The CIA World Factbook, now only available online, has an Appendix titled Terrorist Organizations. 68 terrorist organizations are listed. How many are Islamic in origin? 57!
I fervently wish for the painful death of all of the members of all of these groups. However, I feel the same way about the fucking idiots in the so-called developed world who protest in support of these genocidal barbarians. That includes the morons on American college campuses. I wish I could transport them to live under the rule of one of these groups.
How we have arrived at a situation where people march in support of a group that murdered more than a thousand innocent civilians, that murdered and raped women and often cut off their breasts and kicked them around like soccer balls, that murdered babies and then put them in ovens is simply beyond the limit of someone like me to comprehend. Too much of the so-called developed world is nothing of the sort.
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Not surprisingly, given the hypersurge in views and visitors on December 6-7, last month had the highest numbers of views and visitors of any month since I began publishing this blog almost seven years ago. Also not surprisingly, I have been keeping a spreadsheet with monthly blog stats almost from the very beginning. By the way, the two days accounted for 7.6% of all of the blog views for the entire year AND 1.2% of all of the blog views in its history.
In the middle of 2024 I decided that would be the last year I updated that spreadsheet. I stopped updating a spreadsheet on ad earnings about a year before I stopped monetizing the blog. You can draw your own conclusions.
WordPress is a shit show!
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Marc Andreesen is an extremely successful tech pioneer and investor. He co-developed Mosaic, which was the first Internet browser with a graphical interface. He also co-founded Netscape, which was the first successful browser. His net worth is about $2 billion.
Here is a long excerpt of an interview Andreesen did with Bari Weiss, founder of The Free Press:
“So there is something that was never written down, but everybody understood, which I call “The Deal.”
The Deal was that somebody like me could start a company. You can invent a new technology. In this case, web browsers and all the other things that Netscape did. We got glowing press coverage. Everybody loved us. And then you could go public. You could make a lot of money if the business worked. You would pay your taxes. Then at the end of your career, you would be left with this giant pot of money. And then you donate it to philanthropy, to good social causes. And then that squared the circle. That washes away all of your sins and reclassifies you from a sort of suspect business mogul to a virtuous philanthropist. And then that’s that. That’s the arc.
But the people in charge of all this broke The Deal in every way that you possibly can. Every single thing I just said has now been held to be presumptively evil. Technology is held to be presumptively evil. Tech companies are held to be presumptively evil. Tech people are held to be this evil class. Anybody who’s rich is evil.
The capstone for me was when I realized that philanthropy was being redefined as evil. My friend Mark Zuckerberg and his wife committed 99 percent of their ownership in Facebook to philanthropic causes. (Nonpolitical philanthropic causes, by the way. The big mission is to cure all disease in the next 100 years.) And they just got hammered with criticism and attacks. The line of argument was they’re just slimy rich people, and they’re only doing it for the tax break.
What I realized is there’s this real sentiment now that philanthropy is evil because the morally correct thing to do is for the government to do all this. The government should take the money, and then the government should allocate the money. And that’s a level of statism, bordering on communism, that has unfortunately infected the culture right now.”
Once again, assets legally acquired belong to the acquirer and NOT to the government. I don’t care if someone earns $1 TRILLION in 2025, it is theft if the government takes half or more of that money. Being resentful and envious of people wealthier than you is NOT a sound basis for public policy. One of government’s legitimate roles is to PROTECT property rights because an economy cannot function without those rights being defined and protected. Usurpation of property rights by government is simply theft.
Many of the people who want to “soak the rich” are the same idiots who protest in favor of genocidal barbarians. Be careful what you wish for because you may get it. If you think government will stop and only confiscate the assets of the wealthy, then I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.
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So, the number of visits to the Mayo Clinic stemming from the giant nosebleed of December 23 is now up to five. The last two were trips to see a PA in the ENT department. I have written that the first–and very intrusive–nose packing has been removed (that happened on the 27th).
On Monday December 30 the second packing was removed and, miraculously, the PA now says surgery is highly unlikely as the wound healed very nicely between the 27th and the 30th. A much smaller third packing is in place. Now, with the help of my wonderful wife, I am putting a tiny amount of cotton covered in Vaseline in my left nostril twice a day.
I have another visit to the PA on January 9th and, hopefully, she will tell me I am out of the woods, sort of. She did say that “full healing” would likely take about a month. In the meantime I am prohibited from lifting heavy objects, from engaging in anything more than light exercise, from flying. I’m sure I’ve left out a few things.
For not the first time, my severe nosebleed ranks very low on the medical totem pole of the family right now. Still, it is yet another reminder of the fact that I am very far from being a young man.
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Some humor from this Archon’s Den post:
You know you’re getting old, when you run into your friends….
….at the pharmacy, instead of the clubs.
The wife challenged me to make a pun about flowers….
….I rose to the occasion.
I hate it when people say, “Bite me”….
….then act all surprised.
A will….
….is a dead giveaway.
If you’re a giver, remember to learn your limits….
….because the takers don’t have any.
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As I have written before, my wonderful wife is considering the purchase of a newer convertible to replace her 2018 Corvette as her primary car. I don’t think such a purchase is imminent and I highly doubt she will buy a car like the one shown below, even though she would love to have one.
This is a 2023 Aston Martin. Ugly is not a word that leaps to mind (borrowing a line from A Fish Called Wanda) when I see this car.
Unfortunately, even used ones from 2022 or 2023 have six-figure price tags. That is simply far more than my wonderful wife wants to pay for a car. I just want her to be happy.
#TheStenchOfEvilAndThoseWhoIgnoreIt