Super Genius

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

On the bad side I have got markedly worse the last two days, and there’s a suspicion…. Okay, Dan thinks it sounds like I have pneumonia. Which he has reason to know because it wouldn’t be the first time. Again, the threat of dragging my butt to the doctor if this doesn’t improve. So, I hope it improves and will rest and such (Such as consume mass quantities of lemon tea and try to breathe very deeply), but I’m frustrated, as I intended to CLEAN today and the state of the house is making me sweat.

On the good –? — side, people on Twitter have been exceptionally stupid in ways that are so stupid they’re almost amusing. Or perhaps I just feel they’re amusing because my brain is starved for oxygen. Could be either.

We’ll gloss over the first super-genius, because I’m not convinced he wasn’t an AI or someone following a script. He did his best — after disparaging Elon’s mind, and my saying he mustn’t know many smart people — to get me to brag about my IQ and when I didn’t do that (my opinions of IQ as a measurement are well known. It measures something. I’m just not sure it’s what most people think it is) he proceeded as though I had. It ended with him declaring me a very bad writer because I’m not Ursula LeGuin (Those of you who know she tempted me into writing initially because she p*ssed me off so badly, and who have been following my most recent attempt at the book that engendered can feel free to laugh into your sleeves) and finished (!) by declaring my books the moral equivalent of Pinochet. (!)

We’ll gloss over it, because it’s like trying to argue with Kamala’s word salads, where none of it means what he thinks she means. I mean…. seriously? The only way to interpret that nonsense is to assume to him the definition of good literature is what promotes ideas he agrees with. And while that seems to be the left’s definition of “good literature” most of them are too smart to say it out loud. Or, once having said it out loud, realize they’re not painting themselves in the best color.

Since part of his script(?) included calling me meek and polite or something like that, then answering my tweet laughing about this (come on guys. Meek. Me.) by saying geniuses didn’t get bent out of shape (note I never claimed to be a genius) I’m going with the assumption he’s an AI script. Even the fifty cent army, following a script, is better than that at arguing.

So we’ll gloss over him, though he was, it turns out, an harbinger of things to come. At least yesterday I got a Super Genius claiming they could and WOULD ban private automobiles. (And I presume all internal combustion engine.)

I haven’t gone back, partly due to a friend visiting to condole on Valeria, partly due to the fact that attempting to cough out a lung is taking pretty much all my remaining energy. But–

His comment was in my making fun of someone saying while they realized that banning private transportation wouldn’t work with far flung people, people should be encouraged and given subsidies to move nearer other people.

My answer to his boastful nonsense was to point out that he would be dead. Then I realized he might think I was threatening him, rather than predicting consequences, so I pointed out he didn’t know where food came from.

Okay, I do get that transport trucks are not always private, but let’s work through this, okay?

I once lived in a tiny country — it’s amazing how small it is now that it has a highway system — where almost no one had a private car. I mean, there were still tons of them, but it was perhaps one per hundred people. And many/most of those were company cars.

On top of which the country was developed on a medieval plant, restricted by ox cart and carriage, meaning that population density was already, to begin with, much higher than the US, even the US East, and that population was distributed in concentrations roughly equivalent to a day travel on foot or less all along major routes.

I don’t know if I’m making any sense. Look, oxygen. But like this: the American West is dotted with little population groups (villages/towns) about 30 minutes away from each other by train, because of when it was settled. Nowadays that’s about 15? 20? minutes drive. Most of the tiny towns are dying or have died, which makes this harder to see, but it can still be gleaned.

In Europe, particularly in Portugal because it’s a seaside country and has a desirable climate (probably. I found it a bit wet, but…) it’s very densely populated, and about maybe five miles between population centers, large or small. The smaller population centers cluster around larger towns, and therefore there is a movement of live-in-the-periphery work-in-town that’s predictable and capable of being accommodated by public transport.

Even so, even with all the advantages of geography, people still needed to live far away, and those people needed private transport, even when I was little. You could sort of make do with long range public transport, but it was not easy.

To explain: most people who worked the land still had to live in fairly isolated locations, because they needed room to grow food in, (even though Portugal is so ridiculously fertile an acre MIGHT feed a family.) And they needed to come to town for supplies/seeds/ etc, not necessarily in a schedule cogent with public transport. And also well, have you ever taken a cow to the vet in public transport? The mind boggles. Okay, the vet could come to you, but if he’s dealing with rare public transport to isolated places…. your cow will die.

This is in a tiny country.

The US is not a tiny country. And again, I get the feeling of arguing with people who either aren’t American or who live in such large enclaves that they have no idea what the rest of America is like. Or, more probably, who want reality to conform to their mental maps. Which are drawn in crayon, and possibly the contents of their diapers.

There is no way in something the size of America that you can maintain population, even a tenth the population, if you forbid private transport. There will not be the ability to live remote to grow food. And unless people are now like angels, and don’t need to eat, that won’t work.

I mean, guys, I know you can live in places like NYC without a car. In fact, a privately owned car might be an hindrance, though people still have them from when they need to live. But from my reading (I’ve never lived there) that also restricts you. If my reading is correct, each neighborhood is almost a city in itself, experience wise, and you rarely venture out of it. Okay, you don’t need to. You have everything right there. But the everything you have depends on people who live remote to very remote, and need private cars, because their lives don’t move at the rhythm of public transport. And because public transport is hard to organize for remote and dispersed population.

I mean, they can ban privately owned vehicles. Of course they can. But at that point they are running straight into “never give an order you know won’t be obeyed.” Because even tiny Sri-Lanka rebelled after its rulers attempted to starve it with dictatorial mandates.

And sure, they can ban things on the sly by making gas super-expensive banning sales and new cars and…. If you assume Americans are less inventive than Cubans who have managed without new parts for over fifty years and still have functioning cars. And if you assume that within a month there wouldn’t be homemade cars made of plywood and living room sofas running on used fry oil. These are things I don’t advise to assume. Not if you put Americans in a place where it’s “Be inventive” or “die.” I mean, if you’re going to have to break the law to drive a car, might as well break it and build your own cheaper one.

And yes, I do realize this puerile “Super genius” would tell me that reducing population is the point of it. Somehow these idiots never realize THEY are the population they want to reduce. They always think their non-existent massive brains would rescue them from doom. Somehow. They’re too valuable to the state, I think is their idea. That they might be most valuable as compost is not something they contemplate. Which…. is the limitation of their brains.

Ultimately perhaps I shouldn’t be too upset at the poor idiots. The left is at war with reality. Why wouldn’t its indoctrinated cannon fodder think it’s a just war?

And now I’m going to take a nap. Which is more productive than trying to figure out what’s in these morons’ heads, right?

There might be doctor later, when husband comes down from the office. I hope not, but there might be.

I’ll just make lemon tea in the meantime.

176 thoughts on “Super Genius”

    1. Lemon Tea? Partial to Peach Tea, myself. And, of course, there is the old standby:

      Tea. Earl Grey. Hot. 😎🖖

      Like

      1. So, grandma’s recipe, when the cold was too bad for just black tea with lemon and lots of honey: Peel the zest off two lemons and juice them into three cups of water. Boil the water with the zest, the juice, and about half a cup of honey. Drink. For some reason it’s incredibly soporific. But it helps.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Ah..**Medicinal** Tea. Mine is similar, but Sassafrass, rather than Black Pekoe as the base. And for some obscure reason, I’ve found that the **type** of honey matters: Fruit blossom (usually Orange Blossom or Raspberry Blossom) works better than Clover or Wildflower Honey…

          My problem is, nearly all the local honey is Wildflower. . .

          Liked by 1 person

        2. I like to juice a bunch of lemons (or dump the juice out of the bottle, heh), grate up some ginger, add honey until it’s drinkable (I tolerate sour pretty well, so YMMV), and boil it. Definitely clears things out…

          Like

  2. Feel better, and don’t play around with pneumonia. If you need antibiotics, sooner is better than later (though I am guessing you have firsthand experience with this).

    Like

    2. Indeed – both my daughter and I had to resort to ER-prescribed antibiotics for the Covid pneumonia which we both caught. We got nowhere with throwing off the Covid, until the pneumonia was dealt with.

      Like

  4. And in the entertaining snark category, the Washington Post is not endorsing a candidate for President. This follows the Los Angeles Times non-endorsement last week.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. The lefties are trying to spin this as “ohmigawd, even the Washington Post is so terrified of TrumpNazi that they’re afraid to endorse Peace- and Freedom-Loving Kamala!”

      (Instead of the obvious “WaPo is afraid of getting too much Kamala on their shoes.”)

      Like

      1. Somewhere on PJ media, J Rubin was a) praising the LA Times guy who resigned after the owner said “no endorsement” and b) trying to incite others to leave.

        Now, it’s her turn.

        Well, Jenn, we’re waiting! /snerk

        Liked by 1 person

      3. I guess to say they realize how deeply terrible Commiela is and did the ethical thing would be giving them too much credit. If there’s any way at all to do the *un*ethical thing they’ll find it.

        As it is, I’m just sitting back and enjoying the chaos as these midwit journalists expose themselves as cowardly hacks *and* piss off most of the few subscribers they’ve got left in one fell swoop.

        Like

  6. Do not wait to go to the doctor if you think it is pneumonia. If it is a secondary bacterial infection caused pneumonia, you need a strong antibiotic right away. Waiting even a day is very risky. About 6 years ago I had a bad respiratory infection that turned into pneumonia. I went right back to the doctor after my first visit because the original antibiotic didn’t help and my fever went up. If I had waited one more day to go back to the doctor, I was told I would have ended up in the hospital.

    Pneumonia, especially if you have an underlying health condition, needs to be treated by both patient and doctor very aggressively.

    Really hope you get over it quickly and feel better soon.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Agree, agree. Go to the doctor now.

      And that’s why I always have generic non-prescription 12-hour guaifenesin not only around my house in profusion, but in my freaking purse. (Yes, singers are paranoid.)

      I got to work, I was fine, and within an hour I was feeling bronchitis starting up. So I took guaifenesin.

      The current creeping crud kept trying to be sneaking into my bronchi and lungs, but I keep taking guaifenesin and expelling it forcefully. And so it didn’t get a foothold. I’m still at home and sitting up, but my head and throat are practically back to normal and I think I’ve gotten it beat.

      If guaifenesin does not work for you, there’s the old steam treatment, plus Dan doing the “clap on the back” while you lie prone, thing. There are videos on YouTube of how to do it correctly, from respiratory techs.

      But if you can take guaifenesin, now is a good time. Even a lot of drugstores carry it.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Costco used to sell the 4 hour guaifenesin, but has since dropped it. Amazon to the rescue. Both $SPOUSE and I have it in the standard daily pill selection (I use it morning and bedtime, and it gets the crud moving.) I suspect I have yet another sinus infection; I’m prone to low-grade ones that go on and on. Doesn’t help when I’m working outside long hours.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Had to look that up and found that it also goes under the brand name of Mucinex, and so yeah, I keep a stock of that on hand and in my travel kit.

        Liked by 1 person

            1. I’m one of the “lucky” types who cannot take the stuff. Wasn’t as bad as Prilosec, but it got unpleasant very fast, where Prilosec took a week or so to build to “Why am I non-functional?”

              I had to give my bottle away.

              Liked by 1 person

          2. Costco still sellsone of the types of Mucinex, but the last I looked, what they had included a decongestant. Not a good idea for my heart, which has various issues. None have tried to kill me yet, but I’m not willing to play pharmaceutical roulette with a decongestant. So for me, straight guaifenesin is the best.

            Like

      3. My stepdad and I have had good luck with sipping just enough hard alcohol to raise our blood-alcohol level to the point where it seeps into the lungs and fumigates them, to beat back creeping crud.

        Dunno how the price of a fifth of rum compares to effective expectorants.

        YMMV, of course.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. I used to make industrial grade margaritas to deal with back flares. It worked, though the hangover made it a dubious method. Can’t drink any more, so I have to deal with acetaminophen and ibuprofen. (The combo works for me; one tab of each. Used in moderation, it’s safe. [waggles hand] I’d rather leave the opoid stuff in the emergency stash.)

          Like

          1. It is NyQuil liquid, not the pills, not the Day version, to clear congestion out for me. Then I am out like a light. I must have clear sinuses. Of coarse then it settle into my chest. Sigh. Knock on wood, it has been two years since my last bout. But the holidays are coming up, which means exposure to the great-nieces/nephews, lovable little germ spreaders that they are.

            Liked by 1 person

      4. Agree 100%.

        I didn’t quite go down as bad or as fast both times I had covid as I did when I was 19 and got sick. A little scratchy throat in the AM. By 6 PM a visit to the ER and I was slammed into the hospital faster than I could say “Wait? What?” (1976). 105 Temp (yes I got yelled at. In my defense it isn’t like I knew what my temp was.) Strep.

        Mom *bailed me out. Huge dose of antibiotic shot, plus daily oral antibiotics, then we went back to my “apartment”, packed, grabbed the dog, left a message & medical letter at the district that I was off for at least two weeks, if I behaved. Strict bed rest the first week, allowed to get up for bathroom, that is it at my grandparents. Grandmother fed the dog and let her out (her fault I had her). A week later I was allowed to drive from grandparents to Eugene to see the family PCP. Fever gone, but white count still “Oh my” high (not my words but the PCP’s). Another week rest (but not confined to bed, and I cared for the dog). Then was allowed to go back to work, but wasn’t allowed back in the field for another week. Just enough sick/vacation PTO to cover the 80 hours even as a seasonal temp (OTOH so much for extra payout when season was done).

        (*) “Bailed” = Not sure the family medical insurance would cover this given I was 19, fall term and not enrolled (FYI, the hospital couldn’t get me out of there fast enough). I sure didn’t have insurance through the seasonal temporary job. Insurance did pay. Little paragraph regarding 6 months (not credit) employment in degree field required for degree. So that was what I was doing that summer and fall. (No need to tell them that I’d worked the prior summer and 2 x summer + fall = 9 months. Besides, when I got sick it wasn’t time to register for fall term.)

        Like

      5. Bronchitis is non-trivial. I know of a case where an elderly woman recovered from her bronchitis but the strain had weakened her heart so much she died within a couple of weeks.

        Like

  7. The small towns being 30 minutes apart by train came about because that was the approximate range of the steam locomotives of the time before they needed to refill the water tanks and refuel. The empty parts of the country still make that visible (e.g., follow US-90 west out of Del Rio, Texas, and the towns along the route are about that far apart, since the highway follows about the same route as the old railroad).

    Also, older towns and cities (pre-20th century) were built or grew up around the distances that a person could comfortably walk. Since the invention of the car, the newer construction is more widely separated. Banishing private automobiles would cause an economic collapse of astounding proportions as all of that property’s value crashed to zero. People think we have housing shortages now …

    So, yep, anybody pushing to outlaw private transportation is an utter fool.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Do they really want that stable village structure where every day is like every other day and there’s no reason to ever go anywhere else? Yes, it’s a fantasy, but do they realize that?

      Liked by 1 person

      2. I could not handle that, everyday the same. There are people that can, that do the same thing at work every day, and good on them. They are needed for the mundane, always the same type of work. I do it for 3 times and then either start figuring out how to automate/get rid of the work or, not do a good job actually. My attention wanders off so fast that there is a sonic boom.

        Like

        1. Having to do the same thing day in and day out drives me nuts — and my family considered it a moral failing, and evidence of mental instability. In their minds, good, stable people liked going to the same place and doing the same thing every day, and I just needed to grow up and regard it as The Way Life Is, and then I’d stop feeling as if the walls were closing in on me.

          Liked by 1 person

    2. Given that the Green Leap Forward crowd’s other policies also create and increase housing shortages, it is quite clear that they view such shortages as a feature rather than a bug, given that their “solution” is always more government control, as they use the shortages as a pretext to try to move closer to full commie.

      Liked by 1 person

    3. This – which came up, when I was researching my Harvey Girls novel.

      The development of the railways across the US, especially in the transMississippi west made so much possible – including the start of merchants offering mail-order catalogs – Montgomery Ward, Sears and the rest.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I still find it difficult to believe that Sears fell to Amazon. Even with 1990s tech, getting their catalog online in a usable fashion would have been easy (although not particularly cheap).

        Liked by 1 person

        1. One of the regular Chicagoboyz commenters grew up near their HQ and worked for a time as a teenager-college lad in their main warehouse – he says it was insanely badly organized. They were still operating at an early 20th century tech level, and no one in management had any idea of how to upgrade … nor did they want to. But yes – they could have gone with putting their catalog online, but they were so set in their old way of doing things.

          Like

        2. IIRC Sears was making half-hearted efforts to put their catalog online, or at least to enable online catalog ordering, but that was just at the time when Sears management decided that catalogs were the past and no longer profitable, and so should be discontinued – not realizing that catalogs were also the future.

          Like

            1. Also the Sears management structure was almost twice as large (per dollar sales) as Wal-Mart’s. Hard to compete when your overhead is that much higher and decisions get made slower.

              Like

        4. Well, my observation on the downfall of Sears and KMart (what genius decided a merger was good?) was that they were still operating under the belief it was the 1960’s.

          I’d be trying to make a delivery at eight AM on a Friday, and that’s when they’d have their store meeting. After the store opened. If by some miracle they had a customer who wanted to buy something, they’d have to stand and wait for a cashier. I’m sure there were more bad scheduling things, but that one stood out most to me.

          Liked by 1 person

        5. They started making the absolute dumbest ideas possible.

          My aunt use to run a “Sears Catalog Store.”

          She’d have about 20 folks a month come in, pick something out of the catalog, phone in (or she’d do the phonecall while they were there) and place an order. Usually quite expensive stuff, with small purchases being things like “replace my entire set of XYZ tools.”

          Then it would deliver to the store via one of the trucks that passed through the town on the way to other Sears stores.

          Their grand total cost was about a half hour a week at a town their truck was already stopping for a meal at, and a small percentage that was capped at something like $50.

          Aunt did it mostly because the Catalog Ladies did a lot of window-shopping in her store, and because she likes people.

          Liked by 1 person

        6. You want to see a GOOD online catalog? https://www.mcmaster.com/

          Every part is categorized and easy to find, and you click on a category and it gives you advice on how to find the part you’re looking for. E.g., I’m looking at the page for washers, and it gives advice on when you might want to choose the various metal types available (this one resists rust but not chemicals; this other one resists chemicals including sulfuric acid, but is of course more expensive).

          Furthermore, even though they have literally thousands of parts to choose from, the website loads quickly, feels snappy, and is easy to navigate.

          Like

          1. McMaster-Carr is very good, but the best catalog website I know is Digi-Key’s. The world’s largest retail/wholesale electronic parts vendor, still privately held, and their thousands of pages give not only their inventory numbers but also the manufacturer’s inventory and lead time. Thousands of types of parts, and you can order the lists by any of the parameters in the table. Etc. A wonderful job of design and programming!

            Sarah, please please please take care of yourself. Do it for the kitties!

            Like

          2. When I worked at HP, particularly in the 1980s, it was damn near impossible for an engineer to get McMaster-Carr to part with one of their catalogs. Older ones were floating around, but AFAIK, the purchasing department was about the only group that got a current catalog. McM-C lost a lot of business when people would say “fuggit, I’m going to Orchard Supply Hardware”.

            (This was before OSH got absorbed by Grace, and then Sears. It started as a farm & ranch coop, and had a great industrial supply section. If I needed medium quantities of fasteners*, I’d check out the boxes. Normal stuff, 100 pieces at a good price. After the Borg got them, they dropped the industrial supply stuff and the stocking philosophy followed Sturgeon’s Law. Sigh. I still miss the old OSH.)

            ((*)) They had three grades for a lot, STD grade 2, Grade 5, and some Grade 8. No surprise, the best local fastener selection is at the farm and ranch store (at least the one that doesn’t cater to the urban gardener set), though Home Desperate gets the nod for convenience. (They have the first public-access bathroom coming into town. At my age, that’s important. :) )

            Other online catalogs worth using: http://www.mscdirect.com/ for machine tools and parts.
            Platt electric: www dot platt dot com For when the local electric supply places just don’t have it. I got a pallet full of solar panels and the mounting hardware from them for one major project. Used the store as the delivery site, so shipping was free.

            FWIW, specialty vendors now seem to have fairly good online catalogs. I’m not completely happy with Home Depot’s site (a store 100 miles away does not count as “nearby”), but it works, mostly.

            Like

        7. Sears, S&H Green Stamps, Wards. Wards and S&H went first, decades before. Same problems as Sears. Just Sears held on longer.

          Like

          1. Our Wards in Minot downsized to a catalog store in the70s, forcing my grandmother to get a different job. It lasted about 10 years as that before completely closing.

            Like

    4. When I go between $TINY_TOWN and Flyover Falls, I pass by three vestigial towns and one that’s a couple of well hidden ruins and a name. These (and $TINY_TOWN) were on a rail road line that serviced logging operations in much of the 20th century. The line got shut down (now a rail-to-trail setup) in 1975, but the towns seem to combine water stations and where logs were staged to transport to the mills. One of the vestigial towns has enough going that it will survive as such (barely) while the other two have a couple of houses, and one has a store. These were spaced 5-10 miles apart, generally based on where logging was productive. ($TINY_TOWN was part mill/box shook* factory and part reservation. The mill/factory went out in 1950, the reservation a bit later, but there’s enough going on that it’s surviving.)

      ((*)) Real word, search “box shook”.

      Like

    5. When working for the local county, I found out the sizes of counties in Ohio were predicated on the distance that allowed a farmer at the far end to be able to make a round trip to the county seat to vote and back to his farm all in one day, by horseback or wagon.

      Like

        1. Same in Georgia. Maybe they had the right idea; at least they didn’t try to do “Fraud-By-Mail”, even though it would have been possible…🤔

          Liked by 1 person

      2. The “first Tuesday after the first Monday in November” was designated by Congress in 1845 as the federal Election Day so rural residents a day’s journey from the polling place/county seat could use Monday instead of Sunday (the Sabbath) as their travel day. As for the “after the first Monday” stipulation: that was obviously intended to exclude November 1, otherwise they would have just said “first Tuesday in November”. Apparently this was to prevent Election Day from coinciding with All Saints’ Day and also not to interfere with first of the month banking business:

        https://www.britannica.com/story/why-are-us-elections-held-on-tuesdays

        Like

  8. Go to the emergency room. My wife was a Covid 1.0 early adopter. She is fine but was really sick for a while. I never got it until June of 2023 – just congestion and a mild cough that subsided within 5 days, but once the congestion broke up I realized I could not smell anything. After dodging the WuFlu for 3 years felt like the last guy shot in the war.

    Realized what it was on Saturday and felt ok but by Tuesday I started to have a mild fever and by Wednesday it was 102.4. Off to the ER. Pneumonia which did not present on an X-ray, but did on the CAT scan – either Covid or some opportunistic virus. Slammed with antibiotics Thursday and Friday fever of 103.2. Had to watch my youngest child’s wedding on Facetime. Fever broke on Saturday and I was on the mend. Impaired sense of smell lasted for a few months – annoying but nothing like a fever of 103.2.

    Be safe – get medical attention asap.

    Be well.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. “… people should be encouraged and given subsidies to …”

    And there goes a typical ignoramus who has zero concept of economics or even simple finances; because he has zero understanding of either what money is, or where money comes from. Magical thinking in that money just mysteriously appears out of nowhere, and more of it has no effect on the rest of the world.

    Should send him a years’ worth of decayed carp.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. Urban Coastal elites have always disregarded everything else, and acted as if the entire world lives, or should live, the way they do, the same way they believe that people think or should think they way they do. It is why you get infamous comments of coastal political media class saying things like “I don’t know anyone who voted for Nixon”, and their not understanding why so many people support Trump.

    Something outside of their insular bubble is beyond even their imagination. They simply cannot comprehend that others are different and make different choices. It is also why they are incapable of understanding the people they believe they are ruling over in those very coastal urban corridors. It is why they underestimate the amount of fraud they needed in 2016 to push Shrillary over the finish line. They simply were incapable of understanding then how much support Trump had outside the bubble. even after their slander campaign. Thus we got 2020, and are getting their rerun on steroids in 2024.

    Like

  11. Still praying for your health.

    And yes, I was trying to defend your honor to the first ‘super-genius’, with varying degrees of success. Sure, it was ultimately a waste of time–that blithering idiot– but chivalry is not dead.

    [hat tip]

    –Backwoods

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you. I was so out of it I didn’t even realize when he kept asking “Then why are you such a bad writer?” he was talking to me.
      Because a) what would IQ have to do with being a good writer (of fiction)? I’ve known geniuses who were APPALLING writers. b) Why should I care about the opinion of internet rando when I make a living from writing fairly consistently and have for years? c) I am not in this for fame or immortal glory, but to tell a few stories people might enjoy. I know not EVERYONE will enjoy them, for crying out loud.

      ALL THAT SAID, thank you for defending my honor. It is very appreciated.

      Like

      1. “How many books have you written, Internet Rando? How many people have bought them? Have you ever accomplished anything other than being a pain in the ass?”

        Betting the answer is 0, 0 and No.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. ^^^^^THAT^^^^^

          Look, I am no writer.

          If I attempted it, I would be LUCKY be on “Team And more”…

          But this (apology to actual entertaining clowns) bozo is… bozonic.

          Like

      2. Heck I have authors whose entire series I’ve read and don’t read beyond the first book of another series from same author.

        Like

  13. They are steeped in Self Righteous indignation, heavily on the self. The thought that anyone could argue with their position is in itself an attack at their Morally Superior position, no matter that that position has changed every two weeks for the last twenty years. Not that they can remember the last flip or flop, they’ve always held these ideas, really and truthfully they did. They are not geniuses, they are slaves, slaves to their conformity, slaves to their group, they have no soul save that one given to them at the moment by those they hold in esteem. even though those figures keep changing because they feet were of clay and their souls bought and paid for by the same people they hold in contempt. Their own leaders consider them slaves and treat them exactly like the slaves they are, and those slaves eat it up, begging for more lashes and humiliation.

    Fuck em, let them eat the shit they deserve, I don’t hate them, I pity slaves where ever I see them, as the Eagles said. “So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains never knowing we already had the key”.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. This is the reason “midwit” is an insult. It’s not that these people are unintelligent; they’ve all got at least normal mental horsepower, some of them a bit more. It ought to be enough. It *would* be enough…but they’ve so fully enslaved themselves to the idea of being The Smart Ones that they have lost the ability to engage in self-reflection and will do literally anything to make themselves look and feel smart…and thus have made themselves functionally very stupid.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. They are indoctrinated, not educated there is a very big difference, and they are so blinded by their indoctrination that they can’t see it, to see it is to lose everything they are, so they hide behind their lies.

        Liked by 1 person

  14. “And if you assume that within a month there wouldn’t be homemade cars made of plywood and living room sofas running on used fry oil. “

    Refined biodiesel, hardwood frame, some scavenged parts from several junkers… Rack and pinion steering ain’t hard to rig up, but you want to be extra special careful with the brake system and the fuel lines. Even with crappy compression and leaky lubricants, a straight six is pretty stable. Some fooling around back in the eighties, bit of tinkering around the junkyard will teach even a monkey the basics of how the machine works.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Looks at local museums, looks at machine shop, looks at museums … “Hey, we’re borrowing a few of these to measure for parts. Bring ‘em back soonest, promise.”

      Liked by 1 person

    3. As memory serves, even 50 years ago the British Morgan had a hardwood frame. My buddy’s older brother had one until he turned it into firewood in a high speed turn.

      Liked by 1 person

    4. They went back to straight sixes for several applications – a bunch of higher end BMW gasoline motors in their current lineup, and the current GM light truck diesel and straight six motors. Smoother and easier to balance than a V-6.

      And as far as banning vehicles – do they have any concept how many new cars and trucks are built and sold every year?

      In 2023 new pickups and SUVs and such sold over 12.4 million, and passenger cars another 3.2 million, so that’s 15.6 million new just in 2023.

      If sales stayed the same over 10 years (they won’t) that’s in the neighborhood of one new vehicle for every two people in the US.

      And that’s just new, on top of the 286 million vehicles in operation at the end of 2022.

      ”Oh, lets just ban those to appease the dirt goddess.”

      The sheer innumeracy of these people is simply astonishing.

      Plus there are plenty of people hacking and mod-chipping and doing custom stuff that violates the warranty on new and nearly-new computer-heavy vehicles, so it would not even be necessary to go back to older tech. They’d probably run better.

      Bottom line answer to those morons: “You can’t.”

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I can never be rich. Why? Because all the books, all the tools, all the stuff to build, to fix up…

        My great grandad took a mighty swing at being rich though. Richest guy in five counties or so. Ran liquor during the prohibition, among other things. When he died, it took three whole weeks to clear out his land. Everything from old Farmall parts to hand tools to tack and harness to classic Playboy magazines to half built projects ranging from wind turbines to hot rods.

        Should I ever by some miracle strike it rich, I’d be holed up in the workshop for years most like. So much fun stuff to do…

        Liked by 1 person

  15. It would not be plywood and a sofa. I mean, those would probably be involved.

    But it would more likely be a new build 1964 Mustang with a 400 hp V8 that runs on standard pump gas, and ignores pretty much every EPA regulation imaginable.

    And can blow the tires off of any officially produced interceptor.

    Like

      1. Yeah. Technology has advanced. You can get a brand new Windsor crate engine off ebay. The current challenge is working through all the paperwork to put it into a street legal car.

        Out grey market is already pretty wild. I would hesitate to even speculate what a true American black market would look like. Prohabition was crazy enough, and that was only alcohol.

        Like

        1. Mopar had me at “Helliphant” crate engines.

          …

          Sigh.

          My classic Saturn is deadlined. Looks like head gasket failed, under load, and loss of oil damaged.

          So, anyone have a recommendation for a sporty six cylinder SUV, kinda fun? Prefer one that runs on regular gas, but considering something nicer.

          Was looking at Cherokee with Hemi, but the EnviroTards apparently killed the Hemi option.

          Haven’t bought a car in 18 years. Out of practice. And many look like driveable laptops with wheels.

          Like

          1. We still like our 2011 Honda CRV, now with 215,000 miles on it. It’s a 4 cylinder, but it goes as quick as I need it to do. Usually about 30 MPG, and comfortable.

            John in Indy

            Like

          2. We still like our 2011 Honda CRV, now with 215,000 miles on it. It’s a 4 cylinder, but it goes as quick as I need it to do. Usually about 30 MPG, and comfortable.

            John in Indy

            Like

            1. Honda won’t “delete sunroof”, so undriveable since head hits frame.

              Which is a) stupid and b) appears violating ADA.

              Like

          3. My husband loves the Mazda…. uh… six something, that he’s driven.

            Comfortable seats, much vrooom, doesn’t hurt his back or legs getting in, and there’s room for his head.

            Like

  16. I am myself a confirmed suburbanite, from long experience in the Northeast, so I can see how one gets a bit of tunnel vision about modes of life. This guy, though, is seeing life through a straw. He needed to take a field trip to a farm or dairy or something when he was a kid. Heck, for a couple years in Pennsylvania I basically had a cornfield in my backyard. (Didn’t think to build a baseball field into it. Missed my chance.) It’s amazing how narrow a range of experience can leave some people thinking themselves oh so broadminded.

    And do get yourself looked after, Sarah. It’d be ignominious to go this way, when you were hoping to take so many people with you. [berserker grin]

    Republica restituendae, et, Hamas delenda est.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Other way around for me. City is where the money is. Country is where I’d rather be. But close to the hospitals is where the family is, so this is where I sit.

        If and when I retire, far out in the boonies for me. Few hundred acres of woods, off the beaten path, buy groceries once or twice a year. Peace and quiet. Maybe put in a little patch of garden, back to my roots. Fresh veggies, the works. Can the excess, whittle, tinker, write, listen to music.

        No judgement on those that love the city life, though. Some folks, they like the hustle and bustle. The noise, the neighbors, the closeness. Walking sidewalks, little shops and cafes, all that.

        Freedom’s like that. You get those that choose that, those that’d rather, like me, scamper off to the woods and sit in a rocking chair on the porch. World’s big enough for all kinds.

        Be nice if we could do without the idiots and the bandity types, though. Enough chuckleheads make this world hard enough. That’s why we need the rule of law.

        Liked by 1 person

  17. The doctor here says it’s Friday, hope you already went to your doc or you will have the unenviable choice of ER or Urgent Care. This is the wrong day to procrastinate.

    Like

  18. If you are a chronic pneumonia sufferer I’m sure you already know about and are doing (before it seems necessary) …

    Musinex (not DM)

    Nebulizer with just saline

    Lung stretches

    Back tapping

    Laying tilted at a downward angle (on tummy and on back)

    Eucalyptus (or other volatile of preference) in the shower

    Laying in the hot sun (if you’ve got any over there) and/or breathing in super cold air while the body is warm (if you’ve got any over there)

    … or at least you’ve heard all this a bajillion times. So I won’t patronize you with my silly suggestions.

    💙

    Like

  19. Also wondering if you were having this conversation with one of my children. Just last night(?) he was going on again about how he’d ban all personal vehicles if he could, and I was trying to explain why that wouldn’t work without massively and expensively restructuring our sprawling city. I keep telling myself this is a phase.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Next time he wants a ride somewhere tell him to hoof it or pay for a lift. If he doubles down, start restricting his diet to things not purchased with the use of a private vehicle.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I was just thinking about what a city-dweller would see driving south from the Chicago Area on Illinois Route One. Plenty of nothing. [Twisted Grin]

        Like

    3. You might also let him know that without refining crude oil, all those public modes of transport that he wants won’t have tires or lubricants to actually be able to run. Among many other things. The list of things that are made from the byproducts of refining is VERY long.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. is she vaxxed?

      my better half is fully vaxxed, boosters and all, and she is sick again,

      Me, nothing, not a sniffle, but she has been hacking up a lung, again, was sick about a month ago i swear,

      Like

  24. Have your doctor check for a fungal infection. I recently insisted, and – to my provider’s surprise – I was correct. A one-time dose of an anti-fungal med cleared it up right away.

    Why do I suggest that?

    Like me, you have tended to live in older homes. If work is needed, it may well stir up spores that have long been dormant (particularly if you’ve had work done in the basement, or foundation work).

    Repeated infections would indicate that:

    • Viral infections should have been cleared out by then
    • Antibiotics should have dealt with the bacterial issue
    • Fungals are fairly easy to kill, but the meds for viruses and bacteria won’t touch them. What happens is, when antibiotics have been killed off, there is a void in your body’s ecosystem. SOMETHING is going to fill that niche, so – fungus

    While you’re at it, have the vents cleaned, with special attention to cleaning for fungus/mold. We had an immediate improvement in health when we did that a few years ago (after having our foundation ramjacked up).

    Like

  26. One of the research tools I learned to use to determine if a person was a likely genealogical match was if the locations were within 20 miles/32 km of each other. Depending on time period, railroads, family’s own history and wealth, and country, you could stretch it a bit more. Or if a couple originally met at a market town between their villages, it might be further too.

    People just didn’t move around much, especially the further back you go. 20 miles or so in a generation was about it for most of the population if there weren’t external forces like war or famine or plagues in play.

    Like

  27. There is no way in something the size of America that you can maintain population, even a tenth the population, if you forbid private transport. 

    That’s what they’re after, yes.

    Like

  28. One of the better theories on distribution of people, settlements and commerce is Christaller’s Central Place Theory. I first came across this in an article in two parts by the late Michael F. Flynn about the science versus fiction in his novel “In the Country of the Blind. They were later included in the second edition of the novel. The first edition was published by Baen in 1989 and the second by Tor in 2001.

    Like

  29. Heh. Been seeing an uptick of lefty shills over in the comments on PJ Media and its affiliates.

    Man, do they get upset when you tell them that they are obviously a paid lefty shill. And they’re so boring. (Sounds like the ones on X are more entertaining, but I never post there, lol.)

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.