Trump is Bin Laden's Strong Horse.

Bin Laden predicts TRUMP for POTUS in 2016.  ("When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, they will ... side with the strong horse.")   A chunk of the democratic base is going to go for him, confounding pundits.  Hillary will fold in debate when he calls her "Hil" and gets personal. GOPe is the opposition.

Strong isn't wise but that's human nature.  The guy with the six-pack abs turns heads on the beach, not the IQ of 160.  Men and women are always keeping tab of who is strong and bold in the neighbourhood.   Trump leads the pack.  Strong prevails in a year of uncertainty and possible danger.

If there's a First Nation, it's Canada. Calling Tribal Kinship Groups "First Nations" is BS.

Extended family groups don't run on democracy and calling Indian tribes "First Nations" is a farce.  Canada by contrast is a trans-tribal nation with a written constitution, public accounts, and membership is by allegiance, not DNA.  And now Trudeau, PBUH, calls for "Nation to Nation" deals between Ottawa and the tribes.  ROFL

My blood boiled to read Trudeau is rolling back the requirement that Indian bands follow spending transparency rules.  Most have complied but this is still lick-spittle insanity.  The tribes are still family-run businesses, or at best cliques of clans.

Happy politicians

What do we get in this "Nation to Nation" deal?  What do tribes get?  You got it right if you hear money going from Ottawa to tribes, and if you hear flattery and promises-not-to-be-a-nuisance going in the other. That's not a deal, it's extortion and an ego-boost for some politicians.

The contrast for me was a visit to Queen Charlotte City.  Caucasians (whites) and Asians (Indians) go about their business, working, raising families in a shared community.  I saw hints of this in Alaska and once in a Saskatoon business district.  

Dress-up day

When the government teat isn't being used to bribe and enslave native populations, you get fine men and women.  I don't feel smug because the same deal on a smaller scale is offered to the whole population in a socialist Canada that doesn't trust markets.  If I lived on one of the reserves I've seen, I would be unhappy but being a victim isn't the solution.

In the northern half of North America, Canada is the only First Nation and the tribal groups that settled here previously from Asia never made the cut as nations.  Their invasion can be called "settlement" since they only fought each other as they grabbed territory.

Soros wishes he had supported Hillary

In just released Clinton emails we learn that Soros regretted supporting Obama because he got no special treatment.  Hillary gave him access, Barack didn't.

Soros “said he's been impressed that he can always call/meet with you on an issue of policy and said he hasn't met with the President ever (though I thought he had). He then said he regretted his decision in the primary - he likes to admit mistakes when he makes them and that was one of them. He then extolled his work with you from your time as First Lady on."

Human nature is illegal if spanking is illegal

Trudeau supports turning spanking parents into criminals, but legislation is playing catch-up to culture. 

Spanking has been in decline for years. As compulsory education was imposed right after near- universal literacy was achieved, so legislation that bans slaps and swats is politicians wanting credit for what culture has already wrought. Time out and rebuke have been working for some but an occasional swat still teaches cubs and kids to behave.

As a kid, I remember being afraid of the strap and it kept me out of scrapes until conscience grew. I went on to be a parent that spanked his children. Most of the older kid discipline was a stupid waste of time and goodwill but most of the toddler discipline was pure gold. I hold his little hand in mine, palm up, tell him to do what's right in future, stare grimly into his face, apply a half second slap on that palm and the correction is complete. The beloved toddler’s face crinkles and maybe a tear drop falls. Suddenly our home is safer, the china on the table is unbroken, junior stays away from open stairs, talks respectfully to his mom, and looks at me first instead of just hitting his brother.

Perhaps I’m grandfathered-in for past spanking and perhaps some was just bad-tempered stupidity but no regrets. A law that criminalizes parents for doing their best to keep their kids safe, out of trouble and sociable is bad law. And it’s unnecessary law. Canadians are spanking less and cruel excess brings in police and social services.

The Liberal government plans to repeal a section of the Criminal
Code that protects parents and teachers who use spanking
and other "reasonable" force against children.

Good News: Christmas Can Be A Feminist Holiday.

The Virgin Mary exercised her free will without a word from Joseph and helped rescue the human race. This unusual, but sound, take on Christian doctrine comes from W.R. Mead.   Why aren't feminists saying Hail Mary, Full of Grace, instead of favouring the anti-Christian team?

"  Mary was the free agent whose choice opened the door for us all. At this critical moment in world history, she didn’t act with a man or through a man. She didn’t stand by her man; she wasn’t a ‘helpmeet.’ Joseph is the helpmeet in the gospel story.
   The free choice of a strong and faithful woman opened the door to salvation for the whole human race. Jesus is unique, and women are free and equal in God’s sight: that is what we should take away from this story."

Trump's Foresight

Trump copyrighted "Make America Great Again" right after Romney lost in 2012.  That's planning three years ahead for a run at the presidency which he hinted at even earlier at the close of  "The Art of the Deal".   He speaks off the cuff but somehow keeps getting inside other people's OODA loop like the man in charge, not the scatterbrain.  His competitors are busy re-orienting as he redefines debate.   Accused of being "chaotic", he intently managed the Trump Tower look until everything he asked for was realized and then insists that it be constantly kept in top polish.  Accused of being a braggart, well, that's true, he is. But he's not out of control and no idiot.  Look at the toothed edges on his writing and try writing like that on impulse.  That is studied, aggressive, and focused.

I'm looking forward to watching Hillary Clinton get flustered and defensive in the presidential debate with Donald Trump.   

#Xmasmiracle Pakistan and India December 25th

Indian PM Modi made a surprise stop in Pakistan to meet PM Sharif on Sharif's birthday.  They greeted one another with a hug, more than a handshake, before retiring to discuss business.  The last such visit was 2004.

 

From the BBC: "This was always going to be an historic event, but the spontaneous and personal nature of the visit took many by surprise".

Modi/Sharif. Source: Strait Times

US has largest prison population in the world - or does it?

US stats include people who spend a few days in the county lockup. (This data is usually unavailable from other countries). The US reports stats honestly unlike places like China and North Korea. The discussion usually complains that minor drug offenders are jailed and that black citizens are overtargeted. Only 1/6th of the state prison population is in for drug offences, mostly for dealing. The black prison population is 40% of the total but if only killers were jailed, that number would rise to 50%.      This information is culled from Paul Mirengoff's article, "The Myth of Over-Incarceration".

Still, the numbers are large.

Data Farming: YOU are the Harvest

Privacy is so yesterday.

Finding out a little about a thousand people is almost the same as finding everything out about you.  Data Farming is intrusive, fascinating.  You are already a citizen of this farm but the harvest has just begun.  Today's example is a map of London showing how visitors deal with the city.  A million Flickr photos with London GPS tags were harvested and mapped. What do they tell you? 

What to include on your London holiday and where you probably went last time.
Where to start a restaurant or plan better transit.
Where it's safe to walk and the London hidden from view.

Howeasily GPS goes to the next level, featuring YOU.
Dunstan Orchard posts the GPS track of where he ran in a June 21 soccer game.
This is voluntary disclosure but the data base was there for others to capture.
Your life is the news.  Insignificance, not privacy, will keep you out of the public eye.

Who is my neighbour in a digital world? Many links but few ties.

My neighbours lived next door and generally shared faith, race and Christmas customs. Monday morning in the sixties, they talked about Ed Sullivan and Bonanza.  Thursday night, CHOV radio counted down the top ten hit parade.  That was before top ten became a hundred and lists multiplied.  Before the internet.

That has changed.  We used to be like nested molecules in a crystal, bound with ties of familiarity.  Today we are often like folded proteins, linked but not bound to receptive spots all across the land.  Action-at-a-distance using social media, as spooky as quantum coupling, is making social structures and unprecedented alliances.  This morning I touched dozens of websites, feeding on the opinions and advice of strangers and greeted just one man on the street where I live.

Community and the nature of politics will adopt new forms soon.

Salt crystal, bonded to nearest neighbours, old style community

Haemoglobin molecule, cross-linked to remote neighbours
like those people on your phone contact list.

 

Compulsory schooling came AFTER near universal literacy.

Compulsory schooling came AFTER near universal literacy and drove out thousands of volunteer and for-profit schools.  Almost every girl and boy in England could read before the mandatory Prussian system was imposed in 1870.  Likewise in the USA.  See the charts and decide for yourself.  Was it worth it, all those years you learned to sit in rows and obey bells?

From "The Evolution Of Everything" by Matt Ridley:
  "Prussian schools introduced many of the features we now take for granted.  There was teaching by year group rather than by ability..  There was formal pedagogy, in which children sat at rows of desks in front of standing teachers ...  There was the set school day, punctuated by the ringing of bells.  There was a predetermined syllabus...  There was the habit of doing several subjects in one day, rather than sticking to one subject for more than a day..          The state, once given the chance, quickly took to providing almost all schooling and to deciding not just what should be taught and by whom, but which school a particular child should attend. "          A few pages later, he quotes Albert Shanker,

Shanker

a past president of the American Federation of Teachers:  "It's time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybody's role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity.  It's no surprise our school system doesn't improve, it resembles the communist economy more than our own market economy."

Thanks to "shall issue" gun permits, Americans almost as safe as in the wild wild west.

Startling chart reposted from Young Conservatives, h/t Powerline.

Homicides per 100,000 Americans

White Hot Fury In Wyoming: Ryan's Omnibus Dumped Napalm On It

Top rated comment at Instapundit's observation that for etablishment Republicans, like Pauline Kael, "No one I know is backing Trump:.

"Look, I live deep in Flyover Country. In Wyoming. The single most Republican state in the nation.  And in coffee shops, bars, breweries, etc, you're going to meet Republicans - all the time. Everywhere. Republicans are not rare here. What few Democrats there are around here tend to keep their mouths shut. When EMT's around here ask patients "Do you know who is president right now?" as a test of mental acuity, the typical response is: "Unfortunately, yes." or an obscenity-laden tirade.  So we're Republican, OK? Really Republican. Democrats don't even bother running for many state offices here, Republicans run unopposed.   And right now, if the GOP leadership showed up in this state, they might not make it out alive. People are furious about the recent budget deal. They were royally PO'ed before, and supporting Trump more than any other candidate, but now, people want blood. Ryan's omnibus BS took what was a smoldering fire and dumped napalm on it. And the GOP leadership is even now claiming that they "didn't like it, but had to do it..." and other BS. Whatever support there was for someone other than Trump and Cruz has collapsed in the last week. What I'm overhearing now in political conversations is white-hot fury. So the GOP leadership has brought this upon themselves. They don't want to know anyone in flyover country because at this point, flyover country wants physical violence done to the GOP leadership."

The path to the presidency

Drudge being bad, juxtaposes Hillary with senility lede

From Drudge, December 22nd:

The picture does not flatter.

Your vote now says more than your faith or race

If you hunt, you're probably conservative or a traditional liberal.  If you're a single adult woman, good chance you cheered for Trudeau jr or voted NDP.  David Frum points to radical change since the '60's.   Class has become an intra-party split.

   "Politics was becoming more central to Americans' identities in the 21st century than it ever was in the 20th. Would you be upset if your child married a supporter of a different party from your own? In 1960, only 5 percent of Americans said yes. In 2010, a third of Democrats and half of Republicans did. Political identity has become so central because it has come to overlap with so many other aspects of identity: race, religion, lifestyle. In 1960, I wouldn't have learned much about your politics if you told me that you hunted. Today, that hobby strongly suggests Republican loyalty. Unmarried? In 1960, that indicated little. Today, it predicts that you’re a Democrat, especially if you’re also a woman. Meanwhile, the dividing line that used to be the most crucial of them all--class--has increasingly become a division within the parties, not between them."

h/t Ace of Spades

A possible explanation:  Government has expanded its reach continuously so that rules about behaviour and money to support non-family choices have expanded dramatically.  The family is competition for the state,  especially for the right to use force.

The Ultimate Backscratcher

Google Search for "backscratcher" comes up with a mess of long-handled forks.  Forget them.

First choice is "Someone who loves you".

Tied for second are loofahs and shower squeegees.  The loofah is the dried out frame of a sponge gourd.  The shower squeegee should be pushed not pulled.    Experience massive relief.





When all else fails and
you're far from home,
there is the door post.

 

Nerve ends are spaced far apart on the back.  A pointy thing isn't much used compared to a broad
scratching tool that gets it all.

Space X recovers launch vehicle. We, the people, have a Plan B.

To watch SpaceX live recover the launch vehicle has been a highlight of my life.  They did it! Watch the replay from about the 30 minute mark. The joy of the SpaceX crowd filled me too and I sobbed in relief.  We are finally going to escape earth.  The cost of launching will drop almost ten fold.  We, the people, will have a Plan B.

How many miracles does it take?

It takes exactly one.  One miraculous cure, perfectly documented, is enough to redefine reality.  If a man can be made whole in a moment, then creation is a top down plan with the idea coming first, the physical reality coming second.   The evidence points the other way, that life forms and consciousness are emergent phenomena. 

"Mein Fuhrer, I can walk"

I read a lot about miracle cures and listened and shared in earnest prayer for healings and have concluded that the one miracle cure is not to be found among the thousands touted.  Yet, it just takes one cure that operates on a different principle to invalidate the architecture of current science.  Current science points to folding proteins to explain most life activity and emergent phenomena as the standard when new order appears. This is a bottom-up explanation. A single top-down cure, validated, changes everything.

Googling last minute gifts for husbands and wives

At Christmas, a lot of husbands are googling gifts at the last minute, some even on Christmas day while the wives are better organized and none are shopping December 25th.   Then look at the stats for people in love but not married.  Women are preoccupied on Valentines day and both single men and women sweat it to the last minute at Christmas. (Rest at The Washington Post).

Unelected Trump Is Acting President of the US

UPDATE December 24th, The Hill: 

"Trump has displaced President Obama as the central player on the political stage, with both parties reacting daily to his insults, tweets and attack lines."

Politicians shift to the breeze of culture because the greater shapes the lesser.   The King of Culture today is Donald Trump. He has begun to steer the state though holding no elected office.   Helmsman, Obama, is below decks beating up on Republicans.   Showman, Trump, harvests the media, 25:1 more coverage than the other GOP candidates but the real story is that he has opened a channel for the culture of all America and it's bubbling over into Canada's immigration plans, the Kremlin's accelerated expansion into Syria, and chatrooms where ISIS warriors are debating their next move.  His power comes from the culture's power and he has no peer today.

What people really care about powers the culture and to heed this is to listen to a messy dialogue, trialogue, polylogue.    Public discussion had shrunk to a PC monologue but Trump is moving the Overton Window or kicking down the doors and pent up voices are heard.   It's going to be messy but effective.     Deflations and depressions are messy too but they correct grave errors.

As to culture being king, rather than the pundits and rules, try this quote from The Evolution of Everything by Matt Ridley: The climate has no control knob, history has no five-star general

"Far more than we like to admit, the world is to a remarkable extent a self-organising, self-changing place.  Patterns emerge, trends evolve.  Skeins of geese form V's in the sky without meaning to, termites build cathedrals without architects, bees make hexagonal honeycombs without instruction, brains take shape without brain-makers, learning can happen without teaching, political events are shaped by history rather than vice versa.  The genome has no master gene, the brain has no command centre, the English language has no director, the economy has no chief executive, society has no president, the common law has no chief justice, the climate has no control knob, history has no five-star general."