What are Opinion Polls good for?

In the US, we are fed nearly daily "results" that interpret the findings of "opinion polls".  The apparent purpose of these polls is to influence public opinion, not to measure it.  When people who value finding themselves "on the winning side", or who otherwise display herd mentality, are fed propaganda suggesting that they are in the minority, some people are presumed to be sufficiently lacking in principle that their opinions will be swayed, not by argument, but by the numbers shown to them as though they were a concrete measure of reality.

Opinion polls, particularly those inquiring about issues such as liberty versus serfdom, are inherently biased from the get go by the extremely low response rate of those who love liberty to such polls.  For example, I refuse to participate in a poll designed to function as a surrogate for the actual ballot, because I believe this to be a perversion of the concept of democracy in voting and because my opinion is, simply, my business and becomes public only as I cast my actual vote.

Additionally, most such polls are conducted, and then interpreted, by agencies that have demonstrated very clearly that they are themselves biased ... such as "news" media and American academe.  When the sample is selected by someone with a dog in the race, the poll is conducted by such, and the results are then interpreted by more people with dogs in the race, it seems obvious to me that these polls are mostly propaganda tools and not legitimate measuring devices.

The only measuring device that matters is at the real polls, and that is bad enough ... the leftists have historically manipulated elections through buying of votes (see walking-around money not to mention the welfare state), putting their own impediments in the way of voting without extortion (see "Antifa"), and demanding a recount whenever they closely lose an election (the re-counts often being done by leftist bureaucrats.)  In 2020, how many million illegal aliens will be encouraged to cast votes?  We know that the democrat party was encouraging voter registration in California on the second Clinton election, just as we also know that communist China was making democrat contributions.

Remember, when a leftist in the US accuses someone of scurrilous, corrupt, fraudulent practices, this is generally Projection in action.  That is to say, the leftists are master practitioners of most of the things they accuse liberty-loving people of.

To Hell with the Consent of the Governed???

I am given to understand from the public pronouncements of leftist politicians, as well as from many of my leftist acquaintances, that the leftists believe that by achieving one or more legislative majorities, and by other majoritarian measures such as circumvention of the Electoral College or as packing of the Supreme Court, they will be able to give our Nation a "new system" for which they have been waiting since ... well, since the early 20th Century.

To these leftists, there is no difference between reducing the taxes stolen from productive citizens and compelling those citizens, at gunpoint, to do things they do not wish to do.  In this belief they are planning to play with fire.  Recall what our forefathers wrote almost 250 years ago:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 

The various plans of the leftists ... such as gun registration, followed naturally by confiscation, crippling taxation, confiscation of privately owned gasoline powered automobiles, forced remodeling of homes and other businesses, compelling citizens to allow government bureaucrats to decide what medical services they may and may not receive, et cetera et cetera et cetera ad nauseam ... have no place for "the consent of the governed."

My happiness is derived from my liberty.  I have a limited lifespan and very much enjoy the power to make my own decisions about how to expend that crucial and very personal resource.

Anyone who believes that having achieved a majority allows them to rape and pillage the rest of the productive citizens of our Nation risks awakening much more than a sleeping giant.  I sincerely hope the leftists do not attempt this, but plans like the "Green New Deal" will if enacted awaken not only giants but Gods and Demons.  I hope my kids don't have to live through a revolution, especially not one born of the illiberal, fascist wet-dreams of the authoritarian and despotic left.

Wise up, fools, before you ignite something you cannot extinguish.

Well, here we are in 2019.  Shortly after the Election in 2016, I wrote the following:

It remains now to see if all the people we have elected will have the courage carry the mandate we have given them and correct the many excesses put in place by the statists over the years.  They will surely be called bad names such as "partisan" but I hope they will remember that we people who elected them have been called far worse names for many years, especially so recently.  We have given them a mandate; now it is their duty to earn the powers we have given them by respecting our earnest wishes, for a renaissance of Liberty.  God give them that courage.

My conclusion, after watching the nonsense in both the House and Senate, was that God had indeed failed to give them courage.  Some regulations were relaxed, mostly by executive action, and a very welcome tax reduction was passed.  But "Obamacare" was not repealed even though, as has been pointed out, without the "mandate" it is unconstitutional.  Remember that our "conservative" Chief Justice saved the entire law from the dung heap by proclaiming that the whole law was a "Tax" based on the "mandate" and therefore within the legislative power of Congress.  So it is now an unconstitutional usurpation of power by the democrat Congress of in 2010, essentially supplanting a competitive field of private industry and replacing it with another huge Federal bureaucracy ruling over a much smaller field of private companies whose offerings are now limited and prescribed, and whose policies may only be purchased during certain time windows, and, worst of all, which has dramatically increased the cost of medical care for all consumers while imposing deductibles that are beyond the means of even many middle class families.  Yet even under these conditions our fully Republican Congress and President could not muster the courage to call an end to a horrible idea.

At the same time these "courageous" folks (see the female Senators from Maine and Alaska) did not see fit to reduce the amount of unconstitutional infringement on our rights affirmed in the first, second, fifth and other amendments.  Indeed, they and even our President have done the opposite, by giving lip service to further infringements on our rights of free speech, the right to keep and bear arms, and due process of law, among others.  Surely they have studied enough of history to understand that people without these rights are serfs or slaves.

Now we have a House of Representatives which seems hell bent to have a show-down on those latter infringements.  All of them are on their way to the Senate or shortly will be.  And will our Senate have the courage to simply say "nice try, but no deal?"

I fear not.  In my State of Wyoming, it is very difficult to be elected to any office in most counties by identifying as a Democrat, so the candidates tend to identify as Republicans so that they can be elected.  These people, like my own State Senator whose last name is Pappas, routinely vote in ways that any leftist would love, for example co-sponsoring a bill this year called "National Retail Fairness" but whose only effect would be to create a state business income tax.  This man is a "RINO" and as I watched the debate in our Senate this year it was pretty clear that we have a disturbing number of RINOs in that institution as well.

So it will be illuminating to find out exactly who votes in what way on these forthcoming anti-liberty bills from the House.  I plan to contribute what I can afford to the opponent of each of those who votes in favor of national gun registration, red-flag laws, or any other illiberal crap that the newly democrat House produces.  I do hope I am wrong and that none of this becomes law, but the last two years argue otherwise.

The language we speak does in many ways affect the way in which we think.  For example, when using many of the world's languages, I must think about the gender of every object... or, in German, the third state of neuter.  Enter the Social Justice Warriors (SJW), who imagine that they are fighting bigotry by practicing an even greater bigotry: Defining who someone is by the constellation of identifiers the SJW approve.  So my race, my ethnicity, my disabilities, and any other things the SJW have chosen to classify as "markers" combine to define who I am, according to the SJW.  The SJW then propose to do away entirely with the English word Man (and derivatives, and with the pronouns associated with Men) and replace them with a detailed taxonomy to describe the large number of "genders" resulting when adopting this process of defining people by these constellations of "markers".  Because I was born male, grew up as a boy, and finally attained manhood with all of its obligations, I am now instructed by the SJW to refer to myself as a "cis-male", which now compels me to be aware of and constantly talk about people who are confused about their sexuality all the time.

I reject all of this bullshit for several reasons.  Firstly, I make my living with my brain and refuse to permit the SJW to invade my thought processes with their ideology.  Secondly, I have no problem with transgender people and treat them as exactly what they present before me; I believe this is as accepting as anyone can be.  I refuse to adopt a vocabulary requiring me to constantly think about how someone came to present as they do; in fact it is none of my business unless they wish to get in bed with me.  Thirdly, I believe that determining who someone is by his or her or its classifications and markers is the very definition of bigotry, is it not, and therefore an act of consummate hypocrisy on the part of the SJW who insist they are bigotry-phobic?

To me people are defined by what they do during their short time of life.  And it is indeed a very short time.  The only thing of real value people possess is a finite and unknown amount of precious, irreplaceable lifespan.  Why would any sane person wish to expend this finite resource telling other people what to do, how to live, when and how to breathe, and in this case how to speak and think, rather than actually doing something good and useful?

Cultural Appropriation

If "cultural appropriation" is to be forbidden us by the mind police, then damn it let's be consistent and inclusive about it.

Soap appears to have been a Babylonian invention more than 4000 years ago.  Among people living on earth, the inhabitants of Iraq are therefore entitled to wash their bodies, clothing, dishes and so on with soap.  Anyone else who lacks Babylonian roots is sinning by Cultural Appropriation and should be using sand or perhaps lilac blossoms instead.

On that subject, toilet paper was invented by Joseph Gayetty of the United States in 1857.  The rest of the world may wipe its asses with its left hand or commit the Sin of Cultural Appropriation.  Leaves might work as well, or the pages from old telephone books or printed catalogs if you can find one.  If all else fails, the pages of books written by the Mind Police themselves could come in handy.

The internal combustion engine is an invention of Europeans and Americans.  Those of other cultures sin by riding automobiles or motorcycles, with the possible exception of those rich enough to drive Teslas.  These appropriators should walk or ride bicycles except that bicycles are also a European invention, so get out there and hoof it, the rest of you.

Antibiotics are an European and American invention.  Those of other cultures sin by trying to stay alive through cultural appropriation.

Electronic digital computers are an European and American invention.  Those of other cultures may use the Abacus if they are Chinese, but they may not use sliderules because these too are European inventions.  And what do we say about Egyptian Music Videos?

I find it offensively stupid that the mind police (those who attempt to control thought through controlling language and other forms of self expression) have convinced presumptively intelligent, or at least "educated", people such as college faculty members that it is somehow evil for me to make a dough of masa flour, press it into a tortilla, and throw it in a frying pan to make and subsequently eat my very own taco on the grounds that such an act is "Cultural Appropriation", when people from all the third world shit holes on this planet are perfectly golden when appropriating all the civilization enhancing inventions of Western Culture.

The consistent application of this particular form of Political Correctness would, incidentally, implement and enforce a real, rather than imagined, form of  Western Culture Privilege.

Reply to the Heroic Susan Collins of Maine

Dear Senator Collins,

I am not going to send you any money.  And the fundraising organization that is conducting this campaign will probably ignore my reply, so my writing one is actually the sort of lament from the wilderness that you claim yourself to be doing below.  Nevertheless just in case someone actually deals with feedback from your solicitees I shall write this anyway, to explain *why* I am not going to send you any money.

You assert that the left is exerting itself to intimidate people they disagree with.  This is certainly true, and in this regard most of the "news" media are acting in concert with and therefore acting as part of the Left.

The Left has been engaging in Hate Crimes since before we won in 2016, and all of us voters who made that win happen are the objects of their hatred.  Not just you.  Individuals and mobs have been serving the Left just as the Brownshirts (SA) served Hitler and as the Bolsheviks served Lenin.  We all see video of "Antifa" (actually, Pro-"fa") mobs threatening citizens with deadly force on the streets in Portland and in some cases applying it.  Remember that damage done to a victim which does not heal fully in six months is defined as serious bodily harm in most States, and that inflicting or threatening to inflict serious bodily harm is a use of deadly force justifying a response with up to deadly force to stop the attack.

We common citizens have only the common law and some places statute law which acknowledge that we have what Blackstone called "the cardinal human right of self defense."  For most of us common citizens, this human right is our *only* shield against intimidation and threat of death or grievous bodily harm from Leftist mobs.  For most of us, there is no one available but ourselves to protect us, and unless we are in a State that allows us to carry the means for self defense, we are completely defenseless, and unable to exercise our cardinal right, in the face of deadly Leftist mob violence.

You ask for money so that you may protect yourself against intimidation.  This is absurd.  You are a sitting US Senator and as such have available to you armed security, to a degree unavailable to most common citizens, to augment your own right and ability to defend yourself if you so choose and if your State or District government rulers allow you to do so.

I already pay what is, to me, an obscene amount of money in Federal taxes which pay your salary and expenses, including I am sure armed security, in serving as you have been elected to do.  Inasmuch as I am solely responsible for my own defense and that of my family, and inasmuch as the Left's hatred is directed not merely at politicians but at the people such as me who elected them, it is I who should be asking your support in my defense, not you asking me.  Let's see you vote enthusiastically in favor of National reciprocity for State concealed weapon permits, for example; I am presently not permitted to carry weapons in Oregon and so if I found myself in Antifa's way there, I would be reduced to begging on my knees unless I, a 70 year old man, foolishly tried grappling with club wielding, fit young men.  Either way with good luck I might merely wind up in a hospital.  So I look forward to your support for this.

If on the other hand you are seeking funds to facilitate your re-election as a US Senator, there are two problems with this.  The first is that your duty is to serve the interests of the State of Maine, not of me or of the State of Wyoming.  Therefore it would seem appropriate that you raise funds from Maine and let we in Wyoming raise funds for the people who actually represent *our* State.

The only rationale for my contributing money to your next campaign in Maine would require that I somehow concluded that your actions in the Senate served my interests and those of Wyoming.  Your letter refers to your dramatically belated consent to the President's appointment of Brett Kavanaugh as though it is some incredibly laudable act on your part.  I don't agree.  Given that Sen Schumer (the same man who grinned during the House hearings about the murdering of women and children by Janet Reno's minions in Waco Texas) basically announced in advance that his party would vote in lockstep to oppose *any* nominee proposed by the President, the appropriate advice from the entire Republican party would have been to dispense with hearings not required by the Constitution and proceed to consent immediately.  You simply did the right thing, as did your peers in this case; but, as you have done on several matters before the Senate since we elected President Trump, you once again grandstanded for publicity by taking advantage of the Media's enthusiasm for representing you as some sort of un- principled swing vote who could be swayed by the winds of public opinion polls often conducted by those same media.  I might be wrong, but to me it certainly appears that your public grandstanding is designed to serve Susan Collins and not Maine, the United States or we citizens.  I am also pretty sure that the reason the Left is perhaps targeting you more than some other Senators is that rather than simply voting "yea" you milked the situation for as much publicity as you could get.  If that is not the case, you need to redesign your messaging because that is exactly what it conveys now, at least to me.

My problem with supporting your next campaign, Senator, is that in many of your past grandstandings you finally cast your vote in ways that *do not* serve the interests of me, my family, my State, our my Nation.  For simply one example:  Perhaps you do not fully understand what the falsely named "Affordable Care Act" has done to destroy the feasibility of insuring a working family in this country.  Up until 2010 I could insure a person extremely well using a high deductible major medical policy and just paying for most services and medications up to the deductible.  Total cost on the order of $4500 per year with no services needed, 8500 per year max and thereafter no co-pay and no practical upper limit.

Last year, only seven years later, the least expensive Obama approved non short term policy available for my 40 year old domestic partner here in Wyoming would have cost us $7200 a year in premiums and a $6000 deductible, with 50% co-pay after the deductible.  Let me help with the arithmetic.  This means a guaranteed loss of $7200 every year.  It means no help whatsoever with our expenses until we have paid out a total of $13,200 cash in one year (mandatory premium plus deductible amount.)  Thereafter the 50% co-pay applies.  What this means is a minimum health care cost of $7200 per year for a healthy person who needs none, and it also means that the Obama approved policy *only increases* the cost of health care above and beyond what the cash price would be, unless a person's annual cost of health care actually exceeds a number on the order of $20,000 at which point it starts producing a small benefit.  This assumes, of course, that the unfortunate insured is not already bankrupt after having shelled out more than $20,200 herself (7200 + 6000 + 14000/2) as of that point.  If so, then the lucky insured would find that the *next* 20k worth that year only cost her another $10k, again assuming she was not yet bankrupt.  And of course it all begins again at the start of the next year.

Seven years is a mighty short time for these costs to change that much given that the reason for the change was a cynically deceptive claim by the Left of making the whole business of personal survival "affordable".  George Orwell could not have misnamed it better.

I will not send you even $10 because you have voted to preserve this obscene scam known as the ACA.  My family needs to conserve its money to pay the drastically increased costs which we must endure thanks to the ACA, and we can only shudder when thinking about what next move the Leftists, probably with your thoughtful, deliberative and publicity-rich assistance, plan to make with that knife they have shoved into, and which you have voted to leave in, our backs.

Very Respectfully – Greg, a common citizen who loves liberty and despises hypocrisy.

European Union GDPR Bullshit

The EU, which somehow claims jurisdiction over what I post on this platform, also claims the power to compel me to do things.  I of course respond here and now to inform the European Union that my ancestors declared independence from the British Crown and created the United States precisely because the sort of imperious, absentee proclamations now made by the EU bureaucrats upon people to whom they are not accountable were intolerable, as it still are.  So, to the EU, shove your proclamations up your collective asses.

However, this platform is provided by Google.  That company, like other treasonous American companies, has demonstrated its submissiveness by willingly acting as an arm of the Communist Chinese government in promoting its propaganda, censoring what its unfortunate citizens read, and aiding that government in its surveillance efforts, among other things.  Therefore, to continue using this platform, Google demands that we post the following nonsense.  Also, to avoid being fined a King's ransom by the EU which still believes in Kings, I will declare here and now that I collect no personal information from or about anyone using this blog, nor do I wish to; therefore, there is nothing for me to delete, and any requests will be ignored.

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