I’ve been asked, numerously and recently, to blog a bit about phillisophical and political matters having nothing to do with Electric Vehicles and Solar Energy. I confess I don’t know quite what that’s about, but it appears that some of my asides on EVTV cause curiosity regarding my “beliefs” and how they came about more generally.
I often do share some of these with close intimates but generally prefer to be pleasant and tell a lot of jokes because it puts people more at ease and I get along better socially. Trust me, to know me is not to particularly like me. And I can provide references.
I regularly hear and have heard from a young age that I am very smart. I never know how to take that, or what they think it means. Suffice it to say that I don’t view smart the way most people apparently do. It is not of any particular advantage in my estimation, it is vastly overrated in our society, it is mostly a parlor trick, and I’m really quite confident that when you say it and I hear it there are two different things going on in the conversation, neither of which have much to do with each other.
In commenting on YOUR apparent belief systems there, I would refer you to Albert Einstein, who serves as the rather universal syntactical iconic symbol of “smart” when he says that “Every man is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, you are likely to be disappointed.” Gifts of birth are much more various and complicated than I perceive as the common view.
In MY belief system, there was a mixup at the distribution center and I was sent to the wrong freaking planet. Life on MY world is very different I can assure you. But the powers that be are loathe to admit mistake. And their response was a grudging acknowledgement that I had been lucky in guessing correctly, but that I was kind of stuck with it this trip and would have to live out my life on earth. They would note it and try to do better next pass. Oh well.
So my estimation of my own mental acuity is vastly different and more humble than you can imagine. But my estimation of yours is even more humble than you might perhaps hope. I think I’m quite ordinary. You all are really “special” as in “special needs people.” My ego, from your perspective, would appear to have no end in sight. A legend in my own mind.
I only acknowledge all this in that you kind of have to see WHAT I see for anything else to make sense. Almost everything I’ve been told since cognizance as a Toddler I’ve been able to sort out to my own satisfaction as hopelessly confused, erroneous, and generally to comic extreme. Not just “off” or with the odd error, but hopelessly dicked up beyond all recognition. Some basic arithmetic works and the alphabet, sort of self justified, works if you accept it as is and don’t peer to closely into its use. Past that, nonsentient and irrationally insane. On my world this would get you 24 hour medical and adult supervision. Almost everything you believe or at least claim to believe. About 90% of the time I am almost CERTAIN you know better and are just jacking me off to humor yourselves. Or maybe you all are really brilliant and I am blissfully and moronically unaware of something really big.
So let’s look at an example. Currently our land is about to break into civil war over race. The “great one” who was supposed to bring us all together finally and at last instead has brought us to the precipice of mutual genocide based on “race”.
I am an aging fat white guy raised in fly over country with the other deplorables in a very race conscious rural area of Southeast Missouri. I talk and sound like a cracker and I confess I am almost abusively unsympathetic to the entire black African-American/Negro/Colored People/ whatever they want to be called this morning thing. Oh, yes, I do have an affinity for the feral black children raising themselves on the streets here in the south end of town where I live, but that’s because their miserable drug infested parents have largely abandoned them and they really have no one else to care for them. I don’t really “care” but they are here, and I am here, and they just seem to have a hard time of it without meriting such abuse. So a Dr. Pepper and bag of Fritos and a kind word is little enough to offer.
So it will surprise some that my first wife of 19 years was a beautiful Philipina from Catmon Bagu Cebu. And my second wife of 22 years is a proud African American from the mission district in San Francisco. The second being sufficiently an upgrade from the first that I can’t wait to meet Mrs. number three. And all of that is not precisely because they obsequiously serve me mint julips on the antebellum porch of an evening. Though truth to tell, either probably would if I really wanted one.
Even the first one.
Even now.
Just great people both times. Physically gorgeous to the point of driving me wild with desire – both times. I have been truly blessed with regards to relationships, to the point that it must be some sort of cosmic and underserved joke to make some point that I don’t quite get yet. But I’ll take it where I can get it and we’ll all have a good laugh after they explain it to me.
So what with the race thing. From my point of view, and as I say, I do better keeping these things to myself, EVERYTHING YOU THINK YOU KNOW ABOUT RACE IS COMICALLY AND TRAGICALLY FUCKED UP. And the errors are not errors. They are cosmic level blunders.
Some are small. Some large. The Republican Party is not “racist” and the Democratic Party is not black. Historically, the Republican party was founded in Minnesota with one purpose, end slavery in America. And the deep south slave holders were Democrats. And they hated the Republicans sufficiently to assassinate President Lincoln. Lyndon Johnson created the Democratic black voting block very deliberately and as a very manipulative ploy to take advantage of them assuring his Democrat colleagues that if they joined him they would “have those niggers voting Democrat for the next 200 years.” He did it not with equality, but with government money – a war on poverty that essentially destroyed black families across the land.
But all of that is historical trivia really not part of the experience of any whites or blacks in America today and not particularly close to anything I believe.
I have serious problems with the basic CONCEPT of race as you know and believe it. This is based on three basic premises that I just can’t believe anyone is unaware of and doesn’t fully realize.
1. The cruelty of the binary numbering system.
2. The universal propensity of all of us to lie to our children.
3. The very obvious exigencies of the combination of DNA material to produce humanoids.
BINARY NUMBERS
Why binary numbers? Well it is pretty hard to argue that we each of us had TWO parents. I know in America today about 51% of you will realize we did and 49% of you will believe that this is fake news and an alt-fact. But trust me on this one. TWO parents.
And indeed if those two parents hadn’t shown up at precisely the correct moment and performed precisely the same and mutual disgusting act, we as individuals go POOF and are gone. WORSE, we could be our sister. YOUR biological existence depends on that crucial moment in time and that critical exchange of body fluids. I can prove it.
In an act of perfect symmetry, it is further beyond argument that EACH of your parents had precisely TWO parents of their own. Same is true for each of them. And so extending that to your point of view, we actually have SIX people who all had to show up at the crucial but various moments in time to perform their role or again – you look a lot like your sister or brother or worse, never happened at all.
To extend this absurd reasoning, I will further stretch you a bit in that each of your four grandparents had two parents. Rendering eight great grandparents. All required. All necessary. And so 16 before them, and 32 before that, and 64, and 128, and 256, and 512, 1024, 2048, and on and on and on. This is just as obvious as the fact that each and every one had a nose. Or staretd with one.
If you can’t follow this, leave this page now. We just can’t have this conversation.
If you can, let’s assume it takes about 20 years to be born, grow up enough to dress yourself, find a mate, and show up for your OWN little moment of ecstasy so the next generation has something to live for. And so with five “generations” per century, how long does it take before the number in the SINGLE most senior generation becomes slightly larger than the then population of the earth???/ Adam and Eve.
Do the math. I KNOW you can do it. And if you go over 500 years, leave this page now. We can’t have this conversation.
Going forward is even worse. You see, you are hardwired LIMITED to 2 parents, but the two parents don’t have ANY limits on offspring. They could have two. They could have 20. And indeed do pretty much within those end points. But some have none. And a few have even more than 20.
My father had eight brothers and sisters – a sibling group of nine. They all had kids. Their kids had kids. And so there are easily four generations of my fathers sibling group and probably five now as my father and ALL his brothers and sisters are now dead. All of these people could not be seated in a Boeing 747- there just aren’t that many seats on the plane. All are first cousins and then slightly removed. But I would probably recognize, including my own siblings and their children, less than 25 of them out of context.
In other words, I could get on that 747 in San Francisco, and fly non-stop to New York City, and get off the plane and get in a cab, completely oblivious to the fact that I was on an aircraft full of my own people. In that large a group, it is possible I wouldn’t actually encounter my own children on that flight except by a fluke of seating chart.
We are all really really interconnected in ways we are entirely oblivious to, and not over millenia, but over decades. In this churning roiling stew of biomass, we really ARE all brothers in ways that apparently escape almost all of you. Or perhaps I have something wrong.
OUR PROPENSITY TO LIE TO OUR CHILDREN.
Actually this is not precisely a propensity. It appears to be some sort of biological imperative. It is UNIVERSAL not exceptional and YOU WILL PARTICIPATE if you have children, trust me.
Here’s a funny story popular in my area of the country for obvious reasons given our close geographic propensity to Arkansas. Young lady comes home from her day at high school all excited and giggly. “What’s up?” asks her father. “I met a boy at school. We are in love. I finally have a steady boyfriend.”
“What’s his name?”
“Johnny Foxmueller”
Father frowns and ahems ahahs for a few minutes. “Well you can’t date that boy.”
“Why not?”
“Never mind you just can’t see him. Stay away from him.”
“You can’t tell me to stay away from my boyfriend pop, and not even give a reason!” huffed the daughter.
“Ok. Ok. But you have to promise me you won’t breathe a word of this to your mother…”
“Well ok. I promise.”
“That boy is your half-brother. I’m his father too.”
“You can’t be serious…”
“God is my witness. No doubt about it. It just is what it is daughter. Sorry.”
The young girl cried her eyes out for a day. But finally went to school and broke it to her mystified boyfriend that they couldn’t see other anymore. No matter how he pleaded she would not reveal why. Time went on and fortunately time wounds all heals and she met another young gentleman and as these things do happen for the better, she liked him better than the first one. So she returned home and proudly announced to her father that she had run the first one off and had her a brand new beau.”
“What’s his name?”
“Randol Hardy.” she announced quite proudly.
“Ahem…ah…whoo.. daughter I am REALLY sorry but you can’t date him either….”
“You have GOT to be kidding!” she wailed.
“Nope. Sorry hon. Same problem…” He sheepishly found he needed to be down at the local tavern at that hour and departed in some haste.
Her mother came in and found her bawling on the couch in such distress she was inconsolable. “Whatever is the matter dear?” her mother exclaimed.
“I can’t tell you.”
“Why not?”
“I promised Dad…”
“Honey you can tell me ANYTHING. We’re both women. He’s just a stupid man. Promises to men don’t mean anything atall. There, there. You just tell mom what’s got you all crossed up.”
“Well I got a boyfriend. And Dad said I couldn’t date him because he’s my half brother. And so I got ANOTHER and he tells me HE’s my half brother too. The randy old goat. I’ll never find ANYBODY I can date in this town apparently.”
“There there dear.” her mother laughed. “Things are not quite as bad as they seem. I can tell you with absolute authority that you can feel free to date ANY boy you like in THIS town. And you won’t be related to any of them. But not a word to your father…”
This is of course a joke. But is it really. My first cousin Steve Rickard was out for a 15 mile bicycle ride, and being 69 years old and safety conscious he wore kneepads and elbow pads and safety helmet and goggles the whole delightful ride. But he stopped in at his neighbors, 150 feet from his house for a chat on his return. And he took off his helmet and his gloves and hung them on the handlebars of the bicycle while they chatted and yucked it up. Finally he said he HAD to get home and shower for an evening event and pushed off on his bicycle for the 150 foot ride.
The neighbors dog got all excited and jumped right into the spokes of the front wheel and Steve threw on the brakes, pitched head over the handlebars and crashed to the sidewalk helmetless head first. He was in a coma for a week and then unfortunately succumbed.
After the funeral we had dinner with his only child, a son. He told us a remarkable tale. He is a Hollywood TV producer in California but he had received a call from a man in Virginia claiming to be his BROTHER. As he was well aware that he was an only child he told the man he must be mistaken and hung up. But at with his father’s death he related the story to his mother and was astounded when she broke down in teares admitting it was true.
It seems that Steve and his wife had dated in college and decided they really didn’t like each other very much. But she was pregnant and put the child up for adoption which was common in those days. They graduated college and went on their separate ways for several years but then met in a coffee shop and thoroughly enjoyed discussing the times they had in college. They started dating and eventually married. He was their result a year later. But they didn’t really think it was prudent to tell him about his older brother and there never was really a good time to do so – until his father’s death.
The son eventually met with his brother and sure enough, he was a Rickard all the way through. And a striking resemblance to his father.
EVERY TIME I TELL either of these stories, to anyone anywhere, the response is always the same. “You know, funny you should mention that. In my family we had one even better than THAT…..”
And so it goes. If YOU have children, you know what I’m talking about. There are just some things about your early history and sexual misadventures that they will NEVER know if you have anything to say about it.
There are no exceptions.
We ALL lie to our children. And the lies become cummulative over the generations.
More innocently, the family tails that were passed down to through the generations to you, may or may not be generally true. But with each generation, technically they are HALF true for you. So the story of the German farmer great great grandfather, MAY have actually been true. But for your grandfather, that is half of his genetic story. For your father 1/4. For you, 1/8th. And so it goes. IN THEORY.
In reality, we used to talk about 256 thousand roughly chromosome pairs. Turns out to be more like 59 million base pairs. Some genetic material from your mother. Some from your father. But there is no 50%. It’s not half from your mother and half from your father. It might be anything but it is statistically almost impossible for it to be exactly half. You might have 1% from your mother and 99% from your father. Or the other way around. Or anything in between. This is why you and your brother or sister look so different, act so different, and have led such different lives. The fact is this involves millions of base pairs. And results in trillions of trillions of combinations. Every human that has ever lived has been truly truly unique. Identical twins PERHAPS excepted.
DNA TESTING.
My proudly if not militantly black brother in-law is a bright guy. But he recently had one of the DNA tests and was alarmed and disappointed in the results. It turns out it revealed he was indeed 30% Nigerian…. and 27% British.
Unfortunately, even that was a problem. As it adds up to 57% and the remaining 43% was listed as a heroic mix of almost everything else. Yes, he’s black…”ISH”…but not really BLACK black. More like Eskimo Sumo wrestler English Irish German Swedish Mideastern Armenian Black. Not as much Chinese as he might have made us of at University. But enough Korean to be annoying and slightly threatening.
So my wife assumes the same applies to her and wants to take the test as well. So how do explain to her that she’s about HALF a humanoid. What? Well men carry an X chromosome and a Y chromosome. Wonen only carry the X chromosome and so genetically they are only half human. And so she must rely on her BROTHER’s test to get any info at all. Actually there IS mitochondrial test for the X chromosome, but it only records the data mother to mother excluding all data from any of the fathers.
There are “markers” or genetic traits that have been mapped more or less successfully to certain humanoid groups and we have historical migration data that allows the projection of kind of a pseudo profile. This is what they are selling online as genetic “testing”. The concept is more or less preposterous as it is impossible to determine the specific mix in any one generation never mind the combinations going intergenerationally. But by noting the markers, they can relate this little story to the uninitiated. More prehensile sentients would recognize this as nonsense of the most scurrilous sort. But not entirely so. It at least illustrates or implies the complexity of the situation.
And so the concepts of race in America are hopelessly confused, historically nonsensical, and indeed the nature of humanoids is such that EVERYTHING I HAVE HEARD since birth regarding the topic is nonsense. And I’m left in the untenable position that almost everything I know about it is probably wrong, and there is a LOT I don’t know about it, but what you all are talking about is so comically nonsensical I’m not going to learn much about it from YOU. And so generally why have the conversation at all? You’re going to like “splain” it to me?
You aren’t who you think you are. You are not WHAT you think you are. What you think happened to you never did. What you think happened to your parents never did. And what they told you about it is almost certainly a lie. But that’s ok because they may not be your parents at all.
And worse all THAT is basically untrue as well. You see, what you THINK you are, basically BECOMES what you are, just not for the reasons you think. Ergo my frustration, fascination, and deeply rooted disgust. You people are HOPELESS. And if they knew about you on my planet, they would find it HILARIOUS.
But since I’m stuck here with you. It’s mostly sad.
Here’s what I THINK I have worked out over 62 years.
1. You are EACH totally unique and incredibly POWERFUL spirits of a reach and power over quantum matter/energy/reality you simply cannot imagine.
2. You each have been awarded a very special set of very powerful GIFTS- traits and strengths and powers UNIQUE to you and you alone.
3. You have each ALSO been awarded a very special set of handicaps and challenges and hurdles unique to you and you alone.
4. From birth, you face a grand and fabulous adventure.
But unfortunately, the vast majority of you will make little of it because you are absolutely PARALYSED by fear. Fear of hunger, fear of cold, fear of heat, fear of thirst, fear of rejection, and most of all fear of death. Which is odd because none of you have truly experienced any of that and with good reason. You can’t. But you CAN fear it anyway and you are really really good at it.
BE NOT AFRAID.
I hope this clarifies, by way of example, why we talk about batteries, motors, chargers, sunlight, alternate energy, ways to improve life for humanoids on this planet, and the odd stock tip. There is much more of me and what I believe you simply don’t want to know and you would be truly offended by, to no particular good point. And certainly to no good reason for me. I can tell a few jokes. Talk cogently about technology. Etc. But what I THINK I know about almost everything more transcendant, you would no doubt find offensive and not particularly useful. I am certain of almost nothing, but at a very different level and for very different reasons. We just don’t have much to talk about there. And I love each of you and do not want to offend anyone at all.
Jack Rickard
Thank you for your entertaining insight into the human experience. Phil Robertson has an interesting account on how he expanded the types of duck calls and became a multimillionaire who still lives in the same old house on a river where he fished catfish for a meger existance.
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My son was asked about his genealogy in about the 3rd grade to whitch he replied. I’m part Indian and part normal.
He’s now 36 years old and to this day this teacher relates this as one of her funniest classroom moments.
It is interesting when you consider the math behind it all. Powers of two accumulate much more rapidly than people think. Every 10 is another 1024x increase so it’s kind of handy to just think of every 2 ^ 10 as 1000. So, 10 generations is 1000 ancestors, 20 generations is 1 million, 30 is a billion, 40 is a trillion. Oddly enough, if you do consider each generation to be even 25 years then this means you should have a trillion ancestors over a century. But, you don’t. Even if you go by the lowest end estimate for the length of humanity (biblical fundamentalists who say the Earth is 6000 years old) then we obviously have a problem. 6000 years is 240 generations at 25 years per generation. That’s… a few people as your ancestors. Clearly the math just becomes stupid in a hurry. But, does the math lie? You know you have parents and they had parents and so on. So, logic leads to the question of “where are the trillion people?” But, I’ve got bad news for us all – our ancestors didn’t let the genetic tree fork nearly as often as maybe we’d like it to. Lots of 1st cousins got married, sometimes even siblings or a parent and child. And, various disasters and diseases wiped out large chunks of humanity. So, we’ve all got quite the sordid ancestral past and it’s not nearly as diverse as people would like to think. I’m part northern African because some of my relatives lived in Italy and well, it’s only a short boat ride. Also, there is that whole business of the Roman empire. Those Roman ancestors of mine traveled a lot for work.
I heard an interesting comment once. Someone said that it’s entirely possible for a black man and a white man to have more DNA in common than two white men. That’s interesting to consider because it’s of course true and rather telling. What so many consider to be so different is just basically a different coat of paint on the same chassis. Are we really so concerned with a paint job none of us chose? That’s the crazy aspect of racial supremacy. Did you choose to be white? Did people choose to be black? Why be proud of something you didn’t pick? I’m a white american male. None of those things are something to be proud of. I was born here, my parents are both white, a male sperm got there first. That’s it. All I can be proud of is what I did with the life after that.
30 generations at 20 years each is 600 years. But we didn’t HAVE a billion people in the planetary population 600 years ago. I think as best I recall the lines cross about 460 years ago.
And that is a number of people in that single generation. Cummulatively with all the generations intervening, it is of course a huge number. But also as you point out, family reunions were apparently a great place to pick up chics.
My point is our ancestral past is MUCH more diverse than you think. And essentially everything we believe about race is demonstrably nonsense.
That said, the mind is a terrible thing. And you ARE what you BELIEVE you are, to a greater extent than what you really are. And so certain stereotypes and cultural mores are ascendent, with no actual basis for any of it.
The other thing not mentioned is that genetic cross hybridization almost always produces health, adaptation, and improvement. Genetic “purity” generally devolves to reduced health, size, and acuity and in some cases mental dysfunction, hip dysplasia, and genetic malformation. I’ve done what I could to improve the breed. And indeed my offspring glow in the dark.
Your world would be vastly improved with awareness of what appears to me obvious. But the propensity to wallow in squalor, confrontation, and pain appears insatiable with no particular rhyme, reason or purpose I can fathom. As I said, I may be the only one in the room clueless and unaware and with something really profound that no one ever explained to me.
Without accepting any of that, if you just see that I HAVE this position, you would find my view of “white supremecy” to be obnoxious and “black victimhood” to be an even more offensive waste of a life. We have 12% of the population walking around with the deeply ingrained believe that every offense, disrespect, rejected school application, rejected job application, and every other negative in their miserable lives is because they are black. Where does that leave the fat chick. She can’t blame all that rejection and cruel teasing and dismissal on being black. Or the kid who reads to much and wears glasses. What does he blame it on? Or the short one. Or the tall one. Or the freckled red headed step child?
Everyone faces humiliating incidents where they are teased, made fun of, beat up, shoved into the puddle, excluded from the ball team, didn’t make the cut for the school, didn’t get the job they wanted, were specifically selected for abuse. The presumed and accepted narrative that that is specially a black thing only holds water if you assume and accept it. And pointing to statistical outcomes only proves that the assumption and acceptance are self fulfilling. And there are numerous examples of high melanin individuals who were taught, usually by good solid families, not to assume and accept, but rather that into every life a little rain must fall and it is entirely possible to excel overall anyway. And so they do. In this case the exceptions disprove the rule and clearly indicate it is a self imposed restriction. A wasted life solely due to horribly distorted thinking. Incredibly, today significant and widespread support of that thinking.
And here I always thought life was just an incomplete hypothetical. God bless you smart EV guys because it has made life for this senior a lot of fun.
It can be a hell of a ride. And its very real. With very real consequences. Best E ticket in the park.
what a manifesto, totally unexpected but considering the source, well worth the read. thank you for keeping us all in a state of humbleness
A dam good and enlightening read, thank you.
Wow! Jack you blow my mind and I love it. Cheerz
Hey Jack, I just finished watching your video talking all things Tesla with your friend Frank. I loved it. I just wanted to say, Frank is right, bi-focals are the answer for seeing that Model 3 display clearly (or any instrument cluster for that matter). A good starting point for the glasses is to use your distance prescription on the top of the lens and a computer prescription in the lower portion (add 1 to the SPH value of your prescription for computer strength). A bonus is to get some that have detachable polarized lenses. The ones that attach with magnets are superior to the old clip-ons.
I have a set of rather expensive trifocals on order, with some sort of blue light filter and light photochromatics that is supposed to be perfect for computer use. Unfortunate 10 day wait. Kodak as I recall.
very thoughtful ,articulate essay about race in america Jack. It’s just a shame you are such an ardent supporter of the orange clown.- his deliberate race baiting and dog foghorn attacks have riled up the crazies in rural small towns across america. I too come from an extended multi racial family, and i plan on marrying a filipina myself soon. Personally, i think everyone should take the DNA ancestry test. I believe it would go a long way towards educating people in a simple truth- there is only one race: THE HUMAN RACE.
Your anti orange clown estimation is irrational. Virtually everyone who knows anything about Donald Trump, including innumerable “black” and “latino” identifying employees are unanimous there is not a racist thought in the man’s head. The race card is an automatic and mindless weaponized attack tool of the extreme left. If you don’t understand what that means or what it is, leave the page. If you do and still subscribe to it, you are taking the evil position of using the weapon cynically to whatever real or imagined end purpose you have. My question then is never about your position or point of view. It is always puzzlement as to your EXISTENCE. My heart would stop beating from shame and humiliation.
My army buddy, Jim Rice, taught me: “I am not racist. I hate everybody, equally.”
Your comment “…not a racist thought in the man’s head.”, the man being Donald Trump, seems simplistic. If Trump has no racist thoughts, why did he promote the accusation that Obama was not born in the proper United States? Trump spent a lot of money and time on trying to prove fake news.
Why was Trump so obsessed? Was it Obama’s political party, education, home in Illinois, or being born with less than 5 digits of wealth? Occam’s Razor?
Just simply absurd notions stem to stern. Trump didn’t “obsess on it at all and didn’t spent any vast amount of resource on it either. It was a common meme throughout Obama’s presidency and originated in Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2008. Trump simply picked up on it. BTW, evidence continues to accrue SINCE that Obama really was NOT born in the U.S. and that his birth certificate was faked. So which fake news is the fake is yet to this day up in the air and I couldn’t fathom a guess.
In any event, what has that got to do with race or racism? It’s a constitutional requirement to be POTUS. It’s not very vague either. You are a natural born citizen or you are not and if not you cannot be elected to the Presidency. It came up again with lyin Ted.
You can filter all that any way that pleases your raging bias. But those ARE the facts. Twisting and contorting them to produce some sort of viable anti-Trump narrative simply makes you look weak, powerless, and pathetic. The days of making us all retreat whenever you scream RACIST RACIST RACIST are over bub. That card was played one too many times. It’s over as an effective tool and your attempts to weaponize race in this country are not only hugely unAmerican, but over. That pig will no longer fly.
“BTW, evidence continues to accrue SINCE that Obama really was NOT born in the U.S. and that his birth certificate was faked.”
Source?
I agree with Tom. What are your sources on the fake birth certificate?
If that was fake, where is the real birth certificate? Passport? Church ledger?
And why has Trump been so quiet since the “fake” birth certificate was released?
We do agree on lyin Ted.
But McCain’s run in 2008 might have had trouble in your definition since he was not born in a state, but on US Government property, a sub base, in Panama. Even if Obama was born in the US Territory of Hawaii, that is still part of the United States.
“No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; “ the constitution.
The fact is “natural born citizen” was not defined in the constitution.
US History has many cases of abolishonists who were fine with separate but equal. It is racist to approve of others so long as they know their place.
But back to my original question, if Trump was not motivated by racism, why did he get involved in the debate on the birth certificate? I propose Trump seems drawn toward his personal likes/dislikes more than toward facts and meritorious actions. There is abundant evidence that Trump lies and cheats.
Divorces. Extramarital affairs. Bankruptcies. Hidden tax returns. Misstatements in tweets and in talks.
Trump took a million dollars and turned it into 5 Billion. Had I leveraged my inheritance like that, I couldn’t buy a decent bicycle. Fortunately, I will have my Model 3.
We will all suffer because of the squandering of resources in the strong economy, when death, taxes, and economic disturbances are inevitable. I wish the conservatives would conserve, instead of nurturing the swamp.
But back to my original question, if Trump was not motivated by racism, why did he get involved in the debate on the birth certificate?
You’re straining manfully to avoid the preloaded bias in your own question. I already answered that the WHY is because it is a constitutional requirement – and it applies to all presidential candidates without regard to race. And including lyin Ted which he also very much DID raise, providing rather persuasive proof that it was not racially motivated. What part of that do you find confusing?
And rather goes to the theme of the blog. YOU are focused on race issues that have no reality component. And it is a public display of the intellectual tools you don’t have to work with, and precisely why I avoid the conversation. YOU are the problem. Not Trump. And race itself is a contrived and distorted concept.
Get this: Oprah NEVER WAS A SLAVE. And her mental gyrations assuming the identity are entirely delusional and very nearly comical in 2018.
Multifocal lenses have become a must for driving now that driving a car (and not just Tesla) makes you a computer-operator as much as a motorist. Gone are the days when all you really need look at were speedometer and fuel gauge (and maybe not even a fuel gauge) and the odd needle or idiot light. All of which were discernable enough even if your near-vision accomodation just din’ work no more.
I held out for a long time (which meant I had to memorize the DMV eye charts while waiting in line the last two times). But I finally gave in and can actually make use of the useful info my car was longing to tell me for years.
Alien tells children’s stories!!
Hi Jack,
I have a comment or two about lying to kids.
Some times when they ask a question, I choose not to answer. Some times I give them the simple version based on their age. But, I tell them the truth whenever I choose to answer. “I don’t know” is an acceptable answer.
My son’s are adopted from Russia. My youngest was adopted 2 months shy of his second birthday. As he was growing, we were going somewhere in the minivan and he asked “where do babies come from?” I think he was 4 or 5 at the time.
I was not ready to talk about exchanging bodily fluids, So I told him: “When a Mommy and Daddy love each other, they get on a plane and fly to Russia and pick up their baby and bring him home.” In his narrow case and in the context of our relationship with him, That was a true answer. He’s almost 10 now and he knows the more general answer to the his original question.
I love your story about the families. I think everyone wants to know where they came from.
But back to Lying,
Parents like to say Do as I say, Not as I do. They want the kids to make good choices, but not admit they are not perfect.
In my world, there are three types of people.
1. Fools – those that never learn from their mistakes and repeat them over and over.
2. Smart people – Those that learn from their mistakes and do not repeat them.
3. Geniuses – Those that learn from the mistakes of others.
Parents lying to their children is so damaging because lying forces the children into category 1 or 2. If the parent would be transparent about their mistakes, and how to avoid those mistakes, the child would have an understanding of what not to do. They have an opportunity to be a genius.
I have 6 kids, and I told them all that there is no santa claus, tooth fairy, or easter bunny. Why? because I want them to trust me with bigger things. When as a child, I found out there was no santa claus, I quit trusting my parents. That led to me making more expensive mistakes in my early 20’s.
I do not lie to my kids.
Yes. But you will….
So if race really isn’t a factor in one’s life outcome today (I’m paraphrasing you, but correct me if I’m wrong), can you say with a straight face that the *first* generation of freed black slaves had equal opportunity for success in life as their white contemporaries? That it came down 100% to their self-agency (or lack thereof), and 0% to the accident of their birth and the prevalence of racism in the mid 19th century?
If so, then we have to agree to disagree, I guess. But if not, then what about the children of that first generation of freed slaves? Were they maybe still largely limited in life potential as a result of their parents’ limitations? Born into poverty, poor education, limited social mobility, etc.? Was the next generation maybe somewhat limited as well, for the same reason? Maybe you can see where I’m going with this.
Slavery ended a little over 150 years ago. Using your example of a 20-year generation, that’s 7.5 generations ago. That’s not a lot. In my opinion, that number is plenty low for the life-potential-suppressing effects of racism and the fact that that original generation of freed slaves had started their lives being *owned as property* to still reverberate after all these years. That started African-Americans many, many generations behind white Americans in terms of wealth accrual and social climbing, and they were also not able to build those at a rate anywhere near whites due to, again, racism. The level and real-world effectiveness of racism that remains today is impossible to measure, but it was certainly strong during slavery, and it didn’t stop the day slavery ended.
There are fewer excuses today for black people to not succeed that can be directly attributed to their skin color, sure, but people don’t just materialize into existence in isolation. They’re born to parents, and thus inherit all of the baggage of their ancestors, and can only do with that as much as can be reasonably expected of a normal human being. Anecdotes about people like Oprah who cheated the circumstances of their birth to surge ahead in leaps and bounds are just that – anecdotes. They are outliers, not the norm. What is *possible* is not what is *likely.*
Being black in America in 1865 was hard. I hope you would agree. Being black in America in 1885 – a little less hard, but still hard. I hope you would agree. So on and so forth for only 6.5 more generations.
So why would being black in America in 2018 suddenly be a completely invalid reason to explain at least a small part of one’s hardships in life?
Both our basic assumptions and current world view are in my opinion simply inaccurate but worse, not very useful even to yourself. You are stuck in a mindset of failure and the actualities make it comically ironic and a bad move.
First, MOST of what you HOPE I agree with I simply do not. Your knowledge of the history of slavery is very meager obviously. And worse, you have no context of economic progress since. Many slaves lived much better economically than many free whites and for very solid economic reasons. They were valued hands on economically viable freeholds. While much of the rural south was populated by impossibly impoverished NON landowners who were hard put to compete in the labor force where labor was owned and free beyond basic upkeep. And as late as 1900 the average American lived on less than $1 per day in TODAY’s money. The improvement in prosperity and living standards is just astonishing.
So going back to the history of slaves, without any apparent familiarity with the economics of the day, is kind of a wayward trek with little utility.
More to the point, Frederick Douglas was a slave who attempted escape three times, succeeding on the third and went on to notable achievements by any measure, including no small econommic prosperity. Then, and in all generations since, many many thousands of Americans of African lineage have thrived and prospered. The exception generally disproves the rule. Many exceptions basically obliterate it.
And so my thesis, you aren’t who you think you are. You aren’t what you think you are. And most of your deep wounds are self inflicted and self limiting.
The reality is that we are all disrespected, humiliated, and disadvantaged at every step of life. If you view that through the handy lens of “being black” it might make you feel better emotionally and offer succor to the wounds of failure. But what’s a fat chick to do? Or a really short white guy. Those who are too plain, too short, too thin, too fat, and so on and so forth. Wouldn’t it be handy for them to just point to being black as the problem, ignoring for the moment the 425 pound thing.
So I would offer you know little of genetics, little of history, little of geography, and just generally little. I am always astonished that as the level of competence decreases, the intensity with which opinions are held increases.
It is simply inarguable that the economic and otherwise status and success of any individual is the extant representation of the sum total of all 3000 decisions they make daily times the number of days on the orb. And yes, rain falls, health fails, lightning doth strike. Randomly and unfairly. But I actually believe that white anglo saxons, the vast majority of the country, have made far greater progress in obviating the effects of race than those of African lineage. They simply won’t let it go.
Many of us actually voted for Barrack Obama under the implicit promise and literal description that he would put a period at the end of the sentence. He was elected President of the United States and he was in no wise elected by African descendents. They comprise about 12% of the total population and perhaps slightly more than that of the electorate. They are intrinsically incapable of electing a city inspector. Instead, his every action seemed to ACCENTUATE division and he actually seemed bent on stirring up greater race consciousness and bitterness. As such he failed totally in his role as America’s first black President. I was seriously disappointed in his spectacularly poor performance in this area. He essentially assured there would never be another President of a darker persuasion within my lifetime.
So while you may hope I agree, unfortunately I don’t. If Ben Carson can rise from the projects to become head of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, the opportunity is certainly there for anyone. And you are only disadvantaged by your own self limiting point of view. I hope you give it up and take charge of your own destiny and achieve success in all areas of your life.
1) “If you view that through the handy lens of “being black” it might make you feel better emotionally and offer succor to the wounds of failure.”
I agree that a victim mentality is self-limiting and not helpful. But that’s a different issue than whether racism exists, and whether it actually does have adverse effects on people’s lives.
2) “The reality is that we are all disrespected, humiliated, and disadvantaged at every step of life.”
Yes, but you’ll have a really hard time convincing me that the disrespect, humiliation, and disadvantages that Ivanka Trump faces in life are even in the same galaxy as those of the “feral” black children you describe in your neighborhood. Ivanka was born a billionaire with a social and economic network already built by her father, just salivating for her to join the ranks. Those “feral” black children were born to drug-addicted, impoverished parents who live in social isolation and have literally zero wealth. Do you really believe that they share a level playing field? That their success will be entirely determined by their personal character? That both were afforded the same tools and opportunities to succeed? Or, could a person be at least partially a product of their environment, and that maybe it’s not fair to just say that the challenges they face are “different” or “unique,” but that the black child’s are actual quantitatively and qualitatively greater, and thus more difficult to overcome?
Keep in mind that you weren’t born knowing all of these aphorisms that you’re sharing. You had to earn them through hard-won life experience. But, maybe some of that experience isn’t just 100% attributable to your personal grit, but rather came about through the unique advantages (like your technical intellect) that were largely accidental to your birth.
3) “So I would offer you know little of genetics, little of history, little of geography, and just generally little. I am always astonished that as the level of competence decreases, the intensity with which opinions are held increases.”
That’s a great way to avoid engaging any of my actual arguments. Just make a bunch of arrogant, baseless assumptions about who I am or what I know, and that your “competence” is undoubtedly superior.
4) “It is simply inarguable that the economic and otherwise status and success of any individual is the extant representation of the sum total of all 3000 decisions they make daily times the number of days on the orb.”
This is a truism. Yes, your decisions determine the course of your life. But where do those decisions come from? How did you learn to make them? What safety net exists when you make mistakes? What tools (like family wealth & social connections) are already at your disposal? Did you just appear on earth as a blank slate, equivalent to all other people in every way, and whether you succeed or not can only be attributed to your grit and determination?
That’s asinine. And telling yourself the story that your success is only attributable to your own hard work and determination, with zero supporting cast, is both asinine and arrogant.
I don’t know your story. But I do know that you’re intelligent. You’re a man. You’re white. You’re able-bodied. You don’t have any apparent cognitive or physical disabilities. You don’t appear to have any crippling diseases. None of those are given, and there are plenty of people who don’t have any of those advantages. Does that mean they can’t succeed? Absolutely not. But it does mean that they’re playing a harder game than the rest of us, and they’re not “victims” if they can’t win at that harder game, even if they’re able to notice and raise issue that the rules are not in their favor.
Methinks you confuse a world of equal opportunity as a matter of public policy, with some sort of guarantee of equal outcomes, and want desperately to tie that to race. Sorry. It just doesn’t work. Not as a practical matter, but even as a thought experiment.
At the same time, it is true that in this life we are each granted a particular set of gifts unique to each as individuals. We are also presented with a unique set of challenges, both as individual handicaps and as environmental challenges. And there is no imperative for an “equal playing field” for very good reason. It is absurd notion.
Kurt Vonnegut once did a short story on this that was particularly poignant. But the title escapes me now. Hero was forced to wear weights to “equalize” his great strength and glasses to intentionally correct his keen eyesight to something more myopic.
Ivanka Trump has been lifted by here parents, as you should strive to lift your children and provide them with the best of opportunities. Extending your socialist theme, the U.S. has 4% of the feet and 32% of the shoes in the world. It is not incumbant upon us to give it away.
As I stated earlier, there are sufficient examples of success to indicate that environmental opportunity is not the ultimate determinant of achievement.
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I can’t jive with your argumentative style, Jack. I don’t sense that you’re debating any of these points in good faith, but instead you’re doing your best to infer my “type” without knowing a thing about me. It’s hard to lead each rebuttal from a position of having to correct all the false assumptions you’ve made about my political opinions.