I'll Take that One-in-a-Million Chance!

New documents strengthen—perhaps conclusively—the lab-leak hypothesis of Covid-19’s origins.

Gee, who knew.

I used to tell people that the Wuhan China Lab-Leak conspiracy theory started in the Wuhan lab. I wonder if the original conspiracy theorists became involuntary organ donors. The "they doth protest too much" reaction of Officially-Designate-Scientific Opinion everywhere suggested an embarrassing level of American involvement at the lab, if not in the specific research that may have resulted in the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the sort of experimentation that was banned in the US.

And now I read:

The DEFUSE proposal was authored by Peter Daszak, head of the EcoHealth Alliance in New York, with partners including Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina. The grant proposed to “introduce appropriate human-specific cleavage sites” into SARS-related viruses, a procedure that could have led to the creation of SARS2, with its distinctive furin cleavage site, depending on the starting virus used for the manipulation.

Oh, OK. Of course, there is still that one-in-a-million chance it originated "in nature" in a cave 500 miles from Wuhan, so don't believe everything you read.

Lab-Leak Leak Links Lab to Lab-Leak

COP-Out China

 COP28 Climate Change Conference

They're throwing another Climate Change feast somewhere and the number 28 means there were 27 previous party-hardies for the Climate Control Crowd. Peter Zeihan provides a short summation of what is going on. Apparently China, often held up as a model, is in "count me out" mode on the latest proposal.

Zeihan makes a point similar to the one I've been making for decades: CO2 is like "the little gas that could" in the global warming catastrophe scenario.  It works on a narrow spectrum of sunlight and is quite potent when first introduced but soon approaches its "upper limit" when it comes to greenhouse warming. At this point, its additional effects are rather small (water vapor is more powerful and when will they do something about the rain?). To get its assigned Civilization-destroying job done, CO2 needs a lot of help. This comes in the form of "feedback loops."

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas.  There is a lot of methane hydrate at the bottom of the ocean, where the pressure and the cold keep it trapped.  Warm the Oceans and this methane is released, leading to a runaway greenhouse effect and a potential mass extinction event.  This is the "feedback loop" that all the other "feedback loops" lead to.

There is a problem though. Methane breaks down rapidly in the atmosphere and in a few years much of it is gone and in ten years all of it. So it can't be a slow, steady release of methane, it has to happen quickly to produce the kind of effects that will make fearful populations willing to pay more taxes, higher more bureaucrats and submit to more control. Not Enough Government seems to be the real crisis all these Climate COPs are addressing.

More Process than Industry?

 The Greatest Reindustrialization Process in US History

Peter Zeihan thinks industry in the US has a bright future, and I'm in half-hearted agreement.

Countries with a high-taxed, highly regulated, highly centralized economy tend towards stagnation, not growth. Reindustrialization will require supply-side, not command-side, policies. It is the nature of the Crony Class to prefer a command economy because it favors the Crony Class -- who are the ones issuing the commands.

At its center, the Crony Class consists of politicians, political hacks, bureaucrats, and those who acquire power through their ability to influence government action -- the lawyer, lobbyist, and dark-money crowd. This group took to heart Scarface's advice, "First you get the power, then you get the money, then you get the girl." Confusingly, we now have to add the lawyer/lobbyist girls who want to be "the man" while still blaming "the man" when the man is actually, you know, a man.

The outer ring includes those who benefit from government action, such as corporations that fear bureaucratic overreach or seek government favor, or the education establishment which devours government resources while avoiding societal accountability. To this add the legions of minions whose livelihoods depend on promoting Crony Class Interests, such as MSM Journalists (not to be confused with reporters), aspiring academics (not to be confused with actual scientists), and "house experts" (not to be confused with people who know what the hell they are talking about). The tentacles of this class reach far and wide, and gives the appearance of "Nerds working for Sociopaths."

The developing "Cronny Class Consciousness" and the governing philosophy of "Feudalism with the Right People in Charge" will produce economic malaise and shortages because these conditions favor those with influence.

Crony Class Consciousness allows them to act as a unit to protect class interest with little coordination. They framed Donal Trump (a minor threat) as a Russian agent for three years, knowing it was bunkum from day one. When it no longer played, the media moved on to the next set of feeble accusations class members promote. Objectively, these are the actions of horrible people. Subjectively, they have their reasons. This beast is hungry and needs to be fed. Economic stagnation is just a reflection of that appetite.

"Feudalism with the Right People in Charge," says the ruling nobility should come from an accredited, pseudo-intellectual caste (the "nobility of the mind"), not a military one. The philosophy provides the justification for the rule of the Crony Class (i.e. Climate Change requires their control of resources) and the rationale for keeping their "expert" descendants in charge (having a lot of kids -- which will expand family contacts in an influence-peddling system -- is frowned upon). Diversity-Equity-Inclusion is sold as the ability to include but is actually the power to exclude. Everyone should get in their place and stay there. Mind the Queue.

In feudal societies, the nobility controls weapons and armor. Today, we can add information, entertainment, and criticism to that arsenal. Crony Class Controlled "AI" censorship that shuns transgressors, has already arrived -- enabling a totalitarian system that promotes officially sanctioned bigotry.

Why are Progressives so Obsessive?

Leeja Miller, the fast-talking left-wing lawyer on YouTube, wonders why conservatives are so obsessed with Trans Kids. I think"Kids" is the operative word here. Progressives love to launch society-wide social experiments and then walk away from the awful results (The Great Society Program an attempted to recreate the "New Deal" of the Great Depression but instead recreated the Great Depression in the industrial heartland). The left-wing slogan "Forward" means leave wreckage in our wake as we blissfully sail into calm waters that will become storm-tossed as we arrive.

The old Progressive slogan for taking governmental control was "fight childhood hunger" (resulting in widespread obesity among the young, and, as a result of that "wide-spread," the Body Positive Movement).  Now they tell us, "A baby's sex at birth is just God guessing."

I can remember when "low self-esteem" caused people to steal, rape, murder, or be irritating at work. For about a decade, we were all supposed to work on, not only improving our own self-esteem but everyone else's as well. So, when being mugged, you should try to make your mugger realize his true worth as a human being -- but carefully, in a way that won't get you killed.  

Then there was the "Childhood Recovered Memory of Abuse" fad.  Here, a rare phenomenon -- where a child is molested and represses all memory of the horrible event -- was said to be quite widespread. So adults all over the place began blaming their lousy character traits (but not the good ones) on their discovery -- often with the help of a therapist -- that they were abused as a child. This worked until the children of these adults began accusing these adults of abuse.  At that point even PBS turned against the movement.

In a political sense, the left suffers from "Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy."  They are so fond of getting credit for being on the right side of history and wanting to solve society's problems that they are blind to the fact that they cause many of the problems they claim to want to solve (i.e. San Francisco's Homelessness).

Poor Wandering Wonderer -- True Love Built on Lies.

Act II, Scene 1, of the Prodigals of Penance. Act I, Scene 1, is here.

I continue my foray into Comic Lite-Opera Reality. The work is now the attempted merger of Hamlet and Blazing Saddles (with a bit of Pinocchio thrown in), done in the spirit of Gilbert and Sullivan! Below, Sad Poppins mentions the Piltdown Man, an evolutionary "missing link" bone hoax that dragged on for 40 years. Hamlet sings of the Kinsey Report, a human sexuality study so flawed that even Wikipedia has a hard time defending it.

The story so far: The World Leaders and hangers-on have danced offstage. Hamlet Omlet and Sad Poppins are about to further their relationship. Hamlet has uncovered many flaws in the "science" funded by Artful Shortseller, the world's richest man. He senses the real purpose of his grant is to "paper over" the inadequacies he's found. Sad Poppins feels it would be best if he fulfills his role and, what the heck, just cash the check.

ACT II, SCENE 1: Poor Wandering Wonderer.

(Shrotseller's Estate: SAD POPPINS stands alone in the garden. HAMLET OMLET enters, walking in a seeming trance.)

HAMLET OMLET

They've created such a racket,

I can hardly work.

And my work...is hardly...worth it.

SAD POPPINS (watching him, sings)

Poor Wandering Wonderer

Wondering Where to Wan-der!

You don't think like the rest.

Your head is a mess,

So full of thoughts --

They drip out like snot...

(approaches Hamlet)

You are the studier of studies.

Who studies, the studies, in Shortseller's study.

Your task is incomplete--

HAMLET OMLET

Like rain turning to sleet.

(steps towards her)

And you're the activist child.

The bold little scold,

With the winning frown.

SAD

I thought the world would let me down.

The Earth, not be around.

But as I've grown

(shows herself off a bit)

Into my own --

I found it really weird!

The planet, you see, is still here!

HAMLET OMLET

By eliminating the Earth,

With all its dirt,

We could eliminate our fears.

(thoughtfully, strolling)

Or we could simply go extinct,

And no longer have to think.

SAD POPPINS (following)

Poor Wandering Wonderer

Wondering Where to Wan-der.

You don't think like the rest.

Your head is a mess.

So full of thoughts

They drip out like snot.

HAMLET OMLET(distressed)

I simply cannot lie.

It is just too hard to disguise.

When I fabricate,

Right out of the gate,

(indicates his groin area)

It gets hard!

As the tension goes up,

My ha-ha-heart thumps!

(pounds his chest)

The blood in my veins

Feels the added strain.

The blood my heart pumps 

Flows into my consider-able stump!

 

And it grows, grows, grows --

Like some elongated nose,

Or an acorn into an oak.

It happens at a stroke!

It's not just unseemly, you see,

But po-tential-ly!

Most un-semen-ly...

(walks)

Yes, I'm stilted...

By this pilted...

Woody, wood-pecker.

SAD POPPINS (injects)

Like Pinocchio in a pinch.

Or, the Pilt-down Man!

A "find" that was a Scientific Scam -- 

With the wrong bone

In the wrong place:

A most potent -- disgrace. 

HAMLET OMLET

Lying's not a sport,

Like some Kinsey Report.

Whenever I lie,

(indicates his groin, distressed)

It gets hard against my fly!

I can't lie, I can't lie, I can't lie.

(walks)

SAD POPPINS

Oh, Poor Wandering Wonderer,

Woody in a wood of lies!

I am sorry for you!

'Cause your own sorrow won't do.

You don't think like the rest.

Your head's such a mess.

So full of thoughts,

They drip out like snot!

(thinks, taps his shoulder)

If only you were a woman.

The problem with your wood

Would disappear!

If only you could,

Eliminate the wood!

HAMLET OMLET

That sounds fantastic,

but just...a little...drastic.

SAD POPPINS (agrees)

Sub-optimal, yes,

But if you just wore a dress...

You could easily skirt the truth.

Or turn your back,

On in-convenient facts.

But still...

HAMLET OMLET

I'll wear a kilt!

I could present an address...

In a kilt, not a dress.

I could turn my back,

As I speak with great tact,

Over...my...shoulder?

SAD POPPINS

Here's an act -- that's bolder.

(Takes his hand)

Simply lie with me!

If you lie with me,

Your lies will be disguised, by me!

You simply pretend

We're in love, without end!

In Love with a fire,

Of burning -- lustful desire.

And: 

No one will be the wiser.

We could lie, lie, lie, together.

No one would know any better.

 

HAMLET OMLET(confused)

In truth, I am getting woody.

I should return to my studies.

I could be me-too'ed

Because I am woody for you...

I really can't lie...

As I look into your -- lovely, eyes...

(turns)

But I fear my career --

Could dissolve in your tears.

(walks away)

SAD POPPINS (follows him)

Poor wandering woody one!

What wonderous lies lie ahead!

Don't fear for your career.

You'll be a believable steer, 

If you lie, lie, lie -- with me.

(Sounds from off stages)

DANCING BANKERS

Hrumph, Hrumph -- Hrumph, Hrumph, Hrumph.

SAD POPPINS

You cannot stay.

Artful Shortseller

Is on his way.

We'll meet after dark.

HAMLET OMLET

And wonderful lies

We can con-cock!

Con-con, concoct. 

(As Hamlet Omlet leaves, Artful Shortseller enters).

ART SHORTSELLER (to the audience)

He's such a poor liar.

He needs to retire.

My estate is built

On a house of cards.

One jilt from that joker...

And...

 

Oh, forsooth and forsaken!

My empire shaken!

Imagine, a jerk like that,

Bringing about my total collapse!

I suppose he would say,

He means well, OK.

Well, I have a "mean well"

For him.

(maniacal laugh, steps to the side for...)

DANCING BANKERS (Marching on stage)

Hrumph, Hrumph -- Hrumph, Hrumph, Hrumph.

ART

Now the Bankers want their say.

They mean well, too,

It should be a tattoo. 

Let them implore.

I'll ignore.

ACT II SCENE 2

(The Central Banker leads The Dancing Bankers on stage. They are dressed for the Beach. The Central Banker gets a little rough treatment from the others. He's shoved to center stage.)

CENTRAL BANKER (addresses the audience)

This is The World Conference...

That will Solve...

Your Problems...

In One Foul Swipe.

(speaks clearly)

You see, all your problems are ours;

All our problems are yours.

And you are our problem.

(Indicates the surroundings) 

We're at the home 

Of the World's Richest man.

Artful Shortseller's estate, Eden!

 

DANCING BANKERS (An echoing murmur)

Eden, Eden, Eden...

 

CENTRAL BANKER 

It's his own state!

An island all its own.

An island that he owns. Eden.

 

DANCING BANKERS

Eden, Eden, Eden...

 

CENTRAL BANKER

I'm the Central Banker,
I don't get many thanks
When the other banks

(indicates the others)

Need a spank:
That Great Current of Currency,
Upon which they depend --
Is Currently Curtailed!
If not totally at an end. 
It flowed through their vaults
And its lack, now felt, is my fault

  

(The band picks up with a thumping, almost pounding, beat. The Dancing Bankers surround the Central Banker. They sing to the tune of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band)

World Class Dancing, Banker Band

THE DANCING BANKERS (To the central banker, with loud reproach)

It was a hundred years ago!

When you really did steal the show!

People's money was never the same,

As you played your curren-cy game.

When interest rates you amend

To bring easy money to an end... 

After we've done so much good,

By gutting their neighborhoods!

We're the World Class Dancing, Banker Band!

CENTRAL BANKER (to the audience)

Their Animal Spirits were on a lark,

But the funny-money, once in "drive,"

Is now in "park."

THE DANCING BANKERS (Explaining)

We're good citizens of the World!

With finances in a swirl.

Speculators cause much pain,

As their loans go down the drain.

So now we're il-liquid.

Lacking the reserves, we should...

(to the central banker)

So we want you to understand,

We'd like you to give a hand...

To the Empty Pockets, Bankster, Bah-an-d!

 

CENTRAL BANKER

They want to restart the game.

With me providing the gains...

a-gain.

The losses we'll spread about,

Like lots of vacant shops. 

(The Dancing Bankers push the Central Banker out of the way.)

CENTRAL BANKER

Don't Panic at the Picnic!

(The orchestra is back to horn tooting)

DANCING BANKERS (Pace quickens, to the Audience, upset)

With those problems, you're on your own!

So kindly get off the phone!

We're awfully short of cash!

We're bankers who've lost their stash!

Our institution's got the runs!

It's playing havoc with the sums!

...um...um...um-m-m.

 

 (A female banker sweetly changes the tune)

You're such love-ly depositors --

You really are our kind --

You're such love-ly depositors,

Sit back and watch your fortune grow!

Sit back and watch it grow!

 

 (The rest return to firm declarations)

Your bankruptcy's on us!

But our Bankruptcy's on you!

We're whales too big to fail!

So you have to cover our tail!

 

( Pause, as the female banket again changes the tune)

You're such lovely homeowners,

With mortgages to fill.

We'd like to take your homes with us.

We'd love to take your homes!

 

 (The rest)

Yes, we'd rather issue demands

But really do need a hand!

So we'll issue our appeal,

To the man who really steals...

The show, when you have to show!

The assets that cover your ass!

We've come to find him here!

Our savior of the year --

(slowly, with begging hands)

Art...ful...Short...sell-er...

(They trail off...as the orchestra changes tempo to blues/jazz, with snare drums. The Central Banker moves to center stage. He puts his sunglasses on and snaps his fingers. Sings to the tune of Mack the Knife.)

The Shortseller Song

CENTRAL BANKER (His best Bobby Darin Blues)

Oh, Financial sharks,

Prowl the seas, babes.

And they'll feed in --

Market waves.

They have such teeth -- dear!

If you could see them!

They're ru-by, ruby-red.

 

When red ink's spilled

By Cor-po-rate shills--

My-little-darlings don't-you-know!

So much gore is,

On the market floor.

But on Shortseller, there's not the stink, babe

Of all...your -- all your red ink!

Your pension fund --

So you think, dears --

Bought juicy steaks,

With your stake!

Till Artful wields his -- skillful scalpel.

Leaving bare bones, upon your plate.

(Art enters and marches to center stage. Exudes calm as the Central Banker slinks off)

DANCING BANKERS

Artful, Artful, Artful...

The Mean Well Song

ART (he brings the tempo down)

There's no reason for alarm.

Every reason, to be calm.

We're in the eye of every storm,

And here, calm is the norm.

Your problem is but a pimple.

The solution is -- quite simple! 

 (Sways as he sings)

Just mean well, if you mean well,
Then everything will seem well!
If you mean well, then you'll be well,
No one will be mean to you!
If you mean well in all that you do.
They'll never blame you--
When they've been royally screwed...

If you're mean, mean, mean,

You want to be seen as -- well meaning.

 

DANCING BANKERS (With relief)

They can't attack good intentions.

Even when these intentions are...

An...invention.

(swaying while figuring it out) 

If it seems...well,

Like we mean well,

Then the middling mean...that's sits inbetween,

The well-off...and the off-well...

Will think that we're just swell.

(as they dance off-stage)

When we're mean-mean-mean,

No matter how mean we may seem...

If we're all called well-meaning,

Well meaning is how we'll be seeming!

 

ART (calls after them)

Mean-well in all your deeds!

(laughs, to the audience)

For the mean-well

Is a deep well, indeed!

(laughs maniacally)

END OF SCENE

 

Knowing Gnosticism

 TIK History: The REAL Religion Behind National Socialism is Gnosticism. TIK explains what that is.

To understand politics progressive politics you need to understand Gnosticism and what I call "the deeper truth" that only a select group can perceive and is unavailable to the ignorant masses.  It's OK to lie and distort when talking to the rubes, as long as those lies conform to "the deeper truth" and move events in the right direction. Framing Donald Trump as a Russian spy was not a lie, it was just a way of conveying the deeper truth that Donald Trump was a threat to the progressive movement that is "moving" to a better future. The frame job was a way of conveying that truth to the superstitious rabble, who suffer from false patriotism.  True American Patriots are not loyal to the flawed status quo but to a future America washed clean of the sins of the past and present.

The left will often champion people who are guilty of crimes.  This confused me for a time. Then I would learn that their reasoning for why the person should be set free was, well, esoteric. Finally, it occurred to me that anyone can rally around an innocent person but it will take a potential convert to the movement to promote the cause of the esoterically innocent -- in other words, when he really did shoot the deputy.

Lab-Leak Leak Links Lab to Lab-Leak

Peter Zeihan || COVID: What Really Happened in Wuhan?

Peter Zeihan says the US government bureaucracies that stated, with low confidence, that the SARS-COV2 virus leaked from the Wuhan China lab are not known for their medical expertise.

However, the FBI and the Energy Department weren't providing funds to the Wuhan Lab, whereas some of the more prominent government "lab-leak" deniers were funding-involved. In the early 2000's Congress -- playing to the "superstitious rubes" in the hinterland -- banned gain-of-function research in the US. Is it possible that those whose careers were dependent on this work used the Wuhan lab as a way around the ban? Let me suggest, with low confidence, that yeah, they did.

The evidence in support of the "lab-leak theory" has been around since 2020. Citing the evidence back then got you labeled a conspiracy theorist and a likely right-wing racist. Where Big Science and Big Politics meet, one hand washes the other -- or is it a scrub, clear up to the elbow, with careful attention to under the fingernails?

A Telluride Tell-all

If you ask yourself, "where does this lead?" and the answer is "nowhere good," then don't ask the question.

A Black Professor Trapped in Anti-Racist Hell

If the seminar is slow food, the anti-racist workshop put on by college-age students is a sugar rush. All the hashtags are there, condensed, packaged, and delivered from a place of authority. The worst sort of anti-racist workshop simply offers a new language for participants to echo—to retweet out loud.

Way back in the misty-misty, I saw Pulp Fiction with a progressive black friend and afterward said that Quintan Tarantino must have a special license for the prolific use of the N-word. My friend seemed both baffled and distressed by that comment. To me, it was a simple display of movement power. Think of an individual who can say, "You, right here, can use this word but you, over there, can't," and be obeyed -- and obeyed because they can enforce their will. That's a display of power.

I'd noticed that the left often defends the guilty (the murderers Sacco and Vanzetti) and persecutes the innocent (Bret Kavanagh), which puzzled me. I mean, there are plenty of innocent people who need defending. I figured it was a recruitment tool as well as a display of power. Anyone can defend the innocent but it takes a potential activist -- a person willing to commit to the cause and the "new morality" the cause promotes -- to defend the guilty. Once you accept that the murderer is the true victim and the innocent defender of the "loathsome" status quo is the real criminal, you are on your way. How about a donation?

A Mauling by Maher

Nerdrotic discusses some Bill Maher clips where Maher takes the "Cancel Culture" Left to task for acting like the people they are -- and does it to great comic effect.

I first heard of "hate speech" as a political construct in the 1980s when in a bar talking to an admirer of the Communist dictator, Joseph Stalin. We'd been friends since childhood and I hoped that, after the revolution, he might help me get an exit permit. We discussed free speech and I said that the left often equates it with pornography, which the libertine left legally defends while the feminist left puritanically condemns. At the same time, both wings try to suppress political speech. He said, "You can't just let people say anything!" and went on to talk about hate speech. This came from a self-identified Stalinist who thought slave labor camps a necessary, if regrettable, phase -- which made me wonder about the enforcement mechanism he envisioned for his speech codes.

At the time I had a communist roommate who was in graduate school. He borrowed my car, got a flat, and drove it back to the apartment, shredding the tire in the process. He then used a can of fix-a-flat I had in the trunk. A short time later, I stared at the rubbery remains with the specs of foam clinging to the edges and marveled at the magical thinking involved. The fellow thought the contents of that can could knit that tire back together at the atomic level. He seemed confused that it hadn't worked. I joked that, come the revolution, he'd be the Minister of Science and Industry. Seeing the new direction that Science and Industry have taken, I'm thinking the revolution occurred when I wasn't looking.

Let's face it, we're all skewed.

In tenth grade, I was a socialist and told my friends I was a socialist. My reasoning was simple: socialists are good people who want the best life for other people and I was just such a person and therefore a socialist.  Meanwhile, all those folks around me who were not socialists meant that much future missionary work remained.

Then one day, while in study hall staring out the window, I had a thought that was potentially detrimental to my socialist beliefs. The thought itself is less important than my reaction to it. I tried to swat it like it was some buzzing, stinging insect that should be quickly crushed. The reaction seemed almost instinctual. A bit surprised, I then had a couple of thoughts about that thought. First, given my strong belief that the entire world should be organized on the principles of Socialism, it might be a good idea to think the matter through. Second, having attended parochial school, I recognized the impulse toward my own thought suppression. Occasionally, I would question the divinity of Christ or the Virgin Birth and suppress these thoughts because there was that whole damnation thing to worry about. Of course, the divinity of Christ deals with questions beyond the material realm.  Socialism, however, is all about the material realm.

So I hopped on the train of thought that eventually undermined my faith in socialism. At the same time, I thought about my reluctance to get on board. I decided my self-identification as a Socialist had a lot to do with it.  This was sixty years ago and at the time my political identification was of only a few months duration so, who knows, with a few more months of self-inoculation against contrary thoughts I might have become Bernie Sanders.

Still, we can't question everything and, given that reality, accepting received wisdom is useful. At the same time, I've noticed over the years that most individuals who are hyper-critical of the status quo treat their ideas for sweeping, transformational change, as a matter of faith. National interest was often equated with imperialism and opposed. True American patriotism, in their telling, demands loyalty to an improved nation that we can build using a blueprint that no one quite has access to. Also, holding distinctly contradictory opinions -- being for hydropower one minute and against that damn dam the next -- is a side-effect. Interestingly, these same individuals were often quite conservative -- imperialist, even -- where their personal life was concerned.

If I asked an awkward question, the topic would suddenly change. During a conversation, I might point out that a failure to act in the national interest will only cause confusion among foreign nations, and make our own actions less predictable. Then I would say (after the topic was changed) that segregation was a government program aimed at social planning (in a "careful about what you wish for" sort of way). The nuclear power industry they now oppose was created by the federal government, using the expertise of government scientists and the output of government labs. Politicians promised energy so abundant that it would no longer need to be metered. Unmentioned was the highly toxic nuclear "waste" plutonium the reactors would produce -- handy for H-bomb building and powering aircraft carrier battle groups. The utility executives The China Syndrome portrayed as endangering the entire planet were basically doing what they were told. So, designing our green energy future using the same approach may produce a result different from the one envisioned. After all, a million windmills draining energy from the atmosphere could also change the climate.

The reluctance to question socially acquired beliefs may be a good thing on an individual basis since we have to take much on faith as a practical matter.  Lately, it's become a strong -- perhaps even dominant -- social force tangled up with politics and used in the allocation of vast sums of government resources. As a result, we shall choose our next future exercising less care than when we chose our last phone.

The unexamined Utopia is not worth pursuing.

Bjorn Lomborg Declares “False Alarm” on Climate Hysteria

Courting the Children on Climate

In their efforts to gain ever more power, the left seems to favor those who either have yet to reach "the age of reason" (Greta Thunberg, the students at Yale Law) or are well beyond it (Joe Biden). Apparently, they find "a little thinking" among their agents a threat to the movement. So now they have created a court case attacking Montana land management while using children as a shield and wielding the aliments of two-year-olds like Galadriel's sword. You see, the world's going to end before they can vote, on account of their living in a climate-controlled home with hot and cold running water where they don't have to take a trip to the outhouse when it's 40 below and their pee freezes before it hits the ground.

I'm thinking this is a left-wing managed and staged court proceeding so the people being sued won't put up much of a defense and the jury will be overwhelmingly "for-the-children" (if the members have recently moved to Bozeman from Berkeley, that would be a plus). In fact, I would argue for a jury of their peers, which would mean mental ages of no more than six years.

Unfortunately for the Left, a stout defense would throw much doubt on the validity of "man-made climate change." It could even examine the considerable damage caused by the power-grabbing (not power-generating) programs the movement champions. Personally, I think the actions of the adults involved (if I may give their court filings a twist) harm the children's physical and psychological health and safety; interfere with family and cultural foundations and integrity; and cause economic deprivations -- not the state of Montana. Therefore, their suit will likely target fellow-traveling bureaucrats who want to lose, and by losing, win.

Children's Climate Trial

Invention Prevention

When I was a boy watching WWII submarine dramas, I came up with the idea for a submarine that pushed itself forward by taking in water at the front and pumping it from the rear. In a stroke of genius, I decided to use the water coming in the front of the sub to turn the turbines that would power the pumps that pushed the water out the back. Sure, it would need a bit of a push to get going, but after that you're good.

I got really excited about the idea because I thought it might have applications in the cold war. I told my father so he could maybe call President Eisenhower. My dad said I had just invented a “perpetual motion” machine. Upon hearing this I swelled with pride. I said, "Gosh, golly, gee! I have barely achieved the age of reason and already I've invented a perpetual motion machine! How awesome is that! I'm like the Mozart – whoever that is – of Machine Inventors."

Then my father explained the scientific consensus of the day (thank god that’s changed). There I was, not yet a youth, and I came face to face with my own logical fallacy -- not someone else's, mind you (this happens quite a lot) but my own. Back then we didn't protect our children from such events.

The fact that physics could interfere with a rich fantasy life kinda turned me off on that whole course of study (I should have gone into central banking, where making something from nothing is central to the entire process).

Plan "B" from outer space

 Salvation is a TV series on Amazon Prime. The first season is free.  I'm watching because it's not that good, so when they start charging I'll stop watching. It's kinda like when you are beating your head against the wall, and someone says if you keep doing that you are going to have to pay for the damage, so you stop. 

Here's the plot summary. The earth's in trouble. Again. An asteroid will destroy the planet in six months unless humanity destroys it (Planet Earth) first. Granted, that's a tight time frame for man-caused planetary destruction (it's OK to use "man" in this context) but doable. So the asteroid is actually "plan B from Outerspace."

It's the size of Washington DC and will impact Washington, DC, which sounds good until you see the simulation: the entire surface of the planet turns into molten lava! OMG, not even a dinosaur could survive that! There's always hope, though.

Hope, in this case, is a deep space probe out by Jupiter that can be redirected to crash into the asteroid. This is like a bullet hitting a bullet, with one bullet being the approximate size of an empty tin can and the other being the approximate size of a fully ladened supertanker. But, if you take into consideration their high speeds and something called "inertial mass," which has something to do with something called physics, then the Asteroid breaks apart and the resulting impact no longer destroys the entire planet or kills all 12 billion of us (and our pets). Instead, the pieces miss Washington D.C. and hit Beijing and Moscow, killing 1.1 billion of those people (and their pets). When this possible outcome is described at a Pentagon meeting, everyone goes hmm at the same time. They decide on this collision course. Unfortunately, there are many collision courses! 

President Biden is totally out of the loop and uninvolved, as you might expect.  They could have had Martin Sheen play him (he's old enough) if only there were a believable plot device like his getting briefed. His absence is explained in episode six when he's referred to as a "she." Apparently,  he begins self-identifying as a woman because that description is easier to believe than honest, moderate, and competent. Also, he can now freely sniff women's hair because a woman can do that to another woman, can't she?

During this period of Presidential transition,  government agents and billionaires do what they want with government resources. This is quite realistic but they should call it "infrastructure spending." Also, the deep state is deeply sinister. That's the sort of portrayal that annoyed me ten years ago, but these days, not-so-much (thank you, James Clapper and John Brennan).