Althouse: The lake at midday.

October 20, 2021

The lake at midday.

25 comments:

Wa St Blogger said...: On a previous post our host brought up the meta-issue of Pinocchios related to the issue of spying on our bank transactions. I did not want to hijack that thread, so I am posting this here.

The left wants to to buy power by giving free stuff to as many people as it can. This generally works since many people vote for them even if they disagree fundamentally with certain rights related issues. For the government to give you things they must have money. Your money. They do that with with taxes. But they have a problem. Not enough taxes coming in, and sometimes that is due to tax avoidance schemes and cash transactions. To get their share of taxes they must monitor your transactions so that they can determine when you are doing things that avoid their tax collection schemes.

That is what this is all about. They want to buy your votes with your own money and need to make sure you are not trying to avoid paying your fair share of the fees.

But like idiots, we all believe the lie that only the wealthy will pay those taxes, I mean why else would they need to monitor only those accounts that process the princely sum of $600 total per year? Oh, Wait. In 1850 $600 would represent a modestly wealthy person as the average wage of a laborer was about $150 a year. How many Pinocchios do they get when they say only the wealthy will pay?

Remember, the government is not a charity, it has no money it did not take by force, so when it gives you something it is not due to its benevolence.

Also remember, the only upper limit on the taxes the government will collect to manage our affairs is 100%. The only reason it does not do that now is because the pot isn't hot enough. Don't worry little froggies, the pot will boil soon enough.; 10/20/21, 6:10 PM
Jaq said...: I assume that the reason for the IRS rule is so that Democrats know which people to hit up for donations, and who they should punish with some kind of regulation, if the donations are not forthcoming.; 10/20/21, 6:26 PM
readering said...: I learned a new word today: pillion. Relearned? Probably not; I've never been on a motorbike.; 10/20/21, 6:35 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Filling up at pump has gone from $50 to $80 in less than a year.

It’s time we impeach Trump again.; 10/20/21, 6:53 PM
Iman said...: Beautiful pics of the lake. I wonder how the fishing is?; 10/20/21, 6:57 PM
Jaq said...: It seemed like a rare instance of good news in big doses last week when pharmaceutical giant Merck announced that a new drug called molnupiravir had been shown in tests to cut hospitalizations and deaths by half. The simple, easy-to-take pill would give doctors “a whole new, easy-to-use weapon” in the fight against Covid-19, as the AP put it.

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/did-political-and-media-bias-stall

So they held back a treatment that could have saved tens of thousands of lives because of politics. Democrat politics, to be specific. On account of Trump was all for these kinds of treatments, along with the vaccines.; 10/20/21, 6:59 PM
Mutaman said...: "So they held back a treatment that could have saved tens of thousands of lives because of politics. "

A "rare instance " where Tim actually links to something to try and support one of his dopey comments. And of course its behind a paywall.; 10/20/21, 7:51 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: So, what do you do, if this happens to you? Send a stern email to the quality inspectors… in China?

This guy believes we’re in trouble. ➡️ link to video; 10/20/21, 8:07 PM
Narr said...: Never get pinioned on a pillion. Pretty painful process.; 10/20/21, 8:52 PM
Maynard said...: No one answered this $10,000 Pyramid question so I will ask again. What do these things have in common?

a thermometer
an enema
a dildo
a Vaccine Passport; 10/20/21, 8:58 PM
Sebastian said...: "I suppose Boris would have me declared a criminal because I've kept up this comments section"

With its "foul content"? Say it ain't so!; 10/20/21, 9:19 PM
wildswan said...: Some terrific videos are circulating of the counter-demo in favor of Dave Chappelle where a counter protestor was shouting: "Jokes are funny" and had a sign with the same terrible words printed right on it. Well! That was snatched away and righteously trampled on. So good to see. The last I saw of Jokie Guy, he was shouting "I like Dave" and "I want my sign, Where's my sign" and and "Jokes are funny" and the Anti-jokies were frenziedly waving a bundle of sticks and claiming victory. If Dave Chapelle had done it as skit it would have been another example of his outlandish humor.

https://hotair.com/allahpundit/2021/10/20/jokes-are-funny-protesters-crash-walkout-by-netflix-workers-over-chappelle-special-n423760; 10/20/21, 9:30 PM
Clyde said...: Midday? Sunrise doesn't happen at midday!; 10/20/21, 9:46 PM
Gospace said...: Free speech zones are disappearing. Can't even post the very innocent phrase Let's go Brandon! on Facebook.

Still allowed here, a space in which comment moderation has been enabled. Freer than the public sphere.; 10/20/21, 10:20 PM
Mutaman said...: Will Trump's new "social media platform" last as long as his blog did-29 days?; 10/21/21, 1:07 AM
gadfly said...: I read that Facebook is changing its name. A change to "Facemask" would be pertinent with the times and also describe the secretive way that the company is run.

Or in the spirit of Google's holding company name of "Alphabet," "Playbook" would describe a whatever-we-want-to-be company outlook - which brings on another possible name as "Outlook."; 10/21/21, 2:25 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Wa St Blogger... $3.5 trillion is gonna buy them a lot of slaves. Dems have a history with that. Lyndon Johnson said they'd be voting democrat for the next fifty years.; 10/21/21, 2:30 AM
Jaq said...: "A "rare instance " where Tim actually links to something to try and support one of his dopey comments"

LOL. Sure.; 10/21/21, 5:34 AM
Jaq said...: Here is one that is not paywalled for you, Mutaman. You can read about how the FDA froze the samples from the vaccine trials, and didn't begin testing until the very day after the election, when lo and behold, they discovered that the vaccine worked, and it was approved within days.

One might ask why they froze the samples and halted the testing, and the answer is almost certainly that the results would have leaked and there would have been news of a successful vaccine before Election Day. How many lives did that kind of politics cost?

Gruber said that Pfizer and BioNTech had decided in late October that they wanted to drop the 32-case interim analysis. At that time, the companies decided to stop having their lab confirm cases of Covid-19 in the study, instead leaving samples in storage. The FDA was aware of this decision. Discussions between the agency and the companies concluded, and testing began this past Wednesday. [Day after the election] When the samples were tested, there were 94 cases of Covid in the trial. The DSMB met on Sunday.

https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/09/covid-19-vaccine-from-pfizer-and-biontech-is-strongly-effective-early-data-from-large-trial-indicate/; 10/21/21, 5:51 AM
Krumhorn said...: Ann, that first cloud photo is very painterly. Remarkable, really, for its flow of texture. I could almost feel the paint strokes

- Krumhorn; 10/21/21, 8:32 AM
wildswan said...: I mentioned the other day that one sign of a sunrise picture might be a blue tinge in the air. This used to happen to my pictures of trees which I took early in the morning. I'd be shooting some attractive form, a solid green, green mass, and in the camera picture the air would have a blue tinge, my eye hadn't seen, as if there were leaves burning somewhere. I was told this blue tinge was a morning characteristic and that in the evening there is similar phenomenon called the golden moment near sunset.
I never looked into it much because I was looking at form and, as a result, "wrong" color didn't matter. Still you hear things over the years. It may be that advanced modern cameras do some kind of white balance trick on their own so that the blue tinge isn't there or the golden moment either. The blue isn't quite the same as the blue that blue sky and reflecting water throw into the air but perhaps they would hide it. I was looking at slanting rays also when I think back; and they wouldn't exist at the moment of sunrise. But there might be long straight rays passing between brown tree trunks.; 10/21/21, 10:25 AM
Mutaman said...: If Trump had been re-elected, we'd still be waiting for the vaccine to be distributed. Just like his testing efforts in 2020. He made masks and social distancing and lockdowns into a political battleground. He perversely refused to acknowledge the dead and sick, offering virtually no words of comfort or sympathy. He lied about his own bout of coronavirus. He supported the sick morons who protested maskless against restrictions, even to the point of violence, even to the point of an attempted kidnap/murder of the governor of Michigan. He held rallies and events with no masking and no social distancing that were superspreader events. He pointedly declined to use the Defense Production Act until too far into the pandemic and even then on a limited basis. He didn't give a single rat shit about having a national plan on testing and mitigation, and, at the end, we lost two months of vaccine distribution because, as I said, we could all go fuck ourselves, as far as he was concerned. So many lives could have been saved. So many jobs and businesses could have been saved.; 10/21/21, 1:39 PM
Drago said...: Mutaman: "If Trump had been re-elected, we'd still be waiting for the vaccine to be distributed."

Having had his previous lies debunked, Mutaman moves seamlessly into a hypothetical scenario with a specified hypothetical outcome based on his mindreading ability to discern "Future Truth".

Seems less than.....substantive. But when reality blows you out of the water, your best bet as a lefty Infallible Seer Of What Will Be is to go there and stay there.

Next up for Mutaman: We have only 5 years left to save the planet!!!; 10/21/21, 3:28 PM
Mutaman said...: "Drago has left a new comment on the post "

Want to translate that into English, Sparky?; 10/21/21, 7:59 PM
Mutaman said...: Tim: Here is one that is not paywalled for you, Mutaman.

Doesn't come very close to the old prime facie, buddy.; 10/21/21, 8:01 PM