Have some church music for a Sunday

Courtesy of Kim du Toit.

NFL hemorrhaging viewers

Heckuva job, Goodell!

This past weekend the NFL had three very competitive games among its four divisional round playoff contests. 

Unfortunately for the league, ratings continued to plummet. 

In fact, ratings are plummeting so much that virtually no major media outlets are even talking about ratings at all. It’s almost like the league and its television partners have put out the code red not to acknowledge the collapse in viewership so far in 2018.

How bad is it?  This bad:

Yep, every single game was down, no matter how good the games were. And, remember, three of these games were highly competitive in the divisional round this year. Whereas last year only two of the games were competitive. Hell, three of the four windows even feature one of the same teams from last year. And yes, I know, the Cowboys and the Packers played last year and those are the two biggest fan base draws in the NFL, but even if you pull that game out the numbers for the other three games also declined double digits. (The three other games were down 15.3%, 10.4% and 5.6%) 

Adding all these numbers up 120.8 million viewers watched the NFL divisional round playoffs in 2018 vs. 144.1 million who watched in 2017, a decline of 23.3 million total viewers.

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of assholes.  Oh, and apropos of nothing:

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Jeremy Lane allegedly told police during his DUI arrest Sunday he was “more high than anything.” 

Lane, 27, was booked into the King County Jail early Sunday morning but released less than four hours later after paying a $1,000 bail.

"Dude, I wasn't drunk, I was just high as a kite!"  Yeah.  Let me go back to my post from yesterday.  Lower the boom on this fuckstick.  Driving high is just as bad as driving drunk.  What a fucking loser. 

Looks like there's gonna be a shut-down

Because the Democrats care more about illegal aliens than they do about US citizens and members of the military.

We'll see how long it lasts.  I'll miss a paycheck or two.  Maybe more.  If the Democrats think that this will play well in an election year, they have another thing coming.  As someone pointed out, the typical GOP voter is a maker, not a taker.  The typical Democrat voter is the opposite.  I don't see this playing well with the majority of voters in America.

Correlation is not causation, you over-educated idiots

So a bunch of scientists want to lower the limit for BAC.

Most women would need to draw the line at two drinks, and men at two or three if states follow a blueprint by a prestigious scientific panel for eliminating the “entirely preventable” 10,000 alcohol-impaired driving deaths in the United States each year.

A "prestigious scientific panel" full of people who don't know what the hell they're talking about.  This is part of the problem when you're a very intelligent person - you tend to think that because you're a genius in one area, you're a genius in other areas.  Let me explain why they're wrong.

The BAC level for most states is set at .08.  So if you're at .08 or higher BAC, that's considered "drunk driving".  It was at .10 for decades, before it was lowered around the late 90's. 

Most people who I pulled over for drunk driving were blowing around .12 to .20 BAC, with some a bit higher.  So they were well beyond the limit, and that means even further beyond the limit that these so-called smart people want to impose.

The military folks didn't have too many DUIs in their background.  If they did they typically were busted down in rank, which meant removal from the service.  But the civilians we busted on post?  Multiple DUIs.  And they either kept driving even without a license, or they STILL HAD THEIR LICENSE after four or five DUIs!

You want to cut down on drunk driving in America?  Lowering the BAC level won't do a damn thing.  Lowering the boom on the assholes who are driving drunk WILL in fact help lower the DUI rates.  I've never understood why this country is so lenient with drunk drivers.  Would you be lenient with someone who walks around waving a gun at people?  Hell no you wouldn't, they would be in jail on multiple charges!

But the people who drive drunk, who in effect wave that gun at random people, get a slap on the wrist.

This isn't about BAC.  This is about the permissive attitude we as Americans have towards drunk drivers in our legal system.  Slap them in jail for a good period of time, and see how much drunk driving drops off.  Take away their licenses, hard, and impose massive punishment if you're driving drunk with a suspended license.  Do the same for those people who drive stoned or high.  You have no right to be operating a machine while impaired.  Take away the cars of those caught drunk driving and auction them off, and watch the DUI numbers fall. 

Just lowering an arbitrary number does nothing.  You have to make the punishment for drunk driving stick.  I don't care if you're at a .1 or a .3, if you don't actually punish people for driving drunk, it makes no difference.  You could set the limit at .02, but if you still allow the drunk drivers to have a license after five convictions, what you're really saying is that you don't actually give a shit.

For the record, and I know this because I was the test subject in a DUI certification class, the highest I've been recorded was a .133 BAC, and I can honestly say I was blotto.  At a .103 I knew that I didn't need to be anywhere near machinery.  Even at a .08 I knew I was "drunk", and wouldn't have gotten behind the wheel  So I have an idea of what .08 feels like, because I know how I felt when I had reached that point.  However, people have different reactions to booze depending on a whole host of factors.  That makes whatever BAC limit you impose pretty much arbitrary. 

Vermin flee from sunlight

Which is why the Democrats all voted en mass to try to block the FISA memo from being released.

Republican congressmen are calling for the immediate public release of a four-page memo that reveals what they call “shocking,” “troubling” and “alarming,” government surveillance abuses under President Obama. One congressman even likened the details of the memo currently circulating in Congress to "KGB activity in Russia." 

The House Intelligence Committee on Thursday released the memo on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuses to all House members after approving Rep. Pete King's (R-N.Y.) motion to do so. The vote on releasing the memo to Congress was — not surprisingly — along party lines, with Democrats voting against transparency.

Obama was a tyrant.  A narcissistic, dumb, arrogant, Marxist tyrant.  I suspect we'll find out more and more just how true that statement is in the coming months.  And if this FISA memo gets released, I think we'll learn that even I was being too nice when I said all those things about him.

Oh, for fuck's sake!

Jorge Bergolio honors an abortion activist with a papal honor.

Pope Francis has conferred the title of “Commander of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great” on Lilianne Ploumen, a Dutch politician and vocal agitator for abortion rights.

The Pope (or the anti-pope, as I like to call him) just awarded what amounts to knighthood to someone who advocates for abortion and homosexuality.

Both of which, the last time I checked, were two of the things that the Catholic Church is supposed to be opposed.

But I guess Jorge Bergolio has to make his buddies in the gay bishops happy somehow. 

Seriously, why doesn't Bergolio just drop all pretenses and join the Universalist Unitarian church?

My Body, My Choice!

So, if the decision to have an abortion is totally within the woman's purview, and men have absolutely no say in whether or not a woman can have an abortion, then child support should be summarily removed from our books of laws, as the responsibility for a pregnancy lies completely within the choice of the woman, not the man.

Discuss.

Transgender Mafia puts disabled Vet on Unemployment

Because BADTHINK!

You all know how it goes:

Caligan's views on science and gender are not unique. Most people know that sex is based on genetics and DNA, and gender is a grammatical term used by the trans activists to confuse the issue. But even stating that pedestrian view jumpstarted a witch hunt. Soon, this announcement was posted to Facebook targeting Short Fuse Media Group for being associated with Caligan.

The Mentally Ill Left, who refuse to acknowledge biology, had to make an example of someone who doesn't buy into their delusion.

I figure I'll get kicked off of twitter one day for uttering simple truth like the above.

It is ten degrees where I live right now.

And normally, I wouldn't think twice of it.  Because if I were in Idaho, or Wisconsin, or even Washington state, ten degrees is normal.

I'm in Mississippi.  Holy hell, people, where is that Global Warming I was promised, huh?  There is snow, ice, and near-record low temps down South right now.  As the Mrs. says, "I don't know where we are, but this can't be Mississippi, because that's too far South for this crap!"

Ten degrees and snow on the ground.  Huh.  We're burning through propane in our furnace like it's going out of style.  These houses aren't made for this kind of cold, and it shows.

Dolores O'Riordan died recently

I don't think I can describe just how much, way back when I was a singing and playing long haired hippy, that I wanted to take dear Dolores and bed her until she warbled in a higher octave.

Ah well.  Another crush of mine, gone.

Simple things

So the Mrs. and I like to make our own sausage.  The grinder doubles as a stuffer, which can get somewhat frustrating.  Or at least it was, because we ordered a vertical sausage stuffer and it showed up yesterday.

I get a little giddy over simple things.  Yeah, it's a kitchen gadget, but it makes my life much easier.  So tonight, we make andouille and hot Italian.  Plus work on the jalapeño-cheddar recipe.

Make Mine Freedom

I've posted this multiple times previously.  It's worth posting again.



This is something that kids need to watch, over and over.

Dinner

The Mrs. and I make our own sausage.  We started with Italian back when we were stationed in Puerto Rico.  We added bratwurst when we couldn't find any sausage that didn't have some form of soy or sugar added to it in Wisconsin.  We have a bunch of different types we make, and in Virginia we encountered Cheddar and Jalapeño sausage at various BBQ joints.  Now down here in the South, where we live, we haven't found any C&J sausage.  So.......

We made three different test batches.  And then we smoked them.

We found the recipe that we want to play with.  Maybe I'll post more updates later.

Teenagers are eating Tide Pods?

Folks, this is called "cleaning the gene pool". 

"I cannot believe I'm about to do what I'm gonna do," YouTuber Marc Pagan said before sinking his teeth into a Tide Pod. "I'm just bored, so I'm doing something right now that is completely stupid."

Why can't he jack off to internet porn like a normal teenager?  Feh.  Let these dumb ones die off. 

In your life, you WILL be an example.  You will either be an example of what to do, or what NOT to do, but you will be an example.  Every species has those individuals who are too dumb to continue living.  Normally they self-select themselves right out of the genetic lottery.  Let.  That.  Happen.

Liberalism is a mental disorder

This bundle of gobbledygook and nonsense is the perfect example.

Why are the pink pussyhats on the outs?
The reason: Apart from the vulgarity of it all, the colorful head apparel excludes transgender women and gender nonbinary individuals who lack female genitalia — as well as women of color since their genitals are more likely to be darker colors than pink, the Detroit Free Press reported. 

“I personally won’t wear one because if it hurts even a few people’s feelings, then I don’t feel like it’s unifying,” Phoebe Hopps, founder and president of Women’s March Michigan and organizer of anniversary marches Jan. 21 in Lansing and Marquette, told the Free Press.

A)  If your feelings are hurt because the hat someone else is wearing doesn't exactly match the color of your genitalia, you are mentally ill.
B)  "Transgender women" are not women.  They are men, with a mental illness.  If you are upset because the hat someone else is wearing is representative of genitalia that you do not possess no matter how hard you try, you are mentally ill.
C)  If you are wearing symbolic genitalia on your head as a political statement, you are mentally ill.

And trust me, all you precious butthurt snowflakes - all women are pink on the inside.  If you classify women by the color of their outer labia, you are mentally ill.

Haiti is a shithole. That is not the story.

Ask any of the US Soldiers who were sent there for hurricane relief.  It's a shithole.  That's just what it is.  The Dominican Republic, which is ON THE SAME ISLAND, is not a shithole.  It's not where I would want to live, but people go there on vacation all the time.  Don't drink the water, and be careful of the food, but the people are very nice.  A little crazy, but nice.

Africa, in general, is a shithole.  That continent will attempt to kill you in multiple different ways every single day.  Bugs.  Disease.  Animals.  Other people.  They all try to kill you in Africa.  Not only do I not want to live in Africa, I don't want to visit any more of Africa than I've already seen.  My life isn't going to go on forever, and if I'm going to visit some other country it's going to be one where I don't have to constantly watch my back.

Detroit is a shithole.  It's quite honestly the most depressing American city I have ever been in.  Boarded up houses, boarded up businesses, the place just LOOKS depressed from the moment you set foot on the sidewalk.  The military center I went to was dilapidated and depressing.  Trying to find recruits in Detroit is almost a lost cause.  It's a shithole.  Thanks, Democrats!

If Donald Trump named some countries as shitholes, he's only speaking the truth.  And the Democrat Media Complex is going full steam ahead in their hysterics, because that means they don't have to talk about how indictments are finally coming down in the Clinton Uranium scandal.  No, Clinton herself isn't indicted yet, but it's one more step in taking that felonious hag down.

An 11-count indictment was handed out on Friday connected to the alleged Russian bribery scheme involving former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Obama administration, and Uranium One. 

The charges are against Mark Lambert, who is the "former co-president of a Maryland-based transportation company that provides services for the transportation of nuclear materials to customers in the United States and abroad." Lambert 54, of Maryland, was charged with "one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and to commit wire fraud, seven counts of violating the FCPA, two counts of wire fraud and one count of international promotion money laundering," the DOJ said in a statement.

So now the hysterical wailing and gnashing of teeth about the word "shithole" kind of makes sense, doesn't it? 

Choices

So, Mississippi.  Rather a poor state, all things considered.  Lots of trailer parks around here, and I drive by several of them on my way home.

And many of those dilapidated trailers have shiny cars with 22-inch rims and custom paint jobs parked in front of them.

Folks, 22 inch rims are not cheap.  Tires for those rims are not cheap.  Custom paint jobs are not cheap.  If you've sunk $10k or more of glitzy crap into a 1990's Lincoln Towncar, and you're living in a trailer, you have no one to blame but yourself for your living conditions.

A car will never be as valuable as it is today.  Cars depreciate.  They are not investments.  They don't make you money, unless you're buying junkers and fixing them up.  But driving your pimp-mobile around while living in a trailer doesn't make you cool.  It makes you a moron.

I wonder where they would be living if they took the money they've wasted on pimping their ride and put it into a house somewhere.  I spent less on my car than they spent on all the shiny bullshit and crap they put on their cars.  But I'm living in a rather nice house, and they're living in a rusty tin can in a park on the side of the highway.

Oh, and by the way, 22-inch rims on any car makes you a moron.  You're destroying the most important aspects of your car's performance:  THE TIRES and their connection to the road.  Cars are designed to have a certain amount of rubber between the road and the suspension.  When you screw with that, you screw with your ride.  When you screw with your ride, you shorten the life of your suspension and make the ride that much worse.  Whenever I see 22 inch rims, I see a person who has absolutely no clue what the mechanics of driving actually are.

A damn good question

Serious questions...

We now have over 320 million people in this country.

How many is enough?

Are our cities not crowded enough?

Is our welfare system not stressed enough?

Are our schools not failing enough?

How many more immigrants do we need?

— Mark Pantano (@TheMarkPantano) January 11, 2018

When I lived in Seattle, getting from Seattle to Tacoma to Olympia on I-5 was a chore.  Not horrible, but a chore.  Lots of traffic.

Last time I went to the Puget Sound area, I-5 was locked up tighter than the 101 in Los Angeles, and the 405 around Renton was just as bad if not worse.  

Waaaaaaay back when I was a yoot, we would visit relatives in Seattle.  Back then, if you wanted to "get out of the city", you drove to Tucwila, which is just a little bit south of Seattle.  Now you can drive from Seattle to down past Tacoma and it's concrete buildings all the way.  The open areas are gone.  They've been built over and up in order to accommodate the large amount of people moving to that area.

So, how many immigrants are enough?  How many more people do we need to add to this country?  When is enough, enough?  Ask that to the next people screaming that we need to allow the Dreamers, a huge portion of whom cannot even speak English after being in this country for a decade or more, to stay and continue to suckle off the government teat while voting for Democrats.

Went to Greenville a couple weeks back

to check out a brewing shop.  Drove by lots and lots of cotton fields.  All fallow right now of course, but here and there were clumps of cotton plants that hadn't been harvested, so you could tell what crop had been grown.


So this made me chuckle.

That is all.

Poison Tree, Poison Fruit

All games last weekend saw double-digit viewership losses.

As for me, I haven't watched a single game after the temper tantrum the NFL threw back in September.  And I won't be watching any more games, period.

Fuck the NFL.  I can't wait to see how much TV revenue drops off next year.   Let them enjoy the fruits of the tree they planted.