Official Statistics

I will admit, that I will use statistics just as much as the next guy.  I don't have a problem using statistics.  There is no evil in the statistics themselves, as data is amoral.

But there is an old saying in America: "Figures never lie, but liars can figure."

Data doesn't manipulate itself, but it does get manipulated.  People who want gun-control are notorious for doing this.  Politicians come up with stunning ways to spin facts and figures. Two of the easiest ways to do this are to either include way too much information, or leave out a lot of information.  This little essay has to do with the latter.

Take a look at this graph:

See that dip down to zero at 1919 to 1925 area?  That's because of the passage of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution and the subsequent Volstead Act.  Since this graph depicts the number of permits,* I have no problem with this graph.  It makes perfect sense.  The graph would be idiotic if it didn't show the number of licenses for producing alcoholic beverage dropping to zero during the time of prohibition.

But let's look at another graph:

Take your time and ponder it slowly. 

This second graph made the claxons go off in my head.  The question is, can you see the problem with this graph?  Anyone?  Anyone?   Bueller? 

Well, you would have to know the rest of the story.  There were a few characters who became famous during the prohibition era, and most notably two.  One of them was far more honest than the other one and spent 11 years in Federal prison for it.  The other guy was lucky enough to be born the son of a prominent politician in whose footsteps he would follow and use his prestige and connections to sock away millions of dollars under the cover of legitimate business.  Read the passage below to figure out who.

"By 1925, New York was filled with speakeasy clubs that sold liquor illegally. Some historians say there were 30,000 to 100,000 speakeasy clubs operating in the city, several of which were well known as watering holes for government officials. Prohibition was an attempt to control and reduce the amount of liquor sold in the states, but like most laws, all it did was drive up the price of the regulated item and stimulate the growth of a well-organized underground black market.
One of the most famous names associated with bootlegging liquor at the time was Joseph P. Kennedy – the successful investor, businessman and political leader. Kennedy traveled to England with President Roosevelt's son, James, and made a deal to be the exclusive distributor of scotch, gin and bourbon from Scotland and England. Kennedy had the connections, the warehouses and the money to make the deal, which became a cash cow for him and the family.
One of the reasons the Kennedy bootlegging stories seem accurate is Joseph's association with Samuel Bronfman, the founder of Distillers Corporation based in Montreal. Bronfman specialized in cheap whiskey and took advantage of Prohibition in the United States by bootlegging his whiskey to cities like Boston, New York and Chicago.
Kennedy and Bronfman became business partners of sorts when Bronfman bought Joseph E. Seagram & Sons in 1928, but some kind of relationship developed a few years earlier when Danny Walsh and his crime syndicate bought liquor from the Bronfman-run group. Kennedy had contacts with many Irishmen in Boston at the time and Danny was on that list. Some historians say Kennedy didn't have to be a bootlegger; just about every other Irishman in Boston was."

Why didn't I use the Wikipedia entry or a dozen others?  Because the conquerors are the ones who write history, not the slaves.  Too much of the Kennedy dynasty is still alive and kicking.  But I digress.  That's not the main point of this post. The main point is in the first paragraph of the passage.

If I presented a graph showing marijuana consumption in the U.S. based on sales in retail outlets across all fifty States, I think you would fall out of your chair laughing.  Why?  Because everybody with an I.Q. above room temperature knows that tens or hundreds of billions of dollars worth of cannabis goes up in smoke every year in America.  Are you starting to see the problem with graph number two?

The United States has the peculiar distinction of having a major, multi-billion dollar, nearly exclusively spectator sport that owes its existence to one thing: Prohibition.  That sport is NASCAR.
Please don't cite Wikipedia for me.  I'm from the Southeastern U.S.  I know too many people who are proud as hell to regale you with stories of their fathers outrunning the Feds in cars made fast out of necessity.  We still have names of roads in the deep south that reflect the prohibition era and running moonshine.

The point I'm making, if you haven't already guessed it, is how incredibly silly is that second graph. Does anyone really believe that Al Capone, and probably hundreds of others, made millions of dollars while alcohol consumption dropped to nearly zero?  When you see statistics or figures presented, learn to think.  Ask questions.  Ponder what data might be missing.  Cogitate over who's presenting the data and why.  Anybody who accepts that second chart above without any qualms or questions makes me think of this:

 

But then that's what the global elite have been working so hard for anyway.

 

Now, how long are you going to believe that this whole "War-on-drugs" is a good idea?

 

After the coming meltdown or TEOTWAWKI, if there are enough free people still alive to start a new society and we can write a new Constitution, the following would be two of the articles that I would fight for:

 

 

Article [#] 

Since history has proven that inanimate objects are inherently amoral and can do nothing outside of the hands of man, and since it is self -evident that a person's body is his sole and inviolable property to care for as he sees fit, no branch or any other entity of government shall ever have the power to make any object or thing, whether inanimate or tangible, or even intangible to be banned or restricted or regulated.  This article shall be exempt from repeal or modification by amendment so long as this entire Constitution is in effect.

 

Article [#]

It being obvious to people of reasonable intelligence that there can be no such thing as a crime where there is no victim, no branch or entity of government shall ever have the power to enact any legislation, statute, act, or code which makes any activity illegal or unlawful which does not harm or infringe upon the rights, person, or property of another individual.

 

What say you?

*permits and licensing are an evil and abhorrant thing in a free society.  I hope to do a post in the future that explains why there is no need for any kind of licensing in a free society and just how it actually harms society through the auspices of government.

Waiting for the damn to break

The only people alive today who believe that socialism/communism is the way to order society, are the ones who believe that it's because they and their friends will be the elite intelligentsia who will be running it for the good of the rest of us, or people who believe in the tooth fairy and Santa Claus and free lunches.

Over at Maggie's Farm I found this article headline for Sept. 23, 2014:

"USA Spending 30 Times More Per Capita than China on Social Programs"

 . . . and I shamelessly tell you that I didn't bother to go read it before making this post.  Why?
Because experience and logic tell me that once you have a brutal totalitarian government in place, there is no reason to spend any money at all on the unwashed masses.  You can instead spend your resources on luxurious living for yourself and your gang, and the necessary arms and infrastructure for protecting your elitist lifestyle. When the government has all the guns, the people have no choices. When the government has all control over water and food production, the people are essentially slaves.  Once they seize the guns, it is quite easy to seize everything else.

The reason the U.S. government is spending so much on social programs is because the vast majority of the populace is still working under the illusion that a complete economic collapse is somehow going to be averted. Somehow, other countries like China are going to continue to loan us money in the form of buying our bonds and continuing to allow the U.S. Dollar to be the world reserve and petro-dollar.   Then there is the fact that there are still hundreds of millions of firearms out there that the government hasn't been able to seize, . . . yet. There needs to be some sort of manufactured event that rapidly depopulates the U.S. or some crisis that causes a civil war to bring about martial law.

But soon we will hit the tipping point and the whole thing will come crashing down and the direct deposits to all those bank accounts will stop.  All those electrons that magically seem to appear as "funds" in your IRA or 401(k) or whatever supposed assets you think you have in the bank will vanish.

 



 

Aren't you glad you didn't waste any of your precious time trying to understand what the politicians were doing with your life?

Good luck!

Bad Model! Bad, Bad Model!

I've been saying this for many years now, and it's especially important when it comes to water vapor.

This video is well worth your six minutes.

Hat Tip to Maggie's Farm.

Doomsday Debacle

I could have waited until May 22nd and posted on this subject, but I want to take a stand now and make sure everybody who reads my blog knows that I think Mr. Fitzpatrick is an embarrassment to Christianity.  He is doing the very thing that Scripture warns not to do.

Oh, I don't mean predicting Messiah's return.  That's just part of it. He is teaching a bunch of false doctrine with his book.  His biggest problem is that he is causing the Bible and The Creator to be mocked.  Granted that pagans will mock the Bible anyway, but "Christians" are not supposed to give them the reason and ammunition to do so.

I'm not ready to post a full expose on Mr. Fitzpatrick's egregious theory.  I downloaded the PDF file of his book and have only made my way to page 148 of a 384 page book.  I've already found so many errors I can't stand it.  It will not be easy limiting myself to just explaining why his doomsday prediction alone is wrong.

Stay tuned.    Shalom Y'all.

Oil of Madness

Quick.  Which country in the world has the most oil beneath it's land and territorial waters?

Which country in the world has enough coal for generating very affordable electricity for the next 200 or more years?

Which country in the whole world has not built a single nuclear reactor for generating power in over thirty years while many other nations produce as much as 90% of their electricity that way with no safety problems?

Yep.  Same country.

Which country in the entire world has such a perfect safety record with nuclear power at sea for over half a century, that all of its aircraft carriers, submarines, and now cruisers and destroyers are all being run on nuclear power?

Yep.  Same country.

Source article here.

If you think that "Big Oil" is to blame for you not being able to afford fuel at the pump, you probably also believe that movie actors want to see the prices at the box office get ridiculously expensive as well.

If you believe that it makes sense to shut down all drilling and oil recovery in all the coastal waters of the U.S. because of one rig exploding, you probably think it's a good idea to recall all cars made by GM because one had a mechanical failure that caused an accident.

You probably also believe that carbon dioxide causes earth's atmosphere to heat up.

You probably also believe that your plants understand you when you talk.

We Told You So

I remember being laughed at and called an alarmist going back 15 years, when I would say that Social Security was a Ponzi scheme and that the funds weren't really there, meaning that there was no isolated account even remotely called a "trust fund."  Oh sure, there are some ledgers with entries in them that show figures being moved here and there, but there is no real money.

Lo and behold, it has taken about the last five years for mainstream conservatives to find some fortitude to speak up about it in spite of what liberals and leftists might say.

But now, even the left wing NPR has discovered that what true conservatives have always said is actually true, and they are even explaining how it happened and that it's a trainwreck waiting to finally crash.

If a private securities firm, insurance company or stock broker even attempted to do what the SSA has done over the years, they would be tarred and feathered by the media and sentenced to a thousand years in Federal prison.  The house of cards is coming down, and it's coming down soon.

Hat tip to Jaded Haven.