How to Defeat Fear

 

Once, there was a young warrior. Her teacher told her that she had to do battle with fear.

She didn’t want to do that.

Fear seemed too aggressive. It was scary. It seemed unfriendly. But the teacher said she had to do it and gave her the instructions for the battle.

The day arrived. The student warrior stood on one side and fear stood on the other. The warrior was feeling very small and fear was looking big and wrothful. They both had their weapons ready.

The young warrior aroused herself and went toward fear and she asked, “May I have permission to go into battle with you?”

Fear said, “Thank you for showing me so much respect that you ask permission.”

Then the young warrior said, “How can I defeat you?”

Fear replied, “My weapons are, I talk very fast and I get very close to your face. If you don’t do what I tell you, I have no power. You can listen to me. You can have respect for me. You can even be convinced by me. But if you do not do what I say, then I have no power.”

In that way, the student warrior learned how to defeat fear.

Biden’s Initial Approval Rating: 48 Percent!?

 

Biden got 80 million votes (allegedly), fawning news coverage and he starts with a 48 percent approval rating?!

What does that suggest?

(Don’t say it out loud or you’ll be cancelled.)

But At Least They Removed Trump

 

A sex trafficking victim has filed a lawsuit against Twitter in a U.S. district court in California, alleging that the social media giant knowingly received and distributed child pornography.

According to the court filing, John Doe said he was solicited and recruited for sex trafficking as a minor. After his escape, material depicting his abuse was disseminated on Twitter.

“When Twitter was first alerted to this fact and John Doe’s age, Twitter refused to remove the illegal material and instead continued to promote and profit from the sexual abuse of this child,” the plaintiffs allege.

John Doe and his parent contacted Twitter multiple times about the content, but Twitter allegedly didn’t suspend the accounts distributing those materials until a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agent intervened.

Iran Celebrates Biden’s Inauguration

 

Iran, which was designated as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1984, celebrated the inauguration of President Joe Biden yesterday. Seemingly oblivious to the concept of irony, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani called Donald Trump a “stupid terrorist” while expressing optimism that Biden would be a friendlier partner to the state sponsor of terror.

I Scratch Your Back, You Scratch Mine 800,000 Times

 

Amazon offered to help the Biden administration on Wednesday, shortly after President Joe Biden was sworn into office, with efforts to distribute the coronavirus vaccine, a proposal that the tech giant had not submitted to the Trump administration in the month since the vaccine was approved for public use.

Amazon also requested that its 800,000 employees be prioritized for vaccination.

Incitement of Violence

 

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the removal of Parler from Apple’s online store was done because the company doesn’t consider incitement of violence free speech.

“We looked at the incitement to violence that was on there and we don’t consider that free speech and incitement of violence has an intersection,” Cook told Fox News anchor Chris Wallace.

Yes, “incitement of violence” is the party line and Tim Cook I guess is just a puppethead.

Despite the faux outrage over the Capitol riot, the virtuous left seems ok with using and endorsing violence when it suits them. Antifa has had ongoing riots in major American cities. Left-wing “protests” often include looting, smashing store windows, burning down people’s homes and businesses.

An MLK Day protest in New York City this week resulted in 11 police officers injured and 28 arrests.

If you try to get a conservative speaker on a college campus, people will show up in black clothing with masks, hoods, helmets, weapons, firebombs and try to violently shut the thing down.

How are all these things planned and incited? Not on Parler obviously. If Tim Cook or anyone else sincerely objects to incitement of violence (spoiler alert: they don’t), why aren’t they identifying other platforms and communication channels and shutting them down as well?

2 + 2 = 4. Discuss.

 

“The idea of 2 + 2 equaling 4 is cultural and because of western imperialism and colonization, we think of it as the only way of knowing.”

“The idea that 2 + 2 equals 4 is cultural is also cultural. It just originated from a much more stupid culture. If you want to achieve anything in life, go with the idea that 2 + 2 equals 4.”

Thomas Jefferson: Snails, Coups and Fake News

 
Thomas Jefferson

My fellow Americans –

I recently read that scientists at UCLA made snails “remember” things that never happened.

Why am I not impressed? Snails?! We have fake news that makes people remember things that never happened. Remember the “attempted coup” at the U.S. Capitol last week? That never happened.

That’s what the fake news called it: an “attempted coup.”

What is a coup? Isn’t it overthrowing an existing government and replacing it with a new one? The government is not a building. It’s not a room. Stealing Nancy Pelosi’s lectern doesn’t make you the new leader of the country. It’s not that easy.

We declared a coup in 1776. But we still had to fight a war for the next seven years to actually make it real. There was no coup or attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol. You just remember something that never happened.

Thomas Jefferson

Woke White Boy on George Washington

 
Woke White Boy

My niece was accepted to grad school at George Washington University. I had to point out that while George Washington did some good things, he was also a major slave owner and should not have a university named after him.

George Washington was not woke. You think it’s not fair to hold a guy born 400 years ago to current wokeness standards? Well, you’re wrong.

I wrote a letter to George Washington University to suggest that they rename it to Antifa University. Or if they want to keep the GWU initials, change it to Get Woke University.

Wake up, white people!

— WWB

Thomas Jefferson: Founding Principles

 
Thomas Jefferson

My fellow Americans –

In the aftermath of the recent unrest at the U.S. Capitol, I’m unpleasantly surprised by how many people believe they understand our country’s founding principles but in fact have no idea what they’re talking about.

Truth: The founding fathers were a bunch of bad-asses who were ready to overthrow the government because it put a tax on their breakfast beverage — and it wasn’t even coffee.

The founders were determined to have their concerns addressed by an unresponsive government one way or another. (Just bitching on Twitter until you got banned wasn’t an option in those days.)

Yes, we are too obsessed today with mindless entertainment and gadgetry to stage an actual revolution, but that is what we celebrate on July 4: the violent overthrow of an unresponsive government.

Thomas Jefferson

The Interests of Schoolchildren

 

Oopsie! Bad timing!

As Albert Shanker — former president of the United Federation of Teachers (1964-1984) and the American Federation of Teachers (1974-1997) — used to say: “When schoolchildren start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of schoolchildren.”

To Quarantine or Not to Quarantine?

 

I’m reading that Los Angeles County, which is adjacent to where I live (Orange County) is now requiring travelers to quarantine for 10 days.

By comparison, I also just read that Sweden, which didn’t do lockdowns, continued to send kids to school, adults to work, didn’t close bars, restaurants, gyms, etc., will have about the same death rate in 2020 as they’ve had every year since 2010.

One explanation would be that people tagged as COVID victims were on track to die within a year or so anyway.

I looked at COVID death rates for California and found that residents age 80+ are 3% of cases but 43% of deaths. If we go down to age 65+, we see 11% of cases but 76% of deaths. In a large majority of cases, the decedents had one or more comorbidities.

You Do Not Need Many Things

 
Ryokan's Grave

My house is buried in the deepest recess of the forest
Every year, ivy vines grow longer than the year before.
Undisturbed by the affairs of the world I live at ease,
Woodmen’s singing rarely reaching me through the trees.
While the sun stays in the sky, I mend my torn clothes
And facing the moon, I read holy texts aloud to myself.
Let me drop a word of advice for believers of my faith.
To enjoy life’s immensity, you do not need many things.

Why Are They Working and Why Are We Not?

 

As I walked out all the streets were empty
The government said everyone should stay home
And they spread fear and loathing and no hope for the future
Not many did question this very strange move

Well, on the government website from the 21st March 2020
It said COVID-19 was no longer high risk
Then two days later Boris put us under lockdown
Then why are we not being told the truth?

By all the media outlets and the government lackeys
Why is this not big news, why is it being ignored?
Why no checks and balances, why no second opinions?
Why are they working, and why are we not?

Why are they working, and why are we not?
Why are they working, and why are we not?
Why are they working, and why are we not?
Why are they working, and why are we not?
Why are they working, and why are we not?

— Van Morrison, “As I Walked Out”

How Will the Media Treat President Biden?

 

Obviously the media hate Donald Trump but he has been sensational for ratings. Obviously the last four years of screaming partisan trainwreck reportage is interesting to some people.

What will happen when (alleged) president-elect Biden takes over? Will we continue to get the same puff pieces we’ve been getting on him all year? He seems remarkably coherent today. What energy! Look at him go! I think he’s figured out how teleprompters work. Thank god he’s got the keys to the nuclear codes!

Who’s going to watch that nonsense day after day? Nobody, is what I would assume.

Will the press have to turn against Biden just to maintain ratings? I’m interested to see how that will play out.

Too Lazy To Be Ambitious

 
Ryokan's Grave

Too lazy to be ambitious,
I let the world take care of itself.
Ten days’ worth of rice in my bag;
a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.
Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?
Listening to the night rain on my roof,
I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.