J. Kb’s post on Manuel Oliver’s foundation got me thinking.  He is basing his fight/endeavor on the false premise that Evil can be managed with logic and rules and that if somehow that is not the case, there has to be some sort of conspiracy behind it and the “refs” must be removed.

That is Soviet thinking.

The USSR honchos were enamored with the concept of “Five Year Plans” related to the production of goods by their industrial complex.  Simply stated, a bunch of party bureaucrats who’d never worked in a factory in their lives,  would sit in some office, read a bunch of reports that could be could not be accurate, make some “calculations” and assure to the upper ups that in 5 years, the production of a product would be certain amount, usually wildly optimistic. Of course, reality is a harsh bitch, shit happened, and the wildly optimistic goals were never met.

Now, it was NEVER the fault of the Party bureaucrats because they represented the Part which was never wrong according to the dogma. If the Party bureaucrats were not wrong but the goals were not met, therefore there was one of two reasons: incompetence (but rarely used because it would mean somebody up in Party management made a mistake and the dogma says otherwise) or Sabotage by the Evil Forces of Imperialism.  Investigations were made and to make long story short, a few patsies were selected, tried and executed.

Again and thanks to the dogma of Party Infallibility, the same party bureaucrats would gather again and create a new 5 Year Plan knowing for sure this time would work because that is what they put on paper in behalf of the Almighty Party and its Infallible Economy. It never occurred to the bureaucrats (or simply they knew better than voicing it) that maybe it was the system that was faulty. The dogma had to be preserved and if it meant making stuff up like creating saboteurs and killing innocent people, So be it. 

There were other “remedies” used to cover for the stupidity of false expectations, some readers will probably identify the following line from an old book: “times 14.2.84 miniplenty malquoted chocolate rectify” 

So Mr. Olivera is pretty much the same thing: It was not us who were wrong, but the Ref was dirty. Not our fault, our planning, training, etc was a surefire thing unless somebody purposely sabotaged the process to alter then result we expected.  They will not admit fault or that there are things you cannot control in your life. Blame must be found somewhere and he will not admit to making a mistake.

So, we are the Bad Guys, the saboteurs that he needs to get rid off. Although he should be careful because it is not a bunch of meek Soviet citizens subjects, shitting their pants, fearing the KGB to show up and take them to a Siberian Winter Resort and Spa for 20 years of Hard Labor.  We are citizens of a country with a long history of wrecking the long-term plans of Statists, foreign and domestic.

That is a Parent/Teacher meeting for the record books.

The July 2018 report.

If my calculations are right and the same trend continues, we are not going to reach the 2 million licenses this year but we are going to be mighty close: about 10,000 short. That means that probably (barring EMP attack) come the end of January 2019, we will be the first state of the union with 2 million licenses to carry concealed.

Welcome to the Gunshine State.

PS: I forgot, sorry! Florida ladies with a CWP went up to 509,014. C’mon ladies, those a rookie numbers!

The two Americans killed in an ISIS-claimed attack in Tajikistan over the weekend were a couple from Washington D.C. who left their lives in the nation’s capital to see the world together by bicycle. According to Lauren Geoghegan’s parents, the year-long cycle adventure was typical of their daughter’s “openness to new people and places, and her quest for a better understanding of the world.”

D.C. couple killed in ISIS-claimed attack were cycling around world

Although fastly approaching the “Get Off My Lawn” age bracket and raised within the boundaries of “The glass is half full/empty/poisoned” school of life, I have no problem with people with lofty goals and idealism. But no matter what crusade you want to attempt, never forget that there are immutable hardcore limits in this world and in many cases, deadly.  You cannot jump off a cliff, wave your arms and expect a soft landing or swim among sharks forever and expect not getting a dental tattoo from them.

Evil exists. Evil people exist. They have existed since Sapiens decided to go upright and probably will exist all the way to the extinction of our line. Going out in the world with the idea that Evil is some sort of social construct is a dangerous thing to do. This is a quote from their blog simplycycling.org:

I don’t buy it. Evil is a make-believe concept we’ve invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own—it’s easier to dismiss an opinion as abhorrent than strive to understand it. Badness exists, sure, but even that’s quite rare. By and large, humans are kind. Self-interested sometimes, myopic sometimes, but kind. Generous and wonderful and kind. No greater revelation has come from our journey than this.

I could make long snarky remarks, but truthfully they would not contribute a thing compared with the harsh truth that this your idealistic couple ignored basic facts of life and paid the ultimate price.

Hat Tip Joshua

Sobering and solemn.

Hat Tip JD Kinman

A bit more on Frank Guttenberg:

Fred Guttenberg and Manuel and Patricia Oliver — the parents of two students who died at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — broke that mold Tuesday as they appeared in TV ads for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Philip Levine, the first ads in the race to feature Parkland parents.

Parents of school shooting victims hope endorsement will swing governor’s race

Seriously, what the hell were you expecting? You voted for the Gun Control laws and millions of dollars in aid that will go to the pockets of selected friends and somehow you thought they were going to pay you back with their endorsements and votes in November?

And you lost untold number of votes by alienating us.

I shall now cuss via a meme that expresses my sentiments.