GaryWitt's Profile

“Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.” ― Theodore Roosevelt

GaryWitt comments on Sep 25, 2020:

You’ll trip over your shoelaces.

2nd Charlie hebdo stabbing guess who - YouTube

GaryWitt comments on Sep 25, 2020:

Just finished reading “Les droits de l’homme contre Le peuple” by Jean-Louis Harouel. An interesting polemic on the Muslim invasion of Western Europe (and particularly France). Among his conclusions: * Islam as practiced in Western Europe today is less a religion and much more a political movement. If it were a mere religion it would be accepted as such. * Islam has indeed invaded Europe, with the assistance of leadership in each country and without any democratic representation of the interests of “native” or autochthonous Europeans. * The invasion has been enabled by “the secular religion of the rights of man,” which a) prohibits discrimination against immigrants, and b) grants immigrants preferences over natives—e.g., recognition of sharia law—enforced with accusations of racism. * This secular religion has actually reversed the protections in the Declaration of Rights. Rights which were first enunciated to protect people against government power are now used against the indigenous population, to force them out of their homeland and obliterate their national identities in favor of the immigrant population. Harouel concludes that unless a “rational discrimination” is enforced that gives primacy to citizens over immigrants, Europeans are and will be an endangered species.

Anyone hear about this one yet?

GaryWitt comments on Sep 23, 2020:

Haven’t read it yet, but here it is: https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/HSGAC_Finance_Report_FINAL.pdf

If you think about it, the government granting you a license to do something, is nothing more than ...

GaryWitt comments on Sep 21, 2020:

Absolutely correct. Government is not the source or well-spring of our rights. Government doesn’t create rights. It can certainly take away rights—that is the nature of government—unless it is somehow restrained. So far, the constitution is the best device for restraining the power of government, and for insisting that it use its power to protect individual rights. That is the proper purpose of government under our constitution. But recently it has been ignored, to our detriment.

2009191350Sa MARXIST POSTMODERNISM IS EVOLUTIONARY REGRESSION-ISM: To start with, there is no...

GaryWitt comments on Sep 20, 2020:

Great video. Peterson at his best. Thank you for posting this.

California Rep.

GaryWitt comments on Sep 20, 2020:

Leftists are still stewing over Merrick Garland. The Constitution states that the president nominates justices with the advice and consent of the senate. When Obama nominated Garland he did not seek that advice and he did not receive that consent. Trump has both. Let the process move forward.

Concerned about the integrity of our supply chains, Joe Biden has offered this clarifying statement:...

GaryWitt comments on Sep 20, 2020:

Thank God he clarified that. I was really confused before.

Everywhere you go, Marxists are already there waiting.

GaryWitt comments on Sep 20, 2020:

The HST quote has really aged well, coming as it did in 1972 after Nixon’s landslide re-election. The Frost quote seems almost prescient in view of the rise and spread of postmodernist relativism. But the Watkins (bell hooks) quote is the one that deserves and requires unpacking. First, the phrase “liberal individualism” is curious, and could be viewed as an oxymoron if the “liberal” part is defined as “progressive.” There’s nothing individualistic about the left these days; it’s all about group identity and therefore focused entirely on the world outside the self. In fact, the left’s unrelenting attack on individualism is the very thing that results in people being concerned (I think “obsessed” is a deliberate and pejorative choice by Watkins) with the status and future of their individual rights. And with those rights under threat, the world at large is also threatened. So the sucker punch here is that Watkins espouses an illiberal philosophy in a sly and insidious manner, implying that the world would be better off without these pesky individual rights. You’re selfish and short-sighted if you care about them. And she wants to distract you from the fact that they do matter to the betterment of the world at large.

Obama Suggests Delay of Ginsburg Replacement Until After Election

GaryWitt comments on Sep 19, 2020:

He’s no longer in office... right?

“I am a part of everything that I have read.

GaryWitt comments on Sep 19, 2020:

When I was in grade school the teacher said, “A book is your friend; you don’t write on your friend.” Worst advice I ever received. She should have said “you don’t write in someone else’s book.” But if the book is mine, it has my writing in it.

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GaryWitt comments on Sep 17, 2020:

Seems the more patience I have, the more I need. Sigh.

Daily Dose of Europe: Paris' Sainte-Chapelle - by Rick Steeves Notre-Dame has been on ...

GaryWitt comments on Sep 17, 2020:

A great description of one of my favorite religious sites. It truly is a stunning experience to come up that narrow spiral staircase and enter this magnificent room of light. When you get a chance, go!

Watch this bizarre bullshit.

GaryWitt comments on Sep 17, 2020:

Who was she? I couldn’t see anything that would identify her.

Study: up to ninety-five percent of 2020 US riots are linked to Black Lives Matter- ...

GaryWitt comments on Sep 16, 2020:

The WSJ reported over the weekend that there were approximately 10,000 demonstrations between May and September, but that “only” seven percent of them turned violent. So in 120 days we saw 700 riots across the country (in fairness most in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, etc.). The WSJ also reported that the rioting in Kenosha had cost the community “tens of millions of dollars.” The same article asserted that the BLM demonstrations are not “inherently” violent. Now I’m wondering who the hell is in charge at the WSJ.

This post comes from a conversation I am having with Krunoslav.

GaryWitt comments on Sep 16, 2020:

I’m a big fan of small government, free markets, and private initiative. The “small government” part means limiting the size and the functions of government. But it also means driving regulations down to the most local level. Traditionally, building codes were products of local government. Same for zoning. The ADA of course is federal. It’s not a bad law per se, but I believe a better result could have been achieved by local governments. I also believe the ADA unnecessarily preempted a lot of private initiatives. Alexander Graham Bell worked hard to develop technology to accommodate the hearing impaired. It was a lifelong obsession for him. Would he have made that effort if the government had said, “We’ll do it for you?” Would he have been satisfied by asking the government to do it for him?

“None of our men are experts.

GaryWitt comments on Sep 14, 2020:

Interesting. Henry Ford out-Zens Shunryu Suzuki, author of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (1970).

I would love to put Trump flags on this ride and drive it down the main drag in Portland.

GaryWitt comments on Sep 14, 2020:

You’d have to be pretty cocky to do that.

very rough draft ive put down in a rush to do so before it had completely vanished from my ...

GaryWitt comments on Sep 14, 2020:

I dunno. There’s a lot to unpack here, and I don’t think I can do a thorough job. But let me say this. We never heard of communism prior to the mid-19th century when Marx and Engels started promoting it. But it was brutally implemented by Lenin and his mob in1917. We didn’t hear about fascism until after that, when Mussolini and others started promoting it. And fascism was implemented (again brutally) in Italy and Germany in the 1930s by Hitler, and Mussolini and their respective mobs. You can argue that each system came into being as a result of oppression (by the czar and the imposition of the Treaty of Versailles), but the fact is that each system usurped and maintained power by means of a mob mentality. And I think you can also argue that ultimately communism and fascism are not opposite ends of the political spectrum, but simply ruthless, oppressive competitors for power and domination.

The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us. – Voltaire

GaryWitt comments on Sep 13, 2020:

Voltaire has long been one of my favorites, and he cemented his position after I recently learned he regarded Rousseau as a fraud. Upon reading Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, Voltaire wrote to Rousseau, “No one has ever employed so much intellect to persuade men to be beasts. In reading your work one is seized with a desire to walk on all fours. However, as I have lost that habit for more than sixty years, I feel, unfortunately, that it is impossible for me to resume it…”

Such a leader.

GaryWitt comments on Sep 13, 2020:

Made in China.

Now we see why schools are nervous about Zoom classrooms that parents can monitor.

GaryWitt comments on Sep 10, 2020:

Amen. The teachers’ unions are leading that parade.

Joe Biden claims 6,100+ members of the military have died of COVID.

GaryWitt comments on Sep 10, 2020:

https://youtu.be/lzxVyO6cpos

“One should use common words to say uncommon things” ― Arthur Schopenhauer

GaryWitt comments on Sep 10, 2020:

And there must be some thought behind those uncommon things. Schopenhauer omitted that because he considered it obvious.

If you have to explain your argument, You have already lost the argument.

GaryWitt comments on Sep 8, 2020:

I’ll respectfully disagree. The whole reason an argument is necessary or appropriate is because someone disagrees with your position. If they disagree because they lack information or insight then an explanation is perfectly reasonable. And if they simply won’t listen then they are the ones who have lost. You only lose if your own argument is weak or you are unable to articulate it properly.

These two might be closer than we think.