Cat item of the week

the NWO is good for you

no I'm not being sarcastic: The aim of the NWO is to make peace and prosperity for everyone, and indeed, the fact that few people live in poverty today (in contrast to the past) is one of the most unreported secrets of today's world.

discussion at the Library of Congress:




I have some reservations on this, mainly because these technocrats could easily have their NWO hijacked by a tyranny, especially if there was a major crisis (global warming, global cooling from volcanoes, solar flare, epidemic disease, etc etc).

But I am bemused at the conspiracy theories that make these plans "evil", be these conspiracies be on the alt/R or the leftist in academia.

StrategyPage on 2019

I find that StrategyPage knows what is actually going on "on the ground" in countries where I have independent knowledge of the actual situation (as opposed to the official news, which often only gives the "official" interpretation.

This is their podcast predicts what to watch out for in the coming year.

audiobook of the week

once we decide some humans can be called non persons, will clones be used as organ donors?

Spare parts

when I worked with the mentally disabled, one of our mothers commented that she disliked physicians "who looked at my beloved autistic son and only saw a potential organ donor".

well, this idea is now being pushed in mainstream medical transplant journals, under the guise that euthanasia was chosen by the patient or family, so it's okay to take out their heart for transplant it to help someone else as a way to euthanaize them.

The ethical problem? similar to using the organs of those given the death penalty:  it will encourage people to figure these people are better off dead and helping someone else, so more felons will be given the death penalty. Or in this case, encouraged to kill themselves so their loved ones won't have to care for them, and hey, some rich dude will get their organs and live.

Ah, but what if God wants them to suffer? place evil god meme here. (wiser men than me have debated the problem of pain and there is no easy answer).

Nah, our theraputic god wants us to be rich and happy. Suffering is taboo. As for pain relief: well some druggies want to take smuggled in Chinese fentanyl and have died of overdoses, so forget that oxycontin that allowed you to live pain free: no narcs for you. So either live in pain or sign here to donate your organs.

Excuse my sarcasm.

There have been cases where the mentally disabled were used for organ donations after doctors told their family they were brain dead. In at least one case, the guy was not brain dead so the doc had to help him along, but never mind. This was California and he was a minority and what do they know?

in this case, the doctors told the family he would never recover, so they said it was okay to take their son's organs... but he was not brain dead, and to make him dead, the doctor overdosed him.

expect to see more propaganda pushing the glamour of Euthanasia for the useless old or handicapped. Why? Because they cost money to care for, and of course, it is economically better if their caregivers were freed up to work and expand the economy than to stay home and care for them. (see earlier rant about pushing women into the workforce).

So the idea to declare people non persons and use them for organ donors, or to persuade the handicapped to permit euthanasia by organ donation, once ideas so anathema to ordinary folks that they were hidden using euphemisms in bioethics journals, now is being proposed in more mainstream transplantation journals.
LINK

as more and more rumors of such cases hit the rumor mill, the result will be fewer willing to donate organs.

How bad is it? Well, 20+ years ago, bioethicist Arthur Caplan wrote a letter to JAMA telling the story that when he got his drivers license, the lady warned him not to check the box for organ donors, "or they will let you die".
From Snopes:

Myth: If emergency room doctors know you’re an organ donor, they won’t work as hard to save you.
Fact: If you are sick or injured and admitted to the hospital, the number one priority is to save your life. Organ donation can only be considered after brain death has been declared by a physician. Many states have adopted legislation allowing individuals to legally designate their wish to be a donor should brain death occur, although in many states Organ Procurement Organizations also require consent from the donor’s family.

the "slight of hand" in this fact check ignores that the Emergency room docs will try to save you so you can be sent to ICU to die, and then when you are declared brain dead they can ask for your organs. (in western Pennsylvania, they kept you alive to send you to Pittsburgh where they did transplants. The ambulance drivers called such trips "organ runs"...)

 Except now families of those with poor prognosis are being encouraged to donate their loved ones organs, under the impression they are brain dead when they are not. This confusion only will make people more suspicious and not willing to donate their organs.

Voila: New laws on the books mandating organ donation without consent is being done in some countries.

there already is a lot of suspicion about end of life care in minority communities, and the Jathi McMath case didn't help (she lived for five years after being declared "brain dead", meaning she was misdiagnosed). In that case, as a Doctor, I have to note: she must have been misdiagnosed, since with full brain death her organs would have shut down. And of course, the fact that the hospital would have been liable to a huge malpractice suit for her brain injury has nothing to do with their rush to declare her dead. (/s)/

the wish of minority communities to full treatment, because they are suspicious of racial prejudice being behind the withdrawal of treatment, (not just the Tuskegee study confirms this bias: also see Oklahoma meningocoel case where years later a black doctor reviewed the article and found out that most of the "non treatment" cases were minority kids whose parents didn't quite understand that treatment would save the kids lives.  Duh.... the doctors justified this by saying "Cuts in government funding for indigent medical care and special education diminished the quality of life for poorer children with disabilities, they argued, thereby justifying the non treatment and deaths of some infants." ).

the wish for full care is now being lamented in as "denial of end of life care" for minorities. as in this UKGuardian article. Bullcrappie. They just don't trust you.

In the UK, the Liverpool protocol for pain relief quickly morphed into a way to kill the elderly who were not terminal, and as euthanizing people gets more popular, expect more cases of medical personnel just doing it on their own.

Sigh.

Staying alive

WaPo article on a guy who saved a life performing CPR...

Cross Scott, a tire shop technician, was test driving a customer’s vehicle on Jan. 11 when he saw a peculiar thing: a sedan pulled over, its hazard lights blinking, according to the Arizona Daily Star. He got out to inspect the vehicle. There was a woman inside who appeared unconscious as the car crept forward, he told the newspaper. He stuck a rock under the wheel and used another to smash a window, and two women who pulled over dialed 911.

He checked for a pulse. Nothing. Help could be minutes away. He had to act. But there was one problem. “I’ve never prepared myself for CPR in my life,” Scott, 21, told the Star. “I had no idea what I was doing.” Well, that’s not entirely true. He had seen Season 5, episode 14 of “The Office.”

Chest compressions are if there is no pulse, but often the person will start breathing if you reposition their head so the tongue doesn't obstruct the airway.

And if that doesn't work, and they have a pulse, you might want to start them breathing. 

One wonders how many "fentanyl" overdoses would have lived if someone started Mouth to mouth on them when they stopped breathing. But then, usually they overdose with druggie friends, and druggies are not known for their ability to think straight.

IF there is no pulse and no breathing, and you are alone, just do chest compressions.
 bu
and don't forget to call 911.

Mouth to mouth is a bit unpleasant of course but most of us don't carry ambu bags with us.

I once started CPR on a patient who wasn't breathing (but still with a heartbeat) and later found he had TB. Uh oh. No I didn't catch it from him.

However, if you don't have a pulse, just chest compression will work.

Hold an election, get bombed

Twin Bombings outside Jolo Cathedral.

Two loud explosions occurred in the middle of a mass at Jolo Cathedral in Jolo, Sulu on Sunday morning just days after the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) which the province rejected.

why? Because this province dared to vote against joining the BOL.

The bombing incident happened after the BOL was ratified on Friday night which saw the Sulu province rejecting the organic law that establishes the new Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Like many ISIS/Alqada terrorists, it was a dual bombing and indeed, in this case most of the casualties was among those coming to help those injured by the first bomb. 

no, not in our area (we only have the NPA/communist types, plus gang wars between the political clans).

Musical Interlude of the week

the problem with fake drugs

here in Asia, we have a problem with fake and counterfeit drugs.

You often get substandard cheap generic drugs, but the real danger is fake or substandard dosages if you don't pay extra for brand name drugs. But the poor often can't afford the brand names, so essentially are playing Russian Roulette when they buy cheap generics.

The government here tries to stop the obvious problems but doesn't always catch them in time.

World Health Organization memo:

Key facts

• Substandard and falsified medical products may cause harm to patients and fail to treat the diseases for which they were intended.
• They lead to loss of confidence in medicines, healthcare providers and health systems.
• They affect every region of the world.
• Substandard and falsified medical products from all main therapeutic categories have been reported to WHO including medicines, vaccines and in vitro diagnostics.
• Anti-malarials and antibiotics are amongst the most commonly reported substandard and falsified medical products.
• Both generic and innovator medicines can be falsified, ranging from very expensive products for cancer to very inexpensive products for treatment of pain.
• They can be found in illegal street markets, via unregulated websites through to pharmacies, clinics and hospitals.
• An estimated 1 in 10 medical products in low- and middle-income countries is substandard or falsified.
• Substandard and falsified medical products contribute to antimicrobial resistance and drug-resistant infections.

...,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,










the WHO article goes into detail the various ways drugs are diluted with fake ingredients or manufactured in a substandard way or sold looking like the real medicine but is counterfeit.

and now there is a major problem with contamination of a popular blood pressure medicine.

From the UKMail:

The impurities found in some of the most in-demand medications for heart failure and hypertension are a byproduct that emerge when certain active ingredients are mixed together. If the drugs are made according to the 'recipe', there shouldn't be a risk of this byproduct occurring.

The problem, experts say, is that the supplier in Linhai, China, Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical Co, may not have been cleaning up after itself, or failing to invest in tools to screen for these contaminants.

As shortages blight the US, Europe, and even India (which is the second-biggest drug maker after China), it's becoming ominously clear that most of the world relies heavily on China, without having much power to control, inspect or coordinate on quality.

 so blame Trumpie boy for cutting back the FDA? Not really: because this problem dates back years.

'I think the FDA is losing leverage over China in terms of inspection,' Rosemary Gibson, co-author of China Rx, told DailyMail.com, referring to the months-long ordeal the agency had trying to get visas for its inspectors to enter the country in 2014 and 2015. 'They [China] want to make it hard for the FDA to do its job. 

Why do we allow that?' But Gibson says that the FDA should not become the scapegoat of this story. We need to look at how China was permitted to hold so much sway over the world's drug supplies, and analyze all the gatekeepers that are able to shift that pendulum. ...

some of this is costs cutting, because following all those dang rules for quality control costs money. Better to pretend you do it by faking the paper work and pocket the money.

but there also have been major scandals in China because cheap, often toxic ingredients are placed into the drugs, baby formula or dog food, because the toxic ingredient was cheaper  or would mimic the real thing in ordinary quality control testing 

Toxic Femininity LOL

someone posted this on facebook via Instapundit 

Heh. Reminds one of the women reporter who said she'd give Bill Clinton a blow job to keep abortion legal.

and this might not be a coincidence.

It's all about abortion you know. Without contraception/abortion, women can't be free to work to make big business more profitable. And having women take off time to have a baby (or ask for days off to care for a sick kid) cuts profits.

but at what price?


book review of the antiMary:

In the late ’60s, a small group of elite American women convinced an overwhelming majority of the country that destroying the most fundamental of relationships—that of mother and child—was necessary for women to have productive and happy lives. From the spoiling of this relationship followed the decay of the entire family, and almost overnight, our once pro-life culture became pro-lifestyle, embracing everything that felt good. Sixty million abortions later, women aren’t showing signs of health, happiness, and fulfillment. Increased numbers of divorce, depression, anxiety, sexually transmitted disease, and drug abuse all point to the reality that women aren’t happier, just more medicated.

more here: MP3

it comes down to the anthropology of sex and the anthropology of family ties:

CSLewis quote:

In his treatise "Priestesses in the Church," C. S. Lewis observed, "The innovators are really implying that sex is something superficial, irrelevant to the spiritual life. To say that men and women are equally eligible for a certain profession is to say that for the purposes of that profession their sex is irrelevant.

We are, within that context, treating both as neuters. As the State grows more like a hive or an ant-hill it needs an increasing number of workers who can be treated as neuters. (italics mine).

This may be inevitable for our secular life. But in our Christian life we must return to reality."

alas, we have a pope more worried about the "rainforest" than in families, so he is busy laying the groundwork for his plans for women priests, divorce, contraception and gay marriage because being PC means never having to say you are sorry.

Never mind the Jungian, anthropological and biological reality that men and women are different. 

My mother always said the reason that only men became priest was because God wanted to make it up to them that they couldn't have babies, and in this I think she has a point.


It comes down to evolutionary biology built into the genes. And I say that as a woman who became a doctor BEFORE "women's lib". As Edith Stein said, women can do the same job as a man, but that doesn't make them men, because they bring their femininity into their work. And ironically this is confirmed by the many scientific studies that show women doctors practice medicine differently than men.

There is probably a Jordan Peterson lecture on this concept of sexuality and family from Freudian, Jungian and Darwinian points of view, (lobsters anyone?) so it's not just the wicked churches who  think this.

So the latest kerfuffle is not about Trumpie boy at all.

It all comes down to the old ethical question (a variation of Plato's Ring of Gyges) that we used to be asked when I was in the university 50 years ago:

 If you could be rich just by killing one unknown and unimportant person in some poor unimportant country, and no one would know, would you do it?

Ah, but what if that unimportant person is your own child?

"We must not be surprised when we hear of murders, of killings, of wars, of hatred. If a mother can kill her own child, what is left but for us to kill each other."~ Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta ~

Toxic Masculinity LOL

Heh.

Yes, that's R Lee Ermey, and yes, that is a commercial that wouldn't be allowed on TV nowadays because it's not politically correct.

Ermey often played tough guys but he also played parodies of himself, as in this commercial.

wikipedia page here.

Marine Times Obituary:

R. Lee Ermey, or “the Gunny" as he’s known from his most famous acting role as Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in the legendary 1987 Marine film, “Full Metal Jacket,” died April 15, 2018, in his home state of California from complications with pneumonia. The Vietnam vet and staff sergeant was buried on Friday in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

photos at that link.


biography from Military.com

Movie of the week: Maquia

A film about a mother who adopts a baby and learns to love him? Usually such films are hallmark/lifetime channel films, full of cliches that turn my stomach as fake (I am a mom with two adoptive kids).

But a recent anime film tells the story of one such mom, an immortal, who risks eternal loneliness by rescuing and learning to love.

 Watch it and try not to cry.

Here is a review of the film.

,,,,,

Maquia lives as a weaver of lives among the immortals,
She is warned that although she can visit the earth, if she falls in love she will learn to be lonely.

One day their land is attacked and one of the elder girls is kidnapped to provide the king's son with an immortal wife to give birth to a powerful heir.

Maquia ends up in the borderlands where mortals live, and finds a baby whose mother was killed in the raid. She adopts the child and tries her best to be a mother to him.

In other words, the "love" that will make her lonely is not a shallow romance but the love of a mother who works hard to support and protect her son.

And if that isn't nonPC I don't know a plot that is.

In the above review, the reviewer complains the visuals are not as fantastical as many anime films, but to me this is an advantage. Similarly, it doesn't contain a lot of magic and superhero stuff, which my grandson loves but often makes the films childish (note: I hate most Marvel/superhero films too, where magic and overemphasis on visuals/special effects lead to the loss of the core story).

I am not the only adult who loved the movie: It got a 100percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

So if you have a chance to see it in a theatre, or on Amazon prime, please go to see it.

We have access to Netflix but not Amazon prime, so we watched the film with subtitles here, but it might not stream outside of Asia...and there is an English Dubbed version that is on line somewhere too. Kuya found it and said it was done very well.

Family news

time for spring housecleaning, so Kuya hired a farmer and some boys from the farm to clean the pathways and gardens here. The pathways get dark from mould from being wet all the time, so we apply detergant and then power spray them clean. The gardens are dry, so we remove the dead annual flowers and trim the bushes (e.g. hibiscus), banana trees, and palm trees.

He plans to restart the fountain in the garden pond and put fish in there. One problem is that if it clogs with dirt/leaves no one might notice it went off, so the pump will overheat from being blocked, whereas the fountain/pond in the middle of our compound is next to my window so I tend to keep an eye on it when it loses pressure or stops.

We have fingerling koi so will transfer some there. Hopefully they won't die off from the heat etc. (we have had several fish die offs when the heat/rotting vegetation at the bottom of the pond drops the oxygen level... luckily these happen during the day so a quick removal of fish and a replacement of part of the stagnant water will prevent losing all of them, and anyway, you can eat koi so they don't go to waste.

here is the pond in our courtyard. The windows are the meeting room, for parties, meetings and a local church holds services there weekly.

Lolo enjoying the fountain

Now, if only we have enough money to really really fis the roof so I don't get rained on in monsoon season.

The Two Income Trap

Before she joined the crazy identity/racism/socialism wing of the Democratic party, Elizabeth Warren was daring to push family friendly values: questioning an economic system that put middle class families into an economic squeeze that pressured women to go to work to help support their families. But she (and her co author) note: actually this makes things worse.

From a 2004 article in Mom Jones:

(co author) Amelia Tyagi: More and more families today are sending both parents into the workforce — t’s become the norm, it’s what we now expect. The overwhelming majority of us do it because we think it will make our families more secure.

But that’s not how things have worked out....

We tend to assume with two incomes you’re doubly secure. But if you count on every penny of both of those incomes, which most families today do, then you’re in big trouble if either income goes away. And obviously, if you have two people in the workforce, you have double the chance that someone will get laid off, or double the chance that someone could get too sick to work.

When that happens, two-income families really get into trouble, and that’s how a lot of families quickly go bankrupt.

MJ.com: In the past, it seems like a stay-at-home mom could act as an insurance policy for the family if the dad was laid off or whatnot. But today two-income families have nothing to fall back on in the event of a disaster.

AT: Right. It used to be that a stay-at-home parent was a sort of safety net — she (and it was usually a “she”) not only took care of the children, but she was there if anyone got sick. Or if Grandma broke a hip, she could step in and provide care without costing the family financially. But today, with both parents in the workforce 100 percent of the time, there’s just no way to care for somebody on the side — either somebody has to take time off work or somebody has to pay someone to provide that care. In either it represents a big financial blow, and families just don’t have the flexibility to deal with it anymore.

read the whole thing.

The problem is that the concept of family is now not discussed when discussing the economy.

Nor is the importance of a stable family for social capital (caring for kids and the sick/elderly).

The Republicans don't discuss it because too many are into profit driven economics who want cheap labor (women, like immigrants, work harder for less pay).

The Democrats, alas, have been taken over by radical feminists who see the family and men (and children) as the enemy. This is not new: When Betty Frieden brought up the same idea of making feminism family friendly and insisted that insisting on work equality did not mean rejecting men and not having a family, she was pretty well kicked out of the feminist movement.

and I won't even get into the profit driven reasons behind the housing cost and college cost increases.

One does wish Warren, instead of playing politics by imitating the radicals in the Democratic party would instead bring up the importance of family.

and I don't mean just hand outs (which seem to be the only idea that the socialist wing seems to have). The idea behind this is the concept that people are isolated individuals whose only source of help is the government, which of course expands government power.

I mean political policies that would support families, including those that encouraged religion and other "intermediary" institutions that allow a richer social environment.

for example.

So our recommendation is that subsidized child-care should be offered in tandem with some sort of subsidy for stay-at-home parents, in the hopes that that would offset the competition between families. Otherwise, you’re providing even more financial pressure on one-income families, and forcing those remaining stay-at-home mothers to enter the workplace in order to keep up with everyone else.

most of my patients would like part time work after the kids are old enough for baby sitting, but the laws make that hard too.

at present, I am listening to Jordan Peterson discussing mice and their need for socializing. Heh.

One of these days, people will recognize this instead of promoting the modern memes that are tearing the country apart.

Warren could do it, but alas I doubt she will, or can, in today's world.

The "WAGD" post of the day:

CBC (Canada) headline:

Congo records one-day record for confirmed Ebola cases

14 new cases yesterday.

But the experimental vaccine is being used and seems to work:

Earlier this week, drugmaker Merck said it will ship another approximately 120,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine to Congo by the end of next month. Associate Vice-President Lydia Ogden told the World Economic Forum that the company is committed to having a ready stockpile of 300,000 doses and already has shipped 100,000 to the World Health Organization.

Health officials have called the experimental vaccine highly effective against the virus. Congo's health ministry says more than 63,000 people have received the vaccine in the outbreak that was declared on Aug. 1 in the country's densely populated northeast near Uganda and Rwanda.

What's going on in Venezuela?

BBC reports mass protests.


...

longer "on the ground" report from LauraVidal at globalvoices:

As we write this story, people are gathering in large numbers in major cities like Maracaibo, Barquisimeto, and the capital Caracas, as well as smaller towns. The rallies were called by Juan Guaidó, the new president of the country's opposition-controlled National Assembly, who earlier this month publicly denounced Maduro's legitimacy and proposed to invoke an article of the 1999 constitution that would install a transitional government with Guaidó as president. Speaking at a protest in Caracas this afternoon, Guaidó swore himself in as the acting president of Venezuela.

Soon thereafter, the United States’ president Donald Trump publicly recognized Guaidó as the country's legitimate ruler, with most governments in the region — such as Canada, Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador — as well as the Organization of American States, following suit (notable exceptions were Mexico and Bolivia).

Colombia has also recognized the new government, which is important considering one million Venezuealan refugees have fled there and relations between the two countries are getting to the tipping point because of a recent car bombing 

The car bomb has upset many in Colombian whose economy was improving after. the main rebel group/drug cartel friendly group FARC signed a peace treaty: but this is another group: ELN...

Venezuela's government is allowing the drug cartels and ELN rebels to hide and train there, including the bomb maker...and many worry that this bombing is a sign that the horrid war will go back on.

UK Guardian notes that the key to if the revolution survives is if the military backs the people. 

Sigh. In our prayers.

---------------
update: The Catholic bishops are backing the opposition.

Musical interlude of the day

behold the power of satire

one celebrity said the MAGA hat is the new KKK hood

Right:

except that here in the Philippines, KKK is a good group

The Kataas-taasan, Kagalang-galangan, Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan[1] ("Supreme and Venerable Society of the Children of the Nation", Spanish: Suprema y Venerable Asociación de los Hijos del Pueblo), also known as Katipunan or KKK,[5] was a Philippine revolutionary society founded by anti-Spanish colonialism Filipinos in Manila in 1892; its primary goal was to gain independence from Spain through a revolution. .

PJ Media satire on the smears of Trumpieminions here.

From what I read, a lot of people are still trying to make the story that the boys were the aggressors stick or are repeating a story that has already been debunked, but never mind. The boys families have lawyered up, and although (unlike here in the Philippines) the libel law in the US is very strict , one could point out that threatening violence goes beyond libel.

And having the drummer's group try to invade and disrupt mass at a local Catholic shrine located on private property isn't going to help.

And it's not just Trumpieminions getting the hatetweets: the men  have shaving companies telling them they are evil.

Sense of Events, a veteran, links to this video as an answer:




Sigh.

You know you are a Filipino when...

...............

the longer quiz is HERE.

Outlander kilt

deleted kilt scene from Outlander:




tutorial on how to do it correctly:

Headlines below the fold

Ironic, isn't it, that the "terrible Catholic redneck boys" (who included at least one black kid in their group) who went through a twitterstorm condemnation by the SJW actually had their side of the story vindicated by... the black group who was busy taunting them and filmed the entire incident.

The twitter site apparently is not a "teacher from California", but originates in Brazil and puts out over a hundred tweets a day. WTF?

it may not have been a spontaneous interaction, notes Professor J. of Legal Insurrection blog. You confront someone and then shout they are hurting you, and voila, they are guilty.

This is, of course, unfair to the students, whose only sin was to sightsee after attending the Annual March for Life (which didn't get in much of the MSM because, hey, they are bigots). So what are kids doing at a March for Life? Well, teenagers are the ones who often know friends who were pressured into aborting their kids and left devastated. I never attended (I'm not a demonstration type person) but my son (and his pregnant girlfriend) attended one year a while back. Heh. and of course, afterward they sight see. why not? Catholics see no problem with mixing a pilgrimage with a good party. As Teresa of Avila said when someone criticized her (usually vegetarian) nuns for enjoying a partridge that someone sent them: Well you know, penance is penance, and partridges are partridges.
Or as the sage said: There is a time to mourn and a time to party.

----------------------

and this is on top of several other fake anti Trump stories, not to mention anti Catholic/anti Christian stories out there that sprung up out of nowhere.

I support gay marriage but would be considered a bigot because I am also aware of how the "gay lifestyle" (not those with Same sex attraction or who refrain from acting on these temptations or are truly monogamous) is a terribly dysfunctional and medically dangerous  lifestyle. We docs tend to live in a reality based world after all.

But now it seems if you support the old fashioned definition (i.e. the definition before 2008) you are a bigot, be you Mrs. Pence or a famous British professor of Philosophy.

Hint: Must demonize Catholic Christians in case the replacement of Judge Ginsburg is a believing Catholic.

Knowing Trumpieboy, I predict he will appoint a Jew or Muslim instead and make their heads explode, but that's just my guess.

as for the russia Russia RUSSIA story: That seems to be falling apart too, but never mind.

--------------------------

it's not only those crossing the border illegally: another source of illegal immigrants are those who overstay their visas. (either work or visitor visas). For example, Joy was interviewed and was given a visitor visa, but my son was turned down because he was considered high risk to stay in the USA where he had family.

Which is why there is at present a moratorium on Philippine workers. Filipinos tend to blend in with Americans and there is, of course a large FilAm community in the USA.

However, this doesn't upset me much: These people are screened to keep out criminals.

The border problem is that it allows not just people wanting jobs, but includes human trafficking and drug smuggling. Which is why the criminal gangs have killed so many local priests who often help the migrants down there.

And of course, the reason for the much publicized groups marching to the USA is to keep these people protected from the drug cartels/criminal gangs who do the smugging.

A story of one girl who on impulse joined one of these groups from the BBC.LINK

------------------------------
the big controversy here is a bill allowing 9 year olds to be jailed as criminals. 

these are street kids who often are used by criminals to do their dirty work, since the criminals know they can get away with petty crime and drug sales.

an old story: Oliver Twist is Dicken's expose novel on the problem.

------------------------

First they cleaned up Boracay beach, and now they are planning to clean up Manila Bay.

And they closed the Manila zoo to clean it up c(one source of pollution since they dump their garbage into the bay),

-------------------------

the Bagsamoro folks voted yes 

slowly making peace? Don't hold your breath: the Moros have been fighting everyone (including each other) for at least 400 years.

-----------------------------

Can Big Brother get worse?

StrategyPage summarizes China's surveillance state. First you control the media, then you control the people by spying on them.

In the last few years, as their facial recognition via a growing network of high-resolution video cameras became a proven technology, it led quickly to the creation of a SCR (Social Credit Rating) system in which all the accumulated data on an individual can be analyzed to determine which patterns of behavior lead to criminal or anti-government behavior.

China needed someplace to test all these new technologies together and over the last few years, China has used Xinjiang province, which has a large Moslem minority, as the test site. In Xinjiang, China is discovering how well this cell phone, Internet and public (captured via vidcams) behavior and other forms of population monitoring can be used to exercise more control over large populations. It turns out that the degree of control (or at least personal information) is substantial.

and you thought twitter mobs were bad.

Roma

The film Roma is a refreshing look at Mexican culture after the distorted Disneyfication of the day of the dead cartoons (not one but two) that Hollywood put out, and of course all the ones that are about drug gangs: both genres distort the culture. In contrast, Roma is a small quiet (aka boring) film that will probably win awards.

I watched it with Kuya and we both remarked it resembled today's Filipino middle class here in the small cities outside Manila where we live (the film was about a middle class family in Mexico in the 1970s).

Yes, we have a cook and maid who are part of the family, and we also have maids who come and go because they are young and soon move on to a better paying job in Manila, or get pregnant and marry their boyfriends (either legally or common law).

The laundry is done on the roof, and hung there to dry (we used to do it until I moved the washing machine to the alcove next to our kitchen because we are three stories high and the roof would be another story up, so I felt sorry for the maids who would have to run up and down on wash day).

And I laughed at cleaning up dog poop: Dogs are the first line of protection and you keep them out in the yard to bark and bite, but they do tend to mess up the place, and the maids have to clean up the messes in the morning so you don't walk in them.

However, one thing was missing: No religion? Yes, they are middle class, and living in very secular Mexico City, but usually grandmother has a statue or picture of Mama Mary (in Mexico, our Lady of Guadalupe) in the corner. Here it is a shelf with small statues of the local Madonnas, and one of the holy Child/Santo Nino. And of course a picture of the last supper in the dining room.

But a good film to counteract the crazy films about Mexico.

blogging hiatus

due to an illness I have not been blogging. Nothing serious but the medicine makes me too sleepy to blog.

Will resume later this week

Conspiracy theory of the day: RIF them all

The latest conspiracy theory about the US gov't shutdown is that Trumpieboy is letting the Dems and their MSM supporters blame it on him while ignoring their stonewalling of a minor expenditure to make a border wall.

So why is he doing this?

Because RIF: if it lasts long enough it will cause an automatic Reduction in Force. (automatic layoffs of unneeded personnel).

Since you can't really fire US government employees, this is a good way to get rid of the dead weight of non productive employees.

Voila: A leaner meaner more productive government workforce.

regulations here.

if you are RIFed, you can be transferred to another job, or maybe just lose your job.

series on what to do if you are RIFed by the orangeman.  LINK  LINK2

One problem? A lot of the MSM is printing sob stories of laid off employees. Sigh.

and then there is the ripple effect on businesses: no new beers allowed because no one is there to check their labels are correct.

Brexit is gone: What does this mean?

BBC reports Brexit is dead.

and the margin of defeat is large. WTF?

More HERE. A lot depends if they vote Ms May out.

so the UK could leave the EU with no deal, or they could renegotiate the deal (the deal turned down was essentially dictated by the Brussels bureaucrats, which is why so many "LEAVE" types voted against it)

the third possibility is that the gov't would simply reorder a vote on Brexit.

This has been done many times in the past, when the voters of various countries voted no to joining the EU: They just kept holding elections until they won.

This would be the preferred method by the experts of course.

But to see the opposition's point of view, watch the film:

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

the short form:

Check your compass (Part two)

Part one here.

Part two: Podcast discussing the possible flip of the magnetic pole:

Mr Pitt and Wilberforce

we were watching the old film The Young Mr Pitt yesterday.



mostly about his fight against the corruption in government, and about pointing out the need to fight Napoleon... alas, without the background knowledge, younger folks would be clueless to what was going on.

However, his best friend was Wilberforce, best known for fighting slavery and slavery like labor practices in the UK.

The British abolished the trafficking of slaves in 1807 and abolished slavery in 1833, mainly due to Wilberforce and others who were inspired by their Christian faith. And that was made into a film a couple years ago


But what about Pitt Jr?

although his priorities were to fight Napoleon in his later years, he did support his friend: And he gave a famous speech against slavery in 1792. LINK2:

In an undated letter to her husband George Pretyman-Tomline, Elizabeth Pretyman writes: "...Four o'Clock. Mr. [Edward] Eliot is come - very well. He [Eliot] speaks in raptures of Mr. Pitt's speech on the Slave trade. Mr. Martin got up in a transport to compliment him [Pitt] upon it - and a Black [man] who was [sitting] in the Gallery [of the House of Commons] waited for him when the house was over, and went up to him [Pitt] and made a very very low bow so grateful and so reverential! that it quite affected all who saw him. What must be the feelings of your friend [Mr. Pitt] at that moment!"

check your compass

the Earth's magnetic pole is not the same as the geographic pole, but in recent years, it is moving toward Siberia.

HowStuffWorks:

The Earth has several poles, not just two. It has geographic north and south poles, which are the points that mark the Earth's axis of rotation. It also has magnetic north and south poles, based on the planet's magnetic field. When you use a compass, it points to the magnetic north pole, not the geographic North Pole. The Earth's magnetic poles move. The magnetic North Pole moves in loops of up to 50 miles (80 km) per day. But its actual location, an average of all these loops, is also moving at around 25 miles a year [ref]. In the last 150 years, the pole has wandered a total of about 685 miles (1102 kilometers). The magnetic South Pole moves in a similar fashion.

more at LiveScience on the various magnetic poles, and it notes that the magnetic pole is getting weaker... and this might mean the poles will flip.

Uh OH:

Njal's saga

the best of the Icelandic family sagas is that of Njal, and includes lots of action, revengful ladies, and murders.

I always thought it could be rewrottem as a Western movie, or even film it as a miniseries a la "VIKINGS". However, one problem: Too many characters.

Of course, in the modern world, Njal, the peaceful hero, is being re-evaluated as the bad guy in the story. LINK.

ebook link

A series of vlogs about the saga here:

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Sagathing podcast discusses a lot of sagas, and Njal is there if you scroll down a bit.

I should note that "thing" is the word used for the Icelandic assemblies to discuss problems and make laws.

Supermen live forever

I have discussed the idea of putting one's brain architecture into a computer or robot, and noted that essentially this is not giving you eternal life, but merely making the robot your identical twin.

Your soul still dies.

But Spengler notes:

The popular writer Yuval Harari, a favorite of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Barack Obama, prophesies that we will make ourselves into science-fiction caricatures of ourselves. In a recent interview, the best-selling author declared:

Given the current pace of technological development, it is possible we destroy ourselves in some ecological or nuclear calamity. The more likely possibility is that we will use bioengineering and machine learning and artificial intelligence either to upgrade ourselves into a totally different kind of being or to create a totally different kind of being that will take over. In any case, in 200 or 300 years, the beings that will dominate the Earth will be far more different from us than we are different from Neanderthals or from chimpanzees.

yup. And guess what that means for the rest of us lowly peons. Sigh.

Spengler goes on to conpare their fake quest to that of the ancient pharoahs who forced their peasants to build huge pyramids and temples with 50 foot statues of themselves to gain eternal life:

Our new pharaohs believe in methods to achieve immortality as silly as the old ones. And they entertain such fantasies for the same reason: They want to make themselves into immortal gods who have no more constraint on the satisfaction of their appetites than the rapacious, concupiscent and murderous gods of ancient paganism.... 

Ah but the religion of Silicon valley has no gods, and to make things worse, one new "religion" of Silicon valley is the fad of expanding one's consciouness with psychodelics. 

Sigh.

Yes, let the diabolic/the "demons of the id" take over your life and life in complete freedom from all rules.

What's wrong with this picture?

Information you can use

----------I am so old that I remember when people said their TV was spying on them, they were considered delusional.


here is an article on the problem and how to stop it.

Musical interlude of the day

headsup (and lyrics) at American Digest

more here.

Sister Wendy Rest in peace

art historian and BBC presenter Sister Wendy has died. Here is a short film with excerpts from her programs, (some of which can be found on youtube).

dog item of the day

cat item of the day

Philippine news

It's the end of the Christmas holiday season, with the Black Nazarene procession shutting down Manila for the day.

How many attended? One million? Four Million? there were only 1000 mainly minor injuries, which is a miracle in itself: No terrorist attacks or stampede injuries.


the Black Nazarene is the suffering Christ, and the procession is a way to identify with him, knowing he suffered too. But it is also a way to express one's belief. Rappler gives a cultural explanation.

Dr Jayeel Cornelio of the Ateneo de Manila University said that many believers find solidarity in the image of Christ bearing his cross; it speaks to the hardships of most of the Nazareno’s believers. More than that, they also find solidarity with fellow devotees.

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the Russians are coming! the Russians are coming!

the Russian navy pays a visit.

President Rodrigo Duterte had turned to Russia and China, rivals of the country's closest defense ally the United States, following criticism of his war on drugs by the previous US administration.

Duterte was denied small weapons for the cops when the previous US administration/State Department decided to punish them for the drug war. So Duterte turned to Russia for rifles etc. which came in handy when some Islamic terrorists took over a city in the south.

way to go Barry!

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StrategyPage has a summary of Duterte's war against drugs and corruption that blasts the meme you usually see in the US MSM. The war on drugs and the war on corruption are linked.

The drug gangs, which had become very powerful simply because of the amount of cash they handled and the number of gunmen (and corrupt officials) on their payroll also took heavy losses for the first time when a newly installed president (Duterte) went after the drug gangs in 2016 and is still at it.

The drug gangs, leftist rebels and Islamic terror groups were all major components in the criminal underground provided all manner of essential illegal services (weapons, false documents, smuggling, money laundering, information) that are now much less available and more expensive to use. This sort of thing does not make headlines but the police and military intel analysts can measure the impact and it’s an important factor in the continued decline of all three sources of criminal activity.

one result? crime and corruption is down and the economy is improving.
read the whole thing.

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in a related story, a couple years back there was a hack that diverted 81 million dollars from Bangladesh into the pockets of some Chinese criminals, using the casinos and banks in Manila.


Most of the guilty are still free, but one person did get convicted:

In September 2017, former Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) branch manager Maia Deguito was left to face trial alone for the $81-million cyberheist on Bangladesh Bank after the Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped the complaints against all her coaccused. 

One major problem here is that the courts follow the rule of law, on paper, but often it is easy to make evidence and witnesses disappear (bribes or physically disappear by fleeing or worse) so the courts end up throwing out the case.

Sigh.

Headlines below the fold

Patreon and twitter and youtube are busy purging hate speech.

well, I found a video threatening our mayor, who has already survived two assassination attacks, and reported the video, so yes, banning jihadis and those who promote violence is justified (free speech doesn't mean you can yell "fire" in a crowded theatre) but now you can be banned for more subtle things.

Article on the Patreon purge.

again, led by the atheist stoics:

On January 1st, 2019, YouTube celebrities Jordan Peterson and Dave Rubin announced they were leaving Patreon because the payment-processor banned classical liberal YouTuber Sargon of Akkad in December. This followed atheist neuroscientist Sam Harris's December 17th tweet which concluded Patreon persecuted political dissidents...

Peterson mused: "...one of the things that I can't fathom, in some sense, is the lack of imagination on the part of the people who are engaging in censorship of what they regard as hate speech...there's an old military adage which is that if you invent a weapon it will be used by your enemy within 15 years

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Austin Bay has more about blood cobalt and the DRC which could be heading into another bloody civil war.

If you advocate electric vehicles and dote on cellphones whose manufacture depends on Congo’s minerals, then the Democratic Republic of Congo’s flawed Dec. 30 presidential election matters because it can affect your digital lifestyle. Congo’s stability also matters if you value human life. In Congo’s last civil war (Great Congo War, 1996-2003) some three million to five million people died in anarchic combat and from starvation, disease and exposure exacerbated by war.

in this, the Catholic bishops are backing honest elections.

Instapundit adds:

VERY RELATED: Chapter Six, Cocktails from Hell: Anarchic Violence, Cyclic Intervention, and Mineral Wealth. The chapter gets into China’s interest in Congolese cobalt. Check out Glenn’s USA Today review and James Jay Carafano’s National Interest review.

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fact checking Trumpie boy (via Instapundit):

OUR BRAVE “FACT-CHECKERS” BUST TRUMP FOR AN UNDERSTATEMENT ON BORDER RAPES, THEN SCRUB IT FROM THEIR REPORT BECAUSE IT HELPS HIM:CBS caught Trump in a lie. Hilarity ensues.

CBS decided to help Democrats by fact-checking in real time President Trump’s address on the need for a wall.
CBS reported, “Fact check: Number of women sexually assaulted on trip to border.
“CLAIM: The president claimed one in three women have been sexually assaulted traveling to the border.
“FACT

CHECK: Between 60 percent and 80 percent of female migrants traveling through Mexico are raped along the way, Amnesty International estimates.”

Hilarious. Who is in charge? Ralph Wiggums?
Thanks for making the president’s point.
The network later scrubbed that from its fact-check.

one reason so many Catholic priests have been murdered in Mexico is because they have been helping the migrants escape from the drug cartels who are making money off of people smuggling.

one reason for the migrant caravans was to try to help people by moving them in a protected group.

one reason for bringing the kids is that they give you a guarantee you won't be immediately thrown out. So compassion is encouraging putting kids into harm's way.

whether you see them as Jesus and Mary fleeing Herod, or the Goths fleeing the Huns at the Danube (which ultimately resulted in the destruction of the Roman Empire) depends on what movie you are watching, (to quote a favorite meme at Dilbert's blog).

 Dilbert's podcast on the situation here.  mp3link

• • illegal activity shifted to isolated rural areas
• Marijuana legalization in US took away a huge chunk of cartel profits
  • Cartels shifted to illegal immigration and making heroin
• Declaring cartels to be terror groups as an enforcement strategy
• US pays cartels for ratting on “watch list” Middle Easterners
• 70% of illegal immigrant women are raped along the journey
  • Multiple rapes of the women are common
• Half-Measures are the real border security problem
  • It’s immoral to have a partial border
• US State Department is biggest obstacle to border control 
• US State Department prioritizes diplomacy over law enforcement
• Half of Mexico has to be patrolled by their military, not police
  • Cartels have military weaponry, police can’t compete