Month: October 2019

So, over on the Book of Faces, there was this.

If she hadn’t put in that bit about “A capitalist lie” I would have zero disagreement with the post–which, as people might imagine, is pretty rare for me.  I don’t even agree with myself all the time.  And, yes, that’s as confusing as you might imagine.

That one statement, however, is so completely at odds with what capitalism is–the voluntary exchanges of goods and services at prices set by the free market–that it boggles the mind.

However, perhaps the poster is confusing “value” with “money.”

The thing about capitalism and the free market is that every individual is allowed to put whatever value they want on anything.  The only thing is, anyone they are trading with also gets to do so.  I can value that workhorse Explorer in my garage at $10,000 if I want in that I wouldn’t trade it for less than that (maybe sentimental value–its market value isn’t anywhere close to that).  That doesn’t mean anyone’s going to offer me $10,000 (see “market value isn’t anywhere close to that”). And, unless I find somebody who values it more than I value it, then the trade doesn’t happen.  There’s no way I’m going to get $10,000 for that Explorer.  But the price I could sell it for is not its value.  The value is what it would take, the least valuable thing I would accept as a fair trade for it.

Of course in reality I’m not particularly attached to that Explorer.  I need the cargo capacity.  Between my daughter’s hockey gear, her cello, her Baritone sax, and (now trombone of all things!) small cars just will not do.  (The Miata sits sadly and forlornly in the garage awaiting the day I’ll be able to get it on the road again.)  I also want at leat minimal off-road capability and something that’s reasonably comfortable on longer drives (like, say, my drives down to LibertyCon).  It serves all those purposes and any trade will have to equally well serve those purposes before I’ll make it voluntarily.

With hobbies, the question isn’t whether they make money.  That’s not the value they bring to most people.  One of my own hobbies is ice skating. (Oh, no!  Really?) And that costs money.  The skates–I needed good quality skates, professionally fitted because of my foot issues–were…not cheap.  Lessons cost $144 per eight mostly weekly sessions.  OTOH, while I’m in lessons skating during the public skate times at the rink is free.  Two sessions a week and it evens out.  I try for four and so come out well ahead.  Still, that’s $18 a week (average) for a hobby that’s never going to pay me a dime.  Disney on Ice is never going to hire me as a company skater and certainly not as a featured performer.  I might get hired on as a skate guard but that wouldn’t possibly pay enough to justify quitting my current job.

But the money I could earn at it isn’t the value.  The exercise and improvement in my health and fitness therefrom is a value.  The sense of accomplishment as I learn new techniques and new “tricks” (my backward one-foot glides are starting to come along) is a value.  The fun and enjoyment I get from rounding the rink and feeling the rush of my blades moving over the ice and an actual wind in my face from the movement is a value.

Value does not mean money.  Value is a personal thing.  Value is what you would trade to have something or, conversely, what you would accept to give something up.

$144 every two-ish months.  I value the ice skating more than that.  Therefore I’m willing to trade that money to make it happen.  And I will continue so long as I don’t need that money to trade for something I value more (like, say, my daughter’s well-being).

So, as long as you value your hobbies more than their cost–and you’re not giving up something you value more to do so–and that includes not demanding other people to cover the cost for what you value–then indulge.

It’s the capitalist way.

Yes, I did this the last two years.  Doing it again this year because this is an important date for Western Civilization.  In fact, I think I might just make it an annual tradition:

On this date, in AD732, Charles Martel led the Franks against Muslim invaders near the city of Tours and turned back the tide of Islamic advance at the Battle of Tours (sometimes called the Battle of Poitiers).

In the preceding 110 years, Islam, thanks to the diligent efforts of polite young men in white shirts and neckties on bicycles going out two-by-two, had spread from its origins in the Arabian peninsula through south-central Asia and across the north of Africa, and up into the Iberian peninsula.

Did I say polite young men in white shirts and ties on bicycles going out two-by-two?  Just kidding.  That’s Mormons.  The Muslims did it by going out conquering and to conquer, slaughtering everyone who would not submit, in a tide of blood across all their conquered lands.

It seemed that Muhammed and his successors did not understand that “Jihad” meant internal struggle over oneself and that “Islam” meant “peace” and the meaning of “submission” was one’s own submission to Allah.  They apparently thought “Jihad” meant real war against unbelievers, using real swords and spears, leaving real dead and mutilated bodies in its wake and the “submission” was forcing those not in Islam to submit to it.  But what did they know?  They only founded the religion or followed in the footsteps of the founder.

Muslims of the Umayyad dynasty, chiefly Berbers, invaded the Iberian peninsula (really, it was a military invasion, not a lot of missionaries on bicycles.  Besides, the bicycle hadn’t been invented yet).  Within a decade they had essentially conquered the Iberian peninsula and were expanding across the Pyrenees into what would eventually be part of southern France.

In the spring of 732, these Umayyad Muslims defeated Duke Odo at the Battle of the River Garonne, thus setting the stage for what was to come.

Odo, surviving the battle, asked the Franks for help.  Charles Martel, “Mayor of the Palace” (Ruler in all but name but it would wait for his son, Pepin the Short, for his line to officially claim the throne) would only promise aid in return for Odo submitting to Frankish authority.

While this was going on, the Umayyads, in apparent unconcern about possible Frankish might, advanced toward the Loire river.  Lax in scouting and unconcerned, they did not note the power massing to oppose them.

The Umayyads were mostly cavalry.  Charles, according to accounts, was mostly infantry, but heavily armed and armored infantry.  One of the Franks main weapons was the Francisca, a heavy-headed, short-handled throwing axe.  The Byzantine historian Procopius (c. 500–565) described the axes and their use thus:

…each man carried a sword and shield and an axe. Now the iron head of this weapon was thick and exceedingly sharp on both sides while the wooden handle was very short. And they are accustomed always to throw these axes at one signal in the first charge and thus shatter the shields of the enemy and kill the men.

And at the time of Charles Martel, the axes were still in common use.  It would be some time yet before the Frankish forces converted to being primarily cavalry under the successors to Charles Martel.

When the Umayyads reached the Franks and their allies, they faced off with skirmishes while waiting for their full force to arrive.

Finally, the forces were all ready and the day of battle arrived.  Abd-al-Raḥmân, the leader of the Umayyad forces, trusted to the strength of his cavalry and had them charge repeatedly at the Frankish infantry lines.  The incredibly disciplined infantry stood its ground staunchly despite (according to Arab sources) Umayyad cavalry breaking into their formation several times.

A charge of Umayyad broke through, attempting to reach Charles reasoning, probably correctly, that if they could kill Charles the Frankish army would break.  However Charles’ liege men surrounded him and held off the attack.

While the battle still raged, rumors went through the Umayyad forces that Frankish scouts were threatening the Umayyad baggage train and threatening to carry off the loot they’d already gathered in their march northward.  Arab reports indeed claim that this was the case (in a second day of battle where Frankish reports say it only lasted one day).

This, apparently was too much for many of the Umayyads.  Fight them on the field of battle.  Throw axes at them.  Stab at them with spears and slash at them with swords.  All good.  But threaten their loot?  No way.

However, they didn’t appear to make clear to their compatriots what exactly they were doing and why.  The others saw them heading back the way they’d come and thought they were in retreat.  And “if he’s retreating, maybe I should be too” is a thought soldiers have shared many a time throughout history.  The result was the Umayyads went into full-fledged retreat.  Abd-al-Raḥmân tried to stop the retreat and, as a result, was surrounded and killed.

The next day, Charles, fearing the possibility of an ambush, kept his troops in formation in their relatively secure position.  He did, however, send out extensive reconnaissance which discovered that the Umayyads had abandoned not only the field of battle but their own camp so fast that they’d left their tents behind, heading back to Iberia as fast as their horses and wagons could carry them taking what loot they could carry with them.

Had to protect that loot.

The Umayyads retreated south back over the Pyrenees and that remained the end of Muslim advance into Europe.  Further attempts into the European heartland were made but they came to naught in the end.  Charles Martel and his forces had broken the back of the Muslim conquest of Europe for many centuries to come.

How Charles Martel would weep to see Europe inviting in a new generation of invaders with open arms.

There was this article “5 Misconceptions Promoted by Democrats During Their ‘Gun Safety’ Forum”

1. Gun Violence is an epidemic.
2. In the light of risks students face, mass shooter drills in schools are sadly necessary.
3. “Assault weapons” are uniquely deadly
4. Background checks are an effective way to prevent mass shootings.
5. The 2nd Amendment is about hunting.

Those aren’t “misconceptions.” They’re lies, pure and simple.  There is no room for reasonable people to disagree.  They are wrong, pure and simple.  They are indefensible.

They are lies.

Violent crime, including gun crime, is down.  It’s been coming down since the early to mid 90’s.  There have been a couple of times where it rose slightly for a couple of years (although nothing compared to how it had been falling) before continuing its downward trend.  There is no epidemic of gun crime no matter what the politicians, what the media, is telling you.

While events such as Parkland are horrific, the simple truth remains that there are something on the order of 98,000 schools where no such events have happened.  Although they get media coverage far out of keeping with their frequency, events such as Parkland or Sandy Hook or the like are exceedingly rare.  There are far more things to worry about, and deal with, than “mass shooters”.  The simple, ordinary, everyday bullying that goes on all the time but doesn’t make headlines is far more a threat than mass shooters have ever been and are likely ever to be.

“Assault weapons”, whatever they mean by the term this week, generally describe rifles of moderate power–the AR pattern rifle in the most common caliber (.223 Remington or 5.56 NATO) is near the bottom end of centerfire rifles in terms of power–about 1300 foot-pounds.  A common deer-hunting cartridge, the .30-30 Winchester has about 1800-1900 foot-pounds, with a larger bullet to cause a larger wound cavity.  The venerable .30-06 has on the order of 3000 foot-pounds, similar to that of the shotgun recommended by former Vice President Joseph Biden.  And they are semi-automatic, that means one bang per pull of the trigger.  Playing games with words like “fully semi-automatic” doesn’t change that.  Still one bang per pull of the trigger.

Background checks?  While I don’t advocate abolishing the current system (largely because it would be wasted effort at this point) the simple truth is that it’s utterly worthless when it comes to keeping guns out of hands of criminals.  When a sale is “denied” the felony committed by a prohibited person attempting to purchase a firearm is rarely prosecuted.  So the criminal is able to go on and find alternative methods of obtaining a gun if he wants one.  They can be stolen or purchased on the black market.  Most gun used in crime are stolen.  No background check in the world will prevent that.  Background checks are a red herring, serving no useful purpose.  They don’t stop criminals from getting guns.  All they do is increase the cost (the checks aren’t free, where do you think the money for running the background check system comes from) and hassle for law-abiding gun owners.

And the 2nd being about hunting?  Even their own arguments show that’s a lie. “It says well regulated militia” they say.  You think militias were formed to hunt deer?  Militias are formed to protect the people and the state.  Deer aren’t generally a threat to either.  Their argument about well-regulated militia is nonsense and is not the restriction on RKBA that they claim, but that they make the argument with regularity shows that the 2nd being about hunting is a lie.

So, no, there are no “misconceptions” here.  They are lying, pure and simple.

I have Sowell’s “Vision of the Anointed” on Audible. I wanted a text copy for easier reference for blog fodder. Apparently there’s a “quality problem” with the ebook version on Amazon so it’s not currently available. I ordered the print version. Hit “one click” then saw the shipping address was to my home rather than work address (where I have most things shipped). Couldn’t change the shipping address so canceled the order and re-ordered with the correct shipping address. All fine, right?

Wrong. They shipped _both_, one to home and one to work. Both for the same day. So I get the one at work, get home and the other one is sitting on the porch (at least it didn’t walk away).

Fortunately, this being Amazon, there wasn’t a problem with returning it. Filled out the form online with “no longer needed” as the reason and an explanation of that they’d shipped an order I’d cancelled in the comment. The return options were take it to a Kohl’s or a UPS store (no charge) or have UPS pickup ($5.99 charge). The Kohl’s thing was new. Indeed, the whole thing was new compared to the last time I’d had to return something where I printed out a UPS label and it was up to me to get it into UPS’s hands (drop box, store, or hand it to a driver when I see him).

I took it to Kohl’s. Didn’t have to pack it or anything, just hand them the book and let them read the QR code in the email I got. By the time I got home, the refund was processed.

Very pleased with how this was handled. This is how customer service should be.

So there was this.  I want to think this is parody but I’ve heard every argument made here told with complete seriousness, just not usually all together.

As usual, the original is in italics, my comments are in bold.

Goth is a deplorable type of heathen culture

Actually, I am a Heathen (sort of) and the two are not the same.  Heathens, per modern definitions, are those who believe in and worship the Germanic/Norse Gods, also known as Asatru.  I don’t particularly believe in them–don’t particularly believe in any gods–but I try to follow the ways of modern Asatru as exemplified in the Nine Noble Virtues. (Yes, I know they are found nowhere in the surviving Lore, but as a concise distilling of the virtues that are exemplified in that lore, they serve.)  I know some Goths who are Heathen.  Most are not.

that glorifies everything that is vile and unholy.  The dictionary defines “Goth” as: A crude uncouth ill-bred person lacking culture or refinement.

Which Dictionary is this from, I wonder?

Merriam Webster says:

1. :a member of a Germanic people that overran the Roman Empire in the early centuries of the Christian era

2. often not capitalized
   a :rock music marked by dark and morbid lyrics
   b :a fan or performer of goth

3. a person who wears mostly black clothing, uses dark dramatic makeup, and often has dyed black hair

Nope, nothing in there about being crude, uncouth, ill-bred, or lacking culture or refinement.

This pretty much sums up the Goth culture today.  Goth glorifies things that are sick, nasty, improper, freakish, and downright demonic.  Goth is NOT just the music.  In fact, not all Goths listen to Goth music. 

Well, that depends.  Some define Goth as only those who are fans of the music.  I tend to be a “big tent Goth” and include all who are fans of the aesthetic.

The Goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in the United Kingdom during the early 1980s in thegothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The Goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify. Its imagery and cultural proclivities indicate influences from nineteenth century Gothic literature along with horror movies and -according to César Fuentes Rodríguez and Carol Siegel- to a lesser extent, the BDSM culture.

Well, here’s they actually say something right  Many define the origin point of Goth with the release of Bauhaus’s song “Bela Lugusi’s Dead”.  And, yeah, all of those influences are present to some extent.  But not every Goth follows all of those.

And look at that scary phrase “cultural proclivities”.  Oooh.  This just means people tend to have things in common (while having a great deal of diversity as well).  The main commonality is an appreciation of the “dark” in counterpoint to the light.  Consider the line from the otherwise mediocre movie “Bruce Almighty”, where Morgan Freeman explaining why just answering “yes” to all the prayers was a bad idea:  “If you want to paint pictures like that, you’ve got to use some dark colors.”

Goth’s, in my experience get that.  And it’s reflected in their, in our, outlook.

The Goth subculture has associated tastes in music and fashion, whether or not all individuals who share those tastes are in fact members of the Goth subculture. Gothic music encompasses a number of different styles. Common to all is a tendency towards a lugubrious, mystical sound and outlook. Styles of dress within the subculture range from death rock, punk, androgynous, medieval, some Renaissance and Victorian style clothes, or combinations of the above, most often with black attire, makeup and hair.

SOURCE: Goth subculture – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oh, well that explains it.  Not able to think for himself, he instead relies on grabbing a quick bit from Wikipedia before going on about crap he doesn’t know the first thing about.
The term “Goth” refers to all categories of Gothics, from Emo ‘Goths’ to black metal ‘Goths’ to vampire ‘Goths; from thrasher ‘Goths’ to punk ‘Goths’ to industrial ‘Goths.’  “Goth” is just a word the media uses to group a certain type of people together.

Emo is not Goth.  Black metal is iffy.  Punk is not Goth.  That idiots like this bozo lump them together just underscores their own ignorance; it doesn’t make it so.

The Goth culture includes Emos/ punks/ Wiccan witches/ self-abusers/ thrashers/ grungers/ heavy metallers, et cetera.  This includes the Marilyn Manson, AC/DC, Smashing Pumpkins, Van Halen and Ozzy Osbourne crowd as well.

And it includes Christians, Agnostics, people who rescue animals, vegetarians, meat-eaters, and many others.  And while some folk into metal are also Goth, neither are all “metalheads” Goth nor are all Goths “metalheads”.

Also AC/DC is not Goth.  Van Halen is not Goth.  Ozzy Osbourne is not Goth.
 
Goth causes teenage girls to become whores,

The truth is if you look at Goths, actually look at them, you’ll note that they’re usually in couples, serious long-term relationships.  This is bullshit.

depresses kids to the point of cutting themselves,

While some depressive individuals may find themselves attracted to the dark aspects of Goth, it does not cause their problems.  The biggest cause of those problems, frankly, is poor parenting.  But you can’t admit that, can you?  You can’t consider the beam in your own eye so you look for a mote in someone else’s to blame.  You whited sepulcher, outwardly clean but inwardly full of all manner of corruption.

and turns otherwise normal kids into Columbine shooters.  The Goth culture is obsessed with death and the darker side of life, which is clearly evidenced in Goth music.

The dark side is part of life.  People deal with death.  Have you never lost someone you cared about?  Have you ever had bad things happen to you and wondered why?  Have you ever wondered if anyone else felt the pain you did?

Perhaps you haven’t.  Perhaps you’ve lived a charmed life where you’ve never felt the pain of loss or hardship.  Or perhaps you’re so wrapped up in your imaginary friend in the sky that reality never touches you.

I, however, am not.  And so when I’m feeling down or depressed, I can listen to Goth or metal and I feel better because someone else has felt what I feel.  Someone else understands.

Goth is of the Devil.
 
Goth in itself is a mental illness, a sickness of the soul, mainly affecting teenagers in the same way as schizophrenia would, although to a greater extent.  Its symptoms range from isolation and negativity to aggression and hate for humanity, depression, violent outbursts, low self esteem, self-loathing, self-harming and suicide.  Many Goths turn to a life of crime to feed their addiction to drugs, sadism, violence and perversion.

Wow, that’s breathtaking.  You just make shit up, don’t you?  You might find a few isolated cases but here’s a hint.  The plural of “anecdote” is not data.

You might want to Google “Confirmation Bias”.  Never mind. Here.  I’ll do it for you.

CONFIRMATION BIAS
 
There is a theme running through all these different types of gothic groups, and a common fashion and dress that all tribes of Goth wear.  The clothing is usually dark and sinister looking, sometimes called the ‘gothic uniform.’

You can’t possibly have looked much at Goths to think there’s anything like a uniform.  Yeah, dark colors are common.  But sinister is only in your own mind.

Are all things dark “sinister” to you?  Careful how you answer because it will be used against you.

Goth women often wear black lip stick and paint their eyes so dark with mascara that they look like vampires.

I’ve never met an actual vampire.  I don’t know what they might look like.  Oh, you mean Hollywood’s depiction of vampires, right?  But note that Hollywood depiction comes from a romantic ideal.  The resemblance is simply because they both draw from the same romantic ideal.  Some Goths (and only some) carry that farther and actually dress as vampires with fake fangs and everything.  But, again, that’s drawn from the Hollywood depiction of Vampires as romantic figures.  Take that up with Hammer Films and Anne Rice among others (neither of which are Goth).

Goths are all obsessed with death and despair, with terror and violence, and most Goths use drugs as a form of everyday life.

More bullshit.  Goths cover a wide range.  Most are just ordinary people with an aesthetic that you neither like nor understand.  I’ve known Goth pacifists.

When Sophie Lancaster and her boyfriend were assaulted andSophie was murdered it wasn’t the Goths that resorted to violence.

You, no doubt, would be right in that crowd, kicking and beating on two teenagers who never did anything to you.

Some abuse their children, perform Satanic rituals, and drink human blood.

So do some Christians (some of the things I’ve seen “Christians” do to their children is as bad as any “Satanic ritual”).  And many Christians, through the Eucharist and the Miracle of Transubstantiation believe that they are actually drinking the blood of Christ and eating his flesh.

As for drinking human blood, I’ve got to tell you, when I had nasal surgery a lot of the blood went down that way.  Made me physically ill, not from any horror or distaste, but because, as my doctor explained to me, human blood is an emetic.

Some Goths consider the sharing of body fluids like small amounts of their own blood, to be a form of sharing as or even more intimate than sex.  Not my thing but, hey, so long as everyone’s consenting and this is almost always a matter between committed couples so is no more likely to spread blood borne pathogens than when you and your spouse boink without a condom.

You see, one thing that Goths frequently have that you don’t is a very strong “live and let live” philosophy.

They recognize your right to be a conceited, self-righteous douchebag.

Goths would have us believe that the Columbine Massacre was just an isolated incident; however, here are some alarming statistics:

1991
NORWAY – Vocalist of Mayhem commits suicide. The guitarist Euronymous, upon finding him, takes pictures of his bloody corpse for their album cover, and collects pieces of his skull to make necklaces out of.
1992
NORWAY – Church burnings and murders by Nazi Goths in Norway following Euronymous, lead guitarist of gothic black metal band Mayhem calling on fans to be terrorists for their anti-Christian cause.
NORWAY – Bart Faust, bassist of Goth band Emperor, murders a homosexual.
1993
USA – satanic murders of three innocent little children by Goth monster Damian Echols in West Memphis, Arkansas.
NORWAY – Euronymous murdered by Goth ‘friend’ Varg Vikernes, guitarist of Goth band Emperor.
1994
SWEDEN – Jon Nodtveidt, singer of Goth black metal band Dissection murders man.
1995
USA – Murder of 15 year old Elyse Pahler by Satanist Goth teens Royce Casey, Joseph Fiorella, and Jacob Delashmutt who idolized metal band Slayer and had conspired to kill a virgin girl as a sacrifice to Satan.
Goth Brian Bassett shoots and kills his parents before drowning his 5 year old brother, then proceeds to kick their corpses to the music of silver chair.
1996
USA – The infamous Vampire Clan Murders.
1997
Goth Satanist Luke Woodham brutally beats and stabs mother to death before going into school and killing 2 and injuring 7.
Kimberly Wilson, age 20, her 17-year-old sister, Julia, and their parents, William and Rose Wilson brutally murdered by sick Goths Alex Baranyi and his best friend, David Anderson, both 17.
1998
ITALY – Beasts of Satan cult, Goths into heavy metal, murder 2 teenagers.
1999
USA – 15 dead in the Columbine High school massacre, carried out on the anniversary of Hitler’s birthday by two Nazi obsessed Goths.
2001
USA – World Trade Centre destroyed by plans drawn up 2 year previously by Dylan Klebold, one of the terrorists from Columbine.
GERMANY – Three Goth teenagers ages 14, 17 and 18 committed suicide after forming an online satanic death sect in an internet chat room.
2001
GERMANY – Bride of Satan satanic murder case.
2002
UK – Vampire teenager slaughters frail old woman and drinks her blood.
UK – Alan Menzies also murders man after becoming obsessed with sickening Vampire film ‘queen of the damned’, He claims the queen of the damned ordered him to do it.
2003
UK – Goth Jodi Jones aged 14 brutally murdered by her evil Marilyn Manson obsessed Gothic boyfriend.
Two self-styled vampires jailed for conducting a campaign of religious harassment against a vicar and his family. Scott Bower and Benjamin Lewis were found guilty of waging the three-month campaign against the Reverend Christopher Rowberry, his wife Karen and children Hannah, 15, and Simon, 17.
2004
USA – Lely high school students caught planning copycat Columbine.
Teen Rachelle Waterman from Craig, Alaska masterminds murder of her own mother. She roped two former boyfriends into doing the deed. Her mother Lori ended up bludgeoned to death and her body burned out in the Alaskan wilderness.
2005
Beasts of Satan cult finally stand trial for their evil crimes.
USA – Orlando, Florida, a Goth named Christopher Dunsmoor killed his fiancée, Fawn Trivette. Dunsmoor nearly beheaded Fawn, using a samurai sword.
USA – 105 Year old Minnesota United Church burned to the ground in a hate crime against Christianity by three sick Goth teens on the birthday of Varg Vikernes, a black metal musician now serving time in prison in Norway for murdering a band mate and burning several churches. Vikernes has inspired dozens of copycat church burnings around the world.
USA – Goth Ben W. Fawley, age 38, told Richmond, Virginia police that he killed Virginia Commonwealth University freshman, Taylor Behl, age 17 while having “rough sex.” Though 38, Fawley looked 17 and made it a point to dress like a 17 or 18-year-old Goth kid.
USA – Ten killed in Red Lake High School massacre by Goth Nazi Jeffrey Weise.
Goth David Rodriguez, 18, and a companion abducts 2 children in order to perform satanic ritual, allegedly to get his girlfriend back. Erika Castillo, 6, and her older brother, Oscar, were snatched outside a Little Village library on Friday. Rodriguez planned to carve a pentagram in the girl’s chest.
USA – California, Goth Scott Dyleski, age 16, arrested for the brutal bludgeoning murder of Pamela Vitale, age 52. Vitale was the wife of well-known defense attorney and legal analyst for various cable news outlets, Daniel Horowitz.
These are but a few of thousands of recorded mainstream news events involving Goth killers.  To say that the Goth subculture isn’t dangerous is to be very ignorant indeed.  Goth is of the Devil. 

Inigo Montoya Moment.  “You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means.” A rather modest list (compared to the number of murders that have happened worldwide in the same period) isn’t “statistics”.

Also, just because you say “Goth” doesn’t mean they actually are.  Yes, the claim that the Columbine murderers were “Goth” was bruited but other students of the school refuted that claim.  It simply wasn’t true.  Just because you attribute something to “Goth” doesn’t make it so. 

Go back up to where I googled “Confirmation Bias” for you.

The Dangers of Rock Music

Over 30 years ago a woman named Dorothy Retallack conducted experiments using music, plants and their combined environment. These results are famous.

Taking two identical sets of plants in two separated but identical rooms, she exposed them to music. The first set of plants were played quiet placid subdued devotional “religious” classical music, while the other set were subjected to loud aggressive rock music played at full deafening volume 24 hours a day. The plants exposed to rock grew away from the music source, withered and died, while the plants that were played religious music grew towards the music source and thrived.

The lesson? If rock music attacks and kills plants, what does it do to people? I think it’s rather obvious – it does the exact same thing!  Rock music attacks the nervous system, affecting one’s emotional state.  Is it any wonder why Americans, now more than ever before, are blowing-up in anger, flying off the handle, committing suicide, and losing their minds?

Bullshit on multiple levels.  First off others have performed the same experiment, mostr famously the Mythbusters team.  You know what mythbusters found with experiments actually better controlled than in this ridiculous “study” you cite.  They found that the plants exposed to metal actually grew faster than those exposed to classical music.  Oh, and they found that “talking”, whether positive or negative, led to more growth than no talking.

As for the “now more than ever” that’s utter and complete kark.  Violent crime in America is down.  For the last several years it’s been hovering at about half the peak it reached in 1993.  You wouldn’t know that to listen to the media, but the media is lying to you.  Department of Justice statistics tell a different story.

You are using bad science to “explain” something that just isn’t happening

Goth is particularly dangerous because the lyrics to the music often glamorize killing, brutality, sadism, masochism, pedophilia, torture, freakism, and all sorts of heathendom. 

And once again, you have demonstrated that you haven’t actually listened to Goth music.  I’m not surprised.   You declare it “evil” without any actual knowledge and that gives you all the excuse you need to not actually research (real research, not the confirmation bias–see above–crap that you do) to see whether your assessment actually matches reality.

The music is often characterized by relentless yelling and screaming, freakish embellishments of the voice, evil sounding backgrounds, etc.  There just a bunch of sickos.  Magician, Criss Angel, has made millions of dollars with his “Mind Freak” series, and he definitely fits in well with the Goth freak culture.  Criss Angel’s theme song is characterized by his own voice screaming “mind freak” repeatedly at the top of his lungs.  This is Satanic.

More Inigo Montoya here.  Just because you don’t like something doesn’t make it “Satanic”.  Or are you one of those:  There’s vigorous Bible-thumping and there’s “everything else” with “everything else” being of the Devil and, therefore, Satanic.

It’s people like you who drive more people away from Christianity than all the actual Satan worshipers who ever lived.

We read in the Bible in Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”  God doesn’t want us to walk around singing “mind freak” (which a person cannot help but hear repeatedly in their memory after watching one of Criss Angel’s shows).  Satan is the freak of freaks.  Jesus called Satan the father of all liars (John 8:44). 

Ah, you are one of those.

Goth is a Destructive Influence on Children

A mother who looks and dresses like a sick circus freak, who harms herself in front of her children, who is obsessed with death and suicide, who holds BDSM (i.e., Bondage, Domination, Sadism, and Masochism) parties that consist of bondage and rape, is hardly a fitting role model for children.  That is why Christians ought to be taking a stand against this heinous evil in society. 

And all these things which you attribute to “Goth” which aren’t actually any part of the Goth culture, but rather baggage that some people bring with them.  Often times I’ve seen people with severe depression and suicidal tendencies come to Goth culture and find people who actually understand them, who don’t sneer and look down their noses at them, and simply having people to talk to who do understand them makes them feel better and. they. get. better.

I shudder to think what would happen if someone depressed or suicidal came to you.  You, no doubt, would tell them to pray and “give themselves to Christ.” Some people that works for.  Most it doesn’t.  You’d simply dismiss those others as not having tried hard enough or not being sincere.  “No True Scotsman” is a wonderful fallacy for people like you. (No, I’m not going to Google this one for you.  You’re a big boy.  Do it yourself.)

Oh, and as for self-harm and BDSM?  You might just want to look up the history of the practice of self-flagellation in the Christian religion.  Mote and Beam time again. 

Goth is often associated with sexual immorality and pedophilia.

That you associated it in your demented mind doesn’t make it so.  Immorality?  Most of the times when you see Goths they’re always in couples, long term committed relationships.  From what I’ve seen of Goth couples, they’re at least as successful as Christian ones.

You keep making up things and then using the things you make up as “evidence” for other things you make up.  That’s not even fallacious.  It’s not connected enough to reality to rise to the level of fallacy.

And now we are finding websites that sell gothic clothing for children as young as kindergarten age, so that their sick gothic parents can dress their kids as Halloween freaks just like themselves.

Again, the only reason that’s “bad” is stuff you made up.  Parents generally dress their children according to their own tastes at least until the children are old enough to decide for themselves what they like.

Some websites are even selling ‘bondage’ clothing for babies!  For babies?  Don’t you find that wrong and sick?  Not just from a Christian point of view, but just plain ole common sense.  No wonder children are so messed up nowadays, because their parents are freaks.

First off, I’m going to call “Citation needed” on that.  But let’s go with it.  You might want to look up “swaddling”.  Pediatricians recommend it, restricting the babies movements (which possibly feels more like being in the familiar environment of the womb to them) to help calm them.  Babies have no shyness about crying when they’re unhappy of uncomfortable.  That this calms them down, soothes them shows that it is not uncomfortable or painful to them.  As for somebody choosing something that they find decorative (assuming you didn’t just make that up as you have much else) so what?  The baby doesn’t care.

It is not difficult to let Lucifer into your home (1st Peter 5:8).  The Apostle Paul prophesied in 2nd Timothy 3:6 of the future time when lustful men would creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lust.  From the witchcraft of Sabrina, to the lewdness of Hugh Hefner; from the whores of Desperate Housewives, to the demonic New Age indoctrination of Oprah Winfrey; from the homosexuality of The Ellen DeGeneres (Degenerate) Show, to the lasciviousness of nearly every prime time TV program―Americans have opened the door wide for Satan to creep right into our homes.  In fact, Satan doesn’t even need to creep his way into our homes anymore, because the average American willingly INVITES Satan into their home through the DEVILVISION!  Most people don’t care what they watch anymore.  The TV does the exact OPPOSITE of what the Word of God does.  Television DESENSITIZES people to sin; whereas the Word of God SENSITIZES us to sin… that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful(Romans 7:13).

Thump.  Thump.  Thump.  Thump that Bible.

But you want to know what’s worse than even the “Devilvision”?  The Internet!  Why anybody, anybody at all can put stuff there without any filter whatsoever.

You need to get off it, right away, lest you let Satan into your house.
 Goth and Satanism

Photo to Right: Album cover for one of the top Goth bands, “The Cult.”  Ram and goat horns are extremely popular amongst Satanists.  Paul McCartney even produced an album in 1971 titled, “RAM,” to show his allegiance to Satan.  Check out the Rolling Stones’ 1973 album, “Goat’s Head Soup.”

Wow, that’s breathtaking.  You just kind of make things up.

You want to know another thing that’s popular among Satanist?  The Bible.  I’ve generally found Satanist better versed, and better able to cite the Bible than most Christians.

Here’s the thing, that some groups of people like something does not define that something.  Otherwise all the time a certain holy man spent with Publicans and Sinners would itself be condemnatory.

I could publish an entire website just addressing the demonism which saturates the Goth movement.  The Goth culture is the consequence of a nation that has turned its back on God.  Rock n’ Roll was seemingly innocent back in the 1950s (but it wasn’t).  Then in the 1960s we saw the British Invasion, bringing with it the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and other heathen bands.  Illegal drug abuse flourished in the 1960s, fornication became epidemic, and a nation decided that the Bible was incompatible with their new amorality.  So in 1962 the Bible was banned from the Public School System.  The 1970s naturally led to the passing of legalized abortion laws, to address the epidemic fornication problem (and all the unwanted babies).  The 1970s began with the introduction of Satanism and occult imagery into much of the Rock music.  The Church of Satan was founded on 06/06/66 by Anton LaVey, whose picture appears inside the Eagles’ Hotel California album cover. 

LaVey in the cover?  False That some people claim to see Lavey there is nothing more than faces in clouds.

Goth deliberately crosses all the lines of proper dress, manners, refinement, and decency.

And yet, unlike you, every Goth I’ve known has been courteous and well mannered.  The dress is more likely to hearken back to Victorian and Edwardian attire, hardly lascivious.

  Goth picks up where Rock ‘n’ Roll leaves off, offering a course in advanced rebellion, sexual immorality, and Satan worship.  The Goth crowd is truly living at the bottom of the barrel of life, right where Satan wants them.  Wiccan witches are naturally attracted to Goth, because they are Luciferians themselves, who worship hundreds of pagan deities; but vehemently deny the Lord Jesus Christ. 

More utter bullshit.  Really, it’s so disconnected from reality that it’s not even wrong.  I could eat a bowl of alphabet soup and shit a more coherent string of words than that.

Most Goths are in committed, usually monogamous relationships.

Some witches are Goth, some aren’t.  Some Goths are witches, some aren’t.  Witches aren’t “Luciferians”.  They don’t believe in any of the figures of the Christian religion.  They don’t believe in your Trinity.  And they don’t believe in your adversary god.  Somebody believing differently from you does not mean they believe in your adversary.

Let me give you the words of another Christian, from another day: “I abjure you in the bowels of Christ to consider the possibility you may be mistaken.”

Pride is a sin, and you are full of it.

Conclusion

Goth is a degenerate form of subculture, that brings with it hate, loneliness, heartache, and woe.  It is sin-centered music (if you dare call it music).  If you are a parent, please steer your teens away from this perverted culture of death and hatred.  If your daughter comes home from school one day with dark mascara around her eyes, and wearing black clothing, she’s being influenced by the wrong crowd at school.  Be a parent!  Put your foot down!  Be as loving and kind as possible, but if that doesn’t work, then be aggressive and say “NO!”  It will be a cold day in Hell before any child of mine is going to tell me what, where, when, or how they’re going to run their life.  As long as I’m paying their bills, and they reside under my roof, then I make the rules!  That’s being a good parent.  If you train your children while they’re still young, then you will eliminate a lot of necessary conflicts when they become teens.  I am amazed when I hear teenagers cursing their parents.  That shouldn’t be.  The key is tough love.  If your kids KNOW that you love them, then they’ll give you their heart.  So many parents neglect their kids, by allowing the TV to raise them, and letting them run the streets all hours of the night.  I hate that commercial which says, “It’s 10 o’clock, do you know where your child is at?”  That’s a lot of bologna!  You had better know where your child is at AT ALL TIMES!!!

Do not allow your children mom and dad to associate with Goths.  I am a stickler for knowing exactly who my children are hanging around.  I don’t want my children associating with homosexual teenagers.  I don’t want my children hanging around creeps, freaks, or troublemakers who are headed for destruction.  Goths are infatuated with vampires, witches, the color black, torture, self abuse, and anything freakish.  Goth is extremely luring to lonely teenagers who don’t seem to fit in anywhere, because Goth is all about being a social misfit, i.e., a freak.  Parents are mostly to blame for not spending quality time with their teens.  Listen parent, you ought to be best friends with your teen.  A teenager who is loved by their parents won’t have a need to identify with others who are in their same lonesome boat.  If you don’t make time for your kids, the Devil certainly will.  Notice I said “make” time.  Life is hectic nowadays, and there’s always too much to do, and there’s never enough money to pay the bills.  Forget the overtime!  You spend some quality time with your teens on a regular basis. 

If you are into Goth yourself, then I ask you as a friend to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.  You don’t need to identify with the Devil’s crowd anymore.  Goth represents everything that is evil and unholy.  Aren’t you tired of running from God?  God loves you, no matter who you are, or what you have done.  God loves sinners.

I’ve gotta know.  When you wipe the spittle from your keyboard, does it leave the screen extra clean?  Does self-righteousness add an extra luster to the pixels?

As for your “advice”, how about “no”?  Does “no” work for you?  It doesn’t?  Then how about “fuck yourself with a rusty chainsaw you self-righteous, bible-thumping, smegma-lipped twatwaffle”?

And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

We just recently finished one round of classes.  There’s no class this week.  I’ve signed up for the next eight week session.  Actually, with holiday breaks it will take me to mid-December which will likely mean that’s it until the beginning of next year.

At the last session we more or less “tested” for progress.  My backward skating is coming along.  I’ve probably got backward one foot glides good enough for Basic 3 level.  Ditto my backward snowplow stop.  That leaves just two techniques I need to finish Basic 3.

One of them is a two-foot turn front to back, moving on a circle.  However, before I can do that, I need to learn a Basic 2 technique that I missed:  The Two-foot turn in place:

Looks simple enough, but when I tried it, I ended flat on my back. (Why, yes, as a matter of fact the “how to fall” I’d learned in Judo is in fact coming back to me.)

However, once I get that, I’ll need to now make it moving.  That ramps up the difficulty level:

Finally, there’s one called a “bonus skill”, a forward pivot.  It looks simple when the girl in the video does it but from where I am I can see some points of difficulty.  This is something I haven’t tried yet.

Since the classes tend to jump around in techniques, I’ve actually already started some of the Basic 4 stuff:  Forward outside and inside edges, and forward crossovers and, Basic 4 continues working on backward one foot glides.  I didn’t say I could do them well, but I have at least started.  Once I finish the Basic 3 techniques I’ll be well into Basic 4.

My immediate goals remain to finish out Basic 3 and particularly improve my backward one foot glides since that’s going to be vitally important going into Basic 5 where we start doing backward edges and backward crossovers.

So, by the end of the year, let’s say I want to have Basic 3 completed and to at least have made some effort on all the techniques of Basic 4.

 

Democrat Presidential Candidate Francis O’Rourke (calling himself “Beto” to try to give himself a Hispanic cachet) said, as part of his arguments for gun confiscation (call it a “mandatory buy-back” if you will it’s still confiscation) said that you can’t fight a tyrannical government “nor do you have a right to.” (I’ve dealt with the “you can’t” argument before.)

That follows, of course, if you take the view that rights are something granted by government.  If Rights are granted by government then of course there is no right to forcibly resist that government.

I do not subscribe to that view.  Here’s why.

First off consider what it means if rights only exist because the government says they do.  That directly implies that rights don’t exist if the government says they don’t.  If you take that position, then nothing government does can ever be “wrong”.

Let’s look at some examples to see where the government granting rights, and therefore is able to take them away, leads.

In March of 1492, the then government of Spain, specifically the Joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, ordered the expulsion of all the practicing Jews from Castile and Aragon and all their territories and possessions (including essentially all of modern Spain as well as additional territories).  This, of course, was entirely proper (given our presumption that government grants rights) since the government is simply rescinding the right of those Jews to live in Castile and Aragon and possessions.

There can be no objection to this, of course, since the right to live there was granted by the government and therefore could be taken away by the government.

In 1836 the “Treaty of New Echota” called for the removal of the Cherokee from all lands east of the Mississippi.  Some few moved voluntarily in response to this treaty.  However, in the end the Cherokee were forced first into concentration camps, then on the horrible Trail of Tears in forced migration to the west.

There can be no objection to this, of course, since the right to live east of the Mississippi, or to live at all, was granted by the government and therefore could be taken away by the government.

In 1838 the then Governor of Missouri issued a proclamation that the new religion of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) were to be treated as enemies of the State and exterminated or driven out.  (This order was not rescinded until 1976).

There can be no objection to this, of course, since the right to live in Missouri, or to live at all, let alone practice ones religion, was granted by the government and therefore could be taken away by the government.

In 1934, among many other things, German law stripped Jews of their German citizenship, forbade them from marrying or having sexual relations with non-Jews. (There was much worse to come, of course, so let this stand in proxy for that.)

There can be no objection to this, of course, since the right to citizenship, to marry, and who one might have sex with, were granted by the government and therefore could be taken away by the government.

If Francis has his way, at some future date he will deprive people of their arms.  There can be no objection to this, of course, since the right to keep and bear arms was granted by government and, therefore, can be taken away by government.

Well, we could go on and on.  If one takes the view that rights are granted by government and follows that through to its conclusion that therefore government can rescind those rights at its pleasure, then there is no atrocity, no matter how heinous, that government can do and one is left with no basis to object.  If your right to life comes from government, then it is equally valid for government to rescind that right and kill you.

No, if rights exist at all, they must exist independent of government.  They might be, as the Founders of the US stated something a person is “endowed by their Creator” or simply something they hold simply as the virtue of being human.  This is the only way that one can say that a government does right or wrong.  If rights come from government then nothing a government does can be wrong.  Only if rights are inherent in being human can say that a government does wrong.

The people who made up the Continental Congress did not think it necessary to go through this reasoning to come to the conclusion.  It was “water to a fish” to them.  Thus: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these rights are Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness, that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, securing their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Governments do not grant rights, not in the ultimate sense.  We may use the word “right” to refer to some things that are not innate human rights, but are tied to the form of government.  The right to vote is a big one there.  But when it comes to the basic human rights, they are completely independent of government.  Government does not grant them.  Government can not rescind them.  Government can only uphold them or infringe upon them.

And when government infringes upon them, it is government that is wrong.  And it is the right of the people, collectively or individually, to stand against that government and say “no.”

History, of course, is replete with examples of governments trampling on the rights of the people.  Indeed, that seems to be the norm to the point of being universal.  It is only when the people, united in their determination to enforce their basic human rights stand up and force government to recognize their rights, when they are willing to put their all behind the rights not just of themselves but of all men and women within their reach, that “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” becomes an achievable idea.

It happens when to these ends “We Mutually Pledge To Each Other Our Lives, Our Fortunes And Our Sacred Honor.”

“Is that to your liking, Your Highness?” Tanya set the brush down on the dresser.

Elara, Queen Presumptive of the elves of Greenwood, reviewed her reflection in the mirror.  Her thin face with its weak jaws stared back out at her.

Elves in the court, as Elara had heard when they thought she was not listening, thought her much too stout to be attractive.  The orcs who had raised her had thought her too thin, feeble-looking as they had termed it. Only her adoptive parents and Buck Tooth, dear, sweet Buck Tooth, had looked beyond her whispy appearance to find… Elara did not know what they found, only that they had loved her just as she had loved them.

The sight of Tanya’s reflection in the mirror broke into Elara’s thoughts.  She nodded.

“That will be all, Tanya.  Thank you.”

“Very well, Your Highness.  I will–”

A tapping at the door interrupted Tanya.  She left Elara’s side and cracked opened the door.

“Who…Lord Witharin?”

“May I speak with the queen?” Witharin’s voice came from behind the door.

“My apologies, Lord, but the queen has prepared for bed and–”

“Let him enter, Tanya.  It is as well to hear what he has to say now as later, for I am sure I will hear it.”

Tanya stood back, pulling the door open with her.  Witharin stepped into the room and bowed.

“Your Highness.”

Elara nodded in return. “How may I help you, Lord Magician?  You may leave us, Tanya.”

“As you wish, Your Highness?” Tanya bowed and retreated to the back rooms of the suite.

Witharin waited until the door had closed behind Tanya before speaking. “I am troubled by your actions at the reception, Highness.”

Elara sighed. “Did Odarin send you?”

“Odarin and I differ in many things, this not the least.  No, Highness, he did not send me. But it is because he came that I am here.”

Elara leaned back in her seat.  She studied Witharin for a moment.  She often thought that Witharin understood her all too well.  To the elves, she was an adolescent, little more than a child.  Witharin alone seemed to grasp that she had grown swiftly among the orcs, that she was an adult who had tended a fire of her own and a husband to share it.

Buck Tooth, his body full of elvish arrows, the sword she had forged still in his cold hand.

She blinked the vision away.

“Not at his bidding, yet he is why you came?  You bring me riddles?”

Witharin inclined his head. “Odarin would have you wedded to Prince Farian.  An alliance would bring much wealth.”

Elara shrugged. “An alliance with any of the suitors would bring much wealth.”

“This is true, but I believe he hopes that the Prince will inherit Lariendel.  The issue of your union would then rule both.”

Elara leaned forward, an idea teasing at the corners of her mind. “Is Farian likely to inherit?”

Witharin shrugged. “Normally, I would say no.  His father is old, nearing his fifth century and not likely to live much longer.  Farian’s elder brother, Seledan, already has three sons. If Seladan outlives his father even a single day, then the line passes to his issue.”

“So why, then, Odarin’s hopes.” Elara drew in a sharp breath, as though a thought had just occurred to her. “Are you suggesting he is planning an assassination?”

Witharin raised both hands as though to ward off the thought. “Elm, Oak, and Ash, no.  I simply believe he knows, or thinks he knows, something that makes Farian’s ascent likely.”

Elara tried to keep her thoughts from showing on her face as she considered Witharin’s words.  An assassination plotted against the heir of an elvish kingdom by the regent of another elvish kingdom could easily lead to war.  Elf warring against elf. The plot need not be true. Rumor, if sufficient evidence could be created, would suffice. She held back a smile.  It would be a start.

“And how does my actions at the reception enter into this?”

“Highness?”

Elara turned up an open hand. “You said that my actions troubled you.”

Witharin nodded. “Quite so.  The law states that no one may compel the monarch in who they choose as consort.  There is a long history as to why that is the case.”

“Please.” Elara held up both hands. “No.”

“Very well.  Suffice it to say that while the council can insist that you do choose a consort, the choice of who is yours and yours alone.”

“I still do not understand what this has to do with my actions at the reception.”

Witharin sighed. “It was obvious to all that you were indifferent to the elves presented to you.  Odarin might use this indifference to push you in the direction of his favored choice. I would caution you not to be unduly influenced by him.”

Elara stared at Witharin, stunned. “You came here…this late…delaying my rest…to caution me not to let Odarin decide for me who I should wed.  Have you, perhaps, taken too much wine?”

“You take this too lightly, Highness.  This is an important matter. Odarin has his own ambitions.  If he lets Farian know that his influence won him the role of consort, then, that will stand in his favor.”

“And you, Witharin?  What reasons have you to keep Farian from a seat at my side?  What are your ambitions?”

“My ambition is simply to avoid disaster,” Witharin said. “Your life has not become what you wished.”

Elara laughed. “Not what I wished?  That’s like saying the sun is a little like a candle, the sea, like a teacup.”

Witharin sighed and nodded. “I had hoped by revealing the machinations of another you might come to understand that not all who surround your are enemies.”

Elara stood and leaned close to Witharin. “And you?  Are you my enemy?”

“I am not.”

Elara leaned closer. “But I am yours.”

Witharin stepped back. “Perhaps.  But you, nevertheless, are my queen.”

Witharin bowed, turned and left the room without waiting for, or even requesting, dismissal.

Elara cursed herself for revealing too much as she closed the door.

Witharin might not think himself her enemy, but that did not make him less dangerous.  It made him more so.

It’s getting to be a bit more difficult to get technique practice during the public skate times.  As we move into early fall, we start approaching the busy season for the rink.  With more people, in particular more beginners and folk who are shaky on the ice, I can’t work back and forth at one end (working backward skating).  Just too much danger of running into somebody.

In Saturday’s afternoon public skate, I was lucky in that they weren’t terribly busy.  I was able to spend some time on the backward skating I’m working on.

My instructor had suggested, in working on backward one foot glides to use “swizzles” rather than “wiggles” to get going.  With “swizzles” I end the stroke with my feet together, which is the ideal position to shift weight to my supporting leg and pick up the other.  That’s been coming along well.  I do two or three backward swizzles to get moving then pick up one foot or the other.  I’m getting a few seconds of glide that way.  I think the goal for Basic/Adult 3 is 4 seconds.  I’ve done that occasionally, but I can’t really do it reliably.

Another thing my instructor has me trying is some very basic backward stroking.  While it’s essentially the reverse of forward stroking (toe in and push out and forward with the stroking foot vs. toe out and push out and backward) but I find it a whole lot more awkward.  The video here showing how it works goes from stroke into glide.  I’m not doing that (yet).  That’s a “basic 6” thing (like the last step before the “free skate” series, where one starts learning serious figure skating with jumps and spins) and I’m working on Basic 3 and Basic 4 stuff.  The idea is to get me started on the motion.  I get a little push and then go into a two-foot glide.  It’s really clumsy looking but it’s a start.

I’m getting a good 25 minutes to half an hour of skating in on each session. Still having the ongoing foot problems but I’m trying to push a bit longer each time before I have to stop and let my feet recover. Right now I’m going about 15 minutes before I have to stop, then give my feet a few minutes rest, then I’m good for another 10-15 minutes before I get tired enough that my balance gets bad and it becomes time to stop.

Okay, Dick Button even at 90 years old has nothing to fear from me.  Still, I’m so, so far ahead of where I was six months ago that I think I have pretty good reason to be proud.

It never fails.  When I (or a lot of other people) talk about the economic cost of some policy we always get “how can you think of economics when we’re talking about people’s lives here” or “you can’t put a price on human life” or the big one “if it saves just one life, it’s worth it.”  “If we don’t do this, people will die!”

The problem is that economics translates into lives.  And while whatever folk want to “solve” with their economically unviable proposal might “cost lives” impoverishing people, either as individuals or as the economy as a whole also costs lives.

Consider, that an Earthquake of a severity that might kill a dozen people in California, would kill hundreds, or even thousands, in someplace like Bangladesh.  Wealthier societies are more likely to have buildings built of sufficient strength to withstand earthquakes and, thus avoid crushing their inhabitants.  Wealthier societies are more likely to have networks of roads that allow sick and injured to reach hospitals or aid stations quickly–and the more quickly you can treat, the better the chances for recovery.

Or, never mind Earthquakes.  In wealthier societies more people have shelter from weather that can threaten their health, and not just against storms, but heat is a known killer, as is cold.  Having a draft-free dwelling with adequate heating and cooling for the weather saves lives.  Sure, for a lot of people it’s about comfort but many of the very old and very young, or the sick and injured, are less able to deal with temperature extremes.  Heat waves and cold snaps are invariably accompanied by rising death rates (with cold being by far the worse killer of the two).  Adequate heat and air, and modern, high-tech clothing meant to protect the wearer from temperature extremes make a big difference.

Ordinary illnesses and injuries?  People have accidents, get sick.  Once again, that extensive network of roads–a feature of wealthier societies–allows people to get their sick and injured to doctors and hospitals quickly.  And not just via ambulance.  That might be arranged by some government program which allows people to…

Oh, I can’t do it.  The simple fact is that many times, a person can get a sick or injured loved one to the hospital faster than an ambulance can get to them.  At least they can if they have their own car, which is something that is not common except in wealthy nations.

Look, some economists have tried to study this, to try and figure how many dollars (or whatever monetary unit you care to use) of GDP equates to how many lives saved.  Because of the complexities of such analysis results vary.  After all, there are other things that affect death rates than just the wealth of society.  The basic principle, however, is so universal that it’s not even controversial–people live longer, and better, in wealthier societies.

The results of all this is that you cannot dismiss economic realities–the cost of doing whatever “good thing” you want to do via government comes at the expense of no longer being able to do something else with those resources.  After all, Economics is the study of cause and effect relationships in the allocation of scarce resources that have alternative uses.  Scarce, meaning you never have enough for everyone that wants it.  And so, use them for one thing and lose the ability to use them for something else.

In politics, people tend to make categorical decisions.  We must do this, regardless of the cost.  And doing “this” means we don’t do “that.” Political solutions tend to miss the incremental tradeoffs.  How much of “that” are we willing to give up for how much of “this”?

And when the “that” is something as nebulous to most people’s thinking as a Gross Domestic Product, particularly when a lot of that product is in other people’s hands rather than ones own, the very real effects of trading “that” get lost in the shuffle.

It’s very short-sighted and we need to work hard to not do that.

Unless, of course, you want people to die.