Home Computers in History

Subject: I think my buddy Chuck bought one of these

You guys have this power in your machines?

Good Works by Pope Francis

... provided without comment.

Black Lives Matter, But To Whom?

The "Black Lives Matter" movement is a fraud. Worse, it is a vicious and racist fraud. To the movement's adherents, "Black Lives Matter" means "ONLY Black Lives Matter", which is why they immediately label as racist anyone who says "All Lives Matter", or indeed "(any word but Black) Lives Matter".

Yes, black lives matter. Asian lives matter. Native American lives matter. Hispanic lives matter. Anglo lives matter. Eskimo lives matter. Pacific islander lives matter. Aborigine lives matter. Everybody else's lives matter, too. In other words, yes, ALL LIVES MATTER !

The movement was made up after a violent young black criminal was shot by a police officer. It claims the police are routinely shooting down blacks, that the police are the biggest danger for young black men. But to maintain that claim, they have to completely ignore reality:

Every year, approximately 6,000 blacks are murdered. This is a number greater than white and Hispanic homicide victims combined, even though blacks are only 12 percent of the national population. Blacks of all ages are killed at six times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined.

That black death-by-homicide rate is a function of the black crime rate. The national black homicide rate is eight times that of whites and Hispanics combined. Black males between the ages of 14 and 17 commit homicide at 10 times the rate of white and Hispanic male teens combined.

In other words, the Black Lives Matter claim is all pretense. And it's not just murder. That same logic applies to other crimes as well, because the statistics show that other crime statistics mirror the murder statistics. Black citizens are disproportionately the victims of these crimes. As s Heather MacDonald reports":

Homicide is not the only crime that is vastly racially disproportionate. New York City is representative of other crime spreads across the country. Blacks are 23 percent of New York’s population, but they commit 75 percent of all shootings, 70 percent of all robberies, and 66 percent of all violent crime, according to the victims of, and witnesses to, those crimes.

Whites are 33 percent of the city’s population, but they commit less than 2 percent of all shootings, 4 percent of all robberies, and 5 percent of all violent crime.

These disparities mean that virtually every time that the police in New York are called out after a shooting, they are being summoned to minority neighborhoods looking for minority suspects.

So the Black Lives Matter movement's claim is clearly false and, indeed, fraudulent. As Heather MacDonald notes in the same article, "[T]here is no government agency more dedicated to the proposition that black lives matter than the police." As a result, minority neighborhoods that complained for decades that police ignored crimes where they live, now complain they police are always in their neighborhoods. That's because the police focus on where people are being victimized, which is in the minority communities. This focus is called "police harassment." (The same neighborhoods complain all the louder if the police quit responding so much, like in Baltimore after Freddie Gray's death.)

All of the above must be considered against an interesting backdrop. Crime rates — for murder and other crimes alike — were much higher 20 and 25 years ago. By about 40% overall nationwide and 85% for New York City murders. Where were the Black Lives Matter activists through all of that period? Didn't black lives matter to them until now? Or is it just that it wasn't politically expedient to use as an issue until now?

Given all this, this writer would say that black lives matter to the police and to the population at large, but not to Black Lives Matter activists and those they have intimidated into submission. If black lives really mattered to Black Lives Matter, they wouldn't completely ignore the realities of black on black crime, and would do things to actually reduce black on black crime and protect black citizens.

Debbie Does Insanity

Debbie Wasserman Schultz was appointed by President Barack Obama to head the Democratic National Committee. She leads that organization for him, and she speaks for him.

That's what makes her latest episode of running off at the mouth so egregious. She went on CNN and told Dana Bash that

all of the remaining Republican presidential candidates are trying to “out-Trump Donald Trump” and are saying, “yeah, let’s kick women. Let’s kick them and immigrants out of this country.”

Such a statement is beyond certifiably insane. It is also incredibly stupid. And it demonstrates she thinks those in her target population are equally stupid. Only someone in the most extreme portion of her hyper-partisan clique could possibly credit a statement that Republicans want to kick women out of the country.

This woman clearly does not belong in any position with any kind of responsibility. She really seems to belong in a fully padded room, so she cannot damage herself or others.

Because of her position, this statement is why one commentator noted that "Once again, Wasserman Schultz proves that only idiots vote Democrat." Given her position, it's hard to argue with that.

EPA Screws Up Again

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has celebrated the two-month anniversary of its amazingly incompetent Gold King Mine spill by causing another toxic spill at the Standard Mine above Crested Butte.

Though smaller than the Gold King Mine spill, it still "raises questions about EPA procedures" according to US Representative Scott Tipton. But I would say that was done long before the earlier spill. What this spill has done is demonstrate — again — that EPA's procedures and its oversight of its contractors are fatally flawed. Completely negligent.

And that's not even counting the fact that, once again, they failed to notify relevant authorities (such as the Crested Butte mayor) until two days later. They also hid that information from the public, failing to disclose it in response to press inquiries about this specific mine. And that despite the fact that they had fouled the Crested Butte water supply with toxic heavy metal contamination.

EPA and its responsible contractor(s) should be shut down until the spills they have caused have been completely cleaned up and the cleanups have been verified by competent state authorities. And they should all be heavily fined. After all, why should the EPA and its subordinates be treated different from anyone else? Why should they be treated differently from the way they treat everyone else?

The Intelligence of Politicians

The Indiana Highway Department asked the state legislature for funds to buy a calculator in 1940.

A legislator asked "Why do you need a calculator? You are not mathematicians!"

The engineers replied that they need to be able to make accurate calculations often involving pi, which is 3.1415926535....

The legislator answer was "We don't have money for a calculator. But we have decided to change the value of pi to 4."

[from Math and the Mona Lisa
received by e-mail & worth passing on]

No More Pork

The Washington Post reports that

The nation’s pork producers are in an uproar after the federal government abruptly removed bacon, pork chops, pork links, ham and all other pig products from the national menu for 206,000 federal inmates.

The bureau "said the decision was based on a survey of prisoners’ food preferences: They just don’t like the taste of pork."

I call bullshit on the Obama Administration's Bureau of Prisons. Who doesn't like ham and bacon? Maybe sausage and pork chops, too? No one. But those who avoid them for religious reasons deny themselves these pleasures.

The Bureau of Prisons admits as much. The same story notes that "the prison menu had added an 'economically viable' turkey bacon substitute." Even though turkey bacon is a very poor substitute for real bacon, that menu change is an admission the inmates really do like the taste of bacon and don't want it removed from their menus.

It's worth noting that the only ones cheering this decision are those like Ibrahim Hooper in the propaganda arm of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR styles itself "the country's largest Muslim civil rights advocacy group." CAIR's statement said "We welcome the change because it’s facilitating the accommodation of Muslim inmates."

But there was always an accommodation of Muslim (and other) inmates who chose not to eat pork products. There were always alternative food choices for them. Now there are no choices.

Only Muslims would not only avoid pork products themselves, but would insist that no one else be allowed to have them. I guess they figure that, without the coercion, most of their fellow religionists would be enjoying their ham & bacon & sausage. Once again, Islam without coercion is empty — worthless — a nothing-burger.

Obama's Demands & GOP Responses

President Obama demands of Congress: fund all of Obamacare, with no changes to help the millions being hurt by that failed law, or he will veto funding for the entire federal government. And Republican leadership backs down. President Obama demands: fund his unconstitutional executive amnesty — or he will veto funding for the entire federal government. And Republican leadership backs down. President Obama demands: give $500 million in taxpayer money to Planned Parenthood, a private organization under criminal investigation — or he will veto funding for the entire federal government. And Republican leadership backs down.

The core of this capitulation comes from Republican leadership’s promise that “There will be no government shutdown.” On its face, the promise sounds reasonable. Except in practice it means that Republicans never stand for anything.

Surely, you might think, Republicans can use different “tactics” and accomplish something meaningful without risking a government shutdown.

Alas, no.

(Ted Cruz, from Politico)