The best way to think about what to do if there’s a crash is before the crash. Hopefully so far before it, that you can train yourself in mitigating strategies, so that when the crash starts to happen, you can stop it.
Note this is the driving-phobic woman speaking. I’ve only been in one crash while I was driving, and that was the result of forgetting my glasses and being profoundly astigmatic.
And for me, imagining crashes isn’t a great strategy, since what I’m afraid of is in fact other drivers’ brain farts. (I ain’t too trusting.) But I do, of course, by default. Which means I’ve avoided crashes a couple of times (one of them a chain of crashes) because I saw the brake lights way ahead, started braking, pushed the hazard, and well, limited that chain reaction.
Most of the crashes I’ve been a passenger for, though, come out of nowhere, like the person who didn’t slow down when we were stopped at a stop light and plowed into us in a five way intersection, where we literally couldn’t see the direction he came from once we had started turning (Thank heavens for good insurance.) Or the woman who came out of a mall ENTRANCE and plowed into us on the street. Or most recently, the kid who ran a red light and hit us as we were turning left.
The crashes were literally unavoidable because they happened in ways we couldn’t expect, and from a place we had no visibility. Correction, we had visibility behind us, just no way to escape it.
But I’d guess on any long-distance trip husband avoids crashes three times a day, just by being vigilant, and having a lot of practice, so he reacts before he can even think, and isn’t there when we could be hit.
There’s another type of crash, of course. Because we were broke, and couldn’t afford to replace (beater) cars when the kids started driving, we paid for a very expensive driving course. (We paid in installments, starting six months earlier.) It was a course in defensive driving/how to avoid crashes, or how to minimize damage if you were in a crash.
In the first year they were driving, both kids were in situations that could have turned nasty. One was skidding on black ice (not visible on the street) where the car went spinning. Because the kid had been trained — trained, not just heard about it — on a skid pad, he stopped the spin and was calm enough to get back to his lane and facing the right way with no incident. If he hadn’t had the training, given that car was a rollerskate with rear-wheel drive, he probably would have ended up hitting people, or spinning into one of the trees or phone poles.
The other kid also found the one patch of ice after everything had melted from the last snow storm, but controlled it and stopped so quickly that he only touched the car in front of him in the intersection. (It was an expensive car, so that paint damage still cost us the Earth, but it wasn’t a totaled car or loss of life.)
They were prepared and they had trained ahead. Yes, yes, okay. So, yes, the usual: Prepare, and keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.
But that’s not what I’m talking about. Not personal preparation, but society/group preparation.
Let’s assume the crash is inevitable. We don’t know how much it will hurt or what will be destroyed. We don’t know if society will be totaled (unlikely, truly) or just severely damaged. But we do know that there’s a crash coming, and that society as we know it won’t be the same after.
Now, I argue the crash is the crash of the bs FDR instituted to the American model. I think it’s not able to withstand the decentralization of information and production, and it’s been coming to pieces for 40 years, and is now inevitably crashing. Of course, it brings in its wake a lot of other effects, in this case the fact that the people who long-marched through the institutions refuse to be banished like the pantomime devils they are by voting or other strong incantations. Instead, they see the peril they’re in, and are determined to hold on to power to all extremities because they know what they’d do to us if they could, and they’re afraid we’ll do likewise to them. (To be fair, we wouldn’t have if they went away quietly. The more they try to hold on, the worse it will be.)
What this means in practical terms is that there is no way this year ends well. Or at least no way it ends without significant upheaval, meaning the next year will be major upheaval throughout. (So to an extent, enjoy while you can.)
Because if they fraud their way to Victory, they’re going to think it’s the reign of a thousand years (they always do) and get nasty. And if we beat the fraud, they’re going to panic and try to do onto us before we do onto them.
Now I think the damage in either case will be small and controlled RELATIVELY. Some places. Short time. I know this is no comfort. I also think we’ll win.
But what comes out on the other end is a good question.
A friend who did not major in the liberal arts thought this article (note archive link. I don’t need to start a war. I have books to write) though obviously written from the other side could be useful to us. He’s not precisely wrong, but the writer of that article is, including, of course, his fear of Trump-the-dictator who is going to behave exactly like 20th century dictators. Never mind. If the man could realize that the entire civilizational paradigm has changed, he wouldn’t be a leftist trying to institute a regime that looked utopic in the 1930s and even so has failed multiple times since. That’s part of the failure.
So, the “Twenty lessons of the 20th century” are some good, some bad, some “head tilt, what?” particularly with what he thinks he’s doing and applying. You can feel free to follow the (archive) link but keep in mind there are rodents of unusual size in that head.
I’ll be doing this in parts. Yes, I do realize it increases the chances of a blog war. Can’t be helped. These rules are more complicated than he thinks.
The first one is ALMOST good. Almost. Where he says:
1. Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.
I say to you
1. Become ungovernable. A government instituted over us by skullduggery is not legitimate, whether it has the color of law or not. Pre-existing, sane, human laws should be obeyed, but its arbitrary commands should be given two fingers, straight up. So their entire war on fuel and education and everything else? Find a way to go around. Find a way to subvert it. If you have no other choice, find a way to obey it with maximum malice. Malevolent compliance is your last choice. You did not consent. They do not have the consent of the governed. You know it, they know it.
Some people have been in this mode a long time. Every day heroes, each and every one of them. Over the long, stupid Covidiocy, my silent respect (and high tipping or other help I could give) went to the many servers, cashiers, etc, who wore the stupid required muzzle-of-submission under their nose, with the nose completely free. I am in awe of the fan who — without lying — got a religious exemption form the vax while admitting his “religion” was “rational atheism.”
Go thou and think ahead of ways and means to do likewise.
This one is outright cute. The “protect the institutions” he’s trying to do are in fact protecting the long march:
2. Defend institutions. It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning. So choose an institution you care about — a court, a newspaper, a law, a labor union — and take its side.
2. If you find or work for a non-corrupt institution, by all means protect it. Provided it’s something we’re going to need on the other side — newspapers, LOL. Labor Unions, ROFL. They really live 100 years ago, in their heads — but more importantly, think through whether that’s something we need, or something that was very needed when most work force was illiterate and doing interchangeable jobs, and when dissemination of information was only possible from a centralized location. Defend what we’re going to need absolutely, but question what we’ll need.
More importantly, things we need and don’t have either because they were subverted or because they don’t exist — listen to me — it’s essential we start creating them now. That part of the “build over, build under, build around.” Which (curses softly) means I need to get with my web person soon, about the publicity/review/listing, maybe selling site. Just in case. Definitely selling the minute the ‘zon goes froggy.
But it’s more than that. We need geek clubs. I need to start a monthly geek dinner just with our small group. I’ve been kicking the can down the road, but we’re going to need the contacts, the resilience, the human connection, whatever they unleash this year that’s comparable to or worse than the Covidiocy.
Friends have complained that there are no non-woke geek spaces. They’re not wrong. So, create them. Keep them aggressively non-political. Make sure there are rules to kick anyone out who starts the politics.
Your homework is to think of two things you can do to create a support group, a “social institution”, a fun or social space, online or in person. It will be small and a lot of them will fail aborning. That’s normal. It’s called the free market. It’s not your personal failure. It’s you and circumstances interacting. But start thinking about it.
Spaces, stores, institutions you can start alone or with friends, in person or on line. See if you can do at least two. These can involve your hobbies, and they can be as easy as “mentor neighbor kids in art” or as complicated or “what the heck will we have if Amazon goes crazy?”
3. Beware the one-party state. The parties that remade states and suppressed rivals were not omnipotent from the start. They exploited a historic moment to make political life impossible for their opponents. So support the multiple-party system and defend the rules of democratic elections. Vote in local and state elections while you can. Consider running for office.
3- That someone from the left can unironically rerun this post from early 2020 and not see this is already happening and which side is doing this is jaw-droppingly unbelievable. Probably stupider than the college catalog a friend linked listing “Afrochemistry.” But hey.
So, what can you do: Make sure people KNOW. Most of the people walking around in blissful ignorance are not aware of anything crooked about the 2020 elections and don’t know enough math to see how stupid it is. Find articles. Cull arguments. Make them in your own way, pointing out discrepancies. Above all point out no free nation has vote by mail or vote with no ID. NONE. (Though Portugal wants vote by mail. Insert swearing.) Point out the court cases that weren’t heard. Point out there’s literally no way to do anything about fraud, even when 125% of a precinct votes. Here your battle is informational, and you need to start now. When they say “But that’s in the past,” Make it clear the point is not to repeat it. Because it is an election year. You will fail. A LOT. But most of the time you should be ready with the off-hand comments. Stuff like “Yeah. I never understood why they didn’t let it be investigated. They could prove there was no fraud, and then it would be fine.” Keep pounding. Off hand comments. Eventually one will penetrate. Or something else will, that builds on what you said.
4. Take responsibility for the face of the world. The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away, and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.
4 – Heaven give me patience. Does he live in Europe? There have been swastikas as graffiti in Portugal last time we visited. (Kids were shocked by those, and the hammer and sickle, as well). That’s because when your elites are terrible and keep talking about how bad the Nazis are, people are going to start thinking the Nazis are great. Which is human. Also entirely, brutally stupid. Swastikas or hammer and sickle, black fascism or red fascism, both are dangerous and anti-human.
But yeah, sure, the symbols matter. So if you find some leftist or some barbarian painting a wall with death to the Jews, we recommend you paint over it. Whether before or after administering a sound verbal beating to the miscreant is entirely your choice. If it escalates, remember to defend yourself against physical assault. The working class men in NYC who tore into the guy taking down posters of abducted children are my heroes.
More importantly, ask the men with the Che shirt why he’s wearing the face of a man who murdered the poor, children, students gay people and particularly dogs (which is how you know he was a demon) by personally beating them to death. Wouldn’t he prefer a shirt with Jeffrey Dahmer? Mao? Be ready with his massacres. The hammer and sickle? Be ready to tell them they’re right, 100 million deaths are not enough. Let’s give it one more try. That’s also good to write below a place with such a symbol, if you don’t have time or resources to paint over it. I mean, they card us when we buy spray paint. Let’s make it worth their while.
5. Remember professional ethics. When political leaders set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become more important. It is hard to subvert a rule-of-law state without lawyers, or to hold show trials without judges. Authoritarians need obedient civil servants, and concentration camp directors seek businessmen interested in cheap labor.
5-This absolutely. DO keep your ethics, when everyone else has lost them. But do not sign a suicide pact over ethics. Because some crooked judge passed on a case, it doesn’t mean what happened is now lawful or under the color of law.
Most of all, ABOVE ALL whatever your position, if you took an oath to the constitution, remember it was TO THE CONSTITUTION. I.e. unlike monks, you didn’t promise to obey. You promised to defend the constitution. You did not promise to “follow orders.” Remember with these people in charge, your iron rice bowl is about to become more iron, with very little rice.
Ask yourself the question I asked myself before I came out politically: Can you live with yourself, if you go one step further. Will the face looking at your from the mirror be that of a traitor to your oath?
And then look at point 1. If you absolutely must “follow the rules/law” and it is just the tyrants whim? Follow as maliciously as you can figure out how.
A flea can’t derail a train. But it can give a mighty itch to the conductor. And that, when it’s a thousand fleas, certainly can derail the tyranny train.
More tomorrow.
According To Hoyt 
once totally lost control of my car. heavy rain, wide worn out tires, and a light-ish car. Spun across 3 lanes and ended up in the grass. Linkage isn’t working here at work.
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busy at work on what should be my day off. so piecemeal
Damned right I’m not obeying anti-constitutional laws. The difference between me and the left, is they ignore the CoTUS and read into it “rights” that are not within. I’d ignore someone on “my side” who gave an unconstitutional order, where they’d gladly violate anything if it advanced their dream and enables power over those they dislike.
Too many institutions are vile and corrupt and need to be composted.
The leftoids think that being full commie, Grean (climate commie) or democratic socialist (vote for commies) means more than one party, so by single party they are warning “Anyone not like us who might get power!”
And we are talking about folks who will call full anarcho-libertarians fascists, so brain power, they have not.
And its irony the least ethical among us keep harping about ethics.
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I think you meant Climate Commie = “Watermelon” Green on the outside and Red on the inside.
Tom Kratman included in his “A Desert Called Peace” series the “Tranzitree” of Terra Nova, with fruit lusciously green outside, delicious red inside, and a cumulative deadly slow poison for anything with “intelligent life” brain, that causes the victim to die in shrieking agony. (Also the similarly toxic Bolshiberry and “Progressivine”.)
Ouch.
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–
Somebody said Liz Cheney published a book about ‘honor and honesty’. Belongs in Fiction, obviously. Possibly even Occult Fiction.
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Is here a literary genre called “Psychedelia”?
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Hah! Good one.
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Once? Not trying hard enough. (Grin)
Occasionally, during very bad weather, I will drive (carefully) to a nearby parking lot and practice skid recovery. Also let’s me judge remaining grip/tread of tires, etc. Snow days are training days. (Grin)
The ideal lot is large, paved well, curbed at the edges only, and free of light poles and other structures.
Long straight and empty highways present a training opportunity, but more risk.
The trick is managing the risks. Takes practice.
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When I first moved to Fairmont, I had zero experience with driving in snow and ice. The first good snowfall we had, the ox and I took my car out to the local mall, which had just such a parking lot, so I could learn in a safe spot.
Only one problem: My car at the time was a year-old Lexus RX300 AWD with the new (at the time) vehicle stability control and good tires.
I could not get that car to misbehave. It simply went where I pointed it, no matter how badly I abused it. Turn the wheel hard? OK, fine, you want to go that way, we’ll go that way. Stomp on the brakes? You must want to stop quick, so OK. And so on.
Got so boring we went home and got the ox’s Corolla instead. That, at least, could be induced to lose its grip.
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When hubby was teaching son to drive he used both our Durango, and alternatively the Chevy 2500 pickup. The new Elantra had the new anti-skid, safety features, even being manual. Once son had mastered the bigger rigs, they went out in the Elantra and learned how even with the new safety features how it reacted on bad conditions. Good for son. Even good for dad given he was living where there was snow (just west of Stevens Pass east Hwy 12 Washington State) and he was driving the new car. Note, teaching anyone to drive on ice and snow in Willamette Valley is difficult at best. There has to be ice and snow to teach someone which Willamette Valley doesn’t get a whole lot of. Going into the mountains where we do get snow doesn’t help. Either the large areas aren’t plowed (and gated at first snow) or not empty (snow parks and ski areas), also generally cinder base.
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Heh, found the car i lost it in: https://tippecanoe.craigslist.org/ctd/d/lafayette-1976-dodge-colt/7704478061.html
Now where is a spare $5000?
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Man, that’s an ugly car. Not too ugly to miss if it’s yours and it dies in a crash, though (no car is too ugly for that). I used to have an ’84 Dodge Colt. It was a reliable little beast; drove it for years. When I met the woman who would become my wife, she also had an ’84 Dodge Colt. It was meant to be.
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I had 2 blue (both formerly White but Earl Schiebed) and one ’73/74 GT in Orange. The Green White is not my favorite, but how often does one find a ’76 anything with 25,500? Judging just from the look, it’s a 1.6 with a 4 speed, likely get around 30mpg (it is a heavy car for the 1.6 to push about). I’d love to have the thing, fugly 70’s green and all. The white vinyl would need to go away, but better than the Black my GT had. First 2 things I did to the GT was fix the AC (dealer air and easily modified for a better compressor) and tint the windows. I owned in when I lived outside New Orleans by the airport.
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oh, and mine were using 14″ wheels from 80’s Dodge Challenger/Plymouth Sapporo, cast factory mags, hence why the ’76 went spinning, it had 235/60R14s that were bald on the back (155/75R13 is stock iirc). Bent a strut spinning over the curb, so it got the struts from the Sapporo too with the bigger brakes. Never got to putting rear disks on it.
um, can you tell I like the bloody things for some reason?
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LOL!
My first car was a 1980 Dodge Challenger (that Sapporo Mitsubishi import) that I bought secondhand from a barracks buddy. 2.5 liters of zoom. (Same engine and transmission as the Starion sports car, just carbureted instead of injected.) Beep! Zoom! Drove the wheels off it.
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I took a look at it: looks very nice! But then I perused the map, and it’s a long way from here. The river’s name, though, started an earworm that just might be about a car that old…
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Sorry.
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I had that happen once…in an emergency response car, on a call.
I was a team leader paramedic for several years. TLs had a car, an ex-police car that was still pretty decent. Late ’80s Crown Vic. Ran hard, stopped straight, went where you pointed it. The ox even got to enjoy a call in it once…taking a curve at 75 like it was on rails made An Impression.
One rainy night, I was responding to an MVA on the freeway that ran through town. (Interstate 45, in League City, Texas.) I was tooling along, minding my own business, when a deputy constable blew my doors off. Next thing I knew, the car was going round and round. Didn’t hit anyone or anything, but would up stuck in the muddy median between the freeway and the feeder. The constable was good enough to at least come back and see if I was OK and give me a ride to the scene.
Next day, I walked into the chief’s office, beckoned silently, took him out to the car, and pointed to the nearly bald tires. They got replaced that day.
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I notice he did not list churches among the institutions that need defending.
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As I said, he’s clearly…. on the other side.
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Why, churches are either eeeeevil or perfectly safe! There’s no subverting!
How do you know they’re evil?
They don’t follow his politics!
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In case anyone doubts, yes, I am aware of the arguments that boil down to “X faith is out of touch and evil, they need to get with the times, meaning agree with me.”
It’s a perennial.
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I work in an industry desperately needed, being corrupted from the inside. No way to build a parallel system that works. I do what I can to teach the young ones but they don’t want to buck authority at all. So I take care of the person in front of me, and that tiny corner will work, till I don’t anymore
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I KNOW. I’ve been quiet at bull sessions of your colleagues in just as much despair over the mess. But there’s a crash coming and after….
And you do the most important thing. Dead people might vote democrat, but they don’t build anything. Keep going. You have my thanks, and probably those of a good number of people here.
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This kills people. Just got news that our daughter in law’s father seems to have dangerous cancer. There was urine with more blood than urine. Prayer appreciated.
His regular doc was part of a practice bought by a larger for “profit”. They wanted him to cut corners. He refused. He left to start his own practice, but didn’t, so her aging father didn’t have anyone looking at him for 2 years. Had pain, but he is a guy. Our lethal male danger. “I’m fine.” Thud.
I don’t trust experts anymore. That is a very dangerous condition to be in when you can’t trust medical advice. What is a safe vitamin D level? What is a dangerous level? Should be simple. Taking D3 to protect, from low level, which is good? Who do you trust?
The design of Obamacare was to turn doctors from professional to employee. You can tell an employee what to do. You can’t tell a professional. All you can do is make him impossible to find. This is what makes Christians and professionals dangerous to the left, they answer to a higher authority.
Look at all the jobs that used to be professions: nurses, teachers, engineers, that now are turned into employees. Met doctors who work for multiple conglomerates, if this is Tuesday I must be at Kaiser.
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Irish democracy.
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Aye. But it’s important to remember the rule of law. For after. And to figure out how to plug the hole the rats got through.
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The Irish ended up with a political class more corrupt than average, which is saying something. So there’s that.
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I know.
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“But that’s in the past,”
“No point in going after the murderer. The victim is already dead.”
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You’re not going after the murderer for the sake of the dead victim; you’re doing it for the sake of his next intended victim.
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DUDE! The sarcasm was written in sky high letters in that one. Are you blind?
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In fairness, the “I’m a lesbian in a man’s body” thing was an obvious joke in the mid-90s.
And now look where we are.
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okay. Point. this is probably easier if you know Orvan.
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Even ox know that.
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So if you’re morally certain that he won’t kill again, it’s fine to let him go?
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Well, if you do, and he does kill again, you should be charged as an accomplice.
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There are so many judges who’d be on trial. No downside I can see… :twisted:
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(Spoken in an unctuous, portentous tone): “The dead are dead. We must think of the living!”
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Ah, but if everyone dies in the end, then they’re just making the process more efficient. Right?
Where’s the step ladder? I seriously need to get out of that head space.
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“let’s not bicker about who killed who”….
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Might be funny to see a murder mystery written that way.
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It sounds like a line from Murder by Death.
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It’s From Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
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😁
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The absolute latest time of the initiation of the current mess, that one can make a good case for, is 1913. I assume everyone here knows about the three worst horrors of that year.
Actually, I think that is still way too late. It’s clear that the Constitution was being violated wholesale over 50 years before that.
But even that is probably too late. There’s a very good case to be made that Washington started it with his response to the Whiskey Rebellion.
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Rolls eyes.
Okay Doomer.
Seriously, the thing is, no we’ve never been Simon pure. The platonic ideal of the republic might not work in the real world. But flawed and in the default, it’s taught the world about the wonders of a land where the individual matters.
It’s just the path FDR put us on ends with us like Europe. And it’s impossible here, so now they’re just trying to kill us.
It won’t work. But we’ll need to figure out how to get as close as possible to a working Democratic (because we vote. Can everyone stop being retarded about that word, please? It’s not just the left) Constitutional Republic as possible.
That’s our job. We can’t fix the past. We can change the future.
Shut up and push.
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When I see “democratic” I think of the process, not the corrupt party. But when I see “Democratic”, or especially “Democrat”, I think of the party of that name. Capitalization matters. Just my 20 mills; no flame intended.
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Nah. I capitalized all three. or I think I did. eh.
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re: #4 – Does that mean I need to destroy my grandmother’s quilt? She got it from her grandmother who brought it with her from the “old country” (Germany) in the 1860s. Each place where four squares met, it was bar-tacked with a swastika, which was then considered a (admittedly, pagan in origin) good luck symbol. It keeps me warm even in sub-freezing weather.
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Are you out of your mind? Or are you simple? Or just a troll? (Warning, the guys will love it if you’re a troll. They haven’t had a chew toy in years.)
Sure, the swastika is an ancient symbol. And unless you’re putting the quilt outside on the wall to offend others, or decide to play act being offended on odd days, it’s not hurting anyone.
What you need is to THINK.
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Had an acquaintance with Indian symbols on a piece of custom period gear. He complained of ignoramuses assuming it was “Nazi” despite them being about 80 years away form the context. I pointed out that the knicknacks with the symbols were easily replaceable, whereas the idiots are unending and unfixable. Also, he might someday have to contend with someone wrathfully violent, say a survivor of the camps or close relative of one. He finally switched to something without that particular reference.
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I live a couple of miles from what was (when it was built) the largest Hindu temple outside of India.
They still use the swastika (reversed) as a religious symbol. Yes, it makes me twitch. But I know they don’t use it to mean the same thing.
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Somewhere in the Chicago area (oh, Willmette; north ‘burbs and very expensive) is a Baháʼí temple that I saw way too many years ago. Yep, swastikas, and the man in charge of explaining pointed out that the symbol was quite ancient. FWIW, linkylove: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%CA%BC%C3%AD_House_of_Worship_(Wilmette,_Illinois)
Seems the wiki article doesn’t show any of them. IIRC, the symbol is (still?) banned in Germany.
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“…what I’m afraid of is in fact other drivers’ brain farts..”
Remember, the Aggressive Driver’s Assumption: “I have always relied on the kindness of others.” “Stella!!”
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LOL. My problem is that I see with immense clarity ALL the stupid things other people could do, and it paralyzes me. Given an empty road, I’m fine. I myself, as the “overcome your driving phobia” guys told me am a good driver (unless my glasses are as far off as they are right now.) My problem is I don’t trust anyone else on the road.
Oh, and the overcome your driving phobia tried to get me to do that by…. teaching me defensive driving. They eventually gave up and told me I needed a psychiatrist. They’re probably right. BUT I don’t trust psychiatrists, really. So, here we are.
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Of course you don’t trust psychiatrists — they spend most of their time with crazy people! :-D
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It’s more most of them have gone hard left, which corrupts their practice. There are reasons for this, but….
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Driving is different, when you understand the vehicle is a multi-ton weapon. Practice manners and suitable control.
(Kzinti grin)
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I HAVE manners and suitable control. Granted where I am now there’s probably only about 30% democrat voters, at most (and most of them are illegal) but the “Hispanic in possession of a car and a total disregard for rules and laws” (look, I can say that. i come from a similar culture. I’d never, in a century of Sundays, drive in Portugal. EVER. Those people are nuts) numbers keep going up. That’s who nailed us, because red light, what’s that. He might also have made an illegal turn, because he couldn’t BE where he was unless he did that or teleported. So, you know….
To me, driving, is like being surrounded by a bunch of Arabs celebrating a wedding by shooting at the sky or kind of at the sky. I can’t take them all out, and there’s no way to make them behave rationally. The surprise is not that I’m scared. it’s that I get in a car. Even as a passenger. (To be fair, I trust Dan’s reflexes and ability not to have us there when it hits.)
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Did I even imply you did not? Sheeeesh….. (grin)
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LOL.
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Yes, Master Obi Wan.
I will be sure to take a deep breath, let it out, aim my speedster at the target, and slowly squeeze the throttle.
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Pop ensured I was taught the art of offensive driving. (bust a roadblock, PIT maneuver, etc, etc.)
Wont go into details, but there are some idiots back when that had some ‘splaining to do to the insurance company, authorities, and the tow truck guy. But without me, because I was elsewhere.
(chuckle)
Nothing slow about it. More like automotive iado. (grin)
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No, no no! You have to treat it as a dispersion-type weapon; it’s wide enough. Establish proper lead, then slap the throttle, don’t squeeze it! ;-)
(FWIW, one of the hardest things to teach a competent rifleman who wants to take up wingshooting for the first time is the idea of slapping the trigger [usually called “jerking” when you do it to a rifle] instead of squeezing it.)
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I am currently learning to drive a 15 ton school bus. I am still halfway terrified of the thing. I am about tempted to see if they can train me on a 6 ton minibus instead.
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So…you want to drive the Short Bus. :-P
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90% of what the bus garage I work at does is transport special ed kids, mostly preschoolers. I’ve been working as a bus monitor there since September while doing the training classes.
(Although honestly a part of me feels that there is probably too much government funds sloshing around what with the hyper-specialization of the programs the kids go to. Hypothetical Example based on my suspicions: BUREAUCRAT: “OK this one 4-year-old kid who lives 20 miles from the bus garage needs to go to the ONE program 2 counties away in the other direction that will prevent his life from being ruined FOREVER. No there are no other kids to pick up.” Yet somehow it must be profitable for the bus company to run a bus just for this one kid. Did I mention I live in the People’s Republic of New Yorkistan?)
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The drive into town today (major winter storm warning for tomorrow) had a couple of “haven’t driven in snow” drivers, including the guy insisting on 40-45 in a clear stretch (10 miles or so) with a posted 55 limit. 12 cars behind him. Oh well.
On the way home, a logging trucker (empty rig, carrying the trailer bit) was taking advantage of a) the thawed, clear(ish) road, and b) an amazing amount of power. He was passing everybody in sight, though most everybody was keeping it to 55 because of the occasional ice patches. (East of the clear spot. Roads get interesting around here.) I respect logging truckers, but this guy had a serious case of get-there-itis. (Might have been a new rig. Hope it stayed shiny on the way home.) He was doing passes that violated my sense of survival. OTOH, I’ve had some winter screwups a few decades ago…
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You need to attend Kamikaze Driving School, Sarah. Their mottos are “Gas gas gas!!!” and “Braking is for the weak!” You swear destruction on every fool who crosses your path, and keep the hammer down.
Because there’s no defense like a strong offense. >:D
Imagine me turned loose in Toronto traffic with an F-250 crew cab. It’s like the friggin” Red Sea parting before Moses. Even the blind imbeciles in the frigging Smart Cars and Teslas don’t fail to notice the crew cab.
On a more serious note, it isn’t really that important what insanity other people could do. I’ve seen some schlitz out there, as have we all. What matters is what they -ARE- doing, and if you’re in your head worrying about what the could do, you’re not watching what they’re actually doing.
Half of driving defensively is putting that big front fender next to their frigging window, so they FEEL the threat of imminent destruction and put the paperback down.
Driving music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTFxE32onKs
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So, my favorite car to drive, and the one I drove the most, was a 70s Suburban with a missing front bumper and a side pushed in. We bought it for $1100 when someone “totaled” it, but $500 in it and drove it for… 7 years? Which was funny, because in that time we went from “Can’t afford burgers for our birthday” to “We’ll go to a restaurant with a valet for our birthday.” Handing the keys to that thing to a valet was…. priceless.
When we bought it, it had been used to house chickens for six months. Anyway…
It not only was a tank, it very clearly conveyed “I don’t care what damage I take.”
Idiots took a look at it and became Sunday school boy drivers. So…. You know?
The road cleared when I drove.
Unfortunately the milleage SUCKED and we had to replace it. But it was fun while it lasted.
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We had a similar experience in the Boston area. We moved there in 1985 with a 1978 Suburban, and after a couple of years in New England the road salt had rusted out the muffler. So when merging, we’d just goose the throttle a bit and the engine noise sounded more like a semi than an SUV. Drivers who were studiously avoiding eye contact (Boston traffic rule – if you make eye contact, you lose) would brake instinctively to avoid being squashed and open up a hole for us to move in to. And, yeah, mileage? We got 13 mpg no matter what. Highway, city, empty, loaded, loaded towing a trailer – 13 mpg.
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Hubby had a 1958 Plymouth Power Wagon nicknamed the “Blue Whale”. Also “not pretty” but it loaded up the college crew to excursions to Cascades and Mary’s Peak. Had no problems dealing with snow going right by newer 4×4’s stuck in the snow. Eventually sold it in ’85 to someone restoring a coupe two door for the parts (fins, emblems, etc.) By then it had been sitting along side the house, had no breaks, and a few holes in the floorboards.
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Rough-cut 4x8s make a wonderful replacement bumpers for such vehicles :-D
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D*mn it. It’s long since gone to the happy lands, otherwise I’d do it.
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My favorite vehicle is an M-60 tank. Preferably the one with EOD mods of a plow blade, and short barrel howitzer. What rush hour traffic?
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Learning to drive armored vehicles was … inspirational. At the Benning School for Boys, I freaked out an instructor with maniacal grins and timely shouts of BANZAIIIIII!!!! while learning to operate the M113.
“Go around that ..” “BANZAIIIIII!!!!! (crush!) “No dont go throu” “BANZAIIII!” (thrash! BONK! ruuummmble!) “(cheerfully)This is great! How long can we keep going, sergeant?” “blrurg..”
I didn’t quite roll it. I think they passed me more to keep me from getting back into the driver hatch again, alas. Final quip was “Can we put a bayonet on the front?”
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School? I didn’t get no driving school for tanks. We didn’t need no stinking driving school. I just took the keys, unlocked it, drove it over to the pumps to fill it up, and then went and played in the several hundred acres of sand we had behind the motor pool. Just some simple quality assurance testing by the NCOIC of Maintenance Control after an engine and transmission replacement. Of course, having a ton of experience using construction equipment makes figuring out a tank a piece of cake.
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No one asked me if I wanted training on them…. wasn’t asked much, other than things like “Are you out of your (foghorn) mind?”
The M113 gives new meaning to “driving a stick”.
A CEV would be…. fun. Hearing “Mob Rules” just thinking about it. Muwahahaha!
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We had M113s when I was stationed at Kunsan. They’re fun too; but they do kinda feel like I’m driving an oversized cardboard box. A very LOUD cardboard box.
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The rural fire brigade I was on had an M35 6 x 6 with a 1000 gallon tank on board. Had to take it in to Flyover Falls when one of the rear tires went south. (So I was down to 9 working tires. I think we emptied the water tank for the run.) Mercifully, this was summer, but the 40 mile drive was fuuuuun. That turbocharged diesel (we never used it with gasoline) had a wonderful exhaust note. Though I should have brought ear muffs. Didn’t do my hearing any good…
It was still painted in OD, and the city drivers gave me a lot of room. Somebody on eBay was selling modified ’35s, with the rear axle removed and the bed shortened. I was tempted, but the toy budget said hell no.
The neighbor’s brother had an M37 (power wagon?) fitted with a snow plow blade, but I never saw it again when one of the half shafts broke. I suspect the neighbor refused to help pay for the repair. (Said neighbor had the amazing ability to piss off everybody he knew. When he died, the weeping was restrained. His wife was similar. She managed to tick off the all of her husband’s relatives, too…)
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40 miles each way. It was the favorite vehicle to grab when we had a fire to deal with.
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Heh. I don’t trust the other drivers either. I tell young people to assume that everyone else is incompetent, inattentive, intoxicated, indifferent, or insane.
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And that’s an INclusive-OR.
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I always say ideal driving conditions are sunny, clear, and no other cars on the road.
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In 1972 I was involved in an accident resulting in multiple deaths and maimings as a result of somebody in a Bronco I was passing needing to be in my lane RIGHT NOW. It took over 30 years before panic at the prospect of passing another car subsided.
Besides, everybody knows that the best defense is a vigorous offense.
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I still avoid using the route with the corner I had my accident on in 1976, regardless of the weather. At least my phobia is a location, not an act of everyday driving. That said, I drive hubby nuts (when he
letsmakes me drive and he is in the car, technically he is “napping”) that when we are on multi-lane freeways (which are limited in Oregon except through Salem or Portland) that I am either in the far left or far right lanes. I have a problemgoing 75+ MPHat any speed (okay I have a problem going 75+ MPG too) with a vehicle on either side of me. Also why, when not driving, I doze off. Except when we were towing in heavy traffic. It takes two to watch out for idiot drivers. Along the lines of “watch XYZ”, hubby “got ’em”.LikeLike
“Keep them aggressively non-political.”
The irony here is that they don’t consider their opinions or actions political. It’s just reality, and what sane person argues with reality?
Point out their hypocrisy and they look hurt, repeating ad nauseum that it’s not about politics even as those policies burn the world around them.
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I know. So you kick them out when they insist on that. Because reality is a bitch.
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I’d modify that, some, to say politics are not to run things. They can bring up political topics on occasion, but one must short-leash the foci to keep the topics on topic and out of the political maelstroms to either side.
Politics, especially in the US, are severely myopic themes, of two-ten years at a stretch. (the GWOT lasted just about twenty, I think, in part because we got into the habit by Year 10 of being “at war with Global Terror”). Deal with politics in the open, when you must at all, but as superficial Necessary Evils perhaps. Absolutely anything that is built to last needs to be tied to what is real and predates the political whims and gnostic poo-bahs of any given popular zeitgeist, or it will blow away with the wind that takes said zeitgeist away, too.
Who was, it, though, that said that any institution not preemptively conservative will steer liberal (i.e. leftist) sooner or later?
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I’ve seen it attributed to Robert Conquest (the second of his Three Laws) and to John O’Sullivan. Cannot make a definitive claim on who has primacy.
Republica restituendae.
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Avoiding the crash is not easy when Teh Authoriteez are using all the control they have to stomp on the gas and steer towards the cliff.
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I’m assuming we can’t avoid it. At least that’s 75% probable in my quick run of “likely” things.
It will take a miracle. But we’re only mostly dead, which is still alive. So it might happen.
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“Keep them aggressively non-political.”
A small scale example: There once was a group of gay men who wanted “not bar” get togethers. One of the members tried to activist the group. I broke away and formed a “not group” for Third Saturday parties. Hosted it for almost 20 years. While politics could be discussed, there was no “group” to be political. It was just my party.
I couldn’t cancel it because there was no member list of people to contact. People would find out about it and just show up. I only had one “bad” experience with that. The police were remarkably understanding about the dead guy in my basement; apparently, that happens. There were more comments about how nice my house was than questions about how I ended up with a dead guy in it.
Only one person was ever “invited to the world” (i.e. told not to return). Many people chose not to return. An example was the dude who was ranting that Trump should have shutdown the country over COVID. Telling him that the President has no such power was not effective. Asking him why, if COVID was so awful, he was at the party in the first place, shut him up and I never saw him, again.
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Yep. We’ve had groups like that. Not now for various reasons, but…
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“The police were remarkably understanding about the dead guy in my basement; apparently, that happens.”
That sounds like the opening line to a story. If you haven’t used it in fiction, you should.
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Should the institutions be explicitly non-political? I am reminded that any institution not openly conservative becomes leftist.
I wondering maybe what we want is consistent sane rules that everyone can understand and agree to?
I’d contend that it is not debate that we are all tired of. Rather, we are all tired of bad faith debates, where rather than arguing a point, one side or the other instead tries to bring the world down on the heads of any who disagree with them.
I wonder if that means we need to develop logic and debate clubs, to foster the knowledge and skills of how to debate honestly?
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Turns out that first principle might be a lie.
What we’ve found when we remove the leftist control, as Ian Bruene reminded me yesterday, is that any institution where the finger isn’t on the scale to suppress pro-freedom voices turns non-leftist.
See, the problem is so much of what WE know of how society works just isn’t so. There’s been so much control and bullshit we just didn’t see. Stuff like “only the left is creative” was an axiom and even people on the right had “explanations” for it (that don’t work.)
Turns out, as I knew from coming up in the nineties, no. it was just that no one to the right of Lenin who was known to be so could get published by then. To an extent I broke in by being a rabid capital L libertarian back then. They couldn’t map my beliefs and deluded themselves.
So, assume nothing.
As for debate societies? I don’t know if the ones that exist are corrupt, but I’d say there’s something to be gained by creating them particularly for kids, and have what’s debated not be hot button, just to teach them logic debate.
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Interesting. I had not seen that, but as you say, there has been a lot of preference fraud going on.
On the other had, I’d expect any degree of power or social prestige would also be a magnet for that waggling finger too.
Maybe the revised version is any entity not openly and vigorously free speech gets co-opted by the finger of control?
The existing national highschool debate societies were corrupted by the early 2000’s at the latest. Roomed with a guy from debate club when I was in college. Heard a lot of stories.
I could see both types of clubs: learn to debate clubs, and we debate hot button issue of the day clubs. And probably on a small local scale: no need to extend any individual one beyond it’s local region, as I’d expect people who know how to debate and enjoy it would likely wade into the larger debates with or without a formal structure.
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“Maybe the revised version is any entity not openly and vigorously free speech gets co-opted by the finger of control?”
THIS IS POSSIBLE. Quite possible. So any groups formed need to have on the bylaws “You don’t have the right not to be offended.”
The hot topic club is likely to get attention and targeted for shut down, but worth it.
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“You don’t have the right not to be offended.”
Actually, that can be universal, not just for clubs. At the second instance (I’m a softy) of being offended by essentially nothing, that should be tattooed on the forehead of the “offendee” in bright orange. In reverse, so he/she/it can read it in the mirror.
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Make sure you pair your debate societies with a good course in Logic. I bless the counselor who told me my first course should be Philosophy 101, Introduction to Logic.
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In “Live Not By Lies” Rod Dreher outlines a similar process that saved the sanity of many in the Soviet block.
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On point one: Lord Fatso Supreme (legal name J. B. Pritzker) signed into law an assault weapons ban, which among other things included registration. The deadline to register was January 1st.
A total of approximately 30 thousand people registered. Which sounds like mass compliance until you realize there are 2.4 MILLION FOID card holders. Also some fraction of those people are going to be FFLs who don’t really get a choice in their compliance.
Oh and the state police have said they totally won’t charge anyone who registers after the deadline.
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I wouldn’t believe any number put out by the state of Sickasound, just a few years ago they couldn’t pay their lottery winners. Even many of the sheriffs in the state said they wouldn’t even enforce the law. If you think about, add the ffl’s to the local leo’s and that about covers your 30K number.
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Of course not. That’s never the point. The point is to have a law on the books to selectively enforce against wrongthinkers.
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Suuure.
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Remind me again who’s getting prosecuted for “parading” in the Capitol? And who ISN’T?
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Remind me again who just changed the subject from the purpose of the law to something else?
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I didn’t do any such thing; I pointed out an example of a law passed for an ostensible purpose and then selectively enforced against the non-compliant based on thoughtcrime. PERFECTLY in line with my argument that they will simply allow for non-compliance and use it, while providing no obvious flashpoint.
You know that my argument is correct. supported by multiple examples, and have no answer for it, so I’m “deflecting”.
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I suspect — this is probably just me — that the “purpose” of the IL assault weapons ban is twofold:
1) To show the world that the liberal and enlightened State of Illinois is “Doing Something!” about the kind of mass shootings that scare white liberals the most, i.e., lone psychos opening fire on crowds of innocent people (it was prompted by a mass shooting in 2022 that killed 7 people at a suburban Fourth of July parade). Never mind that the vast majority of “mass shootings” as classified by the FBI and other organizations — any incident in which more than 3 or 4 people are hit by bullets — are gang warfare;
2) To provide an additional criminal charge to pile on if someone is busted for a violent crime and happens to have either used an unregistered gun to commit the crime, or happens to have an unregistered gun in their possession at the time of their arrest. This is probably the primary way this law will be enforced if it stands — not as a standalone charge against people who are not committing any crimes but as another strike against people busted for other reasons.
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You’re probably right – note that while a majority of sheriffs are on record as not actively enforcing, nearly half were willing to use it as an add-on charge. To be as charitable as possible to Ian’s argument, maybe no one supporting it did so with the intention of selective enforcement, but it’s available, and thus likely to get (ab)used.
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So roughly 1.25%, which IIRC was around the compliance level for NY state and MA gun registration laws earlier.
Not good (the compliance level should be 0%), but if TPTB had any contact with the real world (vice the fantasy bouncing around in their empty heads) that would be a scary thing for control freaks.
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May they soon gain contact with real world. At terminal velocity.
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California was set to have SB 2 go live. It would have basically made it illegal to even conceal carry in California unless an a private business posted a notice allowing it.
A judge put in an injunction.
Then an administrative stay was applied to the injunction.
And just at the end of last week, they stay was overturned, meaning that the injunction is back in force. Good news for now!
Unfortunately, I’m still expecting the 9th Circuit En Banc to intervene.
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“there are 2.4 million FOID card holders (in Illinois)
Not all of whom possess “assault weapons” covered by the law, or indeed any weapons at all. Some Illinois residents have applied for and obtained FOID cards in the last 2-3 years just in case they should ever want to buy or obtain a firearm without any legal hassles. You can’t LEGALLY buy a firearm in IL unless/until you have a FOID. However, they only cost about $10, are good for 10 years, and are pretty easy to get so long as you don’t have a criminal record or have any record of being mentally ill or a “clear and present danger” to yourself or others. Yes, I know the FOID is an infringement on our rights, however, it’s been the law in IL since 1968 (not a typo, and nearly as long as I’ve been alive) and no legal gun shop here is going to sell you anything if you don’t have one.
Now, having a FOID doesn’t indicate what kind of firearms you have or whether you have any at all. It simply means you are legally allowed to possess them. So there is really no way for the State Police to know for sure who is and isn’t compliant with this law, other than going down the list of all 2.4 million FOID holders and knocking on their doors and grilling each one about whether they have any “assault weapons” — which few, if any, police or prosecutors have the time or inclination to do. They’re not going to do it downstate where there are lots of law abiding gun owners, including hunters and sportsmen, and the local LEO aren’t going to touch this with a 20 foot pole. Nor are they going to try it in Chicago, where the police are losing hundreds of officers to retirement/quitting every year and they have enough on their plates as it is. (Active or retired LEO, by the way, are exempt from having to register their “assault weapons”.)
If all 2.4 million FOID holders had at least one weapon subject to registration, then having 30,000 of them register equals a compliance rate of 1.25%. If we assume that only half of all FOID holders have weapons subject to registration, that goes all the way up to 2.5%. If only one-quarter do (I doubt it’s that small) then the compliance rate was, at best, 5%. No matter how you slice it, that represents a pretty massive middle finger in the face of JB the Hutt.
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In case it wasn’t obvious, I am in IL.
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Its not authoritarian tyranny when the right people do it!
The right people know what is best!
That dork you cited is polishing his jackboots for the coming day when he thinks he gets to decide whos’ face gets stomped forever. He can hold the bucket on his boxcar.
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He’s absolutely convinced we’re going to do to them what they’d dearly loved to do to us. He’s so blind to “we don’t want power over you. We want to be left alone” that it might not exist for him. For him all humans want to stomp on others. It’s the natural order of things.
For me? It’s too much like cleaning other people’s rooms for them.
In an ideal world people would leave me and mine and the country I love alone to live as we wish, and I’d be writing my stories, and ignoring the news. I might not even know who is President, to be honest.
We don’t have an ideal world. And while I am not interested in politics, I learned early and hard that politics is interested in me.
And here we are.
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“Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, Stuck in the middle with you”.
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“Everybody wants to rule the world…..”
No, no we don’t. People! Do you have a CLUE on how much PAPERWORK is involved??? NOOO, I break out in ADHSquirel! SHINEY! Distractions galore! If there is to much paperwork! (Makes doing taxes…interesting in a not good way).
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Speak for yourself: I’ve got a whole list of decrees that I plan on instituting when I become Supreme Dictator.
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That guy is the epitome of “smooth landing, wrong airport.”
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I’m just going to leave this here:
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2024/01/08/toronto-police-chief-apologizes-after-officers-hand-coffee-to-protesters/
[Background information, a handful of d1ckhead Muslims with Palestine and HamAss flags flying have “occupied” the Avenue Road bridge and ramps of Highway 401 in Toronto for a week. And by handful I mean less than ten guys most days. A boy scout troop could run them off. It’s the cops who are in fact keeping the bridge closed.
Why the Avenue Road bridge particularly? Because that’s the Jewish neighborhood. Natch.
This weekend a video emerged of Metro Toronto Police -delivering-coffee- to the protesters. Google “Avenue Road Bridge” and you’ll find video of the cops bringing a Timmies coffee pack and cups to some HamAss murder/rape/genocide-supporting “individual.”
Reminder, Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich is -still- being dragged through federal court on a -mischief- charge, and also zero HamAss supporters have had their bank accounts frozen since October 7th. Also they shut down the mayor’s skating party yesterday with flags, assault, and intimidation, zero arrests.]
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I– Okay, Phantom. We need to clean stuff here, then go and liberate you USAians trapped behind the lines.
We know from the convoy the people in Canada are all right. But your leadership needs Nuremberg. And how.
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Canada is run by thieves. They’re not even pretending anymore, its getting to be like Mexico. Makes me wonder if the cop in the video didn’t do it to make a point to his chief.
But you don’t need to go far to find the same thing in the USA. They’re doing -exactly- this in big cities all over the US, right now, same issue. The HamAss flag flies across the USA, with the support of the media, the cops, and the courts.
Kind of a self-identification, really. Canary in the coal mine. All you need to do is see where that green rag is on display, and you know which city council and mayors office needs a hearty Nuremburging.
That should be our new verb. “We’re going to going to Nuremberg the H*ll out of City Council.”
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On wonders how long it will take for the left to go from cheering on terrorists to being terrorists….
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Exactly … just a short hop-skip-jump, I would guess.
There is a single house in my neighborhood flying a Palestine flag and “Free Palestine”. They’ve also had the LGBT rainbow banner displayed as well. They’re blocks away from our house, and we don’t know them at all. Nor will we.
I have the sense that most of our neighbors are very, very quiet about who or what they support, politically. Most of the ones we do talk to tend conservative – lots of military and military retirees.
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They’ve been terrorists whenever they think they can get away with. Cue summer of FIERY love.
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I remember when the (not even as good as Keystone) Kops bombed the “City of Brotherly Love.”
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How long? Are you kidding me?
#BLM burned downtown Minneapolis. During a plague. For three freaking days. Ask the guy that runs Uncle Hugo’s how that went for him.
Then there’s #JustStopOil, #Pantifa, and now we have For Real #HamAss burning sh1t in -Toronto-, peaceful Canaduh, the last place anything ever happens. They’re literally shooting people in the street in the USA and have been since 2020. Nobody has been shot yet in Canaduh that I know of, except by the cops. And what does that tell you?
You are looking at a slow-motion Kristalnacht, paid for by foreign investors. The reason it is slow motion is that unlike the original, the population of the country doesn’t back it. But the reason it keeps going is that our Authorities are bought and paid for, and are protecting the likes of HamAss from the Normies.
You know who decides what goes on at Harvard right now? The Emir of Qatar. Because he’s paying them billions to do what he wants. Billions. Every year.
The real problem is what’s going to happen when some bright bulb finally figures out to throw red meat to the Normies of North America. That’s going to be really something. Hordes of Normies with a hate on for whoever Bright Bulb tells them to hate. Super fun.
Maybe I’ll buy a boat.
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It’s more likely the Security Minister of Qatar; the Emir has neither the time nor the patience to deal with a bunch of left-wing loonies.
–
Or build one…
———————————
“In a Perfect World, no one would need guns to defend themselves; therefore, denying everyone the right to own guns will make the world Perfect.”
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Nuremburg followed by a public performance of the Danny Deever Dance.
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The Jerk Jiggle?
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Or Dresden.
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This is the sort of thing the opposition party should be looking into.
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Ontario is run by the opposition party. Liberals in the federal government, “Conservatives” in the provincial government, and City of Toronto is now run by ChowChowChow, the NDPee Queene, aka actual hammer-and-sickle communists.
All the same, right? We don’t have an opposition.
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Christopher Hitchens knew the value of removing signs. He nearly got himself and his two companions killed in Lebanon when he tore down a swastika in a fit of anger. Michael Totten, who was one of the companions, related how they were chased back to their hotel by some angry locals, who were probably linked to Hizbollah.
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Outside of environmental dangers (such as the ice you use in the example), the real danger in driving if you are a semi-alert, careful driver is not yourself but others. People not looking before changing lanes, weaving in and out of traffic to get there 10 seconds earlier, people doing everything in the world except paying attention to what they should be actually doing – driving.
Really – to use a terrible analogy – what we trying to do is defensive driving, trying to avoid the fools and idiots long enough to get off the interstate and avoid the major 35 car pileup and onto the two lane road which, although not used often, is at least safer even if in somewhat worse repair and slower. It is the trying to get to the off-ramp with people whizzing by and cutting us off that is maddening.
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By choice I do not drive defensively – I drive paranoid. The other guy is out to get me, and I need to avoid them.
Works on the political side as well.
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The blinding burning radioactive irony of this leftist shit saying “Don’t obey the authority.” When you know, you fucking KNOW that this little shit has every booster and probably still wears a mask….
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I seem to recall Someone talking about, motes, beams, and the proper order of removal….
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He and his ilk are still convinced that they are “Fighting The Man,” deliberately ignoring the fact that they have been The Man since at least the 1990s.
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1970s
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But when they do slavery it is freedom!
Paging Mr Orwell to the courtesy phone….
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I totalled my first car in a moment of sheer inattentiveness that still makes me cringe in embarrassment. I’d hate to think how I’d do in a ort of the country where I had to worry about the Global Warming causing things like black ice.
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Black Ice Matters
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You win the internet today. ~:D
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Not black ice, but fresh spring deluge, onto dry road. Back tires slipped going into a corner, which I had slowed down for. What I remember is thinking “Turn into the skid. Don’t hit the breaks.” Of coarse having thought the latter, it was already too late. 20 MPH and I totaled a ’66 4-door Blairair (sp?). It wasn’t the speed, it was physics on the spin and hitting an Oak tree, behind drivers seat on the pole, off the right side of the road, about 10′ off the highway. I, and the dog with me, were out of the car, on passenger side, as the branches of the top of the tree were brushing the house. Scared me, terrified the dog, and the home owners. They were super relieved. No damage to the house, lost the tree, but dog and I walked away. Prior week they had someone take out a power pole with a sports car, who missed the corner entirely, who did not survive. Police stated I walked away because wearing seat belt (lap, no shoulder), and the size of the car (seat belt = survival, size of car = bruises only no hospital at all, though the dog went to the veterinarian in fear of shock). Cause of accident? 100% “new driver”. I’d had my drivers license for over 3 years. I’d had a car for about 9 months.
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We two have had a couple of instances of “driver behind us is an idiot”.
Second one put their white corvette under the Chevy 4×4 2500 single cab (not jacked up, standard height I still need side rails to step into cab, I’m vertically challenged). His comment “you stopped suddenly!” My response “I’ve been riding my breaks, stopping and going, for the last 6 blocks. What did you think was going to happen?” Not that I knew they were even back there as corvette profile was below the tailgate, let alone the canopy window. Nor visible through either side window. I got out to see which huge pothole I’d missed with the front tires, and not the back ones. Nor was it my responsibility to know it was back there unless I was backing up, which wasn’t. Driver shut up.
First incident, we never saw the car that plowed into the parked at red right cars. Car immediately behind us, that bumped us (seriously, we felt it, but not so much as a scratch to either bumper). Not so much for her, or the car behind her, who the pickup driver plowed into. We did give a statement to the police but not to our insurance (no damage, to us, no claim to be made against us, why would we tell them? Insurance took exception. We went somewhere else. Idiots.)
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I feel like I’m watching a slow motion car crash that I’m helpless to do anything about. Looks like a whole bunch of folks on every side are itching to go to war, despite almost NONE of them knowing the first thing about it outside of a movie they’ve seen or book they’ve read. Some of us who’ve been to war, and who’ve seen what real, honest-to-God civil wars do to countries, are at our wits ends that so few will have any hesitancy except in retrospect.
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They seem to be think it’ll be the Blues and the Grays (okay, the Blues and the Reds) lining up on opposite sides of an open field and trading volley after volley after volley of rifle fire until somebody gets bored and orders a bayonet charge, like in every movie and documentary about the ACW that they’ve ever slept through.
What’s probably going to happen (and this is my nightmare) is something that will make 1990s Yugoslavia look like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and Sarajevo and Srebrenica seem like Sesame Street.
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Yep.
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If you saw “Attack of the Clones”, in the end battle on Genosis, you see blocks of clone troopers jogging forward being led by a Jedi with upraised lightsaber. As I remarked to Em at the time, “Someone saw “Glory” too many times. Both sides have blasters, and artillery. They’d last about 10 seconds. Tops.”
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I’m thinking more like the Troubles in Northern Ireland — sporadic bombings, kidnappings and assassinations that don’t completely grind daily life to a halt but require everyone to keep their head on a swivel, be careful where they go or who they associate with, etc.
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Pretty much this – especially in blue dominated areas. But I think also a lot of street brawls between rival gangs, like in Weimar-era Germany.
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So Germany wants to cut subsidies for farmers because food bad, but is increasing subsidies for immigrants because brown good. The farmers and the workers who are being displaced have shut the country down, Polish farmers and workers seem to be joint in. The Grauniad points out that the peasants are revolting and Orwell grimly smiles.
this has been going on off and on for weeks now. Tis a pity both sides can’t lose, but in a contest between the lords and the commons I’m all for the commons. workers or the world unite or some such,
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I believe French farmers are in also.
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As are the Dutch again/still
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Someone is going to get eaten. Mark my words.
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DW and the BBC say that there’s a new “left-wing Conservative party” forming in Germany to try take influence away from AfD. I don’t see that working.
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I’ve heard about the last time there was a left-wing conservative party in Germany. It went … remarkably badly. Half of Europe in ruins badly.
Political panic makes people do really, really stupid things. Much like ordinary panic, only worse.
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Since they define Conservative = Nazi, they plan to bring back the Nazis openly. Then they can point and say “See! What did we tell you? “
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I suspect they’re just lying or that this new party “glows”
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Yeah we saw this show a few years ago in Sri Lanka. We know hiw this ends, the ones producing the show, however, think they can do better this time.
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Yep. Also, Holland once ate their prime minister.
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Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
Not just pretty words.
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Yeah. And sales of iphones to China have tanked. Zeroedge makes sounds about its being because they’re buying Chinese brands. I have a feeling it’s because they’re broke.
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Agreed. Apple is prestige in China. I recently heard about an influencer that was publicly pushing Huaweii in his videos, but was spotted using an Apple phone when he was out and about. If Chinese aren’t buying Apple phones all of a sudden, it isn’t because they don’t want to.
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They’re broke, alright. Entirely. lot of ruin in a nation though.
It’s said that the top Soviet economists knew in the late 1940’s that the system was doomed. Took 40 years to happen. Gordon Chang’s book only came out in 2001, so there’s plenty of time.
it’s a long story but they’re not buying phones because there are no phones to buy because there’s no foreign currency to buy them. the PBOC is not providing any foreign currency because providing foreign currency would require they admit that the value of the yuan isn’t what they say it is. It’s something called the Mundell Fleming Trilemma in action. There’s a rabbit hole for you.
China has made me learn all sorts of impossible things. For example, I’ve had to learn about credit default with Chinese characteristics and bankruptcy within Xi Jin Ping thought. Fascinating. the west is so stupid, all one has to do is ignore a problem and it ceases to be a problem. Who knew? The wise East is so far beyond us. I suppose my whiteness interferes , or something like that.
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Precisely. I don’t understand why people despise “populist” policies. They’re just people, but if the majority of the people in a country are being treated like dirt, I too am on their side against the increasingly dumb perfumed princes.
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The regime’s biggest knock against Trump is that he’s a populist, That’s the one thing neither faction can endure. Supreme executive power is derived from a farcical graduation ceremony from the correct institution not from some mandate from the masses. What are you, some sort of commie?
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I’ve seen both the graduates of high fallutin’ universities and the masses. I’ll take the masses.
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As a graduate of high fallutin’ universities myself, I entirely agree. William F Buckley’s preference for a random page of the Boston telephone directory was right on the money, Avoids the systematic error mid nothing else,
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Simple, really. If a left wing policy has apparent public support (even if faked), it’s ‘popular’, ‘the will of the people’, ‘common-sense policy’.
If a right wing positions has apparent public support, it’s ‘populism’. Look to scapegoat a ‘dangerous demagogue’ who is faking this to gain power, subverting people’s class consciousness or whatever.
Synonym: ‘threats to Our Democracy(TM)’
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I suspect Orwell is face-palming. “I tried to warn them, but the idiots won’t listen.”
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It will probably work out as it did in Holland: the Powers That Be will advance a photogenic, well funded Manchurian candidate who will betray the movement’s principles in the name of the movement’s principles.
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I must have missed that one. Recall the protests and electoral change. Heard similar criticism of Meloni in Italy on immigration.
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Meloni was talking somewhere to the right of both Trump and every Le Pen on immigration and then once she got in office, she folded like a tent in a tornado.
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I don’t think the new guy has enough power to do ANYTHING. It was pointed out at the time.
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Had two crashes in 2022. First one, we were stopped at a red light, and best as I can figure (I wasn’t driving, so I could sit in the back seat and read, and just heard the bang and looked up to see a car flying at us) someone ran the light and the person trying to turn left hit them at speed. The car that was thrown into our car had the entire passenger side smashed in, and the minivan in the intersection had the whole front end smashed. Everybody was up and walking once stuff stopped moving, and we just had a dented fender and bumper. We drove home and were able to get the car repaired on the insurance of the at-fault driver.
Second one, we were stopped at a stop sign on a rainy night. Guy behind us claimed his brakes locked up, but his truck was late-model enough he had to have ASB. Nailed the back bumper and door of our business van, but low enough speed that we could still drive it through two more sales events. Got it repaired on his insurance.
I see so much stupidity on the road. We’ve taken to recording every trip of any distance at all, not just out of town, and I have some astonishing idiocy on video. I’ve been thinking about putting some of it up on YouTube.
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We have a dash cam video. We have it because of the scenic vacations we go on (granite slot canyon just south of the Canadian border Idaho side, Canadian Iceway corridor Banff/Jasper national park, etc.) We keep them in the vehicles 24/7. Although the two incidents we should have had on camera: The parked vehicle rolling over the bank just past Pedro Lake overlook intersection – wrong angle. The car slammed into as it was just starting to turn left from the north bound vehicle, who not only ran a red light, but was speeding (even if not speeding, speed limit is 55, so still not good) – too far back in the west bound to south bound turn lane. Caught debris, and accident, but didn’t catch who-was-at-fault. Now, if it’d been us? Definitely would have caught what we were doing. Does not catch what is happening behind, nor directly from the sides.
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Looks at author. Sighs I remember when Snyder was a darn good historian, like Annie Applebaum. Both have been so immersed in studying totalitarianism of the European flavor that everything has become an evil dictator. Applebaum marrying into the Polish nobility also plays a role, I suspect.
I bailed on Snyder 9 years ago. I still respect his early work, but I won’t read any of his more recent scholarship.
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In the piece demi-fisked above, Snyder makes all the right points, but he’s barking uo the wrong tree. He’s got the right idea but he’s no Old Dan—that poor dog can’t smell the difference between a ‘coon in an oak tree and a skunk in a juniper.
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Lets not forget the whores in the media, they are supposed to be warning us against the crash coming, not cheering it on. Not cheering on the power drunk driver in the other car.
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Currently they’re attending meetings with Biden where they’re advised on how they ought to report the news.
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“Please I can shove my head farther up your ass Joe, besides no one watches CNN” said the guy from msnbc.
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Sarah, this is very timely. A close friend’s daughter was just involved in s “fender-bender”. And the parallels are apt.
I’ve been in multiple car crashes. Sadly, some were completely my fault. By the grace of God, no one was badly hurt and no property was un-repairable. I am a much more careful driver and much more picky about accepting rides.
Likewise, I’ve been through multiple financial crashes (well, of my own finances). Again, by the grace of God, no one was seriously injured and I believe all debts were covered. I am a lot better at planning; but money isn’t the only thing we need.
I have also had personal crashes involving my spiritual, physical, emotional, and/or mental health (usually a “combined arms” attack). Sadly, some people other than me were hurt. I hope they were able to recover; but we no longer talk. I have recovered pretty well, even from cancer twice; but I wish I could undo the damage I caused others. I like to think I am wiser and won’t make the same mistakes; but this requires constant .
We all have the ability to plan ahead. We often choose to ignore the warning signs. May we all receive wisdom enough to prepare and protect ourselves and our loved ones from what’s up ahead.
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There’s only one time when I KNOW I avoided a car crash by anticipating the problem and getting out of the way ahead of time, and I didn’t know I was avoiding a crash when I did it: I was just being prudent. I was driving along on the highway matching the speed of the traffic around me, when I happened to glance over at the car in the lane to my right that was currently parallel with me and matching my speed. In a half-second glance, my brain registered the following things about the driver and whether they were important: young man (somewhat important), ethnicity matching the largest minority group in this area (not really important), driving with one hand draped over the steering wheel (HIGHLY important). When I say “one hand draped over the steering wheel”, BTW, I mean that his wrist was in contact with the steering wheel, at the 12 o’clock position. That was the only part of his hand in contact with the wheel.
I saw that, and in a flash my brain came up with the decision. “Bad driver, not paying attention, I don’t want to be in his blind spot” and I took my foot off the gas pedal so I would fall back behind him. About 15 seconds later, the lane he was in came to and end due to road construction. I saw his car go all the way up to the construction barrier, then suddenly whip over into my lane (I was several car lengths behind by that point). I’m quite certain that he didn’t even realize his lane was ending until he was right at the barrier, meaning he didn’t have time to check his blind spot before whipping into the other lane. If I’d still been in his blind spot, I’m certain he would have sideswiped me hard enough to spin us both out of control, with a high chance of serious injury or fatalities. As it is, he probably never realized that he came close to being in a nasty crash… but I realized it.
Sometimes, not every single time but often enough it’s worth it, you can avoid disaster by thinking ahead.
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I’ve done similar. Can’t always see the driver good enough. But I try. I have a couple of rules.
Not in a big enough hurry to get anywhere. Rather to be late than not get there at all.
Proactively avoid accidents, doesn’t matter if “not at fault” applies.
I don’t have the confidence to aggressively drive defensively, using speed and reactions. I have to rely on observation and then drive appropriately. My default is to keep as much space between me and other vehicles as I am allowed.
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“Better to be late than ‘the late’.”
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Too true. While being “the late” is a possibility. Not getting where you intended to be, either at all, or in the vehicle you started with, will be the default when it comes to a high percentage of accidents.
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When I lived in Ottawa, Canada (hey, I may be Southern, but I really learned to drive in the white stuff during grad school in Boulder, CO), I had a habit of leaving a good space between me and the car in front of me, while at lights, especially in the winter. One day I’m on the way to work, and see a car approaching in the rear-view mirror. Brain says, “That person is not going to be able to stop without hitting me.” I pulled forward and to the side. She did eventually stop, but half into the spot I was previously occupying. I count that as a win.
Also in Canada: I came up to a stop sign, and slid some, but did stop at the sign (4WD Ranger). There was ice, which was somewhat rare due to the typical cold and plowing/salting. The young driver coming up behind me in a small 4-door sedan, was not so fortunate; she plowed into my rear bumper/trailer hitch. No damage to me…but totally crumpled the hood of her car. I told her, we can get police/etc if you want, but you rear-ended me while I was stopped…sucks to be you, but you’ll have to get that repaired yourself. She didn’t like it, but she agreed.
While I was in Boulder, I learned the parking lot training trick mentioned above…that was great. I decided the most dangerous time there was the first quarter inch, maybe even the first eighth inch, of fresh snow. That’s the time I was gingerly driving to an intersection, and did a 360. After stopping, I continued on my way. My passenger was awed by the fact I didn’t lose my cool (“There was nothing I could do, except try to avoid making it worse.”) Thankfully there was almost no traffic at the time, which was why I came out of that OK. That first bit of snow, on a below-freezing road surface, with super low moisture/humidity…that’s like graphite.
I’ve done a lot of driving around the DC Beltway. I really detest that. I’ve looked over and seen folks on their phone, and gotten out of their proximity. One really bad time, I told my wife not to talk to me – it was like flying with the Blue Angels. No distractions allowed.
Last story…I rode my bike a lot in Boulder, Back in 1991 or so, I was biking, and someone passed me in a car, LEAFING THROUGH THE DENVER YELLOW PAGES, with it on their steering wheel. Obviously very early cell phone days. I was flabbergasted…and thankful to be alive!
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LOL. That wasn’t us, for the record. With the yellow pages.
BUT we did take a phonebook in the car with us, mostly to find restaurants and such. No phone in the car, but also no GPS.
We had a phone book and a map. that’s how we started exploring Denver in…. 92. 92 is when we moved. I miss Denver THEN.
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I tried to reply earlier, but WPDE…
Heh.
I miss Boulder/Denver from back then too. My fiancee’s family was living in Castle Rock at the time, so we would often drive down there on Friday evening and back on Sunday evening. Stopped at Mr. Manner’s restaurant for supper several times. One time when I was ordering, the waitress asked me which dressing I wanted on my salad. “What kinds do you have?” “All of ’em.” We are still laughing about that, 33 years later…
I left the phone book in the dorm mostly, but I had a file folder of paper maps for every state between CO and SC, SC and OH, and OH and CO…because I drove those routes a couple times a year in the 1988-92 time frame. And the towns of Boulder, Denver, Dayton, because that’s where I was depending on time of year. Home, I already knew – too small to need a map 🙂 Still have those maps…pretty heavily creased. Shoot, it was amazing how little I really needed beyond a road atlas; just the three town/city maps. But rest stops and gas stations used to have these nice state maps for free…
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We have a huge atlas book that we used to go over to plan trips, a smaller one for trips, state, and national park (surrounding area) maps, also for trip routes. We used Triple A for route maps (mom & dad belonged), especially when using the RV, especially CA. Not so much for the roads themselves but which exit to get off the dang freeways. Sure marked. But better to know well before the freeway signs. It isn’t trivial to get that RV rig over into the correct exit lanes. OMG if you hit the right exit, but the wrong lane, is a RPIA. Guess how I know! At this level GPS for the win. That is one thing GPS does get correct! Back roads and mountain “shortcuts” not so much. Freeway exits and which lanes to be in? 6 out of 5 stars!
Triple A route maps are long gone (when home after trip). Still have national park maps (multiple of some), souvenirs. Atlases, still have too. They are a tad dusty. We know better than to use anything, even state or county maps, for non-highway “shortcuts” across the mountains. Heck no. Stop at the local district ranger station for section maps if going to explore forest roads. Sure they cost something (now), worth every penny.
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I miss the whole USA THEN. Near the end of the time when I was riding across the country every few years on a Yamaha Venture 1200 V-4.
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Cardinal George of Chicago (RIP) said, “I will die in my bed; my successor will die in prison; his successor will die in the public square; his successor will have the task of rebuilding a shattered world.” We’ve been through this before.
I recently renewed my Notary commission. The law requires notaries to take the oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of California. This time around I was asked to swear only that I had read and understood the oath. And why should I have been asked to swear even to that when the Resident’s cabinet has sworn nothing at all?
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I swore to obey and defend the constitution when I naturalized. I try to keep it.
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“… I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…”
That last part seems to bet overlooked too often. :-x
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I usually don’t read through these articles from you, and that is my error. I won’t make that error again. This first one is terrific. One thing right up front, the do not obey part, I will employ that and finding ways to accomplish outside of the federal government. Consider local school boards. Do your work there, sidestep subvert federal intentions. Take on the unions and the woke head-on. Run for the board if you want, tend to meetings. Support candidates that agree with you. There are other example.
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A crash is coming, I just cannot figure out how bad it will be. If it is like the crash in the Mandibles book, Oh Lordy that is going to be nasty.
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The only reason it won’t be THAT bad is that the rest of the world is worse off than us, by miles.
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