hillary used a private account.

She was not about to let investigators, oversight committees, or even historians have a look at what she's doing for foreign governments to generate money for the Clinton Foundation (and the $$$'s came rolling in, BTW.)

This is supposed to be a scandal.

But let's look at this from the point of view of a Martian, or someone who has been living under a rock for the last 30 years.  Or just because it would be a new experience, let's really think about this thing....

This is the person who was involved in:

*Whitewater
*Travelgate
*Filegate
*Chinagate
*Vince Foster dying for her sins
*Benghazi
*The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (LOL)
and....
*The Great Cattle Futures Scandal

All of which prompted the late great William Safire to solemnly intone that "Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our First Lady -- a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation -- is a congenital liar.

This was in the New York Holy Times, BTW.  

So should this email thing be viewed as a legit scandal, or not?  
I say no.  
The scandal is that Barack Obama wanted to give this lying twit a government email account.  

Global Warming - The Biggest Religion That No One Believes In

I'm not the first person to notice that Climate Change Advocacy is taking on characteristics of a religion.  Go here.

I could've made my own list, but the one at the link works well.

• Original sin: Mankind is responsible for the prophesied disasters, especially those of us who live in suburbs and drive our SUVs to strip malls and chain restaurants.

• The need for atonement and repentance: We must impose a carbon tax or cap-and-trade system, which will raise the cost of everything and stunt economic growth.

• Rituals: We must observe Earth Day, and we must recycle.

• Indulgences: Private jet-fliers like Al Gore and sitcom heiress Laurie David can buy carbon offsets to compensate for their carbon-emitting sins.

• Prophecy and faith in things unseen: Advocates say we must act now before it is too late.

I would add The Punishment Of Heretics (deniers), and a few more details on the symbolic gestures (green energy, driving a Prius, slapping "green" labels on products), and a lack of falsifiability (Miami could freeze solid, and it would still be a sign of Global Warming).  

Al Gore's Noble Prize co-winner recently said that fighting Climate Change was his religion.  And here's an interesting point of view from some dude at MIT.  

In the meantime, in Fort Worth TX, we're freezing our rear ends off.  Here's a few pics of my truck, my yard, my workplace parking lot, and my drive this morning.  

So here's a New York Holy Times article predicting the end of snow.  

Here's a widely mocked and reprinted piece from about 15 years ago predicting the end of snow in England.  I've lost 5 days of production (out of a possible 9) because of ice and snow.  

And in the meantime, earlier this year, we had got snowfall predicted in all 50 states, yet people STILL believe that the planet has a fever, and giving more money to Obama will lower the temperature.  

Ok, now that I have the preliminary throat-clearing out of the way....

An idiot Democrat Congressman (pardon the redundancy) went on a short-lived witch hunt a few months ago, asking prominent scientists if they had ever doubted the reality of Global Warming.  He wanted to know where they got their funding.  In short, he was trying to intimidate the opposition to his fundraising scam.  

The media are starting to ask similar questions of next year's political candidates.  It's becoming a "gotcha".  To paraphrase the late senator Joe McCarthy, "Do you now, or have you ever doubted the reality of Global Warming?"

Here's how politicians should reply:

"No, I don't believe that my behavior has a significant effect on the weather, or the climate.  I don't believe that anyone on earth behaves as if their travel, energy usage, or diet significantly changes the weather.  And out of curiosity, what is the primary action you take to combat Climate Change?"

Then sit back and listen to the glorious silence.  

Everyone in the news media flies.  The drive.  They generally eat meat.  I daresay that the average newsprint or TV journalist has a carbon footprint that rivals that of a NASCAR driver.  

I started asking this question (mostly in bars) a few months ago, and most people hem and haw, and then talk about how they vote, and which politicians they've given money to.  

Try it sometime.  Ask a Global Warming True Believer what they do to fight Climate Change.  The condensed answer will be "not a damn thing".  

I know very few people who truly believe the major tenets of the religion that they profess, and behave accordingly.  

One of them is this guy.  He carries this sign and pulls this wagon full of Bibles all over west Fort Worth.  Unless it's raining or snowing, he's out there.  He believes that there is a Hell, and unless he can convince you to accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, you're going there.  He's worried about you.  

He might be batshit crazy, but his actions are truly in line with his beliefs.  I have a lot of respect for that old man.  

I don't believe in Global Warming.  I think it's one of the biggest con games in history.  Therefore, I drive a big ol' Ford F-150.  I eat what I want to eat.  

But if you are a Global Warming True Believer, what's the difference in you and me?  

In Praise Of Mario Cuomo

Go here to enjoy Samizdata's Perry Metzger opening a can of whoop-ass and sprinkling it on the grave of Mario Cuomo.  "I encourage all to mourn his loss in whatever manner they feel appropriate."

Good job, sir. 

 

The Charlie Hebdo Cartoons of Muhammad

12 people were recently killed in a cowardly terrorist attack on the office of the French satirical newspaper "Charlie Hebdo".    These are the cartoons of Muhammad / Mohammad / that supposedly caused the bombing. 

Compared to works like "Piss Christ", or portraits of the Virgin Mary made of elephant manure, they're pretty tame. 

Has it occurred to anyone else that the more tolerant of religious criticism a society becomes, the more religion tends to flourish there? 

For instance, you can go to New York City and see a musical play where a copy of The Book Of Mormon gets shoved up a Mormon missionary's ass.  The Mormon Church is flourishing in the USA. 

Ditto for most other religions. 

Go figure.  Let's hope France responds with increased satire and liberty, and not with calls for censorship disguised as sensitivity. 

A Free Market Prayer For The New Year

Sometime around Christmas I went out to eat with some old-time old-school friends that I hadn't seen for a while.  We chose a Mexican restaurant (and the food was amazing). 

I got a massive amount of burritos, tostadas, rice, beans, chips, queso, and I forget what else for only $10.95.  Everyone else got a similar bounty for their bucks. 

My friends at the table are not religious.  They're not even spiritual.  But one of them said "For this food at this price, I feel like a prayer of some kind is in order." 

All eyes turned in my direction....

Here's what I improvised, or at least my rough memory of it.  It owes more than a little to Leonard Reed's immortal "I, Pencil" essay. 

No heads were bowed.  No eyes were closed.  I wasn't talking to god or gods.  It's just what I wanted people to know, and what I hoped we all felt:

"We're grateful for this food.  For the farmers who grew it, for the cattlemen who fed it, and for the workers who harvested it. 

Let us not forget the factory owners who processed it, none of whom knew that we would be here eating today.  May we always remember to be grateful for the truckers and warehouse workers who handled the shipping and transport, despite them not even knowing our names.

May we never forget the tremendous risk undertaken by anyone who tries to open and run a restaurant.  And we are grateful for the cooks, the wait staff, the bus boys, and the cleaning crew.

All of those hard-working wonderful people accomplished this miracle on our behalf for the price of $10.95 each. 

May we all be free from rent-seekers who would interject themselves, uninvited, into this process.

May everyone involved in our exchanges believe that they have gotten the best of every deal, and may we all live our lives in a way that encourages others to trade their dishes for our dollars."

- Amen

(The last part in italics wasn't in the original prayer.  I just thought of it, and considered it too good to leave out.)