[LifeZette] Deep blue Baltimore doesn’t have much going for it. Okay, there are some cool places by the harbor and Fells Point, and there is Kim Klacik. But the list of charms in the "Charm City" soon runs out. The rest of the joint seems like a downscale shooting gallery. We here in the preppy sailing town and state capitol of Annapolis try to avoid it at all costs because of the municipal presumptions of this article.
Most people are rational economic players. Drug dealers, who show excellent entrepreneurial spirit, don’t deal drugs as a hobby. They do it because of the big profit margins. Gambling and prostitution fall in the same category, with some exceptions per prostitution. Some crime does pay if you do it right and don’t get caught. At least it pays in the material sense and on this astral plane. The downside though, the potential legal and moral risks, preclude sensible people taking part in it.
But what if, using the free market, using capitalism, you could put a dent in the most heinous of crimes? What if, like Pope Leo I and Attila the Hun, you could bribe an aggressor not to commit murder and mayhem? One guy, who seems to have some first hand knowledge of the subject, may be on to something.
FNC: “An activist in Baltimore, Md., has come up with a unique solution to solving the city’s high murder rate — paying killers not to kill, according to a report. ‘I can relate to the shooters, guess what they want? They want money,’ Tyree Moorehead, an activist told press in Baltimore. Moorehead, who the Baltimore Sun reported spent more than a decade in prison on a second-degree murder conviction tied to a shooting at 15, suggests certain measures the city has taken to stop the bloodshed aren’t enough. ‘I’ve talked to these people, I’ve seen the shooters, it’s a small city, I know who the hustlers are.’ Richmond, Calif., previously tested the controversial strategy of paying people not to commit crimes in order to combat gun violence that plagued the community. It resulted in the city seeing its lowest murder rate in more than 30 years. Richmond also saw a 66% reduction in firearm assaults causing injury or death between 2010 and 2017, according to advancepeace.org.”
#12
I turned into the. NASA channel to get an update on the new Mars Rover and discovered an hour long program on African American Leadership at NASA. We have turned Nazi Germany Race Laws on their head, and the majority is now subservient to the minority through taught guilt. We are witnessing the emerging of real systemic racism, only its whites as the willing victims.
#13
Vote in Republicans. Black republicans. Stop playing the victim and go back to your mid 20th century roots. Strong family, strong faith and strong work ethic.
#18
It seems to me you’re a bit premature, Lionel Whesh5449. Spend a year or two helping clean up the situation in your state first, before you conclude the situation is hopeless. There are 400,000 Republican precinct committee positions that need to be filled if conservatives are to have a chance to clean up the Republican party as well as the country — we had an article about that just the other day. See here.
This old oil patch 'power' operates rod lines to several oil wells. A very efficient powering method that has been in use for maybe a hundred years. Not many of these left. Listen for the 'barking.' Power house 'barking' was distinctive. In a busy field, a pumper could tell which unit was operating by the sound of the bark. If he lived nearby (in a pumpers house - story for another time), he could start the power, go home for lunch, or go squirrel hunting and know that the wells were operating.
Graphic depicts an old pump jack operated by rod lines. Power house in the video.
Ok, so where is the crude oil pumped to? Good question! Generally pumped through 2 inch lines to collection tanks (tank batteries of 2 or more), from there it would stored and later hauled via tank truck or wagon to a refinery or larger tank farm. Some of those old wells would only 'make' 10-20 barrels a week. Filling a 210 barrel tank could take a few days or so.
#1
Years ago we had an Indian lease that had started out that way before WW I. The wells had all been changed over to individual jacks and had run on the casing head until we took it over and electrified it. But that big central, lay down bull wheel was still there along with the skeletal remains.
The family still lived on the farm and the grandfather tried explaining how it functioned. But he had been a little boy and not entirely mechanically inclined so I never could entirely visualize it.
Thanks Besoeker, a delightful reminscince after a trying week. Now if you could find that Sac and Fox girl we could revisit the whole, entire attention span dilemma.
#2
Distant childhood memories for me as well. A better time, a better place. God is good, he helps us remember the good times and iggy the bad. Funny how that works.
[CCNS] Since the onset of the pandemic, the Chinese Communist Party, together with the support or acquiescence of the majority of the Western scientific community, have insisted that the COVID-19 virus was a naturally-occurring, animal-to-human transmission.
Despite exhaustive international research efforts, a natural source for the COVID-19 virus, whether directly from bats to humans or through an intermediate animal host, has not been identified.
That is, there is still no convincing scientific evidence that the COVID-19 virus originated from any natural source, whereas the evidence for a laboratory origin is extensive and increasing.
In the end, it is simply a matter of whether you want to believe a narrative shaped by those with vested interests or you want to believe the facts.
The genetic engineering and related laboratory techniques to manufacture a virus like COVID-19 have existed for more than 20 years.
Over time, those techniques have only become more sophisticated, such that it is now impossible to distinguish between a natural and a man-made virus.
The COVID-19 virus has a number of unique structural features that cannot be explained as products of a natural evolutionary process.
Those anomalies primarily affect the COVID-19 virus’ extraordinarily high infectivity rate of +100,000,000 compared to, for example, the 8,096 in the first 2002-2004 SARS pandemic.
That increase in infectivity is directly related to the enhanced ability of the COVID-19 virus to bind to and enter human cells, both of which can be achieved by laboratory manipulation.
The COVID-19 virus binds to human cells 10-20 times better than the 2002-2004 SARS virus (1,2).
From the beginning, the COVID-19 virus appeared to be well-adapted (3,4) even pre-adapted (5) for binding to human cells.
The COVID-19 virus did not undergo the same mutation and adaptation to humans over time as did the 2002-2004 SARS virus, but was already, from the beginning, resembling late-stage SARS infections, suggesting pre-adaptation (5).
#1
Wonder what types of animals were subjected to the biowarfare agents produced in the CCP sponsored Laboratories ? Monkeys, dogs, cats, ferrites, rabbits, rodents, what?
[Strategic Culture] It will be difficult or even impossible to go back to a system where learning is actually a discipline that requires hard work and dedication.
Public education in the United States, if measured by results, has been producing graduates that are less competent in language skills and dramatically less well taught in the sciences and mathematics since 1964, when Scholastic Aptitude Test scores peaked. The decline in science and math skills has accelerated in the past decade according to rankings of American students compared to their peers overseas. A recent assessment, from 2015, placed the U.S. at 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science. Among the 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD), the United States came in at 30th in math and 19th in science. Those poor results must be placed in a context of American taxpayers spending more money per student than any other country in the world, so the availability of resources is not necessarily a factor in most school districts.
Much of the decline is due to technical advances that level the playing field for teachers worldwide, but one must also consider changing perceptions of the role of education in a social context. In the United States in particular, political and cultural unrest certainly have been relevant factors. But all of that said and considered, the U.S. is now confronting a reassessment of values that will likely alter forever traditional education and will also make American students even more non-competitive with their foreign peers.
#2
Disaggregate the scores by ethnicity, and you'll see a very different picture. White Americans score the same as European students. Korean-Americans' scores are identical to Korean kids' scores. Ditto for Mexican-Americans vs Mexican kids.
America's educational problem is primarily an ethnic problem.
[National Review] These are crazy times. A pandemic led to national quarantine; to self-induced recession; to riot, arson, and looting; to a contested election; and to a riot at the U.S. Capitol.
In response, are we focusing solely on upping the daily vaccination rate? Getting the country back to work? Opening the schools as the virus attenuates? Ensuring safety in the streets?
Or are we descending into a sort of madness?
It might have been understandable that trillions of dollars had to be borrowed to keep a suffocating economy breathing. But it makes little sense to keep borrowing $2 trillion a year to prime an economy now set to roar back with herd-like immunity on the horizon. Trillions of dollars in stimulus are already priming the economy.
Cabin-feverish Americans are poised to get out of their homes to travel, eat out, and socialize as never before.
Meanwhile, the United States will have to start paying down nearly $30 trillion in debt. But we seem more fixated on raising rather than reducing that astronomical obligation.
Not “we”. The Democrats.
We are told that man-made, worldwide climate change ‐ as in the now discarded term "global warming" ‐ can best be addressed by massive dislocations in the U.S. economy.
The Biden administration plans to shut down coal plants. It will halt even nearly completed new gas and oil pipelines. It will cut back on fracking to embrace the multi-trillion-dollar "Green New Deal."
Americans should pause and examine the utter disaster that unfolded recently in Texas and its environs. Parts of the American Southwest were covered in ice and snow for days. Nighttime temperatures crashed to near zero in some places. The state, under pressure, had been transitioning from its near-limitless and cheap reservoirs of natural gas and other fossil fuels to generating power through wind and solar.
But what happens to millions of Texans when wind turbines freeze up while storm clouds extinguish solar power?
We are witnessing the answer in oil- and gas-rich but energy-poor Texas that is all but shut down. Millions are shivering without electricity and affordable heating. Some may die or become ill by this self-induced disaster ‐ one fueled by man-made ideological rigidity.
Texas's use of natural gas in power generation has helped the United States curb carbon emissions. Ignoring it for unreliable wind and solar alternatives was bound to have catastrophic consequences whenever a politically incorrect nature did not follow the global-warming script.
The most elite in America are the most likely to damn the privilege of those who lack it. Perhaps this illogic squares the psychological circle of feeling guilty about things they never have any intention of giving up.
If blaming those without advantages does not satisfy the unhappy liberal elite, then there is always warring against the mute dead: changing their eponymous names, destroying their statues, slandering their memories, and denying their achievements.
The common denominator with all these absurdities? An ungracious and neurotic elite whose judgment is bankrupt and whose privilege is paid for by those who don't have it.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/20/2021 00:00 ||
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#1
So Vic, you found Rantburg.com, gave it a good read, and "published" this op-ed.
#3
Of course, when have the Dems, in the history of their party, ever left madness. The words - Left and Madness go together like homogenized oil and water.
Good on Brother !
Posted by: Herb Choluck9735 ||
02/20/2021 4:48 Comments ||
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#4
Got case a beer, fine scotch, good cigars, box of fountain pens, and a pallet of copybooks here at this bench if anyone wants to join me.
BBQ and Thai food is back behind the shade tree. Have to tell an offensive or dirty joke to get a plate though.
Will that do for a dirty joke? My only other joke involves a series of students with wastebasket fires, the punchline being that the math major went back to sleep, confident that a real answer did exist.
[Economic Collapse) We are getting a very short preview of what will eventually happen to the United States as a whole. America’s infrastructure is aging and crumbling. Our power grids were never intended to support so many people, our water systems are a complete joke, and it has become utterly apparent that we would be completely lost if a major long-term national emergency ever struck. Texas has immense wealth and vast energy resources, but now it is being called a "failed state". If it can’t even handle a few days of cold weather, what is the rest of America going to look like when things really start to get chaotic in this country?
At this point, it has become clear that the power grid in Texas is in far worse shape than anyone ever imagined. When extremely cold weather hit the state, demand for energy surged dramatically. At the same time, about half of the wind turbines that Texas relies upon froze, and the rest of the system simply could not handle the massive increase in demand.
Millions of Texans were without power for days, and hundreds of thousands are still without power as I write this article.
And now we are learning that Texas was literally just moments away from "a catastrophic failure" that could have resulted in blackouts "for months"...
#1
Several factors that don't apply to the entire US: Texas' electric grid is essentially isolated from the rest of the national grid. They always bragged about this. It isn't looking like anything to brag about today. The plumbing in most Texas homes was never intended to survive the recent event. Houses up north just aren't built that way, or they'd have the same problems every winter. Equipment to clear snow-covered and icy roads? Comon, man...
The poorly maintained and overstressed infrastructure? Yes, everybody in America has that problem. They have been voting for politicians who ignored the problem for a long time now, and are going to get what they voted for "good and hard now."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/20/2021 8:11 Comments ||
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#2
Public Utility Commissions (the government) is loath to jack up prices of gas and electricity to pay for resiliency and redundancy. You pay for a fire department to be on standby for emergencies but you whine about paying for similar protection for your infrastructure.
#7
^ We've been getting Colorado River water since forever, which is downstream from several major and many minor cities. It's been "Toilet to Tap" with treatment since before we were born, not pristine alpine snowmelt
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2021 11:51 Comments ||
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#8
Air this cold is rare in Texas, which is why they were unprepared. It's like hurricane preparations in Nebraska--not necessary.
Much of the Midwest has weather this cold every year, and so they prepare for it. You allocate your time and money towards things that are likely to happen.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/20/2021 12:43 Comments ||
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#9
Texas is big. Driving I-40 through the northern panhandle with Amarillo, you see miles and miles of windmills. They do get this weather, snow, ice, wind and cold. It's not an isolated incident in that region.
#10
Every election during my lifetime mentioned the collapsing American Infrastructure and yet I've not gone a week in all that time when I didn't come across construction on the freeways. Maybe California is unique but I doubt it.
#13
Every Texan I’ve spoken with says it’s quite nice. Some minor inconveniences that come with any weather event. Must be yankee shit steppers doing all the complaining.
#16
"You allocate your time and money towards things that are likely to happen." One thing I have noted from reading news of house fires: how so many $1+ million houses do not have their own excellent systems built in to suppress house fires. An old classmate of mine from grade school lives near Estes Park CO. She has a huge tank of fire suppressant solution and fire hose / sprinkle hose that can be deployed in a few minutes to sprinkle down the entire property in event of a summer wildfire. It has saved her house at least once (so far).
#17
American infrastructure has lots of stupid built into it. We just learn about it during times like last week in Texas. The failure by the feds to maintain an adequate strategic stockpile of PPE for airborne infectious agents (despite years of warning by epidemiologists) is a closely related phenomenon.
[Free Beacon] Researchers at Harvard Medical School say they've found the key to reducing coronavirus infections in the black community: trillions of dollars' worth of reparations.
A study published last week in the Social Science & Medicine journal found that paying $250,000 in reparations to individual descendants of slaves, or $800,000 per family, could have mitigated coronavirus transmission rates among black Americans. The Harvard study analyzes the effects of "pre-intervention" reparations—or payments if they had existed before the coronavirus pandemic—on COVID-19 contact rates and transmission of the virus.
Dr. Michelle Morse—one of the Harvard Medical School assistant professors who led the study—told the Harvard Crimson that reparations "could have been as effective" at combating the coronavirus in African-American communities as a vaccine. Duke University professor William Darity, an economist and reparations advocate who co-authored the Harvard study, recently estimated that such payments would cost up to $12 trillion.
"Show me da money!"
The Harvard team's research was conducted as part of the Lancet Commission on Reparations and Redistributive Justice, which is expected to release a full report on worldwide reparations this summer.
The study was published days before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties held a hearing on H.R. 40, a bill that would establish a reparations task force to study the lasting effects of slavery and segregation and "recommend appropriate remedies." More than 170 Democrats have cosponsored the bill, which has gained traction since Democrats took control of Congress in January.
#8
From Haiti to Harvard Med School, New York City’s New Chief Medical officer Dr. Michelle Morse brings eclectic resume (New York Daily News)
The good doctor has moved on from Harvard
and Massachusetts to NYC because:
“I am honored to join the Department and serve New Yorkers during this once-in-a-century pandemic because operationalizing health equity is more urgent than ever.”
#9
I think she is a politician first, medical doctor second. Very similar to the losers I encountered from my HMO, frankly incompetent. Remember, they practice medicine, no inducement to get it right, and we're the poor homo sapiens they are practising upon, right.
#11
We need to deduct for all the War on Poverty and Judicial/Penal system payments previously made. Blacks have a balance due
This. In today's $, since 1965 we've spent at least $5 trillion on war on poverty and another $2 trillion on judicial/penal costs attributable to black criminal behavior.
That's almost $300,000 per black household. Pay up, folks.
#15
So will Obama (who's ancestors might have sold slaves to) and Kamala (who's father's ancestors might have traded slaves) have to give - or get reparations?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[LifeZette] Deep blue Baltimore doesn’t have much going for it. Okay, there are some cool places by the harbor and Fells Point, and there is Kim Klacik. But the list of charms in the "Charm City" soon runs out. The rest of the joint seems like a downscale shooting gallery. We here in the preppy sailing town and state capitol of Annapolis try to avoid it at all costs because of the municipal presumptions of this article.
[National Review] These are crazy times. A pandemic led to national quarantine; to self-induced recession; to riot, arson, and looting; to a contested election; and to a riot at the U.S. Capitol.
We are told that man-made, worldwide climate change ‐ as in the now discarded term "global warming" ‐ can best be addressed by massive dislocations in the U.S. economy.
