Been a busy week.
And, a stupid one.
Somehow, the planets align, and I do dumb shit for a week at a time. I should have known it was starting back when I snipped the water hose to the fridge. That was a harbinger of a dumbshit week to come.
To be fair, some of it is simple lack of preparation. I needed to get plastic connectors to snap my inner fender back on. I knew I needed them, yet waited until the last minute. There were only three to be found anywhere near me. Turns out, I needed more.
Here’s another:
Every month I start and run a big ass generator I bought. I do this so it runs well when I need it. So I started it. It ran like shit. Seemed like an ignition thing. So I shut it down, pulled the plug – yep, fouled. Probably the cause. I ordered 4 of them and contemplated ordering an ignition module.
So they came in, and when I was comparing them, I thought – Hmm…you know, leaving it choked will do that too. So later I go out to install the plug, and fuck me if the choke ain’t still on full.
FAAAACK!
Screwed it in. Fired it up. Killed the choke. Purring is what I got. That there is some intercontinental balistic stupid, I tell you what.
Some of this stupidity is miserable luck. I was already frustrated by my stupid morning (finding I spent $50 on a generator that didn’t need it), when Herself found that her car wouldn’t start. So she took mine, and I waddled out to see what’s up with the hot rod that just got back from a trip to the dealer for maintenance.
Dead Battry. 8.5 volts. Looks original.
So when she gets back I head out to Autozone to score another.
Sweet Jesus, I hate going anywhere on a Saturday. And you know what I hate more?
Indifferent, idiot sales help. Dude looks up the car, and shows me the screen, says there’s a choice of two. “Uh…can you scroll lower to maybe the ‘gold’ choice instead of ‘platinum’? FFS there were like a dozen choices.
Oh..look..there’s two of them too. He didn’t know the difference. I pointed to the one that said “OE Fit”, and said I’ll take one of those (as opposed to ‘alternate fit’), Pendejo Estupido.
On the way back in numbnut Saturday traffic, I signal to pass a line of slowpokes and BLAM!
Woman in my blind spot. Crap.
So we sorted things out. She said she doesn’t have insurance, the dealer didn’t give it to her and why does she need to tell me it? I was too tired/hot/frustrated to explain how they work these things out.
The shop won’t see – even for an estimate – my hoopty until July 25th.
I think I’m over it now. But I can sure judge stupid, having been through a spell.
On to Joe Rogan.
I was listening to his podcast with Tim Kennedy – a SFO (Special forces operator), amongst other things. The first half when he told of his contract to get people out of afghanistan was interesting. Then they drifted on. Classic liberal stuff.
- Poverty is horrible, causes crime, dysfunction, and idiocy
- In a rich country, no one should starve. Maybe some sort of Universal Basic Income should be a thing
- But fear, humiliation, and not knowing where that next PBJ sammich is coming from are powerful motivators.
Sure I’m bustin his balls. He is, if nothing else, a good interviewer, and when you find yourself on your computer all day, as I do, you enjoy the prattle in the background. That said. Let’s fisk this.
First, IQ is a thing. As was the book “the Bell Curve”. Race counts, somewhat, as does culture and environment. Your neighborhood isn’t ignorant, dysfunctional, and criminal because it’s people are poor. The neighborhood is poor because of ignorance, dysfunction, and criminality of it’s people. And I agree with him – it’s got a gravity that keeps many in it. However, many escape. The problem isn’t one of programs, it’s of the crab bucket culture. Doesn’t matter if it’s the blacks hectoring some of their own for acting “white” or the whites in appalacia hectoring their own for putting on airs.
Behold:
She’s got 4 kids, with different fathers and is hammering one of them for trying to feed his kid. Tell me again how just being poor created this situation?
Here’s the follow up:
End of that video, as he said in the first one, he’s seen this again and again.
Tell me again how poverty causes this behavior. Look at the woman – Nails done, Wig hat, eyelashes, makeup, looks like and OK, if not nice, car. He points that out as well.
From my perspective, I’ve installed cable TV in some sketchy neighborhoods when I was first starting out. I’ve seen this as well. Shitty apartment, nothing in it but junk and a big ass TV that they are hooking to cable. Then, the inevitable trip back to disconnect it.
I hated those calls. Others relished them. They’d say (after the cable was cut off and they complained) “I gotta get another cable box”, then sit in the truck waiting for them to come out. Then they’d pull away seeing how far they could make the people run after them.
Those are the funny calls. The unfunny ones are when you are up a pole cutting off the cable and a dude comes out with a chrome .45 and tells you to reconnect it.
I laugh now. Wasn’t funny then.
Second, UBI is incredibly stupid because whatever number you pick – say $30K/year – that number is now zero. Meaning, whatever you buy, it’ll have a lot of zeros on the end of it. So go back to that PBJ sammich – it won’t be ~$2.00 worth of ingredients. It’ll be $50,002.00 worth of stuff. Think of it – at $30K UBI, everyone in the country, it’s ~$9T a year in funny money.
The money has to come from somewhere. We printed what, like $7T During the Bidenacolypse so far and inflation is effectively 20%. Yeah. That’ll work.
How about this – Bullet #3 is a thing. When you don’t know where that next PBJ is coming from you get motivated. Especially if you have kids. Back in the tech meltdown, my TWC (unemployment) was running out, so I took a gig at 1/2 pay because it was the best I could do.
I worked my way back.
Cousin Joe will get there. You can see it happening. He only moved to Texas a few years ago. Every episode he gets closer. And this was one of them where he was turning full circle and understanding that we’re human, and there are certain things we need to function.
I’m off next week, so I’ll be finishing some cool projects.
Inspected By Pat 